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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Hi everyone, I'd like your opinion on a character I'm going to create.
I want to create a Fighter 1 / Warlock X. He's a Goliath (Stone), and his first level is Fighter. The other levels will be Warlock.
Consider two options:
1) Focused more on magical attacks:
Strength 16, Dexterity 8, Constitution 14, Intelligence 8, Wisdom 10, Charisma 17.
He would use heavy armor, shield, longsword. Pact of the Chain (familiar to help), Pact of the Blade.
At Warlock level 4 I would take Spellsniper to attack with Eldritch Blast up close without suffering disadvantage (my group needs a frontliner), focusing on pushing enemies with Repelling Blast and throwing them towards the damage areas of my teammates' spells. Initially I will concentrate on Hex and at higher levels I would have a summon (Summon Undead or Summon Fey) to complement my damage. He would deal single target damage from a distance. At level 8, I would put +2 Charisma to reach 20 Charisma. I would try to get a Rod of the Pactkeeper.
2) Focused more on physical attacks:
Strength 17, Dexterity 8, Constitution 14, Intelligence 8, Wisdom 10, Charisma 16. He would use heavy armor, a maul. Pact of the Chain (familiar to help), Pact of the Blade.
At level 4 I would take Great Weapon Master. At level 8 I would take Heavy Armor Master to reduce damage taken (I know, I wouldn’t get 20 Strength, but I think the damage reduction from the feat combined with the Goliath's resistance could greatly enhance my Armor of Agathys).
The goal here is to deal a lot of damage with melee attacks, invest my spell slots in Agathys Armor, and use the damage reduction feat to make Agathys Armor last as long as possible. He has always concentrating on Bladeward to increase his AC.
Which of these options would be mathematically more powerful, and which subclass would best fit each one? The rules I can use are only the D&D Player's Handbook 5.5 (2024), Heroes of Faerûn (2025), Astarion Book of Hunger, Exploring Eberron and Eberron Forge of the Artificer. All from the 5.5 version of D&D.
If you have another good option, I would love to know :)
I can't speak to "mathematically more powerful" because that's never something I care about, but I'm currently playing a Fighter/Sorcerer who does the same Armor of Agathys/damage reduction combo you're thinking about with the second option, albeit in a different way. I can say it's extremely satisfying to get hit in melee, and then have the enemy take more damage than they manage to inflict upon you
One thing to watch out for is not to boost your AC too high if you want to get max utility out of that combo. My little guy's a DEX build with an AC of 20, and there have been times I've slapped on an upcast AoA, only to go the entire combat without anyone laying a finger on me. If you get something like the Tough feat in there so you can soak more damage, you can more easily leave your AC in a "hittable" range
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)
Thank you very much for your answer :)
At Warlock level 4....
Assuming you are starting at level 1 and advancing, you do realize that warlock 4 is actually level 5 for everyone? Any boost from starting as fighter 1 will be harder to justify as your mates get ASI/Feat boost at level 4, but your multiclass means you get it at level 5.
Warlock becomes very nice at level 5, but you and everyone else will be at level 6 when you get it.
Dex 8 may cause more problems then it is worth by using it as a dump. -1 initiatives, -1 dex saves to get 1/2 damage.
There’s a small problem with your setup: you cannot cast most spells with your hands full like they are with a sword and shield. If you want to use the shield eventually, I’d start with just the longsword until then so you can use it as a two-handed weapon until you get warcaster at level 5 (Warlock level 4). If you are going pact of the blade anyway, I wouldn't worry about spell sniper personally. Having said that, if you want to go the AoA route, you might not want a shield anyway and focus more on HP rather then AC.
Just for fun, I’ll attach my old Fighter 1/Warlock 19 build. I’m not sure which subclass you are going with, but I went with Celestial and made my character have as much health as possible so that when searing bengence or boon of recovery activated I’d get back as much health as possible. The biggest difference between our builds is I went Charisma and medium armor instead of strength and heavy armor. Hopefully it helps; I took great pride in it before I switched to Paladin 1/Warlock 19 and had to go with some strength as well as dropped my Constitution in favor of better mental stats. Anyway, here it is:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/150088777
Best of luck, fellow warlock!
P.S.: One final fact I just thought of you might want to take i to consideration that I did not know about originally: The starting heavy armor chain mail only requires a strength of 13 to wear, so if you weren’t going to use a heavy weapon (at least originally, or if you are sticking with default equipment) you can start out with either a 13 or a 14 and either take a +2 to strength or a +1 feat to strength and use those extra points elsewhere and still get advanced heavy armor when it matters later. Just a thought.
The rules of somatic components says a spellcaster must use at least one of their hands to perform the movements. But the rules of material components says i need to hold the components and It can be the same hand used to perform Somatic components. This same rule say I can substitute these components for a spellcasting focus if im holding it, but Pact of the blade turns my weapon into my Spellcasting Focus. So, while im holding my pact longsword I can perform material and somatic components using the same hand.
Oh, ok. Clearly I still have much to learn.
On one hand, now I’m wondering whether or not to go spell sniper. War Caster is still really good though. On the other hand, if you are going Pact of the Blade anyway, I don’t see the point of spell sniper for up close combat… unless you are using AoE spells and want to repelling blast people into them.
I have a different understanding, you may want to discuss with your DM how that is interpreted. But all have said I can keep the pact sword but not the shield.
Basically I intend to have options to "stop" enemies from attacking my party. Weapon masteries, Topple, Push, Sap in adition of Repelling blast to hit those far from me. I want to protect my bros. ha ha ha. My party is really "unique" we have a Valor bard, a lore Bard, a Stars druid and a Moon Druid. Yes its weird, but its what I have now ha ha ha.
Option 1 is probably not going to work that well:
Balance I guess.
Paladins get two extra 1st level spell slots for hex, but fighters are in trouble, yes.
War Caster is generally better than eldritch mind.
That’s why I went with 14 to start and took a +1 feat at level 8 with chain mail.
You got me there with the 14 Constitution, but dumping other stats just doesn’t seem like a good idea.
You think I should go Option 2 then? Or another option? I'd like some suggestions about warlock subclass.
Between the two, perhaps yes. It’s quite a do as I say not as I do thing for me, but I’ve heard great things about two-handed weapon warlocks. If you’re going Pact of the Blade, it makes some sense to go all in. Then again, it’s good to have options… which is why I have both pact of the blade invocations and eldritch blast cantrips.
Personally, I’m questioning my own build now if a 14 in Constitution isn’t enough. I ended up going back to 15/8/20/8/8/20 for my level 20 Paladin 1/Celestial Warlock 19 build instead of 15/10/16/8/12/20. Not to hijack your thread, but I could use some help too. I mean, is 40 extra hit points worth dumping so many other stats?
My point is we’re in similar situations with our builds. I went with more of an option 1, but in ways there seems like more logic in going with Option 2.
Sorry if this doesn’t help; I’m just trying to type what I’m thinking.
I think your title "focused more on X" Is in name only. As you are playing this, do you want to sit in the back and cast spells or do you want to get up front and hack with a sword?
Warlocks do not make great hybrids. Either plan to sit in the back and cast spells or not. If you are doing front line pact of the blade, then to maintain the front line status is going to suck up all of your invocations. In addition, on paper starting fighter 1 looks really good on paper, but when you are starting to hit the big monsters at level 4 or 5 and you need to wait until you are level 6 to get a second weapon attack (because of the 1 level dip) you will start to 2nd guess your choice to multi class.
Your A/C will be your big weakness, and dipping into fighter seems like an easy fix. It is an easy fix of A/C, but creates other issues inherent to being behind everyone in levels.
Getting EB is a great cantrip, as it is a ranged weapon and scales to your over all level and acts as a Bow does for other classes. But EB can suck up invocations as well. So again, choice to be a fighter type or a mage type.
As for putting in rolls into abilities, the warlock appears to be a single ability to be good, but in reality, depending on what you want to end up with, it can be a a class that needs several high scores. if you are doing spells, then you need a good CHA, if you are going Pact of the Blade and frontline you need a good CHA, and a good CON & DEX as well.
If my focus were to deal damage, what do you recommend me?
How about Ranger 1 / Warlock X with the Arch Fey patron?
Background: Genie Touched gets you Magic Initiate Wizard for the Shield spell (you'd have three castings of it)
Starting Stats: 8 / 14 / 14 / 8 /13 / 17
Half plate and shield gets you 19 AC
Take Spell Sniper at level 5 (level 4 Warlock) for "melee" eldritch blasts. Use free Hunter's Marks to boost damage until Warlock 5 when you learn Spirit Shroud.
Take Resilient CON at level 9 (Warlock 8) to help maintain concentration (with Eldritch Mind, you should be in good shape).
For Invocations, you'd need:
Agonizing Blast
Eldritch Mind
Lessons of the First Ones (Tough)
Repelling Blast
and then whichever are your favorites. Pact of the Tome lets you add more cantrips (like Ray of Frost for a slow effect) and get Find Familiar for some flyby help on your attacks. Gift of the Protectors gives you and your teammates a free Death Ward spell, which is nice.
Its an amazing idea. However, Im playing in a Adventure's League type of guild. A lot of players, taking missions etc. My character is already Fighter 1 / Warlock 2. I cant change its base now. the intention wasn't to do very optmized character. I created and Image and tried to match its abilities to it.
Look how cute is this my fighter/warlock:
I create a serie of ilustrations of our characters, most of them in the same tavern (these are the 2 bards) My character is watching the girl play (already in love with her, even let the sword drop), while the other bard is in a fight because of a gambling:
I disagree here. If you're going to be wearing heavy armor, and I agree that it seems like the plan, go for the blade pact. It synergies with the fighter level better, letting you use the weapon masteries.
And jumping into a second caster class just dilutes both of them, keeping you from getting higher-level spells in either of them. More slots for armor of agathys is less useful than higher-level slots for it.
You may hate it, but it's no better than great weapon master or pole arm master builds. It might actually make hex worth it for a front-line fighter warlock, though.
Or if the ranged attackers have more targets. Giving several melee fighters advantage is going to make a dent in an opponent pretty quickly.
Pretty often, really. Cleave is probably the most generally useful of the bigger weapon masteries. (Nick and vex are basically always useful.)
Most of the masteries are situationally good.
Warlocks recharge on a short rest, which is a huge difference.
AoA is better for hordes of bozos than big opponents. Because you've got auto-scaling slots, it'll eventually be 25 temp hp and 25 damage, which is nothing to sneeze at. Big foes are going to strip those HP off you in one or two hits, and can tank the damage. The random mooks do less and die faster. If you have any means of refreshing your temp HP (which fiend patrons have automatically), you can get a lot of milage. (If the scrubs are crunchy enough, a fiend warlock can shred any number of them with AoA.)
The singleton opponent, you probably want a different spell.
Warlocks are more flexible than that. Yes, they can be built for single target damage, but it's not the only option.
Nah. The real trick is not to use hex. It's not that good. There are more fun concentration spells that are at least as effective. You just have to think about it.
Multiclassing warlock-caster is still counterproductive. You end up with more slots, yes, but you don't get high-level slots with either one. OP is making a warlock. Going 5+ levels into sorcerer just to get fireball (when hunger of hadar is right there) leaves them at 9th level with no spells higher than third level, when the other pure casters are up to 5th.
In a long adventuring day, warlocks actually out-power other casters, as long as they get some short rests. Nobody else gets anything like as many 4th-5th-level spell slots. And in a short day, they can burn their spells with mad abandon, just like everybody else. And are still a short rest away from being fine if things run longer. They have to be slightly less madly abandoned, but that's why they have their invocations and EB. Bladepact warlocks, in particular, can pick their spots and still contribute.