Good multi-use spells for casters with limited spells known?

[Rfkannen]

Your wizard is free to get all the spells they want, but with a bard or a sorcerer you have to be a bit more careful, and while you can take stuff like water breathing, it is generally better to take spells that can be used in multiple ways.

What spells do you think are good for getting a lot of mileage and varied use out of for spellcasters with limited spells known?

[Eldariel]

Well, the obvious ones:
- Suggestion (combat spell that doubles as utility with a brutal duration to boot)
- Dispel Magic (interacts with all sorts of magic)
- Polymorph (offensive, defensive, utility)
- Levitate (offensive and utility)
- Silent/Major Image (can replicate fog cloud as well as summons, walls, and what-not)
- Pyrotechnics (area control and a blind effect)
- Summon/Conjure anything (frontliner/caster thingy so this gives you tanking/"EHP", damage, utility, etc.)

[Man_Over_Game]

Catapult, Invisibility, Calm Emotions.

It's not necessarily that you need to have spells that are used for multiple things, but that all of your spell slots can be used fairly frequently. You can afford to take Water Breathing if you plan on spending most of your slots on Fireball and Shield. As long as you are out of Spell Slots by the end of the day, and none of those slots were wasted, you did a good job.

Nobody's going to complain if the Fire Draconic Sorcerer is packed full of Fire Spells, as long as he is able to solve as many problems as any other Sorcerer would (and Fire solves a LOT of problems; creates some too, if you're lucky).

[JackPhoenix]

Wish, obviously.
Magic Jar is great, if you have access to humanoids with abilities you want to steal. Bard only through Magic Secrets, as only wizards have it. You can use Shapechange or True Polymorph to similar effect, though you'll get it way too late, if at all. Dominate [whatever] also works, as do Planar Binding, depending on what you can get access to.
Glyph of Warding, while it doesn't give you more versatility on its own, allows you to get more milleage out of other spells.
Soul Cage, while not very powerful, offers interesting variety of options.

[Tanarii]

Calm Emotions
Wait, what?

[JackPhoenix]

Wait, what?

You can remove charmed or frightened conditions from your friends, or make your enemies non-hostile. While it's got limited duration, unlike charm effects, it'll make them indifferent to the caster's allies too. It's not hard CC like Hypnotic Pattern, but you don't have to worry about friendly fire, and the spell itself is 'less hostile', for lack of a better word, you may be able to talk the enemies down in the minute it'll buy you.

[Tanarii]

You can remove charmed or frightened conditions from your friends, or make your enemies non-hostile.I have to admit I was thinking of Enthrall with my reaction, not Calm Emotions. :smallredface:

On Calm Emotions, how useful is the second part? It has to work on 100% of the hostile group, or it's pretty pointless. I've never seen it successfully used to defuse a fight because of that, and IMC there weren't many hostile you faced where you weren't about to get in a fight. Same in AL. Not that I have seen many players select the spell in the first place, it's definitely not considered a good spell.

[nickl_2000]

To add into some others


Enlarge/Reduce - Good in combat, but also lets you sneak into place, reduce a door size, enlarge a particular stone damaging a building.
Command - Shorter term version of suggestion
Nearly any ritual if you are in a class with ritual casting
Invisibility
Wall of stone - I have used this so many times to make a safe resting spot or block off a cave

[Tanarii]

Enlarge/Reduce - Good in combat, but also lets you sneak into place, reduce a door size, enlarge a particular stone damaging a building.
Enlarge / reduce doesn't affect structures, only creatures or objects. So definitely not part of building, but possibly not even attached doors.

[nickl_2000]

Enlarge / reduce doesn't affect structures, only creatures or objects. So definitely not part of building, but possibly not even attached doors.

True, certainly a DM call (my DM let's us use it on doors and other such objects), even without that it's still a good spell overall.

[Vogie]

Requires DM fiat, but packing metal darts so you can use Heat Metal on Unarmored targets

Silent Image is as useful as your imagination allows

Alter Self can work as both Water Breathing and whatnot. Some DMs will allow you to gain flight (by shifting into aaracokra or a winged tieflings), while others will only allow you to glide, still others will just say "yeah, no".

Tenser's Floating Disk is a ritual, but can also be cast as an action. Since it always follows you, and doesn't require concentration, you can have an ally stand on it, and then literally move them around on your turn. And, since it's considered forced movement, it shouldn't provoke AoOs

Mage Armor can be cast on other creatures. It rarely comes up, but can be a lifesaver after a fight with Rust monsters, certain types of Ooze, or if you're escorting an NPC that you'd rather not die. Can also be used to buff up pets, companions, artificer's homonculi and familiars.

Bestow Curse and to a lesser extent Hex have a ton of variables that you could tackle.

[sambojin]

Command: as mentioned. Can also do a bit of combat like using Flee to create a bunch of AoOs. Confess for interrogation. Etc. There's entire message threads on this spell.

Good Berry: Does food, yo-yoing, actual healing, bribes/friend-making, beast calming, is divisible amongst the party, can be cast the day before so is nice on resources.

Hex: disadvantage for someone on skill checks is just as good in a social/stealth situation as +1d6 damage is in a combat situation.

Disguise Self: OK, it only does one thing, but it does it well. It's an action sapper to see through, and can be very handy in exploration and social environments. It's also non-concentration and lasts a fairly long time. Fighting goblins? Be a goblin then. You might get the jump on them.

Enhance Ability: does any stats for anyone and also does initiative when you choose Dex. Surprisingly handy to have advantage on initiative rolls, even if you drop it immediately at the start of combat for another concentration spell. It's a lvl2 slot, but that's pretty cheap for reliable turn ordering. Very underrated spell.

Shatter: when you're not breaking people, you can break stuff instead. And there is a lot of stuff to break if you're imaginative.

Sleet Storm: it can air prone things out of the sky, it can break concentration so is essentially a limited dispel with a decent DC, it does obsurement, it does difficult terrain but doesn't have to, it has a big AoE with cylinder targeting. It's definitely multipurpose, and very good at everything it does.