Arms of Hadar: Who Wants a Hug?

Usable By: Warlock

Spell Level: 1

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self (10-foot radius)

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S

You invoke the power of Hadar, the Dark Hunger. Tendrils of dark energy erupt from you and batter all creatures within 10 feet of you. Each creature in that area must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 2d6 necrotic damage and can’t take reactions until its next turn. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage, but suffers no other effect.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.

Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Imagine you and the squad have that piece of garbage swindler cornered; he’s taken all your money cheating at cards, and you’re all just about ready to beat the coin back out of him. A slim grin appears on his lips; spontaneously a mass of black tendrils rip out of his chest and flail about. How do you respond to that? What can you possibly do but scream and flail with them?

That’s functionally what Arms of Hadar does! In any casting class other than warlock, I’d say this is a solid spell that fits nicely into your spell-sword repertoire. Unfortunately, this isn’t a wizard or cleric spell; it's a warlock spell. The bar for usable warlock spells is way higher than that of the other casters because of how pact magic works, meaning utility spells with only instantaneous durations are incredibly hard to justify.

2d6 damage isn’t spectacular, but because it hits an area, you can get decent enough damage for a 1st level slot. Disabling reactions means you can save an action you’d otherwise need to spend disengaging dealing damage around you, allowing you to simultaneously progress your team towards victory while getting yourself out of danger. All of that is fine; it's something many characters would find ample use for over the course of a campaign. Compared to other spells, though, the effect is too minimal to justify using, especially if you’ve got a long encounter ahead, and no short rest in sight.

Scaling damage spells with upcasting care a lot about what size the die is they’re using. While Fireball is iconic for being the go-to damage spell, it starts with enough d6s that scaling 1d6 extra up per slot is good enough damage still to occasionally justify upcasting. Going from 2d6 to 3d6 doesn’t make Arms of Hadar worth a 2nd level slot, and if you’re a warlock, you have no 1st level slots laying around you can use instead, making the best time you could possibly use this 1st and 2nd level. It only goes downhill from there.

Ultimately, Arms of Hadar is a spell I want to take, and want to see players flexibly use, but it falls victim to the spell murderer that is pact magic. If you’re playing at a table running Wizards “recommended” quantity of encounters and rests at 1st and 2nd level, this can be great! A few short rests, a bunch of weak-moderate encounters, and you can use a wide array of spells! Realistically, groups are running far less than that number of encounters between rests, and you’ll likely never find it justifiable to use something like this that only affects the game in the moment. Warlocks need to know better spells than this to truly thrive.

5e Spells

Arms of Hadar: Who Wants a Hug?