D&D 5E How many times in an adventuring day does your party spellcaster cast a cantrip spell?

sevenbastard · 2025-03-13T13:03:03+0000

I cast Guidance before I posted this to make sure I got the spelling right.

Seriously though i houserulled out cleric and druid cantrips in my 5e game. Gave them access to all cantrips without memorization but it cost a spell slot. Then i gave them two extra 1st level spell slots. It worked fine I hate lasser clerics and i hate constant Guidance.

Hell i assume the imaginary gods in my world hate constant Guidance.

DrJawaPhD · 2025-03-14T05:49:19+0000

sevenbastard said:
Hell i assume the imaginary gods in my world hate constant Guidance.

I also hate how Guidance is disruptive to the flow of play. I try to minimize the disruption by just saying that anyone who can cast the spell automatically gets +1d4 to all skillchecks out of combat if they aren't running another concentration spell, and then for other party members they have to specifically ask for guidance to be cast before they declare that they are attempting whatever action leads to the skillcheck.

That way if a player is thinking ahead and asking their buddy to help out by casting a spell, that's awesome they're working together to plan something out. But if Player A goes and does something, DM requests dice rolls, and Player B disrupts the flow by interjecting "oh hey I cast guidance!", that doesn't work

Distracted DM · 2025-03-14T06:42:05+0000

kigmatzomat said:
The monk 18/rogue1/druid-magic initiate usually has guidance up the 1st round of combat
The warlock14/bard5 probably uses a cantrip every other round of combat.
The cleric14/paladin3 uses Toll the Dead probably every 3rd round of combat
The paladin 18/warlock1 forgets he has cantrips, so maybe 1 in 6 rounds of combat
The fighter 12/wizard7 only uses cantrips when at range
The bard18/cleric1 uses cantrips maybe 1 round in 4, mainly because a 6th level slot often becomes a permanent "bottle of smoke" illusion that he uses actions to blind enemies.

At around 12th level, there's a lot of sub/classes that becomes "more of the same" and invite people to make dips into caster for variety. The fighter/wizard only has a few damage spells/day worth casting, but Longstrider + Mirror Image + shield lets him close & tank like crazy.

I'm trying to understand my bias against multiclasses like this... because man, I would not enjoy seeing this at one of my tables. It's bad enough when I get one or two PCs that want to level-dip for extra stuff.
I'm not saying it's wrong to do, just that I don't like it, and I feel like a curmudgeon for it :')
"I'm making a wizard!"
"But you made a level 1 artificer?"
"It's for the armor and shield proficiency, and so I don't lose spell slots. I'm planning art1/wiz19."
"..."

The one that I find the least objectionable from that list is the ftr/wiz.. it's not an even split like I'd prefer to see, but it's not a dip. So maybe it's because I think that AD&D did multiclassing best, if the even split seems reasonable to me?
Ofc I'd really just prefer no multiclassing, but it's basically expected at this point.

D&D 5E How many times in an adventuring day does your party spellcaster cast a cantrip spell?

How many times in an adventuring day does your party spellcaster cast a cantrip spell?

0-5 times per day

6-10 times per day

11-15 times per day

20 or more times per day

sevenbastard

Legend

DrJawaPhD

Hero

Distracted DM

Distracted DM

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