Banned Spells
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/5suzdu/dm_5e_what_spells_do_you_dislike_or_even_ban_in/ https://abitofeverythingdd.quora.com/As-a-DM-do-you-have-any-spells-that-you-have-banned-from-the-table-What-is-the-reason-Are-they-banned-from-a-specific https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-spells-bad-worst-cheating/
Should spells be banned at the table? If so, which ones?
I don't like the idea of banning spells at a table but the table should have an agreement in place as to what game you're trying to play. If you're thinking about banning a spell, you don't have a problem with a spell -- you have a problem with a player.
Remember as a DM, you can do anything your players can do but at a level so much greater than what they can do -- if they are abusing Silvery Barbs, you can give them a room full of CR 1/2 casters with Silvery Barbs.
Conjure Woodland Beings
https://screenrant.com/dnd-dungeons-dragons-powerful-spells-conjure-woodland-beings/
Goodberry
If you're playing in a survival campaign, there are definitely faux pas spells -- Goodberry for sure, Create Food and Water, etc. -- but I'm not sure you need to outright ban them. If players want to play in that type of game, they should be self-policing themselves.
Maybe Goodberry no longer sustains the creature for one day.. maybe some other effect comes into play like a WIS or CON saving throw that applies Exhaustion to deal with cravings or the feeling of an empty stomach; maybe the players have a curse or disease that prevents them from getting nourishment through magical means. Players might develop allergies to Goodberries.
Simulacrum
Simulacrum is one of the only spells I'd consider banning and that's because of the Wish + Simulacrum loop -- but there are reasons why I wouldn't bother banning it:
- If a player wants to abuse Simulacrum by looping it with Wish, you don't have a problem with Simulacrum -- you have a problem with that player.
- The casting time and the components required for casting Simulacrum are steep enough the DM can prevent the loop from ever being more than a thought experiment.
https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/1011342543873761280?lang=en
Further more, the Adventure League guidelines add the following:
No Copies of a Copy.
Simulacrums can’t cast simulacrum, or any spell that duplicates its effects. (p. 7)
You Are You; and So Is He.
If a simulacrum you have created casts wish, both you and your simulacrum suffer the stress associated with casting the spell — including the risk of being forever unable to cast wish again. The inability to cast wish extends to any simulacrum you create in the future. (p. 8)
Remove Curse // Lesser Restoration
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/163238/how-can-i-deal-with-the-remove-curse-spell-spoiling-my-plot-hooks https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/ndq2na/dm_depowers_lesser_and_greater_restoration_for/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/6bpumu/plague_and_lesser_restoration_question/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/jh75s4/to_make_a_plague_scary_dont_make_it_immune_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmemes/comments/tzyzso/sometimes_low_level_magic_can_solve_too_many/
I'm reminded of a few years ago when I ran a plague storyline.
PCs: "We found a cure for the plague. Just cast Greater Restoration."
Church: "We already knew that."
PCs: "Then why aren't you going around curing everybody?"
Church: "We have hundreds of cases. Each cast of Greater Restoration costs 100gp in diamonds, and we have a limited number of high-level clerics able to go around casting Greater Restoration. Even if all of them were willing to do it for free (which they aren't), even if the disease didn't continue to spread after we started curing it, it would take months and cost hundreds of thousands of gold."
PCs: "Yeah, but if you start now, you can eventually cure everyone."
Church: "And who would pay for it?"
PCs: "The Church!"
Church: "And why would we do that?"
Some DMs (and players) will describe a plot hook as a curse but that doesn't mean that it needs to work mechanically as a curse -- these are conditions. When describing the curse (or disease) as a condition, it makes them immune to the spell Remove Curse (or require Remove Curse to be cast at a particular spell level).
In the Lost Laboratory of Kwalish adventure, a PC can be cursed, and
> This curse can be removed only by a remove curse spell cast by an 18th-level spellcaster, by defeating Kwalish and reversing the process using his machines, or by completing a separate task for the inventor.
Following the example of published official adventures, your PCs may need a specific level to be able to break the curse. It is, otherwise, too powerful.
Death Curse from Tomb of Annihilation is another example...
The same goes for Diseases or other ailments used at plot hooks.