D&D (2024) Spells. What needs adjusted?

[Henadic Theologian]

demipane needs to not s

 

[Horwath]

Damage spells scale horribly.

Every level upscale should give 2 or 3 dice of damage.
Fireball is good for 3rd level slot, for 4th it's terrible.

Shield should be just that. A shield.
It should last 24hrs and give +2 AC while not using one hand to fight with weapons.
you could still use that hand for casting or holding a lantern or similar.
for flavor, I guess it can block magic missiles.


Rework concentration, either remove Conc trait from half the spells that now has it or make possible to somehow concentrate on multiple spells.

Either a number of spell levels equal to your caster level, or if it's too much a number of spell levels equal to your highest available slot or number of spell levels equal to your casting modifier plus proficiency modifier.

addition, if you are concentrating on multiple spells, you have disadvantage on Con saves for concentration and you lose all spells if you fail.


standardize spell duration and balance it around it.

Durations:
instant. direct damage spells
one round. Very strong combat buff or debuff. possible rider on direct damage spells
one minute: standard combat buff or debuff, damage over time spell
one hour: spell suitable for few encounters or roleplaying event or exploration challenge
one day: adventuring focus spell.


Healing spells should be all Bonus action. As we know, being a heal-bot is always fun and exciting.
Healing spells should give option for a target to use HDs for additional healing. One HD per spell level. Same for healing potions.

 

[tetrasodium]

Healing spells should be all Bonus action. As we know, being a heal-bot is always fun and exciting.
Healing spells should give option for a target to use HDs for additional healing. One HD per spell level. Same for healing potions.

. The reasoning for bonus action healing is sound(but not one I agree with), but those heals are still largely relying on se ding damage away to the corn field of death saves with the lowest level slot available rather than actually healing the damage with appropriate slit cost. It's not reasonable to eliminate the cost of "healing" someone to also eliminate any meaningful action cost as long as that remains unchanged.

Reducing the cost of healing to such a degree as suggested has an impact far beyond "not everyone enjoys playing the healer" type reasons. After a point it starts to devalue & even eliminate the value of any contribution build or playstyle that would mitigate the need for healing.

 

[Stalker0]

Rework concentration, either remove Conc trait from half the spells that now has it or make possible to somehow concentrate on multiple spells.

The problem is that concentration serves two masters:

• You want to mimic the fantasy trope of disrupting casting.
• You want to ensure certain spell stacking does not overpower characters and slow down gameplay.

Both of those are absolutely things you want to do. But the problem is 5e oversimplified by using 1 mechanic, and so its gotten unwieldy.

There should be two keywords. Concentration should be just to allow spells to be disrupted. Than some other keyword should represent spells that can't stack with each other. And some spells will have both keywords, but many will not.

 

[Captain Panda]

Magic Missile needs to do more damage. Over the years its damage has not gone up as much as hit points have and now it is too weak.

There are some very effective builds that make Magic Missile for a ton.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

spells that shut down enemies need to not be in teir 1. charm, and hold person, tasha's laugh and sleep should all be moved up to 3rd level.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

demipane needs to not s

you should be able to build on it and make your own plane at 8th level spells

 

[Gladius Legis]

I kind of feel like everyone should get + 1/2 proficiency in "all other" saves.

I'd go one further than that and just make saving throws universally and fully proficient. And just let the differences in ability scores between classes be the difference in saving throws.

Think about it, at level 17+ (+6 proficiency) with a 10 in the stat, you still only succeed 40% of the time (and fail 60%) vs. DC 19. And even with proficiency + 20 stat, that success is still just 65% (thus a 35% failure chance, which is not insignificant). DC 19 is a level 17+ caster's spell DC, and keep in mind many monster ability DCs at that level are higher than that.

Universal save proficiency would also actually make limiting things like the Paladin's Aura of Protection a more feasible consideration.

 

[Stalker0]

My personal top tier:

• Leomund's Tiny Hut: Very different than what this spell was originally designed for, and is weirdly abusive if you run it RAW.
• Counterspell: Very anti-fun spell, could use some adjustment (Level-ups change to it is a solid tweak).
• Hypnotic Pattern: Too good and too good an area for 3rd level.
• Any AC boosting spell that's concentration (like barkskin or shield of faith). Concentration should not exist for these spells.
• Mordenkainen's Sword: A unforgivably weak spell, needs a major boost.
• Weird: 9th level?.....riiiiight.
• Circle of Death: Needs more oomph to be a damage spell of this high a level.
• Find Traps: The spell that doesn't actually help you find traps.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

All the Conjure spells, as well as animate object, need to not allow 8+ creatures. That slows the game down way too much. One summon is enough.

And they have been more or less replaced with Summon spells now, so just remove them.

I'm very curious how they might do these spells given what they said about changing Spells to fit their levels instead of changing a Spells level. Like Conjure Celestial is a level 7 Spell, but only summons a Celestial 4 CR creature, 5 CR if up cast. It was designed around a philosophy that Celestials would maintain a utility focus, especially CR 4/5 Celestials, but that philosohy did not survive past the MM.

I think redoing it could be interesting. Or they could a Conjure Avatar for clerics for a high level summons which would fit a broader swath of cleric types.

Planar Ally on the other hand is a complete mess and needs a complete over haul,its just not a well designed spell. I'd redo it in the mold of Find Familiar and Find Steed which were vadtly improved.