DnD 5E Aberrant Mind Psionic Spells Guide

Author: Haen the Heretic

Cantrips

Mind sliver (default) (★★★★☆)

Enchantment cantrip, action cast, 60 ft range. 1d6 psychic damage, Int save for no damage, on a failure -1d4 on next saving throw, scaling at level 5, 11 and 17.

Excellent cantrip that can be used to set up an ally’s spell. There is not really any option competitive to this one.

1st Level Spells

There are 9 spells available for us to swap into: 

• charm person
• comprehend languages
• detect magic
• hex
• identify
• silvery barbs
• sleep 
• Tasha’s hideous laughter

There are some standout selections here, as well as some trap options (see our entry on hex in our Most Overrated Damage-Dealing Spells article). 

Arms of Hadar (default) (★☆☆☆☆)

1st level conjuration, action cast, range of self (10 ft radius). 2d6 necrotic damage within 10 feet of you, Str save for ½, on a failure a target cannot take reactions until the start of your next turn.

2d6 Damage in an area of effect that works around you, and therefore only in melee, is a very poor use of spell slot. Strength saves tend to be good on monsters, so using it as an alternative to Disengage is not an option either (the fact that it requires a saving throw at all already locks it out of that job, given that Disengage just works).

Dissonant whispers (default) (★★★★★)

1st level enchantment, action cast, 60 ft range. 3d6 + 1d6/SL psychic damage, Wis save for ½ damage, on a failure triggers reaction to move away.

This spell is so good we covered it in our Top 5 Damaging Spells article. Using it to chain opportunity attacks from a large group of summons is highly cost-effective, and to make things better the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer also gets the most use out of silvery barbs, meaning our enemies’ chances to fail their saving throw will be higher than usual.

Silvery barbs (★★★★★)

1st-level enchantment, reaction cast, 60 ft range. Forces reroll of a successful attack/check/saving throw by an enemy and gives advantage on the next attack/saving throw/ability check to one ally.

This spell is so good, we’ve got an article evaluating it! At level 6 you get to cast this repeatedly with sorcery points, and as such it’s even better for you due to being more efficient. An excellent way to support your team and make more enemies fail their saving throws.

Sleep (★★★★★)

1st-level enchantment, action cast, 90 ft range, 1 minute duration. Knocks 5d8 hit points worth of creatures unconscious in a 20 ft radius.

Absolutely encounter-ending in Tier 1 gameplay, this spell just removes enemies outright when their hit points are sufficiently low. Past Tier 1, it becomes too weak for almost any task, and is definitely best replaced with something stronger.

Tasha’s hideous laughter (★★★★☆)

1st-level enchantment, action cast, 30 ft range, 1 minute duration (concentration). Wis save, on a failure knocks target prone and incapacitates it. Save repeated every turn and upon taking damage.

Knocking people prone for a low cost is also quite helpful. Additionally, the spell incapacitates them, just in case the monster you crippled had a ranged attack too. Incapacitation also instantly ends concentration, and a Wisdom save might be easier to target than a Constitution save depending on the enemy spellcaster.

2nd Level Spells

There are 11 spells available for us to swap into: 

• borrowed knowledge
• crown of madness
• enthrall
• gift of gab
• hold person
• Jim’s glowing coin
• locate object
• mind spike
• see invisibility
• suggestion
• Tasha’s mind whip

The default selections are reasonable spells to have, but there are superior options. Numerically, this is our most bountiful level, with 12 spells that meet our criteria. 

Calm emotions (default) (★★★☆☆)

2nd level enchantment, action cast, 60 ft range, 1 minute duration (concentration). Cha save in a 20 ft sphere, on a failure (can choose to fail), suppresses charm, fear and hostility.

If your entire party suffers the wrath of a charm or frighten effect, like a vampire’s Charm or a dragon’s Frightful Presence, this can be a good way to live to fight another day. Calm emotions actually isn’t a very widely available spell, being on only the Bard and Cleric lists (excepting subclass domain spells), so depending on your party composition this spell can be a lifesaver.

Note that while a charmed creature may perceive the charmer as an ally, there’s no reason why it would say no to a free buff that clears its mind of charm and fear effects. If you want to make enemies indifferent towards your party, it would only work if all enemies fail the saving throw, or cannot see each other. 

Detect thoughts (default) (★★★☆☆)

2nd level divination, action cast, range of self, 1 minute duration (concentration). Allows the caster to read surface thoughts of targets within 30 ft and probe deeper.

It’s not great. It only gives you the surface thoughts at first, and the other part of the spell is Intelligence-based which means you have no reason to want it. Casting this normally out in the open is also noticeable in campaigns where components are readily obvious. Getting to cast it without components via Subtle Spell can be akin to mind reading, however, and could be used to circumvent or solve many social encounters, if those are a notable part of your campaign.

Locate object (★★★★★)

2nd level divination, action cast, range of self, 10 minute duration (concentration). Allows you to scan for certain items in a 1000 ft radius area.

There is a lot more to this spell than meets the eye. Check out our Spell Spotlight to find out more about this incredibly useful spell.

Suggestion (★★★★☆)

2nd level enchantment, action cast, 30 ft range, 8 hour duration (concentration). Wis save, on a failure forces target to follow a set of reasonable orders.

Depending on what passes as a reasonable suggestion at your table, this may be really good or just…good. At the very least, it’s sensible to expect telling an enemy something along the lines of “Leave the battlefield in peace and you will be spared,” will yield a satisfactory result, depending on the motivation levels of your enemies (a paid mercenary might be more susceptible than a zealous cultist). Effective to use with Twinned Spell.

Tasha’s mind whip (★★★★★)

2nd level enchantment, action cast, 90 ft range. 3d6 psychic damage on 1+SL targets within 30 ft of each other, Int save for ½ damage, on a failure forces targets to choose between taking an action, a move or a bonus action.

It’s a very solid shutdown option against many enemies, especially those that need to move to use their actions effectively (most melee enemies, for example). Intelligence is a great saving throw to target and also a fairly predictable one (you can assume an archmage-like character has good Intelligence saves and that beasts do not, for example). This spell can be Twinned or upcast for more targets. It’s not exactly clear if you can upcast spells using Psionic Sorcery, but if you can, it is slightly more efficient if cast with sorcery points than with higher level slots.

3rd Level Spells

 There are 6 spells available for us to swap into: 

• catnap
• clairvoyance
• enemies abound
• fast friends
• incite greed
• tongues

The 6 spells here range from situational out-of-combat spells to simply subpar. Unless you have a great need for catnap, clairvoyance, or tongues, the default options here are the best you’ll get. Sending is particularly underwhelming, so if any of those alternative utility options seem useful, the opportunity cost is low to get them.

Hunger of Hadar (default) (★★★☆☆)

3rd level conjuration, action cast, 150 ft range, 1 minute duration (concentration). Creates a 20 ft radius sphere of blackness that blinds and is difficult terrain. 2d6 cold damage when starting turn inside, Str save for 2d6 acid damage ending turn inside.

This spell can be difficult to judge because it can fairly justifiably be run in a number of different ways. Jeremy Crawford tweets are not part of the Sage Advice Compendium, but this tweet indicates the designer’s intent that hunger of Hadar does not create darkness (which has rules governing its mechanical effects), but a “blackness” that inflicts the blinded condition on those inside. As it is a blackness and not any sort of illusion, truesight would not work here either. It is not explicitly clear if the blackness functions as heavy obscurement, though similar to heavy obscurement it essentially inflicts the blinded condition—but if it were, then blindsight, depending on your interpretation, may or may not apply here as well. Finally, there is the question of whether or not creatures from the outside of the blackness looking in can see into it or not. If you can, this essentially creates something akin to a one-way fog cloud, if not, it’s just like a normal fog cloud. The Sage Advice Compendium does say that not all magical darkness blocks darkvision, so if your DM views hunger of Hadar as darkness created via magic that has the additional effect of blinding creatures within it but otherwise acting as normal darkness, then creatures with darkvision would be able to see into the spell’s area.

Regardless, the area of the spell is difficult terrain, which is thankfully clear and has no ambiguity whatsoever. There’s also a bit of free damage. 

In practice, this spell will often force creatures to waste their turn as they will need to Dash out to either get in melee range, or use any abilities that require sight, but it’s difficult to keep them in the blackness for more than 1 turn without stacking some other spell like web in the same area, or multiple casts of eldritch blast with the Repelling Blast invocation. Blocking enemy vision can be valuable, but can also be replicated with fog cloud much more cheaply. Still, this is the best combat spell of the list of available selections at this level. If creatures with darkvision can see into the area of the spell, then its rating increases to 4 stars. 

Sending (default) (★★★☆☆)

3rd level evocation, action cast, unlimited range. Sends a message up to 25 words long to familiar creature.

Send messages to creatures. How useful this is varies by campaign. Still, unless your party is abnormally antisocial, there will probably be times where long-distance communication has its time to shine.

4th Level Spells

There are 7 spells available for us to swap into: 

• arcane eye
• charm monster
• confusion
• divination
• dominate beast
• locate creature
• Raulothim’s psychic lance

By default, we have one great spell available by default and one subpar one. Charm monster and dominate beast aren’t good spells to use in combat and locate creature is often just superseded by locate object. Raulothim’s psychic lance is is almost passable as an option, but you will almost certainly have better uses for a 4th level spell slot.

Arcane eye (★★★☆☆)

4th level divination, action cast, 30 ft range, 1 hour duration (concentration). Creates an invisible, hovering, magic eye that has vision and darkvision out to a range of 30 feet. Can pass through an opening as small as 1 inch in diameter.

It would be prudent to talk to your DM about some expectations of how common “openings as small as 1 inch in diameter” are to gauge the usefulness of this spell. Depending on the area, you could use this to scout entire areas out beforehand, and being able to do so with sorcery points is nice. It wouldn’t be unreasonable, however, in a setting where people know this spell exists, for well-fortified areas to be as airtight as possible.

Confusion (★★★☆☆)

4th level enchantment, action cast, 90 ft range, 1 minute duration (concentration). Wis save, creatures within 10 ft radius you choose within range, on failure targets can’t take reactions and must roll a d10 to determine their behavior for that turn. Save repeated every turn.

A spell that in many ways is just inferior to hypnotic pattern, given its higher slot, decreased range and area of effect, repeated opportunities to break free, and potential for enemies to damage allies even if they are affected. Unlike hypnotic pattern, however, it can affect creatures that are immune to charm, and on tightly clumped groups of enemies can cause them to attack each other. It has its uses and is likely better in combat than summon aberration, at the very least. 

Divination (★★★☆☆)

4th level divination, action cast, range of self, 25 gp material component (consumed). Lets the caster ask the DM a single question about events to happen within 7 days, 25% chance of failure upon subsequent castings after the first before completing a long rest.

Asking the right questions before entering a dungeon will make life much easier. Knowing whether specific foes have counterspell, or how many encounters to expect, is a massive asset. It’s not as good on Sorcerers as it is for ritual casters, unfortunately, but you could cast this before you finish a long rest with leftover spell slots or sorcery points, so Aberrant Mind Sorcerers might be able to squeeze a little more juice out of this than other Sorcerers. Divination and similar spells are ultimately subject to DM fiat, however.

Evard’s black tentacles (default) (★★★★★)

4th level conjuration, action cast, 90 ft range, 1 minute duration (concentration). Fills a 20 ft square on the ground with difficult terrain. Dex save when starting in or entering the area, on a failure the creature is restrained. Restrained creatures take 3d6 bludgeoning on their turn and can use an action to make a Str or Dex check to break free.

A better (but more costly) web that stacks with normal web to really put monsters in a world of pain. Unlike web, the saving throw can happen when an enemy enters the area each turn, instead of just on their own turn, and leaving the area of the spell does not end the restrained condition. This is a spell that often gets left out of consideration on many highly optimized Wizard spellbooks, but getting it for close to free is great for Aberrant Minds.

Summon aberration (default) (★★☆☆☆)

4th level conjuration, action cast, 90 ft range, 400 gp material component, 1 hour duration (concentration). Summons an Aberrant Spirit with a statblock that can take one of three forms of your choice.

It’s fragile and its abilities are underwhelming or painfully bland. The only form that’s really noteworthy is the Beholderkin, for its ranged attack and flight. However, it’s not doing good damage for a level 4 slot, nor is its survivability sufficient to endure the enemy’s attention. It’s a thematic spell selection but one that should probably be swapped out.

Level 5 Spells

There are 8 spells available for us to swap into: 

• contact other plane
• dominate person
• geas
• hold monster
• legend lore
• modify memory
• scrying
• synaptic static

Many of the spells here are more for social encounters, flavor, or are otherwise not for in-combat use. Spells like contact other plane, geas, legend lore, modify memory, and scrying all have their uses but are highly dependent on the type of campaign, table, and scenario. Scrying is probably the most useful of the utility spells if you are so inclined, though you have great options at this level without needing to go deep into the weeds (unlike spell level 3, especially). For in-combat use, we have two fairly obvious selections.

Rarys’ telepathic bond (default) (★★☆☆☆)

5th level divination, action cast, 30 ft range, 1 hour duration. Forms a link between up to 8 creatures allowing them to speak to each other telepathically.

Rary’s telepathic bond can be used to smooth over the gap between intra-player and intra-character communications in terms of real-life table dynamics, or just facilitate easier communication while dungeon-delving, committing a heist, or splitting the party. It can be a useful spell to have if you are a ritual caster, and Sorcerers are not. Leave this to the party Bard or Wizard, it’s simply too expensive to cast with a slot.

Synaptic static (★★★★★)

5th level enchantment, action cast, 120 ft range. 8d6 psychic damage in a 20 ft radius sphere, Int save for ½ damage, on a failure targets suffer -1d6 to attack rolls and concentration saves. Save repeated every turn.

One of the best 5th level spells out there, this is basically a psychic fireball that targets a worse save in monsters  with an impactful rider effect. Being able to cast it repeatedly with sorcery points allows you to get almost as much use out of it as a Warlock does.

Telekinesis (★★★★☆)

5th level transmutation, action cast, 60 ft range, 10 minute duration (concentration). Grants the ability to move objects and creatures telekinetically.

A strong option to lock down a single monster when wall of force won’t do the trick for whatever reason or isn’t available—and for non-Clockwork Sorcerers, it isn’t available. Forces a contested ability check, which is effective against creatures with Legendary Resistances because Legendary Resistance only works on saves. Nullify the threat of melee-only enemies and lock them in place while your allies make attacks against the target with advantage (due to the restrained condition). 

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And that’s all we have on Psionic Spells picks! If something didn’t make the list here it’s because we thought it was too situational or weak to warrant a rating or elaboration. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions below or join our Discord (where you will probably receive a quicker response)!