Cantrips are simple but powerful spells that characters can cast almost by rote, with a spell level of 0 (out of 9 levels). They do not use up a spell slot and are a subset of the larger set of spells. At level 1, a Wizard knows 3 cantrips and has two Level 1 Spell Slots. He also obtains six Level 1 spells for his spellbook.
As a 1st-level spellcaster, you know several cantrips from your class’s spell list. To see the cantrips available to you, click on the “-0-” in the Filter By Spell Level section of your Manage Spells tab. Cantrips are less powerful than other spells, even 1st level spells, but can sometimes accomplish what a higher spell slot can.
Cantrips level with your character, not your class. If an ability were to exclude cantrips, it would say “when you cast a spell of 1st level or higher” or some other higher spell level. Cantrips are lvl 0 spells, and they scale with your character level, not by any type of spell slot.
Spells are balanced for one per turn per PC, with the possible exception of one spell and one cantrip. Cantrips are basic spells, and they are considered “level 0” (out of 9 levels) by the spell division in the rules. A magic-user may retain up to four cantrips in place of one 1st-level spell, as long as they have retained their book of spells.
Druids get two cantrips and two 1st-level spells at level one, but the character builder gives them two cantrips and only one 1st-level spell. Cantrips are definitely 0-level spells, and they should mean you can memorize them in a higher-level slot. When a character gets their first level in Wizard, they start with a spellbook containing 4 cantrips and 6 1st-level spells.
📹 D&D Spellcasting Explained | Part 1
This is spellcasting explained for D&D 5e! Here in part 1, we’ll go over go over spell levels, casting at higher levels, spell slots, …
Are cantrips included in known spells?
Cantrips are not associated with recognized or prepared spells and are analogous to the cantrips of other classes. These spells are not leveled and do not consume spell slots.
What level do you unlock cantrips?
The new Cantrips feature enables spell casting and magic usage outside of combat, requiring a level 23 or above. To obtain further information, please contact Abner K. once the requisite prerequisites have been fulfilled.
What is a level 0 spell 5e?
Level 0 spells, designated as “cantrips,” are initiated by level 1 druids and do not require the expenditure of spell slots. In accordance with the prevailing rules of the 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, cantrips are known and cannot be modified. Please be advised that JavaScript may be disabled or blocked by extensions, and that your browser does not support cookies.
Are cantrips counted in prepared spells?
The text addresses the concept of cantrips, which are provided to students and can only be exchanged when they level up. This is a distinct topic, however, and therefore merits further discussion.
Are cantrips level 0 spells?
Cantrips are 0-level spells that can be memorized in a higher-level slot. They are not expended when cast and can be used again. Wizards can prepare a number of cantrips each day, which are cast like any other spell. However, they can be prepared from a prohibited school, using up two of their available slots. The Cantrip Class Abillity provides more information on cantrips and their usage.
Are all cantrips available at level 1?
At 1st level, you know three cantrips from the wizard spell list and learn additional cantrips at higher levels. You have a spellbook with six 1st-level wizard spells, except for your fixed cantrips. The Wizard table shows the number of spell slots you have to cast 1st level and higher spells. To cast a spell, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. All expended spell slots are regained after a long rest.
How many cantrips does a level 1 druid get?
At the initial level of advancement, the player is endowed with two cantrips from the druid spell list. In the event that JavaScript is disabled or blocked by an extension, or if your browser does not support cookies, the functionality of this page may be adversely affected.
Are cantrips not spells?
Cantrips are free, weak magic pieces that don’t have significant effects and are level 0 spells. They don’t cost anything and don’t even have a spell slot. On the other hand, spells are powerful and require a character’s spell slots to cast various components. They are used to pace out attacks in battle. A cantrip is like a penguin, but it’s not suitable for fighting a demogorgon. In contrast, spells are like a pen full of carnivorous dinosaurs, and when used to deal damage, the carnotaurus should be used instead of the penguin.
Are cantrips Level 1 spells?
A spell is a discrete magical effect that shapes the energies that suffuse the multiverse into a specific, limited expression. Each spell has a level from 0 to 9, indicating its power. Levels range from lowly magic missiles to earth-shaking wishes, with cantrips being level 0. Spellcasting is a crucial skill in fantasy gaming, and different character classes have unique ways of learning and preparing their spells.
A spell is a single shaping of the magical energies, which a character carefully plucks at the invisible strands of raw magic, pins them in place, sets them vibrating, and releases them to unleash the desired effect, usually within seconds.
What levels do cantrips scale at?
The scaling of cantrips occurs at every five levels, with increasingly powerful spell slots being acquired as the character advances in level. Warlocks rely more heavily on cantrips, yet they are the recipients of the most effective cantrip in the game. It should be noted that the game contains content that may not be suitable for all age groups. This includes general mature content, as well as potentially explicit material related to nudity or sexual themes. To update content preferences on Steam, the following steps must be followed.
Do cantrips count as spells in 5E?
In the context of D&D 5E, cantrips are spells that are classified as level 0 spells in the PHB. They are utilized as an upgrade effect for warlocks.
📹 Tier Ranking 1st-Level Spells in D&D 5e (Part 1)
TIME STAMPS 0:00 – Intro 0:36 – Absorb Elements 3:03 – Alarm 5:57 – Animal Friendship 8:03 – Armor of Agathys 10:21 – Arms of …
Glad Command got an A. To me, the really good use of this spell is upcasting it at higher levels when you are already concentrating on something else. Like a Bard that is already concentrating on Hypnotic Pattern. Don’t really have a ton of things you can do with your Action that are going to have a big impact. But, you upcast Command to 2nd level and tell a couple enemies to Grovel, and you waste their whole next turn without breaking concentration. On my Lore Bard I played before Tasha’s, I actually took Command as one of my Additional Magical Secrets because I was looking for something to do with my actions that didn’t require concentration, as Vicious Mockery was quickly losing its appeal.
A subtle thing with Catapult is that it deals damage to the target and itself. So if you have a jar of Alchemist Fire, “drop it accidentally” and then catapult it at someone, the jar will shatter as it smashes into something. Which which also gives some options for things like a bag of ball bearings or caltrops, however that is up to the DM’s discretion
5:53 I will say that one thing I think raises Alarm’s utility is that it’s not concentration, and I don’t see anything in the description that prevents you from having more than one alarm active at once, which could drastically raise the area you can cover with it, especially since you can cast it as a ritual. Whether or not that works for you will depend on DM interpretation of course. Something my artificer did, utilizing that interpretation, was to alarm the woods AROUND the camp instead of the camp itself. That might not stop a fireball flung at you but it DID alert me to the abishai that were invisibly spying on our camp that night.
I’ve seen Alarm used extensively, such as in Salt Marsh to ward a ship and a dock. I’ve also seen it used to tell people “When was the vault open” or alert other access to an area. Don’t think of it as a burglar alarm, think of it as a trigger: “Is someone in this closed off area I’m interested in?” The one mile range is really useful. This is a great spell for scrolls too.
Alarm fully is a C, very situational, but those latter cases you started talking about are what I’d primarily use it for, especially if you’re a ritual caster. The mental version of it, which has a mile range, is a cheap way to keep tabs on more distant areas of your surroundings. Not just for ambushes, but also to keep yourself from being surprised, and to a degree track movement over distance. You can do things like alarm the door to the guard barracks to monitor comings and goings, alarm the entrance to the dragon’s lair while you’re trying to loot it while the dragon is absent, alarm the front door of a house you’re trying to rob to let you know when the owners get back (same idea, different type of house), if you’re doing defense or investigation alarming an unusual entrance to an area to see if anyone uses it, etc. The spell lasts for eight hours and it alerts you every time a tiny or larger creature interacts with it. The silent, mental version is great if you’re ever in a stakeout or heist or robbery type situation where you want to monitor access points. It definitely is a niche spell, but if you’re running particularly an urban intrigue or heist campaign, definitely might be worth a look.
The potion version of animal friendship is very good if you know you’ll be encountering a lot of beasts, because it lasts for an hour and lets you cast the spell at will. I bought one off hand in a Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign, and sessions later I managed to bypass an entire room of encounters because every enemy was a beast and I could see them before they could see me.
I don’t know if anyone pointed this out, but Catapult has the highest range out of any level one spell. It says 60 ft, but what that means is that you can target an object within 60 ft. The object travels 90 ft. So if you target a random rock on the ground, that is 60 ft from you, you can launch it an additional 90 ft. 150 ft. It also let’s you attack from a different direction. This can let you get around Cover. If they have a Boulder, the shooting from behind you can choose a rock behind into the side of them and hit them in the back. The same technique is useful for stealth. Because the enemy doesn’t know where the attack is coming from. It’s like that trick where they throw a rock to make a sound, and the guards go over there. Except this time they attack someone from a certain direction when they’re really in the opposite direction. This technique is just super maneuverable. Finely, this technique pairs so well with so many other items and spells. You can only Throw a grappling hook so high on your own, but you could have a party member throw it and use this to fire it another 90 ft. Fire your lamp oil on someone from 90ft away well Also doing damage from the initial hit. Poison acid and elkonist fire all work the same. There is also magic stone, which pairs so well. Finely with the artificer Artilleryest sub class, you can make a tiny cannon with legs. It is not classified as a creature. Meaning at level one, you can fire it up to 90 ft. What’s more it acts as if your the one firing the Cannon even if your not touching it.
Alarm comes into its own in the right campaign. We’re a two player party in Ravenloft, so quite often we’re sleeping in a room rather than out in an open field. For times we are out in a field, our Warlock can cast Tiny Hut as a ritual. Alarm is our more subtle option for when casting a 10 foot radius impenetrable dome would raise some eyebrows in town. So far it’s caught people coming to kill us twice, and a ten foot cube (or multiple instances of Alarm cast as a ritual) can cover most or all of a room. Since it can be ritual cast, we’ve also used it as part of a defensive setup. We had to protect a farm and had a couple of hours of warning that enemies were on the way, but we didn’t know which direction they’d be approaching from or whether they might split up and attack from multiple directions. We cast multiple instances of Alarm in strategic places where we thought enemies would be most likely to pass. An hour of casting gave us six instances of Alarm, and it’s a good size at a twenty foot cube (big enough to cover an entire road, hallway, or trail) and lasts for eight hours. It did exactly what we needed it to do. They walked (well, floated- they were mindflayers) right through one of the Alarm spells, giving us time to set up an ambush.
07:20 (Animal Friendship) This spell would be a great choice as a first level feat (via “Magic Initiate” ) for a non-spellcaster low level NPC. | A farmer or a soldier sometimes needs that “certainty” that even Expertise on the Animal Handling skill can not provide (a mere +4 on a nat1 roll). -> At least once per day, it knows that it will work. An emergency override on an otherwise wild/panic behavior.
Command might be an S-tier Bard spell even at higher levels, since it’s one of only few Bard spells that don’t require concentration (in case you don’t want your enemies to run away due to Dissonant Whispers, the other must pick). Upcasting it to make several enemies forego their turns is definitely a strong use of an Action while concentrating on your big spell.
Re: Catapult – would love to show y’all how that spell can break encounters. Bear in mind, it’s a 60′ range of the spell itself, with 90′ targeting distance. So if they’re 150′ feet away… you can hit ’em with a free rock or sea shell or bit of debris that does 3d8 damage. Marty’s Battlemaster with Disarming attack + Catapult makes the enemy’s weapon a deadly threat to them if they drop it… or if they dodge it, now they have to spend time chasing it down. Catapult has a higher damage output potential than most 1st level spells, better range than most 1st level spells, and can be upcast to deal more damage. Unlike Guiding Bolt, for example, Catapult can be used to target an item behind your enemy (and slightly to the side) to hit them from behind, which can complicate their DEX save. Y’all might be underestimating this one.
I have a soft spot for Catapult. I was playing a diviner and I ended two separate encounters by killing the lead wizards of each encounter by using portent to make them fail their saving throws. Since we were low-level, they didn’t have high HPs and were killed by the spell. Catapult has never been as effective since but at the time, I felt so powerful.
Tip for level 2 divination wizards: take catapult. If you have a low portant, cast it on a line of enemies, make all but the last target in that line roll the saving throw. If all of them somehow make the save, just use that portant on the last one in line. It guarantees your spell slot isn’t wasted, and if one of those earlier enemies fails, great, you get to keep your low portant for another spell.
I love animal friendship. I was recently in a campaign as a monk/druid multiclass playing basically drunk russian spiderman. Our group came across 2 hellhounds guarding a door that we needed to get past. We tried to make a friendly aproach but the hounds attacked us first and I brought 1 away from the group and kept it occupied while they group dispatched the other. I then cast animal friendship on the hellhound and offered it some of my jerky. I then made friends with the firepuppy and now the drunk russian had a pooch that breathed fire who he gave vodka and taught to belch fireballs as a trick.
My party figured out a way to use alarm to help party members to communicate when we split the party. We put together what basically amounts to pocket telegraphs so that we can communicate via morse code. We did have to learn morse code (or at least have a cheat sheet handy) though, b/c our DM makes us literally spell everything out in code. He was annoyed that he couldn’t think of a reason we wouldn’t be able to do it. 😂
A build where Cause Fear really shines is a Conquest Paladin with a Warlock dip, because it’s another way to apply Frightened, the fear does not break on damage so Aura of Conquest doesn’t end the condition, and while Wrathful Smite’s better for frightening a single target because it is way stickier, upcasting Cause Fear allows you to target additional creatures. In situations where you want to frighten multiple creatures, but they aren’t positioned in a way where you can catch them all in the Fear spell’s cone, upcasting Cause Fear can be a good substitute.
Use catapult with a bag of flour, when it takes 3d8 damage you have a big cloud of flour which a firebolt, torch etc will turn into an accelerant. Also great to use with a missile that missed, though you might owe the Barbarian a new handaxe as it takes 3d8 damage after embedding in the back of someone.
Agree that Chromatic Orb is the best level one spell for Wizards, and Sorcs that aren’t Divine Souls. The big drawback I’ve always found is that it has a costed spell component. Most DMs will handwave components that don’t have a cost, but most I’ve encountered require you to have the component for anything with a gold cost. It can often take a while to get your hand on a diamond, by which point you’ve often moved past level one attack roll spells.
I am using Command on an Order cleric to great effect: have Spirit Guardians up, use a Bonus Action (courtesy of the 6th level feature) to cast Command and tell people to Approach. It still costs them their turn, provokes AoO from melee allies next to them, sets them up for taking damage on their next turn as well, and lets me use my action for e.g. cantrips or Dodging to protect my concentration.
I love these series! A question: Would you ever consider a short article rank-ordering the damage types? As in, for each one: How frequently enemies are vulnerable, resistant or immune to it; how many class features give you bonuses with that damage type; and how important it is to be resistant or immune yourself to that type?
Absorb Element: I agree it’s a great spell,, you are 100% right. But you are forgiving one big flaw of the spell. Wizard/Sorcerer do not like being in melee, so the “add 1d6 damage on your next melee attack” is useless for them. but it remains a great A rank spell if not S tier (S tier even if the extra damage is wasted. AS you said in late game, when my sorcerer have lvl 6 spell, and my firebolt deal on average more damage then magic missile level 1, I willl use my level 1 spell slot for only 3 reason: recovering my SP (if I’m a sorcerer) casting shield but when monster have a +12 to hit my 17 AC shield isn’t as useful anymore, and absorb element remain the best spell I can use.
Absorb Element is absolutely an S. It’s the equialent of an auto-success against over 90% of Dex saves, and it stacks with saves on top of that. This spell is one of the most powerful tools casters have for protecting their concentration, and is the reason they basically never need to invest in Dex save proficiency, freeing up Resilient for Con or Wis as needed. It’s more of a mandatory pick (if you can get it) than Silvery Barbs. The reflected damage shoud basically never come up since you shouldn’t be in melee in the first place, but as long as it doesn’t tempt you into bad habits a little extra damage is a cherry on top of an already overpowered spell. Bless is an excellent Cleric Spell, especialy before Spirit Guardians comes online. But actually, its real power is as a Paladin spell, precisely because there’s so little competition for it. Divine Soul Sorcerer, being one of the best 1 level dips in the game (in no small part due to granting access to Absorb Elements btw), will also find great use for it. And, interestingly, in highly optimized parties it’s as common to see it on Wizards as Clerics, since Wizards have the smallest oppotunity cost in picking up the Peace Cleric dip every party wants for the armour proficiencies and Emboldening Bond. Burning Hands is a C at best. If your caster is close enough to use Burning Hands, they’re probably doing somehing wrong, and kiting with Fire Bolt with Shield as insurance is far safer and more reliable. To say nothng of the mediocre damage and terrible scaling shared by all blasting spells.
Alarm actually has more uses than the ones stated in the article: 1) Useful for determining if you are being followed, particularly when traveling on a narrow path (moutain pass, tunnel, old hunting trail, castle corridor). Cast behind you in a place a pursuer might walk; their Stealth roll cannot hide their presence. 2) This works on sneaking and invisible creatures. It may not pinpoint their location, but it lets you know something is/was there. 3) Useful for defeating disguised creatures. Because you designate who are not affected by the spell (you and your party), anybody else sets it off, regardless of their appearance. Doppelgangers, disguised rogues, and those using Disguise Self can be unmasked in this way. Depending on your DM’s ruling, spells such as Polymorph and Alter Self can be defeated this way. This depends on if the DM claims that the spell makes an exception to a creature’s biology, or if it recognizes the soul/instance of the exempted creature. Alarm’s real problem is DM’s and their players tend to downplay or outright ignore the Exploration Pillar. Spells like Alarm are built almost exclusively for that pillar of play, and not allowing able opportunity to use it prevents anybody from actually using it. I would put it in high C or low B Tier: can be a bit situational at times, but with some creativity, it becomes pretty helpful.
Armor of Agathys upcast is absolutely baller. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the whole hedgehog build. I look for ways to add to full casters (wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, Cleric). Abjurer with this and Blade Ward, Clockwork Sorcerer with this, transform spell to change elemental type and the ability to reduce damage by d8/Sorcerer point….and Blade ward. Add in the Shadar-Kai race so you can teleport 30 ft, gain resistance ALL till next round. I have used this to deliberately draw AoO from enemies and deal 25pts a pop….and sometimes, when the DMs dice really suck, my character closes his eyes to grant advantage LOL. And while damage potential is awesome, this spell is pulling double duty because it’s actively protecting you so even if the dm drops it with ranged attacks and spells, it still did its job. But this is the ultimate use of action economy…dealing damage on the enemies turn with a zero concentration spell that buffs your HP Do you have any idea how satisfying it is to watch your dm agonize over whether his goon is smart enough to realize taking that AoA on you will kill him? Or have to decide if it’s worth it to attack you with a second swing, or heaven help him, a third? This style of play is so much and so engaging I give this spell an S+….All day long and twice on Sundays
Right before the campaign-ending boss battle, my Tome Pact warlock ritual-cast the “Dedication” Ceremony on party members willing to serve my patron (who was in alignment with our goal to kill the boss anyway). That d4 was absolutely crucial to keeping the barbarian from being possessed/dominated, so it was a clutch spell in that circumstance!
About color spray, I used it against someone who had something we wanted. He didn’t know we wanted it, he also didn’t know we took it. He thought I was just making sure he couldn’t attack us while we retrieved a downed ally. I’m not sure if he ever learned we took it from him, but we got away pretty easily.
In a one-shot I played, the Artificer used catapult to slam a flask of holy water into a vampire. We still TPKed when my Shadow Monk’s darkness prevented the Artificer from getting to the downed fighter on time, and the fighter rolled a natural 1 on their death save and came back as a vampire spawn, but it was probably the most effective attack of the encounter.
Catapult is excellent pound-for-pound because you can throw a vial of acid or flask of holy water with it. That adds an extra 2d6 damage of a reliable damage type (provided the holy water applies to the target in that case). If you have a character in the party proficient in alchemist’s supplies, this is a pretty cheap way to augment your damage with the spell, and it’s pretty reliably that someone is going to fail the save when you line it up. It’s also much easier to line up than, say, lightning bolt, because you can just fling an acorn on the ground over there and get the exact angle you want. By the time you have 4th or so level spells it will get outclassed in damage, but before that it’s much better than a B.
23:05 I love catapult! I’ve used it in some fun ways, throwing alchemist fire or oil for starters. But most recently we were fighting a vampire and our rogue had the holy water but he was down. The next turn was myself and then the beat downs followed by the vampire. Our healer was low in the order. Since the rogue had specifically mentioned having it in his off hand at the ready, I used catapult to throw the holy water and it connected! Damage plus the holy water just in time for the fighter and barbarian to do their thing! Glorious!
I enjoy Catapult less for the damage and more for the creative utility. You can use it to fling something that’s across the room closer to you, use it to fling a noisy item away to cause a distraction a distance away from you, or my personal favorite, using it to fling a grappling hook (with rope attached) over a wall. It’s a fun spell, and is perfect for Arcane Trickster rogues in my opinion.
Some points for lower-rated spells in here! Arms of Hadar can take spellcasters by surprise if you manage to get near them – even as a half-caster. As a melee + Warlock multiclass, or using Magic Initiate feat to get it. The second a spellcaster used counterspell, run up to them, force them into a STR save, an often neglected stat for these characters. They either counterspell you, or can’t counterspell this round. Catapult – prepare action with the spell when you know ranged (projectile) attacks are on their way. You now have a Counter-Attack spell negating one ranged attack!
Once i gave an Necklace of Prayer Beads to my cleric that needed a cast of Ceremony on the start of the exact hour to recharge the beads. it went pretty well, cause with time that began to atract people who he helped to his faith (he was a Blood of Vol cleric traped in ravenloft, so, things near went south many times 😈)
Something about Command that tends to fly under the radar is that it doesn’t involve the Charmed condition, so enemies resistant or immune to Charm effects don’t get to apply that against Command. I also feel like there’s a potential meme build combining the Poisoner feet with Commanding people to drink, but that’s neither here nor there.
I think command is underrated as a control spell. Command word flee may provoke an opportunity attack, or even multiple opportunity attacks. As the enemy will use dash to escape, they probably will need to use their action and movement to return, which takes the enemy out of the fight for two whole rounds. If upcast to second level, and if both enemies fail, for the cost of one action and one second level spell, you may have taken two enemies out of the fight for two rounds.
I love that I actually have cast ceremony before. In the beginning of Curse of Strahd my cleric I just had it prepared because it seemed interesting, and while mechanically it didn’t really do anything, I felt really happy about using it because it gave Ireena and Ismark (not sure of spelling of either name) some closure for their father, and it felt like something my cleric would have done. Would my gm likely have allowed me to perform a funeral rite even without the spell? Probably, but it was only like our third or fourth session together so I didn’t really know
I like catapult because it’s a rare occasion with an offensive spell that has utility uses too, and strange interactions. -Probably the only spell that can be used with Twinned Spell metamagic to attack the same target twice. -the keeps going thing they mentioned in the article if the initial target dodges it. -launch vials of stuff, caltrop, knifes or whatever else you happen to be carrying around in your “ammo bag” -can be used to get an item to where you need it to be. (grappling hook tied to a rope is a common for me, think my DM might have a fetish for “how to get a rope to the other ledge” puzzles…. or maybe it’s a phase?) -while not by RAW, i think there’s a strong argument for letting monks (and the magic item(s) with the same effect) catch the projectiles if they stand behind a target that dodged -some other stuff i probably don’t think of in the moment, but it’s a lot more interesting spell than the typical “make a spell attack, roll 3d8damage, no other effects or interactions”
So I’m playing in a dungeons of drakenhime campaign currently monk 2 sorcerer 1 aberrant mind ætherling from griffons saddlebag book 2 and so I have arms of haddar and high mobility and my favourite thing is if I rolled high on initiative I’ll run up to a cluster of enemies—who haven’t acted yet ie they are surprised and don’t have their reactions yet—and use arms of haddar to weaken them turn one then run away and come back turn two to cast colour spray to blind them and give the party a huge advantage against them for the rest of the fight and it works out pretty well.
One thing about catapult…. my artificer used it to throw bottles of acid at enemies. Vial of acid weights 1 pound and does 2d6 dmg and with alchemy jug you can create multiple vials per day. You can do the same thing with alchemy fire for example. Can be fun just watch out what is behind your target because… well lets say throwing alchemy fire in a wooden building may change the battle and not in a good way
Alarm can also be cast and in effect multiple times. You can cast it on your party camp area, and cast it again just around yourself, if you don’t trust someone in the party. You can also cast it in front of the door of a place you are staking out. Not arguing with the rating, but it is fairly versatile.
Armor of Agathas is a boon to action economy in a game all about action economy. You can precast it and it is going to negate at least one oncoming attack. It’s almost never going to be a waste as you can intentionally provoke opportunity attacks on your self if you’re otherwise not being focused to mop up the fight
Animal Friendship last for an a day. I kind of feel that combining Animal Friendship with Beast Bond should probably allow you to have a good chance to tame practically any animal. Even if Beast Bond only last 10 min, I absolutely believe beasts should still feel lingering effects of that. You are no longer just a random other creature to it. Its shared your feelings, thoughts. I think it would be easy to make it see you as part of its group, family or whatever. I wish I thought of using this combo rather than just kill the t-rex I faced last time I played. The party obtaining a T-Rex we could ride. At level 3. It could be really cool!
Command is bonkers at later levels because it’s not concentration. People forget that the victim LOSES its WHOLE turn if it fails the save. You cast your big concentration spell on round one and then spam it! It’s how we beat a white dragon (not old enough to have legendary resistance). We spam commanded it to kneel so it landed and couldn’t attack! It played only one turn of the battle (the third, it breathed on us) but that’s all it did whole battle. And on any caster with warcaster, you can upcast command to hit multiple enemies and command them to flee, then move next to one who failed the saving throw. They have to run on their turn and have to wait next turn to come back, unlike dissonant whispers that uses their reaction.
I want to combo animal friendship and awaken. Then you can get an awakened army of animals to follow you because when you awaken then they like you, then they have a lasting impression of liking you when awakened and maybe friendship them again daily to cultivate a bond with the animal you’ve awakened.
Little note on the strength of Command that goes regularly overlooked. Carry a spare shield around with you, and use Command on spellcasters with the command word “Don”. If they fail the save, they have to put on the shield, loosing a turn, disabling Mage Armour, and if they aren’t proficient with it (note, creature stat blocks are only proficient with equipment that is referenced in their stat block, so unless they were already wearing a shield, they won’t be) they are rendered unable to cast spells until removing the shield. Doffing a shield takes an entire action, meaning you effectively double the duration for how long this locks an opponent down. This turns command into a spellcaster slaying spell, even at high levels. One of the best uses for your first level spell slots in the late game (there’s few things that feel better than burning through a legendary resistance with a first level spell slot).
My personal favourite use of Catapult is a bag of caltrops (which can themselves be coated in something, for evil measure), or a bag of ball bearings. The 3d8 bludgeoning is nice, but the big advantage is it locks down an enemy and reduces their movement when the bag bursts and an area is covered in small spiky bits of metal, or 1000 iron balls. I should note that Command is limited to stuff that will not directly cause harm to the target (so Autodefenestrate wouldn’t work unless the window was open, and they have Feather Fall or similar). It’s definitely a solid A-tier spell though, if for no other reason than you’re locking down an enemy for a round while they obey your command. Don’t count on anything past those initial 6 seconds. That said, this is a brilliant spell for giving your party a set-up turn, and if you hit on the right command, this can be a fight winning spell. My personal best was using the command ‘Monologue’ on a major villain (we thought he was the BBEG for a one-shot, turns out he was being mind-controlled, and the Command just let him get it all out, and eventually surrender. Granted, the Vengeance Paladin then organised his fellow victims into a lynch mob, as mind-control or not, he had still served up his neighbours for decades of torture…).
Im just here to fight for Dissonant Whispers being the best one (or at least best damage dealing on). It deals decent damage of a pretty good damage type plus it opens up the target to opportunity attacks. It’s still pretty good at higher levels even without upcasting because of those opportunity attacks. Rogues can get extra sneak attacks off it. Paladins get extra smite attempts. Great weapon masters can crush stuff. Its just great.
BG3 teaches you to look at a lot of spells differently (for various reasons per spell). It taught me that Color Spray is actually really neat … when it’s free to cast. I found that ring that lets you cast it once per encounter and scoffed because I’d still be wasting an action to use it, but with characters having finger empty of rings, equipped it anyway. Color spray me surprised when I ended up actually using it. Bigger bad guy is most of the way dead, but it’ll survive the one character’s round of attacks I have left before it gets a turn. If it’s not going to die anyway, but has HP in color spray range, that’s a good defensive move, and pretty much ensures my party can’t mess up taking it down next round. Would I actually use a spell slot on it? Almost assuredly not, and I’m even less likely to have it prepared. But I might well be slinging a color spray ring at my players in future games I run.
Clerics are prepared casters, so they can take ceremony and cast it (as a ritual, meaning no spell slot needed) before a long rest and the +1 ac lasts a week. Then they can immediately change it out for a different spell and, a week later, repeat the process. This means that it never takes the place of a different spell, like with learned spellcasting, and it never takes up a spell slot to cast. S-tier all the way.
Having these rankings in the PHB alongside the spell would really help newer players to know what to pick. Sure, you can pick the Cs, but you should know it’s going to be niche. My only disagreement is a minor one. I think Absorb Elements is an S-tier spell. We take TONS of elemental damage in our campaigns. The dealing the damage back often isn’t all that useful because of immunities, but I feel like that’s more of a perk if it works. It’s the resistance I’ve come for. Depending on the campaign, Absorb Elements has sometimes been more useful than Shield (which I’m sure is going to be an S-tier spell too.)
if I were DMing, I’d homebrew Chaos Bolt to give the caster a choice: instead of the damage dice always being 1d6 + 2d8, I’l let them choose (for the whole cast) what the second 2 dice were, from 2d4, 2d6, or 2d8. Picking a lower die makes the spell more likely to jump, but reduces the overall damage.
My favorite class is wizard and I actually finally got to play my first one (after 12 years at this point) in a one shot. I made him a psychic wizard and Catapult was my go to spell because it’s full on telekinesis 😁 Also, as a DM I’ve ruled it that the enemy has to know what the Command word is. If you say this super long, complicated word that needs to be looked up to find the definition, then it’s not gonna work.
As someone who runs a polyamorous blog it is amazing that I have never used Ceremony LOL Here are my tier ratings. Absorb Elements = B Alarm = D Animal Friendship = D Armor Of Agathys = B Arms of Hadar = C Bane = A Bless = S Burning Hands = C Catapult = B Cause Fear = B Ceremony = C Chaos Bolt = C Charm Person = C Chromatic Orb = A Color Spray = C Command = A
In defense of color spray: I’ve never willingly taken it or seen it used until it came pre-loaded on my lunar sorcerer. When we were playing at very low levels (1-2), I found myself pulling this spell out nearly every combat and it absolutely saved my life at least three times so far. If you’re picking spells, there are definitely stronger spells to pick. But as a freebie, it’s been remarkably useful for me and fun for my party and DM, none of whom had ever seen it used before this.
Catapult only throwing objects is worth ignoring when your party wants to have fun. My party polymorphed a young dragon into an octopus and I let them catapult it straight up so it took fall damage when it fell. I ignored the object/creature distinction because the party was so excited about it. They still talk about that four years later.
I don’t think the target of charm person has to be able to see you to be charmed. So a moon druid could cast it, and then on the same turn as a bonus action turn it into an adorable soft fluffy bunny, or a grizzly bear, depending on what you’re going for. As the bandit introduces his new pet bear to the others, You proceed to eat them, as long as you don’t harm the one that originally let you inside. As a GM I would until the hour is up or you break concentration, have the charmed one making excuses for you. “Oh he’s a sporty one. Down boy! Drop the arm! Oh, you’re just a rambunctiousness. Sorry fellas, doesn’t know his own strength”
Catapult can be a lot of fun, especially as a sorcerer with subtle spell. Between him and the bard they had a fake exorcism racket going, with a “poltergeist” throwing stuff around the house. We also used it to start a fight between some goblins, having them blame each other over who is throwing rocks at whom. A highlight was when the bard persuaded both our party and some enemies to put down their weapons so we could talk things out, only to have the sorcerer catapult the leader’s weapon into the bushes.
Burning Hands has the ability to interact with items, Fireball does not…but, then again, Fire Bolt does the same thing and doesn’t cost any recourses. Catapult, disregarding the DM dependent shenanigans, can also interact with items…just like Burning Hands, this makes Catapult a decent spell out of combat. For a less efficient spell that doesn’t cost any resources, use the Gust cantrip.
For a few weeks, I’ve been running my first Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign as a DM. I’ve given my players a modified Dungeon Dudes standard array. (6 instead of 8 as lowest stat) Now I have 2 caster with -2 in strength saving throws and arms of Hadar seems to be the right spells to mock them a little. Especially this one caster who loves to use his reaction for silvery Barb. ❤
I am wondering if they will get through every D&D spell before the “new” version of D&D is out lol. Had a dragon born that used command to make a nasty wyvern bow to him “Grovel/Bow” I forget the exact word I used. They wyvern had already double crit and killed two NPC’s and was giving our part heck. I even looked up if Wyvern’s speak draconic (Again my character was Dragonborn) Most sources said they do understand Draconic but my DM ruled only if they had been trained. Luckily for me this wyvern had been trained by a notorious black dragon and was out doing the dragon’s bidding. ANYWAY… When the wyvern rolled a 2 to save it flew down and bowed at my feet. with a growl of disdain My entire party of 7 characters plus the NPC’s all jumped it full force and It didn’t survive till my next turn. This was also the same campaign where my cleric was level 10 and rolled exactly 10% to get divine intervention and my DM and the other DM that was playing said they had never seen anyone make the roll before lol. Saved a party member with that roll who was trapped in a magical maze and was dying of exhaustion with nobody being bale to get them out. They were completely doomed and out of party reach to save.
Easy fix for chaos bolt, change the damage to 2d6+1d8 and if the damage on the 2d6 roll matches you select that number of extra creatures within X range to also take damage. Sometimes it does nothing more than single target damage sometimes it wipes a good amount of low level creatures for a level 1 spell.
I love the suspense provided by chaos bolt but yeah it only bounces 1/8 of the time. But honestly it’s still S tier for its ability to tie up rules lawyers in arguments about whether you can use it with Twin Spell. (I think probably RAW; no, but from a GM perspective I don’t think I’d stop someone from doing it, because the bounce effect is too unreliable to exploit and the possibility of both spells bouncing is remote enough I wouldn’t worry about it, and even if it does, well that’ll be a great moment at your table that your players will enjoy so why not?)
There’s a couple of cool things you can do with alarm. I’ve used it as a panic button, where an npc ally set it off if anyone followed us into the mine for instance. Also, a bit more up to DM discretion, but I also used it on a chest that we needed to locate later but couldn’t actively follow. Whet set off we knew that it was within a mile of us and the general direction which helped our search immensely.
For me Command is an S tier spell. Apart from the “drop” and “disarm”, playing an Order Cleric your creativity is really your limit. Heavily armored opponent – Strip – 10 rounds – the boss is out Interrogating somebody – Confess If you want to set somebody in smite range up – Grovel/Sit Flying enemy? – Land Raging barbarian – Relax AND – they miss their next action. AND you can upcast it for an absolute cakewalk
When you guys get to 4th level take it from me storm sphere hugely underrated spell. just look at the amount of things it does at the same time. I think it’s one of the few spells that deals damage on 3 separate instances for the first round at least so it could really mess with the concentration of a caster. great to throw out if your trying to escape from enemies as well as in combat. helps your roge to get their sneak attack and has an inbuilt dif terrain feature to make it harder for your enemies to get out especially if your also using ray of frost which would be perfectly thematic on a storm sorcerer as well as thunder wave and lightning lure. As long as we’re not just focusing on fireball this spell is great. I have a bunch of strategies in my head of cool ways to use this spell with the party like the barbarian could just rush in and tank the bludgeoning damage with their rage and attack people inside
I heard Arms of Hadar being compared to Burning Hands, and I would argue that they’re not even close to being in the same league. Burning hands is arguably much more useful than Arms of Hadar, because not only is it AOE damage, but it is DIRECTIONAL AoE damage, so you don’t have to worry as much about friendly fire or accidentally torching the MacGuffin scroll or tapestry or whatever. And it’s not “save or suck” like Arms of Hadar is either, even if the enemies make the save they still take half damage (as with most fire spells). It’s not a small amount of damage either, 3d6 is pretty respectable, and you can hit quite a few normal-sized enemies with it. Great utility against bandits, if you torch even one of them they’ll probably collectively get scared off (which has interesting possible implications for later on in a campaign, “the bandits sent a bigger bandit party after you because you killed/disfigured someone important to them” or something like that).
24:09. Not sorcerer. Warlock and Wizard 25:42. I will raise you one better, Conquest Pally/Hexblade Warlock for a Deathknight/Judge Dredd vibe pounding your enemies into fearful submission with Wraitfull Smite, Cause Fear, Fear, Aura of Fear and etc. Just turn enemy into groveling, shaking mess at your feat while you wail on them
Armor of Agathys is the poster child for B tier: It is INCREDIBLY OVER-POWERED when you build a build around it with an Earth Genasi, Goliath, Abjurer, Clockwork Sorcerer, or Barbarian dip. It is CERTIFIED DOGS–T on a character that isn’t built around it. My 6 hit point wizard doesn’t want to get hit ever!
TBH, Absorb Elements could get rid of the extra damage clause completely. It’s super niche, only even usable in a very, very small number of edge cases, and many (perhaps most) of those will wind up being a nothing burger because of the likelihood that the enemy doing the elemental damage is itself immune or resistant to it.
I’ve used Ceremony as a paladin to change a nightmare into a pegasus. This is one of the most underrated spells for it’s non polyamorous relationship game breaking status. The other options that you can do can have huge impacts on the narrative story for a campaign Especially if you’re dealing with possessions or demonic influence type things. In my opinion, they should just remove the AC bonus. That you get for officiating a wedding and the spell would be fantastic.
I would argue for an S tier ranking for Absorb Elements. It is one of those spells that fits perfectly into the build of ANY class that can take it, especially at higher level when you start to deal with very powerful spells that would otherwise interrupt your concentration or simply kill you outright. While less universally applicable as counterspell, the reaction is just so good as that is not normally an action you would ever use as a wizard. It’s a spell that allows you to maximize your action economy for an extremely low cost which you cannot say about many spells.
Armor of Agathysa says that it deals 5 damage (+5 for each level of upcast) while you have the temporary hit points given by the spell. So if all the temporary hit points don’t go away in a single attack, does it deal that full 5 (or more) damage each time you are attacked? To me it sounds like it does which sounds really great for upcasting, because while the temporary hit points scale linearly, the damage the spell does has a potential to scale somewhat exponentially.
I’m currently playing a wild magic sorcerer tiefling with chaos bolt as my big hitter. (we just hit level 3 so this is still very low levels) and last game I rolled a nat 20 on my chaos bolt after the bandit leader had just rolled a nat 20 on me and nearly killed me. It was so much fun and I killed them with psychic damage and it was wonderfully thematic and I loved it. I can see how it is far from the strongest spell, but for my character I love it so much.
I think that damaging spells aren’t designed well, I don’t understand why cantrips can scale with level (which makes perfect sense) but leveled damaging spells becomes just useless really quick… I think all damaging spells should scale like cantrips at certain levels + you have the opportunity to upcast them, to keep them as relevant as other utility spells. (This way even halfcasters and 1/3 casters like the Eldritch Knight could benefit from damaging low level spells). The moment they scales is the same as cantrips so for example, if I have burning hands, that spells deals 3d6, gains 1d6 at the 5th character level, 11th and 17th, to a max of 6d6 at 17th level (+ the upcast option) to keep it relevant.
Alarm has an insane number of creative uses. I am playing an artificer and its been my signature spell for nearly all 20 levels. For example, low level rogue scouting ahead and needs to communicate over a long distance and away from line of sight? Alarm the mouth of a small box, and have them set off the Alarm in a code fashion (Morse code, or just simple stuff like one ping = rescue me, two pings = wait, three pings = follow) Need to test the identity of a creature at low levels? Alarm and make the real creature an exception to catch imposters. Need to protect your items from theft? Alarm the mouth of your backpack. It’s an easy A-tier spell for me.
Man I couldn’t disagree more on Chromatic Orb vs Chaos Bolt. You guys kept saying “you can choose your damage type with the orb” you choose with the Bolt too, but you can get 2 damage types so it the enemy turns out to have resistance or immunity they rarely can resist both elements. Plus the chance to ricochet is only 12.5% but every other spell is a 0% chance. I’d also point out, if we’re talking 1st ‘spell level’ spells (I call ’em Tier 1) & not 1st ‘character level’ spells, a lot of these are also available for subclasses like Arcane Trickster who can use Catapult to be a REALLY stealthy assassin!
I think y’all are overestimating Burning Hands especially when compared to Arms of Hadar. Arms of Hadar has the potential to hit more targets, while a 15ft cone is nearly useless, only able to hit a max of 4 targets in an absolutely perfect scenario (in which, much like AoH, you’re practically in melee range.) Burning Hands is an easily resistable damage type and a commonly resisted save even among minion characters. And Burning hands has no secondary debuff, unlike AoH which saps reactions, which makes it more versatile. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Arms of Hadar is good, I just think it’s probably better than Burning Hands. They’re both C tier in my mind.
Command: Halt absolutely ruins the enemy’s action economy. One person from your side shuts down multiple opponents. And it can be repeated over and over. It’s a side-killer. If Command is issued by a cleric on your side, they still have Healing Word to keep chipping away at the damage your allies are taking. Enemies are starved while allies are fed. I never go without it.
On some level (no pun intended), this is like ranking hammers vs wrenches vs saws. There isn’t a proper way to rank a tool vs another, different type of tool. However, every caster is a different type of craftsperson, and will need different tools. Some tools are more useful in more situations. A pair of pliers has 1000 uses. A circular power saw is really only good for 1 main thing. Everyone can use pliers. Not everyone needs a power saw. Are pliers better? Kinda. But if you need to cut boards, NOTHING is better than a power saw. And neither one is great as a hammer. After saying all that, this is a great exercise. All adventures need a few tools in common.
I never expected Charm person to derail my campaign, until last week. 😂 I’ve had a group of three players for this campaign, none playing a full caster, then last week we added a new player who completely shifted the dynamic. 😂 they came in with a sorcerer mid campaign and I had an assassin of the big bad ambush the party, the party captured him and started questioning, I had it in my mind that he was a devout believer in the BBEG, and he wouldn’t talk, only give vague hints. Well this new player happened to bring charm person. One failed saving throw later and now the players are on their way to the BBEG’s stronghold in the region. 😂
Bane is really nice -> 1 save and it stays -> -1d4 to attacks means +1d4 AC (~2,5) VS Shield of Faith 2 AC on 1 Ally -> -1d4 to saves would bring your 16 Spellcaster Attribut to 18-24 with this bonus! (~2,5) -> 20 Like the Bless Spell a nice increase to hit but with a save spell. I would see it like a Melee vs Caster Buff with many overlaps. Grappel ST Save (Melee BANE) an Spell Attack ( Caster Bless)
I think Armor of Agathys is pretty much always a great spell for a melee bladelock, because you can cast it before combat, so you’re doing extra damage off the action economy which is always great. If you take metamagic adept later you can make it last 2 hours, so you can rest and get your slot back, and you stab a mook twice, mook hits you and takes 25 cold damage and 6d10 fire damage from hellish rebuke, he does 24 damage, and hits you again, and you’ve just dumped basically a whole ass disintegrate on this guy off of your own turn
I’m German but we still use the English ruleset of D&D. So we roleplay in German but we still use the English buzzwords for spells and abilities from the book. But this makes using the Command spell kinda awkward. Yes, in German we can connect nouns in long single words. But it’s not quite the same for verbs. I can’t think of a good translation for the word “Approach!”. So we would say “Komm her!” in German which is more like “Come here!” in english. The other commands might work better: “Drop!” – “Fallenlassen!” “Flee!” – “Flieh!” “Grovel!” – “Hinlegen!” “Halt!” – “Stopp!”
Quick stats nerd note: the chaos bolt ricochet occurs with probability 1/8. Two ways to see this: 1) every combination of 2d8 has a 1/64 chance (1/8 squared) of realizing and 8 of those combinations have the same dice. This probability is 8 times 1/64 = 1/8. 2) think of conditional probabilities. You’ve rolled the first die, it shows up with a number n. The probability that the second number is also n is then just 1/8. So not likely but not impossible. But multiple ricochets gets quite unlikely quickly: chance of n ricochets is 1/8 to the power n. So 1 ricochet: 1/8 (12.5%) 2 ricochets: 1/64 (1.5%) 3 ricochets: 1/256 (0.3%) To be fair, rolling a nat 1 on a roll with advantage is 1/400 and I feel like I see that every other game!
You could arguably use Catapult to fling an ally if you target an item that has like a rope attached to it, and your ally is holding the rope, since the target would technically be an object that isn’t being worn or carried. The only issue is that even with a 9th-level slot, you can only fling a total of 45lbs, so your ally would have to be extremely light. So, maybe a Gnome that’s been Reduced to Tiny size, or a Familiar like a rat or cat that you can launch over a barrier and then use to cast other spells through. You could also use it to deal extra damage by hurling an explosive at someone.
Haven’t seen Charm Person used too often personally but there was one bard PC at my table who used it quite a few times to great effect, usually to de escalate situations (she’d charm foes, point blank tell them that she’d done so and then explain in detail how screwed they’d be if they actually fought us and ask why they were attacking, what’s their deal etc all in a completely apathetic tone XD) or to infiltrate things like you guys said. She also kinda used it for kidnapping once during one of the rare times I was in the DM seat (was running a ‘you guys have to do something big and flashy at X location as a distraction’ for my usual PC to do some ‘offscreen plot stuff’ and to allow the regular DMs to relax a bit) and welp, she got attached to the acolyte she’d charmed while glamor barding the entire store into a riot and decided his cultist higher ups didn’t deserve him so cue another cast of Charm Person then her dragging the guy into joining the party’s escape from very angry cultist/police types. Cue me suffering the classic ‘I have no idea how to RP this guy, he’s just a one off NPC’ issue for the first time (he kind of got forgotten about by all of us because of a large gap inbetween sessions so er, I just sorta excused his disappearance later as ‘my psycho PC traumatized him so he ran away as soon as possible’ and her player said ‘sounds about right’ so… Yeah, fun times)~ XDD Command on the other hand my whole table loved, if only to try out custom orders and see wtf the DMs would have the targeted foes do. I think my fav personal use of it was ‘BETRAY’ on an ogre; ended up having the guy just stand still for a turn out of sheer ‘error’ reaction rather than the ‘attack your ally’ reaction I’d hoped for but was a great moment for getting across that my adorable little tree person cleric/druid was quite a bit more clever and ruthless than it seemed (it was spacy, friendly and couldn’t really talk outside of languages no one else knew and a few key words in Common it had practiced so up until that point it had come off as a super cutesy ‘I am Groot’ style character but the realization it had gone out of its way to practice a word like betray and then intentionally used it in combat like this kinda shocked everyone XD) and still bought my fellow players some relief from getting their teeth kicked in so that was fun. Alas the follow up commands of ‘REPENT’ and ‘FALL’ didn’t have quite as much RP impact but they still helped so yeah, Command spell great, both for mechanical use and in sheer vibes <3 Ahh~ I am way too fond of low level spells in general honestly so I'm super hype for the rest of this series <3 Thanks again for always making such fun articles and discussing your thoughts <3