Introduction
The Magic Initiate 5e feat is one of the most popular and versatile choices in Dungeons & Dragons for players looking to dabble in spellcasting without committing to a full multiclass. By selecting this feat, you gain access to two cantrips and one 1st-level spell, which can often negate the need for multiclassing in certain builds. However, it’s important to note that you can’t use spell slots to cast your 1st-level spell unless you have levels in the class you’ve chosen. This means your 1st-level spell can typically only be used once per day.
This feat stands out for its flexibility, as you can choose from six different spellcasting classes. Your choice of class is critical, as it determines both the spells you can access and the spellcasting ability modifier you’ll use. If you’re planning to select a spellcasting class, consider your character’s ability scores. For example, if you have low Intelligence, choosing a wizard might not be ideal, but a sorcerer or warlock could be a better fit for a character with high Charisma.
What Is Magic Initiate 5e?
In Dungeons & Dragons, spellcasting isn’t restricted to just a few classes. Every character class has access to some form of spellcasting, though some classes may need to work harder to gain that ability. The Magic Initiate 5e feat allows any character to fulfill their spellcaster ambitions, offering a simple and effective way to enhance your character’s abilities.
How Does Magic Initiate 5e Work?
When you choose the Magic Initiate 5e feat, you gain the following benefits:
- Two Cantrips: Choose any two cantrips from the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list. These cantrips are castable an unlimited number of times, providing continuous utility.
- One 1st-Level Spell: Select one 1st-level spell from the chosen class’s spell list.You’ll need to take a long rest to regain the ability to cast it again.
- Spellcasting Modifier: Your spellcasting modifier for these spells will match the spellcasting modifier of the class you selected.
Is Magic Initiate 5e Good?
In the 5e Feats Tier List, Magic Initiate 5e earned an A Tier rating, making it an excellent option for specific builds that benefit from a bit of spellcasting.
The Magic Initiate 5e feat is a highly valuable choice for many character builds.
Some of the most popular combinations for this feat are:
- Warlock: Eldritch Blast, Hex, and any other useful spell
Magic Initiate 5e Interactions
There are several key interactions to consider when using Magic Initiate 5e:
- You can cast the 1st-level spell gained from this feat at a higher level if you have the appropriate spell slots, but this feat doesn’t grant you spell slots. Additionally, you must be able to cast spells from the class you selected for the feat.
- The feat doesn’t grant any of the class features associated with the class you chose. For example, if an item or mechanic requires a specific class feature, you’ll need to multiclass into that class to benefit from it.
- You cannot cast the 1st-level spell you gain as a ritual unless you already have the Ritual Casting feature.
- Sorcerer Metamagic can be applied to any spell a sorcerer casts. However, Wild Magic Surge only applies to sorcerer spells.
Which 5e Classes Benefit Most from Magic Initiate 5e?
We’ve used a color code system to help you quickly determine how beneficial the Magic Initiate 5e feat is for specific classes or subclasses:
- Red: Not a useful option for your build
- Orange: Situationally good, but generally not recommended
- Green: A solid option
- Blue: A great choice that you should seriously consider
- Sky Blue: An outstanding option—optimizing your character
Best Builds for Magic Initiate 5e
Magic Initiate 5e is particularly effective for certain builds, such as:
- Variant Humans: Since they can select this feat at level 1, it provides a strong early advantage.
- Characters seeking specific spells: If a certain spell isn’t available through your class, Magic Initiate 5e can fill that gap.
Class-Specific Recommendations for Magic Initiate 5e
- Artificer: This feat is excellent for artificers, especially when choosing wizard spells. Spells like Absorb Elements and Expeditious Retreat provide excellent utility.
- Barbarian: Magic Initiate 5e has limited impact here, as barbarians are typically focused on raging and physical combat. However, choosing spells like Hex or Shillelagh can still provide some benefit.
- Bard: A fantastic choice for bards. Picking wizard spells or expanding cantrip options offers increased versatility and utility. Spells like Eldritch Blast complement a bard’s toolkit well.
- Druid: Druids benefit greatly from picking wizard spells, especially Find Familiar. It allows them to deliver touch spells and grants additional support with Firebolt or Shocking Grasp cantrips.
- Fighter: Fighters, especially Eldritch Knights, can benefit from Magic Initiate 5e by choosing the wizard spell list. It provides additional utility and, in some cases, damage with spells like Booming Blade.
- Monk: While monks don’t benefit greatly from Magic Initiate 5e, picking up spells like Hex for extra damage or Shillelagh for weapon users can still be useful.
- Paladin: This feat is strong for paladins, offering increased utility and adding impactful spells like Booming Blade for extra damage.
- Ranger: Rangers may appreciate the utility, but picking druid spells that align with their Wisdom modifier maximizes the benefit. Druid spells can enhance their damage and survivability.
- Rogue: For rogues, Magic Initiate 5e is a great option. Picking spells that complement their playstyle, such as Mage Hand or Minor Illusion, adds further utility.
- Sorcerer: While sorcerers are full casters, this feat offers utility through additional cantrips, although other feats may be more impactful for optimizing their spellcasting.
- Warlock: Magic Initiate 5e provides additional utility for warlocks, offering cantrips and a 1st-level spell from another caster class.
- Wizard: A solid choice for wizards, Magic Initiate 5e allows them to expand their spells known and gain additional cantrips for more versatility. It’s a great way to maximize utility.
Artial Adept vs. Magic Initiate 5e: Which Feat is Better for Your Character?
· In Dungeons & Dragons 5e, martial classes have historically faced some balance challenges compared to their spellcasting counterparts. While 4th Edition D&D tried to address this with mechanics that controlled the action economy, 5th Edition places more emphasis on narrative over strict balance. Despite this, the difference between martial classes and spellcasters—particularly in terms of damage scaling—still stands out, especially when looking at feats like Martial Adept and Magic Initiate 5e.
· Both feats are accessible to all classes, but they are particularly beneficial for certain builds, as they enhance a character’s existing playstyle. Let’s take a closer look at Martial Adept vs. Magic Initiate 5e and see how they compare in terms of their impact on gameplay.
Magic Initiate 5e Feat
· Use
Cantrips from Magic Initiate 5e can be used every turn, offering consistent damage or utility. However, the 1st-level spell can only be cast once per long rest. Despite this limitation, the utility of cantrips that scale with level is significant.
· Power
The power of Magic Initiate 5e is clear when considering the cantrips available to you. Popular picks like Thunderclap (Bard), Toll the Dead (Cleric), Shillelagh (Druid), Fire Bolt (Sorcerer, Wizard), and Eldritch Blast (Warlock) are all excellent damage-dealing cantrips. As your character levels up, these cantrips will continue to scale in damage. The downside is that if you choose a Magic Initiate 5e class that doesn’t share a common Ability Score modifier with your base class, your character may become Multiple Ability Score Dependent (MAD), making it harder to optimize your character’s abilities.
Martial Adept vs. Magic Initiate 5e: A Detailed Comparison
When comparing the Martial Adept feat with the Magic Initiate 5e feat in Dungeons & Dragons 5e, it’s clear that these two feats serve different roles, but each brings unique advantages depending on your character’s needs. Let’s break down the key differences in terms of choice, usage, power, and effects to help you decide which feat is best for your character build.
Choice: Which Feat Offers More Flexibility?
The Martial Adept feat allows you to choose 2 maneuvers from a list of 16 available options. In contrast, the Magic Initiate 5e feat offers a much broader selection. It allows you to pick 3 options from a pool of 109 possibilities, including 44 cantrips and 65 1st-level spells. While the Magic Initiate 5e feat is restricted by class choice, each class provides a large selection of spells once you’ve identified the class you want to focus on. Here’s a breakdown of the options:
The sheer number of options available with Magic Initiate 5e gives it the edge in terms of choice. You can access a broader range of spells that suit various playstyles, making it a more versatile option compared to Martial Adept.
Use: Frequency and Practicality
One of the key differences between Martial Adept and Magic Initiate 5e is how often you can use the abilities granted by each feat. Martial Adept provides a single superiority die (a d6) for each maneuver, which can only be used once per short rest. This limits how often you can trigger a maneuver during your adventures, which may feel restrictive if you engage in numerous combat encounters.
On the other hand, Magic Initiate 5e gives you access to cantrips, which can be used every turn, providing consistent utility or damage each round. While your 1st-level spell can only be used once per long rest, the ability to cast cantrips every turn makes Magic Initiate 5e much more relevant and impactful throughout your character’s daily encounters.
Power: Comparing Damage Potential
The Martial Adept feat generally contributes a d6 damage with each maneuver, though the impact depends on your party composition. For example, maneuvers like Commander’s Strike allow you to enable an ally to deal a second Sneak Attack, boosting overall party damage. Other maneuvers, such as Distracting Strike and Goading Attack, grant advantage or disadvantage, which can improve the overall tactical situation and may lead to more hits.
However, the Magic Initiate 5e feat offers more reliable damage output. Most cantrips available with this feat deal d8 damage, which scales as you level up, providing a solid and consistent damage source that grows with your character. This consistent damage every round (thanks to cantrips) easily outweighs the limited short rest uses of Martial Adept.
In addition, Magic Initiate 5e gives you access to a 1st-level spell, which usually has a more impactful effect than the maneuvers provided by Martial Adept. For example, spells like Burning Hands or Thunderwave can deal area damage, potentially affecting multiple enemies, which adds versatility and a greater range of tactical options compared to the Martial Adept maneuvers.
Effects: Maneuvers vs. Spells
| Maneuver | Effect | Spell (Cantrip/1st-level) |
| Commander’s Strike | Ally makes an attack | — |
| Disarming Attack | Disarm or force saving throw | Command (1st-level) |
| Distracting Strike | Advantage on next attack | Faerie Fire (1st-level) |
| Evasive Footwork | +d6 AC | Shield (1st-level), Mage Armor (1st-level) |
| Feinting Attack | Advantage on attack | Faerie Fire (1st-level) |
| Goading Attack | Disadvantage on attack rolls | — |
| Menacing Attack | Fear effect | Cause Fear (1st-level), Dissonant Whispers (1st-level) |
| Parry | Reduce damage | Absorb Elements (1st-level), Blade Ward (Cantrip) |
| Precision Attack | +d6 to attack roll | True Strike (Cantrip) |
| Pushing Attack | Push enemy 15 feet | Thunderwave (1st-level), Thorn Whip (Cantrip), Lightning Lure (Cantrip) |
| Rally | Heal an ally | Healing Word (1st-level) |
| Riposte | Damage on enemy’s missed attack | Armor of Agathys (1st-level) |
| Sweeping Attack | Damage to second target | Burning Hands (1st-level), Green-Flame Blade (Cantrip) |
| Trip Attack | Knock enemy prone | Earth Tremor (1st-level), Tasha’s Hideous Laughter (1st-level) |
Conclusion
The Magic Initiate 5e feat is a versatile and powerful option for many D&D builds, particularly for those who want to gain access to spellcasting without fully committing to a multiclass. With the ability to choose two cantrips and one 1st-level spell from a broad range of spellcasting classes, Magic Initiate adds both flexibility and utility to your character. Whether you’re a martial class looking for additional support or a spellcaster wanting to expand your repertoire, this feat is an excellent choice that provides consistent benefits, particularly when.
FAQs about Magic Initiate 5e
1. What is the Magic Initiate 5e feat?
The Magic Initiate feat allows characters to choose two cantrips and one 1st-level spell from any of the following spellcasting classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard. It provides versatility in spellcasting without the need for multiclassing.
2. Is it possible to cast the 1st-level spell multiple times?
No, you can only cast the 1st-level spell once per long rest. It is always cast at 1st-level, and you cannot use spell slots to cast it more than once unless you multiclass into the chosen class.
3.Do I gain spell slots with the Magic Initiate feat?
No, the feat does not grant any spell slots.
4.What spellcasting modifier do I use for the spells I gain?
The spellcasting modifier you use depends on the class you select for the feat. For example, if you choose the Cleric spell list, you’ll use Wisdom as your modifier.
5.What are the best classes to take the Magic Initiate feat?
Classes like Variant Humans, Rogues, Paladins, and Rangers can benefit greatly from this feat, as it adds spellcasting flexibility. It’s also useful for other classes looking to enhance their toolkit with utility spells.
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