Optimizing 4-man warlock party

[Foxydono]

If you were to build a 4-man party of level 10 characters in a semi-combat oriented (6 fights a day on average) sandbox campaign setting. And all the characters have the prerequisite that they need to be at least a 3rd level GOO-warlock with pact of the chain and devil's sight (having the same patron). What would be your ideal party setup? Multiclassing is obviously allowed and you can pick any of the 'legal' race or class, including volo's and UA (29-point-buy). How would you optimize the party class-wise and what race(s) would you pick?

[MinotaurWarrior]

Aarakocra Warlock 4 / Rogue 2 / Sorcerer 4

Str 13
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 11
Cha 15

Important warlock choices: Eldritch spear, Imp Familiar
Important Rogue choices: Expertise Stealth, expertise athletics
Important Sorcerer choices: Extend Spell, Distant Spell, Wild Sorcerer

ASI uses: Spell Sniper, +1 to STR and CHA

What you do most of the time: Terrorize townsfolk from up to 1.2K feet away with 2d10+2d6 bolts
What you do sometimes: grapple someone with +10, advantage, and them at disadvantage, then maybe fly up 100ft and drop them for 10d6 damage
What you do in between those times: Hide behind clouds
What you do at random times: Cast actual spells, I guess?

[jaappleton]

Everyone is Warlock 2 / Sorc X.

Most are Favored Souls, specifically Life Domain.

[Foxydono]

Everyone is Warlock 2 / Sorc X.

Most are Favored Souls, specifically Life Domain.
Doesn't this make the party very vulnerable? You can do massive damage in the first turn with quicken and twinned metamagic, but you'll be quite limited in the things you can do. Also, the prerequisite is lock lvl 3.

I was thinking about the following combination:
- 3 lock / sorc x (pew pew blast dmg)
- 3 lock / bard x (for diversity and lockpicking/detecting traps)
- 3 lock / pala x (for tanky and full plate)
- full lock (maybe with 1-2 fighter levels for plate armor and action surge)

I would make all of them variant human because going 3 lock hurts a lot dice at lvl 10 (going 3/x) only gives you over feat or ability boost.

This way you still have decent defense with fighter and pally lock in full plate armor, but you also have insane blast potential, together with a bard help the party, maybe pick a healing spell or two :)

[jaappleton]

Sorry, I read too quickly.

See, Chain Pact is what limits this. If you had Tome, you can steal the Shillaleigh cantrip, making it Charisma based, and then go Paladin. That way, your spellcasting and melee attacks all key off Charisma, and you have the Warlock slots refreshing on short rests for Smiting.

Is Unearthed Arcana available? If so, Warlock / Glamour Bard would be great.

[Foxydono]

Sorry, I read too quickly.

See, Chain Pact is what limits this. If you had Tome, you can steal the Shillaleigh cantrip, making it Charisma based, and then go Paladin. That way, your spellcasting and melee attacks all key off Charisma, and you have the Warlock slots refreshing on short rests for Smiting.

Is Unearthed Arcana available? If so, Warlock / Glamour Bard would be great.
UA, swords, EE and volos are all useable. Also, you could take magic initiate at first level when you go variant human and take shillelagh. So you don't need a tomelock to go that route. In addition, you can take a level one spell of your choice!

[jaappleton]

UA, swords, EE and volos are all useable. Also, you could take magic initiate at first level when you go variant human and take shillelagh. So you don't need a tomelock to go that route. In addition, you can take a level one spell of your choice!

Taking Shillaleigh that way makes it a Druid cantrip, not a Warlock one (as it would be with Tome), so as a Druid cantrip, its Wisdom-based. Not Charisma.

[Draco4472]

If you were to build a 4-man party of level 10 characters in a semi-combat oriented (6 fights a day on average) sandbox campaign setting. And all the characters have the prerequisite that they need to be at least a 3rd level GOO-warlock with pact of the chain and devil's sight (having the same patron). What would be your ideal party setup? Multiclassing is obviously allowed and you can pick any of the 'legal' race or class, including volo's and UA (29-point-buy). How would you optimize the party class-wise and what race(s) would you pick?

A party of Goolocks?

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

I would have them all take some sorcerer, one choosing pact of the blade, using GFB and stacking it with red draconic sorcerer's level 6 feature, then 1 paladin on their way to taking divine smite at their 2nd paladin level, PC level 11 for them.

Another would be a blaster, more sorcerer then anything, pact of the tome for more blasty cantrips/utility.

Another would also be more sorcerer, but act more as a face, taking advantage of subtle spell to cast suggestion and charm person with no one's knowledge. Pact of the Chain for a familiar that can wander about and spy on things while he distracts others.

The fourth and last would be utility. Maybe take wizard levels for buff spells and things like identify and detect magic. Definitely pact of the tome with its associated invocation.

I see many hour-long rests in this party's future

[PeteNutButter]

So you need healing, just make one Lore bard 6, life cleric 1 for aura of vitality. He is also your skill monkey.

You need tank so make one paladin 6/lock 4. Tome lock for shillelagh, and be SAD. The save boost is too strong. Use PAM with staff and shield for extra OPness.

For blasting the lock 3/sorc 7 is best.

As for the last one, I'd go for another melee. Fighter 1/lock 9 or barbarian if you prefer. Plenty of options.

[Foxydono]

So you need healing, just make one Lore bard 6, life cleric 1 for aura of vitality. He is also your skill monkey.

You need tank so make one paladin 6/lock 4. Tome lock for shillelagh, and be SAD. The save boost is too strong. Use PAM with staff and shield for extra OPness.

For blasting the lock 3/sorc 7 is best.

As for the last one, I'd go for another melee. Fighter 1/lock 9 or barbarian if you prefer. Plenty of options.
I like this group setup! Can I ask you a question about Aura of Vitality? This is a third level spell and you can just choose it with magical secrets right, or do you want life cleric for Discipline of Life which you use in combination with Aura of Vitality?

And I have a question about the last melee character, I guess you take defense style if you go the fighter route. Is 2nd level fighter for action surge not good enough? Another option is perhaps lock 3 / rogue 7, or lock / shadow monk for stun sweetness and showstep. Since everyone cast cast darkness and see through it, this can be a huge advantage.

Edit: In the last scenario you could go with a lizardman for AC to make it less MAD and go 4 lock / 6 shadow monk.

[ClintACK]

So you need healing, just make one Lore bard 6, life cleric 1 for aura of vitality. He is also your skill monkey.

You need tank so make one paladin 6/lock 4. Tome lock for shillelagh, and be SAD. The save boost is too strong. Use PAM with staff and shield for extra OPness.

For blasting the lock 3/sorc 7 is best.

As for the last one, I'd go for another melee. Fighter 1/lock 9 or barbarian if you prefer. Plenty of options.

Pretty close to this, except I'd make the last one a Warlock 10. Telekinesis is a really under-appreciated spell. Versatility in general is under-appreciated, in favor of spells that do one very specific thing really well. But that's a different conversation. And you can't go Tomelock -- OP specified GOO chain for all.

I think I'd go:
Lore Bard 7/GOO 3 (Skill Monkey and healing) (Or LB 6/GOO3/Life Cleric 1)
Paladin 7/GOO 3 (I might go Ancient for the Aura. Otherwise maybe P6/GOO4 for ASI))
Sorcerer 7/GOO 3
Warlock 10

[bid]

If you were to build a 4-man party of level 10 characters in a semi-combat oriented (6 fights a day on average) sandbox campaign setting. And all the characters have the prerequisite that they need to be at least a 3rd level GOO-warlock with pact of the chain and devil's sight (having the same patron). What would be your ideal party setup? Multiclassing is obviously allowed and you can pick any of the 'legal' race or class, including volo's and UA (29-point-buy). How would you optimize the party class-wise and what race(s) would you pick?
Totem 5 / tomelock 5 as the shaman (bugbear for reach)
16 14 14 8 11 14, feat = Str18, GWM
AC17 half-plate

AT 5 / bladelock 5 as the scout (tabaxi)
8 16 14 8 12 16, feat = Dex20
AC18 armor of shadows
(or find a magic (hand) crossbow, get crossbow expert)

Lore 6 / life 1 / chainlock 3 as the healer (scourge aasimar)
8 14 14 11 14 16, feat = Cha18, inspiring leader
AC19 half-plate + shield

Draconic 7 / tomelock 3 as the blaster (yuan-ti)
8 15 14 9 12 17, feat = Dex16, Cha20
AC16 racial
(or favored soul 8 14 14 13 12 16 for AC19 in armor)

[PeteNutButter]

I like this group setup! Can I ask you a question about Aura of Vitality? This is a third level spell and you can just choose it with magical secrets right, or do you want life cleric for Discipline of Life which you use in combination with Aura of Vitality?

And I have a question about the last melee character, I guess you take defense style if you go the fighter route. Is 2nd level fighter for action surge not good enough? Another option is perhaps lock 3 / rogue 7, or lock / shadow monk for stun sweetness and showstep. Since everyone cast cast darkness and see through it, this can be a huge advantage.

Edit: In the last scenario you could go with a lizardman for AC to make it less MAD and go 4 lock / 6 shadow monk.

My mistake I didn't see that it had to be chain pact. That explains the 3 levels requirement as opposed to just one or two.

I'd avoid lizardfolk, their stats don't really work with their own kit. You'd get more AC out of a dex race with armor of shadows. I'm a big hater on the lock/monk combo, but that's a whole different can of worms.

A single level of life cleric almost doubles(42%) the healing in aura of vitality, going from 2d6 (7) to 2d6+5 (12), with the option of using a higher level slot to make it heal for more. Also having the option to bless is fantastic. You need a 13 wisdom, but it's worth it.

Action surge is great, but I was thinking someone in the party should have 5th level spell slots to start.

There is a big strength in the party being all able to see in magical darkness, but seeing as the DM basically forced that upon you, I'd be surprised if most enemies you face don't have a work around for it (fiends, or anything with blindsense, tremorsense, etc.).

For race I'd probably make them all variant human. Since you are getting devil's sight, darkvision is a waste. It should be mentioned that flying races are busted. So if your DM lets you, you could all be winged tieflings.

Make sure your sorc/lock doesn't totally dump int, as he is the only character that can afford a few points there. That should cover all stats.