3rd-Level Spells

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

Animate Dead

• 3rd-level necromancy
• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Range: 10 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a drop of blood, a piece of flesh, and a pinch of bone dust)
• Duration: Instantaneous
  This spell creates an undead servant. Choose a pile of bones or a corpse of a Medium or Small humanoid within range. Your spell imbues the target with a foul mimicry of life, raising it as an undead creature. The target becomes a skeleton if you chose bones or a zombie if you chose a corpse (the GM has the creature’s game statistics).

On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command any creature you made with this spell if the creature is within 60 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.

The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you’ve given it. To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creature again before the current 24-hour period ends. This use of the spell reasserts your control over up to four creatures you have animated with this spell, rather than animating a new one.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you animate or reassert control over two additional undead creatures for each slot level above 3rd. Each of the creatures must come from a different corpse or pile of bones.

Blast of Kerangala

The Kerangala is born of Marram snowmelt and spends the rest of its life losing track of itself, fraying into hundreds of warm shallow channels across a basin no wider than a week’s march. Zilwynbar is what the river left behind. Halfling and Limnari casters who work the channels share a saying about the water, which is that it never hits hard and it never stops, and the second half is the part that matters.

• 3rd-level conjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self (30-foot line)
• Components: V, S, M (a drop of river water)
• Duration: Instantaneous
  A shallow flood breaks from you in a line 30 feet long and 10 feet wide. Each creature in the line must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 4d6 bludgeoning damage, is pushed 15 feet along the line away from you, and falls prone. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and is neither pushed nor knocked prone.
  The water extinguishes unprotected flames in the area and remains as shallow standing water along the line for 1 minute.
  At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.

Call Lightning

• 3rd-level conjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
  A storm cloud appears in the shape of a cylinder that is 10 feet tall with a 60‑foot radius, centered on a point you can see 100 feet directly above you. The spell fails if you can’t see a point in the air where the cloud could appear. When you cast the spell, choose a point you can see within range. A bolt of lightning flashes down from the cloud to that point. Each creature within 5 feet of that point must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d10 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. On each of your turns until the spell ends, you can use your action to call down another bolt. If you are outdoors in stormy conditions, the damage increases by 1d10.

Clairvoyance

• 3rd-level divination
• Casting Time: 10 minutes
• Range: 1 mile
• Components: V, S, M (a focus worth at least 100 gp, either a jeweled horn for hearing or a glass eye for seeing)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
  You create an invisible sensor within range in a location familiar to you (a place you have visited or seen before) or in an obvious location that is unfamiliar to you (such as behind a door, around a corner, or in a grove of trees). The sensor remains in place for the duration, and it can’t be attacked or otherwise interacted with.

When you cast the spell, you choose seeing or hearing. You can use the chosen sense through the sensor as if you were in its space. As your action, you can switch between seeing and hearing.

A creature that can see the sensor (such as a creature benefiting from see invisibility or truesight) sees a luminous, intangible orb about the size of your fist.

Counterspell

• 3rd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: S
• Duration: Instantaneous
  You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell. If the creature is casting a spell of 3rd level or lower, its spell fails and has no effect. If it is casting a spell of 4th level or higher, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a success, the creature’s spell fails and has no effect.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the interrupted spell has no effect if its level is less than or equal to the level of the spell slot you used.

Daylight

• 3rd‑level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: 1 hour
  A 60‑foot‑radius sphere of bright light (and dim light for an additional 60 feet) spreads from a point you choose within range. If you cast it on an object you are holding or that isn’t being worn or carried, the light moves with the object. Completely covering the object with an opaque object blocks the light. If this spell’s area overlaps an area of darkness created by a spell of 3rd level or lower, that darkness is dispelled.

Dispel Magic

• 3rd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Instantaneous
  Choose one creature, object, or magical effect within range. Any spell of 3rd level or lower on the target ends. For each spell of 4th level or higher on the target, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a success, the spell ends.

Dramtal Upheaval

The Dramtal is where the steppe keeps what it has outlived. Dramakha is down there, and the four or five empires that came afterward insisting they were Dramakha returned, and the dust has stopped distinguishing between them. Orcish casters treat the working with a certain grim courtesy. It does not summon anything. It simply asks the ground to hand back what it is holding, and the ground always has something.

• 3rd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a shard of old bone or broken pottery)
• Duration: Instantaneous
  Choose a point on the ground you can see within range. Earth and old wreckage heave upward in a 15-foot radius centered on that point. Each creature in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d10 bludgeoning damage and falling prone on a failed save, or half as much damage and no fall on a successful one.
  The broken ground becomes difficult terrain. A creature that starts its turn in the area must succeed on a Strength saving throw or have its speed halved until the end of that turn. Clearing the area takes one hour of work.
  At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 3rd.

4th-Level

Fear

• 3rd-level illusion
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self (30-foot cone)
• Components: V, S, M (a white feather or the heart of a hen)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  You project a phantasmal image of a creature’s worst fears. Each creature in a 30-foot cone must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or drop whatever it is holding and become frightened for the duration.

While frightened by this spell, a creature must take the Dash action and move away from you by the safest available route on each of its turns, unless there is nowhere to move. If the creature ends its turn in a location where it doesn’t have line of sight to you, the creature can make a Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, the spell ends for that creature.

Fireball

• 3rd-level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 150 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur)
• Duration: Instantaneous
  A bright streak flashes from your pointing finger to a point you choose within range and then blossoms with a low roar into an explosion of flame. Each creature in a 20-foot radius sphere centered on that point must make a Dexterity saving throw. A target takes 8d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

The fire spreads around corners. It ignites flammable objects in the area that aren’t being worn or carried.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.

Fly

• 3rd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (a wing feather from any bird)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
  You touch a willing creature. The target gains a flying speed of 60 feet for the duration. When the spell ends, the target falls if it is still aloft, unless it can stop the fall.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 3rd.

Gaseous Form

• 3rd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (a bit of gauze and a wisp of smoke)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
  You transform a willing creature you touch, along with everything it’s wearing and carrying, into a misty cloud for the duration. The spell ends if the creature drops to 0 hit points. An incorporeal creature isn’t affected.

While in this form, the target’s only method of movement is a flying speed of 10 feet. The target can enter and occupy the space of another creature. The target has resistance to nonmagical damage, and it has advantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws. The target can pass through small holes, narrow openings, and even mere cracks, though it treats liquids as though they were solid surfaces. The target can’t fall and remains hovering in the air even when stunned or otherwise incapacitated.

While in the form of a misty cloud, the target can’t talk or manipulate objects, and any objects it was carrying or holding can’t be dropped, used, or otherwise interacted with. The target can’t attack or cast spells.

Glyph of Warding

• 3rd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 hour
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (incense and powdered diamond worth at least 200 gp, which the spell consumes)
• Duration: Until dispelled or triggered
  When you cast this spell, you inscribe a glyph that harms other creatures, either upon a surface (such as a table or a section of floor or wall) or within an object that can be closed (such as a book, a scroll, or a treasure chest) to conceal the glyph. The glyph can cover an area no larger than 10 feet in diameter. If the surface or object is moved more than 10 feet from where you cast this spell, the glyph is broken, and the spell ends without being triggered.

The glyph is nearly invisible and requires a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC to be found.

You decide what triggers the glyph when you cast the spell. For glyphs inscribed on a surface, the most typical triggers include touching or standing on the glyph, removing another object covering the glyph, approaching within a certain distance of the glyph, or manipulating the object on which the glyph is inscribed. For glyphs inscribed within an object, the most common triggers include opening that object, approaching within a certain distance of the object, or seeing or reading the glyph. Once a glyph is triggered, this spell ends.

You can further refine the trigger so the spell activates only under certain circumstances or according to physical characteristics (such as height or weight), creature kind (for example, the ward could be set to affect aberrations or drow), or alignment. You can also set conditions for creatures that don’t trigger the glyph, such as those who say a certain password.

When you inscribe the glyph, choose explosive runes or a spell glyph.

Explosive Runes. When triggered, the glyph erupts with magical energy in a 20-foot radius sphere centered on the glyph. The sphere spreads around corners. Each creature in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 5d8 acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage on a failed saving throw (your choice when you create the glyph), or half as much damage on a successful one.

Spell Glyph. You can store a prepared spell of 3rd level or lower in the glyph by casting it as part of creating the glyph. The spell must target a single creature or an area. The spell being stored has no immediate effect when cast in this way. When the glyph is triggered, the stored spell is cast. If the spell has a target, it targets the creature that triggered the glyph. If the spell affects an area, the area is centered on that creature. If the spell summons hostile creatures or creates harmful objects or traps, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and attack it. If the spell requires concentration, it lasts until the end of its full duration.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of an explosive runes glyph increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd. If you create a spell glyph, you can store any spell of up to the same level as the slot you use for the glyph of warding.

Haste

• 3rd‑level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a shaving of licorice root)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  Choose a willing creature you can see within range. Until the spell ends, the target’s speed is doubled, it gains a +2 bonus to AC, it has advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and it gains an additional action on each of its turns that can be used only to take the Attack (one weapon attack only), Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object action. When the spell ends, the target can’t move or take actions until after its next turn, as a wave of lethargy washes over it.

Hypnotic Pattern

• 3rd-level illusion
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: S, M (a glowing stick of incense or a crystal vial filled with phosphorescent material)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  You create a twisting pattern of colors that weaves through the air inside a 30-foot cube within range. The pattern appears for a moment and vanishes. Each creature in the area who sees the pattern must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature becomes charmed for the duration. While charmed by this spell, the creature is incapacitated and has a speed of 0.

The spell ends for an affected creature if it takes any damage or if someone else uses an action to shake the creature out of its stupor.

Lightning Bolt

• 3rd-level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self (100-foot line)
• Components: V, S, M (a bit of fur and a rod of amber, crystal, or glass)
• Duration: Instantaneous
  A stroke of lightning forming a line 100 feet long and 5 feet wide blasts out from you in a direction you choose. Each creature in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 8d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

The lightning ignites flammable objects in the area that aren’t being worn or carried.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.

Magic Circle

• 3rd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Range: 10 feet
• Components: V, S, M (holy water or powdered silver and iron worth at least 100 gp, which the spell consumes)
• Duration: 1 hour
  You create a 10-foot radius, 20-foot tall cylinder of magical energy centered on a point on the ground that you can see within range. Glowing runes appear wherever the cylinder intersects with the floor or other surface.

Choose one or more of the following types of creatures: celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, or undead. The circle affects a creature of the chosen type in the following ways:

• The creature can’t willingly enter the cylinder by nonmagical means. If the creature tries to use teleportation or interplanar travel to do so, it must first succeed on a Charisma saving throw.
• The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets within the cylinder.
• Targets within the cylinder can’t be charmed, frightened, or possessed by the creature.

When you cast this spell, you can elect to cause its magic to operate in the reverse direction, preventing a creature of the specified type from leaving the cylinder and protecting targets outside it.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the duration increases by 1 hour for each slot level above 3rd.

Major Image

• 3rd-level illusion
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
  You create the image of an object, a creature, or some other visible phenomenon that is no larger than a 20-foot cube. The image appears at a spot that you can see within range and lasts for the duration. It seems completely real, including sounds, smells, and temperature appropriate to the thing depicted. You can’t create sufficient heat or cold to cause damage, a sound loud enough to deal thunder damage or deafen a creature, or a smell that might sicken a creature (like a troglodyte’s stench).

As long as you are within range of the illusion, you can use your action to cause the image to move to any other spot within range. As the image changes location, you can alter its appearance so that its movements appear natural for the image. For example, if you create an image of a creature and move it, you can alter the image so that it appears to be walking. Similarly, you can cause the illusion to make different sounds at different times, even making it carry on a conversation, for example.

Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. A creature that uses its action to examine the image can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the creature can see through the image, and its other sensory qualities become faint to the creature.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the spell lasts until dispelled, without requiring your concentration.

Nondetection

• 3rd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (a pinch of diamond dust worth 25 gp sprinkled over the target, which the spell consumes)
• Duration: 8 hours
  For the duration, you hide a target that you touch from divination magic. The target can be a willing creature or a place or an object no larger than 10 feet in any dimension. The target can’t be targeted by any divination magic or perceived through magical scrying sensors.

Plant Growth

• 3rd-level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action or 8 hours
• Range: 150 feet
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Instantaneous
  You channel vitality into plants within a 100‑foot radius centered on a point within range. If you cast this spell as an action, plants in the area become thick and overgrown. A creature moving through the area must spend 4 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves. You can exclude one or more areas of any size within the spell’s area from being affected. If you cast this spell over 8 hours, you enrich the land: all plants in a half‑mile radius centered on a point within range yield twice the normal amount of food for 1 year.

Protection from Energy

• 3rd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
  You touch a willing creature. Choose one damage type: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder. The target has resistance to the chosen damage type for the duration.

Remove Curse

• 3rd-level abjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Instantaneous
  At your touch, all curses affecting one creature or object end. If the object is a cursed magic item, its curse remains, but the spell breaks its owner’s attunement to the object so it can be removed or discarded.

Revivify

• 3rd-level necromancy
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, S, M (diamonds worth 300 gp, which the spell consumes)
• Duration: Instantaneous
  You touch a creature that has died within the last minute. That creature returns to life with 1 hit point. This spell can’t return to life a creature that has died of old age, nor can it restore any missing body parts.

Sending

• 3rd-level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Unlimited
• Components: V, S, M (a short piece of fine copper wire)
• Duration: 1 round
  You send a short message of twenty-five words or less to a creature with which you are familiar. The creature hears the message in its mind, recognizes you as the sender if it knows you, and can answer in a like manner immediately. The spell enables creatures with Intelligence scores of at least 1 to understand the meaning of your message.

You can send the message across any distance and even to other planes of existence, but if the target is on a different plane than you, there is a 5 percent chance that the message doesn’t arrive.

Sleet Storm

• 3rd-level conjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 150 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dust and a few drops of water)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  A 20‑foot‑tall cylinder with a 40‑foot radius centered on a point within range becomes a driving sleet storm. The area is heavily obscured, and exposed flames are doused. The ground in the area is covered with slick ice, making it difficult terrain. When a creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. If a creature is concentrating in the area, it must make a successful Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC or lose concentration.

Slow

• 3rd‑level transmutation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a drop of molasses)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  You alter time around up to six creatures of your choice in a 40‑foot cube within range. Each target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be affected for the duration. An affected target’s speed is halved, it takes a −2 penalty to AC and Dexterity saving throws, and it can’t use reactions. On its turn, it can use either an action or a bonus action, not both. Regardless of the creature’s abilities or magic items, it can’t make more than one melee or ranged attack during its turn. If the creature attempts to cast a spell with a casting time of 1 action, roll a d20; on an 11 or higher, the spell doesn’t take effect until the creature’s next turn, and the creature must use its action on that turn to complete the spell. The creature must make another Wisdom saving throw at the end of each of its turns; on a success, the effect ends for it.

Speak with Dead

• 3rd-level necromancy
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 10 feet
• Components: V, S, M (burning incense)
• Duration: 10 minutes
  You grant the semblance of life and intelligence to a corpse of your choice within range, allowing it to answer the questions you pose. The corpse must still have a mouth and can’t be undead. The spell fails if the corpse was the target of this spell within the last 10 days.

Until the spell ends, you can ask the corpse up to five questions. The corpse knows only what it knew in life, including the languages it knew. Answers are usually brief, cryptic, or repetitive, and the corpse is under no compulsion to offer a truthful answer if you are hostile to it or it recognizes you as an enemy. This spell doesn’t return the creature’s soul to its body, only its animating spirit. Thus, the corpse can’t learn new information, doesn’t comprehend anything that has happened since it died, and can’t speculate about future events.

Stinking Cloud

• 3rd-level conjuration
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 90 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a rotten egg or several skunk cabbage leaves)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  You create a 20-foot radius sphere of yellow, nauseating gas centered on a point within range. The cloud spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured. The cloud lingers in the air for the duration.

Each creature that is completely within the cloud at the start of its turn must make a Constitution saving throw against poison. On a failed save, the creature spends its action that turn retching and reeling. Creatures that don’t need to breathe or are immune to poison automatically succeed on this saving throw.

A moderate wind (at least 10 miles per hour) disperses the cloud after 4 rounds. A strong wind (at least 20 miles per hour) disperses it after 1 round.

Tongues

• 3rd-level divination
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Touch
• Components: V, M (a small clay model of a ziggurat)
• Duration: 1 hour
  This spell grants the creature you touch the ability to understand any spoken language it hears. Moreover, when the target speaks, any creature that knows at least one language and can hear the target understands what it says.

Water Breathing

• 3rd-level transmutation (ritual)
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a short reed or piece of straw)
• Duration: 24 hours
  This spell grants up to ten willing creatures you can see within range the ability to breathe underwater until the spell ends. Affected creatures also retain their normal breathing.

Water Walk

• 3rd‑level transmutation (ritual)
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 30 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a piece of cork)
• Duration: 1 hour
  This spell grants the ability to move across any liquid surface—such as water, acid, mud, snow, quicksand, or lava—as if it were harmless solid ground (creatures still take damage from crossing lava). Up to ten willing creatures you can see within range gain this ability for the duration. If you target a creature submerged in a liquid, the spell carries the target to the surface of the liquid at a rate of 60 feet per round.

Wind Wall

• 3rd‑level evocation
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: V, S, M (a tiny fan and a feather of exotic origin)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
  A wall of strong wind rises from the ground at a point you choose. You can make the wall up to 50 feet long, 15 feet high, and 1 foot thick. The wall lasts for the duration. It keeps fog, smoke, and other gases at bay. Small or smaller flying creatures or objects can’t pass through the wall. Ranged weapon attacks that pass through the wall have disadvantage; it deals 3d8 bludgeoning damage to creatures entering for the first time on a turn.

4th-Level