I have been all over the place picking my Pact of Tome Cantrips. I would love to hear any thoughts or suggestions. I'm trying to get most out of my character. Eldritch Blast is 90% of my attacks. Thus, I'm looking for combat control and utility. I'm leaning toward Mage hand, Thorn Whip, and Vicious Mockery. Also considering Shape Water, Mold Earth, Sacred Flame, and Shocking Grasp. Just curious what others thought of best combo of cantrips for combat control and Utility.
Firstly, don't take cantrips with Pact of the Tome if you can get them from Warlock anyway.
For combat, Shillelagh combined with Booming Blade gives you a magical weapon and scaling damage output.
Guidance is almost a must take for its general "yes you can do the thing" utility.
If you were planning on getting into combat then I'd definitely make space for the Moderately Armored feat for proficiency with medium armor and shields.
I’m more a fan of shocking grasp than shillelagh. I’d rather be able to get away than stand there and hit them harder. But that may depend on your patron. Generally for combat, it’s good to have one that makes an attack roll, which you do with EB, and one that forces a save, so keep that in mind.
And I’d also add mending into the mix of utility cantrips to consider.
Here's my list of the "best" cantrips available, in no particular order:
Eldritch Blast
Minor Illusion
Prestidigitation
Thorn Whip
Thaumaturgy
Toll the Dead
Vicious Mockery
Chill Touch
Mind Sliver
Mage Hand
I'm playing a cantrip focused Warlock(PoT)/Paladin with that whole list, and it's great. I have all of the utility I need, and an assortment of different combat options depending on what I need doing in a fight.
Personally I'd try to avoid more than one that is already on the warlock list and I'd likely avoid all attack cantrips except maybe Mind sliver as since you only have 2 spells most the game per short rest a set up spell to make sure your save or else has a better chance to hit might be worth it. Given the warlocks slow cantrip progression 1 cantrip from their list probably is fine as many want the normal arcane package of minor illusion, prestidigitation and mage hand(I'd consider the telekinesis feat the bonus action shove is solid, and with that no need for mind sliver). So mind sliver to tack that on after eldritch blast for attack cantrips.
After that Guidance. Mold Earth, if you don''t have dark vision and are not taking devils sight some light based one, (light or control flames), shape water, mending. thaumaturgy, message. And I know I said no attack cantrips except mind sliver, but if its a concern a melee one like shocking grasp.
i'm an undead lock playing support/utility in a combat-light campaign. what i took:
guidance - almost mandatory. works for initiative remember. double-check that your DM runs this conventionally. if they're strict about it or limit it somehow, still probably yes, but possibly not.
mending - don't use it often but it solves a problem that can derail your plans with no other fix. you can also use this to keep enemies from using your items including documents, keep NPCs from stealing your vehicle, negotiating ("i'll give you this half now and the other half when i'm safe"), can repair tattered clothes for social situations, or repair ones you tear on purpose to blend in.
light - i don't have darkvision, others often don't have it. looks cool, flavorful, you can get creative with it. in darkness, better than darkvision for 20'. cast it on an enemy, track them.
other top picks
minor illusion - personally i'd only take it if it closely matched my flavor, but it straight-up is a top 3 cantrip, period.
message - you can talk like, almost no matter what, over distance, in secret. this is OP outside of combat and very beneficial in combat. plus you're Charisma Person.
shape water - create and move solid shapes, if you're into utility and it matches flavor, great.
mold earth - less consistent use than shape water but life-saving use and versatile. if you fight a lot, cover ready-to-go for small or medium. if you're small, it's even better for cover.
taking all non-warlock cantrips isn't the most important thing if some or all of the 3 you want are warlock ones. it's a great idea to grab from other classes, but if you wanna make sure you get a 4th warlock cantrip early, go for it.
FWIW, before i took Tome, i did a ranking spreadsheet of all cantrips i might conceivably take, of any party role, gathered from a bunch of different creators and content sites, with probably weird math to average them out 3 different ways, and here's how they ranked before Strixhaven came out (combined average from initial average and weighted average):
tier 1
minor illusion
vicious mockery
guidance
tier 2
prestidigitation
shocking grasp
message
t3
fire bolt
spare the dying
thaumaturgy
chill touch
t4
toll the dead
light
word of radiance
ray of frost
sacred flame
shape water
create bonfire
mind sliver
t5
booming blade
acid spray
mending
gust
mold earth
and if you asked i couldn't tell you how i got there but it's worked for me.
You're right to just stick with EB for attacks. If you have agonizing and/or hex up nothing else is going to come close to it.
You want the rest of your cantrips to be utility since your spellslots/known spells are so limited that you are going to want to save them for when the are most impactful. Tome lets warlocks actually feel like casters out of combat, giving them cantrips and rituals to use that don't depend on their slots.
Guidance: pretty much a must, its just too good
Prestidigitation: The list of stuff this can do is just a full grab bag of tricks that allows a creative player to do tons of magical shenanigans Mage hand: versatile, useful, carry a torch instead of taking the light cantrip, set off traps, place a grappling hook instead of throwing it, etc. Minor illusion: Another with tons of uses that allow the player to be creative. Message: This can solve so many problems, especially if a rogue is your scout and stealths ahead of the party.
Shape water: You can make pretty much any object out of ice up to a 5ft cube. So for example, make a canoe out of ice, then slightly lift the water on the back side to propel you through the water.
*Repelling blast* Makes cantrips like shocking grasp, thorn whip, lightning lure, anywhere from less attractive to so much worse the shouldn't be considered, especially after you get multiple bolts per blast. EB will be doing much more damage, can do multiple forced movements per cast, and moving things out of melee range also moves them out of opportunity attack range.
I have been all over the place picking my Pact of Tome Cantrips. I would love to hear any thoughts or suggestions. I'm trying to get most out of my character. Eldritch Blast is 90% of my attacks. Thus, I'm looking for combat control and utility. I'm leaning toward Mage hand, Thorn Whip, and Vicious Mockery. Also considering Shape Water, Mold Earth, Sacred Flame, and Shocking Grasp. Just curious what others thought of best combo of cantrips for combat control and Utility.
Firstly, don't take cantrips with Pact of the Tome if you can get them from Warlock anyway.
For combat, Shillelagh combined with Booming Blade gives you a magical weapon and scaling damage output.
Guidance is almost a must take for its general "yes you can do the thing" utility.
If you were planning on getting into combat then I'd definitely make space for the Moderately Armored feat for proficiency with medium armor and shields.
So from Warlock I'd take Eldritch Blast, Booming Blade and Mage Hand. From Pact of the Tome I'd definitely take Shillelagh and Guidance. For the third a pure utility cantrip like Mold Earth or Shape Water might be useful.
I’m more a fan of shocking grasp than shillelagh. I’d rather be able to get away than stand there and hit them harder. But that may depend on your patron. Generally for combat, it’s good to have one that makes an attack roll, which you do with EB, and one that forces a save, so keep that in mind.
And I’d also add mending into the mix of utility cantrips to consider.
Here's my list of the "best" cantrips available, in no particular order:
I'm playing a cantrip focused Warlock(PoT)/Paladin with that whole list, and it's great. I have all of the utility I need, and an assortment of different combat options depending on what I need doing in a fight.
Personally I'd try to avoid more than one that is already on the warlock list and I'd likely avoid all attack cantrips except maybe Mind sliver as since you only have 2 spells most the game per short rest a set up spell to make sure your save or else has a better chance to hit might be worth it. Given the warlocks slow cantrip progression 1 cantrip from their list probably is fine as many want the normal arcane package of minor illusion, prestidigitation and mage hand(I'd consider the telekinesis feat the bonus action shove is solid, and with that no need for mind sliver). So mind sliver to tack that on after eldritch blast for attack cantrips.
After that Guidance. Mold Earth, if you don''t have dark vision and are not taking devils sight some light based one, (light or control flames), shape water, mending. thaumaturgy, message. And I know I said no attack cantrips except mind sliver, but if its a concern a melee one like shocking grasp.
i'm an undead lock playing support/utility in a combat-light campaign. what i took:
other top picks
taking all non-warlock cantrips isn't the most important thing if some or all of the 3 you want are warlock ones. it's a great idea to grab from other classes, but if you wanna make sure you get a 4th warlock cantrip early, go for it.
FWIW, before i took Tome, i did a ranking spreadsheet of all cantrips i might conceivably take, of any party role, gathered from a bunch of different creators and content sites, with probably weird math to average them out 3 different ways, and here's how they ranked before Strixhaven came out (combined average from initial average and weighted average):
tier 1
tier 2
t3
t4
t5
and if you asked i couldn't tell you how i got there but it's worked for me.
You're right to just stick with EB for attacks. If you have agonizing and/or hex up nothing else is going to come close to it.
You want the rest of your cantrips to be utility since your spellslots/known spells are so limited that you are going to want to save them for when the are most impactful. Tome lets warlocks actually feel like casters out of combat, giving them cantrips and rituals to use that don't depend on their slots.
Guidance: pretty much a must, its just too good
Prestidigitation: The list of stuff this can do is just a full grab bag of tricks that allows a creative player to do tons of magical shenanigans
Mage hand: versatile, useful, carry a torch instead of taking the light cantrip, set off traps, place a grappling hook instead of throwing it, etc.
Minor illusion: Another with tons of uses that allow the player to be creative.
Message: This can solve so many problems, especially if a rogue is your scout and stealths ahead of the party.
Shape water: You can make pretty much any object out of ice up to a 5ft cube. So for example, make a canoe out of ice, then slightly lift the water on the back side to propel you through the water.
*Repelling blast*
Makes cantrips like shocking grasp, thorn whip, lightning lure, anywhere from less attractive to so much worse the shouldn't be considered, especially after you get multiple bolts per blast.
EB will be doing much more damage, can do multiple forced movements per cast, and moving things out of melee range also moves them out of opportunity attack range.
Exactly what I wanted. Someone else to compare spell list to avoid overlap. Thank you good sir