True Strike

The description of True Strike is among the more confusingly worded, and thus is prone to being misunderstood. To wit:

Only the caster of this spell gains Advantage on their next attack against the affected target, never their allies.
Only the first attack roll following the application of the condition gains Advantage. The condition is removed immediately afterward, whether the attack roll is a hit or a miss.
The duration is 2 turns, but this includes the turn on which the condition is applied. This is true of many spells, but is especially important for short duration spells.

True Strike is rarely considered worth using due to its opportunity cost; a full action must be spent on it to improve the chances of hitting once. Most of the time, if two actions are available (whether on the same turn or not), attacking twice is more effective than attacking once with advantage due to damage bonuses.

However, True Strike is not considered aggressive, so the caster could cast it just before combat to gain its benefits without having to spend an action mid-fight. This eliminates the opportunity cost. Note that the duration is only 2 turns (12 seconds while not in turn-based mode).

Another niche use case exists for an Arcane Trickster making a Sneak Attack. If the caster is out of spell slots, and no allies can flank for a sneak attack, and there is no other way to gain advantage for an attack roll, spending a single action on True Strike to enable a single sneak attack can be considered efficient.

In such cases, True Strike can be even more useful when using the ranged version of sneak attack, since this allows the caster to benefit from the range of the cantrip, especially with a High Ground bonus. At such distances, however, it is typically easier to just use a Bonus Action to hide first and obtain Advantage.

Description

Properties

At higher levels

Condition: True Strike

How to learn

Notes