Analysing the Spells from Arcana Unleashed for D&D 2024 (5.5e)

Are the new spells for D&D 5.5e any good?

About the spells

Before I dive into the actual analysis, I’ve pieced together some details about the spells so it’s easy for you to find the information relevant for your character. Below are all the spells you can expect in Arcana Unleashed:

Spell	Level	School	Classes	Previous release
Battle familiar	2	Conjuration	Druid, warlock, wizard	New
Disruptive tune	2	Abjuration	Bard, sorcerer, wizard	New
Dueling ground	2	Abjuration	Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Uncertain footing	2	Illusion	Artificer, Bard, Warlock, Wizard	New
Wither and bloom	2	Necromancy	Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard	Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
Catnap	3	Enchantment	Artificer, Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard	Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Inflict doubt	3	Enchantment	Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Distorted distance	4	Illusion	Artificer, Bard, Warlock, Wizard	New
Festering blast	4	Necromancy	Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Zone of amicability	4	Enchantment	Bard, Warlock	New
Enervation	5	Necromancy	Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Grave ground	5	Necromancy	Cleric, Warlock, Wizard	New
Mordenkainen’s lucubration	5	Divination	Wizard	New
Negative energy flood	5	Necromancy	Warlock, Wizard	Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Spirit lantern	5	Necromancy	Artificer, Cleric, Warlock, Wizard	New
Summon plant	5	Conjuration	Druid, Ranger	New
Waves of exhaustion	5	Necromancy	Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Summon dinosaur	6	Conjuration	Druid	New
Aura of evasion	7	Abjuration	Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Fractured awareness	7	Divination	Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Power word pain	7	Enchantment	Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Reweave fate	7	Divination	Bard, Cleric, Warlock, Wizard	New
Transfix	7	Enchantment	Bard, Warlock, Wizard	New
Entrancing mirrors	8	Illusion	Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
illusory dragon	8	Illusion	Wizard	Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Iron body	8	Transmutation	Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Lightning ring	8	Evocation	Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Moment of prescience	8	Divination	Wizard	New
Detonate	9	Evocation	Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Hindsight	9	Divination	Wizard	New
Invulnerability	9	Abjuration	Wizard	Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Vision of elapsing eons	9	Illusion	Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New
Wail of the banshee	9	Necromancy	Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard	New

There are 33 spells in total with 7 returning spells and 26 brand new spells. The spells range from levels 2-9 with no spells for the lowest levels. Most of these levels get a handful of options, but there’s only 1 level 6 spell and 2 level 3 spells.

Wizards get the most love with 30 of these spells available to them (as would be expected from the masters of large spell lists). warlocks and sorcerers do well with 23 and 17 apiece. Half casters and clerics do worst with paladins only having 1 new spell, rangers with 2, clerics with 4 and artificers with 5.

Number of new spells by class

• Artificer – 5
• Bard – 13
• Cleric – 4
• Druid – 7
• Paladin – 1
• Ranger – 2
• Sorcerer – 17
• Warlock – 23
• Wizard – 30

All Arcana Unleashed spells

Level 2 spells

• Battle familiar (4/5) – This gives you a non-concentration summon that can actually deal something like decent damage. A solid ways to up your damage output each round. You can also grab familiar-specific feats from Arcana Unleashed that can enhance your familiar too. You also have subclasses like the necromancer who can enhance their familiars further. I think it’s best to add this on top of an existing familiar (find familiar is a ritual after all) for the increased hit points and a few other potential bonuses.
• Disruptive tune (2/5) – The initial effects could be very similar to just hitting them. However, the DC using this will likely be higher. Even with a relatively low spell save DC of 13, you’d need to deal 26 damage to equal this. Shatter, a 2nd level AoE spells isn’t going to get anywhere close to this and it’s half the size. So it’s good at imposing tough saves against concentration. I’d say it’d be rare to catch multiple spellcasters in the same area, but ending concentration can be really important. You could instead use hold person or hypnotic pattern. These will really restrict the spellcaster. There’s an argument for the fact that they’ll be worse at maintaining concentration too, but hypnotic pattern and hold person entirely prevent new spells being cast. I think this is difficult to justify when there are more profound ways to end concentration and it’s a bit more situational than other spells.
• Dueling ground (1/5) – This is designed entirely as a flavour spell and not one that has much practical use. Cool for magical duels without the high stakes of death, but how often this occurs is rare, and duels naturally lead to other players becoming spectators which isn’t as fun. Leave this one for NPCs.
• Uncertain footing (3/5) – Alright at this level and the intelligence saving throws are typically poor for most creatures. Slowing down melee creatures definitely has its uses so you can hurl attacks at them while they struggle to catch up to you.
• Wither and bloom (4/5) – Like shatter, this is a rare AoE damage dealer below level 3. Not only that, but the numbers stack up quite nicely. It’s also a rare healing spell for a wizard. It’s an average of 10.5 damage per target plus about 6.5-11.5 healing to one target depending on their hit dice and your spellcasting modifier. You can also choose who gets damaged so no friendly fire. Compare that to shatter with an average of 13.5 damage per target and no healing and I think this is pretty good.

Level 3 spells

• Catnap (2/5) – Badly need a short rest but don’t have an hour to take it, then this is the spell for you. It’s especially useful for party warlocks, classes with channel divinity and anything else that replenishes on a short rest. My main question though, is how often DMs will give time for a short rest of 10 minutes when they wouldn’t have given time for a rest of 1 hour? That’s a very DM and campaign dependant question that I can’t definitively answer for other tables, but I’m not convinced it’s that often… It’s also worse than prayer of healing which is a level 2 spell.
• Inflict doubt (2/5) – At first glance, it would seem that hold person or a similar save or suck spell would just be better. This is a single target spell that imposes disadvantage rather than completely nullifying the individual. But, other effects won’t cause the saving throw made to overcome them to be made with disadvantage. Does that justify this as a weaker, but more reliable, long term spell cast at a higher level? I’m not sure. I’d be more inclined to go after multiple targets with things like slow and hypnotic pattern and ensure the desired effect that way.

Level 4 spells

• Distorted distance (4/5) – This is a large radius effect that overcomes issues with friendly fire and even enemies just moving around the area by being so big. This lasts too and can even be cast ahead of combat if your enemies are coming at you. It’s also a buff for your allies and you can fairly easily control the battlefield with those slowed down enemies (at least the ones on foot).
• Festering blast (4/5) – A 1 minute duration that doesn’t require concentration is quite tempting. Lightning bolt is 40ft longer but half as wide. This has a bigger area overall and I’d argue, it’s easier to hit with because of the width. The initial damage of this averages at 22 while lightning bolt averages at 28, but this has persistent damage that quickly overtakes lightning bolt and causes the poisoned condition. I think this is better than lightning bolt.
• Zone of amicability (3/5) – Practically guaranteed successes for many face skills for a bard and even a warlock (so long as your face skills are quite high). This lasts 10 minutes so enough to prepare ahead of high stakes conversations, but anticipating those moments can be tough. A little situational perhaps, but I think this can be decent.

Level 5 spells

• Enervation (3/5) – The damage is alright and the healing makes this add up nicely in power levels. The tricky interaction here is keeping yourself and the target in range. The classes for this spell are typically the ones you want staying away from enemies and this really demands you stay quite close. Maybe better on a warlock than a sorcerer or wizard who are less resilient.
• Grave ground (4/5) – A little like synaptic static in that it damages and debuffs in an AoE. This has lower damage and I think the debuff isn’t as strong as synaptic static. It also requires concentration (synaptic static doesn’t). This also has a saving throw enemies are likely to be better at. However, the area is larger and more flexible and it persists. I think I still prefer synaptic static, but this can be good too.
• Mordenkainen’s lucubration (1/5) – Is a level 5 spells slot worth 2 level 2 spell slots? I’m not really convinced it is. I can do more with synaptic static than 2 shatters and it only takes 1 turn to deal all the damage. If we compare scorching ray, it deals exactly the same damage with 2 level 2 spell slots as it does with 1 level 3 spells slot. I guess by that math, it adds up, but I’d still rather deal the full damage quicker. I’m struggling to find a good use case for this.
• Negative energy flood (2/5) – Steel wind strike will average 33 damage per target (and there are up to 5 targets). This will deal an average of 41.5 damage against 1 target. This is more reliable damage and won’t teleport you next to one of the targets (which isn’t great for a wizard) but this still feels quite underpowered.
• Spirit lantern (2/5) – This is quite a slow burn when it comes to dealing damage. It’s also got a setup action and requires subsequent bonus actions. I’m not sure this is worth all the effort it takes to make use of it.
• Summon plant (3/5) – Overall, less good than summon dragon at the same level (though summon dragon is one of the better summon spells overall). Summon plant has worse AC, no flight or swim speed, worse ability scores, worse resistances and immunities, worse damage (when you include the dragon’s breath weapon as well) and a few other things too. Summon plant has a couple of unique things like causing poisoned or dash/disengage as a bonus action. It’s fine if this is the summon you have available, but there are better summon spells around.
• Waves of exhaustion (2/5) – This should be easy to keep creatures in its area as the area moves with you. However, This means getting close to enemies and away from allies. That means having allies 60ft+ away or being affected by this too. That’s too much distance when you’re not a tanky build. This also means using your action on the spell each turn. You can debuff a lot of creatures with this, but you either become vulnerable or debuff allies. I struggle to find this pragmatically useful, even if the effects could be decent.

Level 6 spells

• Summon dinosaur (4/5) – The tyrannosaur has some serious damage and outperforms summon dragon on damage even when upcast to level 6. Summon dragon is better in other areas, like AC and flight, but tyrannosaur is very tempting for the damage output. I don’t think there’s a convincing reason to take any of the other dinosaurs. Maybe the increased AC of the ankylosaur, but triceratops adds little, instead requiring movement to achieve tyrannosaur level damage. This is considerably better than summon plant a level below and I’d suggest druids go with this instead when they can.

Level 7 spells

• Aura of evasion (2/5) – The effect can be great, but you have little control over what effects you’re subjected to. Anticipating that is the problem here. You must use a level 7 spell slot and your concentration for the privilege of this spell. Not worth it trying to guess when you’ll need this in my opinion.
• Fractured awareness (5/5) – Better average damage than finger of death at the same level (though more prone to low rolls). The d20 disadvantage is also pretty good as a bonus to all this. Top single target damage dealer.
• Power word pain (3/5) – I’m not really a fan of spells where you need to guess the HP and then it’s rubbish if the HP is too high. Even if the creature does have less than 100HP, I feel like I’d almost always be better off using finger of death or fractured awareness to either kill, or nearly kill the target. Fractured awareness will even debuff the target to a decent degree, if not as profoundly as power word pain. The main advantage of this is it works automatically on the first round if the target is below 100HP so it can be good for creatures with legendary resistance or with strong saving throws. There’s also no concentration needed. I think this means it has its niche. An automatic debuff for tough creatures so you can more easily make them fail other saving throws can be good, but you’ve still got to get them below that mysterious 100HP point.
• Reweave fate (3/5) – Uses a reaction which is kind on your action economy and can really save from a nasty outcome. I’d only consider using a 7th level slot on a really problematic effect though. I wouldn’t use it just for being knocked prone. Because you really want to get those temporary hit points landing, I’d also use it when the odds of success are fairly high, but the d20 roll was low. I’d have preferred this as a lower level spell with less temporary hit points if I’m honest. A level 7 slot feels like a steep price. But this can be good.
• Transfix (5/5) – A bit like eyebite in that you can keep on invoking conditions on new creatures each turn. I think this is really good. You can nullify a creature each round and some clever positioning will allow for things like attacks of opportunity, being close to you for damage each turn or even some nasty environmental hazards like drops and lava. You may need to weigh up the cost of allowing another saving throw on the effect though. It doesn’t say what happens if the creature tries to move through a harmful spell area. I might argue that something like grave ground is damaging terrain, but I think this can be a debatable point. The fact that the target can’t usually repeat the saving throw is really potent here and I think this is a strong spell with potential for clever tactics.

Level 8 spells

• Entrancing mirrors (4/5) – 3 creatures stunned is good and the damage is decent. It targets intelligence too which is usually low on creatures. I’d rate this higher than power word stun for its increased targets, additional damage and better saving throw. Power word stun is only really better against creatures with legendary resistance.
• Illusory dragon (5/5) – Frightened that doesn’t always take another saving throw each turn and a repeatable AoE damage dealer with a really maneuverable illusion. The damage here can really add up, as can the frightened effect. The damage isn’t as immediate as some other spells, but it can quickly stack up.
• Iron body (2/5) – Exhaustion, paralyzed and petrified are all rare. The damage resistances are fairly common, as is the poisoned condition. Is that enough to spend on a level 8 spell and consume your concentration on and 250gp? Maybe just about. I guess it’s a foil to some pretty nasty conditions, though I’d rather use the restoration spells for that. This is possibly alright, but I think I’d have preferred it as a lower level spell.
• Lightning ring (4/5) – Some pretty consistent damage dealing that will either encourage creatures to avoid your emanation, or allow you to cause damage just by being close to creatures. This part is like a better spirit guardians that’s cast with a bonus action. On its own, that’s not worth an 8th level spell slot. However, you can also blast slightly weaker lightning bolts each turn. A great way to preserve spell slots and I’d argue, best on classes that are a bit more resilient like warlocks and druids. In fact, moon druids could cast this, then wild shape and get really resilient while emanating and blasting lightning bolts. Just make sure you can easily move round the battlefield to get in the right positions.
• Moment of prescience (3/5) – I think I’d have liked this more as a lower level spell slot, but a level 8 slot is a heavy price to pay for a single, definitely passed saving throw or missed attack roll. The closest spell here is perhaps foresight at level 9. I’d much rather have that for advantage on all saving throws and disadvantage on all attacks against me. This could be life saving, but it could also just lack enough impact for the spell slot.

Level 9 spells

• Detonate (4/5) – Meteor swarm has bigger damage and a bigger area as well as a massive range too. This may give disadvantage on saving throws if you can kill the initial target which could be a big deal in upping the damage dealt. This is strong, but maybe not as catastrophic as meteor swarm. The main issue is you likely need to plan to be away from your target before blasting it. That could be a problem when surprised by combat or in enclosed spaces. For that reason, I’d tend to prefer wail of the banshee.
• Hindsight (3/5) – This has the potential for incredible investigatory powers and storytelling. An experienced DM may be able to have a lot of fun with some of these things, but 10 years of events is also a heavy burden to place on DMs. I’d describe things in a sweeping way initially and hone in on important details only so this doesn’t get bogged down in mundane descriptions. Some DMs may struggle with this though, and how good it is depends a lot on what your DM gives you.
• Invulnerability (4/5) – Immunity to all damage is phenomenal and can completely invalidate some encounters. Of course, most creatures at higher levels have methods of dealing with this like ending your concentration by putting you to sleep or paralyzing you. That may be a problem though. There’s also simply running away and coming back in 10 minutes or killing your friends and ignoring you. This is still quite strong though.
• Vision of elapsing eons (3/5) – Intelligence saving throws are nasty on most creatures and the damage is quite high, plus you cause the paralyzed condition which is nasty and potentially exhaustion on future rounds. The fact this can be ended by shaking the creature makes it easy to end, but not before causing a fair bit of damage and wasting a creature’s turn doing so. However, the ease of ending this is an issue for such a high level spell and docks it a point.
• Wail of the banshee (4/5) – Strong damage and you can choose targets so no friendly fire. Low hit points creatures get no save either so no chance of a low damage roll or high saving throw rescuing them. This has an average of 66 damage per target, with up to 10 targets. Use detonate or meteor swarm for long range blasts, use this for more damage and when you’re nearby or have allies in the midst of enemies. I think I slightly prefer this to detonate as I think it’s got more flexibility if fighting creatures nearby.

How have the spells changed?

There are 7 returning spells in Arcana Unleashed that are mainly updated or reprinted spells from Xanathar’s Guide (with one from Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos) and they come with some mechanical tweaks and updates. I’ve outlined those changes below so you can see exactly what’s changing for each spell:

• Wither and bloom – Damage has increased from 2d6 to 3d6. Added clarification that the spellcasting modifier is only added to the healing once, even when upcast.
• Catnap – Now allows upcasting to affect additional creatures.
• Enervation – Initial damage is now 6d8 instead of 4d8. On subsequent turns, the spell only requires your bonus action, but the damage is reduced to 2d8 from 4d8. The spell no longer ends if you don’t use an action to activate it. Damage changes also affect the amount of healing this provides, but the healing remains half the damage.
• Negative energy flood – Damage is 3d10 + 25 instead of 5d12 which averages as higher damage. Only humanoids are turned into zombies now and the zombie is under your control for 24hrs. The temporary hit points granted to undead creatures is now 3d10 rather than half of 5d12 which is similar, but with less calculations.
• Power word pain – No longer has an infinite duration, instead it lasts for a minute. Creatures immune to charm are no longer immune to the effects of the spell. Deals 6d8 damage whether the creature is below 100HP or not, previously there was no damage. Some clarification that failing a spell casting means the action used is wasted. The target is now charmed when affected by this spell.
• Illusory dragon – Creatures frightened by the illusion now drop everything they’re holding, the damage has been reduced from 7d6 to 6d6 and a successful investigation check will also result in advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition.
• Invulnerability – No changes.

Are the new spells any good?

I like that largely, these spells attempt to do something unique or new. We’ve not just been given reskinned fireballs with different damage or an extra effect. Most of these spells attempt something unique. They also fill out gaps in spellcasting repertoire like the fact that enchantment spells were previously absent from level 3 (important for the new enchanter) and the relatively small number of high level spells that were typically available.

It’s at the highest levels that these spells tend to shine as well with better options like illusory dragon and transfix being available. Unfortunately, there are a few spells I struggle to see a reason to ever choose. Mordenkainen’s lucubration (trying saying that with a straight face) feels pointless, spirit lantern is a lot of effort and action economy for not nearly enough benefit while dueling ground is pure flavour and completely lacks pragmatism. Having said that, I don’t mind an NPC having a flavourful spell like dueling ground, but it’s no good for PCs.

But I also love the new battle familiar spell for a concentration-less and action economy generous summon, wither and bloom for a nice combo of damage and healing, summon dinosaur because of dinosaurs but also because they’re great summons and hindsight for some brilliant investigation opportunities (even if your DM might hate you for that spell). They aren’t always the most powerful spells available, but they let you do new things with spells which I think is perhaps more exciting.

I think overall, I’m happy with the spells from Arcana Unleashed, even if I can’t see myself choosing a bunch of them, they expand gameplay options at the table in a significant way and fill in some spellcasting gaps. For that, I think this is a good, if sometimes flawed bunch of spells.

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What do you think of the spells from Arcana Unleashed? Let me know in the comments below.

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