D&D 5E Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade Nerfed in TCoE

[Charlaquin]

I wonder if the cost on the weapon is just intended to make the "weapon used as a component" not be elided by a component pouch.

I think it’s more likely intended specifically to prevent using the spells with shadow blade (natural weapons are just collateral damage). Note that Shadow Blade didn’t exist when the spells were first written, and it is not currently possible to access both with PHB+1.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The cantrips from SCAG are very powerful considering that they, at face value, can be used by any '1-attack' warrior to gain a respectable damage increase. And ontop of that the modifying factors mentioned above come into play. We all know that booming blade and green-flame blade are ported over from 4E's Swordmage. I think they were inserted into 5E as an addendum to the bladesinger, which is a little strange since the eldritch knight seems more like the swordmage of old, than the bladesinger does.

The new rule changes ties the cantrips even more to bladesingers, strengthening that design choice.

It is what it is, I suppose. Both cantrips still play a role for all 'weaker' melee characters (such as a cleric, wanting to have a decent melee attack) that looks to to add to their melee output through the Magic Initiate feat.

They’re actually direct ports of the at Will powers of the 4e Bladesinger, which is a Wizard.

 

[Don Durito]

They’re actually direct ports of the at Will powers of the 4e Bladesinger, which is a Wizard.

Are you sure? I'm pretty certain they were Swordmage powers.

 

[cbwjm]

Are you sure? I'm pretty certain they were Swordmage powers.

They were. Likely reprinted for the 4e bladesinger though.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Are you sure? I'm pretty certain they were Swordmage powers.

Green Flame Blade at least was a Bladesinger power that was used with a melee basic attack.

 

[Shardstone]

These Crawford tweets are killer. What's going on at WotC?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Green Flame Blade at least was a Bladesinger power that was used with a melee basic attack.

Hmm. Never mind. The style of them is definitely closer to the Bladesinger at wills than the swordmage at wills, though.

They were all extra effects you could put on a melee basic attack. Pretty fun to use. Just failed to deliver on the rest of the class.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I just realized that this also makes it so you can't use Shadow Blade, Flame Blade, or some weapons that come from class features with the Blade cantrips.

This has always been the case. The thing about material components is they have to be, you know material....

Flame Blade is a melee spell attack in any case. I can't think why anyone would suppose it could be used to make a melee weapon attack.

 

[Leatherhead]

This has always been the case. The thing about material components is they have to be, you know material

You used to be able to get around that by using a focus and a weapon.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You used to be able to get around that by using a focus and a weapon.

And this is a patch to fix that unintended exploit.

But you could never, ever, use it with Flame Blade spell.