Top 10 Spells That Can Deal Cold Damage in DnD 5E

cold is the second worst damage type in D we're looking at how many creatures in the monster manual resist or immune it compared to other types of damage so if for whatever reason you're looking for spells that can deal this type of damage in this list we'll be going over some of the best spells in the game that technically can deal this type of damage and start us off at number 10 we have ice knife this is a first level spell with a range of 60 feet and requires the cast to make a range spell attack against the creature in order to deal one d10 piercing damage to it whether you hit or miss however the shards of ice explode dealing damage to both the Target and creatures within 5 feet of it for 2d6 coal damage if they fail a dexterity saving throw now what's neat about this spell is that you can use it to Target both a creature's AC and a dexterity saving throw at the same time while also dealing AOE damage to surrounding Targets this also means that you effectively have two chances to hit a single Target and one chance to hit targets within five feet of the initial Target being able to deal damage in a 3X3 space for a first level spell slot from 60 feet away is pretty good since not many spells at first level are able to deal both AOE damage while also so sporting decent range spells like burning hands and frost fingers both create a 15-foot cone meaning you'll have to risk putting yourself In Harm's Way in order to cast them while Tasha's caustic Brew shoots a 30-foot line from you making it hard to aim however there are some major downsides to using this spell firstly the spell is essentially a saver suck spell a phrase commonly used in D d5e to describe a spell or effect that either works or just doesn't unlike other spells that will still do a half damage if a Target passes their saving throw against it if you cannot hit a creature with a spell they don't take the piercing dammit if they pass a dexterity same throw they also don't take the coal damage the other downside is that you can't Target the spell the same way you would other area of effect spells like Fireball or shatter which both allow you to choose a point in order to cast the spell the spell description says that you specifically must Target a creature in order to be able to use the spell so for instance if your fighter was fighting in front of two goblins that are standing five feet from each other hitting either the Goblins would cause eye snipe to also hit your fighter you wouldn't be able to hit the square behind the Goblins in order to force a deck save on them because you're not targeting a creature this is further cemented by the fact that spells like Firebolt and disintegrate both let you target a creature or object in their descriptions so while this spell is a pretty good option for AOE at the first level the reason ice knife takes the number 10 spawn this list is because the spell gets outclassed as soon as you reach second level spells or it spells like shatter exists which has a bigger radius better damage a Target that is not a creature and it applies even if the creature passes their saving throw against it and at number 9 we have fire Shield this is a fourth level wizard spell which basically grants a shield that gives you resistance to your choice of either cold or fire damage for 10 minutes after which any creature that hits you with a melee attack erupts The Shield dealing 2d8 damage of the opposing damage type to whatever you're currently resisting if you're using a warm Shield to resist cold damage you will deal fire damage and if you're using a cold Shield to resist fire damage you'll deal cold damage to the melee attackers this spell also emits bright light in 10 feet and another 10 feet of dim light after that which might have some Niche uses when it comes to lighting up dark corridors rooms being resistant to cold or fire damage is a Bend official effect to have since both are common types of damage with fire being the more common of the two this Shield also serves as deterrent against enemies that might want to charge it and start attacking you since 2d8 damage every time they hit can add up very quickly because of multi-attack a feature that allows many enemies to make additional attacks on their turn unfortunately to get the maximum benefit out of the spell you need to be in a position where you'll be taken as many melee hits as possible this isn't a great position for a wizard however if you're playing as an Eldridge Knight fighter you can't eventually learn the spell and use it to good effect the problem with this is Eldridge Knight Fighters would learn this spell at level 19 which is way too late in the game to make good use of fire Shield because you would have access to much better spells and utility options for a deal with cold and fire damage such as Shield or absorb elements which are two very good first level spells which use your reaction in order to cast absorb elements already grants resistance against an incoming damage type from its list until the start of your next turn while also adding the damage to your next melee attack as a 1d6 shield grants you plus 5 to your AC until the start of your next turn which prevents taking damage at all if the creatures you're fighting have access to range options then this spell is useless since fire Shields damage only works on melee attacks the reason this spell only lands at number nine in this list is because while the spell works well as a defensive option if you want to deal some extra damage against a creature Wizards have access to Spells at lower levels that work better as a way to avoid or deal extra damage to creatures you have Shield absorb elements or silver barbs as reactions which all have the great effects that mitigate damage or if it's your turn and enemy is on top of you shocking grass is a cantrib that shuts down an enemy's reaction when it hits so that you can safely move to a better position without provoking opportunity attacks if you wanted to expend a higher level slot Misty stat works great and reposition yourself because it allows you to teleport up to 30 feet to inoculate space that you can see and at number 8 we have Wall of ice this is a six level concentration spell with a range of 120 feet that allows you to create a wall of ice that is one foot thick for up to 10 minutes this can be especially useful for denying enemies a location such as a walkway doorway etc etc the wall can be made into a hemispherical dome or a sphere with a radius of up to 10 feet or you can shape a flat surface made up to 10 10 foot square panels if you wreck the wall inside a space occupied by creature the creature is pushed to the side it must pick a dexterity saving throw or take 10 D6 coal damage if it fails or half of it succeeds the wall can be destroyed and has an AC of 12 vulnerability to fire damage 30 hit points per 10 foot of wall however if the sections get destroyed they leave behind a sheet of Frigidaire which deals 5 D6 cold damage to creatures that move through it for the first time on their turn unless they succeed at Constitution saving throw in order to take half damage if you want a spell they can completely deny creatures acts as a certain parts of the map then this spell is great since the ball must be destroyed first which will take time by then your party might have successfully treated or have readied actions from the wall is down another way you can use this Bell is to separate instable enemy ranks forcing part of the enemy to find another way around or waste time destroying the wall while your party focuses on the enemies that are trapped with your party being able to force enemies into smaller more manageable groups for the party is a really good form of crowd control that doesn't require any sort of saving throws it's just a good placement but the thing about this spell is that there are other spells that does what wall of ice does but better and much sooner while a force for example is learned at fifth level and creates an invisible wall of force that prevents anything from physically passing through it and can't be dispelled with dispel magic either while if stone is a fifth level spell that essentially does the same thing as well of ice just without the damage component attached to it meanwhile while a fire is a fourth level spell that doesn't necessarily stop creatures from passing it but will damage them for a 5v8 fire damage when they pass through making it a successful deterrent and while 10 D6 cold damage the moment you cast the spell on top of enemies is a good amount of damage for a 6 level spell you do not get to choose which side of the wall the enemies end up on like you do for other spells like wall of stone if you must cast the spell on top of enemies to get effective use out of it you might consider other options instead as the spell is mostly meant to be used defensively in fact there are other spells you can use offensively that are much better and easier to use some of which that deal cold damage and are on this very list which is why a wall of ice only sit to the number 8 spot and coming in at number 7 we have Ray of frost a Cantor with a range of 60 feet that has a simple effect of dealing 1d8 cold damage to a creature whenever it hits and reducing the target movement speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn and the damage of the can drip scale is just like normal cantrips being able to reduce a creature's Movement by 10 feet can have a big impact if an encounter has a lot of melee based enemies such as ghouls with a base movement speed of 30 feet rare Frost can do an excellent job at keeping them from getting close since the goal would only be able to move 20 feet now if you have a ranged party member maintaining a 30-foot range from a ghoul affected by Ray Frost the ghoul would have to use both its movement and action in order to dash to them or change its attention to something closer and since it spells it can't trip it has an unlimited amount of uses making this spell readily available whenever you need it the only real problem with the spell are the fact that it only has a range of 60 feet which is usually good for most spells but if you want to spell that impairs the movement speed of enemies then this belt leaves a lot to be desired not to mention the fact that the spell only targets one creature meaning the defectiveness is diminished when encountering multiple enemies you could twin spell rare Frost as a sorcerer in order to hit two enemies instead of one but if there are multiple enemies in an encounter then chances are you'll want to opt into better spells that might end the encounter quickly rather than trying to hinder the enemies the reason rare Frost only makes the number seven this list is because the spell only shines when it's being used creatively it does not have as much of an impact compared to damaging enemies down before they can act you only really want to use the spell when something is within 30 to 60 feet range and even then there are plenty of options that just work better than ring Frost when it comes to impairing enemy movement and at number 6 we have cone of cold this is a fifth level spell that creates a 60-foot cone from yourself that deals 88 cold damage to creatures that fail a constitution same throw and half damage if they succeed being able to deal 88 cold damage in a 60-foot cone can be incredibly good against large groups of creatures that may be approaching the party from a singular Direction a 60-foot cone covers a lot more ground than even a fireball meaning that this belt can hit creatures that are much more spread out another Advantage this spell can have over Fireball is that since it targets Constitution you can hit creatures that have the evasion feature although this might be a pretty deep wave using cone of cold it's at least worth noting considering cone of cold only deals damage with no other forms of utility instead you may look to other fifth level spells that do a good amount of damage image while also providing extra benefits to your party such as subnautic static which is basically a psychic image Fireball that also subtracts a D6 role to the creature's attack rules ability checks and concentration checks for one minute while also being on an intelligent save the best stat to Target in the game however if range is something you feel is lacking in your spell list then cone of cold is still a decent spell to take which is why it still ranks higher than the previous spells it gives you another way to deal group damage that might otherwise be unachievable with other spells and at number 5 we have ice storm this is a fourth level spell with a range of 300 feet and creates a cylinder of hail of ice which covers a 20-foot radius 40 foot high area centered on a point within range the storm itself turns the entire area of effect into difficult terrain until the end of your next turn and any creatures inside the storm take 2da bludgeoning damage and 46 coal damage unless they succeeded dexterity saving throw in order to have both damages for a fourth level spell ice storm possesses an exceptional amount of range doubling that of Fireball which has a range of 150 feet allowing you to easily place the spell in more accessible parts of the battlefield and while the damage the spell is not the best it covers the same radius as variable because the spell is shaped like a cylinder rather than a sphere in fact it covers more vertical distance in Fireball making it an excellent tool to both hit ground targets and creatures in the air there is also a lingering effect when it turns the ground inside the area into difficult terrain until the end of the next turn which serves as an effective way to impair movement for everything inside of it having their movement speeds unlike rare Frost creating difficult Terror the spell does not require any sort of rolls which is a nice bonus the reason this belt might not be higher this list is because the difficult terrain effect goes both ways while enemies will have a hard time moving out of it your melee party members will also be unable to move inside of it very easily this means you must be mindful of where you cast the spell perhaps placing as close to the edge of your range as possible to make it harder for the backup to arrive while you and your party take care of more immediate threats the fact that difficult terrain only lasts for a single round can diminish the overall usefulness of the smell as other fourth level spells like while a fire exists which lasts for longer and at number 4 we have Glyph of warding this is a third level spell that takes one hour to cast and last until it's dispelled or triggered while also sporting material costs of insane some powdered diamonds worth at least 200 gold which the spell consumes cast in the spell allows you to create a nearly invisible glyph that you can describe at a surface that can either store a prepared spell a third level or lower when casting as part of the created glyph you can also upcast level warden so that you can make it work with high level spells like mental prison or meteor swarm as well as granted additional flexibility or make a rune which explodes in a 20-foot radius sphere Ascend on the glyph when triggered dealing 58 acid fire cold lightning or thunder damage on a failed saving throw that you choose when you're making the glyph or have as much damage on a successful safe this spell also allows you to set any kind of trigger you want for the glyph you might want the glyph to only affect creatures of a certain type or alignment for instance some very simple triggers you might use for example might include something like Fireball glyph to trigger the moment someone walks into the room the glyph resides in or you might want to obscure an Escape Route so that you can set a fog Cloud glyph to trigger whenever you cast Misty step over it perhaps You Want To Catch a Thief so you have a glyph of force cage set on the chest of a valuable loot which triggers whenever they try to open it without the proper key there are plenty of more creative ways you can use this spell which makes it extremely versatile to play with in any campaign this belt also works accidentally as a DM spell because it can allow them to create scenarios and traps specifically cater to the party and can also allow for some fun puzzles for dungeons as well but the reason this spell is at number four on this list is because it is technically not a cold damaging spell despite the fact that the exploding Rune of the version can do cold damage which technically makes it qualified for this list it also can't be any higher on this list because nine times out of 10 you're never going to use this spell to deal any sort of cold damage especially when there are better damage types available to the explosive Rune and it's not lower than this list because it has so much fun utility that can be used in many creative ways that are only hindered by the player's imaginations so it's near the top to let you know that this spell exists and can technically deal cold damage and at number 3 we have armor of agathis this is a first level warlock spell which creates a magical Force around you for one hour granting you five temporary hit points and dealing cold damage to creatures that hit you with a melee attack while you possess these Timber hit points for 5 cold damage the damage and tamper hit points are not something to write home about however every time you up cast the spell you gain an additional 5 hit points and deal an additional 5 Points of cold damage for each spell slot used above the first making it one of the best scaling spells in the game on top of that any spells or magical items that can grant you resistance to certain types of damage can help extend the duration of your temporary hit points by allowing you to squeeze out more damage out of the spell for example if you cast armor of agathis at fourth level you'll have 20 temporary hit points and deal 20 Cold damage to creature every time it hits you with a melee attack then if you put yourself under the effects of Blade Ward a Cantor that gives a resistance to bludgeoning piercing and slashing damage on weapon attacks until the end of your next turn so let's say a creature attacks you twice for 20 slashing damage each for a total of 4 day damage normally you would only deal 20 Cold damage to the creature because the first attack broke through all of your temporary hit points at once however because bladeward is having all slashing damage and weapon attacks each hit only deals 10 slashing damage for a total of 20 damage total and since the first hit only deals 10 damage it isn't enough to take away all of your temporary hit points but the attacking creature still takes 20 Cold damage the second can hit also deals 10 damage which depletes the rest of your temporary hit points while dealing another 20 points of coal damage to the creature netting us a total value of 40 cold damage from the spout therefore to squeeze out as much value of the spell as possible you're going to want to try to use it as a means of slogan of as many small hits as possible and there are some other ways that you can do that usually this spell is only available to warlocks which makes it not as great to use since you want to save those spell slots for better spells most of the time unless you're running a hex blade warlock there's a pretty good chance you're not going to be taking many melee hits unless you get really unlucky fortunately because aravagathis is the first level spell it's easy to obtain for ad class simply by taking a single level in warlock doing so grants you access to two first level Rolex spells including armor of agathis because of the waste broadcasting Works in D d5e you can use the spell with your non-warlock spell slots as well which functions differently than the spell slots other spellcasters normally have using this spell as a hex played warlock or blade singer wizard there is a fun combo you can do with the ab duration wizard class which is probably the best candidate for maximizing the value of armor vagabit a second level AB duration wizard learns a class feature called Arcane Ward which creates a shield around the wizard the first time you cast an aberration spell the first level or higher that day they last until you finish a long rest and he has its own hit points which are considered separate from yours equal to twice your wizard level plus your intelligence modifier whenever you take damage your ward takes the damage instead the ward regains hit points whenever you cast the first level average duration speller higher equal to twice the level of the spell the most important thing to note about this feature is that hit points of the ward has are not considered temporary hit points and take any damage before any other sources of hit points you might possess this effectively creates a secondary buffer for armor of agathis giving it more opportunity to deal damage because even if the ward takes the damage you're still getting hit with 11 levels in Wizard your Arcane War can have a possible maximum of 27 hit points while your armor variousness would Grant you 30 Timber hit points with casting at 6 level which grants yourself a buffer of 57 hit points as a spellcaster the Warlock subclass you'd want to go for is hex blade subclass since it grants you Proficiency in medium armor Shields martial weapons not learning to be more melee oriented during combat at which gives you more chances to get hit by melee attackers at this point it mostly becomes about trying to make yourself the most important Target in the room so you might throw out some debilitating concentration spells in order to bait out attacks having access to the war Caster feat can help since it allows you to have advantages on concentration attacks whenever you take damage top that off with resilience in order to get proficiency and Constitution saving throws and you'll effectively have a pretty well-built Mages tank which does an excellent job at making the most out of a first level spell however all of this is a huge commitment to make this spell a lot better than it actually is in most circumstances while you wouldn't get the benefits of Arcane Ward blade singer Wizards as well aldrich's Knights are also good at making use out of the spell since both are melee focused with a good amount of AC to block attacks meaning that attacks that hit it will almost always come at the cost for your enemies so while there is a lot of value to gain in regards to the Spells damage the fact that you have to have a specific build to get the most out of this spell makes it only take the number three spot on this list even if it is a fun spell to build yourself around and at number 2 we have otolux freezing sphere this is a six level wizard spell which creates a 60 foot radius fear explosion at a point you choose within a range of 300 feet creatures that fellow Constitution same throw against the explosion suffered 10 D6 coal damage only half as much of a successful save this spell also freezes bodies of waters which can make it easier for your party to cross while also trapping creatures in ice if they're swimming on the surface of the water the time the spell goes off in which case they can use their action in order to make a strength check against your spellsave DC in order to break free alternatively you can cast the spell to create a small Globe the size of a slinkstone which can be given to other creatures that doesn't explode the glow can be thrown causing the globe to shatter an impact and explode the same effect as cast in the spell normally you can also use a sling in order to hurl it farther since Throne it only has a range of 40 feet and would use this way you can also set the globe down where it will shatter and explode after one minute which can be very useful for setting a trap that has a huge AOE and speaking of the Spells huge AOE autolux freezing sphere has tripled the radius of Fireball and two times the range it can be cast making this belt very useful for hitting large number of creatures with its massive radius however at the same time the downside of having such a big radius means you must be mindful of friendly creatures so as not to hit them with the blast too if you want to compare the damage of the spelled Fireball Fireball definitely deals more damage if you were to up cast it simply at six level however ultralix freezing sphere has the range advantage that fireball doesn't which can have its uses if you want as much of a map-wide coverage as possible at the end of the day this spell only deals damage on a constitution Save which is generally the worst stat to Target since most creatures at higher levels tend to have high Constitution scores but the fact that the overall range and massive radius is enough to hit so many enemies at once over a very large area along with the added utility of being able to give this to your friends to launch with slings is the reason why this spell sits at number two on this list it's also one of the few spells you can prepare during a time stop ability in order to do the most amount of damage with that spell and at number one we have Rhymes binding ice this is a second level spell which creates a cone with a range of 30 feet that deals 38 cold damage to creatures inside of it and reduces their movement speed to zero unless they succeed a constitution same throw in which case they'd only take camp damage as well as having their movement speed on hindered already this spell does so much when it comes to impairing movement and is probably the best spell for doing so considering it only uses a second level spell slot reducing multiple creature movement speed to zero essentially puts melee based attackers out of commission for one minute however creatures can break away the ice that binds them but it would cost him an action in order to do so forcing enemies to choose between a less effective range option or wasting their entire action Breaking Free from their Frosty prison can help tip the fight in your favor since that is a temporary loss of action economy for your enemies action economy is important since the more things your party can do in a turn the more Advantage you'll have when it comes to winning encounters the biggest downside of the spell is that it targets Constitution which is often the worst at in the game to Target with spells and effects however for such a strong effect this kinda bounces out and can work as an alternative form disruption if you can get more creatures in range than shatter another second level spell also a constitution same throw that deals the same amount of damage it targets as Thunder damage but in a 10 foot radius sphere and with no additional effects being the most efficient way to impair movement to so many creatures while also have messed up their action economy and maintaining respectable damage to boot all as a second level spell is the reason why the spell takes number one spot in this list alright and there you have it the 10 best cold damage spells if you think there's any spells we may have missed or have ideas for future videos similar to this one please let us know down in the comments below [Music]

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Id: O2qQBOvZrBU

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2023