[RPG] Does Repelling Blast work once per spell or once per beam

dnd-5espellswarlock

Warlocks can take the following invocation:

Repelling Blast
Prerequisite: eldritch blast cantrip

When you hit a creature with eldritch blast, you can push the creature up to 10 feet away from you in a straight line.

This could be read as "when you hit a creature with your eldritch blast cantrip", i.e. once per turn regardless of beams/damage, or "whenever a creature gets hit with one of your eldritch blasts", which might happen more than once per turn. Which is correct? Can a Level 5 Warlock push a single goblin back 20' per round if they hit twice? How about two goblins for 10' each?

Best Answer

The Repelling Blast Invocation applies to each hit

Since we know you can select the target of each separate Eldritch Blast ray separately , even to the extent that other Repelling Blasts could actually push the same creature out of range of the remaining subsequent beams, we must rule that Eldritch Blast (no matter what Invocation is attached to it) is a single spell that hits in sequence, not simultaneously as per Magic Missile.

This is further expanded upon when we look at Hex, which triggers each time an attack hits the Hex'd target.

So the only conclusion the sound logic and readings of these rules can give us is that Eldritch Blast, Scorching Ray, and similar spells that require multiple attack rolls to hit their target(s) are NOT simultaneous and always hit independently of each other, in succession, unless otherwise noted in the spell's description.

As you pointed out, the prerequisite for Repelling Blast is:

"...When you hit a creature with eldritch blast..."

Eldritch Blast requires you to determine if you hit or miss each target or targets for each beam (not once per spell), thus letting us know if the requirements 'when you hit' or met or not. Repelling Blast, and any other feature, trait, spell, or spell-like ability that activates when hit or attacked by something would trigger for each Eldritch Blast beam.

So yes, at 5th level with 2 beams you could push a single goblin up to 20ft away, or push 2 different goblins up to 10ft away from you in a straight line. You do not need a separate ruling for hitting the same creature with multiple beams, because your ruling is already included in the spells text.