Introduction
Arcane Trickster Rogues can learn and cast a few spells from the Wizard’s spell list, but your limited number of spells known and spell slots means that you need to be very economical with your spellcasting. Pick spells carefully, and try to get a lot of value out of each spell.
The need to split your focus between Dexterity and Intelligence can make the Rogue somewhat MAD (Multiple Ability Dependent). However, the presence of the Cantrip True Strike allows you to focus on Intelligence, which supports your spellcasting at the cost of anything related to Dexterity, including your AC. The advice in this article will attempt to cater to both Dexterity-focused and Intelligence-focused builds, but be sure to read the individual spell assessments rather than blindly picking blue-rated options.
Arcane Tricksters can only replace a single prepared spell each time that you gain a Rogue level, and you can prepare a maximum of 13 spells at level 20. This means that choosing effective spells is crucial, especially late in your career when you’ll have little time to correct a poor choice.
This article primarily caters to Arcane Trickster Rogues, but other martial characters with the Magic Initiate feat may also find it helpful.
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the 2014 DnD 5e Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.
Rogues and Attack Spells
You cannot deliver Sneak Attack with a Spell Attack. This means that Cantrips like Fire Bolt don’t work, but spells which call for a Weapon Attack like Booming Blade and True Strike all work.
Martial spellcasters often need to choose between using attack Cantrips or using Extra Attack, and the math there can become complicated. However, Rogues don’t get Extra Attack. Unless you’re relying on fighting with two weapons, using a Cantrip is an easy boost to your attacks.
Because Rogue’s damage output comes primarily from Sneak Attack, missing a single attack can be devastating. Rolling a second d20, either from Advantage or from a second attack roll, boosts your average damage per round (DPR) by as much as 50%. Using a Cantrip means that you can’t use a Nick weapon to make a second attack during your Attack action. Instead, consider Vex weapons like hand crossbows and rapiers, and use stealth or Steady Aim to get Advantage on your first attack against a new target.
Arcane Trickster Rogue Spells
Arcane Trickster Rogue Cantrips
- (PHB): Rogues are at their best when they’re focused on dealing big damage to single targets. Acid Splash won’t help you with that. It’s tempting to add area damage to your options, but the gap in how much damage Acid Splash does compared to Sneak Attack is massive, especially when you consider other things like Cunning Strike and Weapon Mastery.
- (PHB): Excellent for any melee build, but not worth the Action to cast it in combat. If you can cast this before walking into a fight, it’s fantastic.
- (SCAG / TCoE): Attack, then use Cunning Action to Disengage. Instant hit-and-run tactics, and enemies take extra damage if they chase you.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- : Bad.
- (EEPC / XGtE): The damage isn’t as good as a Sneak Attack, but rogues don’t have a lot of spells which require Concentration so if you can set this up before combat or on a turn when you can’t deliver a Sneak Attack it could provide some useful area control.
- (PHB): An amusing distraction, but you can usually accomplish the same thing using Mage Hand and a candle or torch.
- (PHB): Bad.
- : Too situational. It’s a neat idea for a thieves’ guild to use this, but you just can’t afford space for it.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (PHB): Despite being built around Intelligence, you might make room for Charisma-based skills. An easy way to quickly charm a creature can be very helpful, though watch our for the 1-minute duration and the consequences when it ends.
- (XGtE): Maybe useful once you get Magical Ambush, but it’s a stretch.
- (SCAG / TCoE): Allows you to attack two enemies at once, which rogues are generally bad at doing. But you can’t guarantee that enemies will be positioned for the secondary damage, so this is inherently situational.
- (EEPC): The push effect is too weak to justify. This could be useful if it didn’t have Verbal components because you could use it to create distractions while sneaking, but you still need to break stealth to cast it.
- (XGtE): Not useful enough to use instead of attacking.
- (PHB): Get Darkvision. You’re a Rogue.
- (SCAG / TCoE): Not useful enough to use instead of attacking
- (PHB): You get it for free.
- (PHB): Too situational.
- (PHB): Conceptually great for a Rogue, but it’s only situationally useful.
- (PHB): An amazing cantrip, but it won’t deliver Sneak Attack.
- (PHB): Fantastically useful.
- (EEPC): Bad.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (PHB): Versatile and fantastic, a creative rogue can do a lot between this and Minor Illusion. For suggestions on how to use Prestidigitation to its fullest, see our Practical Guide to Prestidigitation.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (EEPC): A fantastically useful utility.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (SCAG / TCoE): Run into a crowd, Sword Burst, Cunning Action (Disengage).
- (PHB): Bad.
- (PHB): Fine damage, but it won’t deliver Sneak Attack.
- (PHB): The go-to attack option for ranged builds, True Strike allows you to build around Intelligence and attack both in melee and at range equally well. Booming Blade may have more tactical impact and potentially better damage, but it only works in melee.
Level 1 Arcane Trickster Rogue Spells
- (XGtE): Very powerful, but Rogues get both Uncanny Dodge and Evasion, so this isn’t as useful for you as for other characters.
- (PHB): Not useful enough to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Not enough damage.
- (EEPC): Not enough damage.
- (PHB): A great option for handling social situations, especially once you have Magical Ambush.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (PHB): Bad.
- (PHB): Not useful enough to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Essential in any party, but hopefully someone else can cast it.
- (PHB): Situationally useful. If your game involves a lot of social situations and intrigure, this may be very useful.
- (AI): Too situational, though it does feel very thematic for the Rogue.
- (EEPC / XGtE): Not a good fit for the Rogue.
- (PHB): You have Cunning Action.
- (PHB): Always a good buff.
- (PHB): Every party should have it, but hopefully someone else can cast it.
- (PHB): Familiars are extremely useful, and you can cast this as a ritual. An owl can move into melee range, then Dash away using its Flyby ability to avoid provoking Opportunity Attacks. This allows you to easily target foes for Sneak Attack with very little effort on top of the other fantastic benefits of having a familiar. I just wish that the owl wasn’t so significantly better than every other option so that there was a good reason to consider other types of familiars
- (PHB): Useful for covering your escape, and Darkvision can’t see through it.
- (RotF): Not enough damage.
- (PHB): Potentially useful for knocking enemies prone before you rush into melee to attack.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (PHB): Leave this to a full spellcaster if anyone bothers to use it at all. Cursed items are rare, the rules for identifying magic items are generous.
- (PHB): Too situational.
- AI: Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (PHB): A huge improvement to mobility for a melee build, but wait to take this until you have a few spell slots to throw around.
- (PHB): An easy mobility boost with a long duration.
- (PHB): This will raise your maximum AC by 1 compared to Studded Leather. That’s a great benefit if you don’t expect to find magic armor in your game.
- (PHB): Reliable damage, but not enough of it.
- (PHB): A good defensive buff against a large number of creatures, but not consistently useful enough for you to prepare permanently since you’re not your party’s Defender.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (PHB): In most cases, this is redundant with Uncanny Dodge. However, Shield boosts your AC until your next turn, potentially negating multiple attacks. In situations where you’re being targeted with numerous attacks, Shield will be considerably more protective than Uncanny Dodge. Still, in those situations ideally you have a tanky ally like a fighter to draw attention, or you’re using other spells like Blur or Mirror Image to protect yourself.
- (PHB): While not nearly as powerful as Major Image, if you just want an object or a visual effect, Silent Image does the job just as well. Throw up a fake wall, door, or portcullis to slow pursuers. Create a piece of furniture like a box or a chest, then hide inside it and stab people when they try to open it like a pointy jack in the box. Illusions are limited more by your creativity (and your DM’s willingness to play along) than by the spell’s text.
- (SCoC): Extremely powerful, but also very complicated. See my blog post on Silvery Barbs for details on the numerous abuse cases which the spell allows.
- (PHB): A powerful save-or-suck spell at any level. Once you have Magical Ambush, you can incapacitate one or more creatures turn 1 and potentially remove them from the fight entirely.
- (XGtE): Not useful enough to prepare permanently.
- (TCoE): Not enough damage.
- (PHB): If you need to get away from enemies, Cunning Action (Disengage).
- (PHB): A nice utility, but not consistently useful enough to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
Level 2 Arcane Trickster Rogue Spells
- (XGtE): Not enough damage.
- : Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Your only option for self healing, but healing in combat is rarely a good idea, and this is very expensive.
- (PHB): As much as I love this spell, it’s not useful enough to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Constitution saves are unreliable, but Magical Ambush will mitigate that significantly, making this a powerful debuff.
- (PHB): A fantastic defensive buff, especially if you’re fighting in melee where you’re going to be targeted by a lot of attacks.
- : A great way to pretend to be good at a skill for a little. It appears to work with Reliable Talent, so with this spell running you may be more reliable at any skill than anyone else in the party.
- (PHB): Without a way to force enemies into the AOE, this will see very little use.
- (PHB): Not useful enough to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Too situational.
- (PHB): Without the ability to see in magical darkness, this is no more useful than Fog
- (PHB): Darkvision is crucial for a class that benefits so much from fighting in the dark, so if you don’t have this from your race or from an ally, you should strongly consider it.
- (PHB): Too situational.
- : Your attacks will do more damage than spending your Action to use the breath weapon. This may be appealing if you can cast it on a familiar.
- (EEPC): Too situational. If you desperately need a push effect, get Gust of Wind.
- : Use Cunning Action to hide, then Sneak Attack with a ranged weapon. Snipe your enemies out of the sky if they’re dumb enough to be a flying target.
- (PHB): Fantastically useful in situations where you or an ally are making a lot of ability checks at once, such as in social situations.
- (PHB): No significant benefit for you.
- (PHB): Too little damage.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (AI): Are you playing a silver-tongued rogue, but in real life you’re barely able to string two syllables together? Here’s your solution. But be warned: while the spell doesn’t allow a saving throw, it only fixes the past 6 seconds.
- (PHB): Too situational.
- (PHB): You get this far too late, and the number of humanoid enemies was reduced significantly in the 2024 rules as many historically humanoid creatures changed creature type.
- (PHB): Essential.
- : If you can cast this before enemies notice you, it can put your party at a huge advantage. But you can’t always expect that to be an option.
- (SCoC): This is what Cunning Action is for.
- (PHB): You get proficiency in Thieves’ Tools, you have good Dexterity, and you might also have proficiency or Expertise in Sleight of Hand, which means that you’re really good at picking locks. Bringing a spell that invalidates those capabilities feels silly.
- (PHB): Constitution saves are hard, but lifting an enemy off the ground makes many enemies much less dangerous, often totally removing them from a fight. They only get an initial save, which you can make much more reliable with Magical Ambush, so you may be able to use this to great effect.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare peraenantly, though it does feel very useful on a Rogue who might do a lot of sneaking and stealing.
- (PHB): Find a way to cast Thaumaturgy to raise your voice’s volume, then cast this spell on a piece of paper and scream into it for as long as you are physically capable. Set the trigger to “when the paper is unfolded”. Leave the paper for someone to find, or use mage hand to open it at a distance. Instant distraction. The material component is inexpensive by the time you can cast this, and the duration is “until dispelled”, so you can carry about a big stack of pre-cast Magic Mouth spells for all sorts of shenanigans. Still, this it too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): A fantastic offensive buff, but you’re only making one attack per weapon, so you won’t get nearly as much use out of this as other characters would.
- (EEPC): Restraining an enemy makes them easy to Sneak Attack, but this isn’t worth the Action cost when you could Cunning Action (Hide) and Sneak Attack on the same turn.
- (PHB): Poor damage.
- (PHB): Too situational.
- (PHB): As effective as Blur (at least until you take a couple hits), and it doesn’t require Concentration.
- (PHB): Fantastic short-range teleportation with only Verbal components, so you can use it to easily escape grapples and restraints.
- (FToD): Unpredictable and weak.
- (PHB): Only situationally useful. Masking yourself as a construct makes you immune to many dangerous spells, but enemies rarely cast those spells.
- (PHB): An excellent save-or-suck at any level, especially since it targets Intelligence saves. Combined with Magical Ambush, this is almost unstoppable.
- (EEPC): The effects are weak and the required setup is annoying.
- (PHB): Con saves are the least reliable save, and the creatures that suffer from this spell will also have high Constitution saves.
- (PHB): Useful, but I really hope that someone else in your party can cast this.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (PHB): Probably your only counter to invisible enemies unless you can get a magic item like a Lantern of Revealing. Maybe skip this if your party has other options like Faerie Fire.
-
(XGtE): Compared
to a rapier, the Shadow Blade adds 1d8 damage per attack, it changes to
psychic damage (which is resisted by very few creatures), and it adds the
Thrown property for some reason. Since it gives you Advantage to attack
creatures in dim light or darkness, it will offset Disadvantage for
attacking creatures when it’s too dark for you to see. This is a great boost
to your damage output. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have Weapon Mastery because
it was published under the 2014 rules.
You can upcast the spell to increase the damage dice, but you really don’t need to. Guaranteed Advantage while attacking a target in dim light or darkness means that you can easily apply Sneak Attack, and compared to your pile of sneak attack dice the extra d8 isn’t worth your extremely limited higher-level spell slots.
Unfortunately, attack cantrips including Booming Blade and True Strike both require you to use a weapon with a monetary value, which means that you can’t use them with Shadow Blade.
- (PHB): The damage isn’t good enough to justify the Action cost.
- (EEPC): Too situational
- (XGtE): Shatter. but with less damage and worse damage type.
- (PHB): The next best thing to flight. Very appealing for fighting at range and for bypassing many terrain obstacles.
- (BOmT): The damage is poor, but temporarily blinding a creature on a Dexterity save is potentially powerful against Strength-based enemies, who typically have awful Dexterity saves.
-
(PHB):
Fantastically versatile and extremely powerful. The fact that you can use
this with Magical Ambush feels very silly. Jump out of a barrel and shout
“go take the day off” and watch your target load up their belongings and go
home for the day.
The 2024 version of the spell is insanely abusable because of how permissive it is. RAW you can tell a creature to suffocate themselves to death. I recommend using the 2014 version of the spell to avoid Suggestion derailing your game.
- (TCoE): Not a lot of damage, but it’s on an Intelligence save, and it severely limits your target’s action options, making this a powerful offensive option at any level.
- (SCoC): Very good, but it doesn’t affect you, so this is best left to full spellcasters.
- (XGtE): A moving sphere of difficult terrain centered on you. This can make it difficult for enemies to get into melee with you, which can make hit-and-run tactics very simple. But you may be better served by using Cunning Action to move in and out of range of your enemies’ movement.
- (PHB): Fantastic area control at any level even if your Intelligence is relatively poor.
Level 3 Arcane Trickster Rogue Spells
- (PHB): You don’t have enough spell slots to keep your undead under control.
- (BoMT): Attacking stuff is your job. This should never do more damage than your own attacks.
- (FToD): You have Cunning Action if you need to move around without provoking Opportunity Attacks.
- (PHB): A powerful debuff, but against most creatures you’ll get better results from just killing them.
- (PHB): An interesting defensive option which doesn’t require Concentration, but you can easily make yourself untargetable with Cunning Action (Hide) in many situations.
- (XGtE): Only situationally useful, and you should not be the one to cast it.
- (PHB): A great scouting option, but Rogues are built for scouting and you get very few spell slots.
- (PHB): Helpful, but only situationally useful, and you almost certainly don’t have the room to prepare this on a daily basis without major sacrifices.
- (PHB): If your party doesn’t have someone else who can cast Dispel Magic by the time it’s an option for you, you’re probably all dead.
- (XgtE): Astoundingly few enemies have good Intelligence saves, especially big scary melee monsters. Throw this on something tanky and horrifying that’s there to protect squishy enemies from you and your friends, and watch it freak out and kill its buddies for you. The duration is only a minute, and obviously this only works in an encounter with multiple enemies, but that doesn’t make the spell less awesome.
- (EEPC / XGtE): Not enough damage to compete with Fireball, and not enough difficult terrain to justify the spell slot.
- (AI): You won’t use this enough to justify one of your extremely limited preparation slots. Cast Suggestion instead.
- (PHB): A great way to disable groups of opponents, but fear immunity is common. Somewhere an Arcane Trickster has made a habit of using Magical Ambush to leap from cover, shout “Boo!”, and cause entire encounters to drop their weapons and flee.
- (PHB): Too situational.
- (PHB): Rogues are very good at killing big, singular enemies, but they’re bad at handling crowds of weak enemies. Fireball neatly fills that gap. Even if you’re surrounded, you’re proficient in Dexterity saves and have Evasion. Drop a Fireball at you’re feet, and you’ll probably come out in better shape than your enemies will.
- (XGtE): Bad. A total of 12d6 damage is not enough for a level 3 spell slot, and that’s assuming that you manage to make 12 qualifying attacks in the 1-hour duration and hit with them. A Rogue is arguably the most likely to make this work, but it’s just not enough damage.
- (PHB): It’s hard to overstate how powerful flight is.
- (PHB): If anyone were to use this to great effect, it would be a Rogue. But it’s still only situationally useful, so it’s hard to justify preparing it permanently.
- (PHB): Depending on how your DM handles it, this is either a situationally useful defensive measure or a reality-bending way to break the game from the comfort of your own home. See our Practical Guide to Glyph of Warding.
-
(PHB): Used as
intended, Haste is a decent short-term buff that will give you either some
extra movement or an additional chance to hit if your one attack per turn
misses. In most cases, you can get the same benefits from your Bonus Action
by using Cunning Action for movement or Two-Weapon Fighting for an
additional attack.
But Haste also has an abuse case which you can use to reliably get a Sneak Attack outside of your turn. On your own turn, use the bonus Action from Haste to attack. If you miss, you’ve still taken the Attack action on your turn, so you still qualify for two-weapon fighting if you need another attack (and provided that you meet the other requirements). Then spend your normal Action to take the Ready action.
Use a sufficiently broad condition like “anyone other than me moves or acts”, and choose to attack as your response to the condition. Then when someone else tries to do something you can attack using your Reaction, potentially dealing another Sneak Attack (remember that Sneak Attack is once per turn, not once per round).
- (PHB): Use Magical Ambush, save-or-suck the entire encounter, then quickly eliminate enemies one at a time. Barring resistance/immunity to Charmed, you’re basically unstoppable.
- (TCoE): Technically situational, but an absolutely spectacular defense against enemies which rely on spells or common effects like charm and fear effects. Unlike species traits like the Gnome’s Cunning or the Satyr and Yuan-Ti’s Magic Resistance, this applies to all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws, providing broad and effective protection against many of the most dangerous save-or-suck effects in the game. You also get resistance to Psychic damage, which is nice if you’re fighting mind flayers, aboleths, or Bards who enjoy Vicious Mockery. With a 1-hour duration, the Concentration requirement can be problematic, but it also means that you can carry this through multiple encounters at low cost, so in situations where you need this it’s not going to eat all of your spell slots.
- (PHB): Tiny Hut is a great place to rest, and you can cast it as a ritual. Leave it to a full caster if you can.
- (PHB): Line AOEs are really hard. Use Fireball.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently
- (PHB): Fantastically versatile, and creatures don’t make a saving throw. Instead, they need to know to touch the illusion or make an Intelligence (Investigation) check, or they need to physically interact with the illusion. Even then, you can buy yourself a great deal of time while the target tries to figure out your illusion.
- (EEPC / XGtE): Conflicts with Cunning Action.
- (PHB): Good, but not totally essential. Divination spells include things like See Invisibility, so if you or your party relies on invisibility of any kind this protects from several magical countermeasures to both stealth and invisibility. However, most enemies aren’t spellcasters and won’t have access to those divination options, so you can’t justify casting this every day. The spell also has an expensive material component specifically to deter you from casting this all the time. Still, with an 8-hour duration, if you need this spell it’s going to do exactly what you need it to do.
- (PHB): By the time you can cast this, your allies can likely produce much better ways to travel long distances.
- (PHB): You have Evasion and you can cast Absorb Elements. You won’t get enough out of this to justify preparing it permanently.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Not useful enough to make it more appealing than Fireball or Hypnotic Pattern.
- (PHB): A good debuff, but it won’t help you do Rogue things.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (TCoE): With only one or two attacks per turn, this isn’t worth the spell slot.
- (PHB): While this can rob targets of their Action if they fail the save, the area is small and easy to escape.
-
(PHB): Decent
summons, but no unique synergy. The Tricksy version’s ability to summon
magical darkness is neat, but it doesn’t help you since you can’t see in
magical darkness.
For more help, see our Practical Guide to Summoning Spells.
-
(XGtE): You can’t
control the demons, and they’re probably not strong enough to win an
encounter on their own. The material component may also be problem since it
has a 24 freshness timer.
For more help, see our Practical Guide to Summoning Spells.
-
(TCoE): The
sneakiest summon option, but the ability to hide as a Bonus Action sometimes
does not make this any better for a Rogue than for anyone else.
For more help, see our Practical Guide to Summoning Spells.
-
(PHB): Several
excellent combat options, and the ghostly option can fly around and do stuff
for you. The Skeletal option is an effective ranged attacker, and it can
easily out damage any of your other spell options if you can fit multiple
encounters into the 1-hour duration.
For more help, see our Practical Guide to Summoning Spells.
- (XGtE): Use Misty Step and reserve your Action for attacking.
- (PHB): If you’re built to be decent in social situations, this could be useful, but most Arcane Tricksters dump Charisma and related skills.
- (PHB): Spell attacks won’t help you.
- (EEPC / XGtE): Passable area control, but Web will be more effective if the terrain supports it.
- (EEPC / XGtE): This makes it hard for you to engage enemies. Wall of Sand is more useful.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
Level 4 Arcane Trickster Rogue Spells
- (PHB): Scouting safely is important, and it’s a major part of the Rogue’s role in the party. Still, you’ve been scouting for 18 levels without this and you’ve somehow survived this long.
- (PHB): A fantastic save-or-suck, especially with Magical Ambush. Start an encounter by banishing the biggest thing in the fight that doesn’t have Legendary Resistance, them clean up whatever’s left before your target can come back.
- (PHB): Bad.
- (PHB): If you’re trying to be friendly, use Enhance Ability. If you’re trying to compel and enemy to do something you want, use Suggestion.
- (PHB): Unpredictable and unreliable.
- (PHB): Fantastic more many characters relying on attack rolls, but you’re likely only making two attacks per turn at most, so you won’t benefit as much as most characters who would use this.
- (PHB): Too situational.
- (PHB): While Misty Step solves the vast majority of your teleportation needs (especially in combat), Dimension Door has considerably longer range and doesn’t require line of sight, thus allowing you to quickly infiltrate or escape an area which might otherwise be impenetrable.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): You should not be drawing enough attacks to justify this.
- (PHB): Probably the most important spell that anyone can cast on a rogue.
- (PHB): Unless you specifically need the 24-hour duration and the massive area of effect, Major Image will suffice.
- (PHB): Terrible. Bad damage, and the difficult terrain doesn’t last long enough.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- (PHB): Decent for defending a specific point, but not useful enough to be your only level 4 spell each day.
- (PHB): You get one level 4 spell slot every day. Do you really want to spend it on a place to sleep?
- (PHB): Single-target save-or-suck, and you can make it more reliable with Magical Ambush. A good way to take a target out of a fight until you’re ready to handle them.
- (PHB): If you’re going to hit a single target with a spell, you want it to eliminate or incapacitate them in one shot, and Phantasmal Killer simply doesn’t do that.
- (PHB): Normally a fantastic combat option, but your own attacks will greatly exceed anything that you can turn into. You might turn into something just for the massive pool of Temporary Hit Points, but that’s likely not enough to justify your only level 4 spell slot.
- (PHB): Too situational to prepare permanently.
- Sickening Radiance
(XGtE): This spell
is very easy to overlook. The effects are complicated, and the 4d10 damage
looks underwhelming, but don’t let that deter you. This is a great spell to
cast into a room then shut the door, but, even if that’s not an option, it’s
a fantastic way to handle crowds. With a 30-foot radius you can hit a huge
number of targets, and with a 10-minute duration you can easily kill
anything stuck in the area for an extended period.
The 4d10 damage is fine, and negating invisibility is great, but the real appeal is the levels of Exhaustion. The penalties on d20 tests and to speed make it progressively easier to keep enemies in the area, and pushing enemies back into the area will get progressively easier the more times you do it. Enemies will either die from gradual damage or from hitting 6 levels of Exhaustion as the stacking penalties to their d20 tests make the save functionally impossible to pass.
-
(BoMT): Summon
Undead is arguably better, but this is still a good summon.
For more help, see our Practical Guide to Summoning Spells.
- (PHB): This is one of the most useful spells in the game. Castles, dungeons, caves, mountains, and all manner of other locales include an abundance of stone. The ability to reshape that stone to your purposes in an instant is immensely useful. This is a spell limited only by your imagination. A 5-foot cube is plenty of space to wreak all kinds of havoc if you’re clever.
- (PHB): You have Uncanny Dodge.
- (EEPC / XGtE): Passable area control for an extended fight, but the damage is poor, and 1 minute of this probably isn’t enough for your single level 4 spell slot. Sickening Radiance is much better.
-
(PHB): Three
diverse and effective combat options. If you can keep the summon alive for
the full duration, it’s a great way to get an ally into melee with enemies
so that you can use Sneak Attack. Even barring that, summons are pretty
great in combat.
For more help, see our Practical Guide to Summoning Spells.
-
(PHB): Not as
effective offensively as Summon Aberration, but all three summoned
constructs are unusually durable for creatures summoned by similar spells.
For more help, see our Practical Guide to Summoning Spells.
-
(PHB): Summon
Aberration is better offensively, and Summon Construct provides a more
durable summon. Summon Elemental’s biggest advantage is that you can summon
a creature that can fight effectively underwater, but even then it’s not a
great summon.
For more help, see our Practical Guide to Summoning Spells.
- (PHB): Bad.
- (PHB): Fantastic area control, but you get it so late that the damage isn’t great, and it won’t help you do Rogue things.
- (EEPC / XGtE): The primary appeal here is the ability to restrain the target, then drag them around for the spell’s duration, but that consumes your Action, which means that you’re not Sneak Attacking.
