In Dungeons & Dragons, there are times when you just want to do damage with your magic. Here are the 10 most dangerous spells, from Fireball to Meteor Swarm.
Fire orbs of fire at your enemies to set them on fire, call down lightning from the sky to burn their skin, or hit them with a blast of cold wind to freeze them to the bone. These are just a few ways to think about how to use spells in Dungeons & Dragons to do the most damage.
Classes that don’t use magic are good at fighting one-on-one, but classes that use magic well are the best at taking out a large number of enemies at once. You’ll have to roll a lot of damage dice when you use these spells.
Finger Of Death
Finger of Death is one of the most well-known spells that bad guys and people like them use. This is a seventh-level spell for raising the dead. Even though Finger of Death only hits one target, it does a huge amount of damage, most of which is not even rolled. Any monster within 60 feet must make a Constitution saving throw. If the save fails, 7d8+30 necrotic damage is done, or half as much if the save is successful.
Also, any person killed by this spell comes back as a zombie on your next turn and stays under your control. Finger of Death is one of the best ways for a dungeon master to make their players lose hope.
Animate Objects
With Animate Objects, you can make ten strikes in one turn. Animate Objects is a fifth-level spell that lets you bring up to ten nonmagical things within 120 feet to life. The spell’s description tells you the stats of the things you can make, but what’s important is that you can make ten attacks with a range of 30 feet using small items.
Each attack has a +8 chance to hit and does 1d4+4 damage by piercing, slashing, or pounding, based on what it hits. That’s a total of 10d4+40 damage that could be done by cutting. Animate Objects: Why shoot arrows at your enemies when you can use forks to poke holes in them?
Disintegrate
It’s horrible to see your friend’s life drain away as they’re attacked by bad energy. Even worse would be having to fight their risen, zombie body. But based on how badly they were hurt, it hurts more to see their body turn into dust. Disintegrate is a sixth-level spell that changes one thing into another. The spell’s target must make a Dexterity saving throw.
If they don’t make the save, they take 10d6+40 damage from force. If this damage brings the target down to 0 hit points, they and everything they own are destroyed right away. It is important to remember that this power does no damage to a creature that makes a successful save. You can also use Disintegrate to destroy magical items or creations on its own.
Fireball
Fireball is a very powerful third-level evocation magic that was taken out of the game on purpose by the people who made it. It has a range of 150 feet and all animals within a 20-foot sphere must make a Dexterity saving throw.
If the save isn’t made, the target takes 8d6 fire damage. If the save is made, the damage is cut in half.Fireball is a magic that almost everyone who has played the game knows, which makes it more powerful in the minds of your fellow players.
Lightning Bolt
Even though Lightning Bolt is very similar to Fireball, its damage type and the fact that it is not as well known make it sometimes better. It’s a third-level conjuring spell that needs a Dexterity saving throw from every creature in a 100-foot-long, 5-foot-wide line that shoots out from you.
If the target fails the save, they take 8d6 lightning damage, or half as much if they succeed. Most monsters in the monster handbook are immune to fire damage, so it can be helpful to have a backup plan. In the same way, both players and DMs are careful not to stand together to avoid getting hit by a fireball. But it doesn’t happen nearly as often that they move to avoid getting hit by lightning.
Cloudkill
Fire and lightning might not be your strong points. You’d rather choke your enemies to death with a deadly haze. Which is kind of scary, but hey, it’s Dungeons & Dragons. Cloudkill is a fifth-level summoning spell that has a range of 120 feet. It makes a sphere of deadly green-yellow fog that is 20 feet in diameter and lasts for up to ten minutes, or as long as you can stay focused.
Any creature that goes into the fog for the first time or starts its turn in it must make a Constitution saving throw. If it fails, it takes 5d8 poison damage, but if it succeeds, it only takes half as much. At the start of each of your turns, the fog moves ten feet away from you. Cloudkill is one of your best choices if you can stop an enemy from moving or have them trapped in a small area.
Vitriolic Sphere
A favourite of those who like nature. The range of the fourth-level invocation spell Vitriolic Sphere is 150 feet. It has you throw a ball of emerald acid that bursts in a 20-foot area. Every living thing inside has to make a Dexterity saving throw. If the spell fails, the targets take 10d4 acid damage now and another 5d4 acid damage at the end of their next turn.
If they succeed, they only take half of the original damage and none of the damage that comes after. It’s a very interesting choice because the way it works is like the Wicked Witch of the West melting your enemies.
Synaptic Static
Synaptic Static is the same as a mental flame. It was added to the game in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. It forces a 20-foot-diameter sphere of psychic energy to explode, forcing creatures inside to make an Intelligence saving throw. Anyone who fails this save takes 8d6 mental damage. If they succeed, they only take half as much. Also, if a target fails the saving throw, they must roll a d6 and take the result away from all attack rolls, ability checks, and Constitution saving throws they make for the next minute to keep their focus.
Even though this fifth-level magic spell only hurts as much as a fireball, it still hurts a lot. Also, psychic damage is one of the most accurate types of damage in the game, so you won’t have to worry about creatures being resistant and only taking half the damage. There’s also the fact that targets have to make an Intelligence saving throw, which most animals and players aren’t very good at. Lastly, the d6 debuff this spell leaves on foes who fail the saving throw is a great way to make an enemy less effective overall. After all, Bless is one of the best spells in the game, and the effect this magic has on enemies isn’t that different from Bless.
Cone Of Cold
The monsters within a 60-foot cone of this fifth-level evocation spell must make a Constitution saving throw. If they don’t make the save, they take 8d8 cold damage. If they do, the damage is cut in half. Any creature killed by the damage is turned into a frozen figure, which is good for roleplaying.
If you turn a group of wild enemies into your own winter wonderland, interesting things might happen, like the barbarian in your party getting his tongue stuck to a frozen minotaur. If an enemy is made into a popsicle, it is up to the DM to decide if that is enough to kill them outright.
Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting
Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting is another power that is a lot like Fireball. This eighth-level necromancy spell can really stop the pain. It comes from the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion, which is often forgotten. Each monster in a 30-foot cube centred on a point you choose must make a Constitution saving throw. Creatures take 12d8 necrotic damage if the spell fails, or half as much if it works.
This is a lot of damage, and the spell also has a lot of flavour. But most high-level animals will be good at Constitution saving throws. On top of that, this spell has no effect on constructs or zombies, making it risky if you don’t know what kind of enemies you’re up against. Even so, this spell has its good points. For example, both plants and water elementals have to make their saving throws at a disadvantage, and the horrid wilting spell instantly kills all nonmagical plants in the area where it is cast. Oh, my kale!
Delayed Blast Fireball
Here’s a fun twist on a standard spell that gives players who like to think strategically more ways to cast spells. It’s an evocation spell of the seventh level that puts a bright bead anywhere within 150 feet. The base damage of the spell is 12d6, but as long as you keep focusing on it, the damage goes up by 1d6 at the end of each of your turns. With its one-minute length, that adds up to a possible total of 22d6.
When you let go of focus, everyone in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw. If they fail, they take all the damage that has been added up, but if they succeed, they only take half of the damage. The important thing to remember is that a player can give up focus at any time, even in the middle of someone else’s turn. With this spell, you can make hundreds of different combos, so get to work!
Crown Of Stars
This seventh-level conjuration spell is another present from Xanathar’s Guide To Everything. Crown of stars is almost the same as Melf’s Minute Meteors, but it’s better. When you use this spell, seven light balls that look like stars start to circle you. For the next hour, you can use an extra action to cast a spell at a range of 120 feet with one of the stars. The target takes 4d12 radiant damage when one of the stars hits it.
If you fight for seven rounds, which is rare but possible at level 13 or higher, Crown of Stars could deal a total of 28d12 radiant damage. Did we say that this spell doesn’t need you to focus?
Blade Of Disaster
The ninth-level spells are the best of the best. If you ever get to a level where you can cast these spells, it’s likely that a god of the multiverse would be the only thing that could beat your party. Still, it would be wrong not to talk about the most dangerous spells in Happy Wheels game. Blade of Disaster comes from the more recent book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. It is a ninth-level conjuration spell that is often forgotten, but it has some of the coolest flavour in the game. When you use this focus spell as a bonus action, you create a tear in reality in the shape of a sword that you can use to make melee spell attacks.
When you cast this spell, you can use the blade to attack twice. You can also do this as an extra action on every turn after that. When the blade hits something, it does 4d12 force damage. Now, this may not seem like a lot of damage, but this is where things get interesting. When the blade is used to attack, it crits on a roll of 18 or higher, and when it does, it does an extra 8d12 force damage. That’s 12d12 damage per hit from force. In other words, you can deal 24d12 force damage as an extra action when you cast this spell and each turn after that, as long as you keep your concentration.
Even though this might seem impossible, some builds can make it happen. Even if you don’t believe it, an elf with the feat “Elven Accuracy” who makes both of their attacks with advantage has a chance of at least one critical hit with this blade of over 50%. Niche? Certainly. How cool is it? You bet.
Psychic Scream
Psychic Scream is another gift from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. It is a 9th-level enchantment spell that makes ten enemies within 90 feet make an Intelligence saving throw. If a creature fails this save, it takes 14d6 points of mental damage and is stunned. On the other hand, creatures that somehow get lucky and succeed still only take half harm.
Unlike most spells that stun, psychic scream forces each creature it stuns to make another Intelligence saving throw at the end of each turn. The monster stays stunned as long as it keeps failing this save. In other words, most monsters are often stunned for more than one round when they are hit by psychic scream. In case you forgot, stunned is one of the worst things you can do to an enemy because it gives you an advantage on all attacks against the target, makes the target fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws automatically, and makes the target unable to act or respond. By the way, the spell’s description says that the head of any creature killed by psychic scream will burst in a shower of blood. So, that’s another thing.
Meteor Swarm
Meteor Swarm is without a doubt the spell that does the most damage. It is a 9th-level evocation spell with a range of 1 mile. Each monster within a 40-foot radius of four points you choose must make a Dexterity saving throw. If they fail their save, they take 20d6 fire damage and 20d6 blunt damage. If they succeed, they take half as much damage.
Meteor storm is strong enough to wipe out a town of a decent size. And you can bet that the people who still live there, if there are any, will worship their new god faster than you can say “fireball.”
