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 31, 2022It's nice, but again it's not so much that this is a powerful combo as it is that Hold Person, and specifically the Paralyzed condition, are super impactful. :)
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Posted Jan 31, 2022I can only see this working if your DM calls for a Wild Magic roll every single time you cast a spell
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Posted Feb 1, 2022If he was attuned to a Feywild shard (from Tashas), then that is possible.
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Posted Feb 1, 2022Add an 18th level Cavalier (Hold the Line and Vigilant Defender) to the polearm master and sentinel combo and things get really silly. No one's going anywhere. Definitely want to boost your AC as high as possible, you're going to purposely surround yourself with baddies. Also fire resistance for that fireball your caster is going to be itching to throw in there.
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Posted Feb 1, 2022Yes we use that Silence + Bigby's Hand combo with 2 people. Vengeance Paladin's Abdure Enemy or the Sentinal feat could be used to stop a person's motion and keep them in the Circle of Silence but they aren't as foolproof against a very powerful spellcaster who is physically weak, as the bigby's hand is.
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Posted Feb 1, 2022When you use Sivery barbs you choose a target creature and force a reroll of dice then you can target an ally and give him and advantage on the next dice roll.
When you are Cleric Law With Voice of Authority, if you use a spell an on Ally you can give him the Opportunity to use his reaction to make an attack to a reachable ennemy
If you are a rogue you can deal sneak attack damage at every round if you qualify for and to qualify for it you need and advantage en dice roll (which is given by Silvery Barbs)
So for cost of a reaction and spell slot you can make your ally deal tons of damages.
[Can be improved using a rogue with elven accuracy and subclass Phantom to increase Sneak Damages]
[And if you want your friend to make tons of damage dont forget to Bless Him to add 1d4 to Attack roll Dices so he can closely never miss his sneak ;)]
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Posted Feb 1, 2022I don't see how this works other than for Revivify. Everything else has spell components that are too expensive to create as the Bard.
"The gp value of the item can’t be more than 20 times your bard level"
A 20th level Bard can create an object that is worth 400gp, all of those spells have material components that are much more expensive.
and if the player trys to say I create 5 piles of ruby dust worth 400gp each:
"You can have only one item created by this feature at a time; if you use this action and already have an item from this feature, the first one immediately vanishes."
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Posted Feb 2, 2022Iron Bands of Bilarro is one. Or Wand of Viscous Globs.
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Posted Feb 2, 2022Read the first line of the original post. At 14th level, the Creative Crescendo feature removes the gold piece limit from Performance of Creation.
The original post isn't completely correct. Mighty Fortress, for example, explicitly states "After 7 days or when you cast this spell somewhere else, the fortress harmlessly crumbles and sinks back into the ground, leaving any creatures that were inside it safely on the ground." So, the city of fortresses isn't possible, but for many of the other spells, it's spot on.
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Posted Feb 2, 2022Multiclass spellcasting doesn't work that way. You determine the spell levels you can know or prepare based on class level. Combined levels in spellcasting classes only affects the slots you have. The character you describe has spell slots of a 10 level character (9 sorcerer/bard plus half of the the 2 paladin levels), so it will have 5th level slots. However, it only has access to 1st level paladin spells, and 5th level bard/sorcerer. So, you can use those 5th level slots to step up 1st level paladin spells, but it can't prepare paladin spells above 1st level.
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Posted Feb 3, 2022From the Paladin class listing in the PHB: You prepare the list of paladin spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the paladin spell list. When you do so, choose a number of paladin spells equal to your Charisma modifier + half your paladin level, rounded down (minimum one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. (Emphasis mine)
I know that the multiclass spell progression section talks about having access to higher level spell slots than the character can prepare, but that doesn't make sense if the level of spell that can be prepared is determined by the level of spell slots the character has access to. When there's a rules conflict like this I tend to err on the side of allowing the characters to be more powerful, because that's more fun.
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Posted Feb 3, 2022DM's prerogative, of course :).
I'd argue there's no conflict. The paladin feature just says the spells you prepare must be of a level you have slots for, but doesn't say you automatically have access to all spells you have slots for. Splitting hairs a little, I know, but it does mean that when the multiclassing rules limit you to preparing or knowing spells based on the single-class level, it doesn't contradict that you must have slots of the appropriate level. The intent is that, say, a 17th level wizard can't take one level of cleric and gain access to the entire cleric spell list. Gaining access to spells is a feature of levelling up in a class. Many full-caster classes have levels where the only benefit is gaining access to a new level of spells.
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Posted Feb 3, 2022The idea of a high level caster taking a one level dip to get access to a whole second spell list may seem like a lot, but it really isn't. The character may become potentially more versatile, but they don't get any more spell slots to burn, and they still have to prepare from their lists in advance at best. It's also impossible to do without high enough stats, except where the classes share a controller stat (Cleric/Druid, or Sorcerer/Bard) where someone is expected to have a high stat already, and in those cases there's a lot of overlap on their spell lists.
In my opinion, the real crime would be hobbling an interesting character idea like a balanced-progress Wizard/Bard who uses a unique, music based notation style in their grimoire, and sings while they study, by restricting them to 5th level spells at 9/9. High level spells aren't for high level classes. They're for high level characters. Multiclassing already sacrifices powerful class abilities. Restricting high level spells the same way just discourages multiclassing. Doing it this way also makes your Ranger/Druid that much more awesome, which is a good idea. Rangers need a little help in 5e.
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Posted Feb 3, 2022Mechanically, I agree with some of your argument: spell slots as a scarce resource, multiple abilities to manage, and so on. It gets murkier when you get into roles, class balance, world building, and story. While classes like sorcerer and wizard are pretty close, the blurring of healing and damage when you mix cleric or druid with wizard or sorcerer dilutes the balance of the classes. Why have the cleric light domain, if a single level of wizard will give you half the benefits of that domain? All war clerics can now lob fireballs into combat ahead of swinging into melee protected by plate armor and shields. Why have a cleric at all? Your wizard can spend a level on cleric and cure wounds or raise dead just the same. True resurrection is no longer the grant of a god to its most devoted followers who dedicated 17 levels to the class. Now a wizard can get the same with 1 token level of dedication.
As to character concepts, the game offers so many ways to mix classes already. Your wizard/bard example doesn't explain why the character needs to be a bard. Add the performer background to a wizard and everything you mentioned could be still be true. If you want a bard with strong spellcasting and the ability to dip across class spell lists, that's what college of lore is for. My college of swords bard balances melee awesomeness, healing, then throws in wall of force and steel wind strike to complement the wizard. I've got a player in one of my campaigns with an eldritch knight who added ritual casting and a single level of cleric to create a marvelously versatile and interesting character.
And my 16th level horizon walker ranger is awesome all on his own, thank you very much. "Rangers need a little help". Pfft. ;-)
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Posted Feb 4, 2022One of my favorite Wizard combinations is thus: Flaming Sphere and Mind Sliver. Wizards normally don't have much to do with their bonus action so Flaming Sphere gives them something to do. It will take a turn to set up, but the combo goes like this: Mind Sliver an enemy and have a good chance of it connecting because most enemies are not proficient in Intelligence saves, this gives them a 1d4 penalty to their next saving throw before the end of your next turn, then crash your Flaming Sphere into them which immediately forces them to make a saving throw. Rinse and repeat as many times as spell slots allow. Bonus points if you can secure a source of flight and just be hanging out in the air using this combo while the rest of your party fights on the ground.
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Posted Feb 4, 2022Mizzium Apparatus - 2 stars Druid dragon constellation/ 1 knowledge cleric / chrono x. You get expertise and bonuses to Arcana and with that magic item use arcana to cast any spell from those 3 classes spell lists.
2nd level artificers take 2 infusions to craft two bags of holding and do the bag of holding bomb daily.
Cast haste / enlarge on a centaur or Loxodon or Simic Hybrid and have them drag stuff to death through spike growth They take tons of damage they can’t prevent. Similarly you can trigger Spirit Guardians twice using grapple or movement stuff (telekinesis/thorn whip/repelling blast etc).
Use Rope Trick to make it almost impossible to break concentration
Use ear jewelry with stacked magic mouth spells to whisper things in your ear with perfect detection. Know when a dragon / undead / fey / invisible creature is within 30 feet even if they’re behind walls Have the mouths say direction and high or low for flyers / burrowed creatures. Have a mouth tell you if someone other that your party members accesses their belongings.
Arcane Abeyance from Chrono wiz - cast wall of force or force cage after your familiar uses the bead and casts sickening radiance or dark star or Modenkeinens hound. Trap enemies in a death microwave.
Peace clerics channel divinity with bless on an attack roll heavy party is on average +5 to hit on each attack
Nystuls Magic Aura + Planar Binding or Awaken shenanigans. Make spells think something is a celestial and bind it or make spells think something is a plant or beast and charm them using Awaken with no saving throw.
Magic stones with 3 tiny servants gives you 20-25 magical bludgeoning damage as a bonus action.
Too many shenanigans to list between stuff like simulacrum / wish / magic jar / true polymorph.
Moon Druids can pull off some cool stuff as earth elementals that stay largely out of sight / burrowed
Animate Objects tiny objects plus Crusaders mantle is stupid damage. I think you can use Nystuls Magic Aura to trick the spell into using magic items too.
If you want to cause all levels of insanity and permanent psychic damage cast immovable object on a gold coin you leave on the bar counter… Or cast it on a party members pillow
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Posted Feb 5, 2022Sharpshooter and Elven Accuracy, throw it on a gloomstalker.... then go rogue.... night niiiight
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Posted Feb 6, 2022I've seen it indirectly mentioned twice already: Spirit Guardians + any forced movement spell. My Cleric with Magic Initiate (Druid) feat used Spirit Guardians + Thorn Whip. On one adventure we also had a druid with Thorn Whip. We sent the enemy several times through the spiritual blender.
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Posted Feb 6, 2022Spiritual Weapon (or a similar power like the Fathomless Warlock's Tentacle of the Deep) + any illusion.
Hide a safe distance away and watch your "conjured monster", which deals out actual damage, but doesn't take damage, do the fighting for you.
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Posted Feb 6, 2022Gghhjjj