Have you ever found yourself just out of range to cast a spell, or wished you could throw a big area of effect in the middle of enemies without worrying about hitting the paladin? Pick up a mind crystal, because it’s time for some Metamagic.

The upcoming adventure book Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk releases September 19 and introduces new magic items, monsters, and more. The mind crystal is among my favorite new magic items, as it lets other spellcasters put their sorcerer cap on for a moment.

Let’s dive in to see how Metamagic can be your character’s ultimate upgrade.

• What Do Mind Crystals Do?
• The 7 Types of Mind Crystals
• How to Use Mind Crystals as a DM
• FAQ: Mind Crystals

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Slay monsters and save the town! Jump into this quintessential Dungeons & Dragons adventure two weeks early, on September 5, when you preorder the Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk Digital + Physical Bundle! This bundle includes a physical copy of the book that you can add to your collection along with a digital D&D Beyond copy that integrates with our online toolset.

What Do Mind Crystals Do?

Artist: Isabel Gibney

A mind crystal contains sorcerous potential, allowing a user to apply Metamagic to a spell as you cast it. For the non-sorcerers among us, Metamagic allows you to tweak and alter a spell to better suit your needs, such as extending its duration or increasing its range. While Metamagic is a sorcerer class feature that needs sorcery points to use, mind crystals are single-use items that can be used by anyone who can cast a spell.

But don't toss these spent gems in the trash when their power has been used up; they're worth 50 gp once they run out of magic! (Spell scrolls could not be reached for comment at this time.)

There are seven mind crystals of varying rarity and type, each corresponding to a Metamagic option. Careful, Distant, Empowered, Extended, Heightened, Quickened, and Subtle Spell are all available; Seeking, Transmuted, and Twinned Spell are not.

Below, we discuss how to use these items as a player and as a Dungeon Master.

The 7 Types of Mind Crystals

Artist: Viktor Titov

As a cleric, druid, wizard, or other spellcasting class, you may not be used to thinking about how you can tweak your spells during combat. You’ve never had to consider whether life would be better if bane could be cast at 130 feet; what good would it have done you? Come, think like a sorcerer. Tell magic that it can be better.

Let’s review each mind crystal’s Metamagic option, along with a few spell suggestions for each. I’ll try to prioritize spells that aren’t from the sorcerer spell list, though there’s plenty of overlap.

1. Careful Mind Crystal
2. Distant Mind Crystal
3. Empowered Mind Crystal
4. Extended Mind Crystal
5. Heightened Mind Crystal
6. Quickened Mind Crystal
7. Subtle Mind Crystal

1. Careful Mind Crystal

Wondrous Item, Uncommon

A careful mind crystal allows up to three creatures within a spell’s area of effect to automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell. For spells like fireball, Careful Spell isn’t quite as potent as the School of Evocation wizard’s Sculpt Spells feature, so use this item on spells where a successful save spares the target of all negative effects.

Spell suggestions: confusion, entangle, faerie fire, fear, hypnotic pattern

2. Distant Mind Crystal

Wondrous Item, Uncommon

A distant mind crystal adds 100 feet to your ranged spells and grants touch spells a range of 30 feet. Depending on the combat encounters you face, you can use these to snipe enemies from afar or to keep yourself away from enemies while hitting them with spells that would normally require risking danger.

Spell suggestions: arcane lock, bane, bestow curse, bless, contagion, inflict wounds, invisibility

3. Empowered Mind Crystal

Wondrous Item, Uncommon

Dial up the damage! Make the fire storms hotter, the guiding bolts brighter, and the circles of death even deadlier. When your party is out of the way—or when your barbarian tells you to go ahead anyway—use this mind crystal to  reroll up to three damage dice and unleash your fury.

Spell suggestions: blight, guiding bolt, inflict wounds, shatter

4. Extended Mind Crystal

Wondrous Item, Uncommon

Double the duration of a spell that already has a duration of 1 minute or longer, up to a maximum of 24 hours. Encounters rarely last longer than 30 seconds, so these will only be beneficial for combat spells if your party is moving quickly from room to room in a dungeon. For this reason, an extended mind crystal is often best suited for utility or exploration spells, or spells you might use on a heist.

Spell suggestions: charm person, death ward, disguise self, enhance ability, invisibility, mage armor, pass without trace, polymorph, suggestion

5. Heightened Mind Crystal

Wondrous Item, Rare

Heightened Spell is one of the sorcerer’s most expensive Metamagic options, and for good reason. The heightened mind crystal imposes disadvantage on a creature’s first saving throw it makes against your spell, so save it for powerful enemies. Keep in mind that bosses probably want to avoid harmful conditions like incapacitated, paralyzed, or restrained, so use your mind crystal on spells that might force that dragon or lich to burn a Legendary Resistance!

Spell suggestions: banishment, command, earthbind, feeblemind, hold person, modify memory, vortex warp, zone of truth

6. Quickened Mind Crystal

Wondrous Item, Rare

Change a spell’s casting time from an action to a bonus action. You must still abide by all other rules about how many leveled spells you can cast in one turn, but a quickened spell frees up your action to defend yourself or assist allies. Take the Dash action to get into range of a fight, for example. Or if you’re in danger but need to cast a spell to help your allies, take the Dodge action and quicken that mass cure wounds. Or simply drink a potion before returning to your regularly scheduled fireball.

Spell suggestions: cure wounds, dimension door, haste, hold person, mass cure wounds

7. Subtle Mind Crystal

Wondrous Item, Common

Sorcerers generally use Subtle Spell to minimize their chances of being caught casting enchantment spells. Or to sneak past counterspells, or cause a disruption elsewhere without implicating themselves. Because you must be holding the mind crystal when you tap its magic, it may be harder to pull off being entirely unseen. However, you can still cast a spell while in silence with a subtle mind crystal. And if you’re holding a subtle mind crystal throughout an entire combat, it may be difficult for enemy mages to know when you’re actually casting a spell.

Spell suggestions: charm person, phantasmal killer, silvery barbs, thaumaturgy

How to Use Mind Crystals as a Dungeon Master

Artist: PINDURSKI

Who says players get to have all the fun? As a DM, you should feel free to give these mind crystals to NPCs, friends, and foes alike. Make the enemy mage difficult to hit by giving it a few quickened mind crystals so that it can Dodge before casting a spell. Give the enemy cleric some distant mind crystals for their healing spells. Showing the players that their enemies are using consumable magic items can ignite their greed, increasing the pressure for them to end the encounter quickly. (Keep this in mind if you want to encourage the party to spend more resources on their way to a boss.)

How do you manage to make mind crystals available in your game? While it’s always “safer” to err on the side of too few, you can often be a bit more generous with single-use items like these. Your players still must use action economy and consume a spell slot when using a mind crystal. Plus, unlike some other single-use items such as potions of healing, a spell can outright fail, consuming the mind crystal’s magic all the same. You may approach these items differently if the party already has a sorcerer, as you don’t want to hand out so many that the sorcerer feels like their class features aren’t uniquely useful.

If you want to throttle the availability of these items, perhaps in your world, they are the personal invention of an NPC, or must be created by a magical being such as a dragon, genie, or giant. Regardless of how plentiful or rare these items are in your world, believe in yourself—if you could DM for a party with a sorcerer, you can handle whatever shenanigans your players would throw at you after they find a couple of mind crystals.

FAQ: Mind Crystals

Can I use a mind crystal on spells with any casting time?

No. Mind crystals can only be used on spells with a casting time of 1 action.

Can I use more than one mind crystal on the same spell? Or if I’m a sorcerer, can I use a mind crystal and my own Metamagic on the same spell?

No. Spells can only be bent so far before they break; one Metamagic only, please. Sorcerers can apply Empowered Spell or Seeking Spell to a spell already modified by Metamagic, but that exception doesn’t apply to mind crystals. (Look what they need to mimic a fraction of your power.)

If the spell fails, is the mind crystal’s magic consumed?

Yes. Spell failure doesn’t mean you didn’t spend the resources trying. Just ask disintegrate.

Meta Your Magic

Being able to bend the rules of spellcasting to suit your needs can drastically increase the power and utility of your spells—the only limit is your creativity! In Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, these powerful magical items are only one of the many treasures your party will stumble across while you delve into dungeons full of twisted creatures and malevolent cults in order to save the town of Phandalin.

Search for the Missing Cow Discord Adventure

Join us in D&D's Discord on September 14 for a thrilling, collaborative dungeon adventure you won't want to miss! Band together with fellow adventurers as you seek to unravel the perplexing case of Daisy, the beloved cow who has mysteriously gone missing.

Alongside your questing companions, you'll investigate Daisy's puzzling disappearance, battle lurking monsters, and, hopefully, return Daisy safely to her pasture. Be sure to mark your calendars—after all, every grand adventure offers not just challenges, but treasure to take home!

Damen Cook (@damen_joseph) is a lifelong fantasy reader, writer, and gamer. If he woke up tomorrow in Faerûn, he would bolt through the nearest fey crossing and drink from every stream and eat fruit from every tree in the Feywild until he found that sweet, sweet wild magic.