I am playing a Drow Eldritch Knight/Undead Warlock, currently level 5/1 in a 1-20 campaign. I plan to take her to level 8/2 and then pick up 8 Paladin levels and the last 2 levels in Fighter. So she will end as Fighter 10/Warlock 2/Paladin 8.
She is going to pick up Drow High Magic Feat at Fighter 6 and then a Charisma ASI for 20 at level Fighter 8. Fighting style is currently defense, but will change to Blind Fighting at Fighter 6 and superior technique at Fighter 8 and then take defense again as a Paladin 2.
So I am debating whether she should go Conquest or Oathbreaker. Her Patron is a Baelorn and oathbreaker makes some thematic sense regarding her Patron. Conquest makes thematic sense too, but will be a little more difficult in the campaign.
She is all about frightening enemies, and Conquest has an awesome Fear lock ability. Oathbreaker will give her +5 damage on her attacks. These don't come until 17th level, so I am not sure how much I should put into them.
At earlier levels they have a similar Channel Divinity frightened option, Oathbreakers is a little better. Niether of the other CD options are very good. Oathbreaker will be mostly useless because the CR will be low. The Conquest Paladin basically turns 1 miss into a hit, which is underwhelming as well.
Neither has great spells for this build, especially since she will already have Armor of Agathys (on Conquest) as a Warlock and Darkness (on Oath Breaker) as a Drow. Hold Person is probably the best spell on both lists, but is a little underwhelming.
I'm going on pure speculation here, but you're pretty much playing this as an eldritch blaster with support from the fighter chassis, war magic, and possibly eldritch strike? It sounds solid enough to work, but I feel like you could improve on it a good deal. Feat wise, drow magic doesn't seem as useful as good ol' fey touched, and if you want detect magic, why not rush your 2nd warlock level and get eldritch sight along with agonizing blast?
Now, if you're not planning on relying on war magic, why not go for the 11th level in fighter for another extra attack? It's such a spike in power, you're shooting yourself in the foot by not getting it. You could even do fighter 11/ warlock 2/ paladin 7 for the aura and you'd be set because your main stat's 20 at least.
What exactly are you wanting to accomplish in combat with this build? Could give us a better idea of how to make recommendations for you.
The thing with oathbreaker is, first, you need to have an oath to break. Assuming your DM doesn’t worry about the rp aspects and just lets you go for it. The other thing is remember their aura buffs all undead and fiends. Even ones who are fighting against you.
The thing with oathbreaker is, first, you need to have an oath to break. Assuming your DM doesn’t worry about the rp aspects and just lets you go for it. The other thing is remember their aura buffs all undead and fiends. Even ones who are fighting against you.
From a RP point of view it would be the oath I took to my Warlock patron. I know that is kind of sus but thematically it kind of fits.
The thing with oathbreaker is, first, you need to have an oath to break. Assuming your DM doesn’t worry about the rp aspects and just lets you go for it. The other thing is remember their aura buffs all undead and fiends. Even ones who are fighting against you.
From a RP point of view it would be the oath I took to my Warlock patron. I know that is kind of sus but thematically it kind of fits.
I'm going on pure speculation here, but you're pretty much playing this as an eldritch blaster with support from the fighter chassis, war magic, and possibly eldritch strike? It sounds solid enough to work, but I feel like you could improve on it a good deal. Feat wise, drow magic doesn't seem as useful as good ol' fey touched, and if you want detect magic, why not rush your 2nd warlock level and get eldritch sight along with agonizing blast?
Now, if you're not planning on relying on war magic, why not go for the 11th level in fighter for another extra attack? It's such a spike in power, you're shooting yourself in the foot by not getting it. You could even do fighter 11/ warlock 2/ paladin 7 for the aura and you'd be set because your main stat's 20 at least.
Sorry, I had the sheet set to campaign only. It is public now.
She already has Fey Touched with Dissonant Whispers. She took that at fighter 4. She is a Gish build and I want a lot of spells. The campaign is low treasure. The only magic item she has at 6th level is a scroll of Burning Hands. She is also still in her chainmail she got at 1st level. Typically she fights with a Lance and uses a Warhammer 2-handed as her backup weapon.
Right now she is a level 5 Eldritch Knight/level 1 undead warlock. Key stats are 18 Charisma, 16 Strength and 8 Intelligence. So her fighter spells are all stuff without a save and mostly defensive (Absorb Elements, Protection From Evil and Good, Shield, Find Familiar, Booming Blade, Mage Hand). Charisma works for her Drow spells and Warlock Spells (and Paladin spells in the future)
She has Eldritch Blast, Green Flame Blade, Cause Fear and Hex from Warlock. She does use Eldritch Blast, but does not have agonizing blast yet so she is better in melee then she is using EB right now. She is one of 3 melee characters in the 6-person party (Barbarian-Fighter, Paladin, Artificer, Ranged Ranger, Druid). Once she gets AB and War Magic she will basically be able to go either melee or ranged and be pretty effective.
I am going to use War Magic with Eldritch Blast, Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade once that is online. That is why I am not taking a 2nd level in Warlock now, I don't want to delay War Magic. I also want to get Shadow Blade as soon as possible, since magic weapons are hard to come by.
After Fighter 7 I plan on taking Warlock 2 to get Agonizing Blast and Devils Sight (I have Darkness as a Drow so Devil's sight is a natural).
The reason Paladin is for the extra fighting style and the ability to smite. The 11th level fighter 3rd attack would be useful, but it would clash with War Magic and I figure I could do almost as well with Divine Smite available. War Magic and Booming Blade is going to do more damage than a 3rd attack typically.
The reason Paladin is for the extra fighting style and the ability to smite. The 11th level fighter feature would be useful, but it would clash with War Magic and I figure I could do almost as well with Divine Smite available. War Magic and Booming Blade is going to do more damage than
In all the time I've played, I've never seen the darkness+devil sight combo pay off as much as the players would hope it would. Takes too much set up, and it's prone to getting in the way of allies. That, or enemies are just built to counter it with tremor sense or true sight or whatver at higher levels. Maybe I've seen it pay off once now that I think about it. Still, too few that I don't think it's a good idea.
You'd be better off skipping the drow magic feat and increasing strength instead if you plan on using your melee as often as your EBs. Though, I'd say you'd be better off rushing that 2nd warlock level to get AB online asap. It'd be your best damage option, albeit it would come at the cost of delaying war magic by another level while encouraging you to play more as ranged than melee.
The reason Paladin is for the extra fighting style and the ability to smite. The 11th level fighter feature would be useful, but it would clash with War Magic and I figure I could do almost as well with Divine Smite available. War Magic and Booming Blade is going to do more damage than
In all the time I've played, I've never seen the darkness+devil sight combo pay off as much as the players would hope it would. Takes too much set up, and it's prone to getting in the way of allies. That, or enemies are just built to counter it with tremor sense or true sight or whatver at higher levels. Maybe I've seen it pay off once now that I think about it. Still, too few that I don't think it's a good idea.
You'd be better off skipping the drow magic feat and increasing strength instead if you plan on using your melee as often as your EBs. Though, I'd say you'd be better off rushing that 2nd warlock level to get AB online asap. It'd be your best damage option, albeit it would come at the cost of delaying war magic by another level while encouraging you to play more as ranged than melee.
Her Wizard spells and Form of Dread play better towards melee too. With shield her AC is significantly higher than the other martials, so being in melee takes attacks off of other martials who have a lower AC. Even with AB, War Magic/GFB is going to keep up with Warmagic/EB pretty well as long as I can land secondary damage.
IME a 16 strength is fine on a melee character all the way to level 20. I might take an ASI in strength eventually, but it will be after I max Charisma and pick up Warcaster. I don't think 1 more point of damage is worth the 2nd level spell and 3rd level spell I get from Drow Magic or the boost to form of dread save that I get with Charisma.
I agree about Devil's sight/darkness as general tactic, but that is not my intent. I have Darkness and can sast it for free, that is not much of a choice. Most often I've seen Darkness used effectively it is on enemies with gaze attacks or casters and in both cases it has really been independant of Devil's sight. In those situations it is usually good to blind the enemy. Devil's Sight would only help me in that regard.
My questions are really around the Paladin subclass. The rest of the build is pretty set and working well so far.
I am playing a Drow Eldritch Knight/Undead Warlock, currently level 5/1 in a 1-20 campaign. I plan to take her to level 8/2 and then pick up 8 Paladin levels and the last 2 levels in Fighter. So she will end as Fighter 10/Warlock 2/Paladin 8.
Here is her current character sheet:
Tia's Character Sheet - D&D Beyond (dndbeyond.com)
She is going to pick up Drow High Magic Feat at Fighter 6 and then a Charisma ASI for 20 at level Fighter 8. Fighting style is currently defense, but will change to Blind Fighting at Fighter 6 and superior technique at Fighter 8 and then take defense again as a Paladin 2.
So I am debating whether she should go Conquest or Oathbreaker. Her Patron is a Baelorn and oathbreaker makes some thematic sense regarding her Patron. Conquest makes thematic sense too, but will be a little more difficult in the campaign.
She is all about frightening enemies, and Conquest has an awesome Fear lock ability. Oathbreaker will give her +5 damage on her attacks. These don't come until 17th level, so I am not sure how much I should put into them.
At earlier levels they have a similar Channel Divinity frightened option, Oathbreakers is a little better. Niether of the other CD options are very good. Oathbreaker will be mostly useless because the CR will be low. The Conquest Paladin basically turns 1 miss into a hit, which is underwhelming as well.
Neither has great spells for this build, especially since she will already have Armor of Agathys (on Conquest) as a Warlock and Darkness (on Oath Breaker) as a Drow. Hold Person is probably the best spell on both lists, but is a little underwhelming.
Advice, suggestions?
I can't access that character sheet.
I'm going on pure speculation here, but you're pretty much playing this as an eldritch blaster with support from the fighter chassis, war magic, and possibly eldritch strike? It sounds solid enough to work, but I feel like you could improve on it a good deal. Feat wise, drow magic doesn't seem as useful as good ol' fey touched, and if you want detect magic, why not rush your 2nd warlock level and get eldritch sight along with agonizing blast?
Now, if you're not planning on relying on war magic, why not go for the 11th level in fighter for another extra attack? It's such a spike in power, you're shooting yourself in the foot by not getting it. You could even do fighter 11/ warlock 2/ paladin 7 for the aura and you'd be set because your main stat's 20 at least.
What exactly are you wanting to accomplish in combat with this build? Could give us a better idea of how to make recommendations for you.
The thing with oathbreaker is, first, you need to have an oath to break. Assuming your DM doesn’t worry about the rp aspects and just lets you go for it. The other thing is remember their aura buffs all undead and fiends. Even ones who are fighting against you.
From a RP point of view it would be the oath I took to my Warlock patron. I know that is kind of sus but thematically it kind of fits.
Yeah, definitely run that one by your DM.
Sorry, I had the sheet set to campaign only. It is public now.
She already has Fey Touched with Dissonant Whispers. She took that at fighter 4. She is a Gish build and I want a lot of spells. The campaign is low treasure. The only magic item she has at 6th level is a scroll of Burning Hands. She is also still in her chainmail she got at 1st level. Typically she fights with a Lance and uses a Warhammer 2-handed as her backup weapon.
Right now she is a level 5 Eldritch Knight/level 1 undead warlock. Key stats are 18 Charisma, 16 Strength and 8 Intelligence. So her fighter spells are all stuff without a save and mostly defensive (Absorb Elements, Protection From Evil and Good, Shield, Find Familiar, Booming Blade, Mage Hand). Charisma works for her Drow spells and Warlock Spells (and Paladin spells in the future)
She has Eldritch Blast, Green Flame Blade, Cause Fear and Hex from Warlock. She does use Eldritch Blast, but does not have agonizing blast yet so she is better in melee then she is using EB right now. She is one of 3 melee characters in the 6-person party (Barbarian-Fighter, Paladin, Artificer, Ranged Ranger, Druid). Once she gets AB and War Magic she will basically be able to go either melee or ranged and be pretty effective.
I am going to use War Magic with Eldritch Blast, Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade once that is online. That is why I am not taking a 2nd level in Warlock now, I don't want to delay War Magic. I also want to get Shadow Blade as soon as possible, since magic weapons are hard to come by.
In all the time I've played, I've never seen the darkness+devil sight combo pay off as much as the players would hope it would. Takes too much set up, and it's prone to getting in the way of allies. That, or enemies are just built to counter it with tremor sense or true sight or whatver at higher levels. Maybe I've seen it pay off once now that I think about it. Still, too few that I don't think it's a good idea.
You'd be better off skipping the drow magic feat and increasing strength instead if you plan on using your melee as often as your EBs. Though, I'd say you'd be better off rushing that 2nd warlock level to get AB online asap. It'd be your best damage option, albeit it would come at the cost of delaying war magic by another level while encouraging you to play more as ranged than melee.
Her Wizard spells and Form of Dread play better towards melee too. With shield her AC is significantly higher than the other martials, so being in melee takes attacks off of other martials who have a lower AC. Even with AB, War Magic/GFB is going to keep up with Warmagic/EB pretty well as long as I can land secondary damage.
IME a 16 strength is fine on a melee character all the way to level 20. I might take an ASI in strength eventually, but it will be after I max Charisma and pick up Warcaster. I don't think 1 more point of damage is worth the 2nd level spell and 3rd level spell I get from Drow Magic or the boost to form of dread save that I get with Charisma.
I agree about Devil's sight/darkness as general tactic, but that is not my intent. I have Darkness and can sast it for free, that is not much of a choice. Most often I've seen Darkness used effectively it is on enemies with gaze attacks or casters and in both cases it has really been independant of Devil's sight. In those situations it is usually good to blind the enemy. Devil's Sight would only help me in that regard.
My questions are really around the Paladin subclass. The rest of the build is pretty set and working well so far.
Fair enough. I’d recommend conquest for the aura
I'd go Conquest as well... and if you really want to add more spells, go Blessed Warrior and pick up two Cleric cantrips.