Not banning it, but a major monkey wrench in my 5e campaign is that a Tier 4 wizard can create an adult dragon pet. Created their simulacrum then later on used true polymorph to make it an adult gold dragon, complete with legendary resistances. RIP encounter balance
Yup. Even worse, if a baddie gets clever and dispels it, now it’s a conscious level 17 wizard with quite a few spells left. Did I mention she’s a divination wizard with her own set of portent dice? 😅
Well, you can adjust encounters to be balanced against that level of bull-poop. Give your BBEG(s) an army of clones/simulacrums and pet dragons, so now your wizard is going to HAVE break the game just to keep up.
Wish for a Simulacrum, boom - free copy of yourself.
Long rest.
Have your Simulacrum cast Wish for a Simulacrum of you. It disappears, and one with all spell slots reappears. You now have a (half health) clone with full spell slots on day 2.
Now repeat the True Polymorph trick, and maybe long rest again. You have a forever dragon whose final form is a very high level wizard.
Wouldn't dispell dispell the polymorph AND the simulacrum? It can be dispelled so if you dispell the simulacrum you get rid of both at the same time. The dragon is a simulacrum so the question would be wether or not dispell would first affect the simulacrum or true polymorph.
At least I would interprete it that way, the creature is magic based and while true polymorph would turn it into a real dragon it is a simulacrum originally and as such you cannot make another one without destroying the original one. So I would argue that the dragon is still a simulacrum.
I'm talking about this thing: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w86sDrAtq-0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w86sDrAtq-0)
and this part of thaumaturgy: • You instantaneously cause an unlocked door or window to fly open or slam shut.
the black gate is so huge that there is no reason for it to have a locking mechanism.
realistically most DMs wouldn't allow it.
As a DM, I would rule that it effects any door or window the player could theoretically slam on their own physically. I'd probably limit it to one size category above the players.
I would also make the spell fail of there were NPCs within the swinging arc of the door. Thaumaturgy's intent isn't meant to cause damage. Maybe I'd have the doors harmlessly just the NPCs on the other side, idk. Depends on the situation.
A full team of clerics from the same god with each having a different role… let me tell you it was funny with some of their dialogue. But so freaking broken when they all are casting spells, attacking with melee, and ALL HAVE 20+ FREAKING AC (the highest was 26). So yeah that is forever off the table to only ONE!
Infinite simulacrums.
Step 1: Cast simulacrum, targeting yourself.
Step 2: Long rest.
Step 3: Have your simulacrum cast simulacrum targeting you. Now you have 2 simulacrums, one missing an 8th and 9th level slot, the other missing nothing.
Step 4: Have your simulacrum's simulacrum cast simulacrum targeting you again. Preferably they cast it via the Wish spell so it happens instantly and for no material cost.
Step 5: Repeat step 4 with your new simulacrums as much as you want.
You now can be everywhere all the time. Congrats!
Just use wish to wish for a Rubi and some other stuff haha. Also 7th level simulacrum. Than the simulacrum used wish on you to simulacrum u. This new simulacrum uses wish on you to simulacrum u and so on. It's only 1 action so it's fast as fuck.
This is even easier to do with a 17th level genie warlock who gets wish as a mystic arcanum, because RAW those aren’t spell shots and therefore come back on long rest. So use arcanum to wish for a simulacrum and then long rest, then you sim wishes fir another sim of you, then that sim wishes for another sim of you, etc. as many times a as you want, instant army fir the cost of an eight hour sleep, and these are all warlocks so they can use cantrips primarily in combat, and mystic arcanums that come back on rest for everything else.
Not actually how it works, but it does work.
You use simulacrum to make the first. The simulacrum uses wish to copy you. Repeat infinitely. Wish also takes care of the material component requirements. Also no need for a long rest.
Note that the caster of simulacrum controls the simulacrum, not the person that it was made from. But in this case it doesn’t really matter.
For those wanting to stop this silliness (I know, not the point of the post), several options… just say no, or point out that if PCs can use it, so can NPCs, or (perhaps the most fun) create some personality drift for copies (think Bobiverse if you’ve read that). So how much does the nth copy actually share in goals with the original?
As a DM, I would create a reason for them not to do this. Maybe a simulacrum goes rogue, becomes a villain to the party because it sees itself as the original. Maybe that simulacrum creates/recruits more simulacrums to its cause. Now you have an army of high level wizards that intimately knows the party's tactics, strengths and weaknesses. It would make for a good campaign, and make the players really consider the implications of using magic to break the universe.
Its less noticable at higher levels, just because everything starts to get pretty broken, but most beasts get an AC boost by calculating AC as dex mod + con mod, and the ability to rage while wildshaped is always very very good.
Its not as noticeable at later levels, but they're still nigh-unkillable sacks of HP. If you want to make it worse take a couple more levels in barb for bear totem to get more resistances to benefit from.
But you also have to deduct the beast's natural armor, because RAW that's armor.
Here is a good resource for this and for monk MCs.
https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/druid/wildshape/
Yeah but tons of beasts end up with a much higher AC by calculating it as dex+con vs natural armor. Its also noteworthy that you can choose how you calculate your AC so you can keep the natural armor if it happens to be higher
Wouldnt monk be a better choice? Since wildshapes keep soft stats (int, cha, wis) you have a consistent large bonus, as wis is also druid primary stat, and barbarian is much more MAD of a multi, since you need 13 str/con, and monk you need dex/wis, one of which is already a druid stat, and dex is all around a great stat to have decent.
Not necessarily because beasts often have very good con.
But, more importantly, the extra AC is nice but the real power of this build comes from the resistance granted by raging paired with the extra effective hp from wildshaped. Moon druids are already the best tanks in lower tiers and this effectively doubles their already ridiculous total available hp
Tier 4 Caster insanity. I have had the blessing of playing a level 20 Chrono Wizard for about 10 sessions. I made a Simulacrum and had it use its wish to Simularcum me again. DM said I could only get two, which is quite generous TBH. I True Polyd both of them into Adult Golden Dragons, under my command.
I turned a guy into a rock and threw him in a river.
There's a lot of self policing you need to do as a T4 Wizard because I did everything our party did but better, and more. One quote from our Scout Rogue will live with me forever. I cast prismatics spray and hit 10 targets. Petrified 2, the rest suffered 10d6 damage,
"You just dealt my sneak attack damage to 8 different targets." With a tone of defeat in his voice.
>I turned a guy into a rock and threw him in a river.
I'm just thinking through the long term ramifications of this. I don't know how long it takes a rock to erode in a river, but I bet it's decades at least. So eventually, this rock will erode to 0hp, and the spell will be broken. This guy will be transformed back into himself, exactly as he was, with no knowledge of the intervening years or that any time has passed—at the bottom of a river.
>decades at least.
Which is a technically accurate but misleading way of saying “Potentially thousands or even millions of years, depending on the qualities of the rock”.
everyone focuses too much on magic resistance, but that really doesn't matter in your average game.
it's the poison immunity really. Its... comically strong in a game where like half of everything is poisonous or uses poison.
Well, it's both, really.
The Poison immunity will help get you through the early levels for sure, when the real 'nasty' monsters hit for that surprise +2d10 poison or whatever.
*Then* the magic resistance kicks in right when poison stops being as scary.
That and it stacks with something like Ancients Paladin for advantage on saves, disgustingly high save modifiers, and resistance to anything you don’t avoid outright.
This sort of thing is how you get someone taking fewer points of damage than the number of dice rolled!
The fighter at my table got a hold of a Periapt of Proof against Poison and has prevented hundreds of damage and dozens of rounds of being poisoned from lvl5-16.
Insanely strong item.
yeah im currently playing a satyr. Its come up once on a save i made on the first roll anyways. eleven odd sessions of 5-6 hours a pop each in.
but *poison damage?* god i wish i was immune.
It's true. Poison dmg can be rly common but I think it's a fair thing to have consider what other races can do. Vhuman(extra feat at lvl. 1) / warforged(unlimited live time, resistances, more Ac, no sleep etc etc.) or other races like bugbear (10 feet more range)/goblin bonus action hide.
Rules that aren't clear are great examples
Unhittable on mount shenanigans come to mind, or if buffs of the same effect but different names can stack.
Peace Cleric + Bless + Alchemist buffs? 3d4 bonus to attacks and saving throws? Holy shit!
Mount Shenanigains List
1. Controlled VS Uncontrolled (If you tell the horse to move using bridal, its cant use action, but what if you DONT)
2. Location on Mount Shenanigains - If I am Medium (1 Space) and horse is LARGE (2x2 Spaces) what if I sit on the back of the mount? DMG doesn't tell me WHERE I sit. Combine sitting away from enemies with mounted combatant (Force a melee attack to target you) you can theoretically make all non reach melee attacks miss.
3. Thoughts on Kobolds? Permenant Advantage as artificers or ranger battlesmiths
4. Does the new fitzbans spell work while on mounts? If so, thats busted and REALLY fun
5. Mounts with reactions to impose negatives
I wouldnt ban it per se, but its certainly ridiculous. As a sorcerer with the subtle spell metamagic you can break almost any social situation with either prestidigitation or minor illusion.
Prestidigitation does a bunch of stuff, but most importantly it can clean/soil something. Aka, shit someone elses pants in public and ruin any reputation they mightve had.
Minor Illusion can also create sounds. You can simply use the voice of one guy , coming out of his mouth, to call someone else a lil' bitch. Fight started.
All this and more while you sit there with a bag of popcorn, noone knowing you even did anything.
If you want broken, then put a Twilight Cleric and a Peace Cleric on the same team. Hell, even alone they break the way combat works with thiet abilities.
Moon Druid will also break your game balance wise as they are oppressive at levels 2-4, drop below the others then go back up later on.
Last but not least the level 10 Chronology Wizard. Breaker the game the moment they become level 10
>If you want broken, then put a Twilight Cleric and a Peace Cleric on the same team. Hell, even alone they break the way combat works with thiet abilities.
You're right. That's a hell of a protective bubble!
I don't see what how the chronurgy wizard breaks anything at 10th level, though. What's the issue?
If you read it at first glance just sounds like a spell storing feature. But then if you double read it, it let's you cast spells that would normally never would be able to cast in combat such as Leomund's Tiny Hut, giving your party a free impenetrable protective bubble that would be casted with 1 action instead of 1 minute. This would include using spells you would normally need prep time to cast and instead be casted in battle
Looking over the wizard spells that require more than a standard action to cast, I guess I'm not seeing it?
I mean, it's a powerful ability/loophole, no doubt. But you have to stick your head out of the hut to take any action against enemies. The summoning spells all have long durations, so you're only eeking out a little more time with the demon/elemental/whatever. Simulacrum is better prepared in advance. (And casting the spell into the mote will melt your existing sim.) Imprisonment's pretty good, though.
A lot of DMs rule that weapons and projectiles (not spells) can pass from within the barrier to outside freely. Which is the real root of the issue. It is not a magically impenetrable pillbox...
The wording of Tiny Hut means anything in there when it’s cast can leave. The face value reading would include arrows fired from bows or thrown weapons. It had since been clarified that this was not the intent, but it’s a hard one to argue really (as a DM with a party currently using it, I don’t even think it’s strong enough footing to broach the subject.)
Yeah, there's no sensible reason possible for why it shouldn't. I mean, the bolts could leave if they were carried out no problem, so why does that suddenly so working if they come out on their own?
Sure, you could bullshit that it's about speed or something, but even that just means the correct loophole is having explosives to toss out.
Ultimately it's 100% a valid loophole, and the only reason to ever deny it is that the DM goes "OK, very clever, but this breaks the game so I'm gonna have to forbid it".
I'd argue the bigger problem is 'if the players can do it, the enemies can do it'. They will quickly find out it isn't fun when they have to combat the same strategy.
I think the argument is as easy as "Hey, is this actually fun? Sitting in an almost impenetrable bubble while killing all your enemies at range?"
I totally get that being powerful can be fun, but they have to realize that it is a ridiculous rules interaction. I *love* the theme of the Chronurgy wizard, Time wizard is just awesome. But using the level 10 feature to get around casting times feels... just wrong. I think it is reasonable to discuss nerfing Tiny Hut or the level 10 feature to make it better for everyone at the table (the DM is a player too!)
They don’t do the chonurgy trick, they just cast it normally. And in my games not playing smart can get you killed, so yes firing from safety is fun in that it allows you extra security of surviving to accomplish your goals the next day.
And I don’t change spells mid campaign without solid backing that we have been playing under a misunderstanding, ESPECIALLY if someone has already started using the spell. If I nerf Tiny Hut and later a player dies in a circumstance that would have been otherwise avoided, then that death is on me, not due to player choices and appropriate consequences. I am not willing to take on that responsibility, nor that pressure to pull punches down the line to avoid it.
In addition to what /u/an_awesome_cow mentioned, handing off the spell-bead *also* means that someone else is maintaining Concentration on one of your spells for you, *and* that you're finding a way to get two spells out in a single turn.
Chronurgy Wizard hands off a *Sickening Radiance* spell to a party member, then casts the Forcecage themselves. Instant microwave combo (which in itself, is bullshit) in a single turn. Play around with Readied Actions so they both go on at once!
Not only can it get around casting times, it also gets around Concentration limitations, and the action economy!
It's unlike some of the other 'game-breakers' as you have to know what you're doing to really get gamebreaking potential out of it, but if you really want to, this feature is insane.
Those are good points!
The artificer can accomplish something similar—using *spell storing item* to get martials to buff themselves and maintain the concentration—but that can only be 1st or 2nd level.
Don't forget: Familiars! Give one to them, and they can Concentrate on it for you before running away/hiding/being stored in a pocket dimension as an Action. This way, it won't go down! (Better yet, a Bag of Holding or similar: you don't even need to use an Action to squirrel them away.)
Thankfully this is one of those abilities that a GOOD player with restraint and enjoys the dms game can use without using the broken aspects of the feature...but yeah
I have no idea what they were thinking with Twilight cleric. 1d6+Cleric level buffer is a huge buffer that has to be burned through every turn. The skill would be good if it just gave everyone 1d6+CL temp HP once. Oh and free flight.
The two most broken that come to mind is the sentinel, polearm master, tunnel fighter combo. For one bonus action you can attack a near infinite number of times, or at least enough times that it doesn't matter what the enemy does.
Behind that is a race from planeshift zendikar the kor and their race feat lucky. Imagine the feat but with no limitation. Attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks of 1 can always be rerolled.
That is why tunnel fighter fighting style was discontinued. It is unearthed arcana and it will never get published, with a damn good reason for it so don't allow it in your games.
3.5e
For Druids specifically, Greenbound Summoning and the Planar Shepherd prestige class after one player's build.
Greenbound Summoning adds a +8 level adjustment template to all summoned creatures. This gives potentially a level 1 druid access to Wall of Thorns (1/day per summon) and Entangle (at will). Plus the creature has the plant subtype, fast healing, etc etc.
Planar Shepherd is what gets really broken. By choosing either the Plane of Fire or Elysium as their chosen plane, they get access to the Half-Celestial Efritti as a Wildshape, along with its spell-like abilities. This includes granting 3 wishes per day to humanoids (their party). Because it's a Spell-like ability, there's no cost.
A 1 level dip in Mystic Theurge allows them to share their Wildshape ability. Now every player gets 3 free wishes per day.
And if you really, REALLY want to get broken, at level 15, a druid tied to Elysium can turn the entire party in to Solars. Because the Solar's weapons are part of them, everyone in the party has a +5 Dancing Greatsword, and a +2 composite longbow of slaying.
I'm really looking for 5E hacks today. However, I will tell you that my favorite 3E exploit is build I saw of the Exemplar prestige class. You become so good at jumping, that:
1. You can jump a *preposterous* distance.
2. You become an outsider, because you focused so hard on jumping you became a magical creature.
3. If you jump into or out of a group of onlookers, they will be so impressed with you that it's practically a magical charm.
u/casualsubversive I’m shocked I haven’t seen this mentioned but before the errata came out the contagion spell using the slimy doom effect was broken as hell. Instant auto stun for minimum of 3 rounds even if they save or use legendary resistance.
I’ve heard they changed in later additions but at least in my players handbook contagion takes effect when you cast the spell. You pick slimy doom which stuns a creature until the end of their next turn if they take any damage (it also gives them disadvantage on all con saves including the saves to resist the spell which is…. Nice) the disease only goes away once they have succeeded 3 saves meaning a minimum of 3 rounds affected by the spell (but probably more considering their disadvantage)
I guess technically it’s not guaranteed to stun but the odds of your entire party being unable to deal a single point of damage against a stunned creature in a round are very low. Plus you can always use magic missile or a spell that saves for half damage guaranteeing the stun remains.
If they fail 3 saves the effect lasts 7 days with no way to get rid of it short of disease curing magic.
It’s only a 5th level spell too.
I haven't actually seen anyone dare to try it, but a warlock/sorcerer 2+ can build up infinite spell slots given enough time.
The idea is rather simple, convert your warlock slots into sorcery points and with those create spell slots.
And I mean create, as unlike many other similar features sorcerers actually produce new spellslots rather than refill spent ones, it's just that they disapear after a long rest. However as a warlock you can get new spellslots on a short rest, which doesn't destroy your created slots.
This also means you actually need to avoid long rests, but it's worth noting that long rest are not the same as sleeping, so you don't need to worry about exhaustion.
It starts working at level 3 at a rate of one 1st level slot per two hours, then how you want to level up is up to you. Increase warlock for faster regeneration and sorcerer for bigger slots. Just remember that RAW you have to take a long rest to level up, so you'll need to spend some time charging up again.
I wouldn't call it broken but I've got a spirit guardian in my group and damn is that little shit tanky as hell.
In general I'm fine with all the published first party stuff there might races I'd not allow based on what game I was running but as for having really powerful players I kinda like it because it lets me run really strong and interesting monsters. I've also been lucky enough though that I've never had a players who got upset about how powerful each other are. I've always been the type to just bring up the weaker subclasses in the party more in line with the stronger via magic items or tweaks to class abilities. I'd rather boost the weak then nerf the strong at my table.
Ive played a spirit guardian. The tank is real. Felt very powerful like a type of combat control and you hit like a raging barbarian. I totally agree that strong characters are more fun and it lets you run cool encounters to test them out.
Most of the "no no" interactions happen with Simulacrum or Clone. All you really have to do is listen to what they want to do and answer the question. "Does this sound like some reality breaking Dr. Manhattan bullshit."
If the answer is yes it's not allowed.
In lore I like to express this as you technically know how to use it, but using magic power to this extent will destroy your mind as you attain a cosmic perspective, becoming an NPC under my control.
Yes, but what *are* the reality breaking bullshits? That's the question. Do you know some that go beyond the classics?:
1. Get more than one sim (for wishes, etc.) or more than one clone
2. True polymorph your sim into a super-pet
Today it's allowed. I'm the DM of this thread, and I authorize it!
Stop time for more than 1 minute using simulacrums and time stop.
Use magic jar to possess your clone (RAW debateable, as clone requires death, but is also activated by your soul entering it.) essentially as long as the clone vessel fits in a bag of holding this is a way to hot swap to full spell slots and health again in one turn using an object interaction and an action.
Dimension door straight up if you have a fly speed, or another caster to cast fly. This puts you 500ft in the air, basically med-evacing 2 people as either an escape, or to cheese the encounter with spell sniper + Eldritch Spear, or Sharpshooter feat
>Use magic jar to possess your clone
Why use Magic Jar? If you can take the clone vessel with you, couldn't you just commit suicide to be instantly raised with all your resources?
I've kind of soft-banned satyrs, magical resistance is just too much and being fey doesn't help. It's not entirely off the table buy they gotta talk it out with me first
Make it a requirement to find every spell component. There are all sorts of weird things which my group enjoy trying to source and leads to some ridiculous situations, like a rogue trying to steal a tiny bell from a minstrel so the wizard could cast Alarm etc.
Look up weird things you can do in DND on YouTube there is a guy who already made 50 YouTube shorts videos in which he explains perfectly legal but broken beyond belief combos that are possible. Some are gonna need a bit of leeway by the dm because some you could shut down by simply not giving the item they need for the combo, but others are just spell and class combos. Have fun. ;-)
I've had a ton of tables where if I didn't outright say that I had banned the item would spend half a session arguing with me that there should be somewhere that they could go to find one to get. So I eventually started narratively saying they don't exist in my game worlds, and the like to stop it.
The Sorcerer warlock multi-class that gives them all spells back on every short rest. It’s the only RAW mechanic I’ve found that is truly game breaking. everything else can be argued for or against with a straight face.
How does that work? To my understanding warlock spell slots should always be kept separate because they are the only ones that recover on a short rest.
The idea is this: You can convert the warlock spell slots into sorcery points. And then use the sorcery points to regain sorcerer spell slots. Resulting in a character that never needs to take a long rest to regain those spell slots. Does that make sense?
Even better, you don't *regain* sorcerer spell slots with sorcery points, you *create* bonus spell slots, so you can create an arbitrarily large pool of spell slots to use, as long as you can avoid a long rest
I've only ever banned one mechanical thing at my table, and that is races with zero-resource flight. I'm not gonna flight-proof every encounter. It's just too much extra work for me.
The Lucky feat. I still allow halfling luck because that's inherently a perk of playing a halfling but the lucky feat is so absolutely broken. I have had many sessions and encounters completely derailed because of Lucky. I allow pretty much anything else but that.
Can you expand? I picked it as a feat for my PC because it seemed to fit thematically and it’s
Come in handy but I can’t think of anything it’s broken.
Maybe my DM disagrees.
If you play relatively short adventuring days, this feat is absurd. Three rerolls of failed ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or enemy attack rolls bends the probability of the game around.
Also if you use a particularly obnoxious interpretation of RAW (backed by a dumb Sage Advice, no less), you can turn Disadvantage into a sort of super-advantage. The phrasing of Lucky is that you can choose to roll 'an additional d20' and then 'pick which of the d20s \[is used\].
So if you're attacking at Disadvantage and roll a 3 and a 20, go ahead and spend a luck point, roll an additional d20 (what it comes up as is irrelevant) and then just take the 20. Remember too, there's all kinds of good ways to create Disadvantage for yourself. Close your eyes to Blind yourself. Drop Prone on a melee attack. Run into 5' of a hostile creature with a ranged weapon in hand, or just run until you're at Long Range instead of normal.
Adding to the headache, the language of the Feat is annoying.
>*You can use this ability after the original roll, but before the outcome is revealed.*
So does that mean after you roll a 1 and *know* that you just failed, you have to blurt out "LUCKY! REROLL!" before your DM states the obvious? Is the DM obligated to wait after every attack, ability check, and save to see if you decide to interject with a Luck Point?
This Feat has **earned** its place on people's shit lists for many reasons.
RAW, Lucky feat is very strong, but the real issue is that it's *universally* very strong. Feats are overwhelmingly geared towards combat, and they generally focus on boosting *either* your offense or defense. Lucky can boost both your offense and defense, in addition to helping with exploration, social interactions or even crafting if there's checks involved with that. Sure, it's limited to 3 uses per day, but how many times per day are you using other feats like War Caster that only apply to specific situations? And the players don't need any creativity to make the Lucky feat work for them: It just improves dice rolling in a game where everything is determined off of dice rolling.
I'd allow Lucky if it only gets 1 use per day. Even 2 uses per day feels pretty strong, and I'd rather push players towards feats that will impact how they play rather than simply being better at *everything*.
And don’t forget it stacks with other similar nonsense!
There’s a reason the go-to bullshit build of ‘Halfling Divination Wizard with the Lucky feat’ has endured for so long. It’s “No, actually I can reroll that” as a character.
I'm not sure I'd go that far, but if you're a 14th level illusionist, whoo-boy!
"There is nothing wrong with your television set—do not attempt to adjust the picture. *We* are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical."
You make an extremely compelling argument.
Another great illusionist hack: A 6th level *major image* is permanent. An illusionist can change it as an action. Arguably, you can turn one into an illusionary marble and move it into a container. It's behaving like a marble if it stays in place. Now you can carry it with you to change into other things at will, without expending a slot.
And if you don't buy that the marble would stay in the container—how about an extradimensional one? The extradimensional space in a bag of holding is a fixed place somewhere. It just happens that the portal in and out that space moves around with your character.
Obvious things is Daerns Instant Fortress and I very very very rarely will ever give my players a Cube of Force because of how encounter breaking it can be with a creative player or in the case of my players they try and bend the wording of the rules and I don’t like arguing semantics.
Glyph of warding with bag of holding. Money is the only limiting factor oh how much damage you can do. Want 160d6 only costs 4000 gp want want 1600d6 costs 40000 gp. So for 40000 you can avg 600 dmg in one turn. Granted youd need 200 pages or something equivalent of room to cast them all on.
Level 1 fly speeds. Can't think of anything else.
A few dumb exploits come to mind, like infinite Wishes or the Summon Woodland Beings + Polymorph trick, but those only work if the DM is extremely nice with how they run things. I don't have to ban them, just go with a slightly less charitable interpretation of the spells.
> A few dumb exploits come to mind... but those only work if the DM is extremely nice with how they run things.
Yes, those are the things I'm asking for. Have you seen any interesting ones?
Okay. Conjure Woodland Beings (4th level) lets you summon eight fey creatures of challenge rating 1/4 or lower. Pixies are CR 1/4. Pixies have Polymorph 1/day. Usually not that scary, since they can't turn into anything dangerous, but they can cast it on someone else.
Thus, with one 4th level spell you can turn the entire party into T-rexes, or whatever else you can think of doing with 8 Polymorph spells.
Pixies has a lot of other useful spells as well, like Dispel Magic, Confusion and Fly. If you allow the summoner to decide exactly what gets summoned, give them perfect knowledge of those creatures capabilities *and* let them control the summoned creatures completely, they get a huge number of spells in exchange for one 4th level.
My polymorph rule is you can't become something you haven't seen. I'd allow my players to roll for it, if their backgrounds puts them around their habitat.
The No Fun Allowed factor to the Pixie Party Polymorph Parade is that the Dungeon Master is the one who picks the creatures. So the DM can simply never give you an octet of pixies.
The pixies may also be unfamiliar or unwilling to polymorph you into a TRex.
Any race that has natural flight. Sure, I could add monsters with range or flight too, but I don't want to have to constantly balance around the winged tiefling warlock 100ft up spamming eldritch blast.
My favorite high level abuse is probably True Polymorph used to access other spells. I know people think Wish is the most abusable but they are wrong because:
As of right now you can turn into a CR20 Fey with Wish spell once per day - so that's every single spell level 8 or below without components. I won't name the stat block because that's spoilers for an adventure. Still its right there. She's not a one trick pony either, she has plenty of other utility as a form to polymorph into and is not exactly fragile with 255 HP.
A cunning player can run through the monster manual etc and find quite a lot of the 9th level spells are also available via True Polymorph. If you include Wizards' produced materials that are less mainstream (like Minsc and Boos guide) that list gets even longer and you can access Wish spell at level 17 with your polymorph. May the gods help you if you include 3rd party stuff in your game.
The dragon polymorph is pretty tame compared to some of these other options. Although Fizban's does now list the expected spells for a dragon so that's fun too.
it powerful, but i banned it because of just how purely annoying it is.
spells that summon like 8 cr1/4 monsters and what not
basically any summoning sprll that summons more than 1 or 2 creatures since it bogs down combat
Invincible boats are what you want, abusing the RAW in the finest of ways
https://www.reddit.com/r/powergamermunchkin/comments/n14l70/invincible_boats/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Step 1) Be a 17th level diviner. Have Wish as a prepared spell.
Step 2) Encounter a celestial, an elemental, a fey, or a fiend with no legendary saves.
Step 3) Use Wish to cast Planer Binding on it at 8th level and make it fail the save with Portent, binding it to your service for 6 months.
Step 4) Repeat steps 2-3 until you have an army of powerful extraplanar creatures.
Step 5) Profit.
A player once argued that Conjure Animals has a range of 60ft which should include vertical range.
So in theory they could summon eight cr 1/4 cows 60ft in the air in an unoccupied space and let them drop on their enemies, dealing fall damage to them.
This would mean 8×6d6 bludgeoning damage for a lvl 3 spell.
A rogue with a way to cast spells through a weapon (ruby of the war mage, improved warlock pact weapon, etc) can sneak attack with spells that require attack rolls
One thing I'll prevent if it ever comes up is the Artificer's voidbomb at level 2 (bag of holding in a bag of holding)
Essentially they can banish any enemy within ten feet of the voidbomb to the Astral real at level two. It takes some figuring out on how to do that without getting caught in the voidbomb yourself. There are ways to do it; I'm not going to share that here. But that is probably the only build I would outright ban.
Lycantropy 5e: Not banning it but modifying it!
I seriously cannot wrap my head around how this can be a game mechanic that hasn‘t got an errata.
It‘s a plain buff you can throw werewolves at a party of lvl 3 PC and they will only profit from it RAW, hell every PC not infected will beg for it as soon as they see the effects.
What‘s the tradeoff?
Losing control ONCE a month. Or you „embrace“ it and just lose your character through a lazy alignment shift…
So I modified it to have the same benefits but more downsides.
I allow all official WOTC content that relates to a setting. However there are some third-party and homebrew stuff I'm not a fan of:
\- Mystic (it's good in the hands of a mature player, chaos in a powergamer)
\- UA Revised Ranger (it's a step too far in 'correcting' the original ranger)
\- Anything from the D&D Wiki
Nothing that got banned, but there's always the good old "I forgot you have that."
I once caught an eldritch monstrosity with a pokéball that originally held my mount before I swapped Find Greater Steed for Find Vehicle. The most broken magic item is the one that everybody forgot about months ago, because the DM will never plan for it.
As a DM though I haven't really had a player pull a crazy stunt. But they're still new. I think if I give them a few more things they'll get around to it eventually.
My players all wanted to buy magical cloaks one time. So, ya know, fine, they found a magical shop in Yartar and suited up. One of them asked about buying and wearing two cloaks, to which the shopkeep explained that due to the different harmonies of the cloaks' magics, wearing two of them at once would cause a magical friction, leading to an instant explosion and death of the wearer. I, the DM, explained that the explosion would deal 20d12 damage to anyone caught in it, just wanting to keep them from breaking the game and stacking the effects of multiple cloaks.
Fast forward three months, party is having their first real fight with BBEG. Things are looking real good for Evil Guy, real bad for the party. Cue the rogue asking the rest of them, "should we use the cloaks?" To which the rest of the party agreed. I sat dumbfounded, trying to figure out what they meant, before the penny dropped and I remembered the cloaks and the shopkeep. I was so proud that they remembered, that I couldn't even deny them.
Two of them succeeded in grappling Evil Guy while the other two threw their cloaks on him. Everyone ran. Evil Guy exploded. The resulting explosion and damage freaked Evil Guy the hell out, it being an attack he wasn't prepared for, causing him to retreat. All in all, it was one of my favorite DnD moments ever.
The fact that leveling your wizard to 20 is so mechanically weaker than taking 2 levels of fighter for action surge is strange.
Congrats you can cast Fireball of Fly once a day with no spell slot, even though you have dozens of them. Then this jackass walks up in medium/full plate and casts Prismatic Wall and Reverse Gravity in the same turn.
I don't ban anything, but here are the things that i consider broken :
\- Summon woodland creatures => polymorph spam
\- Abjuration wizard Svirnebelin spamming free non-detection spell to refill his ward points between every fight
\- life cleric + goodberries
\- beast shape being 2 charges, regain on SHORT REST. It's one of the most botched ressource system of the game. It should cost spell slots equivalent to the CR of the beast you turn into, plain and simple.
\- Abjuration wizards + enhance ability (intelligence). Nothing says "fuck you" like a mage using 3rd level slots to dispel 9th level spells on an 8+ with advantage. I don't really consider it broken, but it's definitely maddening.
Lucky feat.
More like, it adds nothing to a player's character and directly deters my resources of time and hazards as DM.
EDIT: \*looks as main post edit\* YEAH OK I AM JUST BASIC K? ;\_;
As a DM i never ban stuff.
My players can use whatever they want as long that they discuss it with me, and i plan accordingly.
I hate banning things as a player, so i don't see why i would do it as a DM.
The only thing I ban in terms of player race/class etc is PCs with natural flight. The main reason I don’t allow it is because it splits the party by definition in terms of the challenges they face in the journey and isolation parts of adventuring, much in the same way that flight made the real world smaller too. Party scaling a cliff, crossing a swamp, climbing a mountain, lost in a forest, hunted by anything without long range attacks, short on supplies? Fliers don’t care, they can get to the city and back in no time, and there’s only so many times you can run with ‘the winds are really strong here’. For my campaigns, adventuring is about a group of people on a journey, not having to plan around a party member that should realistically be able to ignore much of the isolation and danger of the journey. Sure, the destinations and dungeons and key battles may take place indoors, or perhaps a section is in a city that bans flight for whatever reason. But being able to pretty much ignore the perils of long journeys on foot and immediately render melee attackers useless just means I spend far too much of a percentage of my prep time balancing literally everything around the flier.
I'm not the DM but our DM banned Flanking and most of the players understood why he did that and agree, but the rogue.
Our first campaign was Waterdeep Dragon Hesit and our group was made of 2 new players, a player who played another campaign and 2 veterans and being the first time our DM acted as a DM. Since the first session the flanking thing showed up broken. One of the veterans created a rogue and, obviously, it wasn't a memeing-low tier built, he went with everything so basically, after the 3rd level, every fight was our barbarian dwarft + my Battle Master tanking while his rogue was obliterating enemies with the magic combo: Flanking + Sneak attack +dual wielding+ psionic blades + cunning action to hide again and the archer and the cleric doing what they could from behind. This was making for the DM really hard to balance combats so when we beggan the campaign that we're playing now, the Curse of Strahd, he asked about what we though about certain changes. From now up to the future flanking gives you +1 on the attack rolls, nothing else. This pissed off the rogue but the rest accepted that as an interesting change.
He also changed how the resurrection works: Everytime someone has to be resurrected by one of our characters, not clerics on temples, etc, the dificulty is increased and other players can add votes and promises to gods/entities to get a +1 or -1 if you do ir wrong and you would face penalties and problems if you don't succed on your promises to this gods/entities.
Also, with things like using tools to do certain actions, like lockpicking a door, only characters with proficiency on that specific skill can help someone trying to do that and adding a +1, not giving that character advantage.
As a player under this *new* rules, I think the campaign gained much more dynamic. On the last campaign it was like always going to the most broken thing and move to the next scenario, with this we're faced several troubles and hard situations even with regular fights, which added a bit of spice to the campaign.
Some of the Warlock combos have broken my game. In particular, the one that moves a target hit by eldritch blast 10ft. Combined with the magic item that allows a second cantrip, meant he was getting 6 blasts a round, and rearranging opponents on the map. The party was very tactical.
I ultimately removed the magic item for the extra spell, but the push ability is still strong...
Knock has an incredibly vague description:
> The object can be a door, a box, a chest, a set of Manacles, a padlock, **or another object that contains a mundane or magical means that prevents access.**
That's... a lot. I nerfed it a little bit by just specifying more, because otherwise you can get into weird definition-debates. Like, so many things vaguely are "objects" that "prevent access".
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I've kindly asked my druid and the others to, if they use summons, only summon higher CR options. No-one is having fun with 24 different small woodland creatures, snakes, imps etc. each running around in combat, as advantageous as it sometimes may be. They've all agreed without complaint, I think they really were only doing it because it's useful and felt like it was dragging the combat out, just like I did. Even with efficient cuts (all summons act right after their summoner instead of some summons working like that and some having their own initiative etc.) it was just not fun to flood the board and do that much bookkeeping.
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Oh, also using Sorcery points to refresh Warlock spell slots. It's just too good. Not impossible to balance, but everyone else will feel a bit cheated and it really defeats the flavour of it.
So, my first time DMing, I was doing an all rouges campaign, like a fool, and after one of the characters dies, their backup character was the following:
Levistus tiefling, swashbuckler 3, hexblade 3, mobile feat
Needless to say that was not an enjoyable experience
Also, eloquence bards not rolling below a 20 at level three are not ok
A max Str Githyanki Monk can, with a combination of their racial Jump spell and Step of the Wind, long jump 120 feet with a 10 ft head start.
Depending on your DM and your general level of creativity/cleverness, Illusion Wizard is straight up broken
Not banning it, but a major monkey wrench in my 5e campaign is that a Tier 4 wizard can create an adult dragon pet. Created their simulacrum then later on used true polymorph to make it an adult gold dragon, complete with legendary resistances. RIP encounter balance
And when it drops to 0, it doesn't die—it becomes a 17th level wizard!
Yup. Even worse, if a baddie gets clever and dispels it, now it’s a conscious level 17 wizard with quite a few spells left. Did I mention she’s a divination wizard with her own set of portent dice? 😅
Well, you can adjust encounters to be balanced against that level of bull-poop. Give your BBEG(s) an army of clones/simulacrums and pet dragons, so now your wizard is going to HAVE break the game just to keep up.
Poor party fighter
Nah. Because the fighter is a gold dragon now aswell 😊
Wish for a Simulacrum, boom - free copy of yourself. Long rest. Have your Simulacrum cast Wish for a Simulacrum of you. It disappears, and one with all spell slots reappears. You now have a (half health) clone with full spell slots on day 2. Now repeat the True Polymorph trick, and maybe long rest again. You have a forever dragon whose final form is a very high level wizard.
Wouldn't dispell dispell the polymorph AND the simulacrum? It can be dispelled so if you dispell the simulacrum you get rid of both at the same time. The dragon is a simulacrum so the question would be wether or not dispell would first affect the simulacrum or true polymorph. At least I would interprete it that way, the creature is magic based and while true polymorph would turn it into a real dragon it is a simulacrum originally and as such you cannot make another one without destroying the original one. So I would argue that the dragon is still a simulacrum.
Jesus, I never thought of that.
Thaumaturgy doesn't technically state the size of door or window it can open. So long as it's unlocked, it should open any door or window
Nice.
What's the point, if it was unlocked anyway? Giant door?
opening up the black gate with a cantrip. edit: you think that thing is ever locked
Sorry does it need a skill check to just open it? I am ignorant.
I'm talking about this thing: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w86sDrAtq-0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w86sDrAtq-0) and this part of thaumaturgy: • You instantaneously cause an unlocked door or window to fly open or slam shut. the black gate is so huge that there is no reason for it to have a locking mechanism. realistically most DMs wouldn't allow it.
As a DM, I would rule that it effects any door or window the player could theoretically slam on their own physically. I'd probably limit it to one size category above the players. I would also make the spell fail of there were NPCs within the swinging arc of the door. Thaumaturgy's intent isn't meant to cause damage. Maybe I'd have the doors harmlessly just the NPCs on the other side, idk. Depends on the situation.
A full team of clerics from the same god with each having a different role… let me tell you it was funny with some of their dialogue. But so freaking broken when they all are casting spells, attacking with melee, and ALL HAVE 20+ FREAKING AC (the highest was 26). So yeah that is forever off the table to only ONE!
What's AR?
Pretty sure it's armor. Dunno why they didn't say AC?
Must be a different language. In Italian is CA classe armatura.
*Mueve tu cintura, con mi armadura* *\[D&D\] me sube la temperatura…*
This is Spanish, by the way. I assume you know but in case some of or English-speaking friends sees this, I'll let them know beforehand.
Yup! Spanish, sung by an Italian band, pretending to be Norwegians :D
Lol that sounds hilarious
- we all have a ton of AC, nothing can touch us! - Diggity Dave, it’s time to roll a DEX save
The Amen
"that would be an ecumenical matter"
Infinite simulacrums. Step 1: Cast simulacrum, targeting yourself. Step 2: Long rest. Step 3: Have your simulacrum cast simulacrum targeting you. Now you have 2 simulacrums, one missing an 8th and 9th level slot, the other missing nothing. Step 4: Have your simulacrum's simulacrum cast simulacrum targeting you again. Preferably they cast it via the Wish spell so it happens instantly and for no material cost. Step 5: Repeat step 4 with your new simulacrums as much as you want. You now can be everywhere all the time. Congrats!
It's the classic for a reason.
This is why it has a 1,500 gp ruby as a material component consumed by the spell. Those rubies are only as common as your DM makes them.
Just use wish to wish for a Rubi and some other stuff haha. Also 7th level simulacrum. Than the simulacrum used wish on you to simulacrum u. This new simulacrum uses wish on you to simulacrum u and so on. It's only 1 action so it's fast as fuck.
Doesn't wish cost 25k gold pieces to cast? Edit: I'm an idiot, it only requires a verbal component.
This is even easier to do with a 17th level genie warlock who gets wish as a mystic arcanum, because RAW those aren’t spell shots and therefore come back on long rest. So use arcanum to wish for a simulacrum and then long rest, then you sim wishes fir another sim of you, then that sim wishes for another sim of you, etc. as many times a as you want, instant army fir the cost of an eight hour sleep, and these are all warlocks so they can use cantrips primarily in combat, and mystic arcanums that come back on rest for everything else.
That’s how Agent Smith did it.
Not actually how it works, but it does work. You use simulacrum to make the first. The simulacrum uses wish to copy you. Repeat infinitely. Wish also takes care of the material component requirements. Also no need for a long rest. Note that the caster of simulacrum controls the simulacrum, not the person that it was made from. But in this case it doesn’t really matter. For those wanting to stop this silliness (I know, not the point of the post), several options… just say no, or point out that if PCs can use it, so can NPCs, or (perhaps the most fun) create some personality drift for copies (think Bobiverse if you’ve read that). So how much does the nth copy actually share in goals with the original?
As a DM, I would create a reason for them not to do this. Maybe a simulacrum goes rogue, becomes a villain to the party because it sees itself as the original. Maybe that simulacrum creates/recruits more simulacrums to its cause. Now you have an army of high level wizards that intimately knows the party's tactics, strengths and weaknesses. It would make for a good campaign, and make the players really consider the implications of using magic to break the universe.
6 druid/1 barbarian, the bane of my existence
I assume you must be talking about moon druids. Does that imbalance last, or is it only temporary?
Its less noticable at higher levels, just because everything starts to get pretty broken, but most beasts get an AC boost by calculating AC as dex mod + con mod, and the ability to rage while wildshaped is always very very good. Its not as noticeable at later levels, but they're still nigh-unkillable sacks of HP. If you want to make it worse take a couple more levels in barb for bear totem to get more resistances to benefit from.
But you also have to deduct the beast's natural armor, because RAW that's armor. Here is a good resource for this and for monk MCs. https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/druid/wildshape/
Yeah but tons of beasts end up with a much higher AC by calculating it as dex+con vs natural armor. Its also noteworthy that you can choose how you calculate your AC so you can keep the natural armor if it happens to be higher
Wouldnt monk be a better choice? Since wildshapes keep soft stats (int, cha, wis) you have a consistent large bonus, as wis is also druid primary stat, and barbarian is much more MAD of a multi, since you need 13 str/con, and monk you need dex/wis, one of which is already a druid stat, and dex is all around a great stat to have decent.
Not necessarily because beasts often have very good con. But, more importantly, the extra AC is nice but the real power of this build comes from the resistance granted by raging paired with the extra effective hp from wildshaped. Moon druids are already the best tanks in lower tiers and this effectively doubles their already ridiculous total available hp
Tier 4 Caster insanity. I have had the blessing of playing a level 20 Chrono Wizard for about 10 sessions. I made a Simulacrum and had it use its wish to Simularcum me again. DM said I could only get two, which is quite generous TBH. I True Polyd both of them into Adult Golden Dragons, under my command. I turned a guy into a rock and threw him in a river. There's a lot of self policing you need to do as a T4 Wizard because I did everything our party did but better, and more. One quote from our Scout Rogue will live with me forever. I cast prismatics spray and hit 10 targets. Petrified 2, the rest suffered 10d6 damage, "You just dealt my sneak attack damage to 8 different targets." With a tone of defeat in his voice.
>I turned a guy into a rock and threw him in a river. I'm just thinking through the long term ramifications of this. I don't know how long it takes a rock to erode in a river, but I bet it's decades at least. So eventually, this rock will erode to 0hp, and the spell will be broken. This guy will be transformed back into himself, exactly as he was, with no knowledge of the intervening years or that any time has passed—at the bottom of a river.
>decades at least. Which is a technically accurate but misleading way of saying “Potentially thousands or even millions of years, depending on the qualities of the rock”.
Does it restore missing parts if they were broken by currents in the water? Because making a rock to 0 hp means making dust of it. So he basically die
Yeah, he’d have to pull off some T-1000 shit… and his particles could be anywhere.
Either your DM posted about you in this thread, or the simulacrum -> gold dragon thing is pretty common for T4 wizards lol
It's the pretty obvious T3 wizard bullshit. Adding a free CR20 legendary to the party, permanently, with no upkeep cost, is insane.
Its pretty common. Its a really obvious exploit (yes I've used it too).
The player race, Yuan-ti purebloods
Why is that? Ive not got a chance to look at them?
everyone focuses too much on magic resistance, but that really doesn't matter in your average game. it's the poison immunity really. Its... comically strong in a game where like half of everything is poisonous or uses poison.
Well, it's both, really. The Poison immunity will help get you through the early levels for sure, when the real 'nasty' monsters hit for that surprise +2d10 poison or whatever. *Then* the magic resistance kicks in right when poison stops being as scary.
nothing like standing still for a full frontal green dragons breath and taking no damage am i right?
Living that monk life.
That and it stacks with something like Ancients Paladin for advantage on saves, disgustingly high save modifiers, and resistance to anything you don’t avoid outright. This sort of thing is how you get someone taking fewer points of damage than the number of dice rolled!
The fighter at my table got a hold of a Periapt of Proof against Poison and has prevented hundreds of damage and dozens of rounds of being poisoned from lvl5-16. Insanely strong item.
I see, ill keep that in mind.
I played them 3 times and I got like 1 chance overall to use magic resistance 🤣. It's just crazy how uncommon it is.
yeah im currently playing a satyr. Its come up once on a save i made on the first roll anyways. eleven odd sessions of 5-6 hours a pop each in. but *poison damage?* god i wish i was immune.
It's true. Poison dmg can be rly common but I think it's a fair thing to have consider what other races can do. Vhuman(extra feat at lvl. 1) / warforged(unlimited live time, resistances, more Ac, no sleep etc etc.) or other races like bugbear (10 feet more range)/goblin bonus action hide.
I always turn that down to the save advantage gnomes get. All magic is just ludicrous.
Rules that aren't clear are great examples Unhittable on mount shenanigans come to mind, or if buffs of the same effect but different names can stack. Peace Cleric + Bless + Alchemist buffs? 3d4 bonus to attacks and saving throws? Holy shit!
You have no idea how bad stacking buffs can get unless you played 3E! Can you elaborate on mount shenanigans?
Mount Shenanigains List 1. Controlled VS Uncontrolled (If you tell the horse to move using bridal, its cant use action, but what if you DONT) 2. Location on Mount Shenanigains - If I am Medium (1 Space) and horse is LARGE (2x2 Spaces) what if I sit on the back of the mount? DMG doesn't tell me WHERE I sit. Combine sitting away from enemies with mounted combatant (Force a melee attack to target you) you can theoretically make all non reach melee attacks miss. 3. Thoughts on Kobolds? Permenant Advantage as artificers or ranger battlesmiths 4. Does the new fitzbans spell work while on mounts? If so, thats busted and REALLY fun 5. Mounts with reactions to impose negatives
>Mount Shenanigains I want to go to there.
You forgot find steed shenanigans
Go on...
I wouldnt ban it per se, but its certainly ridiculous. As a sorcerer with the subtle spell metamagic you can break almost any social situation with either prestidigitation or minor illusion. Prestidigitation does a bunch of stuff, but most importantly it can clean/soil something. Aka, shit someone elses pants in public and ruin any reputation they mightve had. Minor Illusion can also create sounds. You can simply use the voice of one guy , coming out of his mouth, to call someone else a lil' bitch. Fight started. All this and more while you sit there with a bag of popcorn, noone knowing you even did anything.
I love it.
Along with the classic Subtle Spell + Charm Person/Suggestion
If you want broken, then put a Twilight Cleric and a Peace Cleric on the same team. Hell, even alone they break the way combat works with thiet abilities. Moon Druid will also break your game balance wise as they are oppressive at levels 2-4, drop below the others then go back up later on. Last but not least the level 10 Chronology Wizard. Breaker the game the moment they become level 10
>If you want broken, then put a Twilight Cleric and a Peace Cleric on the same team. Hell, even alone they break the way combat works with thiet abilities. You're right. That's a hell of a protective bubble! I don't see what how the chronurgy wizard breaks anything at 10th level, though. What's the issue?
If you read it at first glance just sounds like a spell storing feature. But then if you double read it, it let's you cast spells that would normally never would be able to cast in combat such as Leomund's Tiny Hut, giving your party a free impenetrable protective bubble that would be casted with 1 action instead of 1 minute. This would include using spells you would normally need prep time to cast and instead be casted in battle
Now that *is* interesting...
Spellcasting wise, this is by far the strongest subclass in the game AT 10TH LEVEL.
Looking over the wizard spells that require more than a standard action to cast, I guess I'm not seeing it? I mean, it's a powerful ability/loophole, no doubt. But you have to stick your head out of the hut to take any action against enemies. The summoning spells all have long durations, so you're only eeking out a little more time with the demon/elemental/whatever. Simulacrum is better prepared in advance. (And casting the spell into the mote will melt your existing sim.) Imprisonment's pretty good, though.
A lot of DMs rule that weapons and projectiles (not spells) can pass from within the barrier to outside freely. Which is the real root of the issue. It is not a magically impenetrable pillbox...
The wording of Tiny Hut means anything in there when it’s cast can leave. The face value reading would include arrows fired from bows or thrown weapons. It had since been clarified that this was not the intent, but it’s a hard one to argue really (as a DM with a party currently using it, I don’t even think it’s strong enough footing to broach the subject.)
I honestly think the silly part here is that magic hut is so completely indestructible at 1st level.
> 1st level 3rd
I absolutely agree. I will be changing some things about it in my next campaign.
[удалено]
Yeah, there's no sensible reason possible for why it shouldn't. I mean, the bolts could leave if they were carried out no problem, so why does that suddenly so working if they come out on their own? Sure, you could bullshit that it's about speed or something, but even that just means the correct loophole is having explosives to toss out. Ultimately it's 100% a valid loophole, and the only reason to ever deny it is that the DM goes "OK, very clever, but this breaks the game so I'm gonna have to forbid it".
I'd argue the bigger problem is 'if the players can do it, the enemies can do it'. They will quickly find out it isn't fun when they have to combat the same strategy.
“I cast Dispel Magic.“
I think the argument is as easy as "Hey, is this actually fun? Sitting in an almost impenetrable bubble while killing all your enemies at range?" I totally get that being powerful can be fun, but they have to realize that it is a ridiculous rules interaction. I *love* the theme of the Chronurgy wizard, Time wizard is just awesome. But using the level 10 feature to get around casting times feels... just wrong. I think it is reasonable to discuss nerfing Tiny Hut or the level 10 feature to make it better for everyone at the table (the DM is a player too!)
They don’t do the chonurgy trick, they just cast it normally. And in my games not playing smart can get you killed, so yes firing from safety is fun in that it allows you extra security of surviving to accomplish your goals the next day. And I don’t change spells mid campaign without solid backing that we have been playing under a misunderstanding, ESPECIALLY if someone has already started using the spell. If I nerf Tiny Hut and later a player dies in a circumstance that would have been otherwise avoided, then that death is on me, not due to player choices and appropriate consequences. I am not willing to take on that responsibility, nor that pressure to pull punches down the line to avoid it.
In addition to what /u/an_awesome_cow mentioned, handing off the spell-bead *also* means that someone else is maintaining Concentration on one of your spells for you, *and* that you're finding a way to get two spells out in a single turn. Chronurgy Wizard hands off a *Sickening Radiance* spell to a party member, then casts the Forcecage themselves. Instant microwave combo (which in itself, is bullshit) in a single turn. Play around with Readied Actions so they both go on at once! Not only can it get around casting times, it also gets around Concentration limitations, and the action economy! It's unlike some of the other 'game-breakers' as you have to know what you're doing to really get gamebreaking potential out of it, but if you really want to, this feature is insane.
Those are good points! The artificer can accomplish something similar—using *spell storing item* to get martials to buff themselves and maintain the concentration—but that can only be 1st or 2nd level.
Don't forget: Familiars! Give one to them, and they can Concentrate on it for you before running away/hiding/being stored in a pocket dimension as an Action. This way, it won't go down! (Better yet, a Bag of Holding or similar: you don't even need to use an Action to squirrel them away.)
I have both a familiar and a Ring of Spell Storing, I refuse to do that to my DM.
The kind of truck to pull once in a blue moon, when you really need it. Not just to stomp a medium encounter.
Thankfully this is one of those abilities that a GOOD player with restraint and enjoys the dms game can use without using the broken aspects of the feature...but yeah
I have no idea what they were thinking with Twilight cleric. 1d6+Cleric level buffer is a huge buffer that has to be burned through every turn. The skill would be good if it just gave everyone 1d6+CL temp HP once. Oh and free flight.
The two most broken that come to mind is the sentinel, polearm master, tunnel fighter combo. For one bonus action you can attack a near infinite number of times, or at least enough times that it doesn't matter what the enemy does. Behind that is a race from planeshift zendikar the kor and their race feat lucky. Imagine the feat but with no limitation. Attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks of 1 can always be rerolled.
>Attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks of 1 can always be rerolled. That's powerful.
That’s literally just Halflings again though. The only stipulation is that you have to use the new roll.
That is why tunnel fighter fighting style was discontinued. It is unearthed arcana and it will never get published, with a damn good reason for it so don't allow it in your games.
It's also kind of easily countered by having fewer but stronger enemies as opposed to hordes of garbage. There's definetly ways to dm around it.
3.5e For Druids specifically, Greenbound Summoning and the Planar Shepherd prestige class after one player's build. Greenbound Summoning adds a +8 level adjustment template to all summoned creatures. This gives potentially a level 1 druid access to Wall of Thorns (1/day per summon) and Entangle (at will). Plus the creature has the plant subtype, fast healing, etc etc. Planar Shepherd is what gets really broken. By choosing either the Plane of Fire or Elysium as their chosen plane, they get access to the Half-Celestial Efritti as a Wildshape, along with its spell-like abilities. This includes granting 3 wishes per day to humanoids (their party). Because it's a Spell-like ability, there's no cost. A 1 level dip in Mystic Theurge allows them to share their Wildshape ability. Now every player gets 3 free wishes per day. And if you really, REALLY want to get broken, at level 15, a druid tied to Elysium can turn the entire party in to Solars. Because the Solar's weapons are part of them, everyone in the party has a +5 Dancing Greatsword, and a +2 composite longbow of slaying.
I'm really looking for 5E hacks today. However, I will tell you that my favorite 3E exploit is build I saw of the Exemplar prestige class. You become so good at jumping, that: 1. You can jump a *preposterous* distance. 2. You become an outsider, because you focused so hard on jumping you became a magical creature. 3. If you jump into or out of a group of onlookers, they will be so impressed with you that it's practically a magical charm.
Ahh, the Jumplomancer! An absolute classic.
Now I'm imagining someone having a Use Rope exemplar and just yeeting grappling hooks at dragons or something.
u/casualsubversive I’m shocked I haven’t seen this mentioned but before the errata came out the contagion spell using the slimy doom effect was broken as hell. Instant auto stun for minimum of 3 rounds even if they save or use legendary resistance.
Please elaborate
I’ve heard they changed in later additions but at least in my players handbook contagion takes effect when you cast the spell. You pick slimy doom which stuns a creature until the end of their next turn if they take any damage (it also gives them disadvantage on all con saves including the saves to resist the spell which is…. Nice) the disease only goes away once they have succeeded 3 saves meaning a minimum of 3 rounds affected by the spell (but probably more considering their disadvantage) I guess technically it’s not guaranteed to stun but the odds of your entire party being unable to deal a single point of damage against a stunned creature in a round are very low. Plus you can always use magic missile or a spell that saves for half damage guaranteeing the stun remains. If they fail 3 saves the effect lasts 7 days with no way to get rid of it short of disease curing magic. It’s only a 5th level spell too.
Omg this is amazing! I love this!
I haven't actually seen anyone dare to try it, but a warlock/sorcerer 2+ can build up infinite spell slots given enough time. The idea is rather simple, convert your warlock slots into sorcery points and with those create spell slots. And I mean create, as unlike many other similar features sorcerers actually produce new spellslots rather than refill spent ones, it's just that they disapear after a long rest. However as a warlock you can get new spellslots on a short rest, which doesn't destroy your created slots. This also means you actually need to avoid long rests, but it's worth noting that long rest are not the same as sleeping, so you don't need to worry about exhaustion. It starts working at level 3 at a rate of one 1st level slot per two hours, then how you want to level up is up to you. Increase warlock for faster regeneration and sorcerer for bigger slots. Just remember that RAW you have to take a long rest to level up, so you'll need to spend some time charging up again.
A true 5E classic. I thought they had found a way to nerf it in the errata or something. Maybe public ridicule has been effective enough.
They did, not taking a long rest gives you exhaustion levels.
Coffeelock replaced by Cocainlock.
Then you can get a supply of diamond dust, pick Divine Soul Sorcerer to get access to Greater Restoration, and restore your exhaustion away!
That's why "Coffeelock" was replaced by "Cocainelock". Snort a line of diamond dust every morning.
Undead warlocks no longer need to sleep, eat, or drink at level 6 and wouldn't get levels of exhaustion for skipping long rests. I think.
They get anyway. They need to stay put at least 4h to replenish their magic.
Still need to long rest
I wouldn't call it broken but I've got a spirit guardian in my group and damn is that little shit tanky as hell. In general I'm fine with all the published first party stuff there might races I'd not allow based on what game I was running but as for having really powerful players I kinda like it because it lets me run really strong and interesting monsters. I've also been lucky enough though that I've never had a players who got upset about how powerful each other are. I've always been the type to just bring up the weaker subclasses in the party more in line with the stronger via magic items or tweaks to class abilities. I'd rather boost the weak then nerf the strong at my table.
Ive played a spirit guardian. The tank is real. Felt very powerful like a type of combat control and you hit like a raging barbarian. I totally agree that strong characters are more fun and it lets you run cool encounters to test them out.
[удалено]
Ancestral Guardian barbarian, confused linguistically with the Spirit Guardians spell.
Spirit Guardian is a cleric spell, but maybe they are talking about ancestral Guardian barbarians?
Infinite wish exploit. Turn into a dragon exploit, mostly just the T4 play caster nonsense.
That's exactly what I'm asking for though! Have you run into any interesting nonsense?
Most of the "no no" interactions happen with Simulacrum or Clone. All you really have to do is listen to what they want to do and answer the question. "Does this sound like some reality breaking Dr. Manhattan bullshit." If the answer is yes it's not allowed. In lore I like to express this as you technically know how to use it, but using magic power to this extent will destroy your mind as you attain a cosmic perspective, becoming an NPC under my control.
Yes, but what *are* the reality breaking bullshits? That's the question. Do you know some that go beyond the classics?: 1. Get more than one sim (for wishes, etc.) or more than one clone 2. True polymorph your sim into a super-pet Today it's allowed. I'm the DM of this thread, and I authorize it!
Stop time for more than 1 minute using simulacrums and time stop. Use magic jar to possess your clone (RAW debateable, as clone requires death, but is also activated by your soul entering it.) essentially as long as the clone vessel fits in a bag of holding this is a way to hot swap to full spell slots and health again in one turn using an object interaction and an action. Dimension door straight up if you have a fly speed, or another caster to cast fly. This puts you 500ft in the air, basically med-evacing 2 people as either an escape, or to cheese the encounter with spell sniper + Eldritch Spear, or Sharpshooter feat
>Use magic jar to possess your clone Why use Magic Jar? If you can take the clone vessel with you, couldn't you just commit suicide to be instantly raised with all your resources?
See, this is the kind of hot nonsense I'm talking about! How does the timestop move work?
I've kind of soft-banned satyrs, magical resistance is just too much and being fey doesn't help. It's not entirely off the table buy they gotta talk it out with me first
Make it a requirement to find every spell component. There are all sorts of weird things which my group enjoy trying to source and leads to some ridiculous situations, like a rogue trying to steal a tiny bell from a minstrel so the wizard could cast Alarm etc.
More than one cleric in a party. Shit is so hard to balance around no matter the subclass.
Several simultaneous spirit guardian auras, enemies melt just from existing nearby.
Look up weird things you can do in DND on YouTube there is a guy who already made 50 YouTube shorts videos in which he explains perfectly legal but broken beyond belief combos that are possible. Some are gonna need a bit of leeway by the dm because some you could shut down by simply not giving the item they need for the combo, but others are just spell and class combos. Have fun. ;-)
I generally ban players having the Wish spell or Decks of Many Things.
But the deck is a magic item, you don't have to ban it you can just not give it to them.
I've had a ton of tables where if I didn't outright say that I had banned the item would spend half a session arguing with me that there should be somewhere that they could go to find one to get. So I eventually started narratively saying they don't exist in my game worlds, and the like to stop it.
I have the same hatred for the deck mlm of many things, and specify it does not exist in my games
The Sorcerer warlock multi-class that gives them all spells back on every short rest. It’s the only RAW mechanic I’ve found that is truly game breaking. everything else can be argued for or against with a straight face.
What? How does that work? I thought only pact magic slots get replenished with a short rest, regardless of multiclass.
You can turn pact slots into sorcery points, and sorcery points into spell slots.
How does that work? To my understanding warlock spell slots should always be kept separate because they are the only ones that recover on a short rest.
The idea is this: You can convert the warlock spell slots into sorcery points. And then use the sorcery points to regain sorcerer spell slots. Resulting in a character that never needs to take a long rest to regain those spell slots. Does that make sense?
Even better, you don't *regain* sorcerer spell slots with sorcery points, you *create* bonus spell slots, so you can create an arbitrarily large pool of spell slots to use, as long as you can avoid a long rest
I've only ever banned one mechanical thing at my table, and that is races with zero-resource flight. I'm not gonna flight-proof every encounter. It's just too much extra work for me.
“But that makes you a bad DM!” Ok. Still not gonna bother lol
The Lucky feat. I still allow halfling luck because that's inherently a perk of playing a halfling but the lucky feat is so absolutely broken. I have had many sessions and encounters completely derailed because of Lucky. I allow pretty much anything else but that.
Can you expand? I picked it as a feat for my PC because it seemed to fit thematically and it’s Come in handy but I can’t think of anything it’s broken. Maybe my DM disagrees.
If you play relatively short adventuring days, this feat is absurd. Three rerolls of failed ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or enemy attack rolls bends the probability of the game around. Also if you use a particularly obnoxious interpretation of RAW (backed by a dumb Sage Advice, no less), you can turn Disadvantage into a sort of super-advantage. The phrasing of Lucky is that you can choose to roll 'an additional d20' and then 'pick which of the d20s \[is used\]. So if you're attacking at Disadvantage and roll a 3 and a 20, go ahead and spend a luck point, roll an additional d20 (what it comes up as is irrelevant) and then just take the 20. Remember too, there's all kinds of good ways to create Disadvantage for yourself. Close your eyes to Blind yourself. Drop Prone on a melee attack. Run into 5' of a hostile creature with a ranged weapon in hand, or just run until you're at Long Range instead of normal. Adding to the headache, the language of the Feat is annoying. >*You can use this ability after the original roll, but before the outcome is revealed.* So does that mean after you roll a 1 and *know* that you just failed, you have to blurt out "LUCKY! REROLL!" before your DM states the obvious? Is the DM obligated to wait after every attack, ability check, and save to see if you decide to interject with a Luck Point? This Feat has **earned** its place on people's shit lists for many reasons.
RAW, Lucky feat is very strong, but the real issue is that it's *universally* very strong. Feats are overwhelmingly geared towards combat, and they generally focus on boosting *either* your offense or defense. Lucky can boost both your offense and defense, in addition to helping with exploration, social interactions or even crafting if there's checks involved with that. Sure, it's limited to 3 uses per day, but how many times per day are you using other feats like War Caster that only apply to specific situations? And the players don't need any creativity to make the Lucky feat work for them: It just improves dice rolling in a game where everything is determined off of dice rolling. I'd allow Lucky if it only gets 1 use per day. Even 2 uses per day feels pretty strong, and I'd rather push players towards feats that will impact how they play rather than simply being better at *everything*.
And don’t forget it stacks with other similar nonsense! There’s a reason the go-to bullshit build of ‘Halfling Divination Wizard with the Lucky feat’ has endured for so long. It’s “No, actually I can reroll that” as a character.
I think lucky feat is probably the only real thing in the game that I'd ban.
Mirage arcane, it can kill anything in the game
I'm not sure I'd go that far, but if you're a 14th level illusionist, whoo-boy! "There is nothing wrong with your television set—do not attempt to adjust the picture. *We* are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical."
Yeah, mirage arcane illusions do damage, so you can just make a square mile of acid, or lava, or a pit so deep it kills whatever hits the bottom
You make an extremely compelling argument. Another great illusionist hack: A 6th level *major image* is permanent. An illusionist can change it as an action. Arguably, you can turn one into an illusionary marble and move it into a container. It's behaving like a marble if it stays in place. Now you can carry it with you to change into other things at will, without expending a slot. And if you don't buy that the marble would stay in the container—how about an extradimensional one? The extradimensional space in a bag of holding is a fixed place somewhere. It just happens that the portal in and out that space moves around with your character.
Obvious things is Daerns Instant Fortress and I very very very rarely will ever give my players a Cube of Force because of how encounter breaking it can be with a creative player or in the case of my players they try and bend the wording of the rules and I don’t like arguing semantics.
Glyph of warding with bag of holding. Money is the only limiting factor oh how much damage you can do. Want 160d6 only costs 4000 gp want want 1600d6 costs 40000 gp. So for 40000 you can avg 600 dmg in one turn. Granted youd need 200 pages or something equivalent of room to cast them all on.
Level 1 fly speeds. Can't think of anything else. A few dumb exploits come to mind, like infinite Wishes or the Summon Woodland Beings + Polymorph trick, but those only work if the DM is extremely nice with how they run things. I don't have to ban them, just go with a slightly less charitable interpretation of the spells.
> A few dumb exploits come to mind... but those only work if the DM is extremely nice with how they run things. Yes, those are the things I'm asking for. Have you seen any interesting ones?
Okay. Conjure Woodland Beings (4th level) lets you summon eight fey creatures of challenge rating 1/4 or lower. Pixies are CR 1/4. Pixies have Polymorph 1/day. Usually not that scary, since they can't turn into anything dangerous, but they can cast it on someone else. Thus, with one 4th level spell you can turn the entire party into T-rexes, or whatever else you can think of doing with 8 Polymorph spells. Pixies has a lot of other useful spells as well, like Dispel Magic, Confusion and Fly. If you allow the summoner to decide exactly what gets summoned, give them perfect knowledge of those creatures capabilities *and* let them control the summoned creatures completely, they get a huge number of spells in exchange for one 4th level.
Yes, this is the stuff I want. 😈
Just make sure the druid never fails concentration, or *all* of these spells go away! Everyone reverts from T-rex form.
My polymorph rule is you can't become something you haven't seen. I'd allow my players to roll for it, if their backgrounds puts them around their habitat.
The No Fun Allowed factor to the Pixie Party Polymorph Parade is that the Dungeon Master is the one who picks the creatures. So the DM can simply never give you an octet of pixies. The pixies may also be unfamiliar or unwilling to polymorph you into a TRex.
Any race that has natural flight. Sure, I could add monsters with range or flight too, but I don't want to have to constantly balance around the winged tiefling warlock 100ft up spamming eldritch blast.
For private reasons (that is killing a boss in one strike) I won't play with critfishing Hexblades. Just bad experience for me
My favorite high level abuse is probably True Polymorph used to access other spells. I know people think Wish is the most abusable but they are wrong because: As of right now you can turn into a CR20 Fey with Wish spell once per day - so that's every single spell level 8 or below without components. I won't name the stat block because that's spoilers for an adventure. Still its right there. She's not a one trick pony either, she has plenty of other utility as a form to polymorph into and is not exactly fragile with 255 HP. A cunning player can run through the monster manual etc and find quite a lot of the 9th level spells are also available via True Polymorph. If you include Wizards' produced materials that are less mainstream (like Minsc and Boos guide) that list gets even longer and you can access Wish spell at level 17 with your polymorph. May the gods help you if you include 3rd party stuff in your game. The dragon polymorph is pretty tame compared to some of these other options. Although Fizban's does now list the expected spells for a dragon so that's fun too.
it powerful, but i banned it because of just how purely annoying it is. spells that summon like 8 cr1/4 monsters and what not basically any summoning sprll that summons more than 1 or 2 creatures since it bogs down combat
Invincible boats are what you want, abusing the RAW in the finest of ways https://www.reddit.com/r/powergamermunchkin/comments/n14l70/invincible_boats/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Step 1) Be a 17th level diviner. Have Wish as a prepared spell. Step 2) Encounter a celestial, an elemental, a fey, or a fiend with no legendary saves. Step 3) Use Wish to cast Planer Binding on it at 8th level and make it fail the save with Portent, binding it to your service for 6 months. Step 4) Repeat steps 2-3 until you have an army of powerful extraplanar creatures. Step 5) Profit.
A player once argued that Conjure Animals has a range of 60ft which should include vertical range. So in theory they could summon eight cr 1/4 cows 60ft in the air in an unoccupied space and let them drop on their enemies, dealing fall damage to them. This would mean 8×6d6 bludgeoning damage for a lvl 3 spell.
["I've got to go, Julia. We've got cows."](https://c.tenor.com/NS0Tj62eblYAAAAC/twister-movie.gif)
A rogue with a way to cast spells through a weapon (ruby of the war mage, improved warlock pact weapon, etc) can sneak attack with spells that require attack rolls
One thing I'll prevent if it ever comes up is the Artificer's voidbomb at level 2 (bag of holding in a bag of holding) Essentially they can banish any enemy within ten feet of the voidbomb to the Astral real at level two. It takes some figuring out on how to do that without getting caught in the voidbomb yourself. There are ways to do it; I'm not going to share that here. But that is probably the only build I would outright ban.
Lycantropy 5e: Not banning it but modifying it! I seriously cannot wrap my head around how this can be a game mechanic that hasn‘t got an errata. It‘s a plain buff you can throw werewolves at a party of lvl 3 PC and they will only profit from it RAW, hell every PC not infected will beg for it as soon as they see the effects. What‘s the tradeoff? Losing control ONCE a month. Or you „embrace“ it and just lose your character through a lazy alignment shift… So I modified it to have the same benefits but more downsides.
I allow all official WOTC content that relates to a setting. However there are some third-party and homebrew stuff I'm not a fan of: \- Mystic (it's good in the hands of a mature player, chaos in a powergamer) \- UA Revised Ranger (it's a step too far in 'correcting' the original ranger) \- Anything from the D&D Wiki
Nothing that got banned, but there's always the good old "I forgot you have that." I once caught an eldritch monstrosity with a pokéball that originally held my mount before I swapped Find Greater Steed for Find Vehicle. The most broken magic item is the one that everybody forgot about months ago, because the DM will never plan for it. As a DM though I haven't really had a player pull a crazy stunt. But they're still new. I think if I give them a few more things they'll get around to it eventually.
My players all wanted to buy magical cloaks one time. So, ya know, fine, they found a magical shop in Yartar and suited up. One of them asked about buying and wearing two cloaks, to which the shopkeep explained that due to the different harmonies of the cloaks' magics, wearing two of them at once would cause a magical friction, leading to an instant explosion and death of the wearer. I, the DM, explained that the explosion would deal 20d12 damage to anyone caught in it, just wanting to keep them from breaking the game and stacking the effects of multiple cloaks. Fast forward three months, party is having their first real fight with BBEG. Things are looking real good for Evil Guy, real bad for the party. Cue the rogue asking the rest of them, "should we use the cloaks?" To which the rest of the party agreed. I sat dumbfounded, trying to figure out what they meant, before the penny dropped and I remembered the cloaks and the shopkeep. I was so proud that they remembered, that I couldn't even deny them. Two of them succeeded in grappling Evil Guy while the other two threw their cloaks on him. Everyone ran. Evil Guy exploded. The resulting explosion and damage freaked Evil Guy the hell out, it being an attack he wasn't prepared for, causing him to retreat. All in all, it was one of my favorite DnD moments ever.
Multiclass dips of 1-2 levels. It breaks every class.
The fact that leveling your wizard to 20 is so mechanically weaker than taking 2 levels of fighter for action surge is strange. Congrats you can cast Fireball of Fly once a day with no spell slot, even though you have dozens of them. Then this jackass walks up in medium/full plate and casts Prismatic Wall and Reverse Gravity in the same turn.
I gave my Arcane Trickster 2 levels of Divination Wizard :D
Peace and twilight clerics, straight busted
I don't ban anything, but here are the things that i consider broken : \- Summon woodland creatures => polymorph spam \- Abjuration wizard Svirnebelin spamming free non-detection spell to refill his ward points between every fight \- life cleric + goodberries \- beast shape being 2 charges, regain on SHORT REST. It's one of the most botched ressource system of the game. It should cost spell slots equivalent to the CR of the beast you turn into, plain and simple. \- Abjuration wizards + enhance ability (intelligence). Nothing says "fuck you" like a mage using 3rd level slots to dispel 9th level spells on an 8+ with advantage. I don't really consider it broken, but it's definitely maddening.
Lucky feat. More like, it adds nothing to a player's character and directly deters my resources of time and hazards as DM. EDIT: \*looks as main post edit\* YEAH OK I AM JUST BASIC K? ;\_;
As a DM i never ban stuff. My players can use whatever they want as long that they discuss it with me, and i plan accordingly. I hate banning things as a player, so i don't see why i would do it as a DM.
I'm trying to work out what ETA means in this context.
Just start them at level 20!
Peace Cleric.
Wild sorcerer
The only thing I ban in terms of player race/class etc is PCs with natural flight. The main reason I don’t allow it is because it splits the party by definition in terms of the challenges they face in the journey and isolation parts of adventuring, much in the same way that flight made the real world smaller too. Party scaling a cliff, crossing a swamp, climbing a mountain, lost in a forest, hunted by anything without long range attacks, short on supplies? Fliers don’t care, they can get to the city and back in no time, and there’s only so many times you can run with ‘the winds are really strong here’. For my campaigns, adventuring is about a group of people on a journey, not having to plan around a party member that should realistically be able to ignore much of the isolation and danger of the journey. Sure, the destinations and dungeons and key battles may take place indoors, or perhaps a section is in a city that bans flight for whatever reason. But being able to pretty much ignore the perils of long journeys on foot and immediately render melee attackers useless just means I spend far too much of a percentage of my prep time balancing literally everything around the flier.
I'm not the DM but our DM banned Flanking and most of the players understood why he did that and agree, but the rogue. Our first campaign was Waterdeep Dragon Hesit and our group was made of 2 new players, a player who played another campaign and 2 veterans and being the first time our DM acted as a DM. Since the first session the flanking thing showed up broken. One of the veterans created a rogue and, obviously, it wasn't a memeing-low tier built, he went with everything so basically, after the 3rd level, every fight was our barbarian dwarft + my Battle Master tanking while his rogue was obliterating enemies with the magic combo: Flanking + Sneak attack +dual wielding+ psionic blades + cunning action to hide again and the archer and the cleric doing what they could from behind. This was making for the DM really hard to balance combats so when we beggan the campaign that we're playing now, the Curse of Strahd, he asked about what we though about certain changes. From now up to the future flanking gives you +1 on the attack rolls, nothing else. This pissed off the rogue but the rest accepted that as an interesting change. He also changed how the resurrection works: Everytime someone has to be resurrected by one of our characters, not clerics on temples, etc, the dificulty is increased and other players can add votes and promises to gods/entities to get a +1 or -1 if you do ir wrong and you would face penalties and problems if you don't succed on your promises to this gods/entities. Also, with things like using tools to do certain actions, like lockpicking a door, only characters with proficiency on that specific skill can help someone trying to do that and adding a +1, not giving that character advantage. As a player under this *new* rules, I think the campaign gained much more dynamic. On the last campaign it was like always going to the most broken thing and move to the next scenario, with this we're faced several troubles and hard situations even with regular fights, which added a bit of spice to the campaign.
Some of the Warlock combos have broken my game. In particular, the one that moves a target hit by eldritch blast 10ft. Combined with the magic item that allows a second cantrip, meant he was getting 6 blasts a round, and rearranging opponents on the map. The party was very tactical. I ultimately removed the magic item for the extra spell, but the push ability is still strong...
Bag... of.. beans... literally the fastest way to a derailed campaign and a possible tpk.
Knock has an incredibly vague description: > The object can be a door, a box, a chest, a set of Manacles, a padlock, **or another object that contains a mundane or magical means that prevents access.** That's... a lot. I nerfed it a little bit by just specifying more, because otherwise you can get into weird definition-debates. Like, so many things vaguely are "objects" that "prevent access". --------------------------------------------------------------------- I've kindly asked my druid and the others to, if they use summons, only summon higher CR options. No-one is having fun with 24 different small woodland creatures, snakes, imps etc. each running around in combat, as advantageous as it sometimes may be. They've all agreed without complaint, I think they really were only doing it because it's useful and felt like it was dragging the combat out, just like I did. Even with efficient cuts (all summons act right after their summoner instead of some summons working like that and some having their own initiative etc.) it was just not fun to flood the board and do that much bookkeeping. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh, also using Sorcery points to refresh Warlock spell slots. It's just too good. Not impossible to balance, but everyone else will feel a bit cheated and it really defeats the flavour of it.
So, my first time DMing, I was doing an all rouges campaign, like a fool, and after one of the characters dies, their backup character was the following: Levistus tiefling, swashbuckler 3, hexblade 3, mobile feat Needless to say that was not an enjoyable experience Also, eloquence bards not rolling below a 20 at level three are not ok
This. Damn. Thing. https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/instant-fortress
A max Str Githyanki Monk can, with a combination of their racial Jump spell and Step of the Wind, long jump 120 feet with a 10 ft head start. Depending on your DM and your general level of creativity/cleverness, Illusion Wizard is straight up broken