So the basic idea here isn't that new. Using a level or two of barbarian to steal rage, armor prof, reckless attack, and danger sense. Mixing with Pact of the blade warlock and concentrating on non-concentration spells and abilities. Pretty standard Str/Cha based pact of the blade build except dex only needs to go to 14 for medium armor. Point buy of (15 str, 13 Dex, 9 Con, 8 Int, 11 Wis, 15 Cha for a Triton build).
I am finding the best synergy both rules and flavor between Undead Lock and Ancestor Barbarian.
At this point I would characterize this build as interesting/fun, but not quite broken. 3 levels of barb leads to giving up a lot of lock power, but they also work OK with the pact of the blade and Undead fun.
AC meets normal hexblade or barbarian AC.
To hit is a hair lower compared to straight barbarian (improved pact weapon would close the gap), and comparable to normal blade lock (worse than a hexblade). Damage is pretty normal here with eldritch smite available for massive burst.
Out of combat toys are much improved with Barb skills and Lock spells. HP given the temp points from form of dread or armor of agathys is about neutral to normal barb.
Death Ward on a barbarian is flat out awesome
Brutal critical is more than made up by Grave touched.
Feral instinct (adv on init/ no surprise round) and the increased movements are the big losses. You instead have spells and a real ranged option with EB+AB
Drow half/elf would be a fun one here. +1 str/+1 dex/+2 Cha and drow bonus spells.
my main character these days is a Lizardfolk Undead Blade 'Lock, Barbarian (probably going Bear, but Ancestor has some real appeal), and so far it's been a blast. There's tons of synergy, and I don't feel like I've been giving up anything. I'm most likely going 6/6, and haven't yet decided which way to go after level 12...
your stats: drop your CHA by a point (14 CHA is fine for Pact of the Blade, and as you're going to be Raging, you don't want to lean too hard on CHA), and then switch things up and bump up your CON... you're going to want more HP, and a 9 CON is going to hurt.
I'd suggest starting with Warlock at first level for the Saves (your STR and DEX are going to be good enough that you'll have decent saves there anyway), and then pick up a level of Barbarian... now you have the key features of your character locked. Then pick one class to get to level 5 and you have an ASI and your second attack before you do anything else.
Neat ideas. The 9 con was really based around the Triton (since they get +1) and abusing Armor of Agathys for bonus HP on someone with a reasonable AC. I like the thought on Warlock first to grab different saves.
You absolutely get the basics of the build though. 1 level of lock, 1 level of barb and then to 5th in Warlock before taking a 2nd or 3rd level in barbarian. I would definitely need to playtest how raging at low levels helped the HP situation of a bladelock.
From my experience, it's been great... and I've been main tanking (with minimal healing) the whole campaign - currently 5 'lock, 2 Barb. Between AoA, Rage, and FoD, I haven't gone down once (although there have been a few close calls...). Now that my HP are jumping up as I level up Barb, esp if I end up going Bear, I expect that will only improve drastically.
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So the basic idea here isn't that new. Using a level or two of barbarian to steal rage, armor prof, reckless attack, and danger sense. Mixing with Pact of the blade warlock and concentrating on non-concentration spells and abilities.
Pretty standard Str/Cha based pact of the blade build except dex only needs to go to 14 for medium armor. Point buy of (15 str, 13 Dex, 9 Con, 8 Int, 11 Wis, 15 Cha for a Triton build).
I am finding the best synergy both rules and flavor between Undead Lock and Ancestor Barbarian.
At this point I would characterize this build as interesting/fun, but not quite broken. 3 levels of barb leads to giving up a lot of lock power, but they also work OK with the pact of the blade and Undead fun.
AC meets normal hexblade or barbarian AC.
To hit is a hair lower compared to straight barbarian (improved pact weapon would close the gap), and comparable to normal blade lock (worse than a hexblade). Damage is pretty normal here with eldritch smite available for massive burst.
Out of combat toys are much improved with Barb skills and Lock spells. HP given the temp points from form of dread or armor of agathys is about neutral to normal barb.
Death Ward on a barbarian is flat out awesome
Brutal critical is more than made up by Grave touched.
Feral instinct (adv on init/ no surprise round) and the increased movements are the big losses. You instead have spells and a real ranged option with EB+AB
Drow half/elf would be a fun one here. +1 str/+1 dex/+2 Cha and drow bonus spells.
my main character these days is a Lizardfolk Undead Blade 'Lock, Barbarian (probably going Bear, but Ancestor has some real appeal), and so far it's been a blast. There's tons of synergy, and I don't feel like I've been giving up anything. I'm most likely going 6/6, and haven't yet decided which way to go after level 12...
a couple of other notes -
your stats: drop your CHA by a point (14 CHA is fine for Pact of the Blade, and as you're going to be Raging, you don't want to lean too hard on CHA), and then switch things up and bump up your CON... you're going to want more HP, and a 9 CON is going to hurt.
I'd suggest starting with Warlock at first level for the Saves (your STR and DEX are going to be good enough that you'll have decent saves there anyway), and then pick up a level of Barbarian... now you have the key features of your character locked. Then pick one class to get to level 5 and you have an ASI and your second attack before you do anything else.
Neat ideas. The 9 con was really based around the Triton (since they get +1) and abusing Armor of Agathys for bonus HP on someone with a reasonable AC. I like the thought on Warlock first to grab different saves.
You absolutely get the basics of the build though. 1 level of lock, 1 level of barb and then to 5th in Warlock before taking a 2nd or 3rd level in barbarian. I would definitely need to playtest how raging at low levels helped the HP situation of a bladelock.
From my experience, it's been great... and I've been main tanking (with minimal healing) the whole campaign - currently 5 'lock, 2 Barb. Between AoA, Rage, and FoD, I haven't gone down once (although there have been a few close calls...). Now that my HP are jumping up as I level up Barb, esp if I end up going Bear, I expect that will only improve drastically.