D&D 5E More Interesting Cantrips

[Ashkelon]

I always felt 4e did at-will magic right. Instead of magic being little more than a reflavored crossbow, at-will spells in 4e often did a variety of interesting things that no weapon user could ever hope to replicate. I feel 5e would be better if the at-will magic was spiced up a little bit. So here are some conversions of my favorite 4e wizard at-will spells to 5e cantrips.

Storm Pillar
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 50 ft
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Choose a point within range. You call forth a colum of lighting in a 5 ft radius cloud centered on that point. Each creature that moves into or ends its turn within the cloud takes 1d6 lightning damage. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.
At higher levels: This spell increases in damage as you gain levels. This spell does 2d6 damage at 5th level, 3d6 at 10th level, 4d6 at 15th level, and 5d6 at 20th level.

Winged Horde
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 50 ft
Duration: Instantaneous
Choose a point within range. You create an illusionary horde of winged phantasms that begin attacking your foes in a 5 ft radius cloud centered on your chosen point. Each creature in the cloud must make an Intelligence saving throw or suffer disadvantage to all actions and be unable to take reactions until the end of your next turn.

Howling Wall
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 50 ft
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You create a 30 foot long, 10 foot high, 5 foot wide wall of wind within range. Attacks made through the wall suffer disadvantage. The wall counts as difficult terrain and all creatures attempting to pass through the wall must succeed at a Strength saving throw or have their movement halted.

Freezing Burst
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 50 ft
Duration: Instantaneous
Choose a point within range. You create a freezing whirlwind that affects all creatures in a 10 ft cloud centered on that point. All creatures in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw of suffer 1d4 cold damage and be slid 5 ft away from the center of the cloud.
At higher levels: This spell increases in damage as you gain levels. This spell does 2d4 damage at 5th level, 3d4 at 10th level, 4d4 at 15th level, and 5d4 at 20th level.

Hypnotism
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 25 ft
Duration: Instantaneous
Choose a creature within range. That creature must succeed at a Charisma saving throw or be charmed by you until the start of its next turn. While charmed, you may choose how the creature uses its reaction.

Obscuring Cloud
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 50 ft
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Choose a point within range. You create a 10 ft radius cloud of darkness (smoke, fog, etc) that heavily obscures all creatures within. Any attack made into or out of the cloud suffer disadvantage.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The main thing I'd say about your cantrips is that the AoE ones (like Storm Pillar and Freezing Burst) seem overpowered based upon the much smaller amount of hit points monsters have.

When a goblin now only has 3 HP... having a 10' radius AoE that potentially insta-kills up to a half dozen of them at a time doesn't seem right in my mind.

 

[tuxgeo]

The main thing I'd say about your cantrips is that the AoE ones (like Storm Pillar and Freezing Burst) seem overpowered based upon the much smaller amount of hit points monsters have.

When a goblin now only has 3 HP... having a 10' radius AoE that potentially insta-kills up to a half dozen of them at a time doesn't seem right in my mind.

This.

IMHO, there aren't going to be a great number of additional cantrips in the core rules beyond the ones that we have already seen in the playtest packets.

That will leave WotC lots of room to expand the list in forthcoming supplements. If anything, we might get one or two choices of an attack cantrip for the Bard class, and maybe one or two new ones for each of the Cleric, Druid, and Wizard.

Yes, attacking with At-Will spells was lovely in 4E. As I see it, very little of that is going to leak forward into 5E, because WotC is trying to maintain compatibility with previous editions, especially including compatibility with editions prior to 4E.

 

[Ashkelon]

The main thing I'd say about your cantrips is that the AoE ones (like Storm Pillar and Freezing Burst) seem overpowered based upon the much smaller amount of hit points monsters have.

When a goblin now only has 3 HP... having a 10' radius AoE that potentially insta-kills up to a half dozen of them at a time doesn't seem right in my mind.

Sure, freezing burst seems good at level 1 when compared to goblins, but remember a 10 ft radius cloud is only 20 feet long in diameter. Goblins are also sneaky, so by their very nature, they aren't prone to bunching up for combat and instead rely on utilizing cover and ambushing foes.

Even if you get a handful of goblins in the AoE, at only 1d4 damage, you will have a less than a 50% chance to actually kill a d6 HD goblin, and any goblin that make their save take no damage.

As soon as you are fighting challenges a little more worthwhile than goblins, the low damage of the spell will become even more obvious, and the utility will shine through.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Sure, freezing burst seems good at level 1 when compared to goblins, but remember a 10 ft radius cloud is only 20 feet long in diameter. Goblins are also sneaky, so by their very nature, they aren't prone to bunching up for combat and instead rely on utilizing cover and ambushing foes.

Even if you get a handful of goblins in the AoE, at only 1d4 damage, you will have a less than a 50% chance to actually kill a d6 HD goblin, and any goblin that make their save take no damage.

As soon as you are fighting challenges a little more worthwhile than goblins, the low damage of the spell will become even more obvious, and the utility will shine through.

Yeah, and the other two official attack cantrips do 1d8 to a single target. Which tells me that *any* AoE cantrip is overpowered. When a single cantrip can do potentially 1d6 x 16 squares of damage, that's too much for a 5E cantrip.

And while goblins are normally sneaky sure... oftentimes they're also going to be found as shock troops in larger scaled battles. Which means AoEs will be at a premium and thus why we don't find them as cantrips in the game.

But if you think it'll work for your game, then great. I just don't think they work for the game on the whole.

 

[Ashkelon]

Yeah, and the other two official attack cantrips do 1d8 to a single target. Which tells me that *any* AoE cantrip is overpowered. When a single cantrip can do potentially 1d6 x 16 squares of damage, that's too much for a 5E cantrip.

And while goblins are normally sneaky sure... oftentimes they're also going to be found as shock troops in larger scaled battles. Which means AoEs will be at a premium and thus why we don't find them as cantrips in the game.

But if you think it'll work for your game, then great. I just don't think they work for the game on the whole.

Hmm, you may be right about AoE being too powerful, or perhaps the single target cantrips are too weak. Afterall, a crossbow from a 16 Dex wizard does 1d10+3 damage. Significantly more than a mere 1d8. Also, what is AoE worth?

Is a 10 ft radius worth a 45% reduction in damage? Going from d8 damage to d4 is a rather large loss.

Now let's compare some single target spells to their AoE counterparts. Sound burst to scorching ray for example. Scorching ray is 6d6 single target damage vs sound bursts 3d8 (half on a save) AoE. Assuming a 60% chance to affect your target then the AoE spell only does 15% less damage than the single target. Ok, magic missile to burning hands, 7.5 automatic vs 10.5 save half. Burning hands actually has a higher expected single target damage than magic missile!

By these comparisons, it would appear that AoE at d4 per die is actually underpowered compared to d8 damage single target. Now, I'm definitely not going to increase the damage of the cantrip, but it definitely is food for thought when evaluating the potency of these.

 

[Elf Witch]

I have a problem with hypnosis. Not with the caster getting to control him up to a reasonable amount. The victim should not be able to be forced to do something he normally would not do. I don't play 4E but in 3E you can't make a person under a charm spell do things against his nature and the higher spell dominate allows a new will save if you try and force them to do something that would get them killed or is majorly against their nature.

 

[Ichneumon]

OK, here's one

Request
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 25 ft
Duration: Instantaneous, or if an object is requested, Concentration (up to 1 minute)
Make a request, or choose a willing creature within range to make one. The request is a short verbalized desire for a minor change in the requestor's environment, such as warmer food, fluffier sheets, or a more pleasant personal aroma. Minor transpositions (e.g. sliding a key under a door), are possible, but not teleportation or removing an item from a creature's possession. A mundane, non-monetary object that is Tiny can be requested to appear, and remains so long as the caster concentrates (up to 1 minute).
The spirit of the request is always heeded, but requests attempting to exceed the power of the guidelines given here simply fade without effect.

 

[Mistwell]

I very much want to reduce the number of combat cantrips...and this increases them drastically. How about focus on more general use and non-combat cantrips instead? Things which foster more creativity and less dependence on precise mechanics?

For example these are all adapted from the Akashic class that Monte Cook wrote in Arcana Evolved, and I think they'd all make good Wizard cantrips:

Delve Into Collective Memory (ritual only):
The wizard may make a special check with a bonus equal to his level + his Intelligence modifier to see whether he knows some relevant information about notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places. This ritual 10 minutes to perform. This check will not reveal the powers of a magic item but may give a hint as to its general function. The Wizard may not take 10 or take 20 on this check; this sort of knowledge is essentially random. The DM determines the Difficulty Class of the check depending on the obscurity of the information.

Kinesthetic Memory: By casting this spell, the Wizard's sensory memory becomes so precise that he can easily get around with no penalty when he has a single damaged or deprived sense and is in familiar surroundings. For example, a blind Wizard can move about in his home, a clothing shop he frequents, or inside a castle he has viewed extensively with magic, operating with no penalties.

Delve Into Personal Memory (ritual only - 10 minute casting time): The wizard can mentally probe the memory of one other creature within 25 feet. The Wizard mentally forms a question the creature can answer with a single word. No shared language is needed, nor does it matter whether the creature is conscious or aware. The creature can make a Wisdom save. If the creature fails its save, the Wizard gains the answer as if the creature mentally answered the question as truthfully as possible. In any event, the creature does not know the Wizard made the attempt.

Object Loresight: You learn something significant about an object you touch. Go through this list, in order; the first bit of lore you do not know, you learn through this spell:
1. Age of object.
2. Name of last creature to touch the object, if any (other than you).
3. Race of last creature to touch the object, if any (other than you).
4. Name of the object’s creator (a natural object, like a rock, was created by nature).
5. Race of the object’s creator, if any.
6. Object’s purpose.
7. Material(s) that makes up the object.
8. Location of the object’s creation.
9. Name of the most recent owner of the object, if any.
10. Magical ability of the object, if any (random if more than one).

You can only cast this spell once per day for a particular object.

Creature Loresight: You learn something significant about a creature (living or dead) that you touch. Go through this list, in order—the first bit of lore you don’t know, you learn magically:
1. Creature’s race or type.
2. Creature’s name (if none, then skip).
3. Creature’s class (if none, then skip).
4. How the creature died (if not applicable, skip).
5. Creature’s most recent, basic goal (obtain food, carry out the orders of its superior, get some sleep, etc.).
6. Creature’s attitude toward you.
7. Creature that this creature interacted with most recently (other than you).
8. Creature’s most valuable possession, if any.
9. Location of the creature’s home or lair, if any.
10. Creature’s current thoughts.

You can only cast this spell once per day for a particular creature.

 

[Philousk]

I love "Request"! Imo, it is a delightful mix of "Command", "Prestidigitation" and "Telekinesis", this low-power which is quite reasonable for a Cantrips.


The only downside is just to ask if it is not redundant for the game...