D&D 5E Homebrew cantrips
jaelis
Oh this is where the title goes?
Given this overwhelming response, here are a couple more cantrips for neglected schools 
Prescient Glimpse
Divination cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You focus your perceptions so as to see a split second into the future. Once before the spell ends, when you or a creature you can see is hit by an attack, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on that attack, possibly causing it to miss. If the creature being attacked is not yourself, you must shout a warning that the creature must be able to hear and understand. The spell then ends.
Force Ward
Abjuration cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a thin sheet of glass or crystal)
Duration: 1 round
You place a magical ward on one willing target, which manifests as a silvery shimmer surrounding it. The first creature to hit the target with a melee attack before the spell ends takes 1d6 force damage.
This spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6) and 17th level (4d6).
Prescient Glimpse
Divination cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You focus your perceptions so as to see a split second into the future. Once before the spell ends, when you or a creature you can see is hit by an attack, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on that attack, possibly causing it to miss. If the creature being attacked is not yourself, you must shout a warning that the creature must be able to hear and understand. The spell then ends.
Force Ward
Abjuration cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a thin sheet of glass or crystal)
Duration: 1 round
You place a magical ward on one willing target, which manifests as a silvery shimmer surrounding it. The first creature to hit the target with a melee attack before the spell ends takes 1d6 force damage.
This spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6) and 17th level (4d6).
aco175
Legend
Black Cat
Illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a glass prism)
Duration: 1 round
You create a glimpse of shadow next to the target that momentarily causes him to become distracted. The next attack on the target gains advantage. An Intelligence save negates this.
Illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a glass prism)
Duration: 1 round
You create a glimpse of shadow next to the target that momentarily causes him to become distracted. The next attack on the target gains advantage. An Intelligence save negates this.
mrpopstar
Sparkly Dude
Quickleaf
Legend
Great idea! I've homebrewed a similar spell called occlusion, however your version is certainly worth more than a cantrip. It's situational, but could *completely* shut down a spellcasting or ranged attacking monster/NPC. Imagine a party facing a lich and undermining the vast majority of its capabilities with a cantrip. Good for chuckles, but probably not playability.
Similarly, requiring an action to see through the illusory "mists" is steep – too steep for a cantrip – because that's on par with imposing the Incapacitated condition for 1 round.
And on top of this there's no save! The way you've designed it is certainly a 2nd-level spell at least.
If you wanted to keep this basic idea as a cantrip, I'd recommend revising it thus:
[SECTION]Phantasmal Haze
Illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 round
You occlude the vision of a target you can see within range, causing it to see its surroundings as shrouded in thick mist. The target makes an Intelligence saving throw. If it fails its save, the target can see no further than 5 feet from itself on its next attack before the end of its next turn.[/SECTION]
What I did to bring its power in line with other cantrips:
- Didn't let it impose a free effect on a creature. Instead required an INT save.
- Limited its application to ranged weapon/spell attacks, which require more precise targeting. However, a target could still cast a spell requiring a saving throw at a silhouette in the "mists." Thus, it doesn't shut down the majority of combat spellcasting.
- Limited it to the target's next attack – meaning a monster with Multiattack (there are many) would only lose 1 ranged attack from the occlusion.
- I also gave it a verbal component, since I don't know any spells that lack that.
I feel that makes it a situational but worthwhile cantrip of fair power level. You possibly could even increase its range to 60 feet, given my changes, and still keep it balanced for a cantrip.
Kinematics
Hero
Phantasmal Haze seems problematic at first glance.
Cost: 1 action to cast the spell. Concentration.
Neutral: Melee combat will still proceed as normal.
Benefits:
- Target won't be aware of what else is going on in the battlefield, nor can they navigate it.
- Target cannot cast ranged spells that require sight.
- Target is at disadvantage for ranged attacks, and arguably can't make ranged attacks.
- A ranged attacker gains advantage for one attack (particularly a thief gaining Sneak Attack).
While the effect only lasts one round, it still feels a little bit stronger than what seems like should be allowed for a cantrip. The canon spells are extremely skimpy on spells that give advantage, as opposed to giving the target disadvantage. The closest analog, True Strike, only benefits your own attack; this would benefit someone else's ranged attack. True Strike could only benefit an attack every other round, while this would benefit an attack every round.
The fact that it doesn't give benefit to melee attacks may seem like a point of balance, but ranged attacks already get the advantage of being much harder to retaliate against, so giving them Advantage on top of that seems a bit iffy.
I would probably at least add the limitation that if the target pierces the illusion with the investigation check, they cannot be targeted with the spell again that day. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Edit: Also, missed that it took an action to do the investigation. Definitely too powerful.
Oh, and it should have more than just S as a component.
Prescient Glimpse — I'd add a range limit on what creatures you can provide this benefit for. Most likely 30', but possibly 60'.
Force Ward — Mostly seems OK at first glance, but I also have to wonder if it's underpowered compared to just hitting a creature with a normal damage cantrip, which may include a rider effect. For example, Frostbite provides the same 1d6 damage, but also gives the creature disadvantage on their next attack, so you might do the same amount of damage, while also making it more likely for your party member to not take the damage of being hit.
Thematically it seems good, and I can kinda see it working in some scenarios, but I'd still want to spend more time considering how and when it might be used.
Cost: 1 action to cast the spell. Concentration.
Neutral: Melee combat will still proceed as normal.
Benefits:
- Target won't be aware of what else is going on in the battlefield, nor can they navigate it.
- Target cannot cast ranged spells that require sight.
- Target is at disadvantage for ranged attacks, and arguably can't make ranged attacks.
- A ranged attacker gains advantage for one attack (particularly a thief gaining Sneak Attack).
While the effect only lasts one round, it still feels a little bit stronger than what seems like should be allowed for a cantrip. The canon spells are extremely skimpy on spells that give advantage, as opposed to giving the target disadvantage. The closest analog, True Strike, only benefits your own attack; this would benefit someone else's ranged attack. True Strike could only benefit an attack every other round, while this would benefit an attack every round.
The fact that it doesn't give benefit to melee attacks may seem like a point of balance, but ranged attacks already get the advantage of being much harder to retaliate against, so giving them Advantage on top of that seems a bit iffy.
I would probably at least add the limitation that if the target pierces the illusion with the investigation check, they cannot be targeted with the spell again that day. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Edit: Also, missed that it took an action to do the investigation. Definitely too powerful.
Oh, and it should have more than just S as a component.
Prescient Glimpse — I'd add a range limit on what creatures you can provide this benefit for. Most likely 30', but possibly 60'.
Force Ward — Mostly seems OK at first glance, but I also have to wonder if it's underpowered compared to just hitting a creature with a normal damage cantrip, which may include a rider effect. For example, Frostbite provides the same 1d6 damage, but also gives the creature disadvantage on their next attack, so you might do the same amount of damage, while also making it more likely for your party member to not take the damage of being hit.
Thematically it seems good, and I can kinda see it working in some scenarios, but I'd still want to spend more time considering how and when it might be used.
jaelis
Oh this is where the title goes?
Thanks for the feedback, if it is really too strong I can certainly weaken it. But do keep a few things in mind:
- It takes up the caster's action and concentration slot. Those are valuable things. I don't want to fall into the blade ward/true strike trap.
- Obscuring vision is not the same as shutting down a creature. Barring a really specialized party, it wouldn't be possible for them all to hide, so the lich in your example would still have many offensive options like cloudkill or fireball. It could also simply move up to a creature it can hear and attack it with melee abilities, since it can see within 5 feet.
- If somehow none of those are options, then the target could ready an action to attack when a target becomes visible. That will happen as soon as anyone of the players does anything offensive.
Like I said, I'd be happy to weaken it, but honestly I would never take the version you suggest. Why would I give up my action for the chance to impose disadvantage on one creature for one (ranged only) attack it makes? I'd rather just cast firebolt.
jaelis
Oh this is where the title goes?
Like I mentioned, this is not really true. The target is still aware of the location of any non-hiding creature, and there's no reason it would be unable to move around.
My spell is certainly better the true strike, but true strike is crap. So that is by design
I wanted a spell that could compete with minor image in terms of desirability.Don't forget that any old joe can use the help action to grant advantage on any attack, including ranged. Granted you need to be next to the target for that.
Good suggestion thanks!
My thought was that it was pretty powerful in not requiring an attack roll or allowing a save. I didn't want to go overboard.
Last edited:
Quickleaf
Legend
Well, let's compare your original design of Phantasmal Haze to the 2nd-level Blindness/Deafness. I'll go through point by point, marking if they're equal (=), yours is better (+), or blindness/deafness is better (-).
- Both take an action and have a range of 30 feet. =
- Yours doesn't stipulate the caster must be able to see the target, whereas blindness/deafness does. Not sure if this was intentional on your part, but if so... (+)
- Yours lasts 1 round and requires Concentration, whereas blindness/deafness lasts 1 minute. (-)
- Yours does not require a saving throw, affecting target automatically, whereas blindness/deafness requires a save. (+) And arguably could be worth 2 ++'s since Legendary Resistance can't be used against it & enemy must spend an action to end effect whereas with blindness/deafness grants free ongoing saves to end its effect, but I'll leave it as one +.
- Blindness/deafness imposes full blindness, yours imposes a lesser version. (-) You probably think your limited version is worth two minuses --, but I strongly disagree; even were that the case, I'm only counting it as one minus - because I conceded the auto-effect being worth one plus.
So where does that leave your original design of phantasmal haze compared to blindness/deafness? =, +, -, +, -
IOW, it's a 2nd-level spell, not a cantrip.
Last edited:
Similar Threads
