by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Whether you’re aiming to create the ultimate mind breaking psychic or just need a silver bullet in case your allied bear totem warrior barbarian loses it on the party, you’ve got a robust selection of options for dealing psychic damage with your character.
Spells that Deal Psychic Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Mind Sliver, Vicious Mockery |
| 1st | Chaos Bolt*, Dissonant Whispers, Wrathful Smite |
| 2nd | Mind Spike, Phantasmal Force, Shadow Blade, Tasha’s Mind Whip |
| 3rd | - |
| 4th | Phantasmal Killer, Raulothim’s Psychic Lance, Staggering Smite, Summon Aberration |
| 5th | Synaptic Static |
| 6th | Mental Prison |
| 7th | - |
| 8th | Feeblemind, Maddening Darkness |
| 9th | Psychic Scream, Weird |
| (Spells with a * can deal psychic damage, but only randomly.) | |
See Also: Complete Guide to Psychic Damage
Psychic Damage Dealing Spells by Class and Subclass
Bard
Vicious Mockery
Dissonant Whispers
Phantasmal Force
Phantasmal Killer
Raulothim’s Psychic Lance
Synaptic Static
Feeblemind
Psychic Scream
Druid
Feeblemind
Paladin
Wrathful Smite
Staggering Smite
Sorcerer
Mind Sliver
Chaos Bolt
Mind Spike
Phantasmal Force
Shadow Blade
Tasha’s Mind Whip
Raulothim’s Psychic Lance
Summon Draconic Spirit
Synaptic Static
Mental Prison
Psychic Scream
Warlock
Mind Sliver
Dissonant Whispers (Great Old One)
Wrathful Smite (Hexblade)
Mind Spike
Phantasmal Force (Archfey, Genie, Great Old One, Undead)
Shadow Blade
Phantasmal Killer (Genie, Hexblade)
Raulothim’s Psychic Lance
Staggering Smite (Hexblade)
Summon Aberration
Synaptic Static
Mental Prison
Feeblemind
Maddening Darkness
Psychic Scream
Weird
Wizard
Mind Sliver
Mind Spike
Phantasmal Force
Shadow Blade
Tasha’s Mind Whip
Phantasmal Killer
Raulothim’s Psychic Lance
Summon Aberration
Summon Draconic Spirit
Synaptic Static
Mental Prison
Feeblemind
Maddening Darkness
Psychic Scream
Weird
So you now have access to the majority of spells in the game that can some way or another deal psychic damage- now what? Which should you take? What class should you play to build the psychic damage character? What pairs well with psychic damage to deliver on the fantasy of a character who breaks the minds of their enemies? Fear not, reader, everything you need is here!
Ranking Every Psychic Damage Spell
Everyone loves a good old fashioned tier list- here, for your consideration, is a comprehensive ranking from F to S tier of spells that deal psychic damage I’d want on characters that have access to it. It's not strictly based on the raw comparative power of the spell, but more of how much I’d enjoy playing with it, and as a person who enjoys playing with powerful spells, those tend to rank higher.
S Tier: I’m Taking It Basically Always
Vicious Mockery. Yes, Vicious Mockery is the best psychic damage spell in the game, and no, I won’t be hearing any nonsense refuting it. As far as a spell’s raw fun levels, Vicious Mockery is the very best. You make fun of an enemy with a burn so good it literally hurts their brain. It's hilarious, defining for the bard class, and leads to some of the most memorable characters you can get. It definitely isn’t the spell on this list with the most power, but it is a spell I’ll never turn down on a bard.
Summon Aberration. Summon Aberration is kind of cheating, as it doesn’t always deal psychic damage, but it's usually dealing psychic damage. Beholderkin gives you ranged psychic beams, star spawn causes a mind explosion in an area around them, and both are attached to a summoned buddy making multiple high damage attacks with a ton of excellent utility. This is a top notch way to deal psychic damage if you ask me, and something I adore playing with at the table.
Summon Draconic Spirit. More so than Summon Aberration, Summon Draconic Spirit barely counts as a psychic damage based spell, hence why it ranks slightly lower. If you give your dragon spirit resistance to psychic damage, its breath will deal psychic damage, though, and let's be honest, the power to summon a freaking dragon is huge. It's powerful. It’ll go on every character sheet that remotely relates to dragons I’m making. Excellent spell.
A Tier: A Solid Addition to Any Character That Can Take It
Mind Sliver. Where Vicious Mockery earns a top spot for its flavor and fun, Mind Sliver earns its A tier rank for being about as effective as a debilitating combat enhancer for your team while dealing a bit more damage. It sets up the next save, which can lead to more likely successful subsequent Mind Slivers, which is a great floor to start at, but being able to set up more powerful save or dies really locks this in as a great option to consider on basically anyone who can take it. Probably about as powerful as Vicious Mockery, but not nearly as fun.
Synaptic Static. Want a giant area of effect damaging spell that simultaneously debilitates enemies? Sure, it's dealing Fireball damage in a Fireball area for 2 spell levels higher, but you’re getting a unique debuff that stacks with disadvantage to set up utter misery for whatever faces the damage. Absolutely worth the slot.
Psychic Scream. As far as I’m concerned, this is the only 9th level psychic damage dealing spell, and it's freaking sweet. No, this isn’t doing Meteor Swarm levels of damage, but a multi-target stun attached to 14d6 damage is excellent. It does exactly enough to justify its slot, and can single handedly destroy an encounter. That’s what a 9th level spell needs to do to justify its cast, and this one does it with the cool factor of blowing up heads.
Tasha’s Mind Whip. 3d6 damage for a 2nd level spell slot on just one creature is quite bad, but when you consider its use case against a lot of single, powerful enemies, this spell can end up being a beating. Denying an action or move on a single creature in the low to mid tiers can break a big bad fight, and having this as a spare option to sling out without breaking concentration in the upper tiers will come up fairly frequently. Not my favorite, but undoubtedly useful in a wide variety of encounters.
Dissonant Whispers. Dissonant Whispers, to me, is the Guiding Bolt of the bard class. It's a ranged damaging option you’re casting more for the condition than the damage, but the damage isn’t anything to sneeze at. On non-bards I’m not really that thrilled with this, but it's kind of the best damaging support option you get, and for that reason, I can see myself picking it up pretty often.
B Tier: A Mediocre Consideration
Raulothim’s Psychic Lance. This spell is delightfully stupid- you shoot a beam from your forehead to deal psychic damage. I love that. 4th level for 7d6 damage is fine, one round of incapacitation is quite good. This spell, against a lone creature that fails, can be debilitating, but often it's going to feel like a worse middleground between other, more powerful effects. Some encounters will find it to be backbreaking, but I don’t think it’ll be most of them.
Phantasmal Force. When you’re casting Phantasmal Force, I’d highly encourage casting it for the illusion effect over the damage. The damage exists to really sell the illusion, and if your goal is to use it as a damage over time effect, you’re never going to get enough rounds out of it to justify the cast. With some clever thinking, though, it does offer a pretty cool effect that illusionists and charlatans alike can have a great time with.
Maddening Darkness. 8th level spells are pretty freaking expensive. Maddening Darkness offers you a huge area of damage, but the damage itself isn’t the highest in the world at only 8d8. If you can consistently get creatures within the area to save twice, I think you’ll get your money’s worth, but that’s not a given. It also eats your concentration this late in the game which can be a bit of an issue on a lot of builds- a fine consideration, with fine applications, but nothing I’m over the moon to cast outside of heavily dedicated Darkness builds leaning on Devil’s Sight.
Mental Prison. Mental Prison is either a 5d6 one sided Banishment kind of effect, or a single target 15d6 damage nuke. Both modes tend to be fine for you, but your inability to pick is a bit rough. There are a surprising number of creatures that are so threatening you just want them to go away, and they can stick a limb through the illusion, take the punishment, and carry on killing you. This adds another layer of inconsistency to an already fickle save or die kind of effect I don’t love, but in some fights, this can be exactly the kind of effect you want. Not many, but some.
C Tier: A Spell I’d Only Take in Niche Circumstances
Mind Spike. Mind Spike is Tasha’s Mind Whip, but worse. You’re trading up one damage dice size from d6s to d8s, but you’re giving up a meaningful reduction in enemy actions for a means of always finding it, which in reality, isn’t going to be needed. If you’re shooting damaging spells at an enemy, you’re probably not going to need to find it. Its going to likely be dead. If you’re worried it's going to bail, restraining it with something like Hold Person is going to be a way better option. Why worry about tracking it down later when you could prevent it from going anywhere? Still, 3d8 damage with this effect isn’t the end of the world, just not something I intend to be casting.
Shadow Blade. If you’re making one attack a round, you can’t really be using Shadow Blade. It’ll be dealing less damage than your cantrips in the upper tiers, and in the lower tiers asks you to be up in people’s faces. On some niche builds like Bladesingers this can be a fine addition, but for the majority of sorcerers, warlocks (including Hexblades), and wizards, this is just going to be a somewhat magical greatsword you’re not thrilled to use over the majority of other damage options you get.
Feeblemind. Feeblemind is a brutal spell to have cast on you as a player, making it immediately have poor marks for me. Disabling a character mentally can be worse than death, often resulting in numerous sessions of sitting ideally waiting to get to play again. Against enemies, it doesn’t mitigate brute force, meaning this will typically only be great at targeting super intelligent spellcasters who will typically have banked legendary resistance or Counterspells specifically to deal with this kind of save or die. Compared to other save or dies like Hold Monster, I can’t realistically see myself taking this on most characters.
Staggering and Wrathful Smite. These to me barely count as psychic damaging spells. Wrathful is probably slightly more castable than Staggering, but when the divine smite class feature is an option always available you don’t have to prepare, and doesn’t mess around with needing to be cast ahead of time or break concentration on other effects, I struggle to find windows where the upside of frightening something or imposing disadvantage on its rolls for a round justifies its cost. You won’t be embarrassed to use these every now and then, but I’m going to put non-smite spells on my paladin to expand what they can do outside of cutting things to pieces.
F Tier: Utter and Absolute Trash On Basically Everyone
Chaos Bolt. This is another spell that barely counts as a damaging psychic spell; slightly more than one in eight times, it’ll deal psychic damage. It deals 2d8+1d6 damage, less damage than Chromatic Orb, a spell I’m not thrilled with, but has the upside of getting to pick your damage every time. The upside of having the damage jump is really unlikely, and in many encounters, won’t do anything even if it randomly occurs. Chaos Bolt, to me, is a trap, and one I’d recommend avoiding entirely. It’s a flat damaging spell that promises wacky chaos, and can’t deliver on that.
Phantasmal Killer. More like Phantasmal STINKER, am I right? For this spell to be better than a 1st level spell, Cause Fear, a creature needs to fail two subsequent saves, in which case its a Cause Fear stapled to 4d10 psychic damage. For three saves you’re getting 8d10; that's when this spell begins to be worth it, and seeing as it also requires your concentration and needs so much to go right to get anything out of it, I can’t fathom getting a lot of actual utility out of this.
Weird. This is one of those spells where I don’t know how they thought it was good to ship in this state. Weird, a 9th level spell, is so bland, so overcosted, I can’t understand who has played with it and been like “Yup, a 9th level slot well spent!” 9th level Fireball-shaped Fear isn’t good. That could be a 3rd level effect and I’d say “I mean, I get it”, but it costs a 9th level spell slot. 4d10 potential damage after another save? Get out of here. What complete and utter garbage.
Spells and Abilities to Pair with Psychic Damage
Just psychic damage on its own is fine and dandy, but there isn’t quite enough of it for it to be all your character does. These kinds of spells and abilities can fill in some gaps in your sheet while empowering your character to fully realize their end object of being a master of mentalism.
Heightened Senses: Sight Across Realms
What tends to be a given for characters invading the mind is a means of telepathic communication. That’s not given in D&D, though. Just because you can deal psychic damage by making a creature see its greatest fear doesn’t innately let you see what they see or communicate with them. Enter heightened senses: means of talking, seeing, and hearing with your mind!
These tend to expand out your inter party communication options while opening up additional means of exploration to the world. Message is a clean and easy way to say something silently to a friend, or poke into the mind of the bugbear guard to give them a stupid idea you’re hoping the follow through on. Spells like Scrying give you the “third eye” feeling, enabling you to know things no person should be able to know, see what no person should be able to see. Even basic options like Detect Magic can help you feel like your character has expanded mental awareness that peers into magic itself with their awakened and expanded mind.
Detect Thoughts stands head and shoulders over the rest, though. This spell literally lets you invade the minds of people around you, hearing their thoughts in your own mind. It is the most “psychic damaging” spell outside of the spells that literally deal psychic damage.
Notable spells in this category: Detect Thoughts, Scrying, Find Familiar, Message, Telepathic Bond, Arcane Eye, Detect Magic, Detect Evil and Good, True Seeing
Illusions: Make Them See What Isn’t There
What pairs superbly to me on the character who wants to invade the heads of their foes and rip them up from the inside is creating the sensations of harm when no physical harm exists. This comes to life in spells like Phantasmal Force, but can be expanded out to more than just damage.
Illusions are the cheat codes to the game, offering clever players potential solutions to nearly any problem. On a mentalist, this can sell the false reality you’ve created in the mind of a creature you’ve smacked around with Dissonant Whispers or double up the funny level of the “your mamma” joke told with Vicious Mockery. Want to really bring the goblin to tiers? An illusion of just how stupid their mom is can hammer home the message!
Notable spells in this category: Minor Illusion, Silent Image, Hallucinatory Terrain, Mirror Image, Major Image, Seeming, Disguise Self
Status Conditions: Mental Manipulation
A staple of the psychic damaging spells is pairing it with some kind of debilitating condition. The cantrips highlight this in the simplest way: Vicious Mockery hurts them mentally so badly they take actual damage and are shaken to the point of having disadvantage on their next attack roll. Dissonant Whispers forces a creature that fails the save to flee on top of the damage that is turning their brain to mush.
To take this to the next level, spells that impose hysteria, fear, or alter how a creature can act all feel like they’re natural expansions of this fantasy. Confusion, while not particularly powerful, feels like the kind of effect that embodies this best. You disrupt their thoughts to such a degree that their ability to make coherent decisions fades. Dominate Person and Monster both give you mental control, each also coming with means of causing the creature to take orders, or allowing you a complete override of their body, giving you complete control.
Notable spells in this category: Charm Person, Command, Dominate Person, Dominate Monster, Confusion, Fear, Cause Fear, Suggestion
Best Classes at Dealing Psychic Damage with Spells
With this knowledge of what are the real bangers and stinkers within the group of spells that deal psychic damage, what class should you pick if you want to get the most out of this damage type? Once again, why not rank them? Only six classes get access regularly are getting access to spells dealing this damage type, so lets break it down, worst to best.
Paladin: With their only options being two smites that I’m lukewarm on, Paladins unsurprisingly are the worst of the psychic damaging classes to play. There just isn’t a lot to work with here. They don’t even get Oath spells that offer up psychic damage. If their means of dealing psychic damage is raw force of intimidation shaking the will of the enemy, they’re not doing it particularly well.
Druid: Druids don’t fare much better. If your goal is to break peoples brains with psychic damage, needing to summon a dragon to do it for you doesn’t really deliver on that fantasy particularly cohesively. Feeblemind is an option, sure, but as I don’t think Feeblemind is really all that good of a spell either, Druids too aren’t going to be worth trying to bend to do the mental magic thing.
Bard: The two biggest selling points of the bard class are Vicious Mockery and Dissonant Whispers. They get access to some fine upper level options, namely Psychic Scream and Synaptic Static, but otherwise need to invest options like their magical secrets into psychic damaging spells to reach out and fill in the middle levels with more psionic goodness.
Plus, the fantasy of the bard class doesn’t match one to one with me with the psionic. You can absolutely bend the class to fit this theme, but it will require a bit of re-flavoring and a lot of effort to solidly sell the theme.
Sorcerer: Sorcerers are the first of the bunch that actually get some toys that can deliver on the fantasy of a master of psionics. Throughout the game you get a stream of psychic damaging tools, all of which you can empower with Metamagic in some powerful ways.
While they will feel cramped in their spells known by just how few total they get, there aren’t a ton of spells you need to do the psychic damaging spellcaster well. Being able to then use metamagic like Subtle Spell to make it impossible to detect the casting of your Phantasmal Force or Tasha’s Mind Whip will leave you feeling like you are changing the world with only your mind. Their limited spell selection holds them back from a top spot, but if all you want to do is psychic damage, Sorcerer can deliver.
Warlock: Beyond having a robust expansion of spells from their subclasses, warlocks bring to the table Eldritch Invocations that can take the psychic damage fantasy to the next level. If you want access to a psychic damaging spell, even normally outside your class like Vicious Mockery, there are almost certainly ways you can get access to it within the warlock class.
This compiles with their telepathic abilities they can get from the Great Old One patron or the trickery options within Archfey to create a character who excels at breaking enemies minds, and does so with ease.
Wizard : Top of the class, as usual when it comes to spellcasting, is of course wizard. Wizards get access to so many spells, and within their subclasses have dozens of ways to generally empower their character, and subsequently their psychic damaging spells.
They don’t need to lean on invocations or subclasses to get access to most major psychic damaging options, either. Sure, you’ll miss not having access to Dissonant Whispers at 1st level, but because they get such a robust selection, past 3rd level you’ll feel like it takes nearly no effort to do the psychic damage thing powerfully.
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