Hello there magic practitioners of all shapes and sizes! Thanks for using my spellbook and welcome to the seventh episode of our cantrip series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at dancing lights 5e. It is usable by the bard, sorcerer and wizard and of course through extension anyone else with access to their spell lists. And it is found in the player’s handbook alright let’s take a quick look at the mechanics here.
Mechanics
- Level: Cantrip
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 120 ft
- Components: V, S, M
- Duration: 1 Minute (concentration)
- School: evocation
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Utility
Cast time is one action. Range is a decent 120 feet. The duration is one minute and surprising the most people it is actually a concentration spell. In terms of the overview of the effect here create four orbs of light which can combine to form one humanoid shape. Each point sheds dim light in a ten foot radius a bonus action lets you move at 60 feet and each point can’t be more than 20 feet apart. You can also visit 5e light rules article.
The components are a trifecta…so somatic, verbal and the material meaning you gotta gesture your hand, you gotta speak and there’s a material component as well. School is evocation which is pretty surprising like i would thought illusion but whatever. Now let’s just get into a quick description of dnd 5e spell dancing lights, i’m just gonna write it from d&d beyond so you’re getting the proper source material here. You can also check out friends 5e.
Description
You create up to four torch-sized lights within range, making them appear as torches, lanterns, or glowing orbs that hover in the air for the duration. You can also combine the four lights into one glowing vaguely humanoid form of Medium size. Whichever form you choose, each light sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius. As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the lights up to 60 feet to a new spot within range. A light must be within 20 feet of another light created by this spell, and a light winks out if it exceeds the spell’s range.
So a couple things to unpack there, this honestly isn’t my favorite spell in the world. I’ve never used it and i find a lot of people pick it just for the sake of picking it without really knowing what’s going on with it. So firstly a 10 foot radius isn’t a whole lot like if you pick the 4:1 orbs and space mode approximately ten feet apart from one an hour twenty feet apart from another story. Here we have sleep spell 5e explained.
Then you can get some decent light out of it. But if you pick the one humanoid form despite the fact that you changed out for four orbs, it’s still only gives ten foot of dim light and as a quick refresher dim light forces you to take a disadvantage on your perception checks. So it’s not realy that great if you ask me. Also read druid article.
I mean you know it made sense your character they can go for it i guess. Let’s take a look another cool thing that i kind of notice just by glancing at it. The last sentence there a light must be within 20 feet of anoteher light created by this spell. It doesn’t say specifically that it has to be the same caster. So you could have multiple casters with dancing lights and hypothetically you can use that to chain together much longer or a much brighter area. Don’t miss this 5e darkness spell rules.
I would also homebrew it so if you have two orbs within around the same area it counts as well lit or bright light. Just because you know the kind of layer on top of each other and provide more light that way. That’d be a great way to make this spell a little bit better and forego that disadvantage on perception checks i think that’d be much better but up to you.
Dancing Lights 5E Uses
In terms of alternative uses other than being well with i could really only think of one and that would be to take advantage of that range and make the glow man and have them kind of lead people to it from places or company people or serve as a distraction things of that nature. I think it would be really great, i mean it you can’t really interact with anything that much be can probably follow simple commands. So i would yeah i’d like that.
Wrap Up
Do you guys have any ideas of your own please feel free to share them with me because i’m super like a lot of people take this but i don’t really see the advantage to it. But i felt some of you do then you know what that’d be i’d be more than happy through it. So make sure you put that down in the comments below. Thank you so much guys and have a great day. Also read these articles like faerie fire 5e | minor illusion 5e | light 5e.