Warlock Build Help

[Honeyhat]

Alrighty, I'm trying to make a warlock for a level 20 one shot and I'm looking for some advice on spells/feats, invocations etc :smallsmile:

-Dm has greenlit all official books (and a couple Mercer things)
-Party is
Changeling Bladesinger (focusing on control)
Kobold Rune Knight (gator grappler)
Goblin Open Sea Paladin
Warforged Astral Self (quick slaps)
Satyr Genie warlock (me)

Character info:
Satyr Genie Warlock 17/Divine soul sorcerer 3
Selesnya initiate background, Chain boon (a little puppet that uses imp stats)

Cantrips:
Eldritch Blast
Druidcraft
Minor Illusion
Prestidigitation
Dancing Lights
Mage Hand
Mending
Thaumaturgy

1st Level:
Hex
Sanctuary
Armor of Agathys
Cure Wounds
shield
Healing Word
Absorb Elements

Silent Image (Misty vision invo)
Disguise self (Many faces invo)
Gift of Alacrity (Fey touched feat)

2nd Level:
Aid
Invisibility
Spiritual Weapon

Misty Step (Fey touched feat)

3rd Level:
Spirit SHroud
Tongues
Plant GRowth

Speak with dead (Whispers invo)

4th Level:
Stone shape
Conjure minor elementals
Dimension door

Arcane eye (Visions invo)

5th level:
Wall of Stone
Scrying
Awaken

MA 6th:
Mass Suggestion

MA 7th:
Forcecage

MA 8th:
Feeblemind

MA 9th:
Wish


Invocations:
Agonising Blast
Misty Visions
Mask of Many Faces
Devils Sight
Whispers of the GRave
Grasp of Hadar
Visions of the Distant Realms

Feats:
Fey touched
Metmagic Adept
Resilient CON
Skill expert

Metamagic:
Extended
Transmuted
Twinned
Quickened


The idea is for in combat ranged DPS (standard warlock laser show, simulacrum from wish to double damage output), then out of combat a bit of utility/healing
FOr later levels there's a few fun option spells just for character (awaken mainly, she makes little animated puppets with it)

[Keravath]

Just a couple of comments ...

1) Although opinions vary, for a caster character like this, I would want 20 charisma by level 20. Your build seems to spend all the ASIs on feats. Having a 16 charisma at level 20 puts your save DCs at 17 instead of 19. Given the kind of creatures you will likely face this could be an important difference.

2) Spell choices seem lackluster - at least they aren't the ones I would choose. Why have twinned metamagic when you don't choose a few spells that can benefit from it? Though perhaps you are thinking of twinning eldritch blast? There are some questions as to whether that can be done after 5th level when EB can target more than one creature. However, in your case, your sorcery pool is very small since you are mostly warlock rather than sorcerer - so the metamagics have to be ones that don't cost many sorcery points.

Thaumaturgy, Druidcraft and Prestidigitation but no Guidance? Guidance for skills and Resistance for saves can come in very handy and no one else in your party has the ability to pick up either Guidance or Resistance while Thaumaturgy and Druidcraft don't really do much at all (Is Druidcraft something you pick up from being a Satyr?) Perhaps it is a style thing but having all three of these is unlikely to be very useful compared to alternate cantrips that do different types of damage or have rider effects like Chill Touch which prevents restoration of hit points whether or not a creature takes necrotic damage).

Conjure minor elementals also isn't a great spell. It is concentration for 1 hour but has a casting time of 1 minute. This means it can never be used in combat but has to be cast when you have at least 1 minute prior to combat to prepare. However, this makes it useful only for a planned set piece battle when you know there will be a fight in the next hour - which I find rarely happens. When you have as few spells as a warlock or sorcerer, it is very important to choose as wide a variety as possible with flexibility in application.

Also, which type of genie warlock are you? If you pick Efreeti - you can get the fireball spell if you want - though the other types of genies provide different spells in addition to the base class additional spell choices.

Some possibilities to consider -
- counterspell
- hypnotic pattern
- banishment
- fly

etc. Both Tashas and Xanathars probably have some additional spell choices too.

[mistajames]

I would drop Hex and Cure Wounds because you'll never cast them. I'd also drop Spirit Shroud (you really wanna get that close at these levels in light armor?) I'd strongly suggest taking more rituals and utility spells. I'd also consider Animate Objects or one of the Tasha's summon spells (Shadowspawn IMO).

Personally, I'd swap out Fey Touched for something more relevant.

Chains of Carceri is so good that I wouldn't consider passing it up as a chain pact warlock. Like half of what you're fighting is a celestial, fiend, or elemental at these levels.

20 Cha is a must at these levels.

[Honeyhat]

1) Although opinions vary, for a caster character like this, I would want 20 charisma by level 20.

The one thing I forgot to mention was the ability scores, oops

I ended up with a 19 CHA after rolling and Fey Touched took it to 20


2) Spell choices seem lackluster - at least they aren't the ones I would choose. Why have twinned metamagic when you don't choose a few spells that can benefit from it?

Thaumaturgy, Druidcraft and Prestidigitation but no Guidance?

Conjure minor elementals also isn't a great spell. It is concentration for 1 hour but has a casting time of 1 minute.

The twinned was for...I can't remember, I was going to have Careful but didn't have any AOE.
I haven't grabbed much in the way of AOE as the wizards list has that down without much issue and I wanted to concentrate more on outside of combat things like Aid, Tongues, Invo choices). The idea was to be a laser gun

Drop Presti for Guidance (that's more of the wizards thing anyway)

I though CME was an action...oops. Trade that for Summon Aberration from Tasha's (still a summon, could look like whatever Id like I guess for flavour)


Also, which type of genie warlock are you? If you pick Efreeti - you can get the fireball spell if you want - though the other types of genies provide different spells in addition to the base class additional spell choices.

Dao (reskinned as a two trickster spirits inhabiting my puppet familiar). I grabbed Sanctuary, Stone Shape and Wall of Stone from its list specifically

I've never been a fan of fireball (fire has always been my least favourite elemental type). And using I think using my small spell slot pool on concentration stuff or outside of combat things would be better


Some possibilities to consider -
- counterspell
- hypnotic pattern
- banishment
- fly.

Out of those I think Hypnotic Pattern would be best (and trade out Twinned for Careful)

[Honeyhat]

I would drop Hex and Cure Wounds because you'll never cast them. I'd also drop Spirit Shroud (you really wanna get that close at these levels in light armor?) I'd strongly suggest taking more rituals and utility spells. I'd also consider Animate Objects or one of the Tasha's summon spells (Shadowspawn IMO).

Cure wounds was the freebie from Divine Soul, and Hex is a classic that I could have up all day until it needed to be used for something else (cast in the morning, short rest, have it ready to go whenever)

I can't rituals normally, and the wizard is full of them. But a Ritual Caster feat might not be a bad possibility

I thought I had mostly utility. Any suggestions to take?

Not gonna lie, Spirit Shroud was more of a fun option. Cast Shroud one round, next round get within 10 feet (whilst flying even with 6th level ability) Quicken an EB then Action EB (I checked whether two cantrips can be done, apparently yes) that'd be 8d10 + 16d8 + 40 (average 144). Then repeat until Sorcery points gone (getting some back with flexible casting), and with Grasp of Hadar, yo-yo them for extra little falling damage for each blast. Essentially an Eldritch Blast Shotgun yo-yo

I don't have access to Animate Objects, otherwise it'd be a prime choice


Personally, I'd swap out Fey Touched for something more relevant.

Such as?

I ended with a 19 CHA after rolling/racial bonuses and it gave me the +1 for a 20 total. Also a long effect 1d8 to Inititative (Alacrity) and a free Misty Step


Chains of Carceri is so good that I wouldn't consider passing it up as a chain pact warlock. Like half of what you're fighting is a celestial, fiend, or elemental at these levels.

That's a good point, high level would commonly have those creature types. A good option for a swap out

[Kemev]

Chains of Carceri is so good that I wouldn't consider passing it up as a chain pact warlock. Like half of what you're fighting is a celestial, fiend, or elemental at these levels.

Yeah, I agree with this... it feels like you're not getting the most out of your chain pact. If you're considering ritual caster, maybe consider switching to tome pact and take Book of Ancient Secrets as an invocation instead? You still get Find Familiar if it's important to your character RP.

In general, it might be worth taking another pass through the invocations, because it doesn't look like you have some of the high-power ones that require level 15. For example, I can't think of a reason to keep Mask of Many Faces when you could have Master of Myriad Forms instead.

I don't think it's wrong to take Twinned Spell, but you'd need something to give it gas, like Hold Monster.

[Keravath]

I've never been a fan of fireball (fire has always been my least favourite elemental type). And using I think using my small spell slot pool on concentration stuff or outside of combat things would be better


Lol ... I thought that the whole point of the Transmuted metamagic in your build was to change damage types and it is incredibly cheap at 1 sorcery point - it actually works with the small number of sorcery points you have but "you've never been a fan of fireball" ... what about an acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder ball?

Fireball (if you can get it) has to be one of the most synergistic picks possible for your build - but don't mind me. :)

Also, honestly, I don't think you will get much use from "Sanctuary, Stone Shape and Wall of Stone". As a warlock/sorcerer you just don't have that many extra spell slots to burn on something like Sanctuary - which is mostly a hail Mary try to rescue someone from a bad situation in combat - but which also has the side effect of redirecting critters targeting that character on to other characters in the party. Stone shape has almost no use and if you need it so desperately you can probably just use your 1/day Wish to cast it (wish is the swiss army knife of level 8- spells since you can cast ANY of them without penalty or material components). Also, at level 20, Wall of Stone is also likely to be of little use. There are so many ways to bypass it using teleportation or just break through it - it may not slow big creatures for more than a round or two.

Basically, unless your group is incredibly role play heavy and likes to just focus on joking around ... you have too many out of combat spells that won't be of much use.

Also, at high levels, if you are facing more than one caster opponent, it can be very useful to have more than one character that can cast counterspell - but it is a trade off on one of your few spells known so it is a challenge to decide what is best. On the other hand, the DM may also tailor the encounters a bit so you don't have as much difficulty.

[J-H]

One challenge with Warlock is that you can't cast Counterspell out of a 6th-level or higher slot the way a Wizard or Sorcerer can.

I would stick with the Chain pact for the invisible scout, and for the 15th-level "Hold Monster all day long" option. That's worth a lot of spell slots. Hold Monster might be a good use for your Twin ability, too, since there's nothing in the invocation about being able to upcast it.

AFB, but there's another 15th-level invocation that lets you cast Invisibility at will. I assume it's not upcast, but it still lets you start every fight invisible, and you can take it off your limited list of spells known. It could possibly also be Twinned.

Synaptic Static is a must-have AOE+Debuff at 5th level.

As an alternative for 6th level, consider Scatter to involuntarily teleport up to 5 enemies to disadvantageous places.
At 7th level, Crown of Stars gets you a no-concentration bonus action attack that lasts for 7 attacks or 1 hour. Each does 4d12 radiant damage on hit.

I like Power Word: Stun for an 8th level Mystic Arcanum. A lot of enemy mid to high level casters either don't have more than 150hp, or won't have more than 150hp once hit with a couple of AOEs. 60', no save, just stun and lose one or more rounds of actions.

[bid]

I thought mold earth / shape water were "mandatory" utility cantrips.

[Unoriginal]

I thought mold earth / shape water were "mandatory" utility cantrips.

Why? They're not that useful for many people.

[Honeyhat]

Alrighty, second attempt. With some bonus swap reasoning

Cantrips:
Eldritch Blast
Druidcraft
Minor Illusion
Mage Hand
Dancing Lights
Guidance
Mending
Thaumaturgy

Not a lot of change here, just dropping Presti for Guidance

1st Level:
Hex
Cause Fear
Armor of Agathys
Cure Wounds (Divine soul freebie)
shield
Healing Word
Absorb Elements

Silent Image (Misty vision invo)
Detect Magic (Eldritch Sight invo)
Gift of Alacrity (Fey touched feat)

Cause Fear would be a fun Subtle Spell use (and could be used both out and in combat)

2nd Level:
Aid
Darkness
Spiritual Weapon

Misty Step (Fey touched feat)
Invisibility (Shroud invo)

Got that at will Invis. ANd using Darkness but 6th level flight ability, become a void-ball shooting laser beams out of (hard to target me with spells and ranged fire as well)

3rd Level:
Spirit SHroud
Tongues
Dispel Magic
Plant GRowth

Speak with dead (Whispers invo)

Spirit Shroud and Plant GRowth are RP picks more than anything else. Dispel is another in/out of combat option

4th Level:
Stone shape
Banishment
Dimension door

Arcane eye (Visions invo)

Bye bye Conjure Minor Elementals (darn 1 minute casting time). Banishment that'll target two enemies at 5th
Stone Shape is there because I wouldn't waste a Wish usage on it...and it's more character again

5th level:
Synaptic Static
Awaken

Static boom

MA 6th:
Scatter

I didn't see it on the list before. I've used it in the past and loved it, easy swap

MA 7th:
Crown of Stars

Moar lasers are always welcome

MA 8th:
Power Wrod Stun

MA 9th:
Wish


Invocations:
Agonising Blast
Misty Visions
Eldritch Sight
Devils Sight
Whispers of the GRave
Shroud of shadow
Visions of the Distant Realms

Feats:
Fey touched
Metmagic Adept
Resilient CON
Skill expert

Metamagic:
Extended
Subtle
Transmuted (used more with magic items with bonus spells..that'll be the 'fireball' shooter)
Quickened