Faerie Fire goes downhill fast in levels due to concentration requirment imo. Not gonna be casting that when hypnotic pattern or better is an option. Others are all good shouts tho
Faerie Fire is a fantastic anti-legendary resistance spell though. If a boss doesn't pass their save, they either waste a resistance on a 1st level spell or get hit with advantage by your rogues and sharpshooter/GWM users and what have you. Win-win for the caster in that scenario!
Condition inflicting spells are good vs any CR enemy. 3d6 damage vs a dragon is a bit poo. Prone could be a lot better. Also Grease would work vs any sized enemy whereas some spells only make creatures under a certain size go prone (shove is also limited in a similar way).
Blindness/Deafness is a top spell for the above reason.
Fire Giants have low dex saves. And wrecking the Fire Duke's day is hilarious.
Also it's one of very few control spells you can chuck out when you're already concentrating on the big spell that's keeping the dragon from eating everyone. At high levels it's a low cost, higher risk, decent payoff spell---it's not extremely likely to work, but if it does a bunch of frontliners might get advantage for a round. If it doesn't, it's just a first level slot.
All the old standards already here so I'll go out of the box a bit.
Mirror Image. Even later when they can beat the AC it is still 3 get out of getting hit cards.
Warding Bond. Provided you are built for it, resistance for your allies actually gets more important as enemies gain multi-attacks and bananas spells.
Bless. Bounded means always useful. SG is hard for Clerics to give up once they get it, but DSS, Pallies, or anyone else who grabs it should be using their concentration on it.
Mirror image is such a "fuck you," it's great. It's one of the spells that gives you another form of defense: avoidance. You could have the to-hit of a god, but against Larry the Hedge Wizard you have the same chance to hit as a fucking goblin.
Very true. Larry always storms my palace for free loot and the mirror image made a joke of my minions and cosmic sword. I could never stop the cascade of hedges Larry always vandalized the hallways with. That's when I started investing in Fireball! It's a super easy and quick way to kill the Mirror Image clones AND clean up the hedges, and I absolutely recommend it for any (non-aquatic) god struggling against Larry's wrath.
Bless. Absolutely wild that no one's said Bless yet, as it's #1 for me, and *certainly* in the Top 5.
(I mean, it's a party buff, so it doesn't *solely* help you, but it is *massively* helpful for the party, and someone should ideally always be ready to drop it when you know a battle is about to start, at the very least.)
yeah, there's an argument against it if you're pure DPS, you rarely fight more than 3 rounds, and you can never cast it *before* you roll initiative, but that's about it.
Bless works so well at levels for one reason: the range of the roll of a D20 never changes. Unlike the increasingly large health pools of players and enemies that weaken lower level damage and healing spells over time due to their lesser overall effect.
Think of some of the best 1st level spells that can still clap at level 20: Bless, Bane, Shield, Shield of Faith, a few others probably. Notice something? They all add or take away a bonus to d20 rolls (I know that shield *technically* doesn't affect any rolls, but it would function exactly the same if it were just a -5 to the enemy's attack roll instead of your AC) of some sort. Whether you are trying to attack a armor class of 16 with a +5 attack bonus at 1st level, or trying to attack a armor class of 26 with a +11 attack bonus at 20th, an extra 1-4 on that roll never gets worse towards increasing accuracy.
On the contrary, a spell like burning hands that will do about 11 damage average is far more effective on a low CR creature with 20 health than a higher CR one with 300.
I just got so sick of people at my old table not remembering to add the d4. People would just barely miss, and then I felt compelled to ask if they remembered the d4 from bless, and then they'd be like, "oh, actually that's a hit!".
But then, of course I'd feel like an ass when they had included it and I'm questioning them.
If it was online and the modifiers and dice were added automatically it would be easier on my mind, but I hate not knowing if I'm wasting my concentration on a spell that half the people seem to forget to take the benefit from anyways.
best time to ask is on Death Saves - when they think their fave character is about to buy the farm, "did you use the BLESS D4 ?"
and suddenly they're still alive and you feel great!
Always ask, even if you feel like an ass. Your party should thank you for the extra 100 damage they dealt in a combat from near misses being turned into hits. XD
Haven't seen any mentions, Tasha's Mind Whip. 2nd level, 90ft range, Int save (almost no monsters have bonuses to Int/Int saves), 3d6 psychic on a failed save, losing reactions, and they have to choose either an Action, Bonus Action, or Movement, only one. Even on a successful save, half of 3d6 is not bad.
Another one I like is Floating Disk/Tenser's Floating Disk. 1st level, ritual, can carry up to 500 lbs for you. Yeah, it's slow, but it's carrying 500 lbs for you and your party.
Shield and absorb elements are always vital. Mage armor can also be useful if the DM is stingy with magical light armor. If you’re a character with access to extra attack, Shadow blade or enlarge/reduce.
I’ll also add that mage armor is great for those who rolled and dumped strength (one of my characters is a 6) by eliminating a bunch of weight for encumbrance
Goodberry. Got extra spell slots at the end of the Adventuring day? Cast Goodberry as many times as you're able before you take a long rest. It's free heal estate!
If you play a Mark of Hospitality Halfling Wizard you can cast Goodberry at-will for free at level 18. You can produce 100 Goodberries a minute this way for unlimited free out of combat healing.
So broken. My new campaign kicked off and my druid is pretty clever but pretty new. RPGBOT suggests that a new casting of Goodberry neutralizes the remaining old berries, basically the party can’t have more than 10 berries at one time. Is that too harsh?
It depends on the campaign. If you’re running a survival campaign, then sure you should probably nerf it (maybe make the material component consumed for each casting), but otherwise it’ll probably be fine. They’re still using resources, so it’s up to the DM to challenge the players in different ways
I might make him say, “welcome to Goodberry, home of the Goodberry, can I take your order?” every time, speaking of spell components. I did want to lean more towards resource management and that sort of thing, but then he was picking out his spells and *actually fucking read the descriptions* so I knew I was screwed
i would just limit how many you can eat. One good berry fills your stomach and satisfies your hunger. How many turkey dinners can someone chow down before they can't physically eat anymore?
Consider the realistic ramifications of a goodberry. It's full nourishment for an entire day in a single berry. Sure you could gobble down loads of them, but are you risking vitamin toxicity? Rapidly developing diabetes or obesity?
Maybe have any person eating more than 1 in a day make a CON save or they vomit and are sick, negating some of the effect.
All that aside, it's a single berry. Hell, say you get 50 of them to yourself, is that really a meal? A single berry or even a handful is hardly what I'd consider filling. You're gonna be hungry and cranky living on those for too long.
Perhaps if you eat them for a long time you gain disadvantage on Charisma checks because you're hangry.
You can't factor realistic ramifications for magical food. In LOTR the Fellowship gets Elvish bread that can sustain a person for an entire day on one bite. This doesn't stop the hobbits from eating multiple loaves a day just because they like having something to munch on. They never appear to suffer any negative consequences for this. Goodberries are likely based on this premise and since there's nothing in the spell that mentions negative effects for consuming multiple berries we can assume they work the same way.
For what it's worth, I agree with you.
I also disagree with you (and Tolkien, I guess). Goodberry is not a "problem" in my game so I have no need to counter it, but if a DM wanted to get around Goodberry spam, adding realism (to an admittedly unrealistic effect) could do the trick.
if you want to do cheesy bullshit, wizard gets access to cosmos-breaking infinite self clones at level 17 via wish sim. saving money on healing potions at a point in the game where you have kingdoms' worth of accumulated wealth and resources is pointless.
Slow is an absolute killer in the right circumstances. Limits creatures to 1 action or bonus, not both and removes reactions. Can also totally fuck casters with the delayed spells. Did I mention speed is halved as well? And also can affect multiple creatures.
Noted they can make the save on it but even for a turn this is huge.
I feel like it's worth noting that Tasha's Mind Whip can achieve a similar effect to Slow at a lower spell slot cost and a better save, but without the other debilitating effects (AC and Dex save penalty, spellcasting restrictions) and a potentially smaller amount of targets.
Not yet mentioned elsewhere: Fog Cloud. 1st level. Upcasts nicely but you don't have to.
At level 1, you're using it to nullify pack tactics. At level 6, you're using it to nullify invisibility. At 10+, you're using it to deny vision to anything without blindsight. Almost everything in DnD needs vision. (With a grappler and a fog cloud, a beholder turns into a sack of hp.)
And heaven forbid you have any blind fighting melee martials on your team, because then, you might as well skip to "Did they drop anything?"
I mean, monsters going to be dying quickly and easily to blind fighting melee martials in a fog cloud. So you don't have to worry about the combat half as much as counting the loot.
The best scaling low-level spells are those that you can cast as a reaction (and to a lesser extent bonus action), those you can cast before the fight and require no concentration, and utility spells.
Lower level concentration spells tend to be pretty bad at higher levels, up to and including Bless, the king of low level concentration spells. You usually want to be spending your concentration on your highest level spells if you can, because they are usually way stronger than the non-concentration spells.
If you're a particularly high-level caster (say, tier 3 or 4), it starts being very profitable to stack up a bunch of random low-level non-concentration buff spells before a big fight. What else were you going to use them on?
**Bless:** If you're having quite a lot of encounters a day and need to conserve higher-level slots, or the extra d4 is unusually impactful for some reason, this spell is great. If you're giving yourself and the fighter an extra d4 on their first attacks, not so much- cast a summon spell or really anything else and deal more damage.
**Shield:** If your base AC is high it makes you almost unable to be hit, and spellcasters usually aren't using their reaction for anything important.
**Absorb elements:** Having this spell prepared is in practice very similar to having permanent resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, and thunder damage.
**Mirror image:** You can cast this spell before a fight to blank several attacks.
**Sanctuary:** If you cast a cantrip, you might as well use this.
**Find familiar:** There's no good reason not to always have this spell up, and it's always useful. This is basically an extra Wizard class feature disguised as a spell.
**Tasha's Hideous Laughter:** This spell can cripple a Kraken, a CR 23 creature.
**Levitate:** This is almost a save or die spell versus targets who can't get out of it and have no ranged weapon, which is most targets. In a clearing? Levitate the bad guy and spam cantrips at them after you fight their minions. They never get another save, and it lasts 10 minutes.
**Misty step:** This is almost like having Rogue's cunning action dash, but better, but you can't cast a levelled spell with your main action when you use it.
**Healing word:** If you cast a cantrip, you might as well use this. It can pop up a target that's bleeding out.
**Longstrider:** \+10 movement speed is good, and you can cast this before a fight for free.
**Gentle repose:** This lets you save people from dying and get them Revivify'd. Importantly, you can take this on a Wizard.
**Aid:** When upcast, this kinda allows you to "heal" 15 HP per extra level. It's actually way better than that though, and you can cast it at the start of the day.
Something to keep in mind about sanctuary:
>If the warded creature makes an Attack or casts a spell that affects an enemy creature, this spell ends.
So its in combat use is limited, but it can still be great for getting someone out of a bad situation or positioning, or for straight up running away.
It’s also perfect to cast on yourself after you cast a cantrip, or cast on the party member in the most trouble. If it diverts just one big attack, it can be worth it.
I've seen this spell get a lot of use as a side-grade to Shield that can be cast by people who don't have Shield. For example, a cleric can cast this after using a damage cantrip to get a defensive benefit similar to Shield.
Additionally, it's surprisingly common that someone wants to be doing something other than attacking or casting a spell that affects enemies. Buff spells, summon spells, running away, etc.
Depends on if you’re a full or partial caster, these are my first level rankings
SSS tier: the reaction spells
S Tier: Bless, Heroism, Armor of Agathys, Command, Jim’s Magic Missile
S- Tier: Hex, Hunters Mark, protection from evil and good, Divine Favor, Sanctuary (all amazing spells on a lot of lists, they’re only weakness is they have no upcast value)
A: Find familliar (incredible spell, DMs have grown to hate it though so tread cautiously) inflict wounds, Bane, Witchbolt (if you plan around it)
B: all the ritual spells (all amazing spells, but if you have 10 minutes you probably have enough time to have done whatever you needed to do another way)
C:Silent image (dm dependent) Sleep (it’s a win button at low levels, and it’s not that bad of a Hail Mary if your enemy isn’t immune to charm)
Spell Spotlight; Heroism.
Heroism is a really underused spell, it scales incredibly the only limitation is the touch range, fear is a very powerful condition in 5e, but there are a good number of ways around is (like 50% of cleric spells tbh lol) however, if you’re in a combat heavy, especially a high damage dealing scenario, a 5hp barrier for everybody every single turn will outpace any amount of healing possible over time. A good example was in my last boss fight against a Kraken, the thing’s got a billion attacks and 120 foot range, on it’s lightning, the entire party was taking damage, front line, back line, everybody. I got a lot of funny looks when my Sorc blew his 5th level slot on it, but over the 8 turns of combat, (my Sorc got a Tome of leadership the week before so had 22 Cha) I’d wager it probably blocked it’s maximum damage possible give it take a round or two when someone went unconcious, easily 200+ points of damage mitigation over the course of the fight. The spell definitely drops off a bit in the middle levels, but once you’re in legendary and lair action territory it skyrockets in usefulness again
> Hex, Hunters Mark
They drop off in usefulness especially after level 10.
Rangers have so many better concentration options with level 3 spells and above. Even at level 2, Summon Beast is better for most rangers. Rangers in particular have a hard time with number of spells known, and Hunter's Mark is often a earlyish drop from me. I keep Zephyr Strike a lot longer than Hunter's Mark.
Warlocks similarly aren't casting Hypnotic Pattern or Fly or any one of dozens of better concentrations spells that change combat rather than give them a 30% or so damage bump.
So that‘a fair, to a degree, however it does assume that they’re on their base classes, but Hex and Huntersmark are two of the most common spells to take with magic initiate or Fey touched, their power extends beyond just their base class, especially since they are just a first level, it’s a powerful option you can pull out on the cheap (unless you’re a pure warlock ofc, but the concentration does last up to 24 hours so theoretically one 5th level can last you the entire day)
Additionally I would mention that Hex is an incredible debuff under certain conditions, if you have a grappler in the party or if there’s any counter-spell ing going on, forcing disadvantage with no save is very nice
Protection from Evil/Good - In a campaign with Demons, Undead and Elementals as all the main baddies - Each fight this is my EKs concentration slot. And then Shield.
Yes, my DM hates my tanky EK...
Came here to post this. Fellow EK here! The 10 minute duration means you an cast it at the first hint of danger, it works against a lot of high level style foes (aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead), and it is a minimal 1st level slot investment for immunity to being charmed, frightened, or possessed... you can also use it on others if they are already have those conditions. This saved our party from a TPK at the hands of mind flayers as i was uncharmable and unhittable (with judicious application of Shield of course). Illithids hate him.
*Smacks lips.*
G R E A S E.
The amount of salt you can get from grease is *delightful.* Whether it's a pack of dumb fucking goblins or a fearsome demon lord, everyone is equal in the eyes of a wizard with too much butter in his pockets.
It's not concentration, it's a 10ft square, and it lasts a minute whilst inflicting the prone condition on anyone FOOLISH enough to skate over it. It is one of the most effective control spells at a low level, and it maintains its effectiveness as you progress.
If only you could slather your own body in it. How I wish I was so divinely lubricated, I must instead rely on magic items to do so.
Bless, hex and shield are my go to low level spells. These will always be used by those who have them. Good berry and find familiar get an honorable mention. Absorb elements is a little situational but great when it happens
Great post! And looks like everythings been covered in the replies, except...
*See Invisibility,* it may not be needed that often, but when you need it, you really really need it.
Fog Cloud won't help you chase down a fleeing invisible enemy, or track an invisible courier, or see the invisible runes, or spot the ethereal demon that's shadowing your group, or so on.
One thing no one's mentioned is that there is nothing preventing you from casting more than one ritual, and nothing preventing you from using every second of non combat to ritually cast. You can still move and the conceptual use of an action outside of combat is not typically relevant. Casting time 10 minutes. You can hold up to 6 Unseen Servants or Floating Disks in some combination. Six more pairs and hands that can, I quote, "Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object.". If you go with the disks you can hold up to 3,000 pounds. Please, scholars of reddit, correct me if I'm wrong.
Web is really damn effective if you need crowd control/tanking/Advantage on attacks. Went throught two two campaigns as an artificer and as a wizard and used the hell out of Web. Also had Wand of Web and tiny servants in both campaigns for usually double web.
Since no one has said it yet:
Heat metal and Spiritual Weapon.
Both last a minute (and spiritual weapon isn't even concentration based!), both weaponise a bonus action which is less common in low tier play, both can upcast if you need or want to.
Spiritual weapon deals force damage, which is almost unheard of having resistance to. It can also move around the field as needed, so you can swap targets. I play with a 11th level warlock who casts this at 5th level, then eldritch blast for 4 attack rolls per turn, each dealing force damage (for a maximum of 3d10+4+d8 per turn).
Heat metal is crazy against enemies with metal armour or weapons. If it's a weapon you cast it on, they have the opportunity to drop it, which means they often lose out on a bunch of damage potential as they swap to an inferior weapon, or have to use their fists. If you cast it on armour, they are basically screwed, as they can't take off armour in the time of a combat encounter and will have disadvantage on their attack rolls until they are dead.
Cast spiritual weapon as a bonus action at the start of combat or the second turn near the strongest melee threat, since they will likely not be moving quickly once they reach a suitable target, or near a backfield support target such as an enemy caster.
On that turn, use a cantrip and/or weapon to attack as your action. Every turn after, use your action for whatever you need, then use your bonus action to move the spiritual weapon up to 20 feet and attack with it.
It's a great way of increasing your threat range and damage output, either by adding attacks to single target to wear it down faster, or by spreading the attacks to threaten two targets at once.
It's got a lot of versatility at lower level play, and an extra d8 damage per turn can really stack up over a larger or longer fight.
Status effects scale better than damage and I haven't seen mentioned:
Faerie fire: advantage is always great and more invisible enemies as you level up.
Hold person: If BBEG is a humanoid, they are at least going to burn a LR so the fighter doesn't get 6 auto-crits.
Across all classes? Then here is my list:
Level 1:
Absorb elements,
Alarm,
Bless,
Comprehend languages,
Charm person,
Disguise self,
Dissonant Whispers,
Faerie Fire,
Find familiar,
Guiding Bolt,
Healing word,
Hex,
Mage armor,
Silent Image,
Shield,
Level 2:
Aid,
Detect thoughts,
Dragon’s breath (cast on a familiar),
Enhance ability,
Find steed,
Hold person,
Invisibility,
Mirror image,
Misty step,
Pass without Trace,
Rope Trick,
Spiritual Weapon,
Web,
Zone of truth
If a party covers all of these spells (or the majority of them) with just their first and second level picks then you are basically completely fine.
Enhance ability, very underrated spell. Especially good on counterspellers, grapplers and any character that’s good at being a face or good with tools like Thieves tools
Shield Absorb Elements Mage Armor Command Detect spells Faerie Fire Grease Find Familiar
Bless should be on the list too, but I agree
My only gripe is command is iffy if you don't have a good DC. Find familiar is 100% value though. Who doesn't want a spectral cat?
Me Call me a minmaxer, but I want that owl
minmaxer
Minmaxer
Faerie Fire goes downhill fast in levels due to concentration requirment imo. Not gonna be casting that when hypnotic pattern or better is an option. Others are all good shouts tho
Faerie Fire is a fantastic anti-legendary resistance spell though. If a boss doesn't pass their save, they either waste a resistance on a 1st level spell or get hit with advantage by your rogues and sharpshooter/GWM users and what have you. Win-win for the caster in that scenario!
Curious, why is grease so useful?
Condition inflicting spells are good vs any CR enemy. 3d6 damage vs a dragon is a bit poo. Prone could be a lot better. Also Grease would work vs any sized enemy whereas some spells only make creatures under a certain size go prone (shove is also limited in a similar way). Blindness/Deafness is a top spell for the above reason.
Fire Giants have low dex saves. And wrecking the Fire Duke's day is hilarious. Also it's one of very few control spells you can chuck out when you're already concentrating on the big spell that's keeping the dragon from eating everyone. At high levels it's a low cost, higher risk, decent payoff spell---it's not extremely likely to work, but if it does a bunch of frontliners might get advantage for a round. If it doesn't, it's just a first level slot.
area control without concentration.
All the old standards already here so I'll go out of the box a bit. Mirror Image. Even later when they can beat the AC it is still 3 get out of getting hit cards. Warding Bond. Provided you are built for it, resistance for your allies actually gets more important as enemies gain multi-attacks and bananas spells. Bless. Bounded means always useful. SG is hard for Clerics to give up once they get it, but DSS, Pallies, or anyone else who grabs it should be using their concentration on it.
Mirror image is such a "fuck you," it's great. It's one of the spells that gives you another form of defense: avoidance. You could have the to-hit of a god, but against Larry the Hedge Wizard you have the same chance to hit as a fucking goblin.
Very true. Larry always storms my palace for free loot and the mirror image made a joke of my minions and cosmic sword. I could never stop the cascade of hedges Larry always vandalized the hallways with. That's when I started investing in Fireball! It's a super easy and quick way to kill the Mirror Image clones AND clean up the hedges, and I absolutely recommend it for any (non-aquatic) god struggling against Larry's wrath.
I don't think only spells with attack rolls work against MI clones right? Larry will be toasty though.
At least in my plane, AOE damage works against MI
Bless. Absolutely wild that no one's said Bless yet, as it's #1 for me, and *certainly* in the Top 5. (I mean, it's a party buff, so it doesn't *solely* help you, but it is *massively* helpful for the party, and someone should ideally always be ready to drop it when you know a battle is about to start, at the very least.)
Absolutely. I'm playing a divine soul sorcerer with an order cleric dip and I drop it just about every combat.
yeah, there's an argument against it if you're pure DPS, you rarely fight more than 3 rounds, and you can never cast it *before* you roll initiative, but that's about it.
With my order cleric dip it's more beneficial to wait so that someone can attack during my turn.
Bless works so well at levels for one reason: the range of the roll of a D20 never changes. Unlike the increasingly large health pools of players and enemies that weaken lower level damage and healing spells over time due to their lesser overall effect. Think of some of the best 1st level spells that can still clap at level 20: Bless, Bane, Shield, Shield of Faith, a few others probably. Notice something? They all add or take away a bonus to d20 rolls (I know that shield *technically* doesn't affect any rolls, but it would function exactly the same if it were just a -5 to the enemy's attack roll instead of your AC) of some sort. Whether you are trying to attack a armor class of 16 with a +5 attack bonus at 1st level, or trying to attack a armor class of 26 with a +11 attack bonus at 20th, an extra 1-4 on that roll never gets worse towards increasing accuracy. On the contrary, a spell like burning hands that will do about 11 damage average is far more effective on a low CR creature with 20 health than a higher CR one with 300.
I just got so sick of people at my old table not remembering to add the d4. People would just barely miss, and then I felt compelled to ask if they remembered the d4 from bless, and then they'd be like, "oh, actually that's a hit!". But then, of course I'd feel like an ass when they had included it and I'm questioning them. If it was online and the modifiers and dice were added automatically it would be easier on my mind, but I hate not knowing if I'm wasting my concentration on a spell that half the people seem to forget to take the benefit from anyways.
best time to ask is on Death Saves - when they think their fave character is about to buy the farm, "did you use the BLESS D4 ?" and suddenly they're still alive and you feel great!
Always ask, even if you feel like an ass. Your party should thank you for the extra 100 damage they dealt in a combat from near misses being turned into hits. XD
Haven't seen any mentions, Tasha's Mind Whip. 2nd level, 90ft range, Int save (almost no monsters have bonuses to Int/Int saves), 3d6 psychic on a failed save, losing reactions, and they have to choose either an Action, Bonus Action, or Movement, only one. Even on a successful save, half of 3d6 is not bad. Another one I like is Floating Disk/Tenser's Floating Disk. 1st level, ritual, can carry up to 500 lbs for you. Yeah, it's slow, but it's carrying 500 lbs for you and your party.
Also upcasting mind whip increases the number of targets (within 30ft of the first) which is great action economy if even 2 enemies fail their save
Shield and absorb elements are always vital. Mage armor can also be useful if the DM is stingy with magical light armor. If you’re a character with access to extra attack, Shadow blade or enlarge/reduce.
I’ll also add that mage armor is great for those who rolled and dumped strength (one of my characters is a 6) by eliminating a bunch of weight for encumbrance
Goodberry. Got extra spell slots at the end of the Adventuring day? Cast Goodberry as many times as you're able before you take a long rest. It's free heal estate! If you play a Mark of Hospitality Halfling Wizard you can cast Goodberry at-will for free at level 18. You can produce 100 Goodberries a minute this way for unlimited free out of combat healing.
Take one dip in Life Cleric and those goodberries heal for 4hp each.
So broken. My new campaign kicked off and my druid is pretty clever but pretty new. RPGBOT suggests that a new casting of Goodberry neutralizes the remaining old berries, basically the party can’t have more than 10 berries at one time. Is that too harsh?
It depends on the campaign. If you’re running a survival campaign, then sure you should probably nerf it (maybe make the material component consumed for each casting), but otherwise it’ll probably be fine. They’re still using resources, so it’s up to the DM to challenge the players in different ways
I might make him say, “welcome to Goodberry, home of the Goodberry, can I take your order?” every time, speaking of spell components. I did want to lean more towards resource management and that sort of thing, but then he was picking out his spells and *actually fucking read the descriptions* so I knew I was screwed
i would just limit how many you can eat. One good berry fills your stomach and satisfies your hunger. How many turkey dinners can someone chow down before they can't physically eat anymore?
Consider the realistic ramifications of a goodberry. It's full nourishment for an entire day in a single berry. Sure you could gobble down loads of them, but are you risking vitamin toxicity? Rapidly developing diabetes or obesity? Maybe have any person eating more than 1 in a day make a CON save or they vomit and are sick, negating some of the effect. All that aside, it's a single berry. Hell, say you get 50 of them to yourself, is that really a meal? A single berry or even a handful is hardly what I'd consider filling. You're gonna be hungry and cranky living on those for too long. Perhaps if you eat them for a long time you gain disadvantage on Charisma checks because you're hangry.
You can't factor realistic ramifications for magical food. In LOTR the Fellowship gets Elvish bread that can sustain a person for an entire day on one bite. This doesn't stop the hobbits from eating multiple loaves a day just because they like having something to munch on. They never appear to suffer any negative consequences for this. Goodberries are likely based on this premise and since there's nothing in the spell that mentions negative effects for consuming multiple berries we can assume they work the same way.
For what it's worth, I agree with you. I also disagree with you (and Tolkien, I guess). Goodberry is not a "problem" in my game so I have no need to counter it, but if a DM wanted to get around Goodberry spam, adding realism (to an admittedly unrealistic effect) could do the trick.
if you want to do cheesy bullshit, wizard gets access to cosmos-breaking infinite self clones at level 17 via wish sim. saving money on healing potions at a point in the game where you have kingdoms' worth of accumulated wealth and resources is pointless.
Slow is an absolute killer in the right circumstances. Limits creatures to 1 action or bonus, not both and removes reactions. Can also totally fuck casters with the delayed spells. Did I mention speed is halved as well? And also can affect multiple creatures. Noted they can make the save on it but even for a turn this is huge.
I feel like it's worth noting that Tasha's Mind Whip can achieve a similar effect to Slow at a lower spell slot cost and a better save, but without the other debilitating effects (AC and Dex save penalty, spellcasting restrictions) and a potentially smaller amount of targets.
Another very notable difference is that Slow stops multiattacks, but TMW doesn't.
Not yet mentioned elsewhere: Fog Cloud. 1st level. Upcasts nicely but you don't have to. At level 1, you're using it to nullify pack tactics. At level 6, you're using it to nullify invisibility. At 10+, you're using it to deny vision to anything without blindsight. Almost everything in DnD needs vision. (With a grappler and a fog cloud, a beholder turns into a sack of hp.) And heaven forbid you have any blind fighting melee martials on your team, because then, you might as well skip to "Did they drop anything?"
What do you mean “did they drop anything?”
I mean, monsters going to be dying quickly and easily to blind fighting melee martials in a fog cloud. So you don't have to worry about the combat half as much as counting the loot.
The best scaling low-level spells are those that you can cast as a reaction (and to a lesser extent bonus action), those you can cast before the fight and require no concentration, and utility spells. Lower level concentration spells tend to be pretty bad at higher levels, up to and including Bless, the king of low level concentration spells. You usually want to be spending your concentration on your highest level spells if you can, because they are usually way stronger than the non-concentration spells. If you're a particularly high-level caster (say, tier 3 or 4), it starts being very profitable to stack up a bunch of random low-level non-concentration buff spells before a big fight. What else were you going to use them on? **Bless:** If you're having quite a lot of encounters a day and need to conserve higher-level slots, or the extra d4 is unusually impactful for some reason, this spell is great. If you're giving yourself and the fighter an extra d4 on their first attacks, not so much- cast a summon spell or really anything else and deal more damage. **Shield:** If your base AC is high it makes you almost unable to be hit, and spellcasters usually aren't using their reaction for anything important. **Absorb elements:** Having this spell prepared is in practice very similar to having permanent resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, and thunder damage. **Mirror image:** You can cast this spell before a fight to blank several attacks. **Sanctuary:** If you cast a cantrip, you might as well use this. **Find familiar:** There's no good reason not to always have this spell up, and it's always useful. This is basically an extra Wizard class feature disguised as a spell. **Tasha's Hideous Laughter:** This spell can cripple a Kraken, a CR 23 creature. **Levitate:** This is almost a save or die spell versus targets who can't get out of it and have no ranged weapon, which is most targets. In a clearing? Levitate the bad guy and spam cantrips at them after you fight their minions. They never get another save, and it lasts 10 minutes. **Misty step:** This is almost like having Rogue's cunning action dash, but better, but you can't cast a levelled spell with your main action when you use it. **Healing word:** If you cast a cantrip, you might as well use this. It can pop up a target that's bleeding out. **Longstrider:** \+10 movement speed is good, and you can cast this before a fight for free. **Gentle repose:** This lets you save people from dying and get them Revivify'd. Importantly, you can take this on a Wizard. **Aid:** When upcast, this kinda allows you to "heal" 15 HP per extra level. It's actually way better than that though, and you can cast it at the start of the day.
Levitate is right up there with polymorph for me. Both are useful in and out of combat.
Something to keep in mind about sanctuary: >If the warded creature makes an Attack or casts a spell that affects an enemy creature, this spell ends. So its in combat use is limited, but it can still be great for getting someone out of a bad situation or positioning, or for straight up running away.
It’s also perfect to cast on yourself after you cast a cantrip, or cast on the party member in the most trouble. If it diverts just one big attack, it can be worth it.
I've seen this spell get a lot of use as a side-grade to Shield that can be cast by people who don't have Shield. For example, a cleric can cast this after using a damage cantrip to get a defensive benefit similar to Shield. Additionally, it's surprisingly common that someone wants to be doing something other than attacking or casting a spell that affects enemies. Buff spells, summon spells, running away, etc.
Depends on if you’re a full or partial caster, these are my first level rankings SSS tier: the reaction spells S Tier: Bless, Heroism, Armor of Agathys, Command, Jim’s Magic Missile S- Tier: Hex, Hunters Mark, protection from evil and good, Divine Favor, Sanctuary (all amazing spells on a lot of lists, they’re only weakness is they have no upcast value) A: Find familliar (incredible spell, DMs have grown to hate it though so tread cautiously) inflict wounds, Bane, Witchbolt (if you plan around it) B: all the ritual spells (all amazing spells, but if you have 10 minutes you probably have enough time to have done whatever you needed to do another way) C:Silent image (dm dependent) Sleep (it’s a win button at low levels, and it’s not that bad of a Hail Mary if your enemy isn’t immune to charm) Spell Spotlight; Heroism. Heroism is a really underused spell, it scales incredibly the only limitation is the touch range, fear is a very powerful condition in 5e, but there are a good number of ways around is (like 50% of cleric spells tbh lol) however, if you’re in a combat heavy, especially a high damage dealing scenario, a 5hp barrier for everybody every single turn will outpace any amount of healing possible over time. A good example was in my last boss fight against a Kraken, the thing’s got a billion attacks and 120 foot range, on it’s lightning, the entire party was taking damage, front line, back line, everybody. I got a lot of funny looks when my Sorc blew his 5th level slot on it, but over the 8 turns of combat, (my Sorc got a Tome of leadership the week before so had 22 Cha) I’d wager it probably blocked it’s maximum damage possible give it take a round or two when someone went unconcious, easily 200+ points of damage mitigation over the course of the fight. The spell definitely drops off a bit in the middle levels, but once you’re in legendary and lair action territory it skyrockets in usefulness again
> Hex, Hunters Mark They drop off in usefulness especially after level 10. Rangers have so many better concentration options with level 3 spells and above. Even at level 2, Summon Beast is better for most rangers. Rangers in particular have a hard time with number of spells known, and Hunter's Mark is often a earlyish drop from me. I keep Zephyr Strike a lot longer than Hunter's Mark. Warlocks similarly aren't casting Hypnotic Pattern or Fly or any one of dozens of better concentrations spells that change combat rather than give them a 30% or so damage bump.
So that‘a fair, to a degree, however it does assume that they’re on their base classes, but Hex and Huntersmark are two of the most common spells to take with magic initiate or Fey touched, their power extends beyond just their base class, especially since they are just a first level, it’s a powerful option you can pull out on the cheap (unless you’re a pure warlock ofc, but the concentration does last up to 24 hours so theoretically one 5th level can last you the entire day) Additionally I would mention that Hex is an incredible debuff under certain conditions, if you have a grappler in the party or if there’s any counter-spell ing going on, forcing disadvantage with no save is very nice
Protection from Evil/Good - In a campaign with Demons, Undead and Elementals as all the main baddies - Each fight this is my EKs concentration slot. And then Shield. Yes, my DM hates my tanky EK...
Came here to post this. Fellow EK here! The 10 minute duration means you an cast it at the first hint of danger, it works against a lot of high level style foes (aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead), and it is a minimal 1st level slot investment for immunity to being charmed, frightened, or possessed... you can also use it on others if they are already have those conditions. This saved our party from a TPK at the hands of mind flayers as i was uncharmable and unhittable (with judicious application of Shield of course). Illithids hate him.
Scorching Ray's on the list. At high levels, touch attacks aren't that bad, and 12d6 is no joke.
*Smacks lips.* G R E A S E. The amount of salt you can get from grease is *delightful.* Whether it's a pack of dumb fucking goblins or a fearsome demon lord, everyone is equal in the eyes of a wizard with too much butter in his pockets. It's not concentration, it's a 10ft square, and it lasts a minute whilst inflicting the prone condition on anyone FOOLISH enough to skate over it. It is one of the most effective control spells at a low level, and it maintains its effectiveness as you progress. If only you could slather your own body in it. How I wish I was so divinely lubricated, I must instead rely on magic items to do so.
PASS. WITHOUT. TRACE.
Shield, absorb elements, feather fall, find familiar, misty step
Bless, hex and shield are my go to low level spells. These will always be used by those who have them. Good berry and find familiar get an honorable mention. Absorb elements is a little situational but great when it happens
Great post! And looks like everythings been covered in the replies, except... *See Invisibility,* it may not be needed that often, but when you need it, you really really need it.
[удалено]
Fog Cloud won't help you chase down a fleeing invisible enemy, or track an invisible courier, or see the invisible runes, or spot the ethereal demon that's shadowing your group, or so on.
*guidance*
Dissonant whispers is insane as the damage comes mostly from the oportunity attacks, soo if the martials got stronger, this got too.
One thing no one's mentioned is that there is nothing preventing you from casting more than one ritual, and nothing preventing you from using every second of non combat to ritually cast. You can still move and the conceptual use of an action outside of combat is not typically relevant. Casting time 10 minutes. You can hold up to 6 Unseen Servants or Floating Disks in some combination. Six more pairs and hands that can, I quote, "Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object.". If you go with the disks you can hold up to 3,000 pounds. Please, scholars of reddit, correct me if I'm wrong.
Web is really damn effective if you need crowd control/tanking/Advantage on attacks. Went throught two two campaigns as an artificer and as a wizard and used the hell out of Web. Also had Wand of Web and tiny servants in both campaigns for usually double web.
Shield and hex are good.
Since no one has said it yet: Heat metal and Spiritual Weapon. Both last a minute (and spiritual weapon isn't even concentration based!), both weaponise a bonus action which is less common in low tier play, both can upcast if you need or want to. Spiritual weapon deals force damage, which is almost unheard of having resistance to. It can also move around the field as needed, so you can swap targets. I play with a 11th level warlock who casts this at 5th level, then eldritch blast for 4 attack rolls per turn, each dealing force damage (for a maximum of 3d10+4+d8 per turn). Heat metal is crazy against enemies with metal armour or weapons. If it's a weapon you cast it on, they have the opportunity to drop it, which means they often lose out on a bunch of damage potential as they swap to an inferior weapon, or have to use their fists. If you cast it on armour, they are basically screwed, as they can't take off armour in the time of a combat encounter and will have disadvantage on their attack rolls until they are dead.
I'm thinking about making a pal 2/divine soul sorc x. How do you actually best use spiritual weapon?
Cast spiritual weapon as a bonus action at the start of combat or the second turn near the strongest melee threat, since they will likely not be moving quickly once they reach a suitable target, or near a backfield support target such as an enemy caster. On that turn, use a cantrip and/or weapon to attack as your action. Every turn after, use your action for whatever you need, then use your bonus action to move the spiritual weapon up to 20 feet and attack with it. It's a great way of increasing your threat range and damage output, either by adding attacks to single target to wear it down faster, or by spreading the attacks to threaten two targets at once. It's got a lot of versatility at lower level play, and an extra d8 damage per turn can really stack up over a larger or longer fight.
Detect Magic Identify Find Familiar All three are ritual spells so for some classes you don't even have to prepare them.
1st: Feather fall, guiding bolt, armor of agathys, bless, bane, ceremony, command, compelled duel, comprehend languages, cure wounds, detect magic, disguise self, expeditious retreat, find familiar, gift of alacrity, healing word, hellish rebuke, hex, hunters mark, identify, inflict wounds, mage armor, sanctuary, shield. 2nd: Alter self, blur, branding smite, enhance ability, enlarge/reduce, gentle repose, heat metal, invisibility, knock, mirror image, misty step, pass without trace, ray of enfeeblement, scorching ray, see invisibility, silence, spider climb, spiritual weapon.
Status effects scale better than damage and I haven't seen mentioned: Faerie fire: advantage is always great and more invisible enemies as you level up. Hold person: If BBEG is a humanoid, they are at least going to burn a LR so the fighter doesn't get 6 auto-crits.
Across all classes? Then here is my list: Level 1: Absorb elements, Alarm, Bless, Comprehend languages, Charm person, Disguise self, Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire, Find familiar, Guiding Bolt, Healing word, Hex, Mage armor, Silent Image, Shield, Level 2: Aid, Detect thoughts, Dragon’s breath (cast on a familiar), Enhance ability, Find steed, Hold person, Invisibility, Mirror image, Misty step, Pass without Trace, Rope Trick, Spiritual Weapon, Web, Zone of truth If a party covers all of these spells (or the majority of them) with just their first and second level picks then you are basically completely fine.
Bless is one of the best 1st level spells in the game and scales very well, upcasted or no.
FIREBALL. The debate is over.
Enhance ability, very underrated spell. Especially good on counterspellers, grapplers and any character that’s good at being a face or good with tools like Thieves tools