n.b. Dweomer Day is a series that presents new, converted, adapted, or houseruled spells for 5E D&D.
I think it is fair to say that Witch Bolt is not a great spell. Sure, the description of it—“A beam of crackling, blue energy lances out toward a creature within range, forming a sustained arc of lightning between you and the target”—makes it seem cool as heck, and who doesn’t like to roll that rarest of D&D dice, the d12? But the spell’s requirement that the caster use up an action each turn to do additional damage and the waste of its visual effect in terms of having no mechanical function whatsoever is a clear weak point in its design. I don’t know of anyone who thinks it is a good spell.
My guess is that Witch Bolt will be one of the spells updated in the 2024 Player’s Handbook due out in September, but since I don’t plan to switch over to those rules (I plan to Frankenstein my own edition of D&D instead), I am sharing the version my groups are currently using.
The first time I came across Witch Bolt was when I was prepping the raid of the Sea Ghost for the Ghosts of Saltmarsh version of Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. It seemed awesome. But when I actually had the pirate ship deck wizard (given the awful name, Punketah—I renamed him “Hateknup,” pronounced Ha-TEK-nup) cast the spell I immediately realized its weakness, and if it worked at all the two times I ran that adventure in 5E, it was because other members of the crew served as a blockade between the wizard and the PCs.
Later, when a PC in that campaign chose that spell, I explained its limitations and he agreed, and I let him choose something else in its place. More recently, a different player in a different game chose the spell, I told her I thought the spell was not worth taking, but I offered to tweak it to make it work a little better and she agreed.
The first and most obvious change I made was to make it only a bonus action to do further damage on subsequent rounds, so the character could also do other things. Since it is a concentration spell, this includes casting other spells as long as they are not also spells requiring concentration. However, the caster must use the bonus action in this way each round of the duration or else the spell ends.
The other changes I made include making the arc of lightning between the caster and the target something of an electro-magnet, so that the subject of the spell needs to make a Strength saving throw to move more than 30 feet away (since this ends the spell). They do not need to make this save if they can move behind total cover (another way to end the spell) without having to go more than 30 feet away. Also, while I describe that arc as jumping and flicking to avoid other creatures and objects between the caster and the target, I made it so that anyone deliberately moving through the arc takes 1d12 lightning damage.
And that’s it. Simple and flavorful and worth taking without being made overly powerful.
Click here for a PDF version of the revised Witch Bolt.
HOW I RUN IT. 
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