Our Top Ten Spells to Upcast in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

TIME STAMPS
0:00 - Sponsor
1:19 - Intro
2:56 - Offensive Debuffs
2:58 - Tasha’s Mind Whip
6:16 - Buff Spells
6:32 - Fly
9:51 - Damage Dealing
10:31 - Spirit Guardians
12:02 - Aid
13:00 - Armor of Agathys
15:18 - Counterspell
16:20 - Bestow Curse
18:41 - Major Image
21:24 - Conjure Animals
24:08 - Planar Binding
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[mcphadenmike]

Every episode, the Dudes cast Delightful Presence at 9th level.

[astuteanansi]

13:03 ah yes, the most powerful spell of all, *A*

truly an invaluable tool in every alphamancer's spell(ing) book

[mlmf]

One thing people dont talk much about call lightning is that is lasts 10 minutes. If you upcast it to lv9, it isnt just 9d10 damage, no... Its 9d10 damage (average 50 damage) for 100 turns. Its amazing for sieges and preserves your spell slots.

[KyleDavis]

I've actually had Armor of Agathys proc multiple times on a single cast at level 1 as a warlock. Never underestimate the ability for a damage roll to come out a 1 or a 2. The fact that it does the full 5 even on chip damage, means that yea, the minimum damage it can deal is 5 (at level 1), the maximum it can deal is 25 (at level 1)

[allmyhomieshatefreud]

Mind Whip stands out among other control spells in that most other similar spells impose some sort of condition that enemy creatures might be immune to (charmed, frightened, paralyzed, stunned, etc.) but Mind Whip simply… works. Coupled together with the fact that it targets intelligence saves which is consistently poor for a LOT of enemies, it’s just an amazing control option.

Ya know, together with Hideous Laughter, I feel like this Tasha lady really got some potential 🤔

[dragex]

Major Image: Instead of just... Covering up the cave wall, place an image of a cave-in covering said cave. This way, people who DO know of the cave would be disarmed and not suspicious of the missing cave.

[Theleafclovers]

A fun topic would be the best actions to do with Timestop. What spells would you cast on your party and on your enemies?

[ryansfantasychannel]

4:52 "Sometimes monsters... just want to be held, " has got to be one of the best lines you've ever uttered Kelly!

[snazzyfeathers]

Two other beautiful things about Armor of Agathys is that there is no save, and (if you wanted) you could use things like meta magic adept to transmute the cold damage to anything else. It's probably not worth it (unless in specific circumstances like cold immunity) but its really cool to flavor your character has having acid or lightning armor.

[rowanash]

I think an interesting spell to note for upcasting is Bigby’s Hand for its damage scaling. Each spell slot above 5 increases the damage by 2d8 for an attack and 2d6 for the grapple squeeze, which is some of the better scaling out there.
My sorcerer has an Ascendant Dragon-Touched Focus and often uses that last property to upcast Bigby’s Hand to 9th level. 12d8 bonus action force damage is no joke.

[Calebgoblin]

I love how Armor of Agathys just displays as "A"

[ColinKillick]

This is a great video for Warlock players especially to be aware of. Over the course of a levels 1-13 campaign I think I cast Invisibility more often than even Hex; being able to turn four people invisible for an hour by level 9 is an incredibly valuable use for one of your scarce spell slots.

[Rule.Gaming]

Some really good honourable mentions, particularly for villainous DMs:

-Geas: What is normally a 30 day long command can quickly become for a year or permanent, making it a great spell to hold over a cursed individual's head.
-Glyph of Warding: When upcast, you can install higher level spells into the glyph.

Also for Players:
-Fog Cloud: The AOE zone of obscurement increases dramatically when upcast, making it much easier to facilitate an escape or to provide concealment over open ground safely.
-Animate Dead: For each level above 3rd you get an additional 2 zombies or skeletons. That scales exceptionally well given that zombies make potent meatshields and skeletons can do surprisingly well peppering a foe with arrows at range en masse.

[agrimmon]

Bestow curse is extra fun when you realize you can just name your own curse, subject to dm approval. Two particularly nasty ones I like are “you always have to sneeze, but can’t” and “moving forward gives you severe vertigo”. Having those up for even a minute can prove quite effective.

Also a friend once rain a fun seemingly Stardew Valley like game where the group were retired lvl 20 adventurers. I played a sorcerer and had a healthy business as a home decorator using Major Image, starting because I decided to decorate my characters house to look like a coral reef, fish and all

[arbitrary_thoughts]

I've always been a fan of armor of agathys. It's come in handy in a lot of dire scenarios. I think one of my favorite was when I, a low health ranged warlock, tried to escape enemies that were closing in. I ran, which provoked an opportunity attack against me, but by doing so the person that attacked died from the cold damage. This became an even better defense as it made the enemies wary of getting too close.

[fendelphi]

I know it is not really unique in it's upcast utility, but I would like to add Heat Metal.
It is a single target concentration spell, with no save for the damage(2d8 fire). You can use your bonus action to apply the damage again on every subsequent turn. If the target does not drop the heated metal piece, it suffers disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of their next turn.
Upcasting it buffs the damage, and nothing else. But being able to contiunously deal 5d8 damage per turn(level 5 spell slot), while also giving disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks is quite good.

[apainintheaas]

For curse at 17:30, no you can't cast curse on the same target multiple times and increase the effect. PHB p.205 "The effects of the same spell cast multiple times don't combine, "

[synthetic]

The Summon spells from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything are much better versions of Conjure spells (or at least less problematic versions of those spells) that don't cause as many initiative problems, but they still pack an amazing punch when you upcast them. Every one of these spells gets better when you use higher level slots, and I think all of them get attacks equal to half the spell level of the casting. I've played as high as 20th level, and I felt great using my 7th, 8th, or 9th level slots for a Summon Celestial or Summon Aberration at the start of combat. And with an hour duration? I've had the summon last 3-4 combats easy.

[samuelwyatt]

Kelly's realization of the true horror of a never-ending-party was priceless.

[mattfitzgerald]

When dealing with hordes of summons, you may find page 250 of the DMG 'handling mobs' helpful - work out the d20 roll that the summons need to hit their target, treat advantage/disadvantage as a +/-5. to the attack bonus. The table tells you how many attacks they need to get one hit. Now you need only roll for the remainder. You could use average damage for summons to speed things up further.