Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 27th episode of our 3rd level spell series. Today we have a one of the coolest most thematic spells in the game. Not to mention one of my favorite spells to give BBEG, NPCs when they’re kind of on the ropes. And you’ll obviously see why in a little bit, but this is awesome.
Today we’re talking about dnd 5e gaseous form spell it’s a pretty good descriptor of what the actual spell does. So it’s pretty cool! Now this spell is usable by the sorcerer, warlock and the wizard as so far as to say it is found on their spell lists and it is found in the good old players handbook. So we should all have access to it. Now without further ado let’s take a quick look at its mechanics here and flesh this spell out.
Mechanics
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: Touch
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: 1 Hour (Concentration)
- School: Transmutation
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Buff (…)
The effect at a glance is as followed: A willing creature along with their items become vapor. The target speed is replaced with a 10ft fly speed. And the ability to enter and occupy the space of another creature. The target also gains resistance to nonmagical damage, and it has advantage on strength, dexterity and constitution saves.
The cast time is one action, the range is touch, the duration is one hour and it is a concentration. The components are the holy trinity of verbal, material and somatic if you’re curious about that material component it is a bit of gauze and a wisp of smoke. Very cool stuff! The school is also transmutation which of course makes sense because you’re a change in forms. Now let’s take a quick look at the full description here just better flesh the spell out.
Description
You transform a willing creature you touch, along with everything it’s wearing and carrying, into a misty cloud for the duration. The spell ends if the creature drops to 0 hit points. An incorporeal creature isn’t affected.
While in this form, the target’s only method of movement is a flying speed of 10 feet. The target can enter and occupy the space of another creature. The target has resistance to nonmagical damage, and it has advantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws.
The target can pass through small holes, narrow openings, and even mere cracks, though it treats liquids as though they were solid surfaces. The target can’t fall and remains hovering in the air even when stunned or otherwise incapacitated.
While in the form of a misty cloud, the target can’t talk or manipulate objects, and any objects it was carrying or holding can’t be dropped, used, or otherwise interacted with. The target can’t attack or cast spells. * – (a bit of gauze and a wisp of smoke)
Very cool stuff! I absolutely love this spell. I think it’s amazing. Very fun, tons of great thematic uses and a great thing to give NPCs when you want them to be more long-term characters as it were. A couple things i want to quickly go over though, so there’s a strange argument to be made for getting into place you really shouldn’t be able to get into namely inside of people.
It’s a really tricky thing because it does say you can pass through small holes like a nose for example and it also says that you can occupy the same space is another creature. I mean i guess you could make an argument for the liquid thing probably being a problem like you can’t really get inside of a person.
Well! I don’t know i’m really not a doctor but i’m assuming you got a lot of fluid in it. I don’t know i’ll ket you guys work that out in the comment section but i personally would not allowed to be used that way just saying i don’t think this is a spell that’s intended to be weaponized. You can also check out this wind walk 5e.
However i could make an argument for this being the ultimate trolling move of a necromancer. Because the spell specifies that you cannot attack. But if you have a zombie/skeleton horde at the ready and then you basically just eat yourself out of existence for an hour and like you’re a just rampage. I think that’s allowed and i dare say that’s probably one of the best in combat uses for this spell. It’s very interesting.
Once again run it past your DM and make sure they don’t have a huge grievance with it but overall i think that’s a pretty strong case. Outside of that a lot of this spell just makes standard common sense. It’s cool you get access to an advantage on all these saving throws i think that’s awesome.
The resistance on nonmagical damage goes a long way as well and i mean not being able to interact with objects makes sense overall i just think it’s a really cool spell. Now let’s take a quick look at some gaseous form 5e uses here.
Alternative Uses
I think the best way to use the spell outside of combat and the whole zombie horde example is to just straight up use it to jailbreak. I mean this could also be applied to getting inside of certain basic bank vaults or things of that nature but it’s a little risky in the sense that you can’t get anything out of there directly on your own.
So you probably have to have explosives with you and on your persons and then cast a spell and then go in or something of that nature bag of holding maybe. I think this is a just a very good, a spell for trickery and pulling disappearing acts for lack of a better term.
Along the same vein a thought. If you’re looking to get out of a situation in a hurry and just straight-up flee this is a great way of doing it. Not only do you gain access to fly speed which is super cool. But you can move through most mortar walls right! Like especially if it’s like an old-timey setting there’s gonna be cracks, there’s gonna be fractures, there’s gonna be broken bits of brick and mortar.
You’re gonna be able to go places that other people just simply can’t and if another caster in your party cast something like clogged cloud or if it’s naturally foggy already. Man good luck to the poor town guards keeping track you then i mean seriously poor guys.
And a another great way of using this is using it for almost controls. This spell essentially lets you move around the battlefield virtually unnoticed and with a fly speed it lets you get into vantage points it would otherwise be impossible for most of these classes to get on their own.
I think that’s pretty cool! I think that’s another great way to use gaseous form 5e. Setting up an ambush for example this would be perfect. Don’t miss this potion of gaseous form.
Conclusion
That being said, let me know what you think down beneath in the comment section. That being said, i hope you all have a great day and as always happy casting everyone.