Guiding Hand 5e⁚ A Comprehensive Overview
Guiding Hand is a 1st-level divination spell featured in Unearthed Arcana for 5th Edition. This spell allows a caster to create a Tiny, incorporeal hand of light that guides the user toward a specified landmark. The hand vanishes upon teleportation.
Guiding Hand, a 1st-level divination spell from Unearthed Arcana, offers unique navigational utility. It conjures a shimmering, incorporeal hand to guide the caster towards a pre-determined landmark. This landmark must be significant and mapped, ensuring someone has previously visited and documented its location. The spell’s effectiveness hinges on this requirement; absence of a map renders the spell useless.
The hand remains active for the duration, up to 8 hours with concentration, providing continuous guidance. However, teleportation or planar travel immediately dispels the hand, limiting its use to a single plane of existence. This spell provides an alternative to using a map, especially in unfamiliar or treacherous terrains, giving the caster a magical compass.
Spell Details
The Guiding Hand spell, a 1st-level divination spell, requires verbal and somatic components. It has a casting time of 1 minute and a range of 5 feet, lasting up to 8 hours with concentration.
Casting Time and Range
The Guiding Hand spell in 5th Edition D&D has a casting time of 1 minute, making it suitable for situations where immediate action is not required, allowing for careful preparation. This duration distinguishes it from spells designed for quick deployment during combat encounters. The range of the spell is 5 feet, implying that the caster must be in close proximity to the intended area where the hand will manifest; This short range emphasizes the personal nature of the spell’s effect, as the caster must be present to initiate the guiding process. The limited range ensures the caster maintains direct control and awareness of the spell’s manifestation and guidance.
Components and Duration
The Guiding Hand spell requires both verbal (V) and somatic (S) components, meaning the caster must speak the incantation and perform specific hand gestures to successfully cast the spell. These components add a layer of complexity to the spellcasting process, making it more challenging to cast in situations where silence or freedom of movement is restricted. The duration of the spell is concentration, up to 8 hours. This means the caster must maintain focus to keep the Guiding Hand active, and the spell ends if concentration is broken due to damage, distraction, or any other factor. The 8-hour duration allows for extended guidance.
Classes that can use Guiding Hand
The Guiding Hand spell is available to a variety of classes in 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, providing diverse characters with access to its navigational benefits. Specifically, Bards, Clerics, Druids, and Wizards can learn and cast this spell. The inclusion of Bards highlights the spell’s utility for adventurers and explorers. Clerics can use Guiding Hand to aid their pilgrimages or lead followers to sacred sites. Druids might employ it to navigate through wilderness areas or locate specific natural landmarks. Wizards, with their extensive spell lists, find Guiding Hand a useful addition for research expeditions. This broad availability ensures that Guiding Hand can be incorporated into many campaigns.
Spell Mechanics
The Guiding Hand spell conjures a Tiny, incorporeal hand of shimmering light. This hand directs the caster to a major landmark on the same plane. The spell fails if the landmark isn’t mapped.
Creating the Incorporeal Hand
Casting Guiding Hand brings forth a Tiny, incorporeal hand of shimmering light within a range of 5 feet, in an unoccupied space visible to the caster. This hand exists for the spell’s duration, which can last up to 8 hours with concentration. However, the hand’s existence is fragile; it immediately disappears if the caster teleports or travels to a different plane of existence, highlighting its connection to the caster’s current location.
The hand’s purpose is to guide the caster toward a specific landmark, acting as a magical compass. The hand is a beacon of light, offering visual guidance to the caster, ensuring they remain on course towards their destination, as long as they stay within the same plane and avoid teleportation.
Landmark Requirement
A pivotal aspect of the Guiding Hand spell lies in the requirement of a major landmark. When the incorporeal hand appears, the caster must name a significant landmark on the same plane of existence. This landmark could be a city, mountain, castle, or battlefield.
Crucially, the spell stipulates that someone in history must have visited and mapped the site. This ensures the landmark’s existence is verifiable and not merely a figment of imagination. If the landmark appears on no map in existence, the spell fails, emphasizing the need for historical precedence and geographical accuracy. This requirement ties the spell to the known world.
Effect of Teleportation and Planar Travel
The Guiding Hand spell has a specific limitation concerning teleportation and planar travel. The spell description clearly states that the incorporeal hand disappears if the caster teleports or travels to a different plane of existence. This limitation is significant because it prevents the spell from being used for long-distance or interplanar navigation.
This restriction ensures that the spell remains grounded within a single plane and cannot be exploited to bypass the challenges of planar exploration. The hand’s reliance on a fixed plane of existence reinforces its role as a guide for local navigation. It also makes the spell useless to those who travel between planes.
Unearthed Arcana Context
Guiding Hand was introduced in Unearthed Arcana, a playtest material. This means it is not official content. The spell is copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast and appeared in “Starter Spells” UA.
Playtest Material Status
The Guiding Hand spell originates from Unearthed Arcana (UA), which signifies it is playtest material. UA content is not official Damp;D material, meaning it’s still undergoing development and refinement. Wizards of the Coast releases these materials for public testing to gather feedback. Player experiences and suggestions influence potential revisions and official publication.
Therefore, the rules and mechanics of Guiding Hand might differ from those in finalized Damp;D sourcebooks. DMs should carefully consider the spell’s balance within their campaigns. They might need to adjust it based on their party’s composition, play style, and the overall setting. Since it is not official, always confirm with your Dungeon Master before implementing it.
Copyright Information
The spell Guiding Hand, as presented in Unearthed Arcana⁚ Starter Spells, is copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast; All rights are reserved. Reproduction or distribution of the spell’s description, mechanics, or any associated content without explicit permission from Wizards of the Coast is prohibited.
This copyright protection extends to all aspects of the spell, including its name, casting requirements, effects, and any descriptive text accompanying it. Fan-created content referencing the spell is generally permissible, provided it adheres to Wizards of the Coast’s fan content policy. Any commercial use of Guiding Hand or its related materials requires a licensing agreement with Wizards of the Coast.
Practical Applications
Guiding Hand offers practical applications for navigation, especially in unfamiliar territories. It can also be used for reconnaissance, allowing players to discreetly locate important landmarks within a given area, lasting up to eight hours.
Navigation and Guidance
The Guiding Hand spell proves invaluable for navigation, particularly when adventurers find themselves in uncharted territories or sprawling urban environments. By conjuring the incorporeal hand and designating a known landmark, characters can receive clear and persistent guidance towards their desired destination. The hand’s ability to point and move facilitates easy tracking, enabling parties to navigate complex mazes, dense forests, or winding city streets with increased efficiency. This spell is especially useful during time-sensitive quests or when facing geographical challenges. Remember that the landmark must be on a map, and you must be on the same plane. The eight-hour duration allows ample time for exploration and reaching distant locations, making it a reliable tool for adventurers who prioritize efficient and safe travel. Guiding Hand enhances strategic planning and minimizes the risk of getting lost.
Related Spells and Abilities
Guiding Hand shares thematic similarities with spells like Guidance, which offers general aid, and Guiding Bolt, which combines guidance with radiant damage. These spells provide different forms of assistance and information to the caster.
Guidance Cantrip
The Guidance cantrip is a divination spell available to clerics and druids, offering a minor boost to ability checks. Unlike Guiding Hand, which provides navigational assistance, Guidance enhances a single skill check, attack roll, or saving throw. It grants a creature within touch a +1d4 bonus.
While Guiding Hand offers long-term direction toward a specific location, Guidance is a short-term buff for immediate tasks. Both spells fall under the umbrella of divination and support, but they fulfill different roles. Guidance requires concentration, has a short duration of only up to 1 minute, and can be used in varied situations, while Guiding Hand is more specialized for navigation. Both spells are valuable assets, but fulfill distinct needs.
Guiding Bolt
Guiding Bolt is a 1st-level evocation spell available to clerics, contrasting sharply with the navigational utility of Guiding Hand. Instead of providing direction, Guiding Bolt delivers a radiant strike, dealing 4d6 radiant damage to a creature within range. Furthermore, the next attack roll made against that creature before the end of the caster’s next turn has advantage.
While Guiding Hand aids in exploration and finding landmarks, Guiding Bolt is a combat spell focused on dealing damage and providing tactical advantage. Guiding Bolt has a range of 120 feet and requires a spell slot for each casting. This spell is beneficial in combat, while Guiding Hand is useful for traveling. The spells serve different gameplay purposes.