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

You thought this week would be conjuration spells didn’t you? Those who follow along each week might notice my penchant for following alphabetical order so I’m mixing it up this week to check out what rose to the top when it comes to homebrew transmutation spells for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted snuck a look at homebrew Roguish Archetypes for 5E D&D from D&D Beyond. 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.) Incidentally our upcoming July rewards include a bunch of new spells we created ourselves and several of them are transmutation spells so changing the properties of creatures, objects or environments is already on my mind. There’s currently over 10,180 of them at DDB, which I believe may be the highest number of anything I’ve looked at here before. So let’s get into it.

Transmutation 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 Arcane Traditions 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 10,180 transmutation 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 transmutation spells

1. Origami (cantrip). A variety of useful options folded up into a flavorful cantrip makes a wonderful start to these spells. Bravo!
2. Leaf Into Dagger (cantrip). Really cool idea for a spell that is far from too powerful. In fact it’s rather underpowered compared to other damage dealing cantrips, which this one essentially is but in a roundabout way.
3. Coin Shot (cantrip). I thought this sounded familiar — it made the cut for the Top 10 force spells also. I dig this design approach.
4. Calling Card (cantrip). This feels more like a spell designed for an NPC villain as a terrific magical clue for characters to pick up on but in certain kinds of campaigns I could see a player’s interest in this really niche spell with neither combat nor utility attached.
5. Permanency (7th level). Many people pine for this spell from earlier editions. I prefer the way 5E D&D handles these things with mechanics like casting a spell every day for 30 days and so forth. There’s some kludgy bits to this requiring hefty investment of gold, which I think is a good idea for a powerful effect like this. Magic this potent requires powerful spellcasters with lots of resources.
6. True Challenge of New Beginnings (9th level). The intent behind this is entirely narrative as a way to advance a setting through time and explore the future with characters who are the same but new and different too. Very cool and evocative stuff here!
7. Aalum’s Transmutation (cantrip). This feels a lot more like a necromancy spell but aside from this as far as healing cantrips go this isn’t too terrible. I still like close wound better though.
8. Tree Meld (3rd level). This is a really cool concept for what I thought was going to be a tree based version of meld into stone. Instead it’s what my instinct tells me is a too powerful spell. Toning it down a bit would make a world of difference.
9. Animate Instrument (cantrip). Awesome! This is like the bard’s version of druidcraft, prestidigitation and thaumaturgy, which is a fantastic idea.
10. Image Capture (1st level). A wonderful spell for the fantasy photog and something I am certain many, many, many 5E D&D players would be very interested in adding to their spellbooks. Great job.

Top 10 most viewed transmutation spells

1. Origami (cantrip).
2. Aalum’s Transmutation (cantrip).
3. Pocket Dimension (2nd level). Very cool and useful without going over the top. I’m not sure about the school though. Conjuration feels more appropriate but nevertheless here we are. I wonder if Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War was the inspiration for this because I’m totally getting the vibe. Also I’ve got to say when I first saw the name I figured it would turn a pocket into a miniature demiplane (it doesn’t).
4. Leaf Into Dagger (cantrip).
5. Permanency (7th level).
6. Moment in Time (8th level). The description indicates it differs from time stop, which other than including extra words for flavor appears identical to me. So…big no.
7. Infuse Magic (1st level). I believe this is a noodly way to let artificers infuse more items than they typically ought to, which seems like a long way to go rather than simply tweaking the Infuse Item feature.
8. Control Earth (cantrip). Feels like mold earth, catapult and additional uses both damaging and utilitarian rolled into a single cantrip. In other words way too much.
9. Ice Armor (3rd level). A bonus of 3 to Armor Class felt too strong but I dig the way this spell dwindles over a handful of rounds to balance things out. This would be much more appropriate as an abjuration spell though.
10. Nature’s Wrath (9th level). The highest of high level magics can be tricky to assess and my gut tells me this falls a bit too much on the overly powerful side. There’s a lot going on but some wonky mechanical language and incredibly powerful effect could be tweaked, revised and toned down a tad.

Top 10 most added transmutation spells

1. Origami (cantrip).
2. Leaf Into Dagger (cantrip).
3. Coin Shot (cantrip).
4. Widogast’s Transmogrification (6th level). An interpretation of powerful magic researched and developed by a character from Critical Role’s Mighty Nein campaign. I think a lot of players would love to incorporate this kind of magic into their games to alter their character’s race.
5. Calling Card (cantrip).
6. Tree Meld (3rd level).
7. Aalum’s Transmutation (cantrip).
8. Moment in Time (8th level).
9. Permanency (7th level).
10. Shape Plants (4th level). I’m having a hard time reconciling this with the existence of both spike growth and plant growth. This is a higher level spell than either of those and yet it seems like while it combines aspects of both it’s much less powerful than either.

Transmutation spells rising to the top

Nearly half of these 18 spells are cantrips with a significant portion of the rest sitting at the highest tier of play. Transmutation magic may be some of the most fun 5E D&D magic because of how varied the effects can be without feeling constrained to a stronger theme like necromancy or abjuration. This makes these homebrew spells quite fun to browse. In a lot of ways many of these spells feel like they could become signature magics for the characters who cast them. When you think transmutation it’s likely your first thought goes to polymorph and I appreciate how the spells in these lists expand the scope of changing one thing into another.

Picking some favorites is kind of hard. In large part I appreciate the numerous cantrips because of how they give a transmutation enthusiast unique ways to change the world around them in consistent ways. Animate instrument stands out as a winner as well because it gives bards, which is a full spellcaster class in 5E D&D, their own version of generalized magic effects.

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 — Transmutation is nothing new to Magic: The Gathering whether it’s the eponymous card from the Chronicles expansion, the Transmute keyword from the Ravnica block or the War of the Spark expansion’s Kasmina’s Transmutation seen here. In 5E D&D transmutation spells change the properties of creatures, objects or environments. [Art by Uriah Voth]

New videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel here