Invisibility: Nothing to See Here

Usable By: Artificer, Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Spell Level: 2

School: Illusion

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S, M (an eyelash encased in gum arabic)

A creature you touch becomes invisible until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target’s person. The spell ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

I think it's important I start here: Invisibility is a spell I love using, and is really good on basically any character that can take it. If you’re just wondering “would this be good on my sorcerer?” I can promise you the answer is a resounding yes. Invisibility opens up a ton of doors otherwise closed to you and your party, and is a tool that can assist both in engaging in combat and manipulating the world outside of initiative. It's excellent.

Great, we’ve established Invisibility is powerful. I think it's really fun to use, too. It's a spell you’ll routinely see on my character sheets, regardless of theme, because D&D stealth missions are some of my favorite missions in D&D. Dear reader, with my love for using the spell in mind, I would like to tell you that Invisibility, as a 2nd level spell, is bad for the game in its current state (in this DM’s humble opinion).

Collaborative RPGs like D&D are all about sharing spotlights. We’re all together telling a story about a group of main characters each with their own distinct strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and motivations. A character whose whole identity is being a roof-top running acrobatic jewel thief will naturally want to show off how sneaky they can be, and will use options like the rogue class to leverage their mundane sneak support to bring that fantasy to life. A charlatan bard who roams town to town stirring up trouble while slinking out with a coin purse heavy with pilfered gold is going to want to showcase their aptitude for fast talking and leverage magic like Disguise Self and Charm Person to open up moments to fulfill that fantasy. With a single 2nd level spell slot and a single prepared/known spell, all bards, sorcerers, warlocks, wizards, and artificers can now outshine most, if not all, tools in the early tiers that bring those and many other fantasies to life while also opening up entirely new paths that no amount of low tier features or abilities could ever replicate on their own. One spell this early shouldn’t outshine entire classes at performing in their lane.

I think for Invisibility to feel fair, it needs to happen at a higher tier to give more room for these early game abilities to have their moment in the sun. It absolutely should exist, as it's a major fantasy element people love to play with, but as a 2nd level spell most tables won’t know life without Invisibility. Getting a person in a garrison to steal a key or swap out some important documents without Invisibility requires a larger plan incorporating a series of characters and abilities to pull off. With Invisibility, you take what would have been charisma checks, clever uses of disguise and forgery kits, big distractions, and a myriad of other heist elements and remove them for a single well timed stealth check.

As the game moves towards higher fantasy with bigger magic that lets you pass through walls and create towns out of nothing, Invisibility starts to fit in better. It becomes a higher cost option to bypass a lot of hurdles you otherwise had to jump through to get an outcome to occur. Where it is now, I feel like a lot of players miss out on a huge chunk of the game dedicated to some of the most iconic story moments we all have come to know and love from pop culture.

All of this is to say while Invisibility is really fun to use and incredibly powerful, there are a lot of epic features and spells out there that don’t get to shine because of how ubiquitous Invisibility is. If you’re in the market for a tool to assist in your stealth missions, there is none better for its level than Invisibility. That being said, I’d highly encourage you to try out some of the other enchantment and illusion spells out there too. Then in three or four levels pick up Invisibility when you’re past the mundane infiltration fun.

5e Spells

Invisibility: Nothing to See Here