Top 15 D&D 5e 1st Level Spells | Nerd Immersion

trained another top ten video I was on vacation last week so I didn't have a chance to put out a poll for my patrons to vote on so I decided myself what it's gonna be and it's gonna be my top ten first level spells are you ready to piss off probably the whole internet cuz I know I am because one there is no way that someone's not gonna tell me they don't like what's on this list but two I'm throwing out top ten and I'm giving you a top 15 because they did a top eight and a top nine so let's kind of make up for it a little bit with the top 15 first level spells there's a lot of them there's no way I'm gonna make everybody happy but I'm at least getting that out up front stay tuned I don't have a bit what's going on folks Ted for married immersion here let's talk what the rules are pretty simple gotta be a first level spell first level official spell not including on Arthur comma but that does mean it's gonna cover the entire list of every spell released so that will get the new spells in XANA thar's guy and an elemental evil the new spells from explorers guide to wild mount as well as acquisitions incorporated for the most part oh it's also going to encompass the ones from the loss laboratory of koalas as well not too many from the extended books but enough that it's worth mentioning I realized I don't have cards for anything but one through ten so number 15 detect magic I struggled a lot with putting this on the list because I do recognize that it's an immensely powerful and useful spell but I don't like that it's something that you have to choose I kind of feel like if you look at this list bard cleric sorcerer Ranger paladin wizard artifice er it's on everybody's list except for warlock because we're locking can get an invocation to get it it will but that being said if everyone has an option to take it this is a thing I feel like should almost not be a spell or should be a given to everybody right even if it's everyone has this on their spell list permanently but they can only cast it as a ritual and then they have to choose to take it as a chosen spell to cast it as an action I'd be okay with that and that's actually how I'm leaning in my games if you couldn't cast magic I feel like you should be able to detect it so that's how I that's why I put it at the very bottom of this list but anyway lets you see a magical aura around you concentration for 10 minutes and you can focus in to determine the aura this the type of school of magic and it can be blocked by certain things again oh I also should say this is again my top 10 list so it's probably gonna piss somebody off that I didn't put what they deem is the most powerful as number one number fourteen ice knife I really like this spell my biggest detriment to ice knife is the limited spell list that has access to it which is druid sorcerer and wizard I feel like it's dumb to not included on the warlock spell list but whatever and I put this on the list because it is I think one of the best first level spells out there for damage there are obviously better ones that do certain amounts of damage like chromatic orb does 3d eight Bernie hands does 2d six 3d six in a radius but I like this one because it has multiple damage types and it can do a fair amount of AOE for a first-level spell so it's an action it has a range of 60 feet and you throw out a dagger so I also like it because it is an attacking spell there are very spells that use attack roles in fifth edition this is one you pick a target you attack that target which does mean that this has the opportunity to crit as you throw this as a range spell attack so if you have anything that alters range spell attacks that applies here it does a d-10 a piercing damage so if you crit it would do to d-10 piercing damage and then hit or miss it then explodes and that target in each creature within five feet of them makes a dexterity saving throw or they take to d6 cold damage something that I'm realizing just now as I'm reading this is they don't take half on a success I missed that part about ice knife and I've been running it the wrong way for almost five years and I'm realizing that as I'm making this video so I might know how to put it as high on this list because you don't take half damage if you succeed but that could hit what is it up to eight additional people plus the initial target with the explosion and cold damage is relatively it's not it's not like it's fire damage which is very hit or poison very heavily resisted and you can't up cast it to add an additional d6 to the the damage of the explosion I wish it kind of added damage to the piercing damage up front as well or maybe if it was two d6 for each level above first by the way I also just really like ice knife as a spell I think it has a cool image in my mind but especially considering we had flame blade an ice knife for now shadow blade I think we could again as I've stated before have other cool elemental blade spells which is something I'd like to see added later on maybe this year at fifth Division number 13 guiding bolt it is once again another one that is limited by the spell list but that is only really available to cleric it has options for again Oh Thoth glory and celestial warlock can gain access to this but it is just a really good spell I feel like it loses something when you start up casting it but as a first level spell it's pretty powerful so one it has a range of 120 feet which is nice it's a pretty long distance it is one of the very few again attacking spells in the game one of the very few attacking spells at a cleric as access to and then it does for d6 damage for a first-level spell again compared to other spells like a chromatic orb dealing 3d8 this does on average close to that it can crit because it's an attacking role and it has a really nice benefit if you hit the next attack role made against that target before the end of your next term has advantage thanks to the mystical light gathering around the target so this can be very useful if are fishing for crits this can be useful to give a rogue sneak attack if they didn't have it previously and again it's just it's radiant damage too which is again if not the most it's right up there with I think force damage for the least amount of creatures are resistant I know Celestials are typically immune but again very powerful and I have very fond memories of actually getting this on a multi-class bard cleric and at third level casting a guiding bolt and critic and blowing the dm's mind that I did eight d6 damage with a first level spell at level three like you just blew their mind and again I have very fond memories of that which is why I made sure to put it on the list because again single target fireball level damage that if you crit obviously can't be dodged I'm a big fan of number 12 dissonant whispers once again I return to that bard character that I mentioned from before this was another very powerful spell and one of the first characters I got to play in fifth edition had access to some bard spells and then later on I actually got to play a bard and this was kind of a really good powerful go-to move for me because it is a 60 foot range and it's psychic damage which is pretty cool you whisper something to a creature rack their brain with pain and what's nice is they don't need to understand a language for this to work if they're deafened it doesn't work but it's not like other spells where you're whispering or using things like suggestion or command where they need to be able to understand a language this if they fail it does 3d6 psychic damage and they must immediately use their reaction if possible to move as far away from you as they are able to it doesn't obviously dangerous growling it doesn't jump into a pit or a fire and then again unlike ice knife like I've learned now on a successful save the tourney takes half damage and doesn't move away you can also be up cast to add to the D sixes but in my mind what makes it so powerful is the reaction to move away because that will prompt opportunity attacks so that is very powerful because of the first time that I use this again I had a party of very heavy melee fighters and I cast dissonant whispers on a guy that was fighting me she had to not only run away from me but actually call most run a gauntlet through the rest of my teammates therefore everybody getting attacks on them and decimating this fellow before he managed to get to his movement speed away number 11 Jim's magic missle I've only actually got to cast this on one character in all of my games and I very much enjoyed it though it didn't do what I had hoped this was added in the acquisitions Incorporated book and it's very much what that is Jim's magic missile if you're familiar with acquisitions incorporated you're familiar with Jim dark magic and I'll explain my thoughts on it in a second here so first level one action spell out to a hundred and twenty feet we all know how a regular magic missile is done but this says any apprentice wizard cast a boring old magic missile sure it always strikes its target yon do away with the drudgery of your grandfather's magic with this improved version as used by Jim dark magic you create three twisting whistling hypoallergenic gluten free darts of magical force each dart targets a creature of your choice that you can see within range again 120 feet make a range spell attack for each missile again one of the very few abilities that let you cast mulligan using an attack role on a hit a missile deals to d4 damage to that target so I've better than a base magic missile if the attack ball scores a critical hit the target of the missile takes 5 d4 force damage instead of you rolling twice so instead of rolling twice to get to d4 244 you roll a total of 5 d4 for a critical hit if the attack role of any missile is a 1 all missiles missed their target and blow up in your face dealing one force damage to you per missile so if you crit fail it is blow up in your face when you cast a spell using a spell a second level or higher it creates one more Dart and the royalty component increases by one GP for each slot of a first level so this is an interesting concept that I like for the acquisition incorporate the world it is a royalty component because you are using gems named magic missiles so you must pay one gold piece in a royalty for using gems name and if you casted for higher slots it's an additional gold piece per use so that's the only real detriment to this spell is potentially early on it might be very costly for you to use this spell because it's gonna blow through your gold pieces but overall I like it again as I've stated many times on the channel I like attack roll spells better than I like saving saving throw based spells because I feel like if I fail with an attack roll spell that's on me whereas the saving throw DC I don't have any control on that that's up to the DM if I fail an attacker I feel like again that's me and my dice failing plus there are other things it's an attack roll so there are other abilities that could improve it like a Barnes inspiration or advantage could come into play things like that and again I just like the idea of doing this and I guess it's each dart make a range attack Merle for each missile so what's interesting is if any attack roll for a missile is a 1 all of them missed their target and blow up in your face so that would be really interesting if you hit for the first two and miss for the third one then they all blow up in your face even though you start off striking simultaneously so that's how that works number ten I really like armor of Agathis I haven't played an oath of conquest paladin so I don't really know how well it works on them but I feel like they have the benefit of you know still being a paladin heavy armor all that good stuff so this lasts for an hour non concentration which is nice and it gives you five temporary hit points for the duration of that hour if a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have those hit points they take five cold damage if you cast it from a higher level slot the temporary hit points go up by five as does the damage so the benefit here for you is to find ways to reduce the damage so you maintain those temporary hit points as long as you can so each time you're hit which I want to point out that if you have ten temporary hit points and somebody hits you for one point of damage they take ten cold damage if somebody hits you for another two that person still takes ten cold damage so if you can find a way to extend how long you keep those temporary hit points that's good whether it be through reducing the damage with other means or whatever you can do to maintain those temporary hit points again I have not had a chance to do it I guess fake really I like this I like ice life maybe I'm really designed I really want to play a really good cold themed character and I've yet to be able to do that so maybe that's something I'll look forward to in the future number nine Miller with sleep it last for a minute non concentration it's a range of 90 feet and you pick a spot within that range and then in a twenty-foot creatures within 20 feet of that point that you choose are affected and increasing hit point order starting creature starting with the creature that is the lowest hit point each creature is affected by it falls unconscious you roll 5 d8 and that's the number of hit points you can affect so minimum of 5 maximum of 40 and then that counts down from there so if one person has 5 hit points you've got 35 left and you go through there one thing I continually forget that makes sleep even better is its creatures within 20 feet of a point you choose within range are I think that means that it's the crit hit points of the creatures you pick if I'm understanding that correctly the undead creatures immune to being charmed aren't affected by this spell it also hasn't worked on elves or half elves because they are immune to magical sleep creatures within 20 point 20 feet of a point you choose within range are affected in ascending order no so if I'm reading that correctly it's just someone told me that you choose the creatures starting with the creature that has the lowest current hit points each creature affected by this buff falls unconscious and then it takes either they take damage or someone uses their action to wake them up yeah so that's how that works so I don't I don't think you get to choose the creatures affected by this that somehow I read it is how many creatures this spell can affect creatures within 20 feet of a point you choose within range of a point you choose within range yeah so I don't someone told me that you only you get to pick the creatures that are affected by sleep I don't read it that way let me know your thoughts in the comments down below anyway the reason I put this on this list is I just ran over the weekend while on vacation a couple of nights I ran a family game of D&D and they are level 4 and my OVA was a bard and he ended three fights without them ever starting with sleep he would they were fighting goblins hobgoblins and so on and three of those fights he used sleep and shut the entire fight down by knocking the entire group of enemies out and the party summarily destroyed them again it's useful when creatures have low hitpoints when you get to higher level it's not as useful another benefit of it is when you up cast that you add to dat so at second level sleep is 78 instead of 5 and so on and so forth rather than only going up by a single d8 like most other spells with number 8 smite spells in my opinion that paladin's get access to that's actually pretty useful and kind of maintains its usefulness throughout the entirety as a paladin even if you're higher level this can still be useful the only downside is fear is relatively there's a bunch of creatures that are immune to fear but if not this can be pretty powerful so it is a smite spell it's accessible by paladins and hex blades is a bonus action to cast concentration for a minute and when you hit with a melee attack during the spells duration your attack deals an extra 1 d6 psychic damage additionally if the target is a creature it must make so it can work against objects by that means if it's a creature they must make a wisdom saving throw or be frightened till the spell ends so if I hit somebody with this and they are able to be frightened they must make it wisdom saving throw when I first strike them and then if they failed they are continued to be frightened of me until the end of the spell it doesn't like at the end of their turn they don't get to make a save they have to choose to use an action to try and make it but it's then it is a wisdom check not a saving throw so if they are proficient and wisdom saves the proficiency doesn't matter is just a straight wisdom check so you can a their wisdom modifier plus a d20 role to see if they can steal their reserve resolve and end the spell so it is psychic damage again limited resistance is on that and then they are frightened of you until the spell ends which is concentration for a minute which means you're gonna have attack roles they're gonna have disadvantage on attackers against you so they may not be able to end it and then again as an action they have to they can use their whole action to try to break it but then only making a check it's very rare that spells out they're requiring check to overcome which this is one of the few examples of that which is why I think that again if a creature isn't immune to fear this can be useful all the way up towards the end of the campaign this in a thunder smite but I put wrath will smite because I like the the fear effect on it which again super-powerful at low levels number 7 alongside detect magic for usefulness I'll also say is identify it is a one-minute casting time normally which is kind of a bummer because you can't do it in combat but it is a ritual so that benefits you being able to take 11 minutes to cast that outside of combat the other downside is it does require a pearl worth a hundred gold pieces to be able to use it but that is not consumed so once you have that pearl you can use this spell consistently and then you touch an object and basically you learn its properties how to use them whether it requires a 2 min to use and how many charges it has if any this is when you don't think you have enough time to take a short rest to identify an item this will allow you to do it in either a minute or 11 minutes depending on the time frame the reason I say so more often than not people will say if you have 10 minutes you have an hour well the only upside to this is for each time when you go to identify an item over a short rest it is a whole short rest to identify a singular item and then they hold another short rest after that to attune to it whereas if you have multiple items so you have three or five items you could take less than a singular short rest to identify all of them and then only people who want to attune to it will need the shortest after that limiting the time if you touch a creature as well you can learn what spells of any are currently affecting them this can be a benefit for if you have someone captured and you want to know if they have any defensive magics you can touch them and say okay this person has you know glibness don't trust them they can lie we'll never know or if you have an ally here you're not sure is acting funky you could touch them be like oh hang on this are allies under the effects of the suggestion spell maybe we can dispel it and then move on and also says you get to learn if the atom was created by a spell you to learn which spell created it I don't know if that'll be too useful but I'm sure it has potential uses and someone has an example of when that happened again identified very useful I wish it was I feel like because it's so limited in its bard wizard and artifice er as well as a couple of the the clerics who get access to it are better because it's it's always prepared for them and they can use that as a ritual to cast it for wizards that's the same kind of a thing but for bards it's kind of a bummer because you have to choose it as a spell known even though you can cast it as a ritual and I don't remember artifice there off the top of my head but that's an option as well again Scrolls have identified would be a thing kind of similar to what you see in a bunch of video games but again I like identify number six yelling word as far as healing spells go I think this is one of the best ones obviously another good contender would be good berry because for a first-level casting you can get a maximum or a guaranteed ten hit points healed with a good berry plus the out of combat uses but I like healing word because it's one of the most useful bonus action spells out there because as a bonus action out to a range of 60 feet you can heal somebody for ad4 plus your spell casting ability modifier obviously doesn't work on undead or constructs and each additional casting above it adds a d4 this is your quintessential we're in combat things are rough I still need to be attacking and doing damage but I also want to get you back up off the ground let me use a bonus action real quick to pop you up again another huge contender for boomeranging whets where someone goes down to zero hit points pops back up goes down to zero that's a whole other issue that I've discussed in other aspects on the channel but it's a great use of a spell bard cleric and druid have access to this so this is the classes that typically have access to healing I would love to see this on a paladin as well also I feel like an artifice there's only on the alchemist I feel like a general artifice so this could be useful but again I would give it to paladin and and Ranger as well since they have access to healing magics I don't know why they wouldn't have access to this particular spell but so it is uh yeah I really like it it's useful it also is nice that they don't have to be conscious to hear your healing order to bring them up whatever the hit points you roll number five heading back to Elemental Evil or Zenith our sky would be absorbed elements one of the very powerful reaction based spells that's out there so it is a reaction and the reaction is when you take acid called fire lightning or thunder damage and what this does is it's going to give you resistance to that damage aka whatever that damage would be you cut in half until the start of your next turn so this can actually be useful because it can apply to multiple effects if there are multiple creatures dealing damage to you but let's see it's you have resistance to the triggering damage type so if you get hit with acid and cast this and then you hit with fire doesn't work for you but you also at the first time you hit with a melee attack on your next turn you deal a d6 of the triggering type of damage than the spell ends so again for that example if you get hit with acid damage and you use this to reduce it by half when you attack fun for the first time on your next turn you'll deal an extra d6 of acid damage you can choose to up cast this increasing the D sixes of the significant damage I'll be honest with you I'd say once in my entire time of having access to the spell across all creatures was I actually able to utilize this because more often than not when someone deals the damage type to you if it's a monster they're also immune to right if a red dragon breathes fire on you and you use absorb elements to cut that damage in half well you're not dealing in fire damage back to the red dragon because they're immune it is also usable by the druid Ranger sorcerer wizard and artifice server once again I feel like this could be something that you could add to the warlock spell list and it wouldn't be a bad idea again you know I don't know why this is limited to what it is and why I say druids have it but clerics don't or why bards don't have it but I do think warlock is that it seems like an oversight to not have this on the warlock list number four most powerful buff spells out there is blessed this is an action concentration for a minute that lasts it goes out onto three different creatures of your choice which is nice in a range of 30 feet they also don't need to stay within 30 feet of you to maintain that benefit and this adds ad 4 to any attack role or saving 0 they make as long as you are concentrating on it for each additional level you cast it up it adds one additional creature to it and that's pretty powerful because there's not a ton of ways to boost saving throws you can get resistance through absorb elements like I just talked about but this can also reduce or increase your ability to receive that so if you combine saving on a successfully saving on a elemental damage based spell then that cuts the damage in half if it's half on a success and then if you have resistance from absorb elements that will also cut it in half again so if less is very powerful I think it's better to be cast by a cleric than a paladin because they have access to more spell slots but it is usable by paladin as well I also feel like you could put this on a druid too and I wouldn't think it's too weird I know they're trying to go for the divine thing but I feel like in my mind it could work for certain artificers as well as for for druids but I don't know let me know your thoughts number 3 well if you need to attack the darkness there's only one spell to do that and that is good old magic missle this spell is invaluable in most scenarios because it is an action out to 120 feet and then unerringly hits it does one d4 plus one force damage to a target the darts all strike simultaneously and you can direct them to hit one creature or several and what's interesting is you only which I've learned from a ton of people yelling at me on YouTube that you only make one die roll so dart deals 1 D 4 plus 1 points 1/4 damage and basically you make one roll you roll a d4 you add +1 to it so if you roll a 4 it's 5 and then it just hits 3 creatures simultaneously it's only one roll you don't roll the d4 plus 1 a d4 + 1 + 2 d 4 + 1 if just one singular roll which is important because certain things boost magic missle our certain things can boost the damage that you deal and that would apply to all of them for example an e vocation wizard as their intelligence modifier to any eve occasion spell damage they do well that would add it to this which would be applied to all missiles also the benefit is for each second level or higher spell you use you add one missile to it so it's just adding to the damage and this is pretty much consistent damage as you can bank on one thing to consider it only allows you to target creatures it does not allow you to target objects which may or may not be useful to you and it is usable by the sorcerer wizard and then Arcana domain cleric which is nice to have this on a cleric again why is it not on the artifice er I feel like it fits there I also feel like it could fit on the warlock because if you're gonna kind of go with this idea of arcane casters why do they keep leaving Warlock out I don't know let me know your thoughts as well and again obviously you can stack up crazy amounts of damage if you build the right build which maybe if I make a build video on like the most magic missle damage which I think has been done by a ton of other creators but why not number 2 shield if you are a wizard this is your best friend but if you happen to be one of the other classes that has access to it you know how useful and how powerful a +5 to your AC is it's a reaction when you are hit by a target or the magic missle spell or attack or targeted by magic missle it makes you flat-out immune to magic missle which is nice because as we said it pretty much hits unerringly and this is one of the few ways to turn a guaranteed attack into a Miss still doesn't do anything against critical hits though sorcerer wizard again feel like you could be fit to the Warlock as well it obviously can be for hex blade warlocks artillerist artificers and battle smith artifices it's interesting that two of them both get access to it again if you have access to shield and you can get it whether you're an elder tonight or maybe as an arcane trickster this will be extremely beneficial to boost your AC to even higher levels again if you have a shield you can get access to it there's really no reason not to number one surprising no one find familiar is number one it's one of the most useful and versatile spells out there because it just lets you do so much having another figure on the battlefield that is within your control that can do a variety of different things as a bunch of different forms the go-to is owl for its ability to fly in do what it needs to do and fly away without provoking attacks of opportunity you can see through its eyes and having access to possibly dark vision in other senses you wouldn't normally have access to it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn everyone I know roles that they go at the same turn just because it's that much easier it can't attack but it can do other actions the primary one people use more often than not is help so it can provide advantage I'm an attack role this is very useful for if you're a class that does attacks you can have this thing fly in grant you advantage and then you attack with advantage and if it's an owl it can then fly away not provoking attacks of opportunity it can also be something that maybe you leave in so that it can take an attack so the DM wastes the whole attack action or a whole action or Oh a singular attack just trying to kill off your one HP creature which saves you from taking that attack as well again you can communicate telepathically it's great for recon purposes you can dismiss it into its other plane and then bring it back to you if it's far away that's an option you have and another really powerful option is you can deliver touch spells through it as if you would cast it from there so if it's within a hundred feet you can use it can use its reaction to deliver a touch spell when you cast it again the benefit of that is if you happen to have access to this on another class that can heal like say someone like a wizard somebody has you can turn something like a cure wounds into a ranged spell by having this fly out there so that is my top 15 of first level spells there's obviously a ton of contenders that could have been put on this list I'm sure you all tell me them in the comments down below I really enjoyed doing this I love spell casting I love spell casters and I like mixing and matching different spell builds maybe I'll come up with an interesting concept for that ice themed character who knows let me know your top ten or even your top 15 first level spells in the comments down below and I would like to think by patrons as well on patreon for continuing to support the channel there's been in love a nice increase in those as well so more fun stuff can come to you on the channel and maybe I can do things to increase my camera quality even further sounds like the audio is better and I think the camera looks better but also let me know your thoughts on that in the comments down below thank you all so much for watching and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Nerd Immersion

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Keywords: Nerd Immersion, top 10, top 10 D&D, top 10 D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons top 10, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragon top 10, nerd immersion top 10, Top 10 D&D spells, top 10 D&D 5e spells, top 10 list, D&D 5e top 10 list, 1st level spells, Top 10 D&D 5e level 1 spells, Top 10 D&D 5e 1st level spells, D&D 5e 1st level spells, D&D 5e best level 1 spells, D&D 5e best 1st level spells, Top 10 level 1 spells D&D 5e, top 10 1st level spells D&D 5e

Id: YyFItoOV8NA

Length: 31min 25sec (1885 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 15 2020