Originally Posted by Panda Warlord
Originally Posted by MelivySilverRoot
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As the damage scales, it will easily outpace your damage with a weapon, so by 11th level there is usually no reason to keep a weapon in your hand.
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And since, it's a cantrip, it doesn't cost any spell slot!

That applies to cleric since they don't get extra attack or any way of consolidating their weapon attack stat to wisdom but not ranger.

3d6 gives 10.5 expected damage on a hit. A mundane long bow fired twice, if you some how still have 16 dex would be 15. Sacred flame is hitting harder than that against radiant weak enemies. But add in hunters mark and it's a wash, bump dex to a realistic level and the fact magic weapons do exist and it's the bow even against radiant weak. And even in pen and paper with the same wis / dex the bow is going to have better accuracy with far more options for improving it, and in BG3 it's much worse. And that's before getting into Crossbow Expert and Sharp Shooter.

Sacred Flame isn't useless but it's far more situational for ranger.

Thanks for this additional commentary. To me this actually sounds perfect for a Sanctified Stalker ranger, that they would normally want to use their weapon but that in some specific situations when dealing with enemies vulnerable to radiant damage, they have an option in their toolkit not available to other rangers. As long as the damage still increases for rangers at later levels so as to at least keep the cantrip situationally useful.

"You may call it 'nonsense' if you like, but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"