Cantrips

Cantrips are minor spells meant to add flavor and interest to your character. They may be used out of combat or in combat as a minor action, but provide no combat benefits. Typically, they don't require any special words to cast or hand gestures, but if a caster is silenced they cannot use cantrips.

Characters who specialize in Arcana can learn up to two cantrips (or more by acquiring special magic items). Here are the number of cantrips that may be learned, depending on the points of Arcana a character has:

0 Arcana - 0 cantrips

4 Arcana - 1 cantrip

8+ Arcana - 2 cantrips

Cantrips are learned from spellbooks, formal education, or other means. Characters with the appropriate arcana can un-learn cantrips and take others, but it requires a good RP reason to do so. Learning a new cantrip takes a few weeks of practice.

Anyone can cast cantrips using cantrip scrolls, even people with no Arcana.

List of Cantrips

Cantrips are still a WIP mechanic. Use the list below as inspiration to create your own custom cantrip(s), and okay your cantrip with a DM before finalizing it.

Dancing Lights

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.

Druidcraft

Whispering to the spirits of nature, you create one of the following effects within range:

• You create a tiny, harmless sensory effect that predicts what the weather will be at your location for the next 24 hours. The effect might manifest as a golden orb for clear skies, a cloud for rain, falling snowflakes for snow, and so on. This effect persists for 1 round.

• You instantly make a flower blossom, a seed pod open, or a leaf bud bloom.

• You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as falling leaves, a puff of wind, the sound of a small animal, or the faint odor of skunk. The effect must fit in a 5-foot cube.

• You instantly light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.

Guidance

You touch one willing creature. Once before the spell ends, the target can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to one ability check of its choice. It can roll the die before or after making the ability check. The spell then ends.

Light

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

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

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 2 feet 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

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

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 DC 15 Arcana check. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

Prestidigitation

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 for 1d4 minutes.

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.

Produce Flame

A flickering flame appears in your hand. The flame remains there for the duration and harms neither you nor your equipment. The flame sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet. The spell ends if you dismiss it as an action or if you cast it again.

You can also attack with the flame, although doing so ends the spell. When you cast this spell, or as an action on a later turn, you can hurl the flame at a creature within 30 feet of you. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 fire damage.

Spare the Dying

You touch a living creature that has 0 hit points. The creature becomes stable. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.

Tongues

This cantrip grants the creature you touch the ability to understand any spoken language it hears. Moreover, when the target speaks, any creature that knows at least one language and can hear the target understands what it says.

Thaumaturgy

You manifest a minor wonder, a sign of supernatural power, within range. You create one of the following magical effects within range:

• Your voice booms up to three times as loud as normal for 1 minute.

• You cause flames to flicker, brighten, dim, or change color for 1 minute.

• You cause harmless tremors in the ground for 1 minute.

• You create an instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, such as a rumble of thunder, the cry of a raven, or ominous whispers.

• You instantaneously cause an unlocked door or window to fly open or slam shut.

• You alter the appearance of your eyes for 1 minute.

If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its 1-minute effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.

True Strike

You point a finger at a target in range. Your magic grants you a brief insight into the target's defenses. VB added: You know the target’s trained skills, and whether it has weakness or resistance to any specific school of magic.

Encrypt

You alter the writing on a scroll or piece of paper, making it unintelligible. A creature that spends a minute or more trying to decipher the text can make an Intelligence check against your spell saving throw DC; success indicates they decipher the text

Ensorcell

You force information into a creature's mind. Choose one creature within range. That creature gains proficiency in a skill or learns a language that the caster knows. The creature retains this knowledge for 1 minute. A creature cannot gain more than one skill or language from subsequent successful casts of this spell.

Animate Dead

Choose a pile of bones or a corpse of a Small or Tiny animal/beast within range. Your spell imbues the target with a foul mimicry of life, raising it as an undead creature. The target becomes a skeletal animal/beast if you chose bones or a zombie animal/beast if you chose a corpse (the GM has the creature's game statistics). The creature is under your control for 1 hour, after which it returns to being a corpse.

Animate Instrument

This spell is a minor magical trick that novice bards and wizards use to impress an audience. You create one of the following magical effects within range:

• You make a musical instrument that weighs no more than 10 pounds hover a few feet above the ground.

• You make a musical instrument play a tune on your behalf using your instrument proficiency for its performance or instrument check. If you are proficient with the instrument and the Performance skill, the check is made with advantage.

• You increase the volume of a musical instrument up to three times as loud as normal.

• You make a musical instrument assume the illusory appearance of another instrument. Any physical interaction with the instrument reveals the illusion.

• You teleport into your hand a musical instrument that you can see within range that weighs no more than 1 pound (e.g. a flute, a shawm, or a viol).

• You interfere with a creature's music performance. The creature must immediately reroll its performance or instrument check with disadvantage.

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.

Arcane Mark

This spell allows you to inscribe your personal rune or mark, which can consist of no more than six characters. The writing can be visible or invisible. An arcane mark spell enables you to etch the rune upon any substance without harm to the material upon which it is placed. If an invisible mark is made, a detect magic spell causes it to glow and be visible, though not necessarily understandable. VB note: this is probably how merchants mark their goods so that they can’t be stolen so easily.

Bend Water (VB note: could be for any element type)

Uttering a sound you unleash your will upon the world to call upon the power of water and shape the world around you. You choose an area of water that you can see within range and that fits within a 5-foot cube and manipulate it in one of the following ways:

• You instantaneously move or otherwise change the flow of the water as you direct, up to 5 feet in any direction. This movement doesn’t have enough force to cause damage.

• You cause the water to form into simple shapes and animate at your direction. This change lasts for 1 hour

• You change the water’s color or opacity. The water must be changed in the same way throughout. This change lasts for up to 1 hour.

• You freeze the water, provided that there are no creatures in it. The water unfreezes in 1 hour.

• You put out one flame in a 5-foot cube causing the spell to end.

If you cast this spell multiple times, any of it's non instantaneous effects last until time runs out or dismiss such an effect as an action.

Ashes

You touch a Medium-sized or smaller corpse and undo the residual life energies that hold its form together, reducing the corpse to fine ashes and leaving any equipment it might be wearing behind. This spell has no effect on constructs or undead. A corpse affected by this spell cannot be turned into a corporeal undead but also cannot be brought back from the dead except by Resurrection.

Beast Senses

You mutter a quick word of power and undergo a small shape shift, altering just your eyes, ears or nose to become those of an animal. When you cast the spell you must specify which part of your body you are altering.

Eagles Eyes. Your eyes gain an raptor- like appearance and you gain advantage on all perception checks involving sight.

Wolfs Ears. Your ears become furry and pointed like a wolf’s ears. You gain advantage on all perception checks involving hearing.

Hounds Nose. Your nose becomes wet and black, with a ridge of fur running to your eyebrows. You gain advantage on all perception checks involving smell.