If you have multiple attack options (say, dual wielding a shortsword and a whip (a whip isn't a light weapon, but that just means you can't use two weapon fighting, you can still wield both), or a monster with several natural weapons), when do opportunity attacks trigger?
When the target moves out of reach of any of your attacks, and you can opportunity attack with that weapon? So someone moving from 5' away to 10' away would trigger the shortsword but not the whip, someone moving 10' to 15' would trigger the whip but not the shortsword? Or do you have to somehow pick which one applies?
If you have multiple attack options (say, dual wielding a shortsword and a whip (a whip isn't a light weapon, but that just means you can't use two weapon fighting, you can still wield both), or a monster with several natural weapons), when do opportunity attacks trigger?
When the target moves out of reach of any of your attacks, and you can opportunity attack with that weapon? So someone moving from 5' away to 10' away would trigger the shortsword but not the whip, someone moving 10' to 15' would trigger the whip but not the shortsword? Or do you have to somehow pick which one applies?
There have been numerous debates on this issue, but the only RAW answer is: an OA is provoked whenever a creature exits the reach of any of your currently applicable reaches, but the OA can only be taken with whatever weapon/ability is applicable in that moment.
As you've guessed, 5'->10' provokes from your shortsword, not your whip. 10'->15' provokes from your whip, not your shortsword. If the sequence of movement covers a creature moving from 5'->15', you can choose to attack with the shortsword at the 5'->10' moment, or you can forgo that opportunity to instead attack with the whip at the 10'->15' moment.
It's a sequential process, so if you forgo your first opportunity to attack with the shortsword, you are making a gamble on what the creature decides to actually do. It is possible that the creature stops at 10' without provoking any OA with your whip.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
There have indeed been debates on this. And no, there is NOT any RAW language limiting you to taking the OA with the same weapon whose reach triggered the OA. If you dual a dagger and a whip, there is nothing stating that you can’t whip them when they step from 5-10 feet, even though it’s the dagger (or your unarmed strike) range that it provoked.
There are different schools of thought, and some arguably absurd results from each, but no rule text that answers the question... so just make a table ruling and live with it.
There have indeed been debates on this. And no, there is NOT any RAW language limiting you to taking the OA with the same weapon whose reach triggered the OA. If you dual a dagger and a whip, there is nothing stating that you can’t whip them when they step from 5-10 feet, even though it’s the dagger (or your unarmed strike) range that it provoked.
There are different schools of thought, and some arguably absurd results from each, but no rule text that answers the question... so just make a table ruling and live with it.
How does a reach weapon work with opportunity attacks?
An opportunity attack is normally triggered when a creature you can see moves beyond your reach. If you want to make an opportunity attack with a reach weapon, such as a glaive or a halberd, you can do so when a creature leaves the reach you have with that weapon. For example, if you’re wielding a halberd, a creature that is right next to you could move 5 feet away without triggering an opportunity attack. If that creature tries to move an additional 5 feet — beyond your 10-foot reach — the creature then triggers an opportunity attack.
Having a shortsword in one hand is not a magical "make my whip better" device. You can only make an attack of opportunity with whatever weapon is applicable in the moment the OA was provoked.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Cool, SAC isn't "the rules", and you won't find "with that weapon" anywhere in the actual rule books. I understand your position, like I said reasonable minds differ on this, but that is 100% not a restriction you'll find in the PHB.
Capstone argument for how I read OA's while dual wielding different reach'ed weapons:
1. I'm wielding a whip and a dagger... and I have War Caster.
2. Enemy steps from 5-10 feet, triggering an OA opportunity with my dagger (or, my Unarmed Strike).
3. Using War Caster, I choose to cast Booming Blade instead of using my OA.
4. As part of casting Booming Blade, I make an attack using my Whip.
That is an incontrovertibly allowable progression RAW. All I'm really arguing is, that it still works the same way without laundering the OA opportunity into a spell attack through War Caster, because there's no rules saying that an OA must be completed with any specific weapon, and the only thing standing in its way is an unwritten rule implying that it's illogical to complete an OA with a weapon that wouldn't have triggered on that range. The War Caster interaction already shows that that "pick a weapon and stick with it" isn't the operative rule during a reaction, so I don't think there's a great argument for giving that unwritten RAI rule enough weight to create an unwritten limit on which weapons can be used to complete an OA.
and
the OA rules talk about "your reach" (see the title of this thread), not "your [weapon]'s reach". The question of whether "your reach" is a single range defined by the reach-iest weapon you're wielding (the position taken by JC in his tweet), a shorthand to refer to multiple seperate and exclusive reaches for the weapons you're currently wielding (the position taken by Sigred), or a shorthand to refer to any and all reaches of all weapons and attacks on your person, wielded or otherwise, any one of which can be used to complete the attack once triggered (the position proposed by myself, not because i want it, but because i don't see rules language that prevents it) is what's at the heart of this.
The only rule text I'm seeing that prevents using your whip to complete the 5-10 OA is the language at the tail of the Reach property, bolded by DxJxC. "determining your reach for opportunity attacks with it." I'm just feeling like there's multiple "steps" in an OA (Step 1: Check for movement out of your reach to "provoke" an OA, Step 2: If you choose to use a reaction to make the OA, make an attack with one of your weapons), and "determining you reach" is something that happens in Step 1 (provocation), not Step 2 (attack).
There's literally nothing in any book that says you can make an OA with a different weapon. There are plenty of places that it specifically talks about what an OA is, how it is provoked, and how it interacts with Reach. It's 100% a codified restriction, and the mental gymnastics required to assert differently is absurd.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I hadn't even considered this, but none of this makes War Caster make more sense, because you are permitted to use it with a spell that does not have a reach (can I cast Chromatic Orb when someone moves from 90' to 95'?). I guess a consistent ruling would be that it's the reach of whatever you are using for the somatic components of the spell, if any, which will mostly be 5' except for Blade Pact warlocks.
War Caster triggers when an AoO is provoked, so that’s when a creature leaves your reach, which is based on the weapon you’re holding (or your unarmed strike’s reach if you’re not holding weapons). It has nothing to do with spell range.
In the OPs question, There is not anything explicitly in the rules addressing attacks of opportunity when you are wielding both a normal and a reach weapon. Based on logic. If you were holding a shortsword and a whip, an attack of opportunity could be taken either when a creature moves from 5' to 10' (reach of your shortsword) or from 10' to 15' (reach of your whip). Because the attack is taken before the creature moves out of reach, I would rule that if you took the attack of opportunity during the 5' to 10' movement, you could use either the shortsword or the whip to make that attack. If you wait until the creature moves from 10' to 15', you could only use the whip, as the shortsword can only attack within 5 feet and the target starts beyond that.
For Warcaster, I would assume the intent is when you trigger a normal attack of opportunity (5' to 10'), not when you leave the range of a spell, meaning also that any ranged spell attack would be cast at disadvantage using this feat. That said, again if you were wielding a reach weapon, you could make a ranged spell attack without disadvantage, presuming you waited until the 10' to 15' movement trigger.
overall, attacks of opportunity are a game mechanic, and don't necessarily translate into logical combat in the same way as a standard attack.
War Caster triggers when an AoO is provoked, so that’s when a creature leaves your reach, which is based on the weapon you’re holding (or your unarmed strike’s reach if you’re not holding weapons). It has nothing to do with spell range.
That's inconsistent with the requirement that you can only make an opportunity attack with the weapon whose reach the target moved out of.
War Caster triggers when an AoO is provoked, so that’s when a creature leaves your reach, which is based on the weapon you’re holding (or your unarmed strike’s reach if you’re not holding weapons). It has nothing to do with spell range.
That's inconsistent with the requirement that you can only make an opportunity attack with the weapon whose reach the target moved out of.
First of all, I don’t accept that that is a requirement supported by RAW (but I have no interest in arguing that point).
Second of all, there’s no inconsistency because War Caster doesn’t involve making an AoO at all.
*style point: in 5e, I believe they are only ever called "Opportunity Attacks" and should probably be abbreviated "OA" and not "AoO", as they were in prior editions*
It's a somewhat useful terminology change, because they changed type -- what 5e calls a reaction would be an immediate action in 3e or 4e, and opportunity attacks were not immediate actions, they were their own action type in 3e and were opportunity actions in 4e.
War Caster triggers when an AoO is provoked, so that’s when a creature leaves your reach, which is based on the weapon you’re holding (or your unarmed strike’s reach if you’re not holding weapons). It has nothing to do with spell range.
That's inconsistent with the requirement that you can only make an opportunity attack with the weapon whose reach the target moved out of.
Warcaster lets you cast a spell in place of an attack of opportunity and is therefore a replacement ability. Note that nothing that triggers because of an AoO can occur if Warcaster is used, even if Booming Blade is cast to mimic a buffed up AoO.
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.
Using Warcaster to help define what you can do outside of Warcaster is a lost cause.
As for having two different reaches, there are no additional rules to describe what happens when you can make an AoO and are dual wielding with weapons with different reaches. Barring the extra language, we default to what would happen with each weapon individually or we infer what would happen (make a ruling). RAW is what the books say which is an AoO can be made with a weapon as it leaves your reach. Nothing is clarified beyond that without going to SAC. It's reasonable to surmise that you would make an attack with the weapon that triggered the AoO. It's also reasonable to surmise that it doesn't matter as long as the weapon can make the attack. SAC clarifies that RAI it's the first option. How you feel about SAC determines whether you hold that as RAI or RAW. Accept that others will disagree and move on. Just remember, some people like Anchovies on their pizzas. It doesn't matter how wrong it is, it's still right to them and there's no persuading them. (If you like Anchovies, you misread that. It said pineapple, or mushrooms, or olives, or [insert topping you don't like]).
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.
All it says is when a creature leaves your reach, you may make an opportunity attack. That means if you have a weapon with a five foot reach, the creature provokes an OA when it moves more than five feet away. There is no mention of which weapon you are required to use for the OA. You may choose to infer that you are restricted to the weapon with the reach the monster has left, but the written rule makes no mention of it. As has been stated, Sage Advice provides guidance which you may use or not.
Unless I missed another rule somewhere else (and it’s quite possible I have) then RAW doesn’t care which weapon you use.
If you have multiple attack options (say, dual wielding a shortsword and a whip (a whip isn't a light weapon, but that just means you can't use two weapon fighting, you can still wield both), or a monster with several natural weapons), when do opportunity attacks trigger?
When the target moves out of reach of any of your attacks, and you can opportunity attack with that weapon? So someone moving from 5' away to 10' away would trigger the shortsword but not the whip, someone moving 10' to 15' would trigger the whip but not the shortsword? Or do you have to somehow pick which one applies?
The rules don't clearly spell out if you can attack with a reach weapon for opportunity attacks at 5 feet, but the reach property implies that you can't. And SAC confirms that the implication is intended.
I hadn't even considered this, but none of this makes War Caster make more sense, because you are permitted to use it with a spell that does not have a reach (can I cast Chromatic Orb when someone moves from 90' to 95'?). I guess a consistent ruling would be that it's the reach of whatever you are using for the somatic components of the spell, if any, which will mostly be 5' except for Blade Pact warlocks.
War caster isn't that complicated. The opportunity attack still has to be triggered by leaving a weapon range, but the weapon attack is replaced by a spell instead.
In the weird case of war caster booming blade, even if the weapon attack can't be made with a reach weapon (per RAI), the spell that replaces that weapon attack itself requires a weapon attack that doesn't have the same restriction.
“If you have more than one reach, a foe provokes an opportunity attack when it leaves any of them. #DnD”
and if you look at the replies, someone asks him about the apparent contradiction with SAC and he clarified that the SAC entry refers to a situation where you only have a reach weapon.
but then again, Sage Advice... so proceed as you like.
There are listed restrictions for the weapons themselves, however.
Weapons have a stated restriction of a 5 ft reach, and it can't reach anything beyond that. "A melee weapon is used to attack a target within 5 feet of you".
The Reach property states "Reach. This weapon adds 5 feet to your reach when you attack with it, as well as when determining your reach for opportunity attacks with it" and the statement "attack with it" restricts the reach of that only that weapon to the additional 5 feet (note that this does not say 10 ft, just an additional 5 ft, important for bugbears).
Both of these can be found in the PHB, Chapter 5 - Weapons, emphasis in the original.
Now, as has been stated, Opportunity Attacks (PHB Chapter 9) says: "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach." and does not list a restriction. However the capability of the weapon itself is restricted to a 5 ft reach, unless it has the Reach property. Meaning it is impossible to attack with that weapon once it is beyond its listed restriction.
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If you have multiple attack options (say, dual wielding a shortsword and a whip (a whip isn't a light weapon, but that just means you can't use two weapon fighting, you can still wield both), or a monster with several natural weapons), when do opportunity attacks trigger?
When the target moves out of reach of any of your attacks, and you can opportunity attack with that weapon? So someone moving from 5' away to 10' away would trigger the shortsword but not the whip, someone moving 10' to 15' would trigger the whip but not the shortsword? Or do you have to somehow pick which one applies?
There have been numerous debates on this issue, but the only RAW answer is: an OA is provoked whenever a creature exits the reach of any of your currently applicable reaches, but the OA can only be taken with whatever weapon/ability is applicable in that moment.
As you've guessed, 5'->10' provokes from your shortsword, not your whip. 10'->15' provokes from your whip, not your shortsword. If the sequence of movement covers a creature moving from 5'->15', you can choose to attack with the shortsword at the 5'->10' moment, or you can forgo that opportunity to instead attack with the whip at the 10'->15' moment.
It's a sequential process, so if you forgo your first opportunity to attack with the shortsword, you are making a gamble on what the creature decides to actually do. It is possible that the creature stops at 10' without provoking any OA with your whip.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
There have indeed been debates on this. And no, there is NOT any RAW language limiting you to taking the OA with the same weapon whose reach triggered the OA. If you dual a dagger and a whip, there is nothing stating that you can’t whip them when they step from 5-10 feet, even though it’s the dagger (or your unarmed strike) range that it provoked.
There are different schools of thought, and some arguably absurd results from each, but no rule text that answers the question... so just make a table ruling and live with it.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Except for, y'know... the rules.
Having a shortsword in one hand is not a magical "make my whip better" device. You can only make an attack of opportunity with whatever weapon is applicable in the moment the OA was provoked.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Cool, SAC isn't "the rules", and you won't find "with that weapon" anywhere in the actual rule books. I understand your position, like I said reasonable minds differ on this, but that is 100% not a restriction you'll find in the PHB.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
FYI, if you want to review the positions taken thus far, see https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/rules-game-mechanics/53226-can-you-have-multiple-your-reach-es-at-once
Capstone argument for how I read OA's while dual wielding different reach'ed weapons:
and
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
There's literally nothing in any book that says you can make an OA with a different weapon. There are plenty of places that it specifically talks about what an OA is, how it is provoked, and how it interacts with Reach. It's 100% a codified restriction, and the mental gymnastics required to assert differently is absurd.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I hadn't even considered this, but none of this makes War Caster make more sense, because you are permitted to use it with a spell that does not have a reach (can I cast Chromatic Orb when someone moves from 90' to 95'?). I guess a consistent ruling would be that it's the reach of whatever you are using for the somatic components of the spell, if any, which will mostly be 5' except for Blade Pact warlocks.
War Caster triggers when an AoO is provoked, so that’s when a creature leaves your reach, which is based on the weapon you’re holding (or your unarmed strike’s reach if you’re not holding weapons). It has nothing to do with spell range.
In the OPs question, There is not anything explicitly in the rules addressing attacks of opportunity when you are wielding both a normal and a reach weapon. Based on logic. If you were holding a shortsword and a whip, an attack of opportunity could be taken either when a creature moves from 5' to 10' (reach of your shortsword) or from 10' to 15' (reach of your whip). Because the attack is taken before the creature moves out of reach, I would rule that if you took the attack of opportunity during the 5' to 10' movement, you could use either the shortsword or the whip to make that attack. If you wait until the creature moves from 10' to 15', you could only use the whip, as the shortsword can only attack within 5 feet and the target starts beyond that.
For Warcaster, I would assume the intent is when you trigger a normal attack of opportunity (5' to 10'), not when you leave the range of a spell, meaning also that any ranged spell attack would be cast at disadvantage using this feat. That said, again if you were wielding a reach weapon, you could make a ranged spell attack without disadvantage, presuming you waited until the 10' to 15' movement trigger.
overall, attacks of opportunity are a game mechanic, and don't necessarily translate into logical combat in the same way as a standard attack.
That's inconsistent with the requirement that you can only make an opportunity attack with the weapon whose reach the target moved out of.
First of all, I don’t accept that that is a requirement supported by RAW (but I have no interest in arguing that point).
Second of all, there’s no inconsistency because War Caster doesn’t involve making an AoO at all.
*style point: in 5e, I believe they are only ever called "Opportunity Attacks" and should probably be abbreviated "OA" and not "AoO", as they were in prior editions*
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I will never call them "Opportunity Attacks."
It's a somewhat useful terminology change, because they changed type -- what 5e calls a reaction would be an immediate action in 3e or 4e, and opportunity attacks were not immediate actions, they were their own action type in 3e and were opportunity actions in 4e.
Warcaster lets you cast a spell in place of an attack of opportunity and is therefore a replacement ability. Note that nothing that triggers because of an AoO can occur if Warcaster is used, even if Booming Blade is cast to mimic a buffed up AoO.
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.
Using Warcaster to help define what you can do outside of Warcaster is a lost cause.
As for having two different reaches, there are no additional rules to describe what happens when you can make an AoO and are dual wielding with weapons with different reaches. Barring the extra language, we default to what would happen with each weapon individually or we infer what would happen (make a ruling). RAW is what the books say which is an AoO can be made with a weapon as it leaves your reach. Nothing is clarified beyond that without going to SAC. It's reasonable to surmise that you would make an attack with the weapon that triggered the AoO. It's also reasonable to surmise that it doesn't matter as long as the weapon can make the attack. SAC clarifies that RAI it's the first option. How you feel about SAC determines whether you hold that as RAI or RAW. Accept that others will disagree and move on. Just remember, some people like Anchovies on their pizzas. It doesn't matter how wrong it is, it's still right to them and there's no persuading them. (If you like Anchovies, you misread that. It said pineapple, or mushrooms, or olives, or [insert topping you don't like]).
let’s have a look at the rule.
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.
All it says is when a creature leaves your reach, you may make an opportunity attack. That means if you have a weapon with a five foot reach, the creature provokes an OA when it moves more than five feet away. There is no mention of which weapon you are required to use for the OA. You may choose to infer that you are restricted to the weapon with the reach the monster has left, but the written rule makes no mention of it. As has been stated, Sage Advice provides guidance which you may use or not.
Unless I missed another rule somewhere else (and it’s quite possible I have) then RAW doesn’t care which weapon you use.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
The rules don't clearly spell out if you can attack with a reach weapon for opportunity attacks at 5 feet, but the reach property implies that you can't. And SAC confirms that the implication is intended.
War caster isn't that complicated. The opportunity attack still has to be triggered by leaving a weapon range, but the weapon attack is replaced by a spell instead.
In the weird case of war caster booming blade, even if the weapon attack can't be made with a reach weapon (per RAI), the spell that replaces that weapon attack itself requires a weapon attack that doesn't have the same restriction.
The only thing more fun than a definitive Sage Advice is a potentially conflicting Sage Advice.
https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/725193622581293056?s=21
“If you have more than one reach, a foe provokes an opportunity attack when it leaves any of them. #DnD”
and if you look at the replies, someone asks him about the apparent contradiction with SAC and he clarified that the SAC entry refers to a situation where you only have a reach weapon.
but then again, Sage Advice... so proceed as you like.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
There are listed restrictions for the weapons themselves, however.
Weapons have a stated restriction of a 5 ft reach, and it can't reach anything beyond that. "A melee weapon is used to attack a target within 5 feet of you".
The Reach property states "Reach. This weapon adds 5 feet to your reach when you attack with it, as well as when determining your reach for opportunity attacks with it" and the statement "attack with it" restricts the reach of that only that weapon to the additional 5 feet (note that this does not say 10 ft, just an additional 5 ft, important for bugbears).
Both of these can be found in the PHB, Chapter 5 - Weapons, emphasis in the original.
Now, as has been stated, Opportunity Attacks (PHB Chapter 9) says: "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach." and does not list a restriction. However the capability of the weapon itself is restricted to a 5 ft reach, unless it has the Reach property. Meaning it is impossible to attack with that weapon once it is beyond its listed restriction.