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

[Phazonfish]

If you wanna keep wish in there it's fine by me, it'll be hilarious, but I think we all know Wish is nowhere near the worst spell.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

If you want more nominations for the list, I put forth these two (even if I personally wouldn't vote them the worst they are certainly contenders)...

Magic Mouth: Seems like you would get virtually no mileage out of it. Might be worth the time to ritual cast occasionally if it didn't have a costly material component that it consumes. Unfortunately it does (albeit a very inexpensive one, but still more costly than simply leaving a note).

Blur: Strictly worse than invisibility (a spell of the same level) in terms of both availability and effect. The only corner case where Blur EVER helps in a way that invisibility does not is against creatures that have see invisibility but not truesight.
Ignore this, I'm a dummy, Blur's not a contender for worst. Still bad in comparison to Mirror Image though.

Blur is better than Mirror Image for anyone who has a high AC already. Blur + heavy armor + shield + Shield will let you tank a platoon of forty orogs (even if they set up a goblin conga line) or githyanki for long enough for your buddies to kill them. Mirror Image will have almost zero effect.

In fact, I've been really disappointed with how Mirror Image works out in play. I initially thought it would be nice against single big monsters, especially because there is no concentration cost, but a couple of years of experience later, my main impression is that it's almost never worth casting because anything tough enough that it would be useful is likely to have blindsight or truesight and be able to ignore it. It's probably more worthwhile for lightly-armored AC 13-15 wizards of course, because their threshold is lower for which monsters are "tough enough to need Mirror Image against." But it isn't useful for gishes, and even the lightly-armored wizards are probably better off (IMO) just casting Expeditious Retreat and/or hiding.

RE: Magic Mouth, it has interesting potential which I haven't ever seen tapped. "The triggering circumstance can be as general or as detailed as you like, though it must be based on visual or audible conditions that occur within 30 feet of the object," and the enchantment is permanent. It also stacks. So, think of Magic Mouth as a way to create a low-grade AI or expert system.

One example usage: create a tactical spy sensor. Instead of just blinding chasing a kobold into a cave, you toss in the Magic Mouth object, and a second later you hear it say, "There are five... kobolds... in here... There is also one... dragon... in here. There is one... unknown... large creature in here." It would take several castings of Magic Mouth to enchant the object with enough logic to say all the possible things it needs to say, but it's totally doable because the triggering circumstances can be as detailed as you like.

Similarly, you could use Magic Mouths as phantom sentries to keep watch at night. You don't even really care WHAT they say, you just care that you can customize the conditions that make them say it. Laying out a dozen or so Magic Mouth sentries will only take a minute or so, and you can have them enchanted to also Marco-Polo their location for easy pickup afterwards. That Stealth +27 Shadow Monk still isn't inaudible (he's just very hard to hear and maybe hard to see), so he's going to set off a shrieking chorus of alerts when he approaches your camp.

You can combine these ideas and put a tactical spy sensor on a zombie or skeleton which you send ahead of you into the dungeon as your point guard.

Second example usage: provide a communication method for a creature which cannot otherwise speak. E.g. Moon Druids in beast shape. The druid will have to learn which gestures and movements cause which words to issue forth from the Magic Mouth, but at least now he can "talk" again in a limited sense, even to NPCs, without having to return to human shape. "I'm here to help." "Come with me if you want to live." "Do you require healing?" "Yes." "No." All of these could be useful phrases.

 

[snickersnax]

Magic Mouth: Seems like you would get virtually no mileage out of it. Might be worth the time to ritual cast occasionally if it didn't have a costly material component that it consumes. Unfortunately it does (albeit a very inexpensive one, but still more costly than simply leaving a note).

Magic mouth is an incredibly useful spell to me. It's basically a permanent alarm spell. you can have 4 or more rocks/ sticks/ arrows with magic mouth placed around your camp to help avoid being surprised. With 100 casts of magic mouth you can arguably make a weapon of warning or helm of warning (using whispers) (1/round for 100 rounds (ie 10 turns) means you will always have a warning against a melee surprise). With that many magic mouths you can have specialized instructions and wordings. (creature incoming at 7 o'clock).

You can cast it on any item you want to keep track of (whenever the item is touched by someone other than the owner, the item screams "I am the property of <owner>, return me to him and you shall be rewarded" or alternatively" (even better when combined with thaumaturgy for 3x voice). When this is happening every 10 minutes, someone will do it.

As already mentioned it makes a great alarm on any chest, door, pouch, backpack.

It so great for creating flavor for intimidating weapons that mimic sentience (when drawn the sword chuckles and says" Finally I can quench my thirst. Feed me their souls")

Its also great for propaganda wars: A properly worded magic mouth can sow dissension in enemy ranks, offer rewards for the assassinations and claim that bounty to be paid by another rival faction.

Combined with a good mimic ability (Actor feat, assassin Imposter, Kenku) you can use other people's voices to deliver messages. Imagine the uses...

This spell would be good if it weren't a ritual, since it is, its near the top of my list for best second level spells.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I'd like to nominate Nystul's Magic Aura. It seems like an npc spell, but even then it's only useful if the PCs have access to certain features/spells.

 

[hbarsquared]

Kinda surprised no one has at least mentioned time stop. Possibly not the strictly worst spell, especially since it's defensive and flavorful in nature, but it does actively prevent you from dealing damage. One could say, it has a "negative damage per round" cost.

It costs you 1 Action to gain 2-5 actions in which you cannot affect someone else. It might be a great buffer spell, except that most personal buffs require concentration. And you can do nothing to help your allies, either. There are several situational uses, of course, plus the coolness factor, but a relatively useless spell, considering what you can accomplish with 1 Action.
[MENTION=6799753]lowkey13[/MENTION], I'd like to add to the list!

 

[hbarsquared]

Double post

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Caliban]

RE: Magic Mouth, it has interesting potential which I haven't ever seen tapped. "The triggering circumstance can be as general or as detailed as you like, though it must be based on visual or audible conditions that occur within 30 feet of the object," and the enchantment is permanent. It also stacks. So, think of Magic Mouth as a way to create a low-grade AI or expert system.

One example usage: create a tactical spy sensor. Instead of just blinding chasing a kobold into a cave, you toss in the Magic Mouth object, and a second later you hear it say, "There are five... kobolds... in here... There is also one... dragon... in here. There is one... unknown... large creature in here." It would take several castings of Magic Mouth to enchant the object with enough logic to say all the possible things it needs to say, but it's totally doable because the triggering circumstances can be as detailed as you like.

Similarly, you could use Magic Mouths as phantom sentries to keep watch at night. You don't even really care WHAT they say, you just care that you can customize the conditions that make them say it. Laying out a dozen or so Magic Mouth sentries will only take a minute or so, and you can have them enchanted to also Marco-Polo their location for easy pickup afterwards. That Stealth +27 Shadow Monk still isn't inaudible (he's just very hard to hear and maybe hard to see), so he's going to set off a shrieking chorus of alerts when he approaches your camp.

You can combine these ideas and put a tactical spy sensor on a zombie or skeleton which you send ahead of you into the dungeon as your point guard.

I don't think this works, or at least not with a single object. The "Combining Magical Effects" in the Spellcasting chapter of the PHB:

Combining Magical Effects
The effects of different spells add together while the durations of those spells overlap. The effects of the same spell cast multiple times don’t combine, however. Instead, the most potent effect—such as the highest bonus—from those castings applies while their durations overlap.

For example, if two clerics cast bless on the same target, that character gains the spell’s benefit only once; he or she doesn’t get to roll two bonus dice.

If you put multiple Magic Mouth spells on the same object, I think only one casting would still be in effect. (So you need a bag of pebbles, or a bedazzling kit to decorate an object with Magic Mouthed rhinestones, etc.)

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[snickersnax]

Spare the Dying?