D&D 5E Spells: the Good, the Bad, and the Downright Orcish Grandmother

[KarinsDad]

The round spent casting True Strike is going to seriously reduce the damage the spell gives. You're just making the spell worse. Witch Bolt isn't a good choice up to level 4, at level 5 it's worse than cantrips. Even if you stick it in a 9th level slot and do 9d12/round with it, it's still pretty much meh unless maybe you twinspell it or something. It was really dumb of them to make it take up your concentration, I can't see it getting any use for non-sorcs.

Actually, I think that the problem with the spell is the sentence that says that it no longer works if the foe gets out of range or full cover. I get the whole Emperor Palpatine vibe, but no other concentration spell in the game (TMK) stops working because the target gets out of range or jumps behind a wall.

And trust me. If you rolled as bad as I tend to do on a D20, you would True Strike it as well.

The player of our PC fighter has the same problem. He was in a fight with the half dragon from HotDQ at level 3. The Bard slept the half dragon. Another NPC came over and woke the half dragon up. The half dragon is prone, so advantage. He has advantage and misses. Then, the player decides to use his Action Surge while he still has advantage and still misses. It's so sad at times that it's funny.

At higher level when I do not mind blowing off a lower level spell slot, I'll probably stop using True Strike. But for now, my PC rarely damages foes significantly anyway so the use of the round is actually more helpful than harmful overall. In about 13 combats, my PC wizard has done about 40 points of damage with cantrips. I once did 8 and the entire table erupted. I also once did 6. The third most I've done against a foe is 4 and I usually do 1 or 2. I've never criticaled yet. Not that how I rolled in the past affects how I'll roll in the future, but I need new dice.

 

[SilverfireSage]

Edit wrong person

 

[Chocolategravy]

I'd much rather cast Twin Strike round one and Witch Bolt round two and have a fairly decent shot of hitting than cast Fire Bolt rounds one and two, hitting on one of them, and averaging less damage. In the Witch Bolt case, I've also set up round 3 to autohit.

Even with advantage your damage is still lower after level 4 using a WB than a cantrip. Before level 5 WB is pretty much never as good as Burning Hands or Sleep. True Strike + Witch Bolt is almost always quite a bit worse than Burning Hands + Cantrip or Cantrip + Sleep.

 

[Boarstorm]

Hmm. I just re-read True Strike. It doesn't work how I thought it did. It is significantly worse.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Witch Bolt has a time and a place. Is target engaged in melee? Is your cleric or ranger fond of lockdown spells like Ensnaring Strike and Hold Person? Got a wildshaping druid, tavern brawler, or anyone else who likes to grapple? Witch Bolt. Fire and forget: you can cast other spells while Concentrating (except for other Concentration spells, of course).

So by all means, cast Witch Bolt and then follow up with cantrips every turn. Or longbow shots if you're an elf. All while frying the target for automatic 1d12.

Witch Bolt is a terrible opener, but a terrific mid-fight or finishing spell.

 

[KarinsDad]

Witch Bolt has a time and a place. Is target engaged in melee? Is your cleric or ranger fond of lockdown spells like Ensnaring Strike and Hold Person? Got a wildshaping druid, tavern brawler, or anyone else who likes to grapple? Witch Bolt. Fire and forget: you can cast other spells while Concentrating (except for other Concentration spells, of course).

So by all means, cast Witch Bolt and then follow up with cantrips every turn. Or longbow shots if you're an elf. All while frying the target for automatic 1d12.

Witch Bolt is a terrible opener, but a terrific mid-fight or finishing spell.

Actually, you cannot use your action during Witch Bolt concentration to do anything other than a Witch Bolt attack, IIRC (don't have the book in front of me). So, no Witch Bolt plus Cantrips.

 

[Boarstorm]

You are correct. It takes your action to "maintain" Witchbolt.

 

[Authweight]

After reading this thread, I'm wondering if you guys have thoughts on this possible tweak to Witch Bolt:

For the duration of the spell, you may make a ranged spell attack against a target in range for 1d12 damage. After hitting a target, you can, on the next turn, sustain the damage as an action, doing 1d12 automatic damage to the target. If you do not choose to sustain the damage, or if the target at any point moves out of range of the spell or takes total cover, then you can no longer sustain the damage and must make another spell attack against them if you wish to do damage to them again.

This version is considerably stronger. It does something similar, but allows you to switch targets and re-attack the same target if they move away. It also makes the spell more useful in fights against larger numbers of weaker enemies, since it doesn't end as soon as the target goes down. You can also do other stuff in between attacking with it, at the cost of losing your auto damage.

 

[Thank Dog]

My change to Witch Bolt would be to make the initial strike and all subsequent damage be 2d6 not 1d12. One dice is simply too swingy for such an unreliable (and yes, despite "automatic" damage, it's one of the most unreliable spells in the game) spell. I would also make the range be 120-ft. This still wouldn't make it a great spell due to the concentration requirement, but it would go a long way towards bringing it up to par with other 1st-level spells.

 

[Chocolategravy]

My change to Witch Bolt would be to make the initial strike and all subsequent damage be 2d6 not 1d12. One dice is simply too swingy for such an unreliable (and yes, despite "automatic" damage, it's one of the most unreliable spells in the game) spell. I would also make the range be 120-ft. This still wouldn't make it a great spell due to the concentration requirement, but it would go a long way towards bringing it up to par with other 1st-level spells.

It would be pretty funny if a sorc double critted with it and had to roll 72d6. But for low level use, as Burning Hands is doing 3d6 to multiple targets, doing 2d6 to one target across multiple rounds is pretty gimpy. Most combats aren't even lasting more than 4 rounds and a monster getting focus fired even less.