Among the many spells available to players inDungeons & Dragons, touch spells are often overlooked due to the restriction that their short range places on your character’s positioning. The greatest example of this is the common knowledge that Healing Word greatly outperforms Cure Wounds even though it heals for half as much hit points.
RELATED:Dungeons & Dragons: Tips On Dealing With An Overpowered Party
This is largely due to the fact that Healing Word has a range of 60 feet while Cure Wounds requires you to touch the target. Nonetheless, there are a number of spells with a range of touch that players ought to consider picking up owing to their utility or raw power.
9Vampiric Touch
Vampiric touch is a 3rd level necromancy spell that’s often overlooked due to its relatively low damage for the spell level. The spell is a melee attack that deals 3d6 necrotic damage to a target and heals you for half the damage dealt.
However, it’s also a concentration spell that allows you to make the same attack again as an action on each of your turns. A clear criticism of this spell is that you can hurl a fireball that deals 8d6 fire to a whole room full of creatures for the same level spell slot which is a damage difference that’s difficult to ignore.
Even so, vampiric touch has its place in a full spellcaster build that is looking to tank. While it’s hard to imagine a Wizard build that makes use of this spell, both Clerics and Warlocks are capable of becoming quite tanky and the healing vampiric touch provides gives you some added wherewithal.
8Booming Blade
This is a cantrip that just about every player interested in thesword and sorcery playstyleis familiar with. Booming blade involves a melee attack with the weapon you cast the cantrip on that then covers your target in thunderous energy.
If the creature willingly moves before the start of your next turn, it takes 1d8 thunder damage. This cantrip becomes better at higher levels as it deals 1d8 thunder damage initially once you reach 5th level as well as 2d8 additional thunder if the target willingly moves.
Like other cantrips, this damage scales by an additional damage dice at levels 11 and 17.
Unfortunately, the fact that this cantrip requires your target to willingly move to deal damage makes it a little difficult to consistently use. That being said, abilities like the mobile feat and the swashbuckler’s fancy footwork allow for builds where you’re able to hit a target with this and then move away: encouraging the enemy to come after you and take damage.
7Inflict Wounds
This 1st level necromancy spell is notable for doling out more damage than any other 1st level spell in the game. Inflict Wounds deals 3d10 necrotic damage to a creature you touch on a successful melee spell attack.
RELATED:Devious Traps In Dungeons & Dragons For DMs To Use
you’re able to also upcast the spell to deal an additional 1d10 necrotic damage for each increased level of the spell. Yea, that’s going to leave a mark.
6Green-Flame Blade
Like the booming blade, the green-flame blade is another melee cantrip option for spellcasters who enjoy getting up close and personal. While the damage on this cantrip is more reliable, it also requires your target to have another enemy within 5 feet of them.
As part of casting this cantrip, you make an attack with a melee weapon in your hand. Green fire envelops the weapon and the flames spread to a creature within 5 feet of your target, dealing damage to them equal to your spellcasting ability modifier.
This cantrip’s damage also increases at higher levels, dealing 1d8 fire to your primary target and 1d8 + spellcasting ability modifier fire to a nearby target at the 5th level. As with other cantrips, this damage scales by an additional damage dice at levels 11 and 17.
5Lesser Restoration
Debilitating conditions and status effects are one of the most frustrating things to deal with as a player character. Thankfully, the 2nd level abjuration spell lesser restoration can cure many of these ailments.
As an action, lesser restoration cures a disease orends a conditionincluding blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned afflicting the target. These are all very common conditions for enemies to inflict on characters, and there are few better ways to earn the respect and trust of your party members than ending one of these annoying conditions.
4Shocking Grasp
Shocking grasp is yet another cantrip that makes it surprisingly high on this list. One of the best ways to threaten spellcasters is by putting an enemy in melee with them.
However, a spellcaster equipped with this cantrip can easily escape a single enemy.
RELATED:Dungeons & Dragons: Best Spells For Mobility
Shocking grasp is a melee spell attack that deals 1d8 lightning damage and prevents the target from taking reactions until their next turn. In other words, this disallows the target from making an opportunity attack.
Shocking grasp also has advantage if the target happens to be wearing metal and many enemies interested in getting in melee are quite fond of metal armor.
3Greater Restoration
The big brother of lesser restoration, greater restoration is a 5th-level abjuration spell that will likely remove any harmful condition that lesser restoration cannot solve. This spell does consume diamond dust worth 100gp when cast though, so make sure to stock up on the component.
Specifically, greater restoration removes one curse afflicting the target including attunement to a curse magic item, any reduction of an ability score, one effect reducing the target’s hit point maximum, or the charmed and petrified conditions. Greater restoration is also one of the few ways to remove a level of exhaustion which can be an absolute lifesaver for an ally whose suffered multiple levels of it.
2Bestow Curse
This 3rd level necromancy spellrequires concentration, however, the curse it inflicts is capable of removing an enemy from combat entirely. Needless to say, that’s well worth your concentration.
When you cast bestow curse, you choose the curse’s effects from one of the following: disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws for a given ability score, disadvantage on attacks against you, your attacks and spells that damage the target deal an additional 1d8 necrotic damage, or the target makes a Wisdom save at the beginning of its turns and if it fails this save, it wastes its action doing nothing.
Obviously, the best option by far here is the repeated Wisdom save. However, you’re able to also use bestow curse to curse the target with an alternative effect that’s no stronger than any of the effects described above.
Any alternative effect is subject to dungeon master approval. It’s also worth noting that you can upcast this spell to make the curse last a longer duration and remove its concentration requirement.
1Contagion
Finally, our award for best touch spell in the game goes to the 5th-level necromancy magic Contagion. This melee spell attack makes the target suffer the poisoned condition with no save.
While poisoned from Contagion, the target makes a Constitution save at the end of its turn. If it fails three saves before it succeeds on three saves, the effects of the poison worsen as it mutates into a disease.
You choose the disease that the contagion becomes. Options are as follows in the table below.
Flesh rot
Slimy Doom
While slimy doom is definitely the best of the options, there’s an argument for using the other diseases depending on your target. Contagion lasts for 7 days.
Even if your enemy escapes the combat, they’ll be severely weakened if you manage to track them down.
