D&D: Got an Hour? These Five Spells are Worth the Wait
In D&D the best spells can be worth the wait. These are the best spells that take an hour (or more!) to cast.
It takes six seconds to cast almost any spell in Dungeons & Dragons. A wave of the hands, a magic word or two, and maybe a pinch of rabbit fur or bat guano and you’ve got a fireball in the making. But, some magic spells take a bit more oomph.
They need power and time and commitment, just like your significant other. But, invest the time it takes to cast these spells, and you’ll get some of the most powerful effects in the game. Here are the five best spells that take an hour or more to cast.
Find Familiar
Let’s start with one of the lowest-level spells on the list. Find Familiar is iconic when it comes to D&D. Mages often have familiars. And while it will take you an hour (and ten gold!) to cast the spell, it is absolutely worth the effort.
Not only do you get to summon a magical animal to be your companion, but you can also telepathically communicate with it, see through its eyes and hear through its ears, and your familiar can deliver touch spells for you.
With one spell and one hour, you get a scout, spy, magical assistant, combat helper, and more.
Raise Dead
But what good is having a familiar if you’re dead? Well, with Raise Dead (or its counterparts Resurrection or Reincarnate) you won’t have to. All it takes is expensive material components, and an uninterrupted hour of spellcasting to return a creature to life provided that it has been dead no longer than 10 days.
Beat death for only 500 gp per hour. Which is a pretty good rate, honestly. Sure, you might take a -4 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks until you’ve had a chance to take four long rests. But that’s a small price to pay for coming back from the dead.
Clone
Okay but, with Clone, you can cut out the middleman. Sure it’s more expensive — it costs at least 3,000 gp and requires you to give up one cubic inch of your flesh to create the clone. And the spell will take an hour to create the inert duplicate of the living creature you choose to clone.
But after an hour, you start growing an inert version of yourself (or whomever you target). Now it’ll take 120 days for the clone to finish cooking, so you’re still running a risk for that. But once the clone matures, your soul goes instantly to the clone instead of whatever afterlife might await you.
As an added benefit, nobody else will know, meaning you can have the ultimate backup plan.
Simulacrum
Clone is cool and all. But For a fraction of the total time, you can create an illusory duplicate of yourself, or another humanoid or beast.
Simulacrum is one of those spells that gets trotted out for theory crafting with infinite Wishes. But vanilla Simulacrum is great too. Because for 12 hours, you can build a life-sized snowman that will take on the appearance of whomever you’ve targeted.
You will get the most bang for your buck duplicating yourself since the illusory snow creature has all the statistics and abilities of its target. Which means you can cast two sets of the same spells! Especially since you can order the simulacrum around in combat. It’s two for the price of 12 hours and 1,500 gp.
Awaken
The final spell on our list is Awaken. This spell takes eight full hours to cast. But is absolutely worth it. Because with this spell, you can gift an animal or plant with magical intelligence. Meaning they become Intelligence 10, gain the ability to speak a language you know, and plants gain mobility and senses similar to a human’s.
And after doing that, the creature is charmed for 30 days!
Who says you can’t make friends with magic?
Happy adventuring!
