Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Evocation Spells by a Factor of Three

Manipulating magical energy takes center stage for this week’s look at homebrew spells for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. There’s currently over a whopping 20,320 homebrew evocation spells at D&D Beyond so while Nerdarchists Dave and Ted examine the bloodlines of homebrew Sorcerous Origins for 5E D&D at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel I’m channeling magic in this post to blast through the most blasty magic around. We get a kick out of checking out the 5E D&D content folks come up with and sharing their homebrew creations. (There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious.) Let’s get into it.

Evocation spells at D&D Beyond

Before getting started it’s important to note you can create homebrew content for private use and share your homebrew content publicly at DDB at no cost — there’s no subscription required to access these services. However if you want to add any of the homebrew evocation spells mentioned below or any other homebrew content you come across to your 5E D&D collection you must subscribe at the Hero Tier or above. There’s a lot you can do at DDB for free. Check out what you can do here.

The DDB homebrew collection uses several statistics to track entries. Views shows how many eyeballs any particular homebrew creation received, Adds shows the number of times a creation was added to someone’s collection and Rating is an upvote/downvote system. Since there are over 20,320 evocation spells in the collection I’m going to share the top 10 highest rated, most viewed and most added selections and to see what’s out there along with any crossover between these three lists.

Top 10 highest rating evocation spells

1. Face-Palm (Cantrip). An unexpectedly tongue-in-cheek spell starts things off and I’m surprised to find it so highly rated. No one could accuse this spell of being too powerful. In fact aside from the extremely niche possibility a caster really wants everyone to know of their disappointment it’s pretty useless. Also, no components? It ought to require a somatic component at the very least, right?
2. Card Throw (Cantrip). Neat! Basically a spell to simulate the X-Men’s Gambit and I like the random damage type. It doesn’t scale well and I’m surprised it’s not made available for sorcerers as well but overall a nice, flavorful cantrip. This would be a terrific add-on for The Dealer at The Pool of Bliss casino.
3. Close Wound (Cantrip). A cantrip capable of facilitating healing? Noooooooooo! Seriously though this is a well designed spell, which I’ve written an entire post about and we made a video about it too.
4. Arcane Diffusion Bomb (9th Level). If you’re in the market for an extremely over powered spell look no further. This smacks of a spell designed for a villain, which is a phenomenon that comes up fairly often in these homebrew spells.
5. Gloom (Cantrip). I like this quite a bit but there’s a nagging feeling it’s got potential for abuse. I can’t put my finger on it but I feel like there’s more to this than achieving the right mood lighting. Otherwise it would be covered by thaumaturgy. And since it’s similar to the effects of that spell, prestidigitation and druidcraft I want to say it makes a better transmutation spell.
6. Arc Lightning (2nd Level). When you don’t want to cast dragon’s breath but you want a 2nd level spell dealing lightning damage you’re in luck! Nothing fancy or unusual here, just a nice solid evocation spell filling a gap. Refreshing!
7. Explosion (9th Level). I was all set to grouse about this one, with it’s old school implementation of taking multiple rounds to cast and tremendous damage but the severe drawback to the caster alleviated my misgivings.
8. Celestial Burst (Cantrip). A straightforward spell to deal radiant damage with a cantrip via a spell attack rather than a saving throw fills a gap and I dig how it doubles as the light spell more or less.
9. Black Nova (9th Level). Can we all agree meteor swarm is the epitome of evocation magic? Imagine mashing it together with ravenous void from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount basically. I guess if your campaign includes epic heroes and villains for whom those two spells individually don’t pass muster this is for when you need to bring out the really, really big guns.
10. Thousand Cuts (Cantrip). There’s very little selection when it comes to cantrips dealing mundane damage. Thorn whip includes piercing damage while magic stone and shillelagh cover bludgeoning damage and poor slashing damage gets left out entirely. This one fills the gap and feels like the perfect cantrip for an Order of Scribes wizard.

Top 10 most viewed evocation spells

1. Card Throw (Cantrip).
2. Laminae’s Celestial Body (9th Level). If you play the kinds of games where black nova ain’t no big thang perhaps this outrageously powerful spell with way too long a duration and no concentration is the sort of buff you’ll need. So many effects, little to do with evocation and at the end of the day frankly ridiculous.
3. Explosion (9th Level).
4. Arcane Diffusion Bomb (9th Level).
5. Face-Palm (Cantrip).
6. Arc Lightning (2nd Level).
7. Fire Dragon’s Breath (2nd Level). Whenever a spell does the same thing as an existing spell except to a greater degree it’s going to get a thumbs down from me. If burning hands is your jam but you wish it did more damage to more creatures in a greater range then have at this one.
8. Luck of Thorbir (2nd Level). Definitely feels like one of those NPC spells I mention all the time, which is a strike against it coupled with poorly worded mechanics and a brutal effect that does not seem like it would add fun or enjoyment to a game. Also I can’t even begin to make a case why this would be an evocation spell.
9. Abeloth’s Grasping Winds (1st Level). Again I’ve got to consider existing spells and this one’s similarity to ensnaring strike except more damage, no concentration, language in need of polish and probably a better fit as a conjuration spell aren’t winning any points with me.
10. Close Wound (Cantrip).

Top 10 most added evocation spells

1. Card Throw (Cantrip).
2. Face-Palm (Cantrip).
3. Arc Lightning (2nd Level).
4. Close Wound (Cantrip).
5. Celestial Burst (Cantrip).
6. Arcane Diffusion Bomb (9th Level).
7. Gloom (Cantrip).
8. Black Nova (9th Level).
9. Flash Step Slash (1st Level). Like misty step except lower level and you could potentially make eleven free melee attacks with advantage while doing so (due to the way it’s written) so…yeah. Hard pass.
10. Absolute Zero (3rd Level). Maybe with a bit of polish on the language I could see this spell being decent. There’s only a single reaction spell that deals damage and I suspect this is by intent so I’m a bit wary about it especially considering the high damage and restrained condition imposed on the target.

Evocation spells rising to the top

I’ve now covered all the schools of magic and the homebrew spells from DDB for each of them. The 16 evocation spells across these three lists illustrate one thing all of these closer looks have in common — spell levels. Overwhelmingly across the board the top spells in every category for every school of magic are cantrips. Aside from these it’s the highest level spells and only occasionally a spell of 1st-3rd level. Spells in the 4th-7th level range are practically nonexistent. My takeaway from this is players want to squeeze as much as they can from cantrips until they reach the furthest limits of power. Then all bets are off.

Evocation spells are a bit easier to balance than other schools of magic because primarily they deal damage so comparing and contrasting them with existing 5E D&D spells is more straightforward. In several cases these evocation spells fills gaps like dealing a certain damage type at a particular level (looking at you, cantrips). In other cases the comparison highlights what’s off about them like when the effects are very similar to an existing spell except in greater degree and with added effects often at a lower level. I point these out in my commentary so players who might incorporate them into their games understand the significance. If more power is the goal this is fine of course but worth taking into account.

Arc lightning is my favorite of this whole bunch. It’s simple, it fills a gap and it’s well balanced. I like celestial burst and thousand cuts for the same reasons. I’m also a big fan of close wound because, well, you can read the linked post from the commentary about it above to find out more.

5E D&D spell resources

I mention our own forays into homebrew content creation for 5E D&D several times to plant the seed in your mind. Now you’re wondering, “What kind of homebrew content do you create, Nerdarchy? I’m extremely interested!” In addition to the monthly rewards our Patreon supporters receive we’ve presented tons of material in our videos and right here at Nerdarchy the Website ready to drop right into your games too. Another place we frequently create new content for Dungeon Masters and players to drop right into games is Nerdarchy the Newsletter and you’ll also get several gifts including $9.99 in store credit so you can add whatever you like there to your own collection when you sign up. Over the years we’ve scribed over 60 new spells of our own. Here’s some places where you’ll find these spells along with other spell related stuff we’ve shared.

• Make 5E D&D Spells Your Own with Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
• Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with Snakes on the Brain and Cast More Snake Magic Spells
• Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with Snakes on the Brain and Cast Snake Magic Spells
• Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Force Spells by a Factor of Three
• Top 10 5E D&D Summoning Spells by a Factor of Three
• Uphold your Sacred Oath Through Paladin Oath Spells
• Beardomancy (11 new spells)
  • Beard Growth, Beard Servant, Beard Whip, Beardgury, Beardskin, Conjure Hirsute Horror, Feard, Guardian of Face, Power Word Beard, Hairotte, Transport Via Beard
• Friend of Foe Vol. 1 (1 new spell)
  • Withered Thorn Whip
• Lost Lore Vol. 1 (3 new spells)
  • Wood Warp, Swords to Sorrows, Sticks to Snakes
• Lost Lore Vol. 2 (7 new spells)
  • Spider Bite, Pack of Spiders, Nest of Spiders, Rampage of Spiders, Spectral Spider Servant, Spider Plague, Hail of Crystal Spiders
• Gaze of the Void Eye (6 new spells)
  • Darksight, Shadowstep, Darklight, Shadowtrap, Darkling’s Hand, Silhouette
• Winter Court Soiree (7 new spells)
  • Solstice Cheer, Virgin Snow, Icespike, Grasp of Winter, Cloak of Rime, Find Sleigh, Winter’s Nightmare
• Hairable Ideas (12 new spells)
  • Animate Moustache, Blessing of Samson, Cloister of Combs, Enhance Style, Friendship Bracelet, Hairball, Haircut, Hair Whip, Rain of Quills, Rapunzel’s Curse, Shroud of Hair, Sun Wukong’s Magic Hairs
• Bad Hair Day (3 new spells)
  • Godiva’s Ride, Ordo’s Binding Beard, Ordo’s Resilient Beard, Wild Web
• Chained One’s Animus (10 new spells)
  • Venomous Blade, Heart of the Pack, Creeping Fungus, Shroud of Thorns, Cloud of Spores, Root, Thorned Oath, Chained Oath, Warped Oath, Barbed Shield

*Featured image — Is there a more iconic D&D evocation spell than fireball? The latest Magic: The Gathering expansion Adventures in the Forgotten Realms brings tons of awesome D&D flavor to the seminal card game. One such card is Farideh’s Fireball, which prompts card floppers to roll a d20 to determine the effects of this terrific spell. In 5E D&D evocation spells manipulate magical energy to produce a desired effect. Some call up blasts of fire or lightning. Others channel positive energy to heal wounds. [Art by Josu Hernaiz]

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