This dropped at the same time as I wanted to respec Wyll, Cephalo delivers again! Thanks man, I really struggled with this game in the beginning but your vids really made it easier and more enjoyable. Here's a little support from me to show my appreciation.
I just finished an Astarion origin run with something like this, only I went with pact of the blade and focused on dagger attacks. I just kind of threw it together as I went, grabbing spells like darkness, hunger, enthrall, fear, hypnosis. It was very flavorful and fun as hell. Very fun combination of classes.
Will definitely try this build out. Might be tempted to put those last 4 levels into Bard for Song of Rest & Jack of all Trades. Plus a few low level spell slots to use on ‘low priority’ stuff - I find myself hoarding slots with higher level Warlock builds 😊.
Thank you for the guide! This is me interacting with your content to feed the hungry, hungry algorithm. I think I'll try this for my Wyll respec, together with a Tav paladin/party face. Hopefully there's some darknes hungry build for Astarion as well.
Much appreciation for a Great Old One Warlock build that goes with Pact of the Tome, as it's difficult to find with the overwhelming popularity of Fiend and/or Blade combos. I'll go on record as someone who dumps Hex the moment I get a concentration spell that alters game play, likely Darkness or Hunger of Hadar. While insanely valuable as a renewable resource that amps up damage during early warlock levels, once I hit 2nd or 3rd level spells there's always something else for me to focus on that can benefit the team. Warlocks have the odd position of it being preferable to pick up outlier spells that aren't suitable for every single encounter, but may be clutch from time to time. Using my early examples, even if I "default" to the Devil's Darkness gambit, it may be better to toss out a Hunger farther away, or vice versa. Banishment? Great for bosses, less so for crowds. This is why I won't usually bother with spells that I'd never go without on a wizard (for example Misty Step) simply because they are always useful, often several times during combat, and other classes have the luxury of blowing wads of slots at a problem. Warlocks don't. A helpful chap called Treantmonk opined this years ago, and I took it to heart. Hex eases this issue by being handy for every combat early on, but later when I've got more concentration spells to fit the situation, it's value drops for me and my play style. Admittedly, I love controlling the battlefield, and Hex is all about maximizing warlock damage. Your mileage and unique warlock builds probably vary. Which is awesome. Besides, when I'm abusing Friends in conversation it drops the damned leftover Hex anyways... 😈
Your last multiclass video actually gave me some ideas for a Fear build I'm trying out. The plan is: Gloomstalker 5, Assassin 3, Warlock GOO 4, mostly a crit archer with some spells. Extra attack, 2 feats (sharpshooter+asi/actor), mortal reminder, devil's sight, darkness, summon quasit for more surprise options and a ton of skill proficiencies. Might get equipment intense later on but I'm feeling good about it so far.
Suggestion for endgame shield; Shield of the Undevout, that gives enemies disadvatage on fear saves. Thank you for all the bg3 content, I think you are wearing the robes of annotation, because it seems you have advantage on explaining builds 😊
Small thing, with the feats.You could take 4 rogue instead of 9 warlock. You lose the elemental and level 5 spells. But I find that level 5 spells don't affect too much - mostly hold person multicast, but you gain a feat so you can take ASI to go from 16 to 20. Then with Birthright and Mirror you can hit 24 cha. With Hag's hair and 17 cha start you can hit 24 and save a feat, which is perfect for alert or spell sniper.
Im playing goo warlock now and the rogue idea is interesting! The frightened/crit hunting route needs advantage and is squishy so hiding does help a lot. Ive been trying to make work 12 levels of warlock and I was struggling until pairing it with the mystic scoundrel - i really think that item was built for warlocks more than anyone else (outside of broken swords bards) in that you get 9 bonus action hold persons/monsters per day!
Ok this is weird. Little backstory: I have a game going where each character is themed after Warhammer 40k chaos Legions (main character as a Swords Bard for Emperor's Children, Shadowheart as a spores druid for Death Guard, Lae'zel as a barbarian/fighter for World Eaters, etc), and I was thinking this morning, what would I do for Wyll? He's a bit of a disillusioned hero, does that make him a Night Lord of all things? Then later today, here's a video about Wyll themed around FEAR and DARKNESS, both VERY MUCH Night Lord staples. It's a sign from the Chaos Gods, as far as I'm concerned.
At about 1,000 hours I just completed honour mode for the first time using an all bard multiclass composition, making sure every character at least gets their bard subclass at level 3. My Durge ended with 5 levels of Great Old One Warlock and 7 levels of Lore Bard. I feel I got a good taste of this playstyle but guaranteeing the crits with Warlock/Assassin is diablolical. Super fun build concept. I look forward to my next Arcane Trickster/Necromancy Wizard build next.
For me the problem with 9 warlock split is that I couldn’t let myself to use my lv5 warlock spell for hex, darkness or misty step. I know they are great spells but I can’t help with this feeling of wasting spell slot cause those spells don’t get additional benefit being upcasted.
Late to the game here but I can confirm 14 is perfectly fine for an attack stat on the Nautiloid. Almost every character I've made runs a 14 Dexterity and starts off with the first dagger/scimitar/short sword they find and still has like an 85% hit chance on the imps and such.
Agreed! I'd love more updates, though to be fair I've gotten way more than my 80 dollars worth from this game (understatement of the century contender) so if they did I can't say I'd be too mad
16:55 Are you sure about counterspell? I'm pretty sure that it doesn't get upcast with warlock spell slots, unless that was fixed in the recent patch. That's what I remember from my first playthrough. 24:20 Entropic Ward does have a resource cost, you can only use it once per short rest.
Thanks for the build. Will try this in my next playthrough thinking of using Duegar. Question: what do you think about levelling up 3 levels of assassin rogue first before warlock? Start as ranged archer build (higher dex) and respec at level 4 or 5 once you get agonising blast. This way you get earlier bonus action hide, free surprise rounds more regularly, and still get EB hitting 2 targets from level 5 onwards. Yes you'll be waiting for char level 8 before getting Hunger of Hadar but that's only in mid-late act2
you pretend on doing party synergies/compositions videos? I now know a lot of build paths and all thanks to you but choosing on which to pick from all of them and placing 4 together is kinda of a though choice
omg. so my honor mode run almost ended because two of my characters got stuck in hunger of hadar and were frightened. I'm definitely gonna make this build to get some revenge
Anyway you could expand upon your Fix them all video? Higher levels and more characters possibly. I’m not trying to multiclass ultimate damage. Just trying to not die being a bard and having everyone be true to their story.
i've played a college of swords bard (they get medium armour) with a bunch of crowd control spells like confusion, fear, etc. he stayed standing quite easily! and there's a ring in act 3 hidden in the jungle that lets you cast enchantment and illusion spells as a bonus action, and i ended up building all around that by the end. really fun and rarely downed! i even had 1 sorc level for wild magic just to add some spice. i did rely heavily on the gloves of dexterity and the arcane acuity helmet, though
Looks powerful, although I think I prefer taking 7 sorcerer lvls for Greater Invisibility, even if you lose Hunger of Hadar in the process (you still get Darkness at least). I wonder if One with Shadows is an option since this is a stealthy build?
Been building the Coffeelock for my group Honour Mode but considering we have one using your Lightning Sorc/Cleric/Wizard build I think I should respect to this asap. I was going to play more into the darkness for CC anyway. Very good timing. Only level 4 so far so we are just starting so its the perfect time to swap I think! How big of a downside is it to have to take Moderately Armoured to be able to wield shields in Coffeelock?
Great vid as usual. Think will respec my lock to this build in my current multiplayer game. I don’t have access to the potent robe so what other robe would you recommend for this build? Thanks
Thanks very much! Honestly other than potent robes you can use pretty much any armor. The Graceful Cloth if you have proficiency is always great for initiative, or just whatever gives you the highest AC
I’ve been thinking of going champion/warlock with spell sniper as a crit build. Maybe a champion 4 warlock 8? Three feats will let you get asi, spell sniper, and alert.
Idk if this is the same in honour mode but every time I started a fight with my warlock tossing Hunger of Hadar he still had a turn at the beginning of battle
notably CHA is probably the easiest stat to stack especially in act 3, if you start at 17 and rush to the mage tower and house of grief at the start of act 3 you can get to 24 even taking alert over an ASI
taking hag hair is advised to put you up a threshold early but not necessary if you're respeccing into this build later because the mirror gives you a free +1 to round things out
My problem with assassin is, many important fights in game start with a cutscene/dialogue. Also, will placing hunger of hadar on enemies really surprise them?
Still with sin you have advantage against enemies that haven't taken a turn - so with Alert you always strike first with advantage. And can easily hide in darkness, shooting eldritch blast and hide again. Not glorious and epic but its work...but not against devil sight.
I don't understand the point at 19:30 about the advantage of bonus action hiding in your own darkness. If you are in the Darkness, aren't you already heavily obscured, giving you advantage on attacks without needing to hide? What's the benefit of taking the additional bonus action to hide if you are already in Darkness?
@@Jim-Bagel I'm not sure if you've finished the game or not but let's just say appearances are often misleading. Funny cause most NPCs in game would see him as a monster because of how he looks, yet his reasons and motives are lawful good aligned. Though you can RP this game and see Wyll as a devil and hypocrite, so your viewpoinf isn't wrong.
@@Jim-Bagel Wyll is probably the most unambiguously good guy in the game, and it's obvious very early on. He made his pact for a good reason, in an urgent situation without much time to think, and under the condition that she can only send him after "evil, soulless, or heartless" targets. That "heartless" is the one that ultimately sent him after an innocent person, and as soon as he understands that he's been tricked, he refuses to hurt the target and accepts a horrific transformation punishment instead. He's in a bad situation and he's making the best of it.
![[Act 3] Solo Warlock - Disrespecting Raphael - Honour Mode](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Gdsv8ghVX18/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Act 3] Solo Warlock - Disrespecting Raphael - Honour Mode](/img/tr.png)
Quickly became my favorite BG3 content channel, ty for all the amazing videos!!
Thanks very much!
This is a perfect build for a tragic hero turned villain Wyll where he becomes The Ghaik of Frontiers.
This dropped at the same time as I wanted to respec Wyll, Cephalo delivers again! Thanks man, I really struggled with this game in the beginning but your vids really made it easier and more enjoyable. Here's a little support from me to show my appreciation.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the support - really glad to know the videos are helping!
Just wanted to say thanks! I always look forward to your builds and they have helped me beat honor mode twice ❤ keep up the great work Cephalo!
Hey thank so much! I really appreciate the support, and glad the guides are helping - congrats on the wins!
I just finished an Astarion origin run with something like this, only I went with pact of the blade and focused on dagger attacks. I just kind of threw it together as I went, grabbing spells like darkness, hunger, enthrall, fear, hypnosis. It was very flavorful and fun as hell. Very fun combination of classes.
Thanks for making so many cool vids and builds. May the algorithm bless you
Will definitely try this build out. Might be tempted to put those last 4 levels into Bard for Song of Rest & Jack of all Trades. Plus a few low level spell slots to use on ‘low priority’ stuff - I find myself hoarding slots with higher level Warlock builds 😊.
Thank you for the guide! This is me interacting with your content to feed the hungry, hungry algorithm.
I think I'll try this for my Wyll respec, together with a Tav paladin/party face. Hopefully there's some darknes hungry build for Astarion as well.
Much appreciation for a Great Old One Warlock build that goes with Pact of the Tome, as it's difficult to find with the overwhelming popularity of Fiend and/or Blade combos.
I'll go on record as someone who dumps Hex the moment I get a concentration spell that alters game play, likely Darkness or Hunger of Hadar. While insanely valuable as a renewable resource that amps up damage during early warlock levels, once I hit 2nd or 3rd level spells there's always something else for me to focus on that can benefit the team.
Warlocks have the odd position of it being preferable to pick up outlier spells that aren't suitable for every single encounter, but may be clutch from time to time. Using my early examples, even if I "default" to the Devil's Darkness gambit, it may be better to toss out a Hunger farther away, or vice versa. Banishment? Great for bosses, less so for crowds.
This is why I won't usually bother with spells that I'd never go without on a wizard (for example Misty Step) simply because they are always useful, often several times during combat, and other classes have the luxury of blowing wads of slots at a problem. Warlocks don't. A helpful chap called Treantmonk opined this years ago, and I took it to heart.
Hex eases this issue by being handy for every combat early on, but later when I've got more concentration spells to fit the situation, it's value drops for me and my play style. Admittedly, I love controlling the battlefield, and Hex is all about maximizing warlock damage. Your mileage and unique warlock builds probably vary. Which is awesome.
Besides, when I'm abusing Friends in conversation it drops the damned leftover Hex anyways... 😈
Your last multiclass video actually gave me some ideas for a Fear build I'm trying out.
The plan is: Gloomstalker 5, Assassin 3, Warlock GOO 4, mostly a crit archer with some spells.
Extra attack, 2 feats (sharpshooter+asi/actor), mortal reminder, devil's sight, darkness, summon quasit for more surprise options and a ton of skill proficiencies. Might get equipment intense later on but I'm feeling good about it so far.
Suggestion for endgame shield; Shield of the Undevout, that gives enemies disadvatage on fear saves.
Thank you for all the bg3 content, I think you are wearing the robes of annotation, because it seems you have advantage on explaining builds 😊
Great call, I completely forgot that shield existed!
Love this build, HoH is so strong throughout the whole game
Meaningful comment consisting of more than five words
Another awesome guide! ❤
Thanks!
Small thing, with the feats.You could take 4 rogue instead of 9 warlock. You lose the elemental and level 5 spells. But I find that level 5 spells don't affect too much - mostly hold person multicast, but you gain a feat so you can take ASI to go from 16 to 20. Then with Birthright and Mirror you can hit 24 cha.
With Hag's hair and 17 cha start you can hit 24 and save a feat, which is perfect for alert or spell sniper.
Im playing goo warlock now and the rogue idea is interesting! The frightened/crit hunting route needs advantage and is squishy so hiding does help a lot.
Ive been trying to make work 12 levels of warlock and I was struggling until pairing it with the mystic scoundrel - i really think that item was built for warlocks more than anyone else (outside of broken swords bards) in that you get 9 bonus action hold persons/monsters per day!
Ok this is weird. Little backstory: I have a game going where each character is themed after Warhammer 40k chaos Legions (main character as a Swords Bard for Emperor's Children, Shadowheart as a spores druid for Death Guard, Lae'zel as a barbarian/fighter for World Eaters, etc), and I was thinking this morning, what would I do for Wyll? He's a bit of a disillusioned hero, does that make him a Night Lord of all things? Then later today, here's a video about Wyll themed around FEAR and DARKNESS, both VERY MUCH Night Lord staples. It's a sign from the Chaos Gods, as far as I'm concerned.
At about 1,000 hours I just completed honour mode for the first time using an all bard multiclass composition, making sure every character at least gets their bard subclass at level 3.
My Durge ended with 5 levels of Great Old One Warlock and 7 levels of Lore Bard. I feel I got a good taste of this playstyle but guaranteeing the crits with Warlock/Assassin is diablolical. Super fun build concept.
I look forward to my next Arcane Trickster/Necromancy Wizard build next.
For me the problem with 9 warlock split is that I couldn’t let myself to use my lv5 warlock spell for hex, darkness or misty step. I know they are great spells but I can’t help with this feeling of wasting spell slot cause those spells don’t get additional benefit being upcasted.
Late to the game here but I can confirm 14 is perfectly fine for an attack stat on the Nautiloid. Almost every character I've made runs a 14 Dexterity and starts off with the first dagger/scimitar/short sword they find and still has like an 85% hit chance on the imps and such.
On a side note, I really hope Larian will not abandon the game in its current state, there are still so much smaller bugs and broken features/items.
Agreed! I'd love more updates, though to be fair I've gotten way more than my 80 dollars worth from this game (understatement of the century contender) so if they did I can't say I'd be too mad
16:55 Are you sure about counterspell? I'm pretty sure that it doesn't get upcast with warlock spell slots, unless that was fixed in the recent patch. That's what I remember from my first playthrough.
24:20 Entropic Ward does have a resource cost, you can only use it once per short rest.
I wil stick to the sorlock, but this build is a solid second place. GJ. :-)
Honestly, I think I might do this for Shadowheart with a headcanon that GOO is just Shar. It seems the most Dark Justiciar playstyle.
Thanks for the build. Will try this in my next playthrough thinking of using Duegar. Question: what do you think about levelling up 3 levels of assassin rogue first before warlock? Start as ranged archer build (higher dex) and respec at level 4 or 5 once you get agonising blast. This way you get earlier bonus action hide, free surprise rounds more regularly, and still get EB hitting 2 targets from level 5 onwards. Yes you'll be waiting for char level 8 before getting Hunger of Hadar but that's only in mid-late act2
Thank you!
you pretend on doing party synergies/compositions videos? I now know a lot of build paths and all thanks to you but choosing on which to pick from all of them and placing 4 together is kinda of a though choice
Thx for the good videos
Thanks very much for the support! I really appreciate it - glad you like them!
omg. so my honor mode run almost ended because two of my characters got stuck in hunger of hadar and were frightened. I'm definitely gonna make this build to get some revenge
Anyway you could expand upon your Fix them all video? Higher levels and more characters possibly. I’m not trying to multiclass ultimate damage. Just trying to not die being a bard and having everyone be true to their story.
i've played a college of swords bard (they get medium armour) with a bunch of crowd control spells like confusion, fear, etc. he stayed standing quite easily! and there's a ring in act 3 hidden in the jungle that lets you cast enchantment and illusion spells as a bonus action, and i ended up building all around that by the end. really fun and rarely downed! i even had 1 sorc level for wild magic just to add some spice. i did rely heavily on the gloves of dexterity and the arcane acuity helmet, though
Looks powerful, although I think I prefer taking 7 sorcerer lvls for Greater Invisibility, even if you lose Hunger of Hadar in the process (you still get Darkness at least). I wonder if One with Shadows is an option since this is a stealthy build?
Been building the Coffeelock for my group Honour Mode but considering we have one using your Lightning Sorc/Cleric/Wizard build I think I should respect to this asap. I was going to play more into the darkness for CC anyway. Very good timing. Only level 4 so far so we are just starting so its the perfect time to swap I think!
How big of a downside is it to have to take Moderately Armoured to be able to wield shields in Coffeelock?
what party would synergyze well with this darkness?
Great vid as usual. Think will respec my lock to this build in my current multiplayer game. I don’t have access to the potent robe so what other robe would you recommend for this build? Thanks
Thanks very much! Honestly other than potent robes you can use pretty much any armor. The Graceful Cloth if you have proficiency is always great for initiative, or just whatever gives you the highest AC
This build is scary
I’ve been thinking of going champion/warlock with spell sniper as a crit build. Maybe a champion 4 warlock 8? Three feats will let you get asi, spell sniper, and alert.
Yet another awesome build. I’m here to request my daily item video ? lol.
I really like 9 warlock, 2 fighter, 1 wizard so I can get action surge, constitution proficiency, and haste/shield from wizard.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for the support! I really appreciate it :D
I play a Warlock right now and would like to know if Sharpshooter works with Eldritch Blast. Is it worth spending one feat on this?
I've always though of warlock just being worth 5 levels. Now I want to try this 9/3 split.
Idk if this is the same in honour mode but every time I started a fight with my warlock tossing Hunger of Hadar he still had a turn at the beginning of battle
notably CHA is probably the easiest stat to stack especially in act 3, if you start at 17 and rush to the mage tower and house of grief at the start of act 3 you can get to 24 even taking alert over an ASI
taking hag hair is advised to put you up a threshold early but not necessary if you're respeccing into this build later because the mirror gives you a free +1 to round things out
My problem with assassin is, many important fights in game start with a cutscene/dialogue. Also, will placing hunger of hadar on enemies really surprise them?
Still with sin you have advantage against enemies that haven't taken a turn - so with Alert you always strike first with advantage. And can easily hide in darkness, shooting eldritch blast and hide again. Not glorious and epic but its work...but not against devil sight.
since you get so many criticals on this build, would it be worthwhile to play as a half orc?
Sadly half orc's critical bonus only works on melee weapon attacks, so it won't do much for this build
@@Cephalopocalypse ah, bummer, thanks for the response.
I don't understand the point at 19:30 about the advantage of bonus action hiding in your own darkness. If you are in the Darkness, aren't you already heavily obscured, giving you advantage on attacks without needing to hide? What's the benefit of taking the additional bonus action to hide if you are already in Darkness?
You're right! The use is to hide *after* your attacks, so enemies lose track of where you are
@@Cephalopocalypse Ok thanks!
Why no spell sniper for the extra crit
Should do a dark urge build or a warlock build that doesn’t rely on potent robes. “Like they all do”.
So you want a warlock build that doesn't use the best item for warlocks??
Go gith and use medium armor
None of the blade lock builds have to use potent robe
Yes, because if you’re doing a Durge playthrough or choose to kill the grove then all these potent robe warlock builds are severely neutered.
You can get the robe as Dark Urge if you really want to
why is this video 35 minutes, jesus christ
Isn’t wyll evil himself?
He's a lawful good guy for sure. Goodie two shoe. He hasn't ever done anything to harm others. Not sure why you'd call him evil
@@borrow4654 He works for the devil?
@@Jim-Bagel I'm not sure if you've finished the game or not but let's just say appearances are often misleading. Funny cause most NPCs in game would see him as a monster because of how he looks, yet his reasons and motives are lawful good aligned. Though you can RP this game and see Wyll as a devil and hypocrite, so your viewpoinf isn't wrong.
@@Jim-Bagel Wyll is probably the most unambiguously good guy in the game, and it's obvious very early on. He made his pact for a good reason, in an urgent situation without much time to think, and under the condition that she can only send him after "evil, soulless, or heartless" targets. That "heartless" is the one that ultimately sent him after an innocent person, and as soon as he understands that he's been tricked, he refuses to hurt the target and accepts a horrific transformation punishment instead. He's in a bad situation and he's making the best of it.