Hexblade/SpellBlade/Gish Blaster/Striker possible?

[Ravinsild]

I had a character in 4th Edition who was the Hexblade class (straight up, it was just a class or subclass or whatever with multiclassing or anything) who was also a Drow.

The three main points of the character is 1) Pyromancer/Fire Blaster/Nuker 2) Used Sword for offense/melee 3) Drow

Would that be possible to port over whether it's a Warlock/Paladin or Paladin/Sorcerer or Fight/Wizard or whatever combination and is being a Drow viable for this sort of playstyle?

Basically the idea was that he would wade into combat and then just nuke everything with fire then cut them down when they were weakened.

His personality and "inspiration" would be: Kael'thas Sunstrider for personality and just pure offensive blaster/caster whether from WCIII or Heroes of the Storm

Illidan Stormrage for personality and "The end justifies the means" type power trip where any sacrifice was worth it "For the greater good" of stopping the BBEG even if it meant killing someone or dealing with a demonic entity for more power (and fire-power pun intended)

Vegeta for his arrogance/haughty/nobility based attitude and general snobbery and basically blasting with rapid fire beams/attack style.

So they all sort of coalesce into this character who will use whatever means neccessary to incinerate his enemies whether it's with an enchanted fire sword or just blowing them up with powerful fire magic.

Is this a thing that can be made and if it is made will it be effective or a garbage frankenstein abomination that barely functions but can maybe do some fire stuff and maybe do some sword stuff but is super fragile and/or other glaring weaknesses to the point it isn't worth it?

[Malifice]

Fighter 1/ Fiend warlock X sounds like what you're after.

[Ravinsild]

Fighter 1/ Fiend warlock X sounds like what you're after.

Would I be going Str/Con/Cha with Two-Handed Weapon style? Or something like that? Or Dex/Con/Cha?

[Rysto]

Would I be going Str/Con/Cha with Two-Handed Weapon style? Or something like that? Or Dex/Con/Cha?

If killing things with fire is your thing, you could go Fighter 1/Fiend Tomelock X. Take Green Flame Blade as one of your Warlock cantrips and Shillelagh as one of the cantrips granted with the Pact of the Tome at level 3. That will allow you to use CHA as your attack stat and reduce your MADness a bit. You'll still need STR 15 if going with Heavy Armour or DEX 14 if going with Medium Armour, but you'll be able to get quite good AC as you can go with a one-handed quarterstaff + a shield. I'd recommend the defence fighting still as the +2 damage from Dueling isn't as good without Extra Attack.

[Ravinsild]

If killing things with fire is your thing, you could go Fighter 1/Fiend Tomelock X. Take Green Flame Blade as one of your Warlock cantrips and Shillelagh as one of the cantrips granted with the Pact of the Tome at level 3. That will allow you to use CHA as your attack stat and reduce your MADness a bit. You'll still need STR 15 if going with Heavy Armour or DEX 14 if going with Medium Armour, but you'll be able to get quite good AC as you can go with a one-handed quarterstaff + a shield. I'd recommend the defence fighting still as the +2 damage from Dueling isn't as good without Extra Attack.

Why not Bladelock? You can get an extra melee via that. Make a Rapier as you chosen pact weapon. Or something idk. Then what you're Dex and Cha? Is it super duper MAD or nah?

[Rysto]

Bladelock is a perfectly viable option. However, GFB is way less useful on a Bladelock, because the Extra Attack (or whatever the Bladelock equivalent is called) doesn't stack with GFB. You can either attack and get Extra Attack, or cast GFB and get a single attack (plus the additional fire damage). So if you like GFB thematically and want to make use of it, then Bladelock isn't the best choice.

Also, if you go Bladelock, you'll want to be pumping STR or DEX before CHA. Your save DC won't be as high as a result, and spells that offer opponents a saving throw aren't as good for you. Generally Bladelocks like to spend their slots on buffs that increase their effectiveness, because then the lower CHA doesn't hurt them. Blasting opponents with fire spells will give them a save, and your opponents would be more likely to make the save. It's not an enormous, character-sabotaging flaw -- you'd be fine as a Bladelock. However I do think that if you want a build that can fling fire around in melee, GFB+Shillelagh would be a more effective option than a Bladelock, and you'd get to fling fire at-will. The Warlock only gets 2 spells per short rest for most of his career, so he won't get much of a chance to use fire. It'll be about once per battle.

[Malifice]

Would I be going Str/Con/Cha with Two-Handed Weapon style? Or something like that? Or Dex/Con/Cha?

Yeah. Dump Int and Dex. Wear heavy armor. Take fighter at 1st.

Cast hex and clobber. if you get hit back, hellish rebuke. From Warlock 5, fireball.

A few levels of sorcerer doesnt go astray either.

[Kane0]

Agreed on Warlock. You get Firebolt and Greenfire Blade as Cantrips, Burning Hands/Hellish Rebuke as 1st, Scorching ray as 2nd and fireball as 3rd using the fiend pact which all auto-scale up to 5th level slots and come back on a short rest. A level of fighter also helps, as does sheleighleigh from pact of the tome so you can focus more on Cha/Con/Dex. Hex also helps and is very thematic to a hexblade. If you can squeeze it in the elemental adept feat allows your fire to push through resistance.

[Gastronomie]

1/X Fiendlocks can do this from level 6 (Fireball) and higher (for extra fire, go Tome instead of Blade and use GFB for your attacks). Fireball all day. S&B with War Caster is ideal for a Drow, taking the Defense Fighting Style.

2/X Sorcadins can also do this, starting at level 7 and getting a lot better at level 8 with Elemental Affinity. This one has better utility, but can cast less Fireballs per day, and gets online a bit later. If your DM is strict and unwilling to ignore RAW, he may say you can't multiclass in or out of Paladin unless you have STR 13, meaning Drow are not an optimal race option for this build (though it still can work).

[Ravinsild]

Yeah. Dump Int and Dex. Wear heavy armor. Take fighter at 1st.

Cast hex and clobber. if you get hit back, hellish rebuke. From Warlock 5, fireball.

A few levels of sorcerer doesnt go astray either.

Yeah I was looking into something like Paladin/Warlock or the Sorcadin guide (that didn't seem very blaster focused though) and in general Eldritch Knight or Warlock+Something or Bladelock or Sorcerer+Melee something or some combination thereof. So I may go with that :D

[Gastronomie]

Yeah I was looking into something like Paladin/Warlock or the Sorcadin guide (that didn't seem very blaster focused though) and in general Eldritch Knight or Warlock+Something or Bladelock or Sorcerer+Melee something or some combination thereof. So I may go with that :DMy Sorcadin guide was not blaster-focused because Sorcadins are more about utility. However, it's possible to create an interesting Pyromancer Swordsman with stuff like Careful Pyrotechnics.

[Ravinsild]

meaning Drow are not an optimal race option for this build (though it still can work).

Does it work if I rolled these stats?

Method Two
Roll 4d6, drop lowest
1 5 3 4 12 16
6 1 4 5 15 16
3 4 6 4 14 15
5 3 6 5 16 14
6 6 4 4 16 12
4 5 2 2 11 11
Total: 84

Also when you say 1 or 2 Fiendlock/Sorcerer do you mean 1 or 2 levels in Fighter or Paladin? :O Thanks for the indepth response! This is basically exactly what I was going for :D

Also what about the Volo's Guide to Monsters Aasimar? +2 Chat and then a +1 Str or +1 con which may be...a STR build perhaps? Maybe?

[Ravinsild]

My Sorcadin guide was not blaster-focused because Sorcadins are more about utility. However, it's possible to create an interesting Pyromancer Swordsman with stuff like Careful Pyrotechnics.

Yeah I want to run one some day when I'm not trying to do hack and slash melee super blaster murder man character :P But Aramil Soveliss doesn't give a **** about anything but making you dead AND FAST!

I thought maybe (I come from mostly 4e you see) background where at first with all the Nova talk in your guide etc they might be excellent strikers, but in general they seemed to boil down to leaders/defenders/controllers from the 4e terms and roles.

I wasn't saying it was a bad guide, just not that right fit for what I'm trying to do during this particular campaign with this particular character.

[bid]

You could get hex from magic initiate, but warlock 1 is better and you can reach warlock 2 for invocations.

If you want your weapon to do fire damage, you will need GFB. You can only do 1 attack per turn, extra attack becomes useless. Reaching sorcerer 4 gives you 2 nova rounds of 2 attacks using quicken.

To gain access to all martial weapons, you'll want fighter 1 or paladin 2, depending if smite's radiant damage is good enough for your concept.

If you want more than 1 attack per turn, you'll need 5 level into a martial class or bladelock.

Going SnB has the warcaster feat tax, unless you accept to sheath your weapon every time you cast a spell. This is why bladelocks are usually Str/2-handers and take the defense style.


Fighter 1 / bladelock 12 is the easiest and works with Str/2-hander or Dex/rapier.
Barbarian 2 / bladelock 12 optimizes for GWM
Paladin 2 / sorcerer 6 (red draconic) optimizes for GFB, but no hex
Fighter 1 / tomelock 5 / sorcerer 6 (red draconic) becomes SAD with shillelagh and GFB, but if you cannot quicken a second GFB until level 9 (7 if you delay fireball).

[Kane0]

Volo's Aasimar is a good option, especially since you can turn on a 1/turn damage boost that lasts 1 minute if the going gets tough.

[Mortis_Elrod]

I would do....Draconic Sorcerer 6 (Gold/Red) + Paladin 2 + Undying Light Warlock X Blade pact. Sure you dont stack GFB with the Thirsting blade invocation, but at least you still have extra attack, and you can choose between causing your enemies to ignite with righteous flames and cutting off whats left. Its a slow start though so be prepared for that.

[Ravinsild]

You could get hex from magic initiate, but warlock 1 is better and you can reach warlock 2 for invocations.

If you want your weapon to do fire damage, you will need GFB. You can only do 1 attack per turn, extra attack becomes useless. Reaching sorcerer 4 gives you 2 nova rounds of 2 attacks using quicken.

To gain access to all martial weapons, you'll want fighter 1 or paladin 2, depending if smite's radiant damage is good enough for your concept.

If you want more than 1 attack per turn, you'll need 5 level into a martial class or bladelock.

Going SnB has the warcaster feat tax, unless you accept to sheath your weapon every time you cast a spell. This is why bladelocks are usually Str/2-handers and take the defense style.


Fighter 1 / bladelock 12 is the easiest and works with Str/2-hander or Dex/rapier.
Barbarian 2 / bladelock 12 optimizes for GWM
Paladin 2 / sorcerer 6 (red draconic) optimizes for GFB, but no hex
Fighter 1 / tomelock 5 / sorcerer 6 (red draconic) becomes SAD with shillelagh and GFB, but if you cannot quicken a second GFB until level 9 (7 if you delay fireball).

So I assume something like TWF with Shortsword+Swordsword with an extra attack or bladelock with the one invocation that gives you basically extra attack for 2 attacks+bonus attack isn't very good because it's too MAD or the classes involved compete for too many bonus actions and it's super doodoo action economy or something?

There's a few Reasons Aramil Soveliss is a Drow: 1) I think that was one of the best races for Hexblades in 4e and 2) Tradition as a carry over and also the DM really, really, really wants us to play Elves. And so Drow seems to have okay stats for some of these classes and also is an elf. Half-Elf (Drow) is also an option (I think. At one point he said Elves were OP because they never have to sleep and only are required 4 hours of light meditation. Then he banned half-elves for some reason which involved my being confused as to what stats to use because he's not running 100% standard D&D but a lot of homebrew lore and so forth and bleah. IDK)

[Ravinsild]

I would do....Draconic Sorcerer 6 (Gold/Red) + Paladin 2 + Undying Light Warlock X Blade pact. Sure you dont stack GFB with the Thirsting blade invocation, but at least you still have extra attack, and you can choose between causing your enemies to ignite with righteous flames and cutting off whats left. Its a slow start though so be prepared for that.

I assume this would be the Dueling or Defensive One Hand+Shield style? Which is fine. TWF seems to suck but I'm bad at math so I have no idea why TWF is inferior other than competition for bonus action or something. The economy for damage and stuff makes my brain hurt. Bless is like #1 king paladin spell but is concentration. Hex is concentration. Other good buffs are concentration. -brain melts-

[Mortis_Elrod]

I assume this would be the Dueling or Defensive One Hand+Shield style? Which is fine. TWF seems to suck but I'm bad at math so I have no idea why TWF is inferior other than competition for bonus action or something. The economy for damage and stuff makes my brain hurt. Bless is like #1 king paladin spell but is concentration. Hex is concentration. Other good buffs are concentration. -brain melts-

Yes dueling, you character seems like the type to use a one-handed weapon. Probably no shield , (no vegeta i know would ever use a shield, that might as well be called a 'pansy board') But i think it Accomplishes what you want. You have Metamagic and sorcerer spells, grab all the nice fire damage you want. Warlock 2 is i think the only thing you need though so grab it early with the paladin levels and your build is running earlier (level 5 instead of say 10 or 9). If your campaing is going into later levels you can finish the build depending on what you want. Paladin 2 nets you smite and weapon proficiency. Smite is what its about though so even if you're not GFBing (say if you want to use extra attack later) I say holy fire is still fire, even better when Searing smite, for when you don't want to hex (not very often but its there and theres never enough fire power). Warlock levels gets you hellish rebuke, sorcerer gets you all the other fire spells.

[Foxhound438]

Does it work if I rolled these stats?

Method Two
Roll 4d6, drop lowest
1 5 3 4 12 16
6 1 4 5 15 16
3 4 6 4 14 15
5 3 6 5 16 14
6 6 4 4 16 12
4 5 2 2 11 11


You could do pretty well with this as a pure warlock, go 16/18/14/x/x/16 after racial bonuses on the drow, your end AC is a bit lower, but fiend warlock gets both armor of agathys early and fire shield mid levels- both are best with lower AC. The fiend patron will also suppliment your relative lack in AC by giving THP on every kill, made all the easier by the aforementioned spells.

In any case, the key to a successful bladelock is getting more attacks- meaning polearm master, basically, the idea being that you can hex something right off, then get in there with a halberd for 2d10+2d6+(2x str mod), and on subsequent rounds add in the bonus action attack for another d4+d6+str mod- this out-damages eldritch blast for 95% of your levels. Gets even better when you get the +cha mod to damage invocation at 12, so right there you're looking at 2d10+1d4+3d6+24 as your attack sequence. Definitely solid.

[Ravinsild]

Yes dueling, you character seems like the type to use a one-handed weapon. Probably no shield , (no vegeta i know would ever use a shield, that might as well be called a 'pansy board') But i think it Accomplishes what you want. You have Metamagic and sorcerer spells, grab all the nice fire damage you want. Warlock 2 is i think the only thing you need though so grab it early with the paladin levels and your build is running earlier (level 5 instead of say 10 or 9). If your campaing is going into later levels you can finish the build depending on what you want. Paladin 2 nets you smite and weapon proficiency. Smite is what its about though so even if you're not GFBing (say if you want to use extra attack later) I say holy fire is still fire, even better when Searing smite, for when you don't want to hex (not very often but its there and theres never enough fire power). Warlock levels gets you hellish rebuke, sorcerer gets you all the other fire spells.

Oh yeah that's right about it. That's great. I'll take that and run. Pretty much fits perfectly. It's probably not the most OP character or the most damaging or best optimized but at least it probably won't be the super total worst ever, right? Probably hopefully average DPR and decent Nova?

Edit: All of these choices sound baller and fit the theme. All of these suggestions are great. I don't even know what to do now because it all seems viable and pretty much sticks to the concept on point ;-;

Edit: Side note I own the PHB, MM, DMG, SCAG and Volo Guide in addition to access to the EE PDF for a variety of cantrips, spells and even unique fighting styles. Such a Mariner for Paladin. Or the spells/cantrips. Backgrounds, etc.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Your rolled stats makes its easy for multiclass too. Run it, own it. Alot of people focus the optimization, thats important, you don't want to have a bad character in a fight however i know from experience that its boring to hex and spam autos every fight. Sorcerer means you have the nova options with metamagic (twin/quicken), more so with smiting, need more slots or sorc points convert those warlock ones, also has the hex for the hexblade. Grab devils sight and maybe bane for the aoe hex feel back in 3.5 (when you had the dark companion option), or at will false life, now your basically a fiend lock. I forgot about Kael'Thas. Radiant damage is totally him using the sunwell's magic. Protector Aasimar......I might play this build now.


A few notes though. i wouldnt do anymore levels in Sorcerer, undying light gets the rest of the fire spells you want, and can cap at 12 (Character level 20 potentially) with lifedrinker as the capstone, which i think is perfectly fine for this character. Other option is Oath of Vengeance for 10 more levels giving you find steed (Go ghost rider style), Vow of enmity which is nice, cant be frightened, aura bonus to saving throws, immune to disease...oh and IMPROVED DIVINE SMITE.

Edit: 12th level warlock gets cool stuff. I personally like SUNBEAM, for when you want to Final Flash.

[Ravinsild]

Your rolled stats makes its easy for multiclass too. Run it, own it. Alot of people focus the optimization, thats important, you don't want to have a bad character in a fight however i know from experience that its boring to hex and spam autos every fight. Sorcerer means you have the nova options with metamagic (twin/quicken), more so with smiting, need more slots or sorc points convert those warlock ones, also has the hex for the hexblade. Grab devils sight and maybe bane for the aoe hex feel back in 3.5 (when you had the dark companion option), or at will false life, now your basically a fiend lock. I forgot about Kael'Thas. Radiant damage is totally him using the sunwell's magic. Protector Aasimar......I might play this build now.


A few notes though. i wouldnt do anymore levels in Sorcerer, undying light gets the rest of the fire spells you want, and can cap at 12 (Character level 20 potentially) with lifedrinker as the capstone, which i think is perfectly fine for this character. Other option is Oath of Vengeance for 10 more levels giving you find steed (Go ghost rider style), Vow of enmity which is nice, cant be frightened, aura bonus to saving throws, immune to disease...oh and IMPROVED DIVINE SMITE.

Edit: 12th level warlock gets cool stuff. I personally like SUNBEAM, for when you want to Final Flash.

Ooooooh **** this build is siiiick. Fireball/Flame Strike/Burning Hands/Green-Fire Blade/Hellish Rebuke and so forth completely fit the theme. Undying Light Warlock is super sick, Dragon Sorcerer (Pure) was my original build and Paladin just make it all the sweet + a tiny bit of side healing once per long rest or whatever.

Yeah dueling style with a Rapier (Drow Proficiency from racial) plus the Drow Magic plus the Undyling Light spells, plus the Eldritch Invocations, plus the Sorcerer bonus damage/resistances and spell list plus Paladin smiting and toughness = melee pyromancer dream team woo!

Edit: Might do a buffer Sorcadin from the guide who is a tanky guy/buffer/healer person with no blasting just like the default build they explained it and he's the brother of Aramil Soveliss. It's a small campaign so we are encouraged to play two characters. Luckily it won't be too terribly slow. Aasimar (It doesn't say what mortal race does it? Could be Half-Celestial Half-Drow) Sorcadin or something if the stats are right or Half-Elf (Drow) or something and full Drow Aramil or whatever. Or maybe both Aasimar if I can convince my DM (assuming it's a good race for this guild? The Paladin MADness keeps cropping up in my brain hole. +2 Cha then either Wis/Con/Str...I think Str or Con would be ok boosts to the main spellcaster and str dmg? Dex wouldn't be AS important and con would be fine too I think. Or a boost to con. IDK)

[Arkhios]

Foreword: didn't read what others had to say about it, just sharing my own ruminations:

I know this comes up time and time again, but Pact of the Blade Warlock = Hexblade. Warlock is literally the only class that even gets Hex as a spell in their own spell list, and it really helps with all kinds of attacks so what else do you really want? Eldritch Blast is very Blasty (as the name itself suggests), and the spell list is geared heavily towards being a gish.

Patron adds a little extra flavor, but honestly any patron is great for a Hexblade. It depends how do you want your character to feel like. (for you, a Fiend for patron would be perfect).

[Ravinsild]

Foreword: didn't read what others had to say about it, just sharing my own ruminations:

I know this comes up time and time again, but Pact of the Blade Warlock = Hexblade. Warlock is literally the only class that even gets Hex as a spell in their own spell list, and it really helps with all kinds of attacks so what else do you really want? Eldritch Blast is very Blasty (as the name itself suggests), and the spell list is geared heavily towards being a gish.

Patron adds a little extra flavor, but honestly any patron is great for a Hexblade. It depends how do you want your character to feel like. (for you, a Fiend for patron would be perfect).

I suppose the reason it comes up often is because apparently the Bladelock/Hexblade/Pact of the Blade in general gets a bad rep for one reason or another. All the guides typically say you want Tome or at second choice you want Chain. Blade seems to be the "Beast Master" of Warlocks and nobody really has a guide dedicated to making a greater striker/blaster out of one like it was in 4e.

I'm not saying your advice is bad or wrong, just that I have little experience with 5e and coming from a mostly 4e background (The fact Pun Pun could exist as per RAW in 3.5e lead me to believe it was a broken game along with CoDzilla so I just sort of skipped out of that one after 4e came out) when looking at the guides and so forth Hexblade pure didn't seem like an intuitive choice for a Gish style. People seem to think it sucks for one reason or another which I think is mostly "Why risk melee when you can Eldritch Blast for tons of damage far away?" and also because the "Striker/Blaster" offensive style character doesn't seem to be as big of a thing this edition as 4e? Maybe?

[Mortis_Elrod]

Scourge or Fallen is fine if you want that buffer/tank sorcadin. Or even the Halfelf(drow) is fine. Its hard to do wrong with your given rolled stats, unless thats purely for Aramil. At this point you know what you want in regards to Aramil. You kno how you play him, what his goals are, his style..etc. Figure that out for his brother. Is he the older brother looking out for his sibling, making sure he isnt getting too crazy? Is he the the younger brother sadling up with his big bro to enjoy a life of adventure? Are they long lost siblings struggling with a new family member? It doesn't seem like it but this could impact your build. If the Brothers are say avenging their mother in a path of vengence, go scourge take vengeance pally for the brother. If hes there to look out for his brother, but in defending Aramil cruel actions on the battlefield he were to Fall? or maybe he didn't. Maybe he really his brothers Protector on a mission to save his soul (devotion pally, run it as the other Stormrage if you want Oath of Ancients.) Perhaps he just found his bro, and wants to spend time with him and learn about drow culture more, since he grew up on the surface, (go half elf).

[Arkhios]

I suppose the reason it comes up often is because apparently the Bladelock/Hexblade/Pact of the Blade in general gets a bad rep for one reason or another. All the guides typically say you want Tome or at second choice you want Chain. Blade seems to be the "Beast Master" of Warlocks and nobody really has a guide dedicated to making a greater striker/blaster out of one like it was in 4e.

I'm not saying your advice is bad or wrong, just that I have little experience with 5e and coming from a mostly 4e background (The fact Pun Pun could exist as per RAW in 3.5e lead me to believe it was a broken game along with CoDzilla so I just sort of skipped out of that one after 4e came out) when looking at the guides and so forth Hexblade pure didn't seem like an intuitive choice for a Gish style. People seem to think it sucks for one reason or another which I think is mostly "Why risk melee when you can Eldritch Blast for tons of damage far away?" and also because the "Striker/Blaster" offensive style character doesn't seem to be as big of a thing this edition as 4e? Maybe?

It really begs a question why does anyone need a guide? The rules aren't so difficult to learn for yourself :)

[Gastronomie]

Thanks for the indepth response! This is basically exactly what I was going for :D Why, you're welcome :3
Does it work if I rolled these stats?If it's ponit-buy, no problem:

14-16-16-12-11-15 (Before racial)
14-18-16-12-11-16 (after racial)

Sounds like a good bet.


+2 Chat and then a +1 Str or +1 con which may be...a STR build perhaps? Maybe?Indeed, Aasimar make good Sorcadins.


Also when you say 1 or 2 Fiendlock/Sorcerer do you mean 1 or 2 levels in Fighter or Paladin? :OFighter. I prefer Fighter 1 to Paladin 2, as you want to keep the delay in Warlock level progression (the progression of the level of your highest Casting slot) to a minimum.
I suppose the reason it comes up often is because apparently the Bladelock/Hexblade/Pact of the Blade in general gets a bad rep for one reason or another. All the guides typically say you want Tome or at second choice you want Chain. Blade seems to be the "Beast Master" of Warlocks and nobody really has a guide dedicated to making a greater striker/blaster out of one like it was in 4e.While I will not deny that pure Bladelocks are probably not very powerful, those which dipped their first level in Fighter (1/X Bladelocks) are amazing, and hilarious to use. I highly recommend trying it once.

[Ravinsild]

Ahhh so many possibilities...

I suppose I'll just make all the builds to 20 to see what they'd look like that have been suggested and pick the one that matches my concept the closest. So much good stuff here yee

For the 1Fighter/19 Fiendlock or what-have-you would you want Dueling or TWF? Sadly I looked and none of the two-handed weapons have finesse to be able to use the dex mod so one-handed finesse weapons seem to be the limiter here. Now it's just a question of action economy and overall most damaging choice. I read over the PHB and spells but it's still hard to know how much real "competition" off-hand strike is.

On at least the first round it won't be used because of Hex. Then it might not get used for one reason or another but is the consistent scenario over-time let's say 90% use in combat > dueling or are there too many things needed to be done with bonus action where it'd get like a 30% up-time and dueling would be better.

I pretty much get the actual rules I'm just doodoo butts at math ;-; Plus I haven't played before so I don't know the true value of a bonus-action or how versatile they can be :/

[Citan]

I had a character in 4th Edition who was the Hexblade class (straight up, it was just a class or subclass or whatever with multiclassing or anything) who was also a Drow.

The three main points of the character is 1) Pyromancer/Fire Blaster/Nuker 2) Used Sword for offense/melee 3) Drow

Would that be possible to port over whether it's a Warlock/Paladin or Paladin/Sorcerer or Fight/Wizard or whatever combination and is being a Drow viable for this sort of playstyle?

Basically the idea was that he would wade into combat and then just nuke everything with fire then cut them down when they were weakened.

His personality and "inspiration" would be: Kael'thas Sunstrider for personality and just pure offensive blaster/caster whether from WCIII or Heroes of the Storm

Illidan Stormrage for personality and "The end justifies the means" type power trip where any sacrifice was worth it "For the greater good" of stopping the BBEG even if it meant killing someone or dealing with a demonic entity for more power (and fire-power pun intended)

Vegeta for his arrogance/haughty/nobility based attitude and general snobbery and basically blasting with rapid fire beams/attack style.

So they all sort of coalesce into this character who will use whatever means neccessary to incinerate his enemies whether it's with an enchanted fire sword or just blowing them up with powerful fire magic.

Is this a thing that can be made and if it is made will it be effective or a garbage frankenstein abomination that barely functions but can maybe do some fire stuff and maybe do some sword stuff but is super fragile and/or other glaring weaknesses to the point it isn't worth it?
Well, it seems you have the following options available to mix and match.
Vengeance / Oathbreaker Paladin for CHA-based martial abilities + fire smite spell + elemental weapon.
Draconic Sorcerer for access to all Fire-themed spells + CHA bonus to damage.
Undying Light Warlock for +CHA to fire spells and short-rest slots.
Fiend Warlock for access to fire-themed spells and short-rest slots.

I'd suggest as others the plain Fighter 1 / Fiend Warlock X: easy to build, fun to play, and once you get above 12th character level you will begin to really feel powerful thanks to 3rd slot per rest.

Otherwise, another good option would be, if UA is allowed, Oathbreaker Paladin 9 / Undying Light Warlock 1 / Draconic Sorcerer 10.
Start Paladin up to 7, dip Warlock 1, go Sorcerer up to 6, then finish however you want.
You will end as a crazy powerful hitter when using Green Flame Blade: weapon die +CHA (Paladin's Aura of Hate) +CHA (Warlock) + CHA (Sorcerer), on which you could even add Elemental Weapon to be totally in theme. Even a simple Burning Hands unleashed in melee will become a great asset.

Makes for a fun Chaos Evil build that fits most of your wishes: access to AOE and ray blasting, powerful in melee, and devoid of unnecessary scrupules. ;)
Of course, this is not necessarily the best split: I suggest this because all Paladin's 3rd level spells are great, and I like having a third Metamagic, but really beyond Paladin 7 / Warlock 1 / Sorcerer 6 anything goes.
The big drawback of this suggestion is that you get fire spells very late (only Green Flame Blade and Burning Hands to play with until character level 10 minimum).

If that bothers you, ditch the whole Paladin progression and go either Paladin 2 (for spells) or Fighter 2 (for Action Surge) then immediately dip Warlock 1 then go Sorcerer. You will deal less damage at first, because you will have only one weapon attack, but the bonus from Warlock will help compensate that. And after you get 5th character level you should feel just a slight under a normal Paladin in damage, and on par as soon as you get Sorcerer's bonus fire damage. ;)

Also, it avoids coherence problems (just reviewed the Undying Light, I only remembered the "fire damage bonus", but it's in fact very geared towards "good". While Oathbreaker clearly tends towards "evil". So it could be hard to explain. XD Although, for a Vegeta-like character, this duality between apparent violent madness and a good heart when you dig deep could be nicely represented by that).

EDIT: Note about spells such as Elemental Absorb, Branding Smite, Elemental Weapon, Fire Shield or Flaming Shere (spells that either deal fire damage in an indirect way, or can deal several instances of damage) that if/how they work in conjunction with Sorcerer or Warlock's +CHA bonus damage may change depending on the DM. Some may be very liberal about it (applies to every instance), others may follow the ruling (ex Flaming Sphere: only first instance of damage gets the bonus), some may even consider spells such as Elemental Weapon/Absorb or Smite cannot get the bonus (not even once) because it is not directly damaging a creature.
So it could be useful to check your DM's view on this beforehand if you can. ;)

[Ravinsild]

Well, it seems you have the following options available to mix and match.
Vengeance / Oathbreaker Paladin for CHA-based martial abilities + fire smite spell.
Draconic Sorcerer for access to all Fire-themed spells + CHA bonus to damage.
Undying Light Warlock for +CHA to fire spells and short-rest slots.
Fiend Warlock for access to fire-themed spells and short-rest slots.

I'd suggest as others the plain Fighter 1 / Fiend Warlock X: easy to build, fun to play, and once you get above 12th character level you will begin to really feel powerful thanks to 3rd slot per rest.

Otherwise, another good option would be, if UA is allowed, Oathbreaker Paladin 9 / Undying Light Warlock 1 / Draconic Sorcerer 10.
Start Paladin up to 7, dip Warlock 1, go Sorcerer up to 6, then finish however you want.
You will end as a crazy powerful hitter when using Green Flame Blade: weapon die +CHA (Paladin's Aura of Hate) +CHA (Warlock) + CHA (Sorcerer), on which you could even add Elemental Weapon to be totally in theme. Even a simple Burning Hands unleashed in melee will become a great asset.

Makes for a fun Chaos Evil build. ;)
Of course, this is not necessarily the best split: I suggest this because all Paladin's 3rd level spells are great, and I like having a third Metamagic, but really beyond Paladin 7 / Warlock 1 / Sorcerer 6 anything goes.
The big drawback of this suggestion is that you get fire spells very late.

If that bothers you, ditch the whole Paladin progression and go either Paladin 2 (for spells) or Fighter 2 (for Action Surge) then immediately dip Warlock 1 then go Sorcerer. You will deal less damage at first, because you will have only one weapon attack, but the bonus from Warlock will help compensate that. And after you get 5th character level you should feel just a slight under a normal Paladin in damage, and on par as soon as you get Sorcerer's bonus fire damage. ;)

In addition to the extra attack from the Warlock Invocation for Blade Pact style for the second/third build you mentioned. Sounds like a somewhat late bloomer that stays consistently hurty. I'll check them all out. So many great suggestions here. Really helped me make my peace with Aramil as it sounds like a pyromancer gish is totally possible.

That was my biggest issue. A lot of them like Bladesong Wizard seemed 90% wizard 10% gish. The Eldritch Knight seemed probably 70% fighter 30% wizard. I wanted 50/50. Equally as good at slashing and equally as good at blasting. A literal hybrid of spell and sword not one or the other with a slight smidge just for fun. Seems like these builds bring out the idea of being equally as devastating at both. Lay on the hurt with sword or spell and usually both simultaneously.

As Illidan would say "Feel the hatred of 10,000 years!" there's no room for utility in such a statement. It's just raw firepower. :P

[Citan]

In addition to the extra attack from the Warlock Invocation for Blade Pact style for the second/third build you mentioned. Sounds like a somewhat late bloomer that stays consistently hurty. I'll check them all out. So many great suggestions here. Really helped me make my peace with Aramil as it sounds like a pyromancer gish is totally possible.

That was my biggest issue. A lot of them like Bladesong Wizard seemed 90% wizard 10% gish. The Eldritch Knight seemed probably 70% fighter 30% wizard. I wanted 50/50. Equally as good at slashing and equally as good at blasting. A literal hybrid of spell and sword not one or the other with a slight smidge just for fun. Seems like these builds bring out the idea of being equally as devastating at both. Lay on the hurt with sword or spell and usually both simultaneously.

As Illidan would say "Feel the hatred of 10,000 years!" there's no room for utility in such a statement. It's just raw firepower. :P
As a matter of fact, I didn't talk about Blade Pact nor its relative Invocation because it falls out in damage later compared to cantrips, especially in build such as these where the cantrip gets bonus damage.*
Nevertheless, it could be another option if you still want a gish with Extra Attack but don't like using Paladin for that for whatever reason.

* To be more specific, for a normal gish, in a very simplied way (no time for maths now)...
Weapon cantrip is weaker than Extra Attack until more or less 5th character level (or until 11th level for a build with consistent bonus action weapon attack).
Weapon cantrip is much weaker than Extra Attack + GWM until 11th level, where it closes the gap (but still weaker, until 17th level).
This is the brunt of it for a single-target. If you take Green Flame Blade's secondary damage into accout, it's a bit better.

BUT, a build with Undyling Light + Draconic gets +5 for a low level character, +10 from mid-level onwards.
For GreenFLame Blade, it also applies on secondary damage, so it's effectively +10 > +20.
So it is much more competitive in lower levels in overall damage given (obviously still inferior to GWM for a single-target attack).

If you really want to be stupid and have a fluff-wise coherent character, go Paladin 3-5 (Vengeance or Devotion) / Undying Light 1-3 / Draconic Sorcerer 6+, that you build as a two-handed GWM wielder... And if you can afford it stat-wise, either Evocation Wizard 2 or Ranger 2 or Druid 1, to get Absorb Elements if you wish.

You can pull out some crazy things: Paladin's Oath compensates for GWM malus, so you can enable it often.
Absorb Elements can be used in many occasions (especially if you have other casters in your party). Otherwise, you can always use your bonus action to cast Searing Smite (effectively +1d6+10 damage if DM allows) before striking with Green Flame Blade.

Ah, by the way, if your DM is open to homebrew, I may send you my own Pyromander if you are interested. ;)

[Ravinsild]

As a matter of fact, I didn't talk about Blade Pact nor its relative Invocation because it falls out in damage later compared to cantrips, especially in build such as these where the cantrip gets bonus damage.*
Nevertheless, it could be another option if you still want a gish with Extra Attack but don't like using Paladin for that for whatever reason.

* To be more specific, for a normal gish, in a very simplied way (no time for maths now)...
Weapon cantrip is weaker than Extra Attack until more or less 5th character level (or until 11th level for a build with consistent bonus action weapon attack).
Weapon cantrip is much weaker than Extra Attack + GWM until 11th level, where it closes the gap (but still weaker, until 17th level).
This is the brunt of it for a single-target. If you take Green Flame Blade's secondary damage into accout, it's a bit better.

BUT, a build with Undyling Light + Draconic gets +5 for a low level character, +10 from mid-level onwards.
For GreenFLame Blade, it also applies on secondary damage, so it's effectively +10 > +20.
So it is much more competitive in lower levels in overall damage given (obviously still inferior to GWM for a single-target attack).

If you really want to be stupid and have a fluff-wise coherent character, go Paladin 3-5 (Vengeance or Devotion) / Undying Light 1-3 / Draconic Sorcerer 6+, that you build as a two-handed GWM wielder... And if you can afford it stat-wise, either Evocation Wizard 2 or Ranger 2 or Druid 1, to get Absorb Elements if you wish.

You can pull out some crazy things: Paladin's Oath compensates for GWM malus, so you can enable it often.
Absorb Elements can be used in many occasions (especially if you have other casters in your party). Otherwise, you can always use your bonus action to cast Searing Smite (effectively +1d6+10 damage if DM allows) before striking with Green Flame Blade.

Ah, by the way, if your DM is open to homebrew, I may send you my own Pyromander if you are interested. ;)

Ah I figured as a Drow I would be locked into Rapier (Dueling Fighter or Paladin) or Rapier/Shortsword (Two-Weapon Fighting if Fighter) over a Two-Hander for Great Weapon Master.

There's quite a lot to think about here haha.

Edit: I guess I meant the Fighter 1/19 Fiendlock build - I assumed it was Blade Pact to complement the Fighter since we aren't going to Fighter 5 for extra attack. Otherwise would it be 1 Fighter/19 Tome Fiendlock?

So possible turns could be: Action 1 (Cantrip - GFB) or Action 1 (Attack) then Extra Attack (Pact Blade) Bonus Action TWF: Attack off-hand or Action 1 (Spell attack) and then Hellish Rebuke for a Reaction or something. Right? I can't cast a Cantrip and a Spell in the same turn can I? Neither can I weapon attack and cast a spell unless it's a bonus action spell.

I am beginning to understand the source of my confusion: GFB is not an actual melee attack. I was under the impression it used the "Melee Attack" rules then applied fire as a cantrip effect basically being both a spell+melee attack simultaneously thus stacking with Extra Attack or such things.

In my mind how it worked was: Action 1 (Attack Melee) You swing your sword (Cantrip effect happens) Flames leap from primary target to secondary target. Sort of like an enchanted blade.

So you're either using spells OR melee attacking (Cantrips or Attack...Spell or Attack) this is where my misunderstanding came from. I don't really know exactly why I thought of it this way. So it seems you would want to build a "full caster" who uses melee cantrips (spells) over trying to decide between "Do I use a spell or do I use my normal attack with no special effects".

Derp.

[Coyote81]

I was thinking the same thing. Sticking with the Drow as you asked. You don't really need fighter, I would start with Sorceror 2, then take warlock to 3 (get Tome, for shillelagh, patron of undying light), then go back to Sorc to level 6 and finish the rest of the build as warlock.

-Build uses a Staff with shillelagh, so Cha is your attack stat.
-Shillelagh let you focus the build as Cha/Con/Dex.
-Draconic Sorc gives you AC13 to start plus your dex bonus
-Sorc gives you access to Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade, both excellent melee cantrips
-Sorc Metamagic is great, especially with how Short rest warlocks spell interact with getting spell points.
-Sorc Lv6 give you Cha bonus to fire spells
-Warlock Patron of Undying Light gives you Cha bonus to fire spells
-Tome lock give you access to 3 cantrips from anyhere, I recommend shillelagh, Sacred Flame (DC fire spell instead of attack for high AC foes) and vicious mockery. And 1 Lv1 spell, recommend Find Familiar (Get your self a a nice owl familiar)

Enjoy!

[Ravinsild]

I was thinking the same thing. Sticking with the Drow as you asked. You don't really need fighter, I would start with Sorceror 2, then take warlock to 3 (get Tome, for shillelagh, patron of undying light), then go back to Sorc to level 6 and finish the rest of the build as warlock.

-Build uses a Rapier with shillelagh, so Cha is your attack stat.
-Shillelagh let you focus the build as Cha/Con/Dex.
-Draconic Sorc gives you AC13 to start plus your dex bonus
-Sorc gives you access to Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade, both excellent melee cantrips
-Sorc Metamagic is great, especially with how Short rest warlocks spell interact with getting spell points.
-Sorc Lv6 give you Cha bonus to fire spells
-Warlock Patron of Undying Light gives you Cha bonus to fire spells
-Tome lock give you access to 3 cantrips from anyhere, I recommend shillelagh, Sacred Flame (DC fire spell instead of attack for high AC foes) and vicious mockery. And 1 Lv1 spell, recommend Find Familiar (Get your self a a nice owl familiar)

Enjoy!

When using Shillelagh as a Warlock do the requirements of the Cantrip (Quarterstaff/Club) apply to the spell? It seems to be integral. So I would need a Rapier in my main hand and a Shillelagh'd Club or Quarterstaff in my off-hand if I am reading the spell correctly. Does the Warlock's tome somehow alleviate this particular issue?

[deathadder99]

When using Shillelagh as a Warlock do the requirements of the Cantrip (Quarterstaff/Club) apply to the spell? It seems to be integral. So I would need a Rapier in my main hand and a Shillelagh'd Club or Quarterstaff in my off-hand if I am reading the spell correctly. Does the Warlock's tome somehow alleviate this particular issue?

I don't think you can do this: RAW it's "you can use your spellcasting ability instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of melee attacks using THAT weapon"...

If your dm is ok with you refluffing a qstaff as a rapier (they're both 1d8 after all), then sure.

[Coyote81]

When using Shillelagh as a Warlock do the requirements of the Cantrip (Quarterstaff/Club) apply to the spell? It seems to be integral. So I would need a Rapier in my main hand and a Shillelagh'd Club or Quarterstaff in my off-hand if I am reading the spell correctly. Does the Warlock's tome somehow alleviate this particular issue?

Ugh, yea sorry, I had rapier stuck in my head when I meant Staff. Will edit. Refluffing a staff as a rapier doesn't really harm anything in this situation since you are using Cha from Shillelagh anyways. Ask your DM, maybe it's a Wooden Sword that allows you to channel your patron powers, hardening it and giving it an almost metal edge, making it an excellent melee weapon.

[CursedRhubarb]

A Red/Gold Draconic Sorcerer/Undying Light Bladepact Warlock looks like it could fit nicely going with a Dex Build. Almost completely online at 6 or 7.

Half-Elf with Noble background to get a decent stat boost and Sunstrider feel.

Skills in: Acrobatics, Deception, History, Insight, Perception, and Persuasion.

Metamagic: Subtle Spell and either Twin Spell or Quicken Spell. (Subtle+Hex[Wis] is great for boosting social encounters, especially with the Skills Proficiency)

Blade pact to go with a Rapier and combined powers of Draconic + UK each add Cha to fire damage, which gets ridiculous very quickly. Add in Elemental Adept - Fire to avoid the resistance issue and make 1s on fire count as 2s and it only gets better.

Sorcerer Con Proficiency will make your Con spells like Hex or Bur last a lot longer in melee.

Even though this build uses the Blade Pact, I'd skip the blade invocation for extra attack since it sounds like GFB will be your main melee and it frees up for other nice ones if you continue down the lock path. (UL lvl 6 has a very nice ability)

To add to blasting power I'd snag the +Cha and knock back ones for your Eldritch Blast.

Spell selection (for lvl 7 S4/W3)

Warlock: (Sacred Flame, Light are free from patron), Prestidigitation, Eldritch Blast, Hex, Hellish Rebuke, Flaming Sphere, Mirror Image.

Sorcerer: Green-Flame Blade, Fire Bolt, Control Flames, Shocking Grasp, Shield, Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, Blur, Pyrotechnics.

Blur+Mirror Image works wonders when the avoidance is needed. Pyrotechnics and Control Flames are interestingly useful with creativity, and especially as you will be setting fires all about.

By this point you could have +6 to all your fire damage with ignoring fire resistance and lowest damage on a die being 2. This can lead to very nasty effects and even if they make Dex saves, it's still going to hurt.

Biggest weakness will be Immunity to fire but then you still have EB and others to use, just won't be quite as kaboomy.

This is not a tank build so would advise caution in drawing too much attention, but you should be able to handle some attention by using avoidance or nuking with a Hellish Rebuke and burning them down quickly.

[Theodoxus]

Ugh, yea sorry, I had rapier stuck in my head when I meant Staff. Will edit. Refluffing a staff as a rapier doesn't really harm anything in this situation since you are using Cha from Shillelagh anyways. Ask your DM, maybe it's a Wooden Sword that allows you to channel your patron powers, hardening it and giving it an almost metal edge, making it an excellent melee weapon.

I'd totally allow a 'rapier' looking club. You're not using it as finesse regardless (because of shillelagh) and there's no sneak attack to worry about... sure, most people think of BamBam or Capt Caveman with a turkeyleg looking chunk of wood... but a shinai or escrima works just as well.

BTW, Coyote, Sacred Flame, despite the name, does Radiant, not fire damage... probably still fits the theme, but doesn't benefit from the Cha boosts to fire damage.

[Ravinsild]

I'd totally allow a 'rapier' looking club. You're not using it as finesse regardless (because of shillelagh) and there's no sneak attack to worry about... sure, most people think of BamBam or Capt Caveman with a turkeyleg looking chunk of wood... but a shinai or escrima works just as well.

BTW, Coyote, Sacred Flame, despite the name, does Radiant, not fire damage... probably still fits the theme, but doesn't benefit from the Cha boosts to fire damage.

What about one of those Japanese Wooden Katanas? It's not a rapier, but it's basically a club in the shape of a sword more or less, right?

[Mortis_Elrod]

BTW, Coyote, Sacred Flame, despite the name, does Radiant, not fire damage... probably still fits the theme, but doesn't benefit from the Cha boosts to fire damage.

Not from Draconic Sorcerer, but it does from UL patron, adds cha to fire AND radiant damage.

[Ravinsild]

I've been reading the multiclass rules for spellcasting and I have to admit they seem to be very convoluted. Also it doesn't mention Warlock at all?

Spell Slots.
You determine your available spell slots by adding together all your levels in the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes, half your levels (rounded down) in the paladin and ranger classes, and a third of your fighter or rogue levels (rounded down) if you have the Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Trickster feature. Use this total to determine your spell slots by consulting the Multiclass Spellcaster table.

How many total spell slots would a Fighter 1/19 Warlock have at level 20? What about at level 2? Or 3? Do I just follow the Warlock table as normally? What if I choose the Paladin/Sorcerer/Warlock Route or Sorcerer/Warlock route?

Why isn't Warlock mentioned in the spell slot rules explanation? D:

I might be too dumb to play this game.

[Rysto]

Why isn't Warlock mentioned in the spell slot rules explanation? D:

Because Warlock spell slots work completely differently from all other spellcasters. You'll determine the number of "normal" spell slots based on that table, using only your Sorcerer levels. These spell slots are at a variety of levels and recharge on a long rest. In addition, you get the spell slots granted as a Warlock. This slots are all at the same level and recharge on a long rest.

So if you're a Warlock 3/Sorcerer 3, you get both:

1) 2 Level 2 spell slots from the Warlock class.
2) 4 Level 1 slots and 2 Level 2 spell slots from the Sorcerer class.

You may cast Sorcerer and Warlock spells using any slot.

[Coyote81]

I'd totally allow a 'rapier' looking club. You're not using it as finesse regardless (because of shillelagh) and there's no sneak attack to worry about... sure, most people think of BamBam or Capt Caveman with a turkeyleg looking chunk of wood... but a shinai or escrima works just as well.

BTW, Coyote, Sacred Flame, despite the name, does Radiant, not fire damage... probably still fits the theme, but doesn't benefit from the Cha boosts to fire damage.

Thanks, I forgot to mention it was radiant and only benefited from one boost, but I felt it was thematic and useful in some situations.

[Arkhios]

In addition, you get the spell slots granted as a Warlock. This slots are all at the same level and recharge on a long short rest.

Otherwise correct, but fixed that for you to prevent confusion. :)

[Ravinsild]

This was my attempt to cobble together all the information together to see if I actually built this character right to plan a path of Progression. I'll be trying this with all the builds suggested just to practice learning the rules and to see which has the best action economy and most damage both in Nova and DPR. As far as I can figure the Fighter 1 was taken for probably some type of heavier armor, shield proficiency, the Defense Fighting Style and basically just to boost AC and survivability with Second Wind.

My build attempt for Gastronomie's suggestion as follows: 1/X Fiendlocks can do this from level 6 (Fireball) and higher (for extra fire, go Tome instead of Blade and use GFB for your attacks). Fireball all day. S&B with War Caster is ideal for a Drow, taking the Defense Fighting Style.

Build #1: Fighter 1/Warlock 19 Fiend Patron Tome Pact

OG Ability Scores: 14/16/16/11/12/15

Level 1:
Race: Elf (Drow) +2 Dex. +1 Cha
Drow Magic Racial Feature: Dancing Lights Cantrip, at 3rd level learn Faerie Fire 1/day, at 5th level learn Darkness 1/day. Cha mod for DC.
Drow Weapon Training: Proficiency with Rapier, Shortsword, and Hand Crossbow
13 HP
Ability Scores: 14/16/18/11/12/16
Background: Noble
Weapon: Rapier+Shield
Saving Throws: Strength and Con
Skills: Acrobatics +2, Intimidation +2, History +2, Persuasion +2
Features:
Fighting Style: Defense (While Wearing Armor +1 Bonus to AC)
Second Wind: You have a limited well of stamina that you can draw on to protect yourself from harm. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your fighter level. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.


Level 2-20:
HP: 165 (1d8 [or 5] + Con Mod (3) x19)
Ability Scores: 14/16/20/11/12/20
Otherworldly Patron: Fiend
Pact Magic: 1st level (Burning Hands, Command) 2nd Level (Blindness/Deafness, Scorching ray) 3rd level (Fireball, Stinking Cloud) 4th level (Fire Shield, Wall of Fire) 5th Level (Flame Strike, Hallow)
Cantrips: 4 (+3 for free from Tome Pact)
Spell Slots: 5th level 4 spell slots 15 spells Known
Eldritch Invocations: 8 known
Pact Boon: Pact of the Tome (3 bonus free cantrips)
Ability Bonus: 4,16, 19
Feat: War Caster, Elemental Adept
Mystic Arcanum for: 11th level (1 6th level free spell) 13th level (1 7th level free spell) 15th level (1 8th level free spell) 17th level (1 9th level free spell)
Dark One’s Blessing: Gain Temp HP equal to Cha Mod + 19
Dark One’s Own Luck: Add 1d10 on an ability check or saving throw, useable again after long/short rest
Fiendish Resilience: Choose damage type after long/short rest. Gain resistance to that damage type until you take another long/short rest. Magic/Silver weapons ignore this.
Hurl Through Hell: When hitting with an attack can choose to hurl the creature through the lower planes. At end of next turn creature returns taking 10d10 Psychic damage if not a fiend. Once per long rest.


Cantrips (Know 4, 3 Free from Tome): Create Bonfire, Eldritch Blast, Green-Flame Blade, Prestidigitation (Bonus 3 From Tome: Light, Control Flame, Produce Flame)
Normal Spells Chosen (Know 15 Spells Have 4 Spell Slots up to 5th level Spells): Armor of Agathys, Hellish Rebuke, Burning Hands, Hex, Mirror Image, Hold Person, Scorching Ray, Fear, Fireball, Banishment, Elemental Bane, Fire Shield, Wall of Fire, Hold Monster, Flame Strike.
Mystic Arcanum Spells Chosen (1 free 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th Spell per Long Rest): 6th Level: Investiture of Flame, 7th Level: Finger of Death, 8th Level: Power Word Stun, 9th Level: Power Word Kill
Eldritch Invocations Chosen: Agonizing Blast, Book of Ancient Secrets, Devil’s Sight, Witch Sight, Sculptor of Flesh, Vision of Distant Realms, Misty Visions, Otherworldly Leap
Action: All Cantrips, All Spells Known
Reaction: Hellish Rebuke
Bonus Action: Hex, Second Wind
Requires Concentration: Bonfire (up to 1 min), Hex (Up to 1 hour), Hold Person (Up to 1 min), Fear (Concentration up to 1 min), Banishment (Up to 1 min), Elemental Bane (Up to 1 min), Wall of Fire (Up to 1 min), Hold Monster (Up to 1 min), Investiture of Flame (Up to 10 mins)

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______

Based on Gastronomie's Build: 2/X Sorcadins can also do this, starting at level 7 and getting a lot better at level 8 with Elemental Affinity. This one has better utility, but can cast less Fireballs per day, and gets online a bit later.

Not 100% sure I built the spells right or did the spells known/spell slots part right with Multiclassing. I'm basically just trying to track "possible actions" with these exercises. Such as: Action: Cantrip (GFB or otherwise) or Action: Melee Attack (Choose to Smite), Bonus Action: Quickened Spell (Fireball) or Bonus Action: Fly Move: 30 ft straight up Action: Final Flash I mean Sunbeam etc...

Level 2 (Paladin):
Race: Elf (Drow) +2 Dex. +1 Cha
Drow Magic Racial Feature: Dancing Lights Cantrip, at 3rd level learn Faerie Fire 1/day, at 5th level learn Darkness 1/day. Cha mod for DC.
Drow Weapon Training: Proficiency with Rapier, Shortsword, and Hand Crossbow
Ability Scores: 14/16/18/11/12/16
HP: 22
Background: Noble
Weapon: Rapier
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Persuasion +2, Intimidation +2, History +2, Persuasion +2
Features:
Divine Sense: Action: Until the end of your next turn you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity. Within the same radius, you also detect any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as if with the hallow spell. You can use this feature as number of times equal to 1 + 3 (Cha mod).
Lay on Hands: Action: Touch a creature and draw power from the pool to restore a number of HP to that creature, up to the maximum amount remaining in your pool (Paladin Level x 5 [10]). Alternatively you can expend 5 hit points from your pool of healing to cure the target of one disease or one poison affecting it. You can cure multiple poisons/disease per use per 5 HP spent.
Fighting Style: Dueling (When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a 2+ bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.)
Spell Casting: 2 1st level spell slots
Divine Smite: Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one paladin spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend.

Level 3-20:
HP: 166
Ability Scores: 14/16/20/11/12/20
Cantrips: 6 known
Spells Known: Paladin All/15 Sorcerer
Spell Slots: Paladin 2 1st/Sorcerer 4 1st, 3 2nd, 3 3rd, 3 4th, 3 5th, 2 6th, 1 7th, 1 8th, 1 9th
Sorcerous Origin: Draconic Sorcerer
Draconic Bloodline: Red
Draconic Resilience: +18 HP (1 per sorcerer level), No Armor = AC 13 + Dex (5) 18 AC
Elemental Affinity: Add Cha Modifier (+5) to Fire Damage from spells. Spend 1 Sorcery Point to gain Fire Resistance for 1 hour.
Dragon Wings: Gain 30 Flying Speed (Bonus Action to create). Best with no armor.
Draconic Presence: Action: Spend 5 Sorcery Points to exude an aura of Awe or Fear to a distance of 60 feet. Each Hostile creature that begins its turn in this aura must succeed a wis saving throw or be charmed/frightened until aura ends. Creatures who succeed are immune for 24 hrs.
Font of Magic: 18 Sorcery Points
MetaMagic: (3rd, 10th, 17th) Quickened Spell, Heightened Spell, Twinned Spell, Careful Spell
Ability Score Improvement: 4, 8 (Feat), 12, 16
Feat: Warcaster

Cantrips (Know 6): Create Bonfire, Firebolt, Green-Flame Blade, Light, Control Flame, Produce Flame
Paladin Level 1 Spells Known (All): Bless, Command, Compelled Duel, Cure Wounds, Detect Evil and Good, Detect Magic (Ritual), Detect Poison and Disease, Divine Favor, Heroism, Protection from Evil and Good, Purify Food and Drink (Ritual), Searing Smite, Shield of Faith, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful Smite
Normal Spells Chosen Sorcerer (Know 15 Spells Have 4 Spell Slots up to 5th level Spells): Misty Step, Haste, Mirror Image, Blur, Fly, Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, Fireball, Wall of Fire, Immolation, Sunbeam, Investiture of Fire, Fire Storm, Sunburst, Meteor Swarm

Action: All Cantrips, All Spells Known, Lay on Hands, Divine Sense, Draconic Presence, Weapon Attack (To proc Divine Smite)
Reaction: None
Bonus Action: Draconic Wings, Creating Spell Slots (Font of Magic), A Quickened Spell
Requires Concentration: Create Bonfire (up to 1 min), Haste (up to 1 min), Blur (up to 1 min), Fly (up to 10 mins), Wall of Fire (Up to 1 min), Immolation (Up to 1 min), Investiture of Flame (Up to 10 mins), Sunbeam (up to 1 min)

[Citan]

Ah I figured as a Drow I would be locked into Rapier (Dueling Fighter or Paladin) or Rapier/Shortsword (Two-Weapon Fighting if Fighter) over a Two-Hander for Great Weapon Master.

There's quite a lot to think about here haha.

Edit: I guess I meant the Fighter 1/19 Fiendlock build - I assumed it was Blade Pact to complement the Fighter since we aren't going to Fighter 5 for extra attack. Otherwise would it be 1 Fighter/19 Tome Fiendlock?

So possible turns could be: Action 1 (Cantrip - GFB) or Action 1 (Attack) then Extra Attack (Pact Blade) Bonus Action TWF: Attack off-hand or Action 1 (Spell attack) and then Hellish Rebuke for a Reaction or something. Right? I can't cast a Cantrip and a Spell in the same turn can I? Neither can I weapon attack and cast a spell unless it's a bonus action spell.

I am beginning to understand the source of my confusion: GFB is not an actual melee attack. I was under the impression it used the "Melee Attack" rules then applied fire as a cantrip effect basically being both a spell+melee attack simultaneously thus stacking with Extra Attack or such things.

In my mind how it worked was: Action 1 (Attack Melee) You swing your sword (Cantrip effect happens) Flames leap from primary target to secondary target. Sort of like an enchanted blade.

So you're either using spells OR melee attacking (Cantrips or Attack...Spell or Attack) this is where my misunderstanding came from. I don't really know exactly why I thought of it this way. So it seems you would want to build a "full caster" who uses melee cantrips (spells) over trying to decide between "Do I use a spell or do I use my normal attack with no special effects".

Derp.


I've been reading the multiclass rules for spellcasting and I have to admit they seem to be very convoluted. Also it doesn't mention Warlock at all?

Spell Slots.
You determine your available spell slots by adding together all your levels in the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes, half your levels (rounded down) in the paladin and ranger classes, and a third of your fighter or rogue levels (rounded down) if you have the Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Trickster feature. Use this total to determine your spell slots by consulting the Multiclass Spellcaster table.

How many total spell slots would a Fighter 1/19 Warlock have at level 20? What about at level 2? Or 3? Do I just follow the Warlock table as normally? What if I choose the Paladin/Sorcerer/Warlock Route or Sorcerer/Warlock route?

Why isn't Warlock mentioned in the spell slot rules explanation? D:

I might be too dumb to play this game.

Hey ;)
No worries. There is no dumbness involved at all. You, a newcomer in a whole new D&d edition, are being pushed straight into the pits of multiclassing and feats because of suggestions (including mine first and foremost). Which is exponentially more complex than just digesting one class. ;)
So don't be ashamed to have some problems grasping everything, and don't be ashamed to throw aside suggestions such as mine if it seems too difficult. Fighter 1 / Warlock X will do the job. Priority is to have fun here. ;)

With that said, to clear any doubts...

About Warlock slots and multiclassing
It's not mentioned because Warlock slots recharge on short rest, so it would have been too complex to find a way to "integrate" them with all the other casters which recharge on long-rest.
So, for example, a Paladin 2 / Warlock 5 / Sorcerer 13 would have a spellcaster level of (2/2 + 13) 14, meaning long-rest slots up to one 7th level slot. AND he would also have two 3rd level slot that recharge every shot rest.
BUT, and that's the very nice catch, you can use any spell you know with whichever slot you want (ex: you learned Haste from Sorcerer, you can cast it with your short-rest slots. You know Hex from Warlock, you can cast it with your Sorcerer's 1st level slots instead of forcefully upcasting it as a higher level as would a pure Warlock).

Conversely, that is why Sorcerer and Warlock are so good mixed together: from Sorcerer's point of view, a Warlock will bring a raw surge of power thanks to short-rest recharge. From Warlock's point of view, Sorcerer's long-rest slots and metamagic brings a welcome flexibility to avoid wasting your magic by upcasting a spell when the lowest version would be enough. ;)

About "weapon cantrips"
Green Flame Blade (as Booming Blade) is a very specific spell, that uses your action, but allows you to make a melee weapon attack as part of its effect.
It means...
1) On the plus side, this melee weapon attack benefits from any and every buff active that applies either to you (ex: Bless) or your weapon (ex: Elemental Weapon, Shillelagh if quarterstaff).
2) On the minus side, you are still using your action to cast a spell. Otherwise said, you are not using your action to Attack. Hence no bonus action from dual-wielding, Polearm Master feat or some class features that require you to take the Attack action. NOTE though that you may be able to trigger the bonus action from Great Weapon Master feat, because it just requires you to "score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one", which you can do with Green Flame Blade (and some luck? ;)).

That's why, for a character who wants to use Green Flame Blade as a basis, to build on double +CHA bonus damage, Extra Attack is usually not useful simply because you can't use it since it's tied to "the Attack action" and not simply "making a weapon attack".
Hope that's clearer.

As for the Drow and STR build, don't worry about my suggestion if you feel it is out of character. I'm certainly not as familiar as most here with D&d classic mythology, so I tend to more easily focus solely on mechanical aspects. ;)

And a Dexterity geared Warlock can be great too. In fact, it's the natural choice for a mix with Draconic Sorcerer which gets permanent Mage Armor. ;)

Although, contrarily to others, for a pure Warlock Dex build, I'd say Shillelagh is superfluous. If your DM agrees for you to refluff a quarterstaff as a kind of sword, then enjoy. Otherwise, turn and don't look back, 'cause you don't really care: you will want high Dexterity anyways because Mage Armor and Mirror Image depend on it (not even talking about saves and initiative). So you will probably get 20 in both Charisma and Dexterity in the end. Cherry on cake, it also means you can still take the Blade pact so you can get another +CHA on your melee attack in the end. ;)

Only case where it would really be important would be if you really badly wanted several feats for the same character to make a stopping force (like the infamous combo Sentinel + Polearm Master, or stacking defensive feats).
Otherwise said, it's nice if you can get it because it makes your life easier in the lower levels or you can stick with lower Dex and stack feats instead, but Blade pact is also a good choice in the long run. It all boils down to whether you go rather towards Dex or Str and the feats you want (Blade Pact mandatory if GWM, in every other case go for your taste).



What about one of those Japanese Wooden Katanas? It's not a rapier, but it's basically a club in the shape of a sword more or less, right?
Yes, the japanese name is "boken" (in our writing), and if you don't care about your weapon being metallic, your DM has absolutely no reason at all to refuse this tweak because it's 100% fluff.
He may have a different view if you want to get a Sorcerer quarterstaff focus though. ;)

[Ravinsild]

Hey ;)
No worries. There is no dumbness involved at all. You, a newcomer in a whole new D&d edition, are being pushed straight into the pits of multiclassing and feats because of suggestions (including mine first and foremost). Which is exponentially more complex than just digesting one class. ;)
So don't be ashamed to have some problems grasping everything, and don't be ashamed to throw aside suggestions such as mine if it seems too difficult. Fighter 1 / Warlock X will do the job. Priority is to have fun here. ;)

With that said, to clear any doubts...

About Warlock slots and multiclassing
It's not mentioned because Warlock slots recharge on short rest, so it would have been too complex to find a way to "integrate" them with all the other casters which recharge on long-rest.
So, for example, a Paladin 2 / Warlock 5 / Sorcerer 13 would have a spellcaster level of (2/2 + 13) 14, meaning long-rest slots up to one 7th level slot. AND he would also have two 3rd level slot that recharge every shot rest.
BUT, and that's the very nice catch, you can use any spell you know with whichever slot you want (ex: you learned Haste from Sorcerer, you can cast it with your short-rest slots. You know Hex from Warlock, you can cast it with your Sorcerer's 1st level slots instead of forcefully upcasting it as a higher level as would a pure Warlock).

Conversely, that is why Sorcerer and Warlock are so good mixed together: from Sorcerer's point of view, a Warlock will bring a raw surge of power thanks to short-rest recharge. From Warlock's point of view, Sorcerer's long-rest slots and metamagic brings a welcome flexibility to avoid wasting your magic by upcasting a spell when the lowest version would be enough. ;)

About "weapon cantrips"
Green Flame Blade (as Booming Blade) is a very specific spell, that uses your action, but allows you to make a melee weapon attack as part of its effect.
It means...
1) On the plus side, this melee weapon attack benefits from any and every buff active that applies either to you (ex: Bless) or your weapon (ex: Elemental Weapon, Shillelagh if quarterstaff).
2) On the minus side, you are still using your action to cast a spell. Otherwise said, you are not using your action to Attack. Hence no bonus action from dual-wielding, Polearm Master feat or some class features that require you to take the Attack action. NOTE though that you may be able to trigger the bonus action from Great Weapon Master feat, because it just requires you to "score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one", which you can do with Green Flame Blade (and some luck? ;)).

That's why, for a character who wants to use Green Flame Blade as a basis, to build on double +CHA bonus damage, Extra Attack is usually not useful simply because you can't use it since it's tied to "the Attack action" and not simply "making a weapon attack".
Hope that's clearer.

As for the Drow and STR build, don't worry about my suggestion if you feel it is out of character. I'm certainly not as familiar as most here with D&d classic mythology, so I tend to more easily focus solely on mechanical aspects. ;)

And a Dexterity geared Warlock can be great too. In fact, it's the natural choice for a mix with Draconic Sorcerer which gets permanent Mage Armor. ;)

Although, contrarily to others, for a pure Warlock Dex build, I'd say Shillelagh is superfluous. If your DM agrees for you to refluff a quarterstaff as a kind of sword, then enjoy. Otherwise, turn and don't look back, 'cause you don't really care: you will want high Dexterity anyways because Mage Armor and Mirror Image depend on it (not even talking about saves and initiative). So you will probably get 20 in both Charisma and Dexterity in the end. Cherry on cake, it also means you can still take the Blade pact so you can get another +CHA on your melee attack in the end. ;)

Only case where it would really be important would be if you really badly wanted several feats for the same character to make a stopping force (like the infamous combo Sentinel + Polearm Master, or stacking defensive feats).
Otherwise said, it's nice if you can get it because it makes your life easier in the lower levels or you can stick with lower Dex and stack feats instead, but Blade pact is also a good choice in the long run. It all boils down to whether you go rather towards Dex or Str and the feats you want (Blade Pact mandatory if GWM, in every other case go for your taste).



Yes, the japanese name is "boken" (in our writing), and if you don't care about your weapon being metallic, your DM has absolutely no reason at all to refuse this tweak because it's 100% fluff.
He may have a different view if you want to get a Sorcerer quarterstaff focus though. ;)

Ah thanks for clearing that up! Sounds like Warlock+Sorcerer is the way to go - especially if I want to do something like Blade Pact with the Extra Attack Feat then have a readied Quicken Spell from a previous round so I can use something like Fireball or Scorching Ray or some other heavy nuke spell as a bonus action instead of as a standard action.

I've been picking through these builds trying to "build them" trying to account for all the class features I would have, what action types they take (Move, Action, Bonus Action, Reaction) so I can sort of see how the build plays out and whether or not there are too many conflicts in action economy. As far as I know you can only concentrate on one spell at a time so I'm also tallying which spells require concentration and of course prioritizing any "Fire" damage spells no matter how ****ty over "utility" or "Stronger" spells for flavor.

Basically just a test to see "Am I following all the rules accurately and accounting for everything accurately? Are all my ducks in a row and is my understanding of this build solid?"

[Coyote81]

Don't forget the Elemental Evil Spell List, there are some good fire spells in there, including the very nice Absorb Elements Spell.

[djreynolds]

14/16/16/11/12/15, and I can rearrange these

14/16/11/16/12/15.....14/18/11/16/12/16

Bladesinger paladin... why because with these stats... you can. And its awesome, you are a drow.

Bladesong just with these stats is mage armor +3, dex +4, int, +3... AC20... plus shield AC25.. level 2

Toss is some paladin and you can smite all day with all of your spell slots.

Bladesinger 14 and paladin 6... 4 ASI ... 1 dex, 2 int,.... 1 resilient con .....14/20/12/20/12/16.... AC with bladesong... AC23 with shield AC28 and +3 to all saves. Done

I recommend starting paladin, only for wisdom and chr save proficiency and grab resilient con early.

[Citan]

Don't forget the Elemental Evil Spell List, there are some good fire spells in there, including the very nice Absorb Elements Spell.
Yeah, except that for who knows reason, Absorb Elements is not even on Sorcerer's spelllist...
You do get some nice cantrips though.


Ah thanks for clearing that up! Sounds like Warlock+Sorcerer is the way to go - especially if I want to do something like Blade Pact with the Extra Attack Feat then have a readied Quicken Spell from a previous round so I can use something like Fireball or Scorching Ray or some other heavy nuke spell as a bonus action instead of as a standard action.

I've been picking through these builds trying to "build them" trying to account for all the class features I would have, what action types they take (Move, Action, Bonus Action, Reaction) so I can sort of see how the build plays out and whether or not there are too many conflicts in action economy. As far as I know you can only concentrate on one spell at a time so I'm also tallying which spells require concentration and of course prioritizing any "Fire" damage spells no matter how ****ty over "utility" or "Stronger" spells for flavor.

Basically just a test to see "Am I following all the rules accurately and accounting for everything accurately? Are all my ducks in a row and is my understanding of this build solid?"

I guess you were talking of Extra Attack Invocation rather?
Also, I'm not sure I understand what you want to do, or if you can do it...
AFAIK (but I rarely use Ready action so I may mistaken) Ready takes your action (because it IS an action) + your reaction. So you can Ready a spell, sure, but it will always cost you the action on the turn you Ready AND the reaction for where the condition you set trigger.
And this combines with the rule that you can only cast one spell (other than cantrip) per turn (barring the specific Action Surge from Fighter).

So it's very usable if you set your Ready condition in such a way that you can trigger your spell on someone else's turn. Otherwise it's moot.

The Warlock + Sorcerer multiclass is indeed the way to go though if you want to use a finesse weapon and go Dex.
For your starting class, choose mainly depending on two factors...
1. Do you plan on heavily using Concentration spells (or Ready action)?
2. Do you plan on taking Warcaster?

1 yes + 2 no = start Sorcerer because you will want a good concentration save.
1 no + 2 yes = start Warlock because Wisdom spells are very nasty and advantage on concentration checks will be enough for your use.
1 yes + 2 yes = 50/50. If one concentration spell is the core of your strategy (Hex, Darkness, Greater Invisibility, Haste), then balance tips off towards Sorcerer. Otherwise, starting Warlock makes a great all-around defense (because you will have decent CON modifier but no proficiency, and low WIS modifier but proficiency).

EDIT: Just saw djreynolds's post above, and was wondering where he got the stats from, then looked back on your previous post...
OG Ability Scores: 14/16/16/11/12/15
Is that your rolled stats?
Because these are... Very nice!
With that you can play (nearly) whatever you want: pure Warlock, straight dual-class, or crazy multiclass. Same with stats and feats, either max stats or stack feats!

I will refrain from any more multiclass suggestion though because it's sufficiently complex as is... But, so many possibilities... XD

[djreynolds]

Scimitar.... 10gp

Chain lightning to the nether areas, or disintegrate to the face..... priceless.

Who cares about melee attacks as a caster? Swords are heavy.

[Arkhios]

Scimitar.... 10gp

Chain lightning to the nether areas, or disintegrate to the face..... priceless.

Who cares about melee attacks as a caster? Swords are heavy.

...at least weapons always work, regardless of situation. And you could say you were prepared if you found yourself in Anti-Magic Field. :smallcool:

[djreynolds]

...at least weapons always work, regardless of situation. And you could say you were prepared if you found yourself in Anti-Magic Field. :smallcool:

I have 2 characters.... kept in jars because of beholders.:smallfrown:

[Ravinsild]

Scimitar.... 10gp

Chain lightning to the nether areas, or disintegrate to the face..... priceless.

Who cares about melee attacks as a caster? Swords are heavy.

Because if I am reading this right: Thirsting Blade: Prerequisite: 5th level, Pact o f the Blade feature You can attack with your pact weapon twice, instead of
once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

That's 5th Character level not 5th Warlock level.

Meaning at Character level 8 with 2 levels of Paladin, 3 Levels of Sorcerer and 3 levels of Warlock I will be able to take the following actions if I understand the rules properly:

Beginning each round casting Hex as a bonus action and maintaining concentration and attacking with a cantrip or melee basic attack x2.

Round 2 Action: Melee Attack (Paladin Smite) Thirsting Blade: Melee Attack Meta Magic Quickened Spell: Fireball as bonus action (Or Scorching Ray or w/e) plus Hex Damage

or alternate action plan:

Round 2 Action: Melee Attack (Paladin Smite) Thirsting Blade: Melee Attack Meta Magic Dump All (3) Sorc Points: Quickened Spell Twinned Spell Bonus Action: Firebolt (Plus another target) plus Hex Damage

or even just simply if I need cleave Green-Fire Blade plus Hex damage

or single target DPR Attack: melee attack Thirsting Blade Exta attack: Melee Attack plus Hex damage

So pretty much I can nova like a mother-effer or I can simply double attack the same target or I can just cleave down two adds at once every round. You know assuming my dice love me :^)

Ultimately following this line of thought it seems like it would be best to go 2 Paladin/4 Warlock/14 Sorcerer with Undying Light Pact with the Blade boon of Draconic Origin.
I would have:
3 MetaMagic options (Quickened Spell, Twinned Spell, something else)
14 Sorcerer Points
3 Sorcerous Origin features including Draconic Wings
4 Total Ability Improvements
Lay on Hands
Divine Sense
Divine Smite
Fighting Style (Dueling? Probably? or Defense)
Pact Magic (Radiant Soul)
Pact Boon (Blade)
2 Eldritch Invocations (Thirsting Blade and something)

and

I have no idea how many spell slots or how to even calculate this with 2 level of paladin 4 levels of Warlocks and 14 levels of Sorcerer. I think I would have 15 Spell Slots if I add all my levels of Sorcerer (14) and half my levels of Paladin rounded down (1) (14+1 = 15) but then there's Pact magic and 4 levels of Warlock so.... some amount of spell slots that go up to a certain level of magic that I can expend my 14 Sorcerer points on for metamagic or gaining new slots which all compete for Divine Smite all my fire magic and Hex :^)

[Gastronomie]

The level prerequisites for the Eldritch Invocations were a misprint. They're changed in recent editions, I believe, and it's specifically noted in the WotC homepage.

[Ravinsild]

The level prerequisites for the Eldritch Invocations were a misprint. They're changed in recent editions, I believe, and it's specifically noted in the WotC homepage.

it appears it's Warlock level specifically so I would need to go 5 levels into Warlock. So I suppose my build would go 2 Level paladin 3 levels Sorcerer 5 levels Warlock a 10th level character respectively and then I guess 10 more levels into Sorcerer. Or perhaps 1 more Warlock then the rest Sorcerer (2 Pal/6 Lock/12 Sorcerer or 2 Pal/5 Lock/13 Sorcerer)

Guess the build comes on a bit late doesn't it? :/

[Gastronomie]

it appears it's Warlock level specifically so I would need to go 5 levels into Warlock. So I suppose my build would go 2 Level paladin 3 levels Sorcerer 5 levels Warlock a 10th level character respectively and then I guess 10 more levels into Sorcerer. Or perhaps 1 more Warlock then the rest Sorcerer (2 Pal/6 Lock/12 Sorcerer or 2 Pal/5 Lock/13 Sorcerer)

Guess the build comes on a bit late doesn't it? :/Ending Sorcerer at level 3 (and not going back there for some time) is not an optimal choice - Metamagic gets severely limited. While the Warlock is a class suitable for dips, the Sorcerer requires some high-level investment to be truly worth it. I would probably go straight Paladin/Sorcerer.

Also, overuse of Paladin Smites will make you run out of spell slots too fast. You should reserve Divine Smite for natural 20s and when you really want to kill off something fast.

[Ravinsild]

Ending Sorcerer at level 3 (and not going back there for some time) is not an optimal choice - Metamagic gets severely limited. While the Warlock is a class suitable for dips, the Sorcerer requires some high-level investment to be truly worth it. I would probably go straight Paladin/Sorcerer.

Also, overuse of Paladin Smites will make you run out of spell slots too fast. You should reserve Divine Smite for natural 20s and when you really want to kill off something fast.

This character seems super difficult to build haha. I have a practice build up a few posts of a 2 Paladin/18 Sorcerer but mostly it's multiclass spellcasting that's doing me in.

I also had a practice 1 Fighter/19 Warlock build posted. But yeah Aramil Soveliss seems like he's very difficult to pin down on paper. All these good ideas but the mechanics still aren't clear to me and I don't understand why I seem unable to understand multiclassing rules for spellcasting etc.

ugh. This is frustrating.

[Citan]

This character seems super difficult to build haha. I have a practice build up a few posts of a 2 Paladin/18 Sorcerer but mostly it's multiclass spellcasting that's doing me in.

I also had a practice 1 Fighter/19 Warlock build posted. But yeah Aramil Soveliss seems like he's very difficult to pin down on paper. All these good ideas but the mechanics still aren't clear to me and I don't understand why I seem unable to understand multiclassing rules for spellcasting etc.

ugh. This is frustrating.
I'm sorry to read you feel that way.
I didn't want to go too much in character creation because I didn't want to influence you, but in case you in fact like a proposition of full build, please check the spoiler hereunder.

Also, note that depending on what you want, you could very possibly have your concept "online" sooner than you think.
What makes you feel it's late is that you are taking several different classes. So you get the impression that you are stacking half-baked concepts on top of each other.
But, if you instead view each class as just a different discipline, and focus on what you get each character level instead of focusing on how "low" you are in a class, it should help greatly.

Sure, optimization-wise, you will wait until character level 9-10 before you get all the core mechanics you want (Warlock's 1st level +CHA, Sorcerer's 6th level +CHA). But it doesn't mean your character will be bad until then.
In my opinion, your character is actually taking consistance before he reaches even character level 5, because he gets a permanent fire themed attack and fire spells from the get go. And you are close enough to other Dex gishes at every level as far as sustained damage goes, better until level 5, a bit lesser until level 10 (you don't get bonus action attack but you have Flaming Sphere or Quicken spell instead, and +CHA on whatever you do).

Everything he gets beyond character level 4-5 is just more choice in how to put the whole world around to flames, basically... XD


So, let's start again from the beginning:
what you want is... "1) Pyromancer/Fire Blaster/Nuker 2) Used Sword for offense/melee 3) Drow", right?

And you get these rolled stats (we agree it's rolled right? I'm AFB but I don't recall you can get something similar with point-buy):
14/16/16/11/12/15

What we are sure we want:
- as much bonus damage to fire as possible
- as many fire themed spells as possible for a gish (Fireball, Scorching Ray and Burning Hands mandatory).
- proficiency with a good melee weapon.
- resilient enough to survive the melee.
- simple to build and play. ;)

What Warlock and Sorcerer offer:
Undying Light Warlock gives access to most interesting fire spells barring Fireball. Also, +CHA on radiant and fire, and great bonus with the Pact.
Sorcerer gives access to fire spells and buffs, Constitution proficiency, and Metamagics.

I'll put up the simplest build possible aiming to be a half-caster of sorts, then give you some variants.

Starting stats with racials:
STR 12 / DEX 18 / CON 16 / INT 11 / WIS 14 / CHA 16

Aramil: the beginning (char level 1)
Start Sorcerer. Why?
- Fits best fluff-wise with your concept imo.
- Gives direct access to permanent Mage Armor, Shield, Magic Missile and weapon cantrips: take Green Flame Blade obviously, but also Control Flames (fluff and sneak), Create Bonfire (great use for your concentration for now) and any utility as the last (Minor Illusion for smarts, Mold Earth for cover, etc)...
- You seem you want a very agile build, meaning no shield (you don't have proficiency anyways), meaning one of the benefits of Warcaster is void (it is still a good feat for you though).

Aramil: fire passion (up to char level 4)
Then immediately go Warlock 3. Why?
You immediately get a great bump in damage thanks to the +CHA bonus.
You get Sacred Flame as a nice cantrip against high AC targets, and you can also choose Eldricht Blast (great ranged cantrip, although not fire) and another utility.
At character levels 3 and 4, you get to play with fire themed spell (Burning Hands) and whatever other spell you want, learned from Warlock.
So you get Shield, Magic Missile, Burning Hands and ? which you can use on 2 short rest slots (Warlock) in addition to 3 long-rest slots (Sorcerer).
Honestly, you could say your character is already live here (char level 2 \o/): you can either spam GFB every turn or, when the situation makes it possible, cast a Create Bonfire in the first turn to add insult to injury (like in a narrow corridor, or under a creature that a pal of yours is grappling, etc).
You also get Invocations (for your concept, Mask of Many Faces, Eldricht Sight or Beguiling Influence seem great picks. If you prefer something focused on fighting, Fiendish Viguor will be good for a few levels, you can swap for another later).
But it gets better:
When you reach Warlock 3, you get a perfectly fitting (thematically) use for your concentration, because you can learn Flaming Sphere to use with your Warlock slots. And you can replace the "?" first spell by Mirror Image to get a great defense.
So now you get two fire-themed AOE on short rest (upscaled Burning Hands or Flaming Sphere), and you can keep Sorcerer 1st level slots for emergency Shield.
In a fresh fight, you are spending your whole turn burning everyone already:
First turn, cast Flaming Sphere (which gets +CHA damage at least this time). Every other turn, use GFB with your action while moving the flaming sphere with your bonus action.
Should be satisfying enough for a 4th level character, and you will feel your concept burning vividly if I may daresay so.
Where to go from now?

Aramil: heart of flames (up to char level 10)
Well, take your 4th level as a Warlock! It's "only" an ASI, but you will still feel a bump in power thanks to cantrip leveling. You will want a +2 in CHA obviously.
Then, go straight up to Sorcerer 6, learning...
- Metamagic (Quicken seems an obvious great choice, I'd suggest Empowered as the second because it fits well and will be very useful with AOE rolls)
- great spells among Firebolt (cantrip), Chromatic Orb (1st level, because you still want to do something else than fire), Scorching Ray (2nd level), Blindness (2nd level, great non-concentration debuff, thematic), Aganazzar's Scorcher (2nd level, line of fire), Pyrotechnics (damage+utility), Fireball (3rd level, THE AOE), Melf's Minute Meteor (not the best in damage but so classy) and either Slow or Haste (I'd advise Slow because you won't get as much mileage from Haste as would other gishes... On the other hand, Haste is sure to succeed and greatly amps your defense and mobility. Really a matter of personal taste in the end).

By now, you are a pretty hard-boiled ****er that gets fire damage under every possible form (melee, ray, cone, sphere, bonfire, possibly line or projectiles), puts a pretty heavy load on enemies thanks to +8 or +10 (depending on your second ASI) damage and is still hard to get thanks to the combination of decent AC (17) and Mirror Image.
And to play with all your spell known, you get 2*2rd level short rest slots (perfect for Mirror Image / Flaming Sphere / Blindness), as well as 4*1st (Shield), 3*2nd level (same as just before) and 3*3rd level (Fireball!) long-rest slots.

And now you get a whole world opening to you. Your concept is fully online, you will just have to decide your end game.
Aramil: paving the Hell's path (> char level 10)
Up the AOE blasting? Take two more levels in Warlock so your short-rest slots can be used on Fireball.
Up the melee while sticking to the theme? Go up to Warlock 7 to get your hands on Fire Shield AND freaking Elemental Bane (this will become your exclusive use of short-rest slots XD).
Up the versatility of your fire spells? Grab more Sorcerer levels to access Wall of Fire (4th level), Immolation (5th level), Investiture of Flame (6th). Grab also Greater Invisibility, great in combat and otherwise.
Up the melee in other fields? Pick among Swashbuckler Rogue 3 (Expertise in Sneak and Athletics, Sneak Attack, Cunning Action, extra Initiative, free disengage), Fighter 2 (Dueling or Mariner, Action Surge), Paladin 2 (Dueling, Divine Smite), Long Death Monk 3 (bonus THP on melee kill), Bladesinger Wizard 2 (requires you to swap INT and STR scores in my suggested build).

Also, I didn't speak of Warlock's Pact because, in fact, it's really not important: none is actually required for what you want to achieve, and all of them brings good benefits. Although Blade would require you to aim for Warlock 12, so it's lesser than others. So I would either pick Chain for magic resistant familiar, or Tome for the Ritual learning, depending on party composition.

Finally, after this huge mass of text, a quick, more readable recap of what I suggest (including second half)

Aramil: suggested step by step build up to far beyond 10 (start by surviving up to 10 then we can talk again XD)
1. Sorcerer: GFB / Control Flames / Create Bonfire / Minor Illusion (cantrips), Shield / Magic Missile (1st level).
2. Warlock: Light (auto), Sacred Flame (auto), Mage Hand, Eldricht Blast (cantrips), Burning Hands, Hellish Rebuke (1st level).
3. Warlock: ? (whatever you want 1st level spell), Beguiling Influence / Fiendish Vigor or Mask of Many Faces (Invocations)
4. Warlock: choice of Pact (if your DM is nice, go for Tome with Rituals, it's invalulable for party, otherwise go Chain. In both case, swap Fiendish Vigor for the related Invocation: Book of Ancients Secrets or Voice of the Chain Master), Flaming Sphere (2nd level), Mirror Image (swap the "?" 1st level).
4. Warlock: +2 CHA, ? 2nd spell (I'd "suggest" Suggestion for your character but anything goes).
5. Sorcerer: Chromatic Orb (1st level), Font of Magic, cantrip bumps.
6. Sorcerer: Scorching Ray or Aganazzar's Scorcher (2nd level), Pyrotechnics (2nd level), Metamagics (Quicken, Empowered).
7. Sorcerer: ASI (+2 CHA), Blindness (2nd).
8. Sorcerer: Firebolt (cantrip), Fireball (3rd). (Option: Slow by swapping Magic Missile, although it could have a niche use still, it's generally useless by now).
9. Sorcerer: Slow (or Haste, or Melf's Minute Meteor), +CHA to fire damage.
10. Sorcerer: Wall of Fire (4th level).
11 Sorcerer: Greater Invisibility (4th), ASI: Warcaster or Resilient: Wisdom, depending on concentration use and past encounters. Cantrip bumps.
12. Warlock: Counterspell (3rd), short-rest slots now can be used on Fireballs. Invocation: one mentioned before.
13. Warlock: Tongues, Hypnotic Pattern, Fear or Fly. Searing Vengeance Patron feature.
14. Warlock: Elemental Bane, Fire Shield (swap a spell you don't use much anymore). Invocation: whatever.
15. Rogue: Expertise (Sneak, Athletics).
16. Rogue: Cunning Action.
17. Rogue Swashbuckler: +CHA on Initiative, free disengage (obviously redundant if you took Mobile feat before).
18+: whatever (Rogue for ASI and Uncanny Dodge, Sorcerer to get up to 6th level spell and more Metamagic, Bard for healing, Jack of all Trades and Expertise, Land Druid for heal, Absorb Elements, Pass Without Trace and self-buffs (especially Longstrider), Fighter for Action Surge, Long Death Monk for extra mobility and occasional THP...)

As a reminder, what I suggest on >10 is my personal preference while trying to follow your concept, not necessarily the optimum choice. ;)
I do love the idea of a quick character that tries to manipulate people to do its bidding or, when not possible, but combines quick&run with close range AOE to dispatch enemies before they could even act (thanks to great Initiative and great sneaking).


Hope that helps. ;)

[Ravinsild]

I'm sorry to read you feel that way.
I didn't want to go too much in character creation because I didn't want to influence you, but in case you in fact like a proposition of full build, please check the spoiler hereunder.

Also, note that depending on what you want, you could very possibly have your concept "online" sooner than you think.
What makes you feel it's late is that you are taking several different classes. So you get the impression that you are stacking half-baked concepts on top of each other.
But, if you instead view each class as just a different discipline, and focus on what you get each character level instead of focusing on how "low" you are in a class, it should help greatly.

Sure, optimization-wise, you will wait until character level 9-10 before you get all the core mechanics you want (Warlock's 1st level +CHA, Sorcerer's 6th level +CHA). But it doesn't mean your character will be bad until then.
In my opinion, your character is actually taking consistance before he reaches even character level 5, because he gets a permanent fire themed attack and fire spells from the get go. And you are close enough to other Dex gishes at every level as far as sustained damage goes, better until level 5, a bit lesser until level 10 (you don't get bonus action attack but you have Flaming Sphere or Quicken spell instead, and +CHA on whatever you do).

Everything he gets beyond character level 4-5 is just more choice in how to put the whole world around to flames, basically... XD


So, let's start again from the beginning:
what you want is... "1) Pyromancer/Fire Blaster/Nuker 2) Used Sword for offense/melee 3) Drow", right?

And you get these rolled stats (we agree it's rolled right? I'm AFB but I don't recall you can get something similar with point-buy):
14/16/16/11/12/15

What we are sure we want:
- as much bonus damage to fire as possible
- as many fire themed spells as possible for a gish (Fireball, Scorching Ray and Burning Hands mandatory).
- proficiency with a good melee weapon.
- resilient enough to survive the melee.
- simple to build and play. ;)

What Warlock and Sorcerer offer:
Undying Light Warlock gives access to most interesting fire spells barring Fireball. Also, +CHA on radiant and fire, and great bonus with the Pact.
Sorcerer gives access to fire spells and buffs, Constitution proficiency, and Metamagics.

I'll put up the simplest build possible aiming to be a half-caster of sorts, then give you some variants.

Starting stats with racials:
STR 12 / DEX 18 / CON 16 / INT 11 / WIS 14 / CHA 16

Aramil: the beginning (char level 1)
Start Sorcerer. Why?
- Fits best fluff-wise with your concept imo.
- Gives direct access to permanent Mage Armor, Shield, Magic Missile and weapon cantrips: take Green Flame Blade obviously, but also Control Flames (fluff and sneak), Create Bonfire (great use for your concentration for now) and any utility as the last (Minor Illusion for smarts, Mold Earth for cover, etc)...
- You seem you want a very agile build, meaning no shield (you don't have proficiency anyways), meaning one of the benefits of Warcaster is void (it is still a good feat for you though).

Aramil: fire passion (up to char level 4)
Then immediately go Warlock 3. Why?
You immediately get a great bump in damage thanks to the +CHA bonus.
You get Sacred Flame as a nice cantrip against high AC targets, and you can also choose Eldricht Blast (great ranged cantrip, although not fire) and another utility.
At character levels 3 and 4, you get to play with fire themed spell (Burning Hands) and whatever other spell you want, learned from Warlock.
So you get Shield, Magic Missile, Burning Hands and ? which you can use on 2 short rest slots (Warlock) in addition to 3 long-rest slots (Sorcerer).
Honestly, you could say your character is already live here (char level 2 \o/): you can either spam GFB every turn or, when the situation makes it possible, cast a Create Bonfire in the first turn to add insult to injury (like in a narrow corridor, or under a creature that a pal of yours is grappling, etc).
You also get Invocations (for your concept, Mask of Many Faces, Eldricht Sight or Beguiling Influence seem great picks. If you prefer something focused on fighting, Fiendish Viguor will be good for a few levels, you can swap for another later).
But it gets better:
When you reach Warlock 3, you get a perfectly fitting (thematically) use for your concentration, because you can learn Flaming Sphere to use with your Warlock slots. And you can replace the "?" first spell by Mirror Image to get a great defense.
So now you get two fire-themed AOE on short rest (upscaled Burning Hands or Flaming Sphere), and you can keep Sorcerer 1st level slots for emergency Shield.
In a fresh fight, you are spending your whole turn burning everyone already:
First turn, cast Flaming Sphere (which gets +CHA damage at least this time). Every other turn, use GFB with your action while moving the flaming sphere with your bonus action.
Should be satisfying enough for a 4th level character, and you will feel your concept burning vividly if I may daresay so.
Where to go from now?

Aramil: heart of flames (up to char level 10)
Well, take your 4th level as a Warlock! It's "only" an ASI, but you will still feel a bump in power thanks to cantrip leveling. You will want a +2 in CHA obviously.
Then, go straight up to Sorcerer 6, learning...
- Metamagic (Quicken seems an obvious great choice, I'd suggest Empowered as the second because it fits well and will be very useful with AOE rolls)
- great spells among Firebolt (cantrip), Chromatic Orb (1st level, because you still want to do something else than fire), Scorching Ray (2nd level), Blindness (2nd level, great non-concentration debuff, thematic), Aganazzar's Scorcher (2nd level, line of fire), Pyrotechnics (damage+utility), Fireball (3rd level, THE AOE), Melf's Minute Meteor (not the best in damage but so classy) and either Slow or Haste (I'd advise Slow because you won't get as much mileage from Haste as would other gishes... On the other hand, Haste is sure to succeed and greatly amps your defense and mobility. Really a matter of personal taste in the end).

By now, you are a pretty hard-boiled ****er that gets fire damage under every possible form (melee, ray, cone, sphere, bonfire, possibly line or projectiles), puts a pretty heavy load on enemies thanks to +8 or +10 (depending on your second ASI) damage and is still hard to get thanks to the combination of decent AC (17) and Mirror Image.
And to play with all your spell known, you get 2*2rd level short rest slots (perfect for Mirror Image / Flaming Sphere / Blindness), as well as 4*1st (Shield), 3*2nd level (same as just before) and 3*3rd level (Fireball!) long-rest slots.

And now you get a whole world opening to you. Your concept is fully online, you will just have to decide your end game.
Aramil: paving the Hell's path (> char level 10)
Up the AOE blasting? Take two more levels in Warlock so your short-rest slots can be used on Fireball.
Up the melee while sticking to the theme? Go up to Warlock 7 to get your hands on Fire Shield AND freaking Elemental Bane (this will become your exclusive use of short-rest slots XD).
Up the versatility of your fire spells? Grab more Sorcerer levels to access Wall of Fire (4th level), Immolation (5th level), Investiture of Flame (6th). Grab also Greater Invisibility, great in combat and otherwise.
Up the melee in other fields? Pick among Swashbuckler Rogue 3 (Expertise in Sneak and Athletics, Sneak Attack, Cunning Action, extra Initiative, free disengage), Fighter 2 (Dueling or Mariner, Action Surge), Paladin 2 (Dueling, Divine Smite), Long Death Monk 3 (bonus THP on melee kill), Bladesinger Wizard 2 (requires you to swap INT and STR scores in my suggested build).

Also, I didn't speak of Warlock's Pact because, in fact, it's really not important: none is actually required for what you want to achieve, and all of them brings good benefits. Although Blade would require you to aim for Warlock 12, so it's lesser than others. So I would either pick Chain for magic resistant familiar, or Tome for the Ritual learning, depending on party composition.

Finally, after this huge mass of text, a quick, more readable recap of what I suggest (including second half)

Aramil: suggested step by step build up to far beyond 10 (start by surviving up to 10 then we can talk again XD)
1. Sorcerer: GFB / Control Flames / Create Bonfire / Minor Illusion (cantrips), Shield / Magic Missile (1st level).
2. Warlock: Light (auto), Sacred Flame (auto), Mage Hand, Eldricht Blast (cantrips), Burning Hands, Hellish Rebuke (1st level).
3. Warlock: ? (whatever you want 1st level spell), Beguiling Influence / Fiendish Vigor or Mask of Many Faces (Invocations)
4. Warlock: choice of Pact (if your DM is nice, go for Tome with Rituals, it's invalulable for party, otherwise go Chain. In both case, swap Fiendish Vigor for the related Invocation: Book of Ancients Secrets or Voice of the Chain Master), Flaming Sphere (2nd level), Mirror Image (swap the "?" 1st level).
4. Warlock: +2 CHA, ? 2nd spell (I'd "suggest" Suggestion for your character but anything goes).
5. Sorcerer: Chromatic Orb (1st level), Font of Magic, cantrip bumps.
6. Sorcerer: Scorching Ray or Aganazzar's Scorcher (2nd level), Pyrotechnics (2nd level), Metamagics (Quicken, Empowered).
7. Sorcerer: ASI (+2 CHA), Blindness (2nd).
8. Sorcerer: Firebolt (cantrip), Fireball (3rd). (Option: Slow by swapping Magic Missile, although it could have a niche use still, it's generally useless by now).
9. Sorcerer: Slow (or Haste, or Melf's Minute Meteor), +CHA to fire damage.
10. Sorcerer: Wall of Fire (4th level).
11 Sorcerer: Greater Invisibility (4th), ASI: Warcaster or Resilient: Wisdom, depending on concentration use and past encounters. Cantrip bumps.
12. Warlock: Counterspell (3rd), short-rest slots now can be used on Fireballs. Invocation: one mentioned before.
13. Warlock: Tongues, Hypnotic Pattern, Fear or Fly. Searing Vengeance Patron feature.
14. Warlock: Elemental Bane, Fire Shield (swap a spell you don't use much anymore). Invocation: whatever.
15. Rogue: Expertise (Sneak, Athletics).
16. Rogue: Cunning Action.
17. Rogue Swashbuckler: +CHA on Initiative, free disengage (obviously redundant if you took Mobile feat before).
18+: whatever (Rogue for ASI and Uncanny Dodge, Sorcerer to get up to 6th level spell and more Metamagic, Bard for healing, Jack of all Trades and Expertise, Land Druid for heal, Absorb Elements, Pass Without Trace and self-buffs (especially Longstrider), Fighter for Action Surge, Long Death Monk for extra mobility and occasional THP...)

As a reminder, what I suggest on >10 is my personal preference while trying to follow your concept, not necessarily the optimum choice. ;)
I do love the idea of a quick character that tries to manipulate people to do its bidding or, when not possible, but combines quick&run with close range AOE to dispatch enemies before they could even act (thanks to great Initiative and great sneaking).


Hope that helps. ;)

The main problem/frustration I was having was understanding spellcaster rules. Now that I've read the rules multiple times and read a few reddit threads dissecting them I believe I understand.

Pact Magic works entirely differently from normal Spellcasting. I would follow only the pact magic table for any and all Warlock related spells in it's own seperate pool based entirely and only on Warlock level.

Then over here on the other side we have everybody else with the standard "Spellcaster" levels, or even just "Magic-user". So let's just have a practice at reading the table as I understand it.

I'll be a 2 Paladin/5 Warlock/13 Sorcerer. Reading the rules I take my Paladin level and divided by half rounding down giving me 2/1 = 1. Then I do every full level of my Sorcerer spells. 13 levels of Sorcerer. Character level doesn't matter. Only spellcaster levels.

So on my left hand I have 14 levels of magic-user: reading from the chart that's 4 1st level slots, 3 2nd level slots, 3 3rd level slots, 3 4th level slots, 2 5th level slots 1 6th level slot and 1 7th level slot.

Now I would read my Spell List as though I were a 1st level Paladin on the paladin spell table and I think I could not learn any Paladin spells.

Then going over to my Sorcerer Spell Table I would know: 13 Sorcerer Points. 6 Cantrips Known. 13 Known Spells. Up to 7th level.

This means I can learn 13 spells of my choosing from the total Sorcerer Spell list up to 1 7th level spells. Any 13 as long as I don't exceed my spell slots correct? So I could learn 3 3rd level spells, 3 2nd level spells, 1 7th level and so forth. I could not, however, learn 4 3rd level spells as I don't have enough spell slots. Accurate?

Then over here on my right hand I have my Pact Magic and I read that chart as though I were a 5th level Warlock. 5th Level Warlock Chart says they know:
3 Cantrips. 6 Spells Known. 2 Pact Spell Slots. 3rd Slot level. So I could learn any 6 spells up to 3rd Warlock level based on their spells known chart but I could only use 2 of them. I would also have 3 Invocation Known.

So while I could use my 2 Warlock spell slots to cast Sorcerer Spells or my 1 7th level spell slot to juice up a 1st-3rd level Warlock spell I could never learn a 7th level Warlock spell only a 7th level Sorcerer spell. I can't use a 7th level Warlock spell because I don't have 7th level Pact Magic.

Is this all correct? Two totally different pools, totally different spell lists the only thing "Mix and Match" is how I choose to use my 2 pact magic and 14th Magic User level spell slots?

Edit: Correct my stats came from the roll 4d6 drop the lowest number style from 3.5e and the beginning of this PHB as the suggested stat gain method. My dice love me for stat rolls and hate me for d20 rolls :^)

[djreynolds]

A drow paladin bladesinger. Ever heard of one? You might be the first.
You have the stats, to do this. Everything you want it does.
The flexibility of the wizard's spellbook.
You can smite with any spell slot.
Awesome AC.
Plenty of melee capabilities.
It's unique but still elven.
My prior build is just a guide.
Too awesome.

[Ravinsild]

A drow paladin bladesinger. Ever heard of one? You might be the first.
You have the stats, to do this. Everything you want it does.
The flexibility of the wizard's spellbook.
You can smite with any spell slot.
Awesome AC.
Plenty of melee capabilities.
It's unique but still elven.
My prior build is just a guide.
Too awesome.

I briefly read about the Bladesinger from the SCAG I think. I was flipping through the book (I got it almost exclusively for the Half-Elf background variants so I'd have the official rules but it's a great book overall) and it seems sort of like a..."Barbarian Rage" mode? Like you're not always a Bladesinger...you have to "turn it on" to get all the stuff correct?

I always liked sort of dominating spells in 4e like:

Tyranny of Flame (AP): You damage a foe, knock them down, and force them to stay down until they save, which they'll find harder to do because of the Infernal Pact rider on this. This is a pretty good pick for Infernal Hexblades at first level.

I would describe in 4e as something like burning chains rise from the ground and shackle the enemies wrist pulling them to the ground on their knees with Aramil sneering, "Don't you know to kneel before royalty?".

Then using an Encounter or Daily Spells to bring forth the big dice fire spell basically causing flames to erupt from beneath and consume them or badly injure them for the rest of the party to finish off etc.

[djreynolds]

2 uses, 1 minute a piece. Short rest recharge.
2 attacks at 6lvl bladesinger. And still a full wizard.

All of the advice and your choices are awesome.

This wouldn't be a real possibility, but since you rolled well enough it's intriguing.

Lots of 5E d&d character generator aps you can use to try builds out before you put pencil to paper and play.

[bid]

That's 5th Character level not 5th Warlock level.
As stated by others, every mention of "level" in the Classes chapter uses the class level.

[Ravinsild]

As stated by others, every mention of "level" in the Classes chapter uses the class level.

Yes I revised my post with and edit I think. Just not the initial supposition. However yes, I read the PHB Errata and Warlock Invocation Level requirements are based on Warlock Levels not character levels as I understand it now.


2 uses, 1 minute a piece. Short rest recharge.
2 attacks at 6lvl bladesinger. And still a full wizard.

All of the advice and your choices are awesome.

This wouldn't be a real possibility, but since you rolled well enough it's intriguing.

Lots of 5E d&d character generator aps you can use to try builds out before you put pencil to paper and play.

I thought Wizards of the Coast took down all their character generation tools and all that stuff from D&D Insider+ or whatever it was called.

Where are these 5e Character Generators?

[bid]

Where are these 5e Character Generators?
The free ones are limited to OGL.

I think herolab licensed 5e, and roll20?

[Gastronomie]

I'll be a 2 Paladin/5 Warlock/13 Sorcerer. Reading the rules I take my Paladin level and divided by half rounding down giving me 2/1 = 1. Then I do every full level of my Sorcerer spells. 13 levels of Sorcerer. Character level doesn't matter. Only spellcaster levels.

So on my left hand I have 14 levels of magic-user: reading from the chart that's 4 1st level slots, 3 2nd level slots, 3 3rd level slots, 3 4th level slots, 2 5th level slots 1 6th level slot and 1 7th level slot.

Now I would read my Spell List as though I were a 1st level Paladin on the paladin spell table and I think I could not learn any Paladin spells.

Then going over to my Sorcerer Spell Table I would know: 13 Sorcerer Points. 6 Cantrips Known. 13 Known Spells. Up to 7th level.

This means I can learn 13 spells of my choosing from the total Sorcerer Spell list up to 1 7th level spells. Any 13 as long as I don't exceed my spell slots correct? So I could learn 3 3rd level spells, 3 2nd level spells, 1 7th level and so forth. I could not, however, learn 4 3rd level spells as I don't have enough spell slots. Accurate? You've got it mostly right, however several stuff are different:

-You don't need to read the list as though you were a 1st level Paladin. The spell progression of the Paladin class itself is that of a "half-caster", progressing at half the speed of a normal Caster, and it already includes the rule that Paladins get only 1/2 the spell progression. Thus you don't need to divide it by 2 again. A multiclass character with 2 levels in Paladin can use Paladin spells with no problem.

-You can learn a number of spells that consequentially exceed the number of spell slots you have for that level. It's possible for you to learn 10 3rd-level spells, and you can still feel free to cast just Fireballx4 per day using your 3rd-level spell slots. If it was unallowed for you to do that, level 1 Wizards would be illegal (only 2 level 1 slots, but they know 6 level 1 spells from the start).

[Ravinsild]

The free ones are limited to OGL.

I think herolab licensed 5e, and roll20?

I legitimately looked into Herolab but I couldn't find any confirmation it supported 5e on their official website. Pathfinder and a bunch of others but I may have overlooked something. I appear to have a RL wisdom of 4 ;)


You've got it mostly right, however several stuff are different:

-You don't need to read the list as though you were a 1st level Paladin. The spell progression of the Paladin class itself is that of a "half-caster", progressing at half the speed of a normal Caster, and it already includes the rule that Paladins get only 1/2 the spell progression. Thus you don't need to divide it by 2 again. A multiclass character with 2 levels in Paladin can use Paladin spells with no problem.

-You can learn a number of spells that consequentially exceed the number of spell slots you have for that level. It's possible for you to learn 10 3rd-level spells, and you can still feel free to cast just Fireballx4 per day using your 3rd-level spell slots. If it was unallowed for you to do that, level 1 Wizards would be illegal (only 2 level 1 slots, but they know 6 level 1 spells from the start).

Oh perfect! That's great alright then well now I've sorted all the rules out. I feel a lot more confident in looking through these suggestions and making a build from them all. I've compiled all of them in a big list on a google doc and I was going to just compare and contrast.

So far classes that seem to be best options are:
Sorcerer
Paladin
Warlock

With one variant being the
1 Fighter/19 Warlock

and the Bladedancer or whatever from SCAG although tbh the activation cost doesn't strike me as full hybrid gish more just "I'm a wizard that can sometimes do a melee if I choose to use this limited resource ability" but I might have the wrong impression here.

Pacts that seem the best are: Undying Light or Fiend
Sorcerer Origins that seem the best are: Draconic Origin
Pact Boons: Any but most seem to favor tome or chain

As for Paladin Oaths...I don't think anyone has recommended a deep dip into Paladin.

So I have these puzzle pieces to work with plus this concept of:

Illidan Stormrage + Kael'thas Sunstrider + Vegeta + This picture which is where Aramil Soveliss came from in the first place: http://65.media.tumblr.com/e41962f5559849e0d840deb468856afe/tumblr_nir4lmzoTD1s6jkuco10_1280.jpg and http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080602015951/pathfinder/images/thumb/c/cd/Seltyiel.jpg/250px-Seltyiel.jpg except a Drow.

[bid]

I legitimately looked into Herolab but I couldn't find any confirmation it supported 5e on their official website. Pathfinder and a bunch of others but I may have overlooked something. I appear to have a RL wisdom of 4 ;)
You're right.

"(Please note: We are also still pursuing an official license with Wizards of the Coast to support the entire D&D 5th Edition product line. If an official license can be secured, anyone purchasing the SRD option for Hero Lab will be given the option to upgrade.)"

[djreynolds]

1 minute of bladesong is enough to cover you. For me the power is the spellbook.... all the spells you can get your hands on are at your disposal.

Coupled with the paladin spells.

Both the bladesinger and warlock get to add their casting modifier to their damage at some point, 14th and 12th.

As for apps, just go into your play store on your phone.

[Ravinsild]

1 minute of bladesong is enough to cover you. For me the power is the spellbook.... all the spells you can get your hands on are at your disposal.

Coupled with the paladin spells.

Both the bladesinger and warlock get to add their casting modifier to their damage at some point, 14th and 12th.

As for apps, just go into your play store on your phone.

The only reason I'm not super gung-ho about this particular suggestion is it seems awfully mad....like 3 primary stats kind of mad. Although my dice do love me with my stat rolls. Just seems wise to invest into either a pure cha Sorc/War or a Dex/Cha Pal/Sorc or Pal/Sorc/Lock or even Fighter/Lock. Basically Dex for weapon Cha for spells or Cha for spells and melee (cantrips) and forgoing multiple attacks or some concoction. If I went High Elf I probably wouldn't hate it though. But then I'd probably drop the Cha classes altogether and do something like Eldritch Knight + Bladesong or something idk.

My thoughts are floating toward Undying Light or Fiend Pact Warlock, Draconic Sorcerer and possibly two or so levels in Paladin if it's even worth. I'm good with any Warlock pact...Familiar would be cool. Spell book thing is alright. I love the blade pact but I'm aware it sucks a little harder than a "pure blaster" but I'm also going for "Striker" so :^)

[djreynolds]

The only reason I'm not super gung-ho about this particular suggestion is it seems awfully mad....like 3 primary stats kind of mad. Although my dice do love me with my stat rolls. Just seems wise to invest into either a pure cha Sorc/War or a Dex/Cha Pal/Sorc or Pal/Sorc/Lock or even Fighter/Lock. Basically Dex for weapon Cha for spells or Cha for spells and melee (cantrips) and forgoing multiple attacks or some concoction. If I went High Elf I probably wouldn't hate it though. But then I'd probably drop the Cha classes altogether and do something like Eldritch Knight + Bladesong or something idk.

My thoughts are floating toward Undying Light or Fiend Pact Warlock, Draconic Sorcerer and possibly two or so levels in Paladin if it's even worth. I'm good with any Warlock pact...Familiar would be cool. Spell book thing is alright. I love the blade pact but I'm aware it sucks a little harder than a "pure blaster" but I'm also going for "Striker" so :^)

You could leave charisma at 16-18 and its really for the save bonus and you can smite with all the spell slots

So I prefer wizard or sorcerer as warlock has less spells, though they do come back on a short rest it hurts to smite with them because the warlock spell slots go up in power, but with sorcerer or wizard you decide post hit how much you want to smite with

I like paladin and sorcerer, its a good build but your spell selection... it sucks

A wizard can obtain all the spells in that spell book, for me that really adds the oomph as you still have all those spells, sorcerer only gets like 13 spells for life.

I like bladesinger/rogue, EK is all right, but you don't get much as you do not need the heavy armor.

I actually prefer EK/cleric sounds crazy but a fighter needs a higher wisdom just for save purposes

When I ran your numbers, 14 bladesinger/ 6 paladin... max dex and int and resilient con coupled with paladin saves is sweet.

But its your build, I'm just curious to see what you come up with. The stats are good and I like the drow concept

[Ravinsild]

Weird question real quick: I was reading through the Warlock Pacts and the Chain is actually beginning to appeal to me equally as much as the Blade Pact.

So here is my weird question:

Voice of the Chain Master: Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain Feature. You can telepathically communicate with your familiar and perceive through your familiar's senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. Additionally, while perceiving through your familiar's senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.

So....could a Kenku technically speak through a familiar? Or do Kenku not know an actual language so they generally literally cannot speak? Just...a strange little loophole if possible and also cute/funny.

But second question: Why do Warlocks have to take a special invocation slot to get 99% of the benefits "Find Familiar" ritual spell already gives....with the only extra bonus is you can talk through your familiar?

Anyway I might do Chain, I might do Pact I'm still trying to sort out my classes and my action economy to take my spells and melee attacks the farthest. I'm thinking I'll need some martial levels for extra attack to keep my striking competitive because I'm thinking I may be burning through my spells quickly but for sure going Sorcerer for meta magic if nothing else. Probably.

How do you crunch the numbers to find out what's a competitive DPR and action economy and all that stuff? Are spells or melee more valuable? Am I paying (to use an old WoW term) Hybrid Tax by trying to be a melee spellcaster by being worse than a purely optimized melee striker and worse than a purely optimized ranged mage spell blaster?

[djreynolds]

Bladelock is an odd class because you have to wait till 12th level for it to come on line... and its tough to get short rests in game if the players at the table are not conscious of the need for warlocks, monks and fighters to do so.

Now just grabbing a level of fighter or paladin does wonders for AC, but you are stuck needing anywhere from a 14-15 strength for this.

Honestly, you could grab 3 of warlock and snag agonizing blast, and then just go sorcerer for the rest.
But then you are just using EB like a ranger with a bow and the occasional AoE

Mage armor is +3 AC plus dex. So you are looking at an AC18. And then you are grabbing magic initiate for shillelagh, so you can use PAM and a quarterstaff....

I think just 2-6 levels of paladin and sorcerer are just easier to run for you. And just get find familiar that way. And you have access to the shield spell.

I would grab devotion, sacred weapon's bonus will help out with disadvantage if your are forced into bright areas.

Just focus on grabbing movement spells like haste, misty step and dimension door from the sorcerer.

[Ravinsild]

I would do....Draconic Sorcerer 6 (Gold/Red) + Paladin 2 + Undying Light Warlock X Blade pact. Sure you dont stack GFB with the Thirsting blade invocation, but at least you still have extra attack, and you can choose between causing your enemies to ignite with righteous flames and cutting off whats left. Its a slow start though so be prepared for that.

I've been reading over this thread again and again and with each read over I gain more insight and understand especially as I pour over the rulebooks.

This build does seem very exciting but a bit clunky to get moving.

Essentially I would be a 7th level magic user with 6 of those in Sorcerer and 2 of those in Paladin but per the Multiclass Spellcasting slot table I would be a 7th level magic user.

I would know 5 Sorcer Cantrips at level 6, I would of course gain my Charisma modifier in damage to any fire based spells and I would have 4 1st level, 3 2nd level, 3 3rd level and 1 4th level slot to use spells but I could learn neither level 4 Sorcerer spells as my level 6 Sorcerer level does not allow it neither does my Paladin level 2 feature. I could however use that 4th level slot to cast something else like Hex for a longer duration or use it for a Divine Smite. I would have 6 Sorcery points allowing me to have 3 uses of Quickcast to cast 3 spells as a bonus action (once per turn) or 4 uses of Empowered spell and 1 use of Quickened spell or any combo of 2 or 1 sorcery points out of 6. This gives me many spell casting options.

In addition I would have basically Divine Sense, Lay on Hands, Dueling Fighting Style (Might as well, with the Draconic Bloodline I get 13+Dex AC with no armor so Defense doesn't help me as it requires armor, two-handers are out as Dexterity and this character is NOT a tank or a protector) and Divine Smite.

In addition 12 levels of Warlock at a character level of 20 with Blade Pact would give me Lifedrinker, Thirsting Blade for two melee attacks (That I can bonus action cast a spell with quickened spell or not) in addition to 3 recharge on short rest spells up to 5th level Warlock spells...or burn on Divine Smite. I would also know 4 Cantrips as 12 levels in Warlock provides, I would know 11 Warlock Spells total and I could use my Multiclass Magic-User spell slots or my Warlock spell slots for said spells in addition to 6 known Eldritch Invocations (two were discussed previously so 4 more to know).

I would also have 3 Pact Features as Undying Light. Does the Fire Damage Charisma modifier from Radiant Soul stack with Draconic Origin's Elemental Affinity? At least my Radiant type spells with get Cha modifier bonus. In addition I can make a cool death saving throw thing and come back to life (Very Thematic of the heavy phoenix motif I have for this character) and on a short rest at level 20 with all 12 of my Warlock levels I can grant temporary hit points to my friends. Woo.

So a total of 9 Cantrips, 3 Warlock slots up to 5th Warlock Spell Level, 4 1st level, 3 2nd level, 3 3rd level and 1 4th level Magic-User spell slots per multiclass. Know up to 3rd level Sorcerer Spells and 1st level Paladin spells. Any of these slots can be used for any of the spells I know which is 11 Warlock Spells total and 7 Sorcerer Spells. I would prepare some Paladin spells but I don't care about those so as far as I'm concerned Smite is my only Paladin spell. I also have 6 Sorcerer points I can burn to create more spell slots OR use on my two chosen Metamagics.

This gives me flexibility at higher levels to bonus action cast powerful spells after two attack actions + possible smite + hex damage for a crazy nova. A normal turn would be two attacks with my melee blade or one cantrip (Green Flame Blade to cleave, Firebolt or Eldritch Blast to target someone far away [up to 300 ft if I chose the right Invocation]). I could also Quicken a spell for a bonus action and cast a cantrip.

This gives me two spells in a row, two attacks in a row plus a spell, or just a spell (cantrip or normal spell). In addition the possibility of smiting. Hex damage is a constant. Flexible, seems to be good DPR, melee and ranged options. The standard turn would probably be two melee attacks for single target or melee cantrip Green Flame-Blade if cleaving two targets.

This seems solid but what classes do I choose in which order to come online the fastest? All of the ideas are so great in this thread it's hard to settle on one :P Everyone has been so helpful I can't wait to discover the most efficient way to build this guy and get into my first game.

I suppose my ultimate question comes down to: What gives the most consistent damage? Melee Cantrips or 2 Melee attacks with dueling? Do I get the +Dex bonus on the melee attack portion of Green-Flame Blade? Do I get the Dueling bonus? I would get the Cha bonus of Draconic Origin Elemental Affinity. Does that stack with Radiant Pact feature?

Basically at the end of the day I'm beginning to realize the way gish works is either primarily focusing on "auto-attacks" or focusing on spells (cantrips and otherwise). By going the auto-attack route there are less spells overall. Is auto-attacking more damage in general than cantrips and more spells? How valueable is Smite in all of this?

It could just be a Warlock who uses Melee Cantrip + Hex Damage every round. If auto attack is worth would it be worth giving up Divine Smite for Fighter and going Two-Weapon Fighter for Two Attacks + Bonus Action off-hand? Less Nova (dropping smite) more consistency? Or does Dueling make up for the difference from TWF with the constant +2? Or maybe even going Chain and Melee Cantrip + Familiar Reaction attack + Hex damage.

The combinations seems endless, the spells are great, there's a varying level of how many spells you can chuck and the nova potential seems like it could be astounding for an OHKO on a boss or something.

What's the most efficient way to focus on steady damage over time that can still support a crazy nova round if I just want to show off and get mega fancy? Basically: Safe, Calculated, but can drop the nuclear bomb when needed? Whether it's melee cantrips or extra attacks or familiar + cantrips or whatever else what would give the safety DPR of like a Battlemaster Fighter with the insane nova 1 round murder kill of a Sorcadin? I assume I'm picking one more-so over the other. Picking sustained DPR seems like less opportunity to cast spells, picking turbo nova seems like maybe slower DPR?

Am I right in my assessments? Sorry for being long-winded. Just trying to carefully consider "How effective will I be and how many resources will it take to maintain decent levels of DPS and how many resources will it take if I need to nova for a butt clencher moment? How weak will that leave me after?"

[Citan]

Weird question real quick: I was reading through the Warlock Pacts and the Chain is actually beginning to appeal to me equally as much as the Blade Pact.

So here is my weird question:

Voice of the Chain Master: Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain Feature. You can telepathically communicate with your familiar and perceive through your familiar's senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. Additionally, while perceiving through your familiar's senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.

So....could a Kenku technically speak through a familiar? Or do Kenku not know an actual language so they generally literally cannot speak? Just...a strange little loophole if possible and also cute/funny.

But second question: Why do Warlocks have to take a special invocation slot to get 99% of the benefits "Find Familiar" ritual spell already gives....with the only extra bonus is you can talk through your familiar?

Anyway I might do Chain, I might do Pact I'm still trying to sort out my classes and my action economy to take my spells and melee attacks the farthest. I'm thinking I'll need some martial levels for extra attack to keep my striking competitive because I'm thinking I may be burning through my spells quickly but for sure going Sorcerer for meta magic if nothing else. Probably.

How do you crunch the numbers to find out what's a competitive DPR and action economy and all that stuff? Are spells or melee more valuable? Am I paying (to use an old WoW term) Hybrid Tax by trying to be a melee spellcaster by being worse than a purely optimized melee striker and worse than a purely optimized ranged mage spell blaster?
Don't know for first question because I don't know what a Kenku is, but for the second question, don't be fooled by appareances...
The special familiar is much better than the "Find Familiar" one...
First, because you can pick some demon species that are not available through the spell, that bring special benefits: being able to make itself invisible, sharing magic resistance with you when at close range, etc...
Second, because the Voice Invocation allows you to use familiar sense without range limit. ;)

As for crunch numbers, it's easy.
Calculate numbers for a "mundane" turn...
Lvl 1: Green Flame Blade.
Lvl 2: Green Flame Blade.
Lvl 4: Green Flame Blade + Flaming Sphere bonus action.
Lvl 5: GFB + Flaming Sphere (cantrip upgrade)
Lvl ~8-9: same, with Draconic +CHA bonus
Lvl 11: cantrip upgrade. Also you can now support a mundane turn of cantrip + Quicken cantrip, so two GFB.
Etc...
You will see that you stay actually competitive for the most part with gish, except obviously those optimized for Sharpshooter / GWM.

Big difference with others being that you can when needed unleash a powerful spell with a bonus action (Quicken).

Honestly, in the prism of my suggested build above, Paladin 2 does not bring much: you already get the weapon proficiency you need through racial bonus, you don't care about armor because Draconic Armor is plain better anyways, so basically 2 levels bring you a fighting style (only Dueling would apply for you, and it's not a big deal for 1 weapon attack per turn), a bunch of nice spells and Divine Smite.
I'm not sure you want Divine Smite that much because it's directly eating your blasting capability (it's great on Paladin for that reason, they get very little offensive spellcasting).
Paladin spells are all great, but you will have many good ones to use already, both concentration or non-concentration. The four only worth your interest imo are...
- Cure Wounds (better than nothing)
- Command (versatile and useful)
- Bless (because it helps you)
- Searing Smite (for you it's a extra 1d6+10 damage on a bonus action for a 1st level slot, would be great if it didn't eat at your concentration).
Concentration-wise, at low levels you get mainly Flaming Sphere, so there is not much competition, but you get also very few slots.
And once you get higher in your whole character level, you will probably want to keep your Concentration for Greater Invisibility, Elemental Bane, Wall of Fire or Slow/Haste.
In short, for your concept, Divine Smite is a nice bonus but far from required, making Paladin spells the main (near only) benefit: so you really have to decide if you plan on using some/all of them regularly.
Because dipping Paladin at higher levels would make no sense, but dipping at low level makes you wait that much longer for nice blasting.

Finally, don't pay too much attention to djreynolds, the guy clearly dislikes Warlock and want to sell his Bladesinger XD.

[Ravinsild]

Don't know for first question because I don't know what a Kenku is, but for the second question, don't be fooled by appareances...
The special familiar is much better than the "Find Familiar" one...
First, because you can pick some demon species that are not available through the spell, that bring special benefits: being able to make itself invisible, sharing magic resistance with you when at close range, etc...
Second, because the Voice Invocation allows you to use familiar sense without range limit. ;)

As for crunch numbers, it's easy.
Calculate numbers for a "mundane" turn...
Lvl 1: Green Flame Blade.
Lvl 2: Green Flame Blade.
Lvl 4: Green Flame Blade + Flaming Sphere bonus action.
Lvl 5: GFB + Flaming Sphere (cantrip upgrade)
Lvl ~8-9: same, with Draconic +CHA bonus
Lvl 11: cantrip upgrade. Also you can now support a mundane turn of cantrip + Quicken cantrip, so two GFB.
Etc...
You will see that you stay actually competitive for the most part with gish, except obviously those optimized for Sharpshooter / GWM.

Big difference with others being that you can when needed unleash a powerful spell with a bonus action (Quicken).

Honestly, in the prism of my suggested build above, Paladin 2 does not bring much: you already get the weapon proficiency you need through racial bonus, you don't care about armor because Draconic Armor is plain better anyways, so basically 2 levels bring you a fighting style (only Dueling would apply for you, and it's not a big deal for 1 weapon attack per turn), a bunch of nice spells and Divine Smite.
I'm not sure you want Divine Smite that much because it's directly eating your blasting capability (it's great on Paladin for that reason, they get very little offensive spellcasting).
Paladin spells are all great, but you will have many good ones to use already, both concentration or non-concentration. The four only worth your interest imo are...
- Cure Wounds (better than nothing)
- Command (versatile and useful)
- Bless (because it helps you)
- Searing Smite (for you it's a extra 1d6+10 damage on a bonus action for a 1st level slot, would be great if it didn't eat at your concentration).
Concentration-wise, at low levels you get mainly Flaming Sphere, so there is not much competition, but you get also very few slots.
And once you get higher in your whole character level, you will probably want to keep your Concentration for Greater Invisibility, Elemental Bane, Wall of Fire or Slow/Haste.
In short, for your concept, Divine Smite is a nice bonus but far from required, making Paladin spells the main (near only) benefit: so you really have to decide if you plan on using some/all of them regularly.
Because dipping Paladin at higher levels would make no sense, but dipping at low level makes you wait that much longer for nice blasting.

Finally, don't pay too much attention to djreynolds, the guy clearly dislikes Warlock and want to sell his Bladesinger XD.

Your posts have been immensely helpful! I am truly grateful.

Also djreynolds doesn't appear to quite grasp the concept of my character.

I am 100% aware and knowledgeable that what I am asking for is probably actually not very good. I deliberately ignoring OP super utility spells like invisibility, haste, fly, hold person, charm, suggestion etc that can end encounters in 1 turn or trivialize things in lieu of fire type damage spells. I'm 100% aware the "Chromatic Orb Fire" is probably objectively worse than "Mirror Image" but if I only have two spells slots...I'm picking the fire spell.

Basically the concept of Aramil Soveliss is Pyromancer (Fire Specialized Wizard) and Champion Fighter. The simplicity of the Champion (I attack you with my sword) + Pyromancer (I hit you with A fire spell, as long as it does fire damage I don't care.)

I know this character is not an all-star god-tier polearm great weapon master exploiting super munchkin that can solo bosses and dish out the most damage in the game. I'm also aware I'm forsaking super good utility spells. However we already have a spell caster for that. We have a Lore College bard who is probably going to specialize in enchanting magic and all that crowd control super cool OP stuff.

All Aramil Soveliss cares about is vengeance and death, bringing pain and wrath upon his enemies. Damage pure and simple.

All I want is a damage dealing Champion Fighter style meets Pyromancer Wizard style that isn't a convoluted broken action economy mess like standard Beast Master Ranger. If it at least functions on par with "this is how much a character should do damage wise per turn without being a burden to the group" that's good. If it can do better that's super great. But I'm not trying to make the most optimized character literally ever - that's already been done and I'd run one of those builds.

I'm trying to make the most optimized character of a very specific niche concept for one guy who exists in my brain that isn't a Bladesinger. He cuts you. He burns you. That is all.

Many people HAVE gotten the concept I asked for, and have answered with great answers. Now I'm just trying to parse "What do I really NEED" and "What does this best?" What does Fighter+Fire Wizard BEST for the most reliable damage that can tap into some super nova when the going gets tough?

I wish I had a simulationcraft for this :^)

"- Cure Wounds (better than nothing)" As you lay on the ground in a pool of your own blood reaching up toward Aramil with a plea in your eyes you whisper, "Heal me brother..please." Aramil sneers and turns his back toward you. "It was your own weakness that got you in this situation in the first place. Perhaps if you were as strong as me, THE PRINCE OF ALL SAIYA-*coughs* DROW you wouldn't be laying there pathetically begging for help." A small flame flickers in his hand, dancing and casting shadows on his dark features as he turns to face you in a slow and deliberate way with a wicked gleam in his silver eyes, "I could...put you out of your misery however."

Paladin spells are poop unless they make you die (In Aramil's mind. Objectively they are pretty good for the party as a whole. BTW Aramil isn't evil. He's just arrogant and has a bad attitude.)

[djreynolds]

This build is sweet. I like it. It is cool.

True.... I sort of like the warlock. This works... you can blast and melee, draconic allows charisma to your fire damage.

And as crazy as it sounds, you could try eldritch knight and sorcerer. Grab action surge and even war magic at 7th. Allowing you to nova and be dex based since fighter dips can be strength or dex, and walk away with some nifty defensive spells when you need them and dump strength/intelligence. Just max out dex charisma and con.

Action surge and haste and quicken, lots of potential.

[Citan]

I've been reading over this thread again and again and with each read over I gain more insight and understand especially as I pour over the rulebooks.

This build does seem very exciting but a bit clunky to get moving.

Essentially I would be a 7th level magic user with 6 of those in Sorcerer and 2 of those in Paladin but per the Multiclass Spellcasting slot table I would be a 7th level magic user.

I would know 5 Sorcer Cantrips at level 6, I would of course gain my Charisma modifier in damage to any fire based spells and I would have 4 1st level, 3 2nd level, 3 3rd level and 1 4th level slot to use spells but I could learn neither level 4 Sorcerer spells as my level 6 Sorcerer level does not allow it neither does my Paladin level 2 feature. I could however use that 4th level slot to cast something else like Hex for a longer duration or use it for a Divine Smite. I would have 6 Sorcery points allowing me to have 3 uses of Quickcast to cast 3 spells as a bonus action (once per turn) or 4 uses of Empowered spell and 1 use of Quickened spell or any combo of 2 or 1 sorcery points out of 6. This gives me many spell casting options.
Some true things and wrong things here. You are spot-on on your understanding of spell slots and spell learning. You also understand perfectly the Metamagic. ;)
However you would not have Hex, since you are talking about a Pal 2 / Sorc 6, so no Warlock, and Hex is Warlock Exclusive. Beyond that, Hex is really not the best spell for you for usual fights, because it gives 1d6 on any hit, and you are set on using melee cantrips instead of Eldricht Blast. So 1d6 extra damage per turn (or 2d6 is you use quicken). Flaming Sphere does 2d6 fire damage, lasts one minute and also uses your bonus action. ;)

In addition I would have basically Divine Sense, Lay on Hands, Dueling Fighting Style (Might as well, with the Draconic Bloodline I get 13+Dex AC with no armor so Defense doesn't help me as it requires armor, two-handers are out as Dexterity and this character is NOT a tank or a protector) and Divine Smite.
You know my opinion on Paladin value here (cf just above) so I won't say again. ;)

In addition 12 levels of Warlock at a character level of 20 with Blade Pact would give me Lifedrinker, Thirsting Blade for two melee attacks (That I can bonus action cast a spell with quickened spell or not) in addition to 3 recharge on short rest spells up to 5th level Warlock spells...or burn on Divine Smite. I would also know 4 Cantrips as 12 levels in Warlock provides, I would know 11 Warlock Spells total and I could use my Multiclass Magic-User spell slots or my Warlock spell slots for said spells in addition to 6 known Eldritch Invocations (two were discussed previously so 4 more to know).
Yes. Note however that if you go that way (if I understood correctly, first go Pal 2 / Sorcerer 6 then start Warlock?) you will get Thirsting Blade precisely at the time GFB takes another bump in damage. And you don't get a good bonus action attack (DEX build with Blade Pact = no GWM feat, no Polearm Master feat) so just using your GFB will be plain better than Extra Attack. It is a nice thing to have though when you meet enemies that are immune to fire damage, that's for sure. ;)

I would also have 3 Pact Features as Undying Light. Does the Fire Damage Charisma modifier from Radiant Soul stack with Draconic Origin's Elemental Affinity? At least my Radiant type spells with get Cha modifier bonus. In addition I can make a cool death saving throw thing and come back to life (Very Thematic of the heavy phoenix motif I have for this character) and on a short rest at level 20 with all 12 of my Warlock levels I can grant temporary hit points to my friends. Woo.
Yes, both fire bonuses stack. That's why this specific combination was suggested in the first place. ;)

So a total of 9 Cantrips, 3 Warlock slots up to 5th Warlock Spell Level, 4 1st level, 3 2nd level, 3 3rd level and 1 4th level Magic-User spell slots per multiclass. Know up to 3rd level Sorcerer Spells and 1st level Paladin spells. Any of these slots can be used for any of the spells I know which is 11 Warlock Spells total and 7 Sorcerer Spells. I would prepare some Paladin spells but I don't care about those so as far as I'm concerned Smite is my only Paladin spell. I also have 6 Sorcerer points I can burn to create more spell slots OR use on my two chosen Metamagics.
Yeah, you clearly understand the rules now. Congrats ;)
I would advise you to burn sorcery points solely on Metamagic and instead sacrifice a spell slot sometimes to recharge your fill of points for Metamagic. Since you have short-rest slots, it's a much better economy that way. ;)

This gives me flexibility at higher levels to bonus action cast powerful spells after two attack actions + possible smite + hex damage for a crazy nova. A normal turn would be two attacks with my melee blade or one cantrip (Green Flame Blade to cleave, Firebolt or Eldritch Blast to target someone far away [up to 300 ft if I chose the right Invocation]). I could also Quicken a spell for a bonus action and cast a cantrip.
This gives me two spells in a row, two attacks in a row plus a spell, or just a spell (cantrip or normal spell). In addition the possibility of smiting. Hex damage is a constant. Flexible, seems to be good DPR, melee and ranged options. The standard turn would probably be two melee attacks for single target or melee cantrip Green Flame-Blade if cleaving two targets.
On that point see below the quote for detailed comparison

This seems solid but what classes do I choose in which order to come online the fastest? All of the ideas are so great in this thread it's hard to settle on one :P Everyone has been so helpful I can't wait to discover the most efficient way to build this guy and get into my first game.
Well, I will obviously suggest you to follow my build. XD
If you really want the Paladin levels, I'd advise you to actually start this way instead: Sorcerer 1 > Warlock 3 > Paladin 2 > Sorcerer 6 > whatever.
If you want the Fighter alternative (cf below), Fighter 1 > Warlock 5 (to get Extra Attack along with TWF as soon as possible, take Mage Armor invocation, you will swap later) > Fighter 2 > Sorcerer 6 > Warlock (swapping Mage Armor Invocation at the first new level).

I suppose my ultimate question comes down to: What gives the most consistent damage? Melee Cantrips or 2 Melee attacks with dueling? Do I get the +Dex bonus on the melee attack portion of Green-Flame Blade? Do I get the Dueling bonus? I would get the Cha bonus of Draconic Origin Elemental Affinity. Does that stack with Radiant Pact feature?
All of this is answered in the detailed example below. ;)

Basically at the end of the day I'm beginning to realize the way gish works is either primarily focusing on "auto-attacks" or focusing on spells (cantrips and otherwise). By going the auto-attack route there are less spells overall. Is auto-attacking more damage in general than cantrips and more spells? How valueable is Smite in all of this?
I gave my short opinion above. My long opinion is that it's great for a gish that mainly relies on many weapon attacks and get little offensive magic, that's why it's good on Paladin. You on the other hand get such a powerful melee cantrip that you will usually use it unless you encounter resistant enemies, and as your character wants to set everything on fire, taking only fire damaging spells in turn, you will pain yourself choosing whether to smite or cast until you are at least character level 10 or so. And as you progress you learn even more damaging spells, making the choice that harder. You could however use low-level Sorcerer slots and, when you have a chance, take a "dedicated short rest" to convert Warlock slots into lower level slots or sorcery points. Whether it's a good thing or not is really up to you. ;)

It could just be a Warlock who uses Melee Cantrip + Hex Damage every round. If auto attack is worth would it be worth giving up Divine Smite for Fighter and going Two-Weapon Fighter for Two Attacks + Bonus Action off-hand? Less Nova (dropping smite) more consistency? Or does Dueling make up for the difference from TWF with the constant +2? Or maybe even going Chain and Melee Cantrip + Familiar Reaction attack + Hex damage.
As demonstrated below, Hex is not that interesting for you particularly. Sustaining a Flaming Sphere (or later Elemental Bane) will be usually better as far as damage is concerned. With that said, Hex can be a great asset for teamwork (such as Hexing STR checks so a Pal can grapple more easily).

The combinations seems endless, the spells are great, there's a varying level of how many spells you can chuck and the nova potential seems like it could be astounding for an OHKO on a boss or something.

What's the most efficient way to focus on steady damage over time that can still support a crazy nova round if I just want to show off and get mega fancy? Basically: Safe, Calculated, but can drop the nuclear bomb when needed? Whether it's melee cantrips or extra attacks or familiar + cantrips or whatever else what would give the safety DPR of like a Battlemaster Fighter with the insane nova 1 round murder kill of a Sorcadin? I assume I'm picking one more-so over the other. Picking sustained DPR seems like less opportunity to cast spells, picking turbo nova seems like maybe slower DPR?

Am I right in my assessments? Sorry for being long-winded. Just trying to carefully consider "How effective will I be and how many resources will it take to maintain decent levels of DPS and how many resources will it take if I need to nova for a butt clencher moment? How weak will that leave me after?"
Phew. Many things to answer on... ;) In bold inside the quote... Except this part I want to comment more lengthily on...
This gives me flexibility at higher levels to bonus action cast powerful spells after two attack actions + possible smite + hex damage for a crazy nova. A normal turn would be two attacks with my melee blade or one cantrip (Green Flame Blade to cleave, Firebolt or Eldritch Blast to target someone far away [up to 300 ft if I chose the right Invocation]). I could also Quicken a spell for a bonus action and cast a cantrip.
Let's compare at end game (with both Invocations and a rapier, considering max Dex and CHA):
1. With Hex and Lifedrinker
Green Flame Blade only
First target: 1d8+5 (weapon+DEX) + 3d8 (spell effect) + 5 (Draconic +CHA) + 5 (Undyling Light +CHA) +5 (Lifedrinker) +1d6 (Hex), average 4,5+5+4,5*3+5+5+5+3,5 = 41,5. Second target: 3d8+5 (spell effect) + 5 (Draconic) + 5 (Undying Light), average 13,5+15=28,5.

Extra Attack only
2*(1d8+5+5+1d6) (weapon attack + Lifedrinker + Hex), average 2*(4,5+5+5+3,5) = 2*(18) = 36.

2. With Lifedrinker only
GFB first target average = previous result -3,5 = 38.
Extra Attack average = previous result -2*3,5 = 29.

3. With Lifedrinker and Elemental Bane
GBF first target average = previous result + 2*3,5 = 38+7=45. Second target average (of you upcast Elemental Bane) = previous result + 7 = 35,5.
Extra Attack average = unchanged.
With advantage of making the creature lose the resistance to fire. ;)

I made this detailed example to show you that...
1) The only problem of your build is that his big weak point is fire resistant / immune enemies. Is it that big of a problem? In my opinion, no. You get Booming Blade / Eldricht Blast for those, as well as Slow / Blindness / Chromatic Bolt / etc to use so you can still be a very valuable asset to the team (although it would be great to learn another non-fire AOE such as Shatter or Chain Lightning).
2) In every other situation, you don't need Hex nor Extra Attack. Hex is a nice boost but eats your concentration, and you will have plenty other good spells to use it on throughout your career. And Extra Attack is interesting only if you take it soon enough for it to have a chance to shine.

Finally, if you really want to nova and are ready to lose the spellcasting levels, forego Paladin and take Fighter instead.
First because you will be frustrated if you use Divine Smite on slots for the first part of your career, because you have so few.
Second because you told yourself that you were uninterested in Paladin spells.
Third because Fighter...
- provides you Action Surge, which allows you to cast 2 non-cantrip spells in the same round (although you must cast no spell with your bonus action in that case, or cast only cantrips with your action/surge): this is a short-rest nova feature that mixes much better with your build
- provides you all the same proficiencies in case you would need/want them (Shield?), and a similar quick healing ability (better in fact, short-rest + bonus action).
- more importantly, gives you the only Fighting Style you could care about, Two-Weapon Fighting (with this, Extra Attack + Hex actually becomes a valid no-cost alternative to GFB for most of your career).
- and it requires Dex OR STR so it's easier to multiclass into. ;)

Your posts have been immensely helpful! I am truly grateful.

Also djreynolds doesn't appear to quite grasp the concept of my character.

I am 100% aware and knowledgeable that what I am asking for is probably actually not very good. I deliberately ignoring OP super utility spells like invisibility, haste, fly, hold person, charm, suggestion etc that can end encounters in 1 turn or trivialize things in lieu of fire type damage spells. I'm 100% aware the "Chromatic Orb Fire" is probably objectively worse than "Mirror Image" but if I only have two spells slots...I'm picking the fire spell.

Basically the concept of Aramil Soveliss is Pyromancer (Fire Specialized Wizard) and Champion Fighter. The simplicity of the Champion (I attack you with my sword) + Pyromancer (I hit you with A fire spell, as long as it does fire damage I don't care.)

I know this character is not an all-star god-tier polearm great weapon master exploiting super munchkin that can solo bosses and dish out the most damage in the game. I'm also aware I'm forsaking super good utility spells. However we already have a spell caster for that. We have a Lore College bard who is probably going to specialize in enchanting magic and all that crowd control super cool OP stuff.

All Aramil Soveliss cares about is vengeance and death, bringing pain and wrath upon his enemies. Damage pure and simple.

I don't know who you try to convince here, but I assure you that as for me I'm plenty convinced that your character WILL definitively rock.
I still stand by the point of taking at least one non-fire spell somewhere along the line, and Chromatic Bolt is great in this because it's the most versatile damaging spell.

[djreynolds]

All right Citan... you win. I'm sold on this build.

Its really good.

[Ravinsild]

Phew. Many things to answer on... ;) In bold inside the quote... Except this part I want to comment more lengthily on...
This gives me flexibility at higher levels to bonus action cast powerful spells after two attack actions + possible smite + hex damage for a crazy nova. A normal turn would be two attacks with my melee blade or one cantrip (Green Flame Blade to cleave, Firebolt or Eldritch Blast to target someone far away [up to 300 ft if I chose the right Invocation]). I could also Quicken a spell for a bonus action and cast a cantrip.
Let's compare at end game (with both Invocations and a rapier, considering max Dex and CHA):
1. With Hex and Lifedrinker
Green Flame Blade only
First target: 1d8+5 (weapon+DEX) + 3d8 (spell effect) + 5 (Draconic +CHA) + 5 (Undyling Light +CHA) +5 (Lifedrinker) +1d6 (Hex), average 4,5+5+4,5*3+5+5+5+3,5 = 41,5. Second target: 3d8+5 (spell effect) + 5 (Draconic) + 5 (Undying Light), average 13,5+15=28,5.

Extra Attack only
2*(1d8+5+5+1d6) (weapon attack + Lifedrinker + Hex), average 2*(4,5+5+5+3,5) = 2*(18) = 36.

2. With Lifedrinker only
GFB first target average = previous result -3,5 = 38.
Extra Attack average = previous result -2*3,5 = 29.

3. With Lifedrinker and Elemental Bane
GBF first target average = previous result + 2*3,5 = 38+7=45. Second target average (of you upcast Elemental Bane) = previous result + 7 = 35,5.
Extra Attack average = unchanged.
With advantage of making the creature lose the resistance to fire. ;)

I made this detailed example to show you that...
1) The only problem of your build is that his big weak point is fire resistant / immune enemies. Is it that big of a problem? In my opinion, no. You get Booming Blade / Eldricht Blast for those, as well as Slow / Blindness / Chromatic Bolt / etc to use so you can still be a very valuable asset to the team (although it would be great to learn another non-fire AOE such as Shatter or Chain Lightning).
2) In every other situation, you don't need Hex nor Extra Attack. Hex is a nice boost but eats your concentration, and you will have plenty other good spells to use it on throughout your career. And Extra Attack is interesting only if you take it soon enough for it to have a chance to shine.

Finally, if you really want to nova and are ready to lose the spellcasting levels, forego Paladin and take Fighter instead.
First because you will be frustrated if you use Divine Smite on slots for the first part of your career, because you have so few.
Second because you told yourself that you were uninterested in Paladin spells.
Third because Fighter...
- provides you Action Surge, which allows you to cast 2 non-cantrip spells in the same round (although you must cast no spell with your bonus action in that case, or cast only cantrips with your action/surge): this is a short-rest nova feature that mixes much better with your build
- provides you all the same proficiencies in case you would need/want them (Shield?), and a similar quick healing ability (better in fact, short-rest + bonus action).
- more importantly, gives you the only Fighting Style you could care about, Two-Weapon Fighting (with this, Extra Attack + Hex actually becomes a valid no-cost alternative to GFB for most of your career).
- and it requires Dex OR STR so it's easier to multiclass into. ;)

I don't know who you try to convince here, but I assure you that as for me I'm plenty convinced that your character WILL definitively rock.
I still stand by the point of taking at least one non-fire spell somewhere along the line, and Chromatic Bolt is great in this because it's the most versatile damaging spell.

Okay! Looks like it's going to be a Chain or Pact Warlock (Or Tome? Value of special Familiar versus value of 3 extra cantrips versus Lifedrinker?) and Sorcerer. I'm not convinced I need Paladin. The value of Smite doesn't seem to bring anything. Overall it seems like simply melee cantrip is best. The damage just crushes normal auto attack especially when cleaving. Undying Warlock + Draconic Sorcerer only GG. Or maybe Fighter 1/Warlock X/Sorc X = Best Pyromancer-Swordman.

If I go into 2 Fighter that leaves me with 18 levels of Sorc and Warlock to divide between. So somewhere between 4 and 8 warlock levels and 10-14 Sorcerer levels depending on the value of Draconic Origin features up to dragon wings versus Undying Light 6th level feature which is coming back to life on a death saving throw to half hp and dealing 10+cha dmg to all hostile creatures within 30 ft. And anywhere from 10 to 14 sorcery points plus the spell slot differences....

Hmmm I think overall maybe 2 Fighter/6 Warlock/12 Sorcerer seems to be the best. TWF/Second Wind/Action Surge/3 Metamagic Options/12 Sorcerer Points/Elemetal Affinity/Draconic Resilience/2 Short Rest Spell Slots/4 Invocations/Recover on Death Saving throw with glorious damage kit at 20 plus all the spell slots and spells known etc.

Thank you so much on this :D I can't wait to play him!

[Citan]

All right Citan... you win. I'm sold on this build.

Its really good.
Thank you. ;)

Okay! Looks like it's going to be a Chain or Pact Warlock (Or Tome? Value of special Familiar versus value of 3 extra cantrips versus Lifedrinker?) and Sorcerer. I'm not convinced I need Paladin. The value of Smite doesn't seem to bring anything. Overall it seems like simply melee cantrip is best. The damage just crushes normal auto attack especially when cleaving. Undying Warlock + Draconic Sorcerer only GG. Or maybe Fighter 1/Warlock X/Sorc X = Best Pyromancer-Swordman.

Thank you so much on this :D I can't wait to play him!
You and me both! XD
I've been frustrated by the lack of heavy elemental gish, that's why I designed my own homebrew in the first place (even if multiclasses such as this are still great). ^^

EDIT: for Pact really pick the one you like (as in feeling) the best. Because whatever the one you choose you will be equally great, since your core mechanics don't rely on it. So see this as choosing between...
- magic resistance + great scout (Chain);
- extra cantrips to play with (Tome) and Rituals;
- permanent magic weapon which will deal extra damage in the end (Blade).

[Ravinsild]

Thank you. ;)

You and me both! XD
I've been frustrated by the lack of heavy elemental gish, that's why I designed my own homebrew in the first place (even if multiclasses such as this are still great). ^^

EDIT: for Pact really pick the one you like (as in feeling) the best. Because whatever the one you choose you will be equally great, since your core mechanics don't rely on it. So see this as choosing between...
- magic resistance + great scout (Chain);
- extra cantrips to play with (Tome) and Rituals;
- permanent magic weapon which will deal extra damage in the end (Blade).

The choice seems to come down to....
- Magic Resist + Great Scout + Reaction Damage Attack (Chain)
- Permanent Magic Weapon which will deal extra damage in the end (Blade)

At which point the utility of the Familiar seems > a few points of extra damage and the Familiar's Attacks (Like Imp or Pseudodragon) can probably make up for it and then some. (They both get poison attacks which deal alright damage). Plus "ranged" touch spells :^) (I swear I read a familiar can use a touch spell for you).

Thinking deeper it seems it's a choice between:

2 Fighter for TWF Bladelock who can do Attack/Extra Attack/Bonus Action Off-hand (+Plus Hex&Lifedrinker) style stuff OR No fighter Chain lock who just does GFB + Familiar Reaction Attack.

If I go 2 Fighter I MUST go at least 12 Warlock to get the Lifedrinker invocation and that leaves me with 8 Sorcerer. That determines my build.

So then it's basically a build of Attack/Extra Attack/Bonus Attack + Hex then eventually Lifedrinker for most of it with some spells OR

If I go chain it can be like 8 Warlock/12 Sorcerer or even like 4 Warlock/16 Sorcerer or something. Or the Rogue levels like you said.

GFB + Familiar Reaction Attack + tons of spells 5ever.

[Citan]

The choice seems to come down to....
- Magic Resist + Great Scout + Reaction Damage Attack (Chain)
- Permanent Magic Weapon which will deal extra damage in the end (Blade)

At which point the utility of the Familiar seems > a few points of extra damage and the Familiar's Attacks (Like Imp or Pseudodragon) can probably make up for it and then some. (They both get poison attacks which deal alright damage). Plus "ranged" touch spells :^) (I swear I read a familiar can use a touch spell for you).

Thinking deeper it seems it's a choice between:

2 Fighter for TWF Bladelock who can do Attack/Extra Attack/Bonus Action Off-hand (+Plus Hex&Lifedrinker) style stuff OR No fighter Chain lock who just does GFB + Familiar Reaction Attack.
Tss tss... You are going again spiraling in your thinking... That's why I suggest you pick the Pact purely on fluff: do you envision your character having a faithful companion to share life with (Chain + VOPM invocation)? Is he someone patient enough to study and learn complex magic manipulations / preparations to cast useful rituals (Tome + Book invocation)? Is he just a dabbler in magic that makes him a bit more versatile in cantrips (Tome)? Is instead his soulmate a weapon provided by his Patron (Blade), because in the end only this blade never failed him?

Again, whatever you choose, it will bring some benefits to your build, so be light-hearted about it.

By the way, about your thinking about Fighter dip... Bad news is, your maths are wrong: 2 fighter + 12 Warlock + 8 Sorcerer = 22. XD
Good news is, you don't MUST take 12 levels in Warlock just for Lifedrinker. That's what I have been trying to tell: from efficiency point of view, you are already good as is. Lifedrinker is an icing on the cake that comes so very late it could may never happen (remember it's a veeeeery long way up to character level 20).
Another good news, while I suggested, in case of Fighter, dipping it early because it's usually the way to go, in your case it's not necessary.
I suggested it from the start because it makes a full TWF-turn better than GFB until you get something else to do with your bonus action. But then as pointed before it loses power later to become just an alternative for when fire doesn't work (especially if you have Blade pact because it makes the weapon magical). So if you are not sure about how to go, don't decide now, and start Sorcerer/Warlock.

The important "start things" (armor/weapon/saves proficiencies) are already covered by Warlock/Sorcerer/racial benefits.
So you can start as Warlock / Sorcerer then, once you get character level 5 or so you will have a better idea of what works and more importantly what is fun to you when reviewing all encounters up to here. Then you can choose to dip Fighter (because you want Action Surge, or because you took Blade and you want Thirsting Blade which will make TWF competitive again for a few levels) or not. Or dip into Rogue, or not. Or dip into whatever else, or not. Etc...
You are NOT set in stone from the start, so take advantage of this...

Just stop overthinking and go play your damn game... XD:smalltongue:
Have fun!

(EDIT: From the description you made of your character, my impression is that he would rather be a lone wolf that hones his loved blade than a person developing a strong relationship with another creature, humanoid or not. But it's just my personal view).

[Ravinsild]

(EDIT: From the description you made of your character, my impression is that he would rather be a lone wolf that hones his loved blade than a person developing a strong relationship with another creature, humanoid or not. But it's just my personal view).

I've decided on something like 6 Warlock/14 Sorcerer purely using melee to spam stuff like Green-Flame Blade or Booming Blade cantrips. I will go with Chain. My reasoning: The Extra Attack and Lifedrinker don't add up in damage compared to just Green Flame Blading every turn. Any interesting cantrips I could take from Tome I can pretty much get from Sorcerer and Warlock anyway (Firebolt mostly, and Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade) plus Create Bonfire from Sorcerer etc... so I would have an Imp or Pseudo-dragon familiar more like a World of Warcraft Warlock.

Simply another tool at my disposal. It's not this deep intricate hunters bond but more a contract of slavery, the Imp serves me as simply another tool in my arsenal to deliver touch attacks or extra damage. Merely a tool. Nothing in the Ritual states you have to be buddy-buddy with your Familiar. A simple business contract with an Imp or a mutual understanding with a Pseudo-dragon should suffice. This gives me plenty of casting power as a Sorcerer in addition to 7 Warlock spells, 2 spell slots that recharge on short rests up to 3rd level (Two Fireballs on short Rest :^) ) and 3 Warlock Invocations like Armor of Shadows, Agonizing Blast (for when it's immune to fire and I need an alternate damage cantrip that isn't Firebolt for monsters not in melee range like a flying fire elemental or something) and Beguiling Influence for some free skills or w/e.

So for this package I get a dope familiar, some short rest spell slots, some invocations that provide utility or otherwise and 7 Warlock Spells (Maybe Hex or something who knows :^) plus 14 levels of Sorcerer for more blasting and lots of Green-Flame Blade spamming. Perhaps not as exciting as Extra Attacks and so forth but ultimately achieving the goals I have for the character.

Woo!

[Ravinsild]

(EDIT: From the description you made of your character, my impression is that he would rather be a lone wolf that hones his loved blade than a person developing a strong relationship with another creature, humanoid or not. But it's just my personal view).

I've decided on something like 6 Warlock/14 Sorcerer purely using melee to spam stuff like Green-Flame Blade or Booming Blade cantrips. I will go with Chain. My reasoning: The Extra Attack and Lifedrinker don't add up in damage compared to just Green Flame Blading every turn. Any interesting cantrips I could take from Tome I can pretty much get from Sorcerer and Warlock anyway (Firebolt mostly, and Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade) plus Create Bonfire from Sorcerer etc... so I would have an Imp or Pseudo-dragon familiar more like a World of Warcraft Warlock.

Simply another tool at my disposal. It's not this deep intricate hunters bond but more a contract of slavery, the Imp serves me as simply another tool in my arsenal to deliver touch attacks or extra damage. Merely a tool. Nothing in the Ritual states you have to be buddy-buddy with your Familiar. A simple business contract with an Imp or a mutual understanding with a Pseudo-dragon should suffice. This gives me plenty of casting power as a Sorcerer in addition to 7 Warlock spells, 2 spell slots that recharge on short rests up to 3rd level (Two Fireballs on short Rest :^) ) and 3 Warlock Invocations like Voice of the Chain Master, Agonizing Blast (for when it's immune to fire and I need an alternate damage cantrip that isn't Firebolt for monsters not in melee range like a flying fire elemental or something) and Beguiling Influence for some free skills or w/e.

So for this package I get a dope familiar, some short rest spell slots, some invocations that provide utility or otherwise and 7 Warlock Spells (Maybe Hex or something who knows :^) plus 14 levels of Sorcerer for more blasting and lots of Green-Flame Blade spamming. Perhaps not as exciting as Extra Attacks and so forth but ultimately achieving the goals I have for the character.

Woo!

[bid]

Any interesting cantrips I could take from Tome I can pretty much get from Sorcerer and Warlock anyway (Firebolt mostly, and Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade) plus Create Bonfire from Sorcerer etc... so I would have an Imp or Pseudo-dragon familiar more like a World of Warcraft Warlock.
The top tome cantrips are guidance and shillelagh. Your stats are high enough that you don't need shillelagh, and guidance is not your cup of tea.

[Citan]

I've decided on something like 6 Warlock/14 Sorcerer purely using melee to spam stuff like Green-Flame Blade or Booming Blade cantrips. I will go with Chain. My reasoning: The Extra Attack and Lifedrinker don't add up in damage compared to just Green Flame Blading every turn. Any interesting cantrips I could take from Tome I can pretty much get from Sorcerer and Warlock anyway (Firebolt mostly, and Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade) plus Create Bonfire from Sorcerer etc... so I would have an Imp or Pseudo-dragon familiar more like a World of Warcraft Warlock.

Nothing in the Ritual states you have to be buddy-buddy with your Familiar. A simple business contract with an Imp or a mutual understanding with a Pseudo-dragon should suffice.
Hey ;)

First of all, it is your character, so it's always up to you to decide and you don't need to "justify" yourself (for what it's worth though, it is a solid build ;)).
With that said, thank you for the insight, it makes me look at the Familiar with a new eye. Indeed nothing in the pact fluff guides your relationship with the familiar one way or the other.

Although I did not necessarily think about a "friendly" strong relationship, more something like a necessary alliance that comes from over a long time ago and created some mixed bonds.

To go further down that road, I have already seen people on the forum remind that those special familiars are demons, and as such they may very well try and take advantage of you. It really depends on how/if the DM wants to play with that in the end. ;)
Your approach of treating your familiar as a living tool could give birth to many interesting interactions if your DM is willing to make the effort. ^^

I hope you have heaps of fun with your character!!

[Ravinsild]

Hey ;)

First of all, it is your character, so it's always up to you to decide and you don't need to "justify" yourself (for what it's worth though, it is a solid build ;)).
With that said, thank you for the insight, it makes me look at the Familiar with a new eye. Indeed nothing in the pact fluff guides your relationship with the familiar one way or the other.

Although I did not necessarily think about a "friendly" strong relationship, more something like a necessary alliance that comes from over a long time ago and created some mixed bonds.

To go further down that road, I have already seen people on the forum remind that those special familiars are demons, and as such they may very well try and take advantage of you. It really depends on how/if the DM wants to play with that in the end. ;)
Your approach of treating your familiar as a living tool could give birth to many interesting interactions if your DM is willing to make the effort. ^^

I hope you have heaps of fun with your character!!

Well our little group (There's probably only going to be 3 of us) mostly likely won't begin playing until after Christmas when our DM gets all the source books in addition to some pre-made adventures (his wife really wants to play Strahd) so I've been occupying myself with going crazy over about 5 other characters for something to do.

A "Death Knight" Character with a mix of Eldritch Night and actual Wizard in the Necromancy school for one. (Also looked at Death Domain Cleric but that seems paltry)
An Aasimar "Retribution Paladin" of something like 5 Paladin/15 Battle/War Cleric which seems to emulate what the WoW spec has been for most of WoW at least since BC (I even looked at the Theurgy Wizard taking War Domain and Eldritch Knight)
A "Lizard Wizard" Lizardfolk (closest I can get to Argonian) Wizard that ironically specializes in Lightning Magic (Also checked out Tempest Cleric, Storm Heart Sorcerer and even Druid but nothing seems to come close to lightning blaster like an Evocation Wizard)
Plus my little Goblin Ranger with his medium sized steed and how to make him the nastiest little ganker in the world :^)
Also Aba'dirr my Khajiit (Tabaxi) Nightblade Assassin...so I looked at the Assassin's Handbook and it's looking like 11 Fighter/3 Rogue/6 Revised Hunter Conclave Ranger
Also a Half-Orc Barbarian 11 Battlemaster/9 Totemic Barbarian to emulate the 3 attack frenzy Barbarian but with like 10,000 more usefulness and no fatigue. Comes on as "early" as 12 if you only take 1 level of Barbarian early for the Rage :P

Basically I've been looking at the source books out of boredom until I can play and keep getting weird new ideas that probably don't work in practice but they're fun to theorycraft.

[Citan]

Basically I've been looking at the source books out of boredom until I can play and keep getting weird new ideas that probably don't work in practice but they're fun to theorycraft.

In my arms, my brother !!! :smallbiggrin::smallcool:
Tough luck you have to wait nearly a month.

Well, feel free to open new threads about your other ideas. Should be fun. :smallamused: