What's the most underrated spell at higher levels?

[LastCenturion]

Title says it all. My personal favorite is Sleep, which gets at least 95 HP half the time. Say, a Druid at 20th level will have... however many hit points her current form has, I suppose. Which is likely either less than 95 or not too far off. It's also no save, no anything, in a huge area for mook fights as well.

I realize that a Meteor Swarm will end most fights faster than a Sleep, but Meteor Swarm has the unfortunate side effect of having giant rocks crash into your foe, which raises a little bit of an alarm. Sleep works when you need to be stealthy as well.

What are your favorite spells to take to higher levels?

[Sirdar]

Perhaps a boring choice, but Armor of Agathys is my pick. Just love that spell and it would be so cool to cast it with a really high level spell slot.

Edit: Ah, it was supposed to be an underrated spell. Clearly missed that, even though it was in the title of the thread. :smallredface:

[LastCenturion]

Perhaps a boring choice, but Armor of Agathys is my pick. Just love that spell and it would be so cool to cast it with a really high level spell slot.

Edit: Ah, it was supposed to be an underrated spell. Clearly missed that, even though it was in the title of the thread. :smallredface:

Armor of Agathys is pretty underrated, IMO. Maybe not the most powerful at higher levels, but 45 temporary hit points that deal 45 to everybody who hits you until they're gone is pretty good. Especially since it doesn't use concentration.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Armor of Agathys is pretty underrated, IMO. Maybe not the most powerful at higher levels, but 45 temporary hit points that deal 45 to everybody who hits you until they're gone is pretty good. Especially since it doesn't use concentration.

It's too easily countered by ranged attacks in my opinion. I'm not saying it's bad by any means, but it's not worth dropping a high level slot on - I'd probably take it to 6th at most, maybe a bit higher if I had a source of resistance. There's also the fact that, excluding multiclassing or bards, casting it above 5th level is categorically impossible because Mystic Arcanum doesn't let you upcast.

Sleep is awful when upcast to 9th - you're essentially getting an inferior Power Word Kill, and that's generally agreed to be one of the worst 9th levels. Meteor Swarm isn't particularly good either - a 9th level spell needs to be doing more than blasting. The good ones provide transformational benefits that last through multiple encounters (Foresight, True Polymorph, Shapechange) or give you capabilities that can't be replicated otherwise (Wish, True Resurrection, Gate).

Few spells are worth upcasting to 9th, but there are a few worth upcasting to other high level slots. Spiritual Guardians is a good example - in fact, that might sometimes be worth upcasting to 9th, simply because the Cleric has a rather poor selection of 9th level spells. Call Lightning is also fairly effective, though I'd only take it to 8 given that Druid has Shapechange.

[Azgeroth]

Conjure Animals,

summon 12 owls, thats (upto) 12d6 per round, or if your a conjuration wizard, 12d6+60, get the enemy held (hold person/monster) and its upto 24d6+60... every round... beat that.

[Chunkosaurus]

Bestow curse allows you to curse someone until the end of time with a 9th level slot. Depending on DM fiat you can do some creative things with the spell, but even so the written effects are good. You could give someone who ticks you off disadvantage on all charisma checks and saves for the rest of their life.

[N810]

Magic missile...
all them D4's
and no save.

[Taebyn]

I'm not sure if you meant a high level spell or just an amazing spell at higher levels. My vote is for an upcast aid. Increases max hit points and stacks with temp hit points. Pretty nasty when paired with temp hit points from things such as inspiring leader. If it was a high level spell, I'd say modify memory. The ability to get out of terrible situations or into them is pretty clutch.

[Vogonjeltz]

Title says it all. My personal favorite is Sleep, which gets at least 95 HP half the time. Say, a Druid at 20th level will have... however many hit points her current form has, I suppose. Which is likely either less than 95 or not too far off. It's also no save, no anything, in a huge area for mook fights as well.

I realize that a Meteor Swarm will end most fights faster than a Sleep, but Meteor Swarm has the unfortunate side effect of having giant rocks crash into your foe, which raises a little bit of an alarm. Sleep works when you need to be stealthy as well.

What are your favorite spells to take to higher levels?

Who is doing the rating?

I'd generally agree with you that it's Sleep. At +2d6 per level Sleep has possibly the best scaling and no save or attack roll. Sure, some creatures are immune to it, and it doesn't work at all if they have more hp than get rolled giving it the same potential drawback as Power Word Kill, but I'd say those are more than worth the benefits for knocking a bunch of creatures out of a fight (or preventing a fight in the first place)!


Conjure Animals,

summon 12 owls, thats (upto) 12d6 per round, or if your a conjuration wizard, 12d6+60, get the enemy held (hold person/monster) and its upto 24d6+60... every round... beat that.

School of Conjuration doesn't grant any damage bonuses. Perhaps you are thinking of School of Necromancy's "Undead Thralls" ability?