Need input about my warlock.

[Pyramid Pug]

Sup folks, I had more or less a plan with my warlock, but a curveball happened, here’s the situation.

My party consists of me (halfling warlock), a human monk, an elf bard and a dragonborn paladin. The monk and the pala would usually go meleewhile me and the bard would support from distance. All was fine and dandy, we dinged lvl 3 last session and I was planning to go pact of the tome to support the party with ritual casting.

Real life ensued tho and the paladin had to quit, and a new player joined. Thing is, he wants to go ranged fighter (archer), and the bard wants to go whispers and ranged as well. Now that leaves the poor monk all alone to deal with melee.

Now I’m a big fan of letting people play what they want, so I’m not looking to change their opinions on anything. What I want from the forum is this, what can I do as a halfling warlock that just got to lvl 3 and hasn’t formally decided on a pact yet in order to support the poor monk so him (and the rest of the party) doesn’t get overwhelmed?

I’m asking in terms of pact choice, spells, multiclassing even, what can I choose and do in order to increase the odds of survival of this party of goofballs I’ve grown to like so much?

For more info, my stats are 11 str, 15 dex, 14 con, 12 int, 13 wis, 15 cha. My patron is Archfey.

The monk is unsure wether to go kensei or... long death I think in order to increase his staying power, the bard is going ranged whispers, and the new blood is going Fighter/rogue for archery

[Malifice]

You dont have the stats for Blade pact, and the Patron you have sucks for that as an option.

Q: How flex is your DM? Would he approve of a change in Patron (RP'd appropriately of course)?

Because you could make it work as a Hexblade patron.

Heck, with a good DM, he could even work you finding your Pact weapon into the next session (you're 3rd level and can select Blade pact), with this event being the thing that transitions you over to a different patron.

'You pick up the Black Bladed Greatsword and it... speaks to you.'

[JakOfAllTirades]

If you've got Xanathar's Guide, your Archfey can have the best of both worlds. Take the Blade Pact and swap out the Agonizing Blast invocation for Improved Pact Weapon. This gives all your pact weapon +1 to hit and damage, allows it to be used as an arcane focus, AND gives you the option of bows and crossbows for pact weapons.

Since your Dex and Cha are both 15, the +1 longbow will give you roughly the same damage as your agonizing eldritch blast. (1d8+1+Dex v. 1d10+Cha)

Or you can use a +1 rapier in melee. Either way you've got a +1 magic weapon that does 1d8 base damage. And you always have an arcane focus in hand.

And Hex damage. Or Faerie Fire if you like giving your team mates advantage. Those are the "key" 1st level spells for this build.

For 2nd level spells, Hold Person for auto-crits. Or Suggestion for out-of-combat shenanigans. And Mirror Image for a good non-concentration defensive buff.

That's basically what I had at 3rd level, aside from playing a different race (Half Elf) and it worked very well. I switched off between ranged and melee as needed, because my current group had a shifting line-up in melee with some players not able to attend every session. It's a very flexible build that works either way.

[ad_hoc]

Sounds like you will be fine.

All characters should anticipate being in melee. There is little that can be done in many situations in 5e to keep enemy monsters from closing to vulnerable characters.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Gonna agree with going Blade pact and changing agonizing blast to improved pact weapon. Switch the weapons form as needed.

I suggest faerie fire over hex. Giving tbe rest of your party will likely deal more damage for you. Also cast sleep. My party uses this to make encounters so much easier. Perfect for low hp minions and worth the upcasted slot. I would also suggest Armor of Agathys or mirror image if you are gonna walk in to the free.

At 4 increase Dex and Cha.


When you hit level 5 blink is pretty great spell. Grab thirsting Blade for the extra attack and switch the other invocation you have for the smites or ask if faerie fire counts as a curse for Maddening Hex. Probably won’t work with faerie fire but you can just use hex. Either way this invocation should help out with some AOE

[Toadkiller]

I did tome and took shillelagh and green flame blade (I just like it more than booming blade). It really helps if you find a way to boost your AC but it gave me enough melee to get by. I had multi classed a single level of sorcerer to get even more cantrips and “shield”.

I still preferred to be ranged but was able to mix it up in melee. Once I even tanked for two rounds, though I couldn’t have lasted much longer. By using my abilities creatively I found it to be a fun character that could do many thing fairly well.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Gonna agree with going Blade pact and changing agonizing blast to improved pact weapon. Switch the weapons form as needed.

I suggest faerie fire over hex. Giving tbe rest of your party will likely deal more damage for you. Also cast sleep. My party uses this to make encounters so much easier. Perfect for low hp minions and worth the upcasted slot. I would also suggest Armor of Agathys or mirror image if you are gonna walk in to the free.

At 4 increase Dex and Cha.


When you hit level 5 blink is pretty great spell. Grab thirsting Blade for the extra attack and switch the other invocation you have for the smites or ask if faerie fire counts as a curse for Maddening Hex. Probably won’t work with faerie fire but you can just use hex. Either way this invocation should help out with some AOE

This is all solid advice. At level 5, Blink has more staying power than Mirror Image; it'll protect you from more than three hits. Later on you might want to replace it with Improved Invisibility. (Or not; the latter requires concentration.)

[Mortis_Elrod]

This is all solid advice. At level 5, Blink has more staying power than Mirror Image; it'll protect you from more than three hits. Later on you might want to replace it with Improved Invisibility. (Or not; the latter requires concentration.)

I say cast both and dare them to try and hit you. Mirror Image +Blink is a hard target

[MrStabby]

There are two separate but related ideas here.

Do you want to mix it up in the front lines?
Do you want to stop your front lines being overwhelmed?

They are not exclusive.

If you want to stop your front lines being overwhelmed then you don't have to be a frontliner. Combinations of repelling blast and movement effecting spells such as hold person and hypnotic pattern can help. If your DM is flexible then see if they might be happy to give you access to other spells to help the party (if this is to help let others play the classes they want and is for the party benefit it should hopefully not come over as being too selfish). See if you can get spells like wall of fire, wall of force, evards black testicles and similar. Unfortunately Archfey doesn't offer so much here.

If you want to tank on the front-lines then rogue might be your best option longer term - when you hit level 5 and can use your reaction to half damage you become pretty tough. Otherwise you are probably looking at a single level of cleric to get access to heavy armour.

[JakOfAllTirades]

I say cast both and dare them to try and hit you. Mirror Image +Blink is a hard target

It's true, this is an awesome defensive combo. But prior to 11th level, it'll burn through every spell slot you have. And the casting time for both of these is 1 action, so unless you can cast them before combat begins, you'll spend two rounds setting up your defenses.

[Pyramid Pug]

Massive thanks everyone and sorry for the delay in replying, I posted as my shift ended and when I got home, I completely crashed sleeping.

Anywho, that aligns more or less with what I had thought, with me either going Tome with Shillelagh, guidance and BB or GFB, or going Blade and picking pact weapon, with the advantage the pact weapon works for sneak attacks should I decided to invest in rogue levels. I'm more inclined now towards the Blade yeh.

As for invocations I was thinking Darkvision and Tome of secrets if I went pact or Darkvision and Improved pact weapon if Blade (well I think those two are solid given that I don't have dakrsight as a halfling).

For cantrips I was thinking BB/GFB and replace EB with mage hand (if going blade) or BB/GFB, EB and Guidance, Shillelagh and Message (if going tome).

Spells tho... I have abysmal luck with save or suck spells, and if I'm gonna wade into melee I'll need to boost my survivability.. so with that in mind and getting 4 spells..
-Armor of Agathis seems like a solid bet
-Faerie Fire as well
-Invisibility
-Sleep? Like I don't have much luck but this one isn't so much a save or suck spell (well not like faerie fire doesn't have a save either).

Or perhaps replace one of these with Mirror Image?

[Pyramid Pug]

Okay, update 'cause now I have another question I need brainstormin' with.

So gonna go pact of the blade 'cause it synergises well with my stats and I can remain warlock or multiclass into rogue depending on how the wind blows.

Gonna pick Armor of Agathys, Faerie Fire, Sleep and Invisibility as spells

Gonna choose Darkvision and Improved Pact Weapon as invocations.

My question now is regarding the weapons. For melee is pretty straightforward, a rapier or shortsword, anything that will use finesse will do, but what do in regards to ranged weapons?

I'm an halfling so heavy weapons like the long bow or heavy crossbow are out the window. So that leaves... short bow, light crossbow.. but what about a pact weapon sling coupled with the magic stone cantrip, how would that interact?

--Edit--

Nevermind, I'm a potato, IPW specifies which added weapons it can become and sling ain't there, derp.