Wizard insurance beyond dmg/buffing/debuffing spells?

[HoboKnight]

Hey guys,
for the first time, I am DM-ing a high level campaign and am entering a high-level spell area. Meaning, it's no longer just damage dealing/buffing/debuffing, but new and interesting things like Clone popped up for me. No more dying for my Archmages!

I'd like to ask those, more familiar with higher level(lvl 5-9) spells: what other interesting high level spell options exist in 5e?

Thanks

[Dualswinger]

Mid to High Level Wizards can pull off some incredible shenanigans if people apply their thoughts a little harder than just the initial reason for casting spells.

One of my favourite combos is "The Devil's Lantern" which combines a 3rd level Continual Flame in a bullseye lantern, then cast darkness on the lantern. Since the spell Darkness causes, y'know DARKNESS and not actual smoke, the area illuminated by the higher level light producing spell supercedes the darkness, giving you essentially a party wide "We can see you, but you can't see us" bonus.

Other fun options includes using Magic Mouth to detect hidden enemies (see Animated Spellbook on Youtube for that) or if you're an illusionist, the ability to just change any and all terrain at will (including turning solid rock into molten rock) through use of Mirage Arcane.

Currently the most "busted" thing I've seen done IN GAME with 9th level slots was for the wizard to True Polymorph a captive creature into an adult dragon, then true polymorph themselves into an Elder Brain, THEN combine themselves to make an Elderbrain Dragon.

[Unoriginal]

One of my favourite combos is "The Devil's Lantern" which combines a 3rd level Continual Flame in a bullseye lantern, then cast darkness on the lantern. Since the spell Darkness causes, y'know DARKNESS and not actual smoke, the area illuminated by the higher level light producing spell supercedes the darkness, giving you essentially a party wide "We can see you, but you can't see us" bonus.

The magic Darkness is dispelled by an higher level light-producing spell. You can't have both the Continual Flame and the Darkness spell aftecting the same area at once.

Meaning that you can choose to see and be seen, or not see snd be unseen, but you can't see and be unseen with that setup.



Other fun options includes using Magic Mouth to detect hidden enemies (see Animated Spellbook on Youtube for that)

Magic Mouths do not have unlimited detection capacity. Some of that work, but a lot of people claim that spell has more power than it actually does.


if you're an illusionist, the ability to just change any and all terrain at will (including turning solid rock into molten rock) through use of Mirage Arcane.

This one absolutely works, but it's just using the power as it's meant to be used, it's not really outside-the-box thinking or an unexpected trick.



Currently the most "busted" thing I've seen done IN GAME with 9th level slots was for the wizard to True Polymorph a captive creature into an adult dragon, then true polymorph themselves into an Elder Brain, THEN combine themselves to make an Elderbrain Dragon.

I think an Adult Dragon would be too small for that, given the Elder Brain Dragon is Gargantuan. But It's true that True Polymorphing into an Elder Brain would allow a lot of things.

[kingcheesepants]

Well as a DM some of the things you need to account for would be things like Teleportation and Plane Shift, the players can now go wherever they need to go instantly. Forcecage, an instant win against anything that can't teleport (and even some which can). Simulacrum, there are now effectively 2 wizards. Wish, they can use any spells including non combat spells like Forbiddance anytime and anywhere. Magic Jar, for body swapping shenanigans. Demiplane, which when combined with things like Glyphs of Warding will allow them to stack up concentration effects and buffs and gives them a perfectly safe space for all their stuff. Mass Suggestion, lets them charm a whole group of enemies concentration free for a whole day (or more at higher levels). Contingency, allows them to do a wide array of things (most often just negating a bad status effect but there's a lot of flexibility). And if they're creative with things like Fabricate they can get into all sorts of nonsense that completely wrecks your world's economy.

Lots of spells have the potential for abuse, but I don't think any are inherently so busted as to warrant a pre-emptive ban. Just talk to your players if you think they're liable to push past boundaries in a way that makes things a little too silly or less fun for everyone else.

[Unoriginal]

If a foe has a piece of equipment or trophy made from the remains of a living creature, then you can Wish said creature back to life in an Action.

Particularly effective if the equipment was magical, as not only you're getting one more creature in the fight, you're also destroying the enemy's tools.

'course it's better if the creature was also an enemy of your enemy, or at least that can be convinced to side with the pwrson who brought them vack against the person using their corpse.

[Hael]

Wizards are deeply busted at high lvls…. This without trying hard. Even doing something completely braindead like simulacrum + forcecage. They get essentially 5 casts of the thing (3 from the wizards high lvl slots, 2 from the simulacrums)

Which leads to a situation where the wizard has 5 encounters per day that they absolutely trivialize (barring the <1% of monsters that can teleport) where the party gives up almost no additional resources in solving the encounter.

The remaining encounters will then have to deal with a fully healthy, high resource party with a wizard still having the majority of his/her power completely intact. Its jsut not really fair at that point.

[JackPhoenix]

The magic Darkness is dispelled by an higher level light-producing spell. You can't have both the Continual Flame and the Darkness spell aftecting the same area at once.

Meaning that you can choose to see and be seen, or not see snd be unseen, but you can't see and be unseen with that setup.

Only specific spells dispel Darkness, Continual Flame isn't one of them. But you're right with the rest... the lantern's light would illuminate a cone in the Darkness, but it doesn't matter: If you're standing in the Darkness and not in the light, you can't see anything.


Magic Mouths do not have unlimited detection capacity. Some of that work, but a lot of people claim that spell has more power than it actually does.

Yep. Hidden ("Unseen and unheard") creature is by definition neither visible or audible, and thus can't trigger Magic Mouth.


This one absolutely works, but it's just using the power as it's meant to be used, it's not really outside-the-box thinking or an unexpected trick.

Eh, sort of. You can make the rock into an illusion of molten rock, but the effect only includes audible, visual, tactile, and olfactory elements. Temperature is not listed, so while the rock would likely feel hot if touched (tactile), it wouldn't do any damage. Whether you can drown someone in an illusory lake or bury them in illusory pile of dirt is up for interpretation, too.

[J-H]

Most spells require vision to target or work. Fog Cloud, Stinking Cloud, CloudKill, Hunger of Hadar, and any of the other vision denying spells require the spellcasters to spend time getting rid of them before they can use most of their spells.

Terrain (trees, staircases, etc.) can also break line of sight.

Everyone still knows where invisible creatures are unless they are using some type of action to Hide their location. Outside of oddball stuff like 1/day Forcecage / Wall of Force, the wizards are going to mostly be killing large numbers of mooks. The paladins and fighters are the ones who will be shredding your 300hp bosses in 1-2 rounds, assuming that they have magic items and aren't running around with a bunch of mundane stuff and no new options.

[Dr.Samurai]

I thought this was going to be a thread about how carriers won't insure you unless you have protection from certain spells/damages, and are consistently using divination to prepare for and/or avoid hazards and disasters.

[RSP]

The magic Darkness is dispelled by an higher level light-producing spell. You can't have both the Continual Flame and the Darkness spell aftecting the same area at once.


Incorrect, though common, misunderstanding of a rule interaction. Darkness dispels spells 2nd level and lower that produce light. Darkness also creates darkness that cannot be illuminated by non-magical light. So magical light that isn’t 2nd level or lower, works fine in Darkness.

“ A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it.
…
If any of this spell's area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.”