Grim Hollow Spell Guide for D&D 2024

How good are the spells from the Grim Hollow Player’s Handbook and which should you choose?

Sangromancy

Before I dive into the spells themselves, it’s worth being aware of how Sangromancy works. This is blood magic and it’s fuelled by your hit dice as well as spell slots. In fact, you can only cast a Sangromancy spells if you also expend a number of hit dice equal to the spell’s level. This obviously means you’re less able to heal yourself during a short rest, but it does mean that often these spells are a bit more powerful too.

Often, your hit dice will be used as part of the spell (to determine damage for example). This means that the higher your hit dice, the better your roll.

Some subclasses specialise in Sangromancy. Some of these subclasses even receive Sangromancy dice to expend in place of hit dice. These dice are sometimes bigger than their hit dice too. These subclasses include:

• Circle of blood druid
• Sanguine thief rogue
• Sangromancer wizard

If you want to be using Sangromancy, I’ve highlighted in red all the Sangromancy spells in my analysis below.

Cantrips

• Calling card (1/5) – Leave a mark on a corpse. I think the practical uses of this are extremely limited and mostly, it seems like the kind of thing a mass murderer might do to mark their victims. If that’s what you want to do, this is for you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother.
• Frightful start (3/5) – Frightening 1 creature for a round is decent if the odds of success are high. It’s an alright debuff and decent enough as a damage dealing alternative.
• Holy word (2/5) – OK damage dealing cantrips that’s elevated against fey, fiends and undead. These aren’t uncommon creatures, but it will depend on your campaign. This could easily end up wasted if these creatures don’t show up, but good if you encounter them a lot. It’s maybe the kind of thing you can grab if you have cantrips to spare.
• Hunter sense (3/5) – Easily spammed whenever you’re doing some scouting. You’ll either need to be the party scout, or with the party scout. That’s something druids can be decent at anyway so not generally a problem. It probably won’t work for sudden perception checks you aren’t anticipating though and it does require verbal components, so practically speaking, you may alert others to your presence by using this so be aware of that.
• Illusory instrument (3/5) – If you’re cunning, this could be quite useful. Use it to secretly record conversations for incriminating evidence, and then play that back or make sounds as a distraction. There are some limitations like how close you need to be to the instrument (which makes it harder to distract). I’m also not sure if a recorded sound could be repeated with a new casting of the instrument. I’d rule yes, but if your DM says no, it becomes harder to use this for recordings…
• Preserve (1/5) – Only useful in a super realistic, survival type game that I don’t think most players bother with.

Level 1 spells

• Arcane aegis (5/5) – On average, this is a fair bit better than the most comparable healing spell in false life (average 9 temporary hit points Vs the 11 from this). False life is a little more reliable in terms of how many hit points you gain, but it also doesn’t cause damage on enemies. It also does equal the damage of inflict wounds and damages automatically. You can’t choose who is hit, but this is basically better than 2 level 1 spells rolled into 1 making it an excellent use of your resources. It also scales considerably better than either of these spells too making it an excellent upcast. It’s perhaps too powerful in my opinion and should have been a level 2 spell with 1d10 added for upcasting.
• Assisted aim (3/5) – +1 to attack rolls for 3 creatures is quite good with no concentration required. The only downfall is they must be wielding ranged weapons. I think this party composition will be rare as most ranged characters are going to be dishing out spells and most weapon wielders will be in melee. Still, if your spellcasters grab true strike, they can use this +1 for those weapon attacks.
• Binding pledge (2/5) – Bind someone to ensure they perform their commitment. It’s an interesting one and I can see some practical uses, but it’s definitely situational. You’ll need someone willing to help and willing to be bound to their word by magic. Think this ends up in the situationally useful pile.
• Bloodbane rune (2/5) – This is only useful against undead and can only really be prepared ahead of combat when upcast. It also will require an action to setup if you don’t upcast. Still an extra d8+ (usually) to your weapon attacks is decent, but if you are a cleric, there’s a good chance weapon attacks aren’t your best form of attack even with this in place. I’d say this can be good of you build around it, otherwise, it’s quite situational.
• Blood rush (4/5) – This is better healing than healing word, even though both use a bonus action and a level 1 spell slot. The drawback here is it can only be cast on yourself and it requires hit dice. At higher spell slots, it doesn’t say you increase the healing, just the number of hit dice, but I assume you roll that hit die twice the number of extra spells slots you use. If you want to be a selfish healer, this is better than healing word, but unlike healing word, is no good for helping those that have been dropped to 0HP.
• Boil blood (2/5) – Cause damage, but heal from the poisoned condition. I think the trade off is fine, but ironically means that worse hit dice are better here. If you’re a Sangromancer for instance, you might want to use your hit dice instead of your more powerful Sangromancy dice, for example. You’ll need a level 2 spell in protection from poison or lesser restoration to tackle the poisoned condition without dealing damage. I guess this is useful when level 2 spell slots are precious or you don’t have level 2 spell slots, but at those early levels, the damage could feel quite substantial. I’d probably hold out for lesser restoration but I guess this is serviceable if you don’t have that.
• Consumption (2/5) – Depending on your hit dice, this will take about 3 turns to equal the damage of inflict wounds. The initial damage is automatic, but if it fails in future, it stops dealing the damage. For me, this is less reliable than inflict wounds and takes longer to deal the damage so will usually be worse. It also consumes your concentration on a fairly weak spell. It is just a bonus action to cast though so you can use this and a cantrip. I’d just grab inflict wounds or another damage dealing spell rather than this though.
• Creeping touch (3/5) – A decent enough spell for scouting. Normally, find familiar would be better, but this will allow you to use the hand/spider’s senses which is an advantage. It does leave you without a hand temporarily which could be a problem.
• Crimson lash (4/5) – Really good option for weapon wielders. Reduce hit point maximum, gain reach, bypass damage resistances, attack with your spellcasting ability and at higher levels, get more attacks. This opens up some really interesting options and makes for quite a versatile weapon, especially if your hit point dice or Sangromancy dice are quite high.
• Ghost light (3/5) – This could be really useful for parties lacking in darkvision. The fact that no one else perceives this light is very useful for staying discreet.
• Intaglio (1/5) – I think the use cases for this are very situational. I don’t see this being used much at all.
• Neutralize aura (1/5) – In a few stealth situations, this could be great, but it’s very situational as it relies on needing to sneak past a select few creature types and only needing one character to be doing this. Fun if used, it just probably won’t get used.
• Shroud blood (4/5) – Great for stealth and for things like rogues to hide and keeping going invisible during combat. With the right party/character, this can be really powerful.
• Somnolence (2/5) – I think my issue with this is if you manage to exceed their current hit points, the average roll isn’t likely to exceed the damage you’d deal from something like inflict wounds by a huge amount. At this point, you might as well just try and kill the creature. If you want to incapacitate a higher hit point creature, then the sleep spell is a good option.
• Thorn armor (5/5) – A slightly lesser version of arcane aegis, but that’s already a really good spell. Its piercing damage type is more easily resisted than arcane aegis’ force damage. It also averages a slightly lower roll and upcasting it has a lesser impact too. Having said that, it’s still the rough equivalent of combining inflict wounds and false life into a single spell, which still makes this really good, just not quite as good as arcane aegis.
• Tremor (4/5) – Decent if you want to knock lots of creatures prone and don’t mind getting in the middle of enemies. You’ll get lots of chances to make this happen too.
• Vampiric claws (2/5) – This is unlikely to do more damage than more conventional methods of attacking. The appeal is going to be those temporary hit points. This will never be more than 5 at a time though and it will occupy your concentration. I’m not sure the extra resilience you’ll gain is enough for the weaker attacks and more vulnerable position this places you in.
• Vibrating humors (1/5) – I’m not convinced that preventing stealth on enemies is regularly very important unless they keep hiding in combat, which is rare. The damage isn’t high enough to justify this so I’d give it a miss.

Level 2 spells

• Bloat (4/5) – The damage is alright and the debuff is quite good. Be aware that ranged enemies may have less of a problem with this, but still a fun and useful spell.
• Bloodletter (4/5) – It takes about 2-3 turns for this to achieve the damage levels of inflict wounds upcast to level 2. However, this only requires a bonus action so the damage capabilities here are greater as you’ll get weapon attacks too. The main downside is it will consume your concentration. That’s probably alright for some or if you only have level 2 spells available, but it’ll conflict with something like spirit guardians or hunter’s mark.
• Blood wisp (2/5) – This isn’t going to result in a huge amount of extra damage at the cost of a 2nd level spell slot. It also gets a tad complicated to be tracking too. I’m not convinced this is worth it, even though you can prepare ahead.
• Dazing blast (4/5) – The stunned condition is great, even for just the one turn. There’s a bit of damage there too. Well worth the action and the spell slot.
• Enspelled armament (2/5) – A better damage type and the option of weapons you wouldn’t normally be able to use (like a heavy crossbow or greatsword). There’s a short period before level 5 when this will outperform your other weapon attacks (especially as you can use your spellcasting modifier). From level 5 onwards though, there are cantrips that will be able to outperform this spell. Not sure it’s worth the level 2 spell slot.
• Fiend flesh (4/5) – Quite a lot of resistances here (and a couple of really common ones in fire and poison) and it can be cast ahead of combat. This could often be worth the concentration and spell slot required, especially if you know what kinds of enemies you’ll face and the damage they’ll deal.
• Life tether (4/5) – Either a great way to discourage being the target of attacks, or to ensure that attacks hurt your enemies too. Just be aware that every hit you take has the chance of ending the spell early.
• Overgrow (2/5) – I don’t think easier traversal of huge or smaller objects is really worth the spell slot, but restraining creatures is. Hold person has more substantial effects, but only affects humanoids, this will affect most creatures, but your target can still do some things. I don’t think upcasting is usually worth it. Things like hypnotic pattern at level 3 can easily affect more creatures in a more profound way.
• Sanguine shield (2/5) – This is basically +2 AC but you can’t benefit from cover from other sources and you get up to 15 temporary hit points, but only if you can get near 3+ injured enemies. To me, it feels inferior to shield of faith in most ways. Shield of faith only requires a level 1 spell slot, a bonus action, lasts the whole period of time and can be cast without needing external factors in your favour. The only advantage of sanguine shield over this is the temporary hit points of 15 or less. I’d just grab shield of faith (magic initiate can grab you it if your class doesn’t grant it).
• Seal spellcasting (3/5) – I can see this being very frustrating for enemy spellcasters. It has a decent chance of nullifying them for a turn. Of course, hold person, Tasha’s hideous laughter or sleep could accomplish this for more turns. Where this has a bit of an advantage is it costs the spellcaster a spell slot and causes damage even if it fails. Of course, expending spell slots could be overcome by casting a cantrip or for creatures, spells that can be case at will.
• Sense lifeblood (3/5) – So the damage here is better than what you get for divine favor or elemental weapon which are the most comparable options. However, their extra damage lands on each hit, not just once per turn. The damage remains lower, but this relies on creatures being bloodied too. At least you know which creatures are bloodied. This does also work with unarmed strikes and spells which is handy for a spellcaster. Basically, your mileage here will depend on how much you can target bloodied creatures. Great if you can, but underwhelming if that will be rare.
• Summon plant (3/5) – Pretty similar to summon beast in power. This gives more HP when upcast and you get a more defensive oaken option that’s good for protection. Thorny is more aggressive with their reaction attacks but beasts tend to have better traversal with flight or swim speeds. Decent enough summon for the level.
• Theft of vitae (5/5) – This will likely outperform something like inflict wounds for damage and equal aid for temporary hit points. That means that at the cost of a reaction, you’re probably accomplishing more damage and temporary hit points than a level 1 and 2 spell combined which would have required 2 actions to cast. Really great action and spell slot economy here. Even better if you have high hit or Sangromancy dice.
• Wilting smite (3/5) – Slightly less average damage than blinding smite. I’d also say that blinding smite is more regularly useful, but this has its place against creatures with lots of resistances that are hard to bypass. I’d prefer blinding smite as an equivalent level 2 smite, but this is a good option to have in your back pocket.
• Wrack (2/5) – Not necessarily bad, but you have better effects at level 1 in my opinion in things like Tasha’s hideous laughter and sleep so I wouldn’t bother with this.

Level 3 spells

• Blood bond (4/5) – Telepathy is decent for keeping in touch with a scout, and the range of this is basically infinite (which is quite good at this level). On top of this, you grant some temporary hit points and you can apply spells to the linked creature. This means the likes of cure wounds and invisibility are easy to apply to your distant scout if needed. There could be some other interesting uses, especially as self spells aren’t usually able to be applied to another (you could give an ally mirror image for example).
• Call the rabid beast (2/5) – This could be interesting, but ordinarily, I’m not sure it will justify the 3rd level spell slot. Still, you could apply it to a familiar or a summoned creature and if you can, cause chaos among others by unleashing it in their midst. It’s potentially good and really fun, but probably not reliably a good spell.
• Conjure plants (2/5) – This is a worse version of conjure animals. The damage is lower, the range from the conjuration is smaller and the additional effect isn’t that great, especially in combat unless you’re maybe combining this with hiding which I think is a lot of effort.
• Elemental exhalation (4/5) – This is weaker than fireball by 3d6, but with an adaptive damage type and an extra effect (including a possible 2d6 of fire damage). You will need to be nearer the targets as it’s a cone which is less ideal for most spellcasters. Still a good and flexible AoE spell.
• Emmeline’s essence infusion (4/5) – This is only available for wizards and it seems you can’t just gift it to someone else to make infinite magic weapons. 1d6 is a good buff for a weapon though, but you’d probably need to be either a bladesinger or be using true strike a lot to get the benefits as well as maybe a few other niche builds. True strike is a common enough tactic though to make this worthwhile, especially as it’s a once and done spell that will last pretty much as long as you need it. The wording is a little odd as it implies any weapon attack benefits from the extra damage, but I assume it’s just attacks with this weapon. I also think it’s odd that fiend requires a bonus action to change damage type when other effects don’t require that.
• Extract iron (3/5) – There’s potentially a lot of utility to be had here. It does maybe suffer from the what can you reasonably create issue that spells like this have. For instance, can you fashion the specific key needed for the lock in front of you. I’d probably rule not unless you had a version to duplicate, but it’s definitely open to interpretation.
• Flash fever (2/5) – On a failed save, this is at least 10d6 damage, but over 4 turns (and potentially more). I’d prefer fireball in general which only needs to hit 2 creatures to beat this damage by a fair bit. It’s also more instantaneous and deals half damage on a successful save.
• Maelfa’s quickened class (5/5) – A really interesting one. Wizards often don’t have the most useful skills for a party to possess, but maybe you can build around this. Where it gets more interesting is by sharing a spell you know. Imagine giving fireball to your paladin and ranger. Of course, they’ll need 3rd level spell slots to cast these spells, but you could be having a devastating first round of combat with the party all blasting fireballs before charging in. There is an issue with the upcasting. The levels 3-4 at 30 days is a conflict as at level 3 it already has a 24hr duration. I’d just exclude that tier of upcasting. When you do that, it all makes sense. Once you have level 5 spell slots, you might as well use one of those for this and just get the effects for longer and you don’t need to have expended a spell slot for this on the days you actually go adventuring.
• Mirror spell 5/5) – This is basically the opportunity to cast a spell as a reaction, kind of doubling your spellcasting output for the turn which is fantastic! You are reliant on what other spellcasters cast and I think the fact this can only be cast in reaction to a creature spell means you can’t just keep copying your allies’ spells.
• Reanimate (4/5) – Basically a better revivify. Temporary hit points, and a boost to d20 tests but you will get a level of exhaustion when all of this is done. Generally just a great spell for dealing with death with mostly some added bonuses too.
• Sanguine poppet (3/5) – So this is basically a familiar that’s more temporary that you can blow up. This can be useful for scouting and distractions. The damage isn’t huge at this level. I think I prefer just using a level 1 spell slot for a familiar, but this can be an interesting, albeit expensive (on spell slots) alternative.
• Serpent tongue (5/5) – I quite like this. Bonus actions can often go underutilised by spellcasters, especially when they’re using levelled spells with their action. This gives you some alright damage and you can spread the poisoned condition around multiple enemies. There’s no subsequent saving throws too so enemies are poisoned for the encounter. It doesn’t take concentration either. I think this is a really good option.
• Suffocate (1/5) – While restrained is decent, this takes way too long to have the desired impact. Just use hypnotic pattern if you want to incapacitate creatures.
• Summon sea spirit (2/5) – I think I prefer summon plant. This is better if you need something that can fly or swim, otherwise, I’d go for the oaken plant for more HP and defensive reactions.

Level 4 spells

• Circle of scarlet (5/5) – There’s a real potential to gain some mega temporary hit points from this. The area is large enough for several creatures to be hit. The damage isn’t going to be huge, but really, this is for crowd and minion managing so you can maximise those temporary hit points.
• Consume mind (4/5) – An interesting and gruesome form of information gathering. It’s more flexible and has less limitations than speak with dead so the level 4 spell slot makes sense. I like the mechanics behind it, but many characters may struggle with the morals of consuming a brain.
• Dark sacrament (6/5) – Only one of these dark blessings has an end, meaning 2 of them are potentially permanent buffs. This is extremely good, and all you need to do is use this on a low HP enemy (or sacrifice an NPC) to ensure you kill them and gain the blessing. Extra radiant damage will rarely be an issue, but advantage on all saving throws, a few temporary hit points each turn always and extra damage are all extremely good. In fact, I’d consider them brokenly good. I wouldn’t allow this spell in my games unless these other blessings were given a time limit.
• Primordial power (5/5) – Really flexible buff. The easiest comparison is with the fly spell at level 3. This will give someone flight (which is really good) and a pair of resistances so just with that, is worth the level 4 spell slot. The flexibility of the spell elevates it further. Fire is great on a martial to help them land more attacks while coldfire allows for some handy healing, though it’s only good on characters that don’t use their bonus action a lot (like a fighter).
• Ride the lightning (2/5) – Half the damage of lightning bolt and nearly half the distance, but with a higher spell slot. You get to teleport afterwards, but basically with the restriction of needing this along a line of enemies. Lightning bolt was already hard to get enemies lined up in the right way, this adds another complication. It’s only situationally useful and too weak at this level as a reliable source of damage.
• Shared judgement (2/5) – Great if you happen to be facing undead. In fact, ridiculously good against undead hordes! A whole minute of free 5d6 damage each time you kill an undead at the cost of a bonus action can get out of control. But the circumstances have to be perfect. You’ll need to be facing undead and ideally, plenty of minions for you to kill. This ends up being quite a rare set of circumstances that it’s hard to recommend this spell.
• Supernal smite (4/5) – Really great against spellcasters for automatic concentration failures and removing other spells effects. Only average against other creatures. The equivalent smite is staggering smite (also a level 4 spell). They deal the same amount of damage, but staggering smite will stun, which is more universally useful, but spellcasters can be a real headache to handle!
• Vicious sheath (6/5) – This occurs whenever you are hit by a melee attack within 5ft of you. If you’ve built a melee warlock for example, this could be a huge load of attacks against you. And that’ll be 7d8 from each attack for at least a whole encounter with no concentration required (you can even cast ahead of combat). Add to this the fact that you can make weapons stick to you and this is a hugely powerful spell! It does cost 7 hit dice which is a high price to pay, but well worth it and I think this is perhaps too good for my liking and I would ban this from my table.

Level 5 spells

• Greater animate dead (5/5) – There’s no specification on what creatures can be reanimated from these corpses. Just that they must be undead and CR2 or lower. This means 5 ogre zombies is a very real option (though your GM might rule this is ridiculous if the creatures weren’t ogres in life, and that would seem sensible). It’s not that deadly, but it’s a whole big bag of hit points x5. Ghasts will be better if you want to be dealing damage (and will likely meet less resistance from your DM). Will O’ wisps are also an option and can be nasty little fellows. I think this ends up being quite powerful, especially as it doesn’t require concentration like other minion producing spells do (like summon spells).
• Incite riot (5/5) – Great spell ahead of combat, harder to make work in it, but you basically turn an enemy against their allies. Low wisdom enemies won’t matter as much if they get advantage, but high wisdom creatures may be more likely to succeed.
• Investiture of venom (3/5) – This is cheap on spell slots if you want some decent action damage. Unfortunately, a ranger will probably do more damage than this with their attacks unless you can keep hitting multiple creatures with this. That may not be too easy without moving around a fair bit, and you’ll need to stay in close range too. There’s some resilience benefits here too. It’s a tricky one to wrangle, but potentially decent.
• Little death (4/5) – A really interesting spell that I think is mostly for scouting rather than combat (though ghosts can possess creatures which has some really interesting opportunities too). You’ll need to make sure your body is protected, but possessing guards or cult leaders could be really fun…
• Magic mirror (5/5) – Really great way to dodge a spell and potentially divert the effects onto an enemy. Keep in mind a few things though. You must be the target, so AoE spells won’t count as they don’t target you specifically. You should also be aware that the effects on an enemy may not be as problematic for them. For example, if a spell would have charmed you, an enemy spellcaster charming their ally will just mean they remain friends. Still, it’s excellent against many spells and a really fun way to foil your enemies.
• Mortality (3/5) – Only useful against 5 creature types, but they are 5 of the more common creature types. The HP reduction is solid (probably 5d6/8, but sangromancers can make it 5d12). The extra damage and resistance removals can be really helpful and are going to work best against really tough creatures where you’ll be focusing fire. The trouble here is many such creatures may possess legendary resistances so be aware of this. I’d say this goes under the umbrella of situationally, very useful, but how often it will be useful is difficult to judge.
• Spirit swarm (3/5) – Decent damage and the frightened condition doesn’t have repeat saves so has more reliable effects. Generally, I think you’ll get more from AoE spells if you’re going to need to maintain concentration. Fear or hypnotic pattern will be a better use of your concentration, even if they don’t also cause damage.
• Splattering smite (5/5) – 5d10 healing each turn at the cost of a single reaction and your concentration is pretty huge. You should be hitting someone each turn with the only wrinkle being the concentration you’ll need to maintain. Enemies will want to break that concentration badly. It doesn’t get in the way of your actions or bonus actions either making this really easy to use. Personally, I think the healing is too high and easily used and think this strays into the realms of being a broken spell.

Level 6 spells

• Blood tide (3/5) – If you’ve got d8 hit dice, this is about as powerful as a lightning bolt. If you’ve got d6s, it’s less. The Sangromancer will be using d12s which will do better. The advantage here is the line is wider and will knock creatures prone. Lightning bolt is often a bit tricky to get creatures lined up properly for. This will be a bit easier, but at the cost of 6 hit dice and a level 6 spell.
• Chains of Beleth (5/5) – Fireball level damage, but with the restrained condition over time and extra damage for those restrained make this a really strong spell, even at 3 spell levels higher.
• Crown of radiance (3/5) – Aura damage to fiends, fey and undead. You can cast ahead of combat so action economy is preserved and there’s no actions to activate it making it free damage. Against plenty of these creature types, this is excellent, especially as there’s no concentration needed. However, you’ve actually got to encounter these creature types which is harder to anticipate and makes this a bit situational.
• Earth worm (3/5) – Really good if you can block entryways or get enemies in the right places to be attacked by this. But you can only move or attack with the earth worm each turn, not both, so you can spend a lot of effort chasing enemies around if you’re unlucky.
• Heartseeker (3/5) – Some potentially nasty effects with potential for multiple critical hits on a creature. You roll to hit so at least the initial damage can’t be prevented by legendary resistance, but the later saving throws can which could prevent any critical against the target. Still, a good option against high hit points enemies, especially if you have some strong Sangromancy dice.
• Melting curse (4/5) – Ok damage, but the effectiveness here depends largely on the DM. If the creature attempts to pick up the item (probably a weapon or armor) then you get the damage twice. You also remove the ability to use that item for a minute so a great way to great to get rid of some armor or the use of a weapon which could be very useful.
• Weave Numen (4/5) – Detecting magic isn’t that great at this level, but 13 of these threads is great. Cast it ahead of combat to basically enhance some spells or get free castings of counterspell. I’d say that upcasting is probably more valuable than enhancing damage or healing to one creature as that’s worth 4 damage or healing per thread, but an upcast fireball is +1d6 for all targets or an upcast cure wounds is 2d8 for example. The only use here is if you just want to use loads of threads at once and focus damage/healing.

Level 7 spells

• Arboreal curse (4/5) – If this works, the creature will be restrained for at least 3 turns and potentially much worse. Once petrified, they’re easy to just kill by chopping them down or burning them.
• Burst forth (2/5) – The equivalent here is finger of death which is 7d8+30. This is only 7d6/8 depending on your class. Even a Sangromancer will average less damage using their Sangromancy dice of D12. The only possible benefit is teleporting next to a creature, but most spellcasters probably don’t want to do this. But if you just want to burst from a creature in a shower of blood and guts, then don’t let me ruin your fun (though I question how anyone survives this ordeal other than gargantuan monsters)!
• Flesh crawl (4/5) – This is better damage than burst forth and there’s potential for follow on damage from your new fleshy pet. It’s equally as grotesque and it does require concentration, but you do get another sack of meat to absorb some attacks and grapple people. Its strangle attack is great against spellcasters too.
• Power word maim (3/5) – This works automatically, but a high HP enemy will likely disappoint with just reduced movement. Good if you know the creature is lower on HP or lacks a ranged attack.
• Sanguine fusilade (4/5) – Half the damage here is automatic and half requires spell attacks. You get a lot of chances to hit so chances are, some will hit. You can also spread or focus damage if you want so it’s fairly flexible. Chances are, it’ll do more damage than power word maim, but you might have to sacrifice quite a few hit dice for that.

Level 8 spells

• Creeping death (2/5) – This is just backwards damage dressed up as something better. You could do more damage with sanguine fusilade or finger of death at level 7 than the threshold you create here and have the creature closer to death. This sounds more impressive than it is and certainly isn’t worth the hit point dice you’ll have to expend. It does at least work automatically, but then, so does half of sanguine fusilade.
• Flense (2/5) – 8d6 damage each turn, but for only one spell slot. It’s not the best damage you can do with each action, but it’s kind on your spell slot economy making it a decent option for long adventuring days. Having said that, you’d be better off just upcasting moonbeam. That has an AoE, can target different creatures and would deal 8d10 damage cast at this level.
• Lifesink (3/5) – Great for melee spellcasters like war clerics or sea druids. Get in the middle of your enemies and deal damage while you heal. Of course, you could just upcast spirit guardians for 8d8 damage which is considerably more, but without the healing. On that premise, I think spirit guardians is better, though you may value the healing more if you’re wading through enemies.
• Red rain (1/5) – This just feels like a major hassle for a DM to deal with and I’m not sure the effects are really going to be that useful. At this level, you’re not going to be dealing much with beasts and plants, and if you do, they’ll probably be of minimal threat. I’d probably ban this one just because it’s so complex and annoyingly far reaching without being overly useful.
• Undead enthrallment (2/5) – Given the choice of animating 5 CR 2 creatures or 1 CR 3 creature, I’d go with the CR 2 creatures. This may be a higher spell slot, but I’m not sure it’s better than greater animate dead.
• Wall of gloom (5/5) – Great battlefield control spell that can incapacitate nearby enemies and exhaust them. You can even enclose enemies in an incapacitation area and prevent allies from being affected.

Level 9 spells

• Perfection (4/5) – You can kind of use this like power word heal in that it’ll heal all of a characters hit points and end a condition. There’s a bunch of extra conditions power word heal sorts out, but perfection gives you a flexible bunch of enhancements you can pick from including 4d6 healing or damage each turn, reactions to return damage on your aggressor and truesight. I’d say this is better than power word heal.
• Phoenix flames (3/5) – This is sort of a kamikaze strike of last resort. Blow yourself up when all else is hopeless and take down as many baddies as you can. You probably want to do this when you’re looking likely to die anyway. You’ll need to keep it away from your allies and hope they can handle whatever enemies you leave behind. At least for the 10 minutes before you’re resurrected.
• Steal immortality (4/5) – So this is an average of 81 temporary HP which is pretty massive. There’s some good resilience benefits for anyone and some optional benefits which last basically until you get knocked to 0HP, so if you can last a long time, it can be semi-permanent. I’d say fey is best. You can just keep activating invisibility for advantage on attacks and disadvantage on attacks against you.
• Wipe face (6/5) – Not only does this sound like a spell for a very bad cold, it’s also confusingly worded. It automatically works so can be used against creatures with legendary resistance to blind, incapacitate and suffocate them. They can take saving throws at the end of their turn to end the spell, but this is where it gets confusing. It says passing this ends the spell, but then says they only tear a breathing hole and then it gets sealed again on your turn so the spell isn’t ended… If that’s the case though, it means this only gets ended by breaking the caster’s concentration which is a horrendously powerful way to cheese big nasty combats against the BBEG. I think this is a bit broken to be honest and wouldn’t allow it at my table. Or at least I’d ensure that a successful saving throw does end the spell.

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Are the Grim Hollow spells any good?

I found that there’s a real mix of spells in Grim Hollow. This includes some really interesting and fun options to basically useless ones and even obscenely powerful ones. While they’re mostly reasonably well written, there are a few instances where I feel like the writing doesn’t make complete sense or where the spell needed more playtesting or reviewing.

For example, you have spells like dark sacrament that can easily allow you to pick up substantial, permanent buffs. There’s also spells like wipe face that can easily let you cheese the BBEG without even a saving throw to stop you. For spells like these, I felt like the design flaws were obvious and perhaps needed some toning down, even if the flavour is wickedly brilliant.

And yet, there are some really unique and interesting ideas in here. There’s spells like crimson lash which has some interesting options for martial casters or bloat, which is a wonderfully fun way to incapacitate enemies.

There’s also a bunch of spells that are so perverse, I don’t know how I can justify my characters ever using them, but they are unique and interesting all the same. Take consume mind for example, where you literally eat someone’s brain to attempt to recall their memories. Sick and twisted? Yes! Is your character likely to justify that? No. But mechanically, a really interesting and useful spell that Wizards of the Coast would never produce.

I think ultimately, I applaud Ghostfire Gaming for trying some really new things with their spell options. I think they’re a bit hit and miss and would outright ban some of them, but there are plenty of great options here and most are wonderfully flavourful.

But what do you think of Grim Hollow’s spells? Let me know in the comments below.

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