The spell Bane

[This is me]

Hi,
What do you guys think of the spell bane? I am considering having it cast right at the start and have it for most of the fights (atleast act 1+2), the debuff to land hits/spells seems powerful. Also plan to have bless going to make sure everyone hit.

The downside i see is that it only can hit 3 enemy but i think it still good.

Good ide? Bad idea? Why and what spell would you use your concentration on instead? The other choise for me would be heroism on 1 main tank.

[Izuzul]

Bane is a good spell, so is bless. If you can run both awesome, if I had to pick only one it would be Bless.

[This is me]

Originally posted by Reconciler:

Bane is a good spell, so is bless. If you can run both awesome, if I had to pick only one it would be Bless.

I was thinking Shadowheart run bless and a bard that run Bane, right at the start so hopefully it means the first attack from enemies miss and we hit. :D

[Sima Marlin]

Bane is great spell, but the downside is it has a saving throw, while bless, has none as it's positive effect on your team.

So while bane does hinder your foes a lot, it does not always work.

[MeldinX2]

Originally posted by Sima Marlin:

Bane is great spell, but the downside is it has a saving throw, while bless, has none as it's positive effect on your team.

So while bane does hinder your foes a lot, it does not always work.

Yep basically this. This is why Bless is the better spell if you can only choose one.

[This is me]

Agreed, there is a chanse it will fail and i need to choose the targets somewhat. Since i have the possibility for it i think the combo will be quite good. It has a pretty big AoE as well so i think i will allways hit more then 3 targets and not miss out.

Would anyone pick another Bard concentration spell instead of Bane (when you got Bless already)?

[Lλmbdλ]

Originally posted by Sima Marlin:

Bane is great spell, but the downside is it has a saving throw, while bless, has none as it's positive effect on your team.

So while bane does hinder your foes a lot, it does not always work.

That why I stop using Bane. Even in the end, I "throw away" Blessing for Shield of Faith to have a decent AC on everyone.

[Miqi]

Bless becomes broken thanks to a staff you can pick up in the underdark that enhances bless.
Making it give additonal 2d4 for spell attacks and 1d4 for physical attacks on top of the original 1d4.
so 3d4 additional for spell attacks and 2d4 for physical. it's absurd.
I pray the staff isn't there in full release. lol

[This is me]

Originally posted by Miqi:

Bless becomes broken thanks to a staff you can pick up in the underdark that enhances bless.
Making it give additonal 2d4 for spell attacks and 1d4 for physical attacks on top of the original 1d4.
so 3d4 additional for spell attacks and 2d4 for physical. it's absurd.
I pray the staff isn't there in full release. lol

I have checked that staff and no it do not work like that, it makes bless do 2D4 on spell attacks, thats it. (another 1D4). Still quite powerful however, and it can be 1 handed so i plan to use it actually.

[This is me]

Originally posted by Lλmbdλ:

Originally posted by Sima Marlin:

Bane is great spell, but the downside is it has a saving throw, while bless, has none as it's positive effect on your team.

So while bane does hinder your foes a lot, it does not always work.

That why I stop using Bane. Even in the end, I "throw away" Blessing for Shield of Faith to have a decent AC on everyone.

Have you see it fail alot, like on all 3 enemies? Not played much EA so not seen many of the higher lvl enemies yet.

[Dremall]

Enemies can save against debuffs, whereas buffs are guaranteed to go through.

[Miqi]

Originally posted by This is me:

Originally posted by Miqi:

Bless becomes broken thanks to a staff you can pick up in the underdark that enhances bless.
Making it give additonal 2d4 for spell attacks and 1d4 for physical attacks on top of the original 1d4.
so 3d4 additional for spell attacks and 2d4 for physical. it's absurd.
I pray the staff isn't there in full release. lol

I have checked that staff and no it do not work like that, it makes bless do 2D4 on spell attacks, thats it. (another 1D4). Still quite powerful however, and it can be 1 handed so i plan to use it actually.

Kinda weird it doesn't work like that.

Considering the phrasing is "additional" and that it's a buff along with bless.

But I did just check the combat log and it does in fact not work like that.

https://i.imgur.com/FMUY994.png

https://i.imgur.com/mzocDND.png

[Riverdusk]

Originally posted by This is me:

Agreed, there is a chanse it will fail and i need to choose the targets somewhat. Since i have the possibility for it i think the combo will be quite good. It has a pretty big AoE as well so i think i will allways hit more then 3 targets and not miss out.

Would anyone pick another Bard concentration spell instead of Bane (when you got Bless already)?

Yeah, only other level 1 bard concentration buff (instead of debuff) I see is heroism. That one seems okay I guess, but not great. But I haven't played yet, so can't say for sure.

[Swingletree]

The way I ended up thinking about Bane from playing lots of tabletop D&D 5e is that Bane is essentially a worse version of Bless with slightly different (also worse) targeting.
It shouldn't be good, but the thing is, Bless is probably the strongest spell in the game if you actually do the math.
So Bane is actually pretty good.

But there is one question you should be asking yourself anytime you're casting bane:
Why am I not just casting Bless?

[FunkyMonkey]

Originally posted by Riverdusk:

Originally posted by This is me:

Agreed, there is a chanse it will fail and i need to choose the targets somewhat. Since i have the possibility for it i think the combo will be quite good. It has a pretty big AoE as well so i think i will allways hit more then 3 targets and not miss out.

Would anyone pick another Bard concentration spell instead of Bane (when you got Bless already)?

Yeah, only other level 1 bard concentration buff (instead of debuff) I see is heroism. That one seems okay I guess, but not great. But I haven't played yet, so can't say for sure.

That's interesting, I find that bards have too many good 1st level spells :D Faerie fire for advantage on attacks, bane for debuff (bane + vicious mockery is just nasty for enemy attack rolls) and hideous laughter for single-target cc. They also all target different saves, which is just amazing.

[Gaius]

Originally posted by This is me:

Hi,
What do you guys think of the spell bane? I am considering having it cast right at the start and have it for most of the fights (atleast act 1+2), the debuff to land hits/spells seems powerful. Also plan to have bless going to make sure everyone hit.

The downside i see is that it only can hit 3 enemy but i think it still good.

Good ide? Bad idea? Why and what spell would you use your concentration on instead? The other choise for me would be heroism on 1 main tank.

Depends on the fight. Bane is powerful but can be resisted, Bless is always successful (so better in every scenario). Also, Bane will pay on longer fights, not so much if you can outright remove threats (killing them or even with sleep, etc) and using concentration on a caster is a decent investment - usually I prefer to use other concentration spells like moonfire, or amazing buffs like Haste (or course, it's a lv 3 spell, but still, you can only concentrate in one thing at a time).