Best combos using spike growth?

[dnd2016]

I like thorn whip, d.whispers and fear, ( if they dont know its there), Thunder wave. Any others?

[RulesJD]

Wild Shape -> Bear/Giant Eagle/Earth Elemental eventually -> Grapple -> force enemy movement.

Nothing beats that.

[PeteNutButter]

Yeah, grapple pretty much takes the cake.

Push back abilities are also good against enemy melee, such as the open hand monk push back, the BM move, or repelling blast.

[gfishfunk]

Shove is great. In order to re-close the distance, they have to go back through spike growth.

[Hrugner]

grapple and a fast mount.

[Mordrigar]

Ask your Warlock Friend to use Repelling Blast on your enemies.

[dnd2016]

Wild Shape -> Bear/Giant Eagle/Earth Elemental eventually -> Grapple -> force enemy movement.

Nothing beats that.

But wouldnt the druid have to go in himself to drag?

[MaxWilson]

But wouldnt the druid have to go in himself to drag?

Yes, unless he's in Giant Eagle or Air Elemental form, or unless if he can fast-talk his DM into letting him drag his enemy around the Spike Growth perimeter from outside the perimeter.

[JellyPooga]

Shove is great. In order to re-close the distance, they have to go back through spike growth.

Enter Shield Master, stage right...

[NNescio]

An allied Warlock with Repelling Blast.

Otherwise, well, there's always the tentacle he Giant Octopus form at low levels. At higher levels you might want to use a flying form to manually grapple your enemies instead, but at that point Spike Growth has already lost much of its luster (plus you might as well just fly upwards and drop your opponent if you are in a flying form and you successfully grapple your opponent.).

[MaxWilson]

An allied Warlock with Repelling Blast.

Otherwise, well, there's always the tentacle he Giant Octopus form at low levels. At higher levels you might want to use a flying form to manually grapple your enemies instead, but at that point Spike Growth has already lost much of its luster (plus you might as well just fly upwards and drop your opponent if you are in a flying form and you successfully grapple your opponent.).

At 10th level, a Moon Druid with Athletics proficiency can cast Spike Growth and turn into an Air Elemental. Next round, he can grapple an enemy and (assuming he can handle the weight) drag it 45' for 18d4 (45) damage, or 50' for 20d4 if he's got Longstrider on. If a wizard buddy is willing to Haste him, he can drag the enemy around in circles 180' (or 200' w/ Longstrider) for 72d4 (180) points of damage (80d4 (200) w/ Longstrider) on the first round, and 50% more (up to 120d4 (300)) on the second round when he double-Dashes.

That's still pretty lustrous.

Edit: also, 120d4 (300) damage from spike dragging is better than 20d6 (70) from falling damage, and you don't have to re-grapple after you do it.

[RulesJD]

But wouldnt the druid have to go in himself to drag?

Not really. If I'm Grappling someone by grabbing their neck and dragging them through, my hands wouldn't be touched by the spikes. You don't enter the space of the creature you're grappling.

[dnd2016]

Cool stuff. So if druid changes to hawk, what's the rule for grappling, then flying off with him?

[MaxWilson]

Cool stuff. So if druid changes to hawk, what's the rule for grappling, then flying off with him?

The rule is: ask your DM if you can still drag him.

By RAW, you need a "free hand" to grapple, so technically a hawk can't grapple at all, let alone drag. A reasonable DM may very well let that slide. Also, a hawk will have a very low carrying capacity so you'll only be able to drag very small creatures. A reasonable DM probably won't let that slide unless he fails to consider the "drag" limits on carrying capacity in the first place.

[gfishfunk]

Looking at the text of the spell, it says 'the ground' gets the spike growth in a certain radius.

Would the side of a cliff count? It is 'ground' but it is not 'floor'. If so, shoving someone 10' back through thorns and then 10' down a cliff side could really mess them up.

[Talionis]

At 10th level, a Moon Druid with Athletics proficiency can cast Spike Growth and turn into an Air Elemental. Next round, he can grapple an enemy and (assuming he can handle the weight) drag it 45' for 18d4 (45) damage, or 50' for 20d4 if he's got Longstrider on. If a wizard buddy is willing to Haste him, he can drag the enemy around in circles 180' (or 200' w/ Longstrider) for 72d4 (180) points of damage (80d4 (200) w/ Longstrider) on the first round, and 50% more (up to 120d4 (300)) on the second round when he double-Dashes.

That's still pretty lustrous.

Edit: also, 120d4 (300) damage from spike dragging is better than 20d6 (70) from falling damage, and you don't have to re-grapple after you do it.

RAW, maybe this works, but my understanding is that RAI from Tweets is that you can only cause the damage for the first time you move through it in a round and you can't drag them in and out of the Spike Growth to do ridiculous damage.

[MaxWilson]

RAW, maybe this works, but my understanding is that RAI from Tweets is that you can only cause the damage for the first time you move through it in a round and you can't drag them in and out of the Spike Growth to do ridiculous damage.

Wow. If that was really their intent, they sure messed up on writing the spell text because it says the opposite. "It takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels."

[PeteNutButter]

A tempest cleric with lightning lure cantrip can pull a foe in, and then push them back out, forcing them back into the middle again. Thats only 8d4, plus the 2d8+ of the spell.

It's nowhere near the OPness of grapple, but it is freaking silly to ping-pong foes, for the lulz.

[Talionis]

Wow. If that was really their intent, they sure messed up on writing the spell text because it says the opposite. "It takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels."

I'm with you because I like broken stuff that takes setup to accomplish. I think this edition has tried so hard to make damage stay within zones that even when they screw up they try to fix it with a tweet instead of letting it be a cool Easter egg.

[MaxWilson]

I'm with you because I like broken stuff that takes setup to accomplish. I think this edition has tried so hard to make damage stay within zones that even when they screw up they try to fix it with a tweet instead of letting it be a cool Easter egg.

Yeah. Furthermore, this combo isn't even easy to abuse. There are very few monsters which have both hundreds of HP and low weight. It's basically a PvP trick: usable for killing humanoids (NPCs), if they don't somehow block you (Counterspell), but not usable against most monsters without a ton of setup. If one of my players ever manages to usefully exploit this trick to defeat something which would otherwise be out of her weight class, I won't object, I'll applaud and make her PC a plaque on the Legend Wall!

[dev6500]

Grappling through spike growth is in the competition for best combo using spike growth but it has a high build cost.

The alternative competition for best spike growth combo is mold earth for 10-20 ft pits + spike growth + dragging them into the pit.

Spike growth is centered on a point so if the point is right above the pit, you have a 20 ft radius spike growth around the hole and spike growth going down the sides of the pit.

1. A 10 ft hole takes 3 turns to set up. Can be done silently because spell is somatic component only.
2. Any enemy within 10 ft of hole can be thorn whipped into the hole for 8d4 + 2d6 damage can then they are stuck in a hole that they have to spend triple movement to get out of and take 4d4 damage to climb out.
3. Only requires 1 2nd level spell and a bunch of cantrips as opposed to grapple which requires intense buffing and build requirements (haste, long strider, mobile, wild shape, expertise(athletics), cunning action, and spike growth). Without intense buffing and build focus you have less chance to succeed grapple and less drag speed.

So it doesn't spike as high the grapple build but has strategic benefits, can be done from range, and has a lower investment.

[dnd2016]

Actually, if I cast fear or D.whispers and they knew the spike growth was there, I guess they wouldn't be forced to go through it. They could just go around right?