Tasha's Otherworldly Guise: Do the Little Things Add Up?

Usable By: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Spell Level: 6

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 bonus action

Range: Self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S, M (an object engraved with a symbol of the Outer Planes, worth at least 500 gp)

Uttering an incantation, you draw on the magic of the Lower Planes or Upper Planes (your choice) to transform yourself. You gain the following benefits until the spell ends:

You are immune to fire and poison damage (Lower Planes) or radiant and necrotic damage (Upper Planes).

You are immune to the poisoned condition (Lower Planes) or the charmed condition (Upper Planes).

Spectral wings appear on your back, giving you a flying speed of 40 feet.

You have a +2 bonus to AC.

All your weapon attacks are magical, and when you make a weapon attack, you can use your spell casting ability modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for the attack and damage rolls.

You can attack twice, instead of once, when you take the Attack action on your turn. You ignore this benefit if you already have a feature, like Extra Attack, that lets you attack more than once when you take the Attack action on your turn.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Sixth level buff spells have to do a lot to justify their cast. Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise certainly has a lot of text, most of which results in a giant pile of effects smashed together, resulting in you getting a bunch of third level spell effects at once for a 6th level slot.

Immunity to fire/poison or radiant/necrotic is close to Protection from Energy super-charged, so probably worth a 4th or 5th level slot. Immunity to poison or charms is worth roughly Protection from Poison, a 2nd level slot. A 40 ft. fly speed is a little worse than Fly, a 3rd level slot. +2 AC and two attacks a round is close Haste, a 3rd level slot. Magical weapon attacks are pretty close to Magic Weapon, a 2nd level slot. All of this combined looks like two 2nd level slots, two third level slots, and a 4th level slot cobbled together for a minute for a 6th level slot; cool, I guess?

Where this shines brightest has to be on Bladesingers; getting a third attack each turn seems sweet, especially when paired with the other abilities offered here, but I do then have to wonder: is that just better than haste? How much more do you care about having all of these effects at once? They don’t have a lot of meaningful overlap, but do act as a silver bullet against poison or charm based encounters. A fly speed isn’t always relevant, but when it is, is your 6th level slot worth it when Fly is on the table, especially considering you’re spending your concentration on it?

Losing concentration on this feels brutal, and while the +2 AC helps defend it, you need to be working in some kind of character actively engaging in melee fights to get the most out of this, otherwise it's just a glorified immunity to two damage types. To make that work, this is the defensive option you’re concentrating on; not conjuration magic, not another defensive option like Greater Invisibility, a +2 AC. I don’t know, I’m not sold that that’s enough.

Yes, there are a lot of words here, I just don’t think you’re going to care about most of them most of the time. The bulk of the power here to me comes from the extra attack and move speed upgrade, both of which can be obtained with just a 3rd level slot that can also affect your friends. If you know you’re going into hell and anticipate a lot of poison and fire, or going against some undead army and need necrotic immunity, sure, this will do it. I think if you want where most of the power comes from, you don’t need to get it with your 6th level slot; just cast the cheaper version of what you want and save your 6th level slot for something lower level magic can’t do.

5e Spells

Tasha's Otherworldly Guise: Do the Little Things Add Up?