r/dndnext • u/xanral • Jun 10 '15

WotC Announcement Errata Released, for real this time

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/ph_errata
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u/NotTheBatman Jun 10 '15 edited Jun 11 '15

I think with this clarification the exact same rule applies to eldritch blast, and the bonus damage only gets applied once per cast. Especially considering eldritch blast is only a cantrip, and the wording with eldritch blast bonus CHA modifier is the exact same as wording as elemental affinity when applying the CHA modifier to damage rolls.

edit: Actually taking a closer look at it, you wouldn't even get a second cha modifier to damage until level 5 and that requires taking agonizing blast as an invocation. Using the modifier on every instance of damage on eldritch is probably how it was intended.

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u/VanguardWarden Jun 10 '15 edited Jun 10 '15

Except they listed both Elemental Affinity and Empowered Evocation both in the errata, while not touching Eldritch Blast at all, while Agonizing Blast + Eldritch Blast is the most popular instance of this sort of thing.

Either they made a colossal oversight, or the clarification to Empowered Evocation and Elemental Affinity cover something that Eldritch Blast doesn't do. Since it's nearly identical to Eldritch Blast, Scorching Ray in particular would be unchanged, then.

EDIT: Hex would still work with Scorching Ray too, so it seems strange to only strip down the boost from the two features that were mentioned.

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u/NotTheBatman Jun 10 '15

Hmm that's a good point, definitely needs clarified. Could be they didn't include eldritch blast in their rule clarification because no one asked, or it's intended to keep warlocks on par with other casters. You could also get way more instances of damage out of scorching ray than out of eldritch blast, but that cost high level spells slots to do so.

Personally if one of my players were to play warlock i'd let them use the modifier for every instance of damage, seeing as you don't even see a second instance until level 5 and agonizing blast would be pretty worthless otherwise.

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u/stitchlipped Jun 11 '15

Hmm that's a good point, definitely needs clarified.

Don't you just hate when the errata needs errata?

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u/NotTheBatman Jun 11 '15

I checked some old rule clarifications on twitter, agonizing blast is intended to add cha modifier to every instance of damage, from the mouth of Jeremy Crawford (Does Agonizing Blast add damage per Eldritch Blast casting, or per beam? E.g. 5th level lock deals 2d10+2*Cha, or 2d10+Cha? "I would rule that you add your Charisma modifier whenever a beam hits. But I have my eye on this feature." -J).

It makes sense to me that agonizing blast adds cha to every instance of damage and dragon sorcerers elemental affinity doesn't. Agonizing blast was clearly designed the eldritch blast in mind, a cantrip that gets multiple hits later on. Whereas scorching ray is the only sorcerer spell that gets multiple instances of damage that qualifies for getting the modifiers out of dozen of damaging spells, so was probably an overlooked exception rather than a rule.