Weapon Spells (5e)

Thanks for the comment, Daniel! That was a thought, yes. The particular focus of this title was spells that create weapons out of nothing and fill your empty hand(s), as Flame Blade and Shadow Blade do. Holy Weapon touches an existing weapon and infuses it with magic--a similar but different style of spell. Maybe there's room for a title that focuses on Holy Weapon-style magic buffs!

In that situation I don't see why anyone would take some of these spells? I see no reason a character would take Winter's Pike over Holy weapon for a 5th level spell? Assuming a full caster is using these spells (6th and above it would have to be a full caster) the ability to cast spells on someone else makes them infinitely more usable.

Making weapons out a magic rather than empowering an existing weapon is a important distinction I just don't see why a wizard couldn't make a magical ice spear for his barbarian friend and not themselves?

The above being said I do actually really like these spells and think they add a nice variety to the 'create magic weapon' list of spells and some of the riders are quite interesting (Force Quarterstaff and Dark Sickle in particular).

A cleric or a paladin might not take these spells, but they have some martial ability on their own--for them, Holy Weapon is a much better choice. A wizard, on the other hand, can only use a very limited set of weapons, and these spells grant temporary proficiency in more effective ones, as well as dealing enough damage on their own to make up for low physical scores.

In lore, I agree with you--a wizard probably could make an ice spear for his barbarian friend. But balance-wise, a spell of this type becomes way more powerful when you're putting a supercharged weapon in the hands of someone with multiple attacks and high physical scores. That's not impossible to balance--just different, and wasn't what I had in mind when making these spells.

I'm glad to hear that you like the spells! It's always nice to hear from someone who has read the content and thought about it.

If these spells are intended to only be used by wizards I feel like some of them could use some edits, there are two types of spells here, you can make a melee spell attack with the weapon and here is a weapon made of magic that you can attack as many time as you are able. I feel like if they are intended to be used by casters having them all be melee spell attacks would make them more useful.

The non finesse weapons are in my opinion useless on a wizard as they will have such low strength scores they would struggle to hit, perhaps on some of the higher level spells allow you to use your Int mod instead?

I also think these spells could be spread out over classes, Radiant Mace and Dark Sickle would be great for a combat focused cleric, whist costing them their concentration slot (so they would struggle to buff) keeping the damage increase balanced.

The spells aren't restricted to wizards--they're just a good example. Sorcerers, warlocks, druids, and other classes that prioritize their spellcasting ability over their physical scores benefit from the "melee spell attack" spells, and hybrid casters as well as full casters running hybrid builds benefits from the "proficiency and temporary weapon" spells.