I'm new to Warlock - Overwhelmed by Optimization but want to avoid mistakes so I have some questions..
I like the concept of the Raven Queen patron. Unearthed Arcana. if the DM allows it. (Otherwise it is like Hexblade?)
I think I would go with a variant human with CHA and ? added to stats.
Feat: (War Cast?, Ritual Cast?, Crossbow expert?)
My eyes start to glaze over when I read all the optimal ways to increase melee. I would like to be single stat driven. CHA. Is there a way to effectively (not necessarily Optimally) melee? and also have some utility. My guess is that Warlock is not going to be the best at anything and that's ok.
I was torn between Warlock and Wizard because of the Wizards versatility but the limited scope of the Warlock might be easier to play and less pouring over all the different contingency spells. What is the best way to dip into the Wizard spells (Ritual Cast feat) or does that happen already with the arcanum levels?
Is Devil Sight / Darkness combo I keep reading about limited to one type of warlock? Tome/Blade/Chain ?
If you want SAD that both effect your melee weapon and your spell hexblade can do that. Alternative If you use your arcane staff(or any other magical staff/wand/rod) as melee weapon You can grab shillelagh cantrip with pact of tome this way you can still grab raven queen patron.
If you want ritual casting grab pact of tome and Book of Ancient Secrets invocation it basicly spelbook that act similar as wizard book but you can only write ritual spells on it but you can have ritual spell of every class and it based on CHA. Also pact of tome allow you grab 3 more cantrip out any class and it will instead use CHA modifier.
You don't need crosbow feat the eldritch blast cantrip and agonizing blast invocation will satisfy all your ranged attack option withouth spending spell slots. devil sight invocation and darkness spell default availble for warlock you dont need certain subclass to get it.
As for feats: lucky generally always usefull if you dont know what to get if you use staff as weapon polearm can be usefull. With warcaster you can use booming blade or green flaming blade cantrip when they get 5 feet close to you or move away from you with your reaction. warcaster and resilient(con) always nice to help keep your concentration spell. if you can constanly have advantage attack against your enemy going half elf with elven accuracy can give you even more chance to hit or crit (Instead rolling 2d20 when advantage you get to reroll one of the d20 basicly rolling 3d20 pick highest aslong you not using STR)
The Devil's Sight / Darkness combo can be used by any Warlock and it's very effective as long as you're able to stay 20' away from the rest of your team mates. If you're right next to them as a melee oriented Warlock, that combo hurts them as much as it hurts your opponents. Devil's Sight is great on it's own though, it has a 120' range and it allows you to see in any darkness, including magical darkness, as if you were in bright light which is incredibly powerful!
All of the spell casters are complex, but I think that Warlocks are among the most complex because you have to make several choices every level between spells known, eldritch invocations, your pact, and your patron. Plus if you make a decision that you don't like, you either can't change it at all or you can only change it when you go up a level. Clerics and Druids are the simplest spell casters to me because other than picking your Cleric Domain or Druid Circle and your Cantrips, you can swap out all of your spells every long rest and you have access to the full spell list, not just the ones that you've learned like Wizards.
Having said that, I'm on my second Warlock right now and I love the class! You can do so many different things with a Warlock, you just have to take the time to figure out what you want to do carefully because you can't change most of your decisions after you make them.
Thanks Tim, You've diagnosed one of my hesitations with the class. There are a multitude of paths. 3 or more Patron and 3 Pacts leads to some paralysis. then add potential multiclass and so many mis steps available.
Warlocks are very versatile... you can be majorly combat focused, or focus on casting / rituals...
Mine is a Hexblade, and usually uses her spell slots for Smites and/or Hex. Eldritch Blast is arguably the best distance Cantrip, so you'll never really need a crossbow. You can have a handful of quite handy spells, and use them fairly opportunistically, since short rests are, in my campaign anyway, fairly easy to get.
Thanks Palfatreos, I know that it will be apparent after you tell me, but what does SAD mean in your post?
Single Attribute Dependent. MAD means Multiple Attribute Dependent. With a hexblade warlock, you will get your melee and your spellcasting based on Charisma. Other pact warlocks will have to use either str or dex for their melee attacks, depending on weapon selection; provided they have proficiency. Hexblades come out of the box with martial weapon proficiency, medium armor and shields.
For a beginner melee based warlock, hexblade is the easiest entry point because it brings everything you need in one simple package. For your pact boon, blade is the most thematically appropriate, but tome and to a lesser extent chain work too.
Additionally, for a beginner, I would strongly recommend avoiding the darkness/devil's sight combo, especially on a melee warlock. If you build around it you're going to want to USE it, and that could really annoy your party. While YOU can see through your darkness, your teammates can't. So when you darkness and move up to melee on things, you're basically taking targets away from your teammates because they'll no longer be able to see them. For a ranged caster, going into a corner and dropping darkness and spamming eldritch blast from range can work. For melee range though...your party may not be very pleased with you.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I like my HexBlade because he can do decent damage to single target, and if I "waste" my spellslots I can do some nifty area damage as well. And lets not forget all the movement spells which helps you move across the battleboard. And the best damage cantrip in the game Eldritch Blast makes my character do good on ranged as well, (Especially with the right feats and invocations the range of the EB is unchallenged by any class). Out of combat, with the right invocations and skills, and the high charisma, the options for roleplaying your way through the world are immense.
What it boils down to is how well you mix the feats and invocations with the spells you choose. AND the most important part of being a warlock, how strict/nice your DM is towards the short rest rule. Some tend to not give that many short rests due to the fact that most classes mainly needs long rests to "reset" their abilities, so the warlocks are almost punished if your DM doesnt follow this up and help you play your class.
This class has overwhelmed me a little as well. I am only level 2 and love the concept of Hexblade, but I want to make sure I am a good Hexblade as well and get some nervousness when picking out spells/feats etc.
Keep in mind that a Warlock can swap out one spell for a different one and one Eldritch Invocation for a different one every time you level up. So if you find that you picked a spell or invocation that you never use you can swap it out at higher levels.
Feats, your pact, your pact boon, and cantrips can’t be changed out. But invocations and leveled spells can.
In my opinion, this class is the most versatile everything released so far. If you really do your homework, you can make a really strong character. If you just kinda wing it, i think warlocks are kinda easy to screw up.
My advice if you're new is stay out of UA material and that means skip Raven queen. The Raven queen seems incomplete to me to put it nicely. To put it honestly, it seems really bad. The spell list is good everything else is pretty meh.
If you do go hexblade, have fun! They're a really good time. Definitely take Hex, max Charisma first. It's the only stat you need for damage. Then put everything in constitution to help stay alive and maintain concentration for hex. 14 Dex can help give a little more AC. You're in medium armor so 14 AC is perfect.
If you want to be in melee, polearm master works really well with the kit. Definitely take path of the blade. You'll also probably want to take Resilient Con or War Caster to help you keep concentration. Polearm master and warcaster is two feats though. Still, it's strong the whole time. Polearm master also gives you an added attack any time someone comes in range. Also known as pretty much any time you fight in melee!
If you want to be ranged, you can definitely do that too. I would use eldritch blast for damage with Hex. Crossbow expert would be good. Take pact of the blade. It's almost as strong as polearm variant but doesn't rely as much on warcaster because theoretically you're not taking damage.
The Darkness/Devils sight combo is cancer for your team. If you're off by yourself a lot, sure. But in group play it gives disadvantage to everyone but you. Take repelling blast and improved pact weapon instead.
Hello all,
I'm new to Warlock - Overwhelmed by Optimization but want to avoid mistakes so I have some questions..
I like the concept of the Raven Queen patron. Unearthed Arcana. if the DM allows it. (Otherwise it is like Hexblade?)
I think I would go with a variant human with CHA and ? added to stats.
Feat: (War Cast?, Ritual Cast?, Crossbow expert?)
My eyes start to glaze over when I read all the optimal ways to increase melee. I would like to be single stat driven. CHA. Is there a way to effectively (not necessarily Optimally) melee? and also have some utility. My guess is that Warlock is not going to be the best at anything and that's ok.
I was torn between Warlock and Wizard because of the Wizards versatility but the limited scope of the Warlock might be easier to play and less pouring over all the different contingency spells. What is the best way to dip into the Wizard spells (Ritual Cast feat) or does that happen already with the arcanum levels?
Is Devil Sight / Darkness combo I keep reading about limited to one type of warlock? Tome/Blade/Chain ?
If you want SAD that both effect your melee weapon and your spell hexblade can do that. Alternative If you use your arcane staff(or any other magical staff/wand/rod) as melee weapon You can grab shillelagh cantrip with pact of tome this way you can still grab raven queen patron.
If you want ritual casting grab pact of tome and Book of Ancient Secrets invocation it basicly spelbook that act similar as wizard book but you can only write ritual spells on it but you can have ritual spell of every class and it based on CHA. Also pact of tome allow you grab 3 more cantrip out any class and it will instead use CHA modifier.
You don't need crosbow feat the eldritch blast cantrip and agonizing blast invocation will satisfy all your ranged attack option withouth spending spell slots.
devil sight invocation and darkness spell default availble for warlock you dont need certain subclass to get it.
As for feats:
lucky generally always usefull if you dont know what to get
if you use staff as weapon polearm can be usefull. With warcaster you can use booming blade or green flaming blade cantrip when they get 5 feet close to you or move away from you with your reaction.
warcaster and resilient(con) always nice to help keep your concentration spell.
if you can constanly have advantage attack against your enemy going half elf with elven accuracy can give you even more chance to hit or crit (Instead rolling 2d20 when advantage you get to reroll one of the d20 basicly rolling 3d20 pick highest aslong you not using STR)
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The Devil's Sight / Darkness combo can be used by any Warlock and it's very effective as long as you're able to stay 20' away from the rest of your team mates. If you're right next to them as a melee oriented Warlock, that combo hurts them as much as it hurts your opponents. Devil's Sight is great on it's own though, it has a 120' range and it allows you to see in any darkness, including magical darkness, as if you were in bright light which is incredibly powerful!
All of the spell casters are complex, but I think that Warlocks are among the most complex because you have to make several choices every level between spells known, eldritch invocations, your pact, and your patron. Plus if you make a decision that you don't like, you either can't change it at all or you can only change it when you go up a level. Clerics and Druids are the simplest spell casters to me because other than picking your Cleric Domain or Druid Circle and your Cantrips, you can swap out all of your spells every long rest and you have access to the full spell list, not just the ones that you've learned like Wizards.
Having said that, I'm on my second Warlock right now and I love the class! You can do so many different things with a Warlock, you just have to take the time to figure out what you want to do carefully because you can't change most of your decisions after you make them.
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Thanks Palfatreos, I know that it will be apparent after you tell me, but what does SAD mean in your post?
Thanks Tim, You've diagnosed one of my hesitations with the class. There are a multitude of paths. 3 or more Patron and 3 Pacts leads to some paralysis. then add potential multiclass and so many mis steps available.
Single Attack Damage.
Professional computer geek
Warlocks are very versatile... you can be majorly combat focused, or focus on casting / rituals...
Mine is a Hexblade, and usually uses her spell slots for Smites and/or Hex. Eldritch Blast is arguably the best distance Cantrip, so you'll never really need a crossbow. You can have a handful of quite handy spells, and use them fairly opportunistically, since short rests are, in my campaign anyway, fairly easy to get.
Single Attribute Dependent. MAD means Multiple Attribute Dependent. With a hexblade warlock, you will get your melee and your spellcasting based on Charisma. Other pact warlocks will have to use either str or dex for their melee attacks, depending on weapon selection; provided they have proficiency. Hexblades come out of the box with martial weapon proficiency, medium armor and shields.
For a beginner melee based warlock, hexblade is the easiest entry point because it brings everything you need in one simple package. For your pact boon, blade is the most thematically appropriate, but tome and to a lesser extent chain work too.
Additionally, for a beginner, I would strongly recommend avoiding the darkness/devil's sight combo, especially on a melee warlock. If you build around it you're going to want to USE it, and that could really annoy your party. While YOU can see through your darkness, your teammates can't. So when you darkness and move up to melee on things, you're basically taking targets away from your teammates because they'll no longer be able to see them. For a ranged caster, going into a corner and dropping darkness and spamming eldritch blast from range can work. For melee range though...your party may not be very pleased with you.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Good point thanks 👍
I like my HexBlade because he can do decent damage to single target, and if I "waste" my spellslots I can do some nifty area damage as well. And lets not forget all the movement spells which helps you move across the battleboard. And the best damage cantrip in the game Eldritch Blast makes my character do good on ranged as well, (Especially with the right feats and invocations the range of the EB is unchallenged by any class). Out of combat, with the right invocations and skills, and the high charisma, the options for roleplaying your way through the world are immense.
What it boils down to is how well you mix the feats and invocations with the spells you choose. AND the most important part of being a warlock, how strict/nice your DM is towards the short rest rule. Some tend to not give that many short rests due to the fact that most classes mainly needs long rests to "reset" their abilities, so the warlocks are almost punished if your DM doesnt follow this up and help you play your class.
This class has overwhelmed me a little as well. I am only level 2 and love the concept of Hexblade, but I want to make sure I am a good Hexblade as well and get some nervousness when picking out spells/feats etc.
Keep in mind that a Warlock can swap out one spell for a different one and one Eldritch Invocation for a different one every time you level up. So if you find that you picked a spell or invocation that you never use you can swap it out at higher levels.
Feats, your pact, your pact boon, and cantrips can’t be changed out. But invocations and leveled spells can.
Professional computer geek
In my opinion, this class is the most versatile everything released so far. If you really do your homework, you can make a really strong character. If you just kinda wing it, i think warlocks are kinda easy to screw up.
My advice if you're new is stay out of UA material and that means skip Raven queen. The Raven queen seems incomplete to me to put it nicely. To put it honestly, it seems really bad. The spell list is good everything else is pretty meh.
If you do go hexblade, have fun! They're a really good time. Definitely take Hex, max Charisma first. It's the only stat you need for damage. Then put everything in constitution to help stay alive and maintain concentration for hex. 14 Dex can help give a little more AC. You're in medium armor so 14 AC is perfect.
If you want to be in melee, polearm master works really well with the kit. Definitely take path of the blade. You'll also probably want to take Resilient Con or War Caster to help you keep concentration. Polearm master and warcaster is two feats though. Still, it's strong the whole time. Polearm master also gives you an added attack any time someone comes in range. Also known as pretty much any time you fight in melee!
If you want to be ranged, you can definitely do that too. I would use eldritch blast for damage with Hex. Crossbow expert would be good. Take pact of the blade. It's almost as strong as polearm variant but doesn't rely as much on warcaster because theoretically you're not taking damage.
The Darkness/Devils sight combo is cancer for your team. If you're off by yourself a lot, sure. But in group play it gives disadvantage to everyone but you. Take repelling blast and improved pact weapon instead.
Thanks good tip 👍