Study Up on 5E D&D Magic — Transmutation Spells

September 16, 2021

Salutations, nerds! In this post I’m exploring ideas about my personal favorite school of magic for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons — transmutation! Polymorphs, classic transmutations and enhancements all fall under this 5E D&D school of magic. Fun fact — transmutation is also where you will find time related spells (not that 5E D&D has any explicit time manipulation magic but more on this later). I see School of Transmutation spellcasters so rarely and I think it’s a shame because there’s not a whole lot more thematic than a transmuter. Turning lead into gold or your apprentice into a whole bunch of different kinds of animals…mmm. It’s just good. So let’s crack into this.

Arcane tradition — transmutation

The School of Transmutation wizard in 5E D&D makes it clear why you don’t see this one as often as others. Early on the Minor Alchemy feature let’s you transmute an object from one substance to another if you take 10 minutes per cubic foot and then you lose the spell if you lose your concentration or an hour passes. Then you get the Transmuter’s Stone feature, which is kind of like a watered down philosopher’s stone giving you darkvision, letting you move faster, gaining proficiency in Constitution saving throws or resistance to a damage type. It is pretty easy to change what effect you’re getting, which is pretty cool. Also, you can hand it off to your allies and give them the buff instead.

At 10th level the Shapechanger feature grants you a free polymorph that only lets you turn into a beast of challenge rating 1 or lower because we can’t be outdoing those druids, don’t you know. The capstone Master Transmuter feature gives you a bunch of new things you can do with your Transmuter’s Stone like healing, raising the dead and restoring youth — though this last one for some reason doesn’t extend the creature’s life span. 5E D&D really doesn’t like things to let you live longer.

Most of this stuff is really situational. It can be good but the circumstances have to line up for it to be.

“Transmutation spells change the properties of a creature, object, or environment. They might turn an enemy into a harmless creature, bolster the strength of an ally, make an object move at the caster’s command, or enhance a creature’s innate healing abilities to rapidly recover from injury.” — from the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook

10 notable transmutation spells

Animate Objects. If you’ve ever wanted to be the poor kid in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice making all the brooms and stuff come to life to duck out of your chores, this is how you do that.
Blink. This one I find interesting because it cares about the planes but for some reason isn’t a conjuration spell. I guess we’re calling it a buff for practical purposes but sometimes the magic in this game just makes no sense to me.
Feather Fall. Fall slowly and don’t take damage hitting the ground.
Flesh to Stone. Turning someone into a statue is a pretty quintessential transmutation spell.
Polymorph. You know the scene in The Sword in the Stone when Merlin and Madame Mim are changing into all those animals? Yeah, it’s kind of like this.
Prestidigitation. My favorite cantrip. It’s not too useful mechanically but this is basically the quality of life spell. It means being able to clean yourself after walking through the swamp and never having to eat cold or bland food.
Reverse Gravity. Things fall up for a little while. The material components are a lodestone and iron fillings. Insert joke here about transmutation making you magnetic.
Spider Climb. Exactly what it says on the tin. Wanna climb like Spider-Man? Yeah, me too.
Temporal Shunt. One of the few remaining examples of a time spell in this game. It’s basically a banishment but instead of sending them to another plane they’re sent to a time pocket.
Time Stop. Basically you get to take multiple turns in a row because you stopped time. Except it ends early if you do anything to affect anyone else. And also why I think temporal shunt is kind of cheating because it’s literally just a banishment. Thee 5E D&D designers really don’t want you time traveling, or stopping time for more than 30 seconds.

5 character concepts for transmutation magic

The Alchemist. I do mean the lead into gold kind. Transmutation really lends itself to this once you get your capstone feature as a School of Transmutation wizard but otherwise it’s a cool flavor with which to play.
The Architect. You design buildings and use your magic to help you shape them. Things like stone shape would be super useful here.
The Chef. When you can take any ingredient and make it into a different ingredient and reflavoring food is a cantrip along with the ability to cast spells giving buffs to people you could be an amazing chef as a transmuter.
The Chronomancer. The game really doesn’t want you to but you can still flavor yourself as studying time magic. Maybe the game didn’t give it to us but this also leaves a big gap where your character could experiment. Talk to your Dungeon Master first — not everyone wants to play with time travel but there’s all kinds of shenanigans you can get into trying to do time experiments.
The Transitioner. You’re transgender and got into casting magic to help ease your dysphoria. Your goal is true polymorph. A simple concept, true, but sometimes simple concepts are the most fun.

With this we cover another 5E D&D school of magic. If you’re faffing around with a transmutation specialist please let me know in the comments, connecting with us on Facebook or tweeting us @Nerdarchy. Feel free to comment or tweet me @Pyrosynthesis too. And of course, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — Randomness is the jam! This transmuting frogfolk spellcaster is surrounded by friendly critters — or are they subjects of their penchant for polymorphing?! In addition to the excellent transmutation spells highlighted here you might consider some of these highest rated transmutation spells for your next 5E D&D wizard. The origami cantrip would make a wonderful part of this wizard’s repertoire. This image was created in just a few minutes with full color thanks to the amazing resources at Hero Forge. There’s so much you can do with Hero Forge! Check it out for yourself here.