Hey, hey, look over here! Allow us to grab your attention with the magical distraction that is silvery barbs. This intriguing 1st-level enchantment spell, introduced in Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, has the potential to turn the tide of a battle by shifting fortune away from your enemy and into the hands of yourself or your party.
Let's take a look at this flustering spell and how to best use it to gain an advantage over your enemies!
What Does Silvery Barbs Do?
The best way to think of silvery barbs is as a transference of luck. First, when a creature you can see within 60 feet succeeds on an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can use a reaction to make that creature reroll the d20, using the lower roll. Then, you can choose a different creature within range, including yourself, to give advantage on the next attack roll, ability check, or saving throw they make within 1 minute—without using concentration!
Power and Limitations
Silvery barbs can be a pretty powerful spell, for sure. When everything goes exactly as you plan, it can cause a creature to fail a roll they had already succeeded at and cause an ally or yourself to succeed on a roll you may have failed on. But the first limitation of the spell is that in neither case is the failure or success automatic. The triggering target could still succeed on the second roll of their dice, and the creature you choose to give advantage to still could fail on their roll. Regardless of the outcome, you will have used up a spell and your reaction for the round. Compare that to shield, another 1st-level reaction spell, which you can use with the certainty that it will be successful if an enemy’s attack roll is below your improved AC the spell provides. Also, silvery barbs is a “one and done” spell while shield remains active until the start of your next turn, giving you a higher AC against all attacks until then.
At a 1st-level spell slot, silvery barbs might seem at first glance like an economical spell, but remember that every spell slot you use to cast it is one that you cannot use later for a vital attack or healing spell. Dungeon Masters who want to limit the potential abuse of the spell could do so simply by creating a scenario where spell slots are at a premium. Also, since silvery barbs only affects one roll from an enemy, having multiple opponents or enemies that utilize multiattack will help keep combat balanced and challenging.
Elective Courses
Silvery barbs is from Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, one of the Magic: The Gathering setting books. As a player, you should make sure that your DM approves the use of material from that setting in their game before bringing it into play.
The D&D Beyond character builder requires you to toggle “Magic: The Gathering content” on the Character Preferences page in order to access the spell.
Who Can Cast Silvery Barbs?
Flavor-wise, silvery barbs feels like it was crafted with bards in mind, as the spell has similar buffing and debuffing vibes as bard subclass features like Cutting Words, Unsettling Words, or Mote of Potential. The spell fits nicely into the way that bardic magic ties into inspiring allies and distracting foes.
The spell is also made available to wizards and sorcerers, which fits the setting of Strixhaven as a school of magic.
Other ways that characters could get access to silvery barbs would be with a feat or magic item that allows you access to a 1st-level enchantment spell of your choice, such as Fey Touched and Magic Initiate.
Why We Love This Spell
One of our favorite aspects of this spell is how nicely it fits within the bards’ skillset. If another member of the party is already serving as the primary healer, then having a spell that plays to a bard’s strengths in buffing and debuffing can be a lovely supplement. It gives bards a way to utilize their flavor as a reaction in combat when moves requiring the use of Bardic Inspiration wouldn’t normally be available. It feels like a sibling to vicious mockery, the magical ideal of having a wit so quick it can make your enemies trip in their step while pumping up your friends.
But what really appeals to us for the spell is its potential for use out of combat in skill challenges with more of a competitive, roleplay aspect to them. Perhaps when challenging a rival adventuring party to some pub games or trying to beat an enemy henchman in a game of chance to gain information. Whether in combat or out, the spell has the potential for some pretty triumphant moments, being utilized in those critical moments where just a nudge of fate in another direction could mean the difference between a sound victory or a bitter defeat.
FAQ: Silvery Barbs
What effect does silvery barbs have on Legendary Resistance?
Silvery barbs cannot negate Legendary Resistance, as creatures with this ability do not need to succeed on a roll in order to utilize it. So even if a spellcaster used their silvery barbs to make a monster fail its saving throw, the DM could still use Legendary Resistance to pass the save.
What components are required for silvery barbs?
Silvery barbs only requires a vocal component for casting.
Can you use Twinned Spell to cast silvery barbs on more targets?
No. Silvery barbs cannot increase its targets via Twinned Spell as it targets more than one creature.
Can silvery barbs be used in combination with the Order Domain cleric feature Voice of Authority?
Yes. An Order Domain cleric with access to silvery barbs via multiclassing, feats, or magic items, could also allow the targeted ally to make their one weapon attack with advantage using that ally’s reaction.
How does silvery barbs work if a creature is rolling with advantage or disadvantage?
The triggering effect of silvery barbs occurs when the intended target succeeds on a roll. So, if the target had advantage or disadvantage on an attack, saving throw, or skill check, they would first roll the two d20s to determine if the roll was ultimately a success or failure. If it is a success, then you could use your reaction to cast silvery barbs.
Can silvery barbs be used to disrupt a death saving throw?
Yes. Death saves are considered saving throws, so silvery barbs could be used.
How does silvery barbs interact with counterspell?
If the use of counterspell requires an ability check, such as when trying to counter a spell at a higher level without using a higher spell slot, you could make your target reroll that ability check using silvery barbs. A use of counterspell could also negate the casting of silvery barbs. Since it is a 1st-level spell, no roll would be required to interrupt the spell.
What does silvery barbs look like?
While there is no official visual flavor text for what silvery barbs looks like when cast, the spell's description implies distraction for one target and encouragement for the other. It can be inferred that the intention is for the spell to function as words spoken by you via the vocal component, similar to a spell such as vicious mockery or Tasha’s hideous laughter.
However, if you would prefer to picture the spell as actual literal barbed plants made of silver, stealing luck from an enemy and bestowing it to your friends, the optional personalizing spells rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything encourages precisely that kind of creative spin on your spellcasting.
Riley Silverman (@rileyjsilverman) is a contributing writer to D&D Beyond, Nerdist, and SYFY Wire. She DMs the Theros-set Dice Ex Machina for the Saving Throw Show, and has been a player on the Wizards of the Coast-sponsored The Broken Pact. Riley also played as Braga in the official tabletop adaptation of the Rat Queens comic for HyperRPG, and currently plays as The Doctor on the Doctor Who RPG podcast The Game of Rassilon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
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Posted Nov 10, 2022Heres the thing about comparing it with shield. Shield is defensive in nature and that cannot change. Silvery Barbs can be used as both a defensive, but most importantly, offensively. Your Sorcerer party member cast Disintegrate and the opponents succeeds, Silvery Barb. In this instance Silvery Barbs is "practically" a 6th level spell. This clearly starts to become an issue when you have multiple spell casters as it allows for save or sucks spells to effectively cast twice with an added cost of a first level spell slot.
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Posted Nov 11, 2022It's interesting that this 1st level spell does something that is very similar to wording in the 9th level Wish spell. Either this spell is OP or Wish is greatly under powered :)
"You undo a single recent event by forcing a reroll of any roll made within the last round (including your last turn). Reality reshapes itself to accommodate the new result. For example, a wish spell could undo an opponent's successful save, a foe's critical hit, or a friend's failed save. You can force the reroll to be made with advantage or disadvantage, and you can choose whether to use the reroll or the original roll."
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Posted Nov 11, 2022Exactly this! my partner and I had just interacted with the wish spell in a recent session and had noticed this fact. As you mentioned, Lathius, it is impressive that a 1st-level spell is able to simulate an effect restricted to a 9th-level spell. I wonder if the designers forgot that wish is able to provide a re-roll (at a much larger cost than just 9th-level spell slot).
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Posted Nov 11, 2022I have a player whose character has Silvery Barbs. I can relate that while it is a really good spell, it isn't a magic bullet; it doesn't always work.
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Posted Nov 11, 2022This spell was instantly banned in my game upon reading it. It should never had been published as a spell. It was apparently originally planned as the ability of a subclass of Wizard during the playtesting phase. It was never playtested as it was printed. Horrible oversight by quality control at WotC. Anyone who had ever played DnD should see why this is bad game design.
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Posted Nov 11, 2022Whoever made Silvery Barbs as a 1st level spell should feel bad.
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Posted Nov 11, 2022Right? That was a designer fail. It's obvious they didn't think about them being used on your high level spell saves.
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Posted Nov 11, 2022Sooo many comments are angry at a reactionary spell lmao! “But it ruined my Crit against my player” bruh if you’re not running a TPK campaign then it’s not a big deal, also you can still do a normal hit. “Ban the spell!” Okay so let’s ban other reactionary spells like shield and absorb elements along with counterspell which are arguably more powerful than silvery barbs. “It’s disadvantage!” No Karen it’s a reroll there’s a difference.
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Posted Nov 11, 2022Anyways it’s a fun spell and I think DMs should be more open to this spell than just simply hating on it for stupid reasons.
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Posted Nov 11, 2022Yep, snatch victory from the jaws of defeat means a narrow win. Adding “your enemies’” means you gave them the win.
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Posted Nov 11, 2022You might want to take a closer look at specifically why people are complaining about the spell; it's not that it's a reaction, it's how powerful it is.
For only a 1st-level slot it doesn't only let you force one attack re-roll (which may not merely cancel a critical hit, it can cause a miss), it also grants advantage, it also works for attacks against others, it also works for enemy ability checks and worst of all it also works for enemy saving throws.
It's absurdly versatile for a 1st-level, combining the benefits of multiple class features and spells into a reaction with no risk of failure (the enemy might roll well a second time, but you still forced the re-roll), and it allowing forced save re-rolls means you can combine it with effects (including other spells) that you triggered on your own turn, effectively meaning you can force disadvantage in the same way as Heightened Spell (which it can stack with, but costs 3 sorcery points which is higher cost), or certain magic items (which are much more limited in what you can force re-rolls for). And it doesn't do any of this by opposing disadvantage, but instead it's a forced re-roll, which means it overrules advantage, and can arguably even negate a legendary resistance (legendary resistance forces a success, but that then can be used as the trigger for the spell).
People don't mind the idea of the spell as a cutting words-like effect, and there are plenty of ways to tone it down, but it definitely shouldn't have been released as it was, and it shouldn't be used as-is without carefully considering how strong it is. It's arguably the single best 1st-level spell in the game, and it's far too good for any optimiser to ignore it on their 1st-level picks if they can take it (or can find a way to take it).
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Posted Nov 11, 2022Right next to Goodberry in my list of Banned Spells.
The fact that the comparison is to shield tells me that the spell's utility was never considered beyond its relationship to the bound accuracy of the edition. Spells like this don't exist in a vacuum and can't be be balanced as such.
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Posted Nov 12, 2022So popular/powerful it's been banned at every table I've played at. ;_;
I did get to play with it briefly. My arcane trickster loved having an option to negate crits that hurt so bad and get a sneak attack out of it, to boot... and it only took that one session for it to be banned.
Could we at least have a replacement spell that can negate crits, without the OP added bonus of then ALSO conferring advantage? A different kind of safety net to shield.
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Posted Nov 13, 2022"Once you cast a spell on an enemy, there's never any reason to not immediately cast Silvery Barbs afterwards."
As to this specifically, you couldn't. You have already cast a spell of first level or higher on your turn, therefore you would not be able to cast a spell of first level or higher as a reaction also on your turn.
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Posted Nov 13, 2022I think you may be confused about spellcasting during a single turn. You can use an Action to cast a 1st+ level spell and a Reaction to cast another 1st+ level spell. The only instance when this is different is when you use your Bonus Action to cast a 1st+ level spell, in which case you could cast other spells but they are limited to be cantrips. You can read more in this thread (which cite the rules on Bonus Action Spells) and this tweet from JC.
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Posted Nov 13, 2022For clarity to my earlier comment. I put it to my party for a vote at Session Zero: If you can use this spell, so can all the bad guys in the campaign. Do you want this spell in the campaign? They all said no. This has been consistent with every game I've DM'd. That's the sign of a bad spell.
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Posted Nov 13, 2022PSA: For extra brokenness, remember 18th lvl wizards can pick a lvl 1 spell to cast at will unlimited times per day. Imagine a character that can cast this for free once every turn...
I beg of you fellow DMs, BAN THIS SPELL for the good of your campaigns.
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Posted Nov 13, 2022So what? By that level, the monsters should be making their saves more often than not (or more or less immune to saving throw effects), making the forced reroll a waste of time.
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Posted Nov 13, 2022High level monsters still have saves that they are weaker against, and your high level caster is likely to have a minimum DC of 19, so even CR 25-30 monsters can have a worse than 50/50 chance at saving against them, that's why they tend to have legendary resistances. If you can combine silvery barbs with anything else that affects saves, like an instrument of the bards (i.e- combo with an ally), maybe bane for good measure and at the very least you're going to force it to burn its legendary resistances so you can force it to fail in a later round instead.
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Posted Nov 13, 2022What a tone deaf article for such a divisive spell. "silvery barbs might seem at first glance like an economical spell..." followed by a 'Power Gamer' breakdown of how to get access and abuse it? If it had to be written, this article should have been a list of help and solutions to tables struggling with PC's using this spell. To echo what others have said, imagine having a DM with all enemy spellcasters having Silvery Barbs, that then says to their players "just modify your characters to counter it."