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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 8957191" data-attributes="member: 42040">Here are two examples from last night's session. (Keep in mind that 2 players were absent, so we had a more manageable 5 players instead of 7.) Encounter Example 1: Bandit AttackParty comes upon a group of 13 CR 1/2 bandits, 1 CR 8 Fighter/Rogue, 1 CR 8 Cleric, and 1 CR 8 Wizard. (According to the Encounter Calculator, that's a Deadly encounter at 23 Challenge Rating.) The party was moving silently and taking cover, approaching the bandit camp. On one side of the road were 7 bandits and the Fighter/Rogue captain; the other side was the wizard, cleric, and 6 additional bandits. The party was sneaking and beat the scouts' Perception. They also beat most everyone on Initiative. Party's sorcerer dropped a fireball on the side of the road containing the 6 bandits and the cleric and wizard. He is out of reach for Counterspell. Bandits killed instantly. Wizard gets pincushioned by ranger's longbow. Down to 4 HP, wizard casts invisibility and moves to behind cleric. Cleric casts 5th level cure wounds on the invisible wizard. Some minor attacks are done by the rest of the party - barbarian moves up and rages and fights bandit captain and is surrounded by seven other bandits. Not a lot of damage is done to the barbarian.Sorcerer then casts Reverse Gravity from the wand - with enough range to get all the enemies. There is nothing but sand for the enemies to grab onto. The barbarian also flies up with the rest of the enemies. Sorcerer drops the spell. Everyone plummets 100 feet - but the sorcerer casts Feather Fall onto the barbarian, who safely floats to the ground. Everyone but the bandit captain is dead - and he surrenders.My take: Yes, the Reverse Gravity Wand is overpowered for their level, but honestly - what would've changed without it? Every bandit was already dead. The wizard and cleric were down to about 1/3rd hp after one round. At best, the fight would've gone one more round, taxed nearly no resources, and done a middling of damage to the party.  A 23 Challenge Rating fight?Encounter Example 2: Lycanthrope PackParty is approached by a pack of 9 various lycanthropes (CR 16). As they approach, fireball dropped, killing half of them. Then - AND THIS IS MY MISTAKE - twin spell fireball a second time to kill off the stragglers who still have 11 HP or so each.  My take: Didn't know until reading DND Beyond discussions with designers that isn't spelled out in the  book that a sorcerer's twin spell can only be used for cantrips. I will get resistance bringing this up in my group of rules lawyers. But that could've prolonged the combat "maybe" one more turn. There were 5 enemies left who still had a few HP. More than likely, barbarian would've killed two of them on the next round, Rogue killed one on her turn. And then the ranger killed the next two on his turn. In short - it wouldn't have mattered significantly.</blockquote>

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