List of bugged spells

This list aims to catalogue spells which do not function as would be expected based on their tooltips, or which have other problems - or missing information - in their description, function, or location. This list is unlikely to be comprehensive as it is likely there are many issues with spells of which we are unaware.

As this list deals with problems that have a high likelihood of being changed in patches and hotfixes, it is likely that entries will be incorrect following an update.

All entries are currently correct as of Hotfix 33.

Spells

Name	Bugs
Arcane Critical	While the tooltip says Arcane Critical improves your critical hit threshold by 2, it actually only improves it by 1.
Banishing Smite	Banishing Smite (Ranged) cast at level 6 incorrectly spends a level 5 spell slot.
Bear's Endurance	The temporary hit points lack a StackPriority and as such are overridden by any other source of temporary hit points, even if the new source is of a lesser value.
Blade Barrier	The DC for this spell save does not function properly: The initial spell save DC for damage caused by casting and entering the wall is fixed at 15. The DC for starting a turn inside the wall is fixed at 3. The DC for starting a turn near the wall is fixed at 10.
Blight	This spell lacks an IsHarmful SpellFlags tag, and as such is able to target creatures affected by  Sanctuary.
Blink	Despite purposely ignoring the functor which breaks Concentration, a StatusGroup error still breaks Concentration when vanishing. When vanishing into the Ethereal Plane, equipped items are temporarily disabled. This causes item technical statuses that include OnRemoveFunctors (such as those used by Markoheshkir) to trigger, removing any effects provided by those items.
Booming Blade	Though it is not displayed in its description, Booming Blade can be cast while  Silenced. This cantrip is not correctly classified as a Thunder spell so it does not work with the following effects:  Bone-shaking Thunder  Destructive Wrath  Heart of the Storm: Thunder Necklace of Elemental Augmentation Ring of Absolute Force  Prophecy: Thunderous Applause Some other elemental effects are implemented differently and work with the Thunder damage Booming Blade receives at level 5. These effects include: Boots of Elemental Momentum Gloves of Belligerent Skies Hat of Storm Scion's Power Ring of Elemental Infusion Due to an additional bug, these items do not work in Honour mode unless the weapon itself deals elemental damage (e.g. from  Elemental Weapon or any innate elemental damage bonus).
Branding Smite	Branding Smite cast at the fourth level incorrectly lists tooltip damage using the second level of the spell.
Chain Lightning	This spell lacks an IsHarmful SpellFlags tag, and as such is able to target creatures affected by  Sanctuary.
Cloudkill	If upcast to level 6, Cloudkill creates an invisible cloud due to the surface lacking an attached particle effect. NPCs will not automatically leave this cloud, as its surface ID is missing from character PathInfluence.
Conjure Barrage: Melee Weapon	Since this attack does not involve an attack roll, it does not benefit from certain bonus damage sources which check the attack roll type despite listing the additional damage on the tooltip. These include:  Arcane Synergy  Great Weapon Master: All In  Hunter's Mark  Prepare  Wrath
Conjure Barrage: Ranged Weapon	Since this attack does not involve an attack roll, it does not benefit from certain bonus damage sources which check the attack roll type despite listing the additional damage on the tooltip. These include:  Arcane Synergy Gloves of Archery  Hunter's Mark  Sharpshooter: All In Titanstring Bow
Counterspell	Arcane Ward can only be fed up to 3 charges, regardless of spell Level used, due to how an additional hidden Counterspell is cast based on success/failure.
Danse Macabre	The tooltip incorrectly states it costs a  Level 5 Spell Slot.
Death Ward	Death Ward uses  Survival Instinct as a Parent condition, and as such inherits the Action point restoration it possesses. This is exploitable by a character who can cast Death Ward on themselves, allowing them to continuously regenerate Action points so long as they are able to both down themselves and recast Death Ward multiple times per turn.
Destructive Wave	This spell is classified as a Radiant or Necrotic spell depending on the variant rather than a Thunder spell. This means it will not work with Tempest Domain's  Destructive Wrath or  Bone-shaking Thunder's bonus damage.
Detect Thoughts	Despite the tooltip saying this spell uses either Intelligence or Wisdom, only the creature’s Intelligence is used, even if its Wisdom is higher; this is likely an oversight.
Dispel Evil And Good	Despite the description, this ability lacks any function versus Aberrations.
Dispel Evil And Good: Break Enchantment	This spell removes  Frightened only, rather than any effect from the Frightened status group.
Disrobing Blinkstep	Sorcerers are able to twin-cast disrobing blinkstep which allows them to select two teleportation positions. It is unclear if this has any effect, but it appears as though the caster only teleports to the second position.
Dominate Person	The level 10 Enchantment Wizard feature  Split Enchantment allows targeting 2 humanoids with this spell, but only dominates one - even with failed saves - as the second instance of domination ends the effect of the first.
Drunken Inhale	The tooltip says that targets still take half damage on a successful save, but they actually take (2d8)/2Poison damage which is a quarter of the normal damage.
Elemental Retort	Silence does not prevent Lorroakan from casting this spell despite technically requiring a verbal component.
Enlarge (Duergar)	Despite not being mentioned in the description, unarmed attacks, but not those made while transformed by Wild Shape, are affected by Enlarge.
Enlarge	Despite not being mentioned in the condition description, unarmed attacks, but not those made while transformed by Wild Shape, are affected by Enlarge.
Ensnaring Strike (Ranged)	When upcast to level 4, Ensnaring Strike (Ranged) erroneously costs an  Action +  Level 4 Spell Slot on use and a  Bonus Action +  Level 1 Spell Slot on hit.
Find Familiar	There are many bugs associated with familiars, with many of them not getting proper bonuses to attacks or damage based on their attributes, and some of them not requiring attack rolls for their basic attacks at all.[Needs Verification]
Flame Blade	Attacks made with Flame Blades summoned by Mephistopheles Tieflings count as weapon/melee weapon attacks for purposes of passives/conditions which check for them, while attacks made with Flame Blades summoned via the Druid class spell count as melee spell attacks, similar to spells such as  Shocking Grasp and  Vampiric Touch. Having the hireling Danton cast this spell, immediately recalling his soul, and hiring him again creates a permanent Flame Blade that can be wielded by any other party member. This version of the blade performs up to (5d6 + Strength modifier) Fire damage and is the only Scimitar without the finesse property.
Flaming Sphere	The DC for both Ram attack and Ablaze is always calculated using the caster's Wisdom modifier, even for wizards.
Flesh to Gold	Despite the description stating the effect is 'temporary,' petrification from this spell is indeed permanent until the target is cured by Basilisk Oil or a spell such as  Greater Restoration. Flesh to Gold incorrectly uses the icon from Flesh to Stone, which it uses as a parent spell. Despite requiring Concentration to cast, Flesh to Gold's concentration immediately ends once the target has progressed to Flesh to Gold: Stage 2 and is no longer required afterwards. Through use of a khn function named HasFleshToSToneCheck(), Flesh to Stone and Flesh to Gold should be uncastable on a target which is already afflicted with either of these two spells. However, this function only includes checks for the Flesh to Stone conditions, and as such Flesh to Stone is castable on a creature already afflicted with Flesh to Gold.
Flesh to Stone	Despite the description stating the effect is 'temporary,' petrification from this spell is indeed permanent until the target is cured by Basilisk Oil or a spell such as  Greater Restoration. Through use of a khn function named HasFleshToSToneCheck(), Flesh to Stone and  Flesh to Gold should not be castable on a target which is already afflicted with either of these two spells. However, this function only includes checks for the Flesh to Stone conditions, and as such Flesh to Stone can be cast on a creature already afflicted with Flesh to Gold.
Freedom of Movement	Despite the description, there is no function which allows an affected creature to spend 1.5 m / 5 ft of Movement to free itself from any effects.
Ghoulish Touch	Contrary to the tooltip, elves and undead can be paralysed.
Glyph of Warding: Cold	The Ice's Prone DC created by this spell, if casted on a wet surface is based of the entity that created the wet surface instead of the caster of the spell. If a druid casts Create Water and a wizard casts G.o.W: Cold, the Ice's Prone DC will be: 8 + druid INT modifier + druid proficiency + druid equipment bonus, instead of 8 + wizard INT Modifier + wizard proficiency + wizard equipment bonus. This formula only works if the water first had contact with the enemies (e.g casting Create Water on top of NPCs), if casted/thrown to the ground and then frozen by this spell, the Prone DC will have a default value of 12.
Grave Repulsion	The tooltip incorrectly states targets are pushed back 15 m / 50 ft instead of 8 m / 27 ft.
Hail of Thorns	The damage tooltip for Hail of Thorns displays it benefitting from weapon damage increasing effects, such as  Sharpshooter: All In, but none of these effects function.
Harm	On a failed saving throw, Harm reduces the target's maximum hit points by 14d6 but does not actually inflict any Necrotic damage. This means that it does not trigger damage riders or other effects which require a damage source. Further, the effective damage dealt (through the reduction in maximum hit points) is reduced by the amount of hit points the target was already missing, potentially to zero (i.e. killing the target). On a successful saving throw, Harm deals 14d6 / 2Necrotic damage as expected.
Heat Metal	Due to a coding error, the condition which provides Disadvantage to the target (applied after a successful saving throw) is removed if another unrelated condition is removed from the target. This particular bug only affects the level 2 version of this spell. Due to a coding error, the condition which provides Disadvantage to the target is not automatically removed if the Heat Metal spell is ended early. This particular bug affects all levels of this spell. Heat Metal cast at level 4 deals only 2d8Fire, and its tooltip does not display the damage which Reapply Heat Metal deals. It additionally lacks several other functors found in other levels of this spell. Reapply Heat Metal cast at level 4 correctly deals 4d8Fire. Reapply Heat Metal cast at levels 5 and 6 incorrectly displays its tooltip damage as the level 3 version.
Hellflame Cleave	Despite the tooltip saying that Hellfire ignores resistances and immunities, it does not. Since this attack does not involve an attack roll, it does not benefit from certain bonus damage sources which check the attack roll type despite listing the additional damage on the tooltip. These include:  Arcane Synergy  Great Weapon Master: All In  Hunter's Mark  Prepare  Wrath
Hex	If a creature has Hex applied, and lands a Critical Hit against the caster that triggers any "on hit / damage" abilities to damage the hexed creature, the damage of  Hex is doubled along with the regular damage. For example, a Goblin Warlock casts  Armour of Agathys on themselves, and then  Hex5Cold damage from Armour of Agathys in the process. This triggers Hexto deal an additional 1d6Necrotic to Lae'zel, which is then (erroneously) doubled to 2d6Necrotic due to the Critical Hit.
Hunger of Hadar	The spell mistakenly uses a fixed DC 12 Spell Save instead of the caster's, although this only affects the 2d6Acid damage, as the rest of the spell's effects do not require a saving throw.
Insect Plague	Despite not dealing any Poison damage, this spell is tagged as a poison DamageType.
Keeper's Fee	Despite what is shown by the in-game tooltip, it does not inflict  Cursed: Strength.
Lightning Arrow	The hit chance shown in the preview when targeting the spell is for the saving throw rather than the attack roll. The attack roll is not shown in the combat log. If failing this roll, there is no indication of why the primary 4d8Lightning damage was not applied.
Luminous Arrow	When receiving this ability via Starry Form, this spell is not properly granted with Wisdom as its spellcasting modifier, and instead uses the spellcasting modifier of the most recently acquired spellcasting class. Luminous Arrow is flagged as a Spell rather than an Attack, and as such is subject to being  Counterspelled.
Moonbeam	Despite being an Evocation spell, Moonbeam does not interact with  Sculpt Spells.
Moonmote	The spell tooltip states that this aura applies only to melee attacks while the condition tooltip states that this aura applies to "attacks". In actuality, it applies to weapon and unarmed attacks, but does not apply to any spells which are also attacks.
Otiluke's Freezing Sphere (Launch)	This variant of the spell lacks the spell flags which would prevent it from being used when  Silenced.
Produce Flame	The damage on the tooltip for Produce Flame is not marked correctly for the increases at level 5 and 10. The tooltip for the throwing action,  Produce Flame: Hurl, is marked correctly, and the damage scales correctly. The version of this Cantrip granted to Asmodeus Tieflings uses the character's Wisdom modifier to hurl the flame, rather than Charisma as stated in the  Produce Flame: Hurl tooltip.
Produce Flame: Hurl	The version of this Cantrip granted by the Asmodeus Tiefling subrace, uses the character's Wisdom modifier to hurl the flame, rather than Charisma. See: Tiefling - Bugs. On Clerics the damage on the tooltip for Produce Flame is not marked correctly for the increases at level 5 and 10. The tooltip for the throwing action,  Produce Flame: Hurl, is marked correctly, and the damage scales correctly. It has the same chance to hit as  Guiding Bolt.
Protection from Evil and Good	Immunity is not provided against  Charm. The immunity to frightened and possession is against any source, not just the listed creature types.
Psionic Suggestion: Halt	This spell appears to wrongly copy  Command: Grovel instead of  Command: Halt.
Heat Metal: Reapply Damage	Due to a khn scripting error, Heat Metal: Reapply can never cause an enemy to drop their weapon and will always apply Disadvantage.
Sanctuary	Enemies affected by Sanctuary can still be targeted with  Blight,  Chain Lightning, and  Thorn Whip due to these spells lacking the IsHarmful spell flag. Conversely, a large number of enemy actions (for example,  Sharp Rock) can target player characters that are affected by Sanctuary for the same reason.
Shield (spell)	Due to a scripting error, this spell does not grant charges of  Arcane Ward.
Slow	Normally, the targets of Slow must be distinct, but when upcast to level 4, and only level 4, targets can be selected multiple times. For example, two enemies can be targeted three times each forcing them to make three separate saving throws to avoid being slowed. This is due to the level 4 upcasted version lacking the IgnorePreviouslyPickedEntities flag.
Spike Growth	The level 4 version of this spell incorrectly uses a level 3 spell slot.
Thorn Whip	This spell lacks an IsHarmful SpellFlags tag, and as such is able to target creatures affected by  Sanctuary.
True Strike	Though not displayed in its description, True Strike can be cast while  Silenced.
Vicious Mockery	Vicious Mockery is removed on any "attack" made by the target, which includes virtually any attack or spell which targets another creature (including allies), that does not need to include an Attack Roll.
Wall of Fire	The spell save DC for damage when exiting the wall is fixed at 10.
Wall of Thorns	The in-game tooltip says the duration is 1 turn, but this is incorrect: it can last until Long Rest. Spell save DC for Wall of Thorns is currently fixed at 3, and Entangling vines is at 12. (checked in Hotfix #29)