Eldritch Blast
It’s been a while since I played my last warlock, but I’m pretty sure they get crayons as part of their starting equipment. Maybe that’s just tome-locks though. Hmmm…
…
OK. I double-checked the 5e SRD, and the other pact options have to make do with finger paints. That makes sense. As we all know, Charisma-based casters are more into self-expression than magical theory.
Any dang way, I feel like today’s comic is in part a follow up to “Incorporeal.” That’s because there’s an interesting tension between last week’s sage advice (you should prep for contingencies) and our present directive to choose your spells with care.
If you have access to A LOT of diverse abilities, as in the case of a D&D style wizard, then you’ve got plenty of room to go in for “silver bullet” effects. I’m talking about utility magic like identify or knock whose effects can be replicated sans magic; narrow spells like invisibility alarm or misdirection that address specific threats; or the fun but frequently useless spells like conjure carriage or speak with plants. These are all situationally helpful abilities, but they’re not the options you go for when you’ve got only three “spells known” to play with.
There’s a reason that eldritch blast became a meme. It’s the same reason that Sorcerer loves fireball. When you’ve got limited resources, you’re going to seek out the most consistently-useful options. And in a game that leans heavily into combat, efficient battle magic is where it’s at. That it turn leaves you in a bit of a pickle. You know it’s a good idea to prep for that ghost fight, but you’ll be damned if you’re gonna waste a valuable spell choice on some narrow malarkey like purge spirit. What’s a mage to do?
You may have heard me refer to the “batman wizard” in the past, but you don’t have to be a wizard to make the playstyle work. With careful magic item selection, a golf bag full of scrolls, and the simple expedient of discussing your options with the other members of your party, you can collectively cover a lot of bases.
That in turn leads us to our question of the day! When it’s time for spell selection, what bread and butter choices always go onto your list? And by the same token, what “silver bullet” spells are good enough to make it into ye olde spellbook? More generally though, is there always a tradeoff between combat effectiveness and general utility, or is it possible to roll up a caster who actually enjoys the best of both worlds? Share the contents of your own Book of Shadows down in the comments!
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This reminds me of all those unkind remarks made by Wizards to Sorcerers and Warlocks in OOTS…
Anyhoo, my personal must-haves: magic missile; shield (in case of magic missiles); fireball (area damage); burning hands (for swarms at level 1-4); invisibility and greater invisibility; fly and overland flight; knock; gust of wind; see invisibility; detect magic; comprehend languages and tongues.
I feel like magic missile depends on your GM. That’s because it’s at its strongest as a “guaranteed to finish off the monster before it gets another turn” spell. And that depends on whether your GM gives your descriptive “the monster is injured” reports.
Try that simple, soon defunct spell called Burning hands.
Apply Maximized spell.
Now apply Intensified spell.
Pile on an Empower spell if you like.
Suddenly it’s a decently hard-hitting short-range spell again.
Magic Missile’s also a pretty good “break that guy’s concentration” spell, since each dart counts as a separate source of damage—three concentration checks for a 1st level spell and more for higher is nothing to sneeze at. Decent low-damage domination-save trigger, too.
Personally, I like Magic Missile as a go-to spell because there are essentially no enemies it’s useless against. Most attack spells, if you go up against the wrong enemy they can get seriously nerfed by resistance, saves, or AC. But magic missile has no attack roll, no save, and practically nothing resists force damage. So if you have to pick an attack spell without knowing what you’re fighting, Magic Missile is an ideal choice.
I tend not to like silver bullet spells much unless i am confident they will Come up, because even when you think they will, they usually arent that much better than using another spell or skill for a similar purpose, and you are likely to find that you didnt end ip needing this spell or special item you thought you would, wasting a spell slot that you really needed for something else. As such, i quite like generalist spells that can serve extra purposes. Though if it is reasonably likely for a campaign, and can be done with a low level slot, I’m alot more ok with it, like with faeirie fire vs invisibility. One of the things i actually quite like about spontaneous casters, is that as long as you dont go for the ultra specific ones, they can actually be more free with some silver bullet spells since they dont have to cast them if they arent needed, and can just rely on ol’ reliable, whether that be your fireball, animate objects, polymorph, or any other such spell. Still though, i really like utility spells and fun spells that make you feel like a proper wizard, and not just a combat number generator, so when i play spontaneous casters, i tend to favor ones with ways to get extra spells known. I am currently planning a sorcerer for a stremgth of thousands game, who thus will get free archetype and the school boosts, who will end up with 11 1st level known, 9 2nd-6th, 8 7th, 6 8th, 5 9th, and only 3 10th. This should give alot of freedom for fun choises or more silver bullet options, in addition to reliable effects like haste, maze, fireball, and heal.
It almost makes me wonder if there should be different categories of spells, similar to how Pathfinder 2e split up its feats. Battle Magic vs. Utility Magic could be an interesting design space.
“if there should be different categories of spells”
I haven’t tried it much, but isn’t it what was done, to some extend, in D&D 4 and 5?
On one hand, (battle) spells, on the other hand, rituals, which don’t take spell slots and are usually about utility, like comprehend language, etc.?
Yeah I rather liked the way 4E did that. I think they could definitely have given out more Utility Powers per character, but guaranteeing that every class has access to utility options that don’t come at the expense of combat firepower was a very good idea.
Later sourcebooks also added more generic utility powers that could be learned by multiple classes; e.g. any martial class could learn an at-will utility that let them remain stealthed as long as they started and ended in concealment, instead of taking one of their class-specific utility powers.
Ya know how people say “exploration is the ignored pillar?” This may be the way to fix that.
Featherfall. I absolutely never go anywhere on any caster without Featherfall stashed in a spell slot, and the fact I’ve probably only used it once across three different caster characters over three different editions of the game doesn’t make an ounce of difference, I’ll be memorising it tomorrow too!
My best featherfall moment involved chasing an elevator full of escaping enemies down into a mine.
Fighter: “Can’t you make us fall any faster? They’re getting away!”
Wizard: “I dismiss feather fall.”
Fighter: “You wha-AAAAAA!”
I could honestly see this as a comic
Well then. Onto the list it goes.
Sadly, I suspect it’ a three-panel comic, so no promises.
We had that happen involuntarily on us some years ago… feather-falling from great height, and magic stopped working about halfway down. Nobody died — the GM gave us opportunities to stunt our way out of it (skill challenge) — but it was a very close thing.
Heh. We did that in Exalted. I recall a dude parrying the ground.
Quick side note: I love the ideas of Exalted, but the PD/PA arms race is the bane of my RPG existence.
When I’m building a spellcaster in 5E, I tend to choose my spells by the following process: First, what will be the best spell for 90% of combat situations? Secondly, what’s the best way to cover the situations where the first spell won’t work?
For a wizard, that might mean Firebolt for general combat situations, and Shocking Grasp for the situation where Firebolt isn’t good, being “I’m stuck in melee for some reason, so Shocking Grasp will both do damage and let me avoid opportunity attacks”.
For my high elf cleric, the first spell is actually Shoot Longbow, which is quite competitive with cantrips if you’ve got the proficiency and the Dexterity for it. The second spell is Word of Radiance, to be used if there are too many enemies nearby for Shoot Longbow to be effective.
For my hill dwarf artificer/cleric, the first spell is Acid Splash, because it works in melee and at range, and gets the alchemist damage bonus. And… that’s it. It’s not a perfect spell, but it’s widely applicable, and that means I can stock up on support and utility magic with my other choices.
I think this approach is particularly relevant to our pal Warlock up there. Viewing your default combat action (cough eldritch blast cough) as your default combat action gives you a certain freedom with your other choices.
I’ve got a low-level sorcerer, so I don’t have a lot of space for utility spells in my actual spelllist. I carry a stack of scrolls as my batman belt.
As for my default spells to know, in cantrips detect magic, either light or dancing lights, and one of the 1d3 ranged touch energy spells. For level 1 spells, magic missile and mage armor.
And as a related subject, this is what’s so weird about the Psychic class. A massive spell list with tons of utility spells, but it’s a spontaneous caster. Even at high level, who is going to spend a spell known slot for “discern next of kin”? And I don’t think occult spellscrolls even exist.
I feel ya on the low-level spontaneous caster. My next dude is a mesmerist, and I went out of my way to pick up a 1d3 ranged touch energy spells. With the painful stare ability, that remains relevant for a lot of levels! It also means I don’t have to feel quite so bad when those “immune to mind-affecting” dudes show up.
Concerning occult spell scrolls, I’ve got the rules for it right here:
Occult Adventures Page 255
I usually don’t play full casters; and I try to go for fun combos.
I had three different warlocks who did not use Eldritch Blast (one had a charisma of 10 and was leaning into booming blade with a glaive; another was abusing hex blade buff with a hand crossbow and sharpshooter); I had a bard/rogue in PF who abused dervish dance… but I tend to always take the cantrip cantrip (Press the vegetation, Druidcraft, etc) and try to creatively use it. And have some self/party buffs at the ready.
Good call. Buffs are an important vector of attack for those fights where “strategy A” does not apply. When the enemy resists your gimmick, making the party generically stronger is usually relevant.
Let’s see, always useful or Batman spells…
Dispel magic, for when you can’t wait for the barbarian’s dominate person to end in two weeks, or other horrible spell effects.
Any cure spell, for obvious reason. Just having it is a good thing for between combats.
Any ‘remove X’ spell for debilitating effects, especially permanent ones. There’s so many of them that ‘kill’ you without killing you, like curses, petrification, poisons, diseases, stat drains, blindness, loss of limbs… And sadly they’re mixed between two different caster types, arcane/divine.
Battering Blast or equivalent attack spells like Ray of Fire. Sooner or later you need them to kill something the Martials can’t touch. Battering Blast is extra useful with ignoring many resistances and punting creatures, and scales admirably into the late game (and more with metamagic).
See invisibility and/or Glitterdust to counter the inevitable invisible ambush. You can also have a Symbol of Revelation with permanency inscribed on your clothes to be a mobile illusion/invisibility counter.
Faerie Fire, as it slam-dunks on Displacement, Invisibility and other mage-protection spells that make your martials suffer, and it’s extremely easy to apply.
Protection from alignment or other enchantment/domination counters. On the same note, any AC-booster spells.
Remove fear for the ‘save or lose’ versions of fear that many, many creatures have. Mandatory on any psychic caster.
Wall of Fire, as it’s guaranteed damage and is super effective versus undead, on top of being battlefield control.
Commune, if you can get it (familiars usually). One of the only always-reliable divination spells. Divination is the other one, with a small chance of not working (but also not lying to you).
For camping, Alarm, Invisibility alarm, Tiny hut, Rope Trick, Mage’s Magnificent Manor. For travel, a spectral chariot or mount (which also doubles as a ‘wall of horse’ spell in combat).
For personal or party flight, fly, mass fly, overland flight, wind walk.
Eroding Ray or Control Construct as the ONLY way a caster can deal with Golems and similar magic-immune constructs.
In a siege scenario post-its on doors with Exploding Runes or Sepia Snake Sigils, or various symbol wards.
An array of force spells to counter elemental immunities or incorporeal foes.
Dimension Door (which counters grapples on allies) or Emergency Force Sphere for dire situations. Likewise, Plane Shift and Teleport for countering a ‘teleport to different area’ stuff. Liberating Command also helps with grapples.
If you’re playing in any of the ‘Runelord’ or ”Themed APs for Pathfinder’s Golarion setting, having Runic Overload becomes a nice ‘batman’ spell to bring.
Allow me to push up my glasses a bit. Ahem. Um, actually:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/create-pit/
I used that one too, actually! It lead to the party complaining that they can’t hit the monster anymore and discouraged me from using it further. It did help during a nasty ambush encounter where it kept a golem from pummeling me in melee, though.
Considering various “extra-dimensional space inside another extra-dimensional space”, what happens if you toss a bag of holding into the pit before it expires?
Sucks to lose the bag, but still better than dying if what’s now in the pit is gonna kill you when it gets out …
Hungry Pit is better, it’s deeper and it hurts people in ways other than falling.
You’ve successfully identified and categorized the spells, but the question remains. When you’ve got limited access to spells known, how do you prioritize which of these options to take?
Well, to get a visual idea, here’s a screenshot of my spell list at the end of the lvl1 to lvl20 game. Don’t worry, it’s spoiler-free.
https://imgur.com/a/2OP79nR
For choosing, it’s important to know this character was an Exploiter Wizard with the Quick Study and Potent Magic exploits, letting him swap prepared spells mid-combat and boost their DCs via Arcanist Reservoir points. This encouraged me to be a hoarder when it comes to spells, copying and scribing all manner of them into my spellbook in his bountiful downtime (when he wasn’t crafting all manner of magic items for himself and the party).
He also grabbed the ‘Spell-Like Wand’ Arcane Discovery, which turned every wand in his possession into a reservoir of extra spells. Which he, of course, crafted himself.
He also learned a few spells outside of his class list by using the ‘invent a spell’ rules, with DM permission. Mostly because nobody else in the party could cast stuff like Restoration due to class limitations and this would have made the AP outright impossible due to its difficulty.
Top it off with a Ring of Wizardry to get double those early-level slots, and you end up with a character who readies all sorts of utility spells on his main list, swaps out less-useful spells between fights or in emergencies for ones that are, and has most of his offensive arsenal and ‘daily buff spells’ stored in wands.
Priority wise, he’d always have some offensive spell (1-2) at each spell level, with considerations for different elements/immunities. The rest was various utility spells for the party, defensive buffs, condition-removal stuff.
Sounds to me like the strat is “don’t choose when you can have everything.”
I can understand why a GM would allow an arcanist to replicate a cleric on “restoration” though. That mess gets kind of necessary after a while. Still, you’d think that it could be covered by UMD or a custom magic item rather than a brand new spell.
And here’s the list of spells on my Starfinder character, who was a Shirren Mystic of Sarenrae (Life Connection) in Dawn of Flame, a very healing-focused divine caster with spontaneous caster rules.
https://imgur.com/a/4YFB82g
The spells known were fairly straightforward choices – a complete lack of fire spells (because nearly everything was immune or resistant to fire in that AP), most of every healing/curing/condition removing spell (mostly granted free via connection, or otherwise taken early), Mind Thrust as my main offensive option through all levels (it could be undercast), and a bunch of buffs, mind-whammies or situational/damaging spells for the rest – usually for when Mind Thrust didn’t work against mind-immune critters. When not flinging spells, they’d shoot a longarm rifle with non-lethal damage capabilities.
The spell choices were ultimately a mixture of character theme (Sarenrae pacifist, healer, telepathic bug), AP conditions (tailored for fighting fire-subtype creatures) and a few universally or situationally useful spells to have in deep space exploration. Or deep-sun exploration, in that particular AP.
Imagine a cheerful and optimistic nice-guy bug medic who dislikes killing other creatures and believes in redemption of evildoers – but Sarenrae help you if you assume they’re a pushover in a fight or do stuff like torturing innocents / warcrimes – that’s how you get your brain fried and the stun settings go off.
This is an amusing topic for me, since it goes a bit against how I play casters… I choose spells according to their character concept and then practically never mix them up. There can be a little tactical thought, and with the warlock (ever my favourite) I will eventually trade out spells thst are objectively wasteful with those few spell slots at higher levels.
I guess I think that if there is ever a “must take” spell or ability, it’s a flaw in the game system, and Eldritch Blast is the perfect example. It’s objectivrly the best attack cantrip, especially for warlocks, and so I – mulish rebel that I am – always refuse to take it.
Are you familiar with the “Johnny” psychographic profile?
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/timmy-johnny-and-spike-2013-12-03
Haha no, I didn’t know of that – but I do identify with it! xD
Interesting little article, thanks!
Yeah, I’ve got the same instinct. Which is weird, since I love the Eldritch Blast class feature from 3.5 as a solid, reliable source of damage. I guess an obvious choice rubs me wrong in a way that a static class feature can’t.
Very much so! Perhaps it’s the problem of being given a set of choices, but with a great big sign next to one saying “and this is the correct one”.
I ended up tweaking the warlock class slightly when I DM, with two changes (as well as encouraging mutually designed homebrew invocations): first, all warlocks get one invocation at 1st level, which stacks with the others they later get; second, “eldritch blast” is unlocked as a cantrip option by using an eldritch invocation.
It felt an elegant way to incentivise other options while not unfairly empowering the warlock class (on the logic that if you’re taking the “must take” option, nothing has changed.)
I also like the idea of all pact of the blade warlocks being able to use Charisma as their atta ck stat with their pact weapons, which is a bit more controversial as it takes from the hexblade, but tbh I think the hexblade should always have been a “theme” you could establish through invocations rather than a specific patron type.
Colour Spray is my favourite spell and I will always prepare it no matter what else is going on.
…Okay that’s a little bit hyperbole, while it remains mildly useful even at higher levels, sometimes it obviously isn’t going to help.
The other prepared caster I’m currently playing is an Artificer, whose ‘go to’ spells are part of his class and therefore always prepped automatically, so I get to play around more with what else to prep that I think might help.
Color Spray wins encounters at low level. And surviving into the high levels is a mage’s business.
Yeah it does. Being able to just go ‘none of the enemies get turns’ for a while is pretty dang nice. Plus I really love that even if the enemy has too many hit dice for any of the cool effects, there’s still that itty bitty chance for a stun.
Phantasmal Force is one I almost always find myself coming back to.
What’s the appeal for you?
Looking at pathfinder 2es summoner, my biggest hesitation is they only know 4 non-cantrip spells.
Not like 4 per level, 4 total, as they level up they have to make a chose, sacrifice an existing spell to learn a new spell, or don’t get a higher level spell since you can’t possibly part with Fireball.
As for spells i always take, not counting the ever present Feather Fall, Expedious Retreat, dramatically increasing your movement is so usefull
Well that’s one way to combat analysis paralysis.
As someone who plays a lot of warlocks, I do admittedly take Eldritch Blast unless I’m playing a Hexblade or Hexadin.
Eldritch Blast does good damage, can be boosted, can be fired off more times in a row (which I prefer over extra dice), and does damage that is not resisted. That being said, I dread the day where I get a DM that will throw us against a Helmed Horror with an all Warlock party. I usually try to go for other damaging cantrips/spells when I have room outside of EB and what I refer to as the trinity (Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, and Mage Hand)
Lately, with my Warlocks, I’ve been focusing a bit on Utility spells to avoid combat, trying to be clever so we can avoid combat and I can use my spellslots for more creative spells such as PHatasmal Force over combat spells like Synaptic Static.
Also, quick aside: I’m bothered that the warlock has to choose his patron spells instead of getting them automatically unlike the Clerics and the Paladins. Despite being gainfully employed, I guess some benefits are withheld.
Met my first helmed horror as a warlock. It was so perfectly suited to fuck with me that I assumed my GM was just being a dick.
“Eldritch blast!”
“It’s immune to force damage.”
“What about the necrotic damage from hex?”
“That too.”
“OK then. For my next turn I’ll order my imp to sting it.”
“Immune to poison damage.”
“Fuck it! Fireball!”
“It’s specifically immune to fireball.”
“I WILL BLUDGEON YOU WITH MY DICE BAG!”
“Hmmm… That appears to get through its defenses.”
“ARGHLBRGLE!”
Hahaha! I think that may be the immediate response. But, now that I think about it, while it is effective, you should always have something prepared even as a warlock given your limited resource. Such as taking Shilleleagh or Chill Touch from the Tome, Crown of Star if you are at that level, or go full Path of Vengeance Hexadin and smite the crap out of everything. Because who needs spells?
I tend to take utility, situational, or just plain neat spells—probably more than is optimal. Let’s take a practical example—Saana, my cecaelia pirate witch.
I start by picking handy high-level spells. The three 5th-level spells in her familiar are baleful polymorph, reincarnate, and teleport. Baleful polymorph is a decent debuff (especially if the target fails their Will save), and one I should probably use more often—turning the Big Bad into an eel seems fun! Teleport is a great utility spell, and it’s helpful to be able to raise people from the dead in a pinch.
Her 3rd-level spells are more numerous; they include a couple reliable standards like suggestion and ray of exhaustion, but also sillier spells like unadulterated loathing and hydrophobia (still haven’t been able to make a fish fail its save for that spell). Her 1st-level spells are even wilder, with hardly any combat spells among them. (I guess peacebond kinda counts?)
I’ve got a low-level 5e bard/rogue in Dragon Heist. The only damage-dealing spell he knows is dissonant whispers, which can also make the target flee. His cantrips are pure utility—mage hand and minor illusion.
So yeah, I’m not Warlock here. I’m the guy flipping through his spellbook for something to stop Warlock from eldritchly blasting me again.
Play enough casters and it eventually becomes “what haven’t I tried before?” rather than “what’s best?” I tend to be the same way.
Also of note, lol @ hydrophobia fish.
Short and sweet – any time that Shield can be on my list, Shield is on my list. Maybe because I’ve been a squishy caster fighting smart archer enemies who specifically target “the guy in the dress” one too many times, but a sudden +5 to AC has been an absolute guardian angel.
Action economy is a hell of a drug. Especially when that improved action economy says “not today, death!”
The image spells. Silent, Still, minor and major its hard to make things work and I take great joy in using them to the best of my abilities.
I can never make myself shell out for all of them. I’m sure that having extra oomph of major image comes up from time to time, but my brain kind of shuts down at, “Stop whining! We already have hologram at home!”
Assuming I start a D&D game at low level, Fog is always on my spell list. You’d surprise what utility you can milk out of that spell.
Speaking of utility, if I play a wizard, I’ll make a point of learning all ritual spells. Rituals tend be very useful, and best of all you don’t have to expend any spell energy to cast them (just time).
I know that fog and obscuring mist and similar are useful. But the rules headache of “what happens when you attack into / out of the edge of the cloud” in 3.X left a bad taste in my mouth. That was one of the most heated debates my group has experienced. Quite a bit of, “But that doesn’t make any sense!” going around. :/
Excuse you, Speak with plants isn’t useless 🙁
It’s a very good spell when you want to speak with something that actually got an intelligence score 😛
Now as for spells, are you telling me that warlocks may need an spell that isn’t Eldritch Blast? Yeah, sure 😀
I’m pretty sure I said
Let me go back and check the OP. One sec.
…
…
…
Yup. That’s what I said. 😛
For serious though, if you have one last spell in your daily repertoire and one more encounter to go, what are you going to want? Something that’s combat-relevant, or an excuse for you GM to do a funny voice and declare, “Hi! My name is… ummm… Graaaaasssss!”
But isn’t making the DM a funny voice as they suddenly need to role play grass the whole point of the game? 😛
As for a last spell there is always expeditious retreat. That is the best last spell that there is. Specially when you need to outrun the rest of the party with the loot you are carrying 😀
They really should have just had the 5E Warlock be Intelligence-based like they were originally planning to. I’m playing an Int-lock (Alternating between him and an Artificer between Dungeon trips) and it works great.
It makes sense from a lore-perspective, (5E Warlocks are taught magic by their patron rather than being “artificial Sorcerers” or “Clerics to middle-management”) it’s better from a balance perspective, (No more Sorlocks, Padlocks, Hexadins, etc) and it would even out the ability-spread of the lineup. (Warlock, Wizard, and Artificer for Intelligence. Cleric, Druid, and Ranger for Wisdom. Bard, bad-Wizard, and Paladin for Charisma) Basically an improvement all around.
You don’t need to be intelligent for some rando God of Dreams to beam knowledge into your noodle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vMO3XmNXe4
😛
But you would need intelligence to understand that information that was beamed into your brain. We all know that Einstein’s theory of relativity is “E=MC^2” but what the hell does “Energy is mass times the speed of light squared” mean, especially in-context. Knowledge is one thing, but comprehension requires intelligence.
I find the following are consistently good prepped spell choices for me:
Protection from Evil/Good (get it for free starting at level 3)
Shield of Faith
Bless
Wrathful Smite
Heroism
Level2:
Branding Smite
Protection from Poison
Find Steed
Locate Object
Level 3:
Dispel Magic (free)
Aura of Vitality
Daylight
Remove Curse
Revivify
Level 4:
Freedom of Movement (free)
Aura of Life
Banishment
Find Greater Steed
Level 5:
Holy Weapon
Circle of Power
Flame Strike (free) (Only because its the only AoE I get)
To which I say:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/un-prepared-casting
As much as I like me some good smitage – and I do like smitage – sometimes a carefully selected spell can do a whole more than a smite.
For example, a Paladin is flying around the battlefield on their trusty pegasus, trying to break the siege of a friendly fortress, and a bad-guy mage casts Fly on an Iron Golem to send it up to get me. Immediately I asked the DM to be sure they decided what level of spell slot was used – ‘you don’t have to tell me – just decide now for yourself’ got me an apprehensive “um, ok” from the DM. Can you see where this is going? My pegasus and I started luring the devil I was fighting higher and higher, eventually dispatching it the round before the flying iron golem got to me. I then maneuvered so if the iron golem followed a straight line to me, dashing, it would be directly over the enemy siege engine far below. Indeed it dashed again, and indeed it was right where I wanted it. I had thought the DM would have figured out my plan by now, but their expression of shock when I said “As my action, I cast Dispel Magic targeting the Fly Spell” belied that expectation. The DM narrated the result: the enemy siege engine was smashed beyond recognition and the occupants slain instantly by a torrent of wood and metal splinters. The iron golem was somewhere under that at the bottom of a modest crater. I had presumed the the latter would be unharmed due to the ground not dealing magical falling damage, but the DM did not have the golem get back up, so who knows. Now, as nice as a level 3 smite on a devil would have been, saving that slot for Dispel Magic was definitely the right call.
Moral of the story: The wise paladin does not neglect their spells.
So my Wizard basically stamped out scrolls of effects and handled ALL of her direct damage herself. She was a mythic fire spec Wizard… So her spell list was ‘everything with the fire descriptor.’ She was also an Arcane Savant, so her scroll bag was stuffed with spells on demand that were cast at her level because that’s how Arcane Savant BE.
Oh. But… it does occur to me… her mythic spec revolved more around illusions and making them REAL than it did FIRE, specifically.
Mythic illusionist hijinks are nuts. A scroll of Silent Image is basically a pass to print anything. My GM said that any use of the ability could not be used to sell the created whatever. And I said that was fine.
To this day I am still certain he didn’t expect me to illusion of a mega ballista with a winch and crank the flying castle DOWN TO US.
I remember choosing not to take Tangible Illusion due to my fear of analysis paralysis. When I gain the ability to create literally any object, my brain stops working and just plays “The U.S.S. Make Shit Up” on loop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwhAq3F8NCE
Forgive me for being old fashioned and preferring Star Trekkin’, but I gotta admit that’s pretty good!
I have a general rule for myself-I come up with what I will do while everyone else is taking their turns. A lot of the people I play with can take some time to decide on their turns, so it usually gives me plenty of time to come up with an entire plan.
And if NOT, then I have some fallback option always ready. And when you’re a Wizard, there’s a spell you can cast any time and always be right…!
For D&D 5e, I almost always take Guidance, Mage Hand, Message and Druidcraft/Prestidigitation/Thaumaturgy as possible – got to have those utility cantrips. For levelled spells, it depends a lot on my class and build, but here are some common ones for anyone who can get them:
– Either Detect Magic or Identify, with wizards getting both since they can freely cast them as rituals while saving prepared spells for other things. You need some way to learn what magic’s going on around you.
– Shield of Faith. It’s a very convenient protective spell.
– Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. It’s good for taking an opponent out of combat temporarily, and I once used it to kill a black dragon while it was flying over lava.
– Invisibility. A stealth aid that provides combat benefits as well is extremely useful.
– Misty Step. A short-ranged teleport that doesn’t even need a full action to cast is really useful for getting around.
– The Restoration series. You always need some way to cure status ailments.
– Counterspell and/or Dispel Magic, whichever may be available. Denying enemy casters is just so satisfying.
– Sending. You never know when you might need to send a long-range message.
– Dimension Door. Basically a bigger, slower version of Misty Step, very useful for getting around.
– Fire Shield. Quite possibly the best choice for any wizard who wants to go into melee, and a good discouragement spell for wizards who DON’T want to go into melee.
– Polymorph. Few things are immune to it, it can neutralise some rather nasty enemies, and also has utility uses on your party members so they can scout as a bird or such.
I feel like ritual magic, utility powers, and even the ability of prepared casters in 3.X to leave slots unprepared are all ways to separate combat magic from exploration magic. They’re all a bit hidden within their respective systems though. I guess I just wish there was a way to signpost the distinctions a bit more.
I feel like a Warlock would get a kick out of that Maslow’s Hammer spell you mentioned way back
He and Sorcerer would be pals. If only I could think of a reason to put them in a comic together.
Arguing over which is better: fireball or eldritch blast
In GURPS Magic, perhaps the most “silver bullet” spell is Bless. Given how it’s worded, it can be protection against critical failures.
A critical failure with magic – no matter what spell is attempted (it is suggested that the most lily-white pure good intentions might be excepted, but this seems unlikely to come up for most PCs) – can summon a demon to attack the caster and friends, suddenly turning a non-combat scene (where the party might not have their weapons and armor around, let alone at hand) into a combat scene. Bless can basically X-Card that possibility away, without tweaking the rules or game balance when that is a concern of others at the table (e.g. if anyone is playing a non-mage).
When contemplating running a game, especially a oneshot, I will sometimes consider what systems offer appropriate silver bullets for the players to exploit when deciding what system to use. For instance, FATE’s teamwork boosting through aspects works great when the PCs are supposed to be something like a sentai team.
Kind of makes me wonder what D&D theme would be appropriate for “silver bullet specialists.” Maybe if you ran an exorcism themed game rather than generic “adventurers.”
In any case, props to you for tailoring system to theme. Always cool to see mechanics reflecting narrative.
Feather Fall, Find Familiar, Detect Magic, Identify, and Protection from Good and Evil* always go on my spell lists if available. Same with Goodberry and Guidance. And yeah, Eldritch Blast too.
Because possession monsters are *extremely annoying.
However I do also specifically avoid some things unless I feel I really have to have them. Like Shield, Hex, and Hunter’s Mark. I dislike taking things I feel are sacrificing fun.
I will often try to see if I can reasonably avoid Mage Armor (though often as not I really can’t). And I will often not take Counterspell unless making a rather high level character.
On the other hand I’ll usually take Pass without Trace if available, but not always.
Generally I try to avoid Reaction spells because they make play by post more of a chore. But some options (see Counterspell at high levels) are so good it’s unreasonable not to take them.
And then there’s just Cleric and Druids where I basically feel forced to take the status removal and at least some of the healing spells even if I’d really rather not dedicate 75% of my prepared spells to things I feel obligated to take rather than want to take. sigh
Have I mentioned I dislike how those two classes have the most “basically mandatory” spells and for some reason have to prepare their ritual spells?
Once again, I reminded of the ways that the circumstances of the game affect the mechanics. Always interesting to get a PBP perspective on these questions.
In any case, a theme that I’m detecting in this thread is a general dislike for “mandatory spells.” Seems that people want interesting choices rather than obvious ones.
Inflict wounds, with Warcaster feat. Nothing says “don’t move” like the threat of that spell as an attack of opportunity poses.
Also, Dissonant Whispers. Because making things use their reaction to provoke an attack of opportunity is too much fun.
I gather that you’re a melee cleric. Gotta be a bit of a feels-bad when that baddy makes that Dissonant Whispers save though.
Nah, necromancer types all the way. And yeah, people making their saves is always a sore moment.
Ah. Combat is combat, and we all have our favorite low-to-midlevel combat spell combos. I like an arcane caster with 3 levels in fighter: you can have weapon focus and weapon specialization in ranged touch attacks (ray spells, ray guns…) a moderate Dex., and Point Blank Shot. Now even ray of frost is doing 5 points of damage per shot.
But my absolute must for keeping a slot open or a scroll handy (other than featherfall) are detect poison and detect magic. With a few ranks in Alchemy and Spellcraft, you can hang at the back of the group and still tell the Barbarian exactly what will happen if they decide to lick the statue or push the shiny button.
I can understand why this mess is useful as a player. But it drives me absolutely nuts as a GM. So often, the game becomes more fun when the barbarian pushes the shiny button. Disarming or avoiding a trap makes the payer feel smart, but it’s not especially interesting as an encounter.
Imagine Indiana Jones not running from the boulder, leaping pits, and dodging under slowly-lowering doors. He just spots them, grabs the McGuffin, and walks out again. Bleh.
True, but Indy would be the first to ignore carefully-crafted exposition and set-dressing if his Bardic Knowledge roll convinced him that the nearby inscription was just a plot hook to a module he’d already run.
(Paraphrasing Last Crusade for our mage)
Rogue: Picks up unidentified grenade. “Ooh. What’s this vial?”
Alchemist: “Burnt othur fumes”
Rogue: “Are you sure?”
Alchemist: “Pretty sure…”
I’m currently playing the Batman Wizard :tm: in my current saturday afternoon game, which is running Agents of Edgewatch- the go-to spell in my collection is color spray and sleep. My DC is fairly high (30 right now) and a failure on either is essentially a combatant removed from the combat. Plus due to my archetype combination, I have a lot of low level spell slots to prep them in. As for higher level slots, I’m a big fan of the Battle Form spells, even if most of them are subpar compared to blasting- my experiment with this wizard is to get to 20 without ever taking a Blaster spell.
Always fun to go for self-imposed limitations. I find that sort of mini-game makes casters more interesting to play and characterful to portray.
Yeah, it feels more in-character for a barely-out-of-the-academy, Neutral Good wizard idealist to avoid using blaster spells to take prisoners- after all, it’s pretty hard to use Fireball in a non-lethal manner.
But we did a whole comic on that!
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/rocket-jump
As I mentioned last comic, all of my spontaneous casters take Cure Light Wounds. Sometimes they take Cure Moderate, sometimes not. The rest of the spells are usually buffs and utility, though I’ve only gotten to 4th level spells with Irlana. With my prepared casters, I usually go with buffs and a few attacking spells.
No love for the ubiquitous cure light wand?
The wand is fine, but they can run out of uses or be stolen. Can’t steal a spell known. It’s just safer that way. And my prepared casters tend to prep it once for backup, with the exception of clerics and warpriests.
I do have one spontaneous caster that didn’t take it as a spell known. But I was gestalting hunter and warpriest so he didn’t have to take it as a spell known. It took a while to go through all the first and second level spells to pick out good ones that weren’t also on the warpriest list.
If you ask me, the wbl economy needs to go. Items need to be affordable, sanely priced, and actually awesome and good again.
The whole idea of the “silver bullet” spell is a thing I am working hard to compeletly erase from my system. In my experience, it leads to way too many overspecialized spells and actively dissuades players from wanting to do cool things.
So essentially I am taking inspiration from PF, Shadowrun, Spheres of Power, and Mage to create a system where the spellcasters can both use base spells and perform an infinite amount of capabilities through combining effects and using spheres of magic, etc. (my post on the last comic had a bit of a sample; it will possibly change though.) I am also working on implementing a traditions of magic system inspired by PF2e that deals with occult, arcane, divine etc. magic that also ties into the system.
Another element I am trying to change is how PF right now honestly has too many overspecialized classes (friend once said it’s like paizo saw amount of base classes and PrCs in 3.5 and decided to switch those numbers). I am trying to keep the class list to 12-14, maybe 15, but also introduce a ton of awesome abilities and features that enable infinite character possibilities ans that also integrate with other systems, such as the magic system.
Good luck with development!
Thanks!
This is my problem whenever I play a Druid above about 5th level. “Alright, I’m concentrating on a spell, nobody needs healing, what the hell do I do with my turn?”
5e Druids that aren’t Circle of the Moon really don’t have a lot of “default actions”.
Makes me wonder if a Thief / Druid multiclass would be fun. Finding a way to leverage all those equipment-based actions while still casting would be a novel playstyle.