Hail of Thorns: Ranger’s Divine Smite

Usable By: Ranger

Spell Level: 1

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 bonus action

Range: Self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V

The next time you hit a creature with a ranged weapon attack before the spell ends, this spell creates a rain of thorns that sprouts from your ranged weapon or ammunition. In addition to the normal effect of the attack, the target of the attack and each creature within 5 feet of it must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 1d10 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 1st (to a maximum of 6d10).

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

I don’t know if this is a hot take, but Hail of Thorns kind of slaps. If you aren’t into the whole Hunter's Mark thing, and aren’t actively using your concentration on something else, Hail of Thorns can provide reliable damage to groups of creatures with moderate impact. It's not as good as divine smite, but I’d say it's about as good as the smite spells of the same level. In ranger, we absolutely take those.

As far as 1st level spells go, Hail of Thorns is offering a decent chunk of damage attached to a short or longbow hit. Large quantities of small enemies aren’t typically something martial characters are that great at managing. Hail of Thorns is a narrow, but cheap, answer to some of those encounters.

1d10 averages about 6 damage, which can be enough to drop a lot of CR 1/4th or lower creatures. Kobolds, as an example, have 5 HP, making it so a Hail of Thorns has a decent chance to kill however many kobolds are within 5 feet of each other. A few might survive, sure, but whatever the biggest one was is also taking 1d8+3 bonus damage, making it so you’re dealing a solid amount of damage for the round to a potentially larger threat and thrashing the little critters around it.

Upcasting it doesn’t scale great, largely because you’re getting spell slots at half the rate of the full casters. By 5th level 2d10 damage to each creature in a small area starts to feel pretty inadequate, especially when compared to classics like Fireball and Spirit Guardians. By 9th you’re getting 3d10 damage in an area against the likes of Cone of Cold, Flame Strike, and Cloudkill, which just feels terrible.

The area you’re affecting is pretty narrow as well; you’re happy if you can get three creatures with this, but that’s not going to be often. Some encounters will make this spell useless, acting only as a single bonus d10 damage for a bonus action and 1st level slot, which is horrendous. The lower tier you are, the more you’re happy with both of these conditions, but as the game progresses, you’ll quickly want to switch this out for a more meaningful concentration option.

All in all, if you’re just hitting 2nd level on ranger, you primarily use ranged weapons, and you don’t want to fit Hunter’s Mark into your play pattern, Hail of Thorns can be great for a few levels. You’ll find a fight every now and then that’ll make you feel powerful when you dish out 1d8+1d10+3 to a hobgoblin warlord and 1d10 to the three goblin bandits around them. Once you get out of the early tier, and fewer and fewer monsters have that few hit points, Hail of Thorns starts to feel a lot worse, and while still can be useful from time to time, probably isn’t going to get you excited to use it.

5e Spells

Hail of Thorns: Ranger’s Divine Smite