Let's Talk Tactics - Battlefield Control Spells, Part 3
Now that we’ve talked about the nature-based and elemental-driven battlefield control spells, it’s onto the most commonly used group of control spells, wall spells. Coming in various shapes and sizes, the wall spells can be used to redirect incoming enemies, close off escape routes and provide the wizard something to hide behind after they’ve used up all their spell slots.
Let’s take another look at the list of the spells that we've been using to control the battlefield, with the spells in bold being the one's we shall discuss today:
Cantrips - Create Bonfire, Mold Earth
1st Level - Entangle, Fog Cloud, Grease
2nd - Darkness, Flaming Sphere, Gust of Wind, Moonbeam, Silence, Spike Growth, Web
3rd - Call Lightning, Erupting Earth, Major Image, Plant Growth, Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud, Wall of Sand, Wall of Water, Wind Wall
4th - Control Water, Hallucinatory Terrain, Sickening Radiance, Wall of Fire
5th - Cloudkill, Control Winds, Dawn, Insect Plague, Maelstrom, Transmute Rock, Wall of Force, Wall of Light, Wall of Stone, Wrath of Nature
6th - Blade Barrier, Programmed Illusion, Wall of Ice, Wall of Thorns
7th - Forcecage, Mirage Arcane, Reverse Gravity, Whirlwind
8th - Control Weather, Earthquake, Incendiary Cloud, Tsunami
9th - Prismatic Wall, Storm of Vengeance
That’s quite a few spells! Some have been around since the early editions, such as the wall of fire and the wall of force. Others are relatively new, such as the wall of light, and some fell by the wayside as the editions progressed - rest in peace wall of fog and wall of iron. Each has its own pluses and minuses. Some are location and terrain specific. Some walls can be moved through, and some cannot, and the prismatic wall is an insanely powerful 9th level spell that is rarely used. The wall spells can be organized in many ways, so let’s take a look at how they can be used.
Just Passing Through
Most creatures can get through these walls, but they require a little more effort than normal. Objects, such as arrows, may have a harder time, and your pseudodragon is going to hate the wind wall.
Wall of Sand
Classes - Wizard
Spell Level - 3rd, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - Blinded
Range/Area - 90 ft., Duration - 10 Minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
You can walk through a Wall of Sand, but 10 feet of swirling sand is no joke.
If you are looking for cover effects, this is the lowest level wall spell at your disposal. Line of sight is blocked, but remember that you’ll need to place the spell properly if you want to obtain full cover. We spoke about the benefits of cover here, so if you have questions on how and where to put down your 30 ft. x10 ft. x 10 ft. wall of sand, I recommend clicking on the link. You can move through the wall and not take any damage, but it’s going to take you a bit to get where you want to go as you must spend 3 feet of movement for every 1 foot you want to travel. That stinks for creatures with a standard 30 feet of movement since they will spend at least one round in the sand, even if they start directly in front of it. You’ll also be blinded while you’re in the swirling wall of sandy awesomeness, and for anyone that has ever tried to get sand out of their eyes, it feels like you should suffer some residual effects for a round or two after you travel through it.
Wall of Water
Classes - Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level - 3rd, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - Blinded.
Range/Area - 60 ft. (see below), Duration - 10 Minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
You have a bit more flexibility on how you want this wall to form when you cast it, as you can create a wall up to 30 feet long, 10 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or make a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick. The water acts as difficult terrain, so it’s not as hard to get through as the wall of sand, but you will be soaking wet afterward. Individuals and objects will look a little blurry when they are behind the wall, but you can still see them, so there are no cover benefits. You are in good shape if you’re fighting against a legion of archers or spellcasters with a penchant for only using fire-based spells. Arrows, throwing axes, and all other ranged attacks are at disadvantage when they pass through the water, and fire damage is cut in half.
The odd part about this spell is the lack of clarity of what happens when the water freezes. When someone tries to cast a cold damage-dealing spell through the wall, a minimum of one 5 foot section of the wall will freeze solid. Each frozen section has AC 5 and 15 hit points, and when it is reduced to 0 hit points and explodes dramatically (ok, maybe not, but it sounds cool) and a gaping 5-foot hole in the wall has been created. There seems to be a lot of potential for spell combos here but check with your DM a couple before you try anything fancy. If nothing else, you can create a short term choke point, funneling all the baddies through a single opening until they can crack more ice.
Wind Wall
Classes - Druid, Ranger
Spell Level - 3rd, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - 3d8 bludgeoning
Range/Area - 120 ft. (see below), Duration - 1 Minute, Concentration Required - Yes
The last of the 3rd level wall spells, the swirling winds that make up this wall, deal damage unlike the other two. Now you’ll have to cast it directly onto the creatures you are attempting to harm, and even then, they get to make a Strength save to half the damage.
I think it's the weakest of the 3rd wall spells. It's the only one that can potentially cause damage and is more malleable when you create it (up to 50 feet long, 15 feet high, and 1 foot thick), but unless you're a pixie or a gaseous cloud, you can pass through it no problem. Range attacks auto miss, which puts it a step above the wall of water in this regard, but all creatures other than small and tiny flying creatures can walk through it as if the wall wasn’t there. All of that, along with the fact it has a shorter duration, makes it much more of a situational specific spell than the others. If you’re hunting vampires, surround them with a wall of wind and they won’t be able to pass through unless they stay in humanoid form. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste the spell slot.
It’s Going to Hurt
You can get through these walls if you’re willing to take some damage.
Wall of Fire
Classes - Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level - 4th, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - 5d8 fire
Range/Area - 120 ft. (see below), Duration - 1 Minute, Concentration Required - Yes
Spider 1 can feel the warmth/Spider 2 is in the danger zone/Spider 3 had the wall land on it. Ouch
The wall of fire is a classic, and there is a lot to like about this spell when you are trying to gain the upper hand on the field of combat. You can create a wall up to 60 feet long, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or if you are a Johnny Cash fan, you can make a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick. The thickness of the spell is misleading since, in reality, the area of effect when speaking about damage is 10 feet. As the caster, you can make the bad guys feel the heat (I know, horrible pun) while you stand behind the wall with no ill effects. Those on the wrong side of the wall will need to make a Dexterity save when they are within 10 feet of the wall or take 5d8 fire damage. The damage scales fairly well, doing an additional 1d8 for every slot higher than 4th you cast it at. The biggest drawback to this wall spell is that fire resistance is the most common of all resistances in the 5th edition, so make sure you make a nature/arcana check to make sure your enemies won’t walk through the fire unharmed.
Wall of Light
Classes - Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level - 5th, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - 4d8 radiant/blinded
Range/Area - 120 ft. (see below), Duration - 10 Minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
It may not be solid, but it sure is bright, emitting 120 feet of bright light and an additional 120 dim light. It is so bright that it hurts, as when the wall appears, everyone gets to make a Constitution save or take 4d8 radiant damage and are blinded by the light. If you are somehow dumb enough to end your turn in the wall, you’ll take 4d8 damage.
The wall of light does more than provide a barrier your enemies will have to work around, but it’s an offensive weapon, unlike other battlefield control spells we’ve discussed so far. If you are content to bask in the glory of your shiny wall and not do much else, you can always have the wall make an attack. That’s right, folks, the wall can attack! You can use your action to fire off a radiant light beam with a range of 60 feet, and if you hit, your laser beam will do 4d8 damage. This will reduce the wall’s length by 10 feet, giving you 6 beams of radiant light damage. You’ll have some options when the wall ceases to be an effective method of control, the least of which is saving valuable spells slots when the fight goes longer than you expected.
Wall of Thorns
Classes - Druid
Spell Level - 6th, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - 7d8 piercing/slashing
Range/Area - 120 ft. (see below), Duration - 10 Minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
Walking through a 10 foot high, 5-foot thick wall of briars sucks. When it appears in your area, I hope you are dexterous, or you’ll be taking 7d8 piercing damage. If you were lucky enough not to be in the spell’s path when it was cast but are stuck on the wrong side of it, you have two options. First, you can force your way through it slowly and painfully, as that seemingly short 5-foot trip takes up 20 feet of your movement. Worse, when you enter the thorns, you once again need to make a Dexterity saving throw or take 7d8 slashing damage. Your other option is to walk around and avoid death by a thousand tiny cuts. Now, what do I have that allows me to double Dash on my turn.
Oh, and it blocks line of sight too.
Not Going Through It
10ft x 10ft panels of stone can create a bridge so that you can run away when the horde attacks
Wall of Stone
Classes - Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level - 5th, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - None
Range/Area - 120 ft., Duration - 10 Minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
This is so much more than a wall that is really should be renamed. The wall of stone provides a different kind of control flexibility than the other wall spells, as you can use the spell to create objects on the battlefield to assist and prevent movement around it. Is there a river in the way and you can’t swim? Build a bridge. Defending a castle and a wall collapses? Use a wall of stone to build a new section of ramparts.
Wall of Force
Classes - Wizard
Spell Level - 5th, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - None
Range/Area - 120 ft. (see below), Duration - 10 Minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
An invisible wall of immense strength, the wall of force has been used to trap foes since the 1970s. It’s less flexible than other walls spells in the sense that you cannot make it all twisty and turny, but there are several ways you can shape this wall. The wall can be horizontal, vertical, or at an angle. The wall doesn’t have to sit on any surface if you don’t want it to. It doens’t even need to be a wall if you don’t want it to, as you can shape it into a dome or a sphere with a radius of up to 10 feet. You can even make a shape made up of ten 10-foot-by-10-foot panels, with the only requirement being that they touch each other.
The wall is impregnable. Nothing can pass through the wall, but it’s a double-edged sword. You may not be able to have arrows hit you, but you can’t fire arrows at the bad guys either. DM’s like the spell since there are no pesky hit points to keep track of, and the only thing that destroys it is a disintegrate spell. It is the ultimate in protection and crowd control. A wall of force is a great spell to use to split your enemy troops when indoors since you can build a wall from floor to ceiling in most rooms, forcing half the bad guys to watch as you slaughter their friends. With a 10 minute duration, you can even have a little snack amongst the corpses, then drop concentration and kill the rest of them on a full stomach.
Two Walls in One
Wall of Ice
Classes - Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level - 6th, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - 10d6 cold
Range/Area - 120 ft. (see below), Duration - 10 Minutes, Concentration Required - Yes
A 100 foot wall of ice is really long.
A 100-foot long wall of 1-foot thick ice, hemispherical dome, a sphere with a radius of up to 10 feet, or you can shape a flat surface made up of ten 10-foot-square panels that touch each other. All are at your disposal when you cast this spell. If someone happens to be in a space the wall is trying to occupy when you cast it, they must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 10d6 cold damage. Oddly, ice only has an armor class of 12 and 30 hit points, but it isn’t surprising that it is vulnerable to fire damage. Destroy a section, and you leave behind a wall of cold air that doesn’t 10d6 cold damage on a failed Constitution save. The damage stacks well, too, as you add 2d6 to the wall damage and 1d6 to the cold air damage for every level above 6th you cast it at.
You could say that the wall of ice is two types of cold spells wrapped up in one. When in ice form, it provides cover and restricts movement since you cannot pass through it by normal means. When in cold air form, it is a damage-dealing wall, forcing your foes to choose between getting frostbite or taking the long way to get to you. Surrounding your enemy can give you some time to position yourself, and if you are fighting mostly melee creatures, it forces them to take some damage before they can reach you.
All the Walls in One
Prismatic Wall
Classes - Wizard
Spell Level - 9th, Casting Time - 1 Action, Damage/Effect - None
Range/Area - 60 ft. (see below), Duration - 10 Minutes, Concentration Required - No
Not sure I ever truly read through the description before, and now that I have, color me impressed. First and foremost, it doesn’t require concentration, which is great. On the downside, you’ll need to place your 90 feet long, 30 feet high, and 1-inch thick multi-colored set of walls carefully, for if you attempt to place the wall so that it passes through a space occupied by a creature, the spell fails, and you can kiss that 9th level spell slot goodbye. It doesn't put off as much light as the wall of light, but if a creature gets within 20 feet of it or starts its turn there, a Constitution saving throw needs to be made, or they are blinded for a minute. Luckily for you, you can pick and choose who can walk through the wall without harm, which includes being affected by the light.
The rainbow wall is made up of 7 layers, each with its own properties:
1. Red. The creature takes 10d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. While this layer is in place, nonmagical ranged attacks can't pass through the wall. The layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 25 cold damage to it.
2. Orange. The creature takes 10d6 acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. While this layer is in place, magical ranged attacks can't pass through the wall. The layer is destroyed by a strong wind.
3. Yellow. The creature takes 10d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. This layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 60 force damage to it.
4. Green. The creature takes 10d6 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A passwall spell, or another spell of equal or greater level that can open a portal on a solid surface, destroys this layer.
5. Blue. The creature takes 10d6 cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. This layer can be destroyed by dealing at least 25 fire damage to it.
6. Indigo. On a failed save, the creature is restrained. It must then make a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If it successfully saves three times, the spell ends. If it fails its save three times, it permanently turns to stone and is subjected to the petrified condition. The successes and failures don't need to be consecutive; keep track of both until the creature collects three of a kind. While this layer is in place, spells can't be cast through the wall. The layer is destroyed by bright light shed by a daylight spell or a similar spell of equal or higher level.
7. Violet. On a failed save, the creature is blinded. It must then make a Wisdom saving throw at the start of your next turn. A successful save ends the blindness. If it fails that save, the creature is transported to another plane of the GM's choosing and is no longer blinded. (Typically, a creature that is on a plane that isn't its home plane is banished home, while other creatures are usually cast into the Astral or Ethereal planes.) This layer is destroyed by a dispel magic spell or a similar spell of equal or higher level that can end spells and magical effects.
None of the layers alone is particularly intense, but when you pass through seven of them at once, that’s seven different types of damage or effects you’ll be subjected to. Trying to destroy them one by one is a multiple round endeavor. I’m not sure about you, but when people say things are all sunshine and rainbows, I’m sure this isn’t what they had in mind.
If you like our articles, love homebrew, and are looking for a fun and active community to talk about all things D&D, consider supporting us on Patreon. Below are some of the benefits we offer:
Access to our Homebrew Horde with over 300 items and counting!
Vote on upcoming Deep Deep topics
Monthly online one-shot adventures
Early access to Deep Dive and Rewind Articles
Even more Homebrew in our Magic Item Monday and Monster Thursday series
More to come!
