Whip and spell sniper

[Hypersmith]

So I'm making a Deep stalker revised ranger in an upcoming game. Variant Human (Vuman), with Dual Wielder feat. (But that's not the purpose of this post, thought it is important.) I plan to grab a rapier and whip. Whip you say? Yes, where the real benefit is the reach and finesse, not the damage. But if I want reach to be useful at all, I need something like green flame blade or sentinel. I qualify for both, so what do you think I should take at level 4 to make my whip a little more useful?

Green flame blade or booming blade will let me cast the spell at 10 feet, but it eats my action to do so, which means no bonus action attack, and at level 5 and up, no Extra Attack. I could supplement it eventually with war caster, so I could concentrate great on hunters mark and booming blade as a reaction, but that's no small cost in standard point buy. If I do end up being a spell sniper, I think booming blade is better by far, for the AoO with warcaster.

Now say I take sentinel and don't need to bother with missing my one attack per turn, getting a good old three instead and no more feat investment. Can I make my normal AoO from 10 feet (not the one specified in the feat as when an ally is attacked), or is that only possible with a polearm and PAM?

[Everstar]

So I'm making a Deep stalker revised ranger in an upcoming game. Variant Human (Vuman), with Dual Wielder feat. (But that's not the purpose of this post, thought it is important.) I plan to grab a rapier and whip. Whip you say? Yes, where the real benefit is the reach and finesse, not the damage. But if I want reach to be useful at all, I need something like green flame blade or sentinel. I qualify for both, so what do you think I should take at level 4 to make my whip a little more useful?

Green flame blade or booming blade will let me cast the spell at 10 feet, but it eats my action to do so, which means no bonus action attack, and at level 5 and up, no Extra Attack. I could supplement it eventually with war caster, so I could concentrate great on hunters mark and booming blade as a reaction, but that's no small cost in standard point buy. If I do end up being a spell sniper, I think booming blade is better by far, for the AoO with warcaster.

Now say I take sentinel and don't need to bother with missing my one attack per turn, getting a good old three instead and no more feat investment. Can I make my normal AoO from 10 feet (not the one specified in the feat as when an ally is attacked), or is that only possible with a polearm and PAM?


Spell Sniper would be required to use BB/GFB out to 10ft. Without it, you're stuck the original range of 5ft, even if you're weapon has reach.

[Hypersmith]

Spell Sniper would be required to use BB/GFB out to 10ft. Without it, you're stuck the original range of 5ft, even if you're weapon has reach.

I'm assuming it's clear that I'm picking up one of these spells using spell sniper in the first place.