Best 4th and 5th-Level Spells in D&D 5e (2014): The Complete Guide

Introduction

Something changes at 4th and 5th level, and it is not the damage numbers.

Up to 3rd level, the best spells make a fight go better. Fireball kills the mooks faster. Bless makes the attacks land. Spirit Guardians grinds the enemy line down. From 4th level onward, the best spells make a fight stop being a fight - by removing the creature that was the problem.

Banishment takes an enemy off the board for a minute, or permanently if it came from another plane. Polymorph converts a dragon into a frog. Hold Monster paralyses anything that is not undead. Wall of Force simply prevents the encounter from including the half of the enemy force you did not want to deal with.

This is the tier where the honest ranking stops being about damage per slot. Cone of Cold, the best pure damage spell in this band, does 8d8 in a 60-foot cone. Wall of Force does zero damage and is better than it in almost every fight.

Verdict: Wall of Force and Polymorph are the two best spells here. Prepare exactly one damage spell and spend the rest of the list on removal, walls, and escape.

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4th-Level Spells

Polymorph

Bard, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, 60 feet, V S M (a caterpillar cocoon), concentration up to 1 hour. Transform a creature into a beast whose challenge rating is equal to or less than its own, or its level if it has no CR. An unwilling creature makes a Wisdom save.

The most flexible spell in the game, and it does three completely different jobs.

Offensively, a failed Wisdom save turns an enemy into a beast. Its statistics are replaced entirely - it keeps only its alignment and personality - so a CR 12 archmage becomes a frog with 1 hit point and no spells. It reverts when the beast form's hit points run out, but a creature that spends the fight as a toad is a creature that did not cast anything.

Defensively, cast on a willing ally, it is the largest temporary hit point pool available at this level. A Tyrannosaurus Rex at CR 8 has 136 hit points; a giant ape at CR 7 has 157. When those run out, the ally reverts at the hit point total they had before, with no damage carried over. A dying party member becomes a fresh dinosaur.

In exploration, it grants flight, swimming, burrowing, or a Small form for whoever needs it, for an hour.

The costs are consistent across all three uses: the target loses all class features, spellcasting, and equipment benefits while transformed, and it is concentration. The defensive use in particular means your tank cannot use any of their abilities.

It does not work on undead, constructs, or shapechangers resisting it, and the CR cap is the target's own CR.

Rating: A-Tier. The single most versatile slot at this level.

Banishment

Cleric, Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. 1 action, 60 feet, V S M (an item distasteful to the target), concentration up to 1 minute. Charisma save or the target is banished to a harmless demiplane. If it is native to a different plane from the one you are on, it does not return.

The cleanest removal spell in the game, with a clause that turns it into an instant win against a whole category of enemy.

Against a native creature - a human, a giant, a beast - it is a minute of removal. The target is incapacitated, unreachable, and returns to the space it left when the spell ends.

Against an extraplanar creature - any demon, devil, elemental, celestial, fey, aberration from beyond, or summoned thing - a full minute of concentration sends it home permanently. One failed Charisma save and the balor is gone from your campaign.

Upcasting adds one target per slot level, so a 7th-level Banishment removes four creatures at once.

Its weaknesses are Charisma saves being strong on exactly the fiends you most want to banish, and the concentration requirement - break it early and a native creature simply comes back, mid-fight, angry.

Rating: A-Tier. The correct answer to "there is one enemy we cannot beat."

Greater Invisibility

Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, touch, V S, concentration up to 1 minute. The target is invisible, and it stays invisible even when it attacks or casts.

The combat version of Invisibility, and the difference between them is the whole spell.

An invisible attacker has advantage on every attack, and every attack against them has disadvantage. That is both halves of the advantage economy, on one creature, for a minute, without the spell ending when they act.

On a Rogue it is even better: advantage guarantees Sneak Attack every single round without needing an ally adjacent to the target.

It has real counters and you should expect them at this tier. Blindsight and truesight ignore it. See Invisibility ignores it. And an enemy can still attack your square at disadvantage if it guesses right, so it is concealment rather than immunity.

Rating: A-Tier. Cast it on whoever in your party makes the most attack rolls.

Dimension Door

Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. 1 action, 500 feet, V, instantaneous. Teleport yourself and one willing creature you can touch to a spot you can see, visualise, or describe by distance and direction.

The best escape and infiltration spell at this level, and the range is why: 500 feet, with no line of sight required. You can teleport to a place you have only described - "two hundred feet straight up," "the other side of this wall."

It takes a second creature with you, which is how you extract a captured ally, a hostage, or an unconscious party member from the middle of an enemy formation.

Verbal component only, so it works while grappled or restrained, and it is instantaneous - no concentration.

The risk clause: if you arrive in an occupied space, both you and your passenger take 4d6 force damage and the spell fails. Describing a destination you cannot see is a gamble.

Rating: A-Tier. Every party at this tier should have one reliable escape hatch, and this is the best one.

Wall of Fire

Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, 120 feet, V S M (a small piece of phosphorus), concentration up to 1 minute. A wall of fire 60 feet long, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick - or a ring 20 feet in diameter. One side deals 5d8 fire to creatures within 10 feet of it; creatures that enter or end their turn in the wall take 5d8, Dexterity save for half.

Zone denial and repeating damage in one. 5d8 averages 22, applied every round to anything that stays near the hot side or tries to cross.

The ring option is the strong one and it is often overlooked: a 20-foot-diameter ring around a group of enemies, with the damaging side facing inward, is a repeating tax they cannot escape without taking it again.

Choosing which side burns matters - place it so your party is on the cold side and the enemy is not.

Upcasts at 1d8 per slot level, and it is opaque, so it blocks line of sight as well.

Rating: B-Tier. The best sustained area damage at 4th level, and it is still worse than removing the enemies.

Blight

Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. 1 action, 30 feet, V S, instantaneous. 8d8 necrotic, Constitution save for half. Plants and plant creatures have disadvantage on the save and take maximum damage.

The highest single-target damage at 4th level: 8d8 averages 36, upcasting at 1d8 per slot level.

Necrotic is resisted less often than fire, and the plant clause makes this the specific answer to a treant, a shambling mound, or an assassin vine - disadvantage on the save and 64 damage automatically.

Undead and constructs are unaffected entirely.

The general problem stands: 36 damage does not remove a creature at this tier, and Banishment for the same slot does.

Rating: B-Tier. The damage spell to prepare if you prepare one.

Raulothim's Psychic Lance

Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard (Fizban's Treasury of Dragons). 1 action, 120 feet, V, instantaneous. 7d6 psychic and the target is incapacitated until the end of your next turn, Intelligence save for half damage and no incapacitation. You may name a creature instead of seeing it, and the lance finds it if it is in range.

Two unusual properties make this better than its damage line.

It targets Intelligence, the weakest save on the largest number of monsters, and a failure means incapacitated - no actions, no reactions - which is a full turn removed on top of 25 damage.

You do not need to see the target. Naming a creature you know is enough, so it hits an invisible enemy, one behind total cover, or one you know is in the room but cannot find. Nothing else at this level does that.

Verbal component only. Upcasts at 1d6 per slot level.

Rating: A-Tier. The best damage spell at 4th level precisely because it is not only a damage spell.

Phantasmal Killer

Wizard. 1 action, 120 feet, V S, concentration up to 1 minute. Wisdom save or the target is frightened for the duration and takes 4d10 psychic at the end of each of its turns, repeating the save each turn.

Repeating damage plus the frightened condition - disadvantage on attacks and ability checks while it can see you, and it cannot move closer.

4d10 per round is real damage if it sticks, and upcasting adds 1d10 per slot level.

The problem is that it fails twice over: the initial Wisdom save, and then a new save at the end of every turn, so the expected duration is short. It also does nothing on a successful initial save - no half damage, nothing.

Rating: C-Tier. High variance, and the variance is mostly downward.

Arcane Eye

Artificer, Wizard. 1 action, 30 feet, V S M (a bit of bat fur), concentration up to 1 hour. An invisible, magical eye with 30 feet of darkvision that you can move 30 feet in any direction with an action, seeing through it.

Perfect scouting. The eye is invisible, flies, has darkvision, cannot be attacked, and can move through any opening at least 1 inch across. An hour is enough to map an entire dungeon before setting foot in it.

The limitation is that moving it costs your action, so it is strictly an out-of-combat tool, and it cannot pass through solid barriers with no opening.

Rating: B-Tier. It removes the risk from reconnaissance, which is a large part of what kills parties.

Stone Shape

Artificer, Cleric, Druid, Wizard. 1 action, touch, V S M (soft clay), instantaneous. Reshape a stone object or section of stone up to 5 feet in any dimension into any form you like.

The dungeon-solving spell. A door becomes a doorway. A wall becomes a passage. A floor becomes a pit, or a set of stairs, or a stone chair that traps a creature's leg.

It is instantaneous, so what you make is permanent, and it needs no concentration.

Its ceiling depends entirely on how literally your DM reads "any form you like," and its floor is that dungeons made of wood, earth or metal are immune to it.

Rating: C-Tier, and it is the spell most likely to break an encounter your DM designed around a locked stone door.

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Evard's Black Tentacles

Wizard. 1 action, 90 feet, V S M (a piece of tentacle from a giant octopus or giant squid), concentration up to 1 minute. A 20-foot square of writhing tentacles; a creature that enters or starts its turn there makes a Dexterity save or takes 3d6 bludgeoning and is restrained, repeating an escape check each turn.

Area control that keeps working. A 20-foot square is a corridor or a doorway, and unlike a one-shot save it tests every creature that enters and every creature that stays, for a full minute.

Restrained is the payoff - speed 0, disadvantage on its attacks, advantage on attacks against it - and the 3d6 accrues every round on top.

Escaping requires an action and a Strength or Dexterity check against your spell save DC, so even a successful escape costs the enemy their turn.

Rating: A-Tier. The best area-denial spell at 4th level, and better than Wall of Fire in most rooms.

Otiluke's Resilient Sphere

Artificer, Wizard. 1 action, 30 feet, V S M (a hemispherical piece of clear crystal and a matching piece of gum arabic), concentration up to 1 minute. A sphere of force encloses a creature or object up to Large size; Dexterity save to avoid. Nothing can pass in or out, the sphere is immune to all damage, and a creature inside can push it 5 feet per turn - half its speed.

The precision removal spell. A creature inside is completely sealed off - it cannot be attacked, cannot attack, cannot cast out, and cannot be targeted by anything.

That cuts both ways and is the point: it removes an enemy from the fight, or it saves an ally who is about to die and cannot be reached. Sealing your own dying Fighter in a sphere for a minute is often the best use of it.

The 10-foot sphere and Large size cap mean it does not work on the biggest threats, and a Dexterity save to avoid is easier than the Wisdom or Charisma saves most removal spells use.

Rating: B-Tier. The only spell in the band that can protect an ally by removing them.

Confusion

Bard, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, 90 feet, V S M (three nut shells), concentration up to 1 minute. Each creature in a 10-foot radius makes a Wisdom save; on a failure it rolls a d10 at the start of each of its turns to determine its behaviour - doing nothing, moving randomly, attacking a random nearby creature, or acting normally.

Mass chaos. On the table, 6 in 10 outcomes cost the creature its turn or turn it against its own allies, and the affected creature repeats the save only at the end of each of its turns.

Upcasting increases the radius by 5 feet per slot level, and a 10-foot radius is small at base - it catches two or three enemies in a tight group.

The randomness is the review. It is unreliable per creature and reliable across several, which makes it a spell for crowds rather than for a boss.

Rating: B-Tier. Not as decisive as Hypnotic Pattern and it works on things that resist charm.

Death Ward

Cleric, Paladin. 1 action, touch, V S, 8 hours, no concentration. The first time the target would drop to 0 hit points, it drops to 1 instead. If an effect would kill it outright, that effect is negated.

An extra life, for eight hours, with no concentration, on any creature you touch.

The second clause is the one that matters at this tier: it negates a save-or-die outright. Power Word Kill, a bodak's death gaze, a failed Disintegrate - Death Ward simply cancels it once.

Cast it in the morning on whoever is going to be in the front line and forget about it until it saves them.

Rating: A-Tier. The most efficient defensive slot at 4th level, and it costs you nothing during the fight.

Freedom of Movement

Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Ranger. 1 action, touch, V S M (a leather strap), 1 hour, no concentration. The target ignores difficult terrain, and spells and effects cannot reduce its speed or cause it to be paralysed or restrained. It can spend 5 feet of movement to escape any nonmagical restraint or grapple, and being underwater imposes no penalty on its attacks or movement.

An hour of immunity to an entire category of effects, with no concentration.

Look at what it turns off: grapples, restraints, paralysis, webs, difficult terrain, and underwater penalties. At this tier, restraining and grappling monsters - roper, mimic, giant octopus, anything with a tentacle - are among the most dangerous things in the Monster Manual, and this shuts all of them off for one creature.

Cast it on the party's melee character before a fight you expect to involve grapplers.

Rating: A-Tier. Underrated because it does nothing visible until the round it saves someone.

Fire Shield

Druid, Wizard. 1 action, self, V S M (a bit of phosphorus or a firefly), 10 minutes, no concentration. Choose a warm shield (resistance to cold, and attackers within 5 feet take 2d8 fire) or a chill shield (resistance to fire, and attackers take 2d8 cold). You shed bright light in a 10-foot radius.

Resistance to a damage type plus automatic retaliation, for ten minutes, with no concentration - which is what separates it from every other defensive option at this level.

2d8 to every melee attacker every time they hit is real damage against a swarm, and choosing the resistance to match the enemy makes it a targeted defence as well.

The light it sheds ruins stealth, and it only punishes melee.

Rating: B-Tier. The no-concentration clause makes it far better than it looks.

Ice Storm

Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, 300 feet, V S M (a pinch of dust and a few drops of water), instantaneous. A 20-foot-radius, 40-foot-high cylinder; 2d8 bludgeoning and 4d6 cold, Dexterity save for half, and the area becomes difficult terrain until the end of your next turn.

Area damage in the same footprint as Fireball, at 300 feet, split across two damage types so resistance rarely applies to both - about 23 damage on a failure.

That is markedly less than Fireball's 28 for a slot one level higher, which is the whole problem with it. The difficult terrain rider lasts only a round.

Upcasts at 1d8 bludgeoning per slot level.

Rating: C-Tier. Prepare Blight or Wall of Fire instead.

Guardian of Faith

Cleric. 1 action, 30 feet, V, 8 hours, no concentration. A Large spectral guardian appears in an unoccupied space; any hostile creature that moves within 10 feet of it takes 20 radiant damage, Dexterity save for half. It vanishes after dealing 60 damage total.

Sixty damage from one slot, delivered automatically, with no concentration and an 8-hour duration.

The guardian cannot move, which is its whole limitation - it holds a doorway, a staircase, or a corridor, and enemies who need to get past it pay for it. Placed in the wrong spot it does nothing at all.

Twenty damage on a failed save is a lot at this tier, and the 8-hour duration means one cast can cover several rooms if the fights come to you.

Rating: B-Tier. A defensive installation rather than a spell, and it costs no concentration.

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5th-Level Spells

Wall of Force

Wizard. 1 action, 120 feet, V S M (a pinch of powder made by crushing a clear gemstone), concentration up to 10 minutes.

An invisible wall of force, either ten 10-foot-by-10-foot panels, or a 10-foot-radius sphere or hemisphere. Nothing physical passes through it. It is immune to all damage, cannot be climbed over if you build it right, and can only be removed by Disintegrate or Dispel Magic cast at 5th level or higher.

The best spell at this level and one of the best in the game, and it deals no damage at all.

What it actually does is control which fight you are in:

• Split the encounter. Ten panels across a room cuts an enemy force in half. Fighting four enemies twice is dramatically easier than fighting eight once.
• Trap a single creature. The sphere option, or a cube built from panels, contains one enemy completely - a boss removed from the fight for ten minutes with no saving throw of any kind.
• Seal a corridor. Reinforcements do not arrive.
• Save the party. A hemisphere over your downed allies while you regroup.

The three ways through it are worth knowing because your enemies know them too: teleportation ignores it, effects from the Ethereal Plane cross it, and Disintegrate destroys it outright. It also blocks line of effect, so your party cannot shoot through it either.

Rating: A-Tier. There is no more decisive 5th-level slot.

Hold Monster

Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. 1 action, 90 feet, V S M (a small straight piece of iron), concentration up to 1 minute. Wisdom save or paralysed; the target repeats the save at the end of each of its turns. Works on any creature except undead.

Hold Person without the humanoid restriction, which is the entire reason it costs three more levels.

Paralysed remains the strongest condition in the game: incapacitated, speed 0, automatic failure on Strength and Dexterity saves, and every attack from within 5 feet is an automatic critical hit. A paralysed dragon being hit by a Paladin's smites at double dice ends fights.

Upcasting adds one target per slot level, so a 7th-level cast paralyses three creatures.

The recurring save is the weakness, and at this tier Wisdom saves are frequently good. Cast it on the creature with a poor Wisdom - a brute, a beast, a construct - rather than the archmage.

Rating: A-Tier. Paired with a melee party it is the highest-damage play available at this level.

Dominate Person

Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, 60 feet, V S, concentration up to 1 minute. Wisdom save or charmed; you can direct its movement and actions, and with your action take total control of its turn. It repeats the save each time it takes damage.

Turning an enemy into an ally is the highest-ceiling effect in this band. A dominated enemy attacks its own side, tells you what it knows, and hands over what it is carrying.

The upcast clauses are unusually strong: 6th level extends it to 10 minutes, 7th to an hour, 8th to 8 hours - and an 8-hour domination is functionally a new party member for the session.

The limits are real. Humanoids only. The target gets a new save every time it takes damage, so your party has to leave it alone. And total control costs your action each turn, so you are spending your turn playing someone else's character.

Rating: B-Tier in combat, A-Tier out of it. The eight-hour upcast is the version that changes a session.

Conjure Elemental

Druid, Wizard. 1 minute, 90 feet, V S M (burning incense for air, soft clay for earth, sulfur and phosphorus for fire, water and sand for water), concentration up to 1 hour. Summon a CR 5 elemental that obeys your commands, or turns on you if your concentration breaks.

A CR 5 creature under your control for an hour is a large amount of combat power from one slot, and elementals are durable, immune to a long list of conditions, and hit hard.

Two things constrain it. The 1-minute casting time means it cannot be cast in combat at all - it is a pre-fight summon. And if your concentration breaks, the elemental becomes hostile and attacks the nearest creature, which is usually you.

Upcasting summons a higher-CR elemental, one per slot level above 5th.

Rating: B-Tier. Strong, slow to deploy, and it punishes you for losing concentration harder than any other spell here.

Summon Draconic Spirit

Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard (Fizban's Treasury of Dragons). 1 action, 60 feet, V S M (an object with the image of a dragon, worth at least 500 gp), concentration up to 1 hour.

A draconic spirit with hit points scaling to the slot level, a breath weapon, a bite, and flight - and unlike Conjure Elemental it is a 1-action cast and it does not turn on you.

The Tasha's-era summon spells were written to fix exactly the problems Conjure Animals and Conjure Elemental have: one statblock instead of eight, scaling with the slot rather than a fixed CR, and no hostility clause. This is the best of them at this level.

The 500 gp material component is not consumed, so it is a one-time purchase.

Rating: A-Tier. The summon spell that does not slow the table down or threaten the caster.

Cone of Cold

Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, self (60-foot cone), V S M (a small crystal or glass cone), instantaneous. 8d8 cold, Constitution save for half. A creature killed by it becomes a frozen statue.

The best raw damage spell at 5th level: 8d8 averages 36 in a 60-foot cone, which is a very large area - larger in practice than Fireball's sphere for enemies in front of you.

Cold is resisted far less often than fire, and it upcasts at 1d8 per slot level.

The cone originates from you, so you have to be positioned in front of the enemy formation and behind your own party, which is a real constraint.

Rating: B-Tier. If you prepare one damage spell at this level, prepare this one.

Scrying

Bard, Cleric, Druid, Warlock, Wizard. 10 minutes, self, V S M (a focus worth at least 1,000 gp, such as a crystal ball, silver mirror, or font of holy water), concentration up to 10 minutes. Observe a creature anywhere on the same plane through an invisible sensor; it makes a Wisdom save modified by how well you know it and whether you have a physical connection to it.

Remote surveillance of a specific creature at unlimited range on the same plane. The save modifiers are the whole spell: a creature you have met casually saves at +5, one you know well at +0, and one whose body part or possession you hold at -10.

That last figure is why every campaign that features scrying also features hunting for a lock of the target's hair.

The 1,000 gp focus is a real barrier, the 10-minute cast keeps it out of combat, and a failed save tells the target nothing - but a successful one means they know someone is watching.

Rating: B-Tier. Campaign-shaping in an investigation game, useless in a dungeon crawl.

Modify Memory

Bard, Wizard. 1 action, 30 feet, V S, concentration up to 1 minute. Wisdom save or you reshape one memory of an event the target experienced within the last 24 hours - eliminating it, altering its details, or creating one that did not happen.

The most narratively powerful spell in the band and the one with the fewest combat applications.

You can erase a guard's memory of seeing you, alter a witness's account, or plant a false memory of a conversation that never took place. Upcasting extends how far back you can reach - 7 days at 6th level, 30 days at 7th, a year at 8th, and any time at 9th.

It is fragile: the target must be charmed by you, or you must have its attention, damage during the casting ends it, and a modified memory can be restored by Remove Curse, Greater Restoration or Dispel Evil and Good.

Rating: C-Tier mechanically, A-Tier in an intrigue campaign. Also the spell most likely to start an argument about consent at your table.

Mislead

Bard, Warlock, Wizard. 1 action, self, S, concentration up to 1 hour. You become invisible and an illusory double appears in your space; you can move the double up to double your speed with a bonus action and see and hear through it.

Invisibility and a decoy in one, and the decoy is the point. You can speak through it, walk it into a room, and hold a conversation through it while standing invisible somewhere else entirely.

Somatic component only - no verbal, no material - so it can be cast silently, and the invisibility does not end when you attack, unlike the 2nd-level version.

The cost is that you cannot attack or cast while the double is doing anything requiring concentration from you, and it is an hour of your concentration.

Rating: B-Tier. The best infiltration spell in the band for a caster who wants to be in two places.

Enervation

Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard (Xanathar's). 1 action, 60 feet, V S, concentration up to 1 minute. Dexterity save; on a failure 4d8 necrotic and, on each of your turns, you can use your action to deal 4d8 again and regain half as hit points. On a success, 2d8 once and the spell ends.

Sustained damage plus self-healing, and the numbers are good - roughly 18 damage and 9 healing per round if the target failed the initial save.

The catch is that it costs your action every round to repeat, plus concentration, and the target can break it by moving out of range or breaking line of sight.

Compare it to Vampiric Touch, which does the same thing at melee range for a 3rd-level slot. Enervation is the ranged version and it is worth the upgrade.

Rating: C-Tier. Good numbers competing with removal spells that end the fight instead.

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Animate Objects

Artificer, Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, 120 feet, V S, concentration up to 1 minute. Animate up to ten Small or smaller objects, or fewer larger ones, and command them all with a bonus action.

The highest damage output of any 5th-level spell, and by a wide margin.

Ten Tiny objects each attack for 1d4 + 4 with a +8 to hit, which is roughly 65 damage per round if they all connect - every round, for a minute, from one slot, commanded with a bonus action so your action stays free.

The costs are the ones that make DMs sigh: ten separate attack rolls every round, and a bag of daggers or ball bearings that a player has to have thought to carry.

Upcasting animates two more objects per slot level.

Rating: A-Tier by the numbers. Ask your DM how they feel about it before you build a turn around ten attack rolls.

Bigby's Hand

Artificer, Wizard. 1 action, 120 feet, V S M (an eggshell and a snakeskin glove), concentration up to 1 minute. A Large spectral hand with AC 20 and hit points equal to your maximum; each turn you can use a bonus action to move it 60 feet and use one of four options: Clenched Fist (4d8 force), Forceful Hand (shove 5 feet), Grasping Hand (grapple, then 2d6 crushing per turn), or Interposing Hand (half cover and it blocks movement).

Four spells sharing one slot, driven by a bonus action so your action is free every round.

Clenched Fist for 4d8 is respectable damage. Grasping Hand is the interesting one: it grapples a Huge or smaller creature with your spell attack modifier, and a grappled creature has speed 0 and takes 2d6 every turn you spend crushing it.

Upcasting adds 2d8 to the fist and 2d6 to the crush per slot level.

Rating: A-Tier. Flexible, bonus-action driven, and it does not compete with your action.

Synaptic Static

Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard (Xanathar's). 1 action, 120 feet, V S, instantaneous. Each creature in a 20-foot radius makes an Intelligence save or takes 8d6 psychic and, for the next minute, subtracts 1d6 from its attack rolls, ability checks, and Constitution saves to maintain concentration.

Fireball-shaped damage that targets Intelligence - the weakest save in the game on most monsters - and leaves a debuff behind whether or not anyone dies.

The 1d6 penalty applies to attack rolls and to concentration checks, so it both blunts enemy damage and makes it much harder for an enemy caster to keep a spell running.

At 8d6 for a 5th-level slot the damage is unremarkable. The debuff is what you cast it for, and it does not require concentration from you.

Rating: A-Tier. The best combined damage-and-control spell at this level.

Telekinesis

Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, 60 feet, V S, concentration up to 10 minutes. Each round, use your action to move one creature (Huge or smaller, contested check) up to 30 feet in any direction, or move an object weighing up to 1,000 pounds.

The physics spell. Against a creature it is a contested Strength check with your spellcasting ability, and success lets you move it 30 feet in any direction - including straight up, and then release it.

A creature held aloft is restrained and can do nothing but try to break free. A creature dropped from 30 feet takes 3d6 and lands prone. Over a cliff or into a Wall of Fire, it is more.

The object half moves 1,000 pounds at range, which solves portcullises, boulders, and a great many puzzles.

It costs your action every round, and the contested check means a strong creature simply resists.

Rating: B-Tier. Enormous ceiling against the right creature, nothing at all against a giant.

Wall of Stone

Artificer, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard. 1 action, 120 feet, V S M (a small block of granite), concentration up to 10 minutes. Ten 10-by-10-foot panels of stone, 6 inches thick, in any arrangement - and if you maintain concentration for the full 10 minutes, the wall becomes permanent.

Wall of Force is better in a fight. Wall of Stone is better everywhere else, because of that last clause: hold it for ten minutes and you have permanently rebuilt the dungeon.

Bridges across chasms, sealed doorways, a shelter, a dam. Each panel has AC 15 and 30 hit points per inch of thickness, so it is breakable - unlike Wall of Force - but it is also permanent, which Wall of Force never is.

It can also be shaped, and it can enclose a creature that fails a Dexterity save.

Rating: A-Tier. The only spell at this level that permanently changes the world.

The ten-minute clause is worth planning around. Casting it during a fight gives you a breakable wall; casting it before one, holding concentration through a short walk, gives you architecture. Very few players do the second thing, and it is the better half of the spell.

Greater Restoration

Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid. 1 action, touch, V S M (diamond dust worth at least 100 gp, consumed), instantaneous. End one of: a charm, petrification, a curse, a reduction to an ability score, or a reduction to hit point maximum. It also reduces exhaustion by one level.

The spell you do not prepare until the day somebody is turned to stone.

It is the only reasonable answer to petrification, to a permanent ability-score drain, and to a level of exhaustion - and exhaustion in particular has no other in-combat cure at all.

100 gp of diamond dust per cast, consumed. Buy it in advance for the same reason you buy Revivify diamonds in advance.

Rating: B-Tier as a prepared default, A-Tier the moment it is needed.

Raise Dead

Bard, Cleric, Paladin. 1 hour, touch, V S M (a diamond worth at least 500 gp, consumed), instantaneous. Return a creature dead no more than 10 days to life with 1 hit point; it takes a -4 penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws and ability checks, reducing by 1 per long rest.

The out-of-combat resurrection. Ten days is a generous window, and the 500 gp diamond is a real but survivable cost at this tier.

The 1-hour casting time makes it strictly a between-sessions spell, and the -4 penalty means the revived character is weakened for four long rests. The body must be intact and must have a soul willing to return.

Compare Revivify: one minute and 300 gp, versus ten days and 500 gp. Revivify is the emergency; Raise Dead is the recovery.

Rating: B-Tier. Every party should know which caster has it prepared.

Flame Strike

Cleric. 1 action, 60 feet, V S M (a pinch of sulfur), instantaneous. A 10-foot-radius, 40-foot-high cylinder; 4d6 fire and 4d6 radiant, Dexterity save for half.

The Cleric's area damage spell: about 28 on a failure, split across fire and radiant so total resistance is rare, and radiant is one of the least-resisted types in the game.

The 10-foot radius is half Fireball's and it costs two more levels, which is the price of being on the Cleric list at all.

Upcasts at 1d6 of either type per slot level.

Rating: C-Tier. It is what a Cleric casts when the answer is damage, which at this tier it usually is not.

Steel Wind Strike

Ranger, Wizard (Xanathar's). 1 action, 30 feet, S M (a melee weapon worth at least 1 sp), instantaneous. Flash to up to five creatures you can see within range, making a melee spell attack against each for 6d10 force, then teleport to a space adjacent to one of them.

Up to 300 damage of force across five targets, with a teleport built in - by far the highest damage ceiling at this level, and force is almost never resisted.

Each attack is a separate roll, so it degrades with misses, and the 30-foot range means all five targets must be close to you and to each other.

On a Ranger it is the single best spell on the list by a large margin.

Rating: A-Tier. The reason a Gloom Stalker at level 17 is genuinely frightening.

Geas

Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Wizard. 1 minute, 60 feet, V, 30 days. Wisdom save or the target is charmed and must follow a command you give; it takes 5d10 psychic damage once per day if it acts directly counter to the command.

Thirty days of compulsion from one slot, with no concentration.

The command must not be directly self-destructive, and the enforcement is a daily damage penalty rather than direct control - so a determined target can defy it and eat the damage.

Upcasting extends it to a year at 7th level and until dispelled at 9th, and it can be ended by Greater Restoration, Remove Curse or Dispel Evil and Good.

Its natural home is not combat but consequence: a defeated enemy released under a Geas, an NPC bound to a promise, a truce that enforces itself.

Rating: C-Tier in a dungeon, A-Tier in a campaign about politics.

Passwall

Wizard. 1 action, 30 feet, V S M (a pinch of sesame seeds), 1 hour. Open a passage 5 feet wide, 8 feet tall and up to 20 feet deep through wood, plaster or stone.

A door through any wall, for an hour, wherever you want one.

It bypasses locked doors, guarded corridors, sealed vaults and the entire front-door approach to a dungeon. Twenty feet of depth handles most castle walls.

When the spell ends, anything still inside the passage is safely ejected - not crushed - which makes it usable as a hiding place.

It does not work on metal, and it needs a surface to open into.

Rating: B-Tier. A dungeon-routing tool that quietly invalidates a lot of level design.

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The Removal Spells Compared

The defining decision at this tier is which removal spell to prepare, and they each fail against different things. This is the table worth memorising.

Three things this table makes obvious.

Wall of Force is the only one with no saving throw. Every other entry can simply fail. That is why it sits at the top of the level.

Banishment is the only one that can be permanent. Against anything extraplanar, it is not a control spell, it is a win condition.

Undead break three of the five. Polymorph, Hold Monster and Dominate Person all fail against undead. In an undead-heavy campaign, Banishment and Wall of Force are the removal spells you have.

The practical loadout for a Wizard at level 9 or 10: Banishment, Polymorph, Wall of Force, plus one damage spell for the fights where control is not the answer.

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Best Picks by Class

Wizard

Wall of Force, Polymorph, Banishment, Greater Invisibility, Dimension Door. This is the strongest 4th-and-5th list in the game and there is very little to argue about in it. Add Arcane Eye when the session is exploration and Cone of Cold when nothing else is working.

Sorcerer

Banishment, Polymorph, Greater Invisibility, Cone of Cold. Sorcerers do not get Wall of Force, which is the single biggest gap in their list at this tier. Twinned Polymorph on two allies, or Twinned Banishment on two enemies, is the compensation.

Bard

Polymorph, Greater Invisibility, Dimension Door, Dominate Person, Mislead. Bards get the best social and infiltration list here. Magical Secrets at 10th level is where a Bard should take Wall of Force or Counterspell to fill the gaps.

Cleric

Banishment, Greater Restoration, Destructive Wave, Mass Cure Wounds. Clerics have a thinner list at this tier than the arcane classes; Banishment is the standout, and Greater Restoration is the spell nobody prepares until the day somebody is petrified or exhausted.

Druid

Polymorph, Conjure Elemental, Wall of Fire, Summon Draconic Spirit. Druids get Polymorph, which is the best thing on their list, plus the two summon options - and the Tasha's-era Summon Draconic Spirit is the one that does not risk turning on you.

Warlock

Banishment, Dimension Door, Hold Monster, Mislead. With two slots that always cast at your maximum level, a Warlock at this tier is choosing two decisive plays per short rest. Banishment against an extraplanar enemy is exactly what those slots are for.

Paladin

Banishment, Destructive Wave, Aura of Purity. A 4th-level slot is 5d8 of Divine Smite, which most Paladin spells cannot beat. Banishment beats it against the right target.

Artificer

Arcane Eye, Stone Shape, Greater Invisibility, Fabricate. Artificers cap at 5th-level spells and get an unusual utility-heavy list; lean into it rather than trying to compete on damage.

Ranger

Freedom of Movement, Conjure Woodland Beings, Steel Wind Strike. Freedom of Movement belongs on every Ranger list. Steel Wind Strike is the best 5th-level spell a Ranger gets and one of the best damage spells in the game.

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Hot Take: Cone of Cold is a trap at 5th level and it is the spell most 5th-level casters prepare. Thirty-six damage in a cone feels like the biggest thing you can do with your best slot, and against a boss with 200 hit points it removes 18% of one creature while it takes its full turn anyway. Wall of Force removes 100% of several creatures for ten minutes, with no saving throw, for the same slot. The tier changed and the damage spells did not.

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Related Guides

• Cantrips
• 1st-Level Spells
• 2nd-Level Spells
• 3rd-Level Spells
• 6th to 9th-Level Spells
• D&D 5e 2014 Spell Guides hub - class-by-class spell selection.

Tier 3 play is where these decisions start mattering. Find a D&D 5e game on The Role Players Guild.