Longstrider: I Just Need to Stretch My Legs
Usable By: Artificer, Bard, Druid, Ranger, Wizard
Spell Level: 1
School: Transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 hour
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dirt)
You touch a creature. The target’s speed increases by 10 feet until the spell ends.
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
Electricity sparks from the rogue’s joints as he darts across the field, dagger in hand. In a flash, he’s crossed past the battalion protecting necromancer, and drives the knife straight into the dark wizard’s stomach with a thunderous crack as he arrives.
That’s where I want my top end speed fantasy to be. Longstrider is about as far from that as a spell can get, but it may sneak its way onto your character sheets in the mid to upper tiers.
There isn’t much to say here; you’re trading a 1st level slot for a creature to get +10 speed for an hour. It can’t stack, meaning there aren’t any fun super speed shenanigans to be had for multiple casts. On characters with bonus action dashes it's slightly better, as you get the benefit twice, but I always find myself stuck wondering “when should I actually cast this?”
In the early tiers, when you’re regularly working with tighter, smaller battlemaps and slower enemies, this feels pretty worthless. A lot of fights are a collision of sides followed by a brief burst of blades. Having a bonus 10 speed doesn’t really change any of this. Most of the time characters with 30 speed are getting where they want, and only when something is exactly 40-45 feet away does it really matter. That’s not worth one of your few slots. You have better things you can be doing in those fights with what limited resources you have.
In the mid to upper tiers, though, Longstrider can start to feel like a passive party buff. For a 2nd and 1st level slot, now the entire frontline can be a bit faster. Your monks are jumping up to 50-60 speed and zooming around larger maps. Your paladin can react faster and get back to you from an unexpected flanking portal appearing. Characters are getting to where they want to be faster in wider spaces, and while still not revolutionary for most fights, with such a low cost when you’re sitting on twenty or more slots, it can feel almost free.
I don’t think most players ever need to cast Longstrider, nor should you really want to. It's not splashy, it's not Haste levels of speed increasing, it isn’t something that alters the party in a hugely meaningful way. For its cost, though, if you’ve got ample slots to spare, it not being a concentration effect means it can be a way to get a bit more juice out of your low level slots to help out the martial characters as environments grow in scope and danger.
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