Am I wrong in thinking that the way this spell is set up for use in DND beyond is wrong? My attack with Shillelagh only shows up in the bonus action tab. But it sounds like this thread is saying this attack should always be with the attack action.
It certainly gives the wrong impression. Notice it also says range of Touch, which clearly doesn't apply to the attacks you will make with your new magic weapon.
As stated here, you cast Shillelagh as a bonus action onto your club/quarterstaff and it makes them magical. Done. Now you attack with them as you would any other melee weapon, using an Attack action. In the DnDBeyond interface, instead of clicking the attack and dmg buttons beside your club or quarterstaff when you take that attack action, you need to go down to the Shillelach entry under Bonus actions and click the Attack and Dmg buttons in that entry so it uses your spell modifiers.
Personally, I think I would have preferred them to have made it an entry in the Attack table with a note saying "only available after casting the spell Shillelach as a bonus action."
The spell is not a weapon or attack. I'm assuming you're going to the spell, and checking the "display as attack" button, yeah? All that does is make the spell itself appear in your attack list, and it gets listed as a bonus action there because... the spell is a bonus action.
What you need to do is go to your weapon, and customize that for stats while under the effect of Shillelagh. Alternatively, you can make a custom action for your sheet.
You don’t need to customize it like that. Displaying attacks for shillelagh (and for magic stone) is the default for D&D Beyond, which is probably where the confusion arises.
Am I wrong in thinking that the way this spell is set up for use in DND beyond is wrong? My attack with Shillelagh only shows up in the bonus action tab. But it sounds like this thread is saying this attack should always be with the attack action.
It certainly gives the wrong impression. Notice it also says range of Touch, which clearly doesn't apply to the attacks you will make with your new magic weapon.
As stated here, you cast Shillelagh as a bonus action onto your club/quarterstaff and it makes them magical. Done. Now you attack with them as you would any other melee weapon, using an Attack action. In the DnDBeyond interface, instead of clicking the attack and dmg buttons beside your club or quarterstaff when you take that attack action, you need to go down to the Shillelach entry under Bonus actions and click the Attack and Dmg buttons in that entry so it uses your spell modifiers.
Personally, I think I would have preferred them to have made it an entry in the Attack table with a note saying "only available after casting the spell Shillelach as a bonus action."
The spell is not a weapon or attack. I'm assuming you're going to the spell, and checking the "display as attack" button, yeah? All that does is make the spell itself appear in your attack list, and it gets listed as a bonus action there because... the spell is a bonus action.
What you need to do is go to your weapon, and customize that for stats while under the effect of Shillelagh. Alternatively, you can make a custom action for your sheet.
You don’t need to customize it like that. Displaying attacks for shillelagh (and for magic stone) is the default for D&D Beyond, which is probably where the confusion arises.
Did that get fixed in an update to the DDB character sheet UI? Like SCAG cantrip details showing up in the "notes" section for a weapon in the "actions" block?
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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.
Am I wrong in thinking that the way this spell is set up for use in DND beyond is wrong? My attack with Shillelagh only shows up in the bonus action tab. But it sounds like this thread is saying this attack should always be with the attack action.
It certainly gives the wrong impression. Notice it also says range of Touch, which clearly doesn't apply to the attacks you will make with your new magic weapon.
As stated here, you cast Shillelagh as a bonus action onto your club/quarterstaff and it makes them magical. Done. Now you attack with them as you would any other melee weapon, using an Attack action. In the DnDBeyond interface, instead of clicking the attack and dmg buttons beside your club or quarterstaff when you take that attack action, you need to go down to the Shillelach entry under Bonus actions and click the Attack and Dmg buttons in that entry so it uses your spell modifiers.
Personally, I think I would have preferred them to have made it an entry in the Attack table with a note saying "only available after casting the spell Shillelach as a bonus action."
The spell is not a weapon or attack. I'm assuming you're going to the spell, and checking the "display as attack" button, yeah? All that does is make the spell itself appear in your attack list, and it gets listed as a bonus action there because... the spell is a bonus action.
What you need to do is go to your weapon, and customize that for stats while under the effect of Shillelagh. Alternatively, you can make a custom action for your sheet.
You don’t need to customize it like that. Displaying attacks for shillelagh (and for magic stone) is the default for D&D Beyond, which is probably where the confusion arises.
Did that get fixed in an update to the DDB character sheet UI? Like SCAG cantrip details showing up in the "notes" section for a weapon in the "actions" block?
I’m not sure I’d call it “fixed,” because they display under bonus actions. People who understand how the spells work can figure out what’s going on, but it feels like it’d confuse less familiar players. As far as I’m aware, this is how those spells have always displayed on the character sheet:
I think the common thread among the confused here is that people are thinking the Shillelagh is an attack cantrip akin to something like Fire Bolt. As in you make an attack when you cast the spell.
Shillelagh is a buff spell. It powers up your weapon and does nothing else. You need to use other actions to attack with that weapon.
I know this has been stated and sounds very obvious, but I think it's the crux of the misunderstanding and it's kind of been buried in discussion of other aspects of the spell.
I think the common thread among the confused here is that people are thinking the Shillelagh is an attack cantrip akin to something like Fire Bolt. As in you make an attack when you cast the spell.
Shillelagh is a buff spell. It powers up your weapon and does nothing else. You need to use other actions to attack with that weapon.
I know this has been stated and sounds very obvious, but I think it's the crux of the misunderstanding and it's kind of been buried in discussion of other aspects of the spell.
Sure, but my point is that the way D&D Beyond displays these spells on the character sheet reinforces the misunderstanding.
Both spells basically work the same as Shadow Blade, creating/enchanting a weapon using a Bonus Action, but not providing a special Bonus Action attack option, or attacking during the Bonus Action casting. But the way they're presented on dndbeyond makes them instead resemble Spiritual Weapon, which creates a weapon with a Bonus Action casting and attacks as part of that casting and on future rounds with a Bonus Action.
There's nothing about the way they're presented on your character sheet which would suggest that they're Shadow Blade-esque rather than Spiritual Weapon-esque, other than reading the spell description closely and being familiar with the rules. Definitely a trap for new players.
Ahh, yeah I'm talking about it showing up in the actions section like the weapon itself does, and it looks like that can only really be done via a custom action (simple) or a homebrew magic item (complex & wonky).
Customizing a magic item should be the easiest solution, but it isn't since the homebrew creator does not let you change any weapon's basedamage die. I.e., you can't just go create a magic quarterstaff (as a quarterstaff) with a fixed damage of 1d8+Wis, ignoring Versatile (because Shillelagh doesn't allow 1d10 bludgeoning when wielded two-handed; it's just a flat 1d8), and using wisdom as the attack modifier. You can change everything about a club/quarterstaff except the displayed 1d6 damage; the "replace damage type" only affect the type of damage (bludgeoning, slashing, piercing, etc), not the damage die itself.
You can create a custom item based off of something with a 1d8 damage die (like a Flail), but that still causes the item to be considered as an actual flail requiring proficiency. You can edit the item to give you proficiency with the weapon, but that then also flows to all weapons of that type. This isn't an issue if you already have martial/flail proficiency, but anyone using this spell likely doesn't have those naturally. You can't make it into a simple weapon either... the homebrew system really blows.
Simply adding a custom action is probably the simplest way to get it onto the proper area of actions for combat purposes, but if you want it to also show how it plays with other relevant spells/features, it needs to be an item (Wisdom 20 & +3 proficiency bonus on this sheet)
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.
Simply adding a custom action is probably the simplest way to get it onto the proper area of actions for combat purposes, but if you want it to also show how it plays with other relevant spells/features, it needs to be an item (Wisdom 20 & +3 proficiency bonus on this sheet)
So this is what I ended up doing, not for aiding understanding or anything, but just so I don't have to scroll down to bonus actions to click the attack and dmg die buttons for my VTT interface. Its the first customer Action I've had to make...AND disappointed that I can't seem to add anything to the notes entry for the attack actions table for custom actions.
You don’t need to customize it like that. Displaying attacks for shillelagh (and for magic stone) is the default for D&D Beyond, which is probably where the confusion arises.
Did that get fixed in an update to the DDB character sheet UI? Like SCAG cantrip details showing up in the "notes" section for a weapon in the "actions" block?
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’m not sure I’d call it “fixed,” because they display under bonus actions. People who understand how the spells work can figure out what’s going on, but it feels like it’d confuse less familiar players. As far as I’m aware, this is how those spells have always displayed on the character sheet:
I think the common thread among the confused here is that people are thinking the Shillelagh is an attack cantrip akin to something like Fire Bolt. As in you make an attack when you cast the spell.
Shillelagh is a buff spell. It powers up your weapon and does nothing else. You need to use other actions to attack with that weapon.
I know this has been stated and sounds very obvious, but I think it's the crux of the misunderstanding and it's kind of been buried in discussion of other aspects of the spell.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Sure, but my point is that the way D&D Beyond displays these spells on the character sheet reinforces the misunderstanding.
Both spells basically work the same as Shadow Blade, creating/enchanting a weapon using a Bonus Action, but not providing a special Bonus Action attack option, or attacking during the Bonus Action casting. But the way they're presented on dndbeyond makes them instead resemble Spiritual Weapon, which creates a weapon with a Bonus Action casting and attacks as part of that casting and on future rounds with a Bonus Action.
There's nothing about the way they're presented on your character sheet which would suggest that they're Shadow Blade-esque rather than Spiritual Weapon-esque, other than reading the spell description closely and being familiar with the rules. Definitely a trap for new players.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Ahh, yeah I'm talking about it showing up in the actions section like the weapon itself does, and it looks like that can only really be done via a custom action (simple) or a homebrew magic item (complex & wonky).
Customizing a magic item should be the easiest solution, but it isn't since the homebrew creator does not let you change any weapon's base damage die. I.e., you can't just go create a magic quarterstaff (as a quarterstaff) with a fixed damage of 1d8+Wis, ignoring Versatile (because Shillelagh doesn't allow 1d10 bludgeoning when wielded two-handed; it's just a flat 1d8), and using wisdom as the attack modifier. You can change everything about a club/quarterstaff except the displayed 1d6 damage; the "replace damage type" only affect the type of damage (bludgeoning, slashing, piercing, etc), not the damage die itself.
You can create a custom item based off of something with a 1d8 damage die (like a Flail), but that still causes the item to be considered as an actual flail requiring proficiency. You can edit the item to give you proficiency with the weapon, but that then also flows to all weapons of that type. This isn't an issue if you already have martial/flail proficiency, but anyone using this spell likely doesn't have those naturally. You can't make it into a simple weapon either... the homebrew system really blows.
Simply adding a custom action is probably the simplest way to get it onto the proper area of actions for combat purposes, but if you want it to also show how it plays with other relevant spells/features, it needs to be an item (Wisdom 20 & +3 proficiency bonus on this sheet)
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.
So this is what I ended up doing, not for aiding understanding or anything, but just so I don't have to scroll down to bonus actions to click the attack and dmg die buttons for my VTT interface. Its the first customer Action I've had to make...AND disappointed that I can't seem to add anything to the notes entry for the attack actions table for custom actions.
Club is light weapon. Why wouldn’t you be able to use that and a dagger?