Crusader’s Mantle: Thou Shalt Kill More Effectively

Usable By: Paladin

Spell Level: 3

School: Evocation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V

Holy power radiates from you in an aura with a 30-foot radius, awakening boldness in friendly creatures. Until the spell ends, the aura moves with you, centered on you. While in the aura, each non-hostile creature in the aura (including you) deals an extra 1d4 radiant damage when it hits with a weapon attack.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Crusader’s Mantle infuriates me. It really does. It shows me that Wizards of the Coast is capable of making team centric spells focused on working together and planning with the group, but they just largely chose not to. Crusader’s Mantle has a bunch of text I’m a huge fan of, but the spellcasting system’s problems tied to way over budgeting its spell level takes Crusader’s Mantle from a spell I want to plan around with my party to a tiny meaningless upgrade I’d never consider wasting an action on in the vast majority of parties.

Best case scenario for Crusader’s Mantle is in a group of martial characters fighting undead (specifically zombies). Granting radiant damage to all your friends stands out there as the damage type matters and they all can use the buff meaningfully. The spell doesn’t scale with level, meaning it likely is at its most powerful the second you get it, or when members of your team get additional attacks per round. When casting this at 9th level, it can easily represent a bonus 4d4-8d4 damage a round if you’ve got multiple martial characters like monks, fighters, and rangers with you. This all requires lots of things going right (hits, characters staying close, maintaining concentration, etc) but ultimately has a fairly high ceiling in specific situations.

That CAN be powerful, but happens so late in the game it feels more incidental than planned, more of a neat feature you stumble into than a spell that you strategically build your characters towards. If you happen to have a monk that likes staying close to you, they alone can deal a bonus 4d4 radiant damage with a flurry of blows and a lucky streak of hits. Alternatively, you could be rolling with a lone rogue as your other martial buddy, who in no way shape or form wants to be in the front lines with you, and you functionally are casting Divine Favor with a 3rd level slot.

With some tweaking, this could be a signpost spell for paladins. Giving the group a reason to stick close to their paladin buddy out the gate signifies the eventual features coming down the road that encourage them to stick with you. If you got access to this kind of effect at 2nd level instead of 9th, you and your party could organically grow a team that makes the early choices knowing sticking together can lead to success. It even could give your teammates who run dry on resources moments to kick ass with that dagger they picked up in their starting equipment they’ll likely never get to use past 5th level. You could try it out, see if that kind of strategy appeals to everyone, and make character building just a bit more collaborative experience. Instead, by 9th level nearly all the classes outside the full casters have stopped getting choices to make outside of feats and ability score improvements and are locked on an unchangeable path till death.

Outside of my bitterness from a missed opportunity to bring some cooperative elements to this cooperative roleplaying game, Crusader’s Mantle can be great, but requires your friends to be already doing multi-attack shenanigans. If you’re the only one making weapon attacks, or your friends are making just a few a round, this spell is LAUGHABLY bad, and should never cross your mind.

5e Spells

Crusader’s Mantle: Thou Shalt Kill More Effectively