Hi All - And some Warlock advice

[KillingTime]

Hi
Good community. Thought I'd join up and say hello.

While I'm here I thought I'd try to get some advice from the community about a Warlock build.

My group started a a new D&D 5e campaign yesterday and it's the first time I've played D&D since back in 2nd Ed AD&D!
I've been a regular player of RPGs in the meantime but have concetrated almost entirely on d100 systems (and a chunk of narrative dicepool stuff like StarWars).

I arrived late to the session and had very little time to familiarise myself with the rules or the character build. After a short discussion with the GM I decided to use a Warlock to represent a Celtic warrior priest of the Morrigan. I also picked a half elf to represent some possible mixing of his bloodline with the Tuatha De Denann.
I took ArchFey, and then rather than take Eldrich Blast I took Chill Touch to represent the Morrigan's nature as a death goddess. Then went Blade Ward, Hex and Hellish Rebuke (so far, so fairly standard I guess).

Our GM gave us the choice of point buy or random stats, and being the old school crazy fool that I am I went with Random...

After the addition of the half elf bonuses I've got:
Str13 - Not horrible.
Dex 14 - Again pretty useful.
Con 18 - Well that's a bit of a result.
Int 14 - not too shabby.
Wis 4 - Oh dear..... Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Cha 20 - hehe

Turns out my character is a bit of a badass, but also a total liability. I like this as a character to roleplay. The flaw should make him interesting and nicely balance out his rediculous ability elsewhere.

I'm now trying to figure out the best way to take him.
I'm not at all interested in multiclassing (please don't even suggest it). I guess with his Cha score he just has to focus on spell casting, and Pact of the Tome is the natural route come lvl3. This is backed up by ArchFey.
I guess my biggest issue right now is what invocations would be useful at lvl2, and then a little further on how would you forsee picking the 3 Tome cantrips at lvl3.
I'm considering mage armour plus something else, and then probably shillelagh and two others...

Any comments or help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[NecroDancer]

I would seriously recommend getting Eldritch blast, it's your main way to deal damage and makes up for your lack of spell-slots. As for your invocations right now I would recommend getting theif of five fates for flavor reasons and get visions of distant realms to make yourself appear surrounded I. Raven's (or is it crow's) feathers

[Mandragola]

Yes, Eldritch blast is the entire point of warlocks in 5th edition. Not so much at lvls 1-5, where it's pretty much the same as firebolt, but the moment you get a second attack instead of just adding an extra D8 or D10 in damage, it soars away. That's because you add the bonus from agonising blast and hex to each hit.

Warlocks play like archetypal archer rangers, using EB to replicate (and generally exceed) the effect of a bow. They are a direct damage class, not a controller/blaster like a wizard or sorceror.

Sorry if this makes you feel railroaded, but going against the core design of a class is always difficult. It can't be done in this case without significantly weakening your character.

[KillingTime]

Thanks both.

Yeah, it really wasn't until much later, when we were already adventuring and I had a chance to properly look over the rules that I realised that Eldrich Blast might as well be pre-included in the Warlock's stat line.
And with my Cha score I suddenly realised that agonising blast was going to be d10+5 damage which basically outclasses everything else in our group.

Never mind. I guess I'll just pick it up at level 3 since chill touch will be fine until then and will still be useful when fighting undead.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I might actually recommend Pact of the Blade. You're worshiping a war goddess, after all. What better way to do that than to get naked (Armor of Shadows says hello!) and charge into battle with a sword? That 18 Con means you shouldn't have much to worry about, especially on top of stuff like Armor of Agathys, and 14 Dex honestly isn't that bad-- it's only 5% behind the "standard" starting score of 16. If you don't want to go a-blasting, it's a fine alternate choice.

[Gignere]

First 3 levels go by so fast, you may also want to consider nabbing Green Flame Blade along with Shillelagh. Given your dex I would recommend picking up medium armor via the feat that would be a big boost to your AC. Especially if you decide to use a shield which would be very thematic for a Celtic warrior.

[Addaran]

Thanks both.

Yeah, it really wasn't until much later, when we were already adventuring and I had a chance to properly look over the rules that I realised that Eldrich Blast might as well be pre-included in the Warlock's stat line.
And with my Cha score I suddenly realised that agonising blast was going to be d10+5 damage which basically outclasses everything else in our group.

Never mind. I guess I'll just pick it up at level 3 since chill touch will be fine until then and will still be useful when fighting undead.

If you can wait a little bit, i'd pick it at lvl 4 instead with your regular cantrips. That way, you can save your tome cantrips for out-of-class ones. =)

I also aggree that Green-Flame Blade (or Booming Blade) and Shillelagh are pretty awesome. Much better for melee and AoO then your str/dex would give. But if you play with feats, you could get crossbow expert to avoid disadvantage in melee.

[Belac93]

I would seriously recommend getting Eldritch blast, it's your main way to deal damage and makes up for your lack of spell-slots. As for your invocations right now I would recommend getting theif of five fates for flavor reasons and get visions of distant realms to make yourself appear surrounded I. Raven's (or is it crow's) feathers

You're thinking of Misty Visions. Visions of the Distant Realms lets you cast arcane eye at 15th level at will.

[JellyPooga]

I might actually recommend Pact of the Blade.

I would second this, but your Str/Dex isn't really good enough to support it. It would be thematically appropriate, however, so grabbing Shillelagh through the Magic Initiate feat at 4th level and having a Club or Q-staff as your Pact Weapon could work well; at level 12, you'll be looking at (at least) 2 attacks, each dealing 1d8+10 damage with a weapon you can never lose.

I'd recommend steering clear of Armour of Shadows (unless you really don't want armour); your AC is likely to suck quite a lot without a fairly significant investment and at-will Mage Armour isn't much better than wearing Light Armour at lower levels and is actually just worse once you've got a decent set of magical armour. Perhaps something to grab and switch out if/when you get better armour, but there are other, better Invocations out there. If you do go Blade Pact, investing in Moderately Armoured at 8th might be worth it to grab shield proficiency and upgrade to Breastplate armour (giving you AC:18 with a shield).

The Invocation investment to make Eldritch Blast really good is relatively high. You only ever get 8 Invocations and sacrificing 1-3 of them for an admittedly very good at-will ranged attack can be quite a cost. With your Charisma, however, it's probably worth splurging to maximise its potential if you're not going Blade.

Oh, one other thing; ditch Blade Ward. It's not worth the paper it's printed on.

[Rysto]

Grabbing Shillelagh through Magic Initiate would mean using his Wis as his attack stat. Not exactly recommended with a 4.

[JellyPooga]

Grabbing Shillelagh through Magic Initiate would mean using his Wis as his attack stat. Not exactly recommended with a 4.

Oops! Yeah, forgot that. Scratch that idea then; Bladelock probably isn't too viable unless you happen to stumble on some Gloves of Ogre Strength or something (which I wouldn't hold my breath on).

[Adderbane]

Or you can grab shellilagh through tome pact and use your ungodly cha modifier in meter. Grabbing the ritual casting invocation with it nets you a ton of utility including Find Familiar aka ChainPact-Lite(tm).

Why pick one pact when you basically can have all 3?

[KillingTime]

Thanks for all the replies!

Some good advice here.

Still mostly tempted by Tome as the Cha score just screams for focussing on casting, even though a crazy naked blue painted warrior priest does have a certain charm.
And regarding getting better armour - I'd rather not for the same reasons... it just doesn't seem in keeping. The various forms of magical protection (woad runic script) feel like a better role playing opportunity.

Shillelagh with Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade do seem like a lot of fun though.

[Addaran]

Thanks for all the replies!

Some good advice here.

Still mostly tempted by Tome as the Cha score just screams for focussing on casting, even though a crazy naked blue painted warrior priest does have a certain charm.
And regarding getting better armour - I'd rather not for the same reasons... it just doesn't seem in keeping. The various forms of magical protection (woad runic script) feel like a better role playing opportunity.

Shillelagh with Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade do seem like a lot of fun though.

Seems Tome is a pure win for you. You get the focus on casting that you want but can turn to a crazy naked blue painted warrior priest with shillelagh. You won't have two attacks like a bladelock, but one of the melee cantrip will help with that. (after lvl 5, they add d8s to your main attack, and there's the rider effect).

Probably would go with agonizing or repelling blast and armor of shadow for starting invocations. Then at lvl 5, pick the rituals one. (at that point, you can have a crow familiar =D )

[Grod_The_Giant]

Oh, one other thing; ditch Blade Ward. It's not worth the paper it's printed on.
I've actually seen the Warlock in my party get good use out of it-- when we have to deal with lots of minions, his preferred tactic is to cast Armor of Agathys, then pop Blade Ward and run around provoking AoOs.

[JellyPooga]

I've actually seen the Warlock in my party get good use out of it-- when we have to deal with lots of minions, his preferred tactic is to cast Armor of Agathys, then pop Blade Ward and run around provoking AoOs.

This...is one of the most absurd uses of a spell I've heard of :smalltongue: Tactically it might be sound, but the imagery is ludicrous.

Warlock: "Hit me! Hit me!"
Goblins: "Er...no thanks guv. I'll just, er...be over here...doing something else"

[NNescio]

This...is one of the most absurd uses of a spell I've heard of :smalltongue: Tactically it might be sound, but the imagery is ludicrous.

Warlock: "Hit me! Hit me!"
Goblins: "Er...no thanks guv. I'll just, er...be over here...doing something else"

I used a Blade Ward once on a Fiendish SUV summoned via Find Vehicle (from UA: Modern Magic, basically a 'modern' version of Find Steed that can also be used by Locks/Sorcs/Wizzes) right before ramming it into an enemy vehicle.

'though yeah, that's UA. But the Kamikaze Special counts as another ludicrous use of the spell, right?

[JakOfAllTirades]

I actually came up with a really good use for Blade Ward once: dueling an NPC while our Rogue searched his room. My BladeLock was in the common room, dueling this troublemaker, and the Rogue wanted to search his room at the roadhouse, so he asked me to drag out the duel as long as I possibly could. The combination of Armor of Agathys, Mirror Image, and Blade Ward really did the trick. Longest duel ever.

Oh, and I totally underestimated that guy's fighting ability and won the duel with 2hp left....

[JellyPooga]

I actually came up with a really good use for Blade Ward once: dueling an NPC while our Rogue searched his room. My BladeLock was in the common room, dueling this troublemaker, and the Rogue wanted to search his room at the roadhouse, so he asked me to drag out the duel as long as I possibly could. The combination of Armor of Agathys, Mirror Image, and Blade Ward really did the trick. Longest duel ever.

Oh, and I totally underestimated that guy's fighting ability and won the duel with 2hp left....

That's pretty cool, actually, I must admit. There can't be many times that Blade Ward will come in handy like that, because generally using your Action just for surviving one round is counter-productive, but that there is a nice use!