Giant Insect: That’s Gotta Be Some Cockroach

Usable By: Druid

Spell Level: 4

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 30 feet

Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

Components: V, S

You transform up to ten centipedes, three spiders, five wasps, or one scorpion within range into giant versions of their natural forms for the duration. A centipede becomes a giant centipede, a spider becomes a giant spider, a wasp becomes a giant wasp, and a scorpion becomes a giant scorpion.

Each creature obeys your verbal commands, and in combat, they act on your turn each round. The GM has the statistics for these creatures and resolves their actions and movement.

A creature remains in its giant size for the duration, until it drops to 0 hit points, or until you use an action to dismiss the effect on it.

The GM might allow you to choose different targets. For example, if you transform a bee, its giant version might have the same statistics as a giant wasp.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

A raging flame silhouettes the gnoll warband as they revel in the destruction of the gnomish forest village. A single gnomish hermit coated in mud with a wide leaf hat pulled over her ears steps forward, whispering to a handful of centipedes produced from a dirty glass jar kept on her hip. The gnolls laugh maniacally at the scene, charging towards the hermit standing before them, when the once tiny insects spontaneously enlarge to horrifying proportions, lunging at the invaders and defending their friend and their home.

Giant Insect may imply it makes a single insect very large, but in reality this spell is closer to Summon Beast than it is to Enlarge/Reduce. You pick from four creature types grouped together to get a whole bunch of loyal insects ready to lay down their lives for you and fight till the bitter end for ten straight minutes. You get up to ten giant centipedes, five giant wasps, three giant spiders, or one giant scorpion.

Ten of any creature tends to be excellent, and this spell is no exception. Giant Centipedes may only have 4 hit points and an AC of 13, but for no extra actions getting to make up to ten free +4 to hit attacks, all of which deal 1d4+2 damage and potentially get a bonus 3d6 damage each. With the variance of the d20, usually at least half of these are hitting for 5d4+10 damage with around 6d6 bonus damage on top of that from two-ish failed saves. If they eat weapon attacks you’re typically pretty happy; if the monsters choose to ignore them, they’re in for a lot more attacks every round.

Five giant wasps is usually going to be your next best option, sometimes a better option. Each comes with a 50 ft. fly speed and the same attack as the centipedes with the damage dice increasing from d4s to d6s. They, too, get the 3d6 poison saves. Half as many attacks is a major downgrade, but they do come with three times the hit points, potentially eating an additional attack each, and can navigate quickly over huge distances.

Three giant spiders offer you some additional utility beyond attacks which makes them a decent consideration. Their web attack restrains on hit with a recharge of 5-6, meaning you’ll be getting to fire three off initially, and one every other round on average after that. They also have double the hit points of the wasps (26 each), darkvision, a +7 to stealth, and a 1d8+3 bite with a 2d8 poison save attached to it. Getting three potential restrains for a 4th level spell slot that recharges is an amazing tool to have access to, and also doubling up as three free attackers that can take a couple hits makes them a reasonable option to consider if you aren’t looking for raw damage. These probably are your go to option in the upper tiers where area of effect damage is more common to counteract the 4 hit point swarm of centipedes.

Finally, there is the giant scorpion, the worst of the three options, but still comparatively fine. It compares pretty well with the summon spells from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. You get three attacks, instead of two, a quick 40 ft. speed, and some decent grapples. Blindsight 60 ft. can come up from time to time in magical darkness or against invisible enemies, and their sting always deals at least 2d10 bonus damage on hit. All in all a fine option, but less actions make it quite a bit worse than the comparative options most of the time.

Of all the spells that give you access to a bunch of monsters, I think Giant Insect is one of the most fair and interesting. Each mode, even the scorpion, has some merit thanks to multi-attacking, damage scaling, and the hit point distribution. If you love the fantasy of carrying around a bunch of bugs to kill people with, or just want a powerful summoning-like effect, Giant Insect is excellent.

5e Spells

Giant Insect: That’s Gotta Be Some Cockroach