So this doesn't move around? It just stays in one spot?

Yeah, apparently so, I was just thinking the same. Though if it could move it would be pretty bonkers; a no concentration summon that lasts for 8 hours, cannot be harmed and is invisible to everything, that can attack at the start of your turn with no action required by you. If it could move you might as well cast this at breakfast and have it with you for the rest of the day.

Quote from KaptainKittens >>

Yeah, apparently so, I was just thinking the same. Though if it could move it would be pretty bonkers; a no concentration summon that lasts for 8 hours, cannot be harmed and is invisible to everything, that can attack at the start of your turn with no action required by you. If it could move you might as well cast this at breakfast and have it with you for the rest of the day.

 Indeed. Just seems like a really, really expensive Alarm spell, though.

Leave it at the door of a Rope Trick or other magical structure, so it can keep attacking anyone trying to get in or gank you?

I wonder if you could cast more than one Faithful hound at a time? You could box in an enemy with two or more hounds. Also the spell says "any unoccupied space" does that mean you can summon it in mid-air?

So long as you have the spell slots, I don't see why not.

So this material components is at least mostly a spell, a silver whistle is the dog whistle, a piece of bone is obvious, but what is the thread?

The thread is probably the leash.

If this hound doesn´t move WotC is calling Mordenkainen a fool and a charlatan.

Take Spiritual Weapon for instance, let´s do a reverse engineering of sorts. It´s a second level divine spell which attacks each round and almost teleports to wherever the caster is looking at within 20ft as a bonus action. It cannot be attacked and deals a fair amount of damage.

The hound is a 4th level spell, I guess it´s a Spiritual Weapon, invisible and with a built in air siren. If that was the case (no moving hound), he might as well have created something static, like a pylon. "Hound" implies (as there is nothing saying the opposite) that you should treat it as a dog for movement statistics at least, if not anything else not specified already in the spell (like the damage). The size for example is also not specified, so can I make a Gargantuan dog? No, we use the dog statistics as well. For a wizard such as Mordenkainen I just think of it as a elegant and well crafted spell. Which may have been popularized in books for players, but may not be that easy for characters to put their hands on.

Neither fool not charlatan, and neither does the hound move. 

Does Spiritual Weapon last 8 hours, alert you to foes, pierce illusions, invisibility, and into the astral plane? Does Spiritual Weapon attack without any action of the caster, even if the caster is disabled or unconscious?

I think not! 

Faithful Hound is primarily a guard spell, but is crafted with such elegance and versatility that it can be used directly in combat. 

Charlatan, indeed...

Compare Bigby's Hand, which mentions that the hand doesn't block the space it occupies. Faithful Hound blocks its space; it's a conjuration, after all.

Cast Faithful Hound once to block a door for 8 hours and take a long rest. Cast it twice to block a bridge or hallway for an epic series of fights. Use it to control a flank, protect a wizard, cover a retreat, fill a gap in the line... immovability is a feature, not a bug.

Magical flying hound

The hound is invisible, and as such, it seems to benefit from advantage if a creature can’t see it when it makes an attack.

how does blindsight interact with this spell effect?

Is the hound actually a creature or a magical effect? Wording seems to imply it’s a creature, but objects can be “harmed”. Most objects can’t see though. There aren’t any stats for it to be targeted as a creature could be, even for effects that wouldnt harm it, such as bless if a caster gained the ability to see invisible creatures/objects.

spell doesn’t specify the hound occupies its space, so is there anything physically there?

To just bring an end to this nonsense: The Hound does not move. It specifies in the first line of the spell:

"You conjure a phantom watchdog in an unoccupied space that you can see within range, where it remains for the duration, until you dismiss it as an action, or until you move more than 100 feet away from it."

As the duration is specified as 8 hours, this is one stationary invisible creature that "can't be harmed" and makes one attack per turn "within 5 feet". It does not specify that this creature completely blocks the space it's occupying, though that is probably intentionally left for DMs to decide (as many spells and rules are).


In my opinion, this is a bad spell. The damage is nice and having something that's invisible and can't be harmed for 8 hours would be a big plus. However, the fact that it's stationary, only affects a 5 ft range around itself and can not move from that position is absurd. This means that, unless you are in incredibly cramped surroundings, this is all but useless. Enemies can move away from it, if you as a caster want to use it as protection you need to a) always stay essentially next to it b) the enemy needs to be next to you (a position that is generally unfavourable for most casters) and c) it doesn't have any reach, so the enemy just needs to stand on the opposite side of you to be completely unaffected.
That means that this is essentially a 4th level cast of Cloud of Daggers with a bad version of Alarm strapped to it that only works when anything is within 30 feet, meaning you'll get attacked next turn anyways if the enemy is even a melee fighter. Ranged enemies are completely unaffected by this spell, the 8-hour duration is all but laughable when you consider that wizards at that level have access to Leomund's Tiny Hut for overnight security, the aforementioned Cloud of Daggers for offense (with a less volatile spread since the minimum damage from a 4th level CoD -> 8d4 is 8 and the minimum for Faithful Hound -> 4d8 is 4, plus you can hit up to 4 (four) creatures simultaneously with Cloud of Daggers instead of the 1 (one!) target FH offers) and if you just want something to wake you and didn't chose LTH, you probably have the first level Alarm spell that accomplishes the same thing minus a (probably one time) 4d8 damage.

The only edge case that Alarm doesn't cover is that the Hound can also "see into the Ethereal Plane". Which... is an ambush opportunity for the DM maybe twice, three times unless the DM centres the adventure around the Ethereal Plane, at which point your level 7 party probably has some magic item that makes up for this.

This should not be a 4th level spell as-is. If I'd be tasked to rework it, I'd go one of a few possible routes.

- Keep it as a 4th level spell.
Take out the "it can't be harmed", give it some appropriate HP (maybe a multiplier of Wizard level/spellcasting ability modifier + proficiency bonus), let it move as a bonus action for the wizard. Also, specify that the caster can only have one of these active at any given time. This would still give it utility both in- and outside of combat.

- Make it an actually useable watchdog for the 8 hour duration
Just let this be a ritual spell. Spending an entire 4th level spell with the problems mentioned above is insane. This, if you'd change nothing else from the original would still be available to cast in combat situations, but it incentivises its use as an overnight deterrent without you needing to save an important spell slot for it

Honestly, I'd prefer the first rework as it would actually be useful in a combat scenario. Yes, that could possibly lead to flanking rule abuse but guess what already essentially does that: A level 1 familiar. For the level they are both cast at, Faithful Hound is just horrible value per spell slot.

The hound's attack bonus is equal to your spellcasting ability modifier + your proficiency bonus

I know this isn't the fault of DnDBeyond but this really should just say your spellcasting attack bonus.

This caused confusion at the table for one of my players (who got spellcasting attack bonus and spellcasting ability modifier mixed up). So they assumed you add the proficiency bonus twice.

There is zero reason though for this to not just use spellcasting attack bonus.

Quote from DnDDetective >>

The hound's attack bonus is equal to your spellcasting ability modifier + your proficiency bonus

I know this isn't the fault of DnDBeyond but this really should just say your spellcasting attack bonus.

This caused confusion at the table for one of my players (who got spellcasting attack bonus and spellcasting ability modifier mixed up). So they assumed you add the proficiency bonus twice.

There is zero reason though for this to not just use spellcasting attack bonus.

Wall of Force + Faithful Hound. Bonus points if you have Action Surge and can set it up in one turn 🐕 

Quote from Akamoria >>

Wall of Force + Faithful Hound. Bonus points if you have Action Surge and can set it up in one turn 🐕 

 Unless I'm being stupid, you can't cast 2 levelled spells in one turn, thus making it impossible to do so.

Ok, so you make a level 1 floating disk. You target the hound on the floating disk. Before the hour is up you redo the disk. The hound travels with you all day long?

Quote from BaronUnicorn >>

Quote from Harland51 >>

Quote from Akamoria >>

Wall of Force + Faithful Hound. Bonus points if you have Action Surge and can set it up in one turn 🐕 

 Unless I'm being stupid, you can't cast 2 levelled spells in one turn, thus making it impossible to do so.

 I don’t Believe there is a limit to the number you can do in a single turn. The rule is that you if you do a bonus action cast, then only 1 leveled cast and one cantrip can be done per round. If you have some other way to have multiple actual actions in a round, there is no limit to level spells cast.