Wall of Force

[NecessaryWeevil]

I'm wondering about your experience with Wall of Force.

I've decided that my wizard considers damaging spells to be beneath him, so I like to focus on buffing and control. Illusions aren't working well for me; either I'm not creative enough or my DM and I see things differently. So, I am left with non-illusion, non-damaging spells. So far, in any fight that warrants breaking out my highest-level spells (5th level), my go-to spell seems to be Wall of Force. Since it's a concentration spell, I can pretty much choose to remove myself from a fight in exchange for removing an enemy from the fight. Since our DM tends to favour a few tough opponents over many weaker ones, this is usually a decent trade.

Do you have other experiences, or do you find Wall of Force to be a go-to spell for you also?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Since it's a concentration spell, I can pretty much choose to remove myself from a fight in exchange for removing an enemy from the fight.
You're aware that Concentration in 5e is different than it was in previous editions, yes? You can only have one Concentration spell up at a time, and you can lose it if you get hit, but you can still take actions and cast other spells while concentrating.

[MaxWilson]

Yes, Wall of Force is very good, especially if you can catch about half of the enemies in it. Divide-and-conquer is an excellent strategy.

It's also a solid response to being surprised by something scary.

[krugaan]

Are there any spells besides blindness/deafness that don't require concentration yet can be used in a CC fashion?

[MaxWilson]

Are there any spells besides blindness/deafness that don't require concentration yet can be used in a CC fashion?

Well, Leomund's Tiny Hut but that doesn't really count. Too hard to set up. :-P

Forcecage.

Grease.

Hallucinatory Terrain/Mirage Arcane.

Mold Earth, Shape Water, and Creation can potentially be used in a CCish fashion. Creation is hard to use this way unless you've got Malleable Illusions to change it with only an action instead of a full minute of casting.

Animate Dead gives you a bunch of zombies who can grapple for crowd control, and takes no concentration.

Arcane Lock can be used for crowd control in the right terrain.

Color Spray blinds enemies for a round, and does not take concentration.

Glyph of Warding lets you take any concentration spell (e.g. Confusion) and turn it into a no-concentration booby trap.

Aside from transportation spells like Arcane Gate/Demiplane, which function only as part of a combo, that's about all I can think of.

Edit: oh yes, Prismatic Spray has a small chance of acting like a crowd control spell instead of a direct damage spell.

[krugaan]

well, I suppose even a few more non-concentration CC spells would make wizards even more powerful than they are now :\

[Waffle_Iron]

non-illusion, non-damaging spells

Here's a few I thought of, noted with level and if it breaks any of your criteria. Also, these are all non-concentration:

1 Charm Person - It can prevent attacks against YOU, but not your TEAM
1 Color Spray
1 Disguise Self (illusion) - Might not work for you if the GM hates illusion, but if line of sight is broken up in a battle, you can turn a corner and disguise yourself as one of the enemy leadership.
1 Grease
1 Sleep
1 Unseen Servant (illusion like for this purpose) - Command the Servant to wave a sword menacingly
2 Arcane Lock - depends on the battlefield, but if there's a door, you can split the enemy party this way
2 Blindness/Deafness
2 Shatter - Another battlefield dependent one, but if there's a bridge, you can collapse it, if there's a giant pillar, you can make it fall over. Wont work on flying enemies, obviously.
3 Magic Circle - depends on the type of foe, but there it is.
4 Hallucinatory Terrain (illusion) - Make an obvious show of casting the spell, and scream the name of some improbable spell at the end to convince the enemy there's no way through. "ARMOR-GAZOR-POR-TAZOR'S IMPASSIBLE LAVA FIELD!"
4 Ice Storm (Damaging) It does damage, but not really that much for the level spell it is. Incidental damage, really. It is a nice big area of difficult terrain, though.
4 Stone Shape
5 Seeming (Illusion) - Make your team look like their team. Hilarity Ensues.
5 Transmute Rock

[indemnity]

I've decided that my wizard considers damaging spells to be beneath him... So far, in any fight... my go-to spell seems to be Wall of Force. Since it's a concentration spell, I can pretty much choose to remove myself from a fight in exchange for removing an enemy from the fight.

Do you find this character fun to play? During combat are you sitting around the table for 30-60 mins not rolling or doing anything?

What do the other players think of your character?

(Not intended to be aggressive, more to life than combat. Just curious.)

[EKruze]

Don't forget Pyrotechnics from Elemental Evil for non-concentration CC.

[MaxWilson]

1 Disguise Self (illusion) - Might not work for you if the GM hates illusion, but if line of sight is broken up in a battle, you can turn a corner and disguise yourself as one of the enemy leadership.

Another good use is to transform into a Medusa. Savvy opponents will look away to avoid turning into stone. Looking away from a Medusa, according to the MM, renders them effectively blind against you.

So it's effectively like a no-concentration, hour-long Blur spell.

[Waffle_Iron]

Another good use is to transform into a Medusa. Savvy opponents will look away to avoid turning into stone. Looking away from a Medusa, according to the MM, renders them effectively blind against you.

So it's effectively like a no-concentration, hour-long Blur spell.

+1 Internet.

[Segev]

Another good use is to transform into a Medusa. Savvy opponents will look away to avoid turning into stone. Looking away from a Medusa, according to the MM, renders them effectively blind against you.

So it's effectively like a no-concentration, hour-long Blur spell.


+1 Internet.

Agreed. That is extremely clever. And, if you're an Illusionist, you can even morph the illusion to suit other situations as needed.

[NecessaryWeevil]

Do you find this character fun to play? During combat are you sitting around the table for 30-60 mins not rolling or doing anything?

What do the other players think of your character?

(Not intended to be aggressive, more to life than combat. Just curious.)

That's a good question, and the answer is...mostly fun, sometimes a little useless, yes. He will deign to use damaging cantrips if he's already buffed or cc'd something, but the only spells higher than cantrip level that he knows inflict damage only incidentally (e.g. Bibgy's Hand, Black Tentacles).

We like to joke about him being useless ("You don't know Fireball? Really?") but occasionally he just presses the Nope button and we skip an encounter: Fearing a group of enemies when we were too busy to stop and fight, erecting a wall of force to contain a swarm of vampire bats while we put several doors between us and them.

As you say, there's also more to the game than combat and we have some fun interactions because he's an arrogant High Elf. Also, he's the first mortal wizard in the world in about a thousand years, so we have fun with his magical research accidents.

[NecessaryWeevil]

Lots of useful replies here, thanks!

[RulesJD]

I'm wondering about your experience with Wall of Force.

I've decided that my wizard considers damaging spells to be beneath him, so I like to focus on buffing and control. Illusions aren't working well for me; either I'm not creative enough or my DM and I see things differently. So, I am left with non-illusion, non-damaging spells. So far, in any fight that warrants breaking out my highest-level spells (5th level), my go-to spell seems to be Wall of Force. Since it's a concentration spell, I can pretty much choose to remove myself from a fight in exchange for removing an enemy from the fight. Since our DM tends to favour a few tough opponents over many weaker ones, this is usually a decent trade.

Do you have other experiences, or do you find Wall of Force to be a go-to spell for you also?

Wall of Force is my "I win this encounter" throughout every level I've played my Wizard, up into level 16. It's just that good.

Other highly recommended non-damaging spells:

1. Hypnotic Pattern. So, so good. Can end encounters as well depending on rolls.

2. Transmute Rock. Elemental Evil Companion spell but Non-concentration and my god can it lock down a horde. 20ft of movement just to move 5ft. Str or be restrained. So good. Granted my guy used it to then cast Storm Sphere the next turn and watch enemies just get battered to death.