D&D: ‘The Book Of Many Things’ Lets You Be Gambit – And It’s About As Disappointing As You Would Expect
The new spells included in the Book of Many Things introduce some colorful new options—but they’re surprisingly weak. Is that on purpose?
In The Book of Many Things, the upcoming splatbook that’s themed entirely around the Deck of Many Things of D&D lore, players will find a three brand new arcane spells that offer card-themed tricks to players. Including a new spell that lets you live out all your Gambit from X-Men (97) dreams.
And while it isn’t as disappointing as being, say, Cyclops, the D&D version of Gambit is about what you’d expect. Moreover, it’s possible that these new spells, introduced in the newest book, could be indicative of where 2024 D&D is headed. And if that’s the case, it’s looking a little nerfy. Let’s take a look.
Book of Many Things – New Spells Flail In Comparison
There are three new spells in the book, all in all. And unsurprisingly all are Arcane, because that feels right for the Deck of Many Things. A deck of magical cards feels like it should be the domain of Sorcerers and Wizards, not Clerics or Druids. There’s Spray of Cards, Antagonize, and Spirit of Death, at 2nd, 3rd, and 4th levels respectively.
And while only Spray of Cards and Antagonize are phrases associated with the X-Men’s own ragin’ Cajun, two out of three Gambits ain’t bad. What becomes apparent, reading through this, though is that the spells are overall less powerful than comparable spells from other books. Take a look:
Spray of Cards may be the most obvious one.
This spell is pretty straightforward: you unleash a magical spray of cards that takes the form of a 15-foot cone. Each creature in the area has to save or take 2d10 damage and be blinded until the end of its next turn. Which is kind of okay. It’s like combining Burning Hands and Color Spray (two first level spells) into a new spell. But it pales in comparison to another 2nd-level cone-based spell that deals damage and has a status effect.
Rime’s Binding Ice out of Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons starts the race off strong: it’s a 30-foot cone that does 3d8 damage. So not only is it already a bigger area, it’s more damage. And on top of that, creatures affected have their speed reduced to 0 until they take an action to break free of the eponymous binding ice.
Antagonize is a 3rd-level spell that feels like it should be a 2nd-level spell. Pick a creature, they save or take 4d4 psychic damage and immediately use their reaction to make a melee attack against a creature of your choice within reach. Compare that to any other 3rd level spell, even the bad ones, and it’s just worse.
And Spirit of Death might be a good spell, if Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything didn’t feature Summon Undead, which does the same, but lower level and better.
Which brings us to the question: do these changes mean WotC is nerfing combat spells overall? Or is it just a design choice for this splatbook? We’re starting to see some trends for 2024 D&D in the new books as they roll out. If that’s the case, magic may be coming down off of its pedestal. At least a step.
The Book of Many Things is out digitally on November 14th!
