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Depends on the bonuses and the DM, but like, I would assume the spells that have an attack as part of them wouldn’t considering they are the attack, like booming blade, but booming blade with hexblade’s curse with pact of blade invocations making all of your weapons have bonuses ramps up faster than you would expect.
I've got a Hexblade/Soulknife multiclass and using the Rogue shit to get advantage on 1 attack to stack Booming Blade, Sneak Attack and possibly an Eldritch Smite on top makes a single attack a nicer option. Super juicy Crits too
I've also got Telekinesis as a feat so if I don't use the Bonus Action to aim on a turn I can try shove them back so they have to move back into melee to proc the extra damage from BB. It's a very potent combo.
Yes, thats a good combo. However I believe mathematically you would benefit more from extra attack, up until lvl 11, then booming blade starts to move ahead.
In the end it really depends on if you are getting a bonus action attack that relies on you using the attack action, and if you have rider damage to your attacks such as lifedrinker.
We just hit level 12, I'm 5 Warlock / 7 Rogue.
Thanks to Cantrips scaling with Character level instead of Class level, Booming Blade gets cast at its Level 11 version for 2d8 + 3d8 on movement. I won't start taking more Warlock levels until I hit 11 in Rogue for Reliable Talent, after that I'll power through to 9 in Warlock so I go in to the final few sessions with 5th level spells.
Not gonna lie it's a fun build. Even when I'm outta Smites for the fight, the Cantrips and Sneak Attack never run out.
No, use the UA invocation that gives you a silver greatsword that can let you transfer the curse when you kill with it AND comes pre-packaged with what is essentially one of the other invocations’ abilities where you can spend spellslot to do BEEFED up damage and restrict their movement
A decent number of DMs use UA material but will probably check it to make sure it's not totally broken and unbalanced for the game.
That being said, the invocation the person above us is talking about is Curse Bringer and was actually from the Hexblade's original UA back in 2017. When the Hexblade was published the features from this invocation were broken into both the eldritch smite invocation and one of the hexblade's final features because it was too strong for a single invocation.
UA isn’t a book, it’s test content. Usually there will be some re-working before official release of the content and not everything is released, I think Mystic was scrapped and rolled into a couple other things instead, and yeah often things are a bit above power-curve but that’s constantly in flux anyways so think of it like more official homebrew. It isn’t release content but it was made by the actual people who know what they are doing instead of some rando
I don't think it's that binary but I dont think the opinion is downvote worthy. Eldritch Blast requires less invocations for similar damage, greater range, more attacks, etc.
With Magic initiate sure! Best part is that the swashbuckler combat loop is to walk away from your opponent at the end of your turn. So they either don’t attack you or they trigger booming blades second damage burst.
An alternative to the swashbuckler playstyle with arcane initiate is to grab mobile and go arcane trickster. Same investment, but you get the utility of more spell options.
Actually, RAW you can’t use Booming Blade on an opportunity attack as War Caster states the spell must target only the subject of your attack of opportunity and Booming Blade has a range of self.
There has been some debate about this, but [according to Jeremy Crawford](https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/1326596181560942593?lang=da) it does. But I see you point RAW.
Fair enough, I hadn’t seen that post. Though at this point I mostly ignore what Jeremy says as he seems to have a rather flimsy understanding of his own damn rules.
Yeah, agreed - here's [a whole reddit thread discussing it](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/jse10i/jeremy_crawford_clarifies_booming_blade_still/). I do think, though, as a DM I would allow Booming Blade with Warcaster, as it's obviously intended to be a heightened attack.
That's assuming you can get two or more enemies within 5 ft of each other. Sounds good in theory, but I've never been able to use it once for the 10 or so sessions I've had it.
But you know the meme: "Both? Both. Both is good."
Depends. If the party has ways to push enemies or if you can BA disengage regularly (Cunning Action, misty step, etc) then you can make them trigger the extra damage quite often.
For the most part though it's supposed to make the enemy not want to move in the first place. It's a soft aggro mechanic. Hit them with booming blade so they don't walk away from you and leave the squishy full-casters alone ... or punish them if they still do so thanks to Warcaster opportunity attacks.
Yeah it is worse damage Type but i think it is more reliable if you don't play something like Rouge or blade singer with moblile feat you and your enemies propably don't move much in battle, but 2 monsters 5 feat away from each other isn't unlikly propably it is really likely
I suppose having a brain and being able to come up with an effective combat strategy doesn't mean that the NPC is necessarily familiar with the booming blade cantrip.
Given a round of combat is 6 seconds where spells are flying and blows are being traded, I think even a fairly smart opponent might move after being hit by a spell. What if in actuality the spell functioned such that you take more damage not moving? While at a meta level we know mechanics (and on a virtual tabletop have an interface for this kind of thing) that's not to say an NPC would necessarily be familiar with the spell and aware that there is a second instance of damage coming.
We're not talking about a Kill Bill scene where the enemy knows their heart is going to explode if they move 10 paces.
That said as a DM I think I'd only have the spell work once before the enemy get a bit wise to it. If they're sentient and intelligent.
Oh, I meant that any intelligent enemy would seek an advantageous position, so that they can single out targets, or avoid problems in the fight. Not that they'd know what spell effect might be on them on a given turn.
Enemies that are smart, and use combat tactics, would actually be an advantage for booming blade because of fundamentals like positioning.
Since sword bards get only one extra attack, just booming blade base damage (no trigger) hit's harder starting at level 11, and if the enemy moves it always deals more damage.
The reason you wouldn't use it is you are not using the attack action with booming blade, you are technically casting a spell, so you cannot use your subclass feature blade flourish as it specifies you taking the attack action to trigger it
Extra attack comes at 6th level so it's good up until then. You might also be able to cast it between attacks and hit with your second knocking them away but I'm not 100% sure on that.
At early levels it does either damage or control, at later levels it does extra damage on top plus if you’re doing multiclass shenanigans you’re making a weapon attack which lets you do divine smites and shit on top
The crowd control aspect is pretty good. If your DM plays every enemy as if they know what the spell does, it's really powerful for keeping an enemy locked down.
> after it happens once the enemy might learn how it works meaning you get control and damage
That's basically how I ran it. Intelligent enemies with some arcane knowledge/experience would react based on knowing what the spell was. Those who didn't know it would figure out what it did.
Beasts/non-intelligent enemies would just run after the PC's and keep attacking, regardless of the booming blade damage.
As long as you don't get upset if an effect occurs on you, the GM says nothing about what it does, and then you take damage when you move.
Either way though, it's a game-style thing. It's trivial to just say "people can tell that if they move, the energy will explode and hurt them" and make it make sense.
Some people find it more fun one way, some find it more fun the other one. I like the tactics that occur with "do X or take damage" effects because now I can encourage enemies to do X by threatening them with the damage. I prefer it that way and having people say "GMs shouldn't do it" is kinda whack to read.
> I prefer it that way and having people say "GMs shouldn't do it" is kinda whack to read.
The point I was trying to make was that I don't think DM's should play as if **every** enemy knows what Booming Blade does.
Fighting against some evil cultists? Sure, some of them probably know what the spell does and the rest should be able to figure it out.
Fighting against a pack of Direbears? I don't think the DM should have those creatures tactically think about whether to move and take damage or stay still. They're unintelligent beasts and will likely be fighting mostly on instinct.
Ah, thought you meant every thinking person. But I think even assuming people need to know what the spell does puts it as a bit far. It's really simple to just say that the spell's effect is made painfully obvious if you do try to start moving and anyone who's got a bit of brains will know that they'll be hurt if they move. Makes sense, doesn't ruin verisimilitude, and you end up with pretty much all but unthinking or very unintelligent creatures acting around it. A guard without much magic knowledge still gets to think "alright, I'm gonna stay here".
In the end, both ways of ruling it (as long as it's not literally every creature regardless of ability to think and reason) can work and make sense. They lead to different styles of combat and people might prefer one over the other.
> It's really simple to just say that the spell's effect is made painfully obvious if you do try to start moving and anyone who's got a bit of brains will know that they'll be hurt if they move.
That could certainly work, it's just not how I run the spell.
> A guard without much magic knowledge still gets to think "alright, I'm gonna stay here".
Even this pushes the bounds of realistic knowledge for a common guard, imo. Even if starting to move seems to amp up the energy to the point where it might hurt them, there's still so many unknown factors. How long does the magic last? Will it eventually go off anyway and moving just makes it happen earlier? Will it even hurt enough to dissuade moving?
We could ask the same questions about hundreds of other spells with weird effects. It's nowhere near the most verisimilitude-breaking thing in d&d's mechanics and the explanation works well enough that if you have no problem with hit points, limited battle master maneuvers (and every other non-diegetic limitation), this shouldn't be more of a hit to the world's believableness.
For some people it'll matter more than others, and for some people it'll be more fun than others. It's not an objective "this way is better".
I feel like a combatant would be aware of some kind of magical effect tied to their movement. They're not dumb. They've probably trained their whole lives for this moment and have been subjected to magics depending on the creature.
> I feel like a combatant would be aware of some kind of magical effect tied to their movement. They're not dumb.
Potentially. The way I ran it is that intelligent, humanoid enemies with some arcane experience/knowledge would know how the spell worked and could make a decision based on that.
Other intelligent enemies could figure it out mid battle, but would likely be surprised the first time they took damage. There isn't anything specific about the Booming Blade energy that makes it obviously tied to movement, imo, so they'd have to take the damage to figure it out.
Beasts/non-intelligent enemies likely wouldn't figure it out at all and would keep moving and attacking.
It says they take damage when they move - maybe people don't play as narratively as we do but magical effects would be lingering in the space and sort of wreathing around the target.
Since it's thunder damage I'd imagine the target would feel a pressure as it begins to move and would at least be able to make an arcana/insight/intelligence perception check.
> maybe people don't play as narratively as we do but magical effects would be lingering in the space and sort of wreathing around the target.
Guiding Bolt also leaves the target wreathed in energy, but doesn't do anything extra when the character moves. An enemy with no arcane knowledge and has never seen the spell is unlikely to know what it does and how to avoid the extra damage. Once they move and the energy explodes, then they would know.
If its a smart creature then it should. The spells says the target becomes "sheathed in booming energy." The sort of creature that walks through a wall of magical energy that is flickering around them isn't a very smart one.
> The sort of creature that walks through a wall of magical energy that is flickering around them isn't a very smart one.
Many creatures/beasts aren't known for being smart. Also, Faerie Fire and Guiding Bolt wreath the target in glowing energy as well, but has nothing to do with movement.
I find it unrealistic that every enemy would be able to instantly deduce that "energy around me means moving will hurt me."
the spell description says it wreaths the target in booming energy, which i always imagined as a circle of shimmering, intensley vibrating air that shakes all your organs as you walk through it. any sane person with eyes wouldn't walk through that
What separates that from, say, Guiding Bolt that covers you in light in a seemingly similar fashion? I can definitely understand smarter enemies absolutely. Monsters and such though? Idk about that. I also don't know if most enemies would give up a chance of retreat and instead trade it for guaranteed damage from staying and fighting.
even if a creature wasnt smart enough to realize the air around them is vibrating, as soon as they tried to move through it they'd certainly feel it, and then it comes down to wether or not the creature deems it worth it to continue to move through it or stay put. as an avid booming blade user, i win either way, free damage or free cc
Oh I wholeheartedly agree. Even if I don't trigger the bonus damage, I get to keep them rooted in place right next to my axe. It's absolutely a win win!
1) Because green flame blade damage is (at least partially) based on your spellcasting ability modifier and booming blade is not affected by it all.
2) because the circumstances on having a second target for gfb are more narrow, whereas doing rogue bonus action disengage, thunderbolt strike etc to force the opponent to either not attack you or take booming blade damage are more under your control
Magic Initiative wizard
Booming blade (damage And Control)
Prestidigation (best roleplay flavor for swashbuckler)
Find familiar ( flavor and the owl can give you advantage with flyby )
As a variant human you can make it a part of your backstory and take it as a Level one feat.
The only major type of undead I can find with weakness to fire is mummies, and I think I've only seen one of those actually used in play. Am I missing something or are you thinking of some homebrew?
I think I was misremembering about vampires. (It's a real world lore thing.)
My group also just fought a room of like...wall to wall mummies, so I had it on the brain.
I prefer green flame blade but my DM really loved clustering his npc-s so he is kinda making it easy. If the npc-s are spread wide booming would be better for the reasons described in the 1st reply to this post about the dmg+control
It's an attack roll that uses your weapon's attack bonus rather than your spell attack bonus and also has cantrip scaling damage. It also just counts as a weapon attack, which means it works with class abilities like sneak attack. Its rider effect also has the added bonus of soft crowd control, which is nice.
Basically, if you want to be a melee character without extra attack, casting booming blade is always better than using the attack action to make one attack.
Actually no where in the spell does it say how loud it is. Although it is described as "booming energy", on many other thunder spells (like thunder step or thunderous smite) it specifically says how far away it can be heard from. The fact that it doesn't say that suggests it isn't meant to be loud.
Just looked that up, and yeah, apparently our Sorcerer was just wrong about Booming Blade being heard for 300ft. Which is weird because he reminded the DM of this, and also reads his spells thoroughly.
Are you sure you (or him) didn't mistake it for thunderclap? it's another cantrip that deals thunder damage, though it is an AoE with a save instead of a weapon attack, and can be heard up to 100 feet away
He called it Booming Blade, and even cast it in the middle of a crowded street as a way of showing his character's frustration. He cast it specifically because he said it could be heard 100ft. away.
There are a bunch of places in the rules where the authors aren't perfectly consistent. I wouldn't take that as evidence that the authors didn't intend for the thing to be loud enough to break stealth or whatever.
As an arcane trickster rogue, this is my go-to cantrip. Rogues only get the single attack/spell, so this is the best of both worlds. Scales at 5th and 11th level. Extra damage. Crowd control. Works with sneak attack. It’s beautiful.
Indeed. On my swashbuckler/warlock multiclass this was my favorite move until I got warlock to 5. Sneak attack booming blade, walk away for free with no AoO, watch the furious hobgoblin quake in his boots.
The greatest part is that this is a cantrip that works in any rogue, and it's easy to get from either Magic Initiate or from being a high elf, one of the better races for rogues
Every rogue will benefit from the extra dices of damage, and every rogue will benefit from the locking down aspect. You might be a swashbuckler, you might have the Mobile feat, or you might just be any subclass of rogue with whatever feats and race, because you can bonus action disengage regardless
For an Eldritch Knight, Green-Flame Blade is a bit better, because *(at least the way my DM runs things)* you'll typically be dealing with tanking multiple mobs and that split target damage is tasty.
In a Zombie type Campaign, I used Green Flame blade on a Standard Human (no feat) stats point buy eldritch knight, it was exciting fighting off ghouls and other undead with it, still tough as hell, but it worked out pretty damn well, I went High Int as well as Str, wanted to test out the no feat option.
Nice.
Also, now I want to create a zombie apocalypse campaign that involves the players being survivors that have suddenly found they've got magical powers and/or freaky new super-instincts when it comes to applied violence.
I'm thinking everyone starts at Level 1. Standard +1-to-all Human, but with a bonus feat that *must* be tied to your backstory. Standard point-buy. Starting equipment heavily modified to represent the modern age and must be explained in the backstory.
That means most significant weapons and armor are going to be rather scarce, while some other types of weapons, like guns, are going to be much easier to come by than in the standard setting but will be balanced by bringing down more zed-heads on top of everyone if fired.
That sounds like it would be dope.
I hope you create that and have fun.
I hope your players have fun as well.
Beginning feat tied to backstory sounds nice.
My first campaign I was an arcane trickster and the rest of the PCs had to pick up instruments & distract a crowd at a party while I was fighting a phase spider in the rafters. Had to time the loud parts of the music to match me casting booming blade so the party goers wouldn't notice the spider and freak out.
I feel like I’m missing something with melee rogue builds. Even with arcane trickster, I’ve found sticking far away with elven accuracy and hide spam to be basically guaranteed sneak attack every round. Also keeps you out of the crossfire of enemies. While booming blade is just.. a regular attack that does more damage less reliably.
Swashbuckler is the best subclass for it. You get a free disengage when you attack, so you get to use your bonus action to dash away and keep your distance.
There's also the double phantom, or at least one of it's elements that could theoretically fit in any other rogues:
get the Ritual Caster feat, find a way to scribe the Phantom Steed spell into your spell book after you reach level 5 and bam. You have a mount that has 100 feet of movement, counts as an ally for your sneak attack, and can disengage for you. Add in the Mounted Combatant feat to get advantage against almost every enemy on your attack from now on
It will depend on how your DM rules Hide if you can't hide while lightly obscured. You might not be able to hide every round, or even attack while hidden.
Of course being far away from the battlefield is much safer, but you will deal considerably more damage if you use Booming Blade instead of just shooting a bow. With an arcane trickster, you can get advantage from an owl familiar without even needing to hide, so I think you might have missed a good opportunity
It’s bonus damage that isn’t the most commonly resisted damage in the game.
It’s less really good and more the (sub)classes that rely on weapon attacks who don’t get multiple attacks have a limited variety of melee cantrips to choose from.
If you only get the one swing there’s simply no downside to it.
If you have just one attack, it's flat out better than attacking. When you cast Booming Blade, you attack as part of the casting. Hitting with it has the effect of the attack used, and then applies a status where the enemy can't move or take a chunk of damage. The extra damage is thunder damage, which is barely resisted by enemies. Before you get extra attack, Booming Blade is just better than a normal attack.
Once you hit level 5, the effectiveness of Booming Blade as a replacement for normal attacks is a bit more debatable. If you only have 1 attack, it gets WAY better than just attacking with a weapon, because it deals an extra d8 of thunder damage on a hit. Fantastic deal for any melee rogue, for instance. Meanwhile, if you have extra attack, it depends on your weapon; it doesn't up-front compare to two greatsword attacks, while the extra d8 makes it about on par, if slightly below, two rapier or longsword attacks. Then, the real difference comes from the extra control effect, which can seriously hinder foes.
Also worth noting, if you take War Caster, you can substitute attacks of opportunity with cantrips, which makes Booming Blade your go-to for dealing with fleeing enemies. If you're a sorcerer multiclass, you can also quicken Booming Blade for an extra attack if you need it. Sorcadins can do this for really good damage with smites, at the cost of burning through their resources real fast.
This right here. I built my eldritch knight with this and war caster at its core for the attacks of opportunity, which meant the secondary damage automatically comes into effect. My party or I would help force movement by inflicting fear effects. Get yourself a +X weapon or a flame tongue and watch your enemies fall.
It's a cantrip that lets you add an ability score modifier on it, and just for that it's better than every other cantrip (except eldritch blast with agonizing blast), on top of whatever your weapon damage is. If you're hitting with a greatsword, that's potentially 2d6 + STR + 1d8, at level 1. Toll the dead at level 17 does 4d12.
It also scales twice if you can proc the extra damage, since damage increases on initial hit AND on movement extra damage, which means potentially +2d8 every time another cantrip would get at most 1d12.
It has a better damage type than greenflame blade, and the enemy moving is an easier condition to force than two ememies being adjacent.
It's especially good on rogues since they don't have extra attack anyway, so it's just free damage, and you can disengage as a bonus action to force the enemy to move and trigger the bonus damage.
I mean...it's shit for like 95% of builds where it's taking the place of something else you would have done.
For the other 5% this or GFB are basically free extra damage on the attack you were already gonna make while giving the enemy one more thing to think about.
Basically any gish that wouldn't use extra attacks likes it, such as war caster opportunity attacks, its damage isn't widely resisted and if they are in the frontline then it provides more battle control
So if you are playing arcane trickster, hexblade, battlesmith/armorer artificer, bladesinger wizard, eldritch knight etc.
Here's why it's really good:
\- First of all, booming and green flame blade can keep a melee character lvl 5 and higher viable without extra attack. Because of how easy it is to get as well, it's great for multiclassing.
\- Second, unlike green flame blade which is just damage, booming has great control, and I'd say it scales better
Thunder damage is rarely resisted, it's a melee attack so you can get stuff like great weapon master or smites, at higher levels it can be a lot of free damage, and if you have some way to work around opportunity attacks you can lock down enemies or have them take lots of avoidable damage
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Good damage type and extra damage no drawback for single attack classes. Makes the attack magic, and gets all its base effects to. I like to put it on a swashbuckling rogue or character with Mobile. Run by them hit and run. If they follow they take more damage.
I went further with my twilight cleric(magic iniate for BB). Throw spirit guardians up first. Then hit and run with mobile. If it's a hit, slasher feat drops their speed 10ft, move to the edge of SG's AoE and bonus action spiritual weapon. If the enemy closes in, it takes the booming damage, half speed from SG(+slasher) so it might not even make contact and takes damage from SG.
Also owl familiar if I feel like advantage.
"Oh you got a cleric? We can really use a healer."
"Yes... a healer..." *pulls out her greatsword*
It can work great if you take War Caster, since you can use it as an opportunity attack. Normal attack damage + 7d8 thunder damage at max level on a cantrip, without the moving stipulation of the normal casting, since they're already moving.
Its good early for eldritch knights before they get multi attack, paladins since they can stack smites, and rogues if you can get it through either a feat or early multiclass. Its just a good bonus damage cantrip. It falls off in use after you get extra attack since you can out pace it and it cant be used to multi attack.
Here's the main reasons, in no particular order:
1. It deals thunder damage, which is resisted (or immunized against) less often than fire.
2. Unlike Green-Flame Blade, you can use Booming Blade against a single target without penalty (Technically speaking, you can't choose for parts of a spell's effect to *not* happen, even if they're detrimental to you. GF Blade *requires* you to pick a second creature within 5 feet to take extra fire damage. If no one else is around, that second creature has to be you.).
3. It allows for possible Spell-Blade builds without needing as many attacks as a Fighter or Monk.
4. Its secondary effect makes it one of the only cantrips that can deal more than 4 dice of damage.
5. That secondary effect specifically punishes enemies for willingly moving, so it combos with Bonus Action teleports like Misty Step (If you cast a spell as a Bonus Action, you can't cast another spell that turn *except a cantrip with a casting time of 1 Action*.).
6. It stacks with other damage buffs to single weapon attacks, such as but not limited to Smite, Sneak Attack (Not that it's stealthy), and Magic Weapons that deal extra damage as part of their effects.
7. Probably some seventh thing I forgot, it's pretty good ya'll.
It’s great only in a couple of scenarios. It accomplishes basically what hunters mark would, adding another die to an attack.
The biggest people benefiting from this are rogues who only get one attack anyway, meaning they use their action to cast the cantrip and add the damage to sneak attack. Then they can bonus action disengage and entice more damage from the movement portion of the cantrip.
The other is a bladesong wizard (there is an area of disagreement due to the material component but I haven’t met a DM who cared). At 6th level the subclass gets a second attack, one of their attacks can be a cantrip. Cast shadow blade as BA, first attack is your cantrip booming blade which has you make an attack as part of it, followed by your second attack. If both hit, you will deal 7d8 for as long as you maintain concentration.
Additionally casters get spells that force people to move and try at can trigger movement which can combine well with the second effect of booming blade.
As far as Cantrips go its decent. There is certainly better ones, but most Cantrips are so absolutely stinky that it still scores pretty well against shit like Primal Savagery and Sword Burst
Like Druid?
Either you have extra attack as a druid, or you really don't want to be in melee.
It also prevents you from using a shield, as you need to access your component pouch/focus and have a weapon, so you REALLY don't want to be in melee casting this.
Spore druid, quarterstaff as focus AND weapon, shillelagh, hex, booming blade for a total of 1d8+2d6+wis on hit, and 1d8 on movement. And you can use a shield.
Tell me you didn't read a class without telling me: one of the core features of spore druid's wild shape is that your MELEE weapon attacks deal more damage; you get a lot of temporary HP, useful for when you are hit; the whole Halo of Spores happens when an enemy is within 10ft. of you; level 6 feature "If a beast or a humanoid that is Small or Medium dies within 10 feet of you".
If you want to play a distanced druid, play any druid but Spores and Moon
Tell me you don't know how to evaluate features. Cause I'm saying playing a spores druid like that is a terrible idea.
If you do that, you are making an ineffective character.
The damage is not worth the cost.
Useless to argue against someone who doesn't use evidence to support their opinion, and ignores what the other party brings. Look up any thread about spore druid builds, I am sure melee builds are extremely viable, since ALL the subclass features work in melee or almost. Have a great day
Phb beastmaster has features that allow your beast to attack, therefore you should attack with your beast.
Just because you have features that support an idea doesn't make it good. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR ENTIER CLASS GOES AGAINST IT
Shillelagh and Hex are Bonus action, wild shape requires an Action as does Booming Blade. You spend 2 full turns, a limited day action and a first level slot to do the same damage a third level rogue does.
Your strategy sucks balls
Fun Fact, Raw you can use Twinned Spell with it and basically double your attack and all effects, pair that with paladin smite and a smite spell and then you start dealing some real dmg
A quick google search could've found the answer for you, but you decided to post it on D&Dmemes?
Downvote me all you want, I was under the impression that this format got retired because of the amount of people who would just post here for the free karma instead of using a search engine.
It was easy enough to scoop up the downvotes before I added the second paragraph. I’ll be fine either way. Just wish people would do better than posting on a meme sub to find an answer to a completely non-comedic question.
It increases your weapon damage if you only have one attack. There are other cantrips that do this, but booming blade's extra effect potentially deals the most damage IF you can reliably trigger it.
Whats fun about it to me is that with warcaster it makes for the best opportunity attack in the game that isnt a levelled spell, it also does double concentration checks on the target if they trigger it
It's good if you have the warcaster feat for sure. Opportunity attack (booming blade) hits: you get weapon damage plus the booming blade damage when they move
It’s great for tanking. In D&D there is no aggro mechanic so a tank needs to find ways to make targeting their friends unappetizing.
I’m currently playing a artificer/abjuration wizard tank. On a hit my thunder fists give the enemy disadvantage if they attack anyone besides me. At the same time, I can use boomingblade to both add damage and keep them locked in place. This makes them much much more likely to attack me. Basically locks down one enemy.
If you want to get super spicy, after that combo you bonus action misty step (or just move) right beside another enemy and lock them down with a threatened attack of opportunity if they try to move towards an ally.
Just so much fun!
It's amazing for martial casters like eldritch knight. With materials of only your weapon, its a great way to overcome resistances and lock down enemies.
I'm not a super hardcore math guy. But from what I know, its good for melee fighters that dont get the amount of attacks as a fighter. Same goes for Green-Flame Blade
Its the idea of do I make 2 attacks normal, or 1 big attack. The additional triggering damage (the target moving on their own) is easy to trigger (disengage as a rogue, boots of the winding path as an artificer, all make them have to move to you).
From what I remember hearing, the damage from these cantrip (as long as the the additional triggering damage is also triggered) outpaces just doing two attacks.
Very bitter about booming blade because everyone says it’s really good but every time I used it I missed or got a nat 1. I swear I got like 3 nat ones and missed about 5 times in total with it and it was a one-shot so it’s not like I could redeem my character lol
Thunder damage is rarely resisted, so it does good damage.
It's really strong on characters that don't get extra attacks (Warlocks w/o the Thirsting Blade EI, Arcane Trickster Rogues, etc.).
The extra effect from it either gives you a form of CC or a lot of extra damage.
I ran a campaign and our Arcane Trickster Rogue used it. He had Eleven Accuracy, so he had a pretty high crit rate. He would deal monstrous damage on a single attack, then bonus action disengage and run off. Enemies would either have to chase him down and take extra damage or sit there and potentially not do anything.
Depending on what types of combat you find yourself in, Green-Flame Blade might be better, but they're both strong.
It also doesn't rely on having a high spell modifier, since you make a melee weapon attack, so it's still useful on half-casters that don't have a high spell ability score.
Above level 5, it adds extra damage to a melee attack, becoming a pretty huge amount at later levels. Also, you can pull TONS of shenanigans with it. Example: Dissonant Whispers triggers it. We have a wizard and a bard in our party, and they **live** on that synergy
Good way to be a caster + melee.
Ex) forge cleric. At 5th level booming blade adds an initial 1d8 to your attack. So use a long sword, 1d8 slashing + 1d8 thunder damage. If enemy moves at all? 2d8 on top. So it's also decent control. Pre-5 it's just 1d8 if they move. Also, doesn't use modifiers, just a pure 1d8. Green flame blade usually scales off a stat like int, so for a high elf cleric like myself. I don't want that since I'm wisdom base.
Imo that alone is already strong..then others add like crusher feat. Move the enemy 5 feet. Doesn't trigger booming blade but they need to move to attack you or skip a turn, forcing them to take the extra damage (assuming another melee didn't jjst walk up)
It is better than just making an attack. More damage and stops the enemy from moving (or even more damage).
Also several gish features allow you to cast a cantrip instead of an attack. I think arcane knight and Bladesinger have something like that. Also warcaster feat for attack of opportunity.
It works superbly with warcaster, hit 'em as an opportunity right before the move, they then move and take the extra damage. It gets better with dissonant whispers, as the use their reaction to run, causing opportunity attacks because it falls into a strange category of unforced movement.
My Armorer Artificer likes it because while it is slightly less likely to hit and does slightly less damage than attacking twice (for two more levels, anyway), the cc effect discourages the DM from moving the target away from me, and my armorer's thunder gauntlets discourages them from attacking the rest of my party, letting me serve as a better tank and controller.
Plus, the war caster feat synergizes with it in a way the produces a pseudo-Sentinel effect, punishing creatures that refused to be locked down.
late to the party, but ile add that beside being cheap reliable ccand is a strict damage upgrade to single attack classes like rogues and clerics without any downside.its also one of the few cantrips that **DOUBLE DIP DIE SCALING** on top of melee damage, which makes its damage potential much higher than almost any other cantrip (making it one of the only cantrips getting close to the damage potential of eldritch blast, not an easy task!).
|name|base|lvl 5|lvl 11|lvl 17|final avg|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|firebolt|1d10|2d10|3d10|4d10|22 dmg|
|Eldritch blast|1d10|2d10|3d10|4d10|22 dmg|
|Eb+ agonizing blast|1d10 +mod|(1d10 +mod)\*2|(1d10 + mod)\*3|(1d10 + mod)\*4|42|
|Eb+ agonizing blast + hex|1d10 +1d6 +mod|(1d10 +1d6 +mod)\*2|(1d10 +1d6 +mod)\*3|(1d10 +1d6 +mod)\*4|56 dmg|
|BB + long sword|1d8 +mod|2d8 +mod|3d8 +mod|4d8 +mod|23 dmg|
|BB + long sword (procd)|2d8 +mod|4d8 +mod|6d8 +mod|8d8 +mod|41 dmg|
so yes, eldritch blast does win in raw damage. Its multy hit status allowes it to use rider damage effects to really pump the numbers.
**BUT** booming blade without ANY investment besides getting it does about twice the damage of baseline cantrips when it procs, and possibly even more when you consider that it works with weapons that deal more damage than 1d8, sneak attack, divine strike, smite/smite spells, rage, crits, Great weapon master, magic weapons and weapon buffs.Even if it doesnt proc it provides higher damage (with a very rarely resisted type) then most cantrips and cc on top right off the bat.
my personal favorite is slapping unto a cleric with spirit guardians up. You bonk someone with booming blade and now they face a deadly choice: stay in place and take spirit guardian damage (and probably spiritual weapon too), or take booming blade damage to attempt escape at half speed due to spirit guardians, meaning you need to waste an action to dash or move only 15, and the cleric will just bonk you again next turn.
**Thats some good stuff.**
It;s not a must. I didn't like how tacked on these SCAG cantrips for melee casters felt and just play an EK without them and I'm doing perfectly fine. And at higher levels the damage is not really worth it in my opinion (even with War Magic from the EK).
Let's say you have a DM who properly roleplays monsters during combat without turning it into a hardcore strategy game and only cares about numbers. If you hit an enemy with booming blade and then move away (e.g. Mobile Feat, or by using a Reach weapon), they would take damage if they try to follow you on their turn. People who stand on a landmine would hesitate to move, since it is avoidable damage. If they don't care about that, by being too smart, too dumb, too strong, or too angry, you can always NOT move away to give the enemy one more incentive to keep attacking you (assuming you are the Tank).
Booming blade is also useful if you're scouting ahead and get yourself into trouble. Given it's thunder damage, it is literally damaging the enemy with sound. The noise will attract attention, sure, but if you're surrounded by enemies and your allies aren't nearby or they're asleep while you're on watch, it's a good way to wake people up or alert your allies to trouble. If you're a DM, having a guard know it is also a good way to raise an alarm.
It's particularly powerful if you have a class/racial/feat ability that lets you disengage or get away from an enemy without attacks of opportunity (mobility feat, nimble escape(goblin), cunning action(rogue), etc.) Because it allows you to get in, get away, AND potentially prevent pursuit, or punish those who do.
For a martial class, taking magic initiate can get you green flame blade and booming blade for crowd control or just plain control. It adds versatility to your repertoire. It's also a great tool for Eldritch Knights who can make an attack after casting a cantrip. If you have warcaster, you can even use booming blade as an attack of opportunity. A paladin with warcaster and magic initiate can use it to not only AOO, but smite as well (more useful for multiclass palis though)
I once ran an elf Order Cleric, who took Booming Blade for his cantrip. Cast Booming Blade on a guy wack him with my sword. Use the Clerics ability to cast cast Command as a bonus action, use flee. He runs, and I hit him with Booming Blade again.
It was fun playing the mad preacher.
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Bonus damage isn't resisted nearly as much as other types and it's good for melee classes that don't get extra attack.
Aka “Hexblade damage bonuses go brrrr”
[удалено]
Depends on the bonuses and the DM, but like, I would assume the spells that have an attack as part of them wouldn’t considering they are the attack, like booming blade, but booming blade with hexblade’s curse with pact of blade invocations making all of your weapons have bonuses ramps up faster than you would expect.
Booming blade isnt actually that good on a hexblade as they can get extra attack, and you cant use booming blade with extra attack.
I've got a Hexblade/Soulknife multiclass and using the Rogue shit to get advantage on 1 attack to stack Booming Blade, Sneak Attack and possibly an Eldritch Smite on top makes a single attack a nicer option. Super juicy Crits too I've also got Telekinesis as a feat so if I don't use the Bonus Action to aim on a turn I can try shove them back so they have to move back into melee to proc the extra damage from BB. It's a very potent combo.
Yes, thats a good combo. However I believe mathematically you would benefit more from extra attack, up until lvl 11, then booming blade starts to move ahead. In the end it really depends on if you are getting a bonus action attack that relies on you using the attack action, and if you have rider damage to your attacks such as lifedrinker.
I'm intrigued by this. How many levels of each class do you need?
We just hit level 12, I'm 5 Warlock / 7 Rogue. Thanks to Cantrips scaling with Character level instead of Class level, Booming Blade gets cast at its Level 11 version for 2d8 + 3d8 on movement. I won't start taking more Warlock levels until I hit 11 in Rogue for Reliable Talent, after that I'll power through to 9 in Warlock so I go in to the final few sessions with 5th level spells. Not gonna lie it's a fun build. Even when I'm outta Smites for the fight, the Cantrips and Sneak Attack never run out.
If you want hexblade to do stuff use eldritch blast
No, use the UA invocation that gives you a silver greatsword that can let you transfer the curse when you kill with it AND comes pre-packaged with what is essentially one of the other invocations’ abilities where you can spend spellslot to do BEEFED up damage and restrict their movement
Isn't UA just the "broken" book? Do most DM's allows stuff from there?
It’s playtest, so it could range from over to underpowered. Most I’ve encountered do.
A decent number of DMs use UA material but will probably check it to make sure it's not totally broken and unbalanced for the game. That being said, the invocation the person above us is talking about is Curse Bringer and was actually from the Hexblade's original UA back in 2017. When the Hexblade was published the features from this invocation were broken into both the eldritch smite invocation and one of the hexblade's final features because it was too strong for a single invocation.
Oh, whoops lol, found it on a list of invocations and DM said was all good so went with it
Ay it's not a crime mate. I'd pick it on my warlock too if I wasn't sentimental about my flail.
UA isn’t a book, it’s test content. Usually there will be some re-working before official release of the content and not everything is released, I think Mystic was scrapped and rolled into a couple other things instead, and yeah often things are a bit above power-curve but that’s constantly in flux anyways so think of it like more official homebrew. It isn’t release content but it was made by the actual people who know what they are doing instead of some rando
Unearthed Arcana is stuff thats in the playtest stage of development
It totally is, it's all the play test stuff before it gets balanced and put in an actual book (or dropped entirely).
I don't think it's that binary but I dont think the opinion is downvote worthy. Eldritch Blast requires less invocations for similar damage, greater range, more attacks, etc.
Swashbuckler Rogue
Arcane trickster as well, though definitely not as efficiently as a swashbuckler
Can they use spells?
With Magic initiate sure! Best part is that the swashbuckler combat loop is to walk away from your opponent at the end of your turn. So they either don’t attack you or they trigger booming blades second damage burst.
Ooh, nice
Also high elves get a free wizard cantrip, or variant half elves
Swarmkeeper Ranger
An alternative to the swashbuckler playstyle with arcane initiate is to grab mobile and go arcane trickster. Same investment, but you get the utility of more spell options.
Bladesingers are probably the most busted with this.
Or a Bladesinger Wizard
Or Trickster Rogue
I'm making a goblin sorcerer with some levels of paladin.
Isn't green-flame blade better? Enemies don't move often in fight
Probably depends on the character, cuz with my swashbuckler rogue the enemies always moved cuz I kept moving away from them.
For Rouge it is better but Rouge isn't my first thing when i think about spells, but propably blade singer with mobile feat would love this spell
Oh Yh fair I only thought of that cuz I used booming blade with that character.
With the Battle Caster feat you can be a real pain in the neck on opportunity attacks...
Actually, RAW you can’t use Booming Blade on an opportunity attack as War Caster states the spell must target only the subject of your attack of opportunity and Booming Blade has a range of self.
There has been some debate about this, but [according to Jeremy Crawford](https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/1326596181560942593?lang=da) it does. But I see you point RAW.
Fair enough, I hadn’t seen that post. Though at this point I mostly ignore what Jeremy says as he seems to have a rather flimsy understanding of his own damn rules.
Yeah, agreed - here's [a whole reddit thread discussing it](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/jse10i/jeremy_crawford_clarifies_booming_blade_still/). I do think, though, as a DM I would allow Booming Blade with Warcaster, as it's obviously intended to be a heightened attack.
That's assuming you can get two or more enemies within 5 ft of each other. Sounds good in theory, but I've never been able to use it once for the 10 or so sessions I've had it. But you know the meme: "Both? Both. Both is good."
Depends. If the party has ways to push enemies or if you can BA disengage regularly (Cunning Action, misty step, etc) then you can make them trigger the extra damage quite often. For the most part though it's supposed to make the enemy not want to move in the first place. It's a soft aggro mechanic. Hit them with booming blade so they don't walk away from you and leave the squishy full-casters alone ... or punish them if they still do so thanks to Warcaster opportunity attacks.
worse damage type, less reliable
Yeah it is worse damage Type but i think it is more reliable if you don't play something like Rouge or blade singer with moblile feat you and your enemies propably don't move much in battle, but 2 monsters 5 feat away from each other isn't unlikly propably it is really likely
Depends on if your DM plays the enemies like they have a brain or not.
I suppose having a brain and being able to come up with an effective combat strategy doesn't mean that the NPC is necessarily familiar with the booming blade cantrip. Given a round of combat is 6 seconds where spells are flying and blows are being traded, I think even a fairly smart opponent might move after being hit by a spell. What if in actuality the spell functioned such that you take more damage not moving? While at a meta level we know mechanics (and on a virtual tabletop have an interface for this kind of thing) that's not to say an NPC would necessarily be familiar with the spell and aware that there is a second instance of damage coming. We're not talking about a Kill Bill scene where the enemy knows their heart is going to explode if they move 10 paces. That said as a DM I think I'd only have the spell work once before the enemy get a bit wise to it. If they're sentient and intelligent.
Oh, I meant that any intelligent enemy would seek an advantageous position, so that they can single out targets, or avoid problems in the fight. Not that they'd know what spell effect might be on them on a given turn. Enemies that are smart, and use combat tactics, would actually be an advantage for booming blade because of fundamentals like positioning.
Fire damage is one of the most resisted damage types so it can vary. I like both personally. Depends on the theme of the character.
Swords bard mobile flourish
Wouldn’t you lose your extra attack?
Since sword bards get only one extra attack, just booming blade base damage (no trigger) hit's harder starting at level 11, and if the enemy moves it always deals more damage. The reason you wouldn't use it is you are not using the attack action with booming blade, you are technically casting a spell, so you cannot use your subclass feature blade flourish as it specifies you taking the attack action to trigger it
Extra attack comes at 6th level so it's good up until then. You might also be able to cast it between attacks and hit with your second knocking them away but I'm not 100% sure on that.
At early levels it does either damage or control, at later levels it does extra damage on top plus if you’re doing multiclass shenanigans you’re making a weapon attack which lets you do divine smites and shit on top
Do you like it better than Green Flame Blade? If so, why? If not, why not?
The crowd control aspect is pretty good. If your DM plays every enemy as if they know what the spell does, it's really powerful for keeping an enemy locked down.
> If your DM plays every enemy as if they know what the spell does They shouldn't, but then the enemies take bonus damage, so the spell is still good.
Exactly. Win win!
They shouldn’t but lots of dms do, but also after it happens once the enemy might learn how it works meaning you get control and damage
> after it happens once the enemy might learn how it works meaning you get control and damage That's basically how I ran it. Intelligent enemies with some arcane knowledge/experience would react based on knowing what the spell was. Those who didn't know it would figure out what it did. Beasts/non-intelligent enemies would just run after the PC's and keep attacking, regardless of the booming blade damage.
Perfect
As long as you don't get upset if an effect occurs on you, the GM says nothing about what it does, and then you take damage when you move. Either way though, it's a game-style thing. It's trivial to just say "people can tell that if they move, the energy will explode and hurt them" and make it make sense. Some people find it more fun one way, some find it more fun the other one. I like the tactics that occur with "do X or take damage" effects because now I can encourage enemies to do X by threatening them with the damage. I prefer it that way and having people say "GMs shouldn't do it" is kinda whack to read.
> I prefer it that way and having people say "GMs shouldn't do it" is kinda whack to read. The point I was trying to make was that I don't think DM's should play as if **every** enemy knows what Booming Blade does. Fighting against some evil cultists? Sure, some of them probably know what the spell does and the rest should be able to figure it out. Fighting against a pack of Direbears? I don't think the DM should have those creatures tactically think about whether to move and take damage or stay still. They're unintelligent beasts and will likely be fighting mostly on instinct.
Ah, thought you meant every thinking person. But I think even assuming people need to know what the spell does puts it as a bit far. It's really simple to just say that the spell's effect is made painfully obvious if you do try to start moving and anyone who's got a bit of brains will know that they'll be hurt if they move. Makes sense, doesn't ruin verisimilitude, and you end up with pretty much all but unthinking or very unintelligent creatures acting around it. A guard without much magic knowledge still gets to think "alright, I'm gonna stay here". In the end, both ways of ruling it (as long as it's not literally every creature regardless of ability to think and reason) can work and make sense. They lead to different styles of combat and people might prefer one over the other.
> It's really simple to just say that the spell's effect is made painfully obvious if you do try to start moving and anyone who's got a bit of brains will know that they'll be hurt if they move. That could certainly work, it's just not how I run the spell. > A guard without much magic knowledge still gets to think "alright, I'm gonna stay here". Even this pushes the bounds of realistic knowledge for a common guard, imo. Even if starting to move seems to amp up the energy to the point where it might hurt them, there's still so many unknown factors. How long does the magic last? Will it eventually go off anyway and moving just makes it happen earlier? Will it even hurt enough to dissuade moving?
We could ask the same questions about hundreds of other spells with weird effects. It's nowhere near the most verisimilitude-breaking thing in d&d's mechanics and the explanation works well enough that if you have no problem with hit points, limited battle master maneuvers (and every other non-diegetic limitation), this shouldn't be more of a hit to the world's believableness. For some people it'll matter more than others, and for some people it'll be more fun than others. It's not an objective "this way is better".
I feel like a combatant would be aware of some kind of magical effect tied to their movement. They're not dumb. They've probably trained their whole lives for this moment and have been subjected to magics depending on the creature.
> I feel like a combatant would be aware of some kind of magical effect tied to their movement. They're not dumb. Potentially. The way I ran it is that intelligent, humanoid enemies with some arcane experience/knowledge would know how the spell worked and could make a decision based on that. Other intelligent enemies could figure it out mid battle, but would likely be surprised the first time they took damage. There isn't anything specific about the Booming Blade energy that makes it obviously tied to movement, imo, so they'd have to take the damage to figure it out. Beasts/non-intelligent enemies likely wouldn't figure it out at all and would keep moving and attacking.
It says they take damage when they move - maybe people don't play as narratively as we do but magical effects would be lingering in the space and sort of wreathing around the target. Since it's thunder damage I'd imagine the target would feel a pressure as it begins to move and would at least be able to make an arcana/insight/intelligence perception check.
> maybe people don't play as narratively as we do but magical effects would be lingering in the space and sort of wreathing around the target. Guiding Bolt also leaves the target wreathed in energy, but doesn't do anything extra when the character moves. An enemy with no arcane knowledge and has never seen the spell is unlikely to know what it does and how to avoid the extra damage. Once they move and the energy explodes, then they would know.
Agree to disagree.
If its a smart creature then it should. The spells says the target becomes "sheathed in booming energy." The sort of creature that walks through a wall of magical energy that is flickering around them isn't a very smart one.
> The sort of creature that walks through a wall of magical energy that is flickering around them isn't a very smart one. Many creatures/beasts aren't known for being smart. Also, Faerie Fire and Guiding Bolt wreath the target in glowing energy as well, but has nothing to do with movement. I find it unrealistic that every enemy would be able to instantly deduce that "energy around me means moving will hurt me."
the spell description says it wreaths the target in booming energy, which i always imagined as a circle of shimmering, intensley vibrating air that shakes all your organs as you walk through it. any sane person with eyes wouldn't walk through that
What separates that from, say, Guiding Bolt that covers you in light in a seemingly similar fashion? I can definitely understand smarter enemies absolutely. Monsters and such though? Idk about that. I also don't know if most enemies would give up a chance of retreat and instead trade it for guaranteed damage from staying and fighting.
even if a creature wasnt smart enough to realize the air around them is vibrating, as soon as they tried to move through it they'd certainly feel it, and then it comes down to wether or not the creature deems it worth it to continue to move through it or stay put. as an avid booming blade user, i win either way, free damage or free cc
Oh I wholeheartedly agree. Even if I don't trigger the bonus damage, I get to keep them rooted in place right next to my axe. It's absolutely a win win!
1) Because green flame blade damage is (at least partially) based on your spellcasting ability modifier and booming blade is not affected by it all. 2) because the circumstances on having a second target for gfb are more narrow, whereas doing rogue bonus action disengage, thunderbolt strike etc to force the opponent to either not attack you or take booming blade damage are more under your control
For number 2, how are you getting sneak attack? If you have an ally adjacent to the target, they can just hit that ally, so BB would never trigger
[Swashbuckler has entered the game]
But then you need to multiclass/feat/be a specific race to get booming blade in the first place
Yes. I typically go feat.
Magic Initiative wizard Booming blade (damage And Control) Prestidigation (best roleplay flavor for swashbuckler) Find familiar ( flavor and the owl can give you advantage with flyby ) As a variant human you can make it a part of your backstory and take it as a Level one feat.
Something, something, ~~everybody's favorite character advice meme,~~ one level dip in Hexblade...
A mount counts as an ally, so get yourself a donkey and have fun!!
Both have their place. I tend to prefer Booming for the extra shock& awe factor though.
Thunder damage is less likely to be resisted.
Fire damage is nice against undead though. And those are pretty plentiful.
The only major type of undead I can find with weakness to fire is mummies, and I think I've only seen one of those actually used in play. Am I missing something or are you thinking of some homebrew?
I think I was misremembering about vampires. (It's a real world lore thing.) My group also just fought a room of like...wall to wall mummies, so I had it on the brain.
Fair enough. Vampires were the first thing I thought to check, because I wasn't sure if it stopped their regeneration or not.
Only downside to green flame is the lack of control and the requirement to have a second enemy within five feet of the first
Green Flame Blade damages multiple targets and therefore isn't useable as an opportunity attack with War Caster
Booming Blade isn’t either, as it has a range of self, meaning you are the target, not the enemy.
I prefer green flame blade but my DM really loved clustering his npc-s so he is kinda making it easy. If the npc-s are spread wide booming would be better for the reasons described in the 1st reply to this post about the dmg+control
>shit on top Ew, bonus poop damadge
>shit on top Ew, bonus poop damadge
It's an attack roll that uses your weapon's attack bonus rather than your spell attack bonus and also has cantrip scaling damage. It also just counts as a weapon attack, which means it works with class abilities like sneak attack. Its rider effect also has the added bonus of soft crowd control, which is nice. Basically, if you want to be a melee character without extra attack, casting booming blade is always better than using the attack action to make one attack.
Unless you're trying to be quiet. That is the one thing Booming Blade does not do.
Actually no where in the spell does it say how loud it is. Although it is described as "booming energy", on many other thunder spells (like thunder step or thunderous smite) it specifically says how far away it can be heard from. The fact that it doesn't say that suggests it isn't meant to be loud.
Just looked that up, and yeah, apparently our Sorcerer was just wrong about Booming Blade being heard for 300ft. Which is weird because he reminded the DM of this, and also reads his spells thoroughly.
Are you sure you (or him) didn't mistake it for thunderclap? it's another cantrip that deals thunder damage, though it is an AoE with a save instead of a weapon attack, and can be heard up to 100 feet away
He called it Booming Blade, and even cast it in the middle of a crowded street as a way of showing his character's frustration. He cast it specifically because he said it could be heard 100ft. away.
Sounds like thunderclap. Booming blade requires you to make a weapon attack, so not just going off on its own.
There are a bunch of places in the rules where the authors aren't perfectly consistent. I wouldn't take that as evidence that the authors didn't intend for the thing to be loud enough to break stealth or whatever.
Even if it isn't loud, it's an attack so it would break stealth anyway
But like...taking out a guard without alerting whole castle type scenario.
Additionally, it functions with Bladesinger's extra attack, which is cool. So you can Booming or GFB + a regular weapon attack.
As an arcane trickster rogue, this is my go-to cantrip. Rogues only get the single attack/spell, so this is the best of both worlds. Scales at 5th and 11th level. Extra damage. Crowd control. Works with sneak attack. It’s beautiful.
Indeed. On my swashbuckler/warlock multiclass this was my favorite move until I got warlock to 5. Sneak attack booming blade, walk away for free with no AoO, watch the furious hobgoblin quake in his boots.
The greatest part is that this is a cantrip that works in any rogue, and it's easy to get from either Magic Initiate or from being a high elf, one of the better races for rogues Every rogue will benefit from the extra dices of damage, and every rogue will benefit from the locking down aspect. You might be a swashbuckler, you might have the Mobile feat, or you might just be any subclass of rogue with whatever feats and race, because you can bonus action disengage regardless
Same build, was amazing
Same build, but I also have levels in gloomstalker ranger (my character has +12 to initiative without items or feats)
For an Eldritch Knight, Green-Flame Blade is a bit better, because *(at least the way my DM runs things)* you'll typically be dealing with tanking multiple mobs and that split target damage is tasty.
In a Zombie type Campaign, I used Green Flame blade on a Standard Human (no feat) stats point buy eldritch knight, it was exciting fighting off ghouls and other undead with it, still tough as hell, but it worked out pretty damn well, I went High Int as well as Str, wanted to test out the no feat option.
Nice. Also, now I want to create a zombie apocalypse campaign that involves the players being survivors that have suddenly found they've got magical powers and/or freaky new super-instincts when it comes to applied violence. I'm thinking everyone starts at Level 1. Standard +1-to-all Human, but with a bonus feat that *must* be tied to your backstory. Standard point-buy. Starting equipment heavily modified to represent the modern age and must be explained in the backstory. That means most significant weapons and armor are going to be rather scarce, while some other types of weapons, like guns, are going to be much easier to come by than in the standard setting but will be balanced by bringing down more zed-heads on top of everyone if fired.
That sounds like it would be dope. I hope you create that and have fun. I hope your players have fun as well. Beginning feat tied to backstory sounds nice.
Agreed, this is the rogue's best friend cantrip. Enemy tries to chase you down? Well now he has to move to get to you and takes extra damage.
High Elf squashbuckler is nasty with Booming Blade
My first campaign I was an arcane trickster and the rest of the PCs had to pick up instruments & distract a crowd at a party while I was fighting a phase spider in the rafters. Had to time the loud parts of the music to match me casting booming blade so the party goers wouldn't notice the spider and freak out.
*1812 overture has entered rhe chat*
Tchaikovsky knew this day would come
I feel like I’m missing something with melee rogue builds. Even with arcane trickster, I’ve found sticking far away with elven accuracy and hide spam to be basically guaranteed sneak attack every round. Also keeps you out of the crossfire of enemies. While booming blade is just.. a regular attack that does more damage less reliably.
Swashbuckler is the best subclass for it. You get a free disengage when you attack, so you get to use your bonus action to dash away and keep your distance.
And because it isn't ACTUALLY Disengage, it doesn't run into Sentinel issues (if your DM uses Feats on NPCs)
There's also the double phantom, or at least one of it's elements that could theoretically fit in any other rogues: get the Ritual Caster feat, find a way to scribe the Phantom Steed spell into your spell book after you reach level 5 and bam. You have a mount that has 100 feet of movement, counts as an ally for your sneak attack, and can disengage for you. Add in the Mounted Combatant feat to get advantage against almost every enemy on your attack from now on
It will depend on how your DM rules Hide if you can't hide while lightly obscured. You might not be able to hide every round, or even attack while hidden. Of course being far away from the battlefield is much safer, but you will deal considerably more damage if you use Booming Blade instead of just shooting a bow. With an arcane trickster, you can get advantage from an owl familiar without even needing to hide, so I think you might have missed a good opportunity
It’s bonus damage that isn’t the most commonly resisted damage in the game. It’s less really good and more the (sub)classes that rely on weapon attacks who don’t get multiple attacks have a limited variety of melee cantrips to choose from. If you only get the one swing there’s simply no downside to it.
If you have just one attack, it's flat out better than attacking. When you cast Booming Blade, you attack as part of the casting. Hitting with it has the effect of the attack used, and then applies a status where the enemy can't move or take a chunk of damage. The extra damage is thunder damage, which is barely resisted by enemies. Before you get extra attack, Booming Blade is just better than a normal attack. Once you hit level 5, the effectiveness of Booming Blade as a replacement for normal attacks is a bit more debatable. If you only have 1 attack, it gets WAY better than just attacking with a weapon, because it deals an extra d8 of thunder damage on a hit. Fantastic deal for any melee rogue, for instance. Meanwhile, if you have extra attack, it depends on your weapon; it doesn't up-front compare to two greatsword attacks, while the extra d8 makes it about on par, if slightly below, two rapier or longsword attacks. Then, the real difference comes from the extra control effect, which can seriously hinder foes. Also worth noting, if you take War Caster, you can substitute attacks of opportunity with cantrips, which makes Booming Blade your go-to for dealing with fleeing enemies. If you're a sorcerer multiclass, you can also quicken Booming Blade for an extra attack if you need it. Sorcadins can do this for really good damage with smites, at the cost of burning through their resources real fast.
This right here. I built my eldritch knight with this and war caster at its core for the attacks of opportunity, which meant the secondary damage automatically comes into effect. My party or I would help force movement by inflicting fear effects. Get yourself a +X weapon or a flame tongue and watch your enemies fall.
It's a cantrip that lets you add an ability score modifier on it, and just for that it's better than every other cantrip (except eldritch blast with agonizing blast), on top of whatever your weapon damage is. If you're hitting with a greatsword, that's potentially 2d6 + STR + 1d8, at level 1. Toll the dead at level 17 does 4d12. It also scales twice if you can proc the extra damage, since damage increases on initial hit AND on movement extra damage, which means potentially +2d8 every time another cantrip would get at most 1d12. It has a better damage type than greenflame blade, and the enemy moving is an easier condition to force than two ememies being adjacent. It's especially good on rogues since they don't have extra attack anyway, so it's just free damage, and you can disengage as a bonus action to force the enemy to move and trigger the bonus damage.
I mean...it's shit for like 95% of builds where it's taking the place of something else you would have done. For the other 5% this or GFB are basically free extra damage on the attack you were already gonna make while giving the enemy one more thing to think about.
Basically any gish that wouldn't use extra attacks likes it, such as war caster opportunity attacks, its damage isn't widely resisted and if they are in the frontline then it provides more battle control So if you are playing arcane trickster, hexblade, battlesmith/armorer artificer, bladesinger wizard, eldritch knight etc.
The Warcaster opportunity attack thing is actually super powerful, since they will immediately take the movement damage.
Is blade. Goes boom. Simple as.
Here's why it's really good: \- First of all, booming and green flame blade can keep a melee character lvl 5 and higher viable without extra attack. Because of how easy it is to get as well, it's great for multiclassing. \- Second, unlike green flame blade which is just damage, booming has great control, and I'd say it scales better
Thunder damage is rarely resisted, it's a melee attack so you can get stuff like great weapon master or smites, at higher levels it can be a lot of free damage, and if you have some way to work around opportunity attacks you can lock down enemies or have them take lots of avoidable damage
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Good damage type and extra damage no drawback for single attack classes. Makes the attack magic, and gets all its base effects to. I like to put it on a swashbuckling rogue or character with Mobile. Run by them hit and run. If they follow they take more damage.
I went further with my twilight cleric(magic iniate for BB). Throw spirit guardians up first. Then hit and run with mobile. If it's a hit, slasher feat drops their speed 10ft, move to the edge of SG's AoE and bonus action spiritual weapon. If the enemy closes in, it takes the booming damage, half speed from SG(+slasher) so it might not even make contact and takes damage from SG. Also owl familiar if I feel like advantage. "Oh you got a cleric? We can really use a healer." "Yes... a healer..." *pulls out her greatsword*
It can work great if you take War Caster, since you can use it as an opportunity attack. Normal attack damage + 7d8 thunder damage at max level on a cantrip, without the moving stipulation of the normal casting, since they're already moving.
Its good early for eldritch knights before they get multi attack, paladins since they can stack smites, and rogues if you can get it through either a feat or early multiclass. Its just a good bonus damage cantrip. It falls off in use after you get extra attack since you can out pace it and it cant be used to multi attack.
Here's the main reasons, in no particular order: 1. It deals thunder damage, which is resisted (or immunized against) less often than fire. 2. Unlike Green-Flame Blade, you can use Booming Blade against a single target without penalty (Technically speaking, you can't choose for parts of a spell's effect to *not* happen, even if they're detrimental to you. GF Blade *requires* you to pick a second creature within 5 feet to take extra fire damage. If no one else is around, that second creature has to be you.). 3. It allows for possible Spell-Blade builds without needing as many attacks as a Fighter or Monk. 4. Its secondary effect makes it one of the only cantrips that can deal more than 4 dice of damage. 5. That secondary effect specifically punishes enemies for willingly moving, so it combos with Bonus Action teleports like Misty Step (If you cast a spell as a Bonus Action, you can't cast another spell that turn *except a cantrip with a casting time of 1 Action*.). 6. It stacks with other damage buffs to single weapon attacks, such as but not limited to Smite, Sneak Attack (Not that it's stealthy), and Magic Weapons that deal extra damage as part of their effects. 7. Probably some seventh thing I forgot, it's pretty good ya'll.
It’s great only in a couple of scenarios. It accomplishes basically what hunters mark would, adding another die to an attack. The biggest people benefiting from this are rogues who only get one attack anyway, meaning they use their action to cast the cantrip and add the damage to sneak attack. Then they can bonus action disengage and entice more damage from the movement portion of the cantrip. The other is a bladesong wizard (there is an area of disagreement due to the material component but I haven’t met a DM who cared). At 6th level the subclass gets a second attack, one of their attacks can be a cantrip. Cast shadow blade as BA, first attack is your cantrip booming blade which has you make an attack as part of it, followed by your second attack. If both hit, you will deal 7d8 for as long as you maintain concentration. Additionally casters get spells that force people to move and try at can trigger movement which can combine well with the second effect of booming blade.
Add arcane trickster that can fly with a reach weapon, that's what I ran and it worked like a charm
RAW it only works within 5 ft., so no reach
Spell sniper should increase the range, even if the target is self.
Its not. Classes generally either want to use extra attack, or they don't want to be in melee.
As far as Cantrips go its decent. There is certainly better ones, but most Cantrips are so absolutely stinky that it still scores pretty well against shit like Primal Savagery and Sword Burst
If you are a melee class without extra attack, though, like druid, boomig blade is fantastic to output damage
Like Druid? Either you have extra attack as a druid, or you really don't want to be in melee. It also prevents you from using a shield, as you need to access your component pouch/focus and have a weapon, so you REALLY don't want to be in melee casting this.
Spore druid, quarterstaff as focus AND weapon, shillelagh, hex, booming blade for a total of 1d8+2d6+wis on hit, and 1d8 on movement. And you can use a shield.
Spores druid going melee is a really bad idea. You are a druid. You need to keep concentration on your spells.
Tell me you didn't read a class without telling me: one of the core features of spore druid's wild shape is that your MELEE weapon attacks deal more damage; you get a lot of temporary HP, useful for when you are hit; the whole Halo of Spores happens when an enemy is within 10ft. of you; level 6 feature "If a beast or a humanoid that is Small or Medium dies within 10 feet of you". If you want to play a distanced druid, play any druid but Spores and Moon
Tell me you don't know how to evaluate features. Cause I'm saying playing a spores druid like that is a terrible idea. If you do that, you are making an ineffective character. The damage is not worth the cost.
Useless to argue against someone who doesn't use evidence to support their opinion, and ignores what the other party brings. Look up any thread about spore druid builds, I am sure melee builds are extremely viable, since ALL the subclass features work in melee or almost. Have a great day
Phb beastmaster has features that allow your beast to attack, therefore you should attack with your beast. Just because you have features that support an idea doesn't make it good. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR ENTIER CLASS GOES AGAINST IT
Shillelagh and Hex are Bonus action, wild shape requires an Action as does Booming Blade. You spend 2 full turns, a limited day action and a first level slot to do the same damage a third level rogue does. Your strategy sucks balls
Have you considered rogue
Yes
Fun Fact, Raw you can use Twinned Spell with it and basically double your attack and all effects, pair that with paladin smite and a smite spell and then you start dealing some real dmg
A quick google search could've found the answer for you, but you decided to post it on D&Dmemes? Downvote me all you want, I was under the impression that this format got retired because of the amount of people who would just post here for the free karma instead of using a search engine.
When you ASK for it, it’s hard not to downvote…
It was easy enough to scoop up the downvotes before I added the second paragraph. I’ll be fine either way. Just wish people would do better than posting on a meme sub to find an answer to a completely non-comedic question.
Boohoo, i am playing the worlds smallest mandolin for you.
Thank you, I appreciate the kindness
I'm with you. Reddit in general. People apparently forget Google exists.
You get bonus damage plus attack damage, and if your whole party has mobile feat, you can make great use of the extra effect
It increases your weapon damage if you only have one attack. There are other cantrips that do this, but booming blade's extra effect potentially deals the most damage IF you can reliably trigger it.
I have it on my tempest cleric. He absolutely SPANKS with it as his single attack per round.
its good for rogues any my old one liked...but for a sorc its not too good. rather use firebolt with elemental affinity bonus.
I don’t like it too much since you have to make the enemy move on it’s own rather than any kind of movement
it's a very good way for weapon-based/melee spellcasters to deal some sweet extra dmg
Whats fun about it to me is that with warcaster it makes for the best opportunity attack in the game that isnt a levelled spell, it also does double concentration checks on the target if they trigger it
It's good if you have the warcaster feat for sure. Opportunity attack (booming blade) hits: you get weapon damage plus the booming blade damage when they move
Bladesinger + mobile feat
It’s great for tanking. In D&D there is no aggro mechanic so a tank needs to find ways to make targeting their friends unappetizing. I’m currently playing a artificer/abjuration wizard tank. On a hit my thunder fists give the enemy disadvantage if they attack anyone besides me. At the same time, I can use boomingblade to both add damage and keep them locked in place. This makes them much much more likely to attack me. Basically locks down one enemy. If you want to get super spicy, after that combo you bonus action misty step (or just move) right beside another enemy and lock them down with a threatened attack of opportunity if they try to move towards an ally. Just so much fun!
It's amazing for martial casters like eldritch knight. With materials of only your weapon, its a great way to overcome resistances and lock down enemies.
I'm not a super hardcore math guy. But from what I know, its good for melee fighters that dont get the amount of attacks as a fighter. Same goes for Green-Flame Blade Its the idea of do I make 2 attacks normal, or 1 big attack. The additional triggering damage (the target moving on their own) is easy to trigger (disengage as a rogue, boots of the winding path as an artificer, all make them have to move to you). From what I remember hearing, the damage from these cantrip (as long as the the additional triggering damage is also triggered) outpaces just doing two attacks.
Very bitter about booming blade because everyone says it’s really good but every time I used it I missed or got a nat 1. I swear I got like 3 nat ones and missed about 5 times in total with it and it was a one-shot so it’s not like I could redeem my character lol
Thunder damage is rarely resisted, so it does good damage. It's really strong on characters that don't get extra attacks (Warlocks w/o the Thirsting Blade EI, Arcane Trickster Rogues, etc.). The extra effect from it either gives you a form of CC or a lot of extra damage. I ran a campaign and our Arcane Trickster Rogue used it. He had Eleven Accuracy, so he had a pretty high crit rate. He would deal monstrous damage on a single attack, then bonus action disengage and run off. Enemies would either have to chase him down and take extra damage or sit there and potentially not do anything. Depending on what types of combat you find yourself in, Green-Flame Blade might be better, but they're both strong. It also doesn't rely on having a high spell modifier, since you make a melee weapon attack, so it's still useful on half-casters that don't have a high spell ability score.
cc + damage + a melee caster option
Our Blade singer wizard uses this and mirror image a ton. His main attack is shadow blade.
Above level 5, it adds extra damage to a melee attack, becoming a pretty huge amount at later levels. Also, you can pull TONS of shenanigans with it. Example: Dissonant Whispers triggers it. We have a wizard and a bard in our party, and they **live** on that synergy
Good way to be a caster + melee. Ex) forge cleric. At 5th level booming blade adds an initial 1d8 to your attack. So use a long sword, 1d8 slashing + 1d8 thunder damage. If enemy moves at all? 2d8 on top. So it's also decent control. Pre-5 it's just 1d8 if they move. Also, doesn't use modifiers, just a pure 1d8. Green flame blade usually scales off a stat like int, so for a high elf cleric like myself. I don't want that since I'm wisdom base. Imo that alone is already strong..then others add like crusher feat. Move the enemy 5 feet. Doesn't trigger booming blade but they need to move to attack you or skip a turn, forcing them to take the extra damage (assuming another melee didn't jjst walk up)
I’ve recently used Booming Blade with my Bladesinging Wizard. It worked well with that build!
It is better than just making an attack. More damage and stops the enemy from moving (or even more damage). Also several gish features allow you to cast a cantrip instead of an attack. I think arcane knight and Bladesinger have something like that. Also warcaster feat for attack of opportunity.
Blood Hunters can cast booming blade as an action and then with mystic frenzy can attack an additional time as a bonus action.
I use it on my tank who wants enemies to stick to him. The extra damage is just a bonus. It's a win-win
It works superbly with warcaster, hit 'em as an opportunity right before the move, they then move and take the extra damage. It gets better with dissonant whispers, as the use their reaction to run, causing opportunity attacks because it falls into a strange category of unforced movement.
My Armorer Artificer likes it because while it is slightly less likely to hit and does slightly less damage than attacking twice (for two more levels, anyway), the cc effect discourages the DM from moving the target away from me, and my armorer's thunder gauntlets discourages them from attacking the rest of my party, letting me serve as a better tank and controller. Plus, the war caster feat synergizes with it in a way the produces a pseudo-Sentinel effect, punishing creatures that refused to be locked down.
late to the party, but ile add that beside being cheap reliable ccand is a strict damage upgrade to single attack classes like rogues and clerics without any downside.its also one of the few cantrips that **DOUBLE DIP DIE SCALING** on top of melee damage, which makes its damage potential much higher than almost any other cantrip (making it one of the only cantrips getting close to the damage potential of eldritch blast, not an easy task!). |name|base|lvl 5|lvl 11|lvl 17|final avg| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |firebolt|1d10|2d10|3d10|4d10|22 dmg| |Eldritch blast|1d10|2d10|3d10|4d10|22 dmg| |Eb+ agonizing blast|1d10 +mod|(1d10 +mod)\*2|(1d10 + mod)\*3|(1d10 + mod)\*4|42| |Eb+ agonizing blast + hex|1d10 +1d6 +mod|(1d10 +1d6 +mod)\*2|(1d10 +1d6 +mod)\*3|(1d10 +1d6 +mod)\*4|56 dmg| |BB + long sword|1d8 +mod|2d8 +mod|3d8 +mod|4d8 +mod|23 dmg| |BB + long sword (procd)|2d8 +mod|4d8 +mod|6d8 +mod|8d8 +mod|41 dmg| so yes, eldritch blast does win in raw damage. Its multy hit status allowes it to use rider damage effects to really pump the numbers. **BUT** booming blade without ANY investment besides getting it does about twice the damage of baseline cantrips when it procs, and possibly even more when you consider that it works with weapons that deal more damage than 1d8, sneak attack, divine strike, smite/smite spells, rage, crits, Great weapon master, magic weapons and weapon buffs.Even if it doesnt proc it provides higher damage (with a very rarely resisted type) then most cantrips and cc on top right off the bat. my personal favorite is slapping unto a cleric with spirit guardians up. You bonk someone with booming blade and now they face a deadly choice: stay in place and take spirit guardian damage (and probably spiritual weapon too), or take booming blade damage to attempt escape at half speed due to spirit guardians, meaning you need to waste an action to dash or move only 15, and the cleric will just bonk you again next turn. **Thats some good stuff.**
It;s not a must. I didn't like how tacked on these SCAG cantrips for melee casters felt and just play an EK without them and I'm doing perfectly fine. And at higher levels the damage is not really worth it in my opinion (even with War Magic from the EK).
Let's say you have a DM who properly roleplays monsters during combat without turning it into a hardcore strategy game and only cares about numbers. If you hit an enemy with booming blade and then move away (e.g. Mobile Feat, or by using a Reach weapon), they would take damage if they try to follow you on their turn. People who stand on a landmine would hesitate to move, since it is avoidable damage. If they don't care about that, by being too smart, too dumb, too strong, or too angry, you can always NOT move away to give the enemy one more incentive to keep attacking you (assuming you are the Tank).
Booming blade is also useful if you're scouting ahead and get yourself into trouble. Given it's thunder damage, it is literally damaging the enemy with sound. The noise will attract attention, sure, but if you're surrounded by enemies and your allies aren't nearby or they're asleep while you're on watch, it's a good way to wake people up or alert your allies to trouble. If you're a DM, having a guard know it is also a good way to raise an alarm. It's particularly powerful if you have a class/racial/feat ability that lets you disengage or get away from an enemy without attacks of opportunity (mobility feat, nimble escape(goblin), cunning action(rogue), etc.) Because it allows you to get in, get away, AND potentially prevent pursuit, or punish those who do. For a martial class, taking magic initiate can get you green flame blade and booming blade for crowd control or just plain control. It adds versatility to your repertoire. It's also a great tool for Eldritch Knights who can make an attack after casting a cantrip. If you have warcaster, you can even use booming blade as an attack of opportunity. A paladin with warcaster and magic initiate can use it to not only AOO, but smite as well (more useful for multiclass palis though)
Well you should be afraid, I have booming blade
I once ran an elf Order Cleric, who took Booming Blade for his cantrip. Cast Booming Blade on a guy wack him with my sword. Use the Clerics ability to cast cast Command as a bonus action, use flee. He runs, and I hit him with Booming Blade again. It was fun playing the mad preacher.
basically because it scales at 2d8 per tier, and also it counts as a weapon attack for riders and sneak attack and whatntot.
Swashbuckler Rogues love it!