I would like suggestions for a warlock multi-class.

[Dreaconis]

So, I just recently got back into D&D and quite a bit has changed. I'm putting together healing Warlock using the tome pact and raven queen patron. I'm wanting this warlock to use a heavy crossbow. My plan is to take warlock to 17 and the second class to 3. Mainly, I need the second class to give me proficiency in martial weapons and either increase my damage output (via spell abilites or weapon abilities) or increase my utility with healing or preventative magic. I'm also open to other ideas that the multi-class could give.

The ideas that I've had so far are death or grave cleric, college of whisper bard, or gloom stalker ranger. Let me know which of these you think would work best, or give new ideas. I'm just a little lost currently.

Edit: based off of a lot of comments I got, I feel I should add this disclaimer. My main priority is support. Buffs/debuffs, heals, that kind of thing. I'm just wanting to multi class to round out some of the edges on my damage because I don't want to get into a situation where I'm out of good spells and my team needs me to turn to tide, and I drop the ball. Also, the crossbow is a legacy weapon that will scale up as I go through the enhancement rituals, so it will end up better than the eldritch blast. I don't need eldritch blast lol

[Aett_Thorn]

Question: why do you want to use a Heavy Crossbow instead of using Eldritch Blast?

EB will consistently do more damage at range, and will quickly outpace the crossbow since you’ll only get one shot per turn.

Also, if you want to be a healing Warlock, would Celestial patron work better for you?

Edit: what you could do is talk to your GM and flavor Eldritch Blast as firing from the crossbow

[A Fat Dragon]

If you want healing Warlock, then it would be more beneficial to grab Celestial Patron. And for Pact, you may want to instead choose Pact of the Blade, as it’ll grant you a martial weapon, which you can choose to be a heavy crossbow.

The problem with your build here, is that even if you grab 3 levels in Fighter, you’re still only having 1 attack per turn. I would say do Celestial Bladelock 17/Rogue Assassin 3. You’ll still benefit from Sneak Attacks, as Heavy Crossbows are Dexterity Weapons, however you’d have to prioritize getting the Crossbow Mastery feat over stat increases, as it makes it a lot more easier to use your Healing Light, as I believe those are used on a Bonus Action.

My recommendation: Build it as Celestial Bladelock 17/Assassin 3. If you’re stalwart on Heavy Crossbow, then make sure to take the Crossbow Mastery Feat, But personally, I would use a Longbow.

Build stats as Dexterity > Charisma > Constitution > Wisdom > Intelligence > Strength (Last two are interchangeable). I’d say build Warlock all the way to 14, then grab 3 Rogue levels, then build Warlock the rest of the way.

It’ll be a bit MAD, but it should work out fine. You’re going to be a Back-Liner, who’ll be poking at foes while keeping the main front liners alive. If you end up getting solo’ed out and downed, I believe Celestial Warlocks get a panic-button revival, which will come in handy, as you can get back up, and damage the enemy in the process.



I know it differs a bit from your original build, and if you’re stalwart on sticking with the original build, Bard College of Valor might be your choice, as Bards are given healing spells, but be warned - You only will have around 4 healing spells per long rest. There’s not really a way to heal as Warlock with such a small multi class dip, and not grabbing Celestial.


Edit: Ninja’d. Also, you can just grab EB instead, and reskin it as a spooky spectral crossbow, that fires Eldritch bolts, if you want to keep as Tomelock. That actually might be a better build, but then I’d recommend trading out Assassin for Dragon Sorc, for extra HP and AC (Just a random though, but ehh, it’s viable)

[CTurbo]

I've thought about making a super stealthy Gloom Stalker/Warlock character for a while now, but I agree with the guys above me in that Eldritch Blast is superior to any ranged weapon.

[Ventruenox]

I'm currently running a Raven Queen/Lore Bardlock as an optimized support character and having a blast with it. I run with a fairly RP heavy crew, and being the metagaming min/maxing sunnabich I am, playing support works well for everyone. They get to do the most damage, and drive the narrative while I focus on RP fun and make them look great while doing it. Effectively, my character is the "Easy" button.

I chose to make Bard the primary class, using Warlock for RP awesomeness and cheesing the Perception checks something awful. This character does not even bother with Eldritch Blast. (I know, sacrilege. Right?) I'm currently Bard 8/Warlock 4, and may only take one more level of Warlock for the short rest recharge 3rd level slots. Something about 5E compared to previous editions: a dedicated healer is not essential. Healing Word, Revivify, and Raise Dead may be all you would ever need. As a Raven Queen tomelock, you can even break the 5E bounded accuracy with Sanctuary + Vicious Mockery playing defense. You could also go Valor Bard for shield proficiency and piss your DM off with the Shield Master feat. (Fireball? What Fireball? Nyah, nyah.) Having access to ritual spells of all classes via invocation is amazing utility, and typically 2nd level rituals would be sufficient since Leomund's Tiny Hut is on the Bard list. Bardic Inspiration plus a few bonus action spells (Misty Step mobility) lets you always maximize your action economy, and your faux-miliar allows you to break that as well.

Know your table. Know your DM. Know your role among them. The game isn't always "Who can do the most damage?" Play accordingly. Mostly, have fun.

[bid]

Mainly, I need the second class to give me proficiency in martial weapons and either increase my damage output (via spell abilites or weapon abilities) or increase my utility with healing or preventative magic.
Yeah, it's hard to do better than eldritch blast with the agonizing blast invocation. You'll do 2 attacks at 1d10+3 at level 5, using Cha.
Same thing for damage protection. Hard to do better than the inspiring leader feat.
You don't need MC for either of those goals.

Note that the cleric, bard, and ranger can all heal already.

[Joe the Rat]

If you're set on Spooky Blackbird, Whisper Bard will be the simplest addition; It stays on theme, uses the same casting stat as Warlock (one less thing to keep track of while getting the hang of things), and the spell list includes some healbuff (cure wounds, fr'ex)... and warlock has a surprising amount of cleric essentials tucked in that spell list. Topping at 3, that's a handful of 1st and 2nd level spells - which can be upcast using your Pact slots as needed. Best advice is to go Eldritch Blast - one invocation makes it a top-end crossbow, two or more makes it awesome. If you insist on not using EB (you reckless iconoclast, you), i highly recommend Toll the Dead as an alternate. It's save based (meh), and does d8s of necrotic damage... or d12s if they're already wounded. You are ringing out their oncoming doom. That's hella on style.

If you have your heart set on a heavy crossbow, or to properly swing a sword, consider switching to a Valor bard. That gets you your weapons, and better armor, and has the simplest inspiration die: If a d20 is being rolled, you can use the bardic inspiration. or add it to damage.

If Cleric really suits your mood, War might be more useful. You get the weapons, and crunchy armor, and the War Priest feature is one of the few ways to get additional attacks on a non-martial, albeit with limited uses. You'd still need crossbow expert to capitalize on it with, er, a crossbow. Plus it has the channel divinity to give you a flat +10 to anyone's attack roll. I'm sure you can find an appropriately dour raven-aligned war god who may or may not have one eye.

[Dreaconis]

Question: why do you want to use a Heavy Crossbow instead of using Eldritch Blast?

EB will consistently do more damage at range, and will quickly outpace the crossbow since you’ll only get one shot per turn.

Also, if you want to be a healing Warlock, would Celestial patron work better for you?

Edit: what you could do is talk to your GM and flavor Eldritch Blast as firing from the crossbow
I'll have that as well, but the main reason is because of delayed blast fireball. You can attach it to a crossbow bolt and deal 13d6 damage.

[Dreaconis]

If you want healing Warlock, then it would be more beneficial to grab Celestial Patron. And for Pact, you may want to instead choose Pact of the Blade, as it’ll grant you a martial weapon, which you can choose to be a heavy crossbow.

The problem with your build here, is that even if you grab 3 levels in Fighter, you’re still only having 1 attack per turn. I would say do Celestial Bladelock 17/Rogue Assassin 3. You’ll still benefit from Sneak Attacks, as Heavy Crossbows are Dexterity Weapons, however you’d have to prioritize getting the Crossbow Mastery feat over stat increases, as it makes it a lot more easier to use your Healing Light, as I believe those are used on a Bonus Action.

My recommendation: Build it as Celestial Bladelock 17/Assassin 3. If you’re stalwart on Heavy Crossbow, then make sure to take the Crossbow Mastery Feat, But personally, I would use a Longbow.

Build stats as Dexterity > Charisma > Constitution > Wisdom > Intelligence > Strength (Last two are interchangeable). I’d say build Warlock all the way to 14, then grab 3 Rogue levels, then build Warlock the rest of the way.

It’ll be a bit MAD, but it should work out fine. You’re going to be a Back-Liner, who’ll be poking at foes while keeping the main front liners alive. If you end up getting solo’ed out and downed, I believe Celestial Warlocks get a panic-button revival, which will come in handy, as you can get back up, and damage the enemy in the process.



I know it differs a bit from your original build, and if you’re stalwart on sticking with the original build, Bard College of Valor might be your choice, as Bards are given healing spells, but be warned - You only will have around 4 healing spells per long rest. There’s not really a way to heal as Warlock with such a small multi class dip, and not grabbing Celestial.


Edit: Ninja’d. Also, you can just grab EB instead, and reskin it as a spooky spectral crossbow, that fires Eldritch bolts, if you want to keep as Tomelock. That actually might be a better build, but then I’d recommend trading out Assassin for Dragon Sorc, for extra HP and AC (Just a random though, but ehh, it’s viable)
I like the recommendations, however crossbows only get one shot per action regardless of abilities. The reason I'm choosing raven queen is for two reasons.

1) story. I like the arbiter of death angle my character will have with it.

2) you get one raven familiar from her, and you can use summon familiar for a second one. They allow you to cast on touch spells through them, which allows me to be on 3 different parts of the battlefield with healing and res.

Also, at 3rd level of any of those you get the class specific feature and fighting styles (if applicable). Also, I'm not worried about multi attack anyway when I have spells to dwarf it.

[Dreaconis]

I'm currently running a Raven Queen/Lore Bardlock as an optimized support character and having a blast with it. I run with a fairly RP heavy crew, and being the metagaming min/maxing sunnabich I am, playing support works well for everyone. They get to do the most damage, and drive the narrative while I focus on RP fun and make them look great while doing it. Effectively, my character is the "Easy" button.

I chose to make Bard the primary class, using Warlock for RP awesomeness and cheesing the Perception checks something awful. This character does not even bother with Eldritch Blast. (I know, sacrilege. Right?) I'm currently Bard 8/Warlock 4, and may only take one more level of Warlock for the short rest recharge 3rd level slots. Something about 5E compared to previous editions: a dedicated healer is not essential. Healing Word, Revivify, and Raise Dead may be all you would ever need. As a Raven Queen tomelock, you can even break the 5E bounded accuracy with Sanctuary + Vicious Mockery playing defense. You could also go Valor Bard for shield proficiency and piss your DM off with the Shield Master feat. (Fireball? What Fireball? Nyah, nyah.) Having access to ritual spells of all classes via invocation is amazing utility, and typically 2nd level rituals would be sufficient since Leomund's Tiny Hut is on the Bard list. Bardic Inspiration plus a few bonus action spells (Misty Step mobility) lets you always maximize your action economy, and your faux-miliar allows you to break that as well.

Know your table. Know your DM. Know your role among them. The game isn't always "Who can do the most damage?" Play accordingly. Mostly, have fun.
Thank you, so far you're the only person who hasn't tried to push eldritch blast. Lol its useful sure, but I'm not too gung-ho about it. Also, you're build vision seems identical to mine, beyond the main class switch.

Also, I'm not necessarily worried about doing a ton of damage, I just want the option of being a viable combatant if something happens where I need to step up martialy. Your advice has been enormously helpful. I'm mainly doing this for the story elements, my crossbow is intended to be a legacy weapon given to me by the raven queen as a part of my contract to serve her when my character died.

[Dreaconis]

If you're set on Spooky Blackbird, Whisper Bard will be the simplest addition; It stays on theme, uses the same casting stat as Warlock (one less thing to keep track of while getting the hang of things), and the spell list includes some healbuff (cure wounds, fr'ex)... and warlock has a surprising amount of cleric essentials tucked in that spell list. Topping at 3, that's a handful of 1st and 2nd level spells - which can be upcast using your Pact slots as needed. Best advice is to go Eldritch Blast - one invocation makes it a top-end crossbow, two or more makes it awesome. If you insist on not using EB (you reckless iconoclast, you), i highly recommend Toll the Dead as an alternate. It's save based (meh), and does d8s of necrotic damage... or d12s if they're already wounded. You are ringing out their oncoming doom. That's hella on style.

If you have your heart set on a heavy crossbow, or to properly swing a sword, consider switching to a Valor bard. That gets you your weapons, and better armor, and has the simplest inspiration die: If a d20 is being rolled, you can use the bardic inspiration. or add it to damage.

If Cleric really suits your mood, War might be more useful. You get the weapons, and crunchy armor, and the War Priest feature is one of the few ways to get additional attacks on a non-martial, albeit with limited uses. You'd still need crossbow expert to capitalize on it with, er, a crossbow. Plus it has the channel divinity to give you a flat +10 to anyone's attack roll. I'm sure you can find an appropriately dour raven-aligned war god who may or may not have one eye.
I was thinking that as well. I'm in the process of piecing together a goliath, eldritch warlock/cleric, named mortarion who's patron and diety is Nurgle. Im wanting to bring 40k into D&D. When I read that spell, I knew it needed to be in the book. Lol

[Aett_Thorn]

I'll have that as well, but the main reason is because of delayed blast fireball. You can attach it to a crossbow bolt and deal 13d6 damage.

Ummmm...not that I can see. And Delayed Blast Fireball isn’t a Warlock spell in this edition either, as far as I know.

[Dreaconis]

If you're set on Spooky Blackbird, Whisper Bard will be the simplest addition; It stays on theme, uses the same casting stat as Warlock (one less thing to keep track of while getting the hang of things), and the spell list includes some healbuff (cure wounds, fr'ex)... and warlock has a surprising amount of cleric essentials tucked in that spell list. Topping at 3, that's a handful of 1st and 2nd level spells - which can be upcast using your Pact slots as needed. Best advice is to go Eldritch Blast - one invocation makes it a top-end crossbow, two or more makes it awesome. If you insist on not using EB (you reckless iconoclast, you), i highly recommend Toll the Dead as an alternate. It's save based (meh), and does d8s of necrotic damage... or d12s if they're already wounded. You are ringing out their oncoming doom. That's hella on style.

If you have your heart set on a heavy crossbow, or to properly swing a sword, consider switching to a Valor bard. That gets you your weapons, and better armor, and has the simplest inspiration die: If a d20 is being rolled, you can use the bardic inspiration. or add it to damage.

If Cleric really suits your mood, War might be more useful. You get the weapons, and crunchy armor, and the War Priest feature is one of the few ways to get additional attacks on a non-martial, albeit with limited uses. You'd still need crossbow expert to capitalize on it with, er, a crossbow. Plus it has the channel divinity to give you a flat +10 to anyone's attack roll. I'm sure you can find an appropriately dour raven-aligned war god who may or may not have one eye.
I was thinking that as well. I'm in the process of piecing together a goliath, eldritch warlock/cleric, named mortarion who's patron and diety is Nurgle. Im wanting to bring 40k into D&D. When I read that spell, I knew it needed to be in the book. Lol

[Dreaconis]

Ummmm...not that I can see. And Delayed Blast Fireball isn’t a Warlock spell in this edition either, as far as I know. from what I saw it was, even if it's not, I have the tome. Thats why I like the tome lol

[bid]

from what I saw it was, even if it's not, I have the tome. Thats why I like the tome lol
It can be your mystic arcanum, yes.

I don't see what the tome has to do with this though, it only helps for rituals.

[Dreaconis]

It can be your mystic arcanum, yes.

I don't see what the tome has to do with this though, it only helps for rituals.
The final few lines of the description say that you can inscribe spells from other classes in it and can cast them as regular spells if you learn to do so from other means. It's either in the pact, or in the invocation that gives you the spells.

[bid]

The final few lines of the description say that you can inscribe spells from other classes in it and can cast them as regular spells if you learn to do so from other means. It's either in the pact, or in the invocation that gives you the spells.
The book of ancient secrets can only contain ritual spells, which delayed blast fireball isn't.

[Dreaconis]

The book of ancient secrets can only contain ritual spells, which delayed blast fireball isn't.


"You can now inscribe magical rituals in your Book of Shadows. Choose two 1st-level spells that have the ritual tag from any class's spell list. The spells appear in the book and don't count against the number of spells you know. With your Book of Shadows in hand, you can cast the chosen spells as rituals. You can't cast the spells except as rituals, unless you've learned them by some other means. You can also cast a warlock spell you know as a ritual if it has the ritual tag. On your adventures, you can add other ritual spells to your Book of Shadows. When you find such a spell, you can add it to the book if the spell's level is equal to or less than half your warlock level (rounded up) and if you can spare the time to transcribe the spell. For each level of the spell, the transcription profess takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp for the rare inks needed to inscribe it."
Tthat's the full description.
"You can't cast the spells except as rituals, unless you've learned them by some other means."
That's the part I'm meaning. It wasn't near the end like I'd thought, but it does say you can cast spells instead of rituals.

[Joe the Rat]

All of this us in context of the BoAS, which can only contain rituals. You can only cast BoAS rituals as spells if you already know them as spells.

Aside from building for a once a day trick usable at 15th level (at the earliest), why not go elf and use a longbow? Or Hobgoblin? You'll get better range, and the damage die difference is negligible.

[Dreaconis]

All of this us in context of the BoAS, which can only contain rituals. You can only cast BoAS rituals as spells if you already know them as spells.

Aside from building for a once a day trick usable at 15th level (at the earliest), why not go elf and use a longbow? Or Hobgoblin? You'll get better range, and the damage die difference is negligible.
I'll have to reread that and check how my DM will interpret it. Thank you for the clarification. I'll look into that as well.

[bid]

Choose two 1st-level spells that have the ritual tag from any class's spell list.

you can add other ritual spells to your Book of Shadows.
There are no way to add a non-ritual spell to your BoS.


You can't cast the spells except as rituals, unless you've learned them by some other means.
If the (ritual) spell is a known spell, you aren't restricted to casting as ritual.

Sorry, it just plain doesn't work the way you hoped.

[MilkmanDanimal]

There are no way to add a non-ritual spell to your BoS.


If the (ritual) spell is a known spell, you aren't restricted to casting as ritual.

Sorry, it just plain doesn't work the way you hoped.

Yeah, the Tomelock is already a subclass with a phenomenal amount of utility just by being able to pick up three cantrips from any class and then add a whole bunch of first-level ritual spells to the BoS; if you could add any spell in there, would there ever be a reason to play another class? You could be a tanky Hexblade Tomelock who could cast Wish, Feeblemind, True Resurrection . . .

[Tikkun]

If your heart is set on using a crosswbow, I would suggest 3 levels of fighter to give you the archery fighting style, a mini heal and second wind. As an archetype I would recommend battlemaster and then go through the maneuvers and see what floats your boat. I am AFB so unsure if warlocks--other then hexblade--get crossbow weapon proficiency. I assume that box has been checked by you already.

[Ventruenox]

This may not be suitable for your build, but just throwing it out there in case it might help: my character's melee tactic uses the Shield Master and Menacing (UA) feats. No damage at all, but could inflict both Frightened and Prone status conditions versus humanoids. Best part, no concentratation required; so I can keep a spell going while being functional in combat, while still maximizing action economy.

I did make the compromise to let opponents use their Wisdom saving throw instead of a straight up ability check against my Menacing feat. But, with 20 CHA and Expertise, it felt like a hand wave agreement. We also had a houserule for shield proficiency granted with the Shield Master feat.

Suggestion: take Dragon's Breath as one of your Magical Secrets if you go Bard. You cast it on your Raven to strafe the field while you inflict status conditions on another opponent. 3d6 may not be too much damage, but if that occurs outside of standard action economy it becomes pure gold.

Having two familiars is nice, but in my practical experience, they don't get too much use. I used the "cast via touch" only once, and the rest of the time my actual familiar is a fashion accessory. For you, the fact that you get advantage if the Raven gets whacked in an encounter can benefit you with your crossbow. Having it take the Help action, or instructing it to obscure vision by flapping in the face of an opponent can be a win-win-win possibility. Depends on your DM.

Because I can't help myself, I named my Raven "Jobarr" and my albino black mamba Familiar "Viscount Daveed Coverdale von Hissyface". I hope someone out there gets it.

[Dreaconis]

This may not be suitable for your build, but just throwing it out there in case it might help: my character's melee tactic uses the Shield Master and Menacing (UA) feats. No damage at all, but could inflict both Frightened and Prone status conditions versus humanoids. Best part, no concentratation required; so I can keep a spell going while being functional in combat, while still maximizing action economy.

I did make the compromise to let opponents use their Wisdom saving throw instead of a straight up ability check against my Menacing feat. But, with 20 CHA and Expertise, it felt like a hand wave agreement. We also had a houserule for shield proficiency granted with the Shield Master feat.

Suggestion: take Dragon's Breath as one of your Magical Secrets if you go Bard. You cast it on your Raven to strafe the field while you inflict status conditions on another opponent. 3d6 may not be too much damage, but if that occurs outside of standard action economy it becomes pure gold.

Having two familiars is nice, but in my practical experience, they don't get too much use. I used the "cast via touch" only once, and the rest of the time my actual familiar is a fashion accessory. For you, the fact that you get advantage if the Raven gets whacked in an encounter can benefit you with your crossbow. Having it take the Help action, or instructing it to obscure vision by flapping in the face of an opponent can be a win-win-win possibility. Depends on your DM.

Because I can't help myself, I named my Raven "Jobarr" and my albino black mamba Familiar "Viscount Daveed Coverdale von Hissyface". I hope someone out there gets it.
Your advice has been helpful, it's been seeming that trying to use a crossbow in the way I'm wanting will either be impossible or require far too much work to be fun. So I'm probably just going to go with a melee weapon and make them tanky. One thing I did realise with my build is that at level 3, with two spells I can be on par with a fighter in health (ice armor & false life) and AC, depending on which multi I choose I can get an extra attack per turn, if I did go fighter with chivalier, I could force attacks on me or inflict disadvantage. Paired with lightning lure, I can retain aggro pretty well. To be honest, I'd been thinking about both options, I just liked the idea of the crossbow more. But, I'm not so attached that I'll make it difficult on my DM lol also, it may be basic but I'm naming mine Poe and Nevermore.

But, I do like the idea of gloom ranger (UA). I'd get more spell slots and be invisible in dim light. Plus, I get the extra attack on first round, do extra damage. Seems good to me.