In general, "combat" based spells that just deal damage are not very useful unless you plan to go around murdering people. They can't be non-lethally used like weapons can, and since pretty much everyone else in the world is a Commoner a single use of any combat cantrip can easily kill anyone. So, yeah, let's focus on utility/helpful stuff.
Control Flames - from shaping the fire, changing its colour or snuffing fire out from a safe distance, this has its uses. You can also make the flames dimmer or brighter.
Dancing Lights - Not very useful but it would be pretty and entertaining.
Druidcraft - you can give your plants a boost by making the seed pods open and the flowers to bloom. Helps with gardening. You can also predict the weather for the next 24 hours more accurately than any app/weatherperson/etc.
Guidance - A boost in everything you attempt to do. Cooking? Climbing? Making art? Writing a story? Dancing? No matter what, if it requires some effort you can give yourself a boost to your attempt.
Light - Why use up a phone/torch battery when you can create some light for free?
Mage Hand - Do I even need to explain why this would be so incredibly useful? It's an extra hand that can do any basic thing within 30 ft from you from picking up things, turning the lights on or off, fetching the remote when you're comfy, holding your phone up as you take a photo, etc.
Mending - You can do all simple repairs instantly and without tools or glue. Broke your phone's screen? Ripped your jumper? Broke off a piece of the statue? Dropped a glass? All fixed in seconds as if it never happened. You could even make a job out of it and earn some decent money.
Minor Illusion - The usefulness of this diminishes if you need to keep things secret, but otherwise this spell can do a lot of things. Great for pranks.
Mold Earth - Dig without a shovel or any effort. For everyday peeps in a town or city this will have very little use. For people in certain occupations like farmers, this would be amazing : you can dig up the ground as you need much, much easier and it'd be a snap to set up or change irrigation and such.
Prestidigitation - Clean things up in an instant - you could even make a dry-cleaning business out of it. Coffee gone cold? Warm it up. Coffee too hot to drink? Hot weather? Cool your clothes. Get healthy food and make it actually taste and smell nice. Make water taste like any other drink. And perform any sensory harmless effect you can think of within 10 ft - like fire swirling around you. Combine the sensory effects with minor illusion for some amazing entertainment options.
Shape Water - move and animate water for ease and amusement. Turn water into ice that wont melt for an hour. Combine with Prestidigitation to have water become effectively any other drink : you could have it be fizzy cola or smooth cool milkshake. And yet no matter how sweet it might be - sugar free because it's still just water, as far as your body is concerned. Since you can combine instant effects with lasting ones you not only get to make the cola, you can add ice cubes and instead of a straw you can just animate it to flow into your mouth from up to 5 ft away.
Spare the Dying - Might be helpful someday. It's not quite as useful as might imagine because real life "injured/hurt/dying" is very different to D&D, but still, it can help in situations where somebody is in critical condition.
Thaumaturgy - Not a huge amount of uses here, except for some pranks. Or when you're too lazy to open or close the doors/windows (but you could have Mage Hand for that...).Changing yours eyes would be great for cosplay - especially if you cant wear contact lenses. Sharingan!
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And that' just cantrips. I'll come back with my thoughts on other spells later. There's so many but it's gone 7 am and I need to get some sleep before work in... 7 hours.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
lesser restoration - instant curing of any disease at a touch, with no expensive material component. This would transform healthcare in-world.
purify food and drink - trivially easy water purification. In a pre-industrial setting without chlorinated water this is also a huge deal.
The winner is probably still prestidigitation though. The invention of washing machines is one of the most societally transformative innovations around, and this trivially replace it for cleaning clothes. Once you have this the whole distribution of labour in your society changes.
Okay class we are going to the testing room. It is anti magic zone so you can't cast Read Thoughts, Guidance, ETC. Zone of Truth would not be allowed in a court of law. Some spells would not be allowed during sporting events.
Alarm would suck if you have cats.
Animal Friendship would help Farmers and Rangers. Hey Besty come into this corral so I can wipe that foam around your mouth off.
Disney and Mickey warned us about Animate Objects. Arcana Gate would change the travel industry.
But we need to ask what spells could normal people afford to cast. If 1 GP = $1 then most people can do the spells. But if 1 GP = $2,000 (Cost of 1 oz of gold today) then some people would be out of luck. Example Holy Water would go for $50K.
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-Of course mending for something broken.
-Shape water to freeze your beverage.
-Goodbery, purify food and water, create food and water, create bonfire and tiny hut for camping.
-Heat metal for crafting.
-Teleportation circle for travelling.
-Prestidigitation for cleaning, open lights, and many more uses...
-All the healing spells duh.
-Fly to fly of course and breathing water for diving and such..
-Darkvision when you walk at night or in a dark place.
What more?
In general, "combat" based spells that just deal damage are not very useful unless you plan to go around murdering people. They can't be non-lethally used like weapons can, and since pretty much everyone else in the world is a Commoner a single use of any combat cantrip can easily kill anyone. So, yeah, let's focus on utility/helpful stuff.
Control Flames - from shaping the fire, changing its colour or snuffing fire out from a safe distance, this has its uses. You can also make the flames dimmer or brighter.
Dancing Lights - Not very useful but it would be pretty and entertaining.
Druidcraft - you can give your plants a boost by making the seed pods open and the flowers to bloom. Helps with gardening. You can also predict the weather for the next 24 hours more accurately than any app/weatherperson/etc.
Guidance - A boost in everything you attempt to do. Cooking? Climbing? Making art? Writing a story? Dancing? No matter what, if it requires some effort you can give yourself a boost to your attempt.
Light - Why use up a phone/torch battery when you can create some light for free?
Mage Hand - Do I even need to explain why this would be so incredibly useful? It's an extra hand that can do any basic thing within 30 ft from you from picking up things, turning the lights on or off, fetching the remote when you're comfy, holding your phone up as you take a photo, etc.
Mending - You can do all simple repairs instantly and without tools or glue. Broke your phone's screen? Ripped your jumper? Broke off a piece of the statue? Dropped a glass? All fixed in seconds as if it never happened. You could even make a job out of it and earn some decent money.
Minor Illusion - The usefulness of this diminishes if you need to keep things secret, but otherwise this spell can do a lot of things. Great for pranks.
Mold Earth - Dig without a shovel or any effort. For everyday peeps in a town or city this will have very little use. For people in certain occupations like farmers, this would be amazing : you can dig up the ground as you need much, much easier and it'd be a snap to set up or change irrigation and such.
Prestidigitation - Clean things up in an instant - you could even make a dry-cleaning business out of it. Coffee gone cold? Warm it up. Coffee too hot to drink? Hot weather? Cool your clothes. Get healthy food and make it actually taste and smell nice. Make water taste like any other drink. And perform any sensory harmless effect you can think of within 10 ft - like fire swirling around you. Combine the sensory effects with minor illusion for some amazing entertainment options.
Shape Water - move and animate water for ease and amusement. Turn water into ice that wont melt for an hour. Combine with Prestidigitation to have water become effectively any other drink : you could have it be fizzy cola or smooth cool milkshake. And yet no matter how sweet it might be - sugar free because it's still just water, as far as your body is concerned. Since you can combine instant effects with lasting ones you not only get to make the cola, you can add ice cubes and instead of a straw you can just animate it to flow into your mouth from up to 5 ft away.
Spare the Dying - Might be helpful someday. It's not quite as useful as might imagine because real life "injured/hurt/dying" is very different to D&D, but still, it can help in situations where somebody is in critical condition.
Thaumaturgy - Not a huge amount of uses here, except for some pranks. Or when you're too lazy to open or close the doors/windows (but you could have Mage Hand for that...).Changing yours eyes would be great for cosplay - especially if you cant wear contact lenses. Sharingan!
-
And that' just cantrips. I'll come back with my thoughts on other spells later. There's so many but it's gone 7 am and I need to get some sleep before work in... 7 hours.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Fabricate would be pretty awesome to have.
And pretty much healing, restoration, and resurrection spells.
Thaumaturgy to open all the windows
Suggestion would be a HUGE game changer for salesman and business negotiators.
mage hand I wished I'd have that when trying to extract a toy from under the couch, etc. prestidigitation for everything else under that couch.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Two big ones worth calling out
The winner is probably still prestidigitation though. The invention of washing machines is one of the most societally transformative innovations around, and this trivially replace it for cleaning clothes. Once you have this the whole distribution of labour in your society changes.
Okay class we are going to the testing room. It is anti magic zone so you can't cast Read Thoughts, Guidance, ETC. Zone of Truth would not be allowed in a court of law. Some spells would not be allowed during sporting events.
Alarm would suck if you have cats.
Animal Friendship would help Farmers and Rangers. Hey Besty come into this corral so I can wipe that foam around your mouth off.
Disney and Mickey warned us about Animate Objects. Arcana Gate would change the travel industry.
But we need to ask what spells could normal people afford to cast. If 1 GP = $1 then most people can do the spells. But if 1 GP = $2,000 (Cost of 1 oz of gold today) then some people would be out of luck. Example Holy Water would go for $50K.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.