I would normally ask my Dad this kind of question, but I thought maybe someone here could help.
I am building a 5th level character using the UA Warlock and thought that it might be worth it to go Warlock 4/Fighter 1 to gain Shield proficiency, a Fighting Style, Second Wind and 3 Masteries? I intend to go Pact Weapon with Undead Patron (just moving the first level abilities to 3rd). I know that this will set back casting and extra attack, but I thought the pros might out weigh the cons.
I would normally ask my Dad this kind of question, but I thought maybe someone here could help.
I am building a 5th level character using the UA Warlock and thought that it might be worth it to go Warlock 4/Fighter 1 to gain Shield proficiency, a Fighting Style, Second Wind and 3 Masteries? I intend to go Pact Weapon with Undead Patron (just moving the first level abilities to 3rd). I know that this will set back casting and extra attack, but I thought the pros might out weigh the cons.
The truth is just going 5 lock would be better I believe. Remember to take the lightly armored feat at level one and it will give you shield prof then take warcaster at 4 so you have advantage on concentration checks and can cast while your hands are full with your pact weapon and shield. Level 8 you can consider the weapon mastery feat.
Using a shield with the UA pact weapon just isn't viable, since you'd lose spell casting due to having no free hands, no fighting style is going to make up for losing the ability to make a secondary attack, also using pact of the blade, you probably don't want to use light weapons for dual wield, as only your primary pact weapon will benefit from your spellcasting modifier, and you can't use heavy weapons. So this limits the available weapon masteries that you can take too, Flex, Sap, Slow, Topple and Vex.
Flex is pointless, since you shouldn't be using a shield anyway, just use two hands to make the attack
Sap is probably the second best choice, since it does improve your chances of not being hit, but so does making two attacks
Slow is kind of pointless, it's good for tanking/zone control but as pact of the blade that isn't really your concern
Topple is probably the best choice, prone can be powerful, but it also depends on party make-up, you don't want to be making creatures prone if majority of the party uses ranged attack rolls.
Vex is okay, but you'd really already want to have extra attack to ensure you benefit from this well. For the same reason that making two attacks is better than using true strike, is the same reason why going warlock 5 first is the better choice.
While I won't say fighter 1 isn't adding anything, I'd say it adds less than just getting extra attack. After level 5, you might consider taking a level in fighter, or if you were looking at a choice for level 2, but starting at 5, I'd say go pure warlock for extra attack is definitely the best option. Remember also, at level 5 you're getting a 3rd invocation, you could grab Agonizing Blast, Devil's Sight and Fiendish Vigor as a good combo. So now you see in darkness, you enter most combats with 5-8 temp HP (at level 5, that is still enough to be helpful) and when you are out of range, you can still use your Agonizing Blast to cause some good damage.
If you wanted to switch out False Life for something else then picking up Mystic Arcanum to get a 3rd level spell is also a good choice, Lessons of the First Ones might be good later on but right now the only confirmed feat that works with that is Lightly Armoured, you'd literally only get a shield out of this; which as mentioned before, isn't worth using. So for 3rd level spells, there are a few good choices, Fireball is an obvious one, Blink or Animate Dead can also be quiet powerful when used correctly (blink is very good for survivability in melee range), Counterspell can be very good, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt, Stinking Cloud, Vampiric Touch, a lot of good options.
Overall, you get more from Warlock 5 than you do from Fighter 1 when comparing Warlock 5 to Warlock 4/Fighter 1. I'd wait until level 6 to go Warlock 5/Fighter 1
I would normally ask my Dad this kind of question, but I thought maybe someone here could help.
I am building a 5th level character using the UA Warlock and thought that it might be worth it to go Warlock 4/Fighter 1 to gain Shield proficiency, a Fighting Style, Second Wind and 3 Masteries? I intend to go Pact Weapon with Undead Patron (just moving the first level abilities to 3rd). I know that this will set back casting and extra attack, but I thought the pros might out weigh the cons.
Go 5 Warlock to get your extra attack and then dip fighter-1
Multiclassing becomes more attractive the more levels you have, and conversely it's less attractive for low-level builds. Sometimes it can work, and in this case the other thing you could get from this split would be heavy armor if your first level is the fighter level. 14DX for 15AC with a chain shirt or 16 w/Scale or 13ST for 16 AC with chainmail and the potential for higher (though higher will need 15ST) is a build decision to make. The fighting style would be harder to use since the average Bladelock is going to be double-fisting a Versatile weapon and there's no good fighting style for boosting that, but there's always Defense to help patch up AC.
Or, if you take War Caster and can use the shield without losing spellcasting, you can get Dueling and use a Flex weapon to get d10+2+mod damage, which is pretty respectable for a one-handed strike. Even if I hate the 'Flex' mastery with a passion, it's still an option. The other neat thing is that even though Wizards is STILL BEING BUTTS and demanding you use your whole-ass action to create your Pact weapon instead of letting you do it as a free object interaction the way everybody else can (or even just as a bonus action), you can choose which of your three Mastery weapons to create in the moment and actually make effective use of the whole Weapon Swapping idea the devs seem to be pushing with Masteries.
That all being said, you'd be losing your second attack and second-level spells, which is a heavy blow. Level 5 is often the most impactful level to obtain in a given class, a lot of people won't even consider multiclassing until they race to fifth in their 'core' class. Extra Attack is a huge deal for martial characters, mitigating misses and doubling your average per-turn output, and you're also doubling your number of spell slots at Warlock 5 - from three 1st-level to four 1st-level and two 2nd-level. That's a lot to push off for a level, especially on a character that won't gain any levels (presuming this is a testing one-shot or similar for the 1DD ruleset, anyways). You can partially offset the lost damage by using Booming/Green-Flame Blade, but those cantrips don't quite stack up to an entire extra swing.
Personally? If this is a one-and-done short game I'd go for Warlock 5. If this is a longer-form game where additional levels are expected, and if you want the heavy armor proficiency from starting Fighter 1, I'd say the 1/4 Fighter/Warlock split could be worth it. Once you hit sixth level all the issues disappear and you're sitting pretty as a (potentially) plate-wearing heavy armor swordcaster. But if fifth is all this character will ever be? I'd go for Warlock 5 and enjoy my more-than-double-the-spellcasting and my second strike with my Pact blade.
Thanks everyone for the advice. Looks like I will be putting off the level 1 dip till 6th level. It isn't that long of a wait anyway since we are starting at 5th.
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I would normally ask my Dad this kind of question, but I thought maybe someone here could help.
I am building a 5th level character using the UA Warlock and thought that it might be worth it to go Warlock 4/Fighter 1 to gain Shield proficiency, a Fighting Style, Second Wind and 3 Masteries? I intend to go Pact Weapon with Undead Patron (just moving the first level abilities to 3rd). I know that this will set back casting and extra attack, but I thought the pros might out weigh the cons.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
The truth is just going 5 lock would be better I believe. Remember to take the lightly armored feat at level one and it will give you shield prof then take warcaster at 4 so you have advantage on concentration checks and can cast while your hands are full with your pact weapon and shield. Level 8 you can consider the weapon mastery feat.
Using a shield with the UA pact weapon just isn't viable, since you'd lose spell casting due to having no free hands, no fighting style is going to make up for losing the ability to make a secondary attack, also using pact of the blade, you probably don't want to use light weapons for dual wield, as only your primary pact weapon will benefit from your spellcasting modifier, and you can't use heavy weapons. So this limits the available weapon masteries that you can take too, Flex, Sap, Slow, Topple and Vex.
Flex is pointless, since you shouldn't be using a shield anyway, just use two hands to make the attack
Sap is probably the second best choice, since it does improve your chances of not being hit, but so does making two attacks
Slow is kind of pointless, it's good for tanking/zone control but as pact of the blade that isn't really your concern
Topple is probably the best choice, prone can be powerful, but it also depends on party make-up, you don't want to be making creatures prone if majority of the party uses ranged attack rolls.
Vex is okay, but you'd really already want to have extra attack to ensure you benefit from this well. For the same reason that making two attacks is better than using true strike, is the same reason why going warlock 5 first is the better choice.
While I won't say fighter 1 isn't adding anything, I'd say it adds less than just getting extra attack. After level 5, you might consider taking a level in fighter, or if you were looking at a choice for level 2, but starting at 5, I'd say go pure warlock for extra attack is definitely the best option. Remember also, at level 5 you're getting a 3rd invocation, you could grab Agonizing Blast, Devil's Sight and Fiendish Vigor as a good combo. So now you see in darkness, you enter most combats with 5-8 temp HP (at level 5, that is still enough to be helpful) and when you are out of range, you can still use your Agonizing Blast to cause some good damage.
If you wanted to switch out False Life for something else then picking up Mystic Arcanum to get a 3rd level spell is also a good choice, Lessons of the First Ones might be good later on but right now the only confirmed feat that works with that is Lightly Armoured, you'd literally only get a shield out of this; which as mentioned before, isn't worth using. So for 3rd level spells, there are a few good choices, Fireball is an obvious one, Blink or Animate Dead can also be quiet powerful when used correctly (blink is very good for survivability in melee range), Counterspell can be very good, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt, Stinking Cloud, Vampiric Touch, a lot of good options.
Overall, you get more from Warlock 5 than you do from Fighter 1 when comparing Warlock 5 to Warlock 4/Fighter 1. I'd wait until level 6 to go Warlock 5/Fighter 1
Go 5 Warlock to get your extra attack and then dip fighter-1
Multiclassing becomes more attractive the more levels you have, and conversely it's less attractive for low-level builds. Sometimes it can work, and in this case the other thing you could get from this split would be heavy armor if your first level is the fighter level. 14DX for 15AC with a chain shirt or 16 w/Scale or 13ST for 16 AC with chainmail and the potential for higher (though higher will need 15ST) is a build decision to make. The fighting style would be harder to use since the average Bladelock is going to be double-fisting a Versatile weapon and there's no good fighting style for boosting that, but there's always Defense to help patch up AC.
Or, if you take War Caster and can use the shield without losing spellcasting, you can get Dueling and use a Flex weapon to get d10+2+mod damage, which is pretty respectable for a one-handed strike. Even if I hate the 'Flex' mastery with a passion, it's still an option. The other neat thing is that even though Wizards is STILL BEING BUTTS and demanding you use your whole-ass action to create your Pact weapon instead of letting you do it as a free object interaction the way everybody else can (or even just as a bonus action), you can choose which of your three Mastery weapons to create in the moment and actually make effective use of the whole Weapon Swapping idea the devs seem to be pushing with Masteries.
That all being said, you'd be losing your second attack and second-level spells, which is a heavy blow. Level 5 is often the most impactful level to obtain in a given class, a lot of people won't even consider multiclassing until they race to fifth in their 'core' class. Extra Attack is a huge deal for martial characters, mitigating misses and doubling your average per-turn output, and you're also doubling your number of spell slots at Warlock 5 - from three 1st-level to four 1st-level and two 2nd-level. That's a lot to push off for a level, especially on a character that won't gain any levels (presuming this is a testing one-shot or similar for the 1DD ruleset, anyways). You can partially offset the lost damage by using Booming/Green-Flame Blade, but those cantrips don't quite stack up to an entire extra swing.
Personally? If this is a one-and-done short game I'd go for Warlock 5. If this is a longer-form game where additional levels are expected, and if you want the heavy armor proficiency from starting Fighter 1, I'd say the 1/4 Fighter/Warlock split could be worth it. Once you hit sixth level all the issues disappear and you're sitting pretty as a (potentially) plate-wearing heavy armor swordcaster. But if fifth is all this character will ever be? I'd go for Warlock 5 and enjoy my more-than-double-the-spellcasting and my second strike with my Pact blade.
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Thanks everyone for the advice. Looks like I will be putting off the level 1 dip till 6th level. It isn't that long of a wait anyway since we are starting at 5th.
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