D&D 5E Survivor Worst Spells: FIND TRAPS IS THE WORST!

Hemlock said:

Wierd would be a worthy 9th level spell if:

(1) The psychic damage were inflicted at the beginning of every affected creature's turn, completely separate from the save-to-end at the end of the turn; and
(2) Weird lasted for 1 minute with no concentration requirement.

As it is it's worth maybe a 6th or 7th level slot, tops.

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Agreed.

[MENTION=23716]Gadget[/MENTION]
On Mordenkainen' sword. Should've thought about casting spirtual weapon at 7th level. On that I fully agree with you.

On Weird, Yep that spell isn't going to win as one of the best spell ever. But remember that I am not really defending the spell. I'm just saying that it is not as bad as some others. It can be used without restriction unlike some other spells. This is a fact that should be considered. Is it worth a 9th level slot? Nope. Is it worthless? Not entirely but it would not be my prime choice for a 9th level spell.

Drawmij's Instant Summons 19
Feign Death 25-2=23 Maybe some clever ploy?
Find Traps 30+1=31 If you don't have spot/inves to find the trap, this still can't find the trap.
Mordenkainen's Sword 20
True Strike 41
Weird 21

This is getting tough!

Helldritch said:

Find Trap Strangely, I can find a few good uses for this spell. It is still not a great spell, but a party without someone able to spot/investigate traps is not completely in the dark with this one.

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Find Traps has a similar problem to True Strike. Every time you think you can do something with this spell, you find out it doesn't exactly work that way or that it's just confusing as hell.

For example, you think there might be a trap nearby but you haven't spotted it with Perception or Investigation. Find Traps only tells you that "Yes, there is a trap" and the general nature of the danger. That's... incredibly vague. Learning the general nature of the danger might give you a clue about where the trap is, but otherwise you are still in the same boat. You don't know where the trap is, and you can't find it.

It's also line of sight, which causes all kinds of problems. Such as not going around corners, not detecting anything on the other side of the door, not detecting something inside of a chest, not detecting things through fog, darkness, deep water, around rock formations, or any number of other things.

The wording of the spell is also vague. We've all got an idea of what a trap constitutes, but the wording here specifies "anything that would inflict a sudden or unexpected effect you consider harmful or undesirable, which was specifically intended as such by its creator." So anything not intended to specifically be a trap, such as a storage room full of undead, a trash room full of monstrous slime, or a cavern that just fills with water when the tide rolls in.

Maybe if it had a duration? Or maybe if it was a ritual? Or maybe if it didn't use line of sight? Or maybe if it told you where the trap was? Or maybe if it was on the spell list of classes who didn't already tend to have good Perception?

That's a lot of maybes. And right now it competes with a lot of great Level 2 alternative spells.

Drawmij's Instant Summons 19
Feign Death 23
Find Traps 32
Mordenkainen's Sword 18 - At least I can kill things with it.
True Strike 41
Weird 21

Drawmij's Instant Summons 19
Feign Death 23
Find Traps 30 Even with the line of sight issue, this spell has two basic types of functionality a) if you go into a treasure room and there is a chest there, the spell will (typically) tell you if the chest has a trap or not (i.e. obvious trap scenario, yes or no), b) the spell has line of sight, so since it is instantaneous (and someone can only look in one direction at a time), it could potentially let a group know that there are no traps in this given direction within a room (shy of obstacles hiding the traps).
Mordenkainen's Sword 18
True Strike 42
Weird 21

Drawmij's Instant Summons 17
Feign Death 23
Find Traps 32
Mordenkainen's Sword 19
True Strike 41
Weird 21

KarinsDad said:

Find Traps 30 Even with the line of sight issue, this spell has two basic types of functionality a) if you go into a treasure room and there is a chest there, the spell will (typically) tell you if the chest has a trap or not (i.e. obvious trap scenario, yes or no), b) the spell has line of sight, so since it is instantaneous (and someone can only look in one direction at a time), it could potentially let a group know that there are no traps in this given direction within a room (shy of obstacles hiding the traps).

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Only certain kinds of chests would register as having a trap. For example, the spell would not detect a snake in a box, or a bomb rigged to a string that is pulled when the lid of the chest is opened, because boxes and lids are not usually intended to cause harmful or undesirable effects. The trap would have to be built directly into the chest to have the intention of harm by its creator.

Iry said:

Only certain kinds of chests would register as having a trap. For example, the spell would not detect a snake in a box, or a bomb rigged to a string that is pulled when the lid of the chest is opened, because boxes and lids are not usually intended to cause harmful or undesirable effects. The trap would have to be built directly into the chest to have the intention of harm by its creator.

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If someone put a snake in a box with the intent to cause harm, I consider that a trap.

If someone ties a string to a bomb and to the chest lid with the intent to cause harm, I consider that a trap. YMMV.

KarinsDad said:

If someone put a snake in a box with the intent to cause harm, I consider that a trap.

If someone ties a string to a bomb and to the chest lid with the intent to cause harm, I consider that a trap. YMMV.

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The snake and the bomb would certainly be traps, but they are not in line of sight (unless the chest has holes in it or something). They are inside the chest, and most chests are not created with the intent to cause harm.