I expect Conjure Animals/Celestial/Elemental/Fey/Minor Elementals/Woodland Beings to be either removed (replaced by Tasha's summons) or heavily limited (in particular, conjuring 8 of anything I can't see continuing to exist).
1. Identify- although this has more to do with making the spell as is have more value by eliminating the option of learning a magic item's properties by attuning/focusing over a short rest without a spell.
2. Shield- it's over powered. A popular suggested fix is to change the AC bonus to your Proficiency Bonus, so it scales up with the player. But that's problematic, too, because the spell then becomes more powerful as you gain levels, even though the spell slot stays the same. I dunno. Maybe it could scale up with spell slot level?
3.Cure Wounds- it needs a slight power boost, to make people want to use it. Most people prefer Hesling Word for its range, and then use it to pop up allies when they've been knocked out. Actual healing to restore hit points is often viewed as an inefficient use of resources. Cure Wounds needs to be buffed to change that opinion. I'd suggest just adding another d8 at level 1, and scaling up from there (3d8 at 2nd level, 4d8 at 3rd, etc...)
4. Aid. I hope they revert it to its 2014 version. The playtest version changed it to temporary hp. But EVERYTHING gives temp hp now. And temp hp do not stack.
5. Find Traps. It should actually find traps. It should give the caster exact information about where all traps are within range and what the nature of their trigger mechanisms are, so as to grant advantage to anyone in the party trying to disarm them. As is, this spell is worse than just making a Perception check.
6. Daylight- needs to explicitly say that this spell's light is sunlight, for the purposes of how it interacts with certain creatures (vampires, for example).
7. Enlarge/Reduce- I'd like to see this scale, so that the size & damage die doubles again at spell level 5, and again at spell level 8. So that you're huge & adding a d8 at 5th level, and you're gargantuan with 2d8 at 8th level. Shrinking takes a creature to Tiny at 5th level, and to sub-Tiny (like insect-size) at 8th level. Make this spell a real Ant-Man power.
8. Rope Trick- explicitly state that, as part of the spell, caster & allies are able to climb into it... so I don't have any more wonderful DMs asking my 7 Strength Wizard to make an Athletics check to climb into their own spell and fail- making the casting of it useless.
9. Fabricate. Should have the Ritual tag.
10. Mending. Should be an action. I think the limitations in the spell description are enough of a restraint.
11. Clerics need more cantrips on their list. I get that Wizards are supposed to have the biggest, most diverse list... but Clerics have only 9 cantrips to choose? This makes most clerics have the same cantrips. Which is boring.
12. Other damage cantrips besides Firebolt should explicitly state that they are usable on objects. Like Acid Splash, Frost Bite, Eldritch Blast, etc. I don't know about Radiant or Psychic damage, but the elemental damages & force should work on objects.
13. Weird. Just really bad. It might be an okay 3rd level spell. But 9th? No. I don't think you even try to fix this, just nix this.
14. Mordenkainen's Sword. For 7th level, it should have a 60 ft movement each turn on your bonus action, not 20. And 3d10 damage is not great for 7th level. It IS only a bonus action, but also concentration. 4 or 5 d10 would be better.
15. In general, a bunch of spells need to have their damage adjusted, to entice more people to use those spells. Melf's Acid Arrow comes to mind.
It would be nice if Command occurred immediately instead of on the target's next turn but lasted until the end of it's next turn, and no saving throw.
It would be nice if Invisibility had similar wording to Sanctuary for how it ended instead of making an attack or casting a spell, and lasted for 24 hours.
And Fireball and Lightning Bolt did 10d6 damage (in honor of 1D&D being released a decade after 5e).
(These are just off the top of my head.)
Command is bound by the order of operations of combat; outside of specific exceptions a creature acts only on its turn, and no mind control spell that I'm aware of supersedes that order of operations. All such spells feel a little weird based on the timing, but the effect will still last for a full round if its cast successfully, so it doesn't really need the slight extension of the effect's duration. And 24 hour Invisibility would just be broken.
It would be nice if Command occurred immediately instead of on the target's next turn but lasted until the end of it's next turn, and no saving throw.
It would be nice if Invisibility had similar wording to Sanctuary for how it ended instead of making an attack or casting a spell, and lasted for 24 hours.
And Fireball and Lightning Bolt did 10d6 damage (in honor of 1D&D being released a decade after 5e).
(These are just off the top of my head.)
Wow... cause spellcasters need a massive buff! (sarcasm). These are all crazy making spellcasters vastly more powerful at lower levels.
1) Tasha's summoning spells to have their damage per attack scale rather than their number of attacks and require a BA to command them.
2) Conjure X & animate objects to be restricted to the option where you summon 1-2 creatures and require a BA to command them.
3) All control spells to get either repeat saves or other ways to break them : - Banishment : repeat save at end of each turn, - Wall of Force : use an action to make a STR check to break it, - Forcecage : use an action to make a check to break it. - Hypnotic Pattern : save at the end of each turn - Fear : remove the fleeing and instead reduce their speed to 0, also save at the end of each turn. - Domination : taking damage breaks it not just allow a save.
4) Nerfing the must-takes : - Misty Step requires an Action - Shield cannot be cast if wearing any armour or using a shield and only lasts until the end of the current creature's turn. - Counterspell : target makes a save with their spellcasting ability against your spell DC. - Polymorph : limited to creatures of CR <=1/2 the creature's level or CR that you have seen before.
5) Fixing spells that don't work: - Find Traps actually finds traps. - Daylight produces sunlight - Flame Blade is an actual weapon that uses the Attack action. - Phantasmal Killer, Weird, Mort's Sword, Vampiric Touch : need to not suck.
By the way, what I want is for spells like Wall of Force to be well explained and not open to interpretation. And while we are at it, let the entire magic system be clear and not open to discussions.
It's funny that the first two answers have been to make the spells more powerful.
Then there will be people who complain that 5e is not balanced, but a large part of the community does not want it to be.
A lot of people just play their character to indulge in a power fantasy and don't care about everyone else or about the DM needing to try and balance things out, news at 11!
Almost no spell needs a buff at the moment (yes yes true strike does hah), but many need nerfs or clarifications. It's not what the power fantasy crowd wants but it's what's best for the overall health of the game IMO.
Wish should be removed. Same with the munchkin high level spells like simulacrum and clone and crap. It takes weeks to cast, and nobody does it without doing stupid broken crap like, "I create 20.copies of myself, each knowing the wish spell..." gtfoutta here with that bs.
Polymorph, true polymorph, and so on should have the caveat of a "willing" creature to remove shenanigans of skipping a battle by turning every big evil into a toad and killing it in a strange way or keeping it in a jar.
Same goes for gate, dimension door, etc. No isekai'ing villains for an easy fix.
Edit: yeah, I'm a bit of an idiot. The conjure versus summon bit. I wish the summons were more of a middle ground between the two, with a cr requirement, but specific creatures being summoned, and with a lower spell level so scaling is possible (but at every 2 spell levels).
Swap some spells around to different lists to try and give more class identity.
Magic stone is awesome but it's a bit clunky due to its bonus action and 3 at a time nonsense. Is first level or a cantrip? I can't be bothered to look it up right now. Get rid of it for the warlock and sorcerer spell list. They'll never take it with better blaster cantrips. Stick it with the druid and I like that it works with the sling, but let it be last resort blaster cantrip option and as long as they are using a sling and sling ammo (nothing exotic) , it works fine without affecting their existing sling mechanics.
gate needs you to travel to another plane of existence to use it in that way against a villain. The gate spell can be used in combination with demiplane to imprison a BBEG, but that's something you have to deliberately prepare ahead of time.
You're thinking more along the lines of banishment, maze, and plane shift. plane shift at least can be controlled by the DM because of needing the tuning fork, and you have to go through a melee attack roll and a Charisma save for it to actually stick. And maze is only temporary.
You are correct
I don't have the spell list in a separate screen and there's too many damned spells that do just SLIGHTLY different things.
Which is another point I'd want: spell list reduction. Combine spells by giving options or by removing redundancy. There's 500 damned spells and remembering the nuance of each one is a bit much.
1) Tasha's summoning spells to have their damage per attack scale rather than their number of attacks and require a BA to command them.
2) Conjure X & animate objects to be restricted to the option where you summon 1-2 creatures and require a BA to command them.
3) All control spells to get either repeat saves or other ways to break them : - Banishment : repeat save at end of each turn, - Wall of Force : use an action to make a STR check to break it, - Forcecage : use an action to make a check to break it. - Hypnotic Pattern : save at the end of each turn - Fear : remove the fleeing and instead reduce their speed to 0, also save at the end of each turn. - Domination : taking damage breaks it not just allow a save.
4) Nerfing the must-takes : - Misty Step requires an Action - Shield cannot be cast if wearing any armour or using a shield and only lasts until the end of the current creature's turn. - Counterspell : target makes a save with their spellcasting ability against your spell DC. - Polymorph : limited to creatures of CR <=1/2 the creature's level or CR that you have seen before.
5) Fixing spells that don't work: - Find Traps actually finds traps. - Daylight produces sunlight - Flame Blade is an actual weapon that uses the Attack action. - Phantasmal Killer, Weird, Mort's Sword, Vampiric Touch : need to not suck.
I agree with 1.
2 I say what you summon gets your attack, and you get to keep your bonus action (though, remember I want the spell earlier and the summons to scale better)
3. Some more stupid s*** to ban... again, not a fan of the cheats where the spell caster says "I win because I say so". I'll let you skip combat through role playing sneaking around it, I'll let you flee, I'll let you wipe the lower level goons out in a single spell if I can do it, but I don't encourage cheat spells
4. Shield you can use light armor and it's a cantrip, but it's only +2 not +5 and casting time is a bonus action not reaction. Cantrips should make it easier for casters to use and not feel like they have to always use a slot for it, the plus 2 is more reasonable, but as a bonus action, they'll either have to sacrifice their bonus actions or just risk it for something else.
I don't have the spell list in a separate screen and there's too many damned spells that do just SLIGHTLY different things.
Which is another point I'd want: spell list reduction. Combine spells by giving options or by removing redundancy. There's 500 damned spells and remembering the nuance of each one is a bit much.
If you take out maze from the list (which is more like a different variant of banishment), all of the spells listed are very distinct from each other.
dimension door teleports you (and up to one buddy that's at most the same size as you) to somewhere 500 feet away from you. It doesn't do much else.
plane shift can transport you to another dimension altogether (with all the craziness that comes with that) as well as up to eight buddies. But you can also use offensively to force an enemy to that dimension, and in a setting like the Forgotten Realms, that person is gone for good if you actually land it. However, the caveat is you need a tuning fork attuned to the specific plane that either you're traveling to or that you're trying to yeet the enemy to. And I imagine tuning forks for Carceri or the Negative Energy Plane are not the easiest to come by.
banishment puts someone in a harmless demiplane for as long as you're concentrating on it, but if they're from a different plane entirely, it sends them there instead and they stay there if you manage to keep the spell going for the whole 1-minute duration.
gate opens up a whole portal to another plane. That means a whole army of demons or angels can just pour right through if that's your speed, and you can keep that going for 10 whole rounds. In the Forgotten Realms setting, there are even loopy things you can do with this, like opening up a portal to the Plane of Water to just flood the area around it. And it gives you the option to summon literally anything you know the name of that's in another plane, and you can't control that thing. But if there is a ruler there, they have to allow it. So you could summon Demogorgon with this if the Prince of Demons allows you to.
Fair enough, but all of these (save for dimension door) have the same sort of broken-ness of battlefield removal with either permanent removal or enough time to GTFO without any chance of being found, and the few that do have caveats aren't terribly much.
To be able to open a door and summon another creature is in another spell (an entire SET of spells depending on what you summon and that's in addition to the summon set that's labeled conjure).
Dimension door has similarities to misty step, though IIRC it's more utility (and of course a longer range).
What I mean in my Spell Reduction Act of 2023, is that a lot of these can be combined to give similar things in upcast or dismantled so they can be combined into fewer tighter spells lol sts, that might even utilize more upcasting which tends to fall by the wayside on a lot of spells.
Also, I wouldn't say gate, but summon should definitely be warlock, especially pact of the chain as an upcast. Just maybe not your actual patron.
So, something to keep in mind when talking about spells is that D&D uses a “Vancian system” — that is, they use a system based on rules that were originally described in the Jack Vance Dying Earth series.
Those rules are
Each Spell does a distinct thing. Even if that thing is only slightly different from another spell, it matters. Some spells break this rule (everything with more than one specific effect).
Spells must be prepared in advance
Mages can only have a certain number of spells, and when they use them, they are gone.
Damage done by spells is supposed to increase by spell level — the higher the level, the more damage it does.
So, when asking for changes, keep that in mind, lol.
personally, I would like to see them unify damage across all the spells — so that a first level person using a cantrip does way less damage than a 20th level using the same spell, and that a cantrip does less damage than a 6th level spell.
I would like to see an expansion of the elemental spells available.
I would like to see spell point options incorporated into all the spells.
I would like to see more 7th through 9th level spells — if the tier they belong to is supposed to be changing entire regions, then those spells should reflect that.
Dump concentration, put more emphasis on casting time — some spells should take more than one turn to cast. THe higher the spell level, the longer it should take.
(yeah, I know, three things above gonna make all of you come at me; well, deal with it.)
with the 1000 or so special abilities and feats in the game, spells are looking sorta anemic — give us more spells.
I am of the opinion that magic should actually break the balance, lol.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
So, something to keep in mind when talking about spells is that D&D uses a “Vancian system” — that is, they use a system based on rules that were originally described in the Jack Vance Dying Earth series.
Those rules are
Each Spell does a distinct thing. Even if that thing is only slightly different from another spell, it matters. Some spells break this rule (everything with more than one specific effect).
Spells must be prepared in advance
Mages can only have a certain number of spells, and when they use them, they are gone.
Damage done by spells is supposed to increase by spell level — the higher the level, the more damage it does.
So, when asking for changes, keep that in mind, lol.
I have come across comments that think the Vancian system might not have been the best implementation of a magic system for D&D.
That’s an understatement, lol, but to change it would require completely rewriting the entire magic system.
Which I know because I just did that since we had to move away from Vancian. Which would render all the asks here moot because none of them would apply any longer.
However…
it is what D&D uses, and continues to use, and so what we are working with here.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I have come across comments that think the Vancian system might not have been the best implementation of a magic system for D&D.
5e magic isn't Vancian -- Vancian magic is "once you cast the spell, it's gone; if you want to cast the spell more than once, prepare it more than once".
I have come across comments that think the Vancian system might not have been the best implementation of a magic system for D&D.
5e magic isn't Vancian -- Vancian magic is "once you cast the spell, it's gone; if you want to cast the spell more than once, prepare it more than once".
Yeah: “fire and forget”. In this case, they use the Spell Slot system to do that. Use a spell slot, its gone, and that’s still Vancian.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
So, something to keep in mind when talking about spells is that D&D uses a “Vancian system” — that is, they use a system based on rules that were originally described in the Jack Vance Dying Earth series.
Those rules are
Each Spell does a distinct thing. Even if that thing is only slightly different from another spell, it matters. Some spells break this rule (everything with more than one specific effect).
Spells must be prepared in advance
Mages can only have a certain number of spells, and when they use them, they are gone.
Damage done by spells is supposed to increase by spell level — the higher the level, the more damage it does.
So, when asking for changes, keep that in mind, lol.
personally, I would like to see them unify damage across all the spells — so that a first level person using a cantrip does way less damage than a 20th level using the same spell, and that a cantrip does less damage than a 6th level spell.
I would like to see an expansion of the elemental spells available.
I would like to see spell point options incorporated into all the spells.
I would like to see more 7th through 9th level spells — if the tier they belong to is supposed to be changing entire regions, then those spells should reflect that.
Dump concentration, put more emphasis on casting time — some spells should take more than one turn to cast. THe higher the spell level, the longer it should take.
(yeah, I know, three things above gonna make all of you come at me; well, deal with it.)
with the 1000 or so special abilities and feats in the game, spells are looking sorta anemic — give us more spells.
I am of the opinion that magic should actually break the balance, lol.
That's too "video game" for me.
And I don't want spells to be world breaking. Because then you just break the world...on repeat. And then... no real story or narrative. No struggle or challenge. No...point.. unless you like playing a game I know called "I win", but I can assure you it gets old really fast for everyone playing.
And feats aren't all that they are cracked up to be, with very limited usage and the fact that you eat the ASI boost which is ALWAYS better just to get them.
I want more varied casting systems. I sorcerer to have a gambling mechanic that has consequence for when they run out of "nice" magic. I want them to actually manipulate the ether and create or modify spells based on a menu with options so they can literally build their own spells.
I want warlocks to have their rituals, invocations and pacts and little else. I want those pacts and rituals to be the thing that defines them and gives them chains/restrictions to rub against as they grow in power (you can get more adept at how you use the magic you were given and the power of the pact may grow stronger, but you're always bound to that pact).
I want geomancers that manipulate the very earth and plants themselves, altering terrain and using it to attack and defend, conjuring walls of stone or turning the ground into quicksand beneath the feet of others. (The spellcasting side to druid)
I want shamans that take on the shape of beasts, and although that may be all they do, it's not a skill to be trifled with.(the wildshape side of druid, but only ritual magic is allowed in addition to wildshape)
And a long side them the beastmasters who form contracts with the monsters and other creatures they find or fight along the way (summon or conjure at a reduced cost, but you need to get said thing to agree to form a contract with you, and it would have its own mechanics)
A Bard's magic would be limited to only what he or she picked up along the way. A bunch of cantrips some more songs and stories which upon retelling seem to come to life and influence the battlefield, (which would lean into status effects, have a stacking mechanic so you can have 3-5 different status boosts on the field by 12th level, and concentration which is really just them continuing to tell or sing the stories that their spells are. It would be interesting too to have the effects come or go and stack as you might different themes or notes on a page. Maybe a continuous regeneration with a concentration based haste on your side, meanwhile the "song" is also doing "fear" to your opponents).
Your paladins no longer are mini-priests but warriors of conviction and ideals that stir up the masses in battle. Gone are their cleric spells but they keep smites and gain the ability to have auras about them that grant small buffs to a limited radius of about 10 feet around them. Gone as spell levels and instead both skills are a limited number of instances per day...
And finally, gone are the spellcaster subclasses. Either melee or caster or multiclass. Stop blurring the lines into soup
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Which spell’s do you think WotC will change for 1D&D? What spells do you want to see changed? What spells do you not want changed?
I expect Conjure Animals/Celestial/Elemental/Fey/Minor Elementals/Woodland Beings to be either removed (replaced by Tasha's summons) or heavily limited (in particular, conjuring 8 of anything I can't see continuing to exist).
1. Identify- although this has more to do with making the spell as is have more value by eliminating the option of learning a magic item's properties by attuning/focusing over a short rest without a spell.
2. Shield- it's over powered. A popular suggested fix is to change the AC bonus to your Proficiency Bonus, so it scales up with the player. But that's problematic, too, because the spell then becomes more powerful as you gain levels, even though the spell slot stays the same. I dunno. Maybe it could scale up with spell slot level?
3.Cure Wounds- it needs a slight power boost, to make people want to use it. Most people prefer Hesling Word for its range, and then use it to pop up allies when they've been knocked out. Actual healing to restore hit points is often viewed as an inefficient use of resources. Cure Wounds needs to be buffed to change that opinion. I'd suggest just adding another d8 at level 1, and scaling up from there (3d8 at 2nd level, 4d8 at 3rd, etc...)
4. Aid. I hope they revert it to its 2014 version. The playtest version changed it to temporary hp. But EVERYTHING gives temp hp now. And temp hp do not stack.
5. Find Traps. It should actually find traps. It should give the caster exact information about where all traps are within range and what the nature of their trigger mechanisms are, so as to grant advantage to anyone in the party trying to disarm them. As is, this spell is worse than just making a Perception check.
6. Daylight- needs to explicitly say that this spell's light is sunlight, for the purposes of how it interacts with certain creatures (vampires, for example).
7. Enlarge/Reduce- I'd like to see this scale, so that the size & damage die doubles again at spell level 5, and again at spell level 8. So that you're huge & adding a d8 at 5th level, and you're gargantuan with 2d8 at 8th level. Shrinking takes a creature to Tiny at 5th level, and to sub-Tiny (like insect-size) at 8th level. Make this spell a real Ant-Man power.
8. Rope Trick- explicitly state that, as part of the spell, caster & allies are able to climb into it... so I don't have any more wonderful DMs asking my 7 Strength Wizard to make an Athletics check to climb into their own spell and fail- making the casting of it useless.
9. Fabricate. Should have the Ritual tag.
10. Mending. Should be an action. I think the limitations in the spell description are enough of a restraint.
11. Clerics need more cantrips on their list. I get that Wizards are supposed to have the biggest, most diverse list... but Clerics have only 9 cantrips to choose? This makes most clerics have the same cantrips. Which is boring.
12. Other damage cantrips besides Firebolt should explicitly state that they are usable on objects. Like Acid Splash, Frost Bite, Eldritch Blast, etc. I don't know about Radiant or Psychic damage, but the elemental damages & force should work on objects.
13. Weird. Just really bad. It might be an okay 3rd level spell. But 9th? No. I don't think you even try to fix this, just nix this.
14. Mordenkainen's Sword. For 7th level, it should have a 60 ft movement each turn on your bonus action, not 20. And 3d10 damage is not great for 7th level. It IS only a bonus action, but also concentration. 4 or 5 d10 would be better.
15. In general, a bunch of spells need to have their damage adjusted, to entice more people to use those spells. Melf's Acid Arrow comes to mind.
Command is bound by the order of operations of combat; outside of specific exceptions a creature acts only on its turn, and no mind control spell that I'm aware of supersedes that order of operations. All such spells feel a little weird based on the timing, but the effect will still last for a full round if its cast successfully, so it doesn't really need the slight extension of the effect's duration. And 24 hour Invisibility would just be broken.
Wow... cause spellcasters need a massive buff! (sarcasm). These are all crazy making spellcasters vastly more powerful at lower levels.
1) Tasha's summoning spells to have their damage per attack scale rather than their number of attacks and require a BA to command them.
2) Conjure X & animate objects to be restricted to the option where you summon 1-2 creatures and require a BA to command them.
3) All control spells to get either repeat saves or other ways to break them :
- Banishment : repeat save at end of each turn,
- Wall of Force : use an action to make a STR check to break it,
- Forcecage : use an action to make a check to break it.
- Hypnotic Pattern : save at the end of each turn
- Fear : remove the fleeing and instead reduce their speed to 0, also save at the end of each turn.
- Domination : taking damage breaks it not just allow a save.
4) Nerfing the must-takes :
- Misty Step requires an Action
- Shield cannot be cast if wearing any armour or using a shield and only lasts until the end of the current creature's turn.
- Counterspell : target makes a save with their spellcasting ability against your spell DC.
- Polymorph : limited to creatures of CR <=1/2 the creature's level or CR that you have seen before.
5) Fixing spells that don't work:
- Find Traps actually finds traps.
- Daylight produces sunlight
- Flame Blade is an actual weapon that uses the Attack action.
- Phantasmal Killer, Weird, Mort's Sword, Vampiric Touch : need to not suck.
It's funny that the first two answers have been to make the spells more powerful.
Then there will be people who complain that 5e is not balanced, but a large part of the community does not want it to be.
By the way, what I want is for spells like Wall of Force to be well explained and not open to interpretation. And while we are at it, let the entire magic system be clear and not open to discussions.
A lot of people just play their character to indulge in a power fantasy and don't care about everyone else or about the DM needing to try and balance things out, news at 11!
Almost no spell needs a buff at the moment (yes yes true strike does hah), but many need nerfs or clarifications. It's not what the power fantasy crowd wants but it's what's best for the overall health of the game IMO.
I think Flame Arrows should be a 2nd level spell. Reduce it by like 4 arrows. And a bonus action.
Flame Arrows should either:
1) be a limited number of arrows and not require concentration
or
2) be unlimited number of arrows while you retain concentration.
Oh.. I want what I am working on homebrewing ..
Wish should be removed. Same with the munchkin high level spells like simulacrum and clone and crap. It takes weeks to cast, and nobody does it without doing stupid broken crap like, "I create 20.copies of myself, each knowing the wish spell..." gtfoutta here with that bs.
Polymorph, true polymorph, and so on should have the caveat of a "willing" creature to remove shenanigans of skipping a battle by turning every big evil into a toad and killing it in a strange way or keeping it in a jar.
Same goes for gate, dimension door, etc. No isekai'ing villains for an easy fix.
Edit: yeah, I'm a bit of an idiot. The conjure versus summon bit. I wish the summons were more of a middle ground between the two, with a cr requirement, but specific creatures being summoned, and with a lower spell level so scaling is possible (but at every 2 spell levels).
Swap some spells around to different lists to try and give more class identity.
Magic stone is awesome but it's a bit clunky due to its bonus action and 3 at a time nonsense. Is first level or a cantrip? I can't be bothered to look it up right now. Get rid of it for the warlock and sorcerer spell list. They'll never take it with better blaster cantrips. Stick it with the druid and I like that it works with the sling, but let it be last resort blaster cantrip option and as long as they are using a sling and sling ammo (nothing exotic) , it works fine without affecting their existing sling mechanics.
You are correct
I don't have the spell list in a separate screen and there's too many damned spells that do just SLIGHTLY different things.
Which is another point I'd want: spell list reduction. Combine spells by giving options or by removing redundancy. There's 500 damned spells and remembering the nuance of each one is a bit much.
I agree with 1.
2 I say what you summon gets your attack, and you get to keep your bonus action (though, remember I want the spell earlier and the summons to scale better)
3. Some more stupid s*** to ban... again, not a fan of the cheats where the spell caster says "I win because I say so". I'll let you skip combat through role playing sneaking around it, I'll let you flee, I'll let you wipe the lower level goons out in a single spell if I can do it, but I don't encourage cheat spells
4. Shield you can use light armor and it's a cantrip, but it's only +2 not +5 and casting time is a bonus action not reaction. Cantrips should make it easier for casters to use and not feel like they have to always use a slot for it, the plus 2 is more reasonable, but as a bonus action, they'll either have to sacrifice their bonus actions or just risk it for something else.
5. Sounds good to.me.
Fair enough, but all of these (save for dimension door) have the same sort of broken-ness of battlefield removal with either permanent removal or enough time to GTFO without any chance of being found, and the few that do have caveats aren't terribly much.
To be able to open a door and summon another creature is in another spell (an entire SET of spells depending on what you summon and that's in addition to the summon set that's labeled conjure).
Dimension door has similarities to misty step, though IIRC it's more utility (and of course a longer range).
What I mean in my Spell Reduction Act of 2023, is that a lot of these can be combined to give similar things in upcast or dismantled so they can be combined into fewer tighter spells lol sts, that might even utilize more upcasting which tends to fall by the wayside on a lot of spells.
Also, I wouldn't say gate, but summon should definitely be warlock, especially pact of the chain as an upcast. Just maybe not your actual patron.
So, something to keep in mind when talking about spells is that D&D uses a “Vancian system” — that is, they use a system based on rules that were originally described in the Jack Vance Dying Earth series.
Those rules are
Each Spell does a distinct thing. Even if that thing is only slightly different from another spell, it matters. Some spells break this rule (everything with more than one specific effect).
Spells must be prepared in advance
Mages can only have a certain number of spells, and when they use them, they are gone.
Damage done by spells is supposed to increase by spell level — the higher the level, the more damage it does.
So, when asking for changes, keep that in mind, lol.
personally, I would like to see them unify damage across all the spells — so that a first level person using a cantrip does way less damage than a 20th level using the same spell, and that a cantrip does less damage than a 6th level spell.
I would like to see an expansion of the elemental spells available.
I would like to see spell point options incorporated into all the spells.
I would like to see more 7th through 9th level spells — if the tier they belong to is supposed to be changing entire regions, then those spells should reflect that.
Dump concentration, put more emphasis on casting time — some spells should take more than one turn to cast. THe higher the spell level, the longer it should take.
(yeah, I know, three things above gonna make all of you come at me; well, deal with it.)
with the 1000 or so special abilities and feats in the game, spells are looking sorta anemic — give us more spells.
I am of the opinion that magic should actually break the balance, lol.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
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That’s an understatement, lol, but to change it would require completely rewriting the entire magic system.
Which I know because I just did that since we had to move away from Vancian. Which would render all the asks here moot because none of them would apply any longer.
However…
it is what D&D uses, and continues to use, and so what we are working with here.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
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Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
5e magic isn't Vancian -- Vancian magic is "once you cast the spell, it's gone; if you want to cast the spell more than once, prepare it more than once".
Yeah: “fire and forget”. In this case, they use the Spell Slot system to do that. Use a spell slot, its gone, and that’s still Vancian.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
That's too "video game" for me.
And I don't want spells to be world breaking. Because then you just break the world...on repeat. And then... no real story or narrative. No struggle or challenge. No...point.. unless you like playing a game I know called "I win", but I can assure you it gets old really fast for everyone playing.
And feats aren't all that they are cracked up to be, with very limited usage and the fact that you eat the ASI boost which is ALWAYS better just to get them.
I want more varied casting systems. I sorcerer to have a gambling mechanic that has consequence for when they run out of "nice" magic. I want them to actually manipulate the ether and create or modify spells based on a menu with options so they can literally build their own spells.
I want warlocks to have their rituals, invocations and pacts and little else. I want those pacts and rituals to be the thing that defines them and gives them chains/restrictions to rub against as they grow in power (you can get more adept at how you use the magic you were given and the power of the pact may grow stronger, but you're always bound to that pact).
I want geomancers that manipulate the very earth and plants themselves, altering terrain and using it to attack and defend, conjuring walls of stone or turning the ground into quicksand beneath the feet of others. (The spellcasting side to druid)
I want shamans that take on the shape of beasts, and although that may be all they do, it's not a skill to be trifled with.(the wildshape side of druid, but only ritual magic is allowed in addition to wildshape)
And a long side them the beastmasters who form contracts with the monsters and other creatures they find or fight along the way (summon or conjure at a reduced cost, but you need to get said thing to agree to form a contract with you, and it would have its own mechanics)
A Bard's magic would be limited to only what he or she picked up along the way. A bunch of cantrips some more songs and stories which upon retelling seem to come to life and influence the battlefield, (which would lean into status effects, have a stacking mechanic so you can have 3-5 different status boosts on the field by 12th level, and concentration which is really just them continuing to tell or sing the stories that their spells are. It would be interesting too to have the effects come or go and stack as you might different themes or notes on a page. Maybe a continuous regeneration with a concentration based haste on your side, meanwhile the "song" is also doing "fear" to your opponents).
Your paladins no longer are mini-priests but warriors of conviction and ideals that stir up the masses in battle. Gone are their cleric spells but they keep smites and gain the ability to have auras about them that grant small buffs to a limited radius of about 10 feet around them. Gone as spell levels and instead both skills are a limited number of instances per day...
And finally, gone are the spellcaster subclasses. Either melee or caster or multiclass. Stop blurring the lines into soup