Harm: I Cast Dysentery!

Usable By: Cleric

Spell Level: 6

School: Necromancy

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 60 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S

You unleash a virulent disease on a creature that you can see within range. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 14d6 necrotic damage, or half as much damage on a successful save. The damage can’t reduce the target’s hit points below 1. If the target fails the saving throw, its hit point maximum is reduced for 1 hour by an amount equal to the necrotic damage it took. Any effect that removes a disease allows a creature’s hit point maximum to return to normal before that time passes.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

“I cast dysentery” is a lovely statement you can make should you take Harm. It basically is just a single high damage shot; if that is what you’re looking for on your cleric, have at it!

If you’re not taking it for memes, you probably don’t want Harm. It is a 14d6 single target damage option with the weird caveat of leaving the hit target at 1 if they’d otherwise drop. This alongside how the spell hits maximum hit points makes it clear it's built as a unique challenge for players to come up against more so than a spell for players to pick up and use. The inability to kill with it is an enormous downside; it can offer a creature an action any other damaging spell could deny. Reducing a monster’s maximum hit points rarely matters. Neither of these two elements sell me on Harm enough to justify it on my character sheets.

Harm’s dealing decent enough damage; single target options don’t get a whole lot better for Cleric than around 50 damage for a 6th level spell. Inflict Wounds upcast is dealing around 44 (8d10) with a far shorter range; Blight comes in matching Inflict Wounds with a measly 44 (10d8) damage, but has the funny upside of being able to nuke specifically plants.

If you look outside Cleric, Disintegrate DESTROYS Harm in a power contest; it's not close. Disintegrate deals around 75 (10d6+40) damage to a single target, plus it can actually kill what it hits. If you’re a caster cleric looking to compete with your wizard friends, this won’t do it.

Should you end up being the lone full caster in the group and are itching for some decent damaging spells, for the same level you can take Blade Barrier; it can hit multiple things, and if you can get a single creature to touch it twice you’ve dealt more damage than Harm would have done. Insect Plague at 5th level needs two rounds to nearly match Harm’s damage, and like Blade Barrier, can hit more than one creature at a time and end up having a massive impact on a fight. All of this is assuming Harm’s target fails their save; if they pass, you’re doing awful damage and getting nothing else out of the deal.

If you’re specifically playing a cleric who wants a point and shoot high damage spell with no fuss, Harm does it. It’s simple, won’t require set up or party coordination to maximize its effectiveness, but ultimately is outshone by other options for the spell level.

5e Spells

Harm: I Cast Dysentery!