Evocation is one of the eight schools of magic in Dungeons & Dragons, with evokers able to eradicate their foes with arcane attacks. There is more to evocation than just magic missile and fireball, as it’s also the school that carries most of the healing spells in the game, which is necessary for the survival of most adventuring parties. Evokers are a popular choice for players and they are useful in combat-heavy games, but not all D&D games are centered around brawls, so players should inquire about the kind of campaign they are taking part in. If they don’t, then they risk bringing a gun to a tea party.

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The Wizards who choose D&D‘s School of Evocation for their Arcane Tradition get some amazing subclass features. The Scult Spells feature at level two is fantastic, as allows the caster to shield allies from the effects of their AoE spells. This means it’s safe to throw a fireball straight into a melee, as the meat shields will be protected from damage. The Potent Cantrip feature at level six is decent, as it prevents enemies from halving the damage on saves against cantrips, but cantrips aren’t exactly huge damage dealers in the first place. The Empowered Evocation feature at level ten lets the caster add their Intelligence bonus to the damage of spells, which is great, but unfortunately, it only applies to one damage dice. If it applied to a multi-hit spell like magic missile, then it would be way better. The Overchannel feature at level fourteen lets the caster max out the damage of a level 1-5 spell, with repeated uses possible, but the caster takes damage. This is one of the best abilities in the game, even for its high level, as throwing around maximized fireball or destructive wave is a game-changer.

The Player’s Handbook lists all spells alphabetically, with the specific schools noted in the spell descriptions, rather than the initial lists. This guide contains all of the evocation spells in D&D that are used by every class in the game, with notes next to all of the ritual spells. The guide also contains all of the evocation spells that appear in official rulebooks, such as Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and Xanather’s Guide to Everything, all of which are marked, so players know where to find these spells if they wish to learn more.

The Evocation Spells In Dungeons & Dragons

Evocation Cantrips

  • Booming Blade (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)
  • Dancing Lights
  • Eldritch Blast
  • Fire Bolt
  • Frostbite (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Light
  • Lightning Lure (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)
  • Ray of Frost
  • Sacred Flame
  • Shocking Grasp
  • Thunderclap (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Word of Radiance (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)

1st Level Evocation Spells

  • Burning Hands
  • Chaos Bolt (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Chromatic Orb
  • Cure Wounds
  • Divine Favor
  • Earth Tremor (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Faerie Fire
  • Frost Fingers (Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden)
  • Green-Flame Blade (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)
  • Guiding Bolt
  • Healing Word
  • Hellish Rebuke
  • Jim’s Magic Missile (Acquisitions Incorporated)
  • Magic Missile
  • Searing Smite
  • Tasha’s Caustic Brew
  • Thunderous Smite
  • Thunderwave
  • Witch Bolt
  • Wrathful Smite

2nd Level Evocation Spells

  • Aganazzar’s Scorcher (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Branding Smite
  • Continual Flame
  • Darkness
  • Flame Blade
  • Gust of Wind
  • Melf’s Acid Arrow
  • Moonbeam
  • Prayer of Healing
  • Rime’s Binding Ice (Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons)
  • Scorching Ray
  • Shatter
  • Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Spiritual Weapon
  • Tasha’s Mind Whip
  • Warding Wind (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)

3rd Level Evocation Spells

  • Aura of Vitality
  • Blinding Smite
  • Crusader’s Mantle
  • Daylight
  • Fireball
  • Lightning Bolt
  • Mass Healing Word
  • Melf’s Minute Meteors (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Pulse Wave (Explorer’s Guide To Wildemount)
  • Sending
  • Wall of Water (Mythic Odysseys of Theros)
  • Wind Wall

4th Level Evocation Spells

  • Gravity Sinkhole (Explorer’s Guide To Wildemount)
  • Fire Shield
  • Ice Storm
  • Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
  • Sickening Radiance (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Staggering Smite
  • Storm Sphere (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Vitriolic Sphere (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Wall of Fire
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5th Level Evocation Spells

  • Bigby’s Hand
  • Cone of Cold
  • Dawn (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Destructive Wave
  • Flame Strike
  • Hallow
  • Holy Weapon (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Immolation (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Mass Cure Wounds
  • Maelstrom (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Wall of Force
  • Wall of Light (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Wall of Sand (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Wall of Stone
  • Wall of Water (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Wrath of Nature (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)

6th Level Evocation Spells

  • Blade Barrier
  • Chain Lightning
  • Contingency
  • Gravity Fissure (Explorer’s Guide To Wildemount)
  • Heal
  • Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere
  • Sunbeam
  • Wall of Ice

7th Level Evocation Spells

  • Crown of Stars (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Delayed Blast Fireball
  • Divine Word
  • Fire Storm
  • Forcecage
  • Mordenkainen’s Sword
  • Prismatic Spray
  • Whirlwind (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)

8th Level Evocation Spells

  • Dark Star (Explorer’s Guide To Wildemount)
  • Earthquake
  • Maddening Darkness (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
  • Sunburst
  • Telepathy

9th Level Evocation Spells

  • Mass Heal
  • Meteor Swarm
  • Power Word Heal
  • Ravenous Void (Explorer’s Guide To Wildemount)

Evocation has some of the best spells in D&D and it will appear on the lists of many characters in the game. There are few Clerics in the game who wouldn’t have cure wounds or healing word in their repertoire, as they are some of the most commonly-used healing spells in the game. The fact that healing word only requires a bonus action to cast and can be used from a distance makes it one of the best spells to use in a fight in D&D, as it can safely revive a comrade who is on death’s door, and it allows the Cleric to fire off a cantrip in the same round. The revival spells (like raise dead and resurrection) all belong to the school of necromancy, but stopping allies from needing revival is the duty of evocation.

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In terms of arcane spellcasters, the school of evocation hosts some of the best damage-dealing spells in the game. The magic missile spell has been one of the best low-level damage spells throughout the history of D&D, and that’s no different in fifth edition. The fireball and lightning bolt spells are a Wizard’s bread and butter once they can cast third-level spells, competing with the likes of dispel magic and haste for slots. There are some great offensive/defensive wall evocation, with wall of fire and serving a number of different functions in battle. Evocation spells are a major part of Dungeons & Dragons, as few campaigns have a pacifist route, and it’s important to have access to damaging spells for when combat is unavoidable.

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Scott Baird
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Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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