okay so we know that Warlocks are cool, we know that EB is good, we know that Sharpshooter is good, We know that bladelocks are good. but what if we could wombo combo all that? well, T_C, you can't, because Sharpshooter is for ranged weapon attacks not ranged spell attacks.
but read the text of sharpshooter.
Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If that attack hits, you add +10 to the attack's damage.
Okay. with a ranged weapon. not make a ranged weapon attack
Your ranged weapon attacks ignore half and three-quarters cover.
That says ranged weapon attacks. (credit n' inspiration) this has been exploited by the so called, 'bonkbow' build. (search up bonkbow 5e)Okay so all it has to be is an attack with a ranged weapon, but not necesarily a ranged weapon attack!
Now let's look at the text of Improved Pact Weapon
You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells.
In addition, the weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those roll
Finally, the weapon you conjure can be a shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.
Nice! so we can now summon a ranged weapon (hee hee) and use it to cast spells as a warlock. for this example we can use a heavy crossbow. If we hold a pact weapon heavy crossbow, we can cast Eldritch Blast with it. now, our Pact Weapon is our arcane focus. It is also a ranged weapon. does that mean that we can apply Sharpshooter to Eldritch Blast?
I believe you can. enjoy. (to be clear you're making an attack with a ranged weapon, to make a ranged spell attack)
Using something as a spellcasting focus does not mean you are making your spell attacks with it.
^This^
If you are attacking with a weapon, you roll the weapon's damage, use the weapon's proficiency. No amount of attempted hair-splitting on the slightly sloppy wording is going to make this one fly.
The biggest hurdle to this is simply finding a table that would be accepting of this strategy.
A bit of semantic minutia, but when you use your Crossbow, Heavy to cast Eldritch Blast are you attacking with it or casting a spell with it? I.e. are you attacking with a weapon or are you attacking with a spell?
Also, don't forget the Archery Fighting Style, Lifedrinker Invocation, Devils Sight Invocation, Hexblade's Curse, and Darkness.
Assuming no magical equipment and 20 Charisma that is +9 to hit, with advantage, for 1d10+27 per attack. Against an enemy with 19 AC (the expected AC of a CR 17 creature) that is an expected damage of 317.46 for those 12 attacks.
*Edit* I neglected the increased crit chance from Hexblade's Curse. The expected damage is actually 323.565.
The biggest hurdle to this is simply finding a table that would be accepting of this strategy.
A bit of semantic minutia, but when you use your Crossbow, Heavy to cast Eldritch Blast are you attacking with it or casting a spell with it? I.e. are you attacking with a weapon or are you attacking with a spell?
Also, don't forget the Archery Fighting Style, Lifedrinker Invocation, Devils Sight Invocation, Hexblade's Curse, and Darkness.
Assuming no magical equipment and 20 Charisma that is +9 to hit, with advantage, for 1d10+27 per attack. Against an enemy with 19 AC (the expected AC of a CR 17 creature) that is an expected damage of 317.46 for those 12 attacks.
*Edit* I neglected the increased crit chance from Hexblade's Curse. The expected damage is actually 323.565.
um, no . we're not using a Heavy Crossbow, so we don't use Archery/Liferdrinker/DS/HBC/Darkness.
Our nova w/o prep as a level 11 T_CBuild, which I will call it, being an Earth Genasi for PWT.
Fighter 2/ Daolock 3 (Bc bonus actions are full) / Clockwork Sorc (BC Clockwork is best) 6
that is 3 (4 ) EBs, which means that since I don't know the AC I will calc for 17
11(d10+17) at + 8
and 1(d10+20) at +8
yeah because we're casting EB. not attacking sry if that wasnt clear I might edit it later
Even when using a spell with material component, no rules as written say using a weapon as a spellcasting focus count as a weapon attack made with it, at best the 3rd bullet would be a tough sell as this question is not really covered in the rules or Sage Advice.
Using something as a spellcasting focus does not mean you are making your spell attacks with it.
false. if you use something as a spellcasting focus to cast a spell attack, you are literally making your spell attacks with it. :|
Yeah, you can’t demonstrate something to be true just by asserting it. Leaving aside what Plaguescarred pointed out, that you can’t cast Eldritch Blast with a focus anyway, there’s no text anywhere to support the notion that you make spell attacks with a focus. The text says you are required to provide material components to cast a spell. What role they play in the casting isn’t entirely clear, and jumping from that to “you make spell attacks with those components” is an unsupported leap. If you have any text to support that leap, by all means share it. But so far you’ve done nothing of the sort.
Even when using a spell with material component, no rules as written say using a weapon as a spellcasting focus count as a weapon attack made with it, at best the 3rd bullet would be a tough sell as this question is not really covered in the rules or Sage Advice.
rI'm not making a weapon attack with it. I'm making a (spell) attack with the weapon
Even when using a spell with material component, no rules as written say using a weapon as a spellcasting focus count as a weapon attack made with it, at best the 3rd bullet would be a tough sell as this question is not really covered in the rules or Sage Advice.
rI'm not making a weapon attack with it. I'm making a (spell) attack with the weapon
Your making a spell attack while using a spellcasting focus in place of material components. If it ever count as being also done with a weapon is undefined.
As the others have stated, it doesn't matter what the focus is. An attack made with a spell is generally not a weapon attack, nor an attack "made with a weapon". It's made with a spell, using a weapon as a material component.
For a class that could cast EB using a weapon as a focus with the Sharpshooter feat, Artificer with the All-Purpose Tool selecting EB as their free cantrip, it still doesn't work. And that's with an infused weapon (which artificers can use as a focus) and EB as an Artificer spell (which, RAW, all require material components).
it's made with material components. the material component = an arcane focus. the arcane focus is a weapon. therefore the attack is made by a weapon.
In addition, @ObeseWalrus, this is not made to play.
Not the way it works. The attacks are made with a spell. As in, the spell is the source of the attack. What material component is used is entirely irrelevant. Also, again, only an Artificer could even hope to pull this off if it worked, as Eldritch Blast doesn't have a material component, but all Artificer spells do no matter what their text says.
okay so we know that Warlocks are cool, we know that EB is good, we know that Sharpshooter is good, We know that bladelocks are good. but what if we could wombo combo all that? well, T_C, you can't, because Sharpshooter is for ranged weapon attacks not ranged spell attacks.
but read the text of sharpshooter.
Okay. with a ranged weapon. not make a ranged weapon attack
That says ranged weapon attacks. (credit n' inspiration) this has been exploited by the so called, 'bonkbow' build. (search up bonkbow 5e)Okay so all it has to be is an attack with a ranged weapon, but not necesarily a ranged weapon attack!
Now let's look at the text of Improved Pact Weapon
Nice! so we can now summon a ranged weapon (hee hee) and use it to cast spells as a warlock. for this example we can use a heavy crossbow. If we hold a pact weapon heavy crossbow, we can cast Eldritch Blast with it. now, our Pact Weapon is our arcane focus. It is also a ranged weapon. does that mean that we can apply Sharpshooter to Eldritch Blast?
I believe you can. enjoy. (to be clear you're making an attack with a ranged weapon, to make a ranged spell attack)
you're welcome world.
now your warlock is 100% broken. combine with sorlock + fighter dip for 12 sharpshooter attacks.
Using something as a spellcasting focus does not mean you are making your spell attacks with it.
^This^
If you are attacking with a weapon, you roll the weapon's damage, use the weapon's proficiency. No amount of attempted hair-splitting on the slightly sloppy wording is going to make this one fly.
The biggest hurdle to this is simply finding a table that would be accepting of this strategy.
A bit of semantic minutia, but when you use your Crossbow, Heavy to cast Eldritch Blast are you attacking with it or casting a spell with it? I.e. are you attacking with a weapon or are you attacking with a spell?
Also, don't forget the Archery Fighting Style, Lifedrinker Invocation, Devils Sight Invocation, Hexblade's Curse, and Darkness.
Assuming no magical equipment and 20 Charisma that is +9 to hit, with advantage, for 1d10+27 per attack. Against an enemy with 19 AC (the expected AC of a CR 17 creature) that is an expected damage of 317.46 for those 12 attacks.
*Edit* I neglected the increased crit chance from Hexblade's Curse. The expected damage is actually 323.565.
false. if you use something as a spellcasting focus to cast a spell attack, you are literally making your spell attacks with it. :|
It does not work RAW because Eldritch Blast doesn't have material component to use a spellcasting focus in place of.
um, no . we're not using a Heavy Crossbow, so we don't use Archery/Liferdrinker/DS/HBC/Darkness.
Our nova w/o prep as a level 11 T_CBuild, which I will call it, being an Earth Genasi for PWT.
Fighter 2/ Daolock 3 (Bc bonus actions are full) / Clockwork Sorc (BC Clockwork is best) 6
that is 3 (4 ) EBs, which means that since I don't know the AC I will calc for 17
11(d10+17) at + 8
and 1(d10+20) at +8
yeah because we're casting EB. not attacking sry if that wasnt clear I might edit it later
Even when using a spell with material component, no rules as written say using a weapon as a spellcasting focus count as a weapon attack made with it, at best the 3rd bullet would be a tough sell as this question is not really covered in the rules or Sage Advice.
Yeah, you can’t demonstrate something to be true just by asserting it. Leaving aside what Plaguescarred pointed out, that you can’t cast Eldritch Blast with a focus anyway, there’s no text anywhere to support the notion that you make spell attacks with a focus. The text says you are required to provide material components to cast a spell. What role they play in the casting isn’t entirely clear, and jumping from that to “you make spell attacks with those components” is an unsupported leap. If you have any text to support that leap, by all means share it. But so far you’ve done nothing of the sort.
One of the only explicitly known ranged spell attack with a weapon is magic stone hurled with a sling.
rI'm not making a weapon attack with it. I'm making a (spell) attack with the weapon
Everyone's point has been that you are casting with the weapon and you are attacking with the spell.
Also, as Plaguecarred pointed out, Eldritch Blast lacks a Material Component. This means you cannot cast it with any kind of spellcasting focus at all, see SAC: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#SA165
Your making a spell attack while using a spellcasting focus in place of material components. If it ever count as being also done with a weapon is undefined.
As the others have stated, it doesn't matter what the focus is. An attack made with a spell is generally not a weapon attack, nor an attack "made with a weapon". It's made with a spell, using a weapon as a material component.
For a class that could cast EB using a weapon as a focus with the Sharpshooter feat, Artificer with the All-Purpose Tool selecting EB as their free cantrip, it still doesn't work. And that's with an infused weapon (which artificers can use as a focus) and EB as an Artificer spell (which, RAW, all require material components).
yes find all the holes in his plan so I dont have to DM this.
it's made with material components. the material component = an arcane focus. the arcane focus is a weapon. therefore the attack is made by a weapon.
In addition, @ObeseWalrus, this is not made to play.
Not the way it works. The attacks are made with a spell. As in, the spell is the source of the attack. What material component is used is entirely irrelevant. Also, again, only an Artificer could even hope to pull this off if it worked, as Eldritch Blast doesn't have a material component, but all Artificer spells do no matter what their text says.
Which rule say that ? I don't think any official ruling or printed rule say an attack is made with a spellcasting focus specifically.