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What would you say is the most useful spell in D&D?

StarTraveller94

StarTraveller94

Cosmic Wanderer
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Somewhere out in space.
As for which D&D world, we will go with Faerun.

And I'm not talking about the most powerful spell, just the most useful.
 
In 3.0/3.5

The most overall effective at all levels, and runner-up.

HASTE (and variants). It scales in power with the party, and I'm hard pressed to think of anything more useful than being able to do more things in the same amount of time. It makes everything else you can do that much more effective and efficient, and can do it for the whole party. It's in second place, only because first place is...

The POLYMORPH chain... every optimizer will tell you this family is broken beyond words. Need to fly? Polymorph. Need to smash things? Polymorph. Need to be a dragon? Polymorph.

Hide? Disguise? Swim? Well, you get the idea. There is literally no spell family in the game which gives you so much for so little. Only Wish is more versatile, and it's a 9th level spell with some expensive restrictions.
 
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Planar Binding, Shapeshift and Miracle.

If you go for "most useful", core spells are usually where it's at. Splatbooks spells can be useful or powerful, but usually in a more niche way, and sometimes splatbooks will add more utility to core spells, like giving you more things to planar bind.
 
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Celerity is pretty broken too. I mean, it's only a set-up for another spell, but being able to say "it's not my turn? No matter, I cast anyway, because screw you" is insanely good.
 
I've been playing this game for months and still barely have a grasp of the class system, the lore, or even how to play the game, still needing to ask other people what I roll for attacks I made just a turn prior. I'm clearly the best person to give advice on this.

The only real spell you need is Eldritch Blast, my friend. It's a cantrip so you can use it a lot, it upgrades pretty well, and you get to shout "ELDRITCH BLAST" every time you use it which is just fantastic. As a Warlock I tell you that no less than 85% of all my attacks involve some use of Eldritch Blasting. I Eldritch Blast my enemies, I Eldritch Blast the dirt to make a dust cloud getaway, I Eldritch Blast the sky and get roasted pheasant. And then when my Eldritch Blast gets a push upgrade, hoo boy, I'm Eldritch Blasting people into other people and I'm Eldritch Blasting out the back of our cart like a rocket booster. Eldritch Blast this, Eldritch Blast that, there's no STOP to the Eldritch Blasting around here, why even go for anything OTHER than Eldritch Blasts.

Coincidentally our D&D group is nicknamed "Cantrip Abusers" but like, totally unrelated, I'm sure.
 
Web or create water or anything about making people trip is wonderful.

Smite evil is all you need for justice though
 
Prestidigitation is amazingly versatile, if you are of the right creature type alter self is insanely good, the polymorph school can render half your stat-line irrelevant, and summoning... I believe it's summon creature 5 that is the most widely usefull, you can summon creatures that do force damage, that can cast evards black tentacles, nigh infinite healing, and just in general cast any spell you might need.

For more nice applications Bite of the X line spells can be amazing for a gish or monk type char, they are personal only and have a duration measured in rounds per caster level, which sucks, but there are various ways to start with one buff at the start of combat, and these spells take a big heaping dump on the normal stat limits and do things like add +12 dex and +4 strength and give natural weapons and armor. If you have the right stacking boni (like say that shapeshifter/monk prestige that gives con to AC improves natural weapon and monk damage and other stuff) they can be very useful, it's hard to build a character around them though.
 
Simulacrum spells, like Simulacrum and Ice Assassin, can be really powerful depending on who you make them a copy of.

In Pathfinder stuff, Simulacrum had it's material component of a part of the target removed, meaning you can make simulacrum of such things as Cthulhu, Hastur, Demigods, and pretty much anything else that has stats.


With Simulacrum you can get copies of yourself, or of others, and have them do things for you. AFAIK, there is no limit on the amount of Simulacra you can have walking around, so it can get silly if you have money.

If you have errands to run, long stretches when you want to build things, or pretty much anything else that requires time and effort, Simulacra can help.
 
Glitterdust has always been a very useful spell for how low level it is. It's a terrifyingly powerful debuff, it reveals invisible enemies and doesn't let them hide again, and since it's glittering golden dust you can also use for other things like using it as fireworks to look fabulous, to paint the ground in the darkness so you know where the holes are, and a bunch of other uses that are very practical to the wandering adventurer in a dark dungeon full of bad.

For a measly level 2 spell you can put in a cheapo wand, it's pretty good.
 
Follow-up on Eldritch Blast and how it's still the best spell to use and probably the only thing you'll ever need in D&D.

So me and our resident Rogue went scouting out in the territory of a clan that sent an assassin to attack our ally to find their leader. Since we were pretty much just storming through their village looking for the guy, I prepared for a fight by charging up an Eldritch Blast beneath my cloak just in case. But the search took longer than anticipated and we found him after like, 4 in-game hours. But I was still charging that shot because I wanted to see what happened and my charisma rolls were good enough to keep it charged whenever we checked. But then our rogue rolled a natural 20 bluff and convinced the guy we were on his side and we got the info we needed without starting a fight, so I just went home still charging an energy blast. So after charging an Eldritch Blast for maybe 6 in-game hours and it getting so powerful that a vortex of energy was casually swelling around me and my arm went numb, a shaman gave me a stone to store the spell in and now I have a one-time-use ultimate Eldritch Blast for use in emergency that is essentially just a One Punch Man attack. And then my arm broke and I spent the night getting healed.

And that is why Eldritch Blast continues to be the best spell in the game. Our campaign is totally serious, I don't know what you're talking about, my Satanic cult of chuunibyo is completely serious.
 
Wish. Does literally all of the above and more. After you hit 17th level, it's something you should never leave your tower without.
 
Tekomandor said:
For practical gameplay purposes it has to be the Polymorph line.
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Truth. The most recent use: we were fighting in a giant's lodge on top of a dam; we wanted to wreck it, but our previous attempts to use fire hadn't worked. The thing that finally worked? Turning into a giant alligator and disassembling it from the underwater side with a few good tail whacks. I mean, who has a spell for "what if I need to disassemble a dam"? Anyone with Polymorph, that's who.

(EDIT: Afterward, I carried my friends away on my back - as a giant alligator - while the enemy's reinforcements tried to hurl stones impotently from the docks of their collapsing lodge.)
 
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Have there been any classes and parties that use Polymorph a lot, as part of their character?
like, they use it so much, for everything, they are practically masters of it?
 
Prestidigitation. Being able to perfectly clean stuff is amazingly useful.

Alternatively any instantaneous spell that makes something lasting. Free materials!

Krazyfan1 said:
Have there been any classes and parties that use Polymorph a lot, as part of their character?
like, they use it so much, for everything, they are practically masters of it?
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Master transmorgafist and Warshaper in 3.5

But honestly the polymorph line is way OP - I use Formbound system from DSP instead - much less game-shattering.
 
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Polymorph is a more useful spell but it also tends to be a very high level spell so its less useful than it would seem. The 'most useful' spells tend to be in the 3rd level, with Haste probably taking the Most Useful spot from 3rd edition onward (in earlier editions the cost was prohibitive), because they are the ones most player will actually end up being able to use consistently. Barring Haste than Fly or Invisibility are probably the most useful spells since the bypass so many obstacles.
 
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