2nd-Level Spells

Spell lists are in Class Spell Lists. Attribution and reading notes are in the Spells index.

Alter Self

• 2nd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
  You assume a different form. When you cast the spell, choose one of the following options, the effects of which last for the duration of the spell. While the spell lasts, you can end one option as an action to gain the benefits of a different one.

Aquatic Adaptation. You adapt your body to an aquatic environment, sprouting gills and growing webbing between your fingers. You can breathe underwater and gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.

Change Appearance. You transform your appearance. You decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, sound of your voice, hair length, coloration, and distinguishing characteristics, if any. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your statistics change. You also can’t appear as a creature of a different size than you, and your basic shape stays the same; if you’re bipedal, you can’t use this spell to become quadrupedal, for instance. At any time for the duration of the spell, you can use your action to change your appearance in this way again.

Natural Weapons. You grow claws, fangs, spines, horns, or a different natural weapon of your choice. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, as appropriate to the natural weapon you chose, and you are proficient with your unarmed strikes. Finally, the natural weapon is magic and you have a +1 bonus to the attack and damage rolls you make using it.

Arcane Lock

• 2nd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (gold dust worth at least 25 gp, which the spell consumes)
• Duration: Until dispelled
  You touch a closed door, window, gate, chest, or other entryway, and it becomes locked for the duration. You and the creatures you designate when you cast this spell can open the object normally. You can also set a password that, when spoken within 5 feet of the object, suppresses this spell for 1 minute. Otherwise, it is impassable until it is broken or the spell is dispelled or suppressed. Casting knock on the object suppresses arcane lock for 10 minutes.

While affected by this spell, the object is more difficult to break or force open; the DC to break it or pick any locks on it increases by 10.

Arcanist’s Magic Aura

• 2nd-level illusion
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (a small square of silk)
• Duration: 24 hours
  You place an illusion on a creature or an object you touch so that divination spells reveal false information about it. The target can be a willing creature or an object that isn’t being carried or worn by another creature.

When you cast the spell, choose one or both of the following effects. The effect lasts for the duration. If you cast this spell on the same creature or object every day for 30 days, placing the same effect on it each time, the illusion lasts until it is dispelled.

False Aura. You change the way the target appears to spells and magical effects, such as detect magic, that detect magical auras. You can make a nonmagical object appear magical, a magical object appear nonmagical, or change the object’s magical aura so that it appears to belong to a specific school of magic that you choose. When you use this effect on an object, you can make the false magic apparent to any creature that handles the item.

Mask. You change the way the target appears to spells and magical effects that detect creature types, such as a paladin’s Divine Sense or the trigger of a symbol spell. You choose a creature type and other spells and magical effects treat the target as if it were a creature of that type or of that alignment.

Barkskin

• 2nd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (a handful of oak bark)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
  You touch a willing creature. Its skin becomes rough and bark‑like. The target’s AC can’t be less than 16, regardless of what kind of armor it is wearing.

Blast of Snow

The high Marram sheds its winter all at once and without announcement. Whole shoulders of snow let go, and the sound arrives after the snow does. Xolturasus is said to call from those summits, which the people who live below them consider less a matter of faith than of observation. The working is small by the mountain’s standards. It is only the first two seconds of an avalanche, held to the length of an arm.

• 2nd-level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self (15-foot cone)
• Components: V, S, M (a pinch of snow or a chip of white stone)
• Duration: Instantaneous
  Snow and ice break from your hands in a short, heavy cone. Each creature in a 15-foot cone must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 3d8 cold damage and its speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and its speed is unaffected.
  At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 2nd.

Blur

• 2nd-level illusion
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  Your body becomes blurred, shifting and wavering to all who can see you. For the duration, any creature has disadvantage on attack rolls against you. An attacker is immune to this effect if it doesn’t rely on sight, as with blindsight, or can see through illusions, as with truesight.

Calm Emotions

• 2nd‑level enchantment
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  You attempt to suppress strong emotions in a group of people. Choose any humanoids in a 20‑foot radius sphere centered on a point you choose. Each must make a Charisma saving throw; a creature can choose to fail. On a failure, you can suppress any effect causing a target to be charmed or frightened, or make a target indifferent about creatures of your choice it is hostile toward (ending if the target is attacked or harmed).

Darkness

• 2nd-level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, M (bat fur and a drop of pitch or piece of coal)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
  Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can’t see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can’t illuminate it.

If the point you choose is on an object you are holding or one that isn’t being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it. Completely covering the source of the darkness with an opaque object, such as a bowl or a helm, blocks the darkness.

If any of this spell’s area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.

Detect Thoughts

• 2nd-level divination
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S, M (a copper piece)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  For the duration, you can read the thoughts of certain creatures. When you cast the spell and as your action on each turn until the spell ends, you can focus your mind on any one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creature you choose has an Intelligence of 3 or lower or doesn’t speak any language, the creature is unaffected.

You initially learn the surface thoughts of the creature-what is most on its mind in that moment. As an action, you can either shift your attention to another creature’s thoughts or attempt to probe deeper into the same creature’s mind. If you probe deeper, the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, you gain insight into its reasoning (if any), its emotional state, and something that looms large in its mind (such as something it worries over, loves, or hates). If it succeeds, the spell ends. Either way, the target knows that you are probing into its mind, and unless you shift your attention to another creature’s thoughts, the creature can use its action on its turn to make an Intelligence check contested by your Intelligence check; if it succeeds, the spell ends.

Questions verbally directed at the target creature naturally shape the course of its thoughts, so this spell is particularly effective as part of an interrogation.

You can also use this spell to detect the presence of thinking creatures you can’t see. When you cast the spell or as your action during the duration, you can search for thoughts within 30 feet of you. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 2 feet of rock, 2 inches of any metal other than lead, or a thin sheet of lead blocks you. You can’t detect a creature with an Intelligence of 3 or lower or one that doesn’t speak any language.

Once you detect the presence of a creature in this way, you can read its thoughts for the rest of the duration as described above, even if you can’t see it, but it must still be within range.

Enhance Ability

• 2nd‑level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (fur or a feather from a beast)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
  You touch a creature and bestow a magical enhancement. Choose one: Bear’s Endurance (advantage on Constitution checks; 2d6 temporary hit points for the duration), Bull’s Strength (advantage on Strength checks), Cat’s Grace (advantage on Dexterity checks; doesn’t fall from less than 10 feet if not incapacitated), Eagle’s Splendor (advantage on Charisma checks), Fox’s Cunning (advantage on Intelligence checks), or Owl’s Wisdom (advantage on Wisdom checks). When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.

Enlarge/Reduce

• 2nd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a pinch of powdered iron)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  You cause a creature or an object you can see within range to grow larger or smaller for the duration. Choose either a creature or an object that is neither worn nor carried. If the target is unwilling, it can make a Constitution saving throw. On a success, the spell has no effect.

If the target is a creature, everything it is wearing and carrying changes size with it. Any item dropped by an affected creature returns to normal size at once.

Enlarge. The target’s size doubles in all dimensions, and its weight is multiplied by eight. This growth increases its size by one category- from Medium to Large, for example. If there isn’t enough room for the target to double its size, the creature or object attains the maximum possible size in the space available. Until the spell ends, the target also has advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. The target’s weapons also grow to match its new size. While these weapons are enlarged, the target’s attacks with them deal 1d4 extra damage.

Reduce. The target’s size is halved in all dimensions, and its weight is reduced to one-eighth of normal. This reduction decreases its size by one category-from Medium to Small, for example. Until the spell ends, the target also has disadvantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. The target’s weapons also shrink to match its new size. While these weapons are reduced, the target’s attacks with them deal 1d4 less damage (this can’t reduce the damage below 1).

Gust of Wind

• 2nd-level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self (60‑foot line)
• Components: V, S, M (a legume seed)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  A line of strong wind 60 feet long and 10 feet wide blasts from you in a direction you choose. Each creature that starts its turn in the line must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet away from you in a direction following the line. Any creature in the line must spend 2 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves when moving closer to you. The gust disperses gas or vapor, and it extinguishes candles, torches, and similar unprotected flames.

Hold Person

• 2nd‑level enchantment
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a small, straight piece of iron)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  Choose a humanoid that you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed for the duration. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. When you cast this spell using a slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional humanoid for each slot level above 2nd. The humanoids must be within 30 feet of each other.

Invisibility

• 2nd-level illusion
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (an eyelash encased in gum arabic)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
  A creature you touch becomes invisible until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target’s person. The spell ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.

Knock

• 2nd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V
• Duration: Instantaneous
  Choose an object that you can see within range. The object can be a door, a box, a chest, a set of manacles, a padlock, or another object that contains a mundane or magical means that prevents access.

A target that is held shut by a mundane lock or that is stuck or barred becomes unlocked, unstuck, or unbarred. If the object has multiple locks, only one of them is unlocked.

If you choose a target that is held shut with arcane lock, that spell is suppressed for 10 minutes, during which time the target can be opened and shut normally.

When you cast the spell, a loud knock, audible from as far away as 300 feet, emanates from the target object.

Lesser Restoration

• 2nd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Instantaneous
  You touch a creature and can end one disease or one condition afflicting it. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.

Levitate

• 2nd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, S, M (either a small leather loop or a piece of golden wire bent into a cup shape with a long shank on one end)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
  One creature or loose object of your choice that you can see within range rises vertically, up to 20 feet, and remains suspended there for the duration. The spell can levitate a target that weighs up to 500 pounds. An unwilling creature that succeeds on a Constitution saving throw is unaffected.

The target can move only by pushing or pulling against a fixed object or surface within reach (such as a wall or a ceiling), which allows it to move as if it were climbing. You can change the target’s altitude by up to 20 feet in either direction on your turn. If you are the target, you can move up or down as part of your move. Otherwise, you can use your action to move the target, which must remain within the spell’s range.

When the spell ends, the target floats gently to the ground if it is still aloft.

Mirror Image

• 2nd‑level illusion
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S
• Duration: 1 minute
  Three illusory duplicates of yourself appear in your space. The duplicates move with you and mimic your actions, shifting position so it’s impossible to track which image is real. Each time a creature targets you with an attack during the spell’s duration, roll to determine whether the attack instead targets one of your duplicates.

Misty Step

• 2nd‑level conjuration
• Casting Time: 1 bonus action
• Range: Self
• Components: V
• Duration: Instantaneous
  Briefly surrounded by silvery mist, you teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see.

Moonbeam

• 2nd-level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S, M (several seeds of any moonseed plant)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  A silvery beam of pale light shines down in a 5‑foot‑radius, 40‑foot‑high cylinder centered on a point within range. When a creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it is engulfed in ghostly flames that sear. It must make a Constitution saving throw, taking 2d10 radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. Shapechangers make the save with disadvantage. You can move the beam up to 60 feet as an action on your turn. Damage increases by 1d10 for each slot above 2nd.

Pass without Trace

• 2nd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S, M (ashes from a burned leaf of mistletoe and a sprig of spruce)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
  A veil of shadows and silence radiates from you, masking you and your companions. For the duration, each creature you choose within 30 feet of you (including you) has a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks and can’t be tracked except by magical means. A creature that receives this bonus leaves behind no tracks or other traces of its passage.

Ray of Enfeeblement

• 2nd-level necromancy
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  A black beam of enervating energy springs from your finger toward a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target deals only half damage with weapon attacks that use Strength until the spell ends.

At the end of each of the target’s turns, it can make a Constitution saving throw against the spell. On a success, the spell ends.

Scorching Ray

• 2nd-level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Instantaneous
  You create three rays of fire and hurl them at targets within range. You can hurl them at one target or several.

Make a ranged spell attack for each ray. On a hit, the target takes 2d6 fire damage.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you create one additional ray for each slot level above 2nd.

Shatter

• 2nd‑level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a chip of mica)
• Duration: Instantaneous
  A sudden loud ringing noise, painfully intense, erupts from a point of your choice within range. Each creature in a 10‑foot‑radius sphere centered on that point makes a Constitution saving throw, taking 3d8 thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature made of inorganic material has disadvantage on the save. Damage increases by 1d8 for each slot above 2nd.

Silence

• 2nd‑level illusion (ritual)
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
  For the duration, no sound can be created within or pass through a 20‑foot‑radius sphere centered on a point you choose within range. Any creature or object entirely inside the sphere is immune to thunder damage, and creatures are deafened while entirely inside it. Casting a spell that includes a verbal component is impossible there.

Spike Growth

• 2nd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 150 feet
• Components: V, S, M (seven thorns or seven small twigs)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
  The ground in a 20‑foot radius centered on a point within range twists and sprouts hard spikes and thorns. The area becomes difficult terrain. When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels. The transformation of the ground is camouflaged to look natural; a Wisdom (Perception) check against your spell save DC reveals the hazard.

Suggestion

• 2nd-level enchantment
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, M (a snake’s tongue and either a bit of honeycomb or a drop of sweet oil)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 8 hours
  You suggest a course of activity (limited to a sentence or two) and magically influence a creature you can see within range that can hear and understand you. Creatures that can’t be charmed are immune to this effect. The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the course of action sound reasonable. Asking the creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act ends the spell.

The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it pursues the course of action you described to the best of its ability. The suggested course of action can continue for the entire duration. If the suggested activity can be completed in a shorter time, the spell ends when the subject finishes what it was asked to do.

You can also specify conditions that will trigger a special activity during the duration. For example, you might suggest that a knight give her warhorse to the first beggar she meets. If the condition isn’t met before the spell expires, the activity isn’t performed.

If you or any of your companions damage the target, the spell ends.

Vessari’s Certainty

Vessari worked Thilidan for eleven years and was never once caught, which the society records with more pride than accuracy. Her insight was that an illusion has to survive being looked at, and a belief does not. Show a guard a door that is not there and he will eventually walk into it. Convince him the door is locked and he will not go near it, and he will defend the idea to his captain, and the captain will believe him, because he is not lying.

• 2nd-level enchantment
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  Choose one creature you can see within range. It must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw or become certain of one simple false statement of your choosing. The statement must be plausible to the target and must not be directly self-destructive. A creature can never be made certain of something that would obviously cause it harm.
  For the duration, the target treats the statement as plainly true and acts accordingly. It repeats the saving throw whenever it takes damage or encounters unambiguous physical proof to the contrary, ending the effect on itself on a success.
  A creature that can’t be charmed is immune to this spell.

Warding Bond

• 2nd‑level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (a pair of platinum rings worth at least 50 gp each, which you and the target must wear for the duration)
• Duration: 1 hour
  This spell wards a willing creature you touch and creates a mystic connection between you and the target until the spell ends. While the target is within 60 feet of you, it gains +1 to AC and saving throws, and it has resistance to all damage. Also, each time it takes damage, you take the same amount of damage. The spell ends if you drop to 0 hit points, if you and the target become separated by more than 60 feet, or if it is cast again on either of you.

3rd-Level

Web

• 2nd-level conjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a bit of spiderweb)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
  You conjure a mass of thick, sticky webbing at a point of your choice within range. The webs fill a 20-foot cube from that point for the duration. The webs are difficult terrain and lightly obscure their area.

If the webs aren’t anchored between two solid masses (such as walls or trees) or layered across a floor, wall, or ceiling, the conjured web collapses on itself, and the spell ends at the start of your next turn. Webs layered over a flat surface have a depth of 5 feet.

Each creature that starts its turn in the webs or that enters them during its turn must make a

Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is restrained as long as it remains in the webs or until it breaks free.

A creature restrained by the webs can use its action to make a Strength check against your spell save DC. If it succeeds, it is no longer restrained.

The webs are flammable. Any 5-foot cube of webs exposed to fire burns away in 1 round, dealing 2d4 fire damage to any creature that starts its turn in the fire.