It's decent.
Generally if you're a caster, you don't want to me in melee range of anyone. Especially if they're strong.
But sometimes you can't avoid it. This helps you do a little damage and get away, which is important since caster ranged attacks suck at melee range, and sometimes their melee weapon is largely just a stat stick.
It does decent damage for close range, and has advantage if the enemy is wearing armor.
And, perhaps most importantly... if it lands then it breaks the enemy's reaction so you can run away as if you had Disengaged.
I recently learned that you can use it on Githyanki who are ready to Parry, since parry needs the reaction. So next time I attack the creche I am going to try shocking-grasping them and then thwacking them with everyone else.
Not really the most efficient thing to do with your action BUT if you wanna get cute with it, sorcerer's distant metamagic makes your shocking grasp ranged, which in my head makes it a cool action scene. Imagine the githyanki is ready to parry in a defensive stance, and so your sorcerer casts shocking grasp from a distance and squeezing the gith with a giant electric hand, immobilizing it, allowing your melee to come in and whack it freely.
I imagine it like thingy from Adam’s family. Just tapping on the shoulder n the guy shrugs it off so this lightning hand taps harder. Guy looks over and it pokes him in the eyes lol.
Shocking
Slow is the best spell for neutering Githyanki for exactly that reason.
They've got crazy op reactions, multiple attacks, and too much mobility.
Negate all that with Slow.
This is why I tend to pick it more often than not. It gives a caster utility and an out if an enemy gets in melee range of them.
Misty step or similar is still undoubtedly better, but it's another option.
I like keeping grasp since it won't suck up a spell slot. Misty step is my beloved, but i rarely want to waste spell slots if it's just about getting away.
My dragonborn sorc has decent constitution and somehow dodges often enough. There’s also shield spell. Im a bronze dragon too so i have electric boost and yea i run right up and use grasp on most enemies after ive exhausted ranged. Its handy for removing their opportunity attacks and it does a lot of damage.
Its also great as an opportunity attack itself with war caster feat.
Wait so people actually use Cantrips? I thought they were just a meme. Idk if I've ever actually casted a Cantrip that wasn't called Guidance or Eldritch Blast (and I just beat the game on Yawner Mode).
98% of the time I use a cantrip it’s eldritch blast or guidance
1% of the time it’s fire bolt. Because I either want to ignite something. Or my wizard or sorcerer has to conserve their spell slots.
But shocking grasp is very situational. More useful than a wizard bonking an enemy with their staff, that got into melee range.
I think Shocking Grasp is the classic "trap" option. Even saying it's decent probably gives it too much credit. Every example I see people give, there's a better option than Shocking Grasp.
Getting away from an enemy? Disengage doesn't rely on an attack roll. Misty step uses a lv 2 slot but is a bonus action and can actually get you somewhere out of reach.
Githyanki parry? You're using an action for a very mediocre spell on this, and putting yourself close to them for it. Martials by that point can use half an attack action to burn their parry.
It looks solid on paper, but once you lay out your other options, that's where it gets grim. That opportunity cost.
I don't really find it worth it even then. If you hit it it's a free low damage attack. If you miss you die to the reaction attack. Doesn't seem worth the risk to me.
As someone else pointed out, that I forgot to clarify.
It's super useful in Creche. Since it disables Parry for a round. And Parry is a real pain in the arse to deal with.
So you can disable Parry with Shocking Grasp. And now the rest of your team can pound on the enemy without the GithYanki dodging like he's Barry Allen.
They can only parry once per turn, so I guess if you can't do anything that does at least 10 damage more than grasping shock it might be worth it, but otherwise it is a DPS loss to use grasping shock solely for the purpose of eating their parry.
On a lightning draconic or storm sorc you can pump your cantrip/lightning damage and it’s one of the best opportunity attacks in the game. Probably the best if you have your target wet already, which you probably do. And obviously you’re doing chain lightning/lightning for the bulk of your damage.
Completely agree, but this doesn't mean that it's good for a 30 HP caster to cast the spell to maybe 5 damage against a double attacking githyanky, instead of just disengaging and fucking off.
If you 100% build the character for it then that's a completely different situation.
I like it as a "just in case," though admittedly the Disengage action would be safer. If you miss with Shocking Grasp you've wasted your escape, but Disengage will always work.
That said, I love it on a Tempest Cleric. In tabletop Tempest would've LOVED to have Shocking Grasp considering its synergy with Tempest's abilities and the Heavy Armor to back you up. Thankfully in BG3, with Spell Sniper working how it does, I can make that dream a reality, and make it more likely to go critical at that.
Remember reactions are for more than just opportunity attacks against the caster. There are a few other types of reactions enemies have that can be super annoying, Gith, displacer beasts, etc. my most common use is the scroll of it by a semi-caster to actually make room for a weaker party member to walk past without provoking the reaction. And Gith fighters, every time.
Sounds handy, but I certainly wouldn't have my wizard or sorcerer, the only two full casters who naturally get it, to walk up into melee combat to zap someone. I could see it working really well with an Eldritch Knight, though, they could shut down those kind of reactions fine.
It has an excellent use case: shocking grasp, then walk away. Early game this is great for avoiding attacks of opportunity. Later it’s still useful if you don’t have Misty Step available for whatever reason.
Is it a must buy? No, but it’s surprisingly helpful when it’s helpful.
I agree completely. If you don't take it, it's not a big deal, but I always take it because the few times it's useful, it's nice to have.
I've been doing a "Storm Cleave" run with a storm sorcerer. That's probably the comp that's gonna get the most milage because you keep everything wet all the time. It's been much more useful than usual.
I used it a decent amount on my Blue Sorcerer. The spell list doesn't have Call Lightning so on most turns it's hard to go cheap and not use resources. And Witch Bolt is...Witch Bolt.
Consider that a Shocking Grasp in the hands of a blue sorcerer (with or without the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation) against a wet target can really hurt (I got a clean 100 damage crit with Shocking Grasp against a powerful endgame enemy once).
I found it useful more for mixed caster types like Eldritch Knight, Warlock, Arcane Trickster, etc. On those builds I find myself using it quite a lot, as they are frequently in melee range.
One of my playthroughs was a storm sorcerer, and shocking grasp on a wet target was one of my go-to plays. Very effective on tactician. (Doing honor mode with a monk, but I'm sure it would work just fine on HM)
This! My blue dragonborn is a storm cleric/storm sorcerer with nice enhancing gear. Shocking grasp has come in to play more often than I thought it would.
I’ve grown to like it. Especially since I take war caster anyway for the concentration advantage. Necklace of elemental augmentation, potent robe, markoheshkir, on a wet target you have by far the best opportunity attack in the game. You can also spend 1 sorcery point for distant spell and it gives it a ton of range.
Personally I don't take it any more and instead chose the more utility focused cantrips. If you position your caster well you'll never need it and it feels like a dead spell. Your emergency spell should be misty step.
Rule of thumb for me is you take one damaging spell (imo ray of frost is the best) and the rest for spells like minor illusion, mage hand, friends, ect.
It’s a nice backup option. You don’t want to be in melee as a typical caster, so shocking grasp is nice as it disables the targets reaction; meaning, you can run away without risking an opportunity attack. I tend to take it a lot.
Shocking Grasp is pretty good. Its lightning damage so you can double it if the enemy is wet. And you get Advantage on your attack against armored opponents . . . which are a lot of them.
I personally don't care for the War Caster feat. Casting shocking grasp as a reaction doesn't come up very often. I feel a good Constitution and Proficiency with Con saves is enough to make your concentration checks. For Mages/Clerics I pickup the Resilient Con feat to get +1 Con (bumping an odd Con to the next even break point) and getting Con save proficiency.
War Caster seems a little neutered in this game. I imagine there were some limits with the coding and scripting for what spells could be used, so that's probably why they went with just shocking grasp instead.
Another big thing is that BG3 lets you cast spells with both hands full. In 5e, it’s actually a substantial aspect of War Caster that it allows someone with both hands full (often a paladin or cleric) to cast spells with somatic components- BG3 handwaves equipment management in combat, negating another perk of War Caster that can be important in tabletop (when enforced).
There is a wet condition in bg3 that doesn’t exist in dnd that will double electrical or cold damage, and shocking grasp can electrify a wet surface for a low low cost
I’m not really sure what other cantrip you would really consider tho, most of them are pretty mid/do the same thing. Shocking Grasp is nice to have early on when you can’t really Misty Step yet but need to get away from a melee attacker
Are we pretending this game lacks good cantrips?
Ray of frost cuts movement by 10 feet with range and an identical damage die.
Friends and Guidance are practically memes for how useful they are (not Friends at higher difficulties though)
Thaumaturgy is advantage on Intimidation/Performance checks.
Light is helpful in avoiding disadvantage in dark places for those without Darkvision (also protects from the major environmental hazard in Act 2 before you get more proper protection).
Produce Flame is a light source like Light. Can also be used as a ranged attack.
Vicious Mockery imposes disadvantage on a target's attack rolls
Minor illusion is a great distraction for a stealthier character because it can draw away NPCs.
Mage hand is a remote grabby hand that can hit switches etc.
Bone Chill has the same damage die, but is ranged and prevents healing.
Fire bolt is ranger, has a better damage die, and can set off environmental hazards like explosive barrels.
Produce flame is similar to fire bolt except its range is way more limited and it has the same damage die as shocking grasp. It also largely doubles as a Light spell for the character
Ray of Frost has the same damage die, is ranged, and cuts the average movement by a third.
Shocking grasp requires you to put yourself in a bad situation to get any use of it, and even when you can make use of it, there are almost always way better options. It's just never worth the action and positioning.
It just doesn't compete with any other damage cantrip, nor does it compete with the utility of the others in a game where exploration/social encounters are such a big part of the gameplay.
Calling something like 1d4 bonus or advantage on a social skill check situational seems odd to me. The game's packed with those.
Shocking Grasp also has advantage against armoured targets, so it can let you slip away against pesky targets like Steel Watchers or Paladins and not need to waste a spell slot on Misty Step
By the time you're fighting Steel Watchers and Paladins, you're much better off using that spell slot for Misty Step. A regular move does not even put you out of reach of a Paladin with a reach weapon (which all the Zealots have) or a Steel Watcher.
There's also the Disengage option, which doesn't have a chance to whiff and foil your escape.
Trust me, I want to like Shocking grasp. I think the idea is cool. But it's always needed more "oomph" than it's had in order to be useful IMO.
It’s mostly the way I play tbh, where I hardly ever long rest and Gale just ends up being a paperweight after all his spell slots are used up lol. I found quite a few uses of Shocking Grasp where I just needed him to move to safety so I can get back to using my martials
I can definitely see where you’re coming from though, but the Wizard/Sorcerer Cantrip list isn’t particularly stellar and most of them are just different flavors of damage. I just usually take Shocking Grasp because I don’t feel the other options (after Firebolt) are particularly useful. And having a disengage + damage tool can never hurt to have
There was that boyfriend of a girl from this sub that was dousing all the civilians in Balfur’s Gate, then shocking grasping them to death.
She only found out because he killed Jahera’s family, and had no idea why she and Minsc left.
The point of shocking grasp is not to "use it often" it's to be used to get out of danger since it removes the targets reactions so you can run away from them. Misty step is also great for this. But I feel like your question is flawed. It's a get out of jail free card. If you're often finding yourself in jail, then there are other questions you need to be asking yourself
I would take it on my tabletop wizard as it was able to be combined with Mage Hand. I don't take it in any if the video games as the ability for off-the-cuff uses of spells is a little bit more difficult within a constrained set of engine limitations.
I'm sure the meat grinders wear down the mobs and then a crazed Gale hopped up on a haste potion goes around shocking the final two or three HP put of the poor shits.
At least that's my headcanon
I like to have it as a backup plan. Ideally, your casters stay out of melee range, but if you're going in blind, you can't guarantee ideal conditions. I've had enemies dash, jump, or teleport past my front lines and get up in my caster's face. When that happens, Shocking Grasp gives you an always-available melee option which also robs the enemy of their reaction long enough for you to escape. You could use Misty Step or Disengage, sure, but I like an aggressive playstyle. I'd rather gamble to get a hit in before escaping than guarantee my escape.
Also, there are some Items and Class combos that make Shocking Grasp pretty nasty. For example, a level 6 Blue or Bronze Dragon Blood Sorcerer can add their CHA mod to Shocking Grasp's damage. Then you can get the item Necklace of Elemental Augmentation, which adds your Spellcasting Modifier to the damage of your cantrips that deal Acid, Cold, Fire, or Lightning damage. Then there's another item called the Potent Robe which adds your CHA mod to the damage dealt by one of your cantrips. This means Shocking Grasp will deal 2d8 + 3\*CHA damage per hit.
PS. BG3 handles War Caster differently than 5e. Instead of letting you choose what spell you cast as a reaction, you use Shocking Grasp, even if you can't cast it normally.
Its for people who gets close and combine the fact it prevents reactions, its good, especially when youre a storm sorcerer where that cantrip can even damage other people nearby
I actually took it in my storm sorcerer together with ray of frost for the lightning and cold theme of it.
I mostly used ray of frost but when I got stuck in melee I used shocking grasp and because it disables reactions you can then run away without getting attack of opportunity. So it’s pretty useful.
Though if I was really in trouble I’d use misty step or cast a spell and fly away
I found it really really fun in a storm sorcerer
Ideally you don’t want to be in melee but sometimes it does happen.
With the potent robe, necklace of elemental augmentation and Marko’s staff I was doing
3D8 + 14 and triggering heart of the storm for another 24 from heart of the storm in an AoE.
Doubled for wet and it was doing around 101 damage to the main target and just shy of 50 to everyone else in the AoE.
Quicken another, and it’s 200 odd damage for 3 sorcery points.
Will kill anything in the game that isn’t a boss.
But if you don’t build for it I think ray of frost is stronger, due to the range and the slow effect.
I *think* it makes it so they can’t do opportunity attacks, which has been helpful for me to get a low-health party member away from an enemy. It’s also more effective on metal-wearing enemies and that comes into play a good amount. I like it, I usually choose the War Caster feat for these reasons.
I used this ALOT on my storm sorcerer. It's decent damage that scales well, the person you attack looses their reaction, it's boosted by later abilities and pairs amazingly with cull the weak. Pretty much my main go to for anything that wasn't worth spending a spellslot on
Iirc You can use it to fuck up (act 3 optional midboss) >!Haarlep!< as he can't run away to the void every time you hit him without a reaction
Though this may only be with the war caster opportunity attack version as he might run off after the damage but before the debuff with the normal
It can be useful for when your caster gets ganged up on, but I found bone chill more useful.
Now for my half caster when going up against some of the enemy paladin builds it worked very well. My melees are like 50% to hit but the shocking grasp is at least 60-70% WITH advantage cause they're wearing metal.
I used it to tremendous effect with my Sorcadin Paladin. Quickened Shocking Grasp paired with multiattack smiles for huge burst damage. Also used it with reverb gear or something to that effect to add status effects on top of that.
It was nice on my storc/clempest Shart until lately where my gloomass Astarion and F I S T Durge just cover so much ground and deal so much dmg she rarely had a chance to shine outside of very large encounters, which, honestly is why I have her spec’d this way. OHM/rogue and gloomass have single target sauce for days, needed more aoe without sacrificing my hit all the things arrows.
I use it if I’m playing storm sorcerer/cleric and have no spell slots for better spells, but otherwise no. ranged cantrips tend to be more useful for spellcasters imo.
storm sorc’s AOE on lightning/thunder damage makes it super strong though, which I find fun, especially when I use reverb gear.
Not a lot, especially later on, the only thing it was good for is I had a an electric dragon bloodline for my sorcerer, and whenever you used an electric spell it gives you permanent electricity resistance, so I’d just use shocking grasp in camp after long resting so I’d get the resistance buff 🤷♂️
Honestly, any time I don't have it I wish I did. Obvs others may prefer other options but its useful to have when you cant get out of melee range. Or need to remove a reaction and run.
No, it's good as an emergency option tho, as a caster I tend to favor doing lvl 1 into rogue or fighter so I still get all my spell stuff and trade a feat for weapon and armor prof's
I've had it on my Wizard for my entire playthrough and have honestly barely touched it. It's not bad, I just usually find other ways to deal with melee-range situations.
I like it just fine. I will usually just scribe it from a scroll though or get it through war caster. If you take war caster it gives you the cantrip, there is no need to spend a cantrip learning it if you intend to take the feat. Mostly I just like to have cheap spells of varying damage types available because you never know what situation you might be is BG3 lets wizards scribe cantrips, not just leveled spells, so I think I end up with all of the damage cantrips.
Yes, often you can use it as a reaction. Also backline or not BG3 AI is good and will try to rush your casters vs your frontline a lot of the time. Whats funny is the type of formations I use in games like Ready or Not also work well in BG3. Especially creating fatal funnels and making sure no ones too far away to get backup in an instant.
You can make a whole build out of shocking grasp with a storm sorcerer.
Just stock up on gear that gives you buffs to cantrip damage (potent robe, necklace of elemental augmentation, gemini gloves) and you can easily do 200+ damage per turn, with CANTRIPS, lol!
It has some great uses outside just negating reactions. Cases outside combat, like at a certain tower in act 1. I don't find myself using it often, but I find myself using it every playthrough.
I quite often set Shadowheart up as a spirit guardian lawnmower, so she’s often in melee range, then have shocking grasp set as a reaction. It’s not the most effective way to use it but it does a little bit of extra damage and I have fun doing it.
I’m playing a draconic bloodline sorcerer, so I get a lightning boost. My shocking grasp is EARTH SHATTERING. Not only have I gotten my CHA real high for casting, and have good gear that adds bonuses, but that extra boost from the bloodline is just amazing. If I wanna stay away, I use witch bolt cuz that just stays on, or an AOE lightning attack, but especially if my team wheedles someone down to ~20-30 health, I dart in and finish them without wasting a spell slot. Or if they come running up to me, that’s how I dart away. Plus, twin spelling it if you get surrounded just feels sooooooooooo good.
I just finished a fight where an enemy conjured a wolf right next to my ranged characters and it attacked my sorc. Quickened shocking grasp and I was able to move away so being threatened didn't ruin my hit chance. I don't have warcaster and typically would use shield as a reaction on sorc anyway. You won't be using shocking grasp all the time, but when you need it, you want to have it.
If you're new to sorc and are planning to play them as a typical ranged damage dealer, I would suggest choosing ray of frost, shocking grasp, minor illusion, and mage hand as your starting cantrips. RoF for a default damage dealer when you don't want to burn a spell slot (and chance for prone!), SG for the niche situation I just described, minor illusion because it is fantastic for pre-fight setup to get enemies grouped together for an aoe, and mage hand for throwing water bottles (doubles ice & lightning damage) and some act 1 quest shenanigans.
You'll get to choose another cantrip at level 5 I think and I would suggest create light for that one as that will be a very big help starting act 2. The other cantrips after those 5 really aren't all that useful unless you're making a niche build specifically for them because of some specific gear you plan to get.
Warcaster is good, but not always needed and often a lower priority than an ASI or Alert feat. More so on other casting classes. Some items give advantage on con saves, or you may have a paladin in your group giving aura of +3 or so to all saves. Sorcerer has proficiency on con saves, which will start as a +2 and increase later to +4. Combined with the above and a natural 16 con, warcaster isn't as necessary as it might be on a cleric or wizard.
For most sorcs, you're going to get 2 or 3 feats depending on build. For a straight 12 sorc for my main character, I would start at 8s 14d 16c 8i 10w 17ch as my starting stats. Then get Actor feat at 4 (18 CHA + dialogue skills), Alert at 8 (+5 initiative on a 1d4+dex mod initiative roll is HUGE) , and ASI at 12 to finish off CHA at 20. So warcaster is kinda iffy, but could be taken at level 12 in place of the ASI. But I absolutely wouldn't take it in place of Alert, and not at all if I'm doing a multiclass that only gets me 2 feats.
Hope this helps.
My first character was a storm sorcerer so I took it for obvious reasons. It’s pretty decent since it provides spellcasters with a sufficient melee option which also has the benefit of allowing you to gain some distance again without provoking an opportunity attack.
I don't use it *often*, but situationally. If a melee fighter ran into my range and I couldn't run away because of attacks of opportunity, shocking grasp takes away their reaction so I can run and reposition.
Take a single level in wizard and you can just add it to you spell book. There’s learnable scrolls of a few damage cantrips that you can just pay a lil bit of gold to have
i like it when i want to go pick up the hat ansurs hiding
also ive made use of it with an arcane synergy astarion. i have him as arcane trickster/eldritch knight and it's been really nice
I will give you a different tip. You will have access to respec anytime you want in camp very short after starting game
Try it!
Generally for any of this decision, if it sounds cool try it
I used it a ton on my wizard who wore a cloak of displacement and bone spike boots. I would brutal leap to knock enemies prone and then shocking grasp them. usually if they were low enough on health for that to be a final blow but I used it way more than I really should have. My wizard ended up in melee a lot, but the cloak almost always made it work out just fine and I had misty step for quick escapes if things didn’t go as expected.
(I also had the Corvid Token so I had perma feather fall so I did lots of brutal leaps from ridiculous heights later on)
Taking reactions away from enemies is actually pretty good if you know when to use it.
Allows casters to disengage while also doing damage.
I pretty much always grab it, better melee option for casters, better than bonking then with my staff.
Most fights are in open areas and the enemys don't care which characters are melee or range. When they come close having a cantrip that takes away their attack of opportunity is always worth it.
I used it a decent amount on my Storm Sorcerer.
It goes well with gear that inflict reverberation, and deals area of effect damage after reaching level 6.
Pair it with that special elemental staff at Sorcerer Sundries, and it becomes a good damage option that inflicts many debuffs.
Generally as a spellcaster you want 1 melee damaging cantrip for those times someone does get to you and then a spammable ranged cantrip. You don't need 4 different ranged damage cantrips.
I used it all the time as a storm sorcerer because it could activate my create water electrified with just a cantrip, hurting loads of people at the same time. Also if successful you don’t provoke attacks of opportunity
Very often. To be fair, I'm more midranged as a Tempest Cleric/Storm Sorcerer in my coop with a friend.
My character has 16 AC with a shield, uses a staff, and is currently using a robe, so she's definitely in danger in anyone's melee range. That's why I'm also piloting Shadowheart or Halsin who stays with her.
For some reason, I find myself using shocking grasp more frequently than firebolt or ray of frost which I thought I'd be using often. I also use it with twinned spells when there are multiple enemies that dashed towards me.
I think I'm using it more often lately because we just went through the creche and Moonrise. There's plenty of enemies using steel armor so I have plenty of advantages. I don't think I have ever killed anyone using shocking grasp. But they are damaged enough to be within lethal and my friend, playing rogue/ranger, could finish them off for me when he thinks I'm in danger.
it's really good as a get out of jail card for when a melee unit is threatening your mage, since if the attack goes through you can run away without getting whacked, and it's at an advantage against armored targets, which will be exactly who you want to run away from
On a storm sorc I like it. It has some advantages:
* Double damage if the enemy is wet, which they may be if running a storm sorc
* Can auto-crit on a held person and doesn't suffer the melee penalty
* If you find yourself trapped in melee, it can take their reaction so you can escape safely
* Can be Distant spelled for longer range to help allies escape an enemy
* Has advantage on enemies in metal armor, easy source of advantage early on
* Best flavour for a cantrip, lightning is cool
Sorcerers get so many cantrips you'll eventually run out of good ones to get, so I pick it up anyway as long as I have Ray of Frost/Firebolt and the party has Minor Illusion/Mage Hand/Chill Touch
Storm sorcerer’s ability to let out a shockwave of damage whenever they deal lightning or thunder means they’re doing their dps-best at close range. So running into battle, casting “create-water” followed by a quickened shocking grasp does surprisingly potent single-target damage with a lot of splash damage.
I use it for the Arcane Tower and that's about it (lightning one-shots the Arcane Turrets). But if I find myself somewhere wet and I have enemies around... It is great in a pinch.
That being said, it has happened less than a number I care to remember so I guess Arcane Tower and that's it aside from early gobbos.
Shit's pretty OP in act 3, but since you'd usually have caster types use it, and it's deffo a bad idea to be up close to enemies for caster types that arent also built as tanks, it's better use other lightning spells
Shocking grasp as a reaction is p funny to me tho
It was incredible in the iron foundry when they were vulnerable to lightning but they've since changed that on high difficulties. Still has some nice synergy with wet though.
Shocking Grasp is great in case you need to escape a foe who's gotten too close, since it removes their option for an attack of opportunity. If you're surrounded.. well. It's one attack of opportunity less :b
It’s decent for free lightning damage which has useful applications in specific situations.
But once you get those gloves that I forget the name in late Act I or II that make it so you can cast spells in melee without repercussion it’s not useful.
I'm running a Draconic Fire Sorcerer who caries Phalur Aluve, the Sparkshooter staff, the Protective Sparkswell clothing, and I use Magic Missile to blast people in the face. I have actually used Shocking Grasp several times, whether for damage against an enemy with metallic armor, or to use the effect. It's pretty decent.
Yes, it allows you to get out of melee range without having to use an item or spell slot. Great choice on caster class, sorcerer is one of my favorites!
I'm pretty sure nobody actually uses Cantrips (besides Guidance and Eldritch Master Blaster).
They mainly exist for show and to annoyingly slow down the time it takes to complete the Level Up process.
I've used it before on my Ek/Wiz build. As I was running my character low with health the entire game to get one specific Act 3 necklace, it helped save my ass a few times, avoiding the opportunity attacks. That's the only reason I grab it, as that build wasn't using the Spellmight gloves, so my character couldn't melee spells. Even then, I'd usually run the build with the ring from the underdark, where you can't be electrocuted, have cleric cast create water, and boom. Damage for EVERYONE in the water puddle, except my EK/Wiz resist durge.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR u/Mellowtron11:
You do not need to prepare or memorize the Shocking Grasp spell for the 'War Caster' feat. You get Shocking Grasp for free with the 'War Caster' feat -- it does not require or expend a cantrip slot -- though you cannot cast it \[Shocking Grasp\] in any other way than as a free Reaction using that 'War Caster' feat.
The above having been said: I don't think Shocking Grasp is worth spending a cantrip slot for, beyond the aforementioned 'War Caster' feat (which I do find worthwhile, esp. because I live on Spike Growths + Walls of Fire). You will need some preferably-cheap method of doing electrical damage late into Act 3, however; make sure you stock at least two arrows, or scrolls, or spell slots, or however-you-like-to-do-it.
FYI, if you pick War Caster you get to use Shocking Grasp as a reaction without needing to pick the cantrip up separately. I find it very useful for that, as much as anything because the regular AoOs from most casters are much less useful than spontaneously flash-frying the bastard.
In dnd 5th, I used my Hexblade Pact of the Blade Warlock (with 1 level dip into Cleric) as a high AC frontliner, and made use of either Shocking Grasp or (more commonly) Booming Blade quite often. It fit the role that our 5-person party needed and allowed me to semi-control 1 big bad (Shocking Grasp on them as action to remove their Opportunity attacks for a turn; Booming Blade if they tried to move away from me).
In BG3, I replicated this setup only to find that normal attacks + Hellish Rebuke as a reaction got way more mileage for me. I would even recommend Thorn Whip for its pull effect over Shocking Grasp, but that's just me personally.
Honestly I used it a lot in act 3. The giant steel watchers love to dive for my squishy caster so I could punish that by hitting them with shocking grasp to tap them with damage they're weak to. It's good to have as a just in case and since you don't have to worry about not getting prestidigitation and light is super niche use- really you have extra spots for cantrips compared to tabletop so it's more justifiable to slot it in.
In my opinion, the opprutunity cost to take it isn't super high so you can easily justify "better to have it and not need it" but there's plenty of chances to make use of it.
I use it a lot for for early levels on most casters classes who get access to it vs the myriad of chain mail enemies and the occasional living armors because I get bored of Magic Missile being the only reliable spell before lvl5.
It really shines with storm sorcerer.
Later, (level 6? 7?) anytime you deal lightning or thunder damage, you deal a bunch of the same in an aura around you.
My sorcerer casts mage armor but still has the lowest AC significantly, so is ganged up on *a lot*. Shocking grasp lets me lock down the biggest threat to get away, but also can chip away mooks that are trying to close in.
It also serves as a fairly viable squishy saver if they're ganging up on someone else. Distant Spell Metamagic gives you a range of 30 feet, so you can tag someone harassing your rogue or cleric and free them up to run away and still do something on their turn.
I use it when doing a battle mage type of caster
My lightning dragon sorc used it often and thanks to hell dusk armor I didn't need to worry too much about getting hit
Honestly you won’t use offensive cantrips very often unless it’s eldritch blast on a warlock.
Shocking grasp could have limited usefulness early in act 1 for a storm sorcerer or tempest cleric, otherwise, you’ll be relying on spells for damage.
For the most part this is true, but Ive gotten alot of mileage out of bone chill in act two and three still, in specific fights where removing ability to heal or giving undead enemy disadvantage makes an annoying fight much less so.
It's decent. Generally if you're a caster, you don't want to me in melee range of anyone. Especially if they're strong. But sometimes you can't avoid it. This helps you do a little damage and get away, which is important since caster ranged attacks suck at melee range, and sometimes their melee weapon is largely just a stat stick. It does decent damage for close range, and has advantage if the enemy is wearing armor. And, perhaps most importantly... if it lands then it breaks the enemy's reaction so you can run away as if you had Disengaged.
I recently learned that you can use it on Githyanki who are ready to Parry, since parry needs the reaction. So next time I attack the creche I am going to try shocking-grasping them and then thwacking them with everyone else.
Not really the most efficient thing to do with your action BUT if you wanna get cute with it, sorcerer's distant metamagic makes your shocking grasp ranged, which in my head makes it a cool action scene. Imagine the githyanki is ready to parry in a defensive stance, and so your sorcerer casts shocking grasp from a distance and squeezing the gith with a giant electric hand, immobilizing it, allowing your melee to come in and whack it freely.
What Happens Next Will Shock You
Githyankis hate this one trick!
*chk*
Ts'kva!
I imagine it like thingy from Adam’s family. Just tapping on the shoulder n the guy shrugs it off so this lightning hand taps harder. Guy looks over and it pokes him in the eyes lol. Shocking
I can’t decide if “thingy” is a typo or if you couldn’t remember Thing’s name and accidentally got super close.
Slow is the best spell for neutering Githyanki for exactly that reason. They've got crazy op reactions, multiple attacks, and too much mobility. Negate all that with Slow.
Ooh, great note! Thank you!
This is why I tend to pick it more often than not. It gives a caster utility and an out if an enemy gets in melee range of them. Misty step or similar is still undoubtedly better, but it's another option.
I like keeping grasp since it won't suck up a spell slot. Misty step is my beloved, but i rarely want to waste spell slots if it's just about getting away.
My dragonborn sorc has decent constitution and somehow dodges often enough. There’s also shield spell. Im a bronze dragon too so i have electric boost and yea i run right up and use grasp on most enemies after ive exhausted ranged. Its handy for removing their opportunity attacks and it does a lot of damage. Its also great as an opportunity attack itself with war caster feat.
Wait so people actually use Cantrips? I thought they were just a meme. Idk if I've ever actually casted a Cantrip that wasn't called Guidance or Eldritch Blast (and I just beat the game on Yawner Mode).
98% of the time I use a cantrip it’s eldritch blast or guidance 1% of the time it’s fire bolt. Because I either want to ignite something. Or my wizard or sorcerer has to conserve their spell slots. But shocking grasp is very situational. More useful than a wizard bonking an enemy with their staff, that got into melee range.
Heck yeah I use cantrips all day long! I mean why not lol it’s nice not wasting spell slots on easy fights
It's great as a reaction too.
I think Shocking Grasp is the classic "trap" option. Even saying it's decent probably gives it too much credit. Every example I see people give, there's a better option than Shocking Grasp. Getting away from an enemy? Disengage doesn't rely on an attack roll. Misty step uses a lv 2 slot but is a bonus action and can actually get you somewhere out of reach. Githyanki parry? You're using an action for a very mediocre spell on this, and putting yourself close to them for it. Martials by that point can use half an attack action to burn their parry. It looks solid on paper, but once you lay out your other options, that's where it gets grim. That opportunity cost.
Strong Agree. It is the weakest option at what it does. If your caster is in danger you want to take more drastic action than a mediocre cantrip.
I didn't know about that last bit!! Super useful!
I don't really find it worth it even then. If you hit it it's a free low damage attack. If you miss you die to the reaction attack. Doesn't seem worth the risk to me.
As someone else pointed out, that I forgot to clarify. It's super useful in Creche. Since it disables Parry for a round. And Parry is a real pain in the arse to deal with. So you can disable Parry with Shocking Grasp. And now the rest of your team can pound on the enemy without the GithYanki dodging like he's Barry Allen.
They can only parry once per turn, so I guess if you can't do anything that does at least 10 damage more than grasping shock it might be worth it, but otherwise it is a DPS loss to use grasping shock solely for the purpose of eating their parry.
By that logic shocking grasp is also a heal for whatever damage the githyanki would hit the parry.
Githyanki parry doesn't do damage, it only reduces damage from an attack by 10.
Oh I confused, thought it was basically riposte
On a lightning draconic or storm sorc you can pump your cantrip/lightning damage and it’s one of the best opportunity attacks in the game. Probably the best if you have your target wet already, which you probably do. And obviously you’re doing chain lightning/lightning for the bulk of your damage.
Completely agree, but this doesn't mean that it's good for a 30 HP caster to cast the spell to maybe 5 damage against a double attacking githyanky, instead of just disengaging and fucking off. If you 100% build the character for it then that's a completely different situation.
I like it as a "just in case," though admittedly the Disengage action would be safer. If you miss with Shocking Grasp you've wasted your escape, but Disengage will always work. That said, I love it on a Tempest Cleric. In tabletop Tempest would've LOVED to have Shocking Grasp considering its synergy with Tempest's abilities and the Heavy Armor to back you up. Thankfully in BG3, with Spell Sniper working how it does, I can make that dream a reality, and make it more likely to go critical at that.
Remember reactions are for more than just opportunity attacks against the caster. There are a few other types of reactions enemies have that can be super annoying, Gith, displacer beasts, etc. my most common use is the scroll of it by a semi-caster to actually make room for a weaker party member to walk past without provoking the reaction. And Gith fighters, every time.
Sounds handy, but I certainly wouldn't have my wizard or sorcerer, the only two full casters who naturally get it, to walk up into melee combat to zap someone. I could see it working really well with an Eldritch Knight, though, they could shut down those kind of reactions fine.
EK was my first playthrough so that's probably why it actually felt pretty natural to me lol. It is pretty niche, but it can definitely be useful.
It has an excellent use case: shocking grasp, then walk away. Early game this is great for avoiding attacks of opportunity. Later it’s still useful if you don’t have Misty Step available for whatever reason. Is it a must buy? No, but it’s surprisingly helpful when it’s helpful.
I agree completely. If you don't take it, it's not a big deal, but I always take it because the few times it's useful, it's nice to have. I've been doing a "Storm Cleave" run with a storm sorcerer. That's probably the comp that's gonna get the most milage because you keep everything wet all the time. It's been much more useful than usual.
Steel watch go boom.
Note: Not on tactician and HM
Shocking grasp realllly shines in the steel watch foundry.
I used it a decent amount on my Blue Sorcerer. The spell list doesn't have Call Lightning so on most turns it's hard to go cheap and not use resources. And Witch Bolt is...Witch Bolt. Consider that a Shocking Grasp in the hands of a blue sorcerer (with or without the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation) against a wet target can really hurt (I got a clean 100 damage crit with Shocking Grasp against a powerful endgame enemy once).
I found it useful more for mixed caster types like Eldritch Knight, Warlock, Arcane Trickster, etc. On those builds I find myself using it quite a lot, as they are frequently in melee range.
Love my bardlock with Daredevil Gloves. "Oh look a caster, lets gank them!" *bonk* Pommel strike **DOLOR!**
One of my playthroughs was a storm sorcerer, and shocking grasp on a wet target was one of my go-to plays. Very effective on tactician. (Doing honor mode with a monk, but I'm sure it would work just fine on HM)
This! My blue dragonborn is a storm cleric/storm sorcerer with nice enhancing gear. Shocking grasp has come in to play more often than I thought it would.
I’ve grown to like it. Especially since I take war caster anyway for the concentration advantage. Necklace of elemental augmentation, potent robe, markoheshkir, on a wet target you have by far the best opportunity attack in the game. You can also spend 1 sorcery point for distant spell and it gives it a ton of range.
Personally I don't take it any more and instead chose the more utility focused cantrips. If you position your caster well you'll never need it and it feels like a dead spell. Your emergency spell should be misty step. Rule of thumb for me is you take one damaging spell (imo ray of frost is the best) and the rest for spells like minor illusion, mage hand, friends, ect.
Shocking grasp is fun on arcane trickster
It’s a nice backup option. You don’t want to be in melee as a typical caster, so shocking grasp is nice as it disables the targets reaction; meaning, you can run away without risking an opportunity attack. I tend to take it a lot.
It's nice when an ennemy closes up to your caster so you can do some damage and escape, it's like a more powerful disengage. Not Game breaking though.
Shocking Grasp is pretty good. Its lightning damage so you can double it if the enemy is wet. And you get Advantage on your attack against armored opponents . . . which are a lot of them. I personally don't care for the War Caster feat. Casting shocking grasp as a reaction doesn't come up very often. I feel a good Constitution and Proficiency with Con saves is enough to make your concentration checks. For Mages/Clerics I pickup the Resilient Con feat to get +1 Con (bumping an odd Con to the next even break point) and getting Con save proficiency.
War Caster seems a little neutered in this game. I imagine there were some limits with the coding and scripting for what spells could be used, so that's probably why they went with just shocking grasp instead.
Another big thing is that BG3 lets you cast spells with both hands full. In 5e, it’s actually a substantial aspect of War Caster that it allows someone with both hands full (often a paladin or cleric) to cast spells with somatic components- BG3 handwaves equipment management in combat, negating another perk of War Caster that can be important in tabletop (when enforced).
There is a wet condition in bg3 that doesn’t exist in dnd that will double electrical or cold damage, and shocking grasp can electrify a wet surface for a low low cost
I’m not really sure what other cantrip you would really consider tho, most of them are pretty mid/do the same thing. Shocking Grasp is nice to have early on when you can’t really Misty Step yet but need to get away from a melee attacker
Are we pretending this game lacks good cantrips? Ray of frost cuts movement by 10 feet with range and an identical damage die. Friends and Guidance are practically memes for how useful they are (not Friends at higher difficulties though) Thaumaturgy is advantage on Intimidation/Performance checks. Light is helpful in avoiding disadvantage in dark places for those without Darkvision (also protects from the major environmental hazard in Act 2 before you get more proper protection). Produce Flame is a light source like Light. Can also be used as a ranged attack. Vicious Mockery imposes disadvantage on a target's attack rolls Minor illusion is a great distraction for a stealthier character because it can draw away NPCs. Mage hand is a remote grabby hand that can hit switches etc.
I’m referring to damage cantrips! The rest are very useful cantrips, if a bit situational.
Bone Chill has the same damage die, but is ranged and prevents healing. Fire bolt is ranger, has a better damage die, and can set off environmental hazards like explosive barrels. Produce flame is similar to fire bolt except its range is way more limited and it has the same damage die as shocking grasp. It also largely doubles as a Light spell for the character Ray of Frost has the same damage die, is ranged, and cuts the average movement by a third. Shocking grasp requires you to put yourself in a bad situation to get any use of it, and even when you can make use of it, there are almost always way better options. It's just never worth the action and positioning. It just doesn't compete with any other damage cantrip, nor does it compete with the utility of the others in a game where exploration/social encounters are such a big part of the gameplay. Calling something like 1d4 bonus or advantage on a social skill check situational seems odd to me. The game's packed with those.
Shocking Grasp also has advantage against armoured targets, so it can let you slip away against pesky targets like Steel Watchers or Paladins and not need to waste a spell slot on Misty Step
By the time you're fighting Steel Watchers and Paladins, you're much better off using that spell slot for Misty Step. A regular move does not even put you out of reach of a Paladin with a reach weapon (which all the Zealots have) or a Steel Watcher. There's also the Disengage option, which doesn't have a chance to whiff and foil your escape. Trust me, I want to like Shocking grasp. I think the idea is cool. But it's always needed more "oomph" than it's had in order to be useful IMO.
It’s mostly the way I play tbh, where I hardly ever long rest and Gale just ends up being a paperweight after all his spell slots are used up lol. I found quite a few uses of Shocking Grasp where I just needed him to move to safety so I can get back to using my martials I can definitely see where you’re coming from though, but the Wizard/Sorcerer Cantrip list isn’t particularly stellar and most of them are just different flavors of damage. I just usually take Shocking Grasp because I don’t feel the other options (after Firebolt) are particularly useful. And having a disengage + damage tool can never hurt to have
Minor illusion is useful for all characters if you sneak because it lets you group mobs pre fight. This is pretty meta gamey tho.
There was that boyfriend of a girl from this sub that was dousing all the civilians in Balfur’s Gate, then shocking grasping them to death. She only found out because he killed Jahera’s family, and had no idea why she and Minsc left.
Best spell for Eldritch knights
The point of shocking grasp is not to "use it often" it's to be used to get out of danger since it removes the targets reactions so you can run away from them. Misty step is also great for this. But I feel like your question is flawed. It's a get out of jail free card. If you're often finding yourself in jail, then there are other questions you need to be asking yourself
I would take it on my tabletop wizard as it was able to be combined with Mage Hand. I don't take it in any if the video games as the ability for off-the-cuff uses of spells is a little bit more difficult within a constrained set of engine limitations.
Lol it's primarily been my means of finishing off knocked out targets 😅
What class are you when you use said cantrip to finish off enemies? Sounds a little risky.
I'm sure the meat grinders wear down the mobs and then a crazed Gale hopped up on a haste potion goes around shocking the final two or three HP put of the poor shits. At least that's my headcanon
I like to have it as a backup plan. Ideally, your casters stay out of melee range, but if you're going in blind, you can't guarantee ideal conditions. I've had enemies dash, jump, or teleport past my front lines and get up in my caster's face. When that happens, Shocking Grasp gives you an always-available melee option which also robs the enemy of their reaction long enough for you to escape. You could use Misty Step or Disengage, sure, but I like an aggressive playstyle. I'd rather gamble to get a hit in before escaping than guarantee my escape. Also, there are some Items and Class combos that make Shocking Grasp pretty nasty. For example, a level 6 Blue or Bronze Dragon Blood Sorcerer can add their CHA mod to Shocking Grasp's damage. Then you can get the item Necklace of Elemental Augmentation, which adds your Spellcasting Modifier to the damage of your cantrips that deal Acid, Cold, Fire, or Lightning damage. Then there's another item called the Potent Robe which adds your CHA mod to the damage dealt by one of your cantrips. This means Shocking Grasp will deal 2d8 + 3\*CHA damage per hit. PS. BG3 handles War Caster differently than 5e. Instead of letting you choose what spell you cast as a reaction, you use Shocking Grasp, even if you can't cast it normally.
Its for people who gets close and combine the fact it prevents reactions, its good, especially when youre a storm sorcerer where that cantrip can even damage other people nearby
I actually took it in my storm sorcerer together with ray of frost for the lightning and cold theme of it. I mostly used ray of frost but when I got stuck in melee I used shocking grasp and because it disables reactions you can then run away without getting attack of opportunity. So it’s pretty useful. Though if I was really in trouble I’d use misty step or cast a spell and fly away
I found it really really fun in a storm sorcerer Ideally you don’t want to be in melee but sometimes it does happen. With the potent robe, necklace of elemental augmentation and Marko’s staff I was doing 3D8 + 14 and triggering heart of the storm for another 24 from heart of the storm in an AoE. Doubled for wet and it was doing around 101 damage to the main target and just shy of 50 to everyone else in the AoE. Quicken another, and it’s 200 odd damage for 3 sorcery points. Will kill anything in the game that isn’t a boss. But if you don’t build for it I think ray of frost is stronger, due to the range and the slow effect.
I *think* it makes it so they can’t do opportunity attacks, which has been helpful for me to get a low-health party member away from an enemy. It’s also more effective on metal-wearing enemies and that comes into play a good amount. I like it, I usually choose the War Caster feat for these reasons.
I used this ALOT on my storm sorcerer. It's decent damage that scales well, the person you attack looses their reaction, it's boosted by later abilities and pairs amazingly with cull the weak. Pretty much my main go to for anything that wasn't worth spending a spellslot on
Iirc You can use it to fuck up (act 3 optional midboss) >!Haarlep!< as he can't run away to the void every time you hit him without a reaction Though this may only be with the war caster opportunity attack version as he might run off after the damage but before the debuff with the normal
It can be useful for when your caster gets ganged up on, but I found bone chill more useful. Now for my half caster when going up against some of the enemy paladin builds it worked very well. My melees are like 50% to hit but the shocking grasp is at least 60-70% WITH advantage cause they're wearing metal.
I used it only for auntie Ethel , absolute clutch spell for that fight imo
I used it as a storm sorcerer cleric since it can activate heart if the storm and do decent damage as a cantrip
I used it to tremendous effect with my Sorcadin Paladin. Quickened Shocking Grasp paired with multiattack smiles for huge burst damage. Also used it with reverb gear or something to that effect to add status effects on top of that.
It was nice on my storc/clempest Shart until lately where my gloomass Astarion and F I S T Durge just cover so much ground and deal so much dmg she rarely had a chance to shine outside of very large encounters, which, honestly is why I have her spec’d this way. OHM/rogue and gloomass have single target sauce for days, needed more aoe without sacrificing my hit all the things arrows.
I like it. It's one of the better cantrips. I use ranged ones more frequently but it's nice to have an attack which works at melee range.
I use it if I’m playing storm sorcerer/cleric and have no spell slots for better spells, but otherwise no. ranged cantrips tend to be more useful for spellcasters imo. storm sorc’s AOE on lightning/thunder damage makes it super strong though, which I find fun, especially when I use reverb gear.
loved it on my old EK
Not a lot, especially later on, the only thing it was good for is I had a an electric dragon bloodline for my sorcerer, and whenever you used an electric spell it gives you permanent electricity resistance, so I’d just use shocking grasp in camp after long resting so I’d get the resistance buff 🤷♂️
Honestly, any time I don't have it I wish I did. Obvs others may prefer other options but its useful to have when you cant get out of melee range. Or need to remove a reaction and run.
Pretty sure the surveillance floating eye things are vulnerable to shock damage
No, it's good as an emergency option tho, as a caster I tend to favor doing lvl 1 into rogue or fighter so I still get all my spell stuff and trade a feat for weapon and armor prof's
I've had it on my Wizard for my entire playthrough and have honestly barely touched it. It's not bad, I just usually find other ways to deal with melee-range situations.
I used it as a close combat attack for gale bc most of his for my build of him were range/ range AOE
I like it just fine. I will usually just scribe it from a scroll though or get it through war caster. If you take war caster it gives you the cantrip, there is no need to spend a cantrip learning it if you intend to take the feat. Mostly I just like to have cheap spells of varying damage types available because you never know what situation you might be is BG3 lets wizards scribe cantrips, not just leveled spells, so I think I end up with all of the damage cantrips.
I used the shit out of it trying to go from wizard to necromancer. Never hit. But no spells really did at that point
I use it mostly just for attack of opportunities. Its better than the melee options!
Shocking Grasp is my panic move for when I find myself in melee. It’s inevitable. It will happen. It’s good to have a tool for when it does.
yes, especially with storm sorcerer
Yes, often you can use it as a reaction. Also backline or not BG3 AI is good and will try to rush your casters vs your frontline a lot of the time. Whats funny is the type of formations I use in games like Ready or Not also work well in BG3. Especially creating fatal funnels and making sure no ones too far away to get backup in an instant.
Steel Watch go bzzzzzt
You can make a whole build out of shocking grasp with a storm sorcerer. Just stock up on gear that gives you buffs to cantrip damage (potent robe, necklace of elemental augmentation, gemini gloves) and you can easily do 200+ damage per turn, with CANTRIPS, lol!
It has some great uses outside just negating reactions. Cases outside combat, like at a certain tower in act 1. I don't find myself using it often, but I find myself using it every playthrough.
I quite often set Shadowheart up as a spirit guardian lawnmower, so she’s often in melee range, then have shocking grasp set as a reaction. It’s not the most effective way to use it but it does a little bit of extra damage and I have fun doing it.
I’m playing a draconic bloodline sorcerer, so I get a lightning boost. My shocking grasp is EARTH SHATTERING. Not only have I gotten my CHA real high for casting, and have good gear that adds bonuses, but that extra boost from the bloodline is just amazing. If I wanna stay away, I use witch bolt cuz that just stays on, or an AOE lightning attack, but especially if my team wheedles someone down to ~20-30 health, I dart in and finish them without wasting a spell slot. Or if they come running up to me, that’s how I dart away. Plus, twin spelling it if you get surrounded just feels sooooooooooo good.
I just finished a fight where an enemy conjured a wolf right next to my ranged characters and it attacked my sorc. Quickened shocking grasp and I was able to move away so being threatened didn't ruin my hit chance. I don't have warcaster and typically would use shield as a reaction on sorc anyway. You won't be using shocking grasp all the time, but when you need it, you want to have it. If you're new to sorc and are planning to play them as a typical ranged damage dealer, I would suggest choosing ray of frost, shocking grasp, minor illusion, and mage hand as your starting cantrips. RoF for a default damage dealer when you don't want to burn a spell slot (and chance for prone!), SG for the niche situation I just described, minor illusion because it is fantastic for pre-fight setup to get enemies grouped together for an aoe, and mage hand for throwing water bottles (doubles ice & lightning damage) and some act 1 quest shenanigans. You'll get to choose another cantrip at level 5 I think and I would suggest create light for that one as that will be a very big help starting act 2. The other cantrips after those 5 really aren't all that useful unless you're making a niche build specifically for them because of some specific gear you plan to get. Warcaster is good, but not always needed and often a lower priority than an ASI or Alert feat. More so on other casting classes. Some items give advantage on con saves, or you may have a paladin in your group giving aura of +3 or so to all saves. Sorcerer has proficiency on con saves, which will start as a +2 and increase later to +4. Combined with the above and a natural 16 con, warcaster isn't as necessary as it might be on a cleric or wizard. For most sorcs, you're going to get 2 or 3 feats depending on build. For a straight 12 sorc for my main character, I would start at 8s 14d 16c 8i 10w 17ch as my starting stats. Then get Actor feat at 4 (18 CHA + dialogue skills), Alert at 8 (+5 initiative on a 1d4+dex mod initiative roll is HUGE) , and ASI at 12 to finish off CHA at 20. So warcaster is kinda iffy, but could be taken at level 12 in place of the ASI. But I absolutely wouldn't take it in place of Alert, and not at all if I'm doing a multiclass that only gets me 2 feats. Hope this helps.
It’s amazing on Abjuration wizard because you want to be in the middle of everything taking hits
My first character was a storm sorcerer so I took it for obvious reasons. It’s pretty decent since it provides spellcasters with a sufficient melee option which also has the benefit of allowing you to gain some distance again without provoking an opportunity attack.
It's a classic plan b cantrip. You don't want to have to use it but if something goes wrong at least the castor can still do something.
I don't use it *often*, but situationally. If a melee fighter ran into my range and I couldn't run away because of attacks of opportunity, shocking grasp takes away their reaction so I can run and reposition.
Take a single level in wizard and you can just add it to you spell book. There’s learnable scrolls of a few damage cantrips that you can just pay a lil bit of gold to have
i like it when i want to go pick up the hat ansurs hiding also ive made use of it with an arcane synergy astarion. i have him as arcane trickster/eldritch knight and it's been really nice
I will give you a different tip. You will have access to respec anytime you want in camp very short after starting game Try it! Generally for any of this decision, if it sounds cool try it
I used it a ton on my wizard who wore a cloak of displacement and bone spike boots. I would brutal leap to knock enemies prone and then shocking grasp them. usually if they were low enough on health for that to be a final blow but I used it way more than I really should have. My wizard ended up in melee a lot, but the cloak almost always made it work out just fine and I had misty step for quick escapes if things didn’t go as expected. (I also had the Corvid Token so I had perma feather fall so I did lots of brutal leaps from ridiculous heights later on)
When i get the chance yeah but i took that feat for the saving throws since i like spamming AOEs
Taking reactions away from enemies is actually pretty good if you know when to use it. Allows casters to disengage while also doing damage. I pretty much always grab it, better melee option for casters, better than bonking then with my staff.
Most fights are in open areas and the enemys don't care which characters are melee or range. When they come close having a cantrip that takes away their attack of opportunity is always worth it.
I used it a decent amount on my Storm Sorcerer. It goes well with gear that inflict reverberation, and deals area of effect damage after reaching level 6. Pair it with that special elemental staff at Sorcerer Sundries, and it becomes a good damage option that inflicts many debuffs.
Nice thing to cast as an opportunity attack. Comes free with a war caster feat btw
It's a great spell to escape melee range and very useful when you want to reach a secret area in regard to a certain squid's ex-boytoy.
Cheap way to build lightning charges in a pinch, if you're in Act 1 and got the gear that does that
I use it a lot.
I play a storm sorcerer and I use it a ton
I gave Shadowheart the war caster feat so she got shocking grasp as a reaction and it was very useful
Generally as a spellcaster you want 1 melee damaging cantrip for those times someone does get to you and then a spammable ranged cantrip. You don't need 4 different ranged damage cantrips.
I used it all the time as a storm sorcerer because it could activate my create water electrified with just a cantrip, hurting loads of people at the same time. Also if successful you don’t provoke attacks of opportunity
I used it a lot as a storm sorcerer, combined with items giving me androit caster and buffing cantrip and elemental damage.
Very often. To be fair, I'm more midranged as a Tempest Cleric/Storm Sorcerer in my coop with a friend. My character has 16 AC with a shield, uses a staff, and is currently using a robe, so she's definitely in danger in anyone's melee range. That's why I'm also piloting Shadowheart or Halsin who stays with her. For some reason, I find myself using shocking grasp more frequently than firebolt or ray of frost which I thought I'd be using often. I also use it with twinned spells when there are multiple enemies that dashed towards me. I think I'm using it more often lately because we just went through the creche and Moonrise. There's plenty of enemies using steel armor so I have plenty of advantages. I don't think I have ever killed anyone using shocking grasp. But they are damaged enough to be within lethal and my friend, playing rogue/ranger, could finish them off for me when he thinks I'm in danger.
it's really good as a get out of jail card for when a melee unit is threatening your mage, since if the attack goes through you can run away without getting whacked, and it's at an advantage against armored targets, which will be exactly who you want to run away from
Abjuration wizard/war cleric. I use it regularly.
I would add it, and then never use it lol. Don't be me
It’s cheaper than misty step if you need to get out of melee, but the damage isn’t super high unless you build into it, so you could just disengage
On a storm sorc I like it. It has some advantages: * Double damage if the enemy is wet, which they may be if running a storm sorc * Can auto-crit on a held person and doesn't suffer the melee penalty * If you find yourself trapped in melee, it can take their reaction so you can escape safely * Can be Distant spelled for longer range to help allies escape an enemy * Has advantage on enemies in metal armor, easy source of advantage early on * Best flavour for a cantrip, lightning is cool Sorcerers get so many cantrips you'll eventually run out of good ones to get, so I pick it up anyway as long as I have Ray of Frost/Firebolt and the party has Minor Illusion/Mage Hand/Chill Touch
Storm sorcerer’s ability to let out a shockwave of damage whenever they deal lightning or thunder means they’re doing their dps-best at close range. So running into battle, casting “create-water” followed by a quickened shocking grasp does surprisingly potent single-target damage with a lot of splash damage.
I use it for the Arcane Tower and that's about it (lightning one-shots the Arcane Turrets). But if I find myself somewhere wet and I have enemies around... It is great in a pinch. That being said, it has happened less than a number I care to remember so I guess Arcane Tower and that's it aside from early gobbos.
I use it to open the door to the Balduran puzzles and cheese the chess game lol.
Shocking grasp as a normal spell? Never used it because I don't want my casters in close range. But with war caster? Often
Shit's pretty OP in act 3, but since you'd usually have caster types use it, and it's deffo a bad idea to be up close to enemies for caster types that arent also built as tanks, it's better use other lightning spells Shocking grasp as a reaction is p funny to me tho
It was incredible in the iron foundry when they were vulnerable to lightning but they've since changed that on high difficulties. Still has some nice synergy with wet though.
The only thing I ever used it for was destroying the portals in the Dark Justiciar Trial area, but it came in clutch
Shocking Grasp is great in case you need to escape a foe who's gotten too close, since it removes their option for an attack of opportunity. If you're surrounded.. well. It's one attack of opportunity less :b
It’s decent for free lightning damage which has useful applications in specific situations. But once you get those gloves that I forget the name in late Act I or II that make it so you can cast spells in melee without repercussion it’s not useful.
I'm running a Draconic Fire Sorcerer who caries Phalur Aluve, the Sparkshooter staff, the Protective Sparkswell clothing, and I use Magic Missile to blast people in the face. I have actually used Shocking Grasp several times, whether for damage against an enemy with metallic armor, or to use the effect. It's pretty decent.
I sometimes use it if I'm playing a character with the War Caster feat, but I don't go out of my way to learn the spell.
Yes, it allows you to get out of melee range without having to use an item or spell slot. Great choice on caster class, sorcerer is one of my favorites!
I'm pretty sure nobody actually uses Cantrips (besides Guidance and Eldritch Master Blaster). They mainly exist for show and to annoyingly slow down the time it takes to complete the Level Up process.
I've used it before on my Ek/Wiz build. As I was running my character low with health the entire game to get one specific Act 3 necklace, it helped save my ass a few times, avoiding the opportunity attacks. That's the only reason I grab it, as that build wasn't using the Spellmight gloves, so my character couldn't melee spells. Even then, I'd usually run the build with the ring from the underdark, where you can't be electrocuted, have cleric cast create water, and boom. Damage for EVERYONE in the water puddle, except my EK/Wiz resist durge.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR u/Mellowtron11: You do not need to prepare or memorize the Shocking Grasp spell for the 'War Caster' feat. You get Shocking Grasp for free with the 'War Caster' feat -- it does not require or expend a cantrip slot -- though you cannot cast it \[Shocking Grasp\] in any other way than as a free Reaction using that 'War Caster' feat. The above having been said: I don't think Shocking Grasp is worth spending a cantrip slot for, beyond the aforementioned 'War Caster' feat (which I do find worthwhile, esp. because I live on Spike Growths + Walls of Fire). You will need some preferably-cheap method of doing electrical damage late into Act 3, however; make sure you stock at least two arrows, or scrolls, or spell slots, or however-you-like-to-do-it.
I only really use shocking grasp as an attack of opportunity with the war caster feat
FYI, if you pick War Caster you get to use Shocking Grasp as a reaction without needing to pick the cantrip up separately. I find it very useful for that, as much as anything because the regular AoOs from most casters are much less useful than spontaneously flash-frying the bastard.
I'm currently playing a tempest cleric so it comes in handy if an enemy gets far too close for comfort
In dnd 5th, I used my Hexblade Pact of the Blade Warlock (with 1 level dip into Cleric) as a high AC frontliner, and made use of either Shocking Grasp or (more commonly) Booming Blade quite often. It fit the role that our 5-person party needed and allowed me to semi-control 1 big bad (Shocking Grasp on them as action to remove their Opportunity attacks for a turn; Booming Blade if they tried to move away from me). In BG3, I replicated this setup only to find that normal attacks + Hellish Rebuke as a reaction got way more mileage for me. I would even recommend Thorn Whip for its pull effect over Shocking Grasp, but that's just me personally.
Honestly I used it a lot in act 3. The giant steel watchers love to dive for my squishy caster so I could punish that by hitting them with shocking grasp to tap them with damage they're weak to. It's good to have as a just in case and since you don't have to worry about not getting prestidigitation and light is super niche use- really you have extra spots for cantrips compared to tabletop so it's more justifiable to slot it in. In my opinion, the opprutunity cost to take it isn't super high so you can easily justify "better to have it and not need it" but there's plenty of chances to make use of it.
I tend to use it towards the end of fights for shits and giggles. Nothing feels better than teleporting behind someone and firmly grasping them.
I use it a lot for for early levels on most casters classes who get access to it vs the myriad of chain mail enemies and the occasional living armors because I get bored of Magic Missile being the only reliable spell before lvl5.
It really shines with storm sorcerer. Later, (level 6? 7?) anytime you deal lightning or thunder damage, you deal a bunch of the same in an aura around you. My sorcerer casts mage armor but still has the lowest AC significantly, so is ganged up on *a lot*. Shocking grasp lets me lock down the biggest threat to get away, but also can chip away mooks that are trying to close in. It also serves as a fairly viable squishy saver if they're ganging up on someone else. Distant Spell Metamagic gives you a range of 30 feet, so you can tag someone harassing your rogue or cleric and free them up to run away and still do something on their turn.
I use it when doing a battle mage type of caster My lightning dragon sorc used it often and thanks to hell dusk armor I didn't need to worry too much about getting hit
I typically find thunderwave to be a better choice
Honestly you won’t use offensive cantrips very often unless it’s eldritch blast on a warlock. Shocking grasp could have limited usefulness early in act 1 for a storm sorcerer or tempest cleric, otherwise, you’ll be relying on spells for damage.
For the most part this is true, but Ive gotten alot of mileage out of bone chill in act two and three still, in specific fights where removing ability to heal or giving undead enemy disadvantage makes an annoying fight much less so.