Level Up (A5E) Rare variants of spells that don't have them

[Tessarael]

I have been looking for a wider variety of rare spells for A5E. It would be great if folks in the community could share what they have come with. And as a fun exercise, we could come up with some variants in this thread.

I have some suggestions for rare variants of A5E spells, that don't currently have rare variants. Going through the list of A5E cantrips, some suggestions below and one at the end for the Hex spell.

RARE CANTRIP VARIANTS
Spherical Acid Splash: Per D&D 2024 Acid Splash, this does acid damage in a 5' radius, rather than only to two targets within 5' of each other.

Fiery Altered Strike: Like D&D 2024 True Strike, this does bonus fire damage at character level 5 (1d6), 11 (2d6), and 17 (3d6).

Rapid Arcane Muscles: The casting time is reduced to a Bonus Action.

Persistent Calculate: It lasts for one minute without concentration.

Freezing Chill Touch: Per D&D 2024 Chill Touch, it does d10 cold damage, rather than d8, increasing by d10 at character level 5 (2d10), 11 (3d10), and 17 (4d10).

Shared Circular Breathing: Range changes from Self to Touch, so that you can cast it on others too.

Violent Convenient Retrieval: If the item retrieved is a dual-wielding thrown weapon (e.g., a light hammer, shuriken, or throwing dagger) then you can throw it at a target and retrieve it as part of the same bonus action used to cast this spell.

Striking Dancing Lights: Like D&D 2024 Starry Wisp, as an action, the caster can throw one of the lights as a ranged spell attack against a target within 60', inflicting d8 radiant damage if it hits, increasing by d8 at character level 5 (2d8), 11 (3d8), and 17 (4d8). As you have four dancing lights, you can throw four of them before you need to recast the cantrip.

Superior Direct Minion: If your minion cannot attack without your direction during the round, your order permits it to multi-attack, rather than make a single attack. You can instead direct an ally to spend its reaction to Dash, but cannot command them to attack.

Quenching Druidcraft: You can extinguish fire in a 5' radius, or on a single larger organic object such as a tree or creature.

Acid (Fire) Bolt: This rare variant does acid damage instead of fire.

Silver Tongue (Friends): You gain a d4 expertise bonus on one Charisma check before the start of your next turn, which is not limited to a single target, and the targets do not realize they were influenced by magic.

Quick Glamour: The casting time is reduced to a Bonus Action.

Articulate Grapevine: The message can be in any language that you write or speak, not just Druidic, and you can cause an animal at the location to speak the message once, in addition to or instead of writing on a plant or tree.

Subtle Guidance: This variant has only a Seen (Somatic) component, so can be useful in a situation where you need to be stealthy or remain quiet.

Adjustable Light: You can choose the brightness, from 5' radius bright light with 5' dim light beyond that, to 30' radius bright light with 30' dim light beyond, and you can adjust this with a verbal command without spending an action on your subsequent turns. Likewise, you can extinguish it with a verbal command on any of your subsequent turns, without spending an action, but this ends the cantrip.

RARE LEVEL ONE SPELL VARIANTS
Radiant Hex: This variant does 1d6 radiant damage instead of 1d6 necrotic damage when you hit the cursed creature.

 

[Tessarael]

MORE RARE VARIANTS FOR A5E CANTRIPS

Paired Mage Hands: Rather than creating a single Mage Hand, you create two, making it easier to manipulate objects. For example, you could pour between two held beakers. The weight limit increases to 20 pounds, when using both hands together, 10 pounds separately. Your two mage hands must stay within 5' of each other.

Rapid Mending: The casting time is reduced from 1 minute to 1 action.

Multi-Message: You can send your message to one target per spell caster level within range, and do not need to point at a specific target. If they reply, only you hear their replies.

Extended Minor Illusion: The range improves to 60' and the duration increases to 4 minutes at character level 5, 15 minutes at character level 11, and one hour at character level 17.

Painful Muddle: The target also suffers d6 necrotic damage if they fail their save, increasing by d6 at character level 5 (2d6), 11 (3d6), and 17 (4d6).

Distracting Pestilence: Targets that take damage from Pestilence suffer disadvantage on any Concentration check rolls due to this damage.

Marvelous Prestidigitation: The number of effects that you can maintain simultaneously increases from 3 to 6, and you can dismiss any or all effects without spending an action on your turn.

Improved Resistance: The saving throw bonus increases from d4 to d6, and further to d8 at character level 5, d10 at character level 11, and d12 at character level 17.

Improved Shillelagh: Same as the D&D 2024 Shillelagh, with the damage die increasing to d10 at level 5, d12 at level 11, and 2d6 at level 17.

Expert's Steady Hands: The range changes to touch, allowing you to cast this on someone else, not just yourself. The benefit applies to all tool checks, not just the ones specified in the original cantrip.

Intimidating Thaumaturgy: As per D&D 2024 Thaumaturgy, your booming voice grants advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks for the 1 minute duration.

Improved True Strike: Use the D&D 2024 True Strike version instead.

Ravenous Void Maw: The damage increases to d8 necrotic damage, and similarly at high levels: 5 (2d8), 11 (3d8), 17 (4d8). In addition to destroying corpses, this cantrip can be used to destroy objects of up to size medium, if so desired. Good for cleaning up evidence of your character's murderous proclivities.

I have omitted most of the A5E cantrips that already have rare variants.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

MORE RARE VARIANTS FOR A5E CANTRIPS

Paired Mage Hands: Rather than creating a single Mage Hand, you create two, making it easier to manipulate objects. For example, you could pour between two held beakers. The weight limit increases to 20 pounds, when using both hands together, 10 pounds separately. Your two mage hands must stay within the same 5' of one another.

Two hands are much better than one.

 

[věkitateljь]

Another spell that was sort-of-improved in 2024 version is Mirror Image. It had two major changes:
1) The "duplicate check" was moved from "when an enemy targets you" to "when an enemy hits you" - this automatically solves the problem of bad scaling (in the 2014/A5E rules Duplicate’s AC is always 10 + Dex, no matter how powerful or well-protected was the caster).
2) The "duplicate check" was changed from "roll a d20 to simulate a honest random choice among X+1 targets" to "roll Xd6 and look if any roll is 3+".

The first change is pretty reasonable, the second one makes some sense (there's some elegance in it and it's easier to remember), but the math doesn't work out, and the probabilities are far too skewed in the favor of caster.

After this analysis I propose two alternate Mirror Images:

Shielding Mirror Image: Each time a creature hits you with an attack roll during the spell’s duration, roll a d6 for each of your remaining duplicates, and note the location of d6 that came up with the highest result. If the result is not tied and the highest roll is the one closest to you, you are hit by attack; otherwise one of the duplicates is hit instead of you.

Reinforced Mirror Image: A copy’s AC is equal to your Spell Save DC.

 

[Tessarael]

Another spell that was sort-of-improved in 2024 version is Mirror Image. [..]

For the D&D 2014 version, if you and the images have the same AC, there's a 25% chance you get hit rather than an image on the first hit; 35% on the second hit; and 50% on the third hit. This amounts to a 24.4% chance that you don't get hit on the first three attacks that strike your AC successfully.

For the D&D 2024 version of Mirror Image, there's a 3.7% chance you get hit rather than an image on the first hit; 11.1% on the second hit; and 33.3% on the third hit. This amounts to a 57.1% chance that you don't get hit on the first three attacks that strike your AC successfully.

So, D&D 2024 significantly improved Mirror Image in that regard as well, ignoring that your images get higher AC too with D&D 2024. The D&D 2024 version is okay if your AC is in a range where the opponents have a decent chance of hitting you, particularly when your opponents have multiple attacks, but it makes you extremely difficult to hit when you are high AC.

Another big advantage of Mirror Image is that it lasts 1 minute and doesn't require concentration. Mirror Image seems significantly better than Blur for a high AC spell caster, as Blur lasts 1 minute with concentration, and just imposes disadvantage on attacks against you. Also worth considering that many combats only last 3 to 4 rounds.

It makes me really wonder if they did the math for the D&D 2024 changes to Mirror Image. I suspect not, or that the change was allowed due to the simpler mechanics for it.

As a DM, I'd be tempted to house rule to get rid of the Mirror Image spell, but change the Blur spell to not require concentration, as that would streamline combat better. I don't like the mechanics for Mirror Image that require rolling an additional d20 or d6s, and/or having to strike the images AC that differs from yours. I also don't see the need for two 2nd level illusion spells, Blur and Mirror Image, that are somewhat similar defensive spells reducing that chance that you get hit, and which many people will struggle to evaluate as to their relative effectiveness.

A possible simplified version of Mirror Image is that it simply causes all incoming attacks to miss 50% of the time for say 3 rounds, unless the attacker has True Sight, Blindsight, Tremorsense, or similar to pinpoint your location. And higher level spell slots could increase the duration by 2 rounds per spell slot level.

 

[Tessarael]

The other problem with Mirror Image is that it is significantly worse for the attacker than them being blinded or you being invisible. The attacker should just temporarily close their eyes when they attack you, so that they only have disadvantage on the attack. If we agree then that disadvantage is the lower bound on how difficult it should be to hit you, then it should just impose disadvantage. That's exactly what Blur does, so just get rid of Mirror Image, and make Blur's duration 1 minute without concentration.

Combining the Blur and Mirror Image spells, I would make the following amalgam:

Blurred Images
2nd level (illusion; arcane, chaos, obscurement)
Classes: artificer, sorcerer, warlock, wizard
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute

Your image is blurred and distorted, or surrounded by illusory duplicates, for the duration. This imposes disadvantage on attacks against you, unless the attacker has truesight, blindsight, or similar senses to perceive without sight or to see through illusions.

Cast at Higher Levels
You may target an additional willing creature you can see within 30' range for each spell slot level above 2nd. Whenever an affected creature other than you is hit by an attack, the spell ends for that creature.

Rare Version
Beshela’s Blinding Blurred Images. When an ally's distorting illusion is negated by a successful attack (i.e., when you cast this spell with a higher level spell slot to target allies as well), it explodes in a brilliant arc of light towards the attacker. The attacker makes a Constitution saving throw or is blinded until the start of its next turn. If you wish (this can be done with the 2nd level spell slot), this also applies to your protection, negating it on the first successful attack against you, but also potentially blinding that attacker, in which case if they fail their save, the blindness lasts until the end of your attacker's next turn.

 

[lichmaster]

These are all interesting takes on Mirror Images, a spell I absolutely loved in the previous editions and that in 5e was kinda ruined, like so many others.

Personally I'd try to keep the spirit of the spell as close to 2E or 3E as possible, so something like
"You create 3 illusory duplicates of yourself around you. The duplicates exactly mirror your movements and constantly shift position, making it impossibe to distinguish the caster's position from one duplicate. An attacker targeting the caster must choose among one of the visible images of the caster. The duplicates have the same AC as the caster, and they disappear when hit by a melee or ranged attack. Damaging area of effect spells like fireball do not remove the images. Casting the spell at higher level creates one extra image".

Regarding the requirement of concentration I'm conflicted, mostly because it's the mechanic I detest the most in 5E.

 

[Tessarael]

Personally I'd try to keep the spirit of the spell as close to 2E or 3E as possible, so something like
"You create 3 illusory duplicates of yourself around you. The duplicates exactly mirror your movements and constantly shift position, making it impossible to distinguish the caster's position from one duplicate. An attacker targeting the caster must choose among one of the visible images of the caster. The duplicates have the same AC as the caster, and they disappear when hit by a melee or ranged attack. Damaging area of effect spells like fireball do not remove the images. [..]"

This is less advantageous than the D&D 2024 version, but better than the D&D 2014 version. As you and the images have the same AC, there's a 25% chance you get hit rather than an image on the first hit; 33% on the second hit; and 50% on the third hit. This amounts to a 25% chance that you don't get hit on the first three attacks that strike your AC successfully.
The 3E D&D Mirror Image spell did have an AC of 10 + your Dexterity modifier, which is consistent with the D&D 2014 and A5E versions. As a DM from a game balance perspective, I do like that the effectiveness of these Mirror Image versions don't scale with your AC. Assuming that you have Dexterity 16, so image AC 13, and the attacker has say +7 to attack, the attacker has a 75% chance of hitting an image, so they'll only last vs. 4 attacks on average.

We can factor that in and give you an extra image, and say that each time you are missed, one of your images disappears. (It still results in the conclusion that attackers targeting you should just close their eyes to reduce the chance of missing you to just disadvantage.) Like this:

Simplified Mirror Image
2nd level (illusion; arcane, chaos, obscurement)
Classes: warlock, wizard
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute

Four illusory copies of yourself appear in your space. For the duration, these copies move with you and mimic your actions, creating confusion as to which is real. You can use an action to dismiss them.

Each time you are targeted by a creature’s attack, roll to determine whether you or an image is targeted. If an image is targeted by an attack, that dispels the image, whether or not it would hit your AC.

Attacking creatures that have truesight, cannot see, have blindsight, or rely on other nonvisual senses are unaffected by this spell.

Cast at Higher Levels
Gain an extra image per higher spell slot level above 2nd. When using a level 5+ spell slot, you can increase the duration to concentration (1 hour), if you wish.

 

[lichmaster]

Well, I kept the AC of the images the same as the caster's for simplicity, but I think it shouldn't be far off.

We could argue what AC would make sense though: adding Dex modifier brings it closer to the caster's AC, the differences would mostly be due to equipment and eventually other spells affecting AC directly (eg shield of faith).

That said, I'm ok with your suggestion, except not giving them any AC and only requiring "targeting", as it's what creates the weird benefit of keeping the eyes closed.

Regarding the "close your eyes" aspect, I don't think it would improve the situation.
First, one image should be chosen (randomly or not), if the attacker closes his eyes this is not really possible. Let's still assume that he swings his sword as if trying to hit a pinata, "aiming" at the square in front of him. Well then the choice of which image is targeted is random. Then the attack, against whatever AC, is still made with disadvantage. That's not gonna increase the chances of hitting the target.

 

[Tessarael]

Mirror Image specifies that "Attacking creatures that ... cannot see ... are unaffected by this spell." That's why I mentioned closing your eyes as a counter to the spell to have disadvantage, rather than a much lower hit chance due to multiple images. If Mirror Image affects other senses (auditory, etc.) then it would negate that, but then the "cannot see" should be omitted from the spell description.