D&D 5E Let's list the "broken" spells

ZombieRoboNinja · Aug 26, 2014

There have been various discussions floating around about individual spells or spell combinations that are inordinately powerful in 5e. I'm not talking about stuff like Metwor Swarm or Power Word: Kill, which do a bunch of damage but are obviously intended to do so; I'm looking for spells that have loopholes or other problems that allow players to achieve things they probably shouldn't. In other words, this is the stuff I'll be house-ruling for balance reasons.

1. Contagion. This is a 5th-level spell that allows you to stun-lock any target (including a legendary monster) for three rounds minimum if you manage to hit it with a touch attack and do at least a point of damage each round. By contrast, power word: stun is an 8th-level spell that stuns a target and gives them a chance to save every round.

2. Polymorph. Clearly someone screwed up the cr to level conversion, because as it is polymorph is 3x as powerful as a druid's wildshape. To be clear, this lets you turn one member of your party Ito a creature that is a tough challenge for THE ENTIRE PARTY.

3. Forcecage. It needs to be breakable from the inside, at least at level 7.

4. True Polymorph. All the imbalance of Polymorph, but more because now you can make it permanent. Got a battle in a week? That's all of your companions turned into cr20 dragons (or pit fiends or whatever).

What would you add to the list?

Gladius Legis · Aug 27, 2014

Wall of Force, which is arguably even more broken than Forcecage. Inescapable dome if you can't teleport or Dimension Door or cast Disintegrate.

kerbarian · Aug 27, 2014

Edit: ninja'd on Wall of Force

Not only is Wall of Force inescapable if you can't teleport, it also doesn't block spells. So it turns any non-caster opponent into a piñata.

DogBackward · Aug 27, 2014

Animal Shapes
No limit on the number of targets, just any number of willing creatures that can fit within 30ft. of the caster. It also lasts for 24 hours.

- Step One: Befriend a forest's worth of tiny creatures. Squirrels and whatnot. Use Speak with Animals and a lot of Persuasion checks, or whatever method you prefer to convince them to follow you.
- Step Two: You can fit about 280-some tiny creatures within the area of the spell.
- Step Three: Cast Animal Shapes. Turn all of your squirrels into flies or wasps or whatever.
- Step Four: Take your insect army into the city/stronghold/wherever you want to murder everything in sight.
- Step Five: Use an action to change yourself and all of your squirrel-flies into the biggest, badassest CR 4 beast you can find in the Monster Manual. Make sure to remain in fly form yourself and stay out of sight, since it's a Concentration spell.
- Step Six: Destroy everything.

This becomes even worse if you can befriend a bunch of flying creatures, since you can fit so many more of those into the area of the spell.

Mort · Aug 27, 2014

kerbarian said:
Edit: ninja'd on Wall of Force

Not only is Wall of Force inescapable if you can't teleport, it also doesn't block spells. So it turns any non-caster opponent into a piñata.

How does it not block spells? Specifically states nothing physical can pass through it. That includes
the effect of most spells (rays, fireball, even sound is physical so power words too.)

Honestly curious what I'm missing. Thought the control the field aspect of the spell
alone is quite potent.

Falling Icicle · Aug 27, 2014

I don't know if it really counts as "game-breaking," but there doesn't seem to be any way short of true seeing to defeat Nystul's Magical Aura. Most illusions let you make a saving throw or an Intelligence check to see through them. This spell doesn't.

kerbarian · Aug 27, 2014

Mort said:
How does it not block spells? Specifically states nothing physical can pass through it. That includes
the effect of most spells (rays, fireball, even sound is physical so power words too.)

Honestly curious what I'm missing. Thought the control the field aspect of the spell
alone is quite potent.

There are plenty of spells that take effect directly at the target. For example, you could use Chill Touch ("You create a ghostly, skeletal hand in the space of a creature within range") repeatedly until whatever's inside the bubble is dead.

Gidonihah · Aug 27, 2014

Animate Dead- If spammed you get overthetop action economy and take advantage of Bounded Accuracy to kill everything.

Also fixes I'd maybe use
Contagion: When you make the save you don't suffer the effects for that round.
Forcecage: Either add a Dexsave to avoid being trapped, or a Str check to break out (so Str equivalent to Maze)
Sleep: based off of Total HP not current HP. Or perhaps add a save of some kind.
Polymorph: Dunno, maybe Half Level= Cr?
Animate Dead: Make the bonus action command only work on Undead summoned from ONE casting at a time, as opposed to being able to command 50 skeles.

Gladius Legis · Aug 27, 2014

Gidonihah said:
Animate Dead- If spammed you get overthetop action economy and take advantage of Bounded Accuracy to kill everything.

Also fixes I'd maybe use
Contagion: When you make the save you don't suffer the effects for that round.
Forcecage: Either add a Dexsave to avoid being trapped, or a Str check to break out (so Str equivalent to Maze)
Sleep: based off of Total HP not current HP. Or perhaps add a save of some kind.
Polymorph: Dunno, maybe Half Level= Cr?
Animate Dead: Make the bonus action command only work on Undead summoned from ONE casting at a time, as opposed to being able to command 50 skeles.

Contagion and Forcecage fixes looks decent. Wall of Force needs Forcecage fix as well.

Polymorph/True Polymorph fix NEEDS to be level/3. No way that spell should be stronger than the Moon Druid's Wild Shape.

Sleep isn't even remotely broken.

Psikerlord# · Aug 27, 2014

None of these spells are broken imo. OP, but not broken. There are lots of work arounds for all of them, yes mostly magical work arounds, but that is not a problem.