Analysing and Comparing Divine Favor, Magic Weapon, Crusader’s Mantle and Elemental weapon

Which of these attack enhancing spells is best and how do they compare?

How do they work?

I’ll start by going over the rules of each spell so we know how they work and can see that in many ways, they’re quite comparable spells. I’ve used the 2024 versions of the spells (which tend to be a little better) and also shared how they differ from the 2014 versions if you’re still using those.

Divine favor

Level 1 Transmutation (Paladin)

Casting Time: Bonus Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute

Until the spell ends, your attacks with weapons deal an extra 1d4 Radiant damage on a hit.

p265 2024 Player’s Handbook

Changes from 2014: No longer requires concentration.

Magic weapon

Level 2 Transmutation (Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard)

Casting Time: Bonus Action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 hour

You touch a nonmagical weapon. Until the spell ends, that weapon becomes a magic weapon with a +1 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls. The spell ends early if you cast it again.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The bonus increases to +2 with a level 3–5 spell slot. The bonus increases to +3 with a level 6+ spell slot.

p295 2024 Player’s Handbook

Changes from 2014: This no longer requires concentration, but it can still only be cast on one weapon at time. When upcasting, you can access an enhanced version with a level 3 spell slot rather than a level 4 spell slot.

Elemental weapon

Level 3 Transmutation (Druid, Paladin, Ranger)

Casting Time: Action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

A nonmagical weapon you touch becomes a magic weapon. Choose one of the following damage types: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder. For the duration, the weapon has a +1 bonus to attack rolls and deals an extra 1d4 damage of the chosen type when it hits.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. If you use a level 5–6 spell slot, the bonus to attack rolls increases to +2, and the extra damage increases to 2d4. If you use a level 7+ spell slot, the bonus increases to +3, and the extra damage increases to 3d4.

p268 2024 Player’s Handbook

Changes from 2014: None

Crusader’s mantle

Level 3 Evocation (Paladin)

Casting Time Action
Range: Self
Components: V
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

You radiate a magical aura in a 30-foot Emanation. While in the aura, you and your allies each deal an extra 1d4 Radiant damage when hitting with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike.

p259 2024 Player’s Handbook

Changes from 2014: This now works with unarmed strikes too.

Comparing attack enhancement spells

It’s important to note that each of these spells is different even though there are some similar effects so a direct comparison is tricky. Still, it is possible. I’ll be using divine smite as a baseline for extra damage too. It’s a single hit damage dealer rather than one that lasts multiple rounds so I’ll factor this into my calculations. These are the assumptions I’ve made for my calculations:

• Where a spell lasts a minute, I assume it needs to be cast in combat. Where it lasts an hour, I assume you cast it ahead of combat.
• Some of these spells affect attack rolls making you more likely to hit. For this reason, I’ve also baked in the chances of hitting with an attack to average damage. I’ve averaged this out at 65%. Every +1 to hit increases this by 5%.
• For crusader’s mantle, I’ll work under the assumption that you’ll only cast it when allies can benefit from it too (and that you’re a paladin). I’ll use 3 numbers to calculate this based on a typical party. The first assumes it also affects a fighter, the 2nd adds a rogue into the mix and the 3rd adds a ranger in too. Obviously the actual numbers will depend on your party composition.
• I’ve usually assumed all of these spells are a paladin casting them on themself, but I have accounted for magic weapon being cast before level 5 by a sorcerer or wizard.
• I’m assuming a 4 round combat. A shorter combat will mean these spells have less impact. A longer one will lead to a higher impact.
• In brackets (where applicable) I’ve also included average damage when you upcast these spells using a 3rd and a 6th level spell (assuming a friendly sorcerer might be able to cast the spell instead).

Spell	Spell level	Lv1-4	Lv5-10	Lv11
Divine favor	1	6.5	13	13
Magic weapon	2	2.8	5.6 (12)	5.6 (12/19.2)
Elemental weapon (concentration)	3	N/A	19.6	19.6 (42)
Crusader’s mantle (concentration)	3	N/A	22.8 /29.3/42.3	29.3/35.8/48.8

Challenges

There are a couple of issues with making comparisons like the above:

1. Different spell slots used means different levels of resources are being used.
2. Some of these spells require concentration while others don’t making some of them more problematic when interacting with other spells. Spells that require concentration are also prone to being stopped by a loss of concentration.
3. This only calculates extra damage caused from the spell, however, magic weapon and elemental weapon also increase the odds of a hit, meaning their actual impact is bigger than is shown here.

Establishing a baseline

To establish a baseline of extra damage, I’m going to show average damage from casting divine smite at different levels too:

1. 9
2. 13.5
3. 18
4. 22.5
5. 27

What’s really noticeable here is that when your character only gets 1 attack per round, divine smite is going to out perform something like divine favor for damage (and they’re both about pure damage). This remains the case when you factor in a fairly decent length combat of 4 rounds. However, it’s outperformed as a 1st level spell once you get an extra attack.

Divine smite remains strong for high impact damage dealing, but over the long-run, it tends to be outperformed once extra attack kicks in. But there’s also no reason why you can’t use both (as long as you have the spell slots).

Making the most of these spells

There are a few ways to up the damage output of these spells:

• Use a nick weapon: A nick weapon will let you make an additional attack which can magnify the damage output of these spells. This is really only the case for divine favor and crusader’s mantle though.
• Dual wielding will help too: And just general dual wielding will help too. Be aware though that for you personally, your bonus action may be tied to some of these spells or things smites making this a challenging tactic.
• You can just have more attacks though: Alternatively, use these spells on something like a fighter or a monk for even more enhanced attacks. A level 1 paladin/level 11 fighter will get 3 attacks with divine favor, and the rest of these spells don’t have to affect the caster (or at least only the caster) so could be cast on/for a fighter or monk.
• More allies for crusader’s mantle: Pack as many allies as you can into the aura for crusader’s mantle to really maximise the damage output.
• A lack of concentration saves this for something else: Divine favor and magic weapon don’t require concentration. This allows you to focus concentration on something else.
• Mix and match: Because of this, you can in theory have divine favor, magic weapon and crusader’s mantle all active at the same time which could be nasty, but does require a bit of setup.

Which spell is best?

That’s a little tricky to answer and it sort of depends.

• Crusader’s mantle is best for a large number of martial allies.
• Divine favor is great for someone with plenty of attacks.
• Divine favor and magic weapon will be best if you expect to need your concentration on another spell.
• Elemental weapon will do more damage than divine favor and magic weapon (but does require a higher level spell slot and concentration).
• Go for magic weapon or elemental weapon if you want to increase your general accuracy.
• They’re also great for casting ahead of combat too if you need to preserve your action economy.

---

Which of these attack enhancement spells do you like to use? And which do you think is best? 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.