I’ve been working on a spell guide for D&D games. During the process, I researched the differences between the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Player’s Handbook (PHB) and the 5e System Reference Document (SRD).
For those that don’t know, in 3e Wizards of the Coast released the core rules of the game for free. They’ve continued to do so for 3.5, 4, and 5e. The 5e rules were released under Creative Commons recently (thanks!), in response to some community backlash over proposed licensing changes (eek!).
There are 361 spells in the PHB, but only 318 in the SRD. Which are missing?
Here are the 43 spells in the PHB but not the SRD:
- arcane gate
- armor of agathys
- arms of hadar
- aura of life
- aura of purity
- aura of vitality
- banishing smite
- beast sense
- blade ward
- blinding smite
- chromatic orb
- circle of power
- cloud of daggers
- compelled duel
- conjure barrage
- conjure volley
- cordon of arrows
- crown of madness
- crusader’s mantle
- destructive wave
- dissonant whispers
- elemental weapon
- ensnaring strike
- feign death
- friends
- grasping vine
- hail of thorns
- hex
- hunger of hadar
- lightning arrow
- phantasmal force
- power word heal
- prayer of healing
- ray of sickness
- searing smite
- staggering smite
- swift quiver
- telepathy
- thorn whip
- thunderous smite
- tsunami
- witch bolt
- wrathful smite
Why are they missing? Well, the official WoTC answer is:
In general, the criteria for what went into the SRD is if it (1) was in the 3E SRD, (2) has an equivalent in 5th edition D&D, and (3) is vital to how a class, magic item, or monster works. For example, the 3E SRD has the delay poison spell, but in 5th edition that’s handled by the protection from poison spell, so protection from poison is in the SRD.
Wizards of the Coast, SRD5.1 FAQ
Looking at the actual list, every single spell missing was (1) not in the 3E SRD, (2) was added in 5E. I was curious what fraction of new 5E spells got added to the SRD vs. not, but it looks like no one has a list of new 5E spells, so I couldn’t easily check.
The following are renamed but present in the SRD, presumably for trademark reasons:
- drawmij’s instant summons, evard’s black tentacles, leomund’s secret chest, melf’s acid arrow, mordenkainen’s faithful hound, mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion, mordenkainen’s private sanctum, otiluke’s freezing sphere, otiluke’s resilient sphere, otto’s irresistible dance, rary’s telepathic bond, tasha’s hideous laughter, and tenser’s floating disk are all shortened. They become instant summons, black tentacles, secret chest, acid arrow, faithful hound, magnificent mansion, private sanctum, freezing sphere, resilient sphere, irresistable dance, telepathic bond, and floating disk.
- bigby’s hand becomes arcane hand
- mordenkainen’s sword becomes arcane sword
- nystul’s magic aura becomes arcanist’s magic aura
