Dominate Beast

Level 4 Enchantment spell available to Druids and Sorcerers. Pick a beast, it fails a Wisdom save, and it is on your side for ten turns. Beasts have awful Wisdom, so it lands a lot, and the big ones hit a lot harder than anything you could summon at this level.

Spell description: Make a beast fight alongside you. Every time the beast takes damage, it makes a Wisdom Saving Throw against your domination.

Spell properties

• Range: 18m (60ft)
• Duration: 10 turns
• Concentration spell
• Save: WIS save
• Conditions applied: Dominated. The beast follows you and fights your enemies for 10 turns. It repeats the save whenever it takes damage.
• Cost: Action + Spell Slot
• Recharge: Per action

Spell upcasting

Casting Dominate Beast at higher levels provides no additional benefits.

How to obtain Dominate Beast

• Druid, Sorcerer at Class level 7
• Nature Domain Clerics (Domain spell), Circle of the Land Druids (Mountain or Underdark), and The Archfey, The Great Old One, and The Hexblade Warlocks at Class level 7
• Bard via Magical Secrets at Class level 10

Source item: Keepsake Ring

When to cast Dominate Beast

Cast it on the biggest beast in the fight. An owlbear, a bulette, a pack of gnolls’ hyenas, whatever is scariest. You remove it from the enemy side and add it to yours in one Action, which is a bigger swing than any damage spell at this level.

The Dominated creature fights on its own. You do not get to control it, it just follows you and attacks your enemies. That is fine most of the time, though it will sometimes pick a target you would not have.

The catch is the repeat save on damage. Every time the beast gets hit it rolls again, and beasts fighting on the frontline get hit a lot. Tell your party to leave it alone and let the enemy be the one to break your Concentration.

It only works on beasts. Humanoids need Dominate Person, and the aberrations and undead of Act Two are out of the question. Check the creature type before you spend the slot.