Bard: best time to take 2 levels in warlock

[AmbientRaven]

Hi Folks,

In an up coming campaign i will be playing a lore bard. The group will have a Cleric as the main healer and a pally as support.
I was planning ona 2 dip into Warlock for the reset spells on short rest as well as elderitch blast. At what point would I be best doing this? 7 and 8 seem the best time as I will have my first 2 sets of Stolen spells from other lists. Though earlier may also be a good option as the Bard has no Damage cantrips besides Vicious mockery.

What would your opinion be? Or is it not worth the dip of 2 levels for the improved blast?

[Ashrym]

Hi Folks,

In an up coming campaign i will be playing a lore bard. The group will have a Cleric as the main healer and a pally as support.
I was planning ona 2 dip into Warlock for the reset spells on short rest as well as elderitch blast. At what point would I be best doing this? 7 and 8 seem the best time as I will have my first 2 sets of Stolen spells from other lists. Though earlier may also be a good option as the Bard has no Damage cantrips besides Vicious mockery.

What would your opinion be? Or is it not worth the dip of 2 levels for the improved blast?

I would start with warlock and take those 2 levels first because I think having WIS/CHA save proficiency is better than DEX/CHA save proficiency and you get the extra skill proficiency when you multi-class into bard anyway. You give up the capstone ability (meh) and the 19th level ABI (ability score increase) / feat so it's good either way I think. Eldritch blast with agonizing is a good way to go. Keep in mind you can give up agonizing blast and just add eldritch blast via magical secrets for less damage but still not bad if you want to keep your capstone and ABI.

Vicious mockery for damage is pointless. It averages 10 damage at 17th level. You can dual wield short sword (d6+mod+d6) or us a longsword two handed (d10+mod) or use a crossbow (d8+mod) for more damage. Eldritch blast doesn't out-damage your weapon options until 5th or 11th level anyway. The good thing about vicious mockery is that it has a WIS save to avoid disadvantage on the next attack and is nice for damage mitigation.

At least that's how I look at it. :)

EDIT: If you go half elf you gain +2 skills, and can spend the 2 warlock invocations on beguiling influence (deception and persuasion skill proficiencies) and agonizing blast (better damage). That gets you 2 skills background, 2 skills class, 2 skills race bonus, 2 skills from the invocation, 1 skill when you MC into bard at 3rd level, and 3 skills lore college at 5th level for 12 skill proficiencies by 5th level if skills is what you are going for.

[AmbientRaven]

Thanks for the great reply Ashrym!

Unfortunately i will need to start as a bard for the character background reason though.

[mister__joshua]

This is the exact same situation I'm in (look at the Pimp my Bard thread) and here's what I decided:

As mentioned eldritch blast doesn't out-damage regular weapons until level 5 when it gets its 2 rays. Until then you may as well use a crossbow if your dex is ok. You do want to have the 2 levels in before 5 though. My plan is to take the first Warlock level at level 2. It gives you more spells and slots than the second level of bard and hex will make you really effective with a bow or whatever. Then take 2 more bard levels and take your second Warlock level at 5 just in time for when it gets good. A 2 Warlock/3 bard is a great character as the previous post mentioned. Waiting longer for the lock levels will I feel reduce your effectiveness early on

[AmbientRaven]

This is the exact same situation I'm in (look at the Pimp my Bard thread) and here's what I decided:

As mentioned eldritch blast doesn't out-damage regular weapons until level 5 when it gets its 2 rays. Until then you may as well use a crossbow if your dex is ok. You do want to have the 2 levels in before 5 though. My plan is to take the first Warlock level at level 2. It gives you more spells and slots than the second level of bard and hex will make you really effective with a bow or whatever. Then take 2 more bard levels and take your second Warlock level at 5 just in time for when it gets good. A 2 Warlock/3 bard is a great character as the previous post mentioned. Waiting longer for the lock levels will I feel reduce your effectiveness early on

Thats almost exactly what i decided to do, as it fits my characters story better that way as well

Thanks for all the feedback guys