![\"Know](\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Know-the-rules-300x196.webp\")
Part of an ongoing series of 5e (2014)<\/strong> Rules notes.<\/a>\u00a0 See the end of the post for notes on 5.5e (2024)<\/strong> rules.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nIt’s the damaging, crowd-controlling, Area of Effect spell that keeps on giving. You thought\u00a0Entanglement<\/em> was a pain in the ass? Try something (if you are a Druid or Ranger) that doesn’t prevent the target from moving, just slows them down and<\/em> damages them when they try to move: Spike Growth!<\/em><\/p>\n The ground in a 20-foot radius centered on a point within range twists and sprouts hard spikes and thorns. The area becomes difficult terrain for the duration. When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So we really have two effects<\/a> here over the Concentration \/ 10 minutes of the spell:<\/p>\n This 2nd level spell would be somewhat effective at crowd control if all it did was slow the bad guys down. Causing 2d4 damage for every 5 feet (one square on a normal grid) traveled is murderous at early levels. A figure with a 30-foot move will be slowed to 15 feet (Difficult terrain), and take 6d4 (6-24) points of damage, with no AC or Save to mitigate it,\u00a0each turn.<\/em> And that applies to\u00a0everyone<\/em> within the spell area.<\/p>\n No, honestly, I have seem very large early mobs gutted by a well-positioned use of this spell.<\/p>\n This spell is particularly deadly because, while most “this area causes you damage” spells affect someone once per turn (e.g., Moonbeam<\/a>), Spike Growth<\/em> will mess them up for every square they move through. Plus, there’s no save.<\/p>\n The spell notes:<\/p>\n The transformation of the ground is camouflaged to look natural. Any creature that can’t see the area at the time the spell is cast must make a Wisdom (Perception) check against your spell save DC to recognize the terrain as hazardous before entering it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So you can set it as a trap for pursuers. If they don’t see it cast, they require a save to spot it before they blunder in.<\/p>\n There are a variety of ways of pushing or dragging folk into a Spike Growth<\/em> spell area, from a Shove attack<\/a> to\u00a0Thorn Whip<\/em><\/a> to\u00a0Thunderwave<\/em> to\u00a0Thunderous Smite.<\/em> It’s not always clear with these effects whether a target is dragged at ground level (in which case they would take damage each square of\u00a0Spike Growth<\/em> they were moved through) or somehow hurled through the air (in which case only the target square would cause damage).<\/p>\n The DM will have adjudicate based on the specific spell \/ effect and the circumstances it occurs in, to see how much damage the target takes.<\/p>\n The old saying of “Getting out means going through” is a losing proposition with\u00a0Spike Growth.\u00a0<\/em>Going through means taking more damage.<\/p>\n Tactics for those caught in the spell:<\/p>\n Spike Growth<\/em> does not scale. Even with no save, at some point in the leveling\/CR equation, 2d4 damage per square does not daunt in quite the same way.<\/p>\n Sure, it creates Difficult Terrain (always a good thing), and 2d4 over enough squares starts to add up, but a 15th Level character will be a lot less worried over it (or have ways around it) than a 2nd Level character.<\/p>\n But it’s good while it lasts.<\/p>\n The basics of the spell, while edited for 5.5e jargon, are the same:<\/span><\/p>\n The ground in a 20-foot-radius Sphere centered on a point within range sprouts hard spikes and thorns. The area becomes Difficult Terrain for the duration. When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 Piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The only difference is in the camouflage aspect:<\/span><\/p>\n The transformation of the ground is camouflaged to look natural. Any creature that can\u2019t see the area when the spell is cast must take a Search action and succeed on a Wisdom (Perception or Survival) check against your spell save DC to recognize the terrain as hazardous before entering it.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is a lot more harsh. First, taking the Search<\/em> action is specifically called out (no Passive Perception<\/em> pertains).\u00a0 On the other hand, Survival<\/em> is also allowed as an optional Ability Check … but, still, unless you are\u00a0expecting<\/em> someone to put down\u00a0Spike Growth,<\/em> who would ever dream of taking your Action to Search<\/em> for it?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A diabolical spell that can not only manage crowds at low levels, but actually eliminate them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,44,78],"tags":[47,103,50,114,115],"class_list":["post-3978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-onedd","category-dd","category-dd-5e-rules","tag-dnd5e","tag-perception","tag-rules","tag-spike-growth","tag-survival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3978"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4338,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions\/4338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}So what does it say?<\/h1>\n
\n
![\"Spike](\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Spike-Growth-650x425.png\")
<\/a>Plus, it’s Sneaky<\/h1>\n
Pushing In<\/h1>\n
Getting Out<\/h1>\n
\n
Limits of Growth<\/h1>\n
Any changes to this spell in 5.5e?<\/span><\/h1>\n
![\"dnd](\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/dnd-55-2024-logo.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>There are only minor changes to this spell in 5.5e (2024)<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n