One more to add: Thorn Whip: Druids, Artificers, Fun times!

I'd add to the list the Artillerist and Armorer Artificers. The Force Ballista Cannon pushes the target back 5 feet on hit with no additional save, and the Guardian's Perfected Armor lets pull an enemy 30 feet towards them and make a melee attack as a reaction a PB number of times. The Repulsion Shield infusion lets you push and enemy 15 feet away as reaction using a charge.

I can understand that it was forgotten as it is a poor cantrip, but Infestation is a spell that forces movement.

Repelling blast + crusher + Dao Genie Warlock. Add bludgeoning damage to your repelling eldritch blast, then you get up to 10 feet away + 5 feet any direction.

Dissonant Whispers doesn't TECHNICALLY fit into your criteria, but it's quite close and is amazing. RAW, it triggers opportunity attacks as well (Crawford confirmed), which can really stack up the damage. Conjure Animals to surround your target with critters, then hit them with dissonant whispers to effectively double the attacks the summons get. Have a rogue in the party? They'll love you for triggering their sneak attack again. The only downside is you don't control where they move.

I'm pretty fond of gust: it's basically the telekinetic feat's shove but you don't need to spend a feat to get it. I guess it costs a cantrip slot, but that's about it. It's crap, but you always have it in your back pocket, and it even saved my party one time when I used it to knock the BBEG out of their protective circle, allowing the fighter to action surge and do about four billion damage. Though, I guess this is one of those "this spell isn't bad! it saved my party in this super specific situation!" cases; i'm sure True Strike also saved at least one person from a TPK. I guess any of the other options on the list would have worked, but I was a level 5 wizard with almost no slots left and just didn't have access to the vast majority of these options. Gust is also pretty good when you have to get allies across pits since you can stand behind them and give them a little boost with the spell while they jump; if you wanted to do this with agonizing blast you'd have to shoot your allies in the butt for 1d10 damage.

22:34 - this is DEFINITELY anecdotal.... Fighting Strahd atop of Ravenloft outside and used Bigby's hand to push him off the side. Good times 🤣

You missed shield master from feats, which lets you make a shove attack as a bonus action after making an attack and comes with a few other useful effects

You missed one graviturgy option - Gravity Sinkhole, and a pretty decent one at that, I have a lot of fun comboing it with things like Wall of fire or transmute rock.

Artificer's Repulsion Shield Infusion. It's available at 6th class level. After being hit by a melee attack, can use a Reaction to burn a charge from the shield (has 4, regains d4 charges at dawn) to push the attacker up to 15 feet away.

You missed the Repulsion Shield infusion from Artificer. Uses a reaction, essentially works the same as Rebuke of the Talisman, has 4 charges, and pushes 15 ft. away. Probably Rank C, not a great option. I only would really take it to maximize AC gained from infusions, and at that point the forced movement is just auxiliary to the AC bonus.

My sorcerer's one level bard dip was a godsend. Whoever was engaged with our rogue and paladin... Twinned dissonant whispers. So many opportunity attacks generated, extra sneak attacks and smites.

"DnD is for every1". It has taken watching many many of your vids and hearing this for it to really hit my brain that you say this every vid. What a great saying. It also seems very heartfelt when you say it. I think it's fantastic and whatever prompted you to have this tagline I appreciate it.

3 more cantrips: lightning lure, thorn whip, infestation

23:40 almost choked on my root beet, I say Crazytown all the time and have never really heard another person say it as an adjective. Just one more reason you’re the GOAT

Swarm keeper is definitely my favorite when it comes to forced movement. Sling+bludgeoner makes great battlefield control

A note I'd like to make about Pulse Wave and Gravity Fissure is that they are specific to the Graviturgy magic archetype, and while that doesn't stop getting the spells in other ways (table dependent), it does mean that those spells will likely also be paired with the gravity well feature as well. But a wizard with that archetype might also have better options for triggering gravity well. For me it puts a big asterisk on any of the Graviturgy spells, because they could be part of a package where they're going to be great at moving things around getting that extra oomph from gravity well, but maybe those spell slots could have been used for other stuff and the somewhat less resource intensive movement gravity well already got you.

Armorer also has the guardian perfected armor at level 15. Big investment, but could be effective.

Jon's getting some first-class treatment goddamn

I love the slight pause that feels like subtle shade thrown at Slashing Flourish. Made me chuckle.

You forgot the feat Shield Master. It gives a forced movement 'shove' option.

Crazy.... I was literally just looking this up the other day. Great timing as always!

For racial options you missed Simic Hybrid - its 5th level feature lets you pick the grappling arms options - grapple with a bonus action or part of an attack and gives you 2 extra arms to grapple with. What is better than dragging 1 creature through your spike growth? Dragging two creatures through your spike growth at once, while still using your weapon and shield.

Thanks for your effort!! Great video.

Hey Treantmonk. I hope you’re doing well. I just wanted to say thank you for doing what you do. I’ve gone from an inexperienced D&D beginner to get a massively better understanding of the game and seeing really fun builds. Also, if it’s not too much to ask. I have a common sense understanding of the benefits of moving creatures on the battlefield, but it would be great to have a “Forced Movement Tactics” guide. Thanks again and I await your next video :D

you forgot the 4E monks water whip and fist of the unbroken air. haha. kidding aside, those 2 are actually great on a wis based spike growth build.

Loved the thumbnail for this vid (also very easy to read! TY!)

More to add: Wild Shape/Polymorph There are tons of beasts that have an auto grapple effect on hit, as well as other ways to move stuff around Conjure/Summon Spells Tons of monsters that have effects in this vein.

Regarding Thunderwave, I would point out that, while you’re right that enemy Con saves are, on average, better than Str saves, if you’re building a forced movement character, it is nice to have an option for different save types, if you happen to know that a particular creature has a very high Str save.

What I like about Gift of the Gem Dragon, Repulsion Shield, and Rebuke of the Talisman is how nicely they can work with enemy Multiattack. Pay attention to your enemy’s movement speed; if they’ve used all or all but 5 ft of their movement to reach you, then attack and hit you, you can push them back so they can’t complete the multiattack-and they can’t take any other action, since they already started attacking. Sorry, pit fiend! You only get one-quarter of your usual strikes! As we get higher and higher level, we just reach a point where shield and silvery barbs don’t offer much protection. But something like these items can still work.

I recently made a wind spell based sorcerer so it was interesting to see how bad a lot of the wind spells are (looking at you dust devil). Storm sphere though is great.

Oh man, can't believe you forgot thorn whip and lightning lure for the cantrips section. Thorn whip especially is a go-to!

Nice video! I would suggest you try to convert the final table into the popular ranking table you also used in you subclass ranking videos, and then including it in the thumbnail. Those tables attract a lot of viewers!

12:35 With Mobile Flourish you could also be grappling a creature(s) and then move wherever you want as long as you end next to the creature hit, potentially moving the grappled creatures into things or through spike growth.

How about the 6th level spell "Scatter". On one hand - it can move multiple enemies and allies, and move them a great distance. On the other hand, it plays better with "put bad guy in dangerous spot" than "drag enemy for damage" like an arcane archer's grasping vine. It's also versatile with the ability to move allies, so it has good utility. Admittedly, a 6th level spell is a big investment.

The nittiest of picks: you forgot the Artificer's Repulsion Shield infusion. I'll save you the trouble though because it's definitely F tier. 6 level investment in artificer, limited uses, only when attacked and no choice for direction.

What do you think of wish-casting tsunami in combat? Feels like a multi-target *maze* spell, but better.

The advantage of Telekinesis over Bigby’s hand is the hand uses a grapple. The creature can use it’s action on it’s turn to escape the grapple. Telekinesis isn’t a grapple, it causes the restrained condition. The creature can only roll to escape on your turn, when you choose to maintain the effect.

Investure of wind is a 6th level spell that gives you an action to potentially move a creature large or smaller.

I’ve been wondering for a while if you’ll do a Swarmkeeper build, you seemed so excited about it when Tasha’s came out.

The new Feats for Backgrounds UA, is a good opportunity to pick Druid and grab Thorn Whip + Entangle at lvl 1.

I may have missed it, but I was curious what your thoughts were on the Artllerist Force Ballista, 5 feet push when hitting a creature. The dungeon dudes had a video on the subclass a week or two back.

Dragging with Bigby's hand is the shit. My DM allows it and it feels do absurdly powerful

So, what you're saying is that we're going to be seeing Swarmkeeper come up on a lot of builds...

One important aspect of grapple vs shove is that grapple requires a free hand so depending on your weapon choice you either need to make the grapple as the last attack on your turn or might get locked out of making further attacks and you won’t be able to make opportunity attacks.

Forgot the repelling shield artificer infusion, and technicly the ring of the ram artificer infusion as well. But they would both be low ranked.

For spell options, I think a mention of some summoning spells might be worth-while. Several demon and devil summoning options give you large or larger creatures with high strength/athletics scores and, usually, greater than 30' of movement, and some of those creatures have inherent spellcasting.

No mention of (Tavern Brawler)! I would argue is in top 5 feats easy & number 1 for forced movement. You can grapple & drag for a bonus action Bonus action grapple & drag is A+/S what you call it. Tavern brawler is also a 1/2 feat & gives proficiency with improvised weapons. The unarmed strikes do d4 proficient is okay but mostly situational, better then a flat 1

Regarding Levitate, while it's not a great forced movement option, if it works it's really effective, there was this one time we were fighting a boss and I was a bit desperate and decided to gamble on it and well, I got lucky and he failed the saving throw, which since he was a melee fighter disabled him pretty much completely which made the rest of the encounter trivial, now while I won't claim it's the best, when fighting a melee enemy it can be worth it, if you think it can fail the save, which most melee enemies will be pretty good against.

you said in a comment that lightning lure is a D but have you considered that it is one of the best options to end the grapple condition on allies, as long as the creature doesn't end 5 ft of you it doesnt recives damage, which means you can lightning lure an ally he choses to fail the save and you can just move him away from the grapple but not close enough, also lightning lure dmg condition is not the save but the distance, so it is automatic dmg to a creature that it is already 5 ft from you making it the most consistent dmg cantrip. especially for a bladesinger who will ussualy be within range, it also works with eldrich knights and artificers

I'd at least make an honourable mention of Scatter. While teleportation is not technically "movement" it's the only forced teleport option I'm aware of. 6th level spell but lets you immediately rearrange the encounter to your heart's content.

The Open Hand ability does have the boon that if the creature is stunned through the monk's stunning strike....they auto fail the Open Hand Strength saving throw. So in context of what else the class can bring, the forced movement is actually quite good and might rank a B.

Crusher plus pact of the genie (dao) gives a +3 bludgeoning damage to one enemy each round, so any damaged enemy can be moved 5ft regardless of attack or spell used

There is another Graviturgy spell - Gravity Sinkhole - 4th level

Making a kobold battle artificer with swarmkeeeper. Uses crusher (not great on it but just like it since he uses clubs and slings) but absolutely love the idea of moving a giant creature i to some thorns or making it slip on grease with a tiny pebble from this little kobold David

I'd love to see a full list of what changes Treantmonk would make to each spell in order to make it more competitive and comparable to the traditional "best" spells of their level. For example, making the smite spells not require concentration.

So, to the specific question of the asker. As a mid level wizard your best two options for forced movement are probably thorn whip and the telekinetic feat. Gain one by starting off as an artificer (grab con saves and armor while you're at it) And the other at level 4 (unless you're custom lineage.) Hopefully, this let's you do things like concentrate on a wall or a web or something and move creatures trying to get out back into it. Depending on what your vision of the character is, it sounds like you'll have some better f movement options as a sorlock.

I am going to recommend that Levitate be bumped up to C tier because it fills a unique niche: it keeps the target above ground. As a second-level spell, it's the only option before level 9 to have that effect, with no repeated saves, and it can completely shut down melee-only enemies as a result. Fighting a vampire spawn? Now it's floating harmlessly above the party. This isn't enough for A tier, but I feel it deserves C tier.

Way of the Four Elements Monk have fist of unbroken air and water whip. Both having the ability to move creatures up to 30 ft at the cost of 2 ki points minimum though.

Could include magic items: E.G. Ring of the Ram is a good one. One thing I'd love to see is more builds with magic items. It's very common for oneshots to let players pick uncommon and rare items. Would be awesome to see that layer added to builds, and I think can make more accurate real world comparisons for things like damage. Here's a good one, Cli Lyre on a L6 Tempest Cleric L1 Bard with metamagic adept- transmuted spell.

One more I haven't seen here yet: the loxodon can grapple with its trunk.

Would love to see a video that talks about which multiclass options actually limit what you can do. Example: Barbarians rage restricts you from casting spells, blade singer can't wield a shield or heavy armor, druids won't (and therefore can't) wear metal armor, etc.

Maelstrom 5th Druid spell can be good forced movement and control with other spells like sicking raidance + speed reduction.

I played a genie warlock in a one shot using dao to add bludgeoning damage to my sword and I took slasher and crusher so I could push a enemy and reduce their movement speed and paired with lance of lethargy, repelling blast, and mire of the mind invocations I could move enemies where I wanted to like chess

Investiture of Air also has a forced movement option, although I don't much like the spell overall and I probably wouldn't bother using that option anyway.

Something to note for Gift of the Gem Dragon- Unless I missed something, it's the only one that uses your REaction. So, if a build is centered around forced movement, it's your only option there. Not a bad option for a melee build where taking damage within 10 ft. is relatively common. I understand the limitations but if the build already has a forced movement option for an attack, extra attack, bonus action, and movement, this is your only REaction option to round it out. (Hello Spike Growth)

I currently playing a moon druid, i put on myself longstrider before combat, then in combat i cast spike growth and the transform in to a air elemental, if glapple and move them i do like 80d4 with dash, and its count like enviromental damage, so no reduction on damage.i call it baile del colibri zurdo.

Psi Warrior's Telekinetic Thrust makes you chose between moving enemy or shoving them prone

Thunderbolt Strike hurts, and I completely agree with its ranking. We use a slightly changed domain list, giving them thunder step, storm sphere, and control winds instead of the options at that level, but even then, there are barely any lightning spells in 5e, especially ones you actually want to use. (witch bolt blows, lightning lure blows, shocking grasp is fine but more of gtfo dodge button, everything decent is pretty much 3rd level or higher)

Conjure Animals is probably A+. 8 Giant Frogs or Constrictor Snakes can allow absurd amount of controlled movement compared to all these other options. 4 Apes with +5 athletics good too if enemy has really high AC. The Constrictor Snake and Giant Frog would have no size restriction other than being able to carry or drag the weight. It's the best thing in the game for basically everything, spell is busted.

Excellent video. I love Bigyby's Hand. Wouldn't the forced movement from dragging with Grasping Hand be halved to 30' per turn though in keeping with the grappling rules unless the target is small or littler?

Homebrewed forced movement weapon for monks: Kunai with Rope! weapon (dagger), light, finesse, versatile, special This weapon, which can be used as a monk weapon, consist of a trowel-like tool (called a kunai) attached to one end of a 20-foot long chain. When making an attack within 20 feet, you use the kunai and the other end of the chain remains attached to you. The kunai acts as a dagger with a range of 20/40 feet. If the kunai is thrown within 20 feet, you may use a bonus action or attack to retrieve it, using the chain to pull it back to you. Monks may choose to instead use one unarmed strike granted by their "Flurry of Blows" feature to throw the kunai and another to retrieve it in this way. If thrown further than 20 feet, the weapon damage becomes 1d8, the chain detaches from you, you are disarmed of this weapon, and you must retrieve the weapon normally. If you succeed with a ranged attack within 20 feet, the kunai sticks into the object or creature you attacked, leaving it extended into the target. If you succeed with a melee attack, you may choose to leave the kunai stuck into the target to extend it the same way. The kunai sticking this way does not hinder your ability to retrieve it. You may not attack with this weapon when it is extended. If you move more than 20 feet from the kunai while it is stuck into a target without first trying to retrieve it, the chain detaches from you and you are disarmed of the weapon. If the weapon is extended at the end of your turn, any creature within 5 feet of the chain may attempt to disarm you of it as a bonus action on their turn. They may use that bonus action to make a Dexterity (Slight of Hand) or Strength (Athletics) check (their choice) against your Strength or Dexterity saving throw (your choice) for the attempt, failing to disarm you upon your successful successful save. If the weapon is extended into creature or object and a large or smaller creature crosses chain, you can use your reaction to force the crosser to make a Dexterity or Strength saving throw (their choice) vs an opposing Dexterity (Slight of Hand) or Strength (Athletics) check from you. If they fail their save, they are knocked prone and their speed drops to 0 until start of their next turn. If you are weilding this weapon with two hands, the weapon damage doesn't increase, but you do gain the following options: when the kunai is stuck into large or smaller creature and you are more than 5 feet from it, you may use a bonus action or attack to force the victim to make a Strength or Dexterity saving throw (their choice) vs an opposing Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Slight of Hand) check from you. Upon success, the kunai detaches fron them and they do not move. If they fail the check, you pull them up to 15 feet toward you and they take 1d8 slashing damage from the kunai being ripped out of them. Forcing this check will also count as retrieving the kunai, which Monks may do as one unarmed strike granted by their "Flurry of Blows" feature.

You forgot Summon Greater Demon + Jump. Summon a Balgura, cast jump on Balgura. Grapple an enemy, and the Balgura can long jump 120ft, and high jump 60 ft. with the grappled creature using the Dash action.

Animate Objects, you can create multiple "creatures" that each have a strength score. I can't find a restriction in the spell description that says they can't grapple or shove. You could animate one huge object to do the grapple and two small objects to use the help action.

For cantrips you forgot Infestation. It makes them move in a random direction.

Thunderwave is nice for low level squishys that need a get back spell to break contact.

20:00 The main purposes of forced movement is to put your enemies into difficult terrain, challenging terrain, cause bonus damage or otherwise take them out of the fight. I'd argue that Levitate deserves a B-ranking, as it has a decent chance of taking one melee combatant completely out of the combat ... a great forced movement effect.

Regarding Push Attack, I'd agree with the low rating if we're assuming melee attacks. With a ranged weapon build, though, I would argue it deserves at least a B rating. Building a ranged Battlemaster, I would say it's a fair assumption you're picking the Archery fighting style, and also picking up Sharpshooter as one of your first feats if it's allowed. Given these assumptions are true, you can land your Push Attacks at ranges up to 600 feet, with no disadvantage on attacks and no penalties for anything less than full cover. Combine that with Action Surge, and at level 5 you can potentially deliver four push attacks at range in a single turn of combat. Yeah, you have to hit, and they get a save, but there's still a good chance one or more of those saves will fail. And even if they make the saves, they still suffer extra damage. You're pouring all your expendable resources out during a single turn, but speaking just from my own anecdotal experience playing a Battlemaster archer, that single turn tends to count for a lot, and Push Attack has definitely helped me in that regard. Whether knocking enemies off high places, ship decks or flying mounts at range, or into allied spell effects at shorter distances. Plus, they're the kind of expendable resources that refresh on a short rest, which is nice. Swords Bards can also do their mobile flourish with ranged weapons, funnily enough. However, they don't get access to the Archery fighting style without a feat or multiclassing, nor do they get Action Surge to let them go nova like the fighter can. Taking Sharpshooter as a Swords Bard is also much less of an obvious choice than it is for a Battle Master archer, I would argue. Also, until you get to level 14, you're spending Bardic Inspiration Dice to fuel the maneuvers, and those only refresh on a long rest.

Another spell to consider: Maelstrom

I think you should add crusher to the A list. Using a blunt weapon it's essentially a guaranteed 5ft shove every round. Edit: ...which doesn't *sound* like it's worth a feat, but as a half-feat I think it's not bad. There simply aren't that many good options for people who have an uneven strength score.

If the warlock invocations are PER BOLT you can, at level 11, pull a target 30 feet into melee range then hit with a Hex weapon and Eldritch Smite it.

Forced movement is surprisingly light on the rules. Can you force something into/throught another creature space? Does the target get a save/check to hold on to someone else they're grappling? This makes a big difference, e.g. ally is grappled by mind flayer about to get his brain eaten, I use repelling blast, mind flayer makes contest which ally cannot pass due to stun, both of them gets moved 30 feet away and now nobody else can reach him to save him.

It's sad that Tal'dorei Reborn didn't make as official material. Juggernaut barb and Open Sea Paladin have both quite interesting forced movement options.

thanks to this video, I realized that with grapples my 16th level Monk/Fighter can straight up kidnap enemies mid-combat edit: is Crusher + thrown weapons a combo anyone has talked about? Hammer throws that knock enemies in any direction could be big

I wish you waited until May 4th to release this video ;)

The metallic dragon breath looked dope until "Once/long rest"

Me: Just finished Chris’ daolock vid about pushing and pulling enemies around combat. 10 mins later… KZfaq: here’s a new forced movement vid. Me: Well, okay then :)

My Black Hole Build Death Cleric 5/Swarm Keeper Ranger 4 Half-Plate /Shield / War Caster (Free) Spiritual Weapon Cleric 3 Resilient (Constitution) Cleric 4 Spirit Guardians Cleric 5 Gathered Swarm Ranger 3 Spell Sniper (Druid) (Thorn Whip) Ranger 4 @Cleric 5/ Ranger 4 Gathered Swarm + Spiritual Weapon/ Thorn Whip to pull enemies into Spirit Guardians. Dodge action if in melee or Cantrip if 2 enemies. Bestow Curse upcast 5th slot Witherbloom Background and Reaper feature give access to all necromancy cantrips and the Shield spell

Thorn Whip and Lightning Lure seem criminally omitted.

hey treantmonk, could you make a video about non-melee tactics? And by that I mean tactics a party could use to make melee redundant or at least dedicated melee characters. Melee is unoptimized in D&d and I wanted to know if it was possible to do away with it entirely.

Totally missed shield master!!! My bear barbarian tank with shield master totally locked down enemies in 1 campaign

shield master feat

Not sure if sapping sting counts? Could knock stuff out of the air

One spell that I think would count as forced movement, too: Gravity Sinkhole from EGW

Is Thunderbolt Strike with 3 levels in Ascendant Dragon Monk any good as an option? Admittedly 9 levels is a lot of investment but being able to push 30 feet in any direction without resource cost sounds pretty good to me

I’d like to see a build that maxes out the number of free spells per day a character can get.

Your buddy Colby over at D4 would be very upset that you forgot about thorn whip

Gah, forgot about this.

rip water whip and fists of unbroken air

Why no love for the Dissonant Whispers Chris? Or did I miss that part of the video somehow?