Bard Spell List

Cantrips (0 Level)

Dancing Lights

Evocation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M (a bit of phosphorus or wychwood, or a glowworm)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You create up to four torch-sized lights within range, making them appear as torches, lanterns, or glowing orbs that hover in the air for the duration. You can also combine the four lights into one glowing vaguely humanoid form of Medium size. Whichever form you choose, each light sheds dim light in a 10- foot radius.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the lights up to 60 feet to a new spot within range. A light must be within 20 feet of another light created by this spell, and a light winks out if it exceeds the spell’s range.

Light

Evocation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, M (a firefly or phosphorescent moss)
Duration: 1 hour
You touch one object that is no larger than 10 feet in any dimension. Until the spell ends, the object sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet.
The light can be colored as you like. Completely covering the object with something opaque blocks the light. The spell ends if you cast it again or dismiss it as an action.
If you target an object held or worn by a hostile creature, that creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw to avoid the spell.

Mage Hand

Conjuration cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
A spectral, floating hand appears at a point you choose within range. The hand lasts for the duration or until you dismiss it as an action. The hand vanishes if it is ever more than 30 feet away from you or if you cast this spell again.
You can use your action to control the hand. You can use the hand to manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial. You can move the hand up to 30 feet each time you use it.
The hand can’t attack, activate magic items, or carry more than 10 pounds.

Mending

Transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (two lodestones)
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell repairs a single break or tear in an object you touch, such as a broken chain link, two halves of a broken key, a torn cloak, or a leaking wineskin. As long as the break or tear is no larger than 1 foot in any dimension, you mend it, leaving no trace of the former damage.
This spell can physically repair a magic item or construct, but the spell can’t restore magic to such an object.

Message

Transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M (a short piece of copper wire)
Duration: 1 round
You point your finger toward a creature within range and whisper a message. The target (and only the target) hears the message and can reply in a whisper that only you can hear.
You can cast this spell through solid objects if you are familiar with the target and know it is beyond the barrier. Magical silence, 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood blocks the spell. The spell doesn’t have to follow a straight line and can travel freely around corners or through openings.

Minor Illusion

Illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: S, M (a bit of fleece)
Duration: 1 minute
You create a sound or an image of an object within range that lasts for the duration. The illusion also ends if you dismiss it as an action or cast this spell again.
If you create a sound, its volume can range from a whisper to a scream. It can be your voice, someone else’s voice, a lion’s roar, a beating of drums, or any other sound you choose. The sound continues unabated throughout the duration, or you can make discrete sounds at different times before the spell ends.
If you create an image of an object—such as a chair, muddy footprints, or a small chest—it must be no larger than a 5-foot cube. The image can’t create sound, light, smell, or any other sensory effect.
Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it.
If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

Prestidigitation

Transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Up to 1 hour
This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following magical effects within range:
• You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor.
• You instantaneously light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.
• You instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than 1 cubic foot.
• You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour.
• You make a color, a small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for 1 hour.
• You create a nonmagical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.

True Strike

Divination cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 round
You extend your hand and point a finger at a target in range. Your magic grants you a brief insight into the target’s defenses.
On your next turn, you gain advantage on your first attack roll against the target, provided that this spell hasn’t ended.

Vicious Mockery

Enchantment cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
You unleash a string of insults laced with subtle enchantments at a creature you can see within range.
If the target can hear you (though it need not understand you), it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 1d4 psychic damage and have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.
This spell's damage increases by 1d4 when you reach 5th level (2d4), 11th level (3d4), and 17th level (4d4).

1st Level

Animal Friendship

1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a morsel of food)
Duration: 24 hours
This spell lets you convince a beast that you mean it no harm. Choose a beast that you can see within range. It must see and hear you. If the beast's Intelligence is 4 or higher, the spell fails. Otherwise, the beast must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for the spell's duration. If you or one of your companions harms the target, the spells ends.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can affect one additional beast t level above 1st.

Bane

1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a drop of blood)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Up to three creatures of your choice that you can see within range must make Charisma saving throws.
Whenever a target that fails this saving throw makes an attack roll or a saving throw before the spell ends, the target must roll a d4 and subtract the number rolled from the attack roll or saving throw.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st.

Charm Person

1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
You attempt to charm a humanoid you can see within range. It must make a Wisdom saving throw, and does so with advantage if you or your companions are fighting it.
If it fails the saving throw, it is charmed by you until the spell ends or until you or your companions do anything harmful to it. The charmed creature regards you as a friendly acquaintance. When the spell ends, the creature knows it was charmed by you.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st. The creatures must be within 30 feet of each other when you target them.

Comprehend Languages

1st-level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of soot and salt)
Duration: 1 hour
For the duration, you understand the literal meaning of any spoken language that you hear. You also understand any written language that you see, but you must be touching the surface on which the words are written. It takes about 1 minute to read one page of text.
This spell doesn’t decode secret messages in a text or a glyph, such as an arcane sigil, that isn’t part of a written language.

Cure Wounds

1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
A creature you touch regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier.
This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.

Detect Magic

1st-level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
For the duration, you sense the presence of magic within 30 feet of you.
If you sense magic in this way, you can use your action to see a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that bears magic, and you learn its school of magic, if any.
The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.

Disguise Self

1st-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
You make yourself—including your clothing, armor, weapons, and other belongings on your person— look different until the spell ends or until you use your action to dismiss it. You can seem 1 foot shorter or taller and can appear thin, fat, or in between. You can’t change your body type, so you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs.
Otherwise, the extent of the illusion is up to you. The changes wrought by this spell fail to hold up to physical inspection. For example, if you use this spell to add a hat to your outfit, objects pass through the hat, and anyone who touches it would feel nothing or would feel your head and hair. If you use this spell to appear thinner than you are, the hand of someone who reaches out to touch you would bump into you while it was seemingly still in midair.
To discern that you are disguised, a creature can use its action to inspect your appearance and must succeed on an Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC.

Faerie Fire

1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Each object in a 20-foot cube within range is outlined in blue, green, or violet light (your choice). Any creature in the area when the spell is cast is also outlined in light if it fails a Dexterity saving throw. For the duration, objects and affected creatures shed dim light in a 10-foot radius.
Any attack roll against an affected creature or object has advantage if the attacker can see it, and the affected creature or object can’t benefit from being invisible.

Feather Fall

1st-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you or a creature within 60 feet of you falls
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, M (a small feather or piece of down)
Duration: 1 minute
Choose up to five falling creatures within range. A falling creature’s rate of descent slows to 60 feet per round until the spell ends.
If the creature lands before the spell ends, it takes no falling damage and can land on its feet, and the spell ends for that creature.

Healing Word

1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
A creature of your choice that you can see within range regains hit points equal to 1d4 + your spellcasting ability modifier. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d4 for each slot level above 1st.

Heroism

1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
A willing creature you touch is imbued with bravery. Until the spell ends, the creature is immune to being frightened and gains temporary hit points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier at the start of each of its turns. When the spell ends, the target loses any remaining temporary hit points from this spell.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st.

Hideous Laughter

1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (tiny tarts and a feather that is waved in the air)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
A creature of your choice that you can see within range perceives everything as hilariously funny and falls into fits of laughter if this spell affects it.
The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or fall prone, becoming incapacitated and unable to stand up for the duration. A creature with an Intelligence score of 4 or less isn’t affected.
At the end of each of its turns, and each time it takes damage, the target can make another Wisdom saving throw. The target has advantage on the saving throw if it’s triggered by damage. On a success, the spell ends.

Identify

1st-level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a pearl worth at least 100 gp and an owl feather)
Duration: Instantaneous
You choose one object that you must touch throughout the casting of the spell. If it is a magic item or some other magic-imbued object, you learn its properties and how to use them, whether it requires attunement to use, and how many charges it has, if any. You learn whether any spells are affecting the item and what they are. If the item was created by a spell, you learn which spell created it.
If you instead touch a creature throughout the casting, you learn what spells, if any, are currently affecting it.

Illusory Script

1st-level illusion (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Components: S, M (a lead-based ink worth at least 10 gp, which the spell consumes)
Duration: 10 days
You write on parchment, paper, or some other suitable writing material and imbue it with a potent illusion that lasts for the duration.
To you and any creatures you designate when you cast the spell, the writing appears normal, written in your hand, and conveys whatever meaning you intended when you wrote the text. To all others, the writing appears as if it were written in an unknown or magical script that is unintelligible. Alternatively, you can cause the writing to appear to be an entirely different message, written in a different hand and language, though the language must be one you know.
Should the spell be dispelled, the original script and the illusion both disappear. A creature with truesight can read the hidden message

Longstrider

1st-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dirt)
Duration: 1 hour
You touch a creature. The target’s speed increases by 10 feet until the spell ends.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st.

Silent Image

1st-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
You create the image of an object, a creature, or some other visible phenomenon that is no larger than a 15-foot cube. The image appears at a spot within range and lasts for the duration. The image is purely visual; it isn’t accompanied by sound, smell, or other sensory effects.
You can use your action to cause the image to move to any spot within range. As the image changes location, you can alter its appearance so that its movements appear natural for the image. For example, if you create an image of a creature and move it, you can alter the image so that it appears to be walking.
Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. A creature that uses its action to examine the image can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the creature can see through the image.

Sleep

1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 90 feet
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of fine sand, rose petals, or a cricket)
Duration: 1 minute
This spell sends creatures into a magical slumber. Roll 5d8; the total is how many hit points of creatures this spell can affect. Creatures within 20 feet of a point you choose within range are affected in ascending order of their current hit points (ignoring unconscious creatures).
Starting with the creature that has the lowest current hit points, each creature affected by this spell falls unconscious until the spell ends, the sleeper takes damage, or someone uses an action to shake or slap the sleeper awake. Subtract each creature’s hit points from the total before moving on to the creature with the next lowest hit points. A creature’s hit points must be equal to or less than the remaining total for that creature to be affected. Undead and creatures immune to being charmed aren’t affected by this spell.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, roll an additional 2d8 for each slot level above 1st.

Speak with Animals

1st-level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
You gain the ability to comprehend and verbally communicate with beasts for the duration. The knowledge and awareness of many beasts is limited by their intelligence, but at minimum, beasts can give you information about nearby locations and monsters, including whatever they can perceive or have perceived within the past day. You might be able to persuade a beast to perform a small favor for you, at the GM’s discretion.

Thunderwave

1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (15-foot cube)
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from you. Each creature in a 15-foot cube originating from you must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d8 thunder damage and is pushed 10 feet away from you. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn’t pushed.
In addition, unsecured objects that are completely within the area of effect are automatically pushed 10 feet away from you by the spell’s effect, and the spell emits a thunderous boom audible out to 300 feet.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.

Unseen Servant

1st-level conjuration (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a piece of string and a bit of wood)
Duration: 1 hour
This spell creates an invisible, mindless, shapeless force that performs simple tasks at your command until the spell ends. The servant springs into existence in an unoccupied space on the ground within range. It has AC 10, 1 hit point, and a Strength of 2, and it can’t attack. If it drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends.
Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object. The servant can perform simple tasks that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine. Once you give the command, the servant performs the task to the best of its ability until it completes the task, then waits for your next command.
If you command the servant to perform a task that would move it more than 60 feet away from you, the spell ends

2nd Level

Animal Messenger

Blindness/Deafness

Calm Emotions

Detect Thoughts

Enhance Ability

Enthrall

Heat Metal

Hold Person

Invisibility

Knock

Lesser Restoration

Locate Animals or Plants

Locate Object

Magic Mouth

See Invisibility

Shatter

Silence

Suggestion

Zone of Truth

3rd Level

Bestow Curse

Clairvoyance

Dispel Magic

Fear

Glyph of Warding

Hypnotic Pattern

Major Image

Nondetection

Plant Growth

Sending

Speak with Dead

Speak with Plants

Stinking Cloud

Tiny Hut

Tongues

4th Level

Compulsion

Confusion

Dimension Door

Freedom of Movement

Greater Invisibility

Hallucinatory Terrain

Locate Creature

Polymorph

5th Level

Animate Objects

Awaken

Dominate Person

Dream

Geas

Greater Restoration

Hold Monster

Legend Lore

Mass Cure Wounds

Mislead

Modify Memory

Planar Binding

Raise Dead

Scrying

Seeming

Teleportation Circle

6th Level

Eyebite

Find the Path

Guards and Wards

Irresistible Dance

Mass Suggestion

Programmed Illusion

True Seeing

7th Level

Arcane Sword

Etherealness

Forcecage

Magnificent Mansion

Mirage Arcane

Project Image

Regenerate

Resurrection

Symbol

Teleport

8th Level

Dominate Monster

Feeblemind

Glibness

Mind Blank

Power Word Stun

9th Level

Foresight

Power Word Kill

True Polymorph