Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the second episode of our first level spell series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at dnd 5e alarm spell now this classic gem is usable by the ranger, wizard and the artificer and it is found in the players handbook let us take a look at some mechanics here.
Mechanics
- Level: 1st
- Casting Time: 1 Minute (Ritual)
- Range/Area: 30 ft
- Components: V, S, M
- Duration: 8 Hours
- School: Abjuration
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Detection
The cast time is one minute with the ritual tag over it. What this means is if you are a ritual caster you can take an additional hour to cast this spell and if you do, So does alarm use a spell slot? no….you can cast it without using a spell slot which is super useful in those long campaign sessions.
The range is a 30 feet, the duration is instantaneous and the effect at a glance is as followed. Choose a door or window that fits within a 20ft cube. Whenever a nondesignated tiny or larger creature touches the area. An audible or mental alarm sounds.
The components are somatic, material and verbal meaning you have to gesture with one hand, there are material components that are not consumed and you must speak forth an incantation. The material component if you’re curious is a tiny bell and piece of silver wire and the school is abjuration. Now let’s take a look at the full description here. Just so we are all on the same page.
Description
You set an alarm against unwanted intrusion. Choose a door, a window, or an area within range that is no larger than a 20-foot cube. Until the spell ends, an alarm alerts you whenever a Tiny or larger creature touches or enters the warded area. When you cast the spell, you can designate creatures that won’t set off the alarm.
You also choose whether the alarm is mental or audible. A mental alarm alerts you with a ping in your mind if you are within 1 mile of the warded area. This ping awakens you if you are sleeping. An audible alarm produces the sound of a hand bell for 10 seconds within 60 feet.
Very cool stuff here! You can see how this might be incredibly useful, especially if you’re in a party with a very low passive perception scores. Now let’s take a look at some alternative uses here so that we can get to know how do you use an alarm in 5e?.
Alternative Uses
It might be worth noting that you could very easily effectively use this as a first line of defense, if you are in a potentially hostile environment. This might actually help you get an advantage on tracking a person for example set up of the alarm dnd 5e around their presidents and when i goes off and then you can start following them that way you’re not stuck waiting all night right!
Alternatively you could use this to further fortify your campground and make us you can get a long or short rest and a heck of a lot easier. I would also let this be used on items as well. So that way you can be alerted if a letter gets opened or if someone’s going through your stuff.
I think that would be an incredibly effective tools for DMs especially if they’re having a particular problem with one party member stealing another party’s member stuff and they could use alarm just grab magic initiate or whatever or even a spell scroll might work.
Conclusion
In any case that about wraps up for this article guys. That being said, i hope you all have a wonderful day and if you can think of any other alternative uses for this spell i’d love to hear it down beneath. Thank you so much guys.
Also read these articles horn of silent alarm dnd 5e | alert dnd 5e | sleep spell 5e explained | glyph of warding 5e | detect magic 5e | arcane lock 5e | identify 5e |