The Best Wizard Spells for D&D 2024

Helping you pick the best spells for your wizard.

Considerations

Before I dive into the actual wizard spells, there are some things about wizards to be aware of when making spell choices.

Spellbook

A Wizard’s spellbook contains all the spells they know. They can choose prepared spells from this book and even change these when they rest. This means you can adapt your day’s spells based on what you think the party will need.

On top of this, you can cast ritual spells from your spellbook without needing to have them prepared. This means having a bunch of rituals in your spellbook is a good idea for out of combat casting and expands your repertoire of spells available.

Schools of magic

Wizard subclasses are mainly based around different schools of magic. Each subclass can have more spells from that school and usually has enhancements to those spells. For instance, evokers deal extra damage with evocation spells. This means it’s worth paying attention to the school of magic a spell belongs to.

Cantrips

• Acid splash (3/5) – You only need to hit 2+ enemies to make this do more damage than any other cantrip. Essentially it’s worse than most cantrips against 1 enemy, but better against multiple enemies.
• Blade ward (2/5) – Concentration and an action is a heavy price to pay for a class that needs to be using these things on much better spells. Especially when you shouldn’t expect to take much of a beating anyway.
• Chill touch (2/5) – You may need a melee spell attack occasionally, but to be honest, if you end up in melee range, I’d be more inclined to put my effort into getting away rather than attacking.
• Dancing lights (3/5) – Decent enough way to tackle darkness if characters in the party lack darkvision.
• Elementalism (1/5) – Maybe there are cool effects others can work out that this spell can do, but to me, it all just seems like showmanship.
• Fire bolt (3/5) – Solid damage and the damage type is a little better than that for poison spray (even if the damage isn’t quite as good).
• Friends (2/5) – If you’re up against a lot of social situations, this can make them a fair bit easier. Unfortunately, it’s limited to a minute and only to non-hostile humanoids and you’ve got a minute before it ends making its scope a bit tricky to make work beyond that very short time frame.
• Light (3/5) – Put down a weapon, cast light on it, then pick it up. Now you’ve got a torch without having to use a spare hand. Good for those without darkvision.
• Mage hand (4/5) – Great utility spell. Grab or manipulate things that are out of reach. It’s also great for setting off traps while you stand at a safe distance.
• Mending (2/5) – This one can be really useful, or not useful at all. It’s just too situational to be reliably of worth.
• Message (3/5) – The range is a bit limiting, but if you’re split up and need to communicate, this is a good way to do it. No spell slots needed.
• Mind sliver (4/5) – You can either use this to make enemies worse at saving throws, or make yourself more reliable at hitting them with your next attack as this requires a saving throw. Most creatures have poor intelligence so this should land more often than most spells and psychic damage is rarely resisted.
• Minor illusion (4/5) – Top utility spell. Great for creating distractions while you sneak around. The more cunning you are, the more useful this spell will be.
• Poison spray (3/5) – Your highest damage for a ranged spell attack. Just be aware that the damage type is also one of the most highly resisted and a lot of creatures now have poison damage immunity.
• Prestidigitation (3/5) – I don’t think I’m as enamoured with this spell as many others, but it can be a useful utility spell if you’re creative enough. I’d prefer minor illusion and/or mage hand, but this can be handy too.
• Ray of frost (3/5) – Good if you want to slow enemies down. You can combine this with the slow weapon mastery property from your allies to reduce movement by 20ft. Good for long range combat. Less so when fighting in close quarters.
• Shocking grasp (2/5) – Like chill touch, you probably don’t want to be making melee spell attacks if you can avoid it. This is better though as it prevents attacks of opportunity allowing for a getaway if you don’t have misty step. I’d still prefer other options over this though.
• Thunderclap (2/5) – This is no good for a wizard as it relies on getting right in the middle of enemies. Use acid splash for an AoE cantrip or use a spell slot, this is too dangerous, even if you plan on using misty step to get away again.
• Toll the dead (4/5) – Normally your highest damage cantrips alongside poison spray, but the damage type is better (even if it’s worse against full health enemies). Saving throw cantrips are good against heavily armoured foes and those with poor wisdom.
• True strike (4/5) – Use this with a light crossbow for better low-mid level damage. It’ll also mean you’ll be able to use your superior intelligence for attack and damage rolls and you’ll get a better damage type than high damage cantrips like fire bolt and poison spray.

Level 1 spells

• Alarm (2/5) – Warn against intrusion while you rest. It’s a ritual and doesn’t require concentration, so you can perform this on multiple locations around the camp. You’re mileage in this will depend on how much your DM likes to ambush you though. Guards should help with this in most cases making this a solution to a situational and mostly avoidable problem.
• Burning hands (3/5) – Damage is decent if you can get enough enemies in the area. You do have to get a bit closer to the danger than a wizard normally likes to make this work, but probably your biggest AoE spell at 1st level.
• Charm person (3/5) – A decent spell for helping you handle social situations. Mainly, this is for convincing someone to be friendly that wouldn’t have been otherwise which should help with persuasion checks and similar things.
• Chromatic orb (5/5) – The damage here is decent and the ability to change damage types means you should be able to avoid resistances. What makes this even better is your ability to potentially hit additional targets. The mathematics behind this get a bit complicated, but you can see exactly how powerful this spell is in my chromatic orb guide. Evokers can up the odds of landing multiple bounces by upcasting with overchannel for some potentially mega damage.
• Color spray (2/5) – Blinding multiple enemies with a single spell is decent, but it’s only for one turn and you’ll have to get fairly close to your targets.
• Comprehend languages (2/5) – It’s rare that not understanding a language would be a blocker to your game progression. Can be useful, and maybe one for a wizard to have just in case the need arises, but you likely won’t use it often
• Detect magic (4/5) – Someone needs this in the party and as it can be cast as a ritual, you can just bob it in your spell book.
• Disguise self (3/5) – If you intend to attempt some impersonations or similar things, this is much easier than gathering the uniforms of guards. I’d prefer it on a charisma-focused caster like a bard or sorcerer, but it’s decent enough if you want to join in with the subterfuge.
• Expeditious retreat (1/5) – You rarely need to move this fast and you don’t want your concentration consumed with this spell.
• False life (3/5) – Decent number of temporary hit points. You can cast in preparation for a battle too so no need to expend your action during combat.
• Feather fall (4/5) – Really situational, but really useful if you ever do need it.
• Find familiar (5/5) – Familiars can be useful for all sorts of things like scouting, helping and sneaking.
• Fog cloud (3/5) – Lots of uses for heavily obscuring an area with fog, including making a quick escape and handling invisible enemies (making the attacks more even).
• Grease (3/5) – Really good in narrow areas like dungeons, especially if you want to fight enemies from a distance or stop them in the grease in melee combat giving them the chance of constantly slipping.
• Ice knife (2/5) – The damage on this is pretty poor. There are cantrips nearly as effective as this by level 5.
• Identify (1/5) – You can usually work out what a magic item is without using a spell slot.
• Illusory script (1/5) – It’ll be rare to find a use for this. At least it can be cast as a ritual.
• Jump (3/5) – An extra 20ft of movement each turn of combat with no concentration required is decent. Or you can use it to jump across long distances or up buildings. Can be useful, especially at low levels when flight is harder to come by. Probably the kind of thing you’ll give to an ally as wizards don’t generally need to be that manoeuvrable.
• Longstrider (2/5) – This feels like a worse version of jump, that also doesn’t let you jump really far. Plus it takes up an action. It does last longer though, so could be used over multiple encounters.
• Mage armor (4/5) – Unless you grab the lightly armored feat or multiclass, this is your easiest way to grab a decent AC. Without this, you’re too vulnerable so really important option. It lasts 8hrs and doesn’t require concentration so really easy to cast ahead of combat and lets you still concentrate on more powerful spells.
• Magic missile (4/5) – The damage isn’t that high, but it as an automatic hit on multiple enemies which gives it slightly better average damage than similar 1st level spells. Knowing you’re going to hit is always useful.
• Protection from evil and good (4/5) – A little situational, but there’s a wide range of creatures that this protects you from so you’re bound to come across them at some point.
• Ray of sickness (2/5) – An average of 9 damage and the poisoned condition for a turn is not strong enough I think compared to your other options. Especially as it uses the often resisted poison damage type.
• Shield (4/5) – Can be really useful if you want to focus on not taking damage and losing concentration.
• Silent image (4/5) – A better version of minor illusion, but at the cost of a spell slot.
• Sleep (4/5) – It’s a small AoE, but if you can catch multiple enemies in this, the odds of success increase a lot and can be fairly substantial. It’s one of the only ways to nullify multiple enemies from 1st level. And if the enemy fails their saving throw twice, they don’t get other chances to wake up (though an ally could kick them).
• Spellfire flare (3/5) HoF – In terms of raw damage, the dice are equal to inflict wounds, but inflict wounds will deal half damage on a successful saving throw, this just misses. However, this is ranged (inflict wounds requires touch) and it ignores half and three quarters cover. Where it gets interesting is with upcasting as it creates separate blasts like scorching ray. It has one less blast than scorching ray, but the damage at level 2 is slightly higher, and because we’re dealing with d10s instead of d6s, it scales better at even higher levels.
• Tasha’s Hideous Laughter (3/5) – Sleep is a better option here as you can affect multiple enemies. Unlike sleep, you can attack the target and not end the condition though.
• Tenser’s floating disk (1/5) – Far too situational.
• Thunderwave (3/5) – Decent AoE damage and some crowd control through pushing. I’d prefer it on a more melee-focused spellcaster, but it’s OK for a wizard too. Burning hands will do a little more damage, but without the push mechanic.
• Unseen servant (2/5) – Actually a decent spell, but you can do many of these things with a mage hand without costing a spell slot or you can use find familiar which is better in everyway except the lack of invisibility.
• Wardaway (2/5) HoF – The damage isn’t big but the restrictions are kind of limiting. Half speed and lose an action or a bonus action is annoying, but this is only for one turn at most. My issue with this is that the damage isn’t great and neither is the debuff. If I want to nullify, then sleep or Tasha’s hideous laughter are better. If I want damage, then magic missile, spellfire flare or chromatic orb are better. I’d rather do one thing well than 2 things badly.
• Witch bolt (2/5) – The damage isn’t enough to consume your concentration and it’s too easy for an enemy to stop the additional damage by running round a corner.

Level 2 spells

• Alter self (3/5) – Kind of like disguise self with extras. The disguise is a bit less restrictive than disguise self and you can get a swim speed. Unarmed damage is basically pointless for a wizard though.
• Arcane lock (3/5) – Potential for being a good safety measure if you need to escape monsters and lock a door behind you while you recover. Or trap a creature inside. During downtime at your bastion, you could systematically apply this to every door and window in the place for extra safety.
• Arcane vigor (2/5) – This is OK if you need a self-healing option and only taking a bonus action is decent enough, but with such small hit dice, the healing from healing word actually outperforms this (as a level 1 spell). And this consumes hit dice and can only be cast on yourself. But you don’t have access to healing word. Still, I’d be tempted to take magic initiate cleric for that and not bother with this if you really want a healing option.
• Augury (4/5) – With this being a ritual, you could really use it a lot, like at every important decision you make. The challenge is the quality of information very much depends on your DM. It’s still a really powerful tool though, and can just sit in your spellbook.
• Blindness/deafness (4/5) – Solid enough saving throw spell with the benefit of not requiring concentration elevating it a point.
• Blur (4/5) – Strong defensive spell, though it gets less effective as enemies get better at hitting you, with disadvantage causing less of a problem for accurate creatures (at that point, you might want to trade in for mirror image).
• Cloud of daggers (1/5) – Unless you can block a 5ft wide corridor with this, it’s just a waste of a spell slot and you should have just cast a cantrip to save the spell slot.
• Continual flame (1/5) – There are other ways to create light without using a 2nd level spell slot. Yes I know it lasts forever, no that doesn’t change my opinion.
• Crown of madness (2/5) – The challenge with this is you’ll need to maintain it using your action to continue its effects. This is an acceptable sacrifice if you come across someone powerful. You essentially nullify their effectiveness while using their attacks against your enemies. You’ll also need to engineer that they start their turn next to one of your enemies which can be tricky, but easier now there’s a lot of weapon mastery abilities knocking around.
• Darkness (4/5) – A strong control option. Good for tackling invisibility, making an escape or if you have some form of blindsight.
• Darkvision (3/5) – The best way to see in the dark if you don’t already have darkvision.
• Death armor (5/5) HoF – Advantage on death saving throws is fine, but it’s the kind of buff you don’t really want to need (and often won’t need). The important bit here is the extra damage. The wording is once per turn the damage can be dealt, that means it can affect every enemy that makes a melee attack against the target. That damage can soon rack up, even if it is spread between multiple enemies. You’ll want to pop it on a tanky ally that’ll throw themself into the middle of the fray (like a barbarian). The longer you can keep that ally on their feet, the better, so healing spells will be great. You can cast ahead of combat and it doesn’t require concentration making it an excellent buff!
• Deryan’s helpful homunculi (1/5) HoF – Essentially faster crafting. There’s an issue here though. This will cost you 100gp every time you use it and as it only lasts 8hrs, will only help for a single day of crafting (so you get through 2 days of crafting while they’re helping). Considering that anything worth crafting and spending an extra 100gp making is going to take several days at least to craft, this just seems like poor economics, especially considering you’re likely crafting for the cheaper gear anyway. This just seems like a pointless spell to me. However, there is perhaps a work around here. Using circle magic, you can use the supplant option with 2 other spellcasters to remove the material cost entirely. But you are reliant on circle magic rules being used at your table and 2 other spellcasters available to help.
• Detect thoughts (3/5) – There are interesting ways to use this for both stealth and social situations, but taking advantage of it is a bit situational, depends on your DM’s generosity and can go wrong with that wisdom saving throw.
• Dragon’s breath (3/5) – This is kind of like reusable burning hands for a whole combat that you can grant to someone else. You could cast it on someone else with less precious actions (like a familiar if you have one).
• Elminster’s elusion (3/5) HoF – Decent magical protection that you can cast ahead of combat or with just a bonus action. It will consume your concentration, but if you’re up against spellcasters, this might well be worth the cost.
• Enhance ability (4/5) – Great for tackling high stakes skills checks like those involving stealth or social encounters. You probably want to be enhancing someone else though.
• Enlarge/reduce (3/5) – Decent buff or debuff. Works nicely on grapplers like monks so they can grapple larger things and do more damage (at the same time if they have the grappler feat). Or cast it against a high level enemy your party grappler wants to grapple and make them smaller.
• Flaming sphere (2/5) – Like a slightly better version of cloud of daggers. It has a larger radius, affects creatures within 5ft on the first turn and can be moved with a bonus action instead of an action. The damage is a little lower though and it has to be rolled rather than teleported. Despite being better, it’s too low damage to consistently invest in.
• Gentle repose (1/5) –Needing to raise dead without the spell isn’t that common with such easy healing options. It’s even rarer to need to extend the time until you can use raise dead.
• Gust of wind (2/5) – Can be decent for corridors, poor for enclosed or large spaces. This makes it too situational to be regularly useful.
• Hold person (3/5) – Decent save or suck spell. Just be aware that less creatures are now classified as humanoids in the 2024 Monster Manual. Things like Goblins and Gith are now Fey and Aberrations so this won’t work on them. Personally, I’d favour Tasha’s Hideous Laughter or sleep at level 1 for this kind of effect which is less limited by creature type and can also nullify enemies.
• Invisibility (5/5) – Excellent stealth spell and will help you for a round of combat too.
• Knock (2/5) – If you don’t have a rogue, I’d say just invest in thieves’ tools proficiency and sleight of hand with your background instead. This could get expensive on spell slots if you come across a few locks.
• Levitate (3/5) – Useful for scaling tall buildings and scouting. You can also nullify an enemy to some extent with this, especially if they don’t have ranged options.
• Locate object (2/5) – Theoretically, this can be useful as some kind of bug you can use to track an enemy. Can also help you find important items, but it’s also highly situational and you could easily go an entire campaign without having the chance to use this. Not a bad option to have in your spellbook if you have spare spell options.
• Magic mouth (1/5) – This can have it’s uses, but is also highly situational and relies on fairly uncommon circumstances to be useful.
• Magic weapon (3/5) – The extra damage isn’t amazing (though best when getting off a lot of attacks, like when dual wielding) but bypassing resistances can be useful. For a bonus action, you can use this in the heat of battle when you realise you’re having a resistance issue or you can cast ahead of combat as it lasts an hour. But really, this is something you grant to an ally’s weapon, not your own.
• Melf’s acid arrow (2/5) – An average of 15 damage across 2 turns isn’t that great. This only has the advantage of always doing at least some damage, but personally, I’d just upcast chromatic orb.
• Mind spike (1/5) – The problem with this is the damage is low and you have to be able to see the creature to hit it and then nullify future invisibility attempts. The issue is, you often don’t know you’re going to face something that can turn invisible until it turns invisible. There are better ways to tackle invisibility.
• Mirror image (3/5) – Solid protective spell, and will help you maintain your concentration.
• Misty step (4/5) – Great safety spell. It’ll get you out of sticky situations like grapples and crowds. Can also get you to hard to reach places and make you travel further if needs be.
• Nystul’s magic aura (1/5) – This is a bit niche in its application and is probably more of a DM’s tool than anything else. Really you’re trying to conceal a disguise or the true nature of an artefact or weapon. A lich could use it to pass as not being undead for instance. It’s highly circumstantial and rarely going to be of use.
• Phantasmal force (3/5) – If you’re creative, you can do a lot of interesting things with this spell. False bridges, fake ground or holes are all possibilities as well as scary creatures.
• Ray of enfeeblement (1/5) – The best enemies to cast this on (strong, melee brawlers) are likely the best at resisting this (constitution saving throw) making this a tad tricky. It still does something on a failure, but the issue you have is hold person will completely disable an opponent, this only partially does so, making it tough to recommend this over something better.
• Rope trick (2/5) – Your mileage out of this probably depends on how often you need somewhere to suddenly hide in. But many of these scenarios are far too circumstantial to be of regular use.
• Scorching ray (3/5) – Solid damage and can be cast against multiple targets. Magic missile will actually outperform this slightly for average damage due to its automatic hits at level 2, but this performs slightly better when upcast. If you can get enhancements to your spell attacks, this will outperform magic missile by a decent amount.
• See invisibility (4/5) – At least someone in the party needs a way to deal with invisibility and this is probably one of the better, low level options. This is even more handy now that the hide action grants the invisible condition.
• Shatter (4/5) – Probably the best pre-level 3 AoE damage dealer. One of your best options at this level for dealing with crowds.
• Spider climb (2/5) – This can be useful sometimes, but I’d probably just go for levitate if I need some height.
• Suggestion (4/5) – Time for some jedi mind tricks! It’s inferior to hold person at incapacitating enemies, but sometimes you need to have someone do something for you (like to grab the key to the jail cell you’re in). You’ll need to be careful at wording your instructions.
• Web (5/5) – Strong control spell. Will slow down multiple enemies and can restrain them too.

Level 3 spells

• Animate dead (2/5) – Zombies and skeletons aren’t that great and probably won’t survive the whole 24hrs. Plus you lose your bonus action commanding them.
• Bestow curse (2/5) – None of these effects are particularly strong. Yes, some of them will work continuously without future saving throws, but I’d still prefer blindness or Tasha’s hideous laughter using a lower level spells slot.
• Blink (3/5) – This essentially gives you safety for 50% of your turns in combat. Not bad for a fragile class, especially in longer encounters. It does require an action to setup though, so only worthwhile in longer encounters.
• Cacophonic shield (4/5) HoF – Like a slightly less damaging spirit guardians. The emanation’s range is smaller too but you get thunder resistance, ranged attacks have disadvantage against you and you cause deafened with it. These seem like decent trade offs and a great option for non-clerics to grab something like spirit guardians. Just be aware that this is really a spell for more durable spellcasters as you have to get close to danger. It works for a bladesinger or maybe a wizard multiclass, but can be a problem for standard wizards.
• Clairvoyance (4/5) – There’s quite a lot of potential for information gathering with this spell, especially if you want to be privy to conversations not meant for your ears! It’s a bit situational though so you may not get loads of use out of it (then again, you could end up using it a lot depending on the campaign).
• Conjure constructs (1/5) HoF – This seems significantly worse than conjure animals (the same level equivalent spell). The range is worse, the damage is significantly worse (conjure animals can affect multiple creatures per round) and even the damage per hit is worse (3d6 Vs 3d10 for conjure animals). The temporary hit points also aren’t that much. For me, this is just a significantly inferior and underwhelming spell for this level.
• Counterspell (4/5) – Preventing a nasty spell is great. This is especially the case for PCs as most monsters won’t use spell slots, instead they’ll be able to cast spells a certain number of times per day and this will still expend those uses.
• Dispel magic (5/5) – Really useful for ending nasty spell effects.
• Fear (4/5) – Strong way to take a bunch of enemies out of the combat simultaneously, especially if you’re fighting large groups. You do have to get fairly close to the enemy for this one which isn’t great for a wizard. I still prefer hypnotic pattern though, which essentially does the same thing at range.
• Feign death (1/5) – It’s hard to understand under what niche circumstances this spell would be useful… Perhaps if you need to infiltrate a morgue…
• Fireball (5/5) – Really strong damage dealing AoE spell. Best used in the first turn before you and your allies get in the way, or by evokers who can protect their allies from these things.
• Fly (4/5) – Really useful utility spell. Can keep you safe (ish) in combat and helps you access hard to reach locations.
• Gaseous form (4/5) – Strong exploration spell. Will get you places you might not ordinarily be able to get.
• Glyph of warding (3/5) – This is a tricky one to rate. With preparation time, it’s a really great way to cause damage to an enemy without using up your action in combat. I believe there’s an exploit here, as concentration spells just last for the duration, without consuming your concentration it seems. So you could cast hold person using the glyph and then still have space to concentrate on haste or something similar. However, this spell is fairly situational as it relies on prep time and knowing an enemy is coming.
• Haste (4/5) – A strong buff that can easily enhance yourself or an ally. An extra action, more speed, better AC and better saving throws all combine nicely.
• Hypnotic pattern (5/5) – I’d probably prefer this over fear as it’s got better range but effectively removes a group of enemies from the combat.
• Laeral’s silver lance (2/5) HoF – Basically a weaker lightning bolt that also knocks prone. It has a slightly greater range than lightning bolt but quite a bit less damage. Unless you’re fighting down corridors, this probably isn’t a great option and I’m not convinced that prone is enough for the damage sacrifice.
• Leomund’s tiny hit (3/5) – Basically a safe place to rest each night. You could also use it as a safety measure if you have preparation time for a combat. Essentially you set up the hut and then hop in and out of it, keeping you safe and giving you a place to hide. Just be aware of level 4+ spells that can penetrate the walls.
• Lightning bolt (3/5) – Lines of enemies are harder to find than groups, but can happen in long corridors. Generally though, this tends to be weaker than fireball.
• Magic circle (2/5) – This is generally quite challenging to use as it requires a 1 minute casting time. It also requires certain types of creatures making it far too situational.
• Major image (4/5) – If you’re really creative, this can be amazing! Use it to distract and deceive enemies. And once you get 4th level spells, you can cast this without using concentration and can make the illusion permanent.
• Nondetection (2/5) – This is way too situational to be of much use! It’s really for DMs to keep locations of important things extra secret. Yes, you could prevent your invisibility from being revealed, but it’s not common enough to face enemy spellcasters to make this regularly useful.
• Phantom steed (2/5) – This isn’t a steed built for combat unfortunately as it fades as soon as it takes damage. It’s mainly for travel which can sometimes be convenient, but not that useful in game, especially as the party also need their own steeds to keep up.
• Protection from energy (2/5) – A single resistance can be bypassed easily (by using a different damage type or targeting another character). The options of damage types are quite limited too. Situationally useful against certain creatures but that’s all.
• Remove curse (2/5) – Sometimes useful, but also very situational. You may never come across a creature (like a werewolf) or item that curses someone in the party. But if anyone should have this in their repertoire just in case, it’s a wizard.
• Sending (2/5) – A little too situational for regular usage. You only get one message too so it can be used for one piece of communication with others. A 3rd level spells slots is a big price to pay for a message that’s a couple of sentences long.
• Sleet storm (3/5) – A more problematic version of fog cloud. Good for controlling the battlefield and nullifying enemy spellcasters a bit. It’s best in more confined spaces where enemies may be forced to travel through it.
• Slow (4/5) – I prefer hypnotic pattern over this as it completely nullifies an enemy rather than severely debilitating them. But this is still very good and has a larger area it can cover.
• Speak with dead (4/5) – Really useful information gathering spell. How well it works partially depends on your DM. I find many players are quite trigger happy in killing rather than knocking unconscious enemies, this is some kind of insurance against that behaviour.
• Stinking cloud (3/5) – Good control spell. Works best in confined spaces and for getting enemies in the places you want them to be. Poisoned is nastier with this spell, but only lasts a turn. Consider combining it with something that restricts movement like sleet storm, grease or web to really get enemies stuck.
• Summon fey (3/5) – Solid summon with decent damage and utility. No need to use a bonus action to command it so this is preserved.
• Summon undead (3/5) – Not quite as good as summon fey which has a few more options to help you out and does more damage.
• Syluné‘s viper (2/5) HoF – Those temporary hit points may not last long which could lead to an early end for the spell. A climb speed at this level isn’t that impressive and the damage is very weak considering it requires an action. Incapacitated is good, but you could instantly whack a group of enemies with that and more in a single turn with hypnotic pattern. This just doesn’t seem worth it.
• Tongues (2/5) – It’s unlikely that this will be useful very often so not usually worth taking.
• Vampiric touch (1/5) – This can be easily outperformed by a cantrip. The healing also isn’t enough to justify this, plus you can’t use your concentration on anything else and have to get into melee range to use it. A particularly poor spell for a wizard.
• Water breathing (2/5) – It’s not often you need to breathe under water. Situationally useful when those moments do come up and as the party wizard, you may want this in your back pocket for when they do.

Level 4 spells

• Arcane eye (4/5) – Really good investigation spell that can let you spy on a location without setting foot inside.
• Backlash (4/5) HoF – Solid damage reduction and retaliation. For comparison, hellish rebuke will deal 5d10 damage if upcast to this level (average 27.5 damage). Backlash will protect from an average of 14 damage and deal 14 damage back (with a better damage type). So I think they’re comparable in power. Just depends whether you want to be more protective and have the flexibility of casting at lower levels.
• Banishment (5/5) – Take an enemy or 2 (if you upcast) out of combat for the duration while you deal with its friends. Hold person accomplishes a similar thing but this is better as there aren’t any repeat throws, many creatures have poor charisma and it can target any kind of creature.
• Blight (2/5) – An upcast fireball will do nearly this amount of damage to a single target (and that can hit multiple targets). With that context, I’d say this is quite a weak spell.
• Charm monster (2/5) – I find this tough to recommend. You’re not necessarily gaining an ally for combat, even then, it’ll only hang around for an hour before knowing you magically influenced it. It could be a way to tackle a creature without violence, but you’re best doing this before combat erupts.
• Confusion (3/5) – This is like an unreliable hypnotic pattern. I prefer hypnotic pattern with it’s larger area of effect and greater reliability, but if you like chaos, this can sometimes cause enemies to attack each other.
• Conjure minor elementals (5/5) – This is very powerful if you know what to do with it. At higher levels, you can do some really devastating things with this (RAW at least). Essentially, you want to keep casting spells with multiple attack rolls to maximise damage from the spell. I think the best you can do is an upcast scorching ray. I think this is a broken spell and should be adapted at tables to prevent abuse cases. If you’re playing RAW though, this can easily be devastating.
• Control water (2/5) – You can do some fun, creative stuff with this spell, but your opportunities to do so are pretty rare so ends up too situational.
• Dimension door (3/5) – Good for getting out of dungeons quickly or getting the jump on far away enemies. You may need to be a little creative, but as long as you can see, have seen or can precisely determine distance of the location, you can get there safely.
• Divination (3/5) – Can be a very useful information gathering spell and isn’t particularly situational. But it’s mileage depends on the generosity of your DM.
• Evard’s black tentacles (4/5) – Very useful in confined spaces and restrained is a useful condition, plus enemies will take some damage too.
• Fabricate (2/5) – While it’s possible for this to be very useful, it’s very situational in nature and often won’t be particularly helpful.
• Fire shield (4/5) – No concentration needed and you should be able to discourage enemies from attacking you (and damage them if they do). Some damage resistance is decent too. I’d go for the chill shield normally as the resistance and damage type are both better.
• Greater invisibility (5/5) – Disappear in combat and attack with advantage and be attacked with disadvantage.
• Hallucinatory terrain (1/5) – This feels like it could be loads of fun, but I find that working out the practical use cases for this really challenging.
• Ice storm (2/5) – The damage here isn’t particularly high and difficult terrain for a single turn isn’t that great either.
• Leomund’s secret chest (1/5) – This feels like quite a high level spell just to keep something safe.
• Locate creature (2/5) – Situationally useful if you need to track someone down, but unlikely to happen often enough to really justify. Could maybe find a place for this in your spell book.
• Mordenkainen’s faithful hound (2/5) – Kind of like a better alarm with a bite. If you’re worried about invisible creatures or intruders during rests, it’s not bad, but this is quite a high spell slot for what it does.
• Mordenkainen’s private sanctum (2/5) – This can be useful, but it’s too situational to regularly actually help unless you know someone might be spying on you.
• Otiluke’s resilient sphere (5/5) – Great way to nullify an enemy. The practical effects are the same as banishment but with a dexterity saving throw instead of a charisma saving throw. More creatures are better at dexterity than charisma so I’d favour banishment, but you could also use this as a protective shield in desperate situations. Or roll your enemy somewhere nasty before the time runs out.
• Phantasmal killer (3/5) – Continuous damage means you can end up dealing a decent amount of damage, but this will take time and may end early with wisdom saving throws each turn. Targets are also debilitated which boosts its effectiveness.
• Polymorph (5/5) – Effectively nullify an enemy, enhance an ally or gain some kind of utility benefit like flight. This is a really versatile spell!
• Spellfire storm (3/5) HoF – The initial effects can be useful, but it will take effort to keep creatures being affected by this. The damage is decent, but it doesn’t move and can prevent spells when cast in it’s area, but it seems unlikely that will happen often. With teamwork, you could make some big damage happen here, but it’s tricky.
• Stone shape (3/5) – This is quite situational, but also, potentially quite useful. Bypass natural walls in a dungeon by simply shaping the stone and passing through them. Of course, you could just watch your DM have many 6ft thick walls in their dungeon, but that would be cruel to ingenuity.
• Stoneskin (3/5) – Solid protection spell, but be aware, this consumes your concentration and as enemies get more magical attacks and less standard weapon damage, this becomes increasingly redundant.
• Summon aberration (3/5) – It’s pretty decent, but with upcasting at higher levels, I’d say summon fey is better.
• Summon construct (3/5) – Decent enough summon. I prefer the metal construct, but do think summon fey is a little better when cast at this level.
• Summon elemental (3/5) – Slightly better damage, damage types and hp than most summons, but still stacks up closely in quality. The best summon for adaptable damage types.
• Vitriolic sphere (5/5) – This is a little more damage than an upcast fireball, but spread over a couple of turns. The damage type is slightly better too. Because of this, I’d say it’s pretty comparable.
• Wall of fire (4/5) – Really useful way to control the battlefield, separating, slowing and/or damaging your enemies.

Level 5 spells

• Alustriel’s mooncloak (4/5) HoF – Some pretty decent protection here. It’s unlikely you’ll want to allow this to end for the other benefits. You could maybe do a bit of a heal at the end of a combat, or if someone really desperately needs the hit points, but I’m not sure those conditions are worth saving against unless the situation is really desperate (like getting grappled by a kraken).
• Animate objects (4/5) – This is a tricky one to judge. If you have a high intelligence (20 ideally), you can average 34 damage per turn with a huge and a large animate object (other combinations deal less damage). But that relies on hits and these constructs staying alive long enough to deal damage on subsequent turns. Even without that, they are at least extra targets for enemies to go after. If you can hit with most attacks and have these last for 2-3 turns, the damage output should be worth the spell slot.
• Bigby’s hand (5/5) – You can deal more damage with animate objects but you have less flexibility. This can push, grapple and protect on different turns. Pushing could be great for getting nasty enemies out the way, into AoE effects or off walls. At 30ft, this is some major distance for a push too. In typical circumstances, the grapple will probably be quite effective as it can deal damage and grapple. Particularly useful against a melee character and to let you move someone around while damaging them (so probably better than the push as the hand can move 30ft while grappling). It’s a dexterity saving throw so could work against a lot of melee creatures and is one of only a few ways to grapple a huge creature.
• Circle of power (4/5) – Strong protective spell against magic. The area is big enough to protect a lot of allies, but you’ll likely find yourself close to danger if you want to set this up. Be aware of spell attacks too as this won’t protect you from these. A good way to end magical effects on characters too.
• Cloudkill (3/5) – The damage is alright and it’s persistent so adds up. The problem is keeping enemies in the area to be damaged. Push weapon masteries can help here as well as grapples and similar things but making this effective takes some concerted effort.
• Cone of cold (3/5) – Very similar damage to an upcast fireball, but the disadvantage here is you have to get close to enemies and ahead of your allies to land it against enemies (which isn’t great for a wizard). I’d just upcast a long range fireball instead.
• Conjure elemental (2/5) – The problem with this spell is the range. With only a 5ft range and no way to move the elemental, this really limits its impact if it fails to restrain its initial target. Saving throws are also taken at the beginning of a turn so the creature can still act on the turn it escapes too. At least it piles on damage each turn.
• Contact other plane (4/5) – Potentially very powerful information gathering spell, but it comes with risks. Fortunately, your intelligence should help compensate for this and you can ask when you’d have had a long rest anyway. The information could be very useful if you ask your questions carefully.
• Creation (3/5) – This is difficult to assess as it depends on the circumstances of your adventure. As the item is only temporary, it means you’re either creating something to trick someone, or that you only need to use over a short period. Mundane objects are easy to procure, but I suppose you could create a fake item of worth while you steal the original or something like a key while leaving the owner non-the wiser that you’ve duplicated the key. I still feel it’s a bit situational, but this could be a fun spell with the right adventure and the right DM.
• Dominate person (2/5) – If you can get this to work, it can be quite powerful, but with just a 1 minute duration and the need to cast it against someone that isn’t an aggressor (at least if you want a decent chance of this working), this becomes hard to contrive into something that will often work. Add to this the fact that less creatures are now classed as humanoid and this spell has diminished even further in usefulness.
• Dream (2/5) – If you’re really creative, you could do some interesting things with this, but it’s tricky to make this regularly useful.
• Geas (2/5) – This can be solid, but quite difficult to engineer into something practical. Getting a captured enemy to do your bidding is probably the main use here, which can be hugely useful, or just hard to engineer, which is why it only gets a 2.
• Hold monster (3/5) – Incapacitate a monster for a while is decent. Hold person is a much lower spell slot, but monsters tend to be tougher and more common enemies, especially with the recent Monster Manual changes making more creatures non-humanoids.
• Jallarzi’s storm of radiance (2/5) – Without effort, this spell feels weak. But with effort and other spells or effects, can become quite useful. Automatic blinded and deafened is strong as well as preventing verbal spells, but once someone leaves the area, this ends. You’d really need to combine this with something like the restrained condition to make this properly effective. Without this, the damage over one turn isn’t enough and enemies will just avoid the area.
• Legend lore (2/5) – Largely, the value of this spell will be determined by your DM’s willingness to impart information and how much they know about the famous thing. Situational at best, potential to be pretty useless though.
• Mislead (2/5) – This feels more impressive than it really is. Its main purpose is as an escape route, but it practically does the same thing as invisibility but maybe adds in a distraction. You might as well just use invisibility or greater invisibility.
• Modify memory (3/5) – There’s potential to do some really unique and useful things with this spell, but it’s quite awkward to find the right circumstances to make them truly useful. When it’s good, it’s really good, but you could easily go a long time without needing this spell at all.
• Passwall (4/5) – I really like the idea of using this to bypass sections of dungeons or just passing through heavily guarded areas. Unlike something like gaseous form, it’ll let you through solid walls and you can bring your party with you.
• Planar binding (2/5) – Really great if you can make it work, but you’ll have to work hard to do so. Find an appropriate creature that’s powerful enough to bother binding, cast magic circle to contain it, then cast this to get an ally. It’s too contrived for me and uses multiple of your spell slots.
• Rary’s telepathic bond (4/5) – Telepathic communication over long distances can be very useful. This spell is only limited by being on the same plane as the other participants, otherwise, the range is unlimited. You shouldn’t normally split the party, but when you do, you might want this. Cast it as a ritual to avoid wasting spells slots, and you could just keep casting it for always on telepathy.
• Scrying (4/5) – Decent information gathering spell. You can always just try this before every rest when you’ve got a spare spell slot and see what you can find out about the BBEG or other people.
• Seeming (4/5) – Basically an illusion for the whole party to look like someone else. Really useful for party’s that want to do more sneaking than killing.
• Songol’s elemental suffusion (3/5) HoF – I’ll ignore the questionable decision to name a resistance ability as an immunity and focus on the mechanics here. A resistance is a fine bonus and it’s pretty flexible. Flight is broadly good. It’s whether the emanation damage is worth the extra couple of levels this costs on top of the fly spell. It’s only 2d6, though prone is caused too, but it affects enemies at the start of your turn so it’s harder to manoeuvre into the right place to catch them. There’s a couple of challenges here. The first is that the classes casting this spell mostly want to be away from enemies. The second is that flight in combat is often used as a safety feature to stay out of harm’s way. This maybe isn’t so bad for a bladesinger, but it kind of feels like you can’t get the most from all aspects of this spell making it fall a bit flat. Circle magic options become interesting.
• Steel wind strike (4/5) – Potential for some big damage against up to 5 enemies within a large area that won’t harm allies like most AoE spells. It’s more damage per target than something like synaptic static. If you can hit more than 5 targets though, synaptic static will be better. The only problem with this spell for a wizard is that you’ll have to end the spell teleporting next to a target which could put you in danger. Maybe try to teleport next to an enemy you’ve killed (or that’s also a spellcaster).
• Summon dragon (4/5) – The best summon spell available. The damage is solid with 2 rend attacks and a breath weapon. 50HP does equal summon elemental at a spell level lower, but there’s resistances and you can ride it because it’s large, can fly and has a swim speed.
• Synaptic static (5/5) – Essentially a fireball that weakens it’s victims. A great option for big damage and debuffing without needing to maintain concentration. The debuff is quite substantial and intelligence is rarely strong on creatures. I think I’d usually prefer this over fireball’s dexterity saving throw.
• Telekinesis (3/5) – The effects aren’t super powerful on this, but it has such broad utility that it can be useful in a lot of situations. You can restrain, drop from heights, disarm or pull items from far away towards you. And this includes quite big objects too. Just don’t expect big damage on this.
• Teleportation circle (2/5) – More of a practical spell than anything else. It sort of can become necessary if you need to easily jump around places but it’s useless if you don’t need to go to the same few locations repeatedly.
• Wall of force (4/5) – Trap or isolate enemies or even create something like a bridge for some practical application.
• Wall of stone (4/5) – Strong battlefield control spell. Isolate and split up enemies to make things a bit easier to handle.
• Yolande’s regal presence (3/5) – Push, prone and a bit of damage for anyone you can get in the emanation. This can be pretty good if you can move around a lot. Great if you can get some good speed, but you have to get close to enemies which is problematic for a wizard.

Level 6 spells

• Arcane gate (2/5) – I think the use case for this is to unexpectedly appear before enemies, attack them, and then run back through the portal where your allies have laid a trap. It’s got it’s uses but it’s too situational, relying on a fairly long line of sight for instance. If you just want to teleport, dimension door can do that.
• Chain lightning (5/5) – High damage spell that can hit 4 targets and you don’t have to worry about allies getting in the way of an AoE spell. It’s similar damage to an upcast fireball, but with less potential targets, but more usability when allies are in the area.
• Circle of death (4/5) – Basically a huge and more powerful fireball. Straightforward, strong option with a massive area of effect.
• Contingency (4/5) – Essentially prime a spell to kick into effect ready for combat. It’s easy to baulk at the level 6 spells slot, but the spell lasts 10 days so just cast this when you go for a long rest at some point and have a spell ready for your next battle (or apply it when bloodied so it only kicks in for tough encounters or when you’re struggling). You’ll have spell slots recovered for both spells and no action required to trigger your new spell. Something like greater invisibility or fire shield is great in combination with this. The main problem is making sure it triggers for the right kinds of encounters and the spell cost.
• Create undead (3/5) – Semi-permanent undead servants is quite useful, but be aware that ghouls aren’t that tough at the level you’ll be casting this. Still, they make a decent enough meat shield and can be used to go first into dungeons to trigger traps and similar nasties.
• Disintegrate (4/5) – You’ll average 75 damage with this which is pretty big, but will be outperformed by circle of death and chain lightning when multiple targets are available. But disintegrating an enemy once they’ve been weakened a bit could be the difference between permanently killing an enemy, and having them come back again somehow. The damage is also pretty reliable with a flat 40 damage plus the extra dice damage.
• Drawmij’s instant summons (1/5) – Far too situational for such a high level spell.
• Elminster’s effulgent spheres (3/5) HoF – If you just go for the damage, then this is similar damage to finger of death at level 7. This doesn’t need actions to use (as you can cast ahead of combat). Whether it’s preferable to use several bonus actions or one action to make this happen is questionable and may depend on what else you have to do with your bonus action. But it’s quite a slow burn damage dealer. I’d have been tempted to allow as many orbs as you like to strike using your bonus action to a maximum of 3 allowing these to be used quicker. It’s not clear if the resistance applies to the triggering attack. If it does, then that’s decent, if not, then that could end up a bit tame. I’m going to assume the former, but if it’s the latter, this is disappointing.
• Eyebite (4/5) – Continuously nullify enemies for the rest of the combat. Poisoned may feel less consequential, but there’s no saving throw required so it will always succeed. That includes against big bosses that have legendary resistance!
• Flesh to stone (2/5) – Nasty save or suck spell, but you probably won’t petrify an enemy until combat has finished or is ending, and even then, this requires multiple failures. Still, it can maintain restraint and there may be other reasons you want an enemy petrified.
• Globe of invulnerability (3/5) – Fairly effective method for dealing with nasty spells. It has it’s issues though. It won’t work on level 6+ spells (which are the scariest). A spellcaster could also enter the area of the globe to bypass it’s protection.
• Guards and wards (3/5) – This is a spell for protecting a base that you know is going to be attacked. If that happens, it can be really useful and there’s loads of great effects you can set off here. Alternatively, if you can enter a dungeon and have an hour undisturbed, you could use this spell to foil enemies. I suspect most dungeons won’t leave a wizard long enough to cast this, but if you can, it’s great.
• Magic jar (2/5) – This is complicated, dangerous and hard to use. Unless you have very specific plans and want to play dangerously, then I’d avoid. But there is potential here for a very powerful spell too.
• Mass suggestion (5/5) – 12 creatures is a lot of targets and you can choose whoever you want within 60ft. You essentially incapacitate them and create another effect if you want making this a very powerful option. This even has out of combat utility. The duration is really long and lasts 24hrs too; without concentration!
• Move earth (1/5) – This certainly isn’t a combat spell and it’s a little lacking in the versatility department too, but the effects can be large. You could dig down into a creature’s burrow perhaps or create traps and natural terrain to protect your party from an attack. But these are all very situational and take a lot of time making this spell difficult to recommend.
• Otiluke’s freezing sphere (5/5) – This basically averages the same damage as circle of death, but with a couple of added benefits. It has twice the range, can freeze water, restraining those in the water and can be precast and thrown within a minute. This means you could cast the spell ahead of combat, pass it to a barbarian to throw on the first round while you dish out another nasty spell.
• Otto’s irresistible dance (2/5) – This essentially nullifies an enemy, but many lower level spells can accomplish the same thing. Yes, this does something on a failed save, but this is a high level spell slot doing what hold person or hold monster can do much earlier.
• Programmed illusion (4/5) – About as good as your creativity can make it. You can scare off potential enemies, pretend you’re associated with someone of great importance or some other function you can think of. The effects are really flexible for this illusion and don’t even need you to be there to activate.
• Summon fiend (3/5) – It’s a bit tougher than summon fey, but perhaps lacks quite as much utility. If you’ve got devils sight, you could coordinate with it in magical darkness.
• Sunbeam (3/5) – This is an efficient use of spell slots, and the damage is decent if you can line enemies up, but that’s often not possible. This is great in corridors and less great in most other places.
• Tasha’s bubbling cauldron (3/5) – Good source of regular healing potions (or other niceties). Just be aware you’ll need to invest 500gp in components, but once you’ve cast this 3 times, you should have made up for the cost in potions.
• True seeing (3/5) – The best way to see things that aren’t there. While see invisibility can foil the invisible condition, this will capture more things in its remit. Can be pointless at many times, but essential at others.
• Wall of ice (3/5) – More easily destroyed than other walls, but also deals damage. This makes it a pretty good damage dealer and able to temporarily trap or separate certain enemies but not as effective as wall of force (which is a lower level spell) at actually controlling your enemies.

Level 7 spells

• Delayed blast fireball (3/5) – This is strong damage, but I’d argue the point of this spell is to ready a spell for an ambush or get creatures in position while it builds up power. But the power increase isn’t huge and means not eliminating creatures you could have eliminated already by just exploding the fireball. At its base damage, it will deal as much as an upcast fireball, I’d just be tempted to use that instead. It remains a powerful spell, just a difficult one to manufacture into more of a use than simply hurling a fireball. Just be aware, even if you explode it straight away, it will still end your concentration on another spell.
• Etherealness (4/5) – This is a really good spell in the sense that you can get places and explore things you wouldn’t normally be able to explore. Gaseous form and invisibility can accomplish the same kind of effect and might be a worthy pairing to save the 7th level spell slot this requires. The effects would be weaker though. You’d also need an ally to cast one of these spells due to the concentration requirements.
• Finger of death (3/5) – An average of 61.5 damage on a failed save or half on a pass is decent. However, it’s less than disintegrate. Turning someone into a zombie is cool, but not particularly useful at this level so I’d say just take disintegrate.
• Forcecage (5/5) – Really powerful way to separate enemies in combat or to trap something for interrogation. There’s no save for this either which is amazing! Just be careful of teleporting creatures or creatures too large for the cage.
• Mirage arcane (2/5) – This can be very good in certain situations, but those situations are very rare and difficult to engineer.
• Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion (2/5) – This is really just an enhanced tiny hut or private sanctum. Yes it has some extra uses and it is better, but 3-4 extra spell levels is a very high slot for what is mostly just flavour.
• Mordenkainen’s sword (2/5) – The damage is OK, but relies on maintaining concentration over a sustained period to make it more worthwhile than other spells. For example, it takes 3 turns to outperform finger of death on damage which is 3 turns using up your bonus action and maintaining concentration. If you think you can get 3 turns or more of damage from this, then it could be worth the effort, but you could just cast finger of death (or even better, disintegrate) and use a better concentration spell (maybe one that nullifies like hypnotic pattern or mass suggestion).
• Plane shift (2/5) – This is a difficult one as plane hopping with a spell is far more convenient than alternate forms of planar travel, but its use and necessity is primarily down to your DM. Either they’ll want you on other planes and will provide a method for getting there, or they won’t and this could become challenging to keep players in the right place.
• Prismatic spray (4/5) – This has a big area of effect and some pretty juicy effects. It’s a little random, but essentially you’ll either damage a foe or incapacitate them a bit (or even a lot).
• Project image (3/5) – This can be really useful if you’re clever with it. Send it somewhere you need to be to communicate with someone or send it in for a dangerous negotiation with a dragon (you’re safe if it decides to eat you instead). This is an extremely versatile illusion.
• Reverse gravity (4/5) – This is not only very useful, it’s also loads of fun. Great for tackling nasty melee enemies or getting to awkward locations. There’s no saving throws on this so enjoy making a tarrasque hover somehow!
• Sequester (1/5) – This is a highly situational spell! I wouldn’t bother taking this unless you have a very specific purpose for it’s use. I see this more a plot device for DMs than players.
• Simbul’s synostodweomer (3/5) HoF – In combat, this means action-less healing which is very handy (it just happens when a spell is cast). You’ll need to use it on a spellcaster so it’s pointless on a barbarian. Interestingly, over time, the magnitude of healing is greater if multiple, lower level healings are used than a few higher level ones as you add your spellcasting ability modifier to the healing. It’s also more potent for those with larger hit dice (like paladins). The drawback is it does consume hit dice, but better than using these after a combat during a short rest.
• Simulacrum (5/5) – Expensive, but very powerful! If you can keep it alive, you now have an extra wizard with the same level of spellcasting prowess as yourself (or a copy of another party member). I’d prefer this on a ranged character rather than a melee character as the half hit points will become problematic. It’s also better on a non-spellcaster as it can’t take rests (so won’t recover spells or other limited use features). The lack of concentration required and the unlimited duration make this really versatile and not really a drain on spell slots.
• Symbol (3/5) – First off, the effects of this spell are very flexible and very powerful. Note that any conditions caused by this spell work for the duration with no subsequent saving throws after the first one, affecting creatures in a large area. However, there are a couple of limitations to consider. First is the expense. 1000gp at this level may not be a huge deal, but it could soon add up with multiple castings. Second, you need to prepare this spell and anticipate enemies coming to you, not always easy to engineer, but common enough with some work to be handy often enough.
• Teleport (4/5) – This is your most flexible form of teleportation allowing multiple creatures to teleport with you to basically anywhere on this plane of existence. Its success is limited by your familiarity with the location though.

Level 8 spells

• Antimagic field (3/5) – Can be incredibly useful, but does also nullify yourself. If you happen to find yourself up against a lich or archhag whose primary capabilities are their spellcasting, then this could be very effective. But, you’ll need to remove your own best tools and survive close to the enemy while your allies hack the creature to pieces.
• Antipathy/sympathy (2/5) – This feels like the kind of spell a DM places on an artefact or holy site to create strange goings on where village folk worship an idol or are terrified of some unknown entity from the ruins of a temple. For adventurers, practically speaking, this is difficult to contrive and the effects, while long lasting, are not as powerful as something like symbol. Personally, I’d leave this spell and pick up symbol instead.
• Befuddlement (4/5) – Similar damage to finger of death, but this can be particularly great for nullifying a spellcaster (like a cleric or sorcerer). It’s less powerful against non-spellcasters though, but still useful enough.
• Clone (1/5) – Technically a very powerful way to cheat death and allow your soul to transfer to a cloned version of yourself. The problem is the 120 day growth period which is completely impractical for most campaigns. In reality, this is a device for DMs to clone their BBEG if they want.
• Control weather (2/5) – While there can be a purpose to changing the weather (perhaps to obscure your approach or calm conditions imposed by the DM), the actual impact on the game is likely to be quite inconsequential unless your DM wants to make it a natural disaster which is difficult to orchestrate.
• Demiplane (2/5) – A secret hideout for when the battle has been tough or you need somewhere to rest can be quite useful. But an 8th level spell (your only one) is a high price to pay for some safety during a short rest.
• Dominate monster (5/5) – Powerful if you can get a monster unawares with this. You should regularly be able to use this by sneaking before a combat, casting it and catching the creature unawares, and now it will help with your combat. It can work on some really tough creatures too.
• Holy star of Mystra (5/5) HoF – The bonus action damage here is considerably better than Elminster’s effulgent spheres. The added benefits of three quarters cover (which is a big buff against attack rolls) and the ability to deflect spells back on the caster is defensively, very comprehensive (even if only as a deterrent).
• Incendiary cloud (4/5) – Sort of like a lingering, more powerful fireball that is hard to see through. If you can get enemies to keep getting caught by the cloud’s effects, it can be really powerful. Consider having allies push enemies into it or use grappling and restraining spells to keep them in its area. It’ll take work and coordination to make the most of this spell though, meaning it might also only be really effective on the first turn.
• Maze (5/5) – This works for one round automatically and on subsequent turns, requires a difficult ability check using intelligence, which is rarely strong for creatures (and a low intelligence creature will never escape). This is an excellent way to bypass a creature’s legendary resistance. Just be aware that anything with a 10 or higher intelligence will eventually escape.
• Mind blank (2/5) – This feels like a spell specifically designed for tackling mind flayers and similar psychic beings. The usefulness is obvious for those braving a mind flayer hive, but at other times, the scope of this spell is just too small making it too situational to be worth one of your permanently prepared spells unless you happen to be taking a trip to Bluetspur (domain of a mad elder brain).
• Power word stun (1/5) – I struggle to understand why you wouldn’t just cast hold person or hold monster. They don’t even have hit point restrictions and can be upcast to affect more creatures. The only advantage this has is that it will at least reduce speed to 0 for a turn on a fail and works automatically on most creatures, but that’s almost nothing at the cost of a level 8 spell! Especially when your spell save DC should be quite strong.
• Sunburst (4/5) – Not as high damage as incendiary cloud and not long lasting either, but the effects of blinded are much easier to inflict and make last. The radius is also much larger so you can catch more enemies in its effects.
• Telepathy (2/5) – Communicate with anyone just about anywhere on this plane if existence. Could often be useful, but it is a very high level spell slot for convenient talking to others when Rary’s telepathic bond will let you do that with more creatures at a time.

Level 9 spells

• Astral projection (2/5) – Like with plane shift, this is a very situational spell requiring a need to enter the astral plane making it hard to recommend when you get one level 9 spell choice.
• Blade of disaster 4/5) HoF – Average damage from this is only slightly less than power word kill per turn. Power word kill is automatic damage, but this is probably higher over 2 turns and almost certainly higher over 3+ turns. On top of that, it only requires bonus actions to use. This feels really devastating, especially if you can use it over multiple rounds.
• Foresight (5/5) – Turn an ally into something of an untouchable superhuman (that’s maybe a little dramatic, but they do become very hard to hit). At 8hrs and without concentration, this can be a highly effective buff.
• Gate (3/5) – If you like to initiate a bit of chaos, then this is a wonderful spell. Summon a powerful planar being and hope that they don’t crush you. A creative player and DM could have a lot of fun with this spell. A cruel DM might just bring you an irritated demon lord though…
• Imprisonment (2/5) – This one is somewhat impractical, but devastating if successful. The problem you’ll have is the beings worth casting this on likely have legendary resistance. Oh, and it takes a minute to cast so mostly occupies you during an entire combat encounter. Use it to really punish enemies you’ve already defeated. Banishment will be easier to use in actual combat.
• Meteor swarm (5/5) – An absolutely devastating AoE damage spells with high damage and 4 meteors should be enough destruction for most creatures!
• Power word kill (3/5) – High damage spell that hits automatically or completely kills the target. The difference in average damage dealt and actually killing something with 100 hit points is 22 so not massive, but without outright killing, this isn’t much better than disintegrate. If you can’t accurately work out how much HP the creature has left, it’ll still deal some decent damage, but not much more than a 6th level spell.
• Prismatic wall (5/5) – This is an extremely problematic control spell (for your enemies). Removing the wall is extremely challenging, as is getting through it, and even just being near it can give the blinded condition. On top of this, you and allies can pass through the wall without receiving harm, so you can just hop through, hit some enemies, then hop out again.
• Shapechange (5/5) – Very powerful shapeshifting ability letting you transform into almost any monsters (that you’ve seen). If nothing else, the extra hit points will be a big boost and note that you can alter the form you’ve shifted into. You can also continue to cast spells in your new form too. The spell is worded in a way that your temporary hit points become whatever are the new form’s hit points and because this spell lets you use a magic action to change form, this sounds like you can nearly deplete the temporary hit points in one form, change shape and gain a new set of temporary hit points from your new form. I’m not sure that’s intentional, and personally, I’d rule against it, but it seems to be what’s acceptable by the rules of the spell…
• Time stop (4/5) – Really interesting spell to setup lots of powerful effects. But there’s some big limitations as you can’t affect another creature otherwise the spell ends. I suppose the idea is that your final turn is spent casting a spell that can affect other creatures and previous spells are for buffs or setup. Something like delayed blast fireball could be quite useful here. The same with things like summons and defensive spells. There’s probably some utility here too, but it’s a hugely powerful spell to spend on anything too frivolous.
• True polymorph (5/5) – Grant the target a potential ton of hit points and give it the powers of a high challenge rating creature. Great for making someone super tanky. Alternatively, completely nullify an enemy by making them something harmless, but that’s less reliable.
• Weird (4/5) – You can deal a lot of damage with this just in the initial blast. Subsequent turns will lead to more damage, plus frightening enemies reduces their effectiveness.
• Wish (5/5) – The text literally says it’s “the mightiest spell a mortal can cast”. In its basic form, you can cast any spell of 8th level or lower without needing to meet other requirements. This includes the time taken to cast the spell. It just occurs. You can also upcast spells to 8th level too (as confirmed by Jeremy Crawford). To make this worth more than just upcasting a spell at 8th level though, you’ll want to cast a spell that normally requires expensive resources (like simulacrum), isn’t ordinarily available to you (like spirit guardians) or that would normally take longer than an action to cast (like symbol). There are other powerful effects you can cause with the wish spell too, but these come with risks, including a 33% chance you can never cast wish again and taking damage when casting spells until you take a long rest. So cast with care!

---

Do you have any favourite wizard spells? Or think I’ve been harsh on your favourite spell. Let me know in the comments below.

Spotlight on D&D 2024

All the latest updates on what’s changing with the 2024 rules revision.