Let's Talk Tactics - Battlefield Control Spells Part 5
We’ve come to the part of the series where we have some spells that don’t fit into a neat little box. Many have unique traits that make it hard to categorize them beyond being great battlefield control spells. Even better is the five of the spells we will talk about this about are 1st or 2nd level! Being able to hone your skills at lower levels will pay huge dividends when your character is high level and has learned how to master control spells. These lower-level spells can also be effective at higher levels because the darkness spell has the same effect on a CR 1/4 or CR 11 creature.
Once again, let’s review the list of the spells that we've been using to control the battlefield, with the spells in bold being the one's we shall discuss today:
Cantrips - Create Bonfire, Mold Earth
1st Level - Entangle, Fog Cloud, Grease
2nd - Darkness, Flaming Sphere, Gust of Wind, Moonbeam, Silence, Spike Growth, Web
3rd - Call Lightning, Erupting Earth, Major Image, Plant Growth, Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud, Wall of Sand, Wall of Water, Wind Wall
4th - Control Water, Hallucinatory Terrain, Sickening Radiance, Wall of Fire
5th - Cloudkill, Control Winds, Dawn, Insect Plague, Maelstrom, Transmute Rock, Wall of Force, Wall of Light, Wall of Stone, Wrath of Nature
6th - Blade Barrier, Programmed Illusion, Wall of Ice, Wall of Thorns
7th - Forcecage, Mirage Arcane, Reverse Gravity, Whirlwind
8th - Control Weather, Earthquake, Incendiary Cloud, Tsunami
9th - Prismatic Wall, Storm of Vengeance
Look at all those spells! They are surprisingly powerful and, when used correctly, can allow you to control large areas of the landscape. So let’s dive on in, starting with one of my favorite little spells.
Grease
Classes - Artificer, Wizard
Spell Level - 1st, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - See below
Range/Area - 60 ft./10 ft square Duration - 1 minute, Contrentration Required - No
Casting grease can be as comical as it sounds. There is an opportunity for descriptive roleplay along with the dangers it brings, even as a 1st level spell. There is no damage involved with the spell, but the area of effect does become difficult terrain, and more importantly, there is the chance for creatures to fall prone. Everyone gets to make a Dexterity save to prevent falling on their respective butts, so all you meta-gamers have the spell ready when you encounter a Frost Giant.
A ten-foot square is not that big, so the hijinks are limited in scope but can be effective in smaller areas. Indoors is where the spell shines; doorways, stairs, and dungeon hallways are all great locations to cast this spell. One bonus worth mentioning is the spell doesn’t require concentration. If you’re going full control wizard, you now have the opportunity to cast multiple battlefield control spells at once. Combos are always good.
Where you cast it also plays an important role in the effectiveness of the spell. Creatures need to make the aforementioned Dexterity save when they enter the grease, end their turn in the grease, or if they happen to be standing in the area when the spell is cast. That’s a lot of opportunities to fall, especially for a 1st level spell. I’ve always thought that an excellent addition to the spell would be to have any creature attempting to stand up in the grease after falling prone to make an additional Dexterity check or slip back down into the prone position. Now it’s a first-level spell, so that would push it over the edge into overpowered, but it would add to the slapstick nature inherent in the spell.
Darkness
Classes - Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level - 2nd, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - See below
Range/Area - 60 ft./15 ft sphere Duration - 10 minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
Let me start by saying I have a love/hate relationship with this spell. I cannot tell you how many times I have had this spell dropped right on top of me by my own party members when I am trying to tank. No warning, no heads up, just boom, I’m standing in the dark.
Ten minutes of magical darkness is nothing to shake a stick at. Just like the wizard’s beloved fireball spell, darkness spread around corners, filling a 15-foot radius sphere with pitch blackness. Standing in the magical darkness means you are under the blinded condition and renders your torches, lantern, and that shield you cast the light cantrip on useless.
Even though you can’t see anything, you can still make a melee attack but at disadvantage. I never liked the idea that you could do this, but I always assumed the reasoning was that you could hear and/or smell your target. This gave you an approximation of your target location, allowing you to flail away with your sword in their general direction. But I digress. Spells that require you to see your target are useless. AOE spells are still quite dangerous, but that works both ways.
If you want to move as a group, then darkness is your spell. Since you can cast a spell on an object, you are holding, cast it on a dagger or wand, and you become the center of the 15-foot sphere. You and your friends can run under the cover provided by the darkness. Where you run is completely up to you. Losing the fight? There’s no shame in running away under cover of darkness. But you can also run towards your enemies and gain the upper hand.
Move toward a group of baddies and engulf them in darkness. They make their attacks at disadvantage. Sheath your dagger (or wand) using your object interaction and make your attacks as normal on your turn. This works in reverse too. Since the duration of the spell is a long ten minutes, you can prep ahead. You and your faithful companions can get your attacks off, then use your object interaction to draw your dagger, plunging everyone into darkness. Timing, or rather initiative, is everything here, but you should have multiple party members get attacks off this way.
The spell does not have any additional features if you cast it using a higher spell slot, and that is a shame. Increasing the sphere's size, even just by 5 feet, for each additional level you cast it at could have huge implications at higher levels. Alas, it does not, which is fine because your DM would probably have you constantly fighting nothics with their damn truesight, ruining your plans.
Moonbeam
Classes - Druid
Spell Level - 2nd, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - See below
Range/Area - 120 ft./5 ft cylinder Duration - 1 minute, Concentration Required - Yes
I’m mentioning this spell mainly because it has a crazy movement rate. The area of effect isn’t the greatest, but it makes up for it a bit by being a 40-foot cylinder. This gives you a great range of aerial control when compared to other spells in this category.
The silvery light that fills the cylinder hurts a lot, doing 2d10 radiant damage on a failed Constitution save and half that on a successful save. Guaranteed damage is always good, even if it’s just a single hit point. Creatures will be making that save when they enter the spell’s area for the first time (which would be really stupid) or start their turn inside the light. That’s the key to the spell. Fun is dropping the beam on a spell caster that is concentrating on a spell. Fail the save, and it’s a double whammy. But let’s get back to the control aspect.
You can use an action to move the beam up to 60 feet in any direction your heart desires. That’s an insane amount of movement. Since any creature starting its turn in the light is taking damage, feel free to move the spell right on top of some poor sap. Unless it doesn’t mind taking damage, you’ve forced it to move, hence controlling part of the spell. Now they only have to move 5 feet, so if they are standing in front of you, all they have to do is shift one square and will probably stay in range, but forced movement makes it a control spell, albeit not a powerful one. It would help if you always tried to position yourself in a way that would force your enemy to either use its action to disengage or be subject to an attack of opportunity.
The spell does scale, with damage increasing by 1d10 when you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher. That’s way less than a fireball (average damage 15 radiant versus 21 fire), but a giant ball of fire only makes you wish you had moved, not force you to move on your turn.
Silence
Classes - Bard, Cleric, Ranger
Spell Level - 2nd, Casting Time - 1 Action (Ritual), Damage/Effect - Deafened.
Range/Area - 120 ft./20 ft. sphere, Duration - 10 minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
Deafening your opponents may not seem like much, and honestly, it isn’t. Now that’s not to say that the spell has no use; it just makes it very situation-specific. It’s similar to many other spells in this category, lasting for 10 minutes, having a 20-foot sphere radius, and requiring concentration. It’s a bit unique in that you can cast it as a ritual, but as I’ve said before, 10 minutes is a lifetime in D&D, especially when combat is imminent.
The spell is most useful when fighting enemies that are primarily spellcasters. I was honestly surprised by how many spells had a verbal component. In the PHB alone, there are 392 spells, of which only 9 do not require a verbal component. The most powerful spell on that tiny list is counterspell. Your evil magi can still counterspell your high-level spells, but making them waste the spell slots to do so is always advantageous.
Proper placement of the spell can force the wizard to back out of range of some of their spells or force them closer to you than they want to be. Fighters are not affected by the spell beyond being deafened, so make sure you buff them before they charge into the sphere of silence. The only other downside is that your barbarian cannot scream in anger and rage, but is that really a bad thing?
It’s not a wizard spell, but since a cleric can choose their spells daily, they may want to pick up this spell if you know you’ll be fighting a bunch of wizards later in the day. In conclusion, the spell may be narrow in scope and require some pre-planning, but it is extremely effective against enemies that are mainly spellcasters.
Web
Classes - Artificer, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level - 2nd, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - Restrained
Range/Area - 60 ft./20 ft. cube, Duration - 1 hour, Concentration Required - Yes
This spell is criminally underrated and under-utilized. Long story short, you create a sticky web that fills a 20-foot cube. There is a lot more to the spell than that, which we’ll get to in a minute, but when you cast the spell, your target becomes the fly, and you become the spider. Trust me; it’s always better to be the spider.
If you are looking to trap flying creatures or climb walls, make sure you cast it in an area where you can anchor it between two solid masses. If you don’t, then the spell ends at the start of your next turn, defeating the spell's purpose. Restrain a creature for a single round is nice, but controlling the landscape properly involves doing so for multiple rounds, if not the entire combat length.
You can also cast the spell to cover the floor, wall, or ceiling. I just learned today that when you do this, the web has a depth of 5 feet. If your enemy happens to be a group of small or tiny creatures, they would be completely enveloped by the web. (I highly recommend polymorphing into spider at this point for roleplaying purposes). When a creature starts its turn in the web or is dumb enough to try and walk through the web, it must make a Dexterity saving throw. Failure results in being restrained as long as it remains in the webs or until it breaks free. Breaking free requires making a Strength check against your spell save DC. Remember how we talked about these spells being useful at higher levels? Now you’re a 13th level wizard with a 20 Intelligence and a spell save DC of 18. If the lich you are fighting fails its Dexterity save and is restrained, that 11 Strength isn’t going to make it easy to get free. Forcing a CR 21 creature to waste a slot to counterspell your 2nd level spell or be restrained is funny…or sad if you’re the lich.
Even if the creatures inside the web’s area of effect make their saves, they are still subject to the difficult terrain the web has created. Any poor creature that is the center of the web and has a 30 ft speed will be in it for at least one full round or be forced to use their action to dash. The last thing I want to mention is often forgotten about. The area covered by the web is lightly obscured. Disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight maybe not seem like a big deal, but it’s not to be discounted either. Finally, these webs burn. Grab a torch and set it on fire, with any 5-foot cube burning away in 1 round. This does 2d4 fire damage to any creature that starts its turn in the fire. Again, not a huge amount of damage, but if your caster is planning on dropping concentration, you might as well do a little fire damage.
Up next…higher-level control spells.
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