Shocking Grasp is a damage-dealing cantrip that allows you to turn your hand into an in-built taser and allows you to run away without fearing an attack of opportunity. It’s most effective against creatures wearing metal armor and offers you the ability to chuck around some really cool imagery for your character in combat. If you want to look like a superhero (or supervillain – we don’t judge here), Shocking Grasp could be really suited to your character.
Shocking Grasp – The Basics
- Spell level: cantrip
- Range: touch
- Casting time: 1 action
- Attack/Save: Melee spell attack
- Components: verbal and somatic
- Duration: instantaneous
- Damage: 1d8 lightning (increasing as your character levels up)
- Available to: artificers, sorcerers, wizards
You touch a creature and lightning travels from your hand to electrocute them. You make a melee spell attack against the target, with advantage if they are wearing armor made of metal. On a hit they take 1d8 lightning damage and are unable to take reactions until the start of their next turn.
What Is Shocking Grasp?
Shocking Grasp is an evocation cantrip that essentially allows you to tase your enemies with your hand. Evocation is the school of magic that produces ferocious, destructive spells. Evocation is known best for its big area of effect spells, like Fireball, Wind Wall, and Ice Storm. However, it is also home to some of the most effective damage-dealing cantrips. Word of Radiance, Fire Bolt, and the oh-so-identifiable Eldritch Blast all belong to the school of Evocation. In fact, there are only two cantrips in the whole school of evocation that aren’t damage-dealers (Dancing Lights and Light). Shocking Grasp is an archetypal cantrip for the evocation school.
Shocking Grasp uses an attack roll to see if you hit your target and you get advantage if your target is wearing metal armor. This also means if you were fighting a monster made of metal – such as an Iron Golem or a Clockwork Horror – you would also have advantage. Having this feature in the spell means that there are certain circumstances where it would be even more attractive to use it – though even if the creature is not wearing metal armor, damage is never to be sniffed at.
The damage for Shocking Grasp scales with your character as they level up. With the damage starting out at 1d8, at 5th level it increases to 2d8, then 3d8 at 11th level, and topping out at 4d8 at 17th level. As you level up, you are less and less likely to be reliant on cantrips in combat, but as the creatures you’ll be battling will also scale up, and therefore you will still be burning spell slots at a pretty consistent level, having increased cantrip damage is useful as it allows you to still use the spell to some effect throughout your character’s journey.
This cantrip is available to artificers, sorcerers, and wizards. Using this spell may look different for each of these classes and may depend on why you think your character would have this spell. No matter which class you are, having a cantrip that can stop an enemy taking reactions for a whole round is super useful.
When Is Shocking Grasp Useful?
Shocking Grasp works through touch, meaning it can only be used in close quarters. It can therefore be used pretty much whenever you’re in melee range with a creature, but it is particularly appropriate against a creature wearing metal armor, the metal giving you advantage on the attack roll.
Presumably, the reason for advantage is that as metal conducts electricity, the armor would attract the lightning to it. In that case, depending on what you are fighting, there may be other scenarios that would be suitable for you to also have advantage in – for example, if you were fighting someone carrying a large metal object or standing on a metal platform. Retaining the advantage in these “extracurricular” scenarios would of course be up to the discretion of your DM, but as most DMs reward creative thinking it’s always worth asking if you feel that something narratively fits.
Shocking Grasp would also be particularly apt if you were being grappled or restrained by another creature. As you are already being touched by creatures that are restraining or grappling you, it would make sense to channel the lightning from yourself into them.
As with all spells, there are instances where you probably would not use Shocking Grasp if you have other options open to you. Using Shocking Grasp against creatures that inflict damage back at you when they are touched would be ill-advised.
Black Puddings for example have a corrosive form, which means they automatically deal 1d8 acid damage to any creature that touches them. Similarly, Fire Elementals deal 1d10 fire damage to creatures that touch them. Casting Shocking Grasp on creatures like these in most instances would therefore be a bit like sacrificing a pawn for a pawn in chess – still has an effect but isn’t optimal.
For melee brawlers – such as monks, barbarians, and fighters – creatures like Fire Elementals can be kryptonite and some real creative thinking is required to avoid encounters with them becoming deadly. One of the benefits of being a spellcaster means you are able to avoid getting up close and personal to creatures that are dangerous within melee range. This means that Shocking Grasp may end up being a lesser used cantrip for you, especially if you are a sorcerer or a wizard – classes known for being squishy and therefore much less likely to be in a fist fight with a raging elemental beast.
That being said, the fact that Shocking Grasp is touch based can be a bonus for squishier characters if their proximity to their enemy isn’t by choice. If an enemy were smart enough to realise you were one of the more ‘delicate’ of the party and choose to rush you and enter your melee space, only having ranged spells would mean you would have disadvantage on attacks against the suddenly very close, very hostile, and therefore very dangerous creature right when it counts. Therefore this touch-based cantrip can be handy in a pinch, even if you don’t think you would normally be up in the faces of your enemies.
One of the best elements of Shocking Grasp – especially if you are a sorcerer or a wizard – is that it stops the affected creature from being able to take reactions. Therefore this is a great option to employ against an enemy you want to flee from.
In the scenario where an enemy you are trying to stay distant from has come into your melee range, you could therefore use your action to cast Shocking Grasp, damaging them and stopping them from being able to take an attack of opportunity against you as you use your movement to run away, and leaving a bonus action free for you to cast a levelled spell if you so wish.
Is Shocking Grasp Good?
Shocking Grasp is a great cantrip overall. Lightning damage is unfortunately quite a common resistance within D&D 5e, but it is visually appealing damage to be able to deal. Having advantage on metal-armored creatures is of course good, but what really makes Shocking Grasp great rather than just an average cantrip is that it disables the affected creature’s ability to take reactions.
Having this small but very significant addition of prohibiting reactions from the affected target essentially makes the spell the Disengage action – though a subverted form of it. Rather than it being that you don’t provoke opportunity attacks from anyone as you take your movement for a whole turn, instead the creature you affect can’t take reactions against anyone until the start of their next turn. This means that though you would need to be careful about whose melee space you were entering and leaving as you ran away, the electrocuted enemy would not be able to take reactions against your allies either if they were also in the electrocuted creature’s melee range. This could therefore mean that you don’t just save your own skin when needing to run away, but also your party mates’.
As Disengaging normally is an action within itself, only impacts yourself and not your allies, and isn’t accompanied by any damage, Shocking Grasp’s feature of suppressing reactions is what makes this cantrip more useful than any other part of it and definitely broadens the scope of the amount of instances where you might use it.
Should I Take Shocking Grasp as One of My Cantrips?
As with any cantrips, the choice of whether or not to take Shocking Grasp comes down to what you think suits your character.
Many people choose to only have cantrips that are either buff or utility spells due to their versatility in roleplay and problem solving. This is a totally viable choice but it is handy to have at least one damage-dealing cantrip in your arsenal. For most spellcasters, spell slots can only be regained over a long rest. This makes spell slots a really valuable consumable and the choice over which spells to spend your slots on is often really tricky. It’s also so disappointing if you expend a slot only for the spell to fizzle out and have no effect.
This is where cantrips come in so handy. When slots are low or if you are at the start of a long dungeon crawl where you want to conserve your higher level magics for upcoming higher-powered enemies, cantrips are your best friend. Having at least one damage-dealing cantrip can help keep you effective in combat without needing to rely on using all of your slots in every battle.
If you are a sorcerer or a wizard, Shocking Grasp could be a good choice as a damage-dealing cantrip for you, mainly because of the ability to stop enemies taking reactions against you. This means that this cantrip is likely to stay handy right into later levels, as at some points in combat it’s more important for you to get out of the way than it is to deal high damage.
You could of course cast something like Misty Step to escape from a creature’s melee range, but as this requires at minimum a level 2 spell slot a cantrip allowing you to just take your movement without fear of retribution may be preferable or may even be the only option available to you if spell slots are scarce.
Artificers can of course find Shocking Grasp useful for the same reasons as sorcerers and wizards, but as they tend to be slightly beefier than armorless mages, they are less likely to be panicking if a big bad is in their melee range.
If your character is an artificer, this cantrip could be a great choice because of the imagery with it. Artificers use inventions and tools to craft and channel magic. So it would make narrative sense for them to have had dealings with electricity and have crafted a way to turn their touch into a taser.
Some people like to choose their spells and other abilities based on what has the highest damage or is the most effective, and that’s valid if that’s how you like to play. However we think it is even better to choose what spells you learn based on what thematically or narratively suits your character. Yes, Shocking Grasp is useful, but even more importantly, could you see your character using it and it suiting their powers and/or backstory?
How Do You Roleplay Shocking Grasp?
Though all characters in the classes associated with a spell have access to it, one of the fun parts of D&D is flavoring those spells to be unique to your character. You can do this through adjusting the description to make your own set of moves identifiable or memorable.
Shocking Grasp could have very different vibes for a competent, intelligent artificer who has channelled this power specifically and pointedly to be applied with pinpoint precision after luring their enemy into melee, compared to a wild magic sorcerer who impulsively zaps their target with lightning in a panicked reaction to being face to face with their foe.
Shocking Grasp specifies that it applies to “a creature you try to touch”, and therefore means that if you are playing hard and fast to the rules this is only really a combat spell. However there could be other times in gameplay where Shocking Grasp could be useful or even just flavourful. For example, if you were going through a tower and came across a large machine that needed a jumpstart, your DM may allow you to use Shocking Grasp to do this – despite the target not being a creature. There’s no harm in asking for these little inventive moments within roleplay – who doesn’t love to hear “you can certainly try…”?
Roleplay inspiration
The blue-skinned air genasi’s hair fans out around them, strands separating from each other in the electrically charged air. Their eyes flash brightly and the bandit who had rushed over to them, blade drawn, realises her mistake. The genasi reaches forward and grabs the bandit by the throat. With a crack, white lightning channels from the air around them, down their arm and into the bandit’s neck, causing her to jerk and thrash, and her eyes to roll back. The genasi releases her. A red weal has appeared on the bandit’s neck in the shape of a perfect handprint.
—
The gnome artificer braces herself and pulls her welding goggles down to cover her eyes. She points a finger at the ghast in front of her and her mechanical pseudodragon flies towards it, one steel claw stretched out in front of it. As its claw connects with the ghast, purple lightning streaks from it and skitters across the skin of their foe, leaving a spiderweb of electrical burns. Whilst the ghast reels and twitches from the attack, the pseudodragon turns and flies back to hover just behind its master.
—
The halfling wizard fumbles with his spellbook as the warforged barbarian towers over him. Panicking in the face of the hulking mass of metal, the wizard squeaks and reaches out, lightning sparking over his fingers. Just as it looks like the wizard is about to miss, the sparks flick towards the warforged, licking over the metal of its chest and pulling the halfling’s fingers forward to make contact. Lightning electrifies the warforged, jerking its body back, and distracting it just enough for the wizard to run between his legs and escape the fray.
FAQs
Unfortunately no. Shocking Grasp has the casting time of 1 action and it is therefore not possible to use a reaction to cast it. The only exception to this is if you have the War Caster feat, as this allows you to cast a spell as a reaction rather than making an opportunity attack, as long as that spell has a casting time of 1 action and only targets one creature. Shocking Grasp meets these criteria so you would be able to cast it as a reaction if you had this feat.
Shocking Grasp is a melee attack but would not be considered the Attack action. It can be confusing to remember the distinction between these two, but it is a very important distinction to make due to some classes having access to the Extra Attack feature.
The PHB states that two of the actions you can take in combat are the Attack action and the Cast a Spell action. Shocking Grasp must be cast and the casting time takes 1 action. Casting does not count as an Attack action as it is the Cast a Spell action instead. Therefore it could not form part of the Extra Attack feature.
An easy way to understand this is that the casting time for spells like Shocking Grasp is 1 action. This therefore means your whole action is taken up casting that spell. This means that you would not have time within your turn to cast it and take another attack, as this would mean you would be taking 2 actions within your turn.
Shocking Grasp is however a melee spell attack. Melee attacks cover physical melee attacks and melee spell attacks. Therefore, if an effect specifies it applies in instances where a melee attack has been made, then Shocking Grasp would count for this.
The Shield spell can be used against Shocking Grasp. Shield can be used as a reaction against spells that aim to hit against your AC. Using a physical, non-magical shield against Shocking Grasp wouldn’t have quite the same effect. Wielding a physical shield forms part of your AC and therefore when someone tries to hit you with Shocking Grasp, your AC assumes that you are using your shield as part of the tactics to deflect the hit. Aside from this, if your shield is metal, as this is part of your armor, the attacked would have advantage against you.
Then my partner bought me a starter set for 5e and my friend ran us a mini-dungeon to give us a feel for the game play and I was immediately hooked. Since then, I have lost countless hours to playing, DMing, and creating homebrew.
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