Tier Ranking Cantrips in D&D 5e (Part 1)

TIME STAMPS
0:00 - Intro
1:09 - Ranking Criteria
2:50 - Acid Splash
4:13 - Blade Ward
7:30 - Booming Blade
10:37 - Chill Touch
13:22 - Control Flames
16:02 - Create Bonfire
18:37 - Dancing Lights
20:35 - Druidcraft
22:32 - Eldritch Blast
24:36 - Encode Thoughts
26:20 - Fire Bolt
28:13 - Friends
31:58 - Frostbite
33:24 - Green-Flame Blade
35:19 - Guidance
38:02 - Gust

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[carsonrush]

The greatest upside of druid craft is that it forces the DM to decide on a weather, which means that call lightning might get a boost from a storm.

[koen]

As a war wizard, dancing lights being one of the few concentration cantrips is actually really useful, as you gain a +2 bonus to AC and saves while concentrating :)

[royjaskowski]

Friends: use both spell effects to your advantage. Get to sneak past the gatekeeper but do it disguised as someone else so it’ll continue to be a distraction. Don’t just disguise as captain of the guard, use friends on every guard you pass to sow discord in the ranks. If there is a rival gang going after the McGuffin, disguise as one of those gang members.

[joshuah]

In Order of the Stick, they point out a good use of Dancing Lights: as a signal flare. A low level wizard creates a red diamond shape 120 feet in the air, alerting his allies of high level enemies. By changing the color and configuration of the lights, you could send any number of different signals. It also occurred to me that by moving the lights you could use semaphore signals to send out an arbitrary message.

[ChocolateFishBrains]

Notable fact to consider for Blade Ward is that the Earth Genasi can use it as a bonus action. Literally the one character that can use it in the most effective way.

[MageLeaderInc]

Another huge plus for Chill Touch is that it leaves a skeletal hand on the target. So if they are invisible or can go invisible you can still see where they are.

[hazmatcat]

One thing I noticed you missed on firebolt is that it is one of the few cantrips that let you target objects, not just creatures. So you can firebolt a carriage, or a ship, or blast a lock, blow up that gunpowder keg. Forget about just catching things on fire; Firebolt is one of the best spell-tools for outright destroying things that's not shatter.

[MostlyLucid]

Using friends as a changeling is actually really good. You go in as someone other than your normal self cast friends, leave and transform back into your normal form whatever that might be. They might try to come after you but they won't recognize you.

[esbenherborg]

I have an aberrant mind sorcerer that has encode thoughts for thematic reasons. However, we once visited an island that had like a shroud of mind altering effects, and my character was gradually loosing all of his memories. So I used encode thought Memento style to make sure my character could remember all of the important events on the island.

[TheJurzerker]

So many times at different tables i have used Dancing Lights to simulate 4 torches of a party walking down a hallway, spreading out to look through an area, or walking down a road at night. Its also really nice to light up an area without giving away your position, the casting Light on a rock trick always shows exactly where you are at first. You could put a rock in a bag, reach in and cast Light on it inside the closed bag, there are ways around it, but Dancing Lights definitely has a place and use

[andrewweirny]

Their discussion of Friends is the best summary of the Drakkenheim campaign I could ever imagine.

[Boomer]

I’ve used the encode thoughts spell as basically a poor man’s sending spell. For instance my game has a magical school and all of the students and staff have a familiar. Thus any time someone wishes to send a message to someone, they aren’t wasting a spell slot, instead they are sending their familiar to deliver the thought.

[pernicious]

Control flame's most important use is to stop a fire from spreading (after you've been a bit careless with a fireball in the woods). Firebolt is one of the few damaging cantrips that can target an object. Most damage cantrips can only target creatures, so that should be taken into account. And use Friends in combination with disguise self if you like making enemies for your enemies. And since an enemy of your enemy is your friend, the friends cantrip can indeed make friends.

[TrashJack]

Friends is best used in conjunction with a disguise (Disguise kit, Disguise Self and Alter Self spells, True Polymorph) and some way to mimic the disguised person's voice (e.g. Kenku, Actor feat, Minor Illusion). Disguise yourself as someone who the target already likes, cast Friends and quickly lie to them about something really simple (e.g. "There's intruders on the other side of the fortress! Go!" or "Your spouse is cheating on you. Bye!"; you don't even have to pass the check for this ploy), GTFO and drop/change the disguise where nobody's looking, then sit back and watch the chaos as the target is now pissed at their bewildered friend.

[stratahawk_]

One of my favorite use of the Friends cantrip is on a warlock with mask of many faces and the actor feat. Disguise as one of the enemy's allies, cast friends, sow discord in their alliance, and watch the chaos.

[hecktate]

I get good use out of Dancing Lights on my bard. Aside from the obvious exploration uses of having lights you can control, it lets you put on a lightshow as part of your performance. In certain situations, creating a vaguely humanoid glowing figure can be used to spook or distract enemies, giving you an upper hand before starting combat where you'll then drop this spell for a different concentration spell.

[markj]

Its goofy but Armor of Agathys +Blade Ward and then run through a group of mundane enemies triggering all of their attack of opportunity is kinda fun

[doubleg]

I wish they combined firebolt with produce flame. They are so similar just give firebolt the lighting utility to give it some use over eldritch blast

[trantigone]

Encode Thoughts best use, as far as I've seen it used in a game, is in providing undeniable proof of an event to NPCs. My players witnessed a murder, and the wizard just encoded the memory of the crime and gave it to the NPC who was investigating them for being present at the crime and it basically proved they were innocent.

[Shaderox]

One interesting thought for "Encode thoughts" is if it's ruled that it pulls the entire memory (and same or recieving memories) so you don't remember it while you store it as a strand, that could be a way to safeguard information if you know enemies could potentially read or scry into minds, as well as circumventing Zone of Truth and such spells & effects.