Best Way to Make a Pure STR Based Warlcok

[DireSickFish]

The easy fix for a Bladelocks supreme lack of AC is to dip 1 or 2 levels of Fighter or Paladin for the Heavy armor and roll on from there. This unfortunately is going to delay your extra attack until level 6 or 7 along with delaying thirsting blade until level 13 or 14. That's a lot of offensive power to give up to shore up AC and I'd like to avoid that with my next character. We always use point buy in my group so there's no waiting to roll good stats.

Mountain Dwarf and Variant Human with the Medium Armor feat make other solid contenders. Unfortunately you're super MAD needing a 14Dex and wanting as high a Con as you can manage as you'll be on the front lines. Or at least in a position to get hit. Still going with:

17 STR
13 DEX
14 CON
8 INT
8 WIS
15 CHA

And medium armor gets you 16 AC, which isn't good but it's better than sticking with light armor. Blowing feats for heavy armor is tempting here, but again you're giving up offense for defense. Maxing STR and CHA as fast as possible gives you the most oomph, and you only have 5 ASI.

Is there a tiefling variant that gives +STR and CHA in SCAG, away from book? What's the best way to be a pure bladelock? I've thought about ignoring AC and taking as much stuff to give damage when I'm hit as possible but I don't think that's viable.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Just take the fighter level. One level delay isn't going to hurt you very much, especially not when you can get a comparable boost from fighting style. (TWF goes nicely with Hex and Lifedrinker)

[Tanarii]

Or you can just not worry about the lack of AC. You've got class features to compensate. Mage Armor at will. False Life at Will. Armor of Agathys. Infernal has even more tasty Temp Hps if you really feel it's lacking.

Edit: Obviously if you're trying to be a constant front line melee combatant, then you're going to need the AC. Bladelocks aren't intended to play the same combat role as Barbarians, Fighters and Paladins. They're skirmishers, like Rangers, Rogues and Monks.

[DireSickFish]

Or you can just not worry about the lack of AC. You've got class features to compensate. Mage Armor at will. False Life at Will. Armor of Agathys. Infernal has even more tasty Temp Hps if you really feel it's lacking.

Edit: Obviously if you're trying to be a constant front line melee combatant, then you're going to need the AC. Bladelocks aren't intended to play the same combat role as Barbarians, Fighters and Paladins. They're skirmishers, like Rangers, Rogues and Monks.

I don't need to have the best AC like the 21 a Fighter in Fullplate can get, or the ridiculousness shield spamming gets you. But I'll fold like a wet noodle if I've got an 13 or 14 AC, even with temp HP curbing the edge.

[Tanarii]

But I'll fold like a wet noodle if I've got an 13 or 14 AC, even with temp HP curbing the edge.Got to admit, my favorite is a Mountain Dwarf Str 15, Dex 12, Con 16, Cha 15 start. AC 15-16 & 11 + 8 hp/level is doable with temp hps. So that's biasing my view on Bladelock survivability quite a bit. :smallwink:

[Ruslan]

Dipping a fighter level just for the armor delays your progressing too much. Just be a Mountain Dwarf single-classed Warlock. Start with Str 15 (+2), Dex 10, Con 14 (+2), Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 10. At level 4, take Heavily Armored and +1 Str for a total of 18. By level 5, you have the Extra Attack invocation already. On level 8, max Str, then either work on Con or go GWM. Take only invocations and spells that aren't affected by Charisma. Armor of Agathys, Hex, etc.

[DireSickFish]

Dipping a fighter level just for the armor delays your progressing too much. Just be a Mountain Dwarf single-classed Warlock. Start with Str 15 (+2), Dex 10, Con 14 (+2), Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 10. At level 4, take Heavily Armored and +1 Str for a total of 18. By level 5, you have the Extra Attack invocation already. On level 8, max Str, then either work on Con or go GWM. Take only invocations and spells that aren't affected by Charisma. Armor of Agathys, Hex, etc.

That's a solid build order, forgot that Heavily armored was a half feat. I'd probably swap the WIS and CHA in that build though.

[Jamesps]

I've tried this for a while and came up with two strategies.

1) Human pure warlock with 9 pts in strength, one bonus stat and an additional bonus stat from medium armor mastery. At level 4 take heavy armor. Roll with low constitution and use the fiend pack to constently get temporary hp throughout the battle.

This strategy is ideal if you want to save your spell slots for big honkers like fireball and not worry about hexing.

2) Fighter 1/Warlock whatever. People have already mentioned this, but I'll add that having constitution as your primary save will help you keep up things like hex. Finally, don't worry about the loss of attack. Use Greenflame blade at level 5 which will allow you to do weapon + 1d8 to your primary opponent, and 1d8+3 to a potential secondary opponent. This is actually more total damage than attacking twice if you can get your enemies lined up. Even if you can't it's almost as much damage just with the extra d8, and it's only for a single level that you need to use it.

[Giant2005]

The absolute best way is to be a werebear.

[BigONotation]

Just take the fighter level. One level delay isn't going to hurt you very much, especially not when you can get a comparable boost from fighting style. (TWF goes nicely with Hex and Lifedrinker)

Very much this. I have plans for a STR-based Polearm Master Bladelock with Great Weapon Fighting Style. I will take one level of fighter at 1st level.

Variant Human, Polearm Master feat

16 (15 + 1 VHuman)
10
14 (13 + 1 VHuman)
10
10
14


1st Fighter - Great Weapon Fighting, Action Surge
2nd Warlock 1 (Patron Fiend or Undying Light if allowed) - Eldritch Blast and Green Flame Blade, Hex, Armor of Agathys
3rd Warlock 2 - Invocations: Devil's Sight, Repelling Blast, Expeditious Retreat
4th Warlock 3 - Pact of the Blade, Misty Step
5th Warlock 4 - +2 STR.

[Jeebs]

Normal human for +1 to all stats?

STR 16, DEX 13, CON 14, INT 9, WIS 9, CHA 16

Your AC is bad until level 4, then you take Moderately Armored and +1 to DEX to be able to wear Medium Armor effectively. Or you could start with 14 in STR (15 after racials), and bump INT or WIS up to 10, if it's important to you. Then you use Moderately Armored for STR to get up to 16.

You might miss Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, and Resilient. Unless you can stand to have CHA or STR at less than 20.

EDIT: Don't forgot about the shield proficiency that Moderately Armored gives you. Another +2 to AC.

[Rysto]

1) Human pure warlock with 9 pts in strength, one bonus stat and an additional bonus stat from medium armor mastery. At level 4 take heavy armor. Roll with low constitution and use the fiend pack to constently get temporary hp throughout the battle.
(bolding mine)

I presume that you meant "Moderately Amoured" here?

[TheProfessor85]

There is the abyssal variant. Which is +2CHA +1Con from Unearthed Acanca: That old black magic

[Sir cryosin]

Very much this. I have plans for a STR-based Polearm Master Bladelock with Great Weapon Fighting Style. I will take one level of fighter at 1st level.

Variant Human, Polearm Master feat

16 (15 + 1 VHuman)
10
14 (13 + 1 VHuman)
10
10
14


1st Fighter - Great Weapon Fighting, Action Surge
2nd Warlock 1 (Patron Fiend or Undying Light if allowed) - Eldritch Blast and Green Flame Blade, Hex, Armor of Agathys
3rd Warlock 2 - Invocations: Devil's Sight, Repelling Blast, Expeditious Retreat
4th Warlock 3 - Pact of the Blade, Misty Step
5th Warlock 4 - +2 STR.

Fighter don't get action surge tell lv2

[Easy_Lee]

This has been discussed to death in previous threads. I'll tell you what works and what's cool.

Best: Variant Human Polearm Master, quarterstaff and shield, 1 fighter / 19 warlock. Best armor, uses a shield, great AC, stupid damage.

Cool: Pure warlock, fey or fiend pact, greatsword blade lock. Fiend pact tries to burn foes down fast and can regain HP from killing foes. Fey let's you avoid damage more easily.

[MrStabby]

Fiend looks good, but I find fey pact works better in practice. With a bladelock you are more interested in boosting fighting stats and you need to sacrifice some charisma for that. Fey pact gives you a load of spells that don't use charisma. If you go feypact fighter is a little less needed - if you were inclined you could dip rogue instead but that is more of a dex build

Other options include cleric 1 for heavy armour - no extra fighting styles but can really help out with more spells known and some extra spell slots for your warlock spells. Makes you very MAD though and you need to be very careful will spell selection to pull it off.

[BW022]

If you are considering multi-classing for armor, my advice is to look at cleric -- either tempest or war domain. I would favour tempest. You get heavy armour and all weapons (useful until 4th when you get pact of the blade). While you may not get the fighting style of the fighter... you get:

* Spell slots. These are extremely useful as you can cast spells using either set. Warlocks only have one or two spell slots per combat and having 2 more (per day) is extremely useful for shield.

* Cantrips. Useful having extra utility abilities.

* Cleric spells. These can be extremely useful in several ways -- healing is useful (especially out of combat with spell slots which regenerate after a short rest), shield of faith is great for a low-level defensive spell, you can switch out spells for utility spells in non-combat cases (detect magic, detect poison, purify food and drink, etc.)

* Ritual casting. A number of these spells can be cast using rituals -- detect magic, detect poison, etc.

* Domain spells. Tempest gives thunderwave which is a great low-level close area spell. Warlocks have limited starting area attacks and this both does damage, moves folks back (useful with say a polearm build), and scales up reasonably well. War gives shield of faith which is a likely low-level spell.

* Domain abilities. Wrath of the storm is good at low levels -- especially if you combine it with armor of agathys. The extra weapon attack at low-levels is also good.

Stats is the only major issue with this. 13 wisdom is needed to multiclass. I recommend with a bladelock build not going with a high charisma. 14 is good enough. You aren't using a lot of save type spells and your weapon attacks are based off strength, so you likely aren't eldritch blasting must in melee, so it isn't that critical. Non-variant human is a good choice since the +1 on every stat means an array like 16, 9, 16, 9, 13, 14. Just increase strength at 5th, or take a feat -- polearm mastery, or heavy armor master.

[Casualoblivion]

2 levels of Paladin lets you use Smite for offense instead of magic, and you don't need max Charisma anymore. A third Paladin level gives you Oath of Enmity and more smites.

Taking levels of Fighter or Paladin will delay your second attack, but you can take Booming Blade or Greenflame Blade which scale at character level 5. Neither is as good as the second attack, but beat out a generic attack once they scale at 5.

[Malifice]

I really dont find the fighter dip to be a problem.

Heavy armor, con saves (to keep Hex running), martial weapons, nice hit points, second wind per short rest for increased survivability, and a fighting style.

Greenflame blade/ Booming blade picks up the slack at 5th level, and at 6th level thirsting blade is online.

[Drackolus]

Favored soul, anyone?

[djreynolds]

This might be a dumb question in regards to bladelocks, you summon one weapon, but for duel wielders you can summon two?

And if you have the extra attack feature from say 6 levels of paladin, is thirsting blade a requirement of life drinker, can you not skip thirsting blade for another invocation and still get life drinker?

[Easy_Lee]

This might be a dumb question in regards to bladelocks, you summon one weapon, but for duel wielders you can summon two?

And if you have the extra attack feature from say 6 levels of paladin, is thirsting blade a requirement of life drinker, can you not skip thirsting blade for another invocation and still get life drinker?

Two weapon fighting is, overall, not that great for blade warlocks. Their invocations specifically apply to one weapon, and they have other uses for their bonus action.

The way around the former, of course, is to ask your DM for a double weapon (as in Darth Maul). That can be pretty useful.

Now exactly topic related, but you can also make a very strong eldritch knight / blade warlock if you have the stats for it (and the campaign goes long enough).

[Regulas]

Firstly I really dislike multiclassing in concept: and in fact I honestly feel that 5e wasn't at all balanced with even a whiff of thought towards multiclassing, rather they included it as an afterthought to allow for flexible concepts.

So the basics for STR lock:

* Charisma is a dump stat or at least much lower importance, (it's basically useless till 11th level) : There are tons of spells that don't require any kinds of saves (in my case I would probably use Agathys as a primary spell), while this does limit your choices it also really crushes the MAD problem since you can really focus on the physical stats now.
* Polearm's are probably the best choice especially with the SCAG Booming blade (they can't move to attack you without triggering the boom). They allow you to minimise the time you're in direct contact which should really help with the low AC issue.
* Get temp HP either via Armor of Agathys or via the False life invocation [They don't stack]. (Also note the armor of agathys+blade ward minor combo). Note that False life can always be cast in combat as a "self-heal" to boot. This again goes a long way to trivialising any AC issues.
* Ditch Eldritch blast, you're specifically trying to be melee and you would be better spent saving your invocations for other things (like False life), not to mention a more usable cantrip.

Those are probably the biggest points, the rest can be worked out however you want.


Random thoughts:
Although you'll definitely lack AC without medium armor at 1, I actually like Half-orc's for this due to the Relentless Endurance ability. And even though Undying isn't great I almost wonder about an undying half-orc with constant death wards. You could go down 3 times potentially in a combat and still get up.

[Steampunkette]

WARNING: DO NOT DROP ELDRITCH BLAST

Eldritch Blast is the best cantrip in your bag for dealing damage at range. Even if you don't take Repelling or Agonizing blast.

ESPECIALLY if you go STR instead of DEX. There will be times where getting into melee simply isn't an option, and a ranged attack is really important to have.

[Regulas]

WARNING: DO NOT DROP ELDRITCH BLAST

Eldritch Blast is the best cantrip in your bag for dealing damage at range. Even if you don't take Repelling or Agonizing blast.

ESPECIALLY if you go STR instead of DEX. There will be times where getting into melee simply isn't an option, and a ranged attack is really important to have.

Your can bring throwing weapons and use str for that, if your really concerned or your team has limited ranged damage.

[Steampunkette]

I've always hated throwing weapons, myself. Just the idea of willfully disarming oneself in the general direction of the opponent sits uneasily.

[Regulas]

I've always hated throwing weapons, myself. Just the idea of willfully disarming oneself in the general direction of the opponent sits uneasily.

Just think of it like you're an archer only your using your arm to shoot the arrows instead of a bow.

[RickAllison]

Firstly I really dislike multiclassing in concept: and in fact I honestly feel that 5e wasn't at all balanced with even a whiff of thought towards multiclassing, rather they included it as an afterthought to allow for flexible concepts.

So the basics for STR lock:

* Charisma is a dump stat or at least much lower importance, (it's basically useless till 11th level) : There are tons of spells that don't require any kinds of saves (in my case I would probably use Agathys as a primary spell), while this does limit your choices it also really crushes the MAD problem since you can really focus on the physical stats now.
* Polearm's are probably the best choice especially with the SCAG Booming blade (they can't move to attack you without triggering the boom). They allow you to minimise the time you're in direct contact which should really help with the low AC issue.

Do note that you need Spell Sniper to use BB with reach weapons, since its range is only 5 ft.

[Easy_Lee]

Would like to contribute once more with a character concept: Fiend Pact Greatsword Bladelock.

Starting at level 1, you gain temporary HP of level + CHA mod every time you drop a foe. Level 6, you can add a d10 to any ability check or saving throw, even after seeing the roll. Those are both great benefits from early on that will keep you alive.

As for AC, you don't need it. Armor of Agathys lasts one hour, grants temp HP of (5 * spell slot level), and deals the same in damage to any attacker. So you actually want to get hit, just to kill things faster.

And, of course, with a greatsword you're dealing fantastic damage. Agonizing EB will further ensure that you're always able to deal damage. Fiendish Vigor can also be used (best at low levels) to further increase your survival. Further add misty step and hellish rebuke, and there's very little your warlock has to fear.

So, honestly, you don't need fighter or cleric levels to be an effective strength-based bladelock.

[Malifice]

Would like to contribute once more with a character concept: Fiend Pact Greatsword Bladelock.

Starting at level 1, you gain temporary HP of level + CHA mod every time you drop a foe. Level 6, you can add a d10 to any ability check or saving throw, even after seeing the roll. Those are both great benefits from early on that will keep you alive.

As for AC, you don't need it. Armor of Agathys lasts one hour, grants temp HP of (5 * spell slot level), and deals the same in damage to any attacker. So you actually want to get hit, just to kill things faster.

And, of course, with a greatsword you're dealing fantastic damage. Agonizing EB will further ensure that you're always able to deal damage. Fiendish Vigor can also be used (best at low levels) to further increase your survival. Further add misty step and hellish rebuke, and there's very little your warlock has to fear.

So, honestly, you don't need fighter or cleric levels to be an effective strength-based bladelock.

You kinda do though.

You wont be proficient in that sword till 3rd level.

Starting as a fighter lets you dump Dex and Int to 8, gives you heavy armor proficiency right off the bat, vital (for a bladelock) Con saves (to keep Hex running), extra hit points, bonus action second wind for survivability at the squishy levels, and a fighting style. Go Vuman and you're netting Polearm master/ HAM/ GWM from level 1.

Then go 'lock from levels 2+

Assume stats of S 15(16), D 8, C 14, I 8, W 10, Ch 15(16). Vuman. GWM Feat.

Fighter 1/ Lock 1 with Banded mail and defense style is rocking an AC of 18, Has 19 hit points (plus second wind 1d10+1 as a bonus action 1/ short rest). With Hex cast, he swings at +5 in melee dealing 3d6+3 damage (aso has GWM -5/+10 as an option) and 3 splash damage.

If he drops a creature to 0 HP, he gains 4 Temp HP and makes a bonus action cleave attack.

Catrips are Eldritch blast and Greenflame blade. Spells are Hex and whatever.

[Regulas]

You kinda do though.


You kinda don't. What you've suggested is merely a possible build that works not a better build (some bladelock builds specifically want lower armour or simply don't care or can drop cha or plenty of other ways), there's just a sterotype that you're supposed to wear heavy armour in combat (or have an AC ability).
Also while some multiclassing is strong, it is a bit misleading as I find people seem to have a hard time judging what was lost by multiclassing. Keep in mind the warlocks main spellcasting aspect is that it can spam the highest level spells available a ton more then any other caster, so honestly I find delaying warlock spellcasting actually hurts a lot more then it seems. Every time I've ever done dips in actual campaigns I've always felt the hurt of not just being able to use far more powerfull spells.

[Steampunkette]

Lack of weapon proficiency is the big one, to me.

[DireSickFish]

Lack of weapon proficiency is the big one, to me.

Most my games start at level 3 and if you find a magic weapon you can make it your pact weapon to become proficient with it. So while I agree it would suck for a lvl1 adventurer starting out, in my home games meta it wouldn't come into play all that much.

From what I've seen on here the Minmaxers paradise is going to be Mountain Dwarf with

17 STR
8 DEX
17 CON
8 INT
8 WIS
15 CHA

Take Heavily Armored at lvl 4 and +1 STR. So you only have to suck it up with trash AC for 3 levels. Granted those are the most dangerous levels. Max STR at 8 then at 12 you can bump CON and CHA. I think Mountain Dwarf also gives you some weapon proficiencies so you can use an axe until level 3. Dropping CON and CHA down a point to have a decent WIS doesn't hurt the build really and I think that stat line was posted earlier.

[Easy_Lee]

Lack of weapon proficiency is the big one, to me.

Levels 1 and 2 aren't too hard to get through with just EB and Agonizing EB, though, plus armor of agathys and hellish rebuke. EB damage is comparable to a short sword at 1 and a glaive when agonizing is added. The only thing you miss is opportunity attacks, and nothing is stopping you from swinging a club or similar.

[Waazraath]

Second the "take 1 level fighter" suggestions. If that's not possible, mountain dwarf seems the second best option, with medium armor and str and con increase.