If you’re looking to unleash chaos in your D&D 5E campaign, dnd 5e Crown of Madness is a spell worth exploring. It can be a powerful tool for disrupting enemy plans and throwing a wrench into your enemies’ perfectly coordinated attack.
Like Charm Person and Dominate Person, Crown of Madness works best when cast in a fight between enemies, but has some quirks that set it apart from those other spells. Let’s take a look at those differences and how you can maximize its effectiveness!
Tips for maximizing the effectiveness of the spell
The dnd 5e Crown of Madness is a unique and thematic spell that lets casters turn their enemies against one another, disrupt their plans, and generally raise the level of chaos on the battlefield. This spell can be an effective way to break up enemy attacks, but it has some limitations.
The primary limitation of the spell is that it requires concentration. This makes it a difficult spell to cast, especially for casters who have a weaker spell casting ability.
In addition, the spell has a range of 120 feet. This is four times the range of the Charm Person spell and twice that of the Dominate Person spell.
This spell also has a few restrictions, including that it can only target humanoid targets. This is standard for low-level enchantments, but can make it difficult to use when fighting undead.
If you want to maximize the effectiveness of this spell, you should consider a few unconventional uses. First, it can be used to distract the creature while you’re hidden or as a sneak attack option.
Second, it can be used to redirect an enemy’s aggression towards a less vulnerable member of your party. If your party includes a bard or healer, this can free up these members to engage in other combat-ready talents instead of just dodging.
Finally, it can be used to reduce damage on creatures with multiattack by forcing them to spend their action on CoM’s melee attack. This can be a great way to keep enemies engaged, and can be useful in situations where you have a number of enemies in close proximity to each other.
Building a Character for Crown of Madness
Unleashing Chaos with Crown of Madness
One of the most interesting and varied spells in D&D 5E, Crown of Madness is a powerful mind-control tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. It can be a great way to isolate and eliminate key enemies, create a distraction at a pivotal moment, or even land a hit on a fleeing enemy that’s nearly out of range.
It does, however, have a downside: it wastes a lot of your action every turn to maintain. This is particularly problematic for Sorcerers, who have to sacrifice their sorcery points to cast this spell each time it’s activated.
In order to get the most out of this spell, it’s a good idea to pair it with other spells that have a similar effect on casters and their target(s). Grease, Web, and grappling are all effective ways to keep an enemy in place (or at least near other opponents) while you cast Crown of Madness.
Despite its limitations, Crown of Madness is still very effective in many situations, and it can be a very useful addition to your arsenal. It can be especially helpful against mind controllers who have gotten used to single-handedly winning encounters, as it allows you to force them into a disadvantageous situation.
One of the most popular and useful uses for this spell is to make a monster miss its WIS saving throw. This is often a common occurrence in trickier dungeons, and can be a huge boon when it’s time to break up a pack of monsters.
Discussion of unconventional uses for the spell
Crown of Madness is a widely available spell that comes standard with the caster classes, like sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards. The spell is an excellent way to isolate powerful enemies and force them to attack you from range.
While it is an effective tool, Crown of Madness does have its limitations. Firstly, it requires concentration to cast. This means that the caster can’t cast any other spell requiring attention, otherwise the first spell ends immediately.
The second limitation is that the spell requires the target to make a Wisdom saving throw. If they fail the save, they are stunned for 1 minute and can no longer move.
A good way to get around this issue is by using Quickened Spell. This allows Sorcerers to cast a spell for a bonus action rather than a regular action, which will help alleviate the problem of eating up their action every turn.
In addition, you can use hazardous terrain and push/pull effects to manipulate the location of your CoM’d enemy. If you can pair this with a grappler, or one who has the ability to hold an enemy in place, then you should have no problems maintaining your CoM’d creature.
While this spell is generally better off avoided, there are a few unconventional uses for it that can make it more useful than it might appear on the surface. These include re-directing enemies’ aggression to the party’s more combat-ready members, and redirecting them towards a more vulnerable opponent in melee range.
Troubleshooting tips for common issues
Unleashing Chaos with Crown of Madness is one of the more interesting spells you can cast in D&D 5E. While the spell is definitely a powerhouse, it also has a few flaws that can make it a liability in some scenarios. Fortunately, there are several tricks to ensure that this spell is a success.
The first tip is to use it in the right places. It can be particularly effective when you have a small room or a group of enemies in close quarters. A single caster with the right gear can easily squeeze in a handful of spells into a tight space, and a single spell caster that is in melee range of a particular enemy can give you an extra hand when it comes to striking down your foes.
The main problem with Crown of Madness is that it eats up your action on every turn. For this reason, it may not be your best bet when compared to other 2nd level spells that can help you out with the same task. This translates to fewer castings of the spell and a smaller chance of achieving your goal. The good news is that there are a few other spells that do the same thing with less of your time and effort.
Combat Strategies and Tactics
Crown of Madness is a powerful spell that imposes the Charmed condition on a creature that can see it within range. This allows the caster to communicate with the creature and protects the charmer (but not their companions) from harm or negative effects from the target.
The downside to Crown of Madness is that it requires the caster to take a full action every turn in order to maintain its effect. This is a significant drain on the action economy, but there are ways to work around this limitation.
First, Sorcerers can use Quickened Spell metamagic to cast Crown of Madness for a bonus action rather than an actual action. The cost of the spell is increased, but it’s worth it to avoid the full action penalty.
Another option is to use the spell on a single enemy. This may seem counterintuitive, but it can be very useful to redirect an enemy’s aggression toward a more combat-ready member of your team.
Finally, the spell’s ability to reduce damage from multi-attackers can be very useful when working with a melee-oriented character. Creatures with Multiattack will only make one melee attack when they’re affected by Crown of Madness. This can significantly cut down on the number of attacks your characters make each round, especially if you have the Extra Attack feature.
Despite its many drawbacks, Crown of Madness can be a valuable tool in the right circumstances. The key is to know your enemy and understand how the spell works.
Conclusion
While Crown of Madness isn’t the most effective spell in 5e D&D, it can be a valuable tool for disrupting a battle. It can mess up a tightly packed enemy group, force a powerful boss monster to multiattack one of its minions, and cause a team of allies to scatter out into disfavorable positions.
The spell’s range is huge, which opens up opportunities for long-distance mind control that can cause enemies to fight amongst themselves or tear each other apart. It’s also a solid spell for using in tandem with other spells that can reduce an opponent’s Wisdom saving throws, such as Mind Sliver or Bane.
If you want to make it more difficult for an enemy to use this spell, you can pair it with a ranged touch spell like Thorn Whip or Shove. These spells will keep a target bouncing into melee range of other creatures for as long as they’re active, so the enemy will be less likely to act on their own.
This spell has a lot of potential for casters who can think outside the box, though. It’s an especially good option for Arcane Trickster Rogue characters, who can take advantage of Magical Ambush to make their targets miss their WIS save when hidden in the shadows (PHB 98).
Crown of Madness isn’t the best spell in D&D 5e, but it can be a useful tool for disrupting a battle. It’s a concentration spell, so it requires you to forgo other options that can be more beneficial in certain situations.
Appendices
A. Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can the target of Crown of Madness be affected by other spells or abilities while under its influence?
Yes, the target of Crown of Madness can be affected by other spells or abilities while under its influence, unless those spells or abilities explicitly state otherwise. However, since the target is charmed and has to use its action to attack the chosen creature, it may be more difficult for it to effectively use its abilities or spells.
Q: Can a creature affected by Crown of Madness be controlled beyond the spell’s duration?
No, once the spell’s duration ends, the target is no longer under the control of the caster. However, depending on the actions the target took while under the spell’s influence, it may still have lingering consequences. Additionally, the caster can choose to recast the spell on the target if they want to continue controlling it.
