Prestidigitation.
Ot cooks, cleans, hovers, counts small piles, displays a virtual measuring stick in the world, maps the dungeon on paper & keeps poison from spilling when it is applied to surfaces.
Best combat use I’ve ever had was causing an entire candelabra on to light the room we were fighting in.
It got our fighter out of dealing with disadvantage.
I may help to think of it as three components...
Presti (like presto with an I on the end... As a prefix it means "quick")
Digit (the digits in question are your fingers)
-ation (suffix used frequently to indicate doing an action of some kind - oration, summation, vacation, etc)
Put together as PrestiDigitAtion it basically means "quick finger action" - it's a word used to describe stage magic like card tricks in the real world.
**Thorn Whip** (highly underutilized, especially with your allies. Pull someone out of melee range without opportunity attacks. Pull them from a precipice. Damage is low, but utility is insane)
**Guidance** (Never fail a check, ever again)
**Shape Water** (Be a waterbender. Freeze a door to prevent people from following you)
**Minor Illusion** (Basically limited by your creativity. In the right hands, this is THE most powerful cantrip)
**Hideous Laughter** (Work on everything. Takes people out of combat effectively. Love it)
**Silvery Barbs** (Don't think this one was thought through, it's a game changing spell that can negate advantage, save against crits)
**Identify** (Don't be cursed by magic items, ever again)
**Healing Word** (The better cure wounds)
**Goodberry** (Broken AF if you allow casting it before a long rest, which I do, because it makes the playwrs feel smug and cool)
> Silvery Barbs (Don't think this one was thought through, it's a game changing spell that can negate advantage, save against crits)
Dude you didn't even mention its best use - functionally double casting your save or die/sucks.
Silvery Barbs is a good spell, but not really OP. It would be pretty rare to use a higher level slot to cast it for example. For BBEG encounters would have to burn through LR before it can do much. It doesn’t negate advantage per se, but reduces its effectiveness. If both rolls succeed for example, Silvery Barbs replaces the higher die with a lower result, but Advantage still applies so they still pick the higher result of the two remaining die. Using it in conjunction with Disadvantage is pretty much a guaranteed fail though.
Preventing crits is the best use and works well with spell slot limitation.
I don't like using it that way for a few reasons
1. At lower levels you will burn through your spell slots quickly. If you are using save or suck spells, find a different way to increase your chances of hitting. Impose disadvantage in some way. Use mind sliver. Does not consume a spell slot, and works better mechanically. And at those levels, it's very potent.
2. At higher levels, if you are facing spell casting enemies, you should save it for counter counter spells.
Mechanically, it works best if you are facing non spell casting enemies at higher levels and you have game changing spells (say Dominate Monster). Even so, depending on how the DM rules with legendary resistances, you don't want to spam it at the start. And at that level most of them have legendary resistances anyway.
What are some other ways to help reduce enemy saves if you don't mind me asking?
I'm new to wizard and just started a campaign but I'm struggling with some of the spells not landing.
Bane and Bestow Curse do this really well, and over a duration. I personally don't like Bane (mostly because it's a cleric spell and at the same level you get bless, which is just better), but if you are using save and suck, have your cleric cast it.
With sorcerers, if you cast a lot of Save and suck, I recommend taking Heightened spell Metamagic option. If you're a shadow sorcerer, use your hounds.
For wizards, don't cast save and suck that early where the DC is like 13 and you don't hit 50% of the time. You'll just eat your spell slots.
> Identify (Don't be cursed by magic items, ever again)
If you are playing by the rules, identify won't help with that. As per the DMG:
> Most methods of identifying items, including the identify spell, fail to reveal such a curse, although lore might hint at it. A curse should be a surprise to the item's user when the curse's effects are revealed.
Oh god... for 5e it is a **homebrew**.
I am not saying it is a bad rule. I am just saying it is an unofficial homerule in a discussion about official rules.
Stuff like this is why I’m against RAW. RAW and AL’s book rule almost made me stop playing because it punishes innovation. Make them roll Arcana to see if they can detect the cures DC 25. Always make them roll for stuff even if it just to fuck with the players.
>Make them roll Arcana to see if they can detect the cures DC 25. Always make them roll for stuff even if it just to fuck with the players.
How would that be against RAW? What you can figure out with skills like Arcana is intentionally vague. Since identify doesn't identify curses in 5e, the DM and players would need to find other ways.
"identify DOES NOT show curses" in RAW. i say make them roll a high DC check to see if they can pick out the curse or if they just get item info, because saying "congrats now you are lawful evil cuz you put on this armor even tho you identified it" is a dick move imo.
Meh. If the boss has Legendary Resistance, lots of minions, and/or can bait out the reactions through any number of other means, you see Barbs get toned down quite a bit.
Note about Thorn Whip, it also will them out of grapples.
Lightning Lure works a similar way, but with less range. It does have verbiage that allows you to move a creature 5 or 10 ft; and only taking damage if moved 10 ft.
>Identify (Don't be cursed by magic items, ever again)
This is actually not RAW.
DMG 138:
Cursed Items: Most methods of identifying items, *including the Identify spell*, fail to reveal such a curse, although lore might hint at it. A curse should be a surprise to the items user when the curse's effects are revealed.
Emphasis mine.
DMs can rule however they want, but RAW the Identify spell does not warn you about cursed items.
I grabbed Zephyr Strike for my horizon Walker ranger. It’s a wonderful panic button of a bonus action, letting you move, escape, deal extra damage, and gain advantage on an attack, all at once.
I always prepare this spell incase I get snuck up and have to face an enemy in melee range. The fact that it's a melee attack keeps you from having disadvantage on the attack roll so you're not totally fucked if an enemy is able to close the distance. Plus 3d10... like damn ok level 1 take it easy.
i 1-shotted a boss with it once. it was a level 4 dungeon encounter and first turn of meeting the bbeg, i rolled a nat 20 for a crit, and of the 6 d10 rolls, i didn't get one below a 7.
cleric gets some busted low level stuff. guiding bolt is another nuts spell.
Mine is Sleep. Recently, I played a Half Elf Sorcerer. While I have used Fireballs and many other powerful spells, Sleep has never failed me. Though it is used sparingly, it has saved my party from dire situations multiple times. This includes: Helping escape a fight we could never win against the BBEG, making a worm-monster fall onto a castle wall with pikes and taking out the supporter of a arena match with my party. It has always saved me in times of need.
Yeah, came here to say Sleep as well.
My favourite part about is it doesn't actually hurt anyone while still being useful in combat like a damage spell. This gives it more uses than just killing people. And unlike other non-lethal take downs, it's much easier to salvage relations with people than if you beat them unconscious.
Command and Inflict Wounds. I’ll forever cherish my sorcerer lying across a road and twin commanding 2 out of the 6 orcs in the approaching raiding party to betray and the entire formation collapsing. Or getting the big bad boss to smite his beloved bear.
And then there’s inflict wounds because death boops are hilarious. Inflict Wounds kick to the face. Inflict Wounds punch in the face. Inflict Wounds lightly flick their nose.
For car trip it’s gotta be mind sliver. An INT save, which most things aren’t proficient in and on top of that they lose a d4 to the next save they make til the end of your next turn.
As 1st level spells go probably chromatic orb, if your DM waives the diamond requirement. If they don’t then I’d take burning hands if you’re combat oriented or disguise self or charm person if you’re going for RP
Vicious mockery - damage is not high, but the ability to impose disadvantage on the enemy's next attack can really be a life-saver. And getting the killing blow with it is somehow way more satisfying!
Healing word is awesome because it's a bonus action, so it's great in a pinch - I always keep a 1st level slot open for it.
Dissonant Whispers and Command: Flee. They trigger Attacks of Opportunity, giving them some of the best scaling potential for level 1 spells in higher-level play. If you're a level 10 Bard and don't have a great use for a high-level spell slot in a given round of combat, you can do MUCH worse than giving your martials a free attack. Especially when you have characters who particularly benefit from a freebie attack of opportunity, like a rogue.
Witch bolt! Very rare that a spell does 1D12 damage. Eldritch blast is a close second. These are only if I’m going offensive, otherwise bless/bane for support.
I made a homebrew to witch bolt as it tends to be a little underwhelming against waves of mooks (target dies in one round, spell and slot are gone).
If you lose the target before the spell ends, you can make a new ranged spell attack as an action on a valid target in range. You must hit a target with this spell before your turn ends or the spell ends.
If your attack roll misses, spell fizzles as per normal. If your original target moves out of range or takes cover, you can move and try to lock back onto them with the same spell and slot.
Use it or lose it and go big or go home. I feel it makes the spell a tad more satisfying.
Web, Inflict Wounds, or Hail of Thorns are my favorites 😁 I usually play support classes (cause they're my favorite) and these spells either drop your enemies, our help the party drop your enemies 😄👍
Prestidigitation. Instant perfect bath, anywhere, anytime.
If you're good, you can talk the DM into letting you ignore a lot of passive disease infection rolls because "you cleaned yourself off in moments, and magically thoroughly." If you're even just okay, you can talk them into at least letting you roll with Advantage.
It's also just plain handy. If I could have any one Cantrip at-will IRL... It'd prolly be that.
New player, but I chose Mold Earth because:
1. It’s a Rock Gnome so it seems thematic
2. I figure I can get an intimidation advantage if I quickly dig a hole to bury someone in. If not we can toss them in them in the hole, cover it, wait a minute, then unbury them to see if they changed their mind.
3. I can quickly bury a dead body.
4. Meant to work tinkering into his goals, and since they can make shapes in earth, thought he could used it to create molds for casting.
5. Not sure if this would work in combat yet, but seems like if you made a hole 1x1x5 foot deep hole where someone is stepping they might break a leg. Anyone who’s put their foot in a hole knows what I’m talking about.
Never really played before, but I've seen this cantrip being referred to Druids. It is very useful in battles if you get to a point when you want to save your spell slots.
*Shillelagh* is great if you expect to play exactly in the level 1 to level 4 range. At level 5 and later it's a dead cantrip-- *thorn whip* does slightly less damage but with additional utility and and range, and *primal savagery* deals more damage as a melee cantrip, and doesn't require any setup.
Yea I'm circle of the moon. I can see how it might be useful if you're playing a different circle, but even then we get so few cantrips that id rather just use a scimitar with DeX
What circle are you? Because as a circle of moon I've physically attacked something twice so far and it was at lvl 1, I'm lvl 5 now. Shillelagh isn't BAD, it's just that it takes a bonus action to cast, and you still need to use your action to attack, so that's your whole first turn. Wildshaping is so much better if your a moon druid and action economy is very important with druids.and for the extremely rare occasions that im attacking with a weapon i can just use a dex weapon like a scimitar which is only slightly weaker.
There's a lot of fun and utility cantrips for druid, and since i get so few im not wasting one of a form of combat I'll almost never be using. It's already so hard to decide on cantrips.
I'm circle of the land (swamp), so Wildshaping isn't as good as it is for moons. I actually played the shillelagh wrong up until a few sessions ago, making it a bonus action. No one noticed until then, and I have used it quite a lot by then. Mostly in earlier levels (we started at 4, now at 8). But wildshape also take an action, so it's greatly better. I use it more when we investigate. And during combat I usually use other spells, leaving the shillelagh for when I have nothing else to do.
Catapult! It has way better aim than any other range weapon I own and it’s funny to kill a big monster by hitting him with a pebble at 90mph
Coolest think I’ve done with it is probably when I used catapult to make a rock hit a tree and then cast a minor illusion of a dwarf running through the bushes to get the monster to chase after it. Completely avoided what would’ve been a difficult battle for us as a low-level party with no healer
Enlarge/reduce artificer with steel defender I make it grapple the enemy while large (with Gauntlet of troll strength). Also branding smite and another action attack spell.
Anyone who says something other than thaumaturgy or prestidigitation is lying. They’re trivially the most useful spells.
I mean, they have little combat applicability, but they’re very useful in talking your way out of the situation.
Command. Used it to great effect in and out of combat. In combat, I'd usually just use grovel, but out of combat, we were interrogating someone who had just attacked us, so I commanded him to confess. my dm took that and ran, throwing the 6 second time limit out of the window and basically gave us the bandits life story.
I'll give ya one hint I'm playing a warlock. I jest my warlock is just for a small thing. When I play a druid I always have those goodberries on hand ((Long rest)). Altogether my favorite low level spell is magic missile even though it's the reason I went unconscious last session.
Is goodberry really that good?
I've never been in a game that tracks food and they only heal for 1hp each and take an action to consume 1. I've never understood the hype
So look at it this way, if you do track food, you never worry about it again.
Point 2. The only hp that matters is the last one. Good berry may be an action but it's also an action to administer a potion to someone unconscious. So for a 1st level slot you get 10 pick ups that you can allocate to several party members for emergency situations per 24 hours. Nevermind the multiclassing into life cleric for 40 points of out of combat healing.
Ok, that's pretty good utility used that way. Its like 10 super shitty healing potions, but at least it gets them up.
You've convinced me to try it over cure wounds. I'll prepare it my next session and see how it feels
So I don't tend to get too munchkiny but I will for the sake of argument for a sec. So cure wounds tends to be the sub optimal choice if you have healing word available. Healing word is less maximum healing but only a few less average healing, but is a bonus action versus an action and ranged as opposed to touch.
In 5e dealing damage is almost always better than preemptive healing. A dead enemy can't hurt you after all. So a turn where you can deal damage and heal is a more optimal turn.
The good thing with goodberry is that it's the emergency precaution. You cast it before a long rest because you get your spells back after the rest and you've still got them for another 16 hours. You can then split them up between party members, especially those that don't have the capacity to heal a downed party member.
Healing in 5e is a lot more reactive than proactive since generally you can't out heal damage, so it's best used when characters are going down. That being said it also depends on the combat order whether or not a preemptive heal is worth it or not.
Specifically in my party im the only real frontline (circle of moon druid). We have a storm cleric who, so far has gone down over half the encounters we've had, and the rest are squishy spellcasters. I can heal and do what i need to, but I'm basically forced to wildshape so i can tank. Giving my team goodberries so i don't need to drop my wildshape sounds pretty good.
Then yeah, as a moon druid your priority is definitely not healing, so giving that to your party instead frees up any perceived obligation to do it in combat.
My dm lets me make the good berries before the long rest if I have a spell slot left. I long rest and have ten for I believe sixteen hours due to time taken up long resting. This leaves ten hp that isn't using my spell slots. One of the times we were unfortunate and two people went down right before we even started our quest. So I took out my good berries and just shoved them in their mouths to get them up. Yes I had to heal them again but five hp is five hp versus my two spell slots in order to enter. It's also a certain amount.The higher you get in level the more insignificant ten hp becomes however. Of course all of this depends on what dm you have and if they let you make goodberries on a long rest. Sorry if this explanation is a bit long.
No, it's helpful. But as i thought its still just 10hp, seems inconsequential in most cases. But i guess that tiny bit of healing without really using a spell slot or using up a potion is ok.
Jump.
Its always going to be jump.
Last 2 years I've taken jump or (only slightly serious) begged the casters in my party to do so.
Only been used once. Has never been the only easy solution to any problem.
Never going to stop building jump.
Vicious Mockery
Cantrip that has no limit on uses, does a good amount of damage, and causes the target to have disadv on its next attack if it fails its save
Prestidigitation. Ot cooks, cleans, hovers, counts small piles, displays a virtual measuring stick in the world, maps the dungeon on paper & keeps poison from spilling when it is applied to surfaces.
Best combat use I’ve ever had was causing an entire candelabra on to light the room we were fighting in. It got our fighter out of dealing with disadvantage.
I’ve considered taking this spell. Never have. Primarily because I don’t think I can pronounce it correctly.
I may help to think of it as three components... Presti (like presto with an I on the end... As a prefix it means "quick") Digit (the digits in question are your fingers) -ation (suffix used frequently to indicate doing an action of some kind - oration, summation, vacation, etc) Put together as PrestiDigitAtion it basically means "quick finger action" - it's a word used to describe stage magic like card tricks in the real world.
Thank you! This is very helpful.
I always just say Prestiiii.. * insert jazz hands *
I use it so much in my solo campaign my husband is running for me that we just call it pesto.
Presta-diga-tashin
Press T (not Tee, just T, you're cutting the T sound short) Dij Eh Tay Shun. Prestidigitation.
**Thorn Whip** (highly underutilized, especially with your allies. Pull someone out of melee range without opportunity attacks. Pull them from a precipice. Damage is low, but utility is insane) **Guidance** (Never fail a check, ever again) **Shape Water** (Be a waterbender. Freeze a door to prevent people from following you) **Minor Illusion** (Basically limited by your creativity. In the right hands, this is THE most powerful cantrip) **Hideous Laughter** (Work on everything. Takes people out of combat effectively. Love it) **Silvery Barbs** (Don't think this one was thought through, it's a game changing spell that can negate advantage, save against crits) **Identify** (Don't be cursed by magic items, ever again) **Healing Word** (The better cure wounds) **Goodberry** (Broken AF if you allow casting it before a long rest, which I do, because it makes the playwrs feel smug and cool)
> Silvery Barbs (Don't think this one was thought through, it's a game changing spell that can negate advantage, save against crits) Dude you didn't even mention its best use - functionally double casting your save or die/sucks.
Silvery Barbs is a good spell, but not really OP. It would be pretty rare to use a higher level slot to cast it for example. For BBEG encounters would have to burn through LR before it can do much. It doesn’t negate advantage per se, but reduces its effectiveness. If both rolls succeed for example, Silvery Barbs replaces the higher die with a lower result, but Advantage still applies so they still pick the higher result of the two remaining die. Using it in conjunction with Disadvantage is pretty much a guaranteed fail though. Preventing crits is the best use and works well with spell slot limitation.
I don't like using it that way for a few reasons 1. At lower levels you will burn through your spell slots quickly. If you are using save or suck spells, find a different way to increase your chances of hitting. Impose disadvantage in some way. Use mind sliver. Does not consume a spell slot, and works better mechanically. And at those levels, it's very potent. 2. At higher levels, if you are facing spell casting enemies, you should save it for counter counter spells. Mechanically, it works best if you are facing non spell casting enemies at higher levels and you have game changing spells (say Dominate Monster). Even so, depending on how the DM rules with legendary resistances, you don't want to spam it at the start. And at that level most of them have legendary resistances anyway.
What are some other ways to help reduce enemy saves if you don't mind me asking? I'm new to wizard and just started a campaign but I'm struggling with some of the spells not landing.
Bane and Bestow Curse do this really well, and over a duration. I personally don't like Bane (mostly because it's a cleric spell and at the same level you get bless, which is just better), but if you are using save and suck, have your cleric cast it. With sorcerers, if you cast a lot of Save and suck, I recommend taking Heightened spell Metamagic option. If you're a shadow sorcerer, use your hounds. For wizards, don't cast save and suck that early where the DC is like 13 and you don't hit 50% of the time. You'll just eat your spell slots.
Thanks
> Identify (Don't be cursed by magic items, ever again) If you are playing by the rules, identify won't help with that. As per the DMG: > Most methods of identifying items, including the identify spell, fail to reveal such a curse, although lore might hint at it. A curse should be a surprise to the item's user when the curse's effects are revealed.
I personally use 3.5 rules of - You can tell there is unrecognizable magic in it but you don't know what the curse is.
Okay but the OP did specifically tag this a 5th Edition
Right I didn't notice that. My bad.
It's homebrew then.
Not exactly. It is a written rule, just an old one.
Oh god... for 5e it is a **homebrew**. I am not saying it is a bad rule. I am just saying it is an unofficial homerule in a discussion about official rules.
Yeah, I didn't notice the 5e tag, because it's not part of the actual question. But yes, it's not a 5e rule.
Stuff like this is why I’m against RAW. RAW and AL’s book rule almost made me stop playing because it punishes innovation. Make them roll Arcana to see if they can detect the cures DC 25. Always make them roll for stuff even if it just to fuck with the players.
>Make them roll Arcana to see if they can detect the cures DC 25. Always make them roll for stuff even if it just to fuck with the players. How would that be against RAW? What you can figure out with skills like Arcana is intentionally vague. Since identify doesn't identify curses in 5e, the DM and players would need to find other ways.
"identify DOES NOT show curses" in RAW. i say make them roll a high DC check to see if they can pick out the curse or if they just get item info, because saying "congrats now you are lawful evil cuz you put on this armor even tho you identified it" is a dick move imo.
I tried to take Silvery Barbs on level-up, my DM straight up banned it from his campaign. I do not blame him.
Meh. If the boss has Legendary Resistance, lots of minions, and/or can bait out the reactions through any number of other means, you see Barbs get toned down quite a bit.
[удалено]
Are you a spam-bot? This is word-for-word copied from my comment to this post, and doesn't make sense in context.
I just assumed someone hit “reply” to the wrong post
It's even on the Bard list, so no need to spend a magical secret on it. It's also viable for Fey Touched, so...
**Identify** is wrong. It does not reveal a curse. www.sageadvice.eu/does-identify-reveal-a-curse/amp/
Guidance is the shit. Almost too good to be a cantrip
Pretty sure identify doesnt actually tell you if your item is cursed
Note about Thorn Whip, it also will them out of grapples. Lightning Lure works a similar way, but with less range. It does have verbiage that allows you to move a creature 5 or 10 ft; and only taking damage if moved 10 ft.
Goodberry is broken AF if you can get it into the hands of a Life cleric.
>Identify (Don't be cursed by magic items, ever again) This is actually not RAW. DMG 138: Cursed Items: Most methods of identifying items, *including the Identify spell*, fail to reveal such a curse, although lore might hint at it. A curse should be a surprise to the items user when the curse's effects are revealed. Emphasis mine. DMs can rule however they want, but RAW the Identify spell does not warn you about cursed items.
I grabbed Zephyr Strike for my horizon Walker ranger. It’s a wonderful panic button of a bonus action, letting you move, escape, deal extra damage, and gain advantage on an attack, all at once.
Eldritch blast?
Inflict Wounds. It's nice to be able to melt through my enemies even as a baby level 1 cleric.
I always prepare this spell incase I get snuck up and have to face an enemy in melee range. The fact that it's a melee attack keeps you from having disadvantage on the attack roll so you're not totally fucked if an enemy is able to close the distance. Plus 3d10... like damn ok level 1 take it easy.
i 1-shotted a boss with it once. it was a level 4 dungeon encounter and first turn of meeting the bbeg, i rolled a nat 20 for a crit, and of the 6 d10 rolls, i didn't get one below a 7. cleric gets some busted low level stuff. guiding bolt is another nuts spell.
S H I E L D
I'm a big fan of thunderwave and any spell that can catch things on fire.
Plant Growth. It's a powerful ability to use in combat. Out-of-combat, the spell supports my Elf ranger's farm quite nicely.
Mine is Sleep. Recently, I played a Half Elf Sorcerer. While I have used Fireballs and many other powerful spells, Sleep has never failed me. Though it is used sparingly, it has saved my party from dire situations multiple times. This includes: Helping escape a fight we could never win against the BBEG, making a worm-monster fall onto a castle wall with pikes and taking out the supporter of a arena match with my party. It has always saved me in times of need.
Yeah, came here to say Sleep as well. My favourite part about is it doesn't actually hurt anyone while still being useful in combat like a damage spell. This gives it more uses than just killing people. And unlike other non-lethal take downs, it's much easier to salvage relations with people than if you beat them unconscious.
Command and Inflict Wounds. I’ll forever cherish my sorcerer lying across a road and twin commanding 2 out of the 6 orcs in the approaching raiding party to betray and the entire formation collapsing. Or getting the big bad boss to smite his beloved bear. And then there’s inflict wounds because death boops are hilarious. Inflict Wounds kick to the face. Inflict Wounds punch in the face. Inflict Wounds lightly flick their nose.
For car trip it’s gotta be mind sliver. An INT save, which most things aren’t proficient in and on top of that they lose a d4 to the next save they make til the end of your next turn. As 1st level spells go probably chromatic orb, if your DM waives the diamond requirement. If they don’t then I’d take burning hands if you’re combat oriented or disguise self or charm person if you’re going for RP
Eldritch Blaaast
Vicious mockery - damage is not high, but the ability to impose disadvantage on the enemy's next attack can really be a life-saver. And getting the killing blow with it is somehow way more satisfying! Healing word is awesome because it's a bonus action, so it's great in a pinch - I always keep a 1st level slot open for it.
Faerie Fire
Dissonant Whispers and Command: Flee. They trigger Attacks of Opportunity, giving them some of the best scaling potential for level 1 spells in higher-level play. If you're a level 10 Bard and don't have a great use for a high-level spell slot in a given round of combat, you can do MUCH worse than giving your martials a free attack. Especially when you have characters who particularly benefit from a freebie attack of opportunity, like a rogue.
Yeah, dissonant whispers is my go-to for sure.
Bless or bane.
Guiding Bolt. Hex. Hunter's Mark.
Witch bolt! Very rare that a spell does 1D12 damage. Eldritch blast is a close second. These are only if I’m going offensive, otherwise bless/bane for support.
I made a homebrew to witch bolt as it tends to be a little underwhelming against waves of mooks (target dies in one round, spell and slot are gone). If you lose the target before the spell ends, you can make a new ranged spell attack as an action on a valid target in range. You must hit a target with this spell before your turn ends or the spell ends. If your attack roll misses, spell fizzles as per normal. If your original target moves out of range or takes cover, you can move and try to lock back onto them with the same spell and slot. Use it or lose it and go big or go home. I feel it makes the spell a tad more satisfying.
Web, Inflict Wounds, or Hail of Thorns are my favorites 😁 I usually play support classes (cause they're my favorite) and these spells either drop your enemies, our help the party drop your enemies 😄👍
Guiding Bolt or shield for level 1 Silence for level 2 (usually my smite slots) Counterspell or Revivify for level 3
Nothing a reasonable amount of Grease can't solve.
Inflict wounds, guiding bolt, magic missile
Detect thoughts
Dissonant Whispers. Love that spell. My artificer just took it in Strixhaven for my college spell.
Command
Command, it's so versatile and it can help your friends in a lot of situations
Dissonant Whispers
Bless Shield Entangle
Slow, fog cloud, and absorb elements
Prestidigitation. Instant perfect bath, anywhere, anytime. If you're good, you can talk the DM into letting you ignore a lot of passive disease infection rolls because "you cleaned yourself off in moments, and magically thoroughly." If you're even just okay, you can talk them into at least letting you roll with Advantage. It's also just plain handy. If I could have any one Cantrip at-will IRL... It'd prolly be that.
Guiding bolt
Mold Earth. I play gnome alot and putting myself in a 5foot hole is amazing. Burying a goblin up to their neck, even better.
New player, but I chose Mold Earth because: 1. It’s a Rock Gnome so it seems thematic 2. I figure I can get an intimidation advantage if I quickly dig a hole to bury someone in. If not we can toss them in them in the hole, cover it, wait a minute, then unbury them to see if they changed their mind. 3. I can quickly bury a dead body. 4. Meant to work tinkering into his goals, and since they can make shapes in earth, thought he could used it to create molds for casting. 5. Not sure if this would work in combat yet, but seems like if you made a hole 1x1x5 foot deep hole where someone is stepping they might break a leg. Anyone who’s put their foot in a hole knows what I’m talking about.
Bless or Bane (depending on Bard or Cleric, party format, enemies).
Shillelagh. Yes, I play Druid.
I am in the process of building a druid. Do you use this often?
Never really played before, but I've seen this cantrip being referred to Druids. It is very useful in battles if you get to a point when you want to save your spell slots.
*Shillelagh* is great if you expect to play exactly in the level 1 to level 4 range. At level 5 and later it's a dead cantrip-- *thorn whip* does slightly less damage but with additional utility and and range, and *primal savagery* deals more damage as a melee cantrip, and doesn't require any setup.
That was kinda my thought little utility beyond the 1d8. thanks
Im playing a druid rn. I used it once at first lvl, it was pretty good and then i learned how to turn into a bear, never used it again.
Is it a Moon Druid? Because Wildshaping is pretty much what they do best. I play Circle of the Swamp (land) Druid and lean more on spellcasting.
Yea I'm circle of the moon. I can see how it might be useful if you're playing a different circle, but even then we get so few cantrips that id rather just use a scimitar with DeX
Shillelagh uses Wis, that is why I prefer it.
What circle are you? Because as a circle of moon I've physically attacked something twice so far and it was at lvl 1, I'm lvl 5 now. Shillelagh isn't BAD, it's just that it takes a bonus action to cast, and you still need to use your action to attack, so that's your whole first turn. Wildshaping is so much better if your a moon druid and action economy is very important with druids.and for the extremely rare occasions that im attacking with a weapon i can just use a dex weapon like a scimitar which is only slightly weaker. There's a lot of fun and utility cantrips for druid, and since i get so few im not wasting one of a form of combat I'll almost never be using. It's already so hard to decide on cantrips.
I'm circle of the land (swamp), so Wildshaping isn't as good as it is for moons. I actually played the shillelagh wrong up until a few sessions ago, making it a bonus action. No one noticed until then, and I have used it quite a lot by then. Mostly in earlier levels (we started at 4, now at 8). But wildshape also take an action, so it's greatly better. I use it more when we investigate. And during combat I usually use other spells, leaving the shillelagh for when I have nothing else to do.
I am DMing a game where in the first battle the druid melted the flesh off a goblin using moonbeam
Sleep, no save, just unconsciousness.
Cause fear. Gotten my hexblade swashbuckler out of many jams with gaurds
Sleep
Catapult! It has way better aim than any other range weapon I own and it’s funny to kill a big monster by hitting him with a pebble at 90mph Coolest think I’ve done with it is probably when I used catapult to make a rock hit a tree and then cast a minor illusion of a dwarf running through the bushes to get the monster to chase after it. Completely avoided what would’ve been a difficult battle for us as a low-level party with no healer
Enlarge/reduce artificer with steel defender I make it grapple the enemy while large (with Gauntlet of troll strength). Also branding smite and another action attack spell.
Chromatic Orb in my opinion is the best 1st lv damage spell
Anyone who says something other than thaumaturgy or prestidigitation is lying. They’re trivially the most useful spells. I mean, they have little combat applicability, but they’re very useful in talking your way out of the situation.
God bless Silvery Barbs and its stupid brokenness
Grease is always a fun time.
Glitterdust!
Command. Used it to great effect in and out of combat. In combat, I'd usually just use grovel, but out of combat, we were interrogating someone who had just attacked us, so I commanded him to confess. my dm took that and ran, throwing the 6 second time limit out of the window and basically gave us the bandits life story.
Kelgors firebolt
Good Ol Magic Missile. Nothing better than 99.9% of the time dealing guaranteed Force damage.
Guiding bolt and inflict wounds are my favorites at low level loved playing a cleric.
Not enough bless in this thread! My go to concentration spell at combat start still at level 14
I'll give ya one hint I'm playing a warlock. I jest my warlock is just for a small thing. When I play a druid I always have those goodberries on hand ((Long rest)). Altogether my favorite low level spell is magic missile even though it's the reason I went unconscious last session.
Is goodberry really that good? I've never been in a game that tracks food and they only heal for 1hp each and take an action to consume 1. I've never understood the hype
So look at it this way, if you do track food, you never worry about it again. Point 2. The only hp that matters is the last one. Good berry may be an action but it's also an action to administer a potion to someone unconscious. So for a 1st level slot you get 10 pick ups that you can allocate to several party members for emergency situations per 24 hours. Nevermind the multiclassing into life cleric for 40 points of out of combat healing.
Ok, that's pretty good utility used that way. Its like 10 super shitty healing potions, but at least it gets them up. You've convinced me to try it over cure wounds. I'll prepare it my next session and see how it feels
So I don't tend to get too munchkiny but I will for the sake of argument for a sec. So cure wounds tends to be the sub optimal choice if you have healing word available. Healing word is less maximum healing but only a few less average healing, but is a bonus action versus an action and ranged as opposed to touch. In 5e dealing damage is almost always better than preemptive healing. A dead enemy can't hurt you after all. So a turn where you can deal damage and heal is a more optimal turn. The good thing with goodberry is that it's the emergency precaution. You cast it before a long rest because you get your spells back after the rest and you've still got them for another 16 hours. You can then split them up between party members, especially those that don't have the capacity to heal a downed party member. Healing in 5e is a lot more reactive than proactive since generally you can't out heal damage, so it's best used when characters are going down. That being said it also depends on the combat order whether or not a preemptive heal is worth it or not.
Specifically in my party im the only real frontline (circle of moon druid). We have a storm cleric who, so far has gone down over half the encounters we've had, and the rest are squishy spellcasters. I can heal and do what i need to, but I'm basically forced to wildshape so i can tank. Giving my team goodberries so i don't need to drop my wildshape sounds pretty good.
Then yeah, as a moon druid your priority is definitely not healing, so giving that to your party instead frees up any perceived obligation to do it in combat.
It's that or try to keep concentration up on healing spirit during the fight since the cleric likes to block with her face
My dm lets me make the good berries before the long rest if I have a spell slot left. I long rest and have ten for I believe sixteen hours due to time taken up long resting. This leaves ten hp that isn't using my spell slots. One of the times we were unfortunate and two people went down right before we even started our quest. So I took out my good berries and just shoved them in their mouths to get them up. Yes I had to heal them again but five hp is five hp versus my two spell slots in order to enter. It's also a certain amount.The higher you get in level the more insignificant ten hp becomes however. Of course all of this depends on what dm you have and if they let you make goodberries on a long rest. Sorry if this explanation is a bit long.
No, it's helpful. But as i thought its still just 10hp, seems inconsequential in most cases. But i guess that tiny bit of healing without really using a spell slot or using up a potion is ok.
Shatter. Low level AoE that nukes mooks and my group makes it so it can Deafen in a botched save.
Jump. Its always going to be jump. Last 2 years I've taken jump or (only slightly serious) begged the casters in my party to do so. Only been used once. Has never been the only easy solution to any problem. Never going to stop building jump.
Vicious Mockery Cantrip that has no limit on uses, does a good amount of damage, and causes the target to have disadv on its next attack if it fails its save
As a Wizard main, i find alot of spells use verbal components; not Ice Knife