Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 60th episode of our first level spell series, which is pretty impressive when i actually think about it…awesome! Today we’re going to be taking a look at ray of sickness spell dnd 5e which is one of the coolest sounding names you’ve covered so far and to be honest i really like this one.
It is usable by the sorcerer and the wizard and it is found in the players handbook. With that hyped-up intro out of the way let’s take a look at its mechanics.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 1st
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 60 ft
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Instantaneous
- School: Necromancy
- Attack/Save: CON Save
- Damage/Effect: Poison
Your damage is 2d8 plus an additional die eight per slot level above first which is pretty good. The effect at a glance is as followed: After a hit on a failed con save, the target is poisoned until the end of your next turn. Which is really cool!
The cast time is one action, the range is 60 feet, the duration is instantaneous and the saving throw once again is the constitution. The components are somatic and verbal meaning you have to gesture with one hand and speak forth an incantation. The school is necromancy and the damage type disappointingly is poison.
We all got beef with this damage type but yeah i mean it does a lot of a damage so there is that a cast but in any case let’s take a look at its full description.
Description
A ray of sickening greenish energy lashes out toward a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 2d8 poison damage and must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it is also poisoned until the end of your next turn.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.
Which is pretty cool! In case you don’t know what poison does or the condition does its disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. So basically they get disadvantage on the entire next turn which needless to say can be quite valuable based on the current status of team. Do you think that is hellish rebuke a cantrip? then you’re wrong.
I really like this one, i think it does a good job of setting other characters up but it really kind of comes down to initiative order when it comes to getting more bang for your buck. But i really liked it, basically for a full round he rolls disadvantage on everything. Which is good stuff! Assuming he feels like constitution save when there ways to hedge your bags towards that direction, so i just think it’s good in terms of alternative uses. Also read the difference between ray of sickness vs chromatic orb.
Alternative Uses
I really struggled with this because the way this spell is worded, if you can’t target anything other than the creature and it’s just quite simply an attack spell you know. I like it, don’t get me wrong but there’s not a whole lot of flexibility in terms of what it can and cannot do, so i’m not really able to offer any insights. So i am sorry about that.
One of my favorite things in DND is when people rp out what a spell does. I’ve seen a lot of different interpretations for this one. One interpretation was that the green energy produced a terrible smell like rotten fish and grossed the bad guys out. You can also check out this scorching ray 5e.
Another time an enemy used it on one of the players and made them feel queasy and disoriented. Another time it made the enemy start sneezing uncontrollably (that was my favorite lol). It’s kind of up to the DM what the effect is and that’s part of the fun. Would you like to read cause fear 5e then click on it.
I love poison damage!! I just wish there was an Elemental bypass feat for Poison like there is for other elements. Something which helped with damage resistance, or at least let you power through the Poisoned condition even if damage is nulled I would adore being a Poison-Chemist. Also read this witch bolt 5e.
My Alchemist is heavily leaning into poison, and this will be his level 11 spellstoring item.. Which is all sorts of a bad plan but I still really like it. Depends on the game ultimately. but I love the thought of spell storing Sick ray +bonus action Humunculus giving my ally Help action. So I disadvantage the enemy + advantage the big hitter. Don’t miss this ray of enfeeblement 5e.
Conclusion
That being said, if you have any ideas i’d be more than happy to hear them down beneath in the comment section i just can’t think of any right now. That being said, thank you so much guys, i really appreciate it i hope you all have a wonderful day and as always happy casting.