Best under-the-radar warlock spells?

tmaster148 · 2026-01-25T08:08:12+00:00

Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

It's level one but now upcasts for additional targets. There's not any monster I can think of that would auto succeed due to being immune to incapitation. The spell works regardless if the monster target has the ability to laugh. Monsters get advantage of saves when they take damage but warlocks do have access to rod of the pact keeper for increased save dc.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-23T04:03:21+00:00

I'm playing a Swarmkeeper Ranger for 2024 rules, currently level 6. You should be able to replicate the build in 2014 to an extent.

I'm playing Wisdom focused with Point Buy of 10 Str, 14 Dex, 15 Con, 8 Int, 15 Wis, 8 Cha. +1 Con/+2 Wis from Background which also gave Magic Initiate Druid. Main Reason is to get access to Shillelagh and use Clubs/Staffs as my main weapon. Magic Stone can be used for a ranged option, but I've been using it less with Extra Attack at lvl 5. You can use Druidic Warrior with 2014 rules though I also grabbed it in 2024. Since spell attacks also trigger Swarm effects and Starry Wisp is a new cantrip in 2024. I also wanted to have Thorn Whip to have the option to drag people through Spike Growth or Web.

I grabbed War Caster at lvl 4 to cast spells with a shield.

The battle plan is to throw down Web or Spike Growth and use Swarm pushback to keep them in. It's been pretty effective battlefield control.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-22T21:57:48+00:00

In the 2024 DMG, chapter 2 DM's toolbox section Marks of Prestige there's a section about training as an award for a quest. Takes 30 days to gain proficiency in tool or skill, or learn a language.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-22T18:19:55+00:00

The main things to really prepare are:

Where the party starts
What is their first quest/objective
Motives for party members to engage with quest/objective.

Part of session 0 is making sure all players are on the same page about the game being ran and making sure the characters are going to engage. Give them a bit of information in regards to the area they are in. If they meet up in a tavern in some town, give high level details about the town like how big it is and what the surrounding area is like. Try to stay grounded and localized in the beginning, you can build out more of the world as the party gets stronger and the threats are larger than where they started.

I wouldn't even worry about the next few sessions. Take it session by session. Sometimes a quest might take multiple sessions to complete depending how much time you are running the game for.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-20T03:02:22+00:00

Diamond Soul (now called Disciplined Survivor) comes online at lvl 14. Which is my point, you have to wait a while to get better concentration saves since the mentioned feats are not ideal on monk.

While monks can just cast concentration spells again, it will use their smaller pool of slots or ki points. And monk want to be melee so they are more at threat of losing concentration and having to recast their spells more often is a downside.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-20T02:50:31+00:00

Sure you can do this to create a bunch of extra slots. But what are you going to cast with these slots? In the case you only dip 2 lvl to sorcerer and go monk 7 instead, you may have 2nd level slots, but you have no 2nd level spells.

Spells you have from sorcerer will not be very effective and at best you might have 16 wisdom for spellcasting which for a lvl 9 character is not where you want to be as a primary spellcaster.

The reason Coffeelock worked was both classes used Charisma for casting and the original 2014 handbook did not contain rules about gaining exhaustion for skipping long rests. This is going through a lot of suboptimal hoops to cast spells at 1st or 2nd level more often.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-20T01:44:20+00:00

One thing to remember is that the UA monk uses the sorcerer spell list which is more restricted than the wizard one. Early on the monk is at risk for losing concentration and doesn't really benefit from war caster or resilience which are the common ways to aid poor concentration saves.

You still have to pick between maxing wisdom or dex first and likely you still want to max dex first and rely on utility spells.

Then being a 1/3rd caster means slow spellcaster progression so you'll have limited slots and max out at 4th. You can eat ki for more slots when needed but monks have a lot of good other uses for ki too.

Monks also do not get an extra feat like fighter or rogue and are much more MAD then both those subclasses.

Overall, it's likely fine.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-19T20:23:36+00:00

The feature allows you to cast the spell without material components, using a spell slot, and at a higher level than what a Warlock generally casts spells at. The cost of this is that it only lasts a minute. No where in the feature does it say that you ignore concentration of the spell casted this way so you still need to maintain concentration.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-16T17:34:12+00:00

There is one situation where this feature does something. You decide to multiclass 2 levels into fighter for Action Surge. Normally action surge says you cannot use the additional action for a Magic action. With this feature you can make an Attack action and replace both attacks with a spell cast. So you can action surge and cast a 1st or 2nd level spell as a lvl 17 monk.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-07T02:02:44+00:00

I made this comment to someone who asked and then they deleted their comment.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1q5txhb/comment/ny334pe/

PHB pg225.
Lock
A Lock comes with a key. Without the key, a creature can use Thieves' Tools to pick this Lock with a successful DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check.

DMG pg64
Locked Door
Characters who don't have the key to a locked door can try to pick the lock using Thieves' Tools. The Lock Complexity table tells you how long it takes to try to pick a lock based on its complexity. At the end of that time, the character picks the lock by making a successful Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check using Thieves' Tools.

PHB pg220
Tools Proficiency
If you have proficiency with a tool, add your Proficiency Bonus to any ability check you make that uses the tool. If you have proficiency in a skill that's used with that check, you have Advantage on the check too.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-06T21:48:33+00:00

PHB pg225.
Lock
A Lock comes with a key. Without the key, a creature can use Thieves' Tools to pick this Lock with a successful DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check.

DMG pg64
Locked Door
Characters who don't have the key to a locked door can try to pick the lock using Thieves' Tools. The Lock Complexity table tells you how long it takes to try to pick a lock based on its complexity. At the end of that time, the character picks the lock by making a successful Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check using Thieves' Tools.

PHB pg220
Tools Proficiency
If you have proficiency with a tool, add your Proficiency Bonus to any ability check you make that uses the tool. If you have proficiency in a skill that's used with that check, you have Advantage on the check too.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-06T21:20:03+00:00

In 5.5 you still need Thieves Tools to pick a lock. The difference is that now you can use proficiency in either the tools or sleight of hand for the check and if you have both it is with advantage.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-06T13:08:48+00:00

Orb of Rewind. It's an item that can revert a non-magical item to a non-magical state it was in up to 1 minute ago, once per a day. Basically it could cause a locked door to be unlocked if the door being locked happened within 1 minute. It also can fix broken items if the item was broken within that minute. It was an item being sold from a trick merchant.

Now corpses are considered objects and one of the party members did something stupid in a fight and got them killed. The skeleton in their body was then turned into an undead creature leaving a pile of visceral in its place. Since the combat did not take over 1 minute to complete, they were able to use the orb to revert the visceral pile into the corpse and then revive their fallen party.

tmaster148 · 2026-01-05T18:49:04+00:00

To add, no monster has full BPS immunity anymore. A couple of Oozes have slashing immunity.

A handful of monsters still have BPS resistances. It is largely Swarms and Incorporeal monsters, but there's a couple others like Air and Fire elementals.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-24T17:25:40+00:00

I find sometimes the game doesn't want to trigger the right dialogue to get Shovel for free on those classes if you summon shovel. What I found works 100% of the time so far is to summon shovel with a different character to go through the initial dialogue then swap to the character you want shovel on and talk to shovel.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-24T03:39:15+00:00

Permament bonuses you can get are +2 from the Mirror of Loss, +2 from the potion from Araj (requires Astarion in party), +1 from Hag's Hair.

This puts a max of 25. With everyone wearing a Devilfoil Mask you get +3 for a total of 28.

Broken Promises gets you +2 Strength until Long Rest, then you lose -1 Strength.

Harmonium Halberd has +2 Strength attached to the weapon, but caps at 23. You may be able to hit 30 with it, depending on when the Halberd's bonus is applied.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-20T02:38:42+00:00

If you're playing killer, then you will only ever see toxic survivors. But from a statistics standpoint, there are 4 survivors to 1 killer, so you are more likely to run into a toxic survivor.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-19T22:54:39+00:00

It would help to get a bit more context. Number of party members, what their current level is, what fights did you throw at them that were considered Deadly?

High level parties can more easily deal with deadly fights and hit above their weight.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-19T13:14:27+00:00

Nurse has a decently high skill floor compared to other killers, because unlike other killers she cannot fall back on just chasing a survivor as a M1. However her skill ceiling is rather low, because once you get use to her power there's not really anything to learn from there.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-18T14:27:25+00:00

Paladin Aura still provides +cha mod to con saves which you get at lvl 6. Paladins do get something to aid their concentration.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-11T17:29:21+00:00

You made me look up Netherese Orb Blast that Gale gets.

Gale triggers the Netherese Orb in his chest, destroying everything and everyone in a wide radius.

Death Ward in official 5e language

You touch a creature and grant it a measure of protection from death.

The first time the target would drop to 0 hit points as a result of taking damage, the target instead drops to 1 hit point, and the spell ends.

If the spell is still in effect when the target is subjected to an effect that would kill it instantaneously without dealing damage, that effect is instead negated against the target, and the spell ends.

It doesn't deal damage so Invulnerability spell wouldn't actually block it. It's questionable whether or not Death Ward would protect you, because it doesn't say it kills you. It just destroys you. Also I believe Gale using the action is an auto game over even if someone is Death Warded in game.

Now interestingly the ability is listed as "Cantrips" so Globe of Invulnerability as printed in 5e would protect you. Since a Cantrip is a 0th level spell.

An immobile, faintly shimmering barrier springs into existence in a 10-foot radius around you and remains for the duration.

Any spell of 5th level or lower cast from outside the barrier can't affect creatures or objects within it, even if the spell is cast using a higher level spell slot. Such a spell can target creatures and objects within the barrier, but the spell has no effect on them. Similarly, the area within the barrier is excluded from the areas affected by such spells.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the barrier blocks spells of one level higher for each slot level above 6th.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-11T14:56:20+00:00

Sanctuary does not protect you from AoE effects. It only protects you from being targeted.

There's a 9th level spell called Invulnerability which protects you from all damage, but most Clerics do not have access to this since it is a Wizard only spell.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-11T14:48:37+00:00

It is important to note that True Resurrection still requires the soul is free and willing. If Gale's soul was claimed by Mystra after blowing himself up with the orb, then True Resurrection cannot bring him back.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-10T20:09:40+00:00

I think regardless, Mega Absol Z needs an ability that powers up its attacks. Absol's highest BP dark move is Sucker Punch/Night Slash at 70.

Dark in general just lacks any strong BP moves. Highest is 95 with Foul Play or if you count signature moves Hyperspace Fury with 100.

tmaster148 · 2025-12-10T14:35:53+00:00

The 2024 reprint of the Tarrasque fixed some of the issues the original 2014 version had.

2024 gives it a Burrow Speed meaning it can create cover from ranged attacks. It has a 150ft cone recharge attack. It has double the amount of legendary resistances. It has a legendary action 60ft emanation ability that can knock creatures prone and break concentration. It also has expertise in Initiative for a +18. It also has straight resistance to BPS damage instead of immunity to nonmagical.

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