D&D 5E Share Astonishing PC Power Combos Discovered in Play

[Todd Roybark]

I love it when, in game, a confluence of PC actions engenders a surprising result. I’ve been playing in a group of players that are, predominately, new to D&D, and am often pleased to find that options that are deemed “subpar” by the D&D Borg/Internet Hypermind, actually are decent or good in the wild...aka in play.

I would love to read what others have experienced.

In Cragmaw Castle, the combination of the lowly Witch Bolt spell with Ensaring Strike cast by a lowly Ranger, restrained and quickly killed a fleeing bugbear and saved the group from the alarm being raised.

So what, ‘subpar’ options have you seen in play, that work better then you expected?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

In 3e I designed an encounter featuring a giant trapdoor spider. The PCs noticed the burrow and deduced what it was from afar. They were 3rd level.

The wizard was being played by a person who had never played a tabletop RPG before. He looked around his character sheet and asked...."How much weight does my levitate spell lift?

Moments later the 300lb boulder was dropped on the burrow, the spider was crushed, and my entire encounter went out the window.

Not a combo, just an old spell looked at with a new perspective.

 

[Todd Roybark]

That is cool, and definitely counts as a “Fresh Eyes” story....but Levitate is almost always a good spell in any edition.

 

[humble minion]

I know that as a low-ish level paladin the optimal max-damage use of spell slots is supposed to be burning them for Divine Smite unless you're using Bless or Compelled Duel, but I've gotten some great use out of Wrathful Smite when facing animal-intelligence enemies. They're normally attacking you because they're hungry, give them a reason to be scared of you and run away, and they will.

And it has to be said, the elf ranger is one of the most powerful members of our party. At least on those rare occasions when her player can roll more than 3 on an attack roll...

 

[Perun]

And it has to be said, the elf ranger is one of the most powerful members of our party. At least on those rare occasions when her player can roll more than 3 on an attack roll...

I know the feeling, my characters are cursed the same way generally, but particularly in failing Wisdom saves

I'm not overly fond of multiclass characters (never played one), but in our current party Rogue 5/Fighter 6 (Swashbuckler/Battle Master) half-elf with Elven Accuracy deals the most insane amounts of damage.

As an additional funny note, two characters in the party use toll the dead on a fairly regular basis, our dwarf storm cleric and gnome invoker. Just by looking, you'd never guess it was the same spell -- the cleric regularly deals single-digit damage (on 3d12), while the gnome rarely deals less than 20 points of damage.

 

[Iry]

5E is a great edition for power combos. While Individual power is somewhat bounded, team combos are still amazing. Here are a few simple ones:

Commander's Strike on the rogue gives you another sneak attack in the round.

Stunning Strike let's a cleric critically hit with Inflict Wounds.

Grapple an enemy and drag them across a bunch of Create Bonfires.

Giant Spiders (Beastmaster or summoned) + Web + Darkness or Fog Cloud is oodles of advantage.

Flaming Sphere and Sentinel or Shield Master keeps them locked down or pushes them back as they try to leave.

Two Ancestral Barbarians is just rude, foul, and uncouth even if you just take 3 levels.

 

[the Jester]

Two creatures with Sentinel attacking the same target give it no good options.

EDIT: I'm incorrect on this- I was conflating it with a similar ability from a custom subclass.

 

[jgsugden]

Two creatures with Sentinel attacking the same target give it no good options

The feat addresses this concern: When a creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you (and that target doesn't have this feat), you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature.

 

[the Jester]

The feat addresses this concern: When a creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you (and that target doesn't have this feat), you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature.

Oh, you're right- sorry, I am conflating this with a custom fighter path, the devoted defender, which offers a very similar ability without such a clause. My bad.

 

[jgsugden]

Grave cleric and any nova striker with assassin abilities. The target is vulnerable to an autocrit. The deadliest assassin in my campaign world is built using PC rules and he is able to deal around 300 damage... in one blow.