History TabletopGame / DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition

** Generally speaking, most spells have a Verbal or Somantic Component that must be performed to cast it. Preventing a spellcaster from speaking loudly and clearly removes the verbal component, and binding a spellcaster's hands prevents the somantic component. And if a spell also requires a Material component (either a channeling focus or a consumable item), then this can be blocked by simply removing the item(s) from the caster's possession. For all her incredible powers, a witch can be easily subdued by gagging her mouth, tying her hands up in rope, and taking away her precious magic wand.

** The common saying goes in regards to the Sleep spell that when it puts 28 hit points worth of monster to sleep. That 28 HP can mean five kobolds, or zero trolls. Sleep is incredibly useful in the very early game, but its usefulness drops off quickly when monsters start getting into double-digit health.

* ''Sigil and the Outlands'' (Not yet released, anticipated 2023)
* ''Morte's Planar Parade'' (Not yet released, anticipated 2023)

* ''Turn of Fortune's Wheel'' (Not yet released, anticipated 2023)

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' (video game, 2020, DistantSequel to the ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' series based on ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons2ndEdition'')

* ''Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse'' (Not yet released, anticipated 2023)

* Unnamed {{TabletopGame/Planescape}}-related adventure (Not yet released, anticipated 2024)

''Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition'' (2014-present) is the fifth[[SequelNumberSnarl -ish]] edition of the TabletopRPG ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Developed under the title "D&D Next", Fifth Edition was an attempt by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast to recapture and unite some of the [[BrokenBase fractured fanbase]] after the divisiveness of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition''. The basic mechanics resemble a mixture of [[TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons2ndEdition the second]] and [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition third editions]], with some 4e influences.

[[folder:Official Dungeon Masters Guild material]]

* AlternateContinuity: Zigzagged. Fifth Edition has largely reverted to the traditional Great Wheel cosmology, seen in the first three ditions of the game. However, it has altered the layout of the Wheel with the incorporation of the [[LandOfFaerie Feywild]], [[DarkWorld Shadowfell]] and [[PrimordialChaos Elemental Chaos]] planes from the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition World Axis cosmology]], and many more subtle lore details have also been changed.

** Some Feats suffer from being really cool on paper, but not very helpful in practice due to being overly specific,. For example: Keen Mind on paper sounds really strong (+1 Intelligence, always know which direction north is, easier ability to remember time, and the ability to accurately recall anything seen/heard up to a month ago), but most of the abilities are so specific in use, that a player would rarely find a chance to use them. Having the ability to know these facts is certainly neat, and can help give a character more personality, but other Feats can provide more utility, or just take the base Ability Score Improvement instead.

** The ''Chef'' feat, from ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', allows the character to cook special food which makes the allies recover more HP from their Hit Dice on a short rest. Alternatively, they can cook a number of treats which give anyone who eats them a small amount of temporary hit points.

** ''All'' adult dragons have access to an aura of fear that can send characters within 120 feet of them into a panic.

* CriticalHitClass: In D&D 5th Edition, the Champion subclass for the Fighter is twice as likely as everyone else to deal a critical hit with an attack, and thrice as likely at later levels. The Rogue's Assassin subclass deals a critical hit every time they hit an enemy that is surprised, and (combined with Sneak Attack dice) as such have some of the most extreme burst damage in the game. Barbarians can use Reckless Attack to gain advantage on attack rolls, increasing their chances of dealing a critical hit, and their Brutal Critical feature adds extra damage dice to each critical hit.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: For spells that require material components, spellcasters can either replace them with a spellcasting focus (a wand, a crystal ball, etc.) or a component pouch, which is assumed to contain all the components necessary. With components that are rarer and valuable, the books suggest that players can just remove the amount of money it costs, rather than having to spend time seeking them out.
* ActionInitiative: Similarily to previous editions, turn order is determined by an Initiative roll. Players roll a [=d20=] each, and add their Initiative bonus, which is the same as Dexterity to begin with, but can be increased with certain feats, spells, etc.

** ''Fireball'' becomes this after a time. Yes, the spell does obscene damage over a big blast radius, but when you first get it you have few spell slots to use it when you also have the more ubiquitously useful ''counterspell'' and ''dispel magic''. After Level 10, many monsters have fire resistances and immunities which cut into the poorly scaling damage. Also, Fifth Edition doesn't have FriendlyFireproof when it comes to spell damage, which could potentially mean a TotalPartyKill in the wrong situation. So while ''fireball'' is a DiscOneNuke, it's not really worth using at higher levels.
** ''True strike'' is a cantrip that allows casters to make an attack against a creature with Advantage (so you roll your to-hit dice twice and take the higher number). But ''true strike'' requires an Action to cast, and requires Concentration to maintain. And if the enemy targeted is killed by another player, moves out of range or line of sight, or your Concentration is broken (usually by an enemy hitting ''you'' while you're too busy thinking about how you're going to wallop your enemy) then it fails. Hmm, couldn't you just... attack twice instead? For double the potential damage output?

** The Deck of Many Things. Ostensibly, drawing the right card can be a GameBreaker; drawing the Sun card grants fifty thousand experience points and a free Wondrous Item, the Moon card grants one to three uses of Wish, and the Star card increases any one of your ability scores by two. At the same time, you might also pull cards that summon an Avatar of Death which you [[DuelBoss have to fight alone]], destroy all your magic items, permanently lower your Intelligence, or trap your soul in some random gem somewhere in the world. Pulling a card from the Deck almost certainly makes a campaign go OffTheRails, for better or for worse. For this reason, it's almost never worth it to try a draw [[GodzillaThreshold unless you're really desperate]].[[invoked]]
** Some Feats suffer from being really cool on paper, but not very helpful in the long run due to being overly specific, or not very helpful in most situations. For example: Keen Mind on paper sounds really strong (+1 Intelligence, always know where north is, easier ability to remember time, and the ability to accurately recall anything seen/heard up to a month), but most of the abilities are so specific in use, that a player would rarely find a chance to use them. Having the ability to know these facts is certainly neat, and can help give a character more personality, but other Feats can provide more utility, or just take the base Ability Score Improvement instead.

* RuleZero: Discussed. Generally speaking, the DM has final say on anything that happens in the campaign; they determine what the players roll, how often they roll, and resolve any disputes between the players and the rules. While it's a meme in D&D circles that one player always [[RulesLawyer insists on following the rules as written]] [[{{Munchkin}} only when it benefits him]], the DM is the ultimate authority for their world. There's even notes on the Dungeon Master's Guide in Chapter 9 about how to apply this, as well as general advice on how to be a good DM.

* CarryABigStick: The Maul deals the most damage of any single weapon (tied with the Greatsword, which is identical mechanics-wise aside from damage type). It's the heaviest weapon in the game aside from the [[BladeOnAStick Pike]].

* ''Vault of the Dragonlich'' (2013)

* ''Return to Glory'' (2020)

* ''Muk's Guide to Everything He learned from Tasha'' (2020)

* ''Astral Adventurer's Guide'' (2022)
* ''Boo's Astral Menagerie'' (2022)

* ''TabletopGame/LostMineOfPhandelver'' (2014, part of a starter set)
* ''TabletopGame/TyrannyOfDragons'' (2014, divided into ''Hoard of the Dragon Queen'' and ''Rise of Tiamat'')

* ''Dragon of Icespire Peak'' (2019)

* ''Light of Xaryxis'' (2022)
* ''Dragons of Stormwreck Isle'' (2022, part of a starter set)

* GoldSilverCopperStandard: D&D is one of the early trope codifiers. Prices are usually listed in g.p., unless they're small prices, in which case they're listed in s.p. or c.p.. The exchange rates are as follows:

* ''Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen'' (2022)

The overall power levels have been reduced: the max level cap is 20 ''period'', magic items are much more rare and do not scale in levels, and the bonuses/penalties to an action seldom, if ever, break double digits. Stacking modifiers have been replaced with a simple advantage/disadvantage system where the character with the advantage/disadvantage rolls two dice for the action and picks the higher/lower die. Magic spells with durations are now 'concentration' type, meaning a magic user can ever only have one such spell active at any time. Most major, world-altering magics are rituals that take minutes if not hours to cast. Each class is now firmly wedded to a single character concept, with subclasses and backgrounds being used to diversify characters.

Fan response has been very positive, with some praising the return to a more roleplaying-based system based on in-universe-justified abilities as well as its streamlining of overly-complex rules and reducing character options to a more manageable level that makes it easier for newcomers to the hobby to learn it. However, complaints exist about a lack of character options on release, a feeling that the game has returned to LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards, poor and slow post-launch support compared to the prior editions, backlash from Rangers and Sorcerer players due to changes from prior editions that make them weaker, and less intricate character building compared to 3rd edition. Despite those complaints, it's been seen as a triumph by long time fans, and has been been a major reason for D&D's resurgence in the 2010s and beyond.

In an effort to get the game in as many hands as possible, Wizards has released "Basic Rules" [=PDFs=] containing a fully functional subset of the full rules for free via their website. The idea is that one can use them to play basic games using the four archetypical races (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human) and classes (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard), while the full array of character options, monsters, and variant mechanics are available in the core rule books.

''Unearthed Arcana'' made a return in February 2015 as a monthly R&D Workshop article instead of its own supplement book. Just like the "Basic Rules", the ''Unearthed Arcana'' articles are available for free on the Wizards website. The articles are explicitly stated to be "written in pencil, not ink", meaning that the contents are still a work-in-progress until they're officially released in sourcebooks.

On August 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced that they're working on "the next evolution" of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' by updating and expanding the Fifth Edition ruleset while still being [[UsefulNotes/BackwardsCompatibility backwards compatible]] with Fifth Edition content. This project is code-named '''''[[https://www.dndbeyond.com/one-dnd One D&D]]''''' and is set to release in 2024, with [[https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/one-dnd various playtests]] running in 2022 and '23.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'': (video game, entered Early Access 2020, DistantSequel to the ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' series based on ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons2ndEdition'')

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Subverted hard time. Any player or DM should be familiar with the Action Economy, which dictates that in any match between roughly equal opponents, whichever side can take more turns are going to win easily. It can be played straight by monsters or players who can dish out more than one attack on their turn, but, as a rule of thumb, the side with the numerical advantage tends to punch above their weight.
* ContractualBossImmunity: Monsters that are considered Legendary get a special trait called Legendary Resistance, which lets them NoSell between one and five saving throws a day. This is intended as a counter against the memetic solution of "polymorph the dragon into a frog" and similar save-or-suck spells. This makes boss encounter enemies harder to take down, but also means a party fighting it will be gradually weakening it; a monster using all its Legendary Resistances usually means the party is likely to win.

** And in 5e there's the literal spell ''counterspell'', which requires a check based on the level of the spell being countered. Noteworthy is that you ''can'' use ''counterspell'' on another caster's ''counterspell'', saving the original spell from being countered. ''Dispel magic'' is similar, but only for continuous magical effects and can't be used as a reaction.

* NoGearLevel: Stripping gear tends to occur if you get captured or contained. In 5th Edition this reduces characters to their most basic, infinitely-usable spells and attacks unless the character has gone out of its way to learn, prepare, or equip abilities that don't require gear, but the game is designed around those basic abilities being reasonably viable in combat and navigation.

* WeaponsGradeVocabulary: ''Vicious mockery'' is a bard-exclusive cantrip that inflicts a small amount of damage and imposes a debuff on the target. The target doesn't even need to speak the same language as the Bard for ''vicious mockery'' to work.

''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Fifth Edition'' (2014-current) was developed under the title ''D&D Next'' and officially launched in 2014. Fifth Edition was an attempt by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast to recapture and unite some of the fractured fanbase after the divisiveness of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition''. The basic mechanics resemble a mixture of ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons2ndEdition'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'' with some influences by ''Fourth Edition''.

The overall power levels have been reduced: the max level cap is 20 ''period'', magic items are much more rare and do not scale in levels, and the bonuses/penalties to an action seldom, if ever, break double digits. Stacking modifiers have been replaced with a simple advantage/disadvantage system where the character with the advantage/disadvantage rolls two dice for the action and picks the higher/lower die. Magic spells with durations are now 'concentration' type, meaning a magic user can ever only have one such spell active at any time. Most major, world-altering magics are rituals that take minutes if not hours and days to cast. Each class is now firmly wedded to a single character concept, with class archetypes and character backgrounds (representing social class and upbringing) chosen at creation being used to hybridize characters.

Most post-creation exclusives are gone, but multiclassing has been returned to 3rd edition standards and feats are completely optional, although they are fewer in number but much more powerful and robust than before. Roleplaying and flavor have been increased in importance, with the old 2nd edition alignment system restored and canonical D&D characters from related media being used as examples of their respective classes, alignments and backgrounds. Pinning down the primary world for Fifth Edition is a bit dodgy: while the core books are mostly written in a multiverse view and are near-completely adaptable to any setting, all of the official Adventurer's League material for organized play is primarily set in the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''.

Fan response has been very positive, with some praising the return to a more roleplaying-based system based on in-universe-justified abilities as well as its streamlining of overly-complex rules and reducing character options to a more manageable level that makes it easier for newcomers to the hobby to learn it. However, complaints exist about a lack of character options on release, a feeling that the game has returned to LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards, poor and slow post-launch support compared to the prior editions, backlash from Rangers and Sorcerer players due to changes from prior editions that make them weaker, and less intricate character building compared to 3rd edition. Despite those complaints, it's been seen as a triumph by long time fans, and has been been a major reason for the resurgence in the game in the modern period.

'''''Unearthed Arcana''''' made a return in February 2015 as a monthly R&D Workshop article instead of its own supplement book. Just like the "Basic Rules", the ''Unearthed Arcana'' articles are available for free on the Wizards website. The articles are explicitly stated to be "written in pencil, not ink", meaning that the contents are still a work-in-progress until they're officially released in sourcebooks.

On August 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced that they're working on "the next evolution" of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' by updating and expanding upon the Fifth Edition ruleset while still being [[UsefulNotes/BackwardsCompatibility backwards compatible]] with Fifth Edition adventure modules and sourcebooks, code-named '''''[[https://www.dndbeyond.com/one-dnd One D&D]]'''''. ''One D&D'' is set to release around 2024, with playtesting being available from August 2022 until the end of 2023.

* ''Planescape'' (Not yet released, anticipated 2023)

* ''Phandelver Campaign'' (Not yet released, anticipated 2023, ExpansionPack of ''Lost Mine of Phandelver'')

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'': Developed by Creator/LarianStudios as the DistantSequel to Creator/{{Interplay}}'s series of ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons2ndEdition'' [=CRPGs=].

* AbilityDepletionPenalty: Many {{Magic Wand}}s' and staff's powers draw on a pool of charges that regenerates over time. However, whenever the charges are completely emptied, there's a small chance that the item will be permanently ruined. This stands in contrast to their traditional depiction in D&D, where charges steadily depleted until the item was completely useless, barring certain meta methodologies.
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: Like many other editions of ''D&D'', the maximum level for a player character is 20. For most of Fifth Edition's official game modules and content, a character starts at level 1 and will end up at around level 15 if they make it all the way to the end without dying. The expectation after that is that the party will want to start another module with new level 1 characters; official published material for characters above level 15 is practically nonexistent. The power level of monsters tends to be [[SchizophrenicDifficulty very erratic at higher levels]], given that high-level monsters have increasing numbers of abilities that simply kill the target outright [[NoSavingThrow that can't be defended against]], on top of having very high HP, armor, and damage outputs. For all these reasons, getting a character to level 20 is vanishingly uncommon.

** Arguably, a lot of feats are simply not as good as just taking a ASI to raise a stat that makes your class features better. For example, Tough, a feat that gives your character an additional 40HP over the course of their adventuring career (assuming you play them from Level 1 all the way to Level 20, which is very rare) sounds useful... but you can also achieve the same by instead just raising your Constitution by four points, but also raise your saving throw too - Tough doesn't do anything to help you resist poison, maintain Concentration on a crucial spell, stave off Exhaustion, etc.

*** Tough gives +2 HP for every level you have when you take it, as well as increasing HP by an additional two points every level up. These feats are especially good at low levels when it is quite easy to die.

** ''Conjure Celestial'' summons a powerful angelic being that's friendly and cooperative, so long as the summoner's instructions don't conflict with its CharacterAlignment, presumably because the summoner is usually a [[ReligionIsMagic powerful divine spellcaster]] themself.

** The "Power Word" spells have NoSavingThrow because they're dependent on how much HP the target has left. If they have below a certain threshold of HP (which depends on the spell), the spell works to its full effect; if the target's HP is at or above the threshold, then it does nothing at all. These can result in disadvantage on saving throws, making the target lose turns, or instantly killing them. But the HP threshold means keeping careful track of the target's status for them to be useful. (The only exception to this is Power Word Heal; it doesn't depend on how much HP the target has, but that's because it completely restores a target's health and cures most negative status effects.)

** The Elk grants mobility. Barbarians who follow this path gain a bonus to movement speed when their [[UnstoppableRage Barbarian Rage]] ability is used, the ability to cover more ground when travelling long distance on foot, and a charging attack that can knock enemies prone.

** Resurrection mechanics mean DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist for a PlayerCharacter that's been around long enough to get attached to. Fifth Edition downgraded the ResurrectionSickness side effect from previous editions from a LevelDrain to a temporary penalty on dice rolls. Fifth Edition also has the ''Revivify spell'', which avoids most Resurrection Sickness penalties as long as it's cast within one minute of the target dying. Being ReducedToDust or [[OffWithHisHead having one's head cut off]] still needs the higher level resurrection spells to bring back, but at least it's possible to bring people back with relatively little fuss.

** The spells Conjure Celestial and Conjure Fey summon powerful magical [=NPC=]s that bow all of your orders to a letter unless those orders violate their InUniverse CharacterAlignment. For example, a good-aligned unicorn will use its healing touch whenever you tell it to, but it won't burn down an orphanage full of terminally ill puppies, because that'd be evil.
** Conjure Elemental is a concentration spell that summons a strong elemental, but if you lose concentration on the spell the elemental does not disappear. Instead, it becomes hostile to you and takes whatever actions it chooses.
** Summon Greater Demon and Infernal Calling summon powerful fiends, but you need to make repeated charisma checks versus their insight (Infernal Calling) or the fiend will make charisma saves at the end of each of its turns (Summon Greater Demon). If the fiend succeeds, it no longer has to obey you and can do whatever it wishes for a certain number of rounds before it disappears.

** Fireball becomes this after a time. Yes, the spell does obscene damage over a big blast radius, but when you first get it you have few spell slots to use it when you also have the more ubiquitously useful Counterspell and Dispel Magic. After Level 10, many monsters have fire resistances and immunities which cut into the poorly scaling damage. Also, Fifth Edition doesn't have FriendlyFireproof when it comes to spell damage, which could potentially mean a TotalPartyKill in the wrong situation. So while Fireball is a DiscOneNuke, it's not really worth using at higher levels.
** True Strike is a cantrip that allows casters to make an attack against a creature with Advantage (so you roll your to-hit dice twice and take the higher number). But True Strike requires an Action to cast, and requires Concentration to maintain. And if the enemy targeted is killed by another player, moves out of range or line of sight, or your Concentration is broken (usually by an enemy hitting ''you'' while you're too busy thinking about how you're going to wallop your enemy) then it fails. Hmm, couldn't you just... attack twice instead? For double the potential damage output?
** The Druid-exclusive spell Goodberry summons ten magical berries into the hand that each recover 1HP when consumed, and satiates one person for an entire day. It has a very low resource cost being a 1st Level spell, lets the party save some money that would otherwise be spent on rations, and all it takes is 1HP recovered to prevent a dying character from bleeding out. It's like having the ability to make [[Anime/DragonBallZ Senzu beans]]. Zee Bashew of ''Animated Spellbook'' recommends introducing a "Goodberry consumes its material component" house-rule to prevent the spell becoming an utter GameBreaker in survival-focused campaigns.

** Most Wizards and Sorcerers swear by Magic Missile. The damage is low, but it's an AlwaysAccurateAttack that ignores damage resistance. Plus it's a 1st level spell, so you have plenty of slots for it. There are a few spells that can block Magic Missile, but they tend to [[CripplingOverspecialization only block Magic Missile and nothing else]].
** Many "utility" spells, like Water Breathing and Transmute Rock, have no use against enemies in battles but are absolutely useful in solving problems the party faces outside combat. Very basic spells like Light and Detect Magic are vital even at high level play.

** Hold Person, especially in 5e. It can't kill anyone on its own and only targets humanoids, but most humanoids lack the high Wisdom that makes it difficult for Hold Monster to work on actual monsters. It also lacks a weakness of Tasha's Hideous Laughter, which does the same thing but gives the target a saving throw every time it takes damage; Hold Person simply paralyzes someone with no chance to break out if they're hit. At 2nd level, it's a cheap spell to use, but it paralyzes an enemy, meaning that any physical attacks against it are an automatic crit, allowing everyone else to tear them apart while the enemy can do nothing about it.
** Going more into combat utility spells, Fog Cloud, Sleet Storm, and most of the various Wall spells don't directly do damage, but utterly change the battlefield, mostly to the caster's favor. Simply obscuring an enemy's sight goes a long way towards stopping them from attacking you and as Fog Cloud and Sleet Storm produce 'heavily obscured terrain,' enemies who taunt you with Darkvision or Truesight suddenly find themselves ''completely clueless'' as to what to do. Other good battle utility spells include Erupting Earth for the difficult terrain produced, Reverse Gravity for the fact it sticks enemies in specific spots, and Maelstrom, which pulls enemies towards a whirlpool.
** Force damage. Very few creatures across the entire cosmology resist force damage, and some spells like Magic Missile are designed to be an ArmorPiercingAttack that hits no matter what. However, nothing is weak to force damage, you can't get critical hits with it, and there tends to be some sort of caveat to spells that use it -- Magic Missile does very little damage, and [[AllOrNothing Disintegrate will do absolutely nothing if the target passes the saving throw]]. The result is an element that gives casters spells which provide unremarkable but consistent damage.
** Among cantrips, there is Eldritch Blast, a staple spell of many a Warlock. Eldritch Blast is a simple force-elemental spell where the caster sends out a bolt of magic to damage the enemy, and yet it's one of the most powerful and useful cantrips in the entire game. Eldritch Blast scales well with level -- at its strongest, it's [=4d10=] damage at no cost with an element that practically nothing is immune to. And with Warlocks having so many ways of buffing their spells with Eldritch Invocations, you can basically make a Warlock who has this cantrip as a go-to spell, even if other spells have stronger effects or more utility.
** Also among cantrips, the Bard has Vicious Mockery. Its damage is quite weak -- at its strongest, Vicious Mockery only does [=4d4=] psychic damage, and there's quite a few high-level monsters that are immune to psychic damage for one reason or another. However, the target doesn't have to understand the Bard for Vicious Mockery to work, and it causes the target to have disadvantage on its next attack roll. And since giving an enemy a very good chance at missing with its attack is useful at any level, expect a Bard to always have it in their back pocket.

*** Circle of Land Druids lack the fancy abilities of other Druid subclasses - their chief competitor from the PHB, the Circle of Moon Druid, can turn into more powerful animals making them a DiscOneNuke. Land Druids instead get eight free spell preparations to keep in their back pocket, ready to cast whenever needed (and many of these spells are not on the normal Druid spell list and are quite potent - Mountain Druids can nick ''Passwall'' spell from the Wizard spell list, as just one example), the ability to regain spells on short rests like Wizards do, and a bunch of passive defensive features to boot. At the capstone level, Land Druids can move through difficult terrain, are immune to poisons (one of the most common damage types in the game), diseases and the Charmed and Frightened effects, and gain advantage on ignoring movement-limiting effects like ''Entangle''. All this doesn't have quite the same "wow" factor at the table as turning into a dinosaur or a flaming entity, but you could do much worse.
*** Draconic Bloodline Sorcerers get one extra HP point per level as part of their subclass feature, and a built-in AC boost equivalent to permanent Mage Armour. Given that Mage Armour is pretty much a must-take for Sorcerers, freeing up a valuable spell choice (and spell slot) to become the toughest of your ilk has got to be the definition of ''Boring, but Practical''. There's also the Divine Soul Sorcerer, which hasn't really got any special class features... except being able to ''[[TheRedMage learn spells from the Cleric spell list]]'', [[TheRedMage and improve their healing spells with Metamagic to make them some of the best in the game]]. In another way, Sorcerers have a boring but crucial advantage over other spellcasters in that they get Constitution saving throw proficiency as standard - Wizards may mock Sorcerers for lacking the same spell options and sheer versatility, but keep that in mind when you fail a Concentration check while soaring 100 feet in the air with Fly or guarding with Stoneskin when you ''really'' cannot afford to take any more damage.

* ColdFlames: The ''Continual Flame'' spell creates a permanent fire that doesn't burn or use oxygen and is used to make ''Everlasting Torches''.
* CompellingVoice: The spell ''Suggestion'' enables the caster to influence the mind of their target towards a given action. It has to be a reasonable action, thus a "suggestion".

** And in 5e there's the literal spell Counterspell, which requires a check based on the level of the spell being countered. Noteworthy is that you ''can'' use Counterspell on another caster's Counterspell, saving the original spell from being countered. Dispel Magic is similar, but only for continuous magical effects and can't be used as a reaction.
** 5e also has the spell Antimagic Field, which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Spells can't be cast in the field, all magic stops working in the field, any magic that tries to enter it instantly vanishes, teleportation to and from the field is impossible, and magic-summoned creatures briefly wink out of existence while they're within the field. Of course, this also prevents the caster from using anything else, since the field is focused on them. And since it can only be cast by a Wizard or a Cleric, this means depriving yourself of black magic and white magic until the field goes away. But if you're up against an enemy who's throwing out magic left and right, it's startlingly effective.

** The Hunter's Mark and Hex spells both make an afflicted creature take extra damage from the caster's attacks for the duration of the spell. If the victim dies before the spell wears off, the caster can transfer the effect to a new victim.

** The Elemental Bane spell makes the target more vulnerable to a damage type of the caster's choice. It does this in two ways: it makes the target take an extra 2d6 damage of the chosen type the first time it takes such damage on a turn, and it negates the target's [[DamageReduction resistance]] (if any) to that damage type.
* DamageOverTime: The "Heat Metal" spell, which is damage every turn that a creature is in contact with whatever's been super-heated by magic.

* DiscardAndDraw: A pyromancy-focused character may have to chose between the two most powerful 3rd level damage spells, Fireball and Minute Meteors, for their 3rd level spellslot. Fireball deals massive damage in an area, making it the most efficient damage spell in the game. Minute Meteors deals a bit more damage, and can be aimed more accurately to avoid hitting allies, but can only do half the damage of Fireball on each round, requiring three rounds to take full effect. Additionally, whereas Fireball deals damage all at once, with only one chance for a saving throw, Minute Meteors deals damage in six smaller bursts, each requiring a saving throw that the enemy may succeed on.

** Fireball. [=8d6=] damage in an area is amazing for a while, able to clear out a lot of mobs of {{mook}}s with a single cast. As time goes on, that damage starts scaling pretty badly compared to a lot of other spells, and many enemies have fire resistance (or even immunity) at higher levels, causing the utility of Fireball to fall of around the mid-point of a campaign.

** The Gate spell opens a magical portal to another plane of existence where a powerful entity waits. A person who acts quickly can pass through the Gate to the other plane. Problem: when you get to the other plane you're in the presence of the powerful entity, who may not be pleased by your arrival.
** The spell Plane Shift allows the caster or a targeted creature to journey to another plane of existence.
** The spell Rope Trick allows anyone to climb a rope and enter into an extradimensional space, where they can hide in safety.
* ExtraDimensionalShortcut: The "Dimension Door" spell is a teleportation spell whose name suggests that it works this way. And one version of the fluff text for teleportation in general states that all such spells work by jumping in and out of the Astral Plane.
* FlamingMeteor: Played with by the Meteor Swarm spell, which conjures small "meteors" that deal bludgeoning damage on impact and ''then'' explode for fire damage.

* ForceFieldDoor: The Prismatic Wall spell creates one of these. While it's technically possible to pass through the wall, it's ill-advised; the wall causes all kinds of damage while attempting to pass through it, and it could potentially kill a hostile entity who tries by turning them to stone. It's also immune to the effects of anti-magic.

* {{Geas}}: The ''Geas'' spell forces the target to fulfill a certain condition or take 5d10 psychic damage. There's also a divine equivalent named 'quest', which pretty much functions the same way.

* HighlySpecificCounterplay: In Fifth Edition, Shield is a spell that increases the caster's armor class by five for an instant. It also specifically blocks Magic Missile (which is otherwise an AlwaysAccurateAttack).

** The spell Dominate Monster. Provided you succeed, you now have complete control over whatever's in front of you, which can be anything from a [[OurDragonsAreDifferent true dragon]] to a [[OurGiantsAreBigger Hekatonkheires.]]
** There is also the [[BodySurf Magic Jar]] spell, which can be used to takeover the body of a mighty beast, while its soul is sealed in a jar. Doing so can result in a deadly situation if the caster succeeds, as they maintain their intelligence and thought, but gain the physical powers of whatever the being was they took control over.

* InvisibilityWithDrawbacks: Most forms of invisibility available to [=PC=]s have some drawbacks to prevent abuse. The basic ''invisibility'' spell ends right after you make an attack or target someone with a spell, and items you pick up remain visible unless you can fit them in a pocket or bag. ''Greater Invisibility'' turns everything you're holding invisible and keeps you that way for a while, but anything that can be used to SeeTheInvisible will still work. Plus, creatures with truesight can just outright ignore invisibility and see you anyways.
* LaughingMad: The ''Tasha's Hideous Laughter'' spell inflicts a temporary form of this, as it prevents the target from doing anything but laughing. It ends if they succeed on a saving throw, which triggers when the creature is either attacked or reaches the end of its turn.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRules: 5th Edition subverts this. It also has the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide. There's two expansions called Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Xanathar's Guide to Everything, which provide updates and new options for monsters and player characters without really changing the rules of the game.

** Telekinesis requires there to be an object to lift or throw in the first place. If there isn't, the spell can't be cast.
** The Silence spell makes a small area magically silent. Spells that require a verbal component can't be cast in that area, and it also makes anything inside it immune to thunder damage since thunder is based on damage through loud noise.
** Several spells and abilities based on sound or speech (such as Bardic Inspiration or Vicious Mockery for a bard) require the target to be able to hear the caster in order for them to work.
** Zone of Truth makes anyone inside the zone unable to lie. However, the spell doesn't compel anyone to speak. Also, one can use something that's MetaphoricallyTrue or hinges on ExactWords to technically be telling the truth while still being vague.

** A Staff of the Woodlands can cast a number of plant- and anima-related spells, and can be planted into the ground to turn into a tree that can be turned back into the staff on command.

* MakeSomeNoise: The BoringButPractical "Silence" spell suppresses all sound in an area. It serves as the poor man's AntiMagic, since it makes {{Magical Incantation}}s impossible. In Fifth Edition, it has the extra benefit of making the area immune to thunder damage, since [[LogicalWeakness thunder damage is based on sound, which naturally wouldn't work in an area that's been made to be magically silent]]. And of course, it helps out if you're taking the stealthy approach too.
* ManOnFire: The Searing Smite and Immolation spells both set their targets on fire. The victim takes fire damage at the start of each of its turns until the spell ends.

** In previous editions, ability damage or ability drain to your Con ability was essentially this trope, because a character's maximum hitpoints are calculated from it. In 5e, however, these effects typically now reduce your maximum HP directly. While they no longer damage your Constitution itself, having your maximum HP reduced to 0 is just as deadly as having Con reduced to zero used to be. These effects ''usually'' wear off over time, but stronger ones may require magical healing (or even ''Wish'') to undo them.

** The humble {{Druid}} spell "Goodberry" creates or enchants a few berries so that each one can heal a point of damage and [[FoodPills provide a day's nourishment]].
** The mid-level "Heroes' Feast" spell [[ThePowerOfCreation creates]] a magnificent banquet that cures all poisons and diseases in the people who eat it, [[PowerUpFood among other ongoing benefits]].

** The Warlock class's signature Eldritch Blast cantrip is a popular poach for other classes like Sorcerers or Bard. Unlike other cantrips, Eldritch Blast offers additional attacks instead of additional damage dice, and the Warlock has a number of potent and useful Invocations to upgrade it further.

* NotCompletelyUseless: In 99% of cases, the cantrip ''True Strike'' is worse than worthless to cast, since the one thing it's meant to do, give advantage on your next attack, could be done better by just attacking twice, not to mention that it takes concentration that can easily be broken. However, if the battle rests and falls on a single attack connecting, having True Strike can be indispensable to get an easy advantage where you usually would have to rely on a normal roll.

** ''Fireball'' was left intentionally slightly above the powercurve as a {{Homage}} to its iconic place in D&D history. For comparison, Fireball deals 8d6 damage at once, or half that if the target succeeds their one save. Compare that to the same level spell ''Minute Meteors'', which deals 12d6, but only over three rounds, and requires the targets to fail six sepparate saves to deal full damage.

* ReducedToDust: This is the result of a [[https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Disintegrate#content Disintegrate spell]] if the target is killed by the damage. It turns them into dust and prevents regeneration, making it much harder to bring them back to life.

** The Cleric spell ''Flame Strike'' calls down a bolt of fire from the heavens that does half fire damage and half divine damage. The divine half is not subject to damage resistance to fire-based attacks.
** There is also a cantrip for Clerics literally called Sacred Flame, which deals [[LightEmUp radiant]] damage as part of the [[ReligionIsMagic magic priest's]] arsenal.

* ShadowWalker: The "Plane Shift" spell lets you travel to another dimension, where you can't target or be targeted unless you're also on the same plane.

** The Shillelagh spell causes a club to become (temporarily) magical, allowing the wielder to attack using their Wisdom instead of Strength.
** Flame Arrow, a Ranger-exclusive spell, can set a quiver of arrows on fire.
** Green-Flame Blade wreathes a melee weapon in green fire, dealing additional fire damage if you land a hit with it.
** Booming Blade puts an enchantment on a melee weapon that causes the next thing it hits to be surrounded by a shell of energy that deals Thunder damage if it moves from its spot.
** Magic Weapon slightly increases a weapon's damage and allows non-magical weapons to harm creatures that otherwise are immune to conventional weapons. Elemental Weapon does the same thing, but also causes the weapon to deal a small amount of addition damage of an elemental type.

* SphereOfDestruction: Several area of effect spells create powerful damaging effects in the shape of spheres, including Fireball, Circle of Death, Dark Star, Hunger of Hadar, Maddening Darkness, Meteor Swarm, and Ravenous Void.

** Various spells such as Fear and Cause Fear can temporarily frighten an opponent or group of people.

*** The demon princes Demogorgon and Yeenoghu can cast the spell Fear as one of their innate abilities, as can the lesser demons Babau and Bar-Igura.

** The Phantasmal Killer spell forces the target to save, or immediately die of fright.

** 5e Conjuration School Wizards live off this and SummonMagic. At 6th level, they get an ability called Benign Transposition, the only economical and easy way to swap places with a party member in the game, that costs an action to use. It can also be used as a straight teleport. Here's the kicker, though; it recharges on a long rest or whenever you cast a conjuration spell of 1st level or higher. This can be combined with the 2nd level spell ''Misty Step'' to teleport all around a given area with near impunity, especially because ''Misty Step'' is a bonus action. This becomes truly spammable once you hit 18th level, if you choose to make ''Misty Step'' one of the spells you've Mastered; since Benign Transposition is one of ''very'' few abilities to recharge on the use of a type of spell but not ''specifically'' when a slot is expended, you can cast ''Misty Step'' an infinite amount of times to recharge Benign Transposition an infinite amount of times.
** The 5e spell ''Far Step'' works on this principle. You teleport once 60 feet as a bonus action, and then for the next minute you can use another bonus action to teleport again.
* TeleportersVisualizationClause: The Teleportation spell can work with places the caster hasn't been, but the risk of failure decreases with the level of familiarity with the place. Only a magic circle and having an object associated with the target location are completely safe.

* TruthSerums: The Zone of Truth spell for the Cleric and the Paladin. Within it, anyone who's talking can only tell the truth when speaking if they fail a charisma saving throw. However, there are ways around it: after all, while everyone might have to tell the truth, there's nothing that compels them to speak.

** The stinking cloud spell conjures a horrible-smelling fog that nauseates anybody who fails the save.

* WeaponsGradeVocabulary: "Vicious Mockery" is a bard-exclusive cantrip that inflicts a small amount of damage and imposes a debuff on the target. The target doesn't even need to speak the same language as the Bard for Vicious Mockery to work.

* DifficultButAwesome: Non-damaging cantrips -- such as Minor Illusion, Thaumaturgy, Mold Earth, and Prestidigitation -- seem to be pathetically weak in order to justify being able to cast them for free. But if you're creative, they can be insanely powerful for such minor effects (such as using Mold Earth to trap someone in dirt from the neck up, or combining Light with a coin in someone's face for a makeshift flash bang). This is especially so with more lenient [=DM=]s who, even if a cantrip shouldn't technically be usable in that context, will usually reward your creativity by going with it anyways.

* ''Keys from the Golden Vault'' (Not yet released, anticipated 2023)