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Let's say as a Stone Sorcerer, I'm fighting two creatures within 5 feet of each other. So I cast Thunderous Smite as a bonus action, then twin spell a Booming Blade on one of the creatures.

Does Thunderous Smite mean that both creatures need to make a saving throw or else be knocked away or only one of them needs to but both of them gets the Booming Blade effect?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Booming blade now has a range of self and is not eligible for twinning. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Nov 11, 2020 at 17:20

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One creature is affected by Thunderous Smite, both affected by Booming Blade

The wording on Thunderous Smite is pretty unambiguous:

The first time you hit with a melee weapon attack during this spell's duration, your weapon rings with thunder...

Regardless of the circumstances of Booming Blade, and it being twinned, only one of those melee strikes will be allowed to benefit from Thunderous Smite.

There's no restriction on Booming Blade being used with Thunderous Smite, though, and Booming Blade is perfectly viable to use with the Twinned Spell metamagic, because it satisfies the requirements of only affecting a single target. So this is still a very powerful combo, even if you can't apply the smite damage to both targets.

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    \$\begingroup\$ If you can twin Shocking Grasp, you can twin Booming Blade. \$\endgroup\$
    – T.J.L.
    Commented Oct 3, 2018 at 15:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ @T.J.L. I have the same narrative connundrum with that as well.. but again... just a narrative issue... mechanically it is clearly ok. \$\endgroup\$
    – Slagmoth
    Commented Oct 3, 2018 at 15:31
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Slagmoth I know, but I dislike just handwaving things, especially if we get a cool effect out of explaining it. We could say Twinned Spell actually merges two timelines/possibilities together very temporarily, one where creature A is hit and another where creature B is hit. By merging both timelines, both creatures are hit in both timelines, so the effect would look like growing a second arm, but really it's just a dimensional echo/shadow \$\endgroup\$
    – Cyanic
    Commented Oct 3, 2018 at 15:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Cyanic That's a pretty heavy explanation for a twinned cantrip. It's probably easier to just go with the fact that attacks are not simultaneous and a whole turn is multiple seconds long. Trying to slice it down finer than that gives all sorts of strangeness. It's not impossible for a character to swing a weapon twice and the energy from the cantrip to persist long enough for both swings. \$\endgroup\$
    – T.J.L.
    Commented Oct 3, 2018 at 15:38
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Cyanic Chronomancy in any edition of D&D has always been a big deal, when it's even been possible; painting every character with Twinned Spell as messing with any degree of chronomancy is a stretch. \$\endgroup\$
    – T.J.L.
    Commented Oct 3, 2018 at 15:42

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