Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Force Spells by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted feel compelled by force majeure to take a look at fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons spells involving force. The list of possibilities includes not only 5E D&D spells dealing force damage but also magic that creates a force of some kind as described in the spell description. Out of 521 official spells in 5E D&D narrowing this down was a bit trickier than similar research. Thanks to D&D Beyond we could easily filter spells dealing force damage. For the additional ones we used the search feature and patience. Speaking of DDB there’s another source of spells and that’s what I’m looking at today. Using the tools there, players have created a whopping 1345 homebrew spells dealing force damage. That’s a tremendous amount and since our secondary search method won’t work for homebrew content at DDB we’ll stick with those and see how the force shakes out among 5E D&D players who ranked, rated and added these homebrew spells to their collections. So let’s get into it.
Homebrew spells of force 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 spells mentioned below or any other homebrew content you come across to your 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.
As a side note, as part of Wizards of the Coast’s Stay at Home/Play at Home initiative to help the quarantined community they’re sharing adventures and other material free. You can find out more here, and this content is usually available through DDB as well.
“Content will be added daily, Monday-Friday. Check back each day for the latest free, downloadable content. Please note that certain adventures are being made free for a limited time, so be sure to grab them now while you can!”
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 so many homebrew spells dealing force damage in the collection I’m going to share the top 10 highest rated, most viewed and most added selections. I’m curious to see what’s out there and any crossover between these three lists.
Top 10 highest rating force spells
- Coin Shot. The chosen coin shoots from you hand towards a creature or object within range (the coin is destroyed in the process).
- Explosion. You gather a massive amount of magical energy and release it in a single beam, which flies through the air and strikes down at a point you can see within range, causing a powerful explosion on impact.
- Arcane Bolt. You create a dart-like bolt of magical force which you launch at a target.
- Ainz’s Black Hole. You create a crackling, black spherical void with a strong gravitational pull at a point you designate, which pulls creatures towards the center point of the spell within a 30-foot radius sphere.
- Black Hole. You create a tiny bead of supercompressed matter in a chosen space within range, causing a 5-foot wide black hole to form in that space.
- Aenuther’s Overpowered Arcana. “No no no, this isn’t broken at all, the spell is perfectly balanced you see!”
- Chaos Blast. You hurl an undulating, warbling mass of chaotic energy at one creature in range.
- Cruelty of Nature. Touch a creature with a seed.
- Force Choke. You reach out with the force and grasp a creature by the throat, crushing their windpipe.
- Mystic Missile. You form a glowing dart of arcane force.
Top 10 most viewed force spells
- Explosion
- Black Hole. When casting Black Hole the affected area becomes enshrouded in darkness and forms a spiraling vortex.
- Aenuther’s Overpowered Arcana
- Coin Shot
- A Stroke of Luck. Stroke of Luck is actually the unluckiest attack, meaning that your target must be insanely unlucky to be hit by this.
- Ainz’s Black Hole
- Black Hole
- Tornado. This spell requires the caster to be in open air.
- Arcane Barrage. You call forth a barrage of forty glowing darts of magical force.
- Black Hole. You take a small portion of cosmic energy and force it into a black sphere, 1 foot in diameter within range.
Top 10 most added force spells
- Coin Shot
- Arcane Bolt
- Explosion
- Air Bolt. You hurl a condensed ball of air at a creature or object within range.
- Ainz’s Black Hole
- Time Bolt. Arcs of temporal distortion connect you and your target, releasing the primordial energy of the Void into the “Here and Now”, tearing away at their corporeal form.
- Black Hole
- Aenuther’s Overpowered Arcana
- Shield of Will. You exert the full force of your will against all incoming attacks.
- Ablativus. The caster makes a large swiping motion with their hand.
Force spells rising to the top
Using a highly scientific method taking into account ratings, views and adds here’s all of these DDB 5E D&D homebrew spells dealing force damage in order from highest scoring to lowest.
- Coin Shot and Explosion
- Ainz’s Black Hole
- Arcane Bolt
- Aenuther’s Overpowered Arcana
- Black Hole
- Black Hole
- Air Bolt
- A Stroke of Luck
- Time Bolt
- Chaos Blast
We had a Factor of Three first with this one — a tie for the No.1 spot! I’d be lying if I didn’t admit about halfway through I wondered if it would be a three way tie between black hole, black hole and black hole. There’s 35 homebrew spells over there called black hole or having that in the name somewhere. I guess when it comes to pure magical energy focused into a damaging form a region of super powerful gravity comes to the minds of many.
Unfortunately there is no way to search for homebrew spells with the word force in them somewhere, so all these spells are limited to ones dealing force damage. This is disappointing because I’d hoped to discover some interesting magic beyond combat applications. Force is a cool damage type, not only because it’s versatile and rarely resisted or specially defended against. Pure magical energy represents the raw stuff spellcasters manipulate and if I’m honest I’d love to see more exploration of force. We might need to develop something ourselves.
One of my favorite things about exploring homebrew spells at DDB is reading some of the flavor included with some of them. I’ve always thought it’s neat how wizards sometimes name spells after themselves (Bigby’s hand, Melf’s acid arrow and so on) and I get a kick out of it whenever homebrew creators do the same. Who are Ainz and Aenuther, and what are their adventures like?
In your own games have wizard characters developed spells and named them for themselves?
5E D&D homebrew spell resources
You could say we’ve done a bit of homebrew spell creation for 5E D&D ourselves.
- Beardomancy
- Secrets of the Vault: Friend or Foe Vol. 1
- Secrets of the Vault: Lost Lore Vol. 1
- Secrets of the Vault: Lost Lore Vol. 2
- Gaze of the Void Eye
- Winter Court Soiree
- Top 10 5E D&D Summoning Spells by a Factor of Three
- Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Illusion Spells by a Factor of Three
- Magic of Dungeons & Dragons: Getting the Most from Your Spells
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