D&D 5E [5e] D&D 5e good spell combos

[Bupp]

My druid stumbled upon a nice combo this weekend. Spike growth. 20 foot radius becomes difficult terrain and causes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet moved through. Then thunderwave. On a failed save, pushed back 10 feet. That's an extra 4d4 damage.

 

[Riley37]

Spike growth works well with any of several ways to impose movement, including Thorn Whip.

If you cast spike growth, you can then maintain concentration while wild shaping into a bear, Grapple (bear hug), and drag or shove the foe across the spiky terrain.

If you have an ally with another area-effect-over-time spell, you can combo for a dilemma: they can either stay in the Cloud of Daggers, or they can cross the Spike Growth to leave the Cloud. A pool of flaming oil could also create a dilemma, but I think it would burn away the spike growth.

However, do NOT use Spike Growth against sarcastic British vampires from the "Buffy" universe.

 

[kerbarian]

Find Familiar + anything requiring a spell attack e.g. Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost and Witch Bolt.

How? Summon an owl as your familiar. It can't attack but it can use the Help action. Order it to fly in, Help and fly out. Its movement away doesn't provoke because it has Flyby. Ready your spell for when your owl Helps and you'll get advantage. Best of all, you can do it every round.

Why do you need to ready your spell for this? On its turn, your familiar distracts the target (help action to help you with an attack), then you attack it on your turn with advantage. The help action says "If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage."

Sadly, that restriction about the first attack roll only makes this not work as well for the casters that would otherwise gain the most from it: Chain pact warlocks with invisible familiars and using Eldritch Blast.

 

[Zander]

Why do you need to ready your spell for this? On its turn, your familiar distracts the target (help action to help you with an attack), then you attack it on your turn with advantage. The help action says "If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage."

You can indeed do it without readying, but there are a couple of downsides to doing it that way that you need to weigh against the risk of readying.

The first consideration is that if you don't ready and just let your familiar in to help, it can't move away on its go and therefore get out of the opponent's melee reach. A familiar that moves in, takes the help action and moves out before the wizard acts won't be helping the wizard. The rules imply very strongly that the helper has to be within 5' of the opponent at the time the attack is made. It's a very soft DM who allows the effects of help to linger after the helper has moved more than 5' away.

The second consideration is that without readying, the familiar may help one of the wizard's allies rather than the wizard himself depending on the initiative order. Let's say that the initiative order is:

22. Monster
16. Familiar
11. Fighter (a member of the wizard's party)
4. Wizard

The monster moves up to the fighter and attacks. The familiar then flies in and helps. The fighter then attacks and gets advantage from the help provided by the familiar being "the first attack roll". The wizard then makes a regular, not advantaged attack. Of course there are ways around this problem such as the fighter readying until after the wizard has attacked but that's a bit of a pain when, for example, there isn't just one fighter but the whole party and other opponents between the familiar and the wizard in the initiative order.

 

[KarinsDad]

Enlarge/Reduce (used to reduce an enemy), then web.

Both of these are concentration spells IIRC, so you'd need two casters.

 

[Sacrosanct]

If you cast spike growth, you can then maintain concentration while wild shaping into a bear, Grapple (bear hug), and drag or shove the foe across the spiky terrain..

And you'd take damage too. That doesn't seem so smart.

 

[doctorhook]

Both of these are concentration spells IIRC, so you'd need two casters.

We had two casters, but good point. I'd forgotten about that.

 

[kerbarian]

The rules imply very strongly that the helper has to be within 5' of the opponent at the time the attack is made. It's a very soft DM who allows the effects of help to linger after the helper has moved more than 5' away.

Interesting -- I hadn't read it that way at all. I thought of it as: the familiar zips in and jabs at the monster's head to distract it, then zips away. A second later when the Fire Bolt comes in, the creature is blindsided because it's still watching the familiar to make sure it doesn't come back and poke its eyes out.

The second consideration is that without readying, the familiar may help one of the wizard's allies rather than the wizard himself depending on the initiative order.

That's one I wasn't sure about. The help action is described as helping a specific creature with a task or attack, i.e. the familiar is helping the caster make an attack, and the caster ("your ally" vs. "a creature") is the one who can get advantage on an attack. However, the fluff description of feinting or distracting the creature implies that anyone attacking that creature could get the benefit, not just the creature you're helping. One way to think about it would be that the familiar is drawing the monster's attention specifically away from the caster or timing a feint knowing when the caster is planning to attack. I could see it being ruled either way, but it doesn't particularly make the tactic less effective if someone else in the party gets the benefit.

 

[Riley37]

What if the familiar prepares a readied action to help, at the right time?

or does it have the problem of needing both Speed and an action?

 

[Riley37]

And you'd take damage too. That doesn't seem so smart.

If you drag, yes; if you shove, no.

There are times when losing HP from your bear shape, is well worth doing the same damage to your target. In a duel, if your bear shape runs out of HP at the same time as your foe runs out of HP, you win.

Another scenario: the foe has a Concentration effect running, and you want to inflict damage as many times as possible, to force Concentration checks.