Dungeons & Dragons, like any game, has rules. But unlike most games, these rules can be contradictory in spirit. They are necessary for the game to function but can be ignored as necessary as well; carved in stone (or at least written in very official ink), but also open to interpretation, rejection, and reconfiguration. They are the best and worst thing about Dungeons & Dragons.
D&D players even have shorthands for overriding the rules, so often is the practice used.RAW (or Rules As Written) means ‘the book literally says this’, but is often used in conjunction with RAI (or Rules As Intended), which means ‘I know it says this but that’s wrong, the rule is supposed to do this’. In D&D, the rules are quite literally made to be broken.
RAW And RAI In D&D
I’ve never paid RAW and the like too much mind in D&D. I play with two groups of players who lean on the more casual, roleplaying side of the game. Nobody is playing to get an unfair advantage or to dominate combat while rejecting the narrative portion of the adventure, so RAW never needs policed. The rules exist in D&D to reveal the potential of your power, and to offer structure to that. They work as long as you don’t rattle them like jail bars to find the one you can knock loose.
For the same reason, I’venever cared too much about broken spells, because most spells that are ‘broken’ are that way because players can combine them with various builds, feats, or multiclass combinations in a way that they weren’t intended. They’re only broken if you deliberately use them that way to take advantage of the rules against how they were written. But the 2024 rules have created a pickle.
While I haven’t run a full campaign under the 2024 rules, I’ve never been as against the concept as a very vocal part of the community has been. Through theups and downs of the Unearthed Arcana playtests, I saw each class become more distinct and playable, as various flaws were ironed out. Nothing is ever perfect, butthese rules being designed as a polish of 2014’s popular 5erather than replacement or overhaul means they already have a solid foundation. They even, finally, make drinking a potion a Bonus Action. But Conjure Minor Elementals is a truly broken spell.
Like An American Recipe, Here’s Where It Really Starts
Conjure Minor Elementals used to do exactly what it said on the tin, but like, if you read the fine print and looked up that tomato soup contains sodium benzoate. It could either give you one elemental of CR (challenge rating) 2, two of CR 1, four of CR 1/2, or eight of CR 1/4. Our good friend RAW was unclear on whether you, the DM, or chance decided which of these options happened, but most people ruled RAI meant you did. It wasn’t massively popular, but it was simple. It conjured some minor elementals.
It now works completely differently, for reasons that aren’t exactly clear. For one, you don’t even conjure elementals anymore, which seems like a bit of a boneheaded move. Instead, you conjure elemental spirits. These don’t attack, but instead swirl around you boosting your damage output by 2d8 for every attack. This is a fourth-level spell, as it always was, but if you upcast it, that rises by 2d8 every time. For every single attack.
The spell also lasts for ten minutes, which, while down from the hour it used to last, means you can summon these spirits before combat and be ready to go for the first strike. There are obvious massive shortcomings here - a duel-wielding Bladesinger Wizard with Booming Blade can do major damage, as can a Valor Bard with True Strike, especially if either of them multiclass into Fighter for Action Surge.
However, as came to my attention from content creator dnd_shorts, there is a fairly simple way to get 301 average damage from this spell. In a single turn. With Conjure Minor Elementals already cast at sixth level, you cast Scorching Ray at fifth level, which deals 2d6 + 6d8, six times. Then use Metamagic Adept Quicken Spell Eldritch Blast as a Bonus Action for 3d10 + 18d8 damage.
Also every enemy within 15 feet has their speed halved, but that hardly seems to matter seeing as they’ll be dead.
Of course, the classic counter to players with broken builds is that DMs can go even brokener, but it’s not going to be much fun at the table if the wizard is doing 301 damage, and the generic guard captain enemy now has 700 health and deals 400 damage per turn. There are some spells that are only broken if you try to bend them that way, but Conjure Minor Elementals is broken out of the box. It doesn’t even conjure minor elementals anymore, and somehow, that’s the least of its problems.
