You point a finger at a target in range. Your magic grants you a brief insight into the target’s defenses. On your next turn, you gain advantage on your first attack roll against the target, provided that this spell hasn’t ended.

[NOTE: Guest author Betsy did an update post including the new version of True Strike. It really makes a difference!]

My Comments: So, I … Okay, fine, there’s no way to avoid saying it. This cantrip sucks. I mean, not only is it a whole action just to gain advantage, it’s concentration as well, so it would interrupt or preclude any other concentration spell you might have. Also, the 30 ft range means that while you’re wasting your action on this spell, your opponent is charging up on you and will smack you senseless, as perhaps they should as a lesson for using such a crappy spell.

Worse, it lasts 1 round. So you go through the trouble of finding out how to gain the upper-hand and by-pass your opponent’s defenses and then 6 seconds later you just lose whatever insight you had gained. You sacrifice an entire action for 1 round of advantage. No, wait, worse than that, you actually on get advantage on your first attack on your next turn. ugh. This cantrip is such a waste.

I just cant think of any way this is a good choice. If I really stretch my brain into convoluted mental gymnastics maybe I could, like if there were literally nothing else you could do that round because you’re blocked or something… but even in that case, it would be better to have any other combat spell handy.

Okay, I’m really struggling here, so let’s look at the positives:

• It’s a cantrip, so unlimited casting.
• The only component is somatic, and that’s just pointing your finger at your target.
• There’s no save against it, so it’s always successful.
• and… that’s all I can come up with.

If you could cast it on a friend to give them the advantage benefit, that might be cool.

Or, if the duration was 1 minute, then you could cast it early in the encounter … nah, that doesn’t really work either.

Making it a bonus action would make it too powerful for a cantrip. Could you imagine PCs spamming this to get advantage every round? Terrible.

I think what would make True Strike useful is scaling. If it was like Booming Blade and other cantrips that improve as you level up, that make it interesting. For example, at 5th level, maybe the duration extends, or the number of targets increases, or the number of people it benefits goes up by one, or … something.

It just needs help.

Comment if you’ve ever figured out a use for this one, I’m honestly really curious because, as far as I can tell, it even beats out Friends for most useless cantrip.

[pssst… want to draw a card from The Deck of Many Things?]