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.
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Posted Jan 27, 2022Booming Blade triggers specifically when the target voluntarily moves. But that's still nice for pushing a melee combatant off target. In the end it's just adding a damage penalty to reposition though, so it's a tactic, not a power combo. You still give up an attack to do it most of the time.
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Posted Jan 27, 2022That's not how that works. Divine Favor works on only the Paladins own attacks, the animated constructs are their own creatures with their own attacks. Even something that would work on the objects could only buff one of them at a time unless it bugs multiple creatures. Buffing the caster won't work either. Something like faerie fire or entangle to give advantage attacks would be much better.
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Posted Jan 27, 2022Cook and Book!
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Posted Jan 27, 2022They may have meant Crusader's Mantle which is Divine Favor but for all allies in an area; it becomes available at the same character level as Animate Objects as 3rd level spells on half casters and 5th level spells on full casters both unlock at 9th level.
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Posted Jan 27, 2022You can only use 1 spell then 1 cantrip, not 2 leveled spells
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Posted Jan 27, 2022Jeesh! That's great, if my already OP characters read this.... well, just say that CR 30 won't be very challenging! -flying Artificer, throw Darns Instant Fortress, smash everything, Thunderwave bag of holding into portable hole, whole Orc army gone in less than a round...-
yeah
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Posted Jan 28, 2022Here's one I recently discovered: battle master with distracting and commander's strike, 2 levels of grave cleric, and nova damage-dealing ally. The combo goes something like this:
1. Battle master attacks once and uses distracting strike on the hit.
2. Action Surge: Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave
3. Bonus action commander's strike. Your ally attacks with advantage. Great if your friend has elven accuracy. Even more fun if your ally lands a critical hit.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022My own person fave for full champions: Skill Expert or Prodigy Feat (Athletics expertise). Shove an enemy prone + attack + action surge attack.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022https://youtu.be/t590k9X9s40
heres where I found the Prismatic Wall and Reverse Gravity combo
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Posted Jan 28, 2022A bugbear battle master fighter using a Glaive that has Polearm Master and Sentinel. The 20 foot reach controls the entire battle field
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Posted Jan 28, 2022Combine Polearm Master +Sentinel and use the Bugbear as PC.. you now have a 15' reach . If you're an EK you can then get shield and haste and be virtually unhittable while doing a ton of damage....
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Posted Jan 28, 2022Hypnotic Pattern + Any instrument of the bards: disadvantage on the save for put out of combat all creatures in a 30ft square.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022Anything that incapacitates the target (a monk's Stunning Strike, Hold Person, etc.) plus any damaging spell that grants a dexterity save (Sacred Flame, Disintegrate, etc.). The target always fails the save unless it has something special like a legendary action or something.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022For the Darkness + Devil sight just do what I did if your DM will allow and make a winged variant tiefling. That way they fly over the battle in a globe of darkness raining down eldritch blast. But I guess the point is for the darkness to be on the enemy.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022This one is pretty good although it assumes that the DM allows the player to choose the creatures that the Conjure Animals spell produces. RAW it's ambiguous as to whether the player chooses just the _option_ or if they also get to choose the specific creatures. RAI it's the DM that chooses the specific creatures.
Just calling out that this would not be true at the earlier levels where you can get the Conjure Animals spell. Velociraptors have 10 hp. The average damage from a fireball is 28 hp. Thus, you would need to be 14th level before they would be able to eat a fireball and still be up.
Spirit Guardians is great for this sort of thing, but I think it gets left off of a list like this because it's pretty situational. You need to be able to cast Spirit Guardians. You need to be able to get to a space where your enemies are just outside of the area of effect each time you want to initiate the "combo". You need to have specific feats or multiclass into Warlock (or otherwise get access to Warlock spells) as per your examples of how to do it yourself. Otherwise you need your allies to successfully shove an enemy which can be harder than hitting them with an attack in many instances... unless of course they're also a Warlock or a caster with Thunderwave.
So it's not really a specific combo unto itself but rather Spirit Guardians plus a bunch of possible tactics. LOL
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Posted Jan 28, 2022You're right - it was Crusader's Mantle. And it was 10 objects/attacks, not 8.
Also, I nerfed Animate Objects to allow only the single massive attack, cuz that kind of firepower turn after turn is downright gamebreaking.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022That would depend entirely on DM fiat since RAW there isn't a concept of starting to do something. Personally, I'd have to think on whether I'd allow it as "casting a spell" is something that is not perceptible depending on the situation and arguably not recognizable in a broad sense when thinking about things from a narrative rather than purely mechanical perspective. The same person casting two different spells with perceptible components would necessarily use different components for each of those spells, and two different people casting the same spell would conceivably still use different verbal and somatic (and even material depending on whether one is using a focus, a component pouch, or the actual components) components for those castings. Of course, you're referring to someone who's a caster themselves, so you can definitely make the argument that they'd at least be able to recognize the general indications of someone casting a spell.
But the main issue I see is whether one could actually recognize that a spell is being cast only when they're starting to cast a spell. In other words, is it obvious a millisecond after you start doing it? A half second? 1 second? 3 seconds? The full 6 seconds? And if a spell requires an action or a bonus action to cast, do those even take the full 6 seconds? When you start getting into the narrative aspect of it, there's a lot of ambiguity to things. Thus, I'd fall onto the mechanical RAW framework and probably lean towards not being able to trigger on "starting" to do something since there isn't a mechanical concept for it in the rules.
But that's just my take.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022Are you just talking from a narrative perspective because "swarm" has a very specific connotation in the game.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022If someone used Identify on either of those two items, then they would know about that exact interaction because RAW you learn everything about the item you identify except whether it is cursed.
Bingo. Any "OP combo" that relies on a specific magic item is beholden to not just "depends on if the DM allows it to work that way" but also "if you even find that magic item in the first place".
How do you mean? I'd say the Invisible condition is actually more powerful than a lot of people think it is, mainly because the advantage/disadvantage on attack rolls applies even if the other creature has a means with which to see the Invisible creaturee.
I don't think a lot of players realize just how dangerous it can be. When you fall, you either plummet the entire distance (core rules) or 500 feet per turn (XGtE). Either way, you're taking that damage whenever you stop falling unless you have an effect like Feather Fall. No being saved by someone swooping in to catch you. No safety nets or trampolines. Heck, even if you can fly and somehow are able to start flying while falling, you still take the damage as soon as you're not falling.
To be fair, that's assuming that someone who can cast those spells or use those abilities have a good idea where the invisible flying creature is. :)
Not allowing someone to take these two feats is a bit heavy. There's not really anything munchkin at all about this because it's only significantly useful in very specific situations. If the party is exploring a ton of tight dungeons, it has a lot more use than if the party is spending a lot of their time out in the open. Plus, a lot of people mistakenly think that you can just keep stopping enemies in their tracks every time they try to move because they conflate "use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature" with making an opportunity attack.
The feat that was actually broken was the Tunnel Fighter one that never made it out of UA.
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Posted Jan 28, 2022That's only if you use your bonus action to cast a leveled spell. There are numerous ways to be able to cast more than one leveled spell on your turn.