Crown Of Madness 5e Guide: Everything You Need To Know

When it comes to Dungeons and Dragons, there are many facets of the game that can be unknown to some players due to the sheer vastness of the game itself – something that is especially daunting for new players within the franchise, who might not know what options are available to them.

One such element within the game is the Crown of Madness – a spell that can be quite useful under the right circumstances and in the right hands. But what exactly is the Crown of Madness, what does it do, and how useful is it for gameplay? 

What Is The Crown Of Madness?

With the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, (see also: Dungeons And Dragons 5th E: Ultimate Loxodon Guide) (D&D)the Crown of Madness is an enchanting spell that involves one player casting a controlling enchantment over another humanoid creature on the board.

This is generally an opposing player, and whileever the enchantment is in place, the player can control an opposing character during their own turns in the game. 

Within the lore of the game, the Crown of Madness resembles a hovering circle of jagged iron shards that float around the head of the enchanted player. This is combined with a maddened, rabid expression, with the face twisted into an expression of anguish and confusion.

As you might imagine, this can be an effective spell for players to cast, especially if another opposing player has the advantage. However, casting the enchantment does come with certain costs and drawbacks to the casting player too.

What Are The Rules?

Of course, when using the Crown of Madness enchantment, there are certain rules that the caster must follow to adhere to the game.

Doesn’t Affect Reactions

While the Crown of Madness enchantment does hinder the enchanted player’s ability to act – i.e. they cannot strike another player – it doesn’t affect their ability to react, meaning that if they are attacked they can still roll their dice, counter attack, or indeed try and increase their wisdom to break free.

Only Affects Living Humanoids

This is an important one, and could save your bacon should you ever find yourself misusing the enchantment. Firstly, Crown of Madness can only be cast on a humanoid. Whether they are good or evil doesn’t matter, as long as they are a sentient humanoid creature they can be controlled.

Humanoids races include any sentient, bipedal race that can be roleplayed within the game of Dungeons and Dragons, and could include elves, dark elves, orcs, goblins, halflings, and, of course, humans.

Other creatures that are considered humanoid-like – such as giants – cannot be controlled by the enchantment. As well as this, the humanoid must still be living.

There are numerous undead creatures in Dungeons and Dragons – including zombies and skeletons – but these are not affected by Crown of Madness, and as such cannot be controlled.

Multiattack & Singular Attack

Creatures that are imbued with multiattack abilities can only use one melee attack when under the control of the Crown of Madness. When affected players use their melee attack, they forfeit this ability, only allowing them to attack once during their turn.

This means that those in control cannot have complete domination of the game, and that other players stand a chance.

Caster Chooses The Attack

However, the caster of the enchantment can decide which kind of melee attack the enchanted player character can make. For example, if the controlled character’s right hand holds a sword, and the left hand is empty, then the controller can choose whether to punch an enemy or slash them with the sword.

No Shoving Or Grappling

The controlled player character also cannot shove or grapple – being reserved only to melee striking or using the weapon in their possession.

CoM Players Move Willingly

Some moves like ‘Booming Blade’ move the controlled player against their will, however those enchanted with Crown of Madness are considered to be moving willingly when they are controlled.

Use With Twinned Spell

You can also use it with the Twinned Spell, due to the fact that Crown of Madness only affects one creature at a time, and doesn’t have a range of self.

How To Use The Crown Of Madness?

Now that you know a little more about the actual rules, and what Crown of Madness can allow you to do, it is important for us to explore the ways that you can use it within gaming scenarios.

For Combat

Firstly, Crown of Madness can be a useful tool for combat, stopping the charmed/enchanted creatures under your control from being able to attack you.

This is perfect if you happen to find yourself separated from your party, and means that you are not a sitting duck against the threats that might be out there waiting for you.

Reduce Power

It also means that you can reduce the power of characters that have multi-attack abilities. This can be a great advantage for players, especially if their party is suddenly overwhelmed by a powerful character.

By reducing this attack, it means that the attacking character only use one melee attack at a time, which means that you or your allies can then inflict damage afterwards.

Cause Chaos

It also allows those with evil intentions to sow the seeds of chaos within an opposing group of characters, causing them to lose their minds and turn on one another – otherwise destabilizing their group dynamic and ensuring you have the upper hand against a potentially powerful party.

For Grappling

If someone in your party can grapple with the targeted character and hold them in place, then you are guaranteed to not only maintain control for the duration of the enchantment, but also be able to use it to its full potential.

Hazardous Terrain

When enemy characters find themselves caught in webs and held in place, you can then use Crown of Madness to enchant and control them as well.

This works in the same way as the grapple pairing does, and allows you to ensure you get full control over a potentially dangerous character while they are otherwise engaged.

Depower Spellcasters

Magic users can make for dangerous enemies within the Dungeons and Dragons universe, and any move that reduces their power can be a useful tool in your arsenal.

By controlling them with Crown of Madness, you can make sure that their attention is directed elsewhere, so that their otherwise dangerous magic cannot do you undue harm.

For Tight Spaces

If you find yourself in a tricky situation where a lot of enemies have you cornered, then using Crown of Madness can be a great way to cause distractions, level the playing field, or spread the range of your attack.

Open A Dialogue

One aspect of Crown of Madness that people often overlook is that you can actually open a dialogue with a powerful enemy and make a deal that could benefit you both.

Afterall, the whole point of Dungeons and Dragons is that you can make the story your own, and by forming alliances and making deals with your enemies, you can effectively alter the course of the game, the story, and your character’s prospects.

What Are The Benefits?

There are obviously several benefits to casting the Crown of Madness enchantment spell on another player – many of which can actually advance you throughout the game and help you catch up if you are lagging behind.

Control

One of the main benefits is the control that the enchantment grants the user over other humanoids within the game. The most susceptible are the strong and dumb enemies, which can be used as handy weapons and damage shields when used correctly.

As this enchantment can only be cast by player classes that are magic users, this means that they can take advantage of the melee and strength of more brutish characters, using them to inflict physical damage should the situation arise.

Self Preservation

It can also be a good way of protecting yourself from players who might seek to cause you damage in close contact.

If they get close enough, and you successfully cast the enchantment on them, then you have effectively evaded damage for the foreseeable future of the game – unless of course they manage to escape from the bindings of the enchantment at the end of your turn.

Buying Time

It can also be an effective strategy for those seeking to buy themselves time within a certain game type – i.e. if their back is metaphorically against the wall and they need time to understand what their options are.

By controlling a potentially antagonistic enemy, they can ensure themselves a degree of safety for the foreseeable future of the game – something that can be useful when calculating your next moves.

What Are The Downsides? 

However, there are certain downsides associated with casting an enchantment of this kind, and these are certainly important to bear in mind before you go down this path.

Not For Smart Enemies

For intelligent enemies to survive and evade this enchantment, all they need to do is remain out of the target range of your spell.

This means that intelligent enemies will generally maintain their distance and evade you throughout play – potentially making your own play experience more dull, but also ensuring you do not have access to the higher level, more experienced characters that could in fact be more useful to you.

Maintaining Control

One of the major drawbacks of this enchantment is that, to ensure the spell actually maintains its control over the enemy player, you need to exhibit control over them when it comes to your turn.

This means effectively sacrificing your own character’s autonomy in favor of controlling another – thus hindering your own progress within the story, and proving time consuming in the process.

As soon as you do not use your turn to exhibit control over the enchanted player, the enchantment will be instantly broken, and they will have autonomy once more.

Players Can Escape

While the enchanted players will effectively be under your control while the spell is in place, they will still have a chance to try and escape after each one of your moves.

This is done by them rolling a wisdom dice to increase their own mental faculties, and if they should roll a high enough number, they will have broken free of the enchantment and regained their autonomy.

Is Crown Of Madness Worth It?

This is a tricky question, and very much depends on your chosen character, the scenario you have found yourself in, and the overall demand of the story.

Good For Tacticians

If you consider yourself a tactical D&D player, then Crown of Madness can be a charm with endless potential uses for you to exploit, and can really save you when your back is against the wall.

Slow For Adventurers

However, those considering themselves adventurers who are more action-based, it can slow down the gameplay somewhat and hold up any potential exploration.

This might be enough to put the less patient players off using Crown of Madness – but this is fine, and people should play how they feel.

A World Of Possibilities

However, if worth is determined by possibility, then you cannot argue with what CoM offers the wielder, allowing them to essentially break the standard rules of the world they are in and rewrite the narrative to benefit them and thwart their enemies.

Final Thoughts

And there we have it, everything you need to know (see also: Thorn Whip 5e: Everything That You Need To Know)about the Crown of Madness, and whether or not it is a worthy addition to Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition.

It’s true that Dungeons and Dragons remains immensely popular, with fans all around the world donating hours of their time and effort to craft and play rewarding tabletop games. However, as this article demonstrates, some handy tools within the game are just better than others!

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