Aura of Life: Life Deals You Lemons
Spell Level: 4
School: Abjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (30-foot radius)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Components: V
Life-preserving energy radiates from you in an aura with a 30-foot radius. Until the spell ends, the aura moves with you, centered on you. Each non-hostile creature in the aura (including you) has resistance to necrotic damage, and its hit point maximum can’t be reduced. In addition, a non-hostile, living creature regains 1 hit point when it starts its turn in the aura with 0 hit points.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Let's make a checklist for everything that makes up this bad spell, shall we?
Does it cost an action, eating most of your turn? Check!
Does it waste your concentration? Check!
Does it do no damage? Check!
Does it have no impact on the action economy? Check!
Can spells lower level than it do what it's trying to do better? Check!
Does it provide an incredibly niche, near unusable form of assistance? Double check!
Is there nothing else in the spell of merit, in or out of combat? Check again!
I don’t know who ever has cast Aura of Life and gone “wow, this spell is AMAZING!” A 4th level spell that keeps people off of 0 hit points, negates max HP reduction, and provides resistance to a rare damage type isn’t the text of a good spell; it's a list made to shit on one specific kind of undead. I feel particularly bad for any paladin out there who cast this spell. Imagine waiting till 13th level only to get a spell leagues worse than Mass Healing Word, or realistically worse than just regular Healing Word. Clerics at least got to find out at 7th level how bad this is.
If you’re going into a high CR environment plagued by max HP reducers, consider instead spells and abilities dedicated to KILLING undead in place of effects that negate a side effect 5e rules basically shrugs off anyway. Max HP reduction typically lasts until your next long rest; the effect is annoying, but ultimately something that you don’t need this proactive answer for. If you feel you need it, there still are windows where you’ll be surprised by undead and see max HP drain before you could even cast the spell, and seeing as it doesn’t remove the condition, the effect becomes fairly moot. Instead, what if you sunk that 4th level slot into a divine smite for a bonus 5d8 radiant damage on top of the attack's normal damage? You could even just wait and fish for a crit to get a bonus 10d8 radiant, a WAY better investment of the slot. You know how you can prevent max HP damage? Kill the thing that would inflict it!
This spell will only do something in exactly one environment, and it’ll be lukewarm there. If you specifically are going into a fight you know about and have a round to prep, and in that fight there will be majority necrotic damage and max HP damage, prepare Aura of Life. Otherwise, forget this spell exists. It brings nothing to the table in all other instances.
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
