Heroism: I Need a Hero

Usable By: Bard, Paladin

Spell Level: 1

School: Enchantment

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

A willing creature you touch is imbued with bravery. Until the spell ends, the creature is immune to being frightened and gains temporary hit points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier at the start of each of its turns. When the spell ends, the target loses any remaining temporary hit points from this spell.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

There is something about this stupid little spell that I love. Maybe it's the temporary hit points constantly refreshing in a heated battle. Maybe it's immunity to a fairly common condition. Or maybe it's just how I’m a sucker for the little hero that could story arch, explaining my adoration of halflings. Heroism does all these things, and does them in an inexpensive way. You probably don’t want this at first level, but from levels 3-5, I think Heroism is a great option for bards. Paladins… less so.

On bards, spending a 1st level spell slot to give your fighter or barbarian a bonus 3 hit points once per round when they’re hit (which is functionally what this does) can be solid. It obviously gets a lot better when you’re in longer, drawn out fights where an ally is taking moderate chunks of damage each round. In those cases, it can mitigate enough damage to keep a frontline fighter from going down, netting your team actions and resources in the long term.

Immunity to frighten effects then lets your allies stay in the thick of it taking damage. Sure, most encounters aren’t incorporating a frightened condition, but a handful will, and in those, you’re going to want your melee characters able to get within melee range. This is a cheap tool that allows that to happen. This won’t remove frightened effects, as it simply becomes immune to becoming frightened, an important distinction, but you’re very often going to know when prepping for a fight if that’s a concern. The only major problems Heroism has is its cast range and duration. Having to touch the ally makes it difficult to use in the situation where it’s best, and having only a minute duration makes it something you kind of have to spend an action in combat casting. Truthfully, you’re likely going to have better things to do with your action in a fight than this. Heroism needs to be cast immediately prior to a fight to justify its value, and that’s not always going to be given. It's tricky to make work.

Paladins don’t have the spell slots for this, nor do they have a reasonable way to defend their concentration. If you want this to be good, you need to be taking hits round after round. Doing so quickly breaks your concentration. Heroism isn’t it on frontline paladins. I’d stick to smiting.

Bards, though, can find this has a home. You might even consider up-casting it from time to time to give your paladin and barbarian the bonus temporary hit points for a few rounds in a particularly lethal fight. It's not an every-fight kind of spell, nor something you’re going to want to waste your concentration on post 5th level, but from 2nd to 5th level, I think Heroism is perfectly fine. I’d try it out there, and replace it down the road.

5e Spells

Heroism: I Need a Hero