Best Debuffer?

[jaappleton]

So my group is now level 10.

We have an Assassin Rogue, a Devotion Paladin, both a Forge and a War Cleric, and a Divination Wizard (who is mostly utility, but great at it). The two Clerics pretty much have AoE covered, between stuff like Wall of Fire and Spirit Guardians.

Looking to be a debuffer. Someone that can utterly lock down foes, render them totally useless.

All Unearthed Arcana available.

Leaning Sorcerer, but Bard also has a lot of merits to it. Stuff like the new Mind Sliver cantrip followed by quickened Slow to try to keep enemies stuck in its effect. Though the new Eloquence Bard has the ability to impose DisAdv on enemy saves (even VS effects imposed by items).

(We're playing Curse of Strahd, and many Undead are immune to Charm effects. So Lore Bard's ability of Cutting Words isn't quite as appealing as it normally is)

[CheddarChampion]

Useless like trapped behind a wall of force useless or slowed, synaptic static'd, frostbitten, and mind sliver'd useless?

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I will say bard, druid and the sorcerer work great.

Bard for spell stealing, the new collage give nice bonus action and nice debuff spells.

Druid have good spells for it.

Sorcerer have the ability to drop an AOE debuff without hurting your friends with careful spell and the new one have somw nice goods.

The shadow sorcerer do have a better heighten spell with the hound of ill oman but for offensive use only(if you just disable the guys the hound will kill him).

Warlock work great with rod of the pact keeper boosting DC(hold monster, hipnotic patterns and more save of suck).

[jaappleton]

I will say bard, druid and the sorcerer work great.

Bard for spell stealing, the new collage give nice bonus action and nice debuff spells.

Druid have good spells for it.

Sorcerer have the ability to drop an AOE debuff without hurting your friends with careful spell and the new one have somw nice goods.

The shadow sorcerer do have a better heighten spell with the hound of ill oman but for offensive use only(if you just disable the guys the hound will kill him).

Warlock work great with rod of the pact keeper boosting DC(hold monster, hipnotic patterns and more save of suck).

I can't do Warlock. On three separate occasions I've tried Warlocks, and their short rest style casting just isn't for me.

Druid is an interesting choice. We play Theater of the Mind, so I'm not quite positive how well their battlefield control spells would work in a gridless format, but it is an interesting thought.

[Nhorianscum]

So my group is now level 10.

We have an Assassin Rogue, a Devotion Paladin, both a Forge and a War Cleric, and a Divination Wizard (who is mostly utility, but great at it). The two Clerics pretty much have AoE covered, between stuff like Wall of Fire and Spirit Guardians.

Looking to be a debuffer. Someone that can utterly lock down foes, render them totally useless.

All Unearthed Arcana available.

Leaning Sorcerer, but Bard also has a lot of merits to it. Stuff like the new Mind Sliver cantrip followed by quickened Slow to try to keep enemies stuck in its effect. Though the new Eloquence Bard has the ability to impose DisAdv on enemy saves (even VS effects imposed by items).

(We're playing Curse of Strahd, and many Undead are immune to Charm effects. So Lore Bard's ability of Cutting Words isn't quite as appealing as it normally is)

Wild Magic X/Grave Cleric 3 with the mind splice cantrip. (Sorc1/Grave1/Sorc11/Grave3/Sorc20)

Enjoy saving at -2d6 with disadvantage suckers. You can pretty much stick anything on anything and have a nice suite of no-save buffs/debuffs with a nice competitive single target nova of you're-dead-now via quickened empower upcast + Path if you go that route.

[nickl_2000]

Open Hand Monk is an bit of a different choice, but a pretty darn effective one with this group.

1) Stun lock. There is little out there better than stunning a target, one good stun can turn a terrifying opponent caster into a pile of mush. No action or reaction (although oddly bonus actions seem to work)..
2) Flurry of Blows can remove reactions/push 15 feet away/knock prone. The prone and the push can make sure people are in the spirit guardian AoE and continuing to take damage from it.


You have 2 ways to give your Paladin and Rogue advantage on their strike, and they will love you for it every time they crit ;)

Also in CoS I believe that level 7 Stillness of Mind is going to be really, really helpful.

[jaappleton]

Wild Magic X/Grave Cleric 3 with the mind splice cantrip. (Sorc1/Grave1/Sorc11/Grave3/Sorc20)

Enjoy saving at -2d6 with disadvantage suckers. You can pretty much stick anything on anything and have a nice suite of no-save buffs/debuffs with a nice competitive single target nova of you're-dead-now via quickened empower upcast + Path if you go that route.

Grave Cleric using the Curse with Quickened to smack an enemy down...

.....Iiiinteresting. Interesting indeed.

Not so much on the debuffing side but MAN could I really **** someone up with that.

[Shadhael]

With three full casters who can prepare their spell lists for the day I think you've got the casting covered pretty well. I'm also in favour of running a monk. Stunning Strike up to 4 times in a turn can eat through any Legendary Resistances. Plus your fists are considered magical for bypassing any resistances. Open Hand for the Flurry of Blows conditions would be great, but also consider the Shadow Monk for its mobility in dim light or darkness

[Bobthewizard]

I know you already have one, but divination wizard is superb at this. Use the mass debuffs like any other wizard - sleep, web, hypnotic pattern, fear, slow, wall of force, mass suggestion, force cage. But then you can add an auto fail single target debuff with a low portent role - suggestion, levitate, polymorph, banishment, otiluke's resilient sphere, bestow curse (best cast at level 5 for nonconcentration), and magic jar (keep your high portent role for when the target dies) are all good for this. Even using your portent on a single target using something like hypnotic pattern is amazing in the right situation.

For a diviner, take spells that only allow one save over ones like hold monster that allow repeat saves.

[RickAllison]

Another Monk option could be a Long Death. Not only do you have the stun-lock as one of the best single target debuffing options, but you have an AoE fear effect for debuffing swarms. Add in that you have a temporary hp-engine, Evasion to make sure those AoE Dex saves from your clerics don't hurt you, and the Long Death's L11 ability to survive damage and you also serve as a soft tank.

[Nhorianscum]

Grave Cleric using the Curse with Quickened to smack an enemy down...

.....Iiiinteresting. Interesting indeed.

Not so much on the debuffing side but MAN could I really **** someone up with that.

Well on the debuff side we can debuff + Path for another party member. (Or nosave/buff+path on legendary res things)

I'm sure the party rouge/paladin/hex/NukeBlaster will enjoy shlapping for 4x(ish) damage on quickened holdx+Path on meaty enemies.

It's just notable that Sorcleric is also capable of functioning independantly.

[jaappleton]

I’ve decided to go Open Hand Monk.

I am playing Johnny Lawrence, and I’m 100% convinced that Strahd is actually Daniel LaRusso and I’m going to sweep the leg.