Weird question, can you grab your spiritual weapon and use it as a melee weapon with RAW? For example (on the turn after summoning it) could I take it in my hand, make a melee attack with it, move it 10ft to a hostile, and BA attack?
Weird question, can you grab your spiritual weapon and use it as a melee weapon with RAW? For example (on the turn after summoning it) could I take it in my hand, make a melee attack with it, move it 10ft to a hostile, and BA attack?
I have a cleric player with a bag of tricks, and what she does is if she doesn't get an animal that can fight in the combat ( rat, dog which ever) She tells it to "help her". I use quotation marks there because she believes that the help she gets from this summoned creature should give her spiritual weapon attacks advantage.
My stance on this is that the spiritual weapon cannot be helped as it is not a creature, her rebuttal is that the help is for her not the weapon. And that she's making the attack with it ergo advantage. Am I right? Is she right? (This is just one example of a lot of things she does.I spend a lot of time googling nonsense because of this player.)
I have a cleric player with a bag of tricks, and what she does is if she doesn't get an animal that can fight in the combat ( rat, dog which ever) She tells it to "help her". I use quotation marks there because she believes that the help she gets from this summoned creature should give her spiritual weapon attacks advantage.
My stance on this is that the spiritual weapon cannot be helped as it is not a creature, her rebuttal is that the help is for her not the weapon. And that she's making the attack with it ergo advantage. Am I right? Is she right? (This is just one example of a lot of things she does.I spend a lot of time googling nonsense because of this player.)
By RAW, your player is correct. You’re making her point for her when you say the weapon isn’t a creature. The spellcaster is the one making the attack, not the weapon.
But the attack is being made by the summoned weapon, she has nothing to do with the attack other than commanding it to happen. If she were in truth swinging the weapon herself that would be one thing. But I don’t see how a rat perched on her shoulder can help her attack with a spiritual weapon 20 feet away is the concern.
The attack is not being made by the weapon. It is being made WITH the weapon, jus as as if she were attacking with a sword or a bow. Read the spell text: “you can make a melee spell attack...” not “the weapon can make a melee spell attack.”
It’s also important to note how the Help action actually works, however. If the rat is perched on her shoulder, it cannot grant her advantage on an attack against a target 20 feet away. That has nothing to do with Spiritual Weapon and everything to do with the fact that you have to be within five feet of an enemy to Help an ally attack that enemy.
I would think the rat would have to be able to distract the target somehow for it to function as such. Crawl up its leg to distract it, because that is the idea behind using the help action to give another characters advantage on an attack. Someone feints an attack to allow the real attack to land. Rat bites their ankle to let the spiritual weapon get a good shot. Mr Nibbles on your shoulder does not seem like it would help in any way to me.
Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally's attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The weapon isn’t swinging itself around, the caster is swinging it with magic power. That’s why it requires your bonus action. You just can’t physically hold it.
You create a floating, spectral weapon within range that lasts for the duration or until you cast this spell again. When you cast the spell, you can make a melee spell attack against a creature within 5 feet of the weapon. On a hit, the target takes force damage equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the weapon up to 20 feet and repeat the attack against a creature within 5 feet of it.
The weapon can take whatever form you choose. Clerics of deities who are associated with a particular weapon (as St. Cuthbert is known for his mace and Thor for his hammer) make this spell's effect resemble that weapon.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for every two slot levels above 2nd.
Does spiritual weapon remain in theater if the caster goes unconscious?
It is not concentration, so... Yes.
Thank you, sir
Be aware that you can't use your bonus action to attack with it while unconscious (or otherwise incapacitated) though.
Weird question, can you grab your spiritual weapon and use it as a melee weapon with RAW? For example (on the turn after summoning it) could I take it in my hand, make a melee attack with it, move it 10ft to a hostile, and BA attack?
Hi I'm socially awkward what's new here?
Not RAW.
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I have a cleric player with a bag of tricks, and what she does is if she doesn't get an animal that can fight in the combat ( rat, dog which ever) She tells it to "help her". I use quotation marks there because she believes that the help she gets from this summoned creature should give her spiritual weapon attacks advantage.
My stance on this is that the spiritual weapon cannot be helped as it is not a creature, her rebuttal is that the help is for her not the weapon. And that she's making the attack with it ergo advantage. Am I right? Is she right? (This is just one example of a lot of things she does.I spend a lot of time googling nonsense because of this player.)
By RAW, your player is correct. You’re making her point for her when you say the weapon isn’t a creature. The spellcaster is the one making the attack, not the weapon.
But the attack is being made by the summoned weapon, she has nothing to do with the attack other than commanding it to happen. If she were in truth swinging the weapon herself that would be one thing. But I don’t see how a rat perched on her shoulder can help her attack with a spiritual weapon 20 feet away is the concern.
The attack is not being made by the weapon. It is being made WITH the weapon, jus as as if she were attacking with a sword or a bow. Read the spell text: “you can make a melee spell attack...” not “the weapon can make a melee spell attack.”
It’s also important to note how the Help action actually works, however. If the rat is perched on her shoulder, it cannot grant her advantage on an attack against a target 20 feet away. That has nothing to do with Spiritual Weapon and everything to do with the fact that you have to be within five feet of an enemy to Help an ally attack that enemy.
I would think the rat would have to be able to distract the target somehow for it to function as such. Crawl up its leg to distract it, because that is the idea behind using the help action to give another characters advantage on an attack. Someone feints an attack to allow the real attack to land. Rat bites their ankle to let the spiritual weapon get a good shot. Mr Nibbles on your shoulder does not seem like it would help in any way to me.
Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally's attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
Is the creature within five feet of the rat?
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The weapon isn’t swinging itself around, the caster is swinging it with magic power. That’s why it requires your bonus action. You just can’t physically hold it.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting