Are you curious about the probability math we discussed in this video? We didn't want to spend too much time on an in-depth mathematical breakdown, but if you love that kind of detail, check out the Dice Roller at www.anydice.com. It's a fantastic tool for quickly looking at the odds of dice math! If you want to see for yourself how taking Warcaster impacts your odds of making a concentration check. type in the following function: output [highest 1 of 2d20]+X (Replace with "x" your Constitution saving throw bonus) Then set the "data" view to "At Least" -- that will show you your odds of making a Constitution saving throw against a given DC. If you want to see your odds without Warcaster, use the following function: output 1d20+X (Again, replace "x" with your Constitution saving throw bonus. You could even use this to compare the difference between having the Resilient feat and not having it, for example)
Do you technically get opertunity attacks on other pc's when they step away from you in combat? It would be really op if you could heal a party member whenever they steped away from you...
@@TexasRedington cast the "friends" cantrip on your actual friends. When the spell finishes the target must become hostile to you. When this happens and they move away, you will be able to take an opportunity attack on them and with the warcaster feat, you will be able to cast a single target spell on them - such as healing.
Here's a thought, of you cast magic missile, technically, each missile is a separate damage roll. So would it force a creature that is concentrating on a spell to make multiple concentration checks if you hit it with multiple missiles because of the fact that each missile is a separate damage roll, technically. Just a thought.
BTW Since you guys said you'd never seen someone use the last bullet of WC before. Scanlan Shorthalt on Critical Role definitely used Bigby's hand as a reaction with war caster to hold a dragon in place that was trying to escape. I'm pretty sure he used it several other times as well throughout the campaign.
I don't think that move is legal RAW. Probably more something they allowed just because it was cool--which is fine, but not every DM is going to allow it. The issue is that when you cast a spell in place of an opportunity attack, it has to target only one creature--Bigby's Hand doesn't even HAVE a specific target.
I took WarCaster at level 4 with my Eldrich Knight, and it's really useful, especially for spells like Booming Blade. If the creature keeps moving, it takes additional lightnight damage.
When a wizard wields a quarter staff as their arcane focus, and they have both the war caster feat and the pole arm master feat, you can cast a spell against any creature that gets within 5 feet of you. Also, if you are a warlock instead of a wizard and you cast eldrich blast with the repelling blast invocation, it blasts that character backwards before they are able to get hits on you.
the one little, itty bitty problem with this is when any large creature just walks up to 10-feet and starts wailing on you. i had a man with pole-arm master halberd give this depressed sigh every time a creature with range 15+ just walked up and started hitting him. It was entertaining the first 5 or so times
Also for druid, can hit them with Frost Bite so they have disadvantage on their attack against you. Then on your turn you crack them with your Shilleleigh and get the Polearm Master bonus attack.
Never underestimate the power of the command spell, it's a perfect way for a spell caster with war caster to get out of a tight jam and even pump out a few spells as opertunity attacks
Command them to go prone... being getting up or laying down uses half their move and they already moved some, they won't be able to get back up until their next turn... I've got to put this to use
Casting a spell as an opportunity attack is the main reason my level 6 Bladesinger took Warcaster. He almost always fights with shadow blade (2d8 psychic). That means when he hits with Booming Blade as an opportunity attack he deals 2d8 psychic + 1d8 thunder +, if they carry on moving, 2d8 more thunder. So instead of the normal 2d8 he would deal with Shadow Blade, he ends up dealing 5d8 damage with a cantrip! Enemies hate it! It's also nice to have advantage on top of adding my int modifier to con saving throws for concentration whilst bladesinging! With my +3 con and +5 int, and advantage, I'd love to know the odds on failing the check!
with +5 to the saving throw, you have to roll 4 or lower twice to fail, so a 1 in 25 chance, which is a 4% chance of happening. I think the first guy did the +5 twice because of advantage and then still did two rolls to calc. You're only supposed to +5 because of advantage to passive perception.
+8 Actually, constitution modifier + intelligence modifier. This means that, as long as your opponent deals less that 21 damage, the DC is 10, which is a success on a roll of 2 with a +8 modifier, requiring a 1 on the d20 to fail, which ends up at 1/20 on one die, 1/400 with advantage, which is .25%. His math is accurate.
One thing I'd like to note, in the phb, page 203, in the material component is that the hand you use for your material component or spellcasting focus can be the same hand as the somatic component, and with cleric and paladins, when they put their holy symbols on their shields, the shield itself becomes the spellcasting focus, which means they can do somatic components with a shield and weapon in their hand because they can do the somatic component through the shield
Yeah. It's much easier for Clerics and Paladins because holy symbols can be your spell focus. However, other classes might need to be careful, since they might not necessarily get to use a weapon or shield as an arcane focus (though there are plenty of subclasses that grant you the ability to use a weapon as an arcane focus)
@@DungeonDudes A quarter staff can easily double as an arcane or divine focus. But remember, material components with a specified price cannot be replaced with a focus.
Jack Nerdlord it can also function as a Druidic focus, allowing you to make a Druid with a quarter staff with shillelagh cast on it, a wooden shield, and medium armor that’s both pretty tanky and deals some significant damage, especially if you also take the pole arm master feat and get an extra attack for your bonus action that you wouldn’t normally get as a Druid, that because of shillelagh may or may not deal 1d8 damage instead of pole arm master’s normal 1d4 damage, depending on how your DM rules it. You also get to use your wisdom modifier instead of strength, letting you focus on fewer ability scores when you’re leveling up
There's still some spells they can't cast. I believe Jeremy Crawford cleared this up in a Sage Advice. Basically, yes, you can provide the somatic component of a spell with the same hand that's providing the material component, but only if the spell has a material component to begin with. If it doesn't have a material component, but does have a somatic component, and your hands are full, you need to drop something to cast it. There are quite a few spells that require somatic components, but not material components, and so if your hands are both preoccupied, you cannot cast it even if you're holding your spellcasting focus. Of course, outside of battle this doesn't matter, and in battle it just means you need to drop something before you cast your spell and then you can just pick it back up again, so it's not a big deal but there certainly may be situations where it is, right? Some spells (up to 3rd level) which clerics and paladins might find themselves casting in battle but would need a free hand for are: Beacon of Hope Blink Burning Hands Call Lightning Charm Person Crown of Madness Cure Wounds Daylight Divine Favor Dispel Magic Elemental Weapon Fog Cloud Guidance Guiding Bolt Hellish Rebuke Heroism Inflict Wounds Lesser Restoration Life Transference Magic Missile Magic Weapon Meld into Stone Mirror Image Plant Growth Protection from - well, most protection spells Ray of Enfeeblement Ray of Sickness Remove Curse Sacred Flame Scorching Ray Silence Spare the Dying Spiritual Weapon Thunderwave Toll the Dead Vampiric Touch
As a warcaster sorceress/battle mistress I'm already on the front lines so if anyone is dumb enough to try to run away they aren't likely to enjoy the result. Also booming blade was practically made for this. It's my version of the sentinel feat. That said green flame blade and sword burst won't function for this since they can hit multiple enemies. Lightning lure can work however. Allowing you to pull the enemy back in while damaging it. But it and sword burst are sadly not melee delivered spells.
Jon Dubois i didn't mean that I couldn't use those two spells spells because they aren't melee. But in the episode they specifically mention sword burst as a spell that is delivered as a melee attack. What I was saying is that it wasn't a melee based spell like booming blade or green flame blade. Regardless sword burst and green flame blade are not eligible spells for use with this feat, because they both hit multiple creatures
Greenflame blade should work as long as there are no other enemies within 5ft of the one you're attacking, because it will still only target that creature. Booming Blade is still the best use of this, though.
I'm thinking Greenflame Blade should work regardless, because although it *damages* more than one creature, the *spell itself* specifically targets one creature. On a hit on that creature, the fire leaps to others, but the spell itself targets one creature within 5 ft of you. The fact that it has an effect on other creatures is a separate issue. Personally I would house-rule that it has a range of whatever the range of the melee weapon you're using is, so you could do 10 ft with a polearm, but that's a different issue entirely.
Combine War Caster, Resilient: Con, and the Star Druid's Dragon Form, and you'll never break concentration(yes, I made my dm rage from this because an enemy did 41 damage in one hit and I didn't even have to roll a con save)
@@Floormat-ux4rw It's in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Any magic staff (including an arcane focus) can be used as a quarterstaff with all the normal properties such as versatile. page 140, I think.
Just pictured a mage with polearm master and war caster, and when an enemy character tries to get past him to get somewhere it gets hit with six rays of fire from double scorching ray. And the player narrates it as the character hitting him twice with the points of his staff and hitting him with 3 rays each time. That's one hell of a way to stop someone from moving
In a two-character campaign I played in, both myself, a paladin/warlock and the sorcerer/bard have warcaster. Whenever somebody tries running away from the sorcerer, he casts disintegrate on them. We have killed WAY too many people this way because of how we locate ourselves in battle
I played an Aasimar paladin/sorcerer in our Curse of Strahd campaign. I waited the entire campaign to use the opportunity attack from war caster. Never got one to land until the final fight when I ended up landing one on Strahd after he tried to hurl me out a window. I managed a crit with a 4th level smite with booming blade for like a million damage. I can’t start to tell you how good that felt. One thing I figured out playing with war caster is that you can get your saving throw so high, especially with a caster that, that you end up dying to damage before you ever get to make a saving throw.
@@FlatlandsSurvivor as someone said earlier, opportunity attack only works on "hostile" targets. So this would not work on your allies - unless (as I remarked above) you make them hostile with the friends cantrip
10:00 i used the spell booming blade as opportunity attack almost every round of combat. as an arcane trickster the sneak attack plus booming blade combo is amazing!
Don't forget the dragon sorcerer, they get a nice bonus to AC, extra HP, and proficiency with concentration saves. They make a great front line caster class
Probably not, unless they fail 2 saves in a row. They get additional ones at the end of their turn, and if they're provoking an AoO, it's probably already their turn...
Currently playing a lvl 20 fighter/paladin/sorcerer with Warcaster in a small module. I’ve got a +14 to my concentration check and advantage. Not dropping that twinned Haste anytime soon. It’s a fantastic feat and essential for any sword and board caster. Thanks for the great video gentlemen.
The opportunity attack feature of Warcaster has always been my favorite. Works best with cantrips I find: True Strike, Infestation, Shocking Grasp, Toll the Dead, Vicious Mockery to name a few.
How do you get true strike to work with war caster? I'd like to try effectively using this unpopular cantrip but I don't have.net strategies where I'm able to use it.
@@Gondorf5 True Strike targets one creature and has the cast time of 1 action. This fulfills the requirements. Basically instead of attacking, you mark the creature for an advantageous attack. That being said, if somebody picks True Strike and actually uses it, they already resigned their character to being absolutely useless. There is pretty much no reason to ever use it, neither on low nor on high levels. Unless you are low-lv and in some weird-ass campaign, where all the enemies have really low damage and really high AC and the GM is a diehard fan of Monster Hunter, making every battle last ~3 hours+.
@@paranidherc I dont agree that they think its worthless it has uses to deal a strong damage spell but what makes it even worse is that it is a concentration spell. That means you drop whatever spell you were already concentrating on and if you arent concentrating on a spell you should be
On a druid Frost Bite could be a good option. Less damage than a whap with your Shilleleigh, but could cause them to have disadvantage on their attack against you if you have Polearm Master for your quarterstaff when they step to you, or if they are walking away from you to hit your ally.
Notably, the third point of the feat lets you do some amazing things, IF it comes up. Notably, a war cleric, who stands in the front lines with heavy armor and a shield, and if a creature decides to seek an easier target, you can either smack them with a cantrip, or if the situation is ideal, a nastier spell like hold person.
As a DM, I often forget to make my players make concentration checks because my players rarely use them and when they do I feel that the reason I’m probably forgetting is because it is another die roll mid combat. Anyone else suffering the same issue?
It happens to us all the time. It just takes practice, and your players should be helping with it, too. If they are concentrating on a spell and take damage, they are as much responsible for remembering as you!
Dungeon Dudes I’ll keep that in mind! They’re all new players though and we’ve only played for a few months, so I guess I’ll need to really hammer that point home for a bit. P.S. you guys are awesome!
I just tell my players that it is their responsibility to make the appropriate concentration checks. If they succeed they don't need to say anything, but if they fail they just let anyone who is benefiting from the spell know that the spell ended. This way it does not slow the game down, and as the DM you don't need to worry about it. Hope this helps.
I agree! As a sorcerer I really want to keep twin haste going but if I fail concentration from being stabbed it's more fun to solve the new problem then just pretend nothing happened.
Yeah I often just have them roll a check if I forget immediately so sometimes they get to use a spell's damage longer than they're supposed to and I just handwave it since the spell is gone anyway Like as long as the check happens I really don't mind if it's delayed lol
Your videos have been really helpful in crystalizing a lot of the confusing rules of 5e. I’m just a player at the moment, but there are some things that I’ll read in the PHB or DMG and it just doesn’t make sense. These videos have really helped explaining the confusing aspects. Keep it up!
You guys should add this video to your Feats in Dungeons and Dragons 5e playlist. This video was very helpful, thank you for putting this together it cleared on some misconceptions I had of this feat.
I've used the spellcasting as an opportunity attack feature a lot. The most common instance is to cast Booming Blade as a reaction. It's really potent if you specifically don't have Sentinel.
I have a fun pairing that you guys didn't mention. As a warlock, the starting eldritch blast is usually what people go for. Human Warlock, get the War Caster, then second level, get a level or even 2 in Fighter (for action surge), you can have a shield and a martial weapon, and *still* cast spells, letting you be a strong level 2/3 character. I've set it up so that by the time i reach my second feat, i have a level 2 fighter, and level 6 warlock, who is a hexblade patron and can summon magical weapons as my arcane focus. Second feat would be duel wielding, so that way, i can attack with a real warpick, then a magical warpick and *still* be ready to whip a bitch with an eldritch blast.
I did this with my human variant Warlock too:) I took 3 levels in fighter first (action surge and Battle Master for superiority die), then the next three levels have been in Warlock Hexblade, pact of the blade. I also took another feat at 4th level. I went with the lucky feat... Bring on the Con saves ;)
@@wiredkamikaze5831 remember that you don't get ability score increases until level 4 in a class, not character level. Your second one doesn't come online until fighter 4 or warlock 4.
I have just discovered your channel and it´s full of great, useful and amazing content. It Is helping me, a returning DM after two decades in the pit, to catch things up with the 5th edition. Subscribed!
Perfect use for casting a spell as a reaction. Polearm Master and Eldritch Blast. Set up your invocations to where it knocks them back 10 feet per hit and slows them by 10 feet. Every time they enter your melee range you can blast them back far enough that they never get their attack in
I'm playing a Light Cleric for AL with the War Caster feat and I love it when enemies try to get away from me and I just Guiding Bolt them in the face!
Love all the content you guys make, has helped me get into DnD. Was wondering if you guys would ever consider streaming a session or recording one to put up? We always get to hear about your awesome games would be great to see one play out. Keep up the good always look forward to Thursday because of it.
2 things to note: 1. The requirement of being able to cast at least one spell to take warcaster comes up for variant humans who pick classes that don't start with spellcasting, like paladins and rangers, or characters who plan to go EK or AT. 2. If you have warcaster and pole arm master and want to use the 10 ft OA with the weapon and use a spell (like booming blade or green-flame blade), those have a range of only 5 ft so would not normally work. However, you could also take spell sniper or distant spell (sorcerer metamagic) to make it work. Probably not worth it though. It's 3 feats, or 2 feats and a metamagic choice.
I actually was able to negotiate with a lenient DM about the use of my holy symbol. It was a gauntlet for a deity associated with paladins in the forgotten realm. I wore the gauntlet on my hand that I had my shield attached to so I asked about still casting with the somatic gestures with my when not attacking though I got the war caster feat at the next level up anyway so it didn't stay an issue
Grabbing it with a Eldritch Knight or Bladesinger is great because of Booming Blade as opportunity attacks. They already running so you get both damages. I do it all the time.
I really like that you explain the feat, both it's strengths AND weaknesses. TBH I didn't even know how good this feat really was until I saw this. You got a sub for this. Thank you.
great timing I've been considering taking this feat with my wizard, currently playing curse of strahd and I want the paladin to keep that haste I cast on him
I played a lvl 5 variant human Death Cleric who took warcaster and pole arm master. I found the two worked very well together, allowing me to take advantage of pole arm master by using my action and bonus action to melee attack, while still using my spell slots on things like ray of enfeeblement for my AoO’s.
you can definitely replace your attack of opportunity granted by polearm master with a spell, due to how it's worded "When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you". but it doesn't give the benefits of sentinel "When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack,"
For that part about the attacks of opportunity with a spell instead of a weapon, I can also see that when an enemy tries to rush by you while chasing someone else (maybe you just don't seem physically intimidating enough to be worried about), or if they're the effect of a fear or other effect that makes them run in a particular direction heedless of your presence.
Love you guys, you break down things pretty awesome. I'm a DM from Iran, and I gain lots of infos from you two. Can you explain the time in the game? (Actions, minutes, hours, rounds) Keep up the good work Thanks
Wow. Keeping track of time is a HUGE topic. We'll have to do some homework. Great video idea though. My short advice is that as a DM: you control time itself. You can "pause" a player in the middle of any action and ask the other players what they want to do. You can ask the player to resolve everything they want to do as a series of actions over several turns, or you can gloss it over. I find that it's helpful to flat out ask players "Okay, about how much time do you want to spend on this task?" One trick I like to use is that when the players spend a bunch of time deliberating or searching, I ask them to roll 1d6. If the roll a 1, "something" happens which changes the circumstances but doesn't necessarily result in a new encounter. For example if the players are spending to long planning an ambush on an enemy base, and they roll a 1, I'd have reinforcements show up at the base, or maybe the weather gets bad. On a 6, something potentially beneficial for them happens. A patrol leaves the base, reducing the numbers. A fire breaks out. You can really get creative with this and it makes the world feel alive, so the players know that if they spend to much time being indecisive, the situation can change.
These videos are probably the ones that will help me the most. I’ve been in a group of friends that avoids using feats for years. One day I will use this knowledge for the good of the realm! Edit: you could definitely base an entire character behind this feat. (Backstory wise)
I have used the 3rd part multiple times by using fear with enemies in melee range. Planning a new battlefield control mage and I plan to go war caster with Dissonant Whispers for this exact synergy.
War caster does not work with polearm master because the intend of polearm master is that you poke at the ennemy with a polearm as he enter your reach. Now, I would totally allow you to add booming blade on your quarterstaff if you take the war caster feat and polearm master, but only that.
An alternative way to get the main effect is to take Eldritch Adept and grab the Eldritch Mind invocation. You don't get the second or third bullet points of War Caster, but it applies whenever you make a concentration check and not just when you take damage. Still mostly inferior to War Caster, but if you think you'll be facing blizzards and sandstorms more often than you fight with a shield, it could be a useful alternative.
A bit late, but in the errata it says: "Two-Handed (p. 147). This property is relevant only when you attack with the weapon, not when you simply hold it." So yes, two handed weapons don't prevent you from casting somatic spells as you only use both hands while attacking. Booming blade + war caster is fun, if someone tries running away from you or past you then they instantly trigger booming blade after being hit by your weapon. Tried that as a Human Hexblade Warlock, took war caster at level 1, our bard constantly taunted enemies to bait them into going after him, pulling them past me. Hexblade warlock, long sword + shield in scale mail. 18 ac and dealing between 6 and 20 damage at level 1 on reactions (2d8+4) You could go risky and take a great sword instead of sword+shield and bump it up to between 7 and 24 damage on reactions but at that point you're over killing a bit especially on level 1, unless maybe against zombies, doing big numbers really helps if you have no way of dealing radiant damage.
9:14 I don't know if people already said that, but this is possible according to the rules. The "Two-Handed" property says "it only applies when you make an attack with the weapon", meaning that otherwise you can carry it with one hand
As a Cleric of Light, I used the Opportunity attack with War Caster often. At least as often as when an opponent would break off an attack without disengaging.
As this is an older vid I doubt anyone will read this, but this is why I like the idea of tossing a single level of barbarian onto your spell caster and making con your secondary stat. Now the con will buff your hp, increase your armor class (without armor obviously), and let you make use of a shield with the War Caster feat.
A note on constitution save proficiency, remember that Transmutation wizards kinda have it, assuming they use their transmuter's stone for that, however, it's enough to make resilient not worth for them. About the forcing to make many checks, against casters that do not have shield, is magic missiles, every single missle is a check, yes it's just 10 but it's a lot of checks. It sucks for clerics mainly, also warlocks because not many of them waste one known spell for spells that do not scale.
I’m setting up to play my first D&D session, but I’ve been mapping out the general flow of my character, and the first things I looked at were being a Dragonborn EK of bronze ancestry that multiclasses 8 levels into Sorcerer, picking up draconic lineage from the class, and taking Polearm Master, Sentinel, Elemental Adept and War Caster. Using a glaive, I don’t have to discard my weapon to use either Somatic (pre-war caster) or material spells, I’ve given him the lore-based limitation of that he may only use Lightning (and Thunder) spells, so picking up Shocking Grasp, Lightning Lure and the like, I’m keen to see what kind of shenanigans I can do. Opportunity attack/spell upon approach, melee fighting, and on the off chance of a flee or disengage, I could use Lightning lure to pull them back. Actually, I’m not sure how that works. Do they get 30ft of movement after being pulled? Can I wait until he’s moved 15ft to pull him back again? Better yet, can I wait till he moves 30ft, then use a sorcery point to double my range/give 30ft of range to Shocking Grasp, and hit him with that, all of an opportunity attack? I’d be interested what other people think
Dude 1: "The third component is the ability to replace your opportunity attack with the casting of a spell Dude 2: "Tbh I've never seen anyone use this ability" Eldritch knights: "Allow us to introduce ourselves."
Yeah, my Eldritch Knight hit a giant with a booming blade using pole arm master as he was coming in to attack. Then when he tried to flee, I hit him again on the way out with booming blade using war caster. The double booming blade effects on his way out killed him, needless to say.
@@indigoblacksteel1176 Yep booming blade is the perfect spell for opportunity attacks. Even hold person, frostbite, chill touch, and a few others are also pretty good to use.
As far as casting with a spell with a somantic component while wearing a shield and wielding a mace in your primary hand... Generally, you can quickly move the mace to the shield hand temporarily, cast with the primary one, and then quickly reclaim the mace after the spell is delivered.
One of my favorite combos with War caster(though it's end game) is to go 18 levels cavalier and 2 levels warlock. You go polearm master, Sentinel, and war caster and you get the eldritch blast invocation that let's you push one hit. The combination of all of this put together makes the ultimate door holder.
I personally play an Eldritch Knight Variant Human with Polearm Mastery, Sentinel and War Caster as my feats (Level 7 currently), and honestly it's been a total blast. I play as a lockdown mid-front liner that defends squishy allies such as the wizard and rogue from rushdown melee enemies. It can be extremely powerful or near useless, because EK does not gain access to too many top tier spells, but it definitely has it's uses when you get options like Blur, Mirror Image, Enlarge/Reduce, Invisiblity, etc. Also yes, I used the spell instead of opportunity attack option once, used it to cast Lightning Lure to drag the fucker over. Just because it looked cool.
The "opportunity spell" - part is actually very good for Eldritch Knights who usually don't have quite the crazy melee prowess of Paladins, Barbarians or other Fighters. Even just casting a Frostbite cantrip can really help out your squishy allies - and you already mentioned Hold Person.
I've used a shield...he's right. Your not going to just release with the hand. Depending on the shield, you would either drop it (Center boss), or have it hanging at an awkward and somewhat painful angle (Heater shields"
Eldritch Knight, Paladin ( if you have a cantrip ), or any melee martial caster can make great use of the spell on opportunity strikes because you can do a melee cantrip such as Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade. I did it a ton on my Arcane Trickster Rogue.
To answer your question: Yes. Yes it did. Polearm master/War caster hexblade. I was a new DM and my player (who was DM for my last campaign), pulled THIS MONSTROUSITY, and just murdered EVERYTHING in curse of Strahd like he was swatting flies
9:15 Free fingers is not a requirement for casting spells, even handicap creatures can cast spells. All you need is for the limb/appendages to be free to move and trace the spells. I like how they did in Dr. Strange, very inclusive. ALSO also, _Fun Fact:_ *Polearm Master does not specify that you need to be proficient with the weapon, just Wielding it.* -(don't remember if they made this point tbh)-
If you have a heater shield (the triangular shield that buckles to your arm), you can pass your one handed sword to the same hand your shield is in. This does not work with round shields, because they most oven use a center grip and are not buckled to your arm. Source: I spent years fighting in the SCA and would do this in combat to pick up and throw axes, or climb a later.
Yeah, but there's nothing to say your character couldn't be trained to make somatic gestures with enough accuracy with a single extended finger or even a closed fist. Magic works the way we say it does, especially when the text of the feat specifically states you can make the gesture while holding a shield.
Nate L I'd read that a heater shield is very thick and heavy for its size, the better to absorb the sheer impact of a hammer or mace. It's designed specifically for use in conjunction with plate armor that a wizard just isn't likely to be wearing :P
Spencerades. Actuary Plate armor mostly did away with shields. The armor was all you really needed. Knights started to forgo the shield so they could use 2 handed weapons like a long sword or a polearm.
The way it was explained to me was that, since anything with a blade is about as useful as a pool noodle and anything with a point would fare only slightly better with a lucky strike to the gaps in the plate, your best bet against a fully plate armored opponent is to take the heaviest blunt instrument you can find and bash until you turn him into a tin can full of tomato soup. The heater shield was made to disperse the sheer kinetic energy of such a weapon like a warhammer or mace. So between armor and shield there was adequate protection from damn near any kind of weapon, at least in theory. By most accounts, you're absolutely right that shields were less common (but not rare!) among late medieval knights, but it was still a viable option up until the age of firearms.
Spencereades. Hello again, and thankyou for the discussion. Just google "15th Century Knight" and try and find a shield. You will see a few shields, but if you look closer the knight will still have a lot of chain armor on. The ones in full plate will be holding some sort of two handed weapon like a long sword, spear, or halberd. I completely agree that plate made Knights practically immune to slashing and poking. It was because of this that a new form of fighting started called half swording. Ya, bludgeoning weapons, worked agents plate, but that required a lot of force. Getting enough force would be a lot easier with a long, two handed weapon. The back sides of a lot of halberds look like a waffle faced hammer. I don't really think it is practical to block a two handed weapon with a one handed shield. I tried to do this a few times when I fought in the SCA battles, and the impact was so strong that I would usually get pushed off balance or knocked over. Better to dodge the attack completely.
HUGE oversight: use booming blade for you opportunity attack. Depending on DM ruling they either stop and can’t move or (RAW but maybe not RAI) they have to keep moving and proc the extra dmg
Might already have been mentioned, but here it is anyway. Though you still have to be mindful of the “one spell per turn no matter what” general rule (action surge aside), there are always cantrips. Example: 5th level wizard or cleric with Warcaster now gets to haul out a 2d10 Fire Bolt or 2d12 Toll the Dead instead of a wimpy 1d4+2 dagger or 1d6+1 mace. Huge difference!
Warlock with Polearm Master, Glaive, Repelling Blast and Warcaster. An enemy tries to engage you on their turn. They enter your reach. You get an oppotunity attack with your Glaive(Polearm master), but choose to cast Eldritch Blast instead. The approaching enemy takes 1D10 Force damage and is pushed back 10 feet for each hit.
Great videos Dudes, I watched your Palidin video last night now this so I have a cool idea for you. Crown Palidin with War Caster and possibly shield mastery(depends if you went human varient or half orc IMO) then use your compelled duel anytime a monster decides you're not worth hitting and that fireball throwing mage looks tastier. Hope you like the idea and look forward to more of the videos.
i did this once hexblade warlock variant human devil's sight. took warcaster at level 1 and PAM at level 4 20 charisma at lvl 8 very fun character to play.
Your points on Sleet Storm made me realise that the weather in the game world during a session CAN and SHOULD make a difference - just make sleet rain use the same rules as Sleet Storm, make foggy weather use Fog Cloud: "You create a 20-foot-radius sphere of fog centered on a point within range. The sphere spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured." It's frankly insane that most D&D campaigns typically just take place during a clear day or at night. "A given area might be lightly or heavily obscured. In a lightly obscured area, such as dim light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage, creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight. A heavily obscured area--such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage--blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area."
War Caster is great on a EB Warlock. We once had a choke point build at our table that used a polearm (naginata I believe) with Polearm Master and War Caster to cast Eldritch Blast with the Eldritch Evocation that makes your EB push the enemies back by 10 feet for each ray. And as you cast a spell instead of making an opportunity attack, you can target rays at different targets. Later on it was getting super silly.
One case where the opportunity attack shines is with investors of fire on a red dragon sorcerer. You already get very close for the line attack, but with this you just walk up and force the enemy to choose between 1d10+5 from the aura or take a cantrip or worse to the face.
I often see War Domain Clerics shouted out as amazing front liners (which they definitely are) , but I would also like to call out the Forge Domain Cleric as another amazing front liner and amazing beneficiary of the War Caster feat.
My paladin took war caster so that I could take a dip into sorcerer for getting a reliable ranged attack option and being able to cast shield on top of my high AC. I also took booming blade and green flame blade for my cantrip options. Being able to opportunity attack with booming blade is incredibly strong because they almost always end up taking the bonus damage from moving away from you. Also pairs fantastically with dissonant whispers, as they have to move away.
Advantage gives a +2.7 to your average roll. Where it's really good is when you take into account the chance to crit fail/save. However rules as written you cannot crit a saving throw, that is technically a variant rule. So for maintaining concentration "resilient: constitution" is better from level 5. I haven't run the numbers for when crits are in play
With the Warcaster feat, my archfey warlock/ whisper bard's optimal spell rotation to one-shot mini-bosses in a given round is Dissonant Whispers (forcing AoO) + Booming Blade + melee attack with precast upcast Shadow Blade + Psychic Blades for a glorious nova burst of 74 points (average) psychic destruction. (Inspired by Colby from d4 Deep Dive!)
I play a Paladin(Oath of Vengeance)/Warlock(Fiend/Tome) with Warcaster and Polearm Master specifically to take advantage of the "Cast a spell on an opp attack" feature. In this case, he's using a quarterstaff so his reach is only 5', and he get's the opp attack when someone closes with him. Then he uses Booming Blade to hit them with the quarterstaff and move up to 15' away (7th level paladin oath of vengeance ability) , forcing them to either stop or take more damage if they keep moving. Between Booming Blade, DIvine Smite, and Improved Divine Smite he often does 30-50 points of damage on the opp attack.
I have a Tempest Cleric/Warlock who was able to use Warcaster in conjunction with Booming Blade and the Channel Divinity feature to cause a lot of damage to BBEGs that tried to move away from me about 2 or 3 times throughout his career. It is a hard combo to pull off, but when you manage to do so the results are glorious.
well this is something i don't recommend doing as a wizard. BUT... an abjuration wizard with high dex, mage armor with the shield master feat makes for a half decent melee combatant with the warcaster feat. with the abjuration bubble to protect you when you cast mage armor then having spells like shocking grasp vs metal coated foes makes for a nasty mage you would not want to stay close to for to long. specially when you start pumping spells like flaming orb, spiritual weapon or another front liner to flank them and start giving yourself advantage maybe?... maybe something to think about and take notes.
I play a sorcerer fighter (6,2), and this is my bread and butter in combat. For an example, I hast myself (usually twinning to get some else too), slash at my opponent with green flame blade, then a slash with booming blade, then quicken spell lightning bolt. Then if they move, they take thunder damage and I get an opportunity attack on them, in which I use booming blade again to stop them in their tracks, or they take even more damage for moving any further. This along with the boosted AC from being able to wear a shield allows me to be an “up in your face” sorcerer. And if I wanted to get even crazier, I could also add my action serge from the 2 lvl fighter dip to add even more magical hacks and slashes, or to strike them down even further with a hard hitting spell.
I took this feat for my wild shape build Druid in my brothers Curse of Strahd campaign. seems to be working really well, though unless he's rolling the checks secretly I think he might not even be bothering doing checks most of the time since I took the feat. Really loving wild shape druid, i always see comments whenever it's brought up that it's not of much use but so far i've been pretty essential in every battle we've had, and ever since I started to usually cast that healing spirit spell before I shift into animal form I often do the most healing as well as high damage, grappling, and tanking. most fun i've had in DnD so far.
a crucial limitation that slipped your mind: the spell cast as a reaction needs to only have one single target: the one that triggered the opportunity attack. so no area effects and the like for you, though its still a great feat with lots of possibilities!
Yeah, that does actually kill green flame blade since at fifth level and above it targets multiple opponents (and even from the start probably since the initial flame targets a creature other than the one you make the melee attack against).
polearm master+war caster warlock with the repelling blast invocation is super nice imo I'm currently playing a character that uses this and it's so fun because usually nothing can ever touch you in melee range. Also the proficiency on hex *errrr consentration checks* is really nice
i was bein' a little sneak, and was behind a decorative pillar in a large hallway. The enemy barbarian sprinted past me to try and get into combat with the paladin, but was stopped just a few feet short by a well-fired ray of frost.
Booming blade as an opportunity attack. Arcana cleric, mace, booming blade, war caster. Allowed me to hold creatures in a spirit guardian bubble with a spiritual weapon. So using booming blade to keep a creature in the AOE then again as a reaction to keep another there as well. As an interesting note the RAW means the secondary effect of booming blade will automatically go off when used as an opportunity attack.
I am playing a war cleric in a party were we don't have a melee oriented class, so I am usually on the front line. Even with a STR score of 14, I always prefer to use a WIS based attack - my score is 18 - so I always use spells for opportunity attacks - guidind bolt and sacred flame, for example, although I will use guidind bolt only when I have a inspiration slot to avoid the disadvantage.
There were bucklers in 3.5e that only gave +1 AC but left your hand free to cast spells. You could technically use a weapon in that hand as well, but you took something like a -5 penalty to the attack roll with it.
I have used the SCAG cantrips such as Booming Blade on an Attack of Opportunity to keep a fool from running from my Eldritch Knight. He died when I did but it did work and that is a key component once I have sentinel too.
My first 5e character was s multi class Warlock/Paladin that had Polearm Master, Warcaster, and Sentinel. Also with Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast. Using primarily Glaives. The Polearm Master/Warcaster interaction does work accord to a rules clarification at that time from I BELIEVE it was Mike Mearls? So when an enemy would try to move past me or from 10 ft> 5 ft I could either swing with the Glaive and on hit trigger sentinel or instead blast 1-3 Eldritch Blast bolts knocking them back 10-30 feet depending.
RE: Opportunity spells 1. Sapping Sting, 2. Ray of Frost I see a lot of comments about Booming Blade and higher level spells, which I respect. But maybe just keep 'em near without burning slots.
Are you curious about the probability math we discussed in this video? We didn't want to spend too much time on an in-depth mathematical breakdown, but if you love that kind of detail, check out the Dice Roller at www.anydice.com. It's a fantastic tool for quickly looking at the odds of dice math!
If you want to see for yourself how taking Warcaster impacts your odds of making a concentration check. type in the following function:
output [highest 1 of 2d20]+X
(Replace with "x" your Constitution saving throw bonus)
Then set the "data" view to "At Least" -- that will show you your odds of making a Constitution saving throw against a given DC.
If you want to see your odds without Warcaster, use the following function:
output 1d20+X
(Again, replace "x" with your Constitution saving throw bonus. You could even use this to compare the difference between having the Resilient feat and not having it, for example)
Do you technically get opertunity attacks on other pc's when they step away from you in combat? It would be really op if you could heal a party member whenever they steped away from you...
@@solsystem1342 text says "hostile creature", so no. Though that would be super fun
combine the opportunity attack with the polearm mastery feat to attack them with a spell in a 10 foot range.
@@TexasRedington cast the "friends" cantrip on your actual friends. When the spell finishes the target must become hostile to you. When this happens and they move away, you will be able to take an opportunity attack on them and with the warcaster feat, you will be able to cast a single target spell on them - such as healing.
Here's a thought, of you cast magic missile, technically, each missile is a separate damage roll. So would it force a creature that is concentrating on a spell to make multiple concentration checks if you hit it with multiple missiles because of the fact that each missile is a separate damage roll, technically. Just a thought.
War Caster - Clerics best friend. Plus, Inflict Wounds on reactions? Devastating.
Cleric war caster full plate w/ shield and spirit guardians w/ inflict wounds as a reaction
I like having war caster with the booming blade cantrip and spirit guardians on. You move you get hurt, you stay you get hurt…
i use two handed weapons, and love polearms + polearm master + spirit guardians + spiritual weapon + sentinel
BTW Since you guys said you'd never seen someone use the last bullet of WC before. Scanlan Shorthalt on Critical Role definitely used Bigby's hand as a reaction with war caster to hold a dragon in place that was trying to escape. I'm pretty sure he used it several other times as well throughout the campaign.
"You can leave...when Burt Reynolds says you can leave!!!"
Will Mills can’t go messing with the meat man.
It was probably then trying to Think of only their table Instead of critical role
I don't think that move is legal RAW. Probably more something they allowed just because it was cool--which is fine, but not every DM is going to allow it. The issue is that when you cast a spell in place of an opportunity attack, it has to target only one creature--Bigby's Hand doesn't even HAVE a specific target.
Ever notice if you do or see something some one always tries to knock it down . Good move by the way
I took WarCaster at level 4 with my Eldrich Knight, and it's really useful, especially for spells like Booming Blade. If the creature keeps moving, it takes additional lightnight damage.
When a wizard wields a quarter staff as their arcane focus, and they have both the war caster feat and the pole arm master feat, you can cast a spell against any creature that gets within 5 feet of you. Also, if you are a warlock instead of a wizard and you cast eldrich blast with the repelling blast invocation, it blasts that character backwards before they are able to get hits on you.
the one little, itty bitty problem with this is when any large creature just walks up to 10-feet and starts wailing on you. i had a man with pole-arm master halberd give this depressed sigh every time a creature with range 15+ just walked up and started hitting him. It was entertaining the first 5 or so times
Also for druid, can hit them with Frost Bite so they have disadvantage on their attack against you. Then on your turn you crack them with your Shilleleigh and get the Polearm Master bonus attack.
Eldritch blast would only work for levels 1-4 because after that you make multiple attack rolls meaning its no longer a single target spell.
@@KikinCh1kin Also, it's a ranged attack spell, meaning if the target is within 5 feet you get disadvantage.
Dereck Heineman “must only target that creature..”. Blast can target the same creature more then once...
Never underestimate the power of the command spell, it's a perfect way for a spell caster with war caster to get out of a tight jam and even pump out a few spells as opertunity attacks
Command them to go prone... being getting up or laying down uses half their move and they already moved some, they won't be able to get back up until their next turn...
I've got to put this to use
Casting a spell as an opportunity attack is the main reason my level 6 Bladesinger took Warcaster. He almost always fights with shadow blade (2d8 psychic). That means when he hits with Booming Blade as an opportunity attack he deals 2d8 psychic + 1d8 thunder +, if they carry on moving, 2d8 more thunder. So instead of the normal 2d8 he would deal with Shadow Blade, he ends up dealing 5d8 damage with a cantrip! Enemies hate it!
It's also nice to have advantage on top of adding my int modifier to con saving throws for concentration whilst bladesinging! With my +3 con and +5 int, and advantage, I'd love to know the odds on failing the check!
You'd have to roll snake eyes on 2d20 so 1 in 400 or .25%
There was a 100% chance someone was going to calculate that for him. Good job.
@@hawkname1234 I figured that would've the case :P
with +5 to the saving throw, you have to roll 4 or lower twice to fail, so a 1 in 25 chance, which is a 4% chance of happening. I think the first guy did the +5 twice because of advantage and then still did two rolls to calc. You're only supposed to +5 because of advantage to passive perception.
+8 Actually, constitution modifier + intelligence modifier. This means that, as long as your opponent deals less that 21 damage, the DC is 10, which is a success on a roll of 2 with a +8 modifier, requiring a 1 on the d20 to fail, which ends up at 1/20 on one die, 1/400 with advantage, which is .25%. His math is accurate.
One thing I'd like to note, in the phb, page 203, in the material component is that the hand you use for your material component or spellcasting focus can be the same hand as the somatic component, and with cleric and paladins, when they put their holy symbols on their shields, the shield itself becomes the spellcasting focus, which means they can do somatic components with a shield and weapon in their hand because they can do the somatic component through the shield
I was a cleric with this but got War Caster anyways just to remove all doubt from him being able to cast spells with stuff in his hands
Yeah. It's much easier for Clerics and Paladins because holy symbols can be your spell focus. However, other classes might need to be careful, since they might not necessarily get to use a weapon or shield as an arcane focus (though there are plenty of subclasses that grant you the ability to use a weapon as an arcane focus)
@@DungeonDudes A quarter staff can easily double as an arcane or divine focus. But remember, material components with a specified price cannot be replaced with a focus.
Jack Nerdlord it can also function as a Druidic focus, allowing you to make a Druid with a quarter staff with shillelagh cast on it, a wooden shield, and medium armor that’s both pretty tanky and deals some significant damage, especially if you also take the pole arm master feat and get an extra attack for your bonus action that you wouldn’t normally get as a Druid, that because of shillelagh may or may not deal 1d8 damage instead of pole arm master’s normal 1d4 damage, depending on how your DM rules it. You also get to use your wisdom modifier instead of strength, letting you focus on fewer ability scores when you’re leveling up
There's still some spells they can't cast. I believe Jeremy Crawford cleared this up in a Sage Advice. Basically, yes, you can provide the somatic component of a spell with the same hand that's providing the material component, but only if the spell has a material component to begin with. If it doesn't have a material component, but does have a somatic component, and your hands are full, you need to drop something to cast it. There are quite a few spells that require somatic components, but not material components, and so if your hands are both preoccupied, you cannot cast it even if you're holding your spellcasting focus. Of course, outside of battle this doesn't matter, and in battle it just means you need to drop something before you cast your spell and then you can just pick it back up again, so it's not a big deal but there certainly may be situations where it is, right?
Some spells (up to 3rd level) which clerics and paladins might find themselves casting in battle but would need a free hand for are:
Beacon of Hope
Blink
Burning Hands
Call Lightning
Charm Person
Crown of Madness
Cure Wounds
Daylight
Divine Favor
Dispel Magic
Elemental Weapon
Fog Cloud
Guidance
Guiding Bolt
Hellish Rebuke
Heroism
Inflict Wounds
Lesser Restoration
Life Transference
Magic Missile
Magic Weapon
Meld into Stone
Mirror Image
Plant Growth
Protection from - well, most protection spells
Ray of Enfeeblement
Ray of Sickness
Remove Curse
Sacred Flame
Scorching Ray
Silence
Spare the Dying
Spiritual Weapon
Thunderwave
Toll the Dead
Vampiric Touch
As a warcaster sorceress/battle mistress I'm already on the front lines so if anyone is dumb enough to try to run away they aren't likely to enjoy the result.
Also booming blade was practically made for this. It's my version of the sentinel feat. That said green flame blade and sword burst won't function for this since they can hit multiple enemies. Lightning lure can work however. Allowing you to pull the enemy back in while damaging it. But it and sword burst are sadly not melee delivered spells.
The spells don't have to be delivered in melee, you just suffer the penalty of casting a ranged speed in melee
Jon Dubois i didn't mean that I couldn't use those two spells spells because they aren't melee. But in the episode they specifically mention sword burst as a spell that is delivered as a melee attack. What I was saying is that it wasn't a melee based spell like booming blade or green flame blade. Regardless sword burst and green flame blade are not eligible spells for use with this feat, because they both hit multiple creatures
Greenflame blade should work as long as there are no other enemies within 5ft of the one you're attacking, because it will still only target that creature.
Booming Blade is still the best use of this, though.
I'm thinking Greenflame Blade should work regardless, because although it *damages* more than one creature, the *spell itself* specifically targets one creature. On a hit on that creature, the fire leaps to others, but the spell itself targets one creature within 5 ft of you. The fact that it has an effect on other creatures is a separate issue.
Personally I would house-rule that it has a range of whatever the range of the melee weapon you're using is, so you could do 10 ft with a polearm, but that's a different issue entirely.
Combine War Caster, Resilient: Con, and the Star Druid's Dragon Form, and you'll never break concentration(yes, I made my dm rage from this because an enemy did 41 damage in one hit and I didn't even have to roll a con save)
Remember magic staffs count as quarter staffs for polearm master.
That includes druidic and arcane focus staffs as well. Shield and staff is a popular War Caster option for druids fond of Shillelagh.
Not doubting, but where is this written? Do they also lose the versatile property?
@@Floormat-ux4rw It's in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Any magic staff (including an arcane focus) can be used as a quarterstaff with all the normal properties such as versatile. page 140, I think.
Oh wow, hadn't realized this, thanks for the knowledge drop!
Just pictured a mage with polearm master and war caster, and when an enemy character tries to get past him to get somewhere it gets hit with six rays of fire from double scorching ray. And the player narrates it as the character hitting him twice with the points of his staff and hitting him with 3 rays each time.
That's one hell of a way to stop someone from moving
In a two-character campaign I played in, both myself, a paladin/warlock and the sorcerer/bard have warcaster. Whenever somebody tries running away from the sorcerer, he casts disintegrate on them. We have killed WAY too many people this way because of how we locate ourselves in battle
I played an Aasimar paladin/sorcerer in our Curse of Strahd campaign. I waited the entire campaign to use the opportunity attack from war caster. Never got one to land until the final fight when I ended up landing one on Strahd after he tried to hurl me out a window. I managed a crit with a 4th level smite with booming blade for like a million damage.
I can’t start to tell you how good that felt.
One thing I figured out playing with war caster is that you can get your saving throw so high, especially with a caster that, that you end up dying to damage before you ever get to make a saving throw.
I could see the "spell as a reaction" being very handy. Booming Blade for someone leaving your melee, just as one example.
op attack your allies, replace the attack with a healing spell
@@FlatlandsSurvivor as someone said earlier, opportunity attack only works on "hostile" targets. So this would not work on your allies - unless (as I remarked above) you make them hostile with the friends cantrip
I’ve had a raid shield strapped to my arm and I could most definitely gesticulate with my hands.
10:00 i used the spell booming blade as opportunity attack almost every round of combat. as an arcane trickster the sneak attack plus booming blade combo is amazing!
combo it with polearm master, get to cast spells when someone is running at you.
runs up, Disintegrate, make a intimidation check
Don't forget the dragon sorcerer, they get a nice bonus to AC, extra HP, and proficiency with concentration saves. They make a great front line caster class
Absolutely. I love sorcerers for exactly this reason!
Using hold person as a reaction, stops the enemy moving, paralyses them..all follow up attacks are adv and auto crit
Probably not, unless they fail 2 saves in a row. They get additional ones at the end of their turn, and if they're provoking an AoO, it's probably already their turn...
@@QuiescentPilot And thats what portent is for.
Currently playing a lvl 20 fighter/paladin/sorcerer with Warcaster in a small module. I’ve got a +14 to my concentration check and advantage. Not dropping that twinned Haste anytime soon. It’s a fantastic feat and essential for any sword and board caster. Thanks for the great video gentlemen.
I plan on using War Caster + Polearm Master on my shield and quarterstaff druid.
The opportunity attack feature of Warcaster has always been my favorite. Works best with cantrips I find: True Strike, Infestation, Shocking Grasp, Toll the Dead, Vicious Mockery to name a few.
Booming Blade!
How do you get true strike to work with war caster? I'd like to try effectively using this unpopular cantrip but I don't have.net strategies where I'm able to use it.
@@Gondorf5 True Strike targets one creature and has the cast time of 1 action. This fulfills the requirements. Basically instead of attacking, you mark the creature for an advantageous attack. That being said, if somebody picks True Strike and actually uses it, they already resigned their character to being absolutely useless.
There is pretty much no reason to ever use it, neither on low nor on high levels. Unless you are low-lv and in some weird-ass campaign, where all the enemies have really low damage and really high AC and the GM is a diehard fan of Monster Hunter, making every battle last ~3 hours+.
@@paranidherc I dont agree that they think its worthless it has uses to deal a strong damage spell but what makes it even worse is that it is a concentration spell. That means you drop whatever spell you were already concentrating on and if you arent concentrating on a spell you should be
On a druid Frost Bite could be a good option. Less damage than a whap with your Shilleleigh, but could cause them to have disadvantage on their attack against you if you have Polearm Master for your quarterstaff when they step to you, or if they are walking away from you to hit your ally.
Notably, the third point of the feat lets you do some amazing things, IF it comes up. Notably, a war cleric, who stands in the front lines with heavy armor and a shield, and if a creature decides to seek an easier target, you can either smack them with a cantrip, or if the situation is ideal, a nastier spell like hold person.
As a DM, I often forget to make my players make concentration checks because my players rarely use them and when they do I feel that the reason I’m probably forgetting is because it is another die roll mid combat.
Anyone else suffering the same issue?
It happens to us all the time. It just takes practice, and your players should be helping with it, too. If they are concentrating on a spell and take damage, they are as much responsible for remembering as you!
Dungeon Dudes I’ll keep that in mind! They’re all new players though and we’ve only played for a few months, so I guess I’ll need to really hammer that point home for a bit.
P.S. you guys are awesome!
I just tell my players that it is their responsibility to make the appropriate concentration checks. If they succeed they don't need to say anything, but if they fail they just let anyone who is benefiting from the spell know that the spell ended. This way it does not slow the game down, and as the DM you don't need to worry about it. Hope this helps.
I agree! As a sorcerer I really want to keep twin haste going but if I fail concentration from being stabbed it's more fun to solve the new problem then just pretend nothing happened.
Yeah I often just have them roll a check if I forget immediately so sometimes they get to use a spell's damage longer than they're supposed to and I just handwave it since the spell is gone anyway
Like as long as the check happens I really don't mind if it's delayed lol
Your videos have been really helpful in crystalizing a lot of the confusing rules of 5e. I’m just a player at the moment, but there are some things that I’ll read in the PHB or DMG and it just doesn’t make sense. These videos have really helped explaining the confusing aspects. Keep it up!
You guys should add this video to your Feats in Dungeons and Dragons 5e playlist.
This video was very helpful, thank you for putting this together it cleared on some misconceptions I had of this feat.
I've used the spellcasting as an opportunity attack feature a lot. The most common instance is to cast Booming Blade as a reaction. It's really potent if you specifically don't have Sentinel.
I have a fun pairing that you guys didn't mention. As a warlock, the starting eldritch blast is usually what people go for. Human Warlock, get the War Caster, then second level, get a level or even 2 in Fighter (for action surge), you can have a shield and a martial weapon, and *still* cast spells, letting you be a strong level 2/3 character. I've set it up so that by the time i reach my second feat, i have a level 2 fighter, and level 6 warlock, who is a hexblade patron and can summon magical weapons as my arcane focus. Second feat would be duel wielding, so that way, i can attack with a real warpick, then a magical warpick and *still* be ready to whip a bitch with an eldritch blast.
Warlock was my first thought too! Glad to see someone has done it
I did this with my human variant Warlock too:) I took 3 levels in fighter first (action surge and Battle Master for superiority die), then the next three levels have been in Warlock Hexblade, pact of the blade. I also took another feat at 4th level. I went with the lucky feat... Bring on the Con saves ;)
@@wiredkamikaze5831 remember that you don't get ability score increases until level 4 in a class, not character level. Your second one doesn't come online until fighter 4 or warlock 4.
I have just discovered your channel and it´s full of great, useful and amazing content. It Is helping me, a returning DM after two decades in the pit, to catch things up with the 5th edition. Subscribed!
Awesome episode. I would love to see Ritual Caster covered.
My tempest cleric is still waiting for that opportunity to cast inflict wounds as an opportunity attack...
Perfect use for casting a spell as a reaction. Polearm Master and Eldritch Blast. Set up your invocations to where it knocks them back 10 feet per hit and slows them by 10 feet. Every time they enter your melee range you can blast them back far enough that they never get their attack in
Or a shield and quarterstaff druid would be hard to hit popping off Frost Bite to give their attacker disadvantage to hit them.
BBEG War Caster Sentinel I had used PW Stun on a reaction. That poor disengaged monk didn't see it coming...
I'm playing a Light Cleric for AL with the War Caster feat and I love it when enemies try to get away from me and I just Guiding Bolt them in the face!
That’s a great combo! Another good option is inflict wounds!
Love all the content you guys make, has helped me get into DnD. Was wondering if you guys would ever consider streaming a session or recording one to put up? We always get to hear about your awesome games would be great to see one play out. Keep up the good always look forward to Thursday because of it.
We have something in the works! Stay turned :)
2 things to note:
1. The requirement of being able to cast at least one spell to take warcaster comes up for variant humans who pick classes that don't start with spellcasting, like paladins and rangers, or characters who plan to go EK or AT.
2. If you have warcaster and pole arm master and want to use the 10 ft OA with the weapon and use a spell (like booming blade or green-flame blade), those have a range of only 5 ft so would not normally work. However, you could also take spell sniper or distant spell (sorcerer metamagic) to make it work. Probably not worth it though. It's 3 feats, or 2 feats and a metamagic choice.
I actually was able to negotiate with a lenient DM about the use of my holy symbol. It was a gauntlet for a deity associated with paladins in the forgotten realm. I wore the gauntlet on my hand that I had my shield attached to so I asked about still casting with the somatic gestures with my when not attacking though I got the war caster feat at the next level up anyway so it didn't stay an issue
Grabbing it with a Eldritch Knight or Bladesinger is great because of Booming Blade as opportunity attacks. They already running so you get both damages. I do it all the time.
I really like that you explain the feat, both it's strengths AND weaknesses. TBH I didn't even know how good this feat really was until I saw this. You got a sub for this. Thank you.
In over 25 years of playing D&D no DM has ever enforced material components. Otherwise half of every session is bookkeeping or component hunting.
Even if they're costly or consumed by the spell? Or do you mean just in terms of War Caster?
great timing I've been considering taking this feat with my wizard, currently playing curse of strahd and I want the paladin to keep that haste I cast on him
I think that the spells that require or give you a melee attack as part of it the sentinel feat does apply for the reduce speed to zero.
Now second guessing my choice of spell sniper for my level 4 sorcerer...
I played a lvl 5 variant human Death Cleric who took warcaster and pole arm master. I found the two worked very well together, allowing me to take advantage of pole arm master by using my action and bonus action to melee attack, while still using my spell slots on things like ray of enfeeblement for my AoO’s.
you can definitely replace your attack of opportunity granted by polearm master with a spell, due to how it's worded "When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you". but it doesn't give the benefits of sentinel "When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack,"
For that part about the attacks of opportunity with a spell instead of a weapon, I can also see that when an enemy tries to rush by you while chasing someone else (maybe you just don't seem physically intimidating enough to be worried about), or if they're the effect of a fear or other effect that makes them run in a particular direction heedless of your presence.
Love these videos. Martial adept feat next please!!!!
Love you guys, you break down things pretty awesome.
I'm a DM from Iran, and I gain lots of infos from you two.
Can you explain the time in the game? (Actions, minutes, hours, rounds)
Keep up the good work
Thanks
Wow. Keeping track of time is a HUGE topic. We'll have to do some homework. Great video idea though.
My short advice is that as a DM: you control time itself. You can "pause" a player in the middle of any action and ask the other players what they want to do. You can ask the player to resolve everything they want to do as a series of actions over several turns, or you can gloss it over. I find that it's helpful to flat out ask players "Okay, about how much time do you want to spend on this task?"
One trick I like to use is that when the players spend a bunch of time deliberating or searching, I ask them to roll 1d6. If the roll a 1, "something" happens which changes the circumstances but doesn't necessarily result in a new encounter. For example if the players are spending to long planning an ambush on an enemy base, and they roll a 1, I'd have reinforcements show up at the base, or maybe the weather gets bad. On a 6, something potentially beneficial for them happens. A patrol leaves the base, reducing the numbers. A fire breaks out. You can really get creative with this and it makes the world feel alive, so the players know that if they spend to much time being indecisive, the situation can change.
Thanks,
Can you tell me about some spells and actions too?
For example it says, duration is 1action or 1minute or 10minutes or 1hour and so?
@@Amir1372king One player turn takes up 6 seconds. So ten turns per minute, etc.
@@elbruces I’ve seen you many times before in the critical role comments section, haven’t I?
These videos are probably the ones that will help me the most. I’ve been in a group of friends that avoids using feats for years. One day I will use this knowledge for the good of the realm!
Edit: you could definitely base an entire character behind this feat. (Backstory wise)
I have used the 3rd part multiple times by using fear with enemies in melee range. Planning a new battlefield control mage and I plan to go war caster with Dissonant Whispers
for this exact synergy.
War caster does not work with polearm master because the intend of polearm master is that you poke at the ennemy with a polearm as he enter your reach. Now, I would totally allow you to add booming blade on your quarterstaff if you take the war caster feat and polearm master, but only that.
An alternative way to get the main effect is to take Eldritch Adept and grab the Eldritch Mind invocation. You don't get the second or third bullet points of War Caster, but it applies whenever you make a concentration check and not just when you take damage. Still mostly inferior to War Caster, but if you think you'll be facing blizzards and sandstorms more often than you fight with a shield, it could be a useful alternative.
A bit late, but in the errata it says: "Two-Handed (p. 147). This property is relevant only when you attack with the weapon, not when you simply hold it."
So yes, two handed weapons don't prevent you from casting somatic spells as you only use both hands while attacking.
Booming blade + war caster is fun, if someone tries running away from you or past you then they instantly trigger booming blade after being hit by your weapon.
Tried that as a Human Hexblade Warlock, took war caster at level 1, our bard constantly taunted enemies to bait them into going after him, pulling them past me.
Hexblade warlock, long sword + shield in scale mail.
18 ac and dealing between 6 and 20 damage at level 1 on reactions (2d8+4)
You could go risky and take a great sword instead of sword+shield and bump it up to between 7 and 24 damage on reactions but at that point you're over killing a bit especially on level 1, unless maybe against zombies, doing big numbers really helps if you have no way of dealing radiant damage.
9:14 I don't know if people already said that, but this is possible according to the rules. The "Two-Handed" property says "it only applies when you make an attack with the weapon", meaning that otherwise you can carry it with one hand
As a Cleric of Light, I used the Opportunity attack with War Caster often. At least as often as when an opponent would break off an attack without disengaging.
My arcane trickster used the last ability all the time with booming blade, the extra damage that made really changed the dynamics of play.
As this is an older vid I doubt anyone will read this, but this is why I like the idea of tossing a single level of barbarian onto your spell caster and making con your secondary stat. Now the con will buff your hp, increase your armor class (without armor obviously), and let you make use of a shield with the War Caster feat.
A note on constitution save proficiency, remember that Transmutation wizards kinda have it, assuming they use their transmuter's stone for that, however, it's enough to make resilient not worth for them.
About the forcing to make many checks, against casters that do not have shield, is magic missiles, every single missle is a check, yes it's just 10 but it's a lot of checks.
It sucks for clerics mainly, also warlocks because not many of them waste one known spell for spells that do not scale.
I’m setting up to play my first D&D session, but I’ve been mapping out the general flow of my character, and the first things I looked at were being a Dragonborn EK of bronze ancestry that multiclasses 8 levels into Sorcerer, picking up draconic lineage from the class, and taking Polearm Master, Sentinel, Elemental Adept and War Caster. Using a glaive, I don’t have to discard my weapon to use either Somatic (pre-war caster) or material spells, I’ve given him the lore-based limitation of that he may only use Lightning (and Thunder) spells, so picking up Shocking Grasp, Lightning Lure and the like, I’m keen to see what kind of shenanigans I can do. Opportunity attack/spell upon approach, melee fighting, and on the off chance of a flee or disengage, I could use Lightning lure to pull them back. Actually, I’m not sure how that works. Do they get 30ft of movement after being pulled? Can I wait until he’s moved 15ft to pull him back again? Better yet, can I wait till he moves 30ft, then use a sorcery point to double my range/give 30ft of range to Shocking Grasp, and hit him with that, all of an opportunity attack? I’d be interested what other people think
My eldritch knight used the Warcaster opportunity spell A LOT. Booming blade is great fun for that, as it effectively hits 2x if the target is moving.
Dropping an inflict wounds as an attack of opportunity is great
Dude 1: "The third component is the ability to replace your opportunity attack with the casting of a spell
Dude 2: "Tbh I've never seen anyone use this ability"
Eldritch knights: "Allow us to introduce ourselves."
Yeah, my Eldritch Knight hit a giant with a booming blade using pole arm master as he was coming in to attack. Then when he tried to flee, I hit him again on the way out with booming blade using war caster. The double booming blade effects on his way out killed him, needless to say.
@@indigoblacksteel1176 Yep booming blade is the perfect spell for opportunity attacks. Even hold person, frostbite, chill touch, and a few others are also pretty good to use.
As far as casting with a spell with a somantic component while wearing a shield and wielding a mace in your primary hand... Generally, you can quickly move the mace to the shield hand temporarily, cast with the primary one, and then quickly reclaim the mace after the spell is delivered.
One of my favorite combos with War caster(though it's end game) is to go 18 levels cavalier and 2 levels warlock. You go polearm master, Sentinel, and war caster and you get the eldritch blast invocation that let's you push one hit. The combination of all of this put together makes the ultimate door holder.
I personally play an Eldritch Knight Variant Human with Polearm Mastery, Sentinel and War Caster as my feats (Level 7 currently), and honestly it's been a total blast. I play as a lockdown mid-front liner that defends squishy allies such as the wizard and rogue from rushdown melee enemies. It can be extremely powerful or near useless, because EK does not gain access to too many top tier spells, but it definitely has it's uses when you get options like Blur, Mirror Image, Enlarge/Reduce, Invisiblity, etc.
Also yes, I used the spell instead of opportunity attack option once, used it to cast Lightning Lure to drag the fucker over. Just because it looked cool.
The "opportunity spell" - part is actually very good for Eldritch Knights who usually don't have quite the crazy melee prowess of Paladins, Barbarians or other Fighters. Even just casting a Frostbite cantrip can really help out your squishy allies - and you already mentioned Hold Person.
I've used a shield...he's right. Your not going to just release with the hand.
Depending on the shield, you would either drop it (Center boss), or have it hanging at an awkward and somewhat painful angle (Heater shields"
Eldritch Knight, Paladin ( if you have a cantrip ), or any melee martial caster can make great use of the spell on opportunity strikes because you can do a melee cantrip such as Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade. I did it a ton on my Arcane Trickster Rogue.
To answer your question: Yes. Yes it did. Polearm master/War caster hexblade. I was a new DM and my player (who was DM for my last campaign), pulled THIS MONSTROUSITY, and just murdered EVERYTHING in curse of Strahd like he was swatting flies
9:15 Free fingers is not a requirement for casting spells, even handicap creatures can cast spells. All you need is for the limb/appendages to be free to move and trace the spells. I like how they did in Dr. Strange, very inclusive.
ALSO also, _Fun Fact:_
*Polearm Master does not specify that you need to be proficient with the weapon, just Wielding it.* -(don't remember if they made this point tbh)-
If you have a heater shield (the triangular shield that buckles to your arm), you can pass your one handed sword to the same hand your shield is in. This does not work with round shields, because they most oven use a center grip and are not buckled to your arm.
Source: I spent years fighting in the SCA and would do this in combat to pick up and throw axes, or climb a later.
Yeah, but there's nothing to say your character couldn't be trained to make somatic gestures with enough accuracy with a single extended finger or even a closed fist. Magic works the way we say it does, especially when the text of the feat specifically states you can make the gesture while holding a shield.
Nate L I'd read that a heater shield is very thick and heavy for its size, the better to absorb the sheer impact of a hammer or mace. It's designed specifically for use in conjunction with plate armor that a wizard just isn't likely to be wearing :P
Spencerades. Actuary Plate armor mostly did away with shields. The armor was all you really needed. Knights started to forgo the shield so they could use 2 handed weapons like a long sword or a polearm.
The way it was explained to me was that, since anything with a blade is about as useful as a pool noodle and anything with a point would fare only slightly better with a lucky strike to the gaps in the plate, your best bet against a fully plate armored opponent is to take the heaviest blunt instrument you can find and bash until you turn him into a tin can full of tomato soup. The heater shield was made to disperse the sheer kinetic energy of such a weapon like a warhammer or mace. So between armor and shield there was adequate protection from damn near any kind of weapon, at least in theory. By most accounts, you're absolutely right that shields were less common (but not rare!) among late medieval knights, but it was still a viable option up until the age of firearms.
Spencereades. Hello again, and thankyou for the discussion. Just google "15th Century Knight" and try and find a shield. You will see a few shields, but if you look closer the knight will still have a lot of chain armor on. The ones in full plate will be holding some sort of two handed weapon like a long sword, spear, or halberd. I completely agree that plate made Knights practically immune to slashing and poking. It was because of this that a new form of fighting started called half swording. Ya, bludgeoning weapons, worked agents plate, but that required a lot of force. Getting enough force would be a lot easier with a long, two handed weapon. The back sides of a lot of halberds look like a waffle faced hammer.
I don't really think it is practical to block a two handed weapon with a one handed shield. I tried to do this a few times when I fought in the SCA battles, and the impact was so strong that I would usually get pushed off balance or knocked over. Better to dodge the attack completely.
HUGE oversight: use booming blade for you opportunity attack. Depending on DM ruling they either stop and can’t move or (RAW but maybe not RAI) they have to keep moving and proc the extra dmg
Might already have been mentioned, but here it is anyway.
Though you still have to be mindful of the “one spell per turn no matter what” general rule (action surge aside), there are always cantrips. Example: 5th level wizard or cleric with Warcaster now gets to haul out a 2d10 Fire Bolt or 2d12 Toll the Dead instead of a wimpy 1d4+2 dagger or 1d6+1 mace. Huge difference!
Warlock with Polearm Master, Glaive, Repelling Blast and Warcaster. An enemy tries to engage you on their turn. They enter your reach. You get an oppotunity attack with your Glaive(Polearm master), but choose to cast Eldritch Blast instead. The approaching enemy takes 1D10 Force damage and is pushed back 10 feet for each hit.
Great videos Dudes, I watched your Palidin video last night now this so I have a cool idea for you. Crown Palidin with War Caster and possibly shield mastery(depends if you went human varient or half orc IMO) then use your compelled duel anytime a monster decides you're not worth hitting and that fireball throwing mage looks tastier. Hope you like the idea and look forward to more of the videos.
i did this once hexblade warlock variant human devil's sight. took warcaster at level 1 and PAM at level 4 20 charisma at lvl 8 very fun character to play.
Your points on Sleet Storm made me realise that the weather in the game world during a session CAN and SHOULD make a difference - just make sleet rain use the same rules as Sleet Storm, make foggy weather use Fog Cloud: "You create a 20-foot-radius sphere of fog centered on a point within range. The sphere spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured."
It's frankly insane that most D&D campaigns typically just take place during a clear day or at night.
"A given area might be lightly or heavily obscured. In a lightly obscured area, such as dim light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage, creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
A heavily obscured area--such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage--blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area."
War Caster is great on a EB Warlock. We once had a choke point build at our table that used a polearm (naginata I believe) with Polearm Master and War Caster to cast Eldritch Blast with the Eldritch Evocation that makes your EB push the enemies back by 10 feet for each ray. And as you cast a spell instead of making an opportunity attack, you can target rays at different targets. Later on it was getting super silly.
One case where the opportunity attack shines is with investors of fire on a red dragon sorcerer. You already get very close for the line attack, but with this you just walk up and force the enemy to choose between 1d10+5 from the aura or take a cantrip or worse to the face.
I often see War Domain Clerics shouted out as amazing front liners (which they definitely are) , but I would also like to call out the Forge Domain Cleric as another amazing front liner and amazing beneficiary of the War Caster feat.
My paladin took war caster so that I could take a dip into sorcerer for getting a reliable ranged attack option and being able to cast shield on top of my high AC. I also took booming blade and green flame blade for my cantrip options. Being able to opportunity attack with booming blade is incredibly strong because they almost always end up taking the bonus damage from moving away from you. Also pairs fantastically with dissonant whispers, as they have to move away.
Advantage gives a +2.7 to your average roll. Where it's really good is when you take into account the chance to crit fail/save. However rules as written you cannot crit a saving throw, that is technically a variant rule.
So for maintaining concentration "resilient: constitution" is better from level 5.
I haven't run the numbers for when crits are in play
I’m playing a cavalier and multi classing into sorcerer. I cannot wait to obtain war caster! It’s gonna be so fun!
With the Warcaster feat, my archfey warlock/ whisper bard's optimal spell rotation to one-shot mini-bosses in a given round is Dissonant Whispers (forcing AoO) + Booming Blade + melee attack with precast upcast Shadow Blade + Psychic Blades for a glorious nova burst of 74 points (average) psychic destruction. (Inspired by Colby from d4 Deep Dive!)
I play a Paladin(Oath of Vengeance)/Warlock(Fiend/Tome) with Warcaster and Polearm Master specifically to take advantage of the "Cast a spell on an opp attack" feature. In this case, he's using a quarterstaff so his reach is only 5', and he get's the opp attack when someone closes with him. Then he uses Booming Blade to hit them with the quarterstaff and move up to 15' away (7th level paladin oath of vengeance ability) , forcing them to either stop or take more damage if they keep moving. Between Booming Blade, DIvine Smite, and Improved Divine Smite he often does 30-50 points of damage on the opp attack.
I have a Tempest Cleric/Warlock who was able to use Warcaster in conjunction with Booming Blade and the Channel Divinity feature to cause a lot of damage to BBEGs that tried to move away from me about 2 or 3 times throughout his career. It is a hard combo to pull off, but when you manage to do so the results are glorious.
A targe is a strapped shield with minimal interference to the hand. I'm actually fond of wielding a dirk in that hand to allow for hooking sweeps.
well this is something i don't recommend doing as a wizard. BUT... an abjuration wizard with high dex, mage armor with the shield master feat makes for a half decent melee combatant with the warcaster feat. with the abjuration bubble to protect you when you cast mage armor then having spells like shocking grasp vs metal coated foes makes for a nasty mage you would not want to stay close to for to long. specially when you start pumping spells like flaming orb, spiritual weapon or another front liner to flank them and start giving yourself advantage maybe?... maybe something to think about and take notes.
I play a sorcerer fighter (6,2), and this is my bread and butter in combat. For an example, I hast myself (usually twinning to get some else too), slash at my opponent with green flame blade, then a slash with booming blade, then quicken spell lightning bolt. Then if they move, they take thunder damage and I get an opportunity attack on them, in which I use booming blade again to stop them in their tracks, or they take even more damage for moving any further. This along with the boosted AC from being able to wear a shield allows me to be an “up in your face” sorcerer. And if I wanted to get even crazier, I could also add my action serge from the 2 lvl fighter dip to add even more magical hacks and slashes, or to strike them down even further with a hard hitting spell.
I took this feat for my wild shape build Druid in my brothers Curse of Strahd campaign. seems to be working really well, though unless he's rolling the checks secretly I think he might not even be bothering doing checks most of the time since I took the feat. Really loving wild shape druid, i always see comments whenever it's brought up that it's not of much use but so far i've been pretty essential in every battle we've had, and ever since I started to usually cast that healing spirit spell before I shift into animal form I often do the most healing as well as high damage, grappling, and tanking. most fun i've had in DnD so far.
a crucial limitation that slipped your mind: the spell cast as a reaction needs to only have one single target: the one that triggered the opportunity attack. so no area effects and the like for you, though its still a great feat with lots of possibilities!
They did address that.
Yeah, that does actually kill green flame blade since at fifth level and above it targets multiple opponents (and even from the start probably since the initial flame targets a creature other than the one you make the melee attack against).
polearm master+war caster warlock with the repelling blast invocation is super nice imo I'm currently playing a character that uses this and it's so fun because usually nothing can ever touch you in melee range. Also the proficiency on hex *errrr consentration checks* is really nice
Something really funny to do with Warcaster and that final bullet point is "I *suggest* you don't walk away from me".
i was bein' a little sneak, and was behind a decorative pillar in a large hallway. The enemy barbarian sprinted past me to try and get into combat with the paladin, but was stopped just a few feet short by a well-fired ray of frost.
Booming blade as an opportunity attack. Arcana cleric, mace, booming blade, war caster. Allowed me to hold creatures in a spirit guardian bubble with a spiritual weapon. So using booming blade to keep a creature in the AOE then again as a reaction to keep another there as well. As an interesting note the RAW means the secondary effect of booming blade will automatically go off when used as an opportunity attack.
I am playing a war cleric in a party were we don't have a melee oriented class, so I am usually on the front line.
Even with a STR score of 14, I always prefer to use a WIS based attack - my score is 18 - so I always use spells for opportunity attacks - guidind bolt and sacred flame, for example, although I will use guidind bolt only when I have a inspiration slot to avoid the disadvantage.
There were bucklers in 3.5e that only gave +1 AC but left your hand free to cast spells. You could technically use a weapon in that hand as well, but you took something like a -5 penalty to the attack roll with it.
I have used the SCAG cantrips such as Booming Blade on an Attack of Opportunity to keep a fool from running from my Eldritch Knight. He died when I did but it did work and that is a key component once I have sentinel too.
My first 5e character was s multi class Warlock/Paladin that had Polearm Master, Warcaster, and Sentinel. Also with Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast. Using primarily Glaives. The Polearm Master/Warcaster interaction does work accord to a rules clarification at that time from I BELIEVE it was Mike Mearls? So when an enemy would try to move past me or from 10 ft> 5 ft I could either swing with the Glaive and on hit trigger sentinel or instead blast 1-3 Eldritch Blast bolts knocking them back 10-30 feet depending.
Spores druid, full tank and when the archer tried to get away from me I used thorn whip to get him back in
RE: Opportunity spells
1. Sapping Sting,
2. Ray of Frost
I see a lot of comments about Booming Blade and higher level spells, which I respect. But maybe just keep 'em near without burning slots.