The Druid squints, concentrating on the enemy’s crossbow trigger… As the gnoll lumbered closer, it roared in pain, yelping and looking at its burnt fingertips. The trigger on its only weapon glowed a fiery red and started dripping molten metal onto the ground. The Druid grinned. On to the next one.
Find out more about the Heat Metal spell below.
Table of Contents
What is the Heat Metal Spell?
The spell’s text from the Player’s Handbook reads:
“Choose a manufactured metal object, such as a metal weapon or a suit of heavy or medium metal armor, that you can see within range. You cause the object to glow red-hot. Any creature in physical contact with the object takes 2d8 fire damage when you cast the spell. Until the spell ends, you can use a bonus action on each of your subsequent turns to cause this damage again.
If a creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. If it doesn’t drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 2nd.”
Heat Metal 5e Stats
| Level | 2 |
| Casting Time | 1 action |
| Range/Area | 60 feet |
| Classes | Bard, Druid, Artificer & Cleric* |
| Components | Verbal, Somatic, Material** |
| Duration | 1 minute |
| School | Transmutation |
| Attack/Save | None |
| Damage/Effect | Fire |
How does Heat Metal work?
Heat Metal is a fairly simple Level 2 spell. You spend 1 action causing a metal object that you can see within a range of 60 feet to heat up and begin to glow red-hot. If any creature is touching that object at the time, will take 2d8 fire damage at the time you cast the spell.
This spell can be especially devastating if you decide to cast it on a creature wearing metal armor. The caster can repeatedly cast Heat Metal on a target (assuming they maintain concentration) causing recurring damage each round with no saving throw and causing disadvantage on attacks and ability checks.
As the spell text states, Heat Metal scales at higher levels (Level 3 or higher), increasing by 1d8 for each slot level above 2nd.
Is Heat Metal a good spell?
Heat Metal may not sound like much but it can be a very useful spell in many cases, especially fun for roleplaying scenarios. Casters can use this spell to destroy the weapons or armor of their foes during battle, often dealing damage to the enemy in the process.
While mainly used for fire damage, it can also be used to repair metal objects (welding).
The spell is weakest on enemies with fire resistance, so be sure to consider what you’re dealing with before spending an action casting this spell.
Which classes can use Heat Metal?
Heat Metal is available for Bards, Druids, and Artificers. It is also an option for Clerics who have taken the Forge Cleric subclass.
Kendra has always been a hardcore fantasy nerd. Growing up in the worlds of Tolkien, Sanderson, Jordan, and Abercrombie, DnD & board games just came naturally. She and her husband, Bryan, started GameCows.com in 2018 as a fun passion project that just took over their lives. An avid board gamer since childhood and chronic DnD chronicler for more than two decades, she loves to play, write, travel, and learn dead languages. She is also a professional content writer at SlashGear.com