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

A recent Reddit thread inspired this week’s look at homebrew content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. I came across a wonderful web comic called Socks and Puppets shared over there and the particular strip titled Summoning Ray. Creator David Birch illustrated a variety of manta rays each themed after a type of 5E D&D ray spell. I reached out to the creator to ask about including his comic in this post but didn’t get a reply. (I’ll include links below so you can check it out.) Regardless I’m checking out the 480+ homebrew ray spells at D&D Beyond and since ray isn’t a codified keyword I suspect the results are going to be quite unusual. 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.

Ray 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 480 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.

Before getting into those ray spells though here’s a list of existing official 5E D&D ray spells. Some of these are bonafide rays and some simply include the word within a larger word. When filtering through DDB’s homebrew spells I hoped one of the options might be the Attack Type field like there is for official spells but no such luck. Additionally many of these homebrew spells with names suggesting they’re truly ray spells call for target saving throws rather than attack rolls too. Basically they’re all over the place so rather than apply an arbitrary qualifier to them I’m going to take them as they come.

• Color spRAY
• Poison spRAY
• PRAYer of healing
• Prismatic spRAY
• RAY of enfeeblement
• RAY of frost
• RAY of sickness
• Scorching RAY

Top 10 highest rating ray spells

1. Nyxy’s Rainbow Ray (Cantrip). Kicking things off on a terrific note here’s a genuine ray spell. This one deals radiant damage at a 60 foot range, which fills a gap for spellcasters. Even better when a creature is reduced to 0 hit points by this ray spell they’re merely knocked unconscious rather than killed. I suspect a tremendous number of players would love to have this on their spell list.
2. Adhesive Spray (1st Level). The acid damage doesn’t really make much sense to me but it’s a solid spell for crowd control. I’d prefer leaning more into the control and leave the damage out completely if I’m honest. Who’s ready to play a Paste Pot Pete character?
3. Exhaust Ray (5th Level). As a big fan of expanded on the use of exhaustion mechanics I can totally dig this spell, which includes scaling for higher levels and wisely puts a cap on exhaustion levels.
4. Mind Fray (Cantrip). I’m going to guess this was created before mind sliver from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything released. This deals a bit more damage but without the added debuff. Meh.
5. Raynar’s Perfect Reality (12th Level). Interestingly enough this spell does indeed produce a legitimate ray. Wherever the ray hits within site is the spot where the caster creates essentially anything they imagine. A volcano, a square mile of gold, whatever. There is no context or further explanation of what 12th level spells mean.
6. Aalldam’s Waterspray (3rd Level). Sort of a watery version of gust of wind but there is one very significant difference — the damage. At first I felt skeptical about this one because affected a large number of creatures with damage and knocking them prone seemed like a lot but compared to fireball the damage is much less and the tradeoff for an additional effect balances this out nicely.
7. Aelah’s Ray of Frost (Cantrip). I guess if a spellcaster really feels strongly about gaining an extra one point of damage on average and giving up the fantastic reduced speed effect of a traditional ray of frost then go for it?
8. Alorian’s Ray (Cantrip). I dig this except the target ought to have an opportunity to make another save on their turn. Before you invoke, “But Melf’s acid arrow…” keep in mind the persistent damage only happens once with that one, not ten times in a row — and it’s a 2nd level spell!
9. Aqua Spray (Cantrip). A combination power washer and bludgeoning damage cantrip sounds reasonable but I do take issue with a ray spell requiring a target saving throw rather than a caster attack roll.
10. Archray (5th Level). This could use some polish on the mechanical language (and also doesn’t actually indicate the delivery mechanism) but it seems pretty decent. In a way it feels like a whole lot of hoops to jump through for a simply damage dealing ray though.

Top 10 most viewed ray spells

1. Aalldam’s Waterspray (3rd Level).
2. Freezing Ray (2nd Level). It’s scorching ray but cold damage instead.
3. Death Ray (9th Level). I knew there had to be at least one! I’m going to guess the creator meant Challenge Rating (CR) where it reads DC because otherwise it doesn’t make any sense.
4. Magic Mushroom Spray (Cantrip). Everything about this spell is cool by me except the duration, which is far too long for a cantrip with an effect like this. If it were one minute with concentration, or a higher level spell requiring at least some expenditure of a resource then I’d be all in.
5. Ray of Flame (1st Level). The writing on this is quite messy and my instincts tell me this is a superfluous spell all around.
6. Ray (Cantrip). There’s a lot going on with this relatively succinct spell. For starters I can only assume the precise 1.44 inch diameter ray holds some significance. Doing some quick searching didn’t turn anything up for me and I’m wondering if it’s related somehow to photons or something. At any rate it’s an unnecessary detail. The effect itself seems mundane to the point of total uselessness. Then a sentence tacked onto the end indicates it’s basically persistent real sunlight (no concentration) until the caster decides to end the spell so it’s an anti-vampire cantrip? I don’t get this one at all.
7. Ray of Light (Cantrip). Casting a great Madonna song at will sounds pretty cool. But rather than invoke an  electronic dance song with techno, trance, Eurodance and disco influences instead this spell correctly has the caster make an attack roll to hit a target with a ray dealing radiant damage and making them glow. I was already on board for a proper radiant ray cantrip and the additional effect could be useful in lots of ways.
8. Venom Spray (4th Level). I can get behind this debilitating cloud of neurotoxin. If I made any changes there’s come interesting space to explore with the spells effect and I’d consider removing the damage dealing part altogether.
9. Prayer of Mending (3rd Level). I like the direction this spell takes as a sort of advance healing but it’s too much.
10. Prismatic Ray (4th Level). A terrific spell from earlier editions and a wonderful precursor to prismatic spray and prismatic wall I do feel like the damage output is questionable. Basically it’s prismatic wall in ray form on a single target.

Top 10 most added ray spells

1. Freezing Ray (2nd Level).
2. Aalldam’s Waterspray (3rd Level).
3. Vitriolic Spray (4th level). Now we’re talking. Except for the kludgy damage dice I like what’s going on whenever a spell includes an additional effect and this incorporates a temporary hazard too!
4. Ray of Fatigue (3rd Level). This is totally a spell created by a Dungeon Master to stick it to the adventurers. It’s way too powerful in that regard and for a player character it’s largely meaningless because exhaustion is a terrible strategy for slaying an enemy.
5. Aelah’s Ray of Frost (Cantrip).
6. Anti-Life Ray (8th Level). If this isn’t a reference to DC Comics’ New Gods I’m going to be a little disappointed. It’s not. Sad face. For a high level spell rather underwhelming honestly and again with exhaustion. What’s up with all the exhaustion this week? Geez.
7. Nyxy’s Rainbow Ray (Cantrip).
8. Elemental Ray (3rd Level). Speaking of exhaustion I’m getting worn out seeing variations of the same effects. This is a good spell in the sense it does so many different things (some of which should be scaled down a bit). It’s simultaneously a bad spell from a design perspective for the same reason.
9. Black Scorching Ray (6th Level). I appreciate this kind of design approach, which combines several other spells with some tweaks and what feels like an appropriate level.
10. Kaleidoscopic Rays (9th Level). This is one of those weird spells with a chunky block of text that I want to like but after reading I feel like it’s a long way to say it does some damage and leaves behind a temporary light source.

Ray spells rising to the top

Likely due to the non-codified nature of these homebrew ray spells there’s a lot more variety across all three categories than within each school of magic or even similar dives like the Top 10 Homebrew Force Spells. Among these 25 spells there’s a better spread of level range for one thing. Usually the majority of spells are cantrips with perhaps a few very high level spells in the mix.

Frankly I’d like to see more low and mid-level spells. There’s way too many cantrips and it’s not surprising they rank so well with players because they’re often much more powerful than official 5E D&D cantrips in either sheer power, unbalanced scaling or both. Along the same lines it would behoove homebrew creators to compare their creations to existing material. I do so myself while putting these lists together and it’s not unusual to see a spell with nearly identical effects, which renders the homebrew spell kind of pointless, or effects far less impactful than the homebrew spell. Of course these homebrew spells aren’t created and shared as consumer products so it’s entirely possible they’re intentionally skewed for those players’ purposes.

Two observations unrelated to creating homebrew spells or the particular spells on these lists crossed my mind. The first, which I touched on in a few of the blurbs above, is how ray spells aren’t a codified mechanical component of 5E D&D. This led to some off brand inclusions here — looking at you spray spells — but I already included a disclaimer about this. (Incidentally ray spells pair very nicely with the Spell Assassin.) The second thing, which got stuck in my mind the entire time including as I’m typing this sentence, is Amazon Women on the Moon. This 1987 comedy film features a bunch of sketches parodying late night television and the last sketch features a character named Ray in a humorous movie rental scenario gone horribly wrong.

The very first spell I looked at — Nyxy’s rainbow ray — is far and away my favorite of all of these. I’ve always gotten a kick out of colorful light themed stuff whether it’s the Prismatic Light Bloodline sorcerer here on the site, the various prismatic spells of D&D or the Nite Lite character from campaign two of our Marvel Super Heroes RPG live play games. This spell doesn’t incorporate anything about the color spectrum but it does fill a need and I appreciate the nonviolent nature of the damage. Black scorching ray also impresses me because of the solid design chops. A lot of other spells here I think are pretty neat but I would change a few things on them for my taste.

If you’d like to check out the web comic that inspired this look into homebrew ray spells for 5E D&D check out Socks and Puppets No. 779, Summoning Ray here. You might not catch it on the page too but the creator has a shop with T-shirts featuring his art and there’s a version of the comic you can wear as well! Find that here. We don’t have any affiliation with the creator or receive any benefit from this, it’s just a really fun comic and worth giving a look.

We really need a 5E D&D Manta Ray spell now, right? The eponymous Spelljammer is very much like a manta ray. Hmm…

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 — There’s no shortage of ray spells in Magic: The Gathering and perhaps with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms crossing D&D over into the megapopular card game we’ll begin to see some show up in the RPG multiverse (probably not Super-Duper Death Ray from the Unsanctioned expansion though). Scorching ray and ray of sickness didn’t make it into the AFR expansion but the other two did. Ray of enfeeblement debuffs a creatures’ power and toughness — even moreso if the creature is white. The latest MTG expansion Adventures in the Forgotten Realms brings tons of awesome D&D flavor to the seminal card game. [Art by Campbell White]

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