D&D 5E What's the worst spell?

[FormerlyHemlock]

Any Necromancer should probably have Mending. It's a great way to repair broken bones, so you can keep using the same corpses for Animate Dead over and over again.

I mean, you probably don't even need Mending because Animate Dead doesn't say the pile of bones has to be intact, but some DMs might claim your bones are damaged and cannot be re-animated. Mending overcomes that limitation.

Ditto for old suits of armor and shortswords that you want to give you minions. Necromancers are all about logistics.

Fabricate can be nice for them too.

 

[jaelis]

I don't doubt that there are situations where RoE is useful, it is just that with all the restrictions, it is far to niche to justify. Ranged Spell Attack (which can obviously miss), Concentration, Save every round to end, and for what? Half damage on STR weapon attacks. Not unarmed, claw, bite, or slam attacks (rules out most bestial monsters).

To be fair, the RoE penalty apples to all weapon attack (not "attacks with a weapon"), and unarmed strikes and natural weapons do typically count as weapon attacks.

That doesn't make it a decent spell, by any means. Not sure how to compare it to a direct damage dealer. But if you use the "subtract one level" test, it still fails: I wouldn't want to cast it even if it were first level.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Gradine]

I try to have something objective to base the list on, so it's not just my judgment, because otherwise (IMO) too many posts get wasted on "this should be included in the list," or someone takes it on themselves to edit the list.

That said, if someone wants to put together a list from the the spells nominated in this thread and post it here, I'll put it up after the Volo's thread ends.

(Must be at least 14 spells)

From this thread alone:

True Strike
Blade Ward
Witch Bolt
Mordenkainen's Sword
Holy Word
Friends
Barkskin
Ray of Enfeeblement
Phantasmal Killer
Find Traps
Weird
Drawmij's Instant Summons
Horrid Wilting*
Mending
Animate Dead
Wish**

*Not from the PHB
**Unsure if this was a serious suggestion

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Yunru]

[MENTION=6799753]lowkey13[/MENTION]: Caution - These are worst spells for their level. Might want to emphasis that.

 

[snickersnax]

I'd like to nominate feign death for 3rd level

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Yunru]

I dunno man. I think that, objectively, wish is worse than mending.

I think it'd be worse at surviving a "Worst Spells" survivor thread, does that count?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*