Favorite 4th level spell?

[Skyblaze]

Going to be making a sorcerer soon and I've always noticed that 4th lvl is the odd ball when compared to 3rd and 5th level spells. What are some of your favorite 4th level spells? Doesn't have to be sorcerer accessable.

[nickl_2000]

Polymorph and Confusion.

In the last game I played I turned our stone sorcerer into a Giant Ape effectively ending 2 encounters (tearing apart ogres) and our Lizardfold Warlock into a T-Rex who basically ate the BBEG Giant.

A good casting of Confusion turned a deadly encounter into a trivial one.

[Nifft]

Polymorph and Confusion.

In the last game I played I turned our stone sorcerer into a Giant Ape effectively ending 2 encounters (tearing apart ogres) and our Lizardfold Warlock into a T-Rex who basically ate the BBEG Giant.

A good casting of Confusion turned a deadly encounter into a trivial one.

It sounds like you got to use Twin Polymorph? If so that's awesome -- Twin can take a great spell and make it borderline broken.

[Skyblaze]

Polymorph and Confusion.

In the last game I played I turned our stone sorcerer into a Giant Ape effectively ending 2 encounters (tearing apart ogres) and our Lizardfold Warlock into a T-Rex who basically ate the BBEG Giant.

A good casting of Confusion turned a deadly encounter into a trivial one.

Ohh I forgot about Polymorph, good spell to put on the list.

[nickl_2000]

It sounds like you got to use Twin Polymorph? If so that's awesome -- Twin can take a great spell and make it borderline broken.

In this case it was two different castings in different encounters. The giant was nasty to hit, we could barely hit it. So, I burned my other 4th level spell slot.


However, twinning Polymorph would be absolutely wicked.

[BoxANT]

Watery Sphere

Even after the nerf in Xanathar, it is still extremely powerful CC (and fun).


Dimension Door

So much potential, i like to combine it with Clairvoyance, drives the DM nuts.

[MaxWilson]

Going to be making a sorcerer soon and I've always noticed that 4th lvl is the odd ball when compared to 3rd and 5th level spells. What are some of your favorite 4th level spells? Doesn't have to be sorcerer accessable.

Evard's Black Tentacles has sometimes been the key to defeating ridiculously deadly encounters that I as a DM was dead sure was going to TPK the party.

Polymorph obviously.

Greater Invisibility is a pretty good combat buff, although it runs out of steam as you start fighting tougher foes that are more likely to have blindsight and truesight. (You can still use it against those higher foes if you're outside their truesight/blindsight range, but in my case I've houseruled away advantage for ranged attacks from unseen attackers, so the upside of using such spells at range is limited. I guess it would be better at a table using vanilla rules, but my counterpoint there would be that other spells like Minor Illusion can get you ranged advantage just as easily and more cheaply, which is the whole reason I houseruled it away.)

I haven't seen this one in practice, but it was brought to my attention recently that Aura of Life is a surprisingly interesting spell, especially against solo monsters that won't naturally "waste" multiple attacks savaging a downed opponent. It occupies roughly the same niche as an AoE Word of Healing spell.

I also like Otiluke's Resilient Sphere but in practice it gets overshadowed by Wall of Force, which is better in every way except cost.

Death Ward is a great spell for insurance when you're going up against unknown, deadly threats. It can buy you extra actions. E.g. when the wizard gets down to low HP against the Red Dragon, instead of bogeying on out of there for fear of being incinerated by its breath weapon, he can stay in the fight one more round and cast that Otto's Irresistible Dance or whatnot. Same deal if you're fighting Orcus or another monster with Power Word: Kill. Likewise, it may prevent you from being disintegrated by a beholder. In a general sense it's the polar opposite of Aura of Life, in that a table at which Death Ward is bad is a table at which Aura of Life is going to be good, and vice versa.

Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum has some interesting uses as a teleport/planar block, especially if you're interested in mass summoning + Planar Binding of Demons. It's not that great on its own but it's worth a mention.

Freedom of Movement is good in combination with spells like Evard's Black Tentacles and Web. It's an expensive but very strong tactic against anything without ranged weaponry.

Conjure Minor Elementals to get Magma Mephits or Mud Mephits is also a reasonably strong tactic. You can use them as scouts, meat shields, or both. (Heat Metal + Fire Breath makes Magma Mephits moderately decent at dealing damage too.)

[Oramac]

Fourth level has a metric ton of damn good spells. Too many to pick one clear winner, I think.

Others have said most of the obvious ones (like polymorph). I'll go with a different spell and say Greater Invisibility. In a melee heavy party it's downright amazing. Twin it on the Barbarian and Rogue and kill things faster. Or, to help maintain concentration and stay hidden, make yourself one of the targets instead.

[MephitBlue]

Banishment is a great 4th level spell that saved my party's ass twice so far. If you are fighting something from another dimension you can remove it from the battlefield forever. If it is a creature from the same plane, you have a minute to deal with the other baddies before it returns. Plus, it's a rare Charisma save, which is nice.

Greater Invisibility and Polymorph or great spells as well, but their merits have already been discussed by others :)

[Joe the Rat]

+1 for Banishment. But Polymorph is a bit more versatile - good for friends (GIANT APE), or removing enemies via sheepification.

[Kadesh]

Shadow of Moil.

[Finger6842]

Aura of Life, Aura of Purity, Banishment, Death Ward, Divination, Find Greater Steed, Greater Invisibility, Polymorph, Wall of Fire

All great options at 4th. Aura of Life, Banishment and Polymorph are my personal favorites.

[MaxWilson]

Oh, I forgot to mention Fabricate. Fabricate rocks.

[Nifft]

Oh, I forgot to mention Fabricate. Fabricate rocks.

"These rocks show exceptional workmanship."

[MrStabby]

As a DM, probably polymorph or Evards Tentacles. Both radically change a fight and can cause reevaluation of tactics if the caster flees. As a DM mordenkeinen's faithful hound gets an honourable mention - the PCs know there is something there but not exactly where, they know the enemy knows that there are intruders and they might be on a clock and there is great fun in combat with each side trying to manoeuvre round the dog, pushing PCs towards it...

As a PC... Banishment. It works in so many encounters, scales so well. Unfair to use it against PCs though and getting them to sit out a fight

[Kane0]

There's quite a few great ones to choose from. Personally I really like Banishment (Cha save), Dimension Door (don't need to see destination) and Ice Storm (great range).

Edit: Sickening Radiance also has some great applications and is growing on me.

[dspeyer]

I've been very pleased with Wall of Fire. It can divide an encounter so that you only have to deal with half at a time, or slowly cook an enemy with limited mobility and giant pools of HP, or provide a target for our warlock's Repelling Blast.

[ZenBear]

Evard’s Black Tentacles



Ladies... :smallwink::smalltongue:

[Vessyra]

Otiluke's resilient sphere. It can either be used to deal with one creature later (as with banishment) or it can be used to keep yourself safe. Watery sphere, while not powerful, is just such a fun spell to use, as you go around glowing your enemies up.

[ImproperJustice]

Watery Sphere

I took it for fun, but my goodness has it been hilariously effective. Whether I clogging a choke point, scooping up cavalry units (and sometimes their mounts), or just ruining a nice formation of archers or casters it is a lot of fun.
It helps that I have some good martial buddies that heap on the pain of my restrained or prone victims.

It has some other odd uses as well.
Need a safe ride down a high cliff and don’t mind getting wet?

Additionally, being able to extinguish all flames (and fire elementals) in a 30’ radius is also handy.

[Oramac]

Otiluke's resilient sphere.

Seconded! SKT spoilers in the spoiler text.

So my party had just finished talking to the Eye of the All-Father for the second time, and per the book, Iymrith swoops down in dragon form and enters the temple.
Also per the book, Harshnag engages her, giving the PCs time to run to safety. So what do they do? The wizard sneaks to within 100 feet and uses his familiar to see what happened to Harshnag. I RP'd like Iymrith threw him against a statue, knocked him out, and then went into the portal.

So what do the characters do? They run in and save Harshnag! But none of them can lift a Frost Giant, so the wizard casts Otiluke's Resilient Sphere around him, and the party Monk uses the Dash action for a minute straight to push the dumb sphere towards the exit. For story purposes, I fudged it a bit and said she got the sphere right to the edge of the entrance.

So now the party has an unconscious Frost Giant at the entrance of a temple with a hostile blue dragon potentially coming upon them at any time. They had previously explored the spider caves and knew there was a nearly-sheer drop of about 400 feet just north of the entrance. So what do they do? The put the giant in the Sphere AGAIN and push it over the edge of the cliff!! And since the sphere is weightless, the party paladin nails the Dex check to land on top of the sphere and push it down! And to top that all off, the wizard and monk basically base jump off the cliff, with the wizard casting Feather Fall on them both right before impacting the snow.

They ended up having the three PCs and the giant at the bottom of a 400 foot cliff looking up as Iymrith flew overhead. Quite possibly one of the most fun scenarios I've ever DM'd!

[MaxWilson]

Watery Sphere

I took it for fun, but my goodness has it been hilariously effective. Whether I clogging a choke point, scooping up cavalry units (and sometimes their mounts), or just ruining a nice formation of archers or casters it is a lot of fun.
It helps that I have some good martial buddies that heap on the pain of my restrained or prone victims.

Hmmm. I never looked closely at this spell before, but the fact that you can scoop other creatures up with it using your action kind of makes it like a mobile, re-usable Web spell (with very limited AoE). Interesting, and in conjunction with the bolded bit (lots of martial buddies) I can see why you're having fun with it.

[TheUser]

Wall of Fire.

It's so easy to make it form a sheet or ring that hits only enemies, it blocks vision, and after the first turn it comes into play there is no save for the damage. If you grab or push an enemy into the wall they take the damage.

[MrStabby]

Casters almost don't care about being targeted by Watery Sphere. Sure, it restrains them to make them easier targets for missile fire (advantage), but while you're using your action to move them around inside the sphere, they're using their action to paralyze, dominate, or blast the PCs.

I suspect that the bolded bit is the main reason you're enjoying it. It's always fun to help out other PCs. In that sense, Watery Sphere is kind of like a mobile, re-usable Web spell.

I find it to be particularly good against casters, or at least casters in dungeons. Put them in the sphere, hope that the caster is not proficient in strength saving throws then move the sphere out of sight round the corner. In reality, given that it takes a turn to do this what is more common is you grab the caster in the sphere and then other players move out of their field of view round a corner. Casters without line of sight can still contribute but are a lot more limited.

It is also a cool spell in ambushes or in conjunction with other PCs - moving NPCs into zones of silence, putting them next to mordenkeinen's faithful hounds or even just passing them about next to other targets to have them hit by area of effect spells.

[MaxWilson]

I find it to be particularly good against casters, or at least casters in dungeons. Put them in the sphere, hope that the caster is not proficient in strength saving throws then move the sphere out of sight round the corner. In reality, given that it takes a turn to do this what is more common is you grab the caster in the sphere and then other players move out of their field of view round a corner. Casters without line of sight can still contribute but are a lot more limited.

It is also a cool spell in ambushes or in conjunction with other PCs - moving NPCs into zones of silence, putting them next to mordenkeinen's faithful hounds or even just passing them about next to other targets to have them hit by area of effect spells.

If you're doing the bit in bold you might as well just be using a Web spell. Larger AoE and has the same pinning effect. (Also, moving the sphere around a corner could take multiple actions, since it can only move in straight lines each turn. You'd have to get lucky with geometry in order to be able to move an enemy caster directly around the corner in one action.)

The "scooping" action is pretty interesting though, especially for a wizard who doesn't have good at-will attacks as a default action. I can see why it's fun in a warrior-heavy party.

[MrStabby]

If you're doing the bit in bold you might as well just be using a Web spell. Larger AoE and has the same pinning effect.

The "scooping" action is pretty interesting though, especially for a wizard who doesn't have good at-will attacks as a default action. I can see why it's fun in a warrior-heavy party.

Yes, that's true. The sphere is more versatile though, can use it for other tricks as well. If you have a shortage of slots to prepare spells in it can cover the role of web, featherfall and an ongoing mobile ability to take enemies out of the fight. I do also love the web spell (only possible disagreement is that the larger AoE isn't always a good thing - friendly fire and all that)

Some DMs rule that you can breath underwater well enough to cast spells with verbal components, others rule that you can't breath in water without the waterbreathing spell (or other ability). Depending on your DM it might outright stop casting.

It is also sometimes useful out of combat - want to cross the trap laden floor of spiky doom? Everyone pile into the sphere and float across. Need to cross difficult terrain with enemies throwing fireballs at you? Jump into your water tank and float there with resistance to fire.

[MaxWilson]

Yes, that's true. The sphere is more versatile though, can use it for other tricks as well. If you have a shortage of slots to prepare spells in it can cover the role of web, featherfall and an ongoing mobile ability to take enemies out of the fight. I do also love the web spell (only possible disagreement is that the larger AoE isn't always a good thing - friendly fire and all that)

Some DMs rule that you can breath underwater well enough to cast spells with verbal components, others rule that you can't breath in water without the waterbreathing spell (or other ability). Depending on your DM it might outright stop casting.

It is also sometimes useful out of combat - want to cross the trap laden floor of spiky doom? Everyone pile into the sphere and float across. Need to cross difficult terrain with enemies throwing fireballs at you? Jump into your water tank and float there with resistance to fire.

Good points.

One advantage to Web over Watery Sphere is that Web requires an action (and a Strength check) to free yourself. Watery Sphere grants a new Strength saving throw every round for free. So, Web has more impact on enemy action economy.

Thanks to this thread I spent half an hour last night reviewing all of the best scenes from The Abyss. :-)

[MrStabby]

Good points.

One advantage to Web over Watery Sphere is that Web requires an action (and a Strength check) to free yourself. Watery Sphere grants a new Strength saving throw every round for free. So, Web has more impact on enemy action economy.

Thanks to this thread I spent half an hour last night reviewing all of the best scenes from The Abyss. :-)

Never seen the Abyss. Maybe should check it out.

Yeah, I won't argue about web. I love that spell. I do like watery sphere just because it does so much, although I wouldn't say it was my favourite, just good and pretty fun.

[MaxWilson]

Never seen the Abyss. Maybe should check it out.

Specifically, I'm imagining Watery Sphere slithering through the enemy lines, scooping up enemy creatures like a malevolent version of this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNLtPLFECNw

[MrStabby]

Specifically, I'm imagining Watery Sphere slithering through the enemy lines, scooping up enemy creatures like a malevolent version of this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNLtPLFECNw

Wow. Actually thats pretty much how I imagine the Water Wyrds.

[Maxilian]

Anything that summons is on my list of want! (Conjure Woodland beings, conjure elementals, summon Greater Demon -Giant Insect , mostly because of the theme.)

Note: It makes me so sad that Giant Insect is not, somehow, avaible for Warlocks (Would have loved to combine it with the invocation that gives you a swarm of insect around you)

Polymorph being a great addition (normally get it with the Warlock invocation -i always take this invocation if i get to lvl 7 with a warlock)

Sickening Radiance is WAYYY too good, exhaustion is a really painful condition and if you can force your enemy to stay in the area of the spell, even better! (Combine with Polymorph and a form with low movement and low CON, Exhaustion carries over)

Flavorwise:

Guardian of Nature, i love it, in the end, it is what is left of the Primeval Guardian UA and i really liked that UA, but i haven't been able to play around with the spell per se, so i have no idea how good or bad it would actually be.

[ImproperJustice]

Another thought for watery sphere:

Hitting the enemy with a follow up fireball, shatter, or lightning bolt is nice as they auto fail their dex saves.
It’s also a nice way to bring said enemy caster close to your friends.
I get a lot of mileage from one of my allies, a Dwarven Champion with shield master who likes to shield shove foes back into it, and then attack with advantage.
It’s not the best level 4 spell, but it is really fun.

In the same vein, I like Storm Sphere too.
Drop it in a good choke point and watch as the enemy slowly tries to clamber out. Unleash lightning bolts as a bonus action, while blasting the regrouping survivors with some other destructive spell of choice. It upscales very well.
I think it’s a good contender for an EK’s 4th level spell slot for dealing extra damage over an extended fight.

[MrStabby]

Another thought for watery sphere:

Hitting the enemy with a follow up fireball, shatter, or lightning bolt is nice as they auto fail their dex saves.
It’s also a nice way to bring said enemy caster close to your friends.
I get a lot of mileage from one of my allies, a Dwarven Champion with shield master who likes to shield shove foes back into it, and then attack with advantage.
It’s not the best level 4 spell, but it is really fun.

In the same vein, I like Storm Sphere too.
Drop it in a good choke point and watch as the enemy slowly tries to clamber out. Unleash lightning bolts as a bonus action, while blasting the regrouping survivors with some other destructive spell of choice. It upscales very well.
I think it’s a good contender for an EK’s 4th level spell slot for dealing extra damage over an extended fight.

Fireball is less good - they get fire resistance for being immersed in water.

[MaxWilson]

Fireball is less good - they get fire resistance for being immersed in water.

It's not clear from the spell text that they are in fact immersed in water. They could have their heads or limbs sticking out at any given moment.

[the secret fire]

Sickening Radiance is WAYYY too good, exhaustion is a really painful condition and if you can force your enemy to stay in the area of the spell, even better! (Combine with Polymorph and a form with low movement and low CON, Exhaustion carries over).

It is excellent (mostly because of the additive nature of exhaustion), one of the spells that is considerably more powerful in the hands of a sorcerer (who can use careful spell). Amazing bang for your buck in terms of area denial, and it never becomes obsolete.