Greetings, 3WD-verse! DM Chris here. When playing a spellcaster in D&D 5e, there are plenty of powerful and iconic spells to choose from. Fireball and Wish are two of the most classic examples, capable of ending an encounter in one magical flourish. Granted, those spells aren’t available at early levels or available to every caster, so we decided to shine a light on six highly-useful, yet remarkably affordable “underrated” spell options we’ve used.
1. Aid
Hit points are the basic currency in 5e’s bounded accuracy system. Every little bit helps. The 2nd level spell, Aid, provides three of your traveling companions with five temporary hit points, and that is without up-casting. Sounds fairly useful right there, but a closer inspection of the spell description reveals the hidden magic. Your companions get five temporary hit points for the duration of the spell — which just so happens to be eight hours.
Yep. This dandy lasts as long as our average workday here in the industrialized future of the 21st century, but unlike us it doesn’t take any breaks. Just keep right on healing back up to that inflated hp total. Aid doesn’t care. Our Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign features a female cleric, Eeva, played by our friend over at Paper Terrain, Scott, who uses this spell like a B12 shot for the party every morning.
2. Bless
Extra hit points are nice, but what about a boost to the other pillar of 5e’s bounded accuracy — the d20 roll. Even a +1 greatly increases the chances of success. The 1st level spell, Bless, allows three of your party members to roll a d4 and add the result to any of their attack rolls or saving throws. And while the duration isn’t Aid-sized, it lasts more than long enough for your average combat encounter.
Going by the guideline that a round of combat in D&D is six seconds, then there are ten rounds in a minute. If your cleric is on the ball, the party’s rolls will be buffed for most, if not all, of those rounds. When DM Tony and I were building out the basics of our homebrew world, The Further, my war priest dwarven cleric, Fargrim, cast this spell regularly to buff him and his rogue partner, Lazlo, as they explored the untamed wilderness around Blackcliff as a two man party.
3. Grease
There are some broken spells in 5e, along with broken mechanics (don’t get me started on Stun), but the funny part about this spell is that I’d brushed past it many times in search of ostensibly cooler spells. It wasn’t until I saw it in game action that I realized its deadly potential. The 1st level spell, Grease, summons a ten-foot square of slippery grease, making the area difficult territory. But the game-breaking part is the Dexterity saving throw the opponent needs to make to prevent falling over and going Prone.
I capitalized that for the crit-fishers out there. Two places you never want to be in 5e combat — on the floor or stunned (cause it’s so ridic broken). Because then everyone around you is swinging with advantage. During our classic Curse of Strahd campaign, our gnome artificer, Little One, played by DM Dave’s partner, Bonnie, would drop this on unsuspecting baddies. I can’t explain the science around why creatures fail this so often. I can only take with me the look on DM Dave’s face when another powerful creature ended up slipping in the grease like a Scooby-Doo villain and ended up toast.
4. Guiding Bolt
Tell me you didn’t have a double take when you read this spell. No really, tell me. The 1st level spell, Guiding Bolt, delivers a soul-crushing 4d6 damage as a low-level evocation, then leaves the opponent open for an attack with advantage. All with only a 1st level spell slot. Up-casting this one can make you feel like you’re taking advantage (no pun intended) of the DM. The only real downfall is that it requires a successful ranged spell attack.
Our friend and sometimes guest, DM Lenny, is currently running us through the classic adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver. The party’s cleric, Gyr, played by DM Tony (as a point of detail – DM Tony is actually using the Runemaster build from his Journey to Ragnarok campaign), keeps this spell ready for when things start to go sideways. Call it a momentum changer. And on the fortuitous times my rogue, Elindil, is next in the initiative order, then Sneak Attack joins in with the gifted advantage. That is a brutal combo for any baddie to handle.
5. Heat Metal
“Is it wearing metal armor?” — I remember the first time I heard that question uttered at the table. It seemed fairly innocuous — perhaps the player was trying to figure out the opponent’s armor class? They weren’t. They were looking to have a barbecue. The 2nd level spell, Heat Metal, causes a manufactured metal object to glow red-hot. Pretty useful for grilling on the trail, but the really fun part is if your opponent is holding or, more importantly, wearing the metal object. If they are, they’ll take 2d8 fire damage and have to make a Constitution saving throw to avoid dropping said object.
However, you can’t just drop armor. It’s going to take them at least a minute, depending on the armor. This is why knights have squires. If they fail the Con saving throw, they’ll be attacking at disadvantage until the start of your next turn. At which point, you hit them with another 2d8 fire damage and the cycle starts anew. This hidden gem I learned from our late friend and leader, DM Thorin. His warlock, Finneas, roasted many an armored and overconfident enemy with this spell during the aforementioned Curse of Strahd campaign.
6. Magic Missile
I can already hear the pushback on this one — “Chris, this spell has been around since the beginning!” Yes it has, and people still insist on using other low-level spells for offense. The 1st level spell, Magic Missile, fires three magical darts at a creature (or creatures) of your choice. Two big advantages it has over other low-level offensive spells — 1) It deals force damage, which is a type that few creatures have resistance to and 2) It always hits.
Basically, the only time you aren’t going to hit your target(s) is if they know the Shield spell. That means a minimum of 6 force damage every time you cast. Try to get that kind of reliability out of Burning Hands, where even if they don’t make their Dexterity saving throw, your minimum damage is only 3 fire damage, albeit AOE damage. In our Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign, Ziggy, the gnome wizard, played by mine and DM Dave’s brother, Matt, can fire these into the fray, before scurrying away safe in the knowledge that it wasn’t a wasted spell slot. How many spells can you say that with every time?
Final Thoughts
By all means, grab Fireball and all of the other powerful and really fun spells that become available as you progress with your character. But remember, there are spells, like the six we highlighted above, which can pack much of the same punch at lower levels and still compete with some of the more powerful spells through up-casting. The most important points are to read the spell descriptions like you don’t already know them, there are bits there that we all miss, and to listen and watch the players around you. Real learning is done at the table.
What are your thoughts? What spells would you include or remove from this list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments or share with us a story where an innocuous spell spelled doom for your Bad Guy.
And, as always, when you do need to make a ranged spell attack with Guiding Bolt or make those intimidating Dex and Con saves against Grease and Heat Metal, make sure to check out our affiliate link at FanRoll Dice for 10% off your entire order of dice and accessories!
Under rated only if you’ve literally never played the game before. These spells are all staples at every table I play at.
At higher tiers of play, 3rd level bestow curse is nasty. When upcasted, it becomes a non-concentration spell(5th?) With some day plus durations.
Another excellent choice is the 3rd level slow. Affect 6 creatures and reduce their ac, make casting harder, and the best part is it prevents multiattacks. This can make very gnarly monsters very squishy
Finally a cleric go-to. Spirit guardians(3rd) it’s an aura type dealing 3d8 radiant or necrotic, counts as difficult terrain, and is a wisdom save. It affects enemies only out to 15 ft. Affectionately known as the goblin lawn mower.
Magic missile is also the anti mage spell. Is someone concentrating? Have them make 3 concentration rolls to keep that spell. Each dart is an individual instance of damage and the odds are not in your enemies favor to keep concentrating.
One of my players have used grease before in my homebrew campaign about memes. The caster was, in short, Barack Obama, a human warlock who decided to cast grease at a caveman (another player) who was climbing a shelf at a PetSmart in the back who succeeded a dex save only to fall from the top after grabbing ancient dog food. After this event Obama sought to try to make the caveman fall using the grease spell.
Aid is NOT temporary hit points. Aid increases current and maximum hit points. It stacks with temporary hit points. Very few spells do this. And it can be used to heal fallen comrades.
Yup, the Aid spell is a good one for clerics. It’s especially good because it is NOT a concentration spell. Clerics have a number of other very nice buff spells like Beacon of Hope and Crusader’s Mantle, but they, like Bless, are concentration spells so you can only have one of them going at a time.