I’d say Guiding Bolt because of how much damage you can do with it, being 4d6 with a first level spell slot, and the next attack roll against the creature has advantage, even though the spell is an attack roll to hit
@@christopherauvenshine2092 it's not that hard. it was casted in my 1st session with a group of 5E beginners & they got it right & corrected me, the DM.
Random little nasty fact of magic missile: If you happen to be stuck in a PvP instance (like maybe you're fighting another group or something) or you're a particularly cruel DM , using magic missile on downed players will instantly finish them off because each missile counts as a separate source of damage. This means they take all three death saving throw failures at once. And remember, magic missile has no attack roll or saving throw, with 120 feet range.
I would have to disagree, the spell specifically says the missiles all strike simultaneously meaning it’s all one hit, it’s still a dick move and is 2 death saving throws for the hit but I think it’s worded that way specifically for moments like this and so people can’t use magic middle to make spell casters roll 3 concentration checks for the cost of a level 1 spell
One of my players does this and it's insane value. He just puts a tarantula familiar on the head of the paladin, who is always in the middle of the fight. And yeah, it's all rule conforming...
It's even a Touch range spell, so as long as it's within 100 ft. of you you can have the familiar deliver it to itself for just the cost of a reaction, which without attacks or special abilities, what's it going to be using for but delivering your spells?
@@cubicengineering4715 So... Action - Help Action Reaction - Dragon's Breath Bonus - None :( Movement - Flyby/movement (i.e. Owl) If this is correct I have a new respect for casters...
I remember you bringing up in the past how sometimes content presents challenges to your health if memory serves and I just wanna say I’m happy to see any content you make at whatever speed is comfortable and I’m sure many agree so yeah thank you for making the videos you do and giving us such great info on this yugioh and anything else you have channels of
Don't feel forced or rushed my dude. It'd a treat when we get a video from you and don't want it to become too much of a chore of you're forcing yourself to over do it
Dissonant Whispers is another excellent 1st Level spell. Even if the target makes the wisdom save they still take 3d6 psychic damage halved, which is not too shabby on low levels. And if they don't succeed, well, 3d6 psychic damage and moving its full speed away from the caster is a great effect for a 1st Level spell. Plus, it's very fitting for bards and adds a lot of flavor - I love it!
Don't forget, because they use their reaction to move, RAW states that the movement provokes opportunity attacks. Dissonant Whispers may not do high damage by itself, but if the target is in melee with your local paladin it can be brutal.
Command is better. The damage is negligible in later lvls. If you are a bard consider changing dissonant whisper and keeping command once you get lvl 6-7.
Inflict wounds does up to 30 damage (15.5 avg). And even though it's melee, it uses your spellcasting modifier. Most Clerics have melee capabilities, so it should be able to be used often.
Combined with Find Familiar (either a Cleric with Magic Initiate, a Wizard or Druid with Shadow Touched, or even a Trickster Cleric's Duplicity), you can deliver this damage at much longer ranges than you otherwise could.
3d10 damage, 16.5 average damage on a hit. Average chance to hit is roughly 65% Inflict wounds deals about 11 DPR if used without advantage on the attack. Magic missile deals 10.5 damage on average and doesn’t miss. Inflict wounds can be very powerful if things are going well and you’re generating advantage. Magic missile bypasses attack/saves and so it remains viable even in disadvantageous conditions.
Me: I cast Healing Word on the downed wizard. DM: What words do you use to cast this spell? Me: I did NOT give you permission to lie down on the job! Get your ass up and get back to work! Wizard: .... Ass. DM: Have an inspiration.
One of the things I love about Bless is that its bonus applies to concentration checks as those are usually saving throws. You can make it a lot easier for several casters to maintain their concentration spells.
@Pawn Cube I don’t think so, as the spell has a range of touch and does not specify the use of a weapon. However, it DOES synergize with the Death Cleric’s “Touch of Death” channel divinity.
I’d like to shout out the hugely underrated Protection from Evil and Good spell, which can pretty much shut down any exotic creature’s attacks and effects if you cast it on the tank.
@@120588880106 Technically all 3 magic missles hit at once, so it's up to the DM to decide if they count as 3 hits or 1. I know lots of people who only count it as one hit if they all hit one target because of this.
fun uses for magic missile: instantly killing a downed player, 3 hits to deplete 3 death saves. breaking concentration, doesn't deal a lot of damage to boost the dc, but 3 saves, even at advantage, are unlikely to all save, only 1 needs to fail. hitting an enemy behind partial cover. I also have a player that, even at 7th level, uses mostly magic missile and sleep, it's a pretty reliable combo.
I think the best use for _armor of agathys_ is purposefully provoking opportunity attacks. Cast, move, provoke as many opportunity attacks as you can until your temp HP or movement is gone. You deal damage and effectively waste the reaction of most of your enemies, allowing your party to move pretty freely for roughtly a round, depending on initiative order. _Absorb elements_ is one of those spells where you don't even really care about whether or not you can dish out that extra damage. You're just happy you could throw up a resistance when you needed it. My Githyanki Artificer saved against a _cone of cold_ and threw up _absorb elements_ to reduce the damage even more, so he basically took nothing and then stabbed the guy that cast it on him. It's fun in the same way _shield_ is fun.
Agreed for armor of agathys. I had a polearm wielding bladelock who had 4th-level armor of agathys up. Opportunity attack with polearm mastery when they came in. Then three attacks (two normal plus PAM bonus), then I moved back provoking. They hit, took 20hp damage. They then moved forward -- another opportunity attack with a glaive, etc. Then hit me again. Another 20hp damage. My turn three attacks and I moved back. DM looked at me. "The bandit leader just lets you go."
another great thing about Find Familiar is that it can be cast as a ritual so if you have the ritual caster skill, you can cast Find Familiar without having it prepared OR using up a spell slot
I gave my players three rings of spell storing to let the sorcerer pass around fun spells (he's the only caster). He is currently attuned to all 3 and has them full of Shields.
I would like to throw in Command as it essentially wastes an entire turn for an enemy, which is great at any level. Plus you can force them to drop an item or such
If your enemy is something like a bandit, perhaps "strip" would be good, taking away most of their armour class, and allowing a free hit on most occasions. Then, if you want to milk it for all it's worth, nitpick at the DM that they ran without using an interaction to pick up their armour
Not only does hex reduce an ability score, its an extra d6 any time you damage the enemy whereas hunters mark is only on weapon attacks. So hex works with spell attacks.
What I do is cast it and then throw some magic missiles after, since each is a separate attack roll, for 2 1st level casts, you get 3d4+3d6+3 damage, and it gets better, more casts of magic missile keep the hex effect without more spell slots 3 1st level slots, you get 6d4+6d6+6 which is quite a lot for something a very low level caster can do So basically, more than a fireball, you got a fireball and 6d4, which is still a *lot*
@@Notokdario except fireball should be used on multiple enemies, not just one. So fireball is more like 16d6 when used on 2 opponents. Also, magic missile is not an attack, so therefore hex doesn't work with it. Scorching ray is, however, and scorching ray also gives extra beams when upcast
I've seen it pointed out elsewhere and so I will shout it from every rooftop I find: Magic Missile is amazing for breaking Concentration on spells. Each hit the caster takes requires them to roll Con. So even smacking them with the base level 3 darts requires three separate rolls to keep Concentration.
I remember when I started my current campaign as a Loxodon bard I used mostly non damaging spells since before meeting the party I was just a traveling musician with a dagger and sling for self defense. I used Sleep, Healing Word, Thunderwave and Disguise Self I think. The niche of my character is that growing up his adopting elf parents disapprove of music so he left home and traveled the land casting disguise self to become a handsome, glamorous heartthrob elf who performed short shows but his mystery only added to his intrigue.
I’d like to point out that the Warlock can take a feature that turns familiars into a better beast companion, along with some invocations that buff this concept even further.
Magic Missiles cast at level 1 is still amazing later on since you can use it to make multiple guaranteed attempts to break concentration on an enemy spell caster since each missile causes a concentration check.
you can also use it to permakill a character since each hit is guaranteed and deals damage so once someone is at 0hp you can guarantee them 3 failed death saves :)
Don't forget the most important thing about Hunter's Mark and Hex: If the target dies, you get to recast it on someone new as long as you're still concentrating and it hasn't run out of duration yet. This is what gives the spells so much mileage. They're decent in their own right, but unlike Faerie Fire, Hold Person, and other strong concentration debuffs, killing the target doesn't end the spell. You get to keep that gravy train rollin'. And they upcast their duration, not their damage, so it's always a consistent damage buff, but particularly with Hex for Warlocks, you can cast it, finish a fight, short rest to get your spell slots back, and STILL have this spell in effect if you're level 5 or higher.
My top 1st level spells are: Hex/hunters mark (depending on what you want to do) Illusory script ( basically giving you psychic paper from doctor who) Hellish rebuke ( reaction from taking a hit with 2d10 fire damage) Inflict wounds ( 3d10 necrotic damage as a melee hit becomes a ranged hit with an owl familiar) Find familiar ( great in rp and combat) Healing word ( life saver) Armor of agathys ( temp hit points are amazing) with honorable mention false life for giving more than armor of agathys but no damage backsplash
Divine soul sorcerer + healing word = absolutely nutty. Use twinspell and heal two allies at the same time from range with only a bonus action and a couple sorcerer points. Very strong combo.
Its like how cure wounds isnt on this list. I believe that Bless serves a particular role in the clerics arsenal, and SoF would be in the way of using Bless. +2 AC for one character vs +d4 for 3 characters for attack rolls AND saves. It just doesn't compare unless your party is running a 21+ AC Martial which can tank all the damage, of which getting 10% of the die further taken away is impressive when it takes it proportionally down quite a lot more. But for a party with ~16-18 AC, doesnt really work out in comparison to getting +1-4 on all attack rolls, getting 5-20% more of the die able to hit.
For goodberry, there is a difference to being able to sustain a creature for a day, and having enough calories to do activities. Sustain more likely means minimal activity, actually survive if you don't do anything else
You can go a couple days without eating doing only light activity it the real world. Believe me, I've done in a few times. If you'd rather rule that the spell doesn't give the effects is says it does, more power to you, but the intention is obvious. It's OP, but that is the point of the spell.
Goodberry is also insane due to an Aura of Life cleric multi class. This causes it to heal 4 per berry, giving you 40 healing on a 1st level spell slot.
@@intoHeck1964 of course :), Conga line of 1d6+4 can heal a party of 5 for 50d6+200 hp on a second level spell slot if played optimally (or 375 healing on average for a single 2nd level spell slot) Its not hard to justify a 1 level dip into life cleric for a non-moon druid. In either case, you can also just do what he said and burn spell slots at the end of a night (unless you're afraid of an ambush) and just carry around a pouch of 60 berries healing anywhere between 4 and 12 per berry (although that's a mess track, as life cleric is based on the spell slots used, not the level of the spell)
Armor of Agathys can also be obtained with oath of conquest paladins, and their spell slots mix with another caster unlike warlock spell slots. So if you get this with paladin and combine with a higher level caster then you have something going for you
the spider is actually completely underrated as a familiar. I even favour it over the owl for multiple reasons: many spiders have 360 degree vision, some, like the jumping spider, can even see above them with full hemispherical vision. nothing says you need to use your own senses during everyday adventuring, sure you're blind and deaf yourself, but if your wear your spider familiar like a hat, you can run around using it's senses from your position. which include, 360 hemispherical darkvision... that's kinda busted additionally, spiders attract less notice in a dungeon than an owl, so if you want to set the spider to walk under a door and scout a room, even if it's spotted, it'll draw less attention. probably none, dungeons have spiders, so do most places, but owls are rare. if while your spider is scouting that room you want to cast lock... you can, if you want to cast knock, just chill on the roof afterwards as everyone hears a racket, comes to investigate, and a little spider on the roof counts their numbers. put webs around your camp perimiter and have your spider wait to tell you telepathically if a thread is broken. turning a potential ambush into a surprise round for yourself. threads also detect invisible creatures. this can even be used across doorways or corridors as an alarm system dungeons usually have a network of webs along the roof, for your spider, that's like having a minimap if he runs along the roof. I don't care what anyone says. a familiar sized jumping spider leaping on their face is a guaranteed intimidate check and probably massively panic/fear inducing. because people mostly have irrational fear of spiders. at minimum advantage at +10
Unofficial #0: ID insinuation. It was a hilariously broken Lv1 unearthed arcana (playtest) spell that was basically hold person that also did 1D12 psychic damage each turn. I did make a DM rather sad by twincasting it as a Sorcerer in a one-shot.
Id Insinuation 1st-level enchantment Casting Time: 1 action Range: 60 feet Components: V, S Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You unleash a torrent of conflicting desires in the mind of one creature you can see within range, impairing its ability to make decisions. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be incapacitated. At the end of each of its turns, it takes 1d12 psychic damage, and it can then make another Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the spell ends on the target.
As to magic missile, you forgot to mention that it's a Concentration effer. Of course, Shield blocks it but if that don't happen, you have 3 CON saves for a lvl 1 slot.
The catch to magic missile is. Each dart deals it damage on its own. So if you hit a mage. They have to make 3 concentration checks per casting of the spell. It was made to mess with mages mostly
Another good use for magic missile. Even though it is one cast, it has been confirmed that each dart is its own hit... makes it decent for busting concentration. The target has to make a concentration check for each dart.
Honorable mention sleep and guiding bolt sanctuary. Sanctuary is hella busted as it doesn't require concentration and forces wisdom saves to attack and guiding bolt is 4d6 damage at lv1 with the ability to grant advantage which is insane
For those interested, Mark of Warding Dwarf gets to add Armor of Agathys to there available spell list. Going into Abjuration Wizard grants you Arcane Ward. This gives you extra hp pool that needs to be drained before Armor of Agathys goes away since the damaging effect triggers when hit by a melee spell attack. (This does mean that ranged attacks don’t trigger damage from this spell)
Notable mention for me is catapult, crank it up to ninth level on a divine soul sorcerer using two +3 holy daggers, the damage just keeps coming, again, my preferred usage, but it can be used in conjunction with creation to throw a block of gold (can't be very big because density and logic) but still a very useful spell nonetheless
Don't forget, magic missile is great for breaking concentration on low-mid tier player/enemies. Each one counts as separate damage, so at first level they have to make 3 concentration saves. Yes it's max DC is 10, but law of averages means itll only take like, 2 castings to almost definitely break someone's concentration
LOL. I once had a character who was a human cleric (nature)/1 who multiclass into a warlock (fey)/1.They also took ritual caster (wizard) as their feat. At 3rd-level, let's see.. * Armor of Agathys - Check * Hex - Check * Faerie Fire - Check * Bless - Check * Find Familiar - Check * Healing Word - Check Also, hex works well against push and shove attempts or for strength attempts to break free of a web.
I mentioned the one campaign that had arcane trickster goblins in it, well guess what other common spell they had was. It really sucks to get hit with multiple sneak attacks and afterwards when you try to hit them back you find they have an ac of 22
Definitely should have had dissonant whispers. It does pretty good damage for lvl 1 AND if the target fails, they run away, allowing for attacks of opportunity by your party. We have 2 front line fighters in our party so that's dissonant whispers damage plus 2 attacks of opportunity every round that it lands.
Actual best part about find familiar. Rules as written, it says "while your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically." THEN it says. "As an action, you can use your familiar's senses until the start of your next turn." This means you don't need to be within 100 feet to borrow their senses, just communicate, IE to send it commands. So if you tell it "Fly a mile away, circle the red house and come back" you can look through its eyes the entire time, you just can't tell it to come back early or do anything else until it comes back. Depending on how difficult a task it is, you can technically tell it to perform a task that's away from you, let it do its thing, then come back. One of the most flexible spells in the entire game.
With the right setup, the warlock can communicate, use senses, and even speak through the familiar, anywhere as long as youre both on the same plane, regardless of distance.
I play a conquest paladin (5) wild magic barbarian (3) on my wednesday game. Armor of Agathys is a amazing spell for me to upcast as the temp hp is basically doubled due to rage
Man, back when I was a really killy DM I REALLY hated healing word. I even banned it for a campaign. I still have some resentment for the spell, but nowadays I just kind of think it wasn't that bright of an idea.
just to add something with magic missile: each dart is a separate source of damage. so if you see a wizard concentrating on a spell hit him with a lvl 1 magic missile and make him make 3 dc 10 con checks.
Find Familiar: a level 1 variant human with shadow touched feat, using find familiar, turn it invisible, use a bunch of inflict wounds spells and YOU are casting the spell and making the attack so your familiar doesn't turn visible
so many people sleep on the real utility of magic missile NOT MISSING. I did a fun battle royale with my party once in a game, the bard was trying to climb into her rope trick. From across the arena, I used a magic missile item to just snipe the top of the rope, no chance of failure, "I can see the rope, DM, so it hits!"
Find Familiar says you can communicate telepathically with your familiar up to 100ft, not that you can only see through their senses up to 100ft. So, you could presumably tell your familiar to go scout 400ft ahead, wait a minute, and then come back, looking through their eyes and ears the entire time. You just wouldn’t be able to instruct it when it was waiting at 400ft away.
You can note that it doesn't specify any kind of each creature, so you could have a komodo dragon as a familiar. Or one of those human sized bats from Australia.
Probly a bit late to mention this but if your a sorcerer with the spell sniper and magic initiate (for find familiar) feats,as well as the distant spell metamagic. Look through your familiar, go to 100 ft, cast touch spell with distant spell metamagic which get you to 130 ft and if it has an attack roll that get bumped to 160ft due to spell sniper. So yeah touch spell at 160ft
My sorlock had Hex and a wand of magic missile, this allowed me to deal massive damage to any enemy we came across for practically nothing as the wand could cast the spell at level 7, this meant 9d4 force damage plus 9d6 necrotic damage that would never miss unless the enemy had shield. The only risk to doing it this way was the fact that the wand could break upon using all of its charges but i never rolled a 1 so i could keep doing it every battle. That being said my DM reads the spell as each bolt deals 1d4.
at 5 level armor of agathys gives you 45 temporary hit points and deals 45 of cold damage, you can just take the dash action, run beetween enemys and see how they die when they hit you with oportunity attacks
Throwing out Guiding Bolt. 4d6 damage(13avg) on a hit by itself is enough to one-shot most low level monsters, but if it doesnt one-shot them, it gives advantage on the next attack made against them. Really good effect for a 1st level spell and just an early game boss killer.
Guiding Bolt followed by Spiritual Weapon (at advantage) is one of my go to combos against a BBEG. I usually upcast Guiding Bolt to level 3 for extra kapow!
I've been playing D&D for almost 40 years. Every game I have ever played has had you roll the damage for each magic missile individually. I don't care WHAT Mike Mearls tweets. That's the way we play it at every table I run (and currently play at). That also means the evoker wizard gets to add their INT mod to every missile after a certain level. It actually makes MM worth upcasting at that point. ;) Thing is, some of the bad guys in my game get those kind of bonuses too, so the PCs reap what they sow...
The thing is hex does necrotic damage which alot of things resist, while not alot of things will resist magical piercing/slashing/blunt damage, it balances the rangers mark against hex
For magic missiles should have also mentioned it's utility as a concentration breaker. As it forces multiple con saves for each hit. Provided of course shield does not happen.
used a pixy s my spotter when playing as a warlock i had a nice range build that got eldritch blast to 600 feet since eldritch blast can be curved or bent i'd just have her fly out give me approximate coordinates and bank shots off, she's invisible and didn't provoke enemies so it was perfect launching volleys oof mortar shots either around cover or through the woods.
Catapult is hugely underrated Normal damage for lvl1 spells if you have multiple targets in your line there is a bigger chance to actually hit something But best of all is the utility of it. Poor man's telekinis for a small level 1 slot Cast darkness on a stone and catapult it to the enemy's and laugh While ambushing sling objects towards your enemy's from the other side of where you actually are. Have a fighter that can disarm people? sling their weapon 90 feet away Magical bludgeoning is also never resisted Bonus points when you are a sorcerer with subtle meta-magic. Let enemy's believe their ally just threw something at them to make them fight among themself
Those evil DM's watching this (and crazy players), remember the most powerful thing about magic missile. While you roll the damage ONCE, each missile is a separate packet of damage. That means that mage holding concentration has to make as many con saves as you put missiles into his face. Just food for thought.
Edit - didn't check the comments before leaving my comment. I'll leave it in since it contains a lesson learned, but ya, you can ignore the main point. You forgot the biggest benefit of magic missile. It is completely broken when trying to break an enemies concentration, since each missile is considered a different attack. I accidently killed my warlock player who had polymorphed into a giant ape while he was at low hp. He was trying to run after the big bad who was trying to escape, and the big bads mage allies both cast 5th magic missiles. That was 14 concentration checks. He failed after the 5th, I think, then the 8th, I believe, took him unconscious, and obviously the rest killed him outright from failed death saves. Luckily the cleric was there to cast revivify. It was a hard learned lesson for me, ALWAYS act with ONE creature at a time. Had I only done the first caster, he would've been knocked out of polymorph, and brought to low hp, allowing the second one to cast hold person or something.
"Healing word may be seen as overpowered sometimes, cuz it kinda is" *Me who's playing a 4th lvl Sard (3rd lvl Sorcerer 1th lvl bard) with the twinned spell meta magic* c:
If a life cleric gets goodberry it becomes the best healing spell in the game. V Human can have a 40hp heal at level 1 with 1 spell slot and it has insane scaling.
Magic Missile is the simple option, but you're sleeping on Catapult. Worse damage type and save to avoid damage are negatives, for sure. But higher damage, higher range, better scaling, and only somatic component so can use from hidden and stay hidden are all positives. And that's not even considering the ability to throw an acid flask, holy water, alchemist's fire, or a net to get nutty damage or damage+control. If your DM allows, you can throw 5 acid flasks tied together at once for almost 50 avg dmg with a 1st level spell. This is not something that probably should be allowed, but even without that, Catapult slays.
Honorary (from me) mention to Sleep, which literally can end low-level encounters with kobolds and goblins in one turn.
I’d say Guiding Bolt because of how much damage you can do with it, being 4d6 with a first level spell slot, and the next attack roll against the creature has advantage, even though the spell is an attack roll to hit
Agreed
Sleep + raging barbarian destroyed the 1st encounter I put before my PCs.
I love sleep but dang the mechanics do confuse a lot of people.
@@christopherauvenshine2092 it's not that hard. it was casted in my 1st session with a group of 5E beginners & they got it right & corrected me, the DM.
Random little nasty fact of magic missile: If you happen to be stuck in a PvP instance (like maybe you're fighting another group or something) or you're a particularly cruel DM , using magic missile on downed players will instantly finish them off because each missile counts as a separate source of damage. This means they take all three death saving throw failures at once. And remember, magic missile has no attack roll or saving throw, with 120 feet range.
I'll have to use this soon
"Rule #2: Double-Tap: In those moments when you're not sure the undead are really dead dead, don't get all stingy with your bullets."
You evil for telling people this but I also love you for telling me this
The separate damage also makes it great for breaking concentration if your casters are dumb enough not to pack shield or have used their reaction.
I would have to disagree, the spell specifically says the missiles all strike simultaneously meaning it’s all one hit, it’s still a dick move and is 2 death saving throws for the hit but I think it’s worded that way specifically for moments like this and so people can’t use magic middle to make spell casters roll 3 concentration checks for the cost of a level 1 spell
Dont forget: you can use dragons breath on your familiar. Breath action dosent count has attack action, so, you have a flamethrower drone with you.
One of my players does this and it's insane value. He just puts a tarantula familiar on the head of the paladin, who is always in the middle of the fight. And yeah, it's all rule conforming...
@@weblurker-stuffifoundonthe6208 oh boy.
It's even a Touch range spell, so as long as it's within 100 ft. of you you can have the familiar deliver it to itself for just the cost of a reaction, which without attacks or special abilities, what's it going to be using for but delivering your spells?
@@cubicengineering4715
So...
Action - Help Action
Reaction - Dragon's Breath
Bonus - None :(
Movement - Flyby/movement (i.e. Owl)
If this is correct I have a new respect for casters...
Consider this Incredible idea stolen! If feel sorry for my DM but he has killed my familiar too often, Ballwitz will have his revenge
And I'm back from an unexpected break in uploads. Regular videos should continue.
You are the man 😎
Its really cool that you do top 10 of other things besides yugioh.. I wish this channel had the same success (but I'm sure it will)
I remember you bringing up in the past how sometimes content presents challenges to your health if memory serves and I just wanna say I’m happy to see any content you make at whatever speed is comfortable and I’m sure many agree so yeah thank you for making the videos you do and giving us such great info on this yugioh and anything else you have channels of
yus
Don't feel forced or rushed my dude. It'd a treat when we get a video from you and don't want it to become too much of a chore of you're forcing yourself to over do it
Dissonant Whispers is another excellent 1st Level spell. Even if the target makes the wisdom save they still take 3d6 psychic damage halved, which is not too shabby on low levels. And if they don't succeed, well, 3d6 psychic damage and moving its full speed away from the caster is a great effect for a 1st Level spell. Plus, it's very fitting for bards and adds a lot of flavor - I love it!
Don't forget, because they use their reaction to move, RAW states that the movement provokes opportunity attacks. Dissonant Whispers may not do high damage by itself, but if the target is in melee with your local paladin it can be brutal.
Command is better. The damage is negligible in later lvls. If you are a bard consider changing dissonant whisper and keeping command once you get lvl 6-7.
Inflict wounds does up to 30 damage (15.5 avg). And even though it's melee, it uses your spellcasting modifier. Most Clerics have melee capabilities, so it should be able to be used often.
Combined with Find Familiar (either a Cleric with Magic Initiate, a Wizard or Druid with Shadow Touched, or even a Trickster Cleric's Duplicity), you can deliver this damage at much longer ranges than you otherwise could.
3d10 damage, 16.5 average damage on a hit.
Average chance to hit is roughly 65%
Inflict wounds deals about 11 DPR if used without advantage on the attack.
Magic missile deals 10.5 damage on average and doesn’t miss.
Inflict wounds can be very powerful if things are going well and you’re generating advantage.
Magic missile bypasses attack/saves and so it remains viable even in disadvantageous conditions.
@@binolombardi but inflict wounds is more fun
Me: I cast Healing Word on the downed wizard.
DM: What words do you use to cast this spell?
Me: I did NOT give you permission to lie down on the job! Get your ass up and get back to work!
Wizard: .... Ass.
DM: Have an inspiration.
One of the things I love about Bless is that its bonus applies to concentration checks as those are usually saving throws. You can make it a lot easier for several casters to maintain their concentration spells.
An honorary(IMO) mention is Inflict Wounds, which deals 3d10 necrotic damage at level 1.
Doing just damage is one of the worst things you can do with a spell slot.
In addition to the normal damage of your weapon
@Pawn Cube I don’t think so, as the spell has a range of touch and does not specify the use of a weapon.
However, it DOES synergize with the Death Cleric’s “Touch of Death” channel divinity.
Top ten unexpectedly deadly monsters please~! Sometimes things that seem dumb are actually pretty dangerous
Thats a good idea
I’d like to shout out the hugely underrated Protection from Evil and Good spell, which can pretty much shut down any exotic creature’s attacks and effects if you cast it on the tank.
Material components are expensive at low levels though! But it still scales great so I agree overall :)
@@brannenpfister2579 I like your funny words magic man
@@brannenpfister2579
Material Components: exist
My DM: We don’t do that here
About Armor of Agathis, a one level dip into warlock as an abjuration wizard is actually super sick as your ward takes damage before your armor does.
his editor is enjoying this
magic missile is also great for breaking concentration on spellcaster enemies
confirmed by JCraw, 3 missiles count as 3 hits, meaning 3x dc10 concentration save
I was about to mention this. By far my favorite way to use Magic Missile, making casters big mad.
They could have shield or counterspell so Zap them with shocking grasp via familiar first.
@@120588880106 Technically all 3 magic missles hit at once, so it's up to the DM to decide if they count as 3 hits or 1. I know lots of people who only count it as one hit if they all hit one target because of this.
fun uses for magic missile:
instantly killing a downed player, 3 hits to deplete 3 death saves.
breaking concentration, doesn't deal a lot of damage to boost the dc, but 3 saves, even at advantage, are unlikely to all save, only 1 needs to fail.
hitting an enemy behind partial cover.
I also have a player that, even at 7th level, uses mostly magic missile and sleep, it's a pretty reliable combo.
I think the best use for _armor of agathys_ is purposefully provoking opportunity attacks. Cast, move, provoke as many opportunity attacks as you can until your temp HP or movement is gone. You deal damage and effectively waste the reaction of most of your enemies, allowing your party to move pretty freely for roughtly a round, depending on initiative order.
_Absorb elements_ is one of those spells where you don't even really care about whether or not you can dish out that extra damage. You're just happy you could throw up a resistance when you needed it. My Githyanki Artificer saved against a _cone of cold_ and threw up _absorb elements_ to reduce the damage even more, so he basically took nothing and then stabbed the guy that cast it on him. It's fun in the same way _shield_ is fun.
Agreed for armor of agathys. I had a polearm wielding bladelock who had 4th-level armor of agathys up. Opportunity attack with polearm mastery when they came in. Then three attacks (two normal plus PAM bonus), then I moved back provoking. They hit, took 20hp damage. They then moved forward -- another opportunity attack with a glaive, etc. Then hit me again. Another 20hp damage. My turn three attacks and I moved back. DM looked at me. "The bandit leader just lets you go."
another great thing about Find Familiar is that it can be cast as a ritual
so if you have the ritual caster skill, you can cast Find Familiar without having it prepared OR using up a spell slot
Regardless you have to pay the 10 gold though
Yet another channel to sub to. You are insane for all the work you put in, and it makes me beyond grateful.
Super underrated channel, keep it up! Can you make a video on very rare magic items?
Yes, that will be the next video actually
I gave my players three rings of spell storing to let the sorcerer pass around fun spells (he's the only caster). He is currently attuned to all 3 and has them full of Shields.
I would like to throw in Command as it essentially wastes an entire turn for an enemy, which is great at any level. Plus you can force them to drop an item or such
"Throw your sword at the river!"
@@Cachorin one word sadly
If your enemy is something like a bandit, perhaps "strip" would be good, taking away most of their armour class, and allowing a free hit on most occasions. Then, if you want to milk it for all it's worth, nitpick at the DM that they ran without using an interaction to pick up their armour
@@zinogrevz7389 Here’s one for your Scrabble game: “Defenestrate!”
@@JaelinBezel you can't use obviously harmful commands
Not only does hex reduce an ability score, its an extra d6 any time you damage the enemy whereas hunters mark is only on weapon attacks. So hex works with spell attacks.
i love me some hex.
What I do is cast it and then throw some magic missiles after, since each is a separate attack roll, for 2 1st level casts, you get 3d4+3d6+3 damage, and it gets better, more casts of magic missile keep the hex effect without more spell slots 3 1st level slots, you get 6d4+6d6+6 which is quite a lot for something a very low level caster can do
So basically, more than a fireball, you got a fireball and 6d4, which is still a *lot*
@@Notokdario except fireball should be used on multiple enemies, not just one. So fireball is more like 16d6 when used on 2 opponents.
Also, magic missile is not an attack, so therefore hex doesn't work with it. Scorching ray is, however, and scorching ray also gives extra beams when upcast
Silvery Barbs just rocketed onto this list
I've seen it pointed out elsewhere and so I will shout it from every rooftop I find: Magic Missile is amazing for breaking Concentration on spells. Each hit the caster takes requires them to roll Con. So even smacking them with the base level 3 darts requires three separate rolls to keep Concentration.
I remember when I started my current campaign as a Loxodon bard I used mostly non damaging spells since before meeting the party I was just a traveling musician with a dagger and sling for self defense. I used Sleep, Healing Word, Thunderwave and Disguise Self I think. The niche of my character is that growing up his adopting elf parents disapprove of music so he left home and traveled the land casting disguise self to become a handsome, glamorous heartthrob elf who performed short shows but his mystery only added to his intrigue.
I’d like to point out that the Warlock can take a feature that turns familiars into a better beast companion, along with some invocations that buff this concept even further.
I like these videos as it's very neat and clean and easy to understand👍
So excited you are uploading again! Figured this channel would be one I would binge and never touch again.
Magic Missiles cast at level 1 is still amazing later on since you can use it to make multiple guaranteed attempts to break concentration on an enemy spell caster since each missile causes a concentration check.
you can also use it to permakill a character since each hit is guaranteed and deals damage so once someone is at 0hp you can guarantee them 3 failed death saves :)
Don't forget the most important thing about Hunter's Mark and Hex: If the target dies, you get to recast it on someone new as long as you're still concentrating and it hasn't run out of duration yet. This is what gives the spells so much mileage. They're decent in their own right, but unlike Faerie Fire, Hold Person, and other strong concentration debuffs, killing the target doesn't end the spell. You get to keep that gravy train rollin'.
And they upcast their duration, not their damage, so it's always a consistent damage buff, but particularly with Hex for Warlocks, you can cast it, finish a fight, short rest to get your spell slots back, and STILL have this spell in effect if you're level 5 or higher.
I missed this dnd channel so much.
My top 1st level spells are:
Hex/hunters mark (depending on what you want to do)
Illusory script ( basically giving you psychic paper from doctor who)
Hellish rebuke ( reaction from taking a hit with 2d10 fire damage)
Inflict wounds ( 3d10 necrotic damage as a melee hit becomes a ranged hit with an owl familiar)
Find familiar ( great in rp and combat)
Healing word ( life saver)
Armor of agathys ( temp hit points are amazing) with honorable mention false life for giving more than armor of agathys but no damage backsplash
Divine soul sorcerer + healing word = absolutely nutty. Use twinspell and heal two allies at the same time from range with only a bonus action and a couple sorcerer points. Very strong combo.
Shield of faith would be in my top 3 personally as it is only a bonus action and gives +2 ac for 10 minutes
Its like how cure wounds isnt on this list. I believe that Bless serves a particular role in the clerics arsenal, and SoF would be in the way of using Bless. +2 AC for one character vs +d4 for 3 characters for attack rolls AND saves. It just doesn't compare unless your party is running a 21+ AC Martial which can tank all the damage, of which getting 10% of the die further taken away is impressive when it takes it proportionally down quite a lot more. But for a party with ~16-18 AC, doesnt really work out in comparison to getting +1-4 on all attack rolls, getting 5-20% more of the die able to hit.
For goodberry, there is a difference to being able to sustain a creature for a day, and having enough calories to do activities. Sustain more likely means minimal activity, actually survive if you don't do anything else
Thats why they give you 10!
You can go a couple days without eating doing only light activity it the real world. Believe me, I've done in a few times. If you'd rather rule that the spell doesn't give the effects is says it does, more power to you, but the intention is obvious. It's OP, but that is the point of the spell.
magic missle is also great for if an enemy is doing a concentration spell. auto concentrate checks, 3 if you use them all on the same guy.
A level 18 wizard with spell master who chose Shield to cast at will is practically untouchable.
My level 20 Divination Tortle (his name was Giorgio) had shield and mirror image as cast as will. He is one my favorite characters.
Just adding to the video you can get hunters mark as a 3rd level paladin with oath of vengeance awesome video though!
Magic Missile is also great for breaking concentration. Since each missile is a separate source of damage.
Goodberry is also insane due to an Aura of Life cleric multi class. This causes it to heal 4 per berry, giving you 40 healing on a 1st level spell slot.
yeah thats broke lol
Only until you can cast healing spirit which can do more both in and out of combat for only one spell slot higher.
@@intoHeck1964 of course :), Conga line of 1d6+4 can heal a party of 5 for 50d6+200 hp on a second level spell slot if played optimally (or 375 healing on average for a single 2nd level spell slot)
Its not hard to justify a 1 level dip into life cleric for a non-moon druid.
In either case, you can also just do what he said and burn spell slots at the end of a night (unless you're afraid of an ambush) and just carry around a pouch of 60 berries healing anywhere between 4 and 12 per berry (although that's a mess track, as life cleric is based on the spell slots used, not the level of the spell)
Magic initiate. 1 1st lvl spell, 2 cantrips and 1 free cast of said 1st lvl spell. I think
@@intoHeck1964 Healing spirit got Erattaed :(
Armor of Agathys can also be obtained with oath of conquest paladins, and their spell slots mix with another caster unlike warlock spell slots. So if you get this with paladin and combine with a higher level caster then you have something going for you
Armor of Agathys can also be taken by Conquest Paladin as well.
Hiru from where do you get the "card like" window for the spells ?
It's in the description of the video (you should always check the description before asking something like this).
Quote: "Spell Cards: redd.it/6fga8k"
1) Silvery Barbs
.
.
2-10) Whatever else, + Silvery Barbs
the spider is actually completely underrated as a familiar. I even favour it over the owl for multiple reasons:
many spiders have 360 degree vision, some, like the jumping spider, can even see above them with full hemispherical vision. nothing says you need to use your own senses during everyday adventuring, sure you're blind and deaf yourself, but if your wear your spider familiar like a hat, you can run around using it's senses from your position. which include, 360 hemispherical darkvision... that's kinda busted
additionally, spiders attract less notice in a dungeon than an owl, so if you want to set the spider to walk under a door and scout a room, even if it's spotted, it'll draw less attention. probably none, dungeons have spiders, so do most places, but owls are rare.
if while your spider is scouting that room you want to cast lock... you can, if you want to cast knock, just chill on the roof afterwards as everyone hears a racket, comes to investigate, and a little spider on the roof counts their numbers.
put webs around your camp perimiter and have your spider wait to tell you telepathically if a thread is broken. turning a potential ambush into a surprise round for yourself. threads also detect invisible creatures. this can even be used across doorways or corridors as an alarm system
dungeons usually have a network of webs along the roof, for your spider, that's like having a minimap if he runs along the roof.
I don't care what anyone says. a familiar sized jumping spider leaping on their face is a guaranteed intimidate check and probably massively panic/fear inducing. because people mostly have irrational fear of spiders. at minimum advantage at +10
Unofficial #0:
ID insinuation.
It was a hilariously broken Lv1 unearthed arcana (playtest) spell that was basically hold person that also did 1D12 psychic damage each turn. I did make a DM rather sad by twincasting it as a Sorcerer in a one-shot.
Id Insinuation
1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You unleash a torrent of conflicting desires in the mind of one creature you can see within range, impairing its ability to make decisions. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be incapacitated. At the end of each of its turns, it takes 1d12 psychic damage, and it can then make another Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the spell ends on the target.
As to magic missile, you forgot to mention that it's a Concentration effer. Of course, Shield blocks it but if that don't happen, you have 3 CON saves for a lvl 1 slot.
The catch to magic missile is. Each dart deals it damage on its own. So if you hit a mage. They have to make 3 concentration checks per casting of the spell. It was made to mess with mages mostly
Don’t forget to go door to door letting your neighbors know you’re a registered hex offender afterwards.
@@JaelinBezel What?
Another good use for magic missile. Even though it is one cast, it has been confirmed that each dart is its own hit... makes it decent for busting concentration. The target has to make a concentration check for each dart.
Honorable mention sleep and guiding bolt sanctuary. Sanctuary is hella busted as it doesn't require concentration and forces wisdom saves to attack and guiding bolt is 4d6 damage at lv1 with the ability to grant advantage which is insane
For those interested, Mark of Warding Dwarf gets to add Armor of Agathys to there available spell list. Going into Abjuration Wizard grants you Arcane Ward. This gives you extra hp pool that needs to be drained before Armor of Agathys goes away since the damaging effect triggers when hit by a melee spell attack. (This does mean that ranged attacks don’t trigger damage from this spell)
You can only have one set of temporary hit points at a time
@@lesbiansanddragons7362 Arcane ward is not temporary hp
Abjuration Wizard's arcane ward and Armor of Agathys combo is insanely good
1345/74D/Corrections
If you take the find familiar from the warlock you can get the imp, and they can attack.
Or the Psuedodragon, because purring cat sized dragon that knock someone out.
Notable mention for me is catapult, crank it up to ninth level on a divine soul sorcerer using two +3 holy daggers, the damage just keeps coming, again, my preferred usage, but it can be used in conjunction with creation to throw a block of gold (can't be very big because density and logic) but still a very useful spell nonetheless
Don't forget, magic missile is great for breaking concentration on low-mid tier player/enemies. Each one counts as separate damage, so at first level they have to make 3 concentration saves. Yes it's max DC is 10, but law of averages means itll only take like, 2 castings to almost definitely break someone's concentration
LOL. I once had a character who was a human cleric (nature)/1 who multiclass into a warlock (fey)/1.They also took ritual caster (wizard) as their feat. At 3rd-level, let's see..
* Armor of Agathys - Check
* Hex - Check
* Faerie Fire - Check
* Bless - Check
* Find Familiar - Check
* Healing Word - Check
Also, hex works well against push and shove attempts or for strength attempts to break free of a web.
Hex is also useful when paired with Counterspell against enemy spellcasters when targeting their spell casting ability modifier.
I mentioned the one campaign that had arcane trickster goblins in it, well guess what other common spell they had was. It really sucks to get hit with multiple sneak attacks and afterwards when you try to hit them back you find they have an ac of 22
Definitely should have had dissonant whispers. It does pretty good damage for lvl 1 AND if the target fails, they run away, allowing for attacks of opportunity by your party. We have 2 front line fighters in our party so that's dissonant whispers damage plus 2 attacks of opportunity every round that it lands.
Actual best part about find familiar.
Rules as written, it says "while your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically."
THEN it says. "As an action, you can use your familiar's senses until the start of your next turn."
This means you don't need to be within 100 feet to borrow their senses, just communicate, IE to send it commands. So if you tell it "Fly a mile away, circle the red house and come back" you can look through its eyes the entire time, you just can't tell it to come back early or do anything else until it comes back. Depending on how difficult a task it is, you can technically tell it to perform a task that's away from you, let it do its thing, then come back. One of the most flexible spells in the entire game.
With the right setup, the warlock can communicate, use senses, and even speak through the familiar, anywhere as long as youre both on the same plane, regardless of distance.
I play a conquest paladin (5) wild magic barbarian (3) on my wednesday game. Armor of Agathys is a amazing spell for me to upcast as the temp hp is basically doubled due to rage
Man, back when I was a really killy DM I REALLY hated healing word.
I even banned it for a campaign.
I still have some resentment for the spell, but nowadays I just kind of think it wasn't that bright of an idea.
just to add something with magic missile: each dart is a separate source of damage. so if you see a wizard concentrating on a spell hit him with a lvl 1 magic missile and make him make 3 dc 10 con checks.
Magic Missile also really good for inducing concentration checks depending on your DM.
Find Familiar: a level 1 variant human with shadow touched feat, using find familiar, turn it invisible, use a bunch of inflict wounds spells and YOU are casting the spell and making the attack so your familiar doesn't turn visible
Someone has probably already mentioned this. But combine Hex with magic missile. 3d4+1 force + 3d6 necrotic.
Surprised there wasn’t any mention for Command, considering how versatile and impactful it can be
so many people sleep on the real utility of magic missile NOT MISSING. I did a fun battle royale with my party once in a game, the bard was trying to climb into her rope trick. From across the arena, I used a magic missile item to just snipe the top of the rope, no chance of failure, "I can see the rope, DM, so it hits!"
Maybe not the most powerful spell but I love fog cloud, always useful as a panic button especially if used with faerie fire
Some spells scale well while others don't. There are actually pretty good first level spells.
Find Familiar says you can communicate telepathically with your familiar up to 100ft, not that you can only see through their senses up to 100ft. So, you could presumably tell your familiar to go scout 400ft ahead, wait a minute, and then come back, looking through their eyes and ears the entire time. You just wouldn’t be able to instruct it when it was waiting at 400ft away.
You can note that it doesn't specify any kind of each creature, so you could have a komodo dragon as a familiar. Or one of those human sized bats from Australia.
Probly a bit late to mention this but if your a sorcerer with the spell sniper and magic initiate (for find familiar) feats,as well as the distant spell metamagic. Look through your familiar, go to 100 ft, cast touch spell with distant spell metamagic which get you to 130 ft and if it has an attack roll that get bumped to 160ft due to spell sniper. So yeah touch spell at 160ft
My sorlock had Hex and a wand of magic missile, this allowed me to deal massive damage to any enemy we came across for practically nothing as the wand could cast the spell at level 7, this meant 9d4 force damage plus 9d6 necrotic damage that would never miss unless the enemy had shield. The only risk to doing it this way was the fact that the wand could break upon using all of its charges but i never rolled a 1 so i could keep doing it every battle. That being said my DM reads the spell as each bolt deals 1d4.
at 5 level armor of agathys gives you 45 temporary hit points and deals 45 of cold damage, you can just take the dash action, run beetween enemys and see how they die when they hit you with oportunity attacks
Magic missle is also great for breaking concentration as the enemy will need to make a CON save for each missle
Throwing out Guiding Bolt.
4d6 damage(13avg) on a hit by itself is enough to one-shot most low level monsters, but if it doesnt one-shot them, it gives advantage on the next attack made against them. Really good effect for a 1st level spell and just an early game boss killer.
Guiding Bolt followed by Spiritual Weapon (at advantage) is one of my go to combos against a BBEG. I usually upcast Guiding Bolt to level 3 for extra kapow!
While Find Familiar is a great choice for the Magic Initiate feat, it's pretty much a necessity for the Ritual Caster feat.
Command has been my early game MVP. I've shutdown 3 out of the 4 "bosses" I've faced.
I've been playing D&D for almost 40 years. Every game I have ever played has had you roll the damage for each magic missile individually. I don't care WHAT Mike Mearls tweets. That's the way we play it at every table I run (and currently play at). That also means the evoker wizard gets to add their INT mod to every missile after a certain level. It actually makes MM worth upcasting at that point. ;)
Thing is, some of the bad guys in my game get those kind of bonuses too, so the PCs reap what they sow...
The thing is hex does necrotic damage which alot of things resist, while not alot of things will resist magical piercing/slashing/blunt damage, it balances the rangers mark against hex
Little disappointed Guiding Bolt wasn't on here.
was bane not included with bless because it requires a saving throw?
If you multi-class or pick it up as a feat. Goodberry and life cleric can restore 4 hp per berry.
For magic missiles should have also mentioned it's utility as a concentration breaker. As it forces multiple con saves for each hit. Provided of course shield does not happen.
The list seems pretty good, but entangle is missing IMO. Very good spell.
0:54 when the narrateur and hte editor are having a fight :
used a pixy s my spotter when playing as a warlock i had a nice range build that got eldritch blast to 600 feet since eldritch blast can be curved or bent i'd just have her fly out give me approximate coordinates and bank shots off, she's invisible and didn't provoke enemies so it was perfect launching volleys oof mortar shots either around cover or through the woods.
Catapult is hugely underrated
Normal damage for lvl1 spells
if you have multiple targets in your line there is a bigger chance to actually hit something
But best of all is the utility of it.
Poor man's telekinis for a small level 1 slot
Cast darkness on a stone and catapult it to the enemy's and laugh
While ambushing sling objects towards your enemy's from the other side of where you actually are.
Have a fighter that can disarm people? sling their weapon 90 feet away
Magical bludgeoning is also never resisted
Bonus points when you are a sorcerer with subtle meta-magic. Let enemy's believe their ally just threw something at them to make them fight among themself
A Druid with Flame Blade can use Absorb Elements pretty well.
Just wanted to drop in and say the Oath of Vengance Paladins do also have Hunters Mark
Ah yes, the "Spell Initiate" Feat. Also the Card Pack is called "Magic Ruler" :P
Those evil DM's watching this (and crazy players), remember the most powerful thing about magic missile. While you roll the damage ONCE, each missile is a separate packet of damage. That means that mage holding concentration has to make as many con saves as you put missiles into his face. Just food for thought.
Magic missile targeted at concentrating mage = pure pain and misery for him.
Basically triple disadvantage concentration check
@@senorelroboto2 i think it's quite enough)
Edit - didn't check the comments before leaving my comment. I'll leave it in since it contains a lesson learned, but ya, you can ignore the main point.
You forgot the biggest benefit of magic missile. It is completely broken when trying to break an enemies concentration, since each missile is considered a different attack.
I accidently killed my warlock player who had polymorphed into a giant ape while he was at low hp. He was trying to run after the big bad who was trying to escape, and the big bads mage allies both cast 5th magic missiles. That was 14 concentration checks. He failed after the 5th, I think, then the 8th, I believe, took him unconscious, and obviously the rest killed him outright from failed death saves.
Luckily the cleric was there to cast revivify.
It was a hard learned lesson for me, ALWAYS act with ONE creature at a time. Had I only done the first caster, he would've been knocked out of polymorph, and brought to low hp, allowing the second one to cast hold person or something.
"Healing word may be seen as overpowered sometimes, cuz it kinda is"
*Me who's playing a 4th lvl Sard (3rd lvl Sorcerer 1th lvl bard) with the twinned spell meta magic* c:
Should have just gone with 4 levels of Divine Soul Sorcerer and skipped Bard entirely.
@@trapical Yeah, but wild magic :o
Also we're a bit new, so we're sticking to the base PHB :)
Wait a second, all Magic Missile darts deal the same damage? The description says "A dart deals 1d4 + 1" so I always assumed you roll for every dart.
Yeah that's exactly how I read it, the same way as Scorching Ray or Eldritch Blast
If a life cleric gets goodberry it becomes the best healing spell in the game. V Human can have a 40hp heal at level 1 with 1 spell slot and it has insane scaling.
No Shield of faith I increase your AC by 2 as a bonus action for a minute is pretty damn good
Magic Missile is the simple option, but you're sleeping on Catapult. Worse damage type and save to avoid damage are negatives, for sure. But higher damage, higher range, better scaling, and only somatic component so can use from hidden and stay hidden are all positives. And that's not even considering the ability to throw an acid flask, holy water, alchemist's fire, or a net to get nutty damage or damage+control. If your DM allows, you can throw 5 acid flasks tied together at once for almost 50 avg dmg with a 1st level spell. This is not something that probably should be allowed, but even without that, Catapult slays.