Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 17th episode of our third level spell series. Today we have a very cool choice for us and the ways it’s kind of a nod to a previous spell but i’ll get into that in a little bit here.
We’re talking about dnd elemental weapon spell. It is usable by the paladin, artificer and it is found in the players handbook. I really love this spell and i love so so much that the artificer has access to it, just because it is a very reminiscent of arcane weapon.
I get mechanically it works a little bit different and that’s totally cool but i know that when arcane weapon was stripped from your artificer spell lis a lot of players were actually quite upset over it. And this you know thematically at least seems very similar. So i love that the artificer has access to it. That being said, let’s quickly check out elemental weapon dnd 5e spell stats here.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 3rd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: Touch
- Components: V, S
- Duration: 1 Hour (Concentration)
- School: Transmutation
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder
So the effect at a glance is as followed: Turn a mundane weapon into a magical one. Gaining a plus one to attack roles and dealing an extra 1d4 damage of a chosen type. The cast time is one action, the range is touch, the duration is one hour and sadly it is concentration. You can also check out this elemental weapon bg3.
Its components are somatic and verbal and at higher levels if you cast it using a spell slot of fifth or sixth level it becomes a +2 weapon and that deals 2d4 of the specified damage type and 7 and above it is a +3 weapon and deals 3d4 damage of the specified type.
The school is transmutation and damage type is variable although if you want to get technical it is acid, cold, fire, lightning and thunder you pick one of them. Now let’s take a quick look at the full description here and break this spell down a little bit further.
Description
A nonmagical weapon you touch becomes a magic weapon. Choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder. For the duration, the weapon has a +1 bonus to attack rolls and deals an extra 1d4 damage of the chosen type when it hits.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th or 6th level, the bonus to attack rolls increases to +2 and the extra damage increases to 2d4. When you use a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the bonus increases to +3 and the extra damage increases to 3d4.
Very cool stuff! I love this spell so much from a thematic angle and if you’re in a campaign where there are isn’t a whole lot of magical weapons kicking around. This is a great way of still being able to reap some of the benefits. Just want to make sure i’m very clear that bonus is just to attack roles it does nothing for damage rolls so it’s not a two + one, 2+2 or 2+3 three weapon just want to make that abundantly clear. That being said, let’s take a quick look at some alternative uses here.
Alternative Uses
So one of the cooler uses for this spell in particular is using it to do people. This can be done just through pretending that the blade or weapon is innately magical when it really isn’t. So for example you walk into a shopkeep you’re like hey this sword has the cool ability to basically deal fire damage, how much will you pay me for it. And pretend as though the item itself is enchanted and as those it is not a spell effect.
I’d be very careful about doing this in a truly magical world and i’d also be very careful but doing this too often as your DM is not really gonna like it that much, the reason you want to do this in a magically saturated world by the way because it makes logical sense that a shopkeeper would have precautions in place to verify whether or not an item and truly is magical or not so use it upon your discretion. Also check out this 5e when to give magic weapons.
Now the way a lot of people are sadly gonna use this spell and i don’t like this but it’s bound to happen is you give it to someone else. Typically you give it to the person with the most attacks just because action economy so you know sometimes it might make sense for the paladin to have it but more often than not you’re giving it to the fighter.
I can’t stress enough how much i really hate using the spell in this way, it’s kind of one of those things where rules as written yeah you can do it, there’s nothing that says you have to use the sword obviously. You can also read this holy weapon 5e.
That being said, it is a real thematic letdown in my opinion, if you burn this in most cases not higher-tier spell slot, just to give it to someone else, i don’t know just seems like kind of a letdown to me but whatever and another great ay to use this spell is to use it against enemies that you know are weak to various things. Do you want to check out this flame arrows 5e.
5E’s really bad doesn’t really have a whole ton of people with vulnerabilities at least elemental vulnerabilities are relatively rare but that being said, under the right circumstances that can be super useful vulnerabilities by the way you deal double damage to them so whatever you roll just like you, pretty cool stuff! Don’t miss this elemental adept 5e.
Conclusion
That being said, if you have any alternative uses, ideas, thoughts, questions, comments or concerns please put them down beneath in the comment section. That being said, i hope you all have a great day and as always happy casting everyone. Also check out this elemental guns dnd.