Hi I'm gonna play Tomb of Anihilation and i got some questions to you for advice. Our DM allow us to roll for stats so i got at start: Str 11 Dex 17 Con 15 Int 14 Wis 13 Cha 16 -> after half elf bonus Str 11 Dex 18 Con 16 Int 14 Wis 13 Cha 18 I want to make Half Elf Warlock but can't pick one nice patron. I wanna play warlock based on Eldritch Blast and some dmg utilty spells. So i'm gonna pick pact of tome for some good rituals and still can't make choice of patron. I thought about Hexblade for nice curse wich can scale with Hex spell making E. Blast more enemy melting. Also use Arcane Focus with shield make me more durable in case of facing some monsters when they close to me. I saw that question: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/class-forums/warlock/9987-question-about-hexblade-accursed-specter-in-tomb So i though that some other patron woud make that warlock same potent but can't make my mind to chose one.
Your three cantrips, if you pick Shillelagh as one of them it makes a great melee backup.
Bonus Action to Shillelagh and Action for Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade. Damage scales well with lvl.
For your starting Ritual spells I recommend Find Familiar and Detect Magic. Familiars are great for single target attack spells. Detect Magic will let's you cast as a Ritual. You will be spending a lot of money on spell scrolls.
As for Patrons.
Hex Blade is it you want to be in mêlée or at least weilding a Shield.
Celestial is great. It can help keep the party up and if you focus on Radiant and Fire spells you get a bonus to damage. Take Firebolt as a Tome cantrip. It eventually gives Temp HP to everyone.
Old Ones are odd.
Fiend on great offensively and gives you Fireball.
Undying could actually be good in Tomb of Annihilation. There are a lot of undead, and you can keep a party member alive.
Given the fluff with the Soul Monger. Undying, Celestial, and Fiend would have a lot of impetus to fix the problem.
The Great Old One Patron, in my opinion, is best when used with terrain control features. Toss up some Tentacles, use eldritch blast to push and pull the monsters into the grasp. Takes some level of tactical level thinking with the ground and positioning, but can be devastating when it goes off. I also like to add summoning magics to this, and run a lot of mind control.
Fey Pact is best when you want to focus on more enchantment / illusionist magic. Do you want to be an illusionist?
Fiend is best for direct damage.
Celestial and Undying are healers, but different ways of doing it. Either way, could be fun, depending on how you run it.
Hexblade, despite the name, can be used without the blade pact. If you do, then you can focus on Curses and you can also get a specter as a pseudo-familiar. Very fun. You won't be good at direct damage as a fiend pact (lack of fireball-class spells), but you can easily fill up on other spells to use your limited slots with to do a variety of fun things.
If you use a shield and a weapon or focus in the other hand, you'll need the War Caster feat to cast Eldritch Blast because the spell has somatic components.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the hand which holds your material components (namely, your focus) and the hand which casts somatic components can be the same one. So if you take the Invocation from Xanathar's that lets you use your Pact Blade as your focus, you should be good. My DM's been letting my cleric cast spells just fine with a mace in one hand in a shield in the other, because I point out in every flavor description of my character that my shield doubles as my holy symbol.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the hand which holds your material components (namely, your focus) and the hand which casts somatic components can be the same one.
This is correct. They can be the same hand. The only caveat is that the hand must be a free hand. If it has a shield or a sword in one hand it isn't free.
You are wielding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other hand. The spell calls for material and somatic components. Your shield, in the case of a Cleric or Paladin, or weapon from the invocation, in the case of the Warlock, takes care of the material components but you still have to make hand gestures. How do you make spellcasting hand gestures with a sword or shield in your hand?
RAW I think that passages that states: "A spellcaster must have a hand free to access these components, but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components." is to mean that the same FREE hand may be used for both types of components.
Hi
I'm gonna play Tomb of Anihilation and i got some questions to you for advice.
Our DM allow us to roll for stats so i got at start:
Str 11 Dex 17 Con 15 Int 14 Wis 13 Cha 16 -> after half elf bonus Str 11 Dex 18 Con 16 Int 14 Wis 13 Cha 18
I want to make Half Elf Warlock but can't pick one nice patron. I wanna play warlock based on Eldritch Blast and some dmg utilty spells. So i'm gonna pick pact of tome for some good rituals and still can't make choice of patron. I thought about Hexblade for nice curse wich can scale with Hex spell making E. Blast more enemy melting. Also use Arcane Focus with shield make me more durable in case of facing some monsters when they close to me.
I saw that question: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/class-forums/warlock/9987-question-about-hexblade-accursed-specter-in-tomb
So i though that some other patron woud make that warlock same potent but can't make my mind to chose one.
Things to think about for Pact of the Tome.
Your three cantrips, if you pick Shillelagh as one of them it makes a great melee backup.
Bonus Action to Shillelagh and Action for Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade. Damage scales well with lvl.
For your starting Ritual spells I recommend Find Familiar and Detect Magic. Familiars are great for single target attack spells. Detect Magic will let's you cast as a Ritual. You will be spending a lot of money on spell scrolls.
As for Patrons.
Hex Blade is it you want to be in mêlée or at least weilding a Shield.
Celestial is great. It can help keep the party up and if you focus on Radiant and Fire spells you get a bonus to damage. Take Firebolt as a Tome cantrip. It eventually gives Temp HP to everyone.
Old Ones are odd.
Fiend on great offensively and gives you Fireball.
Undying could actually be good in Tomb of Annihilation. There are a lot of undead, and you can keep a party member alive.
Given the fluff with the Soul Monger. Undying, Celestial, and Fiend would have a lot of impetus to fix the problem.
The Great Old One Patron, in my opinion, is best when used with terrain control features. Toss up some Tentacles, use eldritch blast to push and pull the monsters into the grasp. Takes some level of tactical level thinking with the ground and positioning, but can be devastating when it goes off. I also like to add summoning magics to this, and run a lot of mind control.
Fey Pact is best when you want to focus on more enchantment / illusionist magic. Do you want to be an illusionist?
Fiend is best for direct damage.
Celestial and Undying are healers, but different ways of doing it. Either way, could be fun, depending on how you run it.
Hexblade, despite the name, can be used without the blade pact. If you do, then you can focus on Curses and you can also get a specter as a pseudo-familiar. Very fun. You won't be good at direct damage as a fiend pact (lack of fireball-class spells), but you can easily fill up on other spells to use your limited slots with to do a variety of fun things.
If you use a shield and a weapon or focus in the other hand, you'll need the War Caster feat to cast Eldritch Blast because the spell has somatic components.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the hand which holds your material components (namely, your focus) and the hand which casts somatic components can be the same one. So if you take the Invocation from Xanathar's that lets you use your Pact Blade as your focus, you should be good. My DM's been letting my cleric cast spells just fine with a mace in one hand in a shield in the other, because I point out in every flavor description of my character that my shield doubles as my holy symbol.
This is correct. They can be the same hand. The only caveat is that the hand must be a free hand. If it has a shield or a sword in one hand it isn't free.
You are wielding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other hand. The spell calls for material and somatic components. Your shield, in the case of a Cleric or Paladin, or weapon from the invocation, in the case of the Warlock, takes care of the material components but you still have to make hand gestures. How do you make spellcasting hand gestures with a sword or shield in your hand?
RAW I think that passages that states: "A spellcaster must have a hand free to access these components, but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components." is to mean that the same FREE hand may be used for both types of components.
https://reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/40pf5d/question_about_divine_spellcasting_and_the_war/cyw2j7u?context=3
I apologize. I'm incorrect. Per Sage Advice, you can cast a spell that has both M AND S components but NOT a spell that only has S components.