Sage Advice says EldritchBlast&similar can't cast on objects *at all* @JeremyECrawford or @mikemearls, how do you justify this with flavour?
— Jim Cullen (@jimcullenaus) July 1, 2016
@jimcullenaus @JeremyECrawford spell specifies creature – always assumed it disrupted life force via force energy
— (((Mike Mearls))) (@mikemearls) July 1, 2016
Some spells are drawn to or harm only the life force of creatures. You're not shooting projectiles. #DnD https://t.co/D3R9cmuQPU
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) July 1, 2016
@JCrawfordMusic @Cybrenyou’re missing my point. Jeremy says they are not projectiles, but the definition of force would disagree The definition of force damage, not of force itself, is "pure magical energy focused into a damaging form" (PH, 196)
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) July 1, 2016
@JeremyECrawford Isn't it a projectile though? "Force is pure magical energy focused into a damaging FORM." Why not deal psychic damage?
— Josh Gentry (@joshgntry) July 7, 2016
Traditionally, a projectile is a thing shot from or thrown as a weapon. This is common parlance, not a rule. https://t.co/yNb9KB5NLH
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) July 7, 2016
@JCrawfordMusic @CybrenSo I guess the Repellant Blast invocation doesn’t knock back because of physics, but rather some hand-wavy “magic”? Repelling Blast causes a spell that harms creatures to also hurl them. This is not a function of the damage type.
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) July 7, 2016
@JeremyECrawford @joshgntry If I as a DM imagine eldritch blast creating a magic force projectile it makes sense to allow targeting objects?
— Viktor Bengtsson (@vikke064) July 7, 2016
Eldritch blast is a beam of energy. But as DM, you may change how anything works—and deal with the results. #DnD https://t.co/IYOYOGkPe4
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) July 7, 2016
@WeHaveSnacksI feel like the rule of thumb is that the DM can (and should) do whatever they want, using the rules as a starting point. Yep!
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) July 7, 2016
@vikke064 @JeremyECrawford @joshgntry Force described on page 196 as "Pure magical energy focused into a damaging form" should hit objects
— Apsco (@Apsco60) July 7, 2016
A spell's damage type doesn't determine what the spell can target. The spell's description determines it. #DnD https://t.co/zuHHPw8fRl
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) July 7, 2016
Here’s how I’d justify it flavor-wise:
Eldritch Blast is more like a short-lived curse than a weaponized burst of magic. The energy beam itself does not cause damage; it’s more like the laser sight on a gun that tells the curse which creature to target. The curse instantaneously causes its victims to generate an uncontrollable surge of magical energy, “shocking” themselves with force as if they had tried to cast a spell but it backfired horribly (see also: mishaps in teleportation and using a spell scroll too advanced for you).
Eldritch Blast harms creatures but not objects for the same reason a virus can only harm living things; the damage comes from the creature’s own biological processes being turned against it. Or in the case of undead and constructs, the magic that animates them.
Can the creature targeting requirements of an Eldritch Blast or other spell thus be used to discover the existence of various camouflaged creatures such as mimics, cloakers, ropers, etc. Would creature targeting requirements also reveal that an illusory creature wasn’t real?
Why are the designers complicating something that is not that complicated? Why not just make Eldritch Blast hit everything and everyone? Because everybody and their mother understands this spell this way. I have used Eldritch Blast to hit objects previously, and nobody would ever imagine the designers said it can’t hit objects. Nonetheless, there is absolutely no innate problem in “mystical energy” hitting things in a phisical way. I don’t get why complicate something so simple as Eldritch Blast…
It’s not “complicating” anything — it’s noting how the spell works relative to applicable targets. (It’s the same as, for example, how Magic Missile, across the editions, has always had creatures (not objects) as applicable targets — MM doesn’t harm objects in the slightest, only creatures, just as Spiritual Weapon, et al, don’t harm objects.) For a real-life comparison: a neutron beam (yes, that’s a thing) can cause horrendous, fatal damage to a living creature… but have absolutely no effect on the chair they’re sitting in, nor the wall behind them, in any way. Similar thing with EB — it targets/damages creatures (living and undead/construct alike), but has no effect on objects/structures. Simple.
constructs count as creature in rule, but their body is made of objects like wood or iron tho(except for flesh golem)
That’s why my Warlock (Raven Queen, Pact of the Tome) has Magic Stone as one of the Tome’s cantrips. That damages objects (living or otherwise) quite nicely.
It would be a fine replacement cantrip, if only it had damage scaling as you reached higher levels, like basically every other damaging cantrip.
It’s bizarre, inexplicable, and infuriating that it doesn’t – even moreso that they still haven’t fixed it by now. They bothered to take the time to nerf the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide cantrips for some ineffable reasons that seem to have to do with avoiding extreme edge cases, yet they can’t fix a simple oversight that makes a spell needlessly ineffective at higher levels?