Bless is one of the best buffs in all of Dungeons and Dragons 5e and Bane is one of the best debuffs and they are both just 1st level spells.
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“Ancient Rite” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:06:16 Bennett Tomlin Welcome back to my Dungeons and Dragons Channel everyone, where we take a look at the rules of Dungeons and Dragons 5e, 00:00:06:18 - 00:00:13:00 Bennett Tomlin and figure out how to break them, how to build powerful characters, and how to make fun homebrew that'll make your games better. 00:00:13:00 - 00:00:21:26 Bennett Tomlin One of the fun things about the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons is how some of the most broken spells in the game are available immediately at level one, 00:00:22:03 - 00:00:23:29 Bennett Tomlin straight out of the basic rules. 00:00:23:29 - 00:00:29:14 Bennett Tomlin There are two in particular that I'd like to talk about today. Some of the best support spells in the game. 00:00:29:17 - 00:00:34:07 Bennett Tomlin One an incredible buff, the other a powerful debuff. 00:00:39:05 - 00:00:59:28 Bennett Tomlin Bane is a first level enchantment spell that targets up to three characters who you can see, and if they fail their charisma saving throws, then for every attack and saving throw they make, they need to roll a d4 and subtract that result from their D20 roll making it harder for them to hit and to save 00:00:59:28 - 00:01:05:25 Bennett Tomlin The spell is available to bards, clerics, Oath of Vengeance Paladins, and Undead patron Warlocks. 00:01:05:28 - 00:01:10:26 Bennett Tomlin It is, in my humble opinion, the very best debuff in the entire game. 00:01:10:26 - 00:01:31:03 Bennett Tomlin Let's say you're a low level party fighting a group of three goblins. Basic goblins have a +4 to hit. This means against an AC of 10 for your party. The goblins have a likelihood of hitting you of 75% against an AC of 15 that drops to 50%. Against an AC of 20 they have a probability of hitting of 25%. 00:01:31:03 - 00:01:51:12 Bennett Tomlin Now, if you're able to successfully bane those same goblins, those probabilities get much worse for them. Against an AC A10, they only have a 62.5% chance of hitting. AC 15 the likelihood is only 37.5. And against an AC of 20 they only have a 12.5% chance. One in eight. 00:01:51:12 - 00:02:00:01 Bennett Tomlin It can be a little hard to appreciate how that changes the damage. So let's walk through it. We're going to ignore critical damage because that's the same whether you cast Bane or not. 00:02:00:08 - 00:02:22:05 Bennett Tomlin Because no matter what a nat 20 always hits at my table and I'm pretty sure rules as written. Goblins get one attack per turn and both their scimitar and their short bow do the same 1d6+2 damage. This will do an average damage of 5.5. So against an AC ten enemy without bane they're expected to do 4.1 points per round, 00:02:22:08 - 00:02:48:06 Bennett Tomlin but if baned this drops to 3.4, this gets more noticeable the higher the AC they're trying to hit. Against AC 15, they start at only 2.75 and it drops all the way to two with Bane against it. AC 20 they start at just 1.4 and it drops in half to 0.7 if they're Baned Plus, remember, you are potentially affecting three enemies. 00:02:48:08 - 00:02:54:21 Bennett Tomlin So these numbers are potentially three times is high in terms of damage you are preventing your party from taking. 00:02:54:21 - 00:02:59:11 Bennett Tomlin Now, let's take this to a more extreme point. Taking a look at a much more intimidating enemy. 00:02:59:11 - 00:03:13:26 Bennett Tomlin The pit fiend is one of my favorite devils. And I should be clear, it's going to be a challenging one for you to Bane because they have a plus seven on their charisma save, though for the Pit Fiend, that is their second lowest save, with only intelligence being lower. 00:03:13:26 - 00:03:43:08 Bennett Tomlin The pit fiend gets four attacks all with +14 to hit. There's some additional poison damage for the bite attack that we're going to mostly ignore. But to summarize, the bite attack does an expected 22 points of piercing damage plus the poison, the claw does 17 points of slashing, the mace does 15 points of bludgeoning plus 21 points of fire, the tail does 24 points of bludgeoning. Against an AC ten enemy, well the pit fiend will kill the enemy. 00:03:43:11 - 00:03:54:18 Bennett Tomlin If you have an AC of 10, you should not be fighting a pit fiend. You should be running as fast as you possibly can. More seriously, this is an example of a case where Bane does not help. 00:03:54:18 - 00:04:01:11 Bennett Tomlin Assuming you play with natural ones as an automatic miss, then without Bane there's a 95% chance of the pit fiend hitting 00:04:01:14 - 00:04:06:11 Bennett Tomlin and with Bane, there is still a 95% chance of the pit fiend hitting. 00:04:06:11 - 00:04:23:20 Bennett Tomlin Beyond that, we do start to see a little bit of a difference at AC 15. Without Bane, there's still that same 95% chance of the pit fiend hitting. But with Bane it drops to 87.5%. Some of their attacks are now going to miss. At AC 20 without bane 00:04:23:20 - 00:04:51:09 Bennett Tomlin there's a 75% chance of the pit fiend hitting, but with Bane, it drops to 62.5%. If we add in an AC 25 option, which is uncommon but possible, especially with shield then without Bane, we started a 50% chance of hitting, and with Bane it drops to 37.5. So yeah, if your party is around AC 10, you should all run away from the pit fiend as fast as possible. 00:04:51:16 - 00:05:12:17 Bennett Tomlin Casting Bane is not worth your time. You should use that action to dash away as fast as you can because you need to get the fuck out of there. If your party is around AC 15, it may matter. The drop is somewhat small, but it can matter for damage. The one round damage against AC 15 without bane comes to 94 points. 00:05:12:23 - 00:05:41:04 Bennett Tomlin With Bane this drops to 87 points. Is it worth casting it for a seven point reduction? Probably not. But you also potentially get to Bane to other enemies on the field helping reduce that damage as well. Plus, it may stop you from taking the poison damage or the poisoned condition, which could still be worth while. The one round damage against AC 20 without Bane comes to 74, and with Bane it drops to 62 points, a 16% drop. 00:05:41:04 - 00:05:52:04 Bennett Tomlin We're getting more substantial here. The one man damage against AC 25 without Bane comes to 50 points and with been it drops to 37, a 26% drop. 00:05:52:04 - 00:06:07:24 Bennett Tomlin This sounds somewhat small at first glance, but most D&D combat only lasts a couple rounds. If you're able to reduce damage to a point where you end up with even one more round of survivability, then it can make the entire difference in how the combat goes. 00:06:07:27 - 00:06:33:10 Bennett Tomlin Plus, you were potentially targeting multiple enemies and you were acting as a drag as this restriction on them for the entirety of the combat. Plus the people in your parties with the low ACs are hopefully not running up into melee range of the Pit Fiend. And as you notice, the higher the AC, the people who are actually getting targeted by the baned creatures, the bigger the effect Bane has. 00:06:33:13 - 00:06:38:21 Bennett Tomlin So your well-protected tanks should get a big benefit from you casting Bane. 00:06:38:21 - 00:06:44:15 Bennett Tomlin The other and in my opinion, more important reason that Bane is useful is because it affects saving throws. 00:06:44:15 - 00:07:04:02 Bennett Tomlin There are not a lot of spells that negatively affect saving throws In D&D, I discuss slow in my last video, which reduces your dexterity saving throw, mind sliver is a cantrip which can affect a single saving throw from a single enemy, bestow curse does impose disadvantage on one type of saving tool, but is a third level spell and is only a single enemy, 00:07:04:05 - 00:07:12:18 Bennett Tomlin contagion can impose disadvantage on a single ability score for checks, attacks, and saving throws, but is fifth level. It does last seven days though, 00:07:12:18 - 00:07:22:27 Bennett Tomlin things that can restrain you obviously lead to disadvantage on dexterity saving throws. And there's a few more choices, but they're not super common, especially ones that target multiple enemies. 00:07:22:27 - 00:07:25:10 Bennett Tomlin Bane works and up to three enemies or more 00:07:25:10 - 00:07:29:13 Bennett Tomlin if you upcast and ends up affecting every single saving throw they make. 00:07:29:13 - 00:07:44:00 Bennett Tomlin Consider you are fighting a pit fiend and you have a spell save of 18. You want to banish the devil to take it really out of the fight, send it back to the hells it came from. And without Bane that's hard. It has a 50% chance of saving. 00:07:44:02 - 00:07:53:14 Bennett Tomlin If you're able to bane it, however, though, that drops to 37.5, which means you are much more likely to just take it completely out of the fight. 00:07:53:14 - 00:08:05:09 Bennett Tomlin Plus, even without that, you are increasing the likelihood that they fail against the dominate monster, against the lightning bolt, against everything else your party wants to use to try to win this fight. 00:08:05:09 - 00:08:29:05 Bennett Tomlin Plus, if you were fighting a spell caster, remember, if you are able to bane them, it will make every concentration check they make for as long as you have that up that much worse, increasing the likelihood you're able to break their concentration and prevent them from hurting your party. Bane is one of the best debuffs in the game, and it's just a level one basic rule spell. 00:08:34:03 - 00:08:40:07 Bennett Tomlin Bless is the anti-Bane, it’s a first level enchantment spell that allows you to target up to three creatures and they all 00:08:40:07 - 00:08:59:29 Bennett Tomlin get to add a D4 to any attack or saving throw. If you upcast the spell, then you're able to target one additional creature for each spell level. It's available for clerics and paladins and is my single favorite buff in all of 5e. in the main campaign I'm a player in right now my character is an artificer 00:08:59:29 - 00:09:28:13 Bennett Tomlin 15, Paladin 3, Wizard 1 and their first round is often burning one of my 2 5th level spell slots, so I can bless seven of the eight players in our party. I only get two of those per day and I'm often using both of them to cast Bless. It makes that big of a difference. Plus, I almost always bless myself, which means that I get the extra D4 on all my concentration checks to keep the spell up for everyone else. 00:09:28:16 - 00:09:56:27 Bennett Tomlin So often our whole party, or very near the whole party is running into these combats with an extra D4 on every single attack and every single saving throw. Let's imagine you're pretty low level character and you have a plus five to hit. To hit someone with a 10 AC, you start with a 75% chance, but if you're blessed, suddenly it's 87.5%. Against an enemy with a 15 AC, you start at 50%, you add Bless it jumps to 62.5%. For 00:09:56:27 - 00:10:05:09 Bennett Tomlin hit someone with a 20 AC you start with a paltry 25% chance, but Blessed brings it up by 50% to 37.5%. 00:10:05:09 - 00:10:21:25 Bennett Tomlin Even more important, you are more likely to survive that banishment, that hold person, that charm effect and anything else that requires the saving throw which is just about anything else. This extra boost makes a huge difference in combat. 00:10:21:28 - 00:10:26:17 Bennett Tomlin Both Bless and Bane are incredibly powerful spells. 00:10:26:17 - 00:10:29:19 Bennett Tomlin But why are these so powerful? 00:10:34:17 - 00:10:56:10 Bennett Tomlin Dungeons and Dragons 5e relies on a concept called Bounded accuracy. Rodney Thompson, one of the designers of 5e described the concept in a post that used to live on Wizards website, where it was described as: “We make no assumptions and the downside of the game that the players attack and spell accuracy or their defenses increase as a result of gaining levels. 00:10:56:12 - 00:11:22:13 Bennett Tomlin Instead, we represent the difference in characters of various levels, primarily through their hit points, the amount of damage they deal in, the various new abilities they have gained. Characters can fight tougher monsters, not because they can finally hit them, but because their damage is sufficient to take a significant chunk out of the monsters hit points. Likewise, the characters can now stand up to a few hits from that monster without being killed easily 00:11:22:15 - 00:11:54:22 Bennett Tomlin thanks to the characters increase hit points. Furthermore, gaining levels grants the character new capabilities which go much further towards making your character feel different than simple numerical increases. Proficiency bonuses in Dungeons and Dragons have at times gone as high as plus 20, but they now cap at plus six and that is part of this same philosophy. A level one character is pretty close to as good at hitting something as a level ten character, and that's foundational to how 5e is supposed to work. 00:11:54:24 - 00:12:16:21 Bennett Tomlin The difference comes down to whether or not you find the magic item, a slight boost in your proficiency and maybe an increase in your strength. But it stays within an expected set of bounds. It's also supposed to help you as a DM set DCs in a sensible way throughout the entire game. A DC 20 lock can stay a DC 20 lock from level one to level 20. At level one 00:12:16:21 - 00:12:44:06 Bennett Tomlin it's very difficult for them to pick, but still possible. And by level 20 it's vastly easier to pick in part because of the proficiency bonus, but also in part because characters have picked up reliable talent, expertise and other things that make it easier. At no point was it really impossible, though, and it never becomes guaranteed until you get the class features like reliable talent and expertise that effectively make it guaranteed. 00:12:44:06 - 00:13:04:04 Bennett Tomlin This helps illustrate why Bless and Bane are such powerful spells, 5e stripped out many of the modifiers in the game in the hopes of simplifying it. Bless and Bane end up so powerful because they do still modify die rolls and they modify so many important die rolls. 00:13:04:06 - 00:13:22:17 Bennett Tomlin This is also the same reason that guidance is one of the most powerful cantrips in the game, but that’s something we’ll leave for a future video. Thank you all for tuning in. If you enjoyed this, make sure to check out my last video about spells I think wizards should take before they take fireball and make sure to hit that subscribe button.
