Selected in last month’s Patreon Poll as the next 5e race handbook to receive an update, I’ve given the Bugbear Handbook the usual post-Tasha’s updates.
I’m currently playing a bugbear, which I wrote about previously, and while it’s a really fun race it can also be frustrating at times. Surprise Attack is excellent but unreliable, and Long-Limbed can be tactically useful but easy to forget. They also have one of the wackiest religions outside of the Kuo-Toa, so go give that a read.
I made a bunch of improvements to the text for the Default Rules, but the only rating change I made was to raise Warlock from 1-star/red to 2-stars/orange since Surprise Attack works so well with Eldritch Blast.
With races like the bugbear, that have an extra long reach, does that reach apply to 5 foot melee spells like booming blade? The spells specifically state 5 feet as range, yet long-limbed says the reach increases for melee attacks. Does booming blade prioritize as a spell or a melee attack?
The attacks made with Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade must be made against a valid target, and since the range of the spell is only 5 feet the target needs to be within 5 feet. This also means that you can’t use Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade against targets further away by using a reach weapon like a whip.
To the best of my knowledge, only the feat Spell Sniper and the Distant Spell metamagic allow you to attack with Booming Blade of Green-Flame Blade against targets more than 5 feet away.