5 Bladelock, 1 Divine Soul- what can I do with this?

[noahpocalypse2]

An old campaign I played in is starting up again, and I'm not really happy with my old build choices. Thankfully, the DM is letting us all have the chance for a 'soft rebuild' of our characters, but he would like us all to stick with the same race, class, and subclass choices from before (for story reasons, I imagine). Here's what I remember of my character (I lost the character sheet, unfortunately...)


Half-elf
Warlock (Hexblade) level 5, Pact of the Blade
Divine Soul level 1
(special patron/DM gift: when I hit with my pact weapon, I recover CHA bonus worth of HP)
Not sure if he'll let me redo my stats or not, so here's something like what I had:
Str 12
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 9
Cha 18 (I believe elven accuracy bumped this up)

Magic items:
Shortsword that reduces enemies AC to 10 (yes, it's pretty OP)
Rod of the Pact Keeper +1
Ring of mold earth (at will)
Ring of "move +10 feet per round in darkness"


I had the feats Great Weapon Mastery and Elven Accuracy, so I'd use a big two-handed sword with Improved Pact Weapon, Eldritch Smite, and Thirsting Blade to nova with my spell slots. I didn't get the shortsword til later or else I would've focused on it and not taken GWA. I might've gone with a shield to improve my paltry AC; I only have scale mail and +2 to dex. 16 AC is a little low for a melee fighter.

My thinking with Divine Soul was that after level 5, Locks don't get much that interest me for a long while, and Sorcerer gives me lots of spell slots to nova with every turn while Divine Soul gives me access to both arcane and clerical spells, so I'd have lots of utility options, and of course metamagic is great. Overall, I'm kind of like that classic Paladin/Sorcerer nova combo, except really inferior!

So, I now ask for help: what fun builds can I make with the above requirements? I can't change race or class. I'm a big fan of nova builds, but I'm open to other options.

[Dork_Forge]

Do you know what your stats are like? I'm assuming you got one free feat at 1st level and used your 4th level ASI to pick up the other?

As an overall build, Hexblade and Divine Soul isn't bad, and you have some very powerful items to back you up.

General advice without knowing stats: Drop GWM and focus on that short sword if your DM is still okay with how it works, maybe ask if you can also apply the effects of improved pact weapon to it? Switch to sword and board to bump your AC, if you can use Imroved Pact Weapon on the shortsword then change GWM to bumping Cha, if you can't then change it to War Caster.

Ignore Cure wounds as a spell and take Healing Word, it's vocal only so short of Silence or a gag you can't be shut down on casting it component wise.

Level progression: if you want you can go 2 deep in Paladin for smites and the Fighting Style (I'm always a fan of dueling for the damage bump), otherwise I'd say go one level Fighter and pump the rest Sorcerer.

[noahpocalypse2]

Thanks, forgot to list stats- edited original post to show them. A fighting style would be a nice bonus, especially if I decide to continue being a frontline fighter. I could really use any advice to bump up my survivability, I think- I've got nova charges and a good weapon so I can deal a fair bit of damage. I don't want to be incapacitated too easily, though.

[Dork_Forge]

Thanks, forgot to list stats- edited original post to show them. A fighting style would be a nice bonus, especially if I decide to continue being a frontline fighter. I could really use any advice to bump up my survivability, I think- I've got nova charges and a good weapon so I can deal a fair bit of damage. I don't want to be incapacitated too easily, though.

Personally I'd shuffle the 12 out of Str to something else, it isn't benefitting you, meanwhile you're taking -1 to Wis saves and Perception checks. In terms of Survivability the Tough feat (+2hp per level, so you'd straight away gain 12 hp) and a shield will put you up there with any Fighter/Paladin and near Barbarians. Then you've got the Shield spell to fall back on and the item that heals you, you're essentially a meat wall unto yourself.

Fair warning though at least a couple of your items seem incredibly powerful and further play might see your DM wanting to nerf them.

[bid]

Half-elf
Warlock (Hexblade) level 5, Pact of the Blade
Divine Soul level 1
(special patron/DM gift: when I hit with my pact weapon, I recover CHA bonus worth of HP)
Not sure if he'll let me redo my stats or not, so here's something like what I had:
Str 12
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 9
Cha 18 (I believe elven accuracy bumped this up)

I had the feats Great Weapon Mastery and Elven Accuracy,
You had a free feat at level 1, right?

Your stats don't add up, it's either Wis 10 or Int12 / Wis8 (12-13 13-12 8-15 = 3*9 = 27).

[noahpocalypse2]

I'm pretty sure I had a penalty to wisdom and no penalty to intelligence and a bonus to strength, that's all I remember. I think I put my half-elf +1 bonuses into wisdom and con. That's all I remember. But really, since I don't even remember my stats I'm going to have to redo them anyway with the standard array. And yeah, feat at level 1 was GWA, I took elven accuracy at 4.

(Having a wisdom penalty was a little roleplaying on my part- my character's smart but not wise for signing this contract. His mother was a paladin, she would be so ashamed. But after playing with a penalty to perception, I'm going to change my wisdom score because it's annoying!)