D&D 5E What, if anything, bothers you about certain casters/spells at your table?
p_johnston
Adventurer
Also now that I'm home and can both type and look up spells let me put up a full list (note I'm not saying all these spells are a problem and have to be changed. I'm just saying that the way they are currently implemented means they probably make the game weaker/less fun overall)
Guidance- Feels Mandatory to have so someone is going to end up sacrificing a cantrip slot anytime someone can take it.
Toll the Dead- So much better then every other attack cantrip that the only time someone takes a different one is if they are being suboptimal for flavor.
Bane- The Dm already has enough to keep track of and adding a minus d4 to 1 to 3 random enemies in a big encounter just adds more on top of it, especially if your doing theatre of the mind.
Comprehend Languages - While interesting having a first level ritual spell that allows understanding of any language locks out a lot of different types of mysteries and adventures. "Hey look here's this ancient dead language gone from this world for a 10,000 years. Let's get literally any first year wizard student to translate it for us."
Goodberry - If your trying for any sort of survival game good luck. A first level druid can feed your entire party indefinitely.
Shield - already gone into it at length
Healing Spirit - the Base spell pretty much reads "everyone heals to full every time this is cast out of combat" if you're trying for sort of resource attrition or trying to balance daily encounters at all this spell just kinda tells you to go screw yourself.
Hold Person - Not a fan of save or suck spells. Using them on PC's just locks one player out of the game. Using them on bosses leads to a either a player feeling they wasted their turn or an anticlimatic fight (which can be fun once or twice but will quickly get boring).
Pass without a trace - Adding a static +10 to anything with bounded accuracy should never happen.
Spiritual Weapon - Should probably be concentration, very close to the "every cleric has to take this" category.
Summon X - All the summon spells are bad. At best you have a player who has the stat block ready and plays the creature quickly and it only makes combat slightly slower and more complicated due to an additional combatant. More often its "Wait let me look up the wolf stat block. Ok I get 16 so ill be rolling 32 extra d20 a turn and...."
Suggstion - The spell is to imprecise and can easily lead to frustration if you and the DM have different interpretations/expectations.
Counterspell- Mandatory
Leomund's Tiny Hut - If your playing a survival based game just cuts out part of it.
Spirit Guardians - Like spiritual weapon it gets close to the Mandatory to take it state, though I don't think this one is as bad.
Banishment - Save or suck
Animate Object - has some of the same issues as summon monsters though slightly better because the stat blocks are simpler and in the spell.
Wall of Force - A spell that can trap a single/group of creatures with no save and no way around it unless they have a high level caster is not a fun spell.
Heroes feast - I'm not a fan of straight immunity especially to something as common as poison. For a lot of high level parties unless the GM has been giving you lots of outlets to spend treasure or been stingy with the treasure this just means the entire party is immune to poison for the rest of the campaign.
Forcecage - See wall of force
p.s. I will also mention that me/my group has never actually allowed silvery barbs so I can't speak to how disruptive it is.
Guidance- Feels Mandatory to have so someone is going to end up sacrificing a cantrip slot anytime someone can take it.
Toll the Dead- So much better then every other attack cantrip that the only time someone takes a different one is if they are being suboptimal for flavor.
Bane- The Dm already has enough to keep track of and adding a minus d4 to 1 to 3 random enemies in a big encounter just adds more on top of it, especially if your doing theatre of the mind.
Comprehend Languages - While interesting having a first level ritual spell that allows understanding of any language locks out a lot of different types of mysteries and adventures. "Hey look here's this ancient dead language gone from this world for a 10,000 years. Let's get literally any first year wizard student to translate it for us."
Goodberry - If your trying for any sort of survival game good luck. A first level druid can feed your entire party indefinitely.
Shield - already gone into it at length
Healing Spirit - the Base spell pretty much reads "everyone heals to full every time this is cast out of combat" if you're trying for sort of resource attrition or trying to balance daily encounters at all this spell just kinda tells you to go screw yourself.
Hold Person - Not a fan of save or suck spells. Using them on PC's just locks one player out of the game. Using them on bosses leads to a either a player feeling they wasted their turn or an anticlimatic fight (which can be fun once or twice but will quickly get boring).
Pass without a trace - Adding a static +10 to anything with bounded accuracy should never happen.
Spiritual Weapon - Should probably be concentration, very close to the "every cleric has to take this" category.
Summon X - All the summon spells are bad. At best you have a player who has the stat block ready and plays the creature quickly and it only makes combat slightly slower and more complicated due to an additional combatant. More often its "Wait let me look up the wolf stat block. Ok I get 16 so ill be rolling 32 extra d20 a turn and...."
Suggstion - The spell is to imprecise and can easily lead to frustration if you and the DM have different interpretations/expectations.
Counterspell- Mandatory
Leomund's Tiny Hut - If your playing a survival based game just cuts out part of it.
Spirit Guardians - Like spiritual weapon it gets close to the Mandatory to take it state, though I don't think this one is as bad.
Banishment - Save or suck
Animate Object - has some of the same issues as summon monsters though slightly better because the stat blocks are simpler and in the spell.
Wall of Force - A spell that can trap a single/group of creatures with no save and no way around it unless they have a high level caster is not a fun spell.
Heroes feast - I'm not a fan of straight immunity especially to something as common as poison. For a lot of high level parties unless the GM has been giving you lots of outlets to spend treasure or been stingy with the treasure this just means the entire party is immune to poison for the rest of the campaign.
Forcecage - See wall of force
p.s. I will also mention that me/my group has never actually allowed silvery barbs so I can't speak to how disruptive it is.
Aid - generally a book-keeping annoyance
Any of the increasing number of spells and abilities that grant temporary hit points. Not sure why the designers are in love with temp hit points lately. They’re a pain.
Twilight Cleric’s twilight sanctuary ability. At levels 3-6, trivializes many combat encounters. At all levels, kills the pace of combat and creates extra admin.
I don’t mind Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians per se, but I mind that they’re so much better than almost any other cleric spells that despite the fact that there are now like 20 cleric domains, pretty much every cleric feels the same regardless of domain because they’re all gonna cast these two spells in pretty much every fight.
Any of the increasing number of spells and abilities that grant temporary hit points. Not sure why the designers are in love with temp hit points lately. They’re a pain.
Twilight Cleric’s twilight sanctuary ability. At levels 3-6, trivializes many combat encounters. At all levels, kills the pace of combat and creates extra admin.
I don’t mind Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians per se, but I mind that they’re so much better than almost any other cleric spells that despite the fact that there are now like 20 cleric domains, pretty much every cleric feels the same regardless of domain because they’re all gonna cast these two spells in pretty much every fight.
Zardnaar
Legend
Twilight cleric with pets, summons, familiar. Let's abuse two unfun abilities.
Hussar
Legend
Well, I just had a taste of that.
The Heavy armor wearing Artificer mutliclassed into Wizard for exactly this. By 7th level, he could routinely get an armor class of 25. CR 7 or less monsters tap out at an attack bonus of about +8 (or so), meaning that most monsters couldn't hit the character with less than an 18 (give or take) on an attack.
I actually put the character against the other 4 PC's in the party as a test, and the character went 8 rounds, nearly dropping the barbarian and the cleric in the group, before the party finally overwhelmed him with a string of lucky die rolls.
So, yeah, from this point forward, shield will not stack with armor.
It would be refreshing to run a game that does NOT have a glamour bard among the PCs once in a while. "Mantle of Majesty" (temporary hit points plus free movement that does not provoke opportunity attacks) makes a huge difference to how combats play out. I'm pretty used to it, since I have a player who is in most of my games who only plays glamour bards, but it's kind of fun to not have to plan for that.
Oh right, Toll the Dead. I forgot about that one- the final nail in the coffin of the cleric ever wanting to wave their weapon around.
Zardnaar
Legend
It's been like that since 5E launched.
Downside of toll the dead is that it's necrotic damage and undead are common foes.
GMforPowergamers
Legend
First I agree about the save or suck spells, but I think that is a different issue.
These spells though, Guidance, Comp Lnag, Goodberry, Pass w/out trace, tiny hut, summon steed, find familiar, augury, invisability, spider climb, locate ____ and I am sure more with a bit of effort of thought, can all completely end the exploration issues of a game... if you play a spell caster with creativity even druidcraft thaumaturgy, prestidigitation shape water move earth can all do huge things at will
