Hello spellcasters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 42nd episode of our first level spell series. Today we’re looking at a particularly interesting one and you know honestly i really like it, there’s a little bit of confusion in regards to how it actually works but i’ll break that down in a little bit here. Today we’re looking at hail of thorns dnd 5e.
This is usable only by the ranger class and anyone with access to their spell lists. It is found in the players handbook as well, so we should all have access to it. With that hyped-up intro out of the way let’s take a look at the mechanics here. In any case you can also read hail of thorns vs ensnaring strike.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 1st
- Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action
- Range/Area: Self
- Components: V
- Duration: 1 Minute (Concentration)
- School: Conjuration
- Attack/Save: DEX Save
- Damage/Effect: Piercing
So your damage die is a d10 so super impressive there plus an additional d10 per spell slot level above first. So really interesting there is a maximum on that by the way and the maximum is 6d10 as so if you’re planning on burning like 7th level spell slot for this you don’t really gain any benefit from it so just please keep that in mind.
The effect at a glance is as followed: Your next range attack does extra damage to the target and creatures within 5feet. Namely that d10 or however many d10 based on your spell’s slot level. The cast time is a bonus action, so super cool there. The range is self, how long does hail of thorns last…the duration is one minute and it is concentration but do you know why it is concentration that’s where the confusion comes in by the way but i’ll just that later.
There’s a saving throw as well, it is a dexterity saving throw and should your targets succeed they take half damage. The components are just verbal which is super handy, the school is conjuration and the damage type is piercing. That being said, let’s take a look at the full description here and really flesh this out and we all get to know how does hail of thorns work. So the description written as followed.
Description
The next time you hit a creature with a ranged weapon attack before the spell ends, this spell creates a rain of thorns that sprouts from your ranged weapon or ammunition. In addition to the normal effect of the attack, the target of the attack and each creature within 5 feet of it must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 1d10 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
At Higher Levels: If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 1st (to a maximum of 6d10).
So a couple really important things there, the reason there’s confusion around this is the cast time, the duration of one minute and it being concentration spell. What that means is the ability to perform that shot lasts for one minute. So you can hold the arrow nocked in place for up to a minute and then release it. You can also read hail of thorns thrown weapon.
It does not mean for the next full minute all of your ranger attacks do that extra damage. So it’s kind of good for the very start of encounters right! There’s also a little bit of a controversy when it says the next time you hit a creature so it implies that you had to have already taken an attack action.
I personally don’t agree with that, i’ve just seen people argue in the past. So in their head it’s taken attack action, take this as a bonus action then your next attack action would be the one enchanted by this particular spell. Once again i don’t really subscribe to that but your DM might pull it on you, if they do is not so much that they’re wrong, just play along with it. I mean as written it’s a little bit murky. Still super great as you might imagine. That being said, let’s take a look at some alternative uses.
Alternative Uses
I really struggled with this, i can’t really think of any off the top of my head. It’s great at dealing with it’s great for crowd control for sure. There are better spells out there for it but it’s still not bad. The fact that it’s a bonus action is pretty good. But one thing i will say though is i would consider this attack to be magical.
It doesn’t explicitly say that this spell description here and the spell piercing isn’t inherently a match as a type of damage. But i would rule that this is a magical attack. You may also interested in does hail of thorns only work once.
Conclusion
That being said guys! If you have any cool alternative uses or ideas for this spell please let me know down in the comments beneath as well as if you have any cool combo ideas or kind of just ways to get the most bang for your buck out of it i really appreciate it. Thank you so much guys and as always happy casting and have a great day. You can also read zephyr strike 5e | ensnaring strike 5e |