D&D 5E Help Me Name This New Cantrip

[aco175]

Simpler the better in terms of naming. You can just call it "We Jas Magic Spell Return" and the players will remember it. Calling it "Lord Dalfither's Last Dance" just gets "We Jas Magic Spell Return" in parenthesis after it so the player can remember what it is.

You can always hand wave that the PC knows the cool name, but the sheet has "Just the Facts Ma'am."

 

[CleverNickName]

Simpler the better in terms of naming. You can just call it "We Jas Magic Spell Return" and the players will remember it. Calling it "Lord Dalfither's Last Dance" just gets "We Jas Magic Spell Return" in parenthesis after it so the player can remember what it is.

You can always hand wave that the PC knows the cool name, but the sheet has "Just the Facts Ma'am."

This is good advice too.

Ideally, I'll be able to split the difference and find a name that's both evocative and descriptive, like Thorn Whip or Ray of Frost.

 

[Azzy]

Kiss of the Ruby Godess

I like this—using Wee Jas' sobriquet ties it to the cleric very nicely.

 

[Clint_L]

That's crazy powerful for a cantrip, and also goes against the idea of a cantrip, which is a basic spell that is always available. This seems more like a warlock ability or something.

 

[CleverNickName]

That's crazy powerful for a cantrip, and also goes against the idea of a cantrip, which is a basic spell that is always available. This seems more like a warlock ability or something.

Eh, it'll be fine. Like I said earlier, it's not like I'm publishing it or anything. At any rate, I don't have any warlocks in the party, so I'm having to make-do.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It’s not aesthetically pleasing. It doesn’t look like a cantrip. It doesn’t do what cantrips are for, it has a completely different function. Thus, it would be more appropriate as a granted power - see the section on Blessings in the DMG. Once it’s not trying to be something it clearly isn’t it will be much easier to name.

 

[CleverNickName]

It’s not aesthetically pleasing. It doesn’t look like a cantrip. It doesn’t do what cantrips are for, it has a completely different function. Thus, it would be more appropriate as a granted power - see the section on Blessings in the DMG. Once it’s not trying to be something it clearly isn’t it will be much easier to name.

This is also good advice.

Anyway, my two favorite suggestions in the thread were Baneful Recovery and Viper's Bargain (hat tip to @J.Quondam and @Corinnguard ). I've decided to go with Viper's Bargain because it calls back to the story a bit ("I learned it from a sketchy yuan-ti sorcerer") and because it suggests danger--this might not really be a 'bargain' after all.

Viper's Bargain​

Necromancy Cantrip​

Casting Time: 1 action​

Range: Self​

Components: S​

Duration: Instantaneous​

You recover one spell slot of 5th level or lower. You then gain 1 level of exhaustion for each level of that spell slot. If this would cause you to have 6 or more levels of exhaustion, the cantrip fails.​

​

Thanks everyone!

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Fortunately, they're also infinitely customizable and ignorable!

Yeah, I allow Lesser Restoration/Paladin Lay on Hands to remove 1 level. Obviously that wouldn't work with your cantrip, which is balanced around exhaustion being literally worse than death.

Expiation of Rubies or Oblation of Rubies would be my go to, with the "rubies" in question being a euphemism for ritual bloodletting.

Side note, Wee Jas is one of my favorite deities from D&D, and feels like an actual goddess from myth. A larger than life personality with way more going on than simply being the goddess "of" something.

 

[Krachek]

Delusion of grandeur