D&D 5E What, if anything, bothers you about certain casters/spells at your table?

[Zardnaar]

First I agree about the save or suck spells, but I think that is a different issue.

These spells though, Guidance, Comp Lnag, Goodberry, Pass w/out trace, tiny hut, summon steed, find familiar, augury, invisability, spider climb, locate ____ and I am sure more with a bit of effort of thought, can all completely end the exploration issues of a game... if you play a spell caster with creativity even druidcraft thaumaturgy, prestidigitation shape water move earth can all do huge things at will

Exploration still works imho.

Survival aspects of it don't.

Kinda noticing the difference in my C&C Greek game. PCs had to return to town after depleting their resources. Hoping for no or weak random monsters.

 

[Distracted DM]

It's been like that since 5E launched.

Downside of toll the dead is that it's necrotic damage and undead are common foes.

Yeah, but undead are immune to poison- some undead are immune to necrotic, but not stuff like skeletons.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Boring high level spells. I’d rather have fewer high level spells.

Like very aspect of D&D , I want more messiness and less symmetry. That has a subtle effect on most Spellcasting.

Shield. It’s a must-have which I’m actually fine with, but it should scale in scope. I’d be fine with a smaller AC bonus in order to get there, but it should become you and allies within 10ft with a level 3 slot, and go up by 5ft per spell slot level above 3rd.

Conjure Spells but not for the normal reasons. IMO it should be just like it is in terms of what it summons, but all creatures you control have one group action, which becomes AoE rather than single target as a result, and should have 1 shared HP pool.
There, I fixed summoned creatures.

Divination spells mostly suck? Like unless it’s “lemme look at something I can physically see”, none of them are good? Also why is there a spell and a school named Divination??

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, but undead are immune to poison- some undead are immune to necrotic, but not stuff like skeletons.

True I'm playing CoS and gavent memorized stuff anyway. Rarely xast cantrips.

 

[grimmgoose]

• from a design perspective, I don't like "I win" buttons - either in encounters or in social/environment perspectives. Situations/encounters that can be solved with a single spell slot is, to me, unfun. (could I just "create better encounters"? sure - but why make it hard on the DM?)
• I don't like that the spellcasting system in 5E breaks classes down into "haves" and "have nots".
• from a narrative perspective, I prefer magic to be dangerous; from a worldbuilding perspective, I like that magic is often the source of the world's troubles
• I don't like that I have to play lawyer with the spells. I don't like that a spell can be so complicated that it takes 3-5 paragraphs to explain

I generally just don't like how 5E handles spells at all - and that's not even talking about the more broken spells. For me though, the worst kinds of spells aren't the OP ones - they are the ones that ruin the flow of the table.

 

[Minigiant]

Non-combat and control spells are still designed as if we were in a "Prepare into slots" system not the "Spontaneous Casting" system.

In the past, noncombat and control took up actual slots that combat spells could not be perpared into afterwards. So they had to be broken to justified that preparing them meant 1 less fireball in a game with no cantrips and rituals.

With cantrips, rituals, and spontaneous casting, a lot of spells should have been nerfed hard.

 

[Quickleaf]

Also now that I'm home and can both type and look up spells let me put up a full list (note I'm not saying all these spells are a problem and have to be changed. I'm just saying that the way they are currently implemented means they probably make the game weaker/less fun overall)

Guidance- Feels Mandatory to have so someone is going to end up sacrificing a cantrip slot anytime someone can take it.
Toll the Dead- So much better then every other attack cantrip that the only time someone takes a different one is if they are being suboptimal for flavor.
Bane- The Dm already has enough to keep track of and adding a minus d4 to 1 to 3 random enemies in a big encounter just adds more on top of it, especially if your doing theatre of the mind.
Comprehend Languages - While interesting having a first level ritual spell that allows understanding of any language locks out a lot of different types of mysteries and adventures. "Hey look here's this ancient dead language gone from this world for a 10,000 years. Let's get literally any first year wizard student to translate it for us."
Goodberry - If your trying for any sort of survival game good luck. A first level druid can feed your entire party indefinitely.
Shield - already gone into it at length
Healing Spirit - the Base spell pretty much reads "everyone heals to full every time this is cast out of combat" if you're trying for sort of resource attrition or trying to balance daily encounters at all this spell just kinda tells you to go screw yourself.
Hold Person - Not a fan of save or suck spells. Using them on PC's just locks one player out of the game. Using them on bosses leads to a either a player feeling they wasted their turn or an anticlimatic fight (which can be fun once or twice but will quickly get boring).
Pass without a trace - Adding a static +10 to anything with bounded accuracy should never happen.
Spiritual Weapon - Should probably be concentration, very close to the "every cleric has to take this" category.
Summon X - All the summon spells are bad. At best you have a player who has the stat block ready and plays the creature quickly and it only makes combat slightly slower and more complicated due to an additional combatant. More often its "Wait let me look up the wolf stat block. Ok I get 16 so ill be rolling 32 extra d20 a turn and...."
Suggstion - The spell is to imprecise and can easily lead to frustration if you and the DM have different interpretations/expectations.
Counterspell- Mandatory
Leomund's Tiny Hut - If your playing a survival based game just cuts out part of it.
Spirit Guardians - Like spiritual weapon it gets close to the Mandatory to take it state, though I don't think this one is as bad.
Banishment - Save or suck
Animate Object - has some of the same issues as summon monsters though slightly better because the stat blocks are simpler and in the spell.
Wall of Force - A spell that can trap a single/group of creatures with no save and no way around it unless they have a high level caster is not a fun spell.
Heroes feast - I'm not a fan of straight immunity especially to something as common as poison. For a lot of high level parties unless the GM has been giving you lots of outlets to spend treasure or been stingy with the treasure this just means the entire party is immune to poison for the rest of the campaign.
Forcecage - See wall of force


p.s. I will also mention that me/my group has never actually allowed silvery barbs so I can't speak to how disruptive it is.

Strongly seconded. I house rule most of these.

Also, I would love to see more diverse cantrip spells in the game, especially stuff that's not blaster-y.

 

[Zardnaar]

Non-combat and control spells are still designed as if we were in a "Prepare into slots" system not the "Spontaneous Casting" system.

In the past, noncombat and control took up actual slots that combat spells could not be perpared into afterwards. So they had to be broken to justified that preparing them meant 1 less fireball in a game with no cantrips and rituals.

With cantrips, rituals, and spontaneous casting, a lot of spells should have been nerfed hard.

That and wonky saves are also a thing.
DC 15 or higher on +1 saves or lower are fairly brutal. They "fixed" them by save every round which is mostly a formality if it's a bad save or you're dead.

Hated it in 3E hated it here and 4E threw the baby out with the bath water.

Fixed I think.

1. Save or suck spells should be unreliable. Want to use them debuff the target. Or.....


2. Resort to spells that require attack rolls or direct damage. Or 3.

3. Spells with no save or attack required. Eg magic missile. Low damage or some other effect eg debuff.

So something like a reverse guiding bolt or 3.5 SR avoiding spells that dealt less damage like fireball.

Hold person. Hit target with deguiding bolt then throw hold person or fumble if it fails 75% of the time.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Non-combat and control spells are still designed as if we were in a "Prepare into slots" system not the "Spontaneous Casting" system.

In the past, noncombat and control took up actual slots that combat spells could not be perpared into afterwards. So they had to be broken to justified that preparing them meant 1 less fireball in a game with no cantrips and rituals.

With cantrips, rituals, and spontaneous casting, a lot of spells should have been nerfed hard.

Or just made ritual casting a way for non-casters to use magic, not a way to avoid the spell slot system.

 

[Hussar]

Or just made ritual casting a way for non-casters to use magic, not a way to avoid the spell slot system.

Too many 4e cooties for that to get a pass.