D&D: Five of the Worst 4th-Level Spells
Which 4th-level spells are just the worst? And how bad are they, comparatively? That’s for you to judge, but here are our picks.
Alrighty folks, here we are with 4th-level spells. These are spells, that, by and large, should be just a step beyond the realm of what a mortal (who can throw fireballs) can do. These spells can solve whole encounters on their own. So what do the worst 4th-level spells even look like?
And are they as bad as Find Traps? Probably not, because even when they’re the worst, 4th-level spells still, for the most part, feel pretty magical.
Ice Storm
Here we have a spell that’s always seemed kind of cool but has never managed to live up to its younger sibling. Yes, like the elder child who just wanted to listen to indie music and smoke cloves while the younger, favorite sibling scampered around with bright, firebally energy, Ice Storm fulfills much the same role but it’s more confusing and worse for some reason.
As a trade-off for dealing less damage overall than a Fireball, Ice Storm does give you some difficult terrain. But that’s a situational benefit that often would be better served by just doing more damage. Or being a much more intense, lockdown/damage spell, like Black Tentacles.
Confusion
Confusion isn’t too bad from a distance. It’s a spell that can impact multiple targets in a smallish area of effect, and can potentially make everyone sacrifice their entire action. Or they move and act normally and everything’s fine, especially when they save at the end of their turn.
Confusion ranks among the worst 4th-level spells because, for the resource cost, you get such unpredictability. It’s not awful, but by this point, there are other spells that can accomplish the same thing with more consistency, and often better than Confusion, where targets have to fail a save to be affected in the first place.
Stoneskin
Stoneskin is a spell that got quite a bit of a nerf in the transition to 5th Edition D&D. Now it only lasts an hour, and it gives the caster resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. Which, for a 4th-level spell effect is overall pretty weak, considering the company it keeps.
It’s not a bad effect, but extremely expensive for what is ultimately a benefit that’ll last one fight for sure, and maaaaybe longer. If you’re lucky.
Dominate Beast
Dominate Beast lets you take control of a beast in the fight and dictate its actions. Which again, is not a bad effect. But it’s basically Polymorph with Extra Steps, and those extra steps require your target to fail their save. When instead you could just heal your Fighter and turn them into a Giant Ape who acts independently for the same price.
Elemental Bane
Finally, a spell that sounds like it should be cool. It sounds like the sort of thing you’d do to make a target more vulnerable to elemental damage. But instead of giving vulnerability to fire or causing them to take even extra damage, this 4th-level spell just adds an extra 2d6 damage once per turn. And if they happen to be resistant to your damage, they lose that resistance for the duration of the spell.
What are your picks for the worst 4th-level spell?
