Underrated Evocation Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

[@petercooper456]

Nice I’m going to have to revisit these spell, thanks for doing the busywork dude.

[@ThisCrits]

Haha glad to help!

[@jb123581]

On the wind theme, Wind Wall is definitely one you don’t want to sleep on. That spell is a hard counter for ranged martial attacks, taking the disadvantage of warding wind further and just negating the attack entirely. As for gust of wind, I’ve used it in a tunnel situation, and the benefit there is truly incredible. We took what was supposed to be a deadly encounter and made it trivial just by ensuring the enemy could never reach melee range.

[@ThisCrits]

True, I love wind wall! Its actually kinda funny how the wind spells are so often ignored for other spells.

[@TheRobversion1]

i think for a druid or nature cleric this is fine but personally i find wind wall too niche. for those with limited spell selection (ranger, genie, artillerist), i would pick and take spells with more general application. and even on druids or nature clerics, i'd rarely cast that over something like a summon spell or spirit guardians. same train of thought for gust of wind. i'd rather take something like web, suggestion, phantasmal force, hold person, etc.

[@jb123581]

@@TheRobversion1 true, the spells are a bit niche, but sometimes you just don’t want to have the same 15 spells as usual prepared. I can see Wind Wall on a Ranger, it does have a few nice features for the class in that it is in many respects a controllable AoE with how you can shape the wall. The damage isn’t great, but it does similar damage to Conjure Barrage, just less area. I still stand by it though as a way to just end ranged combat battles. Doesn’t matter how many archers are at the top of the wall if none of them can land a hit. Gust of Wind is best in a dungeon crawl or when you expect you’ll need to clear out some cloud spells. They’re both difficult spells to make room for, and I’d normally only use them on prepared casters as a result. Still, if you want to take one of the spells on a spells known character, it probably wouldn’t hurt to tell the DM. They might just throw an encounter where the spell makes more sense than usual.

[@TheRobversion1]

@@jb123581 personally, i dont' mind having the same spells prepared as long as they are the most effective. if i do get bored i'd swap them out for something as generally effective (like swapping out phantasmal force for suggestion) but i wouldnt swap them out for niche spells, especially on a spells known half-caster like the ranger. thing is with wind wall on a ranger, at level 9 when you get access to it, you only know 6 spells, most likely you'll only pick 1 level 3 spell. are you really going to pick wind wall for your sole 3rd level pick? i mean lightning arrow, conjure animals, elemental weapon (if you dont have a magic weapon by this time), plant growth, ashardalon's stride, revivify, summon fey are all better spells and competing with wind wall for that 1 pick. even if you decide to pick 2 3rd level spells known, that 2nd one will most likely be a non-concen 1 like revivify or plant growth. by level 13 you have 8 spells known so you might think ooh i can afford wind wall but now you have 4th level spells to pick up or may want to go pick up useful lower level spells. doing better than conjure barrage is hardly an argument for wind wall as no decent ranger is picking that up. fair enough on gust of wind for clearing out gases, but tbh in that tunnel situation, i'd simply get a better result with web anyway. so yeah agreed on prepared casters like druids, since you naturally have access to them whenever you want and can easily swap out. my point earlier was those 2 spells are not worth considering on 1/2 or 1/3 spells known casters. actually even for full casters such as lore bards, i wouldn't waste my magical secrets on those either.

[@TheRobversion1]

Hey Lee! how's it going? 1. shocking grasp- agreed here. good cantrip to disengage that comboes well with wall of stone. 2. earth tremor- agreed here again. i love this combined with spirit guardians or plant growth and modified with distant spell metamagic for speed reduction lockdown. the dmg is just a bonus. 3. gust of wind- not a fan of this one as it costs concentration and there are better concentration (spirit guardians) and non-concentration options (plant growth). the area is small as its just 10 ft wide and is only powerful in cramped hallways. 4 warding wind- not a fan of this either. again spirit guardians is simply better and its easy to create difficult terrain with spells like earth tremor or erupting earth. 5. blade barrier- not a fan of this either. I'd rather upcast spirit guardians (another entry spell like this one) to 6d8. the dmg isn't as high but SG is more mobile and has a better control effect. Anyway great vid as always. Here's my own underrated evocation spell list, one per level from cantrip to 5th: cantrip-ray of frost 1st-chromatic orb 2nd-scorching ray 3rd-aura of vitality 4th-fire shield 5th-maelstrom

[@ThisCrits]

Whats up man! I like your list but I find it hard to call chromatic orb and scorching ray "underrated" lol. That being said The rest I 100% agree with and I appreciate that you mentioned my favorite spell 😉

[@TheRobversion1]

@@ThisCrits well i wanted to mention chromatic orb and scorching ray since everyone shits on blast spells these days, especially single-target and if people were going to take one it would typically be magic missile (or guiding bolt because it helps an ally). i hear people always say you cant build around those 2 spells and they fall off after tier 1. Just wanted to list those 2 since i believe otherwise and have played a couple of builds for each where those 2 were the bread and butter. Aside from fireball really, most of the "meta" nowadays is control and everyone and their mother shits on dmg spells.

[@ThisCrits]

@@TheRobversion1 Man I love chromatic orb so much, I think its honestly one of my favorite damaging spells because of its versatility of damage type. And scorching ray is scorching ray, idk who in their right mind would shit on that spell its so good lol

[@TheRobversion1]

@@ThisCrits hahaha many people in dnd content creation space shit on single-target blast spells and blast spells in general not named fireball. in fact i think right now, most content creators would rank spells this way: control>utility>defensive>support>summoning>blast. there's merit to this ranking and personally i'd agree with most of it except for summoning which i'd rank higher but i know some DMs generally hate summoning spells. i think it's really just newbies, casuals or traditionalists who'd beeline towards fireball and other blast spells and tout them. there are some underrated gems for sure like the ones we mentioned but generally a dnd vet's spell lists are dominated by web, sleep, suggestion, shield, misty step, find familiar, absorb elements, etc. it's gotten excessive to this point that i feel certain blast spells are already underrated.

[@ThisCrits]

@@TheRobversion1 Yea that makes sense I suppose. Everyone has their own idea of the "optimal" gameplay lol