Quote from TheChangelingRanger >>

This is the best best spell name I have ever found, and the effects are even better.

 Fun fact: the word "weird" used to mean destiny (as a noun) or "able to control destiny" (as an adjective). The Fates of classical mythology were sometimes called "the Weird Sisters", and this phrase was borrowed by Shakespeare and applied (quite aptly) to the witches in Macbeth.

Quote from Platyposeidon_Z >>

Quote from Darth_Reaver >>

WOTC has really shafted all Illusion spells and the Illusionist wizard so bad. Its on par with the Beastmaster Ranger. Because its so up to interpretation on how illusions work, ive been shafted by every single DM that I've played with when using my Illusionist. 

Look at Psychic Scream, another 9th lvl spell, does more damage and even on a successful save, they still take half damage. This spell? a measly 4d10 and a successful save nothing happens. 

 Are you forgetting about the frightened effect? Frightened is an extremely powerful condition, and being able to do that on so many creatures is mind-blowing.

 still not worth 9th level, 7th maybe 

Quote from Platyposeidon_Z >>

Quote from Darth_Reaver >>

WOTC has really shafted all Illusion spells and the Illusionist wizard so bad. Its on par with the Beastmaster Ranger. Because its so up to interpretation on how illusions work, ive been shafted by every single DM that I've played with when using my Illusionist. 

Look at Psychic Scream, another 9th lvl spell, does more damage and even on a successful save, they still take half damage. This spell? a measly 4d10 and a successful save nothing happens. 

 Are you forgetting about the frightened effect? Frightened is an extremely powerful condition, and being able to do that on so many creatures is mind-blowing.

Frightened really isn't that powerful of a condition given that this is a 9th level spell. They have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks and can't move closer to the source of their fear. 

Don't get me wrong its helpful. But compare that to paralyzed, stunned, petrified, blinded, incapacitated, restrained, and unconscious and it's not that powerful. For instance, unlike a blind creature, since they still see, they can just upcast Dispel Magic and now this spell is done.

Quote from ScarfScarfington >>

Mechanically speaking, where is the source of their fear? Since they "can't willingly move towards the source" it would matter in some instances. Somewhere within the area of the sphere? Or is it centered at the caster? If it is within the sphere, is it up to the caster to determine where the thing they're afraid of appears to them?

It's up to the DM to determine. But there is nothing in the description that says that the fears are all around them. Only that it is "illusionary creatures." The radius of the spell does not mean that the creatures that are affected by it are seeing illusionary creatures everywhere in the radius. It's just the radius that is used to determine for what creatures are affected by this spell.

Any advice on how to buff this spell?

this is just shit, enjoy 18 points of psychic damage...

buff damage, less easy to shrug of

Thx. I’ll buff it to a little more than fireball damage. Make it a little more appealing.

Make it so that a successful save doesn't end the spell effect on the creature, it just staves it off for the round

Quote from TheMercurialist >>

Make it so that a successful save doesn't end the spell effect on the creature, it just staves it off for the round

 Better yet no concentration, because that’s what really killed it for me. Maybe it would even be a little too strong without that, but at 9th level I don’t care.

For what it's worth, not all spells exist for the heroes to use. Weird is a great RP opportunity for a mid-game illusionist arch-wizard villain to pull out, and gives you a lot of opportunities to make a really heavy RP experience with a deadly ticking clock. Your average 8th level party on a hard DC is going to wind up taking a ton of psychic damage to this spell, possibly even losing people to it depending on party composition. With a wizard or a cleric with their head on a swivel and some lucky rolls, they might break free in time to dispel the effect on one or two of their allies, assuming they have the slots and rolls to hit a DC 19 Dispell Magic check multiple times.

This is a great spell for an enemy wizard to bust out as a bit of the classic "dismissive villain" trope. Yes, he could meteor swarm their keep or Power Word: Kill a few, but his minions need time to ransack the library for the evil tomes the PCs found at level 3, so this is just a nice sadistic way of torturing them. Also great if one of the villain's lieutenants is running detect thoughts and just learning tons about our heroes' greatest fears based on their surface level thoughts, without any need to go deeper. 

This should really be an Intelligence saving throw instead of Wisdom, since it's dealing with illusions. I would also rule that those who fail the first save take the damage and those who succeed take half damage.

Not unless the creature is most terrified of an object. The thing you make real can't be animate (Alive).

How can you compare 30ft phantasmal killer to wish

This is bad

What a terrible 9th level spell.

The effect: makes the targets see their deepest fears become a reality, dropping them into a state of fear and despair

The name: strange.

Probably to avoid collateral damage 

Surprised how many missed the fact the damage potential is 4d10x10. (Every round for a minute.) Not likely the targets will fail 11 saves but that is the ceiling. Also, the spell description doesn’t state the affected have to remain in the original radius, nor does it state they can only be affected by one spell at a time.  

I don't know why everyone hates on this spell. Fear is a powerful effect to bestow, and the fact that the source of the fear is implacable, means that targets can't move while afraid. The targets that fail the save can't move, have disadvantage on attack rolls, while also taking damage while the spell lasts.
And it can effect a lot of creatures from a safe casting distance.

It's a very good spell for well-rounded combat control. The fact that it's so high level also means that the caster automatically has at least a +6 to the DC just from proficiency, so the DC is likely to be 18 or 19 by the time a caster can use this spell. Even if it ends on some targets, it can persist on many others. It's a useful well-rounded control spell for combat, with some damage added. Yes, instantaneous damage that is higher deals more damage, but that doesn't do anything to lock down and debuff targets.

This spell is good for party-cooperation.

Where are you getting “are attacked with advantage”? That’s not a facet of either the spell or the condition. Wis save is terrible, it’s a 9th level spell competing with fricking Wish, everyone and their mother is immune to frightened especially at higher levels, and, ultimately, the best form of crowd control is making them dead and deader. This spell is terrible for 9th level. It’s an 8th level spell at best, 7th level if you want it to actually get played. It’s a good DM tool though, I’ll give it that.