Dungeons & Dragons is all about the journey, but sometimes the journey needs to move a little faster. Whether the party is racing to a festival or outrunning an apocalypse, it’s all too common for players to need to get somewhere fast and find themselves with no way to do so. Luckily, any party with a hint of magical ability can avoid these situations with the right preparation. Knowing the best DnD travel spells is the key to keeping a DnD campaign moving when it needs it most.
Magical ability tends to scale exponentially in DnD, with low-level spell-casters sometimes struggling to pull their weight while high-level spell-casters gain godlike powers. The most potent travel abilities are unsurprisingly unlocked at higher levels, but the game does fortunately offer solid options at even Level 1 spell slots. Players arranging spells for a first-level druid might not have the teleportation options available to a battle-scarred wizard, but they can still start with some useful enhancements. No matter how long a party has been playing or what spell-casters they have in their makeup, they can doubtless find something of use among the best DnD travel spells.
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Longstrider Lets D&D Players Run Faster
Longstrider may not be the flashiest DnD travel spell, but at low levels, it might just be enough to get the job done. Cast at first level, Longstrider allows a bard, druid, ranger, or wizard to touch one creature and increase the target’s speed by 10 feet for an hour. Longstrider is one of the weaker DnD spells, but applying this burst of speed to even one party member could make the difference in running a message or catching a villain. Casting Longstrider at higher levels affects one additional creature per level, making its modest effects scale in coverage rather than strength.
Find Steed Brings A Mount To The Game Table
Traveling on a mount is always faster than trekking on foot, but it’s not uncommon for players to end up without access to their steeds. Whether escaping from a dungeon’s far exit or finding flat ground again after a rocky climb, a party can easily find themselves in situations where even one horse could provide the haste that is otherwise lacking. For Paladins, Find Steed can summon an appropriate animal of the player’s chosen form with the use of a Level 2 spell slot.
The instinctive bond provided by this low-level DnD conjuration spell makes the mount particularly useful in combat, but it’s also a powerful mobility tool when horses aren’t available. Higher levels allow for a couple of more powerful spells in this same vein.
Paladins can upgrade to Find Greater Steed as a 4th-level conjuration to summon creatures like griffons, unlocking the potential of fast air travel. Wizards have their own competition available as a 3rd-level illusion with the spell Phantom Steed. The horselike creature summoned by Phantom Steed only lasts for an hour, but the 100 feet of speed provided to the mount makes that hour count. Although Find Greater Steed offers the more versatile use of the two, when push comes to shove, Phantom Steed is the fastest for a mad dash.
Take To D&D’s Skies With Wind Walk
Dungeons & Dragons transmutation spells, like Water Walk and Spider Climb, give players the power to treat unusual environments like solid ground beneath their feet. But the mobility possibilities offered by these spells pale in comparison to Wind Walk. A 6th-level spell for druids, Wind Walk lets up to eleven creatures assume a gaseous form and speed through the sky with a flying speed of 300 feet. With an eight-hour duration, Wind Walk allows players to move quickly over difficult terrain, and the cloud form grants resistance to non-magical weapon damage. Players should heed the lesson of Icarus, however, as flying too high at the spell’s end could trigger fall damage.
Transport Via Plants Lets D&D Players Use Nature
The travel options offered to high-level druids don’t end with Wind Walk. Transport Via Plants offers a useful method of harnessing nature for teleportation, creating a link between two plants on the same plane that lasts the duration of a round. DnD druids of any circle can seize the advantages of Transport Via Plants to quickly move entire parties across vast stretches of land, as long as they have seen or touched the destination plant on the other end. Certain environments can render this spell useless, like the stone walls of a dungeon cell, but plants are a handy enough resource in most environments to make this a powerful tool.
Travel The Planes Of D&D With Gate
Gate is an enormously powerful teleportation spell with one enormous caveat. Unlike Transport Via Plants and other spells, Gate can only open a portal to a different plane of existence. In the right situation, this can be an obvious game-changer, and it can target precise locations without requiring a plant or any other object as a tether. For regular overland travel, however, Gate isn’t the right choice. Clerics, sorcerers, and wizards can deploy the conjuration as one among the powerful assortment of 9th-level Dungeons & Dragons 5e spells, meaning that Gate is only likely to come into play deep into a campaign.
Teleport Is The Most Powerful Way To Cross The Forgotten Realms
Teleport is, in many ways, the ultimate DnD 5e travel spell. This 7th-level conjuration is what it sounds like, allowing the caster and up to eight other creatures to move instantaneouslyto another destination within the same plane. The effects of Teleport are instantaneous, allowing it to be deployed in emergencies without opening up a vulnerability for the party. It isn’t a foolproof method, with DMs rolling to check the accuracy of the teleportation based on the caster’s familiarity with the destination. Even considering possible mishaps, however, the possibility of crossing entire realms in the blink of an eye makes this an absolute game-changer.
One highlight of playing a TTRPG like DnD 5e is the versatility, and the DnD travel spells mentioned here aren’t the only DnD spells that could be cast when moving a party. Spells like Freedom of Movement and Fly offer situational advantages, and even spells without a focus on mobility could be creatively used for the party’s travel benefit in the right scenario. Understanding basic options for DnD travel spells, however, provides the foundation for players to use and build upon when navigating fantasy realms. Dungeons & Dragons is a game about possibilities, and knowing what spells will help unlock them opens up a wider world than ever before.
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