Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to the 22nd episode of our second level spell series. Today we’re gonna be taking a look at one of my favorites thematically dnd 5e dust devil spell i just think it sounds kind of cool, also looks kind of cool i’ll get into that in a little bit. It is usable by the druid, sorcerer and the wizard and it is found in the elemental evil players companion which some of our favorite spells are also found and it’s a great supplement i’d highly recommend looking into it. Now let’s move on to the mechanics to figure out exactly what’s going on here.
Mechanics
- Level: 2nd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 60 ft (5 ft Cube)
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: 1 Minute (Concentration)
- School: Conjuration
- Attack/Save: STR Save
- Damage/Effect: Bludgeoning
Your damage die is 1d8 plus 1d8 per spell slot level above 2nd. Which isn’t inherently great, not gonna lie. The effect at a glance is as followed:
Create a dust storm, creatures within five feet take damage and are pushed 10 feet away on a failed save. Move 30 feet as a bonus action. It forms a 10 foot radius of heavy obscurement.
So there’s a lot that’s going on with this one. Technically it is a damage spell but it’s gonna be worth noting that there’s a ton of utility applications for this as well.
Your cast time is one action, the range is 60 feet but the actual area of effect here is a five foot cube, the duration is one minute and it is a concentration spell, so please bear that in mind. The saving throw is a strength-based one and on a success they receive half damage and there’s no movement penalty. Also check out 5e spells that don’t require concentration.
The components are verbal, material and somatic if you’re curious about that material component it is a pinch of dust which is assumingly pretty readily available. The school is conjuration and the damage type if bludgeoning. Now let’s move on to the full description here, so we know exactly what we’re talking about. You can also check out this dust devil 5e monster.
Description
Choose an unoccupied 5-foot cube of air that you can see within range. An elemental force that resembles a dust devil appears in the cube and lasts for the spell’s duration.
Any creature that ends its turn within 5 feet of the dust devil must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage and is pushed 10 feet away. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn’t pushed.
As a bonus action, you can move the dust devil up to 30 feet in any direction. If the dust devil moves over sand, dust, loose dirt, or small gravel, it sucks up the material and forms a 10-foot-radius cloud of debris around itself that lasts until the start of your next turn. The cloud heavily obscures its area.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 2nd. * – (a pinch of dust)
Wow…That is a wordy one, that is oddly wordy. So basically if a creature ends is turned within five feet of the dust devil dnd 5e it makes a strength save. When it fails, it takes 1d8 damage plus is moved 10 feet away, on a success that’s half as much damage that’s not move, which is pretty cool!
You can also move it as bonus action, which is really nice. And it can also create its own heavy obscure men. Which is pretty dang cool too! So now let’s get into some cool alternative uses. Also check out this where do devils come from in d&d?
Alternative Uses
So the first one that comes to mind for me personally is just using this to sow seeds of absolute chaos. For example cast dust devil in a place like a laboratory or alchemists lab and just watch all hell break loose. I think that’s very cool. It might be worth noting as well that you don’t actually have to look where you’re moving it, you can just move it 30 feet in any directions.
It doesn’t say you can move it 30 feet to a point you can see within range, once again that’s kind of left your DMs discretion as to whether or not he’ll allows stuff like that, but we did the same thing one of my campaigns when i came to flaming sphere so please note that the wording does technically allow it.
Another cool use for this is using it to draw pictures or write messages in dirt. I think that’d be very cool, very classy way to go about it. Especially if you don’t have to actually see where it is at all times that way you can hide around a corner something and have it spell out a message for an NPC or even a player like why not right use it as a DM.
Outside of that, i think it would be very cool to use this as kind of a remote-control car to a degree or maybe even a remote-control truck, it’d be a very cool way of moving objects from point A to point B and back again. I think it is very neat, very interesting spell. Don’t miss to read about highest damage spell 5e.
Honestly i want to say it’s probably best used as utility spell over damaging but there are gonna be some circumstances and tight corridors where this spell could be very very helpful.
Conclusion
In any case guys, if you have any cool ideas, alternative uses, stories or thoughts please put them down in the comment section beneath, i really love hearing from you guys as always. That being said, i hope you all have a wonderful day and as always everyone happy sellcasting. Also check out enlarge/reduce 5e | warding wind 5e | gust of wind 5e | earthbind 5e |