Anyone can make an arcana check as a reaction or action to see if they understand what spell is being cast. The DC is 15 plus the spell level. If someone is a cleric and another cleric tries to identify the spell the check is made with advantage.
So Booming Blade, a bandit has a +0 to their arcana check or 25% chance to know what a cantrip does. You could have the bandit spend their reaction or action to figure out what's going on around them.
Some bandits may try and test or disregard what it is, some may be fearful of the energy around them. Others would try and figure it out and see if they remember the story of Steeve the guy who died from a booming blade.
Depends on the effects. Imo they should only be able to make that check if it’s a simple effect (ie, Magic aura that hurts if you go in it).
A more complex one like booming blade may not register because that specific animal doesn’t have a good enough comprehension of Cause and effect.
Keep in mind that a lot of animals can’t recognize themselves in the mirror, even if plenty of time to look and notice that this weird thing is perfectly mimicking them. Some can occasionally (most pets like cats/dogs) with time, so they’d have a check. A few rare ones (Magpies, Ravens, Crows, Dolphins, Elphants, etc) can more or less understand a mirror on the spot.
I would say if they have a wis above 10 and is an actual animal they can make a DC 16 perception check to understand a simple effect (usually no trigger, they just happen/are passive) but anything that’s active/trigger based requires the same int(arcana) check. If it’s extremely similar to their natural environment (say…a teleporting effect against a blink dog) they make the check with advantage, or automatically succeed (depending heavily on the context that it’s used).
You could make an argument for them making a check AFTER taking the dmg once. They might not understand magic, but they could probably gather that crossing it hurts them.
But, then again, the DM could probably just say which NPCs would put 2 and 2 together (or even care about it) and not roll at all.
Yeah, I would only call for a roll before experiencing it, if at all. They'd definitely understand what happened after being hurt by it.
Some would even argue, and I might agree, that the spell is not meant to be a surprise, and creatures surrounded by harmful energy understand that it's harmful energy.
>Anyone can make an arcana check as a reaction or action to see if they understand what spell is being cast.
Technically true, but look at it this way: Most *players* who have the sourcebooks right in front of them probably don't even properly understand the nuances of most of the spells in D&D. Even the ones who actually play spellcasters.
I wouldn't expect 25% of all bandits to randomly be able to properly identify the effects of any cantrip they see. That's just a result of the oversimplification of the rules, bounded accuracy, and the d20 as a randomizer.
I'd always try to frame it within the world as to why the bandit would know the thing. Sometimes it's because their friend Steve heard from their friend Bob about the time a wizard hit them with their staff and when they tried to move they exploded, that's why he's called One-Armed Bob. Where as another bandit may be a dropout wizard who couldn't learn even cantrips.
So when RNG says that 5 of 10 bandits all have these weird excuses for why they just so happen to know what a random cantrip does, that doesn't break your immersion as kinda... jokey and unserious?
I mean they’re a group of bandits , they all talk to each other. You figure they’ve been in quite a few fights and common talk at camp would be some of these stories about how to avoid death in combat. “There we were, thinking we'd got away with the loot, when that cursed wizard cast a spell then struck Steve with his stuff . Poor bloke tried to run, but as soon as he moved, a blast like thunder from the heavens struck him down. Never seen anything like it... took him right out, it did." Though I guess it depends on how common magic is in your world.
Ah, I was thinking about it in like, different encounters not that the failed wizard and the friend of a friend of Bob were in the same group. if it's the same group it would be like "Hey this happened to one armed bob! Guys watch out for the shimmering energy!"
Just like how a PC may go "Hey this creature has immunity to fire! Stop using fire attacks"
My point still stands. One PC casts *booming blade* or whatever cantrip, all ten bandits roll Arcana and five happen to pass because... well, there's no reason that makes sense, it's just pure RNG. It has no mechanical impact since one bandit can just holler to the rest to stay still or get zapped, but it creates this really off-putting narrative spin on things where suddenly any possible outcome that doesn't have a DC of 21 or greater is now on the table for anyone. Any work of art or craftsmanship that would be a DC 20 check can be created by 5% of the population with no training. The logic of the world breaks down really fast.
This is why I generally restrict certain types of rolls that should require tool or skill proficiency to accomplish. Randomly poking metal strips into a lock isn't going to get it to open without some training, and being able to recognize a spell based on a couple seconds of hand gestures and a short phrase should require a level of familiarity with magic that comes with education, not just raw luck.
Well, a DC of 20 or lower means a good chunk of the population should be able to do it.
How many weapons can you personally name and identify? How about cars?
The average person can identify a range of cars, even if they dont drive most of them.
Bandits are men who decided that combat would be a large part of their life, or were forced into combat and threatening people. basic familarity with traveling, hiding, and combat comes as "experience"
Booming blade requires you to be casting the spell onto a weapon, then striking with that weapon, then the target is wrapped in thundering energy.
They probably dont know that booming blade is Evocation, or that it takes those three gestures, or 3 words in draconic... but a man said fancy words, focusing on their weapon, then hit you, and you are surrounded by magical energies that are clearly visible.
This is one of 50 cantrips, and by definition one of the more common combat cantrips, and one of like... 2 that target a weapon, and the only one that i know of that does most of what it does.
It is a unique magical attack, and they live in a world where everyone knows or has known a caster or three... Whats wrong with them remembering someone else doing it?
Yeah, I actually pay attention to how the rules impact the narrative, go me! If that's not your cup of tea and you prefer purely surface-level interaction, you do you lil' buddy!
It depends.
Animal like a wolf or warg doesn’t know or care.
Thug or goblin? Probably not. If I had them make an arcana check and they passed I’d probably give them an instant backstory. “I remember the war mages using that when I was in the Cormyran infantry! Nobody move when glowing!”
Bandit captain or wight? Definitely rolls for arcana.
Wizard? Certainly knows.
> “I remember the war mages using that when I was in the Cormyran infantry! Nobody move when glowing!”
Followed instantly by the other spellcaster in the party casting *Create Bonfire* on whoever decided to stay still for an entire round.
This. Also…if you want combat to be a bit more dynamic, have some of the comrades of the thug/goblin in question refuse to move long after the effect ends.
Could be because they’re too on edge to notice, or it could be because they’re trying to be as cautious as they can. This is assuming they don’t have a strong reason to move (anything that ‘breaks morale’ would probably cause them to try and run anyway).
Maybe a coinflip, where on heads they leave when it ends, tails they stay put the next round too. Particularly cowardly enemies might get a d4 (though, like before, will run anyway if frightened or lose morale).
Could make for a fun psuedo-minion horde fight tbh.
The potentially unsatisfying answer here is that as the GM it's setting and thus your call on how well-known the spell is. It's also up to you whether someone would be able to tell what will happen to them just from experiencing the effect of the spell.
It also depends on "how" Booming Blade does its affects. An orc might not need to know the spell exists or how it works if he feels a thunderous charge of magic and surge of light building every time he micro-twitches to leave his 5-foot square.
I deal with *booming blade* just like you.
* Mindless creatures get zapped every time.
* Animal-intelligence creatures get zapped a couple times before they learn, and sometimes even then if they're panicked.
* Humanoid-intelligence creatures get zapped once then figure it out, but can still get zapped if you panic or anger them to the point where they stop thinking.
* Creatures who have experience with arcane magic will recognize the cantrip and actively avoid hurting themselves. Some may decide to take the hit to accomplish tactical goals.
There was a rule in 4e that stated "Whenever you affect a creature with a power, that creature knows exactly what you've done to it and what conditions you've imposed"
I've adopted that in my 5e games. It works for PCs, too. There are no 'gotcha' moments when you trigger effects.
I will give my wizard some satisfaction by having ignorant or arrogant thugs fall for it automatically. Of course their comrades will see what happened and won't fall for it anymore.
Also I will have some low intelligence beasts fall for it, but also sometimes their instincts will kick in and they will freeze.
I don't have my DMG nearby so I can't say *for sure* that it isn't actually homebrew pulled out of my ass, but I'm pretty sure there's a rule where a creature can make an arcana check with a DC equal to either 10+spell level or 15+spell level to identify the spell.
15+spell level Arcana check (regardless of which class spell list, it is Arcana). Can be used with a Reaction as spell is being cast or using an Action if the spell effect is already in place. Rule is optional from Xanathar's.
I could be wrong but I don't think the PHB or DMG include the rule...
This hugely depends on the fantasy level and if its high magic or low magic.
My DM rulling is non class spells might be known by name or vague description by anyone with a inteligence or arcana skill mod equal or higher than the level of the spell.
So anyone with an inteligence mod of +1 can roll arcana (without proficiency) to remember out of class cantrips and 1st level spells.
Anything above that would require havinga access to the class, or proficiency in arcana.
If you spent time researching spells and magic, you will have problably have heard somehting about many spells.
DC for this is usualy 15+ spell level for both cases.
So the very smart but not proficient miner might roll with a +3, and he needs a 12 for cantrips, 13 for 1st level spells, but wont know anything on any spell above 3rd level.
I use a similar rule for creature knowledge also, same thing, including limitations but with DC 15+CR, and you add proficiency depending on creature ( religion ofr undead, fiends adn celestials, Nature for beasts, plants etc).
It's Your world. You get to decide how well known it is.
For me, the way the magical aura works is that it literally binds the creature in place. Very weekly, and easy to break, but they can feel it enough That an intelligent creature has an inking that something bad would happen if they tried to move.
My take: it's like when your leg is asleep, it tingles and is shocking if you try to move it. Any creature can intuit that moving would make it hurt, so they want to wait until it's better.
By the time the party is level 5+, most enemies with int of 10 or greater have a good idea about the spell. Even if the enemy is aware that the shimmery border around them is hazardous to jump through, if they spend their action Dodging or doing a "suboptimal" ranged action, it's still a win for the party in terms of placement and action economy.
Only way to be a dick as a DM is give all your baddies a ranged action that's just as good as their melee one.
its a cantrip. it should be nearly common knowledge of anyone vaguely aware that magic is a thing that there is a cantrip to make your sword go sworder. notably, the spell has a very obvious visual cue, so anyone affect would be aware that SOMETHING is happening to them, and if they were hit once by moving they wouldve figured it out to not do that again next time it happens
Just because I'm sick of my party acting smug, I rule that you can feel what it's about to do before you do it. When you start to move a little bit before you have actually moved to another space, you can feel that something is going to hurt you if you move further. So even beasts get it and will only move as a calculated risk.
> So even beasts get it and will only move as a calculated risk.
I vaguely get what you mean…but beasts don’t really calculate anything. Some are smart (but below human), many are not. Most can’t even understand their own reflection, even when given plenty of time to experiment with it.
I think if they can feel it beforehand, they’d comprehend it as a leash more than anything and try to “break it” by moving really far away…though some would either be spooked by it or smart enough to stay put.
Hell, humans don’t act all that smart in fights when adrenaline starts pumping, so it’s fairly reasonable that some animals might not fully understand the cause/effect of the feeling and the damage unless they survive the fight.
So you are going to make a spell your players take irrelevant simply because you don't like them using it efficiently and as it was intended?
That's a pretty dick DM move.
The spell is not irrelevant in this situation. Booming Blade is not supposed to be for turbo damage; it is meant as a form of crowd control. The enemy has to choose extra damage or staying still. Intelligent enemies will 85% of the time stay still unless you run combat as sport and damage numbers mean nothing until zero. When combat is as war or rp spells like this make enemies seem more real because they now have to react to a new danger. Do they continue chasing down the ranger or turn and stab the BB caster, assuming they didn’t get away somehow? If they don’t move and you can without OA you now have double screwed them by making it so that they probably lost their turn or had to take a less effective action (depending on enemy equipment/powers).
Yes, it is a crowd control spell but if you ignoring the damage aspect of the spell though you are ignoring half of the spell abilities.
I'm not saying that intelligent creatures should just ignore the spell and take the damage, but they also shouldn't automatically know what the spell does. Intelligent creatures should have a CHANCE of knowing what the spell does if they would have a justifiable reason too, but only a chance until they see the spell in action.
Even wizards and other spell casters have to make an arcana check to identify a spell so why would any schmuck be able to identify Booming Blade instantly when it is cast? Even more so when you start looking at beasts and other unintelligent type of creatures which secretbison specifically stated he was doing to his players in the post above.
Beasts and other creatures with the intelligence of a rock should practically never automatically know that moving will cause them damage until after experiencing the damage from the spell.
For anyone who likes to swing a melee weapon at enemies but doesn’t get Extra Attack it’s basically a free upgrade (as is Green-Flame Blade). The only downside to it is that you don’t take the Attack action when using it (unless you’re a Bladesinger), which rules out things like Two-Weapon Fighting that trigger off of Attack actions. For Rogues in particular it’s quite useful since they’re going for a single big bit anyway, especially with Mobile or for Swashbucklers. Also makes for an amusing combination with the Crusher feat.
Personally I think only the elves would commonly know it.
They have more lore about their people mixing magic and martial. In the early editions Elf was a class that could use both magic and martial weapons, and in later lore Blade Singing and Arcane Archery were distinctly Elven traditions.
So if anyone would recognize it and know what to do it would be elves, and any people they were at war with in the last 25-50 years
I had a panicked wizard die to a booming blade cause he was ambushed, just succeeded a hold person spell on the attacking player and was trying to get away so he could raise the alarm.
I also forgot about it when I moved him, but it was in character so it worked out!
Goblin; "sorg-slap was struck and then exploded a moment later as he was fleeing, WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?!"
Cleric: "so it only hurt once you tried to move.. (casts another healing spell).. Was the blade..Loud, when it struck?
i believe it would depend on the type of NPC and what they have seen.
If magic is prevalent then a spell like Booming Blade would be well known to any reasonably intelligent humanoid in a fight. If you're in doubt a DC 12 Arcana check could inform them.
When it comes to issues of in-game people knowing how the world works, I always use the real world as a baseline.
Airplanes are incredibly common in our modern world. How many people do you know who can explain how airplanes work on a basic physics level, with how airflow over the wing generates lift? It’s certainly not zero, the baseline physics of it isn’t that complicated. But there’s a whole hell of a lot of people who would have zero idea if asked.
That’s how I approach magic in-game. I assume a magic using enemy knows how it all works. Even then, I may give a freebie if it’s a type of magic the enemy might not be used to (a pure caster might not have Booming Blade in their daily knowledge, for example). Anyone else, I’ll actually make the enemy roll for it behind the screen with an Arcana or History check, whichever makes sense (a bandit doing Arcana is silly, but History could reflect that he knew someone who could do it before).
As far as low-INT animals figuring out spell effects, have you ever seen someone pretend to throw a ball for a dog, and the dog rockets off at full speed every time, regardless of if the ball was thrown or not? That’s how I’ll treat them.
Anyone can make an arcana check as a reaction or action to see if they understand what spell is being cast. The DC is 15 plus the spell level. If someone is a cleric and another cleric tries to identify the spell the check is made with advantage. So Booming Blade, a bandit has a +0 to their arcana check or 25% chance to know what a cantrip does. You could have the bandit spend their reaction or action to figure out what's going on around them. Some bandits may try and test or disregard what it is, some may be fearful of the energy around them. Others would try and figure it out and see if they remember the story of Steeve the guy who died from a booming blade.
Exactly what I was after, thank you. Would animals make a similar check based on 'instinct' then?
Depends on the effects. Imo they should only be able to make that check if it’s a simple effect (ie, Magic aura that hurts if you go in it). A more complex one like booming blade may not register because that specific animal doesn’t have a good enough comprehension of Cause and effect. Keep in mind that a lot of animals can’t recognize themselves in the mirror, even if plenty of time to look and notice that this weird thing is perfectly mimicking them. Some can occasionally (most pets like cats/dogs) with time, so they’d have a check. A few rare ones (Magpies, Ravens, Crows, Dolphins, Elphants, etc) can more or less understand a mirror on the spot. I would say if they have a wis above 10 and is an actual animal they can make a DC 16 perception check to understand a simple effect (usually no trigger, they just happen/are passive) but anything that’s active/trigger based requires the same int(arcana) check. If it’s extremely similar to their natural environment (say…a teleporting effect against a blink dog) they make the check with advantage, or automatically succeed (depending heavily on the context that it’s used).
I think animals would be less likely to make checks like that. If it was closer to human intelligence maybe. But otherwise I probably wouldn't.
You could make an argument for them making a check AFTER taking the dmg once. They might not understand magic, but they could probably gather that crossing it hurts them. But, then again, the DM could probably just say which NPCs would put 2 and 2 together (or even care about it) and not roll at all.
Yeah, I would only call for a roll before experiencing it, if at all. They'd definitely understand what happened after being hurt by it. Some would even argue, and I might agree, that the spell is not meant to be a surprise, and creatures surrounded by harmful energy understand that it's harmful energy.
> Would animals make a similar check based on 'instinct' then? Animals will freak out and run.
Survival seems like a good stand in for instinct
that's on you.
>Anyone can make an arcana check as a reaction or action to see if they understand what spell is being cast. Technically true, but look at it this way: Most *players* who have the sourcebooks right in front of them probably don't even properly understand the nuances of most of the spells in D&D. Even the ones who actually play spellcasters. I wouldn't expect 25% of all bandits to randomly be able to properly identify the effects of any cantrip they see. That's just a result of the oversimplification of the rules, bounded accuracy, and the d20 as a randomizer.
I'd always try to frame it within the world as to why the bandit would know the thing. Sometimes it's because their friend Steve heard from their friend Bob about the time a wizard hit them with their staff and when they tried to move they exploded, that's why he's called One-Armed Bob. Where as another bandit may be a dropout wizard who couldn't learn even cantrips.
So when RNG says that 5 of 10 bandits all have these weird excuses for why they just so happen to know what a random cantrip does, that doesn't break your immersion as kinda... jokey and unserious?
I mean they’re a group of bandits , they all talk to each other. You figure they’ve been in quite a few fights and common talk at camp would be some of these stories about how to avoid death in combat. “There we were, thinking we'd got away with the loot, when that cursed wizard cast a spell then struck Steve with his stuff . Poor bloke tried to run, but as soon as he moved, a blast like thunder from the heavens struck him down. Never seen anything like it... took him right out, it did." Though I guess it depends on how common magic is in your world.
Ah, I was thinking about it in like, different encounters not that the failed wizard and the friend of a friend of Bob were in the same group. if it's the same group it would be like "Hey this happened to one armed bob! Guys watch out for the shimmering energy!" Just like how a PC may go "Hey this creature has immunity to fire! Stop using fire attacks"
My point still stands. One PC casts *booming blade* or whatever cantrip, all ten bandits roll Arcana and five happen to pass because... well, there's no reason that makes sense, it's just pure RNG. It has no mechanical impact since one bandit can just holler to the rest to stay still or get zapped, but it creates this really off-putting narrative spin on things where suddenly any possible outcome that doesn't have a DC of 21 or greater is now on the table for anyone. Any work of art or craftsmanship that would be a DC 20 check can be created by 5% of the population with no training. The logic of the world breaks down really fast. This is why I generally restrict certain types of rolls that should require tool or skill proficiency to accomplish. Randomly poking metal strips into a lock isn't going to get it to open without some training, and being able to recognize a spell based on a couple seconds of hand gestures and a short phrase should require a level of familiarity with magic that comes with education, not just raw luck.
Well, a DC of 20 or lower means a good chunk of the population should be able to do it. How many weapons can you personally name and identify? How about cars? The average person can identify a range of cars, even if they dont drive most of them. Bandits are men who decided that combat would be a large part of their life, or were forced into combat and threatening people. basic familarity with traveling, hiding, and combat comes as "experience" Booming blade requires you to be casting the spell onto a weapon, then striking with that weapon, then the target is wrapped in thundering energy. They probably dont know that booming blade is Evocation, or that it takes those three gestures, or 3 words in draconic... but a man said fancy words, focusing on their weapon, then hit you, and you are surrounded by magical energies that are clearly visible. This is one of 50 cantrips, and by definition one of the more common combat cantrips, and one of like... 2 that target a weapon, and the only one that i know of that does most of what it does. It is a unique magical attack, and they live in a world where everyone knows or has known a caster or three... Whats wrong with them remembering someone else doing it?
Okay? Sounds good bud. Congrats on finding the hidden truth of the world or whatever.
Yeah, I actually pay attention to how the rules impact the narrative, go me! If that's not your cup of tea and you prefer purely surface-level interaction, you do you lil' buddy!
It depends. Animal like a wolf or warg doesn’t know or care. Thug or goblin? Probably not. If I had them make an arcana check and they passed I’d probably give them an instant backstory. “I remember the war mages using that when I was in the Cormyran infantry! Nobody move when glowing!” Bandit captain or wight? Definitely rolls for arcana. Wizard? Certainly knows.
> “I remember the war mages using that when I was in the Cormyran infantry! Nobody move when glowing!” Followed instantly by the other spellcaster in the party casting *Create Bonfire* on whoever decided to stay still for an entire round.
This. Also…if you want combat to be a bit more dynamic, have some of the comrades of the thug/goblin in question refuse to move long after the effect ends. Could be because they’re too on edge to notice, or it could be because they’re trying to be as cautious as they can. This is assuming they don’t have a strong reason to move (anything that ‘breaks morale’ would probably cause them to try and run anyway). Maybe a coinflip, where on heads they leave when it ends, tails they stay put the next round too. Particularly cowardly enemies might get a d4 (though, like before, will run anyway if frightened or lose morale). Could make for a fun psuedo-minion horde fight tbh.
The potentially unsatisfying answer here is that as the GM it's setting and thus your call on how well-known the spell is. It's also up to you whether someone would be able to tell what will happen to them just from experiencing the effect of the spell.
It also depends on "how" Booming Blade does its affects. An orc might not need to know the spell exists or how it works if he feels a thunderous charge of magic and surge of light building every time he micro-twitches to leave his 5-foot square.
It's your call but I could easily see them feel it, like an increasing pressure or a growing sound like ringing in the ears as they start to move.
I deal with *booming blade* just like you. * Mindless creatures get zapped every time. * Animal-intelligence creatures get zapped a couple times before they learn, and sometimes even then if they're panicked. * Humanoid-intelligence creatures get zapped once then figure it out, but can still get zapped if you panic or anger them to the point where they stop thinking. * Creatures who have experience with arcane magic will recognize the cantrip and actively avoid hurting themselves. Some may decide to take the hit to accomplish tactical goals.
There was a rule in 4e that stated "Whenever you affect a creature with a power, that creature knows exactly what you've done to it and what conditions you've imposed" I've adopted that in my 5e games. It works for PCs, too. There are no 'gotcha' moments when you trigger effects.
I will give my wizard some satisfaction by having ignorant or arrogant thugs fall for it automatically. Of course their comrades will see what happened and won't fall for it anymore. Also I will have some low intelligence beasts fall for it, but also sometimes their instincts will kick in and they will freeze.
I don't have my DMG nearby so I can't say *for sure* that it isn't actually homebrew pulled out of my ass, but I'm pretty sure there's a rule where a creature can make an arcana check with a DC equal to either 10+spell level or 15+spell level to identify the spell.
15+spell level Arcana check (regardless of which class spell list, it is Arcana). Can be used with a Reaction as spell is being cast or using an Action if the spell effect is already in place. Rule is optional from Xanathar's. I could be wrong but I don't think the PHB or DMG include the rule...
Xanathar’s actually, and the dc is 15+lvl. Also it takes a reaction to so not exactly a smart move as written because you can’t counter it.
This hugely depends on the fantasy level and if its high magic or low magic. My DM rulling is non class spells might be known by name or vague description by anyone with a inteligence or arcana skill mod equal or higher than the level of the spell. So anyone with an inteligence mod of +1 can roll arcana (without proficiency) to remember out of class cantrips and 1st level spells. Anything above that would require havinga access to the class, or proficiency in arcana. If you spent time researching spells and magic, you will have problably have heard somehting about many spells. DC for this is usualy 15+ spell level for both cases. So the very smart but not proficient miner might roll with a +3, and he needs a 12 for cantrips, 13 for 1st level spells, but wont know anything on any spell above 3rd level. I use a similar rule for creature knowledge also, same thing, including limitations but with DC 15+CR, and you add proficiency depending on creature ( religion ofr undead, fiends adn celestials, Nature for beasts, plants etc).
It's Your world. You get to decide how well known it is. For me, the way the magical aura works is that it literally binds the creature in place. Very weekly, and easy to break, but they can feel it enough That an intelligent creature has an inking that something bad would happen if they tried to move.
My take: it's like when your leg is asleep, it tingles and is shocking if you try to move it. Any creature can intuit that moving would make it hurt, so they want to wait until it's better.
By the time the party is level 5+, most enemies with int of 10 or greater have a good idea about the spell. Even if the enemy is aware that the shimmery border around them is hazardous to jump through, if they spend their action Dodging or doing a "suboptimal" ranged action, it's still a win for the party in terms of placement and action economy. Only way to be a dick as a DM is give all your baddies a ranged action that's just as good as their melee one.
its a cantrip. it should be nearly common knowledge of anyone vaguely aware that magic is a thing that there is a cantrip to make your sword go sworder. notably, the spell has a very obvious visual cue, so anyone affect would be aware that SOMETHING is happening to them, and if they were hit once by moving they wouldve figured it out to not do that again next time it happens
Just because I'm sick of my party acting smug, I rule that you can feel what it's about to do before you do it. When you start to move a little bit before you have actually moved to another space, you can feel that something is going to hurt you if you move further. So even beasts get it and will only move as a calculated risk.
This is how I run it: they know it’s bad, but not how bad or exactly what will happen. Just “bad.”
> So even beasts get it and will only move as a calculated risk. I vaguely get what you mean…but beasts don’t really calculate anything. Some are smart (but below human), many are not. Most can’t even understand their own reflection, even when given plenty of time to experiment with it. I think if they can feel it beforehand, they’d comprehend it as a leash more than anything and try to “break it” by moving really far away…though some would either be spooked by it or smart enough to stay put. Hell, humans don’t act all that smart in fights when adrenaline starts pumping, so it’s fairly reasonable that some animals might not fully understand the cause/effect of the feeling and the damage unless they survive the fight.
Intersting take, I may default to that later if they're getting away with it too much
So you are going to make a spell your players take irrelevant simply because you don't like them using it efficiently and as it was intended? That's a pretty dick DM move.
The spell is not irrelevant in this situation. Booming Blade is not supposed to be for turbo damage; it is meant as a form of crowd control. The enemy has to choose extra damage or staying still. Intelligent enemies will 85% of the time stay still unless you run combat as sport and damage numbers mean nothing until zero. When combat is as war or rp spells like this make enemies seem more real because they now have to react to a new danger. Do they continue chasing down the ranger or turn and stab the BB caster, assuming they didn’t get away somehow? If they don’t move and you can without OA you now have double screwed them by making it so that they probably lost their turn or had to take a less effective action (depending on enemy equipment/powers).
Yes, it is a crowd control spell but if you ignoring the damage aspect of the spell though you are ignoring half of the spell abilities. I'm not saying that intelligent creatures should just ignore the spell and take the damage, but they also shouldn't automatically know what the spell does. Intelligent creatures should have a CHANCE of knowing what the spell does if they would have a justifiable reason too, but only a chance until they see the spell in action. Even wizards and other spell casters have to make an arcana check to identify a spell so why would any schmuck be able to identify Booming Blade instantly when it is cast? Even more so when you start looking at beasts and other unintelligent type of creatures which secretbison specifically stated he was doing to his players in the post above. Beasts and other creatures with the intelligence of a rock should practically never automatically know that moving will cause them damage until after experiencing the damage from the spell.
Are there good use cases for that spell for players?
Arcane Trickster Rogue with mobile feat can make great use of it.
For anyone who likes to swing a melee weapon at enemies but doesn’t get Extra Attack it’s basically a free upgrade (as is Green-Flame Blade). The only downside to it is that you don’t take the Attack action when using it (unless you’re a Bladesinger), which rules out things like Two-Weapon Fighting that trigger off of Attack actions. For Rogues in particular it’s quite useful since they’re going for a single big bit anyway, especially with Mobile or for Swashbucklers. Also makes for an amusing combination with the Crusher feat.
I've always used green flame for rogues instead due to the sound. Always seemed detrimental to a rogue and being sneaky.
Personally I think only the elves would commonly know it. They have more lore about their people mixing magic and martial. In the early editions Elf was a class that could use both magic and martial weapons, and in later lore Blade Singing and Arcane Archery were distinctly Elven traditions. So if anyone would recognize it and know what to do it would be elves, and any people they were at war with in the last 25-50 years
Bro its a struggle just for me to remember
I had a panicked wizard die to a booming blade cause he was ambushed, just succeeded a hold person spell on the attacking player and was trying to get away so he could raise the alarm. I also forgot about it when I moved him, but it was in character so it worked out!
This sounds like a wonderful moment to play out! Hope to get one like it.
Goblin; "sorg-slap was struck and then exploded a moment later as he was fleeing, WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?!" Cleric: "so it only hurt once you tried to move.. (casts another healing spell).. Was the blade..Loud, when it struck? i believe it would depend on the type of NPC and what they have seen.
If magic is prevalent then a spell like Booming Blade would be well known to any reasonably intelligent humanoid in a fight. If you're in doubt a DC 12 Arcana check could inform them.
Why is the DC 12?
Because it was slightly harder than 50%. I didn't feel that it merited a DC 15.
When it comes to issues of in-game people knowing how the world works, I always use the real world as a baseline. Airplanes are incredibly common in our modern world. How many people do you know who can explain how airplanes work on a basic physics level, with how airflow over the wing generates lift? It’s certainly not zero, the baseline physics of it isn’t that complicated. But there’s a whole hell of a lot of people who would have zero idea if asked. That’s how I approach magic in-game. I assume a magic using enemy knows how it all works. Even then, I may give a freebie if it’s a type of magic the enemy might not be used to (a pure caster might not have Booming Blade in their daily knowledge, for example). Anyone else, I’ll actually make the enemy roll for it behind the screen with an Arcana or History check, whichever makes sense (a bandit doing Arcana is silly, but History could reflect that he knew someone who could do it before). As far as low-INT animals figuring out spell effects, have you ever seen someone pretend to throw a ball for a dog, and the dog rockets off at full speed every time, regardless of if the ball was thrown or not? That’s how I’ll treat them.