Warlock/Fighter...is it a good idea?

[foREVer_Lawliet]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has tried playing a warlock fighter so far in 5e? We will be starting a new campaign and in my attempt to build a "Witcher" (http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Witcher) I have decided to go with a fighter/Warlock.

To start with since we will most likely be starting at level 1 my plan was to go:

fighter 1
fighter 1 warlock 1
fighter 2 warlock 1
fighter 2 warlock 2
from then on I'll probably only level in fighter.

And finally, should we start on level 1 these are the starts I have gone with so far using the point buy system and taking the Human race.

STR 16
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 14

So what do you think of the idea in general, the level progression plan and the stats I have gone with.

Thanks in advance

[Submortimer]

This isn't a bad idea at all. since 2 levels in warlock gets you Eldritch blast, Agonizing Blast, and Repelling blast, you have an amazingly effective Ranged attack for the rest of your levels. Following that, I'd buff your strength, pick up a greatsword, and go GWF Champion (Not EK, you'll want to buff your Cha, not your INT). go like this
Fighter 1 Great Weapon Master, GWF Fighting style
Fighter 2
Fighter 2/Warlock 1
Fighter 2/Warlock 2 Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast
Champion 3/Warlock 2
Champion 4/Warlock 2 +2 str
Champion 5/Warlock 2
Champion 5/Warlock 3 Booklock (more spells, rituals, more "Witchery"); Alternately, Bladelock (Gaurenteed free magic weapon)
Champion 6/Warlock 3 +2 Str
Champion 7/Warlock 3
Champion 8/Warlock 3
Champion 9/Warlock 3
Champion 10/Warlock 3 Crossbow Master (Ranged Spell Attacks in melee, something the Geralt can do easily), Defense Fighting Style
Champion 11/Warlock 3
Champion 12/Warlock 3 +2 Cha
Champion 13/Warlock 3
Champion 14/Warlock 3 +2 Cha
Champion 15/Warlock 3
Champion 16/Warlock 3 +2 Cha
Champion 17/Warlock 3

Then intimidate EVERYONE.

[Submortimer]

Alternate suggestion: Who cares if you don't have any intelligence?

Step one: Go EK. Take protection spells and stuff that doesn't require enemies to make saves or for you to make attack rolls with your Int.
Step Two: Get War Magic.
Step three: Get Crossbow Mastery (Again, so you can cast in melee)
Step four: Step in, EB for two or three blasts, and then hit something with your sword/axe/big stick.

I'd suggest swapping your Str and Cha around, and buff the Cha first. You'll be more like a really hardy warlock for a couple levels, but that's kinda what a Witcher is, no?
Besides, you can use your Warlock slots to cast your EK spells, and vice versa. Get hex and Armor of Agathys and ABUSE THEM.

[lordshadowisle]

The idea of dipping warlock is actually pretty decent. You don't even need much CHA, 13 is fine.

Instead of enhancing combat ability, I'll look for choices to increase utility. You're a fighter, your main complaints are lack of outside-of-combat usefulness. Try to get more options to make your game more interesting!

Advantages of dipping:
1 dip: Mainly dip 1 level for Hex+1 other spell, as well as patron ability (GOO is most usable here, gives you some fun RP telepathy). Cantrip choice: 2 of Mage Hands, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation. Eldritch blast is overrated, unless you're a STR-fighter.
2 dip: You get 3 level 1 spells, being able to cast 2 per rest. More importantly, you get 2 invocations, which is great! Instead of repelling blast (which is typically inferior for dex-fighters), you should choose useful at-will abilities, which you can spam infinitely more often than main casters. Disguise self, silent image, detect magic at will are all useful. Devil's sight is also a good option.
3 dip: Level 2 spells, invisibility is good, so is darkness if you took Devil's sight. Pact boon is now open too. Both chain and book are viable. Chain gives you a great familiar for all your scouting tasks. Tome is better, giving you an extra 3 cantrips without class restrictions. Guidance is great. Lastly, you have the option to get Book of Ancient Secrets, giving you access to level 1 and 2 rituals. It's not great due to your limited class levels, so skip this if your ritual needs are already met by other party members.

[Giant2005]

You are better off going the other way and being a Warlock that dips into Fighter.
The Fighter's third attack will never be as strong as the Bladelock's Liderinker. When it comes to Fighter, you either go pure , dip, or don't bother.

[holygroundj]

You are better off going the other way and being a Warlock that dips into Fighter.
The Fighter's third attack will never be as strong as the Bladelock's Liderinker. When it comes to Fighter, you either go pure , dip, or don't bother.

I kind of disagree. Fighter 11 gets you just as many ASIs (because of the bonus one at 6. Life drinker adds 10 damage, but fighter's 3rd attack is nice for a battle master adding riders and whatnot.

I don't think it's way better, I just don't think it's too much worse, either.

[ChubbyRain]

Though I prefer Wild Mage for my Fighters, warlock is not a bad option.


I would do Fighter 1/Warlock 4/Fighter 15

Warlock: Great Old One or Fiend
Pact: Tome for the utility and to pick up some neat cantrips. Guidance (Cleric), Vicious Mockery (bard), and Shocking Grasp (Sorc)

Switch your Con and Dex and go heavy armor but fluff it differently than heavy armor. Strength and Dex are closely related (acrobats tend to have a bit of muscle on them) that that shouldn't be a problem. Or just fluff yourself as a heavy armor witcher.

This gives you more HP. HP and AC are kinda an trade off in this game, you cab go high on one you offset the lower score for the other. However with higher HP and High AC... Yeah you get the best of both.

Also a lot of stunts pulled off by acrobatics should be doable by athletics.

Anyways...

Since you will have spells, invocations, and cantrips from the warlock... Go with battle master for the fighter side. You get "know your enemy" which is decent (special but you don't play a fighter for this ability) and you get some maneuvers usable per short rest.


Pick up a great sword and go to town.

[Easy_Lee]

This could work, though I have questions:

Which fighter archetype do you wish to take, and why?
Have you considered valor bard / warlock?

[GraakosGraakos]

If you're shooting for witcher, wouldn't ranger into fighter EK be better? Rangers are all about their enemies, and the EK would let you simulate their signs, with Shield for Quen, Burning Hands for Igni, Slow (I think they get slow, AFB) for that one trap sign, Charm Person for Axii (also, I think) and so on.

Vengeance Paladin would fit really well too, and is HELLA stronk.

But if you're sold on Warlock, non-int based Spells from EK and EB+AB is good, going Fighter first nabs you Con save (and it makes more sense to enter a fell pact after your lifetime of training) and armor profs.

[Xetheral]

I'd suggest starting with Fighter 1 (pick dueling), then going Warlock 3 (or 4 for an ASI) to get tome pact and pick up Shillelagh. Then take the rest of your levels in Fighter (any subclass). You're a pure Charisma-based build, with good options both for melee and for ranged, and a full suite of level 1 and 2 rituals for out-of-combat utility. Take Polearm Master as your variant human Feat.

Get your Charisma to 20 ASAP, and then have fun with the other feats, such as Inspiring Leader, Spell Sniper, or War Mage.

[ChubbyRain]

I'd suggest starting with Fighter 1 (pick dueling), then going Warlock 3 (or 4 for an ASI) to get tome pact and pick up Shillelagh. Then take the rest of your levels in Fighter (any subclass). You're a pure Charisma-based build, with good options both for melee and for ranged, and a full suite of level 1 and 2 rituals for out-of-combat utility. Take Polearm Master as your variant human Feat.

Get your Charisma to 20 ASAP, and then have fun with the other feats, such as Inspiring Leader, Spell Sniper, or War Mage.

I don't think Tome works that way, you get to cast the cantrips but they aren't on your list or even Warlock spells. You still cast Shillelagh off from wis.

Tome has different wording than the Bard's Magical Secret feature.

[Easy_Lee]

I don't think Tome works that way, you get to cast the cantrips but they aren't on your list or even Warlock spells. You still cast Shillelagh off from wis.

Tome has different wording than the Bard's Magical Secret feature.

I've seen a thread about this before, and the concensus back then was that tome warlocks cast their tome spells as warlock spells, with CHA. But I'd be interested to hear reasoning one way or the other.

[ChubbyRain]

I've seen a thread about this before, and the concensus back then was that tome warlocks cast their tome spells as warlock spells, with CHA. But I'd be interested to hear reasoning one way or the other.

I think the main reasoning that they don't is because it has wording much like Magic Initiate. You don't add the spells as your class spells but instead can cast those other class's spells.

The main reasoning that people think it does work off Cha is because... They want the warlock to be better than the rules allow and because they relate this ability to the bard's magical secrets. However the rules for magic secrets and Time has different wording.

If each class had their own cantrips I wouldn't let a warlock cherry pick cantrips and cha cast them. However there is so much overlap it isn't unbalanced all that much except for shillelagh.

Of course warlocks get Magic Stone through Cha already so... Might as well give them Cha Shillelagh.

Of course it steps on the toes of the Blade Lock for a few levels so it's mostly a personal preference I guess.

[SharkForce]

it doesn't say what attribute you use, but it doesn't need to. you get the cantrips from being a warlock. warlock spells are based on cha. magic initiate specifies that you pick a class because those spells are coming from a feat, not from a class.

[ChubbyRain]

it doesn't say what attribute you use, but it doesn't need to. you get the cantrips from being a warlock. warlock spells are based on cha. magic initiate specifies that you pick a class because those spells are coming from a feat, not from a class.

No. You get to cast other class's cantrip. It never says that you add them to your list. Unlike the Bard.

It falls more in line with magic initiate than magic secret.

Sadly.

[Submortimer]

I don't know about that. All Pact of the Tome says is that you can cast those spells at will. Magic Initiate specifies that your casting stat for the spells the feat gives you are whatever the class that they came from used.

I'd go for a general vs. specific here, but does anyone know if Mearles or Crawford has tweeted anything about it?

[Submortimer]

Never mind, Found it. They become Warlock Spells

http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/01/27/pact-of-tome/
(http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/01/27/pact-of-tome/)
Get out that Shillelagh and staff-lock it up!

[MeeposFire]

I always thought about leveling up this way.

fighter (EK) 7-8 followed by 2 levels of warlock


Make cha your best stat followed probably by dex. This combo would allow you to make an EB with agonizing blast and then you follow it up with a weapon attack as a bonus action (ranged would work best). With the cha bonus to damage this would be competitive with normal fighters while being unique. Since your int will be low be sure to choose spells that do not use it (like shield).

TO make it more OP you could finish the character by going into rogue. Sneak attack would combo very well with the bonus action attack from war magic as it only applies 1/turn and you get exactly one weapon attack per turn. Normally an EK does not want to use war magic because generally it is weaker than using an attack action but between sneak attack and agonizing EB you can make war magic very nasty. Your attack action would then be saved for situations where magic is no good which is when you get your two attacks per round + SA.

What is also nice is that rogue adds to your defensive boosts+mobility and going straight fighter and then multiclassing at levels 7 or 8 means that you will not be behind in ASI (fighter gets an extra bonus one) and you will never fall behind since until you multiclass you will get the same number of attacks as all other fighters. You will be slightly more MAD but it will be the same as a bladelock or a casting EB.

A final character might look like fighter8/warlock2/rogue10 which I think makes for some nice synergy.