Wall of Fire: Hot, Burning Erection

Usable By: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

Spell Level: 4

School: Evocation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 120 feet

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S, M (a small piece of phosphorus)

You create a wall of fire on a solid surface within range. You can make the wall up to 60 feet long, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick. The wall is opaque and lasts for the duration.

When the wall appears, each creature within its area must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 5d8 fire damage, or half as much damage on a successful save.

One side of the wall, selected by you when you cast this spell, deals 5d8 fire damage to each creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of that side or inside the wall. A creature takes the same damage when it enters the wall for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there. The other side of the wall deals no damage.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 4th.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

The wall spells offer up some neat applications of magic, and open up tactical teamwork for the better. The point of these spells is to offer dynamic choices to both the party and their foes, typically centered around the question “how much damage is worth being in a specific place?”

5d8 (average 22.5) is quite a bit worse than a 3rd level Fireball’s 8d6 (28), but if you can get two hits with it, you’re looking at 43 damage, a SUBSTANTIAL upgrade. The problem you, the caster, have to solve is how best can you get two instances of damage with this wall.

My favorite option is having strong allies grapple enemies; sure, they’re missing out on a potential attack, but that damage exchange can be well worth it if you can keep a few creatures in the roaring flames. The wall’s “damage area” is only ten feet wide, making it a lot harder than some of the higher level options to keep enemies within the area. Still, if your allies are on one side of the wall, enemies that require melee attacks will have to be at the wall to attack you, and can’t see through it. If they want to kill you, they have to either get to the other side (which can prove difficult with propper barriers and bars) or face disadvantage for attacking unseen creatures.

You can weaponize difficult terrain and allied spellcaster’s movement and restraining effects to attempt to lock enemies in place. If you can get a Hold Person or Hold Monster to stick long enough, you can just encase the held creature and get guaranteed two damage procs, sometimes more if they fail the subsequent saves.

These instances weaponizing the damage unfortunately are a bit too niche to be realistic. What Wall of Fire typically does is bar large quantities of weak creatures for a minute. DMing encounters opens up a lot when you start to incorporate alternate objectives and different methods of grouping monsters; using swarms and waves can make Wall of Fire FEEL amazing as group after group of mindless undead throw themselves at a wall they can’t possibly get through. Using an “endless” source of weak monsters can make shine brightest while being a partial solution to a larger survival or king of the hill style encounter. Your wizard will certainly love hearing how the thralls throw themselves into the flames, yet ultimately fail to breach their defenses.

While Wall of Fire isn’t going to make a lot of people’s list of most used spells in a campaign, having it in your back pocket can be handy. Cutting off a path for a minute is useful, and attempting some cool setups to try to abuse the damage element can be incredibly rewarding if the group gets it to work. Wall of Fire does what it says it does; if you’re in the market for a wall that is just fire, here you go! It won’t be the best spell you ever cast, but you’ll probably get some mileage out of it.

5e Spells

Wall of Fire: Hot, Burning Erection