Key invocations: Repelling Blast, Agonizing Blast, Devil's Sight, the one that provides Mage Armor
The basic idea here is to sit back in my own cloud of edgelordy darkness and blast EB spam
with advantage using the Darkness/Devil's sight combo (Or possibly casting it on the familiar depending on the situation.
Designed to level 10, because if it isn't fun by then, it never will be.
I tried to stay away from too many concentration spells, as most of them sit around unused 99% of the time.
The one piece of advice I have heard for similar builds is to try to get some additional mobility into the mix. Without taking Aasimar or Aarakocra (Because AL), I was thinking that taking two rogue levels for cunning action. Or (if the character lasts long enough,) three levels to get the Scout reaction feature.
The fact that you not only took Pact of the Chain, but also Investment of the Chain Master, signals to me that you really care about that Sprite (or whatever) familiar getting to attack, and that a normal Familiar (via Pact of the Tome and BOS) isn't a good alternative for you for "shenanigans". I will say, just think about your average number of rounds that a fight takes (3-5 in my experience), and that any round that Familiar is attacking is a round you aren't casting Hex, healing with your pool of D6's, or doing any Cunning Action stuff if you multiclass... so the Familiar may only be attacking once or twice per combat, and not at a very high to-hit modifier. Being a Ritual Caster with BOS and making due with a regular non-attacking familiar is more optimal in my book, I don't think a Familiar does much for you in combat even with improved DCs and resistance to damage. Gift of the Protectors is also a good Tome invocation that might make you more useful to your party as a support/DPS hybrid, more than buffing your familiar would. Pact of the Talisman is also potentially a good pact for an off-healing Celestial Warlock, along with the Protection of the Talisman invocation.
Chain & Investment alternatives aside, your other invocations seem fine. Though, if there's ANY warlock capable of skipping Agonizing Blast and other Eldritch Blast enhancements, it's the Celestial, who gets a level 6 ability that makes Sacred Flame and Fire Bolt kind of OK (though still far behind EB). If you want to be a typical warlock Blaster, and are more interested in self-enhancement and mobility than being an off-support (due to taking Chain Master), then I'm wondering why you're a Celestial at all instead of almost any other Patron... But the ranged bonus healing is nice, and the short rest Inspring Leader ability is great too, so nobody's going to complain about you having those.
Elven Accuracy is fine and good, but because Eldritch Blast damage scales off of multiple hits stacking that +5 charisma modifier, and not really off of applying piles of bonus damage dice that can double on a crit... Warlocks aren't really crit fishers. EA certainly doesn't hurt, Advantage+ is always nice, but I don't think you're going to suffer from accuracy even with normal attacks, let alone advantage attacks, and EA is a little overkill. Fey Touched would do more for your need for mobility, or Skill Expert to shore up your Athletics, Stealth, Perception, Arcana, or Investigation is always nice as a default half-stat, depending on who in your party is doing what. Telepathic or Telekinetic could also be fun.
Rogue levels make it even less likely that your Bonus Action is laying around waiting for that Familiar to use it, so keep that in mind. I don't think Cunning Action is worth that dip, because Sneak Attack is irrelevant for you, and Expertise is readily available with Skill Expert. You'd rather be Bonus Action Misty Steping than Bonus dashing or hiding, and getting to levels that let you pick up Fey Touched does that better. Misty Step or Telekinetic or Repelling Blast also means you don't really need to be able to Bonus Disengage, honestly I don't think that Warlocks require multiclassing to pick up mobility in combat.
Overall, I think you're good: you're a Warlock with max Charisma and EB cheese, who also has some healing dice. That's better than good, that's great! But I think that Fey Touched or Telekinetic are better than Elven Accuracy for you, and I think that Tome or Talisman are better boons for you than Chain. That's about it.
Race-change to tiefling with fire, Mephistopheles Tiefling, then you get burning hands spell a 2nd-level spell once and at 5th level, you get flame blade. Both works well with the key-element for the celestial.
Radiant Soul
Starting at 6th level, your link to the Celestial allows you to serve as a conduit for radiant energy. You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
You choose Flames of Phlegethos as a feat and you dont go chain, but Tome instead. Pick up find familiar spell, a bat seems nice, and you choose fire bolt as one of you cantrips. Now you get more spells and more interesting options for your invocations because you dont go eldritch blast all the time.
Race-change to tiefling with fire, Mephistopheles Tiefling, then you get burning hands spell a 2nd-level spell once and at 5th level, you get flame blade. Both works well with the key-element for the celestial.
Radiant Soul
Starting at 6th level, your link to the Celestial allows you to serve as a conduit for radiant energy. You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
You choose Flames of Phlegethos as a feat and you dont go chain, but Tome instead. Pick up find familiar spell, a bat seems nice, and you choose fire bolt as one of you cantrips. Now you get more spells and more interesting options for your invocations because you dont go eldritch blast all the time.
If you do this, grab Produce Flame with one of the three tome cantrips. Then you have an on demand trigger for your Flames that doesn't require an attack and can use it as an intimidation tactic or be a walking torch for your party. Run it by the DM first to make sure that they think it will work that way.
Hmmm, I never thought about whether "cast a spell that deals fire damage" means "cast a spell that is able to deal fire damage" or "cast a spell that successfully deals fire damage." Interesting.
The fact that you not only took Pact of the Chain, but also Investment of the Chain Master, signals to me that you really care about that Sprite (or whatever) familiar getting to attack, and that a normal Familiar (via Pact of the Tome and BOS) isn't a good alternative for you for "shenanigans". I will say, just think about your average number of rounds that a fight takes (3-5 in my experience), and that any round that Familiar is attacking is a round you aren't casting Hex, healing with your pool of D6's, or doing any Cunning Action stuff if you multiclass... so the Familiar may only be attacking once or twice per combat, and not at a very high to-hit modifier. Being a Ritual Caster with BOS and making due with a regular non-attacking familiar is more optimal in my book, I don't think a Familiar does much for you in combat even with improved DCs and resistance to damage. Gift of the Protectors is also a good Tome invocation that might make you more useful to your party as a support/DPS hybrid, more than buffing your familiar would. Pact of the Talisman is also potentially a good pact for an off-healing Celestial Warlock, along with the Protection of the Talisman invocation.
Chain & Investment alternatives aside, your other invocations seem fine. Though, if there's ANY warlock capable of skipping Agonizing Blast and other Eldritch Blast enhancements, it's the Celestial, who gets a level 6 ability that makes Sacred Flame and Fire Bolt kind of OK (though still far behind EB). If you want to be a typical warlock Blaster, and are more interested in self-enhancement and mobility than being an off-support (due to taking Chain Master), then I'm wondering why you're a Celestial at all instead of almost any other Patron... But the ranged bonus healing is nice, and the short rest Inspring Leader ability is great too, so nobody's going to complain about you having those.
Elven Accuracy is fine and good, but because Eldritch Blast damage scales off of multiple hits stacking that +5 charisma modifier, and not really off of applying piles of bonus damage dice that can double on a crit... Warlocks aren't really crit fishers. EA certainly doesn't hurt, Advantage+ is always nice, but I don't think you're going to suffer from accuracy even with normal attacks, let alone advantage attacks, and EA is a little overkill. Fey Touched would do more for your need for mobility, or Skill Expert to shore up your Athletics, Stealth, Perception, Arcana, or Investigation is always nice as a default half-stat, depending on who in your party is doing what. Telepathic or Telekinetic could also be fun.
Rogue levels make it even less likely that your Bonus Action is laying around waiting for that Familiar to use it, so keep that in mind. I don't think Cunning Action is worth that dip, because Sneak Attack is irrelevant for you, and Expertise is readily available with Skill Expert. You'd rather be Bonus Action Misty Steping than Bonus dashing or hiding, and getting to levels that let you pick up Fey Touched does that better. Misty Step or Telekinetic or Repelling Blast also means you don't really need to be able to Bonus Disengage, honestly I don't think that Warlocks require multiclassing to pick up mobility in combat.
Overall, I think you're good: you're a Warlock with max Charisma and EB cheese, who also has some healing dice. That's better than good, that's great! But I think that Fey Touched or Telekinetic are better than Elven Accuracy for you, and I think that Tome or Talisman are better boons for you than Chain. That's about it.
Thanks - this is exactly the kind of feedback I was interested in.
Race-change to tiefling with fire, Mephistopheles Tiefling, then you get burning hands spell a 2nd-level spell once and at 5th level, you get flame blade. Both works well with the key-element for the celestial.
Radiant Soul
Starting at 6th level, your link to the Celestial allows you to serve as a conduit for radiant energy. You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
You choose Flames of Phlegethos as a feat and you dont go chain, but Tome instead. Pick up find familiar spell, a bat seems nice, and you choose fire bolt as one of you cantrips. Now you get more spells and more interesting options for your invocations because you dont go eldritch blast all the time.
Race-change to tiefling with fire, Mephistopheles Tiefling, then you get burning hands spell a 2nd-level spell once and at 5th level, you get flame blade. Both works well with the key-element for the celestial.
Radiant Soul
Starting at 6th level, your link to the Celestial allows you to serve as a conduit for radiant energy. You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
You choose Flames of Phlegethos as a feat and you dont go chain, but Tome instead. Pick up find familiar spell, a bat seems nice, and you choose fire bolt as one of you cantrips. Now you get more spells and more interesting options for your invocations because you dont go eldritch blast all the time.
Race would probably depend on what feats are the priority. Thematically, tieflings do very little for me, but I will keep it in mind.
As a long range caster, especially one who plans on sitting in a cloud of darkness, I'd be surprised if you need much healing at all mid-combat. That could be a priority for a melee build that uses those healing d6's selfishly, but I don't think it's for you.
As a long range caster, especially one who plans on sitting in a cloud of darkness, I'd be surprised if you need much healing at all mid-combat. That could be a priority for a melee build that uses those healing d6's selfishly, but I don't think it's for you.
Fair point. So maybe another reason to not go with chain.
I am definitely sticking with Celestial though in order to be a support team member.
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Crossposted from Warlock forum
My AL character has leveled out of tier one. I've never tried a warlock before, so here goes.
The one piece of advice I have heard for similar builds is to try to get some additional mobility into the mix. Without taking Aasimar or Aarakocra (Because AL), I was thinking that taking two rogue levels for cunning action. Or (if the character lasts long enough,) three levels to get the Scout reaction feature.
Whaddya think?
The fact that you not only took Pact of the Chain, but also Investment of the Chain Master, signals to me that you really care about that Sprite (or whatever) familiar getting to attack, and that a normal Familiar (via Pact of the Tome and BOS) isn't a good alternative for you for "shenanigans". I will say, just think about your average number of rounds that a fight takes (3-5 in my experience), and that any round that Familiar is attacking is a round you aren't casting Hex, healing with your pool of D6's, or doing any Cunning Action stuff if you multiclass... so the Familiar may only be attacking once or twice per combat, and not at a very high to-hit modifier. Being a Ritual Caster with BOS and making due with a regular non-attacking familiar is more optimal in my book, I don't think a Familiar does much for you in combat even with improved DCs and resistance to damage. Gift of the Protectors is also a good Tome invocation that might make you more useful to your party as a support/DPS hybrid, more than buffing your familiar would. Pact of the Talisman is also potentially a good pact for an off-healing Celestial Warlock, along with the Protection of the Talisman invocation.
Chain & Investment alternatives aside, your other invocations seem fine. Though, if there's ANY warlock capable of skipping Agonizing Blast and other Eldritch Blast enhancements, it's the Celestial, who gets a level 6 ability that makes Sacred Flame and Fire Bolt kind of OK (though still far behind EB). If you want to be a typical warlock Blaster, and are more interested in self-enhancement and mobility than being an off-support (due to taking Chain Master), then I'm wondering why you're a Celestial at all instead of almost any other Patron... But the ranged bonus healing is nice, and the short rest Inspring Leader ability is great too, so nobody's going to complain about you having those.
Elven Accuracy is fine and good, but because Eldritch Blast damage scales off of multiple hits stacking that +5 charisma modifier, and not really off of applying piles of bonus damage dice that can double on a crit... Warlocks aren't really crit fishers. EA certainly doesn't hurt, Advantage+ is always nice, but I don't think you're going to suffer from accuracy even with normal attacks, let alone advantage attacks, and EA is a little overkill. Fey Touched would do more for your need for mobility, or Skill Expert to shore up your Athletics, Stealth, Perception, Arcana, or Investigation is always nice as a default half-stat, depending on who in your party is doing what. Telepathic or Telekinetic could also be fun.
Rogue levels make it even less likely that your Bonus Action is laying around waiting for that Familiar to use it, so keep that in mind. I don't think Cunning Action is worth that dip, because Sneak Attack is irrelevant for you, and Expertise is readily available with Skill Expert. You'd rather be Bonus Action Misty Steping than Bonus dashing or hiding, and getting to levels that let you pick up Fey Touched does that better. Misty Step or Telekinetic or Repelling Blast also means you don't really need to be able to Bonus Disengage, honestly I don't think that Warlocks require multiclassing to pick up mobility in combat.
Overall, I think you're good: you're a Warlock with max Charisma and EB cheese, who also has some healing dice. That's better than good, that's great! But I think that Fey Touched or Telekinetic are better than Elven Accuracy for you, and I think that Tome or Talisman are better boons for you than Chain. That's about it.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Just a thought.
Race-change to tiefling with fire, Mephistopheles Tiefling, then you get burning hands spell a 2nd-level spell once and at 5th level, you get flame blade. Both works well with the key-element for the celestial.
Radiant Soul
Starting at 6th level, your link to the Celestial allows you to serve as a conduit for radiant energy. You have resistance to radiant damage, and when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets.
You choose Flames of Phlegethos as a feat and you dont go chain, but Tome instead. Pick up find familiar spell, a bat seems nice, and you choose fire bolt as one of you cantrips. Now you get more spells and more interesting options for your invocations because you dont go eldritch blast all the time.
If you do this, grab Produce Flame with one of the three tome cantrips. Then you have an on demand trigger for your Flames that doesn't require an attack and can use it as an intimidation tactic or be a walking torch for your party. Run it by the DM first to make sure that they think it will work that way.
Hmmm, I never thought about whether "cast a spell that deals fire damage" means "cast a spell that is able to deal fire damage" or "cast a spell that successfully deals fire damage." Interesting.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Thanks - this is exactly the kind of feedback I was interested in.
Race would probably depend on what feats are the priority. Thematically, tieflings do very little for me, but I will keep it in mind.
Re chain lock, part of the reasoning was that invocation what improves self-healing.
As a long range caster, especially one who plans on sitting in a cloud of darkness, I'd be surprised if you need much healing at all mid-combat. That could be a priority for a melee build that uses those healing d6's selfishly, but I don't think it's for you.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Fair point. So maybe another reason to not go with chain.
I am definitely sticking with Celestial though in order to be a support team member.