Dungeons & Dragons: How To Use The Scatter Spell

Teleportation spells in Dungeons & Dragons have no shortage of versatility. Going back to the genre's roots in wargaming, the ability to control positioning, lines of sight and formations has a lot of strategic use. Scatter is unusual in that you can use it for multiple goals at the same time.

Dungeons & Dragons: 10 Deadliest Monsters That Can Teleport

These deadly enemies all have the terrifying ability to teleport.

While a sixth-level slot is a tall asking price, a well-placed scatter spell can chop a difficult fight into two easy fights. Spellcasters that enjoy controlling the battlefield can make expert use of this in a way that isn't allowed by dimension door, misty step or any of the competing spells.

What Does The Scatter Spell Do?

The spell is rather simple in its description, but gains added nuance as you examine it in greater detail.

Unlike most other teleportation spells, the targets can be within 30 feet of your caster instead of touch range. That can often be a limiting factor to spells like dimension door or arcane gate, which need the players to group up tight clusters that can easily be struck with area attacks.

Unlike other teleport spells, scatter explicitly cannot be used to deal direct damage. You can't teleport people into the air to drop them, dunk them in lava or reappear them inside solid rock. The destination must be in your line of sight with the ground or floor beneath it.

Some Dungeon Masters might interpret the targeting rules in different ways. Here are a few rules points to run by your DM:

• "Five creatures of your choice that you can see within 30ft" can be interpreted as them all needing to be in your field of view at once, preventing you from teleporting two people standing on opposite sides of you.
• You might be expected to choose target locations for each character before saving throws are made by unwilling targets.

Using The Scatter Spell As A Player

There are a lot of creative uses for a spell that can teleport groups and choose different directions for each recipient.

Technique

Details

Synergy

Teleporting Into Damage

You can't teleport people into lava, spike pits or drops, but you can still place people in situations where they'll be forced to take damage after appearing. A pressure plate you know will trigger a damaging trap is still stable ground, as is a rooftop they'll need to jump down from to rejoin the fight.

Scatter pairs well with persistent spells that impact an area. Force cage notably only prevents teleportation from leaving the spell, so you can use scatter to bounce people into it.

Teleporting Into Position

Every member of your party is going to have a preferred position in a fight, but often you'll start grouped up because you've just entered the room, or you were all huddled around an NPC or point of interest.

Scatter lets you simultaneously get your ranger to high ground for shooting, your rogue out of line of sight and your fighter to cut off retreat.

Breaking Up Formations

Enemies have their own preferred positions, and often they benefit from being able to stand where they want to be before combat starts. Scatter lets you pull the enemy archers down from the rafters and their wizard out of cover.

Mage slayers, sentinels and polearm masters can leverage these bonuses further.

Splitting A Fight in two

One of the strongest uses of this spell is for divide-and-conquer strategies. Targeting the majority of a pack of beasts and teleporting them the maximum distance ensures that you'll have a round or two to defeat the remainder before they can rejoin the fight.

Wall spells that can prevent enemies from rejoining the fight are effective.

As long as you limit yourself to five targets you can do multiple of these things at once. You can teleport one enemy onto a pressure plate and your rogue into a convenient shadow during the distraction.

Using The Scatter Spell As A DM

Some special uses for scatter only work properly in the hands of the one running the game. The fittingly named spell is great for breaking up a party that are a bit too repetitive about using the same strategies.

Technique

Details

Split The Party

A glyph of warding with a scatter spell in it can cause the party entering a dungeon to all be teleported to different starting locations. Depending on how you rule the spell's use, the line of sight at the time of casting might be more important than the line of sight when the glyph is activated. That means you can have the scatter spell teleport players through walls or other obstacles that it isn't allowed to do in the players' hands.

Chase Scenes

When the villains are fleeing the party, and you desperately need at least one to escape for the plot to continue, you can use a scatter spell to split them all up running in different directions with a teleported head start. The players can still catch up with their own teleport spells or fast moving abilities but will struggle to grab everyone.

Countering Player Strategies

A table that always stays within ten feet of their paladin's aura can be rightly shaken up by the occasionally teleporting them out of formation. Don't do this often enough for the players to feel punished for their playstyle, but rather play this trick on them once so they consider more strategies than the ones they know will work.

Dungeons & Dragons: 10 Ways To Cure Conditions

Learn the best ways to cure conditions in D&D!