Quote Originally Posted by jendar41 View Post
That is my thinking behind warlock, as I’ll get 2 spells every day versus having to ration. But spamming EB seems boring. Every unique warlock build I’ve thought of in the past involves melee, which I guess I could still do while keeping EB for whenever I can’t get close enough. Is there a good way to make an archer warlock build that outdamages EB? I don’t need to be OP, but don’t want to waste feats just to deal less damage.

What about an archer wizard or a wizard whose cantrips equal the damage an archer can bring to the table. I’ve always wanted to play an archer type character and this is the first campaign where another character is not playing one. I’d do ranger otherwise but again think the group needs some arcane power.

Also thinking maybe a mountain dwarf abjuration wizard would be fun with the blade cantrips.
A hexblade melee (GWM/Polearm Master) or hexblade archer (Xbow Expert/SS) will outdamage Agoinizing blast. You might want a level of fighter in the latter case for the archery fighting style. However, without the feats, it is very hard to keep up with Agonizing blast since it is a decent baseline that goes to three attacks at level 11 and four at 17. However, when you pick up lifedrinker at 12 this tends to help compensate.

You can use a hand crossbow with hexwarrior (cha to attack/dam) but you can't create one with improved pact weapon. This is a problem because Thirsting blade only gives you an extra attack with your pact weapon. Unless your DM house rules it, you would have to choose a hand crossbow and bond with it to make it your pact weapon before Thirsting blade would apply.

Melee hexblades don't have that problem.

You would also likely want constitution saving throw proficiency in order to help maintain concentration on spells when you are hit. Both of these builds tend to be single target damage dealers rather than arcane support. However, one thing to consider is whether bow spam or glaive spam are really any different from EB spam? You roll a d20 to hit, you roll your damage, EVERY class that relies on attacks follows the same process whether it is EB, a bow or a sword ... so I am not sure why folks find it less boring to roll a d20 for a bow than for EB.