Grimmonsoon
2020-03-15, 06:24 AM
Before anyone tells me warlock and wizard has no synergy, please note I am playing an INTELLIGENCE based warlock. About six months into playing the character my amazing GM asked if I would be interested in swapping from charisma to intelligence as it fit the character much better. It's only for that reason that I'm considering this multi-class at all.
Now to the post!
So basically, I have a level 8 hexblade, the build is pact of the blade + polearm master. She kicks absolutely ass in combat, especially once she has her Hex and Hexblade's Curse up and running. With the latest ASI her stats are finally where I want them (got my 20 intelligence, every other stat is acceptable) and really right now the only thing I'm hurting for is spell slots. In particular it's a bit annoying to cast Hex with a 4th level spell slot, and I find I'm not doing any magical shenanigans outside of combat because I've only got the two slots to play with. My GM/table doesn't like taking frequent short rests unless there's a lot of combat, and often there is not.
So, I was thinking a wizard multiclass. More spell slots, more spell versatility, makes sense for the character (she was a wizard before she was a warlock) and this is pretty much the only chance I'd have to do this multiclass because ordinarily warlock and wizard doesn't work at all. My GM has ok-ed the multiclass but doesn't allow unearthed arcana or homebrew and has also disallowed bladesinger for being too strong.
EDIT: ooh I forgot to mention, she's not a blaster-caster. I didn't even take Eldritch Blast, no interest in using it. Melee gish is where it's at! Basically I want the extra spell slots for utility and playing around outside of combat, but I'd still like to maintain my awesome gish build as much as I can.
Incidentally here's the fluff and character concept, if you're interested! This may help explain something about the theme I'm going for:
To avoid making you read five paragraphs of backstory, she was a student wizard who through magical mishaps ended up being flung into Mechanus. She was picked up by a pragmatic high-ranking modron who looked after her in exchange for her service when she returned to the Material Plane, correcting 'anomalies' there that are serious enough to affect Mechanus' clockwork.
Years spent in Mechanus have made her veeerry logical and clever but somewhat alien when back among normal people. She's one of those who could discuss magical theory for hours but struggles to make small talk. Her bluntness makes the group laugh a lot.
A lot of her magic is related to plane-hopping and time-space stuff, which our campaign has a decent amount of. Her signature spell (aside from Hex, naturally) is Slow, particularly as her weapon lets her cast it for free once per long rest. She also does a bit of necromancy given hexblades have that raise-a-spectre ability, but anything that would normally be Shadowfell-y has been reflavoured as Mechanus-y. Think ticking clockwork and spinning gears and you've got the gist of the theme.
Anyhoo, this is pretty much what I'd like to know:
What level split do you think I should go for? I'd like at least two levels in wizard to get a feature, which gets me two 1st-level spells slots (really only planning to use these for Hex or Shield). If I go to level 3 I get four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots (Hex lasts 8 hours instead of 10 minutes) and if I go to level 4 I get another 2nd-level slot and an ASI (likely to take Great Weapon Master to keep up in the melee damage).
If I put further levels in Hexblade: level 9 gets me 5th-level spell slots (very good to have and I'll be waiting a looong time for 5th-level spell slots otherwise) and level 10 gets me Armour of Hexes, where the enemy you slapped Hexblade's Curse on has 1/3 a chance to miss you. That's... alright, but I'm good at battle positioning / hiding behind our pally tank so I don't usually get targeted.
To an extent it's worth considering what will be fun/useful now because we level soooo sloooowly in this game. For reference, we've been playing consistently for two years and the group is level 8. We play once every 2-3 weeks and our sessions average 8 hours. What will be good at level 20 is less useful to me because our game may never reach that point, and if it does I'm going to be middle aged.
That said I know that's how you quantify the builds so should I be, say... wizard 2/warlock 18? wizard 4/warlock 16? wizard 6/warlock 14?
What wizard subclass do you think works? These two are the strongest contenders imo:
Divination: Portent is always strong, and guaranteed fails against Slow works very nicely. Downside, I don't have much use for the rest of the features. The 6th level isn't all that useful to me, the 10th level is interesting, but 10 warlock/10 wizard strikes me as a bad level split.
War Wizard: +2 to AC or +4 to saving throws and +5 to initiative is glorious. I don't see myself using the 6th level Power Surge all that much. 10th level +2 to AC/saves when concentrating is good because I'm always concentrating on Hex or Slow but again... not sure I'd go to wizard 10.
These ones might be useful:
Evocation: Sculpt spells would be excellent for Sickening Radiance, which is one of my favourite AoE spells.
Transmutation: 2nd level isn't great but 6th level Philosopher's Stone is useful, particularly as I guaranteed cast Slow (which is transmutation) once a day which lets me change the properties.
Anything else? I've probably forgotten to mention something, so let me know if you think of anything else that might help the build.
Thanks for reading!
Now to the post!
So basically, I have a level 8 hexblade, the build is pact of the blade + polearm master. She kicks absolutely ass in combat, especially once she has her Hex and Hexblade's Curse up and running. With the latest ASI her stats are finally where I want them (got my 20 intelligence, every other stat is acceptable) and really right now the only thing I'm hurting for is spell slots. In particular it's a bit annoying to cast Hex with a 4th level spell slot, and I find I'm not doing any magical shenanigans outside of combat because I've only got the two slots to play with. My GM/table doesn't like taking frequent short rests unless there's a lot of combat, and often there is not.
So, I was thinking a wizard multiclass. More spell slots, more spell versatility, makes sense for the character (she was a wizard before she was a warlock) and this is pretty much the only chance I'd have to do this multiclass because ordinarily warlock and wizard doesn't work at all. My GM has ok-ed the multiclass but doesn't allow unearthed arcana or homebrew and has also disallowed bladesinger for being too strong.
EDIT: ooh I forgot to mention, she's not a blaster-caster. I didn't even take Eldritch Blast, no interest in using it. Melee gish is where it's at! Basically I want the extra spell slots for utility and playing around outside of combat, but I'd still like to maintain my awesome gish build as much as I can.
Incidentally here's the fluff and character concept, if you're interested! This may help explain something about the theme I'm going for:
To avoid making you read five paragraphs of backstory, she was a student wizard who through magical mishaps ended up being flung into Mechanus. She was picked up by a pragmatic high-ranking modron who looked after her in exchange for her service when she returned to the Material Plane, correcting 'anomalies' there that are serious enough to affect Mechanus' clockwork.
Years spent in Mechanus have made her veeerry logical and clever but somewhat alien when back among normal people. She's one of those who could discuss magical theory for hours but struggles to make small talk. Her bluntness makes the group laugh a lot.
A lot of her magic is related to plane-hopping and time-space stuff, which our campaign has a decent amount of. Her signature spell (aside from Hex, naturally) is Slow, particularly as her weapon lets her cast it for free once per long rest. She also does a bit of necromancy given hexblades have that raise-a-spectre ability, but anything that would normally be Shadowfell-y has been reflavoured as Mechanus-y. Think ticking clockwork and spinning gears and you've got the gist of the theme.
Anyhoo, this is pretty much what I'd like to know:
What level split do you think I should go for? I'd like at least two levels in wizard to get a feature, which gets me two 1st-level spells slots (really only planning to use these for Hex or Shield). If I go to level 3 I get four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots (Hex lasts 8 hours instead of 10 minutes) and if I go to level 4 I get another 2nd-level slot and an ASI (likely to take Great Weapon Master to keep up in the melee damage).
If I put further levels in Hexblade: level 9 gets me 5th-level spell slots (very good to have and I'll be waiting a looong time for 5th-level spell slots otherwise) and level 10 gets me Armour of Hexes, where the enemy you slapped Hexblade's Curse on has 1/3 a chance to miss you. That's... alright, but I'm good at battle positioning / hiding behind our pally tank so I don't usually get targeted.
To an extent it's worth considering what will be fun/useful now because we level soooo sloooowly in this game. For reference, we've been playing consistently for two years and the group is level 8. We play once every 2-3 weeks and our sessions average 8 hours. What will be good at level 20 is less useful to me because our game may never reach that point, and if it does I'm going to be middle aged.
That said I know that's how you quantify the builds so should I be, say... wizard 2/warlock 18? wizard 4/warlock 16? wizard 6/warlock 14?
What wizard subclass do you think works? These two are the strongest contenders imo:
Divination: Portent is always strong, and guaranteed fails against Slow works very nicely. Downside, I don't have much use for the rest of the features. The 6th level isn't all that useful to me, the 10th level is interesting, but 10 warlock/10 wizard strikes me as a bad level split.
War Wizard: +2 to AC or +4 to saving throws and +5 to initiative is glorious. I don't see myself using the 6th level Power Surge all that much. 10th level +2 to AC/saves when concentrating is good because I'm always concentrating on Hex or Slow but again... not sure I'd go to wizard 10.
These ones might be useful:
Evocation: Sculpt spells would be excellent for Sickening Radiance, which is one of my favourite AoE spells.
Transmutation: 2nd level isn't great but 6th level Philosopher's Stone is useful, particularly as I guaranteed cast Slow (which is transmutation) once a day which lets me change the properties.
Anything else? I've probably forgotten to mention something, so let me know if you think of anything else that might help the build.
Thanks for reading!