Complete Guide to Force Damage Spells in D&D 5e
by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Force damage is “magic” bludgeoning damage; it's the damage you get when the game designers want a non-weapon damage type for a spell to overcome some resistances. It also kind of acts as a catch-all for anything that doesn’t have a perfect other damage type.
This has left it in a space as a kind of special damage type rarely resisted by creatures, and given out to some of the most generic and applicable spells in the game a huge quantity of sheets want. Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount radically increased the quantity of options available to Wizards, and added a more consistent theme to Force, being gravity-based damage involving being squished and pulled, but not ripped or bludgeoned.
For your consideration, here is a comprehensive list of every Force damaging spell in 5th Edition, ranked and sorted by level and class!
Force Damage Spells by Level
The following spells can deal Force damage when cast. Each can only deal Force damage, deal Force damage randomly, or has the option to deal Force damage.
Spells that Deal Force Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Eldritch Blast, Sword Burst |
| 1st | Chaos Bolt, Jim’s Magic Missile, Magic Missile, Magnify Gravity, Zephyr Strike |
| 2nd | Spiritual Weapon |
| 3rd | Pulse Wave |
| 4th | Gravity Sinkhole |
| 5th | Arcane Hand, Banishing Smite, Steel Wind Strike |
| 6th | Disintegrate, Gravity Fissure |
| 7th | Draconic Transformation |
| 8th | Dark Star |
| 9th | Blade of Disaster, Ravenous Void |
Always Deals Force Damage Spells by Level
The following spells always deal Force damage when they deal damage. They can also deal an additional damage type to qualify, such as Force and Fire damage.
Spells that Always Deal Force Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Eldritch Blast, Sword Burst |
| 1st | Jim’s Magic Missile, Magic Missile, Magnify Gravity, Zephyr Strike |
| 2nd | Spiritual Weapon |
| 3rd | Pulse Wave |
| 4th | Gravity Sinkhole |
| 5th | Arcane Hand, Banishing Smite, Steel Wind Strike |
| 6th | Disintegrate, Gravity Fissure |
| 7th | Draconic Transformation |
| 8th | Dark Star |
| 9th | Blade of Disaster, Ravenous Void |
Force Damage Spells by Class
The following are in order of spell level per class encompassing any spell that can deal Force damage. Spells with parentheses following them are accessible through the specified subclass.
Sword Burst
Jim’s Magic Missile
Magic Missile
Magnify Gravity
Pulse Wave
Gravity Sinkhole
Arcane Hand
Steel Wind Strike
Disintegrate
Gravity Fissure
Draconic Transformation
Dark Star
Blade of Disaster
Ravenous Void
All Force Damage Spells Ranked Worst to Best
All Force damage spells aren’t created equally. For your consideration, here is my ranking for the worst to best Force-damaging spells in the game. Any spell that can deal Force damage is included in this ranking, even if only some versions of the cast deal that damage type.
These rankings aren’t ranking the total Force damage a spell is capable of dealing but how useful the spell will likely be on a character sheet. Let's dive in!
F Tier: Near Uncastable
19. Chaos Bolt: Chaos Bolt does less damage than it should and fails to meaningfully deliver on the promise of being a fun, chaotic effect. Most characters that take this are better off casting Chromatic Orb or any other 1st-level damaging spell than this.
D Tier: Most Sheets Don’t Want These
18. Banishing Smite: I routinely go around and around trying to justify using this spell, but ultimately I can’t imagine a real time in the game where I want to cast it. It functions with mechanics similar to Power Word: Kill and Pain but requires so much to go right for it to function. You have to be willing to break your concentration for the smite, have to hope you’re getting the creature to under 50 hit points with the attack, and want to banish it now.
A creature being under 50 hit points normally means it's within a round of death anyway; Banish is at its most useful on healthy creatures you want to remove as a fight starts, as that swings the action economy wildly into your team’s favor. It being an execute makes it substantially less useful, as you’re usually able to get your action advantage by just ending the creature’s life who is grievously injured.
However: if you want a 5th-level smite, you can get it with this. 5d10 is better than the 5d8 damage that comes with a 4th-level slot, and in some niche scenarios, you’ll banish a creature when you hit. If you use this as a 5th-level Divine Smite first and a removal tool incidentally, it's not great, but not uncastable. If you could use Divine Smite with 5th-level slots, I would drop this to F tier, but as it stands, Divine Smite only works with 1st through 4th-level slots.
17. Sword Burst: 1d6 in an area around you for your action is tricky to get value out of in the low tiers, and while it kind of scales better than most other cantrips, there aren’t a lot of sheets that are going to regularly want to both be on top of enemies and using this instead of taking the Attack action. Most of the time, this is going to be worse than the rest of the cantrip damage options.
16. Steel Wind Strike: Five creatures taking 6d10 damage is roughly the same as a Fireball up-cast, and that’s kind of it. The teleporting to an unoccupied space is definitely better on Rangers than Wizards, but Rangers don’t really want to be making spell attack rolls. Wizards do, but have Fireball and other excellent damage options that can hit more than five creatures within 30 feet of you more often than not. I’m left feeling like this spell really isn’t for anyone; I can’t get excited about a 5th-level Fireball’s worth of damage at 17th level on Rangers, and Wizards have so many better options.
15. Gravity Sinkhole: 5d10 damage for a 4th-level spell isn’t great, nor is a 20 ft. pull. Together, I’m left with a spell I don’t know how to use in powerful ways. You could try to use this to force enemies into wall spells, but how you position it is going to make it challenging to justify over putting on more enemies. I think more often than not this is going to function like a worse version of Fireball you always have to up-cast, which I don’t really want on my sheets.
C Tier: Have a Home on Some Characters
14. Gravity Fissure: Like Steel Wind Strike, Gravity Fissure looks pretty close to up-cast Fireball damage, but a more apt comparison would be to Lightning Bolt as its range is pretty close to Fissure’s actual range. Fissure also hits 10 feet on each side at least, making the line feel closer to a 100x25 ft. line, which is a massive area. The pull isn’t particularly potent, but if you’re in the market for a giant Force laser, Gravity Fissure will perform fine enough for you, and can justify inclusion on your sheet, but isn’t normally going to be that worth it over just up-casting the classics.
13. Pulse Wave: Pulse Wave is close to doing enough damage and has a neat modal push/pull effect I find deeply interesting. I think more often than not you’ll prefer the bonus 2d6 damage from a Lightning Bolt or Fireball, but the very fact that I’m considering this makes it appealing to me. If you want a break from the classics or want to build a character who uses forced movement as a primary means of engaging in a fight, Pulse Wave might have a home on your sheet.
12. Ravenous Void: 9th level is pretty expensive for a 20 ft. radius sphere of death. Sure, it slows everything around it and tries to suck nearby creatures in, but with the payoff being a measly 5d10 force damage, you really need to want the restrained condition it provides to justify the cast. I can imagine scenarios where that’s the case and it handles a huge chunk of enemies, but fewer where this ends up being better in that scenario than bigger, splashier 9th-level spells like Meteor Swarm or True Polymorph.
11. Blade of Disaster: Again, a 9th-level spell is a really expensive price to pay, but the payoff here can be a ludicrous amount of damage. Critting on 18s or higher is great, and this gives you two attacks a round to fish for them. For it to deal as much damage as a Meteor Swarm on a single target, you do need to get about 22d12 damage out of it, which equates to at least three rounds of non-crits. That isn’t that difficult to achieve but definitely has a lot of room for problems to arise. It’ll still feel pretty fun to use, and if you can get advantage on your attack rolls, the 12d12 hits are going to happen a lot, as you’ve got basically a 27% chance to roll an 18, 19, or 20 on a pair of dice.
B Tier: Solid Options on Many Characters
10. Jim’s Magic Missile: 6d4 for a 1st-level spell is stellar. Jim’s Magic Missile can give you that should every missile hit, and have bonus upsides on crit with the menial critical failure downside of taking 1 damage on a natural one. This trade-off is absolutely worth it. This is closer to Scorching Ray than it is to Magic Missile, but it still is a great spell that can easily slot onto a lot of sheets, even those who may not be in love with the comedy element of the spell.
9. Magnify Gravity: I adore this spell. It compares to something like Ice Knife pretty easily, with a little bit lower area of effect damage, but a cool temporary condition. That makes it flexible and easy to include on low-tier character sheets. The speed-halving can be relevant, and the locking objects down is a unique kind of effect the game doesn’t see elsewhere. Having niche uses stapled to reasonable damage at a great range sets this up as a great little spell many wizards can make great use of.
8. Dark Star: 8th-level spells are supposed to be big and splashy, and Dark Star is both. A 40 ft. radius sphere of 8d10 Force damage round after round is a great place to start, and it comes with added difficult terrain and heavy obscurity. What takes it out of C tier and up to B is it also acts as a countermeasure to some spellcasters, as the muting capabilities can entirely neuter slower mundane wizards like Liches and Necromancers.
7. Zephyr Strike: Skirmisher Rangers want a lot of little improvements to help navigate through fights- Zephyr Strike gives them a lot of these little improvements bundled together in a concise package. Being able to freely dive past brutes to get to spellcasters is useful, but not worth a whole slot. A bonus d8 and advantage on one attack roll isn’t worth a 1st level spell slot. An extra dash isn’t usually worth a 1st level spell slot. All three stapled together is, and will regularly empower you from fight to fight.
6. Disintegrate: If you’re in the market for a massive single target damage spell, take Disintegrate. Its biggest issue is the all-or-nothing nature of it, but when it hits, it's the highest single target damage effect for its slot in the game. If you want one thing dead, Disintegrate will help you get there quickly.
A Tier: Excellent Spells for Anyone
5. Draconic Transformation: While a bit unintuitive, Draconic Transformation is closely related to Arcane Hand and Spiritual Weapon as it provides a bonus action attack to deal force damage in a great area. Attached to it is also a fly speed, making it flexible for out-of-combat navigation and exploration. Concentration can land you in trouble if you take big risks with it, but you don’t need more than two or three rounds with this to justify the cast, which is a low bar to meet.
4. Eldritch Blast: In a vacuum, Eldritch Blast is usually a bit better than Fire Bolt. You still get a d10 damage, the niche upside of force being rarely resisted, and get to split up the d10s at higher levels with more attack rolls instead of firing a single blast.
Where Eldritch Blast gets bumped into A-tier is when you start stacking ways to manipulate it on top of the cast. Hex is an easy place to start- now, you’re getting a d6 damage on hit with each blast. With multiple blasts, you get multiple bonus d6s per round!
There are ample invocations that all add to the power of Eldritch Blast, the most notable being Agonizing Blast to add Charisma modifier on each hit. You can go so much deeper with levels in Sorcerer for the Quicken Spell Metamagic and quickly start churning out four to eight blasts every round, all stacking more instances of that bonus damage you’ve picked up.
If you don’t want to commit to this full build, you can still be perfectly happy with Eldritch Blast. If you commit, though, it can decimate some creatures with a barrage of eldritch energy.
3. Magic Missile: What Magic Missile does best is provide low-tier characters consistency. At 1st through 3rd level, the game’s balance is all over the place. A CR 1/4th Goblin can outright kill a level 1 Wizard with a high damage crit from their scimitar or shortbow, sometimes before that character gets a chance to act. Likewise, it may miss horribly every round and do nothing. Characters can feel similar- a Chromatic Orb promises either 13ish damage, which is a great chunk for a 1st-level spell, but also can do nothing. If you don’t want that risk of getting insta-killed by the CR ¼ bandit, Magic Missile can sink at least 6 damage into it, guaranteed, usually more. You can divide it up over three lower hit-point creatures. When you cast it, you know close to exactly what you’re going to get, and that certainty is worth a lot when variance so majorly impacts survival.
2. Arcane Hand: A 5th level spell earning this high of a ranking is wild to me, yet Arcane Hand deserves it. This is my go-to bonus action spell for Wizards. It just does so many little things with a floor being a bonus action attack for decent damage. Its various modes come up all the time in fights in different and interesting ways. If you haven’t tried Arcane Hand yet, I can’t recommend it enough.
1. Spiritual Weapon: I think Spiritual Weapon is one of the best spells in the game. It defines how low-tier Clerics deal damage while also taking supportive actions, and does so without punishing melee-ranged builds by asking them to manage concentration. A bonus action attack roll every round for a 2nd level spell slot is a steal. You’re happy to up-cast this in the mid-tiers for its bonus damage, and while you’ll have some builds that will want to spend their bonus action on something else, every other cleric in the game is going to routinely want this on their character sheet.
Best Classes for Force Damage Spells
9. Bard: Outside of Magical Secrets, bards get no Force damaging spells. Last place it is!
8. Paladin: Banishing Smite may not be great, but does count as a Force damage spell, and thus Paladin has better Force damaging spells than Bard!
7. Druid: Draconic Transformation is excellent, but not enough on its own to get Druid a higher ranking. It's a 7th-level slot, and the only force damage option Druid gets, making it definitely better than Paladin, but worse off than the options with cheaper and more abundant Force damaging options.
6. Artificer: Artificers get Sword Burst, which is technically a cheaper option than Druid gets. What takes it above Druid is Armorer, which comes with access to Magic Missile. This sets that Artificer specialization up to actually do excellent amounts of Force damage in the lower tiers. It still is outclassed by options with more robust lists, but actually can output a reasonable amount of close-up and ranged Force damage.
5. Ranger: Steel Wind Strike isn’t particularly riveting for most Rangers; Zephyr Strike, however, gives them a lot of little bonuses for a 1st level spell slot that adds up to a spell I’m pretty eager to get on my sheet. While not revolutionary, that little extra force damage and advantage on an attack roll will result in a decent chunk of bonus force damage coming from Rangers.
4. Cleric: Despite how many Clerics want Spiritual Weapon and can make excellent use of it, it on its own can’t put Cleric higher than the three top classes with robust access to excellent Force damage spells. You’ll still find you’re dealing a ton of bonus force damage as a Cleric in the low to mid tiers, but ultimately Disintegrate, Magic Missile, and other options put the arcane casters ahead.
3. Sorcerer: As we just mentioned, Sorcerer comes with a great list of flexible Force damage spells, many of which are massively empowered by Metamagic. Like Disintegrate for its massive single-target damage? Sorcerers can Twin it! Magic Missile sets you up with three darts that can’t miss, adding a great amount of consistency to your sheet, and while it isn’t the most powerful 9th-level spell, Blade of Disaster is an entirely serviceable place to put your bonus action for more damage.
2. Warlock: Warlock bests Sorcerer because while it doesn’t cast the most Force-damaging spells regularly in the game, a lot of its builds are entirely centered around empowering and repeatedly casting Eldritch Blast. It does have a couple of other Force-damaging options, like Blade of Disaster, but so much of what munchkin nonsense you can get up to with the class has to do with dealing Force damage with an onslaught of Quickened Eldritch Blasts. It definitely is the class most likely to deal the highest round-to-round Force damage.
1. Wizard: Wizard takes the top spot for having all the goodies Sorcerers have on top of the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount expanded Gravity spells. This extra list gives you a huge list of other force-damaging options that come with unique and interesting effects that can set you up as a master of gravity and physics. If you want to cast 1st level and higher Force damaging spells routinely, Wizard absolutely is the best class to do it. Oh, and on top of all of these expanded spells, you also get Arcane Hand. What’s not to love?
May the Force (Damage) Be With You
Force damage has some absolute iconic all-stars. You’ve got Magic Missile, the iconic Wizard staple, Eldritch Blast, the iconic Warlock cantrip, and Spiritual Weapon, Cleric’s bread and butter. Most of these will easily find a home on most character sheets; if you’re in the market for some force damage, hopefully this list can be of some assistance!
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