Of thunder and lightning

[Kadarai]

So, a spot opened in my brother's gaming group and I jumped in to fill the void. They are running Rise of Tiamat and were currently level 12. When I asked what the party needed, they told me to come up with a tanky frontliner. Initially I was thinking of rolling an Eldritch Knight or Paladin, maybe try the new Crown Oath, and then it hit me and it hit me hard.

The initial idea was to run a gnome fey knight. Paladin2/Sorcerer(Storm)10, gnome just for the fun of it, he would have access to heavy armor and shields, smite and a literal ****load of buffing spells, but most importantly he combined Booming Blade with Heart of the Storm and some nasty metamagic, like quickened and twinned. Gnome was dropped, because the DM would not have me play a gnome after the last time (we don't talk about it...) so eventually I went variant human. He had good charisma and strength, thanks to some lucky rolls some good skills to shine in social encounters too and enough spells and high AC to survive in the thick of battle even though his HP were a bit low. But the fun part was the ability to lock 2 or more creatures on me with twinned and quickened Booming Blade and spread some damage with Heart of The Storm on each casting, an ability that shone when we were up against a bunch of cultists and a couple dragons.

And boy did I bring the thunder. The ultimate moment was when I crit (with the help of a lucky roll from our Diviner Wizard) an adult black dragon with a 6th lvl Searing Smite riding shotgun to a normal full Divine Smite on a Booming Blade for almost 160 dmg, while "Here comes the Boom!" played in the background.
It was fun all in all, a character I really enjoyed, but it raised some questions, mainly how metamagic interacts with the new cantrips. Does twinned mean I attack two times? Do the attacks happen simultaneously, cleave-style? Searing Smite affects one or both? Twinned Greenflame Blade to two adjacent targets means I do 1d8+str plus 2d8fire plus 2d8+cha to each target from the jumping green flame? (GREEN FLAME!) And generally, regarding the quantity and quality of spells this build possesses, combined with the class features and extra options doesn't it outshine the normal Eldritch Knight in almost every aspect except for HP?

I don't know if this was intended use of the material by the book but it made some members of the group feel uncomfortable to the point that I am considering rerolling the character to a normal Eldritch Knight. What is your experience with the new cantrips and their use until now? Thanks in advance for the feedback.

[rollingForInit]

Heart of the Storm is only triggered by spells of level 1 and higher, so it doesn't work with Booming Blade, which is a cantrip.

Also, I'm not sure you can actually Twin the Smite spells. They are Concentration spells, and the effects trigger on your next attack. The target of the spell is yourself, isn't it? Sounds weird if that would work. I don't have the books in front of me, but I don't think I'd allow Smite spells to be twinned since their effects are delayed, and thus the second creature cannot be hit by the twinned spell instantly.

Twinned Greenflame Blade definitely does not work, as it hits more than 1 creature, and only spells that hit 1 creature can be Twinned.

Booming Blade should allow you to attack two people if twinned.

[Kadarai]

Good point about the heart of the storm, just checked. I didn't twin the Smite spells, they don'm meet the requirements. But the Booming blade does. It has range other than self and it targets a single creature. So that reduces the aoe potential by a great deal. Still works with thunderous smite though. And it is definately not made for stealth. All thunder spells mention how they are heard from like 300feet away

[Mara]

Also, I'm not sure you can actually Twin the Smite spells. They are Concentration spells, and the effects trigger on your next attack. The target of the spell is yourself, isn't it? Sounds weird if that would work. I don't have the books in front of me, but I don't think I'd allow Smite spells to be twinned since their effects are delayed, and thus the second creature cannot be hit by the twinned spell instantly. You can twin concentration spells because it is the same spell effecting two targets. You can't twin spells with a target of self.

For sorcerers, I like twinning polymorph on the front liners when their health is low.

[EvilAnagram]

If you want HotS to help spread your damage, use Quickened Witch Bolt after you make your Booming Blade attack. Now they'll take damage if they move, and they'll take damage if they stay still. Never give them a painless option.

Yeah, that's right. Witch Bolt is finally useful.

[rollingForInit]

You can twin concentration spells because it is the same spell effecting two targets. You can't twin spells with a target of self.

For sorcerers, I like twinning polymorph on the front liners when their health is low.

Yeah, but that's an instantaneous effect. A Smite spell has "self" as target, doesn't it? I mean, it doesn't target a specific enemy.