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View Full Version : Player Help 4th lvl Celestial Tome Warlock in CoS, Advice on spells/cantrips



Albon1230
2018-08-31, 12:39 PM
So I'm about to start a lvl 4 Half Elf Warlock in Curse of Strahd and was looking for advice, We've got a decent party, and I'm thinking I'll be a jack of all trades with my character, between Eldritch blast and the radiant damage spells and also healing from Celestial and Tome, so just looking to see what else I could do to improve my character.
Current stats 13/18/17/13/13/18, feats Elven Accuracy, with the point put into dex.
Invocations - Agonizing Blast, Book of Ancient Secrets.
Current Cantips - Light, Sacred Flame, Eldritch Blast, Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, Minor Illusion, Resistance, Word of Radiance.
Current Spells - Guiding Bolt, Hellish Rebuke, Hex, Arms of Hadar, Mirror Image. Current Rituals - Detect Magic, Identify.

Xihirli
2018-08-31, 12:54 PM
Take Protector Aasimar and during the important fights you can add radiant damage to each Eldritch Blast.

Albon1230
2018-08-31, 01:35 PM
That would have been a better choice, but story and character wise I think I'm locked into the half elf, though I can see about changing the race.

Crgaston
2018-08-31, 02:20 PM
Feels like I post this a lot, but a Celestial Warlock needs Create Bonfire. You can drop it on an enemy and they have to make a Dex save or sizzle. And since it’s concentration, next round if they haven’t moved they have to save again while you are free to use your action to whatever. If they do move out of it, (possibly drawing an AoO) you can Repelling Blast or Grasp of Hadar them back into it for another save-or-sizzle.

If you can cast it in a doorway behind an enemy, you could theoretically blast them back through it and they’d have to pass through it again to reenter the room.

And at L6 it’s doing 2d8+Cha.

Essentially, it lets you take advantage of the Concentration mechanic to cause damage and battlefield control without burning (no pun intended) a spell slot, and benefits from your L6 feature.

Albon1230
2018-08-31, 03:21 PM
I had thought about taking that and possibly Control Flame, but Create Bonfire was def one of the choices I was thinking about getting. Light and Sacred Flame are free and take no slots, So that gives me 6 to work with, I like Chill touch for the damage and the extra against undead, Eldritch blast cause of it being able to be powered up, Spare the dying just in case a fight turns bad, Minor Illusion for RP and other purposes, Resistance for helping the other players, and Word of Radiance for the damage and if I have trouble appear on me, but I could see getting rid of that, cause if I actually need to use WoR then I'm already in trouble.

rbstr
2018-08-31, 06:12 PM
Create Bonfire is OK. It's concentration and easy to escape. At level 4, even if you get the prefect set up for the stand-in-fire+EB combo you're going to do better damage just hitting something with an agonizing Eldritch Blast the whole time unless you can keep the combo up for 3 turns: EB will do 9.5 a turn. Bonfire 4.5. If you get both it's only 14. At level 6-10, where the combo is at its strongest, you do gain damage in turn 2 but not by much (3 damage). I really don't find it worth it there's just way better stuff to concentrate on that isn't so easy to make useless. [Remember, also, the bonus damage from your 6th-level feature only happens "when you cast", not subsequent turns.]
I like your cantrip selections well enough otherwise. If anything I'd say dial back the damage cantrips unless they've got particularly useful riders:
Eldritch Blast is going to out damage everything pretty much always after taking Agonizing and the level 5 upgrade. Then you've got some situational stuff with Sacred Flame when you need radiant damage.
Shocking Grasp is one you might consider for escaping melee fighters.

As far as other spell choices...Pick up Flaming Sphere. "Just bigger Create Bonfire"? except this can be relocated on a bonus action and deal damage even if the creature isn't in the fire any more and provides a much more substantial controlled area.
Probably drop guiding bolt when you get to level 5. It's only marginally better than EB at that level.
Really that's a key to Warlock spells - You do good single-target damage with your cantrip, you need to pick spells that scale well or have tons of utility and then you should focus on AOE/Control that your cantrip doesn't do so much.

Sigreid
2018-08-31, 06:53 PM
That would have been a better choice, but story and character wise I think I'm locked into the half elf, though I can see about changing the race.

There's no reason an Asimar can't be a half elf. You use the normal stats and just say "he's of elven ancestry on his mom's side" or whatever.