D&D 5E Favorite AoE Spells?

[Roberration]

I'm curious to see what everyone's go-to set of AoE spells are. In particular, which ones would you always want to have available within your party that offer the best combination of versatility, power, and efficiency? Obviously, most people are likely to place fireball high on the list, due to the way the spell is designed, but I wanted to see if there are any unexpected or unique takes on this.


My personal list is here, but I wanted to see what people came up with.

 

[Mistwell]

Spirit Guardians

 

[Roberration]

Spirit Guardians

You are so right. I remember in my early DMing days just how devastating this was against my lower CR monsters

 

[pogre]

Shatter is popular with my players.

 

[Blue]

I'm curious to see what everyone's go-to set of AoE spells are. In particular, which ones would you always want to have available within your party that offer the best combination of versatility, power, and efficiency? Obviously, most people are likely to place fireball high on the list, due to the way the spell is designed, but I wanted to see if there are any unexpected or unique takes on this.


My personal list is here, but I wanted to see what people came up with.

Probably my #1 at lower levels is Hypnotic Pattern. Take out a good chunk of the foes so you can defeat them in detail.

A fun tactic we ended up using in one group was my bard casting Hypnotic Pattern, and then the sorcerer dropping a web on them. They auto-failed dex saves due to the HP, and it stopped their allies from going near to wake them up. After we dealt with everyone else we could wake them one at a time with focus fire attacks and kill each quickly.

I think that just abut every one of my favorite AoE are Concentration, because they are designed to have an ongoing effect on the battlefield. Fear, etc.

Spells like Fireball are fun, but they often can't be used after the first few rounds because targets are too intermixed with the party. It's good to soften up a bunch but make sure not to break foes out of crowd control. Not putting it down -- it always feels good to roll so many dice of damage against so many enemies.

 

[Esker]

Probably my #1 at lower levels is Hypnotic Pattern. Take out a good chunk of the foes so you can defeat them in detail.

A fun tactic we ended up using in one group was my bard casting Hypnotic Pattern, and then the sorcerer dropping a web on them. They auto-failed dex saves due to the HP, and it stopped their allies from going near to wake them up. After we dealt with everyone else we could wake them one at a time with focus fire attacks and kill each quickly.

I think that just abut every one of my favorite AoE are Concentration, because they are designed to have an ongoing effect on the battlefield. Fear, etc.

Spells like Fireball are fun, but they often can't be used after the first few rounds because targets are too intermixed with the party. It's good to soften up a bunch but make sure not to break foes out of crowd control. Not putting it down -- it always feels good to roll so many dice of damage against so many enemies.

I agree that HP is one of the best AoE spells, but there's no reason the affected creatures would auto fail vs web, is there? They're just incapacitated and charmed; not stunned.

 

[Arvok]

If you have 2 casters, spike growth coupled with darkness can be devastating--especially in a dungeon or some other area where you can channelize your enemies.

 

[Shiroiken]

Spirit Guardians

Particularly fun for the DM, but IME slightly less so for the players. It's best use is against a lot of enemies around you, but that usually means lots of attacks coming at you. Each hit causes a concentration save, and it's often only slightly better than a 50/50 shot of losing the spell. Still a solid choice, however.

My favorites start with fireball, because it's deliberately better than it should be (by spell design it should be 6d6 damage, not 8d6). Hunger of Hadar is also really good if you can either trap your enemies, force them to come to you, or split the enemies on each side. I'm personally fond of Moonbeam for non-moon druids, since you usually don't get into melee anyway, it's a solid way of dealing damage every round.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Spirit Guardians

In 5e, this is my favorite as well

AD&D is probably Evards black tentacles. Or insect plague

 

[Mistwell]

Particularly fun for the DM, but IME slightly less so for the players. It's best use is against a lot of enemies around you, but that usually means lots of attacks coming at you. Each hit causes a concentration save, and it's often only slightly better than a 50/50 shot of losing the spell. Still a solid choice, however.

My favorites start with fireball, because it's deliberately better than it should be (by spell design it should be 6d6 damage, not 8d6). Hunger of Hadar is also really good if you can either trap your enemies, force them to come to you, or split the enemies on each side. I'm personally fond of Moonbeam for non-moon druids, since you usually don't get into melee anyway, it's a solid way of dealing damage every round.

1. It has no friendly fire, unlike fireball;
2. It does radiant or necrotic damage, which is resisted far less often than fire from a fireball;
3. It scales much better than fireball, doing an extra 1d8 PER ROUND for upcasting, as opposed to 1d6 one time from a fireball (which rapidly becomes bad damage by the way - fireball scales poorly.
4. Any cleric who casts offensive spells should have long ago dealt with their concentration checks issue. First, you should have a great AC to prevent getting hit often, meaning plate mail and a shield, or medium armor an a 14 Dex. Second It's crucial to an offensive spellcaster to have something which helps with concentration saves. It should not be 50/50. You should have the War Caster feat for example, particularly since you likely have a weapon and shield as a cleric and will need it just t cast spells. Finally, you should have a decent to good Constitution.

Spirt Guardians is better than fireball. It will on average do more damage in a combat than a fireball, and will scale for almost the entire life of the Cleric where fireball will rapidly fail to scale a few levels after you get it.

If fact Spirit Guardians made the second best 3rd level spell list, while fireball made the second most overrated spell list for 3rd level.

That said, Hypnotic Pattern is better than both.