LudicSavant
2020-05-20, 02:25 AM
Many people just sort of gloss over the "components" section of their spells. This list is here to help give you some ideas of which spells have extra noteworthy uses due to their component requirements (or lack thereof).
Silence and Stealth: Spells Without Verbal Components
There are 26 spells that can be cast without Verbal components, and therefore while Silenced. Some of these are great for attacking or otherwise messing with people while remaining in stealth! Some others... less so, because they'd give away your location anyways.
Cantrips:
Control Flames - Try animating the guards' torches to make them look like they're naturally sputtering out in a gust of wind before springing your ambush.
Encode Thoughts
Friends
Minor Illusion - Trickery from the shadows.
Mold Earth - All the 'shape element' spells are stealthy. You can use them to set up the field a bit before an ambush.
Primal Savagery
Shape Water - All the 'shape element' spells are stealthy. You can use them to set up the field a bit before an ambush.
Thunderclap
True Strike
1st:
Absorb Elements - Silence won't stop you from reducing your elemental damage.
Catapult - Since you can fire objects from various angles, doesn't give away your position.
Ice Knife
Illusory Script (ritual)
2nd:
Beast Sense 2nd (ritual)
Jim's Glowing Coin
Mind Spike - Seems like this won't give away your position either, and synergizes with the Diviner's L6 ability. Hmmm... note to self... look into stealthy Diviner assassin.
Wristpocket (ritual)
3rd:
Catnap
Counterspell
Hypnotic Pattern - A powerful spell that Silence can't take away from you.
5th:
Mislead
Steel Wind Strike - The least-resisted damage type, bypasses Magic Resistance, and benefits from Advantage on attacks, with a damage roll comparable to an upcast Fireball.
6th:
Mental Prison - An offensive/control spell that might not give away your position.
8th:
Demiplane
Illusory Dragon - No need to let them know there's anything besides a dragon to fight around here.
9th:
Psychic Scream
So next time someone Silences you and thinks they've got your caster in a bind,
just cast a Hypnotic Pattern, or some other useful spell you have in mind.
Spells You Can Cast While Tied Up, but not Gagged
There's 57 of these, and the most noteworthy ones are probably "basically all of the teleports are Verbal-only."
Cantrips:
Lightning Lure
Sword Burst
Thaumaturgy
Vicious Mockery
1st:
Cause Fear
Command
Compelled Duel
Dissonant Whispers
Distort Value
Ensnaring Strike
Faerie Fire
Hail of Thorns
Healing Word
Hunter's Mark
Searing Smite
Thunderous Smite
Wrathful Smite
Zephyr Strike
2nd:
Blindness/Deafness
Blur
Branding Smite
Earthbind
Knock
Misty Step
Prayer of Healing
Warding Wind
3rd:
Aura of Vitality
Blinding Smite
Crusader's Mantle
Fast Friends
Mass Healing Word
Motivational Speech
Thunder Step
4th:
Aura of Life
Aura of Purity
Dimension Doo
Guardian of Faith
Guardian of Nature
Staggering Smite
5th:
Banishing Smite
Circle of Power
Contact Other Plane
Destructive Wave
Far Step
Geas
Immolation
6th:
Otto's Irresistible Dance
Scatter
Word of Recall
7th:
Divine Word
Power Word Pain
Teleport
8th:
Glibness
Power Word Stun
9th:
Power Word Kill
Time Stop
Wish
The Worst Component Rule: Somatic+Material is Sometimes Easier to Cast Than Somatic
I suppose no guide no treatise on the spell component rules would be complete without this little doozy.
What’s the amount of interaction needed to use a spellcasting focus? Does it have to be included in the somatic component?
If a spell has a material component, you need to handle that component when you cast the spell (PH, 203). The same rule applies if you’re using a spellcasting focus as the material component.
If a spell has a somatic component, you can use the hand that performs the somatic component to also handle the material component. For example, a wizard who uses an orb as a spellcasting focus could hold a quarterstaff in one hand and the orb in the other, and he could cast lightning bolt by using the orb as the spell’s material component and the orb hand to perform the spell’s somatic component.
Another example: a cleric’s holy symbol is emblazoned on her shield. She likes to wade into melee combat with a mace in one hand and a shield in the other. She uses the holy symbol as her spellcasting focus, so she needs to have the shield in hand when she casts a cleric spell that has a material component. If the spell, such as aid, also has a somatic component, she can perform that component with the shield hand and keep holding the mace in the other.
If the same cleric casts cure wounds, she needs to put the mace or the shield away, because that spell doesn’t have a material component but does have a somatic component. She’s going to need a free hand to make the spell’s gestures. If she had the War Caster feat, she could ignore this restriction.
In order to actually enforce this rule, the player (and DM, as arbiter) need to either know by memory what the components of each and every spell are, or start going through their notes or, worse, stopping the game to flip through books. Well, maybe it's just a few spells that we have to remember, let's take a loo--
239 spells have S and M
174 spells have S, but no M
There does not seem to be any discernible pattern to determine which are which without actually checking.
I can memorize a lot but damn. This is impossible. Who thought this rule was a good idea? Did they just want to make 5e the most needlessly complex edition? I can memorize pretty much everything in 3.5e but not this.
It's needlessly confusing to new players, annoying to veterans, and does nothing of particular value for the game IMHO. I suggest murdering the rule with an axe. If you don't own an axe, a hammer will suffice.
What do you think? Any other thoughts on spell components I should add?
Silence and Stealth: Spells Without Verbal Components
There are 26 spells that can be cast without Verbal components, and therefore while Silenced. Some of these are great for attacking or otherwise messing with people while remaining in stealth! Some others... less so, because they'd give away your location anyways.
Cantrips:
Control Flames - Try animating the guards' torches to make them look like they're naturally sputtering out in a gust of wind before springing your ambush.
Encode Thoughts
Friends
Minor Illusion - Trickery from the shadows.
Mold Earth - All the 'shape element' spells are stealthy. You can use them to set up the field a bit before an ambush.
Primal Savagery
Shape Water - All the 'shape element' spells are stealthy. You can use them to set up the field a bit before an ambush.
Thunderclap
True Strike
1st:
Absorb Elements - Silence won't stop you from reducing your elemental damage.
Catapult - Since you can fire objects from various angles, doesn't give away your position.
Ice Knife
Illusory Script (ritual)
2nd:
Beast Sense 2nd (ritual)
Jim's Glowing Coin
Mind Spike - Seems like this won't give away your position either, and synergizes with the Diviner's L6 ability. Hmmm... note to self... look into stealthy Diviner assassin.
Wristpocket (ritual)
3rd:
Catnap
Counterspell
Hypnotic Pattern - A powerful spell that Silence can't take away from you.
5th:
Mislead
Steel Wind Strike - The least-resisted damage type, bypasses Magic Resistance, and benefits from Advantage on attacks, with a damage roll comparable to an upcast Fireball.
6th:
Mental Prison - An offensive/control spell that might not give away your position.
8th:
Demiplane
Illusory Dragon - No need to let them know there's anything besides a dragon to fight around here.
9th:
Psychic Scream
So next time someone Silences you and thinks they've got your caster in a bind,
just cast a Hypnotic Pattern, or some other useful spell you have in mind.
Spells You Can Cast While Tied Up, but not Gagged
There's 57 of these, and the most noteworthy ones are probably "basically all of the teleports are Verbal-only."
Cantrips:
Lightning Lure
Sword Burst
Thaumaturgy
Vicious Mockery
1st:
Cause Fear
Command
Compelled Duel
Dissonant Whispers
Distort Value
Ensnaring Strike
Faerie Fire
Hail of Thorns
Healing Word
Hunter's Mark
Searing Smite
Thunderous Smite
Wrathful Smite
Zephyr Strike
2nd:
Blindness/Deafness
Blur
Branding Smite
Earthbind
Knock
Misty Step
Prayer of Healing
Warding Wind
3rd:
Aura of Vitality
Blinding Smite
Crusader's Mantle
Fast Friends
Mass Healing Word
Motivational Speech
Thunder Step
4th:
Aura of Life
Aura of Purity
Dimension Doo
Guardian of Faith
Guardian of Nature
Staggering Smite
5th:
Banishing Smite
Circle of Power
Contact Other Plane
Destructive Wave
Far Step
Geas
Immolation
6th:
Otto's Irresistible Dance
Scatter
Word of Recall
7th:
Divine Word
Power Word Pain
Teleport
8th:
Glibness
Power Word Stun
9th:
Power Word Kill
Time Stop
Wish
The Worst Component Rule: Somatic+Material is Sometimes Easier to Cast Than Somatic
I suppose no guide no treatise on the spell component rules would be complete without this little doozy.
What’s the amount of interaction needed to use a spellcasting focus? Does it have to be included in the somatic component?
If a spell has a material component, you need to handle that component when you cast the spell (PH, 203). The same rule applies if you’re using a spellcasting focus as the material component.
If a spell has a somatic component, you can use the hand that performs the somatic component to also handle the material component. For example, a wizard who uses an orb as a spellcasting focus could hold a quarterstaff in one hand and the orb in the other, and he could cast lightning bolt by using the orb as the spell’s material component and the orb hand to perform the spell’s somatic component.
Another example: a cleric’s holy symbol is emblazoned on her shield. She likes to wade into melee combat with a mace in one hand and a shield in the other. She uses the holy symbol as her spellcasting focus, so she needs to have the shield in hand when she casts a cleric spell that has a material component. If the spell, such as aid, also has a somatic component, she can perform that component with the shield hand and keep holding the mace in the other.
If the same cleric casts cure wounds, she needs to put the mace or the shield away, because that spell doesn’t have a material component but does have a somatic component. She’s going to need a free hand to make the spell’s gestures. If she had the War Caster feat, she could ignore this restriction.
In order to actually enforce this rule, the player (and DM, as arbiter) need to either know by memory what the components of each and every spell are, or start going through their notes or, worse, stopping the game to flip through books. Well, maybe it's just a few spells that we have to remember, let's take a loo--
239 spells have S and M
174 spells have S, but no M
There does not seem to be any discernible pattern to determine which are which without actually checking.
I can memorize a lot but damn. This is impossible. Who thought this rule was a good idea? Did they just want to make 5e the most needlessly complex edition? I can memorize pretty much everything in 3.5e but not this.
It's needlessly confusing to new players, annoying to veterans, and does nothing of particular value for the game IMHO. I suggest murdering the rule with an axe. If you don't own an axe, a hammer will suffice.
What do you think? Any other thoughts on spell components I should add?