The Five Worst Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

the greatest spells in D&D can shatter reality itself with their power but some just shatter your hopes and dreams we are looking at the five worst spells in Dungeons & Dragons finishing welcome my name is Monte Martin and I'm Kelley McLaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes and today we're taking a look at the five worst spells in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition now full spell casters in D&D 5 e must choose a relatively small arsenal maybe a few dozen spells from a player's hand book that contains hundreds of different options this is why it's really important to choose your spells wisely so you have a good balance of magical powers that will suit you in combat exploration and even social situations but some players and Dungeon Master's are pretty optimistic with their views on the spells in D&D and think that there's a place for each and every one but with so many to choose from there's sure to be a few that don't measure up so we've studied the spell book we've asked for your opinions and we've collected our list of the 5 worst spells in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition so let's get rolling so first and foremost let's clear up a few things about what we mean by the 5 worst spells in D&D so when we say worst we mean first of all the spell is significantly less impactful compared to other spells of the same level available to similar class spell lists the spell isn't even good at accomplishing what it sets out to do third the situations where the spell might actually be useful are so rare and nice that most of the time you're better off looking at options which are more flexible and usable in a wider range of circumstances lastly the spell doesn't fulfill a world building narrative or role-playing purpose in the game in other words we excluded ritual spells or what some might call a DM spell such as continual flame or magic or from consideration as these spells really more exist to explain why certain magical effects work the way they do rather than to be a compact option amongst the other spells we consulted the official errata and the sage advice compendium to make sure that we were up-to-date on our knowledge on these spouts finally we can't account for how things might be different at your table we're just talking about our opinions on how these spells work and why they aren't very good at what they're supposed to do of course your Dungeon Master is always the final authority on how the rules work in play and you have the option to adhere as closely or vert away from the rules as you want to we're just looking at what's in the books as presented and judging those based on our experiences playing D&D and reading the official fifth edition modules the first spell we're going to be looking at today and the one most widely regarded by our community as one of the worst spells in D&D is true strike true strike is a divination cantrip that is available to bards sorcerers warlocks and wizards and it's found on page 284 of your players handbook it requires one action to cast as well as your concentration which makes it fairly unique is one of the few kin trips in the game that does require your concentration when you cast your strike you point at a target within 30 feet and on your next turn you have advantage on an attack against that creature so right off the bat can trips are very limited most classes only get about three to five of them so making this one of your can trip choices cut you off from taking much better options like attack spells mage hand miner illusion and other fantastic can trips also you can only concentrate on one spell at a time so wasting that on something like a canned trip that doesn't do very much compared to the other can trips available seems like a waste of your concentration in addition there are just so many ways to generate advantage on an attack role in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition with true strike you have to set yourself up for the next attack and the limited range the one action to cast and the one round duration means that you can't even do a lot of creative ways that would generate advantage well in advance of an ambush you really have to commit to it being the next thing that you do you can't even combine true strike with cool abilities like the elder tonight swore magic class feature or the sorcerers quicken spell because the spell explicitly says it only works on your first attack on your next turn the other problem is this only applies to the one foe that you cast it on true strike can be mechanically worse than simply trying to attack twice across two of your turns there are very few spells in Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition that are so critical that they hit or miss that you want to spend your entire action 1 turn ahead to guarantee not even guarantee that it's gonna hit so you're gonna true strike to make sure that your first scorching ray hits or a melee attack hits when you could have just taken two melee attacks across two turns you might have done more damage that way if you're looking for a good spell to try out instead find familiar which allows you to summon a familiar which on its turn can use the help action granting you advantage on your attack works just as well as true state but a little bit better and a little bit more reliable and doesn't require your concentration or two rounds the second spell that we are looking at today is which bolt this is another one that so many of our community members pointed out as a terrible terrible spell it's a first level Eve occasion spell available to sorcerers warlocks and wizards and it's found on page 289 of your players handbook with which bolt you make a range spell attack it requires one action to cast requires a concentration and you can cast it up to 30 feet on a hit which bolt deals one d12 lightning damage initially and then on subsequent rounds as long as you maintain your concentration and the target stage within 30 feet of you and you spend your action to do so you can automatically deal another one d12 lightning damage to the target on average this is only one point of damage better than casting fire bolt or an unenhanced eldritch blast well the initial damage of which bolt does upscale the subsequent rounds do not meaning that being able to hit the target with fire bolts every turn is going to give you a lot more damage especially at higher levels because by the time you hit fifth level and have third level spell slots your fire bolt is dealing to D 10 damage your elders blast to D 10 damage but which bolt even when you up cast it using your third level spell slot that initial damage is pretty nice 3d 12 not terrible not a lot and there is the benefit of being able to hit automatically every turn but requiring your concentration and all of those other things that basically you're taking up your entire turn just to use which bolt well there are lots of other options furthermore the spell immediately ends if the target walks 30 feet away from you if it's out of range it's over if your concentration is interrupted it's over there's far better things to be spending your action and your concentration on then dealing one d12 damage turn after turn which bolt is an utter and complete trap of a spell it's a waste of your spell slot it's a waste of your memorization or your spells known and it's a complete waste of your actions on subsequent turns compared to all of your other options if you want our advice for a spell to take instead just cast any can trip literally any damage dealing can trip will show better results than which bolt especially over time and they don't use a spell slot the third spell we're gonna be looking at today is one of my favorites fine traps fine traps is a second level divination spell it's available to clerics druids and Rangers and you can find it on page 241 of your players handbook now based on the name fine traps what do we think this spell should do I'm gonna cast the spell down the dangerous hallway and the spell is gonna give me some sort of benefit to help me find where the trap is so the road can disable it right nope here's the definition of the spell fine traps this spell merely reveals that a trap is present you don't learn the location of each trap but you do learn the general nature of the danger posed by a trap you sense and furthermore the spell only reveals the location of mechanical or manufactured traps that were intended to cause harm it doesn't reveal natural hazards like a weak floor or a wall that might fall over or natural flame Jets or or even a sewer that has loose valves it's not going to tell you that it has to be a intentional trap the spell requires you to have line of sight to the trap meaning that if it's around the corner you're not going to be able to detect it what if the trap is underneath a panel no because you can't have line of sight to it so you walk into the room and you say I'm gonna cast fine traps and the DM says yes there are traps they might burn you the end good well you get and it only has a 120 foot range so I feel like this spell just confirms your paranoia yeah it's it's the equivalent of looking on the internet for your symptoms when you're sick and realizing oh man I'm probably gonna die that's pretty much it you walk into a room you're like oh I'm really worried that there's traps in here there are oh no and unbelievably this spell isn't even a ritual it requires your second level spell slot to cast this spell helps you find a trap and the trap is the spell because you took it we're being ambushed what do you think I'd roll a car it's a trap thanks we got that we figured that one out the better name for this spell would be theoretically allude to traps okay so what is a better alternative well first of all I think that good play is a good substitute for this spell but if you really want a divination spell that's gonna help you potentially I would even try something like augury which is the second level ritual spell that is still available to clerics that will atleast tell you is it gonna bring me weal or woe to walk down this hallway honestly if you walk into the room and say I'd like to just check the floorboards to see if there's traps here you probably have a better chance of finding useful information than casting fine traps better yet send the Wizards familiar or like or just send the barbarian the forth spell that we're looking at today is one that I really want to like but can't crowd of madness this is a spell that will break your heart because it reads really potent until you realize all the problems that it has in fact no one in our community poll mentioned this spell at all and it's terrible and it's almost as much of a trap as fine traps and which bolts here's why it's a second-level enchantment spell available to bards sorcerers warlocks and wizards you can find it on page 229 of your players handbook so when you cast this spell one humanoid that you choose must make a wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for the duration a cool crown of thorns appears around its head and will its charm by you in this way at the start of its turns before moving you can mentally choose one target that you're charmed victim must attack if you don't choose a target and you can't choose its cell you can't choose the target itself it gets to act normally and it still gets to move normally on its turns as well on subsequent turns you can continue to control the target in this way but you have to spend your action to do so or the spell immediately ends and at the end of each of the targets turns it also gets to shake out of the spell by making a wisdom saving throw so when I first read this spell what I thought it read was oh I get to put a cool crown on an enemy and they'll attack their allies but really there's a lot of fine print in there that makes it seem like this might be pretty useless the target that they're going to attack needs to be within their range before they make their movement you don't get to move them if there's nobody within their range they're not going to do anything they can move normally meaning that they can move away from their allies therefore negating your ability to use this spell in any real way it only affects a humanoid foe and it only forces them to make melee attacks so it does have a very limited range it would be way more useful if you could make them make a ranged attack but you can't in addition to this if you choose no target at all because the only target beside your foe is one of your allies and you don't want to give them an attack against your allies do you then they just get to act normally so this spell has a very small chance of actually succeeding in doing anything useful yeah potentially the first term that you cast it when there already is two of your enemies right beside each other you'll get to control them to make one attack and that's it but a big problem that the spell suffers from is that it only affects humanoid enemies and it causes a charm effect which means elves have advantage on saving throws and you're not gonna be able to use this against higher level foes like Giants and Dragons and demons that actually have really really scary melee attacks it's only humanoids who generally don't have high damage dealing melee attacks they usually rely on multi attack to make several attacks to get their damage high this is a really disappointing spell the final spell that we're going to look at today is mourning Conan's sword more than kind and sword is a seventh level Eve occasion spell available to bards and wizards and you can find it on page 262 of your players handbook when you cast morning code and sword using your seventh level spell slot a magical sword appears and as a bonus action you can have it attack somebody causing 3d10 damage when the sword first appears you get to make an attack with it and since you can then attack with a bonus action using it the first tournament is actually not too bad you get to make two attacks with it but on subsequent turns it can only make an attack using your bonus action does 3d10 force damage and you can move it 20 feet on subsequent turns this is starting to sound a lot like spiritual weapon but spiritual weapon is a much lower level spell a second level spell in fact and one that doesn't require concentration it's only available to clerics but the comparison is very stark for five levels worth of spells higher and your concentration you're dealing 3d10 force damage instead of 1d8 plus your wisdom mod that's awful especially considering all the amazing things that you can do with your seventh levels spell slot I am very hard pressed to think of a circumstance where a character with access to seventh level spells like a 13th level wizard is so desperate to get a source of force damage that they would use their seventh level spell slot to cast the spell this spell is almost good if you read it until you notice the seventh level spell slot that's the real reason why it's making this list if this spell was several levels lower and didn't require concentration like spiritual weapon it would be amazing but because of the spell slot requirement and the concentration requirement it really is a trap of a spell to cast which is a shame because conjuring a spectral sword to attack your foes is a really cool fantasy but so is conjuring a magical box of force that traps your foes indefinitely for up to an hour or a giant wall of fire for a much lower level that does as much or more damage or teleporting to another plane of existence it just is completely outclassed by the other options at this level it is the worst seventh level spell in the game I think and just one that you should absolutely avoid I'd say it's even upsetting compared to several of the spells at a few lower levels absolutely so to wrap up we did pull the community for your ideas on what some of the other bad spells in the game are they didn't quite make our top 5 but they certainly are close contenders and to be perfectly honest we would love to talk about all these in more detail but we're gonna leave you just with some of our honorable mentions to close out our episode unreal mentions include blade wart Raven feeble 'men flame blade blight confusion grasping vine phantasmal killer tensors transformation the various investor of fire ice etc spouse as well as the ninth level spell weird which was in close contention with Morten kind of sword for being the worst high level spell many of these spells that we mentioned are bad for the same reason as the spells in our top 5 they usually require concentration require your action on subsequent turns to maintain or like crown of madness they sound really good but the chances of the effect actually being pulled off in the way that you imagined it to are pretty low and so you should consider other options that are more reliable and dependable instead of them so the question for you is are these spells beyond redemption or are there good uses of them out there but in answering that question you really need to look at other spells of the same level and consider how those spells might offer more flexibility again it's easy to make the argument that every spell has a place in the game but unfortunately spellcasters only get to prepare or know a limited number of spells so even though a spell might have a situational use its competing with other spells for your spouse lots your spells known and your action in battle or your time during the adventure if a spell is still useful despite all those facts we would love to know if you think it that it is or if there's any other spells that you think are complete stinkers we'd like to hear about those as well so this has been our look at our top 5 worst spells in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition we hope that you never take them you can catch Kelly and I playing Dungeons & Dragons live in our campaign dungeons of Dragon hime it airs every Tuesday night at 6 p.m. Eastern Time on twitch.tv slash dungeon underscore dudes if you want some good spell recommendations for the classier picking you can check out our class guides right up over here and we've got a whole series explaining the rules of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition that you can find or write up over here please subscribe to our channel so 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: 421,525

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: _ABJ4MU1MAs

Length: 19min 26sec (1166 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 22 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Trace500]

Considering that one focus of the video is to offer alternative spells, I'm going to object to the overlooking of Bigby's Hand as a better alternative to Mordenkainen's Sword. The comparison to Spiritual Weapon does demonstrate how bad MS is but is not an alternative for most characters that learn MS.

[u/KittenWithMittens]

How did Stoneskin avoid even the honorable mentions?

4th level. Expensive material cost. Requires concentration. Only lasts an hour. Only gives resistance to non magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing, which if it comes into play, means risking losing concentration every time you're getting the benefit of the spell.

[u/intermedial]

Hi! We're the Dungeon Dudes! We've spent the past year or so explaining the rules of D&D 5e, creating video guides to each of the core classes in D&D 5e, and sharing our tips for DMs.

In Dungeons and Dragons 5e, full spellcasters must choose a relatively small arsenal from amongst several hundred spells. Unfortunately, with so many spells in the game, there are still a few that really don’t measure up. These are our list for the worst spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e (with timestamps for the TL;DR)

• 2:53 True Strike
• 5:34 Witch Bolt
• 7:58 Find Traps
• 10:55 Crown of Madness
• 14:06 Mordenkainen's Sword
• 16:44 Honorable Mentions

In addition to explaining why we feel these spells just aren't worth taking, we suggested a few alternative options to consider in their stead.

As always, we believe the Dungeon Master is the final authority on how the rules work in play. If you feel that any of these spells are actually pretty good, tell us why!

[u/TJPoobah]

I'm curious about how spells rate within specific class lists and in the context of the specific class's kit. Unless you're a bard you don't get to pick from all lists (though Wizard basically gets all the best spells as well) so I feel like it isn't the most helpful to most players to just compare every single spell and then make a shortlist based on them all. For instance Eldritch Blast is be the best offensive cantrip but having it take up a slot on a generic "best cantrips" list doesn't actually help non warlock players make decisions about their cantrip selection, the half-casters generally have a bunch of spells that aren't on other classes lists and don't get mentioned in any of these lists too.

Anyway I was interested specifically in your opinion of the Investitures in the context of the Warlock list. I've been thinking about taking an one at 11 as my 6th level mystic arcanum, but you guys gave it them a mention as bad and another youtuber also did so so now I'm feeling a bit unsure about my choice. The "use an action to do x" parts of them are pretty fucking awful, I agree (really should be "use a bonus action to do x" IMO, also if we're homebrewing to improve the lives of warlocks why not just make the spell "elemental investiture" and let the caster name the element) but the other effects seem somewhat powerful and last a good while, wind in particular, though I can think of uses for all four. Partly I think it's that warlock doesn't have the spell slots to burn on say, getting fly from the fly spell, though also perhaps it's just that I'm not very attracted to the other options for a 6th level arcanum.

[u/nin10donerd]

I agree with everything they said but spare the dying is useless unless youre a grave or death domain cleric. Otherwise just buy a healers kit instead of wasting a cantrip slot on it.

[u/BdBalthazar]

Can you explain the reasoning behind Blight being one of the honorable mentions?

[u/gadgets4me]

I agree with their picks. I'm waiting for some common "fixes" for the "worst" spells, though that could get out of hand.