D&D 5E As a DM - Your Top 3 Most Hated Spells

[Oofta]

It's mindboggling that so many GMs seem to think "surround it with fire & set a fire while nobody is watching" is A: viable when those inside can see out, leave/other than caster reenter any time, & those outside can not see in unless caster decides to make it transparent. or B: regularly a plausible idea.

Good think Daask burned down their own weapons cache while we were taking that long rest guys, good job! Good thing that Ashbound/Children of Winter cult burned down their own eldritch machine instead of finishing it, great work guys!

If you need a constant doom clock or world of nothing but tuckers kobolds for the spell becomes reasonable... It's absurdly broken. I once had 7 level 6 players think that tiny hut was good protection against a half dragon lich even after they realized that she was >2000 years old.... as written, it is unless she cast dispel magic or I give her the kind of magic Erandis should wield.... This exchange occurred minutes after they decided that a door & a tiny hut would protect them from the dhakaani artifact powered mists of ravenloft that had been getting played up for weeks.

* rather than her wanting to hire them for a "job" making killing them self defeating

Huh? So monsters should just say "Hey Bob, notice that hut over there? I was thinking maybe we should do something about it but they haven't triggered us by entering our zone so I guess we'll just leave it be."

In my campaign the dragon would spend 8 hours prepping, building traps, figuring out how to bury the hut, so on and so forth. It doesn't take tactical genius on the part of the monsters to set up adequate defenses.

 

[ChaosOS]

It's mindboggling that so many GMs seem to think "surround it with fire & set a fire while nobody is watching" is A: viable when those inside can see out, leave/other than caster reenter any time, & those outside can not see in unless caster decides to make it transparent. or B: regularly a plausible idea.

Good think Daask burned down their own weapons cache while we were taking that long rest guys, good job! Good thing that Ashbound/Children of Winter cult burned down their own eldritch machine instead of finishing it, great work guys!

If you need a constant doom clock or world of nothing but tuckers kobolds for the spell becomes reasonable... It's absurdly broken. I once had 7 level 6 players think that tiny hut was good protection against a half dragon lich even after they realized that she was >2000 years old.... as written, it is unless she cast dispel magic or I give her the kind of magic Erandis should wield.... This exchange occurred minutes after they decided that a door & a tiny hut would protect them from the dhakaani artifact powered mists of ravenloft that had been getting played up for weeks.

* rather than her wanting to hire them for a "job" making killing them self defeating

Sure, the party can absolutely see through it, but they're reduced to ranged weapon attacks while doing so. That leaves plenty of time to assemble moving sources of cover or even total cover that allow the enemy team to enclose the party (8 hours!). Furthermore, even ignoring the question of how the players got into the center of the enemy base (really, the players are on top of the eldritch machine and that's not the end of the adventure?) and then are deciding to rest up, all the factions you bring up definitely have access to people with Dispel Magic, as you even noted. The point is, there's plenty of counter options. Yes, it does stop the "a bear wanders by and attacks the camp" style encounters... But as a 3rd level spell slot or 5th level Wizard class feature, I don't see stopping random beast encounters as particularly problematic.

 

[tetrasodium]

Huh? So monsters should just say "Hey Bob, notice that hut over there? I was thinking maybe we should do something about it but they haven't triggered us by entering our zone so I guess we'll just leave it be."

In my campaign the dragon would spend 8 hours prepping, building traps, figuring out how to bury the hut, so on and so forth. It doesn't take tactical genius on the part of the monsters to set up adequate defenses.

Sure, the party can absolutely see through it, but they're reduced to ranged weapon attacks while doing so. That leaves plenty of time to assemble moving sources of cover or even total cover that allow the enemy team to enclose the party (8 hours!). Furthermore, even ignoring the question of how the players got into the center of the enemy base (really, the players are on top of the eldritch machine and that's not the end of the adventure?) and then are deciding to rest up, all the factions you bring up definitely have access to people with Dispel Magic, as you even noted. The point is, there's plenty of counter options. Yes, it does stop the "a bear wanders by and attacks the camp" style encounters... But as a 3rd level spell slot or 5th level Wizard class feature, I don't see stopping random beast encounters as particularly problematic.

you are assuming that the party is blind & not reacting to the ambush being set up around them before it can be setup. You are also assuming that just because those organizations have access that every part of it has quick access to it.
As to how they got in?... kick in the door Fireball,Fireball, smite,Flurry/stunning strike, spirit guardians>Fireball,Fireball, smite,Flurry/stunning strike, spirit guardians>take a rest right here because our highest level spell slots are drained

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Party abusing Tiny hut can be messed with if your monster roster includes a basic caster type enemy with access to mold earth to tunnel quickly or thunderclap to make so much noise that the party cannot rest!

Anyway, should my players ever abuse such spells to rest in the middle of a dungeon or lair under alert, I would just say that there's no way they are remotely ''rested'' after spending 8h in small bunker encircled by bloodthirsty goblins rattling there's swords, waiting for the spell to ends. To me, a long rest is not just ''doing the time'', you have to actually rest.

 

[ChaosOS]

you are assuming that the party is blind & not reacting to the ambush being set up around them before it can be setup. You are also assuming that just because those organizations have access that every part of it has quick access to it.
As to how they got in?... kick in the door Fireball,Fireball, smite,Flurry/stunning strike, spirit guardians>Fireball,Fireball, smite,Flurry/stunning strike, spirit guardians>take a rest right here because our highest level spell slots are drained

3rd level spells are explicitly accessible in Eberron. I can totally see where Huttted-up short rests are useful, an hour isn't very long to get reinforcements, but 8 hours is more than enough time to get any set of reinforcements within Sharn [per canon travel from one part of the city to another is an hour or so]. A party walking in with that kind of fire power is plenty of reason to pull out the big guns, and both groups have access to pretty nasty things. If there's no reinforcements available... Then hasn't the party won?

 

[Tony Vargas]

the old versions talked about extending underground & such to prevent that. The 5e version does not

To be clear, none of the old versions stopped creatures, spells or projectiles from passing through the Hut, so the fact they were spheres extending into the ground (which just seemed to be how 1e wrote such 'sphere' AEs, in general) only mattered to the things it did protect against, like heat & cold.

A key component of survival ( not the skill but continuing to live) is finding a safe place to sleep.
Fail to find it and you die.
Why penalize or ban the player's for prioritizing their resources to ensure survival? Just because you find it easier to DM?

Because what encounter (& class) balance the game is designed to deliver is based around an approximate number of resource-draining challenges (typically combats) between rests (and a number of short rests between long rests). And, it's up to the DM to force that balance point, by limiting the kinds of stories he tells, sandboxes he sets up, and/or genres he seeks to emulate. Which is tough enough, without the players having "we rest" buttons.

...yet...

Maybe there should be another thread: how many ways can you kill PCs if they cast tiny hut in a dungeon.

Right?
It seems obvious that the in-tent(pi) of Rope Trick is "take a short rest whenever you want," and L. Tiny (comfortably sleeps 9, 'tiny') Hut is the Long-rest upgrade, with M. Magnificent Mansion the delux presidential suite version (D. Instant Fortress for any lucky non-casters out there).

...so...

What? is it one of those left hand doesn't know what the right is doing moments?

OTLH, pretensions to class & encounter balance rest on long 6-8 encounter days with only 2-3 short rests among them, between precious, infrequent, long rests - especially as the party gets higher level and has more and more resources to blow through each day.
OTRH, spells like Alarm, Rope Trick, L.Tiny Hut, Teleport, and M. Magnificent Mansion seem intended to facilitate rests, making it easier and easier for the party to rest more or less at whim ('at-will' having a different meaning in common D&D usage) - especially as they get higher level and have more resources to get through each day.

 

[Nebulous]

Right?
It seems obvious that the in-tent(pi) of Rope Trick is "take a short rest whenever you want," and L. Tiny (comfortably sleeps 9, 'tiny') Hut is the Long-rest upgrade, with M. Magnificent Mansion the delux presidential suite version (D. Instant Fortress for any lucky non-casters out there).

...so...

What? is it one of those left hand doesn't know what the right is doing moments?

OTLH, pretensions to class & encounter balance rest on long 6-8 encounter days with only 2-3 short rests among them, between precious, infrequent, long rests - especially as the party gets higher level and has more and more resources to blow through each day.
OTRH, spells like Alarm, Rope Trick, L.Tiny Hut, Teleport, and M. Magnificent Mansion seem intended to facilitate rests, making it easier and easier for the party to rest more or less at whim ('at-will' having a different meaning in common D&D usage) - especially as they get higher level and have more resources to get through each day.

That's a good idea, a thread for anti-Rest DM tactics.

 

[ChaosOS]

Related to some of the other issues, I find Teleport has quite a few restrictions, but you do need to evolve your game with the assumption that players have access to those kinds of effects. Shuttling someone across a long distance is an appropriate challenge for an 8th level party but not a 13th level one, and that's fine! That's what higher level magic means!

 

[tetrasodium]

3rd level spells are explicitly accessible in Eberron. I can totally see where Huttted-up short rests are useful, an hour isn't very long to get reinforcements, but 8 hours is more than enough time to get any set of reinforcements within Sharn [per canon travel from one part of the city to another is an hour or so]. A party walking in with that kind of fire power is plenty of reason to pull out the big guns, and both groups have access to pretty nasty things. If there's no reinforcements available... Then hasn't the party won?

You do realize that there are thousands or millions of square miles that are nowhere near Sharn... Droaam, Talenta Plains, Blade desert, Xendriik, the Demon Wastes, or the mournlands just to name a few... In fact much more of eberron is nowhere near sharn than is in sharn. It's not Coruscant & not all of or every campaign takes place in one of the larger cities.

 

[Tony Vargas]

That's a good idea, a thread for anti-Rest DM tactics.

What should we call it?

DMs' Rest Home

A-Rest-ed Development

16 HR Work Day

DMs' Pace Makers?