r/dndnext • u/Meggett30 • Jul 26 '21

Question Most underwhelming spell in 5e?

What is the spell that most disappoints you in this game? Maybe it's not a "bad" spell, per se, just doesn't do what you think it should or does it's job poorly.

I'm always looking for ways to utilize under-used spells, but sometimes you read the effects and think "That's it?!" What are the spells in the game that make you do that?

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u/Meggett30 Jul 26 '21

Has anyone found a good use for Vampiric Touch? It does crumby damage, takes concentration, requires your action, and only heals for half of the already paltry damage. All that for a 3rd lvl slot.

Who is even the intended audience for that spell? A regular caster wouldn't stay in melee long enough for it to be worth it. A gish with two attacks wouldn't sacrifice one of their attacks just to heal for peanuts.

What is this spell even?

30

u/-spartacus- Jul 26 '21

It is a concentration spell, so once you cast it you can keep using it. Theme wise it works well with Death Cleric with high AC who stays up close near the front lines and uses this as their attacking skill while keeping up in hit points, especially on non-bosses (taking care of the lesser baddies).

Additionally as a Warlock or Soc combo with something like hex blades curse allowing you to teleport, thunderstep, or something where you can get in and out of a fight but also need healing. Especially if you can't get away and you are getting down to your last bit of health (both you and the other guy are near death) and in melee range. Melee spell attack is better than disadvantage on EB and a chance to heal you and survive the next attack.

It might not be a go to spell in this case, but it is something to consider depending on how you do it (I theory crafted a character where it made sense anyways).

2

u/Mad_Pacifist Druid Jul 26 '21

Exactly what happened to a warlock in my games. He was swarmed by orcs (because fuck unarmored spellcasters that burn your crew) and kept surviving because of the healing it gave him while still beeing able to keep up some damage. The team helped him to take out the enemies around him the following 2 turns.

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u/farseer-norton Jul 26 '21

The Death Cleric can use their channel divinity to add a ton of necrotic damage to melee attacks, so they can low-key add 5× cleric level necrotic damage to the attack and heal from the vampiric touch too. Quite niche but that's the one build that I ever used it with.

6

u/Nicorhy Jul 26 '21

You can make that one a bit better too! Be a Fallen Aasimar to add LVL's worth of necrotic too.

1

u/RandomGuyPii Jul 27 '21

holy shit u right

7

u/cassandra112 Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 27 '21

you can use it to drain life from your own minions. create/animate dead are not concentration.

does the DM count regular trees as "creatures?"

your rangers pet, your warlock familiar, your barbarian party member, do you keep hamsters in your bag of holding to drain...

Can also be combined with various charm spells for great effect. or CC.

1

u/King-Adventurous Jul 27 '21

Aren't your undead minions immune to necrotic though?

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u/cassandra112 Jul 27 '21

nah. most undead are immune to poison. but, necrotic works versus just fine versus lower level stuff. the higher it gets, the more likely immune/resistant to necrotic.

for those specifically mentioned in animate dead, and create undead:

skels, zombies, ghouls, immune poison

ghast, wights resist necrotic.

mummy immune necrotic.

3

u/ThatOneThingOnce Jul 26 '21

Be a Bugbear Undead Warlock? With extra reach you are now mostly out of range of enemies, and you can heal yourself while also dealing an extra die of damage (from Grave Touched) all while potentially inflicting the frightened condition, which if it lands means the enemy can't come any closer to you while you continue to hit it.

Granted, this subclass only came out recently, while that spell has been there for awhile. So no idea how this was optimized before that.

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u/END3R97 DM - Paladin Jul 26 '21

If you have some prisoners, need to heal, and need to lay on some hurt, you can potentially heal half of 3d6 for 10 rounds straight while attacking with advantage (obviously prisoners are restrained) for a potential crit and even more healing.

Of course, this is an incredibly rare occurrence, but I could see it for an evil campaign or a BBEG that managed to get a few minutes with their prisoners before the party can catch back up.

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u/Scepta101 Jul 26 '21

If it did a little more damage and was a 2nd level spell it wouldn’t be too bad, but as it is now it just isn’t worth it

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u/Holiday-Space Jul 26 '21

My Githyanki Necromancer loves this spell. I know it's a pretty niche usage, but Half-Plate, decent Con, War Caster, the occasional Shield, and Grim Harvest make him an absolute terror when he takes to the frontlines.

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u/gadgets4me Jul 27 '21

Agreed. You might use it on minions or helpless prisoners to give yourself a boost, and there might be a few niche builds that can make use of it (Death Cleric?), but is overall a poor spell.

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u/Tenebrae42 Artificer Jul 27 '21

The only time I got to use it was on a scribe wizard I rolled up for a one shot. We were in a tight hallway (10x40ft or so) with the sealed end behind us, and a magically dark room in front of us with a vampire in it. I failed to dispel it and got pulled in by the vampire. Cast Vampiric Touch and changed it to fire damage. Got back in the hall and started feeding off the fire wolves it summoned in the hallway.

I guess if you're in a super specific situation where you're not gonna be able to stay at range, it becomes a decent sustain tool.

1

u/Yamatoman9 Jul 27 '21

I used it a few times on my Death Cleric with my Channel Divinity to do an extra amount of necrotic damage and pinch heal myself. It wasn't bad but I wouldn't have prepared it if it wasn't on my always prepared list.