Spell Spotlight is a series where we do a deep dive on some of Dungeons & Dragon’s most interesting, useful, and complex spells. Today, we’re looking at enlarge/reduce, a useful spell that allows you to change the size of a creature or object of your choosing. While it might seem simple on the surface, there are plenty of creative ways to make it one of the most potent and versatile spells in your arsenal, both in and out of combat.
Whether you want to make your barbarian friend even more menacing, or you just want to shrink that fish your neighbor caught so you win the fishing contest, enlarge/reduce has got you covered.
- What does enlarge/reduce do?
- Who can cast enlarge/reduce?
- Why we love this spell
- FAQ: Enlarge/reduce
What Does Enlarge/Reduce Do?
Enlarge/reduce is a 2nd-level transmutation spell. For up to 1 minute or until you lose concentration, you can cause a creature or object of your choosing to grow larger or smaller. Keep in mind that an unwilling creature, like an enemy you are fighting, can make a Constitution saving throw to avoid this effect. Many creatures you may face in your adventures are quite good at Constitution saving throws, so this spell might not be a reliable option to use against your foes. To add to this, you cannot target an object that a creature has on their person, so you won’t be able to turn your enemy’s weapons into mini toy versions.
Enlarging a target doubles its physical size and drastically increases its weight, thereby increasing its size category by one, meaning that a Medium creature would become Large. The biggest draw here is that the target gains advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws, and their weapons deal 1d4 extra damage. The most obvious use of enlarge is to give an ally an edge in battle.
Reducing a target essentially does the opposite of what enlarging it would do. The target’s physical size is halved, its weight is drastically decreased, and its size category goes down by one. Given that the target gets disadvantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws, and its weapon damage is reduced by 1d4 for the duration, reducing a creature is intended to be used on your enemies.
One of the most contentious aspects of casting enlarge/reduce on a creature is that anything they are wearing or holding also changes size. Creatures that are size Small have disadvantage on attacks with heavy weapons, so the question is: Does this hold true for shrunken weapons? The weapon would retain the heavy property, but it would also scale down with you from Medium to Small. This is probably a question best left up to your DM.
There aren’t many rules for player characters that are a size other than Small or Medium, but we will discuss what we do know.
What Creature Sizes Mean
Creatures in D&D are divided into six size categories: Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, and Gargantuan. Size dictates quite a few attributes when creating monsters, but when it comes to player characters, size is less of a determining factor.
One of the greatest impacts size has is on carrying capacity and how much a creature can push, drag, or lift. Each size above Medium gets to double these amounts, while Tiny creatures halve these amounts.
Size also affects interactions on the battlefield. Naturally, you take up more space when you are larger, effectively increasing the opportunities for other creatures to count as adjacent to you. You can only grapple and shove creatures that are no greater than one size larger than you, so enlarging a friend may open up the possibility of them being able to grapple a particularly bulky enemy. Additionally, you can move through the space of a hostile creature that is at least two sizes larger or smaller than you, so managing to become Tiny would give you an edge there.
Note that you cannot get bigger than Large using enlarge/reduce, as all playable races are Small or Medium and multiple instances of the spell do not stack with each other.
Who Can Cast Enlarge/Reduce?
Enlarge/reduce is only available to three classes: artificers, sorcerers, and wizards. There are no subclasses that gain this spell, and since it is a 2nd-level spell you won’t be able to access it with a feat like Magic Initiate. Your only option, then, would be to play one of these classes, multiclass into one to get access to 2nd-level magic, or to find an item that has charges of the spell.
Why We Love This Spell
Perhaps the best use for enlarge/reduce in combat is to aid an ally that specializes in grappling when they fight. Even with the Grappler feat, grappling often doesn’t feel like a powerful strategy. By causing your grappling ally to grow, they will not only get advantage on their Strength checks and extra damage on weapon attacks, but they will be able to grapple and shove even larger creatures. If the spell increases your ally’s size from Medium to Large, they will be able to grapple a Huge creature like an adult black dragon! Alternatively, reducing an enemy will give your ally a much easier time in maintaining the grapple.
Using reduce on a Small ally can also be interesting since they will become Tiny. Tiny creatures will have a much easier time moving around the battlefield as they will be able to move through the space of hostile creatures and find cover more easily. Tiny creatures will also be able to squeeze themselves into smaller spaces, opening up a new option for infiltration.
As far as objects go, the uses for enlarge/reduce are near endless and are only limited by your imagination and your Dungeon Master’s leniency. As with many aspects of D&D, certain things are left up to your discretion and what your table finds fun. For example, Jeremy Crawford was asked in 2016 if a reduce spell can be used to bypass locked doors by shrinking them. He stated that you should ask the player which part of the door they want to reduce as doors are made of multiple objects (source). The basic rules state that “an object is a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects.” A door is mentioned, but it doesn’t clarify whether it means just the door, or also the handles, locks, and other things that might be attached to it. One could argue that a book is also made of multiple objects, namely the cover and the hundreds or thousands of pieces of paper inside. Instead of getting lost in these debates, just make your case to your DM and let them determine if what you are asking is going to negatively influence your game.
FAQ: Enlarge/reduce
Can You Stack Enlarge/Reduce?
No. Two instances of the same spell do not stack. However, you can increase your size category further by stacking the spell with the Rune Knight fighter's 3rd level feature Giant's Might.
Can You Upcast Enlarge/Reduce?
No. There is no higher level version of this spell to get the effect multiple times.
Does Enlarge/Reduce Affect Weapon Damage?
Yes! Creatures deal an extra 1d4 with enlarged weapons and 1d4 less damage with reduced weapons, though the damage can’t be reduced to lower than 1.
Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.
Yes, this is called RAF, rules as fun. When the actual rules disappoint, rulings enter play.
There is a problem I have found with trying to grapple dangerous enemies such as dragons: they often have some way to turn it against you. My transmuter wizard once turned into a t-rex using a polymorph spell and tried to grapple an adult white dragon. I succeeded, but the dragon flopped over into nearby icy water and froze my t-rex form to death by freeing itself of the grapple and dragging them down into the depths of the sea of moving ice. Grappling dragons is almost never a good idea.
I don’t think they’re supposed to be able to do that…
That's a cool scene to visualize, but a grappled creature has a speed of 0 feet. The dragon probably should not have been able to move the t-rex. Maybe if the dragon won an athletics contest, but that would more likely end the grapple.
On another note:
Has anyone seen this spell used on an inanimate object to good effect?
In one of my campaigns, the party was travelling through a sewer system, and they found an apparatus of kwalish. One of the players loved it and asked the bard to cast Reduce on it so that they could carry the apparatus out of the sewers and drive it around the city. I didn't see any reason why that wouldn't work, so I let them do it.
I feel like 5E did this spell a disservice by not giving benefits and drawbacks on both sides of the equation. It feels like Reduce is such a niche effect that you realistically only ever want to use it as a debuff or not at all (given how many monsters are good at CON saves.) The design of the spell is flawed compared to 3.5/Pathfinder.
I also disagree with not stacking casts of Enlarge/Reduce. Have some fun, ffs.
Imagine grappling a live tiger. In a way that doesn't prevent it from attacking you...
Exact reading for Path of the Giant is:
"Giant Stature. Your reach increases by 5 feet, and if you are smaller than Large, you become Large, along with anything you are wearing -."
This is roughly the equivalent to the Fighter's subclass for Rune Knight's ability of Giant's Might where if smaller than Large they become Large. So it's unfortunate these don't stack.
But you can still get to "Huge" with the Enlarge/Reduce Spell, afterwards and grapple one size above
What really has me curious though... has anyone thought of playtesting this with the Bugbear and it's extra 5 feet of reach then going the well known Polearm Master and Sentinel so you can be a large or huge creature, taking up 2x2 (10x10 feet) or 3x3 (15x15 feet) squares and reaching out 2 squares (10 feet) with a polearm to extend a further 1 square (5 feet)? You don't get the Bugbear's 5 feet for the reaction, but you could still disengage for free, smack them from 15 feet away and use reaction on anything across a width of 7 squares (35 feet) while huge to just block the path to the squishies.
I feel like the weapon bonus or penalty should function just like NPCs in the Monster Manuel. Creatures gains one extra damage die for every size they are above Medium.
What works for a monster isn't necessarily balanced for a player though, as monsters essentially operate in reverse; their challenge rating is determined by their damage output etc., whereas a player's damage output etc. is determined by their level.
For example, I have a Large-sized Brute Minotaur race homebrew, so part of what I had to cover in that is weapon interactions. If I had gone with the Monster dice scaling rules it definitely wouldn't have been balanced, as you could have had a Brute Minotaur barbarian running around with a greataxe dealing 2d12 damage per hit from 1st-level, which would have been way too strong. In the end I settled for +2 damage on the large versions of weapons, with various penalties for using under or oversized weapons. Even then the race isn't super balanced, it could be exploited, so requires a bit of DM oversight.
Duergar race enlarge plus rune knight plus spell? (if DM allows as technically the first part is not a spell).
Architecturally, you could reduce a key piece in a structure and do some serious damage.
--The keystone in an arch reduced to remove stability.
--Base of a pillar (especially if it's a separate piece of material)
--any support beam (enlarge or reduce)
--The standard "rope bridge over chasm" when one rope suddenly reduces to half size.
-- Enlarge a gold bar or gem (probably better to be gone before it wears off)
You can also get the enlarge/reduce spell on druids, thanks to the 1st level druid feature from Tasha's cauldron of everything.
1st-level druid feature
The spells in the following list expand the druid spell list in the Player’s Handbook. The list is organized by spell level, not character level. If a spell can be cast as a ritual, the ritual tag appears after the spell’s name. Each spell is in the Player’s Handbook, unless it has an asterisk (a spell in chapter 3). Xanathar’s Guide to Everything also offers more spells.
Yes, this is exactly what my bugbear fighter does. He's tanky enough to take the hits and can form the entire frontline by himself if he has to, while our barbarian is off causing chaos elsewhere. Great concept for battlefield control, loving playing him in our Waterdeep campaign.
There is nothing in the spell that says you cannot grow bigger than size large.
A powerful spell in the right hands. Like my player's...
Also Eldritch Knights can choose it as well at 7th level at the earliest.
Speaking of this spell, how would y'all rule a twinned spell, enlarging an ally and reducing an enemy?
Don't forget oversized weapons! When you are large you can grab that large greatsword for a sweet 4d6+1d4 dmg!