Is there an optimal build for doing a warlock with a Bow? I was thinking about doing Fiend or Hexblade as my pact, but I do not know if it would work very well? Any thoughts?
Yup, it is fairly easy to do. Just take your traditional melee Hexblade build and replace Great Weapon Master amd Polearm Master with Sharpshooter and Crossbow Expert, however this requires you to use a hand crossbow in order to get the sweet bonus action attack. One thing to note is if you do try the Hexbow route, Eldritch Smite does not play nice with ranged attacks as knocking your target prone will usually give you disadvantage to your attacks against them (unless you are in their face).
Fiend Patron is a bit hard to pull off because you will need DEX to help you hit.
DEX being needed isn't really a problem for an archerlock. You don't need to keep charisma up. You use your spell slots mostly for eldritch smiting, so they won't care about your charisma score. For spells, you focus on utility things rather than combat things. I absolutely intend to play an archer celestial lock at some point.
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DEX being needed isn't really a problem for an archerlock. You don't need to keep charisma up. You use your spell slots mostly for eldritch smiting, so they won't care about your charisma score. For spells, you focus on utility things rather than combat things. I absolutely intend to play an archer celestial lock at some point.
In my personal opinion and this is just my opinion, if you are going to play a Bowlock and just have spells for utility, you are better off just playing a Ranger.
The best “bowlocks” I’ve seen used hex, darkness, and eldritch blast all of the accompanying Invocations,* Spell sniper + War Caster, and just pretended really, really hard that it was a bow. Works every time.
I mean, there are advantages and disadvantages for bow-locks over, say, rangers. Hexblade’s curse and a free magic weapon make the lock still decent at weapon attacks. But yeah, if you are going to rely on smites, then you just have so few spells. Even fewer if you’re going down the darkness (around you rather than the target, for the rest of your group’s sake)/devils sight or shadow of moil routes. And to make a decent bow lock, you have to invest so many invocations into just weapon use that you don’t really have a lot of room for the more interesting utility invocations. With all that being said, I decided to go with Ranger anyway in my latest campaign.
Pretending to be a spellbow is also an option, and might even be more rewarding than actually going the hex blade route - mostly because then you don’t have to dump so many of your warlock resources into making weapons work (though you do have to dump some into making Eldritch Blast worth while).
Just a point on something Thelonleymagi said above: Eldritch Smite is fine with ranged attacks because you can simply choose not to knock your target prone if you don’t want them to be prone — the ability says you can knock the target prone, giving you choice. And even so, it isn’t hard to come up with some reasons that maybe a ranged character would find advantages to knocking a target prone — certainly on the last attack of their turn, anyway.
Just to clarify I find nothing wrong with Bowlocks. Merely wanted to point out DEX based Bowlocks are disadvantaged when compared to CHA based Bowlocks. A CHA based Bowlock can do stupid amounts of damage when they hit level 12. +20 damage to every hit from the Sharpshooter and Lifedrinker combo (CHA modifier is included)? Yes please :D
However the reason for going Bowlock over Ranger is because the Bowlock is still a full caster, kind of anyway. And I feel that going DEX based over CHA based just takes away from that aspect too much.
Going to completely re-write this post because I can give more details on my laptop than my phone.
The question of ranger vs bowlock is one of intent. What do you intend to do? If you look at the bowlock as a caster that uses a bow, it's going to look pretty weak. If you view it as an archer that has a bit of magic, it looks strong. That perspective, is key. The bowlock can do some pretty unique things, but with all choices, there's opportunity cost.
One of the examples above was "yeah, you can MAKE a bowlock work, but you have to use all your invocations." So? That's what they are there for. If you're viewing the character as a spell caster, that's bad. If you view it as an ARCHER, it's fantastic; because every one of those invoocations is making you better at what you want to do. Those are resources well spent.
So why would you want to be an archer over a spell caster? It's /easier/ to make damage with an EB blaster. The bowlock can do more things, and while I haven't mathed it out, I suspect that with sharpshooter, it can pump more damage as well. lower floor, higher ceiling.
Smites are really good, better than you might think at first glance. Proning a creature can be huge. It was brought up before that YOU would have disadvantage on that creature. That's true. Your melee companions would have advantage though, so you can use your smite to prone something for your teammates to unload. That's pretty solid. You can prone flyers, and make them take fall damage. Your caster has a melee guy in his face and is in trouble. Prone the guy so he'll have disavdantage on his OA when the caster moves away.
Ranger can't do any of those things. The only real similarity is 2 shots, and hex/hunter's mark wen using a bow, and I am not even certain I'd keep using hex as long on an archer lock as I do with a ranger. Ranger doesn't have anything better to use his spell slots on. The bowlock, does. The bowlock's gimmicky for sure, and will be disappointing to someone who views it as a spell caster. It's not. It's an archer, and it's an excellent, and unique archer.
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.
It seems ironic, but for me, a well built ranger feels more magical than a well built hexblade bow user. Rangers have good spells and a versatility in their casting that warlocks just don't get.
It's probably because the hexblade is just /bland/. There aren't any difficult choices to make, so they all look so cookie cutter. In order to make a warlock really sing, I think you have to make some hard choices to stand out. It's hard to get excited about darkness/devil's sight eldritch blaster #1337.
Personally, the ranger's spell list to me looks uninspiring. I understand why it is what it is, but there's very little on there that I look at and say "I wanna do that". There's power to be found there for certain; I am not trying to imply that ranger spells are weak (they are not). I'm just saying that's not interesting to me. What I'm probably looking for personally, is probably a ranger with access to sorcerer spells. Or even an eldritch Knight with fewer spell school restrictions. I'm not terribly fond of druids and welding their spell list onto a half caster chassis...is less interesting to me than it is to others.
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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.
All this discussion and I realized we actually haven't suggested a build for the OP yet. Well better late than never I guess. My optimal build for a Hexbow would be going Custom Lineage (Variant Human can also work). Using Point Buy I would allocate the stats as follows: STR 8 DEX 14 CON 14 INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 15. The floating +2 I would put into CHA to bump it to 17 and the free feat I will take Crossbow Expert to enable the character to take 2 shots per turn
I would take the Hexblade patron and take Pact of the Blade at level 3. ASIs at 4th level I would take a CHA half feat like Fey Touched to bump CHA to 18. 8th level I would take the Sharpshooter feat and at 12 I would increase CHA to 20.
You can do whatever you like after level 12 as the build is pretty much complete already.
In terms of Invocations you pretty much want everything that has to do with Pact of the Blade.
I'll try to tackle the fiendbow when I get home to work, since I seem to be the biggest advocate for a non-hexblade bowlock.
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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.
It turns out that I am more of a fan of the druid/ranger list than of the warlock list. Warlock spells.... don't really grab my attention like ranger ones do.
For full disclosure, I'd personally build mine differently. I'm not fond of -5/+10 feats, although I hate it less on archers, but I am trying to not let my personal biases color the final product. I believe that smarter people than me have done the math, and over time, sharpshooter out performs not having sharpshooter.
So, I am taking Custom Lineage at level 1, and picking up sharpshooter as my feat. +2 to DEX, because we will be pumping dex to 20. Warlock, fiend (as requested in OP). My starting stats are 8 STR, 16 DEX, 14 CON, 12 INT, 8 WIS, 15 CHA. Eventually I will probably pick up shadow touched, which will allow me to bump cha to 16, but that won't happen until I am at 20 dex likely. For my background I am taking criminal to pick up stealth and acrobatics. I'm going hard at dex, so these fit well, and allows you to take the rogue/scout type role if you party doesn't have one.
For spells, I am generally going to look for things that don't care about my CHA being low. For cantrips, Minor Illusion and Mind Silver are my picks. I'm only taking mind sliver to help set up my other casters in the party, or an emergency attack (it's a save spell, and targets INT. It's nice for when you have disadvantage for example). I'm not going to use it often. If you prefer, you can drop this and pick up another useful out of combat cantrip; I get a lot of mileage out of mending. for my first level spells, I am taking Hex (going to use it often) and something else. Honestly, the other spell doesn't matter because your spell slots are too valuable to use offensively on something other than hex at low level. Comprehend languages might have some solid out of combat value for you.
Combat's simple. bonus action hex, shoot crossbow. When target dies, bonus action to move hex, shoot crossbow some more. Watch your EB spamming warlock friend in the party cry as you out-damage him. At level 2 when he gets agonizing blast it will be your turn to be sad, because he's got d10s and you only have d8's...unless you get some low AC enemies to fight so you can sharpshooter and crush his damage. Make friends with the party cleric, you want him to give you bless so you can sharpshooter more often, reliably.
At level 2, I'd probably /personally/ take fighter to get the archery fighting style. I HATE missing (which is why I am not fond of sharpshooter) and since you're an archer, not a caster, delaying other stuff isn't the END of the world. We'll assume single class though, I just wanted to throw in my personal thought there.
So, warlock 2. We get invocations. YAY! The EB spammer is taking his damage boosting invocations...and you...don't really get anything. This makes us bowlocks sad, but don't despair, it's temporary. I'm probably picking up devil's sight and fiendish vigor. Start off every fight with temp hitpoints; and you will be dropping one of these when you hit three...likely FV. You get another spell, maybe Arms of Hadar to try to break contact if something gets in your face. In reality, you will never use this spell.
Warlock 3. Now...we start to take off. We're taking pact of the blade, because this is where all of our archery goodness comes from. We're going to trade in one of our invocation from level two and pick up Improved Pact Weapon. You're going to use a longbow, because you're an archer, not some peasant crossbowman. (because it has better range, and you don't need a feat to shoot multiple times in a round...important later). Remember the smug look on your EB spamming brethren's face because of his almighty d10 was slightly out-DPSing you when you didn't sharpshooter? Now, you have a +1 weapon to eliminate that gap, unless your DM has given him certain magical implements. You're more accurate, you have equal damage, and the weapon serves as your implement. Life is good. You get second level spells, and there are some good ones to choose from. Dump arms of hadar (since you never use it). Take darkness and another spell. I'm very fond of misty step, mirror image is another great pick. Now you have some options. You can use Hex, with a second level slot, or, if the situation permits, you can stand in a corner somewhere, put darkness on yourself and with devil's sight you've got advantage vs most enemies for those sharpshooter attacks. You can use your feat a little bit more now. If you really /do/ have an EB spammer in the party also, and he's also cheesing it up with darkness/devil's sight, just stand in his darkness and hex. or ask the drow or tiefling in your party to darkness you up so you can hex. Teamwork makes the dreamwork.
Warlock 4. new cantrip. Yay. Magehand is probably my pick. Nothing really of interest here. Maybe booming blade for daggering something in the face that's trying to get at you, because we know that the EB spammer isn't going to push it off you with repelling blast. He's too jealous of you right now, particularly when you use HIS darkness to do his cheese move better than he does. Ditch comprehend languages, because your BM ranger rerolled wizard because his thought his class sucked and he's got that covered now. Pick up whichever of misty step/mirror image you don't already have. Invisibility is great outside combat as well and is worth looking at. Pump Dex.
Warlock 5. Thirsting blade. Shoot that bow twice/round. Third level spells, probably taking fly. Drop devil's sight for eldritch smite. You can pick up DS again later if you really miss it.
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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.
For me it does really have to be hex blade not just because of the charisma bonus but because the spells it gets are the ones you'll really want if you want to emphasise the bow. It gets the smite spells and elemental weapon.
After that it probably has to be the genie. At least it has a feature that can add some bonus elemental damage to one of your hits and you can fly.
The rest of the subclasses really give you nothing to a bow and it will all be down to your invocations and feats.
You dont use the smite spells. You use eldritch smite. the smite spells are generally garbage.
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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.
Nah it's pretty neutral. Basically for branding it's a d6 v.s a d8 but branding doesn't cost an invocation, doesn't knock prone which you may not want to do and does radiant damage which is better in some cases. Banishing smite does more damage at a d10 but comes a bit later and has the banish effect which may be better or worse depending on the situation. Also you can stack them, you can do both eldritch and banishing smite for example.
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Hey,
Is there an optimal build for doing a warlock with a Bow? I was thinking about doing Fiend or Hexblade as my pact, but I do not know if it would work very well? Any thoughts?
Yup, it is fairly easy to do. Just take your traditional melee Hexblade build and replace Great Weapon Master amd Polearm Master with Sharpshooter and Crossbow Expert, however this requires you to use a hand crossbow in order to get the sweet bonus action attack. One thing to note is if you do try the Hexbow route, Eldritch Smite does not play nice with ranged attacks as knocking your target prone will usually give you disadvantage to your attacks against them (unless you are in their face).
Fiend Patron is a bit hard to pull off because you will need DEX to help you hit.
DEX being needed isn't really a problem for an archerlock. You don't need to keep charisma up. You use your spell slots mostly for eldritch smiting, so they won't care about your charisma score. For spells, you focus on utility things rather than combat things. I absolutely intend to play an archer celestial lock at some point.
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
In my personal opinion and this is just my opinion, if you are going to play a Bowlock and just have spells for utility, you are better off just playing a Ranger.
The best “bowlocks” I’ve seen used hex, darkness, and eldritch blast all of the accompanying Invocations,* Spell sniper + War Caster, and just pretended really, really hard that it was a bow. Works every time.
*(Devil’s Sight, Eldritch Spear, etc.)
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I mean, there are advantages and disadvantages for bow-locks over, say, rangers. Hexblade’s curse and a free magic weapon make the lock still decent at weapon attacks. But yeah, if you are going to rely on smites, then you just have so few spells. Even fewer if you’re going down the darkness (around you rather than the target, for the rest of your group’s sake)/devils sight or shadow of moil routes. And to make a decent bow lock, you have to invest so many invocations into just weapon use that you don’t really have a lot of room for the more interesting utility invocations. With all that being said, I decided to go with Ranger anyway in my latest campaign.
Pretending to be a spellbow is also an option, and might even be more rewarding than actually going the hex blade route - mostly because then you don’t have to dump so many of your warlock resources into making weapons work (though you do have to dump some into making Eldritch Blast worth while).
Just a point on something Thelonleymagi said above: Eldritch Smite is fine with ranged attacks because you can simply choose not to knock your target prone if you don’t want them to be prone — the ability says you can knock the target prone, giving you choice. And even so, it isn’t hard to come up with some reasons that maybe a ranged character would find advantages to knocking a target prone — certainly on the last attack of their turn, anyway.
Just to clarify I find nothing wrong with Bowlocks. Merely wanted to point out DEX based Bowlocks are disadvantaged when compared to CHA based Bowlocks. A CHA based Bowlock can do stupid amounts of damage when they hit level 12. +20 damage to every hit from the Sharpshooter and Lifedrinker combo (CHA modifier is included)? Yes please :D
However the reason for going Bowlock over Ranger is because the Bowlock is still a full caster, kind of anyway. And I feel that going DEX based over CHA based just takes away from that aspect too much.
Going to completely re-write this post because I can give more details on my laptop than my phone.
The question of ranger vs bowlock is one of intent. What do you intend to do? If you look at the bowlock as a caster that uses a bow, it's going to look pretty weak. If you view it as an archer that has a bit of magic, it looks strong. That perspective, is key. The bowlock can do some pretty unique things, but with all choices, there's opportunity cost.
One of the examples above was "yeah, you can MAKE a bowlock work, but you have to use all your invocations." So? That's what they are there for. If you're viewing the character as a spell caster, that's bad. If you view it as an ARCHER, it's fantastic; because every one of those invoocations is making you better at what you want to do. Those are resources well spent.
So why would you want to be an archer over a spell caster? It's /easier/ to make damage with an EB blaster. The bowlock can do more things, and while I haven't mathed it out, I suspect that with sharpshooter, it can pump more damage as well. lower floor, higher ceiling.
Smites are really good, better than you might think at first glance. Proning a creature can be huge. It was brought up before that YOU would have disadvantage on that creature. That's true. Your melee companions would have advantage though, so you can use your smite to prone something for your teammates to unload. That's pretty solid. You can prone flyers, and make them take fall damage. Your caster has a melee guy in his face and is in trouble. Prone the guy so he'll have disavdantage on his OA when the caster moves away.
Ranger can't do any of those things. The only real similarity is 2 shots, and hex/hunter's mark wen using a bow, and I am not even certain I'd keep using hex as long on an archer lock as I do with a ranger. Ranger doesn't have anything better to use his spell slots on. The bowlock, does. The bowlock's gimmicky for sure, and will be disappointing to someone who views it as a spell caster. It's not. It's an archer, and it's an excellent, and unique archer.
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
It seems ironic, but for me, a well built ranger feels more magical than a well built hexblade bow user. Rangers have good spells and a versatility in their casting that warlocks just don't get.
It's probably because the hexblade is just /bland/. There aren't any difficult choices to make, so they all look so cookie cutter. In order to make a warlock really sing, I think you have to make some hard choices to stand out. It's hard to get excited about darkness/devil's sight eldritch blaster #1337.
Personally, the ranger's spell list to me looks uninspiring. I understand why it is what it is, but there's very little on there that I look at and say "I wanna do that". There's power to be found there for certain; I am not trying to imply that ranger spells are weak (they are not). I'm just saying that's not interesting to me. What I'm probably looking for personally, is probably a ranger with access to sorcerer spells. Or even an eldritch Knight with fewer spell school restrictions. I'm not terribly fond of druids and welding their spell list onto a half caster chassis...is less interesting to me than it is to others.
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
All this discussion and I realized we actually haven't suggested a build for the OP yet. Well better late than never I guess. My optimal build for a Hexbow would be going Custom Lineage (Variant Human can also work). Using Point Buy I would allocate the stats as follows: STR 8 DEX 14 CON 14 INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 15. The floating +2 I would put into CHA to bump it to 17 and the free feat I will take Crossbow Expert to enable the character to take 2 shots per turn
I would take the Hexblade patron and take Pact of the Blade at level 3. ASIs at 4th level I would take a CHA half feat like Fey Touched to bump CHA to 18. 8th level I would take the Sharpshooter feat and at 12 I would increase CHA to 20.
You can do whatever you like after level 12 as the build is pretty much complete already.
In terms of Invocations you pretty much want everything that has to do with Pact of the Blade.
I'll try to tackle the fiendbow when I get home to work, since I seem to be the biggest advocate for a non-hexblade bowlock.
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
It turns out that I am more of a fan of the druid/ranger list than of the warlock list. Warlock spells.... don't really grab my attention like ranger ones do.
Yeah! I really want to come up with something a little more unorthodox. So any ideas are welcomed!
There are a couple of builds on youtube of a fey wander ranger and warlock combined (usually undead).
For full disclosure, I'd personally build mine differently. I'm not fond of -5/+10 feats, although I hate it less on archers, but I am trying to not let my personal biases color the final product. I believe that smarter people than me have done the math, and over time, sharpshooter out performs not having sharpshooter.
So, I am taking Custom Lineage at level 1, and picking up sharpshooter as my feat. +2 to DEX, because we will be pumping dex to 20. Warlock, fiend (as requested in OP). My starting stats are 8 STR, 16 DEX, 14 CON, 12 INT, 8 WIS, 15 CHA. Eventually I will probably pick up shadow touched, which will allow me to bump cha to 16, but that won't happen until I am at 20 dex likely. For my background I am taking criminal to pick up stealth and acrobatics. I'm going hard at dex, so these fit well, and allows you to take the rogue/scout type role if you party doesn't have one.
For spells, I am generally going to look for things that don't care about my CHA being low. For cantrips, Minor Illusion and Mind Silver are my picks. I'm only taking mind sliver to help set up my other casters in the party, or an emergency attack (it's a save spell, and targets INT. It's nice for when you have disadvantage for example). I'm not going to use it often. If you prefer, you can drop this and pick up another useful out of combat cantrip; I get a lot of mileage out of mending. for my first level spells, I am taking Hex (going to use it often) and something else. Honestly, the other spell doesn't matter because your spell slots are too valuable to use offensively on something other than hex at low level. Comprehend languages might have some solid out of combat value for you.
Combat's simple. bonus action hex, shoot crossbow. When target dies, bonus action to move hex, shoot crossbow some more. Watch your EB spamming warlock friend in the party cry as you out-damage him. At level 2 when he gets agonizing blast it will be your turn to be sad, because he's got d10s and you only have d8's...unless you get some low AC enemies to fight so you can sharpshooter and crush his damage. Make friends with the party cleric, you want him to give you bless so you can sharpshooter more often, reliably.
At level 2, I'd probably /personally/ take fighter to get the archery fighting style. I HATE missing (which is why I am not fond of sharpshooter) and since you're an archer, not a caster, delaying other stuff isn't the END of the world. We'll assume single class though, I just wanted to throw in my personal thought there.
So, warlock 2. We get invocations. YAY! The EB spammer is taking his damage boosting invocations...and you...don't really get anything. This makes us bowlocks sad, but don't despair, it's temporary. I'm probably picking up devil's sight and fiendish vigor. Start off every fight with temp hitpoints; and you will be dropping one of these when you hit three...likely FV. You get another spell, maybe Arms of Hadar to try to break contact if something gets in your face. In reality, you will never use this spell.
Warlock 3. Now...we start to take off. We're taking pact of the blade, because this is where all of our archery goodness comes from. We're going to trade in one of our invocation from level two and pick up Improved Pact Weapon. You're going to use a longbow, because you're an archer, not some peasant crossbowman. (because it has better range, and you don't need a feat to shoot multiple times in a round...important later). Remember the smug look on your EB spamming brethren's face because of his almighty d10 was slightly out-DPSing you when you didn't sharpshooter? Now, you have a +1 weapon to eliminate that gap, unless your DM has given him certain magical implements. You're more accurate, you have equal damage, and the weapon serves as your implement. Life is good. You get second level spells, and there are some good ones to choose from. Dump arms of hadar (since you never use it). Take darkness and another spell. I'm very fond of misty step, mirror image is another great pick. Now you have some options. You can use Hex, with a second level slot, or, if the situation permits, you can stand in a corner somewhere, put darkness on yourself and with devil's sight you've got advantage vs most enemies for those sharpshooter attacks. You can use your feat a little bit more now. If you really /do/ have an EB spammer in the party also, and he's also cheesing it up with darkness/devil's sight, just stand in his darkness and hex. or ask the drow or tiefling in your party to darkness you up so you can hex. Teamwork makes the dreamwork.
Warlock 4. new cantrip. Yay. Magehand is probably my pick. Nothing really of interest here. Maybe booming blade for daggering something in the face that's trying to get at you, because we know that the EB spammer isn't going to push it off you with repelling blast. He's too jealous of you right now, particularly when you use HIS darkness to do his cheese move better than he does. Ditch comprehend languages, because your BM ranger rerolled wizard because his thought his class sucked and he's got that covered now. Pick up whichever of misty step/mirror image you don't already have. Invisibility is great outside combat as well and is worth looking at. Pump Dex.
Warlock 5. Thirsting blade. Shoot that bow twice/round. Third level spells, probably taking fly. Drop devil's sight for eldritch smite. You can pick up DS again later if you really miss it.
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
For me it does really have to be hex blade not just because of the charisma bonus but because the spells it gets are the ones you'll really want if you want to emphasise the bow. It gets the smite spells and elemental weapon.
After that it probably has to be the genie. At least it has a feature that can add some bonus elemental damage to one of your hits and you can fly.
The rest of the subclasses really give you nothing to a bow and it will all be down to your invocations and feats.
Be careful with the smite spells. Two of the four that are on the hex blade list require hits with a melee weapon.
You dont use the smite spells. You use eldritch smite. the smite spells are generally garbage.
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
Nah it's pretty neutral. Basically for branding it's a d6 v.s a d8 but branding doesn't cost an invocation, doesn't knock prone which you may not want to do and does radiant damage which is better in some cases. Banishing smite does more damage at a d10 but comes a bit later and has the banish effect which may be better or worse depending on the situation. Also you can stack them, you can do both eldritch and banishing smite for example.