What is blade ward good for, why is it better than the Dodge action?

[Frogreaver]

I disagree that you need all the cantrip effects. The cantrips work in tandem such that landing some of the cantrip effects, some of the time, is enough to put the enemy in a world of hurt, as the example combat shows. Never put all your eggs in one basket of you can avoid it.

Spoiler: Also your math is a little bit wrong

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Having 2+ of 3 attacks hit, at 60% probability per attack, is 64% probability (0.6 * (1-0.4^2) + 0.4 * (0.6^2)), not 36%.

And the Giant has a 65% probability of failing a Dex save, not 85%, but when blasted by the warlock he has to make two Dex saves in a row (as the example shows), which puts his chance of failure at 87.5%.

If the warlock is a full warlock instead of a dip, and has Grasp of Hadar for even more slowdown, it gets even worse for the giants. I didn't assume that case but it's not difficult to achieve if a player prioritizes it.

So I’m a bit frustrated. You started with an example of using 2 different cantrips and evards which is what I based my reply on and now you are changing the example by claiming you don’t actually need both cantrips. You actually only need EB. So I agree - any calculations I did or statements I made regarding the original claim don’t apply here.

[MaxWilson]

So I’m a bit frustrated. You started with an example of using 2 different cantrips and evards which is what I based my reply on and now you are changing the example by claiming you don’t actually need both cantrips. You actually only need EB. So I agree - any calculations I did or statements I made regarding the original claim don’t apply here.

I apologize if I wasn't clear enough. As the example illustrated, the idea is to use multiple effects in tandem to increase the probability of putting the enemy in a bad situation. Ray of Frost provided an extra layer of reliability in the example combat that made it even harder/less likely for the enemy to break out of the tentacle AoE and escape the action economy drain + damage. Fire Bolt wouldn't have done that; it would only have added 2 extra points of damage even if the giants weren't immune to fire.

The same thing applies to a greater or lesser extents to AoEs like Silence, Sickening Radiance, and Spike Growth, and the vicinity of AoEs like Wall of Fire. Reducing enemy movement (on some rounds) increases your window of opportunity to exploit them.

Do you understand my meaning now? Any questions?

[LumenPlacidum]

I might keep Blade Ward the same, but have it apply to all damage types and also prevent forced movement (disperses the force or something)

[Frogreaver]

I might keep Blade Ward the same, but have it apply to all damage types and also prevent forced movement (disperses the force or something)

I like it.

[Segev]

I think a big part comes from the fact that Martials only really have enough combat tricks for about two rounds of combat, with those combat tricks only amplifying the equivalent of the Martials' Cantrips.

This is a deceptively big deal.

As a Caster, I can cast Fireball, and then cast Ray of Frost in the following turns, both using different mechanics and useful for different reasons.

However, as something like a Samurai Fighter, I do my "Attack with SUPER" combo, and then every turn after I'm doing "Attack with no SUPER". It feels like I'm doing less, because it's exactly less than what I was doing before. And without many class-based tools to change the circumstances of the fight, I can only expect things to get more boring than it was on Turn 1.

So for Martials, combat gets more boring over time, while it only gets *different* for Casters. Thinking about it, it's the same reason the "Once per Long Rest" invocations for Warlocks are the least-interesting invocations in the game, and why most folks stray from the Berserker Barbarian.

Not trying to get into the whole Caster vs. Martials debate (again), just wanted to explain something that otherwise isn't very obvious (as the thread is about spells, after all).

I know at least one player who is perfectly happy to have her BDF running in and hitting things, and having her tactical decisions be mostly about WHO to hit round after round. Zealot Barbarian worked well for her. Her biggest tactical decision was whether to Rage or not when in a fight during a dungeon crawl.

I'm playing a Rogue 1 / Monk 4 (5 now, but I haven't gotten into a fight since the level-up yet), and my tactical decisions mostly center around whether to spend ki on flurry and on whether to grapple or to just hit things. Except I'm highly mobile, so I like to jump around a lot and thus positioning is an important tactical choice for me. I do have a fog bottle (eversmoking bottle that does fog instead of smoke) that I don't use often because it's a hindrance to those who aren't me, so I suppose that's a tactical choice, but it's not based on my classes.

Even without the choice to spend ki or not, "move, make sure I get in position to do as much with my action and bonus action as possible," is a lot of tactical play. At least to me.