Hello magic practitioners of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 35th episode of our cantrip series. Today we’re going to be taking a look at shocking grasp spell 5e the ultimate zinger usable by the warlock and the sorcerer and through extension anyone else with access to their spell lists. It would be found in the players handbook as well. Let’s take a quick look at some mechanics here.
Mechanics
- Level: Cantrip
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: Touch
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Instantaneous
- School: Evocation
- Attack/Save: Melee vs AC
- Damage/Effect: Lightning
Your damage die will be a D8 so pretty nice. 1d8 at first level and an additional d8 at fifth, 11th and 17th level. For a grand total of 4d8. The cast time will be one action, the range is touch, the duration is instantaneous and the saving throw just the melee spell attack versus the AC. Do you know about 5e spells with permanent effects.
The components are somatic and verbal, the school is evocation, and the damage type unsurprisingly is lightning. So let’s take a quick look at the full description here just for flavor and so we are all on the same page and we can get to know what does shocking grasp do in dnd 5e. is shocking grasp a good cantrip?
Description
Lightning springs from your hand to deliver a shock to a creature you try to touch. Make a melee spell attack against the target. You have advantage on the attack roll if the target is wearing armor made of metal. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 lightning damage, and it can’t take reactions until the start of its next turn. The spell’s damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).
Some great spell overall. Circumstantially it is fantastic and it is a safe choice to pick regardless, not a whole lot of things have resistance and lightning and anything is going to give you a really hard time we will probably be wearing metal armor or metalic in one form or another. Does if you look at some alternative uses. does shocking grasp add to weapon damage?
Alternative Uses
So i would allow that advantage to apply if you were to touch a metal weapon as well. As a result you could use it to touch a sword, shield something along those lines, cause the shock and potentially get the target to drop in the carry to item and flee unarmed. Also read what is the shocking grasp reaction?
Provoking attacks of opportunity which may or may not be beneficial based on your class. Now that i’m reading the spell aloud though i’m looking back at it. You could also use this to bail party members out of trouble by using your familiar have your familiar run out few shocking grasp, make it so that target can’t use a reaction and everyone can safely walk away with a promotion attack opportunity. Also check out this what is the ring of shocking grasp?
Conclusion
That being said, If you have any alternative uses or crazy ways to use it or crazy stories involving it please comment down below, i’d love to read it and i know for a fact that everyone reading this article would as well. That being said, thank you so much and as always happy casting. chill touch 5e | magic missile 5e | lightning lure 5e | ray of frost 5e | thunderwave 5e.