by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Abjuration spell available to Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards. A Reaction that cancels an enemy spell as it is being cast. It works automatically on spells of Level 3 or lower, and needs an ability check for anything higher. It is the best defensive Reaction in the game and it is not close.
Spell description: Try to stop a spell being cast. If it is higher level than the spell slot you used to Counterspell, you must make a check using your spellcasting ability to prevent it.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Conditions applied: The targeted spell fails. Can be cast while Silenced.
- Cost: Reaction + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per turn
Spell upcasting
Casting Counterspell at a higher level automatically counters any spell of that level or lower without requiring an ability check.
How to obtain Counterspell
- Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard at Class level 5
- Eldritch Knight (Fighter) and Arcane Trickster (Rogue) at Class level 13
Source items: Staff of Interruption, Scroll of Counterspell
Try to stop a spell being cast. If it is higher level than the spell slot you used to Counterspell, you must make a check using your spellcasting ability to prevent it.
When to cast Counterspell
Cast it on the spell that would have ruined your turn: the enemy Fireball, the Hold Person on your tank, the Banishment, the heal on the boss. One slot to delete their whole Action is a trade you take every time.
It only fires if you have a Reaction left and a slot to spend, so on a Wizard it is worth leaving one Level 3 slot untouched all fight. Turn the Reaction prompt on for it, or the game will not ask.
Against a Level 4 or higher spell you roll a check, so the free win is not guaranteed. If you have the slot to spare, upcast it and skip the dice. A Warlock casting it from a Level 5 Pact slot counters almost anything automatically.
It works while Silenced, which the description mentions for a reason. The classic counter to a caster is Silence, and Counterspell is the one spell that shrugs it off.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Conjuration spell available to Rangers. You fire a 9m cone of copies of your weapon for 3d8 of its damage type, with a Dexterity save for half. It is the Ranger’s one proper area attack and it hits everything in front of you, allies included.
Spell description: Channel your weapon’s essence into a destructive, widespread volley.
Spell properties
- Damage: 3d8 of your weapon’s damage type
- Damage type: Weapon damage type
- Range: Self
- Area: 9m (30ft) cone
- Save: DEX save (half damage on success)
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Conjure Barrage at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Conjure Barrage
Source item: Scroll of Conjure Barrage
Channel your weapon’s essence into a destructive, widespread volley.
When to cast Conjure Barrage
This is the Ranger’s only real area damage, so cast it when three or more enemies are lined up in front of you. A cone that wide catches a whole corridor, and 3d8 to each of them is a lot more than one arrow.
The damage type is whatever your weapon does, which matters. Fire a Fire-enchanted bow and the whole cone is Fire. Use a Piercing weapon against skeletons and you will be disappointed. Pick your weapon for the fight, not the spell.
It hits friends too, so check who is standing in the cone before you click. And it is a Level 3 slot on a half-caster, which means you get one, maybe two per Long Rest. Save it for the crowd, not the single target.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Evocation spell available to Paladins. Every weapon attack from you and every nearby ally deals an extra 1d4 Radiant damage for ten turns. On its own that is modest. Multiplied across a party that attacks a lot, it is not.
Spell description: Radiate a holy power that emboldens you and nearby allies. Their weapon attacks deal an additional 1d4 Radiant damage.
Spell properties
- Range: Self
- Area: 9m (30ft) radius
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Damage: 1d4 Radiant per weapon attack
- Conditions applied: Crusader’s Mantle
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Crusader’s Mantle at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Crusader’s Mantle
Source item: Mantle of the Holy Warrior
Radiate a holy power that emboldens you and nearby allies. Their weapon attacks deal an additional 1d4 Radiant damage.
Duration: 10 turns
AoE: 9m (30ft) Radius
- Weapon attacks deal an additional 1d4 Radiant damage.
- Affects the caster and all allies within the radius.
- Concentration.
When to cast Crusader’s Mantle
Count the attacks before you judge the dice. A late-game party is making six or eight weapon attacks a round between them, and 1d4 on every single one for ten turns is a lot more damage than any one-off smite you were going to cast instead.
It scales with how many people are swinging, which means it is superb in a melee party and close to worthless in a party of casters. Two Fighters and a Barbarian, cast it. Three Wizards, do not.
Radiant is a good type to be adding, too. Very little resists it, and it works nicely with the Radiating Orb items that pile Disadvantage onto anything you keep hitting.
It is Concentration, which for a Paladin is not usually a busy slot, so the real cost is just the Action on turn one. Cast it before you charge, not after.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Conjuration spell available to Druids. 3d10 Lightning in a small area, and then you can do it again every turn for ten turns without spending another slot. One slot, ten castings. Read that again.
Spell description: Lightning strikes all targets within the area of effect. For 10 turns you can call down lightning again without expending a spell slot.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Area: 2m (7ft) radius
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Save: DEX save
- Damage: 3d10 Lightning
- Conditions applied: Call Lightning
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Call Lightning at a higher level deals an additional 1d10 Lightning for each spell slot level above the 3rd. This applies to the initial cast and to every free cast afterwards.
How to obtain Call Lightning
- Druid at Class level 5
- Tempest Domain (Cleric) at Class level 5, as a Domain Spell
Source item: None. No item in the game grants Call Lightning.
Lightning strikes all targets within the area of effect. For 10 turns you can call down lightning again without expending a spell slot.
On save: The creature takes half damage.
Duration: 10 turns
- For 10 turns you can call down lightning again as an Action.
- Free casts do not expend a Spell Slot.
- Concentration. If it drops, so does the storm.
When to cast Call Lightning
This is the single most slot-efficient damage spell a Druid has. 3d10 a turn for ten turns out of one Level 3 slot is a rate of return nothing else at this level comes close to, and the upcast raises every free cast too, not just the first.
Upcast it. A Level 6 Call Lightning is 6d10 every turn for ten turns, which quietly out-damages every single-cast Level 6 spell in the game if the fight lasts even half that long.
Wet enemies take double Lightning damage. A Druid who opens with Create or Destroy Water and then parks a Call Lightning on the puddle is doing something genuinely unfair, and it works every turn.
Two limits. The radius is tiny, so it is a single-target tool most of the time, and it is Concentration, so it competes with everything else a Druid wants to be holding. The trade is usually worth it.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Transmutation spell available to Sorcerers and Wizards. At the end of each of your turns you flip a coin, and half the time you simply stop existing until your next turn. Nothing can hit what is not there.
Spell description: At the end of your turn, roll a d20. On 11 or higher, you vanish into the Ethereal Plane. While there, you can’t be harmed or seen in this world. Available only in combat.
Spell properties
- Range: Self
- Duration: 10 turns
- Conditions applied: Blink; Blinked to the Ethereal Plane
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
- Available only in combat
Spell upcasting
Casting Blink at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Blink
- Sorcerer, Wizard at Class level 5
Source items: Ring of Blink, Scroll of Blink
At the end of your turn, roll a d20. On 11 or higher, you vanish into the Ethereal Plane. While there, you can’t be harmed or seen in this world. Available only in combat.
Duration: 10 turns
- At the end of each of your turns, roll a d20.
- On 11 or higher, you vanish into the Ethereal Plane until the start of your next turn.
- You cannot be seen, targeted, or harmed by anything in this world.
- You return automatically at the start of your next turn.
When to cast Blink
It is not Concentration, which immediately makes it more interesting than it looks. Your Wizard can be holding Haste or Hypnotic Pattern and still be spending half the fight in another plane of existence entirely.
The maths is a coin flip every round, so across a long fight you are dodging roughly half of everything aimed at you. Combined with Mirror Image, a caster becomes very difficult to remove from the board by ordinary means.
The problem is the other half. Fifty per cent of the time you are standing there in the open having spent your Action on nothing, and the enemy archers are delighted. Blink protects you on average, not on the turn you actually need it.
Which makes it a spell for the long grind, not the emergency. If something is about to kill you right now, Misty Step out. Blink is what you cast on turn one when you know you are going to be shot at for the next ten.
Range: 18m (60ft)
Save: DEX save 
