Give me 5e, broken over thine knee!

General questions, debates, and rants about RPGs

Moderator: Moderators

CapnTthePirateG
Duke
Posts: 1545
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:07 am

Post by CapnTthePirateG »

Is there an actual list of spells that fucking kill people?

Asking because I'm getting real sick of "save every round" spells in the land of no tactics.
OgreBattle wrote:"And thus the denizens learned that hating Shadzar was the only thing they had in common, and with him gone they turned their venom upon each other"
-Sarpadian Empires, vol. I
Image
User avatar
OgreBattle
King
Posts: 6820
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:33 am

Post by OgreBattle »

CapnTthePirateG wrote:Is there an actual list of spells that fucking kill people?
animated objects and skeleton archers, you fvcking kill bonded AC with lots of d20 rolls
User avatar
Dean
Duke
Posts: 2059
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 3:14 am

Post by Dean »

There are almost no save or dies in this edition, if the list were made today it would have to be Spell that fucking...make people lose. It's a much more boring time.

Levitate is the first Save or Lose that comes online, it's 2nd level and is probably the best one for some time. Polymorph, Banishment, and Otilukes are all save or lose's at 4th level, the last two letting you remove someone from the fight for one minute. Wall of Force at 5th level continues its tradition of being a save or lose spell with no save so that's fucking great, and Dominate Person at 5th level also does what it's always done. Forcecage at 7th level is just like Wall of Force except that it doesn't require concentration so that's a huge upgrade. Reverse Gravity at 7th level is a 50ft radius save or lose making it one of the most effective shutdown spells in the game. There's a lot of save or lose's here but all but Forcecage require concentration so you can basically remove one person from the fight and then you have to straight up brawl the rest.

If you use those Glyph tricks above you can turn some spells with longer casting times into save or loses or even no-save or dies if you got the cash. Additionally you can play a Diviner Wizard and get to decide what people roll for their saves which is a pretty fucking good power. Finally Illusionists can start shutting down people left and right once Illusory reality comes online cause it's super good.

And yeah as Ogre says any discussion of good spells in 5e basically requires a blinking neon sign towards any spell that mass generates minions. Those are the stand-outs I know of

Edit: Oh I should also mention Eyebite, it's a sixth level spell that lets you make one save or lose on someone every round for 1 minute. I actually really like it as a wave to be relevant in mid to high level combat and still conserve your spells. With Eyebite you could be tossing out save or lose's for 3 whole fights and still be able to nova in the third
Last edited by Dean on Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
DSMatticus wrote:Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. I am filled with an unfathomable hatred.
CapnTthePirateG
Duke
Posts: 1545
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:07 am

Post by CapnTthePirateG »

So from what I'm hearing the best first level spell is actually magic missile, because everything else gives a save every round (tasha's), won't work on anything you'll fight in AL (sleep vs The Great HP Bloat), or offers a save for similar damage.

Thank god you can auto-level to 5 from 4, just got my necromancer animate dead and I plan to round up eviler PCs for grave robbing.
OgreBattle wrote:"And thus the denizens learned that hating Shadzar was the only thing they had in common, and with him gone they turned their venom upon each other"
-Sarpadian Empires, vol. I
Image
Voss
Prince
Posts: 3912
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Voss »

Magic missile still isn't great. You're better off with utility spells (longstrider, expeditious retreat, detect magic, etc), trying to break the RNG with Shield (or Protection from Evil and Good, which is equal to Blur if the creature type is on the list). Even mage armoring up and waiting to cast shield when you need it is a better strategy for the first level or two.

Burning spells slots for plink damage (even ~10 damage) isn't ever great, even against CR <1 critters. If you want to do that, throw cantrips or ranged/finesse weapons (ie, be a high elf). You're still wasting an action, but not spell slots.
CapnTthePirateG
Duke
Posts: 1545
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:07 am

Post by CapnTthePirateG »

It's not great no, but as far as offensive level 1 spells go it's the best I can find.

I just want my 1/day spike abilities to kill fools. Why is this so hard?
OgreBattle wrote:"And thus the denizens learned that hating Shadzar was the only thing they had in common, and with him gone they turned their venom upon each other"
-Sarpadian Empires, vol. I
Image
Post Reply