Views on multiclass ranger/warlock ??

[Eldansyr77]

Hey everyone just wanting to know how well a ranger/warlock works... has anyone done this before? if so how was it (mechanically speaking)??

[PeteNutButter]

It's pretty MAD, requiring at least a 13 wis, cha, and dex. Since one of those is cha you could probably pull it off with a half elf. Big question is why? There is no obvious synergy.

A big draw to both classes, hex and hunter's mark are redundant stack. If you go bladelock to augment ranger abilities you are limited to melee only, so likely a rapier. The big draw for the blade lock is the +cha to damage, which comes late (later with MC) and a ranger warlock would have less points available for cha. I'm sure there are some things you could do with it, but it seems like it'd be a poor combination compared to the others available.

[Specter]

Yeah, as above. I'm pretty sure nothing in Warlock is better than Fighter/Rogue/Cleric for rangers.

[Naanomi]

Two times I would consider it would both essentially be Warlock Dips

~Warlock 2: I wanted some invocations, like talking to animals, and it was important enough to lose ranger progression (which on PHB ranger isn't stellar anyways so may be worth the exchange)

~Warlock 3: I am a beastmaster, want another pet so I can be a Pokemon Master (exchanging both of my attacks every round for my pets to attack)

[PeteNutButter]

Two times I would consider it would both essentially be Warlock Dips

~Warlock 2: I wanted some invocations, like talking to animals, and it was important enough to lose ranger progression (which on PHB ranger isn't stellar anyways so may be worth the exchange)

~Warlock 3: I am a beastmaster, want another pet so I can be a Pokemon Master (exchanging both of my attacks every round for my pets to attack)

Rangers can take the spell, although it wouldn't be at will, it'd be enough. It doesn't come up often enough to be worried about wasting a slot and 2 levels of ranger progression.

Making your pets attack will just be awful from an optimization stand point you'd do practically no damage, and your pets would be both extremely fragile.

[Naanomi]

Neither are good choices from an optimization standpoint, but they were just the only two reasons with mechanical instead of pure fluff backing to pursue the multiclass

EDIT: could be the other way, a ranger dip for weapons/armor and favored enemy in your patron's type before going full warlock?

[Joe the Rat]

From the other side, ranger gives you martial weapons (available from fighter or paladin) and better armor (above, plus druid and cleric). Ranger 2 gets you a fighting style (Fighter or Paladin got ya covered), a couple of fixedspells (most of which you have, could Invoke for, or could get from Druid/Cleric/Paladin/Bard), another language or two (Bard), and the ability to move quickly and quietly through the wilds (and potentially advantage on initiative with the new ranger). 3 gives you a buddy that gets used in place of Warlock Laser Light Show, or a some options to add to your Bladelock's fighting.

An Outlander Warlock would get you most of the wilderness expert flavor.

[smcmike]

If you go bladelock to augment ranger abilities you are limited to melee only, so likely a rapier.

Unless you find a magic bow.

Assuming you have a magic bow, a few levels of ranger can provide some modest benefits to a ranged bladelock. Horde Breaker and Archery style are nice. Hex/Hunter's Mark are redundant, but whatever, they are both still good, and a few ranger levels gives you more spell slots.

It isn't a good or obvious combination, but it could be okay.

[MrStabby]

Its tough to make work and you really need a strong sense of what you want from the class to make it worthwhile. I also think you will need to roll high for stats to be effective.

There is a lot of stuff that doesn't compliment the other class though.

Charisma for warlock vs Wisdom and Dex for ranger. MAD gets worse as you will be late on ASIs
Hex from warlock would be good, but ranger already gets hunter mark.

For me, the best plan, by which i mean the plan that couldn't be improved by swapping out at least one of the classes is to use the warlock spell slots with the ranger's good selection of bonus action spells. The rangers spells are actually very good, but they get so few uses per day that it isn't a major class feature. Take Cha as low as you can go and go for high dex and wisdom.

Ensnaring strike - at two short rests per day a level 2 ranger, level 1 warlock would be able to cast the spell 8 times - probably one per encounter, sometimes more. This can really add to their control aspect. Absorb elements, cure wounds, hail of thorns... all nice enough to want to do a little more often.

Likewise this is also applicable to spells such as spike growth - great control spells if you could cast them a little more often.

The issue with each of these is that they will begin to become less effective at higher levels where you come into contact with more exotic creatures able to have advantage on or bypass entirely these spells.

A second level of warlock can get you invocations - devil's sight is always nice to have and there are some other good ones.


My temptation would be to go
Ranger 2 warlock 0
Ranger 2 Warlock 1
Ranger 5 Warlock 1
Ranger 5 Warlock 3


Ranger 5 gets access to level 2 ranger spells known, at that point it becomes nicer to have the level 2 spell slots from warlock as well. Spike growth, pass without trace are both solid.


I bit of DM encouragement can go a long way here though. Either waiving the need for 13s in certain stats to multiclass or even better changing the casting stat of one of the classes to match the other. You might get lucky.

[Citan]

Hey everyone just wanting to know how well a ranger/warlock works... has anyone done this before? if so how was it (mechanically speaking)??
Well, it you manage to get past the MAD requirements (WIS+DEX+CHA minimum, barring any STR build because of that if point-buy), there are some few things you could synergize with each other.

Any Ranger could profit from free Mage Armor, additional skills or some at-will utility spell, as well as weapon cantrips. Would that be enough to justify the dip though? Not in my opinion.

The Pacts could provide some nice features though: always magic weapon for a TWF or Sentinel Ranger (but only one weapon, compared to EK) with Blade, Magic Resistance+Scouting with Chain, many Rituals with Tome.
Although even in this case, you could make do otherwise:
- Blade? Eldricht Knight is eadier to dip in, and give you two magic weapons (so you can actually TWF). Bladelock has an edge at high level because you could bound a bow, but then you probably wouldn't be high enough Ranger to get any real benefit from it. Not worth the MADness imo anyways.
- Tome? Easier to take Ritual Caster feat, either with WIS (no MADness) or INT (if you have to make do with another casting stat, might as well take the one from the class -Wizard- with the largest number of interesting rituals).
- Chain? Resistance to magic is a strong benefit, but not worth 3lvl dip in a MAD class imo.

The short-rest slots are another nice thing, especially to compliment many of nice Ranger spells, but are not in themselves a sufficent added value enough to justify.

Wrapping everything up, there is no core feature of the Warlock that is good enough to compensate the pain brought by MADness, so it is worth it only if player really knows what he wants to achieve and most of it comes from Warlock exclusive features.
Same with reverse view (being a Warlock considering Ranger dip).

Basically the only cases where I would see such a multiclass bring strong benefits are...

1. Beastmaster 15 / Warlock 3+: Warlock brings many good buffs that you can share with your beast, especially the Free Mage Armour, but also Armor of Agathys, Mirror Image or Fly. It is in fact the one case where the effort could be worth it, because you can also upcast Armor of Agathys with Ranger slot. You could even cram a one level of Cleric inside to make you and your pet a very dangerous 2-man team, using the short-rest slots: you get Mage Armor on you and pet free, cast Mirror Image and Armor of Agathys on both, then spend one last 1st level Ranger slot on either Bless or Shield of Faith. Can be very nasty indeed. ;)

2. Hunter 3 / Bladelock 17: you just wanted the Fighting Style, armor proficiencies and Horde Breaker to help get more attacks and slightly better defense: basically a TWF Bladelock build, with last-resort emergency or good out of fight healing (Cure Wounds), a decent scaling control (Fog Cloud) or one-shot buff (Jump, Longstrider).

3. Main support gish: you want to be a mix between party-face, support (rituals) and frontliner (TWF) so you take the martial part from Ranger with decent DEX and go Warlock to help with CHA skills and AC (Invocations), versatility (Tome + Rituals) and get a decent ranged attack with a bit of control (Repelling Eldricht Blast).

In any other cases, whatever your goal is, there is probably a better and simpler way to build it, whether you start from Ranger or Warlock side.

[Biggstick]

What exactly are you looking for? A Ranger with a Warlock dip or a Warlock with a Ranger dip?

If you're looking at Ranger dipping into Warlock, you'd probably be better served by either Cleric or Druid (Wisdom MC requirements, full spell caster slots, cantrips, and some solid utility).

If you're looking at Warlock dipping into Ranger, you'd probably be better served by Paladin, Sorcerer, or Bard (nowhere near the MADness of the Ranger MC).

[Skyking06]

So what if I started off as a ranger but didn’t worry about wisdom because I already planned on using the warlock hex blade and pact of the blade so I just put those points into CHA and DEX

[Finlam]

So what if I started off as a ranger but didn’t worry about wisdom because I already planned on using the warlock hex blade and pact of the blade so I just put those points into CHA and DEX
If you can go half elf, combine with Elven Accuracy for tri-vantage and Revised Ranger for free advantage in the first round of combat.

Half elf should help with the MAD.

You can go GWM and choose any of the Ranger conclaves that get an extra attack via horde break, etc. Take ranger up to 5, that nets you 2nd lvl spells and an Attack (2). This frees up one of your precious invocations.

Go hexblade (pretty much the only choice now) and pact of the blade. Finish out your career as a warlock. Make tri-vantage attacks with +10 damage from darkness and for free every first round of combat.

The downside is this build takes 2 feats, putting stress on an already mad build. It's doable, but I'm not sure if the stat weaknesses would be too much of a detriment.

[Darkwritter122]

Hey everyone just wanting to know how well a ranger/warlock works... has anyone done this before? if so how was it (mechanically speaking)??

What I would do is go either elf/half elf and go archfey patron to level 6 (the teleporting with reaction is a wonderful ability) with the weapon pact, take the Moon bow invocation (unearthed codex, basically your bound weapon is a long bow that gains advantage on Lycanthrops and has a 2d8 per spell level smiting ability)

In ranger I would go hunter (horde breaker, Volley are both excellent for raining pain down on your foes), take the archery fighting style and to make it crazy, take the elven accuracy feat (basically allowing you to roll three dice at advantage instead of two) and sharpshooter feat when you can.

With that you can teleport to safety when dealing with melee fighters, turn invisible when you do, and rain down pain, spending your spells like a paladin (because you will land a few crits) and lay on some extra radiant damage.

[Degwerks]

I'd choose the Celestial Chain Pact and Hunter Ranger or Horizon Walker. Go bare minimum in charisma and only take warlock spells that you don't need charisma for. Booming Blade, lesser restoration, hex, armor of agathas, darkness, revivify, misty step, etc...

Invocations, Gift of Ever living Ones, Devils Sight, Maddening Hex.

Go ranged and about 6 levels max in warlock. You can really keep yourself fully healed with max hps from cure wounds and healing spirit, celestial bonus d6 heals and gift of Ever living invocation. Horse Breaker and Maddening Hex work nice together. Short Rest spell slot recharge for Healing or upcast 3rd level Hail of Thorns attacks.

[Vogie]

If all you want to do is talk with animals, 2 levels of Shepherd Druid will give you much more for less.

If you want better defenses, 1 level of monk would be better.

The one I could see it if you wanted basically be a ranged paladin, so you mix Ranger levels with Archfey blade Warlock 3, so you get the UA Moon bow invocation, allowing you to skip tracking arrows, and also turn your spell slots into radiant damage.




If you're open to Homebrew, you may enjoy my Further Revised Ranger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582686-The-Ranger-Further-Revised-(PEACH)), that uses Mike Mearl's ideas and the Warlock mechanical skeleton.

[tieren]

I definitely don't think you get something we would describe as "optimized" but thats not to say its not something you can't make work.

Personally I like the fluff of it. I can totally see a ranger getting into many situations in the wild/feywyld that could result in a pact with an archfey. If you were a bit mischievous already, getting things like fey presence, or at will silent images, could be a hoot.

[Man_Over_Game]

So what if I started off as a ranger but didn’t worry about wisdom because I already planned on using the warlock hex blade and pact of the blade so I just put those points into CHA and DEX

Multiclassing rules require Rangers to have both 13 Dexterity and 13 Wisdom to multiclass at all when you have Ranger levels.

That is, you can be a Ranger with 10 Wisdom, but you can't be a Ranger/Warlock with less than 13.

Warlock also requires 13 into Charisma.

So at the very least, you MUST have 13 Wisdom, Dexterity, and Charisma, not to mention a Constitution score that makes it so you don't die immediately.


I've done a lot of research into weird multiclasses for my Prestige Options homebrew (to make Wisdom-Warlocks and other things), and the main concerns are:

Pros:
Ranger provides proficiencies
Warlock provides lots of low level spell slots
Ranger has lots of high-impact, low level spells (Goodberries, Entangling Strike, Absorb Elements)

Cons:
Hunter's Mark and Hex are redundant.
Warlock doesn't have much support for ranged weapon attacks.
Has few spells that support weapon attacking.

Basically, you get spell slots to fuel the Ranger's special Bonus Action spells, and that's about it. I'd avoid any subclass that's reliant on a Bonus Action, as you'll be starving for it.

Gloomstalker actually has a lot to gain from mixing with a Warlock. Devil's Sight and Darkness, while blinding enemies who can see through your Darkness, is a pretty cool gimmick, not to mention casting Hex and making an extra attack in the first turn for some great burst damage.