Burning Hands 5e - D&D 5th Edition Spell Book

Classes That Can Cast Burning Hands 5e

The following classes gain access to casting Burning Hands 5e as part of their normal class spell availability, within the Player's Handbook:

• Cleric: Light Domain
• Sorcerer
• Wizard

Burning Hands Spell Effectiveness

DPR

DPR indicates damage per round, but in this calculation, it does not account for hit chance. The intent of this table is to provide a roughly-accurate comparison between Burning Hands 5e damage and a fighter's damage per round, to compare. It's also worth noting that since Burning Hands 5e hits a 15-foot cone, it can certainly hit more (or less) than 3-targets at a time. Again, the numbers presented here are intended simply to provide an idea of how powerful the Burning Hands 5e spell may be.

Burning Hands 5e Usefulness

I have both been on the giving and receiving end of Burning Hands, and I can certainly say that when the spell is used properly, it can be absolutely devastating.

• Obviously, Burning Hands 5e should primarily be cast on clusters of enemies. As you can see in the table above, hitting multiple targets with the spell can drastically raise the damage it deals.
• Be sure to only cast Burning Hands 5e on targets who do not have fire damage resistance or immunities (below). Furthermore, try to maximize your usage of the spell on enemies with fire vulnerabilities.
• Since Burning Hands only has an effect cast range of 15-feet, consider if you can actually kill enemies with the spell, rather than just damaging them. The reason is that if you cast on a large group, and many of them live, you probably become the main target for all of them, and being only 15-feet away, you won't have a lot of safety.

Fire Damage Resistances, Immunities, and Vulnerabilities

When using Burning Hands 5e, it's worth knowing ahead of time that in the DnD Monster Manual, there are 37 monsters with fire damage resistance, 40 monsters with fire damage immunity, and 9 monsters with fire damage vulnerability.

Surprisingly, of all damage types in the entire game, fire damage is the one that most monsters are vulnerable to, at 9. Meanwhile, there are 77 monsters in total that take reduced or no damage at all from fire, so be very cautious when casting Burning Hands. One of the worst things you can do as a spell caster in D&D is to waste a spell slot on a spell that deals reduced damage.

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Combine Burning Hands with the Following Spells

Most spells in DnD 5e work even better in combination with other spells, effects, feats, and so on. Try combining Acid Splash 5e with some of these other effects.

• Acid Splash 5e: this cantrip spell isn't one that you'd use in combination with Burning Hands. However, it does deal acid damage, so it's here to remind you that if you're facing an enemy with fire resistance or immunity, switch up your damage type.
• Bane 5e: since bane reduced enemy saving throws by 1d4, it's a perfect way to make them more susceptible to your Burning Hands 5e spell.

Burning Hands 5e Counters

Hard counters to Burning Hands 5e are spells like Silence 5e, which prevent you from casting spells to begin with. If you know your enemy has silence, be very cautious around them, as you don't want to get locked out from spell casting.

There are also "soft counters" to Burning Hands, like Bless 5e and Haste 5e. Bless provides a +1d4 bonus to saving throws, while Haste provides advantage on Dexterity saving throws, making targets of these effects less likely to be hit from the full damage of Burning Hands.

Burning Hands-Type Spells in Eternity TTRPG

I created the Eternity TTRPG Game System about 15-years ago, and have been refining the game ever since. It's independently published, inspired by other great TTRPG systems, provides rules for having multiple game masters in your group, and features tactical gameplay in combat.

I've provided a spell example below that correlates pretty similarly to the Burning Hands 5e spell, if you want to see what another game like DnD looks like.