Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out 26th episode of our first level spell series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at disguise self d&d 5e now this little gem right here is perfect for those self-conscious characters out there.
You know the ones who are justifiably or not really just don’t like the way they look, they feel like when look in a mirror shatters and people to test their appearance and you know what sometimes it’s probably valid. That being said, it is usable by the bard, sorcerer, wizard and artificer and it is found in the players handbook.
I am aware the warlock also gets access to it but it does not appear on the spell lists, so i’m not gonna address it in this article. That being said, let’s take a look at the mechanics here so we kind of get the gist of how the spell works and how to disguise self?. Check out our full length dnd 5e magic items list.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 1st
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: Self
- Components: V, S
- Duration: 1 Hour
- School: Illusion
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Shapechanging
Your cast time is the standard one action, the range is self and the duration is one hour. The effect at a glance is as followed; You magically change your appearance and size up to 1ft in any direction. You must still appear to be humanoid. Although the rest of the details are up to you. The new appearance is simply an illusion and will not have any real substance to it. As such when a creature moves to make contact with you, they will phase right through. You may also like to read this disengage action 5e.
The components are somatic and verbal and the school is illusion. Very cool stuff! Not really a whole lot to unpack there. That being said, let’s take a look at the full description so we get a better picture of what this spell can and cannot do. You may also interested in disguise self duergar.
Description
You make yourself–including your clothing, armor, weapons, and other belongings on your person–look different until the spell ends or until you use your action to dismiss it. You can seem 1 foot shorter or taller and can appear thin, fat, or in between. You can’t change your body type, so you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs. Otherwise, the extent of the illusion is up to you.
The changes wrought by this spell fail to hold up to physical inspection. For example, if you use this spell to add a hat to your outfit, objects pass through the hat, and anyone who touches it would feel nothing or would feel your head and hair.
If you use this spell to appear thinner than you are, the hand of someone who reaches out to touch you would bump into you while it was seemingly still in midair. To discern that you are disguised, a creature can use its action to inspect your appearance and must succeed on an Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC.
Wow my goodness that was a wordy one guys! So a couple things i would like to point out. The first and foremost i would like to answer for does disguise self need concentration? my answer for this question is this is not a concentration spell, so you don’t really have to pay constant attention to it, how long does the disguise self spell last? you can get hit and it’ll still be up and running for the duration of that hour. You may also like to read this displacer beast 5e.
It also doesn’t say that when they do discern that is an illusion that it appears transparent to them. This has beneficial because it’ll still hide your appearance and hide your identity as a result. Very cool stuff there! honestly i really like what this one provides utility wise, whether or not it’s worth a spell slot you know what i’ll leave that up to you. If you also want to know about can you make your own spells in d&d. then check out this article now.
In my opinion it would work a heck of a lot better if you could ritual cast it as well but you know beggars can’t be choosers so i get it. That being said, let’s take a look at some alternative uses here. You can also check out the difference between 5e alter self vs disguise self.
Alternative Uses
So some really cool ideas i had for this spell and naturally run as past your DM because you might not like them. Firstly you can make yourself appear undead, literally just skeleton. Alternatively you can make yourself look like a demon so long those this humanoid in shape. It doesn’t say that you have to appear solid so you could appear to be a translucent ghost or you can look like a town guard. Make sure to read this how does disguise kit work 5e.
Something else that i’d like to point out is since you can be in combat and a spell will still be up and run. In addition having your little visual anti disguise. I could also make an argument that if you made yourself look larger than you were. That enemy is attacking you would have disadvantage to one capacity or another. You can also check out this hat of disguise 5e.
I feel like that would be very very cool and i feel like this combo is excellent, with the actor feat in addition to the friends cantrip would probably be really good for this or even comprehend languages that would a very deadly combo and a very great character build for social situations.
Conclusion
That being said, if you have any ideas on how to use this spell or any alternative uses of your own, any build ideas or cool concepts you’d like to discuss please bring it down in the comment section, i really enjoy reading them and so does everyone else checking this article. That being said guys have a great day and as always a happy casting.
You can also check out these articles such as dispel magic 5e | dissonant whispers 5e | disintegrate 5e | silent image 5e | alter self spell dnd 5e.