Seeming: Seems Better Than It Is

Usable By: Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard

Spell Level: 5

School: Illusion

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 30 feet

Duration: 8 hours

Components: V, S

This spell allows you to change the appearance of any number of creatures that you can see within range. You give each target you choose a new, illusory appearance. An unwilling target can make a Charisma saving throw, and if it succeeds, it is unaffected by this spell.

The spell disguises physical appearance as well as clothing, armor, weapons, and equipment. You can make each creature seem 1 foot shorter or taller and appear thin, fat, or in between. You can’t change a target’s body type, so you must choose a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs. Otherwise, the extent of the illusion is up to you. The spell lasts for the duration, unless you use your action to dismiss it sooner.

The changes wrought by this spell fail to hold up to physical inspection. For example, if you use this spell to add a hat to a creature’s outfit, objects pass through the hat, and anyone who touches it would feel nothing or would feel the creature’s head and hair. If you use this spell to appear thinner than you are, the hand of someone who reaches out to touch you would bump into you while it was seemingly still in midair.

A creature can use its action to inspect a target and make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If it succeeds, it becomes aware that the target is disguised.

Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Disguise Self is one of my favorite spells. With a bit of illusion and the power of charisma, you can assume the identity of anyone else, and have the delightful time of navigating in a world where any one bump can give away the whole game. Seeming, then, should be right up my alley; not just me, but my friends can jump in on the impersonation fun! Here lies the problem: both Disguise Self and Seeming are tools to contribute to problem solving other spells outright bypass.

As a 1st level spell, Disguise Self’s usefulness expires quick. The effect it provides is already niche, as needing to appear different isn’t a universal problem most tables constantly face. In the hands of a creative player, it can prove itself to be invaluable at trying the dumbest ideas out, like attempting to unionize the lackeys against their evil boss. The moment you get Suggestion and Invisibility, though, the bulk of the problems Disguise Self could contribute to solving become easier to solve or otherwise bypassed. Why need to make a series of complicated Charisma checks and navigate an RP encounter when you can simply suggest a course of action the head lackey takes? Why infiltrate the gala as an impersonation when you can slip in while entirely invisible?

This extends tenfold over to Seeming. Sure, Seeming can affect unwilling creatures, and can open up a few more creative solutions than Disguise Self can, but ultimately having more than one entity disguised is overkill. Upcasting Invisibility offers up to four people the ability to not be able to be seen. You're limited to attempting to bamboozle big bads into frying their own minions, but even then spells like Major Image or Dominate Person seem like better ways to get that effect.

I love Seeming. The idea of transforming an entire town's worth of people crammed within 30 feet of me into a pretend militia for eight hours is such a fun concept, but the practicality behind it is tiny. The actual cases where Seeming excels over lower level spells are rare. Spells that include the words “any number of creatures” and have durations without concentration of up to eight hours should be powerful, but in this rare case, the whole is worse than the sum of its parts. Yeah, you might get lucky and get that exact scenario to play out where having the entire hotel seemingly staffed by your group pays off in a wacky heist movie style plan, but realistically this is the kind of spell you take with that fantasy in mind and never prepare it. Seeming seems good, but it's just not. I’ll keep trying to make it good, because when it DOES work it's legendary, but should you come with me and end up wasting your time preparing it, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

5e Spells

Seeming: Seems Better Than It Is