by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Enchantment spell available to Bards and Clerics. Creates a 6m zone where humanoids cannot be Charmed, Frightened, or Enraged. It is a hard counter to a very specific set of problems, and completely useless the rest of the time.
Spell description: Suppress strong emotions in an area, making all humanoids immune to being Charmed, Frightened or becoming Enraged.
Spell properties
- Range: 18m (60ft)
- Area: 6m (20ft)
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Conditions applied: Humanoids cannot be Charmed, Frightened, or become Enraged.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Calm Emotions at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Calm Emotions
- Bard, Cleric at Class level 3
Source item: Scroll of Calm Emotions
Suppress strong emotions in an area, making all humanoids immune to being Charmed, Frightened or becoming Enraged.
Duration: 10 turns
AoE: 6m (20ft) Radius
- Humanoids cannot be Charmed or Frightened.
- Humanoids cannot become Enraged. Existing Rage is suppressed.
When to cast Calm Emotions
Frightened is a miserable condition to have inflicted on your party. Disadvantage on everything, and you cannot move toward the thing that scared you. There are several encounters in Act 2 built specifically around fear, and they are exactly as fun as they sound.
Drop Calm Emotions on your party and none of that lands. It is not a save, it is immunity. That is a very different thing, and against a boss whose main trick is mass Fear it turns the whole fight around.
Same story with Charmed. Enemy enchanters and certain nasty creatures will turn your Barbarian against you, and once he is loose in your back line it is over. Calm Emotions prevents it happening at all.
Two things to note. It only affects humanoids, and the area is small, so keep the party grouped. And it will also suppress your own Barbarian’s Rage, which is a hilarious way to lose a fight. Do not centre it on him.
This is a spell you prepare when you know what is coming. It sits unused for hours and then wins one fight outright.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Divination spell available to Bards, Sorcerers, and Wizards. Lets you read the surface thoughts of the people you talk to until a Long Rest. It has no combat use whatsoever. It has a great deal of dialogue use, and that is where this game keeps its best content.
Spell description: Focus your mind to read the thoughts of certain creatures while talking to them.
Spell properties
- Range: Self
- Duration: Long Rest
- Concentration spell
- Ritual spell
- Conditions applied: Read the thoughts of certain creatures while talking to them.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Detect Thoughts at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Detect Thoughts
- Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard at Class level 3
Source items: Uncovered Mysteries, Hammer of the Just, Mask of Soul Perception, Potion of Mind Reading, Scroll of Detect Thoughts
Focus your mind to read the thoughts of certain creatures while talking to them.
When to cast Detect Thoughts
Cast it before a conversation you care about. A handful of dialogues in every act have a Detect Thoughts option that only appears while the spell is running, and some of them hand you information, a shortcut, or a way out of a fight you would otherwise have to win the hard way.
It lasts until Long Rest and it is Concentration, which is fine because you are not casting it in combat. Put it up when you walk into a town or a camp full of people who might be lying to you, then talk to everyone.
The Potion of Mind Reading does exactly the same thing without spending a spell known, and a Bard has better things to learn. Keep the potions, take the spell only if you have room for it.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Transmutation spell available to Druids and Rangers. Touch an ally and their Armour Class becomes 16 until a Long Rest, if it was lower. It is a floor, not a bonus, and that one word decides whether it is worth a slot.
Spell description: Touch a willing creature to toughen its skin and increase its Armour Class up to 16.
Spell properties
- Range: Melee: 1.5m (5ft)
- Duration: Long Rest
- Concentration spell
- Conditions applied: Armour Class is increased to 16.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Barkskin at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Barkskin
- Druid at Class level 3
- Ranger at Class level 5
Source items: Barkskin Armour, Scroll of Barkskin
Touch a willing creature to toughen its skin and increase its Armour Class up to 16.
Duration: Until Long Rest
- Armour Class is increased to 16 if it was lower.
- Does not stack with armour that already provides 16 or more.
- Persists through Wild Shape.
When to cast Barkskin
It sets Armour Class to 16. It does not add to it. Your Fighter in plate is already sitting on 18 and gets nothing. Your Wild Shaped Druid, your Monk in cloth, your Sorcerer in a dressing gown, all go straight to 16, which is a full set of medium armour for one spell slot.
The best target is the Druid casting it. Wild Shape forms have dreadful AC and Barkskin carries over into the animal, so a bear with 16 AC is a much healthier bear. Cast it in the morning, it lasts until Long Rest, and forget about it.
It is Concentration, which is a strange thing to attach to an all-day buff, and it means a Druid running Barkskin is not running Spike Growth or Moonbeam. If your caster has better things to concentrate on, the Barkskin Armour from Act 1 does the same job for free.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Illusion spell available to Sorcerers and Wizards. Your outline shimmers and every Attack Roll against you has Disadvantage for ten turns. No save, no cleverness required, and it roughly halves the number of hits you take.
Spell description: Your body becomes blurred. Attackers have Disadvantage on Attack Rolls against you.
Spell properties
- Range: Self
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Conditions applied: Disadvantage on Attack Rolls against you.
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Casting Blur at higher levels provides no additional benefits.
How to obtain Blur
- Sorcerer, Wizard at Class level 3
Source items: Cloak of Displacement, Shifting Corpus Ring, Scroll of Blur
Your body becomes blurred. Attackers have Disadvantage on Attack Rolls against you.
Duration: 10 turns
- Attack Rolls against the creature have
Disadvantage.
- Does not affect attackers that do not rely on sight.
When to cast Blur
Disadvantage is worth about 5 points off the attacker’s roll, and unlike Armour Class it does not care how enormous their bonus is. Against the Act 3 heavy hitters who clear 20 AC without blinking, Blur is doing more for you than any amount of armour.
The cost is Concentration, and that is the whole decision. A Wizard running Blur is not running Web, Hold Person, or Haste. If your caster’s job is control, Mirror Image gives you a comparable defence for free, and the two are not really competing spells so much as competing for your Concentration.
So Blur belongs on the caster who intends to stand in the fight and stay there: a sword-and-spell Wizard, an Eldritch Knight, a Sorcerer with nothing else worth concentrating on. Cast it before combat and most of the ten turns will still be there when the first arrow arrives.
The Cloak of Displacement does the same thing for free while you are undamaged, which is often the better route. Take the cloak, keep your Concentration.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 2 Abjuration spell available to Clerics and Paladins. Raises the maximum Hit Points of your whole party by 5, heals them for the same amount, and lasts until a Long Rest. It is deeply boring. It is also the most efficient use of a Level 2 slot in the game and you should be casting it every single day.
Spell description: Heal your allies and increase their maximum hit points.
Spell properties
- Range: 9m (30ft)
- Duration: Long Rest
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Hit points are increased by 5 for each spell slot level above the 2nd.
How to obtain Aid
- Cleric at Class level 3
- Paladin at Class level 5
Source item: Scroll of Aid
Heal your allies and increase their maximum hit points.
Duration: Until Long Rest
AoE: 9m (30ft) Radius
- Maximum Hit Points increased by 5.
- Heals 5 Hit Points on cast.
- Increases by 5 for each spell slot level above the 2nd.
When to cast Aid
Cast it the moment you stand up from a Long Rest, before you leave camp. It is not Concentration, it costs no Action once the fight starts, and the bonus is still there hours later. There is no reason to ever not have it running.
The distinction that makes it good: it raises maximum HP, not temporary HP. Healing can still top you up to the new ceiling, it does not get eaten like a shield, and it does not fight with False Life, Armour of Agathys, or Heroism. It stacks with everything.
+5 across four characters is 20 effective HP for one slot. Upcast to Level 5 it is +20 each, 80 HP across the party, out of a slot you were about to waste by sleeping on it. If your Cleric goes into a Long Rest with unspent high-level slots, that is the mistake. Dump them into Aid first.
One catch: it only reaches everyone within 9m. Gather the party before you cast. The companion who wandered off does not get it.
Range: 18m (60ft)
