Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 16th episode of our second level spell series. Today we’re gonna be taking a look at one that i quite frankly was completely unaware of until i had to look into it. It’s really cool though! Today we’re going to be talking about is cordon of arrows a good spell?
And it is usable exclusively by the ranger or the very least about on their spell list and it is found in the players handbook. This spell also behaves quite a bit differently than a lot of the other spells that we’ve talked about so far, combining a lot of interesting elements that make it a little bit confusing to understand but we’ll talk about those in a bit. That being said, let’s take a look at its mechanics here.
Mechanics
- Level: 2nd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 5 ft
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: 8 Hours
- School: Transmutation
- Attack/Save: DEX Save
- Damage/Effect: Piercing
Your cast time is the standard one action, the range of the actual cast itself is five feet but as we’ll discuss later the actual spell effect is closer to a 30 foot radius so just bear that in mind. The duration is 8 hour and something worth noting is this is not a concentration spell, so i will talk about that a little bit more when we get to kind of the alternative use section. But the effect at a glance is as followed:
You plant four pieces of nonmagical ammunition in the ground. Whenever a non designated creature comes within 30 feet of the ammunition for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there, one piece of ammunition strikes it. On a failed dex save, the creature takes 1d6 piercing damage. The piece of ammunition is then destroyed. The spell ends when no ammunition remains or naturally until the duration runs out. Also read this 5e guard captain stats.
At higher levels: the amount of ammunition that can be affected increases by two for each spell slot level above 2nd. The components are the holy trinity somatic, material and verbal. Somatic means you have to gesture with one hand, the material components in this case is the ammunition used and the verbal component implies you have to speak forth an incantation.
The school is transmutation which is a little bit surprising but i mean whatever it’s in my head enchantment makes a little bit more sense or even abjuration depending on how you really look at it. But whatever we will roll with it. That being said, let’s take a look at its full description and break it down just a little bit further. Also check out this 5e how many arrows can you carry.
Description
You plant four pieces of nonmagical ammunition – arrows or crossbow bolts – in the ground within range and lay magic upon them to protect an area. Until the spell ends, whenever a creature other than you comes within 30 feet of the ammunition for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there, one piece of ammunition flies up to strike it. The creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 piercing damage.
The piece of ammunition is then destroyed. The spell ends when no ammunition remains. When you cast this spell, you can designate any creatures you choose, and the spell ignores them.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the amount of ammunition that can be affected increases by two for each slot level above 2nd. * – (four or more arrows or bolts)
Oh! Fantastic stuff, i really like it. It might be worth noting that part of first time entering the range on turn or ending your turn there. You could only affect them eesentially once per round or once per turn i guess technically. But it is a pretty cool!
Another thing worth noting is technically speaking this is not considered to be an attack of opportunity. So forced movement could get them in there. That being said, i really like this one, i’m kind of a big fan of a lot of the traps that require quite a bit of planning on the onset and then just reap rewards from that point on out, Now this is a great one, a lot of control elements here which i are really like, i’m a huge fan of the control spells in 5e. I think they’re all pretty great. This one being no exception. That being said, let’s check out some alternative uses here. Also read 5th dnd classes.
Alternative Uses
So in an addition to being used offensively cordon of arrows dnd 5e spells could also be used defensively. A great way to do this would be to protect the camp from lower level monsters albeit at the very least alerting the party that there’s something there, that shouldn’t be there.
It doesn’t specify i find that the targets have to be visible either so please bear that in mind so invisible targets would be affected by this. I just really like this spell in a variety of ways. Another cool way of using it would be to abuse the fact that it’s a non concentration low-level spell and just cast it all over the place in a labyrinth or a dungeon or something on those lines.
This can be really useful for DMs as well if they want a creative kind of trap. Honestly i just really like it. This also on a side note really really helps out with action economy, just helps balance the game a little bit more really good for dealing with trash mobs, i think it’s pretty fantastic. Also read can you recover arrows in 5e?
Conclusion
That being said, if you have any alternative uses or cool ideas please feel free to comment them below, i really enjoy reading what you guys have to say and i know everyone else does as well. That being said guys, thank you so much for checking out today, i really do appreciate it. I hope you all have a wonderful day and as always happy casting.
Also read spike growth 5e | ensnaring strike 5e | hail of thorns 5e | lightning arrow 5e |