Cantrips inDungeons & Dragonsare spells that cost no spell slots, working almost as the basic attacks for most full spellcasting classes. Yet damage is not all they do, since some can offer support, while others create simple magic tricks to dazzle the local village.
In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, several cantrips have been updated in some way, with most getting upgrades at certain levels. A few cantrips, however, have their changes turn them into essentially different spells, so even if a spell’s name seems familiar to you, be sure to read what it does; you might be surprised.
7Guidance
Guide Others For Longer
Guidance was always a nice spell to have around, even if its impact was small on any given adventure. Basically, you’d touch an ally, and they could add a D4 to their next ability check, and you could cast the spell again whenever someone needs to make a new check; a bit strange to roleplay, but useful nonetheless.
The 2024 Player’s Handbook changesthe spell so you choose a skill, and then the creature adds the D4 to all checks made with that skill for the next minute. That way, you don’t have to cast Guidance over and over, and instead you’re free to do any other actions in your turn.
6Resistance
Finally Helps Resist Damage
The previous version of Resistance was a way to help players with saving throws, letting characters add a D4 to their next check. The 2024 version now has more to do with the word resistance, but it no longer has anything to do with saving throws.
Instead, Resistance lets the affected creature choose an elemental damage type, and reduce the damage taken from that damage by a D4. The real improvement is that, while you can only benefit from this once per turn, you can keep the effect of the Resistance spell for a whole minute.
5Poison Spray
An Actual Attack
Poison Spray is now, like many other cantrips in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, standardized in how it deals its damage. While the damage die is still a D12, its range has been increased from 10 to 30 ft, and you now do a spell attack instead of making a creature make a Constitution saving throw.
This makes Poison Spray an actual spell to consider for many classes, since now the damage and mechanics are on par with things like Firebolt and Eldritch Blast. Since now Warlocks can choose what cantrip they buff with their Eldritch Invocations, Poison Spray can offer more damage in the early levels when dealing with a single target.
4Acid Splash
Proper Area Damage
The change to Acid Splash in the 2024 Player’s Handbook is one that, if you think about it, makes you wonder why it didn’t always work this way. In the previous iteration, Acid Splash allowed you to choose up to 2 creatures next to each other, and have them roll a Dexterity save or suffer damage.
In the 2024 version, you now force the Dexterity saving throw on all creatures in a 5-foot-radius sphere, making a proper splash that deals with multiple opponents. As a cantrip, it is great practice for when Sorcerers and Wizards inevitably get Fireball down the line, so they get used to aiming the sphere in a way that doesn’t harm any allies.
3Friends
Real Social Advantage
The 2024 Player’s Handbook both buffed and nerfed the spell Friends, but the good certainly outweighs the bad. While before the casting was instant, and you gained an advantage on Charisma saving throws against a chosen target, now that target can make a Wisdom saving throw, but if they fail, you gain an advantage in all social checks made against them.
Now, the real change comes from the spell’s description, since in the 2014 edition, quite a few lines were dedicated to how an NPC might react after the effects of the spell wear off, making players hesitant to choose such a risky spell. The 2024 description still clarifies that the target knows it was charmed, but it doesn’t go into detail about the many violent ways they might answer.
2Spare The Dying
Aid From Afar
Spare the Dying is a cool spell in theory, since it lets you stabilize a dying creature, usually your fellow players, without needing to do any ability checks. Yet no one was taking it, since once you are right next to your ally, you might as well do a Medicine check; any character can do that, anyway.
Well, the 2024 edition of Spare the Dying added the much-needed feature of range: you can cast the cantrip from a 15 ft baseline, and the range increases as you level up. Since many players only took this spell when special rules allowed them to cast it from a distance, these changes will surely have Spare the Dying becomea support’s best friend.
1Vicious Mockery
Subtle But Needed Changes
At a glance, Vicious Mockery doesn’t seem to have changed much from its previous iteration; it still imposes a Wisdom saving throw on a target, and it imposes a disadvantage on the next attack made by the target. While those features were nice, they weren’t enough to makebards choose this as their main cantripfor damage.
The 2024 Player’s Handbook fixes some of the issues of the cantrip, like no longer needing to see your target; you can now simply hear them, and that is enough to direct your Vicious Mockery towards them. The biggest change, however, is that the spell now deals a D6 in damage instead of a D4, a respectable change that still improves as you level up.
