DnD 5e 2024 Spells That Deal The Most Damage

In Dungeons & Dragons, many high-level spells have impressive effects; ranging from creating a clone as a backup body in case of an untimely death to controlling the weather within a five-mile radius. While players can appreciate the power of spells like these, it is often the potential damage output of a spell that draws the most attention to it from players, and there’s no shortage of heaps of damage to find among the spells available in D&D 5e 2024’s Player’s Handbook (PHB).

Though spells like Fireball and Magic Missile are go-to options for a spellcaster to contribute ample amounts of damage to combat, some spells can dole out much more damage than these staple options. At the upper levels of play, the numbers being thrown around in terms of damage can become almost absurd, with only the toughest of creatures able to withstand the onslaught of a high-level spellcaster for longer than a turn or two.

Updated on September 22, 2024, by Jeremy Devoe: With the recent release of the D&D 5e 2024 Player’s Handbook, we wanted to update this list to start fresh at ten entries which cover the highest damage spells available in the newest D&D Player’s Handbook for aspiring spellcaster players to consider building towards. The bullet points of previous entries have been repurposed into tables with supplementary meta information about each spell.

10 Weird Psychically Torments Frightened Creatures for Staggering Damage

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 341

Creatures Frightened by Weird are described as being terrified by horrors conjured within their minds.

Weird was a fairly subpar spell in D&D 5e 2014, especially for one that requires a ninth-level spell slot; it inflicted the Frightened condition on creatures that failed a Wisdom Saving Throw within a 30 ft sphere centered around a point the caster designated within 120 ft. Creatures Frightened this way took 4d10 psychic damage each time they failed a Wisdom Saving Throw at the end of their turns for up to a minute (with concentration) and ended the effect on a successful save.

Additional Information About the Weird Spell

D&D 5e 2024’s Weird is much stronger up front, with the same range and area effect, dealing 10d10 psychic damage and inflicting the Frightened condition on a failed Wisdom Saving Throw or only half of the 10d10 psychic damage on a successful one. Additionally, Creatures Frightened by Weird now take 5d10 damage each time they fail the Wisdom Saving Throw at the end of their turn. While it is not likely, should a creature fail all of its Wisdom Saving Throws, Weird can deal an average of 302 psychic damage over its full duration to creatures it Frightens.

9 Disintegrate Can Turn Enemies Into Dust and Vaporize Wall of Force

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 263

While Disintegrate originally did half of its damage on a successful Dexterity save, in
D&D 5e 2024’s PHB,
there is no effect on a successful save, with none detailed within the spell’s description.

Disintegrate is a vicious spell that takes the form of a green ray of energy, able to target a single creature, non-magical object or magically created force, such as the wall made by the Wall of Force spell. When targeting a creature, Disintegrate requires a Dexterity Saving Throw from its target; non-magical objects of size Large and smaller are instead automatically disintegrated with no save, as are any forces of magical creation.

Additional Information About the Disintegrate Spell

When cast at sixth level, creatures that fail their Dexterity Saving Throw take 10d6 + 40 force damage from Disintegrate, and 3d6 force damage is added per spell level when Disintegrate is up-cast. Even if the player were to roll a 1 for every d6 when cast at ninth level, Disintegrate would still deal a fair 59 force damage. However, on average, D&D 5e 2024 players will deal 107 force damage from a roll of 19d6 +40 with Disintegrate. If this damage reduces a targeted creature to 0 hit points, they, and anything they’re wearing or holding, are reduced to a pile of dust; only able to be revived by the True Resurrection or Wish Spells.

8 Incendiary Cloud Practically Melts Enemies Stuck Within Its Area of Effect

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 288

Incendiary Cloud moves 10 ft in a set direction on each of the caster’s turns, meaning it will require a closed-off location or other measures to keep an hostile target in its radius for maximum damage.

Though fire is one of the more commonly resisted damage types, spells that deal fire tend to have some of the higher potential damage totals available among the spells available in D&D overall. This is no different with D&D 5e 2024’s edition of Incendiary Cloud, which starts by dealing 10d8 fire damage to creatures within a 20 ft sphere, which can be placed within 150 ft of the caster, on a failed Dexterity Saving Throw and half as much damage on a successful one.

Additional Information About the Incendiary Cloud Spell

However, this Sphere can persist for up to a minute (with concentration) if it is not dispelled or removed by a sufficiently strong enough wind. This means that a D&D creature caught within an Incendiary Cloud for its full possible duration faces 100d8’s worth of fire damage with an average of 450 fire damage if it fails all its Dexterity Saving Throws. Even if that creature succeeds on every Dexterity Saving Throw, it still has to deal with an average of 225 fire damage over the full duration, which is far from insignificant for even more durable creatures, let alone groups of weaker ones.

7 Tsunami Leaves Enemies Trapped in Its Waters Completely Battered

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 336

Though it takes a full minute to cast, Tsunami can hose down creatures with quite a lot of damage if their Strength Saving Throws can’t prevail against the caster’s Spell Save DC. Once the casting is finished, Tsunami creates a wall of water that is 300 ft high, 300 ft long and 50 ft thick within a mile of the caster’s location, dealing 6d10 bludgeoning damage to each creature in its area that fails a Strength Saving Throw.

Additional Information About the Tsunami Spell

After this initial turn, the wave persists for 6 rounds (with concentration) and ends when the wall of water is at 0 ft in height. Each round after it’s cast, Tsunami’s wave moves 50 ft away from the caster, loses 50 ft in height and deals 1d10 less damage than the initial 6d10 to Huge or smaller creatures that cannot succeed at a Strength Saving Throw (at the end of their respective turns) to escape the wave. Creatures carried along with a whole D&D 5e 2024 Tsunami wave will suffer 21d10 bludgeoning damage, for an average of 116 bludgeoning damage.

If a creature succeeds on its Strength Saving Throw, it falls out of the wave and takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 ft it falls; up to 20d6 maximum damage. So, if a creature escapes Tsunami’s wave at 200 ft height, they actually take an average of 131 bludgeoning damage when counting two rounds’ worth of Tsunami’s bludgeoning damage (6d10 + 5d10 + 20d6).

6 Prismatic Wall Proves a Dangerous Hazard for Enemies to Brave

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 308

While a wall of multicolored light may not seem like it makes for a highly damaging spell, the nature of Prismatic Wall’s form leaves it with the potential to deal up to 50d6 damage of five different types. These correspond to five of its seven layers; specifically the red (12d6 fire damage), orange (12d6 acid damage), yellow (12d6 lightning damage), green (12d6 poison damage) and blue (12d6 cold damage). Prismatic Wall either erects a wall 90 ft long, 30 ft tall and 1 inch thick or can be shaped like a globe up to 30 ft in diameter, but fails to cast if placed within a space occupied by a creature.

Of the two other layers out of seven, there is Indigo (which has the potential to petrify hostile creatures) and Violet (which has the potential to blind and then teleport hostile foes to another plane of existence).

When a hostile creature attempts to pass through a Prismatic Wall, they are affected by all seven of its layers, with each of the five damaging layers mentioned above calling for a Dexterity Saving Throw, dealing half of its 12d6 damage on a successful Saving Throw. Should a creature fail all five of their dexterity saving throws, they’ll take an average of 175 damage of various types, which is more likely to be increased or decreased by a D&D creature’s particular weaknesses or resistances due to the multiple types of damage at play.

Additional Information About the Prismatic Wall Spell

5 Power Word Kill Can Instantly Slay a Creature or Amply Damage Them

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 306

Power Word Kill is one of the more popular and infamous spells in D&D and it looks to retain this reputation in D&D 5e 2024. Specifically, the caster targets a creature within 60 ft and kills it instantaneously if it has 100 hit points or less; otherwise dealing a substantial 12d12 psychic damage to the target, which averages out to 78 psychic damage. Both of these effects do not call for a Saving Throw or Spell Attack roll, making it one of the few sources of guaranteed damage available through spellcasting.

Additional Information About the Power Word Kill Spell

While the instant death portion of Power Word Kill doesn’t mechanically deal damage, it is still effectively worth 100 points of guaranteed damage in practice, placing Power Word Kill among the highest damaging single target spells available in D&D 5e 2024. Power Word Kill is ideal for putting a swift end to a fight that’s too dangerous to drag out, though, players will need to be wary about its use against them as well, as all but the hardiest of characters will be within the range of 100 hit points much sooner than expected.

4 Storm of Vengeance Forgoes High Single Target Damage for a Massive AOE

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 320

Storm of Vengeance is an overlooked ninth-level spell despite the wide-scale devastation it can spread in just a minute (with concentration). Starting with the initial cast, Storm of Vengeance deals 2d6 thunder damage and Deafens all creatures under its 300 ft radius of effect that fail a Constitution Saving Throw. The next turn causes acid rain to fall, dealing 4d6 acid damage to all creatures and objects in range, followed by a turn where the player strikes six different creatures or objects (can mix and match) each with a lightning bolt for 10d6 damage.

Additional Information About the Storm of Vengeance Spell

Another turn brings hailstones which deal 2d6 bludgeoning damage for all creatures in range; while for the final turns of its duration (turns 5-10) Storm of Vengeance pelts its area of effect with freezing rain gusting winds, dealing 1d6 Cold damage a turn; making the area Difficult Terrain and Heavily Obscured; while also rendering ranged weapon attacks impossible in its radius. Though the total damage numbers aren’t massive, the expanse of D&D 5e 2024’s Storm of Vengeance’s damage more than makes up for it, able to severely debilitate enemy armies and encampments from afar.

While counting for damage dealt by Strom of Vengeance, all damage beyond the initial thunder damage is dealt without any saves or attack rolls involved.

3 Delayed Blast Fireball Causes Searing Damage When Properly Prepared

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 261

At its base damage, either at seventh level (12d6) or when up-cast to ninth level (14d6), Delayed Blast Fireball does damage on par with an up-cast Fireball spell of similar spell levels. However, there is more potential to be had with Delayed Blast Fireball for players who love the iconic Fireball spell. After casting Delayed Blast Fireball, which takes the form of a glowing bead of condensed fire energy, D&D 5e 2024 players can hold concentration on the spell for up to a minute, adding 1d6 of damage per turn that their Delayed Blast Fireball doesn’t detonate.

Additional Information About the Delayed Blast Fireball Spell

For a ninth-level Delayed Blast Fireball, this comes out to a total of 24d6 fire damage for an average of 84 fire damage to all creatures in a 20 ft sphere around the bead of fire’s location (peaceable within 150 ft of the caster) if they fail a Dexterity Saving Throw, taking half as much on a successful one. Like the Meteor Storm spell, flammable objects in the range of Delayed Blast Fireball are also caught on fire so long as they’re not worn or being carried.

Delayed Blast Fireball can be combined with the effects of the Extended Spell Metamagic to add 10d6 fire damage to Delayed Blast Fireball’s damage for a total of 34d6 fire damage, hitting for an average of 119 fire damage after two minutes of concentration.

2 Prismatic Spray Can Wreak Havoc Against a Large Group of Enemies

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 307

Though it can be overlooked for being inconsistent, it’s also true that with favorable rolls, Prismatic Spray can dish out some surprising damage, and potentially against quite a few enemies with its 60 ft cone area of effect. While each creature in the cone is usually hit by one of seven colored rays, a 1d8 is rolled to determine what rays hit a creature within Prismatic Spray’s range; on a roll of 8, a creature is hit by two different rays instead; determined by further 1d8 rolls and ignoring additional results of 8. Prismatic Spray’s damage-dealing rays have all been improved from D&D 5e 2014’s 10d6 damage to 12d6 damage in D&D 5e 2024.

Additional Information About the Prismatic Spray Spell

For creatures hit by two damaging rays, which include red (12d6 fire damage), orange (12d6 acid damage), yellow (12d6 lightning damage), green (12d6 poison damage) and blue (12d6 cold damage); they’ll be taking 24d6 damage on a failed Dexterity Saving Throw (half on a successful Saving Throw) for an average of 84 damage of two different types. Like with Prismatic Wall, this damage is more likely to be subject to a creature’s weaknesses or resistances, though it’s even further up to chance since the color of the beam that hits a target is determined by rolling.

1 Meteor Swarm Obliterates a Battlefield With Four Huge Blazing Orbs

Found in the D&D 5e 2024 PHB on Page 288

For players who want to roll an awe-inspiring number of dice, look no further than Meteor Swarm, which drops four blazing orbs at specific points of the caster’s choosing within a mile of their location. Each orb falls instantaneously after its target is designated, creating a 40 ft radius of 20d6 fire damage and 20d6 bludgeoning damage where it lands, dealing an average of 140 damage to creatures caught in the impact area. Creatures caught in the radius of multiple impacts from the Meteor Swarm spell only take damage from one radius of damage each.

Additional Information About the Meteor Swarm Spell

Additionally, non-magical objects that aren’t being held or worn by creatures in the area of effect from one of Meteor Swarm’s blazing orbs take the same damage and catch fire if they’re flammable. Considering that Meteor Swarm’s blazing orbs fall immediately after the player selects the four points of impact during the casting action, Meteor Swarm is one of the strongest sources of immediate damage available in D&D 5e 2024. Creatures resistant to fire damage will still take upwards of 105 damage on average from one of Meteor Swarm’s orbs.