Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 61st episode of our 2nd level spell series. Today we’re gonna be taking a look at ray of enfeeblement spell 5e which is a pretty cool sounding name to be honest with you. Thematically this spell is pretty cool!
It is usable by the wizard and the warlock as so far as to say it’s found on their spell lists and it is found in the good old players handbook. Apart from those classes you may also have interested in ranger 5e.
This spell i have a personal bone of contention with i would highly if you’re gonna be picking this mention to your DM that you’d like to homebrew it so it’s a little bit better cuz personally i feel like it belongs as a first level spell currently but whatever let’s get into the mechanics and i’ll kind of share with you why i think it’s a little bit underwhelming.
Mechanics
- Level: 2nd
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 60 ft
- Components: V, S
- Duration: 1 Minute (Concentration)
- School: Necromancy
- Attack/Save: CON Save
- Damage/Effect: Debuff
So the effect at a glance is as followed: Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit the target deals only half damage with weapon attacks that use strength until the spell ends. At the end of the target’s turns, it can make a saving throw against the spell. You can also check out this restrained 5e.
The cast time is one action, the range is 60 feet, the duration is one minute and it is concentration. The save is constitution and on a success the spell ends. The components are just verbal and somatic and the school is necromancy. Also look at rapier 5e.
So looking at this, it’s safe to say there’s a couple things that really hit this spell hard. The first being that in addition to a weapon attack which you have the potential to miss on, the target can also make saving throws against it.
The second is that the constitution saving throw so the enemies you’re gonna want to use this on arguably already have a very high constitution and the third thing is that it is concentration. These are all my gripes with it. Now let’s take a look at the full description here and i’ll share with you my homebrew ideas.
Description
A black beam of enervating energy springs from your finger toward a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target deals only half damage with weapon attacks that use Strength until the spell ends. At the end of each of the target’s turns, it can make a Constitution saving throw against the spell. On a success, the spell ends
So there’s a couple ways i would go about homebrewing this to make it a little bit better. The first being removing the concentration requirement. If you were to remove the concentration requirement i may can argue that this would sit a little bit better within the second level spells.
Another alternative to that would be changing it from a constitution save to maybe an intelligent save i know that doesn’t make make a lot of sense thematically but mechanically it would certainly help it out a little bit. Also read what is the foresight druid spell?.
Also it’s a little tricky but you could justify making the cast time of bonus action. I feel like that would help out a little bit or at the very least to make it a guaranteed to hit so they just make saving throws. I think any of those would be a fair way of homebrewing this so it’s a little bit more playable.
In any case we’re gonna deal with the rules as written version naturally but i’m just saying that’s kind of how i would go about it. In any case let’s take a look at some alternative uses here. Also check out the answer for most asked question is what is the gaseous spell in 5e?
Alternative Uses
So one of the first ones i thought of almost as soon as i read this spell, this is a great way of protecting fragile, squishy or more important either NPC or PC from conflict if you see someone singling them out. Casting this on them would help make sure that the damage they’re dealing is minimized which is really great. Do you kow what is the light spell in dnd5?.
Another good use is using this to help of action economy for example if there is something coming at you and they can take like four attacks let’s say, four attacks each at half damage is more like two attacks i know it’s actually higher than that. You can also look at this rakshasa 5e.
But for argument’s sake it does help a little bit in terms of balancing encounters and this is very helpful when it comes to a one-on-one fight in kind of a arena of sorts, have a caster cast this on the enemy and then send in your fighter it really just hedges your bets in your favor. In any case we have gathered all the races 5e series.
Conclusion
In any case if you have any alternative ideas, thoughts, comments, concerns please put them down beneath in the comment section i really do appreciate it. Thank you so much everyone i really do appreciate it, i hope you all have a great day and as always happy casting. You can also read revivify 5e | ray of sickness 5e | ray of frost 5e | rage 5e | vampiric touch 5e | feeblemind 5e |