Phantasmal Force

Level 2 Illusion spell available to Bards, Sorcerers, and Wizards. Fails an Intelligence save and a creature takes 1d6 Psychic damage every turn for ten turns, and the damage type changes to whatever last hurt it. It is a slow burn with one clever trick and a Concentration cost that makes the trick hard to justify.

Spell description: Flood a creature’s mind with an illusion of the last thing that attacked it. Each turn, it takes 1d6 Psychic damage. Each time it takes damage from another source, the damage type of Phantasmal Force changes to that damage type.

Spell properties

• Range: 18m (60ft)
• Duration: 10 turns
• Concentration spell
• Save: INT save
• Damage: 1d6 Psychic
• Conditions applied: Deals damage each turn. The damage type changes to the last type the creature suffered.
• Cost: Action + Spell Slot
• Recharge: Per action

Spell upcasting

Casting Phantasmal Force at higher levels provides no additional benefits.

How to obtain Phantasmal Force

• Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard at Class level 3

Source item: Scroll of Phantasmal Force

When to cast Phantasmal Force

The Intelligence save is the sell. Almost nothing in the game has a good Intelligence save, so this lands on the ogre, the giant, the brute, all the things that shrug off your Wisdom and Constitution spells. Against a big dumb enemy it is close to guaranteed.

Then the damage type shifts. Hit the target with Fire and the phantasm does Fire. Hit it with Radiant against an undead and it does Radiant. Line it up with whatever the enemy is weakest to and the 1d6 a turn quietly becomes something real.

It is still 1d6 a turn for a Concentration slot. Over ten turns that is 35 damage if it runs the whole way, which Cloud of Daggers does in three. Take it for the save type on a specific boss, not as a general damage spell.