[RPG] Is this modification of the Vicious Mockery cantrip overpowered

balancecantripsdnd-5ehomebrew-review

New DM here. One of my players wants to be able to cast vicious mockery without doing damage (because his character became a pacifist after death and resurrection). I'm considering allowing him to cast it with a bonus-action casting time in exchange for the damage.

The only changes to the spell would be to its casting time (1 bonus action, instead of 1 action), and to its effect (it no longer does damage but still imposes disadvantage):

Choose a target you can see. If it can hear you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.

Would this be overpowered?

Best Answer

Yes, this unbalances the spell

Vicious Mockery is not particularly strong in the damage department to begin with. By allowing it to be cast as a bonus action in exchange for the damage, you're essentially giving your player a way to impose disadvantage on one attack every turn, except in the rare circumstances where they have something else to use their bonus action for, such as Healing Word.

Few things you do will actually require a bonus action, so being able to use that bonus action every turn to impose disadvantage is a huge buff.

The only real problem here is that it will stop you from casting any other spells during your turn, except for other cantrips. This might not be nearly as big a deal as it sounds, however, as you don't generally cast a spell every turn anyway.

Another thing this might fight for in a turn is using bardic inspirations, but once again, you don't use these that often.

So for a Bard who uses a lot of cantrips (like most casters) or who uses the attack option a lot, this is overall a big buff.