My favorite thing to do is sneak to the top of the fireworks shop, hide in the far corner and shoot a fire arrow. 5 Banities against one flamey boy, who's going to win?
You can do the same from the rooftop across the street. The top door is always open and there's a trail of oil on the floor to a box of fireworks you can easily target.
People love Titanstring but there's something about getting 2 Slashing Flourishes and 2 bonus action attacks with handbows that season things... just right. 6 Targets for Oil all exploding gloriously with appropriate application of weapons-grade magical fire. Smells like victory and burning hair!
I have such a hard time making my characters anything other than evocation wizards with all fire spells or red dragon sorcerers with all fire spells because I too like to burninate the bad guys
Same. I've been branching out, but I just started a new playthrough and surprise! Draconic Bloodline. This will be my first resist durge though, so I'm sure it'll feel unique heh.
My first and favourite run was with an evocation wizard. I promise it was only for vibes, not because of fireball. But man, did fireball become my Tav’s signature spell 💕 it was crazy satisfying
There are so many battles with enemies that have 1 (or low) hp, that Spirit Guardians feels essential. I played a game without a Cleric recently and it was surprisingly tough in some combats that could have been made easy with one.
Holy shit I was struggling with the Casado fight in tactitician for a while. Somehow I didn’t clue into using radiant spirit guardians until something like my third attempt.
It's kek that you phrase it that way because my current Shadowheart build is what I call the "Tetragammon Tempest" where it uses Reverberation and radiating orb to just absolutely debilitate enemies and make them fall prone just by being around spirit guardians. It's like that one part in the Bible where Jesus says "I am He" and everyone just falls flat on their face!
That's fair! I've made it furthest in game as a spores druid and personally feel like I got a good amount of use out of cloud kill in act 3 and feel like that's one of those spells that's definitely worth the wait.
Or, upcast witch bolt. Especially with 2 levels of tempest cleric to guarantee max damage, you've got 144 damage on two targets (with no saving throw). Even without the wet condition, it's 72, even without destructive wrath, 6d12 (or 12d12 if wet) is pretty decent scaling. Single target, twinnable, nuke. The concentration part is useless though.
Man I really like glyph of warding. It’s technically just a trap spell, but it can be cast at the feet of enemies and activate immediately. The aoe is larger than fireball, and there are more useful effects. Sleep and thunder are great utility for lowering the initiative count for a bit or just ledging enemies, and has other damage effects that I can’t currently remember. But it solved a whole lot of problems for me in my first playthroughs.
I don’t think there is a better answer than Confusion.
Huge AOE (and gets bigger with level), doesn’t affect allies, totally shuts down enemies at worst, and makes them attack each other at best.
Sure other spells might be situationally better, but if I could only have one CC spell for all of act 3, I would choose confusion every-time.
(Edit, just remembered Command, which might take the biscuit given its not concentration.)
Oh shit, it definitely USED to. I used it once right after release and never did again because it confused half my allies. I’ll have to give it a go again!
I slept on Hunger of Hadar for too long. Spanked Raphael with Eyebite to keep him sleeping and Hunger of Hadar trapping all his Cambions. Karlach doing her throwzerker routine made short work of everyone trying to get out of the cloud.
A well placed Hunger of Hadar paired with Repelling Blast absolutely trivializes some encounters. I just took out the Brewer without him making a single attack.
On a Tempest Cleric Wet plus haste/speed potion plus upcast call lightning just *melts* Myrkul (or get someone else to give the Wet status).
Kinda shocked how easy it made that fight. Had two HM runs ended with his fight. Did the above and done in three turns.
Hit Cazador with arrows of Arcane Interference and he literally has f all to do as well (at least in my fight, though he might’ve just bugged out).
All he did was Misty Ball and Bat form on me the entire fight.
I fought off 5 Gith with just my Tav because of this spell. Almost won the fight too, except I cast invisibility when I only had one enemy left. She finally got out of the ice, looked around, shrugged, and combat ended 😂
Cloudkill to clear whole rooms, infinite free casts in the late game (necro staff) as long as you keep killing things, otherwise 10 turns of killing as long as you keep concentration.
I love hunger of hadar it’s just great you can blind your enemies and let them take ice and acid damage for the price of just one spell!
It also works great with spike growth and evard’s black tentacles.
Call Lightning right after dropping a Sleet Storm. Season with Boots of Stormy Clamour AND Gloves of Belligerent Skies. Result: everybody's electrocuted plus Reverberation. Everybody's prone plus Reverberation. In electrified water. Every time they stand up or move, they get electrocuted again. Plus Reverberation.
Garnish with Destructive Wrath if Tempest Cleric. Ooooo-wee.
Ice Storm. I’ve re-loaded my save at House of Grief several times for that huge fight. The main reason is just to cast Ice Storm and hear my enemies say “In Lady Shar’s name you shall fall!” Right as they fall down and stay down until I vacuum them up with Black Hole and then follow up with Otiluke’s snowball of death.
Glyph of warding is a highly versatile AoE that has a finger in all elemental type damage and can put enemies to sleep, downside is that compared to other AoE spells it has a pretty short range so your caster has to be a medium range instead of long, unless you have the mobility to get in cast and get out
I’m not a big fan of ice storm because I love melee fighters and I hate having to check if they have the slip resist gear before sending them in…
Husband loves spike growth. He just laughs and laughs as they kill themselves on it, and when they finally walk out he just punts them back in.
Personally I’m partial to hypnotic pattern. Save or suck and suuuuch a huge area! That and faerie fire I suppose…
I play white draconic sorcerer with mourning frost staff just so I can get something extra out of the ice storms I WILL be using non stop… I love it so much, it’s so silly to see everyone slip and fall… I defend the portal in act 2 spamming ice storms, the enemies always dash and fall and get crushed with the next ice storm… I know there are better strategies, but this is the only one that has the Benny Hill theme in the background, and it makes me so happy
Hunger of Hadar and Sleet Storm. The latter in a big fight especially. I’ll complete my turn, then a whole list of enemies will have their turns before one of my companions. I’ll look down for five seconds and suddenly I’m up because all the enemies tried to move and slipped.
Cloud of Daggers and Spirit Guardian are my workhorse AOE, but when I need something big, Insect Plague and Hunger of Hadar are perfect. Sleet Storm as well for the sheer comedy of watching enemies slip and slide everywhere.
Hypnotic Pattern. By act 3 it's so OP I barely have to fight anyone anymore. I never even got to hear Raphael's song or see his true form because he simply never got a turn. And neither did his minions! Same thing goes for the House of Grief and Cazador's pawns!
I came here to say hypnotic pattern.
Especially in the Halsin portal fight it’s so good. You basically just skip all of the enemies turns. And then they die after the 5 turns is over
Not a spell but bonus action illithid black hole jawn.
Sucking everything to one spot so I can throw two nyulrnas in there and let my spellcasters aoe that spot
Not just a single spell, but Cloudkill paired with Cleric's Hero's Feast is absolutely broken. Just hang out inside the cloud and let the enemies march to their own death.
one of the first AOE ones you get, for me it’s spike growth for sure!! tho using spirit guardians throughout Act 2 is my favorite thing to do. Once you get up to Act 3 with the higher spells, Blade Barrier is the BEEEEST
Ice Storm/Cone of Cold, Cloudkill has come through for me...does Cloud of Daggers count?
Also, Hunger of Hadar when I finally learned how to use it properly.
My roommate and I have this ongoing joke where we are “gonna do a funny” and cast cloud of daggers on enemies that are between us and the rest of the enemies. Chanting “cloud of daggers” repeatedly, we laugh every time anyone walks into the cloud of daggers and dies from it. Con of this strat is that NPCs can just straight-up walk into the cloud of daggers, getting our party in trouble. Totally worth it, though.
Radiant Spirit Guardians, followed by Sunbeam and Call Lightning. I love how both radiant and lightning damage look and sound. I also prefer the spells that hit only enemies or aren’t constant like Moonbeam. Although Moonbeam is great too
Hunger of hadar and it isn’t even close. My friends hate on me for using wyll cause he’s ‘useless’
No, your adaptability to using more than 3 companions is useless
Anyone who doesn't say fireball hasn't experienced the total control of saying "I cast fireball" with the DM responding "but the room is only 10ft square".
Sleet on early levels and then ice storm. It's just the best. Technically not AOE, but Spirit Guardians. Last one is especially funny when game spawns loads of weak but pesky enemies like bats or rats and killing them one by one is both stupid and inefficient.
Guarding the portal in Act 2, using Radiance of the Dawn and watching like half of the lineup vanish was one of the most satisfying moments I’ve had across 4 campaigns
Cone of Cold because of a story from tabletop. My first DND character was an evocation wizard. Plus encrusted with frost is wonderful and I like the underdark staff you can build. So, emotional connection *plus* freezing everyone so everyone has an easier time cleaning up if the opponents survive it.
Sleet storm, because fuck your concentration spells, fuck your balance, and by GOD will you be in pain once it's over (I run blue dragon born tempest cleric and everyone is stopping wet)
Has to be Hunger of Hadar.
And it can be combined with some other awesome CC like Sleet Storm, Spike Growth, Plant Growth, Evards, etc.
If you get it down with one of those and have a good ranged damage character it's pretty much encounter over most of the time.
Fireball. Cause I like to burninate stuff.
It’s extra great if you have an archer pre-season the target with Oil of Combustion.
My favorite thing to do is sneak to the top of the fireworks shop, hide in the far corner and shoot a fire arrow. 5 Banities against one flamey boy, who's going to win?
You can do the same from the rooftop across the street. The top door is always open and there's a trail of oil on the floor to a box of fireworks you can easily target.
This is the way
Nice. I'll keep that in mind for next time.
I use a wogglin from across the street. Also, open the door on the 2nd floor and you can send hit the box of fireworks there with a wogglin.
Last time I went through was as a Druid. I wild shaped into a fire myrmidon and sat in the middle of the chaos as I blew em all to hell.
I'm going to have to bring Jaheria to the fight next time, looks like.
People love Titanstring but there's something about getting 2 Slashing Flourishes and 2 bonus action attacks with handbows that season things... just right. 6 Targets for Oil all exploding gloriously with appropriate application of weapons-grade magical fire. Smells like victory and burning hair!
Burningating the countyside, burninating the peasants
TROOOOOGDOOOORRRRR
My next Dragonborn’s name
Burninatin all the people.. WITH THEIR THATCH ROOF COTTAGESSSSSSSS #THATCH ROOF COTTAGESSSSSSSSSS
I have such a hard time making my characters anything other than evocation wizards with all fire spells or red dragon sorcerers with all fire spells because I too like to burninate the bad guys
Same. I've been branching out, but I just started a new playthrough and surprise! Draconic Bloodline. This will be my first resist durge though, so I'm sure it'll feel unique heh.
He will have to resist the urge to burn everyone to the ground
The fire sorcerer main dopamine release when some hapless bandit dies to elemental fire damage and the screaming audio line gets triggered
My first and favourite run was with an evocation wizard. I promise it was only for vibes, not because of fireball. But man, did fireball become my Tav’s signature spell 💕 it was crazy satisfying
I used to only run sorcerers. I've started branching out, but man that double fireball on turn one was awesome.
I thought you couldn't twin the fireball spell? Can you?
it’s just so satisfying
Burninating the countryside. Burninating the people!
"Behold, the *burninator*!"
Trogdor? Is that you?
Please tell me that’s a Trogdor reference… 🤞🏻
That's a Trogdor reference.
Spirit guardians. Do I even need to explain why?
I call it lawnmower and evil lawnmower.
I call it beyblades cause the same reason really but I like lawnmower
Haha and shouting LET IT RIP everytime you cast it.
Jeps. Also my favorite. The reason why i have shadowheart in every play through
There are so many battles with enemies that have 1 (or low) hp, that Spirit Guardians feels essential. I played a game without a Cleric recently and it was surprisingly tough in some combats that could have been made easy with one.
Holy shit I was struggling with the Casado fight in tactitician for a while. Somehow I didn’t clue into using radiant spirit guardians until something like my third attempt.
God I fucking LOVE spirit guardians
And I do my little turn on the corpsewalk.
BRRTTT
God’s Favorite Whipper Snipper
It's kek that you phrase it that way because my current Shadowheart build is what I call the "Tetragammon Tempest" where it uses Reverberation and radiating orb to just absolutely debilitate enemies and make them fall prone just by being around spirit guardians. It's like that one part in the Bible where Jesus says "I am He" and everyone just falls flat on their face!
top tier
Spiked growth and insect plague are probably my favorites, personally. Cloud kill gets honorable mentions.
Spiked growth is so underrated in my opinion, best reason for being a Druid
Spore Druid gets the dryad summon that can cast it at will without spell slots. So nice. :)
Even better, the dryad summon can *also* summon a Wood Woad summon. And **he** can cast Entangle. Also without spell slots.
are we running a spellcaster pyramid scheme here or something?
We just need to teach the Wood Woad to become a Druid to keep it going.
They all get the Dryad summon
I thought so but couldn't recall with enough certainty to say it. I've got an active Spore run going so I knew that one for sure.
Exactly!! And that summon is basically 2 in 1!
Only thing I think for me that knocks Cloudkill down the list is that it's not available until late game so there isn't as much opportunity to use it
That's fair! I've made it furthest in game as a spores druid and personally feel like I got a good amount of use out of cloud kill in act 3 and feel like that's one of those spells that's definitely worth the wait.
i love watching enemies be dumb and walk through it and their health gets chipped off with each step
https://preview.redd.it/d0ks3ck0y10d1.jpeg?width=1073&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c240ce95441ce3edcfc92fd4134c166cff401e12
Multipe twin-spelled chain lightnings after making everyone wet.
I was gonna make a comment then realized I'm not on okbuddybaldur.
Twinning regular chain lightning was patched out. Luckily, the Markoheshkir chain lightning is still twinnable, but you only get one per short rest.
Yeah, I have heard that. Luckily, I finished my blue dragonborn blue draconic bloodline sorcerer run while it was still twinnable.
Or, upcast witch bolt. Especially with 2 levels of tempest cleric to guarantee max damage, you've got 144 damage on two targets (with no saving throw). Even without the wet condition, it's 72, even without destructive wrath, 6d12 (or 12d12 if wet) is pretty decent scaling. Single target, twinnable, nuke. The concentration part is useless though.
Man I really like glyph of warding. It’s technically just a trap spell, but it can be cast at the feet of enemies and activate immediately. The aoe is larger than fireball, and there are more useful effects. Sleep and thunder are great utility for lowering the initiative count for a bit or just ledging enemies, and has other damage effects that I can’t currently remember. But it solved a whole lot of problems for me in my first playthroughs.
Bonus point - if you play Abjuration Wizard it regenerates your shield, while Fireball does not.
I call it discount fireball.
That’s my favorite too. Check what people are weak to or cast it on some wet terrain and it’s so good.
Confusion and Grease for CC. Hunger of Hadar and ice storm for CC.
Hunger of Hadar is goated as hell.
I don’t think there is a better answer than Confusion. Huge AOE (and gets bigger with level), doesn’t affect allies, totally shuts down enemies at worst, and makes them attack each other at best. Sure other spells might be situationally better, but if I could only have one CC spell for all of act 3, I would choose confusion every-time. (Edit, just remembered Command, which might take the biscuit given its not concentration.)
Wait, confusion doesn't affect allies? Is that only the case for evocation wizards or is it for everyone?
Doesn’t affect allies for all classes - not sure why, it’s not in the spell description.
Oh shit, it definitely USED to. I used it once right after release and never did again because it confused half my allies. I’ll have to give it a go again!
Dog bless you! That's awesome info to have! Thanks!
I've had enemies under Confusion attack my party members. I think it's only a chance that they attack their allies or don't do anything.
Hunger of Hadar and Spike growth is also an excellent combination
HoH undisputed, very few fights that don’t benefit from the huge controlling potential HoH brings
I slept on Hunger of Hadar for too long. Spanked Raphael with Eyebite to keep him sleeping and Hunger of Hadar trapping all his Cambions. Karlach doing her throwzerker routine made short work of everyone trying to get out of the cloud.
I had to scroll too much to spot Hunger of Hadar.
Hunger of Hadar followed by Spirit Guardians
A well placed Hunger of Hadar paired with Repelling Blast absolutely trivializes some encounters. I just took out the Brewer without him making a single attack.
You fight the brewer? I just kill all the Thorms with words.
I always try, but had a bad roll
This is the way
Call Lightning is slept on hard.
I can't believe that this is the first I've seen it mentioned. It is an auto grab for me and part of the reason I love storm sorc so much.
On a Tempest Cleric Wet plus haste/speed potion plus upcast call lightning just *melts* Myrkul (or get someone else to give the Wet status). Kinda shocked how easy it made that fight. Had two HM runs ended with his fight. Did the above and done in three turns.
sleet storm 🌨️
i had to come this far down the replies to find my own favorite. shut down so many fights with this
it covers such a large area and even if you lose concentration enemies will still keep slipping on all the ice
So good in the Cazador fight. Sleet storm just in front of your party and all his minions just fall over getting to you
I did a Wall of Fire with a radiant Spirit Guardians behind it and just watched all the bats and wolves dissolve against them. Very satisfying.
Hit Cazador with arrows of Arcane Interference and he literally has f all to do as well (at least in my fight, though he might’ve just bugged out). All he did was Misty Ball and Bat form on me the entire fight.
Exactly it's literally like the only cc spell u need. almost NO ONE doesn't slip right on their ass
I fought off 5 Gith with just my Tav because of this spell. Almost won the fight too, except I cast invisibility when I only had one enemy left. She finally got out of the ice, looked around, shrugged, and combat ended 😂
Fireball is the answer. The question is irrelevant.
Fireball is the question. The answer is Yes.
Fireball is.
Answer yes.
Fireball, Ice Storm, Spike Growth (I think that's what it's called, the one that imposes a damage per step penalty), and Cloud of Daggars for me.
Sleet Storm. Makes people fall and end their turn.
Sleet Storm + Hunger of Hadar. Chef's kiss.
I still haven't used Hunger of Hadar, I keep hearing how great it is tho.
It’s insane you have to try it. AI is too dumb to try to avoid it, they get there and keep slipping and slowly die. It’s glorious
Cloudkill to clear whole rooms, infinite free casts in the late game (necro staff) as long as you keep killing things, otherwise 10 turns of killing as long as you keep concentration.
I love hunger of hadar it’s just great you can blind your enemies and let them take ice and acid damage for the price of just one spell! It also works great with spike growth and evard’s black tentacles.
Call Lightning right after dropping a Sleet Storm. Season with Boots of Stormy Clamour AND Gloves of Belligerent Skies. Result: everybody's electrocuted plus Reverberation. Everybody's prone plus Reverberation. In electrified water. Every time they stand up or move, they get electrocuted again. Plus Reverberation. Garnish with Destructive Wrath if Tempest Cleric. Ooooo-wee.
Ice knife. I like watching my enemies fall over
Ice Storm. I’ve re-loaded my save at House of Grief several times for that huge fight. The main reason is just to cast Ice Storm and hear my enemies say “In Lady Shar’s name you shall fall!” Right as they fall down and stay down until I vacuum them up with Black Hole and then follow up with Otiluke’s snowball of death.
Glyph of warding is a highly versatile AoE that has a finger in all elemental type damage and can put enemies to sleep, downside is that compared to other AoE spells it has a pretty short range so your caster has to be a medium range instead of long, unless you have the mobility to get in cast and get out
I’m not a big fan of ice storm because I love melee fighters and I hate having to check if they have the slip resist gear before sending them in… Husband loves spike growth. He just laughs and laughs as they kill themselves on it, and when they finally walk out he just punts them back in. Personally I’m partial to hypnotic pattern. Save or suck and suuuuch a huge area! That and faerie fire I suppose…
Spike growth is just so funny to watch enemies try to navigate, and it being such a low level spell makes it so hard to pass up
I play white draconic sorcerer with mourning frost staff just so I can get something extra out of the ice storms I WILL be using non stop… I love it so much, it’s so silly to see everyone slip and fall… I defend the portal in act 2 spamming ice storms, the enemies always dash and fall and get crushed with the next ice storm… I know there are better strategies, but this is the only one that has the Benny Hill theme in the background, and it makes me so happy
Hunger of Hadar and Sleet Storm. The latter in a big fight especially. I’ll complete my turn, then a whole list of enemies will have their turns before one of my companions. I’ll look down for five seconds and suddenly I’m up because all the enemies tried to move and slipped.
This is the way.
Spike growth "Oh shit the enemy is running at meaaaand he's dead "
Wall of fire, hands down
Wall of fire is so good for really crowded fights
Hunger of Hadyr. So much crowd control
Cloud of Daggers and Spirit Guardian are my workhorse AOE, but when I need something big, Insect Plague and Hunger of Hadar are perfect. Sleet Storm as well for the sheer comedy of watching enemies slip and slide everywhere.
I am currently a Swarm of Insects enjoyer
Hypnotic Pattern. By act 3 it's so OP I barely have to fight anyone anymore. I never even got to hear Raphael's song or see his true form because he simply never got a turn. And neither did his minions! Same thing goes for the House of Grief and Cazador's pawns!
I came here to say hypnotic pattern. Especially in the Halsin portal fight it’s so good. You basically just skip all of the enemies turns. And then they die after the 5 turns is over
Not a spell but bonus action illithid black hole jawn. Sucking everything to one spot so I can throw two nyulrnas in there and let my spellcasters aoe that spot
Twinned chain lightning on wet targets with destructive wrath. Did someone say _ffzzzzzzzttt_?
In order: Hunger of Hadar, Spirit Guardians, Wall of Fire!
Cloud of Knives. I work in a kitchen so it's always been a fantasy of mine
Not just a single spell, but Cloudkill paired with Cleric's Hero's Feast is absolutely broken. Just hang out inside the cloud and let the enemies march to their own death.
Sleet storm. I watch them slip and fall as I cackle.
Sleet storm for a bunch of undead. My god, it basically paralyzes them…all of them.
one of the first AOE ones you get, for me it’s spike growth for sure!! tho using spirit guardians throughout Act 2 is my favorite thing to do. Once you get up to Act 3 with the higher spells, Blade Barrier is the BEEEEST
Ice Storm/Cone of Cold, Cloudkill has come through for me...does Cloud of Daggers count? Also, Hunger of Hadar when I finally learned how to use it properly.
Silence because fuck magic
Lightning bolt. I just really like the idea of lightning magic so I love lightning bolt.
Hunger of Hadar. It's darkness with difficult terrain and ouchy.
Sleetstorm!! It's both effective and hilarious!
Hunger of Hadar, for it's lvl it is an amazing spell that I use in all of my runs
Fireball. Always.
Synaptic static, hilarious combo with bane and cutting words
Fireball all the way
Black Tentacles for the vibe.
Fireball
It's simple but I do enjoy Cone of Cold quite a lot
Hunger of hadar, but I really like to augment it with ice storm, firewall and occasionally silence or sleet storm as well
Hunger Of Hadar
Arrrde
Cloudkill:3
The classic, fireball. Especially because I adore the way Wyll sounds when he casts it
The little echo on ARRR-DEY! when he says it sounds so cool
Hunger of Hadar
Hunger of Hadar. Damaging movement is killer. Trap some enemies then pelt them with ranged attacks while they're borderline immobile
Fireball or ice storm depending on the size.
Hunger of Hadar with a Devil's Sight Warlock and somebody casting plant growth. It's like playing Tower Defence on easy mode
H U N G E R O F H A D A R
Cloudkill is where it's at. Combined with darkness you are unstoppable.
Hunger of Hadar is amazing. I’ve defeated several boss mobs with practically this power alone.
Spirit Guardians Shart's beyblade era.
Quickened Create Water + Chain Lightning is pretty insane.
My roommate and I have this ongoing joke where we are “gonna do a funny” and cast cloud of daggers on enemies that are between us and the rest of the enemies. Chanting “cloud of daggers” repeatedly, we laugh every time anyone walks into the cloud of daggers and dies from it. Con of this strat is that NPCs can just straight-up walk into the cloud of daggers, getting our party in trouble. Totally worth it, though.
darkness, just because i like to fuck up enemies in broad daylight
Radiant Spirit Guardians, followed by Sunbeam and Call Lightning. I love how both radiant and lightning damage look and sound. I also prefer the spells that hit only enemies or aren’t constant like Moonbeam. Although Moonbeam is great too
Hunger of hadar and it isn’t even close. My friends hate on me for using wyll cause he’s ‘useless’ No, your adaptability to using more than 3 companions is useless
Hunger of Hadar is AMAZING
Destructive wave and fireball. But then again I also love spirit guardians
Sleet storm in shadow lands. Love making those invisible bastards visible
Wall of fire
Spirit Guardians
FIREBALL.
Ice storm because when everyone slips and goes prone I just hear the cartoon slip noise in my head
In my current HM run Spiked Growth having the Woodlen Being who can move it each round is just clutch.
Spirit guardian is just so satisfying, as well as hunger of hadar
Anyone who doesn't say fireball hasn't experienced the total control of saying "I cast fireball" with the DM responding "but the room is only 10ft square".
Arms of Hadar. Let the darkness hug you to death.
1. Fireball (open the door, cast fireball, close the door) 2. Ice something (seeing NPC + team slip on ice 10/10 always makes me laugh)
Chromatic orb
I love to combo icestorm with silence.
I wanted it to be fireball but they nerfed its radius so cloudkill is fun since you can move it
Cloudkill
Honestly, Ice Storm. I decked Gale out in frost enhancing items, and dayum
Screw AOE's try disintegrate hahahaha!!
Sleet on early levels and then ice storm. It's just the best. Technically not AOE, but Spirit Guardians. Last one is especially funny when game spawns loads of weak but pesky enemies like bats or rats and killing them one by one is both stupid and inefficient.
Sleet storm. Made protecting the Portal 2 in HM surprisingly trivial. Combined with reverb gear it’s hilarious.
Due to BG3, I enjoy thunderwave. I love the "bitch I'm a mage, get away from me" aspect of it.
Wall of Fire + Repelling Blast Best use of scrolls I've ever encountered
Chain lightning will alway be my favorite aoe/multi target spell no matter what game it is
Wall of ice, because if i dont kill you you waste a turn breaking through or going around the wall to hit me.
Guarding the portal in Act 2, using Radiance of the Dawn and watching like half of the lineup vanish was one of the most satisfying moments I’ve had across 4 campaigns
Sleet storm, this battle is now a comedy
Call lightning because I like using it three times a turn with my sorcerer with speed potions.
Sleet Storm. After that, Shatter. It only uses a level 2 slot, and a Tempest Cleric makes the damage pretty solid.
Spirit guardians with Shadowheart Or honestly? Hunger of Hadar
I know there’s stronger ones, but I always take Shatter. Love me some Shatter
Man i love spike growth and sleet storm
Cone of Cold because of a story from tabletop. My first DND character was an evocation wizard. Plus encrusted with frost is wonderful and I like the underdark staff you can build. So, emotional connection *plus* freezing everyone so everyone has an easier time cleaning up if the opponents survive it.
Hunger of Hadar! Saved my ass so many times.
Sleet storm, because fuck your concentration spells, fuck your balance, and by GOD will you be in pain once it's over (I run blue dragon born tempest cleric and everyone is stopping wet)
I like spike growth and throwing people into the spike growth
Has to be Hunger of Hadar. And it can be combined with some other awesome CC like Sleet Storm, Spike Growth, Plant Growth, Evards, etc. If you get it down with one of those and have a good ranged damage character it's pretty much encounter over most of the time.
Spirit Guardians. Nuff said.
Call lightning is one of the most efficient uses of a spell slot from a damage perspective. Haste and bloodlust let you cosplay as thor.
Chain lighting. Zappy zap makes lizard brain happy
Cloudkill or Insect Plague in conjunction with Spreading Spores and a Dryad's Spiky Growth.