Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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If you're going to Pact of the Chain, I recommend Gaze of Two Minds over Visions of Distant Realms.
Repelling Blast and Agonizing Blast are probably something you skip if you're taking Pact of the Blade or expect to be using your actions to let your familiar act with Pact of the Chain. Repelling/Agonizing really are their own specialist build (usually focused on dropping a damaging area of effect and knocking things into it. And then you really want Eldritch Mind.)
I'm not a huge fan of lifedrinker. Eldritch Smite is better imo if you're going Pact of the Blade.
Gaze of Two Minds makes sense since I have a familiar to do scouting anyway. I just couldn’t decide what to replace it with. I’ll get right on it!
i still might keep the blast ones depending on if I choose the light domain or not (wall of fire). If I do, that means I won’t be taking the feat that grants fireball since I get that already and will probably pick one of the familiar feats. Does that make sense?
As for lifedrinker… really? I’ve heard a lot of good things about it… and a lot of bad things about Eldritch Smite. I’ll keep it in mind though. Thanks!
I don't think either would be 'must take'.
Lifedrinker is level 9+, so we'll start our comparison there. The game assumes ~2 encounters per short rest, and an encounter lasts 2-4 rounds, with 3 being the most likely. So let's say 6 rounds of combat per short rest. You've got 2-3 spell slots most of your relevant Warlock career. We'll assume you can always get into melee.
Level 9: Lifedrinker is going to add 12d6 damage across those 6 rounds of combat. Each eldritch smite is going to add 6d8 damage, for a total of 12d8 per short rest. 12d8 > 12d6
Level 12: You get your third extra attack, so lifedrinker is now 18d6 across 6 rounds of combat. But you picked up a 3rd spell slot at level 11 (where Eldritch Smite really blows Lifedrinker away), so Eldritch Smite is now 18d8 per short rest.
But wait, you say, you burned all your spell slots, so you can't cast hex, so you lose that damage. Hex with a 5th level spell slot lasts 24h, so we can cast it when we wake up and immediately short rest.
But wait, you still burned all your spell slots, so you can't cast other things. But if you're casting in combat, you aren't attacking that round (with most spells - obviously you can use bonus action or reaction spells, and the eldritch smiter doesn't get to do those things). Yes, the Eldritch Smiter forgoes much of their spellcasting, but we're talking one spell per combat. (And if you are using hex, you aren't casting another concentration spell, which is where Warlocks get most of the value from their spellcasting from, so the Eldritch Smiter can still benefit from the 1 concentration spell by just maintaining Hex all day).
The other advantages of Eldritch Smite are that (1) it can be front-loaded. You deal that damage early rather than spread out. (2) It can be saved for crits, because you decide after you hit. (Obviously those two things are mutually exclusive, but it's good to have options). (3) You can choose which combats you need it in. You aren't wasting the extra damage from eldritch smites in an easy encounter. (4) Eldritch Smite makes the target prone, no save, and up to a huge target. That makes it easier to hit for the rest of your attacks and any melee allies who act before it stands up. (5) You lose damage from lifedrinker every time you miss. You never lose any Eldritch Smite damage, since it triggers on a hit. (Which is to say, you always get your 12d8 or 18d8 from Eldritch Smite per short rest. You may get less than 12d6 or 18d6 per short rest from lifedrinker).
I particularly value front-loading, as removing enemies quicker tilts the action economy towards the PCs.
And many tables are having just one encounter per short rest, so the eldritch smiter can unload and outdamage the lifedrinker.
(And yes, lifedrinker can heal, but... you need less healing if things are dead earlier, and lifedrinker doesn't increase your total healing ability since it still spends HD, just when you can use them, so needing less healing seems like an advantage to me in general).
If you're absolutely focused on Pact of the Blade, you can of course do both.
I guess that makes sense overall.
Something else that may support your case for me personally is my Verdan’s ability Black Blood that lets me reroll 1’s on my hit point dice. I’m not sure if it works with lifedrinker or if it has to be short rest only.
I will also note that I’m using a rapier, which is a vex weapon, so I don’t really benefit from enemies being prone. Some of my allies might though.
But yeah, you brought up some very good points. I may keep lifedrinker, but I’m going to try adding Eldritch Smite too. The question is where?
Does this look good?:
Pact of the Blade
Familiar Friend
Pact of the Chain
Eldritch Smite
Thirsting Blade
Eldritch Mind
Lifedrinker
Devouring Blade
Witch’s Sight
Gaze of Two Minds
Would you recommend anything else different? I know there are pleanty of new origin feats like Portal Jumper.
FYI, I have never played at a table with a DM that would allow this kind of cheesery. Short Rest immediately after a Long Rest just to have a free-floating Hex the rest of the day? C'mon now. Stop embarrassing your patron
Also, who are you casting it on? You can't switch Hex to a new target until the original drops to zero HP. Are you offering your familiar up as a sacrifice?
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
This sort of thing is sometimes called the "bag of rats" technique because the idea is that you keep a supply of weak expendable creatures around to sidestep restrictions like this. I have very little patience for it personally, but it's a thing people do sometimes.
pronouns: he/she/they
You're a Warlock, not a Paladin. Finding (or keeping around and making use of) something weak to kill in order to increase your power sounds perfectly on-brand to me. Consider it a sacrifice. I'd imagine most patrons would be on-board.
This is pretty much exactly what this bit from the DMG is for:
If you have a hex lingering off the last fight before a short rest, that's all well and good. Murdering a vole just so you can short rest to restore the slot is not gonna fly at my table, and really shouldn't anywhere.
You have restricted slots for a reason. "Clever" rules hacks to get around your limited resource get automatic side-eye from me.
Last I checked, Hex doesn't require a 'fight' or a 'combat'. It just requires a creature.
And the whole point of hex lasting 24h is so that it stops eating into your limited spell slots per short rest. That's by design.
I can't imagine a DM complaining about a Warlock that performs a daily blood sacrifice, but here we are.
1) Celestial, Archfey, Genie, quite possibly Hexblade and even GOO. Not all patrons are Fiend. And, frankly, if your patron does demand such a thing, by the time you're 9th+ level, they would sneer at your lack of audacity.
2) Yes. That means you can cast it in one fight, and carry it forward until your next long rest.
3) You're not "performing a blood sacrifice" in-character. You're trying to justify a manipulation of the game mechanics.
4) I don't think your targets even count as creatures. They don't have stats. They're scenery. (Well, not even that, since you're just asserting one exists and that you're killing it for mechanical advantage.)
If your DM lets you do that, more power to you, I guess.
1/ Aside from Celestial (and even then, lots of religions of 'good' gods throughout history have required blood sacrifices. Animal sacrifices were a core feature of 2nd Temple Judaism, for example)... I don't see any reason why an Archfey or GOO would object to a blood sacrifice. Hexblade is kinda ambiguous on the patron, so well within acceptable flavor choices. And genies... genies are often villainous in mythology, doesn't seem like an unreasonable flavor choice.
What do you think the Warlock pact is? Sunshine, milk and honey? It's not just Fiends that are villainous.
(Now, an actual Fiend patron I could see asking for more at least some of the time, and if I'm being that black-hearted, I would happily ask the DM about abducting the occasional small child for the purpose, even if not an everyday thing. I don't think that would really be a combat either).
2/ Again, fight not required.
3/ Why do these two things have to be in opposition to each other. The character class all about bargaining with a Power for power making use of the game rules for power seems entirely on brand. Everything you do in the game is use your characterization and storytelling to explain why you make the mechanical choices you're making. Gaining power is the core motivation of the Warlock. Mechanics are not invisible, they have in-world effects, and characters absolutely should be exploiting them, especially when its the core fantasy of the class. The warlock should absolutely want to manipulate the mechanics of the world he inhabits for power - here the roleplay and the player incentives are perfectly aligned.
4/ Creature is a defined term in the rules (PHB p364): "Any being in the game, including a player's character, is a creature." They don't need a statblock to be a creature (although between the 'rat', 'cat' and other CR0 animals, you can probably find something suitable to represent most things).
For the purpose of a build discussion I'm asserting one exists. Procuring one in-game is the responsibility of the player and how they see their warlock accomplishing that.
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It is not like the Warlock is overpowered such that routinely having Hex up all day without eating into their spell slots in a meaningful way causes the game to break down. Especially at level 9+.