Help with a Genie Warlock “Sudden Knight” build

[Dualswinger]

Help with a character concept?

My dm has thrown me a very large gift in that if a player casts Tensers Transformation, they get a suit of platemail auto equipped to get around the whole “can’t equip due to time exceeding the duration” thing.

I’ve elected to make a Genie Warlock who usually fights with E.Blasts, but can use their level 14 ability to get both Tensers transformation and Otherworldly Guise to become a knight out of nowhere.

How can I optimise this build? It’s SAD, and I feel that pact of the blade is an obvious choice, but at level 14 what choices could I make?

Any race is possible, but I’ll likely only have 1 maybe 2 feat slots if I want to max my charisma

[kingcheesepants]

Limited wish doesn't get around concentration requirements, so unless your DM is just letting you use 2 concentration spells your plan won't work as you described since both Tenser's Transformation and Otherworldly Guise are concentration spells.

You can concentrate on one of them though and use your limited wish to give yourself another buff that will complement the spell you used. Most buffs are concentration however so there isn't a lot to choose from. You've basically got Death Ward, Fire Shield, True Seeing and Freedom of Movement. Depending on what you're fighting any of them might be useful but if you're going for general Death Ward is probably the best bet.

Then the real question is whether to concentrate on Tenser's Transformation or Tasha's Otherworldly Guise. TT gives you some temp HP, advantage on your attacks and makes the attacks do an extra 2d12 force damage, if you can hit with both attacks and get a bonus action attack and a reaction that's a potential 8d12 force damage right there. Otherworldly Guise on the other hand gives you two damage immunities and a condition immunity it also allows you to fly and use your spellcasting modifier rather than your str or dex (note that only hexblades get to use their cha for weapon attacks, as a genielock you don't get that). The flying is nice but not really that important since you could already fly by being a genielock. The damage and condition immunites are extremely relevant against certain enemies but absolutely useless against others. Being able to use your spellcasting ability is also good but always on advantage would do just as well.

So stick with TT unless you're fighting something which the immunites would be key against. Then take a feat or use a weapon that gives you a consistent bonus action attack. Polearm Master would do this but so would using a double bladed scimitar or dual wielding. You'll have advantage so that's good but you'd still be forced to use a secondary stat to attack so this isn't going to be as SAD as you like but still it won't be too bad. If you take pact of the blade and improved pact weapon you can get a +1 double bladed scimitar and then get the lifedrinker and eldritch smite invocations and you can do some serious damage when transformed and you're still a passable melee fighter even when you aren't.

[Dualswinger]

I am aware there's debate over whether limited wish needs conc. since it uses wording more similar to Divine Intervention rather than the actual Wish spell; specifically that the user of LW doesn't actually cast the spell, they just receive the effects, but that's not what I want this thread to focus on. My DM has ruled that conc is not required, provided I don't do anything too stupid with it. I felt that stacking OG and TT was a fun concept.

"Otherworldly Guise on the other hand gives you two damage immunities and a condition immunity it also allows you to fly and use your spellcasting modifier rather than your str or dex (note that only hexblades get to use their cha for weapon attacks, as a genielock you don't get that)"

Are you saying that as a Genie I couldn't use my CHA to attack with a weapon?

[Unoriginal]

Are you saying that as a Genie I couldn't use my CHA to attack with a weapon?

As a subclass feature? Only Hexblade Warlock get that.

You could go for Genie Tome Warlock and take Shillelagh, though, allowing you to use CHA as your attack stat with clubs and staffs.

[Dualswinger]

As a subclass feature? Only Hexblade Warlock get that.

You could go for Genie Tome Warlock and take Shillelagh, though, allowing you to use CHA as your attack stat with clubs and staffs.

Ohh. I thought there was something preventing me from using CHA via Otherworldly Guise

[Greywander]

To be honest, especially with the long cooldown of Limited Wish, I'm not sure this is something you should optimize for, especially not at the expense of more important parts of your character. This might be something you pull out on occasion, but won't ever be a bread and butter strategy.

Since either spell gives you two attacks, and TT gives you extra damage on a hit, it's probably best to forgo something like Booming Blade (though it's at least worth considering). A BA attack would be nice for that extra bonus damage; for a low investment BA attack, you may want to consider dual wielding. You might consider Crossbow Expert, which as the side benefit of allowing you to Eldritch Blast from melee with no penalty, but would allow you to fly out of range of enemies and pelt them from the sky with three crossbow bolts per round.

The more I think about this, the less I see the point of it. Otherworldly Guise already gives you an AC bump and lets you fly, so you can just rain down Eldritch Blasts on your enemies. Take Grasp of Hadar and you can pull them up into the air and drop them for fall damage. I think EB will out-damage Tensor's Transformation, so the only real benefit of TT is the plate armor. That's nice, but it's not Limited Wish nice. A dip or a feat can get you medium armor and a shield, and all the time, and your AC will be pretty close to what plate would give (particularly if TT doesn't also come with a free shield). I think you'd honestly get more mileage out of Limited Wish by casting Fireball with it.

Tensor's Transformation has cool flavor, but the mechanics sadly fall short in actually making it useful. Free plate armor is a start, but it's not quite enough.

[RogueJK]

Honestly, you can get pretty much all the things that Tenser's grants you through other means that are usable at earlier levels and more than once every 1d4 days.

Something like a Paladin 2/Hexblade X going Pact of the Blade, or a Paladin 5/Hexblade X going with a different Pact. Hexadin lets you wear heavy armor and make CHA-based martial weapon attacks. (Plus use a shield if you so choose, which Tenser's doesn't grant.) You have access to various stuff like Divine Smites, Hexblade's Curse, Hex, Spirit Shroud, and Maddening Hex for Bonus Damage. Either the Thirsting Blade invocation or 5 levels of Paladin gets you Extra Attack. CON save proficiency through Resilient CON is a good idea on a Warlock anyway for Concentration purposes. There are various ways to gain reliable Advantage on attack rolls, like Darkness + Devil's Sight.

A pool of 50 Temp HP is a bit tough to achieve otherwise, but you can get 25 Temp HP through Level 5 Armor of Agathys, and another pool of up to 25 Temp HP from Inspiring Leader. The two Temp HP pools don't stack, but can be used consecutively by casting AoA once the initial Inspiring Leader Temp HP are lost.

Or if you're going the Paladin 5/Hexblade X route, that also gets you access to the Aid spell, which can be upcast into a 5th level slot for a pool of 20 bonus HP that stack with the Temp HP from Inspiring Leader/Armor of Agathys. (And Aid lasts 8 hours, so you can cast it at the beginning of the day then take a short rest to regain that spent Pact slot.) So that'd be 45 extra HP right there.


Then you can choose to stack Otherworldly Guise on top of that as your Level 6 Mystic Arcanum spell. Or not, since it would only really give you some additional immunities, flight, and +2 AC, all of which can be replicated and/or approximated through things like magic items and racial abilities, thus freeing your Concentration for other handy spells.

[Petelo4f]

Tensers Transformation is a bad spell, why are you wasting Limited Wish on that...even if the armor jumps out of the nether, rather than any of the other far more powerful options? Like if the goal is to optimize, then lean on the fact you are a pseudo full caster and drop powerful spells to control the battle field and blast away EB afterwards. The best way to optimize Tenser's transformation is not to take it.

[Athan Artilliam]

You could walk around like a normal warlock, then occasionally jump into your genie hole & cast alter self/disguise self & get the magic quick suit armor on, then pop back out as a "completely different guy"