Even for players who know the game well, Dungeons & Dragons is incredibly complicated. D&D's fifth edition is a deliberate simplification compared to the game's earlier iterations, and it's still an imposing pile of rules, interactions, and corner cases. Between thirteen classes, hundreds of spells, and a massive assortment of magic items, nobody can memorize all of it - and both players and DMs are bound to make mistakes.
Magic, perhaps unsurprisingly, is one of the more confusing parts of Dungeons & Dragons. The rules around casting spells and using magic are already complex, even before considering the specifics of individual spells. Clever players may find exploits for bending D&D spell rules without cheating, providing even more power to the game's most flexible abilities; however, far more common are situations when players misuse spells, forget rules interactions, or incorrectly interpret spell descriptions.
Mistakes like these are understandable - expected, even. The D&D Dungeon Master exists in part as a voice of authority in such moments, ensuring that the game continues smoothly and everybody is having fun. Still, players should strive to understand their spells' functionality, so they're not taken by surprise if things don't go according to plan. In accordance with that goal, here are some of the most frequently mistaken and misused spells, and how players typically get them wrong.
Dungeons & Dragons: Create Bonfire Does Less Than You Think
Create bonfire is a cantrip originally introduced during an early fifth edition storyline tied to the Princes of the Apocalypse adventure. While the D&D module was difficult for beginners and is widely regarded as one of the worst adventures for D&D 5e, it expanded player and magic options greatly. Tying into the four elements themes of the storyline, create bonfire was part of a set of simple elemental cantrips that provided a wider range of options than the Player's Handbook or basic rules did. The spell effectively creates a pool of fire (described as a "bonfire," though the details of what that means are scarce) that damages creatures that move over it. Compared to its contemporaries, there are plenty of reasons to pick Create Bonfire - it does less initial damage than fire bolt, but stays on the ground as long as the caster is concentrating, potentially dealing significantly more damage over time. And while it may not have the same utility as produce flame, it does a bit more damage.
All around, not too confusing. Create bonfire seems like it could be one of D&D's best cantrips. Unfortunately, spells in Dungeons & Dragons usually only do exactly what they describe - and nowhere does create bonfire mention emitting light or heat. There's a significant debate in the D&D community about "rules as written" versus "rules as intended" - a charitable Dungeon Master might interpret the spell differently, deciding it's intended to make fire and the resulting effects. However, as written, create bonfire only deals damage. For proof, one need only look at produce flame again - it specifies the radius at which the cantrip emits light. This is easy to miss, and the prevalence of darkvision, light-emitting spells, and even torches often makes the error trivial. Still, players and Dungeon Masters should be aware that create bonfire isn't quite as useful as they think.
Dungeons & Dragons: Detect Evil And Good Is Poorly Named
Alignment, a shorthand measure of a character's morals and ethics, has been a part of Dungeons & Dragons since its inception. D&D player characters can be any alignment, and based on the edition, alignment had various effects. Paladins, for example, were once required to be lawful good. Nowadays, almost nothing in 5e D&D references alignment, and the system mostly serves as a guideline for roleplay rather than as a powerfully relevant mechanic.
At first glance, the spells detect evil and good and protection from evil and good might seem like exceptions - the alignments are directly referenced in the spell names. However, that inclusion is misleading. These spells don't care about alignment at all, but instead serve a sort of "anti-extraplanar creatures" function. Their effects are restricted to certain types of creatures - aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. This only makes a little bit of sense; celestials tend to be good, and fiends are certainly evil, but elementals are far more often neutral than anything else. Certainly, these two spells are likely to be misused by D&D players and Dungeon Masters alike.
Dungeons & Dragons: Charm Person Doesn't Make A New Best Friend
The D&D school of enchantment is all about exerting influence on the minds and emotions of others. Plenty of spellcasters have access to charm person, a low-level enchantment spell that often gets stretched beyond its limits. On the surface, the spell makes someone friendly towards the caster - and plenty of players are content to leave it at that, thinking that person their new best friend and ignoring the specific details that accompany the rest of the description.
Specifically, charm person makes the target regard the caster as a "friendly acquaintance." Both of these pieces are relevant to determining the limits of the spell. Friendly is actually a word with some mechanical relevance. The Dungeon Master's Guide describes a friendly NPC as someone who "wants to help the adventurers and wishes for them to succeed." So far, so good - except there are reasonable limits to how far someone will go for an acquaintance. Even under the effects of magic, custom and stock NPCs in Dungeons & Dragons should be treated as fully realized and realistic characters, and it just doesn't make sense for them to give all of their possessions to a friendly acquaintance. Additionally, charm person is even worse in combat - in addition to being less likely to succeed against a combatant, it only affects the way the target perceives the caster; they're not going to turn on their allies, and will even continue fighting the caster's party .
Dungeons & Dragons: Players Miss Important Caveats On Hex
Available from level one, hex is an iconic Warlock spell - while the class gets magical boons from a powerful patron and is capable of all kinds of weird effects with D&D Eldritch Invocations, hex plus eldritch is the Warlock's real claim to fame. Unfortunately, players are liable to misuse it, making it more powerful than it's meant to be. The spell's main draw is the ability to stack bonus damage on a target, giving warlocks a reliable way to out-damage other casters with relatively little effort. Additionally, the caster chooses an ability score, and the target has disadvantage on ability checks made using that score while hex is active.
There are two points here that players are likely to mistake, and both are a result of some important - but initially unimportant - terminology. While Dungeons & Dragons features all kinds of damaging effects, only some count as attacks. Swinging a blade, firing an arrow, and casting certain spells are all attacks, while a dragon's fire breath is not. Hex only provides additional damage on attacks. D&D's flashiest evocation spells like fireball and lightning bolt aren't attacks, and as such don't benefit from hex.
Additionally, hex's applied disadvantage only affects ability checks - not attack rolls or saving throws. These three types of rolls all use the d20, but serve different purposes. Unfortunately, in combat, ability checks are the rarest, so this part of hex isn't likely to get as much mileage. There are ways to exploit the penalty, though - choosing strength and trying to grapple or knock the target prone is a common one. The spell isn't as powerful as some Dungeons & Dragons players may think, but with clever planning, it still can be a force to be reckoned with.
