Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 DaleMcCoy Mar 17, 2015 10:33:27	Link to original post.    Last week, I discussed spells that I am glad changed. Today I would like to discuss some of my favorite spells that are new. While it is true that the majority of the spells are either the same as previous editions or very recognizable, some spells never appeared in 3rd edition or earlier (they may have appeared in 4th; again I am not terribly familiar with that edition). So in no particular order, several spells that are are new that I enjoy.   Witch Bolt. This spell is for people like me, that roll ABSOLUTELY terribly. First you cast true strike and then you use witch bolt on your victim. It deals its damage and then it deals additional damage every turn thereafter as long as I stay close and don't do anything else. This means I don't have to miss again and again with multiple attack rolls when using eldritch blast. Its a really good low level attack spell for the bad dice karma crowd.  Thunderwave. As a nice answer to burning hands, thunderwave is similar as a base spell but has a different theme. In 3.5/Pathfinder, sonic is kind of the odd-man-out when it comes to damage types. But now it is thunder damage and there is a nice damage spell for sorcerers/wizards (obviously), druids (thematically), bards (a nice touch), and clerics with the tempest domain. Having seen this used in game, I quite like it. Enhance Ability. This is more of a modification of 6 different spells than a genuinely new spell, but the fact that it is all together in one spells makes me happy.  Hunger of Hadar. This one I like just because it has a cool description. You are basically opening up a small portal, allowing cthulhuian tentacles to come out and rub up against your enemies. If you enemies have a protected location making it hard to hit, cast this little spell and they will all come running out to die by everything else you can throw their way.  So there you have some. Some new spells you should look at for your characters. What new spells do you like? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Have fun and keep gaming.
#2 Ralif_Redhammer Mar 17, 2015 11:10:26	Witch Bolt is a good one, but it always occasions “Which bolt?” jokes at my gaming group.
#3 arnwolf666 Mar 17, 2015 12:28:01	Absolutely hate the Enhance Ability Spell.
(Reply to #3) AaronOfBarbaria	arnwolf666 wrote:
#5 Rhenny Mar 17, 2015 15:49:42	Cool.     For the cleric, Spiritual Guardian is pretty awesome as well.  In our last game session the cleric and party were in dire straits against 8 animated suits of armor.  The cleric went to spiritual guardian and his guardians did  about 18 points or more to all 8 of the foes.  That's nearly 160 points of damage.   It was also cool to visualize his guardians hampering the movement of the foes as well.
#6 FallingIcicle Mar 17, 2015 16:21:53	Demiplane. There are so many uses for this spell - hideout, "portable" storage locker, etc. It's great for safely hiding your clones. Make tuning rods for your demiplanes and you can even use them with plane shift, trapping monsters inside them.   Misty Step. Being able to teleport as a bonus action is amazing. I don't think I'll ever play a wizard that doesn't take this spell.
(Reply to #4) arnwolf666	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
(Reply to #7) AaronOfBarbaria	arnwolf666 wrote:
#9 Tony_Vargas Mar 17, 2015 18:50:51	DaleMcCoy wrote:
#10 Tempest_Stormwind Mar 18, 2015 13:24:23	And Demiplane and Misty Step were 3e under the names Genesis and Dimension Hop, though the latter evolved into 4e's Misty Step eladrin racial power.   Thankfully, Demiplane is also nowhere near as exploitable as the first versions of Genesis - it let you set the planar traits, with no restriction on the time traits. Want a hideout where you can finish years-long research projects in a day, or an 8-hour rest in a minute (such that as long as you had two Plane Shifts, you had "unlimited spells")? With early Genesis, you could! (This was an absolute favorite among theoretical optimizers for a reason, although it rarely saw actual play since it's a situational 9th level spell that took months to develop.)   There was a version published in the Expanded Psionics Handbook - a book that 5e learned quite a lot from, in that this book introduced the idea of scaling by "slot" instead of scaling by "caster level" - which eventually banned this sort of stunt.  (It also removed an effect that showed up on some previous versions, the "anti-Genesis" effect where casting it on a different plane, including the material plane, wiped out everything in its slowly-advancing area.)   The XPH also had Animal Affinity, a single spell version of the 6 ability enhancers, so you can view that as a prototype for Enhance Ability.   Even Spirit Guardians is disturbingly similar to 3e's Legion of Sentinels, with a class swap (the 3e one is an illusionist trick rather than divine bodyguards, but the mechanics and imagery are really similar).   I'm not sure which spells are "really" new to 5e - but I do know I greatly prefer this edition's implementations of most of them.
#11 Zardnaar Mar 18, 2015 2:45:05	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#12 arnwolf666 Mar 18, 2015 3:49:53	I am quite aware of what Enhance Ability does.  I just don't find it worth a second level slot, especially with concentration.
#13 Zardnaar Mar 18, 2015 10:35:38	arnwolf666 wrote:
(Reply to #11) AaronOfBarbaria	Zardnaar wrote: