Bless: Blessed are the Cheesemakers
Spell Level: 1
School: Enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S, M (a sprinkling of holy water)
You bless up to three creatures of your choice within range. Whenever a target makes an attack roll or a saving throw before the spell ends, the target can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the attack roll or saving throw.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Bless and Bane; the dynamic buff/debuff duo. Bless has all the right words for a spell that gives you just enough juice where you’ll basically always be glad you cast it.
What elevates Bless to a tier above bane in castability is the quantity of scenarios where its valuable. All you need for Bless to be an all star is a series of attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws being made within a minute and your fellow party members. Adding a d4 to basically all rolls can be massively impactful. Guidance is a cantrip that makes it so you don’t really need to bless a single creature at a time as they attempt tasks during exploration, meaning you won’t find it as a spell you’re spamming, but should you be in a time sensitive environment where you and the rest of the party need to accomplish a series of difficult tasks, Bless is an easy spell to drop and get a lot of mileage out of.
In combat, Bless nearly always will be worth the cast. Adding a d4 to hit can covert misses to hits, functionally adding 2.5 to three members attacks. Early, with just three or four rounds, this can consistently turn two or three rolls that would have missed into hits which can absolutely be worth a spell slot. As the game gets higher and higher level and players start making more and more attack rolls, this spell scales in a major way. Sure, it may not be worth your concentration in big climactic fights against the boss of the dungeon, but against one of the harder fights along the way it can ease some pains and shorten some fights in your favor.
Honestly, that’s about it. Bless is a perfectly serviceable first level buff spell you’ll be happy to have prepared on most characters. Low level clerics don’t mind having this eat their concentration for longer fights, and higher level clerics can easily find smaller fights without a high cost. It's worth the action, can be worth concentrating on, and is applicable in a ton of meaningful situations. If you’re looking to be a supportive player, try it out!
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
