Warlock "Tank" concept and question

[shakyincision]

Hello everyone. I love the flavor of the warlock, but I wanted to make one that is a little bit more interesting than just Eldritch Blast spam in combat. The gist is pop Armor of Agathys before one knows combat will happen within the hour, Blade Ward as an action, Shillelagh on quarterstaff as a bonus, and run into the fray for many small enemies, or stay back and Vicious Mockery or Hex+EB for big guys. My question is how does repelling blast work as a reaction with Polearm Mastery+War Caster feat? Does the repelling occur before/after the attack? If before, does it interrupt the attack?

Level 4 Human Variant
Point Buy

Str 8
Dex 13
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 16

Level 1 Feat: War Caster | Level 4 Feat: Polearm Mastery

Cantrips:
Eldritch Blast,
Blade Ward, Minor Illusion

Level 1:
Hex, Armor of Agathys

Pact of the Tome Spells:
Vicious Mockery, Shillelagh, Guidance

Eldritch Invocations:
Repelling Blast,
????? <-- What would be best?


Is this viable now, and does it seem like it will fall off as hard as I think it might? AC is purposefully low for more AoA procs, but I'm not sure what the sweet spot is. Any advice or additions to this build/concept would also be greatly appreciated! I'm leaning GOO for flavor, but Fiend seems so much better for this build. While I know that multiclassing would make this much better, our DM is not allowing it since it's the other 3 PC's first time playing DND, and he wanted to keep it simple.

[Corran]

The OA gained by polearm master when someone enters your reach must use the polearm. So no matter that you have the warcaster feat, the OA in the scenario I described above (ie enemy enters your reach) cannot be an EB, as EB does not use your polearm. Thus EB + repelling blast does not work the way you suggested.

[Sir cryosin]

Switch your dex and con then pick armor of Shadows invocations. For a 16 AC. And does your DM allow the scag if so check out the undying warlock.

[Syll]

The OA gained by polearm master when someone enters your reach must use the polearm. So no matter that you have the warcaster feat, the OA in the scenario I described above (ie enemy enters your reach) cannot be an EB, as EB does not use your polearm. Thus EB + repelling blast does not work the way you suggested.

Y'know, I vaguely recall reading the tweet about that forever ago; but, it doesn't show up in the Sage Advice compendium or the Erratas (unless I missed it) so one could be forgiven for not knowing about that tweet... Or also y'know, -ignoring- it.

RAW it looks perfectly legit, and it seems like it's petty for the devs to nerf a (somehow) unforseen consequence of a feat/class combo that was immediately apparent to everyone else. Also, they could just have easily included it in the Sage Compendium.

It's unreasonable to expect people to reference the books, the compendiums, the errata, AND wade through piles of tweets, in an edition that's supposed to 'cut out the fiddly bits'

edit: I found the tweet, but it was by Mike Mearls... According to Sage advice:

"Official rulings on how to interpret unclear rules are made in Sage Advice. The public statements of the D&D team, or anyone else at Wizards of the Coast, are not official rulings; they are advice. One exception: the game’s rules manager, Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford), can make official rulings and usually does so in Sage Advice."

[Corran]

RAW it looks perfectly legit, and it seems like it's petty for the devs to nerf a (somehow) unforseen consequence of a feat/class combo that was immediately apparent to everyone else. Also, they could just have easily included it in the Sage Compendium.
RAW in the phb it is legit, just because polearm master was not carefully written. Dont view it as a nerf, because it is not, it is just a fix with the purpose of avoiding rediculous situations that make gameplay unchallenging, boring and ludicrous. It is not petty of the devs to fix such things, it is their job. There are still clever ways to go about working good combos, we really dont need that cheese.


It's unreasonable to expect people to reference the books, the compendiums, the errata, AND wade through piles of tweets, in an edition that's supposed to 'cut out the fiddly bits'
I have no such expectations, I just told the op how it is supposed to work. Or not work in this case.

[shakyincision]

Thanks for all of the replies. You're right. I just read from the PHB and thought it was a neat interaction. I didn't know it was only an OA with the polearm.

[Syll]

RAW in the phb it is legit, just because polearm master was not carefully written. Dont view it as a nerf, because it is not, it is just a fix with the purpose of avoiding rediculous situations that make gameplay unchallenging, boring and ludicrous. It is not petty of the devs to fix such things, it is their job. There are still clever ways to go about working good combos, we really dont need that cheese.

I have no such expectations, I just told the op how it is supposed to work. Or not work in this case.

Sorry, rereading my post it comes off as hostile; it wasn't meant to be... or rather, not meant to be hostile towards you.

I do strongly dislike the issues that come from the tweets themselves (either in the form of someone not authorized to make rulings, or worse, in the form of crawford, who IS authorized, but responding to tweets off the cuff and misquoting the PHB, creating even more confusion)

[bid]

Thanks for all of the replies. You're right. I just read from the PHB and thought it was a neat interaction. I didn't know it was only an OA with the polearm.
You can go around this with booming blade. Use your OA when they try to move away (sentinel if they like disengage). They can only attack you and eat your AoA or waste their action.

If you AoA is still strong, you can BB a second target on your turn instead of blade ward. You'll get plummeted that way, hopefully you have a cleric friend with warding bond to double the depth of your AoA.

You can also dip barbarian for reckless attack which always works. Barbalock is nice.

[Corran]

Sorry, rereading my post it comes off as hostile; it wasn't meant to be... or rather, not meant to be hostile towards you.
Nah man, dont worry, no offense taken. Apologies for my salty post too.

[djreynolds]

Grab plate armor, get a shield and just go weaponless. Warlocks can get by without a melee weapon, or really any weapon. Just use EB with repelling blast. Get warcaster and get AoO with EB, grab some other class that gives you some shield spell, mirror image, and something concentration, heck even grab shield master. IMHO, cantrips have really replaced the need for a caster in melee to have a weapon, and if the DM says something about ranged spell attacks, grab crosswbow expert, I'm told this will work for a ranged attacks in melee, not just crossbows.

[WeaselGuy]

I'm actually playing a Fiend-BladeLock in my 5e campaign. I'm not really the tank, per se, but let's just say that SGT Salerax "Devilspawn" al-Wendonai, the Undying Exile has that title for a reason. We just hit 6, and his stats look a little something like this:

Winged Tiefling

Str - 17 (+1@4=18)
Dex - 14
Con - 14
Int - 12
Wis - 9
Cha - 17 (+1@4=18)

AC 14 (wearing Leather Armor), HP 55 (currently)


Legend:

Otherworldy Patron Feature
Spells
Invocations
ASI/Feat


Warlock 1 - Dark One's Blessing, Eldritch Blast, Green Flame Blade, Burning Hands, Hex
Warlock 2 - Eldritch Sight, Agonizing Blast, Armor of Agathys
Warlock 3 - Scorching Ray
Warlock 4 - Str & Cha +1, Sword Burst, Hold Person
Warlock 5 - Thirsting Blade, Fireball
Warlock 6 - Dark One's Own Luck, Hunger of Hadar
Warlock 7 - Repelling Blast, Fire Shield
Warlock 8 - Polearm Mastery, Dimension Door Warlock 9 - Ascendant Step, Flame Strike
Warlock 10 - Fiendish Resilience, Burning Blade, Hallow
Warlock 11 - Mass Suggestion
Warlock 12 - Str +2, Life Drinker
Warlock 13 - Arms of Hadar, Plane Shift
Warlock 14 - Hurl Through Hell
Warlock 15 - Vision of Distant Realms, Dispel Magic, Feeblemind
Warlock 16 - Cha +2
Warlock 17 - Witch Sight, Vampiric Touch, Foresight
Warlock 18 -
Warlock 19 - Contact Other Plane
Warlock 20 - Haven't Decided



btw, my DM veto'd the Warcaster/Polearm Mastery combo, so my level 20 Feat/ASI is undetermined as of right now. Suggestions? +2 Con never hurts, and another AC from +2 Dex might not be bad, depending on what kind of armor I have at that point. Str and Cha will both be maxed out at 20 by 16.