Spell Attack Roll and Spell DC

Many spells allow creatures to defend themselves using either their AC or a saving throw. Two statistics govern how potent your spells are against these defenses: your spell attack roll and your spell DC. When recording these on your character sheet, add together only the numbers that always apply—usually just your ability modifier and proficiency bonus.

Spell attack roll = your spellcasting ability modifier + proficiency bonus + other bonuses + penalties

Spell DC = 10 + your spellcasting ability modifier + proficiency bonus + other bonuses + penalties

A spell attack roll is like other attack rolls, so any bonuses or penalties that apply to all your attack rolls should be included in your calculation. For instance, the +1 status bonus from the bless spell would benefit your spell ray just like it could an arrow. However, note that the spell attack roll doesn’t gain any bonuses or penalties that apply specifically to weapon attacks or unarmed attacks. The multiple attack penalty applies to spell attacks, so it’s usually a bad idea to cast a spell that has a spell attack roll if you’ve already made an attack that turn.

As with other checks and DCs, bonuses can increase the result of your spell attack roll or your spell DC, and penalties can decrease the result of your spell attack roll or your spell DC. See pages 444–445 in Chapter 9: Playing the Game for more information about modifiers, bonuses, and penalties.

The Four Essences

Spells that affect certain physical or metaphysical forces tend to be grouped into particular magical traditions. Scholars of magic widely agree that all of existence is composed of some combination of four essences, though they disagree on the names and particular qualities of each essence.

The following entries discuss each essence and the traditions and spell schools relevant to it; for instance, evocation spells tend to manipulate matter. The abjuration school is an unusual case, as abjuration spells draw upon different essences depending on who they are warding and what they are protecting against.

Matter

Also called body, material essence, or physical essence, matter is the fundamental building block that makes up all physical things in the universe. The arcane and primal traditions are especially attuned toward manipulating and shaping matter. Spells that are used to create or alter matter most often come from the conjuration, evocation, or transmutation schools.

Mind

Also called thought, mental, or astral essence, mind is what allows thinking creatures to have rational thoughts, ideas, plans, logic, and memories. Mind touches even nonsapient creatures like animals, though in a more limited capacity. Arcane and occult casters usually excel at mind spells. Spells that use mind essence are usually found in the divination, enchantment, and illusion schools.

Spirit

Also called soul, ethereal essence, or spiritual essence, spirit is an otherworldly building block that makes up a being's immaterial and immortal self. The spirit travels through the Ethereal Plane and into the Great Beyond after the death of the physical body. The spirit is most easily affected by divine and occult spells. Spirit spells are usually of the divination or necromancy schools.

Life

Also called heart, faith, instinct, or vital essence, life represents the animating universal force within all things. Whereas matter provides the base materials for a body, life keeps it alive and well. This essence is responsible for unconscious responses and belief, such as ancestral instincts and divine guidance. The divine and primal traditions hold power over life. Life spells are usually necromancy.

Spellbooks

Carefully maintained and jealously guarded, there are few things more valuable to a wizard than a spellbook. These repositories of magical lore are often trapped and warded to ensure that no one meddles with the secrets inside.

Although spellbooks play a central role in a wizard’s daily routine, other prepared spellcasting classes have been known to use spellbooks to record uncommon or even rare spells. Such a resource allows a caster to treat the spell like any other common spell, so long as they can reference the book during their daily preparations.

Magical Tradition

Spellcasters cast spells from one of four different spell lists, each representing a different magical tradition: arcane, divine, occult, and primal.

Your class determines which tradition of magic your spells use. In some cases, such as when a cleric gains spells from their deity or when a sorcerer gets spells from their bloodline, you might be able to cast spells from a different spell list. In these cases, the spell uses your magic tradition, not the list the spell normally comes from. When you cast a spell, add your tradition’s trait to the spell.

Some types of magic, such as that of most magic items, don’t belong to any single tradition. These have the magical trait instead of a tradition trait.

Arcane Arcane spellcasters use logic and rationality to categorize the magic inherent in the world around them. Because of its far-reaching approach, the arcane tradition has the broadest spell list, though it’s generally poor at affecting the spirit or the soul. Wizards are the most iconic arcane spellcasters, poring over tomes and grimoires, though arcane sorcerers study the secrets of their blood to unlock the power within themselves.

Divine The power of the divine is steeped in faith, the unseen, and belief in a power source from beyond the Material Plane. Clerics are the most iconic divine spellcasters, beseeching the gods to grant them their magic. Divine sorcerers can use the blood of their celestial or fiendish ancestors as a divine conduit, and champions call upon their gods to grant them martial prowess through divine guidance.

Occult The practitioners of occult traditions seek to understand the unexplainable, categorize the bizarre, and otherwise access the ephemeral in a systematic way. Bards are the most iconic occult spellcasters, collecting strange esoterica and using their performances to influence the mind or elevate the soul, and occult sorcerers strive to understand the mysterious power in their blood.

Primal An instinctual connection to and faith in the world, the cycle of day and night, the turning of the seasons, and the natural selection of predator and prey drive the primal tradition. Druids are the most iconic primal spellcasters, calling upon the magic of nature through deep faith and a connection to the plants and animals around them, and primal sorcerers call upon their fey or beast blood to harness the same natural energies.

Magic and Morality

While magic allows you to perform wondrous acts in the game, it can be used for terrible purposes. While some spells are obviously vile or have the evil trait and a direct connection to the profane, other spells can be used for good or ill. Using magic does not free you from the morality of the outcome.

Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to enchantment spells, especially those used to compel a character to do something. These spells can remove the power of choice from a character and can very easily be used in ways that are evil. Dominating an ogre and forcing him to abandon his guard post is not necessarily evil, but using that same spell to force a merchant to give you all of his wares certainly is. Using a spell for an evil purpose can cause a player character’s alignment to shift to evil, with the ultimate judgment of whether a player is using a spell for an evil purpose left up to the GM.

Regardless of in-game effects, all players should take care when using such spells. These effects can negatively affect people at the table, as they might create situations that echo truly awful experiences players might have had, creating uncomfortable or hostile environments. Players and GMs should work to prevent these situations so everyone can focus on having fun at the table.

Disbelieving Illusions

Sometimes illusions allow an affected creature a chance to disbelieve the spell, which lets the creature effectively ignore the spell if it succeeds at doing so. This usually happens when a creature Seeks or otherwise spends actions to engage with the illusion, comparing the result of its Perception check (or another check or saving throw, at the GM’s discretion) to the caster’s spell DC. Mental illusions typically provide rules in the spell’s description for disbelieving the effect (often allowing the affected creature to attempt a Will save).

If the illusion is visual, and a creature interacts with the illusion in a way that would prove it is not what it seems, the creature might know that an illusion is present, but it still can’t ignore the illusion without successfully disbelieving it. For instance, if a character is pushed through the illusion of a door, they will know that the door is an illusion, but they still can’t see through it. Disbelieving an illusion makes it and those things it blocks seem hazy and indistinct, so even in the case where a visual illusion is disbelieved, it may, at the GM’s discretion, block vision enough to make those on the other side concealed.

Focus Points from Multiple Sources

It's possible, especially through archetypes, to gain focus spells and Focus Points from more than one source. If this happens, you have just one focus pool, adding all the Focus Points together to determine the total size of your pool. (Remember that the maximum number of Focus Points a pool can have is 3.) If you have multiple abilities that give you a focus pool, each one adds 1 Focus Point to your pool. For instance, if you were a cleric with the Domain Initiate feat, you would have a pool with 1 Focus Point. Let's say you then took the champion multiclass archetype and the Healing Touch feat. Normally, this feat would give you a focus pool. Since you already have one, it instead increases your existing pool's capacity by 1.

Focus Points are not differentiated by source; you can spend any of your Focus Points on any of your focus spells. Likewise, when you Refocus, you get back a point as long as you follow the guidelines of any abilities that granted you focus spells. Having Focus Points from multiple sources doesn't change the tradition of your spells; if you had both cleric domain spells and druid order spells, your domain spells would remain divine and the order spells primal. This could mean that you need to keep track of a different proficiency and ability modifier with the spell DC and spell attack roll of different focus spells.

Metamagic

Many spellcasters can gain access to metamagic actions, typically by selecting metamagic feats. Actions with the metamagic trait tweak the properties of your spells, changing their range, damage, or any number of other properties. You must use a metamagic action directly before the spell you want to alter. If you use any action (including free actions, reactions, and additional metamagic actions) other than Cast a Spell directly after, you waste the benefits of the metamagic action. Any additional effects added by a metamagic action are part of the spell’s effect, not of the metamagic action itself.

Component Substitutions

Some classes or abilities can substitute one component for another or alter how a component works.

If you're a bard Casting a Spell from the occult tradition, you can usually play an instrument for spells requiring somatic or material components, as long as it takes at least one of your hands to do so. If you use an instrument, you don't need a material component pouch or another hand free. You can usually also play an instrument for spells requiring verbal components, instead of speaking.

If you're a cleric Casting a Spell from the divine tradition while holding a divine focus (usually a religious symbol or text), you can replace any material component the spell requires by using the divine focus as a focus component instead. Unlike normal for a focus component, you can't retrieve or return the focus when making this substitution.

If you're a druid Casting a Spell from the primal tradition while holding a primal focus (such as holly and mistletoe), you can replace any material component the spell requires by using the primal focus as a focus component instead. Unlike the normal rules for a focus component, you can't retrieve or put away the focus when making this substitution.

If you're a sorcerer Casting a Spell from the magical tradition that matches your bloodline, you can draw on the magic within your blood to replace any material component with a somatic component.

Any character casting an innate spell can replace any material component with a somatic component.

Other Spell Traits

Some spells and effects have traits such as “mental” or “good.” These tell you more about the spell and how it works, and other rules might reference them. A creature might, for example, have a –2 circumstance penalty to saving throws against mental effects. Below is a glossary of a few traits you might see with important rules.

Auditory Auditory spells rely on sound. A spell with the auditory trait has its effect only if the target can hear it. This is different from a sonic effect, which still affects targets who can't hear it (such as deaf targets) as long as the effect makes sound.

Darkness and Light Effects with the darkness and light traits interact in specific ways. Non-magical light always shines in non-magical darkness and always fails to shine in magical darkness. Magical light always shines in non-magical darkness but shines in magical darkness only if the light spell has a higher level than that of the darkness effect. Spells with the darkness trait or the light trait can always counteract one another, but bringing light and darkness into contact doesn't automatically do so. You must usually cast a light spell on a darkness effect directly to counteract it (and vice versa), but some spells automatically attempt to counteract opposing effects.

Incapacitation An ability with this trait can take a character completely out of the fight or even kill them, and it's harder to use on a more powerful character. If a spell has the incapacitation trait, any creature of more than twice the spell's level treats the result of their check to prevent being incapacitated as one degree of success better or the result of any check the spellcaster made to incapacitate them as one degree of success worse. If any other effect has the incapacitation trait, a creature of higher level than the item, creature, or hazard generating the effect gains the same benefits.

Minion Minions are creatures that directly serve another creature. A creature with this trait can use only 2 actions per turn, doesn't have reactions, and can't act when it's not your turn. Your minion acts on your turn in combat, once per turn, when you spend an action to issue it commands. For an animal companion, you Command an Animal; for a minion that's a spell or magic item effect, like a summoned minion, you Sustain a Spell or Sustain an Activation; if not otherwise specified, you issue a verbal command as a single action with the auditory and concentrate traits. If given no commands, minions use no actions except to defend themselves or to escape obvious harm. If left unattended for long enough, typically 1 minute, mindless minions usually don't act, animals follow their instincts, and sapient minions act how they please. A minion can't control other creatures. Morph Spells that slightly alter a creature's form have the morph trait. Any Strikes specifically granted by a morph effect are magical. You can be affected by multiple morph spells at once, but if you morph the same body part more than once, the second morph effect attempts to counteract the first (in the same manner as two polymorph effects, described below).

Your morph effects might also end if you are polymorphed and the polymorph effect invalidates or overrides your morph effect. For instance, a morph that gave you wings would be dismissed if you polymorphed into a form that had wings of its own (though if your new form lacked wings, you'd keep the wings from your morph). The GM determines which morph effects can be used together and which can't.

Polymorph These effects transform the target into a new form. A target can't be under the effect of more than one polymorph effect at a time. If it comes under the effect of a second polymorph effect, the second polymorph effect attempts to counteract the first. If it succeeds, it takes effect, and if it fails, the spell has no effect on that target. Any Strikes specifically granted by a polymorph effect are magical. Unless otherwise stated, polymorph spells don't allow the target to take on the appearance of a specific individual creature, but rather just a generic creature of a general type or ancestry.

If you take on a battle form with a polymorph spell, the special statistics can be adjusted only by circumstance bonuses, status bonuses, and penalties. Unless otherwise noted, the battle form prevents you from casting spells, speaking, and using most manipulate actions that require hands. (If there's doubt about whether you can use an action, the GM decides.) Your gear is absorbed into you; the constant abilities of your gear still function, but you can't activate any items.

Summoned A creature called by a spell or effect gains the summoned trait. A summoned creature can't summon other creatures, create things of value, or cast spells that require a cost. It has the minion trait. If it tries to Cast a Spell of equal or higher level than the spell that summoned it, it overpowers the summoning magic, causing its own spell to fail and the summon spell to end. Otherwise, the summoned creature uses the standard abilities for a creature of its kind. It generally attacks your enemies to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with it, you can attempt to command it, but the GM determines the degree to which it follows your commands.

Immediately when you finish casting, the summoned creature uses its 2 actions for that turn. A spawn or other creature generated from a summoned creature returns to its unaltered state (usually a corpse in the case of spawn) once the summoned creature is gone. If it's unclear what this state would be, the GM decides. Summoned creatures can be banished by various spells and effects. They are automatically banished if reduced to 0 Hit Points or if the spell that called them ends.

Visual A visual spell can affect only creatures that can see it.