Why Spellfire Spark is a New Top Tier Origin Feat for D&D 2024

One of the best origin feats from Heroes of Faerun.

How spellfire adept works

You get 3 benefits from spellfire spark:

• Reduce damage from spells and magical effects by 1d4 once per turn.
• You learn the sacred flame cantrip.
• You can cast sacred flame as a bonus action a few times per long rest.

Why is spellfire spark so good?

Reduced damage

The damage reduction is a solid start. A lot of damage is magical in nature or spells so this covers quite a few creature attacks. The per turn aspect means you can get this benefit once on each creatures turn (not just once per round). It’s small, but over time can be a solid defensive buff.

Bonus action damage

Sacred flame is a perfectly decent cantrip, but isn’t anything special. However, what we’re really after is the bonus action attack. This is equivalent to using a sorcerer’s quickened spell metamagic. It means you can make an additional attack on a turn while still being able to use your action for a levelled spells or another cantrip.

On top of this, it’s an origin feat that scales a lot with your level (perhaps more than any other origin feat). This is because not only do you get more uses as your proficiency bonus increases, but cantrips also scale in damage as you gain levels.

At level 1, you’ll deal an extra d8 damage twice per long rest but by level 5, this is 2d8 3 times per long rest. Eventually, you’ll be dealing 4d8 damage 6 times per long rest.

Good option for heavily armored enemies

Some enemies are tough to hit with attack rolls but may be easier to damage with saving throws. Sacred flame invokes a saving throw so makes a good option when you need to deal with heavily armoured enemies.

Better than metamagic adept

Metamagic adept is a pretty decent feat from the 2014 rules. It’s not been updated for D&D 2024 yet, but is still useable with the new rules. However, spellfire spark is more potent than this general feat. That’s because metamagic adept will let you use quickened spell for 2 sorcery points (your maximum number of sorcery points). This has a similar effect as spellfire spark’s bonus action casting of sacred flame. It will let you cast a spell that requires an action, using your bonus action allowing 2 action spells in a turn (but one would have to be a cantrip) or using your action for another use. But this is just once per long rest.

Spellfire spark is admittedly less flexible (metamagic adept will give you more choice of spells and another metamagic options), but it can be used in this way more often and has additional benefits too making this a decent bit more powerful.

Is it worth taking spellfire adept?

Spellfire spark actually has a partner feat called spellfire adept which you can take as a general feat. You need spellfire spark to take spellfire adept.

It gives you 2 benefits:

• Spend up to 2 hit dice to add to a damage roll of a spell that deals radiant damage.
• Ignore resistance to radiant damage.

Ignoring resistance to radiant damage likely won’t be very impactful. Not many creatures are resistant to radiant damage unless you happen to be battling celestials a lot (hardly the most common enemy in the game).

The other benefit probably shouldn’t be used with sacred flame. It’s much better used for AoE spells as it multiplies the extra damage per creature hit.

This makes spellfire adept a bit more niche. It’s worth taking if you have AoE radiant spells you can use a decent bit. It’s OK used with sacred flame, but really isn’t making the most of the feat.

What builds work best for spellfire spark?

Really, you’re looking at spellcasters and builds that aren’t already using their bonus action a lot. You’ll need a good spellcasting ability to make the most of the cantrip and if your bonus action is under heavy demand, then you won’t be gaining anything from having another use for it.

This immediately rules out barbarians (can’t cast spells while raging and have poor spellcasting abilities), rogues (bonus action under heavy demand), monks (flurry of blows occupies your bonus action for extra damage) and fighters (poor spellcasting ability). We can also rule out things like battle smiths and artillerists who already use their bonus action most turns for steel defender and eldritch cannon damage. Dual wielders may not want to bother either if they’re using their bonus action for weapon attacks.

Where it does work is for most spellcasters. You won’t be using sacred flame every turn so a bard can still intermingle sacred flame with bardic inspiration, for example.

I’d perhaps argue that your best options are melee spellcasters like paladins (you won’t be using smites every turn), rangers, bladelocks (warlocks using pact of the blade), some bard builds, bladesingers, armorers and clerics that like to use spirit guardians. This is because these builds are more likely to be the target of attacks, thus getting greater benefit from the increased resilience.

Is spellfire spark a top tier origin feat?

I think so, at least for a lot of spellcaster builds. It’s one I can see a lot of spellcasters struggling to ignore. It gives some decent resilience, but also a decent damage boost too.

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