Favorite AoE Spells?

[Roberration]

I'm curious to see what everyone's go-to set of AoE spells are. In particular, which ones would you always want to have available within your party that offer the best combination of versatility, power, and efficiency? Obviously, most people are likely to place fireball high on the list, due to the way the spell is designed, but I wanted to see if there are any unexpected or unique takes on this.

[hymer]

I don't think I'll ever retire the simple Entangle spell on a druid. As long as you are dealing with enemies of a strength score no higher than your own casting stat, it throws a serious wrench in mobility and attacks at the very reasonable cost of a first level spell slot.

[Zhorn]

Favorite AoE Spells?

I'm curious to see what everyone's go-to set of AoE spells are.

In particular, which ones would you always want to have available within your party that offer the best combination of versatility, power, and efficiency?

Not always the same thing
Favourite: Circle... of DEATH!
Go-to: Fireball
Versitile/power/efficiency: Sleep

Just for the first 40-ish seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgANMmwM4bw

[jaappleton]

Favorite: Spirit Guardians. Amazing damage type, ally-friendly. Not really a traditional big AoE, though.

Go-To: Shatter. Smaller radius than Fireball, for sure. Targets Con, which isn’t super amazing, but a good damage type and available pretty early. Ol’ reliable, that’s what Shatter is.

Favorite one I never get to actually use: SUNBEAM. By far my favorite damage dealing spell in the game, great damage type, Concentration and repeatable, blinds enemies.... I love it. I really wish there was a lower level version of it, a blast spell extending from the caster in a line that was also Concentration and spammable. I’d love a lv3 or lv4 version of the spell.

[Crgaston]

Probably not unique, as people know about these, but...

Spike Growth: Difficult Terrain +damage for movement, including forced movement like Battlemaster or OH Monk Shoves, or Repelling Blast? It's a cheese grater.

Plant Growth: Non-concentration, it's huge, and it makes each foot of movement cost 4 feet. And it stacks with Difficult Terrain. Plus you can selectively make paths for your allies if necessary.

Hunger of Hadar: Creepy and fun!

Synaptic Static: Targets Int, does Psychic damage, and makes enemies subtract 1d6 from every attack roll, ability check and Concentration save. Effects last up to a minute but DOESN'T use Concentration.

[Nagog]

Well as a preface, I typically don't invest in AoE, I typically go for things like Scorching Ray and Magic Missile for multishot, but when I do go AoE I prefer to work it into an Area Control build. So my favorite is Spike Growth. Better than Entangle because it doesn't require any saving throw at all, but it keeps them from moving if they're smart. If they're not wise, they move and take damage. Then I can push them back into it for more damage.

[Lunali]

Shatter, low level, small enough area to work around friends, fun surprises from targeting terrain, damage type that works on fiends.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Bless: just try to remove the paladin concentration not.

Darkness: leveling the playing field, blocking vision and really good on some builds.

Mass Suggestion: because one target wasn't enough.

Hypnotic Pattern: just a great AoE debuff.

[Goldlizard]

gonna sound strange, but in my opinion, one of the most effective, low level AoEs is...

Grease

[DerficusRex]

Not strange at all, it's perfect for 10' wide corridors.

Web is nice too (and can be consumed for an extra 2d4 fire damage from burning webs if someone subsequently drops a Fireball on it).

[Bobthewizard]

If you mean AOE blasts, I just take fireball. For AOE control, hypnotic pattern and mass suggestion are my favorites.

[Callak_Remier]

Otilukes freezing sphere cause **** your army.

[Haldir]

Hypnotic Pattern and Spirit Guardians.

I don't care for anything that targets CON (most common monster save prof.) or anything that deals Fire damage (most commonly resisted and ignored damage type)

[JakOfAllTirades]

My current favorites, subject to change when I level up.

Plant Growth. Situationally useful, but in the right encounter, it'll pretty much shut down the enemy.

Hypnotic Pattern. Another encounter-ending spell. I use it to avoid fights more often than to end them. Works better that way.

Create Bonfire. It's only a 5' x 5' area, but I can spam it all day long for 3d8 fire damage. Also great for lowering property values.

[8wGremlin]

Spirit Guardians. it is amazing.
You can up cast it for more damage, if you need to. +1d8/level
It reduces movement to all Enemies in it's 15 radius.
It does radiant (or necrotic if evil) damage every round to enemies who enter it, or start their turn in it, if they fail a wisdom save, or half damage.
It's like you're a tiny moving fireball that goes off every round.

[Zeikin]

Mirage Arcana.

[Makorel]

Fireball. Always Fireball. I've been very unimpressed by AOE control spells. Both Fireball and Hypnotic Pattern can take out a room of dudes but if there's a second and third wave you're going to be Fireballing either way because your concentration is being used on the first wave with Hypnotic Pattern. You might as well have Fireballed the first wave and saved your concentration for something else.

[Laserlight]

Persuasion/ Deception :-)

Favorite AoE I Never Cast: Call Lightning. Theoretically, such a great spell, but I've had exactly one opportunity to use it.

[Ogre Mage]

Fireball -- 8d6 AoE damage is big for a 3rd level spell.

Hypnotic Pattern -- so many save or suck spells allow a save every round. Not this one! Superb control.

Spirit Guardians -- a powerful mix of persistent damage and control. Can do more damage than fireball under the right circumstances.

[Crucius]

Erupting Earth is my favorite for the combination of straight up damage, upcast potential, synergy with Empowered metamagic and crowd control through difficult terrain.

Never used it myself but I think I would like Spirit Guardians and Destuctive Wave for the damage + crowd control potential. No friendly fire is such a huge boon in an AoE.

[NNescio]

I used to really like Tidal Wave, but then it got nerfed by Xanathar's.

It's still nice for antiair against non-hovering enemies (especially if you can't spare the concentration for Sleet Storm), and can instantly wipe out fire elementals, but since the water no longer sticks around after casting (due to the stealth errata), you an no longer use it to flood areas, which was really useful for flushing out (heh) enemies (vampires in particular), general BFC, and Control Water shenanigans.

[BoxANT]

Watery Sphere.
Even after the XGtE nerf, it is still an amazing CC aoe.

Also, the humble Fog Cloud. Very useful.

[Zetakya]

Storm Sphere. AoE damage, plus AoE control, plus an ongoing bonus action attack? Gimme some of that!

[loki_ragnarock]

I have a fondness for Moonbeam, mostly because I think I've willfully misinterpreted how it is supposed to work.

It's a second level spell.
A creature takes damage when it enters the area of the spell for the first time on a turn.
You can move it 60ft on your next turn.

My potential willful misinterpretation is that "enters the spell area for the first time on a turn" includes when you move the beam into the creatures space as an action, and that moving it "60ft in any direction" can be used with tactical precision.


So round one is underwhelming. Round two is probably going to hit most everything on the board for the cost of an action.
But what I really like about this spell is that is has the potential to combo so well. With a little help from a party it could transform from an extremely precise (if low damage) area of effect to a fairly considerable single target smackdown; the druid moves the spell through and then just behind target (2d10), the warlock with repelling blast moves the target through it on his turn (2d10), the Battlemaster or Open Hand Monk pushes the target back into the beam (2d10), the target starts its turn (2d10). 8d10 for a second level spell with a little party buy in seems pretty great.
And with that kind of party buy in, upcasting scales better than most dedicated single target damage spells: 8d10 (average 40+ damage) for a second level spell slot, 12d10 (65ish damage) for a third level spell slot, 16d10 (80-90 damage) for a 4th level slot, 20d10 (110ish) for a 5th, and so on up to 36d10 for a 9th level slot (an average of roughly 200ish damage).
These numbers can get higher the more compatible party members you have available, and with the right party it never really stops being a good option, rivaling even Meteor Swarm for effectiveness. Even when a 9th level slot could realistically be put to other uses, it remains a solid option. The same cannot be said of most AoEs.

Yes, it's a con save, but that's probably only to make it halfway fair, as those damage numbers cut in half are still fairly impressive. Even if they make all their saves, it still blows through a ton of hit points round after round after round, for up to a minute. Even if they have legendary resistance, it can potentially force a metric ton of saves very quickly, round after round, with the use of one spell slot.

Heck, even if you don't have a Battlemaster, or an Open Hand, or a Repelling Blaster, or a Wizard with Thunderwave, or a Shield Master, if you're casting Moonbeam, you are a druid. Just teach the rest of your party druidic magic by having them take the Magic Initiate and Thornwhip and watch the magic happen.
(Don't do this. Just work with your fellow players to milk this for all it's worth, as it's likely to work a lot better than having everyone take thorn whip. But, uh, DM types might want to consider what a wretched idea assaulting a druid grove would be, even when the archdruid is out of town.)


TL;DR
Moonbeam - when used as a teambuilding exercise - is an incredibly precise if low damage AoE and simultaneously a god tier single target damage spell that can be used round after round after round, scaling effectively to remain relevant from low level to high level.

It's the idea of a spell that enables and rewards teamwork so effectively that makes it bring a smile to my face; this is a game for playing with friends.
That I might also be the only person endorsing it means I probably took too liberal a rules interpretation somewhere along the line, but I'm pretty sure most of that analysis will stand up to scrutiny.


EDIT:
I didn't start this post realizing just exactly how good this spell was, but I've come away pretty impressed.
Now I want to play a Warforged "druid" who's just connected to a satellite that shoots a friggan lazer beam into the area of effect as the fluff for casting Moonbeam.

[Trickery]

Sleet Storm creates a situation that strongly favors a small, clustered team of tough units.

Huge area and range
Due to 40' radius, you can hit targets that you can't even see with this spell
Casters effectively cannot concentrate within the area
Difficult terrain + knock prone effect, enemies are going nowhere
Can stack other aoes on top of it to slowly kill everything inside
Grounds flying creatures
Makes stealth easy due to obscuring the area - may even get a benefit from the noise it creates.

Really, really great spell.

[Snowbluff]

Seconding some posts above, I will always vouch for Spirit Guardians (I use a Sorc/Cleric tank with Spirit Guardians and Booming Blade to control enemy movements) and Synaptic Static (melt their brains for no concentration!).

Something I didn't see was Sickening "4d10 damage, not great but not horrifying" Radiance. It's just such an awful spell. Getting your friends exhaustion levels because everything is suddenly a horribly radioactive quagmire is such a terrible thing to do, because it takes at least a long rest or greater restoration to remove exhaustion unless you end the spell early. However, if you can get it around your teammates, or have Sculpt Spell or Careful Spell, it can be a lot more helpful. It gives exhaustion, deals decent damage of a good type, and also clears invisibility effects. Put it down and either follow up with some damage cantrips for mooks or Blindess for bosses to spam down their Legendary Resistance.

Another really good one is Lightning Arrow. It scales super well, with both an attack roll and an AoE component both receiving an extra d8 per level, and can be maximized by a Tempest Cleric's Destructive Wrath, or crit with an Assassin, and can be picked up by a bard. It's an optimization playground in spell form! Honestly, the biggest problem is probably that it's a ranger spell, when full casting would do a lot more.

Wall of Fire is great. It blocks line of sight, and does some fire damage. Due to how it works it's almost always guaranteed to tick damage twice. That's 45 for a slot one level higher than fireball, which is 28 damage. It's usually my go to for fighting casters, because it can't be seen through, and a lot of spells need people to see. On top of that, it also does damage for concentration checks.

[Misterwhisper]

Top 3:


3. Hunger of hadar on a lore bard.
On a warlock it loses too much to break the top 3.

Good range at 150 ft, and with a diameter of 40 feet it can cover a lot of ground.
It is amazing for chokepoints.
It is not darkness, it is straight blindness inside with no save.
Also because it is not considered darkness, devils sight and the like don’t see though it. ( one reason it is not great for warlocks.)
It also makes it difficult terrain but not just on the ground, it makes it difficult everywhere so very nice against fliers.
It is minor damage at 2d6 but no save, and another 2d6 if they fail a save.
The problems with the spell are really only a problem for warlocks. It is a level 3 warlock uniques spell but they did not give it any scaling at all.
A warlock past level 7 has some big choices to make on if it is worth it, a bard can still just use it at level 3, and has many more spell slots.

2. Sickening radiance

The spell gives exhaustion... that is plenty to make it great.
The damage is just ok for the level but a great type.
The invisibility killing is very nice.
Another great point is that saving once does not make you immune or break the spell like some other spells.
The main reason this spell is amazing is because of the number 1 spell.

1. ForceCage

20 ft cage anywhere you want with only 1/2 inch games in the bars
Lasts a hour
No save
No concentration
Can’t be damaged except by high level spells
Can’t be dispelled
Can’t teleport out without a charisma save
Also covers ethereal travel

Essentially unless you are a full caster who has the right spell prepared and can make a high charisma save, good game, you are now dead.

You can easily get multiple people trapped in it and then just firebolt, magic missile, fireball, cloud kill, whatever you want until they are dead. Or as with my number 2 spell, Sickening radiance, have fun with those 60 con saves.

The spell has gotten to the point it just plain got banned I’m my area.

[ImproperJustice]

1. Storm Sphere: Upcasts well, minor area control, and bonus action damage to stack with other AoEs. An excellent opening spell.

2. Tidal Wave: the small area really helps, but Watery Sphere is my usual preferred control spell.

3. Wall of Fire: In a 10’ corridor it can just clobber a group of bottlenecked foes.

[Kane0]

I'm curious to see what everyone's go-to set of AoE spells are. In particular, which ones would you always want to have available within your party that offer the best combination of versatility, power, and efficiency? Obviously, most people are likely to place fireball high on the list, due to the way the spell is designed, but I wanted to see if there are any unexpected or unique takes on this.

1st: Fog Cloud, Color Spray, Thunderwave
2nd: Spike growth, Shatter, Web, Orbital Death Laser Moonbeam
3rd: Sleet Storm, Spiritual Guardians, Thunderstep, Fireball
4th: Black Tentacles, Sickening Radiance, Storm Sphere, Hallucinatory Terrain
5th: Synaptic Static, Cone of Cold, Destructive Wave, Antilife Shell

[airless_wing]

Entangle and Faerie Fire are such incredible spells. There are so many encounters that are just trivialized or just made considerably easier with those two.
Spike growth is another one that I don't get to use often. But when I do, it's always such a treat. The fact that it is hidden, restricts movement, and deals damage is just too good to not have prepared.