When would you add the additional damage from Agonizing Blast with Booming Blade?
At levels 1-4, it seems straightforward - it gets added to the additional damage when/if the target moves... although that means that if they don't move, you skip the extra damage.
At levels 5+, however...
My inclination is to add it only when the additional damage occurs after movement, but when compared to the damage output of Eldritch Blast (where it has the potential to be added multiple times, assuming all blasts hit), it definitely feels less than optimal (clearly EB is the way to go, but characters seek flavor, so...).
There were some threads about Agonizing Blast recently. Personally, this is how I see it (copied & pasted from one of the threads): the key to knowing if Agonizing Blast applies to one of your Warlock cantrips is checking whether the cantrip involves a spell's damage rolls, as stated in the Eldritch Invocation:
Agonizing Blast Choose one of your known Warlock cantrips that deals damage. You can add your Charisma modifier to that spell’s damage rolls.
Technically, starting at 5th level, you could apply Agonizing Blast to the damage rolls involved in Green-Flame Blade:
For Green-Flame Blade: "At 5th level, the melee attack deals an extra 1d8 fire damage to the target on a hit, and the fire damage to the second creature increases to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier [...]"
And for Booming Blade, the Eldritch Invocation should affect the damage rolls for the thunder damage:
"[...] If the target willingly moves 5 feet or more before then, the target takes 1d8 thunder damage, and the spell ends."
"At 5th level, the melee attack deals an extra 1d8 thunder damage to the target on a hit, and the damage the target takes for moving increases to 2d8 [...]"
Wow, Tarodnet... a few of those were quite the slog.
So, the consensus would seem to point to Agonizing Blast clearly adding to Booming Blade's movement related damage, and/or the additional damage at weapon strike from levels 5+.
My question now is whether or not it applies to both.
Given that Agonizing Blast can apply to every beam of an Eldritch Blast cast at levels 5+, my inclination is to say yes.
Wow, Tarodnet... a few of those were quite the slog.
So, the consensus would seem to point to Agonizing Blast clearly adding to Booming Blade's movement related damage, and/or the additional damage at weapon strike from levels 5+.
My question now is whether or not it applies to both.
Given that Agonizing Blast can apply to every beam of an Eldritch Blast cast at levels 5+, my inclination is to say yes.
Since the quote from tarodnet states " to that spell’s damage rolls." ... then agonizing blast should apply to all the separate damage rolls of the cantrip. That wording is required to make sure it continues to work as expected with Eldritch blast but also means that any cantrip with multiple separate damage rolls also adds the agonizing blast modifier to each of them.
cross posting from the Warlock Forum -
Looking for some concensus here:
When would you add the additional damage from Agonizing Blast with Booming Blade?
At levels 1-4, it seems straightforward - it gets added to the additional damage when/if the target moves... although that means that if they don't move, you skip the extra damage.
At levels 5+, however...
My inclination is to add it only when the additional damage occurs after movement, but when compared to the damage output of Eldritch Blast (where it has the potential to be added multiple times, assuming all blasts hit), it definitely feels less than optimal (clearly EB is the way to go, but characters seek flavor, so...).
Is it OP to add the bonus to each instance?
I'm curious as to people's thoughts on this.
There were some threads about Agonizing Blast recently. Personally, this is how I see it (copied & pasted from one of the threads): the key to knowing if Agonizing Blast applies to one of your Warlock cantrips is checking whether the cantrip involves a spell's damage rolls, as stated in the Eldritch Invocation:
The weapon attacks in Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade, True Strike are not spell's damage rolls.
Technically, starting at 5th level, you could apply Agonizing Blast to the damage rolls involved in Green-Flame Blade:
And for Booming Blade, the Eldritch Invocation should affect the damage rolls for the thunder damage:
@Bishop69 here are some recent threads that mention Agonizing Blast.
Wow, Tarodnet... a few of those were quite the slog.
So, the consensus would seem to point to Agonizing Blast clearly adding to Booming Blade's movement related damage, and/or the additional damage at weapon strike from levels 5+.
My question now is whether or not it applies to both.
Given that Agonizing Blast can apply to every beam of an Eldritch Blast cast at levels 5+, my inclination is to say yes.
Since the quote from tarodnet states " to that spell’s damage rolls." ... then agonizing blast should apply to all the separate damage rolls of the cantrip. That wording is required to make sure it continues to work as expected with Eldritch blast but also means that any cantrip with multiple separate damage rolls also adds the agonizing blast modifier to each of them.
Yeah, sorry :( I added them just for future visitors.
@David42 already answered your new question, and I agree with that reply too.
"damage rolls" for the win.
I hadn't considered that specific language before... and it certainly clears things up.
Thanks to you both.