Should you use Booming Blade or Extra Attack? D&D5e

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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:35 Booming Blade
6:40 Level 5
11:20 Level 11
14:58 Level 17

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[AvangionQ]

The point of Booming Blade is to lock down an enemy and prevent its movement, not to cause additional secondary damage.
If your Booming Blade forces a creature to waste its action staying put and dodging, rather than attacking, you've done well.

[PiroMunkie]

So many people conflate things that provoke opportunity attacks and "willing" movement. I'm glad you took the time to iron that out here.

[ngaese]

Like others here pointed out, I feel BB and/or GFB work best with rogues and clerics, but I especially like them with the latter. It really works well with the scaling effects of divine strike, and the cleric classics of spiritual weapon and spirit guardians.

My main character in a campaign right now is a 6th lvl tempest cleric/ 1 lvl wizard multiclass and he's the main front liner in our party, with an echo knight also in tow. Our DM jokingly called bull during the first big encounter, where I faced off with a stone giant homebrewed monster that summoned an earth elemental lol (shield spell + plate armour really helped me out, and +1 greatsword for damage with BB), while the rest of the party were dealing with 2 other normal stone giants. The damage was plenty good, got a cheeky chromatic orb channel divinity combo that hurt but afterwards it was a scary melee faceoff that surprisingly went to my favor. Once the other spellcaster banished the other giant, concentration fire on the other 2 ended the encounter. This was a 6 man party (3 of which are DMPc's) against 3 giants for context.

Just wanted to share that semi-relevant story since the game just happened on Wednesday and were all still hyped about it lol.

[Herbalizer]

A few combos I like:
- Rogue : Booming Blade + Cunning Action
- Cleric : Booming Blade + Spirit Guardians -> If the target moves..Bam, if it doesn't Boom !
- Eldritch Knight (lvl7) or Bladesinger (lvl6): Attack + Booming Blade + Crusher Feat -> Attack then Boom the target and move it 5 feet away
- Various (1 attack): Warcaster + Dissonant Whisper + Booming Blade (Better with a rogue that got access to DW spell as it can also sneak)

[jasondardeen]

The "Crusher" feat allows you to automatically push a creature one size larger then you or smaller 5' away from you. I used this to trigger booming blade. Cast booming blade...hit with bludgeoning weapon..push creature away that is enveloped with booming blade..they step back up to hit (boom)

[DrAndrewJBlack]

“DND is for everyone”. The more we play the truer is gets. Thank you for your video!

[gordonexperience]

This is interesting and I broadly agree with your conclusions. Personally, I homebrew that EKs get the same style of Extra Attack that Bladesingers get, as I think it just makes sense.

I do want to ask, though, as last night our Warforged Rune Knight reached level 5. He had been using Green Flame Blade up until now and was excited to get extra attack, but then realized he would have to decide between which to use and wasn’t sure which was better since he liked GFB thematically and for RP, but Extra Attack also has benefits for him as he has a 20 in Strength and will be using a big weapon, in addition to other damage bonuses. I initially told him there probably wouldn’t be much of a point in using GFB as regularly any more, if at all, though I think after watching this video, the strategy would depend on whether or not there are enough creatures nearby that provoking the secondary damage would make a big difference.

I guess my question would be how does this calculation change for a spell like GFB?

[benjaminrosiek]

don't forget the crusher feat; while it won't force the extra damage from it's movement, it can leave a creature stranded, either making it move and causing the extra damage more consitantly, or leaving a melee creature stranded without movement for a turn.

[Nekonaut-yt]

After monsters of the multiverse, Kobold swashbuckler probably makes the best use of starting with booming blade .using draconic cry as your bonus to give advantage and no need to disengage

[youtubeseagull]

4:20 You cannot safely move out of combat with the Mobile feat because you did not perform a melee attack, you cast a spell (Booming Blade). I hope i'm wrong. I am wrong. The spell says you make a melee attack, even though it is a spell. They do synergize. I have learned.

[gregoryfloriolli]

It also depends on how metagamey your DM is. Does the creature automatically know it shouldn’t move once it’s hit with a booming blade? Or does your DM take the position that if a creature isn’t intelligent, it’s not a spell caster, or they haven’t seen the spell used against themselves or another creature then that creature should have no idea that it’s not supposed to move?

[nerdlydelicious]

There’s another thing to consider in the choice between booming blade or extra attack: you can miss. Doesn’t matter how much damage you can do with BB if your one and only attack that turn misses. With two (or more) attacks you increase the likelihood of hitting. So in a scenario where a fighter using BB attacks and misses, that’s it until their next turn. If a fighter using extra attack misses they have a second opportunity to hit and do damage. True, they can miss the second attack too, but they still have another chance to land a hit

[thebitterfig]

I guess Booming Blade is a place where I’m just a crank. I feel like the attack cantrips were an awkwardly designed patch that cause some issues. The Extra Attack interaction is frustrating, particularly since they released with a power creep version with Bladesinger. Rogue and Cleric scaling become really strange. They maybe should be scaling damage better by default, but it’s still a really frustrating tax.

Meanwhile, they’re also cantrips with full scaling but can also proc twice, and inherently add ability scaling to damage. There’s a reason Acid Splash is a d6 rather than d10 scaling like Firebolt. BB and GFB put the other close-range cantrips (like Poison Spray, Primal Savagery, and Shocking Grasp) utterly to shame in a rather depressing way.

They just irk me, since they feel like they’re not quite in line with the rest. Or maybe it’s that BB/GFB highlight broader issues in weapon-user scaling. For example, there never should have been effects to ignore the loading property, but loading weapons should have had some other sort of scaling with a single attack. Making Crossbows and Bows feel different would have been great. But that of course runs into Sharpshooter issues, although SS/GWM are also a problem, in the way that they form a tax on weapon attackers, and just about mandate bonus action attacks and rule out tonnes of weapons simply because they don’t qualify.

[theshadowcult]

The reason i love the blade cantrips, is for characters without extra attack. Rogue, or warlock who wants to take a different invocation. Bard, or cleric. Much fun with a blade cantrip.

[gsimon]

I use booming blade on a tempest cleric / swashbuckler rogue. Taking 3 levels in rogue for swash gets you 2d6 sneak attack on that single attack. Also lets you run away to encourage secondary damage. Add spirit guardians and spiritual weapon.

[sethmokami]

Maybe this is just me, but if I’m GMing and one of the Players sets up Booming Blade on an enemy, that enemy is definitely going to be moving on its next turn. I don’t want a character’s action or choice of cantrip to feel useless, and I want each Player to have the cool moment of “Wow! The thing I set up worked!”

It could be a difference in GM philosophy though. Every criticism of Booming Blade is totally valid if the GM is trying to play smart. I tend to focus on the power fantasy aspect of D&D, which could mean I have the enemies do stupid things just so the Players’ plans work. It depends on the context, but that’s generally my go-to.

Good video all around though!

[rodgo]

I use booming blade on my tempest cleric. It's thematic and matches well the plus 1d8 you gain at level 8. Booming blade is basically a 8th level ability you gain at level 4. At 8th level I'm hitting 3d8+4 (I have gauntlets of ogre power). 11th 4d8+4 and 17th 5d8+4. In a critical I could use my channel divinity do deal 2d8+64+4 damage. It's not a martial focused build. I'm a Frontline caster, but it's still better than casting sacred Flame.

[simondiamond]

My observations:

1. I find that BB is often best used with War Caster, since in that said case, you get to replace your one opportunity attack with a spell that has 1 action.

2. I find that BB often only works better when the PC only gets one attack and then can disengage as a BA (e.g., Rogues via Cunning Action).

3. As a general point of notice, I've noticed that once PC's hit tier 2 and above, monster tactics tend to "shift" in a more intelligent direction. In a semi-practical world setting, where the monsters aren't stupid (or are for lack of a phrase, are "less stupid"), once they feel the effects of BB, they're much less inclined to use their actual movement in those situations, and instead would (as suggested by you) make use of either minor teleportation or a ranged attack of some sort to compensate for lack of movement.

4. In circumstances involving the Bladesinger at tier 2 and above, where cantrip casting can be done as a part of the same attack action, then sure, BB can eek out some extra damage if:

A. You hit with your extra attack, and
B. The creature willingly moves after said attack, while not under any form of duress.

But those instances are generally the exception, and not the rule.

{This, I think, is what makes BB relatively weak; the requirement for "willing" movement from the creature to conduct non-spell based movement in order to trigger extra damage.}

5. As someone mentioned earlier, I think you may have accidentally left out some GWM math (the to-hit penalties in this case) in doing your calculations, as well as other sources of on-board damage associated with attacks (e.g., Eldritch Smite, Improved Divine Smite, etc.). A minor oversight, but one of which, I think, only strengthens the argument in favor of extra attack over a single attempt at BB.

{In saying that, I wonder about situations involving the Quicken Metamagic feat during a person's BA (more aptly, if it can be done in order to allow for an attack, in order to eek out more damage), notwithstanding any prepared actions prior to.}

In general, if you're not either a Bladesinger, or in a class that gets an extra attack, then BB is the go-to option. Otherwise, extra attack outclasses BB convincingly.

[Bluesruse]

There's a reason Booming Blade is a lvl1 cantrip, and multiattack is at least lvl5 feature.

[reespewa]

Something which wasn't considered but probably doesn't change the outcome that much. Many effects provide advantage on a single weapon attack: familiar taking the help action is the most relevant case given it often comes hand in hand with booming blade through spellcasting. In these cases, the single weapon attack made by booming blade is a little better than the usual case as you have a higher hit rate on the stronger attack. Additionally the crit chance is higher and pairs well with the extra dice damage for the primary booming blade damage.

But ultimately I don't think it changes the math that much. What booming blade does well however is make waiting for extra attack less painful on multiclassing builds. E.g. dipping spellcasting before reaching lvl 5 with a martial class. Soradin comes to mind, but I've personally got experience dipping wizard on eldritch knight. Not having extra attack hurts, however having an EK with mobile, owl familiar and booming blade is still a very fun build in my experience, and very satisfying on the occasions where a crit happens.