Hi, I will be playing in a round of new players and I really want to play a melee caster (Fighter 1/ Warlock X). I was planning on taking a glaive as a pact weapon, is that viable? Regarding attribute points, what should I focus on? Do I get anything from strength? I thought pact weapon damage does only scale with charisma?
I thought it might be nice to start lvl 1 as a fighter, to start with a little bonus HP and the Great Weapon Fighting fighting style. If I pick a human, I should get an additional feat at lvl 1 right?
At level 2 I was planning to switch to warlock. Absolutely unsure which spells would fit. I've read a lot about booming blade and green flame blade, but I couldnt find those in the players hand book, so I was assuming those come with the additional rulesets.
Sorry for that many questions, I hope somebody can help me out with some answers. Thanks in advance! Mira
A glaive or halberd are arguably the strongest melee weapons in the game and it is due to being able to stack the Polearm Master and Great Weapon Master feats.
If you truly are only using player options in the Player's Handbook then both Strength and Charisma will be important. It is a Hexblade Warlock that can use Charisma as their modifier with attacks with their Hex Warrior weapon, and Hexblade is from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. I would suggest prioritizing Strength over Charisma but you want to keep both as high as possible.
You absolutely should start off with Fighter. That way you get heavy armor and constitution saving throw proficiencies. Constitution saving throws are particularly important for helping maintain concentration on your spells.
The Player's Handbook has Human and Variant Human options. Variant Human only gets +1 to two attributes but gets a feat at first level. Variant Human is a very strong option, especially when multicasting as it makes up for the delay in your feat progression.
Spells are a lot to take in and it can be hard to pick what to learn. Keep in mind each time you level up you can swap out one spell you know for a new spell. So if you decide you don't like a spell you can switch it out later. Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade come from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. They are good cantrips for a melee caster, but don't work well with reach weapons like a glaive. Their best use is in combination with the War Caster feat because then you can cast them when making an opportunity attack.
My recommendation for cantrips and some early spells would be this:
Eldritch Blast - This is just an incredible ranged attack cantrip and good for when you can't get into melee.
Mage Hand - This cantrip just has a lot of utility. You can open doors from a distance, levitate rope up and tie it to make a climb easier for the party, etc.
Armor of Agathys - 1st level, is a good source of temporary hit points and scales well with upcasting.
Hellish Rebuke - 1st level, good damage, give you another use for your reaction, scales well with upcasting.
Ultimately, there are a few things I try to keep in mind when looking at warlock spells. First, with pact magic you just can't cast as many leveled spells as most other casters can in a given combat. So spells that have a persistent effect are great. Also because you only have slots at the highest level spells you can cast, this makes spells that upcast well very good. And that is about it for now, I hope this helps!
If you are restricted to only the PHB then Hexblade, and attacking using Charisma, are not available.
You can pick a glaive for a pact weapon (it is a melee weapon) but you will be using Strength for attack and damage rolls. A level in fighter would get proficiency in glaive, as warlocks are only proficient in simple weapons.
You get glaive proficiency with pact of the blade. I would take fiend or archfey patron. Fiend warlock gives you temporary hitpoints if you manage to kill an enemy creature. Archfey gives you some boons but is the weaker of the two. For Stats STR>CHA>CON. Hex, armor of agathys and Protection from good and evil are good as a lvl 1 spells. Hold person, invisibility, mirror image lvl 2. Archfey let's you take faerie fire.
Later on fiend warlock gives you a chosen resistance (lvl 10) which further helps your survivability.
Hi,
I will be playing in a round of new players and I really want to play a melee caster (Fighter 1/ Warlock X). I was planning on taking a glaive as a pact weapon, is that viable?
Regarding attribute points, what should I focus on? Do I get anything from strength? I thought pact weapon damage does only scale with charisma?
I thought it might be nice to start lvl 1 as a fighter, to start with a little bonus HP and the Great Weapon Fighting fighting style.
If I pick a human, I should get an additional feat at lvl 1 right?
At level 2 I was planning to switch to warlock. Absolutely unsure which spells would fit. I've read a lot about booming blade and green flame blade, but I couldnt find those in the players hand book, so I was assuming those come with the additional rulesets.
Sorry for that many questions, I hope somebody can help me out with some answers.
Thanks in advance!
Mira
A glaive or halberd are arguably the strongest melee weapons in the game and it is due to being able to stack the Polearm Master and Great Weapon Master feats.
If you truly are only using player options in the Player's Handbook then both Strength and Charisma will be important. It is a Hexblade Warlock that can use Charisma as their modifier with attacks with their Hex Warrior weapon, and Hexblade is from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. I would suggest prioritizing Strength over Charisma but you want to keep both as high as possible.
You absolutely should start off with Fighter. That way you get heavy armor and constitution saving throw proficiencies. Constitution saving throws are particularly important for helping maintain concentration on your spells.
The Player's Handbook has Human and Variant Human options. Variant Human only gets +1 to two attributes but gets a feat at first level. Variant Human is a very strong option, especially when multicasting as it makes up for the delay in your feat progression.
Spells are a lot to take in and it can be hard to pick what to learn. Keep in mind each time you level up you can swap out one spell you know for a new spell. So if you decide you don't like a spell you can switch it out later. Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade come from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. They are good cantrips for a melee caster, but don't work well with reach weapons like a glaive. Their best use is in combination with the War Caster feat because then you can cast them when making an opportunity attack.
My recommendation for cantrips and some early spells would be this:
Eldritch Blast - This is just an incredible ranged attack cantrip and good for when you can't get into melee.
Mage Hand - This cantrip just has a lot of utility. You can open doors from a distance, levitate rope up and tie it to make a climb easier for the party, etc.
Armor of Agathys - 1st level, is a good source of temporary hit points and scales well with upcasting.
Hellish Rebuke - 1st level, good damage, give you another use for your reaction, scales well with upcasting.
Ultimately, there are a few things I try to keep in mind when looking at warlock spells. First, with pact magic you just can't cast as many leveled spells as most other casters can in a given combat. So spells that have a persistent effect are great. Also because you only have slots at the highest level spells you can cast, this makes spells that upcast well very good. And that is about it for now, I hope this helps!
If you are restricted to only the PHB then Hexblade, and attacking using Charisma, are not available.
You can pick a glaive for a pact weapon (it is a melee weapon) but you will be using Strength for attack and damage rolls.
A level in fighter would get proficiency in glaive, as warlocks are only proficient in simple weapons.You get glaive proficiency with pact of the blade. I would take fiend or archfey patron. Fiend warlock gives you temporary hitpoints if you manage to kill an enemy creature. Archfey gives you some boons but is the weaker of the two. For Stats STR>CHA>CON. Hex, armor of agathys and Protection from good and evil are good as a lvl 1 spells. Hold person, invisibility, mirror image lvl 2. Archfey let's you take faerie fire.
Later on fiend warlock gives you a chosen resistance (lvl 10) which further helps your survivability.
I had forgotten about that bit.