D&D 5E (2024) How Many Offensive Spells Do You Ned to Know?

[Zardnaar]

Vicious Mockery and Tasha's Hideous Laughter should be more than offensive enough, until you get Irresistable Dance.

Most illusion spells can be incredibly offensive as well, if you're creative.

Cantrips were free i would add an AoE control spell.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Cantrips were free i would add an AoE control spell.

i'd alter create bonfire to be the AoE control cantrip, just make it a 3x3 AoE/15ft square rather than a lone tile and keep the rest of it the same, maybe drop it down to d6 rather than d8?

 

[djotaku]

I think it depends on how many you can cast per short rest/long rest and how combative the campaign/adventure is expected to be.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I'm an MMO player at heart. You can break down most spellcaster damage dealer abilities in MMOs into one of four categories; Area of Effect (AoE), Damage over Time (DoT, as in "more DoTs!"), a "nuke" (powerful direct-damage with some sort of cost or downside) and "filler" (your basic attack; here, a cantrip).

In D&D, damage resistance types are a lot more important than in the MMOs I've played, so it might be prudent to have a backup spell in those categories if your "main" spell is of a commonly resisted or immune damage type like fire or poison, or if you know what kind of creatures you'll be fighting and can reasonably assume their resistances.

So your average damage dealing spellcaster, with the ability to upcast, really only needs to dedicate 3-6 leveled spells known to damage and then 1-2 cantrips. In my experience a lot of AoE spells often leave DoT effects when you start getting up to spell level 3 or 4, so you may be able to combine those as well.