D&D 5E What's the worst spell?

This one came from the misspelt spell thread (or whatever), but I'd like to nominate it anyway:
Fish.

Regarding Phantasmal Killer and Weird, do note they were improved in the errata. Still not very good, but at least now if they fail the first save, they are frightened for a turn.

Also the value of the spells depends a bit on how the DM rules the movement effects from the frightened condition.

Oh hey, I looked away and my topic blew up. I'm totally fine with the fact the half of it was debate about Witch Bolt.

Now I definitely agree that Witch Bolt isn't the worst spell ever, but for those saying it isn't so bad because it's damage is okay at low levels in comparison to cantrips, I ask "Is the damage so much better that it's worth burning half/a third of your spell slots on?"
@lowkey13 As for the survivor thread nominations based on mentions in this thread, I suggest removing Wish, Mending, and Barkskin.

The Wish mention was just "It's not as godly as previous editions Wish," which is hardly terrible.

Mending: One person said it didn't come up much in their game (as opposed to spells that are bad even when they do come up), no one seemed to mention the same problem, and a few people brought up builds that could make use of it more often.

Barkskin: We all agree it's VERY poorly written, but if the topic is about usefulness I'm not sure it's a contender. AC 16 without any need for armor or any kind of stat investment and AC applies to wild shape (animals have poor AC), seems like it could be quite useful.

If you want more nominations for the list, I put forth these two (even if I personally wouldn't vote them the worst they are certainly contenders)...

Magic Mouth: Seems like you would get virtually no mileage out of it. Might be worth the time to ritual cast occasionally if it didn't have a costly material component that it consumes. Unfortunately it does (albeit a very inexpensive one, but still more costly than simply leaving a note).

Blur: Strictly worse than invisibility (a spell of the same level) in terms of both availability and effect. The only corner case where Blur EVER helps in a way that invisibility does not is against creatures that have see invisibility but not truesight.
Ignore this, I'm a dummy, Blur's not a contender for worst. Still bad in comparison to Mirror Image though.

Phazonfish said:

Blur: Strictly worse than invisibility (a spell of the same level) in terms of both availability and effect. The only corner case where Blur EVER helps in a way that invisibility does not is against creatures that have see invisibility but not truesight.

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Well, blur doesn't end when you attack or cast another spell. That's pretty significant.

jaelis said:

Well, blur doesn't end when you attack or cast another spell. That's pretty significant.

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Huh, must not have my head on straight this morning. Thanks for the catch.

Magic Mouth has always been mainly an "NPC/Plot Device" utility spell. It gives the DM a way to leave triggered messages and is cinematic.

But - it also has a utility for PC's, if you are creative. Once I get to the level where the 10gp cost isn't an issue, I have Magic Mouth cast on my backpack, coin purse, bag of holding - anything that can contain valuables. Trigger is "anyone other than myself reaching into it or holding it". The message is "Stop Thief! I'm Being Stolen! Help!" at as loud a volume as the character can manage, repeating until my character has the item back in their possession.

Blur is better than Invisiblity because it doesn't drop as soon as you make an attack or cast a spell (although being a Concentration spell is a weakness). Invisibility is for stealth, Blur is for combat.

Blur's not good???????

Invisibility will let you escape IF you can take the hide action and flee without being "detected" by a good perception roll.
Blur will let you be attacked at disadvantage for 1 minute. Which is almost as good as a +5 to AC and add the shield spell and you get an Eldritch knigth with a 30 AC at level 8 (for 1 round) without any magical shield or armor. That is pretty strong in my book. Some might argue that Haste would be better at dmg dealing and rightly so. Depends on how your game is run.

Sorry guys, I derped on Blur. I still think Magic Mouth should be on the list. I don't think a spell existing as an excuse for the DM to include such effects makes is not bad. It's an excuse for it to exist, but that doesn't make it good. Honestly I would have included Nystul's Magic Aura if it didn't do something that would otherwise not be explicitly doable.

DaveDash said:

They were two seperate examples. In theory craft land you don't ever get surprised or lack preparation, but in real D&D it happens all the time. We've had plenty of tough fights where we haven't had that minute time to prepare - and heal is versatile in the sense it's useful ALL the time.

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"Theorycraft." You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

Your example against Tiamat is flawed. Firstly by the time we found her we actually didn't have a minute to prepare, because we found the ritual to summon her first and we needed to act quick.

Secondly theres no guarantee the person I cast regenerate on will actually need it. I might cast it on myself, but it turns out our sharpshooter Fighter gets pummelled and needs healing desperately. I've now lost that tactical flexibility and ability to react to the combat as it develops, and as a result wasted a 7th level slot.

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What you're eliding is that Tiamat is now constrained: she can't easily take out the guy with Regenerate. (At 15th level you could have two guys protected this way.) You protect your most critical guys with Regenerate or other protections (like the rather obvious "keep the Sharpshooter guy out of Tiamat's engagement range"), none of which are perfect, but all of which add up to constraining her optimal plays. You could try to constrain her with Heal VII instead (which makes it hard in a different way for her to take someone out, by giving them an extra 80 HP) but that deprives you of another action (like Preserve Life or an attack action), requires you to keep the party close together (Heal has only a 60' range) making you more vulnerable to AoEs, and doesn't even inconvenience Tiamat very much (it costs her only two out of her five legendary actions in order to wipe out all the damage you just healed and more, on multiple characters because you've clumped them all together).

As Dwight Eisenhower observed, "In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." When you forget to plan, you wind up fighting poorly because you've overlooked options. Fortunately, 5E is easy enough that you don't need to plan well or fight well in order to win anyway. Congratulations on beating Tiamat. :-/

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