someguy
2020-12-23, 11:47 PM
I like to think about powerful party combos that work well around tier 2, since that’s when a lot of play actually happens. I was inspired by the glamour bard ability to reposition the whole party, and how that enables something like the evoker wizard, the ability to place large area of effect very efficiently. I also don’t really like relying saves for battlefield control because I’m always worried about the failure cases.
So here is my no save control party. Races are flexible, changeling for starting with 18 cha or vhuman are top choices for the warlocks. Goblin for bonus action hide is tempting.
The basic plan is to find some sort of 30 foot wide Ian choke point, move the party behind it with high init (thanks Chronurgy wizard and bardic inspiration) and mantle of inspiration. Cast hunger of hadar, block exit with spirit guardians character. Add wall of sand/fire/stone/force as makes sense. Hunger of hadar makes darkness and difficult terrain, the warlocks can see into the darkness. So a standard speed 30 enemy dashing towards the cleric could move 3 spaces between difficult terrain and spirit guardians. Even less if we add wall of sand. The warlocks can eldritch blast in with advantage and repelling blast moves enemies back towards the middle, with two hits more than cancelling out most enemies movement. Enemies take 4d6 per turn cold no save if they stay in the hunger, and 3d8 (with a save) or more if they get near the cleric. All enemies in the Hunger or on the opposite side either cant locate us (can’t see, hunger is full of sounds so even locating us by sounds should be quite hard, or attack with disadvantage (since we can see them). This neutralizes most melee, ranged or caster enemies. For harder or less standard fights we have many more tricks like, silence, counter spell, leomunds tiny hut or another wall via arcane abeyance and familiar. We can also fall back on standard save based control spells too, we have access to many of the best ones. Also if we’re outside where choke points are hard to find, plant growth might work and has huge area and movement slowing.
This totally abuses warlock dips, but in a slightly different way than normal, as we don’t care much about damage or weapon attacks. We just need to see thru magical darkness and have no save forced movement.
It starts to come online at level 5, and just gets stronger thru all of tier 2. The party is a bit squishy, but totally playable before level 5 as well.
Fun additions: cold immune pc (how?) grappling or other grapple/restraint/prone/movement reduction spells/abilities. Spectral tentacles is a cool warlock spell from the 5e Thule companion that allows efficient restraint at range.
My understanding is that by raw if a cleric is dodging enemies get disadvantage to attack normally. But if you then cast Huber of hadar on top of those enemies, they can now attack normally since the cleric can’t see them. That’s super stupid, but we we can get around it with a divine soul sorcerer/warlock multiclass for devils sight or taking the alert feat on a cleric.
Positioner: Glamour Bard X/Hex Blade 2 warlock
Cha asi, resilient con, devils sight, repelling blast
Spirit Guardians: Divine Soul Sorcerer X/Hex Blade Warlock 2
Cha asi, warcaster, devils sight, repelling blast
(Alternate: forge cleric with alert)
Hunger of Hadar: ?? Warlock 5/??
(Could multiclass since hunger is 3rd level and doesn’t scale. Single class works fine too. Any warlock patron/pact works but Fathomless seem thematic due to cold resistance and tentacle with move reduction, though the effect is pretty small)
Cha asi, resilient con, devils sight, repelling blast, grasp of hadar, ???
(Alternate: lore bard X/hexblade warlock 2, take Hunger of hadar at bard 6)
Waller (sand, stone, force, fire): Chronurgy WIzard X
int asi, resilient con
So here is my no save control party. Races are flexible, changeling for starting with 18 cha or vhuman are top choices for the warlocks. Goblin for bonus action hide is tempting.
The basic plan is to find some sort of 30 foot wide Ian choke point, move the party behind it with high init (thanks Chronurgy wizard and bardic inspiration) and mantle of inspiration. Cast hunger of hadar, block exit with spirit guardians character. Add wall of sand/fire/stone/force as makes sense. Hunger of hadar makes darkness and difficult terrain, the warlocks can see into the darkness. So a standard speed 30 enemy dashing towards the cleric could move 3 spaces between difficult terrain and spirit guardians. Even less if we add wall of sand. The warlocks can eldritch blast in with advantage and repelling blast moves enemies back towards the middle, with two hits more than cancelling out most enemies movement. Enemies take 4d6 per turn cold no save if they stay in the hunger, and 3d8 (with a save) or more if they get near the cleric. All enemies in the Hunger or on the opposite side either cant locate us (can’t see, hunger is full of sounds so even locating us by sounds should be quite hard, or attack with disadvantage (since we can see them). This neutralizes most melee, ranged or caster enemies. For harder or less standard fights we have many more tricks like, silence, counter spell, leomunds tiny hut or another wall via arcane abeyance and familiar. We can also fall back on standard save based control spells too, we have access to many of the best ones. Also if we’re outside where choke points are hard to find, plant growth might work and has huge area and movement slowing.
This totally abuses warlock dips, but in a slightly different way than normal, as we don’t care much about damage or weapon attacks. We just need to see thru magical darkness and have no save forced movement.
It starts to come online at level 5, and just gets stronger thru all of tier 2. The party is a bit squishy, but totally playable before level 5 as well.
Fun additions: cold immune pc (how?) grappling or other grapple/restraint/prone/movement reduction spells/abilities. Spectral tentacles is a cool warlock spell from the 5e Thule companion that allows efficient restraint at range.
My understanding is that by raw if a cleric is dodging enemies get disadvantage to attack normally. But if you then cast Huber of hadar on top of those enemies, they can now attack normally since the cleric can’t see them. That’s super stupid, but we we can get around it with a divine soul sorcerer/warlock multiclass for devils sight or taking the alert feat on a cleric.
Positioner: Glamour Bard X/Hex Blade 2 warlock
Cha asi, resilient con, devils sight, repelling blast
Spirit Guardians: Divine Soul Sorcerer X/Hex Blade Warlock 2
Cha asi, warcaster, devils sight, repelling blast
(Alternate: forge cleric with alert)
Hunger of Hadar: ?? Warlock 5/??
(Could multiclass since hunger is 3rd level and doesn’t scale. Single class works fine too. Any warlock patron/pact works but Fathomless seem thematic due to cold resistance and tentacle with move reduction, though the effect is pretty small)
Cha asi, resilient con, devils sight, repelling blast, grasp of hadar, ???
(Alternate: lore bard X/hexblade warlock 2, take Hunger of hadar at bard 6)
Waller (sand, stone, force, fire): Chronurgy WIzard X
int asi, resilient con