Should you use Booming Blade or Extra Attack? D&D5e
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
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0:00 Intro
1:35 Booming Blade
6:40 Level 5
11:20 Level 11
14:58 Level 17
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I feel like Eldritch knights should get the extra attack feature that bladesinger's get. They can replace one of their attacks with a cantrip.
Yep absolutely agree. That subclass is fairly weak and this would have been a nice little bump to throw it’s way.
Yeah War Magic feels like a waste once you get your third attack.
I guess the idea there is that bladesingers are limited in their weapon options, whereas eldritch knights can use heavy weapons and such and take advantage of GWM and stuff like that. Regardless I think that wizard spellcasting more than makes up the difference so I'm in full support of the idea.
if we are lucky, maybe in 5.5... let's remember the original bladesinger in SWAG didn't had it neither. It's a brand new idea from the team in Tasha.
I really hope that in 5.5 they revise the original race, class and subclass and improved them using what they learned with Tasha, Fizban and monster of the multiverse
Dragon sorcerer with 10 extra spell, able to transmuste them for free to the dragon ancestor (similar to the Abberant mind casting it's psionic spell subtlely) elemental type would be awesome and all those sorcerer points heavy ability being useable profiency number per long rest would also greatly help the sorcerer
Yes, this is a genius idea, gonna put this ina revised version of the class where most of everything is the same except for that one change
For me booming blade shines the brightest for rogues, which makes sense, no extra attack.
It does wonders for your damage, but watch out for your survivability. A rogue that sticks around in melee too much can easily become a dead rogue.
Swashbuckler + booming blade
"Of course things like mirror image, shield and disengage certainly help" says my Arcane Trickster/Warlock.
It's feels somewhat dirty if truth be told. :)
If you feel confident that your one and only attack a round will hit, the it’s great, but in situations where you’re not sure booming blade damage is not a good replacement for TWF to try and secure that sneak attack damage for the turn.
@@jonathanwynes2542 Yeah for sure. It depends on other things and I don't use BB every round.
If I have hex 1d6 up I'm less likely to. It helps that the character has a magic dagger that gives an extra 1d6 psychic damage as well. So 5d6 damage every hit is common since I'm usually 1 square behind our Paladin and Forge Cleric. 😆
BB is just to make the DM cry 🤣
Paladin’s extra attack DOES scale at 11, though, just not in the same way. Improved Divine Smite is adding to each attack, so you get more from it with 2 attacks than from 1 booming blade.
Throw in a few levels of Sorc, and Quicken that Booming Blade into a BA for a 3rd attack
One big sticking point is just the fact that if you attack twice, you're more likely to hit at least once vs. a single attack with Booming Blade. Mediocre damage is always better than no damage.
But my favorite use of Booming Blade is having it on a Cleric once they get their Divine Strike feature, because then you have an extra 1d8 of damage scaling every three levels from 5-17. I think that can be fun if you have a Cleric you like to take into battle, want to conserve spell slots, and want something more interesting to do than Toll the Dead. But Booming Blade in general is just better for characters who will never get Extra Attack.
It should be noted that the first point is a bit of a two sided coin. Yes, two attacks means you are more likely to do at least some damage, but it also means you need to succeed twice to get full damage, vs BB's only 1 required success. So BB has a more favorable chance when it comes to all or nothing, while attack normally has more consistent performance in the long term with a lower ceiling
I wonder if there is a build here where using compelled duel would increase the odds of success at getting the extra damage to apply...
@@TheProgenitor Yes, and the more your chance to hit goes up, the lower your chance of doing 0 damage. But conversely, the more attacks you make the less likely it is that you do full damage.
5:43 Imagine if the Cleric was the one with both BB + Spirit Guardians, damage fleeing or staying.
I have a tempest cleric thats recently reached 5th level. Once 8th comes around that divine strike dmg + booming blade (from aberrant dragon mark) is just do nice, especially if i take pole arm master as well
My favorite thing to do as a bladesinger: here’s a flame sphere! Here’s an attack and booming blade! You want another 2d6 fire damage or the 1d8 thunder damage?
The best kind of choice for the enemy: lose / lose!
The point of Booming Blade is to lock down an enemy and prevent its movement, not to cause additional secondary damage.
If your Booming Blade forces a creature to waste its action staying put and dodging, rather than attacking, you've done well.
Yeah I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned in the video. The cantrip is for tanking. You want to punish it for attacking someone else. Damage doesn't make a tank, if anything it might encourage moving to attack your sorcerer nearby. This can be really reinforced if someone else has create bonfire with your booming blade.
I feel like no one mentions Booming Blade is a freaking weird spell. Thunder damage can be weird to visualize already. Having precise sound flow through a blade, then patiently wait for a turn and intelligently decide if the target moved willing or not. That is some Far Realms shit right there.
I much prefer the aethestics of Green Flame Blade. Stab somewhere with a sword wreathed in flames, then sling the excess off at somebody nearby. (I know that's not how the spell describes it, but it's easy to head cannon without changing the mechanics).
To explain the initial damage when one of my character used booming blade I made a small bit of flavour text. This character use sound to make their sword vibrate allowing it to rip through targets better.
Edit: no explanation for the secondary damage, it kinda just happens.
I always imagined it as raw magic charged into your weapon that explodes on impact. The magic bursts out into a 5-foot wide forcefield and if they touch it from the inside, it implodes on them. If they get pushed through, they're pushed too quickly for the spell, and it implodes in itself after they're out of harms way. Still jank tho
I like to think of it as almost a sort of brown note or tiger's roar type of thing. There's this sonic disruption ripping through their body and they to take a second to let it pass through them. If they don't, then it'll throw the sound into chaos and set their organs bouncing around inside of them.
I had a hexblade bladelock (previously GOO), that had dissonant whispers and booming blade, along with warcaster. Booming blade for AoO, then dissonant whispers in my turn to force them to move.
I themed it as howling wraiths that I channelled through my weapon with booming blade, then mentally tore out of the targets’ mind with my whispers. That visual of the wailing shadows clinging to the victim, tearing into their mind, was really cool, I thought.
@@DrakusLuthos I'm pretty sure that doesn't work. Booming blade requires willing movement, while dissonant whispers forces movement.
100% agree that a 50/50 chance to proc the extra damage is optimistic. Using booming blade on a sort of melee druid build has been pretty frustrating, in truth. I thought I made the *perfect* booming blade build... shillelagh for max hit accuracy, crusher to guarantee the secondary effect. Hit em, push em 5 feet away, leave them helpless. And if that wasn't enough, park a flaming sphere next to them! Use Summon Fey to dunk a cube of darkness on them! I had *every* tool at my disposal to maximize the damage of booming blade... I even considered taking polearm master, war caster and three levels of Swarmkeeper ranger to push the concept to it's limit and do it all twice a round.
But in the end, it's just not as practical as I had hoped. It doesn't matter how far away you knock them back if a melee ally parks themselves beside the enemy next turn. Even if the initiative order works out and the ally goes first there's only so many places to push the enemy. And every level you progress enemies will have greater movement, reach and an ever-growing arsenal of tools the DM can tap into to avoid dealing with the bind you've supposedly put them in with the booming energy...
To me, booming blade damage is as dependent on your party and even the battle map design as it is on your build. You can negate some of the party dependency by breaking off from the party's main target and 1-v-1'ing a different target but that's usually suboptimal.
Forced movement doesnt trigger the secundary dmg of BB
It depends on tactics and your DM. If you hit a melee enemy with BB and then move (without OA due to Mobile feat) just out of range, I would expect the DM to justify why the enemy doesn’t chase my character. If there isn’t a really good reason, then the DM is metagaming, at least for the first application of BB. I would at least expect a clever enemy to have to roll a wisdom, arcana, or insight check to suspect that moving isn’t a good idea.
These kinds of video are seriously, really really helpful. Keep the good work!
This video was the exact thing I needed to make up my mind on my character build. Thank you!
I know this video is a year old, but it's subject is relevant to my new character. It's why I'm here now, but I just realized that I've been coming to your channel for at LEAST a couple years now without subscribing! Thanks for your in depth work on these ideas and builds, but more importantly thank you for doing the math!!
Very good and educational video. Thank you for the detailed explanation.
Topics like this always make me wish I were better at charts, graphing, and maybe calculus. Convenient, specific topic video of a ~perfect~ length given its subject.
I agree with your conclusions, in general, but I feel like you kind of half-assed the math on this one. You didn’t account for the penalty to hit with Great Weapon Master, which, unlike the regular calculations, doesn’t actually equal out when using BB. You also didn’t add Improved Divine Smite to your Paladin example.
Again, I believe your conclusions are mostly valid, but you usually work the math a bit better.
Edit: I hope this didn’t come off as dickish. I really like your videos and I think you usually do an excellent job providing good math for things that can’t easily be quantified. I just feel like maybe you rushed this one, a bit.
No, that's a fair criticism. I started out the math not taking GWM into account so I figured accounting for chance to hit was pointless math because it was the same chance, but once GWM was on the table I should have accounted for it.
I was also thinking on that, but It seamed like picking, since the reasoning behind It makes sense, at lvl 17 with bonus action it is almost Double dmg, even If you add the decreased atk chance It wont hold. And to be honest what melee character at lvl 17 is doing dmg so low? Imo BB is Just a remedy to casters being able to contribute in weapon dmg somehow, unless you have very specific builds
I had the same thought like I rarely try to follow DPR type math since it's complicated and also seems to assume a lot of factors that can be variable, but you're absolutely right that these things were off and a bit unfair not taking into account the penalty with GWM or the extra damage from Improved Divine Smite. So good calls. Also wondering how your comment says you posted it three weeks ago if the video came out today.
@@TheBucketOfTruth if you support Treantmonk on Patreon, you get to see some of his videos early. :)
@@theresnoracelikegnome Yeah I figured it might be something like that but yours was the only top comment that wasn't 2 hours old at the time so I had to ask.
I use booming blade as a form of crowd control, I'm less concerned about the damage, and more about keeping enemies in place
It hurts that booming blade (or GFB) is the only way to make a melee cleric really work (lack of extra attack)
It makes the decision easy I guess.
I made one a melee cleric build without it. Mark of Making human can provide Elemental Weapon spell to a Tempest Cleric. Logically, the weapon damage occurs before added elemental damage, so, when you hit with the quarterstaff, you can use Crusher to knock them 5 ft up, then use Thunderous Strike to push them diagonally in the air 10 ft with no save. They fall, take 1d6 damage, and are prone. Prone is a great debuff to give, even if it the damage is crud and it eats concentration. Once you have Polearm Master, you can do this twice per turn, plus an additional time whenever you are approached.
I agree and I'd like to be able to play a melee Cleric but y'know...they're arguably the second best caster class in the game to begin with. Clerics get some really good stuff with their subclasses to begin with.
I always defaulted to just saying "on-hit effects", and those include pretty much everything. Hunters mark, giants might, gathering swarm, hexblade curse, geenies wrath, enlarge, flametongue, magical bonuses and your strenght/dexterity modifier.
If they happen on every hit, just that additional bonus can be more than the scaled damage and the secondary damage added together. Just something as simple as increasing your strenght can make extra attack more worth it.
If you have things that only happen once (geenies wrath, giants might, swarmkeeper), it becomesa question of hit%. Do you feel lucky enough that you can hit once, or do you believe you will need 2 attacks for it?
If you have effects that only help you with 1 attack (guiding bolt advantage), BB gets more weight.
So many people conflate things that provoke opportunity attacks and "willing" movement. I'm glad you took the time to iron that out here.
A few combos I like:
- Rogue : Booming Blade + Cunning Action
- Cleric : Booming Blade + Spirit Guardians -> If the target moves..Bam, if it doesn't Boom !
- Eldritch Knight (lvl7) or Bladesinger (lvl6): Attack + Booming Blade + Crusher Feat -> Attack then Boom the target and move it 5 feet away
- Various (1 attack): Warcaster + Dissonant Whisper + Booming Blade (Better with a rogue that got access to DW spell as it can also sneak)
A full level 20 Eldritch Knight + Feats can spam both Blooming Blade and Green Flame very consistently. On top of Lesser War Magic and Eldritch Strike being used in each melee attack from the two spells. While Booming Blade carries over to the Lesser War Magic.
Then Warcaster up Green Flame... For the entire turn order, Blooming and Green Flame will be active with Adv sprinkled here and there. And extra attack with Booming Blade + Action Surge or Booming + Action Surge Green Flame are great options.
Just remember to Shove/Prone and Grapple (and use Dual Wielder) for extra stuff.
This advice lines up pretty well with my experience playing multiclass paladins. Even support builds that don't optimize for damage at all (shield > heavy weapon, cha > str, warcaster/sentinel/alert/inspiring leader > gwm/pam, etc), extra attack still wins out over booming blade or gfb when you factor in magic weapons, improved divine smite, the option for divine smite, etc.
It does help smooth over the added wait for extra attack on multiclass dips, though, and can stay relevant even at later levels when combined with war caster to use on opportunity attacks if a build doesn't have room for sentinel.
Very useful information, thank you. I have been contemplating taking my Psi Warrior a couple levels into wizard and was trying to decide if I wanted extra attack or booming blade first. I might just stick with my current class and use feats to get spells.
I love my Arcane Trickster with Elven Accuracy and Booming Blade! No extra attack to choose from but still fantastic damage and chance to hit and definitely getting the extra damage more than 50% of the time.
Find familiar help action, run in BB with super high accuracy against a foe that isnt next to another party member, bonus action disengage. :)
Feels like the best Booming Blade candidate honestly.
Awesome video. I love booming blade, but as I've played more D&D 5E, I generally use it now on bladesingers and warcasters, where its primary damage is worth taking that Cantrip. It's REALLY difficult to get that secondary damage in our campaigns because we usually focus-fire kill a monster before it thinks to flee. You have to have party buy-in on all skirmishers or ranged to get that secondary damage reliably. I love your optimism of 50%. I feel like it's 5 - 10% for the campaigns I play in.
One point that Chris overlooked, that I feel is relevant. If you're building a "tank" character that is intended to front line and prevent enemy mobility... than combining Sentinel and Booming Blade will allow you to prevent / deter movement of 2 enemies rather than 1. Simply Booming Blade one, so that IF they move they take bonus damage, and rely on Sentinel to stop / deter another. Granted, any subsequent enemies COULD move past you, but no build is perfect. I think if preventing movement with BB is going to save lives or reduce the total damage the party takes, then it is probably worth using over extra attack.
Damage now is almost always better than damage later, but if the party doesn't take damage at all... it doesn't matter how long the fight lasts. If you prevent their movement, and they can't consistently hit you... you win.
Lv20 Warforged Eldritch Knight Unarmed Fighting Style - With Dual Wielder/Warcaster/Polarm Master/Sentinel/Mage Slayer/Magic Initiate/Eldritch Initiate. Plus a bunch of 4th Level and below Illusion Spells on top of Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade... ... ... "Sorry, I forgot to turn off my theme song, Burry the Light."
Thanks! Sometimes the answer is obvious, but other times...I appreciate your taking the time to crunch the numbers... though I'd think secondary damage about 35% of the time (for attacks made on your own turn)...which just reinforces your basic conclusion.
I actually think this is an occasion where averages don’t really work that well. There are several situations where whether you get that damage or not is going to make the difference in whether you choose to use BB. I think it might have been more useful to show both numbers and say, “If you think you’re going to get the extra damage, you should use it here, if not then don’t use it.” Because I think you’re right; the average is probably lower than 50%, but most of the time, in actual play, you’ll know whether or not you’re likely to get it.
This actually illustrates a change that should be made to D&D in general:
Weapon attacks (normal/magical/natural) base damage should scale like cantrips do with character tier. This would greatly diminish the gap between martial and casters which grows with as levels go higher. The standard would become 1d4/2d4/3d4/4d4 at 1/5/11/17 for a dagger, which for most classes will be two attacks with extra attack and perhaps a bonus attack. The class which benefits most from this will be pure fighter as they could get four 8d6 attacks for a spread of 0-4-48 base damage (all misses, all hits minimum, all hits maximum) for a "bounded accuracy" average of 16.8 base damage per round at 20th level, still a far cry from the potential a caster can do with leveled spells, but on par with hit or miss cantrips cast at this level and on the same level as a Warlock Agonizing Blast for any d8-2d12 weapon.
Thanks Chris
Great video. I do think not taking into account to hit percentages has a bit of an effect on this. For example, it would add in the loss to hit from Great Weapon Master. Another aspect, that you can't really account for with stats but I think is important, is advantage. There are lots of ways you might have advantage on your first attack but not others, which boosts booming blade, but then if you have advantage on all attacks extra attack looks better. It's definitely one of those things you really do need to be thinking about a few different probability factors to get the most out of it.
The "Crusher" feat allows you to automatically push a creature one size larger then you or smaller 5' away from you. I used this to trigger booming blade. Cast booming blade...hit with bludgeoning weapon..push creature away that is enveloped with booming blade..they step back up to hit (boom)
Wow. I really though Booming Blade damage triggered with Dissonant Whispers 😯 nice catch
I am a war caster 3rd level with a gish in the group that uses booming blade I took flaming sphere and will send crossbow bolts in later rounds. I am having fun thx for all the work.
Like others here pointed out, I feel BB and/or GFB work best with rogues and clerics, but I especially like them with the latter. It really works well with the scaling effects of divine strike, and the cleric classics of spiritual weapon and spirit guardians.
My main character in a campaign right now is a 6th lvl tempest cleric/ 1 lvl wizard multiclass and he's the main front liner in our party, with an echo knight also in tow. Our DM jokingly called bull during the first big encounter, where I faced off with a stone giant homebrewed monster that summoned an earth elemental lol (shield spell + plate armour really helped me out, and +1 greatsword for damage with BB), while the rest of the party were dealing with 2 other normal stone giants. The damage was plenty good, got a cheeky chromatic orb channel divinity combo that hurt but afterwards it was a scary melee faceoff that surprisingly went to my favor. Once the other spellcaster banished the other giant, concentration fire on the other 2 ended the encounter. This was a 6 man party (3 of which are DMPc's) against 3 giants for context.
Just wanted to share that semi-relevant story since the game just happened on Wednesday and were all still hyped about it lol.
I´ve had a Bladelock of the Genie for whom this was a good question. I had the mobile feat which, in combo with booming blade, becomes really useful, but at level 5 when I got Thirsting Blade, I also got Spiritual Shroud, and I got Two Weapon Fighting (we modified it, basicaly I wouldn't have to use a bonus action for an offhand attack, it'd just be an extra attack without the modifier). And at level 6, I could fly concentration free because of the Genie´s Vessel
If all attacks hit, that would go up to 3d6 + 8 (dex modifier was 4) + 3d8 damage on a turn. And that would only increase as I would cast level 5 spell slots with Spirit Shroud.
I’ve been going back and forth on two rogue builds, and I think the difference overall ends up being if I’m playing from low level or starting at a higher level.
Build one is Battle Master 4/Swashbuckler 16. Simple build that gains Booming Blade either from High Elf lineage or (my preference) Magic Initiate from Variant Human/CL which also gives me find familiar. This build is super simple, but a bit limited on utility or anything that’s not just damage.
The other build is Battle Master 3/Arcane Trickster 4/Bladesinger 2/Arcane Trickster 11. Grabbing the Mobile feat from Variant Human/CL. This one gets online later, but I get a lot more defensiveness, utility, and just in general options. It comes online much later, but if I’m starting at a high level this could be great.
I hear what you're saying here, Chris, but I want to suggest that the basic premise of this video sort of briefly acknowledges, but then largely blows past something very significant, which I was recently made aware of by Colby over at D4: sometimes maximizing damage isn't the best play. Sometimes doing good damage - but not the best damage - but otherwise shaping the battle can be huge. Here's where Booming Blade can come in. Say you've got an Eldritch Knight. And yes, this is a non-random example, as I'm currently playing an EK 10/War Wizard 5 (about to level to WW 6), with the intention of getting to EK10/WW10, so that I can finish with War Magic's Durable Magic feature as my ersatz capstone.
So Mr. Eldritch Knight has a flame tongue greatsword (as it happens, I do), and access to Hex. Clearly, three attacks gets you more damage. That's clearer than day. But Mr. EK also has the mobile feat, and has lots of squishy party mates he wants to protect, with lots of big nasty giant-types featuring among the cast of villains. I've been doing a lot of going in, hitting with booming blade, hitting again with bonus action, and getting back out. Baddie has to chase me to hit me, they have to chase my fellows to hit them, which means they're either eating damage or twiddling their thumbs. Basically, this specific cantrip has the meta effect of forcing enemies to think about the choice to move. Extra attack doesn't do that. If you're a fighter (even an Eldritch Knight) with three attacks and you hit something with a nasty melee-range ability with those many attacks, you'll hurt it. Maybe quite badly. But if it ain't dead, it can go after squishy people. We all know that tanking is very, very hard to actually do in 5e. One might argue that if the bad guy moves and eats the secondary damage off of BB they still come out ahead of the scenario where they got hit with three attacks, because either way they moved and BB did less damage. But that assumes they move - maybe the creature chooses not to. Maybe the eldritch knight is still in range of them and they decide that fine, they'll stick around and hit the annoying zappy-sword guy. For someone trying to draw aggro, that's a win, and it might even be a bigger win than doing all that damage. Cause maybe you have a sorlock in the back who's about to go full Eldritch Blast machine gun on them, or a wizard or bard about to drop a massive battlefield control spell and you just really need to keep that big nasty baddie off them until they cast it.
Point is, yeah - no question. Extra Attack 2 is gonna be better if the secondary damage doesn't trigger, and also better if you're stacking on per-hit bonuses... in terms of raw damage. But if the secondary damage does trigger, we're talking relatively small margins of difference one way or the other. And there's the conversation about what your goal with your attacks is - is it exclusively to do damage, or is it also to attempt to shape your foe's choices, and so the direction of the battle?
Also, this gets us totally and completely off-topic, but it's worth keeping in mind that comparing something like Extra Attack (2) in the case of the EK and a situation where an EK/Wizard multiclass has access to certain higher-level spells in exchange for forgoing level 11 in Fighter can narrow that damage gap SUBSTANTIALLY, or indeed totally bridge the gap. Example case: Ftr 10/Wiz 9 (yes, this is 19th level, so things are bonkers as it is). You have animate objects up and running. After an initial round of ordering the objects to "Kill X creature", which puts them on lethal autopilot, you spend subsequent rounds using the War Magic feature to BB + bonus action attack. That's a ton of damage those objects are doing - a hell of a lot more than your third attack would do. And you would not have access to that spell if you were a Ftr 11/Wiz 8.
My point isn't that Eldritch Knights shouldn't take 11 levels of fighter; my point rather is that the above analysis is undeniably correct...when considering a very specific question. The question of "which is better" or "which should you use" is, I argue, ultimately even more complex than you state in your conclusions. Really the only way to think about it is in a holistic sense. And so I do think it's a bit misleading to suggest that going the BB route instead of Extra Attack 2 is unoptimized, or less optimized. It can be very optimized...just for a different purpose.
Just building a dwarf sorcerer with a maul and the crusher feat to push people away. Looking forward to playing it :-)
I guess Booming Blade is a place where I’m just a crank. I feel like the attack cantrips were an awkwardly designed patch that cause some issues. The Extra Attack interaction is frustrating, particularly since they released with a power creep version with Bladesinger. Rogue and Cleric scaling become really strange. They maybe should be scaling damage better by default, but it’s still a really frustrating tax.
Meanwhile, they’re also cantrips with full scaling but can also proc twice, and inherently add ability scaling to damage. There’s a reason Acid Splash is a d6 rather than d10 scaling like Firebolt. BB and GFB put the other close-range cantrips (like Poison Spray, Primal Savagery, and Shocking Grasp) utterly to shame in a rather depressing way.
They just irk me, since they feel like they’re not quite in line with the rest. Or maybe it’s that BB/GFB highlight broader issues in weapon-user scaling. For example, there never should have been effects to ignore the loading property, but loading weapons should have had some other sort of scaling with a single attack. Making Crossbows and Bows feel different would have been great. But that of course runs into Sharpshooter issues, although SS/GWM are also a problem, in the way that they form a tax on weapon attackers, and just about mandate bonus action attacks and rule out tonnes of weapons simply because they don’t qualify.
This is really just touching on the worst part of 5e. The spells are inconsistent in balance, interactions with other rules, and poorly described.
@@Jabberforce it really just galls me that a Wizard or Sorcerer without a subclass--who ought to the the weakest of anyone in melee combat--deals more damage than a War or Storm or Forge or other Cleric with a subclass designed around being something of a Gish. The combination of Martial Weapons, Heavy Armor, Divine Strike signal that this is a character who is supposed to be a partial weapon user. And either Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade outclasses that at any level, with no subclass selection, and no effort other than a Cantrip. That's just irksome.
Booming Blade works really good with the Crusher feat, if you are looking for an alternative to Mobile.
Provided the creature is no more than one size bigger than you, you push it 5 feet away as part of the Attack you make with booming blade. Only downside is, you need to deal bludgeoning damage, and most weapons with that damage type suck... (Though one Level of Genie Warlock can solve that)
True... Or as an Eldritch Knight... Just combine 2 attacks for damage and Shove. (You're rolling two dice for the Hit and for the Contested Skill Roll).
Crusher. Booming blade. Warcaster polearm master. Quarter staff and shield.
BB attack and move enemy back 5 ft from crusher. Enemy closes back to melee taking 2ndary damage. Take attack of opportunity via polearm master as enemy enters your reach. Cast BB via warcaster. Hit and move enemy back 5ft again via crusher. Allow enemy harsh decision to close again and take a second instance of secondary damage.
Booming blade is always better for opp attacks if you have warcaster than a plain attack.
dang, potentially 2 full BB's is bad ass, lol. Bonus points if you have a magic staff with on a hit charge effects like staff of striking, withering or thunder and lightning. Also colossus slayer or Death cleric's CD* [if cleric is 6+] could apply to each.
@@elliotbryant3459 it's one of my favorite artillerist builds making strong use of action and reactions and use of innate artillerist strong bonus actions. Round over round strong damage with little resource cost.
“DND is for everyone”. The more we play the truer is gets. Thank you for your video!
This is interesting and I broadly agree with your conclusions. Personally, I homebrew that EKs get the same style of Extra Attack that Bladesingers get, as I think it just makes sense.
I do want to ask, though, as last night our Warforged Rune Knight reached level 5. He had been using Green Flame Blade up until now and was excited to get extra attack, but then realized he would have to decide between which to use and wasn’t sure which was better since he liked GFB thematically and for RP, but Extra Attack also has benefits for him as he has a 20 in Strength and will be using a big weapon, in addition to other damage bonuses. I initially told him there probably wouldn’t be much of a point in using GFB as regularly any more, if at all, though I think after watching this video, the strategy would depend on whether or not there are enough creatures nearby that provoking the secondary damage would make a big difference.
I guess my question would be how does this calculation change for a spell like GFB?
Thank you.
I honestly lean towards green flame blade being more reliable.
I think when talking dpr for booming blade it's probably best to just state the with or without secondary damage figures, since as you mentioned you can usually tell if you'll get it or not.
Booming blade works pretty well in concept for a barbarian/sorcerer character (like my attempt to make a meme-build of mine a bit more serious, abyssal tiefling barb./sorc., both wild magic subclasses [originally with more random-effect-having classes]). Lightning lure to get the enemy close (or simply advancing) + quickened spell booming blade to dissuade the enemy from attacking allies seems a decent way to fulfill the tank role.
My DM is awesome and if you have booming blade it's flavored to be your blade breaking the sound barrier, also it has to be used on the first attack that hits. That way your fighter still gets the extra attacks of it's class
Booming Blade is useless to any character that has the Extra Attack feature, with the exception of characters with the War Caster feat (and that's situational damage).
But this was probably made for spellcasters to give them an extra option when the enemy gets close. They can boost their abysmally low melee damage, and if they enemy tries to chase them they take extra damage and may likely die (the extra damage is high for low level enemies). A caster with Shadow Blade and Booming Blade is no joke.
It may be a bonus for melee characters with the Extra Attack only in certain cases like the high level character I am playing now (6 Devotion Paladin, 5 Hexblade Warlock, 6 Divine Soul Sorcerer), and that's because I can make the 2 attacks and then use the Quickened Spell metamagic to cast Booming Blade as a Bonus action for a 3rd attack with all the extra benefits plus one more smite...
For the Eldritch Knight + Feats. Blooming + Green Flame stack is pretty good. Just use Warcaster if Action Surge is a resource to save.
I would avoid Casting these Cantrips as an Action unless you have Action Surge ready to use. Just cast both under Warcaster. Especially Booming since it lasts 1 turn, with Green Flame stacking DPR on to it, during your turn.
Fighter/Sorcerer can do this better and the Eldritch Knight has Lesser War Magic + Eldritch Strike.
Artificer Armorer - use sword to booming blade, then use Boots of the Winding Path to teleport out. No attack of opportunity, and if they want to hit you, they have to take damage.
I think booming blade is a good incentive for the enemy to stay there and attack you. And that's a minor control option you wouldn't get with extra attack. As an eldritch knight with high ac and warcaster, I want the enemy to focus me and the secondary damage of two booming blades is a good motivation for a free cantrip. The dpr is lower, but the enemy behavior has values as well
The other thing to consider is using Booming Blade for the threat of additional damage, in order to keep an enemy adjacent to the warrior? Yes it may not always be better for pure damage but it could be useful to make the warrior "sticky" to keep them off an ally. That's how I see it being useful.
The War Caster feat would be required in this case, of course.
Agreed, 5E needs more sticky tank options beyond the Sentinel feat.
I feel like Booming Blade is frankly a lot like illusion magic. Its usefulness depends massively on the DM.
Some DMs are going to make their enemies avoid damage at all costs, some dms are going to make the enemies absolutely ignore the Booming Blade effect and do whatever they would have done before, and some are going to do the smartest move every turn regardless. And many are going to end up somewhere between, with maybe their animals and magical beasts ignoring the effects, and their humanoids avoiding damage.
Exactly what casting Booming Blade means is going to vary a lot by table, which will make it end up feeling very different.
Green Flame, by contrast, is a lot more consistent in what it does.
I use booming blade on my tempest cleric. It's thematic and matches well the plus 1d8 you gain at level 8. Booming blade is basically a 8th level ability you gain at level 4. At 8th level I'm hitting 3d8+4 (I have gauntlets of ogre power). 11th 4d8+4 and 17th 5d8+4. In a critical I could use my channel divinity do deal 2d8+64+4 damage. It's not a martial focused build. I'm a Frontline caster, but it's still better than casting sacred Flame.
Since I'm playing with an alternate rule set, Giffyglyph's Darker Dungeons, booming blade ends up working out in my favor. Part of this rule set is a set of blacklisted feats that DMs shouldn't allow players to take, which includes Great Weapon Master. Im glad it's a requirement too, because it really does make builds so bland and stale when you see the same broken feats pop up in every character.
Anyway, I'm playing an armorer artificer so I'm doing 2d8+10 with two thunder gauntlet attacks. With BB, I do 3d8+5 and my target has disadvantage on attack roles against everyone but me. So with the mobile feat, I can mvoe away and then I either get an extra 3d8 tuunder damage or I get to force my opponent to waste their turn. Those are both pretty great options for a cantrip. And I have my homunculus dealing extra damage with a magic missile SSI. Or if I get Dimir Gloves, then I can get the two attacks anyway thanks to two booming blades.
I'm just happy that at least the build is viable thanks to the ban on some feats like GWM.
There's a reason Booming Blade is a lvl1 cantrip, and multiattack is at least lvl5 feature.
don't forget the crusher feat; while it won't force the extra damage from it's movement, it can leave a creature stranded, either making it move and causing the extra damage more consitantly, or leaving a melee creature stranded without movement for a turn.
There’s another thing to consider in the choice between booming blade or extra attack: you can miss. Doesn’t matter how much damage you can do with BB if your one and only attack that turn misses. With two (or more) attacks you increase the likelihood of hitting. So in a scenario where a fighter using BB attacks and misses, that’s it until their next turn. If a fighter using extra attack misses they have a second opportunity to hit and do damage. True, they can miss the second attack too, but they still have another chance to land a hit
For the Eldritch Knight. You can use Lesser War Magic + Eldritch Strike. Or spam Extra Attack if the Dice Gods don't want any business in luck. lol
Hey Chris, love your videos and content. Here's a thought I had and seems to work according to RAW:
If I have both the Sentinel and War Caster feats and the enemy moves away from me it provokes an AoO from my Sentinal feat regardless of whether or not it takes the disengage action, but my Warcaster feat allows me to alternatively cast a spell if it's 1 action casting time and only targets the AoO provoker.
I cast Booming Blade doing all the stuff and damage that I can get away with doing with that spell, and since I alternatively used my reaction to cast a spell instead of taking a weapon AoO that means I did not take an AoO, and therefore the Sentinel feature of reducing a target's movement to 0 when hitting it with an AoO doesn't trigger that means right after my reaction spell, Booming Blade is cast, the target will finish it's already stated movement which triggered my Warcaster feat in the 1st place and move away from me... that will trigger the Booming Blade's secondary damage automatically.
The target cannot change it's already performed action of moving away which triggered your ability to cast Booming Blade in the 1st place, so it auto triggers the secondary damage as it moves away. After that it can stop 10 feet away from you or continue moving or whatever. It doesn't really matter as the all the damage, primary and secondary, from Booming Blade has already occurred.
Good luck and have fun!
Where does it say he cannot stop his movement after the AoO? If you hit with sentinel it automatically stops it so why should he not be able to do so freely? If the circumstance set for your move change surely you can stop moving.
I agree with JC's ruling on this. The reaction occurs before they leave your reach, therefore they can choose not to move. They have not "already performed" the [movement] because then they'd be out of your range.
@@totalutilitarian3292
Sentinel: "When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn."
War Caster: "When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature."
Sentinel's root effect relies on making an opportunity attack. War Caster explicitly replaces the opportunity attack. Sentinel stops it automatically because it's a feature of the feat. See MrKostrom's comment for why they would not be able to stop moving.
EDIT: Somehow I read his comment wrong. Amazing. 10/10. Shot myself right in the foot.
As far as I'm concerned the main use for booming blade is builds that don't have extra attack, and don't have a bonus action tied to strictly the attack action--stuff like clerics. Melee rogues if you can manage to use the focused aim feature.
(For examples of how melee rogue might work, maybe your DM lets you get away with being mounted and having the mount move cause "you didn't use your movement". Or failing that, Scout Rogue being able to move as a reaction can set up focused aim booming blades decently often, though they may want a 1 level dip to pick up some AC so that they can stand in melee).
The reason i love the blade cantrips, is for characters without extra attack. Rogue, or warlock who wants to take a different invocation. Bard, or cleric. Much fun with a blade cantrip.
This video initially made me think I've been playing my bladesinger wrong by adding my Dex modifier, magic item extra damage, and Song of Victory extra damage to booming blade. But the text of the cantrip states that if the melee attack hits, the target suffers the weapon attack's normal effects. To me, that means the relevant ability modifier is added to the damage, as are any other modifiers, such as those coming from a magic weapon or other effects such as Song of Victory. I know bladesinger is an outlier on this topic because of the ability to extra attack and use the cantrip, but it made me question your calculations quite a bit on this one.
After monsters of the multiverse ,Kobold swashbuckler probably makes the best use of starting with booming blade .using draconic cry as your bonus to give advantage and no need to disengage
I think you are being INCREDIBLY generous by saying you get the secondary damage 50% of the time. In my experience 10% is probably closer to reality.
Bladesingers- "Why not Both"
The Telekinetic feat allows you to attempt to push away opponents as a Bonus Action after hitting with Booming Blade. If they attempt to move back towards you, or towards an ally, then they take the extra damage.
I recently finished off Acererack in Tomb of Horrors with the extra damage from booming blade. It was a magical moment.
Not sure if anyones mentioned it but one of the reasons EK is better than blade singer when it comes to BB is the versatillity in the options surrounding it. You wanna proc the secondary damage from BB? Use your shove action using your strength thus allowing you to move away to bait the creature into moving or simply staying put and letting it walk 5 feet to hit you either way your much better off in terms of procing than a bladesinger will ever be because they arent gonna put points into strength.
Lots of Bladesingers take Mobile though which lets them even more effectively procc BB
For what it’s worth (and I know that’s not much) i’ve always ruled at that dissonant whispers and command spells would trigger the effect of booming blade at my table. Basically if the enemy had to put 1 foot in front of the other they take the damage because mechanically that makes sense imo. If they are shoved or otherwise moved maybe with telepathy then they don’t take the damage, similar to opportunity attack provocation. The number of times this is become a problem is zero for me at least 🤷♂️ .
I love it on a melee rogue, but that's a different calculation. And if you don't need to use your bonus action for advantage twf is still a really good option to consider over bb.
My Battlemaster/War Wizard is a fan of dropping Sickening Radiance, then combining Booming Blade with Pushing Attack.
I've always wanted to find the "best" build which uses booming blade. Here's my findings:
-You want a martial with no extra attack, because you want armor and high hit points, but do not want 50% of your power budget being eaten by something you won't use. That means cleric, rogue, hexblade, or artillerist/alchemist.
-There's a combo of feats which really works well with booming blade: crusher/warcaster/polearm master + a quarterstaff. Crusher pushes enemies away, meaning they have to move towards you to hit you, unless they have 10ft reach. Warcaster lets you get a second booming blade per round as an opportunity attack, and polearm master makes it much more likely for you to get those opportunity attacks because the enemy provokes it if they try to get close to you - at which point you can push them back for a second round of secondary damage. With a variant human or a Tasha custom race, you can get this build online at 8th level, and already get some decent mileage out of it from 4th level.
-You want as many "1/turn" rather than "1/hit" damage boosts. That means VGM Aasimars, eldritch smite, sneak attack, and to a lesser extent smite spells such as searing smite
Unfortunately, sneak attack and crusher are a non-starter, there are no finesse bludgeoning weapons in the game. Same with sneak attack/polearm master.
Artillerist *is* a pretty good one. You get medium armor + shields, the shield spell, and the protector turret, which makes you extremely tanky. And then you get a good 1/cast damage boost at level 5. Not to mention you can create your own magic weapons and armors for extreme tankiness. The one issue is, artificers get a LOT out of their INT modifier, so being MAD really hurts them badly.
Hexblade is, as always, a good pick. You get medium armor + shields, very limited uses of the shield spell, and the spirit shroud spell, but the main attraction is SADness and eldritch smite. The thing about hexblade is, they get two very good per-hit bonuses, hexblade's curse and lifedrinker. So instead of picking 3 feats, you're usually better off either getting multiattack + GWM/SS, or spamming eldritch blast, which feels pretty bad.
For clerics, there's a bunch of good options. Nature domain gets access to shillelagh for SADness, war domain's channel divinity can turn a missed booming blade into a hit and basically guarantees your DPR, peace/twilight are OP as usual, forge gets searing smite, etc... And all of them get heavy armor. You can use the optional class feature Blessed Strikes, which doesn't care whether or not booming blade is a cleric cantrip. All that's left is getting that cantrip to begin with, and there's a few options for that, ranging from taking a 1 level dip in a class that gets it, taking a magic initiate feat, to being a high elf.
Overall, all of those are still going to be noticeably weaker than a straight up martial with a big ole greatsword and GWM. You do get a few extra things to to on the side, on account of being a martial, and the gish aesthetic is just chef's kiss, but it's definitely one of those builds where even scratching the bottom of the barrel for every single bonus you can find, you still end up with only something that's just barely usable.
Another build that kind of "just works", is bladesinger. Just, bladesinger, by itself. You're tanky (AC of 13+dex+int, shield spell, etc...), you're mobile, you get a multiattack with a cantrip inside of it, and you're **a wizard**.
My favorite use of Booming Blade has been with my dwarven Artificer/Battle Smith using a warhammer and the Repulsion Shield that he has made. Hit the enemy w/a booming blade warhammer attack, then wait for the enemy to hit you. Boom, trigger Repulsion Shield and knock them back 15 feet. "Come get me, orcie!" If they move, extra damage kicks in. If they have multi-attack, the Repulsion Shield (as a reaction) kicks in, moves them out of melee combat range and disrupts their attack sequence.
Green flame blade is better in tier one where you are more likely to face opponents with pack tactics then fire resistance.
Its very worth mentioning that if you got booming blade via a wizard dip of magic initiate, you have access to find familiar which tilts the math more in favour of booming blade. Only having one attack to boost with advantage is way better for booming blade users
Hexblade swashbucklers over here grinning.
I use Booming blade on my Swashbuckler Tabaxi rogue. The ability to run 120ft in a single round (movement, BA Dash, feline agility), hit a creature for 2d8 + 3d6 + 2d8 at level 5. I was lucky enough to find a +2 sword and just maxed my Dex so I have a higher chance of hitting now. Really sucks when you do miss, but when it works its sooo good.
With polearm mastery, you chance of actually getting the bonus damage from Booming Blade is less since you might miss and not get it. This would make Booming Blade look a little better. This should be a part of the calculation. Also, a use of Booming Blade is to glue an opponent to you. They could move to engage one of your allies, but then take Booming Blade damage. I feel this use is the most important part of Booming Blade - but this use is situational.
Eldritch Knight + Feats: "I just let them willingly walk into the Booming Cage and/or burn them on top of Green Flame with Adv from Eldritch Strike. As I use Lesser War Magic, Dual Wielder, or Action Surge Extra Attack with Booming. Then Warcaster up either spell while every Melee Weapon Attack applies Eldritch Strike."
Fighter/Sorcerer: "Same here but with Meta Magic + Extra Attacks."
Sorcerer: "Just Meta Magic for Booming on top of Green Flame."
Something which wasn't considered but probably doesn't change the outcome that much. Many effects provide advantage on a single weapon attack: familiar taking the help action is the most relevant case given it often comes hand in hand with booming blade through spellcasting. In these cases, the single weapon attack made by booming blade is a little better than the usual case as you have a higher hit rate on the stronger attack. Additionally the crit chance is higher and pairs well with the extra dice damage for the primary booming blade damage.
But ultimately I don't think it changes the math that much. What booming blade does well however is make waiting for extra attack less painful on multiclassing builds. E.g. dipping spellcasting before reaching lvl 5 with a martial class. Soradin comes to mind, but I've personally got experience dipping wizard on eldritch knight. Not having extra attack hurts, however having an EK with mobile, owl familiar and booming blade is still a very fun build in my experience, and very satisfying on the occasions where a crit happens.
Perhaps slightly off topic...I never hear anything about Sword Burst, I think it's cool and would like to learn it's strengths and weaknesses and how to make the most of it...here's hoping you make a video about it 🤞🏼
Pole arm master with warcaster and a reach weapon hit your on coming enemy with booming blade before they reach melee range. They take the extra damage to be able to attack. Now use your multi attack on the enemy that took a bunch of damage just to get to you. I have this on a warlock and to make it extra fun I will cast darkness on myself so all of my attacks have advantage.
And of course, the best solution for Booming Blade: Be an Arcane Trickster Rogue.
No need to worry about extra attack decisions, and having bonus action disengage to force them to move after the strike, lol.
Booming blade, the rogue and sorcadin spell!
Melee Sorcerers (generally Hexblade Sorlocks or some stranger multiclass build) can get a lot of extra damage with a Quickened or Twinned Booming Blade/GFB. It's not what you want to rely on, but when you need it, it's a nice trick.
Thematically it is pretty awesome. Mechanically, you might as well just focus on Eldritch Blast (with the various modifiers) and Quickening that - much safer so less resources expended for similar results.
Maybe this is just me, but if I’m GMing and one of the Players sets up Booming Blade on an enemy, that enemy is definitely going to be moving on its next turn. I don’t want a character’s action or choice of cantrip to feel useless, and I want each Player to have the cool moment of “Wow! The thing I set up worked!”
It could be a difference in GM philosophy though. Every criticism of Booming Blade is totally valid if the GM is trying to play smart. I tend to focus on the power fantasy aspect of D&D, which could mean I have the enemies do stupid things just so the Players’ plans work. It depends on the context, but that’s generally my go-to.
Good video all around though!
I think Booming Blade's niche is when you're playing a melee-ish character that for reasons won't get access to Extra Attack, like a rogue multi-class. But I agree with the conclusions of this video. In my own math and experience, once you have extra attack, booming blade just doesn't hit hard enough or do enough to be worth it.
My observations:
1. I find that BB is often best used with War Caster, since in that said case, you get to replace your one opportunity attack with a spell that has 1 action.
2. I find that BB often only works better when the PC only gets one attack and then can disengage as a BA (e.g., Rogues via Cunning Action).
3. As a general point of notice, I've noticed that once PC's hit tier 2 and above, monster tactics tend to "shift" in a more intelligent direction. In a semi-practical world setting, where the monsters aren't stupid (or are for lack of a phrase, are "less stupid"), once they feel the effects of BB, they're much less inclined to use their actual movement in those situations, and instead would (as suggested by you) make use of either minor teleportation or a ranged attack of some sort to compensate for lack of movement.
4. In circumstances involving the Bladesinger at tier 2 and above, where cantrip casting can be done as a part of the same attack action, then sure, BB can eek out some extra damage if:
A. You hit with your extra attack, and
B. The creature willingly moves after said attack, while not under any form of duress.
But those instances are generally the exception, and not the rule.
{This, I think, is what makes BB relatively weak; the requirement for "willing" movement from the creature to conduct non-spell based movement in order to trigger extra damage.}
5. As someone mentioned earlier, I think you may have accidentally left out some GWM math (the to-hit penalties in this case) in doing your calculations, as well as other sources of on-board damage associated with attacks (e.g., Eldritch Smite, Improved Divine Smite, etc.). A minor oversight, but one of which, I think, only strengthens the argument in favor of extra attack over a single attempt at BB.
{In saying that, I wonder about situations involving the Quicken Metamagic feat during a person's BA (more aptly, if it can be done in order to allow for an attack, in order to eek out more damage), notwithstanding any prepared actions prior to.}
In general, if you're not either a Bladesinger, or in a class that gets an extra attack, then BB is the go-to option. Otherwise, extra attack outclasses BB convincingly.
Booming Blade is great with Warcaster. Being able to use a spell when one can take an opportunity attack.
"Swashbucklers"
I'm currently playing a swashbuckler3/genie (efreeti) warlock 2. Without eldritch blast and going with booming blade(+sneak attack) + disengage/fancy footwork... and my very generous DM allowed me to expend my ALL my accumulated loot to get a Illusionists bracers (copy a cantrip from action with bonus action...). Just got it and have not tested in combat, just double mage hand for shenanigans...
Hah, I was just putting together some calculations comparing attacks vs attack cantrips!
I roughly came to the same conclusion: Extra Attack is much more reliable, but there are circumstances where the cantrip can be useful. I think Defenders will probably get more mileage out of attack cantrips than max DPR Striker. I'd also like to highlight the interaction between Booming Blade, War Caster, and Sentinel to make the most of your Reaction attack if you have the spare feats lying around.
I agree that your assumption for Booming Blade's proc chance is very generous, and I wish that unreliability would come up more often in discussions on this topic.
Personally, I've found Green-Flame Blade much more reliable in my games at low/mid-tier, despite the damage type and extra enemies required. Crusher can be a decent way to ensure GFB's extra damage, but make sure you discuss it with your GM beforehand since that that order of operations is up for interpretation.
It should be noted that Sentinel only contributes to that combo because it makes Disengage provoke attacks. The attack you get when a creature attacks another ally is not stated to be an opportunity attack, but rather an event that allows you to use your reaction to make an attack. If you're tight on feats, War Caster alone will give you the most mileage.
Would love to see a breakdown for a Hexblade Pact of the Blade pure Warlock where this discussion is very relevant but has additional things to consider like Eldritch Blast scaling. I'm using a Greatsword so my Green Flame Blade seems basically useless after level 5 when I got Thirsting Blade for Extra Attack on a heavy weapon such as mine. So I think I know I'm coming out ahead vs either melee cantrip until level 11, but then it gets more complicated because Hexblade never gets a third weapon attack, but you do get a third beam of Eldritch Blast at level 11. I have 18 CHA and am considering grabbing GWM at level 8 instead of capping my stat. I am not good at DPR math but to me it seems I may actually need GWM at higher levels if I don't want Eldritch Blast to outscale damage from my Greatsword pact weapon? I just started using Spirit Shroud at Warlock level 6 for 1d8 extra damage per hit having dropped Hex for now. I think the move after level 7 is Shadow of Moil combined with Great Weapon Master at level 8. But I do wonder how all the math looks after level 11 or 12 or so with EB scaling up again. But then you can also take Lifedrinker at level 12 for an extra +5 necrotic damage per hit if you have capped Charisma. So a lot of moving pieces. Could make for another good video similar to this one.
Agree with your conclusion, but this does show that the games you play in are very different than the ones I play or run. I'd never assume a 50% chance of the secondary damage -- that just doesn't happen in games I play. You did say you're now seeing below that, but I am used to way below that. Without planning to make the target move, I'm used to that secondary damage approaching 0. It does make the answer to the question posed much easier to figure.
I'm about half way through the video. I feel like this cantrip is.
Good for Pinning down
A certain creature. Through the artificer initiate feat I give my ranger booming blade so if he needs to pin an enemy he can. It's not an every turn option but its a part of his tool belt.
I have been thinking about using a 2 spore druid/ 5 monk with hex/hunters mark. If i flurry of blows i add 8d6 to my attacks (assuming i hit all of them which is unlikely)
I went with the "be a bladesinger" option lol
I was kind of expecting the comparation between extra attack and booming blade paired with a flaming sphere, i know in over half of the cases you can get booming blade but can't get flaming sphere, but when you can it's kind of iconic; i don't think the results would vary anyways, and i don't even think its appropriate, i just thought it would have been fun.
My very mobile high dex Harengon wizard/cleric multiclass (Wizard X/Cleric 1), likes to use it when a single enemy chooses to single me out. In all other cases, I will generally resort to ranged cantrips or spells.
One thing that's missing from this analysis is whether or not the target understands what's happened to it. Booming Blade is a weird spell, thematically. I mean, it essentially enchants/curses the target, but doesn't say at all whether or not the target would be aware of this or not, or if there's some kind of check they can take to understand that moving will cause them more harm.
A typical low Intelligence monster isn't going to understand that the hit they just took, even if it had some kind of magical visual effect occur, is going to result in this specific condition. There's just no way for them to know, unless they've experienced it before, lived to tell the tale, and put two and two together.
So, if you are in melee with an enraged melee monster, and you use Booming Blade on it and then manage to back away from it, assuming it's still angry with you, and hasn't lost it's nerve yet, then there's no reason to assume it wouldn't close the distance to attack you, triggering Booming Blade.
That said, I'm not a fan of Booming Blade. It's situational (even if the 'situation' is fairly common) where plenty other spells or attack options aren't and just give you extra damage and are more controllable. I'm a big fan of controllable.
Between Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade, I always choose Green Flame Blade.
My Tabaxi Bladesinger "Both? Both is good."
My battle smith artificer war magic wizard has extra attack and the armor I have allows me to cast a cantrips as a bonus action so I can attack 3 times in one turn if I have an enemy up on me.
I would never choose to use booming blade over extra attack (unless I can force the enemy to move by themselves/ take some other penalty for jot moving). Booming blade is great on characters who use melee weapons but dont get extra attack though (rogues/clerics/druids etc) though most of the time you need to get booming blade from some ither source as they rarely come with it (could be a feat or race or dip in another class for a cantrip)
Most of the time I feel "greenflame blade" is the better "all around" melee cantrip.
Booming blade has it's niche, mainly war caster Apportunity attacks, and as a basic zoning tool, to discourage fleeing or runing after you (Arcane Trickster can to some shenanigans with bonus disengage for example)
Early, or in a "low loot" campaign, it might be a good way to get your hands on an excellent damage type, in thudner damage.