Hello spell practitioners of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 43rd episode of our cantrip series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at vicious mockery 5E also known as the death by insult and a couple of very fun names and that being said, this spell is usable exclusively by the bard and through extension anyone else with access to their spell list and it is found in the player’s handbook. So everyone should have access to this spell and it’s pretty fun to use. Now let’s take a quick look at some mechanics here.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: Cantrip
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 60 ft
- Components: V
- Duration: Instantaneous
- School: Enchantment
- Attack/Save: WIS Save
- Damage/Effect: Psychic
So your damage die is a d4 which isn’t braked as a matter of fact it is the worst.damage die out of all the cantrips. Now the cast time is one action, the range is 60 feet, the duration is instantaneous, is there a saving throw for vicious mockery? there it is…the saving throw is wisdom, the components are exclusively verbal. The school is enchantment and the damage type is psychic. So let’s take a quick look at the full description here. You’ll understand the spell is primarily used for flavor purposes but it also has uses outside of that. You can also check out vicious mockery bonus action.
Description
You unleash a string of insults laced with subtle enchantments at a creature you can see within range. If the target can hear you (though it need not understand you), it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 1d4 psychic damage and have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn. This spell’s damage increases by 1d4 when you reach 5th level (2d4), 11th level (3d4), and 17th level (4d4).
So a couple things in there. Firstly it has to be hear you implying it has to have ears so things like boozes aren’t really affected and i could make an argument for constructs and undead not being affected as well. The insult is laced with an enchantment. So there is not necessarily an invocation you use but you do have to be able to speak. Also check out this vicious mockery 5e insults.
In any case how good is vicious mockery? So if you’re underwater or gay or in a position where they can’t hear you….silenced or if they’re deaf for example that this spell has no effect. That being said, the disadvantage in this next attack is pretty good circumstantially. Now let’s take a quick look at some alternative uses here. Also check out this do tieflings get vicious mockery?
Alterntaive Uses
The best alternative use i can think of for this spell is the ability to kill somebody without attracting too much attention to you. What i mean by that is if you’re a bard for example on someone’s bad-mouthing you or your party or your sector to assassinate someone you’ve been literally mock them to death and no one would really trace it back to you at the very least to be very hard to prove it was you. Especially if that society doesn’t have any majors around. Outside of that i cannot think of a whole lot of uses or this spell. Check out this do you need to roll to hit with vicious mockery?
Conclusion
That being said, if you can or if you have any cool stories involving vicious mockery or if you have any insult ideas actually feel free to comment them down below, i would really appreciate it and so would everyone else reading this article. That being said, i hope you all have a great day and as always happy adventuring. silvery barbs 5e | healing word 5e | bardic inspiration 5e | dissonant whispers 5e.