Dungeons & Dragons offers a wide range of character build options and items to hinder your foes in a variety of ways. Over the years, dedicated gamers have found powerful combinations of class features, feats, and items in order to deal the most damage or cause the most havoc. Here are just a few of them:
- Bag of holding + portable hole
- Darkness + devil’s sight
- Flight + invisibility
- Instant fortress + enlarge/reduce
- Sentinel + Polearm Master
A note on power level
This list contains D&D combos that can give you an edge in combat. Depending on your table’s power level, these combinations could hinder the group’s fun. So, talk to your players and Dungeon Master before using any of them. Remember, just because a combo may be fun for you, doesn’t mean it’ll be fun for others!
1. Bag of holding + portable hole
The bag of holding and the portable hole combo is a classic example of two relatively harmless items that, when brought together, bring chaos to the table. A note included in both of the items' descriptions explains what happens when a bag of holding is placed inside a portable hole or vice versa:
"Placing a bag of holding inside an extradimensional space created by a handy haversack, portable hole, or similar item instantly destroys both items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane. The gate originates where the one item was placed inside the other. Any creature within 10 feet of the gate is sucked through it to a random location on the Astral Plane. The gate then closes. The gate is one-way only and can’t be reopened."
Source: Bag of holding
There are no checks to defend against this effect; any creature within range of it is sucked into the Astral Plane. Using this combo during a boss fight can make for an easy win. Just be warned that if your character is also within that 10-foot radius, they’re also a goner!
2. Darkness + devil’s sight
This combination can be run by Dungeon Masters and warlock players alike. First, you’ll want to cast darkness, a 2nd-level spell that fills a 15-foot radius sphere with magical darkness that nonmagical light and even darkvision can't penetrate. The spell causes the blinded condition for creatures in the spell's radius. That is, unless they have something like devil's sight:
Devil’s Sight
You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
Source: Warlock class
Where your enemies will be swinging wildly at disadvantage, you'll be cackling and swinging (or blasting) back with advantage. But players beware: Dungeon Masters can pull off this combo by pairing the drow with fiends like an imp, bearded devil, or one of these other creatures with devil's sight. A few monsters even have this combo built into their stat block, like the blue abishai from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.
If you're a player considering this combo, keep one thing in mind: While your enemies might be blinded by your darkness spell, your allies will be, too. It can be frustrating as a player when your character is blinded by an ally's effect. So, position your spell carefully!
3. Flight + invisibility
As a Dungeon Master myself, this is a strong combination that plenty of monsters will struggle to counter. All you need is a source of flight, such as by playing a race with a flying speed like the owlin, and a source of invisibility that doesn't wear off when you attack or cast a spell. The 4th-level spell greater invisibility will likely be your best bet. At high levels, look to the legendary cloak of invisibility.
Put this combo in the hands of a rogue or other ranged damage dealer and they could benefit from advantage on attack rolls made while being unseen. Meanwhile, enemies will be helpless to counterattack unless they have see invisibility or truesight and ranged attacks to strike back with. That’s a tall order for Dungeon Masters who might be rolling off random encounter tables.
Unless combat encounters are created specifically to counter this combination, an invisible, flying character could easily overwhelm enemies—or cause enough of a distraction that their party members are left unscathed after a battle. There is a notable downside to this combination, however: If monsters choose to ignore you combat after combat, that’s one less character to split up their attacks between. So, hope that your party members can take some extra hits.
4. Instant fortress + enlarge/reduce
Instant fortress can be an immediate source of shelter for your adventuring party. But it can also serve as a bomb. When not in use, an instant fortress is a 1-inch metal cube. It's in this form that you'll use the magic item to set up a trap for your enemies.
Enlarge/reduce is one of my favorite spells in the game for the sheer utility that can come out of making creatures and objects bigger or smaller. Normally, this spell is great for turning the party fighter or barbarian into a giant to wreak havoc on your foes. When you have an instant fortress, though, you can shrink it to the size of a pill—or half an inch—using reduce. Then, drop the shrunken magic item into an enemy's drink or pocket with a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) or just toss it at their feet. When the moment is right, activate the instant fortress to force your target to make a Dexterity saving throw or be squished by the fortress:
"Each creature in the area where the fortress appears must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10d10 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. In either case, the creature is pushed to an unoccupied space outside but next to the fortress. Objects in the area that aren't being worn or carried take this damage and are pushed automatically."
Source: Instant fortress
5. Sentinel + Polearm Master
If you've picked through build guides for fighters and other martial characters, you've likely stumbled across this popular combination of feats. It utilizes two feats from the Player's Handbook: Sentinel and Polearm Master. Let's take a look at what these bad boys do and how they interact.
Sentinel
- When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
- Creatures provoke opportunity attacks from you even if they take the Disengage action before leaving your reach.
- When a creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you (and that target doesn't have this feat), you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature.
Polearm Master
- When you take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary attack. The weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4, and it deals bludgeoning damage.
- While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, quarterstaff, or spear, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter your reach.
Source: Player's Handbook
The game plan is straightforward: You rush into battle and get in the face of your enemies. When they attempt to move away from you or past you or attempt to attack another player, you spend a reaction to make an opportunity attack in retaliation. If you hit, the enemy is unable to move.
This combination helps lock down the battlefield, keeping enemies off squishier allies and their attention fixed on you. It's particularly powerful in areas with tight quarters, such as a hallway or small room. For maximum effect, wield a weapon with the reach property, like the glaive. Doing so increases your attack range to 10 feet, allowing you to control a larger portion of the battlefield.
You won't just be protecting your allies, either. Polearm Master also grants you a bonus action attack that deals 1d4 damage. This increases the amount of attacks you can put out, which in turn increases your overall damage output. Just make sure you have a healer nearby to keep you standing when the baddies get their own attacks in.
What's your favorite combo?
These are just a few powerful D&D combos. Just remember to keep your Dungeon Master and other players in mind before picking one of these up. It might be fun trivializing combat encounters, but do it time and time again, and you might find others coming to dislike your build or choice of magic items. In short, communicate and be flexible if your Dungeon Master or players dislike a certain combo you’ve brought to the table. In the end, D&D is about having fun together—not in spite of one another. Do you have a favorite combo that you’d love to share? Tell us in the comments!
DeAngelo Murillo (That_DeAngelo) is a fourth-generation Mexican-American who helps bring more representation to the geeky community through storytelling, journalism, interviewing creatives, and more on his Twitch channel. In his free time, he enjoys harassing his peers into participating in TTRPG charity events with him and also dies quite often in video games.
The normal reach for a glaive is 10 feet. A bugbear extends that by 5 feet to 15 feet. A Battle Master could use Lunging Attack to increase their reach to 20 feet when they make an attack on their turn, but that doesn't apply to anything that Sentinel provides, and it only impacts the first bullet point of Polearm Master.
That's not so much a powerful combo as it is "the way you use Hold Person". ;)
It still means you can stab something with a melee weapon from 20 feet away, and do extra damage in the process. Which is pretty dang evil.
I mean Polearm Master + Sentinel are pretty good, but a 18th level Bugbear Cavalier fighter with Sentinel is way better.
Bugbear gets you an extra 5ft of reach. At 18th level Cavalier gets Vigilant Defender which gives them an opportunity attack on every enemy turn that the enemy moves at least 5ft in your melee range, instead of just one opportunity attack per round. Also by 18th level you have the rest of the two feat combo covered (+so much more) with the exception of being able to react even if they take the disengage action, which is the only reason you should still take the Sentinel feat.
In my opinion the Bugbear Cavalier fighter with the Sentinel feat is one of, if not the best, martial battlefield controlling builds out there. Just the way the abilities stack you can lock a 35ft square down with ease, and that is not even getting into the mobility you have when mounted or synergy with other feats.
I am SO making a character like that
You can still only lock down one enemy with sentinel. Everyone's talking about sentinel combos as if they're power combos when really it's not that huge of a deal a lot of the time. And if you extend your range by too much you risk putting yourself in situations where the enemy doesn't need to enter or leave your threat range, mostly if you're stuck in close quarters. It's a power combo for 1v1 melees, but just kind of strong in other situations.
Yeah, that’s why it’s awesome that Mind sliver is a cantrip, fortunately!
1) Banishment - 2) Passwall(20' passage through the floor under the creature banished) - 3) Cloudkill - 4) Release concentration on Banishment
Swashbuckler's Fancy Footwork with Booming Blade is a bit broken. Step in, strike with Sneak Attack, step away without Attack of opportunity and if they try to follow Booming Blade does extra damage automatically. You even still have an unused Bonus Action to Dash or Hide. High Elves can get Booming Blade regardless of class from level 1.
You could find multiclass options to take advantage of the extra BA: Monk for Ki-Fuelled Attack or Patient Defense; Fathomless Warlock for Tentacles of the Deep and/or Hex; Bard for Inspiration etc!
My most OP character is an eladrin fighter/wild magic sorcerer/bladesinger wizard. He uses tides of chaos to render himself basically immune to missing or failing saving throws, and uses two weapon fighting combined with green-flame blade. He has been rampaging through the dungeons while the rest of the party stays at a safe distance to avoid any stray wild magic effects. He once destroyed a room full of enemies with a single burning hands spell due to a lot of good rolling on the wild magic surge table.
Silvery Barbs + Cleric Law + Rogue
Prismatic Wall + Reverse Gravity
We call this combination "Chernobyl"
One party member casts sickening radiance near an enemy or group of enemies. A second party member casts wall of force to trap the enemies inside with the radiance. Not only do they take 4d10 radiant damage per round, but they will also take a level of exhaustion every time they fail a saving throw. 6 levels of exhaustion = death. Since both of these spells last 10 minutes it's going to be nearly impossible for most creatures to survive in there.
If there's only one spellcaster in the party with these spells you can cast one into a ring of spell storing and give it to a party member.
Hold Person/Monster + Inflict Wounds
a simple yet powerful combo for clerics, especially ones of the war domain
Both are concentration so it would take 2 people. Anyone know of a way to restrain at range without concentration?
Not so much a combo as a character build exploit.
Write up a Paladin and raise them to level two, unlocking their spellcasting. Then switch to Sorcerer or Bard for nine levels. This gives you access to the Paladin's Lv. 5 Smite spells at character level 11 instead of 17 for a single class Paladin, and keeps you on Charisma for all of your spellcasting.
How does Tides of Chaos render you "basically immune to missing or failing saving throws"? Advantage is nice, of course, but it's far from a guaranteed success, and considering you can only use the feature once per long rest by default. Granted, you can refresh early by taking an immediate surge effect after casting a spell, but those don't stack... so you could conceivably, even if unlikely, run through all of your slots before ever having to attack or save again. Also, per the feature description it's entirely up to the DM to decide when this happens.
I'm curious what the significance of utilizng two-weapon fighting with Green-Flame Blade is.
It's a nice combo, but it's not broken. Once you've done this one time, enemies can prepare for you if you're even the biggest threat to them. You also have to be in a situation where you can move into position within melee range of only a single attacker. And then there's ranged attacks...
I think you're gonna need to explain this one a bit more. LOL
I think some of the comments are missing the point of the article by posting ideas that require either a ton of set up or that a party, much less a single character, be at a pretty decent level already. Destroying enemies becomes a lot easier when you get to higher levels whereas the article's examples tend to be things that you could conceivably do at lower levels and in many cases without the help of another character.