Spells of Dungeons & Dragons

There is a wide range of fictional magical spells of Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) defined the genre of fantasy role-playing games, and remains the most popular role-playing game. Many of the original spells have become standard in the role-playing community, across many different fictional worlds, and across books, board games, video games, and videos.

The specific effects of each spell, and even the names of some spells, vary from edition to edition of the D&D corpus. Earlier varieties of the game included great detail regarding how long it took to cast a spell, what materials had to be assembled before it could be cast, and under what conditions the spell could continue to function. More recent editions have removed a lot of this detail, both to simplify the game and due to fears that some of the spells might resemble real-world pagan spells a little too closely.

Spell types

In the current edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game, spells come in two main types, arcane and divine. Wizards, sorcerers and bards learn to cast arcane spells, which are typically flashy and powerful, but require complex movements and gestures which are impeded by wearing bulky armor. Clerics, druids, rangers and paladins cast divine spells, which draw their power from a deity, from nature or simply the caster's inner faith, and while it is not impeded by heavy armor, it may require the caster to wear a holy symbol as a focus. A spell may exist in both arcane and divine forms – for example, summon monster vii can be cast by both wizards and clerics, although a cleric might use it to summon an angel while a wizard would feel free to summon whichever creature best fit the situation.

A third form of magic, psionics, is manifested purely by mental discipline, and is detailed in an add-on book known as the Psionics Handbook (and later the Expanded Psionics Handbook) rather than being part of the core rules. Typical psionic powers include telekinesis and mind control. Psionics is so different from the core D&D magic that some players do not consider it properly "magic" at all, but in general it works much like standard magic – a creature resistant to magic is equally resistant to psionics, for example.

Arcane magic

These are typically spells devoted to manipulating energy, converting one substance to another, or calling on the services of other creatures. For wizards, these spells are generally committed to memory after a session of meditation upon a spellbook containing the details of the incantation, although sorcerers and bards know their spells innately and do not need to prepare them at all, nor do they require a spellbook. Once prepared, the spell can be cast using specific words, gestures and sometimes a specific material component.

Each spell belongs to one of seven schools. Technically, divine spells belong to schools as well, but the distinction is largely irrelevant to them. A wizard (but not a sorcerer) may specialize in one school, but at the expense of completely forsaking another. A few spells are "universal", meaning that they belong to no one school of magic.

Abjuration

Abjurations are spells which protect, inhibit and banish, and are primarily defensive. Dispel magic can undo a spell that's already been cast or temporarily supress a magic item, while resist energy can make a person resistant to fire, cold, acid or electricity. At higher levels, abjurations can banish creatures to another world or make the caster and his allies resistant to magic.

Conjuration

Conjurations bring things into being, or brings something from one place to another. The summon monster spell series can summon a creature from another plane to fight on the caster's behalf, teleport can instantly bring the caster to another place, and the powerful gate spell can open a portal to another plane of existence.

Divination

Divinations are spells which reveal knowledge, unfurl illusions and provide answers. Divinations can read a person's mind, predict the future, allow the caster to understand other languages, identify the properties of a magic item or allow an invisible creature to be seen.

Enchantment

Enchantment spells are those which can affect a person or creature's mind, and hence can be quite powerful. Weak enchantments can put someone to sleep momentarily or weaken someone's intelligence, while high level enchantments can completely control a creature's mind.

Evocation

Evocations are powerful spells which brings magical energy or the like into being, which is subtly different from conjuration in that conjurations tend to create things rather than simply invoke basic elements. Many of the game's iconic offensive spells such as magic missile, fireball and cone of cold are of the evocation school. Earlier editions of the game referred to this school as "Evocation/Invocation".

Illusion

Illusions are a useful type of spells which create false images, sounds and so forth, and can be used to deceive people, creatures or even divination spells. Disguise self lets the caster change his appearance instantly, displacement makes the target appear to be standing several feet away from his true position so that attacks on him miss, while permanent image can create any illusory scene the caster (or the player) can imagine. Illusions can thus be versatile, but are usually not very powerful.

Necromancy

Necromancy is the magic of controlling life and death, and this school contains some of the most potent of a wizards' spells. Necromancy spells can create, control and destroy undead, inflict pain, cause fear, bestow curses, weaken and injure, and at high levels even kill a person or creature outright. Nercomancy has only a small number of spells, but they are typically very powerful.

Transmutation

A powerful and versatile school with many spells, transmutation is the magic of change. Transmutations can turn substances into other substances, turn creatures into other creatures, make a creature stronger or bigger, control the weather or turn a person to stone.

Divine spells

Divine spells take their name from the fact that they're mainly granted to clerics by the grace of the cleric's patron deity, although the spells cast by druids, rangers and paladins also come under this category. Although divine spells can be cast equally well while wearing armor, only rarely require material components and do not need to be prepared from a spell book, they are generally less powerful than arcane spells and have fewer offensive spells.

Cleric spells are typically devoted to healing the wounded, restoring lost abilities, and acquiring blessings, and are after a daily session of meditation or prayer. Since a cleric is also something of a church knight and a champion of his faith, his spells also include ones which temporarily improve his combat ability. Evil clerics also have access to spells which create and control undead. Each cleric also has access to spells from two "domains" which represent his deity or faith, such as War, Trickery, Good, Evil and Travel.

Druid spells are typically devoted to communing with nature, interpreting or directing the weather, communicating with creatures and plants, and the like. The druid shares some spells with the cleric, such as some healing spells, and has a surprising number of offensive spells which use the power of nature – calling down lightning storms, for example, and summoning wild animals to fight.

Paladin and ranger spells are similar to cleric and druid spells, respectively, but they get less spells per day, only gain access to the lower level spells, and gain access to them more slowly. Instead, they have greater combat ability.

Psionics

Psionic powers are similar to spells, but require no meditation or particular method of casting; they are rather internal abilities which develop over time, and are replenished as one's body replenishes its own energy each day. There is a great variety in psionic abilities; only the most common abilities were mentioned in the original D&D books.

The two main psionic character classes are the psion, which is similar to a wizard or sorcerer but using psionics instead of arcane magic, and the psychic warrior, who has less psionic power but improved combat ability. Unlike most D&D magic which gives spellcaster a certain number of spell slots of each level per day, psionics are cast using power points, allowing a psionic character to use a small number of powerful abilities or a large number of less powerful abilities each day.

Cantrips

Cantrips are minor arcane magical spells, first learned by magic-using characters as an introduction to magic and incantation. Cantrips have little effect on their surroundings and almost no effect in a fight, except at very low levels. However, these minor tricks can be wickedly effective when used cleverly. The divine equivalent to cantrips are called orisons, and they have much the same effect.

The notion of these subspells was first introduced Unearthed Arcana, and eventually revised into the second and third editions of D&D.

In the current edition of the game, some cantrips deal damage: ray of frost can do some minor cold damage to creatures (particularly those vulnerable to cold-based attacks), disrupt undead does slightly more damage but only affects undead creatures, and cure minor wounds restores one hit point to an injured person or creature. The prestidigitation cantrip is a catch-all spell designed to create any effect not already covered by another cantrip. Each spellcasting character class has its own different kinds of cantrips.

The versatility of cantrips means they are often most effective when used creatively; for instance, ray of frost can be used to freeze a small puddle of water at an enemy's feet, causing it to lose its footing.

Specific spells

Cantrips

• Ray of frost does 1d3 damage, which is supposedly not the main aim of the spell; the illustration that goes with it shows a mage freezing a flower with it. (The only apparent point of this is to stop you freezing small defenceless objects with Prestidigitation, another cantrip which can produce any minor effect not covered by another spell.) Some players have found it to be useful when cast on a small puddle of water at an enemy's feet; this use is not actually supported in the spell's description.

Arcane Spells

• Bull's Strength — One person or creature, who the caster of this spell must touch, becomes stronger for several minutes.
• Fireball — An explosion of fire called into being at a particular place, sometimes envisioned as the explosion of a small blob of energy which flies from the caster's hands. A powerful destructive spell, it is probably the most archetypical spell.
• Invisibility — The target of this spell becomes invisible for a time, but immediately becomes visible if he attacks a person or creature.
• Improved Invisibility — A higher level version of Invisibility spell that allows the target to remain partially invisible, with a 50% concealment bonus, even after attacking.
• Magic missile — A bolt of pure energy from the caster's fingertips, which never misses its target unless prevented by magical means. The number of bolts one can cast increases with practice.
• Polymorph — Target transforms into another creature of his choosing, such as an ogre, a small giant or the like. A higher level variant of this, baleful polymorph, allows the caster to polymorph an enemy into another creature, typically a frog.
• Scrying — Allows the caster to spy on someone from a distance
• Teleport — Allows the caster to instantly appear somewhere else in the world
• Wish — Bending reality, the caster can change the events of the past few minutes, create an object from nothing, emulate another spell or create practically any effect they can imagine. However, this spell drains the caster of 5,000 experience points, making it extremely costly to use.

Divine spells

• Animate plants — Druid makes a plant such as a tree come alive and fight on its behalf.
• Barkskin — Druid gains a tough skin that protects him from attacks.
• Commune — Cleric can ask a question of his deity.
• Cure light wounds — A canonical healing spell available to clerics and druids.
• Detect evil — Caster can tell if someone or something he looks at is evil.
• Ice storm — Druid sends down a hail of ice to injure opponents.
• Searing light — Cleric shoots a beam of holy light which injures enemies and is more effective against undead.
• Shield of faith — Cleric is surrounded by a holy field that protects him from attacks.
• Raise dead / Resurrection — Stretching the limits of a deity's power, as extended through the deity's followers. Restores to life a recently-deceased creature. Cleric only.