Level
4th
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
90 ft
(10 ft )
Components
V, S, M *
Duration
Concentration
1 Minute
School
Enchantment
Attack/Save
WIS Save
Damage/Effect
Control
This spell assaults and twists creatures' minds, spawning delusions and provoking uncontrolled action. Each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on a point you choose within range must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw when you cast this spell or be affected by it.
An affected target can't take reactions and must roll a d10 at the start of each of its turns to determine its behavior for that turn.
d10 | Behavior |
---|---|
1 | The creature uses all its movement to move in a random direction. To determine the direction, roll a d8 and assign a direction to each die face. The creature doesn't take an action this turn. |
2-6 | The creature doesn't move or take actions this turn. |
7-8 | The creature uses its action to make a melee attack against a randomly determined creature within its reach. If there is no creature within its reach, the creature does nothing this turn. |
9-10 | The creature can act and move normally. |
At the end of each of its turns, an affected target can make a Wisdom saving throw. If it succeeds, this effect ends for that target.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the radius of the sphere increases by 5 feet for each slot level above 4th.
* - (three nut shells)
This spell is busted, it beaks through immunity and resistance to Charmed
This spell is not broken by being over powered, it is broken by being too ineffectual to bother casting in most circumstances, especially considering it is a 4th level spell.
Due to its area of effect, it is unlikely to effect more than a couple of creatures at a time. It requires concentration. Target saves for no effect occur at the initial casting and each round thereafter. And, even if a target fails its saves, there is still a 20% chance (9-10 on the d10) the spell has no effect for the round anyway. Also, the spell scales poorly if cast in a higher slot.
This is a spell that almost no player character should have prepared, but is rather an okay spell for an enemy to use in order to toy with a party or to make an entertaining, if otherwise mostly ineffectual, magical trap.
Respectfully disagree. The bard in my party has used this spell to GREAT effect. Like most things, its value depends on it's application. PCs have good to great DCs, and many monsters and NPCs have average to mediocre saves. This spell has taken fire slinging mages, great axe wielding frost giants, and other very dangerous enemies out of the fight and tilted the scales in the party's favor on multiple occasions. Even 1 round can be all it needs to be totally worth it, as a party can inflict a lot of damage in just one round. The fact that it can effect multiple creatures makes it even better.
Don't underestimate that it removes reactions, either. If you're annoyed at counter spelling mages, this can be a solution.
Casting word is:
Agitatus Distractium
Great for controlling action economy if you can get a few bigger creatures in the AoE.
Are there ANY creatures that resist or are immune to this spell's condition (not the spell itself, because legendary resistances and paladins exist)? Because the way it was told to me, you could potentially cast this on a God or something equally insane if it fails the save.
That didn't seem true to me, but looking at the spell again, maybe that's technically true?
If I am not mistaken, angels, and sphinxes both have high wisdom for npcs, but most others have low wisdom.
My bards haven't been able to successfully cast on either, yet.
This spell causes the effects listed under it and not an actual condition, so things like immunity to Charmed do not affect this spell.
Most gods and creatures of that power level have a feature called legendary resistance, which allows them to automatically succeed on the saving throw.
Yes, I specifically mentioned legendary resistances. That's why I clarified if anyone can resist the condition specifically instead of the spell.
I mean, if there's six spellcasters who know this spell, there's not a creature in the official books that can automatically resist ALL of those saves, and can potentially be affected by it, but for basically every other condition in the books, there are some monsters that resist or are immune to the condition itself regardless of the roll.
This spell doesn't impose an actual condition as such, so there's no condition immunity that would apply. Just resistance or immunity to the spell.
A Helmed Horror can be immune to Confusion if its creator chose that as one of the three spells.
Rakshasa, Tiamat - cannot be affected by spells of 6th level or lower unless it wishes to be. You could cast Confusion at 7th level or higher if you really wanted to of course.
Then there's anything that can create an antimagic field. And the spell can of course be counterspelled.
An actual god is going to have (at minimum) sky-high save bonuses, the Magic Resistance trait, and legendary resistances. Depending on how divinity works in your setting, they may simply be immune to any magic mortals can wield. 5e has generally shied away from giving actual stat blocks for greater gods.
May be a silly question, but what about when this goes off as a Wild Magic effect? The caster has to save or suffer the effects, I assume. But it also says an affected target can save at the end of each of it’s turns. So on the turn when this happens the Wild Magic Sorcerer that caused it gets to save at the end of their turn?
If a creature is confused and rolls a 7-8, then uses its action to attack a randomly determined creature, are the rest of the confused creature’s multi attacks free to use on whoever the confused creature wants?
I would say no, as the spell states "uses its action to make a melee attack" meaning the creature's action is spent on one melee attack.
Even upcasting the spell won't affect a rakshasa or the like because the spell is still a 6th level spell. This was addressed in Sage Advice, I believe, but I'm too lazy to look it up and link it (sorry).
Of course, the DM can rule that an upcast spell is treated as a higher level spell but that isn't RAW--at least as far as I understand.
I would say RAW is not entirely consistent in its terminology, which can lead to confusion with the distinction between a spell's base level and the level of a specific casting of that spell. The basis for my statement that upcasting could overcome limited magic resistance is this:
– https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/spellcasting#CastingaSpellataHigherLevel (PHB says exactly the same.)
This interpretation is supported by this tweet, and also by the fact that the description of what globe of invulnerability blocks needs to specify "even if the spell is cast using a higher level spell slot".
A first glance, the discussion of darkness vs daylight in the Sage Advice Compendium might seem to take the opposite position, but it's actually consistent. The point there is that neither spell gets more powerful in its dispelling ability with upcasting, so even a 9th-level darkness can't dispel daylight because darkness can only ever dispel light-creating spells of 2nd level or lower. (And interestingly the opposite is also true, so if a 4th-level darkness were cast first, a 9th-level daylight would not dispel it.)
I actually think it scales pretty well at higher levels. At 4th level it effects 4 squares (which I admit is kinda low for a 4th level spell), but at 5th it effects 9 squares. More than doubling the AoE for 1 spell level is not a bad deal.
As for the 20% chance of no effect, they still can't make reactions, which includes legendary actions, if I'm not mistaken. When used against a group of enemies with low Wis scores it can take half an encounter out of the battle for a full minute. That in of itself can be enough to turn a difficult encounter into a cakewalk.
That's what legendary resistance is for--the legendary creature would simply choose to make its save, though with very high stats and proficiencies to begin with, they often don't need to use it. In any case, 5e doesn't give stats to (most) gods in part to avoid this kind of mundane scenario where a god would need to make a saving throw, etc.
It covers a 10' radius, not a 10' diameter. So roughly double the AOE you stated. Agreed on the rest, Cynnewulf underestimated the usefulness of this spell.