Elemental Expansions

Cold Spells

The elements are a fundamental part of spellcasting in much of fantasy. Yet, 5e tends to lack in options for casters trying to focus on elements other than fire. Whether you wish to create an elemental specialist, or simply wish for new options for destroying your foes, I hope you find the following useful.

Frost magic is better represented in the game than many others. However, while some levels have multiple options for cold damage, there are some that have no options at all. I tried to make spells that have functions different from those at their level, to avoid clashing with existing cold classics such as Cone of Cold and Freezing Sphere. Not all of these spells do cold damage, but they all fit in with their theme.

Spell list by level

Level	Spells
Cantrip	Freezing Lash
1	Frosted Lens
2	Cold Feet
3	Icicle Spear
4	Blessing of Rime
5	Winter Orb
6	Flash Freeze
7	Iceberg Palisade
8	Stygian Ice Shards
9	Polar Midnight

Art by Mila Pesic

Spell Descriptions

Freezing Lash

Evocation cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (5-foot radius)
Components: S, M (a melee weapon worth at least 1 sp)
Duration: 1 round
Classes: Artificer, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

You brandish the weapon used in the spell’s casting and make a melee attack with it against one creature within 5 feet of you. On a hit, the target suffers the weapon attack’s normal effects and is coated in frost until the end of its next turn. If the target ends its turn without moving at least 5 feet using its speed, the target takes 1d8 cold damage and the spell ends.

At higher levels. At 5th level, the melee attack deals an extra 1d8 cold damage to the target on a hit, and the damage the target takes for not moving increases to 2d8. Both damage rolls increase by 1d8 at 11th level (2d8 and 3d8) and again at 17th level (3d8 and 4d8).

Frosted Lens

1st-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 10 Minutes
Classes: Artificer, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

You form a magical lens in a free hand, made from perfectly clear ice. As long as you hold the lens in your hand, you may look through it at any time. Doing so provides advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks that involve looking at small details of an object or creature up to 100 feet away. Your field of view though the lens is narrow, so it does not provide advantage when the check involves looking around you to spot something (E.g: Finding a creature that you can hear but cannot see).

You can also attack with the lens, although doing so ends the spell. When you cast this spell, or as an action on a later turn, you can hurl the lens at a creature within 30 feet of you. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the lens shatters in a burst of cold and the target takes 3d6 cold damage.

Cold Feet

2nd-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
Classes: Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

You enchant the soles of your feet to freeze the ground you walk on, leaving a trail of slippery ice. When you move, you leave behind an icy trail on each space within 5 feet of you. Any creature other than you that enters the area or starts its turn on it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. The trail lasts until the beginning of your next turn, but you continue to create a new trail when you move for the spell's duration.

The trail also freezes most liquids before your feet touch them, allowing you and other creatures to walk across their surface (Although others must still must make saves to keep their balance if the magical trail is still present). The frozen surface can support large and smaller creatures. The liquid remains frozen even after the trail you create vanishes, but it usually melts after 1 minute. The DM may rule that certain liquids cannot be frozen by this spell (Typically ones at extremely high temperature, such as a lava flow.).

Art by Svetlin Velinov

Icicle Spear

3rd-level evocation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 100 feet
Components: V, S, M (a small bit of quartz crystal)
Duration: 1 round
Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard

You launch a thin spike of ice at a creature of your choice. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 3d10 piercing damage and the icicle becomes lodged in the target. On a miss, it lodges in the ground in a random square of the target's space. Hit or miss, at the start of your next turn, the icicle detonates with freezing energy. Each creature within 10 feet of the point where the ice exploded must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d6 cold damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful one.

The icicle will detonate early if it is removed from where it is lodged, or if destroyed. It is an object with AC 18 and 5 hit points, but it does not take up its space or prevent movement in any way.

At higher levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the cold damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 3rd.

Blessing of Rime

4th-level evocation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (A tuft of polar bear fur)
Duration: 1 hour
Classes: Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Ranger

Your summon a chill wind that snuffs out flame and numbs the pain of your allies. When you cast the spell, any non-magical flames of your choice within range are extinguished. Choose up to three creatures within range. Each gains 3d8 temporary hit points for the duration. While a creature has these hit points, if it would make a Constitution saving throw, it gains advantage on the roll. Then, after roll has taken effect, they lose any remaining temporary hit points from this spell.

At higher levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the temporary hit points increase by 1d8 for each slot level above 4th.

Winter Orb

5th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (A glass bead with water trapped inside)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Classes: Artificer, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

A globe of elemental ice appears at an unoccupied point of your choosing, chilling those near it to the bone. The orb has a diameter of 5 feet and hovers.

As a bonus action, you can move the sphere up to 30 ft and then make each creature within 10 feet of the sphere make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 5d6 cold damage and has its speed reduced by 20 feet until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and is not slowed.

At higher levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the cold damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 5th.

Flash Freeze

6th-level evocation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock

You attempt to encase a creature you can see within range in a prison of solid ice. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 12d6 cold damage and becomes encased in a block of ice that takes up its space. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage and is not encased. While encased in this way, the creature is restrained and unable to breathe or speak. The target is also immune to damage from the outside while it remains frozen. The block of ice is an object with an AC of 12 and 30 hit points, is vulnerable to fire, and destroying it ends the effects for the creature.

When this spell is used against a creature that is huge or larger, only part of the creature is frozen. This means that it remains able to breathe and speak on a failed save, but rather than being immune to damage it gains half cover for the duration.

To break out, the restrained target can make a Strength check as an action against your spell save DC. On a success, the target escapes, is no longer restrained and can talk and breathe.

At higher levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the cold damage increases by 2d6 for each slot level above 6th.

Art by Cristi Balanescu

Iceberg Palisade

7th-level evocation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 160 feet
Components: V, S, M (a miniature shovel or pickaxe)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

A cluster of massive ice shards bursts out of the ground at an angle, skewering enemies and creating a temporary fortification. The palisade is shaped like a ramp, and is up to 80 feet long, 20 feet thick and 20 feet high on the outward side. One side has a slope with carved steps leading up, which creatures can walk up normally. The opposite side is practically a spiked wall 20 feet high. You can orient the slope in any direction as long as its base remains in contact with the ground and the entirety of it is in range of the spell.

When you cast the spell, each creature in the area of the palisade must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 5d8 piercing damage, 5d8 cold damage and is pushed out to the spiked end of the ramp. A creature that succeeds the save takes half as much damage and can choose to either be pushed as a failed save or stay in their space and rise with the slope. If there is no room for a creature to be pushed on the far side of the slope, it is instead pushed into the nearest empty space. Additionally, when casting, you can choose any number of creatures you can see. These creatures automatically succeed on the save and take no damage rather than half.

The wall is an object with AC 12 and 80 hit points per 10-foot section lengthwise, and it is vulnerable to fire damage. The spiked end of the wall can be climbed as normal, with a successful Strength (Athletics) check against your spell save DC, but any creature doing so takes 1d8 piercing damage for each 5 feet climbed this way.

At higher levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 9th level, the maximum dimensions of the wall each double, the spell no longer requires concentration and the wall remains until dispelled. However, in temperatures above freezing, the wall will melt into water over the course of 4d4 hours.

Stygian Ice Shards

8th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 150 feet
Components: S, M (the fang of an ice devil, worth at least 500 gp)
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Warlock, Wizard

You conjure five shards of black ice from Stygia, fifth layer of the Nine Hells, which launch themselves at your foes. You can hurl them at one target or several. Make a ranged spell attack for each shard. On a hit, the target takes 3d8 cold damage.

Stygia is said to be the formed from the frozen floes of the river Styx, and thus this ice also carries the Styx's memory-altering power. Any creature hit by one or more of the shards must make a Wisdom saving throw or forget the events of the last 10 minutes. Even though the creature forgets the fact that the spell was cast upon it, if it took damage from the spell, it will likely realize quickly that something happened due to its injuries. A creature that is immune to cold damage or charm effects is also immune to this effect.

Any number of the shards you create can instead be tiny needles. Any creature hit by one of these needles takes no damage, but still suffers the spell's other effects and additionally does not automatically notice that a hostile action occurred against it.

Art by Mike Bierek

Polar Midnight

9th-level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 300 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

You plunge a targeted area into a brutally cold night that is unrivaled by any on the material plane. Freezing magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 40-foot radius sphere for the duration. No light, magical or otherwise, can illuminate the area.

When a creature enters the affected area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 10d6 cold damage and have its speed reduced by 20 feet while it remains in the area. This speed penalty can accumulate over multiple turns, and can reduce a creature's speed to 0. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and its speed is not reduced. A creature that is immune to cold damage automatically succeeds on this save.

A creature that ends its turn in the area without moving from its space is covered in a sheet of ice. While encased in this way, the creature is restrained and unable to breathe or speak. The target is also immune to damage from the outside while it remains frozen, but it continues taking damage from the spell. The sheet of ice is an object with an AC of 12 and 30 hit points, is vulnerable to fire, and destroying it frees the creature as if it broke out. To break out, the restrained target can make a Strength check as an action against your spell save DC. On a success, the target escapes, is no longer restrained and can talk and breathe, and the penalty to its speed is removed.

Corpses in the area and other nonmagical objects made of organic material that aren't being worn or carried are transmuted into solid ice. Corpses of creatures transmuted in this way can be restored to life only by means of a true resurrection or a wish spell.

As a bonus action, you can move the center of the area up to 20 feet.

Art by https://www.deviantart.com/ejlen/