Top 5 (and 1 worst) Wizard Cantrips in D&D 5e

Bob and Sam break down their top 5 picks for wizard cantrips, along with their pick for the worst.
See Sam's ranking of ALL wizard cantrips here...
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[@princephantom1294]

Couple things on mind sliver and frostbite: mind sliver is definitely good but it gives a -d4 to saves, not disadvantage, and frostbite is significantly worse because it forces a con save rather than mind sliver’s int save, and monsters are much better at con saves especially as you level.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Nice catch and good points.

[@belladonnaRoot]

Having played a sorcerer dip, Fire Bolt has worked multiple times for me where Create Bonfire would not have, and the opposite is mostly giving up some extra damage and situational crowd control. At least at my table, those damage cantrips are most useful when the party's melee fighter can't close in. Which is most often because an enemy is either at long range, flying, or climbing; ie not on the ground or far away and therefore create bonfire won't work. Additionally, the extra range is great if you want to cause chaos from far away. I do see the power in having an AOE concentration cantrip though; if you're packing another targeting damage cantrip, Create Bonfire could act excellently as crowd control alternate. Especially if you're a caster with fewer concentration spells, or in a campaign that has more corridors or doors.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

I ALWAYS want to cause chaos from far away.

[@princephantom1294]

Big problem with create bonfire is that it requires concentration. Wizards have good stuff to concentrate on right at level 1, and concentrating on a spell and then casting fire bolt every turn is much more damage. Also at early levels it can be tough to force a creature into the bonfire every round consistently.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

I wish I had said this. Thanks!

[@MethosJK9]

Also, at level 1 your DC is 13 at best unless you rolled well for your stats and if I'm spending an available cantrip known to do damage, I want one with an attack roll and not a saving throw. Also, Create Bonfire doesn't set objects on fire while Fire Bolt does.

[@mikegilkey]

I would love to see you use all the spells he hates! One thing that is great about firebolt can spell objects. So you can melt a door lock.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

If Sam is ever DMing for me, I'll be sure to pick some spells he and I disagree on. :)

[@princephantom1294]

Ray of frost is most impactful with teamwork. Using it to keep monsters in damaging spell effects like spike growth, sickening radiance, etc. is fantastic. Works great if you can also just convince people to stop running up to super dangerous monsters and asking to have their faces caved in.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

I don't know how effective 10 feet of movement would be to keep monsters inside spell effects, but I guess every little bit helps.

[@daniellewhitcombe2627]

I love absolutely love Ray of Frost!! Definitely one of my all time favourite cantrips for sure!!

[@simeonreigle2940]

The reason why create bonfire is a terrible cantrip for wizards is the concentration. If you are concentrating on a different spell and cast create bonfire you immediately lose concentration on your spell. The majority of the time that wizards are casting cantrips they're also concentrating on a better spell. Why would I want a cantrip that eats my concentration?

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Maybe not so good for the long term. But it's probably not that much of an issue at lower levels.

[@Mcbuzz37]

Ray of Frost is useful against flying opponents and against already slow opponents like oozes. It also can be used by stealthy characters to put out lights like torches and lanterns at range.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Rules as written, Ray of Frost can only target creatures, so you'd have to bend the rules a bit to use it on lanterns and torches. Also, there's nothing in the text that suggests it would knock flying creatures out of the air. From a physics standpoint, I get what you're saying. A flying creature needs to flap its wings at a certain rate to displace enough air to keep it aloft, and slowing that rate down would cause it to cease flying. But the rules of D&D don't always line up with the rules of real-world physics, and this is only a cantrip. Still, kudos for thinking outside the box!

[@psyberian]

I would say playing a bard right now using prestidigitation and minor illusion together can give you a full band. Prestidigitation has a lot of aspects that are like minor illusion, but they are also physical and not an illusion. You can make dirty footprints that last an hour.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

I can make dirty footprints that last longer, and without magic. :)

[@creedence2587]

Minor illusion lets you create an object. Not a moving creature aka a “witch flying by a window”. That’s what Silent and Major do.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Thanks for clearing that up!

[@princephantom1294]

Actually, blade ward does have one use case (besides earth genasi getting it as a bonus’s action with is cracked). It becomes better than the dodge action at very high levels where monster’s +to hit is so high that disadvantage doesn’t really help you much. It even helps protect your concentration since you’ll take less damage from each attack. Still not great, but I’d say that makes it better than true strike, which I can’t come up with a single use for.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

I've got a couple of niche case uses for True Strike. But yeah, it's bad.

[@topogigio7031]

"cracked" Why do you Zoomers have so many allusions to hard drugs in your speech? "Ice vein" is another one. Are all of you on cocaine and heroine? Are you proud of that, too?

[@anthraxsid]

I would totally watch a video of Bob beating the crap out of Sam's minions with cantrips. In the end, Bob will prevail, a ray of frosted beer in his hand, ennemies burried under molded earth while Sam is alone at is bond fire with is di** in his mage hand :D

[@cavernsandcreatures]

We'll get to work on that immediately.

[@xiongray]

My top 5: 1. Dancing Lights 2. Mage Hand 3. Bonfire 4. Chill Touch 5. Prestidigitation

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Not bad. Most people appreciate Prestidigitation more than I do.

[@xiongray]

@@cavernsandcreatures I just like changing the flavors of things. Nutritional values aside, I think it's great to have wine on hand at all times.

[@zhoupact8567]

Mold Earth seems to me it should work on most earth, sand, perhaps to some extent clay. The limitations of hitting big rocks and bedrock seems enough. For example, I see no reason you can not uproot a tree with several uses of this for example. Its also extremely effective for just digging a moat. say you wanted to replicate to a minor extent the Move Earth 6th level spell. This could deal with raising the earth 5 feet for 10 feet on both sides of a 5 feet deep and 20 foot wide moat. ... So if '1' represent flat ground and both 2 and 0 represent the ground up or down 5 feet, then you could do 40x40 feet of flat ground become like 2I2I0I0I0I0I2I2 in roughly 7 minutes. Potentially you could probably spend like 20 minutes before a long rest to make a pretty solidly defended camp. A small lookout tower like thing, a moat around the camp making others potentially fall 10 feet. And you could easily make some simple stake traps with sticks. That alone seems really cool. Just make some holes and put spikes in them, then cover the holes up. If one knows larger creatures are around, then even a few 2x2 pits with spikes relatively quick and easy. 10x10x12.5 would likely cost 20 uses of Mold Earth. So 2 minutes to set it up. You could as such set up 10 such traps if someone else planted the spikes in roughly 20 min. Things for Mold Earth sadly gets far slower if we aim for a 15x15x12.5 pit though. Now it do not need the double 40 uses, but more like 60 for the same result depending on how one dispose of the dug Earth. So even 1 such trap fitting for a T-Rex, that is 6 min. I would argue that making an hopefully effective trap for a T-Rex in 6 min using a cantrip, some pointy sticks as well as some hiding sticks with leaves and possibly some meat as bait in. That is rather good for a little cantrip. ... To be fair, I have no idea how effective it truly would be I suppose. If a T-Rex falls 10 feet right into spikes... How much damage is that? Perhaps its not worth the effort after all? 10 feet is 1d6. A bunch of spikes I suppose is up to the DM... Even if we put in a massively higher amount of effort to make the pit 20 foot deep, would it matter? It would still be only 2d6 damage from the fall. Would you get to double the spikes damage too? Is that too only a 2d6? Or would it be 1d6 per spike in the trap? :( Perhaps I am wrong and Mold earth is not as cool and awesome as I hoped. _____________________ I feel like minor illusion is one of those things where I would keep butting heads with my dm about just what I could get out of it. Or rather I very much see that being a problem. Its a cantrip, if it immitates bigger spells, many would not be a big fan. Mage hand. At least as a warlock, I feel it would not get anything I already get with my imp. However I suppose the familiar's that a wizard gets can not do a fair bit of what mage hand covers? Get the keys? Tiny owl can not get in the window and get you the keys? The dagger, it may struggle a bit, but still. Cool thing about ray of frost, I am think at least, seeing as it reduces the speed of the creature by 10, that means even if a 30 feet normally, meaning its now just got 20 ft, meaning its dash actually looses 20 feet of movement form its normal dash speed. A 40 foot dash when you can normally dash for 60 sounds like it would suck. Even more if you take damage while moving for some reason. Now say you also have a way to force enemy movement. Push back 20 feet with eldrich blast along with 10 feet slow. Now just take 1 more step back and watch the enemy feel like crying as you quicken cast Ray of Frost leaving the poor guy with only 10 feet of normal movement and a 20 foot dash.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Definitely check with your DM's interpretation before committing to a Mold Earth strategy.

[@LurchLand]

The only time I can see Blade ward being useful is the niche of if you have Armor of Agathys and get into melee range, and want to stretch out the impact with an upcast armor of Agathys. Theoretically. I've not tried it (won't try it most likely) nor have done the math about its overall impact versus alternatives. But I could see an argument made for that. It's the only one I can think of, anyway.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

A commendable effort.

[@AllHailSp00nRiver]

Blade ward is good with mark of warding dwarf Abjuration wizard with mediocre armor class against minions at high levels.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Thanks for sharing!

[@LurchLand]

I had really considered bonfire, but the concentration just really doesn't fit for me. I should be concentrating on something better before I'm using my cantrips 90% of the time.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Good point. Unless you're in the really low levels and this is all you've got to concentrate on.

[@danieltalbot8233]

Fire Bolt, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Mending.

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Mending? Really?

[@cavernsandcreatures]

Oh, and thanks for listing your picks. I was hoping more commenters would do that. :)

[@danieltalbot8233]

@@cavernsandcreatures A ripped cloak in a snowstorm, torn waterskin in a forest or many other situations it can be useful in. Plus, farmfolk or innkeepers will usually let you stay a night for free if you offer to fix things for them. It is more personal than "have a few gold"

[@nicklundy1970]

I’m sorry but wtf is that in the image

[@cavernsandcreatures]

That's a gnome holding a flame. The box with the title is covering an explosion happening in the background.