D&D 5E Stalker0's Xanathar Spell Ratings

[mellored]

Bones of the Earth - 2 (debating)
This is one I need to see in play to know. Its an odd spell, has some potential, but also seems a bit niche.

It's actually pretty versatile. Nothing says you need to put the pillars under a creature.
So you can, for instance, make a 30 wall. Or a cheap force force cage. Or make a stair case (up to 30' tall). Or put it under your wizard to keep him out of reach of melee. Or a place for the rogue to hide behind. 6 pillars gives you lots of room to mix and match. Try and squish one guy while walling off another. All without concentration.

Cause Fear - 3
Compared to spells like sleep, its not a great crippler at low levels. There are better spells to do effects, or just apply damage.

Fear can effectly shut down any melee creature, no matter the level. A level 1 spell shutting down a CR 5 wearbear. Something sleep can't do.
And while tasha's hideous laughter is just better at level 1, cause fear scales well.

Investiture of Flame - 2
Energy Immunity is always sexy, and the secondaries on this one are pretty good too. Also with the long duration you can really save on the spell slots if you want to just use the flame spray.

Investiture of Ice - 2
Its good in the same way the flame version is good.

4d8 is 18 damage (4d6 is 14). A 3d10 firebolt will do 16.5, at a much longer range.
Not to mention, if your fighting something that you need fire immunity for (red dragon, fire elemental), then you probably don't want to be doing fire damage as well.

So these are really only good for immunity. Which you would need to know ahead of time which one to prepare.

 

[Dausuul]

If your DM lets you get away with this.

(Unless they have errataed the spells in question, the summon ends the round before it gets bound and therefore your demon army fizzles. No I know they've stated the RAI on this. But RAI is still not RAW. That's why I'm saying "if your DM lets you get away with this".)

Nope, this works by RAW as well as RAI. You're overlooking a key clause of both infernal calling and summon greater demon. This clause is normally a hazard for the summoner, but in this case it works in the summoner's favor.

Each round, a summoned demon gets a Charisma save to break free of your control. In 600 rounds, the demon is almost certain to make its save. If you stop concentrating early, an uncontrolled demon sticks around for an extra 1d6 rounds. So if you stop concentrating one round early, the duration of summon greater demon is actually 1 hour + (1d6-1) rounds. That means you have a 5/6 chance to bind it successfully before it goes poof.

Likewise, a devil summoned by infernal calling has a chance to break your influence each time you command it. Once it succeeds, it gets 3d6 bonus minutes after your concentration ends, and that time can be exploited to finish a planar binding. (Of course, powerful devils are fairly bright. It may guess what you're up to, and deliberately refuse to fight your commands so that you never get the bonus minutes. In that case, give it the most extravagant orders you can think of.)

Of course, this does mean that magic circle is non-optional. An escaped devil or demon isn't going to stick around while you finish binding it. You also have to upcast it with a 4th-level slot, or the circle's duration will expire while you're still casting planar binding.

 

[5ekyu]

I think the RAW and RAI line up pretty well here.



First you have the intent that the bound creature can be summoned by another spell. Then you have the duration of the summoning spell becomes the duration of the this spell. Those two together makes it very likely that Planar Binding is indeed a conduit for using summoning spells to bring in targets.

And yeah, it has the potential to get very broken. As a DM in my home game I'd probably just allow you to have one Planar Bound creature at a time even though that's not in the text of the rule.

Not getting into the RAI vs RAW all i will say is that i recall so much fiction/media that gives me so many ideas about the consequences of a PC using this to create an "army" of demons/infernals etc that i would not limit this BY RULE CHANGE much at all.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think the fireball test is not really a good one. Fireball has also a lot of drawbacks:

1. It gives away your position easily because the ray starts from you.
2. Cover can block it.
3. It is fire damage... if you go against a wizard without fire resistance you did something wrong.
4. Fireball area can be a drawback
5. Fireball burns down buildings and forests.

6. Immlation is still bad... and makes no sense.

 

[Iry]

Likewise, a devil summoned by infernal calling has a chance to break your influence each time you command it. Once it succeeds, it gets 3d6 bonus minutes after your concentration ends, and that time can be exploited to finish a planar binding. (Of course, powerful devils are fairly bright. It may guess what you're up to, and deliberately refuse to fight your commands so that you never get the bonus minutes. In that case, give it the most extravagant orders you can think of.)

Infernal Calling is tricky. You only get the 3d6 minutes if the devil has become immune to your verbal commands. But giving verbal commands is voluntary. So you have to give the devil NO commands for almost the full duration of the spell, then start giving a bunch of totally silly and absurd commands in the last couple of minutes UNTIL YOU FAIL.

Which is an absolutely ridiculous scenario and smells of cheese from a mile away.

But it might work as a fun story once.

 

[Gadget]

Create Homunculus - N/A
Have to see it in play.

This may be one of those spells that's more world-building or BBEG friendly than anything. Unless you are in an extreme plot & intrigue driven game where realm management comes into play, I don't see PC's wanting to spend a relatively high level spell slot (where you actually damage yourself to cast) just to create such a minion. Sure, you can cast this during downtime, but the creature does not have the stealth or damage avoidance to be a reliable scout/spy, so all the designer's talk about being able to effectively scry through it anywhere on the same plane of existence being a very powerful ability rings kind of hollow. You can use it to look in on the cat feeder and what the neighbor's are up to while you are away, but that isn't terribly useful. Maybe if you are expecting your home base to be raided? And all that verbiage about giving it additional hit points by sacrificing your own; most of the point of these type of summons/creations is to sacrifice their hit points in place of your own, not the reverse. Like I said, more of a BBEG/NPC spell.

Enervation - 2 (leaning to a 3)
My jury is still a bit out on this one. We have the witchbolt effect, but with a longer range and more damage. However, most important...you heal from the damage. So a distance vampiric touch. Damage wise, it takes 3 rounds before it beats fireball damage. 3 rounds is the absolute max to me a DOT should be considered, 5e combats are short. And as a single target effect, fireball "blows" it out of the water. Is the healing enough to warrant the high level? I don't know.

I would disagree, a sure red. The damage is weak, the healing pretty inconsequential at this level. More of a torture method for the BBEG.

Tenser's Transformation - 3
Any concentration spell that throws you into melee is questionable, though you do get con proficiency. Your AC is going to be lacking because of the time it takes to don the armor (you can't cast the spell in unproficient armor). The offense is decent, but for a 6th level spell its not amazing. And the nail on the coffin is the exhaustion at the end.

I've personally thought about having this spell instantly equip the caster with a set of non-magical half-plate for the duration that shines faintly. Maybe not enough to redeem it, but it does give it a little oomph.

I don't know that most DMs would let prestidigitation get away with quite as much as your table seems to, but I think there might be more of an argument for druidcraft, IMHO.

All and all a nice list with some good points.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Not getting into the RAI vs RAW all i will say is that i recall so much fiction/media that gives me so many ideas about the consequences of a PC using this to create an "army" of demons/infernals etc that i would not limit this BY RULE CHANGE much at all.

Oh, it's written into the spells, too. These are not loyal followers unless you can somehow make them be so, attempting to pervert the meaning of their instructions where possible.

 

[Iry]

I thought Ray Power sounded like a superhero name, and then I find out he’s a spellcaster who casts love spells? Hahahahah.

 

[Dausuul]

Look, you and Dr. Raypower can of course house rule things any way you like, but RAW the duration on that spell is very clearly stated to be a maximum of 24 months. Also, it's Concentration, so he can't cast it for other people and keep it going on your boyfriend at the same time. Of course it's crazy good if you ignore all the restrictions on it.

(Also, spam reported. Though I kinda want them to leave it up.)

 

[pnewman]

Ceremony can be very powerful if you cast Wedding Ceremony. Stacking +2 AC to two creatures that lasts for days for a 1st level slot is great. You just can't cast it again until that creature is widowed. You just need to marry off the party of each other at the start of each adventure, and the kill them (thus widowing their partners) and Raise Dead them at the end of each adventure. Then you do it again next session.