Looking for a low level (7) optimised Eldritch Blast(er)

[samcifer]

So with having so many close calls and a recent death in my homebrewed campaign, I'm planning ahead as there's a higher than average chance my character (barbarian bear totem barb/fighter) might die. I was thinking of going ranged with multiple attacks using Eldritch Blast. I was thinking of some possibilities as a lv. 7 character:

2 lv. of warlock for EB with Agonizing Blast, Sorcerer for a quickened second pair of ebs (since at lv. 7 I can fire off 2 shots per casting for a total of 4 per round) and I was also considering 2 levels of fighter for more AC and Action Surge for a nova round of 8 shots in a single round as in our group, AS grants a second bonus action as well as an additional action even though it's not the way it works legally). As we can also choose Radiant for the damage type of Chromatic Orb (again house-ruled to be okay), I'd definitely take that as a versatile offensive spell to inflict extra damage vs. vulnerabilities.

Which subclass(es) should I go for? It's a supernatural detective campaign with undead, vampires, werewolves, and lots of other supernatural horrors and survivability in combat is always rather low. I'd rather not stick to light armor as our recent death was of our gunsmith artificer variant human, so even being at range isn't that helpful fur survival (but they fair WAY better than melee characters do in this campaign).

[Man_Over_Game]

So with having so many close calls and a recent death in my homebrewed campaign, I'm planning ahead as there's a higher than average chance my character (barbarian bear totem barb/fighter) might die. I was thinking of going ranged with multiple attacks using Eldritch Blast. I was thinking of some possibilities as a lv. 7 character:

Sorcerer for a quickened second pair of ebs (since at lv. 7 I can fire off 2 shots per casting for a total of 4 per round) and I was also considering 2 levels of fighter for more AC and Action Surge for a nova round of 8 shots in a single round as in our group, AS grants a second bonus action as well as an additional action even though it's not the way it works legally). As we can also choose Radiant for the damage type of Chromatic Orb (again house-ruled to be okay), I'd definitely take that as a versatile offensive spell to inflict extra damage vs. vulnerabilities.

Which subclass(es) should I go for? It's a supernatural detective campaign with undead, vampires, werewolves, and lots of other supernatural horrors and survivability in combat is always rather low. I'd rather not stick to light armor as our recent death was of our gunsmith artificer variant human, so even being at range isn't that helpful fur survival (but they fair WAY better than melee characters do in this campaign).

I'm not sure how you're getting Eldritch Blast without Warlock.

But my chosen selection for this kind of build would be Hexblade Warlock 3, Shadow Sorcerer 4. This Hexblade build grants you Shield, Medium Armor, Hex, and Hexblade's Curse, all which compliment the things you're looking for.

The few levels of Sorcerer means you can get Super Darkness (Darkness that you can see through) with your Sorcerer subclass by only spending 2 Sorcery Points. With this, you don't need to grab Devil's Sight, and can invest in both Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast. You can convert your Warlock slots into Sorcery Points during Short Rests, meaning you'd almost always have enough resources to go full-auto every fight.

I would not grab levels into Fighter. Action Surge is great and all, but I don't think it'd be worth it to sacrifice something else from this build. Not when Hexblade gets you Medium Armor, Shield, EB, Hexblade's Curse, Invocations, Boons...you get the idea.

My preferred race for this kind of thing would be a flying Tiefling. Not only do the stats match up, but flight + Darkness means you won't hinder your allies while you become untargetable from most non-attack spells and cause Disadvantage for anything to hit you. If something DOES hit you and knock you out of the sky, you have Proficiency on Concentration saving throws, thanks to Sorcerer, and you can even defy death, thanks to your Shadow Sorcerer feature.

Narratively, you were a holy knight that was corrupted by the Darkness and fought back. You were human once, but became part demon as part of the transition as a cruel joke. Now you swear vengeance against the creatures of the night, showing them as much mercy as they shown you.

If you wanted to hide your demonic appearance, Mask of Many Faces can replace Repelling Blast or Agonizing Blast, and provide a lot for your narrative. That way you can appear charming to people, despite actually being part demon, and participate in mundane conversations (Like the show Lucifer).

[samcifer]

So with having so many close calls and a recent death in my homebrewed campaign, I'm planning ahead as there's a higher than average chance my character (barbarian bear totem barb/fighter) might die. I was thinking of going ranged with multiple attacks using Eldritch Blast. I was thinking of some possibilities as a lv. 7 character:

2 lv. of warlock for EB with Agonizing Blast, Sorcerer for a quickened second pair of ebs (since at lv. 7 I can fire off 2 shots per casting for a total of 4 per round) and I was also considering 2 levels of fighter for more AC and Action Surge for a nova round of 8 shots in a single round as in our group, AS grants a second bonus action as well as an additional action even though it's not the way it works legally). As we can also choose Radiant for the damage type of Chromatic Orb (again house-ruled to be okay), I'd definitely take that as a versatile offensive spell to inflict extra damage vs. vulnerabilities.

Which subclass(es) should I go for? It's a supernatural detective campaign with undead, vampires, werewolves, and lots of other supernatural horrors and survivability in combat is always rather low. I'd rather not stick to light armor as our recent death was of our gunsmith artificer variant human, so even being at range isn't that helpful fur survival (but they fair WAY better than melee characters do in this campaign).

Edited to correct the omitted Warlock levels.

[Rukelnikov]

I agree in great part with MOGs build, but having played a EB sorlock I'd say you will suffer a great deal from relying on Shadow Sorcs darkness instead of going for Devil's Sight.

The reason is, you wanna Quicken Darkness in your first round and use your action for EB. With devil's sight this costs 2 spell points, with Shadow Sorcs this would cost 4, meaning second round you wouldn't be able to cast a Quickened EB.

Shadow Sorc is still a pretty good candidate for your bloodline, but you should get Devil's Sight and rely on that for now, and when you have more spell points to spare switch it out for something else.

Note that you don't need that many lvls of Lock, basically decided which invocations you really want and get those.

Agonizing Blast is a must, and Repelling Blast is crazy good.

So IMO your two options would be:

Sorc4/Lock3

Ago, Repel, DS for invocations.

This allows you to setup darkness and cast EB on your first turn and then cast two EBs on your second turn.

Sorc5/Lock2

Ago, Repel

Bare minimum Lock, you will "suffer" for one level from having to spend 4 spell points to cast Darkness, but once you get to Sorc6 you will be able to do that and still get 2 EBs second round. The other drawback of this compared to the first one is that you Lock slots won't contribute as much, since they will be lvl 1 instead of two.

I think for more immediate payoff the Lock 3 build is far superior, in the long run (by lvl 12 or so) having only 2 lock levels may end up being better.

[Genoin]

Ago, Repel, DS for invocations.


Warlocks dont get a 3rd invocation until level 5.

[Rukelnikov]

Warlocks dont get a 3rd invocation until level 5.

Oops, thx for the correction.

Stick with Ago and DS then, switch DS for Repel later on when you have many spell points and can affor spending 4 to cast darkness on round 1.

[Bloodcloud]

Or go ftr/warlock

You get heavy armor, and hex-action surge double eblast. More round 1 firepower than sorcerer this way.

I posted a build for that in the colection of interesting build thread, starting level 7 would be pretty good for it.

[samcifer]

Or go ftr/warlock

You get heavy armor, and hex-action surge double eblast. More round 1 firepower than sorcerer this way.

I posted a build for that in the colection of interesting build thread, starting level 7 would be pretty good for it.

FTR? Not sure what that is. Also, does anyone have a link that that thread? I can't find it through searching.

[Keravath]

You could also go divine soul 5/ hexblade 2 and stick to using darkness+devils sight when you need it. Divine soul gives your group some back up healing options as well plus 5th level sorcerer will give you third level spells (like twinned haste) which might also be useful. Finally the 2d4 to a save once/SR can definitely come in handy.

Another good option would be variant human shadow sorc 5/warlock 2 and take resilient to cover wis or con depending on whether you start sorc or warlock. Shadow sorc gives 120' darkvision and the enhanced saves will be useful. Shadow sorcerer also gives you the darkness spell for free.

However, the divine soul will likely be the better group support class due to the ability to toss in some useful cleric spells.

Flight is convenient if you can get it but a lot of DMs won't let you start with it.

[Kane0]

Eldritch Knight with a dip into hexblade warlock?

[8wGremlin]

Hexblade warlock 2 levels - Divine soul sorcerer 5 - use EB, but also have Spirit Guardians, and Spiritual weapon as well.

You can have Cha at 16 (18 with one ASI) and Dex at 14, wear a breastplate and have a shield, you don't need a weapon at all.
Agonising Blast is your go to invocation for EB

Take Shield as Warlock spell, AC of 18 with breastplate and shield, you're practically un-hit-able for a short while,

You could take Animate Dead, and have a small army of undead following you.
Convert your warlock slots in to spell points, and then into spell slots.

Be a Warforged for even more shenanigans.

[samcifer]

Oh yeah, we're using a set stat arrangement for this campaign: 18, 16, 14, 2, 10, and 10 before any racial modifiers. I'm thinking of half-elf, tiefling or assimar for the race for max charisma, make con my second highest stat, then dex, then whatever for the rest. Likely make wis the 12, I suppose.

[Crgaston]

Oh yeah, we're using a set stat arrangement for this campaign: 18, 16, 14, 2, 10, and 10 before any racial modifiers. I'm thinking of half-elf, tiefling or assimar for the race for max charisma, make con my second highest stat, then dex, then whatever for the rest. Likely make wis the 12, I suppose.

While starting with max Cha is awesome, those stats also give you the ability to play a non-obvious race. With a Mountain Dwarf you could have 14, 14, 18, 10, 10, 18.

Or a Wood Elf with 10/16/16/10/13/18.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If UA is allowed, Stone Sorcery is perfect for this-- it lets you use 13+Con as your armor class, which means you can dump Str and Dex entirely. It also gives you shield proficiency (and Sorcerer gives you Shield), meaning you can skip Hexblade for Fiend and those tasty temporary hit points.

EDIT: If no-one has it, it would be worth grabbing Inspiring Leader--that'll be a nice boost for the entire party.

[samcifer]

If UA is allowed, Stone Sorcery is perfect for this-- it lets you use 13+Con as your armor class, which means you can dump Str and Dex entirely. It also gives you shield proficiency (and Sorcerer gives you Shield), meaning you can skip Hexblade for Fiend and those tasty temporary hit points.

EDIT: If no-one has it, it would be worth grabbing Inspiring Leader--that'll be a nice boost for the entire party.

Stone sorc is something I'd always wanted to play, tbh. I might see if the dm will allow it as he's letting people play artificers. Maybe a warforged as well, not an optimized race for this build, but I find them thematically fascinating.

[RSP]

I wouldn’t discount a Warlock 7 (prob Hexblade for med Armor and shield).

Get Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast as Invocations (DS isn’t bad either in a horror campaign, but I’d not go with the Darkness combo as lots of “horror” type monsters don’t necessarily rely on sight).

At Warlock 7 you can use either Shadow of Moil as a defensive tool that also provides advantage on your attacks, or Sickening Radius for a great AoE effect that you can Repelling Blast enemies back into; which is an esp good tactic as the enemies will be affected when they enter the effect for the first time on a turn [your turn] and when they start their turn in it [their turn], so you could get the damage twice, and two exhaustion levels added, each time you blast them (and the exhaustion really screws them over: 2 Exhaustion levels halves movement which makes keeping them at range even easier)

Either way, the EB w RB tactic is what I would go for to keep survivability up. Can add in Lance of Lethargy too to really optimize the ranged aspect, and Crossbow Expert to negate Disadvantage at close combat to always be able to create distance.

[samcifer]

While starting with max Cha is awesome, those stats also give you the ability to play a non-obvious race. With a Mountain Dwarf you could have 14, 14, 18, 10, 10, 18.

Or a Wood Elf with 10/16/16/10/13/18.

I just can't be comfortable playing a 'short' race that has less movement. As for wood elf, I'd rather go half elf for more stat flexibility.

[samcifer]

What about Stone sorc 5 / fiend warlock 2? Higher defenses, higher hp and temp hp on every kill wouldn't be bad, right?

[Rukelnikov]

What about Stone sorc 5 / fiend warlock 2? Higher defenses, higher hp and temp hp on every kill wouldn't be bad, right?

Definitely viable, but take into account that Hexblade provides higher damage than fiend via hexblade's curse.

[Grod_The_Giant]

What about Stone sorc 5 / fiend warlock 2? Higher defenses, higher hp and temp hp on every kill wouldn't be bad, right?
Hit points work out the same-- Stone Sorc gives you d6+1 and Warlock gives d8-- but yeah, that'll give you a pretty tough Sorlock.

Warforged Envoy wouldn't be bad for a race at all. If you're looking for other good defensive races, you might also look at Yuan-Ti. The flavor may or may not be wildly inappropriate, but it's hard to argue with +2 Con, magic resistance, and immunity to poison.

[Mercurias]

If it were me playing, I would take my first level in Shadow Sorc, second/third levels in Hexblade, and then keep riding Sorc. Using Quickened Spell, Eldritch Blast, and Hex will let you blast for lots of extra damage to the tune of 6d10+30. As a nuclear option you can upcast Scorching Ray which using Hex and Quickened Spell an EB to follow. That should be your biggest numbers for damage until Disintegrate can be chosen.

[samcifer]

I guess the best route to go would be half-elf with dark elf racial spells, +1 each to DEX and CON, start off as a Favored Soul sorc, take that to 5 (taking Elven Accuracy at lv. 4 for the asi/feat), then switch to Hexblade warlock for the last 2 levels, taking Devils Sight and Agonizing Blast for the eldritch evocations. Keeping the 'Good' FS spell of Cure Wounds, I can have some healing, Fireball, Scorching Rays, Lesser Restoration, Chromatic Orb, Hold Person, and Darkness as sorc spells and Hex and Sheild for hexblade spells. cantrips would be for sorcs: Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead (first for foes vulnerable to radiant dmg. and the second in case foes have very high AC so I can hit them a different way), Mage Hand, Guidance and Prestidigitation. For Warlock, Eldritch Blast and Minor Illusion. Spare the Dying is rather tempting, tho, as there's already been one death and two other near deaths that have required death saves.

[RSP]

I guess the best route to go would be half-elf with dark elf racial spells, +1 each to DEX and CON, start off as a Favored Soul sorc, take that to 5 (taking Elven Accuracy at lv. 4 for the asi/feat), then switch to Hexblade warlock for the last 2 levels, taking Devils Sight and Agonizing Blast for the eldritch evocations. Keeping the 'Good' FS spell of Cure Wounds, I can have some healing, Fireball, Scorching Rays, Lesser Restoration, Chromatic Orb, Hold Person, and Darkness as sorc spells and Hex and Sheild for hexblade spells. cantrips would be for sorcs: Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead (first for foes vulnerable to radiant dmg. and the second in case foes have very high AC so I can hit them a different way), Mage Hand, Guidance and Prestidigitation. For Warlock, Eldritch Blast and Minor Illusion. Spare the Dying is rather tempting, tho, as there's already been one death and two other near deaths that have required death saves.

If going this route, I’d swap out the free Cure Wounds for Healing Word asap; BA Healing at a distance is much better than healing 2 more HPs, on average.

[samcifer]

If going this route, I’d swap out the free Cure Wounds for Healing Word asap; BA Healing at a distance is much better than healing 2 more HPs, on average.

Okay, sounds good.

[Sigreid]

Don't forget to have a second damage source that is not force. I had a warlock briefly that died because we got into a fight with helmed horrors and being immune to my one effective attack they disassembled me without any problem.

[samcifer]

Don't forget to have a second damage source that is not force. I had a warlock briefly that died because we got into a fight with helmed horrors and being immune to my one effective attack they disassembled me without any problem.

Sacred Flame (as divine soul sorc), Chromatic Orb, Scorching Ray and Fireball.

[Sigreid]

Sacred Flame (as divine soul sorc), Chromatic Orb, Scorching Ray and Fireball.

Yep, all that works. It's just overlooked sometimes, like by me for example. :smallbiggrin: