Don't know where to put this question so I'll start it here.

If writing a fantasy story, when it is it copyrighted by D&D (Wizards of the Coast?)

For instance, can I use, "He cast the wall of fire spell,"? There is a spell in D&D, "wall of fire" but also it is rather generic.

I figure it would be copyrighted if things like "The party encountered a Mind Flayer".

But that it also would not be copyrighted if things like "The party encountered orcs and drow." Since both orcs and drow are pretty common fantasy creatures.

I'd say use common sense and err on the side of caution.  Better to say, "He flung up his arms and a huge wall made of fire sprung up in front of him" than to say, "He cast the wall of fire spell".  The first one reads better too.

Some things are definitely copyrighted, particularly monsters like the Beholder and Mindflayers. 

Yeah I'm actually thinking of just simplifying my life and taking out specific spell references. I like describing them better too.

Thankfully my first chapter on this only has a few spells listed by name.

I think following the same approach DDB is using for the content here might be a good guideline: is what you want to mention/use in your story within the Basic Rules (SRD)?

• YES = Go for it, it's freely usable content
• NO = hold your horse and find a narrative description to convey the same thing without using the copyrighted word/term/name

If you really want to be thorough, you can look through all their trademarks registered with the US patent office:

http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4801:phgzyt.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl~:=PARA1$LD&expr=PARA1 AND PARA2&p_s_PARA2=Wizards of the coast&p_tagrepl~:=PARA2$OW&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit Query&a_search=Submit Query

Which interestingly shows "D&D Beyond" as a trademark of WOTC.

Quote from LeK >>

I think following the same approach DDB is using for the content here might be a good guideline: is what you want to mention/use in your story within the Basic Rules (SRD)?

• YES = Go for it, it's freely usable content
• NO = hold your horse and find a narrative description to convey the same thing without using the copyrighted word/term/name

 This here is the best bet as things in the SRD is there for folks to use. Just remember that some of the copy righted items and names have SRD replacements such as Tenser’s Floating Disk compared to Floating Disk.