Tier Ranking the First Level Spells in D&D 5e (Part 2)

[@jordanholt9170]

I have a funny Cure Wounds story. During one of our campaigns, we were in an area where casting a leveled spell caused a wild magic surge. So, the Warlock went down, the Druid went over and cast Cure Wounds to get the Warlock back up, rolled on the Wild Magic table and got Fireball yourself. Both the Druid and the Warlock went down. It was such a funny moment.

[@rcschmidt668]

Great time to cast Spare the Dying.😂

[@WolfCry791]

That's why I made a Cure Wounds gun on my artificer. It's got the chance to miss, but I can heal someone from a distance without a spell slot

[@rcschmidt668]

@@WolfCry791 The artillerist can send the healbot over to provide temp HP long enough to get them to safety.

[@vicentebahamondez196]

Loved that the story ended reminding this was fun and not heartbreaking and infuriating

[@nickm9102]

What happened to part two where the Divide Soul Sorcerer twin cast cure wounds and dropped the fireball on all three then the cleric used mass cure wounds and got roll on the table for a minute.

[@bleuoval64]

13:00 Cure Wounds outperfoms Healing Word in one condition. CW is a touch spell, whereas HW relies on sight. This came up in a Princes of the Apocalypse campaign when the BBEG made the zone heavily obscured. One player was down right next to the cleric, so with a check, he was able to find the downed player in the obscurment and heal him with CW.

[@braydschannel2077]

You beat me to it.

[@joaogomide5959]

For healing after a fight, but with no time for a short rest or casting the bigger casting time ones after For a player who needs his bonus action for some trait like channel divinity or wild shape or rage or whatever. Situational but not a D, specially on t1 playing and because of the fact that just a few classes can pick HW

[@BW022]

I had a cleric/warlock and it changed a lot of the math: 1. Prior to a short-rest, I could easily just blow any remaining warlock slots. 3d8+3 (x1 or x2) really helped. 2. You can use a familiar to deliver a touch spell, so it really helped. 3. When I ran out of 1st-level cleric slots for HW and had to blow a high level slot to heal, much better to heal 3d8+3 vs. 3d4+3. Even at mid-levels it is often the case where the PC might survive a hit.

[@ChrisHendricks]

Also, if you're a Divine Soul sorcerer or have the Distant Spell Metamagic feat, now you actually can cast Cure Wounds from a distance, and that extra healing could make a big difference.

[@IlerienPhoenix]

There's another condition: in some niche cases you might want to sacrifice your action to heal someone instead of your bonus action (a cleric with spiritual weapon in an enemy's face, for example).

[@Yutah1981]

Notes on Cure Wounds: a) you can cast it through your familiar, which you can't do with a potion; b) not all classes that have access to it also have access to Healing Word, and it might just not be available; c) a potion is a limited and expensive resource which doesn't come back, especially if your DM isn't very generous with them. d) Also, healing word requires sight. when you're blinded or the character who's down is invisible, that's it.

[@arikaaa69]

For now my Divine Soul Sorcerer has cure wounds rather than healing word for the healing to be stronger outside combat. When I'm higher level and healing potions start getting more affordable I'm swapping to Healing Word because at that point the difference between 1d8 and 1d4 is pretty much nothing

[@ryanhunter2042]

Cure Wounds also comes free with some feats, so it's available to even more PCs.

[@MsKeylas]

but classes which usually have this spell don't usually have familiar, do they? Also 50 gold is pretty cheap for lowest potion. So in essence you are looking for extreme corner cases where Cure Wouds is marginally useful

[@Yutah1981]

​@@MsKeylas Idk, in most campaigns I've played potions AND money are scarce, especially in lower levels when this spell is relevant. And tbh, I've seen quite a lot of cases when the caster had both familiar and cure wounds, if not through class or multiclassing, then through feats. Also, it can be cast at distance through metamagic. Plus, there's still the other two reasons. I totally agree Healing Word is way more useful when it's available, but I don't find Cure Wounds useless either and occasionally take it (and use it).

[@MelvinTheWeedWizard]

​@MsKeylas find familiar is pretty easy to access with feats, and it's a great spell to have regardless.

[@josephbeaulieu1569]

Cure wounds is kinda good outside of combat and for Grave domain’s circle of mortality, because max healing widens the gap between it and healing word if you’re able to safely get to the dude who’s unconscious

[@davidcantrell2568]

I love how Ellen used it in Oxventure, she cast destroy water on some moonshine and make into insanely strong ethanol. Making it poisonous to the people drinking it, and explosive.

[@UninterestingPedant]

Compelled Duel combines really nicely with effects that cause the target to be Frightened of you - you can lock them down and make them unable to move at all if they’re 30 feet from you, and there are even ways to do this without involving a friend (Undead Warlock mc for Form of Dread, Dragonborn who takes the Dragon Fear feat, and there’s probably more options out there too). If the biggest threat of the fight has poor Wisdom saves, you can buy your party time by just standing there… menacingly!

[@reloadpsi]

I have it on a rogue to prevent quarries who have spotted him from running away. It's a niche as heck use, but there you go.

[@prasiolite]

@@reloadpsi I took it on my Swashbuckler with the Fey Touched feat, mostly for flavor, but it's a lot of fun. I used recently it to lock down a guard while my badly injured buddy made a run for it, since we were in over our heads.

[@AtelierGod]

Then there’s conquest paladin which causes their speed to drop to 0 and make them take damage if they’re within your aura when they’re frightened of you.

[@JunMiyazaki]

As an artificer I always feel that the responsible choice is to keep cure Wounds on my spell list. We have a better healer in our party - who has access to healing word. But I feel it is a safe bet to have cure wounds - especially because healing potions are limited commodity in our campaign.

[@villesavolainen5793]

Yes, Cure Wounds is a useful fallback to have especially when your primary healer goes down. Or the initiative order calls for more immediate action. Again, assuming that healing potions are a limited resource.

[@parkerr3244]

Plus if you have a homunculus servant you can cast it through them since it's a touch spell

[@sandmanlives3]

I agree. You are doing the right thing.

[@Odande]

@@villesavolainen5793 exactly, relying on only 1 person to heal is a surefire way for your party to drop once your healer does. I think everyone should choose at least 1 healing ability if they can just in case

[@NeoZanther]

My Artificer had it on his spell list and the spell storing item with 10 uses was very nice for the spell. Was still mainly used as a post battle patch up. Rarely in battle though lol

[@SirStanleytheStumbler]

Good thing to note about Ensnaring Strike is the vines grow from the point of impact not the ground. It can be devastating for a flier.

[@devin5201]

I'm planning on making a ancients paladin and the idea of catching a ride with a dragon and stabbing it and miraculously having it fail and be wrapped up in vines is on my bucket list.

[@SirStanleytheStumbler]

@@devin5201 just bear in mind if they are huge or larger they have advantage on the save.

[@SirStanleytheStumbler]

@@tuininness-clarke760 and then if it survives waste a full action to break out.

[@devin5201]

​@@SirStanleytheStumblerI'll take the gamble

[@derbert9685]

Yeah, my 3rd level ranger took a harpye right out of the sky. I had a feeling, our DM had planned that encounter to be much more of a challenge to us ;)

[@matthewkukowski4638]

The biggest gut punch with Detect Evil and Good is that Paladins have the Divine Sense feature, which doesn't detect as many creature types (only celestials, fiends, and undead), but it has double the range, and you can use it without wasting a spell slot that could be used for smiting a hiding enemy into oblivion

[@AvangionQ]

17:14 Detect Evil and Good doesn't do what its namesake implies, it doesn't determine alignment, making it a D-tier spell. (Admiral Akbar: IT'S A TRAP!!)

[@keatsmeister]

The use for the spell here however is that Divine Sense is a single turn duration. If the enemies were *just* out of range and closing in, you’d be having to constantly pop your Divine Sense uses to pick them up. Detect Evil and Good will continue for the duration. Further, Divine Sense is blocked by total cover. Detect Evil and Good has a more specific list of what blocks it. As a DM, I have used that total cover to catch Paladins out before. It still isn’t the best spell but I do like to see players use it, especially if I am playing a creepy encounter. Nothing quite like telling the player that has it up that something briefly pops into their sense in one direction before disappearing, then again from another direction.

[@AtelierGod]

By the way Divine sense has an activation ability that lets you detect those creatures but the ability that lets you tell good and evil creatures by sound and smell is written before the activation ability so it’s perpetually online.

[@demetrelefkimmiatis2011]

One note for divine favor is that it applies to all weapon attacks, which includes ranged attacks that you can't smite on anyways. It's not the worst situational pickup for fighting a dragon or some other flying creature, so long as someone else is blessing

[@keatsmeister]

It’s also really useful against small hordes. As a Vengeance Paladin, I excel against a single target, so my DM will often throw a swarm at me. If I can ramp up my damage on multiple attacks, once I have Multiattack, sure it’ll take four hits to outweigh a Divine Smite, but a Divine Smite may be overkill on a single target vs taking down multiple opponents and countering their action economy. All the better if your Bard/Wizard pal breaks out the Haste.

[@mcullennz]

Comprehend Languages being a Ritual is something a wizard should take. Being able to ritually cast it with out it being prepared is great.

[@pgb8000]

I found comprehend languages to be one of my most used spells in a campaign where I was a Druid X/wizard 1. I cat as a ritual, then wild shaped and listened to conversations. The DM was a stickler for only allowing listening in if the pc shared a common language. This solved that problem many times. So, I say it’s a DM dependent spell.

[@badmojo0777]

i agree 100% but some DMs make it useless

[@gridlock489]

This is as niche as it gets, but: getting the Cure Wounds spell on a Wizard via Artificer Initiate, and then casting via my Familiar's touch has led to some great moments at our table! I kinda flavor it as the healing coming from this little Fey creature's magic rather than the wizard to begin with. And it has to be at least B-tier when the other option is Life Transference... and as a bonus, the first casting per day doesn't even expend a Spell Slot.

[@xySuperManxy]

Yes, Cure Wounds plus familiar is much stronger. Don’t think it’s quite as good as Healing Word, but if you don’t have access to HW it’s a useful auxiliary heal.

[@kfiraltberger552]

Artificer+Wizard also works for a tank abjuration/melee bladesinger character, and cure wounds helps you stay on the battlefield a bit more

[@quelquundautre3292]

Yes, the range is technically 100ft when you cast a spell through your familiar and you would usually have your familiar near the frontline to Help your allies as your bonus action so it's a pretty good combo

[@glassberg5018]

I did the same thing! There was no dedicated healer in our party so my wizard familar dropping a Cure Wounds was able to revive a downed party member once.

[@Kirk9019]

I built a necrodoctor wizard by playing a variant human and taking the Artificer Initiate feat. I picked up Mending and Cure Wounds with this, which gives me CW, Wither and Bloom, and Life Transference. This gave me some great healing options, which people never expected out of a necromancer wizard 🤣

[@M_M_ODonnell]

Detect Evil and Good might be helpful if you're playing Curse of Strahd. Except in that case, you still don't really need the spell, because whoever you're wondering about is, yes, planning to kill and/or eat you.

[@agilemind6241]

I played a campaign where the whole plot was a secret infiltration of the government by an agent of the god of trickery and some hags. Detect E/G was great in that campaign, but no other campaign I've been in would have had a use for it. However the only classes that get it are preparation casters so you only need to prepare it if you're going into a situation where you think you'll need it.

[@AvangionQ]

17:14 Detect Evil and Good doesn't do what its namesake implies, it doesn't determine alignment, making it a D-tier spell. (Admiral Akbar: IT'S A TRAP!!)

[@jbirkins]

Detect Evil and Good is a must if you have to deal with Mindflayers and their pet Intellect Devourers. Quick and easy way to sort out who is infected with an intellect devourer.

[@robertb6889]

I had a succubus pretending to be an ally of the party and they never bothered to check. There was a Paladin with divine sense too. Divine sense actually makes this worse because if you have a Paladin, no resources are expended.

[@BeorOng]

Legit playing this right now, i used detect magic on a certain place in vallaki which allowed me to prepare in advance and set a bunch of traps before the encounter essentially soloing the whole thing (level 5 cleric trickster using find familiar to deliver my trap spells and never being in danger all cause i knew what was waiting

[@brittanyanderson97]

Here the time stamps for the rest of the spells 25:01 - Disguise Self 28:46 - Dissonant Whispers 31:33 - Divine Favor 33:35 - Earth Tremor 36:13 - Ensnaring Strike 38:37 - Entangle 41:24 - Expeditious Retreat

[@matthewkukowski4638]

You're doing God's work

[@brittanyanderson97]

@@matthewkukowski4638 God’s work might be little if stretch but thank you :)

[@BiggestGal]

For a moment I genuinely thought they were going to spend that long talking about Detect Poison and Disease.

[@Cstik]

Divine favor is great when there are a lot of zombies as it satisfies the radiant damage condition of undead fortitude. Very niche but useful.

[@dtditomasso4681]

IMO, when you have multiple attacks, spending one 1st level spell slot to do +1d4 per attack for a full minute (10 rounds), this outweighs one attack for +2d8.

[@NHGorman]

Our Bard used Dissonant Whispers to eject herself out of the mouth of a Purple Worm before she took any of the acid damage from having been swallowed. Gotta spit something/someone out to move away from it.

[@stuartruxton2561]

Works well for getting out of being grappled as well.

[@Awoken0]

Sounds like something my DM would allow one time depending on the situation since that's not how the spell works lol

[@NHGorman]

@@Awoken0 Fair enough, but it only had to work that way once . . . Maybe now our Bard will remember it's safer BEHIND the Paladin and the Barbarian, rather than in front of them . . . In the moment, none of us thought about the technical differences between grappled and swallowed, and the minis on the table made it look more like she was in the creature's mouth than in its stomach, which probably influenced the interpretation of spitting her out, rather than vomiting her up. Our DM may have also just been ruling in our favor, since he was throwing a CR15 monster at a 5th level party

[@Awoken0]

@@NHGorman yeah, Purple Worms are no joke, faced one as a level 7 party and it one shot our Paladin with a crit.

[@Mr.Joyless]

​@@NHGorman But how will the enemies hear their bitchin' battle tunes if the bard is behind the angry nut job and the clinky do gooder?

[@christopherpurches2774]

Regarding dissonant whispers: Once played a Human Bard of Valor with the feats war caster and magic initiate, would approach adjacent to a target, cast dissonant Whispers, then use the triggered opportunity attack to hit the target with booming blade when they began their forced movement. Hell of a lot of damage off one 1st-level slot from a 5th level character.

[@gaminreasons8941]

I think the one case where Cure Wounds is better than Healing Word is when the Warlock has it for one reason or another, and they burn any unused slots on it right before a short rest, but even that is pretty niche.

[@prasiolite]

In a campaign where you don't have access to healing potions (or enough gold to reliably buy/craft them), Cure Wounds is extremely valuable. Especially for a class like Celestial Warlock or Artificer who can't get access to Healing Word.

[@Rodshark75]

Well Celestial Warlocks already have a class ability ranged heal that is better than Healing Word

[@Klaital1]

It is also nice for druids who have access to familiars since Tasha's, which can deliver touch spells.

[@prasiolite]

@@Rodshark75 Absolutely. Having Cure Wounds that always casts at your highest level and resets on a short rest is awesome too, if you don't have access to potions and such.

[@Shadranat]

Also, remember that the movement of Dissonant Whispers DOES provoke opportunity attacks. That puts it on S tier to me.

[@donniejefferson9554]

Agreed 100%. Easily the best damage dealing lvl 1 spell. Great damage type. Gets a weaker version of fear, and can proc opportunity attacks to massively boost the damage. At its best when you can give your rogue extra sneak attacks off it

[@jackor33234354368998]

they mention this in the video

[@everythingknife8763]

So then, if you were playing anything other than a Bard you would take Magic Initiate just to have this spell? That's what S Tier means. "Go out of your way to get this spell"

[@donniejefferson9554]

@@everythingknife8763 I honestly would with a lot of characters. I'm just imagining the fun that could be had comboing dissonant whispers into a great weapon master smite

[@everythingknife8763]

@donniejefferson9554 I'm currently considering M. I. Faerie Fire for my Rogue. Now I could use my bonus action for other stuff instead of Steady Aim from Tasha's.

[@07jerminator]

Cure wounds being an action can sometimes be important. I prepare it on my stars druid because the constellation ability is a bonus action, and at lower levels it makes healing pretty viable in combat

[@TheWanderersWit]

For Divine Favor, you've got to take into account HP thresholds and the fact that it's only a bonus action. At lower levels it can easily take an attack from not killing an enemy to dropping them, or even getting 2 attacks into the range of dropping a target. It also ramps up with attacks, so if you have PAM it starts stacking up quickly. As well, the Smite comparison isn't always super relevant, as that could lead you into grossly overkilling your target whereas Divine Smite frequently hits the sweet spot in tier 1 play.

[@noahhobson4521]

Divine Favor is for those very rare occasions where two more damage makes the difference between a minion going down in one hit instead of two and you have a lot of minions to chew through. I think it's come up about twice in my paladin's current campaign.

[@SirStanleytheStumbler]

Or any amount of radiant damage disrupts the enemy. Preventing regeneration for example.

[@brandoncurtis1636]

Cure Wounds is a great spell to have when you’re a Ranger in a three person party and the only other person with heals is unconscious 😂

[@mellowtron1166]

Really happy to hear the old theme music again. Really appreciate this tier list since as a sorcerer I have to be very picky with my spell selection.

[@bonedragon7665]

Yeah the old 90’s Spider-Man cartoon theme song rocked😊

[@mellowtron1166]

@@bonedragon7665 that's where the music is from?

[@ViviDimension]

Compelled Duel is also useful when someone is running from the party, but you don't want to hurt them while stopping them from running. If they fail, they have to make saves to distance themselves from the party. I would think this includes if they want to teleport away as well, so you might be able to stop the enemy from doing a teleport on their turn, and giving the party a whole extra turn to take them down if desired.

[@awaken6760]

This is my comfort channel. I've always wanted to play DnD but BG3 is the next best thing.

[@drunyonator]

The only situation I've found Divine Favor very useful was when facing a large group of enemies with undead fortitude, like a horde of zombies. That little bit of radiant damage really helps keep the zombie horde down, where smiting individual zombies would be very resource inefficient. It's still fairly niche but they are a fairly common enemy in early level campaigns. C rank in my opinion. Thanks for showcasing all these niche spells, but I'd like to see a dedicated advice video on how to actually take advantage of spells like these. As a DM, I think the best way to equip your players with these situational spells is through spell scrolls or a wand/staff with a ton of niche spells on it that they acquire early on. That way the party casters don't have to agonize over not having a niche spell prepared for a specific moment, while providing a cheap way for them to showcase some situational creativity.

[@futurecaredesign]

You forgot one use of Create and Destroy Water and that is to use it with the Shape Water cantrip. 10 gallons of water doesn't seem like a lot, until you use it to freeze a door completely shut. Or to cement a rope to the top of a cliff in order to descend. Or to make a bunch of wicked looking ice-spikes to threaten a hostage.

[@kedarraman6690]

Or use it to form a super dense sphere of water around someone's head as a interrogation tactic

[@MasterJonberry]

Came here to say this. Create or Destroy Water + Shape Water let me do so much stuff (admittedly with a kind DM who liked creative play). Also did a lot of damage to a fire elemental one time…

[@robintalibart6241]

I’ve had a player at one of my games use Create or Destroy Water while underwater to create implosions around enemies. I was so impressed I let him do 3d8 bludgeoning a pop

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

You may not be able to attack the compelled duel target, but you can easily buff the Pally.

[@Childcat15]

I set up an encounter with my players where I had an assassin jump from out of nowhere to target the paladin with a near-fatal strike, and then my plan was to have the assassin dash out of sight, leaving them with a mystery to ponder and slowly unravel over the next several sessions as they went about their business. Except, the party gave chase, and the bard successfully used Hypnotic Pattern to stall the assassin for one round. Then, as the paladin caught up to get line of sight on the assassin, they used Compel Duel to keep the assassin from running away, and ended up capturing, interrogating (with zone of truth), and killing them, resolving that storyline immediately XD

[@S1leNtRIP]

Alright guys, You’ve earned my DIVINE IRE! Jk, but I think you’re overlooking some things with divine favor. 1st: It gets better with more hits. So pole arm master pally’s (or 1 level cleric dip monks) will get lots of benefit from it. And if you keep concentration for 1 whole round, often times you’ll be getting more value than a smite. 2nd: It works with ranged weapons and attacks, making it a great alternative to smite for Dex Pally’s or CBE Rangers who dip war cleric for extra damage (and doesn’t require swapping between targets like hex or Hunters mark.) 3rd: it is EXCELLENT for fighting zombies/undead who go down only on a failed save, a Crit, OR Radiant damage. Really good for clearing them out. Also good for turning off some undead regen abilities. Cons are that Bless is better, even as a DPR increaser. But if you already have a friend casting bless, Divine Favor is a great little DPR boost, and gas numerous hidden benefits to other similar application spells.

[@r0b0charlie34]

My friend is starting his first DND campaign next month and I recommended your guy's channel to him!

[@FrankiePeanuts]

Imagine a scenario where there's a plague sweeping the countryside and your party needs to identify patient zero. They repeatedly meet a travelling peddler who seems perfectly hale and hearty. They cast Detect Poison and Disease and it turns out that our peddler is an asymptomatic carrier, infecting everyone who buys from them.

[@noahduncan5998]

We had a cool use of detect evil or good. We became aware that the graveyard was currently full of dormant undead, waiting to be activated. We also needed to be subtle so that the necro cult did not simply pull the trigger because they knew we were there. Our paladin cast the spell, then walked the graveyard and nonchalantly dragged his foot in a pattern at the graves that had undead in them to mark them.

[@WAMTAT]

That's very clever. (And totally stealing that encounter to spring on my players)

[@Luke08700]

Cure wounds is the “the wizard is at 2 hp after combat and he’s gonna die if his toe gets stepped on” which has come up a suprising amount but I just use it there because I’m a life cleric and have it anyway

[@nathanaelthomas9243]

I let my Druid player use “Create and Destroy Water” to damage water elementals that they were fighting who had some of their friends trapped inside them. I think I went with 3d10 and gave them advantage to tackle their friends out of the elementals.

[@ricardoweber5744]

That seems pretty fair. Unorthodox use of a spell while allowing creativity but not making it op

[@punkrockviking]

I had a nature cleric ask if they could use it on a water weird. I allowed it

[@AzureKite]

I once used create and destroy water on a Fire Elemental, which thoroughly upset my GM because that wasn't an encounter I was supposed to win at that level, but I did almost half the elemental's HP with that spell after casting it a few times which made it manageable for the rest of the party to defeat it :p

[@lenardeschenbacher5985]

Only problem with this is again, you are saying that the monsters are an open container, which would be under the same ruling as to why it doesn't work in human bodies. That being said, it is awesome when the dm allows it for unique moments

[@the_last_ballad]

​@@lenardeschenbacher5985 It's a water elemental. It's 100% water held together by a consciousness. If fog, puddles, and lakes counts as water in an open container, then so should that amorphous blob of water of freestanding water trying to strangle you, because its literally the purest embodiment of water. This is unlike biological monsters, for whom water is enclosed within cells, and wrapped in a layer of cells specifically designed to stop water from being evaporated from the body.

[@michaelsimmons1108]

I respectfully disagree about Cure Wounds. Healing Word is better, but Healing Word is not on the spell lists of the half casters. And I definitely don't agree with the argument of conserving a spell slot by using a potion instead, which would really depend on the resources of the situation. By your own criteria, Cure Wounds should be a C.

[@Kirk9019]

My friends and I have a West Marches campaign with a homebrew Gritty Realism system. 8hr short rests, 24hr long rests, and long rests must be taken in a place that is safe (fortified position, friendly town, etc). Characters can gain an extra d8 hit dice when they short rest for fulfilling different survival goals (good food, proper shelter, warmth, first aid, and a full night's sleep). Spells like Goodberry and Create/Destroy Water are extremely useful without being game-breaking. It could be several in-game days between long rests, so using those oh-so-precious spell slots to feed and water your party could end up being your doom... Lots of fun, highly recommend an exploration-focused hex-crawl game with this gritty realism ruleset.

[@polvotierno]

My solution for Cure wounds is to allow a PC with proficiency in Medicine and an Herbalist kit to make Healing potions. They first do a check to forage for ingredients (in nature or in a marketplace). They can do it only once per day with at least 3 hours of uninterrupted time. The result of the forage check determines the strength of the potion. Then they do a roll for how many potions are made which is determined by their training in Medicine. The limit is 3 potions per PC at any one time.

[@quelquundautre3292]

My solution is to cast it through my familiar because it's just so fun and increases the range by 40 ft

[@colman5132]

I see Divine Favor as the most useful as a Paladin in order to squeeze the most value out of your last spell slot rather than something to use often

[@TainakaRicchan]

We ran into a group of like 6 shadows at 4th level, with no magic weapons whatsoever, and our caster wasnt there Me, the paladin, blocked the door to pretoect the party, acivated divine facor and went to town, as shadows are vulnerble to radiant damage, so smite would have been MASSIVE overdamage for the little HP they have.

[@theonlymatthew.l]

Given the choice between the 2, I'd still rather smite with that last spell slot 🤷‍♂️

[@TainakaRicchan]

@@theonlymatthew.l if you have an enemy that has that much HP, sure, but if you have lots of small enemies with more HP then you do with a single attack, but (Way) less then with the average smite, divine favor is there for that. Also Paladins have very few first level spells, taking nice spells for nice situations is totally possible

[@debuyarou7463]

Or if you are like Paladin/Bard College of Swords and two weapon fighting so you have alot of spell slots and have 3 or more attacks per round and you are fighting against boss with high HP then its ok to buff your all attack through rest of the fight.

[@christopherkerndl4040]

My brother ist about to pick up this spell with his lvl 5 monch through a cleric dip in our campaign and im anticipating it to do a lot of damage

[@sandmanlives3]

Excellent, as always. Thank you. I think that for as much as Disguise Self gets mentioned, I think Alter Self for one greater spell slot doesn’t get enough love. I’m curious to hear what they have to say about it. Also, Cure Wounds isn’t that bad.

[@sohkaswifteagle2604]

Dissonant Whisper is a S tier spell most of my non-bard build grabs it with Fey touches feat. Dealing 3d6 AND provoking attack of opportunity from everyone in melee range (since the creature is forced to use his movement, it's not force movement like falling or being pushed) especially if your party members have abilities that trigger once per turn (like sneak attack) or warcaster allowing them to booming blade or any other strong single attack maneuver is god damn powerful, and make EVERYONE shine at the table (cooperation and teamwork) even the sorcerer with is 1d4+2 dagger can get a free hit and that 4.5 damage might the 4.5 needed to finish the beast. Now If fey touches is not available, true I wouldn't grab magic initiate or dip a bard level to grab Dissonant Whisper. But Fey touches giving a +1 to a stats, misty step and 1 level 1 enchantement or divination spell of your choice from any list. Dissonant Whisper is a STRONG option here. Because Fey touches exist, Dissonant Whisper become a S tier spell. Without Fey touches (or if you play a race with a misty step like features like Eladrin, astral elf, shadar-Kai and Harangon) sure it's an A.

[@ebensirges]

One player in our group has made great use of Expeditious Retreat on their martial characters-the Eldritch Knight they're playing at the moment as well as a Rune Knight they played in our last campaign (who picked it up with a feat) both used it regularly as a way to close into melee with enemies that otherwise might have been out of reach, essentially trading a rank 1 spell for a whole round of attacks/tanking.

[@logancuster8035]

Cure Wounds is also better than Healing Word if you happen to have a really good use for your bonus action. Bigby’s Hand, or the Wildfire Druids Fiery Teleportation come to mind.

[@adambielen8996]

Or Spiritual Weapon

[@adamwatson9272]

Ensnaring Strike is extremely useful for my Wife's Ranger character. When the 2 Monks we have whine about difficult terrain or are already at the target and don't want to get entangled themselves. She still has Entangle for those times she beats the Monks in initiative and there is a group of baddies to be restrained.

[@chaoslink1158]

The other thing to note on Cure Wounds is that it scales better in upcasting. Healing word only scales that 1d4 per level. If you're burning a 3rd level spell slot for healing, 3d8 is better than 3d4. If you have Beacon of Hope active, 24 healing can make quite the difference for a character over that 12 (plus modifiers obviously). I'm playing a Grave domain cleric and have Cure wounds specifically for use on a downed creature for that full effect. Niche, maybe, but I do feel like you have to consider upcasting when making these rankings. Some spells are made for upcasting and this is one of them I think.

[@jelx2323]

Playing BG3 I discovered Expeditious Retreat is pretty good for Eldritch Knight. You often have your concentration available, you want the movement to get close for melee, and it doesn’t care about your Int score

[@itspabbs]

Detect magic is better than you discussed. The whole second part of that spell says that it penetrates through barriers, and how far for each. That spell is very powerful.

[@inkarozu2309]

Expiditious "Advance" is my go to 3rd pick along with Shield and Absorb Elements for Eldritch Knights, especially at the low levels when you aren't always using your bonus action it helps a lot for getting into mellee.

[@mhelvens]

My Artificer Wizard is quite happy with Cure Wounds. Healing word is not an option, and he can deliver his Cure Wounds via his familiar. The party does have a Cleric, but it's good to have a backup.

[@adamjohnson182]

Detect Magic is S tier in the sense that someone in your party should absolutely have this spell. It has come up so many times as a player and a DM

[@kairos3855]

I will say there have been a few times when I want to bring someone up from 0 but I also really want to use my bonus action for something else. So there have been a few times when Cure Wounds was what I wanted over Healing Word.

[@gabrielrockman]

Clerics get Spiritual Weapon, so they have an excellent option for dealing damage with their bonus action. For Clerics, I don't think Healing Word is much better than Cure Wounds, because they're often pretty well armored and comfortable in melee, and their bonus action attack with spiritual weapon deals about as much damage as their action attack, and they do not get extra attack.

[@jjvh500]

I was actually surprised at the C rating for Expeditious Retreat. Playing a wizard from 1-8, ER was one of his main spells! There could be a few reasons: Our DM often had recurring villains that learned how our party fought or situations where we'd get surrounded and being able to reposition my squishy blaster either when people knew to take him out or when someone showed up behind us was incredibly important. Additionally, it wound up being very helpful even out of combat to let my calculated, cordial Wizard catchup with the impulsive, cocky Tabaxi Swashbuckler Rogue who liked to run ahead of the party. It fit very well for roleplay purposes: displaying my wizard's personality within combat. Calculated and never wanted to stick his neck out, being able to find the perfect position to cast a big spell AND have enough movement to get to cover again was very important. Finally, it fit flavorfully well; my Wiz was school of gravitury and describing the spell as reducing gravity's effect on him was wonderful. Around level 6+, the only 1st level spells I consistently prepared were Expeditious Retreat and Shield. By no means would I say the spell deserves S tier, not even A, but I would have thought it belonged in B tier. There were various factors that made it great for my campaign and I many of those things are common among all sorts of campaigns, play groups, and players!

[@binolombardi]

31:34 Divine favor Can be used in a horde mode scenario against a lot of weaker creatures, which gives it a use scenario when compared to the use of bless. Especially if the weaker cr creatures have lower AC. It can be used with two weapon fighting or bonus action attacks after the first turn which may help it scale a bit when extra attack is achieved, or if reaction attacks are available. It doesn’t have to use another bonus action to move the effect like hunters mark. No continual bonus action clog. Like hunters mark, it works on all weapon attacks, so unlike most smite spell options, it will work effectively with ranged weapon attacks since paladins are usually weaker with those.

[@wwade7226]

Create and Destroy Water has come in handy in forest and water based adventures. There is usually fog you're having to go through during these kind of environments and being able to remove it comes in handy. Also, always good to be able to snuff out open flames. Also, having water at a moment's notice is good for RP value.

[@robintalibart6241]

On Expeditious Retreat: It combos really well with Tenser’s Floating Disk. A TFD will remain within a certain distance of you unless it gets stuck on an obstacle and there’s no limit to how many TFDs you can have up at once or how fast they can move in order to keep up with you. A character with access to both of those spells can move the whole party very quickly given a couple of turns of setup since the rest of the party can ride on the TFDs, and by stacking up other speed buffs on the caster the strategic mobility is insane, especially once things like Boots of Speed and Haste get involved. Also consider that ER will have a multiplicative effect on any movement speed buff applied to the same character. Longstrider? Those 10 feet turn into an extra 30 feet per turn with a double dash. Haste? That’s double speed plus an extra action for triple dash, potentially letting your Centaur wizard to carry the gnome sorcerer hasting him on his back for 320 feet per round

[@WTH13SERIOUSLY]

Awesome series guys! As a dm it helps me to just listen passively to every spell and pick up on things I did not realize. Especially when yall give the nice caveats and things to remember about them. For example, my players have used compelled duel, and I never noticed that if someone else hits them, then it ends. My players neglected to mention it as well, but now I know. Also the niche uses and power level can help with balance and giving someone a niche use that they want. Which really brings me to another topic. DMs, if you have a player that wants to have some schtick about their character being able to interpret languages, then make sure to know that and make it useful for them. Let them use their niche spells to help them sometimes. They really like that. It makes them feel super smart for having picked it up. It's like gambling and winning. Even though you set them up.

[@pwnyboy9714]

Entangle was one of my signature spells when I played Ranger. Solid A tier.

[@CivilWarMan]

For Paladins, the main use cases for Detect Evil and Good are, "Okay, my Divine Sense did not register that suspicious NPC as as Celestial, Fiend, or Undead. Are they an Aberration, Elemental, or Fey?" or playing an extended game of Blind Man's Bluff with an invisible Imp. Because Divine Sense doesn't use a spell slot and has twice the range, but only lasts a round. It doesn't work through full cover, but Detect Evil and Good only penetrates full cover as long as it's not 3 feet of wood or dirt, a foot of stone, an inch of common metal, or a thin sheet of lead.

[@tagabundok1]

For Comprehend Languages, I did pull a fun trick by casting it and then hanging out within earshot of some Orc prisoners and have them reveal information about their group without them realizing my character was understanding them.

[@davea6314]

Among the best an/or useful first level spells: healing word, sleep, shield, disguise self, magic missile, detect magic, comprehend languages, identify, goodberry, purify food and drink, feather fall, find familiar, detect poison and disease, and sanctuary.

[@ninjasquirrels]

I love Sleep and Magic Missile with its scaling and Shield with its +5 to your AC is always good no matter what level you are!!!

[@davea6314]

@@ninjasquirrels yep

[@ninjasquirrels]

@@davea6314 I completely forgot about Fog Cloud…another awesome 1st level spell that has great scaling. As a damage/control focused sorcerer with two levels of Warlock, I love these… I also have Hellish Rebuke and Armor of Agathys as well - they are situational but, so are many other spells that don’t scale. Just by having scalable spells I can “mechanically” have a bigger selection of shenanigans available which is great. Edit: Sleep, Magic Missile and Fog Cloud are clearly better but AoA and HR will come in handy later on in the game…again, scaling is the key. I should mention Catapult, very few spells can interact with your environment and not just baddies - I don’t think I’ve ever used it in combat but, it’s good for distractions and stuff like that. We don’t use the “throw a net/acid” type stuff but, it’s still fun and useful…scaling guys, scaling.

[@davea6314]

@@ninjasquirrels OK

[@Rellyks]

I have a fun story for Creat or Destroy water. One time my party was crossing a field of dried land, and we found a ravine really large with necrotic plants that sucked vital energy. The barbarian (no sh1t) rolled and nature and found out that the plants we're extremely weak to cold environment, but there was to many of them to destroy only using ice damage, it would take too long. I asked my DM if i could use create water to create and condensed sphere of fog, and make it freezing with the shape water cantrip, and blast it in a line to open a path in the plants. Being a sorcerer. He thought it was smart, and was a good sport about it, and we traversed just fine. But still, i think it's the only use i saw that was really relevant, and only because my Dm was a rule of cool guy for it.

[@browniiescorner]

my own homebrew fix, but i quickly saw that i wasnt alone in this tweak. I want to make healing more potent and just as fun to use, as being an evo. wizard. This is my change that i made for the Cure Wounds Spell" All the same effects but instead add in " The target can also choose to roll a Hit dice equal to an amount to the spell's level + their Constitution modifier." Now what could be an avg of 7 HP on a 1st lvl spell (with a mod of +3) now becomes an avg (if used an a d8 HD class) of 15 HP on a 1st level spell. It feels so good to use and makes healing feel like youre contributing and able to KEEP your team up rather than be a glorified defibrillator.

[@exturkconner]

The Ranger Faux smites are both excellent. Ensnaring strike and Zephyr strike are good spells. It's a shame they don't allow upcasting to increase damage, or in the case of Zephyr strike the amount of movement to put them into line with smites.

[@lunamoth34]

I was able to use Comprehend Languages as a Kenku to basically steal a language and communicate in broken sentences back at some grung to avoid an entire combat encounter. Niche, but it was a super cool moment. For anyone curious, it's a Kenku Knowledge Cleric with the Ritual Caster (Wizard) feat. The amount of utility I've been able to get out of it is amazing.

[@treasuredwarren]

I've seen Expedious Retreat used well in a westmarch campaign awhile back. I had a party that initiated combat in an encounter that was probably higher low level than we anticipated. It kept the lvl 2 artificer alive as they kept the attention of one zombie that kept chasing them as my lvl 1 paladin fended off most of the horde by dodging while a couple of other party members shot the zombies down at range (poor lvl 1 rogue in the middle of the fray didn't have a chance...).

[@miguelangelus959]

Tbf, detect evil and good is useful during dungeoncrawling. It can help you figure out or at least estimate what you will be fighting in the next room, and how many enemies you'll fight against. Unlike Divine Sense, this can sense fey and works through walls. It can also have much more significance if the DM uses the rules for terrain effects in the DMG, for detecting consecrated and dessecrated ground. For those who don't know, consecrated grounds and dessecrated grounds offer a sleugh of benefits and penalties depending on creature type

[@dardicus29]

In the first campaign I played, DM had a pirate captain who could create water clones, I used Create or Destroy Water to kill all the clones instantly. One of my Cleric’s more badass moments

[@ouijibat8028]

The time where I used Create or Destroy Water, our party encountered a house that was ablaze and inside there were several small sentient flames spreading the fire. I cast the spell, and most of the fire out, and the DM ruled that we had resistance to the fire attacks from the sentient flames (which I guess goes back to your point, there is no wet condition unless the DM rules as such).

[@ganjiblobflankis6581]

The BG3 version of expeditious retreat (lasts all day) is what I pretty much always concentrate on with a melee EK. This should really be available to at least some pallys who could make use.

[@rezidentseagull5651]

36:13 I had a moment where my D&D crew were doing a stealthy prison break, and my Ranger incapacited a guard by grabbing a pebble, casting Ensnaring Strike, then throwing it straight into a guard's mouth so that the vines covered their mouth/face and stopped them from saying anything. That spell has a special place in my heart

[@Olochgu]

the advantage that detect evil and good brings you if you're trying to find out if there is something close to you that might pounce on you in a moment is that it negates surprise. Even if you can't see the creature attacking you (which technically isn't even that bad, you just have disadvantage on attacks after all), knowing it's there means you won't stand around motionless for a full round.

[@cueball6969]

In one game, the rest of the party got caught by a fire (I don't remember if it was an ability or a 'natural' fire, but we were fighting a Bone Devil at the time) and were all set ablaze Apparently the way the fire worked, they don't take damage until their turn; I used Create or Destroy Water to douse everyone immediately as I was next on initiative DM said I prevented a lot of damage Was definitely a feel-good moment for me

[@OscarGomez-hg8cb]

As a ranger “main”, I do love ensnaring strike, but for a paladin it’s also sneakily good!

[@jelleheere9594]

Detect Evil and Good is absolutely vital in Curse of Strahd. So many hidden vampires in that campaign. And also it's useful in dungeons to know whats up ahead in the next room.

[@heathermays80]

I was going to say this! Detect evil and good can be up for 10 minutes as you walk through a dungeon, and can provide intel on whether creatures are present behind a door or through a wall. So the 30 foot range isn’t as terrible as implied in the video. Also, if a creature is invisible, the spell specifically states that you can locate them. You’d still have disadvantage on an attack roll because you can’t see them. But you can sure hit them with a spell that triggers a saving throw or an AOE control spell with knowledge of their exact location.

[@alstaniforth]

Disguise Self is also awesome when combined with Charm Person because, yeah, they know you charmed them when the spell ends. They don’t actually know what you look like, though.

[@Dead__Space]

BG3 has given me a lot more respect for a number of these spells. Mostly Paladin ones, as the only Paladin ive come across was my friend who only ever used them for smites. Didnt even know his own spells until he "accidentally" almost killed my PC.

[@lukesorensen2912]

My favorite use of Expeditious Retreat: A creature was guarding a pair of chests. I cast Shocking Grasp to avoid opportunity attacks, then cast Expeditious Retreat to use both my movement and bonus action to run, grab a chest, and pull it out of the creature’s reach. It was a beautiful bit of synergy that I may never repeat. But in general I’ve found it to be a more useful spell than I may have initially thought.

[@sharingheart13]

I presently have a "ranged" Cure Wounds in my Cleric. He's a Trickery Domain Cleric, and Invoke Duplicity allows me to cast Cure Wounds through my illusion, effectively making it ranged. And we are still at a point in the game where every hit point still counts, so it's worth sacrificing my action to do that.

[@kelderek4627]

I have used Expeditious Retreat several times on my artificer and it is the ideal spell to use if you expect to need to run a long distance - especially good if you are being chased. You can go about 3000 feet further with this spell over 10 minutes of running than without it. I also have a Paladin that took a single level of Hexblade Warlock as a dip (surprise, surprise) and I chose this spell because I needed to avoid any in-combat Warlock spell that had material components due to not having a free hand, so I took that plus Shield and have used it several times in a pinch when I need to cover some extra distance.

[@fuddmuggler]

One extremely niche point in Cure Wounds' favor is that if you're a Grave Cleric and heal a downed ally, the max hit points may actually get someone back in the fight and able to stay there.

[@starsapart9311]

I'm playing in a Greek mythology -inspired campaign right now and Detect Evil and Good has already come in handy identifying gods masquerading as normal mortals twice. I've never used it before in any other game but in THIS one it's a must-have. You never want to flirt with a stranger before checking if it's Zeus looking for a conquest, you know what I'm saying? 😂

[@misbac6105]

Okay, cure wounds as an artificer can be delivered through your homunculus, which allows you to cast a touch spell through it, which makes the spell a good bit more useful. Detect magic is also great because it pinpoints magical loot.

[@DesmondDentresti]

Granted, I was a War Domain Cleric so the spell is prepared by default and not an active choice... I have used Divine Favor and two weapon fighting to get through a room full of Zombies and just remove their 50%ish Undead Fortitude saves them; which is a huge annoyance for level 1-4 parties who dont have easy room sweeping spells or slots to cast them on the fodder. I also considered it might be the last spell slot of the day when we run into vampire spawn and we need to shut off their regeneration though it was never the case. But in these situations, the spell isnt just adding 1d4 damage to each attack, it is also preventing the enemy's recovery so we dont need to make an extra attack next turn on them instead of turning on the next threat.

[@dleonidae]

Earth Tremor should be like, a medium level Elements Monk skill. It's basically a earthbender stomp.

[@samacorn0325]

I love you guys and this channel, and have been watching for years. and I honestly kinda miss the old intro. the one with the cheesey rif and the explosion it makes me smile

[@AunShiLord]

Earth Tremor is great on Storm Sorcerers. Cast it with action, fly away with bonus action, and enemies are forever trapped in difficult terrain!

[@DavidSmith-jj7ll]

My eloquence bard has had a lot of fun with disguise self. He’s a tabaxi in ravenloft so he sticks out like a sore thumb in any social situation, but with disguise self he uses that to his advantage. The most iconic was when at the start of tier 2 play we ended up burning a dreadlord’s stronghold to the ground while barely escaping their lieutenants (and killing a bunch of their minions). We’d burned the place to cover our tracks, but they showed up as we were escaping. We got away, but the whole domain was now on the lookout, and we were completely out of resources. We needed to get back into the city to recoup before we could make the long journey to/through the mists back to our own stronghold. So I cast Disguise Self and all of a sudden the party of six including a tabaxi becomes six people. Everyone is so keyed to the obvious tabaxi that if you don’t have a tabaxi you couldn’t possibly be the wanted group. So we could just go through the city with zero scrutiny just based on a single first level spell slot and some nearly-automatic Eloquence deception/persuasion checks. And my tabaxi was actually custom lineage with the Telepathic feat so he could cast Detect Thoughts undetectably. About to take the Metamagic Adept feat so I can subtle-spell all my wacky bard shit.

[@Jynirac]

One of my DM's loves language barriers. So comprehend languages and Tonges come in very useful.

[@jonathancamp7292]

There is a great combo with create water. Our cleric creates water as rain which falls and gets a group of enemies wet, and then my Sorcerer hits them with lightning or cold damage. Our DM has ruled the lightning or cold damage hitting water amplifies the effects. It's pretty brutal.

[@Zanarthis]

31:36 An argument in favor of Divine Favor, and why it deserves a B: 1) Range. Smites (default, as I believe most of the others are not like this) is restricted to MELEE attacks only. Divine Favor can be applied to ranged attacks, which can be much more preferable in certain circumstances. 2) Efficiency. For the cost of one spell slot per combat potentially, you can add a lot of otherwise unobtainable damage. It's especially useful during low levels when you have fewer slots, or for long hauls where you aren't likely to get a long rest to recharge. 3) Turning off Abilities/Enabling Kills. Some creatures have abilities that will be truly pernicious over time, like a Vampire's regeneration, that can only be shut down via a certain damage types. Radiant damage in this case will keep them from really drawing the fight out. Lower level players will also be able to add effective damage to creatures that only really take damage from magical weapons, as most of them are less likely to have nice equipment yet. 4) The Paladin should probably not be casting Bless. As a frontline combatant, you are far FAR less likely to keep bless up for an appreciable length of time than someone in the backline. So all said and done, it is not the best spell out there to be sure. However, as a lifelong Paladin player, this spell has come in clutch for me across several campaigns. It may largely depend on the style of the campaign and situations your party finds themselves in, which is why I argue for no higher than a B, but at the least I feel it deserves a C. It has use cases that should not be ignored.

[@jamescoughlan7175]

18:04 "Are the zombies approaching us zombies? Yes you don't need to cast a spell for that." Laughs in sadistic illusioner/enchanter BBEG

[@Yutah1981]

divine favour does have a niche use (still hardly ever comes online, but in some campaigns when you fight specific types of creatures): it's when you need to deal consistent radiant damage every turn, albeit a paltry one, to shut down some monster abilities. Say, you're fighting a bunch of vampire spawn or vampires that regenerate unless they take radiant damage. There may be a lot of them and you can't smite on every hit, you'll run out quickly. This will help. Well, maybe not vampires, by the time you're powerful enough for them, you're gonna have better options, but lower level creatures like vampire spawn.

[@Maartimer]

I've played a fighter who eventually dipped into Sorcerer for some magic to complement her fighting, and for her Expeditious Retreat was ironically great for quickly getting right up into the enemy's face without needing to spend her action(s) on dashing. It was also great outside of battle whenever the party needed to catch up to someone, something needed to be delivered quickly etc, and it fit her hyperactive and restless personality well

[@B.J.Camire]

Wow, I never thought to use Detect Evil and Good in social situations. That's brilliant. For me it's always been the "I know there's a fey being invisible around here. Lock the door, I'm gonna find it." spell.

[@JadeFalcon07]

Expeditious Retreat came in very handy with my BG3 playthrough as a low level Eldritch Knight. Its very good to help close the gaps and get in melee range, BUT it became immediately useless when i got the Boots of Speed.

[@gerbenwierda9683]

Note that Divine Favor may be good against a mob of enemies where radiant dmg makes a difference ~ regenerating stuff, shadows etc.

[@aikonokaze]

Our party has only used Detect Good and Evil once but I'd say it fell under one of its niche uses. We were meeting with an NPC that our party was convinced was a vampire based on rumors we heard and thought she was just hiding it very well, but upon casting it nothing came up which was super confusing. Turns out she was a Reborn

[@derekstein6193]

With Create/Destroy Water, it not only works well in desert campaigns, but cold and sea campaigns as well. Cold climate: douse enemies to make them suffer the frigid water hazard from Rime of the Frostmaiden; use the rain function to make the ground in an area instantly icy, difficult terrain that creatures can slip on; freeze doors closed by applying water layer by layer; because ice is water, use the spell to tunnel through ice; make a mold from dirt and use the water to make either iceballs (free thrown weapons) or ice bricks (if desperate for extra fortifications); use the old trick of alternating between heating and freezing water in a crack in stone to cause a fracture; destroy a layer of ice covering the ground so the party can move more freely (such as atop the fortress roof in the Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure). On the seas: drinking sea water is a no-go, so if you start running low on water because the trip is taking longer than necessary, you can extend your voyage with the spell; bailing out water quickly by destroying the water pouring through a breach in the ship's hull; use the rain function to help creatures beat the heat for a while in tropical regions; swiftly aid in cleaning the main deck from the carnage left over from your last battle. Misc: if you need to clean yourselves, armor, clothes, etc. to help give a good impression when you will shortly talk to some important NPC, but you are nowhere near civilization (maybe some noble fey in the Feywilde); instant temporary fog if cast in a really hot area (lava fields, inside a volcanic crater, etc.); use the rain to help wash away your scent trail from creatures that have Keen Senses and are tracking your party; use the water plus a blast of cold or lightning damage (dragonborn breath weapons should do well) to quickly mess up mechanical mechanisms. Edit: Also certain creatures can befoul water near them or their lair (such as the aboleth regional effect), so creating drinking water to swiftly drink before it goes bad can be life-saving.