Opportunity attack rules

[ThatDuckGrant]

I have 3 situations for which I’d like to understand if I can make an opportunity attack. All 3 involve wielding a hand crossbow.

1. I have a hand crossbow and an empty hand. Can I make an attack with my fist as someone leaves my reach?

2. I have a hand crossbow, an empty hand and access to shocking grasp. If I have war caster, may I use shocking grasp as an enemy leaves my reach?

3. I’m wielding both a hand crossbow and a shortsword (my understanding is that RAW, you must have an empty hand to use a hand crossbow, but many DMs ignore that, especially if you take the xbow expert feat). Can I attack with the shortsword as an enemy leaves my reach? If so, would I add my damage modifier to the damage if I don’t have the TWF fighting style? Could I cast booming blade using the shortsword if I had war caster?

[Griswold]

So, the rules say:


You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. To make the opportunity attack, you use your reaction to make one melee attack against the provoking creature. The attack interrupts the provoking creature's movement, occurring right before the creature leaves your reach.

1. You can, because unarmed strike is a melee attack. You don't even need a free hand, because you can unarmed strike with your legs, your hips, your face.

2. War Caster says that you can use a spell to make an opportunity attack but "The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature." shocking grasp does that, so you're good.

3. You can hold and fire a hand crossbow with only one hand, but you can't reload it with just one hand, even with Crossbow Expert. But your question is about the short sword. There's 3 pieces:

You're wielding a short sword. Of course you can make an opportunity attack with it.
You only don't add your modifier if you're engaging in "two-weapon fighting" which is a very specific thing. It's when you're wielding weapons in both hands and you use an action to attack with one and a bonus action to attack with the other one. You're just making an attack with the weapon, so the two-weapon fighting stuff doesn't apply at all.
Booming Blade (and Green-Flame Blade for that matter) only targets one creature and has a casting time of one action, so you can use it if you have War Caster.

[bid]

Can I attack with the shortsword as an enemy leaves my reach? If so, would I add my damage modifier to the damage if I don’t have the TWF fighting style?
TWF only applies when you use the attack action and want a bonus action for an extra attack. You are not using TWF in this case.

Moreover, there are no mainhand / offhand in 5e. If you have extra attack, you could have a longsword and a warhammer and attack with both every turn. There's nothing that says you have to do all attacks with the same weapon / hand.

[Malifice]

So, the rules say:



1. You can, because unarmed strike is a melee attack. You don't even need a free hand, because you can unarmed strike with your legs, your hips, your face.

2. War Caster says that you can use a spell to make an opportunity attack but "The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature." shocking grasp does that, so you're good.

3. You can hold and fire a hand crossbow with only one hand, but you can't reload it with just one hand, even with Crossbow Expert. But your question is about the short sword. There's 3 pieces:

You're wielding a short sword. Of course you can make an opportunity attack with it.
You only don't add your modifier if you're engaging in "two-weapon fighting" which is a very specific thing. It's when you're wielding weapons in both hands and you use an action to attack with one and a bonus action to attack with the other one. You're just making an attack with the weapon, so the two-weapon fighting stuff doesn't apply at all.
Booming Blade (and Green-Flame Blade for that matter) only targets one creature and has a casting time of one action, so you can use it if you have War Caster.


This is 100 percent correct.

[RSP]

Booming Blade (and Green-Flame Blade for that matter) only targets one creature and has a casting time of one action, so you can use it if you have War Caster.
[/LIST]

BB is good to use with Warcaster. GFB, however, cannot use its secondary effect in conjunction with Warcaster.

[Griswold]

BB is good to use with Warcaster. GFB, however, cannot use its secondary effect in conjunction with Warcaster.

That's a good point.

I think you and I disagree on what targeting means in 5E. GFB says that you hit a target, and then "a different creature" also takes damage, which to me says that there's only one target.

Your interpretation is safe; mine's an ask your DM sort of thing.

[Chronos]

Do you choose who that other creature is that Green Flame Blade hits? If so, then it's another target, and you can't use it on a War Caster opportunity attack. If not, then it might not be another target, so you can use it with War Caster, but you'll run the risk of sometimes accidentally hitting an ally with it.

[RSP]

That's a good point.

I think you and I disagree on what targeting means in 5E. GFB says that you hit a target, and then "a different creature" also takes damage, which to me says that there's only one target.

Your interpretation is safe; mine's an ask your DM sort of thing.

I won’t disagree that asking the DM is a viable option, but the RAW states the recipient of the secondary effect is a “target”:

“Targets
A typical spell requires you to pick one or more targets to be affected by the spell’s magic.”

The secondary effect of GFB requires you to pick a target for the spell’s magic.

I don’t see a logical way to interpret this as the recipient of the secondary damage as nota “target” of the spell.

[Griswold]

Do you choose who that other creature is that Green Flame Blade hits? If so, then it's another target, and you can't use it on a War Caster opportunity attack. If not, then it might not be another target, so you can use it with War Caster, but you'll run the risk of sometimes accidentally hitting an ally with it.

My problem is that I don't really have a good definition from RAW as to what a target is. I'll start a new thread on this.