Repelling blast

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Paul MacArthur

First Post

• May 12, 2019

• #1

My dm has ruled that repelling blast pushes a creature up to 10 feet away from you a distance of up to 10 feet. I read the description as meaning any target of my eldritch blast (within range of my cantrip) gets pushed 10 feet away when it hits. Am I reading this incorrectly?

 

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DEFCON 1

Legend

Supporter

• May 12, 2019

• #2

No, you are correct. Repelling Blast modifies your Eldritch Blast. Your Eldritch Blast does all its normal functions, and then in addition, you can push people back since you modified it with Repelling Blast.

 

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Paul MacArthur

First Post

• May 12, 2019

• #3

I think where we're getting hung up though is on the wording. "You push the creature up to ten feet away from you". I totally understand where he's coming from. It could mean that the push only afffects a creature that is up to 10' away from you or it could mean that it pushes a creature that is hit 10' away from you. It has a big impact though on the mechanics of the cantrip.. especially where at close distances eb is at a disadvantage. And also could impact the stacking of those pushes as more beams are added at level 5

 

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Paul MacArthur

First Post

• May 12, 2019

• #4

If the only intent of the invocation is to push away creatures that are close to you it seems to make it a much weaker addition since youd only be able to use it at a disadvantage

 

DEFCON 1

Legend

Supporter

• May 12, 2019

• #5

Paul MacArthur said:

I think where we're getting hung up though is on the wording. "You push the creature up to ten feet away from you". I totally understand where he's coming from. It could mean that the push only afffects a creature that is up to 10' away from you or it could mean that it pushes a creature that is hit 10' away from you. It has a big impact though on the mechanics of the cantrip.. especially where at close distances eb is at a disadvantage. And also could impact the stacking of those pushes as more beams are added at level 5

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The invocation would be missing a clause if "up to ten feet away from you" was meant to describe the location of the creature. It'd be telling you to push the creature but now doesn't tell you how far it got pushed. Does the DM really think the game designers would write the invocation so poorly if that was the case?

If there was meant to be a positional aspect to the target creature, it would be written "If the target of your Eldritch Blast is within ten feet of you, you may push that creature up to 10 feet away from you." The fact that it only references one distance tells us that its for the distance of the push (and that the target's distance has already been determined-- it is the range of the spell for which this invocation modifies.)

 

jgsugden

Legend

• May 12, 2019

• #6

Your DM's interpretation seems to be rare, if not unique, in the community. Most DMs rule it the way you see it, although the wording is ambiguous. At higher levels, it is one of the most powerful invocations as you can end up pushing a creature 40 - or even 80 - feet away.

 

Salthorae

Imperial Mountain Dew Taster

• May 13, 2019

• #7

I’ve house ruled it in my games to be like Grasp of Hadar because I don’t like the almost “must have” of Repelling Blast at higher levels.

At least in our games it has been a must have at normal levels.

To the OP, I agree with your reading. I’ve never seen that interpretation of your DM before, but now that it’s been said, I can understand how it can be read that way.

 

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Shiroiken

Legend

• May 13, 2019

• #8

I believe your interpretation is the Rules as Intended, and is probably the most commonly viewed interpretation. However, technically your DM has the final say, and if he insists on keeping his interpretation, ask if you can switch the invocation for something else, since you interpreted it differently. Assuming he's not a jerk, you can find something else that should be more useful for you.

 

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Paul MacArthur

First Post

• May 13, 2019

• #9

Yeah, he's not a jerk. Think I definitely will be switching. It justweakens the whole cantrip with it functioning that way.

 

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Larrin

Entropic Good

• May 13, 2019

• #10

If the feature was stating the range at which it acted at it would say "You may push a creature within 10ft of you". The game rules are fairly consistent at using the word "within" when talking about range. You always target or affect things "within" your range, never "up to" your range.

 

Last edited: May 13, 2019