Most potent combo: Cloak of Billowing + Dread Helm = Instant Batman.
@superj10104 жыл бұрын
This made my day. Thank you.
@logancuster80354 жыл бұрын
Think maybe you are underestimating Batman 😋
@WolfHreda4 жыл бұрын
@@logancuster8035 absolutely not. I never underestimate Rogue/Monk multi-classers.
@benry0074 жыл бұрын
@@WolfHreda I'm just imagining Christian Bale batman asking the DM if he can do that as none lethal damage.
@novaiscool14 жыл бұрын
Just ask for the eyes to glow white instead of red and I think you have it.
@RDGoodner3 жыл бұрын
Your bit near the end reminds me of how I accidentally broke my little brother's D&D 3e game. In the setting, there had been a band of great heroes who all died a century or two ago (like they do). Now the great evil was rising again, and a new generation of champions was called. We had me, a Paladin; a ranger, a barbarian, and a sorceress (iirc. It's been 20 years or so) We're 1st or 2nd level. Have no magic items. Fighting endless hordes of monsters. And then we found the grave of one of the ancient heroes-- the Paladin. His spirit led us to it through visions my character had. Inside, he has a nice stash of magic items. Pretty impressive magical full-plate, very impressive magic shield, warhammer (the main god of this world was the Hammer Lord), bunch of other cool stuff. And the whole party pretty much decided my character should take it all, as CLEARLY I'd been led here by holy visions. (And we all kind of thought we'd be going after the tombs of the other ancient heroes of whom there were curiously exactly as many as our PC group and they had a similar class spread). My little brother suddenly had a problem. He'd figured we would split the items up and everyone would have one nice thing. Instead, he now had an invulnerable tank paladin and a party slightly underpowered for what he expected. It all came to a head in one adventure where an army of hobgoblins attacked, and there was no way most of them could hit me as I carved my way toward their chieftain and killed him. The lesson I learned from that is "sometimes it's okay to metagame." If my little bro had said "No, actually if you look there's one item that will help each member of your party. I'm not telling you what to do, but there aren't any more tombs full of helpfully organized magic items in the game," things would have gone differently.
@vettethewarlock54484 жыл бұрын
I always thought that the portable hole + bag of holding combination could make for a funny set up to an astral plane adventure
@kaiyamazaki16844 жыл бұрын
It can also be done with duplicates of the bag of holding or portable holes. I've had a whole side campaign start because of that lol
@spoonyluv194 жыл бұрын
The village idiot gets a hold of both items and the inn along with 1/3 of the town gets tossed into the astral plane.
@Meilandru4 жыл бұрын
Or SpellJammer
@savagecabbage80134 жыл бұрын
The issue is more of the situation being a derailment to the campaign for a linear campaign style. Now, if you give these items knowing this can happen, that cool too.
@galemygg4 жыл бұрын
its also useless against a boss with the planeshift or gate spell
@Calebgoblin4 жыл бұрын
I love you dudes so much but you honestly gotta stop showing me how to break the game, I cannot be trusted
@christophercombs75613 жыл бұрын
None of these break the game this game has players shackled
@flipflopsontherun47153 жыл бұрын
@@christophercombs7561 Yeah I'm with you on this one buddy. And honestly, if you can't deal with a flying ranged attacker, you just suck as a DM because that means you can't handle quite a few mid level casters either. Wizard - "nice, I can fly now!" GM - "Fuck it! New campaign!" seriously, its hard to take them for serious if that is an issue.
@shaynecarter-murray31273 жыл бұрын
@@christophercombs7561 yea 5e is geared for beginners and those who want a simple pick-up-and-play game. You want unlimited potential, you play Pathfinder, or if you really like insane bizarre power and don't mind extra math play Rifts.
@christophercombs75613 жыл бұрын
@@shaynecarter-murray3127 yup 5e is fantastic for teaching newcomers and children pathfinder 1ed is my personal preference but ill play 5e
@oofguild77883 жыл бұрын
When you get a Belt of Giant Strength, boots of flying, cloak of invisibility, bag of holding, portable hole, and +3 arrows from one encounter, it’s a special combo I like to call, “Sweat with no friends”
@moodyfingers73014 жыл бұрын
"Magic Items combos to give to the bad guys"
@hendrikrasmus4 жыл бұрын
After they die the loot is up for grabs, and the party either has an answer to the combo or they die so the result shall not be good. This is the reason I like to give the bad guys personal abilities that combo with a magic item they have so the party gets a nice (and memorable) item out of the encounter but not the combo.
@izunagi90644 жыл бұрын
Just make the big bad boss an artificer so when the magic items hes wearing lose power when he dies.
@LordBrittish4 жыл бұрын
Give the big bad a Bag of Holding and Portable Hole that he combines when he has lost. *Put some good loot in a chest nearby that does NOT get sucked into the ensuing vortex
@jeremysmith92914 жыл бұрын
The bad guy is litch and the magic item doubles as a philactory.
@valdian_34744 жыл бұрын
Oh no...
@Pendragondnd3 жыл бұрын
If my party beat the Big Bad with a Portable Hole + Bag of Holding, I get to throw Big Bad 2 Plainstriding Boogaloo at them. (either as a final boss, or during the following game.)
@sparemobius74303 жыл бұрын
I mean you have a point, it isnt certain death. Time can even be different in there, so just have the party do a side mission or two and suddenly the boss is back, leveled a bit more, and with friends he met on his travels back. Congratulations on your wombo combo you just made the fight harder and delayed his plans a few days :D great plan.
@inventor1213 жыл бұрын
Defeated a humanoid boss once by stuffing him in a portable hole strapped to the side of a portrait. It was supposed to be a hard fight but between the boss rolling 2 nat 1s and our party getting 2 nat 20s it ended up being a episode of loony toons.
@someoneweird4439 Жыл бұрын
As a sidenote I love how it's always portable hole and bag of holding because absolutely everyone forgets the handy haversack exists
@Hopeitsagood14 жыл бұрын
UNO reverse: Have the BBEG send a kamikaze goblin with a bag of holding and a portable hole
@mage42424 жыл бұрын
I'm just imagining the relief that comes over the party as the Ranger shoots down the goblin.... only to see 10 more Goblins charging towards their fallen comrade to pick up the items to continue the charge
@lockwoan014 жыл бұрын
@@mage4242 Wizard: Fireball!
@backonlazer7914 жыл бұрын
@@mage4242 "Bring him down, Legolas!"
@Nullzeros3 жыл бұрын
Dear god, that’s real bad.
@dovahkiindoragon85413 жыл бұрын
I might do this as a necromancer
@sadeknight91124 жыл бұрын
Here’s the counter to the arrow of ultimate destruction; have your bbeg carry a spell scroll of plane shift then play one winged angel as they reappear for the surprise round.
@slaynecarlisle96353 жыл бұрын
Plane shift only takes you a general location. You couldn’t use it to return to the same place, just the same plane.
@sadeknight91123 жыл бұрын
@@slaynecarlisle9635 DM has ultimate authority, if it just so happens that the random location on the plane is exactly where they left then so be it.
@Dennis-vh8tz3 жыл бұрын
Surprise round doesn't exist in 5e.
@sadeknight91123 жыл бұрын
@@Dennis-vh8tz well it does now
@maid_of_heart32613 жыл бұрын
@@Dennis-vh8tz No, but the BBEG could impose the surprised condition on the players by appearing unexpectedly and hitting someone in the face
@jag5193 жыл бұрын
As a dm, I totally am fine with the extra dimension bomb. Chances are they'll save it for a big enough villain that the villain will only wast like a lvl 7 spell to get back. haha.
@stedmanregester69262 жыл бұрын
LoL yeah I was about to say the same thing. Had players use this on a Lich in a high level planewalker campaign once. He Chuckled as he was pulled away, and the party got to enjoy their easy win for a bit till they walked into the next room to find the Lich looking at them like: “Really?”
@Shrapucino2 жыл бұрын
@@stedmanregester6926 Lich: "DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT I JUST DIDN'T PLAN FOR THAT" As an army of goblins with their own bags of holding and things like that scurry to the party
@insertphrasehere152 жыл бұрын
@@Shrapucino HAHAHA... Yeah.
@prosamis2 жыл бұрын
Or just level 4 Banishment works
@jag5192 жыл бұрын
@@prosamis yeah, lv 4 banishment to get back to the home plane, then what ever transportation spells they need to get back to the area they want.
@Mcbuzz374 жыл бұрын
This is why DM's invented Rust Monsters and Disenchanters.
@talongreenlee77043 жыл бұрын
Rust monsters can’t destroy magic items. It specifically calls that out in their stat block.
@marcuscrowell69643 жыл бұрын
@@talongreenlee7704 That's true but easily changable by the DM
@PyryKorh3 жыл бұрын
@@talongreenlee7704 They could in older editions
@bleddynwolf84633 жыл бұрын
@@talongreenlee7704 i homebrewed a aberration that ate magic that could devour the magic from magic items, really shook up play
@shaunwilliams89433 жыл бұрын
@@marcuscrowell6964 Oh my DM let them destroy our magic items, but we were able to repair them later
@100dfrost4 жыл бұрын
I've been dealing with these "super characters" for decades now. It can be balanced without "cheating up" monster stats, or nerfing my players hard won magic items. It does take some creativity and thinking fast on your feet, but it can be done. Increase number of monsters strategically, don't get frustrated when players one shot one room, they still have many more areas to clear before they're finished, etc. My players usually get into "player godhood" around 14th or 15th level no matter what I try, if the are still having fun we just keep on going. I often start a second campaign with lower level characters, and alternate campaigns week to week., keeps powerful players humble and lets them play those alternate classes they've been wanting to try. Power levels aside, it's about having fun, so shoot for the highest possible fun level and forget about balance .. to some extent. Good video, thanks.
@TheGoondas874 жыл бұрын
I agree. Sometimes its fine to let players blast through encounters. It lets them feel their power. They shouldnt have to scrape and claw through every encounter and be challenged with every fight. Sometimes its fun to just run into a small group of relatively easy foes and blow them away. This can also help to make the challenging fights feel all the bigger. because the players are well aware of how easily they deal with basic foes. So the fact this boss is holding his ground makes him seem all the more imposing.
@SgtSplatter7824 жыл бұрын
@@TheGoondas87 I had a bunch of characters that had were busting doors and taking names with most of the encounters. My solution was a pair of Bosses one a necromancer and one artificer who made a basically a device that would summon undead (mostly skeletons because why not). the devices would summon 2d6 skeletons every turn, it would do so for 2 rounds then have to recharge for 1 round. so the heroes had to deal with an Artificer of their level, a Necromancer of their level and a metric shit tonne of skeletons. The Paladins and Cleric had their hands full while the others had to figure out how to handle the bosses and mob generator.
@Eshiay4 жыл бұрын
As soon as i feel players are ready i just consider them as 1 level = 1 cr, and as a dm I personally like making creatures via player levels to make it feel like I'm playing with the same rules that they're following. A lot of my mini bosses are just funky builds set at high levels, like a Warforged Druid that transforms into a Enormous Tentacle that looks like a tree, or a Lore Bard that uses Melf Minute Meteor alongside Find Steed. Giving them magic items also gives players a way to see the items in action which I think is fun. Thats not all of my encounters though, sometimes i just make a Large-Huge creature with 30-40 Strength and Siege Creature as a way to have a simple encounter that is just in all terms and purposes mean and difficult whatever there level is, other times I give them lower level encounters so that they get a update on how powerful they are and to let me play up the comedy of how screwed these guys they're facing really are sometimes, making them feel higher on the totem pole so that they don't feel the world is always out to get them. Theres fun to be had whatever you set the difficulty at, just be conscious of what the difficulty you want is and when to course correct when a fight is easier or harder than what you planned, either by reducing the damage they need to do or by upping the theatrics a bit to match whatever difficulty the fight is currently at.
@ohfunkno4 жыл бұрын
As a DM now on my second campaign I really appreciate this advice.
@MoireFly4 жыл бұрын
While it's possible to strain the narrative to workaround a few of these issues, after having DM-d quite a few high-level high magic session I've got to say it's sometimes pretty implausible to get that to work. What does reliably at least improve matters, and what I would recommend for any DM that intends to give the PCs any kind of ability to trade items or any randomness combined with high-magic, is to reimpose bounded accuracy by (A) simply not having magic items stack, and (B) not having ability score boosting items (or if you do, give them small relative bonuses that cap out at well below 20). Having even 1 AC boosting item is pretty powerful, but having a few - quite likely even playing by DMG stats if you let the players distribute items as they wish - it's just really easy to get into the unhittable ACs, especially with stuff like shield, shield of faith, and the various defensive tricks all kinds of classes have like imposing disadvantage, or defensive duelist, or lucky, or the college of valor's combat inspiration, etc, etc. etc. All those reactions are kind of balanced only under the assuming that your base AC is pretty commonly hit - but if you have a base AC of even "just" 25, then you'll need those measures less than once a round even if NPCs gang up on you, and that renders a PC so close to unhittable that whatever does hit either just won't matter, or will need to have massively unbalancing consequences. And with item stacking, 25 really isn't even close to a worst case scenario. So my recommendation here: just ban item stacking and ability score boosts. The rule barely impacts "normal" gameplay, and whenever it does come up, it's almost always a pretty reasonable nerf; the PCs can still distribute items amongst each other to avoid the overlap, and it's a pretty simple rule too. High level gameplay is still intrinsically unbalanced, but at least that way there's still some level of challenge with normal, non-cherry-picked fights, at least in many cases.
@aformofmatter89133 жыл бұрын
Key thing to remember: portable hole + bag of holding doesn't *kill* anyone, it just planeshifts them, & powerful/important npcs can find ways back Unless they have planeshift ready, it will end the fight, but you can be certain they'll come crawling back days or weeks later with a vengeance
@nephalos666 Жыл бұрын
Depends on the DM. Some of them home rule that portable hole into bag of holding (or vice versa) works like it did in 3.5: The resulting implosion kills everything that it hits/sucks in.
@lemonhead28338 ай бұрын
The one time I ever had to deal with this, I made the BBEG come crawling back a month later, heavily corrupted by his time in the Astral Plane with some new abilities and reactive teleportation.
@zionsgatesmedia4 жыл бұрын
BBEG escapes through a portal to the astral plane, Bard: Oh no he's escaping! What do we do? Wizard: (takes out portable hole), Fighter give me your bag. Fighter: What's this about wizard?(Gives Bag) Wizard: We're going after him...
@stevenle99603 жыл бұрын
and then they get sent to a random spot in the astral plane with no way to track the bbeg or get back
@link0909093 жыл бұрын
@@stevenle9960 certainly there are spells that magically point you in the direction of the spell’s target when on the same plane of existence
@stevenle99603 жыл бұрын
@@link090909 bbeg was probably using the astral plane as a pitstop if anything, probably won't be staying in it for too long unless it has a base there or something
@gathererofmagic53503 жыл бұрын
@@link090909 No I don't think there is.
@Grigeral3 жыл бұрын
@@link090909 Nothing at an indefinite distance. Things like Locate Object are remarkably short distance. I'd say even giving a 1000% chance, so 01 on D100 twice over is generous. But in fairness, the guy didn't say the wizard had a 'good' plan. Just a plan.
@chrisframe22274 жыл бұрын
The DM used the bag of holding reverse pick pocketed into a party member’s bag of holding, to dump us all into the astral plane for his planned adventure.
@michaelangelomaimone31812 жыл бұрын
That’s hilarious
@DeadpoolAli2 жыл бұрын
That's really good 👍🏾
@thedootlord Жыл бұрын
That wouldn't have been @vettethewarlock could it?
@joshaqy4 жыл бұрын
I like creating a "Nemesis" for whoever gets insanely broken. An eldritch monster or a powerful mage hunter NPC , usually linked to the problem magic item, that will actively stalk them to kill or just take the item back. Really gets some interesting RP, and keeps it mechanically interesting cos the power player now has to deal with a personal enemy built to kill them.
@303Thatoneguy3 жыл бұрын
That's some lotr shadows of Mordor shit
@whiskeySe7en3 жыл бұрын
I like this idea alot
@Chance573 жыл бұрын
@@303Thatoneguy how?
@tankeasy8180 Жыл бұрын
@@Chance57 lotr shadow of mordor is a game that has something called the nemesis system, which sometimes makes orcs you kill come back stronger and with a vengeance
@DDCRExposed4 жыл бұрын
This is a case of a previous video where if the DM makes this mistake early on then it's time to have that talk with the player saying, "I messed up as a DM," and work with the player to fix this issue so everyone is having fun.
@benry0074 жыл бұрын
Yes taking their advice into account maybe the weapon could change to do something else. Maybe lising its plus to hit and damage but adding an extra d6 damage on each hit. Still fun and powerful but avoiding the stacking of attack bonuses.
@ranekeisenkralle82654 жыл бұрын
Too few DMs admit to having made mistakes though - and as a result the group often suffers.
@charlesgargotta233 жыл бұрын
Well I think DMs forget sometimes that they have an entire world at their disposal. If a particular item is too much then there's no reason for a really high level thief to not steal it or for a curse to manifest itself, or for the weapon or item to turn out to be sentient or for the weapon itself to be a legendary quest item with multiple attunement rituals or a combination of these things. Don't get mad at a player for finding creative ways to maximize or abuse their gifts.. that's what we do . Instead use your own creativity and the fact that literally an entire world is at your fingertips to direct or manipulate circumstances as needed. If you can give them ten different ways to find info on a mcguffin you can make a cult after a rogues new dagger because it's their ritual dagger of sacrifice. Etc
@benry0073 жыл бұрын
@@charlesgargotta23 stealing players items is not a nice way to resolve these issues. Yes you have complete control which is exactly why you shouldn't do it. The player has no agency in that situation amd just feels cheated. Have a grown up conversation with them instead.
@DDCRExposed3 жыл бұрын
@@charlesgargotta23 That's certainly some fun and interesting ways to show the new item is highly desired and keeping it could cause problems along the way, for the group.
@johncollins76314 жыл бұрын
I like giving the items the party wants to particular enemies so that they are loot and it adds good challenge/flavor (depending on the item(s)) of the encounters. The portable hole + bag of holding combo was used on a BBEG once. Not once did it occur to the party that the villain knew plane shift. Sucked for the rogue who rushed in valiantly and was now stuck in the Astral Sea.
@Mary_Studios4 жыл бұрын
I was just thinking. Well they could just plan shift or come back later the BBEG isn't technically gone.
@johncollins76314 жыл бұрын
@@Mary_Studios Yeah they were not happy twelve seconds after their victory when he showed back up and dropped a Meteor Swarm on them all.
@ericstewart82153 жыл бұрын
my DM in one of my campaigns gave out way to many magic items, and when my character died we talked about it and he came to realize he kind of regretted it, so i gave him a tabaxi rogue/shadowmonk hybrid build i made, pass without trace, plus 21 to stealth, plus 11 to slight of hand, this cat is slowly stealing magical items, and selling them to pawn shops, great solution imo.
@StephenHutchison3 жыл бұрын
The Handy Haversack is also apparently an extradimensional space.
@AM-hf9kk3 жыл бұрын
Yep, it's just a slightly reworked Bag of Holding.
@override3673 жыл бұрын
It has 3 actually, you can cause the astral rift with just a haversack :)
@someoneweird4439 Жыл бұрын
I was beginning to think I was the only person who remembered it's existence
@dutch68574 жыл бұрын
Good to see you guys back together. Glad Ontario eased the restrictions, it's always better on one camera.
@therudecanadian80684 жыл бұрын
Artificers be like "Thanks for the ideas!"
@dragonhearthx83694 жыл бұрын
Considering that you can also make the quiver of elhonna, a single articifer can make the boom
@HexenDarkside3 жыл бұрын
A party with two artificers... they can literally just do this an infinite amount of times at level 2, haha.
@dragonhearthx83693 жыл бұрын
@@HexenDarkside one once per day. But yeah.
@fero_zetta3 жыл бұрын
@@HexenDarkside Or they can just open a hole to the Astral Plane daily using the bags of holding... Heck! For most monsters you don't need another artificer, at lv9 you can have a 7 Sorcerer 2 Artificer with Metamagic Twinned spell and Polymorph. Use that to transform 2 creatures into baby sea turtles and put them in your bag of holding, let those suckers rest in the bag 20ft away from you and then break concentration. What happens next is that both creatures will expand and most creatures on their own would break the bag from the inside, with 2 you're sure that they will. Ta-da! You can do this once per day...
@Kino_Cartoon3 жыл бұрын
@@dragonhearthx8369 But you have to know Leomund's secret chest for that...
@TheEbonKnight14 жыл бұрын
Laughed aloud at Monty’s term “absolute blender” on overpowered fighters.
@nGuy19014 жыл бұрын
Nice work guys. Your videos are consistently thoughtful, engaging, and high quality. Here are a couple reactions: on the belt of giant strength, I initially thought "why even have it in the game?" You mentioned one reason (high-level, that is, level-20 play). Another reason would be for a cool story beat (say, for a physically weak character to suddenly become strong). The third reason, obviously, is if you want to let the fighter BE a wrecking ball. At first glance, it might sound like DDs are saying "DMs, don't give your players these items." They didn't say that. They said be aware. DMs can give powerful combos and abilities to the players AND still challenge players. Maybe how to challenge powerful players would be a good subject for a follow-up video. Part of the fun for me as a DM is to invent cool items for the players. I also enjoy the follow-up fun of how to continue challenging them when the PCs are "OP" (full disclosure: I like tactical combat). My top 3 tools are minions, environment, and pacing (see below). Warning: the wall of text below is supporting detail from my game that is illustrative but not required reading. My party of 5 has at least 3 of the OP combinations mentioned in the video: a paladin with +3 armor (AC 23), a ranger with +14 to hit, and a wizard with 19 spell save DC. The PCs are currently level 11 and I'm planning for the campaign to end with them just hitting level 13, after about 1.5 to 1.75 years of total game play. In each case, I've given some thought on how to contain or limit the "problem." I've also experimented with a variety of techniques to continue to challenge the players. The paladin's armor requires attunement (it has some extra abilities) and he has a sentinel shield; I've never made a "plus" shield available to the party. In addition, his weapon requires attunement and his wondrous item requires attunement, so his AC is high but not unmanageably so. (Strategy #1: fill up their attunement slots.) The ranger (longbow wielding sharpshooter) has +5 to hit from DEX, +4 from proficiency bonus, +2 from archery fighting style, +2 from her magic bow, and +1 from magic arrows (provided from a magic quiver that makes 7 per day, noncumulative). Notice that -- without any magic items at all -- she would still have +11 to hit. The wizard has Robe of the Archmagi and a +2 wand of the war mage. Her spell save DC is 19 (but it would still be 17 without any magic items) and her spell attack rolls are at +13 (but VERY few of her spells require an attack roll -- basically only firebolt -- and let's face it, if you're an 11th level wizard, your firebolt should hit). (Strategy #2: embrace the fact that characters should be really good at what they should be good at. Don't worry about making an already large bonus a bit larger, particularly if it will rarely be relevant.) Here are some of the strategies that I use to deal with "OP" players: 1) outnumber them. The action economy is real. We're playing (right now) Red Hand of Doom so I'm still throwing hobgoblins at the party, even though the party is level 11. When the party was level 8, I ran the opening scene of RHoD with a warband of 40 hobgoblins (20 ranged, AC 16, and 20 melee, AC 18) 2 hell hounds, a 3rd level hobgoblin cleric and a 5th level hobgoblin sergeant. With Martial Advantage, the hobgoblins messed up the party pretty good. I don't care if each PC one-shots two or three hobgoblins per round (or 6 or 7 with a fireball). The mass of enemies limits their mobility and provides some cover for the bigger, badder bad guys in the rear echelons (casters, generally). Even 6 or 8 incoming arrows per round can challenge the wizard's ability to concentrate on a spell. 2) environment -- darkness (shooting in dim light = disadvantage) and cover can make things much harder for the PCs. I'm only now starting to realize how much I wasn't following the rules early on in the campaign. (E.g., darkvision doesn't really mean the party can *see*.) Enemies can pop out, shoot, and duck under full cover again. The party has some trouble with flying enemies, such as manticores, wyverns, and dragons who can strafe them and fly away again. Enemies that grapple, entangle, have high mobility, and/or that can take reactions and opportunity attacks can really make the players think hard about their choices. For example, I made the giants attacking the walls of Brindol based on the Bloodfray Giants from GGR. 3) Get the party to 6-8 encounters per adventuring day. By limiting their ability to rest, I can get them more to their "baseline" damage as opposed to their burst damage potential. So, remind them -- in a variety of ways -- that the clock is ticking. Use "wandering monsters." Right now I'm running the Battle of Brindol and there are 5 or 6 waves of bad guys they'll face in a row without even a short rest. I have the ability to tune (hp and number of enemies) each wave to make it challenging without making it (too) overwhelming. Lastly, one final story. The party knew, from scouting they'd done in part 1 of RHoD, that a red dragon was coming at them in the Battle of Brindol. They decided to assassinate it before the battle and made a plan to do so. They came in, at night, on giant owls (borrowed from the elves in chapter 2), hit the dragon, and escaped via Transport via Plants. It was a good plan and I felt like they deserved their win. They surprised the dragon ("rolled" 20 for stealth via a portent, but could've used Pass without Trace too) and proceeded to do 435 damage in the first round, which killed the dragon without it having the chance to act at all. Now of that total, only 7% was from their magic items. Mostly it was their skills and abilities used in good combinations (e.g., animate objects + crusader's mantle, for 71 damage). The very next fight, Defend the Walls, the party was back to struggling with hobgoblin minions, a ticking clock, darkness, and enemies that are spaced widely apart. Consequently, the paladin spent most of the fight Banished because they couldn't get to the enemy caster to break her concentration. That fight lasted 6 or 7 rounds (so, quite long) versus the one round versus the dragon.
@mduckernz4 жыл бұрын
The high level Belts of Giant Strength are fine UNTIL you also give to-hit bonuses. Then it becomes silly. Otherwise, it just boosts damage rolls, not attack rolls as well. (that said, I wouldn't award any that are over 25 STR until theyre like level 17 or something...)
@Ephsy4 жыл бұрын
@nGuy1901 only darkness penalizes attack rolls with disadvantage. Dim light penalizes Perception rolls. Not attacks.
@rcschmidt6684 жыл бұрын
A +2 weapon can be easily given to a low strength magic user if a member of a small party and keeps getting chased by minions. Even more important in a low magic setting.
@nGuy19014 жыл бұрын
@@Ephsy yes, you're right. I'm prepping for my party to face off against a gloomstalker ranger. They rely on darkvision so he'll be invisible to them. Hence the disadvantage comment.
@superj10104 жыл бұрын
The first boss I ever fought was one-shot by our rogue's Ring of the Ram. Shattered every bone in its body and flung it against the wall.
@SubKoopa4 жыл бұрын
How'd he get 1 shot by 2d10 damage
@superj10104 жыл бұрын
@@SubKoopa 1: it crit 2: all 3 charges were spent and 3: the DM used a different rule that allowed all the party members to add damage to the final attack
@cthulwho81974 жыл бұрын
You only needed rule 3, “the GM made up their own rules” 😁
@rileyl20463 жыл бұрын
@@cthulwho8197 Okay but that's still (6d10)*2 even without special rules so it's certainly plausible in a rules-as-written game
@rileyl20463 жыл бұрын
Not to mention the rogue's sneak attack to add insult to injury if they had advantage
@alexcompositionflat4 жыл бұрын
Rod of the Pact Keeper + Illusionist's Bracers + Eldritch Blast = Everything Gets Melted.
@ChunkyTheClown4 жыл бұрын
Throw in two levels of Fighter for Action Surge in order to achieve maximum melt.
@izunagi90644 жыл бұрын
@@ChunkyTheClown couldn't you take metamagic adept feat and also quicken eldritch blast?
@ChunkyTheClown4 жыл бұрын
@@izunagi9064 You absolutely could if you're trying to make the meme build with just abilities alone, but it's redundant if you already have the Illusionist's Bracers.
@elinamauno88334 жыл бұрын
Yup. This is happening in our Curse of Strahd game. So busted, even though she doesn’t use Hex. She outpaced my paladin’s burst (I’m not allowed to smite on both attacks on my Attack action) for a long time
@Eshiay4 жыл бұрын
@@elinamauno8833 I personally homebrew a simple nerf to Illusionist's Bracers but simultaneously reduce the rarity: The 2nd cantrip can't be the same cantrip. Makes the item more interesting since you can't just spam the same spell over and over, and keeps it in line with how the item was meant to be used. The alternative (if you want to make it fair at Rare rarity) is to make it so the 2nd cantrip can't do damage, so that its specifically a utility item during combat.
@weegomo2 жыл бұрын
How I dealt with the portable hole + bag of holding combo at my table was saying that the rift didn't just simply dissapear, but instead started to grow as the dungeon around them started to shake, and allowed for a cool dungeon escape scenario!
@madcat21344 жыл бұрын
A Gloom Stalker Aarakocra at level 13 will give the same effect as winged boots + cloak of invisibility but with greater invisibility instead
@fckthefearturkey4 жыл бұрын
Jesus christ
@EyeOfMagnus4E2014 жыл бұрын
Of course, by 13th level, any gloom stalker theoretically could find a way to gain flight, though I suppose the aarakocra has the advantage of not needing a spellcasting friend or a magic item.
@Fraginator4 жыл бұрын
The cloak of invisibility is like greater invisibility already. In the items description it says nothing about your invisibility breaking if you attack or cast a spell.
@savagecabbage80134 жыл бұрын
Yep, I am banning aarakocra in my games because of the overwhelming advantage of low level flighg.
@OnetastyJoe4 жыл бұрын
Id like to point out something that might not sound resonable but might be something you need to enforce if this flying invisibility comes up in your games. Invisibility and hiding are two different things. When you are invisible, enemies know where you are but have disadvantage to hit you. Hidden is a condition you have when taking the hide action that hides your location to the enemies. So a flying ranger shooting while invisible would be able to be shot at and their location would be known. Arogue doing this could however take the hide action as a bonus action after each attack forcing perception check if they beat the enemies passive perception trying to hide. I realize its kinda stupid to say "well enemies know where you are because invisibility as a condition doesnt hide you" but its even worse to be in the situation of having a unkillable god pc.
@KarumaJiusetu4 жыл бұрын
"How To Deliver Barbarian?" is a great puzzle boss.
@freakyskull5163 жыл бұрын
in my ToA game we did this to ascererak with a broom of flying
@benry0074 жыл бұрын
Nice to see you back in the room together.
@joshuaferraiuolo25654 жыл бұрын
This was a fantastic video, thank you. I started playing/running games back in 3.0. The logic behind 5e items has been insanely frustrating to what I'm used too. When you go from being decked out like a Christmas tree by level 10 to maybe having 3 magic items at the same level is a big adjustment. Understanding why 5e does thishelps.
@rickthompson38434 жыл бұрын
You are not alone in that. My group had the same problems going from 3.5 to 5. I had an archer with a magic bow, whatever ion stone gives you a dex bonus and something else. Once I got sharpshooter, it was just silly. I actually ended up talking to my DM and asking him to take some of the items away because it was wrecking our game.
@ConstantChaos1 Жыл бұрын
I'm a 3/3.5 baby myself so I really don't like 5 honestly but bad d&d is better than no d&d so I play it, the world of 3.5 is so much more complex and chaotic its vastly superior imo If you want to make a bard so charismatic he has to fight off assassins send by gods of beauty who are jealous of his looks then you should be able to make the earth quake when you speak damn it
@TheBierp3 жыл бұрын
This may be my favorite of all your great videos. As a newish DM, there are lessons here that will serve amazingly well. Wish I'd seen this a year ago. :)
@VibroBrian4 жыл бұрын
I’m a war cleric where the gm gave a belt of giant strength and dwarve thrower so now I am hitting things so far at +12, it’s so much fun
@drewneedsmoresleep66804 жыл бұрын
And throwing it gives you 2D8
@waynewebster46514 жыл бұрын
Not to mention the war cleric's '+10' channel divinity. Nothing like being at +22 before you even pick up a die.
@TheGoondas874 жыл бұрын
With the armor/cloak of displacement one. Having all the enemies ignore the high armored character and attack the less armored ones is the characters problem. Not the DM's. If you reverse the situation and you as a party run into a group of monsters and one has a huge AC, you'll go after the lesser ones first to clear the field. Its basic tactics. If you want to be the front line tank, you need to give the monsters a reason to want to attack you. If you make yourself virtually invincible, you have failed in that task, and therefor failed as a tank. Sure you may easily survive every fight, but whats the point if your entire party keeps dying around you. One of my players has just realised this last session. He has gotten his AC to 22 and sometimes 24 using shield of faith. As DM I have low CR creatures attack him for a round or two. They then realise none of them are getting through his armor, even with high rolls, so they give up and go for squishier characters. So he has decided to stick with the high AC but then force creatures to attack him using spells that give the target disadvantage on attacks against anyone but him. Or he finds a bottleneck and puts himself right in it so monsters cant get past him. This is the trade off with high AC. Youll need to get creative if you want creatures to keep swinging at you. Otherwise, as a DM, I struggle to find a logical reason why my monsters will keep uselessly attacking you.
@rcschmidt6684 жыл бұрын
The tank will need feats like Battlemaster or Swashbuckler for crowd control or find other ways to taunt.
@OnetastyJoe4 жыл бұрын
Cloak of displacement also has a clause that it doesnt work if your speed is 0, aka grappled or restrained. So even tho usually PCs with high ac have high athletics and acrobatics you can still swarm them with creatures that grapple and shove causing them to gain advantage against that high ac which might be enough. Another way would be to have a giant creature getting help from minions to grapple them and then have the smaller once attack in groups. Spells that restrain or paralyze also removes that disadvantage and gives advantage to attack them.
@jukesdtj6563 жыл бұрын
There was a player in the longest-running game I have played in who got their AC up to 23 and wears Adamantine Plate. They specifically tried to be a tank and then they decided to be a Battlemaster fighter instead of a Chavalier, the subclass specifically made to do that. So rather than be a wall between the enemy and the rest of the party, he was just horribly overpowered on his own.
@AM-hf9kk3 жыл бұрын
@@rcschmidt668 Or he needs a way to extend his reach and reaction options like Polearm Master or Sentinel or Protection fighting style or Battle Smith Artificer's Steel Defender. A good high AC character should be capable of dealing damage as well as taking it. A great high AC character has resistances and prevents his allies getting hit at all and destroys the enemy's action economy. My current Fighter / Artificer has a Ring of Protection, Unity Ring, and Belt of Resistance in addition to his Shield and Half Plate, Improved Defense infusion, and Improved Weapon infusion. That's 22AC, and Warding Bond bumps it to 23 AC while also giving an ally +1 AC and Resistance. Full Plate and the Shield spell would make it 29AC. Then Protection Fighting Style and the Steel Defender create Disadvantage to enemy attacks twice per turn at the cost of a Reaction (one his, one the Defender's). Steel Defender attacks on the Bonus Action, so that's three attacks at level 6. Being a half-caster, he can also cast Sanctuary and Aid to further protect allies. I would certainly understand if a DM blocked this combination.
@rcschmidt6683 жыл бұрын
@@AM-hf9kk Wow! That sounds like a little much for some tables, but fun walking around like Iron Man!
@spykeking19893 жыл бұрын
Here's a fun story related to the arrow of ultimate destruction. Back when artificer was still ua I had a DM that let my artificer learn the medical formula for a bag of holding, so that I could make them myself. He was super cool about it and he was really into letting me modify the bag's formulas so that I could make smaller coin purse sized ones. I could make 4 of them in the time it took to make a bag. You see where this is going, right? I made myself 12 "Bolts of Fuck Off"
@ForgeofAule Жыл бұрын
I love feeling nostalgic watching older videos just from the sponsor that was going around to most D&D channels at the time
@johnarcane99154 жыл бұрын
My artificer player has a standing AC of 23 through no fault of my own. Level 10 artificer, +2 studded leather armour (enhanced defence infusion), +1 shield (repulsion shield infusion ), +5 dex and a cloak of protection (infusion). He dodges melee attacks all day but went down in three rounds against a compotent spellcaster because his saves weren't quite as monstrous
@daneshannonsparks2 жыл бұрын
I'm playing a warforged armorer artificer. At level 10, even if I get no magic items, I'll have plate (18) with Enhanced Defense infusion (+2) and a shield (+2) with the Repulsion Shield infusion (+1) and an infused Cloak of Protection (+1) on top of being a Warforged (+1). So when I walk up and punch someone with Thunder Gauntlets, they have to make the choice between attacking one of my allies at disadvantage or trying to hit my 25 AC.
@dude22992 жыл бұрын
@@daneshannonsparks take a 1 lvl dip into Wizard (cause Int caster) soley to pick up the shield spell. Attack at disadvantage or try to hit AC 30... if you go for light armor instead of plate and have a good dex, you can take Wiz further and become bladesinger. Add your Int mod to AC and still have Shield spell on tap. Artificer's one of the easiest classes to get stupid broken AC cause you don't need the DM to give you magic items, you just make it yourself
@fishizer4 жыл бұрын
Nice to see you guys be able to film together again. Keep up the great work.
@ChitenBugMan4 жыл бұрын
I'm looking forward to seeing this Video, I've always loved the Versitility of magic items and I feel like Rings of spell storing paired with pearls of power are underutilized for how Broken they can be. First I think
@gabwood15143 жыл бұрын
I haven't heard of the portable hole before, but when I first learned about the bag of holding inside another bag of holding thing, it became my dream to one day dm a game where that happens on purpose because I've set up an adventure in the astral plane because that sounds hella fun
@billygnosis88204 жыл бұрын
AC 28 meet Heat Metal (assuming metal armor)
@Ephsy4 жыл бұрын
My Eldritch Knight lvl 14 with Haste, Boots of Striding and Springing, 25 ac without Shield and a +9 con save will find the caster (See Invisibility included) and Action Surge 7 attacks on them.
@benry0074 жыл бұрын
@@Ephsy that calls for a wisdom save, perhaps several.
@alanschaub1474 жыл бұрын
😂👍🏻
@sandrols74 жыл бұрын
@@Ephsy That will still be with disadvantage, all of them (:
@pgb80004 жыл бұрын
As a Druid I caught my DM out with that one. He gave an NPC a bodyguard with AC 25, & the interceptor ability, and assumed we would not be able to hit him enough or be a threat to the NPC. My Druid simply cooked the bodyguard in his armour, leaving the NPC completely unable to dictate the terms he was anticipating to the party. A good lesson for a reasonable new DM that high AC is not everything.
@ballamdg3 жыл бұрын
First post on KZbin - love your channel. Been playing since 1979. Dming the same campaign since 1997 (several generations of characters). My players, also long term, complained for years that they only get the really cool legendary weapons at the end of their careers. The campaigns usually end shortly after these items are awarded. So, I purposefully broke the rules. Make a long story short, I ran White Plume Mountain as part of my current campaign. Not only did I let them keep the items, but I created similarly powered items to ensure all players got a legendary item. I knew the consequences and planned accordingly. We have been having sooooo much fun (and I'm the DM). We've gone two levels since and it's working. I do not advise unless you have significant experience. Cheers and thanks for the videos.
@SlipsJDR4 жыл бұрын
My "Instakill" trick is the following: Prereq Items: Bag of Devouring + Iron Flask Note: Only works on things that can get sucked into an iron flask. So, you have an Iron Flask and use it to trap something inside it. You then, go to a bag of devouring. Put your hands inside while holding the flask. If your character doesn't get devoured by the bag, you then open the Iron Flask within the Bag of Devouring. Because of the wording, the moment whatever is inside the Iron Flask starts its turn within the Bag of Devouring, it is instantly consumed, no saves of any kind nor any time to react. The only caveats to this working is: Capturing whatever it is with an Iron Flask to begin with and you or whoever decides to perform the task not getting devoured by the Bag.
@MsKeylas3 жыл бұрын
What about just dropping flask into the bag?
@SlipsJDR3 жыл бұрын
@@MsKeylas Unfortunately doesnt work because the bag of devouring will just poop out the iron flask at some randomly determined time by the GM (once per day) to one randomly determined place across the cosmos meaning whatevers inside is free to be released by something else at some point in the future. So to instantly kill whatevers inside, you need to open it while inside the bag of devouring and releasing whatevers in the flask in the bag.
@MsKeylas3 жыл бұрын
@@SlipsJDR ohh,ok.
@freakyskull5163 жыл бұрын
or just a rogue with the bag of devouring note that a human head fits in the bag~
@SlipsJDR3 жыл бұрын
@@freakyskull516 This trick is mainly for extra-planar non-human sized entities but also, the wording on Bag of Devouring means that, even if you stuff it around someones head, unless the 50% chance occurrence of the target being vacuumed in occurs, it wont decapitate/devour them. This method makes that a guaranteed outcome if you can get them into the Iron Flask.
@fortunatus14 жыл бұрын
1- Criticism of Belt of giant strength + magic weapon solution: The magic weapon is not the problem with this scenario. The problem is the Belt. No character should be getting such a powerful magic item before high levels such as 18/19/20 with the exception of the Hill giant belt. But a Hill giant belt probably won't help the barbarian/fighter/paladin; it will help the melee cleric. 2- The idea that a player should only have a number of magic items equal to their proficiency bonus... this is not accurate. Attunement restricts you enough. A DM just has to be careful about what specific magic items they give out. A player could have 20 spell scrolls. A Wizard can make those for them-self. They could have numerous common items like the tankard of sobriety or many healing potions. The real problem is magic items with stacking bonuses or strong/unusual powers like flight. Certain magic items are problematic. I don't think its number of items that is the problem.
@swiftdragonrider4 жыл бұрын
When referring to magic items almost no one is talking about weak consumables (aka things that don't effect action economy) or common magic items.
@fortunatus14 жыл бұрын
@@swiftdragonrider Use of the right terminology is important in logic, rhetoric, and argument. Magic Items by definition includes those common and consumable items. Everyone I've played with has always called consumables and common items as magic items because they are located in the magic item section of the DMG or Xanathar's. If you mean wondrous items or weapons or armor say that. If you mean rare, very rare, legendary, or artifacts then say that. To say magic items when you mean something else in the context of this video makes what you're saying explicitly false.
@swiftdragonrider4 жыл бұрын
@@fortunatus1 I know this requires more knowledge of these guys but I remember they game the advice not to count comon magic items and give away 1 a game. And from my experience most players don't refer to scrolls and potions as magic items. Also even if you take them by there word I am a okay with not handing out more consumables until they use the ones I gave them. But unrelated to this the video is clearly talking about power and magic items that might case problems and I don't think any number of common/level fitting consumables will brake a party.
@marcuscrowell69643 жыл бұрын
As a level 7 Paladin with a +1 warhammer and a belt of fire giant strength... yes. The belt is absolutely the problem, lol.
@junglerat72472 жыл бұрын
Gave my party a belt (can't remember which one) on top of a +2 sword in the first campaign I ran, thinking they would split it across the two martial fighters and everything would be cool. I wanted them to feel and be powerful. Then they stacked them both on the fighter 2/paladin x with GWM and encounter balance for me as a new DM was a disaster. I really should've just given them 2 weapons lmao
@Deafwing4 жыл бұрын
"Your players are going to give you headaches." - This man speaks the truth!
@savagecabbage80134 жыл бұрын
Oh yeah, 3 hours of building custom boss monster to challenge your PC's so you they don't one shot it.
@gattzflappa63063 жыл бұрын
@@savagecabbage8013 Is this hyperbole? I hope it is. If not what CR are you having these problems at? I ask because if I take 3 hours to plan a single encounter, my players would really hope it was a social encounter. If you see me working for 3 hours on a combat encounter, just grab another character sheet and get to work, because you current character is about to have a bad day.
@ericg71833 жыл бұрын
I refer to it as monkey wrench +3.
@OmegaGodBahamut3 жыл бұрын
This is lovely stuff guys!! As a DM I’m only breaking my games with my homebrew monsters!! And it is glorious fun : )
@kuwana10003 жыл бұрын
I'm surprised to see they didn't mention Amulet of the Devout from Tasha's being able to work with other classes's spells as long as they multiclass into cleric/paladin.
@ATMOSK1234 Жыл бұрын
Pretty sure that was just a misprint
@WolfHreda4 жыл бұрын
For dealing with flying characters, give one enemy a longbow, Martial Adept, and Trip Attack.
@wyhancandelaria75274 жыл бұрын
Net, bolas, web, faerie fire, etc etc.
@swiftdragonrider4 жыл бұрын
And the next encounter do that again? And then again?
@dyinginside87164 жыл бұрын
And if the boots of flying is what's causing the issue... Put in a rogue while they take their next rest Heck, have that rogue work for the BBEG!
@baxterbruce98274 жыл бұрын
Flying isn't broken, plenty of enemies have range
@wyhancandelaria75274 жыл бұрын
Flying enemies, more spells or spell like abilities, casters that can cast dispel magic (cancel flight and drop target), battlemasters that can trip, winged humanoid monks that can stun... spiders shoot web... manticores, medusa gaze... I don't know. D&D is supposed to be a game of creativity. Our characters fly all the time and have most of the items described above and maybe better. DM doesn't seem to mind. We still have a great time and our enemies either die really fast or present a challenge or can kill us really really fast. (My DM is the really creative one)
@pw38294 жыл бұрын
Are you guys going to do a segment on how spells and magic items work together? I’m relatively new to dnd so I haven’t seen too many potent combos in action. But things like unseen servant with an immovable rod or control water with decanter of endless water sound like they could be potent
@ryancparker Жыл бұрын
What’s really sick is you can play a character with a +3 weapon, +3 armor, +3 shield, belt of giant’s strength, and a cloak of displacement. Ignore them at your own peril. The good news is their saving throws suck. Oh wait, they’re a paladin?
@eicha416244 жыл бұрын
I did this with one item, I let my players keep a Wand of Fireballs. They've nuked nearly every single encounter in the first floor of Undermountain
@carlcramer9269 Жыл бұрын
In the 1E DMG, speaking about trading with NPC wizards, quoted from memory "they may demand a minor magic item, like a girdle of giant strength". This still sticks out in memory as one of the words categorization ever!
@faesommers4 жыл бұрын
I made a 20th level character that has a passive perception of 50 with a slight bit of homebrew, without that homebrew it’s “only” a 44. Granted, this is a teacher who is an NPC in a setting, but it still exists.
@mathewslade82594 жыл бұрын
How did you manage that?
@shanehudson39954 жыл бұрын
At level 17 my friend's Inquisitive Rogue has a passive perception of 33, no houserules.
@richardwhaler87173 жыл бұрын
Explanation needed. Wis 20=+5 Expertise =+12 Obervant=+5 Paasive Perception = 32 Luckstone = +1 (Eyes of eagle) Adv = ? +3 - +5 The +1d4 abilities & spells only apply to active checks as far as I know.
@faesommers3 жыл бұрын
@@richardwhaler8717 @Matthew Slade WIS 18 = +4 Expertise = +12 Observant = +5 Ioun Stone of Mastery = +2 (from expertise) Eyes of the Eagle: +5 Raven Queen Warlock with a +6 CHA, homebrew Oath of Passion Paladin with same feature as RQW = +12 Passive Perception: 50, 44 without homebrew
@Spiceodog3 жыл бұрын
One thing to do is reflavor ( and even add not super important changes such as changing damage types) so that it’s obvious who the magic item was meant for. It also makes the magic items special to the players .
@redstoneraptor81013 жыл бұрын
I have an artificer character with multiple bags of holding, and whenever the party is stuck/frustrated with a puzzle or whatever situation we’re in, we taunt the DM by saying “Well we’ll just put a bag inside a bag and turn campaign into escaping the Astral Sea.” He hasn’t found it very funny yet.
@Kino_Cartoon3 жыл бұрын
But artificer can only make one replica of the same item... Did you buy multiple bag of holdings?
@redstoneraptor81013 жыл бұрын
@@Kino_Cartoon Yes, the fact that I’m an artificer isn’t relevant to how many bags of holding I have, I just mentioned it because most people tend to say what their character is when they tell a story. The campaign is that we’re like special agents of a magical institute so we basically have whatever tools we need at our disposal, including bags of holding. Plus I have a few niche extradimensional spaces that can only be used for storing specific kinds of items like gemstones, but it’s easier to just consider stuff like that a “bag of holding” for the sake of brevity in a KZbin comment.
@Kino_Cartoon3 жыл бұрын
@@redstoneraptor8101 your Campaigne sounds really interesting. Like a James Bond version with magic. A lot of really expensive and nearly exclusive stuff which is being used to fullfil a mission. I love it.
@ctrain89004 жыл бұрын
Thanks so much for your videos guys, I always relax into my bed and curiosity with every upload.
@lamarwashington27184 жыл бұрын
An artificer can build the overpowered AC just with infusions. Defense+2 Armor, Repulsion shield +1, Cloak of protection +1 , Ring of Protection +1. If they are a battlesmith or artillerist they get shield spell. If they are an Armorer they get plate, but honestly half plate and shield spell is better. Oh and they can get access to shield of faith
@lukesandadordoceu48352 жыл бұрын
One possible "solution" to limiting who gets which item is to put some lore behind the items and limit each to a different class or alignment (you can even decide it on the whim: if the fighter sees the +3 weapon and says he wants it before the barbarian, maybe that item can only be attuned by a fighter or maybe the belt has to be attuned to a barbarian)
@dylanpruitt23094 жыл бұрын
Heyward's Handy haversack + either bag of holding or portable hole also works.
@Godzillawolf12 жыл бұрын
My party didn't so much get a game breaking combo as a Disc One Nuke, and we dealt with it in an incharacter way: By sheer luck of the draw, our party got a Staff of Frost very early on in Rime of the Frostmaiden, as in second quest. A very are magic item giving access to a fourth, fifth, and sixth level spell before we even got third level spells. Obviously, this could be game breaking. So the party decided to give it to my character (a female Druid), because my character was very cautious and reservered. IE, the member of the party reserved and kind enough not to abuse the Staff because it'd be out of character for her to do so. As a result, up until the endgame, the Staff normally was only used for utility rather than combat, such as making bridges or at one point protecting the party from an avalanche. So one solution is if you've got the agency for it as a DM, award a magic item to a player and character who's shown they're unlikely to abuse it.
@gordol664 жыл бұрын
13:30 In 3.5e, I was playing a Halfling Sorcerer. Through the course of the game, I gained the Flight spell (with Hover!) and spellcasting feats that let me cast without the Somatic or verbal components... Fireball, lightning (all creatures in the line within range...), etc. Like your Jill, I became an Apache attack helicopter. I remember one battle encounter, we were assaulting a castle. Party's being harassed by the troops with cover on the battlements. So... I do Fly and go sideways and then up so I'm flanking the guards on the battlement and hit the line with lightning. No more guards.
@ConstantChaos1 Жыл бұрын
3.5 is a wild edition that I will always say is the best edition, I had a bard who got his charisma to like 40 and who kept having to fight off assassins from envious gods of beauty
@KatanaKamisama4 жыл бұрын
I love playing Dwarves, and am always on the lookout for Periapt of Wound Closure, to combo with Dwarven Fortitude. Bonus points if you're a cleric with Beacon of Hope, or a Pact of the Chain Warlock with Gift of the Everliving Ones. The +2 con from Belt of Dwarvenkind is nice too, but not really needed.
@Eshiay4 жыл бұрын
I like doing something similar but as a Monk because the bonus action heal is so dumb. Bonus points if you add a level in Barbarian to not only rage as well but also get some of those sweet sweet d12 hit dice.
@lockwoan014 жыл бұрын
Hypothetically, providing that all the players have these stat boosting items, and the like, a DM could do something similar to the creatures that are going up against they players, especially if the creatures come from a well-funded organization or something.
@ghostdestroyer5980 Жыл бұрын
Our DM gave our bard a music box that allowed us to have a long rest in half the time. We have 2 elves that were basically having long rest in 2 hours
@drewneedsmoresleep66804 жыл бұрын
Welcome to my beholder dungeon! And remember they need a whole hour to Reattune those attunement items after that anti magic eye hits them in round one.
@ProgramKiraTV3 жыл бұрын
A beholders anti magic eye gaze suppresses magic effects. Those effects are still active, it’s just muted. A character concentrating on the fly spell will fall within the eye cone but doesn’t lose concentration. If the beholder turns around the character can return to flying. This effect is the same to magic items. A plus 2 weapon isn’t plus two in the eye gaze cone but returns to that outside of the effect area. Attunement to their magic cloak works just like concentration on a spell and doesn’t end but is muted while in the area.
@williamwontiam31662 жыл бұрын
@@ProgramKiraTV heck, with how that works combined with the eye beams, fog cloud can completely gimp a beholder if they don’t have minions or access to a light breeze.
@ProgramKiraTV2 жыл бұрын
@@williamwontiam3166 Line of sight is important! It's a powerful tactic for monsters and heroes to exploit.
@CosmicNuisance2 жыл бұрын
I feel that the portable hole+bag of holding rule was put in place to prevent the "stacking" of these items, but it would make more sense just to have "the dimensional forces repel each other and the portable hole is held back by an invisible force as it approaches the entrance to the bag of holding" and it avoids the issue of giving your players a bomb
@MegaNoob1124 жыл бұрын
One time I stole all the money from a castle by invisibly entering the vault where they kept their money, putting all their gold into a portable hole and teleporting out with a helm of teleportation after they closed the vault.
@MAEX252 жыл бұрын
The bag of holding/portable hole should also work with two bags of holding. Both are items that create extradimensional spaces. So two artificers with the replicate magic item „bag of holding“ infusion and the magehand cantrip can do this over and over again. 😉
@xxcobencxx4 жыл бұрын
I’ve seen a dm get passed a high ac by having a second attack(like multi attack) be a aoe dex save, so the first attack still contest against their ac but the second still brings danger. Of course it wasn’t as repetitive as that but that was just the example to not only using magic users for attacking the ac tank
@xavierds13293 жыл бұрын
That’s what my dm is doing for my character. He’s a high ac fighter and my dm keeps throwing things with breath weapons or multi attack and and least once per encounter i get smacked with a crit due to the sheer number of attacks coming at me
@Steven-xx8wg3 жыл бұрын
That cloak of invisibility/ boots of flying combo... You can make a character with those traits early on; Variant Tiefling - Winged who is a Sorcerer (or other arcane magic class). Once you have greater invisibility it creates this scenario. As a bonus, if it's a shadow magic sorcerer, you can use Sorcery points to cast darkness that you can see in.
@Acatia24 жыл бұрын
One of the way I was pondering to minimize this would be to "tailor" the item for the character you have in mind. Sure the obvious way to give give a say a weapon that makes sense for a class over the other, like a battleaxe instead of a shortsword if you want your paladin to use it instead of your rogue. The way I'd like to go is describing what the item looks like "the cloak has a flower foliage pattern" and hopefully that goes to the ranger, "the staff has a grim raven head motif" so hopefully the warlock gets it. Mind you I'm aware this could only ever work on players that give a damn about their character personalities and esthetics.....
@Restilia_ch2 жыл бұрын
Wizard with the planar travel spell (whatever its name is) runs up with the bag and the hole, puts them together as an item interaction or bonus action (DM discretion) then uses their action to cast the spell to get back. Boom, fight over and it just cost you the bag and hole. Also get an artificer in the party so they can MAKE the bags, so you just have to source the holes
@princequincy54213 жыл бұрын
Most powerful combo I've run into recently is just the magic missile firing squad. Give a party of 6 a magic missile wand each? And your monsters can take 18d4+18 unavoidably, 7 times a day
@prosamis2 жыл бұрын
A total team damage of, on average, 63 shouldn't be a problem when the average fighter or hasted rogue can reliably do that
@princequincy54212 жыл бұрын
@@prosamis true, but 63 *unavoidable* damage from up to 120 feet away can do a lot
@TheSameDonkey2 жыл бұрын
The quiver of ehlonna also has the extra dimensional issue along with a bag of holding. Both of them are available as artificer infusions.
@MadSwedishGamer4 жыл бұрын
I don't really have any predictions since the only magic item combos I can think of are the ones that are explicitly spelled out: the Hammer of Thunderbolts + Belt of Giant Strength + Gauntlets of Ogre Power, or the 5 Dragon Masks. Let's see where this goes.
@XP_Goblin Жыл бұрын
All I hear are awesome combos ideas
@MrSauce-tw6lm3 жыл бұрын
Bag of holding + holy water In our game, we found a way for this to potentially deal 2000d6 damage. We just didn’t to spare our dm. (Note our dm declared a vile of holy water is 8oz, but if your dm ruled it to be smaller, it could be so much worse.) This was also in the game where my paladin had 26 AC and averaged over 100 damage a turn, although most of that wasn’t even magic items. Also, the action economy between him and the monk was insane. We must have given our dm a pretty serious headache.
@utubeiskaren7796 Жыл бұрын
How?
@luminous3558 Жыл бұрын
@@utubeiskaren7796 I'd assume they calc the damage for the holy water by multiplying the damage for a vial to match the holy water lake they got stored in that bag, so if the vial amount is smaller for the same damage then the lake would be more potent. Though unsure how they get to fire off the holywater from the bag.
@psoren4233 жыл бұрын
Great video, always do a great job with breaking it down to simple terms.
@PaxIesus4 жыл бұрын
From an epic loot drop, my Paladin got a belt of Hill Giant Strength and a +3 Dwarven Thrower because the other Melee character wasn't paying attention when we were dividing the loot. My attack is now +11 at lvl 8, and I'm so happy.
@jackwriter19084 жыл бұрын
After the video about spell combos, I couldn't wait until you talk about magic item combos.
@byronsmothers80643 жыл бұрын
I declare this the AC paradox: the harder you commit to the role of the party's tank, eventually the gm decides its easier to have the enemies to just ignore you, making it harder to be the party's tank.
@Pyrogecko08 Жыл бұрын
That's when you take the sentinel feat, because as soon as you have sentinel you become the only character the monsters target.
@Anthony-wt3zv Жыл бұрын
This is why you play a spell caster in addition to having high ac so if they dont focus you to break your concentration your area of affect spells will murder them
@Plamkton Жыл бұрын
@@Anthony-wt3zv like my sorcadin build who when the enemies try to ignore, I just twin spell Haste the party and simply relax if they still want to ignore my character.
@ShirotoraGodsbane3 жыл бұрын
One campaign I was a part of actually completely changed because someone put a portable hole into a bag of holding that didn't know what would happen. It became a quest to escape the astral plane, and was actually one of the more interesting campaigns I've played.
@BubblingBrooke4 жыл бұрын
Me who has an artificer in one group and had to have a talk with him so I could still reward cool things to the party XD
@savagecabbage80134 жыл бұрын
Retaliation auras are a great way to deal with the high AC's of Characters. Breath weapons are also good way to get those PC hit points low.
@SquIDGAmiG623 жыл бұрын
Can't Artificers make both the Bag of Holding and Portable Hole? Does that mean they can mass produce 'Black Hole' arrows for a ranged character?
@june0120063 жыл бұрын
Only the bag of holding, not the portable hole
@Super_Beast1242 жыл бұрын
2 bags of holding works the same way tho. We had wizard and a warlock (me), the wiz had a raven familiar holding an open bag of holding while my owl familiar flew into it while holding a rolled up bag of holding mid combat. Same result but no casualty on our end, as familiars can just be resummoned. And Hydras don't plane shift ;)
@brantchurchill74153 жыл бұрын
Your love of Roots is amazing
@gogroxandurrac3 жыл бұрын
15:15 I had an aarakocra ranger. He just made sure everything had a ranged weapon and we didn't fight outside.
@ratman5053 жыл бұрын
I believe the reason for the addition on the bag of holding is that you're not supposed to be stacking bags of holding into each other, just because that forgoes the weight restriction and the party could probably bring an IKEA set for a trebuchet into the next dungeon
@haveswordwilltravel4 жыл бұрын
Y’all need Rust Monsters, Nishruu’s and Disenchanters.
@rcschmidt6684 жыл бұрын
And oozes and jellies, right, @Kelly? 🤣
@johnrechtoris97962 жыл бұрын
What Kelly says at 10:10 in, that game-changing combos of magic items are great for high-level play right before a campaign finale but a headache at low or mid levels, was perfectly revelatory for me about 5e's basic assumption about the role of magic items and class features in character advancement. I don't like it, but I think I understand it so much better now!
@pwnyboy97144 жыл бұрын
Winged Boots + Cloak of Invisibility? Pfft. *Laughs in Djiini GenieLock at 7th level*
@TheCoyote8082 жыл бұрын
Personal favorite was a Gunslinger in a Pathfinder game with boots of spider climbing and a cloak of the eagle (transform to an eagle 1/day). DM eventually started throwing in caves of ice to keep me from staying on walls, roofs, etc. and shooting with impunity all the time. But he struck a balance where he would still let me transform, fly up, and then transform back on the wall out of reach of all the minion dudes and the occasional boss fight. Good fun. :D
@AvangionQ4 жыл бұрын
As a DM, I love it when the party's defender racks up AC, then starts drawing enemies their way ... means I can throw wave after wave of attacks against them, yielding a few scratches The defender player feels invulnerable (as they should), the other squishier players use him as their shield, and a whole lot of maneuvers & tactics flow from that scenario It's less of a problem and more of an ideal situation ... if the enemies want to hit the high AC tanky defender, they have to target their saves, not their armor.
@freakyskull5163 жыл бұрын
i got 20 AC and mirror image on my "fighter"/bladelock in a curse of strahd game he front lined 4 revenants on his own and it was good~ cant wait for next level as due to fuckery i get animate dead AND eldritch smite
@foolslayer94162 жыл бұрын
My Totem Warrior has a +3 Glaive, Winged Boots, a Cloak of Protection, a Belt of Giant Strength, and the Sentinel feat. Being able to smack a beholder out of the air that is 10 feet from me with Reckless Attack is so much fun.
@quentindaniel95412 жыл бұрын
I went through a phase early on when I first started DMing where I very blatantly encouraged players trying to break the game via min maxing and magic items so now many years later nothing feels broken to me because I have learned how to handle the challenge
@ConstantChaos1 Жыл бұрын
In 3.5 I had a bard get his charisma over 40 and it got to the point that gods of beauty kept hiring assassins to try to kill or disfigure him
@MyDestany3 жыл бұрын
I love giving both the portable hole and the bag because if they figure out how that works, then I inform them to have the choice that ether it works and opponents can have it or it doesn't, and I always keep an Astral plain act for a campaign that is modular for any campaign
@Madmancoffee4 жыл бұрын
The fastest click in the forgotten realms
@jeremy6454 жыл бұрын
+200xp
@backonlazer7914 жыл бұрын
I gave the party monk two tattoos: Blood Fury and Eldritch Claw Tattoos during UA, which were converted into their official forms when Tasha's came out. This resulted in the following: Not only does the Eldritch Claw give +1 to attack and damage, but you can activate it to give your unarmed attacks 15 ft. range and extra 1d6 force damage for 1 minute. The Blood Fury on the other hand has 10 charges and you can use one to empower your weapon attack (monk fists are considered weapons) to deal an extra 4d6 necrotic damage damage and gain temporary hit points equal to the damage dealt! This means an extra 5d6 + 1 damage per attack, and since monks can use Flurry of Blows they can attack four times, for a potential damage of 4d8 + 20d6 + 24 points of damage, and that's not counting critical hits which double all the dice! That's 112 damage on avarage, btw. It wouldn't be as game breaking as it is now if WotC didn't decide to give the Blood Fury tattoo an insane buff when it came out of UA =/
@backonlazer7914 жыл бұрын
Oh, and the party is at level 12.
@pouncerlion40224 жыл бұрын
For the heavy hitter, amped up fighter what about minion hoards? A swamped heavy hitter going "weed whacker" can be very satisfying.
@LupineShadowOmega4 жыл бұрын
Thank you. You only get so many attacks. It can be powerful sure, but a lot of little guys can be scary.
@pouncerlion40224 жыл бұрын
@@LupineShadowOmega Yeah, even if you go with 4E style 1hp minions you give the fighter something to "popcorn" through and you don't overburden the rest of the party.
@LupineShadowOmega4 жыл бұрын
@@pouncerlion4022 Agreed. And action economy is such that even those 1 hp guys hit hard enough to wear the party down a bit at a time. Resources are also the name of the game.
@eliotoole4534 Жыл бұрын
Bag of holding+portable hole is great, if the bbeg has planeshift, now they just burned a 7th level spell slot! (Any/all)
@ScottIrving7464 жыл бұрын
Yeah the portable hole and bag of holding thing happened to my party. We're still working our way back.