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 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.
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 Necromancy spell available to Bards, Clerics, and Wizards. Touch a creature and pick your curse: cripple an ability, cripple its attacks, add damage to everything you throw at it, or simply take its turns away. Nine variants, one slot, and the last one is the reason you take it.
Spell description: Curse a creature with your touch. The curse either bestows Disadvantage on Ability Checks and Saving Throws, Disadvantage on Attack Rolls, lets you deal additional damage to the target, or robs it of its Actions.
Spell properties
- Range: Melee: 1.5m (5ft)
- Duration: 10 turns
- Concentration spell
- Save: WIS save
- Conditions applied: Bestow Curse (varies by variant)
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
Spell upcasting
Upcasting increases the duration: 20 turns at Level 4, 50 turns at Level 5, and 100 turns at Level 6. The effect itself does not change.
How to obtain Bestow Curse
- Bard, Cleric, Wizard at Class level 5
Source item: Scroll of Bestow Curse
Curse a creature with your touch. The curse either bestows Disadvantage on Ability Checks and Saving Throws, Disadvantage on Attack Rolls, lets you deal additional damage to the target, or robs it of its Actions.
Bestow Curse spell variants
You choose the curse when you cast. All nine cost the same slot and all nine last the same ten turns, so the only question is what you want the target to stop doing.
1. Bestow Curse: Strength
The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Strength Ability Checks and Strength Saving Throws.
2. Bestow Curse: Dexterity
The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Dexterity Ability Checks and Dexterity Saving Throws.
3. Bestow Curse: Constitution
The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Constitution Ability Checks and Constitution Saving Throws.
4. Bestow Curse: Intelligence
The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Intelligence Ability Checks and Intelligence Saving Throws.
5. Bestow Curse: Wisdom
The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Wisdom Ability Checks and Wisdom Saving Throws.
6. Bestow Curse: Charisma
The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Charisma Ability Checks and Charisma Saving Throws.
7. Bestow Curse: Attack Rolls
The cursed creature has Disadvantage on Attack Rolls against you.
8. Bestow Curse: Additional Damage
You deal an additional 1d8 Necrotic damage to the cursed creature with every attack.
9. Bestow Curse: Lose Action
At the start of each of its turns, the cursed creature has a chance to lose its Action entirely.
When to cast Bestow Curse
Take the Lose Action variant and stop reading. A boss that spends half its turns doing nothing is a boss that is not killing anyone, and there is no other Level 3 spell that shuts a single enemy down this hard for this long.
The additional damage variant is the one to pick when the target is going to die anyway and you just want it dead faster. 1d8 Necrotic on every attack from every source adds up over ten turns, especially with a party that all attacks twice.
The ability variants look weak and mostly are, with one exception: cursing a caster’s spellcasting ability wrecks their save DCs and their Concentration checks. Against an enemy Wizard that is a fight-ender.
The problem is the range. It is Touch, which means your Wizard has to walk into melee with the thing he is trying to disable, which is not what Wizards are for. Cast it from a Cleric who is already there, or accept the risk and bring Misty Step.
by Claude Helper | Sep 8, 2026 | Spells
Level 3 Necromancy spell available to Clerics and Wizards. Raises a corpse as an undead servant that fights for you until it dies or you Long Rest. It costs one slot, once, out of combat, and then you have a permanent extra body. That is a very good deal.
Spell description: Animate a corpse to create an undead servant while not in combat.
Spell properties
- Range: 3m (10ft)
- Duration: Until Long Rest or destroyed
- Conditions applied: Summons an undead servant
- Cost: Action + Spell Slot
- Recharge: Per action
- Cannot be cast in combat
Spell upcasting
At Level 4, raise up to 3 Skeletons or Zombies instead of 1. At Level 5, raise a Ghoul or Flying Ghoul. At Level 6, raise up to 3 Ghouls or Flying Ghouls instead of 1.
How to obtain Animate Dead
- Cleric, Wizard at Class level 5
Source items: Circle of Bones, Scroll of Animate Dead
Animate a corpse to create an undead servant while not in combat.
Animate Dead comes in four forms depending on the spell slot you spend. A Level 3 slot raises a Zombie or a Skeleton, a Level 5 slot raises a Ghoul or a Flying Ghoul, and casting at Level 4 or Level 6 raises three of the lower-tier undead instead of one. Here is what each servant brings to the fight.
1. Animate Dead: Zombie
This variation raises a Zombie, a slow but stubborn melee bruiser. Its Slam hits hard and infects the target with Crawling Gnaw, and if a creature dies while gnawed it rises as a Newborn Zombie on your side. Undead Fortitude also lets the Zombie get back up with 1 hit point unless the killing blow was a critical hit or Radiant damage, so it soaks far more punishment than its hit points suggest.
Create a zombie that specialises in melee combat.
STR
16
+3
DEX
6
-2
CON
16
+3
INT
3
-4
WIS
6
-2
CHA
5
-3
Features & Abilities
Hit a target with bare fists for 2d6 + Strength modifier Bludgeoning damage and infect it with Crawling Gnaw.
2. Animate Dead: Skeleton
This variation raises a Skeleton that hangs back and shoots. It carries a makeshift shortbow that deals extra Necrotic damage, so it is the pick when you want a summon that stays out of melee and chips away from range. It is fragile, vulnerable to Bludgeoning damage and immune to Poison, so keep it behind your front line.
Create a skeleton that specialises in ranged combat.
STR
10
+0
DEX
16
+3
CON
8
-1
INT
6
-2
WIS
8
-1
CHA
5
-3
Features & Abilities
Make a ranged attack with the makeshift bow, dealing weapon damage plus extra Necrotic damage.
3. Animate Dead: Ghoul
Cast with a Level 5 slot, the spell raises a Ghoul instead. It is a far sturdier melee summon with 35 hit points and 17 Armour Class, and its Claws can Paralyse on a hit, although the save DC is only 5 so do not count on it. Devour is the real prize: against a knocked down, prone or sleeping target it deals heavy Slashing damage and heals the Ghoul for the same amount.
Create a ghoul that specialises in melee combat.
STR
16
+3
DEX
17
+3
CON
10
+0
INT
11
+0
WIS
10
+0
CHA
8
-1
Features & Abilities
Lash out with deadly claws for 3d6 + Strength modifier Slashing damage and possibly Paralyse the target (Constitution save, DC 5).
Bite a knocked down, prone or sleeping target for 3d10 + Strength modifier Slashing damage and heal that many hit points.
4. Animate Dead: Flying Ghoul
The Flying Ghoul trades a little toughness for mobility. It has 30 hit points and 15 Armour Class, but it can Fly, which lets it reach ledges, cross hazards and get to the backline without eating opportunity attacks. Its Claws paralyse on a DC 10 Constitution save, a clear step up from the grounded Ghoul, and it keeps Devour for finishing off downed enemies.
Create a Flying Ghoul that specialises in melee combat.
STR
16
+3
DEX
17
+3
CON
10
+0
INT
11
+0
WIS
10
+0
CHA
8
-1
Features & Abilities
Lash out with deadly claws for 3d6 + Strength modifier Slashing damage and possibly Paralyse the target (Constitution save, DC 10).
Bite a knocked down, prone or sleeping target for 3d10 + Strength modifier Slashing damage and heal that many hit points.
Fly to a target position, spending half as much movement as walking.
When to cast Animate Dead
Cast it before the fight, because you cannot cast it during one. Walk over a corpse, spend the slot, and go into the next encounter with an extra body that soaks hits nobody has to heal.
The upcast is where it gets silly. A Level 6 slot raises three Ghouls at once, and Ghouls paralyse. Three of them do a lot more than any single Level 6 spell you were considering.
The undead persist until they die or you Long Rest, which makes this the most slot-efficient thing a Necromancy Wizard does. Spend your leftover slots on it at the end of the day and start tomorrow with an army.
The catch is the corpse. You need one, it has to be intact, and the game will not always give you a body where you want one. Keep an eye out for a convenient graveyard before a hard fight.
Range: Self
Save: DEX save 
