D&D 5E What spell have you never seen cast?
- Thread starter trentonjoe
- Start date
Swarmkeeper
Hero
Fun take on it although the "right away" part is somewhat foiled by the "If the spell ends before 1 minute has passed, the target reappears in the space it left or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied" clause in the spell description. Being a Concentration spell, it ends when cast again before a minute has passed. It would not be so effective in a situation where the party is in imminent danger. Nevertheless, the spell creates a nice escape hatch if the PCs are boxed in somewhere and have a few minutes to spare, depending on the size of the party.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
Yeah by "right away" I meant "within the hour". We were not in imminent danger in the moment, and had just been given our quest which would take days. We thought of just bailing. And as the spell is not expressly labelled as a party-planar-transportation spell, I don't think he realized we had a means to return available.
WaterRabbit
Explorer
It seems to me that someone will get left behind though, as who banishes the banisher?
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
You can cast it on yourself. "One creature that you can see within range" has been ruled as including yourself.
WaterRabbit
Explorer
You would need a mirror then as one normally cannot see oneself.
So in this Sage Advice (https://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/12/01/can-you-cast-banishment-on-yourself/), it looks like you can cast it on yourself -- But. You also have to fail the save and you have no control as to where you end up. So it is a bit of a desperation move.
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You would need a mirror then as one normally cannot see oneself.
So in this Sage Advice (https://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/12/01/can-you-cast-banishment-on-yourself/), it looks like you can cast it on yourself -- But. You also have to fail the save and you have no control as to where you end up. So it is a bit of a desperation move.
Wow, has SA ruled that you cannot voluntarily fail a saving throw?
WaterRabbit
Explorer
Apparently it is the language in the spell itself "The target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be banished." he is basing his ruling on and not a general case.
Ah, so maybe an extra sentence to clarify would've gone a long way (in general spellcasting).
Hoping to fail a saving throw so things go your way seems wrong.
Celebrim
Legend
I've played 1e, 2e, and 3e and I'm certain that the list of spells I've seen cast is vastly shorter than the list of spells I haven't seen cast.
In any edition there are go to spells. Another player was asking me advice in selecting a spell just last night, and he was intrigued by a relatively obscure spell with a cool but highly specialize usage, and I told him the boring but true thing that I would have told any new player - "if you only know a limited number of spells you want to choose the ones that you are going to use pretty much every day and not the ones that will be useful only once or twice in a campaign if ever."
Just looking at the 3e SRD, a few spells I've NEVER seen cast in any edition:
1st: Hold Portal, Erase
2nd: Obscure Object, Locate Object, Touch of Idiocy, Misdirection, "Phantom Trap", Deafness
3rd: Nondetection, Clairaudience, Clairvoyance, Deep Slumber, Illusionary Script, Ray of Exhaustion, Keen Edge
4th: Dimensional Anchor, Minor Creation, Detect Scrying, Locate Creature, Crushing Despair, Lesser Geas, Hallucinary Terrain, Rainbow Pattern, Shadow Conjuration, Contagion, Mass Enlarge Person, "Mnemonic Enhancer", Mass Reduce Person
5th: Break Enchantment, "Mage's Private Sanctum", "Mage's Faithful Hound", Major Creation, Contact Other Plane, Prying Eyes, Telepathic Bond, Mind Fog, Symbol (Sleep), Interposing Hand, False Vision, Mirage Arcana, Seeming, Shadow Evocation, Blight Plants, Symbol (Pain), Animal Growth, Fabricate
Because I usually don't play at high level and have rarely done so over the course of 30 years of play, at this point it gets a lot easier even limiting myself to the SRD to just list the few spells I have seen cast.
For example, of 6th level spells I've ONLY seen disintegrate, stone to flesh, chain lightning, greater dispel magic, true seeing and eyebite. And I've not seen them cast but have encountered permanent illusion and programmed illusion. But that would be it for 6th level spells.
For 7th level spells I've ONLY seen finger of death, "greater teleport", and reverse gravity. And I've not seen them cast but have encountered simulacrums.
I can't ever remember seeing an 8th level or 9th level spell cast.
Things have changed levels, names, and effects over the years so some of these when cast could have been of a lower level.
In any edition there are go to spells. Another player was asking me advice in selecting a spell just last night, and he was intrigued by a relatively obscure spell with a cool but highly specialize usage, and I told him the boring but true thing that I would have told any new player - "if you only know a limited number of spells you want to choose the ones that you are going to use pretty much every day and not the ones that will be useful only once or twice in a campaign if ever."
Just looking at the 3e SRD, a few spells I've NEVER seen cast in any edition:
1st: Hold Portal, Erase
2nd: Obscure Object, Locate Object, Touch of Idiocy, Misdirection, "Phantom Trap", Deafness
3rd: Nondetection, Clairaudience, Clairvoyance, Deep Slumber, Illusionary Script, Ray of Exhaustion, Keen Edge
4th: Dimensional Anchor, Minor Creation, Detect Scrying, Locate Creature, Crushing Despair, Lesser Geas, Hallucinary Terrain, Rainbow Pattern, Shadow Conjuration, Contagion, Mass Enlarge Person, "Mnemonic Enhancer", Mass Reduce Person
5th: Break Enchantment, "Mage's Private Sanctum", "Mage's Faithful Hound", Major Creation, Contact Other Plane, Prying Eyes, Telepathic Bond, Mind Fog, Symbol (Sleep), Interposing Hand, False Vision, Mirage Arcana, Seeming, Shadow Evocation, Blight Plants, Symbol (Pain), Animal Growth, Fabricate
Because I usually don't play at high level and have rarely done so over the course of 30 years of play, at this point it gets a lot easier even limiting myself to the SRD to just list the few spells I have seen cast.
For example, of 6th level spells I've ONLY seen disintegrate, stone to flesh, chain lightning, greater dispel magic, true seeing and eyebite. And I've not seen them cast but have encountered permanent illusion and programmed illusion. But that would be it for 6th level spells.
For 7th level spells I've ONLY seen finger of death, "greater teleport", and reverse gravity. And I've not seen them cast but have encountered simulacrums.
I can't ever remember seeing an 8th level or 9th level spell cast.
Things have changed levels, names, and effects over the years so some of these when cast could have been of a lower level.
Swarmkeeper
Hero
Well then, he should stay calm anyway - a DM always has the "Rocks fall, everyone loses Concentration" card to play...
WaterRabbit
Explorer
I would have thought that you would have run into Wish once or twice, even if not on the spell list of the party.
Well then, he should stay calm anyway - a DM always has the "Rocks fall, everyone loses Concentration" card to play...
Yeah, inadequate ones, with no set integrity for the campaign.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
You would need a mirror then as one normally cannot see oneself.
So in this Sage Advice (https://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/12/01/can-you-cast-banishment-on-yourself/), it looks like you can cast it on yourself -- But. You also have to fail the save and you have no control as to where you end up. So it is a bit of a desperation move.
Yeah we have a pretty good way of failing saving throws (a combination of additional spells) and our DM just said not to worry about it that his ruling was we can always choose to fail a saving throw. As for location, I suspect he'd just send us back where we came from...or all together to a new location. I don't think he'd just scatter us, as then he'd have a nightmare on his hands
Though I can see it being a case of the wizard then teleporting back to our home base, resting 8 hours to get all his spell slots back, getting the services of a divination expert, and then teleporting to each member and teleporting them back. Would likely take a few days, which could be dangerous for those stranded.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Hold Portal used to be fairly common at low levels. Not sure I've ever seen Erase cast, though.
Locate Object? Really? That thing's almost a staple around here!
Of those, I see Hallucinatory Terrain cast somewhat regularly; usually by Nature Clerics trying to put forests where no forest should be.
Contact Other Plane is a funny one - up until two months ago none of us had seen it used in our 38+ years of playing...and in the last two months it's been cast at least 5 times by three or four different mages with different players in different parties and even different campaigns!
Celebrim
Legend
I get what it is for but on the rare occasions where using it would have been reasonable, the party simply hammered some iron spikes into the door frame to wedge it closed.
Do you have a lot of 'find the stolen object' adventurers? Because the limitation that the object must be clearly imagined combined with the relative short range (feet and not miles) tends to mean that even in cases where we were looking for a foozle, the spell couldn't have really helped.
What is the point of that?
The problem with Contact Other Plane is that it is completely inferior to Commune in just about every way.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I've seen Hallucinatory Terrain used to create an illusionary forest - to channel an attacking army into an ambush. I've also seen it used to "stealth" a ship.
You get more questions and there is no miss chance for multiple castings. Smart players can work the saving throw...so this spell turns into a crazy powerful one.
The wizard in my group for this two week downtime hung out with his buddy the paladin. He has advantage on the save being a gnome. So only fails on a double 1. He has asked me over 200 questions (not exaggerating in the slightest, he even bought me lunch so we could hang out and he could just ask his contact questions).
So....in some ways, much stronger than commune
