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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7234446" data-attributes="member: 58172">Minor Spellsfrom the worst ... to the not-as-worst!Skill CheckIndentify 1 − Short RestLegend Lore 5 − HistoryFind The Path 6 − SurvivalLocate Animals Or Plants 2 − SurvivalDetect Poison And Disease 1 − MedicineAnimal Friendship 1 − Animal HandlingDetect Thoughts 2 − InsightEnthrall 2 − Persuasion/Intimidation/BluffFind Traps 2 − Perception/InvestigationPerhaps Skill CheckSpeak With Dead 3 − perhaps Arcane/ReligionFeign Death 3ph − perhaps MedicineDetect Evil And Good 1 − perhaps Arcane/ReligionJump 1 − perhaps AthleticsThe list of ‘Minor Spells’, includes spells whose effects seem rarely  worth the price of a spell slot, and seem to benefit from a redesign. Think of Minor Spells as ½-Level spells. A  redesign might be to delete it from the official spell list, or to make it more powerful to become an appealing choice among  1st-level spells, or to merge it as a feature of an other spell, or to move it into  a separate design space such as make it a skill check rather than a spell, or so on.The ‘Skill Check’ is now a category within ‘Minor Spells’. It lists the spells that do something that a skill check can already do. Many of these Skill Check spells are vestiges from early editions of D&D before the skill set evolved as a separate design space.The ‘Perhaps Skill Check’ is a category of Minor Spells that a skill check might not be able to do because it might seem somewhat supernatural, but perhaps the relevant skill should be able to do it.Find Traps 2 is arguably equivalent to a 1st-level spell, but seems so  universally mocked and reviled that it is probably not even worth that. It lists as a Minor Spell.The problematic with Find Traps 2 (Perception), Detect Thoughts 2 (Insight), Legend Lore 5 (History), and other less satisfactory spells, is they duplicate what a normal skill check can already do.Therefore, if such a spell is too good, it makes the skill obsolete (which interferes with the concepts of nonmagical classes, like skillful Rogue or athletic Fighter). But oppositely, if the spell is insufficiently better than what a skill can already do, then the spell is a silly choice for a spell slot. The caster can already moreorless do it as a skill, or at least someone else in the team probably can. So why waste a spell on it?All of these skill-mimicking spells end up as Minor Spells, rarely worth a spell slot and unable to compete alongside more useful 1st-level spells.Humorously, the high level spell Find The Path 6 can only identify a path to a place whose location you already know. It almost seems like the spell is a spell published on April Fools Day as a prank. In any case, figuring out the way to a place that you know is normal navigating, and if naviation is difficult for some reason, figuring out the path is a normal feature of the Wisdom Survival skill check. Heh, as spells, even Find Traps seems more useful than Find The Path, and Find Traps is pretty terrible for a spell.Locate Animals Or Plants 2 allows the caster to recognize if and where a certain kind of plant or animal is present in the area, within 5 miles. In other words, it is a Wisdom Survival skill check relating to tracking and knowledge of behavior and habitat. Animal Friendship 1 is already something anyone can do with a Wisdom Animal Handling skill check. The fact that the spell Animal Friendship allows the beast a save against the friendship makes it even worse than a normal skill check.The spell, Enthrall 2, is simply an attempt to distract someone. For example, keep a guard busy so that teammates can slip past him. Less usefully, the spell even grants the ‘mark’ a saving throw against the spell. The attempt to ‘distract’ someone is already something that any character can do, simply by making a social skill check. The method of distraction can be the Persuasion check to seduce the person, an Intimidation check to shock the guard verbally or even try start a fight, a Bluff check to fast talk or toss a stone in an other direction to create a distracting noise. A spell to do what a skill check can already do is superfluous and unnecessary. Detect Poison and Disease 1 is pretty much what the Wisdom Medicine skill check should be able to do at-will.Detect Evil And Good 1 is really a ‘detect planar creature’ spell, specifically an Elemental, Fey, Celestial, Fiend, Undead, or Aberration. This is a Minor Spell that is less satisfactory as a choice among 1st-level spells. Perhaps the capability to detect these ‘otherworldly spirits’ works best as a simple Intelligence/Wisdom Arcane/Religion skill check. Or perhaps it can merge in as a feature of the Protection from Evil and Good spell. Thus the same spell the creates defenses for these otherworldly spirits also senses if any are present.Identify 1 is unworth a spell because it is something that anyone can already automatically do during 15-minute short rest. Identifying the magical properties of a magic item is part of the process of attuning with it. But perhaps instead, this process works best if it requires a successful Intelligence Arcane skill check, for each property discovered and the attunement itself.(Note. I agree with the school of thought that adds the skill proficiency bonus to any relevant ability check. Thus a Constitution Athletics skill check might apply to hold ones breath for a long time. An Intelligence Perception skill check effectively eliminates the needs for a separate Intelligence Investigation skill. And so on − whatever makes sense in a particular situation. But here in this thread, I am just listing the Ability that the Players Handbook associates with each skill.)</blockquote>

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