Ray of Frost: Freeze Ray!

Usable By: Artificer, Sorcerer, Wizard

Spell Level: 0 (cantrip)

School: Evocation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 60 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S

A frigid beam of blue-white light streaks toward a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, it takes 1d8 cold damage, and its speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.

The spell’s damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Damaging cantrips are pretty straight forward; you have a scale from high utility to high damage with spells like Fire Bolt sitting on the high damage end and Vicious Mockery high utility. Ray of Frost fits slightly more towards the damage end of things, dealing a d8 damage and coming with a 10 foot speed penalty to the hit creature. Here’s my problem with Ray of Frost: with a cast range of 60 feet, how often is it going to change the math on something approaching the party? At most tables, the answer is rarely.

If you’re ever forcing a hit creature to dash that otherwise wouldn’t the spell is exceptional. Otherwise, unless this slow puts their next dash outside of their movement range (meaning you’re hitting a REALLY slow creature), the slow literally doesn’t matter. Is the threat you’re hitting super fast? Is it more than 60 feet away, and you’d have to move into dash range to just use this? Is the creature already engaged in combat, or otherwise doesn’t really need to move all of its speed to be where it wants to engage in the fight? The slow does literally nothing then! These conditions will be most creatures most of the time.

That being said, as this falls on the higher end of the damage spectrum, that cost is pretty low, especially in the early levels. Yes, the condition infrequently is going to eat actions; if it ever does, it's worth so much more than a Firebolt I’d take it for that reason alone. Cantrips are something you rely on a lot early, and late you only want to pull out when you absolutely need to, or when they fill a niche role; Ray of Frost functions very well in both situations. While I’m rarely excited to fire off 2d10 Fire Bolts at 7th level, 2d8 Ray of Frosts that force an ogre to waste its action dashing sounds really appealing. In situations where the slow isn’t netting you any advantage, you can freely fire off higher level options, or even just settle for the slightly smaller damage dice.

Ray of Frost won’t be something you’ll want to bust out every encounter, but if you’re looking for a damage cantrip early that has utility in fights all throughout the game, it fits the bill. The range is a bit of a constraint, especially in the highest tiers when facing down creatures with 60 ft. fly speeds and 10 ft. reaches, but you’ll still be happy to have it more often than you’ll be happy you took a longer range higher damage cantrip I think.

5e Spells

Ray of Frost: Freeze Ray!