We've seen some significant alterations to the core races, the approach to backgrounds, and many feats. I suspect classes will be addressed (probably in batches) in future articles. I haven't seen much of a discussion regarding spells. Just looking at the spells in the PHB, are there any that you all would like to see changed? Are there any you expect to see altered?
I have a pet list of spells that I'd like to see get a revision:
1) Truestrike. I've never seen this cantrip used (and I've been playing since 5e was released), and I'm still not clear under what circumstances it should be. It you could cast it on others, and maybe if it added a 1d4 to attack (like guidance or resistance) that would be more useful.
2) Melf's Acid Arrow. This one has always felt weak to me - I like the idea of it splashing onto nearby creatures (like it did in 4e) or maybe just dealing more damage.
3) Counterspell. I'm not sure how to change it, but it has some annoying properties that make it difficult to adjudicate at the table. Compared to other reaction spells (absorb elements, shield, hellish rebuke), counterspell has a more "open-ended" trigger. What does it mean to see a creature "casting a spell"? Does the player know what type of spell? And as a DM, do I need to give players a chance to scream "I counterspell!" before I finish describing the creature's turn? It's the way that counterspell interrupts the turn that makes it annoying to deal with, in my opinion.
4) Goodberry. It's not the healing that bothers me, it's the way it gets around survival scenarios so easily. Creating so many little berries is also kinda fiddly at the table.
5) Shillelagh. This cantrip is odd. As it currently exists it will be a "Primal" spell accessible by Druids (or anybody that takes the Magic Initiate feat). It has a duration but no concentration, and it scales badly for the one class that actually gets it by default. Personally I think it should work more like Green-flame blade or Booming Blade, but that uses your Wisdom for the attack and damage. You cast it as an action, an attack is made, and it deals bonus (bludgeoning, thunder, force) damage that scales with level. Note, this makes it better for Druids, but probably worse for everybody else that seeks out this spell to get their spellcasting ability score to apply to weapon attacks.
It's like a bad combination of protection from evil and good and banishment (both of which are on the same spell list as it), and the one niche it does have (ending charm, fear, or possession) takes two of your actions to actually do. And on top of that, it requires your concentration, so if you lose concentration on it before you get to use Break Enchantment or Dismissal, you wasted a 5th level slot.
Witch Bolt. Dead gods, witch bolt revision. Such an evocative spell, no pun intended, but so hard to use properly.
Hellish rebuke be more useful for warlocks.
Spells like Bane. Saving throw on top of rolled penalty. Part of the reason debuffs like bane and slow tend to be less useful than their buffing counterparts Bless and Haste is that there's a chance to resist on top of a penalty. Conversely, they're not even Save or Die effects, so they're often overshadowed by Save or Die ispells like Hold Person. I would honestly love to see a change in philosphy regarding spells like these to make them more useful. Concentration already limits these spells.
I guess while we're at it, I don't know if they'll carry over summoning spells like conjure animals and conjure woodland beings, but given the problems they've caused at tables, I think these need to be revised in some way if WoTC keeps them around.
Oh yeah - the Conjure spells do need to be written differently. The Summon spells work much better, but if we want the "summon group of random monsters" I think it should actually be kinda' random (like it was in older editions like 3e or 2e). But I'm a sucker for random.
Detect Traps has also been widely mocked as a bad spell
To be honest, I wouldn't really care if find traps was a thing, since there are mundane ways of finding nonmagical traps anyway, and any magical traps like glyphs of warding would be picked up by detect magic.
2) Melf's Acid Arrow. This one has always felt weak to me - I like the idea of it splashing onto nearby creatures (like it did in 4e) or maybe just dealing more damage.
In older editions Melf's Acid Arrow. was conjuration instead of Evocation. You magickly conjured a bolt of acid that was moving in a direction, but the bolt itself was not magical. This had the benefit that you could cast the spell while outside a anti magic zone but have the bolt fly into a anti magic zone and function as normally.
1) Truestrike. I've never seen this cantrip used (and I've been playing since 5e was released), and I'm still not clear under what circumstances it should be. It you could cast it on others, and maybe if it added a 1d4 to attack (like guidance or resistance) that would be more useful.
Here is my personal revision for this one that changes it to be more like a quasi-Sharpshooter to reflect that the spell guides you to attacking around the defenses of the enemy and hitting a particularly vulnerable spot.
Strike True
Divination Cantrip (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: S
Duration: 1 round
You extend your hand and point a finger at a target in range. Your magic grants you a brief insight into the target’s defenses and how to circumvent them. The next attack roll you make against the target gains the following benefits, provided that this spell hasn’t ended:
You ignore any bonus to the target's AC granted by shields, half cover, or three-quarters cover
Your attack roll cannot incur disadvantage
On a hit, you can treat any value of 1 rolled on the damage dice for the attack as a 2 instead.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Oh yeah - the Conjure spells do need to be written differently. The Summon spells work much better, but if we want the "summon group of random monsters" I think it should actually be kinda' random (like it was in older editions like 3e or 2e). But I'm a sucker for random.
While they work better I think the summon spells are too good. Look at summon fey one of the weaker options, at its base level its 1 attack that does 2d6+6 damage a round, up cast to 4 its 2 attacks and 1 more damage. If your fighter is not power attacking he may not be doing that. And in a sense its also adding 30 temp hit points for the party. Yeah area of effects it doesn't do that but 30 hit points AC 15 vs most attacks at those levels its going to usually soak 30 HP meant for someone else. Either one of those options would look good as a spell, the damage would look good for a even higher level spell. And then there are additional perks from the summon fey ability, charm, darkness or advantage not amazing but its icing on a already too big cake.
Oh yeah - the Conjure spells do need to be written differently. The Summon spells work much better, but if we want the "summon group of random monsters" I think it should actually be kinda' random (like it was in older editions like 3e or 2e). But I'm a sucker for random.
While they work better I think the summon spells are too good. Look at summon fey one of the weaker options, at its base level its 1 attack that does 2d6+6 damage a round, up cast to 4 its 2 attacks and 1 more damage. If your fighter is not power attacking he may not be doing that. And in a sense its also adding 30 temp hit points for the party. Yeah area of effects it doesn't do that but 30 hit points AC 15 vs most attacks at those levels its going to usually soak 30 HP meant for someone else. Either one of those options would look good as a spell, the damage would look good for a even higher level spell. And then there are additional perks from the summon fey ability, charm, darkness or advantage not amazing but its icing on a already too big cake.
Summon Fey is a 3rd-level spell, in the same class of spells as fireball, hypnotic pattern, and conjure animals, all three of which it shares one or more spell lists with, and all of which can pretty much decide encounters on their own when you first get them.
Oh yeah - the Conjure spells do need to be written differently. The Summon spells work much better, but if we want the "summon group of random monsters" I think it should actually be kinda' random (like it was in older editions like 3e or 2e). But I'm a sucker for random.
While they work better I think the summon spells are too good. Look at summon fey one of the weaker options, at its base level its 1 attack that does 2d6+6 damage a round, up cast to 4 its 2 attacks and 1 more damage. If your fighter is not power attacking he may not be doing that. And in a sense its also adding 30 temp hit points for the party. Yeah area of effects it doesn't do that but 30 hit points AC 15 vs most attacks at those levels its going to usually soak 30 HP meant for someone else. Either one of those options would look good as a spell, the damage would look good for a even higher level spell. And then there are additional perks from the summon fey ability, charm, darkness or advantage not amazing but its icing on a already too big cake.
Summon Fey is a 3rd-level spell, in the same class of spells as fireball, hypnotic pattern, and conjure animals, all three of which it shares one or more spell lists with, and all of which can pretty much decide encounters on their own when you first get them.
And the only one of those that doesn't need to be toned down is fireball.
Oh yeah - the Conjure spells do need to be written differently. The Summon spells work much better, but if we want the "summon group of random monsters" I think it should actually be kinda' random (like it was in older editions like 3e or 2e). But I'm a sucker for random.
While they work better I think the summon spells are too good. Look at summon fey one of the weaker options, at its base level its 1 attack that does 2d6+6 damage a round, up cast to 4 its 2 attacks and 1 more damage. If your fighter is not power attacking he may not be doing that. And in a sense its also adding 30 temp hit points for the party. Yeah area of effects it doesn't do that but 30 hit points AC 15 vs most attacks at those levels its going to usually soak 30 HP meant for someone else. Either one of those options would look good as a spell, the damage would look good for a even higher level spell. And then there are additional perks from the summon fey ability, charm, darkness or advantage not amazing but its icing on a already too big cake.
Summon Fey is a 3rd-level spell, in the same class of spells as fireball, hypnotic pattern, and conjure animals, all three of which it shares one or more spell lists with, and all of which can pretty much decide encounters on their own when you first get them.
And the only one of those that doesn't need to be toned down is fireball.
All I'm saying is that it makes sense these spells have the power levels they do as it currently stands, because they kinda have to compete with each other. Maybe in One D&D, these spells might be different in how powerful they are.
Oh yeah - the Conjure spells do need to be written differently. The Summon spells work much better, but if we want the "summon group of random monsters" I think it should actually be kinda' random (like it was in older editions like 3e or 2e). But I'm a sucker for random.
While they work better I think the summon spells are too good. Look at summon fey one of the weaker options, at its base level its 1 attack that does 2d6+6 damage a round, up cast to 4 its 2 attacks and 1 more damage. If your fighter is not power attacking he may not be doing that. And in a sense its also adding 30 temp hit points for the party. Yeah area of effects it doesn't do that but 30 hit points AC 15 vs most attacks at those levels its going to usually soak 30 HP meant for someone else. Either one of those options would look good as a spell, the damage would look good for a even higher level spell. And then there are additional perks from the summon fey ability, charm, darkness or advantage not amazing but its icing on a already too big cake.
Summon Fey is a 3rd-level spell, in the same class of spells as fireball, hypnotic pattern, and conjure animals, all three of which it shares one or more spell lists with, and all of which can pretty much decide encounters on their own when you first get them.
And the only one of those that doesn't need to be toned down is fireball.
All I'm saying is that it makes sense these spells have the power levels they do as it currently stands, because they kinda have to compete with each other. Maybe in One D&D, these spells might be different in how powerful they are.
Maybe, but I think the difference is with summon X its plopping a mini fighter on the field and if they outclass the fighter that's a problem. Whether other powerful spells exist does not matter for that spell, it should still be balanced against what a 3rd level spell should do not what some of the best do, and for every hypnotic patter on the 3rd level list there are 3 melfs minute meteors.
Oh yeah - the Conjure spells do need to be written differently. The Summon spells work much better, but if we want the "summon group of random monsters" I think it should actually be kinda' random (like it was in older editions like 3e or 2e). But I'm a sucker for random.
While they work better I think the summon spells are too good. Look at summon fey one of the weaker options, at its base level its 1 attack that does 2d6+6 damage a round, up cast to 4 its 2 attacks and 1 more damage. If your fighter is not power attacking he may not be doing that. And in a sense its also adding 30 temp hit points for the party. Yeah area of effects it doesn't do that but 30 hit points AC 15 vs most attacks at those levels its going to usually soak 30 HP meant for someone else. Either one of those options would look good as a spell, the damage would look good for a even higher level spell. And then there are additional perks from the summon fey ability, charm, darkness or advantage not amazing but its icing on a already too big cake.
Summon Fey is a 3rd-level spell, in the same class of spells as fireball, hypnotic pattern, and conjure animals, all three of which it shares one or more spell lists with, and all of which can pretty much decide encounters on their own when you first get them.
And the only one of those that doesn't need to be toned down is fireball.
All I'm saying is that it makes sense these spells have the power levels they do as it currently stands, because they kinda have to compete with each other. Maybe in One D&D, these spells might be different in how powerful they are.
Maybe, but I think the difference is with summon X its plopping a mini fighter on the field and if they outclass the fighter that's a problem. Whether other powerful spells exist does not matter for that spell, it should still be balanced against what a 3rd level spell should do not what some of the best do, and for every hypnotic patter on the 3rd level list there are 3 melfs minute meteors.
I think you're looking about this the wrong way. The summon X spells don't "outclass the fighter". In a combat situation, it's basically just an extra party member to help in combat, and it's temporary so it's not like planar ally where it can potentially stick around for a long time. The fighter or other martial character is still participating, but now you have additional help.
In other words, I have never encountered a situation where the martials in the party feel "useless" just because one of these summons is on board. All that happens is the action economy gets turned further in the party's favour.
All enchantment spells need very clear definitions. Can the creature or outside observer identify that you're casting a spell like suggestion or enthrall? Does a creature realize its behavior is affected by a spell during its duration? Does it realize it was under effect of a spell after it fades (some spells specify it, some don't)? I love screwing with NPCs' minds, but there's quite a lot of grey areas right now.
Also, saving throws. The spells lack a clear principle of which effect affects what saving throws. Currently, there's 14 spells with charisma saving throws, 8 spells with intelligence saving throws, and 48 spells with wisdom saving throws. And right now it seems that they're distributed arbitrarily. There needs to be a clear principle. For example, charisma is your willpower and resolve, it protects against fear, wisdom is your awareness and intuition, it protects against charm, and intelligence is your analytic ability, it helps you discern illusions, both internal and external.
Faerie Fire likely needs work as well. If in the other direction. As it stands, the spell is so outstandingly good it's a mandatory pick on any character with access to it. if you can pick Faerie Fire and you don't pick Faerie Fire, you're sabotaging yourself and your party. It's so good that any party that has Faerie Fire is almost inevitably better than a party that doesn't.
Faerie Fire is a counter to invisibility from level 1 as well as permanent always-on advantage for every attack any of your party members make, with no recurring saves or way to clear the condition beyond Dispel or bonking the concentration off the caster. Faerie Fire is better than a number of ninth-level spells. It's one of my favorite spells, I dearly love my "SIC 'EM, BROHOS!" foxfire blast, but I can admit when a spell is just overperforming for its investment. Faerie Fire is drastically better than Silvery Barbs, and that spell caused Internet-wide conniptions when it released. Faerie Fire is "make your Dex save or the Kritzkrieg is Unleashed for the next ten rounds." Even if it just lasted one round instead of ten, Faerie Fire would be exceptionally good. That'd probably be how I'd look into tuning it - nix the concentration but shorten it to "until the start of your next turn" so everybody only gets one round of supercharged attacks off of it. Want more advantage? Kill another spell slot, incur another save.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Please do not contact or message me.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
We've seen some significant alterations to the core races, the approach to backgrounds, and many feats. I suspect classes will be addressed (probably in batches) in future articles. I haven't seen much of a discussion regarding spells. Just looking at the spells in the PHB, are there any that you all would like to see changed? Are there any you expect to see altered?
I have a pet list of spells that I'd like to see get a revision:
1) Truestrike. I've never seen this cantrip used (and I've been playing since 5e was released), and I'm still not clear under what circumstances it should be. It you could cast it on others, and maybe if it added a 1d4 to attack (like guidance or resistance) that would be more useful.
2) Melf's Acid Arrow. This one has always felt weak to me - I like the idea of it splashing onto nearby creatures (like it did in 4e) or maybe just dealing more damage.
3) Counterspell. I'm not sure how to change it, but it has some annoying properties that make it difficult to adjudicate at the table. Compared to other reaction spells (absorb elements, shield, hellish rebuke), counterspell has a more "open-ended" trigger. What does it mean to see a creature "casting a spell"? Does the player know what type of spell? And as a DM, do I need to give players a chance to scream "I counterspell!" before I finish describing the creature's turn? It's the way that counterspell interrupts the turn that makes it annoying to deal with, in my opinion.
4) Goodberry. It's not the healing that bothers me, it's the way it gets around survival scenarios so easily. Creating so many little berries is also kinda fiddly at the table.
5) Shillelagh. This cantrip is odd. As it currently exists it will be a "Primal" spell accessible by Druids (or anybody that takes the Magic Initiate feat). It has a duration but no concentration, and it scales badly for the one class that actually gets it by default. Personally I think it should work more like Green-flame blade or Booming Blade, but that uses your Wisdom for the attack and damage. You cast it as an action, an attack is made, and it deals bonus (bludgeoning, thunder, force) damage that scales with level. Note, this makes it better for Druids, but probably worse for everybody else that seeks out this spell to get their spellcasting ability score to apply to weapon attacks.
I think dispel evil and good needs a do-over.
It's like a bad combination of protection from evil and good and banishment (both of which are on the same spell list as it), and the one niche it does have (ending charm, fear, or possession) takes two of your actions to actually do. And on top of that, it requires your concentration, so if you lose concentration on it before you get to use Break Enchantment or Dismissal, you wasted a 5th level slot.
Witch Bolt. Dead gods, witch bolt revision. Such an evocative spell, no pun intended, but so hard to use properly.
Hellish rebuke be more useful for warlocks.
Spells like Bane. Saving throw on top of rolled penalty. Part of the reason debuffs like bane and slow tend to be less useful than their buffing counterparts Bless and Haste is that there's a chance to resist on top of a penalty. Conversely, they're not even Save or Die effects, so they're often overshadowed by Save or Die ispells like Hold Person. I would honestly love to see a change in philosphy regarding spells like these to make them more useful. Concentration already limits these spells.
I guess while we're at it, I don't know if they'll carry over summoning spells like conjure animals and conjure woodland beings, but given the problems they've caused at tables, I think these need to be revised in some way if WoTC keeps them around.
Oh yeah - the Conjure spells do need to be written differently. The Summon spells work much better, but if we want the "summon group of random monsters" I think it should actually be kinda' random (like it was in older editions like 3e or 2e). But I'm a sucker for random.
Oh man - I completely forgot Witch Bolt. That spell really needs to be reworked. I'm thinking the ongoing damage should scale, at the very least.
Detect Traps has also been widely mocked as a bad spell
To be honest, I wouldn't really care if find traps was a thing, since there are mundane ways of finding nonmagical traps anyway, and any magical traps like glyphs of warding would be picked up by detect magic.
In older editions Melf's Acid Arrow. was conjuration instead of Evocation.
You magickly conjured a bolt of acid that was moving in a direction, but the bolt itself was not magical.
This had the benefit that you could cast the spell while outside a anti magic zone but have the bolt fly into a anti magic zone and function as normally.
Here is my personal revision for this one that changes it to be more like a quasi-Sharpshooter to reflect that the spell guides you to attacking around the defenses of the enemy and hitting a particularly vulnerable spot.
Strike True
Divination Cantrip (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard)
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: S
Duration: 1 round
You extend your hand and point a finger at a target in range. Your magic grants you a brief insight into the target’s defenses and how to circumvent them. The next attack roll you make against the target gains the following benefits, provided that this spell hasn’t ended:
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
While they work better I think the summon spells are too good. Look at summon fey one of the weaker options, at its base level its 1 attack that does 2d6+6 damage a round, up cast to 4 its 2 attacks and 1 more damage. If your fighter is not power attacking he may not be doing that. And in a sense its also adding 30 temp hit points for the party. Yeah area of effects it doesn't do that but 30 hit points AC 15 vs most attacks at those levels its going to usually soak 30 HP meant for someone else. Either one of those options would look good as a spell, the damage would look good for a even higher level spell. And then there are additional perks from the summon fey ability, charm, darkness or advantage not amazing but its icing on a already too big cake.
Summon Fey is a 3rd-level spell, in the same class of spells as fireball, hypnotic pattern, and conjure animals, all three of which it shares one or more spell lists with, and all of which can pretty much decide encounters on their own when you first get them.
And the only one of those that doesn't need to be toned down is fireball.
All I'm saying is that it makes sense these spells have the power levels they do as it currently stands, because they kinda have to compete with each other. Maybe in One D&D, these spells might be different in how powerful they are.
Fireball doesnt need to be toned down? Are you sure?
Yes. Damage is good but only good at level 5, in 2-3 levels its weak. If you make it weaker it will just always be weak.
Maybe, but I think the difference is with summon X its plopping a mini fighter on the field and if they outclass the fighter that's a problem. Whether other powerful spells exist does not matter for that spell, it should still be balanced against what a 3rd level spell should do not what some of the best do, and for every hypnotic patter on the 3rd level list there are 3 melfs minute meteors.
I think you're looking about this the wrong way. The summon X spells don't "outclass the fighter". In a combat situation, it's basically just an extra party member to help in combat, and it's temporary so it's not like planar ally where it can potentially stick around for a long time. The fighter or other martial character is still participating, but now you have additional help.
In other words, I have never encountered a situation where the martials in the party feel "useless" just because one of these summons is on board. All that happens is the action economy gets turned further in the party's favour.
All enchantment spells need very clear definitions. Can the creature or outside observer identify that you're casting a spell like suggestion or enthrall? Does a creature realize its behavior is affected by a spell during its duration? Does it realize it was under effect of a spell after it fades (some spells specify it, some don't)? I love screwing with NPCs' minds, but there's quite a lot of grey areas right now.
Also, saving throws. The spells lack a clear principle of which effect affects what saving throws. Currently, there's 14 spells with charisma saving throws, 8 spells with intelligence saving throws, and 48 spells with wisdom saving throws. And right now it seems that they're distributed arbitrarily. There needs to be a clear principle. For example, charisma is your willpower and resolve, it protects against fear, wisdom is your awareness and intuition, it protects against charm, and intelligence is your analytic ability, it helps you discern illusions, both internal and external.
Faerie Fire likely needs work as well. If in the other direction. As it stands, the spell is so outstandingly good it's a mandatory pick on any character with access to it. if you can pick Faerie Fire and you don't pick Faerie Fire, you're sabotaging yourself and your party. It's so good that any party that has Faerie Fire is almost inevitably better than a party that doesn't.
Faerie Fire is a counter to invisibility from level 1 as well as permanent always-on advantage for every attack any of your party members make, with no recurring saves or way to clear the condition beyond Dispel or bonking the concentration off the caster. Faerie Fire is better than a number of ninth-level spells. It's one of my favorite spells, I dearly love my "SIC 'EM, BROHOS!" foxfire blast, but I can admit when a spell is just overperforming for its investment. Faerie Fire is drastically better than Silvery Barbs, and that spell caused Internet-wide conniptions when it released. Faerie Fire is "make your Dex save or the Kritzkrieg is Unleashed for the next ten rounds." Even if it just lasted one round instead of ten, Faerie Fire would be exceptionally good. That'd probably be how I'd look into tuning it - nix the concentration but shorten it to "until the start of your next turn" so everybody only gets one round of supercharged attacks off of it. Want more advantage? Kill another spell slot, incur another save.
Please do not contact or message me.