Our Top Ten Spells to Upcast in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarter.com/projects/... We discuss what spells might be worth considering to use your higher level spell slots on. We focus on our top 10, but also discuss many similar spells worth paying attention to as well.
This video is Sponsored by Fables 2: Pirates of the Aetherial Expanse. Check it out here: ghostfiregaming.com/DUDE_FB02...
TIME STAMPS
0:00 - Sponsor
1:19 - Intro
2:56 - Offensive Debuffs
2:58 - Tasha’s Mind Whip
6:16 - Buff Spells
6:32 - Fly
9:51 - Damage Dealing
10:31 - Spirit Guardians
12:02 - Aid
13:00 - Armor of Agathys
15:18 - Counterspell
16:20 - Bestow Curse
18:41 - Major Image
21:24 - Conjure Animals
24:08 - Planar Binding
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[@mcphadenmike]

Every episode, the Dudes cast Delightful Presence at 9th level.

[@Hellkite422]

The best part is that as a 1st level spell we can all cast it! They just really put in that work upcasting it for greater impact!

[@astuteanansi4935]

13:03 ah yes, the most powerful spell of all, *A* truly an invaluable tool in every alphamancer's spell(ing) book

[@sixofone8663]

25:24 however the dudes do make a good point reminding us all that M is also a potent alphamancy spell to be upcast

[@farrex0]

Yes! that is indeed A spell.

[@viktorbartosik3234]

Kinda like the legendary beast of AAAAAAAAA from Monty Python's Holy Grail.

[@mlmf2012]

One thing people dont talk much about call lightning is that is lasts 10 minutes. If you upcast it to lv9, it isnt just 9d10 damage, no... Its 9d10 damage (average 50 damage) for 100 turns. Its amazing for sieges and preserves your spell slots.

[@1andrew123]

Well theres a dex save that can halve it so its less than 50, but if youre casting it as a tempest cleric you can max the damage a couple times a day!

[@mlmf2012]

@@1andrew123 this brings up another big plus to call lightning. You can still cast another spell sa long as it doesnt need concentration. You can cast Command or Gaes on the high dex guy and still have call lightning for every other guy. Youre not limited to only call lightning in the 100 turns its out😁

[@michaelstoffel9668]

One downside of call lightning is you can't use it all the time there has to be enough space.

[@WexMajor82]

And the command is "stay perfectly still", @@mlmf2012. Then call down your lightning on him, auto filed DEX save.

[@dragex6582]

Major Image: Instead of just... Covering up the cave wall, place an image of a cave-in covering said cave. This way, people who DO know of the cave would be disarmed and not suspicious of the missing cave.

[@CallenExile]

I did this with Silent Image once. Works great. I also had a character who used Minor Illusion to create a Barrel to hide in. It worked often.

[@TheRealElithica]

But then if they try to clear the debris whatsoever they discover the illusion.

[@nova997]

Until someone goes to climb and check it out, I'd atleast check it out

[@allmyhomieshatefreud5501]

Mind Whip stands out among other control spells in that most other similar spells impose some sort of condition that enemy creatures might be immune to (charmed, frightened, paralyzed, stunned, etc.) but Mind Whip simply… works. Coupled together with the fact that it targets intelligence saves which is consistently poor for a LOT of enemies, it’s just an amazing control option. Ya know, together with Hideous Laughter, I feel like this Tasha lady really got some potential 🤔

[@fardareismai4495]

Meeting Tasha would be terrifying, I love it

[@allmyhomieshatefreud5501]

@@fardareismai4495 You can in Wild Beyond the Witchlight! Imagine casting Hideous Laughter on Tasha herself lol that’ll be fun

[@Ahglock]

Mind Whip can work, and in the sense you are explaining yeah it doesn't have a not on X creature limit. And when upcast the risk is reduced but initiative plays a big effect on its usefulness. Cast it on bob the orc, he goes next, he is already right next to your fighter. It did damage to him and almost nothing else as all he wanted to do is an action anyways and its the end of his turn so he has reactions again. If you know the enemies initiative in advance that obviously helps, or if its round two and you kept track of it.

[@The_Crimson_Witch]

@@Ahglock Mind Whip is good, but has flaws as you pointed out. However used in tandum with say Graviturgy Wizard or alternatively the telekinetic feat, you can completely fuck over an enemy's turn. My divination wizard used mind whip+telekinetic+the ranger's spike growth to terrifying efficiency.

[@Ahglock]

@@The_Crimson_Witch Yeah, I feel people overate is on its own, but in combination with other abilities or spells like Web it really stands out. And I'm okay with something working better due to tactics.

[@jackmcgeehan328]

A fun topic would be the best actions to do with Timestop. What spells would you cast on your party and on your enemies?

[@madmayhem2000]

I think they had some suggestions for timestop in their overpowered combos video

[@afroamasiaca]

Delayed fireball or whatever it was, was listed I believe

[@charleswatson4549]

Time stop says you can't touch or influence anyone or the time stop ends, so no buffing the party with it. Sorry try again

[@madmayhem2000]

@@charleswatson4549 you having a good day Charles?

[@afroamasiaca]

@@madmayhem2000 🍻

[@KyleDavis328]

I've actually had Armor of Agathys proc multiple times on a single cast at level 1 as a warlock. Never underestimate the ability for a damage roll to come out a 1 or a 2. The fact that it does the full 5 even on chip damage, means that yea, the minimum damage it can deal is 5 (at level 1), the maximum it can deal is 25 (at level 1)

[@mylesdrake2949]

It's even more brutal on a goliath that's got a dip in barbarian or has heavy armor mastery with blade ward. Especially when you can cast it at lvl 3 because something multiattacks you that's going to be a lot more dmg heading it's way then it did to you.

[@pjenner79]

I wanna make a barbarian hexblade based off this spell

[@demonzero677]

@@mylesdrake2949 you don't even have to do that, I believe Blade Ward is a warlock cantrip. so bog standard locks can resist the hits and chill the fuckers back. But stacking heavy armor master on it....well it pisses off the DM because more math for figuring out how much damage you take, but it's a riot for you.

[@mylesdrake2949]

@@demonzero677 The reason you do one or the other is because with rage you can still attack. As far as the math is concerned it's -3 then halve. Then if your a goliath you can negate that by a d12+ con. Honorable mentions for reducing this damage further is the fighter's parry and bards cutting words. In other words, you can pretty much hit them back harder than they hit you rather easily lol. Especially if you got an AOE dmg aura on like cloud of flies or use bonus action attacks like maddening hex.

[@jeffersonian000]

My Mark of Warding Abjuration Armorer (Abigail Armiger) uses Armor of Agathys as her main damage dealer. Up-casting only after it’s depleted also charges Ward, effectively granting hundreds of virtual hit points preventing any damage for touching her. My best tank built to date.

[@ryadinstormblessed8308]

4:52 "Sometimes monsters... just want to be held," has got to be one of the best lines you've ever uttered Kelly!

[@Calebgoblin]

I love how Armor of Agathys just displays as "A"

[@TheBucketOfTruth]

Mass Suggestion too. Somebody rushed the edit on this one.

[@TopTierKnees]

@@TheBucketOfTruth A couple times where Kelly starts and stops as well that are usually edited out with jump cuts. Wonder if they threw the wrong version up?

[@TheBucketOfTruth]

@@TopTierKnees Yeah that seems like a good theory. I did notice him doing a couple takes for Mass Suggestion but thought he was making a joke at first. There's also no section for the spell programmed in there either.

[@snazzyfeathers]

Two other beautiful things about Armor of Agathys is that there is no save, and (if you wanted) you could use things like meta magic adept to transmute the cold damage to anything else. It's probably not worth it (unless in specific circumstances like cold immunity) but its really cool to flavor your character has having acid or lightning armor.

[@The_Crimson_Witch]

It is worth doing that in two other scenarios: Cold Resistance can still make the effect of the spell fairly neglagable. But the other big one is targeting vulernabilities. Ypu fighting a frost salamander? Armor of Firey Fuck Off sounds incredibly appealing right now.

[@AliceIsSleepy]

Also, there are a lot of ways to make the Armor last a lot longer, and therefore deal a lot more damage. You have resistances? Great! You are an aberration wizard that got your hands on this spell? It's insane.

[@DYMTWrecks]

I have a Genie Warlock of an air genie and my dm let me change the damage type to Thunder damage. We describe it as a reverse booming blade. Love it.

[@TheMichaellathrop]

Could be a fun candidate for getting as an out of class spell if your going to make an evocation or order of the scribe wizard.

[@punkassbamboo]

Would be a great target for a twinned spell too!

[@rowanash7716]

I think an interesting spell to note for upcasting is Bigby’s Hand for its damage scaling. Each spell slot above 5 increases the damage by 2d8 for an attack and 2d6 for the grapple squeeze, which is some of the better scaling out there. My sorcerer has an Ascendant Dragon-Touched Focus and often uses that last property to upcast Bigby’s Hand to 9th level. 12d8 bonus action force damage is no joke.

[@samuelwyatt7846]

Kelly's realization of the true horror of a never-ending-party was priceless.

[@ColinKillick]

This is a great video for Warlock players especially to be aware of. Over the course of a levels 1-13 campaign I think I cast Invisibility more often than even Hex; being able to turn four people invisible for an hour by level 9 is an incredibly valuable use for one of your scarce spell slots.

[@Oscar_Milde]

Have one slot left before a short rest? Don't mind if I do. Wouldn't want to be ambushed while we take a breather

[@agrimmon]

Bestow curse is extra fun when you realize you can just name your own curse, subject to dm approval. Two particularly nasty ones I like are “you always have to sneeze, but can’t” and “moving forward gives you severe vertigo”. Having those up for even a minute can prove quite effective. Also a friend once rain a fun seemingly Stardew Valley like game where the group were retired lvl 20 adventurers. I played a sorcerer and had a healthy business as a home decorator using Major Image, starting because I decided to decorate my characters house to look like a coral reef, fish and all

[@arbitrary_thoughts]

I've always been a fan of armor of agathys. It's come in handy in a lot of dire scenarios. I think one of my favorite was when I, a low health ranged warlock, tried to escape enemies that were closing in. I ran, which provoked an opportunity attack against me, but by doing so the person that attacked died from the cold damage. This became an even better defense as it made the enemies wary of getting too close.

[@andreataccone2564]

If you love the spell then use the Bard's Magical Secrets to steal it AND Find Greater steed (which also gets the buff). Now buff yourself and your grifon with up to 45 hp/damage at 9th level Add to it resistance with either StoneSkin or BladeWard and you have 180 hp to tank and blast any melee foe

[@TheHandgunhero]

Some really good honourable mentions, particularly for villainous DMs: -Geas: What is normally a 30 day long command can quickly become for a year or permanent, making it a great spell to hold over a cursed individual's head. -Glyph of Warding: When upcast, you can install higher level spells into the glyph. Also for Players: -Fog Cloud: The AOE zone of obscurement increases dramatically when upcast, making it much easier to facilitate an escape or to provide concealment over open ground safely. -Animate Dead: For each level above 3rd you get an additional 2 zombies or skeletons. That scales exceptionally well given that zombies make potent meatshields and skeletons can do surprisingly well peppering a foe with arrows at range en masse.

[@fendelphi]

I know it is not really unique in it's upcast utility, but I would like to add Heat Metal. It is a single target concentration spell, with no save for the damage(2d8 fire). You can use your bonus action to apply the damage again on every subsequent turn. If the target does not drop the heated metal piece, it suffers disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of their next turn. Upcasting it buffs the damage, and nothing else. But being able to contiunously deal 5d8 damage per turn(level 5 spell slot), while also giving disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks is quite good.

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

Always a fun one to bring when you expect to fight enemy soldiers. Suddenly those metal armors that take a minute to remove don't seem like such a great idea...

[@Gargandan]

Just had a very fun experience with this with an enemy mage who had a metal arm. Cast heat metal on the arm at slightly higher level. The thing with this one a lot of people miss is that only the initial casting has a range. When he teleported away after a few rounds of taking damage.... The damage from his molten arm finished him off over the next 7 rounds as it continued to cook him.

[@apainintheaas]

For curse at 17:30, no you can't cast curse on the same target multiple times and increase the effect. PHB p.205 "The effects of the same spell cast multiple times don't combine,"

[@honahamomoru151]

But if you curse a disadvantage on Wis and later a Disadvantage on Dex, would it be the same effect? Like Fire Shield, there are 2 effect that you can choose that are different from each other, so casting it twice and choose both Cold and Warm option id the same effect? That’s where it get clunky. For me, I would say Bestow Curse can debuff multiple ability, cause I spend multiple spell slots of 5th lv and higher for that effect.

[@janus2773]

@@honahamomoru151 "The effects of the same spell cast multiple times don’t combine, however. Instead, the most potent effect - such as the highest bonus - from those castings applies while their durations overlap, or the most recent effect applies if the castings are equally potent and their durations overlap." the rules are pretty clear. the effect that you choose doesn't matter, what matters is that its the same spell. as a dm though if my players asked for this i would give them the ok for your examples of fire shield and bestow curse.

[@RobThePrincess]

Similar to Armor of Agathys, I think Fire Shield is a great spell. Offensively AND defensively it's not as good as Armor of Agathys, but it is well worth the upcast. Armor of Agathys is just a really efficient spell, and Fire Shield does its best to compare, and the fact that this spell will continue to work even after being hit a few times is great reason why it's still worth it. I love casting both, personally.

[@synthetic20]

The Summon spells from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything are much better versions of Conjure spells (or at least less problematic versions of those spells) that don't cause as many initiative problems, but they still pack an amazing punch when you upcast them. Every one of these spells gets better when you use higher level slots, and I think all of them get attacks equal to half the spell level of the casting. I've played as high as 20th level, and I felt great using my 7th, 8th, or 9th level slots for a Summon Celestial or Summon Aberration at the start of combat. And with an hour duration? I've had the summon last 3-4 combats easy.

[@Foliash]

Its rare I get to praise WotC, but damn were those spells brilliant design.

[@mylesdrake2949]

Yeah I love them, as a necro wizard, using ghouls or ghasts in tadem with the putrid summon is brutal and really the only way to make them really work because how squishy they are.

[@astuteanansi4935]

They're pretty brutal. Casting these spells with an 8th level spell slot is almost like dropping a level 20 fighter onto the battlefield.

[@ricklawrence2515]

They are potentially the best scaling spells in the game

[@nickm9102]

I see your point with on this but conjure animals is still top in my book. It is the bear vs. Wolf pack argument, the bear will win out 1v1 but the pack will be relentless and take the bear down. I personally even use the wolf when I cast the spell. I know raptor is mechanically better but oh well. And to be realistic they usually get fireballed their first round out but I halted the enemy approach and force them to focus an AOE on potentially their allies at best or NPCs at the worst. But I will admit if I want a single summon the new spells are my second favorite to summon greater demon.

[@Negeta]

I had a vampire cleric with armor of agathys that got used to great effect. She was the party healer, but because she was undead, she was incapable of healing herself. Thus, the temporary hit points from armor of agathys were great, and usually after a hit or two, enemies learned to stop hitting her.

[@jameshwren]

My favorite is when you upcast Fog Cloud. It doesn’t sound bad, but when a red dragon with blindsight 60ft upcasts it, it’s devastating. Or it gives the party the much needed time to heal or run away.

[@chrisdesmarais6837]

Fog Cloud is amazing and gets so crazy big so fast. My druid can often take a few enemies out for two or even three turns.

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

Yeah, Fog Cloud is a great spell to permanently leave on a Druid's list of prepped spells. Breaking LoS easily shuts down a lot of ranged combat.

[@mattfitzgerald7836]

When dealing with hordes of summons, you may find page 250 of the DMG 'handling mobs' helpful - work out the d20 roll that the summons need to hit their target, treat advantage/disadvantage as a +/-5. to the attack bonus. The table tells you how many attacks they need to get one hit. Now you need only roll for the remainder. You could use average damage for summons to speed things up further.

[@ettinakitten5047]

11:54 Cloudkill dealing poison damage is sometimes a pro. It means you can drop it on an ally immune to poison (yuan-ti PC, controlled undead, construct pet, etc) who can grapple to keep opponents in the cloudkill.

[@O4C209]

Remember that Aid is not just a Buff but also a healing spell. Pretty clutch use in one campaign was when a Paladin casted it after the other 3 PCs dropped to 0.

[@guyman1570]

If you have 0 hit points, receiving temporary hit points doesn’t restore you to consciousness or stabilize you. They can still absorb damage directed at you while you’re in that state, but only true healing can save you.

[@andruloni]

@@guyman1570 neat thing is Aid is not temp hitpoints

[@Illianor123]

@@guyman1570 Aid increases their max (temporarily) and current hit points (permanent). This means that later healing can also heal them up to their new temporary max. Increasing someone's health 0 to 20 is effectively healing them.

[@guyman1570]

@@andruloni 🤦‍♂️ read the whole thing AGAIN. Especially the last little part.

[@guyman1570]

@@Illianor123 🤦‍♂️ read the whole thing AGAIN. Especially the last little part.

[@user-sr3ip8ut5k]

Shadow Blade and Spirit Shroud are great upcasts for a bladesinger

[@SamXala]

One of my favs spells and it upcast really nicely is Ashardalon's Stride from Fizbans, by it's own it gives you +20 Speed without provoking AoO and 1d6 of fire damage when you pass withing 5 feet of a creature, but when you use a higher spell slots it gives an extra 5 feet of movement and an extra d6 of damage (+25 speed and 2d6 at 4th level), and yes, the "free" damage is without a saving throw. I'm sure it's not 100% optimal at all, but moving around the battlefield dealing some extra damage and with tons of speed it's really fun. Also I love upcasting the new Tasha's and Fizban summons because it gives you a stronger version for every higher spell slot you use.

[@davidlewis8814]

There’s a fine line between “game-changing” and “broken”. I think Tasha’s Mind Whip may well be lashing beyond that line.

[@thatrealba]

Taking 20 banned it from his table. He said it was the first ever time for a thing in 5e.

[@mardshima2070]

Spellcasters enemy or enemy with very strong action like Marilith or dragon can got struct by Mind Whip and still fine.

[@finalfantasy50]

quickened slow and twinned mind whip can potentially lock down 10 enemies and give you a massive advantage in combat sorcerer stronk

[@poopdascoop4797]

I like the idea of giving some magical items hidden abilities that can only be learned by upcasting Identify

[@jasonreed7522]

Its definitely a cool idea, but just make sure your players know that you are doing this so they know to consider up casting identity on stuff. (Even if you don't directly tell them you can find a way to show them that this is a feature, even if its just a magical NPC saying its a thing.)

[@mokane86]

i got Armor of Agathys on my Abjuration wizard, which we rule recieves the hit proccing the spell damage, but does not lose the temp HP if the Abjurers Ward is up. significantly increasing the length/amount of times the spell can do its damage. fun against a mob of small creatures, and with Fire Shield up too 😆

[@gordonross3270]

I don't think using homebrew is a good way compliment things.

[@christerzakis3004]

@@gordonross3270 actually thats the way it is supposed to work but it stands to reason many dms would ban it cause its a pretty atrong interaction

[@siscokidder]

it's not really homebrew, the order of operations is as follows: Creature hits you with a melee attack Creature takes damage from Armor of Agathys Damage is dealt Damage is instead diverted to Arcane Ward. Armor of Agathys only checks to see if you get hit by a melee attack, not if you receive damage. If a melee attack somehow deals 0 damage, it still procs so long as that melee attack was a hit. Vice versa, Arcane Ward doesn't care which source of damage it mitigates, nor does it care whether or not you would first lose temp HP. It just checks if you would take damage, and any damage taken is instead taken by the Arcane Ward. So basically, when a melee attack hits Arcane Ward would first take damage, then if any leftover damage remains the temp HP / true HP gets reduced. AoA will proc since it's trigger is "If a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points", not "If you suffer damage from a melee attack while you have these hit points". AW can't be the target of a melee attack (or anything, really), it merely acts as a second, separate set of temporary hit points. If AoA had the latter quote as it's trigger, though, then AW would have to be depleted first since you aren't getting dealt damage, the ward is.

[@jeffjeff376]

The abjurer's arcane ward isn't technically temp HP, it has its own pool of HP and doesn't interact or conflict with temp HP. RAW, the spell references "while you have these hit points". So any source of temp HP that is greater than Agathys' remaining temp HP would overwrite Armor of Agathys and end the damaging effect, not extend it. That said, your group can run their table however they want.

[@gordonross3270]

@@christerzakis3004 then they don't need to say "how we rule it" just redundant. Why not just say what a rule is instead of use a specific example as if it's specific to you?

[@arandolph846]

You missed spells that increase the area of effect like fog cloud. lvl 1 20ft radius aka 50 tiles. Each slot above first increases the radius by 20ft so lvl 5 is 100ft radius aka 1256 tiles.

[@_Crunchy]

A spell I usually upcast when I have it is Tasha's Caustic Brew. 1st level spell, dex save to avoid, effects a 30ft line. On a fail a target takes 2d4 damage each turn, upcasting adds 2d4 damage per turn. A budguy can use their action to simply stop taking the damage, but that costs an action so isn't a bad trade for you either. Increasing the damage to tempt affected baddies to waste their action is nice control, and if they want to just take the damage that works out too.

[@Lanceweilder]

Major Image needing a 6th level spell slot is why I wish Warlocks had a feature to let them cast a spell they know using their current Mystic Arcanum level. I'd be happy w/it even needing to use the Warlock's daily use of that Mystic Arcanum slot if it's figured that both restricting it to once/day+needing to use a spell slot was somehow too much; just SOMETHING to give Warlocks the option to mess around w/unique up-casts that they simply don't get access to.

[@CallenExile]

I run my games this way. Mystic Arcanum are spell slots, so you can use your higher level Arcanum to cast your other spells/Arcanum.

[@chrismoore8177]

Aid and Armor of Agathys on a Sorcadin is monster for a front liner while using Spirit Guardians and Divine Smiting.

[@ryangentry2003]

One of my player’s backstory was they were a Marid that Planar Binding was cast on their ancestors at 9th level, but they lost track of the portal to the plane of water, and thus her goal was to find a way to allow her family to return.

[@ferrous412]

Great episode as usual, but I just have to say I received my Dungeons of Drakkenheim box today and it far exceeded my expectations! The book is beautiful, the figures are on point. The map is wall worthy. I can't wait to dive into it all. So glad i backed your kickstarter. Job well done, and worth the wait!

[@carsonrush3352]

Another interesting use of the age spell is that it can be used to bring up three downed party members. It increases their maximum hit points AND their CURRENT hit points. If you need to cast healing words three times in a turn, except no substitutes.

[@biorph8597]

I would love to see a video on low level spells, that don't scale, that are still worth casting at higher levels. Shield is the obvious one, but recently I had an experience where protection from Good and Evil was the only thing my utility/buff wizard was concentrating on because the disadvantage to undead attacking and Immunity to frightened/charm did so much work in a fight entirely against undead for keeping the tank up and running.

[@linrichardson8250]

Protection from Evil is insanely good in a campaign like Curse of Strahd where daemons and undead are everywhere. Against those enemies it's better than Blur thanks to the immunity to charm and frightened, and the fact that enemies can't get around it with blindsight.

[@grantharriman284]

In my opinion Armor of Agythis is a must have for any Warlock, unless you are hard committing to long range and have a rock solid front line.

[@pedrofagundes8235]

You mean "A"

[@carsonlake3842]

You should do a video on the best ways to burn through legendary resistance. Spells/abilities that can be used multiple times, force saving throws, and have effects bad enough to cause a creature to want to use legendary resistance.

[@scottbender9056]

Treantmonk has a very interesting video on this topic. His advice is to ignore legendary resistance and hit them with spells that apply effects without a save. You can waste a lot of turns trying to exhaust legendary resistances since the BBEG also probably has really good saves, too.

[@mattdodson1272]

@@scottbender9056 Came here to say this. He also discusses spells without a save or that require an ability check so as to avoid legendary resistances altogether.

[@honahamomoru151]

It would be Mind Sliver, Command, Bane, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Tasha’s Mind Whip, Hold Person/Monster. These spells would be devastating if it fail the saving throw, and the monster probably cannot afford loosing it’s turn, receive penalty to saving throws, prone in front of the fighter/barbarian/rogue or get paralyzed

[@ogrebattler]

Contagion is another good spell for burning legendary resistances. One cast causes 3 saves or be hit with your choice of debilitating effect

[@4saken404]

Something overlooked with Aid is that can be cast on more than just party members. An additional 10-20 hp may not seem like a lot to a PC. But it would be a HUGE buff to something like a familiar. It can also be used for mounts. I also use this spell to gain trust and instill confidence in allies (especially animal ones that might otherwise be combat averse.)

[@katecritt]

DM: The injured assassin flees through the door and locks it behind them. Paladin: Remember we want to capture them alive. Whose turn is it? Me, the Druid: I cast Conjure All Of The Centipedes and send them under the door, commanding them to swarm and hiss. DM [impressed and horrified]: You hear screaming. Wizard: I think they want to surrender.

[@demoulius1529]

Upcasting spells like hold person or hold monster can also be pretty brutal. Nothing scares a party of adventurers when they all have to make a test and half of them are parylized xD

[@Stormhawk777]

Loved the shoutout to the critrole finale!!

[@MC-gj8fg]

5e is the first time I didn't mess with Fly. Making it concentration means we're simply offering the DM more entertaining methods to end us.

[@ashtonpeterson4618]

That can be mitigated by shields like Feather Fall, but yes, I've been scared to do so before.

[@harrywhiteley89]

In a group of 4 one of the best things to do if you have a Paladin and a Cleric is for the Cleric to use a level 2 Bless at levels 3 and 4 and then swap to Spirit Guardians at 5th+ level and have the Paladin pick up the Bless Tax with their sparkly new 2nd level slots, honestly it is quite funny watching a DM try to damage concentration pop a Paladin who has Bless active... maybe we went too far by taking Resilent (Con) (16 Str, Con, and Cha at 1st) followed with Warcaster at 4th for a lovely total of +9+1d4 to Con saves at 6th level... We didn't get to the Hex warrior Dip though so the DM didn't get too upset with us :)

[@Torthrodhel]

I made an entire character around maximum upcastings of Armor of Agathys. She's a small-sized "backpack" for medium-sized creatures. She uses squishy party members as mounts, and has the Mounted Combatant feat. Enemy attempt to target her mount? Oops! You're taking 30-45 cold damage probably! Throw some invisibility on that (or even just a disguise kit) and they might not even know which one's the "bad target". And of course, she can still attack stuff. I really went all out with the ice theming and gave her a maul flavoured as a giant magically-intact ice block on a handle that smashes and reforms with every strike (it's all just flavouring; it's a normal plus-whatever-she-can-find maul in terms of rules).

[@sanjuancb]

Been playing a Spores Druid... - Start day by upcasting Animate Dead at 6th level - Upcast Conjure Animals at 5th level - Have Awakened Tree from prior Awaken spell - Use reaction to resurrect dying humanoids or beasts as Zombies Tons of fun!

[@EvilVampMuffin]

Played a master summoner, in a PF/3.5 game, only reason I was allowed was due to an app that auto rolled everything and calculated all feats that were applied to summoner monster. Was hella fun! "Ahh a flying demon, 1d4+2 air cheetahs(which gain fly).". "oh creatures are running away 1d3+1 Giant Earth sharks(burrow speed), chance down my enemies."

[@elmsigreen]

Hold Person is my favourite to upcast. I was a Warlock with a very high Spell Save DC and the other two party members were a Barbarian and a Paladin who didn't mind getting advantage and a free crit against bandits who never knew what hit them

[@MNeilGri]

I dont know if i would put it in a top ten list, but i do find myself upcasting magic missle often enough. Not for the damage per se. I often use magic missle as a distraction spell, forcing 2+spell level concentration saves, or when an ally is charmed, 2+spell level wisdom saves to break the charm. Being able to force additional saves can sometimes be useful. I prefer using a wand for this, but it can be done with spell slots as well.

[@Illianor123]

A wand of magic missile is an incredibly useful tool. The concentration buster is a favourite use of mine.

[@irenewhitcomb1813]

MM only causes a single save/check from what I remember. Treantmonk or Kobald has a video on it.

[@Castle_Games]

My favorite spell to up cast is magic missile. Yeah it doesn’t do that much damage but because each missile is a separate hit it is a concentration caster’s worst nightmare eventually they will role lower than a ten after rolling for each hit.

[@jjjbjbbnjbjbjbjbjb9415]

So you know, that is subject to DM interpretation, apparently....and note I think this ruling is stupid....but according to Jeremy Crawford what your are supposed to do is roll the 1d4+1 and multiply it by the number of missiles that are hitting the target. This works really well with evocation wizards who take a dip in hexblade for hexblade's curse. Most DM's I have played with rule it the way your DM evidently does, and I agree they should, but it is worth knowing that may technically be homebrew and you should check with your DM on how they rule Magic Missile.

[@Snoil]

As an old grognard from AD&D back in '80, one of the things Ive liked seeing playtested and worked in most over the years is upcasting spells. We homebrewed some here and there early on but I really like how it's panned out in the (you hear this in Samuel Jackson's voice) "according to Hoyle" rules. Good stuff dudes, may your crits be timely!

[@scottbender9056]

Magic Missile is intended to proc a concentration save for each missile. A level 3 MM can be a nearly sure fire concentration breaker. Also, if you are a L10 Evoker and follow the ruling that you only roll 1d4+1 once and apply it to all missiles, Empowered Evocation can turn MM into a remarkably potent damage spell. With a 20 Int, a single missile will minimally deal 7 damage, which translates to a solid chunk or pretty reliable damage when upcast.

[@MethosJK9]

Except for the words "The darts all strike simultaneously" meaning if they all strike one target that's just one save for all the damage.

[@scottbender9056]

Jeremy Crawford says otherwise. Even hitting simultaneously, each missile is still a distinct source of damage. My sense is that “simultaneously” is to prevent shenanigans with timing like waiting to see if one target drops and then sending the remaining missiles to another target.

[@ReallyRobEgan]

Came here to say just this about MM. When you absolutely need the enemy to drop concentration.

[@MethosJK9]

@@scottbender9056 it's still only one spell, hence one source to me. It all depends on what exactly do you consider a "source". And the examples in the PHB don't help. It's in a gray area that isn't clarified by Crawford's comments at all, and since there's nothing in Sage Advice about it, it's all up to how the table wants to rule it.

[@beneteus3833]

Spiritual Weapon: concentration free +1d8 per turn as a bonus action (beeing 2d8+Spellcasting Mod for 4th level, wouldnt upcast it to 6 for 3d8+Mod tho)

[@illegalmemedealer3549]

Wouldn’t SW at 6th level be 4d8+Mod?

[@beneteus3833]

@@illegalmemedealer3549 no spiritual weapon only gains 1d8 every 2 spell levels so only at 4 6 and 8th level.

[@liammcgucken1402]

Spiritual Weapon @6th level compares very farorably to Mordenkainen's Sword (@7th). 3d8+casting stat vs, 3d10. It also does not require concentration, And everyone said Mordenkainen was a smart guy....

[@beneteus3833]

@@liammcgucken1402 isnt mordekainens sword also a action to cast? then on subsequent turns its a bonus action.

[@scottjones7058]

I feel like I need to talk about Inflict Wounds. Not because of how much it increases, but because it starts at such a low level at 3d10 and then goes up from there makes the spell scary

[@ashtonpeterson4618]

The downsides are that it's melee, and if it doesn't land, nothing happens. There are ways to increase odds but yeah, great damage potential.

[@fenec250]

Nice! I was homebrewing an Artificer subclass with a feature that lets them increase the effective level of their spellslots, to try to compete with full spellcasters. I was looking for good upcasting spells for their additional spells list.

[@trenchking08]

Hey guys love you content! Would love to see a video from you guys on the top 5 or 10 spells you would alter in DnD 5e!

[@grimmzrivenfolk2457]

That would probably be something like Fixing The Worst spells and probably contain spells' from the worst spells video

[@rowanash7716]

@@grimmzrivenfolk2457 could also be fixing overpowered spells as well. Some of the best spells I fell could be taken down a notch.

[@AVAruls]

healing spirit increases healing by 1d6 on each charge so up to 6d6 per spell level once you get your spelcasting modifier to +5. even upcasting it by just one level (from 2 to3) doubles the amount you heal.

[@andrewh5212]

That's money. 👍

[@knate44]

Mass suggestion is a hilarious upcast: it is just a duration increase, but it goes from 24 hours at 6th, to 10 days, to a month to a year plus a day at 9th level. The idea of using mass suggestion at 9th level to just tell like a rival adventuring party "give up on adventuring and become bakers" or a dark group off necromancers "dedicate your next year and a day to the God Pelor". Even at just 7th level, telling someone to go hikeing for about week and a half is both hilarious to me, and just the best way to end a combat encounter. My dream is to pull an obi-wan kenobi and tell a group of bad guys to "go home and rethink their lives", just to see what happens. Maybe they are become even more evil, maybe they thank you for the advice, who knows?

[@nickblaisdell6861]

I like how the on screen text for Mass Suggestion is just “M” and Monte looks down and directly at the location on screen, like he he is staring at the mistake.

[@TheShadotz]

lovely video, a spell that's probably the strongest available imo is glyph of warding that can be upcast to let you have concentration spells for the entire duration without needing concentration. It has a costly material component, but bbeg doesn't need to worry about that

[@VinceValentine]

You can avoid rolling attacks for large groups of identical monsters if you use the optional mob rule from the DMG. You just consult the table how high they need to roll for a certain target and then check the other column to see how many of the group actually hit.

[@dashboots376]

An interesting interaction with Armor of Agathys is that if you somehow get it on an Abjuration Wizard (Magic Initiate is a way and it's supposed to allow you to cast it with Wizard Spell slots, although this according to Sage Advice and not RAW, so not exactly official), it becomes amazing, because you can use your Arcane Ward in order to withstand more hits while you have the spell on, therefore dealing more damage and also since it's an Abjuration spell it also recovers your Arcane Ward every time you cast it, so crazy good.

[@Choomy8542]

Mark of Warding dwarf is another way, although that would also need to be run by a DM

[@life-destiny1196]

There's also just taking a level in Hexblade, which is probably a good idea anyway for the armor proficiencies.

[@robertharr3063]

I was just looking this up yesterday for a new PC. As always you guys are clutch!

[@mylesdrake2949]

Surprised create undead and Geas didn't make the list. Combined with a 9th lvl caster you can make an army of wights.

[@RyanTreadaway]

We had a mission in our last campaign where a town was being attacked on 3 sides. Between us and the town guard, there was only enough people to defend two sides. I upcasted conjure animals for a bunch of giant owls, which was just enough to hold off the 3rd wave and buy us the time we needed.

[@TheRobertMoxley]

I feel like this sort of buried the lede with Blindness/Deafness. Blindness is one of the best non-concentration debuffs because you can remove several enemies from a combat.

[@bchurchill49]

This is a great video, I love the Planar binding and will use in my long term campaign. the major image is going to be awesome to use at the end of a long day. and others. great Video

[@___i3ambi126]

This is more for dms than players, but as a tool for your bb, I would like to show you 9th level Gaes. You give the creature a service or task. On a failed save it must perform the service or task for you, taking psychic damage each time they act counter to your instructions. When casted at 9th level, this effect is perminent. Imagine slowly building up armies of unwilling minions using this spell over the course of decades. Sewing spies into a populas. Or even building support by using the spell on infants. The world building of this can get crazy.

[@fateric007]

I love up-casting Hold Person. Easiest way to end an encounter.

[@kclubok]

For single-target damage dealing spells, it's hard to compete with upcast Scorching Ray, along with Hex and/or Hexblade's Curse. If you have both of those on, then each upcast level of SR yields 3d6 + your proficiency bonus. At 6th level, that's better than Disintegrate! At 9th level, that's more single-target damage than Meteor Swarm! While you're at it, upcasting Hex to 3rd level lets you apply it to Scorching Ray all day, or until you need your concentration for something else. (BTW, I assume that you intentionally ignored the cheese involving Magic Missile and Empowered Evocation, and I thank you for that.)

[@proudmoore5254]

I would love to see a new episode of tier list for dmg dealers.

[@finnulf]

Glad to see Spirit Guardians make the list - my favourite upcast. :-)

[@DnDandVideoGames]

A is for Armor of Agathis

[@tideoftime]

In Re: Multiple Bestow Cursed -- spells/features of the same name can't stack, so you wouldn't be able cast it multiple times on the same target (they can't even be cursed by another caster in the party in any co-effect). Just noting that for context.

[@Heritage367]

Amazing video! You've made me see several spells in a different light!

[@BeaglzRok1]

Scrapped title: Top Ten Spells to get on your Warlock's spell list. Special shout-out to Charm Monster specifically, which allowed my Warlock to traverse a jungle when she *charmed the pair of T-Rexes that were our first random encounter* and then had the party ride them to where we were trying to go. BTW, I want to like Bestow Curse. Sure, you don't have to concentrate on it for 8 hours when you cast it... once... per day... using a Warlock spell slot... and an invocation to even have the option. But it's a Touch-range WIS save, for one effect, and you can't move it after you kill the target like you can with Hex; so outside of roleplay or being a DM-only spell, it's going to go on the dungeon boss that by Level 9+ play probably has Legendary Resistances. Also, RIP Major Image only becoming permanent at 6th-level, so Warlocks can't get that benefit, when played as intended illusions can be incredibly good. Less good when your DM effectively says, "due to environmental factors happening around the illusion, the creatures don't need to make the Investigation check to know something's wrong," or "the leader used its action to make the Investigation check, and it then yells to its allies that it's an illusion." Which I get it, if there's a Fireball scorch mark that mysteriously stops at the corner of one wall, it's cause for suspicion, but the check is there for them to be certain. At least Soulsborne games require you hit the illusion first. Speaking of, in my campaign, Vecna's castle is going to have an entire floor that's a ton of Major Images stuck together and a few traps being hidden by them. Party climbs up the stairs and find a brick wall, Investigate to find the illusion into definitely a relatively short hallway followed by an open pit and a rope hanging along the chasm with a door on the other side. The rope can't be grabbed, you can't fall into the pit, and the door doesn't open. Party gets upset and casts Dispel Magic on it, and on the other side is a surprise Vampire Kas with a horrid blade that looks at the party and asks if they too intend to slay the Archlich. One trap causes the illusory walls around it to pull themselves shut and play a voice that says "Thus, the heroes failed to find my crypt, and instead need only wait to realize they've found their own." It just keeps going until they find the stairs up, preceded by an illusory floor hiding a sharp downward slope that sends you tumbling out underneath the stairs, which are also an illusion and is actually just open air and a 40ft drop out the side of the tower and prone into the keep.

[@demonzero677]

Incorrect with Bestow Curse. You can only have a single instance of "Insert spell name here" at a time on a single target. So recasting bestow curse on the same target, even at 5th level or higher will simply change which curse is on them. and I'm pretty sure two people trying to put the same spell effect on someone also do NOT stack. Now, throwing bestow curse plus something like charm person or eyeblight or something, that will do some nasty work. Also in the DMG, there are rules for groups of minions you can use for stuff like the conjure spells. basically they all do the average damage, and X number of them need to attack together for a single unit to hit, basically removing the rolls for figuring it out. it averages em. I think on average it means like 3 or 4 have to attack as a unit for one of them to land a hit. But it's really useful stuff, both for the DM using waves of fodder and the player blowing way too many pixies off for some help.

[@AgentForest]

My Hexblade made so much amazing use out of level 5 Armor of Agathys + Shadow of Moil + Blade Ward. He could hold a chokepoint forever, and was often doing more damage than if he was attacking. He also had War Caster so he could Booming Blade anyone who tried to run. Enemies had little choice but to activate his trap card.

[@jurdgrath2069]

Great video! I often look at Aid as "preemptive healing." At 5th level as the Dudes say, that is 3x25 =75 HP of "preemptive healing" for one slot. Pretty good and no dice roll for it. Bless vs Bane, Bless has no Save on willing allies. The Sorcerer Meta Magic Twin spell can function like upcasting for Fly, Invisibility, and others (but limited to two). While the Sorcery Point costly, a Sorcerer twin casting Polymorph can often cast this and just fade back and out of range as the 2 Polymorphed PCs tear the place apart.

[@samflory]

The 5 temp/max HP from a 1st level spell is awesome at 1st level and pretty good at 3rd for a . For some classes that is an entire level of HP. As you level it's less awesome, but it's still a level worth of HP. At 5th aid is like giving most characters 2-4 levels worth of HP. When I play a Cleric or multi class as a Cleric Aid takes my highest level spell slot. It's great just in terms of healing, but better yet it's already there without requiring an action.

[@Flopmind]

I think you missed a cool opportunity to talk about Geas in this video but overall awesome content! Keep up the good work dungeon dudes!

[@jukesdtj656]

An interesting combo I had for a Warlock I played using Armor of Agathys was being a Goliath with Stones Endurance. If you take the hit and reduce the damage to nothing with Stones Endurance you still took a hit and dealt out the cold damage for it but the temp HP didn't go away, making the spell far more effective at early levels. This could probably be used in conjunction with other damage reduction abilities like the Interception Fighting Style or if you get Heavy Armor Proficiency somehow Heavy Armor Master in tandem with those things.

[@pinkwarrior2117]

Command: Autodefenestrate, possibly one of the most fun words for command for a few reasons 1. explaining to your DM what the word means. 2. up casting it on multiple mobs when theirs only one window. 3. Using it when your outside of a building instead of inside nothing quite as funny as making a foe jump into a rando NPC's house through the window.

[@BlackShadow1991]

Thanks for the guide, Dudes :)

[@Wind4air]

Bestow Curse can also be dispelled by Dispel Magic. The spell has no protection against it like Force Wall, and has a duration. It'd need a roll to match it so it's less effective then the specialized Remove Curse.

[@Immudzen]

I would also say that upcasting hunter's mark and hex can be really useful. Especially hex because you can cast it at 5th level and maintain it all day and through short rests where you get all your spell slots back for a warlock.

[@daltigoth3970]

A Levistus Tiefling Cleric with the Heavy Armor Master feat can abuse the hell out of Armor of Agathys. Tack on Spirit Guardians and your DM will cry. (Edit) Wasn't thinking about it at the time...clerics don't get access to blade ward, so I removed that from the above since it was wrong. Also, the above suggestion isn't the best way to go about it, as the Levistus Tiefling doesn't "know" the Armor of Agathys spell, they can only cast it once a day and can't cast it using spell slots, so it very limited. The best way to pull off the Armor of Agathys plus Heavy Armor Master and Blade Ward combo can be accomplished at level 2 by playing as a variant human or custom lineage to get the feat at level 1, starting with 1 level of cleric with a domain that gives heavy armor proficiency, then taking 1 level of warlock to get access to Armor of Agathys and Blade Ward. Remaining levels could go to either class, but I would go with cleric since you would be able to cast Armor of Agathys using your cleric spell slots, giving you a lot more usage out of it in an adventuring day. Go with Tempest domain to get the Wrath of the Storm ability, so you can add on an additional 2d8 lightning/thunder damage to anything that hits you and survives the backlash from AoA. For a slower approach, a Hexblade Warlock variant human or custom lineage can take the Heavily Armored feat to get proficiency with heavy armor, then take the Heavy Armor Master feat at level 4 to make this a pure warlock build. You won't necessarily want to use AoA every fight as a pure warlock, though, since you only have a few pact slots to cast it with.

[@andreataccone2564]

Or use the Bard's Magical Secrets to combine it with Summon Greater Steed (which shares your buffs) to have 45 hp/damage each and resistance with bladeward for 180 effective hp

[@Leif47]

Clockwork Soul Sorcerers can make great use of Armor of Agathys thanks to their Bastion of Law ward helping absorb damage, since the ward uses its own Hit Point pool and isn't tied to Temp HP

[@torunsmok5890]

Mix it with abjuration wizard, arcane ward is ANOTHER separate hp pool. Tank backlash damage mage made of the squishiest classes lmao

[@cronykil74]

My current character is an Earth Genasi Cavalier/Clockwork Soul that's built for tanking and utility. He tanks and taunts more than the Paladin 😄

[@Leif47]

@@cronykil74 Ooooh I like that combo. I went for a Cavalier/Barbarian so I can tank physical damage with rage. How many sorcerer levels do you plan on taking? I was thinking only 1-2 Barb levels cause that Cavalier capstone is really tempting lol

[@michaelrnahas4425]

You mentioned Major Image and it reminded me of a time where I completely nerfed a minion boss encounter by scaring off all the minions with major image of a double size gelatinous cube.

[@digit148]

For packs of enemies or armies, there are rules for that. I use a homebrew one that I made. Roll once for the entire army, (twice if advantage). 10% of the army gets that roll, and a cumulative 10% gets +1 to that roll up to 50%. A cumulative 10% gets -1, down to 40%. If there are less than 10 creatures, just add cumulative +1 up to half, and -1 down to half. Army’s can’t crit, but if the actual roll is a nat 20, I will add morale to the army, giving it a passive +1 to hit until it is crit against.

[@avidreader8521]

I didn't realize Bestow Curse lost concentration when upcast high enough. That's awesome!

[@jonathanhaycox9325]

Armor of Agathys is also great when combined with spells or abilities that reduce damage taken. Having warding bond or other sources of resistance keep your shield up longer, basically doubling its output. Heavy armor master is also a solid combo.

[@talongreenlee7704]

Armor of Agathys is an excellent spell to upcast. A fifth level spell slot buys you 25 temp hp and probably at least 50 points of cold damage if you’re a melee fighter. Not as useful if you’re a ranged damage dealer.

[@astuteanansi4935]

It's pretty much *the* essential hexblade spell

[@Ahglock]

Its duration hurts a bit, as unlike something like mage armor you can't just slap it up. A hour is long but not so long that you can just cast it and hope something happens in the next hour. but as long as you know a fight is coming soon usually when the party is proactive and being the ones jumping others instead of being jumped its really good.

[@Retlaw32]

Tashas mind whip upcast with a Graviturgy wizard. You get to move whoever fails five feet with Graviturgy, truly shutting down melee enemies, especially if the party knows how to play along

[@chrisvelo2595]

That's a good combo I haven't seen yet. I think graviturgy wizard gets slept on a lot

[@Retlaw32]

@@chrisvelo2595 I think the class is cool and fun, I don’t think there’s such a thing as a bad wizard sub class simply because no matter what at least you’re a wizard lol

[@lord6617]

Bestow curse represent! Surprised no dragon's breath honorable mention. Especially since its twinnable. Its one of the few ways you can weaponize your familiar or give someone who normally would have a weak attack a strong threat.

[@Jp138233]

Officially speaking, dragon’s breath is not twinnable, because any enemies targeted by the breath itself when that is used count as targets of the spell. Though there are some serious issues with the official ruling for what counts as a target, so this is probably an instance where the official rules should be overruled.

[@lord6617]

@@Jp138233 Its one of Jeremy Crawford's more controversial rulings, which many tables - especially ones that don't live online or on twitter - disregard. Since the listed target of the spell is a willing creature, and "technically correct" is the point of RAW. But regardless, allowing your familiar or any number of other normally unthreatening entities do 4, 5+ d6 dmg per round, of the best energy type in the situation, is a pretty good upcast.

[@Jp138233]

@@lord6617 This one is actually not *just* Jeremy Crawford’s ruling, it is an officially published rule by WotC. As I said before, it is certainly one that many do and even should, in some cases, ignore, but the “technically correct” rule is that the word target being in a spell description is *not* what defines the target(s) of a spell, as far as RAW is concerned. And with a good many spells, you cannot rely on the word target to determine the spell’s targets without making the rules stop working on a fundamental level.

[@maxi1ification]

@@Jp138233 per official rules, it actually is, because the target of the spell are not the creatures damaged by it, but rather the willing creature who gains the power of the spell. Despite what it may look like, the spell isn't an aoe blast, but more of a buff regarding how it works mechanically, not unlike haste allowing a character to attack more per turn. It's that type of unintuitive working that tends to confuse people. Of course any DM is free to rule otherwise at his or her table if they so wish

[@Jp138233]

@@maxi1ification But that’s *not* actually how it works. The initial target is the creature being given the breath, yes, but according to the actual rules, the future targets of the breath do still count as targets, even though the spell description *looks* like it only targets at casting time.

[@jw__11]

I think an honorable mention for damage is Spiritual Weapon because it has a long duration and usually stays around for the whole encounter, is concentration free and a BA. (I know that I just mentioned all the reasons why Spiritual Weapon is a great spell in general, but now imagine it doing 2d8+5 or 3d8+5 damage per turn)

[@christianrappuhn8565]

Yeah, I’m surprised it didn’t get mentioned. While scaling isn’t incredible, it’s a concentration-free bonus action for an entire combat.

[@maxbloomfield540]

Armor of Agathys is at its best when on an abjuration Wizard- the ward soaks damage before the armor does :)

[@nondescriptcat5620]

Bestow Curse at 5 with the lose action curse is effectively Hold Monster that doesn't end when they pass save as long as the initial spell hits and doesn't require concentration. one of my favorite single target control effects. Conjure Animals at 7 for 32 velociraptors with 2 attacks each and pack tactics. roll 128 d20s.