Does the cantrip spell Green Flame Blade do weapon damage 1d8 regardless of the weapon you are holding? Example would be a dagger that is 1d4 turn into a 1d8? Same with a great axe, 1d12 into a 1d8?
...On a hit, the target suffers the weapon attack’s normal effects, and you can cause green fire to leap from the target to a different creature of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of it. The second creature takes fire damage equal to your spellcasting ability modifier...
Normal for a dagger is 1d4 +mod piercing damage.
The 1d8 additional fire damage when scaled is from the spell and is not modified by the weapon.
So just for clarification, the attack would be 1d4+mod and 1d8+spell mod to an additional enemy?
At level 5, with no other special rules in place, assuming you're stabbing with dexterity and casting with intelligence, the primary target will take 1d4+1d8+DEX (of two different types) and the secondary target will take 1d8+INT.
Levels 1 to 4. Normal damage with the dagger, modified by the relevant ability score. Just for the sake of simplicity, assume a score of 20. +5. 1d4+5. The secondary target gets hit with green flame. It takes damaged based on your spell casting modifier. This is more difficult in my example. Another score of 20 would be odd at first level. We will go ahead and say you have it anyway. 5 points of damage to the second target.
Levels 5 and on. Normal damage with the dagger, modified by the relevant ability score. Still 1d4+5. Now you get more damage. You get to add 1d8 green fire damage to both targets. The secondary target gets modified by your spell casting score modifier. Still +5 in this example. 2d8 at 11th, 3d8 at 17th.
This spell spawns countless arguments. The range/area is listed as "Self 5 ft". Ok. You cast it on yourself. Not on the dagger. It is on you. The range the spell will reach is five feet. Seems clear, but when you hit your target with the dagger, how far away can the secondary target be away from *you*? Does the secondary target also have to be 5 feet away, or can they be five feet away from the primary target, which could be 10 feet away from you? Spells with an area of effect usually give a shape for the area in question. A line, a cone, a sphere, a cube, what-have-you. Green-Flame Blade does not.
There are a whole bunch of other things that people argue about with this spell and others like it. It can get very technical indeed and I won't go into it.
This one made me laugh, so I just have to ask. DxJxC, if you didn't have anything to add, why on Earth did you post? You have a really huge post count as it is. I don't think I have seen one higher. So what's the deal?
This one made me laugh, so I just have to ask. DxJxC, if you didn't have anything to add, why on Earth did you post? You have a really huge post count as it is. I don't think I have seen one higher. So what's the deal?
Funny you should ask. Normally I wouldn't. I would just subscribe to the thread in case there are unanswered additional questions on the subject that I can help with then. But as it happens, the forum notifications are being terribly slow right now (there is a bug report already), so I actually commented so that there would be that little dot on threads you post in when I come back to manually check later (like now).
I got it by responding to nearly every new thread in feedback (supporting or offering alternative ideas), bugs (collecting additional information for support team or troubleshooting user error), general discussion (discussing), and rules (answering questions and arguing with people who disagreed with the rules) forums daily for 2 years. I even got recommended to apply for a moderator position by a staff member (didn't want to). I got less active on the forums when I joined AL and actually got to play D&D regularly. Now I'm just in rules forums.
I have come to genuinely hate Green Flame blade and booming blade for 2 reasons. The first of which being they are so unclear leading many to not know what the correct way to run them is. I've had DM's run them as they replace the damage type and use spell scaling. But they aren't worded that way. I've run them as a buff spell they add the damage after level 5 which seems correct but leads into the second reason is because they are so strong on melee characters who can use them. Like a Fighter or a Cleric can hit so hard and do so much magic damage its insane because this scale up with other buffs.
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There's nothing wrong or boring about being a Human Fighter with a Sword and Shield. It's all about HOW you play them, WHO they are, and WHAT they do!
Generally speaking, Fighters and Clerics don't use GFB.
some elf clerics can pick GFB because they get to pick a wizard cantrip at character build. My Grave Cleric of Sehanine Moonbow uses GFB in the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign while wielding Windvane, the legendary spear picked up off the Air Cult leader's body. At level 10, I do more damage with GFB and attacking with GFB cause I get a d6 for the spear, an additional d6 lightning damage, a d8 for GFB, and another d8 for Blessed Strikes.
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Does the cantrip spell Green Flame Blade do weapon damage 1d8 regardless of the weapon you are holding? Example would be a dagger that is 1d4 turn into a 1d8? Same with a great axe, 1d12 into a 1d8?
Green-Flame Blade does what it says it does.
Normal for a dagger is 1d4 +mod piercing damage.
The 1d8 additional fire damage when scaled is from the spell and is not modified by the weapon.
So just for clarification, the attack would be 1d4+mod and 1d8+spell mod to an additional enemy?
I'm going to default to STR(+2) for weapon attack modifier, and Charisma (+4) for casting modifier.
For characters of 1st-4th level:
Target A: 1d4+2[STR] (average 4.5 piercing)
Target B: 4[CHA] (4 fire damage)
For characters of 5th-10th level:
Target A: 1d4+2[STR] + 1d8 (Average 4.5 Piercing + 4.5 Fire damage)
Target B: 1d8+4[CHA] Fire damage (Average 8.5 Fire damage)
For characters of 11th-16th level:
Target A: 1d4+2[STR] + 2d8 (Average 4.5 Piercing + 9 Fire damage)
Target B: 2d8+4[CHA] Fire damage (Average 13 Fire damage)
Edit: Corrected average damage.
At level 5, with no other special rules in place, assuming you're stabbing with dexterity and casting with intelligence, the primary target will take 1d4+1d8+DEX (of two different types) and the secondary target will take 1d8+INT.
Levels 1 to 4. Normal damage with the dagger, modified by the relevant ability score. Just for the sake of simplicity, assume a score of 20. +5. 1d4+5. The secondary target gets hit with green flame. It takes damaged based on your spell casting modifier. This is more difficult in my example. Another score of 20 would be odd at first level. We will go ahead and say you have it anyway. 5 points of damage to the second target.
Levels 5 and on. Normal damage with the dagger, modified by the relevant ability score. Still 1d4+5. Now you get more damage. You get to add 1d8 green fire damage to both targets. The secondary target gets modified by your spell casting score modifier. Still +5 in this example. 2d8 at 11th, 3d8 at 17th.
This spell spawns countless arguments. The range/area is listed as "Self 5 ft". Ok. You cast it on yourself. Not on the dagger. It is on you. The range the spell will reach is five feet. Seems clear, but when you hit your target with the dagger, how far away can the secondary target be away from *you*? Does the secondary target also have to be 5 feet away, or can they be five feet away from the primary target, which could be 10 feet away from you? Spells with an area of effect usually give a shape for the area in question. A line, a cone, a sphere, a cube, what-have-you. Green-Flame Blade does not.
There are a whole bunch of other things that people argue about with this spell and others like it. It can get very technical indeed and I won't go into it.
<Insert clever signature here>
I don't have anything to add that hasn't been mentioned.
This one made me laugh, so I just have to ask. DxJxC, if you didn't have anything to add, why on Earth did you post? You have a really huge post count as it is. I don't think I have seen one higher. So what's the deal?
<Insert clever signature here>
How do you think he got that big post count? =D
Funny you should ask. Normally I wouldn't. I would just subscribe to the thread in case there are unanswered additional questions on the subject that I can help with then. But as it happens, the forum notifications are being terribly slow right now (there is a bug report already), so I actually commented so that there would be that little dot on threads you post in when I come back to manually check later (like now).
I got it by responding to nearly every new thread in feedback (supporting or offering alternative ideas), bugs (collecting additional information for support team or troubleshooting user error), general discussion (discussing), and rules (answering questions and arguing with people who disagreed with the rules) forums daily for 2 years. I even got recommended to apply for a moderator position by a staff member (didn't want to). I got less active on the forums when I joined AL and actually got to play D&D regularly. Now I'm just in rules forums.
Does costing green flame blade take away your attack action? Or does casting it include an attack action?
To cast it under normal circumstances, you take the Cast a Spell action, instead of the Attack action.
You then get one melee weapon attack from the spell. (a melee weapon attack is not the Attack action. Yes that's really confusing.)
I have come to genuinely hate Green Flame blade and booming blade for 2 reasons. The first of which being they are so unclear leading many to not know what the correct way to run them is. I've had DM's run them as they replace the damage type and use spell scaling. But they aren't worded that way. I've run them as a buff spell they add the damage after level 5 which seems correct but leads into the second reason is because they are so strong on melee characters who can use them. Like a Fighter or a Cleric can hit so hard and do so much magic damage its insane because this scale up with other buffs.
There's nothing wrong or boring about being a Human Fighter with a Sword and Shield. It's all about HOW you play them, WHO they are, and WHAT they do!
Lycanthropy is the spice of night.
Generally speaking, Fighters and Clerics don't use GFB.
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some elf clerics can pick GFB because they get to pick a wizard cantrip at character build. My Grave Cleric of Sehanine Moonbow uses GFB in the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign while wielding Windvane, the legendary spear picked up off the Air Cult leader's body. At level 10, I do more damage with GFB and attacking with GFB cause I get a d6 for the spear, an additional d6 lightning damage, a d8 for GFB, and another d8 for Blessed Strikes.