D&D 5E Is Careful Fear and Shadow Sorcerer's Hound of III Omem Broken?

[Hohige]

In one campaign, I created a Shadow Sorcerer with Careful Spell and Subtle Spell and DM put us in a dueling arena.

The Shadow Sorcerer simply won every fight, extremely easily.

With The Hound of III Omem as bonus action and Careful Fear as action.
The enemy was simply wtih disadvantage against sorcerer's spells and constantly taking damage from The Hound each turn.
The enemy simply had no chance.
He was frightened and I created extra Hound per turn and attacked freely per turn. 3 Hounds is so insane, damage, pack taticks and knock prone.
If the enemy tries to cast a spell, Subtle Counterspell simply nullifies the enemy
The enemy was devoured for 1 minute.
And this is even better in a party, that simply Careful Fear and Careful Hypnotic Patter were relentless that is party friendly.

Is this combo broken?

 

[Nebulous]

What level was the character

 

[Hohige]

What level was the character

7

 

[Nebulous]

I am absolutely no authority on this. I haven't seen a sorcerer PC in a long time and I always DM and don't play PCs. Offhand I would say it is a great combo, but conditional and limited to how many sorcery points you have to pull off consistently. But I'm curious to see what more knowledgeable people have to say.

 

[Hohige]

I am absolutely no authority on this. I haven't seen a sorcerer PC in a long time and I always DM and don't play PCs. Offhand I would say it is a great combo, but conditional and limited to how many sorcery points you have to pull off consistently. But I'm curious to see what more knowledgeable people have to say.

I want more knowledgeable people too. It's basically the best save or die spell at low level with disadvantage rolls.

 

[MarkB]

I'm not an expert on Sorcerers either, but a couple of things come to mind.

First, Fear causes enemies to dash away from you each turn, which means that in two turns they'll likely be out of range for you to send Hounds at them. A Hound that's already been summoned would still pursue its target, but if you've got multiple opponents some of them are going to get away.

Also, note that your Hound can't keep up with a dashing target if their speed is 30 feet or more. Yes, it has a speed of 50 feet, but it specifically can only use its action to attack its target, so it cannot take the Dash action.

Second, at 3 Sorcery points a pop, those Hounds aren't cheap. I assume you're banking SPs in advance to pull this off, otherwise you'd need to spend your bonus action every couple of rounds re-stocking them by burning spell slots.

Third, the wording of Hound of Ill Omen is a little ambiguous. It doesn't outright say you can't have multiple hounds, but it all seems to be written with the assumption of there being one hound.

 

[Gadget]

Well, I am no expert either, but--as I read it--a 7th level Sorcerer has 7 Sorcery Points. Calling forth the Hound of Ill Omen cost 3 Sorcery Points. Careful Spell metamagic on the fear spell cost one Sorcery Point. So already the Sorcerer is down to 3 of his/her daily Sorcery Points. That leaves enough points to create/summon one additional Hound, but no points to use on a Subtle Counterspell. And that is still only two Hounds, not three. Unless they are using a bonus action on their turn to burn spell slots for Sorcery Points (and they must be burning some significant slots, and not using that bonus action to create additional Hounds) I don't see where all the Sorcery Points are coming from.

In addition, this is quite a nova tactic, better hope there is no additional need for the rest of the day. It is also worth pointing out that D&D is not really designed around arena style set ups, as I understand it.

Edit: I agree with @MarkB above, who posted while I was composing my own response. It does seem to be written with the assumption that there is only one hound at a time, though I will admit that it does not come right and say this.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It sounds fairly broken for a one on one arena battle with no place to dash to or break line of sight. In a typical adventuring situation against multiple enemies this is more often the "split the party" spell if you try to exploit it beyond a couple rounds.

 

[Hohige]

It sounds fairly broken for a one on one arena battle with no place to dash to or break line of sight. In a typical adventuring situation against multiple enemies this is more often the "split the party" spell if you try to exploit it beyond a couple rounds.

I believe this spell is even stronger in a party, because careful fear affects only enemies in the middle of a frantic battle and enemies let everything they hold fall (No weapons and shields).

Also Careful Hypnotic Pattern is so amazing.

 

[auburn2]

I have never played that but it does not seem that powerful. A lot of creatures are immune to fear and those that don't can try to break sight and get another save. RAW the person subject to fear has to take the dash action unless there is nowhere to run. So if there is nowhere to run (as I would assume it would be in an arena) he can take any action, and he can always move on his own (as long as he does not move towards the sorcerer) and take bonus actions and reactions. That adds up to being able to break sight for many characters and being able to outrun the hound for others.

Also the hound only has 3hp so a reaction or bonus attack like hellish rebuke, spiritual hammer, polearm master or a battlemaster reposte that lands will take care of it pretty quickly. If it is a battle against a number of foes I would rule that people get OAs on it as well as it moves past them to go after its target.

Like I said I never played it so maybe I am missing it.