D&D: The Five Best 1st-Level Spells
1st-level spells might not shake worlds, but they’re a caster’s best friend. And these are five of the best 1st-level spells in D&D.
When it comes to D&D, the best 1st-level spells are the ones you come back to using over and over and over. Whether it’s a defensive spell that saves your bacon, a quick burst of healing that brings your friend back from the brink of death, or the ever-useful find familiar, there are plenty to pick from.
Here are our picks for best 1st-level spells, regardless of caster.
Shield
Shield is easily one of the strongest spells in the game. The designers are on record as saying “Yeah this one’s unbalanced, but we did that on purpose.” And it punches way above its weight. Often times it can cancel an attack, effectively. Even if it doesn’t always come up, shield is one of the best 1st-level spells because it never stops being useful.
Silvery Barbs
The spell so good everyone wouldn’t stop talking about how it was “breaking D&D” when it came out. That’s silvery barbs for you. This spell forces an enemy that succeeds on an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check to “reroll the d20” potentially turning a successful saving throw into a failure. It’s the only spell that can negate a critical hit entirely, potentially turning a natural 20 into a miss.
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that it’s one of the best 1st-level spells in the game.
Find Familiar
The key to being one of the best 1st-level spells is delivering a ton of bang for one’s spellcasting buck. In the case of find familiar, this is a spell that gets cast maybe once or twice unless you’re doing something very specific with it. But for one single casting, you can basically change the way you interact with the world.
Suddenly you have a little buddy you can conjure up to sneak into places unseen. To accomplish tasks you set out for it. And you can communicate telepathically and even see through its eyes if you need to. And that’s not even touching on the combat uses of a familiar.
Healing Word
Healing spells aren’t always the right answer in the middle of a fight. Often it’s better to get in there and do some damage than it is to heal things up. Because in 5th Edition, unless your DM is very good, combat is a race to see who hits 0 hit points first, and every step counts.
But when you do need to heal up, one of the easiest ways you can do that is with a simple bonus action. That way you still have your action to cast a cantrip or make an attack or anything else you might want to do with it.
Sleep
Sleep is one of those hard-working spells that get the job done without making too much fanfare. In the right situations, this spell can turn a whole fight around. Sure it has its limitations, but you’re not doing damage and unless you can exceed someone’s hit-point totals, it doesn’t really matter. But other than that? This spell is a great way to take out large groups of low-level enemies, and you can have it from day one.
This spell solves encounters, which makes it amazing.
What are your picks for best 1st-level spell?
