I really love warlocks, the flavor the spells the feel. But I've strayed away because I want to play it as a pure spellcaster/spell blaster class and the small number of slots always made me worried.
Is a purely spell slinger warlock viable without having to fall back on going into melee or just spamming eldritch blast?
(As a note: I do know eldritch blasters can pack out quite a punch but asking for spellcaster not EB dependent)
I really love warlocks, the flavor the spells the feel. But I've strayed away because I want to play it as a pure spellcaster/spell blaster class and the small number of slots always made me worried.
Is a purely spell slinger warlock viable without having to fall back on going into melee or just spamming eldritch blast?
(As a note: I do know eldritch blasters can pack out quite a punch but asking for spellcaster not EB dependent)
My suggestion then is to take pact of the tome and emphasize ritual casts, charms and board control. But most importantly, be the character who does a lot of identify casting and be the curator of magical knowledge and items for the party. Find some fireball scrolls? Yours. Staff of defense? Yours. Wand of magic missiles? Yours.
If you do get into combat and can't use items, you've still got EB, but also Ray of frost (debuff is nice) and maybe take something like Fey Ancestry.
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May the gentle moonlinght guide you to greater wisdom
The warlock will inevitably have to fall back on its cantrips during combat. It will only have 2 spell slots per short rest (+1 per long rest with rod of the pact keeper) until level 11.
Yeah most of the time you'll be casting Eldritch Blast (EB). It's far and away the most powerful cantrip in the game, especially when you take the Eldritch Invocation, Agonizing Blast. That will let you add your Charisma modifier when you deal damage with Eldritch Blast. You gain beams as you level up meaning you get to add this damage multiple times. For example, at level 5 you get two beams per Eldritch Blast cast. That will mean you'll get to add your charisma modifier (probably +4 by this point) twice. It's comparable to a fighter in terms of damage output. You'll often use your bonus action and one of those spells to cast Hex (which when upcast basically lets you essentially recast it forever for free).
It's not a typical caster because of the limited spell slots but on the flip side you'll be casting EB a lot which does pretty great damage. You'll have a lot of useful invocatoins that can change how your EB functions, provides other spells to cast for free, or do all sorts of other things. You certainly don't have to be a melee warlock. That is one possible build but in reality there are plenty of options. You could take Pact of the Chain to get a little imp or some other cool pet, or you could alternatively take Pact of the Tome to gain some ritual spells.
The other option for a non-melee Warlock is create an archer Warlock using the Improved Pact Weapon Invocation and summoning a ranged weapon such as a Longbow. This has a few advantages over Eldritch Blast: you can bond with a magic bow as your pact weapon, you can use the Sharpshooter feat with your pact weapon, and you can Eldritch Smite your enemies at considerable range.
I'm currently playing a Warlock of this type (Archfey BladeLock) and I can recommend it.
The other option for a non-melee Warlock is create an archer Warlock using the Improved Pact Weapon Invocation and summoning a ranged weapon such as a Longbow. This has a few advantages over Eldritch Blast: you can bond with a magic bow as your pact weapon, you can use the Sharpshooter feat with your pact weapon, and you can Eldritch Smite your enemies at considerable range.
I'm currently playing a Warlock of this type (Archfey BladeLock) and I can recommend it.
I really love warlocks, the flavor the spells the feel. But I've strayed away because I want to play it as a pure spellcaster/spell blaster class and the small number of slots always made me worried.
Is a purely spell slinger warlock viable without having to fall back on going into melee or just spamming eldritch blast?
(As a note: I do know eldritch blasters can pack out quite a punch but asking for spellcaster not EB dependent)
Not really, as you only get a VERY limited number of spell slots, a lot of your time would be spent casting EB.
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My suggestion then is to take pact of the tome and emphasize ritual casts, charms and board control. But most importantly, be the character who does a lot of identify casting and be the curator of magical knowledge and items for the party. Find some fireball scrolls? Yours. Staff of defense? Yours. Wand of magic missiles? Yours.
If you do get into combat and can't use items, you've still got EB, but also Ray of frost (debuff is nice) and maybe take something like Fey Ancestry.
May the gentle moonlinght guide you to greater wisdom
The warlock will inevitably have to fall back on its cantrips during combat. It will only have 2 spell slots per short rest (+1 per long rest with rod of the pact keeper) until level 11.
Yeah most of the time you'll be casting Eldritch Blast (EB). It's far and away the most powerful cantrip in the game, especially when you take the Eldritch Invocation, Agonizing Blast. That will let you add your Charisma modifier when you deal damage with Eldritch Blast. You gain beams as you level up meaning you get to add this damage multiple times. For example, at level 5 you get two beams per Eldritch Blast cast. That will mean you'll get to add your charisma modifier (probably +4 by this point) twice. It's comparable to a fighter in terms of damage output. You'll often use your bonus action and one of those spells to cast Hex (which when upcast basically lets you essentially recast it forever for free).
It's not a typical caster because of the limited spell slots but on the flip side you'll be casting EB a lot which does pretty great damage. You'll have a lot of useful invocatoins that can change how your EB functions, provides other spells to cast for free, or do all sorts of other things. You certainly don't have to be a melee warlock. That is one possible build but in reality there are plenty of options. You could take Pact of the Chain to get a little imp or some other cool pet, or you could alternatively take Pact of the Tome to gain some ritual spells.
The other option for a non-melee Warlock is create an archer Warlock using the Improved Pact Weapon Invocation and summoning a ranged weapon such as a Longbow. This has a few advantages over Eldritch Blast: you can bond with a magic bow as your pact weapon, you can use the Sharpshooter feat with your pact weapon, and you can Eldritch Smite your enemies at considerable range.
I'm currently playing a Warlock of this type (Archfey BladeLock) and I can recommend it.
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This is a valid option, and some will enjoy it. Note that you will need to invest multiple invocations and feats, and the bow will never give a pure Warlock 3rd or 4th attackes like Agonizing Blast will There are some good points made at https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/49851/optimal-dragonborn-warlock-for-dpr-ac-with-blade-pact-and-fiend-patron and at http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?405325-Eldritch-Blast-vs-Longbow-(warlock-vs-fighter-archer) and at https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/55271/optimal-blade-pact-warlock-with-fiend-patron-for-dpr-ac-without-multiclassing and even https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/6196e6/best_archer_possible_without_ua/