Speak with Plants: It Can Get Lonely in the Forest

Usable By: Bard, Druid, Ranger

Spell Level: 3

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Duration: 10 minutes

Components: V, S

You imbue plants within 30 feet of you with limited sentience and animation, giving them the ability to communicate with you and follow your simple commands. You can question plants about events in the spell’s area within the past day, gaining information about creatures that have passed, weather, and other circumstances.

You can also turn difficult terrain caused by plant growth (such as thickets and undergrowth) into ordinary terrain that lasts for the duration. Or you can turn ordinary terrain where plants are present into difficult terrain that lasts for the duration, causing vines and branches to hinder pursuers, for example.

Plants might be able to perform other tasks on your behalf, at the GM’s discretion. The spell doesn’t enable plants to uproot themselves and move about, but they can freely move branches, tendrils, and stalks.

If a plant creature is in the area, you can communicate with it as if you shared a common language, but you gain no magical ability to influence it.

This spell can cause the plants created by the entangle spell to release a restrained creature.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Listen: I’m not here to tell you Speak with Plants is GOOD. I’m not going to try to sell this spell like it's some magically busted underrated gem hidden in the bowels of the PHB. What I will say is that I ADORE Speak with Plants. This is almost a top end nature character’s fantasy, controlling the vines, trees, and flowers around them to do spectacularly magical things. Now, is that particularly effective? No! Not even a little! But every time I’m playing a 5th level nature loving hippie druid, you best believe I’m taking Speak with Plants and wasting far too many spell slots talking to local shrubs and convincing them to pester the local goblin bandits as the rest of the party fights tooth and claw.

At its best, Speak with Plants will tend to feel like a hybrid Entangle and Speak with Animals, two first level spells. Speak with Animals is a ritual spell, notably, so more like one and a half first level spells. A 3rd level spell slot for that effect is a terrible rate, meaning if you want this to perform at a moderate level, you need your DM to be liberal with their rulings on what the plants can do. When you compare this to options like Fireball or even Plant Growth, the limited range this has alongside its apparent weak other text will make this feel a lot closer to Bestow Curse. What’s written is text akin to a mediocre 2nd or 1st level spell, meaning you need to expand its text a lot to get it to justify its slot.

If you’re looking to get as much power as you can from your bard or druid, this spell isn’t going to offer you much. Controlling plants 30 feet around you for ten minutes just is so difficult to make powerful you’d rather take options that at least do something decent consistently. If you’re in the market for a spell that is deeply flavorful at the expense of its power, Speak with Plants will be right up your alley. I love it, warts and all.

5e Spells

Speak with Plants: It Can Get Lonely in the Forest