D&D 5E What is the most powerful spell?

[Lanefan]

Yeah. "Water Breathing is kinda useless but every now and then becomes absolutely essential."

That is exactly the reason I feel Water Breathing needs to be a 1st-level spell.

I'd disagree with that, in that it'd (IMO) cheapen it a bit too much.

It has happened more than once. An aquatic campaign started at level 1. So, implausibly, every character in the party started with a magic item that allowed water breathing.

Sorry to say, but the mistake there is having the aquatic element of the campaign become so important at such a low level.

More interesting, perhaps, might have been that they start with maybe only one water-breathe item and (if they do well) find one or two more along the way...but not enough for everyone to have one, so they have to share/allocate resources and "ferry" people from place to place. I'm ignoring entirely-underwater campaigns as for these the PCs should more reasonably be marine creatures (e.g. merfolk) to start with.

The spell is little more than an entrance into a setting, and has no other powerful application. This setting is appropriate for low levels. The spell should be 1st-level.

I don't so much see it as an entrance to a setting as a path around an obstacle.

Later, it might be worthwhile to split the Less Useful spells into "Situationally Effective" versus "Less Effective"

Yep. This category could also take in Revivify and similar.

Lan-"and if someone ever casts "beer-breathing" on you you know you're in for a long night"-efan

 

[Yaarel]

Even now there is a thread trying to figure out how to make a low level aquatic setting work.

Water Breathing needs to be spell-level 1.

Moreover, many races get waterbreathing for free at level one, like Aquatic Elf, Aquatic Half-Elf, Triton, and so on. Noone suspects these races to be overpowered. At level 1, the spell proves to be nondisruptive.

 

[Yaarel]

So, I am looking at 5th-level spells.

Planar Binding is strange. Are there any clarifications for this spell?

It has the following spell description. "(Typically, the creature is first summoned into the center of an inverted magic circle in order to keep it trapped while this spell is cast.)"

I assume, Planar Binding cannot do these things, and it is in fact a Least Useful spell because its excessive casting time of 1 hour (!), makes most situations least likely to bind a hostile planar creature.

Note, that Magic Circle itself has a casting time of 1 minute, so it too cannot be used in combat to defend against a planar creature.

 

[Yaarel]

The Dream spell has use, even sometimes broken. It is essentially an assassination spell or revenge spell, and its requirement is that the target is someone that you ‘know’. But if you do know the target (or maybe if the optional messenger knows the target, that counts as the target becoming known to you?), then the spell denies the target the ability to heal or gain hitdice from a long rest, and meanwhile the target suffers 3d8 damage − night after night − as the nonhealing target dwindles in hit points. Now the ubiquity of healing spells and potions and so on, usually prevents Dream from becoming broken or even useful. But the thing is, the range of the spell is Unlimited. Anywhere in the same plane. So it is difficult for the target to prevent you from inflicting damage from a safe distance or with some setup, from an unknowable location. Heh, the spell only takes a minute to cast, and this context it is an easy routine to fit into the casters schedule.

 

[Yaarel]

5e Charm is less powerful. The target regards you as a friend. The amount of influence you gain is arbitrary. The target might not feel like doing what you want the target to do, despite everyone being friends.

(D&D probably needs a kind of ‘social combat’ system, where instead of dealing damage, you are increasing stress to pressure the friendly target to do what you want. And vice versa.)

The Geas seems to let you Charm a target, and then inflict damage, if the target would rather not do something for you. But the target still seems to regard you as a friend, despite this damage, so it is unclear how the damage incentivizes the target to do what you want.

At 1st level, Charm Person is Less Useful because the influence is limited and afterward the target knows you attempted to charm. At 5th level, Geas maybe similarly Less Useful, because of limited influence despite the damage.

Geas seems to be the 5e version of ‘Charm Monster’.

So it is the expansion of targets possible that makes the spell more valuable than Charm Person. However, Geas takes a minute to cast, preventing its use in combat. This unfortunate casting time makes an already Less Useful spell approach Least Useful.



Perhaps, the way a player would like this spell to work is, the target of the Geas become a bodyguard. However, even if there is only some ‘element of personal risk’ to the target, it requires a successful Charisma check. Becoming a bodyguard for a deadly adventure, typically involves extreme personal risk, making the Charisma check more difficult or even impossible.

 

[snickersnax]

Since when is it possible to invert a Magic Circle − so the planar creature cant *escape* rather than cant ‘enter’? The Magic Circle spell description says nothing like this.

I/QUOTE]

When you cast this spell, you can elect to cause its
magic to operate in the reverse direction, preventing a
creature o f the specified type from leaving the cylinder
and protecting targets outside it. PHB p257

 

[Yaarel]

I guess, Telekinesis is Not Bad, albeit its Strength save hurts because the creatures one would normally want to physically restrain are the ones that deal ‘physical’ melee damage and tend to have high Strength, especially ‘Huge’ ones.

My main frustration with the spell is, I want Telekinesis at level 1, while the amount of weight increases while using higher spell slots.

Something like. 1st-level: 100 pounds. 2nd-level: 300 pounds. 3rd-level: 1000 pounds. 4th-level: 3000 pounds. 5th-level: 10,000 pounds. 6th: 30,000 pounds. 7th: 100,000 pounds. 8th: 300,000 pounds. 9th: 1,000,000 pounds. (To build mage towers telekinetically, and so on.) It is ok for one spell to deal with willing creatures and unattended objects (and lifting more weight), while an other spell handles combat against hostile targets, and damage.

Also a Telekinesis cantrip − I dont mean Mage Hand, which is a hand-shaped puppet. I mean Telekinesis, moving a mass by a thought. For example, lifting a volume of water up out of a cup, floating the globule into the air, then separating it into into intricate patterns of globules of water. Telekinesis. You cant do Telekinesis with Mage Hand. The weight increases when attaining higher levels.

I want the D&D version of Telekinesis to undergo rethinking. When psionics comes out, I want Telekinesis to be satisfying even for a first level character. Same goes for Telepathy and ‘Phasing’ thru solid objects. These are things certain races can already do at level 1. (4e races can do alot of cool stuff in a balanced way.) It can be done in a balanced way. And I want it.

Any way, as-is, the 5th-level spell Telekinesis hurts because of its Strength save, but it lasts 10 minutes, has its uses. Not Bad.

Telepathic Bond is too high a spell slot for what it does.

Phase Door − a temporary hole in a wall − really? A 5th-level spell must do more.

 

[snickersnax]

Magic mouth is an incredibly useful spell to me. It's basically a permanent alarm spell. you can have 4 or more rocks/ sticks/ arrows with magic mouth placed around your camp to help avoid being surprised. With 100 casts of magic mouth you can arguably make a weapon of warning or helm of warning (using whispers) (1/round for 100 rounds (ie 10 turns) means you will always have a warning against a melee surprise). With that many magic mouths you can have specialized instructions and wordings. (creature incoming at 7 o'clock).

You can cast it on any item you want to keep track of (whenever the item is touched by someone other than the owner, the item screams "I am the property of <owner>, return me to him and you shall be rewarded" or (even better when combined with thaumaturgy for 3x voice). When this is happening every 10 minutes, someone will do it.

As already mentioned it makes a great alarm on any chest, door, pouch, backpack.

It so great for creating flavor for intimidating weapons that mimic sentience :when drawn the sword chuckles and says" Finally I can quench my thirst. Feed me their souls" or Whenever the sword is drawn it yells" surrender and drop your weapons and you live". A lot scarier when the weapon is saying these things.

Its also great for propaganda wars: A properly worded magic mouth can sow dissension in enemy ranks, offer rewards bounties. It's basically a broad cast news source.

Combined with a good mimic ability (Actor feat, assassin Imposter, Kenku) you can use other people's voices to deliver messages.

This spell would be good if it weren't a ritual, since it is, its a least a tier 2 second level spells.

 

[mellored]

You missed chromatic orb.

I also think clarvoyance should be moved up to not bad. Seeing behind a door can be pretty upseful.

 

[Yaarel]

@mellored
• Chromatic Orb is Players Handbook only, and not in the SRD. But I will add it and the rest of the official spells later when the SRD is done.
• Scrying. I can see that. I will have an other look to nudge it ‘down’.

@snickersnax
• I can see how Magic Mouth might have use as a *ritual* (heh, "Help! Help! A thief is stealing me!"). But I remain unconvinced about its utility as one of the few prepared or known spells for adventuring, and whose cost of spell slot means one less slot for an upcoming encounter.

At some point, I intend to put a list together of all of the rituals. And rank those according to your usefulness as rituals.