Planar Bind DOES remove the need for concentration. Concentration is part of a spells duration, and Planar Binding replaces the "Concentration, up to 1 hour" of the Conjure Elemental spell with "24 hours" of the Planar Binding spell. HOWEVER since casting spells with a casting time greater than one action requires your concentration, the same person cannot concentrate on Planar Binding during casting AND the summon. However, in addition to your mention of Magic Circle, this process can be made easier by simply setting up a Planar Binding with a Glyph of Warding, and possibly using Forcecage for extra protection.
One thing I've never seen anybody mention about Wall of Force is that you can use it to create a horizontal plane, floating 5ft in the air above you. Now all large melee monsters need to squeeze to reach your party and have disadvantage. Melee monsters larger than that cannot do anything to you. I would argue that if you stand in the middle of that plane, large+ ranged attackers can't hit you without ducking, but that's DM dependent. It should certainly protect you from a dragon breath weaponing from above.
Telekinesis is a quintissential spell for all magic users, nothing says "Mind over matter" than some scrawny 3 foot tall, 40 lbs soaking wet Gnome picking up a 12 foot tall beefer Ogre and tossing them around like a frisbee!
The duration of spells usually is where the concentration is included. When Planar Binding replaces your duration on a summon spell, that includes the part where you have to concentrate on it. Edit: equally important to note is that casting a spell with a casting time longer than 1 action requires your concentration during the casting time (this includes rituals). So your summoned creature will almost always disappear when you begin the Planar Binding. You need two or three casters to pull off a binding. One to summon, one to bind, and possibly a 3rd to forge the magic circle at the beginning of the ritual Edit 2: conjured elementals don't disappear, but I think the fiends, fey, and celestials summoned by other spells do.
That is why I think it is a orange instead of purple. Its so circumstantial and even when it comes up it isn't that good. Maybe if you're a lvl 10 conjuration wizard it will be purple but I still don't think so.
That was quick... You beat me to it. RAW, most Conjuration spells will end about 6 sec before Planar Binding completes. It's silly, but it means Raw, you need several magic users to make the spell work. I think spells like this come from the history of D&D where Gary Gygax or a friend made up a spell to explain how an NPC did something. At some point, the spell became available to PCs, but if special thought wasn't put into its design, then you wind up with this.
@@samboots1 that's so funny because that's why I think this spell is green. It's not a great 5th level spells, but it is excellent at 6th+ levels because you would cast it during your downtime and have a buddy for 10 days (or a month, half a year, or a full year if you keep bumping up the spell level). It does require a bit of prep, but it is a full party member NPC with a personality and special abilities unlike that of a Simulacrum or other such spells. The no concentration part makes it that much better.
@@redram9 now that you say it you're correct. I love spells that add companions with just spending as little spell slots as possible (because you can do 10 days you can long rest and have all your spell slots again.) This could be as good as find familiar is at level 1, because you increase your action economy with even more and maybe more powerful actions. Agree to rate it to low tier green, because it still needs that set up that unlike spells such as find familiar or find steed, takes quite a while and is kinda expensive (campaign dependant.)
Planar binding doesn't "replace the duration on a Summoning spell". As the spell description says, it extends the duration on the summoning spell. The difference in language there is important
You made an error with Skill Empowerment, "You must choose a skill in which the target is proficient..." That said I think that it is too high of a spell slot but I do think that even with that limitation it's still 'very good' (I'd argue for a more commonly useful orange or 'low' purple). I believe that Skill Empowerment is better than red for four (and a half) main reasons: 1: Getting expertise on a skill is very difficult/impossible for most classes to do. It really should work on non-proficient skills (at least at half strength), but people still pick skills they want to do well anyway. Only a few ways come to mine, Rogue, Bard, and Human's have that feat (right? I don't like playing humans). Otherwise, if you're not human/using feats, not a Rogue or a Bard and not a Sorcerer/Wizard (for this spell) it's 'impossible' (I'm sure I missed a few, Knowledge Cleric comes to mind) to get. 2: Expertise, when critical fails are not a thing (which is RAW that skill checks do not automatically fail at 1), is generally better than advantage, especially because I often see players choose proficiency in things they want to be good at which combos with their high stats. Of course the math can adjust from situation to situation, but because Expertise allows higher potential rolls and can avoid all together a failed roll (such that Expertise's bonus is high enough that a 1 would be successful), I would choose Expertise over advantage in almost all situations-and like you said, you (and myself) prefer the consistency over randomness. 3: Advantage on skill checks is 'easy' to get. Of course this isn't true all the time, but in general, the help action makes it very very easy to get help on a single very important check, or more. Sure a Wizard and Sorcerer can Empower+Enhance for ultimate power, but a Wizard/Sorcerer can do it for one check if it's not time sensitive. True-if it's not time sensitive it's not as likely to require the extra points, but this combination allows for higher numbers to be reached than possible and the fact that when you need it it's probably going to work on literally any skill (if you average 4 players with 4 skill proficiencies, hardly extreme, you can get expertise in all but 2 skills, and that has a lot of potential). 4: This one is something that I really enjoy, often you talk (and I look for) spells that are useful even at higher levels with the same slot. I prefer Sorcerers so spells that can do that are really really important to me! Skill Empowerment is a rarity in that it scales without upcasting. Spells like Hypnotic Pattern are consistently great-potentially a great use of your concentration even when Wall of Force and more are on the table, but Hypnotic Pattern is still the same spell it was at third level, and it's always doing the same thing (even when upcast). Skill Empowerment is a rarity in that it's more powerful as you continue to level up. A 9th level caster is getting another +4, hardly small, a 13th level is getting a +5 with the same slot (free upcasting). Spells like Wall of Force fight for your fifth level slots still and so I agree that it's far too high, at 4th level or maybe lower is much more appropriate, but I'm picking this at 13th level because I'm not impressed with the 7th level spells for Sorcerer (and there are some good ones, but I also am playing with some limitations due to character design which leaves me with Teleport, random, Etherealness, cool but less useful when you're the dedicated counterspell boi, and Reverse Gravity, not bad, but I'm not much of a fan). 5: For the half reason, I see Skill Empowerment generally as an out of combat spell, I think almost everyone would agree, but there's one place it's really good for combat and that is grappling. Now, a strength Bard or Strength rogue can reach this (haha) but for the Barbarian or (big stupid) Fighter, they can't get expertise with Athletics easily, a big deal when they are the strong bois. As I have read-but not reasearched, very few creatures are proficient in Athletics or Acrobatics to escape grapples (except giants, which tend to be too large to grapple and are easy to identify), see here www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?468737-The-Grappler-s-Manual-(2-0)-Grappling-in-5th-Edition. Creatures that are grappled are in serious danger as they have to use their action to contest-no legendary resistances, can be moved against their will, advantage/disadvantage and more. We like spells that are consistent-well sure this strategy doesn't work well against some enemies, but those enemies are usually easy to identify. As a 9th level spellcaster (i.e. +4) with a big stupid Fighter, think what that does to an enemy with an impressive +5 strength mod. (This was done with 8 million dice roll simulation to check) 66%->80.5% to make the first grapple 70%->83.5% to maintain the grapple (meet it beat it here) What does it do to the dreaded +0 Mind Flayer? 83.5%->93% to make the first 86.25%->94.75% to maintain, that's some control! And as before it scales 'for free'. A level 17 big stupid fighter backed by this spell only grants a .75% chance to escape from the grapple for the scary Mind Flayer. (99.25% to maintain!) If that's not 'guaranteed' consistent I don't know what is! (Well a belt of Fire Giant Strength or higher haha). By the way, if you ever want some simulations for more complex rolls hit me up and I'll give you a hand!
My group is currently doing a campaign set in the Underdark which is basically all stone 'cause it's underground. So hearing about Transmute Stone is making me very excited, especially since it has no duration. It won't be a while till I get it (since we've started in the fall of 2022, we're level 4 now, so who knows how long till we get to level 9) and I won't be able to use it as much since we're doing a variant rest system (short rest is 8~ hours, long rest is 24 hours of non-strenuous activity), but I am still excited. I'm switching soon from a homebrew class to a full-on wizard so this series has been very helpful! Thank you so much, Treantmonk. :) I've been scheming of all the ways I can use Transmute Stone to terrorize towns and cities. Like using it to get rid of the foundation for buildings or maybe transmuting any stone buildings so there's just mud left, blocking all roads, filling a whole town with really hard to cross mud, etc. I likely won't do this stuff as the wizard I'll be making will be lawful good but if she dies, I'm planning on making a lawful evil enchantment wizard next so this sort of thing might be fun, haha.
Telepathic Bond: Creatures with INT of 2 or less aren't affected by this spell. So that leaves out most familiars, including all of the (common) flying familiars. There are 2 common familiars (Cat and Octopus) that qualify. (INT 3) If you can get a Tressym, Flying Monkey (INT 11 and 5 respectively) or any of the Pact of the Chain familiars, you're good to forge Telepathic Bond with them. Otherwise you'll have to find a way to increase your common familiar's INT, or work out a homebrew solution with your DM in order to get a different familiar that qualifies.
Gotta say, I think scrying should be at least a purple rating, spying on your enemies is very valuable, and as a dm I love it when I can give pcs info or story beats that they normally wouldn't know or would've been difficult for them to find out through other means. I agree with alot of your ratings and enjoy your videos.
Treantmonk runs tons of one shots. He doesn’t seem to understand the value of spells that are more campaign dependent. Teleportation Circle and Scrying are underrated for a campaign.
I saw something ridiculous recently. Steel wind strike: 14th level evocation wizard, high elf with the elven accuracy feat. Casts greater invisibility, rolls 3d20s for up to five creatures each, dealing flat 60 points of force damage to each from overchannel. Pick up an action surge from two levels of fighter and do it again. 3 levels in fighter for champion’s crit range and suddenly you’re doing minimum 600 points of damage across 10 targets with a good chance to crit multiple times. Granted, other wizards are casting wish by then, but for pure flavor purposes I think this is just hilariously awesome Edit: ALSO spell sniper works for this since it’s a spell that requires an attack roll, suddenly it’s a 60 foot radius
I know this kind of comment is cheesy but: Yay! Transmute Rock finally gets the place it deserves :=) I have been advocating a green rating for this spell for ages. The quarter movement and wide area make this a no save control vs non flying opponents. It is somewhat circumstantial but that is more then made up for by not requiring concentration.
Transmute Rock is amazing for fortress-building. Transmute a hard rock that's really difficult to quarry like Hematite or Granite, transport the mud to a scaffolding, then cast Dispel Magic. Bam. Wall of extremely hard rock with few creases (perhaps none depending on how carefully you shape it) better than anything you'd get with even modern manufacturing techniques.
Rarys telepathic bond does now work with familiars because it says "Creatures with Intelligence scores of 2 or less aren’t affected by this spell." To me knowledge all familiars have an intelligence of 2 (exception being warlock familiars)
Planar binding cast with a wish spell gives you a high CR minion for a year and a day. Casting time is one action so you can do it in combat with no material cost. Combined with Portent it's pretty OP.
Enervation, another spell that I wish that Sorcerers got. Planning on using it on my Necromancer Bard because story reasons. I do think that it has it's place, just not on a wizard's list.
I love summon spells as "flash bang" spells (cast it outside the room with the enemy, summon whatever, then lock the door and wait for the problem to sort itself out), so "Oh darn: I lost my Concentration. That's now an 'in there problem'" is my phrase of choice
Telepathic Bond should be Blue. It is the ultimate answer for your DM's objection "He can't hear you in the chaos of the combat" so no talking/communicating during the combat Synaptic Static may be ok, considering additional bonuses, but definitely not as good as described Seeming is a great spell. With Malleable Illusions, you can change the multiple creatures every round. It should be ranked higher (purple as a generic rating, green for Illusionists). And uses are not so circumstantial: change your visuals with your fighter, change the appearance of an army, immediately disappear in the crowd. Also, it has 8 hours, and do not uses concentration which is an important aspect
If you are a College of Eloquence Bard, then I can see Infernal Calling being useful as magical secrets at level 10 if you wanted a summoning spell. Assuming you have expertise in Persuasion/Deception and high CHA then you probably can't fail the check against the devil and then it must obey your commands and if you lose concentration it just disappears. So there's one advantage over summon elemental. There are a lot of Tiefling Eloquence Bards around that this may suit thematically.
Chris, I looked up Telepathic Bond and all the familiars. I'm pretty sure the only familiars with >2 Intelligence is the cat and the octopus with 3. I like the cat, but was disappointed everything else was only 2 int.
On Wall of Force. Ok, it has an obvious problem written into it. A flat surface of force is ten 10x10 panels, or 1000 square feet. A 10’ radius sphere is 1254 square feet, a much greater area. There shouldn’t be that big of a difference. A 1000 foot surface area sphere is only a little under 9’ radius. I get why they did it, to snap to a grid. So as a result I adjudicate on a case by case basis what creatures fit into it. Creature sizes are also chosen to fit into the grid even though some creatures are bigger than their grid size, some smaller. A huge creature in D&D takes 3x3 spaces even though some are much more massive. TM example of a huge dragon to me would not fit into a the force sphere, as clearly from the description it is much bigger than the 3x3 grid. It’s body is that size, but it’s wings are at least 10’ on each side (much more if you think about it), its tail 15’ behind it, it’s claws if splayed out 5’ past, it’s neck 10’ on top of the 15’ height. I also own Draconomicon, the older book on dragons, and it’s even bigger. I don’t think a dragon when off turn balls itself up. The spell as written does not start out much bigger and shrink to that size, it pops into existence. I know it’s a fantasy game but in fantasy game reality I doubt you could ball up a dragon into a sphere that size. I would rule no for getting a huge dragon into that sphere. However a giant would clearly fit in. Giants are taller then they are wide, and at their biggest dimension of height they are all about 20’ or less. It’s your game as DM, so it’s up to you. A quick way to get a group to complain is to put all of them in Force Sphere, I try avoid that except to capture them for plot purposes so they can give on this one. I would of course tell them in as the cast a creature won’t fit so they don’t waste a spell slot.
@@smbakeresq I do get what you're saying, and I don't own the Draconomicon, but I did read it back in my 3.5 days. I would recommend it more as an idea book (especially if someone wants to play a dragon PC or something) than a rules book. When it comes to the length of extremities, I think reach is a good tool that relates to the mechanics of the current edition. Also, as a DM, I'm not necessarily assuming a dragon (for example) is necessarily stretching out all those extremities all the time. I guess what it comes down to is a DM can rule any way they want, but my opinion is that a large dragon with a 5' reach is probably no problem, a huge dragon, I don't think its super clear either way. Remember, a 15x15 creature isn't necessarily that big, that's the space it fills. A human isn't 5' wide, but if we consider arms stretched out we can understand the 5' square. So TLDR - I do see what you are saying, but I think it's less clear cut than you are suggesting IMO.
Another advantage of Wall of Stone over Force is that it blocks vision if you have spell casters you are trying to limit from the battle. There is nothing saying spells that originate in an area cannot be cast inside or outside a Wall of Force. Do you get the Blindness effect with Wall of Stone you don't get with Force.
I have seen people upset about Steel Wind Strike being on the Wizard list, since it is scaled for the ranger spells. Do you think this is a fair assessment? I agree that it is dependent on having something like an abjurer or bladesinger that is good in melee.
No. A 5th level spell is a 5th level spell. There's nothing inherently more powerful about a 5th level Paladin or Ranger spell. An analysis of these spells makes that pretty clear. Note that Steel Wind Strike is not the most powerful 5th level spell Wizards have, nor the 2nd most. This should be revealing.
Treantmonk's Temple Ok, fair enough. I guess I had the impression that things like magic initiate exclude paladin and ranger spell lists because the scaling of those spelll lists is a but different since they are geared towards half casters. With SWS, you can expect to deal an average of 33 damage per target, hitting 3 of 5 targets if you expect to hit 60% of the time - so 99 dmg total. Cone of Cold, with its huge area, would deal an average dmg of 36 or 18, or less if targets have resistance to cold or evasion. BUT it hits a lot more targets, and would be great for hitting a swarm if you bust it out early in combat before your allies are in the way. That could definitely do a lot more damage. With animate objects, if 5 of 8 tiny coins hit their targets, for a total of 5d4+20, that is 32.5 damage, before resistances. At th cost of concentration and your BA, this can be maintained for several rounds, but could certainly deal more than a 100 damage against a bunch of enemies (or 1) over the course of 2-4 rounds. Looking at the Paladin and cleric spell Destructive Wave, which deals 5d6 thunder and 5d6 necrotic or radiant, with half damage on a save, you would still expect to deal about 35 damage per target on average. That is in a 30 foot radius sphere, with a great damage type and no friendly fire. With all that in mind, I can see how SWS is an ok spell, but is certainly not phenomenal. The damage seems about on par for the level, but it has the downside of being limited to 5 targets over a single round. If you expect to maintain concentration for a while, and for the fight to last more than a 3 rounds, than a spell like animated objects is probably going ot be much better than SWS.
Steel wind strike is on the ranger list but requires a high casting stat to use effectively. It’s powerful but requires both attribute and level investment. I think some important points to take away are that it basically emulates a controlled aoe with damage, uses attack rolls to not rely on saves to keep the all or nothing damage, benefits from advantage, can crit for even more damage, if one of the targets die you can still choose to teleport to that creature, it interacts with the mobile feat like well, and though the range is 30 feet the targets don’t have to be nearly that close to each other.
Creation: Red Ah. I see you've never dropped a 547 metric ton cube of solid gold from orbit onto an unsuspecting rival guild. Yeah, my DM had to convert the impact to megatons of TNT. All with 5th level Creation and 2nd level Enlarge spell combo (and quite a bit of height)
Dominate Person can be good under the right circumstances. If the dungeon you're currently delving has at least one humanoid who is familiar with it, such as a slave, you can dominate that person and force them to tell you everything you need to know about the dungeon. Now, admittedly, this is a significant resource cost for something that should be as simple as casing Charm Person and giving the target a little money. However, I've played with far too many DMs who flat out refuse to let players gather information from NPCs. They're more afraid of their boss than they are of you, or they tell you lies about what's coming. With this spell, there's no wiggle room. If they know it, they tell you. And you can get longer castings of it at higher levels, forcing the target to act as a scout for you, which can be quite effective if they're allowed in an area. That can be good if you, for instance, dominate someone's servant and have the servant set that target up. For those reasons, I'd say the spell is circumstantial.
@@TreantmonksTemple Yes, and the campaign as well, and the other players. It won't be great if you're playing with wargamers, because they just want to get to the next challenge. Getting information out of an unnecessary NPC will just delay the game.
@@stranger6822 Know this is way too late, but "Detect Thoughts" gets this done for a second level spell, rather than a 5th level. That being said, like many spells, it all comes down to the DMs willingness to work with you.
I swear, sometimes I'm not sure that we are reading the same spells. I don't dislike wall of force by any measure, but I remember one of your knocks against hold monster in a ranger video was that it can be overcome with a 2nd-level lesser restoration. Well, wall of force can be bested by a 2nd-level misty step. Wall of light does not require you to use your action to continue dealing damage. Anything that ends its turn within the wall takes 4d8 damage with no save. Depending on how your DM handles blinded creatures, there could be a good chance of enemies who fail the initial save staying where they are and taking a second instance of damage at the ends of their turns. Meanwhile, it illuminates an enormous area, useful for detecting creatures skulking in the dark, eliminating the effects of heavy obscurement, and imposing penalties on foes with light sensitivity. And the on-action damage is "crappy" compared to what? Fire bolt at 9th level is dealing 11 damage on a hit , not accounting for resistance and immunity. Wall of light averages 18. Magic missile, the last single-target damage spell you recommended, does 22.5 on average out of a 5th-level slot, and that's, you know, once. The only ongoing single-target concentration effects I know of that are even close are storm sphere (on a bonus action) and . . . Enervation. Hoo boy. 4d8 damage and half as much healing, without a saving throw, is not worth using your action for every round? What kind of cantrips are you casting? You are lucky to average half that with fire bolt. I mean, if you cast a 3rd-level fireball on a single target every round and assume a 65% chance for it to fail its save, you will only average about five more damage per round than you will using enervation's action, and that's without considering any healing.
@@sharkforce8147 When we are talking about no inputs except an action, then, yes, the comparison is a cantrip. You can cast an instantaneous 5th-level spell and then cantrips on subsequent turns, or you can cast one of these ongoing spells and put your action into it, instead of casting cantrips, on later turns. My point is that these spells are not going to compete for immediate damage against instantaneous spells, but that they will outperform the cantrips by a wide margin thereafter. Assuming a 65% chance of a failed Dex save, a 5th-level fireball will average 28.875 damage. (Cone of cold is in the same area, depending on what assumption you make about Con saves.) Enervation will average 14.85 damage and half as much healing in the first round. From then on, fire bolt, assuming 60% hit and 5% crit chances, will run about 7.7 damage. Enervation will average 18 on any enemy that failed the initial save and that same cantrip damage on any that succeeded, which works out to 14.395 damage and 5.85 healing per round. Fireball's original advantage of 14.025 damage is matched, on average, in 2.09 additional rounds. In addition to the ~45 damage dealt, the caster of enervation will have regained around 19.7 health, and he or she will have perhaps as many as 7.91 further turns outdamaging the fire bolt alternative. Note that this example was generous to the fireball/fire bolt side because I did not take into consideration the frequency of resistance and immunity, and because fireball is not, after all, a single-target spell. And, yes, scaling up magic missile is usually a bad decision, which only furthers my point. What spells is Treantmonk casting that deal so much more damage than these?
@@sharkforce8147 "Let people that are actually good at dealing damage do that job" does not increase the wizard's or the party's damage more than wall of light or enervation. Unless the wizard has a spell to turn him- or herself into a character of another class, this is not an optimal course of action. Wizards being bad at sustained single-target damage is hardly evidence that wizards should not take spells that make them better at sustained single-target damage--never mind that wall of light is also an AoE. With animate objects, what assumptions are you making about initiative order, enemy placement, and death rate of objects? As I read the spell, unless the enemy is within 30 feet of the objects both when you issue the command on your turn and when they act on their own turn(s), they do zero damage. They do the same amount when "dead," and, whenever they do deal it, their damage is nonmagical. Which is not to say that animate objects is at all a bad spell, or that it will not do more damage than wall of light or innervation in some combats. The point is that skimming an entry and calculating its expected damage is a pretty deficient model for how something will work in actual play. Yes, you can use wall of force to turn one big fight into two cakewalks, if you have one big fight that needs to be turned into two cakewalks. I have never advocated for taking only damage-dealing concentration spells. But you are talking eventualities, not addressing the point. If the damage of wall of light and enervation is "sub-par," what is par?
It kinda irks me that you think that planar binding requires concentration. You only use concentration to "charm" the summon in the case of summon elemental, it stays for the duration regardless if you are concentrating or not. Your best bet is to make a magic circle at 4th+ level, summon the elemental, have said elemental enter the inverted circle, and you have just under 2 hours to cast the binding. After that who cares about the concentration effect? Planar binding has its own do what i say effect and even if it has the potential to be subverted they cannot flat out disobey. You can even mitigate that by speaking to the summon in its exotic tongue and entreating it diplomatically to your cause, not giving blatantly suicidal orders or commands antithetical to their beliefs also helps.
My interpretation is based on this line of text from Planar Binding, "If the creature was summoned or created by another spell, that spell's duration is extended to match the duration of this spell." That is the way I read that anyways, these things of course are up for interpretation. Whether we disagree or not, I appreciate you watching. No need to be irked ;)
Wait, so planar binding: With a 9th level slot I get a year of service from the elemental I just summoned, but I have to keep concentration on it, or lose control? That is really weird.
I agree, but the spell specifies that it extends the duration of the summoning spell. Extending the duration of a concentration spell should not eliminate the concentration requirements unless specifically stated
The catch there is the summoned part. Of you can happen upon the elemental when you're NOT concentrating on the conjure spell, then you could Planar Bind it w/o concentration.
@@sharkforce8147 nope. You're not reading it right. There are 2 separate durations here. Planar Binding is no conc. The conjure is conc. The Planar Binding extends the spell whatnyoure concentrating on. It doesn't say anything about removing the need to concentrate. It simply extends the duration of the concentration. Now, I agree that is SHOULD work the way you describe. But that's not what's written.
@@sharkforce8147 you're intentionally misreading it. Planar Binding does not require concentration. Ever. Conjure spells do. Always. Planar Binding extends the conjure spell. Period. It doesn't remove the concentration. It can't. They are separate spells. That's like trading stock options... If you want the actual stock, you still have to pay for it. Again, I agree that is SHOULD work the way you describe. But, as it currently reads, it does not.
the trick is to use a spell that specify the creature stay of you lose concentration, hostile or otherwise, to summon the creature in a magic circle, release your concentration, and cast planar binding while it is stuck. Then planar binding act as if you had casted it on an wild extraplanar being and allow to control it for the duration with no concentration
Any halfway effective bodyguard would have enough hit points that they could easily consider turning on the wizard without the Geas punishment being an automatic death sentence for them. The spell is really only useful when the 5d10 (only 22 on average) damage represents mortal peril for the target, so political figures and quest givers and the like. It is basically useless if you try to use it against any person or creature that you might reasonably want to fight with or against. Using it to control an enemy or ally in combat makes it effectively a super long duration Suggestion spell without concentration, which the target could choose to ignore, making it effectively a 5d10 (per day) single target blast. Both of those things are terrible uses of a 5th level spell slot.
@@dylandugan76 The charm condition does not allow for the person to attack the wizard and it would be effective in keeping the bodyguard's morale high so it wouldn't want to just leave and take the 5d10 damage. That was what I was thinking. It would be better on a Bard as they are charisma casters but if one were to play a charismatic wizard it could work well. They may even stay on if you paid them a good portion of the take. It is a poor version of the Warders and Aei Sadai from Wheel of Time but I like the concept.
> ...Its much more of a gamble... Tch, what would Lucky think of you, avoiding gambles? (tbh, he'd probably think well of you. The thing about Bards & Luck Clerics is, they're not really gamblers. I mean, not really. They shift fortune in your favor and against that of the foe. So yeah it's "gambling" - it's RNG. D&D Is RNG. But it's making everything you do much *less* of a gamble and *significantly* closer to "a sure bet" - which is why Gods of divining the fates or controlling the fates *tend* to be Lawful or at minimum Neutral, while Gods of actual Chance, good or bad, tend to be fickle Chaotic scum). Reminder to name or nickname my next Bard *Maverick*
Wizards have too many concentration and 3rd die roll saving throw for the enemy You don't like cloud kill?!?! :( Zombie hoard grapple enemies, concentrate on cloud kill.
On Animate Objects : it says "Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.". Meaning you don't even have to use your bonus action every round, only when their current target dies. Otherwise they'll just keep attacking ; you only have to give an order like "kill this enemy", rather than "attack this enemy" which will technically be completed after a single attack.
unless the enemy moves out of the objects' 30ft vision after which they are completely blind by exploiting the 1 round delay between your order and the objects action and the fact that they're blind out of 30 feet, a mobile opponent can just avoid them altogether obviously something your average opponent might not be able to do
Definitely the biggest difference between a fighter missing and a monster making a save is resource cost - the fighter can swing all day, but only the wizard is risking a high level slot to do nothing.
@@sharkforce8147 Oh definitely. That is a huge advantage for classes like fighter, monk, paladin etc - they are not going to waste their whole turn firing off a cantrip or something that does nothing. Multiple attacks in a round is multiple chances to deal damage. That is also part of what makes eldritch blast stand out so much against other cantrips - combined with agonizing blast it actually deals competitive damage, barring additional damage or effects from magical weapons. A valor bard or bladesinger is going to have to weigh the difference between casting a spell and attacking twice though once they get to level 6, and part of why I really appreciate this video series is that it helps shed light on the fact that a wizard's job - optimally - is to change the battlefield and manipulate the combat, more than blasting. Being able to slow down a bunch of enemies, or restrain them, or knock them prone, or incapacitate them - all of these things can substantially shift the course of combat. Blasting, I think I have learned here, is a privilege of a wizard who has already done the job of getting the enemies restricted to an area. A bladesinger that has trapped a bunch of enemies in a web can swing twice with advantage and back out with enemies making AoO at disadvantage. That is a strategy that helps everyone in the party. Or fireball-ing your enemies since they are all bunched together because of a terrain effect before they had a chance to spread out. But it is interesting to get this perspective on how spells like hold person/monster - as devastating as paralyzed is as a condition - is a big investment because of the number of chances the enemy has to save against it. A well coordinated party, IMO, should recognize by lvl 9 that they should focus fire immediately if a hold spell succeeds - depending on combat order, it could be over in a turn.
@@Coid Not disputing your math, but in most games, by the time you reach the level needed to cast the spell in the first place, that sort of money should be easily available to the players.
It has occurred to me recently that, by definition given in the Sage Advice Compendium, objects animated by Animate Object spell are considered magical while the spell is in effect. I'm talking about the section of the Compendium that answers the question "what is actively magical and what is just background magic". Some of the questions you need to ask yourself to determine whether the thing is actively magical is "is it a spell?" and "is it powered by a spell slot?". In case of Animate Objects, the answer is "yes". So, for the duration of the spell, these mundane objects are magical. Which is only logical, because of course they are - they can move on their own, fly, perform tasks and attack. Besides, even from a balance standpoint, I believe it's perfectly reasonable for a 5th level spell requiring concentration to create minions with attacks which count as magical. Besides, as our recent campaign has demonstrated, at level 10 and higher, when you start encountering a lot of flying and/or Fireball-slinging foes, those tiny 20 HP objects with only 30 ft flying speed often can't keep up with the enemy and can be wiped out by a single blast.
In a political campaign, when your political enemies don't have many hit points, Geas is a "Do what I want or you die". As a Sorcerer, subtle spell helps with applying it.
@@CarrowMind I believe Aberrant Mind Sorcerers can now pick it up, and since it's part of their Psionic Spellcasting shtick, they don't even need to use Subtle Spell on it. For everyone else, Metamagic Adept exists to save the day for anyone with a free feat to spend.
Planar Binding won't cost you your concentration for its duration. Most conjure spells don't dismiss the conjured creature if you break concentration. You just lose control of them but they stay for the full duration. But Planar Binding will both reassert control for you, AND extend the duration. So you have a concentration free ally for the full duration.
In steel wind strike, you don't have to teleport next to an enemy. It says that you *can* teleport, and only after all the attacks are made and the damage is dealt, so you can just remain in place if you want to
Fighting a vampire as evocation wizard. Sculpt spells dawn, so that you and your allies don't take damage from it, then place the spell on top of your group. When the vampire is put to 0 outside of the area of the spell and turns to mist, recast it ontop of them to perma-kill the vampire
There are definitely some spells that seem more interesting for villains than for players, because they can guarantee the situational conditions happens. As a player, I can't think of many situations for Far Step when Dimension Door, Fly or Misty Step wouldn't have done the job. But as a DM, I can come up with crazy fights across the tops of buildings or on raised platforms where Far Step on a villain could be challenging for the players as they have to jump/climb/fly to keep up.
Dominate Person is definitely a spell that’s more useful to an NPC villain than to a player, especially if you’re targeting that 8 Wisdom Barbarian. Although, I’ve heard there are some players that get upset when they lose control of their characters. I’m fine with those sorts of spells being used against my character because it’s just part of D&D.
I used it on an enemy who said they arere the big boss of the place. Commended him to tell us every secret and one of them was that he is just playing this role as commended by his actual boss^^
Animate Objects has so many uses beyond damage. For objects, it's an even better version of Telekinesis, since it can affect much larger objects. It can transmit information back to you ("If he went left, spin on a circle. If he went right, drop to the ground.") And oh, yeah... it can do damage.
It's great when you animate unexpected things. You are sieging a town? Animate that door open. Drawbridge? You got it. Portcullis? You know what to do. Are you in a forest? Animate that trees. In a room? Rugs and curtains are wonderful to animate. Chains are good to bring with you, to grapple enemies. And why not? Bring a 10 silver pieces pouch, to fight those pesky invulnerable to non silver damage.
The only downside of being a telekinesis alternative is that it only lasts for 1 minute. Sure, it might not be a problem when you need to do something in that moment, but in a dungeon where other puzzles might come those 10 minutes can make some difference.
I think you're under rating dawn. Dawn is one of the few spells that specifically calls out that it is sunlight. This makes it a very potent vampire killer spell. If they get reduced to 0 hp while inside the area, they're toast. If you move it onto them while they're in a gaseous form, they're toast. If they start their turn in the area, they take 20 radiant damage and don't get to regenerate. Combine this with a grappler or some other movement control and you've got a very dead vampire very quickly. Now, I'm not saying it is a green or even purple spell, but I definitely don't think it should be a red spell.
I played an Evocation wizard with a DM that allowed me to exclude myself from Sculpt Spells and Dawn was much, much better. It has an extremely wide radius and completely screwed over enemies in our melee-heavy party, CON-save or no. I think 5th-level spells are when the wizard subclasses start really making a difference in spell selection. Animate Objects is very good for any wizard, it's godly in the hands of a Conjurer. Danse Macabre struggles to be mediocre for most wizards, it's deadly in the hands of a Necromancer. Creation is a joke spell for most wizards, it's a top-tier gamebreaker often better than Wall of Force for 13th+ level Illusionists.
just an additional point on wall of stone I think you've ratrd it too high considering it requires existing Stone to be present for it to even be cast way too circumstantial
Very much agree with this. Had a player find this out during my game and it made the difference between them taking it and not. Wall of stone seems much too highly ranked given that condition.
43:56 Long story short, I turned my party’s petrified cleric into a medium sized object after he got captured by a flying monstrosity, because the DM said polymorph would not affect him :) Metal Man dealt the killing blow and floated down to the ground in a T-pose. Praise the sun!
Elementals are not that smart are they ? It wouldn't make sense for them to find every far fetched ways to misinterpret your commands Don't cast cloudkill. Cast sunbeam. Or let the cleric cast moonbeam Skill empowerment is much more powerful than ehance ability. You can reliably hit high skill dc at high level
I can't help but think that the Planar Binding concentration consequence for conjuration spells is a mistake, due to the impossibility of maintaining concentration through sleep and the like. Maybe we can all poke at JC to get a clarification as to intent? I do think that your reading is correct in the most literal RAW sense though.
@@davisoares2288 Yes, if the same caster who casts the binding was concentrating on the summon spell. Any spell that takes more than an action to cast uses your concentration for the casting time.
Planar Binding. As DM I play it this way as it seems the most logical 1. Draw the magical circle with the gem component. 2. Summon the creature or get it into the circle somehow. 3. Planar Binding is cast, the creature stays in circle if it fails save. A highly intelligent creature that makes its save might stay in circle anyway seeking to trick and later slay or enslave the caster. Be careful who you summon! 4. The creature is bound to you as in spell if it fails it’s save. No concentration required. 5. A hostile creature will always twist your words to its advantage and will always try to break the spell. Planar Binding is a spell effect and can be dispelled, but not by the creature who is bound. 6. Creatures who are bound generally have friends also, it’s rare that a bound creatures allies wouldn’t investigate. They have enemies also, who might help you keep the creature bound. 7. The creatures that you would want to bind almost always work for someone higher up. You bind a Deva for any length of time to do some task that isn’t in it interests you can bet its Planetar commander will come looking for it followed by its Solar general and their personal escort of 4 Planetars if that isn’t enough. 8. Binding evil creatures such as Demons and Devils. This is different as the Overlord knows they can’t die on material plane anyway and also knows that any death or destruction they cause is probably a good thing. These overlords treat most servitors as expendable, so temporary unavailability isn’t a burden to them. 9. Elemental Binding. They have goals that vary from above but remember in general any creature resents enslavement. It’s far better to use planar Binding to just make a deal with them to pay for their services. 10. Concentration isn’t required once bound but CAREFUL ATTENTION is. The creature will follow your instructions, but stay here and guard this room might mean “Carefully inventory everything here, study the room carefully so I can teleport in and steal everything later when I am not bound.”
A little DPR comparison for Conjure Elemental Air Elemental DPR vs AC 16 / vs AC 20 19.1 (normal), 26.325 (Advantage) / 13.5 (normal), 21.285 (Advantage) VS Invisible Stalker DPR vs AC 16 / vs AC 20 11.7 (normal), 17.315 (Advantage) / 7.7 (normal), 12.915 (Advantage) From this you can see that the Invisible Stalker does pretty comparable damage to the Air Elemental due to the permanent Advantage from being Invisible that it has against the majority of foes. Things will swing in the favor of the Air Elemental against things with low AC, especially once low enough that a nat 1 is necessary in order to miss them, and in favor of the Invisible Stalker against things with super high AC especially those that can only be hit on a nat 20 anyway. The Invisible Stalker also has arguably better survivability due to it having a bit more hp and, while it has 14 AC instead of 15 AC, the majority of attackers will have Disadvantage, giving the Invisible Stalker an effective AC more along the lines of 18 or 19, IIRC.
Also one thing before I forget, animated objects will continue to follow an order until it is complete, meaning if you were to order them to kill a target, they will continue to attack each round without needing your bonus action for additional commands. This in turn frees up your bonus action, so you are getting all that damage each round while still having an action and bonus action, provided you don't need to issue a new command. Not such a huge deal on a wizard, but really massive on a bard, or a sorcerer with quickened spell, since you have other things to do with that bonus action.
I feel like planar binding is one of those spells that really comes into its own once you have access to wish. One action to cast, and you get whatever it is you are trapping bound to you for 180 days, concentration free. Obviously it's a niche use, especially when you need to consider legendary resistances, and the fact that most high level creatures that you'd want to bind have pretty good Charisma saves. But ending the big encounter with a beefed up pit fiend with a single spell, and keeping it around for half a year afterwards is pretty nice.
Planar Binding with Wish is a good combo with Feeblemind, that sets the Intelligence and Charisma attribute scores to 1. Have to keep in mind that this combo will consume your 2 most powerful spell slots, so you will have to be sure that you want to capture the enemy you're fighting (Save the slots for the ending of the combat if your enemy have legendary resistance).
Planar Binding does not require concentration. In fact casting Planar Binding breaks concentration because it requires concentration to cast. Conjure elemental into an inverted magic circle created by a glyph of warding, then immediately start your binding. Have a silvery barbs prepared just in case the elemental makes their save.
I think it's probably worth mentioning devil talismans for the purpose of Infernal Calling. How exactly you obtain one is up to your DM, but they make the spell very powerful if you can do so. Use it to control a chain devil, carrying additional chains about for it so that it gets 6 attacks per round, or perhaps use it on a black abashai for an assassin that can reliably get constant advantage in combat.
@@TreantmonksTemple Well Treant, I did some research while waiting for your reply and I found this "Whilst not explicitly stated, it is intended that no magical spell or effect can pass through the Wall of Force, including teleportation, as clarified by Mike Mearls, the Creative Lead for Dungeons and Dragons. mobile.twitter.com/mikemearls/status/505029867033726976 got it from this article half-cover.com/blogs/meta-magic/crippling-issue-lockdown-spells/"
I think you may have undervalued Planar Binding, regarding concentration - you really don't need to do it. You're probably right about the fact you would normally need to concentrate, but there are ways to subvert that. The obvious one that people go for is Conjure Elementals, but a more subtle one is another spell I feel you undervalued - Glyph of Warding. Glyph of Warding allows you to subvert concentration, because if the spell you cast into Glyph of Warding is concentration, it simply lasts for its duration when triggered. You cast Summon Greater Demon, or Infernal Calling, or whatever you want into an upcast Glyph of Warding, with the trigger being a password of your choice. When you're ready to bind the creature, you cast your reversed Magic Circle around where the creature will come out. Once it's complete, speak the password, creature appears neatly in your Magic Circle, and you begin binding the creature. Because the devil, demon or other creature came from your Glyph of Warding, it doesn't require concentration, the spell just lasts for its duration. Once bound, its duration is now replaced by the duration of Planar Binding, and it still requires no concentration. You still need to worry about it being hostile, and all that entails, but those are the risks of binding creatures into your service... **** On Glyph of Warding: This should probably go in the 3rd level spells video, but I really don't want to make another comment, particularly in a 2 week old video. As I was saying earlier, I feel you also undervalued this spell. Yes, it does have a cost, but the potential upside is huge, particularly if you're ever in a fight you can plan the battlefield beforehand. Throw Haste and Fly into Glyphs so that your Warrior can chase that Dragon you know you'll be fighting. Set up Wall of Force Glyphs for if the attacking army manage to breach the gate. Bait an opposing army into attacking on the area you prepared, only for multiple Walls of Fire to rip through their lines and cut off their retreat. Hell, even Glyph of Warding -> Suggestion to get the next humanoid who passes over the Glyph to give all their money to the party, and then walk for as far as their feet will take them. If concentration is one of a Wizard's biggest resources, being able to subvert it, even situationally, is a significant boon. It deserves a higher rating.
I actually think the concentration extension of planar binding is an oversight rather than the intent, but this is a clever workaround, albeit somewhat expensive. All the more reason to ignore the concentration issue in the first place. It makes for a ton of needless complication otherwise.
200gp isn't hugely expensive by the time you're hitting level 5 spells (your game may vary), but setting up the glyph is an extra high level spellslot. It's not something you can do for every summon spell obviously, but it gives you a TON more flexibility.
I agree any way to subvert concentration is valuable, but I have issues with Glyph of Warding as that solution. #1 the spell has to target a creature or an area. Summoning spells, for the most part, won't work. Conjure Elemental is an exception IMO, as technically according to text, you are targeting a 10' cube for the elemental to appear. This is a bit of a loophole, not one I would assume a DM wouldn't Nix. #2 The Glyph can't move,. This isn't a problem if your enemy comes to you (and you have warning) that's not how D&D adventures tend to be played though. Once in awhile there's the seige adventure, but the standard is the PCs are adventuring/questing/exploring/traveling #3 If your DM allows Conjure Elemental to be cast into a Glyph for example, that sucker is going to be hard to trap in an inverted magic circle because it's going to appear right beside whomever set it off, on a random side, so you basically need to be on the wrong side of the circle. #4 there's more, but I'm out of time. The main ones are there. #2 especially. Suffice it to say, this is a subject I had already thought about before I ranked the spell. I did talk about mixing Demiplane and Glyph of Warding in my combos vid
@@TreantmonksTemple Regarding #1: I would assert that for pretty much any summoning spell, the "target" is the area in which it will appear, and thus Glyph of Warding is an appropriate vessel for them. Conjure Elementals is kind enough to do this explicitly, but any summon spell that calls for you to pick a point within range should fulfill the requirements. In the Spellcasting section of the PHB, under Range (p202): The target of a spell must be within the spell’s range. For a spell like magic missile, the target is a creature. For a spell like fireball, the target is the point in space where the ball of fire erupts. Then we look at the same section, but the Targets subheading (p204): A typical spell requires you to pick one or more targets to be affected by the spell’s magic. A spell's description tells you whether the spell targets creatures, objects, or a point of origin for an area of effect (described below). If we look at the Summon/Conjure spells, all of them require us to pick a point of origin within range from which the summoned creature(s) appear. Given the above sentences, we must infer that this point is the target of the spell; this is the point of origin within the range of the spell which the spell effect extends from, otherwise known as the target of the spell. Add this to the fact that Glyph of Warding explicitly mentions summoning hostile creatures, and it looks like your DM is both being stingy and breaking RAW if they nix this use. Regarding #2: Absolutely it's a problem, and most of my examples of use didn't alleviate the concern for this, but if you know you're going into a fight, but still have some time to prepare, this can still be useful. Regarding #3: Considering that Binding creatures is almost certainly an out-of-combat, end of the day or even downtime activity, is it really that much of a worry if you're on the wrong side of the circle, and the devil/demon/elemental/etc. gets in a single opportunity attack as you walk out of the circle? Regarding #4: Demiplane usage is (obviously) only really viable for high level characters. I was trying to assert that there are perhaps more uses for it from the point you get Glyph of Warding onwards. It's absolutely not a top-tier spell, and I get that, but it can be more useful than given credit for. Anyway, I really do like your content, and I've really enjoyed this series, so please don't take this as an attack. Just advocating for some more optimised usage of particular spells :)
I think your read of planar binding is actually, objectively wrong. A few reasons for this: -"that spell's duration is extended to match the duration of this spell." The important part here is "match the duration," because planar binding has a duration of 24 hours (or more, if you upcast, which is a fantastic thing to do!) with NO concentration. -What would be the point of being able to upcast to extend the duration of the spell if you immediately drop it the first time you long rest? Obviously not the intention. -Assume, for the sake of argument, concentration is required and you drop it. For some summons that doesn't even matter. Conjure Elemental and Conjure Fey both last an extra hour if you drop concentration, they don't leave. Planar binding extends that hour to whatever the duration of planar binding is. So all that even happens *if* you assume planar binding requires concentration (again, a reading I think is clearly wrong) is your summoned minion is hostile to you and not friendly.
I disagree with you a suprising amount here. Dream let's you both speak with and show (via modifying terrain in the dream and such) a creature whatever you will for an extended period, basically being a much better message that's more limited in when it works. Conveying information that well is typically very hard, and notably, the target doesn't even know who sent the dream. Heck, if you don't use the nightmare feature, the target can't even save, meaning you can force your way into the BBEG's dreams and negotiate, convince, or threaten them and otherwise use your social skills to gain some advantage. It's great for political games in much the same way Geas is, and I see both as blue in that kind of game. Also, if you have some kind of body part or waste from your enemy, they make the save at disadvantage, and you can cast the spell repeatedly if need be. You can make them not regain legendary resistances, for example, which is QUITE powerful (monster manual states that x/day effects recharge on a long rest). It can significantly reduce the danger foes present to you. As for Planar Binding, I think it's been well-discussed that it makes absolutely no sense if concentration is required, since it's impossible to sleep and maintain concentration yet the duration can be up to a year. I've never seen a GM rule that way bc it isn't RAI clearly and RAW isn't clear. Also, monsters like demons have even better ways to control them and you can use planar Binding to force them to give to you or construct you those, and keep them on your plane without using Gate. It's probably at its best against Fey, however, since they're the most compromised by forced agreements and such, and it's basically a certianty you have their true name now. Great spell for downtime at higher levels.
As you get towards 7th level spells, have you thought any more about Mirage Arcane? I commented on your Moon Druid video that I think it's super powerful with some smart imagination, and you responded that you didn't think it could make walls because that'd be 'concealing' creatures, and you didn't think the 'physical interaction' ability of the illusion would affect objects since they don't have a sense of touch. I responded but you didn't seem to return to it, so in case it got lost in the ocean of comments or for the benefit of others here, the gist of it is: the walls argument would prevent you from creating anything that might block line of sight to anything else if that's your definition of 'conceal', and the illusion-doesn't-affect-objects argument would mean illusory hills or crevasses would have nonsensical effects on a pulled cart or dropped objects. While dynamic environmental effects like lava or rockslides aren't addressed and DMs might disallow them, I do think you can make mile-high adamantine walls and the like, just based on the logic contained in the spell (hills are implied in terrain, crevasses are explicitly mentioned, and the intention is that these things supply real collision forces---or lack-of-collision-forces, in the case of the crevasse---to both creatures and pulled carts etc). The truesight wording is unfortunately vague about whether they can choose to NOT interact with the illusion... if they can ignore it, there are some similarly nonsensical situations though (what happens if they drop/throw an item while they're inside an illusory hill?) It's too bad the developers only seemed to think of using it to affect overland travel when they made it--the implications of affecting terrain and creating structures make it the first truly godlike reality-altering spell in the game IMO.
Sorry, I respond to a lot of comments, but I miss some, and can't remember the exact nature of the interaction. I can tell you that you should be able to make Adamantine walls, and they should be able to conceal all kinds of stuff. They can't however conceal creatures, so attempting to block creatures with the walls is not going to work. As for carts etc, yes with a spell like this with quasi-real effects, some things the DM is going to have to make a call on when things get into the grey area.
For planar binding, when you drop something to 0 hp I think you can choose to deal non fetal damage and they stabilize, in one hour they regain a hit point and become conscious
@@Coid in order to scribe a scroll from a spell, you need to make an arcana check, and if you fail the check, you need a new scroll. Expertise in Arcana would help with that check.
Scribing scrolls requires money, the particular spell to be known or prepared, arcana proficiency, and widely varying amounts of time and money. No roll is needed to create spell scrolls. It’s just incredibly limited on what you can make. Rolling comes from attempting to use a spell scroll that you can only attempt if you have the spell on your class list and if it is of a higher level than the maximum level spell you can prepare or know.
Similar downtime activities and tasks are stated to be able to be broken down in increments for progress. Although it would certainly take a while to do, if given enough downtime then I think there’s wiggle room for such a task. Scribing spells into a spell book are stated to take various amounts of time and money depending on spell level, but it doesn’t state that it has to be done all at once. Hell if times a factor it might be in a wizards favor to not risk exhaustion and stretch out that spell inscription anyways. 2 hrs per spell level is a lot of time.
Regarding Dawn, I have a few thoughts, first on paper the damage is lower than say animate objects, but radiant damage of dawn is rarely resisted vs physical dmg of AO is very often resisted so the net damage is much closer. Dawns effect cant be destroyed, vs AO objects can easily be destroyed by an AOE or breath weapon negating the spell. A continuous AOE damage can generate an impressive DPR especially given the large area impacted (30ft rad is huge) unlike a single target blast like AO. Bonus action movement of 60ft is excellent although friendly fire is a negative. Half dmg on a save is also favorable vs a blast with no effect if saved. This spell seems perfect combined with force cage or other immobilizing spell. Moonbeam, is much smaller AOE with half dmg, not sure I agree that it is "better" just a lower level version.. Thanks for all of your work Treantmonk!
When you went over negative energy flood, you skipped over the part of the spell that actually makes it decent. That's giving huge temp hp to undead. I've used that to buff ghouls hp to where they're effective combatants at high levels. A necromancy schooled wizard who uses this generally have ghouls with double the hp of other ghouls and even better if aid is cast on them by the party cleric. However once you get control undead that's when it really shines. You can health buffer your high tier undead preventing their death or taking control of that zombie you just made. I won't lie though it is mostly useless when you first access it because zombies and skeletons aren't worth the health buff with the cost of the spell slot.
Something to remember with Planar Binding is that it CAN be used on defeated enemies if you remember to have your Big Stupid Fighters choose to knock out enemies when they drop them to 0 hp, rather than kill them outright. If you have them knock the creature out again before you cast the spell, the creature should generally either not wake up until about when the spell is completed or one or two rounds beforehand if I recall the rules about creatures with 0 hp that have stabilized correctly. Admittedly, using Planar Binding on such a creature will guarantee that it's hostile and will try to twist your commands, but that's just even more incentive to make sure you issue the right commands. Another point is that some creatures can probably be bargained with to mollify them for their service, especially if what you want them to do is in line with what kinds of things they would like to do anyway. For instance, thwarting evil for a Couatl or violent slaughter for most demons.
i think creation is a 5th level spell since you can generate money from nothing with it. you create either precious metals or gems and sell them. if you want to do that repeatedly without causing problems for yourself use spells like alter self to change your appearance. edit: combine that with fabricate and minting proficiency and you could "print" your own money for an hour.
@@redram9 that's not what the spell says. "Using any material created by this spell as another spell's material component causes that spell to fail." material component is a defined term and means when a spell has an 'M' in the components colomn
@@deirakos hmm. That's true! Well, the creation will still disappear when creation ends. Better hope whomever you rip off has no way of getting back at you.
@@TreantmonksTemple (i used this for reference www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume-to-weight): 5 cubic feet of gold weigh 6000 lb. the item list in the phb lists gold as 50gp per lb. that would be 300,000gp worth of pure gold for a 5th level slot. sure you have to find someone to buy it first etc etc. and all that for a 5th level spell slot and you have 1 hour to sell it. you could even go further if you create platinum instead (500gp per lb) that would be 3.3million gp for a 5th level spell slot i hope someone corrects me on this as it seems really bonkers
Wall of Force as a sphere is not going to work on many dragons... They do not fit. The creature may just REQUIRE a 10X10 for ti feet or to figure out a passage it can go through,, but when it extends its neck, tail and wings, its not fitting the sphere. dome or sphere with a 10ft radius It just shunts them out of the sphere's area.
10 ft radius is 20 feet across. A large sized creature, which is 10 feet across should fit fine unless it's neck/tail etc leave the creature's area by A LOT. The reach of the creature doesn't support that.
Here are the rankings in text format for quick reference. Red (*) - Not Recommended Orange (**) - Too Circumstantial to warrant preparation Purple (***) - Ok Spells Green (****) - Good Spells Blue (*****) - Must Have Spells Ab - Abjuration Conj - Conjuration Enc - Enchantment Evo - Evocation Ill - Illusion Necr - Necromancy Tran - Transmutation Conc - Concentration Animate Objects (Tran, Conc) (*****) (43:49) Bigby's Hand (Evo, Conc) (****) (29:51) Cloudkill (Conj, Conc) (*) (16:17) Cone of Cold (Evo) (***) Much better for an Evoker (32:48) Conjure Element (Conj, Conc) (***) or (****) for Conjurer (06:29) Contact Other Plane (Div, Ritual) (**) (19:04) Control Winds (Tran, Conc) (*) (50:44) Creation (Ill) (*) (39:19) Danse Macabre (Necr, Conc) (***) or (*****) for Necromancers (40:34) Dawn (Evo, Conc) (*) (34:06) Dominate Person (Enc, Conc) (*) or (***) for a 10th Level Enchanter (26:48) Dream (Ill) (*) (38:29) Enervation (Necr, Conc) (*) Nearly as bad as Immolation in Treantmonk's opinion (42:49) Far Step (Conj, Conc) (*) (15:14) Geas (Enc) (**) (25:43) Hold Monster (Enc, Conc) (***) or (****) for a 10th Level Enchanter (23:37) Immolation (Evo, Conc) (*) Worst 5th Level Spell in Treantmonk's opinion (35:45) Infernal Calling (Conj) (**) (13:58) Legend Lore (Div) (*) (21:01) Mislead (Ill, Conc) (***) (36:27) Modify Memory (Enc, Conc) (***) (22:48) Negative Energy Flood (Necr) (*) (42:18) Passwall (Tran) (**) (49:44) Planar Binding (Abj) (***) or (****) for Conjurer (01:20) Rary's Telepathic Bond (Div, Ritual) (****) (17:36) Scrying (Div, Conc) (**) (20:05) Seeming (Ill) (**) Better for an Illusionist (Still **) (37:36) Skill Empowerment (Tran, Conc) (*) (51:38) Steel Wind Strike (Conj) (***) Don't take if your Wizard can't handle being in melee (11:28) Synaptic Static (Enc) (****) (21:51) Telekinisis (Tran, Conc) (****) Redundancy with Bigby's Hand (46:48) Teleportation Circle (Conj, Conc) (**) (12:52) Transmute Rock (Tran) (****) (48:21) Wall of Force (Evo, Conc) (*****) (27:56) Wall of Light (Evo, Conc) (*) (34:58) Wall of Stone (Evo, Conc) (****) (31:10)
Planar Binding DOES NOT require concentration. In fact, you lose concentration while you are casting planar binding. Conjure an elemental into an inverted magic circle created by a glyph of warding and immediately start casting planar binding. Your planar binding will finish as the magic circle is running out. Have a silvery barbs prepared just in case the elemental makes their charisma save.
Yep, that's always been true. Teleportation is a great counter to most walls, including this one. Doesn't mean that Wall of Force isn't still *the* beat spell for its level. Plenty of creatures, even really intimidating ones, don't have any ability to teleport.
@@TreantmonksTemple there isn't a memory devil stateblock that was released yet ? Those are handy. Not exactly for combat but being able to erase more than a few minutes of memories is very handy
Planar Binding doesn’t require you to concentrate on it. It extends the duration of the summoning spell to match its own, and since planar binding’s duration doesn’t have concentration then the summoning spell would cease to have it as well. If it did require concentration then what would be he point in upcasting it to make it last several weeks? You can’t concentrate while sleeping.
Planar Binding doesn’t require you to concentrate on it. It extends the duration of the summoning spell to match its own, and since planar binding’s duration doesn’t have concentration then the summoning spell would cease to have it as well. If it did require concentration then what would be he point in upcasting it to make it last several weeks? You can’t concentrate while sleeping.
For animate objects given your example of the silver coins,. do you have to be within 5ft of target to use them to attack? Is that what I am understanding it as written?
I think you are under-rating Seeming and Teleportation Circle by quite a bit. Mass Disguise Self is very very useful in a lot of out of combat situations. Your party naturally gains a reputation by adventuring so being able to look like other people is a big deal. And with TP Circle you get to know 2 circles automatically from the start so as long as there is a good motivation for speeding up travel time its a good spell imo.
Where I think you can get the best bang for your buck with the Dream spell is if you're somewhat acquainted with a Beholder that you hadn't quite finished off, but likewise hadn't finished you off either. (Even better if your encounter left you with a piece of him!) Then in your downtime you can just keep casting Dream until you hit a time when he happens to be asleep (it's gotta happen sometime!) and then use their peculiar ability to reshape reality by having what you want them to dream of pop into existence. Of course, the dream could also have some strange effects as well. Best done from a safe distance (you only have to be on the same plane as the target) and then maybe follow up with a scry to see what effect your inspired dream had on the beholder. If it produced the desired effect, arrange to go pick up your winnings. If it spawned some new form of beholder, then leave the area alone.
I disagree with your opinion on Creation being terrible spell: rules as written, you can encase a enemy in a iron block with no saving throw, and let them suffocate. Or you could create a block of extremely heavy metal 20 feet above the enemy, although the DM would probably rule that a saving throw would be applicable. And you could create a adamantine weapon, which according to xanathar's, deals a crit every time it hits, automatically.
Planar Binding is really weird. You mention the "subverting orders" part, but as a dm, I feel like the "wait around for 1 hour" part makes it pretty terrible for hostile creatures. They don't die when reduced to zero; they just go back home. I'd just kill myself if I was that pit fiend.
Creation: the 1 minute cast makes for a fun encounter all by itself. And a 5 ft cube is huge for some of the materials. "Okay here's the plan: Everyone protect the Wizard during this 1 minute cast. We're gonna hop on board that pirate ship, drop a 60,000 lb block of steel 30 ft onto the deck, then we'll scavenge whatever sinks with water breathing. It's not that situations don't present themselves. Just watch a few warehouse and forklift accident videos. Drop a 5 ft cube of anything. It's interesting, and I daresay useful without really having to work too hard.
Think the claim that the Concentration is still required with Planar Binding is wrong. It changes the Duration. And Concentratioon is a subsection of Duration in the PHB. So I think it changes from like 1min (C) to 24h, not 24h (C). And in this way it makes sense that it can be in effect over a Long Rest (would be new to me that you can have Concentration while Unconcious).
Contact other plane : if you contact a god, I think you can have quite all information possible, that the master himself knows (on your enemies, spells you want, everything you're looking for). So this is extraordinary, even if the answers are limited (only "yes", "no", "perhaps", etc). So you will need more than 5 answers, to find out what you want. But I think that you have to be a diviner to use that spell, because without Potent, it's too risky if you can fail the intel roll.
Very interesting examination of 5th level spells: nevertheless, I remind you that Modify Memory (like Suggestion) can be useful in social situations if you are alone with your victim: having V and S components, other creatures will see that you are casting that spell saying weird words, and this is the opposite of beneficial!
Enervation is better than it first looks. You get half the damage in healing . But a necromancer would get 6 times the spells level in self healing aswell making it a really good spell to concentrate and keep firing it off each turn Yes I'm currently playing a necromancer and see how good it can be in the right build. Take 1 level in life cleric you will always have full health 😂
For anyone who cares, for Animate Objects, 10x tiny objects does by far the most damage on average per turn at all enemy ACs, even when factoring in chance to hit. I ran the numbers myself.
Can't we circumvent the Concentration requirement of Planar Binding by casting the Summoning spell into upcasted Glyph of Warding? Yes, we might have to do things like upcast a level 6 Major Image to prevent the creature from targeting us while we bind them, but I would think that the extra effort would be worth it, especially if we're getting a 180 day duration.
Potentially. There's a bit of complication in where the creature will appear. Technically, an area spell will centre on the creature that triggered the glyph, which means the summoned creature will appear next to the target, but in which square? Where do you put the summoning circle? Not saying there's no way to do it, but it's not as simple as it might first appear.
Everyone is talking about using creation to make money and how bad the spell is, but no-one talks about how Saruman used Creation to destroy the walls at Helm's Deep. I mean, come on guys, really?
Hi, it's worth noting that a cone area of effect becomes a circle when you fly and cast it just downward! So cone of cold casted from 60ft height becomes a circle of 60ft diameter!
Where is Wall of Ice? Our group is about to head to the fire temple portion of Princes of the Apocalypse and thinking of copying it to my character's spellbook
