Best Spells to Pair with Careful Spell
by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Careful Spell provides sorcerers an easy way to put their giant area of effect spells wherever they please, agnostic as to whether or not their friends are in that area. It reads
“When you cast a spell that forces other creatures to make a saving throw, you can protect some of those creatures from the spell's full force. To do so, you spend 1 sorcery point and choose a number of those creatures up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one creature). A chosen creature automatically succeeds on its saving throw against the spell.”
There are some effects that pair better with this- for your consideration, here are some awesome spells that are majorly empowered by Careful Spell.
Fireball and Instantaneous Area of Effect Damage Spells
Undoubtedly a powerful spell, Fireball hits a massive area for a great chunk of damage as low as 5th level. Careful Spell gives you a bit more wiggle room to drop it in places that include an extra enemy or two at the expense of an ally or two, as you at least have the comfort of knowing they’re guaranteed to take half damage instead of the full brunt of the blast.
Rogues and other characters with Evasion are especially good to sculpt out, as it reduces the damage they take to zero on a successful save, which you can guarantee now!
Fireball encompasses all of the big area of effect damage spells you want to fire off with fewer repercussions like Cone of Cold, Circle of Death, and Lightning Bolt.
Fear and Area of Effect Status Saves
A tier up from the damaging area spells are the area of effect status afflicting spells; highlighting this grouping is Fear. Cones can be tricky to shape without putting yourself at risk, or require including allies within its area. Careful Spell removes the latter problem outright- allies automatically pass the save and suffer no harmful effects from it while the other affected creatures likely drop their goods and run away!
Hypnotic Pattern has a similar debilitating effect on a single failed save, and no harmful effects on a success- just like Fear, it's going to thrive when you can safely put it over your allies spaces without worrying about incapacitating them.
Reverse Gravity is the highest-level version of this effect that works as you’d expert- when the spell is cast, creatures can make a save, meaning you can automatically have allies succeed and stay comfortably on the ground!
Spells That Look Like They Could Work But Don’t
There are some trap spells that read like they could work with Careful Spell, but don’t rules as written.
Stinking Cloud and Save Effects that Trigger On Other Turns
Stinking Cloud reads “Each creature that is completely within the cloud at the start of its turn must make a Constitution saving throw against poison.” Unfortunately, this means you aren’t forcing a saving throw when you cast the spell, making it completely ineligible for Careful Spell. They don’t automatically pass the save at the start of their turn- they are affected as normal.
Call Lightning and Spells that Force Saves As Part of New Actions
Call Lightning is similar to Stinking Cloud, but also forces an initial save. This means Careful Spell will work for the initial bolt, automatically letting allies within the first bolts range pass, but each subsequent action doesn’t qualify.
Surprisingly Narrow, But Has Potential
The big combos with Careful Spell are the save or suck effects that have a powerful area. It helps that those tend to already be incredibly powerful on their own- upping their power further by making them easier to shape will feel great.
Hopefully we get more area of effect instantaneous save spells to juice this metamagic further- for now, I’d mainly just look to put it on sheets where you want to slam big area of effects round after round.
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