So if I went polearm master, would it be better to attack and then bonus attack, or use booming blade with spear mastery and then back away out of range, so if they chase me they take damage, and I can use my reaction to attack again. At level 5 assuming 16 charisma
1d10+3 + 1d8 + 2d8(if they move before next turn) + 1d10+3 = 11 - 52 damage (spear mastery)
So even by level 5, booming blade with a reach weapon will out damage thirsting blade by quite a large margin... So how do I make the most out of this information? How would I make a slippery, pokey hexblade that casts booming blade when they're close, and if they don't come closer I can throw eldritch blasts at them? Hmmm... Considering I still want to use a spear / polearm. With Mobile and polearm mastery, I could booming blade, step out of range and if they come closer do an opportunity attack. With mobile and spear mastery (two handed) I could do the same thing, but if I move 20 feet away I can bonus action to set my spear. If they move they'd take booming blade damage, plus if they come into range I'd attack for 1d8/10 with a bonus 1d8/10 piercing damage. All this being said, the damage from booming blade is focused around the target following me around and letting me do it to them. Whereas the polearm mastery attacks are based on my own aggression.
Mobile + spear mastery (assuming two handed) at level 5: 1d10+3 + 1d8 + 2d8 + 1d10+3 + 1d10 = 12 - 62 damage. Assuming they move into range for the counter attack. intelligent creatures would kill this combo
There is something completely loosing me.
How are you casting blooming blade apart from your regular attacks? if you are using booming blade as far as I know you don’t get another attack
I think you are forgetting polearm master feat which allows you to attack when someone enters your range as a reaction thus the extra attack.
The thing is that’s from the PAM, BUT MY WORRY IS THE SPEAR MASTERY line of damage. How does he get so many attacks if spear mastery gives no extra attacks?
The poster mentioned PAM and then Spear Mastery, they probably just misspoke and meant PAM.
The other thing to remember is PAM also gives you a bonus action attack, so at 5th level you could potentially attack 3 times on your own turn, assuming you don’t need your bonus action for something else. That gives you 3 chances to hit before we talk about your reaction. Don’t forget if you cast booming blade, you only get one chance to hit. If you miss, you do 0 damage on your turn. Not to mention, the extra damage only triggers on movement, so if they don’t chase you, have someone else in range, pull out a ranged weapon, the extra damage doesn’t trigger.
But let’s assume you hit on all attacks and look at average damage with the +3 modifier used by the poster:
Weapon damage on attack: 1d10+3 = 5.5+3 = 8.5
Damage on BA attack with PAM: 1d4+3 = 2.5+3 = 5.5
So PAM will do an average of 22.5 damage, assuming all attacks hit. (Odds are you’ll miss with one, so I would count on 14-17 damage on your turn per round.)
So even if everything goes as expected, you hit on your attack, and you convince the enemy to chase you, BB still does not provide more damage than attacking 3 times with PAM, on average. Plus, 30-40% of the time, you’ll miss your attack with BB and do 0 damage.
However, if you feel like you have a good chance of making your target move AND you have a way to gain advantage on your first attack only, that is when I would consider BB instead. (If you have advantage on all attacks, I’d still go with the 3 attacks from POM.)
the OP posts in several places some of his math and mentions several time spear mastery so I really don’t think it’s a tipo. He is giving the spear mastery everything, regular attack, plus booming blade plus out of the blue another 1D10+3 attack which could be the reaction, while PAM is only getting 2D10+6+d4+3, so the reaction would be missing there?
Ah, yes. I remember spear mastery now. Thanks, HatMan.
Kaintxu, I think you’re right, they’re adding an attack as a reaction. To keep things even, they should have added the reaction to both, as PAM also gives them an AoO when an enemy enters their reach. Or leave reactions out, as there is no guarantee that one can use their reaction every turn.
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There is something completely loosing me.
How are you casting blooming blade apart from your regular attacks? if you are using booming blade as far as I know you don’t get another attack
I think you are forgetting polearm master feat which allows you to attack when someone enters your range as a reaction thus the extra attack.
The thing is that’s from the PAM, BUT MY WORRY IS THE SPEAR MASTERY line of damage. How does he get so many attacks if spear mastery gives no extra attacks?
The poster mentioned PAM and then Spear Mastery, they probably just misspoke and meant PAM.
The other thing to remember is PAM also gives you a bonus action attack, so at 5th level you could potentially attack 3 times on your own turn, assuming you don’t need your bonus action for something else. That gives you 3 chances to hit before we talk about your reaction. Don’t forget if you cast booming blade, you only get one chance to hit. If you miss, you do 0 damage on your turn. Not to mention, the extra damage only triggers on movement, so if they don’t chase you, have someone else in range, pull out a ranged weapon, the extra damage doesn’t trigger.
But let’s assume you hit on all attacks and look at average damage with the +3 modifier used by the poster:
Weapon damage on attack: 1d10+3 = 5.5+3 = 8.5
Damage on BA attack with PAM: 1d4+3 = 2.5+3 = 5.5
So PAM will do an average of 22.5 damage, assuming all attacks hit. (Odds are you’ll miss with one, so I would count on 14-17 damage on your turn per round.)
Booming Blade @ 5th level: 1d10+3+1d8 = 5.5+3+4.5 = 13
BB if target moves: 13+2d8 = 13+9 = 22
So even if everything goes as expected, you hit on your attack, and you convince the enemy to chase you, BB still does not provide more damage than attacking 3 times with PAM, on average. Plus, 30-40% of the time, you’ll miss your attack with BB and do 0 damage.
However, if you feel like you have a good chance of making your target move AND you have a way to gain advantage on your first attack only, that is when I would consider BB instead. (If you have advantage on all attacks, I’d still go with the 3 attacks from POM.)
The OP was made before PAM was updated to include the spear. Just to give some context.
I still don’t understand.
the OP posts in several places some of his math and mentions several time spear mastery so I really don’t think it’s a tipo. He is giving the spear mastery everything, regular attack, plus booming blade plus out of the blue another 1D10+3 attack which could be the reaction, while PAM is only getting 2D10+6+d4+3, so the reaction would be missing there?
Ah, yes. I remember spear mastery now. Thanks, HatMan.
Kaintxu, I think you’re right, they’re adding an attack as a reaction. To keep things even, they should have added the reaction to both, as PAM also gives them an AoO when an enemy enters their reach. Or leave reactions out, as there is no guarantee that one can use their reaction every turn.