When I first starting playing 5e, guidance leapt out as an easily spammable cantrip that was almost certain to be abused on the D&D table.
Guidance
Divination cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You touch one willing creature. Once before the spell ends, the target can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to one ability check of its choice. It can roll the die before or after making the ability check. The spell then ends.
Spell Lists: Artificer, Cleric, Druid
Warning: casting guidance every turn can lead to your cleric overheating. (Art by WOTC).
Wow, a 1d4 bonus to every skill check the party makes outside of combat! That is crazy powerful!
Well… actually not quite.
Once a fellow Dungeon Master noted that the cantrip’s 1 minute duration should really limit guidance to being used with skill checks that would take a minute or less to perform, the spell suddenly became a lot more balanced.
The success of searching a room, using Investigation, isn’t decided in a moment, or even in a minute… it’s an ongoing task, and it’s hard to believe a cleric that follows the rogue around the sage’s library constantly tapping their shoulder is going to help them find the clue they’re looking for…. it’s far more likely to be an annoying distraction. Certainly it doesn’t feel as helpful as simply ‘helping’ would be (see Working Together on p.175 of the Player’s Handbook), thereby conferring advantage on the rogue’s roll.
Given the spell’s 1 minute duration, it’s reasonable to assume guidance is designed to be used as a buff for completing those ‘instant’ challenges, such as jumping over a pit of molten lava, raising the portcullis, or performing a Medicine check to stabilise a dying creature.
That already rules out a LOT of uses of guidance we often (incorrectly) see in play.
But then there’s another consideration. The caster should really have some in game stimulus that causes them to cast the spell. A cleric doesn’t know, for example, that the rustling in the bushes is going to occur at exactly 5:37pm and has therefore cast guidance on themselves at 5:36pm and 30 seconds. In other words, once the DM calls for a Perception check it’s too late to cast guidance. Similarly for Insight checks, and any knowledge checks (you either already had that knowledge or you didn’t… that was decided years ago, most likely. So – unless it’s a question of ‘remembering’ something they already know – the cleric casting guidance before another party member tries to identify a plant or rune doesn’t really make sense).
There are other restrictions too. Guidance requires one to touch the target, and is also limited by concentration. Furthermore, there’s the social limitations to consider. Starting to cast a spell in the middle of negotiations with a hostile party might be enough to trigger a ‘roll for initiative’ moment, while casting in a tavern, law court or King’s chamber is likely to be frowned on, if not enough to have one arrested. (Starting to cast a spell in polite company is not dissimilar to drawing your sword).
Guidance Restrictions
Let’s create a little checklist on when you can and can’t benefit from casting guidance.
- Foresight. Can the caster discern, in the game world, that their or their ally’s skills are about to be tested? (With at least 6 seconds to spare!).
- Task Duration. Is the target able to complete the task they are being guided in within 1 minute?
- Situation. Is it socially acceptable to cast a spell right now?
- Range. Can the caster touch the target?
- Concentration. Is the caster still able to concentrate on the spell for the duration of the guided task?
If the situation meets all those requirements, go ahead and let your player cast guidance. If not, explain why it doesn’t work!
More DM Tips
Liked this? Maybe you better check whether you’re playing the Ready action correctly (I wasn’t for about 4 years!), or read my deep delve on surprise in 5e D&D.
Rick Coen
TL;DR = I agree!
No one has yet tried to abuse this cantrip on our two campaigns – but I admit I was going to test the boundaries if we started up a third (both of my character concepts have the cantrip)!
When we had an NPC cleric in the group, in the game where I play (as opposed to GM), we did use Guidance primarily in situations where there was time and planning involved. Like to climb the house to set an ambush, or before walking into the suspected evildoer’s perfectly legitimate business front, or just before the rogue sneaks off to scout the keep (although the time limit was an issue with that one). “Moradin bless you, my child” was the trigger, with a quick hammer-sign gesture of benediction. I think the cleric used it one other time, to help himself break free of a tar trap.
One thing we had thought about – duration of check being the key here – was if it could be used while resting. “Why does that matter?” Well… house rules. Short version – a chance to throw off the effects of low level exhaustion, or a fresh save against poison or disease. But… your body is fighting that effect all day, not just at minute 479 of your 8-hour Long Rest!
duncan
Hi Rick
Yes, exactly, and one can extend the same logic for any ongoing process basically.
Btw, you know a saving throw isn’t counted as an ability check in 5e, right? Seems like you’re using guidance for saving throws… which might be a house rule of yours.
Cheers!
d
Frederick Dale Coen
Not actually a save – was trying not to derail conversation with our house rules, chose my words poorly. The exhaustion and injury checks are actually CON checks specifically so they don’t benefit from proficiency bonus. You are right, though, that Poison and Disease are saving throws. And the cleric’s escape from the tar was an Athletics check (having failed the spell save initially to avoid being in the tar in the first place!).
boxty
Well if you’ve played Kingdom Come: Deliverance, they are always praising the lord and this or that and I’m sure they toned it down quite a bit for modern audiences. So offering a prayer or blessing in the middle of a conversation may sound odd to our modern ears, but not to the medieval fantasy settings we are imagining.
duncan
Hi Boxty
I haven’t played Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but medieval society and D&D society are quite different. For one thing, in medieval European society there was one widely accepted religion (amongst nobles). If you know someone is praying to your God, and you also know that prayers are not answered in a direct and dangerous way (no one in medieval christianity witnessed a cleric bring some lightning from the skies etc), then you might feel relaxed about a newcomer uttering a prayer.
If however someone was praying to a god that you don’t know, who might be hostile to you, and whose powers could be anything (in a world of high magic) you would be very nervous indeed and probably want to shut that down ASAP.
Aironfaar
I agree that guidance isn’t overpowered due to the very restrictions you mentioned. To me, that isn’t the issue with guidance, though. The checklist of those five points you brought up is fairly extensive to go through, and because all it costs to use it is an action (unless you’re concentrating on a spell at the time), you have to keep this checklist in the back of your head almost the whole damn time if you want to make efficient use of the cantrip, and that’s an enormous drag.
When I started playing my current wizard with a dip in artificer for flavor, he knew guidance. Before I made that choice, I took a while to figure out how I’d flavor it, and found a reasonably applicable way. I really shouldn’t have chosen that cantrip, because even just being able to cast it felt awful to me. I kept looking for situations to apply it to (and never actually found any), which distracted me from immersing, roleplaying, and enjoying the game. It felt terrible to think “rats, I wish I could cast guidance here, but it’s not applicable because of restriction x” and “oh crap, I should’ve cast guidance before this ability check” a lot throughout the sessions; it was a constant, annoying sense of failure and waste. Ultimately, I had to ask the DM if he’d allow me to change my artificer cantrips even if just once because I didn’t want to take a second level in artificer, which he allowed me to do as a full day of downtime. I switched out guidance for another cantrip without ever having cast guidance once. (I’m aware that this is just me and I can always not choose that cantrip, but I feel that sharing my personal experience is relevant after I claimed that keeping this checklist of restrictions in mind can detract from the gameplay experience.)
Meanwhile, the same DM’s other group made very efficient use of the cantrip. Guidance was cast a LOT, to the point where it became annoying to everyone involved, even the caster himself. The restrictions are there, yes, but if the entire group is mindful of them, the party member that knows this cantrip becomes a walking d4 dispenser. And at that point, how do you flavor it? Does the cleric pump out little prayers and blessings like a fortune cookie factory? Is the artificer loaded with a ridiculous amount of potions, liquid courage, special brownies, however he flavors it? I think there is a disconnect between the cantrip’s mechanics and how you can rationalize it within the game’s world, and even its *meaning* in the game’s world. A cleric or artificer doing the above a ton devalues these actions within the story itself, it’s just a matter of time. If you value roleplay, it’s not just a matter of whether casting a spell is socially acceptable, it becomes a matter of having to restrict oneself in how often you use it.
This finally brings me to my point: In my opinion, when the mechanics drive you one way when you use them efficiently, while the roleplay aspects drive you another, the mechanics are flawed. To me and most people with whom I talked about it, it just isn’t *fun* to engage with mechanics like this. As such, I think that guidance would be better as a 1st level spell than as a cantrip. It would then have to be more powerful and soften the restrictions of guidance because it then costs a spell slot to cast, but in turn, the act of a cleric blessing what a creature does or a druid enhancing someome’s natural capabilities would gain more significance, both in roleplay and in mechanics. That’s a big win in my books.
But how to remix guidance as a 1st level spell? Duration, concentration, number of targets, and the amount of times the bonus can be applied could be tweaked, maybe even die size. But this also shouldn’t step on bardic inspiration. On the other hand, bardic inspiration has the advantage that you can apply it to virtually any roll of a d20, and bards could get a 1st level spell version of guidance too as one of their magical secrets or from a feat, so maybe it’s fine. (Could even add it to the bard’s spell list. Even the artificer has it, and it seems reasonably thematic.) I’ll have to think about this more, but I just really like the idea of an artificer being able to boost someone’s ability check performance for, say, an hour in some crazy artisanry-related way, and a high level cleric being able to bless someone’s work for a whole day, or even more if the spell slot’s level was high enough.
If you’re up for that, I’m curious: How would you remix guidance as a 1st level spell?
Oh, and… Happy holidays!
Rick Coen
I’m now playing in a campaign where a PC has Guidance. (We had an NPC cleric with the spell, but, being an NPC, it almost never got used.) We mostly just keep in mind the “advance planning” guideline, and go from there. Picking a lock? Yes. Making a Perception check while walking along? No. Making an Investigation check *after* noticing something? Yes. Dex check to avoid being thrown off a cliff? No. About to start a Battle of the Bands (yes, really, last session)? Yes. Trying to break out of a Roper’s “hug”? *maybe* (depends on actions available). And so on.
Mechanics/Role-play: The NPC cleric would whisper short prayers, basically “Moradin guide our hand in your great works…” We accepted his blessings with a nod, then did our thing. The PC – a shadow-based warlock – sifts through shadow-futures of the next few seconds to give you a moment of clarity on the way to *start* your action. We’re a little creeped out by his shadows (he’s a new addition to the party), but we’ve seen him summon the Shadow of his mentor, and summon ambient shadows into himself to become larger and scary (Form of Dread), so we roll with it.
Guidance gets used now maybe two to five times per session, based on what we’re doing. Seems fine. (Resistance is really the weaker twin that needs help.) As for “how would you flavor it as a first level spell?” I think I’d call it BLESS…. 😉