Can You Smite Off of Booming Blade? The Definitive Guide
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Yes, absolutely! If you’re a Paladin or a Sorcerer-Paladin multiclass wielding the potent Booming Blade cantrip, you can indeed smite. The key lies in the mechanics of both Divine Smite and Booming Blade: Divine Smite is triggered by hitting a creature with a melee weapon attack, and Booming Blade incorporates a melee attack with a weapon as part of its casting. Therefore, the condition for Divine Smite is met. Let’s delve deeper into the intricacies and dispel common misconceptions.
Understanding the Synergy
The combination of Booming Blade and Divine Smite is a popular choice for character builds aiming to maximize damage output in a single attack. Booming Blade provides a scaling damage boost, while Divine Smite offers a burst of radiant damage, potentially devastating foes, especially undead and fiends.
Key Components Explained
- Booming Blade: This cantrip requires you to make a melee attack with a weapon as part of the spellcasting process. If the attack hits, the target takes the weapon’s damage plus an additional thunder damage. Further, if the target willingly moves before your next turn, it takes extra thunder damage.
- Divine Smite: This Paladin feature allows you to expend a spell slot to deal extra radiant damage on a successful melee weapon attack. The amount of damage increases with the spell slot level expended.
How It Works in Practice
When you cast Booming Blade, you’re not simply casting a spell; you’re also making a melee weapon attack. If that attack hits, you can then choose to expend a spell slot to use Divine Smite, adding the radiant damage on top of the weapon damage and the initial thunder damage from Booming Blade.
Common Misconceptions
Many players are confused because Booming Blade is a spell and not a standard Attack action. However, the crucial point is that the spell’s effect includes making a melee weapon attack. This fulfills the requirement for Divine Smite, which specifically states “when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack.”
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some frequently asked questions to further clarify the interaction between Booming Blade, Divine Smite, and other related mechanics:
1. Can I use Extra Attack after casting Booming Blade?
No. Extra Attack specifically triggers when you take the Attack action. Casting Booming Blade requires the Cast a Spell action, so it does not allow you to make additional attacks through Extra Attack.
2. Can I Divine Smite with Eldritch Blast?
No. Divine Smite requires a melee weapon attack. Eldritch Blast is a ranged spell attack, and therefore cannot be combined with Divine Smite. Additionally, some restrictions apply when wielding spellcasting focuses, but the core issue is the attack type.
3. Should I use Booming Blade or Extra Attack?
This depends on your character build, level, and the situation. Extra Attack is generally better if you have effects that add damage to each hit. Booming Blade excels when you need to control enemy movement or have advantage on the first hit. Levels 5-10 often favor Extra Attack before Booming Blade scales further.
4. Can you stack Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade?
No. You can cast only one cantrip per turn unless you have features like Action Surge (Fighter) or Quickened Spell (Sorcerer). Even with these features, you can only cast one of them on a single attack, not both.
5. Can I Smite twice a turn?
Yes. There is no limit to the number of times you can use Divine Smite in a turn, provided you hit the target with a melee weapon attack each time and have available spell slots. Extra Attack allows you to attack multiple times in a turn, potentially enabling multiple smites.
6. Can you use Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade at the same time?
No, you cannot use both on the same attack. At most, you could cast one as an action and the other as a bonus action, but not simultaneously during the same attack.
7. Can Booming Blade be cast with Shadow Blade?
The interaction is debated, and RAW can be interpreted differently, but the general consensus leans towards no. Booming Blade‘s material component requires a weapon worth at least 1 sp, making Shadow Blade (which is not a physical weapon) incompatible.
8. Can Booming Blades stack?
You cannot have multiple instances of the same effect active simultaneously. While you might benefit from multiple instances of initial damage in a turn, only the most powerful effect that triggers on movement will apply if the target moves.
9. Can you use Booming Blade on an Attack of Opportunity?
Yes, if you have the Warcaster feat. Warcaster allows you to cast a spell with a casting time of one action as a reaction when a creature provokes an opportunity attack.
10. Can you infinitely use cantrips?
Yes. Any character can cast any cantrips they know at will and an unlimited number of times, unless specified otherwise by the feature that grants them the cantrip.
11. Can you combine Shillelagh and Booming Blade?
Yes, you can. Casting any combination of Cantrips with Action/Bonus Action is perfectly permissible. Shillelagh makes your club or staff a magical weapon, which then can be used in conjunction with Booming Blade.
12. Can you use Booming Blade with Flame Blade?
No. Flame Blade usually requires the Cast a Spell action. While the Bladesinger class allows for a cantrip and weapon attack combination, it doesn’t allow combining two spells like Booming Blade and Flame Blade into one attack.
13. Is Divine Smite doubled on a crit?
Yes. Any damage dice that are part of an attack that hits critically are doubled per RAW, including those from Divine Smite.
14. Is Divine Smite unlimited?
No, Divine Smite is limited by your available spell slots. You can only use it once per attack, but there is no limit to the number of times you can use it per turn, provided you have enough spell slots and can successfully land multiple melee weapon attacks.
15. Can you use Eldritch Smite with Booming Blade?
Yes. The smite spells only require a bonus action and the blade cantrips are cast as an action, so there’s no problem in casting both on the same turn.
Strategic Considerations
Understanding the nuances of these interactions allows for more effective character building and tactical decision-making. For example, knowing that Booming Blade doesn’t work with Extra Attack might influence your choice of feats or multiclass options. Similarly, recognizing that Divine Smite stacks with critical hits significantly increases your burst damage potential.
Conclusion
In summary, Divine Smite absolutely works with Booming Blade because the spell involves a melee weapon attack. Mastering this interaction, along with other related rules, enhances your gameplay experience and empowers you to create more formidable characters. Remember to stay updated with official rulings and errata to ensure accurate gameplay. To delve deeper into the fascinating world of games and learning, be sure to visit the Games Learning Society website at https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/ to discover innovative research and educational resources. The research done by the GamesLearningSociety.org is at the forefront of exploring how we interact, learn, and grow through gaming.