D&D 5E The Weakest Spells in 5e - The Quick Fix

[jgsugden]

In this thread, the goal is to address some of the weakest spells in dnd with quick simple changes. Again, our goal is not to revamp the spell and change it entirely, just a slight adjustment that fixes the biggest issue. I'm not all of the really weak spells here, just a personal top 5 of mine.
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Circle of Death: All creatures in the spell area are poisoned until the beginning of your next turn (no save)
This spell just doesn't do nearly enough effect to justify its spell level, so now we add an automatic status rider (though a fairly weak condition at this level) to sweeten the deal.

Circle of Death is a limited situation spell, but it is already massively powerful. Why? 60 foot radius. That can be hundreds of targets. This is one of a series of war spells that can change the entire tide of a battle in one casting. Now, I'd usually prezer to have the Freezing Sphere spell with the superior range, but Circle of Death has a different resistance profile, is open to more classes and upcasts better (2d6 rather than 1d6). You're also not going to find that 'open battlefield' scenario in many campaigns, but when you do ... wow. These spells are amazing.

As a DM, I have several casters that use this spell. A powerful necromancer attacked a large town. The Necormancer's first ranks were spirits: Wraiths, Specters and Shadows. The guard rode out to face them ... and the entire guard was hit by a Circle of Death that ignored the immune spirits. The PCs then had to deal with the invading army long enough for the populace to flee.

I'm not saying that it couldn't be more powerful and still balanced - just that it doesn't need to be rebalanced as it has a powerful use that keepsit within the range of reason.

 

[CleverNickName]

Eh, I'd just change True Strike's casting time to a Bonus action, and call it good. (shrug) To each their own.

 

[John R Davis]

Maybe make TS " gives a +10 to an attack roll next round, rather than advantage, and you can re-roll a 1".

 

[DEFCON 1]

I re-did both True Strike and Blade Ward several years ago to have a duration of 1 hour, and that the recipient could choose which attack to have it go off. This allowed the caster to cast it out of combat and thus have it in reserve for when then needed it to pop.

Obviously the Bonus action cast would be easier to remember for True Strike (like others have put forth)... but there is the issue of giving Advantage on an attack that easily without some mitigating factor to give it a bit more cost. Other options do ask the player to pay an additional cost to gain the Advantage via Bonus action. Help uses your action, a Rogue using Hide requires them to make a Stealth check, a Battlemaster has to spend one of their Superiority Dice to Feint, a Rogue choosing to Aim cannot move the entire turn, etc. So to make TS a Bonus action cast... there probably should be another requirement to make it a bit more difficult.

But then again... I guess it really depends on how often a warrior that has access to cantrips would use their Bonus actions to cast it and if it really was as unbalanced as it might appear at first blush. It probably needs a good playtesting.

 

[Stalker0]

Making true strike a bonus action makes jt overpowered. For classes that don’t need their bonus action your giving them advantage on tap, that’s just too good.

 

[Ancalagon]

I agree that circle of death is situational but doesn't need fixing as is.

True strike: what if we made it something that was a bit like ... a clockwork amulet, or maybe even reliable talent? A roll can be replaced with a flat 10? This isn't a fully developed idea, but I thought I would toss it out

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I agree that circle of death is situational but doesn't need fixing as is.

True strike: what if we made it something that was a bit like ... a clockwork amulet, or maybe even reliable talent? A roll can be replaced with a flat 10? This isn't a fully developed idea, but I thought I would toss it out

Good idea,

Can replace an attack roll with a flat 10 for the rest of the next turn, so it may be worthwhile for EK and other multi-attacker with acess to spells.

I think I'd still add +1/2/3/4 force damage on a hit.

Immolation:

I'd make it closer to Contagion, where you need to save 3 times (or fail 3 times), taking the damage for each failed save, half even on a sucess, and disadvantage on attack rolls, like Heat Metal. After 3 failed save, the target falls to 0 HP.

Circle of Death: All creatures in the spell area are poisoned until the beginning of your next turn (no save)
This spell just doesn't do nearly enough effect to justify its spell level, so now we add an automatic status rider (though a fairly weak condition at this level) to sweeten the deal.

Those who fail the save cant regain HP and are Vulnerable until the start of your next turn? The damage is automatic.

Or

Roll 10d8; the total is how many hit points of creatures this spell can affect. Starting with the creature that has the lowest current hit points, each creature affected by this spell dies. AKA Sleep ++

 

[Seramus]

Don't forget Find Traps. It actually beat True Strike in the worst spell ever survivor thread.

Though I do love someone figured out it can be used on legal documents.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Circle of Death is a limited situation spell, but it is already massively powerful. Why? 60 foot radius. That can be hundreds of targets. This is one of a series of war spells that can change the entire tide of a battle in one casting. Now, I'd usually prezer to have the Freezing Sphere spell with the superior range, but Circle of Death has a different resistance profile, is open to more classes and upcasts better (2d6 rather than 1d6). You're also not going to find that 'open battlefield' scenario in many campaigns, but when you do ... wow. These spells are amazing.

As a DM, I have several casters that use this spell. A powerful necromancer attacked a large town. The Necormancer's first ranks were spirits: Wraiths, Specters and Shadows. The guard rode out to face them ... and the entire guard was hit by a Circle of Death that ignored the immune spirits. The PCs then had to deal with the invading army long enough for the populace to flee.

I'm not saying that it couldn't be more powerful and still balanced - just that it doesn't need to be rebalanced as it has a powerful use that keepsit within the range of reason.

I agree the range can make it useful, but I want to note that this scenario involved the caster being an NPC likely facing enemies several times weaker than them (Circle of Death is for 11th level casters minimum and town guards are CR 1/8). This isn't a scenario that Player Character's often encounter and when they do, it often isn't something they feel like spending their most powerful spell on.

The thing is, we rarely have PCs fighting more than 20 targets. A combat with 5 PCs and 20 enemies is already fairly busy. And 100 enemies? I've never seen it.

That isn't to say that "this is an anti-army" spell isn't a good point, because I agree with you, I love the ludicrous range of this spell and the fact that I'm fairly sure it goes through cover, but that doesn't make it a good spell for player characters, who are not often nuking villages or fighting armies. So, I'd like to find a way to rebalance it that allows it to be generally more useful.

I do like the idea of the spell preventing healing. Currently the only spell that does this is a cantrip, and giving this massive area of effect a rider that if you fail the save you cannot regain hitpoints for 1 minute would make this an amazing spell I think.

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I agree that circle of death is situational but doesn't need fixing as is.

True strike: what if we made it something that was a bit like ... a clockwork amulet, or maybe even reliable talent? A roll can be replaced with a flat 10? This isn't a fully developed idea, but I thought I would toss it out

I like this idea. Maybe have it affect one attack to begin with, two attacks at 5th, three at 11th, and four at 17th so it scales with level? It still makes it kind of bad for an action though, because it doesn't change the action economy issue.

Huh.

You know Flame Blade and the other weapon cantrips have an attack as part of their action. What if True Strike allowed you to cast the spell, then make an attack as a bonus action on your turn? This circumvents the action economy issue, and it doesn't make true strike a bonus action for endless use, a mid level Eldritch Knight is still going to have to consider if this is worthwhile for them, since the turn they cast it, they don't get their full round of attacks.

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Don't forget Find Traps. It actually beat True Strike in the worst spell ever survivor thread.

Though I do love someone figured out it can be used on legal documents.

I honestly don't know if you can fix this spell without just making it... you know the nature and location of all traps within 60 ft of you. Which isn't really something I want a caster to be able to do.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I... may have actually come up with a decent replacement for Find Traps. Not a fix, because it no longer does the thing it was supposed to do, but... a decent spell I think all the same.

Trap Sense (replacement for Find Traps)
2nd level Divination
Casting time: 1 action
Range: touch
Components: V,S
Duration: 1 hour

You touch a willing creature in range, giving them a prenatural sense of danger from traps, natural hazards, and other passive dangers. For the duration of the spell, they gain the following benefits

• They have advantage on rolls to find and disarm traps. They also have advantage on saving throws to avoid or resist traps and natural hazards
• They have resistance to all damage dealt by traps and natural hazards
• They may search for traps while moving at a normal pace, instead of a slow pace

At Higher Levels: If cast as a 5th level spell, the duration extends to 8 hours. If cast as a 7th level spell, the duration is 24 hours. And if cast as a 9th level spell, it lasts until dispelled



Also, I fixed Daylight. If you decide to concentrate on the spell, the light produced is sunlight. Yes, this can absolutely ruin specific monster's days, but so can any other concentration spell, so it should work out fine and it makes it no longer a "dispel magical darkness" spell.