Glaivelock/Clawlock with familiar

[schreier]

I am making a new character for our campaign - a level 13 warlock (level 1 Binder / level 1 hunter barbarian with lion spiritual totem (pounce) and city brawler for TWF), level 3 ruathar (skills and improved spot/listen), level 5 warlock, level 3 hellfire warlock)

As part of the build, I was going to take obtain familiar / celestial familiar and get a Coure Eladrin (I am going with Queen Morwel as his patron)

Any recommendations on reasonable level 13 gear that you could give the eladrin to make it useful?

Some things being considered (probably the collar + one of the others):
Collar of healing
Tooth of Dahlver-Nal (Amon - unlimited burning hands)
phylactery of change

We are going WBL, so do not want to go crazy .... the tooth would give her a reasonable attack (although 5d4 save for half DC 11 isn't incredible), the phylactery would allow utility forms and some combat utility.

Are those items reasonable and worth it? Any better recommendations? Could go with boots and cloak of elvenkind to make her hard to see? collar of umbral metamorphosis for HiPS and speed increase and sneak/hide bonus

Skip combat utility entirely?

[Rebel7284]

Wait, so Claws or Glaive? It's a little silly to have both as they do very similar things and often need different things to optimize them.

As far as items, for the most part, typical items that apply to all characters.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items
and there are also some links still in existence to the original bunko's bargain basement

Of course, Clausible of Fell Power (or greater) is always good too.

edit: why do you want unlimited Burning Hands when you have unlimited Eldritch Blast??

[schreier]

The items would be for the familiar, not for the main character. Trying to see if there is some combat capability it would be possible to give the familiar without excessive cost. The burning hands was one option - another thing I was thinking about was maybe an enfeebling item or some kind of poison?

And why both - from what I understand:
Glaive is touch attack, reach, and can be a hellfire blast or vitrollic blast
clawlock is against true AC, is not reach, and cannot be enhanced but is not subject to SR
(those are somewhat subject to interpretation)

So - against high AC low touch AC no SR - go glaive
Against high SR - go vitrollic glaive or claws (depending on AC vs touch AC)

would do 2d10+6d6 with beast claws / eldritch claw, or 12d6 with hellfire glaive

[Troacctid]

Check out the useful items spreadsheet in my signature. I have a tag especially for items that are great on a familiar. Burning hands is fine, but it's no storm gauntlets/harrow rod. 😎

You should consider having your familiar UMD a wand of benign transposition rather than dipping to get pounce. They do share your skill ranks, and the coure has good Charisma, so it should be easy enough for them to use wands.

[schreier]

Thank you for the suggestions! Would be great to not lose the caster level (or possibly pick up Marshal to leverage their aura) ... That would cost me the free two weapon fighting ... Does a clawlock need that?

An idea I just had .. as outsiders the eladrin are proficient in all martial weapons.... What about a kukri with keen and enfeebling and the Glove of Taarnahm the Vigilant? 28k but 15-20 crit with solid bab and great dex

[Troacctid]

Thank you for the suggestions! Would be great to not lose the caster level (or possibly pick up Marshal to leverage their aura) ... That would cost me the free two weapon fighting ... Does a clawlock need that?
Not in the slightest. TWF does literally nothing.


An idea I just had .. as outsiders the eladrin are proficient in all martial weapons.... What about a kukri with keen and enfeebling and the Glove of Taarnahm the Vigilant? 28k but 15-20 crit with solid bab and great dex
You're better off getting a PsyRef to give it Dazzling Fire or Deceptive Illumination as a bonus feat.

[schreier]

Not in the slightest. TWF does literally nothing.


You're better off getting a PsyRef to give it Dazzling Fire or Deceptive Illumination as a bonus feat.

It seems like TWF wouldn't matter with eldritch claw, but if you take beast strike you would need it to get the extra attack?

[Gruftzwerg]

It seems like TWF wouldn't matter with eldritch claw, but if you take beast strike you would need it to get the extra attack?

With Beast Strike you are doing Unarmed Strikes (which get enhanced by Claw dmg). As such you can make use of the TWF feat line if you want it (imho not worth it).


___________________

Warlocks & Familiars:

Familiar: + max UMD (since you share your ranks with your familiar)
Wands, wands, and more wands.. and did I mention wands??..^^

Your familiar can become a buff and heal bot for your party. (I would recommend an improved familiar with invisibility for that: e.g. Imp /Quasit). Imho the best investment you can make here. Give you familiar items that lets him quickly access his wand collection to act accordingly to the situation at hand.

edit: recommended wands:
enlarge person, poly, divine power, ..
the best part is, that you don't wast your characters actions for the buffing since your familiar does all the work.

_____________________

Glaivelock & Clawlock

While it might look like a good idea to be a 2 trick pony instead of being a 1 trick pony, it a trap here. It is far better to go either one and focus the build on solving the shortcomings.

Glaivelock will get vitriolic blast to bypass SP and the clawlock will just go ubercharger and thus both annihilate anything they hit. If you try to build for both, your dmg will not be optimized for either one.

Clawlocks are focusing on maxing their monk's unarmed strike ability (Enlightened Fist + ubercharger stuff), while Glaivelocks are looking for options to Quicken their Eldritch Glaive ability (Escalation Mage) and Hellfire (warlock).

They rely on totally different build paths. Even if you would UMD a Monk's Belt to avoid the monk/enlightened fist lvls, you would still struggle to fit your feats and other stuff.

Have a look at my optimized clawlock and glaivelock builds in my signature for some inspiration maybe.

[Elkad]

Coure has 24 dex and has Outsider proficiencies. Just give it a tiny longbow with whatever mods you want.

I've run many Imps in a similar fashion. Longbow, and then load them up with UMD items and protective gear. Granted, the Imp doesn't have a Str penalty, but the Coure has a higher dex, so the extra hits should make up for it.

Benign Transposition is a huge boon to the group. Cure wand for emergency combat heals. Dispel Magic scrolls. Etc.

With an AC of probably 40-ish (assuming you give it some basic gear), and the ability to go incorporeal to get out of grapples and such, it can afford to move right up next to enemies and then Transpose with group members who actually want to be there. Or do the opposite (Transposing into danger) to get the squishies out of range.
When it doesn't have anything better to do, it plinks with the bow.