Our Top 10 Spells in Dungeons & Dragons 5e

greetings before we get into this week's episode we just want to give a shout out from our sponsors for this week at rune Smith and alderman C they have just launched their Kickstarter for their brand new book stibbles codex of companions which is live on Kickstarter now until March 20th 2020 if you haven't heard of rune Smith check it out right here on YouTube logan does some amazing work and that's sure to carry through into this incredible Kickstarter this new tome for the fifth edition of the world's greatest role-playing game brings over 70 new creatures to the game all of which can be companions for your player characters the book is packed with new feats spells monsters including feats which give almost every class the option to gain a powerful familiar or companion which can aid you in combat exploration and more I have absolutely fallen in love with this content from the moment I saw the imagery of it and the concept of adding companions to the world of Dungeons and Dragons it's adorable I love it and I want it so check out stibbles codex of companions which is live now on Kickstarter until March 20th 2020 you can follow the links in the description below to get in on the Kickstarter and if you happen to miss out those links we'll also have the latest news and updates for how you can pick up the book after the Kickstarter is all over and now onto this week's episode greetings my name is Monte Martin and I'm Kelley McLaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes welcome to our channel where we cover everything Dungeons and Dragons including advice for players and guides for Dungeon Master's we upload new videos every Thursday so please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode today we are taking on a bit of a monumental challenge we are looking at all the spells in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition across all the source books across all the classes all not including on our Turkana and we are going to pick our top spell of each single spell level starting all the way from can trips all the way to the big ninth level spells now in trying to choose this epic list of 10 spells one of each spell level in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition we quickly realized that Monte and I could not agree with such a large range of spells to choose from and different playstyles coming into effect it was absolutely impossible for us to choose one of each spell level in Dungeons & Dragons so what you're going to see is us debating each of our top choices for each spell level in the game of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition it goes without saying that you're never going to be this restricted in actual play choosing only one spell across an entire level perhaps you bards out there might they'll get some useful ideas for your magical secrets from these lists but on the whole these spells represent what we feel are the top tier spell of each spell level across all the classes there's a lot to go through and we're not going to be able to spell out all the rules for each individual spell but let's get rolling okay can trips what is the best can trip in the game my choice being a person who enjoys damage-dealing magic went with eldridge blasts because it is for me one of the most reliable and most useful damage-dealing tantrums in the game of Dungeons & Dragons not everybody has access to this can trip but when you do especially if you're a warlock who can take the right invitations or find other ways to empower your Eldridge blast there is a very reliable way to dish out damage even without blowing through your spell slots and just be a good force of damage dealing in combat see damage is great but I don't think that there's so many ways to deal damage in Dungeons and Dragons that from a can trip I want something special and I don't think there's anything more creative or inspiring or flexible than minor illusion the fact that you can use this to create small visual images and sounds means that you can use minor illusion as a combat trick you can use it to trick your enemies and foes and exploration and social interactions and it also just provides a lot of fun role-playing opportunities I think it's the best can trip in the game it's a hard one to use but it is so flexible and interesting that with the right DM it will always make an impact in the game following this theme of flexibility and versatility when we get to my pick for the best first level spell in the entire game I think hands down that is fine familiar you will find no better first level spell that combines an awesome role-playing opportunity giving you a fantastic little animal companion with so much utility that this spell brings the fact that you can see through the familiars eyes that you can use it for combat tricks I think I'm really feeling that right now in a party of three characters two of which have familiars just how much of an impact this little first level spell has on the entire game I think we talked we can talk exhaustively about how amazing this spell is and how versatile it is in fact we have we've got a little whole video about it I think hands down it's the best first level spell in the entire game now I've got to say my opinion might have been a little swayed by the fact that I knew you were gonna pick fine familiar so for the sake of being different I looked at other options and I went with healing word for me healing word is by far the most reliable and useful healing spell in the game having it at early levels it is the clutch option to save a teammate who is going down in combat usually we've talked about how healing is not the most reliable form of magic in Dungeons & Dragons and there's a lot of options that you would be better using a spell slot for something else but healing word is one of the rare exceptions to that where I do think that it is endlessly useful and can really save the day in a lot of situations because of that taking healing word as your main healing spell at early levels can actually be the best choice for a healer in a party I think healing word is the most surefire insurance policy most adventuring parties have so I agree I think it's powerful and utterly indispensable I just think that fine familiar I mean you could have your familiar administer a healing potion for second level I actually had a really hard time picking my tops me too I think it was this was a really tough level to pick the best spell because they get really versatile yeah and when we look at versatility I tried to narrow it down it took me a few hours to actually pick which one I was going to choose as my top and I have decided on invisibility just because of the amount of options it gives you for either sneaking into locations hiding from enemies being able to choose the party member that you want to turn invisible and use that to your advantage a clever player will find a million-in-one ways to use invisibility if they have it in their arsenal and try to use it as often as possible and it's always fun it's always cool and it's always useful it's one of those spells that some spells you kind of need to wait for the right circumstance and visibility there's almost no wrong time but invisibility isn't an option for how are we going to solve this problem usually it's I think if we turn somebody invisible there's a solution here yeah it's very flexible and I think its utility is pretty unparalleled but for second level spells I really have a hard time ignoring the you the damage-dealing utility that is spiritual weapon spiritual weapon slices and dices is a bonus action and it doesn't even ask for your concentration this amazing little spell is one of the most reliable ways to get some extra force damage to weaponize your bonus action the fact that it doesn't require concentration takes what is already a really good spell and kicks it into overdrive because the fact that spiritual weapon can be combined with another concentration effect means that your character can have something really potent happening well you're still contributing to the damage raised to the entire battle I think it's it's an indispensable spell and while clerics have the monopoly of it divine soul sorcerers and oath of conquest paladin's love getting in there and I think it's a really compelling pick for a bard that wants to deal a lot a bit of extra damage with their spells too as we move on to the third level spells I really struggled to pick one solid choice for third level spells because third level is really when the spells just become amazingly diverse and it's so hard to pin down one spell that speaks to the amazingness that is third level spells except for one and that is fireball if you only need one spell should you take take fireball I think the answer is pretty close to yes this is an incredible and iconic spell in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and so many problems can be solved just by blowing them up I think what's really cool about the third level spell options is when you and I came and compared our lists my second choice was fireball and your second choice was the one that I chose and that's counterspell I am undone yes fireball might be the greatest third level spell but counterspell will always beat it counter spell is the clutch situation winner in all of Dungeons and Dragons you can save your entire party you can undo a combat encounter you can give your party the edge when they need it most all with a well-placed counterspell a well-placed counter spell was the climax of the first season of critical role the next category which is going to be fourth level spells is a rare stop on this list where Monty and I easily agreed on what the best choice was this choice for fourth level spells is so far ahead of all the others I actually find with a lot of characters once I choose this spell I'm kind of ambivalent about the other fourth level spells there's some good ones in there but you could tell me that this is the only fourth level spell that I could ever take and I'd be totally happy happy with it and that spell is polymorph polymorph is an offensive buff a defensive buff a utility buff it does anything and everything if you have a party member who's about to die on the battlefield they're low hitpoints they're trying to get out of a intense situation surrounded by enemies turn them into a giant monster now they have a hundred or more hit points and can dish out a ton more damage if your enemies trying to intimidate you and says what's the best you've got you can answer in reply we have a t-rex there have been moments and campaigns we're facing a dragon who's swooping in towards you is terrifying and then suddenly you turn one of the party members into a t-rex the Barbarian hops on its back and now you have a barbarian riding a t-rex into battle against a dragon a barbarian riding a t-rex fighting a dragon in a blasted wasteland might be the iconic heavy metal album cover you can transform into giant Eagles to fly across long distances or transform into small animals to escape from openings well there are limitations to what you can transform into with the polymorph spell and there are points of debate over the mental capacity of creatures once they had been polymorphed I think it goes without saying that this spell is the stand and out choice for fourth level spells and unquestionably one of the most powerful spells in the game and the only other candidate for a spell that would be more powerful than polymorph conjure woodland beings only gets that spot because you can conjure creatures that can cast polymorph with it continuing on our gauntlet of tough decisions we come to the fifth level spells where 5th level spells are this transitional point where you get the repeatable utility of the lower level spells because you get more than one fifth level spell slot where after this point it's not until very high levels that you get more than one sixth seventh eighth level spell slot so fifth level spells at this point where you get the apex of power that you can use multiple times across an adventuring day so it's really tricky to pick the best fifth level spell but for me time and time again the answer to this has always been wall of force this is such an encounter ending staple spell of every wizard that I play I love how this spell can be positioned in an offensive or defensive way how it can be used to trap enemies or prevent them from pursuing the party it is so flexible and so creative and I think it stands out amongst the best of what it means to be a wizard and a magic user in Dungeons and Dragons I can't argue with any of those points it's an amazing spell again me being a big fan of dealing a lot of damage in really cool ways I went with animate objects it's more than a lot of just damage there's so much utility packed into that spell to animate objects I've seen do some of the most fun things in the Dungeons & Dragons games not only that but I've seen so many enemies ripped apart by gold and it is such a fun way to use animate objects there are situations where maybe you're in a location where you don't have your weapons on you but guess what you can turn all the chairs into a fighting force for you I have seen people use animate objects to animate giant and skeletons for the purpose of intimidating enemies it is such a fun spell and once you look at all the options available within it creative players will just have a blast with this one I've seen a creative player animate a boulder and have that Boulder walk itself to block a passageway it's a very flexible and powerful spell it's it's incredible and I think that it has more utility than just in combat which is what makes it such a standard option when we get to u6 level spells this is another one that I did have a bit of a tough time with but I ended up settling on an enhanced version of another one of my favourite spells and I went with mass suggestion mass suggestion doesn't require concentration it can target up to 12 creatures and lasts for 24 hours you can undo an entire budding combat encounter simply by suggesting that the whole group of enemies surrender or walk away or go to the nearest beach and counts and there are a lot of creative options here and this spell can just undo combats before they even get started this spell can completely overturn an entire social interaction if you're in a council session and there's less than 12 people arguing with you just math suggests in them all to agree with you there's so much creativity behind what you can do with that spell but I think it's creativity and flexibility is only matched by my pick for the best sixth level spell and that is contingency noting rewards you more than being well-prepared and having a plan and having contingencies in place will save your characters life in so many cases I love choosing the spell with my wizards when I play high-level bards it is always a pick for my 14th level magical secrets because you can just apply this in so many ways by combining it with several of the other spells you mentioned whatever situation you are most worried about happening to your character you can now have an answer for that some of my favorite contingencies include using dispel magic as my contingency if I'm ever subjected to an effect that that renders me incapacitated or a contingency that casts mirror image on myself when I say their word giggle shorts or a contingency that turns me invisible when a hostile creature comes within five feet of me as we move into seventh level spells we start seeing effects that are going to allow the players to really reshape the game and my favorite pick for the most powerful seventh level spell in the game I think is so far and a way outside the power curve of all the rest there's basically no competition and that is simulacrum this powerful spell though expensive in requiring its material components allows you to produce a copy of a creature made of snow now it is very popular to copy yourself but many disregard the fact that you can copy anybody with simulacra and then they are under your that copy is under your control so as long as you can capture somebody you can make a simulacrum of them so you don't necessarily have to make a simulacrum of yourself that's just the easiest and most obvious answer but think of all of the other dangerous creatures and allies and monsters in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons that you could duplicate with this spell I've never considered this I have not once considered that is okay you capture a lord or like the head of the guard create a simulacrum of them and then just walk with them into the kingdom and with them being like they're under my watch whatever it's that's brilliant you can make a copy of your cleric or your paladin or make a copy of a major NPC in the campaign and that NBC is now friendly to you and obeys your commands if you can capture the big bad evil guy's right-hand henchman and make a simulacrum of them that opens up a whole world of possibilities for infiltration oh yeah oh it's it certainly does in my books if the player characters create a simulacra and have them falling around I just build the encounters there's an extra player character in the party now that's that's the way I address it from a power perspective the problem actually of dealing with the spell is that now you have one player that is effectively getting two turns and that itself slows the game down a lot simulacrum is one of the best 7th level spells but it's a spell that's gonna require you to use your downtime to actually effectively take use of it it does take 12 hours to cast and material components so when I was looking at 7th level spells even though you're gonna argue that this one is by far and beyond the best spell and one of the most powerful spells in the game I like to think more about smells that I'm going to use all the time that can derail an entire combat encounter and I went with force cage now what's interesting is my experiences with force cage are less as a player using them and more having Monty as a deanna use it on me and the amount of anger and frustration I have had against you well you trap me in a force cage and then throw cloud kill at me and just a deadly combination of threats where I am like I don't know I guess I'll die it is incredibly useful and versatile the way that you can use force cage to just undo a combat encounter with that extra little provision that while a force doesn't have where force cage says you actually have to make saving throws to escape it with teleportation and that littles too little extra nasty things no concentration lasting for an hour and the fact that even teleportation might not get you out of a force cage just make it beautiful I remember the first time you ever trapped me in a force cage and I went to teleport out and you told me that there was a saving throw and I remember how angry I was and it's moments like that that make force cage one of my favorite spells in the entire game and in my opinion a must-have for seventh level when we move on to 8th level spells this is actually a very hard point for me and the entire list of spells and spell levels eighth level spells in my opinion are actually some of the weakest a little spells kind of suffer from the middle child problem of high level spells where the first two levels like sixth and seventh level spells are like the first are like the first high level spells that you get and you're like wow these are so powerful and amazing and then ninth level spells are amazing but then in between them you get these eighth level spells where you're like these are good but I think that on the whole there are more really good seventh level spells that I would rather take over an eighth level spell since that's not what we're discussing today I looked at the list of eighth level spells and I settled on feeble mind feeble mind to me is one of those spells that above all else is just really fun to describe what's happening at the table getting hit with feeble mind or hitting an enemy spell caster with feeble mind and just taking down their intelligence and turning them into a liberal idiot and then having them not being able to make a saving throw for days this just is such a ridiculous way to take out a prominent villain in a campaign feeble mind is fun to use effective and the description of its effects and the longevity of how long it lasts makes it my choice for eighth level so well I struggled and I was tempted to say spells like clone or demi plain for their world shaping kind of out of combat utility I think I'm gonna go with for my pick for the most powerful eighth level spell I'm gonna go with maze maze yeah because may is you just get to point at somebody and they're gone poof they disappear you banish a creature to a demi plain and they are gone there is no saving throw to resist maze I may have missed that point and that sounds really incredible so even a legendary creature who has legendary resistance you can just take them out until they can make that intelligence check yes you're never gonna be able to pull this off against a really powerful big bad evil guy like a lich but even in those cases that's not the point because even if you try to use maze against a powerful foe like a lich that has a great intelligence score they still have to spend their action on their turn to escape the maze with an intelligence check so you've taken them out of the battle for it we at least one round you don't get to attack them you don't get to damage them they're protected while they're gone but that one turn alone no contest might be all you need to turn the tide so finally we come to the ninth level spells I don't think there's any controversy behind what we're gonna say this is the only other time that Monty and I agreed on this list other than polymorph and it's pretty clear-cut who the winner of the ninth level spell is if you haven't guessed it already it's wish wishes unequivocably the most powerful spell in Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition and deservedly so it does almost anything in the game replicating the effects of any other spell of eighth level or lower or creating all sorts of other effects according to your imagination you have to be a little careful with wish because a clever DM might use your wishes against you just like the great genies of legend but if you're using it to recreate a spell effect of any spell that you didn't already have access to this is a great use of wish the versatility here is endless one thing that I will note is that the wish spell in the spell description says that a complex or strange wish may simply fail and to me as a dungeon master and as a player I think that this is the fairest thing that a dungeon master can do with moderating the power of a wish spell for example if a player comes to you with a really sort of clever wish like I wish that all wishes by wish granting entities always be granted according to the intentions of the person making the wish and not the intentions of the wish-granting entity as a way of kind of subverting the whole twist the wish thing you can simply have that wish fail and that's what I would do is I'd yep there's never any way that a player can cleverly word a wish and force the dungeon master to grant that wish because the dungeon master always has the power to say the spell simply fails so that kind of arms race the DM always wins but you can still get clever with all of these things and even if you avoid all of that controversy at all it doesn't change the fact that having a spell that can be any other spell of eighth level or lower is incredible I wish that I could make a player character that can take all of the spells we just mentioned well you tried multi classing there would be a few different multi yeses that he would have you be required I think I think you'd be really tricky to get all of these spells and certainly if you made a character that these were the only spells that you could cast I think you would be very happy and satisfied with that character that said well one character can't get every single one of the spells on this list Wizards come pretty close and so well it is a fun thought experiment to think about what the most powerful spell is across the entire board there's always subjectivity involved and there's also the specific context polymorph might be the most powerful spell of 4th level but it might not be the most powerful fourth level spell that you can use in those circumstances the other thing to keep in mind is you're gonna notice in this video itself that Monte and I while trying to pick the best spell of each spell level we're unable to agree most of the time this means that although we've shared our opinions with you today if you have a different favorite spell that's absolutely fine there are so many great spells out there and depending on the type of character you're playing and the situation's you're finding yourself in there might be options that far surpass the ones that we've presented in these lists Monte and I could barely agree on any of these and so it goes without saying that you might disagree as well honestly though there are so many great ways to use magic and half the fun is trying out new and exciting spells that you've always been a little bit curious about if you're sitting down for the first time and are wondering what's a good spell choice hopefully this video helps you out but it's not our only opinion on great spells in Dungeons and Dragons if you can take these spells with your character or your class you should seriously consider them but they're not all golden hammers they won't get you out of every single situation that you're always going to face in the games of D&D so don't forget the other spells that we didn't mention in this list because they might be the right spell at the right time which makes all the difference in the world so these have been our picks for the best spells of each level in Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition if you have other choices other than the ones we presented tell us about them in the comments below if you're enjoying our show please consider supporting our work on patreon you can find out how by following the links in the description below don't forget to check out our live play shadows of dragon hime which airs Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. Eastern on Twitch you can find all the previous episodes right up over here and we've got plenty more videos covering all the great spells and Dungeons & Dragons right up over here please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time in the dungeon

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

Views: 371,592

Keywords: dungeons, dragons, tabletop, gaming, roleplaying, games, accessories, rules, rule, gameplay, play, game, rpg, d20, player, character, D&D, 5e, DM, PC, tips, advice, guide, guides, review, dice, books, book

Id: i2KbEDV5oHk

Length: 29min 19sec (1759 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 12 2020