Characters start at 3 and may choose one non-ASI feat at Lv1
The idea: Shadar Kai Sorc (Divine) 4/X, Warlock (Hexblade) 2, Cleric (Order) 1 -- This person is very much with the Raven Queen
Starting feat: War Caster, Fey Touched at 4th
Hexblade gives weapon/shield proficiency, CHA for hit/dmg, EB, invocations, core warlock spells like hex
Order cleric gives heavy armor proficiency, a skill, and most importantly, Voice of Authority. "If you cast a spell with a spell slot of 1st level or higher and target an ally with the spell, that ally can use their reaction immediately after the spell to make one weapon attack against a creature of your choice that you can see." The domain spells are unfortunately a wash.
So a caster in (potentially) full plate (mithral would help but SK can teleport a bit) with a shield that attacks with CHA, has access to eldritch blast+cha and silvery barbs, which cast on an ally would allow them to make an attack at advantage as a reaction. Throw in fey touched to top out CHA, add an additional teleport, and free access to silvery barbs (RAW casting it with the feat wouldn't trigger Voice since it doesn't use a spell slot). Or, Vortex Warp to throw the *actual* tank where they need to be with the same benefit.
The build does not come "online" til 7th -- Which sucks but would be why I'd want to get to 4th in sorc first for a stronger baseline then start folding in the MCs.
Am I on to something here or am I walking into a bear trap?
How do you plan on playing this character in combat? Do you plan to wear medium or heavy armour? What are you planning to have as a pact weapon? Do to plan your primary attacks to be that or Eldritch blast? What invocations do you plan to take? What spells do you plan to use most? What meta magic do you plan on taking?
To optimise a multiclass you need to think who everything combines, at level 7 you will not have any 3rd level spells which is quite a nerf and I am not sure you gain enough to balance that. You get medium armour and shield proficiency from two sources so one is wasted . Voice of authority in particular requires a build that be using most spell slots buffing melee allies who are happy to use their reaction on an attack..
I have a Sorlock (Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/Celestial Warlock) that's currently L7, so I'll share a few things I noticed.
I took my Warlock levels first, but I'd recommend holding off on multiclassing until after taking your 5th level in Sorcerer, because at L5&6, you'll really feel not having those 3rd level spells. It was painful still relying on Eldritch Blast when hoards of enemies were attacking that I could have easily ended with a Fireball if I hadn't been multiclassed.
Agonizing, Eldritch Blast is great, giving you solid damage comparable to a L1 or L2 spell, as a Cantrip, letting you stay in the fight all day. Definitely get your character's hands into a pair of Illusionists Bracers if you can. Doubling up on your Eldritch Blast output is an enormous boon, but the rarity of the item, might make it harder to get until later. After you have your L3 spells, Eldritch Blast is worth the delay of L4 spells.
Talk to your DM, because RAW, you can get a few extra spell slots each day, because as an Elf, you're completing your Short Rest in 4 hours, which leaves you another 4-6 hours after your long rest, while everyone else is long resting. Some people don't like this exploit, but I can say from experience that it doesn't break the game... You can complete your long rest in 4 hours, convert Sorcery Points to Sorcerer Spell Slots, then Warlock Spell Slots into Sorcery Points, and then those Sorcery Points into more Sorcerer Spell Slots. Then use each of the following hours until everyone gets back up to short rest, ending each short rest with some exercise sufficiently strenuous to end the short rest, and then convert your Warlock Spell Slots into Sorcery Points, and then back into Sorcerer Spell Slots. So by L7, you're starting every day with a few extra L1 spell slots, which you can use for extra utility spells or healing you're otherwise hold back on. This is 100% RAW legal, and it's not fully Coffeelocking, because you are still taking a long rest every night. An extra bonus you can do, is if you think or know that you're going to have a big dungeon crawl the next day, or a boss fight, and you have a couple days to prep, you can long rest for full spell slots, then chain short rests for the whole next day and night, at the end of which you make a Constitution Saving Throw to avoid one level of Exhaustion, which you'll almost certainly pass, since you're proficient in Constitution Saves, and you have a +3 for your Con Modifier (DC10 isn't hard when you're working with a +6 total modifier). You'll be a power house for that day, most likely with no ill effects, but the DC goes up for each long rest skipped, so you'll want to break and take a long rest the next night. And if you take more Warlock levels, you'll get more spell slots and of higher levels for your daily bonus spells.
If you want the Cleric level to give your allies attacks on your turn, go for it, but I think you'd get more out of a third Warlock level, and if you only have three levels in other classes total, and take the rest in Sorcerer, your character can still get the coveted L9 spells at L20, if the game makes it that far.
I wouldn't expect to get what Fayettegamer suggests. The only very rare items I have had before tier 3 (and probably tier 4) are "random loot" Items that are good for my character but far from what I would choose if I was offered "any very rare magic item", and for a warlock centred on eldritch blast illusionist bracers would certainly be one of if not the best item to pick. Doing 8d10+16 (or even 20) damage at level 5 without using any resources is insane, you can even make it 12d10+24 with quickened spell.
If you hope to "coffeelock light" approach your DM in a neutral way "I'd like to try this but do you think it is overpowered?" or "what are your thoughts on sorlocks being able to get more rather that expecting to get it. How optimised are the other PCs going to be? It will be no fun for them if you are far more powerful than the rest of them. I would also note that the con save to avoid exhaustion rule is an optional rule in XGTE so technically the DM can make any rule they like concerning lack of sleep and exhastion and still be withi the core RAW.
Without knowing your plan I would think the cleric dip is suboptimal (It can be a good feature if you build around it but probably not worth a level in another class) you do get heavy armor though is whether the extra AC is worth the lower scores elsewhere that you need for 15 str (or the reduced movement speed) is debateable. How many levels of warlock you want depends on the build, 1 is all you need if you plan on being mostly attacking with weapons (medium armor proficiency and using charisma to attack) though some invocations can be useful. If you want to do a lot of eldritch blasting you will want a second level to get agonizing blast. If you are coffeelocking then 3 levels of warlock doubles the sorcery points you create each short rest.
The build isn't dependent on the Illusionists Bracers, and while Very Rare items are indeed very rare, and my point was that if the player makes it known to DM that this is a wish-list item, the odds of getting it are significantly higher, because the DM knows it's something you want. There are actually also rules for crafting magic items in the game, so there are ways if the DM doesn't put a hard ban on it.
Don't present "coffeelock light" in the context of "do you think it is overpowered", because that predisposes the DM towards that way of thinking. I can assure you that from experience it's not overpowered, as you're still confined to the action economy. Ask the DM if they'll allow back to back short rests, and assure them that the character still long rests regularly, so there will at no point be unlimited spell slots, only a few extra slots daily which counterbalances the multi-level delay on getting higher level spells. This doesn't raise the power of the character, it only extends how long the character can function at its existing level before running out of useful abilities.
When I refer to RAW, I'm referring to what's in the text. It is in the text that the DM has the final say on all rulings, but that's effectively saying the DM's house rules trump the RAW, not that the DM's house rules are the RAW.
The build isn't dependent on the Illusionists Bracers, and while Very Rare items are indeed very rare, and my point was that if the player makes it known to DM that this is a wish-list item, the odds of getting it are significantly higher, because the DM knows it's something you want. There are actually also rules for crafting magic items in the game, so there are ways if the DM doesn't put a hard ban on it.
Don't present "coffeelock light" in the context of "do you think it is overpowered", because that predisposes the DM towards that way of thinking. I can assure you that from experience it's not overpowered, as you're still confined to the action economy. Ask the DM if they'll allow back to back short rests, and assure them that the character still long rests regularly, so there will at no point be unlimited spell slots, only a few extra slots daily which counterbalances the multi-level delay on getting higher level spells. This doesn't raise the power of the character, it only extends how long the character can function at its existing level before running out of useful abilities.
When I refer to RAW, I'm referring to what's in the text. It is in the text that the DM has the final say on all rulings, but that's effectively saying the DM's house rules trump the RAW, not that the DM's house rules are the RAW.
I do agree with letting your DM know what magic items you would like your PC to have but getting illusionist bracers early in a campaign leaves little options for upgrades later on. There are very few campaigns where crafting is feasible for very rare items. Using DMG rules it takes 2000day and 50,000 gp to craft a very rare item and is only available to level 11 characters even if you get access to that amount of gold 5.5 years is a huge amount of downtime. The option in XGTE brings that down to 20,000 gp and 25 weeks (which is likely still too much downtime to be feasible) but requires the DM to provide you with the formula and the need to extrat an exoctic ingredient from a CR13-18 monster means yuou are likely to be in tier 3 before it becomes possible.
I am of the believe that D&D is a co-operative game the players work with the DM to create the story with the DM providing a suitable level of challenges. It shouould not be an adverserial game of DM vs players. I think you should be honest with your DM with your plans for your character say that you plant to take 4 short rests after your trance to to create extra spell slots and before a major battle take 20 and ask if that is OK. Whether a character is OP depends very much on the other players and the campaign so what wasn't OP in FayetteGamer's campaign migth still be OP in yours. What you want ot avoid is surprising the DM with a character far more powerful than the rest of the party resulting in other players not having fun because they feel your character can pretty much take on the challenges on their own. This can result in them just leaving the campaign or rasing it with the DM who in a rather embarressed way comes to you saying "I know I said you could take back to back short rests but I didn't realise you were planning on going getting 60 sorcery points you are doing far more than the rest of the party I am going to having to change my mind.".
"Extending how long a player can function" is raising the power. If you spend a day preparing for a big fight by taking 20 short rests you will have 80 sorcery points (with 3 levels of warlock), even with 2 levels of warlock 40 sorcery points should be enough to quicken a spell every turn even ins a day with multiple hard combats. If a fighter can action surge every round would that "raise their power" or "extend how long they can fucnction.
How do you plan on playing this character in combat? Do you plan to wear medium or heavy armour? What are you planning to have as a pact weapon? Do to plan your primary attacks to be that or Eldritch blast? What invocations do you plan to take? What spells do you plan to use most? What meta magic do you plan on taking?
To optimise a multiclass you need to think who everything combines, at level 7 you will not have any 3rd level spells which is quite a nerf and I am not sure you gain enough to balance that. You get medium armour and shield proficiency from two sources so one is wasted . Voice of authority in particular requires a build that be using most spell slots buffing melee allies who are happy to use their reaction on an attack..
It'd likely be ranged damage / support with ability to at least hit something if need be. Heavy armor, though likely not until the cleric level is added in (last) Pact weapon would likely be a d8 one-hander (longsword, warhammer, battleaxe) Attacks *could* be either, but more than likely EB. Invocations will be Agonizing and something else, not sure. Beast Speech always tempting me. Spells would be prioritizing things that can target allies incidentally or directly (healing word, vortex warp, wither&bloom) with a few staples in the mix down the line *cough*fireball -- likely focusing more on damage over CC for the higher level slots. Metamagic would most likely be twin/quick to start.
With such limited levels in lock, any coffeelocking shenanigans would be limited to 1st level... which is fine, as that maximizes potential use of barbs, healing word, etc.
I should point out this is a WM-style discord server; optimization is a non-issue.
EDIT: Thinking on it, with a little coordination -- could a melee player ready an attack action, be thrown with vortex warp then attack twice?
Changing from medium to heavy armor at level 7 is probably a bad idea. For the first 6 levels you will probably want 14 dex, as you don't seem to be worried about stealth that probably means half plate. Increase your AC with heavy you would need to go full plate and either have 15 in strength or lose 10 ft of movement speed (which I wouldn't recommend), therefore you need at least 15 Str, 14 dex, 13 Wis along with a decent con and presumably 20 in charisma. So:
Heavy Armor stats: Str 15, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 17 with the +2 in cha and the +1 in wis
Medium Armor stats: Str 12, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 17 I would put the +1 in Con though you could make a case for wis
The extra +2 in Con will really help your survivability and help with your con saves far more than a +1 to AC. If you want ot go heavy you really want ot take cleric early so you don't need to rely on dex though that doesn't seem to fit your build, and that is assume having the gold for full plate isn't an issue.
From level 5 agonizing blast will be doing far more damage than you can do with a sword, even at melee range unless your change to hit on a straight roll is less than 5%, force damage is also more reliable than a (non magic) weapon. So year concentrating on EB is a good idea.
I think of vortex warp being a spell to get a friend out of trouble, for example when a dragon grapples them and starts flying off. While ready the attack action to attack after being vortex warped will work it will rarely be very efficient. Even if without If the melee player can not make an attack on their turn you can usually do more with a second level spell than enable a melee player to attack. Of course there are exceptions if you approach a fort with enemy archers firing arrows from the ramparts using vortex warp to get him onto the ramparts where he immediately makes a readied attack if a great idea.
I would give up on the heavy armor play your sorlock to level 6 and then decide whether you are casting enough spells on your melee allies for it to be worth taking order cleric (and discuss with them their thoughts about it, it would be really bad if you took the level in order cleric only to find they would rather keep their reaction.
Honestly if you just want to be a ranged blaster/support, I'd say just commit to mostly Sorcerer with one or two levels of Warlock if you really feel you need it. There's not much point to having heavy armor and a Pact Weapon if you're planning to be in the back row most of the time anyways. Shocking Grasp or a blade cantrip is a much better melee option than a Pact Weapon for a dedicated caster, the damage will scale with you much better. Just the medium armor and shield from Hexblade is plenty of AC if you're not being attacked regularly. War Caster is also not a great pick for a feat if you're planning to be in the back; the advantage on saves is nice, but you've already got CON save prof and the stats to get +2 in it out of the gate. Also, my personal take is to almost always get five levels in your primary class before you dip, because there's a big bump in your power level when you're a level 5 as opposed to what you'll get with a 4/1. Really, I'd just say try going to level 5 as a Sorcerer and see if you've really been taking enough heat that you want the extra AC. Overall, this build seems to be trying to cover too many "just in cases", which usually just leaves you frustrated with features that rarely if ever come up in play.
The build isn't dependent on the Illusionists Bracers, and while Very Rare items are indeed very rare, and my point was that if the player makes it known to DM that this is a wish-list item, the odds of getting it are significantly higher, because the DM knows it's something you want. There are actually also rules for crafting magic items in the game, so there are ways if the DM doesn't put a hard ban on it.
Don't present "coffeelock light" in the context of "do you think it is overpowered", because that predisposes the DM towards that way of thinking. I can assure you that from experience it's not overpowered, as you're still confined to the action economy. Ask the DM if they'll allow back to back short rests, and assure them that the character still long rests regularly, so there will at no point be unlimited spell slots, only a few extra slots daily which counterbalances the multi-level delay on getting higher level spells. This doesn't raise the power of the character, it only extends how long the character can function at its existing level before running out of useful abilities.
When I refer to RAW, I'm referring to what's in the text. It is in the text that the DM has the final say on all rulings, but that's effectively saying the DM's house rules trump the RAW, not that the DM's house rules are the RAW.
I do agree with letting your DM know what magic items you would like your PC to have but getting illusionist bracers early in a campaign leaves little options for upgrades later on. There are very few campaigns where crafting is feasible for very rare items. Using DMG rules it takes 2000day and 50,000 gp to craft a very rare item and is only available to level 11 characters even if you get access to that amount of gold 5.5 years is a huge amount of downtime. The option in XGTE brings that down to 20,000 gp and 25 weeks (which is likely still too much downtime to be feasible) but requires the DM to provide you with the formula and the need to extrat an exoctic ingredient from a CR13-18 monster means yuou are likely to be in tier 3 before it becomes possible.
I am of the believe that D&D is a co-operative game the players work with the DM to create the story with the DM providing a suitable level of challenges. It shouould not be an adverserial game of DM vs players. I think you should be honest with your DM with your plans for your character say that you plant to take 4 short rests after your trance to to create extra spell slots and before a major battle take 20 and ask if that is OK. Whether a character is OP depends very much on the other players and the campaign so what wasn't OP in FayetteGamer's campaign migth still be OP in yours. What you want ot avoid is surprising the DM with a character far more powerful than the rest of the party resulting in other players not having fun because they feel your character can pretty much take on the challenges on their own. This can result in them just leaving the campaign or rasing it with the DM who in a rather embarressed way comes to you saying "I know I said you could take back to back short rests but I didn't realise you were planning on going getting 60 sorcery points you are doing far more than the rest of the party I am going to having to change my mind.".
"Extending how long a player can function" is raising the power. If you spend a day preparing for a big fight by taking 20 short rests you will have 80 sorcery points (with 3 levels of warlock), even with 2 levels of warlock 40 sorcery points should be enough to quicken a spell every turn even ins a day with multiple hard combats. If a fighter can action surge every round would that "raise their power" or "extend how long they can fucnction.
I never implied that the Illusionist Bracers would be acquired early, only that it was a goal to be acquired.
Some campaigns span characters' whole lives with periods of hiatus where they're living their lives between adventures. It really doesn't make sense for characters to be in daily mortal peril for years at a time. In fact, it would make perfect sense for adventuring to be put on hold for the winter months, when the environmental dangers just make it odds unfavorable, That could be around 3 months when they're not adventuring, so if they were crafting in that time, they could have the bracers crafted in 3 winters.
As for the monster, keep in mind that players are powerful, and often are a match for encounters with CRs significantly higher than their level. For example, just recently, I had a party of 4 successfully kill a Wyvern (CR6), and they were Level 4, no cheesy character builds, just good tactics and statistically even dice rolls. So if the DM is willing to let them try to get the component to craft the Bracers before Tier 3, there is a good chance they can pull it off, and if they do, it will be all the more epic, which is what the game's about. Those bracers will be supremely treasured for what the character had to do to get them.
I agree that it the game is cooperative, and shouldn't be adversarial between players and DM. I never claimed otherwise. I did point out that how you word what you present to the DM may set expectations contrary to reality and result in nerfs/bans that are really unnecessary. That's why you tell the DM your planned tactic, what you gain, but also what you gave up to attain it, because the opportunity cost of using this tactic counter-balances its power. If that's approved, at the same time discuss the occasional tactic of risking exhaustion to chain an extra day of short rests. Maybe the DM lets you do it, or maybe the DM decided there's no saving throw and anyone missing a long rest automatically gets a level of exhaustion. Either one is a win for the player if you're careful with when you do it. I never had any intention of implying that this would be sprung on a DM... that's how fun things get banned. And an important part of the reason for asking the DM about this up front is so you aren't planning on something, only for the DM to veto it in the moment, leaving your character drastically weaker than you thought you were.
Keep in mind, D&D is a cooperative game between the players as well. Players should all be looking for chances to let each other shine. Part of the reason my Sorlock doesn't outshine the party is because I use most of those extra spell slots to heal the party between combats when we can't take a short rest. I'm using my character's power to give everyone else more staying power in fights. It's not about how optimized a build is, it's about how you play the character.
Also... for your example of 60 sorcery points... If you're a L7 character with 5 levels of Sorcerer and 2 levels of Warlock, that's 30 consecutive hours you'd have to convince the party to stay put for you to accomplish that, which means even with the DM's full blessing, it's not happening unless the rest of the party agrees to it as well. That could be (4) L3 slots, (8) L2 slots, and (8) L1 slots. You still have one Action, one Bonus Action, and one Reaction every turn, and for things like Fireball, you're still limited by where your allies are and when the enemies are sufficiently clumped for it to be worth the spell slot, and this multiclass prevented you from having L4 spells, which means you're not employing Greater Invisibility for near invulnerability in the boss fights. You're not overtly stronger in combats, you're just able to do more of them before you become irrelevant... or you can use your spell slots to keep your allies in fighting shape for longer while you rely on your mighty Agonizing Eldritch Blasts.
Take another look at how Sorcery Points work. You can't have more sorcery points than the maximum on your chart, which means all of those Sorcery Points have to be turned into spell slots, and to use them to use metamagic, you have to turn them back into sorcery points, which takes a bonus action to do per spell slot converted, which means you can refresh your sorcery points between fights, but you're not going to be quickening spells every turn. And if you do the math, you're losing sorcery points when you do this. Using your L3 warlock example... that's 4 sorcery points from the (2) L2 slots each short rest, but it take three of those Sorcery Points to create one L2 spell slot, then later when you're converting that L2 slot back into Sorcery Points, it turns into (2) sorcery points, the other one that went into its creation is lost. You're losing a third of all the Sorcery Points created, so of that 60 created, only 40 of them would be usable for Sorcery Points... and you'd have to use a Bonus Action for each pair, so at best you're Quickening a spell with these every 2nd turn, which is 1-3 times for most combats.
Then use each of the following hours until everyone gets back up to short rest, ending each short rest with some exercise sufficiently strenuous to end the short rest, and then convert your Warlock Spell Slots into Sorcery Points, and then back into Sorcerer Spell Slots.
These shenanigans in particular are too shaky to claim they are RAW. They are an interpretation that is not directly contradicted by RAW, but they are no more valid than other interpretations - also not contradicted by RAW - that would not allow this.
Rests can be longer than their minimum duration, and nowhere does clarify what is "sufficiently strenuous" to start and end a rest. So it's also valid to say that an elf resting for 8 hours while occasionally doing some jumping jacks gains the benefits of one long rest, regardless of the minimum time they need to gain those benefits or what they claim is "strenuous" behavior.
Not to mention that all this is brazenly against the intent of how rests are supposed to work in the name of gaming the system. Of course people don't like it. This is the kind of thing that some rando brings to a one-shot, or what you see in a campaign that fizzles out in the third session. It's fun to think about on paper but it's just not in the spirit of the game.
Then use each of the following hours until everyone gets back up to short rest, ending each short rest with some exercise sufficiently strenuous to end the short rest, and then convert your Warlock Spell Slots into Sorcery Points, and then back into Sorcerer Spell Slots.
These shenanigans in particular are too shaky to claim they are RAW. They are an interpretation that is not directly contradicted by RAW, but they are no more valid than other interpretations - also not contradicted by RAW - that would not allow this.
Rests can be longer than their minimum duration, and nowhere does clarify what is "sufficiently strenuous" to start and end a rest. So it's also valid to say that an elf resting for 8 hours while occasionally doing some jumping jacks gains the benefits of one long rest, regardless of the minimum time they need to gain those benefits or what they claim is "strenuous" behavior.
Not to mention that all this is brazenly against the intent of how rests are supposed to work in the name of gaming the system. Of course people don't like it. This is the kind of thing that some rando brings to a one-shot, or what you see in a campaign that fizzles out in the third session. It's fun to think about on paper but it's just not in the spirit of the game.
You are factually wrong. The rules for Short Rests on PG 186 of the Player's Handbook specifies the specific level of activity that can be performed without breaking a Short Rest, and defacto, ANYTHING that's more strenuous than that will break the Short Rest.
A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
Running laps or doing sit-ups is objectively more physically strenuous than the listed activities, so doing so exactly fulfills the requirements specified for short rests.
Regarding Long Rests, the rules for Trance specifically say the Long Rest is completed in 4 hours, and the Sage Advice entry on the Trance rules says the same thing. The Elf's Long Rest is objectively completed at the end of that 4 hours when the Trance ends. Whatever is done or not done after that has no bearing on the Long Rest.
MMM 13
You can finish a long rest in 4 hours if you spend those hours in a trancelike meditation. During which you retain consciousness.
Sage Advice: the first entry under Racial Traits at the time of me writing this.
Does the Trance trait allow an elf to finish a long rest in 4 hours? If an elf meditates during a long rest (as described in the Trance trait), the elf finishes the rest after only 4 hours. A meditating elf otherwise follows all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed
You also have no leg to stand on when you say it's "brazenly against the intent", because WotC have had YEARS to make clarifications or changes, and they have not, so you have no grounds to claim that this is against their intent. They made numerous clarifications about features that remove the need to sleep, affirming that they don't remove the need for long rests, but they never made any rule or ruling that limits the number of short rests that can be taken, beyond the requirement that each one is a minimum of one hour.
My L7 Sorlock chains short-rests every morning for extra slots, and narratively the character is a devotee of the goddess of magic, mechanically represented by the Acolyte background. So this doesn't negatively impact the lore of the game setting in any way, just as it doesn't have any negative impact on the gameplay, nor the other players' experience. The character build is not a problem.
My L7 Sorlock chains short-rests every morning for extra slots, and narratively the character is a devotee of the goddess of magic, mechanically represented by the Acolyte background. So this doesn't negatively impact the lore of the game setting in any way, just as it doesn't have any negative impact on the gameplay, nor the other players' experience. The character build is not a problem.
Good for you, but as the OP is talking about a character for WM, they should be aware that many WM games will ban coffee-locking in some form or another. Because FYI, as soon as your party reaches level 9, it's highly likely someone in your party will have access to Greater Restoration allowing you to RAW build up unlimited spellslots by never long resting and just using GR to remove any exhaustion you acquire. This is blatantly breaking the game, thus many game ban such behaviour/builds in various ways.
it will be all the more epic, which is what the game's about
See I disagree strongly there. Illusionists Bracers are an incredibly boring item, sure you can double your damage by pumping out 6-8 EBs every round but it is incredibly boring for the rest of the party to sit there and watch all of those attacks to be rolled, and there is nothing particularly interesting in the result. It's even worse if you stack Repelling Blast on top of it, and are constantly pushing enemies away from the melee members of your party.
A barbarian cutting their way out of the stomach of a purple worm is epic. A wizard transforming a beholder into a kitten is epic. A rogue leaping onto the back of a sphinx as it flies away, climbing up to its head and stabbing through its skull is epic. A monk punching a dragon out of the sky is epic. A sorcerer subtle-counterspelling a necromancers Powerword kill is epic.
Someone standing at the back, rolling 8 attacks that each do only 1d10+5 damage is not epic.
My L7 Sorlock chains short-rests every morning for extra slots, and narratively the character is a devotee of the goddess of magic, mechanically represented by the Acolyte background. So this doesn't negatively impact the lore of the game setting in any way, just as it doesn't have any negative impact on the gameplay, nor the other players' experience. The character build is not a problem.
Good for you, but as the OP is talking about a character for WM, they should be aware that many WM games will ban coffee-locking in some form or another. Because FYI, as soon as your party reaches level 9, it's highly likely someone in your party will have access to Greater Restoration allowing you to RAW build up unlimited spellslots by never long resting and just using GR to remove any exhaustion you acquire. This is blatantly breaking the game, thus many game ban such behaviour/builds in various ways.
If you take a look at the spell, Greater Restoration, you'll see that it takes 100gp worth of Diamond Dust per casting, which is prohibitively expensive, even if the DM allows the diamond dust to be infinitely available (which they're under no obligation to do). So unless another character is a Creation Bard willing to use their daily creation for Greater Restoration on this other player, it's not happening.
Also, for a Coffeelock to actually come out ahead on spell slots, they have to periodically take entire days off of just resting, which they can't do without the party's buy-in. So again, the Coffeelock isn't amassing infinite spell slots without both the DM and the other players support, and that's without it being flat banned.
Remember, This build has significant opportunity costs, so while it does produce a really good effect of extra spell slots, that delay in getting higher level spells is keenly felt, especially if the multiclass dip is done before 6th level.
you'll see that it takes 100gp worth of Diamond Dust per casting, which is prohibitively expensive,
Sorry what? What game are you playing in where 100 gp is a significant investment for a level 9+ party??? Plate Armour costs 1500 gp and most parties have at least one a set of that by level 5. A level 9 party can easily take on Adult dragons which have hordes of thousands of gold pieces, they typically have a fort or other keep worth tens of thousands of gold pieces, and should be close advisors to the king / ruler of their home nation. 100 gp is not expensive for them any more.
Many games have tons of downtime (weren't you just arguing that 3 months off should be the norm?), and travelling typically take weeks of time. The party can easily buy a cart and let the coffeelock coffeelock for multiple days while they travel to the location of their next adventure.
you'll see that it takes 100gp worth of Diamond Dust per casting, which is prohibitively expensive,
Sorry what? What game are you playing in where 100 gp is a significant investment for a level 9+ party??? Plate Armour costs 1500 gp and most parties have at least one a set of that by level 5. A level 9 party can easily take on Adult dragons which have hordes of thousands of gold pieces, they typically have a fort or other keep worth tens of thousands of gold pieces, and should be close advisors to the king / ruler of their home nation. 100 gp is not expensive for them any more.
Maybe you missed the part where it's DIAMOND DUST... as in, you're not just marking off 100gp per day, you have to specifically buy diamond dust and keep it on you to cast the spell, and if you at any point are without a diamond dust supply for a even a single week, you either lose all of those spells, or die from Exhaustion. And even if you have the money, your suppliers will run out this product pretty quickly, needing time to get more.
Also, plate armor is a one-time purchase that will last the rest of the character's career barring an unfortunate encounter with a rust monster, whereas 100gp a day adds up quickly, matching the cost of the plate armor in just 3-4 months. I guarantee, fighters would talk about how expensive it was if they had to re-buy their plate armor 3-4 times per year at full price, which is comparable to what this costs.
And even if you do all this, you're cutting yourself off from spells higher than 5th level, since you can't make those, and as I've said multiple times, to get ahead on spell slots, you need to take about as many days off from doing anything as you spend doing adventurer stuff, so you can't do it without the party's buy in, being willing to give you those days.
Having unlimited spellslots up to 5th level doesn't prevent you from getting higher level spellslots. And with 3 months of winter prep time you need only a single warlock level to pull it off, though 2 is obviously preferable meaning you're only 1 step behind on spell level progression which you only really feel at the delay of 3rd level spells so take 5 sorcerer first then your warlock dip and you'll hardly notice the difference. Hypnotic Pattern is better than Greater Invisibility for negating enemy damage, Fireball is better than Storm Sphere for dealing AoE damage, Haste is a better buff to melee ally damage than GI, Thunderstep is just as good a get-out-of-danger card as Dimension Door.
It would be really weird for the DM to suddenly have a global shortage of diamonds, in order to nerf the coffeelock. Lots of spells require diamonds not just greater restoration, and are pretty common jewelry items. Since it is diamond dust the size and quality of the diamonds are irrelevant. 100 gp is less than 6 months income for a comfortable lifestyle, so should be reasonably common as engagment / wedding rings.
Respectfully, you two, if you want to continue this discussion, it would probably be better in another thread or private messages, as it’s strayed pretty well away from the topic here.
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Foreword: Stats rolled - 17, 15, 14, 13, 12, 9
Characters start at 3 and may choose one non-ASI feat at Lv1
The idea: Shadar Kai Sorc (Divine) 4/X, Warlock (Hexblade) 2, Cleric (Order) 1 -- This person is very much with the Raven Queen
Starting feat: War Caster, Fey Touched at 4th
Hexblade gives weapon/shield proficiency, CHA for hit/dmg, EB, invocations, core warlock spells like hex
Order cleric gives heavy armor proficiency, a skill, and most importantly, Voice of Authority. "If you cast a spell with a spell slot of 1st level or higher and target an ally with the spell, that ally can use their reaction immediately after the spell to make one weapon attack against a creature of your choice that you can see." The domain spells are unfortunately a wash.
So a caster in (potentially) full plate (mithral would help but SK can teleport a bit) with a shield that attacks with CHA, has access to eldritch blast+cha and silvery barbs, which cast on an ally would allow them to make an attack at advantage as a reaction. Throw in fey touched to top out CHA, add an additional teleport, and free access to silvery barbs (RAW casting it with the feat wouldn't trigger Voice since it doesn't use a spell slot). Or, Vortex Warp to throw the *actual* tank where they need to be with the same benefit.
The build does not come "online" til 7th -- Which sucks but would be why I'd want to get to 4th in sorc first for a stronger baseline then start folding in the MCs.
Am I on to something here or am I walking into a bear trap?
How do you plan on playing this character in combat? Do you plan to wear medium or heavy armour? What are you planning to have as a pact weapon? Do to plan your primary attacks to be that or Eldritch blast? What invocations do you plan to take? What spells do you plan to use most? What meta magic do you plan on taking?
To optimise a multiclass you need to think who everything combines, at level 7 you will not have any 3rd level spells which is quite a nerf and I am not sure you gain enough to balance that. You get medium armour and shield proficiency from two sources so one is wasted . Voice of authority in particular requires a build that be using most spell slots buffing melee allies who are happy to use their reaction on an attack..
I have a Sorlock (Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/Celestial Warlock) that's currently L7, so I'll share a few things I noticed.
I took my Warlock levels first, but I'd recommend holding off on multiclassing until after taking your 5th level in Sorcerer, because at L5&6, you'll really feel not having those 3rd level spells. It was painful still relying on Eldritch Blast when hoards of enemies were attacking that I could have easily ended with a Fireball if I hadn't been multiclassed.
Agonizing, Eldritch Blast is great, giving you solid damage comparable to a L1 or L2 spell, as a Cantrip, letting you stay in the fight all day. Definitely get your character's hands into a pair of Illusionists Bracers if you can. Doubling up on your Eldritch Blast output is an enormous boon, but the rarity of the item, might make it harder to get until later. After you have your L3 spells, Eldritch Blast is worth the delay of L4 spells.
Talk to your DM, because RAW, you can get a few extra spell slots each day, because as an Elf, you're completing your Short Rest in 4 hours, which leaves you another 4-6 hours after your long rest, while everyone else is long resting. Some people don't like this exploit, but I can say from experience that it doesn't break the game... You can complete your long rest in 4 hours, convert Sorcery Points to Sorcerer Spell Slots, then Warlock Spell Slots into Sorcery Points, and then those Sorcery Points into more Sorcerer Spell Slots. Then use each of the following hours until everyone gets back up to short rest, ending each short rest with some exercise sufficiently strenuous to end the short rest, and then convert your Warlock Spell Slots into Sorcery Points, and then back into Sorcerer Spell Slots. So by L7, you're starting every day with a few extra L1 spell slots, which you can use for extra utility spells or healing you're otherwise hold back on. This is 100% RAW legal, and it's not fully Coffeelocking, because you are still taking a long rest every night. An extra bonus you can do, is if you think or know that you're going to have a big dungeon crawl the next day, or a boss fight, and you have a couple days to prep, you can long rest for full spell slots, then chain short rests for the whole next day and night, at the end of which you make a Constitution Saving Throw to avoid one level of Exhaustion, which you'll almost certainly pass, since you're proficient in Constitution Saves, and you have a +3 for your Con Modifier (DC10 isn't hard when you're working with a +6 total modifier). You'll be a power house for that day, most likely with no ill effects, but the DC goes up for each long rest skipped, so you'll want to break and take a long rest the next night. And if you take more Warlock levels, you'll get more spell slots and of higher levels for your daily bonus spells.
If you want the Cleric level to give your allies attacks on your turn, go for it, but I think you'd get more out of a third Warlock level, and if you only have three levels in other classes total, and take the rest in Sorcerer, your character can still get the coveted L9 spells at L20, if the game makes it that far.
I wouldn't expect to get what Fayettegamer suggests. The only very rare items I have had before tier 3 (and probably tier 4) are "random loot" Items that are good for my character but far from what I would choose if I was offered "any very rare magic item", and for a warlock centred on eldritch blast illusionist bracers would certainly be one of if not the best item to pick. Doing 8d10+16 (or even 20) damage at level 5 without using any resources is insane, you can even make it 12d10+24 with quickened spell.
If you hope to "coffeelock light" approach your DM in a neutral way "I'd like to try this but do you think it is overpowered?" or "what are your thoughts on sorlocks being able to get more rather that expecting to get it. How optimised are the other PCs going to be? It will be no fun for them if you are far more powerful than the rest of them. I would also note that the con save to avoid exhaustion rule is an optional rule in XGTE so technically the DM can make any rule they like concerning lack of sleep and exhastion and still be withi the core RAW.
Without knowing your plan I would think the cleric dip is suboptimal (It can be a good feature if you build around it but probably not worth a level in another class) you do get heavy armor though is whether the extra AC is worth the lower scores elsewhere that you need for 15 str (or the reduced movement speed) is debateable. How many levels of warlock you want depends on the build, 1 is all you need if you plan on being mostly attacking with weapons (medium armor proficiency and using charisma to attack) though some invocations can be useful. If you want to do a lot of eldritch blasting you will want a second level to get agonizing blast. If you are coffeelocking then 3 levels of warlock doubles the sorcery points you create each short rest.
I disagree with Jegpeg's first two critiques.
The build isn't dependent on the Illusionists Bracers, and while Very Rare items are indeed very rare, and my point was that if the player makes it known to DM that this is a wish-list item, the odds of getting it are significantly higher, because the DM knows it's something you want. There are actually also rules for crafting magic items in the game, so there are ways if the DM doesn't put a hard ban on it.
Don't present "coffeelock light" in the context of "do you think it is overpowered", because that predisposes the DM towards that way of thinking. I can assure you that from experience it's not overpowered, as you're still confined to the action economy. Ask the DM if they'll allow back to back short rests, and assure them that the character still long rests regularly, so there will at no point be unlimited spell slots, only a few extra slots daily which counterbalances the multi-level delay on getting higher level spells. This doesn't raise the power of the character, it only extends how long the character can function at its existing level before running out of useful abilities.
When I refer to RAW, I'm referring to what's in the text. It is in the text that the DM has the final say on all rulings, but that's effectively saying the DM's house rules trump the RAW, not that the DM's house rules are the RAW.
I do agree with letting your DM know what magic items you would like your PC to have but getting illusionist bracers early in a campaign leaves little options for upgrades later on. There are very few campaigns where crafting is feasible for very rare items. Using DMG rules it takes 2000day and 50,000 gp to craft a very rare item and is only available to level 11 characters even if you get access to that amount of gold 5.5 years is a huge amount of downtime. The option in XGTE brings that down to 20,000 gp and 25 weeks (which is likely still too much downtime to be feasible) but requires the DM to provide you with the formula and the need to extrat an exoctic ingredient from a CR13-18 monster means yuou are likely to be in tier 3 before it becomes possible.
I am of the believe that D&D is a co-operative game the players work with the DM to create the story with the DM providing a suitable level of challenges. It shouould not be an adverserial game of DM vs players. I think you should be honest with your DM with your plans for your character say that you plant to take 4 short rests after your trance to to create extra spell slots and before a major battle take 20 and ask if that is OK. Whether a character is OP depends very much on the other players and the campaign so what wasn't OP in FayetteGamer's campaign migth still be OP in yours. What you want ot avoid is surprising the DM with a character far more powerful than the rest of the party resulting in other players not having fun because they feel your character can pretty much take on the challenges on their own. This can result in them just leaving the campaign or rasing it with the DM who in a rather embarressed way comes to you saying "I know I said you could take back to back short rests but I didn't realise you were planning on going getting 60 sorcery points you are doing far more than the rest of the party I am going to having to change my mind.".
"Extending how long a player can function" is raising the power. If you spend a day preparing for a big fight by taking 20 short rests you will have 80 sorcery points (with 3 levels of warlock), even with 2 levels of warlock 40 sorcery points should be enough to quicken a spell every turn even ins a day with multiple hard combats. If a fighter can action surge every round would that "raise their power" or "extend how long they can fucnction.
It'd likely be ranged damage / support with ability to at least hit something if need be.
Heavy armor, though likely not until the cleric level is added in (last)
Pact weapon would likely be a d8 one-hander (longsword, warhammer, battleaxe)
Attacks *could* be either, but more than likely EB. Invocations will be Agonizing and something else, not sure. Beast Speech always tempting me.
Spells would be prioritizing things that can target allies incidentally or directly (healing word, vortex warp, wither&bloom) with a few staples in the mix down the line *cough*fireball -- likely focusing more on damage over CC for the higher level slots.
Metamagic would most likely be twin/quick to start.
With such limited levels in lock, any coffeelocking shenanigans would be limited to 1st level... which is fine, as that maximizes potential use of barbs, healing word, etc.
I should point out this is a WM-style discord server; optimization is a non-issue.
EDIT: Thinking on it, with a little coordination -- could a melee player ready an attack action, be thrown with vortex warp then attack twice?
Changing from medium to heavy armor at level 7 is probably a bad idea. For the first 6 levels you will probably want 14 dex, as you don't seem to be worried about stealth that probably means half plate. Increase your AC with heavy you would need to go full plate and either have 15 in strength or lose 10 ft of movement speed (which I wouldn't recommend), therefore you need at least 15 Str, 14 dex, 13 Wis along with a decent con and presumably 20 in charisma. So:
The extra +2 in Con will really help your survivability and help with your con saves far more than a +1 to AC. If you want ot go heavy you really want ot take cleric early so you don't need to rely on dex though that doesn't seem to fit your build, and that is assume having the gold for full plate isn't an issue.
From level 5 agonizing blast will be doing far more damage than you can do with a sword, even at melee range unless your change to hit on a straight roll is less than 5%, force damage is also more reliable than a (non magic) weapon. So year concentrating on EB is a good idea.
I think of vortex warp being a spell to get a friend out of trouble, for example when a dragon grapples them and starts flying off. While ready the attack action to attack after being vortex warped will work it will rarely be very efficient. Even if without If the melee player can not make an attack on their turn you can usually do more with a second level spell than enable a melee player to attack. Of course there are exceptions if you approach a fort with enemy archers firing arrows from the ramparts using vortex warp to get him onto the ramparts where he immediately makes a readied attack if a great idea.
I would give up on the heavy armor play your sorlock to level 6 and then decide whether you are casting enough spells on your melee allies for it to be worth taking order cleric (and discuss with them their thoughts about it, it would be really bad if you took the level in order cleric only to find they would rather keep their reaction.
Honestly if you just want to be a ranged blaster/support, I'd say just commit to mostly Sorcerer with one or two levels of Warlock if you really feel you need it. There's not much point to having heavy armor and a Pact Weapon if you're planning to be in the back row most of the time anyways. Shocking Grasp or a blade cantrip is a much better melee option than a Pact Weapon for a dedicated caster, the damage will scale with you much better. Just the medium armor and shield from Hexblade is plenty of AC if you're not being attacked regularly. War Caster is also not a great pick for a feat if you're planning to be in the back; the advantage on saves is nice, but you've already got CON save prof and the stats to get +2 in it out of the gate. Also, my personal take is to almost always get five levels in your primary class before you dip, because there's a big bump in your power level when you're a level 5 as opposed to what you'll get with a 4/1. Really, I'd just say try going to level 5 as a Sorcerer and see if you've really been taking enough heat that you want the extra AC. Overall, this build seems to be trying to cover too many "just in cases", which usually just leaves you frustrated with features that rarely if ever come up in play.
I never implied that the Illusionist Bracers would be acquired early, only that it was a goal to be acquired.
Some campaigns span characters' whole lives with periods of hiatus where they're living their lives between adventures. It really doesn't make sense for characters to be in daily mortal peril for years at a time. In fact, it would make perfect sense for adventuring to be put on hold for the winter months, when the environmental dangers just make it odds unfavorable, That could be around 3 months when they're not adventuring, so if they were crafting in that time, they could have the bracers crafted in 3 winters.
As for the monster, keep in mind that players are powerful, and often are a match for encounters with CRs significantly higher than their level. For example, just recently, I had a party of 4 successfully kill a Wyvern (CR6), and they were Level 4, no cheesy character builds, just good tactics and statistically even dice rolls. So if the DM is willing to let them try to get the component to craft the Bracers before Tier 3, there is a good chance they can pull it off, and if they do, it will be all the more epic, which is what the game's about. Those bracers will be supremely treasured for what the character had to do to get them.
I agree that it the game is cooperative, and shouldn't be adversarial between players and DM. I never claimed otherwise. I did point out that how you word what you present to the DM may set expectations contrary to reality and result in nerfs/bans that are really unnecessary. That's why you tell the DM your planned tactic, what you gain, but also what you gave up to attain it, because the opportunity cost of using this tactic counter-balances its power. If that's approved, at the same time discuss the occasional tactic of risking exhaustion to chain an extra day of short rests. Maybe the DM lets you do it, or maybe the DM decided there's no saving throw and anyone missing a long rest automatically gets a level of exhaustion. Either one is a win for the player if you're careful with when you do it. I never had any intention of implying that this would be sprung on a DM... that's how fun things get banned. And an important part of the reason for asking the DM about this up front is so you aren't planning on something, only for the DM to veto it in the moment, leaving your character drastically weaker than you thought you were.
Keep in mind, D&D is a cooperative game between the players as well. Players should all be looking for chances to let each other shine. Part of the reason my Sorlock doesn't outshine the party is because I use most of those extra spell slots to heal the party between combats when we can't take a short rest. I'm using my character's power to give everyone else more staying power in fights. It's not about how optimized a build is, it's about how you play the character.
Also... for your example of 60 sorcery points... If you're a L7 character with 5 levels of Sorcerer and 2 levels of Warlock, that's 30 consecutive hours you'd have to convince the party to stay put for you to accomplish that, which means even with the DM's full blessing, it's not happening unless the rest of the party agrees to it as well. That could be (4) L3 slots, (8) L2 slots, and (8) L1 slots. You still have one Action, one Bonus Action, and one Reaction every turn, and for things like Fireball, you're still limited by where your allies are and when the enemies are sufficiently clumped for it to be worth the spell slot, and this multiclass prevented you from having L4 spells, which means you're not employing Greater Invisibility for near invulnerability in the boss fights. You're not overtly stronger in combats, you're just able to do more of them before you become irrelevant... or you can use your spell slots to keep your allies in fighting shape for longer while you rely on your mighty Agonizing Eldritch Blasts.
Take another look at how Sorcery Points work. You can't have more sorcery points than the maximum on your chart, which means all of those Sorcery Points have to be turned into spell slots, and to use them to use metamagic, you have to turn them back into sorcery points, which takes a bonus action to do per spell slot converted, which means you can refresh your sorcery points between fights, but you're not going to be quickening spells every turn. And if you do the math, you're losing sorcery points when you do this. Using your L3 warlock example... that's 4 sorcery points from the (2) L2 slots each short rest, but it take three of those Sorcery Points to create one L2 spell slot, then later when you're converting that L2 slot back into Sorcery Points, it turns into (2) sorcery points, the other one that went into its creation is lost. You're losing a third of all the Sorcery Points created, so of that 60 created, only 40 of them would be usable for Sorcery Points... and you'd have to use a Bonus Action for each pair, so at best you're Quickening a spell with these every 2nd turn, which is 1-3 times for most combats.
These shenanigans in particular are too shaky to claim they are RAW. They are an interpretation that is not directly contradicted by RAW, but they are no more valid than other interpretations - also not contradicted by RAW - that would not allow this.
Rests can be longer than their minimum duration, and nowhere does clarify what is "sufficiently strenuous" to start and end a rest. So it's also valid to say that an elf resting for 8 hours while occasionally doing some jumping jacks gains the benefits of one long rest, regardless of the minimum time they need to gain those benefits or what they claim is "strenuous" behavior.
Not to mention that all this is brazenly against the intent of how rests are supposed to work in the name of gaming the system. Of course people don't like it. This is the kind of thing that some rando brings to a one-shot, or what you see in a campaign that fizzles out in the third session. It's fun to think about on paper but it's just not in the spirit of the game.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
You are factually wrong. The rules for Short Rests on PG 186 of the Player's Handbook specifies the specific level of activity that can be performed without breaking a Short Rest, and defacto, ANYTHING that's more strenuous than that will break the Short Rest.
Running laps or doing sit-ups is objectively more physically strenuous than the listed activities, so doing so exactly fulfills the requirements specified for short rests.
Regarding Long Rests, the rules for Trance specifically say the Long Rest is completed in 4 hours, and the Sage Advice entry on the Trance rules says the same thing. The Elf's Long Rest is objectively completed at the end of that 4 hours when the Trance ends. Whatever is done or not done after that has no bearing on the Long Rest.
MMM 13
Sage Advice: the first entry under Racial Traits at the time of me writing this.
You also have no leg to stand on when you say it's "brazenly against the intent", because WotC have had YEARS to make clarifications or changes, and they have not, so you have no grounds to claim that this is against their intent. They made numerous clarifications about features that remove the need to sleep, affirming that they don't remove the need for long rests, but they never made any rule or ruling that limits the number of short rests that can be taken, beyond the requirement that each one is a minimum of one hour.
My L7 Sorlock chains short-rests every morning for extra slots, and narratively the character is a devotee of the goddess of magic, mechanically represented by the Acolyte background. So this doesn't negatively impact the lore of the game setting in any way, just as it doesn't have any negative impact on the gameplay, nor the other players' experience. The character build is not a problem.
Good for you, but as the OP is talking about a character for WM, they should be aware that many WM games will ban coffee-locking in some form or another. Because FYI, as soon as your party reaches level 9, it's highly likely someone in your party will have access to Greater Restoration allowing you to RAW build up unlimited spellslots by never long resting and just using GR to remove any exhaustion you acquire. This is blatantly breaking the game, thus many game ban such behaviour/builds in various ways.
See I disagree strongly there. Illusionists Bracers are an incredibly boring item, sure you can double your damage by pumping out 6-8 EBs every round but it is incredibly boring for the rest of the party to sit there and watch all of those attacks to be rolled, and there is nothing particularly interesting in the result. It's even worse if you stack Repelling Blast on top of it, and are constantly pushing enemies away from the melee members of your party.
A barbarian cutting their way out of the stomach of a purple worm is epic. A wizard transforming a beholder into a kitten is epic. A rogue leaping onto the back of a sphinx as it flies away, climbing up to its head and stabbing through its skull is epic. A monk punching a dragon out of the sky is epic. A sorcerer subtle-counterspelling a necromancers Powerword kill is epic.
Someone standing at the back, rolling 8 attacks that each do only 1d10+5 damage is not epic.
If you take a look at the spell, Greater Restoration, you'll see that it takes 100gp worth of Diamond Dust per casting, which is prohibitively expensive, even if the DM allows the diamond dust to be infinitely available (which they're under no obligation to do). So unless another character is a Creation Bard willing to use their daily creation for Greater Restoration on this other player, it's not happening.
Also, for a Coffeelock to actually come out ahead on spell slots, they have to periodically take entire days off of just resting, which they can't do without the party's buy-in. So again, the Coffeelock isn't amassing infinite spell slots without both the DM and the other players support, and that's without it being flat banned.
Remember, This build has significant opportunity costs, so while it does produce a really good effect of extra spell slots, that delay in getting higher level spells is keenly felt, especially if the multiclass dip is done before 6th level.
Sorry what? What game are you playing in where 100 gp is a significant investment for a level 9+ party??? Plate Armour costs 1500 gp and most parties have at least one a set of that by level 5. A level 9 party can easily take on Adult dragons which have hordes of thousands of gold pieces, they typically have a fort or other keep worth tens of thousands of gold pieces, and should be close advisors to the king / ruler of their home nation. 100 gp is not expensive for them any more.
Many games have tons of downtime (weren't you just arguing that 3 months off should be the norm?), and travelling typically take weeks of time. The party can easily buy a cart and let the coffeelock coffeelock for multiple days while they travel to the location of their next adventure.
PS I've DMed for a Sorlock that wasn't even allowed to coffee-lock on a WM server at level 10 they solo-killed a Nightwalker barely breaking a sweat.
Maybe you missed the part where it's DIAMOND DUST... as in, you're not just marking off 100gp per day, you have to specifically buy diamond dust and keep it on you to cast the spell, and if you at any point are without a diamond dust supply for a even a single week, you either lose all of those spells, or die from Exhaustion. And even if you have the money, your suppliers will run out this product pretty quickly, needing time to get more.
Also, plate armor is a one-time purchase that will last the rest of the character's career barring an unfortunate encounter with a rust monster, whereas 100gp a day adds up quickly, matching the cost of the plate armor in just 3-4 months. I guarantee, fighters would talk about how expensive it was if they had to re-buy their plate armor 3-4 times per year at full price, which is comparable to what this costs.
And even if you do all this, you're cutting yourself off from spells higher than 5th level, since you can't make those, and as I've said multiple times, to get ahead on spell slots, you need to take about as many days off from doing anything as you spend doing adventurer stuff, so you can't do it without the party's buy in, being willing to give you those days.
Having unlimited spellslots up to 5th level doesn't prevent you from getting higher level spellslots. And with 3 months of winter prep time you need only a single warlock level to pull it off, though 2 is obviously preferable meaning you're only 1 step behind on spell level progression which you only really feel at the delay of 3rd level spells so take 5 sorcerer first then your warlock dip and you'll hardly notice the difference. Hypnotic Pattern is better than Greater Invisibility for negating enemy damage, Fireball is better than Storm Sphere for dealing AoE damage, Haste is a better buff to melee ally damage than GI, Thunderstep is just as good a get-out-of-danger card as Dimension Door.
It would be really weird for the DM to suddenly have a global shortage of diamonds, in order to nerf the coffeelock. Lots of spells require diamonds not just greater restoration, and are pretty common jewelry items. Since it is diamond dust the size and quality of the diamonds are irrelevant. 100 gp is less than 6 months income for a comfortable lifestyle, so should be reasonably common as engagment / wedding rings.
Respectfully, you two, if you want to continue this discussion, it would probably be better in another thread or private messages, as it’s strayed pretty well away from the topic here.