I'm building a 10th level pc, and I wanted to do a semi-melee build for my Celestial warlock. I wanted to see people's opinions on how feasible this is in combat, as I've only ever seen people use Pact of the Blade with the Hexblade patron.
The build is for a Scourge Aasimar, Celestial warlock with a Pact of the Blade. With point buy, my stats at level 10 would be:
Str: 8 (-1)
Dex: 18 (+4)
Con: 14 (+2)
Int: 10 (+0)
Wis: 10 (+0)
Cha: 18 (+4)
I'd use a rapier for my pact weapon so that I could use Dex instead of Strength. My invocations would be Agonizing Blast, Armor of Shadows, Eldritch Smite, Improved Pact Weapon, and Thirsting Blade. The Armor of Shadows Invocation would give me an AC of 13+DEX, so 17 now and eventually 18. With approximately 69hp and 14 temp hp, the build seems pretty sturdy. For the most part I'd still just be Eldritch Blasting outside of combat and bonus action healing people from 60 feet away, but if the situation called for it, I'd be able to activate Radiant Consumption and head straight into combat. Assuming I hit both times, I could do 1d8+15, then 1d8+5, then 5 damage each turn, plus a couple Eldritch Smites if I'm willing to use the spell slots.
I'm still pretty new to the game, so I don't really have an intuitive sense of the quality of different builds. I know that most builds work fine in 5e, but I'd still like to hear people's opinions on how viable this build is.
The big caveat for all these questions is: what does your group need? In my opinion, it's always better to consider group composition and the roles each player is going to fill.
That said, you seem to be splitting focus between being a caster and melee. That's not terrible, and can be fun to do different things. Where you will run into conflicts is in your use of spell slots. Having to choose spells or smites can put you in a tough spot.
You give up a lot by not going Hexblade for a melee warlock. If you're ok with that, and want to be a primary caster, then why Pact of the Blade? You miss out on a ton of utility from both Tome and Chain. It's not like the melee damage you're going to do is that much higher than E-Blasting, and you definitely put yourself much more in harms way.
Celestial Warlock is fun, I have one and she has been an eldritch blast and main heals kinda gal. I use the hex spell and the maddening hex invocation along with agonising blast to really ramp up the damage from my EB. Early levels that left me the celestial healing feature and a single slot left per short rest. Due to party composition - a druid and a paladin I have not had to cast healing spells so much as those 2 have been able to pick up some of the healing for other party members. It actually allowed me to use summon lesser demons in a recent fight which was awesome fun. They weren't very good but soaked up a tonne of damage from minions while we focused on the big bad, and then dealt with the minions afterwards.
Due to Covid we won't be starting for a while, so Idk what everyone else is gonna play yet. I'll probably be the first one to submit a character, so it can really be whatever I want. I built out a backstory for the character that heavily relies on them being both an Aasimar and a Celestial warlock, so I really want to keep both of those things. Its really not just about the damage output, otherwise I'd just go with Hexblade, or even a straight barbarian. But the RP is a big part of it too, so I wanted to stick with the Celestial.
Going with Pact of the Blade mainly started out as a flavour choice, with the idea of my halo transforming into my pact weapon when I summon it, but then I thought back to the last time I played a warlock and I kind of got bored of just Eldritch Blast-ing from far away. I want the option to be able to leap into combat and deal damage in melee without immediately dying. The Celestial Resistance feature gets me up to around 80+ hp at 10th level, plus I can bonus action heal if I want to as a CW. It's not something I'd do most of the time, but I'd like to have that option available, and I'd be willing to lose out on the utility of a tomelock in exchange (I'm really not into Familiars, so I'd probably go tomelock if I didn't get blade).
The main thing I wanted to know was if the build was at least partially balanced. Like I said, I don't mind if he's not the best damage-dealer on the field because the RP is more fun. but I've played a few pathfinder games with an unoptimized build, and I know how annoying it can be when you're nowhere near as effective as your teammates. Based on what I've heard, that's less of a problem in 5e, but still.
You could take either Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade as one of your cantrips to give yourself another way to deal good damage with your melee attacks.
If your party isn't hurting for a more specialize position, I feel that you have a pretty decent mix of abilities in healing, melee fighting and ranged blasting that can make for some fun and interesting combat choices. Grant it, I'm not one to go for optimization and prefer to pick choices that fit a theme or fit my character concept.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Its feasible. You don't really have to min/max much or at all to be successful in this game. Generally though if I want a warlock in melee I'd just take the crossbow expert feat and pew pew my eldritch blast at point blank range.
If you really build into a hex blade style you can go pretty far though, heavy weapon mastery, darkness spell, devils sight, improved pact weapon, lifedrinker, thirsting blade etc, make your pact weapon a two handed sword and next thing you know you attack twice a round at advantage -5 to hit but when you hit its for 2d6+21base and you can get that further with smite etc.
The problem IMO is you are building into it but its only really better than a eldritch blast levels 6-10. Once you get the 3rd eldritch blast its virtually a wash. And that is a lot of resources for a wash. That being said stabby stabby is fun, so while it may be a virtual mechanical wash with all those resources it may be more fun. Personally unless there was a big style reason for not wearing armor, I wouldn't;t take armor of shadows. Just wear light armor you are proficient in it. its just 1 AC and you may come across studded leather +1 and then its a wash. And take something fun. Mask of many faces is petty awesome IMO, depending on how often you plan on using hex and melee relentless hex is fun, hell east speech, cloak of flies can all be great.
I would not get armor of shadows. It's only one AC better than the studded leather you can wear.
Celestial meleelock is feasible even if suboptimal. You're not likely to think that it sucks unless you're playing with a group of maximizers.
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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.
I do believe you have sturdy build. And I like that have the ability to BA pretty valuable trump card when the sugar turns. The only real concern I have for the setup that you've given, is how you're going to get from the back ranks to the front pranks on a moments notice.
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I'm building a 10th level pc, and I wanted to do a semi-melee build for my Celestial warlock. I wanted to see people's opinions on how feasible this is in combat, as I've only ever seen people use Pact of the Blade with the Hexblade patron.
The build is for a Scourge Aasimar, Celestial warlock with a Pact of the Blade. With point buy, my stats at level 10 would be:
Str: 8 (-1)
Dex: 18 (+4)
Con: 14 (+2)
Int: 10 (+0)
Wis: 10 (+0)
Cha: 18 (+4)
I'd use a rapier for my pact weapon so that I could use Dex instead of Strength. My invocations would be Agonizing Blast, Armor of Shadows, Eldritch Smite, Improved Pact Weapon, and Thirsting Blade. The Armor of Shadows Invocation would give me an AC of 13+DEX, so 17 now and eventually 18. With approximately 69hp and 14 temp hp, the build seems pretty sturdy. For the most part I'd still just be Eldritch Blasting outside of combat and bonus action healing people from 60 feet away, but if the situation called for it, I'd be able to activate Radiant Consumption and head straight into combat. Assuming I hit both times, I could do 1d8+15, then 1d8+5, then 5 damage each turn, plus a couple Eldritch Smites if I'm willing to use the spell slots.
I'm still pretty new to the game, so I don't really have an intuitive sense of the quality of different builds. I know that most builds work fine in 5e, but I'd still like to hear people's opinions on how viable this build is.
The big caveat for all these questions is: what does your group need? In my opinion, it's always better to consider group composition and the roles each player is going to fill.
That said, you seem to be splitting focus between being a caster and melee. That's not terrible, and can be fun to do different things. Where you will run into conflicts is in your use of spell slots. Having to choose spells or smites can put you in a tough spot.
You give up a lot by not going Hexblade for a melee warlock. If you're ok with that, and want to be a primary caster, then why Pact of the Blade? You miss out on a ton of utility from both Tome and Chain. It's not like the melee damage you're going to do is that much higher than E-Blasting, and you definitely put yourself much more in harms way.
Celestial Warlock is fun, I have one and she has been an eldritch blast and main heals kinda gal. I use the hex spell and the maddening hex invocation along with agonising blast to really ramp up the damage from my EB. Early levels that left me the celestial healing feature and a single slot left per short rest. Due to party composition - a druid and a paladin I have not had to cast healing spells so much as those 2 have been able to pick up some of the healing for other party members. It actually allowed me to use summon lesser demons in a recent fight which was awesome fun. They weren't very good but soaked up a tonne of damage from minions while we focused on the big bad, and then dealt with the minions afterwards.
Due to Covid we won't be starting for a while, so Idk what everyone else is gonna play yet. I'll probably be the first one to submit a character, so it can really be whatever I want. I built out a backstory for the character that heavily relies on them being both an Aasimar and a Celestial warlock, so I really want to keep both of those things. Its really not just about the damage output, otherwise I'd just go with Hexblade, or even a straight barbarian. But the RP is a big part of it too, so I wanted to stick with the Celestial.
Going with Pact of the Blade mainly started out as a flavour choice, with the idea of my halo transforming into my pact weapon when I summon it, but then I thought back to the last time I played a warlock and I kind of got bored of just Eldritch Blast-ing from far away. I want the option to be able to leap into combat and deal damage in melee without immediately dying. The Celestial Resistance feature gets me up to around 80+ hp at 10th level, plus I can bonus action heal if I want to as a CW. It's not something I'd do most of the time, but I'd like to have that option available, and I'd be willing to lose out on the utility of a tomelock in exchange (I'm really not into Familiars, so I'd probably go tomelock if I didn't get blade).
The main thing I wanted to know was if the build was at least partially balanced. Like I said, I don't mind if he's not the best damage-dealer on the field because the RP is more fun. but I've played a few pathfinder games with an unoptimized build, and I know how annoying it can be when you're nowhere near as effective as your teammates. Based on what I've heard, that's less of a problem in 5e, but still.
You could take either Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade as one of your cantrips to give yourself another way to deal good damage with your melee attacks.
If your party isn't hurting for a more specialize position, I feel that you have a pretty decent mix of abilities in healing, melee fighting and ranged blasting that can make for some fun and interesting combat choices. Grant it, I'm not one to go for optimization and prefer to pick choices that fit a theme or fit my character concept.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
Its feasible. You don't really have to min/max much or at all to be successful in this game. Generally though if I want a warlock in melee I'd just take the crossbow expert feat and pew pew my eldritch blast at point blank range.
If you really build into a hex blade style you can go pretty far though, heavy weapon mastery, darkness spell, devils sight, improved pact weapon, lifedrinker, thirsting blade etc, make your pact weapon a two handed sword and next thing you know you attack twice a round at advantage -5 to hit but when you hit its for 2d6+21base and you can get that further with smite etc.
The problem IMO is you are building into it but its only really better than a eldritch blast levels 6-10. Once you get the 3rd eldritch blast its virtually a wash. And that is a lot of resources for a wash. That being said stabby stabby is fun, so while it may be a virtual mechanical wash with all those resources it may be more fun. Personally unless there was a big style reason for not wearing armor, I wouldn't;t take armor of shadows. Just wear light armor you are proficient in it. its just 1 AC and you may come across studded leather +1 and then its a wash. And take something fun. Mask of many faces is petty awesome IMO, depending on how often you plan on using hex and melee relentless hex is fun, hell east speech, cloak of flies can all be great.
I would not get armor of shadows. It's only one AC better than the studded leather you can wear.
Celestial meleelock is feasible even if suboptimal. You're not likely to think that it sucks unless you're playing with a group of maximizers.
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
I do believe you have sturdy build. And I like that have the ability to BA pretty valuable trump card when the sugar turns. The only real concern I have for the setup that you've given, is how you're going to get from the back ranks to the front pranks on a moments notice.