Quote from scatterbraind >>

Communication spells like Sending are pretty useless in a world with cell phones.

 For those that believe in Heaven and Hell or any form of afterlife, this spell would be pretty amazing. Being able to communicate with a lost loved one could bring about a lot of peace.

In the case of kidnappings or murder victims, you could have a higher chance to save the child or discover who the killer was.

Remove Curse can possibly have some use. We get hundreds of pounds of soil, rock, and plant matter mailed back to our state because of cursed item or bad luck.

Protection From Evil and Good Those who know or have experienced events might feel more comfortable with a little protection. 

If you believe, you believe.

commune cuz gods don’t exist. :0       Yeah I said it.

I think having the spell would mean there is gods. Like the plane thing, I think having the spell also means having everything related

Quote from CozmoTheGrey >>

commune cuz gods don’t exist. :0       Yeah I said it.

 
Can we not? These arguments are stupid.

Well, with the assumption that no other plane exists, every single cleric only and warlock only spell dissapears(and even paladin only I think), because there would apparently be no other otherworldly patrons and no gods. Also, every spell that conjures from another plane or sends you to one would be gone. So really only arcane spells would have merrit. Personally, I think even a spell like power word kill would be pretty dumb, because after your first kill you'd just get shot. On the other hand, a spell like divination or scrying would be insane and the government of at least my country (U.S.A.) would kidnap me and use me to spy on someone like China.

Magic doesn't exist in real life.  I think arguments about whether or not gods or warlock patrons exist in real life are missing the point of this thought exercise.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Magic doesn't exist in real life.  I think arguments about whether or not gods or warlock patrons exist in real life are missing the point of this thought exercise.

 You get it!

It reminds me of a wonderful conversation I had where the thought exercise was based around the following -

You have a bouncy house, a chimpanzee, and a bottle of Tito's Vodka. What sort of shenanigans can you come up with?

Then one person chimes in and says, "yea, but I don't drink.."

Sorry everyone. lol.

Quote from CozmoTheGrey >>

Sorry everyone. lol.

 If you were sorry you wouldn’t be laughing.

Quote from Drawfonaf >>

Quote from Margaret22 >>

Bark isn't the strongest thing, so barkskin's probably pretty useless

 As it is in game.

Barkskin only lasts an hour and requires concentration, so the first time you get hit, you can lose concentration.

   Barkskin is actually pretty awesome if you work wiith bees.  It really reduces the chance of you getting stung and increases your range of motion compared to wearing a whole protective what-not.  Just wear netting for your head so they don't get to your ears, eyes, lips.

   Also if you do wild animal rescue.  Frightened animals often claw or bite, so having extra protection is always nice.  

Witch Bolt is total crap in game and IRL.  It's even worse than a lot of attack spells here because of the distance limitation and it's super obvious that you're the one casting a spell no matter the environment.   It really should have been named, "__itch, no!"  As in how drunk were you when you decided to learn this spell in the first place?

Well now, what are the parameters of this thought experiment? Can everyone cast spells, or is it just me?

So far its mostly been "if this one spell existed," without regard to who could cast it.

Quote from Kotath >>

Quote from Song_of_Blues >>

Witch Bolt is total crap in game and IRL.  It's even worse than a lot of attack spells here because of the distance limitation and it's super obvious that you're the one casting a spell no matter the environment.   It really should have been named, "__itch, no!"  As in how drunk were you when you decided to learn this spell in the first place?

 

You seem to be confusing 'less useful than other spells (or even less useful than everything else) with 'totally useless.' Land that on someone in a relatively small room or similar enclosed space where they cannot so easily run away and you are doing 1d12 per round for a minute. Less on average on the first round than Magic Missile but if you manage a second round it does more. For forensic purposes, that is electrical damage that is harder to explain than blunt force (magic missile). Shocking grasp is electrical only 1d8 (and only once, not over multiple rounds) and range touch... which is not only worse for range, but also potentially leaves a fingerprint.

Edit: If you land the entire spell, you will have done 10d12. With a level ONE spell! Useless?

 In game terms, there's baically no situation where it's practical to maintain Witch Bolt for its full duration.

In the real world, if you wanted to be a spell-slinging assassin it would be better to choose something like psychic damage, that will leave no forensic evidence at all.

Quote from IamSposta >>

True Strike, because it’s useless all the times.

 can't agree more lol

Quote from Kotath >>

Quote from Song_of_Blues >>

Witch Bolt is total crap in game and IRL.  It's even worse than a lot of attack spells here because of the distance limitation and it's super obvious that you're the one casting a spell no matter the environment.   It really should have been named, "__itch, no!"  As in how drunk were you when you decided to learn this spell in the first place?

 

You seem to be confusing 'less useful than other spells (or even less useful than everything else) with 'totally useless.' Land that on someone in a relatively small room or similar enclosed space where they cannot so easily run away and you are doing 1d12 per round for a minute. Less on average on the first round than Magic Missile but if you manage a second round it does more. For forensic purposes, that is electrical damage that is harder to explain than blunt force (magic missile). Shocking grasp is electrical only 1d8 (and only once, not over multiple rounds) and range touch... which is not only worse for range, but also potentially leaves a fingerprint.

Edit: If you land the entire spell, you will have done 10d12. With a level ONE spell! Useless?

 Force damage from magic missile isn't blunt. It's just magical energy.

Yes, excuse me.  I should have said Witchbolt is almost useless.  

Spare the Dying is pretty useless. Unless diseases or a coma count as being at 0 hit points, there wouldn't be much chance to use it

See invisibility wouldn't work, because there's probably not anything invisible. 

If spells existing meant ghosts and stuff existing, then the spell would help. Otherwise not really