D&D: Bust Up Any Brawl With These Magic Spells
In D&D, a single spell can end a fight if used properly. And these five spells? These magic spells can shut down any encounter.
In D&D, spellcasters don’t just cast spells. They solve problems. Magic can do so many things in and out of combat.
Need to get across a cliff? Fly or Air Walk can help you. Hungry mouths to feed? Create Food and Water and you’re good to go. Or don’t get fancy, just use Goodberry.
Some spells, though, can shut down an encounter as soon as they’re cast. Whether it’s taking a powerful foe out of the right, or killing them completely. Here are five spells that will shut down a fight.
Forcecage
Let’s start with a big one. Forcecage is one of those spells that DMs learn to dread. Yes, it’s a 7th-level spell, so it’s supposed to be powerful, but Forcecage goes a step beyond.
It doesn’t allow a save, which is a clutch part of what makes it so powerful. The second is that it creates an invincible prison that can either be spaced apart so your friends can cast spells at creatures inside, or you can create a completely enclosed box.
And this just instantly locks away any creature. No save allowed. Any creature completely inside the cage’s area is trapped, and can’t leave it again by nonmagical means. Even magical means might not work: a creature trying to leave the cage has to make a Charisma saving throw (which is hard for most), and on a failure, they can’t exit the cage via teleportation or interplanar travel. Ethereal travel, like blink, fails outright.
Combo this with your favorite area spell and you’ve got a trapped subject. Sickening Radiance is a popular choice because it causes exhaustion on a failed save and lasts an hour.
Banishment
Banishment is another great spell for ending a fight quickly.
This spell banishes one or more creatures to a harmless demiplane outside of normal reality. While there, targets are incapacitated, so they can’t do anything.
All they can do is hope they make their initial save. Otherwise, they’re gone for a full minute. And if they came from beyond the Material Plane? They’re banished for good. If not? They appear right where you left them.
Only your whole party has had a minute to buff up. And ready actions/spells/attacks for the second the target pops back into existence.
Hypnotic Pattern
What if you’re fighting more than one thing? Hypnotic Pattern has your back.
This spell creates a twisting pattern of colors that hypnotize and entrance all who see them. As a result, creatures who fail their save become incapacitated while you concentrate on the spell.
You can affect as many creatures as you can fit in a 30ft. cube, which is basically every creature in an encounter. They’ll be out of the fight for a full minute (or until you deal damage to a target affected by the spell).
Animate Objects
What if a spell lets you suddenly have 10 or more extra allies on your side of the fight?
That’s exactly what Animate Objects does. It brings nonmagical items to life and then they fight at your command. A single bonus action lets you control every creature created with the spell, and they will move, attack, or act as you decide. And when the numbers are in your favor like that? Any fight becomes trivial.
Dominate Person/Monster
What if you could take the strongest creature you’re fighting and make it an ally? Not only do you reduce the number of creatures you’re fighting by one (temporarily) you also increase your allies by one.
Take control of the right creature/NPC and you can turn the tables on even the most pitched battle.
Happy Adventuring
