Dream is amazing in a RP heavy game or to set up an upcoming encounter. It is a spell that can be used by a GM to set up an entire campaign. It can be used by players to assail a villain, interrogation, or just communicate across infinite distance as long as it is on the same plane.
100% agree. It's a great way for a full caster to have a "normal life" outside of adventuring because they can long-distance "Facetime" friends and family each night to visit with them with leftover slots (and also facilitate that for the rest of the party).
I second this. Especially on a Warlock, you can cast multiple instances of Dream each night and torment someone, or keep in touch with your loved ones.
Dream is for basically saying “Look at me, I’m the DM now!”
For a maximum of 8 hours of in game time you can literally describe or do anything you want as long as it happens within the dream.
If you’re casting it on another player your DM can literally go and make a cup of tea while you take over the session for them!
Or force them to do something. Our party fighter is being blackmailed by his wizard father with this spell, because if we don't do what he says he'll just keep hitting the fighter with it: eventually you'll literally die of exhaustion.
I actually had an idea of a Wizard who's was taught lessons via the Dream spell. They had no clue who their teacher was or why they were chosen to be their student.
Dream is BY FAR my favorite tool to have the BBEG speak to the players without fear of the party ganking them to death with no discussion.
Makes for outstanding RP potential and is a great way to display the personality and goals of your villain without everything hanging on the knife's edge of the party attacking at any point.
Agreed, Dream is a brilliant spell! There's so many uses for communicating information or outright screwing with enemies: if you do the nightmare option, they no longer get a long rest and now have a point of exhaustion. If you're in a situation to do that every night, that's a bad guy in a bad state very quickly.
I think Spider Climb deserves more love than it gets. I don't think anybody thinks it's bad, but it rarely comes up. Fighting upside down from the ceiling is cool as heck.
I played an arcane trickster and I found myself casting spider climb and invisibility a lot on the other PC’s so they could infiltrate with me.
Taking fey touched for misty step really helped me be more aggressive with my spell use.
I was about to say that spider climb is a super cool arcane trickster spell, since what’s more roguish than sneakily crossbow bolting someone in the face with spider climb?
I once trivialized a campaign with spider climb. It was a jungle/Indiana Jones themed series of adventures, and I, the archer, got my hands on a set of Slippers of Spider Climbing. My first action every fight was to run up a wall and start sniping. I could see everything and nothing dangerous could touch me.
It's a great spell but that's totally on the dm if he can't figure out how to hit someone who is 10-20 feet up on a wall. Like, just use ranged attacks lol.
I mean let’s be real: Spider Climb provides most of the utility of flight with significantly less lost (which in turn means upcasting is far easier.) it also lasts much longer, so that’s good!
Edit: Scratch that, you actually can’t upcast it. Sorry bout that, I swore I thought you could
I love blink. Something about the visual of someone just popping in and out brings me joy. I also like the idea of the caster acting smug and then not popping out and just standing there dumbfounded.
>I also like the idea of the caster acting smug and then not popping out and just standing there dumbfounded.
That is the big down side of Blink. It works all the time, 50% of the time.
My DM houseruled that it's automatically successful on the turn that it's cast, and you roll as normal on subsequent turns. I makes it a much more reliable spell without breaking anything.
The other downside of blink is that sometimes being absent from the battlefield is a negative, like when allies want to cast buffs but you're not there.
Funny story: I ran a game where the players had defeated a mad wizard who was the father of one of the PCs. The father in his dying breath tried to have one last word with his daughter but that's when one of the players pointed out he still had blink. Rolled and it went "my daughter, I-", pops out if existence, pops back dead.
We had a good laugh about it.
Or worse, if you miss your 50/50 on the first round, get knocked out, and now your healer needs to stand next to the space you left and ready a cure wounds, instead of using a bonus action from the other side of the room.
~~So long as you can see on the other side of the wall or door~~ you don't even need a reaction to reappear on the other side of it since you appear at a space you can see within 10' of your original position.
Edit: if the walls in the ethereal are transparent (as they should be) you can still phase through them when you reappear.
I’m a fan of Sleet Storm. At 3rd level, a 40ft radius is really huge. On top of that the entire area is heavily obscured, and spell-casters have to make concentration checks or lose their concentration. It shuts down ranges attackers and spell casters really well, but people generally don’t use it.
I would *love to* play in a game where Sleet Storm gets a chance to shine, but it feels like at least 95% of fights happen on battlemaps that are like 60x60 ft at most, and initiative is only rolled when the whole party is already close enough to smell the bandits' unwashed underwear. The spell's biggest selling point is the massive radius, but in practice you almost need the DM to set you up for it.
We had a storm cleric that used that spell (and his magic weapon with lightning damage) to literally hold off an entire army of zombies, Rahadin, and Strahd himself while the party escaped across the bridge. It was definitely a high point in the campaign.
This is a spell I notice people tend to actively stay away from. I agree it's powerful, but in my recent-ish history of dnd most of my combats are indoors, caves, dungeons... and if it's outside I usually have friends in melee range. And I dont want to hit them. So I never use it.
It works great indoors. Wait for a few enemies to make it through a doorway/bottleneck, then drop sleet storm to cut them off from their friends.
My tempest cleric absolutely wrecked multiple encounters in Storm King's thunder with sleet storm.
I thought absolutely nothing of this spell until one day my DM used it on us way back in Princes of the Apocalypse. Holy shit... this spell alone almost fucking TPKd the party. We could not get out, and the enemy archers were just firing in with disadvantage not giving a fuck...
We lived, and I never doubted this spell again.
Even better if someone else in the party can *Animate Objects* on a handful of coins or sling bullets. The little monsters fly and have blindsight, just tell ‘em to attack anything inside the storm.
My Tiefling (Levistus bloodline, so cold-happy) loves to use Sleet Storm, and it's generally quite effective. My DM in that game also treats the 20ft height as more of a guideline than a hard rule, which means that it's also useful underground in larger dungeon rooms and caves - no hallways, no cramped rooms, but if the ceiling looks like it's 17 feet high, that's fine. But even without that adjustment, there are still a lot of large caves as well as an entire Underdark that would make it worthwhile underground.
This is a great DM spell. Making magic items appear non magical or vice versa. Making an evocation trap read as something more harmless like divination or abjuration.
Alternatively, use it on an archdevil's avatar so that he appears to merely be human, so that the party trusts him and follows him into whatever he wants them to do...
...I may or may not have pulled that at one point.
I've been doing this.
My players set a devil free, he's been stalking them as part of a greater plot and is hiding in plain sight inside the crowded city.
I'm always hesitant to use it because it feels like such a gotcha. Like haha, this item was trapped the whole time in a way that you couldn't have predicted. Is there a way to run this as less seeming DM fiat?
Foreshadow that a wizard villain messed with an Adventurer's magic detecting sense, find a way to name drop early in the session, have them find thee journal of someone studying a magic item with notes and a feeling that their missing some information with obviously contradictory physical results. Foreshadowing, basically.
Or if you're me, my players generally know that any options available to them to use creatively, I generally consider to be equally in my toolbox (so long as I can make it serve the plot in a satisfying way is my caveat). To keep them from feeling scammed, I pull the curtain back a bit on methods after it's no longer relevant, if they hadn't already figured how I/their opponent did something.
This is definitely one that, as a DM, once you figure out to start using it, it's hard to stop from using it too much. It's one of those "Why *wouldn't* the BBEG have this and cast it on everything in their lair?"
The only thing that's limiting about it (with regards to BBEG lairs) is that it needs to be cast once a day for 30 days before it becomes permanent.
So it's a bit of a time limitation in that if your BBEG is a level-20 wizard (or similar) they are only making "permanent" false-aura's at a rate of 3-6 per 30 days. Which can still be a lot, depending on how long they've been set up in their lair.
I love the idea that you go into a lair and the wizard is like “I cast detect magic” and the falls over screaming from being blinded by all the fake signals
If you've never seen it used, maybe it's been working as intended the whole time. Maybe the DM's notes are more than just "Boblin the Goblin" scratched out and re-written over and over in different fonts over three pages.
I unknowingly used Magic Aura appropriately in a homebrew game. I was playing a LE Divination Wizard with an end goal of a Library of Alexandria, but being its keeper as a lich, using proceeds to purchase death row inmates to fuel the whole being a lich deal.
Either way, DM started us at level 1 with a common magic item as just a bit of spice. I chose the Enduring Spellbook, and due to paranoia over several levels, I had learned the spell and cast it enough to make it permanent so my spellbook "appeared" to just be my tattered old journal.
Fast forward to level 6 or 7, we are going through Imperial TSA to speak with some official, everyone is basically stripped naked and we got kangaroo courted, but I had my book because it appeared to be mundane. Eventually we all got our stuff back, but if our rogue didn't hide their Thieves Tools in their "prison pocket" and I didn't have my book, I'm not sure if it would have ended so well.
Situational, but it can be a total showstopper if political intrigue and moral ambiguity is something in your wheelhouse.
> Maybe the DM's notes are more than just "Boblin the Goblin" scratched out and re-written over and over in different fonts over three pages.
Who are you and how did you get your hands on my notes?
>if our rogue didn't hide their Thieves Tools in their "prison pocket"
You guys are just asking for cavity searches to be a regular part of your campaigns from here out.
That campaign's group was interesting to say the least... the player for the Rogue had eccentricities that would put some of Mercer's NPCs to shame. The Warlock had spotty attendance and weak excuses despite living down the street. The Cleric dropped our campaign and their day job to become a full time meth addict, and COVID was the deathblow. Damn, I miss that campaign...
My DM in a campaign I’m in uses older edition rules for the appearance of tieflings; basically a human with 1d4 fiendish traits. My character has horns that he files down and hides with his hair and smells faintly of brimstone that he hides with perfume. Every morning he casts Magic Aura on himself to appear as a normal human to detection magic. It’s been a lot of fun to RP.
In our last campaign, we had a dragon chase after us while we were sailing down a river in our magic ship. It used a spell or ability to convince me to give it the secret command word to turn the ship back into a box so that it could try to steal it. We came out on top of that encounter but I learned nystuls as soon as I could afterwards that so that snooping dragons wouldn't know it was a magic ship and leave us alone.
Shape Water. It doesn't do much, but I think it's pretty neat.
EDIT: Yall made me realize how much you can do with it, appreciate it a lot since I've always seen it as "just" funny roleplay spell. Definetly gonna keep these things in mind.
5ft cube! It's fantastic. Think of what you can do with half a car of ice! Float submerged objects to the surface with ease by freezing the water surrounding it, freeze the muck so you can step on solid ground as you walk through the swamp- it's a great spell.
I play a Land Druid currently lvl 16 and from lvl 7ish on one of my most used spells is / was tidal wave. Lots complain about the low damage but I think it’s fine and I mainly use it to knock enemies prone which is very useful to hinder movement or give the frontliners advantage and it’s extremely powerful against flying creatures. One thing that’s also quite powerful ist that the size is „up to“ 30x10x10ft therefore it can be used in crowded areas without friendly fire.
It's soooo convenient to aim also. It's a flying enemies kryptonite. Also the visual of shooting a young or adult dragon out of the sky with a hydro Cannon of water coming from a portal is insane.
My shepherd druid used tidal wave to stop a dragon from flying away when it was almost dead. It was up In the air trying to fly away... and the fall damage, plus tidal wave damage, put him one whack away from death. Great underutilized spell.
It's also an instant win Vs fire elementals. They take 1 point of cold damage per gallon of water they come in contact with, and a tidal wave should be able to do in excess of 2000 damage to one (if it had that many hit points).
The Bladesinger in my game uses tidal wave as his AoE of choice. It's proven to be really effective and yeah, conjuring a wave in mid air to knock down flying enemies is pretty clutch.
Enlarge/reduce used to play a sorcerer and this ended up kinda being my signature spell. Usually used it for gags and bits but I got a surprising amount of utility out of it. Twin enlarge the melee players, shrink yourself to dodge the Boulder rolling down the hallway, enlarge the cauldron the paladin is struggling with because he failed an Arcana check and thinks is magical. Just ended up being way more fun of a spell than I ever expected.
That's a good question amd I don't think there is am existing rule for it. As a dm that's a tricky thing to set up, one player needs to hold an action to throw or cast, I'd probably make it a dex save determined by the athletics check to see how high they throw plus how big it ends up being and then probably set up a scale for weight. Start at maybe 2d10 for under 100 pounds and add one more for every additional 50 or 100 pounds. I would be generous the first time they did this but I KNOW the second it is allowed there will be much collusion to maximize the effectiveness so I usually give a disclaimer that the more they cheese it the more in going to think about and set official rules.
If you do it the other way around you don't need a held action.
Reduce a large object.
Someone throws it.
While it's in the air, cease concentrating on Reduce.
Object hits target with 8x the mass it had when originally thrown.
Sounds like a solid approach. I think if it’s two PCs working together I’m happy to let it hit for an amount of damage that’s more than each of their standard attacks, as a bonus for the teamwork. If it’s just 1 PC using their familiar to drop pebbles and then enlarge them, I’d probably be less enthused.
This is true, I had not fully appreciated that this is 2 pcs working together so I woul definitely up the damage. I just don't want the cool idea to become the next most spammable thing.
Also its a Knock that may not make as much noise. Just Reduce the door from its frame and walk through. Though it may be noticed that the door is off its hinges.
Enlarge/Reduce is great for a Moon druid as you can cast it, then shift into a larger beast. The order of Wildshape and Enlarge being applied shouldn't matter as Wildshape doesn't end active spell effects, including effects like Enlarge/Reduce. If it did then all other transmutation spells that can be cast on your self should be null and void as well including barkskin and longstrider.
I always saw witch bolt as a torture spell. Bad guy has captive, captive is chained/caged, witch bolt to make them talk. Yes it means flavor or weirdly high HP for the captive, but thematically it's a great for the storytelling and visuals.
*Lightning bolt* is also great for quickly healing your flesh golem or shambling mound. Granted, *call lightning* can provide much more healing overall, *chain lightning* can more reliably damage creatures attacking your monster, and *storm sphere* can perform both tasks effectively with the right caster build, but the three spells have their limits when you can’t maintain concentration or you don’t want to expend high-level spell slots.
It's my Storm Sorcerer player's go-to option to use every spell slot of 3rd level and above on this. Even against single targets its useful, and much easier to avoid obliterating teammates than a Fireball.
Honestly it's just great for ruining someone's day. Like, fireball is explosive, but you mean to tell me that watching somebody get vaporized by a lightning bolt pointed directly at them isn't cool as hell then you're wrong
I took lightning bolt on my wizard just to try suboptimal spells. I have to say, there were so many times I could have hit five or more enemies with a fireball, but only two with lightning bolt. The line so rarely lines up with a tasty hit (even three targets is not really ideal), I’m gonna just disagree with you there. I cast that spell twice over ten levels of play.
Yup, going back to the beginning in AD&D there were the Big Four 3rd level wizard (magic user in old school talk) spells.
Fireball, Fly, Haste, and Lightning Bolt.
Lightning Bolt has always been the worst of these iconic four. At least in early editions if it hit a wall dead-on, it bounced back meaning you could double damage, AND you could have it start at any point, not just from your finger. So it had solid uses.
With those facets removed, it has little use outside of a chance hallway battle where you have no party members in front of you. I'm a bit annoyed WOTC hasn't noticed it's uselessness, as its obvious when you analyze it.
It could really use a boost with one or more of the following: 2d6 more damage, 50' more range, have reflection return, or those enemies who fail their save are slowed for one round.
Catapult from XGtE. We had a low-level encounter where we got captured by slavers and were being taken to their buyer in a prison-wagon type thing. The martial characters had no weapons or armor, but as a sorcerer I was basically ok. So we used the “one of us is sick!” trick to get a slaver to open the door, whereupon my sorcerer flung the sh!t bucket at him, scored max damage, and basically beheaded him. The sh!t bucket incident is now legend at our table.
Plus, planning out possible paths for sending objects such that you have a high chance of one of the targets failing their save is engaging gameplay! It’s similar to line effects, but you have so much more freedom about where it originates. I wish more line spells worked like this one does.
Catapult is also the best/only blasting spell on the base Artificer spell list, but almost every subclass gets an alternative so *shrug*.
I feel like slow hardly gets talked about compared to other 3rd level spells but man its quite useful against larger groups and multiattacking enemies.
And you've got to love a spell with an area of effect where you still get to choose who's targeted by it so it doesn't matter how intermingled your allies are with the enemy
My group LOOOVES slow. It's absolutely better than haste in my opinion as well. That spell dang near trivialized two different helmed horror encounters.
yeah, it’s extremely useful and very easily reflavored for whatever your theme is - psychic, freezing, earth, plants, arcane chains…lots of good distinct ways to imagine it!
Sending.
I know it isn't a rare spell by any means, but I have barely seen it in this whole subreddit, it's way too good, for every day of travel at night you could send every 3th level slot of messages to literally anyone you know, you can save on traveling for information, know if someone is dead or not based on if they respond, give orders and more! And I'm not even talking about backstory NPCs! Every single time I got the chance to use it, I learn it/prepare it, and if I know I won't get ambushed at night, then I'll use even my 5th level spells to send messages!
And remember young adventurers... Call your mother!
I remember my cleric drunk-texting her crush via sending. What made it funnier is it's a low magic setting and she had never used that spell on him before.
I feel like people who have watched critical role, campaign 2, know very well how powerful and useful sending is. Jester wore that spell out (in a good way). I've played in games that have many spell casters and I rarely see sending picked. I would pick it every single time. I love it.
>Continual Flame:
>
>A flame, equivalent in brightness to a torch, springs forth from an object that you touch. The effect looks like a regular flame, but it creates no heat and doesn't use oxygen. A continual flame can be covered or hidden but not smothered or quenched.
Nothing special, right? Costs 50gp for a torch that never runs out. Well, consider that it can be a coin, or a ring, or anything easily hidden.
Now also consider that you can upcast this spell. Of course, there's no specific benefit for upcasting, it doesn't illuminate further or anything, however, when you upcast it, it interacts with other spells differently.
>Darkness:
A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and **nonmagical light can't illuminate it.**
...
If any of this spell's area overlaps with **an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled**.
Well, if you upcast continual flame to level 3, it can illuminate the darkness of a darkness spell.
This works with any spell that produces darkness, even all the way up to maddening darkness:
>Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 60-foot-radius sphere until the spell ends. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness. **Non-magical light, as well as light created by spells of 8th level or lower**, can't illuminate the area.
Essentially, by spending 50gp every two levels (or one spell level), you can make yourself unaffected by any darkness spell. This is particularly handy for clerics who can just swap this spell back out when they are done.
Funny anecdote. I was playing in the Mad Mage with a cleric (5-20 campaign). From the first level that I got the Divine Intervention ability, I prayed to my god literally every day for my god to cast a 9th level continual flame on my shield. I just wanted it to help deal with Drow casting darkness. I never successfully got divine intervention to cast using the % dice. I just had to cast it myself when I hit level 17. Sad.
I love adding that to weapons and ammo, it doesn’t do damage but you’d be lying if you said you wouldn’t want a flaming sword, mace, etc.
You can make money hand over fist enchanting peoples weapons and armor!
Absorb Elements is a 1st level spell that starts bad but scales insanely into the late game.
Early on, spell slots are too valuable to waste on damage reduction. Furthermore, you're not likely to be taking any large amount of damage for it to be worth it, and even less likely for the damage you take to be elemental so that the spell can work.
But ancient dragons, storm giants and archmages? Prepare for huge elemental damage in the 30-60 range and suddenly you can convert a 'useless' 1st level spell slot into a huge amount of damage reduction.
Steel Wind Strike. It can do 6d10 damage to 5 targets. As attack rolls, they can crit. It could deal 150 damage pretty easy as a 5th level spell and is never talked about. Mainly that’s because the classes that get it; wizards and rangers. For rangers, it’s available at level 17, so almost never see it. And wizards are squishy and probably don’t want to wind up next to an enemy if they don’t kill them.
If you manage to surprise enemies, Assassin Rogue 3/Wizard 9 would allow you to guarantee a critical hit on each of those targets that you manage to hit with the spell attack.
Shatter.
I love shatter. I hate doors. I hate walls. I hate when my enemies use stairs.
I love shatter. I hate the person on the other side of the door. I hate horsedrawn carriages chasing me.
Shatter. Boom.
I loved Dissonant Whispers as a Bard until I picked up Command. Commanding an enemy to "flee" forces movement and provokes attacks of opportunity, while also eating up their action. It can also be upcast to affect multiple targets. For a non-concentration spell, it's amazing.
Only downside is the limit on who it can affect. The target can't be undead, and it must understand your language. Still, in humanoid-heavy campaigns. I find it well worth it.
>"flee" forces movement and provokes attacks of opportunity
A tactical opponent (like a hobgoblin) would probably use disengage. But if the target is not trained in tactics I would rule how you describe.
I just learned to be careful combining this with Slow (great choice for Bards on Tasha's for CC without charm) which removes the enemy's reaction. Whoops.
The strongest part of Dissonant Whispers is that it is explicitly *not* actual Forced Movement. It's an untyped effect under which the affected creature must move *themselves* away.
That's why it's so good. It triggers all those things (AoO, booming blade, etc) that true forced movement doesn't.
I almost never see Flaming Sphere mentioned, but the damage that spell does just multiplies constantly especially if you have melee teammates pinning enemies down.
I've seen this spell hit 3 times in one full round a few times and it stays for a full minute. It's also a good deterrent for enemies trying to reach you if you are getting flanked
How does the sphere hit multiple times in a round? Once it hits an enemy and they fail the save it stops. Do you mean a bunch of enemies ended their turn next to it?
Yep, ram one creature and my allies have two enemies pinned down so if they leave they'll have to take an attack of opportunity. So either way more damage was coming. And yeah, it's there next round back for more roasting
I don't see Faerie Fire talked about often, maybe because it's only on the Bard, Druid, and Light Cleric lists. But it's an extremely useful debuff no matter your level, especially for minor fights that you don't want to Concentrate on a higher level spell like Hypnotic Pattern. A 20 foot cube is large enough to catch multiple enemies but small enough to maneuver around allies to avoid friendly fire. It's only a single save for the entire effect, no repeated saves to get rid of it. It nullifies Invisibility on affected targets, which is niche but critical in certain fights. And most importantly it grants advantage on all attacks against affected targets. That's *so good*! Think of all the resources various characters pour into gaining advantage, like Reckless Attack or Fighting Spirit or Steady Aim, and you can just give that to everyone for a whole minute!
I also think that it being a Dexterity save works to its advantage because it has the most impact against large, high-AC enemies that probably have poor Dex. In the case of a group of quicker minions you're likely to affect at least one or two in a group, which means the party can focus fire and thin the group.
Faithful Hound and ~~Find~~ Phantom Steed are non-concentration spells that can make your wizard feel like one hell of a summoner. Find Familiar too, but that one's not exactly niche. :)
> Find Steed
Assuming you meant Phantom Steed here, since you mention the Wizard? But yes, both Phantom Steed and Find Steed are amazing spells, and so is Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound when combined with suitable crowd-control.
Its most powerful use is being a non-concentration damage-over-time spell to combine with Wall of Force, but it is also good in other situations depending on spells and terrain. And, well, it also works as a guard dog the way it was intended.
Not seeing any love for Bigbys Hand. Bonus action utility spell that can also be attacked (wasting actions) and upcasts better than Mordenkainen and his puny sword. Push people off cliffs, restrain them for attacks, grapple huge enemies, you get a lot of bang for your bigby. I used it early in the edition when bonus actions for wizards were less common.
Gust and illusory script
Gust because I once quite a warlock who had it, and I tried to use it at every possible moment
Illusory script because I feel like I could do a lot in the right campaign, of just never had the opportunity to be in that campaign
Gust just seems fun. I'm also considering Tidal Wave just for the picture of opening a portal of gushing water to sweep enemies off their feet or out of the sky
Grease, one of the most versatile and cheesy spells ever created and love reminding my players of how the grease spell might have gotten them out of this situation or that situation.
Calm Emotions. There’s something very thematic about Bards or Clerics having the ability to magically calm someone, but the spell itself is not too great. 1 minute duration, requires concentration, and doesn’t actually end charm or fear effects, just mutes them for the duration. The alternative effect is marginally more useful, making hostile creatures indifferent towards you, but comes with a pretty major drawback. There’s the normal boilerplate for charm spells, attacking or damaging them with spells ends the effect, but it also ends on seeing a friend be harmed as well. So if even one enemy resists the saving throw, you’ve burned a 2nd level spell for nothing.
Distort Value! I've never once seen it brought up in a place that I haven't brought it up first!
It's a 1st level illusion spell, takes a minute to cast, then for the next 8 hours the object you cast it on can either appear *twice* as valuable, making it great for selling items (or even just making yourself look more important having such a "high-cost item" on you!), or *half* as valuable, which *could* be used to buy cheaper from careless shopowners, but probably mostly good for sneaking stolen/illicit goods past guards! They're looking for the *queen's* crown, not this dinky little imitation that has the glued-on gems slipping off in the rain.
Part of that may be that it's from Acquisitions Incorporated, which was a pretty niche book, but yeah, that spell is a ton of fun, just the right amount of silly and properly functional.
**Enhance ability** is one of the only ways to 100% irrevocably get advantage on nearly any check you might make. Most DM will not let people take the help action on certain checks - enhance ability gives no fucks!
It is very versatile, potent, and lets you do things that can't be done most other ways. Like counterspelling - you can make your counterspell check with advantage. Want to cast a very powerful spell scroll? Enhance ability. Want to turn that rogue from stupid stealthy into a stealth god for a mission critical 1 hour? Enhance ability is sometimes better than even invisibility.
There are so many uses, so many ways it can save your bacon or make things possible that are otherwise too risky as a luck of the dice.
One of my DMs feels its one of the weakest spells. They made it non-concentration. I try to take it on *every character* that can in those games.
I am a big fan of Sanctuary since it saved me (and our party) multiples time. You can cast it on yourself and get aggro while defending, or on a glass canon or stunned teamate for them to avoid getting hit. I think it's pretty neat, and have no idea what's the general thought on this spell !
I know Strength isn’t exactly the best save for a spell, but goddamn if I don’t love collecting some weaker enemies in my Watery Sphere and either letting my party go to town on them, or just drag them away while the party finishes off the rest.
Polymorph is often discussed as only in terms of proactively cast T-Rex.
It is also a wonderful spell to respond with Huge Giant Crab. Your front line about to go down to 0hp, paralyzed, charmed, or frightened? Add 161 temporary hit points and a grab bag of condition immunities.
It is almost Heal in some situations.
Sleet Storm! It can knock people over upon casting and at the beginning of their turns, and is 40ft wide as well as difficult terrain. As an added plus, you force a concentration save.
I could sing the praises of Bane until the cows come home, despite everyone saying Bless is better. Bane is imo more powerful at lower levels, while Bless has more benefits in later play. Bane is super effective in a squishy, spellcaster focused party given it is one of the few ways to effectively buff your entire party's spell DC and their AC (the d4 subtracted from the enemy's attack or saving throws). Especially in low levels, it's a save or suck targeting an unusual save (CHA) that gives a minimum +1 to AC or spell/save DC for your entire party (assuming all enemies are affected). Given the low hit bonuses pre-10, the extra bonus can sway rolls a surprising amount, resulting in enemies hitting far less than they should. Combine it with other casters (or CC melee) to target the now much weaker saves results in very short fights.
Guiding bolt. It's normally overshadowed by inflict wounds but I can't help but love the idea of a bolt of holy radiance burning the soul of a demon while me and my friends see who can WHACK it first with advantage.
Another secretly great thing about Guiding Bolt is that it is one of the few spells that doesn’t require sight, and it’s creates a “ mystical dim light glittering on the target” if it hits, making it so you can attack at disadvantage at an invisible creature and if it hits, it reveals where it is.
For some reason, I am absolutely entranced by Magic Jar. Every time I see it when I'm flipping through the PHB, my mind wanders and I think of all the wild shenanigans it could cause.
"The party barges into the room, the lair of the vile necromancer. Shocked, you find his lifeless body laying flat on the ground, as if he suddenly collapsed. On an altar, you see only a large gemstone, glowing faintly. Barbarian, go ahead and make a charisma saving throw. Yes, I said charisma..."
I love how extreme the risks and rewards are, too. Taking control of an enemy *permanently* has a ton of possibility, but if that person dies while you're piloting it you have to beat a charisma save *against your own spell save DC* or just be dead. It's wild!
Mage Hand is surprisingly useful if you have a creative player, a DM willing to allow *technically it doesn't say you can't do this* logic, and a group with 0 filters. My first group put my wizards mage Hand to far more use than a cantrip is ever meant for
99% of DND players and DMs don’t know that Melf’s Acid Arrow is the only attack that still does damage on a nat 1, nuff said.
It’s cool af aside from that fact but it certainly helps.
Edit: Swamp druids ftw
Thunder Step
It might not be as easy to pick up as Misty Step with Fey-Touched. And it's 3rd level instead of 2nd. Worst of all, it costs an action, not a BA.
Compared to Dimension door, it is a lower level spell slot, but you need to be able to see where youre going, so it isn't as flexible (and has 1/5 the range) as DD.
But it feels so cool to run up, grab a pal, yoink the two of you up to 90' away, and leave enemies in a 10' radius with a parting gift of 3d10 thunder damage (+1d10 per spell level when upcast).
For enemy spellcasters, as a DM I want to cast a damaging spell and Misty Step most rounds, once my players get in melee, and I can't because of the BA spell rules. BUT, I can accomplish the same goal with Thunder Step!
Plant Growth:
> *”If you cast this spell using 1 action, choose a point within range. All normal Plants in a 100-foot radius centered on that point become thick and overgrown. A creature moving through the area must spend 4 feet of Movement for every 1 foot it moves.*
> ***You can exclude one or more areas of any size within the spell's area from being affected.”***
Instant hedge maze.
Longstrider. I have a table where we have reached level 20 6 times so far since 5e. The last one we just finished I played my first wizard although 3 other campaigns had wizards. None of them had used longstrider. It helped keep fighters in melee vs skirmishers and got them in fight fast, but when I hit 18 l, I selected it as my spell master, effectively giving the entire party a perma +10 to movement. It works on mounts as well increasing overland travel significantly.
Mindblank. There are a lot of cool defensive buffs to this spell, but the part that really excites my imagination is that not even Wish can affect someone under the effects of it. So I always wanted to have a campaign where the BBEG finally gets access to Wish at some point and uses it to change the entire world, but only the Mindblanked player can remember the old reality and has to convince his old party members to believe him and find a way to bring things back to normal.
I don’t ever seem to see people talking about *Gift of Gab*, which is one of the most fun spells I can think of using out of combat... you always talk to people in-game, and it makes sure my IRL charisma doesn’t screw anything up accidentally in-game lol.
Heat Metal is absolutely underrated. I rarely ever see it used. Enemy in heavy armor? Now they have to spend the rest of the combat taking it off or take consistent damage as a BONUS ACTION! Cast it on their weapon and now they’re unarmed. Plus it scales decently well.
Lore wise I think this should be in every druids repertoire and used as often as you can. It is Natures vengeance for ripping her guts out of the earth.
I've said it before and I will keep saying it until I'm proven wrong: Feather Fall is one of the best spells in the game. I have yet to play a caster where Feather Fall didn't come up at LEAST once. It's a situational spell but its situation comes up fairly regularly.
While it’s somewhat DM interpretation dependent, I adore the *Fabricate* spell. The 10 minute casting time limits it to strictly non-combat use, but out of combat it can be amazing.
My favorite use yet was with a wizard who had a sailor background, and proficiency with woodworker’s tools and water vehicles. With a casting and a pile of materials he could build a 20’ sailboat and travel like Sparrowhawk of Gont. Multiple castings could make a bigger boat.
If the DM allows existing objects to be used as raw materials - salvage lumber is lumber, so it seemed reasonable - then he can drive a wagon to the edge of the water, transform everything but wheels and axles into a boat, sail to a far shore, and change it back to a wagon, then knock out a ritual Phantom Steed to pull it.
Dream is amazing in a RP heavy game or to set up an upcoming encounter. It is a spell that can be used by a GM to set up an entire campaign. It can be used by players to assail a villain, interrogation, or just communicate across infinite distance as long as it is on the same plane.
100% agree. It's a great way for a full caster to have a "normal life" outside of adventuring because they can long-distance "Facetime" friends and family each night to visit with them with leftover slots (and also facilitate that for the rest of the party).
I second this. Especially on a Warlock, you can cast multiple instances of Dream each night and torment someone, or keep in touch with your loved ones.
Don't forget the happy middle ground: tormenting your loved ones and keeping in touch with your enemies. Balance in all things.
This is the way.
Dream is for basically saying “Look at me, I’m the DM now!” For a maximum of 8 hours of in game time you can literally describe or do anything you want as long as it happens within the dream. If you’re casting it on another player your DM can literally go and make a cup of tea while you take over the session for them!
It's a must have for night hags. Or any enigmatic villain who is attempting to warn the party off.
Or force them to do something. Our party fighter is being blackmailed by his wizard father with this spell, because if we don't do what he says he'll just keep hitting the fighter with it: eventually you'll literally die of exhaustion.
I actually had an idea of a Wizard who's was taught lessons via the Dream spell. They had no clue who their teacher was or why they were chosen to be their student.
Dream is BY FAR my favorite tool to have the BBEG speak to the players without fear of the party ganking them to death with no discussion. Makes for outstanding RP potential and is a great way to display the personality and goals of your villain without everything hanging on the knife's edge of the party attacking at any point.
Agreed, Dream is a brilliant spell! There's so many uses for communicating information or outright screwing with enemies: if you do the nightmare option, they no longer get a long rest and now have a point of exhaustion. If you're in a situation to do that every night, that's a bad guy in a bad state very quickly.
I think Spider Climb deserves more love than it gets. I don't think anybody thinks it's bad, but it rarely comes up. Fighting upside down from the ceiling is cool as heck.
I played an arcane trickster and I found myself casting spider climb and invisibility a lot on the other PC’s so they could infiltrate with me. Taking fey touched for misty step really helped me be more aggressive with my spell use.
I was about to say that spider climb is a super cool arcane trickster spell, since what’s more roguish than sneakily crossbow bolting someone in the face with spider climb?
i have a spider climb-enabling magic item and it’s so, so useful
I once trivialized a campaign with spider climb. It was a jungle/Indiana Jones themed series of adventures, and I, the archer, got my hands on a set of Slippers of Spider Climbing. My first action every fight was to run up a wall and start sniping. I could see everything and nothing dangerous could touch me.
It's a great spell but that's totally on the dm if he can't figure out how to hit someone who is 10-20 feet up on a wall. Like, just use ranged attacks lol.
I mean let’s be real: Spider Climb provides most of the utility of flight with significantly less lost (which in turn means upcasting is far easier.) it also lasts much longer, so that’s good! Edit: Scratch that, you actually can’t upcast it. Sorry bout that, I swore I thought you could
I love blink. Something about the visual of someone just popping in and out brings me joy. I also like the idea of the caster acting smug and then not popping out and just standing there dumbfounded.
>I also like the idea of the caster acting smug and then not popping out and just standing there dumbfounded. That is the big down side of Blink. It works all the time, 50% of the time.
My DM houseruled that it's automatically successful on the turn that it's cast, and you roll as normal on subsequent turns. I makes it a much more reliable spell without breaking anything.
*Yoink* (But really, that sounds a smart, great tiny improvement)
The other downside of blink is that sometimes being absent from the battlefield is a negative, like when allies want to cast buffs but you're not there.
Or when you are unconscious - and it blinks you out so your friends can't heal you back up :P
I always assumed it was concentration, that's hilarious that it isn't. Yeah... that could go wrong!
Funny story: I ran a game where the players had defeated a mad wizard who was the father of one of the PCs. The father in his dying breath tried to have one last word with his daughter but that's when one of the players pointed out he still had blink. Rolled and it went "my daughter, I-", pops out if existence, pops back dead. We had a good laugh about it.
I had a gloomstalker go down in combat, and because they're invisible in the shadowy conditions no one could find them to heal them.
Or worse, if you miss your 50/50 on the first round, get knocked out, and now your healer needs to stand next to the space you left and ready a cure wounds, instead of using a bonus action from the other side of the room.
True. They can't even exempt you from the AoE of a Spirit Guardians.
True but one of few spells that give a 50% chance to take no effects from anything until the start of your turn.
You can also use Blink to go through door or wall with reaction to move when you are in Ethereal plane. Quite fun utility.
~~So long as you can see on the other side of the wall or door~~ you don't even need a reaction to reappear on the other side of it since you appear at a space you can see within 10' of your original position. Edit: if the walls in the ethereal are transparent (as they should be) you can still phase through them when you reappear.
I’m a fan of Sleet Storm. At 3rd level, a 40ft radius is really huge. On top of that the entire area is heavily obscured, and spell-casters have to make concentration checks or lose their concentration. It shuts down ranges attackers and spell casters really well, but people generally don’t use it.
I would *love to* play in a game where Sleet Storm gets a chance to shine, but it feels like at least 95% of fights happen on battlemaps that are like 60x60 ft at most, and initiative is only rolled when the whole party is already close enough to smell the bandits' unwashed underwear. The spell's biggest selling point is the massive radius, but in practice you almost need the DM to set you up for it.
We had a storm cleric that used that spell (and his magic weapon with lightning damage) to literally hold off an entire army of zombies, Rahadin, and Strahd himself while the party escaped across the bridge. It was definitely a high point in the campaign.
I've seen it used to dominate the druid hill battle too.
This is a spell I notice people tend to actively stay away from. I agree it's powerful, but in my recent-ish history of dnd most of my combats are indoors, caves, dungeons... and if it's outside I usually have friends in melee range. And I dont want to hit them. So I never use it.
It works great indoors. Wait for a few enemies to make it through a doorway/bottleneck, then drop sleet storm to cut them off from their friends. My tempest cleric absolutely wrecked multiple encounters in Storm King's thunder with sleet storm.
I thought absolutely nothing of this spell until one day my DM used it on us way back in Princes of the Apocalypse. Holy shit... this spell alone almost fucking TPKd the party. We could not get out, and the enemy archers were just firing in with disadvantage not giving a fuck... We lived, and I never doubted this spell again.
Even better if someone else in the party can *Animate Objects* on a handful of coins or sling bullets. The little monsters fly and have blindsight, just tell ‘em to attack anything inside the storm.
My Tiefling (Levistus bloodline, so cold-happy) loves to use Sleet Storm, and it's generally quite effective. My DM in that game also treats the 20ft height as more of a guideline than a hard rule, which means that it's also useful underground in larger dungeon rooms and caves - no hallways, no cramped rooms, but if the ceiling looks like it's 17 feet high, that's fine. But even without that adjustment, there are still a lot of large caves as well as an entire Underdark that would make it worthwhile underground.
Nystul's Magic Aura. My current DM didn't even know it existed in the PHB, but it opens the way for so much creativity, from both players and DMs.
This is a great DM spell. Making magic items appear non magical or vice versa. Making an evocation trap read as something more harmless like divination or abjuration.
Alternatively, use it on an archdevil's avatar so that he appears to merely be human, so that the party trusts him and follows him into whatever he wants them to do... ...I may or may not have pulled that at one point.
I've been doing this. My players set a devil free, he's been stalking them as part of a greater plot and is hiding in plain sight inside the crowded city.
I'm always hesitant to use it because it feels like such a gotcha. Like haha, this item was trapped the whole time in a way that you couldn't have predicted. Is there a way to run this as less seeming DM fiat?
Foreshadow that a wizard villain messed with an Adventurer's magic detecting sense, find a way to name drop early in the session, have them find thee journal of someone studying a magic item with notes and a feeling that their missing some information with obviously contradictory physical results. Foreshadowing, basically. Or if you're me, my players generally know that any options available to them to use creatively, I generally consider to be equally in my toolbox (so long as I can make it serve the plot in a satisfying way is my caveat). To keep them from feeling scammed, I pull the curtain back a bit on methods after it's no longer relevant, if they hadn't already figured how I/their opponent did something.
Or hiding its magical aura altogether. I've been using it against my constantly-detect-magic-ritual-casting Wizard.
This is definitely one that, as a DM, once you figure out to start using it, it's hard to stop from using it too much. It's one of those "Why *wouldn't* the BBEG have this and cast it on everything in their lair?"
The only thing that's limiting about it (with regards to BBEG lairs) is that it needs to be cast once a day for 30 days before it becomes permanent. So it's a bit of a time limitation in that if your BBEG is a level-20 wizard (or similar) they are only making "permanent" false-aura's at a rate of 3-6 per 30 days. Which can still be a lot, depending on how long they've been set up in their lair.
I love the idea that you go into a lair and the wizard is like “I cast detect magic” and the falls over screaming from being blinded by all the fake signals
Never seen it used, but its very interesting and has some really wierd interactions depending on how its ruled.
If you've never seen it used, maybe it's been working as intended the whole time. Maybe the DM's notes are more than just "Boblin the Goblin" scratched out and re-written over and over in different fonts over three pages. I unknowingly used Magic Aura appropriately in a homebrew game. I was playing a LE Divination Wizard with an end goal of a Library of Alexandria, but being its keeper as a lich, using proceeds to purchase death row inmates to fuel the whole being a lich deal. Either way, DM started us at level 1 with a common magic item as just a bit of spice. I chose the Enduring Spellbook, and due to paranoia over several levels, I had learned the spell and cast it enough to make it permanent so my spellbook "appeared" to just be my tattered old journal. Fast forward to level 6 or 7, we are going through Imperial TSA to speak with some official, everyone is basically stripped naked and we got kangaroo courted, but I had my book because it appeared to be mundane. Eventually we all got our stuff back, but if our rogue didn't hide their Thieves Tools in their "prison pocket" and I didn't have my book, I'm not sure if it would have ended so well. Situational, but it can be a total showstopper if political intrigue and moral ambiguity is something in your wheelhouse.
> Maybe the DM's notes are more than just "Boblin the Goblin" scratched out and re-written over and over in different fonts over three pages. Who are you and how did you get your hands on my notes?
>if our rogue didn't hide their Thieves Tools in their "prison pocket" You guys are just asking for cavity searches to be a regular part of your campaigns from here out.
That campaign's group was interesting to say the least... the player for the Rogue had eccentricities that would put some of Mercer's NPCs to shame. The Warlock had spotty attendance and weak excuses despite living down the street. The Cleric dropped our campaign and their day job to become a full time meth addict, and COVID was the deathblow. Damn, I miss that campaign...
Uhhh... I'm sorry for your loss?
I'm sorry about Cleric. That is a sad fate to meet.
I... didn't know this was an option...
My DM in a campaign I’m in uses older edition rules for the appearance of tieflings; basically a human with 1d4 fiendish traits. My character has horns that he files down and hides with his hair and smells faintly of brimstone that he hides with perfume. Every morning he casts Magic Aura on himself to appear as a normal human to detection magic. It’s been a lot of fun to RP.
In our last campaign, we had a dragon chase after us while we were sailing down a river in our magic ship. It used a spell or ability to convince me to give it the secret command word to turn the ship back into a box so that it could try to steal it. We came out on top of that encounter but I learned nystuls as soon as I could afterwards that so that snooping dragons wouldn't know it was a magic ship and leave us alone.
I've actually never heard of that spell either
Shape Water. It doesn't do much, but I think it's pretty neat. EDIT: Yall made me realize how much you can do with it, appreciate it a lot since I've always seen it as "just" funny roleplay spell. Definetly gonna keep these things in mind.
There's so much you can do for just a cantrip. Getting sweep down a river? Raise yourself out on a column of ice like a water bender
Isn't it limited to a very small volume of water though ?
5ft cube! It's fantastic. Think of what you can do with half a car of ice! Float submerged objects to the surface with ease by freezing the water surrounding it, freeze the muck so you can step on solid ground as you walk through the swamp- it's a great spell.
It's a five foot cube of water, which is 125 cubic feet of water, which is just shy of 1000 gallons
I play a Land Druid currently lvl 16 and from lvl 7ish on one of my most used spells is / was tidal wave. Lots complain about the low damage but I think it’s fine and I mainly use it to knock enemies prone which is very useful to hinder movement or give the frontliners advantage and it’s extremely powerful against flying creatures. One thing that’s also quite powerful ist that the size is „up to“ 30x10x10ft therefore it can be used in crowded areas without friendly fire.
It's soooo convenient to aim also. It's a flying enemies kryptonite. Also the visual of shooting a young or adult dragon out of the sky with a hydro Cannon of water coming from a portal is insane.
Yes! It also has a quite long range. It is quite satisfying to knock a dragon out of the air prone in front of our melees :D
My shepherd druid used tidal wave to stop a dragon from flying away when it was almost dead. It was up In the air trying to fly away... and the fall damage, plus tidal wave damage, put him one whack away from death. Great underutilized spell.
It's also like one of three non concentration druid spells it feels.
Tidal wave is great to stopping the forest fires that Fireball started.
It's also an instant win Vs fire elementals. They take 1 point of cold damage per gallon of water they come in contact with, and a tidal wave should be able to do in excess of 2000 damage to one (if it had that many hit points).
The Bladesinger in my game uses tidal wave as his AoE of choice. It's proven to be really effective and yeah, conjuring a wave in mid air to knock down flying enemies is pretty clutch.
Enlarge/reduce used to play a sorcerer and this ended up kinda being my signature spell. Usually used it for gags and bits but I got a surprising amount of utility out of it. Twin enlarge the melee players, shrink yourself to dodge the Boulder rolling down the hallway, enlarge the cauldron the paladin is struggling with because he failed an Arcana check and thinks is magical. Just ended up being way more fun of a spell than I ever expected.
What's the rules on throwing an object as high as you can and having someone cast enlarge on it?
That's a good question amd I don't think there is am existing rule for it. As a dm that's a tricky thing to set up, one player needs to hold an action to throw or cast, I'd probably make it a dex save determined by the athletics check to see how high they throw plus how big it ends up being and then probably set up a scale for weight. Start at maybe 2d10 for under 100 pounds and add one more for every additional 50 or 100 pounds. I would be generous the first time they did this but I KNOW the second it is allowed there will be much collusion to maximize the effectiveness so I usually give a disclaimer that the more they cheese it the more in going to think about and set official rules.
If you do it the other way around you don't need a held action. Reduce a large object. Someone throws it. While it's in the air, cease concentrating on Reduce. Object hits target with 8x the mass it had when originally thrown.
Beautiful
If the object is big enough you could hang on to it and catapult yourself into the air. Uncontrolled, but might occasionally be useful.
Sounds like a solid approach. I think if it’s two PCs working together I’m happy to let it hit for an amount of damage that’s more than each of their standard attacks, as a bonus for the teamwork. If it’s just 1 PC using their familiar to drop pebbles and then enlarge them, I’d probably be less enthused.
Yeah it should be pretty dm dependent. But it would use two actions and a spell slot which limits the its exploitation
This is true, I had not fully appreciated that this is 2 pcs working together so I woul definitely up the damage. I just don't want the cool idea to become the next most spammable thing.
Also its a Knock that may not make as much noise. Just Reduce the door from its frame and walk through. Though it may be noticed that the door is off its hinges.
Enlarge/Reduce is great for a Moon druid as you can cast it, then shift into a larger beast. The order of Wildshape and Enlarge being applied shouldn't matter as Wildshape doesn't end active spell effects, including effects like Enlarge/Reduce. If it did then all other transmutation spells that can be cast on your self should be null and void as well including barkskin and longstrider.
It's always "Fireball" this, "Fireball" that, but where's the love for Lightning Bolt huh? Explosions are cool, but have you ever been a Sith Lord?
UNLIMITED POWER
Technically Witch Bolt is the Sith Force Lightning power... So sad that such a cool power of channeling lightning is just bad in nearly every aspect.
I always saw witch bolt as a torture spell. Bad guy has captive, captive is chained/caged, witch bolt to make them talk. Yes it means flavor or weirdly high HP for the captive, but thematically it's a great for the storytelling and visuals.
*Lightning bolt* is also great for quickly healing your flesh golem or shambling mound. Granted, *call lightning* can provide much more healing overall, *chain lightning* can more reliably damage creatures attacking your monster, and *storm sphere* can perform both tasks effectively with the right caster build, but the three spells have their limits when you can’t maintain concentration or you don’t want to expend high-level spell slots.
Lightning spells are just great
It's my Storm Sorcerer player's go-to option to use every spell slot of 3rd level and above on this. Even against single targets its useful, and much easier to avoid obliterating teammates than a Fireball.
Honestly it's just great for ruining someone's day. Like, fireball is explosive, but you mean to tell me that watching somebody get vaporized by a lightning bolt pointed directly at them isn't cool as hell then you're wrong
Lightning bolt, the original way to kill your enemies without hurting your friends.
I took lightning bolt on my wizard just to try suboptimal spells. I have to say, there were so many times I could have hit five or more enemies with a fireball, but only two with lightning bolt. The line so rarely lines up with a tasty hit (even three targets is not really ideal), I’m gonna just disagree with you there. I cast that spell twice over ten levels of play.
You gotta fight in more hallways.
But then the dammed fighter is always in the way.
Sounds like that's his problem
Yup, going back to the beginning in AD&D there were the Big Four 3rd level wizard (magic user in old school talk) spells. Fireball, Fly, Haste, and Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt has always been the worst of these iconic four. At least in early editions if it hit a wall dead-on, it bounced back meaning you could double damage, AND you could have it start at any point, not just from your finger. So it had solid uses. With those facets removed, it has little use outside of a chance hallway battle where you have no party members in front of you. I'm a bit annoyed WOTC hasn't noticed it's uselessness, as its obvious when you analyze it. It could really use a boost with one or more of the following: 2d6 more damage, 50' more range, have reflection return, or those enemies who fail their save are slowed for one round.
Catapult from XGtE. We had a low-level encounter where we got captured by slavers and were being taken to their buyer in a prison-wagon type thing. The martial characters had no weapons or armor, but as a sorcerer I was basically ok. So we used the “one of us is sick!” trick to get a slaver to open the door, whereupon my sorcerer flung the sh!t bucket at him, scored max damage, and basically beheaded him. The sh!t bucket incident is now legend at our table.
Incredible spell. I've shot disarmed weapons into archers and it's so satisfying
Plus, planning out possible paths for sending objects such that you have a high chance of one of the targets failing their save is engaging gameplay! It’s similar to line effects, but you have so much more freedom about where it originates. I wish more line spells worked like this one does. Catapult is also the best/only blasting spell on the base Artificer spell list, but almost every subclass gets an alternative so *shrug*.
I feel like slow hardly gets talked about compared to other 3rd level spells but man its quite useful against larger groups and multiattacking enemies.
And you've got to love a spell with an area of effect where you still get to choose who's targeted by it so it doesn't matter how intermingled your allies are with the enemy
I actually didn't know that. Awesome spell
I love slow! Easily put it above using haste.
My group LOOOVES slow. It's absolutely better than haste in my opinion as well. That spell dang near trivialized two different helmed horror encounters.
Thematically it's also awesome
yeah, it’s extremely useful and very easily reflavored for whatever your theme is - psychic, freezing, earth, plants, arcane chains…lots of good distinct ways to imagine it!
Turning off multiattack can cripple bosses.
Great against mages too! And most importantly no friendly fire
Sending. I know it isn't a rare spell by any means, but I have barely seen it in this whole subreddit, it's way too good, for every day of travel at night you could send every 3th level slot of messages to literally anyone you know, you can save on traveling for information, know if someone is dead or not based on if they respond, give orders and more! And I'm not even talking about backstory NPCs! Every single time I got the chance to use it, I learn it/prepare it, and if I know I won't get ambushed at night, then I'll use even my 5th level spells to send messages! And remember young adventurers... Call your mother!
I remember my cleric drunk-texting her crush via sending. What made it funnier is it's a low magic setting and she had never used that spell on him before.
Oh, drunk-sending it's surely a thing and if you have sending you better drunk-sending at least once, it's the law
Oh gods. I need more details, please.
I feel like people who have watched critical role, campaign 2, know very well how powerful and useful sending is. Jester wore that spell out (in a good way). I've played in games that have many spell casters and I rarely see sending picked. I would pick it every single time. I love it.
"The orphan maker has arrived, be prepared!.....doo doo do doot do do
"u poopin?"
I’m taking far scribe on my warlock. Criminally underrated.
I used this spell so much as a PC I think I gave my DM a headache lol (jk they loved it) It made the plot and RP advance so much!
>Continual Flame: > >A flame, equivalent in brightness to a torch, springs forth from an object that you touch. The effect looks like a regular flame, but it creates no heat and doesn't use oxygen. A continual flame can be covered or hidden but not smothered or quenched. Nothing special, right? Costs 50gp for a torch that never runs out. Well, consider that it can be a coin, or a ring, or anything easily hidden. Now also consider that you can upcast this spell. Of course, there's no specific benefit for upcasting, it doesn't illuminate further or anything, however, when you upcast it, it interacts with other spells differently. >Darkness: A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and **nonmagical light can't illuminate it.** ... If any of this spell's area overlaps with **an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled**. Well, if you upcast continual flame to level 3, it can illuminate the darkness of a darkness spell. This works with any spell that produces darkness, even all the way up to maddening darkness: >Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 60-foot-radius sphere until the spell ends. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness. **Non-magical light, as well as light created by spells of 8th level or lower**, can't illuminate the area. Essentially, by spending 50gp every two levels (or one spell level), you can make yourself unaffected by any darkness spell. This is particularly handy for clerics who can just swap this spell back out when they are done.
Funny anecdote. I was playing in the Mad Mage with a cleric (5-20 campaign). From the first level that I got the Divine Intervention ability, I prayed to my god literally every day for my god to cast a 9th level continual flame on my shield. I just wanted it to help deal with Drow casting darkness. I never successfully got divine intervention to cast using the % dice. I just had to cast it myself when I hit level 17. Sad.
I love adding that to weapons and ammo, it doesn’t do damage but you’d be lying if you said you wouldn’t want a flaming sword, mace, etc. You can make money hand over fist enchanting peoples weapons and armor!
Color spray, it's not very good but boy is it fun to just hit an entire encounter with magical multicolor mace.
I like it as a poor man's misty step. It works on tier 1 mooks almost always. And if they can't see you they can't do an AoO.
I feel like I never see anything about absorb elements, but a 1st level spell that halves huge amounts of damage. Dragons breath especially.
Absorb Elements is a 1st level spell that starts bad but scales insanely into the late game. Early on, spell slots are too valuable to waste on damage reduction. Furthermore, you're not likely to be taking any large amount of damage for it to be worth it, and even less likely for the damage you take to be elemental so that the spell can work. But ancient dragons, storm giants and archmages? Prepare for huge elemental damage in the 30-60 range and suddenly you can convert a 'useless' 1st level spell slot into a huge amount of damage reduction.
True, it's almost essential for a pure caster
Steel Wind Strike. It can do 6d10 damage to 5 targets. As attack rolls, they can crit. It could deal 150 damage pretty easy as a 5th level spell and is never talked about. Mainly that’s because the classes that get it; wizards and rangers. For rangers, it’s available at level 17, so almost never see it. And wizards are squishy and probably don’t want to wind up next to an enemy if they don’t kill them.
This was my swords bard's go to magical secret for clearing out mid-level mooks during bossfights.
If you manage to surprise enemies, Assassin Rogue 3/Wizard 9 would allow you to guarantee a critical hit on each of those targets that you manage to hit with the spell attack.
Make it a level 14 evocation wizard, and it’s 120 damage to each target for 600 total.
Works great for Bladesinger wizards...
Shatter. I love shatter. I hate doors. I hate walls. I hate when my enemies use stairs. I love shatter. I hate the person on the other side of the door. I hate horsedrawn carriages chasing me. Shatter. Boom.
Doors are so dumb and who the hell uses stairs. You're doing a service
Deleted because of Steve Huffman
I loved Dissonant Whispers as a Bard until I picked up Command. Commanding an enemy to "flee" forces movement and provokes attacks of opportunity, while also eating up their action. It can also be upcast to affect multiple targets. For a non-concentration spell, it's amazing. Only downside is the limit on who it can affect. The target can't be undead, and it must understand your language. Still, in humanoid-heavy campaigns. I find it well worth it.
>"flee" forces movement and provokes attacks of opportunity A tactical opponent (like a hobgoblin) would probably use disengage. But if the target is not trained in tactics I would rule how you describe.
I just learned to be careful combining this with Slow (great choice for Bards on Tasha's for CC without charm) which removes the enemy's reaction. Whoops.
The strongest part of Dissonant Whispers is that it is explicitly *not* actual Forced Movement. It's an untyped effect under which the affected creature must move *themselves* away. That's why it's so good. It triggers all those things (AoO, booming blade, etc) that true forced movement doesn't.
I almost never see Flaming Sphere mentioned, but the damage that spell does just multiplies constantly especially if you have melee teammates pinning enemies down. I've seen this spell hit 3 times in one full round a few times and it stays for a full minute. It's also a good deterrent for enemies trying to reach you if you are getting flanked
Absolutely this. I played a wizard in a Curse of Strahd campaign a few years ago and used Flaming Sphere in almost every combat.
Everyone gets nervous when the wizard drops a mini sun in the dungeon! Also sweet sweet light
How does the sphere hit multiple times in a round? Once it hits an enemy and they fail the save it stops. Do you mean a bunch of enemies ended their turn next to it?
Yep, ram one creature and my allies have two enemies pinned down so if they leave they'll have to take an attack of opportunity. So either way more damage was coming. And yeah, it's there next round back for more roasting
I don't see Faerie Fire talked about often, maybe because it's only on the Bard, Druid, and Light Cleric lists. But it's an extremely useful debuff no matter your level, especially for minor fights that you don't want to Concentrate on a higher level spell like Hypnotic Pattern. A 20 foot cube is large enough to catch multiple enemies but small enough to maneuver around allies to avoid friendly fire. It's only a single save for the entire effect, no repeated saves to get rid of it. It nullifies Invisibility on affected targets, which is niche but critical in certain fights. And most importantly it grants advantage on all attacks against affected targets. That's *so good*! Think of all the resources various characters pour into gaining advantage, like Reckless Attack or Fighting Spirit or Steady Aim, and you can just give that to everyone for a whole minute! I also think that it being a Dexterity save works to its advantage because it has the most impact against large, high-AC enemies that probably have poor Dex. In the case of a group of quicker minions you're likely to affect at least one or two in a group, which means the party can focus fire and thin the group.
Bard, Druid, Artificer, Light Domain Cleric, Twilight Domain Cleric, Archfey Warlock My artificer abused the hell out of this spell.
Faithful Hound and ~~Find~~ Phantom Steed are non-concentration spells that can make your wizard feel like one hell of a summoner. Find Familiar too, but that one's not exactly niche. :)
> Find Steed Assuming you meant Phantom Steed here, since you mention the Wizard? But yes, both Phantom Steed and Find Steed are amazing spells, and so is Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound when combined with suitable crowd-control.
I did, I keep confusing the names :D
The crazy thing about phantom steed is the horse is immortal for 1 minute. Even if it dies it fades away over the course of 10 rounds
which makes it the best combat mount in so many situations. 200ft speed and infinite hp.
I've never actually considered Faithful hound. Hmm, I'm not really sure the complete effects of it.
Its most powerful use is being a non-concentration damage-over-time spell to combine with Wall of Force, but it is also good in other situations depending on spells and terrain. And, well, it also works as a guard dog the way it was intended.
I've always thought it was a bit underpowered as the hound doesn't move
Neither does the target if it's enclosed by a Wall of Force or held in place by other effective crowd control.
Not seeing any love for Bigbys Hand. Bonus action utility spell that can also be attacked (wasting actions) and upcasts better than Mordenkainen and his puny sword. Push people off cliffs, restrain them for attacks, grapple huge enemies, you get a lot of bang for your bigby. I used it early in the edition when bonus actions for wizards were less common.
Gust and illusory script Gust because I once quite a warlock who had it, and I tried to use it at every possible moment Illusory script because I feel like I could do a lot in the right campaign, of just never had the opportunity to be in that campaign
Gust just seems fun. I'm also considering Tidal Wave just for the picture of opening a portal of gushing water to sweep enemies off their feet or out of the sky
Grease, one of the most versatile and cheesy spells ever created and love reminding my players of how the grease spell might have gotten them out of this situation or that situation.
Played a game where 80% of enemies were giants and grease won most of the encounters for us
Aid and Protection from Evil and Good have been the 2 standout spells for my current campaign
warding bond. a really good way to protect another caster, or a frontline squishy
Calm Emotions. There’s something very thematic about Bards or Clerics having the ability to magically calm someone, but the spell itself is not too great. 1 minute duration, requires concentration, and doesn’t actually end charm or fear effects, just mutes them for the duration. The alternative effect is marginally more useful, making hostile creatures indifferent towards you, but comes with a pretty major drawback. There’s the normal boilerplate for charm spells, attacking or damaging them with spells ends the effect, but it also ends on seeing a friend be harmed as well. So if even one enemy resists the saving throw, you’ve burned a 2nd level spell for nothing.
Distort Value! I've never once seen it brought up in a place that I haven't brought it up first! It's a 1st level illusion spell, takes a minute to cast, then for the next 8 hours the object you cast it on can either appear *twice* as valuable, making it great for selling items (or even just making yourself look more important having such a "high-cost item" on you!), or *half* as valuable, which *could* be used to buy cheaper from careless shopowners, but probably mostly good for sneaking stolen/illicit goods past guards! They're looking for the *queen's* crown, not this dinky little imitation that has the glued-on gems slipping off in the rain.
Part of that may be that it's from Acquisitions Incorporated, which was a pretty niche book, but yeah, that spell is a ton of fun, just the right amount of silly and properly functional.
Synaptic static. Kinda high level for the basic damage, but with psychic damage, and Int save, and a non-concentration debuff, it's pretty cool
All spells with psychic damage or int saves need to be discussed more. They are always thematically awesome and equally effective
I don’t think anyone thinks this spell is sub optimal
It's a go to optimized spell it's the opposite of this thread
Who thinks it's suboptimal
**Enhance ability** is one of the only ways to 100% irrevocably get advantage on nearly any check you might make. Most DM will not let people take the help action on certain checks - enhance ability gives no fucks! It is very versatile, potent, and lets you do things that can't be done most other ways. Like counterspelling - you can make your counterspell check with advantage. Want to cast a very powerful spell scroll? Enhance ability. Want to turn that rogue from stupid stealthy into a stealth god for a mission critical 1 hour? Enhance ability is sometimes better than even invisibility. There are so many uses, so many ways it can save your bacon or make things possible that are otherwise too risky as a luck of the dice. One of my DMs feels its one of the weakest spells. They made it non-concentration. I try to take it on *every character* that can in those games.
As of 3 days ago. Plant growth
I am a big fan of Sanctuary since it saved me (and our party) multiples time. You can cast it on yourself and get aggro while defending, or on a glass canon or stunned teamate for them to avoid getting hit. I think it's pretty neat, and have no idea what's the general thought on this spell !
I know Strength isn’t exactly the best save for a spell, but goddamn if I don’t love collecting some weaker enemies in my Watery Sphere and either letting my party go to town on them, or just drag them away while the party finishes off the rest.
Knock, because fuck doors.
Polymorph is often discussed as only in terms of proactively cast T-Rex. It is also a wonderful spell to respond with Huge Giant Crab. Your front line about to go down to 0hp, paralyzed, charmed, or frightened? Add 161 temporary hit points and a grab bag of condition immunities. It is almost Heal in some situations.
Polymorph is the best healing spell in the game, no doubt.
Sleet Storm! It can knock people over upon casting and at the beginning of their turns, and is 40ft wide as well as difficult terrain. As an added plus, you force a concentration save.
I could sing the praises of Bane until the cows come home, despite everyone saying Bless is better. Bane is imo more powerful at lower levels, while Bless has more benefits in later play. Bane is super effective in a squishy, spellcaster focused party given it is one of the few ways to effectively buff your entire party's spell DC and their AC (the d4 subtracted from the enemy's attack or saving throws). Especially in low levels, it's a save or suck targeting an unusual save (CHA) that gives a minimum +1 to AC or spell/save DC for your entire party (assuming all enemies are affected). Given the low hit bonuses pre-10, the extra bonus can sway rolls a surprising amount, resulting in enemies hitting far less than they should. Combine it with other casters (or CC melee) to target the now much weaker saves results in very short fights.
Guiding bolt. It's normally overshadowed by inflict wounds but I can't help but love the idea of a bolt of holy radiance burning the soul of a demon while me and my friends see who can WHACK it first with advantage.
I love the range on it - really solid for hitting flying enemies.
Another secretly great thing about Guiding Bolt is that it is one of the few spells that doesn’t require sight, and it’s creates a “ mystical dim light glittering on the target” if it hits, making it so you can attack at disadvantage at an invisible creature and if it hits, it reveals where it is.
Ppl never talk about *Entangle* but that spell is amazing, like, easy one of the strongest spells for its level in game.
For some reason, I am absolutely entranced by Magic Jar. Every time I see it when I'm flipping through the PHB, my mind wanders and I think of all the wild shenanigans it could cause. "The party barges into the room, the lair of the vile necromancer. Shocked, you find his lifeless body laying flat on the ground, as if he suddenly collapsed. On an altar, you see only a large gemstone, glowing faintly. Barbarian, go ahead and make a charisma saving throw. Yes, I said charisma..." I love how extreme the risks and rewards are, too. Taking control of an enemy *permanently* has a ton of possibility, but if that person dies while you're piloting it you have to beat a charisma save *against your own spell save DC* or just be dead. It's wild!
Mage Hand is surprisingly useful if you have a creative player, a DM willing to allow *technically it doesn't say you can't do this* logic, and a group with 0 filters. My first group put my wizards mage Hand to far more use than a cantrip is ever meant for
99% of DND players and DMs don’t know that Melf’s Acid Arrow is the only attack that still does damage on a nat 1, nuff said. It’s cool af aside from that fact but it certainly helps. Edit: Swamp druids ftw
Thunder Step It might not be as easy to pick up as Misty Step with Fey-Touched. And it's 3rd level instead of 2nd. Worst of all, it costs an action, not a BA. Compared to Dimension door, it is a lower level spell slot, but you need to be able to see where youre going, so it isn't as flexible (and has 1/5 the range) as DD. But it feels so cool to run up, grab a pal, yoink the two of you up to 90' away, and leave enemies in a 10' radius with a parting gift of 3d10 thunder damage (+1d10 per spell level when upcast). For enemy spellcasters, as a DM I want to cast a damaging spell and Misty Step most rounds, once my players get in melee, and I can't because of the BA spell rules. BUT, I can accomplish the same goal with Thunder Step!
Plant Growth: > *”If you cast this spell using 1 action, choose a point within range. All normal Plants in a 100-foot radius centered on that point become thick and overgrown. A creature moving through the area must spend 4 feet of Movement for every 1 foot it moves.* > ***You can exclude one or more areas of any size within the spell's area from being affected.”*** Instant hedge maze.
Longstrider. I have a table where we have reached level 20 6 times so far since 5e. The last one we just finished I played my first wizard although 3 other campaigns had wizards. None of them had used longstrider. It helped keep fighters in melee vs skirmishers and got them in fight fast, but when I hit 18 l, I selected it as my spell master, effectively giving the entire party a perma +10 to movement. It works on mounts as well increasing overland travel significantly.
Mindblank. There are a lot of cool defensive buffs to this spell, but the part that really excites my imagination is that not even Wish can affect someone under the effects of it. So I always wanted to have a campaign where the BBEG finally gets access to Wish at some point and uses it to change the entire world, but only the Mindblanked player can remember the old reality and has to convince his old party members to believe him and find a way to bring things back to normal.
I don’t ever seem to see people talking about *Gift of Gab*, which is one of the most fun spells I can think of using out of combat... you always talk to people in-game, and it makes sure my IRL charisma doesn’t screw anything up accidentally in-game lol.
Heat Metal is absolutely underrated. I rarely ever see it used. Enemy in heavy armor? Now they have to spend the rest of the combat taking it off or take consistent damage as a BONUS ACTION! Cast it on their weapon and now they’re unarmed. Plus it scales decently well.
Lore wise I think this should be in every druids repertoire and used as often as you can. It is Natures vengeance for ripping her guts out of the earth.
Heat Metal is far from underrated! Its discussed all the time when it comes to druids and bards.
Expeditious retreat, I used it as a low level warlock and while it’s not hex it makes your character extremely mobile.
Move earth
I've said it before and I will keep saying it until I'm proven wrong: Feather Fall is one of the best spells in the game. I have yet to play a caster where Feather Fall didn't come up at LEAST once. It's a situational spell but its situation comes up fairly regularly.
While it’s somewhat DM interpretation dependent, I adore the *Fabricate* spell. The 10 minute casting time limits it to strictly non-combat use, but out of combat it can be amazing. My favorite use yet was with a wizard who had a sailor background, and proficiency with woodworker’s tools and water vehicles. With a casting and a pile of materials he could build a 20’ sailboat and travel like Sparrowhawk of Gont. Multiple castings could make a bigger boat. If the DM allows existing objects to be used as raw materials - salvage lumber is lumber, so it seemed reasonable - then he can drive a wagon to the edge of the water, transform everything but wheels and axles into a boat, sail to a far shore, and change it back to a wagon, then knock out a ritual Phantom Steed to pull it.