Author: Rebel Lisa

Have you ever dreamed of hurting your enemies with their literal nightmares?

Perhaps they haunt you with their worst fears and possibly cause a lot of psychological damage in the process?

Well, Phantasmal Killer is the answer. It is another spell-like Eldritch Blast

Phantasmal Killer Spell:

Type: 4th-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V S
Duration: Concentration, Up to 1 minute

You take advantage of a creature’s nightmares to create an illusion that only manifests to them.

The target has to save a wisdom, and if it fails, it will go into a fearful state during the spell.

In addition, the target must make an additional Wisdom Coil every turn. And if they fail, they take massive 4d10 psychic damage, which is increased by an extra d10 per level above 4th.

Who gets Phantasmal Killer?

Phantasmal Killer is one of the best bard spells that are exclusive to magicians.

Wizards have access to most illusion spells, and this is one of the best.

Phantom Killer Uses:

Doing 4d10 psychological damage during a save or suck throw can be very good

Especially against enemies with little wisdom, 4d10 is an incredible amount of damage for them with the potential of ten turns.

So every time you do any damage, that’s an average of 22 psychological damage per failure.

Phantasmal Killer relies on saves. But again, he can do a lot of damage against the right enemy.

So for three consecutive failures, the average damage is 66.

For five consecutive failures, the average damage is 110.

And if the lucky lady lets you hit every time, you can deal an average of 220 damage, which is a constant output against debuffed enemies on every roll.

The fact that I am adding the fear condition really helps as it will be at a disadvantage in all skill checks. That this spell has a long life after the first.

Since it doesn’t always specify where the illusion is, it looks like you’re forcing the target to always see the illusion as it’s meant to mess with their head, and it appears to be designed that way but relies on DM Interpretation.

Psychic is one of the damage that creatures have the least resistance to, so it can hit hard.

Thematically you can really scare a creature and all.

Phantasmal Killer Building Idea

Wizards are rare with their subclasses.

But School of Illusion is a good option for this.

Chronurgy Magic lets you force enemies to replay, so it can be a great combination with this spell.

War Magic also helps you a lot with your savings, allowing you to stay focused longer.

War magic can act as if you learned to stay focused, which helps a lot with many different illusion spells.

Chronurgy Magic helps you “play with time,” which can work with illusions, allowing people to accept them.

So thematically any character who can punish other characters with their worst fears and nightmares can really work well here because it adds so much flavor.

For a DM, any creature that knows that this spell can work incredibly well for the taste. Especially if you know the background stories of your characters well.

If a character has killed a particular person who is special to him, a creature may chase him with the memory of discovering his dead body.

Or if a character has a deadly fear of owlbears, jelly cubes, heights or the like.

Phantasmal Killer has been a great spell in terms of flavour, just like most other illusion spells.

The more creative you are here, the better you will perform.

Phantasmal force is similar to the phantasmal killer, it is another powerful illusion spell. This force is supposed to be much more versatile than the rest.

Phantasmal Force Spell:

Type: 2nd-Level Illusion
Casting time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Phantasmal Force crafts an illusion that takes place in the mind of a creature that you can see within your range. It must make an intelligent saving throw otherwise it perceives the illusion as real.

This type of illusion can cause 1d6 damage per turn, while the damage is dependent on the kind of illusion that you decide upon, which will be explained more in the section below.

It can also inflict certain conditions upon the creature depending on the illusion.

The creature, on its turn, can also make an investigation check versus your spell save DC, to try and figure out it is actually an illusion.

Who Gets Phantasmal Force?

The spell can be accessed by Bards, Sorcerers, and Wizards and they all gain this spell when they gain access to 2nd Level Spells.

This totally makes sense, as these are the classes that gain access to most of the illusion spells.

Phantasmal Force: Uses & Utility

The best thing about this illusion is its ability to impose pseudo status conditions, and it is excellent for crowd control of target.

However, the nature of this spell, and with most of the other illusion spells, the rules will vary significantly from one dungeon master to another.

For example, you can create a pit of lava around or near the creature. If the creature spent stays in lava, it would take 1d6 fire damage. You could stack it with a fear condition to force the creature through the lava to take damage.

Moreover, you can make a basket or blindfold around the creature’s eyes and until you realize that the illusion is not real (i.e., you are going to remove the basket, and your hands are going through it)

Also, you can do something similar with a swarm of bees or something. Other options include believing you are submerged in a bucket of water, in a forest fire, etc.

Like most of the other illusions, the DM has to decide how the creatures respond to it.

But this spell allows the creature to act as realistically.

If you try to ‘tie’ a creature with an illusory rope, it will try to escape and realize that the rope is an illusion when its arms pass through it.

This spell has its niche. And it can do quite well.

But it’s greatly a wild card due to its reliance on DM’s interpretation. There are some other spells that can definitely do more, and the little illusion is probably a better illusion spell when you consider the versatility, utility, and economy of spell slot.

Build Ideas

College of Whispers Bard

Since the College of Whispers Bard is all about acquiring knowledge and then exploiting that knowledge, an illusion spell can really fit thematically and optimally.

Phantasmal Force can be used to try to extract information from a creature. It fits very well with the manipulation of this subclass.

For example, make the creature believe there is a lava pit next to it while you have it tied to a chair and threaten to throw it away if it doesn’t cooperate. The same can be done with a pool full of piranhas, sour … you get the idea.

Channel your intimate villain and let your imagination run wild.

Phantasmal Force is a good illusion spell, but others may be better suited to the target of this class.

Illusion wizard

Since magicians have subclasses based on each game mode, the illusion mage is better suited for illusion magic.

You don’t really get anything but malleable illusions, allowing you to manipulate the illusion during the spell.

Thematically it certainly fits best.

But optimally, there are better options. Phantasmal Force lends itself to creativity, but so do all illusion spells in their own way.

But since wizards can change spells from time to time, it doesn’t hurt to pick this up at lower levels. So if it doesn’t work, feel free to change it.

What is Eldritch Blast?

Eldritch Blast is a beam of enormous energy towards a creature target within the range. It is used to make a ranged spell against the target. On hitting the target, it gives 1d10 force damage.

This spell creates more than one beam when you reach higher levels. Eldritch Blast contains two beams at the 5th level, three beams at the 11th level, and four beams at the 17th level. You can easily change the direction of the beams either towards one target or multiple. It makes a separate attack roll for each beam.

Eldritch Blast is considered as the premier cantrip for the Warlock class. It was a class feature that all Warlocks received. It is better than any other damaging Warlock cantrip. There are other attacks also such as Phantasmal Force.

Here we will discuss more about Eldritch Blast 5th Edition Spell details and why you should choose it to maximize its potential.

Eldritch Blast Spell Details:

School: Evocation
Level: Cantrip
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 120 feet
Components: Verbal, Somatic
Duration: Instantaneous

Classes: Warlock

Moreover, this spell sends a bolt of damaging force to a single target. While attacking, you make a ranged spell attack to attempt to hit.

Like other damaging cantrips, it also scales at level 5, 11, and 17, while adding an extra bolt to each level. It uses a d10 damage force, pretty good cantrip already.

At level 2, Warlocks can start learning new Eldritch Invocations, and modifiers about how they or their classwork.

Below are some of the invocations that can enhance your Eldritch Blast, and their benefits of each.

Eldritch D&D Invocations:

Agonizing Blast

This invocation allows you to add your charisma modifier to damage rolls, which no other cantrip can do.

It provides a minimum amount of damage at low levels, letting you keep up with martial characters. But at higher levels, it multiplies with the additional blasts.

Eldritch Spear

This Spear invocation raises the range of Eldritch Blast from 120 to 300 feet. This becomes situational as most of the fights that happens are within 60 feet, not 120

While, on the other hand, being able to attack from 300 feet allows you to start attacking as soon as you see your target. And it also makes it almost impossible for a fleeing, low health target to escape from it.

Grasp of Hadar

This invocation can make your blasts to easily pull a target that is 10 feet closer to you. And for most Warlocks, this presents far more risk than reward.

There are some exceptions that when it could be useful and when it’s not are; If the target is at the edge of the hazard, or if you’re a well armored Hexblade that can easily afford to be in close quarters.

Lance of Lethargy

This invocation allows one blast per turn to easily lower a creature’s movement speed by 10 feet closer to you.

Lance of lethargy invocation is generally more useful, as it not only prevents your target from reaching you, but also makes it harder for them to go anywhere else.

It’s a solid control added to the spell.

Repelling Blast

As pull and push are discussed now this invocation can push a target 10 feet backward each time it hits. It does the job very well than Lance of Lethargy, it is able to push up to 40 feet at level 17 also. Generally, it’s used to prevent any target from reaching towards you, as well as hazard effects like Grasp of Hadar.

Final Verdict:

Eldritch Blast is one of the strongest of Warlock cantrips. It acts as d10 using a universally effective damage type. It can be modified also, to do some extra damage. If you take both the Spell Sniper feat, and the warlock invocation Eldritch Spear, this cantrip can have a total range of 600 feet.

Every Warlock should try this in one of their cantrips unless they really feel the need to choose something else for themselves with reasons. But for new warlocks that are looking to spell, GamingSpell wishes you the best of luck in combat with your signature cantrip.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions