Warlock build help

[Aurosman]

So this past christmas one of our players got all the 5E books as a gift and we are starting our first game. I decided to choose a Celestial warlock because it sounded like a fun class to roleplay. The problem is a level 20 warlock straight up doesn't seem that good for how I want to play him, so I was thinking about multiclassing.

My plan for him was to be a support blaster type that did emergency healing, but I cant figure out how to do it. Al I know is I want to dip max 6 levels into another class and going with the tome pact. Keeping my main class a warlock.

Character is an Aasimir, stats in order are 10, 16, 14, 10, 10, 20.

My thoughts were going 6 levels in eiter life cleric, divine soul sorc, or draconic sorc.(my DM is ok with the coffeelock as long as I dont abuse it, more so not using a whole night to stockpile spell points, just short rests. But not sure if i really wanna go that route.)

Also where should I start that dip? 3rd level after I get my pact, 4th level when I get my stats, or 6th level after I get radiant soul?

Thr group consists of a thiefrogue, bard (either swords or whispers), war cleric, and possibly a divination wizard, fighter cavalier, and some other type of melle if they can make it.

Thanks for any help you guys got.

[Speely]

With those ability scores, I would go divine soul sorcerer to compliment your celestial patron. Would be a good off-healer with a versatile arsenal, and you are set up for it.

Edit: I would just leave the dip for after 14 Warlock. Searing Vengeance is dope, and you will have plenty of invocations. Until then, you can use your patron heal feature to get folks back on their feet like a ghetto Healing Word. Going full 'lock till 14 will ensure you get everything out of the class you want ASAP.

[Mortis_Elrod]

With those ability scores, I would go divine soul sorcerer to compliment your celestial patron. Would be a good off-healer with a versatile arsenal, and you are set up for it.

Edit: I would just leave the dip for after 14 Warlock. Searing Vengeance is dope, and you will have plenty of invocations. Until then, you can use your patron heal feature to get folks back on their feet like a ghetto Healing Word. Going full 'lock till 14 will ensure you get everything out of the class you want ASAP.

Gonna go ahead and agree with this. Celestial warlock 14/Divine soul Sorcerer 6 is a very strong and versatile character perfect for the role you want and then some.

[Keravath]

I just wanted to add that in order to multiclass into cleric you need to have at least a 13 in wisdom so the sorcerer is likely not just your best choice but your only choice :)

Also, the divine soul sorcerer would work well with the celestial warlock from a background perspective.

Divine Soul gives you access to the entire cleric spell list plus the sorcerer list however and is also a full caster class so it is a good choice for healing (but the number of spells is limited ... also the sorcery points can be very synergistic with your blasting cantrips). Note that Empowered Healing won't work with Healing Light since it isn't a spell. Also, Healing Light gives you 1+warlock level x d6 of healing with a range of 60' that can be used as a bonus action that resets on a long rest. Considering that this is very similar to healing word (not as much healing but doesn't need a spell slot) that is a decent clutch healing ability (in many cases healing isn't used until a character is dropped to zero hit points since healing is less efficient usually than doing damage). Divine Soul Sorcerer would be the best choice to emphasize the healing aspect while retaining the ability to single target blast with eldritch blast+agonizing blast.

On the other hand, a level 6 draconic sorceror with a fire dragon background (e.g. gold) gets Elemental Affinity at 6th level which adds their charisma to fire damage spells. The Celestial warlock gets radiant soul at level 6 which also adds charisma to fire or radiant damage spells ... so these two would stack. In addition, choosing Elemental Adept (fire) as a feat lets the fire spells ignore fire resistance on targets (though not immunity) and any 1's on damage are treated as 2's. This combination might make your character a better blaster since it would increase the damage from firebolt and fireball ... the sorcery points would also allow you to quicken a fireball and twin a firebolt in the same turn (though the firebolts would have to strike different targets) or you could just use eldritch blast + quicken eldritch blast.

Most of the sorcerer tricks work best with a good amount of sorcery points and spells to convert ... so in that case you might want more of 11 level warlock and 9 levels sorcerer if you still want to emphasize the warlock side of the character. Note that either Divine Soul or Draconic can still use the quickened eldritch blast + eldritch blast + agonizing blast + (possibly hex if you casted that in the first round of combat) to do quite a lot of single target damage every round.

Finally, I'd suggest considering how you want the character to play out. Level progression makes a huge difference to how the character plays and feels as you go through the levels. Planning for level 20 is fine but doesn't do much if the plan isn't fun to play until you are in the teens. So you need to figure out what you want the lower levels to feel like. Pure warlock? Warlock with a bit of sorcerer? About even? Mostly sorcerer? From your comments, I would think either all or mostly warlock for the first few levels and then maybe fit in a few sorcerer levels. On the other hand, the sorcerer-warlock I am building started off with one level of sorcerer followed by two levels of warlock ... and then probably more sorcerer. He might take a 3rd level of warlock for pack of the tome at some point. The biggest concern with a level 20 build for either warlock or sorceror is that if you take more than 3 levels in a multiclass you won't get 8th or 9th level spells ... which may or may not be an issue.

[CTurbo]

I just wanted to add that in order to multiclass into cleric you need to have at least a 13 in wisdom so the sorcerer is likely not just your best choice but your only choice :)

Also, the divine soul sorcerer would work well with the celestial warlock from a background perspective.

Divine Soul gives you access to the entire cleric spell list plus the sorcerer list however and is also a full caster class so it is a good choice for healing (but the number of spells is limited ... also the sorcery points can be very synergistic with your blasting cantrips). Note that Empowered Healing won't work with Healing Light since it isn't a spell. Also, Healing Light gives you 1+warlock level x d6 of healing with a range of 60' that can be used as a bonus action that resets on a long rest. Considering that this is very similar to healing word (not as much healing but doesn't need a spell slot) that is a decent clutch healing ability (in many cases healing isn't used until a character is dropped to zero hit points since healing is less efficient usually than doing damage). Divine Soul Sorcerer would be the best choice to emphasize the healing aspect while retaining the ability to single target blast with eldritch blast+agonizing blast.

On the other hand, a level 6 draconic sorceror with a fire dragon background (e.g. gold) gets Elemental Affinity at 6th level which adds their charisma to fire damage spells. The Celestial warlock gets radiant soul at level 6 which also adds charisma to fire or radiant damage spells ... so these two would stack. In addition, choosing Elemental Adept (fire) as a feat lets the fire spells ignore fire resistance on targets (though not immunity) and any 1's on damage are treated as 2's. This combination might make your character a better blaster since it would increase the damage from firebolt and fireball ... the sorcery points would also allow you to quicken a fireball and twin a firebolt in the same turn (though the firebolts would have to strike different targets) or you could just use eldritch blast + quicken eldritch blast.

Most of the sorcerer tricks work best with a good amount of sorcery points and spells to convert ... so in that case you might want more of 11 level warlock and 9 levels sorcerer if you still want to emphasize the warlock side of the character. Note that either Divine Soul or Draconic can still use the quickened eldritch blast + eldritch blast + agonizing blast + (possibly hex if you casted that in the first round of combat) to do quite a lot of single target damage every round.

Finally, I'd suggest considering how you want the character to play out. Level progression makes a huge difference to how the character plays and feels as you go through the levels. Planning for level 20 is fine but doesn't do much if the plan isn't fun to play until you are in the teens. So you need to figure out what you want the lower levels to feel like. Pure warlock? Warlock with a bit of sorcerer? About even? Mostly sorcerer? From your comments, I would think either all or mostly warlock for the first few levels and then maybe fit in a few sorcerer levels. On the other hand, the sorcerer-warlock I am building started off with one level of sorcerer followed by two levels of warlock ... and then probably more sorcerer. He might take a 3rd level of warlock for pack of the tome at some point. The biggest concern with a level 20 build for either warlock or sorceror is that if you take more than 3 levels in a multiclass you won't get 8th or 9th level spells ... which may or may not be an issue.


I agree with this. It seems you're limited to Fighter, Rogue, Bard, or Sorcerer for your options, and Sorcerer seems like the best choice. Divine Soul would be great, but I think I'd go Draconic for the free Mage Armor, Elemental Affinity, and extra hit points.

I think Warlock/Sorcerer combos works best when there are more Sorcerer levels than Warlock levels.

[Aurosman]

I totally forgot about the multiclass requirements, so it does look like cleric is out unless I spend my stat upgrades on wisdom. So that just leaves either divine soul or draconic.

I would rather multiclass earlier than level 14, just because I don't know if we will make it to level 20. Doing it earlier may delay my higher level spells, but I'm not really trying to optimise so that's not really a problem to me. My thoughts were either go warlock 3 sorc 3 or warlock 6 sorc 6. Is healing alot more important early, mid or late levels? That might change when I want to start.

I am leaning towards divine soul just because I can grab spells from the cleric list, but the draconic subclass does have the better class abilities in my opinion.

I think I will have to wait until Saturday to decide where to go. It will all depend on if we gain more players or not.

[Keravath]

I totally forgot about the multiclass requirements, so it does look like cleric is out unless I spend my stat upgrades on wisdom. So that just leaves either divine soul or draconic.

I would rather multiclass earlier than level 14, just because I don't know if we will make it to level 20. Doing it earlier may delay my higher level spells, but I'm not really trying to optimise so that's not really a problem to me. My thoughts were either go warlock 3 sorc 3 or warlock 6 sorc 6. Is healing alot more important early, mid or late levels? That might change when I want to start.

I am leaning towards divine soul just because I can grab spells from the cleric list, but the draconic subclass does have the better class abilities in my opinion.

I think I will have to wait until Saturday to decide where to go. It will all depend on if we gain more players or not.

My experience with 5e so far is all DDAL. However, in that context, healing is only critical when getting a character back into action. Typically a first level heal will only cure 5-10 hit points. Creatures typically hit for far more than this especially as you get into higher levels. Usually, it is more efficient for a character to use an action or bonus action to damage or control opponents than it is to heal a party member ... except if that party member is at zero hit points ... in which case the bonus action heal gets them back into the combat. The one exception is probably if the attacker is doing sufficient damage in a single attack that it would take your party member to less than their negative hit point total which instantly kills them .. in that case a little preventative healing can be useful but I haven't seen that edge case come up.

On the other hand, depending on your party composition, it can be useful to have a character than can cast lesser/greater restoration which can be used to remove some very debilitating conditions. If you don't have a cleric then a Divine Soul Sorcerer could pick these up.

Between encounter healing can also be useful but folks can use hit dice to heal during a short rest which at least partially restores their hit points. There is also the possibility of various healing potions depending on your DM.

As an example, I've played modules where the only healer was a bard with Healing Word ... and that generally went ok ... but again it will depend on your party composition.

[Derpaligtr]

I would like to point something out.

Most games, even those among friends, don't last all that long. Planning out to level 20, especially for the first game, is over thinking it a bit much. Fun, but over thinking it.

I'm D&D, you should really live in the moment.

The warlock is a pretty versatile class. You can do a little bit of everything with the right choices OR you can specialize nicely.

Design a character instead of a class. Let the character show you which way to go instead of telling the character which way to go. Maybe during the game, your character runs across a theives guild and your character passes some initiation in order to not be killed. Going Rogue on your MC would make much more sense than doimg nothing or multiclassing fighter or whatever else.

It's fine to have a general plan for your character, but keep it flexible and don't stress too much over it. :)

[Phoenix042]

My plan for him was to be a support blaster type that did emergency healing, but I cant figure out how to do it. Al I know is I want to dip max 6 levels into another class and going with the tome pact. Keeping my main class a warlock.

I have a player in one of my games whose been playing a character similar to this this for years, going from level 4 to level 13. Used to be a warlock in 3.5, whose themes were: ungodly social skills, support powers, and blasting.

When we made the switch to 5th, we decided pretty quickly that "support blaster" wasn't handled very well with warlock alone.

So we did this: Warlock 2 / Bard 5 / Sorc X

Start with sorc 1, then take two levels of warlock, picking up the main features of the build (blast, invocations, hex, and short-rest spell slots) and then a bard dip for INSANE social skill and utility (lore bard, for more skills and cutting words), and then more sorcerer from then on.

With subtle spell, he can hex his opponents during social encounters, then pair that with cutting words to undercut them further, all while using his expertise in persuasion and his subtle-spelled bardic magic (suggestion, friends + disguise self, charm person, detect thoughts) to be a social god. I've seen him turn an elegant courtier into a blithering idiot and talk his way out of trouble with a demon prince in his own palace.

And if they're not interested in talking, quickening a 6th level fireball (with +5 damage from elemental affinity) and following up with a hex-empowered eldritch blast for 3d10 + 3d6 + 15 damage is a pretty good way to open a fight (hex already having been cast via subtle spell before the start of the fight) and convince them that maybe talking wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Maybe not what you're looking for, but this guy LOVES his character, and I can see why.

If you didn't want to dip bard, then I'd suggest at least 3 levels of warlock in your final build, but you may want to consider starting sorcerer at level 1 first and grabbing con saves and that natural armor. Then maybe aim for warlock 2 and sorc 3 asap, so you've got invocations and metamagic online.

At that point, you have the signature features of each class, and going for more of either is a fine move, depending on which ones features appeal to you more.



Character is an Aasimir, stats in order are 10, 16, 14, 10, 10, 20.

My thoughts were going 6 levels in eiter life cleric, divine soul sorc, or draconic sorc.

I do like the sound of a divine soul with warlock slots for casting those spells in. Grab con saves FOR SURE by going sorcerer at level one, and pick up bless by going law-affinity. Have bless up a lot. After that, start on celestial warlock for at least 2 levels. There's really no mix that's bad after that, but once you've hit warlock 3, there's a strong argument for going with more sorcerer until 3 or 5 or even 6.



Thr group consists of a thiefrogue, bard (either swords or whispers), war cleric, and possibly a divination wizard, fighter cavalier, and some other type of melle if they can make it.

With a bard already in the party, it may be stepping on his toes a little to dip bard, but then again, the cleric might not like you poaching spells either, and with a wizard in the party, you may end up with some overlap no matter what.

Here's a few suggested builds with progressions:

1) Divine soul 1
2) Celestial Warlock 1
3) Celestial Warlock 2
4) Divine Soul 2
5) Divine Soul 3
6 - 20) Celestial Warlock 3 - 17

Or:

1) Dragon Sorcerer 1
2) Bard 1
3) Bard 3
4) Lore Bard 3
5) Lore Bard 4
6) Lore Bard 5
7) Dragon Sorcerer 2
7) Dragon Sorcerer 3
8) Celestial Warlock 1
9) Celestial Warlock 2
10 - 20) Dragon Sorcerer 4 - 13

Or the really hot fireball route:
1-6) Dragon Sorcerer 1 - 6
7 - 20) Divine Soul 1 - 14
Then starting at level 12, your fire spells will benefit from your charisma twice.


Good luck!

[Citan]

So this past christmas one of our players got all the 5E books as a gift and we are starting our first game. I decided to choose a Celestial warlock because it sounded like a fun class to roleplay. The problem is a level 20 warlock straight up doesn't seem that good for how I want to play him, so I was thinking about multiclassing.

My plan for him was to be a support blaster type that did emergency healing, but I cant figure out how to do it. Al I know is I want to dip max 6 levels into another class and going with the tome pact. Keeping my main class a warlock.

Character is an Aasimir, stats in order are 10, 16, 14, 10, 10, 20.

My thoughts were going 6 levels in eiter life cleric, divine soul sorc, or draconic sorc.(my DM is ok with the coffeelock as long as I dont abuse it, more so not using a whole night to stockpile spell points, just short rests. But not sure if i really wanna go that route.)

Also where should I start that dip? 3rd level after I get my pact, 4th level when I get my stats, or 6th level after I get radiant soul?

Thr group consists of a thiefrogue, bard (either swords or whispers), war cleric, and possibly a divination wizard, fighter cavalier, and some other type of melle if they can make it.

Thanks for any help you guys got.
Hi ;)


I just wanted to add that in order to multiclass into cleric you need to have at least a 13 in wisdom so the sorcerer is likely not just your best choice but your only choice :)

Also, the divine soul sorcerer would work well with the celestial warlock from a background perspective.

Divine Soul gives you access to the entire cleric spell list plus the sorcerer list however and is also a full caster class so it is a good choice for healing (but the number of spells is limited ... also the sorcery points can be very synergistic with your blasting cantrips). Note that Empowered Healing won't work with Healing Light since it isn't a spell. Also, Healing Light gives you 1+warlock level x d6 of healing with a range of 60' that can be used as a bonus action that resets on a long rest. Considering that this is very similar to healing word (not as much healing but doesn't need a spell slot) that is a decent clutch healing ability (in many cases healing isn't used until a character is dropped to zero hit points since healing is less efficient usually than doing damage). Divine Soul Sorcerer would be the best choice to emphasize the healing aspect while retaining the ability to single target blast with eldritch blast+agonizing blast.

On the other hand, a level 6 draconic sorceror with a fire dragon background (e.g. gold) gets Elemental Affinity at 6th level which adds their charisma to fire damage spells. The Celestial warlock gets radiant soul at level 6 which also adds charisma to fire or radiant damage spells ... so these two would stack. In addition, choosing Elemental Adept (fire) as a feat lets the fire spells ignore fire resistance on targets (though not immunity) and any 1's on damage are treated as 2's. This combination might make your character a better blaster since it would increase the damage from firebolt and fireball ... the sorcery points would also allow you to quicken a fireball and twin a firebolt in the same turn (though the firebolts would have to strike different targets) or you could just use eldritch blast + quicken eldritch blast.

Agreed with this and on the fact you'll want a decent lump of Sorcery points.

A few other considerations.
- How many Sorcery points you want will depend on the Metamagic choice. 4 is enough for 1-point Sorcery, but Heightened is costly and Twin can ramp up fast too.
- Celestial Warlock does get a nice mix of basics between healing and blasting, but has best of neither (no Raise Dead, no Fireball), whereas a Divine Soul Sorcerer gets all, depending on how high you go.
- If you want to really be a great support character, you'll REALLY want Catnap from Sorcerer spell list early. Note that you can technically affect yourself too. ^^ Ask your Bard friend to learn it too and you're set for party-wide 10mn short rest.
- On the same note, Inspiring Leader could be "stacked" with Celestial Resilience (you can't have both at the same time obviously, but both "recharge" on a short rest, and while one is automatic -CR-, the other can be used anywhere, anytime you get 10mn available. So you get two "party-wide THP" per short rest. ^^
- You should suggest that Bard or at least Wizard learn Rope Trick. And Wizard has to learn Leomund's Tiny Hut.
- Another suggestion would be Thief Rogue grabbing Healer feat.

Honestly, with all that, you should be able to get two guaranteed short rests in any kind of adventuring day, with possibly two more when you have a hand on your environment.
And if you use all your recharging abilities every short rest, then healing over day will never be a problem. You'll just have then to take care of "spike damage", for which Healing Words, Warlock's ability or Sorcerer's Aid will help much.
(Note: these are only suggestions to make. Obviously don't try to decide for your friends. :) Especially since it's not a question of survival, just making things easier).

As for when to dip Sorcerer and what ancestry to take?
Considering you already have a Bard and Cleric, I'd say you don't need that much focus on healing (even if none of aforementioned suggestions are picked), so I'd choose Draconic Sorcerer.
With a starting level into it for good AC, 4 cantrips from the get go, Shield and Absorb Elements (will help you survive early levels), and Constitution proficiency (beause you'll probably use many concentration spells).
Then immediately start Warlock and level it as least up to 5, then either continue (4th level spells) or grab 2-3-4 more levels of Sorcerer for Metamagics, 2nd level spell and possibly 3rd level.

[Vogie]

Another option if you don't want to go Divine Soul Sorcerer is Bard... specifically, Lore Bard. Your Bardic inspiration can be used to bolster allies or hinder enemies, and you get magical secrets at 6. This will unlock things like Revivify or other cleric/wizard/sorcerer things without actually taking their class.

Normally Bards aren't much of blasters, and are full of support stuff, which makes them hard to play at low levels, but they're a perfect complement to a warlock, who are fantastic blasters and bad at support.