Which do you think are the best concentration area spell for cause enemy some nasty condition and possibly reduce their speed?
Im interested especially to the wizard list, but feel free to add any spell from any full caster class.
I considered already web (restrained), sleet storm (prone), evard's black tentacles (restrained and damage but it don't scale), seem at least till 7th of a full caster there are good spells, but from here i just see whirlwind as a 7th lv and Prismatic Wall as 9th lv's spell and nothing else before. Wall of Fire seem a great spell for damage, but fire immunity is very common (it's still a good spell, but i can't use it as primary spell after a certain lv and anyway it doesnt create difficult terrain), storm sphere seem better on paper than when it is in play , Cloudkill maybe, but poison immunity is more common than fire and many creatures have both immunities + it neither create difficult terrain...i can't remember more spells of this kind, but seem like the best i got is Sleet Storm and Evard's Black Tentacle till at least lv 13. I'm gonna play soon a character (probably 1 or 2 lv of fighter and the rest War Magic Wizard, or 1 lv of monk and the rest Bladesinger) with Crusher, PAM and Warcaster feats, using a quarterstaff (with a shield for the Fighter/War Magic Wizard), so i would like to play as sort of flipper and send enemies back in the area of the spell couple times in a round, making 3 attacks (4 with the Bladesinger), and using 2 times Booming Blade kinda often, still being a wizard.
There are some spells on which i can focus that i didn't consider for this job? Assuming also we already have a life cleric/warlock (and a Barbarian/Fighter for deal damage) in the party that will use spirit guardians for halve the speed of affected enemies, and so anything that will reduce speed is already very good, but im asking it becouse from 4th lv's spells (at least till whirlwind) it seem to lack some better area spell to concentrate on of this kind.
Thanks, Earthbind is really good with anything owning wings lol, or anyway flying, unlucky it don't help with teleportation. Sickening Radiance its exactly the spell i was searching for i suppose, decent damage (it don't scale but well, ok) and the lv of exhaustions every time i hit in a turn is just great, even Con savings are normally hight on everyone and it need at least 2 turns for start working well.
Combine with a Forcecage and unless the target can teleport or is immune to exhaustion it'll be almost guaranteed to die.
Forcage is 10 mins, no concentration. Sick Rad is 10 mins with conc. 10 mins = 100 rounds. Pretty sure 6 of those are going to be fails, even with a high con save.
Works great as traps with glyph of warding.
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Combine with a Forcecage and unless the target can teleport or is immune to exhaustion it'll be almost guaranteed to die.
Forcage is 10 mins, no concentration. Sick Rad is 10 mins with conc. 10 mins = 100 rounds. Pretty sure 6 of those are going to be fails, even with a high con save.
Works great as traps with glyph of warding.
Yep, i know this combo and it's super nasty, it will probably work also with the Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound inside the forcecage, but i still prefere Sickening Radiance.
Slow is my go-to most of the time. Sleet storm also gets a lot of use.
Slow is a spell i love, but it's not an area-like spell where i can pull enemies inside with Crusher and PAM, so it would probably be less effective than the other spells i reported, and that's why i didn't mention it, but i love the spell itself.
As far as I'm concerned, the best concentration area of effect spell in the Wizard arsenal is Slow. Not best as in most powerful (though it is powerful), but best as in most useful, broadly applicable, and best bang for your spell slot buck. Slow is my go-to control spell.
I'm a huge fan of Ray of Enfeeblement as well for a low level defensive option against the big hitters. Dealing only half damage is really nasty, but as soon as I have better options for AoE situations i'd likely swap.
Sleet Storm is really strong. I use it all the time on my druid. It's really versatile and while it has no damage, the huge area of difficult terrain that has a chance to knock enemies prone, eating more of their movement, tied with the ability to force a pretty high DC concentration check is very good. It also douses flames and is heavily obscured, meaning it's great to mask your parties movements or prevent ranged combatants from having an impact.
Anyone tried Maelstrom? It's a 5th level druid spells form XGtE and one I've wanted to use but I've not had the chance yet. Rough outline, it causes a 30ft radius to become difficult terrain and if anyone fails a strength saving throw they take bludgeoning damage and are pulled 10ft toward the centre of effect.
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As i said i love slow, it's one of my favourite spells, but for this character i have in mind is probably a secondary spell as he would prefer area effect spells that let him pull enemies in the area of effect of the spell, however i'll probably pick slow anyway for fights where we have to fight lots of enemies for exemple.
Ray of Elfeeblement for the same reason won't work with the character i want to build.
Sleet Storm works well, i didn't think about it negate the line of sight too, that's can be a nice cherry on the cake for this spell.
I didn't try Maelstrom yet, it seem interesting, im thinking the best way for make it work with my concept.
For use Maelstrom, that is a very powerful spell once your cleric activate spirit guardians, i suppose a good way, for my character, would be go Lore Bard after the first lv in fighter and the second in Wizard (for Shield and Booming Blade instead than action surge as unluckly Brad don't have access to them). At lv 7th he get additional magical secrets and he would choose Counterspell and Sleet Storm, at 11th lv with magical secrets he will choose Sickening Radiance and Maelstrom, at 15th lv with the second Magical Secrets he get Contingency and Simulacrum, and the last magical secrets at 20th Wish and Prismatic Wall or whatever. Earlier lv he can use Warding Wind and Plant Growth for similar purpose. He gonna lack the Shield spell, but cutting words recovered with short rest is kinda sort of same thing, and he is a better counterspeller than the Wizard, Freedom of Movement also can be strong later on, but he lose also Earthbind and Misty Step (next teleport spell is Dimension Door that is a 4th lv spell and require an action), the feats are basically the same (Crusher, PAM, Warcaster), around lv 16 he will get action surge i suppose. Using Bard also the saves go a bit behind as we can't count on Arcane Deflection anymore.
Which do you think works better? The Wizrad or the Bard?
Personally I'd always say go Wizard because you can only concentrate on one of those AoE spell at a time the added flexibility to be able to swtich out which spells you want is probably better and for any spell you want that is not on the Wizard spell list you can always bat your eyes lovingly at your DM and ask if you can research them and have them as wizard spells, although this will likely incur money, ability checks and other resources to research whilst you adventure but it does give another side to the character and a solid reason for adventuring as you go and seek out the tid-bits of lore/information you need to create those spells.
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Which do you think are the best concentration area spell for cause enemy some nasty condition and possibly reduce their speed?
Im interested especially to the wizard list, but feel free to add any spell from any full caster class.
I considered already web (restrained), sleet storm (prone), evard's black tentacles (restrained and damage but it don't scale), seem at least till 7th of a full caster there are good spells, but from here i just see whirlwind as a 7th lv and Prismatic Wall as 9th lv's spell and nothing else before. Wall of Fire seem a great spell for damage, but fire immunity is very common (it's still a good spell, but i can't use it as primary spell after a certain lv and anyway it doesnt create difficult terrain), storm sphere seem better on paper than when it is in play , Cloudkill maybe, but poison immunity is more common than fire and many creatures have both immunities + it neither create difficult terrain...i can't remember more spells of this kind, but seem like the best i got is Sleet Storm and Evard's Black Tentacle till at least lv 13. I'm gonna play soon a character (probably 1 or 2 lv of fighter and the rest War Magic Wizard, or 1 lv of monk and the rest Bladesinger) with Crusher, PAM and Warcaster feats, using a quarterstaff (with a shield for the Fighter/War Magic Wizard), so i would like to play as sort of flipper and send enemies back in the area of the spell couple times in a round, making 3 attacks (4 with the Bladesinger), and using 2 times Booming Blade kinda often, still being a wizard.
There are some spells on which i can focus that i didn't consider for this job? Assuming also we already have a life cleric/warlock (and a Barbarian/Fighter for deal damage) in the party that will use spirit guardians for halve the speed of affected enemies, and so anything that will reduce speed is already very good, but im asking it becouse from 4th lv's spells (at least till whirlwind) it seem to lack some better area spell to concentrate on of this kind.
Dust Devil and Gust of Wind would work to push enemies around. Earthbind works really well against flying monsters. Warding Wind and Sleet Storm also might work since they creates difficult terrain. Control Water if you're usually around a lot of water. Sickening Radiance at exhaustion level 2.
Sickening Radiance is powerful.
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Thanks, Earthbind is really good with anything owning wings lol, or anyway flying, unlucky it don't help with teleportation. Sickening Radiance its exactly the spell i was searching for i suppose, decent damage (it don't scale but well, ok) and the lv of exhaustions every time i hit in a turn is just great, even Con savings are normally hight on everyone and it need at least 2 turns for start working well.
Sickening Radiance is spiffy.
Combine with a Forcecage and unless the target can teleport or is immune to exhaustion it'll be almost guaranteed to die.
Forcage is 10 mins, no concentration. Sick Rad is 10 mins with conc. 10 mins = 100 rounds. Pretty sure 6 of those are going to be fails, even with a high con save.
Works great as traps with glyph of warding.
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Slow is a massively debilitating spell on anything that depends on attacking over spellcasting.
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Slow is my go-to most of the time. Sleet storm also gets a lot of use.
Yep, i know this combo and it's super nasty, it will probably work also with the Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound inside the forcecage, but i still prefere Sickening Radiance.
Slow is a spell i love, but it's not an area-like spell where i can pull enemies inside with Crusher and PAM, so it would probably be less effective than the other spells i reported, and that's why i didn't mention it, but i love the spell itself.
As far as I'm concerned, the best concentration area of effect spell in the Wizard arsenal is Slow. Not best as in most powerful (though it is powerful), but best as in most useful, broadly applicable, and best bang for your spell slot buck. Slow is my go-to control spell.
Slow is really great.
I'm a huge fan of Ray of Enfeeblement as well for a low level defensive option against the big hitters. Dealing only half damage is really nasty, but as soon as I have better options for AoE situations i'd likely swap.
Sleet Storm is really strong. I use it all the time on my druid. It's really versatile and while it has no damage, the huge area of difficult terrain that has a chance to knock enemies prone, eating more of their movement, tied with the ability to force a pretty high DC concentration check is very good. It also douses flames and is heavily obscured, meaning it's great to mask your parties movements or prevent ranged combatants from having an impact.
Anyone tried Maelstrom? It's a 5th level druid spells form XGtE and one I've wanted to use but I've not had the chance yet. Rough outline, it causes a 30ft radius to become difficult terrain and if anyone fails a strength saving throw they take bludgeoning damage and are pulled 10ft toward the centre of effect.
As i said i love slow, it's one of my favourite spells, but for this character i have in mind is probably a secondary spell as he would prefer area effect spells that let him pull enemies in the area of effect of the spell, however i'll probably pick slow anyway for fights where we have to fight lots of enemies for exemple.
Ray of Elfeeblement for the same reason won't work with the character i want to build.
Sleet Storm works well, i didn't think about it negate the line of sight too, that's can be a nice cherry on the cake for this spell.
I didn't try Maelstrom yet, it seem interesting, im thinking the best way for make it work with my concept.
For use Maelstrom, that is a very powerful spell once your cleric activate spirit guardians, i suppose a good way, for my character, would be go Lore Bard after the first lv in fighter and the second in Wizard (for Shield and Booming Blade instead than action surge as unluckly Brad don't have access to them). At lv 7th he get additional magical secrets and he would choose Counterspell and Sleet Storm, at 11th lv with magical secrets he will choose Sickening Radiance and Maelstrom, at 15th lv with the second Magical Secrets he get Contingency and Simulacrum, and the last magical secrets at 20th Wish and Prismatic Wall or whatever. Earlier lv he can use Warding Wind and Plant Growth for similar purpose. He gonna lack the Shield spell, but cutting words recovered with short rest is kinda sort of same thing, and he is a better counterspeller than the Wizard, Freedom of Movement also can be strong later on, but he lose also Earthbind and Misty Step (next teleport spell is Dimension Door that is a 4th lv spell and require an action), the feats are basically the same (Crusher, PAM, Warcaster), around lv 16 he will get action surge i suppose. Using Bard also the saves go a bit behind as we can't count on Arcane Deflection anymore.
Which do you think works better? The Wizrad or the Bard?
Personally I'd always say go Wizard because you can only concentrate on one of those AoE spell at a time the added flexibility to be able to swtich out which spells you want is probably better and for any spell you want that is not on the Wizard spell list you can always bat your eyes lovingly at your DM and ask if you can research them and have them as wizard spells, although this will likely incur money, ability checks and other resources to research whilst you adventure but it does give another side to the character and a solid reason for adventuring as you go and seek out the tid-bits of lore/information you need to create those spells.