The devil is in the details when it comes to D&D’s magic spells, and those details might be hiding an easter egg or two.
There is nothing quite as satisfying as working in some oblique reference or witty joke to one of your games. DMs the world over who have secretly had a villain say “Julius, seize her!” or my personal favorite, “Nicolas, cage them!” know full well what I mean. And the designers of D&D are no exception. Scattered throughout the new 5.5E Player’s Handbook are hidden little bon mots, as they say, or Easter Eggs for the terminally online.
It’s a tradition that stretches back to the 1st Edition days. Here are five spells with spell components that hide a little something extra.
Confusion
Confusion got a bit of a buff in 5.5E. When you cast the spell, targets who fail their Wisdom save now can’t take Bonus Actions in addition to not taking Reactions. But if you look closely at the spell component list, you’ll see that it’s perfect for driving someone nuts: the spell components are three empty nut shells, which references the classic shell game which will make you confused if you try to figure out which shell is hiding the nut. Spoiler alert, there never was one.
Darkvision
Blink and you’ll miss it. This spell is an extremely handy one, should you find yourself in the rare situation where you’re not already playing a character with darkvision—it lasts a full 8 hours, doesn’t take your concentration, and gives a willing creature Darkvision with a range out to 150 feet, longer than any natural darkvision. But what are the components that make your eyesight so good?
Turns out, it wasn’t just a rumor started to hide the introduction of radar-guided targeting to planes, carrots really ARE good for your eyes in D&D—and you’ll need a dried carrot to cast this spell.
Detect Thoughts
Penny for your thoughts? Literally in this case. Because the Detect Thoughts spell, which lets you read someone’s surface thoughts for free, or probe their mind with a Magic Action, requires a copper piece in order to cast.
Dragon’s Breath
Dragon’s Breath is a spell that, as the name suggests, grants you a powerful breath weapon. You can exhale a 15-foot cone of acid, cold, lightning, poison, or fire. That last one is especially appropriate, because the component of this spell is a hot pepper, because hey, it’s good enough for cartoons, why not try it in your D&D game.
Gentle Repose
Another copper-piece based easter egg spell component thing, but hey, pennies play a big role in society, it seems. In this case, the spell Gentle Repose requires two copper pieces, presumably laid over the eyes for the ferryman—while also preserving the corpse so that it doesn’t spoil and can be revived at a future date if you need to.
Of course you can always add in your own easter eggs with verbal or somatic components since nobbody specifies those!
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