Glossary of tech & A proposal for ranks of tech

This article will attempt to define tiers of tech use for both editions, similar to TTB's standards of optimization article, and be as complete as possible of a glossary of tech for either or both editions (with Siltech excluded- we'll get to that). I want to quickly communicate what tech I'm going for in any situation where that matters, and I want to make a consolidated list of tech to redirect readers to so that I don't have to explain it or link an explanation in every post of mine.

 

This is a living article, and one that will never be complete: I encourage you to leave a comment or ping me in any of the Discord optimization servers I'm in (TTB, Form of Dread, Pack Tactics, 2024 Optimization Guides) with mid-high tech or lower that's not included here. Everything here is me mostly scouring TTB, FoD, bootbrew, Moon Knight and using my own memory. Also ping me if I fuck up the alphabetical ordering.

 

These tiers measure the impact, but not the obscurity, of tech. Extremely dubious and not remotely well-known tech and tech which almost any optimizer can recite by heart can coincide to be in the same tier. Also remember that martial and caster tech have a divide as large as the actual classes, which is why you might the actual power of techs fluctuating within a tier (see Claw and Conj tech both being mid-high as an example of this).

 

When I credit someone, I don't claim that they discovered the tech, but that that's where I learned about the tech. If you're certain you're the original discoverer of a tech or you know them, then please tell me so I can credit you or them as such.

 

 If I don't specify which edition a tech applies to, then it applies to both editions.

 

 

Definition of 'tech' and 'dubious'

Tech: a reading of the Rules As Written which is not obvious to most people, and may with various levels of clarity go against the Rules as Intended. 

 

Dubious: a tech which has an argument backed by a valid interpretation of RAW that the tech doesn't actually exist. This would not need a definition if 5e was properly written, but here we are.

Rank 0: no tech

Definition: as it says on the tin. This is how most people play most of the time. In this tier, either no one is aware of how much tech 5e has, or the table elects to simply not use any. Not even DSnAt or anything. 

 

Bears are fish: This is a completely meaningless tech. Bears are valid targets for a Trident of Fish Command, therefore, bears are fish. Credits: FoD.  

 

DM with statistics (2014): This goes here for literally not doing anything. Anyway, Conjure Animals says that the DM has the creature's statistics. This means that whatever CA summons grants the DM the stats of the summon. Like them. The DM. The person. Credits: Cell. 

Rank 1: low tech

Definition: tech which not worth building around, and has a minor effect on the game. A build which uses low tech will only barely, if at all, be less powerful if it forgoes the tech. That said, it doesn't make these techs worth overlooking, nor do I wish to invalidate the people who discovered these techs. Some of these are memes that aren't actually worth using.

 

Ammo regeneration (2014): You can spend 1 minute after a fight to recover half the ammo you spent during it. You can just spend another minute recovering the other half. This makes magic ammo actually useful. This doesn't work in 2024 due to it specifying the rest is lost. Credits: Cell

 

Break Into Hallow: Hallow only prevents a listed creature from entering, but not from exiting nor moving within the area. You can break in with any forced movement. Credits: Nacho. 

 

Evard's Black Tentacles funky restrain: Black Tentacles keeps restraining the target if it's moved out of the AoE. 

  

Flash of Stupid: An Artificer with negative Int using Flash of Genius against an enemy to penalize their save and wearing a Headband of Intellect to make up for their dumped Int at other times. Credits; TTB. 

 

Fighting Initiate Fighting Style dupe (2024): Fighting Initiate gives you a Fighting Style option while the Fighting Style feature gives a Fighting Style feat. You can argue that this means that you could get the 'same' Fighting Style feat, like 2 Archery's. Credits: Virgil.

 

Forced movement can cost movement: You expend movement speed when you move on your turn. If you're forcefully moved on your turn, then you expend movement equal to the distance moved. Credits: Wex.

 

Mounts are items: The column in the PHB showing some Mounts explicitly lists them as items, making them eligible for crafting the Mounts or conjuring them with Creation Bard. Credits: Cell.

 

Paralyizing Touch Gremishka Swarm: The Lich's Paralyzing Touch involves a spell attack roll but isn't a spell. Gremishka Swarm's spell redirection triggers on a spell attack roll, after which is redirects the spell... but Paralyzing Touch isn't a spell. The only way to make this interaction logical is that the swarm makes Paralyzing Touch a spell of level N/A that isn't available to any creature or spell list. This becomes rank 0 if the DM says that this doesn't prevent the Lich from using Paralyzing Touch due to it being a spell it doesn't have. Credits: Cell.

 

Prestitech: Prestidigifeast: Food doesn't need to be digested to be counted for not going hungry. It just needs to be eaten. You can presti a food trinket to eat for free. Credits: Pi Guy.

 

Prestitech: Harmless Sensory Effect: Presti's harmless sensory effect can be used to make effects as large, small, plentiful, or limited as you want.

• Art and communication:  you can make the entire sky a certain color (if you're that high up somehow), writing or drawing on anything, making anyone of your choice hear a fart sound, etc.
• Free Pyrotechnics: A fog cloud or something similar can provide Heavy Obscurement, unless the DM rules it as harmful.
• 
  

 

For more, see Sil's 2nd Prestitech article. Credits: Sil. 

 

Inspiration to Hit Die (2024): You can reroll a Hit Die with Heroic Inspiration, including one you roll to determine how much you max HP increases on levelling up. This is better on average than taking the given average. Credits: Idk.

 

Int or Wis Tentacles of the Deep: Fathomless warlock's Tentacles of the Deep doesn't specify the stat used for the melee spell attack. Therefore, you can use Int or Wis instead of Cha, so long as you have a class who uses the stat as its spellcasting modifier. Credits: me!  

 

Scribes type tech: The feature which allows Scribes wizard to change the type of a spell you cast doesn't discriminate against spells which mentions a type in any way, including in ways outside of damage of the spell's type. For example, Protection from Energy would allow a spell cast with a 3rd level slot to be its normal type, Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder. Credits: Gammalolman

 

Stacking movement penalty: Movement penalties from effects like Plant Growth are in addition, not in replacement of, the normal movement speed that requires expenditure. Credits: Wex.

  

Stacking Tiny Huts: You can cast Leomund's Tiny Hut multiple times to guard against Dispel Magics. This works for similar safe-SR spells, but Tiny Hut can be ritual cast so that it doesn't set your slots on fire. Credits: TTB.

 

Stone Shape Solidify: You can cast Stone Shape on a very large stone structure several times to increase its mass, therefore increasing its HP as per the object breaking rules.  

 

For a build which uses this, see The Generous Stoner. Credits: NMW.

 

Stone Shape Snipe: You can make a nearly infinitely small line of rock between you and a Stone you wanna Shape to effectively by-pass Stone Shape's Touch range.

 

For a build which uses this, see The Generous Stoner. Credits: NMW.

 

Suggestion loophole: Need to Suggest something in more than 25 words? Just suggest this: "You should read and follow the instructions in this document". Credits: me!

 

Two-Handed does nothing: The Two-Handed weapon property just requires you to have two hands, not actually use two hands. Credits: me! 

 

Wild Magic infinite range AC boost: Read the 6th option of Wild Magic Barb's Wild Surge:

Until your rage ends, you are surrounded by multi colored, protective lights; you gain a +1 bonus to AC, and while within 10 feet of you, your allies gain the same bonus. 

You can dubiously read this as that your allies get the AC bonus while you're within 10 feet of yourself. This becomes a lot better if combined with the inifnite AC tech. Credits: Cell. 

Rank 2: low-mid tech

Definition: tech which is not worth building around, but does make a notable contribution on builds which it naturally applies to. A build which uses lite-defining tech will be moderately worse if it forgoes the tech. These techs can already be controversial, as this is a contrast to no tech gameplay.

Chicken bones Animate Dead (2014): You can target any sort of pile of bones, not just Medium humanoid ones. Order a wings bucket for a minion-in-a-bucket! This was fixed in 2024. Credits: PT, I think?

Clock generates Clock: Clockwork Soul's Manifestations of Order table's 5th option lets you temporarily turn your spellcasting focus into a Clockwork Amulet. You really reliably hit your spell attack rolls with this, for whatever that's worth on a sorc. Credits: me!

Ice Voyages: You can use Shape Water to make ice on which you can walk on. 

For a build which uses this, see Form of Dread's Dao Crusher build. Credits: FoD.

Infinite hands: assuming artwork doesn't count as a rule, nothing says that you only have two hands. This is less dubious with Custom Lineage since that lets you design your race to be one with as many hands as you need. Plasmoid is even less dubious thanks to three hands being supported by artwork.

Replace Nick attack (2024): If you qualify or the Nick attack by qualifying for the Light attack and having mastery in a Nick weapon, then you can replace that attack with using something that replaces an attack, such as ElK's War Magic, Bladesinger or Valor Bard's Extra Attack, Net, or Oil. 

Prismatic lasagna lite: You can cast Prismatic Wall in a way where the whole thing occupies a small space in a way resembling a lasagna. This does instant-death-to-anyone-who-goes-through damage.

This belongs here, because using your lv 9 slots to deal damage in one fight is generally a mediocre at best use of it. Credits: Sil.

Multiclassing and taking ASI's in Wild Shape: You qualify for any prerequisites for multiclassing when you level up while Wild Shaped, and can take feats you don't normally qualify for the same way (or have your stats altered in any other way either permanently or by shape-shifting). Feats you take while shaped apply to your current form only and come and go when you enter and exit the form respectively.

 For a build which uses this, see Moon Knight. Credits: Dr Mug. 

Oversized weapons (2014): RAW, PC's are monsters. Monsters can have oversized weapons, which are weapons which deal its damage die more times for each size above Medium the weapon is. This is particularly nice for Rune Knight and Path of the Giant. 

For more details, see TTB's article on oversized weapons. For a build which uses this, see Rage Fiend. Credits: TTB.

Smuggle 2014 CA into 2024 (2024): You can use Shepherd's lv 14 feature to get 2014 CA into 2024- at least, in the specific way Faithful Summons casts the spell. Specific beats general. It's too many levels with nothing but Spirit Totem to be really worth going for. You could argue this is mid tech if your game starts in T3 or T4.

 

Valor/Bladesinger infinite BA attack: Valor Bard and Bladesinger wizard's Battle Magic/Song of Victory feature puts no expiration date on the BA attack, nor does it limit it to one use.

 

Wall of Fire tactical patterns: This encompasses generally shaping the wall of Wall of Fire in a way that will result in the most amount of damage and/or prevent (some) friendly fire damage. For concrete examples of this at work, see Pack Tactics' video on Wall of Fire. Credits: PT. 

 

Weapon Juggling (2024): Weapon Juggling is a tech sometimes used by martial builds to let them quickly switch between several weapons for optimal use of different damage die, properties, and masteries.

 

Read the following excerpt from the Attack action:

Equipping and Unequipping Weapons. You can either equip or unequip one weapon when you make an attack as part of this action. You do so either before or after the attack. If you equip a weapon before an attack, you don't need to use it for that attack. Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from a sheath or picking it up. Unequipping a weapon includes sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.

 Also remember the Time-Limited Object Interaction (chapter 2 PHB):

 

 When time is short, such as in combat, interactions with objects are limited: one free interaction per turn. That interaction must occur during a creature's movement or action. Any additional interactions require the Utilize action, as explained in "Combat" later in this chapter.

 Combining both, you could, for example, make an attack with a Light Crossbow to qualify you for the Light attack, then Juggle to a Sling to Slow a target, then juggle to get and throw a Dagger with the Nick attack. 

The Dual Wielder feat may solve logistical challenges this tech causes.

Zhentarim Tactics free OA: Read the Opportunity Attack rule: 

You can make an Opportunity Attack when a creature that you can see leaves your reach using its action, its Bonus Action, its Reaction, or one of its speeds. To make the Opportunity Attack, take a Reaction to make...

The word 'the' bolded here can be interpreted as that you only need to expend a Reaction to make an OA if it's from one of the mentioned conditions. Zhentarim Tactics' condition isn't specified here and therefore can be argued to not require a Reaction. Credits: me! 

Rank 3: mid tech

Definition: tech which is worth building around and makes a major contribution to builds which use the tech. A build which uses mid tech can be defined by the tech(s) it uses! These techs aren't oppressive, meaning that you can make a build without using any tech in this tier and be competitive with builds which do. From here on out, you might apply the tech to a build which doesn't build around because the tech can serendipitously be enabled in the build, but these techs are definitely worth making special accommodations for in your build if they align with the direction of the build. This is the most populous tier due to me being the most familiar with mid-high to high-op gameplay in which this tech is often allowed.

Bag of rats: Using helpless creatures, like the titular Rat, to activate effects which are intended to only be able to be activate in combat, such as Bite Critfishing.

 

Bag of helpful rats (2024) 2024's DMG seemingly bans Bag of rats, as seen below:

Some rules apply only during combat or while a character is acting in Initiative order. Don't let players attack each other or helpless creatures to activate those rules. 

You can bypass this by attacking an NPC who isn't helpless. This requires DM fiat, but something like a zombie or a Pact of the Chain familiar probably isn't helpless. 

Bers damage on every hit (2024): This dubious tech claims that the extra damage granted by Berserker's Frenzy apply to any hit, not just the first one, so long as such hits are against the target you first hit. This is a major buff in Barb's dpr. Read carefully:

If you use Reckless Attack while your Rage is active, you deal extra damage to the first target you hit on your turn with a Strength-based attack. To determine the extra damage, roll a number of d6s equal to your Rage Damage bonus, and add them together. The damage has the same type as the weapon or Unarmed Strike used for the attack. 

The tech claims that the target is 'marked' as the first target you hit on your turn, meaning that you deal the extra damage on each hit against this target not just on the current turn, but forever. This is cumulative too, which is quite funny and gives Barb a niche up to mid-high op in just hitting really hard.

What makes this dubious is the matter of whether something is considered the target of an effect which has resolved. If yes, then the tech works. If no, the the tech doesn't work. RAW offers no answer to this. Read the Target rule:

A target is the creature or object targeted by an attack roll, forced to make a saving throw by an effect, or selected to receive the effects of a spell or another phenomenon.

This does not answer our question, and I've yet to find any precedent which could confirm whether the tech works or not. 

For a build which uses this, see 2024 Optimization Guides' Basic Berserker Barbarian Build. Credits: Nacho. 

Bite Critfishing: This uses Dhampir's Bite in a way which deals non-lethal damage constantly to a bag of rats creature in order to eventually get a Crit and a 4 on both of the d4's, which is then usually used to gain a massive 8+Con bonus to initiative. 

 

For a build which uses this, see FoD's Plafond Pupil. Credits: FoD.

 

Conjure Animals/Conjure Celestial movement (2024): CA and CC both can be moved when you move. You can break up your movement, so you can move an inch, move the emanation, move another inch, move the emanation again, and so on. If you've got anything that lets you move outside your turn (such as just readying to move), then this allows you to reproc these outside your turn.

Ceremony Polyamorous Suicide: Casting Ceremony on your entire party since the spell allows for a poly marriage, to get +2 AC, then having one of the involved creatures die (and optionally get revived) to be able to get the +2 AC back.

Claw tech: using a variety of features which produce attacks made with a claw and which add damage or other effects when you use a claw attack, such as using Tabaxi's claw feature in combination with Moorbounder's claw attack.

 

For details and a build which uses this, see Moon Knight. Credits: Dr Mug. 

Conjure Airstrike: Using Tasha's optional rules for falling damage to drop summons on a target for massive bludgeoning damage. This is most commonly used with 2014 Conjure Animals. This can work in 2024, but there just aren't any mass-summon spells left which can make this work the way just casting CA did.

Dao Crusher: This tech uses an interaction between EBARB, the Crusher feat and Dao Genielock's ability to deal extra Bludgeoning damage equal to your PB to first deal that Bludgeoning damage, then activate Crusher to push the target 5 ft upwards, then EBARB them with the angle you got to push them diagonally upward to deal fall damage and knock them prone. 

For a build which uses this, see Form of Dread's Dao Crusher build. Credits: FoD. 

Dirge perma-speed reduction (2024): Dirge halves the creature's speed on a success. Permanently. It's best to intentionally fail your saves against this spell. Credits: Cell. 

DSnAT: Stands for Double Sneak Attack. DSnAt uses the fact that SnAt specifies that it can only be applied once per turn rather than once per round. This is important since it means that you can apply SnAt if you manage to make an attack outside your own turn, like by Reading the Attack action, or with an Opportunity Attack. This roughly doubles Rogue's damage. 

 

Fabribook: You can use Fabricate to fabricate a spellbook with every spell in it. Credits: Sil. 

 

Familiar from the other fence: You can cast the version of Find Familiar granted by Pact of the Chain to get one of the Familiars exclusive to that version, then swap Pact of the Chain to Tome (with the Tome containing FF) to retain this special Familiar whilst having a better Pact/invocation. This is low tech in 2024 due to Giant Fly offering heavy competition.

 

 For a build which uses this, see FoD's Plafond Pupil. Credits: FoD.

 

Fey-Touched Gift of Alacrity: The Fey-Touched feat can get GoA, which is normally locked behind the dunamancy subclasses. I had to remember that this can be considered a tech.

 

For a build which uses this tech, see one in three spellcaster builds. Credits: TTB.  

 

Forcelance (2014): This tech combines the Polearm Master and War Caster feats to use PAM's OA trigger to cast a spell, most iconically Eldritch Blast. 

 

For a build which uses this, see FoD's Forcelance build or TTB's Ghostlance build. Credit: Ronin.

 

Genie's Vessel Grenade: You can intentionally destroy a Genie's Vessel to release its contents. This can let you create a grenade with big stones made with Stone Shape/Wall of Stone to basically have a concless Wall of Stone you can rest cast, unleash your skeleton army, and more. This does disable any features relying on your Vessel until you recover it, though.

 

For a build which uses this, see The Generous Stoner. Credits: NMW. 

 

Ghostlance: This tech is an evolution of Forcelance which adds Echo Knight's Manifest Echo to the mix to use the Forcelance tech without having to get near the enemy. This version works in both versions, since it doesn't actually rely on PAM. 

 

For a build which uses this, see TTB's Ghostlance build. Credit: TTB.

 

Giant Fly familiar (2024): Giant Fly went from CR null to CR 0, and Find Familiar can now summon any CR 0 beast, making Giant Fly a fairly broken option. 

 

Inheritor spyglass: One of the trinkets the Inheritor bg can give you is a broken spyglass. Spyglass sells for 500 G, making this a very lucrative bg. Credits: FoD.

 

Invisible Firing Platform: You can use Invisibility to grant the benefits of it to both the target and anyone that the target is holding. 

 

For a build which uses this, see FoD's Plafond Pupil. Credits: FoD.

  

Invisible Object Forever: Invisibility's invisibility only ends on the target after the casting, but not on any objects they're holding. This becomes mid-high if combined with Invisible Firing Platform.

 

For a build which uses this, see FoD's Plafond Pupil. Credits: FoD.

 

Invoc stacking (2014): Nothing prevents you from taking an eldritch invocation more than once. This is fixed in 2024. 

Lifeberry (2014): Combining Life Cleric's Disciple of Life with Goodberry for fantastic out-of-combat healing. 2024 rewrote Disciple of Life in a way that causes this to no longer work outside of the turn you cast the spell.

 

For a build which uses this, see TTB's Flagship Gloom Stalker. Credit: TTB. 

 

(Limited) Wish Unrequirement: (Limited) Wish removes requirements from spells for you. This isn't just about removing material components, but also anything else you are required or must do (which are synonyms of eachother). Others are still affected normally. I won't detail every example, but very notably, Summon Greater Demon lacks a CR limit with this tech. 

For a build which uses this as well as a complete list of applications, see The Generous Stoner. Credits: NMW. 

 

Magic Mouth Arcane Programming: Magic Mouth can be used to make wired phone connections, computers, enemy detectors, rings which give your party basically 30 ft blindsight, and many more insanely fun things. 

 

For much, much more details, see Kemptock's GITP post on this. Credits: Kemptock.

 

Nested Aquatic Doom: You can use ice cubes generated with Shape Water to waste a ton of actions by forcing enemies to repeatedly have to destroy the cubes to either get to you or escape a cage make out of these cubes. 

 

 For a build which uses this, see FoD's Plafond Pupil. Credits: FoD. 

 

Oil stacking (2024): A creature can be doused in Oil many times over, and the Oil doesn't disappear when it's procced. Builds which make minions spam Oil while the build deals Fire damage as often as possible can get stellar single-target damage, and this increases the more sources of Fire damage your party has.

 

This isn't a great example of this tech in practice since it's a shit build, but for a build which uses this tech, see my Shadow Monk/Rune Knight/Wildfire Druid build. A better idea is to use this with Scribes Wizard changing the damage type of Magic Missile to fire for an excellent nova damage dealer that's also a Wizard and everything. Credits: Sil.

Rageconc (2014): You can concentrate on spells while Raging by being Wild Shaped. This isn't possible in 2024 due to the language of Rage having been fixed. as for how this works in 2014, Dr Mug explained how for me already.

 

Rage states:
"...If you are able to cast spells, you can't cast or concentrate on them while raging..."
Wild Shape states:
"You can't cast spells..."
Self-Explanatory, you can concentrate in Rage as long as you can't cast [spells], which is the case in Wild Shape. 

 For a build which uses this, see Moon Knight. Credits: Dr Mug.

 

Psychic Blades meets functionalism: Read Soulknife's Psychic Blades with great care. (The text in 2024 is similar enough to the text in 2014 for this tech to work in both versions).

Whenever you take the Attack action, you can manifest a psychic blade from your free hand and make the attack with that blade. This magic blade is a simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties. It has a normal range of 60 feet and no long range, and on a hit, it deals psychic damage [...] The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target [...]

TL;DR: You can make 1-n attacks as part of the Attack action if your first attack is with this blade, where n is the number of attacks you can make as part of the Attack action. For example, a Fighter 11/Soul Knife 3 could make 3 regular attacks and 2 blades attacks as part of the Attack action. 

 

So what happens when you make multiple attacks with the Attack action? The rule says that you make the attack with the blade, buts... what's the attack when you're making multiple attacks? It's not the first attack, because it'd have to specify as such. It's also not the attack you make with the blade, since the feature clearly refers to the attack made with the Attack action.
If it's all attacks, then how the hell could that work with the blade disappearing after the first? 

There are two readings here, and one results in a crash.

 

1. The attack is every attack made with the Attack action, and you must attack with the blade for all of them. This means that you're somehow supposed to make attacks with a non-existent psychic blade. You're required to attack with something that's non-existent, which results in a crash. This reading belongs in the RANFS section.

Before I explain the 2nd reading, you must first understand the philosophy of functionalism. I'm not joking. This is required to make this interaction not crash the game.

  

Despite being materially different, we can all agree that, in all of the above images, there is one chessboard. This is because we're not looking at the matter the boards are composed of, but at their function of being a chessboard. Functionalism is a philospohical movement which divorces the material substance with its function. Here, while the matter differs in each pictured object, we cn still recognize that all of these objects have the function of being chessboards. If you don't get it, then please read up on functionalism before reading the rest of this tech.

Back to the stupidest tech you've ever read: 

        2. The attack is every attack made with the Attack action, but you mustn't attack with the blade for all but one of them whilst applying the function of attacking with the blade to all of them. This circumvents the issue of calling for a non-existent-weapon attack entirely by making you attack with something else. See it as this: we're not making attacks with the psychic blade, but we are using the function of the psychic blade by attacking and possibly damaging with it. Since we still have the attack open, we can make an attack with another weapon/unarmed strike, which causes us to use the function of that weapon/u.s. in addition to the function of the psychic blade, resulting in practically making n attacks with the (function of the) psychic blade and n-1 attack with another weapon/u.s., where n is the number of attacks we make as part of the action. 

I can't figure out a ruling which is both RAW and not either fucking stupid or requiring the power of the philosophy of functionalism to be true in DnD and applicable this way. Credits: me! 

 

Rest casting: Expending spell slots (and comparable features) when your rest is 7 hours and 59 minutes or so in to essentially get the spell for free.For example, if you're a Druid with 2 spell slots left, one lv 1 and the other lv 2, you could use the first slot to cast Goodberry and the second to cast Aid. This tech is ubiquitously accepted at any optimization table I've played in due to it tangibly rewarding resource conservation.

 

In 2024, rest casting is nerfed but not gone. Casting a leveled spell now delays the LR by 1 hr. So in the aforementioned example, the Druid would have a LR lasting a total of 10 hrs instead of the usual 8 hrs (though they could just cast Goodberry before the LR to make it 9 hrs).  

 

Basically any build with spell slots can use rest casting. 

 

Seemingly blinded: You can use Seeming to put blindfold on the targets, thereby blinding them without a safe. Credits: PT. 

 

SG/CWB reprocs (2024): Spirit Guardians and Conjure Woodland Beings were reworked in 2024 to allow you to continuously retrigger them outside your turn by finding ways to move yourself (or get moved) off-turn, such as by having allies grapple you, or by using Readying the Attack action to then use Rogue's Cunning Strike's Withdraw. Team compositions which focus on reproccing these spells are called rugby teams, with the Emanator being the rugby ball in the metaphor.

 

Swap Sorcerer spell lists instantly: For Lunar, 2014 Clockwork, and Abberant Sorc, there's a dubious tech where you can swap the spells on the lists instantly. It's unclear whether this works or not.

 

For a build which uses this, see TTB's Flag Twi Cleric. Credit: TTB. 

Spell stacking: Spells which target a certain creature and end upon a certain trigger, like Death Ward and Guidance. can be 'stockpiled' by casting it repeatedly on the same target. Once casting #1 expires, casting #2 stops being suspended and can immediately go into effect. 

For a build which uses this tech, see TTB's Death Warden or FoD's Plafond Pupil. Credits: TTB. 

Suggestion suffocation: You can Suggest a creature to choke or drown themselves to death, because suffocation gives Exhaustion, but doesn't deal damage, and only the latter does Suggestion ban. Credits: Idk. 

Unarmed Strike replacement stack: Pay attention to any feature which let you replace damage dealt with an Unarmed Strike: Unarmed Fighting, Tavern Brawler, Martial Arts, 2024 Dhampir, Dance Bard. Under the assumption that you can replace something with nothing, you can make all of these replace the damage on one Unarmed Strike, dealing big damage. Credits: Haen.

Wavedashing: Simic Hybrid's glide can let you glide 2 ft per 1 ft you fall. You can expend X ft to jump to glide 2X ft, effectively letting you not proc OA's ever and at least doubling your speed assuming point buy (consult the formula for high jumping from a standing place in the PHB to calc how far this is for you). Credits: TTB.

 

Zealot Tech Lite: This is identical to Berserker tech, except that it's not dubious and most certainly works, thanks to Zealot's Divine Fury specifying a creature, not a target. The creature you hit sure as hell doesn't stop being a creature after the hit. Credits: Idk

Rank 4: mid-high tech

Definition: tech which you have to use to be competitive to builds with the same very general direction which use these techs. These techs are oppressive, but not yet so oppressive that builds devolve into how many techs it uses and those techs being more important than anything else in the build combined. If one person uses mid-high tech, then the entire table has to use mid-high tech to not be nearly guaranteed to be outshone by that one person (unless that one person has a shitty build, which I assume to not be the case).

 

Beast Barb infinite AC: Beast Barb's tail grants 1d8 AC. It doesn't say that this AC ever goes away, making this an easy way to get infinite AC. Credits: Dr Mug. 

Blue Slaad Familiar (2024): Pact of the Chain allows Slaad Tadpole to be picked as a Familiar. Slaad Tadpole evolves into a CR 7 Blue Slaad after 2d12 hours, meaning that a lv 1 Lock has a 3x multi-attack +8 to-hit for 12+3=15 damage, granting Lock insane dpr early on. The Slaad Tadpole even regenerates, making it be melee-only not as deadly as usual for T1. This manages to escape high tech by having opportunity cost in being unable to get Giant Fly.

Prismatic Lasagna Deluxe: Following the low-mid Prismatic Lasagna, what if we could make it portable? We center is on an object of ours in a way where the lasagna wraps in on itself. Wrapping it around something like a Longsword makes it deal 3.000d6 save-for-half damage. This doesn't even consume any action economy besides movement, since you can just hold the object out and move next to enemies. This has some DM fiat in exactly how wrapping around works, but at bare minimum it should deal 300d6 half-save. 

 

For more details, see Sil's Prismatic Death Rainbow Lasagna article. Credits: Sil. 

 

Pudding King True Polymorph: You can TP a creature into Pudding King who can then shape-shift into something with a much higher CR. 

 

Subclass swap tech: TCE's rule for swapping your sub is a funky one.

• Inter-class subs: You can swap to a subclass from any of your classes, not just the one your sub normally belongs to. For example, if you're a Peace cleric 1/War Magic wizard 6, then you could replace Peace with a wizard sub, or War Magic with a cleric sub. Were you to swap Peace for Chron, then you'd get Chron's features whenever you hit a wizard sub feature level.
• Keep spells: If you swap from a class which adds spells to your list, you'd keep any spells you obtained that way. For example, at warlock 10, you could switch from Undead to Genie whilst keeping Phantom Steed and Death Ward (assuming you obtained those spells).
• Switch every sub at once: Going back the Peacechron from earlier, you'd actually have to get Chron on both cleric and wizard were you to swap to Chron on either. This is because you swap "all your old subclass features", which isn't phrased in a way which lets you only swap the features out from the class you're taking. This is a major nerf to the tech, especially in 2014, due to constricting dipping options by replacing any sub features you gain from those dips.
• One part of this I don't understand is whether this gives you the new features a number of times equal to the classes you have. For Undead Domain 1/Undead Patron 10, would I have the Undead features once, the Undead features once except for Form of Dread, which I'd have twice, or would I have every Undead feature twice?
• Simultaneous effects: Gaining a subclass feature and choosing to swap subs are simultaneous effects. Therefore, assuming leveling up doesn't happen on an enemy's turn somehow, you could take the first level of your class which grants you a sub of that class, to then first swap a sub from another class of yours with a new one you're eligible for, then gain a different sub on the class you're currently taking a level in. 
  For example, if you were a Hexblade 1 and gain either cleric lv 1 in 2014 or cleric lv 3 in 2024, you can first swap Hexblade to another warlock or cleric sub and then gain a cleric sub for cleric (taking a lock sub for cleric would be a swap that'd make your lock and cleric have the same sub).  

The Terrible True Strike Tech (2024): With Tavern Brawler, you can proficiency with improvised weapons. From there, you can cast True Strike on a cannon to make a ranged roll which deals 8d10+mod damage.

DM willing, you could use the improvised damage table in the DMG to (in ascending order of dubiousness) use the jaws of a godlike creature (like Vecna, or really yourself since you're a full-caster with lv 9 slots), the moon, or the planet you're currently on to deal 24d10+mod damage on a hit. 

This becomes low-mid tech if your DM rules that you can only use the cannon as a melee attack roll, mid tech if antimatter rifle is allowed due to being less of an improvement in sustained dpr compared to it, and low if both are true.

For more details, see Sil's True Strike article. Credits: Sil.

Walk through walls: The PHB says that adventurers can't walk through walls. If you ain't an adventurer, then this rule doesn't apply to you. 

 

Wild Resurgement gives producable lv 1 slots (2024):  See that Druid's Wild Resurgement doesn't restore, but grant a lv 1 spell slot, and also notice that it doesn't say that this new slots disappears when you finish a LR. This lets Druid gain a lv 1 slot every day. At Druid 20, you get to do this with slots up to lv 8. Credits: me for base, Nacho for lv 20.

 

Zealot Tech Deluxe: There's another reading of Divine Fury: in this reading, once you fulfill the condition for it, the damage happens while you Rage, not when you hit with a weapon attack. Every time time passes while you Rage, the damage is dealt. This is practically infinite damage the first time you hit on each of your turns with a weapon. Preferred not to be credited.

Rank 5: high tech

Definition: tech which is so oppressive that it prevents builds of roughly equal competence with one using high tech and the other not from being able to be played in the same game, while not being so broken that it completely removes any challenge whatsoever in vanilla 5e.

 

Arcanquenthel Baenre: A lv 17+ Arcana Cleric Magic Jar'd into Quenthel Baenre can have its Arcane Mastery spells at will. Credits: Cell. 

 

Basic economics with cubes of mass: as it turns out, being able to transform cbf of raw material into finished product in you a lot of money. Fabricate, Alchemical Compendium, and 2024 Create Food and Water (Xorn eat diamonds) are some ways to achieve infinite money.

The current rating assumes that you can near-instantly sell everything, but as this isn't a video game, your DM can totally say that there's not anyone willing to buy a 10 sqr ft of linen, so you may have to gain the money over an extended time. This can make the tech's power slightly to a lot lower. Talking to your DM is optimal. 

 

Credits: Sil for Fabricate, Mystiphox for Alchemical Compendium, gloryconway for CFaW. 

 

Conj tech: exploiting various broken items which Conjurer and Creation Bard can create, like Catapult Munition to throw 10d6 save-for-half bombs, drugs, and lv 7 Cleric and Wizard spells. I'm not getting into Creation Bard's usage of 'item' instead of 'object' and the implications of that in this article.

 

For details, see Sil's article on Conj tech. For a build which uses this, see Sil's TwiConj. Credits: Sil and Hean.

 

Devil/Fey pacts: Descent Into Avernus contains really broken rules for making bargains with devils and fey (moreso the devils are broken). I forgot how all of this works, so just go to FoD's devil pact and fey pact blogs. This goes into ultra tech if you take this a step further and read Sil's sequels. Credits: Haen and Sil.

 

Druidcraft tech: Druidcraft is an open-ended cantrip. You know what that means.

•  

 

Divtech: Diviner can get effectively infinite spell slots below its max by casting a Divination spell with a casting longer than 1 turn to get a spell slot back on every turn, since you are casting a spell while casting a spell with a casting longer than 1 turn. Credits: Idk.

 

Level tech: So you'd think that there's some general rule which makes any level treshold mentioned in a class refer to your level in that class. Nope, not the case. RAW, when you level up, you gain every feature appropriate for the level which doesn't specify class level (or has some other prerequisite, like having the appropriate sub for the feature).  This includes gaining a level in every class.

 

Minor Illusion Omniscience: Minor Illusion doesn't specify that you need to have seen whatever you're creating. Map of the dungeon? Here you go. Wax statue of the creature who killed the noble? Here's conclusive evidence. A phrase you can utter to delete the multiverse? Who knows what happens then, since the spell doesn't specify what happens if you try to manifest something non-existent. 

 

For more details, see Sil's article on Minor Illusion Omniscience. Credits: Sil.

Mystic infinite healing: Mystic's Mystical Recovery doesn't say that you can only take the bonus action to recover the hit points on the turn you expend the psi limit. Therefore, You can just regain the HP as a BA a limitless number of times. Credits: me!

Null-Shaping: You can True Poly CR - creatures into other CR - creatures. For example, you can turn Tiny Servant into a Mighty Servant of Leuk-O, or stuff like Wildfire Spirit or Steel Defender.

For more details, see Ex-Nihilo ut Omnia. Credits: Sil.

  

Tattoo tech: Oh hey! Tattoo tech uses Spellwrought Tattoo's capability to let you cast spells without concentration and a duration of longer than 1 action as a cantrip for the duration. This is because the Spellwrought Tattoo says that the tattoo disappears when the spell ends, not when it is cast or anything. Notable spells include 2024 Goodberry and any conc-less spell which summons a creature until the spell ends, like Phantom Steed or Tiny Servant.  

 

See also my guide on tattoo tech. Credits: TTB. 

 

Techo Knight: Echo Knight is arguably the most sloppily written thing in all of 5e. I'm not sure whether this belongs here or in the next rank. 

• Invincible: Echoes are invincible for the same reason as Unseen Servant: they're not creatures nor objects, but something else undefined. This makes it impossible to target except for AoE effects.
• Infinite range: You can move the Echo up to 30 ft on your turn, but doesn't limit how often you can do this, meaning you can have the Echo move as far as you'd like and then back since the Echo only disappears when it ends the turn more than 30 ft away from you as opposed to just 30 ft away from you.
• Echoes can fly: As it says on the tin. 
• Echoes can go through walls: Also as it says on the tin. Magical forces are weird. 
• OA's on forced movement: Manifest Echo gives special rules for the Echo on proccing Opportunity Attacks which let them proc them when a creature is forcibly moved.
• Unseen attacker: If you attack through the Echo while the target doesn't see you, you have adv due to the target not seeing you. If you lack a way to see the target (which is solved in Echo lv 7), then you have dadv on the roll due to not seeing the target, which cancel eachother out.
• Echo Avatar doesn't prevent you from attacking: Echo Avatar is intended to be just for scouting. It lacks a sentence of two to make it function as such. 

For a build which uses this, see Ranged Techo Knight. Credits: Fhyr.  

Transmogrification: You can use Fabricate to turn objects normally lasting an indefinite amount of time, like from Minor Conjuration or Creation, permanent by casting Fabricate on it. This is because the object consists of the raw materials needed to make a copy of it. Credits: Sil.

Overqualified Unseen Servants: Unseen Servants are able to perform any tasks that a human servant can perform. Now, if there were to be a human servant who can cast spells, like you, then the servant could cast any spells a human servant can cast. You can likely see where you can go with this. Credits: Cell. 

Magic weapons on character creation: You may be able to get a magical version of an item you get from character creation instead of the mundane version. For example, you could get a Luckblade longsword instead of a regular longsword. This is dubious due to it being unclear whether your starting equipment lets you get X or lets you get any sort of X. Credits: Cell.

Vomitberry: The worst tech. You can eat a Goodberry and then vomit it out to retain that berry after the duration runs out forever. Credits: Cell.  

Wild Magic semicomma grants infinite AC: Read effect #6 from Wild Magic Barb:

Until your rage ends, you are surrounded by multi colored, protective lights; you gain a +1 bonus to AC, and while within 10 feet of you, your allies gain the same bonus.

Because wotc doesn't know how a semicomma works, every effect except the multi colored, protective lights are permanent. This is a tier above Beast Barb's infinite AC tech due to this also affecting your nearby allies. The effect doesn't specify that the lights cause the AC.

Zodar Death Ward: Zodar can cast Wish at will, but dies afterward. This is so easily solved with Death Ward that I'm not sure that this counts as tech. Credits: Lamp.

Rank 6: ultra tech (also called Sil tech)

Definition: tech utterly overpowered that it goes into near-complete invincibility. You can't challenge these builds without hunderds of thousands of high-CR creatures- if even that.  This is where I have to end this glossary, because these techs go beyond what this blog is about. For an introductory course on Sil tech, go to bootbrew.blog. Ghost In The Machine is a fun read for beginners to ultra tech.

 

Rank infinite: God exits

Definition: tech which is impossible to do anything about. If the tech is used, then there is no more game to play. These are pretty much universally never allowed. These are pointless because of that besides the entertainment value (and playing with nerfed versions of these, perhaps). bootbrew.blog has several posts detailing god exits. 

 

Limited Wish Unrestrictions: Limited Wish removes restrictions from spells. Conjure Animals saying it can only make a limited number of Beasts is no more: you can summon any number of creatures of any types of any CR. I'm posting this here since playing with a limited version of this can happen.

For a build which uses this, see The Generous Stoner. Credits: NMW.

Bonus content: Rank -1: fucking stupid tech

Definition: tech which is so stupid that most people apply the principle of RANFS (Rules As Not Fucking Stupid) to this and ignore them. This blog sometimes assumes that RANFS is in effect and that all of the below is homebrewed out. These usually harm the players more than the enemies.

 

Arbitrary amount of ability checks: You make an ability check whenever you do something with a chance of failure. Want to make an attack roll? Ability check. Saving throw? Check. Check? If you can't auto-clear it, check. Check to make a check you can't auto-clear? If you can't auto-clear the check, make a check.

 

Disintegrate can't target Wall of Force: Disintegrate says that it can destroy a Wall of Force, but it can't target a magical effect, which is what WoF is. 

 

Dispel Magic doesn't fully work: If you target a spell with Dispel Magic, then the spell doesn't end, since a spell isn't a magical effect of itself. It would necessarily have to be if SAC is to be taken as official rules.

 

DM fiat is everywhere: When can you use Action Surge? Your DM decides. Where do you place most if not all summon spells? Your DM decides. What creature do you touch when you cast Lesser Restoration? You wouldn't believe who decides.

 

Fireball doesn't work (2014): Fireball says that A target takes the damage. Fireball targets a location, and it doesn't say that creatures in the radius count as targets. It just forces creatures to make a dex save against nothing. This was fixed in 2024.

 

Nothing is an object: Read 2024's terrible attempts at defining an object (2014's also doesn't work, but I can't find its definition).

An object is a nonliving, distinct thing. Composite things, like buildings, comprise more than one object.

We know a vile of acid is an object... but how? By this definition, it should be a composite thing, since the vile and the acid are distinct from eachother. The only way to make this sense RAW is saying that anything which says it's an object despite breaking this definition falls under the specifc-beats-general rule.

Going further: you'd think a table is an object, but how? It's a composite, since it at least comprises of a distinct standing leg and a distinct surface area to create the composite thing of a table . Specific-beats-general can't save you here, since a table is never defined as an object.

 

You can take this all the way to that nothing that's not specifically defined as an object is an object by looking at things at a micro-level. 

 

Revivify doesn't work: Revivify targets a creature which died in the last minute. The problem is that a corpse doesn't count as a creature, therefore this spell is useless. Casting Animate Objects on the corpse circumvents this by making the corpse count as a creature.

 

Unleash Incarnation does nothing at range: Unleash Incarnation lets you "make one additional melee attack from the Echo's position". This isn't written in a way that exempts it from having to have the target within your reach to be able to target it, meaning it doesn't work if you don't have target within your own reach. 

 

Web lacks rules for burning: Web is supposed to ignite when it comes into contact with fire. However, stuff like torches and Firebolt can't target magical effects, which Web is. Stuff like Fireball also doesn't work, since that stuff only makes objects start burning, and Web isn't an object. 

The only way to make it burn is with fire naturally spreading to the Web, which lacks rules for how that exactly works. 

Zealot anti-tech (2024): 2024 Zealot's Divine Fury applies to the first creature you hit with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike. This doesn't specify a time frame. Have fun dealing 1d6+1/2 Barb dmg to your mom you kicked while you were in her belly.