D&D: Can-Do Cantrips in ‘Unearthed Arcana 8’
Unearthed Arcana 8 Cantrips get some much-needed love in some very exciting ways. Broken spells work, and okay spells get good.
Unearthed Arcana 8 might not iterate on some of the classes that are in need of a rework or two before they’re done cooking. But it does bring some interesting heat to the humlest of spells: Cantrips. Unearthed Arcana 8 Cantrips take some pretty significant departures from their previous iterations.
Some spells get their ranges changed. Others have a boost to damage. And True Strike actually works now and might knock some of the more beloved melee cantrips from their lofty perch. Or at least join them. There are new and exciting possibilities all around. Let’s take a look.
Unearthed Arcana 8 – Putting the “Can” in Cantrips
There are ten Cantrips that get altered in this playtest:
- Acid Splash
- Blade Ward
- Chill Touch
- Friends
- Poison Spray
- Produce Flame
- Shillelagh
- Shocking Grasp
- Spare the Dying
- True Strike
And in a nutshell, here’s what’s new with each of these.
Acid Splash gets a pretty significant buff. It moves from hitting two creatures (who have to be within 5 feet of each other) to being a 5-foot radius sphere that can hit any number of creatures in its area. Which is usually going to be two, but it might be upwards of 4. Just being an AoE spell makes it better already. Worth having for groups.
Blade Ward gets a huge boost and now works the way it honestly always should have. It’s a reaction that you can cast when being targeted by a melee attack, giving the attacker Disadvantage. This is really strong, considering that it’s an unlimited resource, but it uses your reaction and means you won’t cast spells like Shield or Silvery Barbs. And it’s only a single melee attack. If you’re hit with a multiattack, it only works once.
Chill Touch is a spell that has long suffered for neither doing cold damage, nor being a touch spell. Well, now it’s “fixed”, in that it is a touch spell. And its damage has been upgraded to 1d10 necrotic damage, which prevents healing.
Friends now no longer immediately makes someone angry with you. It’s Charm Person for babies, in that a target has to fail their save or be Charmed, per the condition, and it only works on Humanoids who haven’t been targeted by the spell in the last 24 hours.
Poison Spray gets an upgrade, with a range of 30 feet and now needing an attack roll, this stands to be a very good damage cantrip.
Produce Flame is a Bonus Action spell that might also take your Bonus Action. It’s one of the worst spells on this list since it takes two “actions” to be able to attack for 1d8 damage. Though it does let you have a light source in your hand, but that’s still not enough to justify it.
Shillelagh on the other hand gets a big buff. Now its damage scales up to a d10, d12, and then 2d6 as you level up. It isn’t as powerful as other spells, but it can work as your primary means of attack if you go for a weird divine gish build with a Nature Cleric or something.
Shocking Grasp gets a big nerf in that it now only prevents Attacks of Opportunity, not all reactions as it used to do.
Spare the Dying now works at a 15-foot range. Which makes it useful in those clutch situations.
True Strike gets the biggest glow-up of all. Before this was probably one of the worst spells in the game. Now, instead of taking your whole action to set up another, second whole action, the spell lets you make a melee attack that potentially deals radiant damage, and then as you level up deals even more radiant damage per Cantrip scaling. This is going to be the heart of a lot of gishes.
What do you think of the new Cantrips?
