4 Key Changes to Spells in the 2024 Player's Handbook

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Magic is one of the main elements that make Dungeons & Dragons so cool. Whether you’re pulling the Weave, strumming along to the Words of Creation, or drawing forth the divine power of your chosen deity (or patron!), using spells can give you the ultimate power fantasy: The ability to literally reshape the world around you. That’s why the 2024 Player’s Handbook is bringing you over a hundred pages of spells. You’ll find boosts to classic favorites, popular spells from sourcebooks being ported to the core rules, and even some brand-new spells!

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the overarching changes you’ll see with spells and even show you some of the new spells introduced in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

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Many Favorite Spells Have Been Boosted

Artist: Martin MottetA Druid heals his fallen Barbarian ally.

One of the first things that long-term D&D players will notice when perusing the almost four hundred spells in the 2024 Player’s Handbook is that many of your favorite spells have been buffed up.

Your healing spells will keep you and your allies on your feet longer to reflect the cost of your action or Bonus Action and your spell slot in order to use them. For example, Cure Wounds now heals a base of 2d8 + your spellcasting modifier, and Healing Word similarly has a base of 2d4 + your modifier as a level 1 spell. And it’s not just dice increases. Many spells receive a new element of functionality. Prayer of Healing, which takes 10 minutes to cast, now grants the benefits of a Short Rest to up to five creatures in addition to restoring 2d8 Hit Points.

Damage-dealing spells have seen several boosts too. Cloud of Daggers used to have some diminishing returns on later rounds if enemies started to avoid your cube of swirling stabs. But that’s a thing of the past, because now you can use a Magic action on your later turns to move the cloud up to 30 feet. Similarly, Chromatic Orb has been updated with the potential to strike an additional enemy, really embracing the dodgeball vibe or chucking a magically infused sphere at your enemies.

A number of spells that saw little use from the 2014 Player’s Handbook version also saw some tweaks to make them more functional and enticing for you to add to your repertoire. Blade Ward, for example, was a fairly underused cantrip because it cost an action, only lasted a turn, and only granted resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage for that one turn. Now, while it still takes a Magic action, this cantrip lasts for a full minute, with Concentration, and forces all enemies attacking you to subtract 1d4 from their attack roll for the duration.

These are just a few of the changes to some known spells, so be sure to look for your favorite spells in the 2024 Player’s Handbook to see what changes may be in store for you!

It’s Easier to Find and Use Your Favorite Spells

Artist: Martina FačkováA wizard channeling arcane magic into a crystal in preparation for a spell

Speaking of looking up your favorite spells, the 2024 Player’s Handbook makes the process of finding, preparing, and using your spells as a player easier.

Now, you no longer need to flip to the back of the book to see what spells are available for your class. Each class has its designated spells listed in the class description for the class itself in the Character Classes chapter. So if you’re building a Cleric, the list of Cleric spells is right there in the same section as your class features and domain subclasses.

One of the big missions in revisiting spells was to really listen to and address questions and confusions players have had around various spells in the decade since the 2014 Player’s Handbook was first published. We tightened up the wording in some spell descriptions to make them clearer and more succinct, without changing the actual mechanics of the spells. We provided more artwork of the spells in use to give you more inspiration for imagining how the spell looks when you cast it. The Ritual tag has now been moved to the casting time to make it easier to find since it impacts the casting time of a spell.

As an example of changes to spells, the conjuring family of spells, such as Conjure Fey and Conjure Celestial, have been updated to officially reflect popular modifications that were playtested in Unearthed Arcana. The new versions of the spells now give you all the information you need when casting them in the spell descriptions themselves; for example, Conjure Fey specifies that the conjured spirit can make a melee spell attack against a creature within 5 feet, and on a hit, the target takes Psychic damage and has the Frightened condition.

This saves you from cracking open the Monster Manual to track your conjured creature’s information and makes them operate more similar to the Spirit Guardians or Spiritual Weapon spells.

New Spells for the Core Rules

Artist: Joseph WestonA tornado of sound and energy blinds and deafens foes.

The 2024 Player’s Handbook introduces some brand-new spells to the D&D spellbook. Some, like the Starry Wisp cantrip, were included in the Unearthed Arcana playtests, but some weren’t and will be making their debuts in the 2024 spell list.

Some of the brand-new spells include ties to the known spellcasters within the D&D multiverse. Our old pal Tasha has a brand new spell, Tasha’s Bubbling Cauldron, which creates a magical cauldron for 10 minutes that you and your allies can reach into and grab vials of a Common or an Uncommon potion of your choice. Jallarzi, a Celestial Patron Warlock with the distinction of being a non-Wizard member of the Circle of Eight, has a powerful namesake spell, Jallarzi’s Storm of Radiance. This spell creates a raging 40-foot cylinder storm that deals Radiant and Thunder damage. It also gives creatures within it the Blinded and Deafened condition and makes them unable to cast spells with a Verbal component.

Popular spells from the expanded sourcebooks have also now become part of the core spell list. Some, like Toll the Dead, introduced in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, have gotten so ubiquitous that many don’t realize they weren’t initially part of the 2014 Player’s Handbook.

Emanation Area of Effect

Artist: David AstrugaA Cleric emanates the Daylight spell, which damages nearby Vampires.

Emanation is a new area of effect, joining known types like Cone, Line, or Sphere. An Emanation spell extends in a straight line in all directions from a creature or object, and moves with them if the spell duration is longer than Instantaneous. Emanation differs from a Sphere in that its origin is not considered part of the area of effect unless the Emanation’s creator decides otherwise (whereas a Sphere’s origin is always included in the area of effect). Known spells such as Thunderclap and Spirit Guardians are now classified as Emanation for their areas of effect.

This Spells Fun

The 2024 Player’s Handbook is now available on the D&D Beyond marketplace, which means it's time to set out on new adventures with fresh or familiar characters!

With almost four hundred spells spread across over a hundred pages, we’ve clearly only scratched the surface of the exciting changes coming to your spellcasting with the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Be sure to look through the complete spell list for your preferred spellcaster to see what changes are in store for your favorite spells, and what new spells are ready for you to play with.

We’re delighted to share with you the changes to fifth edition D&D that appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Make sure to keep an eye out on D&D Beyond for more useful guides on using the wealth of new options, rules, and mechanics found in the 2024 Player's Handbook!

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A displacer beast stalks its prey. Text reads, Join the official D&D Discord!

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.

This article was updated on August 13, 2024, to issue corrections or expand coverage for the following features:

  • It’s Easier to Find and Use Your Favorite Spells: Added Conjure Fey as an example of how the new spell listing works.
  • New Spells for the Core Rules: Remove plurality in the Tasha’s Bubbling Cauldron sentence to avoid confusion.
  • Emanation Area of Effect: Clarified that the Emanantion’s creator can choose to include the origin in the area of effect.

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