An Ode to Heat Metal: The Greatest D&D Spell of All Time

Tags Spell Spotlights Dungeon Master Tips evergreen character-building players-guide author-elliot-spilk

Imagine you are a Paladin, in magical Plate armor, with a magic shield and a magic weapon of glorious awesomeness. This is your first character and you have been playing every week in your friend’s game for over two and a half years! Everyone else at the table is playing a ranged class. You are the melee, the tank, the one who gets up in the monster’s face, scoffs at their pathetic attempts to hit you, and brings the pain. Your team is counting on you to be the hero you have been since your first Critical Smite! Suddenly, your Dungeon Master grins with a sense of malevolence you have never seen from them before. Their main antagonist, Kurn, the Forge Domain Cleric casts Heat Metal using a 7th level spell slot on your magical armor for 7d8 fire damage.

No attack roll. No saving throw.

Just an average of 32 damage with potential max damage of 56, every round. Kurn is 45 feet away from you on a balcony with no visible stairs or way of reaching it. If you want to break his concentration you will have to rely on your wizard companion, Shaster Foechuckle to cast Fly on you instead of Haste and you are still fighting Kurn’s army of ghouls and shadows... If Foechuckle fails, this could be your last stand...

Let's shine a light on one of the best (if not the best) low-level spells in the game, Heat Metal. What I find fascinating is this amazing spell seems to have slipped under the radar of many adventurers since the beginning of Fifth Edition, and as more fantastic spells continue to come out it remains incredibly strong, overlooked, and exceptional. Perhaps it is because it can only be cast by what many consider to be “support” spell casters. Perhaps it is because it doesn’t have an intimidating name. Regardless of all that, this spell is magnificent. 

What does Heat Metal do and why is it so good?

Heat Metal is a really simple and straightforward 2nd level Transmutation spell available to Artificers, Bards, Druids, and Forge Domain Clerics. First, it allows the caster to 'choose a manufactured metal object, such as a metal weapon or a suit of heavy or medium metal armor, that you can see within range.' Let’s stop here and quickly point out that the range is 60 feet, which is nothing to scoff at. It's certainly further than any Dwarf could move in one turn without the assistance of magical aid. 

'You cause the object to glow red-hot. Any creature in physical contact with the object takes 2d8 fire damage when you cast the spell. Until the spell ends, you can use a bonus action on each of your subsequent turns to cause this damage again.' Notice anything special about this? How about the fact that it just happens. No attack roll, no saving throw, you spend a spell slot and the result is fire damage. On your following turns, for the cost of a bonus action, you can continue this damage all while using your action to do whatever tickles your fancy and doesn't break your concentration.

In case you weren’t sold yet: “if a creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. If it doesn't drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn.” These lines are what tip this spell from being pretty cool to completely, wonderfully overpowered. Let’s break this down. This is one of the few spells in 5th edition that has the ability to explicitly disarm a creature, thereby combining damage and utility!

The real power of this spell occurs when the object you choose is a suit of heavy or medium metal armor. It takes a full minute (or ten rounds of combat) to remove medium armor and five minutes (or fifty rounds of combat) to remove heavy armor. Each round spent this way would certainly count as taking the [Tooltip Not Found] action, effectively taking this creature out of the fight and damaging it while doing so.

The only weakness of this spell, as mentioned above, is that it requires concentration. But that should not deter you in the slightest! If you are STILL not sold on how wonderful this is, “when you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot above 2nd.” Come on- what else do we need to say to get you to drive this car off the lot today?

 

Optimizing this spell as a Player

I always prefer to play strange, non-optimized characters. Unique personalities who contribute more to making people laugh at the table and assist in moving the story along than combat. That said I don’t want to let these goofballs drag down the team in combat. So, I always pick up Heat Metal when I can. 

As mentioned above, this spell mixes damage with utility in ways that no other spell or ability does in the rest of the game. I universally prefer to cast Heat Metal on a piece of armor instead of a metal weapon because I want that continuous damage and ensure the target is forced to attack at disadvantage each turn. Let's look at some ways to use this spell when as the various classes that are a part of the Heat Metal family.

Bards are masters of utility and supporting other classes in the main pillars of D&D (exploration, combat, role play). Normally when I cast Heat Metal or any concentration spell as a bard, I want to ensure I am doing everything I can to avoid damage. For that reason, I usually will use my movement to both avoid attackers and also stay within distance of my target. I also will use my action to support this, either by using the Dodge or Disengage actions. If I feel I am safe from harm, I will then opt to support my team members either by casting other (non-concentration) spells, making a ranged attack, or even using the Help action.  

Clerics are arguably one of the strongest classes in the game because of their ability to cast powerful healing and damaging spells in armor. In this case, Forge Domain clerics also gain proficiency with heavy armor. Depending on how well equipped your Forge Domain cleric is, they might have a really high armor class and thus will be rather difficult to hit; a major benefit to maintaining concentration for those types of spells. Regardless of that, the way I prefer to use Heat Metal with this type of character is to lock down one target (in metal armor of course) while I bash another target with my Attack. This feels particularly effective when I want to protect other members of my party with lower armor classes from melee combatants while attacking another target. 

Artificers are ingenious magical engineers that use tools to cast spells and invent fantastical items. Thanks to their different subclass options and creative design they can adopt and accommodate many different playstyles and roles in an adventuring party. Similar to Clerics, Artificers can take advantage of casting spells in armor. A unique way to play Armorer Artificers (which gains proficient with heavy armor) is to act as a bodyguard to my party’s other spell casters rather than stand in the front line. If I could not cast Heat Metal on a piece of armor I would default to the attacker’s weapons and then use my action to Attack with my Thunder Gauntlets. Besides dealing a formidable 1d8 thunder damage “a creature hit by the gauntlet has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other than you until the start of your next turn.” This would ensure that the attacking creature is greatly discouraged into attacking my fellow party member because it guarantees it will attack at disadvantage, one way or another.

Druids are unique as the only class that can transform into other creatures with their “Wild Shape” class ability. I personally adore the rules for Wild Shape (especially with the Circle of the Moon) because you can cast spells prior to shapeshifting and can maintain concentration on them in the beast form. For this reason, this is my favorite class to pick up the Heat Metal Spell. My go-to way of using the spell is to cast it before I use my Bonus Action to Wild Shape into a beast. My choice of beast depends on how important it is for me to remain concentrated on the spell but my preferred form is that of the Giant Spider; specifically, so I can use its climb speed to get out of the way of present danger and also use its Web Action to support my team further. The amazing thing here is that you can change your strategy depending on what creature you turn into! Even though I prefer Circle of the Moon druids, you can effectively do this combo with any druid subclass. If maintaining concentration is the most important aspect for you, turn into something with a unique movement speed, or skilled in Stealth such as a Giant Badger, a Giant Centipede or a Wolf.

Optimizing this spell as a Dungeon Master

This spell is so powerful that as a Dungeon Master I very rarely use it against players. When I do use it, I prefer to use it either with experienced players or as a tool to introduce newer players to more advanced combat strategies that involve spells such as Dispel Magic and Counterspell.

When using it against experienced players I go right for the jugular and will cast it on the melee character with the highest armor class that is most likely wearing metal. It feels borderline cruel, so normally I save this for final boss fights or a boss’ highest-ranking officers. It can often be a great solution to pressuring characters that have simply become too difficult to hit or impede in more conventional ways (such as spells with saving throws). I suggest using this cautiously because its greatest power (of not needing an attack roll nor saving throw) will also make it feel incredibly unfair.

A more fun way to use this spell as a Dungeon Master is as a tool for teaching newer players about the importance of Dispel Magic and Counterspell. A relatively simple way of achieving this is with a puzzle or trap encounter that targets a character’s weapons or a metal object that can easily be removed (such as a neckless, ring, or shield). By introducing the spell this way it doesn’t have the urgency nor deadliness of occurring during combat as well as not feeling as punishing. I would design the puzzle or trap to impede my players from gaining cool magic items or exciting and important story lore that could help them later in the adventure, rather than a hard block to the story. What I really like about this is it gets everyone involved.  It makes them aware that this spell exists and how it works. Most importantly it gives them insight into how to deal with this in the future when the luxury of time won’t be on their side.

I hope the next time you are building a character or designing an encounter you'll include this incredible spell. Its one-of-a-kind properties make it strong and versatile to use in many instances that could either tilt combat in your favor or make your players praise you for challenging them in ways they have not previously experienced. My last piece of wisdom for players is to remember that simply because you can use your bonus action to inflict more damage on subsequent turns, you do not have to and the spell won’t end if you don’t. My final piece of advice for Dungeon Masters is to remember this spell is brutal and I implore you to use caution both when and with whom you decide to use it.

In other words, with great Heat Metal power, comes great Heat Metal responsibility. 

Heat Metal may be the only thing that keeps you alive in the Domains of Dread found in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, available for preorder now in the D&D Beyond Marketplace! All preorders come with digital dice, as well as character themes, frames, and backdrops!

Elliot Spilk (@DiceyDM) is the Game Content Manager at Fandom Tabletop who leads a fantastic team to digitize all game content. He is deeply passionate about D&D, fantasy, science fiction, and bringing out the creativity in others. He rolls dice openly in front of his players and runs a tough but fair game with high stakes. He proudly wears the badge for "killing the most player characters in the internal office games." 

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