Can you cast spells on yourself in DND? If so, which ones?
When I first started playing Dungeons and Dragons, I remember being super confused about magic. In this article, we’ll clear things up and you’ll learn 21 spells you can cast on yourself in DND.
Can You Cast a Spell on Yourself in Dungeons and Dragons?
You can cast a spell on yourself in Dungeons and Dragons. Spells often include a target, range, and area of effect. The target of a spell must exist within the established range, usually written as a measurement in feet. The target of a spell can be an object, creature, or yourself.
When casting spells in DND, it’s helpful to understand the terms:
- Target
- Range
- Area of effect
The target is the person, place, or thing you want the spell to act upon.
If you can’t touch your target, it must be in the area of effect unless you have a special ability or item that lets you target something outside your normal range.
The range is the distance between you and your target.
Your range might change depending on the spell. For instance, a fireball has a longer range than a light cantrip.
The area of effect is the location where the spell’s effect manifests or takes place.
An area of effect is usually expressed as a shape:
- Cube
- Cone
- Line
- Sphere
- Cylinder
Magical characters must meet certain conditions to cast a spell on themselves.
Here are those basic rules:
- Rule 1: For ranged spells, the target (yourself) must be within the spell’s range and area of effect.
- Rule 2: For spells that require touch, the spellcaster must physically touch the target.
- Rule 3: You must be the correct character class to perform the spell.
- Rule 4: You must possess the ability to perform all the required magical components (verbal, somatic/hand movements, material).
- Rule 5: The spell must not specify that the target is another creature or a hostile creature.
Related: How Many Cantrips Can You Have in D&D? (Answered & Solved)
Spells You Can Cast on Yourself in DND (Chart)
To make it super fast to find the answer you need, I put together a chart on 21 spells you can cast on yourself in DND.
| Name of D&D Spell | Can You Cast The Spell on Yourself? |
|---|---|
| Animate Dead | No |
| Banishment | Yes |
| Clone | Yes |
| Cure Wounds | Yes |
| Dragon’s Breath | Yes |
| Enhance Ability | Yes |
| Feign Death | Yes |
| Fly | Yes |
| Guidance | Yes |
| Haste | Yes |
| Healing Hands | Yes |
| Invisibility | Yes |
| Levitate | Yes |
| Polymorph | Yes |
| Resistance | Yes |
| Ressurection | Yes (with Contingency or Spell Glyph) |
| Spider Climb | Yes |
| Stoneskin | Yes |
| Tongues | Yes |
| Touch Spells | Yes (most of them) |
| Warding Bond | No |
Can You Cast Guidance on Yourself in D&D?
As a player character, you can cast guidance on yourself in D&D.
Guidance only requires touch, chanting, and a willing creature. Therefore, as long as you can touch your body and speak, you can cast Guidance on yourself.
Therefore, you wouldn’t be able to cast Guidance on yourself if you were immobilized or mute. However, you could cast Guidance on yourself if you were simply tied up, trapped, blind, or deaf.
Keep in mind that only Druids and Clerics can usually learn this spell.
As a magical resource, Guidance is incredibly useful because it is a cantrip—a 0 level spell that a magical character can cast at will.
Guidance allows you to roll a 1d4 and add the rolled number to any ability check.
Can You Cast Stoneskin on Yourself in D&D?
You can cast Stoneskin on yourself in D&D.
Stoneskin is a spell that hardens the skin of willing creatures (including yourself) for up to an hour of concentration.
The requirements:
- You must be able to touch yourself
- You must know the 4th level abjuration spell
- You must be a Ranger, Druid, Wizard, Paladin, or Sorcerer
- You must be able to speak
- You must have diamond dust worth 100 gold pieces
- You must be able to concentrate without distraction
When you cast Stoneskin on yourself, you will be invulnerable to piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning damage from a nonmagical source.
Need to move through an enemy in DND?
Cast Stoneskin and then book it to safety.
Although the rules don’t specifically allow for protection against falling damage, as a DM, I would personally allow a character to cast Stoneskin and then jump or fall a reasonable distance (like from the top of a medium-sized building, not from a flying dragon 500 feet in the air).
Can You Cast Resistance on Yourself in D&D?
You can cast resistance on yourself in D&D.
The Resistance spell gives you an advantage to saving throws during a campaign encounter.
To cast resistance on yourself, you need:
- To be a Druid or Cleric
- The ability to touch your body
- The ability to speak the cantrip spell
- A small cloak
- The space to concentrate for up to 1 minute
- A willing creature (yourself)
When you cast Resistance on yourself, you can add a 1d4 roll to one saving throw check.
Since Resistance is a cantrip, it does not take up one of your spell slots.
Can You Cast Invisibility on Yourself in DND?
Invisibility is one of the spells you can cast on yourself in DND.
However, your character must know the spell and be a Wizard, Bard, Warlock, or Sorcerer.
You must also be able to verbally cast the 2nd level illusion, concentrate for up to an hour, touch yourself, and possess an eyelash enclosed in gum arabic.
You’ll remain invisible for the duration of the spell (up to an hour).
If you attack or cast another spell during that hour, the spell ends and you instantly become visible again.
Can You Cast Tongues on Yourself in D&D?
You can cast Tongues on yourself in D&D.
Casting Tongues on yourself gives you the ability to understand any language for the duration of the spell. Any other creature that knows at least one language can also understand your character.
To cast Tongues on yourself, you must be:
- A Warlock, Bard, Cleric, Wizard, or Warlock
- Able to touch yourself
- Able to speak the spell
- Able to concentrate for up to an hour
- Carrying a small clay model of a ziggurat
Can You Cast Healing Hands on Yourself in Dungeons and Dragons?
You can cast healing hands on yourself in Dungeons and Dragons.
Healing hands heals a target creature (yourself included) once per long rest. The target creature regains the number of hit points that equal your character’s level.
So, if you are a 10th level magical character, you would regain 10 hit points.
Typically, only Sorcerers and Wizards possess the ability to learn and use this spell.
Can You Cast Cure Wounds on Yourself in D&D?
As a player character, you can cast cure wounds on yourself in D&D.
Cure Wounds gives you back hitpoints equal to a 1d8 roll plus your spellcasting ability modifier.
Therefore, if you roll a 5 and your spellcasting ability modifier is +3, then you regain 8 hit points. At higher levels, you can regain even more hit points.
To cast Cure Wounds on yourself, you must:
- Be able to touch yourself
- Have the ability to speak
- Be a Druid, Bard, Cleric, Paladin, or Ranger
- Not be an undead creature
So, if you’re a half-zombie Ranger, you’re out of luck.
Can You Cast Dragon’s Breath on Yourself?
You can cast Dragon’s Breath on yourself in D&D.
When you touch a willing creature—in this case, yourself—you get the ability to expel magical energy from your mouth.
The energy is usually fire, ice, poison, or lightning.
Along with touching your body, your Sorcerer or Wizard character needs a hot pepper and the freedom to vocally cast the spell.
You must also be able to concentrate for up to one minute of gameplay.
Can You Cast Levitate on Yourself in Dungeons and Dragons?
You can cast levitate on yourself in Dungeons and Dragons.
You don’t need to touch yourself for this spell. All you need is to be able to see yourself.
Based on the official rules as written (RAW), you wouldn’t be able to cast this spell if you were blindfolded, blind, or in pitch-black darkness (such as underground).
Here are the requirements of the spell:
- You must be a Wizard or Sorceror
- You must be able to see yourself
- You must be able to speak
- You must be able to concentrate for up to 10 minutes without distraction
- You need a material component (Either golden wire shaped into a cup and featuring a long shank, or a small leather loop)
Most of my characters possess easier access to leather loops than golden wire, so keep that in mind when planning out your character, spells, and campaigns.
Can You Cast Fly on Yourself?
The Fly spell is one of the spells you can cast on yourself in DND.
Fly is a touch spell that requires a vocal command, concentration, and a wing feather from any type of bird.
Only Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards can learn this spell.
However, some magical items and homebrew rules allow any character of any class to enjoy the flying ability.
Can You Cast Spider Climb on Yourself in DND?
Any Warlock, Wizard, or Sorceror can cast Spider Climb on themselves in DND.
Spider Climb is a cool spell that allows you to scurry across verticle or horizontal surfaces, including upside-down on ceilings. Creepy.
Spider Climb spell requirements:
- Range: Touch
- Target: One willing creature—yourself
- Components: Vocal, touch, and material
- Material needed: Spider and a drop of bitumen
- Duration: Up to one hour of concentration
Can You Cast Animate Dead on Yourself in DND?
Animate Dead is not one of the spells you can cast on yourself in DND. The target of Animate Dead is a pile of bones or the dead body of a small to medium-sized humanoid.
To cast the spell on yourself, you would need to be an unanimated corpse.
When you are dead, your character can generally not concentrate to cast spells. Therefore, casting this spell on yourself is logically impossible within the official rules.
However, a Dungeon Master (DM) can always homebrew a set of rules and circumstances where this is possible.
It’s definitely an interesting question.
Kind of like the question, Can you cast animate dead on zombies?
Can You Cast Enhance Ability on Yourself in Dungeons and Dragons?
You can cast Enhance Ability on yourself in Dungeons and Dragons.
Enhance Ability gives you a magical enhancement for up to an hour of concentration.
Possible enhancements include:
- Bear’s Endurance—Improved Constitution checks
- Bull’s Strength—Improved Strength checks, and double your carrying Capacity.
- Cat’s Grace—Improved Dexterity checks. You also don’t take any damage if you fall from 20 feet or less (the exception is if you are incapacitated).
- Eagle’s Splendor—Improved Charisma checks.
- Fox’s Cunning—Improved Intelligence checks.
- Owl’s Wisdom—Improved Wisdom checks.
You’ll need a Cleric, Bard, Druid, or Sorceror class to perform this spell.
You’ll also need fur or feather from a beast.
Can You Cast a Touch Spell on Yourself in DND?
Characters can cast any touch spell on themselves, as long as the spell does not specifically identify the target as a hostile creature or a creature other than yourself.
Your character must also be able to perform the required magical components (Verbal, Somatic, Material).
If you can, then you can cast any touch spell that you know on yourself in DND.
According to the D&D Player’s Handbook, touch spells include:
- Arcane Lock
- Awaken
- Barkskin
- Beast Sense
- Clone
- Contagion
- Continual Flame
- Darkvision
- Elemental Weapon
- Feign Death
- Forbiddance
- Foresight
- Gaseous Form
- Gentle Repose
- Glyph of Warding
- Hallow
- Heroism
- Identify
- Jump
- Light
- Long Strider
- Mage Armor
- Power Word Heal
- Protection from Poison
- Raise Dead
- Reincarnate
- Resurrection
- Spare the Dying
- Stone Shape
- Warding Bond
This is a long but not comprehensive list. However, I hope it shows you the extent of touch spells.
Find the full and most updated list of spells in the D&D Players Handbook and Xanathar’s Guide To Everything.
| Recommended D&D Resources | Price |
|---|---|
| D&D Core Rulebook Set | Check the latest price |
| D&D Rules Expansion Set | Check the latest price |
| D&D Dice Set | Check the latest price |
| D&D Accessories Bag | Check the latest price |
Can You Cast Any Spell on Yourself?
A player character can not cast any spell on themselves in D&D. Characters can not cast a spell that requires the target to be another, separate creature or a hostile creature.
For example, your character is not able to cast Modify Memory on themselves.
The description of the spell explicitly says that the target of the spell is another creature that is charmed and incapacitated while you concentrate on performing the magic.
Since you are unable to both concentrate and be incapacitated by your own charm (wow, that’s twisty logic to contemplate!), it is mechanically impossible.
Can You Cast Two Spells on Yourself at the Same Time?
You can only cast two spells on yourself if one of the spells does not require concentration. You cannot concentrate on two separate spells at once.
Say you want to cast Enhance Ability and Alter Self on top of each other.
Since both spells include concentration, this is not possible by yourself. However, two spellcasters can target the same creature (you, in this case).
Therefore, you can cast Alter Self on yourself.
Another magical character can then cast Enhance Ability with you as the target. As long as both you and the other spellcaster continue to concentrate, you can layer two spells on top of each other.
Taking it to the extreme, if you had an infinite number of spellcasters within range, you could theoretically stack an infinite number of different spells on yourself.
Talk about overpowered!
Here is a great video that goes over the basics of spellcasting in D&D:
Final Thoughts: Spells You Can Cast on Yourself in DND
Whenever you learn an new spell, think of ways to cast on yourself. One cool sidenote: You can also cast a touch spell by connecting with your familiar.
Get creative—play around with casting a wild mix of spells on yourself in your next adventure.
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