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The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica book introduces a magic item called the illusionist's bracers:

While wearing the bracers, whenever you cast a cantrip, you can use a bonus action on the same turn to cast that cantrip a second time.

This seems to me that this allows Warlocks to cast eldritch blast twice per turn.

The Warlock eldritch blast was already one of the strongest cantrips in the game, dealing damage equal to 4d10 + 4*(Charisma modifier) with the Agonizing Blast invocation, and Hex gives an additional d6 per blast (provided the character is at least level 17) - meaning a total of 8d10 + 40 (given a Charisma score of 20) + 8d6 provided it all hits. This would allow a Warlock to have a cantrip deal an average of 108 damage per turn.

If this is correct, would this be unbalancing to warlocks in game provided the item is in the game?

V2Blast
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JasperNakamura
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    The question you post here, "Does X make Y unbalanced?" is up for debate. The question "Is my interpretation of how this magic item interacts with this particular spell correct?" is a better question which still provides the answer you are looking for. – Thomas Jacobs Nov 22 '18 at 21:47
  • As another side note, because I can't find the question, someone else posted the math in another "Is EB OP?" question. EB and most(every?) other cantrip damage does fall behind with level. So it may not be more too-powerful than other casters. – 3C273 Nov 22 '18 at 21:50
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    Also, what character tier are you calculating this at? I have a feeling that lvl5 calculations and lvl20 calculations are going to be very different. – 3C273 Nov 22 '18 at 21:53
  • Is the 4d10 Eldritch Blast from being 17th level, or something else? – Mark Wells Nov 22 '18 at 22:06
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    @3C273 Weapon attacks compared with damaging cantrips? – Mark Wells Nov 22 '18 at 22:07
  • @MarkWells Thanks, It makes the question more interesting. A EBLock with the gloves should double it's damage. Making it better than a fighter without magical equipment. I'd be curious to hear of someone who has had such a character in his game. – 3C273 Nov 22 '18 at 22:49
  • @GreySage Except that the sorcerer only adds their Cha mod once, not 4 times, and triggers Hex once (assuming they somehow have it), not 4 times. – Miniman Nov 23 '18 at 00:33
  • Does the link work if you don't have a twitch account? – daze413 Nov 23 '18 at 01:58
  • @daze413 I've tried a few time to see DnDBeyond. I don't think there is a way. I haven't found another quote on Google for this item. – 3C273 Nov 23 '18 at 02:04
  • The DNDBeyond link won't work if you don't own the item on DNDBeyond. Unfortunately, I don't have the physical book so I can't add the page number, but someone who does own it is free to do so :) – V2Blast Nov 23 '18 at 02:57
  • BTW it's so weird that these are called "Illusionist's Bracers" when the one illusion cantrip in the game specifically doesn't benefit from being cast twice in a turn. – Mark Wells Dec 10 '18 at 16:51

1 Answers1

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First of all, this is a very rare item that requires attunement - that puts it in the same category as such ultra-cool stuff as Sword of Sharpness, Rod of Absorption, Dancing Sword, Dwarven Thrower, Oathbow not to mention the uber-cool Staff of Power. Given the choice, and depending on my class (and race), I would rather any of those over the Illusionist's Bracers. I have listed only things that more or less directly enhance your damage dealing ability - there are lots of cool things that do other cooler stuff.

Second, you have made a number of spherical cow assumptions that just don't hold in real D&D combat.

  1. In the first round, you don't have your bonus action available, you are using it to either cast Hex or transfer an ongoing Hex to a new target.
  2. All of your Eldrich Blasts must target the same creature - this limits one of the better features of this cantrip. That creature better not die - otherwise you have just wasted 1/4 to 3/4 of the cantrip's power.
  3. If it does die, you lose your bonus action on your next turn moving the Hex.
  4. Hex is concentration - try not to get hit.
  5. Cantrips do not scale as well as weapons do (Weapon attacks compared with damaging cantrips?) - this just closes the gap.
  6. This is a 17th+ level party - appropriate CR monsters have a lot of hit points and pretty high AC - expect to miss with 1/4 to 1/3 of your blasts.

Also, your maths is wrong - the average of 10(d10+d6+4) is 112.

Destruktor
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Dale M
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    While it is true that Deahzgrexofe made a bunch of wrong assumptions, I think that a lot of the problems you have mentioned are irrelevant or exagerated. For example the fact that enemies may have high AC is a problem that all attacks face and does not really affect the strength of Illusionist bracers. – Ruse Nov 23 '18 at 02:21
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    Where is caveat #2 sourced from (and by extension #3)? Nothing in the Illusionists Bracers states that it must target the same creature, and Eldritch Blast specifically says you can target multiple with the beams. – Mwr247 Dec 26 '18 at 17:09
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    @Mwr247 Hex only affects 1 target so your Eldritch Blasts must target that creature to get the effect the OP posits – Dale M Dec 26 '18 at 20:43
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    None of those items even remotely double the damage of an entire character, and certainly not a character that already has one of the highest damage per turn average in the entire game. – user-781943 Oct 29 '19 at 04:39
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    #5 is not valid I think. Even the source you link to admit this: "The big exception. They get to add their Charisma to each beam of Eldritch Blast, making it the most damaging cantrip in the game. It is only a bit behind a Fighter, gaining the same amount of attacks, but doing 1d10 + 5 per beam against 1d8 + 5 + 2 per strike. With Hex they even come out ahead, but a Fighter could similarly take a feat to compensate, so it would not be a fair comparison." – Thorkil Holm-Jacobsen Oct 29 '19 at 11:57