The 10 Best Conjuration Spells in D&D 5e, Ranked

Conjuration is the school of pulling things from somewhere else. Allies from other planes. Objects from thin air. Yourself from one location to another. If Evocation asks "how much damage can I deal?" Conjuration asks "how many things can I have doing damage for me?"

The best Conjuration spells don't just add power - they multiply it. Summoning eight wolves gives you eight extra attacks per round. Teleporting behind enemy lines bypasses the entire encounter setup. Creating a wall of thorns reshapes the battlefield. And at the top end, Wish reshapes reality itself.

10. Find Familiar

1st Level (Ritual) | Wizard

Find Familiar summons a spirit that takes an animal form - owl, cat, snake, spider, whatever fits your style. The familiar can scout, deliver touch spells, use the Help action, and provide advantage on attack rolls through the Help action.

The owl is the optimal choice and everyone knows it. Flyby means it can Help an ally (granting advantage) and fly away without provoking opportunity attacks. Every round, for free, forever. No concentration, no spell slots after the initial cast (it's a ritual), and the familiar can be re-summoned if it dies.

Find Familiar is a 1st-level spell that stays relevant at 20th level. That's remarkable.

9. Fog Cloud

1st Level | Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard

A 20-foot-radius sphere of fog that heavily obscures everything inside it. Creatures in the fog are effectively blind - attacks against them and from them have disadvantage (which cancels out to straight rolls), but more importantly, you can't target what you can't see with most spells.

Fog Cloud is a 1st-level concentration spell that shuts down enemy spellcasters. No line of sight means no targeting. That enemy Wizard preparing Hold Person? Can't see your Fighter anymore. The dragon using its Frightful Presence? Doesn't work through fog.

It also enables retreats, ambushes, and repositioning. For a 1st-level slot, the tactical flexibility is absurd.

8. Web

2nd Level | Sorcerer, Wizard

A 20-foot cube of sticky webs that restrains creatures who fail a Dexterity save. Restrained creatures have disadvantage on attacks and Dex saves, and attacks against them have advantage. The webs are also flammable - set them on fire for 2d4 damage to restrained creatures.

Web is the best 2nd-level control spell in the game. It restrains multiple enemies, lasts 1 hour with concentration, and creates difficult terrain even for creatures that pass their save. The Dex save to escape uses their action, meaning even if they break free, they've lost their turn to attacking.

At 2nd level, nothing else provides this much battlefield control. You'll still be casting this at level 10 and it'll still be good.

7. Conjure Animals

3rd Level | Druid, Ranger

Summon up to eight beasts of CR 1/4 or lower. Eight wolves, each with Pack Tactics (advantage when an ally is within 5 feet of the target), each dealing 2d4+2 damage per hit. That's eight attacks per round with advantage, averaging 60+ damage if most hit.

Conjure Animals is the spell that breaks the action economy in half. Your concentration maintains eight creatures that each take a full turn. Even if each wolf only does 7 damage before going down, that's 56 damage from a 3rd-level slot, spread across enough attacks that AC barely matters statistically.

The DM chooses what appears (RAW), which can lead to table tension. But most GMs let you pick, and when you pick wolves, the encounter math breaks in your favor.

6. Misty Step

2nd Level | Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Bonus action. Teleport 30 feet to a visible location. That's it. That's the spell.

Misty Step is the single best mobility spell in D&D because of what it isn't: it isn't an action. You teleport as a bonus action and still have your full action to attack, cast a cantrip, disengage, or do whatever else you need to do. Grappled? Misty Step. Surrounded? Misty Step. Need to reach the ledge 25 feet above you? Misty Step.

It doesn't require concentration, doesn't provoke opportunity attacks, and gets you out of situations that would otherwise require a full turn to resolve. Two levels of spell slot for guaranteed repositioning. Always prepare this.

5. Conjure Woodland Beings

4th Level | Druid, Ranger

Summon up to eight fey creatures of CR 1/4 or lower. The power play is summoning Pixies, which have access to spells like Polymorph, Fly, Confusion, and Entangle - each one capable of casting a concentration spell independently.

If your DM lets you choose Pixies (and that's a significant "if"), Conjure Woodland Beings is arguably the strongest 4th-level spell in the game. Eight Pixies can Polymorph your entire party into Giant Apes (157 HP, multiattack for 3d10+6 twice). The encounter is over.

Even without the Pixie exploit, eight fey creatures provide incredible action economy, and their innate spellcasting adds utility beyond raw damage.

4. Dimension Door

4th Level | Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Teleport up to 500 feet to any location you can describe or visualize. You can bring one willing creature with you. No line of sight required.

Dimension Door is the great escape and the great infiltration tool. Through walls, across chasms, into locked rooms, out of prisons. The 500-foot range is enormous - that's longer than most encounter maps. And bringing a friend means your party's rogue can come with you for the heist.

Compared to Misty Step, you trade the bonus action economy for massive range and no line of sight requirement. Both belong in your prepared spells.

3. Conjure Elemental

5th Level | Druid, Wizard

Summon an elemental of CR 5 or lower that obeys your commands for up to 1 hour. A Water Elemental has 114 HP, multiattack, and can enter hostile creatures' spaces. An Earth Elemental has 126 HP and can burrow through solid rock.

The catch: if you lose concentration, the elemental goes berserk and attacks the nearest creature, including you. That's a serious risk, which is why Conjuration Wizards (whose Focused Conjuration feature at 10th level prevents concentration loss from damage) are the best users of this spell.

When maintained, a CR 5 elemental is essentially a second party member with hit points, damage, and special abilities. For a 5th-level slot and your concentration, you get an hour of combat muscle that doesn't cost your action each turn.

2. Teleport

7th Level | Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard

Teleport yourself and up to eight willing creatures to any location on the same plane of existence. If you're familiar with the destination, it's reliable. Less familiar locations carry a risk of mishap - arriving off target, in a similar location, or taking damage.

Teleport doesn't just save time. It lets your party skip entire dungeons, evacuate instantly, resupply between fights, and retreat from unwinnable encounters. The logistical advantage of "we can be anywhere in the world in six seconds" changes how you approach every problem.

The familiarity system is elegant: places you've been are safe, places you've only seen or heard about are risky. It rewards exploration and punishes recklessness, which is exactly the right balance for a spell this powerful.

1. Wish

9th Level | Sorcerer, Wizard

The most powerful spell in Dungeons & Dragons. Wish can duplicate any spell of 8th level or lower with no material components. That alone makes it the most versatile spell in the game. But the free-form wish option goes further - you can attempt to reshape reality itself.

Undo a recent event. Create a valuable object. Grant resistance to a damage type to ten creatures. Force a reroll of any roll made in the last round. Fully heal the entire party. The possibilities are as broad as language allows.

The risk: using Wish for anything other than duplicating a spell has a 33% chance of permanently removing your ability to cast it again, plus physical strain (1d10 necrotic damage per spell you cast until your next long rest, Strength drops to 3 for 2d4 days). That risk is what keeps Wish balanced. The spell can do almost anything, but the universe pushes back.

Even with the risk, Wish is #1 because its floor (duplicate any 8th-level spell, safely, every day) is already the strongest single-spell capability in the game.

Honorable Mentions

Sleet Storm (3rd level) - Concentration-based area control that creates difficult terrain, forces concentration checks, and knocks creatures prone. Less damage than Conjure Animals but doesn't require tracking eight creatures.

Create Food and Water (3rd level) - Solves an entire pillar of gameplay (survival/rations) with one spell. Not exciting, but in campaigns where travel matters, this is the difference between a successful expedition and starvation.

Plane Shift (7th level) - Teleport to another plane of existence, or banish an unwilling creature there on a failed Charisma save. Used offensively, it's a save-or-die with no hit point threshold. Used for travel, it opens the entire multiverse.

How StoryRoll Handles Conjuration Spells

Conjuration is where AI Game Masters provide the most value, because these spells create the most bookkeeping. Summoning eight wolves means tracking eight initiative entries, eight sets of hit points, eight attacks per round, and Pack Tactics advantage calculations for each one. A human GM either simplifies this or the game slows to a crawl. StoryRoll handles it instantly.

When you cast Conjure Animals, the AI rolls initiative for your summons, tracks their positions, resolves their attacks with Pack Tactics when applicable, and manages their hit points independently. Your turn takes seconds to resolve, not ten minutes of dice rolling and stat checking.

Teleportation spells also benefit from AI narration. When you Misty Step behind the enemy line or Dimension Door through a wall, StoryRoll describes the spatial shift, updates tactical positioning, and resolves any consequences of your new location. The AI knows what's on the other side of the wall because it built the space.

And Wish - the spell that stumps human GMs - is where StoryRoll's narrative AI does its best work. The AI interprets your wish fairly, creates narrative consequences proportional to what you asked for, and maintains world consistency. No adversarial monkey-paw interpretation, but no free rides either. Your wish shapes the story, and the story remembers.

Summon your first familiar on StoryRoll and see how AI-managed Conjuration feels.

Try These Free Tools

Manage your Conjuration spells more effectively with these resources:

• Spell List Filter — Browse Conjuration spells by class and level to find your next must-learn pick.
• Spell Slot Tracker — Track concentration spells and remaining slots across encounters.
• Dice Roller — Roll Conjure Animals attacks, damage, and saving throws in one place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Conjuration cantrip in D&D 5e?

Mage Hand is the most useful Conjuration cantrip. It creates a spectral hand that can manipulate objects up to 30 feet away - opening doors, pulling levers, retrieving items, and triggering traps from a safe distance. Arcane Trickster Rogues get an invisible version that can pick pockets and pick locks.

How does Conjure Animals work in 5e?

You choose a CR range and the number of beasts: one CR 2 beast, two CR 1 beasts, four CR 1/2 beasts, or eight CR 1/4 beasts. RAW, the DM chooses the specific creatures, but many tables let the player choose. Eight CR 1/4 beasts (typically wolves) provides the most attacks and total damage output.

Can you teleport with Misty Step while grappled?

Yes. Misty Step requires only verbal components and teleports you - it doesn't require movement. Since teleportation isn't movement, grapple's speed reduction doesn't prevent it. This makes Misty Step the best escape from grapple in the game.

What happens if you use Wish for something too powerful?

The DM determines the outcome. The spell text states that wishes beyond duplicating spells might partially succeed, succeed with unintended consequences, or fail entirely. Greater wishes also carry the 33% chance of never being able to cast Wish again. The safest use is always duplicating an existing spell.

Is Conjure Woodland Beings overpowered?

When used to summon Pixies, yes. Each Pixie can cast Polymorph, Fly, or other powerful spells, effectively giving you eight free castings of 4th-level spells from a single 4th-level slot. Many DMs restrict this by choosing the summoned creatures themselves (which is RAW) or banning Pixie summoning specifically. Check with your Game Master before building around this interaction.