Does a spiritual weapon fly in D&D 5E?
Lets see…
A spiritual weapon isn’t a material item, so it doesn’t fly. It can hover though!
For some reason, this was the first result I saw. Anyway, a spiritual weapon is not physical and cannot fly or hover unless you are striking someone with it. ^-^
A spiritual weapon is an object of power with which a creature in the class can use its Channel Divinity functionality. This is a Charisma-based ability, and so it does not fly in this game. I would recommend rewording your question to A spiritual weapon according to the D&D 5th Edition rules? How would it fulfill the Channel Deivnity requirement?
Yes.
It’s one of the possible weapon types in 5e. One could try to use a heavy or light crossbow, shortsword, or sling to get similar effects but it will be difficult and even then those projectiles would not fly as far until 4th level when the player can pick up feats such as Point Blank Shot and Improved Archery Fighting Style (ranged). Finally you may also like my article on the best bows for someone looking for a ranged weapon with powerful spells.
The idea of a spiritual weapon is often not synonymous with what we think of as an “elemental weapon.” To be honest, however, the rules specific to 5E are unclear on this point.
If they don’t fly on their own, you can probably move them and create or terminate its flying condition that way. If it’s possible for you to do so in-game, please let us know how you handle this situation after reading your response because we would love to update the answer!
Yes.
A spiritual weapon is a magic weapon infused with the wielder’s own ichor, psi (increasing both its potency and duration), or voodoo energy, animated by a wizard’s spell. It has no physical form but inflicts mental damage instead. This means that in D&D 5e it simply moves at the speed of its owner with no changes to this speed and can be used to interact with objects/materials which are made out of ectoplasmic stuff (since they’re all “immaterial” now anyway).
This is something you should think about with your DM, but we are going to assume that it does not.
During my research for this question, I could find no mention of “spiritual weapon” in the Players Handbook, and I would not be surprised to learn that most people glossed over this as a new D&D 5th edition rule. Alas…it is too late now! Your character has been attacked by an attack empowered by ghosts and you have no idea how you’re supposed to defend against it since the books never said anything about these sort of spiritual weapons.
D&D 5E doesn’t have anything that would fly in any traditionally accepted sense of the word.
An answer could be explained further by mentioning For a weapon to fly, it needs to move without being touched by physical forces, and weapons can never do that.
What is the purpose of a weapon in D&D? To harm your enemies and achieve great deeds. What does it mean to be spiritual? Give up one’s self or individuality, uniting with the Godhead or universal energy. From these definitions, you can conclude that a spiritual weapon would not fly in D&D 5e, because becoming spiritual means giving up individuality and seeking reconciliation with the Lord’s presence rather than achieving great deeds through an individual’s efforts. Therefore defeating one’s enemy on Earth would not be possible because there is no more personal struggle between ye olde hero and ye olde villain. What makes for a meaningful meeting between hero and villain in order to achieve what is considered a worthy deed?
A spiritual weapon is not an actual weapon, it’s the power of your faith or the power of your deity given substance. To manifest the form of a spiritual weapon, you use one hand while holding a shield in the other hand. You can use either bucklers or light shields without damaging them, but you can’t cast spells when both hands are dedicated to wielding such a shield (too much effort to concentrate). The +1 bonus for spirits has been replaced with advantage on saving throws made to avoid things like retaining one’s concentration on an effect after being hit so you don’t get attacked duration-less by stuns and similar. Spiritual weapons have also been found to destroy undead instead of simply turning them.
