Mental Prison is left in this nebulous spot as far as its usefulness goes, but I think that’s okay. This isn’t going to be the best spell in most situations, but a fairly useful one in a lot of them. A few monsters will have a miserable time dealing with this. When you come up against them, this spell can be a blast.

Hallow is a nifty little 5th level cleric spell that offers you your choice from a big chunk of effects to add to a creature specific bubble that builds a safe spot to camp out or defend on. Druid Grove is the druid version of Hallow: you get fewer choices, but get all of ‘em!

Crown of Stars not only talks the talk, it actually offers solid damage for a 7th level slot, and very crucially, can do so without eating your concentration.

Create Homunculus is a surprisingly short spell that has quite a bit to it. Unsurprisingly, most of its actual effects are hidden within the homunculus stat block. For 1,000 gold, an hour long cast time, and 2d4 damage, you can basically create a homunculus familiar.

Wall of Light is decent damage attached to a decent effect. It isn’t revolutionary as far as walls go, but it does address some of the core problems players face when using wall spells in that it offers you a way to use the wall to hit things that simply walk away from it.

As written, Steel Wind Strike is another perfectly fine damage option for wizards, and a sad reminder that rangers are half casters and how massive a disparity there is between 5th and 9th level spells.

Negative Energy Flood deals 5d12 necrotic damage. 5d12 damage is roughly 33 damage. Fireball, a 3rd level spell, is dealing 8d6, or roughly 28 damage. Fireball hits lots of things; Negative Energy Flood hits one thing. So is the possibility of getting a single zombie to animate and start whacking things worth it?

Skill Empowerment is an extension of the concept, but in a way where you can have everyone doing it. Looking into ancient history texts for hints and information about an ancient foe? Now you, the wizard, can have expertise on history checks! Does the barbarian intend to enter into an olympian styled contest? Expertise in athletics!

Calling is the devil version of Summon Lesser and Greater Demons; while I commend those spells for nailing the usability and fantasy in a glorious harmony, Infernal Calling steps just a bit too far into the fantasy of it and loses some of the broader uses it really needs.

Holy Weapon fits into the buffing attacks category of spells with things like Magic Weapon and Hex. This is a tool for empowering martial characters with more juice; the more attacks you make, the more damage you’re getting.

Like Misty Step, Far Step comes with the major boon of just needing a bonus action to use. This will shine brightest then on characters who want to be using their actions doing something else, and characters who care about their tactical positions in combat.

Enervation takes Vampiric Touch, a spell that is flustered and feels difficult to get anything meaningful out of, combines it with Witch Bolt, one of the most boring and terrible spells in the game, and the result is exactly what you’d expect.

Moonbeam is a fairly established damage spell druids lean on the lower tiers. Dawn takes the beam of light damaging over time and ramps up the area to be MASSIVE. It isn’t complicated or challenging, but it can be a great tool to have, especially as a cleric.

Danse Macabre FINALLY gets the necromancer fantasy done right. Unlike Animate Dead, which is a long, convoluted mess of text to practically navigate, Danse Macabre is a simple, intuitive spell that gives you a bunch of zombies or skeletons to fight with with a snap of your fingers.

Tiny Servant is a tool for creating groups of little friends to help you out while out and adventuring or long resting at the keep. Not only is the fantasy ADORABLE (just picture the pillow dog from Beauty and the Beast), but honestly quite helpful in and out of combat in a bunch of different ways.

Thunder Step just does it all right. It is comparable but not wildly better than either of the other two teleportation options. It has the right amount of damage attached to it, the right distance, and the right action cost for it to be a consideration for the one teleport spell on my sheet.

Using Summon Greater Demon to its fullest will likely involve putting a demon somewhere it kind of wants to be: inside a lot of things it can kill. Unknowing enemies who punch back free up your action to do other things while the default mode the demon gets involves brutal beating back whatever was dumb enough to fight the conjured monstrosity built to kill.

Summon Lesser Demons looks back at the sins of its predecessors (cough cough conjure anything cough cough) and tries to make clear differences that land it in a more “fair” space.

Like all persistent damaging area effects, getting a creature to enter a space multiple times a round can ramp up the damage rapidly. Sickening Radiance offers the additional benefit of bumping their exhaustion levels up by one.

This by all accounts is Wizards of the Coast’s second attempt at a “thorns” style of play pattern for warlocks, and I don’t really see it being even remotely better than the prior attempt. I’m going to just come out with the hot take: I think Shadow of Moil is BAD.