Cantrips and 1st-level spells from past editions updated to 5e

[Abuzorg]

Most of these spells are taken from 2e and 3.5 core rules, but a few (especially the ones that are on the half casters list) are from supplements such as the spell compendiums or, as is the case for artificer only spells, from Eberron sourcebooks. A lot of these, but not all of them, have been playtested in my home games over the las few years and I am now looking for some feedback from outside my gaming circle. I have spells from all levels, but I don't want to deter potential reviewers by overwhelming them. So here are my cantrips and 1st-level spells for now.

gmbinder link : https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-N3ZgZrSbFCjBKT-mDWy/-N4XTtflFFLVC4Ez9SK-

[GalacticAxekick]

Overall, I think these are great! Here are my thoughts on each individual spell:

Daze looks simple, thematically appropriate and balanced! Weak in terms of damage, but difficult for most enemies to resist and useful for helping allies disengage or bypass unique reactions.

Electric Jolt is identical to Acid Splash in every way except the damage type. So at the very least, it meets the PHB's standards. But because Acid Splash is underpowered in my opinion, I would buff and distinguish both spells. I would make Acid Splash a small AoE (like a 5 foot cube) and allow Electric Jolt to jump 10 or maybe 15 feet between targets.

Touch of Fatigue is awesome! I'm not sure if it's strong enough to justify putting a caster in close range (especially as enemies get extra attacks), but it comes close!

Adamantine Weapon is certainly balanced. In some campaigns it will be very niche (I've never fielded a monster with resistance to non-adamantine damage. Ever) while in others it will be hugely useful (many monsters in the Monster Manual seem resistant to non-adamantine damage, for some reason)

Animate Rope is awesome. It's a classic magician trick, versatile, and balanced. The only thing I would add is the ability to make the rope move from place to place. You could make moving the rope 30 feet a bonus action as well.

I don't see the purpose of Arcane Mark.

Detect Secret Doors is unfun in my opinion. By casting it as a ritual every 10 minutes you spend in building or dungoen, it allows you to detect every secret door that ever passes within 30 feet of you as long as you aren't in combat or another rush situation, trivializing any puzzles (from a gameplay perspective) and the very concept of a secret door (from a worldbuilding perspective).

Disarm is cool! Though the martial creatures you're likely to be disarming will probably have the best Strength saves, so it may become very weak very quickly.

Endure Elements is handy, but in any situation where one member of the party needs it, the whole party is likely to need it. You won't even have 4 spell slots to spare for a few levels, so it's mostly useless at the level that you'd learn it! It might make more sense as a 2nd or 3rd level spell that can target the whole party.

Energy Alteration, like Adamantine Weapon, strikes me as a spell that would be very useful in some campaigns and totally useless in others. For example, in 5-ish years of DMing, I've only once an elemental weapon, and I've only twice given a player an item that granted resistance/immunity to a damage type, and neither anywhere near 1st level. But then, I've played in campaigns where players got elemental weapons at game start and got more as the game went on. Besides being useless in low magic games, this spell seems versatile and fun.

Entropic Shield seems fine! Like a more powerful but more niche Shield of Faith.

Golden Barding seems fine! It certainly makes mounts more viable, though it's strange (on a thematic level) that the spell only works on creatures big enough for you to ride.

Hawkeye is great!

Read Magic competes with Comprehend Languages, when it comes to deciphering visible inscriptions. And it competes with Find Traps when it comes to spotting Glyphs of Warding and Symbols. I don't see the need this.

Rhino's Rush is quite thematic, and because comparable to Zephyr Strike in terms of function and power, so it's certainly balanced. Looks good!

Sunscorch is awesome, but overpowered. It beats Catapult in terms of damage type, damage on a successful save, additional effects and range! It should do no damage on a successful save, and it might need smaller damage dice.

Ventriloquism competes with Minor Illusion, which allows you to do the exact same thing and more. The only upsides to Ventriloquism is the greater range (60 feet instead of 30). Is that worth a 1st level spell slot and concentration?

[Yakk]

Daze: Weak. Typo in the increase.

An equivalent 1d4 cantrip causes disadvantage on an attack.

Electric Jolt:
Weak. So is acid splash. Not unique enough.

Me, I'd be tempted to combine Jolt and Daze. Make it 1d4, prevent reactions, and up to 2 targets within 10' of each other.

The 'balance' argument is that the "no reactions" is a weak rider, but that and 10' make up for the lower damage from Acid Splash.

Fatigue:
By letting the creature effectively pick between a weapon attack and a str/dex check, this could be weaker than not letting the creature pick.

Note that shocking grasp's reaction rider is intended to let the spellcaster walk away safely; the reaction suppression is (in a sense) stronger because it is melee range.

Adamantium Weapon:
Adamantium doesn't penetrate damage resistance in 5e in any case I've seen. Use "magical".

I might also grant +1d8 damage on constructs.

Rope Trick:
I might turn this into a cantrip and weaken it.

Arcane Mark:
Should be a cantrip. (That actually makes it *more* expensive than it as a ritual!)

Detect Secret Doors:
By design, spells don't eclipse skills in 5e. This breaks that.

Disarm:
A save or suck against a limited set of foes. I wouldn't put it in the game.

Endure Elements:
I'd be tempted to make this a cantrip. Clarify "harsher environments"; is a wall of fire a harsher environment? Sort of!

Energy Alternation:
Did you intend for the M to be consumed? If so, say so.

Shouldn't be 1st level.

Entropic Shield:
I don't like the name, especially for a generic cleric spell.

If it was restricted to chaos domains and artificers, sure.

Golden Barding:
I'd make the AC flat instead of dex based myself; just for it being easier to use.

This, in effect, upgrades summon steed/greater steeds AC to this value.

Note that, by RAW, a human can serve as a mount for a halfling. I might say "non-humanoid".

Hawkeye:
Either it is broken or useless. I mean, longbows already have insane range.

Eliminate disadvantage at long range instead of doubling the range?

Read Magic:
This is an arcana check in 5e. Adding a spell to do it is either useless, or makes arcana weaker.

Rhino's Rush:
This is worded awkwardly. It lasts until end of turn and is insantaneous?

We could make it an action and include the movement and attack. But that ends up having scaling issues with extra attack etc.

As an action you move up to your speed plus 20' in a strait line and make a melee weapon attack. If you moved at least 10', this weapon attack deals an extra 1d8 damage and the target must make a Strength saving throw or fall prone.

If you have the Extra Attack class feature, you can then make an additional weapon attack.

Sunscorch:
2d8 is low, but blinded is pretty strong. And half damage on miss.

Scales poorly. I'd add additional targets instead.

Ventriloquism:
Looks like a weaker Minor Illusion with a bit more range.

[GalacticAxekick]

Daze: Weak. An equivalent 1d4 cantrip causes disadvantage on an attack. [...] "no reactions" is a weak rider [...] Note that shocking grasp's reaction rider is intended to let the spellcaster walk away safely; the reaction suppression is (in a sense) stronger because it is melee range.Daze can also let the spellcaster walk away from melee range. It's more reliable for that purpose, because Int saves are more reliable than attack rolls.

On top of that, Daze can target a distant enemy and allow an ALLY to walk away from melee range.

So even if its inferior to Vicious Mockery, its superior to Shocking Grasp.


Adamantium Weapon:
Adamantium doesn't penetrate damage resistance in 5e in any case I've seen. Use "magical".Off the top of my head, golems' resistances are penetrated by adamantine. But yeah, "magical" is less niche.

[Yakk]

Ah, I forgot it was a save not an attack.

[Abuzorg]

Thanks for your comments.

Daze : My thoughts is that while Shocking Grasp is mainly used to allow you to disengage easily, Daze, can allow an ally to disengage easily AND shut down more powerful reactions from enemies when they come up, especially against a spellcaster.

Electric Jolt : My intent in designing this was to provide the evoker with another cantrip (other than frostbite) that could use both the level 6 and 10 feature. I do agree it's weak and unoriginal. I'll go back to the drawing board. Maybe DEX save, d8 to the primary target and d6 to a secondary target within 10 feet.

Touch of Fatigue : I wanted to have a necromancy cantrip that would be cool to use together with Spectral Hand (see my eventual next post for 2nd level spells)

Adamantium Weapons : As was pointed out by Galactic, golems, gargoyles and maybe other things are penetrated by adamantium. Also, breaking object, through doors and walls come up a lot in my campaign. A lot of my players are looking for adamantium crowbars and mauls.

Arcane Mark : Arcane Mark has always been the kind of spell that you have to be creative to use as a player. It is, in my experience, a great DM tool. I agree that it would be appropriate as a Cantrip, but then no one would ever pick it right?

Detect Secret Doors : The fact that you can always have a magic detector on with a ritual with Detect Magic is kind of the same issue as well. In my current game (dragon heist inspired), a character that can't cast rituals picked it up and everybody was very excited when they picked up a secret door. Still, I hear you, I guess it can be more problematic than detect magic. Maybe shortening the duration to 1 minute would make it more palatable?

Golden Barding : The issue with the wording of the spell is thus : as a paladin 3.5 spell, the target was your special mount, which you obtained at the same level as your 1st-level spells. I want it to remain a paladin 1st-level spell, but it would be weird if the target could only be a creature summoned through find steed. At my table, no one would attempt to cast this spell on a fellow party member as it is clearly not in the spirit of the spell. Maybe the solution would be to have a material component like (A saddle inscribed with sacred symbols using inks and materials worth 10 gp) and then have the spell specify that a humanoid can't be the target.

Hawkeye : @Yakk, I considered your suggestion when I first wrote the spell. The problem is that it would make for a very useless ranger spell as soon as you get Sharpshooter (and if you're a bow using ranger, you most likely will). Shooting a longbow from very far certainly is useful in some situations, but is it broken? I don't think so?

Read Magic : I don't think it competes with Comprehend langages since the latter can't help you decipher magical runes. But Yakk might be right in that it might just bypass an arcana check, which might be problematic for some DMs. One of the unstated intent of this spell is to allow you to quickly identify multiple spell scrolls. Considering how spell scrolls work in 5e, it would also make a scroll from a spell list you can't access intelligible, thus allowing you to try and cast it. But it should be spelled out.

Rhino Rush : Changing the duration to One round should clarify the issue mentionned by Yakk.

Sunscorch : I balanced this against Ray of Sickness (2d8 poison, poisoned for 1 round). Is it better than ray of sickness? Certainly. Is ray of sickness a good spell? I don't think so!

Ventriloquism : At all tables I was at, it was always assumed you couldn't replicate speech with minor illusion. That's the assumption I started with while writing ventriloquism. Giving minor illusion a good read now, I can see that you probably can. What would you think of it if it lasted longer (say 1 hour) and didn't require concentration?

[Yakk]

Sunscorch is awesome, but overpowered. It beats Catapult in terms of damage type, damage on a successful save, additional effects and range! It should do no damage on a successful save, and it might need smaller damage dice.
Catapult is 3d8 damage (50% more), and you keep making dex saves until it hits a foe if you can get foes lined up.

Plus it has crazy utility. Any item within 60 feet not currently on a creature's person up to 5 lbs is YOINKed (and bigger with a higher level slot).

Like, the MacGuffin is sitting next to the BBEG? Not anymore! Yoink! Keys are on the other side of a iron cage? Yoink! Bad guy is sitting next to their sword? Yoink! King's crown is sitting on a pillow? Yoink!

[GalacticAxekick]

Catapult is 3d8 damage (50% more)I'd say 50% damage on a successful save is equal to 50% extra damage on a failed save. Throw blindness and a superior damage type on top of that, and Sunscorch comes out on top.


and you keep making dex saves until it hits a foe if you can get foes lined up.I never thought of this! It's a bit niche, because you can't place the line wherever you want. It's limited by where the object starts. Still, cool!


Plus it has crazy utility. Any item within 60 feet not currently on a creature's person up to 5 lbs is YOINKed (and bigger with a higher level slot).

Like, the MacGuffin is sitting next to the BBEG? Not anymore! Yoink! Keys are on the other side of a iron cage? Yoink! Bad guy is sitting next to their sword? Yoink! King's crown is sitting on a pillow? Yoink!I never thought of this either! That's brilliant!

With this in mind, I'd say Catapult has more utility while Sunscorch is better in combat, and that they're even overall.

[Abuzorg]

I'd say 50% damage on a successful save is equal to 50% extra damage on a failed save. Throw blindness and a superior damage type on top of that, and Sunscorch comes out on top.

You have to consider the possibility for catapult to toss an acid flask or alchemist fire for extra damage. I know the strictest reading of the rules would lead one to conclude that it doesn't work, but I have yet to play in a game where the DM said no to this tactic.

[GalacticAxekick]

You have to consider the possibility for catapult to toss an acid flask or alchemist fire for extra damage. I know the strictest reading of the rules would lead one to conclude that it doesn't work, but I have yet to play in a game where the DM said no to this tactic.Those are great tactics! But because they cost gp, I wouldn't consider them when balancing the spell.

[Abuzorg]

But surely this tactic and the ones outlined by Yakk speak volume about catapult's versatility compared to most other 1st level damage spells? As such, it shouldn't be compared to other spells solely according to the damage it deals.

[GalacticAxekick]

But surely this tactic and the ones outlined by Yakk speak volume about catapult's versatility compared to most other 1st level damage spells? As such, it shouldn't be compared to other spells solely according to the damage it deals.Yes, I already conceded that

[Abuzorg]

Misread your previous reply, sorry!