Silvery Barbs 5e: Trigger, Reroll, and Advantage

Silvery Barbs packs two useful effects into one reaction: it can turn a successful roll into a failure, then set up advantage for an ally’s next important roll. I find the cleanest way to run it is to resolve one sentence at a time—confirm the original roll succeeded, force the reroll and keep the lower result, then mark which different creature is holding the advantage.

Silvery Barbs 5e — Quick Spell Reference

How Silvery Barbs Works

The trigger is narrow but common: a creature the caster can see within 60 feet succeeds on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. The caster uses their reaction after knowing the roll succeeded. The triggering creature rerolls the d20 and must use the lower of the original roll and the new roll.

After that reroll, the caster chooses a different creature they can see within range. The chosen creature can be the caster, but it cannot be the creature that triggered the spell. That creature gains advantage on its next attack roll, ability check, or saving throw made within 1 minute.

The reroll and the granted advantage are both effects of the same instantaneous spell. The advantage does not require concentration, and it does not have to be used before the start of the caster’s next turn.

Exactly When Can You Cast It?

The original attack, check, or save must have succeeded. Silvery Barbs cannot be cast merely because a creature rolled high, and it cannot be declared before the result is known. At the table, the DM says that the roll succeeds, the caster announces the reaction, and the reroll is resolved before applying the consequences of that success.

Examples of legal triggers include:

• an enemy hits with an attack roll;
• a creature succeeds on a saving throw against a spell;
• a creature succeeds on an ability check to escape a grapple; or
• a spellcaster succeeds on the ability check sometimes required by Counterspell or Dispel Magic.

Silvery Barbs cannot target a damage roll because damage rolls are not attacks, ability checks, or saving throws. It also cannot respond to a result that succeeds automatically without one of those qualifying d20 rolls.

The caster must see the triggering creature, not merely know where it is. Darkness, invisibility, blindness, and total visual obstruction can therefore prevent the reaction even when the caster hears the roll’s consequences. See the site’s guide to vision, light, and obscurement for the underlying sight rules.

A Reroll Is Not Disadvantage

Silvery Barbs does not impose disadvantage. The triggering creature rolls one new d20 and uses the lower result when compared with the original successful roll. Because the spell is not advantage or disadvantage, the rule that causes advantage and disadvantage to cancel each other does not erase this reroll.

If the original roll had advantage, resolve that roll normally first. Once it succeeds, Silvery Barbs causes one additional d20 roll, and the lower of the successful result and that new roll is used. The same general sequence applies if the original roll had disadvantage and still succeeded.

The reroll is not automatically a failure. A sufficiently high new result may still succeed, and the original result remains available for the lower-result comparison. Modifiers that applied to the original roll normally apply to its reroll unless the feature responsible for a modifier says otherwise.

How the Granted Advantage Works

The second creature receives advantage on the next qualifying roll it makes within 1 minute. It cannot save the advantage for a later roll after making an earlier attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. “Next” means the first one that occurs.

If that roll already has advantage, another source of advantage does not add a third d20. If it has disadvantage, the normal advantage/disadvantage rule applies and the two cancel, regardless of how many sources of either exist.

A creature can be empowered by only one use of Silvery Barbs at a time. Casting the spell repeatedly cannot stockpile several future advantage rolls on one ally. Because the spell is instantaneous and requires no concentration, the benefit can remain after the caster is incapacitated or begins concentrating on another spell.

Reaction Costs and Spellcasting Limits

Casting Silvery Barbs spends the caster’s reaction. Until that reaction refreshes at the start of the caster’s next turn, it is unavailable for an opportunity attack, Shield, Counterspell, or another reaction feature. That competition is one of the spell’s most important costs.

The spell has only a verbal component. A caster who cannot speak, is inside Silence, or otherwise cannot provide the component cannot cast it. No free hand or spellcasting focus is required.

Silvery Barbs has no higher-level benefit. A higher slot does not add targets, impose more rerolls, or grant advantage to more creatures. Rules that restrict multiple spells on the same turn still apply, but casting a reaction spell on somebody else’s turn is not the same as casting it on your own turn. The precise restriction depends on whether the table uses the 2014 or 2024 spellcasting rules.

Is Silvery Barbs in the 2024 Player’s Handbook?

Silvery Barbs was introduced in Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos and was not reprinted as a revised spell in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. There is therefore no separate 2024 spell description to compare with the legacy version above.

A campaign using the 2024 core books can allow older supplemental spells, but the DM decides which sources are available. If Silvery Barbs is permitted, use its published wording together with the campaign’s current general rules for reactions, advantage, and spellcasting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Silvery Barbs turn a critical hit into a normal hit or miss?

Yes. A critical hit is a successful attack roll, so it can trigger the spell. The attacker rerolls and uses the lower result.

Can the caster grant the advantage to themself?

Yes, as long as the caster was not the triggering creature. The beneficiary must be different from the triggering creature, not different from the caster.

Does Silvery Barbs work on a saving throw?

Yes. A successful saving throw is one of the spell’s listed triggers.

Can Silvery Barbs affect a successful Counterspell check?

Yes. When the 2014 version of Counterspell calls for a spellcasting ability check and that check succeeds, it meets the ability-check trigger for Silvery Barbs.

Does Silvery Barbs require concentration?

No. Its granted advantage can remain available for up to 1 minute without concentration.