What's so good about the "blade" cantrips?

[smbakeresq]

They can also be useful for classes which might be able to get bonus damage based on elemental affinities. Draconic Sorcerer, Celestial Warlock, and so on.



Except that the enemy can choose to stop at any time, including after being hit by the OA, and thus not take the damage. This could backfire if you're a class which doesn't necessarily want the enemy to stop and do a full attack in front of you. Just something to be aware of.

Correct. Most DMs won’t take an OA unless they are forced into it through something, they will play enemies far smarter and with total knowledge of the PC abilities then the creature would be.

 

[mikal768]

Correct. Most DMs won’t take an OA unless they are forced into it through something, they will play enemies far smarter and with total knowledge of the PC abilities then the creature would be.

Unfortunately true, and a matter of different discussion. I try not to do so when running a game, unless the NPC would logically know what was about to occur (Has seen it before, has used it before, has had it used on them before etc.)

 

[Mike Myler]

I've been opening up combats with my 6th level paladin 2/eldritch knight 4 by going GFB with a 2nd-level smite and spending his bonus for the blanked 1d4 radiant damage spell. He can action surge too. It's becoming an issue so I am retiring Murtaugh but blade spells + smite = horror.

 

[mikal768]

I've been opening up combats with my 6th level paladin 2/eldritch knight 4 by going GFB with a 2nd-level smite and spending his bonus for the blanked 1d4 radiant damage spell. He can action surge too. It's becoming an issue so I am retiring Murtaugh but blade spells + smite = horror.

Well sure if the majority of your adventuring days consist of fighting single or a couple large beasties. Against swarms... not so much.

 

[Mike Myler]

Combat in the last session began with him walking out to pop a 75 damage crit (because there's a divination specialist wizard that rolled well for portent, so yay auto-crit). It was 8d8 magical slashing + 4d8 fire + 5 + 2d4 radiant (plus 1 ancillary fire damage). Even sans-crit that could have been 6d8+1d4 less, but even so, action surge to make another 4d8+2d8+5+1d4 attack. I'm fairly certain that like the big bad NPC he'd tricked his way close to (and the many dead NPCs of his past), any standard swarm is going to die even with damage resistance. None of this is with magic items or anything either, just an (accidental) abuse of a subclass and the multiclassing spell list.

Dude's getting retired because ^^^ is not fun for the GM. Replacing him with a drunken monk.

 

[mikal768]

By swarms I mean groups of enemies vs. a single target. Yeah... 75 damage crits are great against single targets.
Not so much when you're facing 10-20 opponents at once. Or if you have say, the standard number of encounters in an adventuring day.

 

[Mike Myler]

Lol we were facing about 20 NPCs, about 2/3rds of which were zombies. The ultra round is indeed something he can only do once, and after another three smites he's doing acceptable damage, but even one round where you can explode like that is hugely problematic.

 

[mikal768]

Lol we were facing about 20 NPCs, about 2/3rds of which were zombies. The ultra round is indeed something he can only do once, and after another three smites he's doing acceptable damage, but even one round where you can explode like that is hugely problematic.

Not really. Most DMs can plan around that in game if needed, especially if you're at the level where you're able to do that and the NPC would know to plan accordingly (if said NPC had the ability to do so)...
Even though you can do it 1-4 times a day, you're still not doing as much damage as a dedicated blaster Wiz/Sorc can, so if you're hugely problematic, than those types of characters must simply be catastrophic.

 

[smbakeresq]

Combat in the last session began with him walking out to pop a 75 damage crit (because there's a divination specialist wizard that rolled well for portent, so yay auto-crit). It was 8d8 magical slashing + 4d8 fire + 5 + 2d4 radiant (plus 1 ancillary fire damage). Even sans-crit that could have been 6d8+1d4 less, but even so, action surge to make another 4d8+2d8+5+1d4 attack. I'm fairly certain that like the big bad NPC he'd tricked his way close to (and the many dead NPCs of his past), any standard swarm is going to die even with damage resistance. None of this is with magic items or anything either, just an (accidental) abuse of a subclass and the multiclassing spell list.

Dude's getting retired because ^^^ is not fun for the GM. Replacing him with a drunken monk.

It wouldn’t be slashing, that’s just the weapon damage. The smite is radiant damage right? The booming blade is thunder, it would be 1d8 at that level so 2d8. At level 6 it would be 2x weapon + 4d8 radiant (2nd level spell for smite) + ability + 2 d8 thunder for BB.

 

[Lillika]

These Blade cantrips can also utilize Shadow Blade from XAGE. I just made a post about the great synergy with a sorcerer who can twin BB and Quicken GFB, for 3 very strong attacks in a turn.