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Spell Design 101: Utility Spells
Perhaps the most difficult group of spells to design, utility spells walk a fine line between being too weak or narrow (and never seeing play, like illusory script) or too powerful (a flying spell at 1st level is a poor choice). These spells can occasionally offer some unexpected combat utility, such as levitate (Player’s Handbook, or PHB) being able to target an enemy and lift them up into the air, where they cannot reach anyone with melee attacks. A lot of the time though, these spells are so non-combat-oriented that they feature the option to be cast as a ritual. The ability to breathe water or detect magic is handy, but in the middle of a fight it is unlikely to come up.
Utility spells solve problems and open new possibilities that did not exist before. There are a number of sub-categories utility spells could fall into, such as movement abilities like levitate, spider climb, fly, passwall, or teleport (PHB), divinations to spy from afar or ask yes/no questions such as augury, clairvoyance, scrying, arcane eye, or contact other plane (PHB), illusions to fool people such as minor illusion, silent image, major image, or hallucinatory terrain (PHB, also illusions can be battlefield control spells), and countless more.
The real crux of what makes a utility spell is that it provides some sort of new option or utility that did not exist before. They can be extremely narrow, such as feign death (PHB), or incredibly flexible, such as major image (PHB). If you want your players to use the spell, a versatile option is better than a narrow one. However, if you are designing a spell for an NPC villain, a narrow function is fine. If the players defeat them and learn the spell from their spellbook, and decide they want to use it, that’s great, but it might also collect dust after the villain is gone. In Spells from Elsewhere, I designed a noir detective spell called hematomancy (1st level), which lets you see a vision of how the blood was spilled. This would obviously be useful in crime scene investigation. To make the spell a little more broadly useful, it also has an augury/oracular function where you make a cryptic prediction about a creature you draw blood from using Intelligence (Arcana or Religion). It is a flavorful spell that would be great in an investigative game, but don’t expect any players to take it on a typical adventure. Instead, the best detective among the city watch might be a spellcaster who learns about crime scenes this way in your setting.
Rituals are hard to design, because it is difficult to come up with cases when you would spend a spell slot on the ritual, and I think it’s a nice tension to build into the spell. There are ways to change the functionality when cast normally or cast as a ritual, I played around in this space a lot with Ritual Magic. For example, a ritual spell is normally a bit weak when prepared as a normal spell and cast at its normal 1 action casting time… but what if the spell was a bonus action? Or a reaction? You might need to add some text to the reaction spell, letting people know that the trigger is no longer necessary when cast as a ritual. The spell is still normally weak, but it might have occasions where the player would genuinely be tempted to use a spell slot on it.
Rituals generally don’t affect game statistics or combat, but there’s some wiggle room if you look for it. The 3rd level antler rite from my book Ritual Magic is a bonus action to cast, and turns you into a deer. A deer is a far cry from what a druid’s wild shape is capable of, it is fast at 50 ft. movement speed but it cannot climb, swim, or fly, and it is not small enough to slip through holes or under doors (it could jump over a 10 ft. wall or onto a rooftop, if your Storyteller rules in favor of how deer jump in the real world). It technically gives you 4 additional hit points, 12 passive Perception, and a bite attack, but it’s almost more of a liability as a combat form at AC 13. As a ritual, it lets you scout an area in a relatively innocuous animal form, but there is a chance you would use it in combat to gain the 50 ft. movement speed to move and Dash action away. The change to a bonus action made a big difference.
Every class features some amount of utility, but this is an area where wizards truly outshine most other classes. Bards, druids, and sorcerers also have an amazing array of utility, though bards and sorcerers are tightly limited on spell choices. Artificers and clerics offer a fair share of utility, and warlocks can as well, especially warlocks that take the Tome of Shadows for rituals. Rangers can choose some utility options, and paladins are probably the worst at this category – don’t mistake their support spells as being utility spells.
LET’S MAKE A UTILITY SPELL
Speaking of paladins, let’s say you have a player whose paladin is having trouble deciding between different types of armor. As soon as two sets of magical armor with different properties become available, it becomes a choice of what to wear during any short or long rest. If they have a Dexterity modifier of +1 or +2, there might be times when they would prefer medium armor over heavy armor, and the ability to make a Stealth check without disadvantage. There could even be utility in rapidly doffing armor targeted by heat metal. Whatever the reason is, the player has asked you about developing a spell to quickly change or remove armor. You never expected spell research from the paladin, but now there’s a problem to be solved.
First, there is no reason to make this spell a ritual, because armor can already be changed within a 10-minute timeframe. Also, bear in mind that rangers, paladins, sorcerers, and warlocks do not innately have ritual casting (warlocks can gain it through their Pact of the Tome feature). You decide on the school of conjuration, because the armor is being teleported on and/or off of the target.
Second, this spell has very narrow application. The effect seems completely fair as a 1st level spell. It is fine to let it use a bonus action rather than an action, letting the character attack normally. Using just a verbal component is fine, we want combatants to be able to cast this spell with their hands full of weapons and shields. You don’t want the spellcaster to be able to remove the armor of their enemies, but letting an ally rapidly change or doff armor seems fine. Willing creatures can be targeted at a range of touch; a bigger range would be fine, but paladins already have a touch-range theme built into their class with Lay on Hands and various clerical spells, so it feels right here.
As for the other classes, in this case armor-wearing spellcasters feel like the appropriate group. Artificers, bards, clerics, druids, rangers, and warlocks join the paladin for class availability. Let’s admire our finished spell.
CHANGE ARMOR
1st level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Touch
Target: One creature
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Warlock
You or a willing creature touched may instantly doff (remove) any armor worn and can choose to don (wear) a different suit of armor. The new suit of armor must either be in that creature’s possession, in your possession, or be an unattended object you can touch. Doffed armor is placed in the target’s backpack or otherwise strapped or hooked onto their back, or the target can choose for it to appear on the ground at their feet.
If the new armor requires attunement as a magic item, this spell does not provide attunement if the target was not already attuned.
I’m Lord Rumfish, veteran dungeon master of Dungeons & Dragons and published author on DMsGuild (see my publications here: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Mark%20Burton&affiliate_id=1059803 ).
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Spell Design 101: Jinx (Debuff) Spells
Jinx (formerly “debuff”) spells are spells that target one or more enemies and make them less effective. This does not have to be with flat penalties or disadvantage; for example, dominate person counts here as a jinx spell because not only have you negated the enemy’s turn, you are turning them against their allies! Anything that targets enemies and changes their effectiveness or behavior counts.
In this terminology, “target” could also apply to “all creatures in a 60-foot cone,” the difference is that you haven’t created a zone of terrain where any creature that approaches the area later is also affected. Battlefield control spells present a constant hazard where new creatures that arrive (or current creatures that get pushed back into the area) are subject to the spell again. Jinxes can linger, but they are not a terrain hazard.
Number-based penalties are rare now in the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. You might roll a die to give penalties on the fly, such as with bane (Player’s Handbook, or PHB) subtracting 1d4 from attack rolls and saving throws. Even with the hundreds of spells I have designed, I’ve been careful to only do flat, static penalties a handful of times (such as malison from Mortality Magic). The reason for this design change is to keep the math simpler, which speeds up the combat round. Rolling a die for a penalty is easier to remember than saying, “Oh wait, but I have +2 to hit, and um, the creature has -1 AC, so was that a hit?”
Disadvantage is the most common mechanic, which is distributed liberally among the various conditions that exist (conditions are on p.290-292 of the PHB, bookmark it). Restricting movement is another major mechanic, whether with difficult terrain or a different wording such as “the creature’s movement speed is halved” or “every 1 foot of movement requires 3 additional feet.” Be careful, because these movement penalties stack! You can alter a creature’s behavior, such as with the charmed or frightened conditions, and often the spell will go further to describe additional problems the charmed or frightened creature suffers – you’ve built a nastier version of the condition.
Spells that only inconvenience a creature with story-related problems, such as an extremely minor curse that causes a creature to trip when moving once every hour (Dex save or fall prone), don’t really qualify for a normal category of jinxes. A jinx should provide real mechanical disadvantage to your foes that makes combat difficult for them in some way. In the example minor curse, if the first trip happens immediately, that minor curse now qualifies as having a chance to affect combat – you’ve at least wasted some of the creature’s movement.
LET’S MAKE A JINX SPELL
The campaign is heading towards a series of climactic final battles, and your players are making their preparations – the fighter is forging an artifact sword with the help of the party’s cleric, the artificer is crafting magical siege engines, et cetera. The bard has opted to develop a spell of their own now that they’ve reached 8th level spells. They want to sow chaos in battle, turning enemies’ attacks against them, but the bard also wants the spell to be effective if it only has a single target – they know some powerful enemies that make attacks will be battling them soon.
Taking inspiration from mortal weakness in my book Spells from the Far Realm, you decide that this spell could distribute instances of enemies attacking their allies or themselves, and if they succeed on the saving throw they are instead penalized with disadvantage on that number of attacks. You run this idea by the player, and once they understand how it works, they love it. You tentatively pick seven attacks to be the number affected, because you like the spell name seven errant swords. A dominated monster (to compare against the 8th level dominate monster, PHB) might have more than 7 attacks over 2 rounds of combat, but it might have less if it succeeds on a saving throw sooner or only makes 1 or 2 attacks per round. This spell can also sow havoc among a group of minions by distributing the affected attacks across multiple creatures, giving it flexibility. Also, unlike dominate monster, there is a reasonable payoff even if the monster succeeds on the saving throw or uses legendary resistance. You shouldn’t do this for every spell, but by 8th level, some spells don’t even have saving throws. A save for reduced effect seems fine here.
The bard player wants to avoid concentration, which seems okay for a spell with finite parameters like this one. This spell may only last 1 round anyway as the creatures run through their affected attacks, and we are okay with the bard having this up their sleeve against the “Big Bad Evil Guy” as disadvantage on attacks is hardly the end of the world, and the bard is unlikely to land the mind control effect.
The save falls to one of the mental abilities – Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. I love making spells that use Intelligence or Charisma saves, but I feel that the mind control aspect of this spell is best for plain old Wisdom saves. Intelligence works well with direct psychic assaults, or illusion spells, or things that would make the target less knowledgeable. Charisma is a nice catch-all for resisting teleportation, curses, time magic, and spells that affect a creature’s ability to cast spells effectively. Wisdom represents strength of will, and resisting domination, charms, and fear – it’s the right choice here.
Wording the ability is the most complicated part. For those that fail, we want to make sure they move towards their allies to attack if they are able, only hitting themselves as a last resort. We could mark the affected creatures with the charmed condition until the number of attacks affected have been spent, but the bard’s player really wants a spell that could affect a target that is immune to being charmed or frightened. Very well, the spell is 8th level and built for a purpose. We can leave the charmed condition out of the equation, all monsters are susceptible.
The spell could be from a few different colleges, but enchantment is the most obvious one (illusion could be causing their behavior, and transmutation could physically force it, but enchantment fits the flavor best).
We could add special rules for upcasting to 9th level, and I do enjoy doing this for 8th level spells (for all spells, really), but in this case it would have to increase the number of attacks affected, and that would interfere with the spell’s name. If you do want to add this, upcasting to 9th level should probably affect 2 more attacks (going from 7 attacks affected to 9 attacks).
We’ll go with the standard verbal and somatic components, material is not necessary. If you think this spell is too strong, you could require a seven-pointed star emblem made of platinum and studded with emeralds worth 800 gp, which the spell consumes… but I think this spell is fair at 8th level.
As for other classes: it should be pretty obvious that clerics and druids are not a good fit here. Of the other classes that get 8th level spells, I think sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards could all cast this spell.
Let’s admire our finished spell:
SEVEN ERRANT SWORDS
8th level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 300 feet
Target: 1 to 7 creatures
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
Classes: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Choose between one to seven creatures you can see, then assign a number of attacks that will be affected among those creatures – the total number distributed must add up to seven, and every affected creature must be assigned at least one affected attack. Those creatures must make Wisdom saving throws. On a success, a creature only suffers disadvantage on the next number of attacks they make equal to the number you assigned, or until the duration runs out, whichever happens first.
On a failure, a creature must spend its next turn moving towards a creature hostile to you, and attacking it with melee or ranged attacks until it reaches the number of attacks assigned to it. If two or more creatures hostile to you are within its reach or range, you choose the one it attacks. If it cannot get within range of any creature to attack, it will attack itself that number of times instead. If the number assigned to it is greater than the number of attacks it can make, it must repeat this process on its following turn, until it runs out of assigned attacks or this spell ends.
Once a creature has exhausted the assigned number of attacks, the spell ends for that creature.
I’m Lord Rumfish, veteran dungeon master of Dungeons & Dragons and published author on DMsGuild (see my publications here: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Mark%20Burton&affiliate_id=1059803 ).
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Spell Design 101: Battlefield Control Spells
The most important difference between a battlefield control spell and a jinx spell (I’m calling “debuff” spells jinx spells) is that jinxes do not affect the terrain and can target enemies wherever they might be. Battlefield control spells always use the terrain to create a zone where enemies are hampered, blocked, or stuck in some way. These spells very often require concentration, but when positioned well, it may be the only spell you need to succeed in battle. They can also create “friendly fire” situations where your allies get stuck by the same effect! Some battlefield control spells might deal damage, but the primary goal is to divide your enemies and restrict them in some way.
The greatest considerations of battlefield control spells are the effect itself (a wall that creates blocking terrain, a slippery spot that knocks enemies prone, a web that restrains enemies in place, etc.), and the size of the effect on the battlefield. A widespread effect that knocks enemies prone once is useful, but not a guarantee of victory. Something that restrains your enemies over multiple rounds, however, could change a difficult battle against melee combatants into a cakewalk.
It is easy to make a design too strong or even too weak with battlefield control. Do your best to compare against the areas and effects of other spells at the same level, paying close attention to how often creatures make saving throws against the effect. Some spells can be deceptively weak by how they position their saving throws. If creatures don’t have to save until the end of their turn (the spell dust devil from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is an example of this), then they can simply move out of the area without ever being affected. Entangle from the Player’s Handbook (PHB) is strong for a 1st level spell, but it only checks for the saving throw to become restrained once; if the creatures succeed the first save, all they need to do is traverse the difficult terrain, there is no risk after a success. Web (PHB), on the other hand, can repeatedly get creatures stuck in it and requires them to spend an action to try to break free with a flat ability check (no proficiency bonus) – there is no free save at the end of their turn!
Knowing what “knobs” you can tweak to change the power of a spell can make all the difference. In this case, a “knob” is a spell variable that you can crank up or crank down, such as the saving throw, when the saving throw occurs, how easy it is to escape, how debilitating it is to fail, how large of a creature it can affect, how big the area of the spell is, et cetera. It should do very little damage, unless the spell is primarily a damage spell and secondarily a battlefield control spell; an example of this is ice storm (PHB), where one round of difficult terrain is clearly secondary to the damage dealt.
Ultimately, battlefield control can scale all the way up to the likes of wall of force and forcecage (PHB), where there may be no initial saving throws, or no follow-up saves, or just one chance to escape. These are some of the strongest spells in the game of Dungeons & Dragons, so you shouldn’t try to match or exceed these spells, but they are examples of just how strong terrain effects can be at higher levels. Note also that not all classes get access to these spells, wall of force is wizard-only, and forcecage is bard, warlock, and wizard only.
Wizards are almost certainly the best at battlefield control spells, but druids are close behind them, particularly in natural terrain. Bards, sorcerers, and warlocks all get strong options as well… if they choose to learn them. Clerics are a bit weaker in this area; they rely more on damage effects, but they have some options. Rangers and artificers have a few tricks, paladins tend to jinx a single enemy with a smite rather than create a zone of terrain. I think every spellcaster could have access to some form of battlefield control, but the range and effectiveness should skew in favor of the classes that are best at it.
LET’S MAKE A BATTLEFIELD CONTROL SPELL
You have an extremely ambitious low-level illusionist wizard character in your party, and they are already asking about creating their own spells. You thought this wouldn’t come up until later, but it turns out your players enjoy downtime crafting activities. The player wants to craft a 1st level spell that holds people in place with inky black wraith-like illusions. They understand your reservations about a 1st level spell causing the restrained condition repeatedly, so they ask about using the grappled condition instead. It reduces the grappled creature’s speed to 0, but it does not otherwise penalize the creatures for attacking or defending. You agree to move forward on developing the spell.
The player initially wants the effect to work like a 15-foot cube version of the web spell, but you believe that sounds too powerful. Then you take inspiration from Maximilian’s earthen grasp (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything); you believe that spell was underpowered but had a neat idea. Removing the 2d6 damage from it, and the ability to move the area, you think it holds merit as a 1st level spell.
You propose to the player a 15-foot cube where, upon casting the spell or spending an action on a later turn, the illusion wraith makes a spell attack, and on a hit, a Large or smaller creature is grappled. It must spend an action to escape the grapple if it wishes: a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against your spell save DC. There is no limit to the number of creatures that could theoretically be grappled in the area, but a creature would have to end its turn there in order for the player to use their action to target it.
The player is not satisfied, and comes up with an addition: the spellcaster can also spend their reaction if a creature attempts to exit the area, making a spell attack and grappling the target on a success (they can escape as above). You agree this is fair, with a caveat: now the terrain threatens to trap creatures who just wander through, but the spell has limits on how often it can be used and requires not only the caster’s reaction but also their concentration. Your caveat is that the creature must not have started its turn grappled, otherwise the spell could trap a single creature twice in one round! The player agrees with your change.
The spell doesn’t have much that could scale upwards, so we leave out any special rules to upcast it. Somatic and verbal components are fine here; illusion spells are sometimes sneaky and we could choose to omit the verbal component, but this is a strong spell with an obvious effect, so there’s no need. We’ll add a material component for flavor.
We’ve determined this will be a wizard spell, but what about other classes? The flavor is off for druids and the effect is wrong for clerics, and by extension rangers and paladins seem like a poor fit as well. Artificers work with physical reality and don’t tend to get a lot of illusions or enchantments. Bards, sorcerers, and warlocks seem fine though.
Let’s admire our finished spell:
GRASPING WRAITHS
1st level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Area: 15-foot cube
Components: V, S, M (a skeleton key covered in black lacquer)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Classes: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Choose a 15-foot cube you can see. Inky black wraiths flit about the area, threatening creatures within. When you cast this spell or as an action, make a melee spell attack against a creature within the area. On a hit, the creature is grappled, reducing its speed to 0. A grappled creature can spend an action to try to escape with a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against your spell save DC.
You can also use your reaction when a creature that did not start its turn grappled tries to leave the area. Make a melee spell attack roll, and on a hit, the creature is grappled, as described above.
I’m Lord Rumfish, veteran dungeon master of Dungeons & Dragons and published author on DMsGuild (see my publications here: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Mark%20Burton&affiliate_id=1059803 ).
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Spell Design 101: Support Spells
Before diving in to this Dungeons & Dragons design lesson, let’s take a moment to discuss the different categories of spells you might hear about. Damage spells are straightforward: the point is to kill your enemies, see them driven before you, hear the lamentations of their grandmothers, et cetera. Battlefield control spells set up an area of terrain that inconveniences your foes, preventing them from being effective while also reducing the number that can reach you; wall spells are a great example. “Debuff” spells (maybe we could use the word jinx instead?) directly reduce the effectiveness of one or more enemies without being specific to the terrain; it can serve a similar function to battlefield control but you can use it even if your allies and enemies are all mixed up in the same area. Support spells (which include the beneficial “buff” spells) are spells that aid your allies, making them more effective either by curing them of ailments or giving them new powers. Finally, utility spells are spells that solve problems – they can be useful in a wide variety of situations both in and out of combat, but especially out of combat.
We’re here to talk about support spells today, the spells that heal, cure, bolster, and strengthen your allies. The Dungeon Master’s Guide gives the same guidelines for healing spells as damage spells (it says cantrips should not offer healing, and I agree that cantrip healing should be finite, such as being limited by hit dice, if allowed at all). The real spells of the game don’t quite track with this (low level spells heal less than damage spells, and starting around 5th level spells they start healing much more), but it’s a starting point. Support is a much broader category than just healing though, it covers removing debilitating conditions, as well as granting various bonuses to your allies to make them better at what they do. Spells can overlap categories – if you cast fly on your allies, you’ve given them a benefit in combat as well as added utility.
Designing support spells, especially the ones that grant bonuses, is tricky. Most of the time, making a spell require concentration can absolve a lot of mistakes you made designing it, and it’s easier to increase a spell’s effectiveness later than to take something away from the players when you realize it’s too powerful. Speaking of bonuses, some stack up in unexpected ways, particularly armor class. Exercise caution in giving out AC bonuses; once a character crosses past the mid-20s in AC, you will be much more limited in the monsters that can effectively challenge the characters. Some drawbacks I’ve used include the spell “breaking” after one or more successful hits against the target, or requiring concentration and making the spell self-only. Just be careful.
There is often some spell you can compare your effect to, but it may require looking at other class spell lists or at spells that are stronger or weaker than the level you’re designing for. A single target effect can be weakened and cast at a higher level to affect multiple targets, for instance, turning a single-target support spell into a group support spell. When you do this, the new spell might need to be 2 to 3 levels higher than the original, unless you have significantly weakened the effect, and some spells might be strong enough that you should pause before making a mass version of them. Haste in 5th edition is an example; you could make a 6th level version mass haste, which did exist in prior editions of D&D, but this might be a mistake. If you go forward with it, perhaps only have 3 targets for the 6th level version.
Some classes offer more support than others. Clerics are perhaps the best, the most iconic example of fixing all ills and then bolstering allies with divine power. Bards also have an amazing array of support spells, if they choose to learn them. Wizards offer a surprisingly strong showing of support spells as well, though this bleeds into the utility category. Wizards generally don’t heal you, but they can dispel magic to remove some conditions, cast haste on you, cast fly on you, et cetera. Druids are pretty decent support characters, then perhaps paladins and artificers and rangers follow despite not being full spellcasters. Sorcerers can learn very few spells, so I wouldn’t rely on them to be a support character, and warlocks lean away from this as well.
LET’S MAKE A SUPPORT SPELL
The wizard in your party has a theme of being a “white necromancer,” meaning that instead of embracing the “black magic” side of necromancy, they like to use it for good. They have found a wealth of necromancy options in my books Mortality Magic and Spells from the Archmages, but they have something different in mind for 4th level spells. The player tells you they would like to create a spell that causes spirits to come protect their allies by lashing out at enemies that come too close, and maybe give some other bonus that strengthens their souls. They are not trying to make a wizard version of spirit guardians, they want something different. The player says they would really like a spell that affects multiple allies, preferably 3 or 6 targets.
We don’t want to craft a spell that’s going to add 3 to 6 more attack rolls to every combat, so the spirits will not literally attack enemies of the creatures they protect. What about dealing an automatic, small amount of damage as backlash, though? Wizards get fire shield at 4th level, which deals 2d8 damage (9 on average), is self only, lasts 10 minutes with no concentration, and has other benefits (shedding light and resistance to cold or fire damage). It makes sense that fire shield does not require concentration, as part of its benefit requires the caster to be hit in melee combat. If the spell we’re crafting can target the caster (and the player would like the option), we can choose to go with non-concentration here as well to make it a stronger option.
To spread the spell across 3 targets, we will lower the damage to 1d6. While this is slightly higher average damage at 10.5 for a potential 3d6, it’s not by a significant amount and it’s harder to engineer a situation where you want 3 characters all being struck in melee combat at the same time. We’ll change the damage type to necrotic to fit with this being a necromancy spell. The 5-foot melee range restriction seems unimportant here – it makes sense for fire, but not for a ghost that can flit back and forth. It can be a minor improvement over fire shield.
Fire shield has other benefits, and this spell can too. The player wants an effect that guards the souls of the targets. While choosing resistance to necrotic damage would be an easy way to mimic fire shield, we’ll dig a little deeper. The player wants the spell to prevent allies from being possessed by ghosts or demons. That’s fine, but it’s a very narrow effect that will almost never come up. To make it stronger, we decide to give the targets advantage on saves against effects that cause the charmed or frightened conditions. That is significant enough to provide some real benefit.
Fire shield cannot be upcast, and we could choose the same here. However, if the damage only scales up every 2 levels (level 6 and level 8 spell slots), that seems entirely fair and is unlikely to break the game.
We’ll use the standard verbal and somatic components, plus ask for a flavorful material component: a pinch of dust from a haunted house.
What about other classes? Cleric feels like an obvious inclusion here, they get all the best spells about spirits and undead, and a support spell is right up their alley. It doesn’t seem like a great fit for artificers, bards, druids, paladins, or rangers. Sorcerers get less of the necromancy spells than wizards do, so the flavor feels a bit off. However, warlocks feel like they could be a good fit flavor-wise, so we’ll let them in on the fun.
Let’s take a look at the finished spell:
GHOSTLY DEFENDERS
4th level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Target: 3 creatures
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dust from a haunted house)
Duration: 10 minutes
Classes: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard
Three willing creatures you can see are protected by spirits that inhabit their space. The creatures gain advantage on saving throws against effects that cause the charmed or frightened conditions, and they cannot be possessed.
In addition, whenever a creature hits one of the targets with a melee attack, the ghost flits out to strike the attacking creature for 1d6 necrotic damage.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for every two slot levels above 4th (2d6 at 6th level, 3d6 at 8th level).
I’m Lord Rumfish, veteran dungeon master of Dungeons & Dragons and published author on DMsGuild (see my publications here: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Mark%20Burton&affiliate_id=1059803 ).
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Spell Design 101: Damage Spells
You’ve created a spellcaster for Dungeons & Dragons, fallen in love with the character, and now you’re feeling the itch to design a signature spell for them, something that sets them apart from every other magic missile or fireball slinging wizard in the world. Or perhaps you are the dungeon master (I prefer “storyteller,” but I use both terms to describe the person who adjudicates the story and rules of the game), and you would like to surprise or reward your players with some handcrafted spells to spice up the game.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) has some guidelines about spell creation on pages 283 and 284, but they are light on details; fortunately, we’re starting with a spell that deals damage, and the book provides a decent framework for damage spells, with specific suggestions and a damage table.
When you set out to create a spell, you should figure out what purpose it will serve. You could be making more acid spells to help support a character with a theme of acid and oozes, or you could be filling a need for a spell that affects an area or a single target if spellcasters of that class and level don’t have many (or any) options.
You should familiarize yourself with the class’s spell list in the Player’s Handbook, especially spells of the level you hope to create. Look at spells one level lower and one level higher to make sure you’re not stepping too far out of bounds.
Some classes will be harder to design damage spells for than others, because they are secretly worse at this than other classes. It probably would not be fair to give druids a spell that was identical to magic missile but changed the damage type to cold. Even though this makes the spell worse (more monsters are resistant or immune to cold damage than force damage), it probably does not make the new spell bad enough. If you reduced the range to 60 feet and made it poison damage, that might be acceptable because poison damage is by far the type most resisted by monsters, and often they are immune to poison.
It is difficult to know this if you’re new to the game; druids and wizards both get 9th level spells, but those spells serve different purposes to classes with different abilities. Sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards tend to get the most versatile and highest damage spells, whereas druids offer an incredible array of utility spells that solve problems, and have a good selection of support spells to bolster the party, battlefield control to divide and conquer monsters in combat, and “debuff” spells that hamper enemies. Damage spells are a bit of an afterthought for druids.
LET’S MAKE A SPELL
Speaking of druids, let’s say you’ve got a player who has a druid character that loves oozes and favors acid spells in combat. They’ve picked up some new options from my books, such as the cantrip acidic glob and the 2nd level spell corrosive bolt from Nature Magic, and the 1st level spell acid drizzle from Spells from the Archmages. Now that they have 3rd level spells, they really want an acid spell that can hit a whole group of enemies, and they only find a single target acid spell in one of my books: the 3rd level golem’s bane from Spells from Elsewhere. You (or the player) decide it doesn’t feel right to reflavor an existing spell like call lightning to deal acid damage, so you’ve decided to get creative.
Looking over druid damage spells, you may not only notice they deal a bit less damage, but they also tend to have shorter ranges. 3rd level spells like fireball have very long ranges and cover a wide area. If the player agrees that range is not that important but they want to cover a large area, ask them if a 40-foot cone sounds good. This covers almost as much area as a fireball would have, but with a significant range restriction.
Next, the damage and saving throw. Leaping out of the way of acid sounds like a Dexterity saving throw; we’ll leave it as a normal “save for half damage” spell rather than upping the damage by 25% and “save for no damage,” since the player would be disappointed with no damage on successful saves. The table on page 284 of the DMG says to use 6d6 damage for multiple targets. We could use a different die type, such as 8d4, 4d8, 3d10, or 3d12. The player wants the most impact they can get right now, so 6d6 is the best with 21 average damage. Bigger die types could make the spell better to upcast with a higher spell slot at later levels, but even 1d12 per spell slot higher still does not make the spell better than cone of cold at 5th level (5d12 would be average damage of 32.5, while 8d8 is average damage of 36), and cone of cold affects a 60-foot cone rather than a 40-foot cone, which means any of the dice arrays mentioned should be balanced. Again, in this case I would advocate for simply using 6d6 as the book suggests.
The player tells you they would love an ability added to the spell that dissolves armor or otherwise weakens their foes in some way to go with the acid theme. You are well within your rights to say no, as the spell is already “fair” at this point, or you could choose to lower the damage slightly to add a bonus effect, such as going with 4d8 or 3d10 rather than 6d6. However, you might decide to go ahead and add a small effect that lingers for 1 round (until the end of the caster’s next turn, for example) and just leave the damage at 6d6. I did this for the spell toxic blast in Nature Magic, as it can create 1 round of the poisoned condition. Poison damage and Constitution saves make toxic blast weaker in some ways, but our theoretical acid spell is even more constrained on range and has a slightly smaller area as well. It will be strong, but probably not too strong, to give it a situational bonus.
Rather than affecting armor class or attack rolls, we decide that creatures that fail the Dexterity saving throw and take any damage (so acid immunity would prevent this effect) lose resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage until the end of the druid’s next turn. This does not affect outright immunity to those damage types, and most creatures are not resistant to start with, or the characters can already get around the monsters’ resistance with magic weapons. It’s a highly situational bonus that comes up rarely, but the player of the druid character is happy.
The spell can be either conjuration or evocation. It fits both colleges, and the choice is purely cosmetic most of the time. We’ll go with conjuration just because a lot of damage spells don’t get the option. The components can be verbal and somatic (there’s no strong mechanical need for the spell to be subtle in any way), plus we could add a material component just for the sake of flavor, but we decide it’s not needed.
You’re almost done. Now, the player of the wizard is curious if they might be able to learn this spell from the druid. It could be a druid-only spell, but it doesn’t have to be. Looking at the other spellcasters, artificers, bards, paladins, and rangers don’t really get spells like this, so we can quickly rule them out. Acid doesn’t feel very thematic to clerics, and cone attacks aren’t a normal part of their repertoire; we leave them out as well. Sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards, however, feel like they could definitely have a cone of acid attack, so why not?
Let’s admire our finished spell:
SIZZLING DELUGE
3rd level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 40 feet (cone)
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
You project acid from your mouth, covering a 40-foot cone. Creatures and objects in the area must make Dexterity saving throws, taking 6d6 acid damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. Creatures that failed their saving throw and take damage also lose resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage until the end of your next turn.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for every slot level above 3rd.
I’m Lord Rumfish, veteran dungeon master of Dungeons & Dragons and published author on DMsGuild (see my publications here: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Mark%20Burton&affiliate_id=1059803 ).
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