How should I build a coffeelock healer?

[Throne12]

So new game and the party is warlock, ranger, fighter, and me.

We get a free feat at first lv.
My stats are (roled) 12 16 15 8 12 15
So I'm tired of playing cleric's and bard's but the rest of the party are highschooler's and want to fight things. Which is cool and fits with the DM hes is new and just going to run a dungeon craw. So being there DM in another game. I know how they play and there going to need someone to keep them from a tpk.

So I want to be able to cover healing but do other thing so I'm looking for the massive spell slots from a coffeelock and keeping them alive. So I was thinking of a Celestial warlock and divine sorcerer. So I looking for how many levels should of each and when and what ever else. Thanks it been a year or two scents I've been a player.

[Exocist]

Hexblade Warlock (Shields & Armor is the main reason you're here, you don't want to get hit) + Divine Soul Sorcerer.

Progression should Hexblade 3/Sorcerer 2/Hexblade+2/Sorcerer+1/Hexblade+4/Sorcerer+2/Hexblade+2/Sorcerer+2/Whatever. Coffeelocking starts at 5th level with this build. You can Coffeelock 2nd level spells by 8th, 3rd level spells by 14th, 4th level spells by 17th and 5th level spells by 18th (You can use Font of Magic to create spells of a higher level than the Sorc can cast).

You can alternately make it Hexblade 5/Sorcerer 3/Hexblade +4/Sorcerer+2/Hexblade +2/Sorcerer+2/Whatever. This delays the Coffelocking until 7th level, but lets you get a power spike (3rd level spells) earlier.

Spells should include:

Eldritch Blast (duh)
Cure Wounds (Always cast this at 1st level and always make enough 1st level slots to cast this a few times. You cannot long rest, so you never recover hit dice. Every time you get hit, you have to burn a spell slot for Cure Wounds to recover those lost hitpoints.)
Armor of Agathys (You don't want to get hit)
Shield (As above)
Absorb Elements (Sometimes getting hit is unavoidable)

I can give you a more detailed spell list if you want.

EDIT: I do not advocate playing the Coffeelock as is, it's absolutely broken with any amount of downtime. Ask your DM if you can instead play a less cheesy version of the Coffeelock

Lose the ability to accumulate resources between adventuring "days" (I.e. what you made in your 8 short rests is what you get for each day, they don't flow onto the next day's resources. This is the Major cheese with coffeelock).
In return, when you take your 8 short rests, you heal and regain hit dice as if you'd taken a long rest (you gain no other long rest benefits though).

[Unoriginal]

Why do you want to build a coffeelock?

[nickl_2000]

Don't play a coffeelock, even as a healer it is the definition of munchkinism.


If you want to heal but don't want to be a Bard of Cleric, look at Druid. They heal as well, if not better than clerics and have different options

[ProsecutorGodot]

You mention that this person is new to being a DM.

Explain the concept of a Coffeelock to him and make sure he's alright with you playing it, because it has a good chance of undermining his learning process if you take this kind of character into the game. If you get permission to play it after that, the build mentioned above is serviceable.

I would recommend Druid if you want a strong healing class with versatility.

[Vogie]

If they even allow it, I'd make sure you're not cheesing your way through it. Use the Warforged race, or pick up aspect of the moon. Insist on having to roll exhaustion for not long-resting. Intend on going deep enough into divine soul to pick up greater restoration to remove exhaustion from yourself in a pinch. Especially since this is a new DM, and the coffeelock is a rules-nuance-exploitation build.

I'd go the route you were thinking - Celestial Tomelock /Divine Soul Sorcerer. That would give you non-spell oriented healing. I'd also forgo AoA for the Fiendish Vigor invocation until Celestial warlock 10 (if you ever get there) so you can have a recurring amount of THP, 8 at the beginning of each fight, and the ability to "heal" yourself by recasting it on yourself at will.

You can drop the Agonizing blast invocation at Warlock 6 as Radiant soul will give that effect on your Sacred Flame and Firebolt spells.

I'd also see if you can convince your ranger to do a 1 level dip in Life cleric to supercharge their goodberries.

[Willie the Duck]

You mention that this person is new to being a DM.

Explain the concept of a Coffeelock to him and make sure he's alright with you playing it, because it has a good chance of undermining his learning process if you take this kind of character into the game. If you get permission to play it after that, the build mentioned above is serviceable.

Very much this. Certain things like Coffeelock, Simulacrum+Wish, Healing Spirit, wildly out of norm magic item accrual, or heck weird stat determining methods like 'all-18s' or '5d6 drop the worst 2' or the like are perfectly fine in a game where everyone is on board with the alteration, and everyone knows that the game will get a little wacky. As an introduction to the game, where one learns the established norms of the game and how the game and game maths work (especially for a DM)? This doesn't sound great.

Honest question, is there some level of ultimate healing that requires a coffeelock, that a life cleric1/Ranger or Druid with Healing Spirit combo doesn't provide? There is a quantifiable maximum amount of healing one will ever need to have to do, and that combo hits and exceeds it in most cases.

[lperkins2]

So I ran a 'coffeelock' before, for fairly similar reasons (the party was lacking a front-line fighter rather than a healer, and none of the other characters had any staying power, leading to multiple near TPKs, stone sorcerer / warlock has great staying power). Here's my advice to avoid breaking things.

First, actually keep track of spell slots. It's easy in a white-room theory session to say 'oh, you'll always have infinite slots', but in my experience that was rarely the case. Second, find other things to do with your downtime. The marginal utility of each additional spell slot made is lower than the last, so there comes a point (probably at about 2x the number of slots you spend in a typical day) where a rational character will start doing things beyond simply sitting and twiddling their thumbs while storing more power. Explore the item creation rules, teach your familiar/pet/companions additional languages/tool proficiencies, scout for trouble, that sort of thing.

Second, keep your warlock and sorcerer levels roughly in balance. This increases the number of spell slots you generate in a day, so you don't have to have the extended downtime to recover between missions, it also helps you not be totally wiped by exhaustion. In a prolonged dungeon crawl, you may well find yourself sucking fumes as your low level spell slots struggle to keep pace, more warlock levels will help with this a lot, but never really relieve the chronic lack of resources.

Third, focus your spell selection onto mastering one specific problem domain, two at most. This will help you master the specific area, while leaving your party something useful to do (in my case it was melee damage via booming blade and drawing (and withstanding) fire by rushing out in front of the party). Since your main purpose is large quantities of healing, that leaves you one secondary area for focusing your spell selection, social interaction, stealth, or similar might be more useful than combat, since you'll probably end up spending resources healing in combat and that's the focus of the rest of the party.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If you want to heal but don't want to be a Bard of Cleric, look at Druid. They heal as well, if not better than clerics and have different options
I'm inclined to agree with this-- if for no other reason than to keep things simple for your new DM friend. If you want something different, how 'bout a Bugbear Life Cleric 2/Primeval Guardian Ranger 7+? Goodberry can net you 40 points of out-of-combat healing a pop, with the Channel Divinity and Healing Word to ping-pong your friends back to life. Meanwhile wear heavy armor, pick up a glaive or halberd, take Polearm Master, turn into a tree and enjoy smacking people from across the room.

[CTurbo]

The Coffeelock thing is still one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard. You know what 8 short rests are? 1 long rest. There's no way I would ever allow such a thing, and I'm the DM that's always giving free feats and even free levels in other classes so I think I'm extremely lenient.

But having said that, I do think that a Divine Soul Sorcer/Celestial or Hex Warlock would make a very good healer. You COULD pull off several short rests a day without it getting cheesy to build up at some slots.



Of course if the rest of the group wants to just play Strikers, I'd probably be a smartass and roll up a Barbarian just to teach them that there is more to D&D than killing monsters.

[Vogie]

The Coffeelock thing is still one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard. You know what 8 short rests are? 1 long rest. There's no way I would ever allow such a thing, and I'm the DM that's always giving free feats and even free levels in other classes so I think I'm extremely lenient.

But having said that, I do think that a Divine Soul Sorcer/Celestial or Hex Warlock would make a very good healer. You COULD pull off several short rests a day without it getting cheesy to build up at some slots.


I think that the sorlock combo could just as easily be a perfectly fine combination even without the rule-bending need-caffeine part. Just having two SR spell slots that can be converted to Sorc Points at will gives an interesting playstyle on a class that is built on LR spell slots and manipulating spell points.

[CTurbo]

I think that the sorlock combo could just as easily be a perfectly fine combination even without the rule-bending need-caffeine part. Just having two SR spell slots that can be converted to Sorc Points at will gives an interesting playstyle on a class that is built on LR spell slots and manipulating spell points.



Yeah that's what I'm saying. You'd get enough legit short rests in a day to sustain it reasonably. Sorlock is a great combo for sure.

I'd never let anybody take even 2 short rests in a row, much less 8.

[Rolero]

If you want some variaty you could try a Circle of Dreams Druid. You'll have a pool of healing dice useable as bonus actions and some utility options. In fact, the 6th level feature can be a lifesaver in a dungeon crawling focused campaign such as yours.

Another different take, go Rogue, specifically, Thief. Pick up the Healer feat and heal as a bonus action with Fast Hands.

And of course, the Celestial Tomelock/Divine Soul Sorcerer will be quite competent. However, if you are saying that you are tired of Bard and Cleric, you may end up playing this quite similarly.

Since you start with one feat, Inspiring Leader is very powerful at low levels and escale quite well.

[CTurbo]

Paladin with Inspiring Leader is very good, nothing like a Bard, and only a little like a Cleric