Need help creating an Immortal warlock

[ChaseC311]

The year is 2018, my second ever dnd campaign, and the first ever campaign played over discord. Through this campaign, I'd find myself with a long-lasting friend group who I keep in regular contact with to this day. In this party, a group of 3 characters would find themselves particularly close: A tiefling barbarian who discovered she was the daughter of a lich, a tiefling grave cleric who worshipped the God of death, and a lizardfolk undying warlock promised life everlasting by his patron when he was brought to the brink of death. This trio, which we dubbed "Grave Gang" is still remembered fondly by the three of us due to the chaotic energy of the campaign

That campaign has long since been canceled, but the trio has frequently discussed wanting to bring back grave gang. However, since my lizardfolk (named Kothar) was only my second ever dnd character, looking back on his backstory, I've been meaning to tweak some things about him mechanically to better align with my initial vision of him.

His 2018 backstory was simple because I was allergic to giving my old characters any depth. He was a sage of his village, sent out for recon only to meet his grizzly end in an ambush. A mysterious figure came to him and offered to bring him back, Kothar agreed and he found himself waking up in the body of a wooden puppet (because his old body was red paste essentially and the patron was skilled enough to make someone Immortal but not to restore someone's body haha). For the first 15 sessions he wasn't even a lizardfolk, but rather a homebrew race I made because I didn't realize warforged were a thing until after Kothar was disintegrated by a beholder and brought back a session later as his lizardfolk self by his patron. The homebrew race was as balanced as you could imagine, that's probably why I got turned to dust.

But I'm here 5 years later with more experience. Knowledge of warforged, and knowledge of how middling the undying warlock is. The question now is what exactly do I change, and what exactly do I keep the same?

I already know I want to keep the Immortal/eternal life/undying idea. This way I can still keep to grave gangs spookier vibes without stepping on the others toes thematically. I'm just wondering how exactly to build a character with that sort of vibe with his original backstory in mind as a reference

For the race I was thinking either a lizardfolk from the start, a warforged (since he was originally a wooden puppet in his first campaign), or a reborn

As for the warlock patron though, that's where I'm having issue. The undead warlock seems obvious, but I wonder if that would be leaning too into the barbarians lich stuff? I could also see a hexblade or even a celestial warlock oddly enough (granted less divine vibes). I'm unsure, any advice would be greatly appreciated <3

[Kane0]

Reborn (Lizardfolk) Undead Warlock sounds like a fine choice! What pact boon did you choose?

[ChaseC311]

I was thinking of the chain pact boon! I love having a familiar to scout with, and I've never actually played a chainlock before

Well, technically Kothar was actually a chainlock in his original campaign 5 years ago, but I never used it and eventually switched him to the blade boon so does that really count?

[RogueJK]

Reborn (Lizardfolk) Undead Warlock sounds like a fine choice!

Yep, there's a ton of synergy there, both thematically as well as mechanically. Your Reborn (Lizardfolk) Undead Warlock would end up with:

Retained racial swim speed
Necrotic Resistance (and the option for immunity)
Poison Resistance
Immunity to sleep magic
Advantage against poison and disease
4 hour long rests (which leaves plenty of time for several "1 hour quasi-ritual castings" of long duration Warlock spells like Death Ward while still being able to start the adventuring day with full spell slots)
No need to eat, drink, or breathe (surprisingly, the only overlap between Undead Patron and Reborn)

Plus all the useful Undead Warlock fear, damage, and defensive abilities, and the Reborn's skill boost.


I wouldn't necessarily go Pact of the Blade here. You won't get anything but Light Armor proficiency from Undead Warlock, so you'd need to either eventually spend a feat on Moderately Armored or dip a level of Fighter in order to be a viable melee Bladelock, plus invest in STR. A STR-based Undead Bladelock that starts with 1 level of Fighter and uses heavy armor and a greataxe does works great in melee, dealing up to 3d12+2*STR necrotic damage per turn (plus crits/smites/etc). But otherwise a CHA-focused and lightly armored single classed Undead Warlock benefits from hanging back at range and using Eldritch Blast boosted by Grave Touched's additional damage dice.

So Chainlock or Tomelock would seem to be a better path here for a traditional Undead Warlock, unless you're really wanting to be a melee character and are willing to delay your Warlock level with a Fighter dip.

[Kane0]

Yeah seconding ditch blade for tome or chain, hell even talisman if that fits your character concept better. Note that tome can get regular find familiar as a ritual, just not the special picks from chain and the invocation support

[ChaseC311]

Yeah seconding ditch blade for tome or chain, hell even talisman if that fits your character concept better. Note that tome can get regular find familiar as a ritual, just not the special picks from chain and the invocation support

Yeah, I'm leaning towards chain for a couple reasons
1. I always loved the gift of the everliving ones invocation, and I feel like that could tie into Kothars whole eternal life vibe
2. Talisman grants guidance essentially, but familiars can take the help action and give me advantage on skill checks instead
3. I'm already playing a blastlock with the tome invocation in my Monday campaign
4. I like the idea of flavoring an imp familiar to be a winged Kobold, or Potentially a pseudodragon flavored to be a hologram/Visage of a dragon (if I make his patron a dragon, which I've been debating on bc it'd be cool)

I'm also leaning more and more into the idea of making him a reborn (lizardfolk) undead warlock for the synergy. His body's been permanently altered since his brush with death in a way that leaves him questioning if he even survived what supposedly *almost* killed him. Plus I browsed online for some inspiration on how to flavor his form of dread and got an idea from someone mentioning flavoring it as a ghostly after image of the warlocks movements

[RogueJK]

3. I'm already playing a blastlock with the tome invocation in my Monday campaign


Well, then a Chain Blastlock will be nearly identical in play to your existing Tome Blastlock...

If that's the case, I would actually go for the armored Undead Blade Pact option, which will be different enough from your existing Tomelock to feel fresh.

Something like this:
Reborn (Lizardfolk) Fighter 1/Undead Warlock X
STR 15+1
DEX 10
CON 13+1
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 15+1
Pact of the Blade
Fighting Style: Great Weapon
Wear Heavy Armor and use a Greataxe (for those sweet 2d12 Grave Touched hits, and potential 4d12 crits)
ASIs: 18 STR at Warlock 4, 20 STR or potentially GWM at Warlock 8, etc.
Invocations: Devil's Sight, Eldritch Mind, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite, Lifedrinker, etc.

Starting with the Fighter dip gets you heavy armor and martial weapon proficiency, plus CON saving throw proficiency for Concentration, and a Fighting Style plus a tiny bit of BA healing. Yes, it delays your Extra Attack via Thirsting Blade by 1 level, but as a Warlock you can take Booming Blade as your new cantrip pick at Warlock 4 to tide you over, and then later retrain it out for something else using Eldritch Versatility once Extra Attack renders it redundant. (Or keep it, and take Warcaster at Warlock 8 to leverage nasty Booming Blade OAs.) Consider potentially going back for one more level of Fighter sometime after Warlock 5, to pick up Action Surge.

Since you're focusing more on STR, your CHA won't be as high as the usual Warlock, therefore you'll want to focus on using your slots more for Eldritch Smites and casting buff/defense spells like Armor of Agathys, Hex, Darkness, Mirror Image, Fly, Spirit Shroud, Death Ward, Shadow of Moil, Greater Invisibility, etc. You're a melee-focused gish warlock, not the usual spell-focused caster warlock. You can use things like Darkness+Devil's Sight, Greater Invisibility, or Shadow of Moil to gain Advantage on all your attacks to crit fish for 4d12 critical hits, plus help offset the GWM penalty if you choose to go that route. And to further distinguish this Warlock from your existing Blastlock, you might not even take Eldritch Blast at all, especially since you're not going to be devoting any Invocations to boosting EB, and instead take something more thematic like Chill Touch as your ranged damage option.

(You can even double-down on this "not worried about my casting stat" concept, and start 15+2 STR, 15+1 CON, and just a 13 CHA. All those buff/defensive spells don't care about your CHA score. But then that puts a bit of a cramp on your ranged options by removing ranged cantrips as a viable backup, instead relegating you to hurling thrown weapons with your STR.)


Or, if you're dead-set on Chainlock, you can also make this same melee Undeadlock gish concept into a Chainlock. Still wear heavy armor and use a Greataxe, but don't take GWM since your Bonus Actions are spoken for with your familiar. Lean on Booming Blade for a single big 2d12+Xd8 greataxe attack each turn. This won't be putting out nearly as much damage as the Bladelock version above, but has the added utility of a Chain familiar.