Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 6th episode of our second level spell series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at a really cool one actually, this is another one that i haven’t played with personally but i really do think it lends itself to a particular style of playing the game and you know without spoiling too much let’s just say i wouldn’t be so quick to write it off.
This is certainly something to bring up during the session zero though. At least the rough guidelines that this spell effects. I’ll get into that a little bit later. In any case today we’re gonna be taking a look at dnd 5e arcanist magic aura also known as nystul’s magic aura 5e.
It is usable by the wizard and naturally through extension anyone else with access to their spell list (Also check out this dnd 5e classes) and it is found in the players handbook so we should all have access to it. Fantastic stuff! Let’s move on to the mechanics and kind of look at what we’re talking about. In any case you can also check out this nystul’s magic aura vs identify.
Mechanics
- Level: 2nd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: Touch
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: 24 Hours
- School: Illusion
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Deception
Your cast time is the standard one action, your range is touch, the duration is a little bit weird so it’s 24 hours for the spell itself but if it’s casted for 30 days with the same effect on the same object or creature and that is an important distinction. It becomes until dispelled so very similar to arcane lock basically it says always active unless it hits with dispel magic which is very interesting stuff!
In terms of the effect at least at a glance “Choose one or both of the following effects; Apply them to an object not worn/carried or a willing creature.”
The first one is False aura: Change the way the target appears to spells and magical effects that detect magical auras. A good example to be to detect magic 5e.
Mask: You change the way the target appears to spells and magical effects that detect creature types or alignment. Some good examples would be divine sense, the symbol spell, protection from evil and good that kind of stuff.
The components are the holy trinity so somatic, material and verbal. Somatic means you have to gesture with one hand, the material component is a small square of silk it is not consumed so just a component pouch will work. And the verbal component implies you have to speak forth an incantation. And the school is illusion which is really exciting because there aren’t other ton of illusion spells at early levels so it’s just really refreshing to have one after a while. Fantastic now that we’ve established the basics, let’s move on to the full description.
Description
You place an illusion on a creature or an object you touch so that divination spells reveal false information about it. The target can be a willing creature or an object that isn’t being carried or worn by another creature. When you cast the spell, choose one or both of the following effects. The effect lasts for the duration. If you cast this spell on the same creature or object every day for 30 days, placing the same effect on it each time, the illusion lasts until it is dispelled.
False Aura: You change the way the target appears to spells and magical effects, such as detect magic, that detect magical auras. You can make a nonmagical object appear magical, a magical object appear nonmagical, or change the object’s magical aura so that it appears to belong to a specific school of magic that you choose. When you use this effect on an object, you can make the false magic apparent to any creature that handles the item.
Mask: You change the way the target appears to spells and magical effects that detect creature types, such as a paladin’s Divine Sense or the trigger of a symbol spell. You choose a creature type and other spells and magical effects treat the target as if it were a creature of that type or of that alignment. * – (a small square of silk)
Oh…very very cool stuff here. So a couple things i would like to point out. First and foremost the way false aura is written implies that you cannot use it to hide certain magical effects while making other ones predominant. For example if you have a sword that does +1 damage but it’s cursed so that every time you would kill a creature with it you inflict one damage on yourself. Also read this hold person 5e.
It would be possible for you to mask that curse while making that +1 magical effect appear basically non hidden for lack of a better term which is a very interesting stuff. In any case do you also want to know what is an arcane spell in d&d?.
And the ability to allow virtually any creature that handles the item to know what its magical effects are leads to a ton of very interesting roleplay scenarios with regards to fairly high intelligent beasts or NPCs, since it doesn’t specify they have to be humanoid or of any particular type, it makes logical sense that if you were to cast false aura on a mundane item making it seem incredibly dangerous and cursed even a lower intelligence based beast and come to contact with it, it would probably scare them off.
At least that’s my interpretation of the spell, once again run it past your DM but i think it makes a lot of sense to me. Now let’s move on to masks. also check out this dnd 5e artificer.
So mask is a pretty interesting one, in terms of what it applies to. So there are couple campaigns that i could see this being relatively powerful in especially when it comes to various forms of espionage we are dealing with things that aren’t exactly from the material plane and use a lot of scrying abilities. I think this would be relatively interesting to use against them. In any case speculations aside let’s take a look at some more specific alternative uses i was able to think of. Don’t miss this dnd arcanist class.
Alternative Uses
Here are nystul’s magic aura 5e uses! So now this is a little bit of a cheesy one granted but i could imagine a lot of you having a lot of fun with this. This would be an absolutely hilarious way to mess with players. It’s a fairly low level spell, not a lot of people know about it. This is my first time really taking a look at it to be honest with you.
I can’t even remember glancing over it but it says it’s in the basic rule so i guess i would have had to a bunch of times. In any case it’s just a great way to mess with characters, that’s more of a DM using it kind of application but still i’m counting it. Also check out this dnd 5e prestige classes.
Another cool way of using this would be to increase the value of items as you barter them and sell them to stores and shops and of course what is the spell to hide magic items? then i would go with this spell. I would probably impose a limitation on this but i mean getting a couple extra gold out of an arrangement sounds fair to me.
Another cool way to use it and we did touch on this a little bit earlier is to disguise curses, i really think that’s fantastic. It’s just a very creative way of using it, since the effect can become assistants adorations can become until dispelled it really lends itself heavily to that form of application. Also check out this arcanist dnd 5e feat.
Also if you have a secret identity to protect let’s say you’re an aasimar who is trying to come across is just a regular human then this would a great way to keep that identity of yours a secret and possibly flee prosecution or scrying means or anything like that. It’d be a very very cool. In any case that’s all i could really think of. I’m sure there’s a lot more.
Conclusion
So if you can think of any alternative uses, interesting ways to use this spell and how does nystul’s magic aura work? or any cool stories please put it down beneath in the comment section, i would really appreciate it, i love hearing from you guys and it just help contribute to a better fundamental understanding of the game. So i just really appreciate it, thank you so much. Thank you so much guys, i really appreciate it. I hope you all have a wodnerful day and as always happy casting everyone. Keep reading dnd 5e mind flayer arcanist.