D&D 5E (2024) Abusing True Strike 2024

[Kobold Stew]

Shadowblade was fairly borked if you 5MWD.

Being in Xanathars limits its appeal though. Players are dimly aware it exists and don't tend to abuse it anyway as you have to mix it with SCAG which is kinda rare/obscure now. Tashas nerfed the combos.

Absolutely -- which is, I suspect at least in part, why it hasn't made it to 2024 yet.
My point is that its interaction with the 2024 True Strike is not ambiguous.

 

[ECMO3]

Except that you still need to make a strike with a weapon as part of the casting, so unless you have a weapon and a focus you couldn’t use a focus anyways.

Yes you could, same with Steel Wind Strike and Conjure Barrage, that is why the cost is in those spells as well even though the cost mechanic does nothing for the damage of those spells.

Having no price with a material component means you can replace the material component with a focus, including what you do with the component. You would just make your strike with your wand.

There is also a problem with a component pouch which RAW has all the components for your spells without a cost. So your component pouch would have a supply of weapons if a weapon was a material component without a cost in one of your spells.

This is 100% the reason costs are put in spells like the Balde Cantrips, Truestrike, Bless, Conjure Barrage, SWS etc - it is to keep you from using a spell focus or getting "free stuff" in your component pouch.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Shadow Blade.
Also excluded. It's a 2014 spell that hasn't been ported to 2024 yet. I totally understand, though, why it would be excluded, since it does so much more damage than any other finesse, light, or thrown weapon (to say nothing of the advantage).

Flame Blade.
Also excluded. This spell has been updated, and the blade requires a Magic action to use. That makes it incompatible with Casting True Strike. If they re-write the Shadow Blade for 2024, I suspect they would use this kind of wording.

Flame Blade in 5e was never a melee weapon that could be used for attacks, it only ever allowed the caster to make a specific spell attack every round. So there's no particular reason to think that an updated Shadow Blade will follow the Flame Blade pattern, unless it's a deliberate nerf to make the spell useless for gishes.

 

[Kobold Stew]

We will see!