Spirit Shroud: Filled with the Spirit
Usable By: Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 3
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S
You call forth spirits of the dead, which flit around you for the spell’s duration. The spirits are intangible and invulnerable.
Until the spell ends, any attack you make deals 1d8 extra damage when you hit a creature within 10 feet of you. This damage is radiant, necrotic, or cold (your choice when you cast the spell). Any creature that takes this damage can’t regain hit points until the start of your next turn.
In addition, any creature of your choice that you can see that starts its turn within 10 feet of you has its speed reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for every two slot levels above 3rd.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Hey, look! Another spell that works with Eldritch Blast!
Spirit Shroud is neat, but not revolutionary. It takes the “bonus action for bonus attack damage”, kicks the dice up to a d8, drops the duration to a minute, and tacks a slow and healing gate to it. Compared to Hunter's Mark/Hex, that’s a sizable chunk of stuff.
It doesn’t completely override those two, though. A 1 minute duration is pretty rough; this is something you use for one fight, and it needs to matter a lot in that fight. Paladins get this late, and in a single fight need to be hitting at least four times with it before concentration drops to justify it over just a regular divine smite, which isn’t a great place to start. Wizard builds like spending concentration on more busted things than this, and like clerics, don’t tend to make a lot of attack rolls. That leaves just warlock, and while scaling up to 2d8 bonus per hit with a 5th level slot is a major upside Warlocks desperately need, there will be some tables that would rather have the 8 hour duration.
When you do go into an all or nothing fight, though, having a 2d8 bonus damage to the four to eight Eldritch Blasts you’re firing out a round is crazy good. If you can afford to dip five levels in warlock for your sorcerer/warlock Eldritch Blast build, this can easily spike your damage. With Quickened Spell you can fire off eight to ten blasts a round, and when each of those deals 1d10 + Cha modifier (Agonizing Blast) + 2d8 (Spirit Shroud), you’re going to lay waste to most anything that gets in your path. It's pretty spicy, and a bit one note, but Spirit Shroud can be a piece in that. This also means you don’t need to dip up to seven levels in warlock for Shadow of Moil as long as you’re willing to burn 5th level sorcerer slots for it, which is a great tradeoff to stick more levels in sorcerer.
Spirit Shroud really only belongs on some dedicated Eldritch Blasters, but can assist some weird Scorching Ray builds or two-weapon fighting paladins trying to play without getting hit too much. It can fit great alongside the Hexes and Hunter’s Marks of the world. The slow and heal reduction will have big impacts in a handful of fights, making it the kind of spell where its floor is pretty high and its ceiling is huge. That’s all in its favor. Spirit Shroud is a solid option to have. If you like making attack rolls, consider it.
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