My character is currently Monk 1/ Fighter 2 and the short term plan up until today has been to get Fighter up till 3 and then go Monk up until Extra attack, picking up Mobility at Monk 4...
However, I have been thinking about the potential of Booming Blade with this multi-class and the reaction synergy with Polearm Master & Warcaster. At level 8, wielding a spear two-handed with both Polearm Master and Warcaster Feats:
Action: Booming Blade: 2d8 +x
Bonus Action: Monk Disengage (1 ki)
Enemy Follows: Instant 2d8
Reaction: Booming Blade: 4d8 +x
Efficiency: This requires two feats, 1 ki point and the enemy to move... but it is a very juicy 8d8 damage before bonuses. However, it means no Kensei +2ac from unarmed strike or Extra Attack (from Monk 5 onwards)
I’d like help with interaction rule clarifications:
Polearm Master bonus action attack (cannot be used after unarmed strike or Booming Blade), I believe the damage die should increase with the martial arts die (only useful if weapon is magical/ want to use the Deft Strike Kensei feature)
Polearm Master and/or Extra Attack & Action Surge, again for bonus action attack, the wording of only using a Spear... does that mean that all my attacks within one attack action have to use the spear and thus cannot be unarmed attacks?
Booming Blade used on a reaction (leaving 5ft: Warcaster or entering 5ft: Polearm Master & Warcaster) I believe should do Initial Damage after declaration but before movement and then movement will happen and the extra damage will trigger.
Also, do you think it’s worth going for these two feats? This would mean delaying Monk features (including Extra Attack), not getting Mobility and also removing one ASI (my current level 3 character has 18 Dex & 16 Wis) in order to use Booming Blade whenever an enemy enters or leaves 5ft of me... and a couple of other minor benefits.
I would say the bonus action Polearm Master attack could use your Martial Arts die since the Martial Arts feature specifically says you can do so for any attack with a Monk Weapon - which a Spear is.
You're referring to the words: "...and attack with only a glaive..."? Well - even if that did restrict you to not being allowed to use unarmed - you could use your first attack to hit with a spear - then bonus action Polearm Master attack (because you satisfied the condition) - and then use the rest of your extra attacks for unarmed. So I'm basically saying it seems fine to do that. What it's probably trying to avoid is people swapping out weapons to a non-Polearm weapon and still wanting their bonus action attack. Or maybe trying to two-weapon fighting with a spear/quarterstaff and a longsword for example.
This question on whether the Booming Blade movement component goes off immediately or whether the target can decide to stop moving to avoid it has a whole thread devoted to people discussing it - so I'm not going to say anything about this.
As for whether it's worth it? I wouldn't say so. Using Booming Blade on a character that gets access to Extra Attacks feels like a waste because casting Booming Blade is a [Tooltip Not Found] action - not the Attack action - and therefore you don't get to use any of your extra attacks.
This is especially bad news for a Monk because you can't do your bonus action unarmed strikes or Flurry of Blows if you didn't use the Attack action. Edit: For this very same reason - if you use Booming Blade you won't be able to use the Polearm Master bonus action attack.
Thank you Emmber, that is very helpful (especially point 2). I’d be interested if there is any consensus on the Booming Blade order thread.
Either way (especially once I get Extra Attack) I wouldn’t be using Booming Blade all the time anyway. It would be limited to; Action Surge, chasing an enemy, solo combat, thunder vulnerability or role play.
However, the reason for Polearm Master & Warcaster would be reactions in and out of 5ft, which doubles the potential (and tactics) for Opportunity Attacks whilst increasing damage from 1d8+4 to 4d8+4 (which is a pretty big deal). There are also some very small benefits: Concentration Adv (Good and Evil), Somatic components whilst hands busy, Spear rather than unarmed for bonus atk.
On the other hand, ASI and Mobility...
+1ac (19) and +1 to attack and damage rolls from +2 Dexterity (20) and Mobility improves movement but more importantly allows me to Attack and then Flurry whilst also disengaging. This is also strong.
Which makes the choice difficult as ASIs are really important for Monks but in an ideal world I would also want all three Feats (which isn’t a reasonable aspiration). Though I won’t need to decide until Level 7 (Monk 4/ Fighter 3), so plenty of time to deliberate.
My character is currently Monk 1/ Fighter 2 and the short term plan up until today has been to get Fighter up till 3 and then go Monk up until Extra attack, picking up Mobility at Monk 4...
However, I have been thinking about the potential of Booming Blade with this multi-class and the reaction synergy with Polearm Master & Warcaster. At level 8, wielding a spear two-handed with both Polearm Master and Warcaster Feats:
Action: Booming Blade: 2d8 +x
Bonus Action: Monk Disengage (1 ki)
Enemy Follows: Instant 2d8
Reaction: Booming Blade: 4d8 +x
Efficiency: This requires two feats, 1 ki point and the enemy to move... but it is a very juicy 8d8 damage before bonuses. However, it means no Kensei +2ac from unarmed strike or Extra Attack (from Monk 5 onwards)
I’d like help with interaction rule clarifications:
Polearm Master bonus action attack (cannot be used after unarmed strike or Booming Blade), I believe the damage die should increase with the martial arts die (only useful if weapon is magical/ want to use the Deft Strike Kensei feature)
Polearm Master and/or Extra Attack & Action Surge, again for bonus action attack, the wording of only using a Spear... does that mean that all my attacks within one attack action have to use the spear and thus cannot be unarmed attacks?
Booming Blade used on a reaction (leaving 5ft: Warcaster or entering 5ft: Polearm Master & Warcaster) I believe should do Initial Damage after declaration but before movement and then movement will happen and the extra damage will trigger.
Also, do you think it’s worth going for these two feats? This would mean delaying Monk features (including Extra Attack), not getting Mobility and also removing one ASI (my current level 3 character has 18 Dex & 16 Wis) in order to use Booming Blade whenever an enemy enters or leaves 5ft of me... and a couple of other minor benefits.
It can work if you have a pole-arm with only a 5ft reach if you have one with the reach ability and can hit from 10ft away you need the feet spell sniper as well in order to use booming blade as the reaction to them coming at you. If you hit them and disengage then i'd assume you'd be more than 5 or 10ft away with that and they'd have to move to get closer thus setting off booming blades effect.
Hey Chaotic Good, yeah my character uses a spear, and is actually level 5 now (Monk 2 Eldritch Knight 3, I decided that I'm going to get Extra Attack from Fighter instead).
I'm going for three Feats: Polearm Master, Warcaster and Mobile... so Spell Sniper would be a bit too much to add (also because the reach ones also can't be Monk Weapons). I would like to get my 18Dex and 16Wis maxed out eventually :-)
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My character is currently Monk 1/ Fighter 2 and the short term plan up until today has been to get Fighter up till 3 and then go Monk up until Extra attack, picking up Mobility at Monk 4...
However, I have been thinking about the potential of Booming Blade with this multi-class and the reaction synergy with Polearm Master & Warcaster. At level 8, wielding a spear two-handed with both Polearm Master and Warcaster Feats:
Also, do you think it’s worth going for these two feats? This would mean delaying Monk features (including Extra Attack), not getting Mobility and also removing one ASI (my current level 3 character has 18 Dex & 16 Wis) in order to use Booming Blade whenever an enemy enters or leaves 5ft of me... and a couple of other minor benefits.
What it's probably trying to avoid is people swapping out weapons to a non-Polearm weapon and still wanting their bonus action attack. Or maybe trying to two-weapon fighting with a spear/quarterstaff and a longsword for example.
As for whether it's worth it? I wouldn't say so. Using Booming Blade on a character that gets access to Extra Attacks feels like a waste because casting Booming Blade is a [Tooltip Not Found] action - not the Attack action - and therefore you don't get to use any of your extra attacks.
This is especially bad news for a Monk because you can't do your bonus action unarmed strikes or Flurry of Blows if you didn't use the Attack action.
Edit: For this very same reason - if you use Booming Blade you won't be able to use the Polearm Master bonus action attack.
Mega Yahtzee Thread:
Highest 41: brocker2001 (#11,285).
Yahtzee of 2's: Emmber (#36,161).
Lowest 9: JoeltheWalrus (#312), Emmber (#12,505) and Dertinus (#20,953).
Thank you Emmber, that is very helpful (especially point 2). I’d be interested if there is any consensus on the Booming Blade order thread.
Either way (especially once I get Extra Attack) I wouldn’t be using Booming Blade all the time anyway. It would be limited to; Action Surge, chasing an enemy, solo combat, thunder vulnerability or role play.
However, the reason for Polearm Master & Warcaster would be reactions in and out of 5ft, which doubles the potential (and tactics) for Opportunity Attacks whilst increasing damage from 1d8+4 to 4d8+4 (which is a pretty big deal). There are also some very small benefits: Concentration Adv (Good and Evil), Somatic components whilst hands busy, Spear rather than unarmed for bonus atk.
On the other hand, ASI and Mobility...
+1ac (19) and +1 to attack and damage rolls from +2 Dexterity (20) and Mobility improves movement but more importantly allows me to Attack and then Flurry whilst also disengaging. This is also strong.
Which makes the choice difficult as ASIs are really important for Monks but in an ideal world I would also want all three Feats (which isn’t a reasonable aspiration). Though I won’t need to decide until Level 7 (Monk 4/ Fighter 3), so plenty of time to deliberate.
It can work if you have a pole-arm with only a 5ft reach if you have one with the reach ability and can hit from 10ft away you need the feet spell sniper as well in order to use booming blade as the reaction to them coming at you. If you hit them and disengage then i'd assume you'd be more than 5 or 10ft away with that and they'd have to move to get closer thus setting off booming blades effect.
Hey Chaotic Good, yeah my character uses a spear, and is actually level 5 now (Monk 2 Eldritch Knight 3, I decided that I'm going to get Extra Attack from Fighter instead).
I'm going for three Feats: Polearm Master, Warcaster and Mobile... so Spell Sniper would be a bit too much to add (also because the reach ones also can't be Monk Weapons). I would like to get my 18Dex and 16Wis maxed out eventually :-)