Sorcerer Spell Tier List – The Best Sorcerer Spells
This will be a deeper dive and analysis on why spells have their tier ranking on the Sorcerer spell list. Any spell not linked to is not part of the 5e OGL and have to be looked up in their sourcebook.
- 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
Tier List Rankings
I do a standard S-F tier ranking and here’s how I categorize them:
S Tier – The absolute best of the best. These options can even broach into unfair territory and may be subject to being banned at certain tables. If you’re looking for power level alone, there’s functionally no reason not to use these.
A Tier – While not as broken as the S Tier options, these are as good as you can get without broaching into unfair territory, although some of them may be strong enough to feel unfair!
B Tier – These will not be as inherently powerful as A Tier options, but are still quite strong in their own right. These are likely a bit more situational or slightly weaker than the A tier options, but still very good.
C Tier – Decent options, but likely not overtly strong. These options don’t offer too much or may just be a bit too situational to be ranked higher, but are still options you should consider as these will be the average power level.
D Tier – While not completely useless, these options are either very weak or very situational so are unlikely to be used, but unlike F tier, these aren’t completely unusable or actively detrimental.
F Tier – Either so weak or so situational that these should functionally never be taken or considered unless in the most niche of circumstances.
Cantrips
S Tier
None
A Tier
Fire Bolt – Great damage, great range. This is an ever so slightly weaker version of Eldritch Blast which is considered the best offensive cantrip in the game.
Mage Hand – Being able to manipulate objects from a distance is quite powerful, especially when it’s free. You’d be surprised how often a low grade telekinesis can come in handy whether it’s to grab something, activate a trap, or anything else a floating hand can accomplish.
Mind Sliver – The damage is pretty low for a cantrip, but comes with some real upsides. First off, hitting on this is extremely consistent as Intelligence saving throws tend to be terrible for both players and adversaries alike. Second, giving a 1d4 penalty on an enemies next saving throw can make all the difference in them failing an important check or not. If you need consistency, this is king for a cantrip.
Minor Illusion – Even if it’s just in a 5 foot cube, the amount of versatility this cantrip can give you is nearly unmatched. Creating a distraction, making a quick hiding spot for free, or pretty much anything else someone creative can think of can be very powerful in the right situations.
Prestidigitation – This does an exceptional amount of things for one cantrip and is easily the most versatile cantrip in D&D. With six distinct options, there are thousands of things you could with this. None of these effects are high impact, but the versatility is completely unmatched.
Shape Water – Similar to Prestidigitation, you can get really creative in its uses like freezing a pathway across a body of water, freezing a lock, creating a barrier, and many more uses. This is less versatile than Prestidigitation, but that’s an impossible bar to clear and arguably what you can do with this is higher impact.
Sorcerous Burst – Exclusive to Sorcerers, this cantrip gives up a bit of upfront damage to attack with any type of elemental damage and can get additional damage when you max roll one of your damage dice. This is super cool and easily rivals Fire Bolt as a Sorcerer’s main cantrip of choice. While it may not feel relevant in the early game as damage vulnerabilities and resistances are rarer, being able to exploit vulnerabilities and dodge resistances/immunities will be helpful in later levels.
True Strike* – Completely reworked from 5th edition, this lets you not have a particularly high combat stat (STR or DEX) and still deal reasonable damage with a weapon attack. Crucially, you aren’t limited to melee weapons here so you do have greater versatility on how you use this which is interesting. While using this with a crossbow will technically be the highest damage dealing cantrip you could get up until level 5, it will then get outpaced after that making it good if you want that extra point or so of damage on average (and you wouldn’t have already gotten it without this), but then you should swap this out unless your build is relying on it.
B Tier
Create Bonfire – The damage on this cantrip is pretty standard, but getting even a small amount of area denial on a cantrip can be really strong. If you have ways to force movement from other creatures or even lock creatures down into a space, this can be very powerful. This would be an A tier cantrip if it didn’t require Concentration to keep going as you will likely have something better to concentrate on than this most of the time.
Light – Having constant sources of light can be really important if you don’t have many party members with Darkvision. This isn’t a necessity, but is a nice thing to have.
Mold Earth – More useful than it may appear, being able to manipulate ground quickly lets you build quick holes, trenches, provide cover, and a lot more depending on how creative you can get!
C Tier
Acid Splash – You won’t be using this very often as Dexterity saves can be pretty good and the damage is low, but if there are two enemies next to each other, you can get some decent damage out of this.
Dancing Lights – A worse distraction than Minor Illusion and a worse light source than Light, but the versatility here can be nice if you don’t want to take either of the aforementioned cantrips.
Elementalism – Definitely a cute new addition to the Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy, and Druidcraft line up, but it’s definitely closer to the latter two than the excellent Prestidigitation. It is still pretty neat, but nothing special.
Frostbite – The range is whatever, the damage isn’t great, and Constitution saves tend to be pretty high, but giving disadvantage on an attack roll is quite powerful if this connects.
Message – Considering there is still a verbal component to the spell, it can be hard to be subtle with this, but if you need to communicate with someone telepathically for free, this is your best (and only) option.
Poison Spray – Great damage, but pretty short range and bad damage type. Still, this is a decent cantrip if you’re looking to be somewhat close to enemies.
Ray of Frost – A 60 foot range and less damage than Fire Bolt isn’t a great start, but reducing speed by 10 feet can be useful in theory if you’re looking to kite the enemy.
D Tier
Blade Ward* – While much worse for full casters as a minor attack penalty for enemies is likely not going to save you, this is pretty potent on more martial characters where that functional slight AC buff may be the difference between an attack hitting or not. That said, Sorcerers don’t have a dedicated martial subclass so the odds of taking this without multiclassing is way lower than it used to be.
Booming Blade* – This is the gold standard for cantrips if you’re getting up close and personal with enemies. Attempting to seal enemy movements by threatening 1d8 damage is pretty good, especially if you can weave in and out of combat with something like the Mobile feat. This cantrip sweetens a lot more once you hit level 5 as you get 1d8 up front and 2d8 if they move which is a solid amount of damage for a cantrip. Unfortunately for pure sorcerers, there’s no good melee build, so there’s really no reason you should ever be taking this unless you are multi-classing or you have a very unique build.
Chill Touch – Decent damage and a cool effect to prevent healing, but having to be up close and personal with an enemy for this to work is definitely not the easiest proposition for most spellcasters. To make matters worse, if you want to be in melee range, why not just use Booming Blade?
Green-Flame Blade* – Like Booming Blade, you’re only using this if you’re stepping right up to enemies. While Booming Blade is better for single targets, this works best when there’s two enemies close to each other. If you like getting into melee, you’re using Booming Blade or this as your most common cantrips. Unfortunately for pure sorcerers, there’s no good melee build, so there’s really no reason you should ever be taking this unless you are multi-classing or you have a very unique build.
Infestation – Low range, low damage, a Constitution save, a commonly resisted damage type, and random forced movement does not bode well for this spell, but any forced movement with damage on a cantrip can’t be all bad.
Lightning Lure* – Like Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade, and Sword Burst, you really do not want to be using this unless you like being in melee range, but pulling enemies towards you can be strong if you need to move them away from your lower health allies and you need to get into melee range. Unfortunately for pure sorcerers, there’s no good melee build, so there’s really no reason you should ever be taking this unless you are multi-classing or you have a very unique build.
Mending – This spell is pretty low impact and it’s even rarer that you will need to use this, but this does something very unique and can be more impactful in some scenarios/settings.
Shocking Grasp – A touch cantrip is already not great since most casters don’t like being that close and the damage isn’t even that good, but this can be decent if the enemy is wearing armor as you’d get advantage on your roll and potentially stopping them from taking Opportunity Attacks is decent as well.
Sword Burst* – If you are somehow surrounded by enemies (which is a bad place to be unless you’re ok with being in melee range), this is quite powerful as you can dole out a lot of damage on one action. Unfortunately for pure sorcerers, there’s no good melee build, so there’s really no reason you should ever be taking this unless you are multi-classing or you have a very unique build.
F Tier
Control Flames – I’m unsure in what scenarios you need to mess with flames that doesn’t even include being able to light one. Maybe there’s really creative uses of this, but I haven’t thought of them.
Friends – Advantage on Charisma checks can really smooth over negotiations, but only having a minute, only working against humanoids, doesn’t work against anyone you’re fighting, and the target being instantly hostile to you after the fact really limits the practical applications of this.
Gust – Really unsure what the use of this spell is as this only gives a tiny bit of forced movement or a situational and pitiful distraction.
Thunderclap – While this may be an ok distraction, damage only within 5 feet and a Constitution saving throw makes this really, really bad.
1st Level Spells
S Tier
Silvery Barbs – This spell is messed up. It does so much for so little and it’s just a reaction which isn’t going to be used that much naturally. Forcing functional disadvantage on a roll and granting advantage to someone else (or yourself) on your next roll is crazy powerful for a first level slot. This may be the most banned spell at tables due to its power level and it’s not unreasonable to see why.
A Tier
Absorb Elements – Getting resistance from an elemental type for a round can do a lot of heavy lifting in certain encounters, and if you happen to be making melee attacks too, you get a bit of extra damage on top of it which is a nice bonus.
Feather Fall – Dying from a fall really sucks and this should prevent that from happening. If you expect to be in high places, having this prepared is a great insurance policy.
Magic Missile – A spell that deals a bunch of damage and never misses? Obviously a great deal as this, on average, is the highest damage dealing level one spell in the game (when you factor in miss chance from other spells).
Shield – A +5 bonus to AC is absolutely massive as this could easily stymie a whole rounds worth of combat against you.
B Tier
Catapult – While this isn’t as impressive as other damage spells in terms of pure output, this is unique in that it will keep going if your initial target passes their save, it can hit someone behind them. May not be easy to line multiple targets, but if you can, this gets more and more reliable. Furthermore, if you get cute and lob something like Alchemist’s Fire, you can deal even more damage.
Chromatic Orb – Good damage, good range, and you can pick an element that your enemy isn’t resistant to, or if you’re lucky, something they’re weak to. Furthermore, rolling doubles lets the orb “bounce” potentially giving you even more damage to work with which is super neat. Empowered spell also makes this really neat as you get just another opportunity to roll doubles and make the orb bounce.
Detect Magic – Not always the most impactful, but having this is really important in a lot of scenarios. Ideally you would leave this to someone who can prepare more spells.
Expeditious Retreat – This is good if you need to chase something or run away, but using your Concentration is quite rough, especially with only a 10 minute duration. That being said, this can be used really effectively to kite enemies on the battlefield and a good portion of enemies will have no real recourse to this strategy, so this can be pretty powerful in the right fights.
False Life – Getting a bit of extra life per spell level is a pretty good use of a spell slot if you think your life may be in danger and you don’t need the slot otherwise.
Ice Knife – Two different checks to avoid damage is pretty weird for a spell, but being able to hit multiple enemies with a first level spell is very rare. Not the most damage and two chances for the enemy to avoid that damage, but a solid option if you need to hit a lot of enemies.
Mage Armor – If you or your allies don’t have any armor, this is a +3 to AC for 8 hours which is a pretty sizable buff.
Silent Image – Like how Minor Illusion is a great cantrip, this is a great spell. The practical uses of an illusion in a 15 foot cube are limited only to your creativity as you can do a lot with that much space.
Sleep – No longer relying on enemy HD, this is much more akin to a much smaller scale Hypnotic Pattern that can potentially rid multiple enemies of their actions. The AOE is so small that you’re unlikely to hit more than 1-2 creatures, but for a first level slot, that can still be worthwhile as incapacitating someone on the first failed saving throw is quite nice.
Witch Bolt – Decent damage and you can keep zapping your target as a bonus action even if you miss? Pretty solid! This won’t keep up at higher levels as only the initial blast gets stronger when upcast, but it is solid early.
C Tier
Charm Person – This is like Friends, but actually reasonable. Being charmed is substantially better than just getting advantage on Charisma checks, but similar to Friends, they will know they were charmed at the end of the spell’s duration so there is risk there.
Chaos Bolt – Solid range, mediocre damage, overall it’s a pretty meh spell.
Fog Cloud – If you need a lot of heavy obscurement, this is a fine way to get it. The issue with this spell is keeping enemies inside of the Fog Cloud, but if you/your team have ways to make that more tenable (combining this with other CC like Entangle or Web), then this spell can be quite potent.
Jump – This is substantially stronger than the 2014 version as you now have 20 more feet of movement and it’s much more versatile as it’s a jump rather than just flat movement. The only issue that comes up with this spell is that you may not want to use all 30 feet of jumping movement as that could be inconvenient in some scenarios, but realistically, if you’re casting this spell, you want the big jump.
Ray of Sickness – Decent range, meh damage, and poisoning enemies culminates to a solid spell! This isn’t going to be particularly good for long, but it is solid in earlier levels.
Tasha’s Caustic Brew – The range and damage on this isn’t great, but what this does have is unique utility. You’re using your action to try to deprive your enemy of an action, and if they make that trade turn one, you’re still up an average of 5 damage. If you can hit multiple people in the line, you get to potentially get a lot of damage and actions from multiple people.
Thunderwave – The range is short and Constitution saves tend to be high, but getting some amount of damage even if they pass the save is always welcome. Better yet, if they fail the save, you get 10 feet of forced movement and a decent amount of damage which isn’t a bad deal.
D Tier
Burning Hands – Low range and low damage isn’t particularly appealing, but cones can be pretty strong if there are a lot of enemies. The main problem is you need to get very close for this to work which is a pretty big risk for most Wizards.
Color Spray – Blinding enemies isn’t bad, but only a 15 foot range and a single round of blindness is really bad. You’re spending your whole action and not even necessarily ridding the enemy of theirs, but if you manage to get a lot of enemies within this cone, this can still be decent.
Comprehend Languages – While this is great for Wizards, having to spend one of your precious spell slots and known spells on this is really painful.
Disguise Self – There are not many scenarios where this is helpful and the 1 hour duration is definitely problematic. Furthermore, the disguise breaks under any amount of scrutiny which makes this even more unreliable.
Earth Tremor – Creating difficult terrain can be ok, but 1d6 damage and knocking enemies prone is very weak, and that’s if they fail the save. Acceptable if you really need the difficult terrain, but pretty bad otherwise.
F Tier
None
2nd Level Spells
S Tier
Misty Step – A bonus action to move 30 feet is excellent, especially for casters that need to continue concentrating on a spell or you need a quick escape.
A Tier
Suggestion – This spell is pretty nuts. You only get a sentence or two to give your course of action, but a lot of information can be transferred in just a sentence. Whether you’re using this against one lone enemy or one enemy in a group, you’re going to get a lot of mileage out of this.
Web – You can cover a massive amount of area with Web making that difficult terrain, light obscurement, and anyone who wants to pass through risks being restrained. This is an unbelievable value for just a second level spell and can immobilize a group or make an escape/encounter substantially easier.
B Tier
Blindness/Deafness – While Constitution saving throws are generally pretty high, the range is really good and potentially blinding a caster who is unlikely to have a good Constitution saving throw can be devastating as most of their spells will no longer work.
Blur – Giving disadvantage to attackers can make you nigh untouchable if your armor class is high enough, but it does require you to have a reasonably high armor class and uses your Concentration. If you need to not get hit this is quite good, but a low AC will make this substantially worse.
Darkvision – While a torch or something with Continual Flame is a more permanent solution, getting 60 ft of darkvision is a good amount better as you’ll match most other races that have darkvision naturally.
Invisibility – Being invisible is unmatched for infiltration, surprise attacks, and anything else you may need to be invisible for. While offensive actions will break it, getting a surprise round can easily trivialize an encounter.
Knock – Laugh at your parties Rogue as you unlock any door blocking your way.
Maximillian’s Earthen Grasp – The problem with “save or suck” spells is that if an opponent passes a save, the spell ends, or even worse, doesn’t take effect. Earthen Grasp does not have that problem as you can just keep trying to restrain and then crush enemies. This is excellent CC, alright damage, and you get 10 whole rounds of it.
Mirror Image – This is a pretty powerful defensive option, especially since this doesn’t take your Concentration up at all. The issue is your images are likely to be destroyed somewhat quickly if you’re being focused down making this potentially riskier than something like Blur, but this pretty reasonable if you think you need a defensive option.
Phantasmal Force – While the damage isn’t very high and pretty slow, using this as a way to lock down an enemy by tricking them that the floor is lava or they’re in an iron maiden is quite strong. While an ally can help them out of this, you’re still eating into opposing actions which can be easily worth it.
Scorching Ray – Solid range and damage split across three beams means a pretty reasonable spell. It gets better if you can situate yourself in a way to get some advantage or a higher chance to hit.
See Invisibility – If you’re facing an invisible enemy, this is going to be invaluable. You do have other options like Faerie Fire or a bag of flour if you’re feeling particularly crafty, but this is definitely the best of the bunch.
Tasha’s Mind Whip – While the damage leaves a bit to be desired, everything else about this spell is quite good. A 90 foot range is no joke and limiting their turn to an action, a bonus action, or their movement if they fail their save can be devastating on the right opponents, like melee enemies. The best part? It’s an intelligence saving throw which the vast majority of enemies will not be good against.
C Tier
Alter Self – This is a substantially better Disguise Self as you can change your appearance all the same, but not only does this not break down upon an Investigation as you do literally change your form, you can also change into a more bestial form where you can get natural weapons to fight or gills if you need to go on an underwater adventure.
Arcane Lock – While this may not be used often, getting a magical lock can be nice to fortify a chest or room.
Cloud of Daggers – Area denial spells are generally pretty strong, but with such a small area of effect and not too much damage, this isn’t that strong. If you can cover an important choke point or force movement into it, this can be reasonably good. Furthermore, you can now move it around which is nice, although it costs you a full action. Pretty decent overall.
Darkness – This isn’t too different than Fog Cloud in terms of obscurement, but if you or a party member have the Devil’s Sight eldritch invocation, then you can do some serious damage in that darkness while the enemies are completely blind. However, without a way to mitigate the downside, the uses of this are very limited.
Detect Thoughts – While this is very situational, being able to discover information from those likely to have it without collecting it in a roundabout way can save you a lot of headache, especially if time is of the essence. For Wizards in particular, the enemy will have to beat you in opposing Intelligence checks to get you to stop which may be hard for them to accomplish. The major downside of this spell is the target knows you’re doing it to them, so you can only really use this on a target who doesn’t know where/who you are or a restrained target.
Earthbind – If you have a lot of allies that are mainly melee, being able to pull a flying enemy to the ground can be invaluable. Realistically most characters have ranged options which makes this pretty niche, especially in the early game where flying enemies have low health, but this can be more useful in the later game where dragons may come into play.
Enhance Ability – Unlike using other charming abilities that risk the target getting mad at you afterwards, giving yourself advantage on Charisma checks is substantially better and will make your Charisma caster trivialize any social scenario. That said, you also have FIVE other options for this spell as well making this very versatile for many situations.
Flaming Sphere – While the initial damage isn’t exciting, as long as you’re concentrating on keeping the sphere up, you can move the sphere 30 feet a round as a bonus action to keep the damage rolling. In longer fights this damage can really add up, especially as you can still use your action each turn.
Hold Person – The biggest “save or suck” spell at this level. The problem with “save or suck” spells is how swingy they are – if the target passes their check, you wasted your turn, if they fail, you get incredible value. This looks super tempting as you get auto-criticals on any target hit by this spell, but the risk that you waste your turn if they pass the check or only deprive them of an action is definitely high. Furthermore, enemies that aren’t monsters tend to be really low leveled or really high levels NPCs, so the amount of times you could even use this may be inherently limited by your setting.
Levitate – There is some solid versatility here for a second level spell, but the use cases are still pretty limited. You can levitate yourself or an ally 20 feet up to get out of melee range, but that is entirely contingent on the enemies not having an effective way to attack a ranged target. Conversely, you can try to levitate an enemy up, but not only do they get a Constitution saving throw (which is likely to be good as you want to lock out a melee enemy who tend to have high Constitution saves), but you’re of course not guaranteed they will be helpless in that position. The saving grace for levitating enemies is that they only get one chance to resist it otherwise they’re stuck there, so this can be good in those scenarios.
Shatter – Small AOE and Constitution saving throws aren’t great, but this is probably the best AOE damage spell you’re going to get at this level if you can find a group of bunched up enemies.
Spider Climb – A solid spell as you can navigate up and down walls, ceilings, chasms, you name it, but will very quickly be outclassed by Fly. That said, if you’re in an enclosed space, this may be better than Fly.
Warding Wind – Creating difficult terrain around yourself to stop enemies from walking up to you easily and giving disadvantage on ranged attacks can be a decent defensive option if you can space yourself properly, but this can mess with your allies if they need to move close to you and this can also not work if you can’t get perfect spacing.
D Tier
Aganazzer’s Scorcher – This isn’t great damage nor range for the spell level and it’s fire damage which is a pretty common resistance. The issue is this is barely better than Burning Hands which doesn’t justify the higher level spell slot.
Arcane Vigor – Healing on classes that normally can’t is always interesting, especially when the opportunity cost isn’t super high as it’s a lower level spell and a bonus action cast, but I just can’t get behind this spell. The healing is going to be relatively minimal (average of 6 points at level 3 and it doesn’t scale that well) so to cost you a second level slot and your HD when you could just short rest after the fight is really rough. This spell isn’t bad, but I would be hard pressed to pick this over more powerful options that may help avoid getting hurt in the first place.
Crown of Madness – In theory, this spell could’ve been great. Turning an enemy and forcing them to attack an ally is very strong. However, everything kind of falls apart after that. You need to use your Action to keep control of the target, the target gets a saving throw every turn, and they have to use their action before their movement which severely limits how much they get to do. If you can target someone in the middle of a group, this should still be reasonably useful, but that’s not going to be easy to set up.
Dragon’s Breath – For the most part, Dragon’s Breath is not a terribly strong spell as 3d6 damage is pretty low for this level, this uses your Concentration, and most other classes would prefer to use their action elsewhere.
Enlarge/Reduce – Buffing allies or nerfing enemies is always great, but this doesn’t do either that well. Growing an ally so they deal an additional 1d4 on hit is not that great unless they are dishing out a lot of attacks per turn (like a Monk or higher level Fighter). If you’re trying to reduce an enemy, you are only reducing their damage by 1d4 and it’s difficult to take advantage of the disadvantage on strength checks as a grappled enemy can use their Acrobatics (DEX) instead of Athletics (STR) to worm their way out. Overall, a relatively low impact spell.
Gust of Wind – It’s not going to be often that you’re going to use this, but it is a pretty unique effect if you are trying to lock down a long, enclosed space for whatever reason.
Kinetic Jaunt – This is hardly better than Longstrider, requires Concentration, and only lasts a minute. Avoiding attacks of opportunity and moving through enemies can make this more useful in some situations, but this is not great.
Magic Weapon – While this spell no longer requires Concentration, the primary use case of why you’d want to cast this (overcoming non-magical damage resistance/immunity) seems to have been eliminated in One D&D. Without that, this already unexciting spell is even less exciting, but it isn’t completely unusable.
Pyrotechnics – Not useless as this works similarly to Fog Cloud or you have a 10 foot blinding blast that requires a CON saving throw. The issue is that you need a flame in the area already to make this work which is a really annoying prerequisite. It’s probably easier to set up than it seems, but still annoying none the less.
Shadow Blade* – This spell is really strong, but this is exclusively for casters who like getting into melee range. A weapon that deals 2d8 on hit and gets inherent advantage in dim light or darkness is quite the powerful weapon. This will use your Concentration, but there are worse things to use your concentration on.
Wither and Bloom – Small AOE, low damage, and Constitution saving throws is like the trifecta of a spell you probably don’t want to be casting. The only saving grace is that you can heal someone in the same area which isn’t too bad, but it does also require the use of a Hit Die instead of the healing occurring naturally via the spell.
F Tier
Dust Devil – A concentration spell that does minimal damage is really not great. The upsides are the forced movement if the target fails the saving throw and you use your bonus action to move it, but you would need multiple casters to set up other area denial effects to get any good use out of this.
Flame Blade – This spell is so strange as it’s only a tiny bit better than a cantrip and requires concentration, for a second level slot. Pass.
Mind Spike – The same amount of damage as lower level spells with a weird and really not helpful caveat added on top of it. If you really need to keep tabs on someone, I guess this is how you’d do it, but the situations in which this would be relevant seems super rare.
Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm – Decent range, but small AOE and low damage is not a spell you should be interested in.
3rd Level Spells
S Tier
Counterspell – An absolute necessity for every party. Reaction spells are excellent and this is one of the most iconic and powerful ones, even if it technically got nerfed.
A Tier
Dispel Magic – An absolute necessity for every party, even if it may not come up too often.
Fireball – The gold standard for damage on a third level spell. Going from 6d6 damage on hitting all three rays on Scorching Ray to one target to an 8d6 blast that has a huge range and 20ft radius is an incredible upgrade. Fireball won’t always be the best damage source as your progress, but you’re probably going to be preparing it every day for a long time.
Fly – While there is a risk in plummeting to your death if you lose concentration, Fly can absolutely break the game as well as you can swoop around Fireballing people. This is extremely strong, especially if there aren’t many (or any) ranged or flying enemies in your encounter. Furthermore, if you have multiple ranged damage dealers, twinspelling this can be very powerful.
Hypnotic Pattern – While this may not be the easiest to aim if your allies are strewn about, Pattern can absolutely demolish an encounter if you catch enough people with it. Although it’s relatively easy to break with them taken damage or an ally shaking them out, you are trading your one action for a large amount of actions from the enemies.
Sleet Storm – This has a pretty massive AOE that does many things including: heavily obscure the area so enemies inside of it can’t see you, make difficult terrain, cause enemies inside to potentially fall prone (which is particularly good against flying enemies), and messes with spellcasters. That is a lot for one spell, and again, the range on this is pretty massive. As long as you have enough party members that can attack at range, you can pepper enemies from afar (advantage and disadvantage cancelling out since neither party can see one another) and have anyone with forced movement keep them in the area.
B Tier
Clairvoyance – One of the better surveillance spells in the game and the best Sorcerer gets access to.
Enemies Abound – While this will only be effective facing a group of enemies, turning an enemy in the middle of the group is extremely disrupting. Furthermore, forcing an Intelligence saving throw which is likely to be really bad for most enemies makes this much more likely it will work.
Fear – This is an excellent CC spell with a pretty big AOE, but immunity to being frightened may start being common around this level. Still a great option if you’re looking to heavily disrupt enemies.
Haste – A really powerful buff if you put this on your melee allies. Giving an ally additional movement and an extra attack can be super high impact and can easily add up in damage compared to other offensive options at this level. The big concern with Haste is that losing concentration stuns the hasted person which can be debilitating, but if you can stay safe, this is a powerful buff.
Major Image – Since this doesn’t trigger a saving throw, you are pretty much guaranteed to get some value out of this as enemies need to interact with the image or pass an Investigation (Intelligence) check against your save DC. Like other illusions, how good this is will hinge on how creative you are, but this should be useful in a wide variety of scenarios.
Slow – This is a pretty powerful debuff as the targets lose 2 AC and can only make an action or bonus action. While the debuff isn’t as strong as a charm effect like from Hypnotic Pattern, this can be harder to break out of.
Thunder Step – While it’s very hard to beat Misty Step in terms of low level teleportation as that’s a spell level lower and a bonus action, this does offer a few benefits. First, if you’re surrounded, you get a little bit of damage on your way out which is a nice touch, even if it’s easy to pass the save and it isn’t that much damage. Second, you can teleport up to 90 feet away, triple Misty Step‘s distance. Lastly, you can bring a willing ally with you as long as they’re your size or smaller so you can get both yourself and a friend out of danger. Misty Step is still the gold standard, but this can have some solid applications in a pinch.
Tongues – Depending on the campaign, this and Comprehend Languages can range from excellent to pretty mediocre, but this is the only spell that does this effect so it’s hard to replace.
C Tier
Gaseous Form – This can be a decent infiltration or escape option, but your other options for scouting or escaping are probably more effective or a lower leveled spell. Still, the versatility here is nice.
Intellect Fortress – This probably won’t come up often, but this is an excellent defense against enemy spell casters trying to use CC effects on you. A little niche and it requires your concentration, but when it’s relevant, it can be really relevant.
Lightning Bolt – This is just a Fireball that hits way fewer things, but it is a better damage type in case you’re fighting enemies with Fire resistance.
Melf’s Minute Meteors – Like other third level damage options, they have to be compared to Fireball. While this is technically more damage than Fireball (12d6 total versus 8d6), the enemy gets multiple Dexterity saving throws to avoid damage, it’s a much smaller AOE, and it takes multiple turns to get all that damage. In a long fight against a big enemy, this can be better than Fireball, but you likely won’t have too many fights like that.
Protection from Energy – If you know you’re going into a fight with a lot of elemental damage of one specific type, this isn’t a terrible use of a spell slot, but this isn’t that much better than Absorb Elements which is a first level reaction spell.
D Tier
Blink – A defensive spell that doesn’t always work is a weird way to use you third level spell slot, but when you blink out, this is the most reliable form of defense as you won’t even be in the same plane to get hit. The saving grace of this spell is that it isn’t concentration so you can hold a concentration spell and then poof out of existence so enemies can’t even attempt to break it.
Catnap – Unless time is truly of the essence or you have a DM that likes punishing rests, it’s hard to imagine you’d ever need this spell. However, this is a very unique effect and if it’s going to be good once in your campaign, it’ll probably be good multiple times.
Daylight – While Sorcerers can’t learn Continual Flame, there’s a good chance that someone in your party can which makes this not very helpful, especially as Continual Flame only requires the initial cast to keep going. That said, this does now count as sunlight to incinerate Vampires which is quite nice if you know you’re going to be running into them. Still a very niche spell you shouldn’t be looking to take often.
Erupting Earth – Compare this to Fireball and the issue is obvious. If you really need difficult terrain, this can do the job, but it’s probably better to just try to kill them instead.
Stinking Cloud – This is a rather large AOE and making enemies lose their action is pretty strong, but Constitution saving throws are generally pretty high. Since you can’t move the cloud, it’s really easy to escape, especially if enemies are towards the edges of it. This can be useful against large groups as your one action may trade for multiple of theirs, but you need enough enemies to fail their saving throw to make this worthwhile.
Tidal Wave – This is not a lot of damage or AOE for this level and knocking someone prone isn’t particularly great either. However, since this doesn’t specify where you can spawn the water, you can technically use this to try and knock flying enemies out of the air which can lead to a lot of damage.
Vampiric Touch – This spell is extremely risky as you have to get right up in an enemies business to use this, but being able to heal in any capacity as a Wizard should at least be considered. You can have this in the back pocket to use on a restrained enemy to heal if you feel so compelled, but that’s probably worse than other options.
Wall of Water – Unlike other wall options, this one doesn’t really stop enemies from going through it, but will more often be used closer to you or your allies to stymie ranged or Fire attacks. There is some cute applications where you can freeze sections of this to create a more solid wall, but this is still a very mediocre option.
Water Breathing – Alter Self also grants water breathing and is a spell level lower, but this doesn’t take concentration, lasts longer, and can be cast as a ritual. If you can find a convenient way to learn this, it’s fine to have, but don’t go out of your way to get it unless you’re around water a lot.
Water Walk – If you need to traverse bodies of water often, this will work. That said, since it’s a ritual spell, it will take ten minutes per cast so this may not be effective with big parties.
F Tier
Flame Arrows – While technically 12d6 damage is actively good for a third level spell, the fact that this eats your concentration and you’re only getting that damage if you can afford to concentrate the whole time it takes for all 12 arrows to be shot and every arrow you imbued hits its mark.
4th Level Spells
S Tier
Polymorph – Likely one of the strongest spells in the game, the versatility of this spell is nearly unmatched as you can change an ally into a ferocious creature or change your enemy into a harmless creature. There is some ambiguity on how this works as you gain all the attributes of the chosen creature, but you still retain your memories and personality, so it’s safe to assume allies will remain allies and hostiles will remain hostile. This gets even crazier if you can afford to twinspell or heightened spell this making one of the best spells even more brutal.
A Tier
Banishment – Being able to remove an enemy from the fight for a full minute is really powerful, especially if you nab an extraplanar being with this. If they fail the save and you’re able to maintain your concentration for a full minute, that extraplanar creature is sent to a random plane that makes sense for them. No more fight, they’re just gone!
Dimension Door – A really solid teleportation spell when you need it, especially if it’s to a spot you know is there but can’t currently see. Furthermore you get to take a creature along with you which is obviously strong, but they do need to be within 5 feet of you. On the flip side, having a range of 500 feet is massive and an excellent escape mechanism. The issue with this spell is that teleporting to a place you can’t see does come with risk as you can accidentally fail if you try to teleport within an object or creature, but that’s unlikely unless your DM is a real stickler.
Greater Invisibility – Invisibility that doesn’t end when you attack is incredible for sneak attacks, gaining inherent advantage, and making you or your ally extremely hard to hit.
Wall of Fire – While this is one of the few walls that doesn’t limit whether people can walk through it easily, the damage it deals whenever it pops up, or when someone ends their turn within 10 feet or inside the wall is quite high. By itself this spell is very strong, but if you and your allies can force people back through the wall, the damage can stack up extremely quickly. Furthermore, obscuring vision can be really nice if you’re facing a lot of enemies who fight at a range.
B Tier
Sickening Radiance – While the save being Constitution based is always a negative, the AOE of this spell is absolutely massive with a radius of 30 feet that even moves around corners. Furthermore, for anyone who moves into the area or starts their turn there, they take 4d10 damage, gain no advantage from being invisible, and get a level of exhaustion (exhaustion is more crippling now than it used to be)! The massive AOE is also a double-edged sword as your allies may get caught up in the area as well which can obviously be problematic. If you think you may be fighting hordes of enemies or you need to help cut off a large choke point, this could be a solid choice as you’ll get a much greater area from this compared to Wall of Fire and you get the additional CC of exhaustion on top of it.
C Tier
Fire Shield – Getting resistance to Fire or Cold damage is definitely decent, especially without requiring Concentration, but you generally want to avoid taking damage rather than tanking it (unless you’re in Wild Shape). You do get a little bit of damage if you are hit which is probably not going to be that consequential, but if you’re in melee range because of Wild Shape, the damage can definitely add up.
Vitriolic Sphere – If this were a third level spell, this would give Fireball a run for its money, but unfortunately it’s a fourth level spell that is extremely similar to Fireball. The damage type is better and you get more average damage if the enemies fail their saving throw, but it’s spread over two turns, has a smaller radius, and of course, is a spell level higher. Not bad, but likely not worth it compared to just a regular Fireball.
Watery Sphere – This is an interesting CC spell as you could hypothetically trap up to four medium or smaller creatures inside the orb and restrain them, and if you can do that, this is quite excellent. Furthermore, you can keep moving the sphere around attempting to capture more enemies or even move it into dangerous territory which is pretty nice. The issue with this spell is that this is pretty ineffective against larger enemies, both in terms of space and Strength likely being a good saving throw for them. Enemies getting a saving throw at the end of each turn is a pain, but you can look to just scoop them back up. Finally, being restrained doesn’t rob them of their action, just their movement, so they may still have impactful turns from inside the sphere. This spell is still solid, but you do have the awkward contention of if you try to trap melee enemies, their Strength saving throw is probably good, and ranged enemies can probably still have effective turns while restrained.
D Tier
Charm Monster – Being able to charm monsters is decent as they’ll stop targeting you, but this doesn’t extend to your allies and them being friendly is likely not going to matter unless they’re capable of conversation. If it’s really important for a specific monster to not hit you, this is a solid option, but this can feel weaker than Suggestion which is a second level spell.
Dominate Beast – Charming an animal is not bad, especially as this charm lets you control the animal rather than other charms which may not offer that. That said, there are very few strong beasts that you could even dominate. To make matter worse, the duration is only a minute and they get additional saving throws every time they are damaged which can make the duration of this spell super unreliable.
Stoneskin – The buff on this spell is pretty good, but comes with a few issues. First off, a 100gp consumable component is definitely annoying to cast this spell, and while 100 gold may not be a big deal at level 7 (and definitely not at level 11 for half casters), but is still something you have to consider and keep track of as it isn’t cheap either. Second, you probably don’t want to use this spell on yourself as casters should be looking to avoid hits rather than tanking them. Finally, it’s a concentration spell so you lose out on all the other options while this is up (and you’d hate to drop it prematurely as this is both a valuable spell slot and required a component to use). If you can be ok with all that, this is a very solid buff on the team’s tank as they’ll resist all the most common forms of melee damage.
Storm Sphere – While the AOE nor damage or too impressive, being able to shoot lightning bolts as a bonus action is decent. This allows you to split up damage when you need to and gives multiple chances to get damage versus single turn blasts. Also with each level this is upcast, you get d6s on both of the damage types which isn’t bad. This may be hard to justify versus other AOE damage spells, but it’s not terrible.
F Tier
Blight – Not nearly enough damage for the level, low range, single target, and a Constitution saving throw. This is really rough and only should be considered if you know you’re facing plants, and even then, this may not be your best option.
Confusion – Having a spell that has random effects is already not great, but this effects you are looking for you could with lower level spells. Seriously a confusing design.
Ice Storm – Just a weird spell overall as the damage is bad for the level, even worse than lower level options, and two different damage types is not ideal as you may run into resistances.
5th Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
Arcane Hand – The versatility on this spell is just incredible. Decent damage, forced movement, grappling creatures, or giving someone cover is a lot of options for a single spell. Not any single effect is super high impact, but being able to change its objective with just a bonus action is great.
Synaptic Static – The damage isn’t super high as it rivals a third level Fireball, but it’s Psychic damage which is functionally never resisted, it’s an Intelligence saving throw which is going to be really low for most enemies, and it even debuffs them on top of it. Definitely a solid spell all around if you want an AOE blast spell.
B Tier
Animate Objects – Unfortunately this spell has been pretty heavily nerfed in quality compared to the 2014 version, but it’s still solid! You can make between 2-5 objects (I would still recommend making a bunch of small or even tiny objects) to skitter along the battlefield and whacking everyone in sight. The damage potential is a bit lower and the objects are substantially more frail, but this is still a reasonable option.
Telekinesis – While this has a little less versatility than Arcane Hand, you do get some interesting options like restraining creatures versus grappling them and being able to make platforms with floating objects. Since the most common use case of both this and Arcane Hand is to lock down creatures, you probably shouldn’t be taking/preparing both of them.
Wall of Stone – A very solid wall spell overall. Being able to cover 100 feet on a battlefield is quite large for a wall, and it being hard to break through makes it even nicer.
C Tier
Cone of Cold – Medium damage, Constitution saving, and a short range is definitely not great. On the bright side, being a 60 foot cone means you could catch a massive amount of enemies inside the AOE, so if you think you’re going to be facing a lot of enemies, this can be very useful. That said, the cone is a double-edged sword as it won’t be easy to get just your enemies and not your allies with this, so you have to use this carefully.
Hold Monster – Hold Person, but for monsters. You’re going to be fighting monsters much more often than people which gives this a big leg up, but with all other “save or suck” spells, not hitting on this is brutal. High risk, high reward.
Seeming – In short, this is a mass Disguise Self that lasts for 8 hours. In some adventures/campaigns, this could be helpful, especially if you’re trying to infiltrate somewhere or you’re skirting the law in some capacity. Otherwise, there’s no real good use of this which makes it pretty difficult to use often.
Teleportation Circle – With a one minute casting time and it consuming a 50 gp material component, this is not a spell you’re going to use too often. To make this even tougher to use, this needs to be connected to an established teleportation circle so this may have limited places this can even go, the exact opposite of what you’d want from a long range teleport. If the DM is nice and gives you ample circles to work with (which the spell even recommends, saying that many major temples, guilds, or other important places should have one), then this is good for mass or long distance travel.
D Tier
Cloudkill – A solid AOE, but this being poison damage (a common resistance), a Constitution saving throw (generally the easiest to pass for most enemies), and you can’t even control how it moves makes this a rough proposition. The main saving grace is that the area of effect is large and you can count on the cloud rolling away from you, so with really nice positioning you may get a lot of value out of this, but that’s a pretty niche scenario.
Creation – This is a unique utility spell in which you can create a diverse amount of objects, but having this be a limited amount of time really limits the utility of it. If you’re desperate for food, this can create vegetable matter for a day, or if you’re planning on skipping town, you can create precious objects to sell and scam merchants, but these feel pretty corner case.
Dominate Person – The issue with spells that only target humanoids is, generally speaking, humans are only going to be low level or high level enemies which makes this either not helpful or too easy for the targets to resist. If you do manage to get this off, this is a very powerful effect as they only get a retry on the saving throw when they take damage. This is a strong “save or suck” spell when it hits, but the limited targets and classic issue of nothing happening if the target saves makes this very unreliable.
Far Step – If you need a lot of mobility during a fight, this can technically do the job as it let’s you use a better Misty Step every turn, but this needs your Concentration and it’s hard to imagine a scenario where this would be necessary versus a much lower leveled spell that can help you move around or escape.
Insect Plague – This has a good range and decent AOE, but the damage is kind of low and this uses a Constitution saving throw. You’re rarely going to want to use this over Wall of Fire, but this does have some advantages like difficult terrain, it lasts longer, and it goes around corners.
Skill Empowerment – The main issue with this spell is that it’s hardly better than Enhance Ability which is a second level spell. Gaining proficiency in a skill isn’t bad and this does actually synergize well with Enhance Ability, but spending a fifth level slot on this ability is rough.
F Tier
Control Winds – This spell feels like it should be versatile, but ends up being a really bad wall-adjacent effect that doesn’t do anything exciting, especially for a fifth level spell.
Enervation – Witch Bolt is a first level spell and will average 6.5 damage per turn if it’s successful where this is fifth level spell that will deal an average on 18 damage per turn if it’s successful, or just an average of nine damage on a successful save from the target. That is just plain terrible.
Immolation – A single target Fireball that does less damage on the first turn, and only deals more damage if the target fails multiple saves. Just bad.
Wall of Light – This is really rough for a wall spell as it’s not a physical wall, doesn’t deal much damage, uses a Constitution saving throw to resist, and creatures have to end their turns there to be damaged rather than getting pushed into it. Blinded is a decent status condition to inflict, but getting multiple Constitution saving throws to end it makes it tough for it be consistent. The only use case I would consider using this is against a group of spellcasters who can stand in convenient spots for you, but that’s about it.
6th Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
Mass Suggestion – Suggestion is already a great spell, so it stands to reason that more of it would also be great. To make matters better, this doesn’t even require Concentration making this even more effective in combat than it normally would be!
B Tier
Eyebite – Being able to constantly CC enemies with one of three solid effects is pretty strong, even if it does take some time to use this on multiple enemies. The Asleep option is clearly the stand out here as you rob them of their action, and then their you may rob an ally of an action if they choose to wake them up (but they may not even bother). Panicked is also solid if you’re worried about someone waking them or you really need to put distance between you and that target. Finally, you have Sickened which is probably the weakest of the three as the target gets multiple saving throws, but it still has some utility.
Globe of Invulnerability – If for some reason you need some reprieve for a minute, this will do a pretty good job at granting that.
Mental Prison – “Save or suck” spells are generally rough as a passed save means you wasted your turn, but Mental Prison has a few unique advantages. First off, even if the target passes their save, you still get a decent chunk of damage which is better than nothing. The second interesting difference is they only get the one chance to resist this spell or they take the damage and imagine themselves being trapped. There is no further check they can do to save themselves from this and their only option is to stay put or walk through which will yield a pretty nasty amount of damage. This is excellent against single, big enemies as you can wail on them while they’re trapped or just deal a boatload of damage to them if they escape quickly.
Scatter – This teleportation spell is super versatile as you can use this against allies or enemies alike and move them 120 feet whichever way you feel. You’ll most often use this to help you and your party escape, but being able to target enemies and put them into a hazardous area can be really powerful. You can even mix and match enemies and allies to make this even more versatile.
C Tier
Chain Lightning – The damage is a little disappointing for the spell level, but being able to target four creatures and not have to worry about friendly fire is pretty nice, especially if you have allies that liking getting into the fray.
Disintegrate – While this is a good amount of damage to a single target for the level, it’s not enough damage to be super exciting even if they fail the saving throw, and if the target passes, this does NOTHING (which is more likely when creatures start getting Legendary Resistances and such). That is a big risk when using this in combat. That said, this does work to destroy some spells which does give some additional amount of utility.
Freezing Sphere – 10d6 damage and a Constitution save do not initially bode well for this spell, but this does have some interesting other applications. First off, if you hit a body of water, this would freeze it and not grant any kind of saving throw so you could potentially trap enemies with it. Second, you can cast this and not use it immediately, instead turning it into a small globe the size of a stone. Then someone can throw it or use it in a sling to gain the same effect as the spell. While this isn’t super strong, the versatility does make it interesting.
D Tier
Arcane Gate – Mass teleportation, even if it’s only 500 feet is generally very helpful, but this comes with a lot of caveats. The first issue is that you have to pick a point within 10 feet of you to set up the first gate. If your allies aren’t all around you, some people may be left out of the teleportation or you’ll have to hold it open longer, which in that time, enemies can follow you which is a problem. The second issue is you have to see the point where you want the second gate, so if you’re in an enclosed space, you’re out of luck. Not completely useless, but a bit tough to use.
Investiture of Flame – The damage on this is not really not great for the level, but getting pure immunity to Fire can be good if you know you’re going to be dealing with a lot of it soon.
Investiture of Ice – The damage on this is not really not great for the level, but getting pure immunity to Frost can be good if you know you’re going to be dealing with a lot of it soon.
Move Earth – If you need to move a lot of earth, this is your spell. You’ll at least have a promising career as a gravedigger if the adventuring thing doesn’t work out.
Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise – An interesting set of buffs for a Wizard that seem more geared toward melee combat. This probably wouldn’t be worthwhile to most spellcasters, but if you typically get into melee range, this could end up being useful. Even still, this is not the highest impact use of a sixth level slot, and Concentration spells that invite you to get into an enemies range obviously comes with a lot of inherent risk.
True Seeing – If you are going to find yourself in a scenario where there’s going to be a lot of illusions, invisible creatures, stuff in the ethereal plane, or all of the above, this is invaluable. That said, it’s hard to imagine that’s going to happen often unless your DM really likes utilizing them.
F Tier
Circle of Death – A massive AOE, but poor damage and a Constitution saving throw is just terrible.
Flesh to Stone – A single target restrained spell that gives the target a myriad of chances with a Constitution saving throw to resist is terrible.
Investiture of Stone – Unlike Investiture of Flame or Investiture of Ice, you don’t gain a damage immunity but instead get resistance to piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning attacks. This is not a worthy tradeoff as spellcasters should be staying out of the way of attacks, not tanking them, and the earthquake action and difficult terrain mobility don’t even come close to justifying this spell.
Investiture of Wind – Unlike Investiture of Flame or Investiture of Ice, you don’t gain a damage immunity, but you do get a Fly speed of 60 and ranged attacks have disadvantage to hit you which can be interesting. The rough part is that this is barely better than Fly, and that’s three levels lower.
Sunbeam – While you can use this as a continuous beam, not only is this a Constitution saving throw, but this is less damage than your standard third level Fireball on any given turn which is ridiculous. Toss in that this is just a beam which can be hard to get multiple enemies with and you have a pretty awful damage spell.
7th Level Spells
S Tier
Teleport – The titular teleportation spell is unsurprisingly the best of the bunch. While there is a chance of something going wrong when you use it, this is powerful enough and consistent enough to be a staple for any Sorcerer.
A Tier
Crown of Stars – Although this does take a few turns to get its full effect, this is just an effective damage spell that doesn’t need Concentration and can be set up ahead of time.
B Tier
Plane Shift – If you need to get real far away from something, this definitely does the job by bringing you to a different plane without any chance of mishap. The downside though is that all the creatures have to be touching in order for this to work which may not make this viable as an escape spell.
Reverse Gravity – This is a massive AOE effect with a 50 foot radius and a really powerful effect as those who fail the save will helplessly float up. There is ambiguity in what happens with those who pass the save as it’s described as them holding onto an object to prevent them from flying upwards. Does this require them to have a free hand? Are they restrained? Incapacitated? It’s unclear if there is a negative effect to passing the save, so there is DM interpretation involved. Besides that, there is the issue that, at this point in the campaign, a good amount of enemies will have movement other than walking which does invalidate this spell. However, against the right group, this can end an encounter nearly immediately.
C Tier
Etherealness – This is an interesting spell as this is kind of a combined escape/scouting/infiltration spell as anyone and anything on the material plane won’t be able to interact or perceive you (without some serious magical aid) giving this a lot of utility. The issue is this only affects you, and it’s hard to imagine many scenarios in which you’re escaping or infiltrating by yourself.
D Tier
Delayed Blast Fireball – On an initial look, this is just an upcast Fireball that also requires Concentration which is obviously terrible. Obviously though, you’d only cast this spell if you can charge it up to get that extra damage. The issue is how many scenarios will you have the knowledge that you’ll be in a fight within a minute and can start charging this up, as you obviously can’t afford to wait too long in combat. This is simply much too situational.
Finger of Death – A single target and Constitution based saving throw is pretty rough and it being barely better than Disintegrate , which is a whole spell level lower, is not great. The one upside is that any creature that gets killed by this becomes a permanent zombie for you, so you could hypothetically slaughter a town with this and have an undead army at your disposal, but be sure to clear that with your DM first if you plan on trying that out.
Fire Storm – If you are fighting a massive amount of enemies, this can do a good job hitting a lot of them all at once. The issue is that the damage isn’t that much higher than a third level Fireball, and considering it’s going to be pretty rare you’re going to face enough enemies to effectively use this, it’s not easy to justify preparing this.
F Tier
Dream of the Blue Veil – This spell will only matter if there’s story significance to one of the material planes and is otherwise useless.
Power Word: Pain – The Power Word spells are hard to use as you won’t always know when an enemy is below 100 health, but can have pretty strong effects if you guess right. This is not a strong effect. Just giving the creature disadvantage on checks and multiple chances to break out of the effect is really weak.
Prismatic Spray – Even when buffed, the damage and effects just are not strong enough to realistically justify taking this. They could’ve pushed the damage more to make this more reliable as RNG can definitely be fun, but if you’re getting almost exclusively bad choices, then there isn’t much of a point.
8th Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
None
B Tier
Dominate Monster – A “save or suck” spell at eighth level is definitely a big risk as using and failing is terrible value, and there is the other issue of targets in combat with you have advantage on the Wisdom saving throw to resist this. While that may seem too risky, if you get this to work, the effect could be devastating. Imagine dominating a dragon or any similarly terrifying creature (you’ll have to work through their legendary resistance first more than likely, but still)? This can easily trivialize an encounter if this works making it the very definition of high risk, high reward.
C Tier
Demiplane – This is a weird spell as you can create an indefinite and mobile safe area or store house on demand as you can keep going back to the same plane if you so desire. You don’t necessarily need to be too creative to get good use out of this, but it’s hard to say how often you’d need to use this.
Incendiary Cloud – While this is a juiced up Cloudkill, this still isn’t that impressive. It is better damage, a better save, and a better damage type, but is still pretty weak for an eighth level spell. Worst of all, creatures only take additional damage if they end their turn there versus whenever they enter or start a turn there. There is still use to this, but it’s not exciting.
Power Word: Stun – The Power Word spells are hard to use as you won’t always know when an enemy is below 150 health, but can have pretty strong effects if you guess right. Stunning an enemy is pretty strong as you get auto-crits which is clearly strong if they are already low on health. The issue is that they get a Constitution save at the end of each turn which makes this pretty easy to beat, but you will get a turn with it.
Sunburst – This has a large AOE, but the damage is low for the level and uses Constitution saving throws on the initial damage and followup blindness, so this is far from ideal for a damage spell.
D Tier
Earthquake – Unless your enemies are hiding in a building you’re looking to potentially destroy, this spell isn’t that helpful. The AOE of huge and if you could consistently make the fissures extremely deep so enemies take maximum falling damage, this would be pretty solid, but as is, it’s very niche in application.
F Tier
Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting – Small AOE, Constitution saving throw, and very low damage for the level.
9th Level Spells
S Tier
Wish – Just the best spell in the game, hands down. You can do a lot of crazy stuff with this as you are calling on the power of gods to make stuff happen.
A Tier
Meteor Swarm – The highest damage dealing spell in the game.
B Tier
Psychic Scream – As a damage spell, this pales in comparison to Meteor Swarm which deals substantially more damage over a much greater area (Warlocks don’t get Meteor Swarm of course, but it’s good to compare). That said, this is an Intelligence saving throw which is likely to be low for most people and stuns anyone who fails it. If you believe you’re going to be in a longer fight, stunning can definitely be more helpful than the extra damage as you’ll get auto-criticals, and a melee class can definitely deal some stupid damage if they always critical.
Time Stop – You’d think getting between 2-5 turns would be better, but that’s still just ok compared to what you can do at this level.
C Tier
Blade of Disaster – This spell is definitely incredibly strong, but still pales in comparison to what other ninth level spells can do. That being said, a bonus action spell that can deal a lot of damage over the course of a fight is very strong.
Gate – This is a very weird spell that has a lot of uses. The classic use of this spell is to teleport yourself to a different plane of existence, but it has a lot of other implications as well. You can forcibly summon a creature that’s on a different plane and it doesn’t even get a saving throw – you can use this to set up traps beforehand and absolutely obliterate it if you please. You could even use this to transport a lot of stuff to do a different plane, like water or lava. Although this has a lot of uses, they are all still fairly niche making this spell somewhat hard to use.
Mass Polymorph – Instead of getting one creature that’s equivalent to the target’s level or CR, you get up to 10 targets, but only get half the CR per level if you’re targeting yourself and allies. If you’re using this against enemies, you have better offensive options, and if you’re using this on allies, you’d be better off with True Polymorph. Still, this effect has its use and is quite powerful.
D Tier
Power Word: Kill – This spell realistically exists just so a DM can strike fear in player’s hearts when they’re still lower level. If you already have an enemy at 100 health or below, you can probably just kill them with something else rather than banking on being right on how much health they have left. That said, this does at least deal some damage if they are above 100 health, but again, you may as well just use something else.
F Tier
None
