For clever trick, scams, and combos for people to post up

[Sir cryosin]

This thread is for people to post up scams trick and combos they thought up or used in gameplay. Like your a warlock take cantrip prestidigitation, mending and thaumaturgy if you want and have the invocation were you can cast disguised self at will. You got caught stealing or committing some kind of crime. Or are just being followed rip some of your closes. Cast prestidigitation to make them look dirty and worn. Break line of sight and cast disguise self. Then just injoy your new found freedom. Or go in already looking like a hobo and just reverse everything on the run.

[MaxWilson]

Instead of relying purely on PC tanks to hold chokepoints, have the party monk scatter caltrops before scouting ahead. Then if need be he can fall back on the party's position, running over the walls instead of on the caltrops, while the party fills any pursuers full of holes.

Also, caltrops, zombies, and Stinking Cloud work well together.

[gfishfunk]

Ritual Caster or Magic Initiate with any version of Cleric: use your familiar to deliver healing spells and other touch-spells (including inflict wounds). This allows a cleric to use a bow/crossbow and hang out in a back row.

Trickery cleric + rogue: create your own advantage through an illusion duplicate so you do not need to rely on teammate adjacency. For fun and profit, you can also use mirror image so that there is a whole gaggle of illusion people on top of it. No additional mechanical benefit, but a lot of fun.

[Gtdead]

One particularly dirty trick I've found lately is that there is nothing prohibiting the use of twin spell as a reaction.
So a sorcerer with command (through paladin mc for example), can upcast it to affect 2 targets, and use his warcaster reaction to twin the bb, essentially giving him 2 AoOs.

Edit: Nvm, I was wrong. Can't do this.

[Oramac]

Ritual Caster or Magic Initiate with any version of Cleric: use your familiar to deliver healing spells and other touch-spells (including inflict wounds). This allows a cleric to use a bow/crossbow and hang out in a back row.

I love this idea! I've been looking for a reliable way to apply Contagion from range, and I think you just gave it to me.

Mechanically, I love the Tempest Sorcerer trick to use Chromatic Orb/Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning with Destructive Wrath for maximum damage. Also with that MC, Twinned Healing Word can be incredibly useful.

Story wise: I don't have much to say. The characters I make tend not to be the trickster sort. Sorry. :(

[Biggstick]

This thread is for people to post up scams trick and combos they thought up or used in gameplay. Like your a warlock take cantrip prestidigitation, mending and thaumaturgy if you want and have the invocation were you can cast disguised self at will. You got caught stealing or committing some kind of crime. Or are just being followed rip some of your closes. Cast prestidigitation to make them look dirty and worn. Break line of sight and cast disguise self. Then just injoy your new found freedom. Or go in already looking like a hobo and just reverse everything on the run.

I don't know exactly how effective it'd be, but it's something I always thought would be interesting. You would need access to the spell Spirit Guardians (Cleric level 5, Bard Magical Secrets, or OotC Paladin) and Devil's Sight (Warlock level 2). Cast Spirit Guardians on yourself, have a friend cast Darkness on you as well, and now you're a walking dome of Darkness that has Spirit Guardians inside the darkness. It might not be the best use of combination of abilities, but the image of that to an enemy would be horrifying.

Guidance + Help action = when out of combat can almost guarantee a high skill check.

Darkness/Devil's Sight on any attack roll based combat (spells/melee/ranged).

Keen Mind feat + Minor Conjuration (Wizard level 2) = anything you spend a bit of time with can be instantly re-created by you for up to a month. Examples include maps, keys, schematics, books, etc etc.

Casting the Shield spell as an Eldritch Knight. As SnB, most casters need the Warcaster feat to cast Shield. As an Eldritch Knight, most DM's I've played with allow you to drop your weapon as part of the casting of the Shield spell. While this does effectively disarm you, an Eldritch Knight can simply bonus action the weapon back to their hand using War Magic on their next turn.

Mending cantrip + broken arrows = no more broken arrows. You're probably a trained archer, and finding your arrows isn't a problem, it's that they seem to break. Having the Mending cantrip allows you to fix said arrows.

Rogue Cunning Action: Disengage + Booming Blade cantrip = free trigger on the Booming Blade. You can either run some combination of Rogue or just add it to whatever build you have going.

I'll add more later as I remember them.

[Sir cryosin]

And a rogue with the spell find familiar to have the familiar to take the help action for advanced for SA. It really nice with the 3 lv dip on warlock chain pact were familiar's can go invisible. Or one of my favorite shocking grasped with expedia's Retreat or cunning action for a bonus action Dash.

[Sir cryosin]

I don't know exactly how effective it'd be, but it's something I always thought would be interesting. You would need access to the spell Spirit Guardians (Cleric level 5, Bard Magical Secrets, or OotC Paladin) and Devil's Sight (Warlock level 2). Cast Spirit Guardians on yourself, have a friend cast Darkness on you as well, and now you're a walking dome of Darkness that has Spirit Guardians inside the darkness. It might not be the best use of combination of abilities, but the image of that to an enemy would be horrifying.

Guidance + Help action = when out of combat can almost guarantee a high skill check.

Darkness/Devil's Sight on any attack roll based combat (spells/melee/ranged).

Keen Mind feat + Minor Conjuration (Wizard level 2) = anything you spend a bit of time with can be instantly re-created by you for up to a month. Examples include maps, keys, schematics, books, etc etc.

Casting the Shield spell as an Eldritch Knight. As SnB, most casters need the Warcaster feat to cast Shield. As an Eldritch Knight, most DM's I've played with allow you to drop your weapon as part of the casting of the Shield spell. While this does effectively disarm you, an Eldritch Knight can simply bonus action the weapon back to their hand using War Magic on their next turn.

Mending cantrip + broken arrows = no more broken arrows. You're probably a trained archer, and finding your arrows isn't a problem, it's that they seem to break. Having the Mending cantrip allows you to fix said arrows.

Rogue Cunning Action: Disengage + Booming Blade cantrip = free trigger on the Booming Blade. You can either run some combination of Rogue or just add it to whatever build you have going.

I'll add more later as I remember them.
That combination of spirit Guardians and darkness sounds terrifying unbelievably really good

[gfishfunk]

This is simple: Light Cantrip on the tail end of an arrow or bolt, and then give it to the archer. When you come across something that needs light to see you well enough to attack back, shoot the arrow at them. If it hits, they are fully lit up and you have the advantage of dim light / darkness.

[Skylivedk]

Combo:

Bash Brothers:
SnB dude with Shield Master partners up with the friendly neighbourhood PAM and Sentinel homie.

Druidic Charge
Mounted Combat and Sentinel Pala+Moon druid combo.

Snappy sneaks:
Whip, rogue, sentinel, go!

Shenanigans:
Have your wizard and fighter change appearance behind a rock with some simple illusion spells.

[Oramac]

Oh, one more we did as a group for Curse of Strahd.

5 PCs:

3 Halfling Divination Wizards with the Lucky Feat

1 Halfling Tempest Cleric / Divination Wizard with Lucky

1 Halfling Bard/Divination Wizard, also with Lucky.

Rerolls and Portents for days. Shenanigans, I tell you.

[Sir cryosin]

Oh, one more we did as a group for Curse of Strahd.

5 PCs:

3 Halfling Divination Wizards with the Lucky Feat

1 Halfling Tempest Cleric / Divination Wizard with Lucky

1 Halfling Bard/Divination Wizard, also with Lucky.

Rerolls and Portents for days. Shenanigans, I tell you.

Wow how did your DM take it?

[Oramac]

Wow how did your DM take it?

I feel like it went fairly well. He's actually on GITP, so if he wants to weigh in I'll let him. Level 1 was really rough though, as we didn't have any of our main features yet.

Other than that it's been a lot of fun forcing failed saves and rerolling all the 1's and such.

[Specter]

Social tricks with spells:

Friends is priceless. If you're certain of your combat abilities, you can use to be attacked by someone you hate, which could even get them arrested. With effective disguise, you can also make two of your enemies hate each other.

Everybody uses Hex in combat, but totally forget that it gives advantages to many skill checks. If you want the tavern keeper to not notice you stealing from him, or to turn someone's good lie into a lame bluff, be sure to have it prepared.

Phantasmal Force creates an illusion perceivable only to your target. You can make them see what you want them to see, or completely freak out about something that isn't there. I used this to make a guard think he was on fire, and everybody saw him as a complete idiot. Gaslighting, baby.

I'm working on a guide for this, more later.

[treecko]

That combination of spirit Guardians and darkness sounds terrifying unbelievably really good

hm, you could get it really easily on a bardlock as well.

[MaxWilson]

Friends is priceless. If you're certain of your combat abilities, you can use to be attacked by someone you hate, which could even get them arrested. With effective disguise, you can also make two of your enemies hate each other.

Only if your DM misunderstands what "hostile" means in a 5E context. It does not mean "immediately physically attacks you." It means "becomes inimical towards you."

[Corran]

That combination of spirit Guardians and darkness sounds terrifying unbelievably really good
I was just thinking of this the other day. You see, our group is a bit shy on the dpr department, and we mostly rely on our archer to deal some very serious damage. So I was thinking of how we could best protect him, cause if he gets shut down, we are in serious trouble. So my first thought was that our swamp druid will cast darkness, so tht our archer can shoot with advantage from a reatively safe space, while our knowledge cleric will cast spirit guardians to make enemies less tempted to go inside that darkness area, or at leat to take damage when inside it. Then again, this ''brilliant'' tactics has many downsides, as I expect we will be toasted from enemies with some form of area attack.

ps: Makes for one intimidating effect though. Enemies disappear inside that darkened area and their allies can hear only their screams when they are hurt by the fiendish (if cleric is evil) spirits.

[MaxWilson]

I was just thinking of this the other day. You see, our group is a bit shy on the dpr department, and we mostly rely on our archer to deal some very serious damage. So I was thinking of how we could best protect him, cause if he gets shut down, we are in serious trouble. So my first thought was that our swamp druid will cast darkness, so tht our archer can shoot with advantage from a reatively safe space, while our knowledge cleric will cast spirit guardians to make enemies less tempted to go inside that darkness area, or at leat to take damage when inside it. Then again, this ''brilliant'' tactics has many downsides, as I expect we will be toasted from enemies with some form of area attack.

ps: Makes for one intimidating effect though. Enemies disappear inside that darkened area and their allies can hear only their screams when they are hurt by the fiendish (if cleric is evil) spirits.

Evard's Black Tentacles is basically both these effects in one: Enemies can't move through it easily (difficult terrain + Dex save to avoid getting restrained), and it grants advantage on the archer's attacks (because restrained), and it does 3d6 damage per round to each enemy.

In theory you could have a Sorcerer 3/Wizard 7 cast Careful Evard's Black Tentacles so that your party is immune (can't fail the save)... but in practice a nice Careful Stinking Cloud or Careful Web is a lot easier to achieve without weird multiclassing and maybe about as good.

In all cases, you have the exact same vulnerability: ranged attacks and especially AoEs and traps.

[JackPhoenix]

One particularly dirty trick I've found lately is that there is nothing prohibiting the use of twin spell as a reaction.
So a sorcerer with command (through paladin mc for example), can upcast it to affect 2 targets, and use his warcaster reaction to twin the bb, essentially giving him 2 AoOs.

Except War Caster specifies you can target only the creature provoking OA.

[Gtdead]

Except War Caster specifies you can target only the creature provoking OA.

You are actually right. I'm editing my post.
My argument was that twin creates an additional spell, but it specifically says that it's part of the same spell.

[Specter]

Only if your DM misunderstands what "hostile" means in a 5E context. It does not mean "immediately physically attacks you." It means "becomes inimical towards you."

That's why it's 'can', not 'will'. The spell says a creature prone to violence (like that Half-Orc Barbarian by the counter) may attack.

[Madbox]

My favorite trick: Paramedic Familiar. RAW, familiars can take any combat action except for attacking. So have your familiar use an Item Interaction to use a Healer's Kit or Health Potion on a downed teammate. How does my owl get that bottle open? Heck if I know.

[Corran]

Evard's Black Tentacles is basically both these effects in one: Enemies can't move through it easily (difficult terrain + Dex save to avoid getting restrained), and it grants advantage on the archer's attacks (because restrained), and it does 3d6 damage per round to each enemy.

In theory you could have a Sorcerer 3/Wizard 7 cast Careful Evard's Black Tentacles so that your party is immune (can't fail the save)... but in practice a nice Careful Stinking Cloud or Careful Web is a lot easier to achieve without weird multiclassing and maybe about as good.

In all cases, you have the exact same vulnerability: ranged attacks and especially AoEs and traps.
I will pretend I never saw hat post, and will speak to noone at my table about it. You see, I am the sorcerer (well ,kind of), and I completely neglected of selecting spells or metamagic that would help the group as a whole. Seriously though, thanks for the detailed answer Max!

Back on topic, here is a dirty trick.
Get captured by the BBEG. On purpose. Or surrender to them for that matter. When the BBEG finally has his guards bring you to him to have a cup of tea and talk with him (because who are we kidding, whar BBEG does not drink tea and speak in a fake british accent?), you make a slight hint that the tea tastes a bit bitter and ask for some sugar. You pour one teaspoon sugar (this is important!), and slowly you begin mixing the tea with the little teaspoon, all while continuing your civil conversation with the BBEG. You mix for around 1 minute. By that time your subtle creation will have transformed the rounded edge of the teaspoon into the sharp edge of a knife. Then it is pretty straightforward, dice roll and people die (with any luck, the bad guys).
Wait...... what do you mean that the bad guy does not invite you for tea and a civil converastion and instead throws you in his dungeon and has you tortured?!!! That not even a possibilty! The only possible downside is that he might be out of sugar, but that is a risk worth taking!
As to how you escape after you kill the BBEG? Well, that will have to be a trick for another time... But I'll tell you it involves two toothpicks and a pair of underwear :smallsmile:

[Arkhios]

This happened in Pathfinder, and I was only a bystander, but I would say it works in 5e as well:

Evard's Black Tentacles and Stinking Cloud on exact same area. Requires two casters with at least 4th level spells (lvl 7 wiz or sor), since both are concentrated spells. If the group is capable, add Darkness and let the fun begin! Most creatures will be effectively blind, choking in poison, restrained and raped by kinkymancer's tentacles simultaneously.

Stinking Cloud effectively denies the targets from freeing themselves from the tentacles if they fail their constitution saves each round, and each target that is restrained by the tentacles take 3d6 damage at the start of their turns.

Horrific Death Trap combo, I'd say! D:

[TheFlyingCleric]

My favorite trick: Paramedic Familiar. RAW, familiars can take any combat action except for attacking. So have your familiar use an Item Interaction to use a Healer's Kit or Health Potion on a downed teammate. How does my owl get that bottle open? Heck if I know.

DM: So wait a minute, how is your snake familiar wrapping a bandage around him?
Wizard: No you don't understand, it is the bandage.

[Regitnui]

My favorite trick: Paramedic Familiar. RAW, familiars can take any combat action except for attacking. So have your familiar use an Item Interaction to use a Healer's Kit or Health Potion on a downed teammate. How does my owl get that bottle open? Heck if I know.

Easily. The bigger problem is how you put it back together after its filled with beak holes.

[Asmotherion]

1)Mold earth to dig a 5 foot dip hole.
2)Use a control ability to push enemy in the hole (Repelling blast comes to mind, but Thorn wipe, Lighting Lure or Gust might do the trick as well).
3)Grease in the hole and around it.
4)Fire bolt/Thow a torch to ignite the grease.
5)Enjoy your barbequed enemy

For a High Level Sorcerer:
In a spellcasting duel, use Globe of invulnerability with extended spell, and then counterspell all the opponents spells of 6th level or higher. At worse the opponent will have 6 spells that can affect you, and you can counterspell as a reaction, which means you can attack him at the same time, wile he has a very low possibility to land a spell on you.

[Regitnui]

1)Mold earth to dig a 5 foot dip hole.
2)Use a control ability to push enemy in the hole (Repelling blast comes to mind, but Thorn wipe, Lighting Lure or Gust might do the trick as well).
3)Grease in the hole and around it.
4)Fire bolt/Thow a torch to ignite the grease.
5)Enjoy your barbequed enemy


That sounds more like a military tactic than an adventurers' exploit. Doesn't make it bad though. I might use it if I ever run an Eberron military campaign; greased pit traps could be a terrifying counter to the cavalry-heavy tactics of the Valenar elves. Being set alight after falling in would just add insult to injury for those Blood Knights.

[Tarvil]

I like to cast Spirit Guardians and then Sanctuary on myself when playing cleric. I kill things and things have problem attacking me. Grappling dangerous melee combatant and casting Sanctuary works as well, but then i must rely on my ranged friends.

[MaxWilson]

This happened in Pathfinder, and I was only a bystander, but I would say it works in 5e as well:

Evard's Black Tentacles and Stinking Cloud on exact same area. Requires two casters with at least 4th level spells (lvl 7 wiz or sor), since both are concentrated spells. If the group is capable, add Darkness and let the fun begin! Most creatures will be effectively blind, choking in poison, restrained and raped by kinkymancer's tentacles simultaneously.

Stinking Cloud effectively denies the targets from freeing themselves from the tentacles if they fail their constitution saves each round, and each target that is restrained by the tentacles take 3d6 damage at the start of their turns.

Horrific Death Trap combo, I'd say! D:

You can also achieve something very much like this with Animate Dead + (Stinking Cloud or Evard's Black Tentacles). Have your skeletons throw nets. Nets restrain unless you cut them off with an attack or break them with an action. Restraint means you have speed zero and cannot escape from AoE effects like EBT/Stinky. So there is basically zero chance the bad guys will be able to escape in one round (they can only break one of Net/AoE spell), and on your turn you can have your skeletons re-net anyone who escaped.

This isn't quite as powerful as EBT + Stinking Cloud together, but on the plus side you can achieve it with only one spellcaster instead of two.

Also goes hilariously well with Spike Growth and/or Repelling Blast.

[Zyrxan]

Something I'm planning on pulling on my party in a tournament in my game:

Two NPCs, one is a Paladin, the other is either going to be a Fighter or a Rogue (likely a Rogue). The Paladin has the Polearm Master and Sentinel feats and is equipped with a glaive or halberd. He has his aura of protection, is concentrating on Spirit Guardians, is directly behind the other NPC, and has pack tactics. The other NPC has an improved critical range, pack tactics, Parry, and either a) Action Surge and the Mobile feat, or b) Sneak Attack and Cunning Action.

They try to enter, take damage, and they get stopped just short of attacking the Paladin, and are left in range of the Fighter/Rogue to attack. (If Rogue) the Rogue gets automatic sneak attack because of pack tactics, and is able to Disengage back, followed by the Paladin moving back behind the Rogue. Rinse and repeat.

[Slipperychicken]

Grappling hook on a rope is kind of like slower at-will spider climb, good for movement in all directions. To make sure it's set properly and can support your weight, hang from it for about a minute while you're close to the ground. You can do this with multiple people to be absolutely sure. If you're an EK, you can use a bonded weapon like a grappling hook, so you can easily teleport it back and cause problems for enemies following you up a rope.

Nets and lassos are great for grounding flying enemies. Well, the ones that have wings anyway.

Use mounts and beasts of burden. They greatly magnify the loot you can carry. If you're not tracking encumbrance, it's an easy answer to a DM who gets uppity about how many bandit armors you're carrying around. Although if your DM is fussy about carry capacity, you might as well start tracking it anyway just so you can show it to him when he starts up about it.

Continual flame on a nice-looking object should fetch a good price. Even if it counts as a common magic item, that's a base price of 100 gold compared to 50 you spent casting it. Doesn't take much DM-adjudication beyond some common sense inferences.

Continual flame might also be used to make one of those head-mounted flashlights. I'm still iffy on the specifics but what you need is some kind of chamber that you can easily open and shut to let the light out without risking it falling out of the object. The end result is a flashlight for a little more than 50 gold, which automatically dispels most magical darkness.


Everybody uses Hex in combat, but totally forget that it gives advantages to many skill checks. If you want the tavern keeper to not notice you stealing from him, or to turn someone's good lie into a lame bluff, be sure to have it prepared.

Also good for making sure people fail combat maneuver checks. If you want someone disarmed, grappled, or shoved, then Hex is one way to stack the odds to favor your fighter. Maybe you can get two ally casters to help lock down a spellcaster enemy, so the fighter can wrestle him down (grapple + prone) and wail on him inside a silence spell. There's very little he can do from that position, especially if you take time to rip off his spellcasting focus too.

[TurboGhast]

This trick requires a pit to traverse, two spells learnt, and an apparent alliance.

Trick your false ally into thinking you cast a Tenser's Floating Disk for them to ride over the pit, when you actually cast Silent Image that will drop the down it.

[Arkhios]

If you're an EK, you can use a bonded weapon like a grappling hook, so you can easily teleport it back and cause problems for enemies following you up a rope.

Well, technically there's nothing against EK bonding with an actual grappling hook, because even improvised weapons are treated in all respects as if they were weapons =)

[NewDM]

Didn't read the thread. Here's my trick:

have a party member open a door to a 30x30 foot room full of enemies. Cast Cloud Kill in the center of the room and then close the door. Wait a minute, then open the door and loot the corpses.

Alternatively if you have two casters you can have one ready an action to cast Wall of Force (hemisphere) centered on the others Cloud Kill and have the other cast Cloud Kill for the same effect. If you have two rounds you can do the same with one caster.

If you have two casters you can do the same with Force Cage.

Something most people don't consider tricky. Cast Hold person/monster on an enemy and proceed to melee hit it with crits till it goes down. Works against many boss monsters until they start getting Legendary Resistances. Even then a Cleric and a Wizard can do it in 2 rounds.

[comk59]

This isn't quite as clever as the other tricks, but it happened in my game.

The players needed to arrest a minor villian who was currently escaping on an airship. A quick barrage brought the ship down, killing everyone on board. They quickly dig through the wreckage and find his body. Then the cleric says something I was not at all expecting to hear.

"I cast Revivify."

I was so proud.

[Saeviomage]

Yeah, note that revivify does not include the standard text that requires the target's soul is willing. If you're sure your foes don't have access to true resurrection, you can combo it with gentle repose for foolproof prisoner transport.

[Khutef]

My group made some trickery last play session. 6 enemies in a room with some torches. We got a surprise round. Warlock casts Silence to the room, 2 other characters extinguish the torches and then our Barbarian with darkvision went in. Enemies were blind and deaf and their screams won't go anywhere. The enemies were dead in less that 1,5 rounds of combat.

[Sir cryosin]

I heard this from a dm on this forum one of his players solo a dragon. What he did he took a potion of flying his bear trap he had and rope tide the rope to him and then to the trap sneaked into the dragon lair. Drink the potion fly to the back of the dragon latching the trap to its back and then proceed to shoot arrows into it tell it was dead. So that got me thinking of other ways to use stuff like that.

[Asmotherion]

I heard this from a dm on this forum one of his players solo a dragon. What he did he took a potion of flying his bear trap he had and rope tide the rope to him and then to the trap sneaked into the dragon lair. Drink the potion fly to the back of the dragon latching the trap to its back and then proceed to shoot arrows into it tell it was dead. So that got me thinking of other ways to use stuff like that.

Well this reminds me a session that happened in 3.5 but I see nothing to prevent it from happening in 5e.

I was playing a level 20 Lich sorcerer and my Dm threw a Red Dragon at me. Apparently we were into a big anti magic field (I still think it was cheesee to have my caster fight alone, with no spells, against a red dragon, but anyway) so the red dragon ended up gobbing my character alive. Since the dragon was obviously not in it's lair and I figured it eventually would go there, once my body respawned, I scryed on the dragon, and since the scry worked, it was apparently out of the anti magic field. I then teleported in the dragon's body, made a medicine check to locate the heart, and then proceeded with cutting it's arterias with a dagger (apparently I could not cast finger of death because the dragon had reactivated the anti magic field) In any case, I got my equipment back.

[Belac93]

A winged tiefling warlock with spell sniper and eldritch spear can hit anything within 600 feet, at-will. And can fly, so hitting them is nearly impossible. Good for military campaigns.

Monk Archers are also surprisingly effective. Taking 1-3 levels of fighter makes it even better. Once you get to level 9, you can run up walls, and pretty much get anywhere.

[RickAllison]

A winged tiefling warlock with spell sniper and eldritch spear can hit anything within 600 feet, at-will. And can fly, so hitting them is nearly impossible. Good for military campaigns.

Monk Archers are also surprisingly effective. Taking 1-3 levels of fighter makes it even better. Once you get to level 9, you can run up walls, and pretty much get anywhere.

Some thoughts on the monk archer.

1) He is one archer who becomes MORE dangerous when you get into his face.

2) Especially with a custom-made weapon, there is an excellent argument for wielding a longbow as a quarterstaff, meaning one could close while firing, then smack them around all using the same stat.

3) Even without that improvised staff, the monk is never more than an object interaction from transitioning between archer and melee powerhouse.

4) Catching projectiles means he gets a reaction attack rather than a bonus action attack, leaving that for mobility shenanigans.

Very potent.

[Daishain]

Lets see, some of the tricks I've pulled:

-used minor image to pop up what looked like a tasty halfling peering down into the ominous pool of water ahead of us. Got the hydra within to waste its ambush chomping on thin air
-after identifying an explosive trap wedged into a door, used catapult to launch the payload down the hall behind it. It happened to be empty, but oh well
-used a large sack of flour and gust of wind to set up a room for a dust explosion
-using a metric buttload of rope, pitons, and tetanus festooned blades we found lying around, laid multiple gravity based traps that could easily be triggered at need with mage hand
-used AT's invisible mage hand to deliver contact and ingested poison doses on the sly

[Crgaston]

You can also achieve something very much like this with Animate Dead + (Stinking Cloud or Evard's Black Tentacles). Have your skeletons throw nets. Nets restrain unless you cut them off with an attack or break them with an action. Restraint means you have speed zero and cannot escape from AoE effects like EBT/Stinky. So there is basically zero chance the bad guys will be able to escape in one round (they can only break one of Net/AoE spell), and on your turn you can have your skeletons re-net anyone who escaped.

This isn't quite as powerful as EBT + Stinking Cloud together, but on the plus side you can achieve it with only one spellcaster instead of two.

Also goes hilariously well with Spike Growth and/or Repelling Blast.

Hunger of Hadar and Spike growth have excellent synergy as well. 2d4 for every 5' travelled from spikes plus 2d6 cold at the start of their turn and 2d6 milky acid tentacle damage (save for none) if they end their turn there. Plus darkness and creepy slurping sounds.

Both with a 20' radius..

[Asmotherion]

I guess this one seems less of a trick and more of a logical use of the spell, but you may use the gate spell to create a portal right under your opponent's feet. By raw they have no save, though this might vary from Dm to Dm. The portal may link to the sky of the 9 hells, the sky of the elenental plane of fire or the sky of any plane that is not welcoming to visitors or has a climate that can be harmfull. Maybe both. I personally like the idea of oppening it to the nine hells or one of the planes of the abyss. Anyway...

If you oppen the portal, let's say 200 ft above the ground, in the sky, you both banish your enemy away (if he has no flying speed or/and you stop concentration on the spell) and he takes 20d6 falling dammage (as he fell 1 mile and the dammage cap for falling dammage is 20d6), which could potentially kill him. You may also specify some other hazard for when he hits the ground, such as oppening the portal in the elemental plane of fire, 200 feet above the crater of a giant volcano, which would make him land in molten lava to add some more per turn dammage, ensuring your kill.

Now, if your dm allows a save, you can always keep the portal oppen, and use repelling blast/lighting lure/gust and other field control abilities to push them inside.

Also, the highest dammage output I've fount to use aggresivelly. Use Prismatic Wall either around you+lightining lure or behind your foes and then repelling blast/gust them on it.

Easy money for a bard:

With magical secrets, grab "find steed" from the paladin spell list. Unlike the paladin, who is more likely to be lawful than not, you can sell your warhorse at anyone interested to buy it, then summon it when you leave town, and do the same in any town you visit. If questioned, you are not reaponsible if someone stole the horse they bought from you but "you are sorry to hear that and hope your old companion is still well werever he is".