Is Shocking Grasp better than other similar cantrips?

[Fried Noodles]

Is there some reason to use it, and focus on Lightning, rather than other elements?

I got the idea to try to create a Sorcerer that leans into Shocking Grasp. The idea is that you'll have all the items that boost your spell damage, like the Portent Robe, Necklace of Flippity Doopity, etc. And also be a Dragon... Blooded... Sorcerer.

So I chose Blue...(?) Which was Lightning leaning.

I eventually got my character up to Lv.7, which was the minimum I needed for my beloved Lv.1 Bard + Lv.6 Sorcerer.

I am also a Half Wood-Elf for bonus to movement speed, as I imagined I'd want to be running around grabbing things.

I'm not impressed with the feel of things so far.

Granted, I've got NONE of the spell damage boosting items yet.
I'm in the room to fight the Inquisitor where I can find the Amulet of Flippity Doo.

But with my 18 CHA, that only amounts to +4 damage currently.

Even with the +4 from my dragon blood thing, I am still by far the weakest contributing member of my party.

I am comparing this feeling to my limited experience with Eldritch Blast... Which does not benefit from the Amulet of Dumpity Bumpity, but would still feel like it destroys Shocking Grasp (?)

Also, wouldn't choosing a Cold leaning dragon ancestor and using the icy cantrip be better? Because it has 18m range?

[jonnin]

its short range and lower base damage than fire.
but it gets a big boost from wet targets.
ice is nice, as it also gets damage from wet effect, and it slows the target, and its ranged. I prefer it to electric, but both are the meta, with fire a distant third due to no consistent easy way to debuff targets for it in this game (compare to just having someone else throw water bottles around).

lightning sorc vs dragon sorc is ?? the lightning one gets create water free.

lightning merges nicely with all that sparkle gear including that amazing staff.

EB is its own thing, nothing much resists force and it knocks stuff off heights or into other effects. But like fire, no way to increase it.

---------------
that said, maybe you under appreciate +4 damage. That is a LOT. the thing is, most damage is a die roll that COULD be a 1,2, etc low value. But this is a 100% ensured 4 on top of everything else, and that is pretty strong. As in, the +2 acid ring is as good as a +1d4 bonus, and only a little less good than a 1d6 bonus.

Let me preach on that for a second. Say you were +4 fire from red dragon?
Ok, so you lob that scorching ray. Its default is 3 beams, and +1 beam per level, eh? So your level 4 scorcing ray shoots... 5 beams. If they all hit, that is +20 damage from dragon sorc (+4*5beams). Or fireball that hits 5 targets... each one takes +4 more. +4 is the same as 1d8 extra.

[Mosey]

Casting a ranged cantrip at someone in your face gives you disadvantage to hit them. Grasp is a melee spell, so it does not suffer that downside. It also gets advantage to enemies in metal armor and if it hits it removes their reaction so you can run away.

It's also just about the only melee cantrip there is other than the poison poof, so if you want one that doesn't rely on a DC to do anything at all there it is.

Also it should perhaps be noted that the damage goes up every few levels making it a 2D8 or 3D8 etc. as you level.

Plus different cantrips do different things. Ice does crowd control, fire does damage/ignition, necrotic halts healing. They aren't just sources of damage, they are strategic in other ways.

[guard65]

The only advantage is that it a melee hit where everything else is range (disadvantage) and it prevents them from reaction so you can move away without an AOO from them.

[Steffan]

It is the only melee cantrip... so it is a must for a mage, in my opinion

[pirate135246]

the only dmg cantrip worth building around is eldritch blast

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Originally posted by steffan8:

It is the only melee cantrip... so it is a must for a mage, in my opinion

The poison 1 is also melee lol

Electric grasp is just widely more useful, it can shock which removes reactions so you can run without disengage. It can be used as a reaction attack as well with a feat, and because Electric if target is wet extra damage.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by KingOfFriedChicken:

Originally posted by steffan8:

It is the only melee cantrip... so it is a must for a mage, in my opinion

The poison 1 is also melee lol

Electric grasp is just widely more useful, it can shock which removes reactions so you can run without disengage. It can be used as a reaction attack as well with a feat, and because Electric if target is wet extra damage.

and, to top all those reasons off, everything, literally every enemy in the game, is highly resistant to poison. Every dwarf is 50%, all undead and many demons are 100%, and more, and anything with a high con (almost all enemy) avoids (not this spell) what it can with easy saves. I would argue that the worst sorcerer you could make would be poison based-- the elemental feat doesn't buff it, the spells fail to land or do full damage, there are not many spells to pick from... its just bad.

[Boss]

Originally posted by KingOfFriedChicken:

Originally posted by steffan8:

It is the only melee cantrip... so it is a must for a mage, in my opinion

The poison 1 is also melee lol

Electric grasp is just widely more useful, it can shock which removes reactions so you can run without disengage. It can be used as a reaction attack as well with a feat, and because Electric if target is wet extra damage.

Poison Spray is 10ft I think, and is a DC cantrip, not an attack roll, so in most cases it'll be less likely to land.

Shocking Grasp is pretty good. Decent damage, easy vulnerability from Wet, advantage against targets wearing metal armor, and disables reactions for a bit (or was it just opportunity attacks?), so both the caster and any other characters can freely move away.

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Originally posted by jonnin:

Originally posted by KingOfFriedChicken:

The poison 1 is also melee lol

Electric grasp is just widely more useful, it can shock which removes reactions so you can run without disengage. It can be used as a reaction attack as well with a feat, and because Electric if target is wet extra damage.

and, to top all those reasons off, everything, literally every enemy in the game, is highly resistant to poison. Every dwarf is 50%, all undead and many demons are 100%, and more, and anything with a high con (almost all enemy) avoids (not this spell) what it can with easy saves.

Although with some in game items poison can be quite strong, but yeah it's not useful if you don't gear directly for poison only lol so grasp is just better. Even if you do hear it's only got gear for 1 member to do so.