Witch Spells
A witch’s magic is dark, rooted in the agony of a sinister curse. But darkness begets darkness, and a witch’s curse begets even greater curses.
New spells on this spell list are marked with an asterisk.
Witch Spell List
Witches can learn spells from the following list when they gain certain levels in their class.
Cantrips (0 Level)
Acid Splash
Chill Touch
Dancing Lights
Eldritch Orb*
Hocuspocus*
Mage Hand
Message
Minor Illusion
Minor Lifesteal*
Prestidigitation
Produce Flame
Resistance
Spare the Dying
True Strike
1st Level
Accursed Act*
Animal Friendship
Bane
Charm Person
Comprehend Languages
Detect Magic
Disguise Self
Expeditious Retreat
Faerie Fire
Flawed Reconstruction*
Hideous Laughter
Hollowing Curse*
Protection from Evil and Good
Psychedelics*
Silent Image
Sleep
Speak with Animals
Thunderwave
Unseen Servant
2nd Level
Animal Messenger
Blindness/Deafness
Calm Emotions
Curse Ward*
Darkness
Detect Thoughts
Enthrall
Hold Person
Intrusive Thought*
Invisibility
Knock
Levitate
Locate Object
Misty Step
Protect Threshold*
Ray of Enfeeblement
See Invisibility
Shatter
Spider Climb
Suggestion
3rd Level
Bestow Curse
Clairvoyance
Counterspell
Curse of Blades*
Dispel Magic
Fear
Fly
Hypnotic Pattern
Magic Circle
Major Image
Nondetection
Remove Curse
Ruby-Eye Curse*
Sending
Slow
Speak with Dead
Speak with Plants
Stinking Cloud
Tongues
4th Level
Arcane Eye
Banishment
Black Tentacles
Compulsion
Confusion
Dimension Door
Dominate Beast
Greater Invisibility
Hallucinatory Terrain
Locate Creature
Phantasmal Killer
Polymorph
5th Level
Contagion
Dispel Evil and Good
Dominate Person
Dream
Geas
Hold Monster
Insect Plague
Mislead
Modify Memory
Pharaoh’s Curse*
Planar Binding
Scrying
Seeming
Telekinesis
6th Level
Corruption Curse*
Demand*
Elemental Curse*
Eyebite
Flesh to Stone
Frenzy*
Guards and Wards
Mass Suggestion
Programmed Illusion
True Seeing
7th Level
Etherealness
Mirage Arcane
Project Image
Plane Shift
Sequester
Symbol
Teleport
8th Level
Antipathy/Sympathy
Dominate Monster
Feeblemind
Glibness
Mind Blank
Power Word Stun
9th Level
Astral Projection
Foresight
Identity Curse*
Imprisonment
True Polymorph
Weird
Spell Descriptions
The following spells are represented in alphabetical order.
Accursed Act
1st-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (incense or a black candle)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Lighting a candle, you speak dark curses in a lost tongue, directed at one creature you can see within range. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw or be cursed for the duration. While cursed, the creature takes psychic damage once per turn equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier whenever it attacks or casts a spell. If the target doesn’t attack or cast a spell on its turn, it can repeat their saving throw at the end of their turn, ending the effect on a success.
A remove curse spell ends this curse early.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you deal an additional 1d8 psychic damage for each slot level above 1st.
Corruption Curse
6th-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
With a piercing glare and a sinister gesture, you send a ribbon of dark magic into a target’s body. A creature you can see within range is cursed for the duration and suffers from one of the following effects of your choice while cursed:
Dull Reflexes. The target has disadvantage on Dexterity checks and saving throws.
Feeble Fortitude. The target has disadvantage on Constitution saving throws and can’t regain hit points.
Weak Will. The target has disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws as well as spell attack rolls.
A remove curse spell cast using a spell slot of 6th level or higher ends this curse early.
Curse of Blades
3rd-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Unholy bands of black energy tie a creature to its weapon. Choose a creature you can see within range that is holding a weapon to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is cursed for the duration. A cursed target can’t willingly drop or stow its weapon. Additionally, whenever it takes the Attack action on its turn, it makes one additional attack using its weapon targeting itself, against its own AC, dealing damage as normal on a hit.
A remove curse spell ends this curse early.
Curse Ward
2nd-level abjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
You reach out your hand and touch a willing creature within your reach, raising a smoke-like barrier around it. For the duration, the target has resistance to necrotic damage and can’t be cursed, possessed, or targeted by a hex. Also, its maximum hit points can’t be lowered. If the target is already affected by one of these effects, the effect is suspended until the spell ends.
Demand
6th-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Unlimited
Components: V, S, M (a snake’s tongue and a piece of copper wire)
Duration: Concentration, up to 8 hours
You send a short message of twenty-five words or fewer to a creature with which you are familiar. The creature hears the message in its mind, recognizes you as the sender if it knows you, and can answer in a like manner immediately. The spell enables creatures with Intelligence scores of at least 1 to understand the meaning of your message.
You can send the message across any distance, and even to other planes of existence, but if the target is on a different plane than you, there is a 5 percent chance that the message doesn’t arrive.
You can use this message to suggest a reasonable-sounding course of activity to the target, in which case the target must make a Wisdom saving throw or be compelled to follow your instructions for the duration, as per the suggestion spell.
Eldritch Orb
Evocation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
You fling a ball of eldritch energy at a creature or object within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 force damage, and each other creature within 5 feet of the target must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes half as much damage.
This spell’s damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).
Elemental Curse
6th-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
A spark leaps from your finger to a creature you touch, spreading in bright cracks across its skin. The target must make a Constitution saving throw or be cursed for the duration. While cursed, the target has vulnerability to your choice of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage. If the creature has resistance to the chosen damage type, it instead only loses that resistance. If the target has immunity to the chosen damage type, it is treated as having only resistance to that damage.
A remove curse spell ends this curse early.
Flawed Reconstruction
1st-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a needle and thread)
Duration: Instantaneous
You stitch together the wounds of a willing creature you touch, which regains 4d6 hit points. However, the mending is imperfect, and the target’s hit point maximum is reduced by the same amount until it finishes a long rest. A creature that regains hit points due to this spell will be left with some permanent scars.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.
Frenzy
6th-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M (a drop of fresh blood)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
With a gesture, you reduce a crowd to base instinct and violence. Choose a point you can see within range. Each creature within 20 feet of that point must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature is frenzied for the duration. When a creature is frenzied, it draws a melee weapon, if it has one.
A frenzied creature must use its action at the beginning of its turn to attack a creature within its reach. It uses a melee weapon, if it has one, or an improvised weapon or unarmed strike if it doesn’t. If multiple targets are within the creature’s reach, it chooses its target randomly. If there is no target within the creature’s reach, it attacks itself, against its own AC, dealing damage as normal on a hit.
At the end of its turn, a frenzied creature can repeat its saving throw, ending the effect on itself early on a success.
Hocuspocus
Conjuration cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
You conjure minor paranormal phenomena and other ominous effects. You create one of the following magical effects within range for 1 minute:
- You cause all candles, torches, and other open flames to darken and flicker.
- You create a quiet sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, such as ominous whispers, the drone of insects, or the sound of crying.
- You create up to four torch-sized spectral, glowing orbs, which float around within range. The orbs do not provide light, apart from a dim glow.
- You can chill or warm the air in a 10-foot cube by 10 degrees.
- You cause small, unattended objects to rattle or levitate an inch off the ground.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.
Hollowing Curse
1st-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Tendrils of black mist extend from your fingertips, latching onto a creature and draining its vitality. Choose a creature you can see within range to make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 2d6 necrotic damage and is cursed for up to one minute. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage and is not cursed. While the target is cursed, you can use your action to deal 1d6 necrotic damage to it automatically. The curse ends early if you use your action to do anything else, if the target is ever outside the spell’s range, or if the target has total cover from you. A remove curse spell also ends this curse.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the initial and secondary damage each increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.
Identity Curse
9th-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Until dispelled
You extend a finger to a creature’s temple, who then forgets its own name. Choose one creature you can touch to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target falls unconscious for 1 hour and is cursed to forget its identity. When the target awakens, it loses all its personal memories, though the target retains all of its general knowledge, proficiencies, and other statistics. The target won’t realize it has any class features or special abilities, and so doesn’t willingly make use of them. If left to its own devices, the target will quickly adopt a new name and begin to build a new identity.
A remove curse spell cast using a 9th-level spell slot ends this curse. When this curse ends, the target regains all its past memories.
Intrusive Thought
2nd-level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet of you taking an action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
As a reaction when a creature you can see within range uses its action to attack or takes the Dash, Dodge, or Disengage action, you can attempt to distort its thinking. The target makes a Wisdom saving throw. A target automatically succeeds on this saving throw if it can’t be charmed. On a failed save, the creature takes an action of your choice from among those options, instead of the action it intended to take.
Minor Lifesteal
Necromancy cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: S
Duration: Instantaneous
You drain life energy from a hostile creature you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 1d4 necrotic damage. You then gain temporary hit points equal to the amount of damage dealt, which last until you finish a long rest. This spell has no effect on Undead or Constructs.
This spell’s damage increases by 1d4 when you reach 5th level (2d4), 11th level (3d4), and 17th level (4d4).
Pharaoh’s Curse
5th-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Until dispelled
Opening your palm, you release a puff of dust, the pestilence of mummy rot. Choose one creature within range to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target is cursed with mummy rot. The cursed target can’t regain hit points, and its hit point maximum decreases by 3d6 for every 24 hours that elapse. If the curse reduces the target’s hit point maximum to 0, the target dies, and its body turns to dust.
The curse lasts until removed by a spell or magical effect that cures mummy rot. A remove curse spell cast using a spell slot of 5th level or higher also ends this spell.
Protect Threshold
2nd-level abjuration (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (an ounce of salt for each foot of the warded portal’s perimeter)
Duration: 10 minutes
Tracing arcane sigils along its boundary, you can ward a doorway, window, or other portal from entry. For the duration, an invisible eldritch creature stalks the warded portal. Any creature that attempts to pass through the portal must make a Wisdom saving throw or take 4d6 psychic damage, or half as much on a successful save.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.
Psychedelics
1st-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (60-foot radius)
Components: V, S, M (a mushroom)
Duration: 1 round
For a moment, the colors around you shift in a rainbow swirl, before coming to rest far from their original hues. Each creature you choose within range must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature has disadvantage on attack rolls until the end of its next turn. Additionally, the colors of all creatures and objects you choose within range change randomly and remain brightly and unnaturally colored for 1 hour.
Ruby-Eye Curse
3rd-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
A red haze clouds the eyes of a creature that meets your gaze. Choose one creature you can see within range to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is cursed for the duration. A cursed target can see normally out to 5 feet, but is blind beyond this radius.
A remove curse spell ends this curse early.
