Concentration-free Spider Climb vs. Fly?

[Greywander]

I was thinking about this, Fly is one of those must-get spells because of how useful it is. Concentration means you can't use a lot of other spells, though, so concentration-free flight is generally highly sought after. Well, maybe I'm overselling it; I happen to be one of those people who think flying races aren't OP (albeit they do make challenges a bit trickier for the DM). One of the useful aspects of the Fly spell is being able to upcast it to include your whole party. Flying is a bit bland, though. Useful, certainly, but the lack of limitations keep it from being interesting.

Enter Spider Climb as an alternative spell. It's less potent, obviously, but it can solve many of the same problems as Fly. The limitation that you have to be stuck to a surface lets you go a lot of places, but it can be countered and prevents some of the cheese that flying allows. Spider Climb doesn't compete well with Fly, though. It's true that it lasts longer, and only uses a 2nd level spell slot, but let's be honest, how many of you actually keep this spell prepared after getting Fly? Even wizards need to be picky about which spells they prepare, and the less redundancy and overlap the better, moreso for sorcerers.

So, I was thinking that perhaps we could do something to make Spider Climb a bit more competitive with Fly, to the point that some, but not all, casters would opt for Spider Climb over Fly. Spider Climb doesn't normally benefit from upcasting, and, as previously mentioned, one of the constraints of Fly is that it uses concentration. What would people think about making Spider Climb upcast to 3rd level (the same as Fly) not use concentration? This also lets you buff multiple party members (albeit by burning several spell slots). It still seems not quite as good as Fly to me, but good enough that a caster might want to have both or still be viable with just Spider Climb and not Fly.

Thoughts?

[DrKerosene]

I would use it, until someone told me to stop using it. But I’m weird when I get to be a Player.

There are only a few buff spells with a reasonable duration and being free from needing Concentration. I’ve never seen my Players take me seriously whenever I point out that you can cast Mage Armor on everyone before sleeping, or on the Party Rogue during the day. Casting Darkvision on anyone has always been treated as a waste of spells.

Spiderclimb would easily combo with Longstridsr and Jump going on the Party Rogue or Tank before a Concentration buff. It would probably turn combats into 3D fights, but like from that anime Attack On Titan, or some Spiderman scenes. Availability of trees and the height of building or ceiling would be more important to keep track of (for the Players).

Load bearingness or flimsy walls may be a fun terrain hazard. Having loose stuff fall out if you are upside-down or at too steep of an angle, would probably just be treated as DM dickery.

Do you think needing to have one hand on the wall at all times to make the spell work, would be an overly restrictive houserule if 3D ambushed became too hard to deal with in an official module?

Militaries would probably have to have orcish spike walls on everything, since basic palisades would be a joke.

It wouldn’t really effect most underground dungeons with doors as natural choke points, but looking up would probably have to be part of the “check your corners” when entering an unknown and potentially dangerous room (for NPCs and the Party).

[Dalebert]

My necromancer has concentration-free flight. Have my skeleton cast it on him with Ring of Spell Storing. Skeleton gets into Portable Hole. Replacement skeleton comes out.

Works great!

But back on topic, I think it's fine balance-wise. One thing I'm leery of is making too many house rules to the point that it gets complicated to keep up with them but as long as everyone is not overwhelmed it seems fine.

I'm a big fan of the darkvision spell. My druids are prone to preparing it, often because they don't have a lot of non-concentration spells. That and death ward and freedom of movement--glorious buffs.

[Dr. Cliché]

I'm not convinced that it would even need to be upcast to justify removing the Concentration requirement.

[Crgaston]

My Feylock has Slippers of Spider Climbing and they are fantastic. Especially combined with the Misty Escape feature. Being able to teleport to a wall or ceiling and turn invisible as a Reaction to taking damage has saved my bacon more than once.

I mention this to point out that Slippers of Spider Climbing are a thing in 5e, and that they're only Uncommon in rarity, so the functionality you're seeking is available by RAW already.

Having a concentrationless SC combines well with an upcast Fly. I can retain excellent mobility while granting 3 allies (at L9+) Flight.

I don't think it would be a problem at all to let SC scale like Fly... granting one additional target per slot level. However, I don't think letting it scale AND dropping the concentration requirement is a good idea.