Plant Growth: Feed Me, Seymour

Usable By: Bard, Druid, Ranger

Spell Level: 3

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action or 8 hours

Range: 150 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S

This spell channels vitality into plants within a specific area. There are two possible uses for the spell, granting either immediate or long-term benefits.

If you cast this spell using 1 action, choose a point within range. All normal plants in a 100-foot radius centered on that point become thick and overgrown. A creature moving through the area must spend 4 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves.

You can exclude one or more areas of any size within the spell’s area from being affected.

If you cast this spell over 8 hours, you enrich the land. All plants in a half-mile radius centered on a point within range become enriched for 1 year. The plants yield twice the normal amount of food when harvested.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Listen, I know what you’re thinking. The spell is called “Plant Growth”. That’s what grass does every day. How interesting can this possibly be?

The answer may surprise you: it's really freaking interesting.

Plant Growth has two modes, one of which is an exceptional tool to highlight druids and bards as area controllers, and the other is an out of combat ribbon that denotes your characters as a natural being sent to bring lush life to the world around you. In combination, you get a spell that has great practical applications while fleshing out a character fantasy in a major way. I adore it.

The one hundred foot radius area of overgrowth is massive. I can’t express just how enormous this space is- it covers two thirds of an American football field length wise, and within the space grinds any ground based movement to a halt with “super difficult terrain”. Needing to spend four feet of movement to cover one foot of distance over potentially TWO HUNDRED FEET means nearly anything that would want to cross the distance will need to spend hours getting there. This paired with its 150 ft. cast range means you can set this up to trap creatures when a fight begins, cover an entire battle map in it to lock everyone down, or heavily discourage incoming ground troops from advancing. Want to make it particularly miserable? Pair it with slowing effects or other difficult terrain to put a complete stop to any movement in space, no chance of saving against it!

Yet with this amazing boon, there is a meaningful drawback: it requires plant life to function. Grass and undergrowth are fairly common in D&D. A moldy dungeon or overgrown tower often will keep this effect feeling ubiquitous, but the moment you’re out of nature, this becomes far more restrictive. At the lowest tier tables, where a lot of environments are out in the wilderness on the ground, Plant Growth will shine, often taking an encounter and trivializing it by making all the ground based melee combatants target practice for your ranged martial allies. As the game goes on, though, and you start running into a wider diversity of environments growing in magical density, plant life stops being a constant, and will lead to more moments where Plant Growth can’t function. In practice, this feels, for lack of a better word, natural. When you pick up Plant Growth for the first time, you’re typically going to find a lot of encounters where you can leverage it to great effect. As the game progresses, your DM can easily put you in spaces or against creatures where you’re asked to shake up your play pattern and try out other tools, which is a great place for a spell to be.

I love playing with and DMing for Plant Growth. It's powerful, yet very easy to account for and shape encounters around. It’s the kind of spell that will deliver on its fantasy in a major way for characters who want to live the root and dirt druid fantasy. If you’re at a table delving into the abyss or set on the plane of fire, it may not be a castable spell, but for the majority of base level fantasy worlds, it's a boon to most sheets.

5e Spells

Plant Growth: Feed Me, Seymour