Sanctuary: Think Twice Before Attacking My Friend

Usable By: Artificer, Cleric

Spell Level: 1

School: Abjuration

Casting Time: 1 bonus action

Range: 30 feet

Duration: 1 minute

Components: V, S, M (a small silver mirror)

You ward a creature within range against attack. Until the spell ends, any creature who targets the warded creature with an attack or a harmful spell must first make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature must choose a new target or lose the attack or spell. This spell doesn’t protect the warded creature from area effects, such as the explosion of a fireball.

If the warded creature makes an attack or casts a spell that affects an enemy creature, this spell ends.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Of all the spells I think people put too much investment into, Sanctuary takes the cake. The potential seems giant- you can prevent somebody from being attacked outright, all for just a 1st level spell! If you’re in a protect the pacifist scenario, where the monsters want to kill the harmless kobold cowering in the middle of the room, sure, Sanctuary looks great there. In reality, Sanctuary falls off just too easily. There are fewer circumstances than apparent where a character can actually leverage this spell effectively- most of the time, casting it will feel like you’re wasting a spell slot.

Combat in 5th edition has warped to largely favor taking aggressive actions to reduce enemy actions as quickly as possible. Sanctuary only looks to mitigate enemy actions affecting a target that has no intention of taking these kinds of actions. It needs to be cast on somebody dedicated to repeatedly only taking supportive actions, and even then, those supportive actions need to not affect an enemy or the spell falls off entirely. Controlling spells like Entangle and Plant Growth affect an enemy, taking down Sanctuary. Summoners’ summons certainly affect enemies.

Buff effects like Haste technically affect enemies, in that they receive the bulk of the punishment from the hasted action giving the fighter an extra attack, but that’s once removed, so maybe it’ll stay up. Your mileage will vary. But consider what the wizard wants to do the round after casting Haste- sitting around seems ill-advised, and if monsters see a harmless character not affecting combat, they don’t have any reason to try to kill them first, making the end goal of Sanctuary miss completely. Protecting the Haste on the fighter isn’t worth removing the wizard’s ability to proactively contribute to combat beyond that.

If Sanctuary is effective, it takes a character who is likely not meaningfully contributing to a fight and removes them from the fight until all their friends are dead. That’s not where you want to be. In the upper tiers, if you’re very tight on spells, mitigating attacks between you and an ally's next turn for this cost can be fine, but isn’t something I’d prefer over just a flat +2 AC that can stick around for a while. Sanctuary is neat conceptually, and in fights with an end goal beyond kill every enemy combatant, might have room to be interesting. Most of the time, especially in the low to mid tiers, you’re going to want to spend your spell slots contributing to your team's actions, or reducing the enemy teams. Sanctuary doesn’t have a place there.

5e Spells

Sanctuary: Think Twice Before Attacking My Friend