As I read the invocations for eldritch blast it says at 5th lvl there are two beams. In the above example my character is 6th lvl. So does he use 2 beams?
"You determine what spells you know and can prepare for each class individually, as if you were a single-classed member of that class." And then, "You determine your available spell slots by adding together all your levels. ... this might give you spell slots of a level higher than you know or can prepare."
Using your character as the example, your character is considered 6th level for determining spell slots. You have four 1st level spell slots, three 2nd level spell slots, and three 3rd level spell slots. However, you don't know any 3rd level spells, and you can't cast any spells on the 3rd level spell list, because neither of your two classes is yet 5th level. BUT... you CAN use a 3rd level spell slot to cast a 1st or 2nd level spell that you know at the higher level, thus potentially increasing its effect.
Also, "If a lower level spell that you cast, like Burning Hands, has an enhanced effect when cast using a higher-level spell slot, you can use the enhanced effect, even though you don't have any spells of that higher level."
So... yes. I would say that when your character casts Eldritch Blast, he throws TWO beams.
imho
(Spells known: separate by class. Spell slots: combine class levels. Enhance power of spells at higher levels: combine class levels.)
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Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
That is a helpful answer. I'm not sure I have it completely straight in my head, but i do recall seeing the spell slot table in multi classing. I don't know if the dndbeyond character sheet creates the spell slots the same way. (It never occurred to me to cast something at 3rd level b/c I didn't have any third level spells.
You determine your available spell slots by adding together all your levels in the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes, half your levels (rounded down) in the paladin and ranger classes, and a third of your fighter or rogue levels (rounded down) if you have the Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Trickster feature. Use this total to determine your spell slots by consulting the Multiclass Spellcaster table.
note that the Warlock class is not included in that. The Pact Magic feature from the Warlock class is covered separately:
If you have both the Spellcasting class feature and the Pact Magic class feature from the warlock class, you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know.
For your character, you gain the spell slots from your bard levels and you also gain the spell slots from your warlock levels, but they are worked out separately. Your D&D Beyond character sheet will indicate the number of spell slots your character has of each level.
This means you'll have from bard: 4x 1st level & 3x 2nd level. From warlock you'll have 2x 1st level slots.
I just created a quick test character in DnDBeyond just to confirm that the system does match the PHB, and it does. When I selected Eldritch Blast, in my spell list is says, under "Notes" to the right of the spell name, "Count 2, V/S".
So the DnDB program does conform to the PHB rules. Your character fires two bolts when casting Eldritch Blast.
As far as your other spells, you don't know any 3rd level spells yet, but you can use your 3rd level spell slots to cast a 1st or 2nd level spell that you do know at a higher level for an enhanced effect.
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
As far as your other spells, you don't know any 3rd level spells yet, but you can use your 3rd level spell slots to cast a 1st or 2nd level spell that you do know at a higher level for an enhanced effect.
The warlock class doesn't count as a spellcasting class for multiclassing (see my post above).
This means that the character doesn't have any 3rd level spell slots.
The character has the spell slots from being a bard and the spell slots from being a warlock - these are assessed entirely separately based upon the levels in those classes.
On the other question - the cantrip eldritch blast, as with all cantrips, scales off total character level, regardless of what classes those levels are in.
The "Pact Magic" paragraph on page 164 seems to indicate that while Pact Magic is calculated differently than other spellcasting classes, and "you can use the spell slots you gain from the spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know".
And yet yes, under "Spell Slots" it does list "bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes" but not warlock.
Hmm. Sacramentum sacramentorum!
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Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anything that scales with level, but does not specifically state that it only counts a specific class levels, scale with total character level.
Example: cantrips all improve based on total character level, regardless of classes; Second Wind only improves based on the character's Fighter levels.
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
In the OP, the question was not about invocations but the cantrip eldritch blast. Eldritch blast is a spell that scales by CHARACTER level. A sixth level character who casts eldritch blast will fire 2 beams. Invocations like agonizing or repelling blast will apply to each beam.
As described above, warlock levels do NOT contribute to calculating the total spell slots of a multi-classed character. This is because warlocks use "pact magic" and the others use "spellcasting". A fourth level bard has 3 second and 4 first level spells. A second level warlock has 2 first level spells. Your character will have 3 second level spell slots and 6 first level spell slots ... 2 of the first level spell slots will replenish on a short rest while the rest will require a long rest.
Spell selection for bard and warlock levels is made based on the specific CLASS level. However, any appropriate spell slot can be used to cast spells from either class.
A character with 4 levels of bard and 2 levels of warlock is a 6th level character and casts cantrips at 6th level, so their Eldritch Blast would have 2 beams.
Cantrips are cast based on the total character level, unlike 1st-9th level spells. This is an important difference, because a character who dips in a spell casting class or takes a feat that grants the ability to cast cantrips still casts the cantrips based on the total character level. A 20 Barbarian with the Magic Initiate feat would still cast those cantrips at 20th level (assuming that they aren't raging at the time, of course!), and a 1 Wizard / 19 Fighter (Battle Master) would cast Firebolt at 20th level and 4d10 fire damage.
A warlock's cantrips will scale with character level.
A warlock's spells are cast at the level of spell slot the warlock has. A warlock with third level spell slots will cast all spells at third level using those third level spell slots. This will mostly affect spells that scale with spell slot level. Some spells do not scale with spell slot or caster level, these spells will take effect as normal, but the spell slot level may affect things like Counterspell against them. A warlock will cast with their designated spell slot level even if they do not know any spells of that level.
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I have a 4th lvl bard and 2nd lvl Warlock.
As I read the invocations for eldritch blast it says at 5th lvl there are two beams. In the above example my character is 6th lvl. So does he use 2 beams?
Thanks
Wak.
Page 164 of the Players Handbook for reference.
"You determine what spells you know and can prepare for each class individually, as if you were a single-classed member of that class." And then, "You determine your available spell slots by adding together all your levels. ... this might give you spell slots of a level higher than you know or can prepare."
Using your character as the example, your character is considered 6th level for determining spell slots. You have four 1st level spell slots, three 2nd level spell slots, and three 3rd level spell slots. However, you don't know any 3rd level spells, and you can't cast any spells on the 3rd level spell list, because neither of your two classes is yet 5th level. BUT... you CAN use a 3rd level spell slot to cast a 1st or 2nd level spell that you know at the higher level, thus potentially increasing its effect.
Also, "If a lower level spell that you cast, like Burning Hands, has an enhanced effect when cast using a higher-level spell slot, you can use the enhanced effect, even though you don't have any spells of that higher level."
So... yes. I would say that when your character casts Eldritch Blast, he throws TWO beams.
imho
(Spells known: separate by class. Spell slots: combine class levels. Enhance power of spells at higher levels: combine class levels.)
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
That is a helpful answer. I'm not sure I have it completely straight in my head, but i do recall seeing the spell slot table in multi classing. I don't know if the dndbeyond character sheet creates the spell slots the same way. (It never occurred to me to cast something at 3rd level b/c I didn't have any third level spells.
The multiclassing rules are here:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/phb/customization-options#Spellcasting
Specifically relevant on spell slots:
note that the Warlock class is not included in that. The Pact Magic feature from the Warlock class is covered separately:
For your character, you gain the spell slots from your bard levels and you also gain the spell slots from your warlock levels, but they are worked out separately. Your D&D Beyond character sheet will indicate the number of spell slots your character has of each level.
This means you'll have from bard: 4x 1st level & 3x 2nd level. From warlock you'll have 2x 1st level slots.
Pun-loving nerd | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
I just created a quick test character in DnDBeyond just to confirm that the system does match the PHB, and it does. When I selected Eldritch Blast, in my spell list is says, under "Notes" to the right of the spell name, "Count 2, V/S".
So the DnDB program does conform to the PHB rules. Your character fires two bolts when casting Eldritch Blast.
As far as your other spells, you don't know any 3rd level spells yet, but you can use your 3rd level spell slots to cast a 1st or 2nd level spell that you do know at a higher level for an enhanced effect.
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
The warlock class doesn't count as a spellcasting class for multiclassing (see my post above).
This means that the character doesn't have any 3rd level spell slots.
The character has the spell slots from being a bard and the spell slots from being a warlock - these are assessed entirely separately based upon the levels in those classes.
On the other question - the cantrip eldritch blast, as with all cantrips, scales off total character level, regardless of what classes those levels are in.
Pun-loving nerd | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
The "Pact Magic" paragraph on page 164 seems to indicate that while Pact Magic is calculated differently than other spellcasting classes, and "you can use the spell slots you gain from the spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know".
And yet yes, under "Spell Slots" it does list "bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes" but not warlock.
Hmm. Sacramentum sacramentorum!
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
So for purposes of abilities, college and patron, that goes off of total character level?
Anything that scales with level, but does not specifically state that it only counts a specific class levels, scale with total character level.
Example: cantrips all improve based on total character level, regardless of classes; Second Wind only improves based on the character's Fighter levels.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
1) Most class abilities scale off CLASS level.
2) Cantrips scale off CHARACTER level.
In the OP, the question was not about invocations but the cantrip eldritch blast. Eldritch blast is a spell that scales by CHARACTER level. A sixth level character who casts eldritch blast will fire 2 beams. Invocations like agonizing or repelling blast will apply to each beam.
As described above, warlock levels do NOT contribute to calculating the total spell slots of a multi-classed character. This is because warlocks use "pact magic" and the others use "spellcasting". A fourth level bard has 3 second and 4 first level spells. A second level warlock has 2 first level spells. Your character will have 3 second level spell slots and 6 first level spell slots ... 2 of the first level spell slots will replenish on a short rest while the rest will require a long rest.
Spell selection for bard and warlock levels is made based on the specific CLASS level. However, any appropriate spell slot can be used to cast spells from either class.
Hadn't even thought of short and long rest issue.
A character with 4 levels of bard and 2 levels of warlock is a 6th level character and casts cantrips at 6th level, so their Eldritch Blast would have 2 beams.
Cantrips are cast based on the total character level, unlike 1st-9th level spells. This is an important difference, because a character who dips in a spell casting class or takes a feat that grants the ability to cast cantrips still casts the cantrips based on the total character level. A 20 Barbarian with the Magic Initiate feat would still cast those cantrips at 20th level (assuming that they aren't raging at the time, of course!), and a 1 Wizard / 19 Fighter (Battle Master) would cast Firebolt at 20th level and 4d10 fire damage.
A warlock's cantrips will scale with character level.
A warlock's spells are cast at the level of spell slot the warlock has. A warlock with third level spell slots will cast all spells at third level using those third level spell slots. This will mostly affect spells that scale with spell slot level. Some spells do not scale with spell slot or caster level, these spells will take effect as normal, but the spell slot level may affect things like Counterspell against them. A warlock will cast with their designated spell slot level even if they do not know any spells of that level.