Tips for making a Face TomeLock?

[VividMatter]

A character of mine in a 5e campaign recently died, so I'm currently going over replacements.

Our party consists of a Wild Magic Sorc, a Lore Bard, a Life Cleric, and a Mastermind Rogue. None of them have multiclassed yet, and we're 5th level. Despite having 2 Cha classes, we don't really have a dedicated Face, or a real leader, so I decided to pick up a FaceLock.

My first question is: Should I even bother making another Cha class, as my DM isn't a huge fan of repeating classes/races for sake of diversity, so Multiclassing into Bard/Sorc is already kind of out the window. Should I just make something else?

If the answer to question 1 is yes, then here's where I really need help: I rolled up an 18, 13, 13, 10, 9, 9. Being a Tiefling gave me a 20 Cha, so I thought the whole face thing could work.

I thought Archfey TomeLock would be the best fit. So, what are some ways you'd go about building this character?

Also, I'm allowed to start with either 1 Rare magic item or 2 Uncommon, if that helps or is good information to have.

[Rukelnikov]

Well, its really strange that having a Sorcerer, a Bard, and most importantly a Mastermind, your party doesn't have a face :S

If you are positive you wanna play a face, the Lock has some pretty good invocations for that, Beguiling Influence gives proficiency in Persuasion and Deception, Mask of Many Faces, allows you to cast Disguise Self at will and you can get many spells to help you with that.

However, given the party comp, I'd say what your party need is a front liner. I imagine the Life Cleric has good AC, and with BActions healing can somewhat keep himself going, but he likely doesn't have the melee presence to force enemies to attack him, and the repeated Con saves he has to do probably mean his concentration wont last long.

My recommendation, go for something that can dish it and take it. If you still wanna be the face, that would mean Hexblade, Valor/Swords Bard, or some MC of Paladin. Your roll, however, means you will only have 1 really good stat, Bard or Rogue could be faces with only a 14 in Cha thanks to Expertise, but you say your table doesn't fancy having two of the same class, so those are ruled out. That means you gotta put that 18 in Cha, and the only frontliner that would make an effective frontliner with those stats is the Hexblade.

[VividMatter]

Well, its really strange that having a Sorcerer, a Bard, and most importantly a Mastermind, your party doesn't have a face :S

Yeah, our party is a bit strange in that regard. Our Mastermind is an anti-social drunk, our Sorcerer is a pseudo-diplomat and really the closest thing we have to a face, and our Bard doesn't really talk much. I don't blame any of them, though, as the DM and I are the only ones really accustomed to the game and roleplaying thus far (We're all just a bunch of teenagers)


However, given the party comp, I'd say what your party need is a front liner. I imagine the Life Cleric has good AC, and with BActions healing can somewhat keep himself going, but he likely doesn't have the melee presence to force enemies to attack him, and the repeated Con saves he has to do probably mean his concentration wont last long.

My recommendation, go for something that can dish it and take it. If you still wanna be the face, that would mean Hexblade, Valor/Swords Bard, or some MC of Paladin. Your roll, however, means you will only have 1 really good stat, Bard or Rogue could be faces with only a 14 in Cha thanks to Expertise, but you say your table doesn't fancy having two of the same class, so those are ruled out. That means you gotta put that 18 in Cha, and the only frontliner that would make an effective frontliner with those stats is the Hexblade.

Thanks for the feedback! I might try to see how a Hexblade turns out, though they're pretty MAD and I don't know if I have the stats to properly pull it off without being lackluster.

[Talionis]

I would suggest Celestial Warlock Tomelock. You will be able to pick up Shilliegh or Thorn Whip at level 3 for melee action but mostly you have Eldritch Blast. You have level 20 Charisma so at 4 use your feat to pick up Medium Armor feat. You might also think about the Resilient Constitution feat eventually. With the healing you can put out you’ll have a lot more virtual Hit Points to make you feel tough.

[Rukelnikov]

Yeah, our party is a bit strange in that regard. Our Mastermind is an anti-social drunk, our Sorcerer is a pseudo-diplomat and really the closest thing we have to a face, and our Bard doesn't really talk much. I don't blame any of them, though, as the DM and I are the only ones really accustomed to the game and roleplaying thus far (We're all just a bunch of teenagers)

Great to hear teens are still into roleplaying! :smallbiggrin:


Thanks for the feedback! I might try to see how a Hexblade turns out, though they're pretty MAD and I don't know if I have the stats to properly pull it off without being lackluster.

No prob. Avtually I recommended Hexblade cause they are really SAD. Your attacks key off of Cha, and so do your spells, and well, most of the social skills (remember to get Insight, its like the "defensive stat" of social interaction)

[PrinceOfMadness]

Some questions that might net you more focused advice:

Are you wanting to primarily 'face', or primarily perform some other role (tank, melee dps, ranged dps, control, etc) with strong face capabilities?
What books/sources do you have access to? Is Unearthed Arcana allowable?
Is Tiefling your race of choice or are you open to other suggestions?
Are you wanting to go pure Warlock or are you open to multiclassing?

Some thoughts:

Archfey is a solid choice, but your other options have value, too. Great Old One provides telepathy and mind reading (know what your target wants or fears), and Celestial is valuable for the bonus action healing and additional cantrips - and has the possible RP advantage of being presumably not affiliated with evil badness.
Consider Beguiling Influence, Mask of Many Faces, and Misty Visions for possible invocation selections.
With your Book of Shadows, consider picking up a couple of cantrips with exploitable sensory effects, such as Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy, or Minor Illusion. Clever application of these can have a big impact on a social exchange, and do wonders for your entrance besides.

If you aren't sold on the Tiefling as a race, there are a few other options that are available to you. Half-Elf is, as ever, a very good choice, netting +2 Charisma and +1 to two other scores, as well as all the other benefits of the race. Changelings (from Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron) make very strong face characters - don't underestimate the power of being able to change your appearance at will.

[Man_Over_Game]

To key off of what other people said, a front-liner would be preferable to anything. Like a Paladin. Redemption Paladin works perfectly as a Face Tank.

Now, if you're adamant about playing Warlock, you can't skip over Mask of Many Faces as the best tool for a Face character. As for which Patron, Hexblade (for defenses/melee) Fiend (for the same thing as Hexblade) or Great Old One (for social events) would be the choices I'd recommend, with Hexblade being the #1 choice.

[KnotaGuru]

Agree that a paladin would be a great choice. Go conquest, max CHA, and put fear into your enemies. At level 7 your aura can help you lock down the battlefield. You could still go tiefling, but choose a subrace that gives bonus to STR/CHA. Paladins make great party leaders and make the entire party better in general. A paladin would also take some of the burden off the life cleric being the only frontliner and give some back up heals/remove conditions.

Curious, what class were you playing that died?

[Fryy]

No prob. Actually I recommended Hexblade cause they are really SAD. Your attacks key off of Cha, and so do your spells, and well, most of the social skills (remember to get Insight, its like the "defensive stat" of social interaction)

If you're ok with Paladin but are concerned with it being MAD then how about Hexblade 1 / Paladin 19... that makes the Paldadin character as SAD as Hexblade.

Put the two 13's into Dex and Con. You max CHA right away and have a lot of options for ASI/Feats later.

[KnotaGuru]

If you're ok with Paladin but are concerned with it being MAD then how about Hexblade 1 / Paladin 19... that makes the Paldadin character as SAD as Hexblade.

Put the two 13's into Dex and Con. You max CHA right away and have a lot of options for ASI/Feats later.

One of those 13's would need to go in Strength to qualify for multi-classing.

[Fryy]

One of those 13's would need to go in Strength to qualify for multi-classing.

Ah, you're correct. 10 Dex then.

[Meichrob7]

With 18, 13, 13, 10, 9, 9 you're looking at some pretty amazing half elf hexblade territory.

The half elf racials can get you to 20 cha, 14 con, and bump one of your 9 stats to a 10. You can then take eleven accuracy as the feat you got from level 4 to bump your dex up by 1 making it also a 14. This means your level 5 spread would be like Str 9 Con 14 Dex 14 Wis 10 Int 10. Feel free to swap around those 9/10s. The 20 cha is important for obvious reasons and you want at least 14 dex because Hexblades use medium armor which has a max ac boost of 2 from dex.

For the rare Item I cant recommend flametongue highly enough. If you get it as a single handed sword then cool, your ac went up by two because you can use a shield now, but personally I always asked if it could be a greatsword, RAW its any sword so its up to your DM I guess. I did the math a while ago but the extra damage from flametongue's 2d6 extra fire damage end up being as much of a dpr increase as something like a +3 or +4 weapon. Think of it this way, you know how getting a crit with your greatsword is really hype and you get to do an extra 2d6? flametongue as a greatsword does 4d6 by default and will crit for 8d6. Thats literally casting fireball at them and then adding all your flat bonuses to damage.

There's a plethora of reasons that elven accuracy is amazing here
1) From levels 5/6 you'll be using your first turn to cast darkness on your sword and using Devil's sight to see through it, giving you advantage against any creature that uses eyes to see, so most of them. Unrelated to elven accuracy but that first turn is also a great time to use Hexblade's curse.
2) If the enemy has blindsight/tremorsense or your party is too close and would lose their line of sight, you can just use eldritch smite to knock the enemy prone and boom, advantage again.
3)From level 7 onward you can swap Devils sight and the use of darkness for shadow of moil which heavily obscures you, gives you resistance to radiant damage, wont accidentally hide the enemy, and will immediately deal 2d8 nec if anyone within 10 feet hits you. This is an amazing spell and the advantage you get from it obscuring you is ramped up even more with EA
4) Anyone with Hexblade's curse on them gets a critical strike on rolls of 19-20, so even if you're not struggling to hit the enemy EA is really good because it gives you something like a 50% chance each round to crit for the aforementioned fireball's worth of d6 dice.
5) All that extra chance to crit is further pushed into the realms of unfair because you can spend eldritch smite spellslots after the attack roll so you can just save them for crits and they'll be doing like 4-10d8

For invocations start with Devil's sight and Thirsting blade for combat, and since you have medium armor you don't need armor of shadows so you still have room for mask of many faces or whatever other face related social invocations you want. At level 7 youll have 4 invocations so drop Devil's for Eldritch smite and maybe pickup Agonizing blast too.

Since your party has a lot of back row fighters then you could also look into using Blink, Blur, Mirror image, and Shield to make yourself impossible to hit so the enemy spends their turns using all their actions failing to kill you while all your backline buddies get to pelt them with attacks.

If you're super set on only being a face then disregard this, but as long as you have persuasion proficiency and 20cha (which you can totally do while being a murdering front line hexblade) then you're kinda fine to go be the face. Being the frontline fighter protecting the party from the dastardly enemies should give your character some justification for being the leader/face even though he'd be the new guy so from both a mechanical perspective and an RP one I think doing something similar to all this makes the most sense

This is also a pretty fun way to play from an RP perspective. Being a half elf with a flaming sword and smiting your foes kinda screams "Im a LG paladin" but the fact that you're a dastardly warlock with some demented pact kinda pits a fun twist thats pretty contrary to your first impressions. Also the XGtE backstory/flavor tables for warlocks and half elves are pretty great. I highly recommend rolling on them or at least picking an option from there manually.

Side note, if you do live to level 12 pick up GWM for your feat. Elven accuracy kinda negates the -5 to hit and hexblades are super tipped towards doing more damage per attack as opposed to making a lot of attacks, so getting to make a bonus action attack every other round or so due to critting or killing adds a lot more damage to the enemy then a fighter ever would do in a single bonus action attack. You'll be Hitting for like 4d6+24 at that point (GWM(10)+Chax2(10)+hexB's curse(4)).