Level
2nd
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
Self
(10 ft )
Components
V
Duration
Concentration
10 Minutes
School
Evocation
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Deafened
A strong wind (20 miles per hour) blows around you in a 10-foot radius and moves with you, remaining centered on you. The wind lasts for the spell’s duration.
The wind has the following effects:
- It deafens you and other creatures in its area.
- It extinguishes unprotected flames in its area that are torch-sized or smaller.
- It hedges out vapor, gas, and fog that can be dispersed by strong wind.
- The area is difficult terrain for creatures other than you.
- The attack rolls of ranged weapon attacks have disadvantage if the attacks pass in or out of the wind.
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That moment when a 2nd level spell nullifies a 5th level spell (Cloudkill) and an 8th level spell (Incendiary Cloud).
that is the primary purpose of wind spells
According to the National Weather Service, a 20 mph wind would be classified as a 5 on the Beaufort scale, or a fresh breeze. Large branches and small trees in leaf begin to sway. This doesn't seem like it would be enough to deafen a person or cause the area to be difficult terrain.
https://www.weather.gov/pqr/wind
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Question for my fellow DMs: would you rule this would extinguish a creature set on fire by a fire elemental? My inclination is to rule yes, since I picture the creature as being covered in a bunch of small fires, not engulfed in one massive fire. Thoughts?
The description says it "hedges out vapor, gas, or fog", which I don't read as meaning it disperses it. I read that as meaning the area of effect creates a "safe zone" within the gas, fog, or vapor.
Exactly, people are getting super winded about some dude's pretty skewed opinion on balancing, but a Strong Wind as stated by the rules, and this spell disperses fog-like substances. This spell targets a sphere-like area so that anyone inside of it doesn't have to deal with the potential of Cloudkill or some other gaseous danger, there are surprisingly a fair amount of which that can be dealt with by Wind spells.
So yes, inside Warding Wind = safe from Cloudkill, it will still hurt people outside of the sphere, but the residents will be fine as long as the person inside can hold Concentration.
I would say, since we are talking about Cloudkill here if you wanted to be smart about it, you could move through the entire radius of Cloudkill, dispersing all of the fog at once. Cloudkill states: "It lasts for the duration or until strong wind disperses the fog, ending the spell.", which at least for me as a DM, would rule that the gas cloud wouldn't be concentrated enough to control or feasibly bring back together, ending the spell, as stated in its description.
No it isn't 🛑
Functionally, this distinction only really matters for creatures above you or tiny creatures that are sharing your space.
It absolutely should work on cloudkill. This spell is not even that good to begin with since it uses your action and concentration and is only really useful in narrow areas. Saying it doesn't work on cloudkill ignores frankly a lot of logic. Cloudkill is just gas, even if magically created gas. Strong winds should disperse it within the area of effect of this spell (regardless of the source).
Personally I'd argue this as a case of specialisation vs. general – counterspell can counter almost anything, but it's higher level and can fail, whereas warding wind only counters very specific things that are less likely to come up.
Essentially it's having the right tool for the right job, but that tool is costing you one of your spell choices whereas as a more general purpose option will be more useful but potentially less reliable. Both are burning resources to counter something, but warding wind is giving you better value in the cases it's better for.
A 6th-level heal can still be countered by a 0th-level chill touch, a 9th-level magic missile will be fully blocked by a 1st-level shield etc., but these are very specific counters that may or may not come up at all.
The Mists around the domains of dread are not ordinary fog, and the Mists are as dense or as pervasive as the dreadlord of the domain (so your DM) wishes them to be. You might be able to argue that warding wind holds back the mist in its area, making it easier to see.
But it absolutely would not dispel the Mists, as for one thing they're not a spell but essentially a planar effect, and a way to keep you in the domain of dread; you can still be turned around, find there is nowhere else to go, or just end up right back where you started etc.
what dose it mean "deafens" do attacks get disadvantage or extra AC or what dose it mean?