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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 7983988" data-attributes="member: 6988941">Rogues with Booming Blade are a very strong option, with Swashbuckler or the mobility feat it (circumstantially) becomes borderline broken. Suck it Paladin. The cantrip also goes up with character level if you ever want to multiclass (booming blade is basically my go to basis for low level multiclass builds as it means they get a big power boost at level 5 when all the non-multiclassers get their extra attacks or 3rd level magic and so you don't have to spend a level or two feeling underpowered).I almost always go offhand dagger myself when two-weaponing it, because you never know when you might need to do something with a little more range and if your table remotely enforces the official one free object interaction rule switching between two melee weapons and a ranged weapon is cumbersome. Also if you need to drop a weapon to do something with a free hand simple daggers are generally cheap and plentiful should you not recover it. Most my characters end up with 2-6 daggers because literally every class can use them and you will always eventually find the occasion.I've never played this particular build, but I have played an Arcane Trickster/Bladesinger Wizard with Mobility that heavily relied on your tactics and it was a very effective character. Now he brought a familiar, shadowblade, shield, absorb elements, bladesong, and misty stepping to the combat table, so there were definitely other things going on. But booming blade was the bread and butter and it was some tasty bread and butter. And that was with him having crap stats. A full on swashbuckler truly committed into making their blade boom with the best of them and being able to bring the accuracy of elves into the mix would be a sight to behold. And if you ever find yourself getting bored with the character mechanics just dip into Battlemaster Fighter or Sword Bard to spice things up.Several major Booming Blade caveats:1. I think you probably know this, but to be clear, you can't Booming Blade and make a bonus action offhand attack that turn, because you are not taking the attack action but the cast a spell action. This means you are committing to just one bite at the sneak attack apple. The value of offhand attacks for a Rogue is not in the single extra d4 or d6 of damage, but in doubling the chance of successfully laying down the Xd6 sneak attack damage. Now when your main attack is double advantage you probably want to go booming blade, but when you don't have advantage consider carefully, especially if there is reason to believe they aren't likely to move on the next turn and trigger that second set of thunder damage dice.2. The Booming Blade probably booms. Strict RAW doesn't say the spell makes noise per se but what makes noise in 5e is mostly a DM decision and the spell description talks about both "thunder damage" and "booming energy" both of which scream for a ruling of "this thing is loud". Rogue sneaky time and blade boomy time may not always play well together. In fact many DMs would make the cantrip a particularly good way to wake up every monster in next few rooms and bring down the hurt.3. Booming Blade's additional damage when they move only works if the DM moves them. Make sure you are on the same page as your DM about whether this is a world where everybody just knows "I've been booming bladed, better stand still", one where even animals sense "this movement is about to trigger thunder damage", one where people don't recognize it but learn from what you just did to their buddy, or one where enemies just blunder through everything. There's no right answer. If the DM is going to not move them then you've just gotten an awesome battlefield control ability, if they are then you are laying down extra damage. But if it is going to be your go to move then you want to make sure what your expectations should be.My only caveat about Swashbuckler is that getting sneak attack becomes so easy that when I played one I started getting sloppy about planning how to get it.</blockquote>

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