"Choose one of your known Warlock cantrips that deals damage. You can add your Charisma modifier to that spell’s damage rolls."
Am I correct that this applies to all cantrips that deal damage on the Warlock spell list plus any patron specific cantrips and any cantrips from Pact of the Tome, which states they act as warlock spells.
Would Agonizing Blast be applicable to any cantrips obtained by a feat such as Magic Initiate? Also, would it be applicable if the cantrip from the Magic Initiate feat was also on the warlock spell list?
I suppose my question is what qualifies as a Warlock cantrip?
This question is answered in Sage Advice here. It says:
Which of a character’s spells count as class spells? For example, if I’m playing a Sorcerer, which of my character’s spells are Sorcerer spells?
A class’s spell list specifies the spells that belong to the class. For example, a Sorcerer spell is a spell on the Sorcerer spell list, and if a Sorcerer knows spells that aren’t on that list, those spells aren’t Sorcerer spells unless a feature says otherwise.
In your example, cantrips granted by Magic Initiate would not count unless they're also on the Warlock spell list. Cantrips granted by Warlock class features generally would be, because those features generally say something like "they count as Warlock cantrips for you".
It's also worth noting that, as of this writing, D&D Beyond's character builder doesn't properly support this and only allows choosing Eldritch Blast, which was the only one Agonizing Blast was available for in the 2014 rules.
[...] In your example, cantrips granted by Magic Initiate would not count unless they're also on the Warlock spell list. Cantrips granted by Warlock class features generally would be, because those features generally say something like "they count as Warlock cantrips for you". [...]
I agree with your answer, but you're referring to the general rule in the Warlock's Pact Magic feature, right?
If another Warlock feature gives you spells that you always have prepared, those spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare with this feature, but those spells otherwise count as Warlock spells for you.
Keep in mind that spells cast through Invocations are not technically known or always prepared and some of them aren't on the Warlock spell list. It turns out that for the base class these spells are not damage dealing spells anyway but there could be some related corner cases.
That Sage Advice posted earlier sums it up pretty well.
But if my take doesn't hold up, just keep in mind that some things might break: some features won't interact with them, you won't be able to use your Spellcasting Ability for certain spells (like Silent Image or Disguise Self), or your Spellcasting Focus won't apply to Invocation spells with a Material component.
In practice, it doesn’t matter in the context of OP’s question, because the only Invocation that grants access to cantrips is Pact of the Tome, and it explicitly says they count as Warlock spells for you.
While reading this, I realized something. With Pact of the Tome, you can take True Strike, which says:
The attack uses your spellcasting ability for the attack and damage rolls instead of using Strength or Dexterity
And Agonizing Blast says:
Choose one of your known Warlock cantrips that deals damage. You can add your Charisma modifier to that spell’s damage rolls.
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
Looks like these 2 can stack.
This is a much-debated topic. The rules are not clear whether or not Agonizing Blast could work with True Strike. It is a Warlock cantrip, but it doesn't actually deal damage directly. You target yourself, the cantrip buffs your weapon, then you get to attack with it. So did the cantrip actually deal damage? Some say yes, others no, and some even say that Agonizing Blast does not work on it until level 5 when it gets some extra radiant damage added to the weapon attack. Ask your DM on this one. It's a judgement call.
This is a much-debated topic. The rules are not clear whether or not Agonizing Blast could work with True Strike. It is a Warlock cantrip, but it doesn't actually deal damage directly. You target yourself, the cantrip buffs your weapon, then you get to attack with it. So did the cantrip actually deal damage? Some say yes, others no, and some even say that Agonizing Blast does not work on it until level 5 when it gets some extra radiant damage added to the weapon attack. Ask your DM on this one. It's a judgement call.
Good point. I would probably agree with the last proposition: that it only works from level 5, when the spell explicitly includes a damage roll. But I can understand why there's debate around this.
Same opinion as Sequilonis. The best advice is to ask your DM about how True Strike interacts with Agonizing Blast.
To me, based on the same quoted rule, Agonizing Blast doesn't interact with Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade or True Strike since those involve weapon attacks, and the damage comes from the weapon, not the spell.
However, according to my ruling (debatable, of course):
- For Booming Blade, you could apply Agonizing Blast to the Thunder damage. - For Green-Flame Blade, starting at 5th level, it could apply to the Fire damage. - For True Strike, at higher levels (5+), it could apply to the extra Radiant damage.
Also, as Sequilonissaid, there are many threads debating the interaction between the mentioned spells, or with features like Potent Cantrip, Potent Spellcasting, or Radiant Soul:
"Choose one of your known Warlock cantrips that deals damage. You can add your Charisma modifier to that spell’s damage rolls."
Am I correct that this applies to all cantrips that deal damage on the Warlock spell list plus any patron specific cantrips and any cantrips from Pact of the Tome, which states they act as warlock spells.
Would Agonizing Blast be applicable to any cantrips obtained by a feat such as Magic Initiate? Also, would it be applicable if the cantrip from the Magic Initiate feat was also on the warlock spell list?
I suppose my question is what qualifies as a Warlock cantrip?
This question is answered in Sage Advice here. It says:
In your example, cantrips granted by Magic Initiate would not count unless they're also on the Warlock spell list. Cantrips granted by Warlock class features generally would be, because those features generally say something like "they count as Warlock cantrips for you".
It's also worth noting that, as of this writing, D&D Beyond's character builder doesn't properly support this and only allows choosing Eldritch Blast, which was the only one Agonizing Blast was available for in the 2014 rules.
pronouns: he/she/they
I agree with your answer, but you're referring to the general rule in the Warlock's Pact Magic feature, right?
Yes. Some older Warlock subclasses have different wording for it too.
pronouns: he/she/they
Keep in mind that spells cast through Invocations are not technically known or always prepared and some of them aren't on the Warlock spell list. It turns out that for the base class these spells are not damage dealing spells anyway but there could be some related corner cases.
That Sage Advice posted earlier sums it up pretty well.
Regarding the assertion made by up2ng, I'd recommend asking your DM about it.
From how I understand it (RAI, at least to me), Pact Magic also makes your Eldritch Invocations spells count as Warlock spells, and I know not everyone agrees (this long thread covers a lot of that debate: What exactly is considered a Warlock Spell, especially when multiclassing)
But if my take doesn't hold up, just keep in mind that some things might break: some features won't interact with them, you won't be able to use your Spellcasting Ability for certain spells (like Silent Image or Disguise Self), or your Spellcasting Focus won't apply to Invocation spells with a Material component.
In practice, it doesn’t matter in the context of OP’s question, because the only Invocation that grants access to cantrips is Pact of the Tome, and it explicitly says they count as Warlock spells for you.
pronouns: he/she/they
While reading this, I realized something. With Pact of the Tome, you can take True Strike, which says:
And Agonizing Blast says:
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
Looks like these 2 can stack.
This is a much-debated topic. The rules are not clear whether or not Agonizing Blast could work with True Strike. It is a Warlock cantrip, but it doesn't actually deal damage directly. You target yourself, the cantrip buffs your weapon, then you get to attack with it. So did the cantrip actually deal damage? Some say yes, others no, and some even say that Agonizing Blast does not work on it until level 5 when it gets some extra radiant damage added to the weapon attack. Ask your DM on this one. It's a judgement call.
Good point. I would probably agree with the last proposition: that it only works from level 5, when the spell explicitly includes a damage roll. But I can understand why there's debate around this.
Same opinion as Sequilonis. The best advice is to ask your DM about how True Strike interacts with Agonizing Blast.
To me, based on the same quoted rule, Agonizing Blast doesn't interact with Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade or True Strike since those involve weapon attacks, and the damage comes from the weapon, not the spell.
However, according to my ruling (debatable, of course):
- For Booming Blade, you could apply Agonizing Blast to the Thunder damage.
- For Green-Flame Blade, starting at 5th level, it could apply to the Fire damage.
- For True Strike, at higher levels (5+), it could apply to the extra Radiant damage.
Also, as Sequilonis said, there are many threads debating the interaction between the mentioned spells, or with features like Potent Cantrip, Potent Spellcasting, or Radiant Soul:
EDIT: fixed link.