Complete Guide to Piercing Damage Spells in D&D 5e
by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
From needles to arrows, piercing is a classic method for breaking skin and puncturing organs. While these mundane methods prove more than adequate for an average murder, sometimes you want to shake things up with a bit of magic. If that’s the kind of spellcaster you are, here are all of the spells in D&D 5e that can deal Piercing damage!
Piercing Damage Spells by Level
The following spells can deal Piercing damage when cast. Each can only deal Piercing damage, deal Piercing damage randomly, or has the option to deal Piercing damage.
Spells that Deal Piercing Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Thorn Whip |
| 1st | Ensnaring Strike, Hail of Thorns, Hunter's Mark, Ice Knife |
| 2nd | Cordon of Arrows, Magic Weapon, Summon Beast |
| 3rd | Animate Dead, Conjure Barrage, Summon Fey |
| 4th | Faithful Hound |
| 5th | Insect Plague, Summon Draconic Spirit |
| 6th | Create Undead, Wall of Thorns |
| 7th | - |
| 8th | - |
| 9th | - |
Always Deals Piercing Damage Spells by Level
The following spells always deal Piercing damage when they deal damage. They can also deal an additional damage type to qualify, such as Piercing and Cold damage.
Spells that Always Deal Piercing Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Thorn Whip |
| 1st | Ensnaring Strike, Hail of Thorns, Ice Knife |
| 2nd | Cordon of Arrows, Summon Beast |
| 3rd | Summon Fey |
| 4th | Faithful Hound |
| 5th | Insect Plague, Summon Draconic Spirit |
| 6th | - |
| 7th | - |
| 8th | - |
| 9th | - |
Piercing Damage Spells by Class
The following are in order of spell level per class encompassing any spell that can deal Piercing damage. Spells with parentheses following them are accessible through the specified subclass.
Ensnaring Strike (Ancients)
Hunter’s Mark (Vengeance)
Magic Weapon
Animate Dead (Oathbreaker)
Ensnaring Strike
Hail of Thorns
Hunter’s Mark
Cordon of Arrows
Magic Weapon
Summon Beast
Conjure Barrage
Summon Fey
Insect Plague (Swarmkeeper)
All Piercing Damage Spells Ranked Worst to Best
All Piercing damage spells aren’t created equally. For your consideration, here is my ranking for the worst to best Piercing-damaging spells in the game. Any spell that can deal Piercing 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 Piercing 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
16. Cordon of Arrows: Cordon of Arrows doesn’t just fail for being far lower damage than it should be, it doesn’t just fail for being under-damaged, it fails for being near impossible to use meaningfully. 4d6 divided up over four creatures is horrendous damage, and setting it up to gain action advantage in fights is unbelievably difficult. Rangers looking to pull backward and pepper people with arrows don’t want to waste an action setting this up- they want tools to improve their arrow damage or otherwise hinder enemy movement. Cordon doesn’t fit on the one class that gets it.
D Tier: Most Sheets Don’t Want These
15. Conjure Barrage: The only thing that saves Conjure Barrage from F tier is its class. Some groups won’t have other casters with ample access to decent area of effect damage options, and a 60 ft. cone is a massive area. Getting it a 9th level is rough, though, and 3d8 damage isn’t anywhere close to what I’d expect a 3rd-level spell to be capable of doing. If you have a Wizard in the party and four levels after they get an 8d6 damage Fireball you get a 3d8 damage Conjure Barrage, and you’ll feel terrible.
14. Magic Weapon: Magic Weapon at its core is a 2nd level concentration effect that gives a martial ally the ability to function normally against creatures with non-magic weapon resistance. It comes with a bonus +1 to the weapon’s hit and damage as well, meaning it technically qualifies when it's used on a piercing weapon like a bow or rapier. I don’t ever want to have to cast this, but some games will need it to let the ranger function against werewolves.
C Tier: Have a Home on Some Characters
13. Insect Plague: 4d10 piercing damage per round is a solid amount of damage; unfortunately, there have been a lot of better spells printed since its inception for casters to spend their concentration on that can also potentially deal area-of-effect damage. I do have a soft spot for this 5th-level effect, though, even if the damage occurs at end of turns, making it fairly easy to get out of without intervention.
12. Create Undead: Create Undead, when cast fairly, usually gives you a handful of mediocre Ghouls. Where it gets spicy is in its up-casts, specifically in creating Wights, which in turn create an army of Zombies for you. Here’s a fun fact about wights: they wield longbows, and can make two attacks a turn with them, which deal piercing damage! Most characters will find this is a far worse version of Animate Dead, Dance Macabre, and Summon Undead or Fiend in the tiers you get access to it.
11. Hail of Thorns: Divine Smite sort of defines what Paladin does; Hail of Thorns is a Ranger alternative that meaningfully differentiates them from their divine counterparts. 1d10 area damage on top of an attack for a 1st level slot is about as efficient as you could ask for. Concentration and its limited damage doesn’t ever make it something I’m immediately reaching for, but in the lower tiers its an entirely reasonable effect to play with.
10. Faithful Hound: Like Insect Plague, I have a soft spot for Faithful Hound. It has a lot going right; an 8 hour duration concentration-free persistent damage effect has a ton of potential. What holds it back is the required positioning to make it effective. If you can set it up in a space to get three for four attacks, it’s excellent as a free 4d8 damage attack each round. If you can’t its a way worse version of Alarm.
9. Ensnaring Strike: For Rangers and Oath of Ancients Paladins, I think Ensnaring Strike can be a play pattern-defining ability. The only real issue with that is the play pattern it offers isn’t particularly powerful. Concentration and a bonus d6 damage on hit isn’t great, but restraining a threatening melee combatant before it can engage, or even as a means of helping allies disengage from it, can have a huge impact in the outcome of a fight. It can play somewhat like Hideous Laughter, but hits a smaller subset of creatures meaningfully, but it needs to be part of a hit attack and a creature failing a save.
8. Wall of Thorns: 7d8 initial area damage for a 6th-level slot is a pretty great floor for a spell to have. On top of that, it's still a wall, that has all the issues most walls have. Things can move through it, but take 7d8 additional damage, and if you can force things to move into it, you’re getting 14d8 damage worth of thorns, which is excellent damage. You’ll probably want to be playing with some shoves to make this work efficiently, making it something that a lot of sheets still won’t really want to spend their concentration on.
B Tier: Solid Options on Many Characters
7. Thorn Whip: Thorn Whip does just enough extra goodness on top of just enough damage that it escapes C tier. A pull effect needs other elements around it to matter; fortunately, Druid has ample ways to make that movement matter. Spike Growth and the aforementioned Insect Plague get a lot better when you introduce Thorn Whip to the equation. With its floor being a d6 damage cantrip that occasionally will pull a creature off a roof or out of a tree, I think it's a solid option to consider.
6. Hunter’s Mark: I equate Hunter’s Mark more as a Ranger class feature than a spell for how it influences their core play pattern. A bonus action mark for +1d6 damage on a longbow shot sets you up from 2nd level onward to function like a Fighter/Rogue hybrid. This is one of few options that actively keep up with features like Divine Smite- you just need three hits to justify its cast compared to a single cast of Divine Smite, and with Extra Attack, that’s an incredibly low bar to clear.
5. Ice Knife: I think Ice Knife has usurped Burning Hands to me for the go-to 1st level area of effect damage spell. A d10 piercing to a target with 2d6 bonus to surrounding creatures with a superb range makes it a flexible option to have access to, even if it isn’t dealing as much damage to as many creatures as its counterparts. It's still a 1st level damage spell most sheets will toss aside in the mid-tiers as bigger, splashier spells start taking up their actions, but for being the low-tier damage option, it does a great job.
A Tier: Excellent Spells for Anyone
4. Summon Fey: While I don’t think Fey has the most raw power out of the Summon spells, it definitely as some of the most interesting abilities. Each fey comes with a piercing attack that becomes a piercing multi-attack when cast with 4th level or higher slots, and each comes with a Misty Step bonus action that does some nifty stuff depending on your chosen fey. You can build around these abilities to make the spell a larger central element of your sheet, or just stick your concentration on it to get an extra party member up to get a big boost to your action economy.
3. Summon Draconic Spirit: Summon Draconic Spirit is an upgrade on Summon Fey in a lot of ways. It has a breath weapon you can opt to be any of a bunch of elemental damage types, giving you the area effect damage round after round on top of two, three, or four piercing damage attacks based on the spell slot used. It's large as well, meaning if you’re medium and want a flying mount, you’ve got it here. It lacks the slow, but come on. You get a fire-breathing dragon buddy rending enemies to pieces. That’s sweet.
2. Animate Dead: Animate Dead predominately deals piercing damage thanks to the iconic undead minion: the skeleton. These come with a shortbow attack that has a solid range and deals reasonable piercing damage. To live your best necromancer fantasy, make a small battery of these to stick close to you and volley shots round after round at anything that dares approach you!
1. Summon Beast: While I think Animate Dead has a higher upper-level potential, Summon Beast has a massive impact on a ton of tables based on its cost. You just need a 2nd level spell slot to get a beast ally with a ton of flexibility in its speeds and attacks that not only improves your combat prowess massively but simultaneously grants you a powerful new exploration tool to navigate the world with. The other Summon spells all are higher level, and don’t provide so much more mechanically that I think they deserve higher rankings than the cheapest, most efficient version of the effect.
Best Classes for Piercing Damage Spells
9. Bard: Outside of Magical Secrets, bards get literally no spells that deal piercing damage. Wild!
8. Artificer: Artificr doesn’t fare much better, with its only two options being Magic Weapon and Conjure Barrage, the latter of which is locked to one subclass. Neither of these spells really delivers on the piercing damage fantasy you’re probably looking for in a compelling way.
7. Warlock: Summon Fey may be great, but it doesn’t offer nearly enough for me to put Warlock higher than other options with cheaper and more efficient methods for dealing piericng damage.
6. Paladin: Paladin earns its spot over Warlock from its Oaths. Vengeance can set you up with Hunter’s Mark, which can stack on top of Divine Smites to deal 2-6d6 bonus damage in addition to your smite spamming. Ancients gets Ensaring Strike as well which defines a major element of what differentiates it from the other archetypes. Oathbreaker even can create its own Skeleton battery! One meaningful option each doesn’t set it too far above the prior options, though.
5. Sorcerer: Like Paladin, there really is just one spell that sets Sorcerer apart from the others: Ice Knife. Sorcerers specifically have a unique interaction with the spell, as it qualifies for Twin Spell yet also deals area of effect damage which offers a ton of raw power a lot of sheets want. Insect Plague is fine and all, and contributes to its slight ranking over Paladin, but most of this placement is due to Ice Knife’s opportunities with Metamagic.
4. Cleric: Animate Dead, Insect Plague, and Create Undead all come together to paint a cohesive picture of a vengeful, death-based clergyman set to bring the world to ruin. Being a full-caster with Animate Dead puts it far about Paladin and Sorcerer despite both having better early access to piercing spells.
3. Wizard: This has to be Wizard’s lowest ranking out of all damage spells. It basically gets the Cleric, Warlock, and Sorcerer list smushed together. That means it outranks the rest, as it can do basically everything they can do at once.
2. Ranger: This may be the list Ranger ranks highest on, and for good reason. Hunter’s Mark, Ensnaring Strike, and Hail of Thorns are three great early-game options you can weave into your regular play pattern with a longbow. Summon Beast at 5th level and Fey at 9th level keeps the piercing train rolling with awesome expanded options that provide you additional actions per turn through your conjured allies. The only major duds here are Cordon of Arrows and Conjure Barrage, and that’s honestly an endorsement for the class as it has enough other options that you’re regularly excited to use over these for your piercing damage needs.
1. Druid: Summon Beast at 3rd level is hard to top as far as piercing damage options go, and that’s what Druid gets over Wizard in addition to Thorn Whip, enabling a great piercing damage spell out the gate that plays well with other druid classics you’ll regularly want on your sheet. Many druids will stumble into a suite of piercing damage spells that assemble a meat grinder of pulling vines and poking beaks and claws without even thinking about the damage types, and can sure it all up with Ice Knife for some solid area of effect damage that incidentally also does a bit of piercing.
It's More Than a Little Prick
If you’re looking for some pointy magic action, these piercing spells are for you. Sure, the best may be some classic Summon options, but you’ve got other options like Ice Knife and Thorn Whip to skewer your enemies with pinpoint precision. Thanks for checking us out!
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