Quote from Nasirruddeen >>

I love this spell. Healer my a$$.

 What app are you using?

Quote from Thewolfhunter >>

This is too overpowered!

Compare this with Burning Hands:

• Burning Hands does slightly less damage (3d6 vs 3d10)
• Burning Hands is AOE as opposed to a single target, and does half damage even on a save. Inflict Wounds is all-or-nothing and will miss much of the time.
• Burning Hands has at least a little range (15 feet) so you don't have to get immediately into stabby-stabby-land

And Guiding Bolt:

• does similar damage (4d6 vs. 3d10)
• gives Advantage if it hits
• has great range (120') so can be done in safety

It's right in line with other first level combat spells.

Quote from Tony1Adobe>>

Death Domain clerics can twin this spell. Pretty neat.

That twinning (the "Reaper") is for cantrips, not spells, is limited to Necromancy cantrips, and the targets must be within 5' of each other. The eligible cantrips are:

Chill Touch
Toll the Dead
Spare the Dying and
Sapping Sting (from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount)

So unless your DM house-rules it or you're using a Divine Soul sorcerer with the Twinned Spell metamagic option, just one "Bad Touch" per spell.

Quote from bob1176 >>

I can hope. but whatever, It would be super funny though if you somehow rolled max damage against a hard end of session boss, instantly killing him.

 I suffer the Curse of the DM: I rarely get to play. 42 years of herding cats (no kidding). Buuuut...

One of my players stepped up a while ago and ran a mini campaign, 3rd level characters. I played Dimitre, a bouncy, happy little adrenaline-junkie hedonist of a Death Domain cleric. (sparing the multipage backstory). He was built with this spell in mind as his go-to in combat.

A fight between two juvenile dragons was a featured element of the story, one which we the players were clearly intended to witness as a backdrop to a siege by orcs backed by one of the dragons in their assault upon the dilapidated keep we were tasked with defending; the orcs were obviously our job. Well, I was having none of that! Dimitre managed to sweet-talk the "our side" dragon, a barely-young red dragon who had been raised by the long-dead former master of the keep (thus not all utterly evil, just mostly utterly evil). into allowing him to ride into battle on his back. "I can heal you that way, Oh Magnificent Beast! *polishes dragon scales with candle-wax*" Natural 20 on the Persuade check, proficient, Guidance on the persuasion attempt, 14 Charisma = 26. The "Good" dragon (ha!) basked in the lavish praise and considered the value of having a pet healer who had already shown proper subservience by retrieving the Good Dragon's property from the keep and delivering it upon bended knee (as well as having healed the Good Dragon from numerous orc-arrows the day before).

"It's your funeral," said the DM. Dimitre didn't care. He got to ride into battle on the back of a dragon, what's death compared to that? Besides, funerals were kinda a specialty.

The DM let me pick the first action in the fight for the Good Dragon. Good Dragon dove down and slammed into the back of the Bad Dragon (ahem), knocking him out of the sky and grappling him, sending Dimitre tumbling into the difficult-terrain-but-thankfully-soft mud along with the four orc commandos that the Bad Dragon was intending to drop over the keep wall. Bad Dragon was a black dragon (meaning a linear breath weapon not a cone), and Dimitre made VERY sure to keep Good Dragon on the opposite side (and hope he didn't get his breath weapon recharged!); Bad Dragon was much more concerned about his draconic rival than a little dude covered in mud. The two dragons were beating the hell out of each other as the orcs tried to stay out of the way, while Dimitre maneuvered to keep away from the orcs and away from Bad Dragon's head. Things were not going well for Good Dragon, who took a faceful of acid and was getting stabby-stabbied by the orcs.

Did I mention Dimitre, though unhurt, was down to a single 2nd level spell slot from earlier fighting?

"You're up, Dimitre. The Bad Dragon has escaped the grapple of the Good Dragon, is now facing you and is about to get back in the air. What do you do?"
"I maneuver to put the Bad Dragon between me and my good dragon buddy, staying in contact to avoid Opportunity Attacks." This put Dimitre right in front of the Bad Dragon's head, and also in the line of literal fire if the Good Dragon chose to use his own breath weapon. Blaze of glory. "heeheehee Inflict Wounds, upcast to 2nd level."
"Okay, it's still your funeral. You have Advantage because your dragon friend gives you Flanking."
NATURAL 20 loves me some Advantage
4d10 = 10 10 8 5 = 33 x 2 = 66
"I also add Touch of Death. Sleepytime!" +11 = 77. Not bad for a 3rd level character...
"Uh. Damn. Damn. Um. How do you want to do this?"

BWAHAHAHA INSANE DEATH CLERIC CACKLING

As the black dragon opened his jaws to disgorge a surely-fatal gout of acid at Dimitre, Dimitre reached up and grasped one of the black dragon's fangs. The dragon screamed in mortal agony as he jerked his head back, pain exploding from his fang as the necrotic energy flowed up the nerve, but it was too late. Half of the dragon's upper jaw slumped into sludge and rotten bone as the gangrene spread in seconds to engulf an eye then traveled into the dragon's brain. He fell, dead, leaving Dimitre holding the foot-long fang in his hand. Shifting it to grip it like a dagger he turned to face the orcs. "Now it's your turn, boys and girls, let's see if you've been brushing your tusks heeheehee!"

The four orc commandos surrendered on the spot.

Good thing too, because Dimitre was spell-dry aside from cantrips (though that nice Reaper feature might have kept the commando-orcs at bay long enough for Dimitre to get a little help) and his dragon ally was down to a mere handful of hit points himself.

Ah, sweet revenge for every time my players had turned away from the carefully-prepared adventure at the last moment because they saw something shiny on the other side of the kingdom. Sweet revenge for every time they had melted a boss that I'd hoped would be a longer-term BBEG. Sweet revenge for every bad pun.

Yep. I likes me some Inflict Wounds.

addendum: the dragon fang that Dimitre dentist'ed from the Bad Dragon was presented to the "good" dragon as a trophy. As a boon, the "good" dragon didn't eat us.

Quote from YamadaYamada >>

How do I unlock this for use in game?

 

 It's part of the basic rules, meaning it is free to use. Only clerics can use it (unless your subclass on a different class gives you access to it)

Grave cleric channel divinity + inflict wounds + crit ≥ 12d10 damage with a first level spell slot. A 5th level spell slot would amount to 28d10, and a 9th level spell slot would be equal to 44d10. If playing a level 20 one shot, play an assassin rogue and a grave cleric. You are guaranteed crazy amounts of damage with no saving throw, and no protection from legendary resistance.

Divine Soul sorcerer using extended spell, making this 30 foot range. Absurd in the best way possible.

cool spell

Quote from bob1176 >>

now try using this spell at a higher level spell slot. at level 9, it is 11d10, aka 110 max damage.

 Double that with a natural 20, double that damage if the target is vulnerable to necrotic damage.

Quote from Zethras_the_Worldforger >>

Divine Soul sorcerer using extended spell, making this 30 foot range. Absurd in the best way possible.

I didn't even know distant spell could do that, I'm surprised now that I've checked, though.

basically a one-shot ability=

If sorcerers ever get access to this spell it would be insane

Divine Soul Sorcerers do

This spell is pretty op, it instantly made me want to make a cleric character lol.

So what does this spell even look like 

Wouldn't the damage be 8d10 with vulnerability if you cast Inflict Wounds at the second level? Or am I overthinking it?

BEST 1ST LEVEL SPELL (other than chromatic orb)

just whooped up on a ghost with this and it hit for 15 points. Got em!

Quote from bob1176 >>

I can hope. but whatever, It would be super funny though if you somehow rolled max damage against a hard end of session boss, instantly killing him.

 Your chance of rolling 110 on 11 ten-siders in 1 in 100,000,000,000. 

Good luck!

Quote from Thewolfhunter >>

This is too overpowered!

 Think this is op?  Look at guiding bolt.