Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through a wall of force in either direction, but dimension doors, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier. The Wall of Force spell specifically calls out teleportation and purely visual effects as exceptions. The wall has AC 10, Hardness 30, and 60 Hit Points, and it is immune to critical hits and precision damage.
The wall blocks physical effects from passing through it, and because it’s made of force, it blocks incorporeal and ethereal creatures as well. Teleportation effects can be used to bypass the wall. The Wall of Force rules read as follows: “You must create the wall in an unbroken open space so its edges don’t pass through any creatures or objects, or the spell is lost”. The wall cannot move and is not easily destroyed.
A wall of force can be damaged by spells as normal, except for disintegrate, which automatically destroys it. It can be damaged by weapons and supernatural abilities, but not by breath weapons and spells. The only spells that can affect both sides are specifically spells.
According to the rules on lines of effect, most spells would not work through a Wall of Force, as there cannot be any barriers between you and your target. The Wall of Force will not block the casting of spells at a point of origin on the other side of it.
In Pathfinder and Starfinder, the Wall of Force spell description states that “Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through a wall of force in either direction”. However, it can be damaged by spells as normal, except for disintegrate, which automatically destroys it.
A wall of force spell creates an invisible wall of force, which cannot move, is immune to damage of all kinds, and is unaffected by most spells.
📹 Treantmonk’s Guide to Wizards: 5th level spells
My discussion of Level 5 spells. Color Guide: Red*: Not recommended due to being ineffective Orange**: Not recommended due …
Can a magic missile go through the wall of force?
In accordance with RAW, Magic Missile cannot be cast through a wall due to the absence of a clear path to the target and the lack of a clause allowing it to traverse the wall in a manner that would allow it to reach the target.
Does Forcecage block spells?
A box-shaped prison can be up to 10 feet long, creating a solid barrier that prevents matter from passing through and blocks spells. When cast, creatures inside the cage are trapped, while those outside are pushed away. Creatures cannot leave the cage by nonmagical means, and must make a Charisma saving throw to exit the cage. If successful, they can use magic to leave, but failure results in the creature losing the spell or effect. The cage also extends into the Ethereal Plane, blocking ethereal travel.
What does Wall of force stop?
The wall is invulnerable to harm and cannot be dispelled by the dispel magic spell. Nevertheless, a disintegrate spell will result in the instantaneous destruction of the wall. Additionally, the wall extends into the Ethereal Plane, effectively obstructing ethereal travel. A pinch of powder made from a clear gemstone has been demonstrated to be an effective countermeasure.
Can you cast spells through wall of force Pathfinder?
A wall of force is a barrier that blocks breath weapons and spells in either direction, but can bypass them through effects like dimension doors and teleport. It blocks ethereal and material creatures, but ethereal creatures can circumvent it through material floors and ceilings. Gaze attacks can operate through a wall of force. The wall must be continuous and unbroken, and a permanency spell can make it permanent.
Can you dispel magic in a forcecage?
A creature can use magic to exit a cage, but failure results in the creature being unable to exit. The cage also extends into the Ethereal Plane, blocking ethereal travel. The spell cannot be dispelled by dispel magic. A cube-shaped prison, composed of magical force, appears around an area within range. The prison can be a cage or a solid box, with cages up to 20 feet on a side and boxes up to 10 feet on a side, creating a solid barrier and blocking spells.
Does wall of force block spells?
A wall of force spell creates an invisible barrier that is immune to damage and can be destroyed by disintegrate, rod of cancellation, sphere of annihilation, or mage’s disjunction spell. Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through the wall, but dimension door and teleport effects can bypass it. The wall blocks ethereal and material creatures, but ethereal creatures can navigate through it. Gaze attacks can operate through the wall.
The caster can form the wall into a flat, vertical plane, with an area of up to one 10-foot square per level. If the wall’s surface is broken, the spell fails. The wall can be made permanent with a permanency spell.
Can fireball be cast through the wall of force?
As indicated in the description of the Wall of Force, no spell can physically traverse this barrier, thereby preventing any potential effect on the target. Nevertheless, spells that are instantaneous in their effect, and which are transmitted from the user to the target, are prevented from passing through. This is attributable to the fact that JavaScript is either disabled or blocked by extensions, and that the browser does not support cookies.
Does wall of force block incorporeal movement?
The wall, constructed from a force-based material, is capable of impeding both physical and incorporeal effects, including teleportation and visual phenomena. However, the wall is invisible, thereby allowing incorporeal and ethereal creatures to pass through. It should be noted that the wall may be disabled or blocked by extensions, and that the browser in question does not support cookies.
Can you target a spell through wall of force?
The author explains that a Wall of Force, which blocks magic, does not allow any spell effect that makes a direct line between the caster and the target to pass through it. This has caused controversy in a game where the wall is a hemisphere around an enemy occupying the entire space under/behind the wall. The author’s logic for these examples is that if the target can see the enemy, they cannot target them with a spell that requires them to see the target, and sending an AOE into the sphere would not center the effect on the target’s side of the wall.
Does forcecage block sound?
Sound can pass through a wall of force or solid force cage, but it is muffled as if you are talking to someone behind a thick pane of glass. To communicate effectively, you need to be close to the cage and speak loudly. There is no specific distance or decibel formula for communication, but whispering to avoid the enemy and the person inside the force cage will work.
Silence is a spell that creates or prevents sound, and certain abilities rely on sound. When a spell creates silence or prevents sound, it is typically called out in its effect. Unless the spell specifically states that sound cannot pass through, it can.
Thunder damage is protected by spells that state that it prevents matter from passing through it and blocks any spells, or that it is immune to all damage.
Can spells go through Forcecage?
A cage-shaped prison can be up to 20 feet long and made from 1/2-inch diameter bars spaced 1/2 inch apart. A box-shaped prison can be up to 10 feet long, creating a solid barrier that prevents matter from passing through and blocks spells. An immobile, invisible cube-shaped prison composed of magical force springs into existence around an area within range. The prison can be a cage or a solid box, depending on the chosen location. These prisons are immobile, invisible, and composed of magical force, creating a barrier that prevents matter from passing through and blocks spells.
📹 Is Tanglefoot ANY GOOD in Pathfinder 2e?
Welcome to the Pathfinder Spellbook! In this series I’ll be explaining how every spell in the game works and my personal opinion …
On Animate Objects : it says “Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.”. Meaning you don’t even have to use your bonus action every round, only when their current target dies. Otherwise they’ll just keep attacking ; you only have to give an order like “kill this enemy”, rather than “attack this enemy” which will technically be completed after a single attack.
Planar Binding won’t cost you your concentration for its duration. Most conjure spells don’t dismiss the conjured creature if you break concentration. You just lose control of them but they stay for the full duration. But Planar Binding will both reassert control for you, AND extend the duration. So you have a concentration free ally for the full duration.
One thing I’ve never seen anybody mention about Wall of Force is that you can use it to create a horizontal plane, floating 5ft in the air above you. Now all large melee monsters need to squeeze to reach your party and have disadvantage. Melee monsters larger than that cannot do anything to you. I would argue that if you stand in the middle of that plane, large+ ranged attackers can’t hit you without ducking, but that’s DM dependent. It should certainly protect you from a dragon breath weaponing from above.
Planar Bind DOES remove the need for concentration. Concentration is part of a spells duration, and Planar Binding replaces the “Concentration, up to 1 hour” of the Conjure Elemental spell with “24 hours” of the Planar Binding spell. HOWEVER since casting spells with a casting time greater than one action requires your concentration, the same person cannot concentrate on Planar Binding during casting AND the summon. However, in addition to your mention of Magic Circle, this process can be made easier by simply setting up a Planar Binding with a Glyph of Warding, and possibly using Forcecage for extra protection.
There are definitely some spells that seem more interesting for villains than for players, because they can guarantee the situational conditions happens. As a player, I can’t think of many situations for Far Step when Dimension Door, Fly or Misty Step wouldn’t have done the job. But as a DM, I can come up with crazy fights across the tops of buildings or on raised platforms where Far Step on a villain could be challenging for the players as they have to jump/climb/fly to keep up.
Dominate Person is definitely a spell that’s more useful to an NPC villain than to a player, especially if you’re targeting that 8 Wisdom Barbarian. Although, I’ve heard there are some players that get upset when they lose control of their characters. I’m fine with those sorts of spells being used against my character because it’s just part of D&D.
You made an error with Skill Empowerment, “You must choose a skill in which the target is proficient…” That said I think that it is too high of a spell slot but I do think that even with that limitation it’s still ‘very good’ (I’d argue for a more commonly useful orange or ‘low’ purple). I believe that Skill Empowerment is better than red for four (and a half) main reasons: 1: Getting expertise on a skill is very difficult/impossible for most classes to do. It really should work on non-proficient skills (at least at half strength), but people still pick skills they want to do well anyway. Only a few ways come to mine, Rogue, Bard, and Human’s have that feat (right? I don’t like playing humans). Otherwise, if you’re not human/using feats, not a Rogue or a Bard and not a Sorcerer/Wizard (for this spell) it’s ‘impossible’ (I’m sure I missed a few, Knowledge Cleric comes to mind) to get. 2: Expertise, when critical fails are not a thing (which is RAW that skill checks do not automatically fail at 1), is generally better than advantage, especially because I often see players choose proficiency in things they want to be good at which combos with their high stats. Of course the math can adjust from situation to situation, but because Expertise allows higher potential rolls and can avoid all together a failed roll (such that Expertise’s bonus is high enough that a 1 would be successful), I would choose Expertise over advantage in almost all situations-and like you said, you (and myself) prefer the consistency over randomness.
I think you’re under rating dawn. Dawn is one of the few spells that specifically calls out that it is sunlight. This makes it a very potent vampire killer spell. If they get reduced to 0 hp while inside the area, they’re toast. If you move it onto them while they’re in a gaseous form, they’re toast. If they start their turn in the area, they take 20 radiant damage and don’t get to regenerate. Combine this with a grappler or some other movement control and you’ve got a very dead vampire very quickly. Now, I’m not saying it is a green or even purple spell, but I definitely don’t think it should be a red spell.
I know this kind of comment is cheesy but: Yay! Transmute Rock finally gets the place it deserves :=) I have been advocating a green rating for this spell for ages. The quarter movement and wide area make this a no save control vs non flying opponents. It is somewhat circumstantial but that is more then made up for by not requiring concentration.
Regarding Dawn, I have a few thoughts, first on paper the damage is lower than say animate objects, but radiant damage of dawn is rarely resisted vs physical dmg of AO is very often resisted so the net damage is much closer. Dawns effect cant be destroyed, vs AO objects can easily be destroyed by an AOE or breath weapon negating the spell. A continuous AOE damage can generate an impressive DPR especially given the large area impacted (30ft rad is huge) unlike a single target blast like AO. Bonus action movement of 60ft is excellent although friendly fire is a negative. Half dmg on a save is also favorable vs a blast with no effect if saved. This spell seems perfect combined with force cage or other immobilizing spell. Moonbeam, is much smaller AOE with half dmg, not sure I agree that it is “better” just a lower level version.. Thanks for all of your work Treantmonk!
First of all, I agree 100% with all you rankings for level 5 spells 🙂 I have two rather long comments; one serious, one just for laughs: I am really surprised that you have not considered(?) the use of Scrying on your Familiar (which you love so much). Sure, Rary’s Telepathic Bond works well with Familiars but Scrying on it means you can see everything it sees. Unless there is a Druid in the party, this spell is something I recommend all Wizards should learn. It is useful in literally every campaign. There will always be places you want to scout. Always. You can spy on enemies, scout dungeons, fly through castles and into their prisons, have your familiar follow an enemy or attach itself to their wagon – the list is only limited by our imagination. And most times, you can afford waiting the next day to memorise it. That’s the whole point of being a caster who can memorise different spells after all. With regards to Dawn, I don’t disagree at all with you, it is terrible. BUT… from all the spells up to level 5, it is the only one that I have found capable enough to cheese whole fights. I’m not saying this is a good thing, and I’m not saying you can do it consistently, but it is the only spell that can be placed inside most rooms while you either hold the door closed or another party member casts a Wall spell. Its huge area and half damage on a save means you could kill everything in rooms up to 120 feet across. You can easily ready actions or time the refresh of door closing/wall/dawn.
Note on the spell Creation – An illusionist can cast this at night, creating a wooden nickle (or something), and then use malleable illusion to change it to another object over and over during the day – the DM has to determine if changing it to an inorganic object exceeds the duration of the spell (Probably yes depending on the time the change occurred) but imagine your owl flying with a wooden nickle over an enemy and then having you change it into a 5′ spiked ball of oak (or something equally dense and heavy). This would drop about 1000 pounds on an enemy! Then after the fight, turn it back into a wooden nickle and put it in your pocket!
Elementals are not that smart are they ? It wouldn’t make sense for them to find every far fetched ways to misinterpret your commands Don’t cast cloudkill. Cast sunbeam. Or let the cleric cast moonbeam Skill empowerment is much more powerful than ehance ability. You can reliably hit high skill dc at high level
As you get towards 7th level spells, have you thought any more about Mirage Arcane? I commented on your Moon Druid article that I think it’s super powerful with some smart imagination, and you responded that you didn’t think it could make walls because that’d be ‘concealing’ creatures, and you didn’t think the ‘physical interaction’ ability of the illusion would affect objects since they don’t have a sense of touch. I responded but you didn’t seem to return to it, so in case it got lost in the ocean of comments or for the benefit of others here, the gist of it is: the walls argument would prevent you from creating anything that might block line of sight to anything else if that’s your definition of ‘conceal’, and the illusion-doesn’t-affect-objects argument would mean illusory hills or crevasses would have nonsensical effects on a pulled cart or dropped objects. While dynamic environmental effects like lava or rockslides aren’t addressed and DMs might disallow them, I do think you can make mile-high adamantine walls and the like, just based on the logic contained in the spell (hills are implied in terrain, crevasses are explicitly mentioned, and the intention is that these things supply real collision forces—or lack-of-collision-forces, in the case of the crevasse—to both creatures and pulled carts etc). The truesight wording is unfortunately vague about whether they can choose to NOT interact with the illusion… if they can ignore it, there are some similarly nonsensical situations though (what happens if they drop/throw an item while they’re inside an illusory hill?
A little DPR comparison for Conjure Elemental Air Elemental DPR vs AC 16 / vs AC 20 19.1 (normal), 26.325 (Advantage) / 13.5 (normal), 21.285 (Advantage) VS Invisible Stalker DPR vs AC 16 / vs AC 20 11.7 (normal), 17.315 (Advantage) / 7.7 (normal), 12.915 (Advantage) From this you can see that the Invisible Stalker does pretty comparable damage to the Air Elemental due to the permanent Advantage from being Invisible that it has against the majority of foes. Things will swing in the favor of the Air Elemental against things with low AC, especially once low enough that a nat 1 is necessary in order to miss them, and in favor of the Invisible Stalker against things with super high AC especially those that can only be hit on a nat 20 anyway. The Invisible Stalker also has arguably better survivability due to it having a bit more hp and, while it has 14 AC instead of 15 AC, the majority of attackers will have Disadvantage, giving the Invisible Stalker an effective AC more along the lines of 18 or 19, IIRC.
I feel like planar binding is one of those spells that really comes into its own once you have access to wish. One action to cast, and you get whatever it is you are trapping bound to you for 180 days, concentration free. Obviously it’s a niche use, especially when you need to consider legendary resistances, and the fact that most high level creatures that you’d want to bind have pretty good Charisma saves. But ending the big encounter with a beefed up pit fiend with a single spell, and keeping it around for half a year afterwards is pretty nice.
Creation: the 1 minute cast makes for a fun encounter all by itself. And a 5 ft cube is huge for some of the materials. “Okay here’s the plan: Everyone protect the Wizard during this 1 minute cast. We’re gonna hop on board that pirate ship, drop a 60,000 lb block of steel 30 ft onto the deck, then we’ll scavenge whatever sinks with water breathing. It’s not that situations don’t present themselves. Just watch a few warehouse and forklift accident articles. Drop a 5 ft cube of anything. It’s interesting, and I daresay useful without really having to work too hard.
Also one thing before I forget, animated objects will continue to follow an order until it is complete, meaning if you were to order them to kill a target, they will continue to attack each round without needing your bonus action for additional commands. This in turn frees up your bonus action, so you are getting all that damage each round while still having an action and bonus action, provided you don’t need to issue a new command. Not such a huge deal on a wizard, but really massive on a bard, or a sorcerer with quickened spell, since you have other things to do with that bonus action.
I think it’s probably worth mentioning devil talismans for the purpose of Infernal Calling. How exactly you obtain one is up to your DM, but they make the spell very powerful if you can do so. Use it to control a chain devil, carrying additional chains about for it so that it gets 6 attacks per round, or perhaps use it on a black abashai for an assassin that can reliably get constant advantage in combat.
I can’t help but think that the Planar Binding concentration consequence for conjuration spells is a mistake, due to the impossibility of maintaining concentration through sleep and the like. Maybe we can all poke at JC to get a clarification as to intent? I do think that your reading is correct in the most literal RAW sense though.
Planar Binding. As DM I play it this way as it seems the most logical 1. Draw the magical circle with the gem component. 2. Summon the creature or get it into the circle somehow. 3. Planar Binding is cast, the creature stays in circle if it fails save. A highly intelligent creature that makes its save might stay in circle anyway seeking to trick and later slay or enslave the caster. Be careful who you summon! 4. The creature is bound to you as in spell if it fails it’s save. No concentration required. 5. A hostile creature will always twist your words to its advantage and will always try to break the spell. Planar Binding is a spell effect and can be dispelled, but not by the creature who is bound. 6. Creatures who are bound generally have friends also, it’s rare that a bound creatures allies wouldn’t investigate. They have enemies also, who might help you keep the creature bound. 7. The creatures that you would want to bind almost always work for someone higher up. You bind a Deva for any length of time to do some task that isn’t in it interests you can bet its Planetar commander will come looking for it followed by its Solar general and their personal escort of 4 Planetars if that isn’t enough. 8. Binding evil creatures such as Demons and Devils. This is different as the Overlord knows they can’t die on material plane anyway and also knows that any death or destruction they cause is probably a good thing. These overlords treat most servitors as expendable, so temporary unavailability isn’t a burden to them.
Point of order: you can’t use teleportation circle to teleport to any other circle you’ve seen before – you also need the sigil sequence. As you cast the spell, you draw a 10-foot-diameter circle on the ground inscribed with sigils that link your location to a permanent teleportation circle of your choice whose sigil sequence you know and that is on the same plane of existence as you. Which may or may not even be visible at the location of the circle – if you have enough mojo to make a permanent circle, you can also mask some writing on the floor – which you should, because Arcane Eyes, Scrying and familiars are not uncommon, and it’s not as if you can change your address. You can expect most sigil sequences to be secret, because if your enemies ever learn them, they can pour an army into your stronghold. On the other hand? You don’t actually need the location, just the sequence, which means that a battered Netherese tablet with the right scribbles on it can kick off an adventure very far from home. Roll DC 15 Nature to figure out which constellations these are.
I think you may have undervalued Planar Binding, regarding concentration – you really don’t need to do it. You’re probably right about the fact you would normally need to concentrate, but there are ways to subvert that. The obvious one that people go for is Conjure Elementals, but a more subtle one is another spell I feel you undervalued – Glyph of Warding. Glyph of Warding allows you to subvert concentration, because if the spell you cast into Glyph of Warding is concentration, it simply lasts for its duration when triggered. You cast Summon Greater Demon, or Infernal Calling, or whatever you want into an upcast Glyph of Warding, with the trigger being a password of your choice. When you’re ready to bind the creature, you cast your reversed Magic Circle around where the creature will come out. Once it’s complete, speak the password, creature appears neatly in your Magic Circle, and you begin binding the creature. Because the devil, demon or other creature came from your Glyph of Warding, it doesn’t require concentration, the spell just lasts for its duration. Once bound, its duration is now replaced by the duration of Planar Binding, and it still requires no concentration. You still need to worry about it being hostile, and all that entails, but those are the risks of binding creatures into your service… ** On Glyph of Warding: This should probably go in the 3rd level spells article, but I really don’t want to make another comment, particularly in a 2 week old article. As I was saying earlier, I feel you also undervalued this spell.
When you went over negative energy flood, you skipped over the part of the spell that actually makes it decent. That’s giving huge temp hp to undead. I’ve used that to buff ghouls hp to where they’re effective combatants at high levels. A necromancy schooled wizard who uses this generally have ghouls with double the hp of other ghouls and even better if aid is cast on them by the party cleric. However once you get control undead that’s when it really shines. You can health buffer your high tier undead preventing their death or taking control of that zombie you just made. I won’t lie though it is mostly useless when you first access it because zombies and skeletons aren’t worth the health buff with the cost of the spell slot.
Something to remember with Planar Binding is that it CAN be used on defeated enemies if you remember to have your Big Stupid Fighters choose to knock out enemies when they drop them to 0 hp, rather than kill them outright. If you have them knock the creature out again before you cast the spell, the creature should generally either not wake up until about when the spell is completed or one or two rounds beforehand if I recall the rules about creatures with 0 hp that have stabilized correctly. Admittedly, using Planar Binding on such a creature will guarantee that it’s hostile and will try to twist your commands, but that’s just even more incentive to make sure you issue the right commands. Another point is that some creatures can probably be bargained with to mollify them for their service, especially if what you want them to do is in line with what kinds of things they would like to do anyway. For instance, thwarting evil for a Couatl or violent slaughter for most demons.
Can’t we circumvent the Concentration requirement of Planar Binding by casting the Summoning spell into upcasted Glyph of Warding? Yes, we might have to do things like upcast a level 6 Major Image to prevent the creature from targeting us while we bind them, but I would think that the extra effort would be worth it, especially if we’re getting a 180 day duration.
i think creation is a 5th level spell since you can generate money from nothing with it. you create either precious metals or gems and sell them. if you want to do that repeatedly without causing problems for yourself use spells like alter self to change your appearance. edit: combine that with fabricate and minting proficiency and you could “print” your own money for an hour.
The duration of spells usually is where the concentration is included. When Planar Binding replaces your duration on a summon spell, that includes the part where you have to concentrate on it. Edit: equally important to note is that casting a spell with a casting time longer than 1 action requires your concentration during the casting time (this includes rituals). So your summoned creature will almost always disappear when you begin the Planar Binding. You need two or three casters to pull off a binding. One to summon, one to bind, and possibly a 3rd to forge the magic circle at the beginning of the ritual Edit 2: conjured elementals don’t disappear, but I think the fiends, fey, and celestials summoned by other spells do.
As I said in previous article, if you are going to Conjure Elemental don’t wait for perfect moment, get it out early, certainly after first short rest. It will save enough party resources to be worth it. I have never been in an adventure where you went an hour without a combat or something else the elemental can help with.
I think your read of planar binding is actually, objectively wrong. A few reasons for this: -“that spell’s duration is extended to match the duration of this spell.” The important part here is “match the duration,” because planar binding has a duration of 24 hours (or more, if you upcast, which is a fantastic thing to do!) with NO concentration. -What would be the point of being able to upcast to extend the duration of the spell if you immediately drop it the first time you long rest? Obviously not the intention. -Assume, for the sake of argument, concentration is required and you drop it. For some summons that doesn’t even matter. Conjure Elemental and Conjure Fey both last an extra hour if you drop concentration, they don’t leave. Planar binding extends that hour to whatever the duration of planar binding is. So all that even happens if you assume planar binding requires concentration (again, a reading I think is clearly wrong) is your summoned minion is hostile to you and not friendly.
Dominate Person can be good under the right circumstances. If the dungeon you’re currently delving has at least one humanoid who is familiar with it, such as a slave, you can dominate that person and force them to tell you everything you need to know about the dungeon. Now, admittedly, this is a significant resource cost for something that should be as simple as casing Charm Person and giving the target a little money. However, I’ve played with far too many DMs who flat out refuse to let players gather information from NPCs. They’re more afraid of their boss than they are of you, or they tell you lies about what’s coming. With this spell, there’s no wiggle room. If they know it, they tell you. And you can get longer castings of it at higher levels, forcing the target to act as a scout for you, which can be quite effective if they’re allowed in an area. That can be good if you, for instance, dominate someone’s servant and have the servant set that target up. For those reasons, I’d say the spell is circumstantial.
Planar Binding DOES NOT require concentration. In fact, you lose concentration while you are casting planar binding. Conjure an elemental into an inverted magic circle created by a glyph of warding and immediately start casting planar binding. Your planar binding will finish as the magic circle is running out. Have a silvery barbs prepared just in case the elemental makes their charisma save.
Here are the rankings in text format for quick reference. Red (*) – Not Recommended Orange (**) – Too Circumstantial to warrant preparation Purple (***) – Ok Spells Green (****) – Good Spells Blue (*****) – Must Have Spells Ab – Abjuration Conj – Conjuration Enc – Enchantment Evo – Evocation Ill – Illusion Necr – Necromancy Tran – Transmutation Conc – Concentration Animate Objects (Tran, Conc) (*****) (43:49) Bigby’s Hand (Evo, Conc) (****) (29:51) Cloudkill (Conj, Conc) (*) (16:17) Cone of Cold (Evo) (***) Much better for an Evoker (32:48) Conjure Element (Conj, Conc) (***) or (****) for Conjurer (06:29) Contact Other Plane (Div, Ritual) (**) (19:04) Control Winds (Tran, Conc) (*) (50:44) Creation (Ill) (*) (39:19) Danse Macabre (Necr, Conc) (***) or (*****) for Necromancers (40:34) Dawn (Evo, Conc) (*) (34:06) Dominate Person (Enc, Conc) (*) or (***) for a 10th Level Enchanter (26:48) Dream (Ill) (*) (38:29) Enervation (Necr, Conc) (*) Nearly as bad as Immolation in Treantmonk’s opinion (42:49) Far Step (Conj, Conc) (*) (15:14) Geas (Enc) (**) (25:43) Hold Monster (Enc, Conc) (***) or (****) for a 10th Level Enchanter (23:37) Immolation (Evo, Conc) (*) Worst 5th Level Spell in Treantmonk’s opinion (35:45) Infernal Calling (Conj) (**) (13:58) Legend Lore (Div) (*) (21:01) Mislead (Ill, Conc) (***) (36:27) Modify Memory (Enc, Conc) (***) (22:48) Negative Energy Flood (Necr) (*) (42:18) Passwall (Tran) (**) (49:44) Planar Binding (Abj) (***) or (****) for Conjurer (01:20) Rary’s Telepathic Bond (Div, Ritual) (****) (17:36) Scrying (Div, Conc) (**) (20:05) Seeming (Ill) (**) Better for an Illusionist (Still **) (37:36) Skill Empowerment (Tran, Conc) (*) (51:38) Steel Wind Strike (Conj) (***) Don’t take if your Wizard can’t handle being in melee (11:28) Synaptic Static (Enc) (****) (21:51) Telekinisis (Tran, Conc) (****) Redundancy with Bigby’s Hand (46:48) Teleportation Circle (Conj, Conc) (**) (12:52) Transmute Rock (Tran) (****) (48:21) Wall of Force (Evo, Conc) (*****) (27:56) Wall of Light (Evo, Conc) (*) (34:58) Wall of Stone (Evo, Conc) (****) (31:10)
I disagree with you a suprising amount here. Dream let’s you both speak with and show (via modifying terrain in the dream and such) a creature whatever you will for an extended period, basically being a much better message that’s more limited in when it works. Conveying information that well is typically very hard, and notably, the target doesn’t even know who sent the dream. Heck, if you don’t use the nightmare feature, the target can’t even save, meaning you can force your way into the BBEG’s dreams and negotiate, convince, or threaten them and otherwise use your social skills to gain some advantage. It’s great for political games in much the same way Geas is, and I see both as blue in that kind of game. Also, if you have some kind of body part or waste from your enemy, they make the save at disadvantage, and you can cast the spell repeatedly if need be. You can make them not regain legendary resistances, for example, which is QUITE powerful (monster manual states that x/day effects recharge on a long rest). It can significantly reduce the danger foes present to you. As for Planar Binding, I think it’s been well-discussed that it makes absolutely no sense if concentration is required, since it’s impossible to sleep and maintain concentration yet the duration can be up to a year. I’ve never seen a GM rule that way bc it isn’t RAI clearly and RAW isn’t clear. Also, monsters like demons have even better ways to control them and you can use planar Binding to force them to give to you or construct you those, and keep them on your plane without using Gate.
Another advantage of Wall of Stone over Force is that it blocks vision if you have spell casters you are trying to limit from the battle. There is nothing saying spells that originate in an area cannot be cast inside or outside a Wall of Force. Do you get the Blindness effect with Wall of Stone you don’t get with Force.
Where I think you can get the best bang for your buck with the Dream spell is if you’re somewhat acquainted with a Beholder that you hadn’t quite finished off, but likewise hadn’t finished you off either. (Even better if your encounter left you with a piece of him!) Then in your downtime you can just keep casting Dream until you hit a time when he happens to be asleep (it’s gotta happen sometime!) and then use their peculiar ability to reshape reality by having what you want them to dream of pop into existence. Of course, the dream could also have some strange effects as well. Best done from a safe distance (you only have to be on the same plane as the target) and then maybe follow up with a scry to see what effect your inspired dream had on the beholder. If it produced the desired effect, arrange to go pick up your winnings. If it spawned some new form of beholder, then leave the area alone.
Hey, I have a request for a one-off article when you’ve got a spare slot. My (lvl 7 College of War) wizard is going to be in Hell for the foreseeable future. This means that most of the big bads that he faces have resistance to magic. A lot of my battlefield control is ineffective against enemies with advantage on their saving throws. How would this affect your spell selection priorities?
Very interesting examination of 5th level spells: nevertheless, I remind you that Modify Memory (like Suggestion) can be useful in social situations if you are alone with your victim: having V and S components, other creatures will see that you are casting that spell saying weird words, and this is the opposite of beneficial!
Hold Monster, funnily enough,can actually be more effective on a Divination Wizard than an Enchanter since they can use Portent to potentially auto succeed or make the enemy auto fail rolls XD Depending on how and when you use it, you pretty much have between 2-5 turns on average to wail away at whatever is giving you trouble with no chance if it breaking free XD
Wall of Force as a sphere is not going to work on many dragons… They do not fit. The creature may just REQUIRE a 10X10 for ti feet or to figure out a passage it can go through,, but when it extends its neck, tail and wings, its not fitting the sphere. dome or sphere with a 10ft radius It just shunts them out of the sphere’s area.
I swear, sometimes I’m not sure that we are reading the same spells. I don’t dislike wall of force by any measure, but I remember one of your knocks against hold monster in a ranger article was that it can be overcome with a 2nd-level lesser restoration. Well, wall of force can be bested by a 2nd-level misty step. Wall of light does not require you to use your action to continue dealing damage. Anything that ends its turn within the wall takes 4d8 damage with no save. Depending on how your DM handles blinded creatures, there could be a good chance of enemies who fail the initial save staying where they are and taking a second instance of damage at the ends of their turns. Meanwhile, it illuminates an enormous area, useful for detecting creatures skulking in the dark, eliminating the effects of heavy obscurement, and imposing penalties on foes with light sensitivity. And the on-action damage is “crappy” compared to what? Fire bolt at 9th level is dealing 11 damage on a hit, not accounting for resistance and immunity. Wall of light averages 18. Magic missile, the last single-target damage spell you recommended, does 22.5 on average out of a 5th-level slot, and that’s, you know, once. The only ongoing single-target concentration effects I know of that are even close are storm sphere (on a bonus action) and . . . Enervation. Hoo boy. 4d8 damage and half as much healing, without a saving throw, is not worth using your action for every round? What kind of cantrips are you casting? You are lucky to average half that with fire bolt.
I think you are under-rating Seeming and Teleportation Circle by quite a bit. Mass Disguise Self is very very useful in a lot of out of combat situations. Your party naturally gains a reputation by adventuring so being able to look like other people is a big deal. And with TP Circle you get to know 2 circles automatically from the start so as long as there is a good motivation for speeding up travel time its a good spell imo.
Gotta say, I think scrying should be at least a purple rating, spying on your enemies is very valuable, and as a dm I love it when I can give pcs info or story beats that they normally wouldn’t know or would’ve been difficult for them to find out through other means. I agree with alot of your ratings and enjoy your articles.
Enervation is better than it first looks. You get half the damage in healing . But a necromancer would get 6 times the spells level in self healing aswell making it a really good spell to concentrate and keep firing it off each turn Yes I’m currently playing a necromancer and see how good it can be in the right build. Take 1 level in life cleric you will always have full health 😂
It kinda irks me that you think that planar binding requires concentration. You only use concentration to “charm” the summon in the case of summon elemental, it stays for the duration regardless if you are concentrating or not. Your best bet is to make a magic circle at 4th+ level, summon the elemental, have said elemental enter the inverted circle, and you have just under 2 hours to cast the binding. After that who cares about the concentration effect? Planar binding has its own do what i say effect and even if it has the potential to be subverted they cannot flat out disobey. You can even mitigate that by speaking to the summon in its exotic tongue and entreating it diplomatically to your cause, not giving blatantly suicidal orders or commands antithetical to their beliefs also helps.
Cloudkill does 10d8 guaranteed, first on the caster’s turn as they enter the AOE, then immediately at the start of their turn. Maybe not great against the entire Monster Manual, but damned effective against most PCs, lol. My party hates and fears this spell, Drow smack us with it all the damned time.
Something I’d love to see is a article on traps/advice/ideas moving from 3.5 or Pathfinder to 5e. I know I’m late to the game, but I’m getting ready to finally make the shift. I’m nervous about DMing my first 5e games, because I REALLY know my 3.5 and 3.75, but 5e is still new to me. Sad thing, I cannot find DMs near me, so I end up as the DM always. Ah well. Advice? Suggestions?
> …Its much more of a gamble… Tch, what would Lucky think of you, avoiding gambles? (tbh, he’d probably think well of you. The thing about Bards & Luck Clerics is, they’re not really gamblers. I mean, not really. They shift fortune in your favor and against that of the foe. So yeah it’s “gambling” – it’s RNG. D&D Is RNG. But it’s making everything you do much less of a gamble and significantly closer to “a sure bet” – which is why Gods of divining the fates or controlling the fates tend to be Lawful or at minimum Neutral, while Gods of actual Chance, good or bad, tend to be fickle Chaotic scum). Reminder to name or nickname my next Bard Maverick
The thing with telekinesis is, if your dm calculates weight properly, your party can weigh way over a 1000 pounds, which would make the platform fly around thing impossible sadly 😛 Also Animate objects is tricky. It doesn’t specifically do magical damage, which hinders it’s efficiency against maaany of the monsters you may find. Some people really disregard the fact 🙁
My group is currently doing a campaign set in the Underdark which is basically all stone ’cause it’s underground. So hearing about Transmute Stone is making me very excited, especially since it has no duration. It won’t be a while till I get it (since we’ve started in the fall of 2022, we’re level 4 now, so who knows how long till we get to level 9) and I won’t be able to use it as much since we’re doing a variant rest system (short rest is 8~ hours, long rest is 24 hours of non-strenuous activity), but I am still excited. I’m switching soon from a homebrew class to a full-on wizard so this series has been very helpful! Thank you so much, Treantmonk. 🙂 I’ve been scheming of all the ways I can use Transmute Stone to terrorize towns and cities. Like using it to get rid of the foundation for buildings or maybe transmuting any stone buildings so there’s just mud left, blocking all roads, filling a whole town with really hard to cross mud, etc. I likely won’t do this stuff as the wizard I’ll be making will be lawful good but if she dies, I’m planning on making a lawful evil enchantment wizard next so this sort of thing might be fun, haha.
Planar Binding doesn’t require you to concentrate on it. It extends the duration of the summoning spell to match its own, and since planar binding’s duration doesn’t have concentration then the summoning spell would cease to have it as well. If it did require concentration then what would be he point in upcasting it to make it last several weeks? You can’t concentrate while sleeping.
Telepathic Bond: Creatures with INT of 2 or less aren’t affected by this spell. So that leaves out most familiars, including all of the (common) flying familiars. There are 2 common familiars (Cat and Octopus) that qualify. (INT 3) If you can get a Tressym, Flying Monkey (INT 11 and 5 respectively) or any of the Pact of the Chain familiars, you’re good to forge Telepathic Bond with them. Otherwise you’ll have to find a way to increase your common familiar’s INT, or work out a homebrew solution with your DM in order to get a different familiar that qualifies.
If you’re a Necromancer, Danse Macabre can really load up the damage as well if you create skeletons and order them to dual-wield broken scimitars (you’ll have to supply extras, of course). Yes, I would very much like for my five skeletons as a 9th-level necromancer to make two attacks at +9/1d6+9 or 11 damage. Doing 135 damage if all ten attack hits sounds like a good use of a 5th-level spell.
Think the claim that the Concentration is still required with Planar Binding is wrong. It changes the Duration. And Concentratioon is a subsection of Duration in the PHB. So I think it changes from like 1min (C) to 24h, not 24h (C). And in this way it makes sense that it can be in effect over a Long Rest (would be new to me that you can have Concentration while Unconcious).
I disagree with your opinion on Creation being terrible spell: rules as written, you can encase a enemy in a iron block with no saving throw, and let them suffocate. Or you could create a block of extremely heavy metal 20 feet above the enemy, although the DM would probably rule that a saving throw would be applicable. And you could create a adamantine weapon, which according to xanathar’s, deals a crit every time it hits, automatically.
If you are a College of Eloquence Bard, then I can see Infernal Calling being useful as magical secrets at level 10 if you wanted a summoning spell. Assuming you have expertise in Persuasion/Deception and high CHA then you probably can’t fail the check against the devil and then it must obey your commands and if you lose concentration it just disappears. So there’s one advantage over summon elemental. There are a lot of Tiefling Eloquence Bards around that this may suit thematically.
Telepathic Bond should be Blue. It is the ultimate answer for your DM’s objection “He can’t hear you in the chaos of the combat” so no talking/communicating during the combat Synaptic Static may be ok, considering additional bonuses, but definitely not as good as described Seeming is a great spell. With Malleable Illusions, you can change the multiple creatures every round. It should be ranked higher (purple as a generic rating, green for Illusionists). And uses are not so circumstantial: change your visuals with your fighter, change the appearance of an army, immediately disappear in the crowd. Also, it has 8 hours, and do not uses concentration which is an important aspect
Contact other plane : if you contact a god, I think you can have quite all information possible, that the master himself knows (on your enemies, spells you want, everything you’re looking for). So this is extraordinary, even if the answers are limited (only “yes”, “no”, “perhaps”, etc). So you will need more than 5 answers, to find out what you want. But I think that you have to be a diviner to use that spell, because without Potent, it’s too risky if you can fail the intel roll.
Geas : this spell can be used during all missions. Even in a simple dongeon, it can allow you to gain a new companion during 30 days (order : “help me and obey me”), without concentration. So this is not bad. But you have to choose a powerfull ally, because spending a 5th level spell on a low lvl ennemy doesn’t worth it. And if your ally is very good, you could even repeat the same spell each 30 days, so that you can maintain your control on him… or if you are really smart, and show him respect and give him benefits, you could even finally gain a real new companion, a good bodyguard.
So was thinking that you were missing the true power of Skill empowerment in which you can give other casters proficiency in Arcana then they can spend that hour working on making a spell scroll (so you can learn their spells, as in XGE you can’t make scrolls without prof. in Arcana) but then I looked up the spell,. You can only target a spell that the target is ALREADY proficient in but hasn’t got EXPERTISE in. VERY VERY Limited Note the example I used of needing to get someone to make a scroll for you to learn a spell, is most DM’s I’ve come across require a Wiz/TomeLock/RitualCaster to learn from a scroll and not directly from the caster. For the wizard this allows for the skill check to still have a risk of failure. Obviously this doesn’t matter if your DM just lets you learn from anyone. (Why are you not enchant wiz controlling everyone and learning ALL the spells?)
For Creation, while it’s normally useless for most wizards, it’s great in the hands of an Illusionist. Malleable Illusions gives you a taste of Illusory Reality 5 levels early, and you can even redeploy it for multiple combats. Turn it into a wooden ring when you’re done and use it somewhere else. If you’re okay with stone or wood you can even pre-cast it before you finish a long rest. Yes, I would very much like a deployable 20′ cube of Wall of Force cast out of an 8th level spell slot that doesn’t impact me of slots for the day.
Hi Chris, I am confused about your statement that planar binding still requires concentration? The duration for planar binding is 24 hours that then increase as you upcast the spell. IF the spell required concentration, it would be downright useless… as you can’t concentrate when you are unconscious, as you are incapacitated (read: sleeping).
Adamantine is the metal in Dungeons & Dragons. Adamantium is the metal in the MCU and Marvel Comics of which Wolverines claws and skeleton is made of. They aren’t the same thing… I very much enjoyed your article, and I’m a fan of your content, but that point stuck in my craw as you repeatedly Miss identified it.
On Wall of Force. Ok, it has an obvious problem written into it. A flat surface of force is ten 10×10 panels, or 1000 square feet. A 10’ radius sphere is 1254 square feet, a much greater area. There shouldn’t be that big of a difference. A 1000 foot surface area sphere is only a little under 9’ radius. I get why they did it, to snap to a grid. So as a result I adjudicate on a case by case basis what creatures fit into it. Creature sizes are also chosen to fit into the grid even though some creatures are bigger than their grid size, some smaller. A huge creature in D&D takes 3×3 spaces even though some are much more massive. TM example of a huge dragon to me would not fit into a the force sphere, as clearly from the description it is much bigger than the 3×3 grid. It’s body is that size, but it’s wings are at least 10’ on each side (much more if you think about it), its tail 15’ behind it, it’s claws if splayed out 5’ past, it’s neck 10’ on top of the 15’ height. I also own Draconomicon, the older book on dragons, and it’s even bigger. I don’t think a dragon when off turn balls itself up. The spell as written does not start out much bigger and shrink to that size, it pops into existence. I know it’s a fantasy game but in fantasy game reality I doubt you could ball up a dragon into a sphere that size. I would rule no for getting a huge dragon into that sphere. However a giant would clearly fit in. Giants are taller then they are wide, and at their biggest dimension of height they are all about 20’ or less.
Prestidigitation is the cantrip that lets you just ‘be’ a wizard and do day-to-day wizardy things. Sitting in a tavern with your party after a long day of adventuring? Add a tiny umbrella to your drink to add a bit of class. The tavern bully tries to spill someone’s drink? Clean up the spill for the victim, and then flavour the bully’s drink to something nasty, or add an unpleasant and embarrassing looking stain on his clothes. This is the cantrip that let’s you do little magical things that spice up your day and let’s you really roleplay being a master of the mystic arts. If you can only throw fireballs a few times a day then you’re effectively just a walking wand – this lets you BE magical in the little moments too.
Honestly I was super surprised that Prestidigitation wasn’t well-liked, considering how versatile and flavorful (ha) it is. Especially when compared to Sigil, which does only one thing that, while also fun for RP, is even less open to creativity than Presto is. For me, it’s the catch-all utility spell, probably one of the first spells any mage truly masters, and is basically “Quality of Life” the Cantrip. And even if the items you create look fake and don’t provide mechanical benefit, it’s extremely open as to what you can actually depict and create! Need an immediate prop for your performance as a street-magician? Sure, it might not look fantastic, but it definitely serves. Wanna cheer up a kid with a little origami animal? Yeh it won’t last, but just the act itself could put a smile on their face, and even be used as a game where they call out something for you to make and you do so. Speaking of kids, reflavoring definitely seems like an easy way to get them to eat their veggies if it suddenly tastes like their favorite candy ;P Definitely there’s a lot of roleplay opportunity for it, so again I was just surprised it was kind of glossed over. But hey, different strokes and all ;P Still, if I could have any one cantrip IRL, 13 times outta 10 I’m going for Presto, because it could just make my life and others peoples lives that little bit better ^_^
Honestly, I love Telekinetic Projectile for the flavor. I once had an Orc Witch who SPAMMED this cantrip by throwing anything I could imagine at an opponent. Rocks? Basic. A twig? Bonk’em. A spider web? Slap the spider with their own web. A stone gargoyle’s pieces are falling apart? Throw them back where they belong. Oh, a second wave of Kobolds coming after we defeated the first one? Guess they’re gonna get hit by their friend’s heads. It got to the point where I was just looking everywhere for the coolest stuff around to throw at people. Even when I couldn’t find anything funny, I would describe in excruciating detail the spins and maneuvers I did with the staff before shooting. I fondly remember one occasion where the fight was nearly over and I was running out of ideas, so I just put my staff against an enemy’s forehead and fired the staff as my projectile at point-blank. It was super stylish.
We have a couple of military veterans in our group who talk about how great prestidigitation would be in the field. Marching through a desert? A nice cold pack and clean socks are great. Living off of iron rations? You can at least make them taste like they aren’t hardtack and jerky. I just started an Agents of Edgewatch game. As city watchmen, Tanglefoot came in handy in the first episode. Slowing down a fleeing mugger so that your allies can catch up is great. Since the PC’s are trying to capture, not kill, it’s very useful.
I have a ‘flavourful’ idea for a wizard based on the Prestidigitation cantrip. Take the chef background and go on a tour to taste all the foods that can be, so you can learn the exact nuances to your food flavouring and then compile it into a cantrip cookbook/tour guide. Also imagine a cocktail that as you’re drinking it, it changes taste
I’m not sure yet what the rules are for Pathfinder, but for D&D 5e, sometimes I wish that the DM would just allow anyone who can learn Prestidigitation to be able to take some downtime to learn it and have it not count against your cap on cantrips. If it’s a spell solely used for roleplay and is functionally completely useless, I think it should be something that all casters who want it to have.
My first pathfinder character used a three action telekinetic projectile once. An enemy had a grappled ally and was using them as a living shield. I asked the GM if I could throw a rock behind the enemy and use telekinetic projectile to hit him in the back and bypass my ally. He allowed it! One action to throw the rock, two actions to cast. I enjoy the versatile flavor that comes from using any object in range as your bullet.
I love Prestidigitation, but mostly just from fond memories of playing the stylish Magus butler of a noble fellow PC in a short-lived PF1e game. It was fun to flavor water, heat food, clean things, spontaneously generate plates, cups, utensils, etc., and once I even managed to tag a fleeing enemy with a big pink spot so it would be easy to see them in the crowd. Doesn’t make it a good spell, just good for that character. 😆
Tanglefoot can give speedy characters ( like Monk, Magus, Swashbuckler ) a lot of edge. In the case of Magus for example you can attack with spellstrike and then retreat so a melee character is forced to attack someone else or be forced to use more actions. -10feet is two squares, sometimes is the difference you need.
Look Prestidigitation is an OP spell, it is the only way to get spicy zombies. Detect Magic doesn’t have a duration, it is a single pulse, so to be able to identify the aura of 10 objects you would have to cast the spell 10 times, the ignore known magic items line is so you don’t get drowned in the white noise of the magic auras of your parties equipment.
The shield spell has only a verbal component, so 2H weapons don’t interfere with it, AND it can trigger some reactions tied to Shield Block, like the Disarming Block from the Bastion Archetype. Also, Telekinetic Projectile could be used like the example you gave to Mage Hand, someone dropped a weapon and you use TP to toss the weapon away haha
7:00 I like having that spell… for my Eldritch Trickster Rogue who has a Demonic Sorcerer Bloodline and I was really pondering what kinda spells I want… for fluff and stuff. So she started out with the most useful spells… Sigil and Prestidigitation (I am no native speaker… I HATE this word!). So I know how she keeps her clothes clean, living on the streets most of the time ^^
in my first training-like round, where we get teached into the stuff, we had a situation, where 3 cobolds where in a room, we first made a dialog, helped them to open a door, then as they try to run away, we stopped them. the position was like that: ME, friend goblin cobold, cobold cobold friend human my goblin mate whispered to me, that we should maybe help them further and like trust them, with their leader problem. (I forgot to use the action “sense motion” so we didn’t know really, if they say the truth or not) soo to tell our mate behind the cobolds the plan, i used the message cantrip and probally helped to prefent a fight as later one, they helped with the evil cobolds.
I see prestidigitation as a catch-all for role play magical effects. So the list of things it does should be an example rather than an exhaustive list of everything it does. Things like minor illusions that everyone automatically recognizes as illusions. Teleporting a coin from one hand to another. Reading a thought that someone adjacent to you is broadcasting to you. Other such fun and mechanically useless things.
14:30 And the best, the Sigil only fades naturally on creatures… at least how I read it since it states “If it is on a creature, it fades naturally”. So if it is NOT on a creature, it does NOT fade ^^ Rubbing it away not counted of course but you would need to know it is there but how do you do that (without magic) if it is an invisible Sigil? You can tag almost every of your items that way ^^ And everybody who is familiar wit hthe spell knows that simply touching the object does not place a sigil on it sicne there is that verbal component.
I kinda disagree on your Prestidigitation take and it’s not only because your opinion in this article, let me explain. On a previous article, the Catfolk one, you explained in detail why you didn’t like Cat Nap and the duration of its temporary hit points. You mentioned you make players take 15-20 minutes when they are searching a room instead of a couple of Seek actions as most GMs do, so that makes the 10-minutes temporary hit points useless. All seemed to point to the fact you want to create a sense of “realism” with that, you think exploration should be more realistic. Going back to Prestidigitation’s Tidy section, isn’t more realistic NPCs (specially nobles and or snobs in general) react in a negative way if adventurers smell like an otyugh’s butt? Or maybe a shop keeper reacts poorly if the party is trying to sell a bloodstained and smelly piece or treasure? With the spell they could clean EVERYTHING in 1+ minutes, it doesn’t matter if it is super corrosive and hard to remove monster blood or super-permanent paint. Now, you could say “hey, but adventurers can just take a shower and be done with it”, not really. If you know anyone that has gone into a sewer for even a couple of minutes, the smells stays hard. Even when someone steps on dog’s poo and they clean their shoes with XXI century cleaning products, sometimes part of the smell remains. On the Make section, some clarification: the object DOESN’T HAVE to be useless, it says IT CANNOT BE USED as a tool, weapon or spell component, that’s completely different to “being useless”.
Hi, I’m going to argue for Read Aura and your interpretation of detect magic! The exact text of Detect Magic says “you can choose to ignore magic you’re fully aware of, such as the magic items and ongoing spells of you and your allies.” I would argue that simply knowing the 5-foot cube a source of magic is coming from doesn’t make you fully aware of it. If you are rooting through some junk, and you detect transmutation among the junk, you still don’t know what it is. It could be the old sword, or the rusty Spear, or the bag of gold. You are not fully aware of it. You can then cast Read Aura on the objects in that 5-foot square to find the exact item that is magical.
Likely answered already, but the wording on page 299 of the core rulebook states “CAN cast a spell at a higher spell level…” the “Can” implies this is optional so you “can” simply not cast it at heightened. HOWEVER. page 300 under cantrips says “Cantrips are automatically heightened…” I would argue that RAW, the specifics of the cantrip section overrules the Heightened section, but DM fiat, I’d just personally make it optional as per page 299. tl;dr: as written, they must be heightened. Personally, I dont think its a big deal, so I just let people choose to lower it.
telekinetic projectile. now this is a spell dnd 5e does better. that one would be catapult. it forces a dex save and if it’s dodged it continuous flying and a next target needs to make the save, but it does take a spellslot. all of that is irrelavent though. it’s purely verbal. this means that it’s not completely incorrect to describe it as power word yeet.
I have a question regarding telekinetic projectile; the “range” is 30ft. “you hurl an object that is within range” so the object must be within 30 ft of you but the target, it doesnt say where the target has to be or how far the object is hurled. examples: 1. the target is 50ft away and the object is 25ft away. can i fling the object 25ft towards the target? does it stop once it hits the 30ft ‘wall’? 2. the target is 30ft to my left, the object is 30 ft to my right. can i launch the object 60ft from one end of my range to the other? it reminds me of the catapult spell from 5e, which clarifies the object must be within 60ft, but is launched up to 90ft. Telekinetic projectile doesnt have this clarification so im a little lost on how to rule it.
The best use of Prestidigitation I’ve ever seen was the Wizard using it to change the flavor of a rather foul Orc ale, letting him roll with advantage and win a drinking contest, and thus win the information the party wanted from the Orcs. But I agree. The majority of the time, Prestidigitation is good for minor roleplaying and flavor, and that’s about it and it sees very little use at my table.
Can you downcast a cantrip even though they auto-heighten? Yes if you follow logic and player agency and fun because the rule is vague and not being able to creates both a logical issue where casters arbitrarily forget how to do things they could do previously and a connected rules issue where certain classes are locked out of major class features and letting you downcast fixes all these with absolutely no balance issues so The First Rule applies. No by RAW if you are an overzealous rules lawyer that believes the game was designed in a way that makes you lose certain abilities and have less and less precise control over your magical power when you level up rather than the phrasing just being an oversight. Also the only other similar ability (Signature Spells) let’s you cast lower level versions if you pick a Heightened spell as your signature, so there’s arguably precedent for heightening mechanics allowing downcasting.
on Prestidigitation the only useless one might be Lift, and thats because unlike other systems it doesn’t talk about moving the object just Lifting it and not even to a respectable height to easily grab it. Cook: getting too hot? Cool your clothes, getting to cold? Warm your clothes. Cooling: food, clothes (icy cold underwear prank?), ice! (prevents it from melting!), etc Warming: food, gloves/boots, anoying guests fork as they go to eat ice-cream, ice (makes it melt!), etc. Flavor: why not change how food/drink tastes to hide poison, make barely edible food taste better, prank enemies with bad tasting food, etc. Tidy: yeah lets you tinker with a lot of cleaning or make something dirty as hell. useful for RP mostly but can also clean blood if you silent kill an enemy without taking a lot of time and leaving residue. Make: omg there is a lot you can make, diorama of the building/cave, bust/ drawing of a person your looking for, etc. just limited by imagination.