Fun trick with blade lock. If you are in a game where magic items are super rare, and you know you will go into the mid and higher levels you can give your weapon to the fighter. It only disapears if it is away from you for a full minute, more than long enough to finish most fights.
You can also throw the weapon depending on its type and then anyone can pick it up. But, bonus, if someone picks it up that you don't want holding it, you can dismiss it instantly.
as a hexblade I went into a mansion where no weapons could be taken and only two party members were allowed to enter the building. I took my super tanky Paladin and we went in together. when shit inevitably hit the fan. I bamfed my pact weapon into my hand. flipped it to him, then used my bonus action to summon a 5th level shadow blade... good times
@@michiganpride389 Could also be good for getting a weapon during a prison break or any other place weapons wouldn't be allowed. It's funny though, in a real medieval society you could walk right into the mansion wearing your pact weapon in dagger form and nobody would have batted an eye. For that matter, some royal courts would allow a breastplate as fashionable attire.
@@Nurk0m0rath lol yeah actually never thought about using the ability for a prison break scenario. Thatd be a cool idea.. I usually play martial classes. I went hexblade in the campaign mentioned above just to dip my toe in a full caster build while also getting to hit things really hard with my sword. Definitely a class I'd be willing to come back to in the future
i agree. i don't think it would break the class to make those patron spells like domain spells. warlocks have so few spells anyway and no ritual casting so it's not like they can afford to cast them without opportunity cost.
@@ConstructedChaos i don't think it'd get ridiculous. warlocks suffer from the same ails as the older sorcerers. adding to their spells known wont unbalance it. clock and aberrant sorcs got it and they didn't unbalance the game. warlocks won't be able to cast all those spells anyway with so limited slots unlike the sorc. it just gives them more options but at the end of the day they can just cast 2 spells.
@@TheRobversion1 Perhaps. But I do feel that we'd be treading into the territory of always having answers for everything. Even if you could only cast a couple spells per short rest, they'd always be exactly what you needed. I don't think it's a buff that warlock really needs.
@@ConstructedChaos sure. i just feel we're moving in that direction anyway with the recent sorc buff, racial spells and the bonus spells in the strixhaven backgrounds. i think 5e is moving towards not differentiating classes too much with their number of spells known (everyone is getting closer to wizards in versatility-answers for everything) but more to differentiating classes as to HOW they cast spells: clerics, wizards- knows alot with ritual casting and can recover slots druids-knows alot with ritual casting and can cast in wild shape eventually bards- knows less but with ritual casting but has better class abilities like bardic inspiration and can pick the spells they want across all spell lists via magical secrets sorcs- knows less but has metamagic and can convert slots to the slots they need warlocks- knows less but refreshes on short rests and has invocations
Warlocks are great for role play. I play a warlock that is a human child who answers the question “what if The Children Of The Corn was a person?” Their very pregnant mother was infected with a Mindflayer tadpole. Adventurers broke into the colony just their mother was a) giving birth and b) undergoing cephalogenisys. The adventurers didn’t know what to do with this newborn weirdling baby so they tried to raise it. The character is a great reminder that high Charisma doesn’t automatically mean likable. It just means someone whose personality leaves everyone around them greatly affected.
the really OP'd part of hexblade's armour of hexes is that forced miss works on a crit as well. Demonlord manages to roll a natural 20 with his vorpal blade? roll a 4 or higher and nope, he missed, and you keep your head.
The target would specifically need to be affected by your Hexblade's Curse. You only get one of those per short rest, which might be something the session has already used up. You probably also won't have the possibility to take a short rest right before something like a Demon Lord.
@@dadadajasper I hoard my spells and abilities for those kinds of fights. And I'll either target the baddest one first, or move it as I get closer to fighting it.hexblades curse was a bit so-so until you get the ability to transfer it on the prior target's death. And that has saved my char a number of times
"Well actually," as I push my glasses up the bridge of my nose, " the spell casting ability modifier is just your ability score modifier for the ability that you cast spells with. In this case Charisma. The formula you referenced was for your spell save DC."
You and someone else that commented earlier I think misunderstood what I was saying about Wisdom scores. Your Wisdom effects YOUR saving throws AGAINST spells so you might put it higher than Strength--which is used much less often against damage in spell saving throws.
My first campaign ever, had a few dnd veterans help set up stats, and wisdom was through the roof right away! My take was that my outlander character, while wise, hit hard times in life and was in a desperate position when he found this mysterious blade out in the wilderness
I run a GOO warlock in a low magic campaign. I have alot of access to psychic damage in a non-psionic campaign. I am pact of the tome and pretend to be a wizard. Awakened mind provides so much amazing shenanigans. Good for being scout and informing since I can invis. Good for intimidating the shit out of folks by whispering into their mind. The versatility the book of shadows and book of ancient secrets make me very useful out of combat as well. Don't under estimate the Eldritch Magus!!!
I have been having fun whispering into random people’s minds with my GOO warlock. I like the choice for my backstory flavor and the ability to fuck with people. The scout option and private conversation ability is awesome too.
@@ConstructedChaos I used Prestidigitation, primarily to clean filth, and entertain children during Festivals. Teloriam would use Disguise Self to give himself a dragon costume and he would run around shooting fireworks off, with Prestidigitation 🤣
mine depends on the build (cantrips could be acquired elsewhere with feats and multiclassing) but my top 5 warlock cantrips are: 1. eldritch blast 2. minor illusion 3. magic stone 4. booming blade 5. mind sliver honorable mention: mage hand
Well, the genie 'any spell' of 6th or lower also has to be one with a casting time of 1 action. Which does knock off a lot of the more powerful options.
true. no contingency, heroes feast, or find greater steed sadly. what i find people picking are panic buttons like dimension door or scatter which means it's rare that limited wish is used to pick a core tactic spell to be used in every combat.
Been waiting for this one. My favorite class. Despite my screen name I've become a constant warlock over the years. My favorites: The Great Old One (love psionic abilities), The Undead(Grave touched lv 6: changing one damage roll to necrotic and adding an extra damage die while in form of dread, that's a savage double eldritch blast), & The Archfey (especially since Beyond the Witchlight) My all time favorite invocations: Agonizing blast (can't beat adding your cha mod to your eldritch blast), mask of many faces, and devils sight.. My favorite spells : hellish rebuke (5d10 damage as a reaction at level 7) and spirit shroud (an extra d8 on each attack. If both your blast hit, that's potentially 2d10+cha mod on each and 2d8. Now that's broken lol
Ahhh yes spirit shroud and hellish rebuke were both up on my lists at various points but didn’t quite make the video haha. Seriously great stuff! Mask of many faces is amazing too but got pushed out by repelling blast for me. still, I felt myself wanting to delve deeper and deeper into all the great stuff this class has but I just kept seeing the length of the timeline get longer and longer hahaha.
@@ConstructedChaos mask of many faces i think is an "it depends" invocation. in a campaign with alot of infiltration or social challenges it's amazing. in your typical dungeon crawl filled with combats, puzzles and environmental challenges, its crap. not a fan of spirit shroud personally. if i want speed reduction, i'd pick summon shadowspawn. if i want dmg, i'd go for accuracy and use misty visions if ranged or shadow of moil if melee. shadow blade is also superior in areas of darkness.
hellish rebuke is underrated and great for revenger type builds in combination with armor of agathys and fire shield. not a fan of spirit shroud though. the numbers say gaining advantage (misty visions, darkness + devil sight, shadow of moil, shadow blade in darkness) is better for increasing dmg than the 1d8 spirit shroud does. warlocks one of my top 3 fave classes as well along with sorcs and rangers. for subcasses i love the hexblade and fathomless.
@@ConstructedChaos i think celestial is quite underrated just like the fathomless (hence you see me ranking them high). most people will just look at the abilities and say "eh." the strength of the subclass is in it's spell list (except for daylight and flame strike) and how much versatility it adds to the warlock (similar to how good the divine sorc is for sorcs).
I created female desert elf efreeti patron warlock with entertainment background. I based her off of Leetah from elf quest. Role playing was fun and she rocks in combat. If I need money I go to a tavern and dance to music using presdigitation to create slight fire effects to enhance the dancing. My eldritch blast at level 1 can do 1d10 plus 1d4 fire per genies wrath ability. She’s really fun to play.
Sounds like a very unique and flavorful warlock you’ve built there! Are y’all playing to high levels? Would be really cool to get wish on that build eventually!!
@@ConstructedChaos were working on getting the levels. Our Dm loves using our backgrounds and using our level as a social rank also. I’ve had tavern owners ask me to dance and I get a cut of the profit. I’ve actually rolled a crit while dancing and ppl flooded the tavern to see my toon. She has ummm also attracted unwanted attention . My warlock is mainly support with spells. My feats went to either enhancing eldritch blast or arcane knowledge. 😊 personally I like to play out of the box characters.
RUclips finally recommended one of his videos, so hopefully he’s starting to get enough views for the algorithm to begin recommending him to more people
@@mrdrprofsteve4455 haha thanks! If y’all want a peak behind the curtain, this series always does exceptionally well. It takes a lot for RUclips to warm up to the channel I think haha.
As a fellow DnD content creator, I can confirm it's not easy to break into this niche. Maybe the intro is too long? all the "how to youtube" channels I've seen say not to do a long intro
@@Okayest__DM the thing is that these are not the videos that go poorly. These perform better than the videos that I do without intros haha. I think my early days of just posting VODs on RUclips may have given the algorithm the wrong impression and now we’re working through that. I’ve done a ton of research but I’m just going to keep making the content I want to in the best way that I can!
Undead, GoO, Fathomless, and Fey are my favorite Warlock subclasses. Just haven't had a chance to play one yet. I prefer talisman pact if you take an invocation or two to add more flavor.
I haven't been able to completely confirm it but I'm pretty sure I'm playing with one in the group that's about to start streaming! Seems like a good time!
I love playing multiclass warlocks. A ton of good info in this video. As a creative warlock player, I just wanted to point out it is very misleading to keep saying warlocks sold their soul for power. Not all warlocks or builds focus around that one type of pact, and describing it that way can be very off-putting to new players/DMs or players looking to try new things. (I've run into several DMs who only understand warlocks to be a person who sold their soul & are now owned by their patron, & cannot run stories for warlock players any other way.)
You make an excellent point! And, realistically, I only pose it as a theme with the video since it is one of the most often used connections to a patron. Sorry for being misleading there!
Agreed here. there are many ways to use the patron theme: a symbiotic relationship with an otherworldly being, an agreement with an ancestor, a connection with a loved one who passed away, a bargain with a god of vengeance, etc.
My Celestial Warlock found a magic ring on the street and it gives them their power. The ring is kind’ve like a horcrux for a goddess and the more powerful the character gets, the more powerful that sliver of the goddess’s power gets as well so she’s all for it. (We haven’t actually met her yet, but she’s integral to the plot because she’s the minor goddess of “good” chaos and the BBEG is the chaotic evil god of chaos in general.)
@@alexbrown9622 Sounds a bit akin to the Genie subclass but, obviously, this dynamic works well for anything! Seems like a really cool tie into your campaign too!
2:43 Even when warlock was introduced in 3.5 it was kind of broken because you could legitimately just take 1 level and get some ability or other, which you could use continually whenever you wanted. Several of the "least" level of invocations were *stupidly OP.* I had a character who would use Baleful Utterance as a "key to the city", in that any lock or door or gate he wanted into: he would simply destroy the hinges or the lock mechanism or even the door's bolt. Basically - if it didn't have an anti-magic field: it could be opened with one standard action, instantly. What warlock 1) lacked in destructive abilities compared to other spellcasters and 2) lacked in variety of utility: it made up for in that it's few utilities - didn't have a limit on how often you could use them and were really quite powerful in retrospect. That was 3.5 however, in the current 5e Warlock is just stupidly op out right.
I actually didn’t know that! I never had a chance to play 3.5 but it’s interesting that they went from being locked into specific utilities to now being such a “build a bear” class!
@@ConstructedChaos It was then too: the difference is that in 5e you have actual spells where in the original 3.5 you had invocations which mimicked spells but were "spell-like abilities" and were subject to the same rules as spell-like abilities. You got invocations at the same rate fighters got feats: so if you were playing Warlock, or multiclassing into it - you had to be very selective of which invocations you chose. Still though, you could really build-a-bear it up. At 6th level you only 4 invocations - but that could include things like unlimited flight, unlimited invisibility, the baleful utterance mentioned previously, see invisibility + darkvision (both 60ft and they're both provided by the same invocation), unlimited use of short-range dimension door, near unlimited use (per day not per mob) of animate dead, etc. etc. Some really stupidly powerful abilities - which obviously you could take in all different directions for all different kinds of builds: depending on *how* you built it. 5e warlock, like most 5e classes: is very closely designed off of the mechanics and features of 3.5.
The 5e warlock is arguably underpowered as a caster bc they're so limited in their spellcasting. They really work best as a multiclass to snag specific features and synergies, and often have more spell slots by mixing with another caster, otherwise they feel like the martial of casters
@@torunsmok5890 I don’t think that’s a bad take at all really. I can see where you’re coming from. It’s why I mentioned multiclassing so many times in the video!
Human Noble Fathomless Warlock. First campaign I've ever played and I am having a fantastic time. So happy I finally found a group to play with locally. Never planned on playing a caster in my first go at this, but now I wouldn't change a thing.
@@ConstructedChaos agreed here. great flavor like all warlocks (I still have fond memories of playing my Ursula build/character where she goes through a redemption arc and i had to learn the little mermaid songs).
I went lvl 1 to 17 in Hexblade Warlock before multi-classing with 2 lvls of Rouge (expertise & cunning action) and 1 of fighter (blind fighting for story reasons). Even so I could go warlock again as either the Genie Warlock for fun blaster times or Dr. Victor Van'hess as a Celestial Warlock (family bond to a Solar) if a healer is more needed. LOVE LOCK
I love warlock, and thematically, Hexblade is my favorite. I've since given up on them though, as a blastlock with Agonizing Blast and Armor of Shadows invocations outclasses Hexblade in every way. What I've done is just asked my DM if I could re-skin eldritch blast as an arcane bow (never had one say no), and with my most recent campaign, at the start of battle I roll a d20, and on odds I get a ranged weapon, and evens, a melee weapon (and I can use a bonus action to re-roll) The damage is still just "eldritch blast" but it lets you play a "Hexblade" and not be crippling yourself from a power perspective.
Love these 'broken' vids. And everything is top quality. From script, to production to hunky host. Can clearly see the effort and you deserve your subs ten times over.
Warlock is very front loaded. It's definitely OP in the first 1-2 levels great for dipping (especially hexblade). Getting medium armor profiency, charasima as your attack stat for weapons, plus scaling eldritch blast all at 1 level, plus short rest spells back. Other than that it's actually pretty poor past t2.
agreed here. its best as a dip class. the only exceptions are probably the genie (get limited wish and wish) and fathom (unbreakable black tentacles). Genie i'd take all the way to tier 4 while fathom can be taken a little past tier 3 then multiclass elsewhere.
@@pancakes2455 consumes a bonus action though so it's not really efficient. better to just dip artificer 2 for that and pick up returning weapon (+ 1 magical dagger too).
@@pancakes2455 huh? returning weapon means you don't need to spend a bonus action to re-summon a dagger. a thrown dagger automatically returns to your hand after an attack. and yes, an artificer can infuse a weapon for a martial if needed too for 1 level less. doing it the warlock way is simply suboptimal.
Amazing video, the quality is so good for a channel with only 16k subs, you definitely deserve more! question: what is the name of the song you used in the intro theme of this video? it fits the warlock so well and i want to play it during campaigns
Had this really interesting idea: a Fire Genasi Fathomless Pact of the Blade Warlock that subclasses into Path of the Beast-Tail Barbarian down the road. So I would pick the Marine Background and after an accident having been rescued by the Fathomless that is when he became the Warlock. His mission is to learn about the land-folk and be an agent on land. His frustration he gets over time builds until he becomes a Barbarian but because he has the Fathomless patron he grows a tentacle in place of a tail. Been really interested in trying this out, especially with the changes to Fire Genasi I found out about.
As long as you remember that you pick every time you Rage, so you can pick Bite or Claws whenever you choose. Like, the Claws could be separate tentacles on your arms, and Bite could be your tentacle latching into your opponent and siphoning some of their life.
I am currently in a campaign and am using a warlock with the undead patron. I love the flavor I have created for it and between this and the fiend it is hard to choose. The undead is extremely fun and I highly recommend it, especially if you can come up with something that makes your “Form of Dread” really unique.
I generally agree with what you said except about the hexblade's spell list. It's really streamlined and good if you know how to use it, doubly so if you multiclass (a number of classes would love both shield and wrathful smite if they had spellslots to use them with! Blink is a whole battle, non-concetration 50% avoid all damage buff and banishing smite comboes wonderfully with eldritch smite. Also I think you underestimate how powerful the imp can be at levels 3-4 before you get your second blast and how powerful the pixie/pseudodragon poison might be as with the improved familiar invocation.
I think that’s a fair assessment too! And don’t get me wrong! That spell list contains some of my favorite entries in the whole game. Blink’s flavor, mechanics, and usability in specific makes it a top 5 for me for sure haha. So, for sure. As a multiclass dip from another spellcaster, that list becomes bonkers good.
agreed here. imo blink is the best non-concen defense in the game among lower level, non-reaction spells. when i use contingency, blink is my go to spell. i do understand however his underrating of banishing smite. it's really bad at tables where the DM doesn't give indicators of the health status of an enemy (like hurt-75%, bloodied-50%, injured-25%). i think you mean investment of the chainmaster and not improved familiar? haha. reminds me an older edition. but yeah weaponizing your bonus action is good. for combat purposes however, i wouldn't consider the imp or the pseudodragon unless i was using magic stone as i'd rather stay at range and not put my familiars in harms way. quasit provides a non-action economy consuming frightened 1/combat while pixies as you said can poison from range.
@@ConstructedChaos I would say that hexblades alone are decently balanced if you have a good CON score due to only having a d8 for hit points. but hexblades multiclassing (like the classic sorlock or padlock) can be insanely powerful even with just a 2 level dip (or 3 if you really want a pact boon) into warlock . hex warrior/curse at level 1 and two invocations from level 2 by themselves are a crazy power boost
forgot to add this in my initial comment, here's my ranking of the warlock subclasses: 1.hexblade- duh 2. genie-gets better the more walock levels you have 3. fathomless-very underrated and enables so many speed reduction control builds 4. celestial-it's main niche optimization wise is to give the clock sorc a way to gain a cha based sacred flame 5. fiend-hurl through well is awesome but gotten very late. otherwise, lots of good abilities but nothing worth building around 6. archfey-fey presence is great for frightened builds (like conquest paladins) and skill check based builds (like a wild sorc using telekinesis) 7. great old one-nothing worth building around mechanically nor impactful to combine with other abilities btw great stuff with Khonshu in the build. here's my top 10 favorite invocations: 1. misty visions- this is THE reason to take eldritch adept. great surprise generator, great for providing action economy free obscurement that benefits the party. this is something any ranged attacker shouldn't leave home without. IMO this is the most powerful invocation. 2. eldritch smite- no save prone. great dmg especially for crits. 3. thirsting blade- extra attack is always good. 4. improved pact weapon- allows you to do a hexbow and early access to magic weapons. 5. repelling blast- forced movement is great with entry spells and playing with range. 6. grasp of hadar- see #5. 7. lance of lethargy- great for speed reduction control builds. 8. agonizing blast- gives warlocks one of the best sustained dmg options in the game. 9. investment of the chain master- weaponize your bonus action. great utility. 10. book of ancient secrets- find familiar, tiny hut and phantom steed! honorable mention- eldritch mind- helps protect your concentration. yes no devil's sight. i find this irrelevant if you're already using misty visions. the darkness + devils sight combo works the same as misty visions but unlike with darkness, misty visions doesn't cost you a spell slot, doesn't annoy your party nor consumes an action (you already have it on at the start of combat) and party members can actually take advantage of it.
I couldn’t agree more with what you’ve said here-especially the subclass ranking. I’d add undying to the bottom of the list and place undead somewhere just above the fiend or maybe just below it. Nearly every invocation you’ve listed was also in my notes at some point but got cut out to save time haha (with the exception of lance of lethargy). Definitely planning to do a much more in depth video on invocations in the future just like the infusions video I’m working on for artificer!
@@ConstructedChaos yeah excluded undead and undying since i know alot of tables exclude those 2 since they are setting specific but yeah i'd put undying at the bottom and put undead at #4-5 (so yeah at about the level of the fiend). undead is basically a better version of archfey which is good for the conquest paladin.
The fiend I feel gets a little overshadowed now and days but almost no class or build gets worse by getting a level in it. It will never be busted as it is now missing a vital third ability that new subclasses get but any damage build will enjoy the hit points it gives. Even if they aren't that much to give.
@@christianlangdon3766 yup. it's not a trap subclass like undead but its not a class you build around either like hexblades. middle of the road for warlock subclasses. i think the fact that temp hp is so easy to gain nowadays, makes the 1st level ability irrelevant. command is a good spell to gain access to though, especially for non-divine sorcs.
@@TheRobversion1 yea I feel if it had some other fire damage bonus or whatnot or even a useful utility abillity (like base devil sight would be cool and in flavor) could push them into some builds. I do agree they do show their age at this point in the game though even though they don't offer anything bad. (Aside some spell options)
Hmm yes character level vs class level... So if you start as warlock and become something else, you gain more eldritch blast power anyway as you rise as a cleric or whatever. Which suggests that there's a class shift that a patron may not object to, that being, to proselytizing for the patron as a cleric, openly, using warlock powers to impress others to join up with such powerful players/gods. Healing Word is particularly nice. I like Spider Climb too as you can sit up in a location non missile non flying enemies find hard to hit. Then Eldritch Blast away from there. Also even without Healing Word you may be able to get to wounded comrades and administer potions.
Okay so, I started to get interested in D&D and have been thinking of making a Warlock as my first character. They are a Tiefling and their sort of patron is this spirit that is tied to them, they essentially function as two characters. Though the spirit can't do much besides give power to the Tiefling, she can appear to anyone and has her own stats on Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma only. Is something like actually allowed? To have a character like this that is
In this case, the spirit would also have their own skills. Being skilled in Persuasion while the Tiefling is skilled in intimidation. Which reflects both their characters
@@stellarlight1387 anything is allowed so long as the DM and the rest of your table is cool with it! Though, Rules as Written this isn’t how it would work. Now, if this is just flavor and you’re still using your own character’s proficiencies (and not giving yourself extra proficiencies) then that’s totally fine! After all, my first character was a rogue who had his tongue cut out with a sentient crow that spoke for him!
@@stellarlight1387 nothing wrong with that!! I had a blast with my rogue! And seeing the party slowly realize that the crow had its own thoughts and personality separate from my own was fun!
I've played a Hexblade Simic Hybrid, and a Celestial Swiftstride Shifter so far, and I'm thinking about creating either a Lightfoot Halfling, or an Air Genasi for a Genie Warlock in my next campaign. I really love them all.
Ok, not what I was expecting, this is more about how to play: warlock, not about how op the class is. Good video, although I don’t think that warlocks are very powerful in general. That’s not to say I don’t like playing them but some of the subclasses are underwhelming and today not many groups play so that the warlocks can really use the fact that they regain their spell slots on a short rest. Unfortunate but true
Sorry about that! I try to spend time in this video series pointing out the strongest parts of the class as we go along. That said, you’re not wrong about the short rest spell slots! Mileage on a lot of classes is different than WOTC intended due to that simple fact!
I’m currently playing a warlock, and I gotta say, while it’s not the worst class it’s definitely not my favorite. Really feels like a glass cannon in most of the fights I get into.
@@zachscarbrough2727 hmmm great old one (GOO) warlocks are one of the options with abilities that can be pretty niche. Maybe try out something different if you play the class again sometime! That said, goolock can be really fun in the right setting too!
I have a Celestial Warlock from Ravnica. He is part of the Orzhov Guild, so his pact is with a Deathpact Angel. My character is Lawful Evil. Not my first Celestial Warlock character. My first Celestial Warlock was the party healer. He did really well. MY favorite pact is with the Fanthomless, however. I love water breathing characters. Genielocks are fun. I have one that uses his vessel as a sort of bag of holding or a place to hide and sneak into places.
Hell yeah!! Admittedly, I haven't played a fathomless yet but a lot of comments on this video are making me want to build one for a session soon! Maybe I'll make a video on it!
fathomlock is my fave warock with genielocks and hexlocks as runner-ups. they are great, not just in the water. bottled respite is potentially one of most broken abilities in the game in combination with a certain multiclass/spell.
I played a hexblade shadow sorcerer in one campaign. His goal was to free his lover from the shadow fell l. His lover being a daughter of the raven queen.
Oh damn!! That’s quite the backstory! I love the complexity of having to serve her mother to rescue her daughter. Was the raven queen aware of your intentions?
I have been playing D&d since technically 1st edition, but really got into it starting with ad&d 2e. I really got into warlock class in 5e but I knew about it in 3.5 but really didn’t understand it til 5e. Ok just wanted to preface with that. You said you thought about using The genie in a build sometime. Well this is the build I am in the process in making now. I went mountain dwarf using tasha’s rule I instead went +2 Dex / +2 Cha. It is for an Adventure’s League game so had to do a point buy. The DM is trying something for one dnd I think and giving use a choice of tough, magic initiate, or skilled as free lvl 1 feats. I took tough. The buy was : STR 8, dex 15, con 10, Int 8, wis 14, Cha 15… making with race bonus Dex and Cha both 17. I took divine soul sorcerer at lvl 1 for the con saves. At lvl 2 I took Ranger for the next two lvls. I wanted to actually delay 1 lvl of ranger from getting subclass so I can take it at lvl 5 character lvl due to that’s when I get proficiency bonus to +3. The reason is the subclass is Drakewarden . For those that don’t know the drake scales in some stuff with proficiency bonus like his armor class , and I wanted to bring it in with an AC of 17. From there I did another 2 more lvls in Ranger to extra attack. The 2 more lvls of Sorcerer to get an ASI, and metamagic. Twinned spell will be a lot in this build. This is where I bring in The genie (dao) lvls . I went warlock the next 3 lvls to get pact of the chain and got my second pet, the imp. I took at lvl 2 in warlock eldritch mind , and devil’s sight, but at lvl 3 I swapped out devil’s sight for Investment of the chain master. Next I took 2 lvls in Ranger and got roving and Bob of Fang and Scale . I then took a lvl in sorcerer to get an ASI, then a lvl in warlock to get an ASI, then last lvl in Sorcerer to get to lvl 3 spells. From here I will finish out as Ranger and at my 11 th lvl in ranger for Drake’s Breath. All in all the build is 11 lvls Drakewarden Ranger / 5 lvls in divine soul sorcerer, and 4 lvls in The Genie ( Dao) Genie. I took Dao from warlock sub because of Genie’s wrath and AL gives you a magic weapon at lvl 5, which I will be taking a +1 Heavy Crossbow. What is nice with that is the drake can apply to one attack with crossbow an extra 1d6 damage of its chosen element type , and with The Genie sub I can add to another attack with extra attack the Proficiency bonus as extra damage. The idea with the two pets is to keep imp perma invisible. And when they both gain flight to twinned spell an up cast Dragon’s breath spell to both imp and drake. Have them fly up 15 feet and attack straight down on where they want to focus the attack so it is a 15 ft radius of the chosen damage type . The build can get dragon’s breath spell to 6d6, and your using it twice a turn, once by pet with your bonus action, and once with imp on its turn. Using the spell does not break imp’s invisibility. The drake can also share its damage immunity as resistance to player. Ranger can also get access to spell ashardalon’s stride which was my second choice to use for pets to use. But really wanted dragon’s breath so they can rain down there mini “fireball” I say fireball but the spell lets you pick a damage type it uses. Also thought of a tanky build with 12 lvls of fathomless warlock, 2 lvls of Paladin , and 6 lvls totem barbarian . For race I will go emerald gem dragon for psychic resistance.
Sounds like a fun build!! I did end up making my genie build back in November but I love the incorporation of drakewarden here as well! I also chose sorcerer in my multiclass but ended up as wild magic bc.... you know... chaos haha.
I love the warlock with spell sniper feat, lance invocation and agonising blast invocation Just makes a eldritch blast super sjiper the spell snipers range ontop of the eldritch spears range is so broken a 600 range cantrip attack with the cha bonus ontop to damage thats just so fun Also if use or alow unearthed arcana material their is the arcane gunslinger that alows u to change the pact of the blades malee weapon for a ranged gunslinger like weapon make your own critical role percy but as a true warlock
That sounds awesome!! How does your DM rule that range with regard to a limitation in vision? I know this isn’t a part of the game RAW exactly but it’s something I’ve brought up in the past to players hoping for similar builds. Again, not criticizing this at all, because it’s completely awesome! Just wondering if you’ve had experience in that department.
@@ConstructedChaos Here's the RAW answer: 1. absolutely clear with no sort of obstructions to your line of sight- 10560 ft. this is absolutely unrealistic in a dnd game. no game is played this far away. it also doesn't mean you can make out what you see. you just know something is there. 2. light obscurement such as rain- 5280 ft. this is absolutely unrealistic in a dnd game. no game is played this far away. it also doesn't mean you can make out what you see. you just know something is there. 3. heavy obscurement such as fog- 100-300 ft (dm discretion). this is more realistic but also comes with unmentioned stuff: a. heavy obscurement means you can't see through it so the range is irrelevant. can't make out what's there of course. you just see what's causing the obscurement. b. people assume 300 ft is so far away. for real world reference a football field is 360 ft long. all of the above assumes bright lightning everywhere. these get reduced further of course in darkness and is dependent on darkvision range. and of course any obstruction to LOS and LOE then hard caps the range. so what does this all mean for ruling a warlock with eldritch spear/spell sniper as a DM? if there's light or no obscurement and bright lighting nor obstruction to LOS and LOE, these eldritch snipers can target at their maximum range but cant discern what they are hitting (if its a friend or foe or civilian or an object). you just know there's something there. now how far do you have to be to discern what you're seeing, that would be 70 ft though as a DM you can extend this a bit. like i personally extend this to 120 ft. for real world reference, a basketball court is 90 ft long. imagine if you're on one end of a basketball court can you discern who's on the other end? again everything here is limited again by lighting and darkvision. lastly, i'd make an exception for the above if a twilight cleric with their magical 300 ft darkvision.
My current Warlock for Strahd (Started at 3): Half Elf, Mark of the Storm Djinn Genie Warlock Pact of the Chain Point Buy: --Strength: 8 --Dexterity: 15 (14+1) --Constitution: 14 --Intelligence: 10 --Wisdom: 10 --Charisma: 17 (15+2) Invocations: --2: Agonizing Blast --2: Mask of Many Faces --5: Investment of the Chain Master --7: Guift of the Ever Living Ones --9: Voice of the Chain Master --12: Eldritch Mind --15: Chains of Carceri --18: Eldritch Spear Feats/ASIs --4: Moderately Armored (Dex 16) --8: Elven Accuracy (Cha 18) --12: Constitution +2 (16) --16: Charisma +2 (20) --19: Constitution +2 (18) Full on Robin Williams style Genie while RPing. LOOOOOVE the flight, thunder damage & RPing with a talking, intelligent familliar.
The only problem is that most DMs never present a chance to take a short rest or discourage it by always making a choice between short resting or more people dying… making it the weakest class of all of them if you have a dm like that
I haven’t really found this to be the case personally but I definitely understand that everyone plays the game differently! Not getting short rests is going to hurt everyone in the party. And, while warlocks are one of the classes that need it most, they can definitely get by without it! E-Blast can be all you really need with the right invocations!
@@ConstructedChaos Agreed. though i find DMs who are stingy with short rests are more common than those that arent. my own table typically gets 1 short rest but we also typically just get 3 combats in a day. rarely, we'd get to 4 combats and he'd give us a 2nd short rest before the last fight.
Most Warlock Patrons RAW don't really take interest with their charges once the contact is signed. Great Old One is the "classic" example of a great power not even being aware they are in such a contract 😂 Second, your PC may have not been the original signer of the contract. Your parents may have entered into the contract giving up their "first born" to be the one who must fulfill the obligation their parents signed. Third, Multi-classing in and out of a contract with a Warlock could be a PC trying to exert some control over a contract that in the end favors the supernatural entity. You may be resigned to your fate but you are going on your own terms. That entity is going to collect once you pass beyond the mortal realm and isn't going to break the contract themselves. Souls are the only true commodity on the known planes of existence.
for the 3rd point, i'd simply say that the warlock/other class is simply another unique class so you don't have to justify jumping from one class to the other leveling. you are simply progressing in your own class. for example, a hexblade gloomstalker. you can say that the theme of the class is you made a pact with an otherworldy being to deliver vengeance from the shadows and execute his will on the world.
Agreed, my GOO warlock has their pact because of something that happened to their mother. (Fun fact: the word warlock comes from the Old Norse word varlog which actually means oath-breaker in the context of someone who breaks a pact that they agreed to.)
I think you mean Some warlock patrons. By the text in the PHB, some patrons don't even know you're siphoning off their power but others play helicopter mom and try to control everything you do. IIRC it even poses the possibility of the warlock having to do a favor for his patron in order to level up.
@@Nurk0m0rath I definitely see the "Helicopter Mom" patron way too often in live plays to the point that it interrupts the player. And thanks for that reference. I started 😂🤣😂 thinking about Asmodeus, King of the Nine Hells being a "Helicopter Mom." Like he's the ruler of millions but takes the time out of his day to provide "guidance" and "nurturing" to some poor slump tiefling in Waterdeep.
Question: With Pact of blade feature and being a Hexblade, after one makes a magical weapon a pact weapon can they still summon other types of weapons or are locked into said magical weapon? My understanding is the magical weapon is in a “shunned space” waiting to be called forth. But having the above features still allows you to create other weapons too?
As I understand it, you would only be able to summon that specific weapon until you break your bond with it. That said, I don’t think most DMs would have a problem being flexible with that ruling.
@@ConstructedChaos Thank you! Appreciate the input, wasn’t so sure myself. I’ll double check with my DM, so far he’s ruled it as okay…but I’ll find out more next time we have a session 😊
I made a warlock who didn’t chose his pact at all. My hexblade/sword bard was chosen by a sword that wasn’t meant for them. Then slayed their clan leader who ordered tos word to give to them as if he was possessed by the sword. I went hexblade 5 and sword bard the rest. But I alternated levels until 10.
One of my favorite uses for Warlock, is to reflavor Eldritch Blast as the conjuring of a Spectral Longbow and firing Spectral Arrows. It helps mitigate the feeling that I'm just spamming the same cantrip over and over, but it also keeps up with the Fighter's Extra Attack at later levels. With Improved Pact Weapon, I can use my Pact Weapon as the Focus for my Eldritch Blast, so I can fire off anything from energy waves from a blade or continue my Spectral Arrows.
Me, the chaotic evil warlock, summoning demons and just letting them run rampage: "Me? Overpowered? I could never!" Turns out my patron was the main antagonist of a few arcs in our campaign.
Warlock was the first class I ever played in D&D so I appreciate it getting this kind of positive feedback. Everyone always thinks warlocks are weak but that just means they aren't using them correctly.
I couldn't agree more! Lots of people like to harp on their lack of spell slots but I think their other features more than make up for this. Not to mention that they get even better when multiclassing with them!
Weak is the wrong term. Lacking is a better term used for them. If your talking about over all power they are not the class to chose at all. Warlocks need to be changed to better fit the actual feel of them.
@@bobbob-qi4qf As per rumors, they will be undergoing major changes in the upcoming 5.5/6E (along with the other short rest classes: monk and fighter) as design is moving away from short rest recharge and switching to proficiency bonus times per day.
I have this character I've been holding onto that I've yet to play as that i think you might find interesting. Hes a teiphling warlock/cleric who is in the fiend contract for the warlock and one of the moral subclasses for the cleric. the idea was that his contract with the devil was made at his birth and in his attempts to reject the contract he followed a path of peace.
Totally fair!! A lot of it depends on the group. You’re playing with and the style of your games but the potency of combining Eldritch Blast, your invocations, and some long-lasting concentration spells is hard to deny!
I love the concept of warlock, by have not played a d&d game in years, since 3.5. I can’t find anyone nearby that plays, sadly. That, and I don’t have the time that I used to. I wish there was a GOOD d&d game with warlock. Like an updated version of DDO. I particularly loved my “hellfire” warlock with the controversial “vest” feat. He was an immortal that focused on crafting in his castle, but did not shy away from adventures to find odd and rare components to use in crafting or just selling in his shop/
Sorry to hear about your trouble finding a group! Have you considered trying out some online play? Seems like One D&D is going to make that even easier than ever!
I like the optimism on the warlock capstone haha honestly, if I were in a campaign, I might just take it all the way for flavor, because in my build, if I revamped all my slots in 1 minute, I could maim the inmaimable.
hehehe yeahhhh I just call it like I see it haha! But, I don't think taking the class all the way to the end is a bad idea at all! Most campaigns don't hit level 20 anyway and you'd have more than enough good stuff to work with up to that point!
Happy to hear that this helped you out!! Glad you enjoyed it! Fathomless warlock is going to be awesome in a setting like that! You’re going to love it!
I’ve used the genie patron for my air genasi warlock. It’s early in the campaign I’m currently in, but thinking about multi passing with fighter to get the action surge.
Never thought I'd see the words "Warlock" and "Broken" in the same sentence. Good to have some recognition though! My personal favorite Warlock patron is Genie, because they're just...so awesome...second favorite is Great Old One, even though they're one of the weaker subclasses. One of my favorite things about Warlock though is how they can interact with both story and gameplay. I have this idea I'd love to do, but I don't know if I'll ever get to do it since I would A. Have to be a player instead of DM, and B. Have to be with a completely new set of people. I'd love to make a Fiendlock who is subservient to either Asmodeus or Tiamat. He is still a good natured soul (or lack thereof, heh) but has this inexhaustible thirst for power. Power he wants to use to help people. He generally won't do anything that could cause direct harm to an innocent person either. Anyway, at the start of the campaign befriend an NPC family near a frequented city or town. A family the rest of the party wouldn't know exists. Even if they did find out it wouldn't really matter. At level 4, I would take the Eldritch Invocation that lets your Pact of the Tome become a ritual book, and take the Divination ritual. At that point, I would try to convince the DM if Divination can be used to divine specific questions about people. Like what is the real name of a specific person. If he says no, that's okay, I'll get back to that later. I would let the campaign progress until I hit level 9, and unlock 5th level spell slots. Then I would take what is probably the most dangerous spell in the entire game; Infernal Calling. (For people who knows what Infernal Calling does, you can see where I'm going with all this). At this point, I would have it so his Pact of the Tome would tell him exactly what Infernal Calling does, using the secret knowledge found within the tome. (Its flavor text in the Aspect of the Moon EI that says you can study the tome during long rest downtime. I would flavor it for this purpose). At which point, he will start scheming to obtain a Devil's Talisman. For those unaware, Infernal Calling allows you to summon a CR 6 devil. However, you normally have to make a charisma check contested by the Devil's insight check convince it to obey. Unless you have a Devil's individual talisman, inscribed with the Devil's true name. If you do, you can summon a devil with 1 higher CR than would normally be allowed, (so a CR7 instead of a CR6) and they must follow every command without question. At this point, if the DM allowed, I would divine of Asmodeus or Tiamat the true name of a Black Abishai (the only CR 7 Devil in the game. It's very strong). If not allowed, I would secretly ask the DM to let my Fiendlock somehow find the true name of a Black Abishai. After I get the true name, I will also summon other devil's, charming them with Charm Monster to gain their true names as well. (This is the official way to obtain a devil's true name as described in the Monster Manual) one devil for each family member in my PC's beloved befriended family. Now to tell those who don't know how a Devil's talisman is obtained. You must inscribe a talisman with the true name of a Devil, and then bathe it in the blood of a worthy sacrifice. Usually someone close to you. The power to summon a powerful devil that perfectly synchronizes with my Fiendlock's abilities would be too tempting to resist. And he will at last stoop to his lowest point for power. All according to Asmodeus' will. My idea is that the Warlock would be disgusted with himself. Sickened by his actions. But he wouldn't regret it, because of the unholy power he now wields. The character interactions if the rest of the party found out, how they would react, the character building behind the scenes as the party realizes that the Warlock is acting...different, than usual. Less cheerful. Perhaps an eventual confession of the done deed. A wizard who secretly knows what I did, being a caster himself and wise in the art of conjuration. A different appearance as Asmodeus increases his grasp upon the warlock, changing his appearance to be more devil-like. And to top it all off, insanely more powerful and a much bigger threat in combat encounters. The possibilities are endless, and I would love to see it all play out. TLDR; I'm a scheming bastard who loves to emotionally torture my own PC for immense power.
Genies are one my faves too along with hexblades and fathomlocks (this is my #1). seems what you want to do is actually write a story instead of RPing something open-ended. i already see the backstory, the journey and the ending in what you wrote along with the character arc. haha. i guess that's something all DMs have in common. to play as a player with strangers, i suggest trying out VTTs like the forged concordance.
@@TheRobversion1 Sorry, plotting and scheming is one of my favorite things about being a DM. As a perma DM I've come up with a habit of creating a litany of PCs and this one grabbed my attention in particular, simply because I discovered a spell nobody really talks about. Anyway, I kinda disagree with you on this particular character. I have no idea what the backstory would be, how the character would play, or what would happen. I simply have an overarching scheme to eventually obtain a devil's talisman. Something I've never heard of someone else doing, and would be really fun to actually get one (or multiple, assuming there's more than one family member). And the interactions that would ensue at the table would be super interesting if they ever found out. In general up to that point the only thing I have about his personality is that he would be a good natured person, who just so happens to be in service to Asmodeus. Also as a veritable psychopath I think it would be hilarious to see the horrified expression on a DM's face as my Warlock slaughters an entire family without warning and in secret from the rest of the party. Unless he saw it coming...eh, would still be funny. Oh, and I really want to create a Warlock with powers that would make any class crap themselves in fear. Because my older brother has it in his head that Warlocks are one of the weakest classes, and I'd really like to shove it in his face to say "I just ordered a CR 7 devil to slaughter an entire room full of people who underestimated me." That would be really fun. Edit: Lastly, thanks for reading. I've had this character sort of...bottled up for a while, and I have no outlet to get out stuff I think is really cool. I appreciate you taking the time to read the whole thing.
@@sauronsrighthandman301 if you re-read my comment i said "I COULD already SEE the character's backstory, journey and ending along with the character arc." Meaning if I was DMing for you and you were my player i already could do so much with this information. I'm not saying you already know it yourself. I'm saying with this much information i could already write the whole story arc of your character. And i could see DMs are the ones who typically flesh this out. Players dont normally go this in-depth and are more about discovery and playing it by ear. Thats why I said this is a common trait among DMs.
@@TheRobversion1 Oooh, sorry. Misunderstood the comment, my bad. I thought you were saying I didn't want role-playing or something. I'm very tired so these things happen. Well now that I have that clarification, I appreciate your comment all-the-more. Also, if you were my DM, I wouldn't tell you any of this. From your perspective, it would just be harmless questions and an NPC family I secretly befriended. Up until I start dropping subtle hints. Mainly the other PCs seeing him acting a bit fidgety, nervous. Any questions are deflected until he decides he's going to go for a walk. At that point, I'd tell you I'm going out to the NPC family. In your head you're probably saying "Okay, just another off-camera roleplay thing. No big deal." I start saying off-character things. He sits against a tree, seemingly out of breath for a moment. He's toying with something in his pocket, and checking if his knife is still there. You get the point. (I just realized I'm doing it again, someone help) point is, he gets there, kills everyone, makes one or several Devil's talismans, and burns the house down before leaving. Maybe leaving the youngest child alive (if it's a baby. Otherwise, no survivors) and bringing it to an orphanage where he may grow up with dreams of demons, blood, and fire. Along with a resolve to find an answer to his dreams. Queue your horrified expression as the players at the table (Who have no idea what's going on) just see your face go pale with horror and my Warlock arrives back to the rest of the Party, perfectly clean thanks to Prestidigitation, smelling of forest greenery, and with multiple reddish-bronze talismans engraved with demonic symbols at his side.
@@sauronsrighthandman301 infernal calling is such a good spell if your party members (will not question your evil actions or attack you for it or attack your devil summon) and DM (allows you to make/find devil talismans) are on board. It's a character arc and side quest all in one spell. maybe even a combat too if your party members decide to fight you. Same can be said for summon greater demon but to a lesser extent (since it has no talisman you have to beat its cha save with a save dc that will ensure the demon still fails even if they roll a 20 if you want to use it for multiple combats).
The undying warlock would be for a specific uncommon setting, like the water one. Maybe a zombie setting where you must find a cure. You play in sessions that span 10-100 years at a time, as you must wait for the test results or keep at it for so long between, spending down time on improving the research or learning new processes, or a hobby so you don’t go crazy. You age slower though your patron so you can find the cure, you go without food and water because you don’t have time to stop, and no air because you want a controlled environment for your tests, or maybe you stop yourself from breathing when you go out because it’s airborn. When your bitten in combat you sever the limbs because you can cure those small parts but not the brain, once you cure those limbs you reattach them. Or some other setting that lends itself to this patron. Again I wouldn’t be choosing the nautical patron on a land based game unless I’m doing it for the RP, but I’d only do that for short oneshots.
Honestly, I think you underestimate the fathomless warlock here. It's plenty mechanically viable in a land-locked campaign--the undying warlock, I have a hard time making the same case for.
I always find it useful to start with 15 Constitution. Eldritch Mind at 2nd level is a necessity, but Resilient: Constitution at 4th (or 1st) is also necessary.
Some of the Pacts that I didnt know of like Undying is clearly asking for a stealth Utility warlock. This is awesome! One of the better things that warlocks can do is elements that does not have to do with combat. Too many features + Invocation + Spell combos create for an overwhelming victory for your party in combat, but also just possible to avoid fights or create a scenario into happening. For instance, talisman is pretty weak on paper, but is an amazing utility boon. This is literally the best Leader/Hero Of The Group Pact that gives you a greater chance at success to whatever the hell you want. Focusing on amazing feats (Yourself or someone else) rather than doing damage. I mean, at 12th level, the talisman feature is godlike. My warlock used the invocation to disguise self, and misty visions and had actor feat, and just with those three combinations you can already tell what kind of a crazy warlock shenanigans you can do, in story, in combat. Its so fun thinking outside of the box, its more of a wizard than the wizard.
You make some great points here--about pact of the talisman especially. But pact of the undying just really feels too niche to me. I've always felt that you could do just as much utility play as another warlock subclass plus have the options for better subclass features.
There is a build where you can take 1 level in life cleric and 19 in warlock.. Grab your invocations as usual.. Except you will have 6 extra level 1 spells to use once per long rest.. 2 from half elf drow magic, 2 from fey touched and 2 from cleric level 1... Go for the invocation gift of the everliving ones and chain / tome to get maximum self healing when you have your familiar up.. Now you have spells, have defenses, a decent AC and strong riders on your eldritch blast.. You still play as a backline mage but you sre not squishy.. Plus take summon fey and ASK your DM if you can take it again as a level 8 spell as a mystic arcanum.. You can establish a deal with your patron / DM its very powerful if you can get it.. You get 4 multiattacks each dealing 2d6 + 11 damage and 80 hp.. With your class feature it can go to 90.. A bonus action misty step with a reliable charm / defensive darkness and an AC of 20 if you cast it at 8th level... Plus your eldrich blasts and healing.. N.b. Its broken and should only be used as a last resort.. I believe a DM should allow the use of broken combos and spells as an act of desperation by players eg: hp falls below 50% or party members are going down freely but the use of them broken combos for no reason should be met with consequences eg: rupture of spacetime summoning more enemies, being hunted down by the city guard for use of forbidden magic, losing stats and hp etc... Players should be given the choice to build all the broken shit they want like this without breaking the balance of the game
Cleric is always going to be one of the best single level dips out there and I completely agree that players should be allowed to push what's possible for a character in 5e. I actually make these videos to show that you can make broken characters with just about any class in the game!
One thing as well is the invocations that are Pact of the ??? specific can be super powerful, one of the things they do is give some stupidly powerful invocations for the weaker pacts to make them more balanced... such as the free casting on deathward between prof bonus individuals. I still think the lower levels of warlocks 1-3 are more impactful for other characters than the higher level warlock abilities are for warlocks unfortunately.
My soul was broken. My patron was imprisoned. I gave my soul, that he may mend it. I freed him from his imprisonment. We work together. I do not serve him. If anything, he serves me. More accurately, we have a mutual arrangement. He sacrificed the last of his power to get us out of a sticky situation. Those warlock powers? Are mine, not his. But as my power grows, so his returns. We work together, we grow together, we fight together. Our souls are one.
I made a Fighter 1 Warlock X (ended at Fighter 1 Warlock 13) that had just 14 charisma, but was extremely powerful. With the defense fighting style and a shield, I was very tanky. Add in Pact of the Chain to get Gift of the Ever Living Ones, and my Second Wind, Healing Light, and Cure Wounds always healed me for maximum healing (and with a Bonus Action for the first two). Fiendish Vigor was great early on, but a few levels after its usefulness wore out, I got Celestial Resistance to replace it. Darkness (with Devil's Sight), and later on Shadow of Moil also made my character extremely difficult to damage, as most enemies would have disadvantage on attacks (means that crit chance goes from 5% to 0.25%), and many of their spells couldn't even target me. Getting advantage on most of my attacks was a nice bonus, too. But the best thing was later on when I would upcast Invisibility on the entire party, or when I would cast Fly on myself and two others (usually the evocation wizard and battlemaster archer) for combat. I also loved that instead of using Feather Fall if I lost concentration on Fly, I could just use the Tomb of Levistus, which is a much more badass way to survive a fall. Having just 14 charisma (I suck at rolling good stats for characters) did mean that I was a bit more limited in how many Healing Light I could use at once, and the extra fire damage on Green Flame Blade was a bit low (but it's not like that makes much of a difference, and I usually used Booming Blade instead), but that's about all that it did in combat. Out of combat, I was still good at social situations, but I wasn't as OP as a Warlock, Sorcerer, or Bard that made Charisma their main stat. I was more like a Paladin when it came to social situations. Aside from Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade (and occasionally Sacred Flame if I couldn't get into melee range), I wasn't really casting spells on enemies. I was casting spells like Darkness and Shadow of Moil, sometimes Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration, Revivify, or Cure Wounds (upcasting it automatically means that the lower base healing doesn't matter as much), and quite often, Fly, Dimension Door, or Invisibility. So the low charisma didn't really affect my spellcasting. Celestial gives you enough of the key Cleric spells that I was basically able to perform the healer role of the Cleric (but not the Bless/Spiritual Weapon/Spirit Guardians Cleric stuff), while being extremely tanky. Casting Fly on 3 people or Invisibility on 4 people with a spell slot that comes back on a short rest makes exploration much easier. And I had the improved find familiar (a Sprite) that also came in very handy with exploration.
*grumbles in uncharismatic fighter* I could see my character multiclassing into a warlock, but she doesn't have the charisma, and probably won't get it for a long time even if I spend all of my ability score increases on charisma. Any advice?
Hmmm. Maybe try another spellcasting class? Fighter ties in well with a lot of them and bladesinger wizard could be really cool if you have the INT score for it!
Glad I found this video. Been looking into finally starting to play D&D lately and my first choice of character would be a Warlock with a Genie (Djinn) patron. I envison the patron as staying mostly in his cloud palace in the Plane of Air but every now and then summoning me to show off his mortal pet, ask me to entertain him or give me a little quest on the Material Plane to do for him. The way I see it he'd be thinking of me as a pet, getting more and more attached until eventually learning to respect me a little more (provided the DM makes that choice). I had a little scene in mind to introduce my Warlock nature to the party. While talking with my party around our campfire we all hear this loud voice calling for his pet (insert whatever funny pet name you can think of, I personnally thought something like "Cookie"). While the party is a bit confused, I sigh and say I have to go before turning into smoke and disappearing into my ring... Would love to see the other players' faces XD
Hi Chaos. As requested in the other thread... Here's another hexblade build for you to peruse to pick ideas from. level 10 theorycraft as always and i'd definitely take a fighter subclass in tier 3 (battlemaster/arcane archer) and then push the hexblade levels: "the hexstalker" fighter 2, hexblade 5, gloomstalker 3 half-drow (other half-elves are fine but i wanted one to fit the theme) asi: elven accuracy-cha (going dex is viable too) fighting styles: archery, superior technique-goading attack invocations: misty visions, thirsting blade, eldritch smite pact: blade (longbow) key spells: misty visions, goodberry, hex (yes i didn't pick eldritch blast. haha) role: burst striker (combat), scout/infiltrator (out of combat) tactics: pre-combat: walk around in misty visions (atmospheric effect appropriate to the environment like smoke, fog, sandstorm, mist, etc). invite your allies into your 15 ft bubble and tell them it's an illusion to break. any spell slots unused from the previous day should be converted into goodberries. 1st turn: bonus action: hexblade's curse the bbeg. if needed step out of misty visions 5-15 ft, curse, then go back inside misty visions. action: attack x3 at super advantage action surge: attack x3 at super advantage eldritch smite and goading attack on a crit. with 18d20 rolls on turn 1 you are bound to get at least 1 crit. reaction: shield/absorb elements/hellish rebuke as needed 2nd turn onwards: action: attack x2 at super advantage bonus action: empty for now but i used this for magic stone at latter levels once i got undying servant/accursed spectre. dropping concentration on misty visions and switching to hex is plausible too if fighting in darkness/dark shadow. or if i had a spare level 1 slot, i'd cast unseen servant pre-combat then spend my bonus action from turn 2 onwards commanding it to litter the field with caltrops or drop inhaled poisons in my enemy's space. dmg report (assuming 1 crit out of 18d20 rolls at level 10): 6d8 (longbow) + 24 (cha) + 24 (hexblade's curse) + 2d6 (crit goading attack) + 1d8 (longbow crit) + 8d8 (crit eldritch smite) + 1d8 (dread ambusher) + 2d8 (crit dread ambusher) = 198.5 average burst dmg at excellent accuracy. Yes, that is more dmg than any CR 10 or lower monster's HP and will one turn kill most bbegs at level 10 so i'd advise DMs to send multiple bbegs when facing something like this. The build is inspired by dark fantasy rpgs such as dark souls/diablo where a martial character adventures in darkness/shadow and accompanied by undead/spectres encapsulating the dark archer trope. feel free to let me know what you think. 🙂
That turn one good LORD!! I am planning to use arcane archer in my next build coming up so I'm definitely beginning to see the benefit of dipping fighter on spellcasters haha.
@@ConstructedChaos yeah pretty much for burst dmg in doesn't get better than the fighter/gloomstalker core. i was actually being conservative in the computations there as if you noticed i didn't factor any magic weapon bonuses and only assumed 1 crit (where a 10% chance on 18d20 rolls would net you on average 2). and it wasn;t just a one trick pony in combat/out of combat. i functioned as a backup healer i combat with goodberries and information gatherer out of combat (high cha + skill prof, speak with animals, friends cantrip). yeah fighter 2 is arguably the best dip for casters with con save prof, armor profs, fighting style and action surge. sorc 2-3 dips are great too for con save prof and metamagic and the artificer 1 dip is great for wizards. twilight and peace 1 are solid for their abilities and armor profs. hexblade 1 is another good 1 for the armor profs and hexblade's curse.
@@TheRobversion1 I actually hadn't done arcane archer before now for any of my builds and now I think it's something I'll look to use a lot moving forward. I love the archer archetype in general haha.
@@ConstructedChaos same. i generally pick stealthy archer/gunner types in video/mobile games. would be interesting to see your take on arcane archer as that's something that also i still have stuck in the workshop as i struggle with the whole poison dmg thing (i hate this like con saves) of the best arcane arrow (grasping arrow) and i wanted to make a build that was a bit more creative than just dmg. i really wanted to mix in a good caster to make it feel like a real arcane archer throwing spells and shooting arrows at the same time.
@@TheRobversion1 Well don't get too excited then haha. I think this build in specific will be using grasping arrow quite a bit. And I'm sure that'll clue you in on what I'm doing with it haha.
Tbh that's borderline a fetish character. Before you make that character make sure you know your table well. Don't pull that on a DM you don't know well enough.
Hey Chaos. How's it going? Since i think alot of the recent comments here are questioning the viability of a hexblade as a non-melee striker (ranged or caster) or even questioning the outright popular opinion that the hexblade is the best warlock striker subclass, thought i'd share a non-melee striker build i've used in the past. basically, the cheese grater is a popular daolock or swarmkeeper striker/controller hybrid build and the hexblade is my own spin on it. level 10 theorycraft as usual: "Pecorino" fighter 2, hexblade 5, nature cleric 3 custom lineage: telekinetic (cha) asi: lucky or cha +2 fighting style: superior technique (ambush) pact: chain (quasit) invocations: repelling blast, grasp of hadar, agonizing blast key spells: guidance, spike growth, eldritch blast, aid, shield, counterspell tactics: pre-combat: use pact slot to cast upcasted aid on the party. spam guidance for initiative bonus. use ambush for initiative bonus as needed. 1st round: familiar: help bonus action: hexblade's curse the bbeg action: cast spike growth behind the bbeg action surge: repelling blast x2 with 1 grasp of hadar the bbeg into the spike growth (use lucky for super advantage on the 2nd RB as needed) reaction: shield/counterspell as needed 2nd round: familiar: help bonus action: telekinetic the bbeg back into spike growth if they move out or just push them within it action: repelling blast x2 with 1 grasp of hadar the bbeg into the spike growth dmg report: the difference between this and the other cheese grater versions is hexblade's curse. this makes your spike growth dmg increase by 80% at level 10. spike growth dmg is rolled every 5 ft of movement which means every time you roll 2d4 (no save) you add the prof bonus from hexblade's curse. so for the 1st round of combat this build does: 30 ft of forced movement. which means 12d4 + 24 for an average of 54 dmg from forced movement alone. lets add in the eldritch blasts: 2d10 (EB) + 8 (HC) + 8 (AB) = for an average of 27. so on round 1 the build averages 81 dmg and pretty much sustains that for the whole fight on the bbeg (we can add in another 9 points of dmg from a successful telekinetic push for 90 sustained). this doesn't factor the increased crit rate from HC either. 81 dmg is a little above 50% of the average hp of CR 10 creatures (159.4) so this is good dmg for the level (10). this is good sustained dmg from a non-melee hexblade. for comparison a typical pam gwm hexblade is doing 3 attacks at: 2d10 (glaive) + 12 (cha) + 30 gwm + 1d4 (pam) + 12 (HC) = for 67.5 average dmg of course this melee hexblade can eldritch smite for an additional 6d8 (27) for a total of 94.5 of burst. by round 2 the cheese grater overtakes the melee hexblade but not by much. this doesn't even factor in the fact that the melee version's actual dmg is lower due to gwm's penalty to accuracy. conclusion here is i'm not saying either is clearly better. my point is the dmg capabilities of each direction (and you can also say the same about the hexbow) are quite comparable and for a player who wants to play a certain way with a hexblade, there's an optimal striker path for it. :)
@@ConstructedChaos :) so that was the build and the combat aspect of it. i do have fond memories of the RP of the build as i wanted a "cheesy" way to RP it. so he's named pecorino (after the delicious cheese), the DM let us get a free feat at the start as long as it was more of an RP feat (i picked chef) and I RP'd the character as like an italian mafia (criminal background of course) who likes to cook and hire defeated enemies who don't die to help him open his dream restaurant one day. i had to swerve into the curb and voice out the character during sessions with a cheesy italian accent. the whole build was reflavored and rethemed. i didn't use the traditional lore/concept of hexblades and nature clerics as hexblades felt more of a dark theme while nature clerics well felt more "nature-y." i did want some seriousness but that was more "grounded" with the character but also with a bit of whimsy. I still went with the patron aspect but i requested for my DM to allow me to invent a patron of cooking. his name was Gordon. ;)
As someone who played as warlocks for over half of my campeighs, i have to say it, don't use hex past level 2, it's a trap, on level 3 you get your level 2 spell slots, and then it's not worth the upcast since i doesn't deal more damege, you get better spells worth that slot, as soon as you hit level 3, switch hex for any level 2 spell, be it hold person, invisibility, suggestion, earthbind or litteraly anything else, it is worth more then using a level 2 or higher slot on hex, unless you multiclass into something that have level 1 spell slots, you should never keep hex, 1 d6 extra per hit isn't worthit when hold person can make all attacks that hit a target become crits (wichi comboes very well with pact of the blade) or a spell like earthbind wich makes flying enemies unable to leave the ground, or invisibility wich help with surprise setups or suggestion that is perfect to setup combos with your party, anything will be worth more then hex, so please, to all warlock players, don't be so much harder on yourself then you nead to be, just don't use hex when you get level 2 slots.
@@laughingseagull000 you lose an invocation and your concentration, and you nerf on type of ability check on your familiar, not only that, but the familiar have it's own initiative, so getting it in optimal positions to teleport is hard, so it isn't worthit.
currently playing a blind GOO warlock in a campaign, we started at level 3, so i took pact of the chain and worked with my DM to make a modified owl familiar. through the voice of the chain master invocation, he could see and hear through his owl, making them possibly one of the best scouts ive ever played. they are indispensable with the help of phantasmal force, which, might get a little less useful as you level up, but is essential to distracting enemies and dealing a little bit of damage. GOO Warlocks are fun to play as long as you get creative and work with your dm to improve some of their abilities (6th level ability is a 1st level cleric ability, 14th level ability can be more flexible, range of awakened mind being limiting at high levels, etc...)
take note you didn't need voice of the chainmaster to see through your owl. that's doable with a standard familiar. voice of the chainmaster just does 2 things: 1. increase the sight range past 100 ft. 2. allow you to speak through your familiar.
@@shefferdz633 a better invocation to pick is investment of the chainmaster. Great for allowing your familiar to attack and increasing the save dc of their abilities (like poison, scare) or of items they'd use (like caltrops, ball bearings).
@@TheRobversion1 i did end up taking investment of the chain master the second i hit 5th! ill be keeping voice of the chain master for other reasons, ty!
A viable substitute for eldritch blast might be magic stone. It does decent damage, with one of the least resisted damage types, and you can accomplish that damage all in one round with npcs or martial players who lack ranged options. If you have a sling, the damage it does is comparable to eldritch blast for a quite a while, factoring out items like illusionist bracers.
I try to use apps to make characters, such as DND beyond and 5e companion however almost none of these super cool spells are on there. Why? And where can I find them without just looking it up
Hmmm Which spells specifically aren't showing up? I wonder if they're from releases outside of the PHB or if maybe you have homebrew only filters turned on?
P.S. forgot to mention the ranger/ warlock/ sorcerer build gets 4 ASI with which I took an ASI of +1 dex and +1 Cha. Also took feats crossbow expert, sharpshooter, and metamagic adept.
Black Tentacles for the Fathomless... Yeah. The swimming/undersea powers are underrated. Water is a barrier to all sorts of pursuit, so being able to get across a water barrier fast and blast at range over it is really a superpower.
I dont think the water-required powers are underrated. they are simply niche. most campaigns aren't water heavy campaigns. Water-heavy challenges would happen 10% of the time at most. maybe 20%. with that said the other non-water required abilities of the fathomless is pretty good. one of my fave warlock subclasses.
What i like with warlock is that they get their spells back on a short rest. From level 3 onwards they get 2 spell slots. D&D encounters are balanced around 6 encounters a day with two short rest in-between which is huge. Meaning that from level 3 onward they can essencially drop a battlefield control every fight. They are the true tanks of d&d. Also 2 levels are enough for them to make ok damage with no ressource expenditures
@@ConstructedChaos Yeah. But you only need 2 to rougly have a battlefield control every fight. The rest is just gravy. They also get some unlimited spells or spells they can cast once per day. I'm a big fan of misty visions. Silent image at will at level 2 is insane in terms of utility. And even beyond that, you can make walls, fog, cover... Taking the fey-touched spell at 1st level is very good on a warlock. You can pick sleep or hideous laughter and you'll have a good control even at level 1. And having that 1/day misty step means you won't have to waste your precious slots on it. Generally when i go for a straight warlock i tend to go for either fey, fathomless or undying. Fey get sleep as a spell choice. Fathomless get bigby's hand. It's more of a higher level game pick but bigby's hand is a spell that don't care about legendary resistances.
Our group is starting a Princes of the Apocalypse (POTA) campaign from Level 1-12. I'm going with a male Water Genasi (Mordenkainen's version) Urchin nicknamed "Gurgle" from Baldur's Gate who was chosen by a kindly Djinni (Air Genie) to serve as her eyes-and-ears in the Material Plane. He takes the Pact of the Blade at Djinni Warlock 3 after he multiclasses into a Soulknife Rogue 3 then goes all the way to Genie Warlock 9 (at 12th Level). If the game lasts up to 15th Level, I might even make him become a Shadow Sorcerer 3 or a Swords Bard 3.
Because there isn’t sourcebook character art without a background available for every subclass. So, sometimes I have to find something else that could pass for that same thing. The spirit bard art could easily be a genie warlock if you think about it.
have tried playing both Celestial lock and Hexblade. Celestial is nice healers an i where my party's go to for arcane knowledge, i where like how should i know :D my Hexblade where build tanky, and it got to the point my DM Banished me to go after the other party members :D atm playing healer wizard (Mark of healing halfling necromancer) :D but got 2 backups ready with lock in them, Owlin Shadow Sorc and Undead lock and a Dhampir Shadow sorc, Undead lock and Oathbreaker pala. :D
Well they walked back a lot of the original proposed changes and it looks pretty similar to the typical 5e warlock. I like that they play even more into eldritch invocations and that they have a slot recovery mechanic outside of a short rest. Overall, it's an improvement but it does feel like it could have changed more.
@@moongoosemcqueen nice! Yeah I’m pretty happy with it but I was really excited when I’d heard about the rumors involving no more short rests. Sadly (and understandably) they went in the opposite direction.
In my current campaign, my warlock is a trifling who made a deal with an otherworldly being who he transferred his power to Gemwyn (my character) he is a super intelligent and super strong warlock machine. he is built to be chaotic neutral and is built to be hyper aggressive in combat, he loves his trident and his wings of flying
He usually uses magic but has no problems with hand to hand combat, I am level 5 at this stage of the campaign and I primarily use my trident, great sword and daggers, he's partially inspired by Loki and other fictional marvel magic users
@@yunglocke3952 Sounds like a great wild card in the party for social encounters and a massive boon in combat!! Excited for you to explore the relationship with your patron in that campaign!
Played a hexblade multiclassed with swords bard. I was the only healer/support person in the party. Went with pact of the chain, specifically the imp. Best decision I could’ve made. That imp was so useful in so many ways, it was practically another party member. (It helped that we gave it a smartass personality, with the DM and I sharing the roleplay duties.)
Familiars are always great for action economy. i personally prefer the quasit, especially if i take the investment of the chainmaster invocation. having an action economy free scare 1/day is quite useful.
I've never considered it broken with the exception of devil's sight + darkness. Even that is limited as it nerfs the other party members and as such you use it pretty sparingly. My favorite was a human cleric (nature) 1 / warlock (fey) x. Took ritual caster at 1st. Ended up with a ton of rituals (both ritual caster and cleric/nature domain spells), so he had familiars, alarm spells, detect magic, speak with animals, etc., etc. available, plus lots of cantrips and shillelagh. Dropped str, dex, and int as I just used heavy armor, shield, and quarterstaff with the movement penalty. Added PAM at 5th. 1st-level cleric slows were great for powering hex, I could cure wounds at high-levels during any short rests, ranged with EB, melee with PAM and staff, and at higher levels multiple attacks, armor of agathys (high level slots), etc. The character was super-flexible -- switching between melee, ranged, buffing (greater invisibility on the rogue, polymorph on someone, or just a bless on the party), emergency or non-combat healing, tons of utility, etc. It's a fun class due to its versatility. I can see the benefits in taking even a level of another casting class and it solves two of the big issues with the warlock -- spells known, and spell slots. It can also address the armor issue.
i wouldn't even consider devil's sight + darkness broken as it's typically suboptimal except in a party built around it and only for melee builds and lower levels. for ranged builds, misty visions provides the same effect (obscurement for you) without annoying your party. for higher levels for melee builds, there's shadow of moil. so darkness + devil sight has a very small level range to be useful which is level 3-6 for melee builds.
@@TheRobversion1 How is it suboptimal? A 2nd-level spell which provides advantage on all your attack roles, disadvantage on all attacks again you, prevents you from being targeted, etc. plus all sorts of utility uses. I don't see how misty visions does the same thing. It blocks your vision also, plus takes actions to move. Make a wall and sure, they can't target you, can't target them. Make a half wall and peer out and it's just concealment -- giving them disadvantage on a wisdom check vs. your hide check to spot you.
@@BW022 oks lets go through it. lets start with why i mentioned it's suboptimal. 1st take note i said it's suboptiimal for 2 reasons: 1. melee higher than level 7. the reason here is you gain access to greater invisibility or the better warlock version, shadow of moil. darkness + devil sight- costs an action, costs a spell slot, costs an invocation, advantage to hit enemies, enemies have disadvantage to hit you, enemies cant target you with sight spells, negatively affects party members, effect moves with you freely. shadow of moil- costs an action, costs a spell slot, advantage to hit enemies, enemies have disadvantage to hit you, enemies cant target you with sight spells, effect moves with you freely, DOESNT negatively affect party members, DOESNT cost an invocation, RESISTANCE to radiant dmg, WHEN someone does hit you, they take 2d8 necrotic. i hope that's clear for melee. at level 7 there's no point for a melee character to do darkness + devil sight. 2. i don't think you understand how misty visions work, how illusions work and how misty visions is used. so my caveat here is for RANGED/CASTERS. 1st how misty visions works. misty visions allows you to cast silent image AT WILL. you can have it move along with you outside of combat as mentioned in the spell text with the cost of an action in combat. which means you can create your obscurement OUTSIDE of combat. meaning you don't have to waste your action on your 1st turn to create it unlike darkness. if you're ranged/caster you don't have to move much from your starting position in combat thus this becomes great action economy wise. both cost an invocation slot. misty visions will only cost an action IF YOU WANT TO MOVE IT. misty visions DOESNT cost a spell slot either. both gives you advantage to hit enemies, both gives enemies advantage to hit you. both makes enemies unable to target you with sight spells. DOESNT negatively affect party members because your illusion is not in melee obscuring their targets. 2nd how illusions work. you CAN SEE through your own illusions. they can't see through it unless they break the illusion. they only break the illusion by going up to it and investigating it vs. your spell save DC. you are far away as a ranged/caster. you don't need to peer through it. you can see through it regardless of where you are inside the 15ft cube. Its also specified illusions are treated AS REAL by those who can't see through it. so that means an enemy won't bother going up to you and investigating unless the illusion you created doesnt make sense (and you do live in a world of magic so it's easy to justify). there's basically no difference between you creating a fog cloud/darkness with the spell and an illusion of it. enemies won't know the difference. another thing of note here is you can create ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS unlike minor illusion which means anything physical that passes through the illusion DOESNT break the illusion so you can create fog, darkness, smoke, cloud, mist, tornadoes, fire/eldritch/sandstorm, hail, etc then fire arrows/bolt/stones/eldritch beams from with with impunity as those physical effects are meant to pass through atmospheric effects unlike let's say physical objects like creating a crate, wall, etc. a bonus here is that since you set this up pre-combat, if your party members decide to walk around with you inside the 15 ft cube, they can benefit from the obscurement as well. sure the 1st time they go in they cant. but this is outside of combat. tell them its an illusion. tell them to investigate. eventually they'll break the illusion for themselves and can benefit like you do. 3rd how misty visions is used. so as mentioned earlier you walk around in it, invite your ranged/caster allies in and tell to break the illusion then position yourself well at the start of combat. fire away with ranged/spells with obscurement. if you do need to relocate, then yes it will cost an action but that won't happen often. and since these illusions arent limited to darkness, you have tons more utility outside of combat. you can think of it as an action economy free greater invis 15 ft bubble for ranged/casters. this is also why it's considered by most optimizers to be the best invocation in the game.
As far as the OP, Warlock is definitely most often best as a multiclass! The ROI goes through the roof the second you take on another caster class like the sorcerer!
@@TheRobversion1 maybe we play it wrong in our group, but we use darkness in the following way: Warlock casts darkness on himself (devils sight, so no prob at all), doesn't matter where rest of party is, as long as tanks are out. other ranged partymembers take partial movement to leave darkness, do their action, step back into darkness... rince, repeat. Warlock has full advantage, rest of ranged have defensive perks of darkness. only drawback is for our bard with his reactions, where he needs line of sight e.g. counterspell. are we doing it against the rules?
I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:( But I have created 12 different lvl 1 characters in case I found a group. 1 of which is a Chaotic Neutral Female Shadar-Kai Acolyte background Undying Warlock whose Patron is Larloch! She chose to become a Warlock to fight/oppose Corruption. I personally for all my characters (if I find a group) will NEVER MULTI-CLASS!!!!!! Additionally, I created a stat system many people could consider using. You start with 72 points you can spread however you want NOT EXCEEDING 20, then you add your Racial Stats on top of that STILL NOT EXCEEDING 20!!! Personally if I was a DM for a group, I would suggest all the group to use my stat system. I would also GENERALLY refuse to allow Multi-Classing unless we are playing beyond lvl 20 (which I would also try to design campaigns that do that). In which case after lvl 20 you can Multi-Class. Finally, I respect your right to your opinions. BUT UNDYING WARLOCK IS THE BEST WARLOCK SUB-CLASS!!! You can acquire quite a few decently powerful damaging Spells/Cantrips. At higher levels if you essentially "Cheat Death" you get temporary hit points. Most importantly at lvl 1 you have a chance of avoiding damage from Undead & at a higher level you gain near immortality!!!!! Take for example my Undying Warlock, once she gets to that level she will have 7,500 years potential lifespan and not need to eat or drink or breathe!!!
@@ConstructedChaos Thanks, as for the opposition to Multi-Classing. It's because it limits the potential power of the main class and since there are few to no campaigns for beyond lvl 20 yet you get the best stuff near lvl 20. So by Multi-Classing you miss out on that power and you miss out on the roleplay potential. Look at Druid, they get Timeless Body which is (to me) the greatest aspect/ability ever. Think of it, you had a successful adventuring career and retired at the end to enjoy the rest of your life. You establish a nice estate and start a family. Then you can be around for vast numbers of generations guiding and helping your descendants & possibly society in general with your vast age & knowledge. Another example, is Monk's higher level abilities. They suddenly know every language which can then allow them to become a famous & successful translator/linguist. You could help a royal translate an ancient text that can possibly help them and the realm as a whole. Another way that can go is you leverage that ability for personal wealth & influence to specifically help your family/descendants and set them up for multiple future generations.
@@morrigankasa570 that’s fair enough of an opinion but I would outright disagree. A lot of multiclass builds far exceed their single class counterparts-even at level 20.
@@ConstructedChaos Each their own opinions. Sure mechanically in many cases that's true, but it still detracts from the roleplay potential in my opinion. Take a Bard who stuck with it completely until lvl 20 and retired from Adventuring. Perhaps they had acquired enough wealth and influence to establish a place that teaches the various Arts, Music, and future Adventuring Bards. So in future campaigns perhaps a new Bard character was influenced by that old Bard & school. That makes the world more immersive if each campaign still takes place in the same overall World. Each campaign/party did various things that became lore/history/influence on the world. Even if it's the same people each new campaign, but they could use their old characters' as part of their new character background & impact on the World. However, if that same Bard instead Multi-Classed in some way. How then could they be such an influential person for future Bards in the world if they themselves didn't "Master the Bardic Arts"? Yes if you don't care about overarching World Building and the like (like I suggested) then yes Multi-Classing isn't a problem.
@@morrigankasa570 that’s totally fine but I’d still disagree with your from a story perspective. I’ve had many players take levels in other classes that benefitted their character mechanically but was also RP motivated. You’re completely alright to play how you’d like. I just wanted to explain my take on this.
I may try to make some guides for other editions when I complete what I have in mind for 5e but I have a feeling I won't be able to with so much coming down the pipe here soon!
level 20 wizards have the equivalent to 89 1st level slots, sorcerer with sorcery points has 103, and warlock has 110 not including spells from invocations. this is with weapon and armor proficiencies. At level two. a wizard and sorcerer can cast 3 burning hands. a sorcerer can cast 4 with sorcery points, but a warlock can cast 6... I'm pretty sure they are balanced but I don't get how. Can someone explain it to me?
Well, there's a lot more that goes into a caster class than just the number of spell slots they get. That said, I'm not entirely sure how you did your math for the number of slots the warlock gets either. Spell list, how spell slots are regenerated (either by long or short rest), hit die, proficiencies, and many many other factors can play into how a class is balanced versus another.
I'd actually never taken a look at it before. At a glance, it does seem a bit weak unless you're getting a lot of short rests per adventuring day. A lot of what it offers either doesn't scale well or only allows for once per short/long rest usability. I think if I were running it, I'd make the argument that some of the early abilities should be able to be used PB times per long rest.
@@ConstructedChaos i think this is fair given the changes in MOM. i think WOTC received feedback that alot of tables aren't handling short rests properly which is why they have taken all racial traits that were refreshing on short rests and changing it to PBXPD. one thing i'm trying to convince my DM to house rule is to play all short abilities of classes the same way so we can see how balanced it is. for example, a level 10 warlock doesnt get 2 level 5 slots per short rest but gets 4 level 5 slots per day (basically the same amount a level 10 warlock would get per day if they short rested once).
Curently playing a crystal Dao genie warlock. At face value, it may not look like much on paper. Mechanically and on the table, you can hit like a truck, defend like a castle, cast like a storm and get it all back on a short nap. Invest time to choose your invocations and your spells carefully and this warlock will take care of you. She has been amazing!
Patrons:
8:12 fey
9:18 celestial
10:49 fathomless
11:58 fiend
13:00 genie
14:41 great old one
16:13 hexblade
18:18 undying
20:18 undead
22:20 invocations
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Fun trick with blade lock. If you are in a game where magic items are super rare, and you know you will go into the mid and higher levels you can give your weapon to the fighter. It only disapears if it is away from you for a full minute, more than long enough to finish most fights.
Oh nice!! I’m way too selfish to have thought of that myself 😂
You can also throw the weapon depending on its type and then anyone can pick it up. But, bonus, if someone picks it up that you don't want holding it, you can dismiss it instantly.
as a hexblade I went into a mansion where no weapons could be taken and only two party members were allowed to enter the building. I took my super tanky Paladin and we went in together. when shit inevitably hit the fan. I bamfed my pact weapon into my hand. flipped it to him, then used my bonus action to summon a 5th level shadow blade... good times
@@michiganpride389 Could also be good for getting a weapon during a prison break or any other place weapons wouldn't be allowed. It's funny though, in a real medieval society you could walk right into the mansion wearing your pact weapon in dagger form and nobody would have batted an eye. For that matter, some royal courts would allow a breastplate as fashionable attire.
@@Nurk0m0rath lol yeah actually never thought about using the ability for a prison break scenario. Thatd be a cool idea.. I usually play martial classes. I went hexblade in the campaign mentioned above just to dip my toe in a full caster build while also getting to hit things really hard with my sword. Definitely a class I'd be willing to come back to in the future
love warlocks. Such a cool and unique class. I just wish that the patron spells would automatically be spells known.
Yea, I’ve thought the same thing but it could get a bit ridiculous to have so many. And they’re already “broken” 😜
i agree. i don't think it would break the class to make those patron spells like domain spells. warlocks have so few spells anyway and no ritual casting so it's not like they can afford to cast them without opportunity cost.
@@ConstructedChaos i don't think it'd get ridiculous. warlocks suffer from the same ails as the older sorcerers. adding to their spells known wont unbalance it. clock and aberrant sorcs got it and they didn't unbalance the game. warlocks won't be able to cast all those spells anyway with so limited slots unlike the sorc. it just gives them more options but at the end of the day they can just cast 2 spells.
@@TheRobversion1 Perhaps. But I do feel that we'd be treading into the territory of always having answers for everything. Even if you could only cast a couple spells per short rest, they'd always be exactly what you needed. I don't think it's a buff that warlock really needs.
@@ConstructedChaos sure. i just feel we're moving in that direction anyway with the recent sorc buff, racial spells and the bonus spells in the strixhaven backgrounds. i think 5e is moving towards not differentiating classes too much with their number of spells known (everyone is getting closer to wizards in versatility-answers for everything) but more to differentiating classes as to HOW they cast spells:
clerics, wizards- knows alot with ritual casting and can recover slots
druids-knows alot with ritual casting and can cast in wild shape eventually
bards- knows less but with ritual casting but has better class abilities like bardic inspiration and can pick the spells they want across all spell lists via magical secrets
sorcs- knows less but has metamagic and can convert slots to the slots they need
warlocks- knows less but refreshes on short rests and has invocations
Warlocks are great for role play. I play a warlock that is a human child who answers the question “what if The Children Of The Corn was a person?” Their very pregnant mother was infected with a Mindflayer tadpole. Adventurers broke into the colony just their mother was a) giving birth and b) undergoing cephalogenisys. The adventurers didn’t know what to do with this newborn weirdling baby so they tried to raise it. The character is a great reminder that high Charisma doesn’t automatically mean likable. It just means someone whose personality leaves everyone around them greatly affected.
Very cool concept and great point about charisma and it's implication on roleplaying a character!
Not
Malt in a good way
I I had a friend. Who was very Charismatic So Sad Very Dark
Tell me more about these children
the really OP'd part of hexblade's armour of hexes is that forced miss works on a crit as well. Demonlord manages to roll a natural 20 with his vorpal blade? roll a 4 or higher and nope, he missed, and you keep your head.
Yep!! It's a fantastic ability--especially when you're up against just one or two big enemies!
The target would specifically need to be affected by your Hexblade's Curse. You only get one of those per short rest, which might be something the session has already used up.
You probably also won't have the possibility to take a short rest right before something like a Demon Lord.
@@dadadajasper I hoard my spells and abilities for those kinds of fights. And I'll either target the baddest one first, or move it as I get closer to fighting it.hexblades curse was a bit so-so until you get the ability to transfer it on the prior target's death. And that has saved my char a number of times
"Well actually," as I push my glasses up the bridge of my nose, " the spell casting ability modifier is just your ability score modifier for the ability that you cast spells with. In this case Charisma. The formula you referenced was for your spell save DC."
You and someone else that commented earlier I think misunderstood what I was saying about Wisdom scores. Your Wisdom effects YOUR saving throws AGAINST spells so you might put it higher than Strength--which is used much less often against damage in spell saving throws.
@@ConstructedChaos I was referencing something just before that, but yes that is also correct.
@@TheMadJestyr oh I see! Thank you for pointing that out!
I'm sorry your answer must begin with Um Actually for you to gain a point
My first campaign ever, had a few dnd veterans help set up stats, and wisdom was through the roof right away! My take was that my outlander character, while wise, hit hard times in life and was in a desperate position when he found this mysterious blade out in the wilderness
I run a GOO warlock in a low magic campaign. I have alot of access to psychic damage in a non-psionic campaign. I am pact of the tome and pretend to be a wizard. Awakened mind provides so much amazing shenanigans. Good for being scout and informing since I can invis. Good for intimidating the shit out of folks by whispering into their mind. The versatility the book of shadows and book of ancient secrets make me very useful out of combat as well. Don't under estimate the Eldritch Magus!!!
Haha this sounds like so much fun and a great campaign for GOO! Masquerading as a wizard is what does it for me! 😂
I have been having fun whispering into random people’s minds with my GOO warlock. I like the choice for my backstory flavor and the ability to fuck with people. The scout option and private conversation ability is awesome too.
@@lloydthompson8260 It's easily one of the best parts of the subclass! So useful if you're creative with it!
I have a Yuan-Ti celestial warlock who pretends to be a human cleric and is really shitty at hiding it.
Also had a goolock that did tome and also took a level in bard. Very flexible caster.
Dude! How did I not know about your channel before, and how do you only have 6k subs??? Your production value is awesome!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much!! That really means a lot to hear and I’m so happy you’re enjoying it! 😊
Eldritch Blast and Prestidigitation are my go to Cantrips.
Great picks for sure!!
@@ConstructedChaos I used Prestidigitation, primarily to clean filth, and entertain children during Festivals.
Teloriam would use Disguise Self to give himself a dragon costume and he would run around shooting fireworks off, with Prestidigitation 🤣
mine depends on the build (cantrips could be acquired elsewhere with feats and multiclassing) but my top 5 warlock cantrips are:
1. eldritch blast
2. minor illusion
3. magic stone
4. booming blade
5. mind sliver
honorable mention: mage hand
Repelling Blast into a Hunger of Hadar or similar is always a classic move
Absolutely! It's the most warlock move that ever warlocked!
Well, the genie 'any spell' of 6th or lower also has to be one with a casting time of 1 action.
Which does knock off a lot of the more powerful options.
true. no contingency, heroes feast, or find greater steed sadly. what i find people picking are panic buttons like dimension door or scatter which means it's rare that limited wish is used to pick a core tactic spell to be used in every combat.
Been waiting for this one. My favorite class. Despite my screen name I've become a constant warlock over the years. My favorites: The Great Old One (love psionic abilities), The Undead(Grave touched lv 6: changing one damage roll to necrotic and adding an extra damage die while in form of dread, that's a savage double eldritch blast), & The Archfey (especially since Beyond the Witchlight) My all time favorite invocations: Agonizing blast (can't beat adding your cha mod to your eldritch blast), mask of many faces, and devils sight.. My favorite spells : hellish rebuke (5d10 damage as a reaction at level 7) and spirit shroud (an extra d8 on each attack. If both your blast hit, that's potentially 2d10+cha mod on each and 2d8. Now that's broken lol
Ahhh yes spirit shroud and hellish rebuke were both up on my lists at various points but didn’t quite make the video haha. Seriously great stuff!
Mask of many faces is amazing too but got pushed out by repelling blast for me. still, I felt myself wanting to delve deeper and deeper into all the great stuff this class has but I just kept seeing the length of the timeline get longer and longer hahaha.
@@ConstructedChaos mask of many faces i think is an "it depends" invocation. in a campaign with alot of infiltration or social challenges it's amazing. in your typical dungeon crawl filled with combats, puzzles and environmental challenges, its crap.
not a fan of spirit shroud personally. if i want speed reduction, i'd pick summon shadowspawn. if i want dmg, i'd go for accuracy and use misty visions if ranged or shadow of moil if melee. shadow blade is also superior in areas of darkness.
hellish rebuke is underrated and great for revenger type builds in combination with armor of agathys and fire shield. not a fan of spirit shroud though. the numbers say gaining advantage (misty visions, darkness + devil sight, shadow of moil, shadow blade in darkness) is better for increasing dmg than the 1d8 spirit shroud does.
warlocks one of my top 3 fave classes as well along with sorcs and rangers. for subcasses i love the hexblade and fathomless.
@@TheRobversion1 I’m weird and really like the celestial. I love going against the grain haha
@@ConstructedChaos i think celestial is quite underrated just like the fathomless (hence you see me ranking them high). most people will just look at the abilities and say "eh." the strength of the subclass is in it's spell list (except for daylight and flame strike) and how much versatility it adds to the warlock (similar to how good the divine sorc is for sorcs).
I created female desert elf efreeti patron warlock with entertainment background. I based her off of Leetah from elf quest. Role playing was fun and she rocks in combat. If I need money I go to a tavern and dance to music using presdigitation to create slight fire effects to enhance the dancing. My eldritch blast at level 1 can do 1d10 plus 1d4 fire per genies wrath ability. She’s really fun to play.
Sounds like a very unique and flavorful warlock you’ve built there! Are y’all playing to high levels? Would be really cool to get wish on that build eventually!!
@@ConstructedChaos were working on getting the levels. Our Dm loves using our backgrounds and using our level as a social rank also. I’ve had tavern owners ask me to dance and I get a cut of the profit. I’ve actually rolled a crit while dancing and ppl flooded the tavern to see my toon. She has ummm also attracted unwanted attention . My warlock is mainly support with spells. My feats went to either enhancing eldritch blast or arcane knowledge. 😊 personally I like to play out of the box characters.
@@darthjoel6357 oh that’s great for immersion!! And I’d say you hit the nail on the head as far as unique characters go!
why is it 1d4 fire? you should be getting a flat 2 as it's prof bonus to dmg.
@@TheRobversion1 your correct I mistook for something else. 😊
Thanks!
Oh wow! Thank YOU! I've never gotten one of these outside of a live stream before haha. I didn't even know that was possible!
Love the soundscape in your video
Thanks so much! I'm always listening to stuff like this when I'm writing for our campaigns so it seemed natural!
Subbed for months now - still very confused at the low view rate. These videos are on par or even rivals the quality and energy of D&D Beyond
Thank you for the support and I’m glad you’re enjoying it! We’re growing quite steadily and I’m just happy to be making content! 😊
RUclips finally recommended one of his videos, so hopefully he’s starting to get enough views for the algorithm to begin recommending him to more people
@@mrdrprofsteve4455 haha thanks! If y’all want a peak behind the curtain, this series always does exceptionally well. It takes a lot for RUclips to warm up to the channel I think haha.
As a fellow DnD content creator, I can confirm it's not easy to break into this niche. Maybe the intro is too long? all the "how to youtube" channels I've seen say not to do a long intro
@@Okayest__DM the thing is that these are not the videos that go poorly. These perform better than the videos that I do without intros haha.
I think my early days of just posting VODs on RUclips may have given the algorithm the wrong impression and now we’re working through that. I’ve done a ton of research but I’m just going to keep making the content I want to in the best way that I can!
Undead, GoO, Fathomless, and Fey are my favorite Warlock subclasses. Just haven't had a chance to play one yet. I prefer talisman pact if you take an invocation or two to add more flavor.
fathom, hexblade and genie for me. i like undead in theory but i haven't played one yet as setting specific content is excluded at my table.
I haven't been able to completely confirm it but I'm pretty sure I'm playing with one in the group that's about to start streaming! Seems like a good time!
My Paladin "might" go warlock for story reasons, but not sure yet.
@@ConstructedChaos where can I watch the steam and will it be on RUclips
@@user-mu8ok5xf8d we've been playing over on twitch every other Tuesday! However, it's on 225Games' channel: www.twitch.tv/two25gamess
I just wanted to say, the quality of this in incredible, and i appreciate that.
Thank you so much!! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm working on a video for Rogues next that's going to be even better! :D
I love playing multiclass warlocks. A ton of good info in this video. As a creative warlock player, I just wanted to point out it is very misleading to keep saying warlocks sold their soul for power. Not all warlocks or builds focus around that one type of pact, and describing it that way can be very off-putting to new players/DMs or players looking to try new things. (I've run into several DMs who only understand warlocks to be a person who sold their soul & are now owned by their patron, & cannot run stories for warlock players any other way.)
You make an excellent point! And, realistically, I only pose it as a theme with the video since it is one of the most often used connections to a patron. Sorry for being misleading there!
@@ConstructedChaos It's all good. Your video has some great info! I just wanted to point it out in case people had any misconceptions about pacts. 😊
Agreed here. there are many ways to use the patron theme: a symbiotic relationship with an otherworldly being, an agreement with an ancestor, a connection with a loved one who passed away, a bargain with a god of vengeance, etc.
My Celestial Warlock found a magic ring on the street and it gives them their power. The ring is kind’ve like a horcrux for a goddess and the more powerful the character gets, the more powerful that sliver of the goddess’s power gets as well so she’s all for it. (We haven’t actually met her yet, but she’s integral to the plot because she’s the minor goddess of “good” chaos and the BBEG is the chaotic evil god of chaos in general.)
@@alexbrown9622 Sounds a bit akin to the Genie subclass but, obviously, this dynamic works well for anything! Seems like a really cool tie into your campaign too!
My first walk into your channel -- really great summary. I'm now subbed and will be checking out more of your videos -- THANKS!!!
Thanks so much and welcome to the chaos!!
2:43 Even when warlock was introduced in 3.5 it was kind of broken because you could legitimately just take 1 level and get some ability or other, which you could use continually whenever you wanted. Several of the "least" level of invocations were *stupidly OP.* I had a character who would use Baleful Utterance as a "key to the city", in that any lock or door or gate he wanted into: he would simply destroy the hinges or the lock mechanism or even the door's bolt. Basically - if it didn't have an anti-magic field: it could be opened with one standard action, instantly.
What warlock 1) lacked in destructive abilities compared to other spellcasters and 2) lacked in variety of utility: it made up for in that it's few utilities - didn't have a limit on how often you could use them and were really quite powerful in retrospect. That was 3.5 however, in the current 5e Warlock is just stupidly op out right.
I actually didn’t know that! I never had a chance to play 3.5 but it’s interesting that they went from being locked into specific utilities to now being such a “build a bear” class!
@@ConstructedChaos It was then too: the difference is that in 5e you have actual spells where in the original 3.5 you had invocations which mimicked spells but were "spell-like abilities" and were subject to the same rules as spell-like abilities.
You got invocations at the same rate fighters got feats: so if you were playing Warlock, or multiclassing into it - you had to be very selective of which invocations you chose. Still though, you could really build-a-bear it up.
At 6th level you only 4 invocations - but that could include things like unlimited flight, unlimited invisibility, the baleful utterance mentioned previously, see invisibility + darkvision (both 60ft and they're both provided by the same invocation), unlimited use of short-range dimension door, near unlimited use (per day not per mob) of animate dead, etc. etc.
Some really stupidly powerful abilities - which obviously you could take in all different directions for all different kinds of builds: depending on *how* you built it. 5e warlock, like most 5e classes: is very closely designed off of the mechanics and features of 3.5.
@@ObservingLibertarian gotcha! Sounds like I should take some time to play a little 3.5 for funsies! 😜
The 5e warlock is arguably underpowered as a caster bc they're so limited in their spellcasting. They really work best as a multiclass to snag specific features and synergies, and often have more spell slots by mixing with another caster, otherwise they feel like the martial of casters
@@torunsmok5890 I don’t think that’s a bad take at all really. I can see where you’re coming from. It’s why I mentioned multiclassing so many times in the video!
Human Noble Fathomless Warlock. First campaign I've ever played and I am having a fantastic time. So happy I finally found a group to play with locally. Never planned on playing a caster in my first go at this, but now I wouldn't change a thing.
Fathomless is so often underrated! I’m so glad your having a go at it and enjoying the experience!!
@@ConstructedChaos agreed here. great flavor like all warlocks (I still have fond memories of playing my Ursula build/character where she goes through a redemption arc and i had to learn the little mermaid songs).
I went lvl 1 to 17 in Hexblade Warlock before multi-classing with 2 lvls of Rouge (expertise & cunning action) and 1 of fighter (blind fighting for story reasons). Even so I could go warlock again as either the Genie Warlock for fun blaster times or Dr. Victor Van'hess as a Celestial Warlock (family bond to a Solar) if a healer is more needed. LOVE LOCK
I love warlock, and thematically, Hexblade is my favorite.
I've since given up on them though, as a blastlock with Agonizing Blast and Armor of Shadows invocations outclasses Hexblade in every way.
What I've done is just asked my DM if I could re-skin eldritch blast as an arcane bow (never had one say no), and with my most recent campaign, at the start of battle I roll a d20, and on odds I get a ranged weapon, and evens, a melee weapon (and I can use a bonus action to re-roll)
The damage is still just "eldritch blast" but it lets you play a "Hexblade" and not be crippling yourself from a power perspective.
Love these 'broken' vids. And everything is top quality. From script, to production to hunky host. Can clearly see the effort and you deserve your subs ten times over.
Thank you so much!! Just happy to be making videos that people enjoy and find useful! 😊
@@ConstructedChaos are you just going to gloss over that the commenter called you hunky? ;)
@@TheRobversion1 Hahaha Hey, I said thank you!
@@ConstructedChaos you could've said, i'm glad you noticed i'm working on my beard and cheekbones game. haha.
Warlock is very front loaded. It's definitely OP in the first 1-2 levels great for dipping (especially hexblade). Getting medium armor profiency, charasima as your attack stat for weapons, plus scaling eldritch blast all at 1 level, plus short rest spells back. Other than that it's actually pretty poor past t2.
agreed here. its best as a dip class. the only exceptions are probably the genie (get limited wish and wish) and fathom (unbreakable black tentacles). Genie i'd take all the way to tier 4 while fathom can be taken a little past tier 3 then multiclass elsewhere.
Lvl 3 dip for blade pact for infinitely throwable daggers
@@pancakes2455 consumes a bonus action though so it's not really efficient. better to just dip artificer 2 for that and pick up returning weapon (+ 1 magical dagger too).
@@TheRobversion1 why would you pick up the weapon if you can summon another one, also you can give a fighter a weapon for free but for a limit only
@@pancakes2455 huh?
returning weapon means you don't need to spend a bonus action to re-summon a dagger. a thrown dagger automatically returns to your hand after an attack.
and yes, an artificer can infuse a weapon for a martial if needed too for 1 level less.
doing it the warlock way is simply suboptimal.
Amazing video, the quality is so good for a channel with only 16k subs, you definitely deserve more!
question: what is the name of the song you used in the intro theme of this video? it fits the warlock so well and i want to play it during campaigns
Thanks so much!! We're growing fast so hopefully that trend continues! :D
The song is fittingly titled "Dungeon" by Dream Cave!
Had this really interesting idea: a Fire Genasi Fathomless Pact of the Blade Warlock that subclasses into Path of the Beast-Tail Barbarian down the road. So I would pick the Marine Background and after an accident having been rescued by the Fathomless that is when he became the Warlock. His mission is to learn about the land-folk and be an agent on land. His frustration he gets over time builds until he becomes a Barbarian but because he has the Fathomless patron he grows a tentacle in place of a tail. Been really interested in trying this out, especially with the changes to Fire Genasi I found out about.
As long as you remember that you pick every time you Rage, so you can pick Bite or Claws whenever you choose. Like, the Claws could be separate tentacles on your arms, and Bite could be your tentacle latching into your opponent and siphoning some of their life.
I am currently in a campaign and am using a warlock with the undead patron. I love the flavor I have created for it and between this and the fiend it is hard to choose. The undead is extremely fun and I highly recommend it, especially if you can come up with something that makes your “Form of Dread” really unique.
Nice!! And that's great advice! The form of dread is often really fun to describe around the table!
I generally agree with what you said except about the hexblade's spell list. It's really streamlined and good if you know how to use it, doubly so if you multiclass (a number of classes would love both shield and wrathful smite if they had spellslots to use them with! Blink is a whole battle, non-concetration 50% avoid all damage buff and banishing smite comboes wonderfully with eldritch smite. Also I think you underestimate how powerful the imp can be at levels 3-4 before you get your second blast and how powerful the pixie/pseudodragon poison might be as with the improved familiar invocation.
I think that’s a fair assessment too! And don’t get me wrong! That spell list contains some of my favorite entries in the whole game. Blink’s flavor, mechanics, and usability in specific makes it a top 5 for me for sure haha.
So, for sure. As a multiclass dip from another spellcaster, that list becomes bonkers good.
agreed here. imo blink is the best non-concen defense in the game among lower level, non-reaction spells. when i use contingency, blink is my go to spell.
i do understand however his underrating of banishing smite. it's really bad at tables where the DM doesn't give indicators of the health status of an enemy (like hurt-75%, bloodied-50%, injured-25%).
i think you mean investment of the chainmaster and not improved familiar? haha. reminds me an older edition. but yeah weaponizing your bonus action is good. for combat purposes however, i wouldn't consider the imp or the pseudodragon unless i was using magic stone as i'd rather stay at range and not put my familiars in harms way. quasit provides a non-action economy consuming frightened 1/combat while pixies as you said can poison from range.
I am taking another look at warlocks and realized now how strong they truly are. I like the Fiend and genie pact the most 😁
Fiend is just so fun and blasty haha. It’s hard not to have a good time there. And Genie is just amazing outright.
Warlocks are insanely broken, in a very good way (except for Hexblade which is incredibly, hilariously under-powered)
@@Kellethorn I don’t agree that hexblade is underpowered, for the record. But warlocks are pretty strong overall!!
@@ConstructedChaos I would say that hexblades alone are decently balanced if you have a good CON score due to only having a d8 for hit points. but hexblades multiclassing (like the classic sorlock or padlock) can be insanely powerful even with just a 2 level dip (or 3 if you really want a pact boon) into warlock . hex warrior/curse at level 1 and two invocations from level 2 by themselves are a crazy power boost
@@kaitc8167 100%
forgot to add this in my initial comment, here's my ranking of the warlock subclasses:
1.hexblade- duh
2. genie-gets better the more walock levels you have
3. fathomless-very underrated and enables so many speed reduction control builds
4. celestial-it's main niche optimization wise is to give the clock sorc a way to gain a cha based sacred flame
5. fiend-hurl through well is awesome but gotten very late. otherwise, lots of good abilities but nothing worth building around
6. archfey-fey presence is great for frightened builds (like conquest paladins) and skill check based builds (like a wild sorc using telekinesis)
7. great old one-nothing worth building around mechanically nor impactful to combine with other abilities
btw great stuff with Khonshu in the build. here's my top 10 favorite invocations:
1. misty visions- this is THE reason to take eldritch adept. great surprise generator, great for providing action economy free obscurement that benefits the party. this is something any ranged attacker shouldn't leave home without. IMO this is the most powerful invocation.
2. eldritch smite- no save prone. great dmg especially for crits.
3. thirsting blade- extra attack is always good.
4. improved pact weapon- allows you to do a hexbow and early access to magic weapons.
5. repelling blast- forced movement is great with entry spells and playing with range.
6. grasp of hadar- see #5.
7. lance of lethargy- great for speed reduction control builds.
8. agonizing blast- gives warlocks one of the best sustained dmg options in the game.
9. investment of the chain master- weaponize your bonus action. great utility.
10. book of ancient secrets- find familiar, tiny hut and phantom steed!
honorable mention- eldritch mind- helps protect your concentration.
yes no devil's sight. i find this irrelevant if you're already using misty visions. the darkness + devils sight combo works the same as misty visions but unlike with darkness, misty visions doesn't cost you a spell slot, doesn't annoy your party nor consumes an action (you already have it on at the start of combat) and party members can actually take advantage of it.
I couldn’t agree more with what you’ve said here-especially the subclass ranking. I’d add undying to the bottom of the list and place undead somewhere just above the fiend or maybe just below it.
Nearly every invocation you’ve listed was also in my notes at some point but got cut out to save time haha (with the exception of lance of lethargy). Definitely planning to do a much more in depth video on invocations in the future just like the infusions video I’m working on for artificer!
@@ConstructedChaos yeah excluded undead and undying since i know alot of tables exclude those 2 since they are setting specific but yeah i'd put undying at the bottom and put undead at #4-5 (so yeah at about the level of the fiend). undead is basically a better version of archfey which is good for the conquest paladin.
The fiend I feel gets a little overshadowed now and days but almost no class or build gets worse by getting a level in it. It will never be busted as it is now missing a vital third ability that new subclasses get but any damage build will enjoy the hit points it gives. Even if they aren't that much to give.
@@christianlangdon3766 yup. it's not a trap subclass like undead but its not a class you build around either like hexblades. middle of the road for warlock subclasses. i think the fact that temp hp is so easy to gain nowadays, makes the 1st level ability irrelevant. command is a good spell to gain access to though, especially for non-divine sorcs.
@@TheRobversion1 yea I feel if it had some other fire damage bonus or whatnot or even a useful utility abillity (like base devil sight would be cool and in flavor) could push them into some builds. I do agree they do show their age at this point in the game though even though they don't offer anything bad. (Aside some spell options)
I play a Marid genie warlock tortle, with the pact of the tome and I love him. The abilities you get and the roleplay potential is amazing
Oh that sounds like a blast!! I love Tortles in general and the marid genie warlock just adds to the flavor there! Well done!
@@ConstructedChaos it absolutely is
Warlock is my favourite class in DnD with Ranger and Monk taking a close second.
I’m fond of all those as well!! Though, it’s hard to pick a favorite out of any of them for me haha
almost the same for me. ranger, sorc and warlock for me with ranger as #1.
Been waiting for my second favorite class. Excellent video as always Alex
Thanks man!! Miss you! Need to get together and play again!
Hmm yes character level vs class level... So if you start as warlock and become something else, you gain more eldritch blast power anyway as you rise as a cleric or whatever. Which suggests that there's a class shift that a patron may not object to, that being, to proselytizing for the patron as a cleric, openly, using warlock powers to impress others to join up with such powerful players/gods.
Healing Word is particularly nice. I like Spider Climb too as you can sit up in a location non missile non flying enemies find hard to hit. Then Eldritch Blast away from there. Also even without Healing Word you may be able to get to wounded comrades and administer potions.
Contructed Chaos: "Warlock is Broken"
Vengeance Paladin: "Hold my 2H sword"
Oh I'll get to the Paladin eventually haha
Okay so, I started to get interested in D&D and have been thinking of making a Warlock as my first character. They are a Tiefling and their sort of patron is this spirit that is tied to them, they essentially function as two characters. Though the spirit can't do much besides give power to the Tiefling, she can appear to anyone and has her own stats on Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma only. Is something like actually allowed? To have a character like this that is
In this case, the spirit would also have their own skills. Being skilled in Persuasion while the Tiefling is skilled in intimidation. Which reflects both their characters
@@stellarlight1387 anything is allowed so long as the DM and the rest of your table is cool with it! Though, Rules as Written this isn’t how it would work. Now, if this is just flavor and you’re still using your own character’s proficiencies (and not giving yourself extra proficiencies) then that’s totally fine!
After all, my first character was a rogue who had his tongue cut out with a sentient crow that spoke for him!
@@ConstructedChaos I think just doing this favorly would be the best option then. Though that would mean playing two different characters
@@stellarlight1387 nothing wrong with that!! I had a blast with my rogue! And seeing the party slowly realize that the crow had its own thoughts and personality separate from my own was fun!
I've played a Hexblade Simic Hybrid, and a Celestial Swiftstride Shifter so far, and I'm thinking about creating either a Lightfoot Halfling, or an Air Genasi for a Genie Warlock in my next campaign. I really love them all.
Nice!! Genie warlocks are nuts! But you can hardly go wrong with any of them!
Ok, not what I was expecting, this is more about how to play: warlock, not about how op the class is. Good video, although I don’t think that warlocks are very powerful in general. That’s not to say I don’t like playing them but some of the subclasses are underwhelming and today not many groups play so that the warlocks can really use the fact that they regain their spell slots on a short rest. Unfortunate but true
Sorry about that! I try to spend time in this video series pointing out the strongest parts of the class as we go along.
That said, you’re not wrong about the short rest spell slots! Mileage on a lot of classes is different than WOTC intended due to that simple fact!
I’m currently playing a warlock, and I gotta say, while it’s not the worst class it’s definitely not my favorite. Really feels like a glass cannon in most of the fights I get into.
@@zachscarbrough2727 As a full caster class, they can be a bit of a glass canon! What subclass are you using?
@@ConstructedChaos Pact of the Great Old Ones
@@zachscarbrough2727 hmmm great old one (GOO) warlocks are one of the options with abilities that can be pretty niche. Maybe try out something different if you play the class again sometime! That said, goolock can be really fun in the right setting too!
I have a Celestial Warlock from Ravnica. He is part of the Orzhov Guild, so his pact is with a Deathpact Angel. My character is Lawful Evil. Not my first Celestial Warlock character.
My first Celestial Warlock was the party healer. He did really well.
MY favorite pact is with the Fanthomless, however. I love water breathing characters.
Genielocks are fun. I have one that uses his vessel as a sort of bag of holding or a place to hide and sneak into places.
Hell yeah!! Admittedly, I haven't played a fathomless yet but a lot of comments on this video are making me want to build one for a session soon! Maybe I'll make a video on it!
fathomlock is my fave warock with genielocks and hexlocks as runner-ups. they are great, not just in the water.
bottled respite is potentially one of most broken abilities in the game in combination with a certain multiclass/spell.
I played a hexblade shadow sorcerer in one campaign. His goal was to free his lover from the shadow fell l. His lover being a daughter of the raven queen.
Oh damn!! That’s quite the backstory! I love the complexity of having to serve her mother to rescue her daughter. Was the raven queen aware of your intentions?
@@ConstructedChaos Sadly the campaign didn't get to far but definitely a character that I'd want to explore again
@@Idlemage that’s too bad! Yeah I’d definitely want to play out that concept too!
I have been playing D&d since technically 1st edition, but really got into it starting with ad&d 2e. I really got into warlock class in 5e but I knew about it in 3.5 but really didn’t understand it til 5e.
Ok just wanted to preface with that. You said you thought about using The genie in a build sometime. Well this is the build I am in the process in making now. I went mountain dwarf using tasha’s rule I instead went +2 Dex / +2 Cha. It is for an Adventure’s League game so had to do a point buy. The DM is trying something for one dnd I think and giving use a choice of tough, magic initiate, or skilled as free lvl 1 feats. I took tough. The buy was : STR 8, dex 15, con 10, Int 8, wis 14, Cha 15… making with race bonus Dex and Cha both 17. I took divine soul sorcerer at lvl 1 for the con saves. At lvl 2 I took Ranger for the next two lvls. I wanted to actually delay 1 lvl of ranger from getting subclass so I can take it at lvl 5 character lvl due to that’s when I get proficiency bonus to +3. The reason is the subclass is Drakewarden . For those that don’t know the drake scales in some stuff with proficiency bonus like his armor class , and I wanted to bring it in with an AC of 17. From there I did another 2 more lvls in Ranger to extra attack. The 2 more lvls of Sorcerer to get an ASI, and metamagic. Twinned spell will be a lot in this build. This is where I bring in The genie (dao) lvls . I went warlock the next 3 lvls to get pact of the chain and got my second pet, the imp. I took at lvl 2 in warlock eldritch mind , and devil’s sight, but at lvl 3 I swapped out devil’s sight for Investment of the chain master. Next I took 2 lvls in Ranger and got roving and Bob of Fang and Scale . I then took a lvl in sorcerer to get an ASI, then a lvl in warlock to get an ASI, then last lvl in Sorcerer to get to lvl 3 spells. From here I will finish out as Ranger and at my 11 th lvl in ranger for Drake’s Breath. All in all the build is 11 lvls Drakewarden Ranger / 5 lvls in divine soul sorcerer, and 4 lvls in The Genie ( Dao) Genie.
I took Dao from warlock sub because of Genie’s wrath and AL gives you a magic weapon at lvl 5, which I will be taking a +1 Heavy Crossbow. What is nice with that is the drake can apply to one attack with crossbow an extra 1d6 damage of its chosen element type , and with The Genie sub I can add to another attack with extra attack the Proficiency bonus as extra damage. The idea with the two pets is to keep imp perma invisible. And when they both gain flight to twinned spell an up cast Dragon’s breath spell to both imp and drake. Have them fly up 15 feet and attack straight down on where they want to focus the attack so it is a 15 ft radius of the chosen damage type . The build can get dragon’s breath spell to 6d6, and your using it twice a turn, once by pet with your bonus action, and once with imp on its turn. Using the spell does not break imp’s invisibility. The drake can also share its damage immunity as resistance to player. Ranger can also get access to spell ashardalon’s stride which was my second choice to use for pets to use. But really wanted dragon’s breath so they can rain down there mini “fireball” I say fireball but the spell lets you pick a damage type it uses.
Also thought of a tanky build with 12 lvls of fathomless warlock, 2 lvls of Paladin , and 6 lvls totem barbarian . For race I will go emerald gem dragon for psychic resistance.
Sounds like a fun build!! I did end up making my genie build back in November but I love the incorporation of drakewarden here as well! I also chose sorcerer in my multiclass but ended up as wild magic bc.... you know... chaos haha.
I love the warlock with spell sniper feat, lance invocation and agonising blast invocation
Just makes a eldritch blast super sjiper the spell snipers range ontop of the eldritch spears range is so broken a 600 range cantrip attack with the cha bonus ontop to damage thats just so fun
Also if use or alow unearthed arcana material their is the arcane gunslinger that alows u to change the pact of the blades malee weapon for a ranged gunslinger like weapon make your own critical role percy but as a true warlock
That sounds awesome!! How does your DM rule that range with regard to a limitation in vision? I know this isn’t a part of the game RAW exactly but it’s something I’ve brought up in the past to players hoping for similar builds.
Again, not criticizing this at all, because it’s completely awesome! Just wondering if you’ve had experience in that department.
@@ConstructedChaos Here's the RAW answer:
1. absolutely clear with no sort of obstructions to your line of sight- 10560 ft.
this is absolutely unrealistic in a dnd game. no game is played this far away. it also doesn't mean you can make out what you see. you just know something is there.
2. light obscurement such as rain- 5280 ft.
this is absolutely unrealistic in a dnd game. no game is played this far away. it also doesn't mean you can make out what you see. you just know something is there.
3. heavy obscurement such as fog- 100-300 ft (dm discretion).
this is more realistic but also comes with unmentioned stuff:
a. heavy obscurement means you can't see through it so the range is irrelevant. can't make out what's there of course. you just see what's causing the obscurement.
b. people assume 300 ft is so far away. for real world reference a football field is 360 ft long.
all of the above assumes bright lightning everywhere. these get reduced further of course in darkness and is dependent on darkvision range. and of course any obstruction to LOS and LOE then hard caps the range.
so what does this all mean for ruling a warlock with eldritch spear/spell sniper as a DM?
if there's light or no obscurement and bright lighting nor obstruction to LOS and LOE, these eldritch snipers can target at their maximum range but cant discern what they are hitting (if its a friend or foe or civilian or an object). you just know there's something there.
now how far do you have to be to discern what you're seeing, that would be 70 ft though as a DM you can extend this a bit. like i personally extend this to 120 ft. for real world reference, a basketball court is 90 ft long. imagine if you're on one end of a basketball court can you discern who's on the other end? again everything here is limited again by lighting and darkvision.
lastly, i'd make an exception for the above if a twilight cleric with their magical 300 ft darkvision.
@@TheRobversion1 this is exactly what I was wondering! Thanks for that!
and with the meta magic feat you can double that range to 1200 ft
@@ArtiomSigma that works for sitting in a castle during a siege or against pirates on a ship.
My current Warlock for Strahd (Started at 3):
Half Elf, Mark of the Storm
Djinn Genie Warlock
Pact of the Chain
Point Buy:
--Strength: 8
--Dexterity: 15 (14+1)
--Constitution: 14
--Intelligence: 10
--Wisdom: 10
--Charisma: 17 (15+2)
Invocations:
--2: Agonizing Blast
--2: Mask of Many Faces
--5: Investment of the Chain Master
--7: Guift of the Ever Living Ones
--9: Voice of the Chain Master
--12: Eldritch Mind
--15: Chains of Carceri
--18: Eldritch Spear
Feats/ASIs
--4: Moderately Armored (Dex 16)
--8: Elven Accuracy (Cha 18)
--12: Constitution +2 (16)
--16: Charisma +2 (20)
--19: Constitution +2 (18)
Full on Robin Williams style Genie while RPing. LOOOOOVE the flight, thunder damage & RPing with a talking, intelligent familliar.
Haha it's the Robin Williams flavor for me!!
The only problem is that most DMs never present a chance to take a short rest or discourage it by always making a choice between short resting or more people dying… making it the weakest class of all of them if you have a dm like that
I haven’t really found this to be the case personally but I definitely understand that everyone plays the game differently! Not getting short rests is going to hurt everyone in the party. And, while warlocks are one of the classes that need it most, they can definitely get by without it! E-Blast can be all you really need with the right invocations!
@@ConstructedChaos Agreed. though i find DMs who are stingy with short rests are more common than those that arent. my own table typically gets 1 short rest but we also typically just get 3 combats in a day. rarely, we'd get to 4 combats and he'd give us a 2nd short rest before the last fight.
Great video. First time I've seen you. Keep up the good work
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!!
Most Warlock Patrons RAW don't really take interest with their charges once the contact is signed. Great Old One is the "classic" example of a great power not even being aware they are in such a contract 😂
Second, your PC may have not been the original signer of the contract. Your parents may have entered into the contract giving up their "first born" to be the one who must fulfill the obligation their parents signed.
Third, Multi-classing in and out of a contract with a Warlock could be a PC trying to exert some control over a contract that in the end favors the supernatural entity. You may be resigned to your fate but you are going on your own terms. That entity is going to collect once you pass beyond the mortal realm and isn't going to break the contract themselves. Souls are the only true commodity on the known planes of existence.
for the 3rd point, i'd simply say that the warlock/other class is simply another unique class so you don't have to justify jumping from one class to the other leveling. you are simply progressing in your own class. for example, a hexblade gloomstalker. you can say that the theme of the class is you made a pact with an otherworldy being to deliver vengeance from the shadows and execute his will on the world.
These are all excellent and nuanced points that I can get behind! Thanks for sharing, both of you!
Agreed, my GOO warlock has their pact because of something that happened to their mother. (Fun fact: the word warlock comes from the Old Norse word varlog which actually means oath-breaker in the context of someone who breaks a pact that they agreed to.)
I think you mean Some warlock patrons. By the text in the PHB, some patrons don't even know you're siphoning off their power but others play helicopter mom and try to control everything you do. IIRC it even poses the possibility of the warlock having to do a favor for his patron in order to level up.
@@Nurk0m0rath
I definitely see the "Helicopter Mom" patron way too often in live plays to the point that it interrupts the player.
And thanks for that reference. I started 😂🤣😂 thinking about Asmodeus, King of the Nine Hells being a "Helicopter Mom." Like he's the ruler of millions but takes the time out of his day to provide "guidance" and "nurturing" to some poor slump tiefling in Waterdeep.
Question: With Pact of blade feature and being a Hexblade, after one makes a magical weapon a pact weapon can they still summon other types of weapons or are locked into said magical weapon? My understanding is the magical weapon is in a “shunned space” waiting to be called forth. But having the above features still allows you to create other weapons too?
As I understand it, you would only be able to summon that specific weapon until you break your bond with it. That said, I don’t think most DMs would have a problem being flexible with that ruling.
@@ConstructedChaos Thank you! Appreciate the input, wasn’t so sure myself. I’ll double check with my DM, so far he’s ruled it as okay…but I’ll find out more next time we have a session 😊
I made a warlock who didn’t chose his pact at all. My hexblade/sword bard was chosen by a sword that wasn’t meant for them. Then slayed their clan leader who ordered tos word to give to them as if he was possessed by the sword.
I went hexblade 5 and sword bard the rest. But I alternated levels until 10.
Oooohhh hexblade sword bard sounds so fun!!
@@ConstructedChaos yeah not a super original build but it’s a ton of fun.
I play a kobold one. It’s pretty fun
@@conradkorbol Oh I'd say that's pretty original! Definitely not a combo I've played before!
I'm so looking forward to these vids .. I love warlock as a class.. the djinn patron is one of my favs
I’m glad you’re enjoying them! And warlock is one of my favorites too! Definitely my most used when multiclassing!
@@ConstructedChaos I don't tend to multiclass much, I have been playing around with either a satyr or gnoll fel pact warlock
@@kaijukoopa1248 I had a player make a satyr hexblade somewhat recently and it was very fun!
warlock is one of my top 3 faves as well with hexblade, fathom and genie as my faves.
One of my favorite uses for Warlock, is to reflavor Eldritch Blast as the conjuring of a Spectral Longbow and firing Spectral Arrows.
It helps mitigate the feeling that I'm just spamming the same cantrip over and over, but it also keeps up with the Fighter's Extra Attack at later levels.
With Improved Pact Weapon, I can use my Pact Weapon as the Focus for my Eldritch Blast, so I can fire off anything from energy waves from a blade or continue my Spectral Arrows.
nice. one of my favorite re-flavoring of EB is eldritch tentacles.
I've got a warlock in one of my groups that does a very similar thing! It's super cool!
Me, the chaotic evil warlock, summoning demons and just letting them run rampage: "Me? Overpowered? I could never!"
Turns out my patron was the main antagonist of a few arcs in our campaign.
Sounds like good chaotic fun to me!!
My two fave warlocks are Shadarkai elf Genie chainlock and Plasmoid Hexblade swordlock.
i like genie and hexlocks as well though fathomlocks are my #1 fave.
Warlock was the first class I ever played in D&D so I appreciate it getting this kind of positive feedback. Everyone always thinks warlocks are weak but that just means they aren't using them correctly.
I couldn't agree more! Lots of people like to harp on their lack of spell slots but I think their other features more than make up for this. Not to mention that they get even better when multiclassing with them!
agreed. or perhaps just dont know how to optimize.
Weak is the wrong term. Lacking is a better term used for them. If your talking about over all power they are not the class to chose at all. Warlocks need to be changed to better fit the actual feel of them.
@@bobbob-qi4qf As per rumors, they will be undergoing major changes in the upcoming 5.5/6E (along with the other short rest classes: monk and fighter) as design is moving away from short rest recharge and switching to proficiency bonus times per day.
@@TheRobversion1 oh ok thats interesting. Would like to see how that plays out.
I have this character I've been holding onto that I've yet to play as that i think you might find interesting. Hes a teiphling warlock/cleric who is in the fiend contract for the warlock and one of the moral subclasses for the cleric. the idea was that his contract with the devil was made at his birth and in his attempts to reject the contract he followed a path of peace.
You're right! I do like this a lot. The duality you've sculpted through your backstory is really cool. I predict a lot of unique RP opportunities!
I recently toyed with the idea of this same multiclass .... Then I realized I get everything I want and more out of warlock/divine soul
Warlocks ARE powerful, at least for most of the subclasses.
Still, 3 Spell Slot is too much of turn off for me.
Totally fair!! A lot of it depends on the group. You’re playing with and the style of your games but the potency of combining Eldritch Blast, your invocations, and some long-lasting concentration spells is hard to deny!
while i agree that the lack of pact slots suck, i still like the class and find them optimal for alot of builds especially as a dip.
I love the concept of warlock, by have not played a d&d game in years, since 3.5. I can’t find anyone nearby that plays, sadly. That, and I don’t have the time that I used to. I wish there was a GOOD d&d game with warlock. Like an updated version of DDO.
I particularly loved my “hellfire” warlock with the controversial “vest” feat. He was an immortal that focused on crafting in his castle, but did not shy away from adventures to find odd and rare components to use in crafting or just selling in his shop/
Sorry to hear about your trouble finding a group! Have you considered trying out some online play? Seems like One D&D is going to make that even easier than ever!
I like the optimism on the warlock capstone haha honestly, if I were in a campaign, I might just take it all the way for flavor, because in my build, if I revamped all my slots in 1 minute, I could maim the inmaimable.
hehehe yeahhhh I just call it like I see it haha! But, I don't think taking the class all the way to the end is a bad idea at all! Most campaigns don't hit level 20 anyway and you'd have more than enough good stuff to work with up to that point!
I’m doing an island and or pirate campaign and I’m loving the fathomless warlock with my patron being the olhydra and this video was a great help
Happy to hear that this helped you out!! Glad you enjoyed it!
Fathomless warlock is going to be awesome in a setting like that! You’re going to love it!
I’ve used the genie patron for my air genasi warlock. It’s early in the campaign I’m currently in, but thinking about multi passing with fighter to get the action surge.
great idea. go for it.
Action surge on casters is almost always a good idea!
Never thought I'd see the words "Warlock" and "Broken" in the same sentence. Good to have some recognition though! My personal favorite Warlock patron is Genie, because they're just...so awesome...second favorite is Great Old One, even though they're one of the weaker subclasses. One of my favorite things about Warlock though is how they can interact with both story and gameplay.
I have this idea I'd love to do, but I don't know if I'll ever get to do it since I would A. Have to be a player instead of DM, and B. Have to be with a completely new set of people. I'd love to make a Fiendlock who is subservient to either Asmodeus or Tiamat. He is still a good natured soul (or lack thereof, heh) but has this inexhaustible thirst for power. Power he wants to use to help people. He generally won't do anything that could cause direct harm to an innocent person either. Anyway, at the start of the campaign befriend an NPC family near a frequented city or town. A family the rest of the party wouldn't know exists. Even if they did find out it wouldn't really matter. At level 4, I would take the Eldritch Invocation that lets your Pact of the Tome become a ritual book, and take the Divination ritual. At that point, I would try to convince the DM if Divination can be used to divine specific questions about people. Like what is the real name of a specific person. If he says no, that's okay, I'll get back to that later.
I would let the campaign progress until I hit level 9, and unlock 5th level spell slots. Then I would take what is probably the most dangerous spell in the entire game; Infernal Calling. (For people who knows what Infernal Calling does, you can see where I'm going with all this). At this point, I would have it so his Pact of the Tome would tell him exactly what Infernal Calling does, using the secret knowledge found within the tome. (Its flavor text in the Aspect of the Moon EI that says you can study the tome during long rest downtime. I would flavor it for this purpose). At which point, he will start scheming to obtain a Devil's Talisman. For those unaware, Infernal Calling allows you to summon a CR 6 devil. However, you normally have to make a charisma check contested by the Devil's insight check convince it to obey. Unless you have a Devil's individual talisman, inscribed with the Devil's true name. If you do, you can summon a devil with 1 higher CR than would normally be allowed, (so a CR7 instead of a CR6) and they must follow every command without question.
At this point, if the DM allowed, I would divine of Asmodeus or Tiamat the true name of a Black Abishai (the only CR 7 Devil in the game. It's very strong). If not allowed, I would secretly ask the DM to let my Fiendlock somehow find the true name of a Black Abishai. After I get the true name, I will also summon other devil's, charming them with Charm Monster to gain their true names as well. (This is the official way to obtain a devil's true name as described in the Monster Manual) one devil for each family member in my PC's beloved befriended family.
Now to tell those who don't know how a Devil's talisman is obtained. You must inscribe a talisman with the true name of a Devil, and then bathe it in the blood of a worthy sacrifice. Usually someone close to you. The power to summon a powerful devil that perfectly synchronizes with my Fiendlock's abilities would be too tempting to resist. And he will at last stoop to his lowest point for power. All according to Asmodeus' will. My idea is that the Warlock would be disgusted with himself. Sickened by his actions. But he wouldn't regret it, because of the unholy power he now wields.
The character interactions if the rest of the party found out, how they would react, the character building behind the scenes as the party realizes that the Warlock is acting...different, than usual. Less cheerful. Perhaps an eventual confession of the done deed. A wizard who secretly knows what I did, being a caster himself and wise in the art of conjuration. A different appearance as Asmodeus increases his grasp upon the warlock, changing his appearance to be more devil-like. And to top it all off, insanely more powerful and a much bigger threat in combat encounters. The possibilities are endless, and I would love to see it all play out.
TLDR; I'm a scheming bastard who loves to emotionally torture my own PC for immense power.
Genies are one my faves too along with hexblades and fathomlocks (this is my #1).
seems what you want to do is actually write a story instead of RPing something open-ended. i already see the backstory, the journey and the ending in what you wrote along with the character arc. haha. i guess that's something all DMs have in common.
to play as a player with strangers, i suggest trying out VTTs like the forged concordance.
@@TheRobversion1 Sorry, plotting and scheming is one of my favorite things about being a DM. As a perma DM I've come up with a habit of creating a litany of PCs and this one grabbed my attention in particular, simply because I discovered a spell nobody really talks about.
Anyway, I kinda disagree with you on this particular character. I have no idea what the backstory would be, how the character would play, or what would happen. I simply have an overarching scheme to eventually obtain a devil's talisman. Something I've never heard of someone else doing, and would be really fun to actually get one (or multiple, assuming there's more than one family member). And the interactions that would ensue at the table would be super interesting if they ever found out. In general up to that point the only thing I have about his personality is that he would be a good natured person, who just so happens to be in service to Asmodeus.
Also as a veritable psychopath I think it would be hilarious to see the horrified expression on a DM's face as my Warlock slaughters an entire family without warning and in secret from the rest of the party. Unless he saw it coming...eh, would still be funny.
Oh, and I really want to create a Warlock with powers that would make any class crap themselves in fear. Because my older brother has it in his head that Warlocks are one of the weakest classes, and I'd really like to shove it in his face to say "I just ordered a CR 7 devil to slaughter an entire room full of people who underestimated me." That would be really fun.
Edit: Lastly, thanks for reading. I've had this character sort of...bottled up for a while, and I have no outlet to get out stuff I think is really cool. I appreciate you taking the time to read the whole thing.
@@sauronsrighthandman301 if you re-read my comment i said "I COULD already SEE the character's backstory, journey and ending along with the character arc." Meaning if I was DMing for you and you were my player i already could do so much with this information. I'm not saying you already know it yourself. I'm saying with this much information i could already write the whole story arc of your character. And i could see DMs are the ones who typically flesh this out. Players dont normally go this in-depth and are more about discovery and playing it by ear. Thats why I said this is a common trait among DMs.
@@TheRobversion1 Oooh, sorry. Misunderstood the comment, my bad. I thought you were saying I didn't want role-playing or something. I'm very tired so these things happen. Well now that I have that clarification, I appreciate your comment all-the-more.
Also, if you were my DM, I wouldn't tell you any of this. From your perspective, it would just be harmless questions and an NPC family I secretly befriended. Up until I start dropping subtle hints. Mainly the other PCs seeing him acting a bit fidgety, nervous. Any questions are deflected until he decides he's going to go for a walk.
At that point, I'd tell you I'm going out to the NPC family. In your head you're probably saying "Okay, just another off-camera roleplay thing. No big deal." I start saying off-character things. He sits against a tree, seemingly out of breath for a moment. He's toying with something in his pocket, and checking if his knife is still there.
You get the point. (I just realized I'm doing it again, someone help) point is, he gets there, kills everyone, makes one or several Devil's talismans, and burns the house down before leaving. Maybe leaving the youngest child alive (if it's a baby. Otherwise, no survivors) and bringing it to an orphanage where he may grow up with dreams of demons, blood, and fire. Along with a resolve to find an answer to his dreams. Queue your horrified expression as the players at the table (Who have no idea what's going on) just see your face go pale with horror and my Warlock arrives back to the rest of the Party, perfectly clean thanks to Prestidigitation, smelling of forest greenery, and with multiple reddish-bronze talismans engraved with demonic symbols at his side.
@@sauronsrighthandman301 infernal calling is such a good spell if your party members (will not question your evil actions or attack you for it or attack your devil summon) and DM (allows you to make/find devil talismans) are on board. It's a character arc and side quest all in one spell. maybe even a combat too if your party members decide to fight you. Same can be said for summon greater demon but to a lesser extent (since it has no talisman you have to beat its cha save with a save dc that will ensure the demon still fails even if they roll a 20 if you want to use it for multiple combats).
The undying warlock would be for a specific uncommon setting, like the water one.
Maybe a zombie setting where you must find a cure. You play in sessions that span 10-100 years at a time, as you must wait for the test results or keep at it for so long between, spending down time on improving the research or learning new processes, or a hobby so you don’t go crazy. You age slower though your patron so you can find the cure, you go without food and water because you don’t have time to stop, and no air because you want a controlled environment for your tests, or maybe you stop yourself from breathing when you go out because it’s airborn.
When your bitten in combat you sever the limbs because you can cure those small parts but not the brain, once you cure those limbs you reattach them.
Or some other setting that lends itself to this patron. Again I wouldn’t be choosing the nautical patron on a land based game unless I’m doing it for the RP, but I’d only do that for short oneshots.
Honestly, I think you underestimate the fathomless warlock here. It's plenty mechanically viable in a land-locked campaign--the undying warlock, I have a hard time making the same case for.
I always find it useful to start with 15 Constitution. Eldritch Mind at 2nd level is a necessity, but Resilient: Constitution at 4th (or 1st) is also necessary.
Resilient is definitely a feat I don’t hear about often enough! Nice idea here!
I have a question can you play a hex blade warlock and fighter
Sure you can! It's actually a pretty great multiclass combo!
Some of the Pacts that I didnt know of like Undying is clearly asking for a stealth Utility warlock. This is awesome! One of the better things that warlocks can do is elements that does not have to do with combat. Too many features + Invocation + Spell combos create for an overwhelming victory for your party in combat, but also just possible to avoid fights or create a scenario into happening. For instance, talisman is pretty weak on paper, but is an amazing utility boon. This is literally the best Leader/Hero Of The Group Pact that gives you a greater chance at success to whatever the hell you want. Focusing on amazing feats (Yourself or someone else) rather than doing damage. I mean, at 12th level, the talisman feature is godlike.
My warlock used the invocation to disguise self, and misty visions and had actor feat, and just with those three combinations you can already tell what kind of a crazy warlock shenanigans you can do, in story, in combat. Its so fun thinking outside of the box, its more of a wizard than the wizard.
You make some great points here--about pact of the talisman especially. But pact of the undying just really feels too niche to me. I've always felt that you could do just as much utility play as another warlock subclass plus have the options for better subclass features.
I made a Bard-lock, (level 7 bard, level 1 Warlock), her Patron is an Archfea satyr. Talk about lust, and she is a blast to play so far.
Nice!! Satyrs are wild! I can’t imagine how having one as a patron would be! 😂😊
There is a build where you can take 1 level in life cleric and 19 in warlock.. Grab your invocations as usual.. Except you will have 6 extra level 1 spells to use once per long rest.. 2 from half elf drow magic, 2 from fey touched and 2 from cleric level 1... Go for the invocation gift of the everliving ones and chain / tome to get maximum self healing when you have your familiar up.. Now you have spells, have defenses, a decent AC and strong riders on your eldritch blast.. You still play as a backline mage but you sre not squishy.. Plus take summon fey and ASK your DM if you can take it again as a level 8 spell as a mystic arcanum.. You can establish a deal with your patron / DM its very powerful if you can get it.. You get 4 multiattacks each dealing 2d6 + 11 damage and 80 hp.. With your class feature it can go to 90.. A bonus action misty step with a reliable charm / defensive darkness and an AC of 20 if you cast it at 8th level... Plus your eldrich blasts and healing.. N.b. Its broken and should only be used as a last resort.. I believe a DM should allow the use of broken combos and spells as an act of desperation by players eg: hp falls below 50% or party members are going down freely but the use of them broken combos for no reason should be met with consequences eg: rupture of spacetime summoning more enemies, being hunted down by the city guard for use of forbidden magic, losing stats and hp etc... Players should be given the choice to build all the broken shit they want like this without breaking the balance of the game
Cleric is always going to be one of the best single level dips out there and I completely agree that players should be allowed to push what's possible for a character in 5e. I actually make these videos to show that you can make broken characters with just about any class in the game!
One thing as well is the invocations that are Pact of the ??? specific can be super powerful, one of the things they do is give some stupidly powerful invocations for the weaker pacts to make them more balanced... such as the free casting on deathward between prof bonus individuals.
I still think the lower levels of warlocks 1-3 are more impactful for other characters than the higher level warlock abilities are for warlocks unfortunately.
Agreed. warlocks are best as a dip class than a main class with a 1 or 2 exceptions.
For sure! I mean, it took me 20min just to cover the stuff from 1st level and 10min to cover the rest haha!
My soul was broken. My patron was imprisoned. I gave my soul, that he may mend it. I freed him from his imprisonment. We work together. I do not serve him. If anything, he serves me. More accurately, we have a mutual arrangement.
He sacrificed the last of his power to get us out of a sticky situation. Those warlock powers? Are mine, not his. But as my power grows, so his returns. We work together, we grow together, we fight together. Our souls are one.
Mmmmm delicious flavor!
I made a Fighter 1 Warlock X (ended at Fighter 1 Warlock 13) that had just 14 charisma, but was extremely powerful.
With the defense fighting style and a shield, I was very tanky. Add in Pact of the Chain to get Gift of the Ever Living Ones, and my Second Wind, Healing Light, and Cure Wounds always healed me for maximum healing (and with a Bonus Action for the first two). Fiendish Vigor was great early on, but a few levels after its usefulness wore out, I got Celestial Resistance to replace it.
Darkness (with Devil's Sight), and later on Shadow of Moil also made my character extremely difficult to damage, as most enemies would have disadvantage on attacks (means that crit chance goes from 5% to 0.25%), and many of their spells couldn't even target me. Getting advantage on most of my attacks was a nice bonus, too.
But the best thing was later on when I would upcast Invisibility on the entire party, or when I would cast Fly on myself and two others (usually the evocation wizard and battlemaster archer) for combat.
I also loved that instead of using Feather Fall if I lost concentration on Fly, I could just use the Tomb of Levistus, which is a much more badass way to survive a fall.
Having just 14 charisma (I suck at rolling good stats for characters) did mean that I was a bit more limited in how many Healing Light I could use at once, and the extra fire damage on Green Flame Blade was a bit low (but it's not like that makes much of a difference, and I usually used Booming Blade instead), but that's about all that it did in combat. Out of combat, I was still good at social situations, but I wasn't as OP as a Warlock, Sorcerer, or Bard that made Charisma their main stat. I was more like a Paladin when it came to social situations.
Aside from Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade (and occasionally Sacred Flame if I couldn't get into melee range), I wasn't really casting spells on enemies. I was casting spells like Darkness and Shadow of Moil, sometimes Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration, Revivify, or Cure Wounds (upcasting it automatically means that the lower base healing doesn't matter as much), and quite often, Fly, Dimension Door, or Invisibility. So the low charisma didn't really affect my spellcasting.
Celestial gives you enough of the key Cleric spells that I was basically able to perform the healer role of the Cleric (but not the Bless/Spiritual Weapon/Spirit Guardians Cleric stuff), while being extremely tanky.
Casting Fly on 3 people or Invisibility on 4 people with a spell slot that comes back on a short rest makes exploration much easier. And I had the improved find familiar (a Sprite) that also came in very handy with exploration.
Heck yeah!! Fighter/Spellcaster multiclasses are fantastic!
*grumbles in uncharismatic fighter* I could see my character multiclassing into a warlock, but she doesn't have the charisma, and probably won't get it for a long time even if I spend all of my ability score increases on charisma. Any advice?
Hmmm. Maybe try another spellcasting class? Fighter ties in well with a lot of them and bladesinger wizard could be really cool if you have the INT score for it!
My Warlock, that I just LOVE , she has a genie patron, Man the fun I had in the game I was in with her
Haha it’s hard not to have a good time with that one!!
Glad I found this video. Been looking into finally starting to play D&D lately and my first choice of character would be a Warlock with a Genie (Djinn) patron.
I envison the patron as staying mostly in his cloud palace in the Plane of Air but every now and then summoning me to show off his mortal pet, ask me to entertain him or give me a little quest on the Material Plane to do for him.
The way I see it he'd be thinking of me as a pet, getting more and more attached until eventually learning to respect me a little more (provided the DM makes that choice).
I had a little scene in mind to introduce my Warlock nature to the party. While talking with my party around our campfire we all hear this loud voice calling for his pet (insert whatever funny pet name you can think of, I personnally thought something like "Cookie").
While the party is a bit confused, I sigh and say I have to go before turning into smoke and disappearing into my ring... Would love to see the other players' faces XD
Hahaha that sounds like a fantastically fun time!! Welcome to the hobby! I hope you get to play soon!
@@ConstructedChaos Me too :)
Hi Chaos. As requested in the other thread...
Here's another hexblade build for you to peruse to pick ideas from. level 10 theorycraft as always and i'd definitely take a fighter subclass in tier 3 (battlemaster/arcane archer) and then push the hexblade levels:
"the hexstalker"
fighter 2, hexblade 5, gloomstalker 3
half-drow (other half-elves are fine but i wanted one to fit the theme)
asi: elven accuracy-cha (going dex is viable too)
fighting styles: archery, superior technique-goading attack
invocations: misty visions, thirsting blade, eldritch smite
pact: blade (longbow)
key spells: misty visions, goodberry, hex (yes i didn't pick eldritch blast. haha)
role: burst striker (combat), scout/infiltrator (out of combat)
tactics:
pre-combat:
walk around in misty visions (atmospheric effect appropriate to the environment like smoke, fog, sandstorm, mist, etc). invite your allies into your 15 ft bubble and tell them it's an illusion to break. any spell slots unused from the previous day should be converted into goodberries.
1st turn:
bonus action: hexblade's curse the bbeg. if needed step out of misty visions 5-15 ft, curse, then go back inside misty visions.
action: attack x3 at super advantage
action surge: attack x3 at super advantage
eldritch smite and goading attack on a crit. with 18d20 rolls on turn 1 you are bound to get at least 1 crit.
reaction: shield/absorb elements/hellish rebuke as needed
2nd turn onwards:
action: attack x2 at super advantage
bonus action: empty for now but i used this for magic stone at latter levels once i got undying servant/accursed spectre.
dropping concentration on misty visions and switching to hex is plausible too if fighting in darkness/dark shadow.
or if i had a spare level 1 slot, i'd cast unseen servant pre-combat then spend my bonus action from turn 2 onwards commanding it to litter the field with caltrops or drop inhaled poisons in my enemy's space.
dmg report (assuming 1 crit out of 18d20 rolls at level 10):
6d8 (longbow) + 24 (cha) + 24 (hexblade's curse) + 2d6 (crit goading attack) + 1d8 (longbow crit) + 8d8 (crit eldritch smite) + 1d8 (dread ambusher) + 2d8 (crit dread ambusher) = 198.5 average burst dmg at excellent accuracy.
Yes, that is more dmg than any CR 10 or lower monster's HP and will one turn kill most bbegs at level 10 so i'd advise DMs to send multiple bbegs when facing something like this. The build is inspired by dark fantasy rpgs such as dark souls/diablo where a martial character adventures in darkness/shadow and accompanied by undead/spectres encapsulating the dark archer trope.
feel free to let me know what you think. 🙂
That turn one good LORD!! I am planning to use arcane archer in my next build coming up so I'm definitely beginning to see the benefit of dipping fighter on spellcasters haha.
@@ConstructedChaos yeah pretty much for burst dmg in doesn't get better than the fighter/gloomstalker core. i was actually being conservative in the computations there as if you noticed i didn't factor any magic weapon bonuses and only assumed 1 crit (where a 10% chance on 18d20 rolls would net you on average 2). and it wasn;t just a one trick pony in combat/out of combat. i functioned as a backup healer i combat with goodberries and information gatherer out of combat (high cha + skill prof, speak with animals, friends cantrip).
yeah fighter 2 is arguably the best dip for casters with con save prof, armor profs, fighting style and action surge. sorc 2-3 dips are great too for con save prof and metamagic and the artificer 1 dip is great for wizards. twilight and peace 1 are solid for their abilities and armor profs. hexblade 1 is another good 1 for the armor profs and hexblade's curse.
@@TheRobversion1 I actually hadn't done arcane archer before now for any of my builds and now I think it's something I'll look to use a lot moving forward. I love the archer archetype in general haha.
@@ConstructedChaos same. i generally pick stealthy archer/gunner types in video/mobile games. would be interesting to see your take on arcane archer as that's something that also i still have stuck in the workshop as i struggle with the whole poison dmg thing (i hate this like con saves) of the best arcane arrow (grasping arrow) and i wanted to make a build that was a bit more creative than just dmg. i really wanted to mix in a good caster to make it feel like a real arcane archer throwing spells and shooting arrows at the same time.
@@TheRobversion1 Well don't get too excited then haha. I think this build in specific will be using grasping arrow quite a bit. And I'm sure that'll clue you in on what I'm doing with it haha.
Made a Fiendlock whose patron is a succubus but he himself is a nerveous wreck in anything lust related and gets teased by it by his patreon.
Tbh that's borderline a fetish character. Before you make that character make sure you know your table well. Don't pull that on a DM you don't know well enough.
Hey Chaos. How's it going?
Since i think alot of the recent comments here are questioning the viability of a hexblade as a non-melee striker (ranged or caster) or even questioning the outright popular opinion that the hexblade is the best warlock striker subclass, thought i'd share a non-melee striker build i've used in the past. basically, the cheese grater is a popular daolock or swarmkeeper striker/controller hybrid build and the hexblade is my own spin on it. level 10 theorycraft as usual:
"Pecorino"
fighter 2, hexblade 5, nature cleric 3
custom lineage: telekinetic (cha)
asi: lucky or cha +2
fighting style: superior technique (ambush)
pact: chain (quasit)
invocations: repelling blast, grasp of hadar, agonizing blast
key spells: guidance, spike growth, eldritch blast, aid, shield, counterspell
tactics:
pre-combat:
use pact slot to cast upcasted aid on the party. spam guidance for initiative bonus. use ambush for initiative bonus as needed.
1st round:
familiar: help
bonus action: hexblade's curse the bbeg
action: cast spike growth behind the bbeg
action surge: repelling blast x2 with 1 grasp of hadar the bbeg into the spike growth (use lucky for super advantage on the 2nd RB as needed)
reaction: shield/counterspell as needed
2nd round:
familiar: help
bonus action: telekinetic the bbeg back into spike growth if they move out or just push them within it
action: repelling blast x2 with 1 grasp of hadar the bbeg into the spike growth
dmg report:
the difference between this and the other cheese grater versions is hexblade's curse. this makes your spike growth dmg increase by 80% at level 10. spike growth dmg is rolled every 5 ft of movement which means every time you roll 2d4 (no save) you add the prof bonus from hexblade's curse. so for the 1st round of combat this build does:
30 ft of forced movement. which means 12d4 + 24 for an average of 54 dmg from forced movement alone. lets add in the eldritch blasts:
2d10 (EB) + 8 (HC) + 8 (AB) = for an average of 27.
so on round 1 the build averages 81 dmg and pretty much sustains that for the whole fight on the bbeg (we can add in another 9 points of dmg from a successful telekinetic push for 90 sustained). this doesn't factor the increased crit rate from HC either. 81 dmg is a little above 50% of the average hp of CR 10 creatures (159.4) so this is good dmg for the level (10).
this is good sustained dmg from a non-melee hexblade. for comparison a typical pam gwm hexblade is doing 3 attacks at:
2d10 (glaive) + 12 (cha) + 30 gwm + 1d4 (pam) + 12 (HC) = for 67.5 average dmg
of course this melee hexblade can eldritch smite for an additional 6d8 (27) for a total of 94.5 of burst. by round 2 the cheese grater overtakes the melee hexblade but not by much. this doesn't even factor in the fact that the melee version's actual dmg is lower due to gwm's penalty to accuracy.
conclusion here is i'm not saying either is clearly better. my point is the dmg capabilities of each direction (and you can also say the same about the hexbow) are quite comparable and for a player who wants to play a certain way with a hexblade, there's an optimal striker path for it. :)
As always, thank you much for the in depth analysis! Having the math backup what we already know is always satisfying!
@@ConstructedChaos :)
so that was the build and the combat aspect of it. i do have fond memories of the RP of the build as i wanted a "cheesy" way to RP it. so he's named pecorino (after the delicious cheese), the DM let us get a free feat at the start as long as it was more of an RP feat (i picked chef) and I RP'd the character as like an italian mafia (criminal background of course) who likes to cook and hire defeated enemies who don't die to help him open his dream restaurant one day. i had to swerve into the curb and voice out the character during sessions with a cheesy italian accent.
the whole build was reflavored and rethemed. i didn't use the traditional lore/concept of hexblades and nature clerics as hexblades felt more of a dark theme while nature clerics well felt more "nature-y." i did want some seriousness but that was more "grounded" with the character but also with a bit of whimsy. I still went with the patron aspect but i requested for my DM to allow me to invent a patron of cooking. his name was Gordon. ;)
@@TheRobversion1 hahaha did Gordon have a last name? 😂😂😂
As someone who played as warlocks for over half of my campeighs, i have to say it, don't use hex past level 2, it's a trap, on level 3 you get your level 2 spell slots, and then it's not worth the upcast since i doesn't deal more damege, you get better spells worth that slot, as soon as you hit level 3, switch hex for any level 2 spell, be it hold person, invisibility, suggestion, earthbind or litteraly anything else, it is worth more then using a level 2 or higher slot on hex, unless you multiclass into something that have level 1 spell slots, you should never keep hex, 1 d6 extra per hit isn't worthit when hold person can make all attacks that hit a target become crits (wichi comboes very well with pact of the blade) or a spell like earthbind wich makes flying enemies unable to leave the ground, or invisibility wich help with surprise setups or suggestion that is perfect to setup combos with your party, anything will be worth more then hex, so please, to all warlock players, don't be so much harder on yourself then you nead to be, just don't use hex when you get level 2 slots.
That’s a totally fair assessment and I’ve heard it before. That’s why I only put it on the “early list” of spells to consider!
What if you’re using hex on your familiar to teleport with relentless hex?
@@laughingseagull000 you lose an invocation and your concentration, and you nerf on type of ability check on your familiar, not only that, but the familiar have it's own initiative, so getting it in optimal positions to teleport is hard, so it isn't worthit.
the words say dnd the music say love
currently playing a blind GOO warlock in a campaign, we started at level 3, so i took pact of the chain and worked with my DM to make a modified owl familiar. through the voice of the chain master invocation, he could see and hear through his owl, making them possibly one of the best scouts ive ever played. they are indispensable with the help of phantasmal force, which, might get a little less useful as you level up, but is essential to distracting enemies and dealing a little bit of damage. GOO Warlocks are fun to play as long as you get creative and work with your dm to improve some of their abilities (6th level ability is a 1st level cleric ability, 14th level ability can be more flexible, range of awakened mind being limiting at high levels, etc...)
take note you didn't need voice of the chainmaster to see through your owl. that's doable with a standard familiar. voice of the chainmaster just does 2 things:
1. increase the sight range past 100 ft.
2. allow you to speak through your familiar.
That sounds great!! You're definitely on the money that Goolocks can vary in mileage depending on how your DM rules your abilities!
@@TheRobversion1 yo wait this really helps, I had never played pact of the chain before, thank you so much
@@shefferdz633 a better invocation to pick is investment of the chainmaster.
Great for allowing your familiar to attack and increasing the save dc of their abilities (like poison, scare) or of items they'd use (like caltrops, ball bearings).
@@TheRobversion1 i did end up taking investment of the chain master the second i hit 5th! ill be keeping voice of the chain master for other reasons, ty!
A viable substitute for eldritch blast might be magic stone. It does decent damage, with one of the least resisted damage types, and you can accomplish that damage all in one round with npcs or martial players who lack ranged options. If you have a sling, the damage it does is comparable to eldritch blast for a quite a while, factoring out items like illusionist bracers.
Well, it seems like eldritch blast may become a generic warlock feature in the future so you may not have to choose anymore!
I try to use apps to make characters, such as DND beyond and 5e companion however almost none of these super cool spells are on there. Why? And where can I find them without just looking it up
Hmmm Which spells specifically aren't showing up? I wonder if they're from releases outside of the PHB or if maybe you have homebrew only filters turned on?
@@ConstructedChaosnevermind. I think some spells were accessed by the patron duh 😅
@@chopchop27 Hahah no sweat!!
P.S. forgot to mention the ranger/ warlock/ sorcerer build gets 4 ASI with which I took an ASI of +1 dex and +1 Cha. Also took feats crossbow expert, sharpshooter, and metamagic adept.
Black Tentacles for the Fathomless... Yeah. The swimming/undersea powers are underrated. Water is a barrier to all sorts of pursuit, so being able to get across a water barrier fast and blast at range over it is really a superpower.
I dont think the water-required powers are underrated. they are simply niche. most campaigns aren't water heavy campaigns. Water-heavy challenges would happen 10% of the time at most. maybe 20%. with that said the other non-water required abilities of the fathomless is pretty good. one of my fave warlock subclasses.
Anyone have an opinion on trying to build sentinel pole armmaster with devils sight / darkness ?
What i like with warlock is that they get their spells back on a short rest. From level 3 onwards they get 2 spell slots. D&D encounters are balanced around 6 encounters a day with two short rest in-between which is huge. Meaning that from level 3 onward they can essencially drop a battlefield control every fight.
They are the true tanks of d&d.
Also 2 levels are enough for them to make ok damage with no ressource expenditures
They actually do also get 3 spell slots at 11th level and 4 spell slots at 17th level!
@@ConstructedChaos
Yeah. But you only need 2 to rougly have a battlefield control every fight.
The rest is just gravy.
They also get some unlimited spells or spells they can cast once per day.
I'm a big fan of misty visions. Silent image at will at level 2 is insane in terms of utility. And even beyond that, you can make walls, fog, cover...
Taking the fey-touched spell at 1st level is very good on a warlock. You can pick sleep or hideous laughter and you'll have a good control even at level 1.
And having that 1/day misty step means you won't have to waste your precious slots on it.
Generally when i go for a straight warlock i tend to go for either fey, fathomless or undying.
Fey get sleep as a spell choice.
Fathomless get bigby's hand. It's more of a higher level game pick but bigby's hand is a spell that don't care about legendary resistances.
Our group is starting a Princes of the Apocalypse (POTA) campaign from Level 1-12. I'm going with a male Water Genasi (Mordenkainen's version) Urchin nicknamed "Gurgle" from Baldur's Gate who was chosen by a kindly Djinni (Air Genie) to serve as her eyes-and-ears in the Material Plane. He takes the Pact of the Blade at Djinni Warlock 3 after he multiclasses into a Soulknife Rogue 3 then goes all the way to Genie Warlock 9 (at 12th Level). If the game lasts up to 15th Level, I might even make him become a Shadow Sorcerer 3 or a Swords Bard 3.
Nice!! I love the thought put into this multiclass! Long live gurgle!!
Thank you! this vid was helpful in making my 2nd build
No problem!! Glad that you found it helpful!!
@@ConstructedChaos So cool that you read your comments. Not a lot of youtubers are able to do that!
@@4manfam883 of course!! I read them all and respond to most of them! And I’ll continue to do it so long as it’s fairly manageable to!
Why did you use the spirit bard for the genie warlock???
Because there isn’t sourcebook character art without a background available for every subclass. So, sometimes I have to find something else that could pass for that same thing. The spirit bard art could easily be a genie warlock if you think about it.
have tried playing both Celestial lock and Hexblade.
Celestial is nice healers an i where my party's go to for arcane knowledge, i where like how should i know :D
my Hexblade where build tanky, and it got to the point my DM Banished me to go after the other party members :D
atm playing healer wizard (Mark of healing halfling necromancer) :D
but got 2 backups ready with lock in them, Owlin Shadow Sorc and Undead lock and a Dhampir Shadow sorc, Undead lock and Oathbreaker pala. :D
A hexblade tank certainly is an interesting concept! Was it multi classed?
@@ConstructedChaos it where pure hexblade.
used shield and battle axe as weapons. :)
@@32Loveless50 nice!! Sounds like a good time! Thanks for sharing!
I LOVE this series!
Haha thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it!
My warlock (gennie) satyr was very fun. Pact of the tome + ancient secrets ftw.
Love satyrs, love genie warlocks, and love part of the tome! This is definitely a win!
curious what you think of the new warlock they put out
Well they walked back a lot of the original proposed changes and it looks pretty similar to the typical 5e warlock. I like that they play even more into eldritch invocations and that they have a slot recovery mechanic outside of a short rest. Overall, it's an improvement but it does feel like it could have changed more.
@@ConstructedChaos Thanks for the reply, I'm playing my first warlock coming up. didn't know about the walk back. interesting
@@moongoosemcqueen No problem! To clarify, I assume you're talking about the playtest material for OneDND?
@@ConstructedChaos yes, just came across it the other day, actually after watching your broken video
@@moongoosemcqueen nice! Yeah I’m pretty happy with it but I was really excited when I’d heard about the rumors involving no more short rests. Sadly (and understandably) they went in the opposite direction.
In my current campaign, my warlock is a trifling who made a deal with an otherworldly being who he transferred his power to Gemwyn (my character) he is a super intelligent and super strong warlock machine. he is built to be chaotic neutral and is built to be hyper aggressive in combat, he loves his trident and his wings of flying
He usually uses magic but has no problems with hand to hand combat, I am level 5 at this stage of the campaign and I primarily use my trident, great sword and daggers, he's partially inspired by Loki and other fictional marvel magic users
@@yunglocke3952 Sounds like a great wild card in the party for social encounters and a massive boon in combat!! Excited for you to explore the relationship with your patron in that campaign!
Played a hexblade multiclassed with swords bard. I was the only healer/support person in the party. Went with pact of the chain, specifically the imp. Best decision I could’ve made. That imp was so useful in so many ways, it was practically another party member. (It helped that we gave it a smartass personality, with the DM and I sharing the roleplay duties.)
Haha sounds like a really unique build and a super fun RP with the imp! Good on ya!
Familiars are always great for action economy. i personally prefer the quasit, especially if i take the investment of the chainmaster invocation. having an action economy free scare 1/day is quite useful.
I've never considered it broken with the exception of devil's sight + darkness. Even that is limited as it nerfs the other party members and as such you use it pretty sparingly.
My favorite was a human cleric (nature) 1 / warlock (fey) x. Took ritual caster at 1st. Ended up with a ton of rituals (both ritual caster and cleric/nature domain spells), so he had familiars, alarm spells, detect magic, speak with animals, etc., etc. available, plus lots of cantrips and shillelagh. Dropped str, dex, and int as I just used heavy armor, shield, and quarterstaff with the movement penalty. Added PAM at 5th. 1st-level cleric slows were great for powering hex, I could cure wounds at high-levels during any short rests, ranged with EB, melee with PAM and staff, and at higher levels multiple attacks, armor of agathys (high level slots), etc. The character was super-flexible -- switching between melee, ranged, buffing (greater invisibility on the rogue, polymorph on someone, or just a bless on the party), emergency or non-combat healing, tons of utility, etc.
It's a fun class due to its versatility. I can see the benefits in taking even a level of another casting class and it solves two of the big issues with the warlock -- spells known, and spell slots. It can also address the armor issue.
i wouldn't even consider devil's sight + darkness broken as it's typically suboptimal except in a party built around it and only for melee builds and lower levels. for ranged builds, misty visions provides the same effect (obscurement for you) without annoying your party. for higher levels for melee builds, there's shadow of moil. so darkness + devil sight has a very small level range to be useful which is level 3-6 for melee builds.
@@TheRobversion1 How is it suboptimal? A 2nd-level spell which provides advantage on all your attack roles, disadvantage on all attacks again you, prevents you from being targeted, etc. plus all sorts of utility uses. I don't see how misty visions does the same thing. It blocks your vision also, plus takes actions to move. Make a wall and sure, they can't target you, can't target them. Make a half wall and peer out and it's just concealment -- giving them disadvantage on a wisdom check vs. your hide check to spot you.
@@BW022 oks lets go through it.
lets start with why i mentioned it's suboptimal. 1st take note i said it's suboptiimal for 2 reasons:
1. melee higher than level 7. the reason here is you gain access to greater invisibility or the better warlock version, shadow of moil.
darkness + devil sight- costs an action, costs a spell slot, costs an invocation, advantage to hit enemies, enemies have disadvantage to hit you, enemies cant target you with sight spells, negatively affects party members, effect moves with you freely.
shadow of moil- costs an action, costs a spell slot, advantage to hit enemies, enemies have disadvantage to hit you, enemies cant target you with sight spells, effect moves with you freely, DOESNT negatively affect party members, DOESNT cost an invocation, RESISTANCE to radiant dmg, WHEN someone does hit you, they take 2d8 necrotic.
i hope that's clear for melee. at level 7 there's no point for a melee character to do darkness + devil sight.
2. i don't think you understand how misty visions work, how illusions work and how misty visions is used. so my caveat here is for RANGED/CASTERS.
1st how misty visions works. misty visions allows you to cast silent image AT WILL. you can have it move along with you outside of combat as mentioned in the spell text with the cost of an action in combat. which means you can create your obscurement OUTSIDE of combat. meaning you don't have to waste your action on your 1st turn to create it unlike darkness. if you're ranged/caster you don't have to move much from your starting position in combat thus this becomes great action economy wise.
both cost an invocation slot. misty visions will only cost an action IF YOU WANT TO MOVE IT. misty visions DOESNT cost a spell slot either. both gives you advantage to hit enemies, both gives enemies advantage to hit you. both makes enemies unable to target you with sight spells. DOESNT negatively affect party members because your illusion is not in melee obscuring their targets.
2nd how illusions work. you CAN SEE through your own illusions. they can't see through it unless they break the illusion. they only break the illusion by going up to it and investigating it vs. your spell save DC. you are far away as a ranged/caster. you don't need to peer through it. you can see through it regardless of where you are inside the 15ft cube. Its also specified illusions are treated AS REAL by those who can't see through it. so that means an enemy won't bother going up to you and investigating unless the illusion you created doesnt make sense (and you do live in a world of magic so it's easy to justify). there's basically no difference between you creating a fog cloud/darkness with the spell and an illusion of it. enemies won't know the difference.
another thing of note here is you can create ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS unlike minor illusion which means anything physical that passes through the illusion DOESNT break the illusion so you can create fog, darkness, smoke, cloud, mist, tornadoes, fire/eldritch/sandstorm, hail, etc then fire arrows/bolt/stones/eldritch beams from with with impunity as those physical effects are meant to pass through atmospheric effects unlike let's say physical objects like creating a crate, wall, etc.
a bonus here is that since you set this up pre-combat, if your party members decide to walk around with you inside the 15 ft cube, they can benefit from the obscurement as well. sure the 1st time they go in they cant. but this is outside of combat. tell them its an illusion. tell them to investigate. eventually they'll break the illusion for themselves and can benefit like you do.
3rd how misty visions is used. so as mentioned earlier you walk around in it, invite your ranged/caster allies in and tell to break the illusion then position yourself well at the start of combat. fire away with ranged/spells with obscurement. if you do need to relocate, then yes it will cost an action but that won't happen often. and since these illusions arent limited to darkness, you have tons more utility outside of combat. you can think of it as an action economy free greater invis 15 ft bubble for ranged/casters. this is also why it's considered by most optimizers to be the best invocation in the game.
As far as the OP, Warlock is definitely most often best as a multiclass! The ROI goes through the roof the second you take on another caster class like the sorcerer!
@@TheRobversion1 maybe we play it wrong in our group, but we use darkness in the following way: Warlock casts darkness on himself (devils sight, so no prob at all), doesn't matter where rest of party is, as long as tanks are out.
other ranged partymembers take partial movement to leave darkness, do their action, step back into darkness... rince, repeat. Warlock has full advantage, rest of ranged have defensive perks of darkness. only drawback is for our bard with his reactions, where he needs line of sight e.g. counterspell.
are we doing it against the rules?
I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:(
But I have created 12 different lvl 1 characters in case I found a group.
1 of which is a Chaotic Neutral Female Shadar-Kai Acolyte background Undying Warlock whose Patron is Larloch! She chose to become a Warlock to fight/oppose Corruption.
I personally for all my characters (if I find a group) will NEVER MULTI-CLASS!!!!!!
Additionally, I created a stat system many people could consider using.
You start with 72 points you can spread however you want NOT EXCEEDING 20, then you add your Racial Stats on top of that STILL NOT EXCEEDING 20!!!
Personally if I was a DM for a group, I would suggest all the group to use my stat system. I would also GENERALLY refuse to allow Multi-Classing unless we are playing beyond lvl 20 (which I would also try to design campaigns that do that). In which case after lvl 20 you can Multi-Class.
Finally, I respect your right to your opinions. BUT UNDYING WARLOCK IS THE BEST WARLOCK SUB-CLASS!!!
You can acquire quite a few decently powerful damaging Spells/Cantrips. At higher levels if you essentially "Cheat Death" you get temporary hit points. Most importantly at lvl 1 you have a chance of avoiding damage from Undead & at a higher level you gain near immortality!!!!! Take for example my Undying Warlock, once she gets to that level she will have 7,500 years potential lifespan and not need to eat or drink or breathe!!!
That sounds like a cool character concept and I do like your stat system! Is there a particular reason why you’re so against multi classing?
@@ConstructedChaos Thanks, as for the opposition to Multi-Classing. It's because it limits the potential power of the main class and since there are few to no campaigns for beyond lvl 20 yet you get the best stuff near lvl 20.
So by Multi-Classing you miss out on that power and you miss out on the roleplay potential. Look at Druid, they get Timeless Body which is (to me) the greatest aspect/ability ever. Think of it, you had a successful adventuring career and retired at the end to enjoy the rest of your life. You establish a nice estate and start a family. Then you can be around for vast numbers of generations guiding and helping your descendants & possibly society in general with your vast age & knowledge.
Another example, is Monk's higher level abilities. They suddenly know every language which can then allow them to become a famous & successful translator/linguist. You could help a royal translate an ancient text that can possibly help them and the realm as a whole. Another way that can go is you leverage that ability for personal wealth & influence to specifically help your family/descendants and set them up for multiple future generations.
@@morrigankasa570 that’s fair enough of an opinion but I would outright disagree. A lot of multiclass builds far exceed their single class counterparts-even at level 20.
@@ConstructedChaos Each their own opinions. Sure mechanically in many cases that's true, but it still detracts from the roleplay potential in my opinion.
Take a Bard who stuck with it completely until lvl 20 and retired from Adventuring. Perhaps they had acquired enough wealth and influence to establish a place that teaches the various Arts, Music, and future Adventuring Bards. So in future campaigns perhaps a new Bard character was influenced by that old Bard & school. That makes the world more immersive if each campaign still takes place in the same overall World. Each campaign/party did various things that became lore/history/influence on the world. Even if it's the same people each new campaign, but they could use their old characters' as part of their new character background & impact on the World.
However, if that same Bard instead Multi-Classed in some way. How then could they be such an influential person for future Bards in the world if they themselves didn't "Master the Bardic Arts"?
Yes if you don't care about overarching World Building and the like (like I suggested) then yes Multi-Classing isn't a problem.
@@morrigankasa570 that’s totally fine but I’d still disagree with your from a story perspective. I’ve had many players take levels in other classes that benefitted their character mechanically but was also RP motivated. You’re completely alright to play how you’d like. I just wanted to explain my take on this.
Can you do similar but with 3.5 edition? Thanks!
I may try to make some guides for other editions when I complete what I have in mind for 5e but I have a feeling I won't be able to with so much coming down the pipe here soon!
level 20 wizards have the equivalent to 89 1st level slots, sorcerer with sorcery points has 103, and warlock has 110 not including spells from invocations. this is with weapon and armor proficiencies. At level two. a wizard and sorcerer can cast 3 burning hands. a sorcerer can cast 4 with sorcery points, but a warlock can cast 6... I'm pretty sure they are balanced but I don't get how. Can someone explain it to me?
Well, there's a lot more that goes into a caster class than just the number of spell slots they get. That said, I'm not entirely sure how you did your math for the number of slots the warlock gets either. Spell list, how spell slots are regenerated (either by long or short rest), hit die, proficiencies, and many many other factors can play into how a class is balanced versus another.
what's you guys' opinion on the lighteater patron? i multiclassed into it from shadow magic sorceror to be an off tank through debuffs
I'd actually never taken a look at it before. At a glance, it does seem a bit weak unless you're getting a lot of short rests per adventuring day. A lot of what it offers either doesn't scale well or only allows for once per short/long rest usability. I think if I were running it, I'd make the argument that some of the early abilities should be able to be used PB times per long rest.
@@ConstructedChaos i think this is fair given the changes in MOM. i think WOTC received feedback that alot of tables aren't handling short rests properly which is why they have taken all racial traits that were refreshing on short rests and changing it to PBXPD.
one thing i'm trying to convince my DM to house rule is to play all short abilities of classes the same way so we can see how balanced it is. for example, a level 10 warlock doesnt get 2 level 5 slots per short rest but gets 4 level 5 slots per day (basically the same amount a level 10 warlock would get per day if they short rested once).
@@TheRobversion1 the rumor is that short tests are going away with the next edition anyway!
@@ConstructedChaos good riddance to short TESTS. Haha. Might as well get rid of long tests too! Lol
@@TheRobversion1 lol ya caught me waking up 😂😂😂
Curently playing a crystal Dao genie warlock. At face value, it may not look like much on paper. Mechanically and on the table, you can hit like a truck, defend like a castle, cast like a storm and get it all back on a short nap. Invest time to choose your invocations and your spells carefully and this warlock will take care of you. She has been amazing!
Genie warlock in general is great! Dao in particular is one of the best if not THE best ones!
agreed. great flavor too and for me it's easy to re-flavor as there's so many tropes in fiction about being careful of what you wish for...