Vicious Mockery is a cantrip in the arsenal of nearly every Bard inDungeons & Dragons, and these insults cause more than emotional damage. Enemies that have incurred the wrath of your words will take psychic damage and have disadvantage on their next attack.
Though, either in the heat of the moment, or after pulling this spell out of your back pocket more often than not, it can be hard to know how you want to shape your verbal attacks. But that is an issue no more! Well, hopefully. This list will explore some ideas to help spice up your next encounter while you dress down your foe.
8’Borrow' From Your Favorite Entertainment
Afterall, Imitation Is The Greatest Form Of Flattery
Alright, this one is probably already up your sleeve or the sleeve of your local Bard, but it still deserves to be thought about and visited, especially if you tailor it to your character or the lore of the world. If you hear a good quote in a movie or a show, you can always save it for a rainy, combat-filled day.
Let’s use a fantasy favorite as an example. In The Princess Bride, Westley fires off the line “I’ll be sure to use small words so you’ll be sure to understand, you warthog-faced buffoon.” Sure, you could use the line word for word, especially if you’re playing in-person and aren’t streaming or recording. But even just changing the kind of creature this enemy is compared to makes it more personal. You Bugbear-Built Buffoon. You Swarm of Maggots. You Moronic Modron.
7Attack Their Allies
Attack Their Minds And Their Hearts
Just like how you and your character can form deep bonds and friendships with the other players and characters, the NPCs might roll up on you with their friends or family. Use that to your advantage. Launch your Vicious Mockery to tell Target One that you and your team will end up killing their friends, and it’s going to be all Target One’s fault.
Or make them question those allies. “You realize that Target Two is going to abandon you, leaving you here to die.” Depending on how your Dungeon Master (DM) responds to something like that, it could even turn into an Intimidation or Persuasion Check. Will they believe you? Will it make them question why they’re even in this fight? You never know until you try.
6Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss Your Way Through The Fight
Tear That Person Down!
Manipulation can be a very powerful tool, and that certain is true when in the hands of a Bard. With high Charisma, you’re able to go a long way with using Vicious Mockery to gaslight and gatekeep your enemies. Girlbossing is optional, but highly recommended.
“Why are you even trying? You know you can’t win this fight.” Make them question their abilities, their skills, or use it to bolster how powerful you and your party are. With the added disadvantage to their attack roles, they may even start to believe youand might convince your DM to have the enemy retreat or give up.
5Baby Talk
Belittling and putting people down in real life sucks. Don’t do it. But in Dungeons & Dragons? Well, it might just work out in your favor depending on who you are fighting. Attack them with both a spell and a shot to their ego or confidence.
It doesn’t just have to be baby speech, either. Use words to seduce them while hitting them with the most painful rejection they can imagine. Do the good, ol' mocking repetition by repeating their words back to them in an immature voice. Not all fighting has to be serious and harsh, and this could cause giggles around the table as your friends listen in.
4Give Your Words Life
A (Verbal) Painting Is Worth 1,000 Words
Of course, Vicious Mockery is about what you are saying or telling a character. But you may paint a wordscape, so to speak. You can flavor your spell by explaining something physical that happens when you cast it. Do your words take the shape of shards of glass flying from your mouth? Do they form a toxic cloud that hovers over your opponent’s head?
Your DM might rule that your words can’t be seen or take on such attributes, but if they do agree or like the idea, you may describe how this cantrip looks. How it grows more powerful when you level up. In this way, you and your DM might even make the call to enhance the magic by allowing it to do a different form of damage or debuff your enemy further.
3Peaceful Negotiations
Love In The Middle Of War
Flip the script on everyone, including your enemies. Instead of firing off an insult or calling your rival names, use the verbal space to try and deescalate the situation. Although Vicious Mockery is an offensive spell (ha), using it at the right time or to talk someone down who seems reluctant to fight might end a battle faster than whittling away an NPC’s health.
If your party enjoys combat and life-and-death struggles, you may not want to attempt to stop a fight before it starts.
But it’s a different way to approach encounters and save resources, spells, and health if you know there are bigger battles to be fought.
The beautiful thing about Dungeons & Dragons is thatthere aren’t a lot of wrong answers or ways to use spells, features, and the like. So, although this might not stop every enemy in the middle of an altercation, it’s a way that can really trip someone up, especially if they’ve been forced to fight you or manipulated into attacking.
2Attack From In Hiding
They Never Saw It Coming
Look, Vicious Mockery doesn’t say the target of your attack knows it was you who fired off the cantrip. This allows for some unique ways you may use the spell without anyone knowing who their attacker is. Maybe you spot your enemy in a crowded market. Fire some early shots in the fight to weaken them before they find who it is that’s hurting them.
You can also do this from the shadows. Is your foe in a dark space with no one around? If they don’t know you are there, but they suddenly hear a voice, feel this pain in their mind, and have no idea why or who or how this is happening, you can really start to mess with them before initiative is rolled.
1Insite Their Greatest Fears
Just A Dash Of Psychological Horror
This works best when you know something about your opponent. Or perhaps you are pitted against an NPC that has betrayed you or your party. Whisper a nightmare to them. Promise to enact the things that keep them awake at night. This can be silly in nature. “There’s a spider on your face!” Hopefully they’ll attempt to slap it off along with take that psychic damage.Or you may go dark or tragic with your Bard. Make your friends at the table tremble.
It all depends on your character and playstyle. Would they whisper a deeply disturbing monologue about everything your allies are going to do with them when this fight is won? Invoke the last words of their dying family member? Or maybe just mimic a sound of a creature they fear, thinking along the line of Captain Hook hearing the ticking of a clock. There are a lot of ways you can tackle this approach.
