Globe of Invulnerability: Not Even Close

Usable By: Sorcerer, Wizard

Spell Level: 6

School: Abjuration

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: Self (10-foot radius)

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S, M (A glass or crystal bead that shatters when the spell ends)

An immobile, faintly shimmering barrier springs into existence in a 10-foot radius around you and remains for the duration.

Any spell of 5th level or lower cast from outside the barrier can’t affect creatures or objects within it, even if the spell is cast using a higher level spell slot. Such a spell can target creatures and objects within the barrier, but the spell has no effect on them. Similarly, the area within the barrier is excluded from the areas affected by such spells.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the barrier blocks spells of one level higher for each slot level above 6th.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Globe of Invulnerability is a lie. You are not, in fact, creating an invulnerable globe, nor are you invulnerable in the globe. More accurately, it should be called “globe of antimagic but only for things cast from outside coming in”, but for some reason Wizards decided not to go with that name. Weird, I know.

The power of Globe of Invulnerability comes into play at specific tables where Counterspell wars are common, and will do so mostly in the hands of a villain. Creating a giant middle finger to outside spellcasters is useful in exactly one scenario: you’re facing against spellcasters outside your bubble. While this can happen, it isn’t every encounter making Globe something great to have prepared when you’ve got bigger haymakers with 7th/8th level slots.

Globe of Invulnerability highlights to me a problem with 5e magic interactions; they tend to be all or nothing. Counterspell is the gold standard example. If you’re a caster who attempts to cast into a Counterspell, you end up wasting your turn. As you may know if it's happened to you before, this feels terrible. You spent your precious turn and a resource only for somebody else to dismiss it as a reaction.

Globe of Invulnerability has far fewer feels-bad moments, as it needs to be telegraphed ahead of time, but has a similar effect. Once it's down, spellcasters can’t interact with anyone inside. From a player using it’s perspective, this is great, and can feel like a tool rewarding planning ahead and scouting out future enemies. As caster player fighting against it, it can feel debilitating. This does offer a moment for other utility and support spells to shine or defensive options, and encourages the other members of the team to wail on the caster to take down concentration. All in all, its a mostly net positive experience for everyone involved, but still can occasionally make the casters just twiddle their thumbs waiting to play the game.

Up-casting Globe is bad; 5th level and lower spells take up the bulk of the stuff you’ll be negating anyways. Increasing the cap by one still lets in the spell’s level, and as your challenge rises to match your level, enemies will start matching or beating your spell slot level. This doesn’t deal with Power Word: Kill or Meteor Swarm. You’re best off casting it consistently at 6th level unless a niche encounter comes up where you know you need to negate specifically a 6th, 7th, or 8th level spell.

As a player, you’ll want Globe either against a specific known spellcasting enemy in the future, or as a nice to have tool that isn’t your top end spell. As a DM, Globe can be an excellent way to challenge your party in a different way, and give the martial characters a bit more room to shine at the potential expense of your caster sitting idly for a few rounds.

5e Spells

Globe of Invulnerability: Not Even Close