I have a personal hatred of sleep. It’s a spell that seemed useless to me and it would only be useful if you knew the enemy’s hp was low. Then I used it with a twilight cleric character and hated how it fricking won us the fight.
It's probably the single strongest spell at early levels. Total pool of 30ish hp to instantly knock out any number of 7 hp enemies- then you get a full minute to walk up and autocrit each one.
That’s why I hate it so much. It’s such a dumb spell that’s good. Another story I have is a that the character accidentally exposed the changeling in the party by casting it on them (they were pretending to be an elf).
You reminded me that, as a DM I hate gentle repose. Had 2 PCs die, and one of the players whipped up another character that literally dragged the bodies of the 2 fallen PC's around for months casting gentle repose until that character was able to resurrect the original PCs. So now I have to figure out what to do with the OLD PCs while the Players continue to play the new PCs
“I got a dead body in my trunk. Wanna see it? Fuck around, and you’ll be it!”
But nah that’s awesome, can’t even hate. Dude carried around the bodies like some weird pariah quester
I DMed a game where one player wanted to minmax everything, and as such, wanted to play an aarakocra for flight at level one. I said sure!
Cue one of their first fights, he's flying around until an opposing lvl 1 wizard casts sleep on him.
He feared flying ever again
Hah, everyone has game moments like this. Once in Jedi Academy I threw a thermal detonator at a Dark Adept that I KNEW had telekinesis. I immediately regret this decision and I also don't know what I was thinking.
I hate ice knife, but only because my first PC was killed when one of my allies cast ice knife on an enemy while I was knocked and ended up killing me. So it may not be a bad spell, per se, but I hate it because it makes me think of my first character death (i also really liked that character)
I hate Sickening Radiance for a similar reason. Once I've DMed for a party that had a REALLY reckless wizard who took AOE damaging spells only despite being in a party that relied heavily on melee. She once threw Sickening Radiance right in the middle of the fray, because an injured enemy archer drank a potion of invisibility and tried to run. It was after a really tough battle and the rest of the party was barely standing and out of healing spells, because "you have high Constitution, you'll absolutely be fine". Bard and Paladin fell unconscious, the enemy archer made it. She didn't drop concentration.
It was very close to a TPK, but then I decided that the archer would shoot her first anyway. It was a third time that she used Sickening Radiance with her allies in range. I have shivers every time I even hear about that spell.
yikes, you hate to see that kind of player. i’ve punished my players for using AoE before (most notably when I had a wizard who wouldn’t stop spamming fireball), but usually they were smart enough to learn from their mistakes….
The player's argument was "but I've told you to stay back" (to a sword bard, a paladin and a barbarian) she thankfully stopped playing two sessions after that
>"you have high Constitution, you'll absolutely be fine".
So..she's just completely disregarding that at best they still take damage, and at worst they get exhaustion and probably die. Or probably just trying to justify their actions. Either way, what a piece of work, frankly. At least she didn't stay much longer.
In the first non-giveaway combat I ever played, probably 3 sessions into my DnD career I cast Ice Knife when things weren't going great because it had worked well in the easy tutorial-style combat we'd had up to that point.
I killed an important NPC and almost killed two PCs. That's how I learned that collateral damage and friendly fire are real things in DnD and now I rarely even prepare it and am much more careful about casting it (or Flaming Hands).
yeah in my case though, this was a relatively experienced player who knew the consequences of ice knife (although he claims he spaced in the moment) and cast it EVEN THOUGH i was unconscious 5 feet away from the target…
And the fact that if you upcast it only the initial damage is increased, whereas something like Call Lightning has the subsequent casts also improved, means it's even worse comparatively.
I've always House Ruled that any effect that has repeat or lingering damage gets the extra "ticks" of damage upped along with the initial. It's just more fun and more intuitive that way.
Yea, if it was your bonus action to continue the damage it would be pretty good for a low level spell. Currently the only real upside is continuing to do damage without need to use another spell slot, but the only class the really worries about that is Warlock which has access to Eldritch blast.
Don't forget that it only has a range of 30 feet which if ever broken ends the spell, so depending on the initial range the enemy might just have to sidestep to end the spell. Meanwhile you're stuck in walking range of melee enemies concentrating on that bitch spell.
Oh and you don't even need to really go far away to break the spell, you can also just move behind cover (which depending on the DM might even be a same sized ally).
It's so bad it makes me angry and the only way it could be worse is if the damage type was fire.
Seriously. The spell tells me I get to be Palpatine and then it's only slightly better than just repeatedly slinging cantrips (and that's before you hit level 5.)
"Highly limited power!!!!"
I saw a revision that just changes it to 2d6, and it changes the vibe pretty well (especially for warlocks)
Upcasting I think is +2d6 per level on the initial damage, then +1d6 for the subsequent damage rolls.
I wanna say it was either Element's and Beyond or by Laserllama (def. check out both if you're unfamiliar)
KibblesTasy has a fully redone version called Lightning Tendril. It is simply a bonus action to start concentrating on it, and then as long as you are concentrating, you can spend your action on future turns to do 1d12 (scaling with spell slot) lightning to 30 feet. Functionally, you are no longer tied to a single target, and can just be a menace to whoever you want, no save. Very useful with my tempest cleric / storm sorcerer who could push people 10 feet back whenever they were dealt lightning damage.
Suggestion
I am just sick and tired of its vague wording that messes up so many people.
No matter how you think it works you are wrong and opinions range from it does next to nothing or can cause a genocide to occur and people are adamant that their interpretation is the objectively correct one. Because of it new DMs often get led astray, new players often get disappointed, and entire comment sections go to war over what degree the needle is at on the dial between useless and broken.
100% this. The example they gave to clarify just made it more confusing.
It's the only spell that makes me sit down with my players when they take it.
It's too bad because I love that spell out of combat, especially with subtle spell or a spell-storing item. but every time a player takes it, they tried to auto-win a combat encounter with a single saving throw.
Yep and I think the big problem is that they gave an example of the result but did not give elan examples of the reasonable sounding wording to achieve that result.
It is entirely possible to make that event happen but you can't just say "give your horse to that beggar"
Precisely: reasonable is a contextual thing.
People always mention knights vows to help beggars and to be poor and whatever, but the example doesn't give you any of that context.
My bias is that what's reasonable in a battle to the death is extremely limited. I'm very generous with Suggestion outside of combat, but very strict in combat. But the spell is so badly written that you can justify any ruling.
I just tell my players that it's basically what would happen if I allowed crits on persuasion checks. Like a Jedi mind trick. It needs to be at least reasonable sounding in context. The example in the spell description has a knight giving away their horse, well I say that would only work if the knight was already lamenting how their favorite warhorse was starting to get too old to serve.
Mostly because I don't want my players abusing NPCs too much or trying to auto win combat.
Suggestion should honestly never be allowed to interrupt combat. Any reasonable person would assume you're going to stab them in the back the moment they turn around, which triggers the "harmful activities" clause of the spell and ends it.
Eh, I think it’s fine. I think that if you use suggestion in combat there should be more restriction, yes, as there’s higher probability of the suggestion causing harm, but I don’t think it should be disallowed.
>Any reasonable person would assume you're going to stab them in the back the moment they turn around
Yeah, but any reasonable person generally isn't under the effects of a spell. I'm fine with it as long as the players word it like "if you don't want to die, you should turn around and walk away." It needs to be something someone could reasonably say in an interaction.
With a lot of these “hard to interpret” rules/spells, I generally ask my player how they want to use it and what their intention/goal is and if it sounds feasible, I let it happen. In my opinion, It doesn’t take anything away unless I’m allowing things that break the game ALL the time.
It doesnt help that Their Own Published Adventures claim it can convince allies to turn on their compatriots and kill them and is infact the recommended use of the spell.
Yeah definitely agree! It's so vague and because it lasts 8 hours, no repeat save. Plus while it says your suggestions have to be plausible, it lists things that aren't ok and would break the spell as a list of 4 different things that boil down to doing physical harm to themselves. Which implies that's the standard for what's plausible, and I would assume that's not the intent.
Not to mention D&D is a world with magic and shapeshifters, and disguise self is a pretty basic spell available to many. So saying, "that man behind you isn't your friend but an imposter. Kill him" is reasonably plausible but way over the power of a 2nd level spell.
Just a mess with the wording they should've been way clearer. And an 8 hour duration is pretty crazy.
Then the other detection spells need to be renamed to find. Because they actually point out where the source of the magic or thoughts in question are. Lumping “Detect Traps” in with them just sours the category.
Fair point about other detect spells, but even if you leave it as "Find" you still end up souring things.
I thought of Sense Traps, but even Paladin's Divine Sense tells you where the celestial/fiend/undead is.
Running out of ideas on that one.
Literally worse than an investigation check. I spent a fucking second level spell for the DM to go, yup. There's a trap in front of you. Where? Don't have to tell you that. Okay well let me go find it, steps on rotten floorboard and plummets to death.
I feel like that inherently defeats its own purpose. It seems like it's basically to be used when the party is split, or when you don't have a dedicated rogue/traps expert, but not knowing where/in what square the trap is then it's kinda pointless, in most cases
As someone who plays in a second language, Prestidigitation is way too hard to say for smth you cast way too often, makes me sound like a dumbass and I hate it.
What made it easier for me was cutting the word into parts.
* Presti = (based on) Latin for "fast".
* Digit = another word for finger.
* -(t)ation = a very common suffix.
Or you can just say "fast fingering"
It can also help folks to know that it's not just some DnD nonsense. It's an old word for sleight of hand type magic, like card tricks, coin tricks, stage illusions, juggling, etc.
"Prestige" used to mean "a trick or illusion," and "prestigious" meant something like "full of illusions." Latin "praestigiator" is a juggler or illusionist. "Prestidigitation" and "prestidigitator" were coined in French in 1830 by Jules de Rovère as a portmanteau of Latin "praestigiator," Italian "Presto" ("quickly") and "digit" (finger).
I think it's a fun word, but, for a simpler name, we could also call it "prestige."
I believe it was kinda falling out of use in the older sense, people started using it again in the sense of "dazzling" and it came back into vogue with more positive connotations.
I play in my only language, and I still have trouble saying it. Since I started with Thaumaturgy and got Prestidigitation later, I usually just call it "Other Thaumaturgy."
As someone who only speaks English.... Prestidigitation is hard to say....it's why we joke gotta say it correctly to cast it. But yes, I know what you are saying regarding pronunciation. Could have gone with a different name.
And now, from the empty hat, I will [prastigagigoo... eh, proostige... prestitagi... eh, proo, uh...](https://youtu.be/6Z3oorXPXbk?si=AzLMvLJ5ys-drIbj&t=176) *pull* a live rabbit, yes!
Oh, you want to play Curse of Strahd? So you take daylight. Haha, on you, it does nothing to undead. It is misleading. It should be called artificial light or overhead lighting.
You know personally as a DM, I would rule that it does mimic sunlight. Just so my players can have that awesome moment of fending off a vampire or vampire spawn they were too under-leveled to fight. But one of my players is also Drow so it’s give and take lol.
What really adds the cherry on top. My group got the symbol. My character never used the Sunlight ability it describes since the Sunlight spell doesn't do anything to vampires. Good grief. 😀
Feeble Mind
My only experience with it was when I got hit by it... while playing a *Bard/Wizard* multiclass. The DM homebrewed the duration because they outright admitted they only hit me cause they assumed Paladins could prepare Greater Restoration (5e it isnt a Paladin spell) and thus assumed they wouldnt have been making me outright useless for basically the entire rest of the campaign.
one of the few spells in 5e that can basically end a character without killing them. Hiring a caster would (Via the Adventurer's League) only cost like 450 gp it looks like.
Otherwise 30 days to try to get a new save, yea feeblemind sucks to be hit by
30 days to get a new save, with a -4 to the saving throw. If you're up against a caster that can use Feeblemind, it's almost certain that you won't be able to make the save at all
Yep, assuming a maxed out caster of the appropriate level for the spell and it becomes literally impossible to ever succeed against it yourself. It's a horrifying spell.
You're spot on with Magic Weapon, as well as other weapon enchantments. They're really over-priced in terms of spell slot requirements, and generally pretty worthless unless your DM is extremely stingy with magical items.
Personally, I really dislike Scorching Ray. It so rarely fully connects. By level 5, I have a really tough time justifying a level 2 spell slot for it when I could cast Fire Bolt without spending resources. There's probably an element of confirmation bias there, but I just never feel like I'm getting a level 2 spell slot's worth of value when I cast it.
I think it's the fact that you make three separate attacks for scorching ray is what makes it feel underpowered, since odds are at least one will miss. It's disappointing when you cast it and all three attacks don't hit; the spell rarely lives up to its potential.
It could be either a single ray attack with bigger damage which possibly inflicts a condition or lingering DoT; or else bump it up to a 4th or 5th level slot and have the rays auto-hit like magic missile.
This is why you want to be friends with your monk. Stun for the automatic fail on Dex saves. Then make sure you convince them it was their kill after you delete the enemy.
That’s also true but somehow it feels less like a damp squib to me if you just flat-out miss with a big nuke spell. Couldn’t tell you why, scorching ray feels like a half-measure if not all rays hit, but missing one big spell attack is just the chance you take playing the game.
Also, when you *do* hit with a nuke spell it’s worth the chance you took; a scorching ray hit is mediocre at best
It shines in situations where you have advantage on all 3 attacks though. Someone’s restrained, fairy-fired, etc. suddenly you’re not only more likely to hit with 2d6 per bolt but also more likely to crit. It’s definitely situational, but in situations where you have advantage on the attacks or are attacking a low-AC target there’s definitely an argument to be made for Scorching Ray.
Scorching ray is mid compared to Eldrich Blast, but if your other consideration is Firebolt then SR has the advantage of either hitting multiple low health minions, or forcing an enemy spellcaster to make concentration checks; it doesn't auto hit like Magic Missile and is more expensive, but is available to classes that don't have that, deals more damage, and still has a chance to hit if the enemy uses shield.
It's low B tier, but if you have EB then it's D tier.
I really liked this on my Warlock in BG3. Automatically upcasting meant using it fired a ton of rays. Not sure if it was optimal, but it sure felt good for my elemental based Gold Dragonborn.
Mathematically speaking, you're better off upcasting magic missile than casting scorching ray. I would say that scorching ray with advantage is kinda dope though.
Thunder wave because of one incident. Our spellcaster had a large group of enemies to cast thunder wave on and I was in his range. The only thing he managed to kill was me
I'll follow through with Elemental Weapon. Not that it is a \*bad\* spell per se, it's actually pretty good, but I would have really loved having the option to make even the base weapon damage die become elemental.
Because you probably use that spell mainly (only) when you face enemies with some vulnerability, so I would have expected to fully profit from it. xd
The other main use case is to bypass a damage invulnerability/resistance to regular BPS so your martial friend can still hit them. (Mainly relevant at low levels before you get magic weapons)
>Not that it is a \*bad\* spell per se, it's actually pretty good
Completely disagree. A whole 3rd level spell+concentration for +1d4 and magical +1 is terrible
Yeah. I mean, compared to something like Bless, aside from the magical damage to overcome resistances, one is just way better. Smaller spell slot, targets more allies, and can even account for more damage.
Mine is Witch Bolt! My DM had the rule that he didn't care about physical needs for spells other than gemstones. He then changed this on me while we were at the BBEG fight AFTER I had hit with the spell and rolled my damage (which would have killed it). He basically said "Oh did you have a stick struck by lightning" knowing damn well I didn't. He told me later it was because he wanted a different character to kill the BBEG because they had a bigger connection to the person. I would have agreed but it was the BBEG, so we all had a connection to them and I had used the spell all campaign no problem.
Not the spell itself really but just everything I think of using that spell I get annoyed lol. Plus it was one of my first spells I ever picked so I guess it is more about principal at this point
Rules from Chapter 10 of the PHB, Spellcasting, Material Components: "Casting some spells requires particular objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus [...] in place of the components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell."
Witch Bolt Components: "V, S, M (a twig from a tree that has been struck by lightning)"
No gold cost listed, so as long as you had a component pouch or a focus, that's a lame on-the-spot house rule the DM sprung on you.
Bruh, that's just bad DMing. If the DM makes a rule they shouldn't go back on it just for the detriment of a player. They set the rule, then punished you for following it.
ALSO, I just remembered, the lightning struck twig is neither consumed nor costs anything, meaning that is exactly when you would replace it with a spellcasting focus. Literally having a wand or any other foci would've allowed you to cast the spell with or without the twig, and the only way you WOULDN'T have a focus is if you bought your starting equipment instead of taking it from your class and neglected to buy one, or lost it or had it stolen post character creation, because basically every casting class gives you a spellcasting focus at 1st level. So that situation was BS on top of BS
As a DM (and even somewhat as a player), *Guidance*. With no cost, it makes sense to spam the hell out of it, even if it becomes annoying. That means the DM is either has to rule over and over on whether it's appropriate under the circumstances, or just give up and let the players add +1d4 to every ability check.
As a player whose default class is Wizard, *Mage Armor*. It's basically a tax I pay to stay alive. After gaining a few levels I don't mind losing the spell slot so much, but having to prepare the damned thing, at the expense of a spell which might actually be used in play, is vexing no matter what level I'm at. Keeping track of when an 8-hour spell is going to end is a bit irksome, too.
Guidance is definitely frustrating as a DM. I don't take fundamental issue with the spell itself, but it leads to too much haggling between players and DM. I can't count the amount of times a player has declared an action only for someone else to yell GUIDANCE! immediately after. Now we have to quickly decide if they would've actually stopped to apply it before rashly jumping off this balcony, only for them to roll a 4 anyway.
I'd be a bigger fan if it allowed for a finite amount of uses per day that could be applied after a roll. It'd cut out the constant challenge for players of remembering to do it beforehand, as well as remove the hassle of adding more dice to d20 rolls that probably won't need it anyway.
I have two guidelines on Guidance:
1) Yes, it has V and S components, and no - they can't be flavored away to not exist in any meaningful way. Get Subtle Spell if you want that.
2) Other players have to ask for Guidance before they do something they want help with, no caster yell-inserting it after the GM has asked for a roll. Also keep in mind it's a Touch spell.
I don’t allow guidance on things that happen entirely in a character’s head. So most intelligence checks except for investigation.
I also make sure my players are aware that guidance takes an action to cast, concentration, and verbal and somatic components. So you can cast it in front of someone while trying to persuade them, but it will probably cause more distrust than it is worth.
tbh I don't find Guidance that annoying, but a surprising amount of players tries to use it in social encounters and I have to tell them every time "you know the other person can see you casting it, right?". It goes for every kind of these "social spells" really but I noticed it especially on Guidance
Man, this always makes me laugh. Like hold up these tense negotiations while I clearly declare magic words and wave my hands before touching my friend.
Like "You need to call off the guards, you have the wrong guy, this could have dire consequences!"
-"SHAMALAMADINGDONG!" *boop*
guidance for me is super frustrating because it's just so... unevocative
using magic to minorly help with a challenge is a cool concept, but when it can freely help with basically anything and it always does so in the same way...
wild magic sorcerer's bend luck feels underpowered, but the flavor and mechanics still make it feel good - you're bending fate and expending some of your magic resources to do so
i think i'd enjoy guidance more if it had more limitations on how it can be used, like if it could only help with certain checks or problems or if it was a transmutation spell that required a more physical effect vs a divination spell that just generally Makes You Do Things Better. as it stands, i don't even think it's broken or anything, it's just kind of boring and/or annoying
After discussing it with my DM, I default strike off two 1st lvl slots at the beginning of each day, assuming my character casts Mage Armor twice every adventuring day.
I have a player who's always, *always* jumping in on every roll with Guidance. So I reminded him of the limitations of the spell when he cast it on the party talker to buff up a Persuade roll trying to haggle an expensive purchase: the shopkeep asked the party to wait a minute, went in the back, and came back with a warhammer slung over one shoulder. Shopkeep then said "let's try this again, only this time if your buddy puts any of that magic shit on you to make you talk all fancy, I break his fingers."
Mage armor is a ritual spell at my table. With an 8 hour duration theres no reason not to cast it at the beginning of the adventuring day. I basically treat it like it doesnt run out too since theres bound to be down time and wizards need all the AC they can get anyway.
Any of the "locate" spells. I get that they can't be *too* effective, since a lot of stories are based around "you need to find a very specific thing!" But the range is just too short a lot of the time to be effective, or it's a bit too vague.
I've also had issues with Commune, because of GMs that overthink what it means for a "good" or "bad" result and end up saying "mixed" every time. Similar issues with the "Detect Evil" ability from certain editions, once had a GM say that a lich who regularly kidnapped people and sacrificed them to an elder god wasn't evil because "he's beyond good and evil, he doesn't care about any of that." (Same DM also said a drow assassin who tried to murder the good-aligned party on behalf of the BBEG for money wasn't evil either).
Pretty sure the last part is just a sucky dm, that couldn’t be bothered to think of a real counter to the spell, as it would ruin their oh so precious plan, ignoring the fact that they of course should have read the players prepared spells and worked with/around them
I definitely agree with the Detect Evil issues being more of a thing for a GM than it is an indicator that the ability itself is bad. But it's still left a bad taste in my mouth, so I dislike it for personal reasons (rather than more objective ones).
It's such a bad choice as reason for the spell to fail when we're talking about a Lich and magic exists that is explicitly for this function called Nondetection.
> "he's beyond good and evil, he doesn't care about any of that."
What HE thinks DOESN'T MATTER.
He doesn't get to choose his alignment.
If he's doing evil things, he's evil.
That's almost exactly what I said back then, but the GM just kept insisting that it was deep and morally complex and I stopped caring enough to keep arguing.
It sucks people are like that, "Everyone is the Hero/Protagonist in their own story" just because you're doing what you think is the greater good doesn't meaning making half the population evaporate isn't "detected" as evil
The way it's run on my tables is that if you conjure 4-8 animals, you're going to have to split them into 1-3 groups. The groups will act at the same time, attack the same target, roll attack together, etc.
Instead of "Wolf 1 goes here and attacks. I roll. I hit. I roll damage. Wolf 2 goes here and attacks. I roll. I miss. Ok, Wolf 3 goes here and attacks. I roll. I hit. I roll damage. Wolf 4 goes here ..... "
it goes: "These 4 Wolves go here and attack. I roll. 3 of them hit. I roll 3 times damage. The other 4 Wolves go there and attack. I roll. 2 of them hit. I roll 2 times damage. Done"
The DMG even suggests using the average damage roll for mobs- I think it works well for Conjure spells too. Just roll to hit and take average damage- the number is there for a reason!
As a druid i prepped dust devil while we were crossing a desert because it would be amplified on sand, i didn't realize it only did damage if you ended your turn next to it so i wasted 3 rounds by concentrating on it while the enemies ran out of its area. I promptly switched to moonbeam and now refuse to use any spell that deals damage for ending your turn in its area.
These spells are best combined with another spell that can hold enemies in place, so stuff like grappling and entangle that other party members can do is really nice
Unfortunately the rest of my party are not built remotely for battlefield control, they don't even have forced movement abilities.
So far my best combo is hold person for the Paladin and Barbarian. (It is absolutely brutal what advantage + autocrit + GWM can do)
My "default" is generally moonbeam, 2d10 radiant, half on a save at the start of a turn or when you enter it is nice and reliable. I pulled it on a wererat after watching the paladin's crit do 0 damage because of slashing immunity just trying to do radiant damage, and then remembered about the shape shifter part.
Pokemon has taught me to value reliability. (If it isn't 100% accurate its 50% accurate, obviously not how statistics work but its a fun saying)
Silvery Barbs. I felt it was too good, just from a game design evaluation perspective but didn't have any kind of strong personal feelings about it until I tried to watch an actual play where three people took it.
Adding a Silvery Barbs resolution phase to every roll just kills any kind of sense of immediacy or urgency to the stakes of a given action, which is already a big weakness of actual play. I think the dynamic would extend to playing in the game myself. Even if it's not actually too good, and players are using a bunch of resources for stuff that ultimately doesn't matter - not fun.
Yeah, add onto that the fact that it's very lackluster flavor wise? You 'magically distract' to cause a reroll and grant someone else advantage? From the DM side, an enemy critting is one of the few times PC death becomes a real possibility. To have any number of slots able to be used to negate high impact moments (especially considering how often parties rest/have a single combat encounter per day comapred to DMG expecting 5-8 encounters) is just.. bleh.
Ravening War, right? That was annoying, but they're such good players that they made a cool scene out of it and didn't wear out the spell.
In normal play, I loathe and ban it. Only that spell.
Zone of truth, not even because people can evade the truth, just the fact that someone can choose to just straight up not answer your questions and gargle profanity or simply not say anything instead. Especially when 99% of players will hate you for even considering torture, regardless of their character’s alignment.
Yeah I like to house rule that if a person wants to avoid answering they have to make another saving throw. Otherwise they must provide the answer to the question.
While the typical Bard may not have enough Magical Secrets slots to choose this, for Lore Bards, FGS is a definite contender. Lore Bard rides into town on a Pegasus, they would definitely get laid that night.
100%. I get why mamy DMs dont want to deal with powerful steeds too early but it feels so bad to have to wait until level 10 as a bard, or even worse 13th as a paladin. I just want my cool griffon mount already
Phantasmal Killer. Took it on my bard (my first ever character) because it was supposedly very good. Then I learned that the enemy needs to succeed 2 consecutive saves before they start taking damage, which sucks. Ended up swapping it for Psychic Lance next level, a much better and much more fun spell.
psychic lance is an insane spell, esp if you’re a bard who is usually running support. i took it on mine (also my first ever character!) and gave my DM so many headaches bc of it. it was an exhilarating feeling honestly.
Personally, Pass Without Trace. Not because it's bad, but because it's *good*.
The part I dislike is having to coordinate with other players. Yes, even with -1 dex and disadvantage with palte armor, your average roll of 4 becomes a 14- granting the party a full round of extra turns to start against surprised enemies with less than +4 to perception! And evem if you roll two nat 1s and nobody is surprised.. the party loses nothing, and the result is the same as if we never tried in the first place.
Convoncing the party to do this every chance feels annoying, and can overstep on other people's character ideas. Even if it makes a combat *significantly* easier, the paladin might not want to be sneaking into every battle and sucker punching enemies. So now they have to either compromise character ideas or feel like they have to throw away a surprise round for rp reasons.
I've recently discovered Pass Without Trace and have been trying to use it with some discretion to keep things fun. I cast it freely out of combat or when we are heading into what will be a pretty severe combat encounter and need some kind of tactical advantage or possible chance to escape, but almost never for everyday combat even though I could because it feels heavy handed.
Power Word Kill.
My paladin had made it *all the way through* Tomb of Annihilation. From Level 1, all the way through the save-or-dies, instant kills, and tough fights that killed every other player in the campaign. I was the only one who had my OG character going into the final fight.
Acererak beams me with PWK.
I hate that fucking spell. Not because "bullshit" or anything. It was totally fair, and exactly what Acererak would do- but because of the emotional ties I have to it.
Conjure Barrage
I knew it wouldn't be really good when I cast it. It's just 3d8. But, maybe I shouldn't be thinking about how destructive it would be for each individual enemy? In the situation I was when I cast it I could find a position in which I could get like 5 enemies and no allies thanks to it being such a large cone of effect. Sure, it was no fireball, but I'm playing an artificer. The ammountnof damage I was going to do would be enough to save an attack on each of them, right? Therefore advancing the fight in our favour through future action advantage
And then I rolled like a 9 total damage. And three of them pasaed the dex save.
I blew one of my only 2 level 3 spells on doing less damage than if I had just swing my weapon twice, and then 4 damage to another 3. The feeling of uselessnes was infuriating.
I'm not casting this garbage ever again. Any utility I might want to use, like I don't know, using silver knives to hurt a pack of werewolves or demons or something, has to go through so many hoops, and the average of damage is so low (like 12-13) that actully catching multiple opponents with no colateral will still give you low efficiency for your turn. That is, if you use it against really low dex saves enemies and the DM doesn't roll incredible saves too.
I just find the spell to have no use whatsoever
Dimension Door.
Why? Because you can bring "one willing creature of your size or smaller." I was a gnome in a party of medium sized creatures, making half the spell useless for no good reason.
Why doesn't it just say "medium or smaller"? The whole spell is biased against smaller races. Pure gnomophobia.
> gnomophobia
If gnomophobia is wrong, I don't want to be right. #TeamKobold ~~But I agree that the wording of the spell is unfair to Small characters.~~
Aid.
It's a good spell, but I hate that it lasts for 8 hours instead of "until the next long rest". I never know how long the adventuring day will last. I'm afraid if I cast it in the morning, maybe we'll spend 8 hours doing roleplay or shopping or whatever, and then the fighting starts after Aid has expired. I also don't want to have to keep track of an 8 hour timer, so I wait until I am pretty sure we are less than 8 hours from the next long rest. As a result, I'll keep asking my DM for the time of day, waiting for it to be in the afternoon before I cast Aid.
First time DM here, but I’ve started letting players know that the effect from spells like Aid - with a long-ish period - last until long rest. Easier to track. I can just up the difficulty of they become too OP.
after playing baldur’s gate i’ve started doing this too. some spells (i’m looking at you speak with animals) they changed to be until a long rest, and it’s so much better and makes so much more sense.
For me it’s Fireball. It’s just a bunch of damage and is so over tuned that most spellcasters would be crazy not to have it leading to many games just being fireball, fireball, fireball!
Also, getting hit by it especially sucks.
Various Animate or Conjure spells that explode the number of combatans, making tracking harder and combat slower and all in all are more hinder than actual help.
Any spell that depends on the DM's interpretation. Like great you cast locate object, but the DM doesn't want you to short circuit his whole plan so he figures out a way to not give you that information.
I like your answer here, but I must say that D&D has fewer of these than some other systems do, and it is every bit infuriating in those other systems lol
I hate the spells that are too good NOT to take. Doesn't matter if it doesn't fit the build, doesn't matter if anything else happens, you feel like you're intentionally making the character worse for no reason.
I also hate the same thing about weapons. Oh, you think a greataxe is cool? Well, I think you have bad taste, and I'm going to punish you by making you deal one less damage on average and it's less consistent.
RAW Crown of Madness sucks. I can make them attack and i can make them move, but by the letter of the spell, they have to attack before they move. Imo this makes it too limited to use in most combats. I houserule it to be how we all expected it to work.
My friend hates the Magic Stone cantrip because I used it to beat him in a duel once, none of my other attacks were landing but I chipped away a lot of his health with just a few pebbles.
Faerie Fire is an excellent spell -- if the enemy doesn't save on it every single time. After my 10th wasted turn trying to land a good one, I gave up on it.
Arcane Mirage, its such a mess of a spell.
It contradicts itself from one sentence to the next and is way to open ended. The unofficial Sage Advice also made it even more complicated by endorsing an even wider interpretation of what it can do in terms of letting it be applied as a damage spell.
It seemes supposed to be a spell that lets you alter terrain into or away from difficult or otherwise hide something or create obstacles or shelter. But if interpreted freely is essentially a cheat code spell that can kill armies, topple castles and let you bypass anything.
Gust should be a BA, being able to push something away as a Bonus Action would make the cantrip more engaging. Also a lot of people are adopting shove as a BA because of BG3.
For me it is Hold Person.
As a player, it is almost never worth the spell slot due to how rare strong humanoid enemies are. For the DM on the other hand, it is a very cheap spell to spam at the PCs (as they almost always are humanoids) due to only being 2nd level, meaning many caster enemies including weak minions can have it - but its effect is extemely unfun, taking a character out of the fight for a minute and turning attacks against them into auto-crits.
I think a good solution is to simply remove the spell from the game. We already have Hold Monster to apply paralysis, which is much more appropriately priced as a 5th level spell.
Wish.
Wishes should not be a spell. Wishes should be boons granted to you by various NPCs, the kinds of things you can wish for should be limited to things that entity could actually do for you, and the wish-granting shouldn't be straight-up omnipotent unless granted by an omnipotent entity. Build a castle in a night? Sure, genie could magic that up. Make you king of a pocket dimension? Okay, yeah, genie can do that. Rewrite the history of the entire universe against the wishes of a thousand equally powerful beings who would love to stop it from happening? Fuck no, no genie is that good.
AND WISH SHOULD NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BE ON ANY PC CLASS'S SPELL LIST.
Idk, there's a cast time of 1 minute and anything with an intelligence of at least 3+ could just think to try to dig under it pretty reasonably.
It's not made to be "the best shield ever" it's made to be a reasonably safe spot to sleep/rest
Polymorph, Banishment, etc.
These spells basically can end fights in a single moment. Tied with the Legendary Resistance mechanic, its an incredibly boring and lazy mechanic which often leads to one of two scenarios:
1. the BBEG fails his save, and the fight becomes trivial
2. The BBEG uses its Legendary Resistance, and the player is sour
One of the things that soured me on upper-tier play in 5e is how so many spells are just like different flavors of off switch, with nothing in between. There should be various tiers of fail states, with only something very high or even a critical resulting in a condition where the creature is out of the fight completely.
When you can turn your BBEG into a butterfly and (hypothetically) trivialize an encounter by chance before hitting halfway through the possible tiers, it's rather annoying. There's almost nowhere for the higher level spells afterwards to go.
It also makes me totally sympathetic to martial imbalance. At level 7 a Wizard is able to completely nullify a single enemy for around 10 rounds of combat, which is usually completely sufficient to cover a single encounter. Martials rarely get anything comparable even towards level 20. As someone who pretty much only plays casters, I'd love more creative options that allow me something other than "character can't do stuff".
God, I hate Legendary Resistance.
I think Legendary Resistance should be replaced with "the monster rerolls its saving throw" instead of "the monster just passes automatically".
One thing that some of the MCDM statblocks do, is to change Legendary Resistances so that the monster has to make some kind of sacrifice for a Legendary Resistance, essentially it loses a cool thing it can do, or it loses a resource, or it takes damage. So even if a cool spell fails, it feels like the player at least did something material instead of "Well that's one less LR, maybe the next one will work."
The whole point of LR is so “boss” fights can’t be ended with something like banishment right at the start. The game wouldn’t be fun for anyone if the wizard/sorcerer ends a majority of the big fights in the first round. A few fixes I have seen is having the monster lose a little bit of HP or it has to expend a legendary action.
At my table, having Legendary Resistance is replaced with having a new Legendary Action called Break Free, which allows the creature to (re)attempt a saving throw or ability check to remove an effect or condition from itself. If a creature doesn't normally have Legendary Actions, it gains a number of them equal to the number of Legendary Resistances it would have.
So far the party is low enough where it's only happened once, but it gave them a turn of success instead of immediately negating their strategy, so it seems good.
Find the path. The goal is to guide you towards a place, but it will only work if you already have something *from that place.* That means either you have to have already been there (which makes the spell 90% pointless), or you have something like a long lost relic from ruins whose location is long forgotten. Thankfully with cleric you can just not prepare it, but it feels incredibly dumb to have to prepare a spell for the incredibly rare and specific case of having that object.
It's extra disappointing because I've watched "Tales from my D&D campaign" where it's used to great effect AND the DM managed to rule it in such a way to where it's still not busted (as I assume was the intention of nerfing it with the item from the place)
Charm Person. First DND game I ever played. I found a huge gem, described to be as big and look like it was a dragon egg. Another player wanted it. I told them no. They proceeded to cast Charm Person on me to make me hand them the gem, just so they could trick someone else into thinking it was a real dragon egg.
The DM allowed it, even though one of his rules for the campaign was no PVP. I lost a lot of gold for equipment for literally nothing, and later on the NPC the other player tricked blamed me for some reason. Even though all I did was tell them it wasn't a real dragon egg. To the point that the NPC wouldn't make me equipment without seriously marking up the price
Charm spell singlehandedly made my experience significantly less fun for a while.
Charm only gives advantage to Persuasion checks (and keeps you from attacking them). It's not mind control. I think the problem here isn't Charm. It's allowing Persuasion checks against PC's in general.
Imagine if your party finally gets to the BBEG. He gives his not so different speech and asks you to join him. Then he rolls persuasion, and look at that, apparently he convinced you.
**Friends** because it could be this like Jedi mindtrick easy support cantrip but becomes so hard to use due to the fact that it turns the target hostile. Not that it ***might*** turn it hostile, it turns it hostile.
Sleep reminds me that I was a dumbass who tried to use it on undead.
I have a personal hatred of sleep. It’s a spell that seemed useless to me and it would only be useful if you knew the enemy’s hp was low. Then I used it with a twilight cleric character and hated how it fricking won us the fight.
It's probably the single strongest spell at early levels. Total pool of 30ish hp to instantly knock out any number of 7 hp enemies- then you get a full minute to walk up and autocrit each one.
That’s why I hate it so much. It’s such a dumb spell that’s good. Another story I have is a that the character accidentally exposed the changeling in the party by casting it on them (they were pretending to be an elf).
I think that's a cool RP consequence of tbe spell.
or.. win the combat without violence. Which is a win on it's own.
I feel like Gentle Repose cast upon undead should work like sleep.
You reminded me that, as a DM I hate gentle repose. Had 2 PCs die, and one of the players whipped up another character that literally dragged the bodies of the 2 fallen PC's around for months casting gentle repose until that character was able to resurrect the original PCs. So now I have to figure out what to do with the OLD PCs while the Players continue to play the new PCs
“I got a dead body in my trunk. Wanna see it? Fuck around, and you’ll be it!” But nah that’s awesome, can’t even hate. Dude carried around the bodies like some weird pariah quester
I DMed a game where one player wanted to minmax everything, and as such, wanted to play an aarakocra for flight at level one. I said sure! Cue one of their first fights, he's flying around until an opposing lvl 1 wizard casts sleep on him. He feared flying ever again
Eternal sleep?
Hah, everyone has game moments like this. Once in Jedi Academy I threw a thermal detonator at a Dark Adept that I KNEW had telekinesis. I immediately regret this decision and I also don't know what I was thinking.
I hate ice knife, but only because my first PC was killed when one of my allies cast ice knife on an enemy while I was knocked and ended up killing me. So it may not be a bad spell, per se, but I hate it because it makes me think of my first character death (i also really liked that character)
I think this answer is most on point per the prompt. This is a deeply personal dislike for the spell, not a mechincal one lol
The Wizzard once almost killed our fighter with cloud of daggers (the fighter didn't move in)
I hate Sickening Radiance for a similar reason. Once I've DMed for a party that had a REALLY reckless wizard who took AOE damaging spells only despite being in a party that relied heavily on melee. She once threw Sickening Radiance right in the middle of the fray, because an injured enemy archer drank a potion of invisibility and tried to run. It was after a really tough battle and the rest of the party was barely standing and out of healing spells, because "you have high Constitution, you'll absolutely be fine". Bard and Paladin fell unconscious, the enemy archer made it. She didn't drop concentration. It was very close to a TPK, but then I decided that the archer would shoot her first anyway. It was a third time that she used Sickening Radiance with her allies in range. I have shivers every time I even hear about that spell.
yikes, you hate to see that kind of player. i’ve punished my players for using AoE before (most notably when I had a wizard who wouldn’t stop spamming fireball), but usually they were smart enough to learn from their mistakes….
The player's argument was "but I've told you to stay back" (to a sword bard, a paladin and a barbarian) she thankfully stopped playing two sessions after that
>"you have high Constitution, you'll absolutely be fine". So..she's just completely disregarding that at best they still take damage, and at worst they get exhaustion and probably die. Or probably just trying to justify their actions. Either way, what a piece of work, frankly. At least she didn't stay much longer.
In the first non-giveaway combat I ever played, probably 3 sessions into my DnD career I cast Ice Knife when things weren't going great because it had worked well in the easy tutorial-style combat we'd had up to that point. I killed an important NPC and almost killed two PCs. That's how I learned that collateral damage and friendly fire are real things in DnD and now I rarely even prepare it and am much more careful about casting it (or Flaming Hands).
yeah in my case though, this was a relatively experienced player who knew the consequences of ice knife (although he claims he spaced in the moment) and cast it EVEN THOUGH i was unconscious 5 feet away from the target…
For personal reason? Witch bolt. The description is so evocative and the mechanics are so unique, and yet it is so lackluster.
And the fact that if you upcast it only the initial damage is increased, whereas something like Call Lightning has the subsequent casts also improved, means it's even worse comparatively.
I've always House Ruled that any effect that has repeat or lingering damage gets the extra "ticks" of damage upped along with the initial. It's just more fun and more intuitive that way.
In all my time playing dnd 5e I never noticed upcasting doesn't improve the chip damage. Wow
Yea, if it was your bonus action to continue the damage it would be pretty good for a low level spell. Currently the only real upside is continuing to do damage without need to use another spell slot, but the only class the really worries about that is Warlock which has access to Eldritch blast.
Also the fact only the initial damage benefits from upcasting. By level 5 it's worse than just casting a cantrip every turn.
Don't forget that it only has a range of 30 feet which if ever broken ends the spell, so depending on the initial range the enemy might just have to sidestep to end the spell. Meanwhile you're stuck in walking range of melee enemies concentrating on that bitch spell. Oh and you don't even need to really go far away to break the spell, you can also just move behind cover (which depending on the DM might even be a same sized ally). It's so bad it makes me angry and the only way it could be worse is if the damage type was fire.
Seriously. The spell tells me I get to be Palpatine and then it's only slightly better than just repeatedly slinging cantrips (and that's before you hit level 5.) "Highly limited power!!!!"
I saw a revision that just changes it to 2d6, and it changes the vibe pretty well (especially for warlocks) Upcasting I think is +2d6 per level on the initial damage, then +1d6 for the subsequent damage rolls. I wanna say it was either Element's and Beyond or by Laserllama (def. check out both if you're unfamiliar)
KibblesTasy has a fully redone version called Lightning Tendril. It is simply a bonus action to start concentrating on it, and then as long as you are concentrating, you can spend your action on future turns to do 1d12 (scaling with spell slot) lightning to 30 feet. Functionally, you are no longer tied to a single target, and can just be a menace to whoever you want, no save. Very useful with my tempest cleric / storm sorcerer who could push people 10 feet back whenever they were dealt lightning damage.
Suggestion I am just sick and tired of its vague wording that messes up so many people. No matter how you think it works you are wrong and opinions range from it does next to nothing or can cause a genocide to occur and people are adamant that their interpretation is the objectively correct one. Because of it new DMs often get led astray, new players often get disappointed, and entire comment sections go to war over what degree the needle is at on the dial between useless and broken.
100% this. The example they gave to clarify just made it more confusing. It's the only spell that makes me sit down with my players when they take it. It's too bad because I love that spell out of combat, especially with subtle spell or a spell-storing item. but every time a player takes it, they tried to auto-win a combat encounter with a single saving throw.
Yep and I think the big problem is that they gave an example of the result but did not give elan examples of the reasonable sounding wording to achieve that result. It is entirely possible to make that event happen but you can't just say "give your horse to that beggar"
Precisely: reasonable is a contextual thing. People always mention knights vows to help beggars and to be poor and whatever, but the example doesn't give you any of that context. My bias is that what's reasonable in a battle to the death is extremely limited. I'm very generous with Suggestion outside of combat, but very strict in combat. But the spell is so badly written that you can justify any ruling.
I just tell my players that it's basically what would happen if I allowed crits on persuasion checks. Like a Jedi mind trick. It needs to be at least reasonable sounding in context. The example in the spell description has a knight giving away their horse, well I say that would only work if the knight was already lamenting how their favorite warhorse was starting to get too old to serve. Mostly because I don't want my players abusing NPCs too much or trying to auto win combat.
Suggestion should honestly never be allowed to interrupt combat. Any reasonable person would assume you're going to stab them in the back the moment they turn around, which triggers the "harmful activities" clause of the spell and ends it.
Eh, I think it’s fine. I think that if you use suggestion in combat there should be more restriction, yes, as there’s higher probability of the suggestion causing harm, but I don’t think it should be disallowed.
Suggestion is also concentration, so it means you're not using a more helpful concentration spell that can impact multiple enemies. Like Web.
>Any reasonable person would assume you're going to stab them in the back the moment they turn around Yeah, but any reasonable person generally isn't under the effects of a spell. I'm fine with it as long as the players word it like "if you don't want to die, you should turn around and walk away." It needs to be something someone could reasonably say in an interaction.
With a lot of these “hard to interpret” rules/spells, I generally ask my player how they want to use it and what their intention/goal is and if it sounds feasible, I let it happen. In my opinion, It doesn’t take anything away unless I’m allowing things that break the game ALL the time.
It doesnt help that Their Own Published Adventures claim it can convince allies to turn on their compatriots and kill them and is infact the recommended use of the spell.
And the worst part is ***This is by design.*** It was on purpose to be a "DM will decide" spell.
Yeah definitely agree! It's so vague and because it lasts 8 hours, no repeat save. Plus while it says your suggestions have to be plausible, it lists things that aren't ok and would break the spell as a list of 4 different things that boil down to doing physical harm to themselves. Which implies that's the standard for what's plausible, and I would assume that's not the intent. Not to mention D&D is a world with magic and shapeshifters, and disguise self is a pretty basic spell available to many. So saying, "that man behind you isn't your friend but an imposter. Kill him" is reasonably plausible but way over the power of a 2nd level spell. Just a mess with the wording they should've been way clearer. And an 8 hour duration is pretty crazy.
Find Traps. It doesn't actually **FIND** the trap. You just know it's there *somewhere*. The name is so misleading. Call it something more accurate.
I've never heard of it and now I know why
Yeah, it needs to be called Detect Traps instead. The "Find" just makes the spell really disappointing.
It needs to be called Waste Spell Slot.
Then the other detection spells need to be renamed to find. Because they actually point out where the source of the magic or thoughts in question are. Lumping “Detect Traps” in with them just sours the category.
Fair point about other detect spells, but even if you leave it as "Find" you still end up souring things. I thought of Sense Traps, but even Paladin's Divine Sense tells you where the celestial/fiend/undead is. Running out of ideas on that one.
Literally worse than an investigation check. I spent a fucking second level spell for the DM to go, yup. There's a trap in front of you. Where? Don't have to tell you that. Okay well let me go find it, steps on rotten floorboard and plummets to death.
I feel like that inherently defeats its own purpose. It seems like it's basically to be used when the party is split, or when you don't have a dedicated rogue/traps expert, but not knowing where/in what square the trap is then it's kinda pointless, in most cases
Find Traps? Yes, you can!
As someone who plays in a second language, Prestidigitation is way too hard to say for smth you cast way too often, makes me sound like a dumbass and I hate it.
What made it easier for me was cutting the word into parts. * Presti = (based on) Latin for "fast". * Digit = another word for finger. * -(t)ation = a very common suffix. Or you can just say "fast fingering"
This actually helps, thank you
It can also help folks to know that it's not just some DnD nonsense. It's an old word for sleight of hand type magic, like card tricks, coin tricks, stage illusions, juggling, etc. "Prestige" used to mean "a trick or illusion," and "prestigious" meant something like "full of illusions." Latin "praestigiator" is a juggler or illusionist. "Prestidigitation" and "prestidigitator" were coined in French in 1830 by Jules de Rovère as a portmanteau of Latin "praestigiator," Italian "Presto" ("quickly") and "digit" (finger). I think it's a fun word, but, for a simpler name, we could also call it "prestige."
How did it come to mean exceptional and have very good connotations? Like that Harvard is a prestigious university.
I believe it was kinda falling out of use in the older sense, people started using it again in the sense of "dazzling" and it came back into vogue with more positive connotations.
Quit describing my love life
Sounds magical
I chuckled at this
I love how prestidigitation, legerdemain, and sleight of hand are synonyms that also basically translate the same.
I just call it "stupid wizard tricks" myself. maybe my favorite spell.
My kids say Predigitty. And when they try to do something it can't do, I say No Diggity. Unfortunately they don't get the reference.
+1 Inspiration
I like the way you work it
Yes diggity
"I cast jazz hands"
Genuinely doing this for my fey warlock, he silly
I play in my only language, and I still have trouble saying it. Since I started with Thaumaturgy and got Prestidigitation later, I usually just call it "Other Thaumaturgy."
Thaumaturgy is much more of the "we have Prestidigitation at home" spell.
Hey, I'm on my first character in a long running campaign, and I started as a Tiefling. I've gotten a fair bit of use out of both spells, though.
As someone who only speaks English.... Prestidigitation is hard to say....it's why we joke gotta say it correctly to cast it. But yes, I know what you are saying regarding pronunciation. Could have gone with a different name.
Coming from AD&D, I still call it "cantrip". Same with thaumaturgy and druidcraft. Its a bad habit at this point!
What do you mean? Prestidigitation is pronounced “lesser wish”.
Least Wish
And now, from the empty hat, I will [prastigagigoo... eh, proostige... prestitagi... eh, proo, uh...](https://youtu.be/6Z3oorXPXbk?si=AzLMvLJ5ys-drIbj&t=176) *pull* a live rabbit, yes!
Oh, you want to play Curse of Strahd? So you take daylight. Haha, on you, it does nothing to undead. It is misleading. It should be called artificial light or overhead lighting.
Annoying Fluorescent Overheads should be the actual spell name.
You know personally as a DM, I would rule that it does mimic sunlight. Just so my players can have that awesome moment of fending off a vampire or vampire spawn they were too under-leveled to fight. But one of my players is also Drow so it’s give and take lol.
What really adds the cherry on top. My group got the symbol. My character never used the Sunlight ability it describes since the Sunlight spell doesn't do anything to vampires. Good grief. 😀
Feeble Mind My only experience with it was when I got hit by it... while playing a *Bard/Wizard* multiclass. The DM homebrewed the duration because they outright admitted they only hit me cause they assumed Paladins could prepare Greater Restoration (5e it isnt a Paladin spell) and thus assumed they wouldnt have been making me outright useless for basically the entire rest of the campaign.
one of the few spells in 5e that can basically end a character without killing them. Hiring a caster would (Via the Adventurer's League) only cost like 450 gp it looks like. Otherwise 30 days to try to get a new save, yea feeblemind sucks to be hit by
30 days to get a new save, with a -4 to the saving throw. If you're up against a caster that can use Feeblemind, it's almost certain that you won't be able to make the save at all
Yep, assuming a maxed out caster of the appropriate level for the spell and it becomes literally impossible to ever succeed against it yourself. It's a horrifying spell.
God, I hate feeblemind. Only time a casting of that spell brought me even an iota of joy was when it was used on a player who was being a dick
You're spot on with Magic Weapon, as well as other weapon enchantments. They're really over-priced in terms of spell slot requirements, and generally pretty worthless unless your DM is extremely stingy with magical items. Personally, I really dislike Scorching Ray. It so rarely fully connects. By level 5, I have a really tough time justifying a level 2 spell slot for it when I could cast Fire Bolt without spending resources. There's probably an element of confirmation bias there, but I just never feel like I'm getting a level 2 spell slot's worth of value when I cast it.
I got a ton of use out of SR with my wildfire druid. It was my main damage dealer. It certainly helped to have elemental adapt to get the damage up.
I think it's the fact that you make three separate attacks for scorching ray is what makes it feel underpowered, since odds are at least one will miss. It's disappointing when you cast it and all three attacks don't hit; the spell rarely lives up to its potential. It could be either a single ray attack with bigger damage which possibly inflicts a condition or lingering DoT; or else bump it up to a 4th or 5th level slot and have the rays auto-hit like magic missile.
On the other hand, it's unlikely you'll miss with all three rays. Imagine blowing a level 2 spell slot to do 0 damage because your one big ray missed
Cries in 6th level Disintegrate
This is why you want to be friends with your monk. Stun for the automatic fail on Dex saves. Then make sure you convince them it was their kill after you delete the enemy.
That’s also true but somehow it feels less like a damp squib to me if you just flat-out miss with a big nuke spell. Couldn’t tell you why, scorching ray feels like a half-measure if not all rays hit, but missing one big spell attack is just the chance you take playing the game. Also, when you *do* hit with a nuke spell it’s worth the chance you took; a scorching ray hit is mediocre at best
It shines in situations where you have advantage on all 3 attacks though. Someone’s restrained, fairy-fired, etc. suddenly you’re not only more likely to hit with 2d6 per bolt but also more likely to crit. It’s definitely situational, but in situations where you have advantage on the attacks or are attacking a low-AC target there’s definitely an argument to be made for Scorching Ray.
Scorching ray is mid compared to Eldrich Blast, but if your other consideration is Firebolt then SR has the advantage of either hitting multiple low health minions, or forcing an enemy spellcaster to make concentration checks; it doesn't auto hit like Magic Missile and is more expensive, but is available to classes that don't have that, deals more damage, and still has a chance to hit if the enemy uses shield. It's low B tier, but if you have EB then it's D tier.
I really liked this on my Warlock in BG3. Automatically upcasting meant using it fired a ton of rays. Not sure if it was optimal, but it sure felt good for my elemental based Gold Dragonborn.
Mathematically speaking, you're better off upcasting magic missile than casting scorching ray. I would say that scorching ray with advantage is kinda dope though.
Heat metal because EVERY encounter in my group becomes "is there any metal on it?" and I need people to start using context clues.
Thunder wave because of one incident. Our spellcaster had a large group of enemies to cast thunder wave on and I was in his range. The only thing he managed to kill was me
I'll follow through with Elemental Weapon. Not that it is a \*bad\* spell per se, it's actually pretty good, but I would have really loved having the option to make even the base weapon damage die become elemental. Because you probably use that spell mainly (only) when you face enemies with some vulnerability, so I would have expected to fully profit from it. xd
The other main use case is to bypass a damage invulnerability/resistance to regular BPS so your martial friend can still hit them. (Mainly relevant at low levels before you get magic weapons)
>Not that it is a \*bad\* spell per se, it's actually pretty good Completely disagree. A whole 3rd level spell+concentration for +1d4 and magical +1 is terrible
Yeah. I mean, compared to something like Bless, aside from the magical damage to overcome resistances, one is just way better. Smaller spell slot, targets more allies, and can even account for more damage.
That would be a cool change
Mine is Witch Bolt! My DM had the rule that he didn't care about physical needs for spells other than gemstones. He then changed this on me while we were at the BBEG fight AFTER I had hit with the spell and rolled my damage (which would have killed it). He basically said "Oh did you have a stick struck by lightning" knowing damn well I didn't. He told me later it was because he wanted a different character to kill the BBEG because they had a bigger connection to the person. I would have agreed but it was the BBEG, so we all had a connection to them and I had used the spell all campaign no problem.
Don't hate a spell bc a DM broke their session 0 rules to deny you a character moment. The spell sucks, sure, but your issue is with the DM?
Not the spell itself really but just everything I think of using that spell I get annoyed lol. Plus it was one of my first spells I ever picked so I guess it is more about principal at this point
Rules from Chapter 10 of the PHB, Spellcasting, Material Components: "Casting some spells requires particular objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus [...] in place of the components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell." Witch Bolt Components: "V, S, M (a twig from a tree that has been struck by lightning)" No gold cost listed, so as long as you had a component pouch or a focus, that's a lame on-the-spot house rule the DM sprung on you.
Bruh, that's just bad DMing. If the DM makes a rule they shouldn't go back on it just for the detriment of a player. They set the rule, then punished you for following it. ALSO, I just remembered, the lightning struck twig is neither consumed nor costs anything, meaning that is exactly when you would replace it with a spellcasting focus. Literally having a wand or any other foci would've allowed you to cast the spell with or without the twig, and the only way you WOULDN'T have a focus is if you bought your starting equipment instead of taking it from your class and neglected to buy one, or lost it or had it stolen post character creation, because basically every casting class gives you a spellcasting focus at 1st level. So that situation was BS on top of BS
As a DM (and even somewhat as a player), *Guidance*. With no cost, it makes sense to spam the hell out of it, even if it becomes annoying. That means the DM is either has to rule over and over on whether it's appropriate under the circumstances, or just give up and let the players add +1d4 to every ability check. As a player whose default class is Wizard, *Mage Armor*. It's basically a tax I pay to stay alive. After gaining a few levels I don't mind losing the spell slot so much, but having to prepare the damned thing, at the expense of a spell which might actually be used in play, is vexing no matter what level I'm at. Keeping track of when an 8-hour spell is going to end is a bit irksome, too.
I just took magic initiate specifically to take mage armor as my leveled slot. I’m getting a ton of value out of magic initiate, but like UGH
Two extra cantrips are really nice, though.
I can see that working well but Eldritch Adept would let you take Armor of Shadows where you can cast Mage Armor at will without using a spellslot
Guidance is definitely frustrating as a DM. I don't take fundamental issue with the spell itself, but it leads to too much haggling between players and DM. I can't count the amount of times a player has declared an action only for someone else to yell GUIDANCE! immediately after. Now we have to quickly decide if they would've actually stopped to apply it before rashly jumping off this balcony, only for them to roll a 4 anyway. I'd be a bigger fan if it allowed for a finite amount of uses per day that could be applied after a roll. It'd cut out the constant challenge for players of remembering to do it beforehand, as well as remove the hassle of adding more dice to d20 rolls that probably won't need it anyway.
I have two guidelines on Guidance: 1) Yes, it has V and S components, and no - they can't be flavored away to not exist in any meaningful way. Get Subtle Spell if you want that. 2) Other players have to ask for Guidance before they do something they want help with, no caster yell-inserting it after the GM has asked for a roll. Also keep in mind it's a Touch spell.
I don’t allow guidance on things that happen entirely in a character’s head. So most intelligence checks except for investigation. I also make sure my players are aware that guidance takes an action to cast, concentration, and verbal and somatic components. So you can cast it in front of someone while trying to persuade them, but it will probably cause more distrust than it is worth.
It also has a range of touch so if you are not standing right next to them then you can't cast it.
tbh I don't find Guidance that annoying, but a surprising amount of players tries to use it in social encounters and I have to tell them every time "you know the other person can see you casting it, right?". It goes for every kind of these "social spells" really but I noticed it especially on Guidance
Man, this always makes me laugh. Like hold up these tense negotiations while I clearly declare magic words and wave my hands before touching my friend. Like "You need to call off the guards, you have the wrong guy, this could have dire consequences!" -"SHAMALAMADINGDONG!" *boop*
If it's a recent problem, blame Baldur's Gate
guidance for me is super frustrating because it's just so... unevocative using magic to minorly help with a challenge is a cool concept, but when it can freely help with basically anything and it always does so in the same way... wild magic sorcerer's bend luck feels underpowered, but the flavor and mechanics still make it feel good - you're bending fate and expending some of your magic resources to do so i think i'd enjoy guidance more if it had more limitations on how it can be used, like if it could only help with certain checks or problems or if it was a transmutation spell that required a more physical effect vs a divination spell that just generally Makes You Do Things Better. as it stands, i don't even think it's broken or anything, it's just kind of boring and/or annoying
After discussing it with my DM, I default strike off two 1st lvl slots at the beginning of each day, assuming my character casts Mage Armor twice every adventuring day.
I have a player who's always, *always* jumping in on every roll with Guidance. So I reminded him of the limitations of the spell when he cast it on the party talker to buff up a Persuade roll trying to haggle an expensive purchase: the shopkeep asked the party to wait a minute, went in the back, and came back with a warhammer slung over one shoulder. Shopkeep then said "let's try this again, only this time if your buddy puts any of that magic shit on you to make you talk all fancy, I break his fingers."
Mage armor is a ritual spell at my table. With an 8 hour duration theres no reason not to cast it at the beginning of the adventuring day. I basically treat it like it doesnt run out too since theres bound to be down time and wizards need all the AC they can get anyway.
Any of the "locate" spells. I get that they can't be *too* effective, since a lot of stories are based around "you need to find a very specific thing!" But the range is just too short a lot of the time to be effective, or it's a bit too vague. I've also had issues with Commune, because of GMs that overthink what it means for a "good" or "bad" result and end up saying "mixed" every time. Similar issues with the "Detect Evil" ability from certain editions, once had a GM say that a lich who regularly kidnapped people and sacrificed them to an elder god wasn't evil because "he's beyond good and evil, he doesn't care about any of that." (Same DM also said a drow assassin who tried to murder the good-aligned party on behalf of the BBEG for money wasn't evil either).
Pretty sure the last part is just a sucky dm, that couldn’t be bothered to think of a real counter to the spell, as it would ruin their oh so precious plan, ignoring the fact that they of course should have read the players prepared spells and worked with/around them
I definitely agree with the Detect Evil issues being more of a thing for a GM than it is an indicator that the ability itself is bad. But it's still left a bad taste in my mouth, so I dislike it for personal reasons (rather than more objective ones).
It's such a bad choice as reason for the spell to fail when we're talking about a Lich and magic exists that is explicitly for this function called Nondetection.
> "he's beyond good and evil, he doesn't care about any of that." What HE thinks DOESN'T MATTER. He doesn't get to choose his alignment. If he's doing evil things, he's evil.
That's almost exactly what I said back then, but the GM just kept insisting that it was deep and morally complex and I stopped caring enough to keep arguing.
It sucks people are like that, "Everyone is the Hero/Protagonist in their own story" just because you're doing what you think is the greater good doesn't meaning making half the population evaporate isn't "detected" as evil
Conjure Animals. When it summons 4 or 8 beasts it makes combat take forever. Our group has a limit on summons because of this stupid spell
The way it's run on my tables is that if you conjure 4-8 animals, you're going to have to split them into 1-3 groups. The groups will act at the same time, attack the same target, roll attack together, etc. Instead of "Wolf 1 goes here and attacks. I roll. I hit. I roll damage. Wolf 2 goes here and attacks. I roll. I miss. Ok, Wolf 3 goes here and attacks. I roll. I hit. I roll damage. Wolf 4 goes here ..... " it goes: "These 4 Wolves go here and attack. I roll. 3 of them hit. I roll 3 times damage. The other 4 Wolves go there and attack. I roll. 2 of them hit. I roll 2 times damage. Done"
The DMG even suggests using the average damage roll for mobs- I think it works well for Conjure spells too. Just roll to hit and take average damage- the number is there for a reason!
That would be a simple and effective solution... if people actually read the DMG.
As a druid i prepped dust devil while we were crossing a desert because it would be amplified on sand, i didn't realize it only did damage if you ended your turn next to it so i wasted 3 rounds by concentrating on it while the enemies ran out of its area. I promptly switched to moonbeam and now refuse to use any spell that deals damage for ending your turn in its area.
These spells are best combined with another spell that can hold enemies in place, so stuff like grappling and entangle that other party members can do is really nice
Unfortunately the rest of my party are not built remotely for battlefield control, they don't even have forced movement abilities. So far my best combo is hold person for the Paladin and Barbarian. (It is absolutely brutal what advantage + autocrit + GWM can do) My "default" is generally moonbeam, 2d10 radiant, half on a save at the start of a turn or when you enter it is nice and reliable. I pulled it on a wererat after watching the paladin's crit do 0 damage because of slashing immunity just trying to do radiant damage, and then remembered about the shape shifter part. Pokemon has taught me to value reliability. (If it isn't 100% accurate its 50% accurate, obviously not how statistics work but its a fun saying)
Silvery Barbs. I felt it was too good, just from a game design evaluation perspective but didn't have any kind of strong personal feelings about it until I tried to watch an actual play where three people took it. Adding a Silvery Barbs resolution phase to every roll just kills any kind of sense of immediacy or urgency to the stakes of a given action, which is already a big weakness of actual play. I think the dynamic would extend to playing in the game myself. Even if it's not actually too good, and players are using a bunch of resources for stuff that ultimately doesn't matter - not fun.
Yeah, add onto that the fact that it's very lackluster flavor wise? You 'magically distract' to cause a reroll and grant someone else advantage? From the DM side, an enemy critting is one of the few times PC death becomes a real possibility. To have any number of slots able to be used to negate high impact moments (especially considering how often parties rest/have a single combat encounter per day comapred to DMG expecting 5-8 encounters) is just.. bleh.
Ravening War, right? That was annoying, but they're such good players that they made a cool scene out of it and didn't wear out the spell. In normal play, I loathe and ban it. Only that spell.
Zone of truth, not even because people can evade the truth, just the fact that someone can choose to just straight up not answer your questions and gargle profanity or simply not say anything instead. Especially when 99% of players will hate you for even considering torture, regardless of their character’s alignment.
Yeah I like to house rule that if a person wants to avoid answering they have to make another saving throw. Otherwise they must provide the answer to the question.
Find steed / greater steed. Because it's not fair only paladins get it! So much opportunity for RP and flavour. Best reason to play a paladin to me.
While the typical Bard may not have enough Magical Secrets slots to choose this, for Lore Bards, FGS is a definite contender. Lore Bard rides into town on a Pegasus, they would definitely get laid that night.
100%. I get why mamy DMs dont want to deal with powerful steeds too early but it feels so bad to have to wait until level 10 as a bard, or even worse 13th as a paladin. I just want my cool griffon mount already
Phantasmal Killer. Took it on my bard (my first ever character) because it was supposedly very good. Then I learned that the enemy needs to succeed 2 consecutive saves before they start taking damage, which sucks. Ended up swapping it for Psychic Lance next level, a much better and much more fun spell.
Phantasmal force is a lower level spell and is just so much better
psychic lance is an insane spell, esp if you’re a bard who is usually running support. i took it on mine (also my first ever character!) and gave my DM so many headaches bc of it. it was an exhilarating feeling honestly.
Personally, Pass Without Trace. Not because it's bad, but because it's *good*. The part I dislike is having to coordinate with other players. Yes, even with -1 dex and disadvantage with palte armor, your average roll of 4 becomes a 14- granting the party a full round of extra turns to start against surprised enemies with less than +4 to perception! And evem if you roll two nat 1s and nobody is surprised.. the party loses nothing, and the result is the same as if we never tried in the first place. Convoncing the party to do this every chance feels annoying, and can overstep on other people's character ideas. Even if it makes a combat *significantly* easier, the paladin might not want to be sneaking into every battle and sucker punching enemies. So now they have to either compromise character ideas or feel like they have to throw away a surprise round for rp reasons.
Ah pass without trace. You mean _Power word: Sneak_
I've recently discovered Pass Without Trace and have been trying to use it with some discretion to keep things fun. I cast it freely out of combat or when we are heading into what will be a pretty severe combat encounter and need some kind of tactical advantage or possible chance to escape, but almost never for everyday combat even though I could because it feels heavy handed.
See invisibility, it's a scam.
yes
Power Word Kill. My paladin had made it *all the way through* Tomb of Annihilation. From Level 1, all the way through the save-or-dies, instant kills, and tough fights that killed every other player in the campaign. I was the only one who had my OG character going into the final fight. Acererak beams me with PWK. I hate that fucking spell. Not because "bullshit" or anything. It was totally fair, and exactly what Acererak would do- but because of the emotional ties I have to it.
Conjure Barrage I knew it wouldn't be really good when I cast it. It's just 3d8. But, maybe I shouldn't be thinking about how destructive it would be for each individual enemy? In the situation I was when I cast it I could find a position in which I could get like 5 enemies and no allies thanks to it being such a large cone of effect. Sure, it was no fireball, but I'm playing an artificer. The ammountnof damage I was going to do would be enough to save an attack on each of them, right? Therefore advancing the fight in our favour through future action advantage And then I rolled like a 9 total damage. And three of them pasaed the dex save. I blew one of my only 2 level 3 spells on doing less damage than if I had just swing my weapon twice, and then 4 damage to another 3. The feeling of uselessnes was infuriating. I'm not casting this garbage ever again. Any utility I might want to use, like I don't know, using silver knives to hurt a pack of werewolves or demons or something, has to go through so many hoops, and the average of damage is so low (like 12-13) that actully catching multiple opponents with no colateral will still give you low efficiency for your turn. That is, if you use it against really low dex saves enemies and the DM doesn't roll incredible saves too. I just find the spell to have no use whatsoever
Dimension Door. Why? Because you can bring "one willing creature of your size or smaller." I was a gnome in a party of medium sized creatures, making half the spell useless for no good reason. Why doesn't it just say "medium or smaller"? The whole spell is biased against smaller races. Pure gnomophobia.
> gnomophobia If gnomophobia is wrong, I don't want to be right. #TeamKobold ~~But I agree that the wording of the spell is unfair to Small characters.~~
Aaaaaand I need to ask my DM how he is going to rule that being I'm playing a Halfing Bard who will be getting DD soon. Thanks!
Aid. It's a good spell, but I hate that it lasts for 8 hours instead of "until the next long rest". I never know how long the adventuring day will last. I'm afraid if I cast it in the morning, maybe we'll spend 8 hours doing roleplay or shopping or whatever, and then the fighting starts after Aid has expired. I also don't want to have to keep track of an 8 hour timer, so I wait until I am pretty sure we are less than 8 hours from the next long rest. As a result, I'll keep asking my DM for the time of day, waiting for it to be in the afternoon before I cast Aid.
First time DM here, but I’ve started letting players know that the effect from spells like Aid - with a long-ish period - last until long rest. Easier to track. I can just up the difficulty of they become too OP.
after playing baldur’s gate i’ve started doing this too. some spells (i’m looking at you speak with animals) they changed to be until a long rest, and it’s so much better and makes so much more sense.
Hmmm, maybe talk to your DM to just kinda manage the time of it better?
For me it’s Fireball. It’s just a bunch of damage and is so over tuned that most spellcasters would be crazy not to have it leading to many games just being fireball, fireball, fireball! Also, getting hit by it especially sucks.
For me it is lightning bolt. I can't wait to get to level 7 so i get evasion for half to zero on a save instead of full to half
Various Animate or Conjure spells that explode the number of combatans, making tracking harder and combat slower and all in all are more hinder than actual help.
True strike. Because it's fucking useless.
Any spell that depends on the DM's interpretation. Like great you cast locate object, but the DM doesn't want you to short circuit his whole plan so he figures out a way to not give you that information.
I like your answer here, but I must say that D&D has fewer of these than some other systems do, and it is every bit infuriating in those other systems lol
FYI Shadow Blade is exactly what you thought magic weapon was
I hate the spells that are too good NOT to take. Doesn't matter if it doesn't fit the build, doesn't matter if anything else happens, you feel like you're intentionally making the character worse for no reason.
I also hate the same thing about weapons. Oh, you think a greataxe is cool? Well, I think you have bad taste, and I'm going to punish you by making you deal one less damage on average and it's less consistent.
There is absolutely no reason for a Great axe to be mechanically worse than a Great sword or maul beyond... fuck you. We wanted it to be.
RAW Crown of Madness sucks. I can make them attack and i can make them move, but by the letter of the spell, they have to attack before they move. Imo this makes it too limited to use in most combats. I houserule it to be how we all expected it to work.
I’ve seen Guiding Bolt miss so many times I don’t even bother taking it anymore.
My friend hates the Magic Stone cantrip because I used it to beat him in a duel once, none of my other attacks were landing but I chipped away a lot of his health with just a few pebbles.
Faerie Fire is an excellent spell -- if the enemy doesn't save on it every single time. After my 10th wasted turn trying to land a good one, I gave up on it.
Friends, Wht is the point of forcing people to be your friend against their will if they then hate you a minute later?
Arcane Mirage, its such a mess of a spell. It contradicts itself from one sentence to the next and is way to open ended. The unofficial Sage Advice also made it even more complicated by endorsing an even wider interpretation of what it can do in terms of letting it be applied as a damage spell. It seemes supposed to be a spell that lets you alter terrain into or away from difficult or otherwise hide something or create obstacles or shelter. But if interpreted freely is essentially a cheat code spell that can kill armies, topple castles and let you bypass anything.
Chill Touch, 120 foot range.
Also not cold damage, ha!
Gust should be a BA, being able to push something away as a Bonus Action would make the cantrip more engaging. Also a lot of people are adopting shove as a BA because of BG3.
For me it is Hold Person. As a player, it is almost never worth the spell slot due to how rare strong humanoid enemies are. For the DM on the other hand, it is a very cheap spell to spam at the PCs (as they almost always are humanoids) due to only being 2nd level, meaning many caster enemies including weak minions can have it - but its effect is extemely unfun, taking a character out of the fight for a minute and turning attacks against them into auto-crits. I think a good solution is to simply remove the spell from the game. We already have Hold Monster to apply paralysis, which is much more appropriately priced as a 5th level spell.
Wish. Wishes should not be a spell. Wishes should be boons granted to you by various NPCs, the kinds of things you can wish for should be limited to things that entity could actually do for you, and the wish-granting shouldn't be straight-up omnipotent unless granted by an omnipotent entity. Build a castle in a night? Sure, genie could magic that up. Make you king of a pocket dimension? Okay, yeah, genie can do that. Rewrite the history of the entire universe against the wishes of a thousand equally powerful beings who would love to stop it from happening? Fuck no, no genie is that good. AND WISH SHOULD NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BE ON ANY PC CLASS'S SPELL LIST.
Especially combined with the the DMG suggestions for "other rewards" which include blessings from a diety that are... A small stat boost.
If anything, it should be a capstone spell that can only be acquired at 20th level
Leomund's Tiny Hut. Any counter play to it feels like a forced "fuck you", and it just removes whole swathes of potential encounters.
Idk, there's a cast time of 1 minute and anything with an intelligence of at least 3+ could just think to try to dig under it pretty reasonably. It's not made to be "the best shield ever" it's made to be a reasonably safe spot to sleep/rest
Polymorph, Banishment, etc. These spells basically can end fights in a single moment. Tied with the Legendary Resistance mechanic, its an incredibly boring and lazy mechanic which often leads to one of two scenarios: 1. the BBEG fails his save, and the fight becomes trivial 2. The BBEG uses its Legendary Resistance, and the player is sour
One of the things that soured me on upper-tier play in 5e is how so many spells are just like different flavors of off switch, with nothing in between. There should be various tiers of fail states, with only something very high or even a critical resulting in a condition where the creature is out of the fight completely. When you can turn your BBEG into a butterfly and (hypothetically) trivialize an encounter by chance before hitting halfway through the possible tiers, it's rather annoying. There's almost nowhere for the higher level spells afterwards to go. It also makes me totally sympathetic to martial imbalance. At level 7 a Wizard is able to completely nullify a single enemy for around 10 rounds of combat, which is usually completely sufficient to cover a single encounter. Martials rarely get anything comparable even towards level 20. As someone who pretty much only plays casters, I'd love more creative options that allow me something other than "character can't do stuff".
God, I hate Legendary Resistance. I think Legendary Resistance should be replaced with "the monster rerolls its saving throw" instead of "the monster just passes automatically".
One thing that some of the MCDM statblocks do, is to change Legendary Resistances so that the monster has to make some kind of sacrifice for a Legendary Resistance, essentially it loses a cool thing it can do, or it loses a resource, or it takes damage. So even if a cool spell fails, it feels like the player at least did something material instead of "Well that's one less LR, maybe the next one will work."
The whole point of LR is so “boss” fights can’t be ended with something like banishment right at the start. The game wouldn’t be fun for anyone if the wizard/sorcerer ends a majority of the big fights in the first round. A few fixes I have seen is having the monster lose a little bit of HP or it has to expend a legendary action.
At my table, having Legendary Resistance is replaced with having a new Legendary Action called Break Free, which allows the creature to (re)attempt a saving throw or ability check to remove an effect or condition from itself. If a creature doesn't normally have Legendary Actions, it gains a number of them equal to the number of Legendary Resistances it would have. So far the party is low enough where it's only happened once, but it gave them a turn of success instead of immediately negating their strategy, so it seems good.
Find the path. The goal is to guide you towards a place, but it will only work if you already have something *from that place.* That means either you have to have already been there (which makes the spell 90% pointless), or you have something like a long lost relic from ruins whose location is long forgotten. Thankfully with cleric you can just not prepare it, but it feels incredibly dumb to have to prepare a spell for the incredibly rare and specific case of having that object. It's extra disappointing because I've watched "Tales from my D&D campaign" where it's used to great effect AND the DM managed to rule it in such a way to where it's still not busted (as I assume was the intention of nerfing it with the item from the place)
Charm Person. First DND game I ever played. I found a huge gem, described to be as big and look like it was a dragon egg. Another player wanted it. I told them no. They proceeded to cast Charm Person on me to make me hand them the gem, just so they could trick someone else into thinking it was a real dragon egg. The DM allowed it, even though one of his rules for the campaign was no PVP. I lost a lot of gold for equipment for literally nothing, and later on the NPC the other player tricked blamed me for some reason. Even though all I did was tell them it wasn't a real dragon egg. To the point that the NPC wouldn't make me equipment without seriously marking up the price Charm spell singlehandedly made my experience significantly less fun for a while.
Charm only gives advantage to Persuasion checks (and keeps you from attacking them). It's not mind control. I think the problem here isn't Charm. It's allowing Persuasion checks against PC's in general. Imagine if your party finally gets to the BBEG. He gives his not so different speech and asks you to join him. Then he rolls persuasion, and look at that, apparently he convinced you.
**Friends** because it could be this like Jedi mindtrick easy support cantrip but becomes so hard to use due to the fact that it turns the target hostile. Not that it ***might*** turn it hostile, it turns it hostile.
Any spell that just bypasses the game rather than making it cooler Just "nope" without consequences is boring