System Reference Document 5.2.1
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Speak with Animals
Level 1 Divination (Bard, Druid, Ranger, Warlock)
Casting Time: Action or Ritual
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
For the duration, you can comprehend and verbally 
communicate with Beasts, and you can use any of 
the Influence action’s skill options with them.
 Most Beasts have little to say about topics that 
don’t pertain to survival or companionship, but at 
minimum, a Beast can give you information about 
nearby locations and monsters, including whatever 
it has perceived within the past day.
Speak with Dead
Level 3 Necromancy (Bard, Cleric, Wizard)
Casting Time: Action
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S, M (burning incense)
Duration: 10 minutes
You grant the semblance of life to a corpse of your 
choice within range, allowing it to answer ques -
tions you pose. The corpse must have a mouth, and 
this spell fails if the deceased creature was Undead 
when it died. The spell also fails if the corpse was 
the target of this spell within the past 10 days.
 Until the spell ends, you can ask the corpse up to 
five questions. The corpse knows only what it knew 
in life, including the languages it knew. Answers are 
usually brief, cryptic, or repetitive, and the corpse 
is under no compulsion to offer a truthful answer if 
you are antagonistic toward it or it recognizes you 
as an enemy. This spell doesn’t return the creature’s 
soul to its body, only its animating spirit. Thus, the 
corpse can’t learn new information, doesn’t compre -
hend anything that has happened since it died, and 
can’t speculate about future events.
Speak with Plants
Level 3 Transmutation (Bard, Druid, Ranger)
Casting Time: Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 10 minutes
You imbue plants in an immobile 30-foot Emanation 
with limited sentience and animation, giving them 
the ability to communicate with you and follow your 
simple commands. You can question plants about 
events in the spell’s area within the past day, gain -
ing information about creatures that have passed, 
weather, and other circumstances.
 You can also turn Difficult Terrain caused by plant 
growth (such as thickets and undergrowth) into 
ordinary terrain that lasts for the duration. Or you 
can turn ordinary terrain where plants are present 
into Difficult Terrain that lasts for the duration.
 The spell doesn’t enable plants to uproot them -
selves and move about, but they can move their 
branches, tendrils, and stalks for you.
 If a Plant creature is in the area, you can commu -
nicate with it as if you shared a common language.
Spider Climb
Level 2 Transmutation (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard)
Casting Time: Action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a drop of bitumen and a spider)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
Until the spell ends, one willing creature you touch 
gains the ability to move up, down, and across 
vertical surfaces and along ceilings, while leaving 
its hands free. The target also gains a Climb Speed 
equal to its Speed.
 Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. You can target 
one additional creature for each spell slot level 
above 2.
Spike Growth
Level 2 Transmutation (Druid, Ranger)
Casting Time: Action
Range: 150 feet
Components: V, S, M (seven thorns)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
The ground in a 20-foot-radius Sphere centered 
on a point within range sprouts hard spikes and 
thorns. The area becomes Difficult Terrain for the 
duration. When a creature moves into or within the 
area, it takes 2d4 Piercing damage for every 5 feet it 
travels.
 The transformation of the ground is camouflaged 
to look natural. Any creature that can’t see the area 
when the spell is cast must take a Search action 
and succeed on a Wisdom (Perception or Survival) 
check against your spell save DC to recognize the 
terrain as hazardous before entering it.
Spirit Guardians
Level 3 Conjuration (Cleric)
Casting Time: Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a prayer scroll)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Protective spirits flit around you in a 15-foot Ema-
nation for the duration. If you are good or neutral, 
their spectral form appears angelic or fey (your 
choice). If you are evil, they appear fiendish.
 When you cast this spell, you can designate crea-
tures to be unaffected by it. Any other creature’s 
Speed is halved in the Emanation, and whenever the 
Emanation enters a creature’s space and whenever 