Not All Magic Is Created Equal
One of the best parts of casting spells is discovering just how much trouble you can cause with the right one. Will you turn an enemy’s spell back on themselves, or will you send someone a secret message? Can you conjure bridges from will…or will you rely on a floating sword that doesn’t do very much? At the end of the day, for every good spell there’s at least one counterpart that might as well not even exist. With that, we’re here to break down which powerful spells are worth your time, and which ones should get benched.
1. Wish
You won’t find a more powerful spell than Wish, and it’s widely considered one of the best casts for a reason. This ninth-level ability lets you duplicate any spell of eighth level or lower without meeting its usual requirements, too. Not to mention, more ambitious wishes can potentially alter reality itself, and what’s better than that? Let’s just hope it falls into the right hands.
2. Simulacrum
To understand why this is so good, all you need to do is imagine having another powerful spellcaster available to help your party. This seventh-level spell creates a duplicate of a beast or humanoid that retains most of the original creature's abilities, including whatever spell slots it had when copied. Okay, your clone has half the original's hit points and can't recover expended spell slots, but you still have an additional high-level wizard for the price of one.
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3. Forcecage
Few things frustrate an enemy more than being trapped inside a magical prison. So goes Forcecage, which allows you to imprison creatures within an invisible enclosure. Don’t worry about escape, either; even teleportation requires a successful Charisma saving throw to escape. The best part is that the original spell doesn't even require concentration.
4. True Polymorph
Turning yourself into a dragon is already cool enough, but True Polymorph offers so much more room for activities! It’s a ninth-level spell that can transform creatures into other creatures, turn objects into living beings, or reduce enemies to harmless objects if they fail their saving throws. Maintain concentration for the full hour, and the transformation lasts until dispelled.
5. Meteor Swarm
We don’t care—this one just sounds awesome, and that’s reason enough to use it. However, it actually is also useful. Meteor Swarm summons four enormous explosions, each dealing 20d6 fire damage and 20d6 bludgeoning damage to creatures caught in its area. Its extraordinary range of one mile also makes it especially devastating to armies who thought they had the upper hand.
6. Wall of Force
A fifth-level spell capable of stopping powerful enemies without giving them an initial saving throw? That deserves recognition. With this powerhouse, you create an invisible barrier that ordinary physical attacks can't penetrate, allowing you to divide battlefields or isolate opponents. Unlike other defensive spells, the barrier’s also immune to damage and requires specific solutions, like Disintegrate, to get through it.
7. Shapechange
Say what you want about this one, but experienced players know that Shapechange does a lot more than adopting a different appearance. It lets you become powerful creatures you've previously seen, potentially gaining physical abilities, movement options, and other advantages while retaining your spellcasting capabilities. You can even assume different eligible forms throughout its duration!
8. Mass Heal
When your entire party is a sneeze away from death, it’s Mass Heal to the rescue. This insane spell can actually completely reverse the situation, distributing an extraordinary 700 hit points among creatures you choose within range. Oh, and it also cures blindness and deafness.
9. Foresight
Foresight is something we’d all like to have, but now you can force Fate’s hand at the table. For eight hours, the target gains advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws, while attacks made against them have disadvantage. Better still, this ninth-level spell doesn't require concentration, allowing a powerful character to enjoy its benefits throughout an entire adventuring day.
10. Counterspell
Oh, no you don’t. We don’t feel like being paralyzed or having our health zapped to zero, thank you. For what’s essentially a third-level reaction, you can do a lot of damage with this one. It interrupts a spell as it's being cast, automatically stopping spells of third level or lower and potentially negating stronger ones with a successful ability check or higher-level slot. Talk about a win for your team.
As we mentioned, not every spell does what you think—and some barely do anything. With some of the powerhouses out of the way, it’s time to look at which ones might as well not even exist.
1. True Strike
We know this one’s been around forever, but the original True Strike has earned its terrible reputation. First of all, it requires an action simply to get advantage on your first attack roll on your next turn. Secondly, you also need to maintain concentration until that attack, meaning an enemy can disrupt the spell before you benefit. No thank you.
2. Find Traps
With a name like Find Traps, it’s reasonable to assume that this spell reveals dangerous surprises lurking at your feet. But you’d be wrong! This piddly second-level spell only tells you whether a qualifying trap exists within range. That’s right—it doesn't actually identify the location.
3. Witch Bolt
Initially, Witch Bolt sounds good. After all, it creates a damaging electrical connection that can hurt the same enemy over and over. Well, not so fast. Maintaining that damage demands your action on subsequent turns, and the spell immediately ends if the target moves beyond its limited range or gains total cover from you. The more you pull at the thread, the worse it gets.
4. Mordenkainen's Sword
You might think a seventh-level spell that creates a floating sword with exceptional damage would be cool. On paper, it is. In reality, Mordenkainen's Sword deals 3d10 force damage on a successful melee spell attack and requires concentration to remain active. But since other spells produce more for less, this one struggles to justify its cost.
5. Grasping Vine
Grasping Vine allows you to summon a plant that tries to drag creatures toward it, which isn’t as effective as it sounds. The truth is that this fourth-level spell requires concentration, and its pulling effect only works on targets that fail a Dexterity saving throw. This thing can’t even restrain its victims, so why bother?
6. Crown of Madness
Hey, we’d all love to make our enemies go crazy for a turn or two, but Crown of Madness is considerably less reliable than others like it. With this one, the charmed creature must have another target within melee reach, and you also need to waste your action on subsequent turns maintaining control. Did we mention that an affected enemy also gets repeated chances to end the spell? You’re left with an awkward second-level ability that actually does very little.
7. Illusory Script
If you've ever wanted to make a handwritten message look completely different to unauthorized readers, Illusory Script can accomplish that. But…when do you really need to do that? Worse still, the first-level ritual also requires special ink worth 10 gold pieces and only affects the writing for ten days. Well, isn’t that just neat.
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8. Animal Messenger
Animal Messenger is a charming second-level spell that lets you send a short spoken message through a Tiny beast to someone elsewhere. Your furry friend needs to physically travel to its destination, however, and the spell has limits on how much information can even be delivered. If you have Sending, you don’t need this.
9. Weird
For a ninth-level spell, Weird delivers surprisingly disappointing results compared with the alternatives. Affected creatures are only subjected to it if they fail a Wisdom saving throw. Subsequent failed saves cause 4d10 psychic damage while successful ones end the effect. Just unleash Meteor Swarm or reshape reality instead.
10. Skywrite
Few spells show the difference between entertaining magic and practical magic better than Skywrite. This second-level ritual allows you to form up to ten words in the clouds, where they stay visible for as long as the spell lasts. It’s great if you’re planning a proposal, but when you're surrounded by monsters, an enormous message probably isn't your highest priority.
