Make a ball of fire in your hand that you can chuck at enemies? What’s not to love? Well, maybe the fact that it’s just 1d8 damage, and the whole issue of fire resistances, and all that… but it sure looks cool to hold a ball of fire in your hand. This one is really only limited by your imagination, a 5 foot cube, and your DM’s willingness to allow shenanigans. 14) Minor Illusionįinally, a spell with some creativity built into it! Make a box for your halfling rogue to hide behind, or the sounds of a woman’s screams as a distraction. A Mage Hand or Homunculi with a written note can do basically the same thing. 15) MessageĪnother spell that’s sure to see some utility, Message is the poor man’s Sending, but only if your target is within shouting distance. But at the same time it feels a little lame to be reserving a cantrip spot just to fix small tears in coats or whatever. Yes, being able to mend something comes in handy, and will likely be used on more than a few occasions. I guess you could maybe kill two commoners in one go, if that’s you’re sort of thing, you sicko. Points for being able to damage two people (so long as they’re buddied up next to each other), but demerits for only being 1d6 damage. You’re basically just chucking a grenade of acid at your enemies. Slowing an enemy’s speed by 10 feet might help in like, a chase sequence or something, but how often do those happen? 17) Acid Splash 1d8 really isn’t much and that’s all you’re gonna get no matter what level you are. We can respect some cold damage, and a ranged spell attack is always more fun because you’re the one who get’s to roll for it. Not to mention the amount of enemies that are immune or resistant to poison. The first damage cantrip on our list, Poison Spray’s CON save will be easy for most enemies, and requires getting within 10 feet… a dangerous game to play for any low level spellcaster, and you’ll only be using this at low levels given that it doesn’t amp up as PCs get more powerful. If you want to be the skunk, this cantrip is for you. Points for being able to make the “faint odor of a skunk” for pranking purposes, though. Sorry Druids, but when the main utility of this spell is to figure out the weather, it’s going to fall a little low on this list. Dancing Lights gets one place higher because it makes four “torches”, but the fact that it requires concentration is a serious impediment. You can get those for what, a few copper? Next. Okay, sure, you can cast Light on an enemy (if you want to get close enough for that) so that they can’t lose the party in the darkness, but other than that specific situation, it’s just a torch. It’s just rare that you’ll ever get any actual use out of this one. This spell would be great if it lasted for an hour, or even ten minutes for some pre-dungeon crawl buffs, but it only works for up to a minute. Sure, a d4 bonus to a saving throw may come in handy, but the thing about saving throws is that you usually don’t know that you’ll be needing to make them ahead of time. Well, there’s not just a chance it was all for naught regardless. Not to mention that it’s a damn concentration spell, so if you get hit before your next turn there’s a chance that it was all for naught.
Why not give up a full action to give yourself advantage on the next attack… oooooor you could just, I don’t know, attack twice? Sure, it allows you “a brief insight into your target’s defenses,” so you could potentially convince your DM to tell you about immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities, but that’s a long shot. We’ve decided to rank all original D&D 5e cantrips from worse to best to showcase just how wide of a spread the damage, utility, and cool factor is for these level 0 spells. There are some gems in the bunch, but there are also some real losers that make the rest look bad.
All Dungeons & Dragons 5e classes ranked from worst to bestīut cantrips - the good ones, anyways - can be so much more.6 scheduling tips that make for a long and consistent D&D campaign.
5 questions you need to ask yourself when building a D&D character.This campground will pay you to DM for a weekend D&D retreat.So swiftly overshadowed by the magic of higher levels, cantrips often fall into the category of “only to be used when necessary” be it at the end of a long fight when all spell slots are spent, or when fighting a few minions that aren’t even worth wasting a first level spell on. You poor, weak, underutilized and often-underappreciated spells. Disclosure: A link at the bottom of this article is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.