Magic Weapon: A Little Something Extra

Usable By: Artificer, Paladin, Wizard

Spell Level: 2

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 bonus action

Range: Touch

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S

You touch a nonmagical weapon. Until the spell ends, that weapon becomes a magic weapon with a +1 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the bonus increases to +2. When you use a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the bonus increases to +3.

Magic Weapon commits an unforgivable sin that keeps it off all my character sheets. A sin so heinous, so egregious, something I can’t forgive any feature that shares it in this game for enacting. In a game full of inexplicable magic overrun with mystical pixies with flittering wings and transformative dust and devils wrapped in chains they animate to strike out and rend their foes, a spell called Magic Weapon does NOTHING magical. It's not igniting your blade in a brilliant flame. It isn’t making your bow’s arrows seek their targets and explode on contact. It doesn’t do anything new, it doesn’t offer you anything that makes your weapon attacks feel magical. The cardinal sin Magic Weapon makes is it’s BORING.

+1 to weapon attack and damage rolls for up to an hour has no business being a spell. It’ll feel like a bonus 5% chance to hit, if that, meaning 19/20 attacks are doing what they did before. You dealing 1 extra damage is entirely fine on every hit, adding up to at best fifteen damage over a few fights. That’s it. That isn’t worth your concentration. It's not worth a 2nd level spell.

Artificers and paladins can’t possibly justify a 2nd level spell slot and concentration on this, and wizards have WAY better options than barely buffing an ally. Looking at paladins specifically, if you primarily want more damage out of your weapon, a 2nd level Divine Smite is giving you 3d8 bonus damage on hit, averaging to 13 radiant damage. You’d need to hit THIRTEEN TIMES for Magic Weapon, a far more boring effect, to make up for the damage difference. That’s with just a mundane 2nd level divine smite, one that also evokes a massive blast of radiant light from your weapon of choice. Smiting actually makes your weapon attack feel magical. It's fun. It's explosive. It may only happen once, but it's doing everything Magic Weapon is supposed to evoke in a single, high energy moment.

Even just compared to first level options like Hex and Divine Favor, you need to be getting multiple extra hits you’d otherwise be missing to make up for the difference in bonus damage they offer. A bonus d4 on hit is doing over double the average bonus damage per hit to Magic Weapon. Sure, it only lasts a minute, but Hex and Hunter's Mark, both of which offer you a d6, have hour-long durations as well.

Resistance to non-magical weapons needs to die. It's an unfun mechanic that asks players to be ineffective unless they spend their wizards spell slots on profoundly boring abilities, or have had their DM dump magic weapons on them in the first place. Magic Weapon is a terrible spell that exists for an unfun, poorly designed mechanic that has no place in modern gaming. Get this garbage out of here. Don’t waste your time with Magic Weapon.

5e Spells

Magic Weapon: A Little Something Extra