D&D: Five Group Buff Spells that Improve the Whole Party
In D&D, friendship is magic, but so are these group buff spells which enhance your party dynamic for the low cost of one spell slot.
In D&D, the party dynamic is perhaps the single most important factor for determining how successful your campaign is going to be. Whether you make it through the adventure or not depends entirely on how well you play with each other. Don’t worry there’s still plenty of room for intraparty conflict, but when you’re fighting four death knights riding atop dragons, you’re going to want to be able to work together.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to do that, and without taking a lot of effort. Here are five group buff spells that can help your whole party work better together, all for the cost of a single spell slot.
Bless
Bless is probably one of the best Cleric spells in the game right now. It’s pretty simple. When you cast the spell, everyone affected by it can add 1d4 to any attack roll or saving throw they make, for up to a minute if you can keep concentrating on it. Simple. Effective. Buff almost the whole party for a 1st-level spell.
Pass Without Trace
Of course there are times when you don’t want to fight. At least not right now. And usually that’s when the party is all trying to make Stealth Checks for whatever reason. And while the Rogue and Bard are smug about how good their bonuses are, the Fighter and Paladin might drag everyone down with them.
Which is where Pass without Trace comes into play. This spell cloaks everyone within 30 feet of you at the time you cast the spell, granting them a +10 bonus to Stealth and making them untrackable by nonmagical means. Pretty handy when you need to buff the group.
Crusader’s Mantle
Of course when you want to hit hard, every little bit of extra damage helps. And with a spell like Crusader’s Mantle, every party member under its effects gains an extra 1d4 damage with every weapon attack. As long as you can all stick within 30 feet of the caster, this spell buffs the party’s damage per round pretty heftily. You’d be surprised how quickly it adds up, especially when characters are making multiple attacks on each turn.
Holy Aura
Now we’re playing with power. Holy Aura is an 8th level spell, which means it’s there to solve problems. And in this case the problem is a tough fight, because Holy Aura will let you turn the tide so quick.
While creatures are within 30 feet of the divine light emanating from you, they gain advantage on all saving throws (even Death Saves) and other creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against them. To say nothing of the extra chance to blind a fiend or undead that dares attack someone under the Holy Aura’s ward.
Mass Polymorph
Finally, Mass Polymorph. The spell that turns your whole party into angry T Rexes. Or whatever you want. Cast this spell and up to ten creatures of your choice automatically shift into the form of a beast you’ve seen whose Challenge Rating is equal to or less than the target’s level.
Which typically means a T. Rex. They are hands down the best bang for your buck, and suddenly, when you’ve got up to ten of them going at once, you start to understand why dinosaurs once ruled the Earth.
What are your favorite group buff spells?
