D&D: Five Spells Perfect For Enhancing Your Roleplay
Want to add a little flourish to your roleplay? Like everything else in D&D, there’s a spell for that. Try a flavor-enhancing spell.
Can Magic do just about everything in D&D? Need to make a melee attack? There’s a spell for that. Want to fly? There’s a spell for that. But what if you just want to look kind of cool, or do some other sort of melodramatic flourish in your roleplay? You guessed it, there’s a spell for that!
But don’t worry, even if you’re the most basic human fighter, it’s perishingly easy for even a completely otherwise nonmagical character to gain access to these. All you need is an Origin Feat or maybe to take Fey Touched, and you’re golden.
Prestidigitation
Prestidigitation is a cantrip which, funnily enough, is the spiritual successor to the 2nd Edition spell, “Cantrip.” Before cantrips were cantrips, there was the 1st-level spell, Cantrip, which allowed a spellcaster to make candles flicker, clean a small area, and other minor magical effects, and lasted for a while.
Now, Prestidigitation is one of the best RP-enhancing spells. You can use this spell to create all sorts of little character flourishes, including making something clean (or soiled) so you can magically clean someone off whenever you have that next “hurt/comfort” scene because your DM has been reading one too many fanfictions. It does whatever you need it to, and it’s the perfect way to describe your character doing something cool without having to spend actual in-game resources on it.
Thaumaturgy
This is another one of the “manifest a minor magical wonder” type spells. And of the three, this one is the one that lets you pull a Gandalf and tell people not to take you for a conjurer of cheap tricks. Which is ironic, because it costs you nothing to cast this spell.
It lets you make your voice booming up to three times as loud as normal, you can make flames flicker, brighten, dim, or change color, and you can make the earth move. Again, nothing game-changing, but if you want to make your character seem like they really stand out as a heroic (or at least larger-than-life) type.
Druidcraft
The last of the “create some minor magical effects” cantrips, this one is all about nature. It’s less “my voice is booming” and more, you can make flowers bloom, or know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. It’s surprisingly Ranger-y.
Plus you can put out fires, make sensory effects as you see fit, and in general just be a little bit magical.
Mage Hand
Okay but beyond those spells, Mage Hand is one of my favorites. It’s both useful in the game, because it lets you manipulate things from afar, but it also is perfect for doing any kind of like minor-roleplay-enhancements you might need. Because with the right Feats (Telekinesis) or just a DM who doesn’t care, the magical hand is invisible, so you can use it to make things hover around you, have orbiting little stones or make a grimoire float magically in front of you.
Essentially this is the spell for doing “wizard stuff” that involves moving anything else in the world.
Unseen Servant
Or if you want the ultimate, go ahead and spend a 1st-level spell (or don’t, if you’re a ritual caster) and create an invisible, shapeless force that can perform simple tasks at your mental command. As a Bonus Action, you can have the Unseen Servant interact with an object, which can represent you using magic to do whatever it is. But you can also have it light fires, fold clothes, serve food, pour drinks – the sort of lifestyle enhancements that magic makes possible.
As long as it stays within 60 feet of you.
And of course, there’s always minor illusion!
