Toll the Dead: Bell of the Brawl

Usable By: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard

Spell Level: Cantrip

School: Necromancy

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 60 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S

You point at one creature you can see within range, and the sound of a dolorous bell fills the air around it for a moment. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 1d8 necrotic damage. If the target is missing any of its hit points, it instead takes 1d12 necrotic damage.

At Higher Levels. The spell’s damage increases by one die when you reach 5th level (2d8 or 2d12), 11th level (3d8 or 3d12), and 17th level (4d8 or 4d12).

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

“I point at the fire giant with a smirk, and BANG! I make a bell sound! 4d12 necrotic damage!”

Toll the Dead is the edgy church-y penance spell that ties a lot of tropes from religious fantasy into D&D. Flaying demons with a sonorous church bell is a hyper niche fantasy; nothing about this spell fulfills that fantasy to me, nor does it really succeed on the “impending doom” fantasy it otherwise is emulating. It makes sense on the cleric spell list, and I can see it kind of making sense for some warlock subclasses, but this spell in no way belongs thematically on the wizard spell list, nor does it excel at actually fighting anti-divine enemies. I guess it just reminds people “Oh, death is coming! Be scared and take… necrotic damage? Wait, not psychic? For reasons?”

If you’re in the market for a decent damaging cantrip, and don’t really care about the flavor or other niche use cases, Toll the Dead is great. The damage isn’t as guaranteed to be a d12 as a lot of people say it is, specifically against moderate amounts of medium hit point creatures in the upper tiers, but you will find most of the time you’re getting the d12 damage dice. It's a shame to me that Poison Spray gets shafted this hard, as the difference between a 10 ft. cast and a 60 ft. cast for functionally the same damage makes it so Poison Spray will see even less play than the limited uses it already does.

Strategically, Toll the Dead is the kind of spell you want to be using on a single large enemy over and over again after it is initially hit, but this still is just a damage cantrip. Eldritch Blast builds will still shine over this, and most often you’d rather just be casting a higher level spell or hitting it with an attack that gets modifiers to damage. If you do have to spam Toll the Dead, you’ll do moderate damage, but it isn’t anything to be amazed by, nor is it particularly engaging to use. You can’t really build around it with the existing features out there like you can with attack roll spells, save twinning it with death domain’s reaper feature.

I’m disappointed that the damage is what changes when it affects a damaged creature. There is a neat mechanic there that can make cantrips a lot more interesting to use and possibly even encourage pairing two different damage cantrips together to use at different times. As is, though, just bumping the dice from “fine” to “good” is a boring decision, all on a spell whose thematics I find to be just kind of stupid. They didn’t even make it so the creature has to hear you; it just takes psychological damage from being around where the sound is. You still have to see the creature for some reason despite the fact the effect of the spell is all about sound. Toll the Dead is fine, but boring, and I hate it.

5e Spells

Toll the Dead: Bell of the Brawl