The 8 Most POWERFUL Combos In D&D 

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You see, by explaining DM counter measures, I'm playing both sides, so I always come out on top!

the real win here is seeing the philosophhy of rewarding creativity, while not allowing players to run away with the game. this is what really seperates a decent DM and game, from a Great one. excellent to descirbe some balanced thinking.

That infinite power combo just reminded me of the Norse myth about Balder. He was so beautiful and well loved that his mother Frigg went out and exacted a promise from every object on Earth a vow to never harm him, except from the humble mistletoe which she failed to ask. You're just asking for your DM to play Loki's role and find the loophole to your protection.

Here’s the thing: while familiars can’t attack, they can activate magic items. So you can give it, for example, a wand of fireballs, so you now have an artillery owl

the infinite attack hydra can be defeated with a fire shield (4th level spell) since it deals 2d8 fire damage to the attacker everytime the user is attacked.

2:19 the best part about this form of resolving the problem, is that now even if the party does get a giant quicksilver stash by doing some giant quest and the mage end up having hundreds of soldiers, it's not simply "that random combo that wins everything" it's instead "the army of the party" and you could even make a huge plot that involves mass battles between that army and a demon invasion, some tyrant mage trying to take over the kingdom or something.

The infinite wish one could be countered by doing the classic “I didn’t know it was going to do it like that”

D&D 3.5 had a rule ''Summoned creatures can't summon''. It's a great rule I still use in 5.0. Removing a lot of problems.

The infinite combo I came up with was to be a Circle of the Moon Druid of at least 6th level, then transform into a Giant Poisonous Snake and just milk yourself by just biting onto a cup with a covering of canvas pulled over it (this is actually how snakes are “milked” to get venom for making antivenom. It says in the Dungeon Master’s Guide that Giant Poisonous Snake venom sells for 200 gp per dose. Congratulations, you now have infinite money.

13:59 You can bypass the cost by being a Half-Elf (Mark of the Storm), and getting the conjure minor elementals spell. Use Conjure Minor Elementals to Summon 8 Chwinga's which can bestow magical gifts. One magical gift is the gift of restoration, which allows you to cast Greater Restoration at no cost up to 8 times. I call this combo the Ketamine-lock.

I really like the inclusion of the countermeasures. A good number of people get upset by these combos and the kind of power that's possible. It's a good reminder not to forget that they're all easily-solvable problems at just about any table. Usually the answer to "balancing" a crazy combo takes half as much thought as it takes to come up with the combo itself. I also really love that you approached it from the aspect of "let your players have fun and turn it into a plot hook".

Funnily enough there was a video by Shadiversity that tested the Kamikoto knives, and while they come with a sharp edge(which just means they've been sharpened to that point) they do not keep their edge for more than a few cuts and get dull faster than most supermarket knives

For the infinite tail, don't forget you can only benefit from one instance of an ability/spell/etc. at a time, so at most you would be able to add a +8 to your AC, which would also end when your rage ends as you would no longer *have* the tail.

I love that you are mentioning a way for the DM to implement the "hack" but keep the game fairly balanced

With the hydra cheese I would rule that each head after the first 10 subtracts an additional 1 from the character's attack modifier. So if the attack modifier was +9 to start with, you would have a +0 to hit at 19 heads and -1 modifier at 20 heads. The explanation being that each additional mouth takes up additional space that crowds the other heads

Other way to stop a coffee lock is to have their patron get angry at them for stealing their power.

Coffee lock is also countered by having the pact of the tome aspect of the moon invocation. You just don't need to sleep therefore as long as you don't need a long rest you just don't.

If you combine the coffeelock with a bard of creation you can make the diamond dust for greater restoration yourself once you reach a high enough level. The performance of creation subclass ability doesn't say the item created can't be used as a spell component.

13:45 you can also choose the zombie or skeleton race from the DMG or PHB, they're immune to exhaustion

For the infinite money thing. During the prolog to my most recent campaign, I retrieved a flask that makes infinite rum (rolled a nat 20 while looting at the end). Made money with it but now I'm the target of multiple gangs and cartels. My party members were essentially the ones who supported the enterprise and are now on the run with me. It's turning out to be pretty fun.

The easiest stop to the coffeelock, is to make your fully rested spell slot total your maximum you can't go above. You can spend some then spend some points to recover them, but not exceed them.

What happens when you look via the eyes of your familiar WHILE they are doing the same thing with their familiar as well ?

I like the idea that having an insane amount of money draws in increasingly more thieves and n.p.cs trying to assassinate you for your money, making players less likely to make ridiculous amounts of gold

Necromancer and Creation Bard are absolutely scary to have in a group together. Plenty of quicksilver for Create Magen and BOTH of them can easily have a Simulacrum. The down side is you need to be level 14 to pull it off.

Yessss! Another great video showing some love for the other side of the gaming table. AND another amazing edit. I really gotta step up my game if I wanna try to ever catch up as a D&D creator 😂. Keep being awesome!

With the coffeelock, if your DM allows it, you can also chain short rests while others long rest, continuing that loop or get the Aspect of the Moon Invocation.

To break the coffeelock juuust a bit more, Psionic sorcerers can cast their spells using sorcery points at a 1 to 1 rate without having to convert them to spell slots. So instead of spending 3 sorcery points to make a 2nd level spell slot you can spend 2 and cast a 2nd level spell

For the coffeelock, instead of punishing the sorlock build, just instead of creating spell slots out of nowhere using sorcery points, you can recover one spent spell slot using sorcery point. Hence, you can still convert your warlock spell slots into sorcery points but you cannoy have infinite spell slots.

You know, I feel a bit silly. It wasnt until this video that I actually realized how flexible casting works. I always treated it as, you spend sorcery points to restore a used spell slot, not to create an entirely new spell slot (which, in all honesty would work the same way as the actual rules 99% of the time, and also solves the coffee-lock issue.). Not gonna lie, that ability is actually way better than I thought it was...

For the coffee lock, I'm surprised you didn't mention the pact of the tome warlock invocation that says you don't require sleep

Best way to deal with Hydra abusers is to have them fight against enemies who are immune to non magical attacks.

Thank you for adding the lines on how a GM can handle these things. It's much appreciated and makes a better game for all.

Infinite tail has an easy house rule you can't benefit from the same thing twice. Two types of temp Hp one overwrites the other, I would say you get the d8 as long as you still have the tail but it can't stack.

My first reaction to the biting one was that Sneak Attack could also add to your weapon damage, but you can only use it with a finesse weapon, and the bite isn't. If someone took a level in Monk to allow their natural weapons to use Dex instead of Str, I'd let them use Sneak Attack with the Bite... The bite is only usable PB times per day, so it's not exactly an at-will thing. I'm not sure I'd bother capping this one, honestly... But I wouldn't let them use the "jar of bugs" variation. They'd have to be actual enemy combatants. The bite does create the possibility of a character that makes all of their attacks with Con... But the die size is only 1d4 & there are downsides to biting some monsters out there, so I think it balances out.

One of the warlock invocations, Aspect of the Moon, removes the need to sleep. It says you CAN long rest while awake but not that you need to.

I think @dndshorts is the only creator that I don't skip the invideo ad for. 80% of them are hilarious. Bravo good sir.

that's my problem with xamount of gold components. if quicksilver was so scarce it would be worth more and so on. stupid thing to quantify it by

The passing of time is honestly a pretty good counter to these combos.

@DnD Shorts: the Dhampir one likely doesn't work by RAW. Vampiric bite has two hiccups: first, it only works when you *hit* a creature, and flourish doesn't *hit* the creatures it just deals damage. Secondly, it explicitly states that the effect is empowered by the piercing damage dealt specifically by *the* bite. While flourish does cause the weapon to deal damage to all targets, it is neither an attack (so extra energy damage wouldn't be applied either, btw), nor is it the exact same source of damage as the original bite. Offshoot of this, flourish probably does in fact hit infinite opponents, and seems to be less flavored on *martial* prowess and more flavored on bardic magic shenanigans.

With the familiar one you could rule that if a familiar gets killed all other familiars that where put after it also vanishes

infinite simulacrum combo could work with genie warlocks too. by using wish, you create a simulacrum. you might think this will stop there, but the simulacrum can regain 6-9th level spell slots since they are mystic arcanums wich are regained after a long rest. it is specified that they aren’t spell slots thus the no spell slot rule doesn’t apply

The thing about infinite gold combos with magic is that their value is proportional to their rarity. Take the Decanter of endless water. It makes infinite potable water that can save drought afflicted towns and power water wheels. Thing is it's uncommon rarity, so it should cost 500 gold or less, which means every town will already have one and it's monetary value is greatly diminished. If you raise the price then they become more rare and make you more money.

As the artificer at my table, having lots of gold is nice. My dm has banks in the world so as not to carry it all but have it on me. Each county I visit has a branch of the bank. I started raising the funds as the revivify the rogue fund. It also does not hurt that in down time with tools and the spell, I healed people and mended items for a passive income. Also, if you get stupid rich, you might as well use it to party or to help out others. Good deeds go a long way.

a simpler and easier solution to the infinite bites at 6:50 is to just rule that a bunch of bugs you release around you counts as a swarm of X, in the monster manual these are considered single creatures for the purposes of targeting and damage.

Infinite hydra heads can also be countered with a single Dispel Magic (though it will be going up against a 9th level spell). True Polymorph, is not permanent, but 'until dispelled'. An anti-magic effect can also work to suppress the spell while within its effect.

To add to the bite thing to make it usable in-game consistently: You know what else gives you more piercing damage on hit? Hunter's Mark Hexblades curse Battlemaster maneuvers Eldridge claw tattoo Pendant of claws Throw all that together, and you have a hell of a skill of monkey on your hands

Another way to break the coffeelock, where you don't need greater restoration is just by taking the pact of the tome invocation "Aspect of the Moon" then you don't need sleep and don't get exhausted.

Re; dhampir bite, just enforce the spacing rules. No matter how small a creature is the smallest size is tiny, of which only four creatures can fit into a 5-foot square. AFAIK, there aren't any rules for vertical spacing with flying creatures, and a lot of creatures are taller than their space is wide, but the most reasonable and rather generous ruling is to treat the creature as occupying a cube rather than a square, in which case you're still only getting 8 tiny creatures per 5-foot cube. If we count the 8 spaces around the player, and the 9 spaces above the player, that's a _maximum_ of 136 tiny creatures, assuming that the space immediately around the player is fully saturated. Remove vertical spacing and you're down to 32 max.

Re: Infinite AC Tail- nevermind that even if it was intended to be a permanent bonus to AC, it wouldn't stack with itself, because bonuses from the same source don't stack with themselves. You WOULD just go until you rolled an 8 and never use the ability again, though, haha.

This is so helpful and clever, for players and DM’s.

I’m loving this new version of your content.

WARNING: RIDICULOUSLY LONG POST To expand on the Infinite Fuzz trick: Each familiar rolls its own initiative, and can take the Use a Magic Item action. They also get a Free Object Interaction to, say, pass an object. At lv11 Artificer, you get Spell-Storing Item (in addition to all your lovely crafting stuff). You can use SSI once per day, and your SSI has a number of charges equal to TWICE your Intelligence modifier. At max Int, that's an object with 10 uses of a 1st- or 2nd- level spell. At level 11, you only need a stick and 10 familiars to completely ruin the game. And a Bag of Holding to allow the familiars to retreat to safety (or just make them owls) You can use Spell-Storing Item to create a [object] of Magic Missile, then have each familiar use their turn to cast Magic Missile. That's 10 casts of 1st-level Magic Missile, for 30d4+30 total unblockable force damage in a single round. Cure Wounds? 10d8+50 healing in one round. Jump, Longstrider, Aid: the entire team gets four useful buffs, each with long durations, and each generally considered not worth the casting. And don't forget that SSI allows the creature casting the spell to hold concentration, not the artificer who made it. Force creatures to make 10 separate saving throws against Faerie Fire? How about Tasha's Caustic Brew for 2/4/6/8/10/12/14/16/18/20d4 acid damage at the start of every turn? How about 10 casts of Heat Metal to absolutely wreck encounters where the enemies are using metal armor and weapons? Or Enlarge/Reduce just to show you can mess with literally anyone you want? Expeditious Retreat so everyone can pretend to have the rogue's Cunning Action? What about lots of skill check advantage with some Enhance Ability spam? Full-party Invisibility? Or maybe just Pyrotechnics to screw over the enemy's line-of-sight. If there's a wall in front of you, have the familiars spam Spider Climb and ignore lots of obstacles. Oh, and Strixhaven introduced Vortex Warp, how does 10 free 90-foot teleports sound?

No one tell him that there's an Eldritch Invocation that makes it so you don't need to sleep and can essentially take 8 one hour short rests every night. Still need to go Devine Soul to and use some spell slots to heal yourself but with the amount of sorcery points you'll have it's not going to hinder you.

Honestly, the sorlock is powerful to me because of the ability to recharge sorcery points on a short rest. Using your warlock slots to create more meta magic uses is why I play it. More quickened Eldritch Blasts, more twinned inflict wounds or haste (or healing word if divine soul), heightened spells and distant spells (take meta magic adept), that's the shit I like. Take levels of warlock to enhance your sorcerer abilities. It just makes sense.

For the coffeelock, if you don't wanna get the diamonds you can get 5 levels in creation bard. With performance of creation you can create something with a maximum cost of 20 * your bard level, once per long rest or at the cost of a 2nd level spell slot or higher.

10:22 Ha. Haha. No. The wording at the end says "potentially causing THE attack to miss you", as in against THAT attack roll. The AC bonus is specifically to counter that one attack roll that hit you, hence being the trigger for the feature to be used in the first place. Yes, the wording could be better, but it's the exact same as the Gift of the Metallic Dragon feat and similar to any creature that has the Parry reaction.

You can also do the supply and demand issue of logistics that say something like Quicksilver is used by so many archmages that supply is constantly outstripping demand, meaning you need to go to multiple stores in order to collect the full 500g to use the spell.

I think this was a fantastic video! Lots of people shit on your videos, but this is actually a video that every DM should watch because their players are inevitably going to try to pull some of this shit.

good stuff brother. many thanks 🙏

One of my favorite combos in DnD came from playing a school of creation bard and getting to max level over a several year long campaign. It didn't occur to me or my DM that school of creation bards are capable of summoning a 15ft by 15ft cube of gunpowder, animating it, then teleporting that cube of animated death with a torch in hand off to blow up whatever and whoever may get in their way. That is, until I spotted an ancient black dragon tracking us from a distance with my eyes of the eagle...

Another flaw in the infinite fuzz tactic is that killing any one familiar also kills that familiars familiar and that familiar's familiar and that familiar's familiar, etc. So a single lucky arrow could take down the entire thing

THIS CHANNEL FREAKING RULES!

The set and greenscreen work has really improved 10/10

@Coffeelock Build IF you are fine with having fewer sorcerypoints and lower spellslots (but still infinite) You can take the Optional Ranger Feature "Deft Explorer", which replaces "Natural Explorer" - Sadly, you'd need to be Lv10 Ranger for that, but then you become "Tireless" You can heal yourself a certain times per long rest, so this is limited, but you also decrease your exhaustion level by 1 each short rest now. Enjoy.

I love the addition of DM strategies :)

I have a player in my group that used the "Make familiars for everybody" by doing it as a Chrono Wizard. The Spell Motes from the Arcane Abeyance feature allow for that as it considers whoever uses the mote as the Caster of the spell.

About the coffee lock- there are several ways to go without needing a long rest, eldritch invocations and races. The elfs now say you don't need to sleep

In a campaing I'm playing, we got a Deck of many things. We used it to be richer than a ancient red dragon we know. The dm made it a treasure in a desert demiplane, opened as the cave of wonders from Aladdin, and everything time we bring gold back with us, there is a chance that the gold returns to the cave. Not only that, the gold coins don't have the kingdom seal, so we have to sell it by the weight, exchange for valid gold coins, and only then we can buy stuff. And he also locked op itens to be bought.

My solution for the diamond dust problem with the coffee/cocaine-lock was to planar bind a couatl that can cast greater restoration. The planar binding should work out if you store conjure celestial in a glyph of warding which activates after you cast magic circle.

The obvious "counter" to infinite money combos is... having the world react appropriately. Market competition: Someone with similar powers to you may see what you're doing and copy you (or might have thought of it before you and be unhappy with you moving in on their territory), meaning corporate espionage, sabotage and assassination attempts. Inflation means the price you can sell the stuff at goes down the more supply there it. Medieval markets weren't free, so you'll get problems with guilds, import and export duties and other taxation. Doing business takes investment money. Bandits on the road may steal your wares or your money. Become too powerful and you'll make the nobility or monarchy nervous. Dragons may take an interest in you for your wealth. Getting more money doesn't just happen by creating more wares - it's unlikely one merchant or one city will be willing to take all the wares off your hands, so if you want to increase your income you'll need to - actively - find new markets to export to. And so on. If a player wants to play _Who Wants to be a Millionaire?,_ I'm game. But don't expect to to work like an infinite M:TG combo You want that infinite cash? You'll have to _earn_ it.

14:00 another great suggestion I use at my tables is just making it so that Sorcerers can't make more spell slots than they have maximum. All spellcasting classes come with a certain number of spell slots and just having that be their maximum is a good way of keeping this from getting out of hand, plus tracking "Temporary Spell slots" is strange especially if you have more than your maximum of a certain spell level

Love these videos! They give me lots of nasty ideas for new villainous NPCs and bosses for my players to encounter. The dhampir bard is and the infinite simulacra are particularly useful for my campaign. 😈

10:20 Inthink the reason it doesn’t say a time limit for the bonus AC from tail is because the AC bonus is only for that singular attack.

i love DM counter measures in this video.

For the coffee lock it can be covered by pact of the tomes aspect of the moon invocation which removes the need to sleep

Them knives look so amazing

Prestidigitation plus subtle spell can be used in the following manner: so, you need to assassinate an evil king. What you do first is get a goblet full of poison and use prestidigitation twice to both flavor and color the poison like wine. Then you give it to the king and get the hell out of dodge. (while dressed like servants, obviously.)

Another way that was used by my dm handled the spell wrought tat was that only spells that you can cast can be made with the spellwrought tattoo.

The hydra one reminds me of a scene from order of the stick (OOTS) where they continuesly cut a hydra’s head off until it passes out because the blood can’t flow to The heads properly, and then someone comes along and makes a Restaurant from the remains. Funny. Definetely recommend

Love you videos. Played back in the 80’s and want to get back into it. Do you have videos that explain all the new basic rules? Feats, skills, bonus actions and such.

For the Dhampir trick, I would rule that: 1. It works off blood. Bug guts just isn't going to cut it. 2. You can only gain points towards the modifier equal to as much health as the creature had. So if you use it on 20 creatures that all have 1 health, the max benefit you can gain is 20, not the damage on the dice.

Here another way to do infinite damage: Be a level 14 bard of creation and choose glyph of warding as a magical secret. With performance of creation create material components for glyph of warding and you aren't limited by gp value. Now choose an object (a rock for example or something similar) and put a spell on it (a spell that do a lot of damage of course). Repeat everyday and put all of the objects inside a bag of holding. You can make the glyph activate as you put out all of the objects outside the bag of holding. You are activating like 50 or more spells at once, you are making a machine gun of spells that will for sure kill any enemy.

I really like the Spellwrought infusion idea. Not necessarily because of the find familiar aspect though. From my understanding this lets Artificer have one free 1st level spell from any spell list, which I will definitely be taking advantage of

Spellwrought Tattoo is basically a form of spell scroll. Artificer infusions aren't supposed to create spell scrolls. I'd say that RAI is pretty clear that you shouldn't be able to use it to create any Spellwrought Tattoo (or other form of one use spell), and that missing this exception was likely a mistake on the part of RAW... Just like the infinite AC tail (which I'd rule only effects the triggering attack, considering the lack of specification otherwise...)

13:33 about the Coffeelock, there is an Eldritch Invocation, available through the Pact of the Tome (I think), by which you no longer need to sleep. So, no Greater Restoration spells are required

Warforged warlock sorcerer. No sleep needed, no exhaustion gained. Of course, the countermeasure regarding sorc only conversion still works.

🤩 went to the merch site and realized there are no DnD Shorts.... i would pick up a few

inf AC tail is based on a conditional modifier that apply to that damage roll and expires just as quickly. AC is a check to see if a threshold is broken and if true then damage is rolled. similar to the effects of bardic inspiration.

Thank you for all the videos you make. I like them. And so does my cat. I think.

Currently DM'ing Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and one of my players found a Prototype inspired homebrew for the Monk class. We both love that game so i allowed it. Well late game comes around we get into the fallen city and he "eats" the remains of one of the archwizards and then turns into him. There were 6 Magen guards and since he now looks like their master they follow him around obeying him. Party went from 3 members to 9. Posse roll up!

14:05 there's a reason why coffeelocks call Greater restoration blow: you blow right through it and your money.

that first one made me flashback to WoW and the Nibelung staff. i once summoned so many angels with its effect i crashed the raid lol. wasnt even at full power with my warlock for two days before they hotfixed it to not work with dot damage and only on single target spells.

sorclock with pact of the tome and the aspect of the moon invocation. You no longer need to sleep, and can spend the 8 hours of long rest, shortresting and burning your warlock spells into sorcerer points.

haven't read the comments, so don't know if this have been brought up but; 3rd lvl, pact of the tomb, warlock, which unlocks the eldritch invocation, aspect of the moon. "You no longer need to sleep and can’t be forced to sleep by any means. To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can spend all 8 hours doing light activity, such as reading your Book of Shadows and keeping watch". so for the "coffee-lock/infinite spellslots", "sor-lock" that means, not needing to ever take a long rest again, changing those warlock spell slots to sorcery points each hour of the 8 shorts rests, then getting all sorcery points and spellslots back at the end of the 8 short rests.

DUDE THE FIRST ONE IS SO COOL, I WANNA GO ON QUESTS TO BUILD AN ARMY THATS AWSOME

That last fix reminded me of the old "wish economy" fix from the Tome rules back in the 3.x days.

At "it's turtles all the way down" I genuinely spit my tea

Nice guide

14:05 - The thought of one of my party members trying to sneak off to the bathroom every so often to snort crushed diamonds sounds like a hilarious role-playing opportunity.