Spells with Drawbacks

How many 5E spells come with built-in drawbacks? More than I would have expected. And they raise some interesting questions. A (non-exhaustive) list:

Friends specifically states that after it’s over that the subject knows and “becomes hostile” to you. Charm Person also notes that the target knows they were charmed after it’s over, but does not stipulate any particular reaction. Does this imply some non-negligible number of charm victims who are OK with it? In a high magic setting, would periodic enchantments and compulsions just be a fact of life that people have sort of grown to accept?

Augury, as a ritual, is a spell that characters could profitably spam in campaigns where strict time records are not kept. Rituals collectively strain 5E’s focus on resource management by making something free in many instances. But Augury has an inbuilt, cumulative chance of producing a random reading on successive attempts before a long rest, as the spirits get increasingly annoyed by all the cold calls. This is dramatically far more interesting than the resource management games of normal spells. Entire games have built magic systems on this kind of escalation, and for good reason.

Haste eats the recipient’s turn after it ends, a pretty tangible drawback for a concentration spell that may drop in the middle of a fight. If characters want to betray an NPC ally, they should confront a dangerous monster, Haste the NPC to “help” them, and then immediately end the spell. Free round of dogpiling on the unfortunate fool.

Contact Other Plane features D&D’s bad habit of using “insanity” interchangeably with a more figurative sort of fantasy madness. Beyond that, Contact Other Plane’s drawback of an intelligence save to avoid damage and temporary madness does a neat bit of implicit storytelling incorporated in the rules here. If a wizard takes the spell, they have a pretty good shot at making the save, with proficiency in the Intelligence save and a high intelligence score. Warlocks also have Contact Other Plane in their spell list, but with no intelligence save proficiency – and almost certainly a lower intelligence score – using the spell is a riskier proposition for them, which fits with the dangerous path warlocks take to achieve power and knowledge. 

Delayed Blast Fireball produces a “glowing bead” that can be grabbed and thrown with a successful Dexterity saving throw, including an opponent palming it and whipping it back at you. Feature or bug? 

Teleport reminds me that while I do not like 5E’s habit of hiding custom, non-standard random resolution mechanics within spell descriptions, the Teleport table is one of the better ones. The levels of familiarity provide a reason to scout or gather intelligence. Mishaps impose a damage tax that could be meaningful if the characters are teleporting into danger. The “Off Target” and “Similar Area” results provide great opportunities for unexpected, emergent scenarios that complicate the characters lives. 

I would consider applying the Teleport table to more spells: perhaps Plane Shift, which as written defers more to DM discretion. Even Sending (which includes a paltry 5% miss chance when the recipient is not on the same plane) could benefit from the table – probably with lower stakes, but producing interesting results for “dialing the wrong number.”