Fairie fire is against all creatures, not enemies...

Thank you soooooo much for putting this in the description. Skipping to the good parts and hearing the useful info is a godsend.

Honorable Mentions: Blindness/Deafness: no concentration disadvantage and advantage. Darkness: blindness with no save. Silence: ends spell casting. Hold Person: you can still hit them, and hits auto-crits.

When a creature casts a spell while slowed, does it have to hold concentration until the next turn like when you prepare a spell to cast it with your reaction? Attacking a creature to end its concentration and lose the spell’s casting entirely would be amazing.

My DM's response to physic damage... Star Spawn. I didn't have a good time when I was in the melee of two giant star spawns and my bard just decided to hurl a Synaptic Static at the other one.

Dude, that was a dastardly delightful dump of Dungeon Dudes data about deadly debuff spells using alot of D's. Well done. 🤣

What a tonged twister

@@gamecavalier3230 Jokes on you I rolled a 1

Dam.

Those are 7ds for the 7 deadly spells video.

Oh that could be terrible.

I'm a non-player who knows the phrase cook'n'book. Thanks, Animated Spellbook.

Oh no gods of Olympus no

Funny name for "boil blood"

I've seen it used in that manner. Guy was paralyzed with Hold Monster and the wizard declared, "I cast Heat Metal on his Prince Albert."

I used to just cast web, entangle and cloudkill/fireball etc. When crowd control works its op. Slow is great on the good dps attackers. Hold person etc is powerful. Just dropping an attackers saving throws can allow cheese combos ending in finger of death. Polymorph can be helpfull as well. A melee attacker with high dps is useless if you Polymorph into a creature with 90% physical damage resistance. Same with a magic resistance, Polymorph musturd jelly for the 90% magic resistance. You can tank dragons this way. Protection against xyz can make some monsters or undead less dangerous. Fear of all kinds works if the other group cant buff a protection from fear. CC allows you to prevent high dps focusing on one player and thus killing him. It also allows you to focus on spell casters and kept the melee out of the fight. People like to cast buffs like haste along with strenght buffs from potions etc. You dont want buffed melee attacking players with such high dps and chance to hit. High level spell casters can be hard to kill and cast insane spells. By focusing them you hope to prevent spell casting and shut them down. It can take awhile to get a good spell casters protections down. You dont want strong melee dps killing and interrupting you. Thus cc everything you can. Debuff everyone you can. Basicly some mages can enter a spell casting loop and cast armies of powerful summons. In BG2 ToB one mage can kill everything in his path if left free to spell cast. The game had a summon limit of 5 summoned critters per map but this does not apply to clones. Project Image and Simulacrum clones can summon an unlimited number of critters in any area. This also allows you to summon multiple Devas or Planetars, bypassing the celestial summon limit of 1. Thus one mage can kill everything. You can abuse the wish spell this way as well. With BG2 casting Restoration on a Simulacrum clone will bump it up to the original caster's level. In the case of sorcerers, it will even give the clone the same spell slots as the caster. This is becuase clones were level drained and the restoration removes the level drain.

It’s also good for burning through legendary resistance, especially with intelligent enemies who know what you’re doing

blindness/deafness is only second level, not concentration, and can be twinned by a divine soul sorcerer

Another good thing about slow is that it sticks untill they actually make their saving throw. Nothing feels worse then casting hypnotic pattern on the BBEG and next turn one of his fodder minnions just slaps him back awake

Another great feature is that it will never hit your own allies. You target six specific targets in the area, so friendly fire is never a problem.

Imagine the enemy dying because you walked up to them and called their penis small.

@@Endershock1678 One time my party was attacked by bandits up in the trees. My bard used viscous mockery to insult one of the bandits telling him that he was a bad man and that he should feel bad. The bandit failed the save, and decided I was right, so he jumped out of the tree, landed on his head, and died. Then I ended up feeling bad. I love the vicious mockery spell, but it's always a bit weird when an enemy dies to it, because it usually gets played out as some sort of suicide, and that's sad. Words can hurt, guys.

Yeah it's so fun killing the BBEG by insulting their mom

Cantrips are more damaging than many levelled spells in 5e. In fact, in 5e, if you're given the choice between a cantrip or a single 1st level spell slot, you're usually better off taking a cantrip. Usually. not always.

​@@walterbunn280 That's only the case if you're level 11 or higher and your cantrips deal 3 dice of damage or more, or if you're in a special circumstance like a warlock or dragon sorcerer who gets to add their main stat modifier to damage. Most 1st level damage spells deal 3d6 or 3d8 damage to a single target and are as good or better than cantrips in the majority of cases. And yes, I realize that a 2d10 firebolt is better than a 3d6 1st level spell, but if you have a 1st level spell that only deals 3d6, then it probably comes with some other benefit, like it being AoE or inflicting a condition. In most cases, if I'm casting a cantrip instead of a 1st level spell, it's not because the damage is better. It's because I'd rather save those 1st level slots for utility or defensive spells, like Shield. Sometimes I might up-cast a 1st level damage spell into a 2nd lvl slot though.

When you get bamboozled as DM it feels bad, but good for the players; glad they got to overcome your pranks.

*in magic item shop* Player: I wanna sneak into the room behind the counter and steak something Me, thinking about how this guy has frickin legendary items and will very easily kill the party when he finds out: you wanna what now

My wild magic sorcerer once accidentally turned everyone in a 30ft radius invisible, including the ogre we were fighting. Luckily I also had Faerie Fire which I cast on him the next turn. I love that spell so much. The drow in my group always forgets that he has that spell until it's too late.

@@tigert2092 Any self respecting magic item vendor should keep all of their magic items well warded to prevent them from being stolen. Put them in glass cases under Arcane Lock and possibly Glyph of warding for the more expensive pieces. Or one of my personal favorites, Enchant them with Magic Mouth that yells, "Get your hands off of me, thief!" if anyone but the shopkeep tries to get to them. You could even homebrew some sort of enchantment that prevents any of the magic items from leaving the shop unless the shopkeep removes the enchantment. If you're going to have a Magic Mart in your game, you can bet it's going to be well protected.

Dan yah, I didn't know about that stuff at the time and didn't actually think they'd try so called it safe, especially with the dudes high perception

And then you have DMs who ignore the "not more powerful" part and say "bro you upcast that thing with your 9th level slot to make it permanent. Give him an urge to eat his balls every twenty minutes and have them regrow or whatever" (highlevel campaigns are funny. That campaign was somewhat derailed or rather finished at that point. DM had to wing an entire next session because what the dice made out of his final fight was unsatisfying. Paladin. 5crits. So he kinda was on the "ridiculous wave" when the curse happened. And when our wizard cast the curse DM looked like he bit in a lemon. We all kinda wanted the "eat your own balls" curse now DM had said it but no our wizard had to sever this guy's connection to his god. (The cleric who was the main antagonist of our campaign, who already was a bloody pulp at our feet barely alive. So we brought a nearly dead, entirely worthless cleric to the city guard and had him busted instead of killed)

I absolutely homebrew that casting with higher slots allows for more powerful effects

I’ve gotten away with some NASTY shenanigans via Bestow Curse with a little bit of discussion with some of my DMs. Absolutely bonkers spell.

9th level alternative bestow curse effect 2d4 necrotic damage at the end of their turn. 9th level means it stays until removed. Curse then run away or have lot's of counter spells ready and watch them slowly die

@@director1336 It is strictly more powerful than the ' add 1d8 of necrotic damage every time you hit the target' though

They easily add mystery and prestige to whoever dons them, magical items of our own day and age.

They easily hide your truckload of weapons and gear of course.

Totally agree.

And also people sell their souls to you in exchange for Magic.

@@elgatochurro For one they're pretty active on the account itself. So you get alot of in jokes, advice, and behind the scenes of their production. Additionally, they usually post the videos on here early exclusively for patrons.

Feeblemind is more likely if you combine it with bestow curse and bane. But it is very debilitating.

Feeblemind is game-winning when it lands but the really shitty damage and the very high spell slot makes it really unappealing to waste that slot on a spell that may do almost nothing. This is made worse by the fact that the enemies you really want to hit with Feeblemind (casters) tend to have good INT saves anyways. The one class that would be, IMO, the best user of Feeblemind - Sorcerers, due to the Heighten metamagic - does not even get it.

In my personal opinion i think it might be best on a warlock of some kind.

@@Archimonde259 Twinned Heightened or Subtle feeblemind... It's so hard to get it for sorcerers but really worth it. Also, wild magic sorcerers have ability to penalize saves even more.

@@yargolocus4853 I guess if you dipped into Warlock or Bard at high levels you could get Feeblemind as a sorc

Are you telling me some straight up Moses-style "your quarterstaff is now a cobra"? Cuz that's very good & almost as funny as "your body is now a magnet for slithering reptiles".

That's a choice you have to make (you don't get all 4 effects listed), they were focusing on the saving throw debuff option since they grouped the spell with hex. However, I agree that causing foes to do nothing is generally the strongest option

Once I was in a session where the party was trapped in an arena. The DM unleashed an adult white dragon (way above anything we could handle) and I used bestow curse like this. While it wasted six (SIX) turns, our party went through the gate to the dragon's pen, locked said gate, and proceeded to escape from the arena.

Well, If they do make the save, then, you wasted that curse that round. You could give them bane or disadvantage, and then try that.

True, but imagine how powerful it would be to have war caster and be able to caste bestow curse as a reaction opportunity attack. Enemy leaves your space. Boom! Cursed.

I always save a Curse for my Portent. First time I cast it though my DM thought it only wasted actions... really disappointing when I found out the truth later. The dragon shouldn't have been able to fly away.

*Casually casts blindness on a beholder*

@@adromea5628 Lol *casualy casts slow on a time dragon*

Yeah, a _lot_ of creatures (including spellcasters) lose much of what makes them special when they can't see. It's a 2nd-level spell that burns legendary resistances. And unlike most disabling spells, it _doesn't require concentration._ So you can maintain your other concentration spells (control, buff, debuff, summon), and the spell won't come undone if you take damage or become incapacitated. In some ways the blinded condition is harsher than the restrained condition. They both cause everyone's attacks against the affected creature to have advantage, and they both impose disadvantage on the affected creature's attacks, but based on the Unseen Attackers and Targets rule, a blind creature also has to guess the location of the target or they automatically miss. Some additional rules: Enemies can only make opportunity attacks against creatures they can see. The Dodge action only imposes disadvantage on attacks when the dodger can see the attacker. And when you make a ranged attack while within 5 feet of an enemy, you usually suffer disadvantage on the attack roll, but only when the enemy can see you. The main downside of the spell is how hard it can be to land. The range is only 30 feet. It targets Constitution saves, which tend to be high. All oozes are immune, as are a bunch of plants and eyeless constructs. And hundreds of other creatures (like dragons, snakes, insects, and creatures that burrow or swim) have blindsight or tremorsense as a backup. But there are still a ton of dangerous creatures that are seriously hampered by blindness.

rouges have so big stealth already, and there are so few creatures with prof in perception, they are always hidden

Dont forget in a stelth or hiest campaign hex someone ahead of time and disadvantage applies a -5 to passive perception

Friendly Faerie Fire is on!

That's exactly why Faerie Fire is useless to me. I love the concept but after 15 levels of playing a druid... i just can't use it because i'm always low on the initiative and everyone rushes into melee even when i tell them not to ahead of time. I'm going to have to start just throwing stuff out there and letting them take the heat... maybe they will learn the hard way to stay back. lol

@@DDGPro As long as your party members out number the enemy, it is still in the party's favour to do faerie fire even if they get hit as well, particularly if you can angle the cube so only your meatshield tank gets hit (that way the baddie might be more tempted by them than your squishies). 5 attacks at advantage/round > 2 attacks at advantage/round. Remember Faerie Fire hitting your party is no worse than a Barbarian using Reckless attacks.

That's why my bard has both Bane and Faerie Fire. Faerie Fire is my preferred choice, but only if I get a chance to fire it while multiple enemies are within a 20' cube without any allies inside. It shines (literally) if I get a high initiative and cast it before we close ranks, or if the battlefield creates a decent dividing line between allies and enemies (e.g. corridors). But if I can't use Faerie Fire, then Bane is a decent backup debuff. Of course, that all depends on whether I can get more mileage from another concentration spell. I got great mileage from Hypnotic Pattern once. We were riding griffons, when a hungry young dragon started chasing us for lunch. That was a serious threat for a 5th or 6th level group, especially when high above ground. One Hypnotic Pattern and poor saving throw later, and the hypnotized dragon plummeted to the ground, taking enough falling damage to lower it's HP to a one-digit number. It promptly decided that it would be suicidal to attack us with so few HP, and flew away.

At that point, the Fighter/Paladin/Cleric wants to grapple the caster, cooking them and either using it to break their concenration or force them to break concentration, as a character of those classes can out HP other casters.

Might as well just keep it on and chug a potion

@@davidsmith7752 That's why after casting it, your next action should be "run away."

I've considered trying to make mages with really high mobility that use Damage Over Time effects as their primary tactic. Imagine this scenario: Level 8 Druid starts combat by casting an 4th level Heat Metal on a fighter in full plate. Next turn, he Wild Shapes into a bird and just flies away. Unless the fighter can cause him to lose his concentration or kill him before he gets away, where he will have disadvantage to hit due to Heat Metal, he has no choice but to try to find a way to survive the incoming 40D8 DAMAGE. If he's not really high level and can't get any magical assistance to remove the spell/armor, he's about as screwed as you can get.

@@jamesoakes4842 This is why all of our casters (who can) always take Dispel Magic.

Except it can't be done in a single turn, if you cast a spell as a bonus action you can only cast a spell as an action if it is a cantrip

@@revshad4226 That's the point. Spells like Eyebite and Sunbeam give you actions to do in subsequent turns (not casting a spell) so while you are maintaining those spells (both use concentration) you can quicken Synaptic Static on a subsequent round.

@@revshad4226 Yes, Eyebite on round 1, then eyebite + Quickened spells on subsequent turns. Very potent.

**BOOMBOOMBOOM** *[FBI, open up!!]*

@@Zombiewithabowtie basically, yeah!

Muscle wizard casts fist?

@@darktrent182 But first, I'd like to rage!

@@otacon2587 a fellow Critter? Hurray!

Also works on undead and constructs.

@@darktrent182 I think you mean hazah!

This is why you invest in some armor of doffing, or whatever it's called. It's in Xanathar's and lets you remove your armor as an action.

@@carsonrush3352Unfortunately, my fighter is of the AFND school, so he would ultimately be worse off in that situation regardless. Best course of action: kill the caster.

@@carsonrush3352 WE got around it in our game via the lizardfolk Paladin being able to use his racial ability to make chitin armor out of giant bug shells.

Did you not know that when you are wearing Plate Armour no part of the metal touches you? Fair enough for something in your hands or even a helmet, but metal armour never touches the body as it's ALWAYS worn over the top of many layers of gambeson.

slow'd also be great for shadow sorcs too. flavor it like the targets are ensnared with threads of shadows, hindering their minds and movements

@@CycloneSP Shadows is always fun to work with re-skining!!! I think my friend's idea took the cake. In game time was midnight and he used Animate Object to make 'animated armor' by filling it with 'a pulsating dark mist' and the DM made it okay to combo with dancing lights for glowing eyes and background glare. Then our warlock used thaumaturgy to shake the ground and let off a deep echoing roar all so they could terrify an NPC merchant who sold the wizard a fake enchanted staff. XD

Hold person/monster could be time themed for a little flavor

@@mitchc6059 ooh!!! Like a time stop for that person! Thats a good one!

@Singularity I don't know what Matthew Mercer's plans are in regards to Dunamancy, but it's a field of magic he's created for Campaign 2 of Critical Role, and it's based on gravity/time.

Cadueces on CR uses bane to great effect at the times he uses it. It's saved them more than once.

@@Quandry1 Especially in the fight against the Hydra^ reducing a multi head hydra from 5 attacks down to only 1 via the Slow spell from Caleb only connecting due to Cadueces's Bane was beautiful

@@koreanbbq2376 There have been fights where hits have been turned into misses at reasonable enough ammounts to be quite helpful as well. I'd have to go back and really look but I think Bane has blocked at least 1 hit for almost every member of the Mighty Nein.

@@Quandry1 one of my favorites was when Nott used Counterspell on (spoilers) Vecna which i'm pretty sure made Matt SO mad

@@CorvusCorone68 Matt actually expected that usage. He had a mix of emotions when that landed. Sam as I recall was having frustrations as a bard.

Levitate is underrated.

Don't forget the falling damage imposed if he falls from over 20 feet. Helpful in high ceilinged areas or outside.

@@Stnick087921 Spell specifically says no falling damage, but Levitate is a great multi-use spell: take an enemy melee creature out of the fight while you take care of his friends, or help your allies over a river of lava, or retrieve some loot from the bottom of an acid pit, or keep yourself out of melee while you throw your spells.

@@agilemind6241 Well, there certainly would be falling damage, if you've levitated them to a significant height, and then end the spell. Always remember, it's not the fall that hurts you, it's the sudden stop at the end. :)

@@Hawkwinter01 it specifically says that when the spell ends the target gently floats to the ground

Agreed. As a cleric, being able to debuff somebody with blindness while keeping your concentration open for the many good buffs and debuffs you have is a big thing.

I would add Silence as well. Stopping communication with your enemies as well as any spell casting inside the sphere is great to as well.

I like color spray a lot for low-level adventures (under 4th or 5th). For lots of little monsters, it gives reliable no save blindness. It's only for one round, but being blind is such a crazy debuff (disadvantage for them, advantage for you) doing it to possibly multiple monsters in combat at once is super helpful. Once monster hp outpaces the average roll (6d10), you replace it with something else. But the lower level you are, the more broken it is.

Yeah, XGE has the deadliest spells.

Pair that with bestow curse and if they fail the wisdom saving throw they spend their round doing nothing! And then it just stacks until they die. Imagine diggin a hole however deep and then disguise it like a trap and when the enemy falls in just curse them and then hit them with sickening radiance

The text of the spell says they have to save or take the spell's damage, but the level of exhaustion seems unconnected to the save. You can apply levels of exhaustion automatically as long as you maintain concentration.

@@josiahneal7455 Jeremy Crawford tweeted a clarification saying that all the non damaging effects are tied to the save also.

@@landonkryger Oh, that's a lot better then. Thanks!

Thank you :)

Magic Initiate would crack that open for other classes.

sorcerer get it too, so say a divine soul as support Unfortunately the problem with frostbite is it is a con save, so easy to miss

It's learnable by druid, sorcerer, warlock and wizard. And I think the Artificer too.

Probably because it's more rare and requires higher levels. Most campaigns don't last past level 10, so it's generally these lower level spells that become your bread and butter throughout your character's journey.

Level 8 probably. I thought there was a weaker version of it though.

I'd almost always rather cast bless than bane, because there's no save. It's a party wide buff that just works!

I remember coming across this and the first thing on my mind was; "God, I hope this doesn't hit me."

Flaming Grease spells are my speciality!

I’ve always liked the idea of Grease also slipping people up, so you can set all sorts of traps then ring the warning bell that the monsters have to tell others of intruders or whatever... and watch them all rush down and slide into Hell :)

Using it on metal constructs is awsome

@@Spiceodog oh yes.

@@Spiceodog this did not even cross my mind yet, you sir are brilliant. However "any creature in contact" i think i´d know some DMs who would say "nope this creature IS the object and not in contact. you just gave it 2d8 fire damage on its next attack" (i really know a DM who would do this. He is a typical the rules as he reads it vs the player and he wonders why nobody shows up to the campaign anymore) i definitely would say "yo udamn son of a biscuit" and let you have it but i can see thew mental gymnastics to make it not work on constructs.

@@Metalhammer1993 at that point, you bring up an even further level of rules lawyering. "I cast it on his torso, which is in contact with his head and limbs. also, it doesn't do damage unless I use my bonus action, and I didn't use that while he was attacking me".

@@Metalhammer1993 i would do both it atks with disadvantge takes the dmg but so will you also if it cab grapple you thats going to hurt

a good pick up for a divine soul sorcerer who can twin that on top of concentrating on bane, hold person, or whatever. especially because you learn so few spells as a sorcerer, having a cheap debilitating debuff that leaves your concentration free is quite handy

Zachinator (un)balanced, as all things should be

The thing about casters is that more is always better!

Amen. I'd totally roll with an all caster crew. Hell, I'd love to see 5 different wizard builds own a campaign in robes w/o a single melee weapon. 😁

I run with a Hexblade Sorcerer, a Hexblade Paladin, two Hexblade Bards of Sword and Lore, and a Hexblade Eldritch Knight myself.

On man, great point! As if hex wasn't good enough already

Bane only effects saves and attacks but not checks, so not great for weakening counterspell.

@@dabaron7015i thought it only affects checks and attacks but NOT safes...

@@crkTyphoon that's Hex, they even say in the video Bane is one of the few spells to penalize saves.

deadpoet4 The invocation would go best unless you pick Bard, because if you pick Cleric you’d have to use your wisdom. But going Bard and then getting something extra Cha based cantrips is nice. The way I run things gives Warlocks extra invocations, but people also get extra feats. So it depends on how much you value your invocations and feats. Bards have some nice utility/role play cantrips, but if you wanna save your feats for other things, then the invocation is the way to go.

With the spending of an additional invocation, Eldritch Blast can fall into this as well.

If multiple casters targeted the same creature, or if a sorcerer uses twinned spell you could potentially delete the creatures movement speed entirely.

I have had DMs that are like that before, and it kind of derails the campaign for me as an individual. "Suddenly the 'Order of the Dragon Knights' stop trying to take your team down, and instead the 'Lousy Amalgamation of Druids and Monks' have taken up their cause!"

That's overdoing it a bit. Instead shift the balance away from humanoids and toward monsters. Not every encounter has to be cheese-proofed, but some of them should be.

Slow is one of those spells that sounds good on paper and is even better when using it

Slow is good but the targets get so many saves that Hypnotic Pattern always seems more versatile.

@@M0ebius How come hypnotic gaze is more versatile? Your allies can't be in the area of effect, everyone have to be well coordinated to not attack the ones under it's effect, the environment have to be stable enough so that they don't get hit and therefore put out of trance. Slow doesn't take any of this under account and you and your allies can keep the damage coming. Also, the DM should make some enemies have countermeasures for this overused spell, like making a familiar (lv 1 wizard spell) wake those in trance.

Khaons Hypnotic Pattern has the more powerful effect with only a single save, and assuming the same number of targets will generally eat more enemy actions than Slow. There are also many ways to mitigate the friendly fire such as Aura of Devotion or Careful Spell, or having a signal for the party to avert their eyes. Slow is very good too though, not quite as devastating but more reliable. There are trade offs.

Yeah, but how does it interact with that lip ring?

Tödliche Verwüste I'd paraphrase it to: The moment you start concentrating on spell2 you lose your concentration on spell1.

Thank you!

Bardic Expiration

As an aside, I prefer to Hex Wis checks when I have a Rogue in the party. It gimps their Perception checks after all.