What do moonbeam, blade barrier, cloudkill, cloud of daggers, Evard's black tentacles, forbiddance, sleet storm, and spirit guardians have in common? A spell quirk that can be fixed with one word.
Category: Spell Breakdowns
Why DMs Are Banning Silvery Barbs
Find out why DMs are banning Silvery Barbs before its even released in D&D's new Strixhaven book.
Identifying Magic Items
Add intrigue and interaction to magic items with these identification rules.
What Am I Counterspelling?
Counterspell is a spell you cast as a reaction to stop another spell: Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGE) introduced an optional rule for identifying a spell. It also costs a reaction: This creates a tension between identifying a spell and deciding to counter it. You can only spend your reaction on one. The grand implication … Continue reading What Am I Counterspelling?
No, You Can’t Cast Magic Missile at the Darkness (and Other Weird Rules)
A primer on magic missile, and its weird rules interactions.
Avoid the Zone of Truth Torture Chamber
Fixing up an social spell so it does what it says without pushing the player characters to torturing the subject.
Blade Cantrip Changes
Examining the updates to Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade and their new interactions with metamagic, feats, spells, and class features.
You Can Fit 100 Intellect Devourers on the Outside of Leomund’s Tiny Hut
We offer this selection today in honor of Lenard Lakofka, who passed away on October 23, 2020. Lakofka was the player of Leomund and the creator of the Leomund's Tiny Hut spell. Lakofka ran a column in Dragon magazine called "Leomund's Tiny Hut" that ran from October 1979 (Dragon #30) until April 1986 (Dragon #108). … Continue reading You Can Fit 100 Intellect Devourers on the Outside of Leomund’s Tiny Hut
Reverse Illusions
Illusion magic in D&D 5th Edition tends to function a certain way. These spells create some sensory effect which a creature can make an investigation check to discern. Here's a list of spells that work this way (spell level in parentheses): Minor Illusion (C)Disguise Self (1st)Distort Value (1st)Silent Image (1st)Phantasmal Force (2nd)Major Image (3rd)Hallucinatory Terrain … Continue reading Reverse Illusions
Sleep Spell Reawakening
If the sleep spell is keeping you up at night, because of confusing mechanics or soft scaling, come take a look under the hood and sample two sleep spell solutions.