Investiture of Wind: Advanced Flight
Usable By: Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 6
School: Transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Duration: Concentraion, up to 10 minutes
Components: V, S
Until the spell ends, wind whirls around you, and you gain the following benefits:
Ranged weapon attacks made against you have disadvantage on the attack roll.
You gain a flying speed of 60 feet. If you are still flying when the spell ends, you fall, unless you can somehow prevent it.
You can use your action to create a 15-foot cube of swirling wind centered on a point you can see within 60 feet of you. Each creature in that area must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 2d10 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If a Large or smaller creature fails the save, that creature is also pushed up to 10 feet away from the center of the cube.
Review by Sam West, @CrierKobold
Fly harkens back to the D&D of old as one of the iconic wizard spells. Part of the fantasy of the casters of old was stacking a bunch of magical effects on yourself, taking off from the ground with Fly and firing off barrages of Fireballs and Lightning Bolts from the safety of the air. Enter 5th edition: with the concentration mechanic, Fly has a lot of competition. Just floating about the place isn’t always worth it anymore. Investiture of Wind is the next step up from Fly in one meaningful way: protection. It can be hard to justify three entire spell levels for this, but it can absolutely be worth it.
Investiture of Wind imposes disadvantage on ranged attack rolls. One of the most damning elements of Fly is being shot down; you go from having a major tactical advantage to taking a bunch of bonus fall damage, all because of a stray arrow and crap concentration check. Imposing disadvantage on the rolls that would crash you down to the ground gives you a bit of extra padding, and does so all with the same spell. Other protection effects would need to usually come from allies, as you’re already using your concentration. Investiture of Wind bundles the effects together in a package, simulating concentrating on two effects at once.
The action Investiture of Wind is giving you will predominantly act as a supporting option to other wizards and druids casting massive area of effect persistent damaging spells like Wall of Thorns or Blade Barrier. It gives you a ranged repeatable tool to pull enemies around into large damaging areas all while giving you the speed and flight to go around said damaging areas to get vision of your targets. Outside of this specific niche, 2d10 bludgeoning damage attached to a 15 ft. cube is kind of mediocre, especially when you compare it to the 3d10 or 4d10 damage your Fire Bolt can be dealing. The nice part about Investiture of Wind is mainly the fly speed and wind based deflection. Sometimes you’ll be happy with dealing 2d10 to a group of low CR minions, but for the most part it's gravy.
If you love the flying wizard fantasy or are looking to take your warlock or druid to the skies, but are fearful that your DM wants to shoot you down, Investiture of Wind is a solid option. All of the effects here can be good, and while most of the time you’ll be spending your action during the flight on other spells, you’re getting enough for your concentration you’ll be glad to cast this going into a fight.
’ Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
