What spells do you consider useless?

[Yora]

What spells are so bad that they are never worth to prepare "just in case", or so bad that a bard, sorcerer, and warlock would never learn them?

The one that always comes to my mind first is enthrall. It is only mostly useless in most situations, but why would a bard or warlock pick them if they could take darkness, invisibility, hold person, spider climb, and suggestion instead? I would not be surprised if it's the least used spell in the entire game.

Similarly, why does compulsion exist? Another spell only available to bards and warlocks. It certainly won't be competing with dimension door, greater invisibility, and polymorph.

Speak with plants seems pretty awful for 3rd level. I can see a few circumstances in which druids or rangers would prepare it, but none in which a bard would learn it.

True strike is pretty obvious. Cast a spell in turn one and make an attack with advantage in round two. Or make an attack in round one and one attack in round two. The second option has the same chance to land one hit, but also has the chance of making two hits. Which you don't get if you cast true strike. This spell is not just useless, it actually makes you worse. Would be more useful if you can cast it on an enemy as a debuff.

Is blade ward for when you're 1st level and want to disarm a spear trap with your foot?

Bane is not that bad when you're a low level cleric. But I don't see why any warlock would waste an invocation to be able to cast it one time per long rest and still having to use a spell slot for it. This is so bad, I think this is actually a mistake. It's probably supposed to be "cast at will with expanding a spell slot". That would make a lot more sense.

[Mr A25]

Can't really speak for the others as I've never used them but I will speak up for Bladeward and Bane.

With Bladeward, not a great cantrip by any means but can help if you know you'll trigger a trap or are about to get whacked on by like six guys and your team mates can clear some out by your next turn. I actually think it's a decent pick on a Sorcadin or Sorcerer with Quicken spell. Not for all the time use but definitely OK every now and again.

Bane, not bad, not great, would rather cast bless most of the time but I did have a session where it landed on all three targets and basically ended the combat with an easy win.

I'll throw in a couple though. Find Traps and Abi Dalzims horrid wilting. I hate hate hate that second spell. Find traps serves no purpose in my eyes that can't be achieved by like literally anyone else.

[JellyPooga]

Bane is often hailed as being the worse cousin of Bless and the Warlock invocation is definitely terrible, but it does have its uses. For instance, Bless is great when you have friends, because it's a force multiplier for multiple allies. However, when you're on your own, in a small party of only two or three (or solo), or in a party that doesn't make much use of attack rolls, then Bane can be a much more useful spell despite offering a saving throw to resist. Further, the Save to resist is charisma; an ability score that is frequently low (beasts, monstrous, oozes and many undead all frequently have negative Cha modifiers), so getting it to stick is potentially a lot easier than might be expected. I'd definitely have to think carefully about taking Bane on a Bard, but I certainly wouldn't shy away from it for a witch or other curse-themed build. Certainly not one to put in the "always ignore" pile.

[airless_wing]

Aww Bane is a great spell! I've used it nearly every encounter on my lvl 6-8 swords Bard. It really has great potential to reduce the enemies DPR, especially considering that Charisma saves aren't horrible common amongst most grunt-type enemies. Plus the penalty applies to their saves as well, which is fantastic for the monk & controller casters in your party.

I'll second Find Traps, as it doesn't even really find any traps. Skywrite should be in the running though; it can have a handful of niche applications, but it's never shown up as a decent thing to do in any of the campaigns I've been in or run.

[ImproperJustice]

There is a thread below blowing up sorta on Speak with Plants.
Our group found it to be very versatile and helpful.
But looks like mileage is very GM dependent.


But Find Traps is pretty awful since it doesn’t find traps.
It could find a trap, maybe, but you only sorta know where it is. It could even be the one you just disabled. Who knows? Certainly a poor use of a second level slot.
You might even detect a trap above you and then fall to your death through rotten floorboards because the spell text says that’s not a trap.

Speak with Dead: Not being able to compel the dead for truthful answers really limits this spell’s usefulness IMO. Soul Cage is much better, but 6th level.

Arcane Gate: I want to love this! But the restrictions are so darn tight.

Elemental Weapon, Magic Weapon, Holy Weapon: Requiring concentration for such a minor benefit breaks these spells sadly.
I did get some Mileage blessing a Champion with 3 attacks when he didn’t have his primary weapon once using Holy Weapon, but bleh.

Same goes for Resist Energy. Maybe if it could affect multiple allies or energy types with upcasting?

[Bloodcloud]

I could really have used Blade ward to get out of Death house I will say...

[Asisreo1]

Weird is extremely...weird. It's a 9th level spell yet they can resist the effect as soon as it is their turn, meaning they could just not take damage. Sure, it's phantasmal killer on steroids, but phantasmal killer is already not the most stellar spell and weird certainly wouldn't be in my spells known on purpose.

Also, look at the duration, it is the only duration that spells out the number 1 rather than use the arabic symbol.

[elyktsorb]

Infestation is pretty garbage. A con save to deal 1d6 poison damage and then a d4 to move 5ft in a random N,S,E,or W, direction. Though if you manage to get someone to step off a cliff using this spell that's definite style points. At least Poison Spray is 1d12 damage for a con save.

Jump seems pretty bad, given it's 1 minute duration you'll only ever be able to use this to jump 1 large gap. It would be neat if the duration was an hour like Longstrider.

Blindness/Deafness seems pretty garbage, since it's the same level as hold person and arguably is just a ****tier version of it. I mean sure it has less target restrictions but it also targets CON. I think this spell would be way better if it both Blinded and Deafened at the same time instead of you choosing just 1 effect.

[airless_wing]

Also, look at the duration, it is the only duration that spells out the number 1 rather than use the arabic symbol.

How Weird.

For real, Weird is one of the most underwhelming 9th level spells, along with Storm of Vengeance.

[Arkhios]

True Strike.

[JellyPooga]

Infestation is pretty garbage. A con save to deal 1d6 poison damage and then a d4 to move 5ft in a random N,S,E,or W, direction. Though if you manage to get someone to step off a cliff using this spell that's definite style points. At least Poison Spray is 1d12 damage for a con save.

Jump seems pretty bad, given it's 1 minute duration you'll only ever be able to use this to jump 1 large gap. It would be neat if the duration was an hour like Longstrider.

Blindness/Deafness seems pretty garbage, since it's the same level as hold person and arguably is just a ****tier version of it. I mean sure it has less target restrictions but it also targets CON. I think this spell would be way better if it both Blinded and Deafened at the same time instead of you choosing just 1 effect.

I'm not so sure about Jump. It's utility is certainly pretty low once you start getting into the latter stages of Tier 2, but in Tier 1 and low-Tier 2 it's still pretty decent. I can think of a few encounters I've played where it could certainly have come in handy. As a "solve 1 encounter" utility spell it does its job. Perhaps not a pick for "spells known" guys, but not one to sniff at if you had the choice to put it in your spellbook.

Blindness/Deafness suffered hard from the shift to "save per turn" that 5ed made. In previous editions it has been permanent until dispelled (as I recall), which made it a nasty long-term curse, but now it's pretty trash.

[Skylivedk]

Witch bolt must have helluva Stealth check since it hasn't been mentioned yet.

Power word kill is pretty damn bad. Mordenkainen's nail cleaner.

Level 8 spells are overall pretty underwhelming on most classes (ie on Warlock I'd probably rather have a 7th level spell more: that's very very bad). There's a couple of good ones (antipathy, mind blank come to mind), but the rest of them are not worth a higher slot than forcecage.

Blindness/deafness has its uses as a concentration less debuff (when upcast)

[J-H]

Power Word: Kill is good on squishy casters and things with non-HP defenses. CR 12 Archmage with 9th level spells? PWK, done.
Sure, a Fighter or Barbarian can also bring it down, but PWK takes only a single action and you don't have to get next to the target.

I wonder how many HP the average king has?

From the DM side, Fear is "useless" in that it's un-fun for everyone who fails the save (run away 2-3 rounds, make save, run back 2-3 rounds). It's actually more effective than Hold Person...just not fun.

[Yora]

Witch bolt may be bad, but at least it does what it's supposed to do.

[Tes]

Other than mentionen:
Crown of Madness is pretty terrible over all. Concentration for a "Attack before you move", single target.


Blade Ward is situational if you can't quicken it and taking a Dodge action instead is often better. But it's guaranteed half damage if you know you're very likely to be hit or definitely can't avoid it. Like a Wizard about to get ripped to bits by something that will hit him no matter if he uses Dodge and Shield or simply out of Spellslots. Half damage is Offset by increased critchance by not taking Dodge, but aside from that Bladeward might make keeping concentration much easier. It also makes absolutely sure even a critical will only deal normal damage, making sure you live through that one hit even if it ends up a crit.
Main use I've seen was to keep Concentration up and if the Reaction was busy with Counterspell/Absorb Elements.

Used to think Bane is pretty garbage compared to Bless. However with PCs having a lot easier access to Advantage to bolster their own hitchances and abilities to impose Disadvantage on opponents, a -D4 with potential Disadvantage just is a bigger swing than a +D4 with potential Advantage. PCs will be pretty good at hitting most things somehow. Monsters will already have trouble hitting a PC with AC20+ and the -D4 might half their hitchance or worse with Disadvantage on top.
Likewise if Bane goes through it's much easier to follow up with other Spells and Abilities targeting Monster Saves. Bane adds a flat -12.5% to the usual 20-40% ~30% for a Monster to succeed on a weak Save into a 0-35% ~17.5% chance. Bless rarely has that much impact with Monsters getting less agency about targeting weak saves or attacking saving throws directly with save or suck effects.
Not many things can mess as hard with bounded accuracy and DCs as Bane. It's basically +2.5 AC and +2.5 DC for the whole party against Monsters that failed their Saves. Compare that to Shield of Faith, and you can still stack them if you want.
Similar to Slow vs Haste. Not even considering the massive downside if Haste gets cancelled, Slow has a much bigger impact as debuff than Haste as a buff.

[Garfunion]

Many cantrips like blade ward and true strike would be a lot more meaningful to use if using metamagic on a cantrip only cost 1 sorcery point.

[Zuras]

True strike is pretty bad, but it’s not garbage if you want to hit something with a leveled spell that uses an attack roll. Might be nice before you try to plane shift someone, for instance.

Sure, you’re probably not going to get much regular mileage out of it considering the best low level spells with an attack roll are on the Cleric list, but a Divine Soul Sorcerer with Elven Accuracy and quicken spell could spam Guiding Bolt with it (quicken Guiding Bolt on your turn, cast True Strike, repeat next turn), or use it with Spiritual Weapon.

It’s also handy if you have disadvantage, as two attacks at disadvantage is worse odds to hit than one straight roll in some cases. Using concentration makes it problematic though.

[ImproperJustice]

I'm not so sure about Jump. It's utility is certainly pretty low once you start getting into the latter stages of Tier 2, but in Tier 1 and low-Tier 2 it's still pretty decent. I can think of a few encounters I've played where it could certainly have come in handy. As a "solve 1 encounter" utility spell it does its job. Perhaps not a pick for "spells known" guys, but not one to sniff at if you had the choice to put it in your spellbook.

Blindness/Deafness suffered hard from the shift to "save per turn" that 5ed made. In previous editions it has been permanent until dispelled (as I recall), which made it a nasty long-term curse, but now it's pretty trash.

We had a Warlock who was going for a “Sailor Moon” type build, and she tool jump instead of the Levitate option for theatric purposes. As a result, we did discover that Jump does not require concentration allowing some Mobility options in combat while freeing up concentration for other things. Works ok for Eldritch Knights as well, to get at some opponents they may not normally reach.

Speaking of EKs, Blindness is pretty ugly combined with their Eldritch Strike, leaving foes open to advantage barrages. And it is universally more applicable than hold person. But that is a pretty niche use, I mist admit.

[Asisreo1]

In light defense of true strike, it may be good when casting something like an upcast chromatic orb. Of course, you usually don't want to upcast chromatic orb but it's a useful spell if your enemy has whatever damage type resistances that you've leaned heavily on. Like, if your sorcerer only has fire and lightning attacks besides cantrips and you fight a devil, you actually have a really good option for attacking.

It even bypasses magic resistance despite being a spell. True Strike just almost guarantees it hits.

[JellyPooga]

We had a Warlock who was going for a “Sailor Moon” type build, and she tool jump instead of the Levitate option for theatric purposes. As a result, we did discover that Jump does not require concentration allowing some Mobility options in combat while freeing up concentration for other things. Works ok for Eldritch Knights as well, to get at some opponents they may not normally reach.

Personally, I'd advocate Jump over Levitate as far as the Invocations go. They both come online after Fly is readily available and largely speaking Levitate doesn't offer much that Jump doesn't in terms of utility; Levitate offers greater vertical potential, while Jump offers horizontal. I reckon Levitates restrictions (e.g. concentration, only 20ft per turn) are what turn me off of it, but I could easily be persuaded otherwise, depending on the character I was playing. On the flipside, Levitate can be used offensively.

[Zuras]

I'm not so sure about Jump. It's utility is certainly pretty low once you start getting into the latter stages of Tier 2, but in Tier 1 and low-Tier 2 it's still pretty decent. I can think of a few encounters I've played where it could certainly have come in handy. As a "solve 1 encounter" utility spell it does its job. Perhaps not a pick for "spells known" guys, but not one to sniff at if you had the choice to put it in your spellbook.

Blindness/Deafness suffered hard from the shift to "save per turn" that 5ed made. In previous editions it has been permanent until dispelled (as I recall), which made it a nasty long-term curse, but now it's pretty trash.

The only time my players ever even noticed that Jump was in the 5e spell list was when they fought Grung. After getting trapped in Plant Growth and Spike Growth, then watching the enemy jump completely from once side of the growth to the other, they got quite annoyed and blew half their spell slots on a medium encounter.

[iTreeby]

Bane at least seems cool when combined with maddening hex or relentless hex.

[MaxWilson]

Can't really speak for the others as I've never used them but I will speak up for Bladeward and Bane.

With Bladeward, not a great cantrip by any means but can help if you know you'll trigger a trap or are about to get whacked on by like six guys and your team mates can clear some out by your next turn. I actually think it's a decent pick on a Sorcadin or Sorcerer with Quicken spell. Not for all the time use but definitely OK every now and again.

Blade Ward is useful in a number of circumstances.

You've got Armor of Agathys up and want to stretch it further.

You're trying to defend against an invisible foe (Dodge doesn't work against foes you can't see), while other PCs do the killing with ranged attacks.

You're trying to defend against something with a monstrous to-hit bonus like an Iron Golem or a Tarrasque, and its damage is mostly physical. Other PCs do the killing with ranged attacks.

You've been restrained by a monster (Dodge doesn't work while your speed is zero) and are trying not to get killed while other PCs do the killing.

Additional twist on defense scenarios above: you're a multiclassed Eldritch Knight/full claster and you plan to use Blade Ward + War Magic Attack to set up for your spell next turn (perhaps Tasha's Hideous Laughter or Phantasmal Force of a larger and tougher-looking duplicate of yourself as a decoy), without losing a whole lot of HP in the process.

[Throne12]

FIREBALL is the only spell you need. All other spell are for nerds who cant handle the power and glory of FIREBALL. You are politely asking a wimpy beta where they are hiding the sweet thich ass princess. Well they would be happy to tell you after one or 2 fireballs. That limp pick thief stole your spellbook of chick numbers and is hiding, just fireball everything untell he shows himself.

See all you need it that dank FIREBALL.

[Chronos]

In defense of Speak with Dead: Yes, the fact that the target isn't obligated to answer limits its usefulness. It's probably not one that you want to prepare every day. But the class who gets it is cleric, and they can change their preparations every day and have access to their entire list for free when they do so. And it does sometimes happen that there's someone who'd like to help you out, except for the minor inconvenience that they're formerly living. So when that happens, that's when you prepare and cast Speak with Dead.

[MaxWilson]

In defense of Speak with Dead: Yes, the fact that the target isn't obligated to answer limits its usefulness. It's probably not one that you want to prepare every day. But the class who gets it is cleric, and they can change their preparations every day and have access to their entire list for free when they do so. And it does sometimes happen that there's someone who'd like to help you out, except for the minor inconvenience that they're formerly living. So when that happens, that's when you prepare and cast Speak with Dead.

And Bards.

Any spell that can trivialize most murder investigations isn't useless, though. It would also be amazing for consulting famous (mummified) sages/generals/wizards of the past for guidance. Finally, it has interesting potential interactions with Clone, since you come back to life but still leave behind a corpse for people to consult.

[SociopathFriend]

Heat Metal.

I actually had a Wand of it made in a 5e game. And never again did we face an opponent in metal armor and the DM ruled repeatedly that stuff like swords and daggers had wooden hilts and so could be held without issue.

So, I consider it a useless spell, it might be useful if a DM didn't seemingly deliberately deny you chances to use it; but that was not the case.
Pretty sure once I sold it he threw like 8 full-plate greatsword warriors at us too.

[Garfunion]

I take back my previous post that true strike would be better to use if metamagic was cheaper to use on cantrips.
True strike still requires you to wait for your next turn to use its affect.

[Yuroch Kern]

I take back my previous post that true strike would be better to use if metamagic was cheaper to use on cantrips.
True strike still requires you to wait for your next turn to use its affect.

Yeah, that's why it can be good with an Arcane Trickster, Valor Bard, Eldritch Knight, some Sorcerers, and no one else that don't use nets. 🤔

[Garfunion]

Yeah, that's why it can be good with an Arcane Trickster, Valor Bard, Eldritch Knight, some Sorcerers, and no one else that don't use nets. 🤔

I think I’m misunderstanding you. The cantrip requires an action to cast or a bonus action to cast if you use meta-magic. But you still have to wait until your next turn to use it. That is of course if you do not lose concentration on the spell or you can no longer attack the creature. So unless there is a super ultra mega attack that needs to hit the creature on your next turn, it is a worthless spell.