D&D 5E What spell have you never seen cast?

[Celebrim]

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.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

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.

Well then, he should stay calm anyway - a DM always has the "Rocks fall, everyone loses Concentration" card to play...

 

[WaterRabbit]

I would have thought that you would have run into Wish once or twice, even if not on the spell list of the party.

 

[Mycroft]

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]

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]

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.

Just looking at the 3e SRD, a few spells I've NEVER seen cast in any edition:

1st: Hold Portal, Erase

Hold Portal used to be fairly common at low levels. Not sure I've ever seen Erase cast, though.

2nd: Obscure Object, Locate Object, Touch of Idiocy, Misdirection, "Phantom Trap", Deafness

Locate Object? Really? That thing's almost a staple around here!

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

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]

Hold Portal used to be fairly common at low levels.

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.

Locate Object? Really? That thing's almost a staple around here!

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.

Of those, I see Hallucinatory Terrain cast somewhat regularly; usually by Nature Clerics trying to put forests where no forest should be.

What is the point of that?

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!

The problem with Contact Other Plane is that it is completely inferior to Commune in just about every way.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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.

 

[akr71]

There are a lot of spells listed in this thread that I have not seen casted either, but the one that jumped to mind when reading the OP is Barkskin. Also Phantom Steed.

 

[Stalker0]

The problem with Contact Other Plane is that it is completely inferior to Commune in just about every way.

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