D&D 5E Survivor Worst Spells: FIND TRAPS IS THE WORST!

[Iry]

Traps can't hide. They can only be unseen.

The game is extremely consistent that objects can be hidden, and specifically mentions traps as an example. Emphasis below is mine.

PHB 177 "What Can You See? One of the main factors in determining whether you can find a hidden creature or object is how well you can see in an area"

PHB 178 "Investigation. When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse."

PHB 178 "Finding a Hidden Object. When your character searches for a hidden object such as a secret door or a trap, the DM typically asks you to make a Wisdom (Perception) check."

PHB 182 "Noticing Threads. Use the passive Wisdom (Perception) scores of the characters to determine whether anyone in the group notices a hidden threat."

PHB 183 "Vision and Light. The most fundamental tasks of adventuring—noticing danger, finding hidden objects, hitting an enemy in combat, and targeting a spell, to name just a few—"

PHB 203 "Divination spells reveal information, whether in the form of secrets long forgotten, glimpses of the future, the locations of hidden things, the truth behind illusions, or visions of distant people or places."

Oh, and while Sage Advice is not an actual ruling, I just wanted to add this here because it's hilarious and insulting to Find Traps. =D

 

[Harzel]

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting 18
Blade Ward 13
Drawmij's Instant Summons 23
Feign Death 24
Find Traps 30
Friends 30
Mordenkainen's Sword 24
Phantasmal Killer 13
Ray of Enfeeblement 16
True Strike 37
Weird 21
Witch Bolt 5

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Woops, shows how much I know. Nevermind everyone, Time Stop's fine.

It's not awful, but it's not great. It still has a lot of limitations attached to what you can do, and you still can't lay down lots of buff spells on yourself because THOSE are mostly concentration spells.

There just aren't all that many things you can usefully do by trading one action and a 9th level spell slot for 1d4+1 turns of [anything except affecting creatures besides you or objects you're not carrying]. Sure, if you roll high on the d4 you could do Time Stop (Mirror Image + Fire Shield + Blink + Delayed Blast Fireball + Fireball), for 20d6 (70) points of Fire damage plus some buff spells--but is that REALLY better than just casting Meteor Swarm for 40d6 (140) on a much bigger area? Are those defensive buffs worth paying more than three times as many spell points for half as much damage to fewer enemies?

It's pretty disappointing for a 9th level spell.

 

[Helldritch]

The concentration mechanic restricts a lot of spells. But I do think it is a fair trade off from the endless buffing of earlier editions.
Most of you think of this spell as an offensive one but I prefer to think of it as a nice defense.
Time Stop gives 3 turns on average. That is enough time to drink 2 potions and cast an offensive spells or 2 potions and a nice mirror image or whatever else you may think of at the time. If you roll badly then teleport might become an option. Ending the Time stop with a nice domed wall of force, an incendiary cloud or whatever is also an option.
Time Stop is still a good spell if you take "time" to think it through. Not a great spell spell, but still a good one.

 

[rczarnec]

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting 18
Blade Ward 13
Drawmij's Instant Summons 23
Feign Death 24
Find Traps 30
Friends 30
Mordenkainen's Sword 24
Phantasmal Killer 11
Ray of Enfeeblement 16
True Strike 37
Weird 21
Witch Bolt 6

 

[Argyle King]

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting 18
Blade Ward 13
Drawmij's Instant Summons 23
Feign Death 24
Find Traps 31
Friends 30
Mordenkainen's Sword 24
Phantasmal Killer 11
Ray of Enfeeblement 16
True Strike 35
Weird 21
Witch Bolt 6

 

[Maxperson]

The game is extremely consistent that objects can be hidden, and specifically mentions traps as an example. Emphasis below is mine.

PHB 177 "What Can You See? One of the main factors in determining whether you can find a hidden creature or object is how well you can see in an area"

PHB 178 "Investigation. When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse."

PHB 178 "Finding a Hidden Object. When your character searches for a hidden object such as a secret door or a trap, the DM typically asks you to make a Wisdom (Perception) check."

PHB 182 "Noticing Threads. Use the passive Wisdom (Perception) scores of the characters to determine whether anyone in the group notices a hidden threat."

PHB 183 "Vision and Light. The most fundamental tasks of adventuring—noticing danger, finding hidden objects, hitting an enemy in combat, and targeting a spell, to name just a few—"

PHB 203 "Divination spells reveal information, whether in the form of secrets long forgotten, glimpses of the future, the locations of hidden things, the truth behind illusions, or visions of distant people or places."

Oh, and while Sage Advice is not an actual ruling, I just wanted to add this here because it's hilarious and insulting to Find Traps. =D

One of the issues this edition has is that it mixes terms. There's hidden(things that are unseen), and then there's HIDDEN(using the hide ability in the rules). The hide rules are for creatures only. An object cannot hide and there are no rules for hiding objects. Finding a "hidden" object just involves a check against a DC that the DM picks, because it's not actually hiding, so there's no opposing roll.

View attachment 85800

That's amusing

Mearls, though, tends to talk about how he would rule something as DM, not as a designer. I mean, the spell actually specifies that it finds the alarm spell.

 

[JonnyP71]

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting 18
Blade Ward 13
Drawmij's Instant Summons 23
Feign Death 24
Find Traps 31
Friends 31
Mordenkainen's Sword 24
Phantasmal Killer 11
Ray of Enfeeblement 14 I've had plenty of mileage out of this one
True Strike 35
Weird 21
Witch Bolt 6

 

[Iry]

One of the issues this edition has is that it mixes terms. There's hidden(things that are unseen), and then there's HIDDEN(using the hide ability in the rules). The hide rules are for creatures only. An object cannot hide and there are no rules for hiding objects. Finding a "hidden" object just involves a check against a DC that the DM picks, because it's not actually hiding, so there's no opposing roll.

Not every hard to see object is hidden, but most hidden objects would have the DC set by whoever hid the object in the first place, the same as any object you take with you when you hide. Similarly, not every trap is hidden, but most of them are intentionally hidden by the person who put them there. And if "HIDDEN" is not natural language for "HIDE" then I don't know what language we're speaking.

 

[Yunru]

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting 18
Blade Ward 11 [-]
Drawmij's Instant Summons 23
Feign Death 24
Find Traps 31
Friends 31
Mordenkainen's Sword 24
Phantasmal Killer 11
Ray of Enfeeblement 14
True Strike 35
Weird 21
Witch Bolt 7 [+]


The initial damage for Witch Bolt is on par with a 1st level cantrip, kami damn it! The rest of the spell's cute, but far too easily negated.