D&D 5E What to do about Hypnotic Pattern?

[THEMNGMNT]

I had a similar issue with my lore bard for a couple levels. Honestly, I struggled from about 5th through 7th level to properly challenge the characters. I was still throwing a bunch of hobgoblins at them and thinking that would be a fair fight. Um, nope. When I got better at selecting level-appropriate foes and putting them in tactically challenging environments, a lot of problems went away. Including hypnotic pattern. Also, I just got comfortable with the idea that spellcasters have "I win" buttons that they can pres a couple times per adventuring day. Win some, lose some. There are always more monsters...

 

[SkidAce]

If I was dealing with a bard using hypnotic pattern the most effective strategy would likely be to have ranged attackers able to attack him. Bards don’t have good ac. They don’t have the greatest con saves either.

I like Glyph of Warding: Silence.

Even better if the group interprets a point in range as the person who set it off.

 

[FrogReaver]

Fireball does an average of 31.5 as a 4th-level spell and 35 as a 5th-level spell as a single-target attack.

Blight, a single target attack, does an average of 36 damage. Cone of cold also does 36 damage, as well as having a wider AoE. Fireball does an expected 4 targets while Cone of Cold does an average of 6 targets.

I'm not saying these spells are amazing, I usually never take blight if I'm playing a caster with access to it, but fireball isn't better than the best damaging spells. In fact, there plainly isn't alot of damaging spells available, period.

Sorry, fireball is shy of the most damaging single target spell before disintegrate by 4 damage?

So sure, technically I was wrong, but I think the point I was making still stands?

 

[Asisreo]

Sorry, fireball is shy of the most damaging single target spell before disintegrate by 4 damage?

So sure, technically I was wrong, but I think the point I was making still stands?

Yeah, not trying to dispute your point. Though if you had Fireball and Blight in the same prepared list and was planning on casting with the same spell slot on a single target with equal resistance to both fire and necrotic, you would be better to cast blight with the spell slot.

 

[Shadowdweller]

I've honestly never had problems with Hypnotic Pattern as DM. Sure, it's effective, but as others have stated so are a whole bunch of other level-appropriate spells such as Conjure Animals and Fireball. (I find Conjure Animals to be generally MUCH more problematic). Some tips for dealing with it:

• Creatures have to see the pattern to be affected by it. So anything that provides heavy obscurement - like smoke or fog - negates it. Technically even keeping one's eyes closed should prevent the effect though it would be unfair metagaming to have the enemy abuse this without good reason.
• It's both a charm and illusion effect. Quite a lot of creatures are immune or resistant to charm; at higher levels Truesight allows a fair few enemies to simply bypass it.
• Servants, familiars, some pets - event those who are mostly non-combatants (e.g. cowering goblin children) can still wake a creature affected by it up.
• Consider creating situations where enemies attack the PC from multiple sides; or otherwise do not conveniently bunch up into a fireball-sized group.
• Have the enemy arrive in waves. Maybe 2 rounds after sounds of fighting or dying break out in the room, that group from two doors down comes looking.

EVEN if you're running premade adventures, you have narrative leeway as DM to change things up a bit.

 

[FrozenNorth]

These particular druids didn't have conjure fey on their spell lists. But I'll keep that in mind for next time I design my own antagonists.

I’m playing a conversion of an older adventure (3.5). One change that I’ve noticed compared to my homebrew is that a lot of combat takes place in very small rooms (10x10 or 20x20).

This makes sense, as even palaces and ruins (which may have the occasional larger room), are mostly made up of small functional rooms (also, most places with “castles” get drafty in the winter).

These are also places where it is impossible to cast hypnotic pattern without catching your allies (or yourself) in the effect.

Enemies spread out across multiple rooms (and within earshot of one another) also means that 5mwd is more difficult and expensive re: spell slots. Incidentally, this also benefits melee fighters over ranged.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If you think about the real world, 20' x 20' is a large room!

 

[jayoungr]

These are also places where it is impossible to cast hypnotic pattern without catching your allies (or yourself) in the effect.

That's something I'll have to keep in mind. My groups are large, though (6 players in one, 8 in another), so combat in small rooms causes other headaches.

Incidentally, this also benefits melee fighters over ranged.

For your group, maybe! For mine, it sounds like an invitation to nothing but doorway fights, where the ranged PCs stand in the doorway and fill the room with arrows/fireballs/magic missiles and never even get touched by whatever enemies are in those rooms. The downside to a small room is that there isn't much room for enemies to stand in them either, meaning that there is just one or two per room and they can be picked off with smaller spells.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That's something I'll have to keep in mind. My groups are large, though (7 players in one, 8 in another), so combat in small rooms causes other headaches.

Make that a feature, not a bug. I've just doing a large party (seven, including the dog) in a tight dungeon, and that forces them to make some interesting tactical decisions about who goes into the room and who is jammed into the corridor outside.

 

[FrozenNorth]

For your group, maybe! For mine, it sounds like an invitation to nothing but doorway fights, where the ranged PCs stand in the doorway and fill the room with arrows/fireballs/magic missiles and never even get touched by whatever enemies are in those rooms. The downside to a small room is that there isn't much room for enemies to stand in them either, meaning that there is just one or two per room and they can be picked off with smaller spells.

Very few rooms are “one-entrance one-exit”, and the monsters generally know the layout better than the players. Monsters can go around and ambush the players while the tank is jammed in the doorway.

Smaller rooms means monsters start 10’ away, not 30’ away.

Also remember, monsters can use smart tactics too: including closing and locking the door while they wake those affected by Hypnotic Pattern!