Inquisitor Lim's Bladesinger Guide

PUBLIC EDIT
Leave comments at GITP’s ​Inquisitor Lim's Guide to the Bladesinger thread.

Front Matter

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Introduction
Using This Guide
To-Do List
Terminology
Bladesinger Progression, A Discussion
Color Coding
Bladesinger Features
Comparison to Other (Near) Full Caster Gishes
Bladesinger ​I I
Fighter 1 / Abjurer X
Melee Arcana Cleric
Hexblade Warlock
Should You Multiclass?

Interaction with Other Classes

General
Barbarian
Bard
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Monk
Paladin
Ranger
 Rogue
Sorcerer
Warlock
Other Wizards

Races
Legal Races
Legal-with-Reincarnation Races
Expanded Races

Feats
Purple-Rated Feats
Black-Rated Feats
Blue-Rated Feats
Sky Blue-Rated Feats
Gold-Rated Feats

Magic Items
Armor and Shields
Potions
Rings
Rods
Staves
Miscellanous Wondrous Items

Spells
Cantrips
1st-Level Spells
2nd-Level Spells
3rd-Level Spells
4th-Level Spells
5th-Level Spells
6th-Level Spells
7th-Level Spells
8th-Level Spells
9th-Level Spells

(NEW!) Xanathar’s Spells

Cantrips
1st-Level Spells
2nd-Level Spells
3rd-level Spells
 4th-Level Spells
5th-Level Spells
6th-Level Spells
7th-Level Spells
8th-Level Spells
9th-Level Spells

Multiclassing

Mystara Campaign Setting

3rd-Party Races

3rd-Party Feats

3rd-Party Spells

Talents

Appendix A – Glyph of Warding Choices

Appendix B – Contingency Choices

Appendix C – Wish Choices

Appendix D – Spell Mastery Choices

1st-Level Spell Mastery Choices
2nd-level Spell Mastery Choices

Appendix E – Common Calculations

Appendix F – Monster Save and Ability Analysis

Appendix G - Fun Uses For Simulacrum

How to Get The Most From Your Simulacrum
Getting Ice for Simulacrum

Introduction
This guide to Bladesinger represents a combination of theorycrafting and practical play. I've played several Bladesingers,
including a Bladesinger that has gotten to level 14 in Adventurer's League, and my personal experience is that other
Bladesinger guides and builds don't quite reflect the game as she is played.
 A. The presumed unavailability of magical items. Many guides are written under the assumption of Bladesingers getting
no magical items. Magical items are a huge part of this guide.

B. The presumed unavailability of UA material. This one is more supported than Premise A, but I've played in enough
home and online games to feel that a discussion is warranted. The guide will include and discuss UA material.

C. That most tables experience 6-8 discrete, resource draining encounters per long rest. My personal experience is
that it's more like 1-4, leaning towards 1-2. My guide is written with the assumption (especially Premise D) that most
workdays are nowhere near as grueling as the rules assume.

D. The long-term desirability of your base melee capabilities. This gets discussed more in an upcoming session.
Needless to say, this guide steers bladesingers towards an increasingly pure magical role, with the melee combat
used as a backup.

E. A lot of guides (not just wizard or Bladesinger ones) rate game effects in the context of how awesome they would be
in a vacuum, agnostic to party composition. I disagree with that assessment. There are plenty of game effects that
are much more useful in the context of your party being on board with your cunning plans. How your class interacts
with other classes is just as important, in my opinion, in how your class interacts with itself and I consider this vital
enough to your effectiveness as a bladesinger to make a section dedicated to this question.

A lot of the advice in this guide, especially with respect to spells and magical items, are applicable to non-Bladesingers,
especially those who are still wizards.

Using This Guide

The best place to leave me comments, questions, or feedbacks is on the Giant In The Playground forum LOCATED HERE.
I will post two copies of this guide. The first one will be an editable document people can insert their comments into. The
second one will be the latest approved revision.

In the course of making this guide, I made extensive use of​ ​TreantMonks’s guide​ and ​Nadrigol's​ ​guide. I have not copied
any of their work, but a lot of the wording might be overly similar. If so, tell me and I'll change it or attribute it to them.

You are free to copy portions of this guide, including exact paragraphs, into your own guide so long as you acknowledge the
original source and what (if any) changed. You do not have permission to use this guide to make money.

This guide deliberately strives not to have any bad language (either in the form of swears or innuendos) in it. However, I
have a salty vocabulary in real life and some may have slipped in. If you see any language that wouldn't be appropriate for
a hard 'G' rated movie such as Beauty and the Beast, please let me know.
To-Do List
Top-Priority

● Multiclassing section
● Xanathar's Stuff
● Make Colors More Consistent
● Any spells, feats, or magical items I overlooked
● Discussion on monster save progression and what you should target
● Common calculations, i.e. Fire Bolt cantrip versus Bow and Arrow.

High-Priority
● More pictures
● An expanded section on downtime
● Interacting with other classes
● Tips and Tactics
● Magical items from the Tomb of Annihilation

Low-Priority
● Mystara Guide
● 3rd-Party Races
● 3rd-Party Feats
● 3rd-Party Spells
● Guide to Talents I and II
● Better descriptions for feats I pooh-poohed in the feat section.
Terminology
This guide doesn't define common acronyms like 'DM'. Those can be found in any reputable general guide or even the
PHB. See what I did there?

Terms Description
AL Adventurer's League

Appropriated Chess notation. They denote incredulity or dubiousness on behalf of the

(!) / (?)
author.
Concentration effect. The default time is 1 minute. If you can concentrate on a spell for
[C]
even longer, it’ll be noted in the term, such as ​[C - 1 hour].
Cleric or Druidzilla. A build in pre-4E D&D games denoting a character that spent all of
CoDZilla their spell slots on long-lasting buffs to make them fight better than supposedly melee
classes. Like Gish but unbalanced.
Common d20 Ability Check, Attack Roll, or Saving Throw. Which will be 95-99% of the rolls a PC or
Roll even a DM making with a d20.
Damage per round. The amount of hit point damage you can deal in a turn. Generally
DPR includes off-action, between-turn damage such as the passive damage from Spirit
Guardians.
Double Indicates a situation where you get to double your proficiency bonus to a d20 roll,
Proficiency typically from the general effect applying while you already get a proficiency bonus.

EE(PC) Elemental Evil (Player’s Companion)

End of turn save. An effect that nominally lasts a fixed amount of time but lets you try
EOTS
again on a save every round.
A magician, or character that is skilled in both physical combat and the use of magic.
Gish Most gish characters use their magical abilities to increase their own personal combat
abilities (known as "buffing").
This magical item requires a Bladesinger to multiclass in order to use. All such items
[M]
also require attunement.

[N] This magical item does not require attunement in order for a Bladesinger to use it.

OA Opportunity Attack / Attack of Opportunity

This magical item requires attunement to get its full effects, but still has some magical
[P]
effects for users who do not fully attune to it.

[R] Ritual spell.

A rules-clarification column by Jeremy Crawford that is considered official. Most games

Sage Advice
I've played, even Official Convention Ones, don't use Sage Advice. Nonetheless, Sage
 Advice can drastically affect the utility of certain options.

SCAG Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

TWF Two-weapon fighting

UA Unearthed Arcana
Bladesinger Progression, A Discussion
Before I start, ​I want everyone to read the first two pages of this excellent Reach Cleric guide​. It was written for Pathfinder
and specifically for the cleric, but I can't think of a better way to get people in the mindset of what I think is the most effective
way to play and build a Bladesinger.

This is your spiritual ancestor if you play the class according to this guide.

The Bladesinger has much the same identity crisis of the Pathfinder Cleric; its early levels push it towards more of a pure
melee role due to limited spell slots. However, at higher levels, it's better served by being a pure caster. That said, the
dichotomy for Bladesinger isn't as stark as it would be for a Pathfinder character. Unless your DM is dropping Staves of
Power left and right, you simply do not have the juice to be casting spells the whole fight unless your DM regularly does
one-encounter oworkdays. On the other hand, due to the way Concentration and Save DC works, D&D 5E's lower-level
spell slots stay useful for much longer than Pathfinder's lower-level spell slots, pushing you towards a control role.

The best way to play a Bladesinger, in my opinion, is to use your melee capabilities as A) a way to stretch out your spell
slots, B) to take pressure off of your frontline fighters, and C) to get the most out of spells wizards would otherwise struggle
to use.​ Spells like Greater Invisibility, Blur, Foresight, Globe of Invulnerability, and Investiture of Stone are pretty good in a
backline wizard's hands, but they are downright amazing in a Bladesinger’s.

That said, while 5E D&D has been very disciplined over the course of three years of not publishing sourcebooks that would
replicate the melee CoDzilla, this may change a few years after this guide is put together. If 5E D&D does release an
assortment of long-lasting, concentration-free buffs then the philosophy of this guide may change dramatically. But until
then, this guide recommends that you stay on the straight-and-narrow path. Stay full Bladesinger, don't wander too far into
pumping up your melee capabilities.
Color Coding
I will use a slightly more complicated color coding than most guides.

RED​ represent trap options. You will want to avoid it because it makes your character worse or is notably outclassed by
something similar.

PURPLE​ represent substandard options. You may squeeze some use out of it in a once-in-a-campaign kind of way, but
over time it's a waste of resources.

BLACK​ options are average options. There are better choices, but you're not really hurting yourself or your team by picking
them.

BLUE​ colored options are good. You will find them useful and even if it's not the optimal choice you won't feel like you're
underperforming.

SKY BLUE​ is a great choice. You should strongly consider picking up options like these unless layou're going for
something unusual.

GOLD​ are near-mandatory options if you want to call yourself optimal. They're permanently build-defining.

GREEN​ represents options that have too many variables dependent on an individual table (or even session) to consider to
give a firm rating. ​GREEN​ is also used to lump together options of the same category who only differ in small ways but have
different ratings.

DUAL​-​COLORED​ is used for options that can noticeably differ in effectiveness depending on a common in-game or
out-game situation. The first color represents the status quo. The second rating represents the new rating if this common
situation applies to your game. If the situation doesn't come up that often or is too variable to count on, a ​GREEN​ rating is
used instead.

PINK ​represents options that may not be optimal at the time of this guide, but the open-endedness of the effect may make it
more useful in the future after the game releases more sourcebooks. A canonical example are the Conjure spells, which
could easily go up two notches in rating depending on what kind of monsters get printed in the future.
Bladesinger Features
Hit Points​ – No way around it. You have, at 1d6, the worst hit points in the game. You will be taken out by lucky criticals for
the first fourth of the game. This guide will focus on damage mitigation instead of absorption.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies​ – Worst in the game. Not having armor proficiency isn't too terrible (Mage Armor is as
good as +1 studded leather) but lack of weapon proficiencies will bite you. Oh, you found a magical scimitar you think you'd
really like? Too bad, you can't use it.

Saves​ – Intelligence is a rare save, unless your DM goes bananas with illusions. Wisdom is the most important save in the
game and is very common. You really would like Constitution or at least Dexterity, but you don't get it. Bladesong is very
good for concentration checks, but you probably want additional insurance in the form of Lucky, Resilient: Con, or
Warcaster.

Multiclassing​ – Intelligence isn't used for any of the PHB multiclasses and it's unlikely you'll have a strength and especially
a charisma of 13, meaning you'll have a rougher time multiclassing than anyone else in the game save Paladins.

Magical Item Attunement​ – You get access to all of the great staves and spellcaster doodads such as the Robe of the
Archmagi and the Tome of the Stilled Tongue. Eldritch Knights and Arcane Tricksters are usually tempted to pick up a level
of wizard just to use that Staff of Fire they found.

Skills ​– You start with two skills, like all of the other non-skill monkey classes. This might be a problem (or an opportunity,
depending on how much you want to hog the spotlight) since you will probably be the only person in the group with a decent
score in intelligence skills. Bladesinger gives you an additional skill for free, but it (Performance) is likely to be keyed off of
your dump stat and in any case won’t be too useful.

Spellcasting​ – You get full spellcasting off of the best list in the game. Clerics and druids will usually have more day-to-day
options, but your list will always be the envy of theirs. It's even worse for casters like sorcerers and warlocks; they both
have a more restricted list AND fewer spells prepared. Four Mystic Arcanums, ever, that the Warlock can't change? Rough.
Probably the only spellcaster who can even aspire to have your versatility is the Lore Bard, and they will be using most of
their free spells (via 6th level and/or 10th level “Magical Secrets”) poaching from your list.

Cantrips​ – You get a decent number of cantrips over the course of the game, from what's probably the best list. The only
cantrips you'll wish you have but don't have are Eldritch Blast, Thorn Whip, and Guidance.

Spellbook​ – Even though your base spellcasting already puts you ahead of every other caster, this is what really puts you
over the top. Copying spells into your book is both inexpensive and quick; you can copy three fourth-level spells into your
book for the cost of 12 hours and 120 gp. You can also copy from scrolls, which is a godsend. Even games that are stingy
on magical items tend to have scrolls and spellbooks lying around.
If you're in Adventurer's League, always keep a bank of 20 downtime days just for scribing spells. Both from other wizards
you meet and also so that you have enough downtime to pay it forward. It is the height of rudeness not to let wizards copy
every spell they want from your spellbook, downtime depending.

Also if you're in Adventurer's League; your spellbook is a way to get around the 'you can only have the PHB plus one other
book' limitation, a godsend for Bladesingers. You may in fact want to have a second wizard character around whose only
purpose is to accumulate spells you can't get.

Ritual Casting​ – Ritual Casting is always fun, if situational, but this feature in combination with Spellbook clinches your role
as the group's Batman. Casters like the cleric and sorcerer have to devote a precious preparation, or even worse, an even
more precious known spell slot to use this. You? If it's in your book, you're casting it. You also get arguably the best rituals
in the game.

Arcane Recovery​ – Once per long rest, get half your wizard level (rounded up) in total spell slots recovered, maximum
level of five. Even better, this is at the end of your short rest rather than something you spend a short rest doing. Meaning
you can do other things during your short rest like attuning a magic item or actually napping.

Training in War and Song​ – You get training in light armor. Very good, especially if magical armor starts dropping. You
also gain proficiency with one type of one-handed weapon of your choice. Think very carefully about what weapon you pick,
especially if you're not an elf. Your choice will lock you into that item for likely the rest of the game. You also get proficiency
in the Performance skill. Meh. Can be fun for backgrounds that force you to pick up Performance (such as Gladiator) so you
can pick something else.

Bladesong​ – This is what you came for! Amazing benefits with some significant drawbacks. So long as you eschew
medium or heavy armor, shields, or using two hands to make an attack with a weapon, you get: +INT to your AC, +10 to
walking speed, advantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks, and +INT to Constitution saving throws to maintain
concentration. You get two Bladesongs per short rest. You will generally have enough Bladesongs to last you through most
to all threatening combats.

Ability Score Improvement​ – You get five. The same number as everyone but the fighter and rogue. Unless you rolled like
a protagonist in the climax of a gambling movie, you will only have room for one feat plus stat maxing. Make it count.

Extra​ ​Attack​ – Is Extra Attack worse than using the SCAG cantrips? The answer to this question one of the main reasons I
became dissatisfied with other Bladesinger guides. The answer to that is: depends on what kind of magical items and
poisons drop. Meaning, that while guides assume that none will drop, my experience is that they DO dr
op enough to make this feature worth it. Extra Attack also makes using a Longbow competitive with your cantrips for most
or even all of the game depending on what kind of magical items or poisons drop.

Song of Defense​ – While Bladesinging, you can expend a spell slot to reduce damage by 5 points per spell level. This
competes with your reaction, but it will protect you against effects that Absorb Elements and Shield will not, such as necrotic
AoEs. It is by no means a bad idea to reserve a few spell slots explicitly for Song of Defense and bank them as extra hit
points. This will also turn those dreaded critical hits from something concentration-ruining to something you can easily tank.
Song of Victory​ – A no-questions-asked damage boost is one of the best things that can happen to you and it's enough to
put you back in the game after several levels of asking why you're still bothering with melee.

Spell Mastery​ – Choose one 2nd-level and one 1st-level spell. You can use them an unlimited amount of time. You will
probably end up picking Shield and Misty Step, though a lot of normally marginal choices become much more viable in your
hands. SEE THE SECTION ON SPELL MASTERY FOR MORE DETAILS.

Signature Spell​ – Pick two third-level spells. Not only do they no longer count against your total spells prepared, you can
now cast them once each per short rest without expending a spell slot. Kind of a weak capstone for a level 20 class, but
mostly because you've probably already broken the game six ways from Sunday by now. Still very good in of itself.
Comparison to Other (Near) Full Caster Gishes
If what you want to do is run around and hit people with a sword while throwing around fireballs (i.e., a Gish), Bladesinger is
not your only choice. In fact, depending on what exactly you want to do, Bladesinger may not be the best option. If what you
want to do is tank and do area denial, a Storm Cleric Is probably better. If you want to do huge amounts of spike damage, a
Sorceradin or a Hexblade is definitely better.

Bladesinger Itself
Bladesinger Pros: ​Access to best spell list in the game. Best AC in the game with no magical items and best AC in the
game with generous access to magical items. Best out of all gishes at damage mitigation.
Bladesinger Cons: ​Can only be elves in Adventurer's League without a lucky Reincarnation roll. Single-target damage will
start to suffer in the mid-game unless they switch full-time to TWF or the DM drops a lot of offensive magical items. Can not
use two-handed weapon fighting, typically the most damaging style in the game. Poor hit points and little opportunity to
raise it will cause things like critical hits and non-energy, non-AC attacks to rock them.

Fighter 1 / Abjurer X
Fighter-Abjurer Pros:​ Huge hit point stack. Constitution saving throw proficiency. If campaign doesn't drop magical items,
their offense will be comparable to that of a Bladesinger by using SCAG cantrips. Abjurer hands out great defensive
features and top-none counterspelling. If magical items do drop, they can go sword-and-board for an AC comparable to that
of non-max level Bladesingers.
Fighter-Abjurer Cons:​ Behind a spell level. Is forced to choose between offense (two-handed weapon fighting) and
defense (shield) and will have the weakest offense if they choose defense.

Melee Arcana Cleric

Melee Cleric Pros: ​Spell-Breaker and Arcane Abjuration will get more powerful as the game goes on. They can fully swap
out their spell list when they feel like. Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon will keep their DPR consistent and high
throughout the game.
Melee Cleric Cons: ​You'll start to suffer on spell selection starting at level 11 and won't catch up until level 17. Except for
Protection from Evil and Good and at very high level Holy Aura, they have trouble inflicting disadvantage on demand. No
Counterspell. Maintaining level-appropriate gish damage will be heavy on the spell slots. Can't use a lot of the
endurance-extending magical items like Staves of Fire.

Hexblade Warlock
Hexblade Pros:​ Can more easily multiclass. Charisma is a more useful roleplaying stat than intelligence. Between
Hexblade's Curse, Lifedrinker, and Cursebringer can do huge amounts of sustained and spike melee damage. Armor of
Hexes is peerless melee single-target defense. Very durable for extended weapons, the 6-8 encounter ones.
Hexblade Cons:​ They very much lack on spell slots. They get spells like Shield and Hex but Pact Magic makes it so that
you won't be using it them as often as you would like. Mystic Arcanum heavily limits the versatility of their spell slots.
Sorceradin
Sorceradin Pros:​ Between Quicken Spell and Smite, they have enormous, almost peerless amounts of spike damage.
Empowered Spell allows them to have good damage on their backup spells.
Sorceradin Cons:​ Unless you have playing the oldschool Favored Soul, their spell selection will suffer even with Paladin
piggybacking. Depending on how much they push the Paladin part over the Sorcerer, their ability to use high-level spells will
be delayed or even unattainable.

Valor/Blade Bard
Bard Pros:​ Can more easily multiclass. Charisma is a more useful roleplaying stat than intelligence. Bard can cherry pick
certain spells that wizard will not get (most notably Spirit Guardians, Conjure Animals, and Swift Quiver). Bard can use
Great-Weapon Fighting for a badly needed damage boost.
Bard Cons:​ Bard doesn't start to blossom until around level 10 or so. With no heavy armor or spells like Shield, Haste, Blur,
and Mirror Image your frontline will suffer. Can't use a lot of the endurance-extending magical items like Staves of Fire.
Should You Multiclass?
Because multiclassing is very popular, this guide does have an extensive section on multiclassing. However, before you do,
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION EVEN IF YOUR POT OF GOLD IS WATCHING THAT DAMAGE-PER-ROUND GO UP!

A lot of people look at the Bladesinger, note they don't have a passive melee damage adder like Sneak Attack or the
Two-Weapon Fighting Style, note that they can't use Great Weapon Fighting, then panic and start looking for ways to slap
on multiclassing to increase their melee efficacy. The popular opinion (and fix) is to splash in a level of two of Fighter or
even Paladin or Hexblade.

I think this is wrongheaded. If your intent is to use your Bladesinger to melee, splashing in a level is generally not worth it
until the very end of the game, and only in specific circumstances. If you look at your Bladesinger as a platform for highly
defensive damage from a variety of sources -- rather than the orthodox view of only viewing melee DPR as important –
you'll find multiclassing is never worth it.

Level 6:​ You miss out on Fireball, Haste, and/or Extra Attack. If you're feeling cheesy, you also miss out on Animate Dead
for extra skeleton minions.

Level 8:​ But let's say you're a Bladesinger 6 / Fighter 2. Now you miss out on Polymorph and Greater Invis. One of them is
a turbo-charged swiss army knife that you will always find a use for, the other one makes you a melee god.

Level 10:​ Let's say you're a Bladesinger 8 / Fighter 2. Now you miss out on Animate Objects. With Arcane Recovery, you
could've cast this three times per day. This is a titanic boost to your DPR. You also miss out on Song of Defense. You have
two good tricks of 'don't die instantly when monsters look at you funny' (Absorb Elements, Shield) but this completes the
trinity. There are a lot of big-time damage makers you have no answer to and sometimes a critical hit sneaks through. If
you're abusing Planar Binding, you miss out on extra Conjure Elementals.

Level 12:​ You miss out on Contingency. You can think of it as an Action Surge that only works with buffs and/or abn Action
Surge that works even better with defensive ploys. SEE MY SECTION ON CONTINGENCY FOR MORE DETAILS. If you
managed to get that spell, you also miss out on Tenser’s Transformation. I could live without Tenser’s, but I have a hard
time imagining someone who loved them some melee showboating doing so.
.
Level 14:​ You miss out on SIMULACRUM. Best feature anyone gets in the game, with the possible exception of Wish. It's
so good that I recommend snagging Shape Water just so you'll have a source of ice for it. You also miss out on Song of
Victory, which is one of the biggest passive DPR adders per game. If you're using TWFing + Haste, this is an extra 16-20
damage per round. That smite or fighting style ain't looking so hot now

Level 16:​ Actually, you don't miss out on much here. I haven't played at this level of play, but I would imagine really
regretting that I didn't have Maze. But this is probably the level in which I'd feel most comfortable being behind two levels.
You do have enough spell slots to cast Tenser’s Transformation to last you an entire workday if that’s the only thing you
care about.
Level 18:​ Now it’s back to regrets again. You miss out on Spell Mastery. This is infinite shield and misty step/mirror image
all day long. This is better than any class feature any martial gives you with the possible exception of Aura of Protection.
You also miss out on Foresight and Wish and Shapechange and True Polymorph. Any one of those four spells is better
than any class feature any martial gives you, period.

Level 20:​ You might think that you're in the clear, but a lot of guides miss out on the fact that you gain an extra level 6 and
level 7 spell slot. Even if you're not interested in another Mass Suggestion or Whirlwind, you could always just cast
Contingency or Tenser’s Transformation twice and have those spells for every challenging workday encounter instead of
just one. Signature Spell is okay, but it's still good.

Long story short: the Bladesinger doesn't become lackluster at melee combat in non-extended workdays because they're
bad at melee combat. If you consider your spell arsenal as an aspect of melee combat, they completely explode in
effectiveness at around level 11.

The 'problem' is that their spellcasting arsenal becomes BETTER than melee combat. Greater Invisibility will turn you into a
melee God against anything that can't see you, but Fly upcast to level 4, or turning the out-of-resources rogue into a Giant
Ape will save your party's life more often. Animate Objects is good and all for your DPR, but it won't trivialize encounters like
Wall of Force will. You could use Contingency to fast-cast Haste or Greater Invisibility for a second encounter in the day. Or
you could use it to cast Mass Suggestion.
Interaction with Other Classes

General
As the wizard, you are likely the only class with decent access to intelligence skills unless a Knowledge Cleric, a Bard, or an
unusual rogue wants to dip their toes into that area. You should at least have Investigation and Arcana trained. Having
Religion and History trained is a good idea, too.

Barbarian
Barbarians rely on facetanking to get the most out of their role, and it’s something they do VERY well. That said, they often
have an AC that leaves a bit to be desired, especially if they use Reckless Attack. They will very much appreciate having a
Protection from Evil and Good or, even better, a Greater Invis to increase their defense. Because barbarians halve a lot of
common damage, every attack that misses a barbarian is double the money in the bank. If you back up a Barbarian with
Ray of Enfeeblement, feel free to break out the lemonade and hammocks.

Barbarians often suffer against mental stat saving throws, so having a Dispel Magic and/or a Protection from Evil and Good
prepared will keep them alive.

A lot of barbarians tend to have crummy ranged attacks, so it’s a good idea to keep a Fly or a similar effect on standby in
case the enemy gets cheeky and starts flying out of reach.
I
If you want to make your DM cry, consider Sentinel and join the Barbarian on the frontline. Most monsters aren’t going to
want to attack the AC 26 with disadvantage Bladesinger, so you’ll be getting a lot of free attacks.

Bard
If you expect a challenging combat and have Counterspell and/or Dispel Magic prepared, ask for an Inspiration die. If you’re
ever making an ability check out of combat, ask for an Inspiration die. With Bounded Accuracy, you will need it. Since most
bards will have more skills than they know what to do with, it’s not bad to ask them for some Help on skills like History and
Arcana as well. It’s not unlikely for them to be better than you at these skills, so be prepared to return the favor.

If your teammate is a Lore Bard, ask them to reserve some uses of their ability for when you tag an opponent with effects
that only end on a check, such as Phantasmal Force or Web. It’s a good way to get some dice thrown in your faces. If you
REALLY want to bring the pain, try to get some Hex action, too. A lot of bards will balk at using their Magical Secrets on a
first-level spell, so remind them that Hex will also make it really hard for targets to resist their charisma checks.

Lore Bards tend to have absolutely crummy AC (light armor proficiency, no shields, no Shield Spell) so watch out so they’re
not swarmed.
Cleric
The cleric tends to be everyone’s best friend, for good reason, so if you play your cards right you’ll in turn be the cleric’s
best friend. The fact that you don’t need as much maintenance and babysitting as other party members will go a long way.
That said, don’t turn down an Aid or Warding Bond spell if it’s offered.

If you have a cleric in the party, you will as soon as you get to level 10 have a Dispel Magic and Counterspell prepared and
probably a Remove Curse, too. No exceptions. You might be able to get by without a cleric, but your teammates will not.
And if the cleric goes down, especially to some backline nonsense, guess whose fault it is?

Stoneskin isn’t the greatest of spells, but it’s really not a bad idea to use it on the party cleric, especially if they’re a frontliner
like a Tempest cleric. And because clerics have trouble before level 15 getting Disadvantage on demand, feel more than
free to hit them up with a Greater Invisibility.

Clerics don’t have many spell slots and are simultaneously very dependent on them for effectiveness. Don’t ask for spells
outside of life-or-death emergencies. If it comes down to someone needing to use a spell slot, you are first up. You can still
contribute even with no spell slots left. The cleric struggles to do so past the low levels.

Spirit Guardians is an amazing spell on its own, but one of the best things about it is how it halves enemy movement. If the
cleric is using that spell, you should strongly consider backing them up with a difficult terrain-creating or similar movement
spell like Web, Erupting Earth, or Evard’s Black Tentacles, etc.

By the rules, bless and guidance stack. So if you’re in a situation undemanding on time and spell slots, slow down on trying
to decipher that Book of Eldritch Secrets if you can.

Finally, while Divination and Contact Other Plane are good rituals, they’re amazing when used together. Use Contact Other
Plane to narrow the range of questions down, and use Divination to get specific answers.

Druid
Like you, druids get a lot of spells that are sublime at hindering enemy movement. Plant Growth and something like
Transmute Rock or Evard’s Black Tentacles is so evil you should expect for the DM to ask you two to leave the table the
third or so time you do it.

Another ‘if you do this expect your DM to give you two a stern talking-to’ trick you can do is combine Conjure Minor
Elementals/Animate Dead with Animal Shapes. The huge amount of power you can get from doing this combo probably
won’t be excused with a ‘but it’s 3/4ths to the end of the game, c’mon DM’.

Druids love summoning. It’s true. Unfortunately, D&D 5E limited the utility of buffs. That said, one ‘buff’ that will always be
appreciated are the infliction of status conditions such as Restrained and Paralyzed. Restrained is always good, but
Restrained while being surrounded by four dimetrodons is even better.
Don’t get too concerned about buffing up a Moon druid to increase their durability. It’s not a bad use of the spell slot, but
druids get two uses of wild shape per short rest which translates to a huge increase in endurance. Especially if they
transform into an elemental.

Fighter
Between Action Surge and Great Weapon Fighting/Sharpshooter, Fighters can really bring the pain if they want to. Your job
is to make it so that they can bring the pain. Greater Invisibility will usually do the trick, but you should be prepared with
Restrained or Prone against enemies with Blindsight and Truesight.

The Eldritch Knight is very vulnerable to Counterspell due to their reduced spell progression. If they want to cast spells
(which ranges from ‘not a bad idea’ to ‘excellent idea! I’ll back you up’ for them depending on their stats, since they can
impose disadvantage against spells) do not let them do that without you being able to Counterspell any Counterspells.

Monk
Two words: Stunning Strike. The Monk leads, and you follow. You want that Disintegrate or Telekinesis or Bigby’s Grasping
Hand to land? You better wait your turn.

Don’t worry too much about backing the Monk up with buffs. They can get disadvantage on demand and can go ‘lol no’ to a
bunch of common status effects and attack methods, especially at higher level. Quite likely, a monk at level 18 will be
harder to kill than you will be.

If you are lucky enough to party with a 17th level Monk of the Open Hand, you are obligated to drain any and all foes of
Legendary Saves.

Paladin
More than anyone else in the party, Paladins appreciate two things: Haste and Hold. Get well acquainted with those two
spells if you’re in it with the party for the long haul. Once they gain a few levels, it’s rarely a bad idea to (unlike most
wizards) stick close to them for Aura of Protection, Courage, etc.

A nice way of getting double-disadvantage is to stay close to a Paladin that has the Protection fighting style and put a
Protection from Evil and Good or even a Greater Invisibility on them.

Ranger
The strongest rangers try to focus on taking down hordes. You can best back them up by helping them soften up the hordes
with AoE spells.

Also, ask your DM if they’ll let you use Silent/Major Image, or even better, Minor Illusion to help the Ranger with Hide in
Plain Sight.
Technically, Bestial’s Fury ability to allow you to substitute Multiattack for Attack works just fine with Haste. I haven’t tried
this yet, but since most animal companions are kind of underpowered, I don’t see a game balance reason why not.

Rogue
You can very easily go on stealthy adventures with Rogues and it’s likely they’ll very much appreciate having you as a
tag-along. The spells you’ll be wanting are Invisibility, Dispel Magic, Gaseous Form, Locate Object, Nondetection, Rope
Trick, Phantasmal Force (look, here’s our gate pass), Silent and Major Image, and so forth. Rogues have expertise on the
dexterity stuff and almost certainly better social skills, so you’ll be the sidekick.

Sorcerer
As you might have guessed, the Sorcerer has a much more restricted spell list and preparation scheme than you do. Never
expect them to pick utility spells unless it’s one you absolutely do not get, such as Enhance Ability. In fact, it’s a good idea
to let them peek at your spellbook each time they pick new spells to give them more options. Someone in the party should
have Fly, but unless your DM is super-stingy with spellbook and scroll drops, it probably shouldn’t be them.

Sorcerer gets first pick of any magical staves. This includes even OMG-Awesome staves such as the Staff of Power and
Staff of the Magi. They need it more than you. Yeah, I know, losing out on +2 to AC and Saves stinks. Suck it up,
Bladesinger.

Warlock
If your Warlock has Eldritch Blast, try to convince them to snag Repelling Blast. At-Will, Concentration-Free Pushes
(especially since Eldritch Blast will be many a Warlock’s primary attack) will pair up VERY nicely with zones. If escaping a
pit of Transmute Rock was hard enough, escaping it with a 30 foot push every round is impossible.

● Hex is also a fun effect. A lot of your spells require checks to get out, not saves. Meaning that a well-timed Hex can
make getting out of, say, a Phantasmal Force or a Telekinesis go from ‘doable’ to ‘near-impossible’. Remember,
Warlocks struggle to have enough spell slots, so don’t get pushy asking for a Hex, Mr. Bladesinger.

If you have a Warlock in your group, you will be leaning towards utility magic more heavily than you normally would. The
Warlock simply does not have the spell slots to be doing more than perfunctory utility magic. While you, the Bladesinger,
can always upcast even if it’s at reduced effectiveness.

Warlock gets first pick of any magical staves, even before the Sorcerer does. Wizards, especially Bladesinger wizards, who
don’t do everything in their power to ease the burden of the limited spell slots of a Warlock are scum.

Other Wizards
All PC wizards copy from each others’ spellbook free of charge save for the required inks. Even if the wizard in question
killed your mom and shaved your cats. That’s just common courtesy.
Races

Legal Races
Elf, Dark​ (SCAG) – Useless charisma bonus, useless drow magic keyed off of a dump stat, and Sunlight Vulnerability. We
have a loser here! Do like that Dex boost, though, not like every other dang elf can’t get it.
Elf, Wood​ – If you absolutely must have that speed boost and can’t start out as a Variant Human with Mobile, this works as
a last resort option. Getting a +1 to WIS instead of to INT does hurt, though.
Elf, High​ – Probably your default pick. An extra wizard cantrip isn’t a killer app like an extra skill is, but it is good. But you’re
really here for the +2 to Dex, +1 to INT, free Perception, Fey Heritage, Darkvision, and weapon proficiencies. Geez, this is a
good race.
Elf, Eladrin​ (DMG) – We ‘say’ legal, but you can’t play this race in Adventurer’s League. Which is too bad, because it gets
all of the standard High Elven goodness but gets Misty Step instead of a cantrip.
Half-Elf​ – +1 stat bonuses how you’d like and +2 to CHA. Fey Ancestry and two bonus skills add some extra spice. None
of the half-elven subraces are really worth giving up your precious two skills for, though. If you need charisma for something
(i.e. multiclassing into Warlock or Sorcerer) Half-Elf becomes Gold.

Legal-with-Reincarnation Races
Tiefling​ (PHB Base, SCAG expanded options) – +1 to intelligence, fire resistance, and the trio of thaumaturgy/hellish
rebuke/darkness are okay, but the +2 to charisma ​holds the basic tiefling back​. However, SCAG lets you swap some of
those options, including the stats. So the question is: can we do better? And the answer is: yes we can!
● Devil’s Tongue​ swaps out the spells for a different list: Vicious Mockery, Charm Person, and Enthrall. These would
be great for, say, a Bard but you don’t do Charisma unless ​you rolled high. Then it’s a great trade.
● Feral​ trades out that near-useless +2 CHA for an awesome +2 DEX, making you a +2 DEX/+1 Int race with fire
resistance. Feral also stacks with every other Tiefling trait.
● Hellfire​ swaps out my situationally useful Hellish Rebuke for something I will never use, Burning hands​. ​Stacks with
Feral.
● Winged​ swaps out spells for 30 feet of flight, no questions asked. Sold.
Bottom line? If you make a Tiefling with Feral and Winged, ​you will get a solid race that can compete with Variant
Humans​. Otherwise, it’s not that great.
Dragonborn​ – Oh, baby, I love your bonus to two dump stats, a terrible AoE, and resistance to elements you can replicate
with Absorb Elements. Slather that mediocrity all over me, sugar.
Dwarf, Mountain​ – CON is good. The rest of the features? You will not be using them, since it requires armor.
Half-Orc​ – CON bonus is fun. So is once per long rest getting a mini-Death Ward. +2 Strength, Intimidation skill, and an
extra damage dice for critical hits? Not fun.
Dwarf, Hill​ – WIS is a near-dump stat, but you get a LOT of hit points. But if I wanted a LOT of hit points, I’d be a variant
human and pick Tough or Resilient: Con instead.
Gnome, Rock​ – Like Deep and Forest Gnome, only a +1 CON instead of a +1 DEX. You still get gnome cunning and the
speed reduction, and the bonus to certain history checks is nice, but your Tinker ability is completely useless.
Halfling, Lightfoot ​ – The +1 to Charisma is wasted and the 25 base speed just hurts. But Rerolling 1s on Common d20
Rolls, advantage against being frightened, moving through Large or large creatures spaces, being able to hide as long as
there’s at least one creature a size larger than you, and still getting +2 to DEX? Adds up to a ton of fun.
Human​ – +1 to all stats means starting out with a 16 in INT, CON, and DEX so long as you’re willing to dump WIS. +1 to all
stats also makes multiclassing into a CHA class feasible (with a 16 16 and 14 for your other stats) if you’re still obsessed
with that noise.
Gnome, Forest​ – +2 INT, +1 DEX. Minor Illusion is a cantrip you won’t mind having. Being able to have simple
conversations with any creature small or smaller is useful at low levels if you remember it. But the real star of the show is
Gnome Cunning. Advantage on all INT/WIS/CHA saving throws against magic. Pity about that 5 foot speed reduction.
Halfling, Stout​ – All of the fun of the Lightfoot halfling, but you trade a +1 to CHA for +1 to CON (nice!) and being able to
hide behind larger creatures for advantage on poison saving throws and resistance to poison damage. Hrm. Better at mid
and higher levels, worse at lower ones. I’ll take it!
Human,​ ​Variant​ – +1 goes into INT and DEX. Heck, if you wanted the triple 16s you could even snag Resilient: CON. Extra
skill and language is always nice. Gold-rated if you’re going for an unusual combination (like Warcaster and Polearm
Master) and you still want to max all of your stats. Also gold-rated if you’re rolling for stats and exceeded what you could get
out of point buy.

Expanded Races
Dwarf, Duergar​ (SCAG) – No spells unique to a bladesinger, bad constitution bonuses, and worse of all sunlight
vulnerability? Not a chance.
Minotaur​ (UA, Waterborne Adventures) – Int bump does not redeem the fact that nothing in this race – the horns, the
freed-up hand you can’t use a shield in, the Strength bonuses – synergizes with what you do.
Orc​ (Volo’s) – A reduction to intelligence? I’m not reading the rest of this drivel.
Aasimar, Fallen​ (Volo’s) – Aasimar do come with some goodies. Resistance to necrotic and radiant, heal up to someone’s
level in hp once per rest, and light cantrip. Unfortunately, the +2 CHA makes them explode in the hangar before they can
take off. +1 to STR is pouring gasoline on that fire and an action-activated once per long rest ability where they use their
CHA to frighten people overshadows their (genuinely good) ability to do an +level extra amount of necrotic damage to a
target once per round.
Aasimar, Protector​ (Volo’s) – Does trading out the Fallen’s +1 to STR for WIS, swapping the necrotic damage for radiant
damage, and trading the fear ability for flight really redeem this race? I’m going to say: no.
Aasimar, Scourge​ (Volo’s) – Okay, so what about trading out the Protector’s +1 to WIS for CON and trading the flight for
the ability to automatically do half-level radiant damage to everyone within 10 feet of you? Still going to say no.
Bugbear​ (Volo’s) – +1 Dexterity bonus and stealth skill is good. +2 Strength? No. You’d think increased carrying capacity
would be good, but even at 8 strength 5E D&D gives you more than enough space. Surprise attack is going to happen less
than you want. +5 feet of reach on your turn is legitimately good, though and opens up certain fun combos with Spell
Sniper.
Changeling​ (UA: Eberron) – +1 DEX and +1 CHA and we’re already looking at a purple. Can its features redeem it? No.
Spell-slot free, concentration-less, unlimited Alter Self (as long as it’s only used for disguise, of course) is not bad, but it’s
not worth what you’re giving up.
Firbolg​ (Volo’s) – WIS-keyed spells and bad stat bonuses? The only thing that should remotely interest you is the limited
bonus action invisibility.
Goliath​ (EEPC / Volo’s) – Constitution bonus ain’t bad, and you’ll end up using Stone’s Endurance. But it’s not that good of
a choice.
Kenku​ (Volo’s) – +2 Dex and a bump to WIS is fine, but the traits are pure roleplaying jank that are meaningless to you.
Lizardfolk​ (Volo’s) – Natural armor you could’ve gotten with Mage Armor? CON and WIS bonuses? Swim speed? A
strength-based unarmed strike? A crafting ability that fails to be useful even at level one? Pick something else.
Genasi, Water​ (EEPC) – While the other Genasi had their redeeming qualities, the Water Genasi is just substandard. Its
ability to swim and breath underwater for long periods of time are replicable by wizard spells and a +2 CON/+1 WIS split is
not desirable.
Genasi, Air​ (EEPC) – Dex and Con bonuses are always good. You want a good constitution anyway, so while it’s not as
good as an INT bonus you can work with it.1 levitate per long rest helps salvage this race.
Genasi, Earth​ (EEPC) – +1 STR is bad. Ignoring difficult terrain on earth and stone and casting Pass Without Trace is
better.
Genasi, Fire​ (EEPC) – +2 CON and +1 INT is more like it! Resistance to fire damage is good. Burning hands and produce
flame, not so much. So close to being blue.
Triton​ (Volo’s) – Ooo, a triple-stat bonus. Anyway, while the race has a LOT to recommend, between a +1 CON, water
breathing, several okay spells, cold resistance, and speaking with water-breathing creatures, the +1 STR and +1 CHA holds
its back in most campaigns.
Yuan-Ti ​Pureblood​ (Volo’s): Resistance on Saving Throws to magic and complete immunity to poison would give us a
winning combination… but a +2 to CHA (and a +1 to INT, but let’s not focus on the positives) really knocks down what
would otherwise be a promising race. Still, ​those traits are so strong that this race should be rated more highly if you
rolled REALLY well for stats​.
Aarakocra​ (EEPC) – +2 DEX, +1 WIS. Workable. 1d4 unarmed strike, meaning you can have your hands free for
spellcasting while fighting with two weapons? Okay. Constant flight? Completely redeeming in the low levels and even
higher ones.
Goblin​ (Volo’s) – DEX and CON bumps and a walking speed equal to medium creatures, what’s not to like? How about a
Nimble escape for bonus action additional movement and a bonus action Fury of the Small? If you want me to rate a race
that doesn’t get INT and DEX bumps Sky-Blue, the Goblin comes oh-so-close.
Hobgoblin​ (Volo’s) – We like bumps to CON and INT. We also like free weapon proficiencies that don’t force you to be an
elf. Saving Face is what really sells this race, though, boosting your Common d20 Rolls in critical moments.
Kobold​ (Volo’s) – Whoa, a stat drop. That’s rare. At least it’s in STR and you still get a +2 to DEX. Grovelling and Pack
Tactics are sublime traits to boost your melee efficiency. The only downside is Sunlight Sensitivity. If it will never come up,
this race is sky blue. If you’re spending the rest of your life outdoors and don’t have a way to get around this: purple or even
red.
Kor​ (Plane Shift Zendikar) – They’re like lightfoot halflings, only medium-sized with no speed penalty, starts with Acrobatics
(woo!) AND Athletics (eh), keeps the Brave and Lucky trait, and swaps out the ‘move through creatures two spaces larger
than you’ trait. Would be a Sky Blue race were it not for that unfortunate +1 to WIS instead of to something useful.
Tabaxi​ (Volo’s) – +2 DEX and +1 CHA (sigh) and a strength-based natural attack we probably won’t be using. However,
they get Perception and Stealth as skills for free and Feline Agility lets them, without even a bonus action, double their
move for a turn. And it recharges when they move 0 feet on a turn.
Gnome, Deep​ (EEPC and SCAG) – +2 INT and +1 DEX are stat bonuses right where you want them.120 feet of darkvision
is a serious tactical edge when you want it to be, though you might be limited by the range of your party. Gnome Cunning
(advantage on saving throws for WIS, INT, and CHA against magic) is amazing. Advantage on dexterity checks in rocky
terrain will come up now and again. The speed reduction does hurt, but not as much as it would for a non-bladesinger.
Feats
The feats in this section are arranged by their rating rather than alphabetically. You might have noticed the dearth of
descriptions in the Red and Purple-rated feats. This is generally because there's not much to say about the feats. How
many times should I say 'most bladesingers will not care about a +1 to charisma and some roleplaying horseplay'?

Pink-Rated Feats
Mounted Combatant​ – This feat is rated pink because while the advantages you get for riding a mount with this feat are
huge, 5E D&D hasn't as of yet released a decent mount wizards can reliably access before level 17. If you the Bladesinger
could conjure long-lasting unicorns and nightmares on demand, this feat would at least get a blue, maybe even a sky blue if
it's a really amazing mount that's made out of tissue paper. Keep this feat in mind.

Ritual Caster​ – You do already get most of the benefits of this feat with the best spell list in the game. No, the real purpose
of this feat is to add other rituals from another class (almost certainly cleric) to your spellbook. One problem: it's difficult to
get higher-level spells to drop. That said, there are some rituals that are really good if you can find the scrolls you're looking
for. Slotless Divination and Water Walk are worth the price of admission. And the value of this feat will most certainly go up
as the game matures. It's already very good.

Skilled​ – Skills aren't great enough in 5E D&D to be using your feats on them. However, the game may release new skills
eventually, especially if 5E decides to go in a Starfinder or Urban Arcana direction. And of course if you're in a setting like
Dark Sun, not having Survival can easily mean death.

Green-Rated Feats
Brawny​ ​(UA 17, April 2017)​ – ​A bonus to strength, double-proficiency on Athletics, and counting as one size larger for
carrying capacity? Even if you have Antimagic Field on speed dial, it'd be better for the Strength-based melee types to grab
this for their grappling needs. On the other hand, a +9 to +12 bonus on a grappling check is still pretty huge if no one is on
board with this CUNNING PLAN. If you rolled like a greek god for your stats and somehow all of this manages to apply
(Anti-Magic Field, High Strength without magic items, Want to Grapple) then I say Go. For. It. Looking at you, Tortles.

Dragon Mark ​(UA: Eberron, 2 Feb 2015) – Let's go down the list!
● Detection
● Finding
● Hand​ling ​–​ ​Once again, Conjure Animals comes to save the day.
● Heal​ing
● Hospitality
● Making
● Passage
● Scribing
● Sentinel
● Shadow
 ● Storm
● Warding
… yeah, these are all pretty bad. None of these should interest you, with the possible exception of Handling. Conjure
Animals is just that good. Some of these, like Dragonmark of Healing, would be okay for a Barbarian, but you're a wizard.
MAKE the spell slots happen.

Polearm Master ​– This feat will not interest most bladesingers because these weapons key off of an ability score a
bladesinger is unlikely to use (unless they're a monk) and also because three of these weapons require you to use them in
two hands. However (and it's a big however), if you are able to use this feat you get some big benefits. First, if you take the
Attack action with a quarterstaff, you can use the other end to do a d4 in damage + ability modifier. This is superior to
two-weapon fighting despite the smaller damage die because A.) add your ability modifier B.) keeps a hand free for using
material components and C.) allows you to get by with one magical weapon.

That would only make the feat black. What makes it blue is the ability make opportunity attacks against creatures that enter
your reach when you're wielding a quarterstaff.

What would make this feat sky blue is if you have Warcaster as well. You do not make an attack as a reaction, you get an
opportunity attack. This will cause your melee damage to shoot up and/or also giving you some very fun control, like using
Tasha's Hideous Laughter against someone moving up next to you.

Resilient ​– What's there to say? Increase the score by one and get saving throw proficiency. Note that, sadly, you can only
pick this feat once even though it'd be awesome to have proficiency on Wisdom, Constitution, AND Dexterity, a combination
only Rogues, Monks, Samurai Fighters, Gloom Stalker Rangers can get.

● Strength​ – Strength saving throws are common, but they're rarely bad for you. Just use Misty Step when they come
up.
● Constitution​ – Not only affects concentration saving throws, but concentration saves are very common. And unlike
Dexterity saving throws, tend to be pretty bad when you fail them.
● Dexterity​ – Despite how common they are, Dexterity saving throws typically just deal damage or restrain you. You
have Song of Defense, Absorb Elements, and Misty Step to deal with those situations.
● Wisdom​ – If you did something foolish like multiclass and didn't get this proficiency, you will likely want this.
● Intelligence​ – If you did something foolish like multiclass and didn't get this proficiency, you still wouldn't want
it.
● Charisma​ – Charisma saves aren't rare and they tend to be pretty catastrophic if you fail them, but it's not a good
use of your One Resilient Feat ever.

Red-Rated Feats
Actor
Critter Friend​ ​[Gnome]​ ​(UA 24 April 2017)
Dragon Fear​ ​[Dragonborn] (UA 24, April 2017)
Dungeon Delver
Durable
Dwarf Resilience​ ​[Dwarf, any] (UA 24, April 2017)
Empathetic
Fell​-​Handed​ ​(UA 6, June 2016)​ – All of these weapons (handaxe, battleaxe, greataxe, warhammer, maul) require strength,
so no. This changes, and in a huge way, if you are boosting your strength with a magic item, you rolled your stats like a
boss, you're a Tortle, or you somehow manage to grab a finesse version of one of these weapons. Then this feat becomes
top-tier in your hands. Knocking someone prone when the lower of two rolls with advantage would hit WITHOUT A SAVE
and WITHOUT A SIZE LIMIT is some hard control. All of the other benefits are gravy. Well, the +1 to attack rolls is more
like the chunks of ham in the gravy.
Flail​ ​Mastery​ (UA 6, June 2016) –​ Unlike Fell-Handed, even if you meet the requirements this is kind of a naff feat. Magical
flails are also pretty rare, too.
Grap​ler – ​If for some reason you've built your Bladesinger for grappling, this feat is legit quite usable.
Heavily Armored
Heavy Armor Master
Lightly Armored​ – Calm down, fellow human. You'll get armor proficiency next level for free. Sheesh.
Linguist​ – Use Comprehend Languages, Tongues, and Rary's Telepathic Bond instead.
Master of Disguise​ ​(UA 6, June 2016)
Medic​ (UA 17, April 2017)
Medium Armor Master
Moderately Armored
Naturalist​ ​(UA 17, April 2017)
Performer​ ​(UA 17, April 2017)
Quicksmithing​ (WoTC Online Supplement: Plane Shift Kaladesh) – Thank the Lord this feat is so awful, I was not looking
forward to writing a detailed description of this turkey.
Shield ​Master​ – This is a great feat and having a way for a AoE user like yourself to push enemies into AoEs would be
even greater. Sadly, you can't use shields. If you're someone able to get around this limitation (Animated Shield? Flying
Shield familiar?) then this feat is outstanding even with your awful Athletics check.
Silver Tongued
Spear​ Mastery ​– No dexterity-spears, cap'n. That said, Monk does give you dexterity-based spears and you may be a
STR-based bladesinger. And the benefits (+1 to AC, increased damage dice, another damage dice if between when you
take a bonus action and your next turn a creature at least 20 feet away enter your reach, and as a bonus action 5 extra feet
of reach) are pretty okay. Not jaw-dropping like Fell-Handed if you manage to get around the limitations, just pretty okay.
Tavern Brawler​ – Even with the errata, this is still a bad feat.

Purple-Rated Feats
Acrobat​ ​(UA 17, April 2017)
Alchemist​ ​(UA 6, June 2016)
Athlete
Arcanist​ ​(UA 17, April 2017)
Barbed Hide ​[Tiefling]​ ​(UA 24, April 2017)
Burglar ​(UA 24, April 2017)
Charger
Crossbow​ Expert – ​If for some reason you have hand crossbow proficiency, you REALLY want to plug people full of
arrows, and you have the Sharpshooter Feat this can be pretty decent. Feat intensive for anyone but a Variant Human
bladesinger, though.
Defensive Duelist​ –​ You have more than enough uses of shield. Shield also lasts until the end of your turn. This is only
good for one attack.
Diplomat​ ​(UA 17, April 2017)
Dragon​ ​Hide​ ​[Dragonborn] (UA 25, April 2017)​ – ​Better rating assumes you're using a strength-enhancing belt and you
absolutely HAVE to fight with two weapons. Tell that fighter level to go jump off a bridge.
Drow High Magic​ ​[Drow, obviously] (UA 24, April 2017)
Elemental ​Adept​ ​– ​Doesn’t come up as much as you’d think for people with as diverse of a spell list as wizards. If it does
(you’re using Greenflame Blade with your Flametongue all the dang time) then bump this rating up some.
Everybody's​ Friend ​[Half-Elf] (UA 24, April 2017)​ – ​Are you trying to multiclass into a Charisma class as a half-elf? I've
tried to do this a few times myself and keep butting my head against, even with a +Strength item, the fact that the best you
can do is a 8 16 16 8 14 12. And you do get legitimately huge bonuses, enough to make you the face. If you're really itching
to play the party face while getting yourself some Smite action, try this on for size.
Fade Away​ ​[Gnome] (UA 24, April 2017)
Fey Teleportation​ ​[High Elf] (UA 24, April 2017]
Flames of Phlegethos​ ​(UA 24 April 2017)
Hea​ler ​– It is in fact quite a lot of healing between combat on the cheap, but do you really want to spend one of your feats
doing this? If you're playing in a setting without easy healing potions and absolutely no one wants to play a class that has
healing, consider making this sacrifice.
Inspiring​ Leader​ ​– 13 Charisma prerequisite is a little rough. But up to six people you use it on gain temporary hit points
equal to your level + Charisma modifier every short rest. It's a good feat, but someone else should probably have it. Bump
this rating up some if you frequently have a simulacrum, summons, and a familiar out on the field and no one else wants to
cover you.
Keen Mind​ – +1 intelligence plus some other effects feats tend to at least be usable in certain situations, but not this one. If
your DM is a huge stickler for details... I'd just write it down with pencil and paper.
Mage​ Slayer​ – You get three pretty potent advantages against combat mages: reaction for a melee weapon attack if a spell
is cast within 5 feet of you (no Warcaster goodness, sadly), impose disadvantage on concentration saving throws when they
have to make one from being damaged by you, and advantage on saving throws against spells cast by creatures in 5 feet of
you. The problem is, most mages will do whatever they can to avoid casting in melee, including using Misty Step or certain
Legendary Actions or even just flying. Even if you do fight a lot of mages, you'll struggle to get a lot of use from this feat.
Menacing​ (UA 17, April 2017)
Observant​ – It's too bad Wisdom is a near-dump stat, otherwise a +1 to wisdom and a +5 bonus to passive Wisdom and
Perception checks would easily make this black-rated.
Orcish Fury​ [Half-orc] (UA 24, April 2017)
Perceptive ​(UA 17, April 2017) – See my notes on Observant.
Savage Attacker
Skulker
Squat Nimbleness ​(UA 24, April 2017)
Stealthy ​(UA 24, April 2017)
Survivalist ​(UA 24, April 2017)
Theologian ​(UA 17, April 2017)
Wonder Maker ​[Rock Gnome] (UA 24, April 2017)
Weapon​ Master ​– Are you absolutely dying to use that magic weapon you found in a horde you don't have proficiency
with? Here you go, chief.

Black-Rated Feats
Blade Mastery ​(UA 6 June 2016)​ ​–​ ​I'd rather have the +2 to Dex, Int, or Con. But if you really want that extra +1 to attack
while also getting a +1 to AC... eh. You know my feelings on pushing melee as a Bladesinger already.
Dual Wielder ​– Surprisingly, this isn't a very good feat! Even on a Haste + TWF sequence, it's only a maximum +4 extra
damage. +1 AC isn't all that bad. But really, you could just boost your dexterity by +2 instead, unless you're already at the
maximum. Probably okay if you rolled like a greek god for stats.
(UA 24, April 2017) –​ ​Crit fishing? Just want some extra insurance? You could do worse than this.
Gourmand​ (UA 6, June 2016) – +1 to Constitution prevents it from being too awful. Proficiency with cook's utensils and
determining if meals (just meals) are poisoned is fringe, but giving people additional hit dice on long rest AND advantage on
saving throws against disease is... still not great, but I'm feeling generous today.
Grudge-Bearer ​(Dwarf) – Do you REALLY want to hate a small group of people? Pick a non-humanoid category of
creature. You can also pick humanoid, but have to choose two specific species. In addition to boosting your STR, CON, or
WIS by +1 you get auto-advantage on the first round of combat, impose disadvantage on opportunity attack rolls, and when
you make an intelligence check of any type to recall information about your foes your proficiency bonus is doubled. That
kind of hate is unhealthy. Rating assumes that your selection is reasonably common, such as picking humans and (gulp)
elves.
Investigator ​(Uearthed Arcana 17, April 2017) – +1 to intelligence. Okay. Double proficiency in Investigation skill. Also
okay. Search as a bonus action? Somewhere between okay and good. I rate this feat: okay.
Magic ​Initiate​ – Woohoo, more spells, more spells! Having to use the original class's spellcasting modifier for save DCs as
the only intelligence-based class really hurts, but you can just, you know, not pick those spells. ​Cleric for
Bless/Ceremony, Guidance, and whatever else will make you very popular around the table​.​ See if your DM will let
you cast the spell you pick from this spell slot out of your ordinary spell slots.
Martial Adept –​ Only getting one superiority dice, ever, with no option to recharge that d6 between short rest hurts the
usefulness of this feat. But there are some martial maneuvers (Menacing Strike, Disarming Strike) that are very good.
Mob​ile​ ​– Yeah, I'm rating this feat a bit lower than most Bladesinger guides. Going 50 feet a round on foot is always a gas,
and ignoring difficult terrain when you dash can come up, and finally getting a free disengage against anyone you make a
melee attack is useful. But to me all of that just adds up to 'decent'. Not 'killer app'.

Big exception: ​if you’re able to use Mobile in such a way to completely escape retaliation​ (such as for Fly or
Investiture of Stone), this feat becomes loads better. Much better.
Prodigy​ [Half-elf or human] (UA 24, April 2017) – +1 to an ability score, an extra skill proficiency, an extra tool proficiency,
and fluency of one language of your choice. Not bad.
Quick-Fingered​ (UA 17, April 2017) – +1 to dexterity, Double Proficiency for Sleight of Hand, and bonus action Sleight of
Hand checks to plant objects, conceal an object on a creature, lift a purse, or take something from a pocket. Expect DM s to
whine about you taking material component pouches.
Sharpshooter ​– Being a ranged weapon attacker is an unusual direction to take your Bladesinger in (Song of Victory won't
help you), but it's not a terrible one. Getting rid of the long range disadvantage, ignoring anything less than full cover, and
trading -5 to hit for a +10 to damage are solid benefits.
Spell Sniper​ – Ignore cover, double the range of spells with attack rolls, and get a free cantrip. These wouldn't interest you
normally, but it does allow you to use the SCAG cantrips with reach. Most notably, Booming Blade.
Wood Elf Magic [Wood Elf] (UA 24, April 2017)​ – Guidance (you are picking Guidance with your druid cantrip, right?
RIGHT? So, Guidance) and once per long rest longstrider and pass without trace. All good spells to have.

Blue-Rated Feats
Alert​ ​–​ ​Non-proficiency, non-stat bonuses this huge in 5E D&D to anything are rare. Not getting surprised and, crucially, not
giving advantages on attack rolls to hidden enemies are good. None of these benefits would be worth it by themselves, but
taken together they're great. If you’re planning to multiclass Rogue and go Assassin (as unideal as that is), this becomes
more necessary.
Bountiful Luck​ ​[Halfling] (UA 6 June 2016) – Aww, looking out for your teammates? You will be using this feat a LOT,
believe it or not. At higher levels, you can expect to use it pretty much every round your reaction isn’t tied up for something
else.
Dragon​ Wings ​[Dragonborn] – Flight, even at 20 feet, is dominating at low levels.​ Not so much at higher levels​, though
it'll never go out of style.
Histo​rian​ (UA 17 April 2017) – You a +1 bonus to Intelligence and double-proficiency on History checks. But the real
money of this feat is that when you use to Help action on someone else's ability check, you can make a DC 15 Intelligence
(History) check to someone who can understand you. As you share pertinent advice and historical examples, they add a
proficiency bonus to your check. Great roleplaying flavor as the party's trusted adviser (or know-nothing know-it-all,
depending on how often you botch the check) and gives a pretty big bonus. ​If your campaign is heavily ability-check
based, you may even want to make room in your build for it.
Human Determination​ ​[Human] (UA 24 April 2017) – You get a cut-rate, declared beforehand Lucky of getting advantage
on a Common d20 Roll once per short rest. However, you also get a +1 bonus to an ability score of your choice. Solid.
Infernal Constitution​ [Tiefling] (UA 24 April 2017) – +1 Constitution, advantage on saving throws against being poisoned,
and resistance to cold and poison damage. You have resistance to three of the four most common damage types in the
game, without spells or magic items. That rules.
Lucky​ – Three luck points per long rest. When you make a Common d20 Roll, you can spend a luck point roll a d20
beforehand or retroactively and pick any d20. Value of the feat goes way up on short workdays, of course. Note that a strict
wording of the feat turns disadvantage into Super Advantage, but good luck getting a DM to agree with that.
Orcish Aggression​ ​[Half-orc]​ ​(UA 24, April 2017) – Kind of stingy with the feat benefits, aren't we? But with a bonus action
dash as long as you end up closer to an enemy, you can afford to be stingy.
Second Chance​ ​[Halfling] (UA 24, April 2017) – Get a +1 to Dexterity, Constitution, or Charisma. Also: on demand,
once-a-short-rest reroll against attacks that hit you. That critical hit? Canceled. Stacks with disadvantage, too.
Sentinel​ ​– Pitiful hit points aside, you're not a bad tank. A darn good one, in fact. And enemies will be tempted to try to get
around you after they whiff on their sixth Multi-attack. Meaning, your triple arsenal of making someone's speed 0 when you
hit them with an opportunity attack, getting an opportunity attack even if they disengage, and getting melee weapon attacks
as a reaction when your enemy attacks someone other than you.
Svirfneblin​ ​Magic​ [Deep Gnome] (Elemental Evil's Player Companion or SCAG) – Casting nondetection on yourself at will,
material component-free is a good start. Getting to cast blindness/deafness, blur, and disguise self also without a spell slot
makes it even better. ​If the DM rules that Nondetection hides you from truesight,​ bump this feat up to Sky Blue.
Tough​ ​– 2 extra hit points per level from now on, and it's also retroactive.
Sky Blue-Rated Feats
Notice how small this section is? That's right, most of your ​ASIs​ ​should be going into ability score increases.
Warcaster​ ​– You'll probably have anywhere from a +5 to a +8 concentration saving throw while bladesinging, but as a
front-liner that will not be enough for you. You will need some form of insurance, and Warcaster is just the platinum plan.
Advantage on concentration checks. Now, Warcaster also comes with some other benefits, too. One of them being the
ability to use spells on OAs. Even if you're conserving spell slots, the obvious utility of using Booming Blade on an OA
comes to mind. You're also still able to cast spells with somatic components while having your hands occupied, though note
that you're still not able to use material components unless you're doing something tricky. Most DMs end up ignoring that,
however.

Gold-Rated Feats
None currently. While you WILL want ​Resilient: CON​ and/or ​Warcaster​ eventually, neither of these are ​rated ​Gold​.
Magic Items

Armor and Shields

You probably won't have much use for armor. Mage Armor + Bracers of Defense give you as good of a defense as Studded
Leather +3, though note that it does require an attunement slot. But studded leather +3 is Legendary and Robe of the
Archmagi gives the same defense and other benefits. But robe of the Archmagi is one of those 'attune to this item NOW
and keep it attuned; you make room for it if you don't have a slot' items so it doesn't even save you on attunement slots.
Just Legendary drops. And honestly, I'd rather hold out for an Iron Flask or a Tome of the Stilled Tongue.

Shields tend to be straight-up useless. You can't use Bladesong with them. You probably don't have proficiency with them
unless you did something ill-advised like multiclass. And since they take an action to stow, you can't even just hot-swap
them them out when you want to shift to Bladesong. The only situation where you might be interested in a shield is if your
DM regularly has you going three or more encounters between short rests, though this will probably irritate the other party
members more than you. If that's the case and you have shield proficiency, go for it. Though you probably shouldn't be up
front anyway.

[Very Rare] ​Animated​ Shield –​ Depending on how your DM rules, this might be the one shield that might be worth it. But
it's still inferior to Bracers of Defense in almost every way, unless you wanted to take Shield Master for some reason and
your DM (again) rules that Animated Shields count as wielding it. Shield Master is a VERY good feat, mind you.

[Legendary] ​Armor of Invulnerability –​ Yes, you can't bladesing in it. Yes, you probably don't even have proficiency. But
that kind of resistance... actually isn't as completely dominating by the time you get it, since a lot of monsters where this
tradeoff would be worth it have straight-up magical attacks. Something to think about if no one else wants it and you're
fighting a lot of frost giants.

[Rare] ​Armor of Resistance​ – ​If you expect to fight something where resistance matters more than AC (such as dragons)
enjoy your resistance. Significantly more inconvenient to hotswap than with rings, and of course It screws up your mage
armor, but beggars can't be choosers.

[Rare] ​Armor of the Ild Rune​ – See notes on Armor of Resistance. Cold resistance isn't as useful as fire or poison
resistance, but it's much easier to find Ild Runes.

[Rare] ​Armor of the Vind Rune​ – Would've been more useful for one of the heavy armor wearers. +5 feet speed isn't worth
a precious attunement slot.

[Rare to Legendary] Armor (​+1​/​+2​/​+3​) – They're all good armor, especially if you don't have Bracers of Defense. Even the
Armor +1 will at least save you on a first level spell slot and spell prepared for Mage Armor. If you can't get Bracers of
Defense (which are fairly easy to find) or you really want that attunement slot, these are good to have.
[Legendary] ​Black Dragon Mask​ – This is much more useful in the hands of a dexterity-and-charisma-based character
than you, for obvious reasons. That said, if there's no one in the party that wants it you get a bunch little abilities you don't
care about and, more importantly, Legendary Resistance once a day.

[Legendary] ​Glamoured Studded Leather​ – It's +1 studded leather! It has an additional property Disguise Self for free, but
since it only affects the armor itself and not the rest of you, it's not even close to a replacement.

[Uncommon] ​Mariner's Armor​ – Non-attunement makes the swimming speed really good, even if it doesn't provide any
other special defenses. Keep it in your pack for when necessary.

[Uncommon] ​Sentinel Shield​ – Out of bladesong? Or maybe you're just spending a lot of time exploring? You could do
worse than this shield.

Potions
The bad news: potions are much rarer and harder to get in 5E D&D than in other editions. The good news: the potions that
do make the cut are very, very good. Potions never require concentration and a lot of them last decently long, so it's never a
bad idea to stock up on them even if you don't see yourself needing, say, Oil of Slipperiness this campaign.

[Rare] ​Bottle of Air​ ​– Breath in the contents. Don't have to breath for an hour or you can exhale it as a gust of Wind. Off to
an uninspiring start with these ‘potions’.

[Rare] ​Elixir of Health​ – ​It's nice to have one of these things lying around when the druid or cleric ends up getting
paralyzed.

[Rare] ​Oil of Etherealness​ – Ethereal isn't quite as fun when it's just one person instead of the whole party, but the
scouting, dungeon bypass, and get-out-of-dodge capabilities of on-demand Etherealness cannot be denied.

[Very Rare] ​Oil of Sha​rpness​ – As 5E D&D doesn't have anything like enhancement bonuses of 3E/4E D&D, this will
technically stack with any weapon. Lasts for an hour, too. Even if it doesn't, you can still put it on magical weapons that
don't get a bonus to attack and damage, such as the Flametongue. ​If your DM says no to both, it's just merely okay.

[Uncommon] ​Oil of Slipperiness​ – It's Freedom of Movement in a can! The oil lasting for 8 hours instead of 1 makes it a
good 'screw you' to dungeons full of, say, driders.

[Uncommon] ​Philter of Love​ – Requires some setup, but it's save-free charm that lasts for an hour. Creative people can do
something with that.

[Uncommon] ​Potion of Resistance ​(​Acid​ ​/​ Cold ​/​ ​Fire​ ​/​ ​Force​ ​/​ Lightning ​/​ Necrotic ​/​ ​Poison​ ​/​ ​Psychic​ ​/​ ​Radiant​ ​/
Thunder​)​ –​ See the notes below on Ring of Resistance, and pray that your DM doesn't randomly determine the resistance
at the moment of drinking it. In a lot of ways it's better than the Ring of Resistance because it doesn't eat up an attunement
slot, so even the situational ones like Psychic or Radiant can be useful.
[Uncommon to Legendary] ​Potion of Giant Strength​ (Never less than blue, however) – Yes, you probably made Strength
your dump stat and you're using finesse weapons. Nonetheless, these potions will let you do even more damage, even if
you jacked your Dexterity up to 20. And juicing a bad stat is never bad for moments when you have to lift a portcullis or
bend bars.

[Rare] ​Potion of Diminution​ – Having the option of going on micro adventures is fun.

[Uncommon] ​Potion of Fire Breathing –​ Three 4d6/Dex DC 13 bonus action fire breaths? Not turning that down.

[Very Rare] ​Potion o​f Flying – ​Concentration-less, non-attunement flight is good, but you'd probably ​want something a
little more permanent and party-targeting once you get out of the lower levels​. Always nice to have for emergencies,
however.

[Very Rare] ​Potion of Giant Size​ – Turn into a Huge creature (kind of inconvenient), but your strength gets jacked to 25
(nice), your reach increases by 5 feet (nice), your weapon dice are tripled (VERY nice), and best of all your hit point
maximum becomes doubled (ULTRA NICE!). This would be rated gold even if the effect only lasted 1 hour. That it lasts for
24 hours is just amazing.

[Uncommon to Very Rare] ​Potion of Healing, Greater, Superior, and Supreme​ – The base healing potion doesn't heal for
all that much, but the fact you can buy them whenever you feel like makes them valuable. Greater and Superior Healing
potions tend to not be worth hording, but Supreme Healing heals enough to be worth it in combat (10d4+20), especially
when applied to by someone without better actions to do.

[Uncommon] ​Potion of Growth​ – Going on macro adventures isn't as fun or useful as going on micro adventures.
However, it's more useful in combat.

[Rare] ​Potion of Heroism​ – Bless is a spell that's top-tier even at level 20. Getting it for an hour with no concentration just
makes it that much better.

[Very Rare] ​Potion of Invisibility​ – The Invisibility spell is good. The ring of invisibility is good. So why can't this be good?
Only thing that really saves it is not requiring concentration. Don't bother hoarding this one.

[Rare] ​Potion of Invulnerability​ – ​One minute of resistance to all damage. Simple. Powerful.

[Cursed] ​Potion of Poison​ – Notable only because this might be the only cursed item that can actually be useful in the
hands of a player.

[Rare] ​Potion of Speed​ – ​One minute of haste. Only downside is when that minute ends, but If your combat is lasting that
long you've got bigger problems.

[Common] ​Potion of Vitality​ – Removing multiple levels of exhaustion is surprisingly difficult in 5E D&D, so this is a potion
that you'll never mind having in your satchel.
[Uncommon] ​Potion of Water Breathing​ – I'm just putting this in here to laugh at it. Yes, having water breathing might be a
concern in a game that doesn't drop magical items and forces you to abandon a precious spells known... but since you are
by definition playing in a campaign that drops magical items, you're 95% likely to come across a spellbook or a scroll that
has that ritual – which lasts for 24 hours, not 1.

Rings
[Rare] ​Gold Dragon's Ring​ – It's extra darkvision (a lot of it) and a minute of flight. Not amazing, but concentration-free
flight is always welcome.

[Rare] [N] ​Ring of Animal Influence​ – This ring is first in a long line of magical items I like to call, 'this would be total
garbage if it required attunement, but it doesn't, so it's salvageable'. And that's what it is. 3 charges of Animal Friendship, a
Fear that only targets beasts of an intelligence 3 or lower, and Speak with Animals isn't isn't that great, but hey, it's free.

[Legendary] ​Ring of Elemental Command​ (​Air​ / ​Earth​ / ​Fire​ / ​Water​) – All of these properties should be easy for you to
gain if you're at level 8 or better. At level 9, you can even summon an elemental with Conjure Elemental! Best part of all of
these properties: they don't require concentration. ​Air​ gives you call lightning and constant, hovering flight. ​Earth​ lets you
move through solid rock and stone, not only burrowing but also through difficult terrain. You also get to cast Stone Shape,
Stoneskin, and Wall of Stone. ​Fire​ gives you outright immunity to fire damage and the ability to cast Fireball and Wall of
Fire. ​Water​ is kind of disappointing, but when you need Control Water you really need it! Air is probably the best of the lot,
though Fire isn't bad to give to a follower for an extra Fireball battery.

[Rare] ​Ring of Resistance​ (​Acid​ ​/​ Cold ​/​ ​Fire​ ​/​ ​Force​ ​/​ Lightning ​/​ Necrotic ​/​ ​Poison​ ​/​ ​Psychic​ ​/​ ​Radiant​ ​/​ ​Thunder​) –
Well, what do you expect? Fire and poison resistance is good, necrotic and cold and lightning resistance is okay, the other
ones you don't really care about.

[Legendary] ​Ring of Djinni Summoning​ (​Follower​) – The djinni can summon an air elemental for extra muscle, use Plane
Shift once a day at DC 17 Charisma, and can do three +9/3d6+5 attacks a round, along with some other goodies. Useful up
to level 20. Useks up your concentration slot, but it's really good. It's fairly beefy and is unlikely to die as long as you're
careful, but DO NOT LET THIS THING DIE, otherwise the ring becomes nonmagical. Release concentration on it if you
think it's about to hit zero hit points.

[Rare] ​Ring of Evasion​ – Surprisingly, it's not as good as you think it'd be. It uses up a reaction, which, you guessed it,
could've been used for Absorb Elements or Song of Defense. At least it's retroactive if you don't feel like using a spell slot.

[Rare] ​Ring of Feather Falling​ – It's good for the non-spellcasters, not so good for you. If you're not falling far enough to be
able to cast Levitate or Fly or Polymorph (and you should have at least one of those three spells prepared) just soak up the
damage.

[Rare] ​Ring of Free Action ​– Look at all these goodies. Difficult terrain doesn't cost extra movement, magic can't reduce
your speed, and you can't be paralyzed or restrained? This is nine kinds of awesome for you. This ring will allow you to fight
in environments you never dreamed yourself capable of. Want to fight in the middle of a Watery Sphere or a Web or a
Transmute Rock or an Evard's Black Tentacles? Now you can. It doesn't protect against non-magical restraining, so don't
get cocky on the grapples.

[Legendary] ​Ring of Invisibility​ –​ Concentration-free invisibility all day, every day, any day. Wears off after the first attack
or the casting of ANY spell, but so what?

[Uncommon] ​Ring of Jumping​ – ​Cast jump spell as a bonus action? I'm already skeptical, but so on. Cast it only on
yourself? Fine, I could think of worse uses. Requires an attunement slot, too? No.

[Rare] ​Ring of Mind Shielding​ – ​The combat uses for this spell are kind of minimal. You don't even get advantages on
certain saving throws or psychic resistance. That said, it's a prime candidate for magical item hot-swapping in social
situations, like trying to convince the solar you mean them no harm.

[Rare] ​Ring of Protection ​– ​You gonna turn down a free +1 to AC and saving throws? Only if you're lacking the attunement
slots.

[Very Rare] ​Ring of Regeneration​ – It's not terrible. Regain 1d6 hit points every 10 minutes. Replacing missing limbs
probably won't be something you use that much.

[Very Rare] ​Ring of Shooting Stars (​Follower​)​ – The damage from the Ball Lightning and Shooting Stars option is kind of
weak beer. But it is 1 to 6 charges of Faerie Fire.

[Rare] ​Ring of Spell Storing​ ​(​Follower​) – ​What a great ring. The best way to use it is to stick concentration buffs in it and
give it to your familiar. But it's also not a bad idea to stick, say, two Absorb Elements and a Fly or five castings of Shield in it
and use it on yourself.

[Legendary] ​Ring of Spell Turning​ – Advantage on savings against spells that only target you. You also have a 1 in 10
chance to rebound it entirely to the caster. At the tier in which thing drops, it'll probably save your bacon a couple of times
unless you have something like a Robe of the Archmagi.

[Very Rare] ​Ring of Telekinesis (​Follower​) – ​Can only target objects not being worn or carried. Which is a bummer, but
think of it as a super-charged Mage Hand. You can still do quite a lot of mischief with At-Will moving of 1,000 pound
objections.

[Rare] ​Ring of the Ram​ – For an attunement item, it's okay. 6d10 damage and 5 feet of forced moved if you blow all three
charges at once isn't bad. Neither is a +15 strength bonus to break an item.

[Uncommon] [N]​ ​Ring of Swimming​ ​– Swim speed of 40 feet for free? Yes, please. And, oh look, the wizard has Water
Breathing on their spell list.

[Legendary] [N] ​Ring of Three Wishes​ (​Follower​) – ​Yeah, it's only three wishes and that's it, but it's not an attunement
item. Easy come, easy go, I say. Use it with Astral Projection shenanigans if you want the DM to throw the book at you.
[Uncommon] [N] ​Ring of Warmth​ – If you want a ring of Cold Resistance, which is not a terrible thing to want, this thing is
slightly but strictly superior to that ring. What with letting you and your possessions being unharmed with up to -50 degrees
farenheight.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Ring of Water Walking​ – ​You normally wouldn't care about this item, but it's not an attuned item, so you
do care.

[Rare] ​Ring of ​X-Ray Vision ​– ​Too bad the X-Ray vision only extends to solid objects and not, say, a Fog Cloud. The
penetration is a little weak (1 foot of stone?), and repeat uses between long rests require you to make a DC 15 constitution
save or become exhausted. ​That said, there is one legit awesome use, and that's with the Investiture of Stone spell
and similar abilities.​ With it, it's at least one minute per day of constant non-concentration advantage.

Rods
[Uncommon] [N] ​Immovable Rod​ – Remember this fun rod? 8,000 pounds of resistance, can float in midair whilt being
unmovable, and requires a DC 30 Strength check to move.

[Legendary] ​Korolnor​ Sceptor – ​+3 club, and that's the least of it. Not only do you get the properties of the Wyrmskull
Throne, but you get additional properties on top of that. 1 charge gets you direction and depth to the surface, 2 allows you
to cast sending, and 3 allows you to cast teleport with no chance of mishap if it's within 60 feet of the throne. The charges of
the Wyrmskull Throne's properties and this item's unique ones are fungible, so beware.

Read more up on the Wyrmskull Throne to see what else you get. ​If the DM disagrees on you getting both properties,
this item is still pretty okay just for the teleport spell.

[Very Rare] ​Rod of Absorption​ – Eh. Better than nothing. Because of your limited attunement slots just churn through the
50 charges to covert to 5th level or lower slots and enjoy the brief boost in power.

[Very Rare] ​Rod of Alertness​ (​Follower​) – It's not a bad rod to have until you get something better. If your familiar or
follower or simulacrum can attune to it, all the better.

[Legendary] ​Rod of​ ​Lordly Might​ – Ask if the Button 1 Flame Tongue property can be used as a finesse weapon. ​If it can:
you are in business​. Flame Tongues are good, Flame Tongues with additional effects on a hit are better. ​It's not worth an
attunement slot otherwise​ ​unless you, once again, have a decent strength score​.

[Uncommon / Rare / Very Rare] ​Rod of Pact Keeper​ ​(​+1​ ​/​ ​+2​ ​/​ ​+3​)​ ​–​ ​Extra. Warlock. Spell Slot per long rest. Oh, also
Warlock DC save boost, which can be enough to make those charisma-based spells useful.

[Rare] ​Rod of Rulership​ (​Follower​) – Mass charm person at Wisdom DC 15. Not bad.
[Rare] [N] ​Rod of Security​ – Create a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion with fewer restrictions on floor plan! Like
having a tropical island or carnival. It comes with a bunch of uncombat utility, including the slowing of aging, and people
regain a hit dice per hour spent in it. You can also stay in the tent for a number of days equal to 200/number of people in it.
It takes only an action to use and teleports up to 200 willing people in sight, so it's a great escape button. Pity about the
once per ten days restriction.

[Rare] ​Rod of the Vonindod​ (​Follower​) – Constant Locate Object is very, very good if you're willing to play Twenty
Questions.

[Rare] ​Tentacle Rod (​Follower​) – ​As an action, create three 15-foot reach tentacles with a +9/1d6 attack. If all three
tentacles hit the same target, DC 15 Constitution check or for one minute no reactions, Dexterity saving throw
disadvantage, only one of an action or bonus action, and halved speed. The target can get out of it with a saving throw
success at the end of their turn.

Staves
[Rare] ​Gulthias ​Staff​ ​– ​Who knows what 'short term madness' means if you fail a DC 13 wisdom stave while using this
staff? If your DM is being lenient with this property, such as making the madness weak or letting you cure it easily, you get
loads of healing (even if you're not in combat, but it excels there) since you get health back equal to the damage you deal
with the staff. ​If your DM is not being lenient, this staff is borderline unusual.​ It's not even clear if spells like Greater
Restoration can get around the madness.

[Rare] [P] ​Spider ​Staff​ – ​If you're just using this staff to do damage, it's not a bad weapon if you have a way to make decent
attack rolls with it. 1d6 poison damage on a hit with no attunement? Cool. If you just want to use it as a source for extra
webs and spider climb, that's nice, too. Bump the rating up a notch if you're using both properties.

[Rare] ​Staff of Charming​ – Even with the generous number of charges, you're probably not going to be using your actions
in combat to cast these spells. What saves this thing is its effects of auto-passing a save against an enchantment effect and
spending charges to reflect a successfully saved enchantment spell onto the caster.

[Rare] ​Staff of Defense​ – If you're not fighting with two weapons, this is not bad to keep in your offhand for a +1 AC. And it
comes with two spells (Mage Armor, Shield) you'll be casting a lot.

[Very Rare] ​Staff of Fire​ – Fireball and Wall of Fire are great spells, even cast at their lowest level.

[Very Rare] ​Staff of Frost​ – Cone of Cold, Fog Cloud, and Wall of Ice are great spells, even cast at their lowest level.

[Very Rare] ​Staff of Healing​ – Did you multiclass cleric? Extra castings of Cure Wounds and Lesser Restoration are always
welcome.
[Very Rare] ​Staff of Power​ – ​Now you're cooking with gas! +2 bonus to Armor Class, Saving Throws, and Spell Attack rolls
would be enough by itself to make it Sky Blue. But not only that, it comes with a smorgasbord of great spells: Cone of Cold,
5th level Lightning Bolt and Fireball, Globe of Invulnerability, Hold Monster, Levitate, and Wall of Force. You get twenty
charges to play with. In the interest of Min-Max disclosure, this is probably better in the hands of the Warlock or Sorcerer
than you. But if that doesn't apply (or for some weird reason they don't want it) this thing is going into your attunement slot
and not leaving until it's almost out of charges. Be really careful of the Retributive Strike, though.

[Rare] ​Staff of Swarming Insects​ – Hey, you know that thing Warlocks do with the Devil's Sight + Darkness combo? This
is now you, but with the cloud moving around with you. You can also use it for Giant Insect and Insect Plague.

[Uncommon] ​Staff of the Adder​ – Yeah, I sure like using my attunement slots (and wizards can't even use it) to as a bonus
action create an autonomous 20 hp/15 AC snake that does 1d6 damage around with 3d6 DC 15 poisons – and the staff
gets destroyed if the snake does. Not.

[Legendary] ​Staff of the Magi​ – You don't get the bonus to AC and saving throws like with the Staff of Power, which is a
bummer. What is NOT a bummer, though, is how you get ​FIFTY​ charges to play with. You also get a buttload of spells, too:
Conjure Elemental, Dispel Magic, ​SEVENTH​ level Fireball and Lightning Bolt, Invisibility, Knock, Passwall, Plane Shift,
Telekinesis, Fireball, and Web. The following spells don't even use charges: Detect Magic (!), Enlarge/Reduce (!!), Light,
Mage Hand, and Protection from Evil and Good (!). Again, beware the Retributive Strike.

[Uncommon] ​Staff of the Python​ – It's like Staff of the Adder, except it takes an action to activate and you get a giant
constrictor snake instead of a poisonous one. This one isn't as bad, since it's much harder to kill (60 hit points) and comes
with a DC16 Grappling. Wizards still can't use it, though.

[Rare] [M] ​Staff of the Woodlands​ – This is a druid-only item. But it you took a level of druid, it's not bad. It's a 20-charge
+2 quarterstaff with a +2 spell attack roll booster, and comes with animal friendship (1 charge), awaken (5), barkskin (2),
locate animals or plants (2), speak with animals (1), speak with plants (3), and wall of thorns (6). So why is this staff blue?
Because you get to cast Pass Without Trace without expending charges.

[Very Rare] ​Staff of Thunder and Lightning​ – You get a bunch of weird properties that can only be used once until the
next dawn. 2d6 lightning damage on a melee attack, hit a target and force a DC 17 constitution save or be stunned, DC 17
9d6 lightning bolt, deafen everything not you in 60 feet and 2d6 thunder damage on a DC 17 Constitution save, and finally
the first and previous properties at the same time that doesn't impact uses of its individual properties.

[Rare] [M] ​Staff of Withering​ – Non-wizard item. Gives spend 1-3 of its charges to do charges x 2d10 damage on a hit.
Each time you spend a charge, target makes a DC 15 saving throw or gets Constitution and Strength disadvantage on
ability checks. Meh.

[Rare] ​Wand of Binding​ – Remember what I said about using short rests to cycle through your items? You only get one
shot of Hold Monster, but it's a good shot. Could also use it to gain advantage on resisting being
restrained/paralyzed/grappled.
[Rare] ​Wand of Enemy Detection​ (​Follower​) – Yeah, straight-up foiling a huge laundry list of effects is great. Two
problems, though: A) Generally, people aren't going to be hostile to you unless they know you exist, so good luck with this
thing infiltrating a fortress and B) You will get a lot of false positives with this. Want to find the shadow demon? Too bad,
you're detecting the nearby bearded demon instead. That familiars and such can attune to this wand, unlike most wands,
barely saves it from the garbage heap.

[Rare] ​Wand of Fear​ – Fear is a good spell to have on tap.

[Rare] ​Wand of Fireballs​ –​ You get a ton of castings of fireball on a full charge and you can even spend charges to juice
the level.

[Rare] ​Wand of ​Lightning Bolts​ –​ All of the advantages of fireball. Sky blue, maybe even gold if you for some reason
multiclassed two levels of Tempest Cleric​.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Wand of Magic Detection ​(​Follower​) – Not requiring attunement makes this much better. The biggest
drawback of casting Detect Magic from your ritual book is the casting time. And even if you prepare it (which is usually not a
terrible idea) it's still not exactly easy on the spell slots.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Wand of ​Magic Missile​ ​(​Follower​) – Not requiring attunement makes this much better. Upcasting it to
level 7 or 8 makes for a good alpha strike at lower levels. ​If you have something like Hex or Hunter's Mark it gets much
better, however​.

[Rare] ​Wand of Paralysis​ – The save DC is less than that of Wand of Binding and it targets Constitution instead of
Wisdom. However, you get 6 safe charges of what's effectively Hold Monster.

[Very Rare] ​Wand of Polymorph​ – ​Polymorph is one of the top-tier swiss army knife spells and you get 6 safe charges of it.
The spell save DC of 15 is kind of mediocre, but Polymorph is a great spell even when just cast on friends and family.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Wand of Secrets​ – Doesn't require attunement, anyone can use it, so why not?

[Uncommon/Rare/Very Rare] ​Wand of the W​ar Mage​ (​+1​/​+2​/​+3​) – While it's not like the number of ranged spell attack rolls
you'll be making is zero (and ignoring cover is okay) it's not really worth a precious attunement slot.

[Rare] ​Wand of Viscid Globs ​(Follower, surprisingly)​ – Oh YESSSSSS. Ranged restrained. What makes this superb is
the requirement of a mere ranged attack roll to land rather than a save. What's more, the only non-spell effects that gets rid
of It in under an hour is a pint or more of alcohol, oil of etherealness, or universal solvent. Expect the DM to have a lot more
drunkard monsters when you start using this. Don't even have to be a spellcaster to attune to it. Only drawback is, ironically
given what I said earlier, the requirement of the spell attack roll. This kind of makes it chew in the hands of most followers,
since it's an intelligence roll they're probably not going to have proficiency on.

[Uncommon] ​Wand of Web​ – It's web! On the cheap! Most monsters tend to not have ridiculous dexterity saving throws, so
the DC 15 spell save will do you just fine.
[Rare] ​Wand of Winter​ – I ain't turning down a couple of free sleet storms.

Miscellanous Wondrous Items

[Uncommon] [N] ​Alchemy Jug​ – Once a day, pour out small amounts of (no more than 8 gallons, and usually much less)
each of Acid, Basic Poison, Beer, Honey, Mayonnaise, Oil, Vinegar, Water, or Wine. Unless you're playing Dark Sun, you're
going to struggle to find uses for this item even though it's not an attunement item.

[Rare]​–​ ​Amulet o​f Health​ ​Boosts your constitution to 19, no questions asked. Constitution affects concentration saving
throws and hit points and it's very unlikely for a Bladesinger to have a Constitution score over 16, so this is always
welcome. ​If you can absolutely guarantee for your Bladesinger to get this item​ (i.e. DM rewards in Adventurer's
League) so you can sink your starting constitution to 8, this item becomes even more amazing.

[Uncommon] ​Amulet of Proof against​ ​Detection and Location​ – What a mouthful. For an uncommon item, you're not
going to use this item much when you get it. Gets marginally better as the game goes on. ​However, if a DM rules that the
truesight/blindsight abilities of certain monsters counts as magic​, this magical item immediately shoots up in value.
Yes, I would very much like for my Greater Invisibility spell to work against liches.

[Very Rare] ​Amulet of the Planes​ – ​It's a free at-will Plane Shift spell. If you can nail the DC 15 intelligence check reliably
(and it's a check, not a save) then it's a powerful item. Even if you can't, there's still nothing stopping you from using this
item repeatedly until you end up where you want. In fact, sometimes you actually want to fail on the check since the random
planar teleportation affects you and everyone else in 15 feet, no save. Imagine transporting a group of NPC champions to
the Plane of Fire and then using this item again to send you someplace else.

[Legendary] [N] ​Apparatus of the Crab​ – As usual for this item across editions, the hype doesn't live up to the effect. Still,
it's non-attunement, has a bunch of hit points, and lets you have undersea adventures so it's not entirely bad.

[Rare] [N] ​Bag of Beans​ – You get 3d4 randomly determined beans. You have a 10% chance of getting 1d8 randomly
determined magic potions (one of which is a potion of poison, which is easily dealt with), a 10% chance of getting 1d4+3
eggs that will boost your lowest ability score by 1 if you can make a DC 20 Constitution saving throw (with a consequence
of 10d6 force damage if you fail), and a 9% chance of spawning a mummy lord you can take on at any time with treasure of
the GM's choice. There are some other effects here, too, but they're all ignorable or pointless and in any case are easily
dealt with. Think of this magic item as a Deck of Many Things minus the screwjobs.

[Rare] [N] ​Bag of Devouring​ – Not a cursed item, but might as well be. You can't even use this as a clever trap against
people you hate and even if you get around the rather grievous limitations there's not much benefit to doing so.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Bag of Holding​ ​– Good old fashioned bag of holding. Increased carrying capacity limits of 5E D&D doesn’t
make it as much of a ‘must have’ as it was in previous editions for low-strength characters, but it’s still great to have around.
[Uncommon] [N] ​Bag o​f Tricks ​( ​Gr​ay​ / ​Ru​st​ / ​Ta​n​ ) – You get long-lasting, concentrationless, extra tokens on the
battlefield that you can reuse every day. If you really feel like abusing the wording, you can get an army of critters, too. Only
problem?​ They top out at CR1. You get three of them, sure, but they’ll get worse and worse as the game goes on.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Balloon Pack​ – Until you recharge it at an air elemental node, levitate for 10 minutes without
concentration or feather fall as a reaction? Eh. Even if you have the means to recharge it at will, it's still just 'okay'.

[Rare] [N] ​Bead of Force ​(​Follower​) – Let's see: you get 1d4+4 beads of force with function as a concentration-free
Otiluke's Resilient Sphere for 1 minute at DC 15 Dexterity. You can't move the sphere, but everything else about it is great.

[Rare to Legendary] ​Belt of Giant Strength​ (​Hill​ ​/ ​Stone and Frost​ / ​Fire​ / ​Cloud​ / ​Storm​) – You get, in order, 21, 23, 25,
27, and 29 (!) strength. Even though you're likely to be using finesse weapons, these are is amazing for you, the
Bladesinger. First of all, it turns a crummy save/check into a respectable or even great one. Secondly, it greatly opens up
the number of weapons available to you, including the all-important staff. But most importantly of, it causes your damage to
skyrocket. Going from a 16 dexterity to a 29 strength is an astounding +6 attack and damage bonus. If you get one of these
early, you can neglect raising dexterity for quite a few levels and focus on feats or Intelligence.

[Rare] ​Belt of Dwarven Kind​ ​– +2 bonus to constitution (max of 20), advantage on Persuasion (Charisma) checks on
dwarves, proficiency with the dwarven language, 60-foot darkvision, and advantage against poison saves and resistance
against poison? Just the last property would be good enough to bump this rating up to a blue. Everything together... well,
it's still not quite sky blue, but it's pretty dang close.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Boots of Elvenkind​ ​– Advantage on Stealth checks to move silently, no attunement. Definitely, man.
Generally this will equate to 'advantage on all stealth checks' unless you're trying to hide in plain sight.

[Rare] ​Boots of Levitation​ – Well, it is at will. Levitation leaves much to be desired as an in-combat trick, but as an
exploration trick that only works on yourself... you can work with it.

[Rare] ​Boots of Haste ​– It's bonus-action disadvantage-inflicting on opportunity attacks (not just opportunity ones) and
doubles your walking speed. It lasts for ten minutes a day, but you can end the effect and the countdown as a bonus action.

[Uncommon] ​Boots of Striding and Springing​ ​– It boosts your speed to 30 unless it's already higher. And heavy armor
doesn't encumber you. And you also get three times your jumping distance. It's pretty okay on some characters, like a
heavy armor dexterity-cleric, but it's pointless for you.

[Uncommon] ​Boots of the Ise Rune​ ​– Ignore difficult terrain while walking and you can walk on water?Not bad, but I
wouldn't use my attunement slot on one of these unless it was one of my first three attunement items.

[Uncommon] ​Boots of t​he Stein Rune ​– Oh, hey, advantage on strength saving throws and avoiding being knocked prone
as a reaction? For 85% of Bladesingers, advantage on a save they likely have a -1 to isn't going to be helpful. But avoiding
being knocked prone as a reaction does make these more palatable. ​If you are a strength-based Bladesinger, these are
significantly better.i
[Rare] ​Boots of the Vind Rune​ – 20 feet of your movement on each of your turns into flight isn't as useful as you'd think,
though it does let you reliable melee attack flying monsters near the ceiling – not that it's much of a problem for you. A free
feather fall doesn't really change the usefulness of the item.

[Uncommon] ​Boots of the Winterlands​ – It's about as useful as a ring of cold resistance, with a teaspoon of gravy on top.
Ignoring ice and snow difficult terrain hardly matters (unless you fight in your own Sleet Storm) and with heavy clothes,
tolerating temperatures to -100 degrees farenheight? Eh. To put things in perspective, the coldest temperature on Earth
ever recorded was -128.6F, so don't think this item makes you an invincible winter traveler or anything.

[Rare] [N] ​Bowl of Commanding Water Elementals​ (​Follower​) – Once per day, you get a water elemental. It's not clear if
this will eat up your concentration slot or not, but it probably does (the wording is “and summon a water elemental, as if you
had cast the conjure elemental spell”). That said, it is a free water elemental and they stay useful until the very endgame.
The only caveat is that the bowl requires you to fill it with three gallons of water, which might be difficult to do on the fly.

[Uncommon] ​Bracers o​f Archery​ – Proficiency with, and +2 damage with longbows and shortbows. Bladesingers that don't
get bow proficiency, such as most half-elves, will appreciate this in the mid-levels. ​Unfortunately, bow-and-arrow damage
tends to drop off as the game goes on without significant investment​. And in any case, it's not that much extra
damage for a precious attunement slot. It's nice to have at lower levels, though.

[Rare] ​Bracers of Defense​ ​– +2 to AC if you're wearing no armor and using no shield. Simple. Effective. Powerful. You'll
probably be wearing these into the endgame, unless you manage to score the triple-triad of a Staff of Power / Robe of the
Archmagi / Ioun Stone of Mastery.

[Rare] [N] ​Brazier of Commanding Fire Elementals​ (​Follower​) – Once per day, you get a fire elemental. It's not clear if
this will eat up your concentration slot or not, but it probably does (the wording is “and summon a fire elemental, as if you
had cast the conjure elemental spell”). That said, it is a free fire elemental and they stay useful until the very endgame. The
only caveat is that you have to put a fire in the brazier and keep it burning, which probably means some finagling. Only give
it to a hands-free familiar if you want to start a fire or something.

[Rare] ​Brooch of Shielding​ – Force damage is rare unless you pissed off the enclave of Warlocks and magic missile
damage is a non-factor to you, the Bladesinger with Shield. Give this item as much consideration as you would a Ring of
Force Resistance, meaning little.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Broom of Flying​ – Limitless, concentration-free flying speed of 60 for up to 400 pounds, 30 for up to 200
pounds? Better get started on that diet. You can also use it as a riderless taxi for up to 1 mile.

[Very Rare] ​Candle of Invocation​ – First of all, this item is pretty ridiculous. The effects are so good that unless your party
are heavy roleplayers or you roll up a Neutral/Chaotic Evil candle, everyone is going to change their alignment to match that
of the candle. Why? Because it only works for people whose alignment matches the candle and the effects are so good that
it's a near-irresistible temptation to break the fourth wall to use it.

You can extinguish this candle for the first time you use it to cast a gate spell, but that's almost certainly a waste. Instead,
use it for one of two ways: unlimited 1st-level cleric and druid spells while the candle burns, or within a 30 foot radius attack
rolls, saving throws, and ability checks with advantage. You use it in 1 minute increments and you get 240 of these
increments.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Cap of Wa​ter Breathing​ – It's effectively unlimited castings of Water Breathing. If you're using this item for
that, it's inferior to that of a ritual. ​If you're using it as a way to be able to cast verbal spells underwater​, it goes from
pointless to situationally lifesaving. Which is what I like to see in my non-attunement items.

[Rare] [N] ​Cape of the Mountebank​ – If you can't think of a way to use Dimension Door at least once a day, have a couple
of cups of coffee and think again.

[Very Rare] [N] ​Carpet o​f Flying​ – Bottom line, it's concentration-free, no-action flying that can carry at least one, maybe
even two medium or small-sized people. The carpets trade off flying speed for increased size and carrying capacity, but
they're all good to have. ​Bump down the rating some if the DM is going to target your carpet separately​. And trust me,
your enemies will if it's an option.

[Rare] [N] ​Censer of Controlling Fire Elementals​ (​Follower​) – (I hate how these items are named. It makes it hard to
group.) Once per day, you get an air elemental. It's not clear if this will eat up your concentration slot or not, but it probably
does (the wording is “and summon an air elemental, as if you had cast the conjure elemental spell”). That said, it is a free
air elemental and they stay useful until the very endgame. The only caveat is that you have to put a fire in the censer and
keep it burning (seriously, for an air elemental?) which probably means some finagling. Only give it to a hands-free familiar
if you want to start a fire or something.

[Rare] [N] ​Chime o​f Opening​ ​– It's unclear if this item can open up magically sealed doors/lids/locked. It's also unclear
whether this opens barred portals; while it doesn't say so specifically, it does say that it opens the object if no locks or
latches remain. ​If neither caveat applies in your games, drop this item down a couple of ratings​.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Circlet of Blasting​ (​Follower​) – Once per day scorching ray at a measly +5 attack bonus? Even being
non-attunement and on a follower, it kind of struggles to be useful.

[Rare] ​Claw of th​e Wyrm Rune​ – You know, if I was a dragon I wouldn't be very afraid of this. First use: an action-based,
30-foot, DC 15 Constitution Saving throw or they gain vulnerability to all damage until the end of your next turn, up to three
times a day? Considering the constitution saving throws of dragons, it's likely this won't even convince a dragon to burn a
Legendary Save. Second use: Resistance to damage from any and all dragon breath weapons? Okay, that's much better,
but you have absorb elements. If you're super-concerned about dragon breath, you the Bladesinger can stack this with a
Song of Defense. Finally, if you want to destroy the item you can after 8 hours create a (permanent, apparently) 100-foot
radius ward that will give dragons disadvantage on saving throws and give them a flying speed of no higher than 10 feet.
This will be almost impossible to use unless the dragon politely comes up to your lair for a final battle. ​I'd keep this item
locked away in my Secret Chest unless I knew I was going to be fighting dragons that day​.

[Rare]​ ​Claws of the Umber Hulk​ – You know, while burrowing through rock at the rate of 1 foot per round is a very useful
item, there's no way you're going to use this because you can't cast spells with somatic components while wearing them.
Give it to someone else.
[Very Rare] ​Cloak of t​he Arachnida​ – Four out of five properties ain't bad. Resistance to poison damage (good, already
brings it up to a blue), climbing speed equal to your walking speed (even better), can move up, down, and across vertical
surfaces and upside-down ceilings without using your hands (excellent, and makes the previous property even better), can't
be caught in webs of any sort and can move through them as difficult terrain (extremely nice for people with that spell), and
a double-sized Web spell at DC 13 (okay, but not great). If you know for a fact you're going to regularly use every one of
these properties, ​this item barely gets across the finish line as a Sky Blue item​.

[Rare] ​Cloak of Displacement​ – ​Constant, no-questions asked disadvantage on attack rolls against you against
sight-based attacks unless you took damage between your current/last and your next turn, you're incapacitated, unable to
move, or restrained. This magic item makes questions like 'do I use haste or do I use greater invisibility' no-brainers.

[Rare] ​Cloa​k of Elve​nkind​ – ​Ooo, a triple-rating. You do want disadvantage on Wisdom (perception) checks to see you
and passive advantage on visual-based Stealth checks. These two things will make you near-impossible to detect passively
(even if you're not actively stealthing). So why is it rated lower than Boots of Elvenkind? The lack of attunement slots. ​If
you're able to hide quickly​ (You're a Haste junkie or have Cunning Action) ​this item gets much bette​r​. ​Maybe even sky
blue if your DM agrees that the camouflage property allows you to hide in plain sight​.

[Legendary] ​Cloak of Invisibility​ ​– ​Man, why are cloaks so good in 5th Edition? Anyway, you get constant,
concentration-free invisibility, with one caveat; it doesn't break if you cast spells or attacks.

[Very Rare] ​Cloak of Protection​ ​– +1 bonus to AC and saving throws. Easy, guilt-free pickup until you find something
better for your attunement slots.

[Very Rare] ​Cloak of the Bat​ ​– Advantage on Stealth checks, 40-foot fly speed if you're in dim light or darkness (though
you drop like a rock if you enter brighter light or aren't using both hands to hold the cloak), and if you're in dim light or
darkness you transform into a bat pre the Polymorph spell while keeping your mental ability scores. The whole is better than
the sum of its parts.

[Rare]​ ​Cloak of the Ise Rune​ ​– Just here for the fire resistance. Because when's the last time you had to make a stealth
check, advantage (you get this, BTW), disadvantage, or neither in snowy terrain?

[Uncommon] [N] ​Cloak of the Manta Ray​ – Non-attunement speed of 60 AND water breathing. Seriously, even the
not-so-amazing cloaks in 5E D&D are good.

[Rare] ​Cloak of the Vind Rune​ – Converting 20 feet of your movement on each of your turns into flight isn't as useful as
you'd think, though it does let you reliable melee attack flying monsters near the ceiling – not that it's much of a problem for
you. A free feather fall doesn't really change the usefulness of the item. This is the first dud cloak in the game, though I'm
going to pretend that it's the mediocrity of the Boots of the Vind Rune infecting the precious efficacy of cloaks in general.

[Very Rare to Legendary] ​Crystal Ball​ (​Basic​ / ​Mind Reading​ / ​Telepathy​ ​/ ​True Seeing​ ) – ​Have some free time and
feel like playing Twenty Questions with a Scrying Spell​? Nice to have if you don't want to burn up some 5th-level or
higher spell slots. The non-basic Crystal Balls package additional spell effects with it. The ​Crystal Ball of Telepathy​ is
awesome if you want to have remote-control slaves (though the once per dawn use kind of limits it, even though DC 17
Wisdom is really tough). Don't even have to scry on the original target to use this property if the victim is within 30 feet of
what you're looking at, so have fun using this on the king's serving girls. ​Crystal Ball of True Seeing​ is literally like having
True Seeing as a ritual (not as extensive, but you get 120 feet thereof), complete with unlimited use. Hint: Start scrying
yourself or a buddy.

[Rare] ​Cube of Force​ – Considering how crummy this thing was in previous editions, it's amazing how much 5E buffed it.
Anyway, here's the situation: you start out with a whopping 36 charges (getting 1d20 back every dawn). As an action, you
get a 15-foot cube of force, centered on you, that lasts for one minute. The number of charges you expend determines how
much screening you get. They're mutually exclusive, unfortunately. One charge, hedge out gases. Two charges, hedge out
non-living matter except for walls/floors/ceilings if you want (!). Three charges, hedge out living matter (!!). Four charges,
hedge out spell effects (!!!). Five charges, hedge out everything except for walls/floors/ceilings if you want (!!!!!!!).

The only way to take the cube down non-voluntarily is if it comes in contact with certain spell effects, none of which except
for Disintegrate or Wall of Fire you're likely to come in contact with. Even if your charges do get drained, it doesn't destroy
the item.

This item is just so ridiculously, groin-grabbingly good once you start abusing it that your DM will probably offer to trade you
a Robe of the Archmagi for it to restore game balance.

[Rare] [N] ​Cubic Gate​ – 3 charges, regaining 1d3 charges per day, of plane shift. You can make a portal with it, or cast the
Plane Shift spell at DC 17. Five of the six sides are randomly determined, but one of them are always keyed to the material
plane. It doesn't say how long the portals last, so in the best case scenario you can turn one or two of your Demiplanes into
a portal network.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Decanter of Endless Water​ – You get endless fresh or salt water. The usefulness of which depend on the
campaign; unfortunately, the constant action-activated babysitting really reduces its usefulness unless you're in Dark Sun.
You may also be interested in the bonus-action property to use the Geyser (30 gallons per minute) property to knock a
creature within 30 feet of you prone with 1d4 bludgeoning damage if they fail a strength saving throw. Kind of makes a huge
mess, though.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Deck of Illusions​ – Yes, it's concentration-free, non-attunement illusions for up to 34 (typically 1d20-1)
uses, however you can't control what comes out of it. The big power of illusions tends to come from adjusting the illusion to
the situation, so you're stuck justifying why, say, a kobold should significantly affect the combat situation.

[Legendary] [N] ​Deck of​ ​Many Things​ – Oh, great. This item again. If there was ever a magical item that deserved the
green rating, this would be it. You've probably heard of this magical item and its ability to end campaigns before. First of all,
there's nothing in this deck that you absolutely need. ​All of the good things (except for The Fates and the Throne) you can
get from other magical items. If you're pretty happy about the direction your character is going, throw the deck away and
never look back.

If you're prepared to risk everything, though, here's the skinny: There are two decks, a 13-card version and a 22-card deck.
Entries that have an asterisk only appear in 22-card decks. Generally, the 13-card version is safer than the 22-card version
while not being that much worse in utility. There's no avoiding the 'rip up your character sheet' card of The Void, though.
Let's go through the list:

[*] ​Bala​nce​ – Unless you're neutral, this card radically shifts your alignment. This can range ​from having no effect​ ​to
completely ruining your character​, if not mechanically, then roleplaying wise.

[*] ​Comet​ – If you single-handedly defeat the next hostile monster of group of monsters you encounter, you gain experience
points enough to gain one level. Since there's no CR limitation on this and nothing bad happens if you don't meet the
requirements, we'll rate this card as good.

[*] ​Donjon​ – This removes your character from the game unless someone is kind enough to let you use wish to find where
you are. Since Wish in 5E D&D has a 33% chance of never letting you cast it again, good luck finding someone willing to do
this for you.

Euryale​ – Permanent -2 penalty to every saving throw unless a god uncurses you or the magic of the Fates card pops up.

[*] ​The Fates​ – Undo one bad event as if it never happened. If you completely screwed over your life (perhaps because you
played with this wretched thing) you can use this as a last-resort of last-resorts.

Flames​ – You gain the emnity of a powerful devil. You're an adventurer and you don't care, as you're not doing your job
right unless devils hate you.

Fool​ – You lose 10,000 XP, but never enough to cause you to drop a level. Really bad, but not character-ruiningly bad. You
can draw this card multiple times, though.

[*] ​Gem​ – 50,000 gp worth of trinkets? Bah. That kind of thing is worthless in 5E D&D unless your DM lets you buy magical
items, which you by default can't even in Adventurer's League without jumping through a lot of other hoops.

[*] ​Idiot​ – Permanently reduce your intelligence score by 1d4 + 1. This is a character-ruining card to you, the bladesinger.

Jester​ – Gain 10,000 XP. It's mostly a neutral card to you unless you're a very low-level character.

Key​ – You get a rare or rarer magical weapon you're proficient with. The DM chooses the weapon, however, which means
you're probably not going to get that Moonblade you're salivating over. That said, Flametongues and +2 rapiers are rare, so
c'est la vie.

Kni​ght​ – Gain the service of a 4th-level fighter. ​Fun at low level​, ​becomes a pointless XP sponge​ ​unless your DM lets
the fighter level up as well​.

Moon​ – You are granted the ability to cast the wish spell 1d3 times. I would save these wishes for using the Wish spell out
of your own spell slots, that way you have a backup plan in case you roll that dreaded 33% Never Cast Wish Again chance.
Rogue​ – Gain the enmity of an NPC character you don't know about. You're an adventurer, this is your default state of
being. Then again, if it's really bad (like gaining the undying hatred of Asmodeus), you can always use Wish to get rid of it.

Ruin​ – All-nonmagical holdings and titles are instantly destroyed. Considering the number of spells you have that have
expensive material components, this can be quite bad. It's recoverable, but still bad.

Skull​ – Summon an avatar of death, where you have to fight it alone to the death (additional copies fight anyone who
assists you) and if you're killed, you're dead and can't be restored to life. That said, the stats for this thing are more bark
than bite. It autohits for 11 damage, but it also has half the hit points of you, the Bladesinger. At level 6 or so, a couple of
fireballs against this hp 25, tops, grudge monster should end its reign of terror. And it’ll only get easier from then.

Star​ – Increase one of your ability scores by 2, to a maximum of 24. It's not clear if this increase is retroactive. Even if it's
not, it's still an unreservedly good effect.

Sun​ – 50,000 xp and a wondrous item of your DM's choice! 50,000 xp will always cause you to gain at least one level, so
even if the wondrous item sucks this is a good effect.

[*] ​Tal​ons​ – ​Every magic item you wear or carry disintegrates​. Unless you've just started collecting magical items, this
will hurt your character more than permanent level drain. RAW, ​you can just take off all of your magical items and put
them somewhere same​, but expect some DMs to balk at this trick.

Throne​ – Hey, free proficiency in the Persuasion skill AND your proficiency bonus is doubled! This will turn even your
morose 8-charisma bladesinger into the party face. You also get rightful ownership of a monster-infested keep, but who
cares about that?

The Void​ – You lose your soul. It's placed in a location guarded by powerful creatures. The Wish spell doesn't undo it; all it
does is reveal the location of your soul. So use Scrying instead. This, uh, sucks, to put it lightly. If this happens at low level,
that's effectively the end of you, but if it happens at higher level your buddies might be able to mount a rescue expedition.

[Very Rare] [N] ​Devastation Orb​ – Blah blah blah. Bunch of complicated setup, hour-long ritual, 2,000 gp, find an
appropriate elemental node, WHATEVER. Way too wordy for a single-use item. Here's the bottom line:

Air Orb​ – You get an hour-long windstorm of unspecified size that does 1d4 bludgeoning damage of round unless you
made a DC 18 Constitution Save.

Earth Orb​ ​– You get an Earthquake spell for one minute, DC 18.

Fire Orb​ – You get a 24-hour heat wave of unspecified size that will creature 10-foot square spreading wildfires.

Water Orb​ – Torrential Rainstorm for 24 hours, creating up to 10-foot floods. Sweeps away Large or smaller creatures if an
existing body of water floods.

All of these effects are useless to an adventurer. Ignore it or trade it for something else.
[Rare] [N] ​Dimensional​ Shackles​ – Sick and tired of Large or smaller critters escaping your Hypnotic Pattern after one
round due to shaking? Slap this on them. It stops dimensional travel that doesn't involve portals. DC 30 Strength (Athletics)
check to break, which most creatures can't even pretend to do even on a max roll. ​The incapacitated condition
requirement really hurts its usefulness,​ ​so only consider it if you have a reliable method of incapacitation​.
Otherwise, pass.

[Legendary] ​Dragon​ Mask - ​( ​Black​ ​/ ​Blue​ ​/ ​Green​ / ​Red​ / ​White​)– First of all, if there's anyone in the part that doesn't
wear armor and primarily uses charisma for AC, you are obligated to give them this item. However, if there's no one that fits
the bill, there's a lot of goodness to be had with this item. Escalating energy resistance keyed to the mask's type (if you
have resistance, you get immunity; if you get immunity, you get half-absorption), the aforementioned charisma bonus to AC,
much quicker refresh of breath weapon if you have it, Darkvision +60 radius and once/day blindsight for 5 minutes,
advantage on charisma checks against black dragons, and Legendary Resistance once a day. ​If you are one of those
lucky-ducky Bladesingers with a high charisma​ (you rolled like a champ or are using a stat-replacement item) then this
item is mandatory.

In addition, each mask type comes with an additional effect and keyed resistance.

Black​ ​– Acid Resistance. Constant Water Breathing. You get this as a ritual, so no.

Blue​ ​– Lightning Resistance. Creatures who take lightning damage can't take reactions. Unfortunately, you probably don't
have a reliable source of lightning damage that doesn't compete with your myriad spells.

Green​ – Poison Resistance. Poison resistance is good, poison immunity is excellent. You can breathe underwater, same as
the Black dragon mask.

Red​ – Fire Resistance. Fire Resistance (and immunity, and ABSORPTION) is the best of the lot. Also, if you deal fire
damage to a creature or flammable object, it burns for 1d6 damage until the damage is extinguished as an action.

White​ ​– Cold Resistance. When you're below maximum hit points, do an extra 1d8 cold damage. You probably don't want
to sit in this zone for too long, being a low-HP bladesinger, but it is nice to have.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Driftglobe​ – I don't care if it's an attunement-free slot and floats. Casting Light or even Daylight is in insult
to your character sheet.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Dust of Disappearance ​– One use concentration-less mass-invisibility. Considering how hard that spell is
to get in 5E D&D, it's welcome. Breaking when someone attacks or casts hurts, though.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Dust of Dryness​ – 1d6+4 uses of shrinking and storing 15 foot cubes of water. Also DC13 Constitution
save to water-themed elementals or they take 10d6 necrotic damage. I'm not seeing it.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Dust of Sneezing And Choking​ ​– One use of DC 15 Constitution/Round incapacitation in a 30 foot radius
from you? This is likely to hurt your friends more than you. This used to be an explicitly cursed item, hint hint.
[Uncommon] [N] ​Efficient Quiver​ – This thing exists mainly for two reasons. The first is to hold extra arrows if your DM is
getting on your case about reloading. The second is that, technically, you can draw two weapons (or a weapon and a magic
staff) in the same round if you're interested.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Efreeti Bottle – ​10% Chance to get a hostile efreeti. Open this bottle in the middle of a Magic Circle, and
maybe even Planar Bind it. 80% chance to get a combat efreeti for one hour, up to three times – including the first time you
use it. The 10% chance to get an efreeti that gives you three wishes right away sounds goo, except that you have to use
your three wishes right away. Efreetis are pretty good monsters, so this is a good monster-in-a-can effect. Though likely
you'll be wasting one of your free Efreetis to see if you're going to get a Bad Genie when it's safe to do so.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Elemental Gem, Blue Sapphire / Emerald / Red Corundum / Yellow Diamond ​– Get a free elemental
for up to an hour. Works for me. Blue gives you air, yellow gives you earth, red gives you fire, emerald gives you water.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Eversmoking Bottle​ – You get a 60 foot radius cloud of heavily obscuring smoke that only goes away
gradually if you stopper the bottle. Good for doing something like trying to get past a battlefield of archers or spellcasters.

[Uncommon] ​Eyes of Charming​ ​– Component-free charming would be nice if it weren't for the low DC (Wis 13) and the fact
that the Charm Person spell inherently tells people they knew they were charmed. Garbage item unless you're at very low
level, and even then it's not very useful.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Eyes of Minute Seeing​ ​– Advantage on Investigation checks aren't as good as advantage on Perception
checks, but it's still a nice to have. Especially since it’s not an attunement item.

[Uncommon]​ ​Eyes of the Eagle​ ​– Even though it requires attunement, Perception is easily the best skill in 5E and getting
advantage to it will get you out of a lot of scrapes.

[Rare] ​Feather​ Token​ (​Anchor​ ​/ ​Bird​ ​/ F

​ an​ ​/ ​Swan Boat​ ​/ ​Tree​ / ​Whip​) – I'd normally rate this green, but these are all
garbage and I'd struggle to think of a use for them. ​The only one I think you might appreciate is the Swan Boat for
mass evacuation or Anchor for... I don't know, high seas hijinx?​ Otherwise, feel free to feel cheated if you get this as
part of your treasure share.

[Uncommon to Very Rare] [N] ​Figure of Wondrous Power​ ( ​Bronze​ ​Griffon​ / ​Ebony​ ​Fly​ / ​Golden​ ​Lions​ / ​Ivory​ ​Goats​ /
Marble​ ​Elephant​ / ​Obsidian​ ​Steed​ / ​Onyx​ ​Dog​ / ​Serpentine​ ​Owl​ / ​Silver​ ​Raven​)

I'm a huge fan of effects that place extra tokens on the battlefield and probably overrate them. That said, even the Figurines
generally test my patience. Basic idea: you get a tiny figurine, speak a command word, and you get a (generally) loyal
companion. The real killer on usefulness tends to be the time limit between uses, so even the marginally useful figurines
tend to not be very good.

Bronze​ ​Griffon​ – 6 Hours|5 days. The Griffon has a decent hit point stack and does non-pitiful damage, so you'll be using
this in a 'eh, better than nothing' way until about level 15 or so. Past that you're better off just using it for emergency
transportation.
Ebony​ ​Fly​ – 12 hours | 2 days. Worthless in combat, but you do get a flying mount and it recharges fairly quickly. Do not
use this over the ocean or if you don't have an anti-falling spell prepared.

Golden​ ​Lions​ – 1 hour | 7 days. Hey, you know what else gives me two lions for an hour? Conjure Animals at level 3.
That's not exactly a fair comparison, since Conjure Animals is very good and this at least doesn't rob you of concentration,
but at around level 10 or so this item is too mediocre and recharges too slowly to be even good as a 'wall of fur' strategy.

Ivory​ ​Goats​ – 24 charges, 1 hour per charge | 7 days / 3 hours | 30 days / 3 hours | 15 days. The first two goats are
worthless. A giant goat and a goat with riding horse stats? Please. The third goat, the Goat of Terror, would be pretty okay.
As long as you ride it, it radiates a party-friendly 30 foot aura of terror. DC 15 Wis/Turn or be frightened of it for one minute,
save protects you from fear for 24 hours. Did I say ‘would be’ pretty okay? That's right, it only works if you ride it and it has
giant goat stats. This will get in the way of your bladesinging, and its duration pretty much forces you to stay on it to get any
use out of it.

Marble​ ​Elephant​ – 24 hours | 7 days. Elephants hit pretty hard and they have a decent hit point stack, so as long as you
can fit them into your adventuring locales this is a good companion to have at your back. CR4 lets you polymorph it into
other animals (including itself) if it's running low on hp or you're getting bored of it. Giant Scorpions are always fun.

Obsidian​ ​Steed​ – 24 hours | 5 days. Even if it requires some creativity to get it to fight in combat and the 10% chance for it
to ignore your orders (including reverting back) if you're good, this is still a great item. Fire resistance while mounted, 90'
flight, and unlimited transportation to and from the Ethereal Plane are great pocket tools. Unlike the Ebony Fly, you don't
have to worry too much about being shot down. Ethereal Stride is GREAT for ambushes or getting past enemy lines.

Onyx​ ​Dog​ – 6 hours | 7 days. Wow, an 8 intelligence talking dog with darkvision and see invisibility! Too bad it'll die if
anyone so much as looks at it funny.

Serpentine​ ​Owl​ – 8 hours | 2 days. Use it exactly like you would the Ebony Fly, only the Giant Owl is bigger and can carry
more things. You can also telepathically communicate with it, but I doubt it has anything meaningful to say.

Silver​ ​Raven​ – 12 hours | 2 days. Do you want your own personal very own animal messenger spell that can only be used
on this raven? In addition to whatever a raven does? No? Good, just making sure you were still paying attention.

[Rare] [N] ​Folding Boat​ – It's a boat. And unlike that worthless feather token, it's reusable and holds a decent number of
people in it.

[Uncommon] ​Gauntlets of Ogre Power​ – Kind of a comedown after Belts of Giant Strength, but this still isn't a bad magical
item. Setting your strength to 19 makes certain multiclasses much easier, opens up builds that would normally be
impossible (Axe Mastery, Grappler, etc.), widens your selection of weapons, and boosts your Strength saving throw.

[Rare] ​Gavel of the Venn Rune​ – Three properties, one of them useful, two of them not even that. First, attack rolls against
you before the start of your first turn have disadvantage against you. Second: once per long rest as an action, if you strike a
point, the first person who makes an attack within 60 feet of that point has reflected psychic damage equal to half. In case
you were wondering, yes, this applies to you and your friends, too. Finally, you can destroy the magical item over 8 hours to
create a 30-foot radius aura that does 5 psychic damage to anyone who lies within the radius. Useful only in worldbuilding,
obviously. First property isn't bad, but it also ain't worth an attunement slot.

[Rare] [N]​ ​Gem of Brightness​ ​(​Follower​) – Rant time: I really hate it when game designers make super-long magical items
that don't add up to anything useful either for roleplaying, combat, or worldbuilding. This is one of them. You get 50
unrechargeable charges, three properties. First property creates bright light, no charges. Second property uses one charge
to create a 60 foot, single target DC 15 Con EOTS or be blinded for one minute. Third property uses five charges to do it in
a 30 foot cone. It struggles to be okay when you first get it and like most items with fixed charges it gets worse and worse.
Maybe I should make an acronym for that phenomenon, too.

[Rare] ​Gem of Seeing ​– Hey, it's truesight! Three charges, 10 minutes of 120 foot radius truesight each time. That's more
than enough to get you through the day. Only reason why it's not rated higher is because you have to peer through the gem
to use it (making certain actions, like spellcasting, more difficult than need be) and it doesn't do anything else.

[Uncommon] ​Gloves of Missile Snaring ​– As a reaction, when a ranged weapon attack hits you reduce the damage by
1d10 + dexterity modifier. Intended for monks, but you'll probably easily have a free hand for this if you want. This is an
okay alternative to shield/song of victory to stretch out spell slots, but ranged weapon attacks are generally not as
devastating as spell attacks and melee weapon attacks.

[Uncommon] ​Gloves of Swimming and Climbing​ ​– Congratulations! Your ability to climb and swim (now no longer at
reduced speed) have been raised to 'barely competent', especially if you have proficiency. I dunno, I'd rather outright be
able to fly or at least have ACTUAL climbing and swimming speeds, especially if it's going to cost me an attunement slot.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Gloves of Thievery ​– Unsurprisingly, you're probably one of the better characters at using Dexterity
(Sleight of hand) checks to pick locks unless you're partied with a rogue or mischievous bard. So a +5 bonus is nothing to
sneeze at.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Goggles of Night​ – Darkvision is one of those things where you don't realize how convenient it is to have
until you need it. And you will need it. Even if you do have it, having darkvision go out to a range of +60 feet will allow you to
outsee creatures who do have darkvision. Let's see who's the best nighttime sniper now!

[Uncommon] [N] ​Handy Haversack ​– Should be renamed 'moderately convenient Haversack'. An action is still too long to
retrieve items from this edition's haversack, and the center pouch holding only 80 pounds? Are you kidding me? At least
really skinny, really thin drow can store their corpses in the Haversack for Magic Jar shenanigans, but yeesh.

There's still the 'Astral Bomb' trick of putting a Handy Haversack in another extradimensional space item, but it's kind of a
waste of both items. Especially at higher levels, when it won't even permanently put down the typical Big Bad.

[Uncommon] ​Hat of Disguise​ ​– Even if you plan to spend all day in town, this is not worth an attunement slot. Just cast
Disguise Self, Alter Self, or any of the other long-lasting disguise spells and save yourself the trouble.
[Uncommon] ​Headband o​f Intellect​ – Sets your intelligence to 19. A good find at low levels, ​but by level 12 and definitely
by level 16 you should be at, or even exceeded an 18 in intelligence​. If you absolutely know this item is going to drop,
you can also use it to start with unbalanced stats and then put it on later. Easy money for the half-elf who wants to
multiclass paladin.

[Uncommon] ​Heart​hstone​ ​– You are not a night hag and the most obvious two ways to become a or have access to a night
hag (Magic Jar or True Polymorph) you're not going to waste on night-haggishness. ​If for some reason you are able to
use this magical item​, becoming ethereal at-will is sublimely excellent. But you won't be able to use it, because you can't
be able to use it. Sorry to get your hopes up.

[Very Rare] ​Helm of Brilliance​ – Fun magical item. You get 1d10 charges of Prismatic Spray, 2d10 charges of of Wall of
Fire, 3d10 charges of fireball, and 4d10 charges of daylight, all at DC 17. If you have one ruby, you get fire resistance. If
you have one fire opal, you get 1d6 extra fire damage on one weapon. If you have one diamond, you deal 1d6 radiant
damage to any undead that starts within 30 feet of you and it emits dim light if there's an undead in that radius. Here's a tip
for you: as soon as you get it, drain all of the regular opals (not fire opals). That way, when you roll a d20 after taking fire
damage and get a 1, the backlash damage will be less. Oh, did I mention the backlash damage? If what I mentioned just
happened, everyone in 60 feet has to make a DC 17 Dex save or people take damage equal to the number of gems
remaining, and then the helmet goes away. Don't get too attached to this item, but it's still very useful even with only one
charge of fireball, prismatic spray, and wall of fire.

[Very Rare] [N] ​Helm of Comprehend Languages​ – The only advantage this item has over having it in a ritual is to avoid
the long casting time of the ritual.

[Uncommon] ​Helm of Telepathy ​(​Follower​)​ ​– Detect thoughts at-will? Mmmm. Can be kind of useful for scouting if you're
infiltrating a place with thin walls and doors.

[Rare] ​Helm of Teleportation ​(​Follower, but only if they've traveled with you​)​ ​– Teleportation is very unwieldly to use in
5E D&D, putting you miles off target. Still, teleportation remains a 7th-level spell cast out of a slot and it's not a bad idea to
be able to immediately cast it again if you're put unacceptably out of range. ESPECIALLY if you end up in the ocean or
something.

[Rare] [N] ​Horn of Blasting​ ​(​Follower​)​ ​– Is this a joke or something? 5d6 thunder damage, Con 15? With a 20% chance of
the horn backfiring and doing 10d6 damage to the blower? If you have a follower whose well-being you don't care about,
like a familiar or something, go ahead and give them this horn. Make yourself useful for your master.

[Rare] ​Horn of Valhalla​ ​(​Silver​ / ​Br​ass​ / ​Bro​nze​ / ​Ir​on​) – Once every seven days you get one hour of, in order, 2d4+2,
3d4+3, 4d4+4, or 5d4+5 berserkers loyal to your cause. Berserkers aren't the best companions, but when you spam that
many of them they can chew through most opposition. If you can, try to get hobgoblin berserkers. If you don't meet the
requirements, though, they'll turn on you. And they disappear after hitting 0 hit points, so no refilling your zombie ranks with
this item, sadly. ​That said, you get an impressive number of them if you do meet the requirements​, ​which is most
easily done by multiclassing.
[Very Rare] [N] ​Horseshoes of a Zephyr​ – Surprisingly, not all that useful even if you built your bladesinger for mounted
combat. The few quadruped animals you'd want to risk this item on (i.e. nightmares, pegasus) probably already have better
movement modes – especially at the tier these are expected to drop. Could be fun on a unicorn or a centaur that would
actually let you ride them, but that's about it.

[Rare] [N] ​Horseshoes of Speed​ – Fundamentally, it has the same issues of the Horseshoes of a Zephyr, but since it drops
at a lower tier you'll probably get to use it more.

[Very Rare] [N]​ ​Ignot of the Skold Rune​ ​– The basic properties of this Ignot are pretty nice to have. A +1 to AC, all the
time, is always worth it but the real fun comes with its Shield Bond ability; once per short rest as a bonus action a creature
in 30 feet of you takes 1 damage from all attacks while you take half of what would be reduced. Really helpful for keeping
your familiars and simulacrums alive. The transfer properties aren't bad, either. Creature an (attunement) +1 shield with a
Death Ward per long rest. Fun property, but probably not in your wheelhouse. The other one is much better; turn a
non-magical weapon into a magical weapon that gives +1 to AC while you hold it in your hand.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Insignia o​f Claws​ – ​Unless you splashed in a level of monk, you're something like a minotaur or
lizardfolk bladesinger, or you're one of those lucky ducky bladesingers that has Shapechange​, you're probably not
going to find much of a use for a magical item that gives you a +1 to attack and damage rolls and makes your strikes magic.
Someone else in your party could use it more.

[Rare] [N] ​Instant Fortress​ – Interesting and versatile magical item. You can use it the simple-yet-awesome way and use it
as repeatedly deployable cover. It's only 30 feet high, too, so it'll even fit into many mid/high-level dungeons. You can also
use it as an unlimited-use 10d10 DC 15 Dex half area of effect, complete with no-save pushing. The fact that it's impossible
to repair without a wish spell is a bummer, but the further fact that non-magical non-siege weapons don't even damage it
(and it gets 100 hp/resistance to any other kind of damage) makes it useful even when you don't expect a surprise fireball.

[Uncommon to Very Rare] [M] ​Instrument of ​the Bard​ (​See​ ​Table​)– Yes, disadvantage to charm saves that use the
instrument as a spellcasting focus, sounds fun, right? However, note the exact wording on the spell. “​When you use the
instrument to cast a spell that causes targets to become charmed on a failed save, the targets have Disadvantage on the
saving throw. This effect applies whether you are using the instrument as the source of the spell or as a spellcasting focus.”
This means that, RAW, the spell only works on exactly two spells in the PHB or Xanathar’s: Animal Friendship and Hypnotic
Pattern. Unfortunately, Jeremy Crawford in his dumb March 3 Sage Advice agrees with this interpretation. ​That said, 5E
D&D may eventually print more charm spells with material components and Hypnotic Pattern is a good spell.

That said that said, even if your DM is holding you to the stricter interpretation, you still get 1/long rest use of various spells,
and they're all winners. Even the instruments with relatively mediocre payouts (such as the Cittern) are automatically
Sky-Blue. Though none of them are quite good enough to be gold. Thus, no individual colors.

Instrument Rarity Spells

Fly, Invisibility, Levitate, Protection from Evil and Good,
All
— plus the spells listed for the particular instrument
Anstruth Harp Very Rare Control Weather, Cure Wounds (​ 5th level), ​Wall of Thorns
 Cure Wounds ​(3rd level), ​Dispel Magic, Protection from
Canaith Mandolin Rare
Energy (​ lightning only)
Cli Lyre Rare Stone Shape, Wall of Fire, Wind Wall
Animal Friendship, Protection from Energy (​ fire only),
Doss Lute Uncommon
Protection from Poison
Fochlucan Bandore Uncommon Entangle, Faerie Fire, Shillelagh, Speak with Animals
Mac-Fuirmidh Cittern Uncommon Barkskin, Cure Wounds, Fog Cloud
Ollamh Harp Legendary Confusion, Control Weather, Fire Storm

[Rare to Legendary] ​Ioun Stone​ (​See Chart​) – Let's go over the bad first. The first of the bad: they can actually be taken
away from you as an action. Granted, the AC/Acrobatics check to do so is 24, so it's unlikely, but you can be easily screwed
by this. Better hope the DM just forgets you have one of these. The second of the bad: 5E D&D, like every other edition of
D&D, seems to have this weird obsession that the 'orbits around your head and can be easily stolen' property of ioun stones
outweighs the fact that, pound-for-pound, they tend to be WEAKER than equivalent magical items. The Protection ioun
stone is weaker than the Ring of Protection but is the same rarity. Same for the Reserve ioun stone compared to the Ring of
Spell Storing. This kinda-sorta made sense in the earlier D&Ds since they didn't take up precious magical item slots, but
since 5E D&D uses attunement slots, it's just a puzzling accidental nerf.

That said, some of these are pretty okay effects. For example, the +2 to Dex/Int ones can be thought of as trading an
attunement slot for an extra ASI once you gain enough levels. Even the ioun slots that aren't particularly good for a
Bladesinger can be great for multiclassing.

Name Rarity Effect

20 total spell levels, ever, of using a reaction to negate a spell of

Absorption Very Rare
4th level or lower that you can see.
Agility Very Rare +2 to Dexterity, Max 20.

Awareness Rare Can't be surprised.

Fortitude Rare +2 to Constitution, Max 20.

Greater 50 total spell levels, ever, of using a reaction to negate a spell of

Legendary
Absorption 8th level or lower that you can see.
Insi​ght Very Rare +2 to Wisdom, Max 20.

Intellect Very Rare +2 to Intellect, Max 20.

Leade​rship Very Rare +2 to Charisma, Max 20.

Mastery Legendary +1 to all proficiency bonuses (including spell save DC!)

Protection Rare +1 bonus to AC.

Regeneration Legendary Regain 15 HP per hour.

Reserve Rare Store up to three spells, max total spell level of three.

Stre​ngth Very Rare +2 to Strength, Max 20.

Sustenance Rare Don't need to eat or drink.

[Rare] [N] ​Iron Bands of Binding​ ​– After nailing the enemy with a pretty easy-to-make ranged attack roll, a Huge or smaller
enemy gets restrained by the bands... until they or a buddy make a DC 20 strength check as an action. Which then
permanently destroys the item​. That's bad. It's much better if you get the initial check to stick, since it is only a once-per-day
check. An balor has 'only' a +8 to the check, so you have a 55% chance of nailing it. Since the item is attached to them,
they can't exactly teleport out of it, which is good. There's a question of whether they can be destroyed without breaking
them, but probably not.

[Legendary] [N] ​Iron Flask​ – A creature native to a plane of existence other than the one you're on makes a DC 17 WIS
save (with advantage if they're been caught by this thing before) or they're captured by the bottle like a Pokemon and you
get 1 hour of loyalty. As long as you take the proper precautions for this spell (such as never using this without an inverted
Magic Circle as backup and/or re-using this flask when you have plenty of time to try capturing the monster until it fails its
save) it's like having a permanent companion.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Lantern of Revealing​ (​Follower​) – Light this lamp as an action, invisible creatures and objects within its
30 foot radius are revealed for up to 6 hours. What more can you say, other than 'situational non-attunement lifesaver'?

[Uncommon] ​Lost Crown ​of Besilmer​ – You get: resistance to psychic damage, advantage on saving throws against
charm effects, and the ability to as a bonus action 3 times/dawn give a creature within 60 feet the ability to, before the end
of your next turn, add a d6 to their attack roll/saving throw/ability check. ​If all three effects apply to you​ (unlikely since
you're probably an elf or a half-elf, but possible) ​then bump the rating up a skitch​.

[Rare] ​Mantle of Sp​ell Resistance​ ​– Do you want resistance on saving throws against spell effects? You sure do. Well,
you'll be able to get by for the first half of the game but ​in the later half it becomes your ace in the hole​.

[Very Rare] [N] ​Manual of​ ​(​Bodily Health​ ​/​ Gainful Exercise ​/​ ​Quickness of Action​) – These tomes permanently boost
the stats of, respectively, ​Constitution​, ​Strength​, and ​Dexterity​ by +2 AND increases the maximum by +2. All of these are
wonderful finds. Even the strength one to sneeze at if no one else wants it, since it doesn't cost you anything.

[Very Rare] [N] ​Manual of Golems​ – Are you at least level 10 and have 30 to 120 days to burn? If not, cool your jets. More
importantly, do you also have this kind of money (up to 100k gp!!!) to burn? Because these are VERY expensive golems
and even in the money-for-nothing world of 5E D&D you may have trouble meeting the upfront cost. If you do, hey, one-time
free golem. The iron golem is, unsurprisingly, the best one to have because of its 0% chance to go berserk, its enormous hit
point stack, huge amounts of damage, and the ability for an arcane spellcaster to easily recharge its hit points. But even the
weakest one, the flesh golem will last you for a very long time due to its immunity to non-magical weapons that aren't
adamantine.

[Very Rare] [N] ​Marvelous ​Pigments​ ​– Yeah, yeah. You get a (frankly pretty huge!) 10,000 cubic feet surface area. It's all
filled with mundane objects, but, awesomely enough this also lets you paint empty space. ​Meaning, RAW, you can make
your Secret Chest / Handy Haversack / Bag of Holding / Demiplane bigger than what you already get!​ A 5 by 5 by 5
square is 125 cubic feet, for example, giving you 80 extra squares to play with.

[Uncommon] ​Medallion of Thoughts​ (​Follower​) – You want me to waste an attunement slot on a DC13 Detect Thoughts?
Give this trash to your familiar or something.

[Very Rare] ​Mirror of Life Trapping​ – DC 15 Charisma check to permanent trap a blah de blah. Look, there's nothing that
this magic item does that can't be replicated by a really good prison. In fact, the DC 15 Charisma save will make it worse
than a really good prison. Yes, it's not attunement, but neither is the Alcatraz.

[Very Rare] [N] ​Navigation Orb​ – If you have a cloud giant castle – specifically, the one this navigation orb is keyed to –
these things are mandatory to move them around. If you don't have one, they're utterly worthless.

[Uncommon] ​Necklace of Adaptation​ – Breathe normally in any environment, advantage on saving throws against harmful
gases and vapors. The two properties individually won't come up much, but taken together... eh, they probably still won't
come up much, but it's likely they'll come up sometime in your adventure.

[Rare] [N] ​Necklace of Fireballs​ (​Follower​) – 1d6+3 non-recharging uses of a DC 15 Fireball? I do believe I will be putting
this through its paces. You can use up multiple charges at once to increase the level, but why would you do that?

[Rare] [M] ​Necklace of​ ​Prayer Beads​ – Multiclassed? You get: 1d4+2 beads. Each bead, repeat beads allowed, gives a
1/dawn, DC-yours spell with a 30% chance of being Bless, 25% chance of being Lesser Restoration / Cure Wounds, 15%
chance of Greater Restoration, 10% chance of Branding Smite, 5% chance of Planar Ally, and 5% chance of Wind Walk.
Even getting repeats aren't that bad; if I had 4 castings of slot-free bless I'd still be able to find a use for it. ​That said, you
can get really lucky and end up with, oh, multiple Greater Restorations.

[Rare] [N] [N - Sometimes] ​Opal of​ the Ild Rune​ – In addition to cold resistance, you get some fire starting/extinguishing
tricks. It's not clear whether the Fire Tamer property lets you snuff out Wall of Fire, but if it does, eh. Doesn't really change
anything. ​However, you can also use it on a nonmagical weapon to give you non-attunement +1d6 fire damage, no
questions asked​.​ You can also transfer the rune's property to a suit of attunement armor that will just give you the cold
resistance and nothing else... but... why?

[Artifact] ​Orb of Dragonkind​ – First of all, can you make a DC 15 Charisma check? This is not impossible, but, if you fail
the check this effect is incredibly difficult to remove. Second, if you do actually attune... I don't know, but two minor
beneficial properties and a major and minor detrimental property doesn't add up. You also get some spells that are rather
weak for an artifact. 1D4+3 charges and recharges of 5th-level cure wounds (3 charges), daylight (1 charge), death ward (2
charges), scrying (3) and at-will detect magic. If you're feeling suicidal or extremely confident about the local geography,
you can also no-save compel dragons to come in range. For an attunement item, this item is really mediocre even if you
can nail the Charisma check.

[Rare] ​Orb of the Stein Rune​ – Bonus action, short-action recharge meld-into-stone is really good for life-saving and
stealth. Immunity to petrification and as an action getting advantage on saves against effects that would move you, along
with (on the same action) throwing in a pitiful DC 12 Strength saving throw for creatures trying to move into a square 10 feet
of you? Not so much. Passable only because of the Meld With Stone bonus action.

You can put it on a shield to create an attunement item that gives you resistance to all ranged weapon attacks. Or you could
put it on a pair of boots to create an attunement item that gives you, as a reaction, advantage on stealth saving throws to
knock you prone.

[Uncommon] ​Pearl of Power ​– As an action, gain back an expended spell slot, instead regaining a 3rd level spell slot if it
was 4th level or higher. If you're willing to juggle your attunements, this amounts to extra spell slots at the start and
throughout the day. Collecting two or three of these things and spending a couple of hours (to attune and to un-attune)
throughout the day can really stretch out those spell slots if you have the time for it.

[Very Rare] ​Pennant of the Vind Rune​ – As an action, fly up to 20 feet, falling at the end unless you have independent
flight. This item is already on my bad side. You are also immune to suffocation. Getting better, but still not good. Every short
rest, as a reaction when you fall, you can take no damage. Even better, but this still collectively adds up to a purple. Finally,
you can as a bonus action cast levitate every short rest. Oh baby! Bonus action levitate is very good, since levitate functions
as a save-or-die, mobility booster, and object manipulator.

You can also transfer it to an armor or boots, creating attunement items. If you do it to armor, the armor gains an extra 5
feet to speed and removes disadvantage on stealth checks. Bladesingers don't care about the stealth and if they did care
about the speed, they'd use their attunement slot for something else. Putting it on boots makes the 20 feet of flight
mentioned earlier part of your movement instead of an action (making it merely okay rather than awful) and you can once a
rest cast feather fall. I'd rather have bonus action levitate.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Periapt of Health​ – Immunity to disease. Diseases are not all that common in 5E D&D, but this item
doesn't require an attunement slot, so it's still coming along for the ride. Few DMs also won't let you wear multiple amulets
anyway.

[Rare] [N] ​Periapt of Proof against Poison​ – Hoo yeah. Unlike disease, poison is very common. And you not only become
immune to the poisoned condition and poison damage, but they have no effect on you, period. It doesn't even require
attunement!

[Uncommon] ​Periapt of Wound Closure​ – Stabilize at the start of your turn when you're dying, regain maximum hit points
when you roll a hit die? Not that great of an item. Bonus action or off-action healing takes care of the former and you're not
gaining that much more healing with your puny wizard hit dice.
[Uncommon] [N] ​Pipes of Haunting​ (​Follower​) – As an action, spend one of its 3 (1d3 daily recharge) charges to make
every creature in 30 feet of you make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or they become frightened for 1 minute, EOTS and
24HSI. You can select out targets as you feel like. Simple and useful.

[Uncommon] ​Pipes of the Sewers​ – Lotta jibber-jabber for an item that doesn't do much. Rats and giant rats ignore you
unless you initiate hostilities. Use one of the three charges (1d3 daily recharge) as a bonus action to assemble a rat swarm
if there are enough rats nearby. The item doesn't say how long this takes. Then, the rats move to where you're playing the
music. You don't have any control over them yet. That comes when you make a DC 15 Charisma check (already killing its
usefulness) while playing the pipes to thereafter gain control over the swarm(s) as long as they hear you and you spend an
action every round. If they can't hear the music, you lose control. Seriously, what's with all the verbosity and action
hogging? It's a rat swarm! People don't care about them after level 5. Please write better items in the future, game
designers.

[Uncommon]​ ​Piwafwi of Fire Resistance​ – So, as the item implies, you get fire resistance AND everything you'd normally
get from the cloak of elvenkind? Excellent. Very close to sky blue even without all of the caveats in the original cloak of
elvenkind, even.

[Rare] ​Portable Hole​ – It's a portable hole! Two 5-foot cubes stacked on top of each other you can fill with and tote around.
You can also trap people in it who are foolish enough to end up in it and fail a DC 10 strength check, but its real use is for
weightless storage space. You can also use it to create astral bombs (see the notes on the Handy Haversack if you're really
desperate.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Restorative Ointment ​– 1d4+1 charges, swallow or apply to the skin as an action. If you do, you get back
2d8+2 hit points, cure any disease, and cure any poison. Eh. It's non-attunement, so it's like having extra potions.

[Rare]​ ​Robe of Eyes​ – All of these are good properties individually and the combination makes it great. You get all-around
vision with advantage on sight-based Wisdom (Perception) checks. You get darkvision out to 120 feet. And you can see
invisible objects and into the ethereal plane out to 120 feet. Here's the bad, though. You can't avert your gaze while wearing
this – you could take off the cloak in a pinch if need be. The other thing is that a light or a daylight spell cast within five feet
of you no-save blinds you for a minute, with a DC11/15 Constitution save respectively EOTS save. That's really bad. Bad
enough that I'd consider disguising your cloak so that chaff enemies stop casting light on you.

[Very Rare] ​Robe of Scintillating Colors​ – Sort of the opposite of the Robe of Eyes, including in usefulness. You get three
charges, regain 1d3 at dawn. As an action, you can spend a charge to shed bright light to 30 feet and make anyone who
can see you take disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the end of your turn. This is useless when the Dodge action
exists. However, creatures within the bright light when you activate it have to take a DC15 Wis saving throw or be stunned
for a round. Would be much better, except the wide radius almost assures you'll get your friends, too. Not even useful for a
follower.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Robe of Serpents​ – 1d4+3 charges of bonus action creating a giant poisonous snake. They last for an
hour or until they're killed. You don't control them, but they distinguish friend from foe. They have pitiful hitpoints (being CR
1/4) and the poison is probably not going to land at DC 11. Even if you use up all of the serpents at once and enter combat
with them already out this isn't going to be as good as a Conjure Animals spell.
[Very Rare] ​Robe of Stars​ – +1 to saving throws. Nice way to start out creating a floor for the rating. You also get 6 stars
(1d6 daily recharge) you can use as an action to create a magic missile. Transporting to the Astral Plane in such a way that
you have to end up where you're started once you're done just isn't as useful as being able to do the same with the Ethereal
plane, sorry. You can use it as a portable magic missile platform for a follower or as a boring bonus to saving throws. Either
way, it's just a hair out of being purple-rated.

[Legendary] ​Robe of the Archmagi​ ​– These come in three versions, White/Grey/Black, with only a good/neutral/evil
character able to attune to those robes.

Your AC formula now becomes 15 + Dex. It's like having +3 studded leather all the time, every time. Secondly, you have
advantage on saving throws against magic and other magical effects. Wicked. I was looking for an ace-in-the-hole against
liches. Finally, the DC of your spells increases by +2.

If this magical item drops, you are obligated by the wizard code of honor to kill anyone else who wants this. If this magical
item drops and you don't match the robe color, you are obligated by the munchkin code of cheese to change your alignment
to do so.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Robe of Useful Items​ – Talk about false advertising. Except for the scroll, everything you could get on this
list are mundane things you won't care about past level 5. Well, the chance to get a 10-foot cube pit is legitimately nice for
increasing the capacity of your demiplanes/bag of holding/secret chest. It's not a big enough chance to reliably get it,
though, and even if you do get it it's just not a good item.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Rope of Climbing​ – This rope is better than regular rope because it has a tensile strength of 3000
pounds, which can come in handy. Or you could just carry four or so pre-knotted silk ropes and use multiples at once. As
you can see how I rated the Robe of Useful Items, I am inherently disdainful of magical items that are 'do a mundane task
modestly better', even if they don't cost attunement slots. So this item gets the purple, too.

[Rare] [N] ​Rope of​ Entanglement​ – Take an action and if the creature (no size limit, but it's 30 feet of rope) fails a DC15
Dexterity save, they're restrained? And can only get out by making a DC 15 Strength or Dexterity strength check as an
action. AC 20 and 20 hit points (at least it regains them if not destroyed) ​means not getting attached to it​. It's definitely
better to think of this as a single-use restrained item where you can often get reuses. If your DM is nice and doesn't
specifically target the item, ​bump the rating up a category​.

[Uncommon] [N] ​Saddle of the Cavalier​ – If you want to do mounted combat but can't spare the feat on actual mounted
combat, this item will tide you over. Prevention of dismounting is extremely nice (though technically, you can't dismount on
your own, either) and on-demand disadvantage is even nicer. Since it's non-attunement, you can slap this saddle on a
mount and have some chaff mob (or lazy party member) onto it for extra defense.

[Legendary]​ ​Scarab of​ ​Protection​ – First of all, ​advantage on saves against spells​. Want more than that? Okay, you
also get 11 charges (12 if you want to destroy the item) of auto-succeeding against necromancy spells or harmful effects
originating from undead creatures. If you're fighting an end-of-campaign undead boss like Acererak or even Vecna, ​this
magical item becomes unmatched for protection if you saved your charges​.
[Uncommon] [N] ​Sending Stones​ – 1/day sending only to the creature that is holding the stone paired with yours isn't all
that useful, even for fantasy walkie-talkie action.

[Very Rare] ​Shard of the Ise Rune​ – Most people won't care about the first property, that of touching water and making a
ten-foot radius sphere of ice. You, Mr. Simulacrum abuse, do care. A lot. The Fire Resistance is always a fun add-on. Icy
0Mantle lets you once per short rest create as an action a barrier that reduces the next piercing/bludgeoning/slashing
damage you take in the next minute to 0. Great pre-combat buff. And finally, once per short rest cast Winter's Howl for a DC
17 sleet storm. Probably the best Rune from Storm King's Thunder.

If you're feeling completely wasteful, you can transfer the property to an attunement cloak and ONLY get the fire resistance
– and a advantage on stealth checks in snowy terrain. Whoopie. Or you could transfer it to a pair of boots and get water
walk and ignoring difficult terrain.

[Uncommon] ​Slippers of Spider Climbing​ – Being able to walk on, without using your hands, vertical and horizontal
surfaces vastly opens up your movement shenanigans. Become Bat-Wizard and hang on the ceiling while picking off your
foes with ranged attacks!

[Legendary] ​Sovereign Glue​ – 1d6+1 ounces of making the bond of up to 1 square foot on two items/surfaces unbreakable
except for universal solvent, oil of etherealness, or a wish spell. It takes a minute to set, so no combat tomfoolery.

[Uncommon to Legendary] [N] ​Spell Gem​ (​Level 0 ​/ ​1​ /​ ​2​ / ​3​ / ​4​ / ​5​ / ​6​ / ​7​ / ​8​ / ​9​) ​(​Follower​)– This magical item... hooboy.
It's extra spell slots up to the level of the gem, usable once per day. It's kind of a pain how the DC and spell attack roll are
fixed but it's EXTRA SPELL SLOTS. They need to be banked in advance, but still, EXTRA SPELL SLOTS.

Even though it's not attunement, you probably don't want to give this to a follower. If it's not on their spell list/they know the
spell, they straight-up can't use it. Even if they could, if it's not of a level of spell they can cast they have to make a DC 10
spellcasting ability check or lose the spell. Not worth it.

[Legendary] [N] ​Sphere of Annihilation​ – Sphere of Annihilation... what happened to you, buddy? You used to be, like, a
Sphere of ​ANNIHILATION​, not a sphere of 4d10 force damage to anything bigger than a pixie. There's some theoretical fun
to be had with using this as a floating wrecking ball, but making a DC25 Arcana check just to move it 5 x your intelligence
modifier? Ha. Good luck getting it to where you need to go anytime soon.

[Rare] [N] ​Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals​ (​Follower​) – Okay. Last time we’re doing this repetitive writeup, thank
goodness. Once per day, you get an elemental. It's not clear if this will eat up your concentration slot or not, but it probably
does (the wording is “and summon an earth elemental, as if you had cast the conjure elemental spell”). That said, it is a free
earth elemental and they stay useful until the very endgame. This is the easiest of this category of item to use. Just have it
touch the ground, rather than carry some heavy bowl of water.

[Uncommon] ​Stone of Good Luck (Luckstone)​ – +1 to ability checks and saving throws. Nice. Don’t forget that this
includes Counterspell and initiative.
[Rare] ​Stonespeaker Crystal​ – For what was meant to be a pure roleplay item, you get some good effects! 1d6+4 charges
daily, max 10. Use Speak With Animals (2 charges), Speak With Dead (4) or Speak With Plants (3). Get advantage on
Intelligence (investigation) checks. But the real money of the item is that you can repeatedly use charges from the
Stonespeaker crystal (charges = level of the spell) to fuel consumable expensive material components of divination spells.
Keep this handy for downtime.

[Legendary] ​Talisman of Pure Good​ / ​Talisman of Ultimate Evil​ – If you’re neutral, always take 6d6 damage when
touching this thing. If you’re the wrong alignment, take 8d6. Can be used as a holy symbol for clerics/paladins for a +2 to
attack roll, but, eh. No, the real fun is that as an action, you can spend one of the seven charges to make an earthbound
creature of the opposite alignment of the talisman within 120 feet make a DC 20 Dexterity Saving throw. They fail? They’re
permanently destroyed. Since you’ll be fighting way, WAY more evil superbosses than good-aligned ones, the Talisman of
Pure Good is by far the better one.

[Legendary] ​Talisman of the Sphere ​– This lets you move the Sphere of Annihilation quickly enough that it goes to 'you'll
fall asleep while using it' from 'you'll pray for death while using it'. You also get double-proficiency bonus on your Arcana
check, risking less backlash. Would be enough to make the Sphere of Annihilation rated higher, but it's an attunement item.
So, no. Both it, and the Sphere of Annihilation, are a waste of your time.

[Very Rare] [N] ​Tome of​ (​Clear Thought​ / ​Leadership and Influence​ / ​Understanding​) – Three stat raising tomes of
Intelligence​, Charisma, ​and ​Wisdom ​respectively. All of these are good, but seriously, give the latter two tomes to
someone else if you gain them.

[Legendary] [M - wizard, ha ha] ​Tome of the Stilled Tongue​ ​– Okay, sit down for a minute. Ready? Any spell written in this
book can be cast while you’re holding it: without being prepared, without requiring a spell slot, without verbal and somatic
components, as a bonus action, and once per dawn. Good. God. Bonus action Symbol. Bonus action Simulacrum. Bonus
action Planar Binding. Load up Foresight into a Glyph of Warding. Geez, this thing.

I normally don’t do this, but this is an available in Adventurer’s League. And I have it. I’m not going to say where I got it, but
for you wiztreasureards looking for a pot of gold at the end of your rainbow? It’s there. Oh lord, is it there.

[Legendary] [N] ​Universal Solvent​ – A legendary item whose only purpose is to get rid of adhesives? PASS.

Spells

Cantrips
All cantrips, if they scale on damage, scale at level 5, 11, and 17. It’s typically by a single die.

Acid Splash​ {Dex} – One of the few ranged cantrips that can target multiple creatures. Granted, they have to be pretty
close to each other and it’s only 1d6 scaling acid damage. You generally have better options for double-target cantrip
damage.
Blade Ward​ – You spend your action and get one round of resistance against bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage
dealt by weapon attacks. This spell is pretty awful unless you already have disadvantage-on-demand and you absolutely
cannot attack or do anything else for any other reason. And since you’re a wizard, this won’t be the case.

● (SCAG)​ ​Booming Blade​ {Melee Attack} (No Somatic, technically, but only matters for material component/focus
access) – The first of the famous SCAG cantrips. It’s a really good one, too, especially in campaigns with no access
to magic weapons. Hit a target, do regular melee weapon damage, then do 1d8 scaling tier minus 1 thunder
damage. If they willingly move, even to reposition themselves, they take an additional 1d8 scaling thunder damage.
There’s a combo here with Warcaster, and while it’s great when it happens you shouldn’t expect it to happen more
than once a campaign unless the bard is Dissonant Whispers happy. It’s really just here for the damage spike and
for punishing foes trying to escape your Web or other zones.

Chill Touch​ {Ranged Spell Attack} – 1d8 scaling necrotic damage at range. Target can’t regain hit points. Can be used for
self-only disadvantage-on-demand against undead. This may come in handy once in a campaign, but it’s hard justifying a
precious cantrip use.

(EEPC)​ ​Control ​Flames​ ​(Somatic Only) – Pure roleplaying spell. Unlike similar spells like Shape Water, there’s nothing
particularly interesting you can do with this spell that you can’t with regular fire and some Minor Illusion trickery. You can
extinguish cubes of 5 feet flame as an action, but generally you will want something that can fight fires quicker than that.

It’s not RAW,​ If you could affect magical fires with this spell​, there’s some definite utility here such as expanding the
zone of a Flaming Sphere or adding squares to a Wall of Fire.

(EEPC)​ Create Bonfire​ {Dex} [C] – Fill up a 5-foot cube with scaling 1d8 fire damage. If you can guarantee getting more
than one round of damage out of it, such as having a Shovebarian or another Booming Blade user on your side, it’s a very
good cantrip. Also useful for having a source of fire to use with certain game effects like Conjure Elemental and
Pyrotechnics.

Dancing Lights​ [C] – Create four lights of moderate brightness you can move as a bonus action. I’ve heard some people
claim you can use this spell for stealthy signaling, but I’d like something that could move a bit further than 120 feet.

Fire​ Bolt​ ​{Ranged Spell Attack} – Simple, but demanding standard for cantrips. 1d10 scaling damage, very easy to hit with.
If you’re an elven bladesinger or otherwise proper ranged weapon proficiencies​, your ranged weapon attacks will
likely be better until the endgame, but not by much. Everyone else, this will be your go-to default ranged attack.

Friends​ (No Verbal) – Advantage on charisma checks towards a non-hostile creature would be nice, except that this spell
automatically makes them hostile towards you. Definitely best used for requests and/or methods that are going to make the
target upset for you carrying them out, so you may want to train up Intimidation for this. You’re generally going to create
more trouble than you’ll solve, though.

(EEPC) ​Frost​bite​ {Con} – When you’re first starting out, imposing disadvantage on a target’s first attack roll until the end of
its next turn is great. Less so once they get multiattack. That wouldn’t really impact this cantrip’s usefulness were it not for
the CON saving throw and weak scaling damage.
(SCAG) ​Green-Flame Blade​ (Melee Attack) (No Somatic, technically, but only matters for material component/focus
access) – The second of the SCAG cantrips.You get the same single-target damage of Booming Blade, but with a twist; an
adjacent target in 5 feet takes 1d8 scaling minus 1 tier plus spellcasting modifier damage. This will almost always end up
doing more total damage than splitting your Extra Attack. There’s only one problem: you can’t, or rather, it’s not advised to
use this cantrip if there’s not another target within 5 feet of the original to take the secondary damage. Not quite as good as
Booming Blade, but it’s still pretty good.

(EEPC) ​Gust​ – The object manipulation portions of this spell make it worse than Mage Hand, which is more versatile on
weight limits and gives you 10 pounds instead of 5. However, what you’re probably interested in being able to push as a
cantrip. A medium or smaller creature is pushed back 5 feet if they fail a Strength save. Lot of utility in that, though if you’re
interested in on-demand forced movement Lightning Lure gets you 10 feet of pulling for the same Strength save. Pushing
generally tends to be better than pulling, though. Your call.

Infestation​ {Con} – CON saving throw for a scaling 1d6 damage, so we’re already sucking. It forces movement in a valid
direction that doesn’t draw opportunity attacks and you don’t even get to choose the direction of the forced movement.
Terrible. Use Frostbite instead.

Light​ {Dex} (No Somatic Component) – Even if everyone in the party has Darkvision, there are still some fun uses for this
spell, like being able to signal with mirrors and rapid covering/uncovering. Or casting Light on a rock and throwing it into a
suspicious-looking pool. And if someone in the party rolled like a boss on their Perception check, most DMs will let you
highlight it with this cantrip.

There’s a DEX save for this spell you want to target someone’s held object.

As an FYI - Perception checks without actual light based on vision (for finding secret doors and traps, etc) are at
disadvantage when using Darkvision. Having a Light spell handy allows these Perception checks as a normal
check. I’ve noticed that this gets “glossed over” by many DMs, but you can’t count on that. Of course, you can
always use a torch...

(SCAG) ​Lightning Lure ​{Str} – A pull effect on a cantrip, or any spell really, is rare enough to get you to take notice. Pulling
generally isn’t as useful as pushing since it’s easier to push people into bad situations than pull them into it (otherwise you
would be in the soup, too!) but it comes in handy. Like, say, for getting someone back in range of a Wall of Fire.

Mage Hand​ – Telekinetically manipulate an object up to 10 pounds 30 feet away. Even with the weight limit, this will come
in handy surprisingly often. You will likely want to supplement the Mage Hand weight limit with things like silk rope, glue,
Bags of Holding, oil, and soforth.

Mending​ – Given D&D’s low level of technology, your vast wealth, and adventurer defensiveness of Their Gear, you might
be wondering what would be the purpose of a spell like this. Not much. I could see it being a vital cantrip in a modern
campaign setting with things like motorcycles being shot up by bullets and smartphones being DROPPED YET AGAIN AND
THE SCREEN KEEPS BREAKING ARGH. And also being useful in a setting like Dark Sun where you can’t just go down to
the smith or wainwright to get your stuff repaired. But default D&D? Nah.
Technically, this spell only repairs break and tears, but I have yet to see a DM not let a PC use this spell to fix dents,
punctures, scratches, or even outright crumbling. Burn damage had a half-and-half chance of not being allowed.

Message​ – Man, why did this cantrip have to have components? It would’ve been so much better for secret messaging
relays. This spell is too obvious for intrigue except at a long distance (at short range, you’re better off with Minor Illusion), so
you’re basically using it for communication. Since 120 feet is more than enough to hear someone yelling, uh. It’s pretty
much just there for barrier bypassing or catching someone off-guard. It at least goes around corners and openings.

Minor Illusion​ (no verbal component) – An illusion guide referred to this cantrip as a ‘gatekeeper’ spell and I agree.
Generally, if you can’t think of ways to make a variable sound as loud of a scream or (exclusive or) a stationary object that’s
only useful for appearance, you’re probably not going to enjoy this spell or illusions in general.

To get the ol’ creative juices flowing, here’s a small list of things you might enjoy using this spell for:
● Fake Earthy Grasping Hand. Increases “controlled area” to a 3x3
● The severed head of a foe you’re fighting. Wouldn’t you spend an action to investigate?
● Shiny gold coins. If you’ve played cQuest for Glory 1, the thieves use it to good effect in conjunction with a Light
spell. Most other uses in battle keep foes away a small area, while the above 2 attracts foes.
● A stationary Buckingham palace-style guard.
● Illusions of flames or electricity in a brightly lit area, especially covering an object you want people Not To Touch
and/or Go Get A Bucket of Water.
● Spikes, pits, and illusory spike pits.
● Fake Magic Mouth that trackers waste time on
● Hornets outside cave to draw out a few baddies to reverse the ambush
● Fake Entangle (thorny vines, grease, portable hole, pool of acid, Flaming sphere)
● Fake insignia of noble/city guard to get into restricted locations
● Disguise a trap

My experience with Minor Illusion is that DMs will generally work with you to overlook the limitations of this spell. Don’t
expect this generosity to last when you break out the big guns of, say, Major Image, though.

Also - remember to try to “think outside the box”. The spell has a 5’ cube area. Nothing in the description says
that cube has to be flat on a floor. You can have a 7 ft by 5ft wall in place with this spell by turning the cube on one
edge…

(EEPC) ​Mold ​Earth​ (Somatic Only) – Have you tried digging through a 5 foot cube of dirt? It’s not that easy by hand. We’re
talking hours, not 6 seconds. It’s so good at excavating dirt that any military or construction legion should have someone
with this cantrip on hand. You can also use it to make difficult terrain for ambushes, to boot. It’s not clear if you can use the
moved dirt for quick breastworks; does the spell leave the cube of dirt intact or does it crumble it up as part of excavation?

Needless to say, ​if your party loves their outdoor ambushes​, this spell is a great help for quickly shaping the battlefield
how you want. Most parties prefer to meet their foes as the visiting team so to speak, so in that case it’s mostly just a
roleplaying spell.
Poison Spray​ {Con} – 10 feet, con save or 1d12 scaling poison damage. Good damage, but the Con save and the short
range makes it so that 99% of the time you’re better off running up and hitting the enemy with a piece of metal.

Prestidigitation​ – I call this ‘the Inspiration Generator’. Seriously, I have received more inspiration dice through the use of
this cantrip than any other spell effect. Cleaning myself and my companions up after a jungle trek to make ourselves more
impressive, enhancing the flavor of trail rations (a lot of DMs have already seen this trick, so you will want to be more
creative; I didn’t get inspiration just from seasoning the sneak, so I had to go the extra mile and say use the warm portion to
make delicious sous vide while using chill to blanch the vegetables), fascinating kids with card tricks or cool toys,
emblazoning our party’s name Zorro-style onto the walls, pretending I was a fashionable elf by ‘flavoring’ my robes with
expensive perfume, so forth.

You might want to trade this cantrip for something more utilitarian, but it’s very much a quality-of-life enhancer if you’re
willing to stretch out the uses of the spell.

Ray of Frost​ {Ranged Spell Attack} – This is a great alternative to Fire Bolt. It does less damage than that spell, but it’s a
better damage type and slows the person who gets hit by 10 feet. Non-flying monsters in 5E D&D aren’t very fast and if
your party is onboard with the idea, you can kite them with spells like this quite easily. Or you could use it to completely
destroy their ability to get out of zones. A monster with a 30-foot movement speed who spends their action getting out of a
Web will often still be in said web at the end of their turn if you hit it with Ray of Frost.

Shape​ ​Water​ (Somatic Only) – Pure roleplaying spell, except for the fact that you can create up to two five-foot cube block
of ice for an hour. So if you have the time for it, you can create ice bridges over pools of water if you’re not in a rush.

The ‘this spell creates ice’ part is vital for Simulacrum. You will have to be indirect about it, however, since ice from the spell
won’t last long enough for the 12-hour casting unless your DM does something sensible like allowing the ice to remain if it’s
packed in sawdust.

Shocking Grasp​ {Melee Spell Attack} – 1d8 lightning damage, scaling by tier. You get advantage if the target is wearing
metal armor. And if you hit, it can’t take reactions until the start of their next turn. A lot of non-melee wizards use this as a
cut-rate Disengage, but my feeling is that if you want to Disengage, you need to disengage. And even a 10-15% chance of
Shocking Grasp not landing is just too rich for my blood. You can also have a familiar deliver this spell, but that’s just asking
for a dead familiar.

As for determining whether armor counts as ‘made of metal’, a good rule of thumb is: if the druid can wear it, it doesn’t have
enough metal.

(SCAG) ​Sword Burst​ {Dex} (Verbal Only) – Third of the SCAG cantrips, and a bit of a disappointment. Hits everyone
around you in 5 feet, for a 1d6 scaling by tier. Unless the DM simply loves swarming you with CR 1/4 chaff, Greenflame
Blade or Extra Attack will serve you better for your multi-monster killing needs.
Thunderclap​ – Thunderclap got changed from a range of Self (5-foot) to a range of merely ‘5-foot’. That doesn’t really
change anything unless you’re wasting your resources on Distant Spell or Spell Sniper. It is after all a 1d6/tier Constitution
Save cantrip. Get Sword Burst instead, though Sword Burst isn’t a good cantrip to begin with.

True Strike​ {S} [C] – Get advantage on the next attack roll. Two things kill the usefulness of this spell. The first is that it’s
self-only. I could see myself forgoing actions to give advantage to a Sharpshooter rogue at low level. But just for myself?
No. The second is that it’s a concentration spell. Ouch. Yeah, you will not be using this.

1st-Level Spells
(EEPC) ​Absorb​ ​Elements​ (Somatic Only) <Reaction> – This is the first layer in your ablative defense. You don't need it at
low level (though it's a fine pick for one of your first free picks if your DM is stingy on spell drops), ​but once Fireball and
Lightning Bolt hit the field you will want this at all times​. The damage bonus from absorbing a spell is nice but not
really necessary or usable.

Alarm​ <1 Minute> [R] – Eh, it's a ritual. If you get it for free, great, have fun with it. Otherwise, this will just linger in your
spellbook.

Burning​ ​Hands​ {Dex} – Like all damage dealing spells prior to the fireball era, it starts off strong and gets worse. It's a
great show-stopper at 1st through 4th level,​ but by around 5th level​ you'll be wanting to use your melee cantrips instead.

(EEPC) ​Catapult​ (Somatic Only) {Ranged Attack Roll} – Not very good. Longer range than Chromatic Orb and doesn't
require a material component (which can be a deal-breaker at very low level), but it's inferior to it in every way.

(UA: Starter Spells) ​Cause Fear​ {Wis} [C] – It's really not that bad of a spell and I'm surprised it doesn't get cast more often.
There's no real way to break out of its fear effect early, unlike Tasha's, and frightened is a potent status condition.

Charm Person​ {Wis} – Requires some finesse and timing to use if you don’t want to eat a hefty ‘they save with advantage’
penalty, but it scales nicely, doesn't eat up concentration, and is great out of combat.

Chromatic​ ​Orb​ (50 gp) {Ranged Attack Roll} – This spell is strong out of the gate, but gets weaker as time goes on.
Selectable damage and requiring an attack roll saves it from complete uselessness, ​but by the time level 5 and
especially level 11 roll by​ you should have really moved beyond this spell even in a 'conserve your spell slots' sense.

Color Spray​ – While 6d10 hp of affected creatures would make it relevant for a smidge longer than sleep, the fact that the
effects of the spell only last one round kill off any of its usefulness.l

Comprehend Languages​ [R] – You won't need it right away, maybe not for the first few levels, but the time will come when
you do need it. And unless your entire campaign is a mindless dungeon crawl or your DM is extremely unimaginative. you
will be very, very glad. Good, but not prime pick for your free 1st-level spells.
Detect Magic​ [R] [C] – See the notes on Comprehend Languages. However, Detect Magic, unlike that spell, will be useful
as soon as you get it and even has uses in pure dungeon crawlers. Even though it's a ritual, you have decent reason to
prepare this in a regular 1st-level spell slot for that sweet 1-Action casting time.

Disguise Self​ {Investigation (Int)} – Always valuable to have in social scenes or if you just feel like sinning, but taking
Charisma as a dump stat tends to limit its usefulness.

(EEPC) ​Earth Tremor​ {Dex} – Prone and Difficult Terrain are fun things to call upon, but the range is simultaneously too
short for any meaningful control and too likely to nail your allies. This spell would be better with a 5' radius or a 20' one.

Expeditious Retreat​ [C] <Bonus Action> – Don't count this one out. It's a lot of extra movement in a combat at a cheap
price. It requires your concentration, but you get a lot of speed.

False Life​ – It's just not very good for what you get. If it lasted longer than an hour or gave more temporary hitpoints, it'd be
worth preparing or at least putting in a Contingency.

Feather Fall​ <Reaction> – You'll know if you need it or not. But if you need it, you'll probably really need it! Probably better
to just keep some backup flight spell.

Find Familiar​ (10 gp consumable) <1 Hour>: You can do so many cool things with a familiar, to the point where you can
write entire guides about it. (You should read that, by the way.) If you're lucky enough to get a special familiar as, say, an
Adventurer's League reward, you can do even cooler things.

Floating Disc​ [R]: You'll know if you need it or not. However, if no one in the party has a good carrying capacity you may
want to make room for this. 5E D&D drops money in spades and there are more than a few item manipulation puzzles in
adventure design.

Fog Cloud​ [C]: Most useful in the mid-levels, when you have the spell slots for it and targeted spells start being a problem,
but it's a really good spell to have at any level. Use it to reposition foes (especially archers behind cover), use it as a
reaction right before the enemy team moves and let go of concentration when your next turn starts, use it to take the bite
out of opportunity attacks, and so forth.

Unlike a lot of deployable cover/camouflage effects, this one isn't foiled by Truesight. Keep that in mind when you're
thinking of ways to get a breather against higher-level monsters.

Grease​ {Dex}: It's a surprisingly useful spell for most of the game, all told. Dexterity tends to be the second-worst saves of
monsters, Grease doesn't require concentration, and the save is both when it appears and at the end of the turn, not start. If
you're in a melee heavy party with threatening OAs, this is a great way to get your team advantage on.

(UA: Starter Spells) ​Guiding Hand​ – Fun, low-spoiler fact: this would be an incredibly useful spell to have in the Storm
King's Thunder and Tomb of Annihilation hardcover. Only problem: no UA material in Adventurer's League.
Hideous​ ​Laughter​ {Wis} [C] – The good: you prone an enemy with an intelligence above 4 (and unlike earlier editions, a
surprisingly large number of monsters meet this requirement, such as Skeletons) and incapacitate them. The bad: It's on a
wisdom save, they get a save each round, and if they take damage they get an immediate new saving throw with
advantage. You can deal with these limitations at lower level, ​but as Wisdom saves get easier for monsters to make it's
just not worth it​.

(EEPC) ​Ice ​Knife​ {Attack Roll, then Dex} – It's sort of like a crummier Chromatic Orb. It's gated by two enemy defenses (AC
and Dex, which does NOT give half-damage) and does slightly less damage (12.5 for Ice Knife versus 13.5 for Chromatic
Orb). Being able to affect enemies adjacent to the target prevents it from being completely worthless at low level, ​but it's
not worth it as the game goes on​.

Identify​ (100 gp) <1 Minute> [R] – The obvious use of this ritual (determine the qualities of that sweet magic item that
dropped) isn't a very good, since short rests will reveal most of it. This spell is used for figuring out how to use the weird
magic contraptions you find along in your adventures. You can also use it to find out what spells are affecting your
companion that's acting weird. Better at higher levels than lower ones, especially with that 100 gp component.

Illusory Script​ (10 gp, consumable) <1 Minute> [R] – Make secret messages that can't be foiled by decryption for your spy
game? Even if that does apply to you, this doesn't seem very useful, since it can be dispelled.

Jump​ – It's no good. You're a level away from Levitate, which it better than this waste of a spell.

Longstrider​ – +10 movement speed with no concentration for an hour ain't half-bad. What's holding this spell back,
unfortunately, is that it has really stiff competition with Shield and Absorb Elements for your first-level spell slots.

Mage​ ​Armor​ – Sweet spell that's good until the last drop. If your game doesn't have magical items, it'll be better than
anything you find. ​If your game does have magical items, it'll stack with Bracers of Defense​ and be as good as
Studded Leather +3. You can also use it on your friends if you're feeling altruistic.

Magic Missile​ – This old boy. The damage is really weak, but it's an auto-hit and does an uncommon damage type. It's not
terrible, especially when boosted with something like the Hex or Hunter's mark spell, but you can probably find a better use
for the slot.

Protection from​ ​Evil and Good​ (entry doesn't list a price, but holy water is 25 gp) [C] – This spell always gets the short
shrift in guides and I don't understand it. Granted, it has some pretty big gaps in protection: doesn't help against humanoids,
dragons, constructs, beasts, giants, or monstrosities. This makes it hard to use at low level but increasingly better as time
goes on. However, besides being 1st level and lasting decently long, it does do two things that you want:

1. It provides constant attack roll disadvantage against you ​without being foiled by truesight.​ Take a look at all of the
common disadvantage-on-demand spells Bladesingers get: Mirror Image, Blur, Greater Invis. Notice something?
Yeah.

2. It locks out Charmed, Frightened, and Possessed and gives advantages on new saving throws​ (it sadly
doesn't give them another saving throw on the spot). It's a godsend when used on party members preemptively.
(UA: Starter Spells) ​Pup​pet​ (Somatic Only) {Constitution} – You finally get Dissonant Whispers! Well, not quite. It's on a
worse save, the worst one for you to target in the game in fact, and doesn't do psychic damage. The 'drop what you're
holding' clause is very good, though. ​The biggest problem is that it only targets humanoids, which is what really
makes this spell bad as you go on.

Ray of Sickness​ {Attack Roll, then Constitution} – Poison damage, constitution saving throw, and one-round poisoned
status effect. Hard pass. If you really want to shoot Agony Beams, there’s a better one coming up next level.

(UA: Starter Spells) ​Sense Emotion​ [C] – With a range of thirty feet, only targeting humanoids, and only giving basic
emotions, this would be bad as a cantrip. I wouldn't even bother copying it into your spellbook as a freebie.

Shield​ <1 Reaction> – This is the second layer in your ablative defense. Unlike Absorb Elements, which you won't need
right away, you will need this right out of the gate. As I will never get tired of telling you, getting hit will end you at low level
and will always be a problem with your low hit points. This spell works on a hit and lasts until the start of your next turn,
stopping you from wasting spell slots. It also provides blanket defense against magic missile, but who cares about that?

Silent Image​ {Intelligence (Investigation) check} [C] – Huge amounts of potential here. Check out any decent illusionist
guide if you want to know how to use this spell for greasing the wheels of the plot or soft battlefield control. As far as boring
combat utility goes, it has many of the same uses as Fog Cloud. Although it's much smaller in area, is foiled by truesight
and physical interaction, and allows a check to get through if you're creative you can dodge many of the issues that Fog
Cloud does. Mainly, how Fog Cloud isn't redeployable and how it provides blanket denial to both you and the party.

Sleep​ – It's like Color Spray, but worse. Unconscious is a better condition than blinded, but the low hit points affected cause
the utility to drop off like a cliff. And people can get jolted awake. Unless your campaign is ending at low level, I wouldn't
waste my time with this.

(UA: Starter Spells) ​Snare​ (30 feet of cord or rope, consumable) {Special} – UA finally published a whopper of a spell for
wizards. If you're having trouble using this spell, deploy it as a triggered action, though its 5-foot radius makes it reasonably
easy to target a foe in melee or charging at you anyway. If it works, the creature falls prone and is restrained three feet into
the air. Intelligence (Arcana) check to spot or for an unaffected creature to end. Dexterity save with disadvantage (!!) for
target to end. Doesn't even require concentration.

(UA: Starter Spells) ​Sudden Awakening​ (Verbal Only) <Bonus Action> – Waking up sleeping people you choose as a
bonus action? Weak. Standing up prone creatures off-turn without expending any of their movement? Usable. Not good, but
still usable.

Thunde​rwave​ {Constitution} – Push 10 feet, 2d8 thunder damage, all in a 15 foot cube. Would be okay for a pretty long
range of play, ​except for the fact it's a constitution save​. It'll just disappoint you as time goes on, unless you really need
a low-level, concentration-free push.

Unseen Servant​ [R] – This is one of those rituals where it's more useful as a regular spell than a ritual. But even then, it's
hard to rate. How often do you want to do things in combat that a familiar couldn't handle, such as operating a winch or
deploying caltrops or administering potions or applying poison to your weapons? If it's a lot, then you'll probably enjoy this
spell a lot more than your DM intended. The pitiful strength, low hit points, short range, and constant babysitting (move 15
feet as a bonus action? Seriously?) does make it a downer, but it's a ritual and lasts for an hour without concentration.

Witch Bolt​ {Ranged Attack} [C] – This is one of those spells that regularly makes 'worst of' lists, and it's not hard to see
why. Guaranteed 1d12 lightning damage a round sounds workable at first, but the spell ending if: the target gets away 30
feet from you, you don't devote an action to it every round, OR you lose concentration? This makes the spell almost
unusable.

2nd-Level Spells
Acid Arrow​ {Ranged Spell Attack} – Average 10 acid damage upfront and 5 the next round? When Chromatic Orb from the
previous level upcast to level 2 could give me 18 acid damage right now? This does damage on a miss, but only 5 acid
damage. Avoid.
(EEPC) ​Aganazzar’s Scorcher​ {Dex} – This is sort of like Shatter, except that it has a more inconvenient AoE (30 x 5 line
versus a 10 x 10 radius), no upcasting, and a more inconvenient damage type. However, it targets dexterity instead of
constitution. However however, the level in which you’d use this dexterity saving throws haven’t diverged too much from
constitution saving throws. Me? I’d use Shatter instead.

Alter Self​ [C] – This is the only way you’re getting water breathing AND swimming at this low of a level and at an hour you
get quite a lot of it. It’s also the best disguise you’re going to get for awhile, and you can layer it with Disguise Self. It also
has some (minor) utility as a low-level TWFing booster by giving your unarmed strikes a 1d6 + 1 (plus 1 to attack rolls) base
damage, but I’d rather use Enlarge Self.

Arcane​ ​Lock​ (25 gp consumable) – Do you REALLY want to hold that portal shut? Increasing the break/force DC by 10
pretty much puts it out of the reach of anything but giants. However, while the locking is indeed permanent it’s only one
entrance per spell. If you want a safe space for the night Rope Trick is probably better. ​This spell has some utility for
reinforcing a stronghold, however, so if you frequently do Tower Defense scenarios this spell is okay​.

Blindness/Deafness​ (Verbal Only) {Con} – Blindness (lol Deafness) or EOTS for Constitution? Yeesh. However, the fact
that this is NOT a concentration spell and targets an additional creature for each slot you upcast it really keeps it in the
game longer than most spells of its type.

Blur​ (Verbal Only) [C] – This is the first real ‘forget you; you’re not my dad, monster hordes!’ spell you get and it’s a very
good one. Disadvantage-on-demand at this low of a level is priceless. The spell dips in utility some as truesight and
blindsight become more common, but it’s at such a low level that it’ll be good until the endgame if you just want to stretch
out your resources.

Cloud o​f Daggers​ [C] – Yum. No-save damage. It’s only 4d4 damage, upcast for an additional 2d4 per level, but ​if you
have some way of guaranteeing at least more than one round of damage​ it easily earns its pay.
Continual​ ​Flame​ (50 gp, consumable) – 50 gp for permanent light that doesn’t rely on heat or temperature that can also be
covered is a good bargain. Place them on some rings with a slidable cover over the illumination point and behold – you’re
now a planeteer! ​If your DM rules that upcasting Continual Flame from higher-level slots allows it to counter
Darkness​, this spell is a great, if situational way to bully the people you hate.

Crown of Madness​ {Wisdom} [C] – Between eating up your standard action and a concentration slot, this spell is greedy
on your resources. The target can also thwart this with clever repositioning. Since it’s ‘a’ (just the one) melee attack, this
has some use in neeming down monsters with multiattacks, but the EOTS property reduces its usefulness.

Dark​ness​ (No Somatic Component, but has Material) [C - 10 minutes] – 15 foot radius sphere of ‘ha ha, not even
darkvision can see through me’ is quite potent. Being able to put it on a carryable object makes it even better. Darkness is
surprisingly a very good way of being able to approach spellcasters and archers (so long as you’re sure of where they are
beforehand, but you can cover and uncover the darkness, too), since they’ll have a tough time targeting you. ​If you have
some way of getting around the Darkness, such as for Truesight and Blindness, it’s like multi-person, lower-level
Greater Invis​.

Dark​vision​ – 8 hours of 60 ft. radius darkvision isn’t quite worth a use of a spell slot at low levels, ​but if your bladesinger
is something like a Variant Human and you’re fairly high level​, you can spare the spell slot if you really need it.

Detect Thoughts​ {Wisdom} [C] – Great interrogation spell in your hands, considering you’ll have a decent intelligence
check, but Bounded Accuracy combined with giving them a chance on each of its turn to end the spell can make it
unnecessarily wasteful on spell slots. You can also use it for scouting, but the short range of 30 feet and being blocked by
two feet or rock leave much to be desired.

(EEPC) ​Dust​ ​Devil​ {Strength} [C] – You’d think that you could find a use for a spell that does repeatable 10 feet of pushing
for people ending its turn within 5 feet of the dust devil, but 5E reach mechanics makes it easy for them to dodge the
pushing. And concentration makes it even harder to combine with other spells. ​Value increases a tad if you’re with a
party member that frequently and independently creates their own damaging zones​.

(EEPC) ​Earthbind​ (Verbal Only) {Strength} [C] – Sadly for you, this spell is single target. There are plenty of creatures that
are hosed by not being able to fly, but they generally have counter-measures against this (such as good ranged attacks,
Legendary Saves). This wouldn’t be too bad but for the need for concentration. This spell will generally sit unused in your
arsenal, making you wonder why you didn’t use some other control spell.

Enlarge/Reduce​ {Constitution} [C] – Ooo, another multifunction spell! Reduce is surprisingly useful for moving around
objects and the like. You might not be able to move a 4000 pound boulder, but a 500 pound boulder is much more doable.
Reduce isn’t that good for disabling people what with a minor 1d4 damage penalty and disadvantage on Strength saving
throws and checks, but it does open up the possibility of hitting creatures normally immune to certain effects because of
their size. Such as putting a creature into a Forcecage. Enlarge Person also gives you, the Bladesinger, an okay damage
boost at lower levels, especially if you’re using TWF.
Flaming Sphere​ {Dex} [C] – 2d6 damage doesn’t sound like a lot, but since you can use a bonus action to move the sphere
and there’s a chance for additional damage if the opponent doesn’t move away, it’s a good spell to layer on additional
damage in boss fights at low levels.

One nice use for Flaming Sphere is that you have a convenient platform for a mobile Pyrotechnics. Of course, since
Pyrotechnics extinguishes flames, you might have trouble convincing a DM you can use this spell repeatedly. If your DM
goes for it, you can create a LOT of heavily obscured squares that way. If you’re able to frequently stop the enemy from
moving away from you (hello, Booming Blade) this spell also becomes better.

Gentle Repose​ (2 cp, technically) – Quick-reviving a comrade is usually a better option than protecting their corpse against
undeadification. But sometimes that’s just not an option, especially in the Tomb of Annihilation season.

Gust o​f Wind​ {Strength} [C] – Concentration strength-based bonus action pushing in a 60 by 10 feet line? It’s workable.
Effectively halving peoples’ movement along with the push can delay the melee bruisers by a round or two as well, but the
line isn’t super-hard to get around and it is a strength saving throw. ​Where this spell shines, however, is in conjunction
with someone else’s AoEs. Suddenly that Black Tentacles or Transmute Rock becomes very difficult to escape
from for several enemies​.

Hold​ ​Person​ {Wisdom} [C] – It’s EOTS for Wisdom, but paralyzed is such a powerful effect that even only getting one
round of paralyzation is a game-changer. ​This spell drops in rating​ if you fight a lot of non-humanoids, you fight a lot of
creatures with good Wisdom ratings (it’s a generally good save for monsters, but middling for humanoids), and you don’t
have party members able to readily take advantage of the free hits.

Invis​ibility​ [C - 1 hour] – The Green rating assumes that you frequently use it for stealthy infiltration missions. This spell
can be very, very good when used in that way since it lasts for an hour and can be upcast for additional invisibility targets. ​If
you’re just using it for combat, its utility drops quite a bit,​ but there’s still some use for setting up an Assassin’s
ambush, giving the druid some cover while they direct their Conjure Animals spell, etc.`````````

Knock ​(Verbal Only) – You’d think that a spell that automatically unlocks objects would not be all that useful in a game with
magical axes and Expertise on thieves’ tools, but this spell has functionality those unlocking tools don’t. Namely, it explicitly
unsticks and unbars portals. It doesn’t automatically open objects, so you’re out of luck with the castle portcullis, but as long
as the DM doesn’t invent some dumb reason this will get you past 85% of typical adventuring obstacles.

By the way, this spell is LOUD, so be careful about using it in infiltration scenarios. Past DMs have caught our party on this
a couple of time. You may want to first cast Silence on the target object and cast Knock from outside the Silence bubble.

Levi​tate​ (Sky Blue to Blue) {Constitution} [C - 10 minutes] – Oh yeah! Your first real flight spell. And it’s a lot of flight. If you
have the nerve for it, you can fly upwards 1200 feet in ten minutes, with things getting much easier if you’re by a wall or the
like. It’s a pretty good ‘uh oh’ spell when your DM rolls up a bunch of ogres or T-Rexes and a TPK is on the line. It’s also
good for lifting heavy objects, though 500 pounds is limited.

There’s also a good RAW argument that the wording of the spell (can move ONLY by pushing or pulling against a fixed
object or surface) prevents flyers from getting away, but good luck getting a DM to agree to that interpretation.
Finally, Levitate is fun as a Constitution-based disable. They only get one save and then they’re stuck mid-air until you get
bored with them. The spell always gently dropping people is both good and bad. ​The limited flight, increased chance of
bruiser monsters having ranged attacks, and of course the Constitution save make it less useful at higher levels
than at lower levels​, but between the utility, low spell level, and lack of repeat saves it never becomes useless or even
average.

Locate Object​ [C - 10 Minutes] – Know exactly what you’re looking for in 1,000 feet, just don’t know where it is? This spell
has you covered. The spell lasting for 10 minutes also keeps you up-to-date in case the object moves. If you know what
you’re looking for, it can also find objects. For example, if you know the corrupt Captain of the Guard wears a gaudy set of
Spiked Armor, this spell has you covered. The spell is also good for finding secret treasure hordes or evidence caches.

Magic Mouth​ [R] – I try not to go below purple for rituals I don’t think even qualifies for a Green, but I’m making an
exception for this one. It’s very difficult to think of good uses for this spell, ritual or no. It’s okay for NPCs trying to leave
cryptic The Riddler-style hints for PCs, but for PCs? Just leave a message or something.

Magic​ Weapon​ [C - 1 hour] <Bonus Action> – Spending a 2nd level concentration slot for +1 to hit and damage (that’s not
even stackable with a magic weapon) is kind of bupkiss. 4th level for a +2 and 6th level for a +3 isn’t much better, either.
That said, ​if your DM is extremely stingy about magical item drops but is still enough of a jerk to throw out
creatures to monsters with resistance/immunity to nonmagical weapons​, this may be your only hope.

(EEPC) ​Maximilian’s Earthen Grasp​ {Strength, then Strength Check} [C] – Within 30 feet, force someone on the ground to
make a strength saving throw or take 2d6 bludgeoning damage and they’re restrained. The real money from this spell
comes from the fact that the saves are repeatable and target-switchable if you spend an action, they’re based off of checks
(so Hex and Cutting Words goodness), and if your victim fails to break free you can use your action for something else.
Very good spell, hampered only by the requirement that the target has to be near the ground and that it requires a Strength
save then check.

Mirror Image​ – Non-concentration perfect defense? Whoa there, cowboy. First, there’s the typical caveat of this spell not
working against blindsense and truesight. Then, there’s the caveat that this spell has a lower AC (often much lower!) than
that of you. Especially at higher levels, the monster will easily hit mirror images that would’ve missed you. Generally, you’re
better off with something that imposes blanket disadvantage, though there’s no reason other than DM rulings why you can’t
grab both. That said, the non-concentration duration does make it a ‘better than nothing’ spell until the end of the game.

Misty Step​ (Verbal Only) <1 bonus action> – You better believe you’re going to be using this. Teleportation is a swiss army
knife of spell effects, letting you extend your range, bypass grapples, safely disengage, get out of jail free of Black
Tentacles and Web, get past Wall of Forces, etc. The only frequent downside is that you have to see the space you’re
teleporting to, so this spell can often get shut down by things that you’d never expect, such as being swallowed whole or
being suck in a Darkness sphere.

Nystul’s Magic Aura​ – There is some legit nice utility to have from this spell depending on how much downtime and
information you have. If you’re expecting some Glyph of Warding or Guards and Wards or Symbol shenanigans, this can
give you a perfect defense against those things so long as you have the proper information. And with Contact Other Plane,
you can get that information. Then again, if your DM is regularly using those kinds of spells it’s likely you’re going to be
screwed regardless.

Phantasmal Force​ {Int} [C] – Whew! 5E D&D us right with this spell. Implant a 10-foot cube of a phantasmal that a
non-construct/non-undead target will rationalize as real until they spend an action to make an Intelligence (Investigation)
check against your spell Save DC. You can even throw in a 1d6 damage per round if you’re greedy. Intelligence is the worst
save of any monsters that aren’t spellcasters (even Ancient Red Dragons only get a +4 to it) so not only is this spell reliable
for tying up monsters but it’s also a good choice to force monsters to burn legendary saves for on the cheap.

(EEPC) ​Pyrote​chnics​ (Purple to Blue) {Constitution} – First things first: can you frequently get a (and ideally several)
sources of fire to where you want it to go? By default, the answer is no, but you have a few options: familiars carrying and
dropping lanterns, party members chomping down on cigars, arrows on fire, Continual Flame rocks if your DM is being nice,
soforth.

If you CAN get around this limitation, you have a pretty nice blinding EOTS AoE and, even better, creating a minute
of concentration-free heavily obscuring black smoke for a minute.

The Produce Flame combo has been often mentioned, but since Pyrotechnics extinguishes fires altogether, it’s less than
ideal unless your DM lets you ‘relight’ the fire from Produce Flame.

● Something to note though - RAW, the spell as written in EEPC/Xanathar’s specifies it only works with
non-magical flames. Don’t count on using Flaming Sphere, Produce Flame, Create Bonfire or similar spells,
without clearing it with the DM.

Ray of Enf​eeblement​ {Ranged Spell Attack, then Constitution} [C] – On a hit, the target deals half damage with weapon
attacks that use Strength until the spell ends, Constitution EOTS. Now, don’t count this spell out just yet. Even though the
creatures you’d like to use this spell on tend to have great Constitution saves, ​you do get at least one free round of
halved damage against certain monsters. Legendary Saves don’t even help here. And at 2nd level, you can cast
this spell repeatedly.​ An ancient dragon going from doing 104 damage with its full attack + Legendary Actions routine (and
at +17 to hit, it will probably hit anyone that’s not you on all of them) to a much more manageable 52 damage is a very fine
use of a 2nd level spell slot.

Rope​ ​Trick​ – Second level spell slot for a 1-hour safe short rest? Feh. Generally not worth it. However! ​If you’re using
Plane Shift to get around on the Material Plane​, this spell makes that one much (MUCH) more useable.

Scorch​ing Ray​ {Ranged Spell Attack} – Sometimes, you want single-target damage but you’re just not able to get into
melee. Like, say, you’re cowering behind a Magic Circle or the foe is flying in the area. This spell does very good damage at
low level, can be split up, and is fairly receptive to upcasting (though you will not want to do this unless you don’t have
Fireball/Lightning Bolt). ​Loses a bit of luster as time goes on​, but being a Ranged Spell Attack will make it more accurate
than, say, Shatter.

See Invi​sibility​ (Green to Blue) – It’s hard to evaluate this spell. On one hand, Invisibility is really difficult to deal with. On
the other hand, perfect invisibility isn’t all that common and it’s generally better dealt with by spells such as Faerie Fire.
Generally, you only prepare this spell ​if you absolutely know you’re going to be fighting a lot of invisible creatures​,
such as infiltrating the lair of Invisible Stalkers.

Sha​tter​ {Constitution} – 10 foot radius goodness of 3d8 thunder damage, Constitution save halved? Constitution save
aside, this is the first real room-clearing AoE you’re going to get and ​it’ll serve you nicely until Fireball comes
a’knocking​. Also, depending on how your DM rules ‘inorganic’ (the spell says stone, crystal, and metal but technically
shadows and water elementals are also inorganic) this spell can be much more useful.

Skywrite​ [R] – It’s a ritual, so you can use it to conduct long-distance communication. Message interception (or even
forgery) is a problem, but so is not being able to let the Paladin Lodge know there’s an infestation of undead in the forest
hamlet RIGHT NOW.

Sniloc’s Snowball Swarm​ {Dex} – I know that I push Dexterity saving throws as being superior to Constitution saving
throws, but let’s not forget we’re talking about 2nd-level spells here. Con often isn’t going to be THAT much better than Dex
except for super-bruiser monsters. And is it worth, compared to shatter, dropping down to a 5-foot radius and 3d6 cold
damage? No. Maybe if we were talking about higher-level monsters and spells, but you wouldn’t use this base spell against
higher-level foes and it’s inferior to an upcasted Fireball or Cone of Cold.

Spider Climb​ [C - 1 Hour] – Hands-free climb speed will get you out of a lot of scrapes. And if used creatively, you can use
it to gain virtual invincibility in dungeons that are large (but not too large!) Don’t get too cocky, though, you don’t want that
concentration duration to bite you.

Suggestion​ {Wis} [C - 8 hours] – It’s a really good ‘shut this creature out of the fight for the cost of a Wisdom saving throw
option’. And unlike Hold Person, they don’t get repeat saves or immunity if they’re not humanoids. Depending on the
circumstances, it might even be better than Hold Person (telling a greedy but mistrustful pirate second-in-command to turn
on a crew to take all the treasure for themself) but generally few DMs will consider ‘run far away from here and never look
back’ an unreasonable command.

Web​ {Dex, then Strength Check} [C - 1 hour] – Along with Shatter, this will be your first real ‘give a group of enemies a bad
time’ spell. But unlike Shatter, this will be good until the last train leaves the station. You get a 20 foot cube of difficult terrain
and light obscurement where anyone who starts their turn in the webs or enters them makes a Dex saving throw or they get
restrained. And they have to use an action to make a Strength saving throw to get out. The magic of this spell is that it’s
very easy to set up the tactical situation so that it’s hard or even impossible to get out. A bunch of guards in a corridor run
up to confront the frontliners? Cast this spell to restrain them, then laugh as it becomes a pain for them even to retreat
because difficult terrain.

Only downside? Fire gets rid of a 5’ cube for a measly 2d4 damage. Unless fire engulfs the whole web, it won’t get rid of the
entire thing in one round (the fire spreading is reasonable, however), so don’t let your metagaming DM get away with a
goblin with a torch freeing the six other goblins in one round.
3rd-Level Spells
Animate​ Dead​ – They should call this spell ‘Animate Drama’, because that’s what it does even at tables filled with neutral
and evil party members. ​That said, if people can get over the EEEEEEEVILLE implications​, you get at least three
skeletons or zombies that follow your (new) orders as a bonus action. In the world of bounded accuracy, this is a lot of
power. The spell gets even better if you have a way of providing ablative defense (such as with the Inspiring Leader feat;
Rary’s Telepathic Bond will take care of communication problems) or your DM will let you upgrade your undead with things
like full plate and poisoned heavy crossbows. A Bag of Holding or some other portable dimensional space is a good
investment for toting these things around without causing the town guard to throw a fit.

Bestow​ Curse​ {Wisdom} [C - Special, see spell] – Curse a creature! The spell has a pretty long list of possible curses, but
generally the best curses are the one that forces it to make future saving throws/ability checks at disadvantage and the one
that forces it to make a Wisdom saving throw at the start of its turn or lose its action.

Becomes much better under two circumstances​: the first is that you upcast it to level 5 to avoid concentration penalties.
The second (which can be combined with the first) is if you’re using it to force compliance with spells like Planar Binding.
That Ki-Rin whining about being permanently enslaved is going to whine a lot less after you hit it with a Feeblemind, then
this spell to curse their Charisma Saves, then getting rid of the Feeblemind.

Blink​ – Concentration-free, 50% chance of a (near) perfect defense for one minute? Sign me up! The beauty of this spell is
that you always return to the material plane at the start of your turn and only get shunted to the Ethereal Plane at the end of
your turn. So unlike previous versions of this spell, there’s no chance of wasting your turn. The two downsides (the first is a
pretty big one, the second is manageable) is, firstly, you can’t control when you’ll disappear. Sometimes you’ll roll a 3, a 6,
and an 8 in a row and the spell won’t do you any good. The second downside is that unlike spells like Blur and Protection
from Evil and Good, you are GONE, meaning that you can’t control the area around you. This doesn’t bother squishy
wizards too much, but you do lose out on the melee interdiction Bladesinger provides.

Can also be used as a cut-rate obstacle/grapple bypassing spell, but being forced to end the blink within 10 squares of a
spot you originally saw from really tamps down on its usefulness.

Clairvoyance​ <10 Minutes> [C - 10 Minutes] – The mile range and fairly generous placement abilities (you don’t have to be
familiar with the location, it can be in an obvious spot) do make this theoretically useful, but the problem is that you can’t
move the sensor after setting it. This makes it difficult to use for most dungeon crawling.

Counterspell​ (Somatic Only) <1 Reaction> – Yeah. You will need this. It doesn’t have to be the FIRST third level spell you
pick (though, trust me, monsters with Fireball and Lightning Bolt and Spirit Guardians can and WILL show up from now on)
but you will be getting this eventually. Even if you have to burn one of your 4th-level picks on Counterspell. A well-timed
Counterspell mean the difference between a TPK and not, and your party will not forgive you if not having Counterspell is
what made the difference.

If you suspect that an enemy is capable of casting a spell more threatening than Web, you are obligated to hold your
reaction open for it unless your party consists of something like both a Lore Bard and a Sorcerer who can cover for you.j
By the way. ​Note the 60 foot range. I can’t tell you how many players and DMs forget this.​ If you’re facing enemy
spellcasters and you’re worried about something like Conjure Elemental or Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere getting a
Counterspell, it’s a good idea to take a few steps back. Similarly, if you want to shut down an enemy spellcaster, you’re
going to have to stick pretty close. Don’t worry too much about a spellcaster using Misty Step to close the (or put in some)
distance, since they won’t be able to cast a follow-up non-cantrip spell, the dumb little nerds.

Dispel​ ​Magic​ – You don’t need this as much as you need Counterspell, but at around level 13 or so you will be needing
both unless you intend to fight giants for the rest of your life. Dispel Magic does quite a few desirable things, such as getting
rid of simulacrums, stripping an enemy spellcaster of buffs, and getting rid of spell effects you don’t care for. As expected,
these things become more common as you gain levels, so you will want to have this spell on standby.

A lot of DMs throw hissy fits about using Dispel Magic to get rid of common magical obstacles like a pillar of necrotic energy
blasts. Read them the first sentence of the spell.

Erupting​ Earth​ {Dexterity} – You’d think that a 20 foot cube of instantaneous difficult terrain and 3d12 bludgeoning
damage simply can’t compete with fireball. And you’d be generally correct. However, this spell does scale better than
fireball, breaking even at around level 5 and being superior for damage thereafter. And while a lot of monsters can resist
fireball well enough (cough cough fiends) there are few monsters that can resist magical bludgeoning damage.

Fear​ {Wis} [C] – It’s a mass saving throw that A) inflicts the Frightened status, B) causes them to drop what they’re holding
and C) does not allow repeat saves unless they’re completely out of sight to you. Even if they do save, they at least lose
one action using Dash and will probably lose at least two if they’re melee foes.

It’s a good, heck, great idea to run ahead of the enemy to cut them off. Starting as soon as you drop this spell. Both so they
don’t get a chance to save and so they don’t get too far ahead of the other melee people. Combine this with Sentinel and
watch the DM tears flow.

Bump up the spell some​ if you regularly fight enemies whose combat performance depends on the objects they’re
holding​, such as frost giants and spellcasters with handheld arcane foci.

Feign Death​ [R] – The obvious use for this spell – smuggling – doesn’t work for two reasons: A) it lasts for an hour and you
can’t end it early and B) it only lasts for an hour.

Fire​ball​ {Dex} – Mike Mearls is on record intentionally saying that they made Fireball overpowered to keep its ‘awe’ factor
and boy does it show. 8d6 damage, 20 foot radius will straight up end many level-appropriate encounters, if not bring them
to their knees. ​The damage becomes less over time, with level-appropriate foes winning the hit point race​, but since
‘hordes of CR 2 critters’ never goes out of style neither will this spell.

Flame​ ​Arrows​ [C - 1 hour] – Even with the absolute best setup you can imagine, ​that of a skeleton holding a quiver of
arrows while a bunch of others each draw an arrow from the quiver​, it’s just too much setup for too little effect. And
when you aren’t using the absolute best setup, this spell is a disappointing waste of a concentration slot.
Fly​ [C - 1 hour] – D&D generally cannot handle the power of the fly spell, even indoors. How many obstacles and traps
does the game publish that can be bypassed with flight? How many monsters are unable to get around or away from
someone moving at 60 feet speed? Even at higher level, the answer is ‘shockingly high’.

But the real reason why Fly gets a Sky Blue rating​ ​is because you can upcast it to affect several people​. Meaning you
can tuck the Lore Bard into a corner, place a Spirit Guardians cleric directly in the middle of a horde, give the flyers
expecting an easy time against the barbarian a surprise, etc.

Gaseous Form​ [C - 1 Hour] – Generally, there’s not a whole lot you can do with Gaseous Form that you can’t do with Fly,
except for moving through small cracks and holes. But any dungeon worth its salt is going to make it difficult to abuse such
things anyway. What really kills the usefulness of this spell is its inability to be upcasted for more targets and the inability to
freely switch between corporeal and incorporeal forms.

Glyph o​f Warding​ (200 gp, consumed) <1 hour> – Have some money to burn and a desire to guard something you really
want guarded? This spell has your back. And it’s not particularly difficult to protect your friends against the backlash.

Of course, what really gets people’s blood boiling with this spell is the ability to use Glyph of Warding with buffs for
concentration-free buffs. If you’re using Glyph of Warding this way, you’ll want to spend the start of your workday or at least
a short rest casting this spell. There’s some nuance to this spell that makes the list of eligible spells limited, so I made a
section discussing what spells would be useful with Glyph of Warding.

Haste​ [C] – The target gets: a doubling of speed, +2 to AC, and advantage on Dex saving throws.k It also gets one of an
additional action that can be used for Attack (just the one), Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object. Just to spoil your fun,
the 5E D&D DMG explicitly forbids you using the Use an Object action to activate magical items.

One of the recommended uses for this spell for melee monkeys is to use a SCAG Melee Cantrip, use the extra Attack from
this spell to, well, attack. And then, finally make a bonus action attack with your offhand since you now qualify for
two-weapon fighting. ​If you are absolutely determined to play in this way, I suppose I’ll rate this spell gold​. However,
even at level 14 all this scheme will do is boost your damage from ‘passable’ to ‘good’.

There’s one drawback to this spell, and unfortunately it’s a pretty big one. If you lose concentration on this spell, the target
can’t move or take actions until its next turn. If you are using this spell on other people, you are obligated to have a good
concentration check and not to take unnecessary risks.

Hypnotic​ ​Pattern​ {Wis} (No Verbal Component) – 30 foot cube of mass shutdown, with none of that EoTS piffle! Woot! …
except when another creature uses an action to shake the victims out of their stupor or they take any damage.

So generally, the usefulness of this spell will depend greatly on how much the DM is willing to play along with this
spell.​ If they don’t have enemies going around smacking their friends when they start standing still and drooling, it’s very,
very good. ​If your DM is willing to have the enemies borderline metagame​ and start hitting their buddies with
Multiattack-granted unarmed attacks to break everyone free, it’s not-so-good. Still, it has its uses even in one-on-one
conflict, like putting someone in a stupor for a minute while someone else casts Symbol or the Barbarian and Fighter get
their grapple on.
Also, if you’re unable to speak, this is one of the few offensive spells with no verbal components. Something to keep in
mind.

Leomund’s Tiny Hut​ [R] – It’s a nearly free extended rest you can cast as a ritual. Only Dispel Magic can get rid of it. For
added insurance, you can cast this ritual somewhere convenient such as at the bottom of a lake. Or behind a permanent
Major Image.

Lightni​ng Bolt​ {Dex} – Lightning bolt does the same damage as fireball (including the same d6 per level upcasting), but its
AoE is more inconvenient being a 5-foot line instead of a radius. Unless you fight a lot of large-sized creatures such as
giants. On the other hand, lightning tends to be resisted significantly less often than fire. And it also has less of a tendency
to cause wildfires. ​It has the same issues as Fireball losing out in the pure damage race, so beware​.

Magic​ ​Circle​ {Cha} <1 minute> – A spell that’s both good in downtime and has great effects if you can cheese out the
duration? Sounds like my kind of spell! ​The intended use of this spell is for ambushes​ and ​for Planar Binding​. The
former of which is situational, the latter of which can be utterly cheesy.

One very overlooked use for this spell is ​to use it in combination with spells that disable a monster for a period of
time but won’t let you attack said monster unless you get rid of the disabling spell​. You know, spells like Suggestion,
Hypnotic Pattern, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, Banishment, Polymorph, soforth. Draw an inverted Magic Circle around the
monster, cancel the spell, and let them have it. ​Of course, since the duration of these disabling spells are typically a minute,
you will need to coordinate with the party some to make it stick since you can’t cast 1 minute-spells without breaking
concentration​. They’ll generally be the ones disabling while you’re drawing the circle.

Major Image​ {Intelligence (Investigation)} – Feeling creative? See the description for Silent Image and ask yourself if you
can do something good with that spell. If the answer is yes, then you’ll like this spell. You can even upcast this spell to make
it concentration-free and permanent, but that’s kind of a waste of a spell slot for non-Illusionists, who use Malleable Illusions
to make this spell their god.

(EEPC)​ Melf’s Minute Meteors​ {Dex} [C - 10 minutes] – Conjure 6 missiles, where as a bonus action you can fire up to 2 at
once to do 2d6 fire damage (Dex half) each in a 5-foot radius. Eats up your concentration, but the fact that you can
concentrate for up to 10 minutes and you don’t have to babysit a constant field object makes it usable for field ambushes.
Think of this spell as an upgrade to Flaming Sphere.

Nonde​tection​ (Purple to Sky Blue) (25 gp, consumed) – ​If the DM rules that Nondetection hides the target from
truesight,​ bump this spell up to Sky Blue. If not, well, eh. It’s 8 hours and has a pretty cheap price tag of ‘divination magic
does not work on me or this thing I choose now’. Without foiling truesight, the usefulness of that will depend on your
campaign. But generally it won’t be very useful.

Phantom​ ​Steed​ [R] – Generally bad and pointless. You only get 1 minute. The casting time is too long for it to be used as a
quick escape even if you do put it in a regular spell slot. And it goes away too soon to be of much use as party
transportation as a repeat-cast ritual.
That said, if you’re absolutely dying to use your Mounted Combat feat​, you can use this. The spell ends a minute after
the mount takes damage, which is enough to get it through combat.

Protection from Energy​ [C - 1 Hour] – Acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder resistance for one hour to one person. Even if
you do, in fact, expect to face a lot of energy damage Absorb Elements or even something like Fire Shield will serve you
better. This spell is more for shielding other party members from this type of energy damage. Hour-long duration saves it
from mediocrity from elemental-themed dungeons.

Remove Curse​ – Aside from a small list of spells Remove Curse explicitly foils (including, um, Bestow Curse) it’s hard
reading the game’s mind for deciding what Remove Curse applies to that Dispel Magic doesn’t. That said, if you need a
Remove Curse you REALLY need it. Keep it in your spellbook, try to get at least one scroll of it, and only prepare it when
you know you need it.

Sending​ – Finally! Cross-planetary (and even cross-planar) communication. You’ll need it when you need it, which could be
never.

Sleet Storm​ {Dex} [C] – You get a huge cube of ‘you are not moving or seeing anything now’. While a 40 radius cylinder of
difficult terrain plus heavy obscuring is delicious enough, the fact that it also keeps proning enemies, too, really shuts them
down. Strongly consider using this spell in conjunction with static AoEs like Incendiary Cloud.

The only downside to this spell is that oftentimes this spell is a little TOO big, so there’s no way to use it without hurting your
team. Sometimes the heavy obscuring will also hurt the ranged attackers, too, especially if the party is light on AoEs.

Slow​ {Wis} [C] – You might be asking at first, ‘why does this spell exist when Fear and Hypnotic Pattern exists at this level’.
And it’s a good question! It targets the same save and the fact that it’s more party-friendly than those two spells doesn’t
really make up for its EOTS and its selective shutdown.

But it’s not all bad. While there are enemies that do have blanket immunity to those two spells, almost nothing resists Slow.
What’s more, while it won’t completely shut down melee attackers, it’ll take much of the bite out of them at higher level.

Stinking​ ​Cloud​ {Con} [C] – Don’t bother using this against creatures that don’t need to breathe or are immune to poison.
But even if your foes do manage to fail the (increasingly easy to make) Constitution saving throw, they can just generally
move out of the cloud.

That said, where this spell really starts to shine is in a combination where your opponents CAN’T move out of the
cloud.​ Meaning, spell effects like Web, Sleet Storm, Evard’s Black Tentacles, soforth. Along with grappling for people who
can manage to get immunity against poison. Transmute Rock is the only self-combo you can do with this spell, so work with
your party members to trap them between your crowd control and crush them.

(EEPC) ​Tidal Wave​ {Dex} – Let’s take Lightning Bolt, make it twice as wide but a third as long, change the damage to 4d8
bludgeoning, extinguish all unprotected flames, and, oh, prone the enemy! Sound good? … eh, well, you also create quite a
bit of water with the spell, too, and it’s instantaneous. Maybe you could convince the DM to let you quench peoples’ thirst
with this spell?
-
Tongues ​– Tempted to rate this spell Red in a world where Rary’s Telepathic Bond and Comprehend Languages exist as
rituals but this doesn’t. But I guess someone could find a use for this in pure roleplay-land. Whatever.

Vampiric​ ​Touch​ {Melee Spell Attack} [C] – I have no idea why so many people hype this spell. 3d6 hit points for a spell
attack ACTION, regain half if you hit. PLEASE. I, or more to the point, my party is likely to take more damage using this
garbage spell than I’d save from hitting them with an actual spell.

This spell is pretty okay for stretching out your hit points, however,​ if you have… ahem, sacrifices.​ Your DM probably
won’t let you replenish your hit points from bad-touching an ant hill, so you’ll need to get evil or creative. 10 rounds of
(3d6)/2 damage works out to be over 50 hit points, which ain’t bad. Questionable, but effective.

(EEPC) ​Wall of Sand​ [C - 10 Minutes] – Does your DM let you shape walls? If they do, well, there’s some use for this spell
in clogging corridors. If they don’t, it’s too easily bypassed to get more than one round out of it and often not even that.

(EEPC) ​Wall of Water​ [C - 10 Minutes] – Don’t see much of a use for this one. It takes additional actions for a freezing that
will likely be destroyed in one round and does not do a good job of blocking ranged attacks, sight, or restricting movement.

Water Breathing​ [R] – 24 hours of being able to breath underwater, no concentration, and no questions asked. Don’t go
out of your way to get this, but don’t forget you have it if you do. You may still want to have this spell prepared even if it can
be cast as a ritual if you’re going to spend an extended amount of time underwater, in case the DM gets any funny ideas
about Dispel Magic. You may want to convince your party to wear big, obvious ‘I am using this apparatus to breathe
underwater and not this spell’ gear if that happens.

4th-Level Spells
Arcane Eye​ [C] – Here you go! The first real 'map out the dungeon in complete safety' spell you get. And it's a good one.
While it's slow at 30 feet and an action hog, it does last for an hour, can go pretty much anywhere that's not sealed, and is
invisible. Even if this spell won't typically get you through the entire dungeon, most of the Big Dang Dungeons tend to have
multiple routes through them. Be a little bit careful if you're using this sensor in a dungeon where you know the enemy has
truesight or blindsight.

Banishment​ {Charisma} [C] – This is likely your first spell that targets charisma. Charisma is a lopsided saving though, so
while many non-boss monsters typically have terrible charisma saving throws the more 'boss-type' supermonsters tend to
have it as a good or even great saving throw. At any rate, it completely locks a foe out of combat for a minute as long as
you hold concentration, avoiding the problems of Polymorph and Hypnotic Pattern, and upscales to add an additional foe
with each spell level.

Using Banishment seems like an intuitive way of taking care of your “otherworldly-being” problem. Problem with the
problem: some fiends and fey have surprisingly high charisma saves and pretty much every celestial has rockstar saves.

Blight​ {Constitution} – Yes, it does quite a bit of single-target damage, but it targets a tough saving throw and the
single-target damage (8d8/36) isn't THAT much better than an upcasted Scorching Ray (10d6/35). Or an upcasted Fireball
(9d6/31.5)for that matter. It also scales worse than Scorching Ray, too. The two types of creatures it doesn't affect (undead
and constructs) are more common than the two types of creatures you'll get advantage and max damage against (magical
plants).

Confusion ​{Wisdom} [C] – Kind of a letdown for mass shutdown. While this does do a good (though not perfect) job of
wasting enemies' actions, it's too easy to break out of. At least it doesn't have ways for foes to shake their boss out of it
early like Hypnotic Pattern does.
U
Conjure Min​or Elementals​ (Purple to Blue) [C]: ​First of all, does your DM use that imbecilic Sage Advice on the DM
picking the elementals for you? If so, ignore this​. Unlock Conjure Elemental, there's no way to really steer the DM
towards the right choice, so you'll likely end up getting a bunch of loser mobs you don't want. Which stinks because there's
like half a dozen Mephits alone.

If you CAN pick what comes out, though, this spell gets much more fun. Your choices are beyond the scope of this guide,
but to wet your whistle:

Fire Snake​ – They get nonmagical weapon resistance to make up for their weak hit points. While their multiattack has a
poor chance of hitting, against foes with bad AC it does rack up damage pretty quickly.

Steam Mephit​ – Steam Mephits tend to be the best of the pack, though all of them are workable. If you have them all
concentrate their breath weapon on the same spot the damage will rack up.

Gargoyle​ – They kind of lag on the offense, but resistance to nonmagical weapons and a good hit point give them heavy
amounts of staying power.

Control Water​ [C] – See that clause, freestanding? Yeah, this makes this spell useless except for pools of water that aren't
connected to rivers or the sea. Why waste your time with a spell with so little application?

Dimension Door​ (Verbal Only) – Dimension Door copped a rather harsh nerf from 3E to 5E in limiting you to one
passenger. Still, it's Dimension Door. 500 feet of teleportation in any direction, and the spell is even nice enough to let you
both go to a place you can visualize if you're not feeling precise or a fixed distance. Don't get too cocky with this spell,
because while it gives you more freedom of movement than most teleportation spells (most notably, you don't need line of
sight) you can easily end up out of the frying pan into the fire.

Elemental Bane​ {Constitution} [C] – If you want me to blow a 4th level spell slot on an effect that is single-target, eats up
my constitution, and requires a constitution saving throw it better do something awesome. Vulnerability to all damage or
incapacitation. NOT a measly extra 2d6 damage to certain elemental attacks and stripping away resistance.

Evard's Black Tentacles​ {Dexterity Save, then Strength or Dexterity Check} [C]: Think of it as Web's evil, buffed-out older
brother. The 3d6 damage is nice, but that's the fancy side salad with the steak. You're here for A.) the not-burning the Web
to get everyone out and B.) the dexterity restraining that requires actions to get out. True, the foe gets a choice of a
Strength OR a Dexterity check, but dexterity checks tend to get increasingly bad for the average monster in the long run
anyway.
It's also not exactly easy to leave the Black Tentacles, either, since it's difficult terrain. Combine this spell with speed
reduction effects to make your DM pull their hair out.

Fabricate​ <10 Minutes> – I don't know, it's kind of a bust in a typical fantasy setting? There are settings where I would
really want Fabricate, such as Dark Sun or Urban Arcana, but for Forgotten Realms you're not likely to have the proficiency
to get what you want. You can use this spell to safely extract poison from a corpse, if that's what you're into.

Fire​ ​Shield​ – It's ten minutes of concentration-free fire or cold resistance. RAW you can switch the resistance, though it
doesn't say what action it takes to do that, so expect DMs not to let you switch it up. Higher rating both if you know ahead of
time you're going to need it and if you're higher in level.

Greater Invisibility​ [C] – A simple spell, for a brutally powerful effect. Invisibility that doesn't end when you attack will turn
you into a melee god. At long as they can't see you, it's no-questions-asked advantage and no-questions-asked
disadvantage. If you're careful, you can even abuse invisibility to give you extra opportunity attacks by attacking, then
shuffling so that when your foe goes after you they'll leave your reach.

The only reason why this spell is not rated gold is because monsters will more and more likely have countermeasures as
the game goes on. Then again, most of the higher-level monsters that will have countermeasures are also susceptible to
Protection from Evil. Leaving the only time you're (or the lucky ducky you’re casting it on) will be really hosed is against
dragons and monstrosities.

Hallucinatory Terrain ​{Investigation (Intelligence)} <10 minutes> – Even if you are a creative sort, there's just too many
limitations on the spell. Any kind of physical interaction reveals the limitations of the spell, it takes 10 minutes to setup and
makes it only useful for ambushes, it only works in natural terrain, it allows an Investigation check to see through, and even
if you do work around all of those limitations you only get a 150 foot cube? Hard pass.

Ice Storm​ {Dex} – In a certain home game, the players and I call Ice Storm “The DM is Being Easy On Us” spell. Which is
what any 4th-level mass damage effect that does less damage (2d8 + 4d6/23) than fireball (8d6/28) should be called. It's an
impressive amount of extra difficult terrain, but it only lasts for a round anyway.

Leomund's Secret Chest​ – ​It's not good at all when you get it. 5,000 gp is a prohibitive cost. However, at level 11+ or so,
you'll be swimming in money. Note two additional things:

● The 'Tiny' size in 5E D&D does not have a lower limit to it, unlike 3E D&D. The replica chest can be made small
enough to be perfect for smuggling, depending on your imagination and how much you want to gross out the DM.
Get something acid-proof, is all I'm saying. Or if you're going to be a big baby, paint your fingernails and
toenails black and store the tiny replica in the quick of your big toe. Or maybe a cute little tooth-shaped chest and
stick it in your mouth.

● The Secret Chest itself is not an extradimensional space! Meaning that you can use it to squirrel away bags of
holding and haversacks.
Don't forget to cast this spell now and again so you don't lose the contents. But at 30 days you either need to be knocked
out for a really long time or very neglectful.

Locate Creature​ [C] – If the spell didn't require you to have to have seen the creature up close once in the past and/or
worked with Scrying, I could find it in my heart to rate this spell higher. You could use it to find out where the boss is hiding
in the dungeon and even if they're looking for you (spooky!), but Arcane Eye will probably work for you better.

Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound​ ​[R] – It's an alarm spell without the ritual tag, and 4th level to boot. Also unlike Alarm, it
chains you to being within 100 feet of the effect. There's some potential in getting the hound to bite people who come too
close to it, but it's just too much setup. If I'm using the spell for that, I'd rather spend the slot on Evard's or Stinking Cloud.
Ritual makes it kinda-sorta okay as a layer in ablative sleeping defense.

Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum​ <10 Minutes> – You, a 7th or so level nobody, are not going to need this spell unless
you really screwed up. This is for when you get strongholds and demiplanes and the like. It provides a pretty strong cocktail
of perfect protection, though do be careful not to screw yourself out of an escape route. I can imagine DMs in the past
losing a spellcaster NPC because they was cornered in their own Private Sanctum. Tragic, really.

Otiluke's Resilient Sphere​ {Dex} [C] – It's like Banishment for creatures sized Large or smaller, only it's never permanent
banishing (eh) and targets Dexterity instead of Charisma (yeah!). You can also use it to push people places you want them
to go. It's loads of fun putting a Marilith into a Resilient Sphere, pushing said sphere into a Prismatic Wall, and then letting
go of concentration.

Speaking of pushing it where you want to go, you can also use the Resilient Sphere to give you absolutely safe protection
when traveling through an area for one minute. Jury's out on whether you can teleport out (or in) of the bubble. If you can,
careful about using this spell on spellcasters. If you can't, careful about getting in too deep with this spell, like at the bottom
of the ocean or in a place warded with Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum.

There's one other really good use of this spell, and it's in a Contingency. It provides a perfect defense against almost
anything if you set it up correctly.

Phantasmal Killer​ {Wisdom} [C] – Yikes. This spell got real bad, real fast. The 'killer' part is almost false advertising.
Wisdom saves end, where if the target fails they're frightened and take 4d10 damage? If I'm that confident about my ability
to make a monster fail multiple wisdom saves, I'd rather use upcasted Hold Person, or wait a level for Hold Monster.

Polymorph​ {Wisdom} [C] – There are two uses for this spell, both awesome.

The first use is to use it on your friends and family. Especially for the higher-level forms, you get a HUGE amount of extra
hit points. It's enough to immediately put the fighter back in the game and will seriously pull peoples' fat out of the fryer.
Familiarize yourself with the various forms. Unfortunately, holding concentration on Polymorph when you use it on yourself
will be very difficult. You won't be able to hold onto any of your class features and most beasts struggle to get a constitution
saving throw above +4.
Giant Crocodile ​– ​Grapple like a vortex of teethy death that doesn't require a separate action.
Giant Eagle​ / Quetzalcoatus ​– Need to fly? Here you go. Quetzalcoatus is better if you have the space for it, otherwise go
Giant Eagle.
Giant Ape ​– Good out of the gate, and for ranged damage. Giant Ape does more single-target damage than the T-Rex
does.
Swarm of Cranium Rats​ – Assuming your DM allows you to change into a swarm (the spell says you change into a form,
not a singular creature, so there's no RAW why you can't), here you go. You get a casting of Confusion and Dominate
Monster. At a pitiful spell save DC, but you get it.
T-Rex​ – For raw damage against multiple targets.

The second use is to take a creature out of the battle. There's some finesse to be had with this. If the hit points of the
creature are too low, one smack and they'll be back in business. However, if the hit points are TOO high, it's likely that the
target will also be a battlefield threat. A killer whale is generally your best bet, since it won't die too quickly on land, won't be
able to move, and has a bunch of hit points for its friends to chew through.

Stone Shape​ – When's the last time you've come across a dungeon wall less than 5 feet thick? That'll require multiple
castings of this spell, at best. You could also use it to make stone objects, but that's what Fabricate is for.

Stoneskin ​(100 gp) [C] – Ideally you shouldn't be getting hit at all. All the same, it can and will happen, especially with
critical hits. And there will be some monsters you just aren't going to be able to get disadvantage with, such creatures with
special senses that aren't covered by Protection from Evil. That said, a concentration slot is precious and if it isn’t, this spell
is probably better used on other frontliners while you take a break in the backline.

Storm Sphere​ {Strength and Ranged Spell Attack} [C]: This spell is already warming my heart with 20 foot radius difficult
terrain with a side order of damage; an AoE 2d6 bludgeoning one if they fail a strength save and 4d6 lightning damage if
they're within 60 feet of the AoE and you use a bonus action to make a ranged spell attack. It's also persistent damage that
lasts for a minute. It's very likely you'll get single fireball damage after two rounds, and even if they leave the storm sphere
you'll still get to zap them for 4d6 lightning damage every round. It also scales really nicely, too, up to 2d6 when you take
into account both effects! If you're using Ice Storm instead of this spell, you're just playing. If you're using Flaming Sphere
upcasted past level 3 instead of this spell, you're just playing.

Vitriolic Sphere​ {Dex} – Wow, they finally made a pure-damage AoE spell better than fireball upcasted to 4th level?
Granted, the damage dropoff for a successful save is much worse than fireball AND you don't get your damage upfront, but
it's a better damage type and it scales better.

Wall of Fire​ {Dex} [C] – It's very hard to go wrong with this spell. Proper positioning will roast most of the enemy line. Put it
in a packaged corridor if you want to be super-evil. If you have a way to get more than one round of damage out of this
thing, it beats fireball. If you get three or more rounds (for example, you're teaming up with someone using Repelling Blast
or Evard's Black Tentacles or Watery Sphere or Telekinesis) this spell becomes encounter-ending.

Watery Sphere​ {Strength} [C]: GET. BACK IN. MY BUDDY’S. SLEET STORM. Mobile AoE restraining for a minute? Yes,
please. The size limitations are kind of a bummer, but AoE restraining that with a side order of forced movement (in a
straight line, sadly) is no joke. It's also excellent at stopping spellcasters what with the, you know, strength save and not
casting verbal spells underwater. Seriously, the lich, archmage, and similar spellcasters are completely screwed by this
spell. Not even Misty Step or Dimension Door will help! Of course, this also probably applies to YOU (unless you're one of
those Bladesingers who splashed a level of Fighter and have Belts of Giant Strength, in that case, congrats), so you might
want to have some kind of exit plan. Maybe train the paladin's mount to jump into the sphere when it sees a party member
caught by one?

5th-Level Spells
Animate Objects​ (You need the objects ahead of time, of variable gp) [C] – This was the spell where I realized that
multiclassing to improve your Bladesinger's melee combat ability is a fool's game. Why take a level of Fighter to get a piddly
extra +3-4 damage a round when you get early access to this beauty?

Generally, animating a bunch of tiny objects is better than animating bigger ones, though there are occasions in which you
might want, say, 3 large objects from a level 6 animated object (such as a with a passive damage radius or a pack of
Mephits). An area of effect like Fireball will pretty much waste the spell if you're doing smaller objects. Blindsight allows for
some evil tricks such putting up a Darkness or a Fog Cloud.

Though not RAW, your DM might let the properties of the original object carry over. For example, adamantine daggers
damaging gargoyles, flaming torches setting people on fire, poisoned shortswords transferring poison, etc. This spell also
scales damage-wise better than any other spell in the game. You get up to an extra 2d4+8 damage per spell level, which is
just gnarly.

Bigby's Hand​ {Melee Spell Attack or Strength (Athletics)} [C] – Being right next to Animate Objects should put performance
anxiety into any spell, but Bigby's rises to the occasion. It's bonus-action crowd control and clutch damage. It does decent
damage if used simply for bonus-action damage (and it scales at 2d8/9 extra damage a level). It grapples like a champ. It
also shoves creatures a large amount; while it unfortunately only adds its raw bonus of +8, you get 20 to 30 squares of
forced movement right out of the gate. Interposing hand can give you melee invincibility (since it can't move through the
hand's space) to all but the strongest of creatures. To things in perspective, this hand will block an Ancient Green Dragon.

This spell is primo Contingency bait, by the way.

Cloudkill​ {Constitution} [C] – This spell really doesn't have any advantages over Stinking Cloud, a spell which becomes
amazing if you abuse/combo it, besides being slightly moveable and not being as easily foiled. You do get your damage
upfront, even on a save, but it's just not that great. Any cool combo you're thinking of with Cloudkill (either by restraining the
enemy or finagling immunity to poison damage) would work better with Stinking Cloud.

Cone of Cold​ {Constitution} – Does a tick more damage than a scaled lightning bolt or fireball. And has a huge area of
effect. Unfortunately, the Constitution saving throw really hurts it, and over time you'll be doing less damage than either.
Fireball has a very respectable area of effect too and its range is superior to a Cold of Cold.

Conjure Elemental​ [C] – You'd think that when stacked up against the two rockstar Animate Objects aknd Bigby's Hand
this spell would come up short, but you'd be wrong.
Be really careful about losing concentration. As a bladesinger, this probably won't be a big concern unless you eat a critical
hit from a fire giant, but if it DOES happen you'll have an elemental on the rampage. Have a Dispel Magic or at least
Banishment prepared when using this spell to be on the safe side.

Going through the elementals you could get with this spell could take an entire guide. But just to wet your whistle:
J
Air Elemental​ – Not finding material is almost impossible. It flies very fast, fits into tight spaces, and and can't be grappled
or restrained. The whirlwind also does a good job of scattering enemy formations.

Earth Elemental​ – Finding material is generally easy. The Earth Elemental burrows and has tremorsense, allowing for
virtual invincibility against monsters that can't take reactions. Tremorsense lets it participate in Bubble of Stealth Tactics.

Galeb​ ​Duhr​ – Doesn't burrow and doesn't get multiattack. But it does get a prone charge and, more importantly, can
animate two boulders to create copies of itself for one minute. Between its 95 hit points and resistance to nonmagical
bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage, you will get a LOT of meat. Break out the Floating Disc if you're wondering how to
get boulders in a dungeon. Requires upcasting at level 6.

Invisible Stalker​ – Flies, is invisible, tracks prey across any boundary, is resistant to nonmagical weapons. If you're
expecting a gauntlet of encounters in a short period of time and you don’t have three boulders, this one is probably the best
choice.

If your DM follows that idiotic Sage Advice and chooses your elemental for you... it's actually not a very big deal, since there
aren't many elementals right now and the basic ones are very good. So unlike Conjure Minor Elementals there's little room
for a screwjob unless your DM specifically has it out for you. So if you cast Conjure Elemental on a bonfire and the DM
gives you an Azer or a Fire Snake instead of a Fire Elemental, you and the rest of the table are bound by the Player's Code
of Honor to give your DM a wedgie in front of their children.

Contact Ot​her Plane​ (Verbal Only) [R] – Like Divination, it is what you make of it. Unlike similar spells, there's no limit on
repeat castings in a short time-frame, making it better for playing Twenty Questions. The limit on this spell is failing DC 15
Intelligence saving throws, otherwise you're pretty much out of it for the rest of the day short of a Greater Restoration. ​That
said, your intelligence saving throw bonus should be at least +6 when you get the spell and there are ways to juice
that roll so that it becomes risk-free.

Control Winds​ {Strength} [C] – This is a pretty long description for a spell (like I have room to talk, heh) that tends to just
be modestly useful. You're here for party-wide ranged disadvantage – though the disadvantage cuts both ways – and
putting flying creatures prone. Maybe making it difficult for monsters to move up against you.

Crea​tion​ (Red) <1 minute> – Create an object you've seen before, with the duration sharply decreasing depending on what
you're creating. In the hands of an Illusionist with Malleable Illusions, this spell becomes a veritable Swiss Army Knife which
doesn't require concentration. In your hands? It's a novelty that you won't really care about. It's marginally better in modern
and futuristic campaigns where you can do things like create a motorcycle or combustion engine from scratch, but in basic
D&D?
Note that right now, D&D does not have mineral poisons available in any of the basic books. ​Once it does, though? Hoo
boy. Welcome to the poison party, gang.

Dominate​ ​Person​ {Wisdom} [C] – Yeah, I went there. The short duration, humanoid-only targeting, and need for repeat
saves if the target takes damage kills its usefulness either in combat or out. ​Gets a little bit better when cast out of
higher level spell slots​, but generally you're better off with a carefully worded Geas or Suggestion than this spell.

Dominate Person's only real advantage over Suggestion is that it'll let you do suicidal commands. So while you can't really
Suggest someone snap their Staff of the Magi over their knee, you can definitely Dominate them into doing it.

Dream​ {Wisdom} <1 Minute> – This spell has some pretty terrifying implications for the D&D game world, especially since
it's a way to safely target most spellcasters who rely on long rests and stealthily kill unimportant people unless the
retaliation is dedicated. As far as you're concerned, though, this spell is used to put pressure on a spellcaster who fled the
battlefield before you could finish them off and to punish people who decide to ignore your Geas.

Geas​ {Wisdom} <1 Minute> – Put a geas on someone for 30 days, where they're charmed and if they ignore your orders
they take 5d10 damage a day. If someone is really dedicated to ignoring you, this spell can't force them to follow your
orders even if you kill them with it, you'd get advantage on charisma checks to convince it, and they can't strike back. This
makes this spell strictly a roleplay-only bargaining chip where the DM still has the rest of the stack.

Hold Monster​ {Wisdom} [C] – Those monsters are starting to get pretty good with those wisdom saves by now, huh? Still,
how can you say 'no' to a round or more of paralysis?

Immolation​ {Dex} (Verbal Only) [C] – So let's take an upcasted Fireball, make it just one target, neem the range down,
make it not do more damage, make it not be able to be further upcasted, give them an additional save every round that
makes it so that they don't take the additional damage, make it so that you won't even get to do more damage than an
upcasted fireball until round three, and to top the whole shenanigan off let's make it concentration. Sound good? No? Hey,
man, game designers still gotta hit their daily word quotas even when they're not feeling creative, okay?

Legend Lore​ (250 gp of consumables plus 200 gp) <10 Minutes> – Take a look at that example description. Unlike spells
like Divination and Contact Other Plane, you get some REAL information. And that's the kind of information you get from
holding a “mysterious magic axe”. If you already know stuff about the subject (say, from a repeat casting of the spell) you're
supposed to get even more information.

The requirement that the person, place, or object you're targeting has to be legendary (whatever THAT means)
really, really hurts its usefulness.​ Otherwise this would be an amazing between-dungeon crawl spell. That said, due to
the way D&D operates this spell ​will be more useful when you're very high level than when you first get it​. And it does
have some amusing interactions. Legend Lore the current person sitting on the throne of the Warrior Emperor of
Neo-Thuvia and get nothing? Simulacrum, baby. Hunting down Kas the Bloody Handed in Die, Vecna, Die! and the Kas you
targeted comes up blank? You're dealing with an imposter.

Funnily enough, you can put it in a Contingency. You probably don't want to, but when you're fighting some eldritch
superboss you don't know the capabilities it'll start to look pretty good then, won't it? Hmm, maybe it won’t.
Mis​lead​ [C] – Funnily enough, there's no save to see through the illusory copy of yourself, though obviously it doesn’t do
anything about truesight/blindsight. All the same, your personal invisibility ends if you attack or cast a spell.

There's some real scouting potential with this spell depending on if your DM will let you do things with the copy
like walk through walls.​ That will bump the spell rating up a notch, but it's still not hugely better than other scouting spells
such as Arcane Eye.
O
Does have some fun when combined with Contingency, but I'd rather stick a Dimension Door or a Greater Invisibility if I
wanted to use it to get the heck out of dodge.

Modify Memory​ [C] – I was excited at first at the possibility of being able to incapacitate someone with a 1-Action spell, but
it's too easy for any partners to break it. So this spell is usually only useful in downtime and with some before-casting
research, like finding out the King has a daughter he'd do anything for.

That said, it IS a very useful spell between battles if you manage to stick it. Unlike a lot of similar mind-affecting spells, they
have no memory of the casting (otherwise this spell would be completely worthless, but that may be retroactive RAI),
making it politically safe to use – especially from stealth.

Passwall​ – 20 feet of depth and the spell's high level make this kind of dungeon-bypass very limited. Still, you'd be
surprised at how often dungeon designs put everything into beefing up a portal to a valuable room yet nothing into the
supporting walls. So you'll probably find a use for this spell decently often on dungeon crawls if you got the spell slots for it.

Planar Binding​ (1000 gp consumable) {Charisma} <1 hour> – Well, look at you, my Bladesinging buddy! You're playing
with the Kool Kidz now. This is the kind of spell that permanently alters how you interact with the rest of the world of D&D.
And it's yours.

At its most basic level, this spell gives you control (and extends the time of its existence on your plane to) of a fey, celestial,
elemental, or fiend for 24 hours with no upwards cap on binds and without concentration. The duration only gets longer as
you upcast the spell, to the point where with some care you can have a veritable army of servants.

By the way, funny quirk about spells like Conjure Elemental and Conjure Fey. If you lose concentration, the monster doesn't
go away, it just becomes uncontrolled. You lose concentration when casting spells longer than 1 action. Meaning, a caveat
meant to balance the spell makes it so that you can self-bind. Of course, you'll need some way to cast Planar Binding the
exact same round you cast those spells. I recommend a Glyph of Warding or teaming up with a buddy, who can be a
simulacrum.

That said, charisma tends to be a surprisingly good save for fiends, celestials, and fey. If you're just using this spell to get
you three extra earth elementals, you're probably good, but if you're trying to get a Planetar summoned for a few extra
weeks then ha ha good luck with that. Even if you have spells like Feeblemind and Bestow Curse, that's still +5 at
disadvantage.
Planar Binding is probably the first (but not the last) spell you'll get where you can permanently wreck game balance in your
favor with some downtime. So don't go nuts with this spell, okay?

Rary's Telep​athic Bond​ [R] – The obvious use for this spell is for tactical communication. And it is pretty good about that.
The value of the spell goes up if one of the people in the bond have a special kind of sense the others don't, such as
truesight or tremorsense. It's also a nice spell if you're worried about getting separated.

The other use for this spell is a creamy blend of Tongues and the various Speak With spells. The Intelligence 2 limit is kind
of a bummer, but a surprisingly large number of animals can meet this requirement. Cats and Mastiffs? Intelligence 3, folks.
Even zombies have an intelligence 3, though having a zombie meet the 'willing' part might be a challenge.

If you keep in mind the latter use, you will find a use for the spell more often than you expect. And it doesn't clog
up your spell list or use up slots, unlike Tongues.

Scrying​ {Wisdom} (1000 gp) <10 minutes> [C] – The bad: you can't blindly target locations anymore. And if you target a
creature, they get a save, though the save can be almost impossible to make with prep time. The good: you get a lot of
information out of this, as befitting with scrying spells. In fact, the location vs. creature targeting tends to feed into each
other to neem down saves/give you more areas to look at if you're willing to repeatedly cast this spell.

You can also put it in a contingency to track a creature who's trying to run away or hide shortly after combat. There's
probably some chunks of flesh or blood around here, right?

Seem​ing​ {Charisma to Resist, Intelligence (Investigation) to see through): Disguise Self is okay, but with your typically
mediocre charisma it's generally just used to keep the heat off of your wizardly self while the rest of the undisguised party
roughs up the guard captain. When used on everyone in range, though? That’s kicking it up a notch. ​If you need to get
your wights or Earth Elementals around town without causing a fuss, this is the spell for it,​ but the limitations of
Disguise Self along with the chance for people to see through it means you don't want to linger.

Telekinesis​ {Strength Check(!)} [C] – I'm tempted to rate this spell gold, for reasons I'll get to in as minute. Yes, it's slower
in use than Bigby's Hand and can't do as much damage, but it can do some nasty things that Bigby's Hand can't. For ten
minutes of goodness to boot. In fact, it's not a bad idea to grab both spells.

The first one is restraining and forcefully moving Huge or smaller creatures 30 feet, including mid-air, on a failed Strength
Check. Not saving throw, not Athletics check, a raw strength check. Meaning that not only does this spell bypass legendary
saves entirely, you can really mess someone up with the Fear or Poisoned condition, Lore Bard's Cutting Words, or the
Warlock's Hex. RAW, and probably even RAI, they can't even teleport their way out unless it's entirely out of spell range.

You can also use this spell to rob foes of certain items, still using a strength check. Take away a Solar's Greatsword (they
only have a +8 to resist the spell) and watch them panic. That mean old lich bothering you with their spells? Yank away
their focus and/or material component pouch and take most of the bite out of them.

Finally, you can use this spell to manipulate objects of up to 1,000 pounds. I can think of a lot of uses for that. Like, say, a
floating platform for the party to fight on or to get cover from harpy archers.
Teleportati​on Circle​ (50 gp, consumed) <1 Minute>: This is your first real 'get out of dodge' spell. Your ship is sinking and
you need to evacuate the ship? You realize that you've been lost for the past week and need to find your bearings again?
How about this spell? The big limitation is that teleportation is restricted to locations where permanent circles have been
inscribed, which is going to cost you 366 days and 18300 gp if you want to make your own, so good luck with that.

The effectiveness of this spell obviously depends on the campaign, ​but it generally tends to balance out to 'pretty dang
useful'.

Transmute Rock​ {Dexterity, then Strength Saving Throw or Check} – D&D's low-key powerhouse spell returns for another
strong performance. The bad of this spell: it's an instantaneous duration now. This kind of stinks because one of the best
ways to use this spell in the old days was for construction. Turn a bunch of rocks at the quarry into mud, transport the mud
to wherever you want, shape the mud, then Dispel the Mud. It's harder (though not impossible) to recreate this feat if you
want to build your rock structures 10 feet tall at a time, but at least you can use local mud now. And it's not like castle walls
in the real world got much taller than 40 feet anyway.
By the way, the area is shapeable. So, don't feel obligated to use the full cube. This is especially relevant if you want to cast
Transmute Rock twice.

However, with the bad comes the good. This spell does not require concentration and works right away. This is some
astonishingly bad news for your enemies, for two reasons.

Transmute Rock​ – A 40 foot cube of 'each square costs 20 feet of movement' that stacks with everything. It's not even
difficult terrain, so combining it with something like Sleet Storm or even Ray of Frost will make it almost impossible for
people to get far out of. It even restrains people who are in it when its cast or end their turn in it, making it just that much
harder to get out.

You can use it on a ceiling to get a 40 foot cube of 4d8 Dex-half bludgeoning damage, though it's not clear whether you get
the movement restriction, too. Meh if you don’t, yay if you do.

Transmute M​ud to Rock​ – Transmuting Mud to Rock is harder than transmuting Rock to Mud... unless you're using this
spell again, which is by no means a bad idea. Anyway, if they do, it's a huge area of restrain ining. ​It's not exactly easy to
break out of either unless your DM is blatantly ignoring the DMG advice on damaging objects ​and having, say, a
T-Rex tail-swipe their way out of the rock.

Even if the DM rules this spell in its most unfavorable light (all effects do equal damage, the creature has uninhibited use of
attacks) this will lock down one or more monsters pretty well for a round.

Wall o​f Force​ [C] – The ultimate wall. Can't be dispelled, can't be destroyed, can't even be Ethereally phased through. And
you get ten 10” x 10” x .25' panels of it. Like with Banishment or Polymorph, expect reasonably smart enemies to come
gunning for you after you use it.

You know what's the biggest buzzkill to this spell, ​besides line-of-sight teleportation and flight? Simply jumping or
even stepping over the wall. It's only ten-feet tall and not exactly impossible to navigate​. Think twice about using this
spell against, say, giants. You might have to be content with just trapping one or MAYBE two of them in a hemispherical
wall. But usually, it leans on the side of completely, no-save encounter defining. Then again, if you can only trap one
giant-sized creature why aren't you using Otiluke's Resilient Sphere instead?

Wall of Stone​ {Dexterity} – At first glance, seems to be an inferior Wall of Force. However, Wall of Stone's big saving
grace? It has a much bigger area of effect. I leveled up my first Bladesinger during Storm King's Thunder, and let me tell
you, Wall of Stone would've been much easier to trap multiple giants or even two giants with than Wall of Force, especially
since my DM lets me make diagonal-across-a-square panels. And the default use of this spell hands out walls with 90 hit
points, so it's not like it's exactly easy to chew through. Bump the rating down a notch or even two if the DM rules that
'surrounded on all sides' doesn't include the top of the Wall of Stone.

Wall of Stone also lets you create structures such as spans. You probably won't be using that much, but it is there in case
you want to recreate Gandalf’s epic fight versus the Balrog. You can also use Wall of Stone to create permanent structures.
I prefer Transmute Rock with a side helping of 10 laborers with waterproof carts, but it's not bad.

6th-Level Spells
Arcane Gate​ (Black) – Sounds like it would be fun, right? A portal that everyone can step in for fun and profit! Well, not so
much. The utility of the spell is woefully held back by two factors. The first being the range of 500 feet of teleportation. This
isn't so bad, even though it amounts to about 6 turns worth of double-movement. The second one is that the two portals
have to be in sight of each other and on the ground. That REALLY hurts it for actual moving around.

Still, there is one legit very, very good use for Arcane Gate. With some forced movement action, you can get in some
devilish forced teleportation tricks. Put up a Prismatic Wall one round, place the exit portal directly keep putting the Lich into
said Prismatic Wall. The 10-foot diameter size hurts this use of the spell, though, otherwise it'd be an easy Blue.

Chain ​Lightning​ {Dex} – Notice something? That is, notice how pure damage-dealing spells are getting relatively worse
over time? This spell and another beauty are prime examples of it. Now, 10d8/45 damage spread across to three people is
not to be sneezed at in the middle and late-middle levels. But given its spell slot, it's not heart-stoppingly good like Fireball
was.

Bump up the rating to a solid Sky Blue ​if you have something like Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath​, though. I mean,
you probably shouldn’t have it, but apparently some people like multiclassing cleric for their wizards. Crazy.

Circle of Death​ {Constitution} (500 gp) – Yeah, baby, fireball damage only it has a much (MUCH) wider area of effect with
its 60 foot radius, meaning you’ll very likely tag your friends, and it targets the strongest save in the game! Barf.

Contingency​ (1500 gp) <10 Minutes> – Nice! A spell that lasts for 10 days, meaning extra spell slots, and fast-casts spells.
The concentration limitation is kind of a bummer, but this is still very, very good. Contingency is of special interest to you,
the Bladesinger, because of how many buffs you can fast-cast with it.

Contingency has a loooong list of potential candidates, so I made a section in the guide specifically for it.
Create ​Undead​ ​(Green to Blue) (150 gp per corpse, surprisingly isn't consumed) <1 minute> – See most of my notes on
Animate Dead. If you can get around the practical issues, you're still left with the fact that, pound-for-pound, this spell
doesn't give much better than what you'd get with Animate Dead. And at least Animate Dead cast in a 6th-level slot gives
you more corpses.

The situation changes if you're casting this spell out of an 8th-level spell slot.​ Controlling two wights will give you up a
whopping 24 zombies to play with. However, the wights have to kill the humanoids themselves and I have played with
neutral or even good parties willing to excuse graverobbing but not actual humanoid sacrifice, ​so expect to have a big
fight with the party unless everyone is cool teaming up with Evilwizardington McCutsUpTinyAnimals​.

Disint​egrate​ {Dex} – This spell is overrated. 10D6+40/75 damage up front is a lot for a spell, even a 6th level one, but it's
really all-or-nothing with the Dex save. Now, Dexterity tends to be one of the weaker save of monsters, especially the big
hit-point stack bruisers, but monsters still roll 14s and even 18s. You feel like taking that kind of risk?

Bump this rating up a notch, ​however, if you have some way to make them fail the save​ (Monk's stunning fist) ​or force
disadvantage​ (Web or Evard's Black Tentacles).

Eye​bite​ {Wisdom} – You get three effects, repeatable over a minute as an action. If they save, you can't use this casting of
Eyebite on them again. Efficient, but a couple of lucky saves can knock this spell out of the running. You get:
An Asleep effect, meaning auto crit, prone, plus disarming! Or you could use it to get up to some mischief while they're
asleep.
A super-charged Frightened effect that's actually kind of hard to escape, much like the original Fear spell.
A Sickened effect you're not going to use because disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls isn't any better than
Frightened. And you don't get the 'can't willingly come closer to you' effect of fear. Oh, also, they get to roll another Wisdom
saving throw at the end of each of their turns. Garbage.

Eyebite's rating bumps up a notch if you're using (Improved) Find Steed from a Ring of Spell Storing or a Wish
Spell to let your mount get in on the action.​ I'd still rather use Sunbeam, generally, but this is very much not bad.

Flesh to Stone​ {Constitution} – If they fail the original saving throw, they're restrained for a minimum of three rounds. That's
good enough, making the actual petrification from failing three saving throws a nice add-on rather than the desired
outcome.

Freezing​ ​Sphere​ {Constitution} – The 60-foot radius of effect, constitution save, and 10d6 hit points once again makes this
an inferior version of Fireball. ​Okay, there's some utility where you can trap people who are partially above the
waterline, and you can also precast this spell for up to a minute​. But that just drags it up from 'useless' to 'aggressively
mediocre'.

Globe of Invulnerability​ (Blue) – Tired of getting Counterspelled by the three Illusionists? Worried about your Simulacrum
getting a taste of Dispel Magic? Try this on for size. Even at very high levels, you still have quite a bit to fear from a team of
Transmuters or Hobgoblin Devastators. This spell renders those encounters from nail-biters to utter jokes.
Guards and Wards​ (10 gp) <10 Minutes> – It's a pure downtime spell used to guard your domain with a cocktail of effects.
Since it's not a ritual, you're probably not even going to prepare this to protect your dungeon camp for the night. If you're
paranoid about teleport ambushes, this will stop them cold, since you can exclude the people you love from their effects.

Instant Summons​ (1000 gp, consumed on trigger) <1 minute> [R] – Paranoid about your spellbook? Or your secret chest?
Or your bag of holding? This spell will help you get it back. Or at least it'll give you the name of the thief so you can get it
back with a good, old-fashioned Revenge Teleport Ambush. Being a high-level spellcaster kind of rules sometimes, you
know?
Investiture of Flame (Purple to Blue) {Dex} [C]: What you really want from this spell is the fire immunity with the side order of
cold resistance. The auto-fire damage for people getting close is a nice fringe benefit, but the 15 feet long/5 feet long
cylinder of 4d8 fire damage isn't very good at your level, even though it lasts for 10 minutes. If the fire immunity doesn't
come up, it's a sub-par choice.

Investiture of Ice​ {Con} [C - 10 minutes] – Cold immunity, fire resistance is less useful than the fire immunity, cold
resistance of Investiture of Flame, though generally adventures are nice enough to warn you well in advance of when you'll
really want cold immunity. Moving normally across ice and snow; meh. Same deal as the first sentence. You'll want it when
you want it. 10 Foot Radius of Difficult terrain is a much more fun benefit, especially when combined with Mobile and/or the
next effect. As an Action, you can creature a cold cone of a mere 4d6 cold damage, where if they fail their saving throw their
speed is reduced by half. This is actually quite a bit of lockdown against melee characters if you can nail the Constitution
save. If you hit someone with the tip of the cone and back up, most enemies won't even be able to approach you with a
double move.

Investiture of Stone​ {Dexterity} [C - 10 minutes] – Unlike the first two investitures, which required you to have some
foreknowledge or thought, this spell is great out of the package. First effect: resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and
slashing damage from nonmagical ​weapons​ (meaning your DM may or may not allow this to apply against natural
weapons). This is okay. Second effect: using your action to create a prone effect in a 15-radius around you, Dex Save
negates. Better. In combination with the next effect and a Transmute Rock spell, you can create a rather trivial lockdown. Or
you could just help out your melee buddies. Third effect: Move through solid stone and earth as if it was air as long as you
don't end your turn there. Heck yeah. Move in and out through walls and doors, darting in to make attacks. Or use it as a
solid escape plan. Or just have fun scouting! Or safely sink into the ground beneath you (not drawing disadvantage because
you're still in reach), run out of reach, then pop back up! Depending on what other effects you have, you could also use this
to gain advantage. Have a way to see (or hear) through stone? There you go.

Investiture of Wind​ {Constitution} [C - 10 minutes] – Flying is always fun to have in your corner pocket, even if it's slower
and less of a duration than the actual Fly spell. Disadvantage on ranged weapon attacks... eh. They're generally not a big
deal from monsters. Making 15 foot cubes of 2d10 bludgeoning damage, save for half or take full damage and get pushed
10 feet? None of these would make the spell worth it on their own, but they combine to be a reasonable choice.

Magi​c Jar​ {Charisma} (500 gp, effectively consumable} <1 minute> – This hot mess basically lets you possess an enemy,
swapping their non-mental, non-class level (note the wording) for yours while letting you keep your own class abilities. The
various restrictions on the spell make it extremely inconvenient to set up and to use. First of all, you need to find an
appropriate humanoid target. NPC Humanoids have a vast gap between their CR and yours, so chances are you'll be able
to Magic Jar an Archdruid or a Diviner (Volo's) right away, ​if​ you can find one. The other thing is that the game is unclear on
what counts as class levels. Technically, NPCs do not have classes (because if they did, their CR would be way off) but
even if the DM rules that you don't get, say, the wildshape ability of an Archdruid you can still use this spell to pick up things
like Legendary Actions and hit point bulges.

The spell is rated like it is because the candidates you have to choose from are hard to finagle in a game.​ You can't
just go to the Druid Store and pick yourself up an archdruid. ​However, if you have something ridiculous and broken to
supplement this spell with such as a rock True Polymorphed into an Abjurer to possess, this is how you spin straw
into gold​.

As far as taking care of your body goes, you can always put it in a pack and carry it with you. Be sure to put your character
on the small and light side of character creation. Or you can just leave it someplace convenient, treat death as an
acceptable hazard, and make arrangements for resurrection when you die. Or you could just cast Clone.

Mind, you will need to be extra-careful about Dispel Magic. If you're doing the 'leave your body at home' trick, that spell will
straight-up kill you. Even if you are (or, more likely, a party member) toting your corpse, you'll need to make arrangements
to rejoin the field of battle.

Unless you intend to use this spell to body-hop, you should probably bury the soul container deep in the ground so you
won't have unpleasant surprises like getting dispelled and the original creature returning to its body.

Mass Suggestion​ {Wisdom} – 5th Edition D&D is pretty cagey about giving players access to 'end this encounter of
arbitrary size right now' spells, so be grateful this one slipped through the cracks. Huge number of targets, no limitation on
creature type, lasts for a really long time, and best of all doesn't require concentration.

Move Earth​ (Red) [C] – Yes, it is in a vacuum an impressive amount of personal labor you can do with this spell, but so
what? You are Moonravensong, Maiden of Shadows, not Moonravensong, moves rocks ten times as fast as the average
peasant. This spell isn't even all that great for castle-building, since Transmute Rock lost one of its best worldbuilding
features (Turn rocks into Mud, transport the mud, dispel Transmute Rock).

Otto's Irresi​stable Dance​ {Wisdom} (Verbal Only) [C] – Single-target wisdom-based restraining against creatures that can
be charmed? Kind of a joke. Takes an action to get an attempt to save? I'm listening, but that's not really special. That the
spell automatically works for at least one round, even against creatures with Legendary saves? Okay, now that's how you
get a Blue rating. ​Maybe even Sky Blue if you have some way to take advantage of the guaranteed restraining​, like a
Black Tentacles or a melee dogpile.

Program​med Image​ (25 gp) {Investigation (Intelligence)} – As a worldbuilding spell, this wouldn't be so bad as a 1st or 2st
level spell, but six levels just to have a triggered image? It's more useful for combat, mind. Since it is one action and the
Programmed Illusion lasts until it's dispelled, ​you can use it like you would with an upcasted Major Image​, except it
targets fewer senses but allows you to have a 30-foot cube instead of a 20-foot one.

Sun​beam​ {Constitution} [C]: It's like lightning-bolt damage (slightly better damage type, much worse saving throw) every
round for a minute! But with a save-or-be-blinded rider. Not only does this spell dish out very efficient damage, but it's a
great way to force monsters to burn legendary saves. The sunlight (actual sunlight) you get while concentrating on this spell
is a nice bonus.

By the way, use this with​ (Improved) Find Steed to get DOUBLE SUNBEAM POWER!

True S​eeing ​(25 gp, consumable) – Truesight so utterly wrecks so many strategies, even though it's more annoying to PCs
when the monsters have it than it is to the DM when you have it. Because of the latter caveat, if you're preparing this spell
to have a situational counter against invisible or Ethereal enemies, you'll often be disappointed.

But as is usual for wizards, this spell gets much better if you abuse it. True Seeing opens up combos such as the Silent
Image/Darkness/Etc. Bubble of Stealth. ​If you're planning on abusing the Bubble of Stealth, this spell becomes
crazy-clutch​.

Wall o​f Ice​ [C] – This is by no means a terrible spell, but it's going to come off looking inadequate coming on the tail end of
the Dream Team of Wall of Fire, Wall of Force, and Wall of Stone. It does its 10d6 damage up-front but it doesn't do a good
job of holding off enemies (unlike Wall of Stone/Force) and you can't use it for repeat damage (unlike Wall of Fire).

It does a very decent job of clogging up corridors and splitting up the enemy team if your DM allows you to create
panels that are diagonal across a square.​ Even if they do break through it, they’ll be taking a lot of damage. Bump this
spell up a notch if those apply to you.

7th-Level Spells
Delayed B​last Fireball​ {Dexterity} – While this spell will never do less damage than an upcasted Fireball, Fireball doesn't
exactly scale very well on its own. After all, Call Lightning dishes out 45 average damage and this one only does 42 despite
being a level higher. Nonetheless, ​if you can consistently nail ambushes with this spell and/or have Banishment or
Maze backup​, you can do quite a bit more damage with this spell than expected.

Etherealness​ – Amazing scouting spell, even if the people in the locales you're scouting have truesight (since you can
sneak and hide in the walls). It's both a very good and unworkable choice for transportation; unworkable since the natural
end of the spell has you going back to your original location. Very good because there's nothing stopping you from going
from the Ethereal Plane to another plane, including the Material Plane. Meaning that you have a very good 'uh oh' button if
you're adventuring even if the locales would typically prevent teleportation out of it.

Finger o​f Death​ {Constitution} – This spell kind of chews as a damage dealing spell.​ Its best effect is done in downtime;
giving you a permanent zombie​. However, at this point in the game you're sort of beyond zombies, even if you can get a
whole stack of them. This is a top-tier spell for Necromancer wizards when used that way, but sort of meh for a Bladesinger.

Forcecage​ (1500 gp) {Charisma} – There are two uses for this spell. The first one is to trap a foe. There are plenty of foes
who straight-up will never be able to leave the cage. Of course, you need to be careful with certain castings of it, since you
can't get rid of it early after dealing with their friends. The second one is a guaranteed push effect. If there's some
super-high strength monster that you badly want to push (like, say, an Ancient Red Dragon into a Prismatic Wall) this spell
has you covered.

Mirage ​Arcane​ ​<10 Minutes> – This is not a combat spell when you're not using Wish. This spell is ridiculously,
soul-crushing devastating in the hands of an Illusionist (it's Wish-tier, that's how good it is) but in your twitchy,
sword-wielding hands? You're going to have to work it. ​The expected way to use it is for siege control and battlefield
scenes.​ Make structures with cover appear out of nowhere, remove walls and bridges, so on. There's not even a save for it
unless the target has truesight.

However, the fun way to use it is when you have complete knowledge of a dungeon.​ Seal off the exits, make an
escape route directly to the bad guy's lair, go nuts with it. Expect this to get dispelled and to draw aggro from the inhabitants
if you're not careful, though. This spell honestly is kind of badly written and it's unsporting to make it a regular tactic, but it's
good for a laugh now and again.

Mordenkainen's Mag​nificent Mansion​ (15 gp total) <1 Minute> – The rating is all in how you use it. But it’s very, very
good at what it does even in it’s basic, no-cheese use. Since the Mansion lasts for 24 hours, you can chain-cast it until the
heat dies down if you're using it to make a getaway. If you're suspecting someone to actually break into the mansion, take
the standard precautions, though you should probably make a Home Alone-style floor plan. It's also a platform for Plane
Shift, too.

The reason why this spell is so double-rated depends on what your DM will let you get away with for a floor plan.
For example, if an ability requires you to pray next to an ornate altar, you can have a prayer chamber. If you want to
research new forms to Polymorph into, create a library that has books on zoology on it. Need an alchemical lab to repair a
golem? You now have a lab. Want dry ice for a project? One of your rooms has a container full of CO2 cylinders. Set up an
aquarium and use Gate. The DM is probably not going to let you get away with using the spell to create expensive material
components, but if you need complicated equipment or items that don't exactly have a gold piece cost (like the culture for a
rare cheese you want to put in your own batch), this spell should have you covered.

Mordenkainen's Sword​ {Melee Spell Attack} (150 gp) – Hilariously awful spell. This is worse than Bigby's Hand in almost
every way even when you don't upcast it. The only advantage is that this spell is indestructible, but then again Bigby's Hand
being a fat stack of hit points is an advantage, not a weakness. Even if you do want a bonus action concentration spell
without the clog of Animate Objects, use that instead.

Plane Shift ​{Melee Spell Attack; Charisma Saving Throw} (250 gp) – Yeah, you need this. Not only does it unlock a huge
amount of the sandbox, but if set up correctly it'll give you much more precise teleportation than the actual teleport spell.
Just be on a different plane than the one you want to go to. Rope Trick will do the trick.

Plane Shift leaves something to be desired as a last-minute 'pull everyone's bacon out of the skillet' spell, what with the
requirement of needing everyone to hold hands. That's at least a round's worth of organization, not to mention the additional
scramble to rescue unconscious/dead people. If this is your only escape route spell, you need to keep a close eye on the
ebb and flow of combat.
Plane Shift targets Charisma, too, if you want to use it as a single-target save-or-die. Since you get to pick the plane you
send them to, chances are good you can make it the last place they'll visit.

Prismatic Spray​ ​{Dex, possibly Con or Wis} – Less utility than Cone of Cold 5/8ths of the time. Two of the effects are pretty
dang nice, but even with the d8 reroll that's only a hair more than 30% of getting either or both those effects. Do you really
want to bet a 7th level spell slot on that?

Project Image​ {Intelligence (Investigation)} [C] – This spell is underrated. It does have some serious drawbacks when used
for scouting (like not being able to hide) compared to Etherealness, but it does have its advantages. The biggest one, by
far, being this spell's less of a need for proximity. You need to be fairly close to the target location to use Etherealness
(though, this is about a mile or two) but you can be much further away for Project Image.

The issue is 'seeing the place before', but it's not really that big of a deal. Place your image 5,000 feet in the air. You'll be
able to see for about 150 miles. You can go up higher, though you'll likely miss some detail. Cast the spell again, this time
targeting the edge of your visual border from your previous location. Cast the spell again, etc. Once you've had a bird's eye
view out to range, you can swoop down to any locations of interest and start your Project Image Journey there.
Etherealness, well, there's some travel involved. And using Teleport or even Plane Shift to get you closer for Etherealness
can get dicey, especially for scouting wilderness areas.

To put things a bit in perspective, if you're in the middle of Texas, you can easily scout the entire state.

Compared to Air Walk, this spell is significantly slower, but it's safer (much, MUCH safer) to do deep scouting with this spell.

If you roll an Illusionist next-go-round, give this spell a second look. All that dross about recasting the spell after getting a
peek? Doesn't apply to you. You can use Malleable Illusions to scout EXTREMELY quickly.

Reverse Gravity​ {Dex} [C] – Ah, here we go! A huge area of shutdown that ignores most of the standard monster
immunities and resistances, keys off of a typically bad save, and doesn't allow repeat saves. For tall ceilings, you can get
up to 20d6 bludgeoning damage up-front. And strongholds that house, say, giants often have ceilings that high. And while
targets can escape from this spell by crawling along the ceiling, they'll just end up falling when they get out. Teleporters and
flyers can get around this spell, but that's about it. Loses luster in high-level dungeon crawls, but if you're outdoors and you
want to shutdown a group of monsters that don't die to one or two fireballs, this is what you pick.

Sequester​ (5000 gp consumable) – You don't need to look at this spell. It sorta-safely tucks away whatever creature you
designate to put them away forever or until a condition triggers. The utility is questionable for a PC and the price is
exorbitant. There's some use for NPCs who want to stock rarely-visited dungeons with living creatures, but not for you. You
can't even use it to suspend people you'd like to put on hold indefinitely. Bah.

Simulacrum​ (Some parts of the victim, presumably free, and 1500 gp consumed) <12 Hours> – Did the game just give up
or something? It's odd that they're handing you this kind of power. Oh, well, the AL expects people to abuse this, so who
are you to guess otherwise? Be careful that the Simulacrum doesn't catch a Dispel Magic, though if you're copying yourself
you should have at least two Counterspells on standby. You may want to disguise it so that people don't know it's a
Simulacrum.
Anyway, generally the best target for a Simulacrum is yourself. It'll have pitiful hit points, being a copy of a Bladesinger, but
it does have Song of Defense. Technically you can use Arcane Recovery on it, since the language for regaining spell slots
through a long rest is 'regain' and the language for Arcane Recovery is consistently 'recover', and Simulacrum specifically
forbids regaining spell slots. Unless your long rests come with a lot of downtime, you'll probably want to have it stay in the
back and use staves/efficient spells like Conjure Elemental and Whirlwind and Sunbeam/cantrips/Polymorph. Alternatively,
you can target a party member who won't catch a lot of damage and doesn't expend a lot of resources in the first place,
such as a ranged rogue. If you're REALLY trying to stretch your Simulacrum out, True Polymorph and to a lesser extent
Shapechange has your back.

You can spend additional gp to heal up the Simulacrum, but c'mon man. 1500 gp just to heal it up 15 hp and you need to be
in an alchemical laboratory so you can't even do it on the field?

I've made a separate section on getting your own ice if your DM is being a jerk about it.

Sym​bol​ (1000 gp, consumed) <1 Minute>: There are three ways to use this spell. The expected, situationally useful way.
The ‘protect an area in downtime’ way. And the abusive way.

The expected way? Use it like a turbo-charged Glyph of Warding, trading versatility for the ability to affect more creatures
and constantly force saves. This thing will tear through Legendary actions like no one's business. See Glyph of Warding for
more details.

The expected way to use this spell is to protect areas you want protected. Worried about someone sneaking into your
Demiplane or Secret Chest and messing things up? A couple of Symbols will settle their hash. If your party is clever, you
can also use this spell to set up ambushes, though expect the DM to do this to you if this happens more than once.

The abusive way? Cast it while someone is being held up by some other effect​. Someone get targeted with
Banishment or Polymorph or Hypnotic Pattern or Maze or Otiluke's Resilient Sphere or Forcecage or Wall of Force?
Basically, any spell that will disable the opponent but you can't really attack them​? Draw this spell onto the ground
and let them have it. You'll likely need some backup since casting this spell will break your concentration.

Teleport​ – Its high level makes it kind of punitive for everyday travel, unlike earlier editions, but its real killer for usefulness
is its high chance of misfiring even if you're very familiar with the location. Use Plane Shift from a plane different than the
one you want to travel to (Rope Trick is excellent for this) if you want something more precise. That this spell can get you
places Plane Shift can't (like an uncharted island) and it doesn't require setup in case you need a panic button saves it from
inferiority, but don't rely on this spell.

Whirlwind​ {Dex, then Strength, then Dex/Strength Check} [C] – Excellent spell. Repeatable, moveable battlefield control in
a large area and does a lot of damage. The two effects work a bit at cross purpose, but restraining someone midair is very
good even if you just wanted to do damage, unless they have a ranged attack or something. And if you did just want to do
damage, you will get a lot of it. There's even a question of whether you'll get attacks of opportunity if they get free, since
they're technically moving with their action.
8th-Level Spells
Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting​ {Constitution} – Abi-Dalzim must have slacked off for a couple of years and the wizard's guild
demanded that he publish something if he wanted to stay on the tenure track. This is why he felt fit to print his name on a
horrid little spell Constructs and Undead are immune to, Plants and Water Elementals have disadvantage to (whoopy doo
doo), requires a Constitution Save to Pass, targets only a 30 foot cube... and for all that rigmarole, you get a whopping 10d8
necrotic damage. Hey, you know what spell does 10d8 lightning damage to almost as many targets, targets a better save,
and is lower level? Chain Lightning.

Anti-M​agic Field​ – Use it to shut down enemy spellcasters or monsters with nasty magical effects. It's generally very risky
for wizards to do this even on a purely sacrificial level, as they'll probably get rocked on the concentration saving throw.
You, however, are a Bladesinger and you have a good AC and concentration saving throws even without your magical
doodads and you have Song of Defense for backup.

If you have a decent grappling score outside of magical items​ (you're a Tortle, you multiclassed something with
Expertise, you rolled like your life depended on it and you're now immortal, etc.) this spell goes from 'awesome defense' to
'perfect shutdown' against spellcasters.

Antipathy/Sympathy​ {Wisdom} – It requires a bit of finesse to use this spell properly, though Scrying, Divination, Contact
Other Plane, etc. can take a lot of the guesswork out. If you can take care of that, then, well: Quoting Nadrigol's Bladesinger
Guide: Here’s a fun trick: cast sympathy on a rock. Have your rogue sneak up and throw it into a crowd of baddies. Once
they all gather ‘round, delayed blast fireball. Pick up the rock, wipe of the scorch marks, repeat on the next room.

Clone​ (1000 gp for each clone, consumed; 2000 gp for each chamber) – Don't get me wrong, it's a platinum-rated
life-insurance policy, especially in conjunction with Demiplane. And as-written you get immortality. The problem is that it
takes a LOT of downtime days to get rolling. If you're playing AL, you may not have kind of time or money. You're probably
better off spending 3-7 days with Wish-Clones than casting this spell normally.

Control​ ​Weather​ <10 Minutes> [C] – Unless you want to prove yourself as the ~messiah~ for bringing water to the thirsty
peasants, there's no real use in this spell for a typical D&D adventurer. ​If your DM is being a huge jerk about getting
snow for Simulacrum, you can use this.

Demiplane​ (Somatic Only) – Ah, your home away from home. And unlike Mordenkainen's Magificent Mansion, there's no
doubt this spell is persistent. If you have the downtime and money for it, lining the room with castings of Symbol is fun and
will stop the only drawback of the spell: unwanted creatures following you into the portal.

Finally: unless your DM is throwing a Gygaxian fit, you can use new castings of Demiplane such that the borders are
coterminal. Meaning, you can move up from a cramped little 30 x 30 x 30 cube to something bigger.

Dominate Monster​ {Wis} [C] – Like Dominate Person, complete with all of the drawbacks, but at least you can target any
monster instead of just humanoids.
Feeb​lemind​ (Black to Sky Blue) – This is your spellcaster stoppers when you don't have faith in Anti-Magic Field, though
note that it does allow for a save. It's an intelligence save, so a lot of monsters are not great at this, but more than a handful
of monsters you'd want to blow an 8th level slot on have this as a decent or even great save. All told, it's usable but
overrated when used its intended way. If you really want to shut down a spellcaster, stop being a wimp and get in there with
your barbarian and rogue friend with an Anti-Magic Field.

That said, Feeblemind does have one 'hidden' use that completely redeems it; ​if you're using it with Planar Binding, it'll
totally crush the target's ability to resist it.​ A Pit Fiend's chances of saving against Planar Binding (+7 with advantage) is
too good to bet the farm on. But +0 with advantage? Now you've got a decent chance.

Incendiary ​Cloud​ {Dex} [C] – It's a huge, heaping helping of repeatable damage, contained within in a cloud with heavy
obscuring! At least in theory. Enemies can always just move out of it. Which is a problem, because A) you probably don't
want to be casting this on top of your escape-route blocking allies and B) you can reposition it, but only 10 feet a round and
in a direction away from it. Probably the best way to use it would be to wait until your frontline takes their attacks, cast it on
the enemy line, then think of some way to get the enemies back in the cloud. It's not as easy as you think with the new
movement rules, but what can you do? ​Does great, even amazing damage with a consistent source of forced
movement/enemy lockdown, so if you can manage THAT then this spell becomes choice.

Ma​ze​ {Int Check} [C - 20 minutes] – It's an Int 20 Check, not a save. There are plenty of enemies that will never make a
check like that. And even if they do, you'll get at least a round to shut down any monster. Even if they legendary saves. The
rating goes up if your party has a way of taking advantage of the monster's absence, such as with caltrops, the Snare spell,
Symbol spell if your friends are feeling bold or the monster's dumb, etc.

Mind Blank​ – Man, if only this worked on Truesight. That would easily get it a gold rating. Anyway, blanket immunity to
divination and mind-affecting effects, so have fun.

Power World Stun​ (Verbal Only) {Constitution} – This is not as bad as Power Word Kill, since the HP threshold is 150
instead of 100, but it still leave much to be desired. Even if you do get the spell to land, they get a new save every round.

Sunburst​ {Constitution} – 12d6 radiant damage, Constitution save (disadvantage for oozes or undead) or be blinded for a
minute until EOTS. And 60 foot unfriendly radius to bot. All that adds up to one word: overrated and mediocre. If the sunlight
was persistent or the blindness didn't end early, it might have bumped the rating up. As is, it's barely good enough to avoid
the red ink.

Telepathy​ – Don't dismiss this spell just yet. Unlike a lot of long-range communication spells, A) the target can't shut this
conversation down and B) you can communicate with Intelligence 1 creatures. Meaning, you can communicate with the rats
or even zombies in the lich's chamber for things like where the lich keeps their phylactery or if there are any traps. The
funny thing is that there's not many ways to protect against this spell, so you can go bug the Prince of Abyssal Worms or
something if you're bored.
9th-Level Spells
Astral Projection​ (1100 gp per person, consumed on use) <1 Hour> – This spell gets ragged on, and I don't understand
why. Yes, it's expensive and a dispel magic will send your plans up in smoke. Yes, you also need to be able to find a way
back from the Astral Plane to the Material Plane or whatever. But it has two things going for it.

1. It's almost absolutely completely safe. Even if it gets dispelled or shut down by Antimagic field, it's an inconvenience,
not an emergency. As of the time of this guide, there is no game effect that can actually cut a silver cord.

2. More importantly, careful use allows you to double-up on spells and especially consumables.

If you're still worried about Dispel Magic, note pretty much no spellcasting monster (and this is including books like Volo’s)
besides the Androsphinx, Babau, Gynosphinx, Glabzeru, Ki-Rin, Morkoth, Mummy Lord, Abjurer, Blackguard, Priest and
Warpriest, and Lich has Dispel Magic prepared. And you do have countermeasures! You and your simulacrum should
definitely have Counterspell prepared. And Contingency + Otiluke's Resilient Sphere still has your back. Or if you're
REALLY worried, Globe of Invulnerability. Even if they do have it prepared, it's not the easiest check in the word to pass.
Have a bard on Cutting Words duty or a Warlock on Hex duty. Finally, the wording on Astral Projection only allows
someone to target the Astral Form, not the spell itself. So it'll just kick out a single party member, at worst.

Foresight​ – Concentration-free, 8 hours worth of advantage on Common d20 Rolls and blanket disadvantage on attacks
against you. This spell, this spell right here is why I'm so skeptical about high-level DPR-Is-My-God builds which require
more than a splash of or even any multiclassing. Only drawback is no spreading the love around if you manage to finagle a
second casting, such as with a Spell Gem. If there was ever an argument to multiclass Sorcerer for the Extend Spell
metamagic, this would be it.

Gate ​– Like Astral Projection, this spell also gets ragged upon unfairly. It has three uses that redeems this spell, though in
the end the DM's cooperation with the first use will determine its worth as a 9th level spell slot and its ultimate rating.

1. Summoning the things you want for extra battlefield tokens. You have Magic Circle and Planar Binding by now, so
go you. The problem is that a DM can always decide to shut you down, especially if you ask for something with more
muscle. And though the spell doesn't give a lot of leeway for the DM to shut you down without forcing them to invoke
Rule Zero, there's always the unspoken contract since Gygax that any such creature will seek you out for
revenge.

2. Safe Transportation. Plane Shift and Teleportation aren't exactly precise, even in the best of times. This has your
back, however. If you want to travel from within the Material Plane, however, you'll need to use some other spell to
get onto another plane first. If (as with Plane Shift) your DM lets you use this spell in a Rope Trick, then you've
got it made. If not, well, there's always Etherealness or Plane Shift itself.

3. If you're feeling uncreative you can also use it as a save-or-suck (be sure to let go of concentration immediately!).
Just have the portal appear underneath a foe sized Huge or smaller and wave bye-bye. Or if they're flying, give
 them a little shove. If you're cruel, you can fling them into a prepared trap. Like into a room you carved out in the
Elemental Plane of Earth filled with Symbols.

Imprisonment​ (500 gp per Hit Dice of the Target, effectively consumable) {Wisdom}: Weak tea. Well, it's not that it's weak
tea so much that it's useless for PCs. For spellcaster NPCs, it's a good spell for justifying a dungeon's guardian without
invoking 'a wizard did it' – metaphorically, I mean, not literally. They are literally the wizard in this case.

Meteor Swarm​ {Dexterity} – The good: Great AoE damage, huge range. The bad: the large area makes it almost
impossible to use in at typical dungeon crawl or castle raid. The ugly: Prismatic Wall is safer (much, MUCH safer), will likely
do more damage upfront or round-to-round, and comes with a cocktail of other great effects. Only reason why you’d use
this over Prismatic Wall 90% of the time is if you don’t have any access to forced movement effects. Probably the best use
for this spell is for castle raids or to take out elite units in an army scenario.

Power Word Kill​ (Verbal Only) – More like 'Weak Word: Tickle'. If you can think of ANY way to do 100 hit points of damage
with a 9th level or lower slot in one round, use that instead. If you can't, do the table a favor and give your character sheet
to someone who isn't that unengaged.

Prismatic Wall​ {Special, though Dexterity is the main one} – How does a combat spell compete with heavy-hitters such as
True Polym orph and Wish? This is how. Almost impossible to get rid of. Reusable. Completely party-safe. Huge area of
effect. Targets dexterity saves for its worst effects. Throws in free unbreakable blindness.

Only two drawbacks. First one is how it requires the target to enter the wall (can't drop it on someone directly, unfortunately)
but there are three ways around that: readying an action to cast the spell as part of someone's movement, readying it as an
action to cast it in the intervening space between you and a creature with limb-based reach that attacks you, and good ol'
forced movement. The second one is how it might warp away a creature to a plane before you finished it off. Generally not
a big deal, but you don't want a creature with an ability to freely travel between planes getting away.

Shapechange​ (1500 gp) [C]: At first glance, it looks like a cut-rate True Polymorph. Can't cast it on other people, have to
have seen the form before, shorter duration, doesn't give Lair and Legendary Actions? Puh-leez. It redeems itself in several
ways. The first is the huge bulge of hitpoints if you first shapeshift into a beefy form. The second is that you keep your class
abilities. The third is that you keep using your magical items. The fourth is that you can continue shapechanging, meaning
recycling of spells. You probably want both this spell AND True Polymorph. Heck there's nothing exactly stopping you from
combining both spells, though expect the game to explode once you do.

Time ​Stop​ (Verbal Only) – This spell also gets ragged on, though I think with more justification than Astral Projection and
Gate. If you're just using the PHB, the actions you can take with it don't justify the spell slot. ​However, as 5E D&D matures
and comes out with more things to do with your standard actions that the spell will allow​, Time Stop may get better.

True Polymorph​ {Wisdom} [C] – Like Shapechange, but simultaneously more and less restrictive. More restrictive in that
your game statistics are entirely replaced, instead of stacking, and you don't get to keep your equipment. Less restrictive in
that you get a wider range of forms (including those with class levels, undead and constructs, and those you haven't seen
before), being able use it on your teammates in combat and in downtime, and you also get Lair and Legendary Actions. Do
you get Lair Actions if it's used in conjunction with Mirage Arcana? Hm.
You can also use True Polymorph to add extra tokens on the field. If you don't feel like dedicating a concentration slot for
this token, you can always True Polymorph a rock into a Glabzeru or Cuoatl or Bone Devil or something and give it the ol'
Planar Binding treatment.

You can also use True Polymorph as a Save-or-Suck, but you should be embarrassed at even thinking about using such an
awesome spell in such a mundane way. Shame. Shame.

Weird​ {Wis} [C] – Wisdom saving throw, huge AoE despite being party-unfriendly, and only frightens plus 4d10 damage a
round? Don't waste your precious page space like this, game designers.

Wish​ – How spectacular does a spell have to be to knock Prismatic Wall and Foresight off of its perch? This spectacular.

Now, most people want to use Wish to poach spells from other spells. Which is fine, because it's the safest way to use the
spell. However, there are ways to avoid the drain (ugh) and the Never Cast Wish Again (UGGGGH). Probably the easiest
way to avoid it is to have your Simulacrum cast Wish, though do note that the Adventurer's League specifically plugged this
loophole. The second-safest way to cast it is to have someone else do it. Do you trust your Rock-turned-Volo's
Abjurer-Via-True-Polymorph with your Tome of the Stilled Tongue? You probably shouldn't, but it is an option, especially if
you use the Astral Projection loop. Get creative.

(NEW!) Xanathar’s Spells

Xanathar’s reprinted a bunch of spells from the Elemental Evil’s Player Companion, but also changed a few of them. It also
added a mess of spells of their own. This section will refer readers back to the original spell list as necessary and will only
comment on spells that got changed.

Cantrips
Control Flames – No change.

Create Bonfire – No change.

Frostbite – No change.

Gust – No change.

Infestation – No change

Mold Earth – No change.

Shape Water – No change.

Thunderclap – No change.

Toll the Dead​ {Wis} – The change is that wizards now get this on their spell list. One target in 60 feet makes a Wisdom
saving throw or takes 1d8 necrotic damage, 1d12 if they’ve taken any hit point damage. Very good. Necrotic damage and
wisdom saving throw holds it back a bit, but a ranged 1d12/tier cantrip is still quite useful.

1st-Level Spells
Absorb Elements – No change.

Catapult – No change.

Cause Fear​ {Wis} (Verbal Only) – The removal of the Somatic component and target/level upcast doesn’t really make up
for the two harsh nerfs this spell copped; the additional of an EoTS and removing the ‘a target with 25 or fewer hit points
makes saving throw with disadvantage’. This just makes the spell ‘okay’ instead of ‘good companion’.

Earth Tremor​ {Dex} – The big changes to this spell is removing the ‘Self’ component of its range (removing the ability to
use it in Contingency, not that you’d want to) and explicitly stating the rubble is cleared in a 5-foot diameter with a minute of
work. It doesn’t really change the rating of the spell, however.

Ice Knife – No change.

Snare​ {Dex} <1 minute>– Ooof. I thought Jeremy Crawford was rebalancing these spells to be more useful, not less? Way
to mislead us, dude. Anyway, the casting time got moved to 1 minute and a total time of 8 hours, turning it from a staple of
low-level builds to being useless except for same-day ambushes. I thus no longer give a care about this spell.

Is reducing the material component from consuming 30 feet of rope to 25 feet of rope supposed to be their way of
apologizing? I am not amused by this perfunctory performance, game designers.

2nd-Level Spells
Aganazzar’s Scorcher – No change.

Dragon’s​ ​Breath​ {Dex} [C] – Finally, the first spell we haven’t seen in UA or EEPC. It’s good, too, as long as you think
outside the box. When you get it, it’s decently damage and very efficient on the spell slots. Cast as a bonus action on your
or a target, as an action the recipient gets 3d6 Acid/Cold/Fire/Lightning/Poison (upcasted for 1d6/slot) damage in a cone,
save half. Starts out decently okay, ​but gets much better if you cast it on a general noncombatant like the paladin’s
mount or even your familiar​, but as the game goes on, it’s not an efficient use of your concentration spell. Still, i​f you can
get at least three rounds of damage out of it from a 3rd-level spell slot​ (such as for a flying familiar or a Tiny Servant),
it did its job.

Dust Devil – No change.

Earthbind – No change.
Maximilian’s Earthen Grasp – No change.

Mind Spike​ {Wisdom} [C - 1 hour] – Another new spell. Since it has what’s probably a typo in it (3d8 base, 1d6/slot upcast,
whuh?) you know it’s not going to be good. And it’s not. 3d8 single-target damage is weak at this level, and being able to
know where the target is for the duration of the spell doesn’t do anything to change that.

Pyrotechnics – No change.

Shadow Blade​ [C] <1 bonus action> – Crawford promised gish spells the Eldritch Knight and Warlock would be delighted
to have, but I’d be insulted if I was them with their limited spell slots. As for you, though? It’s not the worst thing in the world.
You get a 2d8 psychic blade with the finesse, light, and thrown properties and you can cause it to reappear in your hand as
a bonus action. Meaning, it’ll do pretty okay ranged damage if you have some other sort of decent thrown weapon to use
between turns. It scales with upcasting, so using a 5th-level spell slot with 18 DEX you can end up with 53 DPR (5d8=22.5
+4=26.5 x 2 [extra attack] = 53)

Skywrite (seriously, why?) – No change.

Snilioc’s Snowball Swarm – No change.

Wardin​g Wind​ (Verbal Only) [C - 10 minutes] – You get a 10-foot radius sphere around you that: deafens everyone in it,
extinguishes unprotected flames, hedges out wind-dispersed vapor/gas/fog, makes it difficult terrain for everyone other than
you, and gives ranged disadvantage against attack rolls. You’ll likely enjoy at least one of those effects while casting it. ​If
two or more effects frequently apply, this spell is a solid choice​.

3rd-level Spells
Catnap​ (No Verbal Component) – Give the benefits of a short rest to up to three willing creatures (additional creature/slot
upcast) if they stay unconscious for the full ten minutes of the spell. Very risky to use in most situations where the difference
between a 1-hour and 10-minute rest is meaningful. More importantly, being unconscious arguably makes certain short rest
activities you’d like to turbocharge (like a monk’s meditation) unavailable. Worst of all, it’s a once per long rest spell. Yet
another victim of 5E D&D’s mentality of coming up with a useful effect but ruining it through overbalancing.

Enemies ​Abound​ {Int} [C] – Reach into the mind of a creature not immune to being frightened and force it to regard all
combatants as enemies unless it makes an intelligence saving throw from being damaged. Therefore, if it ever uses an
effect that’s not on itself, it chooses another creature at random. And this effect applies to any offensive option the target
chooses; spells, attacks, whatever. Yes, I would love for the archmage to waste its spells blasting some random Thayan
warrior or apprentice or even targeting my familiar.

Rating goes down if two effects commonly apply to you.​ The first is if you have one of those cheating metagaming DMs
who will A) ​have enemies smack the original target with nuisance damage for additional saves​ if they realize what’s
going on and B) the target of Enemies Abound ​will completely ignore the spellcasting chapter​ (or further metagame it
by turning the victim into a crazed, paranoid looney to clue their comrades in) ​saying that targets typically don’t realize
they’re victims of spells​. That said, once someone drops a fireball or a breath weapon onto their minions, it’s not exactly
unexpected for them to turn on their boss. Only expect a screwjob if the minions immediately go back to supporting their
boss once the spell is broken.

The second is if you commonly fight in tactical setups with just one supermonster.​ Nonetheless, random targeting is
still good. I’d much rather have that Archdruid keep trying to zap the Bear Totem barbarian with Moonbeam than the Lore
Bard.

Erupting Earth – No change, except for fixing a bizarre typo in the EEPC about allowing a 1d12/slot upcast from 3rd level or
higher. When this spell starts out at 3rd level.

Flame Arrows – No change.

Life Transference​ – You take 4d8 necrotic damage and a creature in range regains a number of hit points equal to twice
the necrotic damage you take. Amusingly, you can use it on yourself, but either way it’s not exactly the most efficient
healing in the world for a 3rd-level spell slot with a 1d8/tier upcast.

Melf’s Minute Meteors – No change.

Summon Lesser Demons​ (vial of blood from a humanoid killed in the past 24 hours, consumable only if you want the
magic circle) [C - 1 hour] – This spell is specifically set up as a ‘ha ha, screw you PCs, you can’t do this back to us’ spell.
Which makes sense. The DM not only specifically gets to select the demons that come out (and it’s a random roll of a 33%
chance of two demons of CR 1 or lower, 33% chance of four demons of CR 1/2 or lower, and a 33% chance of eight
demons of CR 1/4 or lower), but the demons are completely uncontrolled… unless as part of a (consumable if you use it in
this way) material component you draw a circle around your spell.

Before you shake your fist at the game designers for finding yet another way to give NPC-only powers, you have two
loopholes. The first is that the demons always attack the nearest nondemons to the best of their ability. So it’s quite usable
onto the enemy’s backline. The second one is that unlike similar spells, you can just cease concentration on the spell and
the demons will be gone.

Also, note that technically you don’t have to provide the blood for the spell component if you don’t want the circle of
protection. Which you, the PC Bladesinger, probably don’t care about since you have buddies. And there’s nothing stopping
you from disturbing the circle or moving the summoner in the circle anyway, maybe perhaps from the class feature of ‘the
barbarian gets up in their face’. I love it when PC-screwing effects end up screwing over the DM even more.

Still, for all that complicated nonsense, is it really better than Summon Minor Elementals? Chained to the explicit clause that
the DM gets to select the creatures that comes out, generally no.

Thunde​r Step​ (Verbal Only) – Misty Step got an Angry-90s Mascot Reboot. I can dig it. As an action, teleport up to 90 feet.
Every creature within 10 feet of the space you depart takes 3d10 thunder damage, half on a save and hearable up to 300
feet away.
The real fun of the spell comes from allowing you to bring up a creature of up to your size or smaller with you. You get tired
of that Light Cleric taking forever to get into position for a Spirit Guardians? Need to get you and that 8 DEX Paladin out of a
Black tentacles? Try this spell out for size.

If you don’t fight with a lot of people who would appreciate being in melee, this spell isn’t as good.

Tidal Wave – No change.

Tiny Servant​ <1 minute> – What kind of person watches the climatic castle-storming of Beauty and the Beast and decides
that they want some of that action in their murderhobo game? Anywho, you get 8 hours of a tiny Clockwork servant that has
a +5/1d4+3 attack and you command single or multiples as a bonus action. They’re made out of 10 hp tissue paper, sadly,
but you get two more of them per upscaled spell slot. The real saving grace is how they don’t require concentration. So if
your DM isn’t twitchy with the fireballs and also liked Cogsworth and Lumiere, you get a solid amount of extra hands-off
damage or at least distracting enemy attacks.

Leaves something to be desired as actual servants or scouts, since they need to stay within 120 feet of you to be
commanded. They also don’t understand languages nor can be hooked up to Rary’s Telepathic Bond.

Wall of Sand – No change.

Wall of Water – No change.

4th-Level Spells
Charm Monster​ {Wis} – Despite being in an uncomfortably higher spell slot than Charm Person, this spell is significantly
more useful if you use it correctly. One of the biggest problems of Charm Person is that the humanoid likely has their own
allegiances and personality and even if they’re in love with you convincing them to do certain things might be beyond the
pale. This spell, however, works on the more braindead monsters. An Iron Golem or a Hydra probably has little qualm
trotting along with you in the dungeon. Hour-long duration means being careful of how you push it around, though. It’s not
concentration, either, which makes it that much better.

Elemental Bane – No change.

Sickening ​Radiance​ {Con} [C - 10 Minutes] – Interesting. The first save-or-die spell that might actually kill someone by
means other than hit point damage. Exhaustion is no joke, especially if you can nail someone with three or more levels of it.
Nonetheless, despite the 30-foot radius this spell is still fixed and it does rely on the opponent failing multiple constitution
saves. ​4d10 radiant damage is still respectable multi-round damage, so this spell isn’t half bad if used alongside
something that will arrest their movement​.

Storm Sphere – No change.

Summon Greater Demon​ (a vial of blood from a humanoid killed in the past 24 hours) [C - 1 hour] – Jeremy Crawford did
say that he was interested in having fiend-summoning spells that were just as much a risk to the caster as their foes, and
this one is more in that wheelhouse. Too bad he forgot to actually make this spell any good. Summoning a CR5 demon (not
fiend) from a 4th-level spell slot to do your bidding is no joke. But it gets a Charisma save every round before it goes
uncontrolled and starts attacking non-demons, making even the demon unlikely to last past combat. Even if you do take out
the caster early, it sticks around for another 1d6 rounds. Start preparing banishment and/or dispel magic, people.

Once again, if your DM thinks they’re being ‘clever’ by using this blatantly metagaming spell, scratch out the magic circle
protecting the caster who oh-so-conveniently scored themselves a bottle of humanoid blood. Don’t worry, they’ll always
have one. Like I said, it’s a metagaming spell designed to abuse the narrative asymmetry between PCs and NPCs.

Vitriolic Sphere – No change.

Watery Sphere – No change.

5th-Level Spells
Control Winds – No change.

Danse Macabre​ [C] – Have up to five hour-long duration, +spellcasting ability to attack and damage zombies or skeletons
provided you have available humanoid corpses. The wording of the spell lets you recycle corpses from the casting if you
feel like. It’s unclear what they do for equipment, but it’d be weird if five peasants got decked out in shortbows and
scimitars.

Not only do Necromancers now have an OMG awesome spell (yes, I would like 5 greatsword-wielding skeletons with 2d6+8
damage attacks, kthnxbye) but they do enough damage they probably even you would be tempted to use this spell.

Dawn​ {Con} [C] – It’s sort of like a fixed-level Moonbeam, only you get to move it as a bonus action. Which would be great,
except for the fact that it only does damage when someone ENDS their turn in the cylinder. That and its overly-wide 30 foot
radius make would could’ve been a good spell thoroughly mediocre.

Enervation​ {Dex} [C] – It’s unusable garbage for the same reason Vampiric Touch out of the box is, and its higher level
spell slot and action babysitting doesn’t even make it good for the niche use of sacrificing NPCs for health. I never want to
see any guide rate Vampiric Touch any better than ‘significantly below average’ ever again, because this is how we get
awful spells like these.

Far Step​ ​(Verbal Only) [C] – Is being able to use a minute’s worth of Misty Steps at double range worth it? Maybe if it either
dropped the concentration requirement or was a lower-level spell slot, but as-is? Nah.

Immolation​ ​{Dex} [C] – Xanathar’s upped the initial and repeat damage of this spell by 1d6 (so, 8d6 initial / 4d6 on a save),
completely failing to see what the problem of the original was. See, flaming Sphere upcast to fifth level, does more damage
after five rounds (20d6) but more importantly you get to spread the love around, have a chance for affecting multiple
targets, AND it doesn’t go away if you miss. And Flaming Sphere is not even a very good spell to upcast.
Between the demon summoning spells, this spell, and a later one this puzzling and useless buff are proving to be a bit of a
theme with the ‘enhanced’ Xanathar’s spells. I’d rather have my unnerfed Snare than the game designers retooling bad
spells to still be bad.

Infernal​ ​Calling​ (999 gp; cute) {Wisdom (Insight)} <1 minute> [C] – After the major disappointments of the Summon
Minor/Greater Demon spell, I was expecting this one to be a turkey, too, but it’s actually pretty good so long as you take the
proper precautions! You only get devils, explicitly, but it starts out at CR 6 and you upcast at 1-for-1.

First things first. The ratings for this spell assume that you take the proper precautions and have some insurance in the form
of supportive party members and some ability check manipulating feats. You’re a 9th level wizard, so you should at this
point. If you’re not able to take those precautions, don’t cast this spell.

At any rate, when the devil appears you roll initiative for it and it starts out unfriendly. Meaning that it’s a very good idea to
have a trap prepared for it, including an inverted Magic Circle. Every time you give it a command, you can on your turn (not
as an action) roll Deception/Intimidation/Persuasion against its Insight. If you fail, it becomes immune to your verbal
commands and does as it pleases. If you lose your concentration early, it does as it for 3d6 minutes. The book suggests
that it’ll only try tempting you into sinning, but you should expect a backstab. However, the commands can also be very
general, such as “attack my enemies”. I’d personally go with “help us to the best of your ability on this adventure”. If you’re
going to go with something that won’t take up the entire duration, be aware that you will need to keep giving it busywork
(and making checks) until the spell ends.

Now, most Bladesingers can’t really expect a charisma above 12. So even if they have proficiency, this would be a difficult
check. But there are ways to juice your check and to ruin that of the summoned devil’s. Stuff like Friends, a buddy’s Hex,
soforth.

Finally, if you have an individual devil’s talisman, you can summon that devil and force it to follow all of your
commands without a check. You even get a free CR. If this applies to you, this spell is liquid awesome. ​What
possessing an individual devil’s talisman means is unclear, especially if you can replicate it on the fly and getting one. But if
I were you, every time I see a summoned devil from now on I would start ripping through spellcaster possessions for
talismans.

Negative En​ergy Flood ​(No Somatic Component)​ {Con} – Single-target 5d12 necrotic damage, Con save for half? What
cute, useless damage. Fireball does that upcasted just a spell slot more. Oh! But targets killed by this spell rise as zombies!
… that you can’t control. What a waste.

Undead also get (5d12/2) temporary hit points. It’s instantaneous and doesn’t appear to wear off. ​So it has some use as a
downtime spell to juice your minions.

Skill Empowerment​ [C - 1 hour] – Oh, hey, double proficiency on a single skill they’re trained in. How fun. Of course,
Enhance Ability, a 2nd level spell you don’t get as a wizard, gives advantage on any ability, not just a single skill. Then
again, advantage is much easier to come by than double proficiency. If you know you’ll need this skill, it’s there.
Steel Wind Strike ​{Melee Spell Attack} (1sp melee weapon) (No verbal component) – Choose five creatures within 30 feet.
Make a melee spell attack. On a hit, they take 6d10 damage. Also, you can then teleport to an unoccupied space you can
see within 5 feet of one of the targets you missed. You might have noticed that it’s a bit difficult to do decent damage on the
round you teleport, especially if you want to use your bonus action to, say, start a Bladesong. This situation happens
surprisingly often (such as trying to get free of a Web or a grapple) and you will frequently find situations where this spell
has you covered.

Synaptic Strike​ {Intelligence} – Xanathar’s has been really upping the number of spells with INT saves, huh? 20 foot
radius, 8d6 psychic damage to creatures with an intelligence of 3 or higher, save half. However, if they fail the saving throw,
until a minute passes or they make an EOTS, they subtract d6 from all attack rolls, ability checks, and concentration saving
throws. It’s a decent trade-off from the damage of, say, upcasted fireball and it’s also likely you’ll get multiple rounds of
ability score pummeling.

Transmute Rock​ – They changed the duration from instantaneously to until dispelled! This means that my dream of
creating castles with Dispel Magic and this spell lives again! Hooray! Oh, and it’s still not concentration, which rocks. My
description is long, so read the original spell rating for the ins and outs. But trust me, it’s good!

The Transmute Rock to Mud function did not get changed. The Transmute Mud to Rock function had a slight nerf in that an
adjacent creature can now use a DC 20 Strength check to break someone free (instead of the original creature). However,
the rock also got an AC of 15 and is now immune to psychic and poison damage. Have fun hitting that with disadvantage
from restrained.

Wall of Light​ {Con; Ranged Spell Attack} [C - 10 minutes] – You get a 60 foot long, 10 foot high, 5 foot wall. It only blocks
line of sight. When the wall appears, creatures in its area take 4d8 radiant damage, Con halves. If they fail the save, they’re
blinded for one minute or an EOTS. Afterwards, end your turn next to the wall? Take 4d8 radiant damage. You can also as
an action destroy 10 feet of the wall (so, six times total) to launch a ranged spell attack at a creature in 60 feet of it to do,
you guessed it, 4d8 damage.

Now, all that sounds good, except for the fact that the blindness is a one time thing. Ending your turn adjacent to the wall or
being hit by consuming the wall does not re-apply blindness. Making what could’ve been another fine wall spell decidedly
average.

These Water, Sand, and Light newcomers to the wall party are really letting down the original cool kids of the Fire, Stone,
Force, and even Ice club down in my opinion.

6th-Level Spells
Create​ ​Homunculus ​(1000 gp; consumes clay, ash, and mandrake root) <1 hour> – Homunculus are weak creatures with
no real special abilities. You probably wouldn’t pick one over an owl familiar. This is already making this spell quite rotten
compared to Find Familiar, a 1st-level spell. You can make it more durable every long rest by reducing your hit point
maximum for the day, but since it’s still the same pathetic CR 0 creature it’s questionable why you would want to do that
unless you’re using your homunculus as a mobile platform for magical items. You can use both spells at once if you want,
though, and you don’t have to keep recasting the spell every day.
One saving grace of this spell: You sense (to include sight) what the homunculus does and vice-versa, no action
required.​ So you can follow the boring Jeremy Crawford suggestion of having it watch your lair. Or you can do things like
Investiture of Stone-attacking someone underneath them, have a spotter while you hide in your Bubble of Stealth, soforth.

Investiture of Flame – No change.

Investiture of Ice – No change.

Investiture of Stone​ {Dexterity} [C - 10 minutes] – Xanathar’s removed the ‘from non-magical weapons’ clause. Now it’s
just ‘from non-magical attacks’. Doesn’t really change the rating, but it’s still a very nice little bump if your DM ruled that
dragon claws don’t count as weapons and you’re taking full damage, n00b.

Investiture of Wind – No change.

Mental​ Prison ​{Int} (Somatic Only) [C] – Restraining a non-charm immune creature on a failed Intelligence save with no
EOTS is already getting me to break out the sky blue markers. Making the world around it completely obscured is even
better. Throwing in an additional 5d10 damage, succeed or failed, is some delicious gravy.

However. And this is a big However. If your DM insists on being a metagaming little recreant and intentionally subverts the
spell by making a melee attack at it/reaching through it or having someone move the victim free, ​this spell gets
appreciably worse​. 10d10 damage is some good weregild, but sheesh. I hate it when D&D writes up effects that
encourages them to do that.

Scatter​ {Wisdom} (Verbal Only) – Teleport up to five creatures within 30 feet 120 squares onto a visible space on the
ground/floor? Eh. Teleport unwilling people, too, if they fail a wisdom save? Better. Teleport willing and unwilling people
within the same casting? Now we’re talking.

Soul ​Cage​ (Silver Cage worth 100 gp) <1 reaction> – A humanoid dies within 60 feet, you get 8 concentration-free hours of
four effects to pick from, 6 uses total. You can use a bonus action to get 2d8 hit points. You can ask the soul whatever you
want and it has to answer truthfully. You can use an action to name a place the humanoid saw in life (such as the king’s
bedchambers) and as long as you concentrate on the spell you get to play a sensor there, as with scrying. Finally, you can
use a bonus action to give yourself advantage on your next Common d20 Roll until your next turn.

If you have a way of killing humanoids on the regular to fuel this spell​, this spell gets even better.

It’s a really good thing for PCs this spell insists that you don’t actually destroy the soul you entrap. It’d be starting some
intra-PC fights, otherwise.

Tenser’s Transformation​ [C - 10 Minutes] – Sigh. All right. As much as I’ve repeatedly stressed throughout this
Bladesinger guide away from focusing on melee combat once you’ve reached a certain level… TT makes a strong
argument for you to completely ignore my prior advice.
For the next 10 minutes:
● You can’t cast spells. Definitely the biggest drawback to this spell. You, the Bladesinger, have Song of Defense to
fall back on, but you will not realize how much you need and miss your old friends of Shield, Absorb Elements, and
Misty Step until they’re gone.
● You get 50 temporary hit points as long as the spell lasts.
● You have Advantage on attack rolls made with weapons.
● When you hit a target with a weapon attack, they take an extra 2d12 Force damage.
● Proficiency with all armor, shields, and simple weapons.
● Proficiency with Strength and Constitution saving throws.
● Attack twice, instead of once, when you take the Attack action and you don’t already have a feature like Extra
Attack. Of course, Bladesingers already have Extra Attack.

So yeah. You will be dishing out the melee MEGA damage in multiple fights, especially if you use TWF. The 50 temporary
hit points will eliminate most of the consequences for doing so, despite you not having your usual defensive spells to fall
back on. TT is a very efficient spell for stretching out your spell slots.

By the way, once the spell ends: DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer a level of exhaustion. An argument for Resilient:
CON or (BIG SIGH) splashing in a first-level multiclass. C’mon, game.

7th-Level Spells
Crown o​f Stars​ {Ranged Spell Attack} – Enjoy your seven 4d12 radiant damage attacks, each one usable as a bonus
action and you can upcast for an additional two per level. Is 26 average damage for a bonus attack really worth it? Eh, kind
of? 7th-level Bigby’s gives you a cool 8d8/36 average damage and a bunch of other effects. But that spell only lasts for a
minute and eats up your concentration slot. You’re very unlikely to waste this spell or have it clog your other actions. That
said, ​not requiring concentration and only lasting for an hour ​makes it a good spell for one or two-encounter workdays
where you’re trying to figure out how to stuff all of your spells into a short period of time.

Power Wo​rd Pain ​{Constitution} (Verbal Only) – This is not as bad as the other Power Word spells. The first round at least,
they are automatically inflicted with disadvantage on nearly everything you can get disadvantage on (except for Constitution
saving throws to maintain intelligence). After that, it’s a CON EOTS, which they will still have disadvantage on.

The big thing holding this spell back is the 100 hp threshold. And it’s big. Generally, you can just save the 7th level spell slot
and use some other damaging effect. ​It’s more usable in conjunction with other spells you’d like someone to really
force an ability check/saving throw fail on​ such as Planar Binding and the Iron Flask.

Whirlwind – Surprisingly, completely unchanged. Down to only being able to escape with a check. Nice.

8th-Level Spells
Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting​ {Constitution} – In an attempt not to look like a lazy slacker, Abi-Dalzim snuck into the
Magocracy Grand Archives and hotswapped a copy of his old 10d8 spell for a 12d8. Does an additional 9 average damage
redeem the spell? Not at all. Abi-Dalzim completely misunderstood what made his spell so bad and should probably have
his wizard robes taken away before he further shames his high-level wizard kind.

Illusory Dragon​ {Wisdom and then Intelligence} (Somatic Only) [C] – 7d6 bonus action variable energy damage for an
intelligence save and in a 60-foot cone is like being able to cast fireball every round. That would barely get it a blue rating
on its own, but getting a side order on the first round of WIS save or frightened until you’re out of sight and do an EOTS
makes it much better. Repeatable bonus-action INT save makes it good for draining Legendary Saves against more
trigger-happy monsters.

Maddenin​g Darkness​ {Wisdom} [C - 10 minutes] – Ever play Golden Sun: Dark Dawn? You might wonder what a sphere
of darkness that does damage have over an effect like Incendiary Cloud, which also gives heavy obscuring. Well, it’s much,
much bigger at a 60 foot radius sphere. I’d arguably say unusably bigger. It’s huge area, long duration, and going around
corners ​does make it decent at wiping out fortresses​. It’ll completely cover a single Mighty Fortress, for instance.

Mighty Fortress​ (500 gp, consumed) <1 minute> – Castle-building spells have always been near and dear to my heart,
especially ones that can be made permanent. Not being able to cast it on top of pre-existing structures limits options for
urban removal unless you’re blatantly evil and take the, ahem, SimCity option. That said, despite being generous with the
floor plan, it’s still mostly a worldbuilding spell rather than something useful for an adventurer.

9th-Level Spells
Invulnerability​ (500 gp, consumed) [C - 10 minutes] – This has to be the simplest spell in the game. Literally, the entire
description is “You are immune to all damage until the spell ends”. You’d think that’d be good for a Selfish Gish, but… it’s a
9th-level spell, eats up your concentration, and it just makes you immune to damage. Slightly annoying for PCs since it
means stocking up on more Dispel magics, but monsters aren’t exactly quaking in their boots about a singularly immune
PC. It just means they kill everyone else and you plink them to death. Uh… hooray?

Mass Polymorph​ ​{Wis} [C - 1 hour] – It’s like regular old polymorph, but it’s Mass! The big deal of Mass Polymorph is that it
lets you polymorph both willing and unwilling people in the same cast and lets you pick different forms for each target, so it’s
very efficient on the spell slots. It’s both good as a ‘pull your party’s fat out of the fryer’ AND a ‘single-save mass disable’.

Psychic Scream​ ​{Int} – This spell is a belated, though no-less dramatic highlight of how powerful 5E D&D spells can get
when you change one or two parameters. Ten creatures of INT 3 or higher are affected with this spell. They make an
Intelligence saving throw or they take 14d6 psychic damage (half on save) and are stunned, EOTS.

A bunch of things save this spell: the huge discriminating range, being somatic-only, not requiring concentration, and most
critically targeting Intelligence. Intelligence is the weakest save of non-caster monsters even into the endgame, and you can
expect to get 2-4 rounds of mass stunning.
Multiclassing
Coming soon! But ​remember​ my advice on multiclassing in the meantime: ​Do Not​.
Mystara Campaign Setting
For a free, homemade project this is a really good guide and I’m compelled to show it off.
3rd-Party Races
Coming eventually!
3rd-Party Feats
Coming eventually!
3rd-Party Spells
Also coming eventually!
Talents
Hoo-boy. They put a lot of work into this thing. To save space, I will only go over talents that are at least rated black for the
bladesinger. If your whistle is wetted from my description, you might want to head on over for the DMs Guild.
Appendix A – Glyph of Warding Choices
Foresight – This spell is normally completely unusable with Glyph of Warding. You have to cast this 9th-level spell at the
exact same time you use Glyph of Warding, and you never get 9th level spell slots. But if you ARE able to finagle an extra
9th level spell slot (Tome of the Stilled Tongue or a Spell Gem) you are in business, baby! It’s unclear if you can hook up
multiple people with Foresight Glyph of Warding, but probably not.

Freedom of Movement –

Death Ward (from Wish) –

Mind Blank –

Pass Without Trace –

Planar Binding –

Polymorph –

Seeming – Seeming already lasts a very long time and doesn’t require concentration. If you’re using Glyph of Warding for
this purpose, you’re generally just paying 200 gp for an extra 5th-level spell slot.

Simulacrum – Do you loathe how when you create a Simulacrum, they’re down at least a 7th-level spell slot if you target
yourself? Using this spell with Glyph of Warding fixes that problem. Remember: “The simulacrum is friendly to you and
creatures you designate.” So even though the Glyph of Warding is casting the spell, as part of the Spell Glyph you can
designate it to be friendly to yourself. That said, while you don’t get to issue commands to your Simulacrum, but a copy of
yourself probably wants to do most of the same things you do so long as they’re not suicidal. Avoid if your DM is going to be
contrary with you on this.

Stoneskin – Stoneskin is generally not the best pick for your concentration slot. However, it’s much (much!) better in
someone else’s concentration slot. This will generally be better on other people than on you, but if you insist on using
Tenser’s Transformation this will remove much of the drawback of that spell.

Skill Empowerment

True Polymorph –
True Seeing –
Appendix B – Contingency Choices
Contingency is an amazing spell... if you use it correctly. You have loads of great options and the best thing is that it lasts
for quite a few days, making it easy on the spell slots. As a Bladesinger, you're incentivized to use the spell in ways that
don't occur to most wizards, such as for Haste or Blink. The biggest thing that should be on your mind should be whether
you're using Contingency for offense or using it for defense. Generally, using it for defense is stronger but speed is
everything to a wizard gish. So if the idea of being immune to at least one attack doesn't float your boat, you can still use it
to get a jump on the damage race.

Note that you can also use Contingency to fast-cast buffs in the middle of an extended workday. This generally isn't the
best use for the spell (except for Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, see below) but when you're at very high level and you have 4 to
6 6th+ level spell slots to play with it's worth considering. Just another thing to consider if you're, say, thinking of taking two
levels of Fighter for Action Surge.

Bigby's Hand​ – ​Like telekinesis, it can be used to fast-casting an offensive spell. Use the initial hand to, again, push you
out of the way of an oncoming attack. Once you do so, you can use the hand on different rounds to do something else. It's
safer than telekinesis since it won't restrain you if it works. Another way it's better than Telekinesis: it will only require a
bonus action to control on subsequent rounds. Unless you really see yourself wanting to use telekinesis for something
(granted, Telekinesis is a VERY good spell), this is a better choice.

Blink​ – See the notes on Mirror Image. Note that while Blink provides a perfect defense (unlike Mirror Image) it's not
reactive. But it's not concentration-duration, so that's nice.

Blur​ – ​There's pretty much no reason to use this spell over Greater Invisibility. A situation that won't work for Greater Invis
won't work for Blur. Maybe if you're using Contingency to fast-buff in the middle of a work day and want to conserve
4th-level spell slots.

Dimension​ ​Door​ – ​Very versatile. The obvious use is to dodge out of the way of an enemy's attack, but it can also be used
in a pinch for extra movement if things go south such as a surprise near-TPK or being trapped in rubble or an enemy putting
up a Wall of Force. Note that a strict wording of the spell makes it so that even though Contingency doesn't normally target
additional people, the effect of taking someone along with you happens after the spell goes off. If your DM agrees to that
interpretation, you can use Dimension Door to cover someone else's butt, too. Like, say, dodging dragon's breath. Sky blue
if your DM will let you use the spell to dodge being affected with targeted effects and/or save another party member's
bacon.

Dispel Magic​ – ​If you're fighting a lot of spellcasters who do evil things like trapping you in stone and dropping Contagions
on you, you can use it as a backup when Counterspell doesn't get you the goods.

Fire Shield​ – Not the best choice in the world, as you shouldn't be getting hit that often in the first place, but it is
concentration-free. Use it for concentration-free defense when you know you're going to fight dragons (freeing up your
reaction for Shield and Song of Defense), though the duration on the base spell is long enough that you probably don't need
to do this.

Fly​ – Fly is a good multi-purpose spell, but at this level if you want to spend a concentration slot on Fly you and the rest of
your party would be better off if you spread the love around.

Gaseous Form​ – ​While it comes with a load of defensive benefits (advantage on three saves, gets you out of bindings,
some small flight, resistance to nonmagical damage) the two big problems with this spell are its concentration duration and
its inability to let you attack. The thing that saves this spell from complete uselessness as far as contingency is concerned is
its concentration duration, meaning that you can drop concentration as soon as your turn comes.

Greater Invis​ – ​Great choice. Gives you loads of defense, especially if you stick to ranged attacks, and gives you
advantage to boot. Depending on how your DM interprets things, this could even prevent you from being targeted by certain
spells. The only thing is that it requires concentration, otherwise it'd be gold.

Has​te​ – ​Another great choice. Have it pop up when you're barely hit for a free miss, or even a Dex save if you're feeling
really lucky. It's also a prime target to use for fast-buffing. Sky Blue, maybe even gold, if you're a Bladesinger who likes to
use two-weapon fighting.

Melf's Minute Meteors​ – ​If you upcast this spell to level 5, you get 20d6 worth of meteors spread out over a minimum of 5
rounds, 4d6 a round. A very decent alternative to fighting with two weapons.

Mirror Image​ – ​While fairly low level, Mirror Image is considered a top choice because it doesn't require concentration AND
applies immediately. You'll never go wrong with using the spell like this, but it'll rarely be the best choice.

Otiluke's Resilient Sphere​ – ​This is THE perfect defense you want. And I do mean everything. It'll even block spells if you
set the contingency correctly. In addition to working on everything, if the situation is particularly bad you can hold it up for
several rounds while you do something like cast non-concentration buffs. The only problem is that it will break any
previously held concentration, but that's a small price to pay for this kind of defense. Unless you're using Contingency for
offense with True Seeing, Bigby's Hand, Melf's Minute Meteors, Haste, or Greater Invis this should be your default pick.

Polymorph​ – Surprisingly, this isn't a very good pick. Your concentration bonus will tank when using this spell, so unlike
Otiluke's Resilient Sphere it m ay only be good for one attack despite the huge number of extra hit
points. It's better than that spell for its duration and for getting you out of trouble that Resilient Sphere couldn't (such as
being teleported into the middle of the ocean) so if you want defense as opposed to a mixture of defense/offense/all-around
utility pick that one instead.

Stoneskin​ – ​For a concentration spell, it's not the best choice in the world. You're mainly using it for its ability to persist
through several combats. It's better if you're fighting against a lot of high-accuracy/high-damage monsters like giants or
dragons.

Telekinesis​ – A legal, but rogue choice. The idea is that you target yourself with telekinesis and then in subsequent rounds
use it on someone else. This works out to an extra fifth level spell slot. If you're creative, you can use it defensively like
Misty Step or Dimension Door to throw yourself out of the way of an attack (with a very good chance of it working, due to
your low strength). Do note that targeting yourself on the first round will restrain yourself for at least one round if you win the
check. Generally best to stick to Bigby's Hand, unless you really like this spell.
Appendix C – Wish Choices
So, back to Spell Poaching. This is less of a concern for wizards than it is for classes like the Bard and Sorcerer, since they
already get most of the best spells, but versatility is everything.

Animal Shapes​ – ​So you have a wight commander with 10+ zombies under their command. How would you like to have a
wight commander plus 10 giant crocodiles instead? Can also be used to completely pwn an enemy army in war scenes by
replacing all of the soldiers with elephants.

Find Steed​ – ​Normally, you wouldn't bother with this spell. However, note the clause "Any spell that only targets only you
also target your steed". You know what that means to me? That means another token out on the field casting Eyebite and
maybe even Sunbeam. Or another Contingency if you're into that. Slap some False Life or (better) some Aid action to make
it more durable.

Find Greater Steed​ (Xanathar’s)​ – ​You get a griffon, pegasus, peryton, dire wolf, rhinoceros, or a saber-toothed tiger
instead of the standard mount choices. You want this, but, haha good luck actually getting to use it in an Adventurer’s
League game, Bladesinger.

Glib​ness​ – ​Not the best use of the spell in the world, but it's there. You probably dumped Charisma and don't have
proficiency in a charisma skill, but a Cha-8 bladesinger with the relevant proficiency can expect at least a 21 result in a
check. Much (much, MUCH) better backed up with some True Polymorph action, of course.

Glyph of Warding​ – ​Is there a buff or summoning effect you’re absolutely dying to use in the next couple of minutes (or
even this combat) but you don’t want to donate a concentration slot? Well, here you go.

Hallow​ – ​See those long lists of effects you can hand out? Only problem is: if they pass the first saving throw, they don’t
have to make multiple saving throws. Generally, Symbol will be superior unless you’re REALLY afraid of being possessed,
frightened, or charmed by a bunch of creatures Protection from Evil would save you against.

Hero's​ ​Feast​ – ​Would normally be an underwhelming use of a 9th-level spell slot, but the fact that the benefits last for 24
hours means that you can rest, recover the spell slot, and still have about 15-16 hours left of the effect... ​if​ you budget the
proper time for it. All that and it's free, to boot.

Holy​ ​Aura​ – ​Using Wish to cast Holy Aura is probably not the best use of your spell slot. However, not all parties have
clerics in them and it’s very difficult to get party-wide disadvantage-on-demand and advantage-on-demand. Since
non-Arcana clerics generally don’t have good uses for their 8th and 9th-level spell slots, you’re better off having them use
Holy Word. Anyone else? Get ready to bring the pain.

Simulacrum​ – ​You already have this spell, but the best part about being able to use it out of a wish is that A.) it's instant B.)
it doesn't need snow or costly spell components, and C.) because it's instant, you can target what you're fighting, with no
restrictions on hit dice or challenge rating unlike True Polymorph. Using regular Simulacrum on an angry Mordenkainen is
very difficult. Using a Wish Simulacrum on the same Mordenkainen is not.

Symbol​ – ​The typical 1-minute casting time is a killer, but there's a reason why people will still use spells like Banishment
and Maze to set this bad boy up. Casting it as an action makes it the best crowd control option in the game.
Concentration-less, ally-safe, multiple-stat targeting save-or-sucks that lasts for however long you want AND forces a save
every round? Next to free simulacrums, this is definitely the best option for Wish.
Appendix D – Spell Mastery Choices
Don’t forget; if a particular spell mastery choice doesn’t float your boat, you can always change them with 8 hours.

1st-Level Spell Mastery Choices

Shield​ – ​Why are you considering anything else? The only reasons why you would is if A) your DM never does more than
one or two encounters per long rest or B) you are using your reaction almost every round for something else. Even then, it
would just be a 'very good' instead of a 'downright mandatory' choice. Don't even consider the other first-level options
unless that applies or you're one of those Robes of the Archmagi + Staff of Power + Tome of Clear Thought/Manual of
Quickness of Action + Bracers of Defense cheesemonkeys.

Absorb Elements​ – ​If for some reason you can't or you won't use Shield, you can use this instead. Not that it's a bad
choice, but unless you're fighting wizards and dragons for the rest of the campaign (plausible considering your level) you
won't use it enough to justify not just sticking it in a regular spell slot and upcasting as necessary.

Expeditious Retreat​ – ​Or you could use Misty Step instead. The only reason why you wouldn't is if you're using your
2nd-level slot for something else OR you plan to be moving a lot, don't need concentration, and still want to cast non-cantrip
spells.

Fog Cloud​ – ​You could do worse than having constant deployable cloud cover for your party to move through. Since it's
concentration you can drop concentration and put it up again so you don't constantly bump into walls. Or have someone
who can see through it lead the way.

Longstrider​ – ​Hey, everyone in the party constantly moves at +10 feet from now on, concentration-free.

Unseen ​Servant​ – ​This is generally going to be a mediocre choice... unless you have a lot of good items that require
actions to use. Such as applying poison to arrows or weapons.

Protection from Evil and Good​ – ​This is probably the only spell for Spell Mastery you'd consider using over Shield, but
only in the sense that you'd compare Spider-Man's strength to The Hulk. At this level, this spell will protect you from 80% of
the things you'd worry about with the unfortunate exception of dragons and monstrosities. But charm, fright, and possession
protection is very, VERY strong. The material component cost of 25 gp a pop will probably prevent you from just going
around all day with it up, but it does last decently long and can be cast on other people.

2nd-level Spell Mastery Choices

Alter Self​ – ​Be the person with constantly shifting faces and disguises? Always have a way to breathe underwater?
Probably not.
Blur​ – ​More and more things will have truesight and blindsight at this level. And it'll eat into your concentration slots. Mirror
Image will probably serve you better in the long run.

Detect Thoughts​ – ​If you're always in dungeon-crawling environments, you can use it to get some free intel. For the most
part, I'd pass.

Flaming​ Sphere​ – ​Not the worst choice in the world. You get some free damage on rounds you otherwise can't use your
bonus action. Best use for this spell is to always have a platform for Pyrotechnics.

Invisibility​ – ​An acceptable choice. Always good for stealth, but you can also use it to ensure you (generally) gain
first-round attack advantage. And always being able to hide will come in more handy than you'd think.

Levitate​ – ​Not a bad choice at all. Levitate is always a fine option for a long-term save-or-die and having constant
not-quite-flight so long as you're near a ceiling or wall is more useful than you'd think.

Locate​ ​Object​ – ​Depending on how your DM defines 'object' and the table's tolerance for playing Twenty Questions you
can use it to guess monster setups, treasure locations, soforth. It's a VERY wide range and being able to detect, say,
spellcasters by the existence of arcane focuses/material component pouches or dragon locations through leftover
eggshells. Again, it's a great choice if your DM will tolerate your filibusters, otherwise pass on it.

Mirror Image​ – ​Mirror Image is kind of dicey as a long-term defensive vanguard due to the increase in monster accuracy,
but it works GREAT when you can constantly re-apply it and have it up for situations where you can't Bladesing, such as
ambush situations.

Misty Step​ – ​Excellent choice and probably the default one. Always-on teleportation isn't just good for mobility, but it will
get you out of so many scrapes as a high-level character. That -1 to strength saves and checks will barely bother you
anymore. It's not as completely, utterly dominating like Shield is but you need a good argument to use something else.
Appendix E – Common Calculations
This section is for highlighting common calculations that the Bladesinger is likely to come across. Questions like the viability
of certain fighting styles, soforth.
Appendix F – Monster Save and Ability Analysis
Wondered where this guide gets all of its data, saying things like ‘Constitution is an increasingly poor save to target’? Here’s
where I’m getting these assumptions.
Appendix G - Fun Uses For Simulacrum

How to Get The Most From Your Simulacrum

This section is coming soon! Generally, make copies of yourself.

Getting Ice for Simulacrum

Getting the ice or snow might be difficult if your DM is being salty about you using this spell, but if you're expecting to use
this spell you should arrange for someone else to use Shape Water. You can also wait until level 15 to get Control Weather,
but screw that. You can also use Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion to create a floor plan that includes ice cellars. Ice
cellars have existed for hundreds of years well before the industrial age in the real world, so if your DM says that your
mansion can not have an ice cellar, you should suspect a snow job, pun intended. If your DM says that ice is available but
is for some reason claims that a Simulacrum made out of Mansion Ice doesn't count (something about dissipating into
smoke when it leaves the mansion), bring some outside water into the Mansion and order the servants to make ice cream,
only with plain water instead of milk and turning the crank until the inner chamber goes solid. Marco Polo knew how to make
ice cream so there's no reason you shouldn't, too.

If your DM is still being a super-jerk about both the ice cellar and furnishings, make some ice yourself with Wall of Water
and optionally Creation. If they're a super-duper jerk, you'll need Wall of Ice. First, get a few bags of salt. You're aiming for
about 13-16 gallons, so you'll need about 50 pounds of salt. Salt is a trade good in the PHB (not to mention any decent
Magnificent Mansion should have several bags of it), so if your DM asks where you're getting that feel salt free to throw
your dice in his face. Next, dig a trench. The trench will function as a drain for saltwater slurry or a collector for rock salt,
depending on how your DM rules water happens to salt added on a block of ice when the ice disappears. Enclose the work
area of 20 feet in diameter with an insulator; wood will work just fine.

Next, construct a hollow cylinder with an open top and closed bottom with the difference in diameter between the outer and
inner chambers about an inch or so, the diameter of the outside 18 feet, the height of both chambers being about half of a
foot, the outside being a thermal conductor like metal, and the inner chamber something light and easily removable. If your
DM is giving you grief about construction, load up on Creation with your two 5​th​ level spell slots to make a foldable wall. Put
some wax to plug the gap. Fill the outer chamber of the hollow cylinder to about an inch of water.

Now, cast Wall of Water for the cylinder version such that it surrounds the chamber. Freeze the water with your favorite
spells so that it turns into ice. Next, put some salt on the ice. If the DM rules that salt won't lower the freezing point, feel free
to destroy the ice with Fire Bolt or something. If your DM rules that destroyed ice from Wall of Water does not, in fact, melt,
you'll need to upgrade to Wall of Ice, which definitely sublimates. Anyway, melt the ice. Use another casting of Wall of Ice or
Wall of Water if need be, but the point is to use the melting of the outer chamber of ice to cause the inner chamber of the
ice to freeze. Once you're done, scoop out your precious ice (getting rid of creation makes it easy) and store it somewhere,
like in a chamber of sawdust.