Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thnak you so much for checking out the 28th episode of our second level spell series. You know guys, i’m gonna level with you. I’ve always been of the belief that every spell has a purpose, every spell has this one scenario where you know it can be really helpful. This spell is slightly less so, i’m gonna go over what makes it kind of good circumstantially but it’s a little rough.
Today we’re talking about dnd 5e find traps spell which doesn’t do what you think it does by the way. It is usable by the cleric, druid and the ranger. It is found in the good old players handbook and has been a staple of d&d for a very long time, but this current iteration kind of blow chunks. So lets me get into the mechanics here so we can actually discuss it a little.
Mechanics
- Level: 2nd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 120 ft
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Instantaneous
- School: Divination
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Detection
The effect at a glance is as followed: You gain an extra sense that alerts you to the general knowledge of a trap that is within your line of sight. The cast time is one action, the range is an impressive 120 feet, and the duration confusingly enough is instantaneous. Also check out this what is the wand of find traps?
The components are just verbal and somatic so you just have to speak forth an incantation and gesture with one hand and the school is divination which makes sense cuz you’re kind of predecting things i guess. The confusing for it comes to the full description. So lets take a look at that so you can figure out where my bone of contention lies with this spell. You may also like to read this detect traps 5e rogue.
Description
You sense the presence of any trap within range that is within line of sight. A trap, for the purpose of this spell, includes anything that would inflict a sudden or unexpected effect you consider harmful or undesirable, which was specifically intended as such by its creator. Thus, the spell would sense an area affected by the alarm spell, a glyph of warding, or a mechanical pit trap, but it would not reveal a natural weakness in the floor, an unstable ceiling, or a hidden sinkhole.
This spell merely reveals that a trap is present. You don”t learn the location of each trap, but you do learn the general nature of the danger posed by a trap you sense.
Oh my goodness! So a couple problems with this spell is it doesn’t do what it says it does. It doesn’t find anything, not know, it just alerts you that’s something within your line of sight is a miss basically and based on who your GM is they’re gonna be very vague about it. Do not miss this how do you search for traps in 5e?
So for example someone casted this traps on me or cast this spell on me and i had a trap hit and i would like let’s say for example that it’s something like hidden darts like Poison darts in a wall that shoot out. I would say that there is a trap within your line of sight that is meant to inflict harm and possibly maim you.
Which is a fair assumption and based on the spells wording should be fine. The problem is is me as a DM i’m gonna have to sit through as the party comes through every 5-foot tile of this dungeon, until they find it. Because players are naturally paranoid and it’s with good reason, so i get it but i just really don’t like the way this is worded. Also read find familiar 5e how long does it last.
i think a fair way of changing it might be to add something like the place the trap is shimmers a little bit or something like that or gives some kind of an indicator as to where it is maybe then it would actually be find trap but whatever. So let’s take a look at some alternative uses for it.
Alternative Uses
The best one i could think of would be when it comes to thwarting plans. For example let’s say it’s your job to protect the king or other important figure and your word that there might be someone from within their organization or within their kingdom that’s trying to assassinate them. Also check out this what is the find path spell in d&d?
You could potentially abuse this spell all the time and i would rule that poison counts as a trap as per the spells wording. So it’s be very easy to tell that something was wrong and something was poisoning that the king or aimed at poisoning the king. So you could use it for something along those lines, you could also use it for mapping out certain trap latent areas like you’re going through bandit territory for example.
I think ultimately though the best use for this spell at least those are at least to being a dungeon master is to give this spell to NPCs. Reason being is it’s kind of a guiding a hand more than it is a skeleton key if that makes sense, is not gonna directly help them solve anything immediately but it will give them a little bit of assistance when they need it. So that’s kind of how i recommend using it. Ultimately it’s up to you guys.
Conclusion
So if you have any alternative ideas, uses, concepts, stories or general thoughts regarding the spell please let me know down in the comment section beneath i really do appreciate it. Thank you so much guys, i really do appreciate your time, i hope you have a great day and as always happy casting everyone. Also check out detect magic 5e |