So I’m familiar with DOS: EE and the element mechanics of combat, but I’m not sure if that applies to DnD 5e.
But last night I threw a fireball cantrip at a group of goblins standing in grease, and what do you know but the whole gang go up in flames!
Does anyone know of other great spell or skill combinations you can use, especially to deal with groups?
Also what are your go-to combat setups?
I’m currently running a Druid, Cleric, Warlock, Fighter so if you can think of combinations from those classes that would be great too.
I got a pouch on my spellcaster, it contains scrolls of every kind I’ve found. I also got a pouch on my main ranged, it contains a few of each arrow type. I add the pouch to the hotbar to have them easily open midcombat. And a third one for throwables. Whenever I switch party members, which I often do, i only have to drag over one pouch and re-hotbar it. That way I have always available every kind of elemental combination whenever I need. Which I promptly forget and end up fighting mostly with swords.
But its darn useful when I get a fight I cant win with swords. A cheap but fun one is create water over a big area, one ice arrow, and a rogue with anti-slip boots.
Love this idea, can’t wait to try it!
Ah nice the old DOS trick with hotbar bags works here too then!
Enlarge/reduce an enemy. Have your fighter pick them up and use them as a weapon on the other enemies. Bonus if you have tavern brawler.
And when your run out of enemies to hit with the one you’re holding? Hit the floor with it. If the floor is on fire they take bludgeoning and fire damage.
Good times.
Haven’t tried grabbing or throwing enemies, but if a chasm or big fall is available, I’m guessing you could yeet them when you’re done with them?
Yes! But then you cannot loot them.
My only complaint is I can’t have a firey, acid soaked floor that is also being electrocuted all at once.
Push + Chasm.
Enemies know about it, too. 🤕
But, but … the loot.
100%, but a 60 health, 30 gold value underling failing a save for the cost of a bonus action can save me a lot of headache!
I did this in one of the first boss fights while rescuing the Druid in early game. I pushed an underling off a ledge into the Giant Spider pit which kited them into the battle and drew the bosses agro allowing me time to finish off most of the underlings before focus firing.
That was a fun fight.
Hah yes, this is one thing I’ve been enjoying a lot with my Warlock and Eldritch Blast, I love the multi level fighting in this, I hear Solasta is good for it too
EDIT: Disregard 2, it’s the ability checks that are impacted, not saves. I didn’t notice I’d misread due to getting abnormally lucky during enemy saves and not noticing the difference. Being that it’s just ability checks impacted, IMO you should be targeting enemy shoves and jumping instead.
Some tricks I used early game:
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Keep an eye out for alcohol and oil barrels. A surprising number of fights break out near them, and a ranged breaking shot for the barrel, and following up with a Fire Bolt to the puddle…
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If you’re running a warlock, don’t forget, Hex isn’t only for you. Yes, you do extra damage with melee/ranged/cantrips/et cetera while Hex is active, BUT, you also put a stat-save disadvantage on that enemy too.
Multiple spells allow specific-ability saves to their targets, and lower or negate effects if the target passes them. Those spells are often power-checked by said save… and they become STUPIDLY powerful if a creature suddenly can’t pass that saving throw.
This effect impacts several spells from attack cantrips on up. Be sure to know the spells the rest of the team is slinging, and choose the appropriate save disadvantage to give your opponent a very bad day. -
Try to have enemies commit to coming at you through choke points, and if they do… having some of your guys work together to drop restraining/difficult terrain AOE spells (Entangle, Grease, Web) plus continuous damage AOE spells (Cloud of Daggers, Cloudkill, Wall of Fire) into said choke point equals a blender of doom for the bad guys.
Hex puts a disadvantage on checks, not saves
Wow, I checked it, and you’re right. The combo of misreading AND apparently I’ve been getting abnormally lucky on opposing saves to not clue me in to the misunderstanding.
Hahhahaha…#3. Cloud of daggers taught me how smart goblins are not.
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Create water in an area with enemies, hit someone there with a lightning attack, enjoy the electrocution of your foes
So can you hit an enemy standing over water, or do you have to target the ground?
Either. If you hit the enemy it effects the ground they are standing on as well but you can also target the ground so long as the spell doesn’t specify creature(like Sacred Flame).
Just starting so haven’t gotten far but a lot of DOS ones seem to work. Water or blood and ice makes a slippery surface, water and electricity does chain lightening, fire and grease you mentioned.
Apparently webs reduce falling damage (haven’t tested that yet)
As a Druid = create water + lightning I believe if you are a spider and web an area, your companions can light it up with fire!
Nice I’ll have to try this, didn’t think the web would be flammable
Not really an environmental thing but Hunger of Hadar(1/2 Movement & DOT) + Plant Growth (1/4 Movement) is basically a death trap covering a massive area for anything without Freedom of Movement.
Just be careful of candles otherwise your Plant Growth will turn into a massive fire ground hazard rather than Difficult Terrain.
That does sound strong. I’ve had Hunger+Wall of Fire/Ice put in work on some fights, adding Spike Growth probably can trivialize a lot of them.
Removed by mod
I haven’t added Spike Growth to the mix, but it would be good for the Druid’s concentration. For the most part the strategy above has been one of the opening turns for my party’s Warlock. Pops Haste potion, drops both spells, and uses Repelling Blast to knock enemies in/back in.
Plant growth is insane area denial for things that can’t teleport. Definitely have to be careful with fire spells cause the burning ground is so much less useful than restricting movement.
- Anything that hits multiple enemies
- Anything that lets me make multiple attacks per turn
I can practically solo even the biggest fights as a level 7 monk. If I multiclassed into wizard for some AOEs, it would be even easier.
Flurry of Blows and Stunning Fist are as OP as ever, and I had heard 5e nerfed the everliving shit out of the class (I’ve not played 5e outside of BG3 but I love 3.5 and pathfinder).
But more than that, I love improvised weapon and throw. I can use enlarge and literally just toss my enemies at other enemies. It’s fucking awesome.
I’d love to try out monk in my next play through, I’ve heard they’re not great in 5e, but Larian made some positive changes for them.
I heard the same thing, and either the game is different than the PnP rules or the details of the nerf have been greatly exaggerated. Flurry of Blows and Stunning Fist are as OP as they were in 3.5 and Pathfinder.
I’m still in Act 1 but I’ve found that Sanctuary is amazing compared to its regular 5E counterpart. I’ll have Shadowheart use Warding Bond on my paladin, Bless the whole party besides herself, and protect herself with Sanctuary. Powerful early on, there may be better things you can do later.
Sanctuary has had a pretty big buff from the Table Top, from “Wis Save to Attack Target” to “Can’t Attack Target”. It’s so good in fact it has a permanent preperation slot on Shadowheart alongside Command, Guiding Bolt, and Healing Word.
The ol’ DOS Barrelmancy is still good for groups. I’m also a big fan of the Arrow of Many Targets, but I haven’t found a lot of them. Can get some explosive results against groups of low HP targets when paired with the Cull the Weak power.
Concentrated Blast is guaranteed to hit, and there are free junk spells you can set it up with before combat. It does very good damage at low level, and it only needs one tadpole to unlock.
This might be a bug, but Blessed Healer in the Cleric’s Life Domain is triggering per target on group healing spells. Right now my cleric is healing herself for 20+ with Mass Healing Word and applying two turns of Bless to everyone (Concentration free!) from The Whispering Promise ring, all on a single bonus action.
I’ve been mostly sticking to classic DnD stuff (hasted Paladin go brr), but I’ve seen that Create Water can be used to inflict Lightning vulnerability… (in addition to a water surface that can be frozen or electrified) definitely keen to roll a Sorc/Cleric multiclass aiming to see how much damage I can do with Lightning Bolt spam. :P
Difficult terrain or damaging obstacle combined with either shoving and throwing or Eldritch Blast with Repelling Blast or Mobile Flourish or any other knockback. Early game you can generally combine a cantrip with another ability, environmental object, or item to produce some kind of hazardous terrain.
Paladin with Great Weapon Master and Hold Person/Monster. Proc your bonus attack and crit smite on demand. You can even do this effectively on the Paladin themselves by dumping most of your points into full caster classes, giving you many more smite slots as well. People swear by haste but CC is more immediate and effective.
Dual wielding with a Thief dip. You can always turn those bonus actions into attacks. You can be a machine gun or use your main action to cast useful spells well still making two attacks. Remember to unchain your two weapons so you don’t automatically make offhand attacks in addition to main hand attacks.
My fav thing recently has been giving everyone the jump buff and just bouncing around the map. Main char is a barb1-monk3 right now. Potion of speed and the monk dash ability means he can literally just circle the map with jumps. Just found a weapon that does damage when he lands too, although I haven’t used it yet I feel like it’s going to be almost cheesy levels of ridiculous.
Also a fan of throwing or pushing enemies into the circle of blades. With karlach and my barb-monk there’s plenty of enemies flying around. Or void bulb…
