D&D 5E How useful is the ritual 'Skywrite?'

[Undrave]

To be fair, it really depends on the campaign.

If you're playing in a war story, then skywrite is one of the most useful spells - you can write a message in code to your allies far away, giving your side a strategic advantage thanks to the intelligence you've given. For example "The wizard is not among them." would be a sign to proceed with a march of troops with decreased risk of being blasted to oblivion.

If nothing else, skywrite can replace banners and help soldiers find their side in the fog of war. Banners were important because, when everybody is bloody and muddy, it can be hard to tell who's side you should be on.

of course, you could mess up with people by casting the same words...

Glyph of warding FTW!

Anything that can trigger off of spoken words can be triggered by having someone ask out loud "Wait, what does X mean?" or "X? What does that mean?"

 

[Stormonu]

My Saltmarsh game has used it three times - they called for help on deserted isle, used it to inform Saltmarsh when they successfully created an alliance, and then also used it again to set up a meeting with another race. Though on the last one, some uninvited guests tried to crash the party…

 

[Laurefindel]

I've seen the spell used in three ways in my games. In a "X marks the spot" kind of way to provide a landmark, as a warning/message to a faraway (but within sight) group of onlookers, and in a public and flashy way to say "I am here!"

Not the spell that has seen the most use, but it pops in once in a while

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I fully expect the Strixhaven setting to have a host of abjuration specialists posted on towers all around the school, casting dispel magic on the clouds, to avoid "Professor Snape is a dick" or "Cassandra has the biggest boobs of the school" popping up all the time when 2nd level transmutation is taught to high schoolers.

 

[J.Quondam]

I fully expect the Strixhaven setting to have a host of abjuration specialists posted on towers all around the school, casting dispel magic on the clouds, to avoid "Professor Snape is a dick" or "Cassandra has the biggest boobs of the school" popping up all the time when 2nd level transmutation is taught to high schoolers.

At the same time, I can't help but wonder exactly which transmutation spells Cassandra has been studying.

 

[Faolyn]

"The king is a werewolf!"

 

[Dausuul]

The message could be in code, and if the enemy doesn't have the code, it doesn't help reading the message.

You are correct that sending is "better", but it's a 3rd level spell, not two. The tier 1 and 2 breakpoint being the aquisition of level 3 spells, it suggests that casters being able to cast level 3 spells are probably a lot rarer than level 2 spells.

It's very situational. In the right situation, it's extremely useful. Outside of that, it's very very meh

Sending also can't be cast as a ritual.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Instead of riders running messages, have waypoints with low level wizards that can relay messages. Obviously, it isn’t a ‘private’ message but they could be encoded. Or just used in times of emergency to have many cities communicate danger.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

It's too low level for me, because its existence defines elements of the world. People have already brought up the kind of stuff any 3rd level wizard can do with it (and 3rd level wizards aren't very rare in my worlds, about any decent sized settlement will have one) basically for free. I hate what it can do to military communication, and other non-adventuring uses seem farcical.

It is one of the the three spells whose level I change. I raise this to 7th level, making available casters much rarer and less likely to work for the military. And as a less common (ie, non-PHB) spell, most people won't even know it exists. That leaves it as a rare thing used by PCs or occasional NPCs that would stand out as an oddity in the world.

The other spells whose level I change are Sending 3rd -> 5th for much the same reason, and I'm probably going to drop Dream of the Blue Veil from 7th -> 6th because it seems substantially more limited than similar spells.

 

[Jack Daniel]

Useful for intimidation at least.