The Best Wizard Cantrips in 5E Ranked | Wizard Cantrips 5E Guide

We have officially ranked all of the cantrips available to a new Wizard in the fifth edition of Dungeon and Dragons! Our Wizard Cantrips 5E rankings are thorough, and follow a similar pattern to our other lists. (See our Bard Cantrips Rankings, for example!) Wizards have to rely on cantrips often, since their spells often take specific roles. Cantrips are never expended upon use, and instead allow the caster to have a consistent tool. It’s like reading a book to you! Having good utility is critical for a Cantrip, which is why we ranked all of the available choices (at this time!) available to them.

So how many cantrips can a Wizard learn? Exactly five. You get your first three at character creation, another at level five, and the last cantrip at level ten. You will need to be extra diligent when you select your cantrips because the Wizard can choose from a list of fourteen, and the last thing you want to do is to waste a free spell slot on an ability that you will never use.

So without further ado, here is our Official Ranking of all of the Wizard’s Cantrips in Dungeon and Dragon’s fifth edition.

14. Mending

• School: Transmutation
• Casting Time: One Minute
• Range: Touch
• Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material (two lodestones)
• Duration: Instantaneous

You mend an item, as long as the break is less than a foot long. This cannot restore the magic of the item. The issue with mending is the number of limitations it has! It doesn’t have many items that it can be used on, and is only really handy for fixing super minor things. That being said, an unlucky Rogue might benefit from having a pocket full of self-repairing lockpicks.

13. True Strike

• School: Divination
• Casting Time: One Action
• Range: Thirty feet
• Components: Somatic
• Duration: Concentration, up to one round

With the point of a finger, the True Strike spell will allow you to see the weakness of one enemy. On your next round of combat, you will have an advantage over that enemy as long as this spell is still active. Having an advantage means that you get to roll two dice when you are attacking instead of just one. After the roll, you select the higher of the two and that will be the roll you make for the attack.

This spell has abysmal action economy. You’re spending an entire round for no other benefit than giving you advantage on your next turn. You might think that you should use it to set up for a Disintegrate or strong late-game attack roll spell. However, there are significantly better spells, like Invisibility, that offer different utility. True Strike also requires concentration, and definitely does not deserve to take up your Concentration slot.

12. Prestidigitation

• School: Transmutation
• Casting Time: One Action
• Range: Ten feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: Up to one hour

Ah, Prestidigitation – the parlor trick of spells in the Dungeon and Dragon’s universe. When you are casting this minor magical trick, you will create one of the following effects:

• Create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect such as a spark, a low gust of wind, a faint musical note, or an odd but not terribly off-putting odor.
• Instantly light or put out a candle, torch, or a small campfire.
• Instantly clean or dirty up an object that is at most 1 cubic foot.
• Chill, warm-up, or flavor up a nonliving piece of material that is up to one cubic foot long for an hour.
• Make a small mark or a symbol appears on an object’s surface for one hour.
• You create a non-magical trinket or an illusion that fits in the palm of your hand until the start of your next turn.

You can have four effects going at once. Prestidigitation is a fan-favorite spell for a reason. It has extreme versatility that lets you cast different magical effects in the same cantrip slot. However, it suffers from not being incredibly good at any specific one of them. The effects are either short or somewhat insignificant, and it can’t handle multiple effects at the same time. Don’t get us wrong; this is far from a useless spell. But, it suffers from the Wizard being an incredibly diverse spellcaster. It might be better to choose a particular cantrip that solves a problem, rather than a minor one that might solve a handful of them.

11. Acid Splash

• School: Conjuration
• Casting Time: One Action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: Instantaneous

Acid Splash deals 1d6 of Acid Damage that can be dodged with a successful dexterity saving throw. This damage increase to 2d6 at level five, 3d6 at level eleven, and 4d6 at level seventeen. You can hit one target up to sixty feet away, or two targets that are five feet away. Decent range, but abysmal damage and pretty restrictive ability to hit multiple targets. A bad combo, and Acid isn’t even that good of a damage type!

10. Dancing Lights

• School: Evocatio
• Casting Time: One action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material (phosphorus, wychwood, or a glowworm)
• Duration: Concentration, up to one minute

You create four small torch lights, or you create one medium sized humanoid form, both of which will shed a light across a ten-foot radius. You can move the light, but any piece that you move cannot be more than twenty-feet away from the rest of the pieces. If you take it too far, the spell will flicker out. Dancing Light suffers from not following you easily. Your action economy will be doomed! You’d much prefer the Light cantrip if you’re looking for a cheap source of light.

9. Ray of Frost

• School: Evocation
• Casting Time: One action
• Range: 60 feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: Instantaneous

A frigid blue-white beam of light strikes towards your opponent to deal 1d8 of ranged cold damage. That damage increases to 2d8 at level five, 3d8 at level eleven, and 4d8 at level seventeen. On a hit, the spell will also decrease your enemies’ speed by ten feet until the start of your next turn. Good damage, a big step over Acid Splash. But, limited range doesn’t make it top-tier. The speed decrease can save you from melee combatants.

8. Poison Spray

• School: Conjuration
• Casting Time: One Action
• Range: 10 Feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: Instantaneous

Poison Spray allows your character to shoot a puff of noxious gas from the palm of their hand and in the direction of an enemy. The enemy will need to make a successful Constitution throw, or they will take 1d12 of poison damage. The amount of damage you deal will increase at fifth level (2d12), eleventh (3d12), and seventeenth (4d12). To make a Constitution throw, your opponent has to beat your DC, which is eight plus your proficiency modifier plus the appropriate ability modifier, with 1d20 plus their Constitution modifier.

Extremely high damage… But, that’s a very low range! It can hit many creatures for a ton of damage, so good placement can lead to fantastic returns. However, you will put yourself in a lot of danger if you don’t handle it right.

7. Fire Bolt

• School: Evocation
• Casting Time: One Minute
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: Instantaneous

Your character hurls fire at an opponent to deal 1d10 of fire damage. That damage increases to 2d10 at level five, 3d10 at level eleven, and 4d10 at level seventeen. The range is superb, the damage is high, and it doesn’t have any real prerequisites. Great choice for a damage cantrip, which you should definitely have one of!

6. Minor Illusion

• School: Illusion
• Casting Time: One Action
• Range: 30 Feet
• Components: Somatic, Material (small amount of fleece)
• Duration: One Minute

While most of my focus in this article has been on dealing damage, Minor Illusion has an effect on a different aspect of Dungeon and Dragons – role-playing! And in the realm of role-playing, you can do almost anything with Minor Illusion. As written, this spell will let you create a sound or an imaginary object that is at least thirty feet away from you. You cannot do both at the same time though.

If you create a sound, you can alter its volume to be as loud or as soft as you need it to be. The sound will either last the duration of the minute, or be spammed for that duration. If you create an image, the item must not be longer than a five-foot cube. It is only visual, and will automatically be dissipated if interacted with physically.

If someone goes to examine the sound or image, they will need to make a successful Intelligence check against your Spell Save DC. If they are successful, the illusion becomes faint to the character that made the successful check.

Minor Illusion is why Presti is as low on the list as it is. This can do a lot of the problem-solving of Presti without making things obviously fake. With creativity, this can solve an impressive number of problems! Just… make sure you have some backup plans. This can still fail.

5. Shocking Grasp

• School: Evocation
• Casting Time: One action
• Range: Touch
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: Instantaneous

Lightning springs from your fingertips as you touch your enemy, sending a jolt down their body. On a successful melee spell attack, you deal 1d8 lightning damage, and the target cannot take reactions until the start of their next turn. A reaction is the equivalent to an attack of opportunity. That damage increases to 2d8 at level five, 3d8 at level eleven, and 4d8 at level seventeen. You have an advantage on that enemy if they are wearing metal armor. This spell doesn’t do impressive damage, but stripping reactions is insane. Some monsters rely on reactions to do combo attacks, and all of them can make opportunity attacks. Surprisingly safe for a melee range cantrip. It can be a good default escape plan.

4. Chill Touch

• School: Necromancy
• Casting Time: One Action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: One round

Chill Touch releases a ghostly skeletal hand that reaches out to touch your target. If the hand is successful, you deal 1d8 necrotic damage, AND the target cannot regain hit points until the start of your next turn. The amount of damage you deal will increase at fifth level (2d8), eleventh (3d8), and seventeenth (4d8). Healing restriction is very nice, but niche. This spell deals 1 less average damage than Firebolt, and can stop the boss’s cronies from casting Heal on it and prolonging the fight. Good middle ground between the usefulness of Fire Bolt and the utility of other cantrips.

3. Light

• School: Evocation
• Casting Time: One Action
• Range: Touch
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: One hour

You touch an object that is at most ten foot long. That item will brighten up a twenty-foot radius, and dim an additional twenty-foot beyond the first twenty feet. The spell ends if you cast it again, and the light will be blocked if you completely cover it with something opaque. Oh, and the light can be any color that you want! Just imagine your enemy running away from battle with a bright pink chest plate… that is, if the enemy fails their dexterity check.

Light is great for parties that would otherwise have to rely on torches. While there’s nothing wrong with holding a Torch, some melee fighters need that extra hand for fighting. Consider this essential for parties without good darkvision, and fine for parties that have darkvision anyways.

2. Mage Hand

• School: Conjuration
• Casting Time: One Action
• Range: 30 Feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic
• Duration: One Minute

Much like Minor Illusion, Mage Hand’s primary function has nothing to do with combat. But unlike Minor Illusion, Mage Hand can physically affect your surroundings. When you cast Mage Hand, you create a spectral, floating hand that can do the following actions:

• Manipulate an object
• Open an unlocked door or container
• Store or retrieve an item from an open container
• Pour the contents out of a vial

The hand can only interact with items that are within thirty feet of your physical character. The hand’s carrying capacity is less than ten pounds, and it cannot activate magical items. And because I feel that this is important to stress; you cannot use Mage Hand to perform an attack.

Mage Hand is great for safe object interaction during uncertain dungeons. Avoiding traps with a floating hand is required if a party fluffs their Perception checks. It is also safer than just palming a doornob. Mage Hand isn’t just our second favorite wizard cantrip, it is one of our five best cantrips in 5E.

1. Message

• School: Transmutation
• Casting Time: One action
• Range: 120 feet
• Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material (short piece of copper wire)
• Duration: One round

And number one on our Wizard cantrips 5e list is Message. In fact, we rank this as our best cantrip in 5E. You point your finger at your target that is in range, and you can whisper a message to that person. Information is powerful, and we think that sending that information to others without anybody else knowing can be handy in almost any situation. It suffers from being a full Action, therefore making it useless in a fight. However, in every other situation, we adore this spell and think it deserves more attention.

Nerds and Scoundrels – Wizard Cantrips 5E Guide

With that, we conclude our Wizard Cantrips 5e Rankings. And, if you are after more Dungeons and Dragons content, check out our rankings for the Best Cleric Cantrips in 5E!