AoE Hell: Devastating Overlapping AoE spells

[Easy_Lee]

Say you have four full casters in one party, any class and archetype combinations. What's the most devastating four-spell AoE combination that party could drop at a given tier of play?

Sample: spike growth, plant growth, stinking cloud, evard's black tentacles. The odds of escaping this zone without magic are small.

[Chugger]

Spike growth is nasty. I don't have much experience with the other ones, but from what I know - yes - that combo would be awful to face.

I'm curious on Spike growth is someone can pls help me. If a druid casts it in a cave that has a rocky floor - i.e. no dirt or sand or mud - can spiky plants still grow out of the rock? It is a spell and they are conjured (I guess this applies to entangle, too). The phb, as far as I've seen, doesn't specifically say you can't cast spike growth on a rock floor - or inside a house with a tile or wood floor - or on a beach (technically very little grows in salty beach sand right near the water) - but again what is growing is conjured and may not need soil. Is there an official ruling on this pls?

[McNinja]

Four wizards casting meteor swarm on the same area. Good way to get rid of a town the group doesn't like.

[Rogue_1]

Surprisingly, one of my favorite combinations is a full team of Sorcerers, with one dropping an Extended Otiluke's Resilient Sphere/Extended Forcecage around the target immediately after the other three all drop Extended Delayed Blast Fireballs. My DM rules because of the extremely close quarters, the heat is reflected and contained, thus doing a significant bit of extra damage. Then again, if they have resistance/immunity to the most common energy type. . . expect a facial reconstruction to something resembling this : (-__-)

[Easy_Lee]

Spike growth is nasty. I don't have much experience with the other ones, but from what I know - yes - that combo would be awful to face.

I'm curious on Spike growth is someone can pls help me. If a druid casts it in a cave that has a rocky floor - i.e. no dirt or sand or mud - can spiky plants still grow out of the rock? It is a spell and they are conjured (I guess this applies to entangle, too). The phb, as far as I've seen, doesn't specifically say you can't cast spike growth on a rock floor - or inside a house with a tile or wood floor - or on a beach (technically very little grows in salty beach sand right near the water) - but again what is growing is conjured and may not need soil. Is there an official ruling on this pls?

Spike growth doesn't require a specific terrain. It says spikes grow out of the terrain whatever it happens to be. It doesn't create plants either, though entangle does.

[Beelzebubba]

Spike growth is nasty. I don't have much experience with the other ones, but from what I know - yes - that combo would be awful to face.

I'm curious on Spike growth is someone can pls help me. If a druid casts it in a cave that has a rocky floor - i.e. no dirt or sand or mud - can spiky plants still grow out of the rock? It is a spell and they are conjured (I guess this applies to entangle, too). The phb, as far as I've seen, doesn't specifically say you can't cast spike growth on a rock floor - or inside a house with a tile or wood floor - or on a beach (technically very little grows in salty beach sand right near the water) - but again what is growing is conjured and may not need soil. Is there an official ruling on this pls?

If a spell has a specific limitation about where and when it can be cast, it's in the spell. Like, Web needs a wall or else it collapses. Call Lightning needs a big enough open space.

If it doesn't have a specific limitation like that built in, don't add one. It's magic. It's also not meant to mimic reality, it's meant to be a game. So, don't try to use 'physics' too much. Roll with it.

Yes, it 'conjures' things with magic that disappear after the spell is over.

[Kane0]

Anything that holds targets in place like black tentacles or the like coupled with moonbeam.

[Rebonack]

Spike Growth combined with Hunger of Hadar is pretty hilarious.

Do overlapping zones of difficult terrain eat three feet of movement to go one foot? Or is that another example of things that don't stack?

[Easy_Lee]

Spike Growth combined with Hunger of Hadar is pretty hilarious.

Do overlapping zones of difficult terrain eat three feet of movement to go one foot? Or is that another example of things that don't stack?

That depends on the DM. Difficult terrain specifically says it costs 2' to move 1'. The most reasonable way to stack them, and what seems to be most common, is to just add.

For example, spike growth on entangle: spike growth says 4' for 1', and entangle creates difficult terrain. Result: 5' for 1'. At least, that seems to be the consensus ruling as best I can tell.

I'm unsure if there is an official ruling on difficult + difficult or difficult + spike growth.

[Citan]

Spike Growth combined with Hunger of Hadar is pretty hilarious.

Do overlapping zones of difficult terrain eat three feet of movement to go one foot? Or is that another example of things that don't stack?
Doesn't work. Difficult terrain is difficult terrain. By RAW effects of the same nature don't stack. So you cannot create difficult terrain "over" difficult terrain. Once a zone has been labeled as such, its there. You can perfectly expand the zone though by overlapping a spell that would create difficult terrain in a larger radius than a previous one.

HOWEVER, Plant Growth creates terrain which is not labeled "difficult" but still requires 4 feet of speed for 1 speed of movement. In my reading, that makes it totally compatible with any spell creating "difficult terrain" which effectively makes you move "at half-speed compared to normal". Plus it's non-concentration

That's why it's one of my top three spells in the whole game as far as battlefield control goes.

My best combination so far is extremely WIS-geared: Plant Growth + Spirit Guardians or Moonbeam. ;) Add a circular Wall of Fire on top of that and you are golden.


That depends on the DM. Difficult terrain specifically says it costs 2' to move 1'. The most reasonable way to stack them, and what seems to be most common, is to just add.

Hmm. Interesting view, I had actually never seen it like that. In my view the important portion of the PHB was "half speed" and the "1 feet for 2 speed" just an example given for usual terrain. So I would have said either "don't stack at all" (probably the most sensible, but totally against ROC) or "resolve sequentially" which meant than you applied the halving "onto" the effect of Plant Growth (but this makes it admittedly extremely powerful, because it would end as "spend 8 speed to move 1 feet").

Just "adding" the additional speed required feels weird, but may be the best ruling balance-wise...