Hello! I'm trying to expand my horizons on classes since I tend to lean towards martial ones and Warlock sounds like a very fun one to me. I decided to make a Dragonborn Fighterlock (Looking at 1/19). I chose this combination of classes due to Fighters getting a fighting style and second wind at first level, and heavy armor proficiency (also as mentioned above I tend to play martial classes). For Warlock, I have chosen pact of the blade with general Fiend Patron stuff (Eldritch Blast (and buffed versions), Hellish Rebuke, etc..)
My question to you is this: can there be Dual-Wielded pact blades, IE two weapons made from the pact (of the same type, to specify). I ask this due to my goal of making my character a Dual Wielder, namely for cool points. If this can only be achieved by having a normal weapon in one hand and a pact blade in the other, then that can suffice, although it wouldn't quite line up for what I'm envisioning (Oh and while I'm asking this question, feel free to suggest any other level distributions for this multi-class; this is also my first instance of multi-classing a character).
Upon further consideration of this post I believe dual-wielding to be a...counter-productive endeavor? Given that you need a free hand in order to cast spells! (Guess that's the new spell caster in me showing xD) Okay, new forum question: What should I go for as my fighting style?
Dual wielding could be done if you take the Improved Pact Weapon invocation to have your pact weapon be your spell casting focus, but you would also need the Warcaster feat in order to cast spells that require a somatic, but no material component. Is it the strongest option? Definitely not, but I guess you know that already. Could it be cool? Absolutely.
You could also use a sword and shield in this way. If you choose to do so, I would recommend Dueling as your fighting style.
Or you could go with two-handed weapons. Two-handed weapons only require two hands when you attack with them. Holding one requires only one hand, which leaves you with one free hand to cast your spells. In that case you wouldn’t need Improved Pact Weapon or Warcaster if you use a component pouch for your material components. When using two-handed weapons, I like to take Defense as my fighting style for that extra durability. Great Weapon Fighting doesn’t provide enough extra damage to be worth it in my opinion.
For your level distribution you may want to consider taking a second level in Fighter at some point. Action Surge is just an incredibly powerful ability. If you want to fight mainly with your weapon, you probably want to get the Thirsting Blade invocation before taking any more levels in Fighter, however.
((You guys can tell that I'm new to stat spreading, can you xD))
Yes, War caster was something that I didn't really consider in my second post, although I absolutely knew I wanted both Thirsting Blade and Improved Pact Weapon. 2/18 Fighterlock was also considered for Action Surge. However, I also wanted to ask about 3/17 and the possibility of Eldritch Knight. That provides not only a second pact weapon (Thusly making my two weapons for dual wielding) but also access to Wizard spells. Would this be a viable option assuming that I take the War Caster feat over one of my ASI opporunities?
How does Eldritch Knight give you a second pact weapon? You can only summon one pact weapon.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Eldritch Knight is a viable option for Warlock. It provides you with the Shield spell and two 1st-level slots to cast it, which is always nice. You would also get Find Familiar. Weapon Bond could somewhat work as a flavor substitute for pact weapon. It can, however, only teleport a weapon into your hand, not conjure one or have it vanish into thin air. Remember that any level into Fighter delays your access to higher level spells further.
At this point, you also want to check if you're not spreading too thin. If you're not taking Hexblade, you will need good Strength and Charisma scores. You also need a decent Constitution score. With all the feats and delayed ASIs when multiclassing this could be difficult to achieve.
I am not going Hexblade, I’ve opted for the Fiend for this. I suppose I should specify my race for this context; it is Dragonborn. Since they have a +2 to STR and +1 to CHA, and breath weapons, which I intended to have be flavor text as to how he conjures his peach weapon, it would manifest out of his mouth, (it wouldn’t have the properties of his breath weapon in combat, merely the appearance of such). Shame that the Eldritch weapon can’t be manifested though I suppose I could manage with what’s given in that’s context.
I wasn‘t suggesting you should take Hexblade. I’m sorry if it sounded that way. A Warlock‘s pact brings so much flavor to the character that you most often want to choose what fits your story best. Also Fiend is a strong choice in general. I‘m just saying that it will be a little bit more difficult to make an efficient Pact of the Blade Warlock without Hexblade, but it can still work reasonably well.
Will you be rolling your stats or do you plan on using the standard array or point buy?
For this build I’m going with Point Buy, with a focus in STR, CHA and CON in that order; oh and I didn’t think you were trying to influence me to go Hex lol, I know it’s a good option.
Stats I already know I’m putting 8’s in for PB are DEX an INT, since I have Heavy Armor Proficiency which helps my AC not suffer. WIS and INT are a bit of a toss up though, as I’m forgetting which spell list the Eldritch Knight draws from.
Eldritch Knight uses INT as spellcasting modifier, but I wouldn‘t bother with Intelligence (only for roleplaying reasons). The best spells for Eldritch Knight don‘t use your spellcasting modifier, especially if you only take a few levels of Fighter. I would go for WIS to have a better Perception skill. Also Wisdom saving throws are far more common and often very dangerous, so every point helps.
You might also want to consider the Booming Blade cantrip, which would give you very strong opportunity attacks in combination with War Caster.
Eldritch Knight uses INT as spellcasting modifier, but I wouldn‘t bother with Intelligence (only for roleplaying reasons). The best spells for Eldritch Knight don‘t use your spellcasting modifier, especially if you only take a few levels of Fighter. I would go for WIS to have a better Perception skill. Also Wisdom saving throws are far more common and often very dangerous, so every point helps.
You might also want to consider the Booming Blade cantrip, which would give you very strong opportunity attacks in combination with War Caster.
This is good advice. From the wizard options, you'll want to pick spells that don't care about your modifier so much; shield and booming blade as recommended. Light would be handy as well, given dragonborn do not get darkvision.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
There's almost no difference between Warlock 17 and Warlock 18 - you go from 7 invocations to 8 invocations. Warlock 18 to Warlock 19 is much better, you get an ASI/feat and another spell known. It's still not that essential, though. So Fighter 3 Warlock 17 makes the most sense for the best level 20 character. And as stated by others, make sure you take spells that don't rely on your intelligence modifier - take only spells like Shield, Booming Blade, Light, etc. Make sure that you take the War Caster feat - not only does it let you cast spells while holding stuff in both hands, but it gives you advantage on Constitution Saving throws to maintain concentration on a spell.
Is this a character that you're playing in a campaign that starts at level 20, a character that you'll be leveling up to 20, or a character that you're making just for fun without a campaign in mind?
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Hello! I'm trying to expand my horizons on classes since I tend to lean towards martial ones and Warlock sounds like a very fun one to me. I decided to make a Dragonborn Fighterlock (Looking at 1/19). I chose this combination of classes due to Fighters getting a fighting style and second wind at first level, and heavy armor proficiency (also as mentioned above I tend to play martial classes). For Warlock, I have chosen pact of the blade with general Fiend Patron stuff (Eldritch Blast (and buffed versions), Hellish Rebuke, etc..)
My question to you is this: can there be Dual-Wielded pact blades, IE two weapons made from the pact (of the same type, to specify). I ask this due to my goal of making my character a Dual Wielder, namely for cool points. If this can only be achieved by having a normal weapon in one hand and a pact blade in the other, then that can suffice, although it wouldn't quite line up for what I'm envisioning (Oh and while I'm asking this question, feel free to suggest any other level distributions for this multi-class; this is also my first instance of multi-classing a character).
Upon further consideration of this post I believe dual-wielding to be a...counter-productive endeavor? Given that you need a free hand in order to cast spells! (Guess that's the new spell caster in me showing xD) Okay, new forum question: What should I go for as my fighting style?
Dual wielding could be done if you take the Improved Pact Weapon invocation to have your pact weapon be your spell casting focus, but you would also need the Warcaster feat in order to cast spells that require a somatic, but no material component. Is it the strongest option? Definitely not, but I guess you know that already. Could it be cool? Absolutely.
You could also use a sword and shield in this way. If you choose to do so, I would recommend Dueling as your fighting style.
Or you could go with two-handed weapons. Two-handed weapons only require two hands when you attack with them. Holding one requires only one hand, which leaves you with one free hand to cast your spells. In that case you wouldn’t need Improved Pact Weapon or Warcaster if you use a component pouch for your material components. When using two-handed weapons, I like to take Defense as my fighting style for that extra durability. Great Weapon Fighting doesn’t provide enough extra damage to be worth it in my opinion.
For your level distribution you may want to consider taking a second level in Fighter at some point. Action Surge is just an incredibly powerful ability. If you want to fight mainly with your weapon, you probably want to get the Thirsting Blade invocation before taking any more levels in Fighter, however.
You can have one weapon as your pact (or improved pact) weapon, and another as your hexblade weapon, and use both with +CHA.
((You guys can tell that I'm new to stat spreading, can you xD))
Yes, War caster was something that I didn't really consider in my second post, although I absolutely knew I wanted both Thirsting Blade and Improved Pact Weapon. 2/18 Fighterlock was also considered for Action Surge. However, I also wanted to ask about 3/17 and the possibility of Eldritch Knight. That provides not only a second pact weapon (Thusly making my two weapons for dual wielding) but also access to Wizard spells. Would this be a viable option assuming that I take the War Caster feat over one of my ASI opporunities?
How does Eldritch Knight give you a second pact weapon? You can only summon one pact weapon.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Eldritch Knight is a viable option for Warlock. It provides you with the Shield spell and two 1st-level slots to cast it, which is always nice. You would also get Find Familiar. Weapon Bond could somewhat work as a flavor substitute for pact weapon. It can, however, only teleport a weapon into your hand, not conjure one or have it vanish into thin air. Remember that any level into Fighter delays your access to higher level spells further.
At this point, you also want to check if you're not spreading too thin. If you're not taking Hexblade, you will need good Strength and Charisma scores. You also need a decent Constitution score. With all the feats and delayed ASIs when multiclassing this could be difficult to achieve.
I am not going Hexblade, I’ve opted for the Fiend for this. I suppose I should specify my race for this context; it is Dragonborn. Since they have a +2 to STR and +1 to CHA, and breath weapons, which I intended to have be flavor text as to how he conjures his peach weapon, it would manifest out of his mouth, (it wouldn’t have the properties of his breath weapon in combat, merely the appearance of such). Shame that the Eldritch weapon can’t be manifested though I suppose I could manage with what’s given in that’s context.
I wasn‘t suggesting you should take Hexblade. I’m sorry if it sounded that way. A Warlock‘s pact brings so much flavor to the character that you most often want to choose what fits your story best. Also Fiend is a strong choice in general. I‘m just saying that it will be a little bit more difficult to make an efficient Pact of the Blade Warlock without Hexblade, but it can still work reasonably well.
Will you be rolling your stats or do you plan on using the standard array or point buy?
For this build I’m going with Point Buy, with a focus in STR, CHA and CON in that order; oh and I didn’t think you were trying to influence me to go Hex lol, I know it’s a good option.
Stats I already know I’m putting 8’s in for PB are DEX an INT, since I have Heavy Armor Proficiency which helps my AC not suffer. WIS and INT are a bit of a toss up though, as I’m forgetting which spell list the Eldritch Knight draws from.
Eldritch Knight uses INT as spellcasting modifier, but I wouldn‘t bother with Intelligence (only for roleplaying reasons). The best spells for Eldritch Knight don‘t use your spellcasting modifier, especially if you only take a few levels of Fighter. I would go for WIS to have a better Perception skill. Also Wisdom saving throws are far more common and often very dangerous, so every point helps.
You might also want to consider the Booming Blade cantrip, which would give you very strong opportunity attacks in combination with War Caster.
This is good advice. From the wizard options, you'll want to pick spells that don't care about your modifier so much; shield and booming blade as recommended. Light would be handy as well, given dragonborn do not get darkvision.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
There's almost no difference between Warlock 17 and Warlock 18 - you go from 7 invocations to 8 invocations. Warlock 18 to Warlock 19 is much better, you get an ASI/feat and another spell known. It's still not that essential, though. So Fighter 3 Warlock 17 makes the most sense for the best level 20 character. And as stated by others, make sure you take spells that don't rely on your intelligence modifier - take only spells like Shield, Booming Blade, Light, etc. Make sure that you take the War Caster feat - not only does it let you cast spells while holding stuff in both hands, but it gives you advantage on Constitution Saving throws to maintain concentration on a spell.
Is this a character that you're playing in a campaign that starts at level 20, a character that you'll be leveling up to 20, or a character that you're making just for fun without a campaign in mind?