Seven Overpowered Spells in D&D 5e (and how to handle them) 

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6:00 Fly 16:28 Antimagic Field 20:30 Silence 26:45 Hypnotic Pattern 40:14 Darkness 45:09 Banishment 51:40 Conjure Animals and Animate Objects

Them: "What if they banish your big bad?" Me: Did you forget to give your big bad legendary resistances?

21:20 - Now I'll have to introduce the coffeemug of silence, the perfect magic item for barbarians. You hit them over the head with it really hard multiple times and then they won't make a sound

I had a really fun session once with the silence spell, I was casting it to destroy a locked door discretely but there were lizards behind it, we started fighting and the DM just told us at the table "Well.. Since everyone is in the middle of your own silence spell, no one can talk anymore" Creating an encounter with very intense gazes between us as the only way of communicating .So yes, this spell has a very funny weakness...

13:37 I think we can agree that being in dragon territory, in general, is a bad move.

Your BBEG is going to know about that spell being used, so he or she should have defenses for it.

As a drone pilot, it’s REALLY EASY to lose sight of a drone in the sky. Even human sized drones. Also 30ft in the air is not very high. People aren’t going to see a character from miles away if they are just 30ft in the air. Not a bad video, just a small critique.

the other thing with flying characters is, the enemies have less targets on the ground so that might be extra problem for the grounded players

Wizard of Ooze. You’re welcome

"For breaking caster anti-magic concentration against your big bad spellcaster, use a rogue." That's why Liches have boneclaws in their employ who have invisibility as an innate skill, rather than a magical one.

Zombies throwing their own arms is so cool!

I have one small note about the darkness spell, it cannot be countered by dancing lights no matter how you look at it since dancing lights happens to be a cantrip, and I don't think anyone has been upcasting eldritch blast, the spell description for dancing lights also says that it is a concentration spell, so using this would make your enemy wizard really have a lot of trouble for no reason and miss out on it's action for the turn since it has a 1 action cast time.

I have another interesting solution for banishment as a problem: Change the material component to 1cp. Now if they want to banish something they actually have to find something that is distasteful to the target. They can't just use a spellcasting focus. And now, banishment is not a universal weapon, but have to used targeted against some certain creature, where you found out what is hates. They have to learn to skip the fight, and with enough research they can it. Which is fine for me.

They silence your wizard, cast hypnotic pattern on theirs, no verbal component. Or just cast mislead and get out of the way.

I think this is the first time the wizard has actually done anything besides sit around and judge everybody! Also, I just noticed that he's Gandalf, but he has the Elder Wand. Nice.

I have my players a sentient broom of flying that is afraid of heights. Kinda solved that problem!

Hypnotic Pattern Problems? Give a wand of magic missile to an imp and have them troll your caster every time they cast the spell. That's all a devil would do, magic missile whatever falls asleep and then continue to use invisibility to get away.

My Party: (Uses fly to skip a fortress built to challenge those who want to progress, to prove their worthiness to a god) Me as Fort's Commander: "Archers!" My Party: "Oh no..." (pc's in-game screaming as the poor mage and ranger gets pelted in open air by volleys of poisoned arrows, making it back bloodied and poisoned) And in my campaign most creatures had a ranged attack. I remember having quite a few spellcasters too, like 1/6 the enemies and half the bosses used some form of magic. The party gave up on fly pretty fast. Especially when they hit dragon territory, literally seeing ancient chromatic dragons of every color staring at a holy city of Bahumet from mountain tops. Ready to attack at any moment when Tiamat is summoned to the world. (I did have an alternate route though, there were mine entrances as far as the eye can see. Basically meaning they could navigate underground to get a safe distance within the city so that the dragons couldn't attack them.)

I say let your players be awesome when they catch you off guard. Their reputation will be your greatest weapon against your players. Whenever your players just destroy an encounter, always let a baddy get away.

Banishment... This one can backfire HARD in the right scenario. The example I'm thinking of is Ashardalon in Bastion of Broken Souls (I guess spoilers for a 3.5e module). Banishing him at the end of his 3e arch would effectively send a pissed off dying ancient red dragon with a balor for a heart to the players own backyard. They get back thinking they won and find that their town or city was burned to the ground in their absence. Since the steady stream of souls in the astral plane was the only thing keeping Ashardalon alive, it's possible the destruction was the last thing he did before succumbing to his old injuries, denying them vengeance. ;)

You mentioned that you could upcast dancing light but i believe you cannot upcast cantrips

When I first read the few word on title of the video I thought to myself "Wow, there are 7 deadly sins on D&D no-" then when I *actually* finish reading the title "You should've finished reading first *DINGUS!* " (Anyway great and helpful content)

With the silence spell a good option could be to have the enemy mages use the dodge action until they can move out of the range if you don’t want to change their inventory or stats too much. Giving them reactions like absorb elements or reactions found in feats can keep them alive longer as well and spells like Hypnotic pattern do not have a verbal component but can easily take out a spell casters concentration. Potions of gaseous form and fire-breathing or giving bad guys levels in Metamagic with subtle spell can also easily counter Silence.

I recently played a high-level campaign as a Bard who had an Instrument of the Bards and (obviously) the Hypnotic Pattern spell. Being able to not only cast Hypnotic Pattern, but to be able to impose disadvantage on the enemies' saving throws is - to say the least - a bit of a strong combination. Knowing this, I didn't use the spell very often, since I wanted to keep the game fun for everyone at the table. I knew I could do it, the DM knew I could do it, everyone else at the table knew I could do it, but it wasn't very fun. It was always there in the back pocket if we were getting overwhelmed, but I chose to leave it there for most of the campaign. Probably a lot of that was my inner DM throttling myself. That said, not every player will be so understanding. A lot of people treat D&D like a video game, and as is discussed in the video, the best solution is to talk to them about it. Also, most of these spells being Concentration-based gives a good mechanism for minimizing their effects. For single-target spells like Banishment, there is also Legendary Resistance for when they target the big bad. For Summoning spells, I create cards for every creature my PCs can conjure, and on it there are average hit values and average damage, so there is no dice rolling on their attacks. For example, If there are 4 summoned creatures, one will hit a high-AC foe each round, 2 will hit a medium-AC foe, and 3 will hit a low-AC foe. Then the player can apply those hits wherever they want in the combat for the listed damage value. One of the great things about D&D is that the players will sometimes completely wreck the DM's plans, so like you said in the video, you should never shut them down all the time. But it's also a lot of fun as a DM to see their faces when they realize their pet tactic isn't going to work this time.

The summoning minions - use a variant on the minion rules (minions have 1hp) give the conjured hp equal to 1 or its CR value.

Breaking concentration on an anti magic field. A fireball won't do it. Well, yeah, it's magic.

What do you mean I love hearing about people's PCs that's one of my favorite parts about D&D

About flying. If they're doing charge attacks or flyby attacks, I usually have the enemies come together and ready their actions to attack the flying character as they come into range.

Flying character in a dungeon, rogues always check for traps on the floor, would be a shame if a complacent flying character hit a trip wire in the ceiling ^_^

Another nice thing to use against concentration spells is Sleet storm, it is a very underrated spell when you consider all the rules applying for it.

I wanna hear about the time he killed Lolth!

Counter to Banish, the BBEG had already cast banish on half his minions. When he gets unbanished he unbanishes them. Suddenly the group is getting hit from minions again and chances are, there isn't another banish ready.

My favorite spell has always been conjure animals. And it has the greatest amount of uses of any other spell I've ever used. One time my group encountered a collapsed house that we needed to get inside the basement of, so i just told everyone "step aside, I've got this. And i used conjure animals to summon apes to just go and clear out all the rubble to get to the basement. A few times, i used it to summon giant owls to fly the party around to various out of reach places. A few times i used it in combat in different ways of course; dire wolves, owls, Stirges, and my favorite.... 2 giant octopus to grapple strong foes while the party attacks them. Another time i used it to summon giant badgers to dig a tunnel under a wall into a city we needed to infiltrate. This all goes off the lenient nature of the DM to let you pick which animal gets summoned... But if your DM doesn't let you pick it's almost always a terrible spell. To players, what i did to help out the DM was i had every single stat sheet ready for every animal i would summon. I ran the spell by the DM first and told them I would use the list of animals from xanathars guide that was for druid wild shapes. And they were okay with it. As a player, i did all the leg work for keeping track of the animals and their stats to take that huge burden off the DM, cause they've already got enough on their plate keeping track of their own character stats (every single enemy)

Silence the room, barricade entrances if possible, rush and crush. Wash, rinse, repeat. No worrying about rolling sneak once you get into the room, just go.

Don't forget about blindsight! Some good tips overall. I disagree on some rules interpretations but its good to think about counters as a DM.

There are usually simple counters to most of these "problem spells" for creative dm's... for example the fog issue is easily countered by Gust of Wind... or natural wind patterns if outdoors... never forget to utilize your surroundings.

I ran a game in which the PCs ventured into a network of large, pitch black caves, inhabited by grimlocks, & a blind albino T-Rex, which hunted by sound, smell, & touch, but was completely unaffected by anything that effects vision or requires the target to see it. It could actually track the party by the heat from the torches they were using to see.

Magical slime that's eaten a magical weapon

Spell absorbing towers

Wizard ooze: intelligent black pudding (from one of the official modules). I don't want to post the source so as to not reveal spoilers

I'd say the spells that cause the most headaches for me are (in order of least to greatest annoyance) are: good berry, healing spirit, and wish. If you have found ways to manage those I'd love to hear them!

Another creative option would be to make a spellcaster deaf by loud, distracting noises (machinery, blast furnace, sounds of pain and terror) that may cause the spellcaster to pronounce the verbal component wrong, causing unexpected results. These results could be taken from the Wild Magic Surge Chart in the PHB.

9:58 A trex could just do a high jump with it's +7 strength mod, it's 10 foot reach for either of it's attacks, and a athletics check to jump even higher still.

I loved the conjure animals idea. With the druid as my favorite class, i always get booed every time i summon 8 beast for being the best option, while not being my go to strategy like the "foggy" player you mention. And, for me, summon only one beast is... sub-optimal at best. But having a personal "fey beast" pal with little improvements in comparison to it's kin, sounds awesome.

On Fog in Pathfinder (assuming it is Pathfinder 2e) - it does not make characters invisible, they must succeed in hiding check, and sneak at half speed, while enemies could roll perception checks with Seek in 30ft cone and also could attack with natural check of 5 (from Concealed condition), plus you could give enemies Blind Fight feat or hearing as precise sense. In PF2e GMs have legitimate ways to counter such strategy when it gets overdone by players

Legendary resistance is a perfect cure for banishment in bosses... For regular encounters however... I like to throw devils or extraplaner beings at my party. I'll have the main bad guys react to its abuse by deploying things like corrupted blink dogs in their groups. Or summoned devils that have a chance of reappearing via their own portals (with reinforcements). It's fun and makes the spell more tactical than nuclear because it's not a guaranteed win button anymore. It's just temporary crowd control.

Æons ago, some friends of mine (many of whom worked at or owned a video game company that would later make a hugely console game franchise) played an all goblin game of D&D. Their characters' longevity tended to be lower even than characters from Paranoia. It was quickly determined that the Sleep spell was so universally notorious and feared by goblins that they would all anybody they heard say that dreaded word... even a fellow goblin. I was said I missed that game, because every story from it was hilarious.

I DM’d an Aarakroca PC from level 1 once and I didn’t have any problems with him flying. Once he took a couple of solid hits he landed until he’d healed back up because he didn’t want to get knocked to 0 HP and then fall and take damage. And since it was an aquatic adventure he really didn’t want to fall into the water and then sink and drown.

One thing I don't think you mentioned is use natural weather effects and hazards, obviously need to make the weather reflect the environment but Sleet Storms, Fog, High Winds, Torrential Rain etc.. all change the tides of combat and can keep things fresh. See the Wilderness Survival section in the DMG, pg 110. Obviously Tasha's was published after this video was released, but for those reading this comment pg169 has a whole section on 'Natural Hazards' which is very useful.

Blow out a chicken or quail egg, fill with powdered pepper, salt, vinegar, depending on the campaign fulminated mercury for dispersal, seal with wax. You have a hurled missile weapon of little damage but intense distraction. It ain't pepper spray, but it'll do!

As a player I try to follow the rule of cool. If I come up with an over powered or super amazing use for an ability or spell I will use it one time. After that I don’t use it in that way anymore to keep the balance. For instance i once used song of creation to make a 5x5x5 foot block of granite above the head of a bugbear, dropping it on their head, we did some math and my dm decided it insta killed the bugbear. I could’ve gone on to do that once per day instakilling one medium or small monster a day, but being a dm and knowing how annoying thst would get I havnt done it since that time. It was a cool moment I prevented another players death it was awesome and I left it there.

Number 1. Prestidigition you could make an egg throw it at someone then it disappears after 6 seconds but then you have another egg. Rince and repeat.

Could you also do an episode of impractical advice?

Weather is another solution for fly. Or cover that the enemies on the ground can hide under to where being in the air is useless.

9:42 100% Agree, mine were fighting Zombies, and I got a little tired of the Fairy flying away, and the Paladin just walking away from them. I ended up having them vomit a globule of saliva into their hands and throw it at them, to deal their Melee Attack as Necrotic Damage

I liked the format of this video. I would watch more of these conversational DM chats.

"um, ahh... ummm..... ahhhhh.... ummmm.... ummm.... ahhhhhhh" great point

Honestly Silence is the easiest spell to get around on the list because it doesn't completely shut down spellcasters, it literally only stops spells with verbal components which means you can still cast any spell that doesn't require verbal components. Or if you are a sorcerer using the subtle spell metamagic

Thank you for bringing up putting things in a game and not letting players do likewise. Had a DM nerf my high level artificer but not letting me make magic items. I wasn’t even looking to make anything really big or powerful but the issue I had was that a previous character in the campaign I played wanted to make a magic item and I was told only an artificer can make magic items. Okay, I do so, and then I got denied after he set a rule. It was very frustrating. I have made it my mission to never do that to my own players. Game balance be damned. I mean, except I have the power to make encounters more difficult and interesting. So. Yeah…

Mirage Arcane: Even if the creature knows it's an illusion, the other elements of the illusion remain. You can't subtract from the environment with it, but you CAN add to it. Surround the creatures you wish to kill in an indestructible adamantine box. It remains there for 10 days, during which you can recast the spell if you think it'll take longer. Only downside is 10 minute casting time, so you can only use it before combat.

11:30 - communities where dragons, griffons, and stirges are a thing: extended awnings, slatted sunroofs, and netting is a part of a safe community that will provide full or half cover vs flight and to stay with the team the flyer has to stay within that dungeon roof of 6 to 10 feet, and city size communities can have laws against travel that walking, same as charm, illusion, and being armed and armored.

The Conjure Animals or similar spells are Concentration, much like Fly or Antimagic, so all the same ways to stop them should still apply

I have to admit that I home brewed a legendary magic item once that I took away from my 5th or 6th level party as soon as they got it. It was a magic item used by a Buehr Hag to amplify her Control Weather spell’s radius. It was made out of ice and it melted when she was dead and was no longer using it to keep the temperature below freezing.

Banishing could be countered by having a portal or another way from the plane back to the prime material plane. Oh, you banish the monsters, but somewhere hidden nearby is a rift that allows them to return... (I wrote this before listening to the rest of the video. Good to know we're on the same page!)

Love this video format. You and your people should make a podcast.

A nice measure against Anti-Magic Field is to have your players in environments, where dispelling all kinds of magic is more bad than good. Maybe have a dungeon, where serious threats are held off by magical means. Maybe a underground cavern, where Lava streams are kept out of the inner dungeon structure by magic barriers. Once your players cast anti magic field, some magic barriers fail and the dungeons ins being flooded by lava, causing lots of new hazards to appear. Something like that can be adapted to many different scenarios.

My next BBEG is going to be a sentient t-Rex with a masterwork tiny bow with a quiver strapped to his chest

I think I currently have a GREAT group of friends to play D&D with. I got lucky that the first few campaigns I played through, (all of which include the current campaign I’m playing in) most of my group decide to avoid completely breaking the campaign or ruining it for everyone else. Of course, it’s not the PERFECT group, as some people occasionally ruin the experience for the rest. (for example, one campaign was completely ruined by 2 people to the point where the campaign just stopped abruptly. Their reasoning? “If you’re just going to kill us off, then what’s the point of playing?” I even talked to the DM about this and he said he wouldn’t’ve even killed them off like they were accusing him of planning!) Due to that campaign being ruined, we no longer play it anymore, despite it being INCREDIBLY fun to play before those two friends of mine ruined it.

For banishment, what if the enemy doesn't come back. In state, your PC now have a powerful plane-shifting monster hunting them.

I usly watch Netflix in the morning befor work and I was thinking I will watch this video befor netflix ... lol bye Netflix

Solution for banishment is contingency. Real simple cast contingency and then mislead trigger will be being banished either way it triggers before spell goes off or after your returned your covered. So this is what happens party cast banishment your contingency triggers you turn invisible and a duplicate replaces you simultaneously. You'll still be transported and rendered incapacitated but the spell last for an hour banishment 1 minute. Thus when you return you illusionary double gets attacked. Now mislead doesn't specify what happens if illusion is attacked so I'm guessing it exposed the illusion. This means your big bad upon returning who is still invisible should book the heck put the room before the party attacks.

The other thing with Banishment; Enforce the component aspect. It's a bit weird because it doesnt have a cost so technically you can component pouch it or whatever, but for what the spell is, I'd make the PC go find the item, especially if its for the Big Bad, that's an entire sidequest in itself. It also makes them think ahead, like... what's distasteful to a Rhemoraz? I should go get some of that before we go in the ice caves. Push it a little and make it consume on success, that way they can recast, they cant banish the same thing twice usually, which is rare anyhow.

Seems like a way to deal with flying in general is to sometimes take weather into account when it makes sense. In a mountain in a storm? Wind's probably a much bigger problem in the air than it is on the ground. A flying creature is more out in the open, so they might be an easier target for ranged attackers or a random chance of a large predatory bird. Just don't overdo it. Also if someone can fly, might as well make it part of solving a 3D terrain puzzle and quietly laugh when the out of combat scenario is the one time they don't think to use the ability.

wanna see panic? "the Owlbear casts counterspell"

The overall issue is that 5E mechanics are weighed heavily in the players favor. I would like to see 5E players deal with 1E and 2E mechanics

Ok, I have to ask. What class does the skeleton-masked one represent? Warlock?

I had a fight set up where 12 yaun-ti (5 ranged, 5 melee, 1 melee captain and 1 high priestess of Tiamat) were fighting a party of 3 (dragonborn paladin, dragonborn warlock, Dwarf fighter). Out numbered 4 to 1 but 10 of the opposing force were mostly fodder/meat shields. It was a pretty even fight until: - The high priestess of Tiamat turns into a dragon - The warlock Hurls the dragon priestess through hell - The dragon priestess comes back and casts heal on herself - The warlock banishes the dragon priestess and the melee captain - The archers turn the Warlock into a pin cushion (breaking his concentration) - The Dragon Priestess returns, breathing fire on the Paladin, dropping him to zero - The warlock casts power word stun on the Dragon Priestess (and it works) - The party grabs the Paladin and flees the battle They managed to take down 1 melee fighter and hurt the priestess, in her dragon form, pretty badly but the fight was going back and forth and looked like it could take a turn for the worst at any moment; so they retreated while they could. The shear number of attacks had the party on its heels the whole time.

The evil wizard had dominated a strong fighter NPC. My monk was next to him and I wanted to dump all my ki points to stun him to break his concentration. Right before my turn, our warlock cast darkness around us. Now all my attacks are at disadvantage and I miss them all. I was pretty pissed off lol

In my recent game I played a druid with fog cloud. Our party had a bard who had faerie fire. We encountered an orc army we were supposed to only kill a few then they would run away, but with this combo we killed nearly all of them including their boss and 2nd in command. Fog cloud is dangerous.

Most of these can simply be solved by not running 'elemental' encounters of one enemy type with a blazingly obvious tactical disadvantage. A lot of creatures in the midfield have at least some response to being peppered from an aerial assault. Many without flight or burrowing abilities can simply find cover or concealment, or simply flee. Fleeing creatures pose a particular risk to the party, because the flyer can very casually become separated from the group and fall victim to a more competent encounter.

Any kind of stun, paralyze, petrification, or sleep effect breaks concentration because being incapacitated breaks concentration too.

Surprised distant come up, But per raw, Every instance of magic missile damage is individual so you must roll con saves for every individual missile that hits the Caster almost guaranteeing that they lose the con Save.

Can you do an overpowered spell combo list. Two spells that when cast simultaneously can end any encounter. My two would be wall of force and create water. Literally if it can’t breathe underwater it will drown. Cause an indestructible box of water with no saves or counter. Plus they can’t cast verbal spells because they’re drowning

Banishment has material spell component of "an item distasteful to the target", they might just not be offended by anything the PCs can produce. If a high level creature is banished, they might have subordinates that summon them back elsewhere. Casters can plane shift back with more creatures.

I never considered a sunblade to counter a Darkness spell but hearing that gives me a good Suprise round strategy with my Gloomstalker Ranger. Sneek in, activate sunblade, while rest of the party holds attacks until they can see the creature I attack. I may have to wait a few rounds for melee support but that is why my Longbow wielding Ranger has an AC 24 because sometimes you just need to pick a fight in person.

Regarding your idea at 22:05 - There was a 1st edition monster called an Obliviax (Monster Manual II, page 96) that stole memories and was able to cast spells. It was a moss instead of an ooze but you might find it interesting.

I'm a fan of a homebrewed barbed arrow set that causes massive pains at the cost of some damage to deal with concentration. Get a good ol penalty to the save, not disadvantage.

Greatest commitment to dnd was right him saying "this is the kind if DM we want you to be." That's his friend whos hurting and he could be on the edge of death what do I know. 'Pound it out because we can't hear you' 'stuff it down' constitution check ....

23:00 fantastic idea

With the Summoner one. I suggest a small houserule. Make all characters have a summon limit of 1 effect at a time similar to concentration spells. but for summon effects. Pathfinder's Summoner uses an Eidolon. A summoner is also able to use summon monster as a spell like. The spell like ability states in pathfinder that you can not have your eidolon active if you wanna use the spell-like ability. Perhaps extend it so that you are only ever allowed to have one effective summon monster like effect per person at a time. This allows the summoner to use their spells as written. but if they use a summon spell. The old monsters poof away and the new ones appear. Preventing them from building up 40+ minions. Also make it so that Enemy encounters has the same ruling. That is my idea of a solution. This is the ruling that i am made to use as a summoner in my current game. If i ever wanna summon something. I usually have to dismiss my Eidolon or other summons first.

Too much flying? Have a fight in a storm with gale force winds and inclement weather. Every fight? No. But it makes for a combat where just doing orbital bombardment isn’t the only option.

I had a player who thought that he could solve every problem with conjuring giant owls or some shit.

32:10 Did someone throw Darkness at the left shelf?

Speaking of a wizard ooze I am actually playing a slime wizard, named Night, in a Pathfinder 2e game. He builds and controls constructs that he fights with and can hide in, so people in town don't freak out.

An enemy with a Ring of Spell Storage always helps lol.

As a gm myself, I would say none of these spells are problems if you know what you’re doing.

I think the biggest point is to let the players take advantage of their clever uses, especially the first time they use it. Instantly shutting them down is a bad idea and will drain their fun. Have small counters the next time, start adding enemies with similar abilities. No reason the enemy can't fly at the same level, etc. Just don't completely shut them down, spells/abilities should grant some sort of advantage or else it just becomes who can do more damage first.

I always think about adding spellcasting monsters/npcs all over the place. I think they are pretty fun.

as for the fog...... Have you tried wind? pretty sure the fog fades quickly with a good gust. Named monsters are supposed to go back to their realm if they are slain on another plane, that's just standard for this sort of stuff. The only real exception would be for things you summon from the same plane. That's why killing demons outside their level of hell tends to send them back rather than end them. It can be convenient if you want to reuse outsiders and other planar entities.