I'll also point out some thing I might do differently. Keep in mind that if you're staying in the back lines, Gift of the Ever Living Ones isn't doing you that much good.
Maybe take Heavily Armored so your AC doesn't depend on dexterity at all. That's a lot of "mandatory" feats though.
Without multi-classing, what are some of the best ways to leverage Gift of the Ever Living Ones? What magic items, feats, or spells align nicely with this invocation?
A feat that jumps to mind is the Dwarven Fortitude feat. When you dodge, you may spend one hit dice to receive healing equal to the die roll plus your constitution modifier. Although you might not be dodging much as a warlock, and would be much easier with some multiclassing, it’s still a nice option to have when things get dire mid fight. That being said, I think the max healing applies to hit die spent on a short rest anyway. Which is a pretty nice perk.
A celestial warlock has a pool of d6’s to spend on healing. If you’re the greedy type you can save them all for yourself and be able to put out a heal almost half as strong as the 6th level heal spell, on a bonus action 4 times per long rest (if you’re max level). You can spend a number of dice equal to your charisma modifier each time it’s used. 5d6 maximised for 30 health. Interestingly enough, if you assume average hp with a Con mod of +3 or less, that 30hp will be roughly your entire health pool restored at level (4) which coincides with when you get access to 5 dice. That’s some good early game bang for your buck. Most instant restore health abilities only give half your max health back, and unlock much later on in levels.
The best part about Dwarven Fortitude and Gift of the Ever Living Ones is that if you find yourself in that critical health range you can dodge AND heal instead of one or the other. Imposing disadvantage on attack rolls against you (if you see the attacker) combined with proficient wisdom saves and probably reasonable dex ones from your probably decent dex score plus advantage on them from dodging takes away a lot of opportunities to damage you, plus you get a likely 10-13 HP to buffer your health if you haven't multiclassed. Periapt of Wound Closure bumps that to 18-21 HP.
That changes Dodge from a decent combat option to a great combat option in that circumstance, particularly since you can use the dodge effect as a quasi-disengage to try to distance yourself from the attacker. It may not be a warlock's first thought in combat but it's far from the worst thing that you could do.
The use of Dodge to heal makes Monk a decent multi class,, to provide Bonus dodges. Monks will multiclass well with Druid (same stat requirements, Unarmored defense is likely to improve beast ACs, Shillelagh can help defray lower Dex on Monk while humanoid), so Warlock/Druid/Monk isn’t as hard to pull off as it may seem.
Honestly, without multi-classing the recommendation remains mostly the same.
I'll also point out some thing I might do differently. Keep in mind that if you're staying in the back lines, Gift of the Ever Living Ones isn't doing you that much good.
The best part about Dwarven Fortitude and Gift of the Ever Living Ones is that if you find yourself in that critical health range you can dodge AND heal instead of one or the other. Imposing disadvantage on attack rolls against you (if you see the attacker) combined with proficient wisdom saves and probably reasonable dex ones from your probably decent dex score plus advantage on them from dodging takes away a lot of opportunities to damage you, plus you get a likely 10-13 HP to buffer your health if you haven't multiclassed. Periapt of Wound Closure bumps that to 18-21 HP.
That changes Dodge from a decent combat option to a great combat option in that circumstance, particularly since you can use the dodge effect as a quasi-disengage to try to distance yourself from the attacker. It may not be a warlock's first thought in combat but it's far from the worst thing that you could do.
The use of Dodge to heal makes Monk a decent multi class,, to provide Bonus dodges. Monks will multiclass well with Druid (same stat requirements, Unarmored defense is likely to improve beast ACs, Shillelagh can help defray lower Dex on Monk while humanoid), so Warlock/Druid/Monk isn’t as hard to pull off as it may seem.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.