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

[Charlaquin]

I don't see any major issue with counterspell either.

@Charlaquin - what do you mean by trap options? Are they traps for the player, as in the spells are actually useless? Or something else? Sorry for the confusion, but I'm not actually familiar with DnD5e.

Yeah, traps for the player. I hate it when players pick a spell or ability that they think is going to be really cool, but end up disappointed with. The spells I listed are cool in concept, but in practice are almost never useful.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Things have changed. I remember Color Spray as being one of the best low level options in previous editions. True Strike certainly had its uses too.

 

[Charlaquin]

Things have changed. I remember Color Spray as being one of the best low level options in previous editions. True Strike certainly had its uses too.

Yeah, color spray is pretty weak now. It has some niche utility early on, but it's never particularly good, and it scales poorly. Sleep has the same problem, but at least it takes opponents out of the fight instead of just hampering them. True Strike is quite possibly the worst spell in the game. See this video for a good (and entertaining) explanation why:

 

[Stormonu]

Hmm, it's been enlightening reading through this, my PCs are just getting into the range where some of these spells might start cropping up in the campaign.

These are the spell modifications I'm planning in my game, I've already used the True Strike and Shield changes.

True Strike (1st): Takes a Move Action

Shield (1st): Duration is 1 minute. Destroyed by 1 or more points of Force damage.

Counterspell (3rd): If successful, you lose your next action. If it fails, lose your next Move action.

Healing Spirit (2nd): A character can only be healed 1d6/spell level max.

Banishment (6th): Maintaining the spell not only requires Concentration, but an Attack action as well.

Leomund's Tiny Hut (3rd): The dome has AC=11 + spellcasting modifier & 50 hp, with resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, as well as bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage from magic weapons. The dome is immune to radiant, necrotic, and poison damage as well as bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage from non-magical weapons. At Higher Levels: The dome has an additional 20 hit points for each level slot above 3rd.

Otiluke's Resilient Sphere (4th): The sphere has AC=12 + spellcasting modifier and 70 hp, with resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, as well as bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage from magic weapons. The dome is immune to radiant, necrotic, and poison damage as well as bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage from non-magical weapons. At Higher Levels: The sphere has an additional 20 hit points for each level slot above 4th.

Wall of Force (5th): The wall has AC=13 + spellcasting modifier and 90 hp, with resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, as well as bludgeoning,slashing and piercing damage from magic weapons. The dome is immune to radiant, necrotic, and poison damage as well as bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage from non-magical weapons. At Higher Levels: The dome has an additional 20 hit points for each level slot above 5th.

Forcecage (7th): The cage or cube has AC=15 + spellcasting modifier and 130 hp, with resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, as well as bludgeoning,slashing and piercing damage from magic weapons. The dome is immune to radiant, necrotic, and poison damage as well as bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage from non-magical weapons. At Higher Levels: The cage or cube has an additional 20 hit points for each level slot above 7th.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

True Strike (1st): Takes a Move Action

There's no such thing as a "move action" in 5E. Same issue applies with your Counterspell change. I see what you're getting at but the way movement works in 5E this potentially has ramifications beyond what you may be considering. It also leaves True Strike as still pretty bad.

Personally my list would be:

1) Zone of Truth - Because my players love this spell more than life itself, and I am endlessly having to come up with ways to deal with it without cheating or being cheesy and that ceased being amusing some time back! "I ain't saying nothing copper!" (or "I take the fifth!" as you might say in the US) goes a long way but is boring and sometimes unconvincing when a 6'6" Dragonborn Paladin with a flaming glaive, 20 CHA and Intimidation proficiency is looming over them. On the other hand it has given me a way to deliver plot-relevant information that isn't notes/letters/etc., now that they've started using it so aggressively.

2) Find Familiar - This spell has been a pain since 4E and remains one in 5E. Familiars are quite difficult to account for, die really easily (which kind of makes everything annoying and provokes short rests), and generally make PCs take less risks without really having any interesting counter-play.

I feel like His Dark Materials might have the key here - make familiars more connected to the caster somehow, so that if they get captured or magically controlled/imprisoned/etc. that's something that is bad (killing them is too cheap/easy/boring - I don't really want to encourage that). Also something that makes it possible for enemy spellcasters, esp. those with familiar, more possible to detect familiars would be good. Stuff to consider if I do a new campaign.

3) Wish - The binary "cast an 8th level spell or be screwed" nature of Wish is not very fun. It doesn't ruin the game but it is dull.

Re: Teleport, I strongly suspect WotC considers most of the criticism of Teleport to be a feature not a problem, because 5E does not handle long-distance travel very gracefully, and in particularly it doesn't play nice with the 5-8 encounters/day balance deal. So teleporting directly to a 5-8 encounters/day location is probably fine in WotC's eyes.

Re: Counterspell, again, not a problem in my game, but it shouldn't be a spell, it should probably be a class feature, with limited uses per day (perhaps following the 1-8 1/day, 9-14 2/day, 15+ 3/day progression), probably also burning spell slots.

 

[Gadget]

As a player and DM, I don't mind some spells that are a little off balance that are clearly world building or for a specific purpose, but I dislike 'trap' options. The former could be something like Illusory script (though I do change the duration "until dispelled"), while the latter category has, unfortunately, too many members (True Strike, Witch Bolt, Vampiric Touch, etc).

Then there are the ones that are inexplicably good for their level, like Tiny Hut, Banishment, Healing Spirit, etc.

I don't really play at levels where Wish and the like come into play, so I can't comment much, other than to say I (obviously) don't really have a problem with it just duplicating any 8th level or lower spell in a pinch.

I'm not a big fan of Counterspell, as I don't see a need for it in the game and it creates a minigame within the game of counters and counters, much like ye old psionic combat of yesteryear. As for the classic 'Wizard duel' one could argue that casting Protection from Elements or Absorb Elements is a good way to counter fireball and such and makes it more exiting. I suppose, if necessary, you could just ready Dispel Magic to serve the same purpose. As it stands now, it is too easy for Abjuration specialists and Bards who pick it up to never (or rarely) have to spend more than a third level slot on a counterspell.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yeah, traps for the player. I hate it when players pick a spell or ability that they think is going to be really cool, but end up disappointed with. The spells I listed are cool in concept, but in practice are almost never useful.

The other half of it is design intent. A TTRPG trap option - like the 'Timmeh Cards' of M:tG - is designed to appeal to some players, but under-delivers not just on the high expectations created by that appeal, or the few/one OP-alternatives/obvious-best, but relative to ordinary choices with the same 'cost.'

And, spells are hardly the worst trap choices in the game - you get to know a fair number of spells, and choose which to cast each round, so one or two disappointing turkeys in that list won't devastate your effectiveness - and, with the new UA options, that'll be even less of an issue, and eventually anyone will winnow out the traps & chaff from their spells known.

 

[uzirath]

2. Healing Spirit. If I had not nerfed this one per Crawford's guidance (total healing capped at 2x casting modifier), would've been totally banned. I have awesome players, because the guy who bought the book and thought about using it said "what can we do to make this happen, because it looks too powerful." Bless you my child.

I love it when the whole group is on the same page like this.

 

[Charlaquin]

The other half of it is design intent. A TTRPG trap option - like the 'Timmeh Cards' of M:tG - is designed to appeal to some players, but under-delivers not just on the high expectations created by that appeal, or the few/one OP-alternatives/obvious-best, but relative to ordinary choices with the same 'cost.'

You’re confusing cards designed to appeal to players with the psychographic profile commonly referred to as “Timmy” with skill testing cards. Not all cards designed to appeal to Timmy are skill testers, and there are skill testing cards designed to appeal to players of all psychographic profiles (yes, even Spike.) I’m also not convinced that WotC intentionally designs trap spells in the same way they intentionally design skill testing cards. They wouldn’t be able to serve the same design purpose in D&D as they do in Magic.

And, spells are hardly the worst trap choices in the game - you get to know a fair number of spells, and choose which to cast each round, so one or two disappointing turkeys in that list won't devastate your effectiveness - and, with the new UA options, that'll be even less of an issue, and eventually anyone will winnow out the traps & chaff from their spells known.

Very true.

 

[Tony Vargas]

You’re confusing cards designed to appeal to players with the psychographic profile commonly referred to as “Timmy” with skill testing cards.

I'm just alluding to Monte Cook's "Ivory Tower Game Design"

Magic also has a concept of “Timmy cards.” These are cards that look cool, but aren’t actually that great in the game. The purpose of such cards is to reward people for really mastering the game, and making players feel smart when they’ve figured out that one card is better than the other. While D&D doesn’t exactly do that, it is true that certain game choices are deliberately better than others.

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I’m also not convinced that WotC intentionally designs trap spells in the same way they intentionally design skill testing cards. They wouldn’t be able to serve the same design purpose in D&D as they do in Magic.

It seems a similar purpose. Spells known could be likened to a deck. You include a spell(card - heck, there are even spell cards) that seems cool, it fails you, you swap it out for something better going forward.