So more specifically a scenario in which I have spirit Guardians up and my enemy goes to leave my (I'm assuming melee) range. I AoO with warcaster and cast Eldritch Blast that has Grasp blast (the one that pulls them 10ft). My question is can I do this after they have left SG 15ft distance and thus pulling them back into it, or do I have to do this when they still are within the confines of the 5ft melee range distance?
1) Warcaster works off of your normal reach (5 feet, or 10 if wielding a reach weapon), not the range of your spells.
2) Spirit Guardians isn't even an "attack" spell (it is a saving throw spell), so there is no "reach" even if the above wasn't true.
3) Eldritch blast will have disadvantage on the attack unless you are wielding a reach weapon (because the enemy is still within 5 feet of you when the attack is made otherwise)
4) the Grasping Blast effect that pulls wouldn't pull them closer (at least not meaningfully on a grid) because they are still within 5 feet of you (on an adjacent square) when the attack is made (again, unless you have reach weapon, then you could pull them 5 feet closer to you)
Opportunity attacks take place as the creature goes out of your melee range. The fact that you can cast a ranged spell attack does not allow you to make the op attack later (i.e after they are in your melee range). Therefore grasp of hadar has no effect (as they are as close to you as they can get).
I am not sure if you are expecting "pulling them back into it" results in a second set of damage, but this wouldn't happen anyway as damage from SG happens when a creature "enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there" as they have already started theere turn their or entered the area for the first time on a turn there would be no extra damage.
The main restriction of having to make an AoE spell attack is that ranged spell attacks such as eldritch blast are at disadvantage as the creature running away is within 5ft of you.
A note re: the melee range: If you're wielding a reach weapon (like a Whip), you can take your Warcaster reaction when they leave 10 feet instead of 5 feet, and avoid disadvantage on a ranged attack spell like Eldritch Blast. That reach weapon doesn't need to be a spell focus or in any way involved with the casting of the spell, it just needs to be wielded (so, no holding a Halberd in one hand and a focus in the other, you'll want to stick to a Whip).
An EB with the pull invocation probably could be used to pull an enemy back into a properly placed Spirit Guardians, if they started their turn near the edge of it, then moved to leave it in the first square, then triggered an OA from you moving 10->15 feet away, then got pulled back to your adjacent square within the SG aura. Whether SG would trigger twice in the round on them (once for starting their turn in it, again for entering the area) is probably a DM call, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear a "no," but I wouldn't go so far as to say that the RAW is definitely that that wouldn't happen.
That's a DM call but I would probably just say their movement would be decreased by the pull amount. So if they are trying to run 30' away then I would take away 10" of that.
Thanks all. I rebuilt it dropping EB entirely and using SG +ray of frost as the base combo, then tack on grease or earth tremor for good measure. Have the quickened and careful metas for my melee'rs and find it funny I can quicken SG then cast Mold Earth on that square and make it difficult terrain to effectively lock them in place while I sit back 10 ft and for most creatures that is a speed lock since they'd need 10 ft min to move a sq in difficult terrain.
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So more specifically a scenario in which I have spirit Guardians up and my enemy goes to leave my (I'm assuming melee) range. I AoO with warcaster and cast Eldritch Blast that has Grasp blast (the one that pulls them 10ft). My question is can I do this after they have left SG 15ft distance and thus pulling them back into it, or do I have to do this when they still are within the confines of the 5ft melee range distance?
Thanks in advance for the help.
1) Warcaster works off of your normal reach (5 feet, or 10 if wielding a reach weapon), not the range of your spells.
2) Spirit Guardians isn't even an "attack" spell (it is a saving throw spell), so there is no "reach" even if the above wasn't true.
3) Eldritch blast will have disadvantage on the attack unless you are wielding a reach weapon (because the enemy is still within 5 feet of you when the attack is made otherwise)
4) the Grasping Blast effect that pulls wouldn't pull them closer (at least not meaningfully on a grid) because they are still within 5 feet of you (on an adjacent square) when the attack is made (again, unless you have reach weapon, then you could pull them 5 feet closer to you)
Opportunity attacks take place as the creature goes out of your melee range. The fact that you can cast a ranged spell attack does not allow you to make the op attack later (i.e after they are in your melee range). Therefore grasp of hadar has no effect (as they are as close to you as they can get).
I am not sure if you are expecting "pulling them back into it" results in a second set of damage, but this wouldn't happen anyway as damage from SG happens when a creature "enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there" as they have already started theere turn their or entered the area for the first time on a turn there would be no extra damage.
The main restriction of having to make an AoE spell attack is that ranged spell attacks such as eldritch blast are at disadvantage as the creature running away is within 5ft of you.
That helps a lot. Thank you both!
A note re: the melee range: If you're wielding a reach weapon (like a Whip), you can take your Warcaster reaction when they leave 10 feet instead of 5 feet, and avoid disadvantage on a ranged attack spell like Eldritch Blast. That reach weapon doesn't need to be a spell focus or in any way involved with the casting of the spell, it just needs to be wielded (so, no holding a Halberd in one hand and a focus in the other, you'll want to stick to a Whip).
An EB with the pull invocation probably could be used to pull an enemy back into a properly placed Spirit Guardians, if they started their turn near the edge of it, then moved to leave it in the first square, then triggered an OA from you moving 10->15 feet away, then got pulled back to your adjacent square within the SG aura. Whether SG would trigger twice in the round on them (once for starting their turn in it, again for entering the area) is probably a DM call, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear a "no," but I wouldn't go so far as to say that the RAW is definitely that that wouldn't happen.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
That's a DM call but I would probably just say their movement would be decreased by the pull amount. So if they are trying to run 30' away then I would take away 10" of that.
Thanks all. I rebuilt it dropping EB entirely and using SG +ray of frost as the base combo, then tack on grease or earth tremor for good measure. Have the quickened and careful metas for my melee'rs and find it funny I can quicken SG then cast Mold Earth on that square and make it difficult terrain to effectively lock them in place while I sit back 10 ft and for most creatures that is a speed lock since they'd need 10 ft min to move a sq in difficult terrain.