D&D 5E Help: Essential Spell List

[Antonlowe]

Hello Enworld! I am working on my homebrew rules and I wanted to ask for some help.
Currently I have only one spell casting class. I wanted to make a universal/essential spell list for this class. Basically any spell from this list will be available to all spell casters. Other spells exist, but they require work by the player to gain access to. So now I am coming up with a list and need suggestions to fill it out.
Spell Selection Criteria:
I tried to limit the list to 3 X the number of spell slots of a given level the caster will have (this is not a hard limit).
Each spell must be Iconic.
Each spell level should have a mix of offensive, defensive and utility spells.
There should be the right mix of spells to make a ‘vanilla’ caster, without access to other spells, viable and fun to play.
So what are the spell that YOU feel are essential to casters in DnD

 

[Antonlowe]

Cantrips
1 Light
2 Mending
3 Prestidigitation
4 Resistance
5 Message
6 Fire Bolt
7
8
9
10
11
12
1st level Spells
1 Magic Missile
2 Protection from Evil and Good
3 Identify
4 Fog Cloud
5 Mage Armor
6 Detect Magic
7 Comprehend Languages
8 Charm Person
9 Burning Hands
10 Cure Wounds
11
12
2nd Level Spells
1 Augury
2 Locate Object
3 Hold Person
4 Detect Thoughts
5 Dark Vision
6 Enhance Ability
7 Rope Trick
8 See Invisibility
9 Invisibility
3rd Level spells
1
2
3 Counter Spell
4 Dispel Magic
5 Haste
6 Fireball
7 Remove Curse
8 Sending
9 Water Breathing
4th Level Spels
1 Fabricate
2 Dimensional Door
3
4 Conjure Minor Elemental
5
6
7
8
9
5th Level Spells
1
2
3
4 Conjure Elemental
5 Cloud Kill
6 Planar Binding
7 Scrying
8 Telekenisis
9 Wall of Stone
6th Level Spells
1 Chain Lightning
2 Disintegrate
3 Globe of Invulnerability
4
5
6
7th Level Spells
1 Teleport
2 Finger of Death
3 Plane Shift
4
5
6
8th Level Spells
1 Anti Magic Field
2 Control Weather
3 Maze
9th Level Spells
1 Wish
2 Meteor Swarm
3 Gate

 

[Jester David]

I'd go with the spells in the Basic Rules. They tend to be the most useful and iconic ones in the game.
More or less...

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Your list is a good start. Some suggestions:

-Greater Restoration: a lot of effects in the game specifically call out this spell as one of the few ways to reverse them. Reversing bad stuff is a pretty important thing to have around. You also might want to consider it's little brother Lesser Restoration

-Animate Dead: the iconic spell of an entire school of magic.

-Raise Dead: Bringing dudes back to life is an iconic cleric thing.

-Polymorph: I turn you into a toad. How many fairy tales is this in?

-Entagle: I'd argue this is one of the most iconic druid spells.

 

[steeldragons]

Intriguing, and ambitious, idea. This would be difficult given the many different "Flavors" of magic used as a conceit for a D&D style fantasy rpg.

But having been through the headachey hell of formulated my own individual spell lists for my own homebrew...I was asking many of these same questions: "what's iconic? what spell level should this be? Is this a cross-class spell[i.e. should it appear on multiple classes' lists?" etc...

So, I'll give it a shot. Names of these things can be altered to whatever non-class related flavor you want.

Cantrips: Honestly, you could just do a singular "spell" called Cantrip...with the parameters of the ability being allowed to all spellcasting characters, any little/minor spell/flavor effect the player wants to do, anything that could have an offensive application can not cause more than d3 damage or have an effect that last more than a single round.

1st level.
Bless: iconic Cleric spell but something that would be useful for any caster: offer a bonus to attack rolls, skill/ability rolls, or saves.
Cure Wounds: iconic cleric but something that would be useful for any caster: Minor healing.
Detect Magic: given.
Light: given.
Magic Missile: the iconic arcane offense. Fluff it however you want to give the appropriate flavor to your character. multi colored darts/shards of [defined] energy that always hits and deals "force" damage.
Protection from Evil/Good - Sanctuary combo: generate a protective circle/field to keep undead and extraplanar creatures (of any alignment) at bay/unable to attack those inside it.
Resistance: resist elemental [fire, cold, lightning, other energy types if you wish/define such things, etc...] damage.
Shield: iconic Arcane spell, but a magical force-field to defend from incoming attack seems fairly universally useful.

2nd level.
Augury: iconic ability of magic-users for as long as there has been magic-users and any kind of divination/religion.
Detect Thoughts: handy iconic divinatory ability, the enigmatic magic guy reading your mind.
Gust of Wind: elemental control, also classicand iconic magical ability across flavors and cultures.
Hold Person: non-damaging offense. useful to any caster.
Levitate: iconic arcane spell, but also iconic magical ability in much literature and myth. Use it offensively, defensively, or for utility. A highly underrated and under-utilized spell from the game.
Magic Weapon/Flame Blade/Smite: cross-class option, make an existing mundane weapon able to strike magical creatures/do additional magical damage. Useful for any caster.
Mirror Image: defensive illusion and classic/iconic magical ability from D&D to Conan to the Voltron cartoon
Spiritual Weapon: Your second level magical energy spell attack that isn't just fire and forget. You need to direct it but can use it to attack multiple targets over multiple rounds.

3rd level.
Cure Affliction: take care of that disease, that blindness, that poison, whatever isn't just HP damage.
Dispel Magic: given. every caster's best friend and most mortal enemy.
Fireball: given.
Fly: classic magical ability.
Lightning Bolt/Call Lightning: given. Does it really matter if its coming down from the sky or flying out of your hands? Hint: No, it doesn't.
Protection from X: a 3rd spell level/beefed up Resistance for either more defense [if not immunity for the spell duration] against a given energy type.
Remove Curse: for all of those fun magical things a dispel magic or cure spell just can't fix.
Speak with Dead: iconic cleric, but traditional witchy/wizardy thing, and literally the definition/original meaning of "necromancy."

4th level.
Control Animals: given classic magical ability for any spellcaster.
Control Water: elemental control.
Cure Worse Wounds: beefed up 1st level Cure spell.
Dimension Door: your first chance to teleport yourself and others, ubiquitous magic-guy stuff.
Freedom of Movement: iconic clerical 4th level spell, but honestly, what caster wouldn't want to benefit from this ability?
Invisibility: make it usable individuals or as a group/area effect. Invisibility is a massively powerful ability granted, imho, far too early in traditional D&D.
Polymorph: turn yourself or others into something else.
Scrying: classic magical ability for wizards, priests, witches, and druids

that should give you a good jumping off point/direction I would be going. How you want higher level magics to work in your game is up to you.

 

[Antonlowe]

Intriguing, and ambitious, idea. This would be difficult given the many different "Flavors" of magic used as a conceit for a D&D style fantasy rpg.

But having been through the headachey hell of formulated my own individual spell lists for my own homebrew...I was asking many of these same questions: "what's iconic? what spell level should this be? Is this a cross-class spell[i.e. should it appear on multiple classes' lists?" etc...

So, I'll give it a shot. Names of these things can be altered to whatever non-class related flavor you want.

Cantrips: Honestly, you could just do a singular "spell" called Cantrip...with the parameters of the ability being allowed to all spellcasting characters, any little/minor spell/flavor effect the player wants to do, anything that could have an offensive application can cause more than d3 damage or have an effect that last more than a single round.

1st level.
Bless: iconic Cleric spell but something that would be useful for any caster: offer a bonus to attack rolls, skill/ability rolls, or saves.
Cure Wounds: iconic cleric but something that would be useful for any caster: Minor healing.
Detect Magic: given.
Light: given.
Magic Missile: the iconic arcane offense. Fluff it however you want to give the appropriate flavor to your character. multi colored darts/shards of [defined] energy that always hits and deals "force" damage.
Protection from Evil/Good - Sanctuary combo: generate a protective circle/field to keep undead and extraplanar creatures (of any alignment) at bay/unable to attack those inside it.
Resistance: resist elemental [fire, cold, lightning, other energy types if you wish/define such things, etc...] damage.
Shield: iconic Arcane spell, but a magical force-field to defend from incoming attack seems fairly universally useful.

2nd level.
Augury: iconic ability of magic-users for as long as there has been magic-users and any kind of divination/religion.
Detect Thoughts: handy iconic divinatory ability, the enigmatic magic guy reading your mind.
Gust of Wind: elemental control, also classicand iconic magical ability across flavors and cultures.
Hold Person: non-damaging offense. useful to any caster.
Levitate: iconic arcane spell, but also iconic magical ability in much literature and myth. Use it offensively, defensively, or for utility. A highly underrated and under-utilized spell from the game.
Magic Weapon/Flame Blade/Smite: cross-class option, make an existing mundane weapon able to strike magical creatures/do additional magical damage. Useful for any caster.
Mirror Image: defensive illusion and classic/iconic magical ability from D&D to Conan to the Voltron cartoon
Spiritual Weapon: Your second level magical energy spell attack that isn't just fire and forget. You need to direct it but can use it to attack multiple targets over multiple rounds.

3rd level.
Cure Affliction: take care of that disease, that blindness, that poison, whatever isn't just HP damage.
Dispel Magic: given. every caster's best friend and most mortal enemy.
Fireball: given.
Fly: classic magical ability.
Lightning Bolt/Call Lightning: given. Does it really matter if its coming down from the sky or flying out of your hands? Hint: No, it doesn't.
Protection from X: a 3rd spell level/beefed up Resistance for either more defense [if not immunity for the spell duration] against a given energy type.
Remove Curse: for all of those fun magical things a dispel magic or cure spell just can't fix.
Speak with Dead: iconic cleric, but traditional witchy/wizardy thing, and literally the definition/original meaning of "necromancy."

4th level.
Control Animals: given classic magical ability for any spellcaster.
Control Water: elemental control.
Cure Worse Wounds: beefed up 1st level Cure spell.
Dimension Door: your first chance to teleport yourself and others, ubiquitous magic-guy stuff.
Freedom of Movement: iconic clerical 4th level spell, but honestly, what caster wouldn't want to benefit from this ability?
Invisibility: make it usable individuals or as a group/area effect. Invisibility is a massively powerful ability granted, imho, far too early in traditional D&D.
Polymorph: turn yourself or others into something else.
Scrying: classic magical ability for wizards, priests, witches, and druids

that should give you a good jumping off point/direction I would be going. How you want higher level magics to work in your game is up to you.

Thanks for the reply steeldragon. That's a well thought out list. It got me thinking.... I decided I want some of the iconic spells for each class to require work to get. But at the same time I need the game playable.

 

[Antonlowe]

This is where my spell list is currently at.

0th Level Common Spells
Chill Touch, Distracting Illusion, Firebolt, Guidance, Icebolt, Light, Mage Hand, Magic Weapon, Message, Presto!, Protection, Sparkbolt

1st Level Common Spells
Burning Hands, Charm Person, Chromatic Orb, Create Food and Water, Cure Wounds, Detect Evil and Good, Detect Magic, Detect Potions and Disease, Identify, Inflict Wounds, Linguistics, Mage Armor, Shield, Silent Image

2^nd Level Common Spells
Darkvision, Animate Weapon, Augury, Darkness, Disguise, Enhance Ability, Hold Person, Invisibility, Lesser Restoration, Misty Step, Ray of Enfeeblement, Resist Energy, Resistance, Rope Trick, Zone of Truth

3^rd Level Spells
Adaptation, Animate Dead, Curse, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Flameblade, Fly, Major Image, Sending, Suggestion

4^th Level Common Spells
Remove Curse, Banishment, Death Ray, Confusion, Conjure Minor Elementals, Polymorph, Wall of Fire, Black Tentacles, Locate, Stone skin, Phantasimal Killer

5^th Level Common Spells
Raise Dead