An Analysis of Tasha's Caldron of Everything: Spells

 I am going to be evaluating "Tasha's Cauldron of Everything" for incorporation into my own games. I figured I would go ahead and record this analysis on my blog here so other folks can follow along and glean some useful information from the time I spent. I tried to find an in-depth analysis elsewhere, but at this time none so detailed as this seems to be available. You will not find any of the text in its entirety in this blog. I will be referencing the first printing of the book, so please refer to that as you read along. There are no released errata for the book at the time of writing, although there are errata from other books that affect some of this content.

There are 21 spells in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. This includes Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade, Lightning Lure, and Sword Burst cantrips that were originally published in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. There are 9 spells that allow you to summon creatures of various types. Three spells are notably named after Tasha. The spells cover levels from cantrips to level 9.  Below I am going to capture some comments on each spell.

• Blade of Disaster -- Using weird as a point of comparison, this seems like a very powerful spell. Where as weird will probably end quickly due to saves at this level, this lasts much longer and does substantial damage. I would consider it probably more powerful than weird, but you always need options with the plethora of enemies at this level.
• Dream of the Blue Veil -- Teleport to other worlds in the Material Plane. Be careful with this one. If you allow it into play, support it and make it part of the campaign; otherwise, drop it from being allowed.
• Tasha's Otherwordly Guise -- I'm going to compare this one to Tenser's Transformation. This feels a lot like a caster-focused version of Tenser's. However, where Tenser's Transformation lasts 10 minutes offering additional utility out of combat, this is pretty much combat-focused because of its duration. It is disappointing that several of the features are available from other sources, including races, at much lower, so I think this is a niche spell for only certain types of builds. It doesn't feel overpowered at all. 
• Intellect Fortress -- Comparing this to Protection from Energy, this is a great spell. It will be situational, but with Psionics coming into play, it will be useful. Also, with Baldur's Gate 3 around, I expect Mindflayers will be a lot more common, so this may help with that too.
• Tasha's Mind Whip -- Comparing to Mind Spike, this spell seems to make a nice trade from the utility spell nature of Mind Spike to the combat nature of Mind Whip. At higher levels, you can target more creatures, which makes it a useful, but not overpowered spell, at higher levels. 
• Tasha's Caustic Brew -- Comparing to Chaos Bolt (a favorite of one of my players) and Witch Bolt, this spell seems consistent in damage and capability. It is nice to have a line spell at this level. I love the requirement to use an action to stop the ongoing effect. This would be one of my spells of choice for level 1, but isn't really overpowered. 
• Mind Sliver -- This is a really powerful cantrip, especially since it has an additional effect beyond damage and it does an atypical damage type that rarely has resistances. If I compare it to Eldritch Blast, I would call it balanced. 
• Spirit Shroud -- Compared to Spirit Guardians, this seem like a useful alteration for the melee combatant. It would work well with Bladesinger. It is not OP at all.

Let's look at the SCAG cantrips that were pulled over. 

• Booming Blade - Some good rewording to make the spell clearer; otherwise the same. 
• Green-Flame Blade -- There was lots of unintended consequences of the original spell regarding the use with reach weapons, Twinned Spell from Sorcerer, and Warcaster. I suspect there will be a lot of discussion on this spell on forums and eventually in Sage Advice, so keep an eye on it. They errata'd this, so you should be using this new version from here on if you are playing RAW. 
• Lightning Lure -- The lesser-used cousin of Green-Flame Blade got the same update with targeting self instead of having a range. Similar changes would be expected. It is also errata'd.
• Sword Burst -- Also reworded and errat'd. 

And finally, let's consider the summoning spells. My biggest pet peeve with summoning spells and similar abilities that allow you to have player-controlled companions is allowing large numbers of them. I have a standing house rule that a player gets their PC and up to 2 creatures they control in combat so as to not slow the game to the point of boredom. Let's look at these spells and see if they are going to be a problem. 

These summoning spells all include a stat block that has built-in increases based on the level at which the spell is cast. It is always one creature. I consider this the perfect solution for these types of spells. Based on the own summoner class I homebrewed badly, this is a great solution, since it avoids the pesky unique game-breaking abilities (if given to the PCs) of many of the monsters already in game. I'm not going to do a detailed analysis of every stat block, but it seems to be an equivalent level of creature minus the class features, so not overpowered, but probably useful. 

Okay, so overall, the spells in TCoE seem balanced and useful. I would consider not allowing Dream of the Blue Veil in many of my games because it is not relevant. It looks like with these new spells, psychic is becoming more important and entrenched into the core of the game, supporting psionics, and these spells help with that.