The shield may be overshadowed by Silvery Barbs, a new spell from Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, the upcoming sourcebook for Dungeons and Dragons. Silvery Barbs, a disclosed spell from the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons sourcebook Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, could replace Shield as a spellcaster’s default reaction. Players had grown increasingly concerned about power creep in Dungeons & Dragons 5e as new books have been released, especially when Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything offered many new powerful subclasses.
There is some dispute about whether or not power creep is a problem in D&D. On the one hand, players will enjoy playing newly released subclasses, and they are unlikely to damage the game, so there may be no real harm. When one person has a significant power edge over the other players at the table, a problem can occur, resulting in negative sentiments within the group. New races, spells, variant class traits, and even a new rule allowing you to alter your subclass all have the potential to improve Dungeons & Dragons. They may, however, incite dissent among those who believe that the new bells and whistles are introducing too much power into the game.
With the release of Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos on the horizon, spoilers for the new book have begun to surface. One of these, Silvery Barbs, has piqued the community’s interest as having the potential to be significantly more powerful than other spells of its type. ADefiniteDescription discussed Silvery Barbs in a recent Reddit post, as did ThinkDM in a recent Twitter thread. ThinkDM declared on Twitter that the spell would be banned at his table before it is even officially available. Silvery Barbs lets the caster force an adversary to reroll any d20 roll on which they have succeeded and take the lower result at the cost of their reaction and a first-level spell slot. The caster can then give one of their allies a free reroll that they can utilise on any d20 roll in the next minute.
There’s a lot to be said about the new spell’s strength. The shield was previously regarded as one of the most potent Abjuration spells in Dungeons and Dragons. Shield gives the caster a +5 bonus to their AC until the start of their next turn, providing much-needed survivability to spellcasters. However, with the release of Silvery Barbs, it’s possible that Shield will be pushed aside in favour of this new, much more versatile spell.
A d20 reroll is usually worth around plus or minus five times the value of a die roll. Where Shield offers a + five to AC for the whole round unless the caster is hit at least twice, Silvery Barbs directly exceeds it by granting an ally a reroll of their own. Silvery Barbs’ power is amplified by the fact that it can perform what Shield does in specific situations while also forcing rerolls on enemy ability checks and saving throws. Whether you like or dislike the new spell, the possibilities for its application are limitless. With the upcoming release of Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, more new Dungeons and Dragons spells and other content will almost certainly be unveiled soon.
