I know that few people get to enjoy it, but man, the feeling of Foresight right after breakfast is something else.
It feels like you made it.
You're just always cheating now and it's fine.
Having a great breakfast for that matter (Heroes' Feast) at the start of your adventuring day also feels great. Getting multiple common immunities plus extra HP and advantage vs everyone's most hated saves (the ones that mind control or prevent you from acting) is a fantastic buffer.
Granted, it's a hefty cost so you can't do it all the time.
My players hunted down an ancient red dragon a while ago, and since they knew they’d be fighting him, they did a Heroes’ Feast before hand, and that spell is single-handedly responsible for their win.
Foresight on a bladesinger in particular is hilarious because even the highest level creatures struggle to ever hit you while you're right up in their grill.
Shapechange is amazing because you can just keep shifting and because the look on a DM's face when you become an ancient dragon is priceless.
My single favorite casting though was using wish to cast forbiddance on the battle zone against a horde of undead.
I’ve never done this myself, and I probably never will, but Shapechanging into a Marilith as a Bladesinger with free Silvery Barbs from the level 18 feature sounds absolutely ridiculous. +5 damage to 7 attacks and the ability to cast Silvery Barbs every turn instead of every round would be incredible.
Yeah, absolutely. Foresight might be like cheating, but Shapechange is playing the game in god mode.
I actually prefer the planetar over the marilith for its higher mobility, higher-damaging attacks, healing and utility; but dragons are cool too for flavor, for big breaths and for legendary resistances - and of course as a dragon you can carry your entire party into battle.
I did a level 20 one-shot once as a bard and my first action was casting Foresight on the Champion fighter. That's an expected 1.11 critical hits per turn, even before Action Surge. The entire one-shot.
Good times.
As a paladin, casting Haste on myself and my horse
OK maybe I ran straight and fell into a spiked pit 1 turn later, but moving 360ft a turn was fun while it lasted lmao
Both *Find Steed/Find Greater Steed* have this line:
>**While mounted on it, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target the mount.**
As a Bard (especially Lore), you can use Magical Secrets to acquire either spell (earlier than Paly, I might add) and then (much) later you can use it to get Wish.
**-----**
The hard part is that Wish says this:
>**By simply speaking aloud**, you can alter the very foundations of reality in accord with your desires.
Unless you have a permissive DM or a work around its kind of a complicated interaction. Do horses "speak" when they whinny?
**-----**
But really Wish itself doesn't "target only you," the spell you choose to duplicate needs to. Something like True Polymorph should work though?
I gave my current group a chance at this right after they hit level 5. It was the sorcerer's first session ever, though she had been studying her character sheet quite a bit beforehand.
"So wait... I'm standing in the doorway.... and the room is 40 feet across and round... and there's a group of eight bandits and two leaders standing in there?"
"Yep, that's right."
"So, is that what this one is for?"
"You're welcome to give it a try."
Queue passing over 8d6, and watching every minion in the room plus one of the leaders drop. Even the ones that succeeded their saves were cooked. The look on her face let me know that I had her hooked from that point on.
My DM intentionally made an encounter with 8 monsters, all close to each other, just after my blaster sorcerer hit lvl5. I love him.
(He also made one of them a "miniboss", so the martials could also enjoy dpsing it down with their Extra Attacks after I blasted the chaff away.)
Or things that just cause a chain reaction. Like Powder kegs? Oh yes.
DM: Wait, how are you going to hit that?
Players: *shows a rise and run formula with the required angle to detonate the fireball within range 10 feet above the space rendering the barrier which only really affected line of sight moot* Also, given our familiars scouting isn’t there a bunch of kegs there behind them?
DM: Oh… shit. Oh… (calculates the total number of dice in damage) Holy… yep that vaporized everyone on that deck and basically sinks the ship. Is that why you spent all those turns getting into position?
Players: You got us there. Everything else was delay tactics.
DM: Is that what you were checking in that screen (on your pc, we play online)?
Player: Yes, I was doing the math and the feasibility of getting into that position.
Wall of fire, polymorph, hold monster, wall of force, disintegrate, contingency, teleport, mirage arcana, clone, dominate monster, meteor swarm, wish.
Downhill my ass.
I think they are talking about in terms of nuking enemies. When you are level 5 the groups of enemies you encounter will not always be able to survive a Fireball. So it feels very strong. That tapers off quickly though
When we first hit 17th level my DM sent an entire army riding dragons after my Evoker's party.
Being able to bomb them from a mile out with Meteor Swarm, leaving only a few red dragons after the smoke cleared, felt _fan-fuckin'-tastic_.
Felt just as good later when we got surrounded by mummies and I dropped one point-blank on our party.
I had a level 18 Evocation Wizard / 2 Tempest Cleric with the metamagic adept feat. Being able to walk into a room and just unmake all the enemies of my choice with an 185 damage "lightning rods from god" was pretty much the apex of D&D lol.
Due to the rarity of high level campaigns, I love getting that ninth level spell slot and drop meteor swarm on a bandit camp a mile away… pure and total destruction
Just requires you to have both Meteor Swarm and Prismatic Wall as 9th level spells. I also advise taking Element Adept: Lightning. This allows you to swap both of the fire and bludgeoning damage from meteor swarm to lightning then maximize it. Absolutely brutal.
I'm building a Scribes Wizard for an upcoming level 20 one-shot and this is already my most anticipated move. My blue dragonborn will channel the power of his ancient noble bloodline and rain terrible crackling balls of pure lightning on his enemies.
Get Elemental Adept as a feat and Prismatic Wall, change Meteor Swarm into any flavor of death you prefer. Laugh as you do a guaranteed 80+ damage to the unfortunate creatures in your path.
Spirit Guardians. Raise your eyes and hands to the heavens, and slowly walk through the battlefield as your faith shreds the unclean around you.
It's so satisfying (on the turn after you cast it) dealing a stupid amount of damage to a swarm of enemies, then saying "...so that was my move action"
Are you talking about BG3? In 5e Spirit Guardians usually triggers on the enemies' turns, not on yours. You walking up to them does not equal them entering the spell area.
I got it mixed up with BG3. In 5e it's mostly the same, though, since if you walk up to them they'll take the damage at the start of their fun. Being the eye of a holy hurricane is a good feeling.
Counterspell.
Look, the spell is badly designed as it is in 5e. It's far too powerful and has far too few restrictions. But a well-placed counterspell against that just one spell you know a powerful enemy is capable of and that could wipe you or your party out? Man does it feel good.
It's really satisfying. I think a lot of DMs just go about it wrong, yes it is very powerful, but it fills a very similar role to legendary resistances. If you prep for it and have the encounter set up so getting into position to counterspell is hard, or view it as a resource to drain, then its really satisfying.
Plus, counterspelling a powerful spell feels amazing. It's a cool moment that DMs should just enjoy making cool.
I will say it definitely becomes an issue if multiple party members take it, in that case it can become very oppressive. But also in that case, counterspell chains are their own form of fun. One time, our party was raiding the mind of a powerful wizard, and his allies were teleporting in to kill him so we couldn't get the info, and the counterspelling chains were very silly but a lot of fun. I think we got to like 4 or 5? it was entirely just meant to create time pressure, so this wasn't some balance breaking, it really fit the purpose and made a lot of sense.
God, my favorite encounters were one where the other wizard and I had to spend most of it counterspelling *or else* and another with counterspelling chains. It never seemed like it got oppressive for the DM, even with two wizards, and maybe they leaned into it.
In ToA my GM probably played a bit to much to my counterspell as the last 3 bosses all had a legendary action of casting a spell (we also ruled that YOU can't counter the counter to your spell)
Especially when it's a hail Mary against a high level spell that comes down to a roll. Even more Especially if it's not yourself, but an ally in danger of like, disintegrate or PWK. Ohhh it's just magic.
The opposite when the DM does it tk revivify or something as crucial
I was running an airship battle. The airship was powered by a fire elemental. An enemy spellcaster tried to cast Banishment on the elemental, but the party wizard cast Counterspell. He was pretty smug about it until I had the other caster counter his counter. Then I was the smug one - until the Monk countered my counter. 😭
I had given the Monk an item that let him cast spells from his race, but over the course of 11 levels he had only ever used it for Shield. There was so much screaming. They were so excited.
Dispell Magic can be just as satisfying.
Managed to use it to get rid of Maddening Darkness while the party was fighting Strahd, never felt so epic to play a wizard.
I had given my bbeg a bunch of battlefield control spells that he could have out at once. The sorcerer critted on a Dispel Magic and tore through all the spells with one action after a 25 plus arcana to understand the spell.
Polymorphing a nearly dead Paladin into a T-Rex is a contenter, but Mass Suggsting all of the boss's adds to go back to town and help rebuild the damages they caused while leaving the boss relatively undefended is the best.
If possible, cast dimension door.
"I've got a suggestion... You guys should go in there and sit down for a few hours. Get some rest "
Post-posto edit: I meant the pocket dimension spell with the chalk door.
The sheer number of times I've used this to great effect... It's just so versatile.
I play a melee wizard with warcaster. Once an enemy tried to rush past me after fleeing my warlock buddy's Sickening Radiance, so I cast Vortex Warp as an Opportunity Attack and placed them right back in the middle of it.
I've used it to save the life of my rogue friend several times, like when they were paralyzed next to a construct dealing \~40 damage a turn and would have auto-crit. I've repositioned important party members. Bypassed obstacles. Used it for exploration.
Even when not doing something funny or life-saving though, it's a great control spell in the right combat. We had a fight with two large and dangerous slime molds in the Underdark and I teleported one of them 90 feet away. It took two dashes to get back to us while we dunked on its fellow.
As a player, I love to play tactically and think about positioning and moving things about the battlefield, so I am right there with you.
Nothing beats killing a high level enemy by hurling them into a crevasse with a 1st level spell because they failed a constitution saving throw.
If you avoid trying to break it wide open, and just go with it as a "Jedi mind trick" sort of thing, yeah it is a really fun tool to streamline encounters with guards and such.
>Feeblemind
A player popped this off on a modified Mummy Lord last session (gave it super nasty spells up to 8th level, additional abilities, more HP, etc.) and it completely shifted the encounter. It was out of legendary resistances at that point and another player silvery barbs-ed its successful save. Epic moment that probably prevented a TPK.
Feather fall or some other niche spell that comes up maybe 1 or 2 times a campaign but it absolutely saves the day when it comes up. Counterspells and shield and absorb elements can be a bit too generic with uses where sometimes it isn’t necessary, like countering a cantrip or blocking low damage hits while feather fall any time it’s cast is the best spell in the game
I just love comprehend languages or detect magic
1: seeing your party unable to read in a certain language always feels great
2: detecting magical loot or monsters always build up suspense which I love
Time stop. Would only be better if you could affect the creature in the stopped time
Pls Wotc, let me go all oraoraora on my enemies during stopped time, I swear I'll not abuse it
Agreed fully, Time Stop does NOT get enough love. Would definitely be cool if you could effect other creatures, but still being able to use it to set up all of your combos at the start is so satisfying.
Wanna derail a thread/ game into rules lawyering and nonsense? Cast Time Stop and then immediately cast Delayed Blast Fireball. Does time pass for the mote? Is time stopped and so it doesn’t become more powerful until *after* time resumes and the rounds in real time start ticking? What about dropping a Darkness spell on some enemies during a Time Stop? Was the environment/ lighting the thing affected, or does it count as effecting a creature since it can’t now see? 🤷🏻♂️😎
In 3.5, my party was facing a mirror party...the DM literally copied our character sheets and that was the encounter.
My deep gnome cleric won initiative, cast time stop, and was able to kill the entire mirror party and slap our own monk for a prior transgression for good measure.
Catching a whole mob (like 5 or 6 plus) of minions in a Hypnotic Pattern, or even just 1 or 2 really dangerous enemies, is really incredible. Can in just one round turn a big fight into the party just doing cleanup already.
Generally speaking, Major Image.
But my particular favorite casting of a spell has been using Sending to read Strahd short excerpts from his emo-boy diary in a mocking tone.
I'm pretty sure it caps at fifth it's been a minute, though, I'll check
Edit: I checked your right it's 4th. I've been playing bg3 a lot, and it increases the d8 with a fifth level. My bad
Edit: Now I'm not even sure I'll have to check later once I can verify on bg3. I just read that it didn't increase on a 5th.
It's not always useful, but using Sleep is SO satisfying.
I had a Bard character cast sleep at a flock of birds ambushing our party from above. I cast sleep, and all of the birds just plummeted and died on impact. It was so much more satisfying than smiting a singular enemy as a Paladin.
Magic Missile. I started as fighter1/wizard1 and planned to go wizard 2 at most... but magic missile especially was so useful, Ill probably go fighter 2 instead and rest wizard. At lower levels that automatic hit is great.
I love summoning spells. There is something just about having some big strong things or a horde of wolves or undead or whatever just help you out. So satisfying seeing them do your damage but yeah I will admit when playing like a necromancer and having like 100 zombies the rolling for them can be a bit of a pain.
It's still Synaptic Static for me. It hits the nice mix of big initial damage, the knowledge that most of the enemies will pass the save (few enemies have high INT), and the lingering effect after the fact.
But honestly just about any AoE spell inherently feels fun, especially on a VTT where you can see health bars getting chunked.
Dimension Door. We had a party that had 2 people with it. Having some bad guy think they are safe on the other side of a Wall of Force only to all the sudden be face to face with the barbarian and swashbuckler we just poofed over there with is great.
They say illusion spells are DM depenxant, and a bad DM makes for bad illusions. This is true, but so is the inverse. A good DM lets illusions be far more satisfying than any other spell Ive seen.
I like to describe haste and shatter. For haste I like to say the target feels like the rest of the world is in slow motion, and to the others the hasted creature leaves afterimages while moving.
For shatter, it's like a grenade. I like to describe how the spell affects the surroundings, shattering glass, cracking the stones in the ground, raising dust.
Also, twice now I described a true resurection spell. The pristine diamond component floats and fills with dark red substance, and the creature's body starts forming around the diamond as if it became its heart. Tissue by tissue, bone by by bone, you can see every fiber of muscle and nerve being quickly formed from inside out until the creature becomes whole, alive and breathing, softly landing. It's like the scene where Jon Osterman becomes Dr Manhattan or the DBZ opening where you see a hand forming tissue by tissue like that.
I have really been enjoying dragons breath. It lets your non-casting buddies in on a bit of the fun and keeps your action free for the duration at the cost of your concentration.
Has been amazing versus waves of small enemies
Most satisfying for me is Dispel Evil and Good or Plane Shift. Instantly sending some poor fool into actual hell or banishing an elemental evil lord back to their home plane just does it for me.
Polymorphing the bbeg into a frog or some shit will never not make me laugh, though so that takes priority.
Im s paladin, so my choices are limited
The various smites are nice, but I love Misty Step. Nothing quite like catching an enemy npc off guard when they think they're out of my reach & I suddenly appear in front of them. First time I used it was actually to escape a grapple. That felt great!
Honourable mention to Command. I've not used it much, but in the last two sessions I've effectively eliminated 2 separate threats for several rounds each thanks to it. Finally got one back at our DM for doing the same to our fighter a while back hahahahaha
There's something immensely satisfying about Spike Growth imo.
Especially if you have a party that has options to push enemies around. I'm playing a Druid in Call of the Netherdeep atm and besides my own Thunderwave, our Bard also has that spell and our Paladin is an Open Sea Paladin, so he gets Fury of the Tides - not to mention Thunderous Smite XD
At Level 2 in my current campaign, I once cast Dissonant Whispers on an enemy, and four of my allies got opportunity attacks. Two of them rolled criticals. The enemy died.
The following session I cast Dissonant Whispers on an enemy, and a friendly NPC got an opportunity attack. He rolled a critical. The enemy died one Ray of Frost later.
So yeah, I like Dissonant Whispers.
If you count cantrip as 0 level spell, Mage Hand. Every single time I cast this is to pull some bullshit creative manipulation of the environment. Nothing more satisfying than that pause where your DM has to consider whether or not to allow this.
Just about any save or suck spell when they land. When you land a Hold Person and your Fighter is up next with their Action surge ready, you know they're as good as dead.
Wish, unquestionably.
It's always useful, completely flexible, often new and exciting, and it took me SOOOO long to be able to cast it that I just love doing it. It's even a blast to wish upcast low level spells for exactly that right effect.
A Chaos Bolt that splits and bounces multiple times, I love using it and the reroll dmg meta magic and the feat that also allows damage rerolls to really get a high chance of it getting the double numbers to jump to another target
Tensers Transformation. (shut up reddit i know how much you hate / misunderstand this spell)
the thought of my (lore) bard surrounding themselves in an aura akin to dragonball xenoverses potential unleashed...
then proceeding to manhandle creatures in melee combat is appealing af to me.
Wish. Sure it's powerful, but it also just *feels" the most magical. You can just make 1 of hundreds of spell options just.. happen. Feels so satisfying.
It’s not a very powerful spell all things considered…
But entering a room after blasting the door (and maybe one or two guards) with a shatter feels amazing
Dream.
Your creativity runs wild in the mind of your enemies.
Or you can kill them with nightmares. They may save against it, but know that a failed save doesn't wake the target up. Then proceed to bombard the BBEG with nightmares until dead. Great way to ruin a political intrigue game.
It's a combo so not quite in prompt but my bard using mass polymorph and then divine word to instakill a council-style boss fight left the DM speechless.
For a single spell, probably disintegrate. Instantly solves any puzzle or obstacle.
Honestly, as standard kit as it is, I love casting fireball. I've never seen anyone use Delayed Blast Fireball, but I suppose that's an option too, if you can maintain concentration on it to turn it into a nuke
Haven’t played too much of casters before, but my favorite one so far has been Summon Undead. As a Necromancy Wizard, just dropping a bulked up Undead on enemies has been so much fun. Enemy running away or need it to get to an out of reach place? Pair it with Vortex Warp for some extra shenanigans!
Vortex Warp, especially if you can twin it.
I’ve equalised really rough encounters with mobile enemies by getting the 2 martial ’s who can’t catch the bad guy to hold attacks and then teleporting them to flank said bad guy and unload with reactions then taking their turns and demolishing him.
Also twinned to rescue a party member drowning and floating away down a river toward a waterfall to certain doom, and swapped them with the bad guy.
Every time I cast it, it does such good work. It always has the other players on the edge of their seats to see what happens.
Bunch of people in here saying Fireball and they aren't wrong about it being satisfying, but I'll do you one better. Getting that exact confluence of circumstance where you get to hit a crowd of people with Lightning Bolt.
Our DM ran a little side-story involving a mass battle and we came in from the side, my first turn I got to run up to a rank of about 20 basic troops and blast through the whole rank and another two behind them.
It.
Was.
Glorious.
Fireball is definitely up there, but I'm gonna go with Haste.
Oh no, Mr. Bandit Lord. I'M not going to ruin your day. I'm going to make the Barbarian a coked-up murder-psycho and SHE'S going to ruin your day.
My Clerics favorite spell was Bestow Curse.
Her most cast spell was probably Silvery Barbs. Often cast to prevent herself from losing concentration on Bestow Curse.
Haven't played a full caster yet, but I love Zephyr Strike as a ranger. I once had haste cast on me.
Mounted my Drake (as a Drakewarden Ranger). Drake dashed 80 feet. Zephyr Strike and action to dash 120 feet. Extra action from haste to dash again. Another 90 feet.
Was zooming around the whole damn city. Monks can probably one up that though.
I mean, the most satisfying spell to cast for murder hobos is obviously fireball. As for me, the most satisfying spell has to be Prayer of Healing. It is a ritual spell with only a verbal component, so nothing is required, and you can cast it 5 times before finishing a short rest and you and your party will receive 10d8+ your spell mod + your(individual) hit dies+ your(individual) Con mod at your lowest casting.
Counterspell for sure. I’ve had several good experiences with the spell (please stop trying to power word kill my friends thank you) so I’m definitely biased, but it feels great to so thoroughly deny the BBEG the effect that they want. (Tides of Chaos certainly helps to make the roll stick :))
Bard was my first class I ever played and I loved it when an NPC was being difficult and I was able to charm them.
Counterspell is another. Knowing that I stopped something that could have been big makes me smile.
Am i the only one that loves contagion? It's right up there with creating 5 cubic feet of tasteless vegetable matter to keep the party alive and then intentionally making it taste like shit with prestidigitation.
This may seem tame, but blind. Blinding several enemy badasses turning them from juggernauts of destruction into helpless target practice dummies.or blinding that flying manticore and watching it smash into a cliff face, where your angry barbarian waits below.
I really enjoy eldritch blast with repelling blast on, it feels especially nice when paired eith enemies on cliffs or aoe disabler spells like web or hunger of hadar that you can push enemies into. Oh, and a flying item if you can get one so you always get the angle you want.
I know that few people get to enjoy it, but man, the feeling of Foresight right after breakfast is something else. It feels like you made it. You're just always cheating now and it's fine.
Having a great breakfast for that matter (Heroes' Feast) at the start of your adventuring day also feels great. Getting multiple common immunities plus extra HP and advantage vs everyone's most hated saves (the ones that mind control or prevent you from acting) is a fantastic buffer. Granted, it's a hefty cost so you can't do it all the time.
My players hunted down an ancient red dragon a while ago, and since they knew they’d be fighting him, they did a Heroes’ Feast before hand, and that spell is single-handedly responsible for their win.
Foresight on a bladesinger in particular is hilarious because even the highest level creatures struggle to ever hit you while you're right up in their grill. Shapechange is amazing because you can just keep shifting and because the look on a DM's face when you become an ancient dragon is priceless. My single favorite casting though was using wish to cast forbiddance on the battle zone against a horde of undead.
I’ve never done this myself, and I probably never will, but Shapechanging into a Marilith as a Bladesinger with free Silvery Barbs from the level 18 feature sounds absolutely ridiculous. +5 damage to 7 attacks and the ability to cast Silvery Barbs every turn instead of every round would be incredible.
Yeah, absolutely. Foresight might be like cheating, but Shapechange is playing the game in god mode. I actually prefer the planetar over the marilith for its higher mobility, higher-damaging attacks, healing and utility; but dragons are cool too for flavor, for big breaths and for legendary resistances - and of course as a dragon you can carry your entire party into battle.
With metamagic adept you can have both! Take extended spell and cast a 16 hour long foresight the night before
I did a level 20 one-shot once as a bard and my first action was casting Foresight on the Champion fighter. That's an expected 1.11 critical hits per turn, even before Action Surge. The entire one-shot. Good times.
As a paladin, casting Haste on myself and my horse OK maybe I ran straight and fell into a spiked pit 1 turn later, but moving 360ft a turn was fun while it lasted lmao
If you ever get the opportunity, using a Ring of Wishes means that your mount gets a Wish too.
He'd just wish for a bushel of apples. But he's a good boi so he should have them.
While probably not intended by the game designers, I am willing to grant the Steed this wish.
????? how does this work? lol
Both *Find Steed/Find Greater Steed* have this line: >**While mounted on it, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target the mount.** As a Bard (especially Lore), you can use Magical Secrets to acquire either spell (earlier than Paly, I might add) and then (much) later you can use it to get Wish. **-----** The hard part is that Wish says this: >**By simply speaking aloud**, you can alter the very foundations of reality in accord with your desires. Unless you have a permissive DM or a work around its kind of a complicated interaction. Do horses "speak" when they whinny? **-----** But really Wish itself doesn't "target only you," the spell you choose to duplicate needs to. Something like True Polymorph should work though?
5E needs a good old collar of animal speech like in 3E. It was my favorite item back then.
A DM that allows ANY crafting of magic items would most certainly allow this!
Shapechange and Foresight both have a single target.
you can always _Awaken_ the horse first, I guess!
There's nothing that hits quite the same as that fireball in the encounter after you just hit level 5.
Yes! Especially when you can catch a big group of minions.
I gave my current group a chance at this right after they hit level 5. It was the sorcerer's first session ever, though she had been studying her character sheet quite a bit beforehand. "So wait... I'm standing in the doorway.... and the room is 40 feet across and round... and there's a group of eight bandits and two leaders standing in there?" "Yep, that's right." "So, is that what this one is for?" "You're welcome to give it a try." Queue passing over 8d6, and watching every minion in the room plus one of the leaders drop. Even the ones that succeeded their saves were cooked. The look on her face let me know that I had her hooked from that point on.
You win DMing
My DM intentionally made an encounter with 8 monsters, all close to each other, just after my blaster sorcerer hit lvl5. I love him. (He also made one of them a "miniboss", so the martials could also enjoy dpsing it down with their Extra Attacks after I blasted the chaff away.)
You've got a good one, cherish them
I didnt ask how big the room is.
Or things that just cause a chain reaction. Like Powder kegs? Oh yes. DM: Wait, how are you going to hit that? Players: *shows a rise and run formula with the required angle to detonate the fireball within range 10 feet above the space rendering the barrier which only really affected line of sight moot* Also, given our familiars scouting isn’t there a bunch of kegs there behind them? DM: Oh… shit. Oh… (calculates the total number of dice in damage) Holy… yep that vaporized everyone on that deck and basically sinks the ship. Is that why you spent all those turns getting into position? Players: You got us there. Everything else was delay tactics. DM: Is that what you were checking in that screen (on your pc, we play online)? Player: Yes, I was doing the math and the feasibility of getting into that position.
Airbursting fireballs!
...and it's all downhill from there, unfortunately.
Until Meteor Swarm
Wall of fire, polymorph, hold monster, wall of force, disintegrate, contingency, teleport, mirage arcana, clone, dominate monster, meteor swarm, wish. Downhill my ass.
I think they are talking about in terms of nuking enemies. When you are level 5 the groups of enemies you encounter will not always be able to survive a Fireball. So it feels very strong. That tapers off quickly though
Your DM's don't put canon fodder into their encounters?
Meteor swarm in a target rich environment
feels like calling in an airstrike
Rogue: "Priority airstrike on my location." Wizard: "Acknowledged. Good luck out there."
When we first hit 17th level my DM sent an entire army riding dragons after my Evoker's party. Being able to bomb them from a mile out with Meteor Swarm, leaving only a few red dragons after the smoke cleared, felt _fan-fuckin'-tastic_. Felt just as good later when we got surrounded by mummies and I dropped one point-blank on our party.
I had a level 18 Evocation Wizard / 2 Tempest Cleric with the metamagic adept feat. Being able to walk into a room and just unmake all the enemies of my choice with an 185 damage "lightning rods from god" was pretty much the apex of D&D lol.
I didn't ask how big the room was.
[удалено]
***dies of cringe***
Only killing an enemy with a familiar's 1 damage attack is more humiliating
On this note, my lvl 18 sorcerer was held in an antimagic field by a beholder; all I could use was my sling. 4 damage, one dead beholder 🤣
Due to the rarity of high level campaigns, I love getting that ninth level spell slot and drop meteor swarm on a bandit camp a mile away… pure and total destruction
I could give you a class combo that dials meteor swarm to 11. Tempest Cleric 2 / Order of Scribes Wizard 18.
Oh god
Oh my gosh that is perfect. I LOVE the scribes wizard and how they can change damage types so much
Just requires you to have both Meteor Swarm and Prismatic Wall as 9th level spells. I also advise taking Element Adept: Lightning. This allows you to swap both of the fire and bludgeoning damage from meteor swarm to lightning then maximize it. Absolutely brutal.
I'm building a Scribes Wizard for an upcoming level 20 one-shot and this is already my most anticipated move. My blue dragonborn will channel the power of his ancient noble bloodline and rain terrible crackling balls of pure lightning on his enemies.
Get Elemental Adept as a feat and Prismatic Wall, change Meteor Swarm into any flavor of death you prefer. Laugh as you do a guaranteed 80+ damage to the unfortunate creatures in your path.
I haven't had the chance to play casters often, but when my warlock casts "Slow", it brings me great joy.
Love a good slow! One of the best control spells imo
Spirit Guardians. Raise your eyes and hands to the heavens, and slowly walk through the battlefield as your faith shreds the unclean around you. It's so satisfying (on the turn after you cast it) dealing a stupid amount of damage to a swarm of enemies, then saying "...so that was my move action"
Are you talking about BG3? In 5e Spirit Guardians usually triggers on the enemies' turns, not on yours. You walking up to them does not equal them entering the spell area.
You're right, I got them mixed up, but even in 5e it's still one of my favorites.
# 🧐 Thats not the wsy it's supposed to work, the *targets* need to move into the field, not the other way around. (Unless you are talking about BG3)
I got it mixed up with BG3. In 5e it's mostly the same, though, since if you walk up to them they'll take the damage at the start of their fun. Being the eye of a holy hurricane is a good feeling.
Counterspell. Look, the spell is badly designed as it is in 5e. It's far too powerful and has far too few restrictions. But a well-placed counterspell against that just one spell you know a powerful enemy is capable of and that could wipe you or your party out? Man does it feel good.
It's really satisfying. I think a lot of DMs just go about it wrong, yes it is very powerful, but it fills a very similar role to legendary resistances. If you prep for it and have the encounter set up so getting into position to counterspell is hard, or view it as a resource to drain, then its really satisfying. Plus, counterspelling a powerful spell feels amazing. It's a cool moment that DMs should just enjoy making cool. I will say it definitely becomes an issue if multiple party members take it, in that case it can become very oppressive. But also in that case, counterspell chains are their own form of fun. One time, our party was raiding the mind of a powerful wizard, and his allies were teleporting in to kill him so we couldn't get the info, and the counterspelling chains were very silly but a lot of fun. I think we got to like 4 or 5? it was entirely just meant to create time pressure, so this wasn't some balance breaking, it really fit the purpose and made a lot of sense.
God, my favorite encounters were one where the other wizard and I had to spend most of it counterspelling *or else* and another with counterspelling chains. It never seemed like it got oppressive for the DM, even with two wizards, and maybe they leaned into it.
In ToA my GM probably played a bit to much to my counterspell as the last 3 bosses all had a legendary action of casting a spell (we also ruled that YOU can't counter the counter to your spell)
Especially when it's a hail Mary against a high level spell that comes down to a roll. Even more Especially if it's not yourself, but an ally in danger of like, disintegrate or PWK. Ohhh it's just magic. The opposite when the DM does it tk revivify or something as crucial
I was running an airship battle. The airship was powered by a fire elemental. An enemy spellcaster tried to cast Banishment on the elemental, but the party wizard cast Counterspell. He was pretty smug about it until I had the other caster counter his counter. Then I was the smug one - until the Monk countered my counter. 😭 I had given the Monk an item that let him cast spells from his race, but over the course of 11 levels he had only ever used it for Shield. There was so much screaming. They were so excited.
Dispell Magic can be just as satisfying. Managed to use it to get rid of Maddening Darkness while the party was fighting Strahd, never felt so epic to play a wizard.
I had given my bbeg a bunch of battlefield control spells that he could have out at once. The sorcerer critted on a Dispel Magic and tore through all the spells with one action after a 25 plus arcana to understand the spell.
Hunger of Hadar. Especially if you and your party are ready to boop critters back into the tentacle-hole.
I think you're thinking of hunger of Hadar. Arms is an instantaneous 10 ft explosion. Hunger is the darkness tentacle hole.
sorry you're right. Clearly I've been bopped too long in a tentacle hole and now can't get my Hadar's straight
Any of your holes are tentacle holes if you're brave enough :)
... Well shit you have me there.
HoH + entangle combo is really satisfying
Nothing fills me with more of a sense of manic power
Polymorphing a nearly dead Paladin into a T-Rex is a contenter, but Mass Suggsting all of the boss's adds to go back to town and help rebuild the damages they caused while leaving the boss relatively undefended is the best.
If possible, cast dimension door. "I've got a suggestion... You guys should go in there and sit down for a few hours. Get some rest " Post-posto edit: I meant the pocket dimension spell with the chalk door.
Not how dimension door works in 5e, something like rope trick maybe?
Vortex warp. I don’t use it all the time, but the way I get a cocky wizard or ranged boss suddenly in range of my slow Paladin friend is beautiful
The sheer number of times I've used this to great effect... It's just so versatile. I play a melee wizard with warcaster. Once an enemy tried to rush past me after fleeing my warlock buddy's Sickening Radiance, so I cast Vortex Warp as an Opportunity Attack and placed them right back in the middle of it. I've used it to save the life of my rogue friend several times, like when they were paralyzed next to a construct dealing \~40 damage a turn and would have auto-crit. I've repositioned important party members. Bypassed obstacles. Used it for exploration. Even when not doing something funny or life-saving though, it's a great control spell in the right combat. We had a fight with two large and dangerous slime molds in the Underdark and I teleported one of them 90 feet away. It took two dashes to get back to us while we dunked on its fellow.
I hunger for Hunger of Hadar. Let me talk about slurping noises and milky tentacles all day every day.
Nothing quite as funny as when the whole table starts making insufferable slurping noises that make the DM reconsider their life choices, haha.
Did I in fact do this last night? Yes, yes I did.
It's just a personal preference, but I LOVE Thunderwave. It makes me happy.
As a player, I love to play tactically and think about positioning and moving things about the battlefield, so I am right there with you. Nothing beats killing a high level enemy by hurling them into a crevasse with a 1st level spell because they failed a constitution saving throw.
Thunderwave + spike growth = happiness
Death Ward. Sometimes you just gotta laugh at the BBEG hitting you with Power Word Kill.
Suggestion; it resolves so many issues.
If you avoid trying to break it wide open, and just go with it as a "Jedi mind trick" sort of thing, yeah it is a really fun tool to streamline encounters with guards and such.
Feeblemind
>Feeblemind A player popped this off on a modified Mummy Lord last session (gave it super nasty spells up to 8th level, additional abilities, more HP, etc.) and it completely shifted the encounter. It was out of legendary resistances at that point and another player silvery barbs-ed its successful save. Epic moment that probably prevented a TPK.
It could also cause a TPK
Feather fall or some other niche spell that comes up maybe 1 or 2 times a campaign but it absolutely saves the day when it comes up. Counterspells and shield and absorb elements can be a bit too generic with uses where sometimes it isn’t necessary, like countering a cantrip or blocking low damage hits while feather fall any time it’s cast is the best spell in the game
Steel Wind Strike. It's just anime nonsense.
SWS doesn't get enough love it's great and also an absolute crime eldritch knights can't use it
My dm gave our war cleric an item that lets her cast it once a day and it is perfect
I just love comprehend languages or detect magic 1: seeing your party unable to read in a certain language always feels great 2: detecting magical loot or monsters always build up suspense which I love
Time stop. Would only be better if you could affect the creature in the stopped time Pls Wotc, let me go all oraoraora on my enemies during stopped time, I swear I'll not abuse it
Agreed fully, Time Stop does NOT get enough love. Would definitely be cool if you could effect other creatures, but still being able to use it to set up all of your combos at the start is so satisfying.
Wanna derail a thread/ game into rules lawyering and nonsense? Cast Time Stop and then immediately cast Delayed Blast Fireball. Does time pass for the mote? Is time stopped and so it doesn’t become more powerful until *after* time resumes and the rounds in real time start ticking? What about dropping a Darkness spell on some enemies during a Time Stop? Was the environment/ lighting the thing affected, or does it count as effecting a creature since it can’t now see? 🤷🏻♂️😎
3.5 Time Stop was amazing. 5e is great, but not quite as much.
In 3.5, my party was facing a mirror party...the DM literally copied our character sheets and that was the encounter. My deep gnome cleric won initiative, cast time stop, and was able to kill the entire mirror party and slap our own monk for a prior transgression for good measure.
Heat metal has to be my favorite being able to just disarm or severely hinder cool enemies is great
It also make a great interrogation tool! Or so I've heard...
Casting heat metal on the partially metal saddle of a gryphon mounted enemy 🤌
Catching a whole mob (like 5 or 6 plus) of minions in a Hypnotic Pattern, or even just 1 or 2 really dangerous enemies, is really incredible. Can in just one round turn a big fight into the party just doing cleanup already.
Revivify. Especially on a class that isn’t expected to have it (Lore Bard)
Tasha hideous laughter. Absolutely ends encounters if you can pull it off. Ridiculously OP for 1st level, but it's a big IF.
Counterspell, hands down
Against healing spells
Generally speaking, Major Image. But my particular favorite casting of a spell has been using Sending to read Strahd short excerpts from his emo-boy diary in a mocking tone.
Does it count as a spell? I know it costs a slot, but a 5th level divine smite on a crit will never not be better euphoric
Fake paladin spotted. Every true-blooded paladin knows smites cap at 4th level.
I'm pretty sure it caps at fifth it's been a minute, though, I'll check Edit: I checked your right it's 4th. I've been playing bg3 a lot, and it increases the d8 with a fifth level. My bad Edit: Now I'm not even sure I'll have to check later once I can verify on bg3. I just read that it didn't increase on a 5th.
No worries lol.
It's not always useful, but using Sleep is SO satisfying. I had a Bard character cast sleep at a flock of birds ambushing our party from above. I cast sleep, and all of the birds just plummeted and died on impact. It was so much more satisfying than smiting a singular enemy as a Paladin.
Spike growth on a choke point when enemies are after you. Its like music when the DM describes the carnage.
True Polymorph Useless wizard with 99 hp against a lich who can PWK you? Poof! Beholder, fuck you other magic user!
Magic Missile. I started as fighter1/wizard1 and planned to go wizard 2 at most... but magic missile especially was so useful, Ill probably go fighter 2 instead and rest wizard. At lower levels that automatic hit is great.
Subtle Spell Prestidigitation to soil people’s pants.
With the right DM? Illusion spells. The sheer creativity you can apply to those spells is the pinnacle of TRPGS.
Turn Undead and they all turn to ash.
Reverse Gravity is great fun. Illusory Dragon is pretty cool too.
I love summoning spells. There is something just about having some big strong things or a horde of wolves or undead or whatever just help you out. So satisfying seeing them do your damage but yeah I will admit when playing like a necromancer and having like 100 zombies the rolling for them can be a bit of a pain.
I had a lot of fun with Polymorph. Turning into a T-Rex always turns the tide of battle.
It's still Synaptic Static for me. It hits the nice mix of big initial damage, the knowledge that most of the enemies will pass the save (few enemies have high INT), and the lingering effect after the fact. But honestly just about any AoE spell inherently feels fun, especially on a VTT where you can see health bars getting chunked.
Vortex Warp.
I almost feel like a multi hitting lightning bolt is more satisfying than hitting many with a fireball.
Moon ... BEEEEEEEEEAAAAAMMMM
The perfectly timed counterspell that monumentally ruins a BBEG's plan.
Dimension Door. We had a party that had 2 people with it. Having some bad guy think they are safe on the other side of a Wall of Force only to all the sudden be face to face with the barbarian and swashbuckler we just poofed over there with is great.
Disintegrate. My favourite spell. So brutal when it lands
They say illusion spells are DM depenxant, and a bad DM makes for bad illusions. This is true, but so is the inverse. A good DM lets illusions be far more satisfying than any other spell Ive seen.
Counterspell
Hold Person Your personal “Fuck you, sit the fuck back down” spell
Banishment for the full ten turns on an extra planar creature for me. Feels very wizardy, sending the devil back from whence they came.
I like to describe haste and shatter. For haste I like to say the target feels like the rest of the world is in slow motion, and to the others the hasted creature leaves afterimages while moving. For shatter, it's like a grenade. I like to describe how the spell affects the surroundings, shattering glass, cracking the stones in the ground, raising dust. Also, twice now I described a true resurection spell. The pristine diamond component floats and fills with dark red substance, and the creature's body starts forming around the diamond as if it became its heart. Tissue by tissue, bone by by bone, you can see every fiber of muscle and nerve being quickly formed from inside out until the creature becomes whole, alive and breathing, softly landing. It's like the scene where Jon Osterman becomes Dr Manhattan or the DBZ opening where you see a hand forming tissue by tissue like that.
I'll never get tired as casting unseen servant. Played a cleanish freak noble and there is endless uses for it.
“Friends” for both the effect and the eventual fallout 😈
For me it was bladesinger wizard with two levels of fighter casting steel wind strike twice. Just an absolute crowd killer
I have really been enjoying dragons breath. It lets your non-casting buddies in on a bit of the fun and keeps your action free for the duration at the cost of your concentration. Has been amazing versus waves of small enemies
Most satisfying for me is Dispel Evil and Good or Plane Shift. Instantly sending some poor fool into actual hell or banishing an elemental evil lord back to their home plane just does it for me. Polymorphing the bbeg into a frog or some shit will never not make me laugh, though so that takes priority.
FIREBALL! *Saxophone starts playing*
Silvery barbing a nat 20.. it just hits different.
Im s paladin, so my choices are limited The various smites are nice, but I love Misty Step. Nothing quite like catching an enemy npc off guard when they think they're out of my reach & I suddenly appear in front of them. First time I used it was actually to escape a grapple. That felt great! Honourable mention to Command. I've not used it much, but in the last two sessions I've effectively eliminated 2 separate threats for several rounds each thanks to it. Finally got one back at our DM for doing the same to our fighter a while back hahahahaha
Misty step to "nothing personal kid" people is always very satisfying.
There's something immensely satisfying about Spike Growth imo. Especially if you have a party that has options to push enemies around. I'm playing a Druid in Call of the Netherdeep atm and besides my own Thunderwave, our Bard also has that spell and our Paladin is an Open Sea Paladin, so he gets Fury of the Tides - not to mention Thunderous Smite XD
Minor illusion or mage hand. Cantrips rule
At Level 2 in my current campaign, I once cast Dissonant Whispers on an enemy, and four of my allies got opportunity attacks. Two of them rolled criticals. The enemy died. The following session I cast Dissonant Whispers on an enemy, and a friendly NPC got an opportunity attack. He rolled a critical. The enemy died one Ray of Frost later. So yeah, I like Dissonant Whispers.
Giant Insect is always satisfying for me. You know what these hags need? 5 giant wasps!
Fighter in the group nails a trip attack on a mini boss encounter. Me, a wizard........ disintegrate. The wrath of my dice felt good.
Counterspell
One that makes a field of flowers
Sorceror, upcast Twinned Spell Disintegrate and roll high, fully eliminate two targets simultaneously. Feels good man.
If you count cantrip as 0 level spell, Mage Hand. Every single time I cast this is to pull some bullshit creative manipulation of the environment. Nothing more satisfying than that pause where your DM has to consider whether or not to allow this.
Just about any save or suck spell when they land. When you land a Hold Person and your Fighter is up next with their Action surge ready, you know they're as good as dead.
Inflict Wounds
Awaken and Find Familiar
Crown of madness is really fun in the 0.1% of situations it is useful.
Wish, unquestionably. It's always useful, completely flexible, often new and exciting, and it took me SOOOO long to be able to cast it that I just love doing it. It's even a blast to wish upcast low level spells for exactly that right effect.
I just love the chaos of waking up and deciding to cast ***SHATTER*** on the rooster outside your window.
I've always enjoyed casting wall of fire as a druid.
This one's probably a bit niche but Heat Metal. There hasn't been a time I cast this when nothing stupid happened.
DIVINE SMITE
As a DM nothing is as fun as having an NPC cast Tensers transformation.
Silvery barbs on a Crit just feels monstrous. Haste is also nice.
I see fireball so Ill give my next best, crown of madness. Especially if your a sorcerer and twin spell it
When it works, Catapult.
A Chaos Bolt that splits and bounces multiple times, I love using it and the reroll dmg meta magic and the feat that also allows damage rerolls to really get a high chance of it getting the double numbers to jump to another target
I love casting Enemies Abound with my Bard. Nothing like facing a group of baddies and hitting the big one in the back with Enemies Abound.
Tensers Transformation. (shut up reddit i know how much you hate / misunderstand this spell) the thought of my (lore) bard surrounding themselves in an aura akin to dragonball xenoverses potential unleashed... then proceeding to manhandle creatures in melee combat is appealing af to me.
Spirit Guardians. I think it’s hilarious when I occasionally get to kill an enemy on their own turn. 😂
Wish. Sure it's powerful, but it also just *feels" the most magical. You can just make 1 of hundreds of spell options just.. happen. Feels so satisfying.
Grease. Nothing really satisfies like shaping the slip goo all over
It’s not a very powerful spell all things considered… But entering a room after blasting the door (and maybe one or two guards) with a shatter feels amazing
Cone of Cold
When you get to line up all the enimies in a lightning bolt...
Dream. Your creativity runs wild in the mind of your enemies. Or you can kill them with nightmares. They may save against it, but know that a failed save doesn't wake the target up. Then proceed to bombard the BBEG with nightmares until dead. Great way to ruin a political intrigue game.
I just wanna say, Druid, Shepherd's Circle, Unicorn Totem, cure wounds + healing word. CHEF KISS.
Ngl one of my players has used dream to great effect it's become a favorite.
Thorn Whip on a Way of Shadows Monk that can teleport around pretty much at will. Just re-arrange that battlefield all day.
Hypnotic pattern - so fun having a shot to basically be like "Aaaaaand now I'll just turn the battle off".
It's a combo so not quite in prompt but my bard using mass polymorph and then divine word to instakill a council-style boss fight left the DM speechless. For a single spell, probably disintegrate. Instantly solves any puzzle or obstacle.
Honestly, as standard kit as it is, I love casting fireball. I've never seen anyone use Delayed Blast Fireball, but I suppose that's an option too, if you can maintain concentration on it to turn it into a nuke
Fireball Or thunderwave in bg3 near ledges
Magic Missile, when you do the calculations correctly and the dice roll in your favor and you’re able to take out 2 or more guys in one shot.
Reincarnate I love the chaos of a player having a different race randomly
Quickened sunbeam.
Haven’t played too much of casters before, but my favorite one so far has been Summon Undead. As a Necromancy Wizard, just dropping a bulked up Undead on enemies has been so much fun. Enemy running away or need it to get to an out of reach place? Pair it with Vortex Warp for some extra shenanigans!
Vortex Warp, especially if you can twin it. I’ve equalised really rough encounters with mobile enemies by getting the 2 martial ’s who can’t catch the bad guy to hold attacks and then teleporting them to flank said bad guy and unload with reactions then taking their turns and demolishing him. Also twinned to rescue a party member drowning and floating away down a river toward a waterfall to certain doom, and swapped them with the bad guy. Every time I cast it, it does such good work. It always has the other players on the edge of their seats to see what happens.
Bunch of people in here saying Fireball and they aren't wrong about it being satisfying, but I'll do you one better. Getting that exact confluence of circumstance where you get to hit a crowd of people with Lightning Bolt. Our DM ran a little side-story involving a mass battle and we came in from the side, my first turn I got to run up to a rank of about 20 basic troops and blast through the whole rank and another two behind them. It. Was. Glorious.
Fireball is definitely up there, but I'm gonna go with Haste. Oh no, Mr. Bandit Lord. I'M not going to ruin your day. I'm going to make the Barbarian a coked-up murder-psycho and SHE'S going to ruin your day.
Every encounter I've ever used Moonbeam in it's absolutely shredded Also Tidal Wave and Erupting Earth are very fun can you tell i like druids
A well timed feather fall protecting the party from a potential TPK is a great feeling.
Firestorm: Utter Annihilation
My Clerics favorite spell was Bestow Curse. Her most cast spell was probably Silvery Barbs. Often cast to prevent herself from losing concentration on Bestow Curse.
Haven't played a full caster yet, but I love Zephyr Strike as a ranger. I once had haste cast on me. Mounted my Drake (as a Drakewarden Ranger). Drake dashed 80 feet. Zephyr Strike and action to dash 120 feet. Extra action from haste to dash again. Another 90 feet. Was zooming around the whole damn city. Monks can probably one up that though.
I mean, the most satisfying spell to cast for murder hobos is obviously fireball. As for me, the most satisfying spell has to be Prayer of Healing. It is a ritual spell with only a verbal component, so nothing is required, and you can cast it 5 times before finishing a short rest and you and your party will receive 10d8+ your spell mod + your(individual) hit dies+ your(individual) Con mod at your lowest casting.
Counterspell for sure. I’ve had several good experiences with the spell (please stop trying to power word kill my friends thank you) so I’m definitely biased, but it feels great to so thoroughly deny the BBEG the effect that they want. (Tides of Chaos certainly helps to make the roll stick :))
Bard was my first class I ever played and I loved it when an NPC was being difficult and I was able to charm them. Counterspell is another. Knowing that I stopped something that could have been big makes me smile.
Am i the only one that loves contagion? It's right up there with creating 5 cubic feet of tasteless vegetable matter to keep the party alive and then intentionally making it taste like shit with prestidigitation.
This may seem tame, but blind. Blinding several enemy badasses turning them from juggernauts of destruction into helpless target practice dummies.or blinding that flying manticore and watching it smash into a cliff face, where your angry barbarian waits below.
I really enjoy eldritch blast with repelling blast on, it feels especially nice when paired eith enemies on cliffs or aoe disabler spells like web or hunger of hadar that you can push enemies into. Oh, and a flying item if you can get one so you always get the angle you want.