My warlock for Curse of Strahd... Thoughts, tweaks, input?

[Winzzy]

So I am planning out my character for our Curse of Strahd and would love your input and help.

D&D Background
I am relatively new to P&P and most of my experience in D&D is from computer games. We are about to finish up The Rise of Tiamat, in which I have played an arcane trickster built around using a one handed crossbow. His spells are primarily used for defensive and mobility purposes with the occasional battlefield control.

We had planned to go into the underdark next but are instead going to run the Curse of Strahd frst to have a bit of a shorter campaign. I am planning to play a full caster to get more experiance with magic since my Underdark charactor is going to be a paladin.

Character Background
My current plan is to run an undying warlock (not undying light, but the new patron from SCAG). The short story is that sometime in the charactors past, Strahd wiped out his family/village and didn't quite kill my charactor (Constantine Belmont). The cool part about this is Strahd is my patron and it is my personal mission to kill him for vengance =D My DM is all about story and seems pretty happy with the basics so far. I also got

Race: Half-Elf
Class: Warlock (single class)
Build Style: Blastlock (tomelock)

One of the things I am looking for is advice on skills, spells, and feats... One of my concerns is that since the warlock spell list is so limited, I won't have as many options. I would like some guidence in how to build the character to have as much versatiliy in game as possible, while still being a heavy hitter.

THanks for your thoughts.

[lebefrei]

You're literally asking your DM to toy with you by using Strahd as a patron. I'd just turn your powers off when trying to attack him, if not even force you to turn on your allies.

Why not use Lord Soth (Death Knight) or Azalin Rex (Lich)? Then you're empowered by one of his enemies.

Otherwise it should work fine. Undying have good durability and undead are less likely to go after you, which is probably ideal for Ravenloft. Warlock as always is a great ranged attacker with decent utility.

[Winzzy]

I have talked to him about it...

The angle we will be taking is that Strahd doesn't control my power, the power was given ala vampire tropes... that being said, Strahd will have some advantages against me, most likely being able to sense my presence and speak into my mind etc...

I am okay with the disadvantages for the cool story aspect and I trust my DM not to abuse it mechanically. He is interested in telling the best story with us, not "winning".

What about spell selection etc..?

Does warlock just degenerate into eldritch blast spam? How do I avoid that?

[KorvinStarmast]

What about spell selection etc..?

Does warlock just degenerate into eldritch blast spam? How do I avoid that?
Don't avoid it, embrace it.
You have to pick your invocations and other spells with some care. Expanding on what you know via the tome is nice.
Before you pick spells, who are the other members of your party and how can you buff them when you aren't blasting things? One of the nice things about Chill Touch is that undead whom you target with that cantrip have disadvantage to attack you. The down side is that a lot of undead have resistance(example ghoul) or immunity (example ghost) to necrotic damage.

[Addaran]

Warlock can degenerate into just spamming EB, but it's only if that's what you want. You get other cantrips and you have some spell. If you use them proactively to do some control, you won't feel like you're only EB-ing. (like you would if you always keep your slots for Misty Steps in case of danger for exemple).

Some invocations lets you cast spells at will, that will be helpfull to have other options in combat (like silent image).

For versatility, you'll be golden with tome. Make sure you pick 3 good cantrips that aren't in warlock spell-list and get the invocation that lets you have all the rituals eventually.(Find Familiar is a favorite of mine.) You'll bring tons of utilities!

[Winzzy]

So what are some of the best cantrips and uses?

Korvin suggested Chill Touch for the disadvantage it gives... I also imagine since it is a touch spell it doesn't suffer from the range disadvantages that some spells do?

Find familiar seems great as well.

What about non-cantrips? Are there any considered mandatory?

[Addaran]

Did you roll stats or it's point-buy? What were you thinking for the background/style of the character? (strong, agile, mostly mental stats?) What was he doing/training for before his family got wiped?

Knowing your party would also help. Warlock can make great face for exemple, but maybe you already have a bard or sorceror who wants that role.


Chill Touch is a ranged attack. =P You make a spectral hand appear and it touches the enemy. So you do get disadvantage in melee.

I'm assuming lvl 1?

[Winzzy]

Good questions, that is exactly what I came for.

My background story isn't completely fleshed out, but I was thinking of going with a minor noble who doesn't work or do anything. He would have been educated and would know about trade etc, but would not have an arcane or military background... My idea was to be the party face, but not everyone has chosen their class yet.

As far as physical characteristics he will be quite handsome (cha) but rather average regarding other stats. My second states will be con (reflecting the healthy food etc.. he reieved aas a minor noble) and dex (noblility would have favord hunting and dextarity type weapons in the minor training he did recieve) Str would be lowest (after all lifting is what servants are for) and Wisdom and Int will be as high as they can be...

We have been rolling stats up to this point, not sure what he will chose to do for this campaign. I will say that I am not planning on dropping any stat below 10.

We will start at level 1.

[RulesJD]

So what are some of the best cantrips and uses?

Korvin suggested Chill Touch for the disadvantage it gives... I also imagine since it is a touch spell it doesn't suffer from the range disadvantages that some spells do?

Find familiar seems great as well.

What about non-cantrips? Are there any considered mandatory?

Chill Touch, Guidance, Vicious Mockery/Sacred Flame/Shillelagh depending on what you want to do.

[Addaran]

If nobody as it in the party, prestigitation is extremely important (to clean stuff after crawling in the sewer or the blood after fights). If you want some melee, check the new SCAG cantrips (pairs well with shillelag too when you reach lvl 3) or shocking grasp (lvl 3). Or get one of the just save spell (vicious mockery, frostbite, poison spray) so you dont get disadvantage in "melee".

Half-elf warlock gets ton of skills, so that's great. You can get the face ones, and possibly stealth+thieves tools for backup rogue if you don't have one. (You're supposed to be able to mix backgrounds stuff, pick noble but change one language for thieves tools.)

Evocations, since you said blaster, agonizing blast is a must. Then there's Book of Ancient Secrets.
Other fun ones, mask of many face(in wich case, Friends become interesting) or misty visions, devil's sight.

Higher lvl spells, i don't remember your patron's spell, but Hex is good for blaster. Armor of Agathys to be a little bit tougher, hellish rebuke for more damage or arms of hadar for aoe. Charm Person gives utility and protection from Good/Evil is interesting a low level (specialy in Ravenloft =P) but eventually, you'll want your concentration spot for better spells.

[Winzzy]

Chill Touch, Guidance, Vicious Mockery/Sacred Flame/Shillelagh depending on what you want to do.

Okay so let's see if I can ascertain each spells strengths

Chill Touch - Can’t regain hit points, and disadvantage to undead... seems like viscous mockery is better at giving disadvantage.

Guidance - Mini bardic inspiration on checks? This seems like mostly an out of combat thing since it takes an action. I am okay with that.

Vicious Mockery - Disadvantage on the next attack roll (Wis save)

Sacred Flame - No attack roll? (dexterity save instead) and is radiant damage? I am not sure that this is really that much better than EB if I have a high enough Cha... what am I missing?

Shillelagh - Oh wow, this is awesome... Hopefully I won't be in melee, but this will at least let me have a chance at hitting things is I am AND it gets through resistance to non-magical weapons... very nice.

[Rhaegar14]

Guidance - Mini bardic inspiration on checks? This seems like mostly an out of combat thing since it takes an action. I am okay with that.

Sacred Flame - No attack roll? (dexterity save instead) and is radiant damage? I am not sure that this is really that much better than EB if I have a high enough Cha... what am I missing?

Shillelagh - Oh wow, this is awesome... Hopefully I won't be in melee, but this will at least let me have a chance at hitting things is I am AND it gets through resistance to non-magical weapons... very nice.

With Guidance you've pretty much hit the nail on the head, but bear in mind you can cast it before combat for a bonus to initiative.

For Sacred Flame, being able to target a save instead of an attack roll is a good option to have (dragons, for example, typically have high armor class but less than awesome Dexterity saves). Additionally, radiant is a very useful damage type against undead. For example, Zombies have a chance to remain at 1 hit point instead of dropping to 0 hit points, unless you hit them with radiant damage. As a final note, because it's not an attack roll, you don't take any penalties for casting Sacred Flame in melee.

As far as Shillelagh goes, you've PRETTY MUCH got it, but I advise you to add Booming Blade or Greenflame Blade around level 5 (maybe your new cantrip at level 4) if you go for Shillelagh. The combination of the two cantrips gives you a scaling melee attack option and while it's not as good as a Fighter's attack routine by a wide margin, you will not be helpless in melee at any point across the game.

[Winzzy]

Excellent, thank you so much for the extra clarification. I am already feeling a little more comfortable.

[RulesJD]

Guidance is the best cantrip in the game and useful for every class.

Works on ANY check provided you have time to cast it before the check. That means Perception to search a room, Investigation to check for traps, and the big one, Initiative before combat. It's like a mini-version of a few feats wrapped up into a spammable cantrip.

Sacred Flame for radiant damage/save against high AC enemies.

I should add, take Minor Illusion as your second Warlock cantrip. It has a silly amount of uses, least of which is a minor version of Message. Just minor illusion a whisper in someone's ear for de facto Message.

Chill Touch is not no normally one I would suggest, but meta-gaming it will be very useful in CoS.

[KorvinStarmast]

So what are some of the best cantrips and uses?

Korvin suggested Chill Touch for the disadvantage it gives... I also imagine since it is a touch spell it doesn't suffer from the range disadvantages that some spells do?

Find familiar seems great as well.

What about non-cantrips? Are there any considered mandatory?

Chill touch has a range of 120'. This ghostly hand shows up and latches onto the target. If it hits, target takes necrotic damage and can't be healed during that turn.

[GlenSmash!]

Chill Touch effectively shuts down a vampires ability to regenerate. Could be very useful to the party.

[Winzzy]

Ahhh I didn't realizes vampires regenerated... Thank you.