Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 74th episode of our first level spell series. My god that’s a big number, today we’re taking a look at witch bolt 5e and this spell is usable by the sorcerer, warlock and the wizard and it is found in the players handbook so we should all have access to it. Which will thematically is one of my favorite spells, however in terms of mechanics i find it comes a little bit short personally. That being said, let’s take a look at his mechanics and i’ll explain a little bit better what i mean.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 1st
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 30 ft
- Components: V, S, M *
- Duration: 1 Minute (Concentration)
- School: Evocation
- Attack/Save: Ranged
- Damage/Effect: Lightning
Your damage is a d12 plus an additional d12 for each spell slot level above first. The effect is as followed: Make a ranged spell attack, on a hit deal damage and you can use your actions to inflict 12 more damage (so long as the target is within range and not totally covered.)
The cast time is one action, the range is 30 feet, the duration is one minute and it is a concentration spell. The components are somatic, material and verabl meaning you have to gesture with one hand and the material component is a twig that is from a tree that has been struck by lightning, it is not consumed so component pouch will work and the verbal component means you have to speak forth an incantation.
The school is evocation, which isn’t too surprising and the damage type is a lightning which also isn’t too surprising. That being said, let’s take a look at the full description and just better flesh this out. Would you like to read about is bane a good spell 5e.
Description
A beam of crackling, blue energy lances out toward a creature within range, forming a sustained arc of lightning between you and the target. Make a ranged spell attack against that creature. On a hit, the target takes 1d12 lightning damage, and on each of your turns for the duration, you can use your action to deal 1d12 lightning damage to the target automatically. The spell ends if you use your action to do anything else. The spell also ends if the target is ever outside the spell’s range or if it has total cover from you.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the initial damage increases by 1d12 for each slot level above 1st. * – (a twig from a tree that has been struck by lightning)
So a couple reasons why i don’t think this is the best spell to the first level spell is the concentration kind of makes it soft quite a bit. Also the fact that cast and the up casting it only affects the initial damage and doesn’t affect the prolonged damage is kind of a downer. It’s also just burning up your actions, if the cleric or the paladin had this then eventually i take it back if the cleric add this, it might be a little bit better because he could still use something like spiritual weapon. Don’t miss the comparision of witch bolt vs chromatic orb.
Suppose you can still stack this with something like flaming sphere but it’d be a little bit trickier. Because flaming sphere is concentration i take it back the spiritual weapon would really be the best way to go with this but it can’t at least not naturally by rock that’s not on the character spell list or the cleric spell list and you could get it through magic initiate and through various class features but that’d be about it. Without further ado let’s take a look at some alternative uses.
Alternative Uses
Honestly i couldn’t really think of any for what does witch bolt do dnd 5e, it specifies that you have to target a creature so you can’t use it on objects and it’s just quite a limiting spell as far as i can tell. Everytime i’ve used it, it’s always been to my own detriment so they don’t really have the best relationship with it. That being said, maybe you do. Don’t miss out this sleep spell 5e explained.
Conclusion
So if you have any alternative uses, any cool ways to use witch bolt or any cool stories about it i’d really like to hear down in the comment section beneath and i know everyone else checking this article would as well. That being said guys, thank you so much for checking out and i really do appreciate it. I hope you all have a wonderful day and as always happy casting. Also check out this dnd 5e twinned spell witch bolt | 5e best dex weapon.