It’s the night before your final fight, the grand showdown between your party and the God who seeks the destruction of all mortal and lesser-immortal D&D races. You sit with your party and several honorary members, twelve total, who are willing to risk it all to save everyone, as the cleric sets out a gem-encrusted bowl on the table. It has been a hard-fought path, but everything has been training you and your party for this moment. Everything has led to this moment, as though the hand of fate has guided you here personally.
They wave their hands, whispering a few soft-spoken words, a prayer to their God, a wish for luck, or perhaps it’s just the words the spell demands. Regardless, this meal will give all of you the power to push through tomorrow and make it out of the fight alive, or so you hope. With this magic and food coursing through your system, you and those who consume it won’t feel the faintest hint of fear.
Your minds will be sharpened, suddenly more aware of trickery and foul play. It is of little doubt that your foe will attempt to play dirty and resort to cheap tricks. However, there are no rules or codes of honor in this fight. It will be a fight to the death to protect the world, and you cannot lose.
Tonight, however, will be jovial. There will be no morbid talk tonight, only cheers and drinks as you all down your Heroes Feast and prepare for the fight of your lives. Welcome to the Heroes Feast 5e guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
Heroes’ Feast is undoubtedly a late-game D&D spell meant to prepare you and your comrades for a serious fight with your foes. While it comes with a serious price tag, the main goal of Heroes’ Feast is to be a preventative measure and to protect your party members.
Your funds can vary depending on what type of game you’re playing, but if you can get your mitts on a gem-encrusted bowl worth 1,000 gold pieces, it is absolutely worth it and can save you and your party a lot of heartaches.
What Does Heroes’ Feast Do?
| Heroes’ Feast | 6th Level Conjuration
Casting Time: Ten minutes Range: Thirty feet Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material (Requires a gem-encrusted bowl worth at least one thousand gold pieces. This bowl is consumed upon casting.) Duration: Instantaneous effect, lasts for 24 hours. Description: The feast takes one hour to consume and disappears after that hour. The effects do not set in until the hour is over. Up to twelve people can partake in this feast. If you take part in the feast, you gain several benefits. You are cured of all diseases and poisons. You become immune to the poison effect and the frightened effect. All Wisdom saving throws you make will have advantage. Your hit points maximum increases by 2d10. The spellcaster rolls these hit points. |
Is the Cost of Heroes’ Feast Worth It?
This spell has quite a hefty cost on it. It would be easy just to throw a thousand gold pieces on the table if you could, but you have to spend time to find a gem-encrusted bowl on top of that. However, you obtain the bowl is entirely up to you and your party, whether through legal means or if you would rather be a kleptomaniac.
I would advocate every party member chipping in if you purchase the bowl. This isn’t a spell for just one person; it helps everyone. As a preventative measure, Heroes Feast could help prevent your party members from being charmed or mind-controlled. Further, it can prevent them from unintentionally fleeing a fight or having a disadvantage on every attack because they have been frightened by your enemy.
The frightened condition is arguably one of the most annoying when you’re stuck with it, considering how long it can drag out a fight. The longer a fight is, the more likely you are to die. So, reasonably, Heroes’ Feast can help keep you and your party members alive even longer.
Can Heroes’ Feast be Dispelled?
Some Dungeon Masters could play mean and dispel the effects on a single creature. Still, considering how Dispel Magic works, I would argue that you cannot eliminate the effects of Heroes’ Feast until the 24 hours are up unless specific effects from the spell are targeted.
Heroes’ Feast is an instantaneous spell, meaning only the effects are active, rather than the spell itself. This will heavily depend on how your DM wants to play it, so I suggest talking to them and your party to decide what would be fair and provide continued enjoyment in your game.
Who Can Use Heroes’ Feast
Only Clerics and Druids can gain access to the Heroes’ Feast spell. As a sixth-level spell, Heroes’ Feast requires that the Cleric or Druid be able to cast at least one sixth-level spell first. Druids gain access to their first sixth-level spell slot after reaching level nine.
Clerics gain access to their first sixth-level spell slot after reaching level eleven. So, Druids, you can help your party smash the battle from before the halfway point of leveling – just so long as you can get your hands on a bowl.
Peak Time to Use Heroes’ Feast
It can be tricky to figure out the perfect time to use Heroes Feast. The last thing we want is for it to be like those times where you get a slew of super powerful gear and weapons and never use them solely because you keep waiting for something more substantial to come along.
Before you even know it, you’ve beaten the game without ever touching your strong weapons for fear of putting them to waste. A gem-encrusted bowl worth more money than most DnD NPCs will ever see in their life feels pretty similar to that super-strong weapon in that regard.
The temptation to use it is always there, but the perfect moment rarely comes along. Your end fight against the final boss is clearly the ideal time, but your party is generally pretty high-leveled at that point, and money is rarely a concern when you’re rolling in noble contracts.
So, when would be the perfect time to use it before the final boss? I would advocate for important character arc moments or if you’re going ghost hunting. It may seem useless to celebrate a character’s achievement or a shining moment of personal growth by making a Heroes’ Feast. However, we celebrate in real life whenever someone has a remarkable achievement or goes through a moment of noticeable personal growth.
For my family, we would go out and have a nice dinner, and I wouldn’t be the first to say that a Heroes’ Feast is the equivalent of a nice dinner. It’s the perfect moment to bond with the other players and incentivize roleplay. Sure, the effects have a strong chance of going to waste, but now it’s about the journey rather than the result. It’s a celebration rather than a preparation.
Ghost hunting, on the other hand, is about preparation. The critical point for this scenario is that Heroes’ Feast gives all who eat an advantage on Wisdom saves and makes them immune to fear. The Possession Action for a ghost technically requires a Charisma save, but I would argue that’s stupid and nonsensical. Why would being suave get me out of being possessed? Do I charm the ghost into letting me stay in charge? No.
Instead, I think you have a strong mental fortitude, a high enough Wisdom roll, that your psyche and awareness overpower any kind of possession. Regardless, it’s up to a Dungeon Master to make these changes. However, ghosts do have the Horrifying Visage Action, which does require a Wisdom save.
The Horrifying Visage action requires a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw, where the only tangible result is that you become frightened. Heroes’ Feast happens to nullify this consequence. That is unless you roll an eight or less. Rolling an eight or lower ages you by 1d4 x 10 years, this effect can only be reversed by a Greater Restoration spell within 24 hours.
So, to keep our lively and spry characters lively and spry still, it’s best to take precautions and eat a Heroes’ Feast before you dive head first into a haunted mansion.
Getting Creative
Food lovers, this spell is a dream come true. You can have any food you want at your feast. The spell doesn’t specify what food you’re eating, just that it’s a feast that can technically feed twelve people. It isn’t easy to get creative with this spell and its uses, but you can completely customize what you eat.
If you want to get a little extra with it and have some bonding time with your Dungeons and Dragons group outside of playtime, write down what you have at your Heroes Feast and get together to have that feast in real life. You don’t need to make enough to feed twelve people (unless you have twelve people in your game), but it’s a fun and creative way to bring the game into real life.
If you’re having a hard time coming up with ideas for bringing your Heroes’ Feast into real life, I highly recommend checking out the Heroes’ Feast Cookbook, available wherever books are sold (I recommend checking out your local bookstore or game store first!).
The Heroes’ Feast Cookbook offers a variety of recipes with unique fantasy takes on some very yummy-looking photos paired alongside each recipe. The recipes inside aren’t anything bizarre or unthinkable, but they can lend anyone some tasty ideas that will fill the bellies of any adventuring party.
FAQs
Question: Is the Heroes’ Feast cookbook worth it?
Answer: Without a doubt, yes, it is. As the official Dungeons and Dragons cookbook, the Heroes’ Feast puts food into a fantasy light and makes you think differently about your food and how to offer it fantasy elements. It will help to immerse you in the world of Dungeons and Dragons, and, who knows, if you can’t figure out what to have for dinner one night, flipping through it might just result in the perfect idea.
Question: Do I need 12 people for the Heroes’ Feast spell to work?
Answer: No, you don’t. The spell will work for one person to twelve people. Unfortunately, you cannot have a thirteenth wheel who receives the benefits.
Question: Can Heroes’ Feast go on longer for an hour?
Answer: No, it can’t. Unfortunately, all the food not in your stomach will disappear at the end of your time limit.
Question: Could Heroes’ Feast be cast by any class if it’s cast from a scroll?
Answer: Theoretically, so long as you can use a scroll, you could be any class other than a Cleric or a Druid and cast Heroes’ Feast. Many spell scrolls can border on being a homebrew item, so it is up to your DM to try and bring it into the game. It’s important to note that you must first come across one of these scrolls.
With Full Bellies, We Part
Heroes’ Feast is one of the most delicious spells in the game, but it’s one of the few spells I’m the most hesitant to use. Although it doesn’t consume a super high-leveled slot, the cost of casting can be detrimental if you’re not prepared for it.
Regardless, I urge you to use it to celebrate if for no other reason than for an excuse to make your DnD party have a feast outside of the game as a fun experience all can enjoy and bond over.
It’s traditionally used before macabre events, but I think I’m finally going to start advocating for Heroes’ Feast to be a celebratory spell too.
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