D&D 5E Does Anyone Use Hold Monster?

[mflayermonk]

I've only seen it used once or twice. A party of 9th level PCs (by the book) matches up with CR 5-ish monsters, so it would be useful if you worry about things making saves. If you play a game with varied encounters beyond just hit stuff and kill it (for example the encounter is a capture the macguffin exercise) it might be useful.
However, most of the time you're better off just hitting stuff hard with Cone of Cold or solving problems with Polymorph's versatility.

 

[Kalshane]

As others have said, if you have one or more heavy hitters in the party, it's a brutal, brutal spell. We recently hit a decently powerful baddie with it in our 9th level game and the GWM paladin/warlock completely shredded it before anyone else even had a chance to go.

 

[n0nym]

Just this week my group used Hold Monster on a Roc to make it fall out of the sky and take 20d6 damage.

My players also did that to the Roc in CoS. Really anti-climatic, but they were all very proud. I hope they never see the part about Daern's Instant Fortress though... Might give them too many crazy ideas.

Hold monster has crazy potentiel, imho, it's one of the best spells in the game.

 

[CapnZapp]

Save or suck spells in 5e are awesome because foes usually only have 2-3 decent saves so you can target bad ones. This becomes even more pronounced at higher levels because proficiency is higher, but it's still true at low levels.

But for all that, I don't see Hold Monster used often. Hypnotic Pattern and Banishment get a lot of play and have been available for a bit when you first would get Hold Monster. At lower levels Web and the other spells where it's an ability check to get out which takes an action see more play. But Hold Monster is just too few targets plus a recurring save - it's not worth the slot compared to other spells for general usage. If everyone can and will focus-fire it's got an advantage over all of them with crits, so against a single foe or more powerful boss with a poor WIS save like a giant I can see usage, and that's not too rare.

Yes.

At 9th level, you also have options that doesn't use your Concentration, meaning that what looked acceptable at 3rd level with Hold Person is getting expensive at 9th.

Look at it this way: your Concentration is a more valuable resource the higher level you are. That is, a spell requiring your Concentration is a more expensive cost at 15th level than at 5th level.

This too explains why Hold Monster sees little use. You have many other things competing for your sole Concentration when you reach a level high enough to learn Hold Monster, that you didn't when you learnt Hold Person.

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[Dausuul]

As a caster player, hold monster is on my list of "potent but specialized" spells. If I'm playing a character with a lot of spell prep options, I might prepare it, but it won't take precedence over a "bread-and-butter" spell like fireball.

The problem with hold monster is that, to get good mileage out of that 5th-level slot, you need a bunch of hard-hitting weapon users on your team. That likely means you have a caster-light party. And that means, if a monster has legendary resistance, it's not practical to adopt a "burn through its LR" strategy; you're better off just joining in the beatdown.

So you're only going to be using hold monster in scenarios where one monster is a big enough threat to justify using a 5th-level spell slot and having the whole party beat on it, yet not so big a threat that it has LR. That's not unheard-of by any means (e.g., the roc fight mentioned by a couple people above), but it's a narrowish use case. Hence "potent but specialized."

In general, I prefer banishment for those midrange enemies. It's one spell level lower, doesn't grant ongoing saves, and it's more broadly useful.

 

[merwins]

There's a very simple reason that Hold Monster is valuable.

Not all monsters need killing.

(I know -- "WHAAAA?")

It's perhaps superfluous with the new Knockout rule (PH-198). But if you're trying to capture, contain, or subdue a monster without harm, Hold Monster and Dominate Monster are pretty useful.

 

[merwins]

Glitchy double post.

 

[Xeviat]

There's a very simple reason that Hold Monster is valuable.

Not all monsters need killing.

(I know -- "WHAAAA?")

It's perhaps superfluous with the new Knockout rule (PH-198). But if you're trying to capture, contain, or subdue a monster without harm, Hold Monster and Dominate Monster are pretty useful.

Since hold monster may only hold something for 6 seconds, I don't think it's really the go to for taking something alive.


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[merwins]

But over the course of 10 failed saving throws, it last for an entire minute!

And you only need 6 seconds to use Iron Bands of Bilarro or otherwise confine the creature with a MacGuffin.

 

[Xeviat]

What's the odds of 10 failed saves there Han "don't tell me the odds" Solo?


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