Use code XP for 20% to 30% discount with DISPLATE: displate.com/xptolvl3?art=5f9... Merch, Discord, the Quest-O-Nomicon, and everything else: linktr.ee/XPtoLevel3
Words have been misused a lot lately, but we need to remember they are meant to understand each other... I have to say my opinion for those who did not get their opportunity to see these paterns yet: We simply need to listen and tolerate and not have "leaders" with all the money and power be so shortsighted using only spreadsheets in their never ending quest for more money this quarter than last quarter... They are so out of the loop and rich none of these issues reach them and they close their eyes, don't care, invest in things they are clueless about and some might even be getting it and pulling us toward there cuz that did not happen overnight... (id say it got bad after WW2 and the new consumer market (planned obsolescence etc.) and not much social developement compared to technological advancement since liberty charts and women equality imo) And all the mental health issues getting worse, the gaslight meta and the weaponization of the woke sentiment for disinformation that benefits the few while the rest scream pretty much the same thing not realising they saying the same thing. I now hate the woke term even though i never was racist or anything like that... But now it seems to be a term for "bad show with that political view being the center piece of your totally not rugpulled entertainement." You don't like ? just stop being racist. Easy money. Just tick some boxes. HealthyGamerGG is a nice mental health ressource here on youtube, dr.k changed my life ! Upper Echelon is trying to spread awareness about lots of things very good stuff. "ROBOFORMING: Behind the Scenes as Machina Labs (The Future of Metalworking) - Smarter Every Day 2" Amazing video that shows what i mean. I have a nice piece of quote i found on spotify (Otep, Heavy metal): "It makes little sense that a band that believes in love, equality, strength, respect and unity should be regarded as Radicals. But right now, in this backwards world, voices as passionate and truthful as Otep Shamaya's are few and far between." We CAN make a difference and it seems it will happen soon... We need to come together and make a wave of information ! GLHF Big Picture--------------- Symbiosis (hunter/traveller/farmer) (HealthyGamerGG - "Your ADHD Can Actually Be An Advantage") careful optimism value (utopia not today but can make tomorrow better even just a bit) Reevaluate the way we compensate work (some snowflakes make bigger impact, some want more, passionate etc.) We all fit here and there is enough for everyone, we all brothers and sister after all born without a choice or a clue with tools and environement you have... Instead of the current system where a couple ppl thrive and lead the world without using all our ressources, a lot of us are clueless in pain and misery. (ofc shades of grey and majority somewhere less extreme) Awareness is the easy way, we just need to get this started (it's scales like those other schemes...) as soon as the more ready to hear this get more information, i believe the passionate will hear the call and stop sleeping until it is done. Be careful bros ! get some sleep pills if ya need it ;) -- trust and make research for biological computers that trained themselves willingly already .... The comparison will be weird in spreadsheets but there is so much more that cannot be seen in such system. (value of sentient being with emotions having access to this information...) If we actally learn to work together, we can all thrive instead of .... This. I have my piece of the puzzle, feels much needed (no wonder i can't sleep till it's done, im willing and thriving here) BUT we need the symbiosis to start working b4 it's too late. We might not have spreadsheets on it yet, but we very much see the impacts today (and much b4 that) of the "exclusive society money trip" on the long term, with ppl like me born here and becoming like this... Treat us like zombie and most of us will become undead, but murphy's law and the "unforeseen by charts that only see the past and can't help with this till it's done" longterm impacts on society... One human is complicated enough, 2 in a relationship well who can't say it's get complicated ! Now the scale at which we have grown and mondialization/tech/internet... No wonder it get complex ! Really is time we start using our human side and learn to all thrive for real ! AS a smite gamer for 10 years with 6k+ hours in it and my own semi-toxic relationship with this game: The devs are wise and they are already tapping into the human side and biological computer AND communicate with the mess that is internet rn ! They do it with a "new tech hybrid model" fs but larian seems to have been sitting on a goldmine for a while as well even though I only have these to praise rn, there IS a place to share your subjective view no matter what it is and maybe get helped (FR NO BS) or change the world (or any shades of grey in between) When you look deeper on anything you start to find that variables can all fit together with a lot of other RELATED things... Rocket scientist surely have some insigts about the logic side of this, but we can start to look about the emotions and all the things unseen with charts and computers... The biological computer is the key imo. Lots of insights from a logic-empathy approach imo.
this is why Wizard casts fireball so much. He tried to play by the rules but he's just so unlucky and it ends up not working out. Fireball is the one spell that always has good results for him.
My headcanon for the wizard’s ridiculous prepared spells is that he actually doesn’t give a crap what his spells are after preparing fireball so he chooses them at random
As a caster this happens frequently, because non casters don't understand they're supposed to protect their squishies. Often does not matter if you place yourself perfectly, as they will abandon you at the slightest distraction like a hanged pawn in chess
it doesnt matter anyways, because your party members will never be able to position anywhere good enough to protect you, because the DM can always just choose to target you. bc of how the game works
This video hits on a truth of 5e. The reason why a lot of casters frequently do the same stuff is at least partly because there's some seriously underwhelming spells when you branch out to other stuff. There's a few different things that work, and a whooooole lot of options that don't do much. Really hoping the new player's handbook bumps some of the weakest stuff up and maybe bumps some of the strongest stuff down a tiny bit.
Exactly. Even if you discount the "overpowered on purpose" spells like Fireball, there's lots of horribly sub-par spells at all levels. It's just that casters are neither obligated to learn nor cast them, and can pick something else. True Strike, Witch Bolt, Weird, etc. all being notoriously terrible for their level doesn't take away from excellent always-useful stuff being on spell lists. It also makes me really resent WOTC for overpowering the hell out of a couple 'legacy' spells, because there's some interesting choices between some other third-level spells but none of them matter because FIREBALL simply punches like a 5th-level spell and ends the encounter before the theoretical advantages of Melf's Minute Meteors would ever really add up. Also, appreciate the Izzet logo. Izzet gang!
@@51gunner Fireball is the most obvious culprit of that, without a doubt. A personal bugbear of mine is that fireball should probably be 6d6 instead of 8d6, and Lightning Bolt could stay 8d6 because of its less useful targeting. That'd be fair, but naw,, Fireball has to be 8d6 so Lightning Bolt is only ever taken as a flavor pick.
I feel like subpar spells like Confusion are designed for DMs to use against their players; they’re annoying but not really dangerous, so they prolong combat encounters without raising the difficulty; just waste more time
@@garrettdavis8272 I disagree with using confusion and similar on players. I think the number one cardinal rule as a DM should be never use abilities that take your players entire turn away. It is never fun and it always sucks. Ok once in a while in a really hard encounter but i strongly advise against using these kinds of things against them.
Not exactly. The wizard did not use it right. You transform a willing creature you touch, along with everything it’s wearing and carrying, into a misty cloud for the duration. The spell ends if the creature drops to 0 hit points. An incorporeal creature isn’t affected. While in this form, the target’s only method of movement is a flying speed of 10 feet. The target can enter and occupy the space of another creature. The target has resistance to nonmagical damage, and it has advantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws. The target can pass through small holes, narrow openings, and even mere cracks, though it treats liquids as though they were solid surfaces. The target can’t fall and remains hovering in the air even when stunned or otherwise incapacitated. While in the form of a misty cloud, the target can’t talk or manipulate objects, and any objects it was carrying or holding can’t be dropped, used, or otherwise interacted with. The target can’t attack or cast spells. Note the word "resistance"-this imposes disadvantage on any attacks against him. Then the CON save would be made at advantage to keep concentration. Finally, you can go through small holes or cracks…WHICH WOULD INCLUDE THE TAVERN FLOORBOARD SLATS or any other area where the attacker cannot get to.
@@kooldudematt1 While you are correct on both the advantage CON saves and the movement through the floorboards, the resistance to nonmagical damage only halves the damage, it doesn't give the attacks disadvantage. That said, another interesting idea aside from going to a place the attacker can't reach is to occupy the same space as the attacker. Depending on how the DM runs things, one might argue the creature gets disadvantage on attacking the cloud unless they risk hurting themselves in the process.
Wizard got a 5 on that attack roll. The number on the dice couldn't have been a one since that makes a nat 1 which should be called out as such. Assuming he rolled a 2, that's already a 5 with proficiency (at least +3 since you need to be a lvl 5 Wizard to cast fireball). In other words Wizard's intelligence modifier is +0
Fun thing about Tiny Servant actually, if you upcast it to 4th level you can make three of them, and they can throw objects. If you have the Magic Stone cantrip, thats a guaranteed 3x(1d6+spellcasting mod) every turn for the cost of your bonus action and maybe like, 2 silver for a bag filled with pebbles. Turn those spoons into tiny little trebuchets!
Remember that you can't cast spells other than a cantrip with one action as your other spell. Leveled spells will not work. Besides that, the tiny servants don't use your spellattack modifier, only your spellcasting ability + their own proficiency bonus (which is 2), so they would come to a +6 attack modifier, if you have a +4 modifier. You upgrade your tiny servants from +5 to hit and 1d4+3 (5,5 per hit) to +6 to hit and 1d6+4 (7,5 per hit) damage, and give up your ability to cast the best Spells. Buy your Tiny servants Wand of magic missle instead. 100% chance to hit and 10,5 damage per Servant.
Acid spells are really weird in 5e. It feels like they wanted to have it be a damage over time, but they didn't fully commit to it and had it just do extra damage on the next turn instead. There's VERY little damage over time effects in general in 5e. I feel like other spells could work as DOT damage if you just allow them to wipe it off with an action, like how Casutic Brew does.
Kind of bummed out because of how across all books, there's only 3 proper acid spells, 2 cantrips and the rest being a sort of incidental bonus to other spells.
@@connordarvall8482 Yeah, that's another issue. There's more spells that let you cholse acid damage as a type than there are dedicated acid spells. Cold, Thunder, and Lighting all have the same issue honestly.
It's why I like Kibbles' generic/elemental spells binder, that homebrew doc adds a load of extra spells just to balance out the elemental disparity better in the game.
@@connordarvall8482 Acid is one of the worst offender, but really any damage type that isn't fire (or cold, to a lesser extent) doesn't have enough representation in the official spell lists.
Tbh confusion is pretty good since its one of the only AOE shutdown spells that works on creatures with charm immunity. But yeah it gets beaten out by hypnotic pattern 9 times out of 10
People hold up Hypnotic Pattern as always the best low-level crowd control spell, but it isn't quite as good as it is lauded to be. Hypnotic Pattern does not work against enemies that don't have eyes, are blind, or under the effect of the Blinded condition. Depending upon what kind of foes you face, Hypnotic Pattern may or may not be useful. For instance, all oozes are immune to that spell, but susceptible to Confusion. On top of that, while Hypnotic Pattern locks down foes (which is great), Confusion can cause foes to provoke opportunity attacks, or to attack their own (if managed properly), or run into a hazard, or run off a cliff, or get locked down. Yes, they can roll to take a normal turn, but that is only a 20% chance. Overall I think both spells are solid spells. They just vary in situational effectiveness and what you want accomplished.
@@derekstein6193 I get what you mean but Oozes are a pretty bad example. They really arent a problem for a 7th level party (the time when confusion comes online) so I really dont feel justified in using a 4th level spell slot against them. But I agree that confusion does havs a lot of Niche's uses spells like Hypnotic Pattern dont fill
This video actually captures the plight of optimizers really well: when you are strong enough to live in a campaign scaled for optimized characters, you lose the option to do anything else
It isn't even that, as their is wiggle room in most campaigns. Some spells just suck in general, and it's not by a few points of damage either. a lot of them are just inherently flawed, finnicky, and just up to DM interpretation sometimes. A lot of illusion spells specifically live or die by DM rulings.
@@0Regnier yep. and another problem is that Wizzard of the coast have done a really poor job whit explaining what spell can be used for. Like there are spells that says this can light stuff on fire. Fireball at least I think says that it can put stuff on fire. meanwhile that level 1 or cantrip spell acid blast. can it melt a jail cell bar? can I use it to melt a metal thats not acid protected (seller claims it is). Like the Present Digitiation (like it says what it does) but there is noware a hint of what you can use it for. Like I remmber a old as system that had a side rule for camp set up and that was how long it took to cook food eat and clean, sleep and activities your class would do. and what the penalties was for each and every one if you failed or did not do them at all. and as someone pointed out having Present Digitiation (or how you spell it) cut out that 20 min of daily equipment cleaning. Like a full camp session was 7-8 hour but you only sleept 6 hour you could just go we will sleep under that tree for 6 hour in our gear. you could and if you was chased that was probably your only option but penalties would start to show up after a few days. also this game did have a function for eating mono food, including only eating rations and that was you did not gain a small buff (depending on class or a +1 on a few rolls).
It really doesn't. The optimization ceiling for 5E isn't that high. This is more of a case of not having the right spells for the situation or the DM is just rolling really well. Illusion spells are also hit or miss depending your DM. Phantasmal Force with a more liberal DM can really shut down an enemy, for example.
going to post ad in something else and that is spell slot cost. a level 3 Fireball doing alot of damage to many targets in a sphere. meanwhile other spell from 3 level does not do anywhere near enouth damage or can hit nearly as many targets. because ods are you will never face more then 3-5 enemies bunched up vs like the lighting bolt that does damge in a 5 feet by 100 feet "cone" and I be really impressed if you ever will hit more enemies whit that then a Firefolt ever. and then it just goes downhill. whit many spell not just been worth to cast.
@@Zack_Wester Well, it's worth mentioning that aside from the cultural importance of fireball (It is purposely a tiny bit overtuned at its level) Fireball IS a worse damage type, which factors into its balancing. Lightning is a slightly better damage type.
I love how accurate this portrayal is. The spells look friggin awesome at first glance, but then rules like those from rope trick or prone get in the way, and completely screw you over. Fireball being an exceptionally good spell, makes the rest look horribly bad in comparison.
It’s also a risk vs reward type of management. Why would I use a spell slot and my turn (both being limited) to do a spell that will only deal damage to one target that can possibly take very little delayed damage vs a spell that will instantly do decent/big damage to multiple targets? At some point, it stops being a min maxing play and more so a common sense play.
To be fair, if you're gonna take rope trick, you should have a short length of rope ready and on hand. Only carrying the standard 50 ft is crazy if you choose to learn/prep the spell.
@@davidha44That's what I did on my Gloomstalker/Trickster. I have a 50' length of rope from the starting equipment pack, and during an RP segment in a port, I asked the DM if there were any unattended lengths of rope lying around. I got a little 5 finger discount on a handful of 10' and 20' lengths of rope specifically to make use of Rope Trick (she was unaware of my intent lol). Rope Trick is amazing in and out of combat. In combat, you get a nifty sniper's nest; out of combat, you can take a short rest in an area of questionable safety, or even some shenanigans. My party was scouting the forest when we alerted a patrol that name-dropped the necromancer we'd heard rumors of (in a manner that would imply they were in the service of the necromancer, who we were then led to believe had taken over control of the nearby town). We killed the patrol, but not before they sounded an alarm horn. I cast Rope Trick on a short length of rope and we climbed in, waiting to see if there were signs of reinforcements. When we saw someone coming, I hatched a plan...I cast Disguise Self to look like a nondescript apprentice wizard, used my disguise kit on our cleric, and our other players used Alter Self, so we could RP a "botched teleportation spell" for when Rope Trick expired to come off as innocent (somehow, my 10 CHA rang-rog bluffed her way through it!), and we got into the town under the guise of buying some reagents to cast another teleportation spell to get home. It's always a good sign when your DM asks the group what the fuck they're planning :)
Eh...no, not really. It sound good on paper because of what you said, reduce the AC of the enemy/s by 2. In reality its pretty useless because, on Tactician, so this goes double for anything below it: Reducing an enemies AC by 2 is not really that useful past level 4-5. The DC save is really low so enemies almost always save, even if they don't, its only for one turn. Its an AoE, Meaning you will always, no matter what, hit your melee characters unless Acid Arrow is the very first thing you cast or the sorc/wizard, by pure luck, rolls higher than anyone else on initiative, there's a lot of items and weapons that give acid damage, even if they didn't, the game floods you with items to coat your weapon with, acid being one of them but the final nail in the coffin, is that the game floods you with Acid Arrows to shoot with any range weapon. So even if you are completely set on using Acid over Poison as an status, you are better of using those arrows than wasting a spell slot.
Our party has a necromancer wizard and she keeps her army of skeletons inside of a bag of holding. She just casts the spell animate dead once a day in exchange for a portable, giant horde of extra bodies we can use for flanking bonus, or even to throw healing potions at the party or holy water at other undead. She even has a failsafe to make sure the undead don't become hostile if she can't cast the spell.
@@dtczyk8976 Shit, as a forever DM. I'd absolutely allow it. If it becomes too effective, I'll just start adding clerics to the mobs they are fighting, or start casting fireball. Fuck, I'd probably have a rogue steal her bag of holding army during a long rest and have him unwittingly dump them out in the middle of a populated city. People forget the DM can and should be just as, if not more creative than the players.
Is it? You need to cast the spell each day to keep control. So even with all your spellslots at max level you maybe have 15 Zombies. Or Skeletons. A challange that can be solved with a fireball or two.
@@indestructiblemadness8531Not if you've got Undead Thralls and other spells/abilities like Aid or Inspiring Leader. They're much more survivable then. With Zombie's base HP of 22, Undead Thralls and Inspiring Leader takes their HP upwards of 42 + 20-25 temp HP. With an upcasted Aid of, say, level 5, they can get another extra 20 HP. 82 effective HP doesn't sound too bad to me. Also, Animate Dead lets you animate more corpses if you upcast it, so at max level, you're actually making more like 100+ skeletons. *Also,* it kinda goes without saying, but Undead Fortitude makes zombies a lot harder to kill. Skeletons, not so much, but they're a bit easier to position with their higher movement speed. Tell them to spread out, and AOEs become a lot easier to deal with.
maintaining 16 skeletombies is the equivalent of 4 level-3 spellslots. You get to maintain control over 4 with the price of 1 spell. While animating them all would cost a big chunk of whatever spellsots you have before you take a long rest, it's a small price to maintain control over them the following day. Arcane Recovery goes a long way to maintaining control. The real benefits of Animate Dead is the influence they have over the action economy. Like any summon, being able to draw actions away from the party goes a long way in keep ally PCs safe. Using Fireball on zombies means it's not being used on the PCs. And that Fireball can be counterspelled as a reaction anyway. Unlike literally any other "summon" in the game, Animate Dead is not concentration, so the Wizard has many more options in combat while the enemy is restricted. Sometimes the best solution is to just ignore them, but getting grappled by zombies or having the caster's concentration broken by skeleton arrow fire is a very noticeable impact on fights. @@indestructiblemadness8531
I keep a handful of skeletons to dump out ranged attacks to supplement the team's output. It doesn't matter that they only have +3 to hit, a volley of 5 shots per turn will chip away at our foes
ACKSCHYUALLY at 08:54 the troll would not have disadvantage on his attack because the wizard is prone, Wiz should have eaten that crit and died about it.
That's true, he would've had advantage on it if not for the Cause Fear, which cancelled it out. If should have been a straight roll. That wizard should have been obliterated.
rope trick is super op: Climb into the extradimensional space, and pull the rope from under you into the space. Then, on your next turn, peek out of the hole, cast a spell and then peek back in. You are basically untargetable outside of readied actions.
My Gnome has a 4ft knotted length of rope for specifically just such an occasion! If my gnome is 3ft somethin, and the ropetrick opens lower than most eye levels, you can probably get inside in one turn. Or be prone and stand up into the rope trick! Also a fun trick if you have fade away (the gnome racial feat that allows turning invis as a reaction until the end of your next turn) If you take damage and NEED an out, pop your fade away and cast rope trick on your turn! You're invisible until the start of your next turn so you can cast and remain invisible, but only for a turn, so no one can watch you cast and enter your tiny 4ft tall rope trick under the tavern table
My favorite Rope Trick moment is from my Ranger/Warlock who was on a long running revenge kick over the death of his family. At one point, we took a captive to guide us to the BBEG, and after he tried to lead us into a trap, my character pulled the captive's shoulder out of its socket and used the rope binding his arms behind his back to cast Rope Trick for a short rest.
rope trick is one of the best spells ever made and is mega op, your skits are always hilarious but I can't pass up a chance to mention how busted rope trick and immovable object are
I mean, the spell allows it, especially if you have a flight speed so it's reasonable to assume it's allowed. Otherwise you'd prolly just be disallowing the spell all together.@@KingKevin108
@@KingKevin108If the DM would let you peek out of a regular window, cast a spell or shoot an arrow or swing a sword, before ducking back in, then there would be no reason you couldn’t do the same with Rope Trick.
@@burgernthemomrailer A creature can run around to the entrance of the building. Even if it's completely allowable by the rules it wouldn't be fun for anyone to use more than once
@@KingKevin108 I’m not talking about balance or fun, I’m saying that if it is physically possible for a player character to lean out of a regular window, cast a spell or attack, before ducking back out, they can do the same with the entrance Rope Trick.
Animate Dead is more of like, a daily preparation thing I feel like. You exchange a 3rd level spell slot for two extra bodies, or 2 in one day and then 1 each day for four extra meat shields. I like it. I love constantly rolling high on Undead Constitution and having zombies live on 1 hp through the entire fight. :)
Definitely an out of combat spell. Had a dwarf Tempest Cleric in DoMM. We encountered a wall of bones...so I collected the bones for 8 skeletons. The party were Melee characters. (Cleric, Paladin, Melee Ranger) the "Bone Brigade" became our ranged support. DM let me upgrade from short to long weapons so potentially 8d8 if they all hit. I could have made more but I decided to limit to 8 for two main reasons 1. Bookkeeping ran all 8 as a single unit for table speed. 2. Logistics: an army of skeletons stand out even if robed to hide them. Also maintaining equipment for the 8 with only my cleric ability or scavenging to resupply became tedious to track.
My DM hates it when he has to initiate downtimes in the campaign. Bard : I want to become locally renown, and work on my career to earn more money! Cleric: I dedicate myself to erecting a church in name of my god in this town, to spread my faith! Fighter: I train day and night to obtain a proficiency or a specific feat so that i can be more efficient in battle! Me, the wizard: Are there any graveyards nearby, and how well is it guarded? (Current zombie count: 13, at lvl 7.)
I was about to say, Animate Dead is a disgustingly useful spell. Animate Skeletons Give them Heavy Crossbows and Chainmail armor Park an Oathbreaker Paladin Next to Them to add his Charisma to their damage. If anything Animate Dead is such a disgustingly good spell that most GMs will actively restrict you from using it properly.
@@GonnaDieNever True, at one point I actually took the time to figure out what the max was for each lvl. This also factored in Create Undead when that becomes available Wights can command up to 12 zombies of their own but it does have a long timer to make that happen.
The worst part is... if the Wizard had just cast Fireball from the start, it would've been really effective because it would also block the troll's regeneration...
Aaah Acid Arrow. Among the many evocation spells that are outpaced by just upcasting Magic Missile. Banger video. Made me feel sympathy for our favorite intrusive thoughts wizard.
"Hey buddy, you are dead" I am surprised that Jacob haven't done a Clone bit yet, in which the wizard appears as a tiny baby out of a jar just to say "AHA!"
It goes to show that WOTC makes terrible features for everyone. It's just that when the spell is bad for casters the casters learn something else, but when the non-caster's feature is bad they have to multiclass to something else or just accept a terrible feature.
Yes Most people don't know the depths of wretchedness and depravity that is the full spell list in D&D 5e. For every spell you see cast regularly, there are 5 horrible spells, and 3 spells that are the equivalent of like a Radiant Soul Monk or something. The main difference is that these spells can just be ignored, while the Radiant Soul Monk just has to spend the rest of his life regretting his life choices, and longing for a death that will never come (he is immune to disease and old age).
I played a one-shot at an event recently, and the DM had pre-made character sheets. I decided to pick an Orc Wizard, and while chosing a name for myself, I looked at my spells and saw "Melf's Acid Arrow". And in that moment, I knew my fate. I named my character Melf junior, great-grandson of Melf, the inventor of Melf's Acid Arrow. During the big fight at the end against an evil wizard, I shot the arrow with my single second-level slot. It hit, bringing the villain down to low health where a single sneak attack from our Rogue could take him down.
Confusion is a pretty good spell against a group of enemie, rather than a mix of enemies and non-hosiles. Using it in this skit is like using fireball in the same tavern.
Tiny servant is great for non-combat purposes, it doesn't take concentration. One time- I had a character set up an entire gambling event to attract rich people to one location under the guise of just really liking card games, only to go off and sell expensive paintings in another room. Meanwhile a bunch of tiny servants were puppeting around a doll of my character made using fabricate. Shenanigans ensued. One of my favorite DnD sessions of all time.
@@marloncebo242 Also BG3 has far less content to worry about and like lots of early access feedback to work with. Stopping at lv 12 and cutting the spell lists down massively reduces the sheer amount of stuff they actually have to worry about when balancing, so naturally it ends up all around better.
@@marloncebo242it’s also because elemental surfaces would be extremely annoying to keep track of in a tabletop. The videogames can do it seamlessly but you can bet your ass it’d be either forgotten about half the time or the dm would just avoid it...because the dm isn’t an AI
@@meemdic8682 ngl an easy way to do that is to just have colored tiles for each element type and create surfaces by placing X amount of coloured squares on the space
@@meemdic8682 I'd like them from both a player and a DM perspective, personally. Although it'd definitely be a lot easier on a VTT than on an actual physical table.
8:25 the number 1 bane and pet peve of TTRPGS: simple actions that need a half or full turn in order to pull off thus making your entire turn "I cut a piece of rope. That's it."
Arguably that could count as your "free object interaction" for the turn: "You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack. If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action." -Players Handbook pg.190 So it's been addressed, but in a way that illustrates 5es problem with very vague rules, because one DM might say drawing your rope and cutting it is one object interaction, another might say it's drawing the rope as one object interaction, then cutting as your action. The examples in the book include things like "drawing a weapon" as counting as an object interaction all on its own, but the description only calls for an additional action "if you want to interact with a second object" and it's all being done with the same object.
When Jacob said "Pathfinders is better" that got a chuckle out of me because he's kinda right. Spells in pathfinder are less broken AF and more balanced though some less so then others (looking at you scorching ray!!) Heck the Sleep spell is SUPER useful in pathfinder
Sleep is also pretty useful in 5e, really. Enemies scale out of it eventually, but a level 1 spell hasn't failed just for being less useful after level 5. There's been plenty of situations where I've neutralized a huge group of weak mooks for cheap with Sleep.
@@darlhiatt8136 You can evan use it on big enemies that are running away that you don't want to face another day. Have used it twice, once on a young Green Dragon that was otherwise going to escape from its failed ambush when we were investigating the place it had JUST decided to lair up, and another time against a horde of goblins and bugbear so we wouldn't be outnumbered 5 to 1. And if you are a Sorcerer who can maximize spells? Than Sleep can be upcast and smack a a BUNCH of enemies, making it so the party can stack up on targets one at a time and wipe out HUGE parties of weak enimies. Assuming they aren't something that can not be put to sleep or doesn't need it.
Sleep depends on how your DM plays. Our group has found that encounters with tons of weak enemies are quite tedious to track and play, but those are the enemy types Sleep excels at dealing with.
Gaseous form can circumvent entire dungeons and doors. Cause Fear is a first level spell that can prevent a big enemy from attacking your party with his friends. And animate dead is insanely good. Issuing a command doesn't mean you have to do it every turn, you command them once "kill the thing" and there's no reason they wouldn't continue to kill the thing. Its not worded like summons or controlled creatures that use your bonus action to make their action. So, skeletons with heavy crossbows are extremely powerful, as are zombies performing the help action, giving your party advantage on EVERYTHING forever.
The whole part about acid arrow is my take on 5E. It's just so underwhelming. They got rid of a lot of my fav spells and everything just seems so watered down. Finger of Death... DEATH... doesn't even instant kill anymore. Like what...?
I mean, no, of course Finger of Death doesn't insta-kill. That's what Power Word Kill is for. Was Finger of Death a 9th level spell in 3.5 or something?
I am glad to see that your Wizard character developed such an interesting personality through all the skits. I do even feel loads of compassion towards him now
Melf's Acid Arrow is actually low-key good against spellcasters when they're concentrating since they need to make 2 saves, though of course Magic Missile is a far better option.
Hilariously that was what it was actually made for. Melf's Acid Arrow was created back when magic casters took more than a single round to cast a spell and taking damage could cause that spell to fail. So its entire purpose is concentration breaking
What kind of spells/playstyle are you looking for? There's a LOT of wizards that can do different things, and the level you start at is also important.
I've only known this wizard for 9 minutes and 30 seconds, but if anybody so much as touches a strand of his hair, I'm killing everyone in the room and then myself. Seriously, how did you make me get so attached to a simple short skit character? He's adorable.
Idk if there's something in the spell description or rules that say otherwise but as a DM I don't have a monster roll investigation vs an illusion unless they have reason to believe that it isn't real. Which for spells like phantasmal killer are pretty difficult since they auto-rationalize most of what's happening with the illusion. Granted, if you see a wizard cast a spell and suddenly a magical monster appeared, you may question if it's an illusion and thus roll investigation. But if the wizard was hiding or maybe if they use deception to make it think it's a normal summon (via deception) it might have a different result
The biggest "oh god dammit" for a spell for me was picking Summon Fiend as my 6th level spell slot for my warlock. It was going to be sick, summon an avatar of his father/patron in the final battle. ruby vial worth 600gp? Luckily the DM just let me break the Galthias Staff over my knee as the material component.
Stuff like this really drives home that the caster/martial divide in 5e is mostly due to specific spells being way overtuned. Many spells aren't a problem at all.
Confusion is actually a great crowd control spell. Bunch of bandits clamped together? Boom! Now they’re all killing each other or running around. Sure a few might succeed on the save or be able to take their turn, but I highly doubt a entire group of enemies will be so lucky
@@antoineguerrier2965 Eh, it's better against low hp targets. Hypnotic Pattern is really the best one (or wall of force if the battlefield layout allows for it and you have 5th level spells).
Personally i think tiny servant is an insane spell, it basically give yourself or an ally the help action for 8 hours, you have explosives or traps you can tiny sevant it and have it deliver itself to where you want it. Use tiny servants to adminster potions, hell a bunch of tiny servants throwing rocks.
I had a funny idea for using Rope Trick in a combat recently The gist of the situation was that we were being chased in a maze by a nigh-indestructible demon dog, and the paladin and I, a gloomstalker ranger, had tied it up and were trying to drag it out of the maze to see if that would make it weaker. It could not leave the maze through the entrance, so we tried shoving it into my rope trick, but that also didn't work. A very strange idea popped into my head; considering Rope Trick dangles from the pocket dimension from above, it's kinda like a rope hanging from the ceiling. What if we try to hang the demon from it? Unfortunately, the demon escaped before we could succesfully do it, but the DM did say that it could have suffocated to death had we succeeded. Hooray for weird ideas!
@@1Peasant The DM said it would have worked if the fiend hadn't escaped. It's not about breaking it's neck like you would with gallows (although I guess you could if you were in the rope trick, holding it with your arms outside of the pocket dimension, and then dropped it), the idea here was to suffocate it. I think it would suffocate considering the rope would be restricting bloodflow to the brain because it's hanging, and by wrapping the rope around its neck a couple times, the rope wouldn't have had enough reach for it to be able to touch the ground, so it would suffocate. It's a stupid idea that only came about because our actions trying to kill it weren't really doing anything (according to the DM we did about 170 damage to it and it wasn't slowing down at all), so I started thinking of ways to either diminish how strong it is by taking it out of the maze, or when that didn't work, to kill it through means that isn't HP.
Wouldn't Tiny Servant be pretty strong alongside Magic Stone? You animate your hat, then every three turns you hand it a bunch of magic rocks that it tosses at... Someone... But it deals damage! I think! I might be very wrong!
Couldn't you upcast it to 4th level, then issue a general persistent command to each of your (now three) Tiny Servants, that being "Throw anything I give you until I say to stop", and upon entering combat, use your bonus action to generate magic stones and use your minor object interaction to pass them out to your servants? If your DM gripes about allowing only one MOI, create a fourth servant using a third level slot, and issue the command "divide what I give you among the other three servants". Assuming you had a spellcasting ability modifier of +5, it would make 5-11 damage per stone thrown, for each of your servants. That's a fun wizard idea. Edit: I realize I've just made 11th level Eldritch Blast, with worse damage, but four levels earlier.
@_peters6221 there's no wrong way to play, but yes you're somehow doing it wrong. I have often made completely random characters for fun (rolling for background, heritage, class, etc) and have been able to make every one of them work. They cut down on the complete wacko shit you could do, but I have yet to find any build that cannot be competent.
No, go play Shadow of the Demon Lord (or Weird Wizard when it's out) if you want to play a better 5e. Those systems are way more fun and has more interessing character creation and progression than PF2e
Fear spell forces the target to use the dash action to run away and gives the frightened condition. The frightened condition is what gives disadvantage. Acid arrow is from a time when damage on your turn made it harder to cast spells. It was an anti-mage spell. It is now worthless.
Cause Fear, the weaker cousin of fear, is single target, and only frightens. Frightened *does* prevent the enemy from getting any closer though, so if they aren’t already next to you, it is kinda… okay-ish?
