"A beam of crackling energy lances toward a creature within range, forming a sustained arc of lightning between you and the target. Make a ranged spell attack against it. On a hit, the target takes 2d12 Lightning damage.
On each of your subsequent turns, you can take a Bonus Action to deal 1d12 Lightning damage to the target automatically, even if the first attack missed.
The spell ends if the target is ever outside the spell’s range or if it has Total Cover from you."
does that mean, you can still damage creature with witch bolt on each subsequent turns even attack roll is missed?
"A beam of crackling energy lances toward a creature within range, forming a sustained arc of lightning between you and the target. Make a ranged spell attack against it. On a hit, the target takes 2d12 Lightning damage.
On each of your subsequent turns, you can take a Bonus Action to deal 1d12 Lightning damage to the target automatically, even if the first attack missed.
The spell ends if the target is ever outside the spell’s range or if it has Total Cover from you."
does that mean, you can still damage creature with witch bolt on each subsequent turns even attack roll is missed?
Yes, that is exactly what it says. This is a major change from the 2014 version, in which you can only deal that subsequent damage if the initial attack hits and it takes a full action to do.
So a typical combat utilizing the spell would go like this:
Round 1: Cast Witch Bolt. Either Hit and do 2d12 or miss and do no damage.
Round 2: Maintain Concentration, automatically do 1d12 Damage as your Bonus Action, and cast the non-Concetration spell of your choice, most likely Eldritch Blast or whatever damage cantrip you're grooving on. Conversely, you could hang back and plunk arrows into the target, or do anything else that isn't likely to break your Concentration.
All things considered, it's a pretty solid first level spell now, especially in coordination with a buffed up Eldritch Blast.
Witch bolt and any instantaneous spell casted for damage works well as long as the target doesn't have lightning immunity and you can maintain the concentration
As long as you target someone in melee it works really well, people not in melee likely will have a lot of get behind cover/out of range options without having to lose an attack options on most battlefields. And its not something they necessarily need an arcana check to figure out, sure 60 foot range part, but if you got lightning crackling at me and its still connected most people would try to break the line with cover.
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Spell Description said..
"A beam of crackling energy lances toward a creature within range, forming a sustained arc of lightning between you and the target. Make a ranged spell attack against it. On a hit, the target takes 2d12 Lightning damage.
On each of your subsequent turns, you can take a Bonus Action to deal 1d12 Lightning damage to the target automatically, even if the first attack missed.
The spell ends if the target is ever outside the spell’s range or if it has Total Cover from you."
does that mean, you can still damage creature with witch bolt on each subsequent turns even attack roll is missed?
Short and easy answer is yes. Even if you miss bonus action 1d12 each turn.
Yes, that is exactly what it says. This is a major change from the 2014 version, in which you can only deal that subsequent damage if the initial attack hits and it takes a full action to do.
So a typical combat utilizing the spell would go like this:
Round 1: Cast Witch Bolt. Either Hit and do 2d12 or miss and do no damage.
Round 2: Maintain Concentration, automatically do 1d12 Damage as your Bonus Action, and cast the non-Concetration spell of your choice, most likely Eldritch Blast or whatever damage cantrip you're grooving on. Conversely, you could hang back and plunk arrows into the target, or do anything else that isn't likely to break your Concentration.
All things considered, it's a pretty solid first level spell now, especially in coordination with a buffed up Eldritch Blast.
Witch bolt and any instantaneous spell casted for damage works well as long as the target doesn't have lightning immunity and you can maintain the concentration
As long as you target someone in melee it works really well, people not in melee likely will have a lot of get behind cover/out of range options without having to lose an attack options on most battlefields. And its not something they necessarily need an arcana check to figure out, sure 60 foot range part, but if you got lightning crackling at me and its still connected most people would try to break the line with cover.