D&D 5E Why Green Flame Blade is Over Rated- And You Are Doing it Wrong.

[Yunru]

I've made them d12 cantrips in my games. After all, if you're going to be casting the best melee cantrip, it should do more damage than thr best ranged cantrip.

 

[RulesJD]

There are builds/classes that benefit from GFB significantly, notably Draconic (Fire) Sorcadins. Getting to drop your Charisma bonus to your 1 melee hit is pretty nice.

 

[gyor]

With quicken spell you can use Green Flame Blade multiple times in a turn.

With Warcaster you can also use it for opportunity attacks

 

[nswanson27]

Also the damage type versatility is not to be undervalued. Resistance to piecing damage sucks for a rogue otherwise.

 

[Yunru]

Also the damage type versatility is not to be undervalued. Resistance to piecing damage sucks for a rogue otherwise.

Because they have to switch to their Scimitar?

 

[rczarnec]

Because they have to switch to their Scimitar?

Which they don't have proficiency with.

 

[Ovarwa]

GFB: Smack something that's easy to hit. Automatically damage something that's hard to hit.

Something to be said for that.

 

[ccs]

I suspect the OP forgot that rogues get cunning action, and how not using an off-hand weapon frees up its use.

I'm sure he hasn't. But if you read enough of his posts it'll be clear that Zards obsessed with maximizing damage.
If whatever you're doing doesn't max damage? Then it's some sort of trap/not worth it.
BUT! If you do max that damage it becomes OP....

GFB and BB's problem is not necessarily with its damage (which is still a bit high considering it has a rider and it stacks on top of weapon damage), it is its weird progression. It falls into this weird niche where generally only characters with one attack like it; for some characters, the cantrips are a redundancy, but are no-brainers for other characters. That's bad design.

So it's bad design if an option is sub-par for one character I make but a great fit for another? ???

I play a 1/2ling with a str of 7. Does this make long swords bad design?

 

[ccs]

It's best for (I'd even say essential to take full advantage of) Eldritch Knights. It is your best attack at levels 1-4, excellent at levels 7-10, still the best choice at 11-16th level when used against multiple targets, and at levels 17-19 it is simply the best option. The only levels where it isn't much use to an Eldritch Knight are 5-6, and 20 (and even then it can rock against multiple targets). The rest of the time, if your Eldritch Knight isn't using it they are doing it wrong.

This is as stupid as the claims that EB is essential to warlocks.

Does GFB fit the character your playing? If so, use it. If not, use whatever does.

 

[Cognomen's Cassowary]

I found it pretty useful when my cleric/wizard was fighting a bodak he couldn't look directly at.