It stops the charm of vampires and the petrification of medusa and basilisks.
It protects you from ranged attacks.
It shuts down spellcaster's spells that need sight - like charm and other control spells (and you can pre-prepare your spells so you operate better in fog.)
It cancels out advantage and disadvantage if you are at disadvantage.
You can run around the field of battle without provoking opportunity attacks.
If you, like us, have found that the single most powerful role of a spellcaster is to keep the fighter and the rogue delivering damage, then you will find Fog Cloud keeps your front line fighting better than almost any other spell.
It is amazingly powerful and one of the most frequent in combat spells we used to survive Tomb of Annihilation with just a party of four.
Hypnotic Pattern is a favorite of mine. Rendering a bunch of hostiles functionally helpless while you tie them up then slit their throats is so much fun.
Personally I think it has better utility than Fireball just for that reason alone.
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"I would sell you to Strahd for one corn chip"
-To the warlock in (coincidentally) our final session of CoS.
Polymorph is definitely my favorite. Use it as a buff spell to turn one of your party members into a T Rex! Use it as an offensive spell to turn a miniboss into a teacup pig! (And then just stick the pig in a box and lock it! Boss defeated!)
A favorite combo is Haste and Fly, which was used to great effect on my fighter in the last game I was in.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
As a DM I have a few favorites that I love to use to spice up the game:
Simulacrum is crazy as it allows you to make a copy of the Big Bad who is only roughly half power and able to really give the party a run for their money while making them think they are fighting the final boss.
Clone - You think someone died? Nope. Now they are back and better than ever. It's like they are a lich, but they are not!
Suggestion - I once played in a game where our Sorcerer used this on an Undead big guy and because he doesn't need food, drink, or even air, he just stood in place because of her wording. We could just execute him as our DM could do nothing.
It stops the charm of vampires and the petrification of medusa and basilisks.
It protects you from ranged attacks.
It shuts down spellcaster's spells that need sight - like charm and other control spells (and you can pre-prepare your spells so you operate better in fog.)
It cancels out advantage and disadvantage if you are at disadvantage.
You can run around the field of battle without provoking opportunity attacks.
If you, like us, have found that the single most powerful role of a spellcaster is to keep the fighter and the rogue delivering damage, then you will find Fog Cloud keeps your front line fighting better than almost any other spell.
It is amazingly powerful and one of the most frequent in combat spells we used to survive Tomb of Annihilation with just a party of four.
Ah, the Beholder tactic is an interesting one…their “Anti-Magic Field” emanating from their main eyeball would obviously cancel out that space; but the flanks would be left obscured. Interesting.
If a character gained access to “Blind-fighting”; you may be able to build around Fog Cloud even further.
As a bladesinger, my favorite cantrip is Green-flame Blade and favorite spells are Spirit Shroud and Mirror Image. Other favorites are Dragon's Breath and Burning Hands for area of effect. And you just can't beat Magic Missile. Yeah, it's low on damage, but auto hits are the best. Tiny Hut is also infinitely useful.
Favourite? Tough call. But there are a few spells that have become "archetypal" for my warlock (my first full caster in over a decade).
Leomund's Tiny Hut allows my halfling warlock to have a "hobbit hole" ready anywhere - outside is a grass green dome, inside is translucent hardwood in colour.
Unseen Servant and Find Familiar have most of the actual work around camp done not by our characters, and a competent, sleepless, watch being kept overnight.
Mending is essential for adventurers who don't want to have to buy a new outfit or pay for mending in every town they visit.
Silent Image is surprisingly useful, especially when as a warlock you take the ability to cast it at will, and also especially when combined with Minor Illusion to create sound.
But Prestidigitation allows the grey oatmeal to be whatever colour and flavour keeps us each from going mad during travel, cleans laundry, reheats tea, and more. Our tiefling rogue came up with the idea of using it to snuff candles through keyholes in inn rooms to figure out if they were dangerously occupied - if someone relit the candle, then there was someone awake in the room. Clever. The ability to create a "trinket" - a magnifying glass, a skeleton key, a set of loaded dice, and so on (the various books' lists of trinkets can be VERY useful to a player with Prestidigitation!).
If we're talking favorite and not necessarily the best or most useful, for my wizard it would have to be catapult. I've had the most fun with that spell, and at this point is basically her signature spell just based on sheer number of times she's used it.
I have a whole sub-section of my inventory labeled 'throwables' which is purely items I have on hand that are good for catapulting at people (lightening grenades, small metal figurines, powder kegs, jars of bees).
I once cast Slow (as 7th lvl Wizard) on 4 Glabrezu enemies. They have 4 attacks per round, +9 to hit, average 15 DMG on first two (plus grapple) and 6 DMG on the second two attacks + they can cast spells.
I managed to keep 3 of them fail for 3 rounds and one for 2 rounds (with help of our Bard debuffing them).
Within the Slow`s effect - one of them cast a spell (which he had to do in two rounds because of it) otherwise the rest only attacked us after I`ve cast it.
So 3 Glabrezu for 3 rounds - saving attacks 2-4 for each of them - that`s 27 potential attacks that didn`t take place - average dmg for attacks 2,3,4 combined is about 27 DMG = potentional 243 DMG saved if they always hit (which mostly they did against us).
The last one who was Slowed only for 2 rounds and cast a spell for both those round is harder to calculate, but let`s say it`s also about 27 DMG saved per round (he cast darkness, so no line of sight for us etc.)...
So purely by the damage output and their potential spells - one 3rd lvl spell saved us about 297 dmg per 3 rounds.
Plus all the times when we hit because their lower AC and also each time they didn`t have an AoO is on top of that!
As a DM I have a few favorites that I love to use to spice up the game:
Simulacrum is crazy as it allows you to make a copy of the Big Bad who is only roughly half power and able to really give the party a run for their money while making them think they are fighting the final boss.
Clone - You think someone died? Nope. Now they are back and better than ever. It's like they are a lich, but they are not!
Suggestion - I once played in a game where our Sorcerer used this on an Undead big guy and because he doesn't need food, drink, or even air, he just stood in place because of her wording. We could just execute him as our DM could do nothing.
There is this painting in our campaign that is a portal, any creature touching it gets a no-save one way trip to the shadowfell permanently. So a portal with a flyiong speed of 30' vanquishing any creature it touches ... even if I only use it once the reaction from the DM should be worth it.
I cast wall of fire (druid character) and our wizard cast summon minor elemental and had them grappling drow and dragging them into the wall. I'm getting a lot of use out of wall of fire and fireballs as an evoker. Also, as an evoker (different campaign), i can cast wall of fire or sickening radiance, and protect my allies, who can keep people in or drag people into the effects without themselves getting hurt. Right now, I'm setting up simacrulum and contingency for a one shot.
Fog Cloud is by far the most useful spell in the game.
It can shut down Beholders.
It stops the charm of vampires and the petrification of medusa and basilisks.
It protects you from ranged attacks.
It shuts down spellcaster's spells that need sight - like charm and other control spells (and you can pre-prepare your spells so you operate better in fog.)
It cancels out advantage and disadvantage if you are at disadvantage.
You can run around the field of battle without provoking opportunity attacks.
If you, like us, have found that the single most powerful role of a spellcaster is to keep the fighter and the rogue delivering damage, then you will find Fog Cloud keeps your front line fighting better than almost any other spell.
It is amazingly powerful and one of the most frequent in combat spells we used to survive Tomb of Annihilation with just a party of four.
Hypnotic Pattern is a favorite of mine. Rendering a bunch of hostiles functionally helpless while you tie them up then slit their throats is so much fun.
Personally I think it has better utility than Fireball just for that reason alone.
"I would sell you to Strahd for one corn chip"
-To the warlock in (coincidentally) our final session of CoS.
Polymorph is definitely my favorite. Use it as a buff spell to turn one of your party members into a T Rex! Use it as an offensive spell to turn a miniboss into a teacup pig! (And then just stick the pig in a box and lock it! Boss defeated!)
A favorite combo is Haste and Fly, which was used to great effect on my fighter in the last game I was in.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
As a DM I have a few favorites that I love to use to spice up the game:
Simulacrum is crazy as it allows you to make a copy of the Big Bad who is only roughly half power and able to really give the party a run for their money while making them think they are fighting the final boss.
Clone - You think someone died? Nope. Now they are back and better than ever. It's like they are a lich, but they are not!
Feeblemind - Someone just got nerfed!
Glyph of Warding - You can put any other spell into this thing!
Suggestion - I once played in a game where our Sorcerer used this on an Undead big guy and because he doesn't need food, drink, or even air, he just stood in place because of her wording. We could just execute him as our DM could do nothing.
Mighty Fortress - Now this spell is just cool.
Invulnerability - Imagine giving this to a Lich.
Prismatic Wall helped me kill like 500 goblin's while they were sieging my city. Its so under-rated!
magic missile is a guaranteed hit. and it wil hurt every monster manual monster except for the helmed horror.
I like planes.
Meteor swarm. Although Wish is more practical, destroying a literal army with meteors is just so fun
Ah, the Beholder tactic is an interesting one…their “Anti-Magic Field” emanating from their main eyeball would obviously cancel out that space; but the flanks would be left obscured. Interesting.
If a character gained access to “Blind-fighting”; you may be able to build around Fog Cloud even further.
Wall of force because it saved my wizards life allot it helped my party escape its awesome.
As a bladesinger, my favorite cantrip is Green-flame Blade and favorite spells are Spirit Shroud and Mirror Image. Other favorites are Dragon's Breath and Burning Hands for area of effect. And you just can't beat Magic Missile. Yeah, it's low on damage, but auto hits are the best. Tiny Hut is also infinitely useful.
Favourite? Tough call. But there are a few spells that have become "archetypal" for my warlock (my first full caster in over a decade).
Leomund's Tiny Hut allows my halfling warlock to have a "hobbit hole" ready anywhere - outside is a grass green dome, inside is translucent hardwood in colour.
Unseen Servant and Find Familiar have most of the actual work around camp done not by our characters, and a competent, sleepless, watch being kept overnight.
Mending is essential for adventurers who don't want to have to buy a new outfit or pay for mending in every town they visit.
Silent Image is surprisingly useful, especially when as a warlock you take the ability to cast it at will, and also especially when combined with Minor Illusion to create sound.
But Prestidigitation allows the grey oatmeal to be whatever colour and flavour keeps us each from going mad during travel, cleans laundry, reheats tea, and more. Our tiefling rogue came up with the idea of using it to snuff candles through keyholes in inn rooms to figure out if they were dangerously occupied - if someone relit the candle, then there was someone awake in the room. Clever. The ability to create a "trinket" - a magnifying glass, a skeleton key, a set of loaded dice, and so on (the various books' lists of trinkets can be VERY useful to a player with Prestidigitation!).
Jim's Magic Missile is great.
*gluten free hyperallergenic missiles*
*royalty tax*
*probably going to kill me*
sign me up!
DMing:
The Cataclysm Stadium
Rise of the White Mask
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian.
If we're talking favorite and not necessarily the best or most useful, for my wizard it would have to be catapult. I've had the most fun with that spell, and at this point is basically her signature spell just based on sheer number of times she's used it.
I have a whole sub-section of my inventory labeled 'throwables' which is purely items I have on hand that are good for catapulting at people (lightening grenades, small metal figurines, powder kegs, jars of bees).
Slow, Hypnotic Pattern & Polymorph
I once cast Slow (as 7th lvl Wizard) on 4 Glabrezu enemies. They have 4 attacks per round, +9 to hit, average 15 DMG on first two (plus grapple) and 6 DMG on the second two attacks + they can cast spells.
I managed to keep 3 of them fail for 3 rounds and one for 2 rounds (with help of our Bard debuffing them).
Within the Slow`s effect - one of them cast a spell (which he had to do in two rounds because of it) otherwise the rest only attacked us after I`ve cast it.
So 3 Glabrezu for 3 rounds - saving attacks 2-4 for each of them - that`s 27 potential attacks that didn`t take place - average dmg for attacks 2,3,4 combined is about 27 DMG = potentional 243 DMG saved if they always hit (which mostly they did against us).
The last one who was Slowed only for 2 rounds and cast a spell for both those round is harder to calculate, but let`s say it`s also about 27 DMG saved per round (he cast darkness, so no line of sight for us etc.)...
So purely by the damage output and their potential spells - one 3rd lvl spell saved us about 297 dmg per 3 rounds.
Plus all the times when we hit because their lower AC and also each time they didn`t have an AoO is on top of that!
Amazing spell.
holey cow
I am fire I am death I am awesome
About to hit 9th level and get Animate Object.
There is this painting in our campaign that is a portal, any creature touching it gets a no-save one way trip to the shadowfell permanently. So a portal with a flyiong speed of 30' vanquishing any creature it touches ... even if I only use it once the reaction from the DM should be worth it.
Life's hard - get a helmet!
Eldritch blast
Cantrip go boom
(Ironically, my sorcerer i made doesn't have it)
Mmmm, crunchy math rocks
Rat king, leader of the rat army
Opposed to the scorpion army
MY RP WAR THREAD
Jims Magic Missile is the only true spell, convince i'm wrong.
I cast wall of fire (druid character) and our wizard cast summon minor elemental and had them grappling drow and dragging them into the wall. I'm getting a lot of use out of wall of fire and fireballs as an evoker. Also, as an evoker (different campaign), i can cast wall of fire or sickening radiance, and protect my allies, who can keep people in or drag people into the effects without themselves getting hurt. Right now, I'm setting up simacrulum and contingency for a one shot.
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E/RPG geek.
Spirit Guardians because cost-efficient, repositionable area damage. Watch out for Counterspell and Dispel Magic.
History:
(っ'-')╮ =͟͟ 🔥「sword, servant, hound, memory, mind, horse, lord, bolt, smoke, sight」