One of the most appealing and rewarding parts of Dungeons and Dragons is using your imagination to bring your setting to life. There are not a lot of guidelines on how to do so within the official sourcebooks. But have no fear; a DM with over 30 years of experience and multiple homebrewed settings can be your guide for this particular side of D&D experience.
This article will discuss creating custom spells for D&D 5E, although these methods can be used for any of the editions. We will look briefly at the reasons behind creating custom spells and then discuss two distinct approaches for doing so.
Why Create Your Own Spells?
Why would a DM or a Player custom-create (or “homebrew”) their own spells? It boils down to one of two answers. First, the DM wants to contribute to a unique feel in their setting, or a player wishes to add a unique flavor to their character.
The second reason is that there simply isn’t a spell that does exactly what they wish it could do. If you are a player, be sure to work with your DM to include any of your creative ideas into the story or setting of your game session.
There are two methods for resolving these types of issues. The first method is reskinning or tweaking existing content to fit your needs. With over 450 official spells available in D&D 5E, there is a wide range of good ideas and starting points. This does not even include spells from the Unearthed Arcana, previous editions, or official and unofficial third-party content.
Reskinning an Existing Spell
Reskinning or making a small change to an existing spell is relatively easy and is the most common way of addressing the creative needs of GMs and their players. Still, before you start working on this, check if the spell you envision, or otherwise something very similar to it, already exists – as I just said, there is a lot of variety, and making yourself aware of what is already available might completely change your mind. Even if you end up going through with the idea, acquainting yourself with existing spells could go a long way in helping you create your own.
Often, a simple tweak or change is enough to give you the desired outcome. It could involve as little as changing the spell’s type of damage, such as changing a Fireball into an Ice Ball. Some minor changes to adjust the spell to your needs can include changing the time needed to cast the spell, what class can cast the spell, the duration, or raising/lowering the damage. These simple tweaks allow for a wide range of effects without significantly changing most spells.
The tweak can also involve being more straightforward in describing the magic when used. For example, one of my favorite characters I’ve played was a wizard who studied Necromancy. I wanted to play into the feel of Necromancy, but I had Magic Missile as one of the spells – not a pretty menacing staple of the occult. My DM allowed me the freedom to describe what the spell looked like. So, instead of little balls or darts of green energy, I described it as a black mist that shot out three purplish laughing skulls that streaked towards the target. Nothing else was changed about the spell, and it worked perfectly to fit what I desired for my character.
Creating a Unique Spell from Scratch
I use six steps to homebrew a unique spell if Reskinning an existing spell isn’t sufficient for my needs. While the intent of each step is pretty simple, the actual process can be a bit complicated and time-consuming. We will cover some considerations to make it easier for you as a DM (or player).
The first step is the analysis phase. Some considerations that should be made here are what do you want the spell to do or look like, what the setting of your game session is like, and the in-game factors – such as how one would research or create the spell, what downtime is needed, what gold cost is required, how long research would take, and what components will be required.
There are some helpful questions to ask yourself during the analysis phase:
- What is the source of magic in your setting, and how does it manifest?
- For example, all magic could be gifted by the gods and requires a blood ritual.
- Is magic common and used in everyday living (high-magic setting), or is it a heavily guarded secret practiced by only a few people (low-magic setting)?
- What genre is the setting (fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk, cyberpunk, etc.)?
- What would magic look and feel like in each of these settings?
- What is the theme of the setting (Horror, Survival, Apocalyptic, etc.)?
For example, let’s say you want a spell that will catapult your character and another party member across a chasm or into the midst of enemies. I would begin by looking at some existing spells, such as Misty Step, Dimension Door, and Teleport. Each of these is similar to moving one or more characters to the desired location. After looking at these spells, you should get a pretty good feel for what might be required.
The second step is to write out a flavor description of how you want the spell to feel and look. Don’t try to do everything at once to make this step easier. Start by just describing the effect. Don’t give it a level yet – choose damage, or decide on the spell’s components. All of the detail comes after the initial concept is set. For our example of a spell used to catapult characters, I imagine a giant magical hand picking them up and tossing them to the desired location or a catapult manifested from golden energy.
The third step is to add mechanics (existing ones that fit your flavor should work excellent). The three spells I mentioned earlier will give us a solid guideline for our Catapult Person spell: let’s start with the range of effects, casting time, school of magic, duration of the spell, and components.
Range of Effects
For the scope of the impact, we can see that the Dimension Door has a 500-foot range, Misty Step has a 30-foot range, and Teleport has up to a 100-foot range. So, a good guideline for our Catapult spell would be between 60 to 120 feet.
Casting Time
Next, casting time is to be considered. Misty Step is a bonus action casting time with the shortest range, but Dimension Door and Teleport both have an action casting time. This tells us our Catapult Person spell of 60+ feet will likely have a casting time of one action.
School of Magic
Deciding on the school of magic is next on our list. The Dimension Door is a 4th-level Conjuration spell, Misty Step is a 2nd-level Conjuration spell, and Teleport is a 7th-level Conjuration spell. This shows us that our Catapult Person spell would be from the Conjuration school of magic and is likely to be between the 4th and 7th level as a spell.
Spell Duration
Next is the duration of the spell. Dimension Door has a period of Instantaneous, Misty Step has a period of Instantaneous, and Teleport also has a period of Instantaneous. So, our Catapult Person spell should also have an instantaneous duration.
Components
The last section that we will look at in this section are the components. Try to give more potent spells more components and weaker ones less. Utility spells can often be used with a single component, only verbal or only somatic, to make them more helpful in challenging situations where players may be silenced or restrained.
Dimension Door only has verbal components, and the same goes for Misty Step and Teleport. This tells us that our Catapult Person spell should also only have verbal components.
Next, you would add damage, attack rolls, saving throws, etc. For our example of a Catapult Person spell, assuming that it doesn’t do damage and is only used as a means of movement, I have skipped these mechanics as they do not apply to this particular example.
However, here are the Spell Creation Chart numbers from the DMG as a guideline to assist in this endeavor if you do need to account for these mechanics for your own spell. If our Catapult Person spell were to damage, we would use the chart to determine the amount: I would say that this spell is a 5th-level spell, and it affects multiple targets. So, according to the chart, it should do 8d6 damage and likely include a Dex save for the target and the catapulted characters. A successful save likely to be half the damage.
| Spell Level | One Target | Multiple Targets |
| Cantrip | 1d10 | 1d6 |
| 1st | 2d10 | 2d6 |
| 2nd | 3d10 | 4d6 |
| 3rd | 5d10 | 6d6 |
| 4th | 6d10 | 7d6 |
| 5th | 8d10 | 8d6 |
| 6th | 10d10 | 11d6 |
| 7th | 11d10 | 12d6 |
| 8th | 12d10 | 13d6 |
| 9th | 15d10 | 14d6 |
And here is a helpful chart from Master the Dungeon, one of many of their PDF downloads and printables they send to your inbox if you sign up for their newsletter. If you don’t want it as a PDF, it’s still great to use as a checklist for the entire process.
Fourth step is about balancing and finally deciding on a spell level for your custom spell. So, how do you go about balancing a spell? For starters, you examine its effects and ask some critical questions:
- Is this spell a better version of another spell?
- Is there ever a reason to use other spells if I have this one?
- Is this a helpful spell?
- Is this spell too general/specific?
These broad questions weed out a lot of spell issues right off the bat.
If the spell is a better version of another spell, either scrap it or put it one or more spell levels above the other.
If this spell becomes your go-to spell and you would use this over all others, it’s too strong. Try breaking it into several more minor spells or weakening its effects.
If the spell is helpful, you’ll know as soon as you test it. If you answered “no” to this but still want to have the spell for flavor, make it a Cantrip or a low-level roleplay spell.
If your spell is too specific, it’s not practical. For example, a spell that makes goblins break out in a rash – it’s funny, yes, but not super practical. Try to open the spell up and apply it to low-CR creatures instead. If the spell is too general, it becomes over-useful and needs to be tightened up to keep it from being the only thing you ever use.
You can see how questions like these can easily lead to actionable steps to balance out the spell. However, not all parts of a spell are so cut and dry.
Step 5: Playtesting and Final Tweaks
Step five is to playtest and ask for advice or feedback from other content creators, DMs, and players. How much guidance and feedback you want to receive will depend on the use of the spell. If it is for one character or a minor part of the setting, you can manage with just the feedback from your gaming group.
However, if this homebrew project will be used for commercial purposes or is a significant part of your setting, you likely want to get a wide range of opinions from various DMs and players. The online TTRPG community is often an excellent tool for feedback of this type. Be prepared for this part of the process to be time-consuming, as you want a wide range of opinions and as much feedback as possible before making final tweaks to your custom spell. However, it’s definitely worth it.
The final step in the process is to tweak the spell if needed. This usually entails some minor changes to reflect the feedback you have received and polishing the spell to make it suitable for use at your gaming table.
By following this process, you should have at least created the base for a unique and flavorful spell perfect for your setting or character. I hope that this process has guided you in bringing your imagination to life and enhanced your game sessions.
