The rules for opportunity attacks state that "The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach." So the question is, if you have the war caster to cast booming blade instead of an opportunity attack, how does this play out?
1) wreathed in booming energy 5 feet away amd chooses whether or not to move. 2) wreathed in booming energy 10 feet away and chooses whether or not to continue moving. 3) wreathed in booming energy 5 feet away, but already moving, so triggers extra damage immediately.
1. On your turn you can choose how and when to spend your movement and can make different choices in response to other actions. An important question, though, is whether you recognize that the 'booming energy' surrounding you will damage you if you move.
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I think the general assumption is that any creature can feel the potential damage of booming blade's aura and also instinctively feels its temporary nature, and can choose to remain still to avoid it.
That being said, the target can choose now to cancel their movement to avoid further damage, leaving them within the 5' range. It would be the same if something about your attack assigned a restrained or grappled condition or otherwise prevented movement. The opportunity attack happens before the movement, but because of the movement. It's that moment when they turn their back slightly or drop their guard trying to get away (without using the disengage action) that is when you strike.
Interesting! Let's look at the relevant parts of the components.
Opportunity Attacks
You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. To make the opportunity attack, you use your reaction to make one melee attack against the provoking creature. The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach.
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.
Booming Blade
As part of the action used to cast this spell, you must make a melee attack with a weapon against one creature within the spell’s range, otherwise the spell fails. On a hit, the target suffers the attack’s normal effects, and it becomes sheathed in booming energy until the start of your next turn. If the target willingly moves before then, it immediately takes 1d8 thunder damage, and the spell ends.
So first off, it's very clear that a creature moving out of reach will trigger an opportunity attack and also that war caster allows that opportunity attack to be a spell, so therefore Booming Blade is allowed. There are various sage advice tweets from Jeremy Crawford confirming this with regards Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade.
I guess there are several options, as the OP wrote.
RAW it seems that the point where the opportunity attack occurs, the target is still within 5' reach (see wording I bolded above).
We can assume that the creature is capable of instantly stopping, as the D&D rules have no sense of momentum and there are other abilities that can cause creatures to suddenly have zero movement and stop on the spot. So, it seems reasonable that the target can choose to instantly cease further movement if it wishes.
On immediately ceasing movement, the target's position is exactly where it was when the opportunity attack was triggered - right before it leaves your reach.
Thus it seems the creature is still within your reach.
So, it just comes down to whether the target chooses to stop or not. The options are:
The creature elects to stop immediately, which leaves it still in reach and doesn't trigger the secondary part of the booming blade spell.
The creature elects to continue moving and moves to where it planned, taking the opportunity attack and also being affected by the secondary part of the booming blade spell.
Whether the creature understands what has happened to it when the Booming Blade spell lands, and additionally whether it chooses to stop moving, is up to the DM.
This is just my take on the situation, based on the rules that are written down - I am not an official source of rules clarifications. :)
I am not resolved on the issue but I think I disagree.
opportunity attack:
"You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. "
the trigger actually requires the target to be out of the attackers reach. if the movement is interrupted the opportunity attack is not allowed, therefore the movement could not be interrupted.
we may need capt Picard to sort this temporal paradox out.
my 2 cents; OP option 2) wreathed in boom 10ft away.
Personally I would rule that the creature has moved and therefore the booming blade damage occurs.
If the creature chooses not to move to avoid the booming blade damage then it isn't moving away to provoke the opportunity attack. This means the attack/spell doesn't happen because no opportunity attack happens because it didn't move to provide the opportunity to attack.
The decision and action to move has already occurred which allows the opportunity attack. So it gets it all, it can't change its mind because it has already done the movement that allows the opportunity attack.
My initial ruling would have been that the opportunity attack and thus spell happens as the foe is moving away, so the creature gets to leave the caster's reach and then choose whether to move more and take damage or stay.
But then I was reminded of the Sentinel feat which works similarly, by dropping speed to 0. For that feat, the movement is interrupted and thus the foe is stuck with the defender. So I would apply the same thinking here. Essentially the process would go:
Foe decides to move away.
Foe drops their guard enough to provoke an opportunity attack.
Caster drops a booming blade on the foe.
Foe now gets to choose whether to actually move or not.
Also, looking through the Sage Advice that led me to this conclusion made me realize that reach + War Caster + booming blade is a bombo, because War Caster triggers off opportunity attacks, which happen when someone leaves your reach, and by the time they do that they're out of range of the booming blade.
Also, looking through the Sage Advice that led me to this conclusion made me realize that reach + War Caster + booming blade is a bombo, because War Caster triggers off opportunity attacks, which happen when someone leaves your reach, and by the time they do that they're out of range of the booming blade.
By that logic then no melee weapon except a couple reach ones would be able to be used to make an opportunity attack. The rule specifically says a melee attack. It also states "The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach."
They're referring to the spell booming blade and similar spells, having a range of 5 ft, hence the spell sniper feat allowing those spells to be used at 10 ft range, making them more useful with weapons that have reach.
Also, looking through the Sage Advice that led me to this conclusion made me realize that reach + War Caster + booming blade is a bombo, because War Caster triggers off opportunity attacks, which happen when someone leaves your reach, and by the time they do that they're out of range of the booming blade.
By that logic then no melee weapon except a couple reach ones would be able to be used to make an opportunity attack. The rule specifically says a melee attack. It also states "The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach."
I was talking about reach weapons. If you have a reach weapon, the opportunity attack is triggered when the opponent goes from 10 to 15 ft away. That's beyond the range of booming blade. Unless you combine it with Spell Sniper, but at that point we're probably getting a bit deep into weird builds.
I'm a level 8 eldritch knight with long sword. I've just gained this combo and here is how I see it:
The enemy moves minimum 5ft away from me. This triggers AoO. The attack from the opportunity occurs before the enemy has left my reach.
That means before the enemy has completed moving the minimum 5ft away from me, I can activate war caster and cast BB and roll to hit. On a hit, I roll initial BB dmg. At this point the enemy has completed moving the minimum 5ft away while also becoming "sheathed in booming light" which sets up the second half of the BB potential dmg.
In order for the second half of the BB dmg to proc, the enemy would need to then continue moving (any total movement greater than 5ft).
This tells me that in order to complete the full effects of BB during the AoO, the enemy needs to move a minimum of 10ft away from me in total.
If the enemy chooses not to willingly move for the rest of its turn after the first 5ft, then the second half of BB dmg is basically lost.
Can someone confirm if what I'm saying is correct? Thanks
I'm a level 8 eldritch knight with long sword. I've just gained this combo and here is how I see it:
The enemy moves minimum 5ft away from me. This triggers AoO. The attack from the opportunity occurs before the enemy has left my reach.
That means before the enemy has completed moving the minimum 5ft away from me, I can activate war caster and cast BB and roll to hit. On a hit, I roll initial BB dmg. At this point the enemy has completed moving the minimum 5ft away while also becoming "sheathed in booming light" which sets up the second half of the BB potential dmg.
In order for the second half of the BB dmg to proc, the enemy would need to then continue moving (any total movement greater than 5ft).
This tells me that in order to complete the full effects of BB during the AoO, the enemy needs to move a minimum of 10ft away from me in total.
If the enemy chooses not to willingly move for the rest of its turn after the first 5ft, then the second half of BB dmg is basically lost.
Can someone confirm if what I'm saying is correct? Thanks
Since the AoO actually happens before they finish moving away, booming blade's second effect activates while they are 5 feet away, then they choose whether or not to move. It is like a substitute sentinel feat.
Can someone confirm if what I'm saying is correct? Thanks
Since the AoO actually happens before they finish moving away, booming blade's second effect activates while they are 5 feet away, then they choose whether or not to move. It is like a substitute sentinel feat.
I found a lot of disputes about this online so I figured it must be as I had previously mentioned.
But I guess it is simply a really strong combo, especially when combined with Shadow Blade :D
Can someone confirm if what I'm saying is correct? Thanks
Since the AoO actually happens before they finish moving away, booming blade's second effect activates while they are 5 feet away, then they choose whether or not to move. It is like a substitute sentinel feat.
I found a lot of disputes about this online so I figured it must be as I had previously mentioned.
But I guess it is simply a really strong combo, especially when combined with Shadow Blade :D
Thanks for getting back to me!
This is from SA compendium, specifically about sentinel, but applies:
...an opportunity attack specifically takes place before its trigger finishes—that is, right before the target creature leaves your reach (PH, 195).
And to apply a bit of logic: How would an attack or spell with a range of 5 feet hit if it occurred after the move (for that matter any AoO, since they are triggered by leaving range)?
(To be fair, I once asked a very similar question about booming blade.)
I think the big takeaway I'm getting from this is that the main determining factor is whether your opponent is able to realize what the effects of Booming Blade are.
I think the big takeaway I'm getting from this is that the main determining factor is whether your opponent is able to realize what the effects of Booming Blade are.
I think what you're hinting at (which is what I found in many forums) is can the enemy renege their movement? But because the AoO is beholding to the movement, if they did - the entire AoO would also be reneged, including the BB cantrip. So whether they notice the effects or not, it is meant too be too late by the time they realise.
Edit: I guess thats why its an attack of opportunity, because the enemies guard slipped long enough to allow an attack and War Caster allows a PC to really capitalise on this.
I think the idea is they turn to run - leaving themselves open to an attack - but they haven't run yet. They could decide running at that point is a bad idea and stay - putting their guard back up. But the AoO still happened.
The rules for opportunity attacks state that "The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach." So the question is, if you have the war caster to cast booming blade instead of an opportunity attack, how does this play out?
1) wreathed in booming energy 5 feet away amd chooses whether or not to move. 2) wreathed in booming energy 10 feet away and chooses whether or not to continue moving. 3) wreathed in booming energy 5 feet away, but already moving, so triggers extra damage immediately.
1. On your turn you can choose how and when to spend your movement and can make different choices in response to other actions. An important question, though, is whether you recognize that the 'booming energy' surrounding you will damage you if you move.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I think the general assumption is that any creature can feel the potential damage of booming blade's aura and also instinctively feels its temporary nature, and can choose to remain still to avoid it.
That being said, the target can choose now to cancel their movement to avoid further damage, leaving them within the 5' range. It would be the same if something about your attack assigned a restrained or grappled condition or otherwise prevented movement. The opportunity attack happens before the movement, but because of the movement. It's that moment when they turn their back slightly or drop their guard trying to get away (without using the disengage action) that is when you strike.
Interesting! Let's look at the relevant parts of the components.
Opportunity Attacks
War Caster
Booming Blade
So first off, it's very clear that a creature moving out of reach will trigger an opportunity attack and also that war caster allows that opportunity attack to be a spell, so therefore Booming Blade is allowed. There are various sage advice tweets from Jeremy Crawford confirming this with regards Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade.
I guess there are several options, as the OP wrote.
RAW it seems that the point where the opportunity attack occurs, the target is still within 5' reach (see wording I bolded above).
We can assume that the creature is capable of instantly stopping, as the D&D rules have no sense of momentum and there are other abilities that can cause creatures to suddenly have zero movement and stop on the spot. So, it seems reasonable that the target can choose to instantly cease further movement if it wishes.
On immediately ceasing movement, the target's position is exactly where it was when the opportunity attack was triggered - right before it leaves your reach.
Thus it seems the creature is still within your reach.
So, it just comes down to whether the target chooses to stop or not. The options are:
Whether the creature understands what has happened to it when the Booming Blade spell lands, and additionally whether it chooses to stop moving, is up to the DM.
This is just my take on the situation, based on the rules that are written down - I am not an official source of rules clarifications. :)
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Thank you everyone for your answers.
And thank you stormknight for your thorough explanation.
I am not resolved on the issue but I think I disagree.
opportunity attack:
"You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. "
the trigger actually requires the target to be out of the attackers reach. if the movement is interrupted the opportunity attack is not allowed, therefore the movement could not be interrupted.
we may need capt Picard to sort this temporal paradox out.
my 2 cents; OP option 2) wreathed in boom 10ft away.
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
Personally I would rule that the creature has moved and therefore the booming blade damage occurs.
If the creature chooses not to move to avoid the booming blade damage then it isn't moving away to provoke the opportunity attack. This means the attack/spell doesn't happen because no opportunity attack happens because it didn't move to provide the opportunity to attack.
The decision and action to move has already occurred which allows the opportunity attack. So it gets it all, it can't change its mind because it has already done the movement that allows the opportunity attack.
My initial ruling would have been that the opportunity attack and thus spell happens as the foe is moving away, so the creature gets to leave the caster's reach and then choose whether to move more and take damage or stay.
But then I was reminded of the Sentinel feat which works similarly, by dropping speed to 0. For that feat, the movement is interrupted and thus the foe is stuck with the defender. So I would apply the same thinking here. Essentially the process would go:
Also, looking through the Sage Advice that led me to this conclusion made me realize that reach + War Caster + booming blade is a bombo, because War Caster triggers off opportunity attacks, which happen when someone leaves your reach, and by the time they do that they're out of range of the booming blade.
The feat Spell Sniper doubles the range of spells that require an attack roll. It should allow Booming Blade to be used with a reach weapon.
By that logic then no melee weapon except a couple reach ones would be able to be used to make an opportunity attack. The rule specifically says a melee attack. It also states "The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach."
They're referring to the spell booming blade and similar spells, having a range of 5 ft, hence the spell sniper feat allowing those spells to be used at 10 ft range, making them more useful with weapons that have reach.
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I was talking about reach weapons. If you have a reach weapon, the opportunity attack is triggered when the opponent goes from 10 to 15 ft away. That's beyond the range of booming blade. Unless you combine it with Spell Sniper, but at that point we're probably getting a bit deep into weird builds.
That makes more sense.
I'm a level 8 eldritch knight with long sword. I've just gained this combo and here is how I see it:
The enemy moves minimum 5ft away from me. This triggers AoO. The attack from the opportunity occurs before the enemy has left my reach.
That means before the enemy has completed moving the minimum 5ft away from me, I can activate war caster and cast BB and roll to hit. On a hit, I roll initial BB dmg. At this point the enemy has completed moving the minimum 5ft away while also becoming "sheathed in booming light" which sets up the second half of the BB potential dmg.
In order for the second half of the BB dmg to proc, the enemy would need to then continue moving (any total movement greater than 5ft).
This tells me that in order to complete the full effects of BB during the AoO, the enemy needs to move a minimum of 10ft away from me in total.
If the enemy chooses not to willingly move for the rest of its turn after the first 5ft, then the second half of BB dmg is basically lost.
Can someone confirm if what I'm saying is correct? Thanks
Since the AoO actually happens before they finish moving away, booming blade's second effect activates while they are 5 feet away, then they choose whether or not to move. It is like a substitute sentinel feat.
I found a lot of disputes about this online so I figured it must be as I had previously mentioned.
But I guess it is simply a really strong combo, especially when combined with Shadow Blade :D
Thanks for getting back to me!
This is from SA compendium, specifically about sentinel, but applies:
And to apply a bit of logic: How would an attack or spell with a range of 5 feet hit if it occurred after the move (for that matter any AoO, since they are triggered by leaving range)?
(To be fair, I once asked a very similar question about booming blade.)
I think the big takeaway I'm getting from this is that the main determining factor is whether your opponent is able to realize what the effects of Booming Blade are.
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I think what you're hinting at (which is what I found in many forums) is can the enemy renege their movement? But because the AoO is beholding to the movement, if they did - the entire AoO would also be reneged, including the BB cantrip. So whether they notice the effects or not, it is meant too be too late by the time they realise.
Edit: I guess thats why its an attack of opportunity, because the enemies guard slipped long enough to allow an attack and War Caster allows a PC to really capitalise on this.
I think the idea is they turn to run - leaving themselves open to an attack - but they haven't run yet. They could decide running at that point is a bad idea and stay - putting their guard back up. But the AoO still happened.
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