Hello spellcasters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 33rd episode of our third level spell series. From this particular blog post we are going to talk about life transference spell in dnd 5e.
This spell it not only sounds just so cool to say out louds. It also provokes certain imagery and certain ideas and it just it feels like something out of an anime, not gonna lie. I’ll kind of explain why a little bit more later on, but if you’ve used this spell i want to say you’ve gotten that vibe from it.
It’s also one of the very few wizard spells capable of healing to any capacity so a lot support wizards will take it and it’s only third level so it’s not too too taxing although there’s a drawback to it in another sense but we’re gonna have to figure that out in a couple seonds here.
But in any case dnd life transference here it is usable by the cleric and the wizard and it is found in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything so you know it’s gonna be pretty great! Now let’s move on to its mechanics here.
Mechanics
The effect at a glance is as followed: Take 4d8 necrotic damage and one creature of your choice heals twice the damage you took. Very cool stuff!
- Level: 3rd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 30 ft
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Instantaneous
- School: Necromancy
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Necrotic
It’s cast time is one action, the range is 30 feet that’s right! Ranged healing spell always good stuff! The duration is instantaneous. At higher levels is an extra d8 for each slot level above third. Up cast it at your own risk. The components are verbal and somatic. And the school is necromancy. Which i mean makes sense right. Now let’s move on to it’s full description here.
Description
You sacrifice some of your health to mend another creature’s injuries. You take 4d8 necrotic damage, which can’t be reduced in any way, and one creature of your choice that you can see within range regains a number of hit points equal to twice the necrotic damage you take.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd.
So if you can’t tell by the way i read that, there are some interesting misconceptions about this spell. That dms have a pro, i don’t know they just get whiny about it. So i’m gonna make it abundantly clear in this article. That way all of you don’t bug your dm about it. So that necrotic damage, so there’s two things.
The first that necrotic damage, it can’t be reduced sucks to suck it doesn’t matter what magical items you have, doesn’t matter what boons you have access to, doesn’t matter any of that, don’t matter….literally doesn’t matter it can null and void.
And another one is no you can not target yourself with this spell. It says mend another creature’s injuries right! So you can’t do that bad bad idea, won’t work, sucks to suck, it is what it is. Now if you have like similacrum or something like that then maybe you could do it. But outside of that no no…definitely not. in any case it is pretty cool so to really just boil it down you take damage, target within range, heals twice the damage you took. Pretty neat right. Now let’s move on to some alternative uses here. Also read 5e magic effects.
Alternative Uses
So there is only really two i could think of that i could write but there’s a couple other ones that might be interesting to you. The first is a great way to build a backstory. Now this is going to be one of those use that are aimed at the dms in my subscriber base in particular, reason being is the reason why this works so well is this spell by very nature is almost an act of sacrifice right!
So it’s feasible to have an important NPC in a character’s life and as that character kind of starts to grow and gets to the point where they’re outpacing that NPC. You could set something up where there’s this big climatic battle and the player character is on the verge of death and then his lifelong friend or parent or other close individual or maybe even old rival who knows they step up to the plate and quite literally sacrifice their lives. So that the player character can progress in the storyline and develop further.
My Thoughts On Its Uses
I think it’s a really interesting idea to play with i find a lot of dms are kind of scared or hesitant to bring in arcs character arcs in particular and i think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the open world narrative has kind of been pushed to a pretty extreme degree and i think video game culture had a lot to do with that. But it’s not really a subject worth broaching in this article.
But another one is character favoritism however, there’s nothing to stop one character arc from feeding into another one and it’s kind of a dm’s job to storyboard for lack of a better term. Don’t miss this article from our blog can you move while casting a spell 5e.
And another great way to use this spell, is actually use it to curry favor with noblemen or other influential figures. I know it’s along the same vein of thought right! If someone sees that you are willing to make the sacrifice play for them. Then they’re likely to trust you and maybe even swear an oath to you or provide you with a gift or curry favor in one form or fashion or another. In any case don’t miss to follow us on pinterest and also subscribe to my youtube channel as well.
It’s really interesting! I like it, i’ve had similar things like that done in some of my games so it’s really interesting. Another interesting way to use this however it and this is a DM one once again sorry players but there’s not a whole lot you guys can use a spell for at least not as far as i can figure but a dungeon master could use this in conjunction with something like glyph of warding
Or maybe a magical item to give the big bad extra health in exchange for maybe the life of a captured slave or devotee or something along that nature right and it might persuade the party to not be ravenous murderers and maybe approach the situation more tactfully, i’ve been getting the impression a lot of dms are struggling with that so it is an idea, let me know what you think of them down beneath. You can also check out our other dnd spells.
Conclusion
That being said, if you have any thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, stories or alternative uses of your own feel free to put them down beneath in the comment section and of course i hope you all have a wonderful day and as always happy casting my friends. Don’t miss these articles life transfer 5e | false life 5e | vampiric touch 5e | spirit shroud 5e | life transference arrow 5e.