The Top 5 Most Buffed and Nerfed Spells in One D&D

One D&D has brought a lot of changes in general, but one of the most impacted areas were the spells! So many spells were added and changed that spell lists almost look unrecognizable from 5th edition even though this is only supposed to be an update on it! With that in mind, here are the 5 most buffed and nerfed spells coming out of One D&D.

Honorable Mention: Legend Lore

Legend Lore has changed a bit in the new edition as instead of needing to be of “legendary importance”, the target of the spell just has to be relatively famous. That is definitely a lower bar for those looking to utilize this spell as some DMs could be pretty stringent on what legendary means. However, that’s not even the buff I want to talk about for this spell. So like before, if the target of Legend Lore isn’t important enough, the spell fails. However, now when the spell fails, you hear a sad trombone noise. If that isn’t a massive buff to the spell, I don’t know what is.

Buffed: Augury (Honorable Mention Divination)

This buff definitely flew under the radar, but I think it is a pretty substantial buff! So while the spell may look the same, there is one crucial difference – rather than the cumulative 25% chance giving you a random reading, you instead get no reading at all. While that may be a small change (and much easier on the DM which I like), now you know that all questions asked are going to be accurate. I didn’t like using Augury more than once per day as even the 25% chance of getting bad information was scary, but now you’ll be able to ask multiple questions a day on average for absolutely free. If that’s not a buff to an information gathering spell, I don’t know what would be.

Shout out to Divination which has the same change, but constantly having the 25gp spell component can be a bit annoying.

Nerfed: Armor of Agathys

While still likely a staple of Warlocks, the nerf to Armor of Agathys is pretty brutal. This was an excellent defense mechanism for Warlocks as it gave you a bit of a health buffer, and if that ran out and enemies were still whacking you, they got damaged back. However, now that this spell runs out when you don’t have any temporary health, it is substantially more fragile. This does make temporary health spells/abilities better to keep this running, but it breaking on one big attack is a scary prospect. Gone are the days where you had this for a full hour no matter what.

Buffed: Conjure Celestial

Like all the conjure spells, these have been changed massively as they are no longer summoning spells, but an AOE or Emanation effect. In 5e, Conjure Celestial was a super middling summoning option, but now, it’s a large pillar that shreds enemies while healing your allies! While the damage nor healing is that impactful, if you can keep everyone collected inside of it, both will add up super fast making this an extremely high impact spell.

Nerfed: Counterspell

The nerfs here are pretty rough, and while I’m still thinking that it’s going to be a staple for parties to have, I can see the nerfs causing Counterspell to fall out of fashion. Giving the target a save is already rough, but making it Constitution? Jeez louise. The saving grace there is that most casters won’t have great Constitution, but still. Then, even if this works, they don’t even lose the spell slot! This is probably more relevant for players than for monsters as getting Counterspelled as a player feels really bad, but these changes will probably feel worse.

Buffed: Enthrall

In 5e, Enthrall was horrendous. A second level spells lot to potentially give disadvantage on Perception checks is such a bad deal as that’s not nearly impactful enough. I mean compare that to Pass Without Trace and it’s obvious how rough this spell was. Thankfully, this was rectified as now the spell operates pretty much the same way, but instead, gives all affected targets a -10 to Perception rather than disadvantage. This is a world of difference, and while this is still definitely much weaker than Pass Without Trace (as even just one of the targets passing can make this problematic), this is a decent alternative if your party doesn’t have someone who can cast Pass Without Trace.

Nerfed: Forcecage

Another absolute massacre for a spell, but unlike Counterspell, this is 100% deserved. Forcecage was ridiculous as you functionally just locked someone out of combat and it was extremely difficult to get out since any teleportation could be thwarted. The best (or worst) part? No concentration! That is so much for a seventh level spell. Sure, players love casting this, but having this cast against you was so miserable. Now this requires concentration (thank god) and consumes a 1000gp component whenever you use it making it a usable spell, but not nearly as obnoxious as it was before.

Buffed: Ray of Sickness

In 5e, Ray of Sickness was rough. There were two points of failure as first you needed to make a ranged spell attack, and if that succeeds, then the target has to make a Constitution saving throw or they are poisoned. All that work for not even that strong of an effect is always rough. Now, it’s just the ranged spell attack to get both. Much cleaner, and so much stronger as this is a relatively reliable way of applying the poisoned condition now.

Nerfed: Simulacrum

Yet another absolutely broken spell getting hit, but the changes here are much simpler, your Simulacrum can’t short or long rest anymore. Simulacrums never gained health back from these rests, but they got to recharge abilities which could be particularly strong on classes that had strong abilities like Divination Wizard. Simulacrum is still great, but now you have to be much more disciplined in when to use their abilities compared to 5e which I think is a net positive for the spell, even if it makes it weaker.

Buffed: True Strike

Going from the literal worst spell in the game all the way to a very solid one, True Strike easily has the largest change between where it was and where it is. While I do think this spell is a bit overhyped, being able to gain bonuses to your attack and damage based on your spellcasting modifier is a pretty potent ability. Furthermore, this doesn’t specify that it has to be a melee spell attack, so there are interesting builds with ranged weapons instead which just adds to the versatility of the spell. A great change as this will finally see some use.

Nerfed: Spiritual Weapon

For the final biggest nerf of the article, we have the sad case of Spiritual Weapon. Even in 5e, Spiritual Weapon was a very misunderstood spell as many (myself included) thought it was a great option as it was cheap, didn’t require concentration, and would smack enemies in combat. However, the damage it dealt was not particularly good for the spell level, and if it had to chase enemies around the battlefield, then Spiritual Weapon would be next to useless considering how slow it was. In a realistic sense, this spell was already not great, but now you have to concentrate on it? That makes this nearly unusable and was unfortunately a victim of perceived power rather than actual power.