D&D 5E In your opinion, what is the most underrated spell in the PHB and why?

[vandaexpress]

Heat Metal.

Its pretty much an auto-win against anything wearing armor. An extra 2D8 damage per round, and disadv on all attacks.... and no saves...

Yeah, heat metal is pretty dang powerful. The only way I've found to counter it is to basically throw multiple armored enemies at the party at once. But if I ever throw a miniboss at the party that wears metal... yeah he becomes a pushover because of that spell.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Speak with animals has proven very useful for gathering intel.

 

[guachi]

My Ranger loves his Fog Cloud. I'd hug it if I could.

I also love another Ranger who would cast that spell that creates spikes and then the Shield Master Fighter would shove enemies through it. Good times.

 

[DaveDash]

Sunbeam.

Does very good damage over time and once your DC gets high the blindess effect is awesome.
Also it's auto win against undead or anything with sunlight sensitivity - I.e. Awesome in the underdark.

Moonbeam. Awesome in Dungeons. I have a Bard who took this and the damage scales very well. In one recent fight he cast one single Moonbeam at 4th level and that was it for the combat. He did 4d10 damage against two creatures each round, extremely efficient use of resources and great damage add. Also it has the added bonus of acting like a terrain control spell.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Fog Cloud is tremendous. The Great Weapon Master/Sharpshooter neutralizer. Only problem is it makes fights drag on and on.

Eh... only if you fix the RAW rules for visibility first. As written, the only thing it can do is negate advantage, but Sharpshooters do not typically rely in having advantage, only Archery style and maybe Bless. IME.

If fog cloud actually made you harder to hit it would be awesome. But that requires blindsight or tremorsense.

I think Expeditious Retreat and Longstrider are both fantastic. Since I never see anyone else praising them I think they might be underrated (unlike, say, Hypnotic Pattern which is also awesome but is highly-praised by all). When your entire party is 10 to 50 feet faster than all bad guys it transforms your tactical profile.

 

[PnPgamer]

Yeah, heat metal is pretty dang powerful. The only way I've found to counter it is to basically throw multiple armored enemies at the party at once. But if I ever throw a miniboss at the party that wears metal... yeah he becomes a pushover because of that spell.

Or just use a creature that doesnt use weapons and wear armor? Like 80% of the monster manual?

 

[GameOgre]

pinching a loaf?

err around here that doesn't mean stealing bread but something else you indeed might want some privacy doing(#2).

 

[KarinsDad]

Eh... only if you fix the RAW rules for visibility first. As written, the only thing it can do is negate advantage, but Sharpshooters do not typically rely in having advantage, only Archery style and maybe Bless. IME.

It depends on whether your DM automatically allows the NPCs to know which "square" (for those tables using the grid rules) a PC is located in within the Fog Cloud. If the NPCs have to guess, Fog Cloud becomes extremely powerful.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

It depends on whether your DM automatically allows the NPCs to know which "square" (for those tables using the grid rules) a PC is located in within the Fog Cloud. If the NPCs have to guess, Fog Cloud becomes extremely powerful.

Under those rules, drow darkvision and Goggles of Night also become brokenly powerful. They can attack you and you can't even hit them back... YMMV.

 

[TwoSix]

Why would an adventurer need to steal bread? You're not Jean Valjean, you can spare a few coppers.

Just think, a whole tragedy could have been averted if Jean Valjean had learned a few spells. Heck, he could have a built a castle on a fog cloud.