Hurl through hell isn't just damage, it keeps the enemy out of the fight until the end of your next turn with no save to resist that effect. That's a pretty powerful tool to have.
It also triggers after an attack so it’s very versatile as well. Whereas most capstones require an action, you get only boons from using this ability. And while it fails to work via fiends, Banishment can be used to substitute it.
Many of the hexblade features are features wotc neglected to include in the pact of the blade. Medium armor, shields and charisma based attacks are almost needed for pact of the blade to work.
Personally I think hex warrior should be given to every warlock. Even if you aren't going to be using weapons most of the time you pretty much always see art work of warlocks in good armour with a shield. And most of the time they are decent with weapons as well. Hell aside from rangers and blood hunter's the closest characters to witchers are warlocks.
@@moto2442 I would allow my players to get medium armor and shield proficiency as an eldritch invokation. Maybe even heavy armor proficiency. There was this UA invocation that allowed a character to magically don any armor and get the proficiency, as well. I wouldn't allow for the charisma as damage- and attack bonus, though. At least not without spending another invocation. It's very powerfull to combine all spell- and weapon features into a single attribute.
Oh yes attacking with charisma should be an eldritch ivocation. One that requires pact of the blade to keep it out of the hands of that feat which allows you to take an invocation. The rest of the stuff should go to either pact of the blade or the base warlock.
Fey Presence is often disregarded, but it's an amazing feature out of combat. It isn't difficult to be within 10 feet of a person you are talking to and charmed condition gives you advantage on Charisma checks. It doesn't have any components so using it isn't noticable and there is no "target knows it was charmed" clause. It's essentially the most discreet way to give yourself an edge during a social encounter as far as magic is concerned... its only real rivals being Enhance Ability [Charisma] (which requires concentration) and Glibness (which is an 8th level spell). Furthermore, both of those spells need to be cast in advance which greatly limits their application (unless you have subtle spell metamagic). Spells like Dominations, Charms and even Suggestion (unless you have subtle spell) have serious repercussions . This is a low level feature which is impactful, easy to recharge and safe to use under any circumstances.
Hurl through hell does another thing, beside damage. It throws the target in another plane; any magic effect that requires you to be in the same plane fizzes out.
Reactions _can_ be used on your own turn, so a real-world example of Misty Escape's wording mattering would be you are in melee and want to get clear, you move away, provoking an Opportunity Attack from the enemy that threatens you, and you Misty Escape away. You are now invisible until the start of your next turn _unless_ you void it in the course of completing your current turn, which is still in progress, and you still have the remainder of your speed after the trigger, your action and possibly bonus action left to use.
On the FeyLock, that odd language on Misty Escape is because you can take damage on your own turn. For example, if you trigger an opportunity attack while moving on your turn.
An attack of opportunity is a great example of a common trigger that may happen on your turn. Another example would be ongoing AOE features. Some spells or effects include wording such as “when a creature starts their turn...” or “when a creature enters the area for the first time on a turn...”. So long as your able to see the area, misty escape gives you the ability to get out of the danger zone, and does so in a way that allows for your action and bonus action to still be used.
Hurl through hell should get a higher rating in my opinion. You don't use it for the damage, you use it for the 1 turn when you send them to hell. It's basically like a 1 turn maze with no concentration. Given you only get one 8th level spell slot a day, I would say it's pretty comparable (maybe not a full 8th lvl spell but still very potent).
Most fun I ever had playing D&D 5e was with a Warlock. My theme was a false prophet. Celestial, Pact of the Chain, Actor Feat, Voice of the Chain Master, Mask of Many Faces. He would do good deeds in his "true form" but would deceive, steal and occasionally murder for his own gain disguised as others. Being able to copy someone's speech and appearance at will is ridiculously good. Being able to throw anyone's voice from an invisible familiar while not even being nearby is icing on the cake.
ok one additional thing: I think Blindness/Deafness is pretty amazing on Warlocks, due tu the strong sacling and the fact that it doesnt require concentration! Sure, blidnness isnt as astrong as paralyzed, like from hold person, but Blindness is stil pretty debilitating to most creatures, it doesnt have the humanoid restriction, and it targets a save that tends to be lwoer on caster types, where wich are the best blrindness targets to begin with. Starting a combat on lvl 9, trying to blinf 4 creatures, probably succeding with two is pretty good in my opnion, due to the lack of concentration.
Everyone discounts Pact of the Chain and all they ever talk about is how the attacks stop being good after a certain level and the stats don't increase, on and on and on.... You're not thinking outside of the box, all you're doing is looking at what's written on the paper and concluding that it's bad. Take the Imp. You're getting a flying creature that can move 40ft a turn (60 feet if he shapechanges into a raven), turn invisible at will, has HANDS to manipulate things, the intelligence to use those hands correctly and can carry 45 pounds. It's an almost perfect scout, can communicate with you telepathically and you can even take over it's body so it takes your skill checks. But the most important part is those hands. You can put things in them. Like magic weapons. Or a spell wand. Or a bomb. Or a ring of spell storing. To an invisible flying creature with a +5 to stealth. That's just the offensive abilities. You can slap a handy haversack or a bag of holding on the familiar and pass them a bunch of healing potions and then you've got an invisible flying combat medic. Give him thieves tools, gloves of thievery and a bag full of traps and you've got an infiltration specialist. Caltrops, ball bearings, oil, alchemists fire... The list of things you can do goes on, you just have to use your imagination. The campaign I played a Chain warlock in ended with my Imp literally sending the BEEG to Hell by sticking a bag of holding inside of a bag of holding. Sure the Imp got sucked in too but so what? I can just summon him again. Think outside the box. That's the entire point of DND. It's more than just what's written on the paper.
Looking forward to next week's build video! The recent Warlock vids have helped me with my Archfey Tome-lock who pretends to be a Wizard. Luckily, I've been able to acquire ritual spells pretty consistently.
@@antongrigoryev6381 I know that, But the DM saw no issue with it. Honestly it's not that good a familiar. But in the game, The claw is My own severed hand that was re-animated, the DM loved the idea and had no issues allowing it.
Cannot wait for the Warlock build next week! My current character is a Paladin. I wanna make a Warlock next. I think I will play a hexblade if our party has more spell castors than melee fighters, but if we have 2 melee fighters I might just go with fiend or Great Old One, perhaps the Celestial if nobody else has magic to heal.
I’ve not played a Warlock, nor have any any of my friends taken more than a dip to min/max their character. I appreciate this series educating me on the class.
I will point out that if you have good DEX and the armor of shadows invocation you can end up with an 18 AC without bothering with armor proficiencies.
I think the best use of create thrall is gunna be plopping it on a party member so you have a constant 2 way telepathy going. Also if you wanna get a little bendy with the rules, since it can be dispelled with Remove Curse you could consider it a “curse” for the purpose of Relentless or Maddening Hex. If you pick up relentless hex and put it on your party member, not only do you have telepathy you also have a free teleport to your cleric. If you put maddening hex you can put it on a sleeping king and then leave town, as you slowly chip away at his health
Bummer that the mechanically strongest "patron" barely feels like a patron at all. Thematically boring. "Who'd you sell your soul to?" "Nah, man, I picked up this sword and told my DM to figure out if it could be something interesting, but I don't really care. He shook his head and said he might think about it."
Misty escape can be activated on your own turn if, for example, you are hit by an aoo. Then you would be invisible unless you use an action to attack before ending your turn.
Your remark about how the quasit has an effect which is not an attack was well delivered. This precedence is used, for instance, by sorcerer's and wizards for the dragon's breath spell.
Now that Tasha’s is out, chain is pretty decent! Even before Tasha’s, you could get advantage on everything, because the familiar could give you the help action constantly, and you could talk to fiends with the fiendish familiars.
Misty escape from Archfey - the wording is in case you are damaged by an effect that occurs at the start of your turn, like many spells, or by an opportunity attack.
@@TreantmonksTemple I dont think it would be obsolete either i just think it might be nice to see what if any new tactics you might suggest and/or any thoughts on how the new racial and spell options might affect how you would build it
I wonder how it sits with an Eldritch Knight at 7th level Bladesinger 6th, could you Booming Blade BS, then normal 2nd attack then bonus attack from EB?
A GOOLock player asked me if he could use a "Gazer" for a familiar. I thought it was a GREAT idea so said yes. He was a vet D&D gamer and knew what he was doing, so "Google" (his Gazer's name) became a big hit with the party team. He also bought the toy figure of a Gazer (Figs of Adorable Power) and brought it to each session. Little things like this can really bring a lot of joy to a game! :)
Big warning about Hurl Through Hell. Don't be eaten by something that can spit you up from damage and be Hurled Through Hell during said event. You may just be dumped in the bottom of hell. Luckily we managed to save our pal.
Thanks Chris, lots of very good points around Pact of the Blade. Thankfully, I thought about most of what you brought up and have a Fighter 1/Warlock X Pact of the Blade (Fiend). At Level 8 now and I have full plate, GWM, as well as Shadow of Moil and Fire Shield as my go-to combat spells (Fire Shield isn't concentration) with spells like Command, Fly, and Fireball depending on the situation. I can't disarm traps but I hit things pretty hard!!
Will you ever be doing an addendum video for the Tasha’s options? This is all useful stuff, and the whole lot doesn’t need to be redone… but it’d be cool to know your thoughts on the newer stuff.
The warlock was, I think, poorly play tested and suffers from too many choices that are "must haves" and too many choices that are "must never" have choices. This create the illusion of choice but really you don't. The warlock already suffers from extremely weak spell casting as a spell caster who's core power level isn't determined by the SET rules of the game but rather the core power level of the class is set by the whim of player and the DM. Short rest spell refresh sounds great but if your party are burst players you will ALWAYS be significantly weaker than the rest of the party and there is nothing to address this issue in the rules. This means that you can't afford to take least optimal choices because your power level already suffers. This further exacerbates the warlock's illusion of choice problem.
This. One of the Warlock's big strengths is sustainability, via the short rest system. There are short rest characters and long rest characters. I know that the Battle Master Fighter recharges his superiority dice on short rests, and the Wizard recharges on long rests. In my mind, I'd like to try a group session where I'd just require players to roll up characters that either don't have expendable features that need to recharge, or characters with features that recharge on a short rest. Teaching the players about the short rest system like that and getting them into the habit of using it (as opposed to never even considering it) seems to be the only way I can think of to get them to use short rests. Did 3.0 or 3.5 have a short rest / long rest system in place? If memory serves, I think it was just the number of spells per day.
@@Thalanox There was no short or long rest system and warlocks didn't use spells in 3.5 either. They had eldritch blast that started at 1d6 and increased by +1d6 every odd level. so at level 5 a warlock could cast eldritch blast once per turn for 3d6 damage. 10d6 might sound like a lot but 4d10+20 actually does more damage on average. Where the 3e warlock shines is invocations and the breadth of choice. While you had no spells you had invocations that often were at will spell effects, like darkness, flight, water breathing and so on. As well as invocations that changed the effect of the blast and the shape of the blast. They were split into 4 tiers of power and you got 3 for each tier. The strength of the warlock in 3e was few tools but unlimited uses. This encouraged creative thinking but also caused player to fall into the eldritch blast rut. I am not sure what the "cure" is for the warlock but I find that other classes have lots of resource free features like extra attack that a warlock doesn't or other classes a lot more resources to use. And using many low level spells hurts a warlock as they advance! Casting shield as a hexblade at 7 lvl burns up half your spell slots and it doesn't scale. So you just wasted a level 4 spell slot. The warlock is hindered by fear of the developers too afraid to give the warlock invocations to make up for their short comings and too afraid to give the warlock more at will magic. I shouldn't need to multiclass as a hexblade to make casting shield worth it. The armour and shield proficiency of the hexblade should never have be gained by the patron ability they should be dropped by that patron and given to pact of the blade as an addendum and rebalance. It would eliminate the balance issues of every spellcaster taking a one level dip into hexblade and allow ANY warlock who wants to melee viable regardless of the patron. Too many of the warlock's class features forced down narrow path because non optimal choices drop off so far from the power level of the class. There should never be a perfect patron + pact combo and there should never be a totally pathetic patron + pact combo and yet there are. It is the worse designed class i think in terms of just how bad some choices are vs how good some options are.
@@Siennarchist You can't do that with a warlock WITHOUT consent of the party aka a party willing to do short rests and you can't do that without DM consent allowing multiple short rests between long rests. Some DM's and/or parties restrict the number of short rests. This is the only class who's core power level isn't set by SET rules but by the whim of other people you are playing with. A one short rest between long rest party creates a weak warlock. A no short rests between long rest party aka clastic 5 minute work day party/ Burst party creates an extremely weak warlock. Conversely an "after every encounter" short rest party creates an extremely powerful warlock. The take away is that the power level of the warlock isn't set by the rules. It is influenced by outside factors. This also only addresses the spell casting. I also pointed out that invocation choice is too limited because some choices are so obviously poor that or so obviously good they shouldn't be choices but features of the class.
I've been thinking about a hexblade build that dual wields trying to leverage shadow blade but the usual problems with two weapons keep popping up without some homebrew it seems kinda weak.
I was thinking about something what is the best sorlock build (it wouldn't show the spells) this type of guide would show the best types of sorcerer for this and the best types of warlock for this and then compare a sorlock who has 3 levels of warlock and 17 levels of sorcerer to a sorlock that has 3 levels of sorcerer and 17 levels of warlock and see which works better for certain sub classes and in the end decide what is the best sorlock build
I've never gone to high levels with any warlock, but it might be really useful at high levels to put hexblade's curse, or some other curse, on a familiar. What you lose in damage you gain in mobility with a free misty step every turn through relentless hex. Any warlock could do this, but a hexblade would get the best use of it since they get a curse that doesn't take concentration.
Very excited to see your take on the mono class non hexblade Warlock. That 2 slots per short rest (for most of most campaigns) is much more limiting than it seems if you haven't played a Warlock before. I bet your character concept does a good job of feeling consistently relevant despite that.
Love the thoutough dissection of personally my favourite class in dnd, this and the pact magic video in particularly are legitimate treasures in understanding the cornerstones of how to optimize a warlock PC,
Before Hexblade, I saw a people dipping Pact of the Tome to get cha to attack and damage for stuff like paladin. Then Hexblade dropped and they wanted a respec.
I have made so many character builds that have a hexblade dip for the proficiencies and access to armor pf agathys and hex. I have considered even the idea that the player’s “pact” with the hexblade be the result of an injury from a cursed weapon, and they wear armor to protect themselves following the injury.
I completely agree fey presence isn't worth it inside of combat, but (and this is again DM dependant of course) I allow it as a mini charm person outside of combat. The feature doesn't say that the target knows it has been charmed, so I personally rule that it can basically be used for advantage on a check when you try to convince someone (charm helps getting persuation and deception checks through and fear helps with intimidation checks). Yes it can fail and is only for 1 check per short rest so its not amazing, but given the wording I allow it to be undetectable, so my warlock uses it quite frequently. EDIT: I have completely forgotten that players can use the help action without any restrictions outside of combat as well and thus can very often already generate advantage on social checks anyway, making this a rather mood point if the game is run that way (I have a house rule, which I forgot that it is not RAW (thanks to SharkForce for pointing it out) that players have to give me a description of how they help with a skill check outside of combat)
@@sharkforce8147 You are right about this, the reason I didn't think about that is that I personally won't allow somebody to just "help" in a conversation. I should have mentioned it, but it has become so automated that I forgot I technically don't run it 100% RAW. At my table you can always provide the help action during combat, but for anything outside I want you to at least roughly give me an ingame way you are helping out - again in a lot of situations you won't need much. e.g. the warlock is looking through their familiars eyes (and the familiar is flying above) to help with a perception check - that is enough for me, advantage granted. But in a conversation the helping party member needs to put forth a good reason most of the time to give that advantage roll, sometime it is something else, but mostly I try to keep my NPC motivation in mind when somebody else chimes into the conversation EDIT: honestly that is more or less the same I've seen any social interaction run by other DMs I've played with - I don't think I've seen anybody allow a player just saying "help action" and grant advantage on a persuation etc. check - though it might also be that we all reinforce this kind of rulings between us, so maybe we are the exception.
@@sharkforce8147 Because the description for the combat help action is super simple - you just distract them, I'll always encourage the players to describe whatever they are doing. You don't need flawless precision, you just need to threaten them with your weapon or otherwise get the enemies attention to get an opening for your team mate. I'll stay with the way we are playing since the game has improved massively for our group - the players are more immersed and actually interested in researching important NPC - before they go talk to an important NPC they'll try to figure out what their motivation or what their secrets are to have that as a lever during a conversation. If I just allow advantage 100% of the time they wouldn't be interested in doing any of that. I appreciate that you pointed out that RAW you can always have advantage, but our game(s) is better without it.
@@sharkforce8147 Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree it is a house rule and you were correct to point it out to me, since it is actually very important to this discussion :) I have played that way so long it slipped my mind completely that what we are doing with the "help" action isn't RAW, so thank you for pointing it out (I should actually edit my comment to reflect that) Yes absolutely the ability still isn't amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but at least my player is getting some use out of it :)
Create Thrall can also be handy if you have a teammate that can incapacitate enemies with something like hypnotic pattern or eyebite. Not useless-though certainly at these high levels, most of your powerful enemies won’t be humanoids.
What do you think about the Pact of the Genie patron? It isn't quite out yet, but we have seen the UA. The most exciting thing about it for me is the thought of filling the vessel with something hazardous and breaking it on purpose to unleash all of it at once. Ex: obliterate a Lich with hundreds of gallons of holy water.
I have a hexblade nonmulticlass build. No single aspect is overly unique, but it borrows a little bit from everything. It's a long post if you want to read it. I wouldnt mind if someone wanted to go over it and pick it apart to tell me if I missed something or if I'm misunderstanding something. It's not AL legal.
I've seem people write that hex warrior should be given to every warlock and I disagree completely. Shield and medium armour should be integrated into the pact of the blade as a 3rd lvl pact feature. This does two things it eliminated all the 1 level of warlock dips of spell casters as you are not getting these proficiencies until 3rd level and it moves these key features down the line when most melee warlocks need them. Let the hexblades keep martial weapons as it gives flavour to the hexblade patron. I would have given a single weapon proficiency for every patron to match the patron. Finesse weapon for Fey, chain for fiend, something odd for great old one, trident for the underwater patron, scimitar for genie and so one. Something that fits with the flavour and doesn't increase power level of the class but creates more synergies with the patron.
I ran a game for a player using Blade Pact warlock with Raven Queen patron. Ultimately I ended up giving Blade Pact free extra attack at 5th because everyone else was getting extra hits, or stronger cantrips and the BP got nothing to compensate for that in the weapon attack department compared to other warlocks. It never stood out as being overpowered.
I just gotta say.. Celestial Warlock Healing Light is so incredibly good. We're talking a free healing word every bonus action if they want without using a spell slot which enables them to actually do something during their turn. That is crazy.. That is so damn S tier. Celestia warlock 3-5 / Divine Sorcerer X is a VERY good combo that performs incredibly well in all tiers with extreme utility and lots of options and celestial warlock is what tops it off. Hexblade does more damage but this build delivers a kind of utility/support that is insane. Chain pact invisible scout with telepathy and shared senses AND bless AND free healing words? Sure. If it's a 4man party, you get 2x lvl 2 bless per short rest :> For lvl 5 celestial lock you get hypnotic pattern twice per short rest. Just wow.
Fey misty step has a very specific situation thats fun. Enemy won initiative and attacked you. Bam, misty step away. Appear behind them invisible. They step towards where you had been because they are confused. Attack of opportunity happens. No longer invisible, and you still have your turn coming up. Very circumstantial, but fun if you pull it off.
Does Death Ward on a short rest bring up Undying Warlock at all? It's 8 hours and no concentration so conceivably with a few hours prep time you can give your whole party a few hours of Death Ward each
Tomelock: get word of Radiance, it has built in careful metamagic. Also, thorn Whip is a thirty foot "melee" attack. Finally, sapping Sting for airborne enemies.
Hello all ,about Hexblade curse ( 21:24 ), I understand that the extra damage does not work with magic missile ( no ttack roll with M missile ), also there is a sage advice about it . do you agree ?
For pact of the chain I think their should be no financial cost. You should just be able to just to take 10 min and cast it. 2. There should be a feat called the pact master that gives each pact something extra they want. Like blade is they call and switch their weapon as a bonus action and if you use your pact weapon you can add + 10 to damage-5. Chain gets hit points equal to their warlock level + 2(cha mod) maxes out at 30 hit points. Tome you get a extra cantrip from any class maybe a level 1 spell from any class instead. And talisman maybe unarmored defense( dex and charisma) and unarmored strikes( i don’t know). And lastly the most controversial part all pacts get an additional pact invocation. I just think this allow warlock to add more of those utility invocations
The pseudodragon familiar is good if you are playing a race without darkvision if you have a build that requires a lot of invocations, so you can't use one for Devil's Sight. Having the pseudodragon sit on your shoulder and using their senses is a solid option for getting better senses than your character normally has, especially if you had to dump Wisdom.
@@XerkDaniels I meant the invocation, but the imp doesn't have blindsight. Devil's Sight doesn't let you see through illusions or see invisible creatures. Neither does it have the Keen Senses ability, nor proficiency in Perception. The senses of the pseudodragon are superior in basically all circumstances except magical darkness and range of darkvision.
To see through your familiar's eyes you need to spend an action every turn (Yes, even with Voice of the Chain Master), so it isn't an option for combat.
Master Of hexes should be blue IMO. Hexblade can deal huge burst damage, so the ability to move Curse after the primary target dies can be very useful Problem for single class HB is that he has to spend at least 3 (4 if you want to smite, 5 if you want to use Darkness cheese) invocations to get decent damage compared to using it as a dip
I think you forgot that the Psuedodragon familiar has magic resistance(?). Might have been a house rule but a GM I played with allowed you to gain its magic resistance if it was within 10' of you.
One thing I would like to point out about the Fey-pact capstone Dark Delirium... It can essentially be replaced by charm person. A lvl 1 spell. The main differences are that charm person lasts an HOUR, and the person charmed can actually help you by giving advice, info, or even guide you through a tricky area if they have knowledge of it. While the distance is only 30', I'd say the benefits far outweigh that one drawback. Looking at the capstone abilities from the other patrons... Dark Delirium is just... So lacklustre. Just feels more like a lvl 1 ability to me, not a lvl 14. My opinion, of course.
I think you are underselling the archfey level 1 ability... it is effectively giving you a free "spell" on a short rest cooldown, which basically makes you twice as effective of a spellcaster as other warlocks in early levels. Also, it is a charm effect OR a fear effect, which makes it useful in both social and combat situations. I have used it frequently at low levels to fear enemies. Move into range, fear them, move away. Suddenly my ally can walk away and they have to be disadvantaged in an opportunity attack, or my reckless barbarian is now just being attacked with straight rolls, or our fighter gets an advantaged shove prone... frightened is just an all around good condition to apply, even if it is just for a single round. Meanwhile as a party face, in a key negotiation you invoke your fey presence at the key moment and charm your target... with none of the disadvantages of charm person - it doesn't have the "they are hostile afterwords" rider that charm person does. Even simple things like trying to tame animals, quiet horses, etc. Charm could even be used to counter other effects - a succubus charms your barbarian friend, and in response you charm him, and now maybe you are in a dance-off against a sexy succubus?
Going to be honest, while you are 100% correct about the mechanics of Create Thrall being kinda bad RAW I've never seen a GM that didn't treat it exactly as the name suggests, a thrall (although I've only seen it in two different games due to the high level req.).
Sprite and pseudo dragon got better thx to Tasha's imo. I think the new invocation makes it more likely you can knock a creature unconscious. Probs still not good at high levels but considering the likelihood of a warlock having a good spell save and an item to increase their save, it might be worth a try.
Having played a mono class hexblade in tier 3, you underrate armor of hexes. It’s a very strong defensive ability. Typically you are relatively hard to hit as a hexblade bc of shadow of moil or darkness/ds. But you can’t use shield much bc of limited slots, and a single bad crit or hit has the chance to drop your concentration (u don’t get res con till later) and that puts you in a world of pain if u are melee. Well, this ability cuts out 50% of that nonsense against the target that’s typically the primary one that can most easily hit you. It ends up being worth very large amounts of effective hit points as well as saving spellslots and action economy. It frequently occurred that I was using that every single turn in that big fight.
I'm building a sorlock with the Pact of the Chain and Celestial patron. I'm 4 levels into sorcerer so far, but I'll be hitting warlock ranks starting my next level up. I plan to mostly have a pseudodragon for the flavor of my character which is going pretty heavy into a theme. Dragonborn sorcerer of draconic ancestry that will have a pseudodragon familiar connected with Voice of the Chain, and sometimes will use Dragon Breath on the familiar so she can breath cones of elemental damage on enemies. I'm really excited for this character. I'll only be doing 3 warlock levels, so I will be limited on invocations. I have to choose carefully. I'll only get 2 unless I can manage a way to get bonus invocations through feats or gifts. Probably getting Agonizing Blast as my second invocation for obvious reasons.
I always felt like pact boon and the first level patron effects should be swapped. It think it makes multicassing a little more work and still makes your warlock feel unique from level one.
this video plus your invocation videos really underline how versatile and malleable the warlock class is. each pact/patron combo might not be optimal, but (with the exception of hexblade plus something other than pact of the blade) they're all perfectly viable and feel fairly unique from the others. beyond pure mechanical usefulness, all of the different pact/patron features bring a bunch of flavor that are really fun as well. what i think i like most about warlocks is that it's the one class that is most suited to crafting specialized characters built to do a specific thing or set of things. wanna make someone focused on communication (and possibly interrogation)? great old one plus pact of the tome is a great stating point. wanna make a scout? archfey plus pact of the chain works wonders. wanna make nightcrawler? i'm sure you can figure it out. they'll never have the same overall spell access or versatility as other casters (well, maybe pact of the tome could in the right campaign), but if built properly, nothing will be as good as they are at what they're explicitly built to do. tack on agonizing blast and +5 charisma bonus and they'll always be a reasonably consistent damage dealer in combat.
@@sharkforce8147 hexblade very much shoehorns a character into focusing on dealing damage with a weapon, specifically a melee weapon. it's central to the patron. any pact that you pair with it is either going to do damage with a weapon or avoid fully utilizing most of the features the patron offers. further, if you do choose hexblade and then pick something other than pact of the blade, you'll miss out on all the features that pact of the blade offers that go so well with hexblade. i think you just like to argue for the sake of arguing.
@@sharkforce8147 a level 7 chain hexblade lock with 18 (or 19) charisma with agonizing blast and gift of the ever-living ones has +7 to hit and shoots two beams each of which doing 1d10+4 force damage. if you first put on your hexblade's curse, then you could do an additional +3 per bolt making it a total of 2d10+14 maximum damage per action. you are choosing to forego using 3 of the pact spells as they are useless without a weapon. you are also choosing to forego most of the hex warrior feature since you're refusing to use weapons. further, if you do get in melee range, your preferred consistent damage will have disadvantage on the attack, making you have to worry about getting too close to other creatures you're in combat with. oh, and gift of the ever-living ones doesn't stack with your abilities that replenish your health as they don't depend on die rolls. oh, and you can't use your bonus action to cast spells that do damage since you're using your action to cast eldritch blast. this means that your bonus actions are going to be limited to making your familiar attack, and with a pretty low attack bonus, they are going to be far less likely to deal damage. add to it that when they attack they open themselves up for attack and if your dm is anything like the dms i've played with, once a familiar attacks then they focus fire on that familiar to teach the warlock a lesson. chain locks that i play with are fairly protective of their pets for good reason. a level 7 blade hexblade lock with 18 (or 19) charisma with improved pact weapon (+1 to hit and damage, increased weapon type), eldritch smite (5d8 force and knock prone), relentless hex (teleport up to 30ft to a hexed creature), and thirsting blade (attack twice using attack action), using a mundane greatsword has +8 to hit and attacks twice each swing doing 2d6+5 magical weapon damage. if you first put on your hexblade's curse, then you could do an additional +3 per swing making it 4d6+16 magical weapon damage per action. further, you could use your eldritch smite feature which would cost a spell slot but would allow you to tack on an additional 5d8 force damage to one of your weapon strikes as well as knock it prone with no save and no action required. now if you haven't used your bonus action for this round of combat yet then you have a couple of useful options at your disposal. if you did decide to go with any of those 4 patron spells that you dismissed outright because they don't fit your narrative, say staggering smite, then you can tack on an additional 4d6 psychic damage to one of your strikes and force a wisdom save to keep from neutering your opponent for a round. if you aren't able to use your bonus action in this way then you can use it to help you teleport around the battlefield with relentless hex, which is only worthwhile if you're using a melee weapon. so, to sum up, you could feasibly do 4d6+16 magical weapon damage + 5d8 force damage + prone + 4d6 psychic damage + wis save or they git fukt for a round, all with one action. +8 to hit for 5d8 + 8d6+16 (66 average) damage + prone + other bad status effects >> +7 to hit 2d10+14 and +5 to hit 1d4+3 + 3d6 (41 average) damage (and that's if they aren't immune to poison which so many creatures are). in case you want to compare what happens when both of these warlocks run out of spell slots and that pesky familiar is dead... +8 to hit for 4d6+16 (30 average) damage + prone + getting to teleport to your opponent > +7 to hit 2d10+14 (25 average) damage. if you think +1 to hit doesn't matter, then it shows how little you know about how 5e works. i guess you can make your hexblade warlock however you want, but pretending like hexblade doesn't heavily encourage their warlocks to pick pact of the blade is asinine. what you're saying is it's basically the same, and is absolutely not.
@@sharkforce8147 Since we're talking about magic items, +2 (or more) magic weapons are much more common than +2 magic items that increase spell hit/damage. There are plenty of weapons out there that add some other additional damage on top of the weapon damage (flame tongue). So, the hexblade who isn't using a weapon isn't putting hex warrior to full use, and the parts they aren't using are never really replaced with just sticking to eldritch blast. I agree, it is a nice nova and it is definitely something the hexblade was meant to do. And if you consider having access to a concentration-less bonus action teleport every round to be nothing, then i guess there is no point in arguing with you further. Are you trying to say that a hexblade/blade warlock doesn't also have access to banishment and hypnotic pattern? Really, you're just trying to turn the discussion away from how the hexblade heavily encourages a player to pick pact of the blade and instead trying to say that your chain warlock is better at doing things that a blade lock can't do. It's pretty easy to make a better scout than a hexblade/chain warlock. Just about any patron would be a better choice. They would also probably do very similar damage and would be built in a way as to not really miss the additional armor. The only semi-reasonable arguments i see that you're actually making for chain over blade for hexblade is 1) battlefield control and 2) the part about polymorph. 1) i feel like what relentless hex gives you is a wash with getting to push a creature 10 feet per bolt of an eldritch blast. 2) for solo target save or suck control spells, i would honestly rather go with banishment as it targets charisma and it completely removes the creature from battle. For wisdom based save or suck control spells, i'd rather go with hypnotic pattern as it can hit a bunch of targets. So, i think polymorph is best used as a buff instead of a debuff. As a buff, it's one of the best in the game. The downside is it costs an invocation slot and does still use one of your spell slots leaving you with one for the rest if the fight. It also eats your concentration, making you a high priority target for your dm. I think every single one of those invocations that just give you access to a spell are bullshit and should be changed to give you a free casting of it or something. But if you want to turn one of your companions into a giant ape every battle, i'm sure you could. One thing though, how is that something that a pact of the blade warlock couldn't do if they wanted? You double down on saying that the hexblade/blade is only for burst damage and refuse to accept that it's both burst and sustained, but whatever. Look at the numbers again. DND is about the numbers, they matter. The point isn't that it's impossible to make a hexblade warlock that is able to avoid utilizing the hexblade features, the point is that if you don't choose pact of the blade to go along with hexblade then you are playing in opposition to your class and are choosing to not do what the hexblade very much encourages you to do.
@@p23570 *"you can't use your bonus action to cast spells that do damage since you're using your action to cast eldritch blast."* I'm pretty sure you can, since Eldritch Blast is a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action, which are the *only* spells you can cast in the same turn as you cast as spell with a bonus action. There's nothing in the rules that I can find which limit spellcasting to 1 damaging spell per round.
I love my pact of the tome warlock, but maybe because I talked to the DM about wanting to lean into this aspect of the character. He needs to seek out ritual spells as part of the pact. The book gets hungry, you see :)
I mean yeah sure, Hexblade is good mechanically but I hate the flavor or lack thereof. Ooh woo magic sword patron big whoop. I can never find a cool way to RP Hexblade.
@@sharkforce8147 a lot of the patrons don’t answer why you are serving them or what they want. I don’t understand this. Sentient weapons all have desires. In fact they are listed in the dmg. It is in fact more clear than other ones. Unite all the sentient weapons is an example of a goal. Whelm wave and dark razor for example
I can’t wait for you to get to re-evaluate on the Celestial patron gift - the book has one feature that is clutch on the healer so it becomes a which situation are you most worried about choice. Thanks again.
@@Quintal100kg I would have to read it but I think one thing is a page that you can have people sign and as long as the book is on the same plane of existence if the signer is downed they are reduced to 1 Hp via death ward.
I'm late coming to this video. However, in the pact of the chain section you mentioned recasting find familiar as a ritual. Don't you have to be pact of the tome to get ritual casting?
First character I played is a hybrid storm Sorc/Bard/hexblade. If playing a charisma based character, you almost have to justify a reason to *not* dip at least one level in Hexblade. Even then, you're still probably wrong and will regret choosing otherwise.
I think it strongly depends on how long you expect the campaign to last. One of the more extreme examples: you will most likely end at lvl 5, so you really shouldn't take even a single lvl outside of your class or you might have to face whatever the DM prepared as the "endgame" without access to 3rd lvl spells. No matter what kind on campaign you will always have to decide when you will want to slow down your spell progression for a lvl. I really don't want to multiclass before reaching lvl 5 since the 3rd lvl spells are so powerful, but I thing from then on I am much more interested in maybe doing it. I certainly don't get to play as much D&D as I'd like to, but honestly often I see multiclasses only in one shots or short campaigns that already start at a higher lvl and won't have much or any level progression in them. Though if I ever get the opportunity to DM or play in a 1 - 20 campaign my mileage might change drastically :P
You already used your reaction :) I guess it is more or less there just in case any magic item or ability would get you extra reactions or similar and there are no cases (yet) where the text is useful (cavalier need 18 levels to get more than 1 reaction for opportunity attacks)
@@S0nyb1ack Them the only thing I can think about is.. prepare action, casting X spell when I see X And that coming into play before your turn but after your reaction
Its fringe, but I suppose battlemaster could allow you to attack before your turn with misty escape or if you took damage at the top of your turn, use it then attack, but yeah, seems unnecessary.
> Pact of the Chain > Familiar Get that one the wizard on the cover of the old Role Aids "Fez II: The Contract" module is conjuring. Best familiar. Speaking of which, when are you and your friend going to showcase old RPG stuff & lore again?
Just take hex warrior out of hexblade and add it to blade pact instead. Then any patron can make a decent bladelock, and blastlocks who want to get the extra armor proficiencies have to give up something actually useful to get it. Plus other classes who want to multiclass for it can still get it, but they have to put in a more substantial investment to do so.
@@Malisteen that would just shift the problem to pact weapons, why pick tome for 3 cantrips when you can pick blade and just be a blaster but with medium armor
@@AsbakNL because tome also grants access to ritual caster (any), which is a big deal for any warlock trying to serve a utility caster role despite the very limited pact spell slots. Tome is a weak boon regardless. The better comparison would be chain. An imp familiar vs some free armor proficiencies is a much more respectable tradeoff for blastlocks, one that could go either way, but honestly should lean towards chain when you consider that none of the blade specific invocations are useful to a blaster, and they have alternative defensive options, including avoiding melee to begin with. In any event, a blastlock that spent their boone on equipment proficiencies will at least have given up something of value for it, and a character of another class who dips into warlock far enough for a boon has sacrificed enough of their main class progression that it's no longer a no brainer choice.
@Treantmonk Hey Chris! Great video, as usual buddy, but I have been wondering what you think of one combination that I have never seen you bring up. If you Hex your Familiar, at 7th level while having the relentless hex invocation, you have effectively infinite Misty Step. It does require that you see the target which can be dealt with one of two ways, you can either have you Imp stay visible or they can drop concentration and hold their action to go invisible again on each of their turns. This allows a lot more mobility than normal and since Hex scales to increase duration you can effectively do this all day. What do you think about this combination?
Or you can just take Far Step on 9th lvl, which *is* unlimited Misty Step with a bigger range while keeping your Invocation slot. Yes, it lasts only for a minute, but I highly doubt you need Misty Step for any longer.
@@antongrigoryev6381 I’m going to point out that having a 30ft teleportation is incredibly useful all day. There’s many situations that arise from that. Also if it lasts for a minute then it isn’t unlimited.
@@keeganmbg6999 What situations exactly? How often do you need teleportation that you can't just recast Far Step with a slot that recharges on a short rest?
Query,
Fiend Pact, Fiendish Resilience you rated it green with 5 stars!
Green is 4 stars, Blue is 5 stars which is correct?
Green and 4 stars was the intended rating.
@@TreantmonksTemple The actual rating is off-off puce but it doesn't come through well.
Hurl through hell isn't just damage, it keeps the enemy out of the fight until the end of your next turn with no save to resist that effect. That's a pretty powerful tool to have.
so a Banishment that deals damage? :O
@@thetattooedyoshi a one turn banishment without save and with damage yes ^^
@@geniumme2502 Though it doesn't damage Fiends.
@@thetattooedyoshi better banishment
It also triggers after an attack so it’s very versatile as well. Whereas most capstones require an action, you get only boons from using this ability.
And while it fails to work via fiends, Banishment can be used to substitute it.
"Next week I'll be showing a Warlock build and it wont be a Hexblade"
*exhales in relief*
There are warlocks that aren't hexblades?
Many of the hexblade features are features wotc neglected to include in the pact of the blade. Medium armor, shields and charisma based attacks are almost needed for pact of the blade to work.
Personally I think hex warrior should be given to every warlock. Even if you aren't going to be using weapons most of the time you pretty much always see art work of warlocks in good armour with a shield. And most of the time they are decent with weapons as well. Hell aside from rangers and blood hunter's the closest characters to witchers are warlocks.
@@moto2442
I would allow my players to get medium armor and shield proficiency as an eldritch invokation. Maybe even heavy armor proficiency. There was this UA invocation that allowed a character to magically don any armor and get the proficiency, as well.
I wouldn't allow for the charisma as damage- and attack bonus, though. At least not without spending another invocation.
It's very powerfull to combine all spell- and weapon features into a single attribute.
@@michaelguth4007 Maybe it would be too powerful for dips as well. Maybe the charisma attacks are for blade lock only
@@moto2442 As a 5th level invocation, it would'nt be very good for a small dip
Oh yes attacking with charisma should be an eldritch ivocation. One that requires pact of the blade to keep it out of the hands of that feat which allows you to take an invocation. The rest of the stuff should go to either pact of the blade or the base warlock.
Fey Presence is often disregarded, but it's an amazing feature out of combat. It isn't difficult to be within 10 feet of a person you are talking to and charmed condition gives you advantage on Charisma checks. It doesn't have any components so using it isn't noticable and there is no "target knows it was charmed" clause. It's essentially the most discreet way to give yourself an edge during a social encounter as far as magic is concerned... its only real rivals being Enhance Ability [Charisma] (which requires concentration) and Glibness (which is an 8th level spell). Furthermore, both of those spells need to be cast in advance which greatly limits their application (unless you have subtle spell metamagic). Spells like Dominations, Charms and even Suggestion (unless you have subtle spell) have serious repercussions . This is a low level feature which is impactful, easy to recharge and safe to use under any circumstances.
It lasts for six seconds. One use per SR. I don't think that permits much in the way of social interaction. Maybe, "Can I use your bathroom?"
@@MsNathanv I don't mean using it throughout the entire social encounter but rather on a single check
@@MsNathanv I’d argue that it could net you advantage on a charisma check. So it’s basically Friends without the hostile penalty
@@Iceblade269 and that's huge. Especially since it's not a spell and thus a person is not aware that you messed with them
@@Fynzmirs combo with a bit of bard for the eloquence bard's level 3 reliable talent effect for deception and persuasion :D
Hurl through hell does another thing, beside damage.
It throws the target in another plane; any magic effect that requires you to be in the same plane fizzes out.
So would that for example cause a summoned creature to be dismissed ?
@@Josh_D78 Nope, but it'll cause a lot of spells to lose focus. You should look at the spells themselves.
It also removes them from the game for a full round, so they lose a turn
Reactions _can_ be used on your own turn, so a real-world example of Misty Escape's wording mattering would be you are in melee and want to get clear, you move away, provoking an Opportunity Attack from the enemy that threatens you, and you Misty Escape away. You are now invisible until the start of your next turn _unless_ you void it in the course of completing your current turn, which is still in progress, and you still have the remainder of your speed after the trigger, your action and possibly bonus action left to use.
On the FeyLock, that odd language on Misty Escape is because you can take damage on your own turn. For example, if you trigger an opportunity attack while moving on your turn.
came here to say this.
There are also abilities like Commander's Strike from Battlemaster Fighter which can have you attacking outside of your own turn.
An attack of opportunity is a great example of a common trigger that may happen on your turn.
Another example would be ongoing AOE features. Some spells or effects include wording such as “when a creature starts their turn...” or “when a creature enters the area for the first time on a turn...”.
So long as your able to see the area, misty escape gives you the ability to get out of the danger zone, and does so in a way that allows for your action and bonus action to still be used.
I came here to say this, as well, and unfortunately missed that you beat me to it, so I did anyway lol.
Hex warrior also gives proficiency in all Martial weapons
one of the many reasons 1 level hexbalde is such an insanely good dip.
I mean 90% of optimized builds just use an arcane focus staff anyway.
Hurl through hell should get a higher rating in my opinion. You don't use it for the damage, you use it for the 1 turn when you send them to hell. It's basically like a 1 turn maze with no concentration. Given you only get one 8th level spell slot a day, I would say it's pretty comparable (maybe not a full 8th lvl spell but still very potent).
Most fun I ever had playing D&D 5e was with a Warlock. My theme was a false prophet. Celestial, Pact of the Chain, Actor Feat, Voice of the Chain Master, Mask of Many Faces. He would do good deeds in his "true form" but would deceive, steal and occasionally murder for his own gain disguised as others. Being able to copy someone's speech and appearance at will is ridiculously good. Being able to throw anyone's voice from an invisible familiar while not even being nearby is icing on the cake.
So a charlatan...
> Pact of the Blade in a low-magic campaign where you're handing off your pact weapon for each combat
You become a literal spearcarrier! Noice.
ok one additional thing:
I think Blindness/Deafness is pretty amazing on Warlocks, due tu the strong sacling and the fact that it doesnt require concentration!
Sure, blidnness isnt as astrong as paralyzed, like from hold person, but Blindness is stil pretty debilitating to most creatures, it doesnt have the humanoid restriction, and it targets a save that tends to be lwoer on caster types, where wich are the best blrindness targets to begin with.
Starting a combat on lvl 9, trying to blinf 4 creatures, probably succeding with two is pretty good in my opnion, due to the lack of concentration.
Everyone discounts Pact of the Chain and all they ever talk about is how the attacks stop being good after a certain level and the stats don't increase, on and on and on....
You're not thinking outside of the box, all you're doing is looking at what's written on the paper and concluding that it's bad.
Take the Imp. You're getting a flying creature that can move 40ft a turn (60 feet if he shapechanges into a raven), turn invisible at will, has HANDS to manipulate things, the intelligence to use those hands correctly and can carry 45 pounds. It's an almost perfect scout, can communicate with you telepathically and you can even take over it's body so it takes your skill checks.
But the most important part is those hands. You can put things in them. Like magic weapons. Or a spell wand. Or a bomb. Or a ring of spell storing. To an invisible flying creature with a +5 to stealth.
That's just the offensive abilities. You can slap a handy haversack or a bag of holding on the familiar and pass them a bunch of healing potions and then you've got an invisible flying combat medic.
Give him thieves tools, gloves of thievery and a bag full of traps and you've got an infiltration specialist. Caltrops, ball bearings, oil, alchemists fire...
The list of things you can do goes on, you just have to use your imagination. The campaign I played a Chain warlock in ended with my Imp literally sending the BEEG to Hell by sticking a bag of holding inside of a bag of holding. Sure the Imp got sucked in too but so what? I can just summon him again.
Think outside the box. That's the entire point of DND. It's more than just what's written on the paper.
Looking forward to next week's build video! The recent Warlock vids have helped me with my Archfey Tome-lock who pretends to be a Wizard. Luckily, I've been able to acquire ritual spells pretty consistently.
"You should never pick the normal forms"
*Looks at undying warlock's Crawling claw... Success?*
RAW you can't take Crawling Hand as your Pact familiar.
@@antongrigoryev6381 I know that, But the DM saw no issue with it. Honestly it's not that good a familiar. But in the game, The claw is My own severed hand that was re-animated, the DM loved the idea and had no issues allowing it.
Cannot wait for the Warlock build next week! My current character is a Paladin. I wanna make a Warlock next. I think I will play a hexblade if our party has more spell castors than melee fighters, but if we have 2 melee fighters I might just go with fiend or Great Old One, perhaps the Celestial if nobody else has magic to heal.
38:29 I don't see how that could POSSIBLY be a negative. You can talk to someone and they can't talk back? That's like a dream.
I’ve not played a Warlock, nor have any any of my friends taken more than a dip to min/max their character. I appreciate this series educating me on the class.
Thanks again for putting timestamps! Very useful 👌
I will point out that if you have good DEX and the armor of shadows invocation you can end up with an 18 AC without bothering with armor proficiencies.
To watch the whole video, or go to sleep and watch in the morning. It’s 2:19am and I’m on the Sprite lol
I often just fall asleep the videos to be honest ha. They are weirdly nice for it
Lyla G
I do the same. It takes me 2-3 attempt to finish his longer videos.
@@SaraphDarklaw Well, I went to sleep, just finished it now.
I think the best use of create thrall is gunna be plopping it on a party member so you have a constant 2 way telepathy going.
Also if you wanna get a little bendy with the rules, since it can be dispelled with Remove Curse you could consider it a “curse” for the purpose of Relentless or Maddening Hex. If you pick up relentless hex and put it on your party member, not only do you have telepathy you also have a free teleport to your cleric.
If you put maddening hex you can put it on a sleeping king and then leave town, as you slowly chip away at his health
Brai is my dwarven Celestial Warlock. Mountain Dwarf mitigates a lot of problems: armor, strength and Constitution...
I'm surprised you didn't mention the one round of guaranteed cc in Hurl Through Hell
Bummer that the mechanically strongest "patron" barely feels like a patron at all. Thematically boring. "Who'd you sell your soul to?" "Nah, man, I picked up this sword and told my DM to figure out if it could be something interesting, but I don't really care. He shook his head and said he might think about it."
Sentient weapon I think is the way to go about it
Misty escape can be activated on your own turn if, for example, you are hit by an aoo. Then you would be invisible unless you use an action to attack before ending your turn.
this is probably the best cutaway to a patreon I'll ever see
I know you said you were not talking about the Tasha book, but pact of the Chain got a huge buff!
You never being up the drawback of occasionally having your patron saying something like "sacrifice the beating heart of a child to me"
"One rabbit heart coming up, boss!"
Getting to play the role of the asshole genie feels good.
Small correction. At 32:06, cure wounds is d8, not d6, so 3rd level would heal you 24 (plus modifier), not 18.
Great review!
Playing a sorlock aaismar. Celestial Warlock + Divine Soul Sorcerer, her patron is her Dad.
You must have some Daddy issues
Your remark about how the quasit has an effect which is not an attack was well delivered. This precedence is used, for instance, by sorcerer's and wizards for the dragon's breath spell.
Now that Tasha’s is out, chain is pretty decent! Even before Tasha’s, you could get advantage on everything, because the familiar could give you the help action constantly, and you could talk to fiends with the fiendish familiars.
Misty escape from Archfey - the wording is in case you are damaged by an effect that occurs at the start of your turn, like many spells, or by an opportunity attack.
When you go over new tasha's content do you intend to make an updated bladesinger build? This was an awesome video btw keep up the great work
I'm not sure the existing build will be obsolete - though the tactics definitely change, and yes, I will be going over that.
@@TreantmonksTemple I dont think it would be obsolete either i just think it might be nice to see what if any new tactics you might suggest and/or any thoughts on how the new racial and spell options might affect how you would build it
I wonder how it sits with an Eldritch Knight at 7th level Bladesinger 6th, could you Booming Blade BS, then normal 2nd attack then bonus attack from EB?
@@samuelbroad11 you probably could by RAW, but I don't think it will worth the trouble
I would love to hear Treantmonk's opinion of the Order of Scribes.
This new subclass looks very underwhelming to me. Such a disappointment.
A GOOLock player asked me if he could use a "Gazer" for a familiar. I thought it was a GREAT idea so said yes.
He was a vet D&D gamer and knew what he was doing, so "Google" (his Gazer's name) became a big hit with the party team. He also bought the toy figure of a Gazer (Figs of Adorable Power) and brought it to each session. Little things like this can really bring a lot of joy to a game! :)
Big warning about Hurl Through Hell. Don't be eaten by something that can spit you up from damage and be Hurled Through Hell during said event. You may just be dumped in the bottom of hell. Luckily we managed to save our pal.
Thanks Chris, lots of very good points around Pact of the Blade.
Thankfully, I thought about most of what you brought up and have a Fighter 1/Warlock X Pact of the Blade (Fiend). At Level 8 now and I have full plate, GWM, as well as Shadow of Moil and Fire Shield as my go-to combat spells (Fire Shield isn't concentration) with spells like Command, Fly, and Fireball depending on the situation. I can't disarm traps but I hit things pretty hard!!
Will you ever be doing an addendum video for the Tasha’s options?
This is all useful stuff, and the whole lot doesn’t need to be redone… but it’d be cool to know your thoughts on the newer stuff.
The warlock was, I think, poorly play tested and suffers from too many choices that are "must haves" and too many choices that are "must never" have choices. This create the illusion of choice but really you don't. The warlock already suffers from extremely weak spell casting as a spell caster who's core power level isn't determined by the SET rules of the game but rather the core power level of the class is set by the whim of player and the DM. Short rest spell refresh sounds great but if your party are burst players you will ALWAYS be significantly weaker than the rest of the party and there is nothing to address this issue in the rules. This means that you can't afford to take least optimal choices because your power level already suffers. This further exacerbates the warlock's illusion of choice problem.
This.
One of the Warlock's big strengths is sustainability, via the short rest system. There are short rest characters and long rest characters. I know that the Battle Master Fighter recharges his superiority dice on short rests, and the Wizard recharges on long rests.
In my mind, I'd like to try a group session where I'd just require players to roll up characters that either don't have expendable features that need to recharge, or characters with features that recharge on a short rest. Teaching the players about the short rest system like that and getting them into the habit of using it (as opposed to never even considering it) seems to be the only way I can think of to get them to use short rests.
Did 3.0 or 3.5 have a short rest / long rest system in place? If memory serves, I think it was just the number of spells per day.
@@Thalanox There was no short or long rest system and warlocks didn't use spells in 3.5 either. They had eldritch blast that started at 1d6 and increased by +1d6 every odd level. so at level 5 a warlock could cast eldritch blast once per turn for 3d6 damage. 10d6 might sound like a lot but 4d10+20 actually does more damage on average. Where the 3e warlock shines is invocations and the breadth of choice.
While you had no spells you had invocations that often were at will spell effects, like darkness, flight, water breathing and so on. As well as invocations that changed the effect of the blast and the shape of the blast. They were split into 4 tiers of power and you got 3 for each tier. The strength of the warlock in 3e was few tools but unlimited uses. This encouraged creative thinking but also caused player to fall into the eldritch blast rut.
I am not sure what the "cure" is for the warlock but I find that other classes have lots of resource free features like extra attack that a warlock doesn't or other classes a lot more resources to use. And using many low level spells hurts a warlock as they advance! Casting shield as a hexblade at 7 lvl burns up half your spell slots and it doesn't scale. So you just wasted a level 4 spell slot. The warlock is hindered by fear of the developers too afraid to give the warlock invocations to make up for their short comings and too afraid to give the warlock more at will magic. I shouldn't need to multiclass as a hexblade to make casting shield worth it.
The armour and shield proficiency of the hexblade should never have be gained by the patron ability they should be dropped by that patron and given to pact of the blade as an addendum and rebalance. It would eliminate the balance issues of every spellcaster taking a one level dip into hexblade and allow ANY warlock who wants to melee viable regardless of the patron. Too many of the warlock's class features forced down narrow path because non optimal choices drop off so far from the power level of the class. There should never be a perfect patron + pact combo and there should never be a totally pathetic patron + pact combo and yet there are. It is the worse designed class i think in terms of just how bad some choices are vs how good some options are.
Eh, I'd like to see the wizard cast 6 hypnotic patterns in a day at level 5
@@Siennarchist You can't do that with a warlock WITHOUT consent of the party aka a party willing to do short rests and you can't do that without DM consent allowing multiple short rests between long rests. Some DM's and/or parties restrict the number of short rests.
This is the only class who's core power level isn't set by SET rules but by the whim of other people you are playing with. A one short rest between long rest party creates a weak warlock. A no short rests between long rest party aka clastic 5 minute work day party/ Burst party creates an extremely weak warlock. Conversely an "after every encounter" short rest party creates an extremely powerful warlock.
The take away is that the power level of the warlock isn't set by the rules. It is influenced by outside factors.
This also only addresses the spell casting. I also pointed out that invocation choice is too limited because some choices are so obviously poor that or so obviously good they shouldn't be choices but features of the class.
There can never be too many "must haves" in game design, in fact it is very desirable.
I've been thinking about a hexblade build that dual wields trying to leverage shadow blade but the usual problems with two weapons keep popping up without some homebrew it seems kinda weak.
I was thinking about something what is the best sorlock build (it wouldn't show the spells) this type of guide would show the best types of sorcerer for this and the best types of warlock for this and then compare a sorlock who has 3 levels of warlock and 17 levels of sorcerer to a sorlock that has 3 levels of sorcerer and 17 levels of warlock and see which works better for certain sub classes and in the end decide what is the best sorlock build
I've never gone to high levels with any warlock, but it might be really useful at high levels to put hexblade's curse, or some other curse, on a familiar. What you lose in damage you gain in mobility with a free misty step every turn through relentless hex. Any warlock could do this, but a hexblade would get the best use of it since they get a curse that doesn't take concentration.
Very excited to see your take on the mono class non hexblade Warlock. That 2 slots per short rest (for most of most campaigns) is much more limiting than it seems if you haven't played a Warlock before. I bet your character concept does a good job of feeling consistently relevant despite that.
It's not that hard. You need something good to do in the turns you are not casting a levelled spell, Warlocks have multiple ways to do that.
Love the thoutough dissection of personally my favourite class in dnd, this and the pact magic video in particularly are legitimate treasures in understanding the cornerstones of how to optimize a warlock PC,
Before Hexblade, I saw a people dipping Pact of the Tome to get cha to attack and damage for stuff like paladin. Then Hexblade dropped and they wanted a respec.
I have made so many character builds that have a hexblade dip for the proficiencies and access to armor pf agathys and hex.
I have considered even the idea that the player’s “pact” with the hexblade be the result of an injury from a cursed weapon, and they wear armor to protect themselves following the injury.
I completely agree fey presence isn't worth it inside of combat, but (and this is again DM dependant of course) I allow it as a mini charm person outside of combat. The feature doesn't say that the target knows it has been charmed, so I personally rule that it can basically be used for advantage on a check when you try to convince someone (charm helps getting persuation and deception checks through and fear helps with intimidation checks). Yes it can fail and is only for 1 check per short rest so its not amazing, but given the wording I allow it to be undetectable, so my warlock uses it quite frequently.
EDIT: I have completely forgotten that players can use the help action without any restrictions outside of combat as well and thus can very often already generate advantage on social checks anyway, making this a rather mood point if the game is run that way (I have a house rule, which I forgot that it is not RAW (thanks to SharkForce for pointing it out) that players have to give me a description of how they help with a skill check outside of combat)
@@sharkforce8147 You are right about this, the reason I didn't think about that is that I personally won't allow somebody to just "help" in a conversation. I should have mentioned it, but it has become so automated that I forgot I technically don't run it 100% RAW. At my table you can always provide the help action during combat, but for anything outside I want you to at least roughly give me an ingame way you are helping out - again in a lot of situations you won't need much.
e.g. the warlock is looking through their familiars eyes (and the familiar is flying above) to help with a perception check - that is enough for me, advantage granted.
But in a conversation the helping party member needs to put forth a good reason most of the time to give that advantage roll, sometime it is something else, but mostly I try to keep my NPC motivation in mind when somebody else chimes into the conversation
EDIT: honestly that is more or less the same I've seen any social interaction run by other DMs I've played with - I don't think I've seen anybody allow a player just saying "help action" and grant advantage on a persuation etc. check - though it might also be that we all reinforce this kind of rulings between us, so maybe we are the exception.
@@sharkforce8147 Because the description for the combat help action is super simple - you just distract them, I'll always encourage the players to describe whatever they are doing. You don't need flawless precision, you just need to threaten them with your weapon or otherwise get the enemies attention to get an opening for your team mate.
I'll stay with the way we are playing since the game has improved massively for our group - the players are more immersed and actually interested in researching important NPC - before they go talk to an important NPC they'll try to figure out what their motivation or what their secrets are to have that as a lever during a conversation. If I just allow advantage 100% of the time they wouldn't be interested in doing any of that.
I appreciate that you pointed out that RAW you can always have advantage, but our game(s) is better without it.
@@sharkforce8147 Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree it is a house rule and you were correct to point it out to me, since it is actually very important to this discussion :)
I have played that way so long it slipped my mind completely that what we are doing with the "help" action isn't RAW, so thank you for pointing it out (I should actually edit my comment to reflect that)
Yes absolutely the ability still isn't amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but at least my player is getting some use out of it :)
nice video , timestamps are helpful! cant w8 till you do some Tasha videos! keep up good work
Create Thrall can also be handy if you have a teammate that can incapacitate enemies with something like hypnotic pattern or eyebite. Not useless-though certainly at these high levels, most of your powerful enemies won’t be humanoids.
Small correction, Dark One's own luck applies to an *ability check* or saving throw. Attack roll is not an option for this feature.
What do you think about the Pact of the Genie patron? It isn't quite out yet, but we have seen the UA. The most exciting thing about it for me is the thought of filling the vessel with something hazardous and breaking it on purpose to unleash all of it at once. Ex: obliterate a Lich with hundreds of gallons of holy water.
I will be talking about Tasha's soon.
I have a hexblade nonmulticlass build. No single aspect is overly unique, but it borrows a little bit from everything. It's a long post if you want to read it. I wouldnt mind if someone wanted to go over it and pick it apart to tell me if I missed something or if I'm misunderstanding something. It's not AL legal.
With Archfeys misty escape it specifies an attack if you teleport within attack range of someone and they move giving you an attack of opportunity
I've seem people write that hex warrior should be given to every warlock and I disagree completely. Shield and medium armour should be integrated into the pact of the blade as a 3rd lvl pact feature. This does two things it eliminated all the 1 level of warlock dips of spell casters as you are not getting these proficiencies until 3rd level and it moves these key features down the line when most melee warlocks need them. Let the hexblades keep martial weapons as it gives flavour to the hexblade patron. I would have given a single weapon proficiency for every patron to match the patron. Finesse weapon for Fey, chain for fiend, something odd for great old one, trident for the underwater patron, scimitar for genie and so one. Something that fits with the flavour and doesn't increase power level of the class but creates more synergies with the patron.
Hey man just wanted to say I was inspired by your warlock homebrew and will use a version of it for my own games now. Great videos!
Investment of the chain master is the best elderitch invocation if you’re planning on taking pact of the chain.
I ran a game for a player using Blade Pact warlock with Raven Queen patron. Ultimately I ended up giving Blade Pact free extra attack at 5th because everyone else was getting extra hits, or stronger cantrips and the BP got nothing to compensate for that in the weapon attack department compared to other warlocks. It never stood out as being overpowered.
I just gotta say.. Celestial Warlock Healing Light is so incredibly good. We're talking a free healing word every bonus action if they want without using a spell slot which enables them to actually do something during their turn. That is crazy.. That is so damn S tier.
Celestia warlock 3-5 / Divine Sorcerer X is a VERY good combo that performs incredibly well in all tiers with extreme utility and lots of options and celestial warlock is what tops it off.
Hexblade does more damage but this build delivers a kind of utility/support that is insane. Chain pact invisible scout with telepathy and shared senses AND bless AND free healing words? Sure. If it's a 4man party, you get 2x lvl 2 bless per short rest :> For lvl 5 celestial lock you get hypnotic pattern twice per short rest. Just wow.
Fey misty step has a very specific situation thats fun. Enemy won initiative and attacked you. Bam, misty step away. Appear behind them invisible. They step towards where you had been because they are confused. Attack of opportunity happens. No longer invisible, and you still have your turn coming up. Very circumstantial, but fun if you pull it off.
Sadly the ability already takes your reaction, so you can't do an attack of opportunity
Whoops. Was still fun. Don't tell my dm!
Does Death Ward on a short rest bring up Undying Warlock at all? It's 8 hours and no concentration so conceivably with a few hours prep time you can give your whole party a few hours of Death Ward each
Tomelock: get word of Radiance, it has built in careful metamagic. Also, thorn Whip is a thirty foot "melee" attack. Finally, sapping Sting for airborne enemies.
Hello all ,about Hexblade curse ( 21:24 ), I understand that the extra damage does not work with magic missile ( no ttack roll with M missile ), also there is a sage advice about it . do you agree ?
For pact of the chain I think their should be no financial cost. You should just be able to just to take 10 min and cast it. 2. There should be a feat called the pact master that gives each pact something extra they want. Like blade is they call and switch their weapon as a bonus action and if you use your pact weapon you can add + 10 to damage-5. Chain gets hit points equal to their warlock level + 2(cha mod) maxes out at 30 hit points. Tome you get a extra cantrip from any class maybe a level 1 spell from any class instead. And talisman maybe unarmored defense( dex and charisma) and unarmored strikes( i don’t know). And lastly the most controversial part all pacts get an additional pact invocation. I just think this allow warlock to add more of those utility invocations
The pseudodragon familiar is good if you are playing a race without darkvision if you have a build that requires a lot of invocations, so you can't use one for Devil's Sight. Having the pseudodragon sit on your shoulder and using their senses is a solid option for getting better senses than your character normally has, especially if you had to dump Wisdom.
The imp has Devil's Sight you can use.
@@XerkDaniels I meant the invocation, but the imp doesn't have blindsight. Devil's Sight doesn't let you see through illusions or see invisible creatures. Neither does it have the Keen Senses ability, nor proficiency in Perception. The senses of the pseudodragon are superior in basically all circumstances except magical darkness and range of darkvision.
To see through your familiar's eyes you need to spend an action every turn (Yes, even with Voice of the Chain Master), so it isn't an option for combat.
Master Of hexes should be blue IMO. Hexblade can deal huge burst damage, so the ability to move Curse after the primary target dies can be very useful
Problem for single class HB is that he has to spend at least 3 (4 if you want to smite, 5 if you want to use Darkness cheese) invocations to get decent damage compared to using it as a dip
I think you forgot that the Psuedodragon familiar has magic resistance(?). Might have been a house rule but a GM I played with allowed you to gain its magic resistance if it was within 10' of you.
One thing I would like to point out about the Fey-pact capstone Dark Delirium... It can essentially be replaced by charm person. A lvl 1 spell. The main differences are that charm person lasts an HOUR, and the person charmed can actually help you by giving advice, info, or even guide you through a tricky area if they have knowledge of it. While the distance is only 30', I'd say the benefits far outweigh that one drawback. Looking at the capstone abilities from the other patrons... Dark Delirium is just... So lacklustre. Just feels more like a lvl 1 ability to me, not a lvl 14. My opinion, of course.
Nice work on the video- thanks for posting!
I think you are underselling the archfey level 1 ability... it is effectively giving you a free "spell" on a short rest cooldown, which basically makes you twice as effective of a spellcaster as other warlocks in early levels. Also, it is a charm effect OR a fear effect, which makes it useful in both social and combat situations. I have used it frequently at low levels to fear enemies. Move into range, fear them, move away. Suddenly my ally can walk away and they have to be disadvantaged in an opportunity attack, or my reckless barbarian is now just being attacked with straight rolls, or our fighter gets an advantaged shove prone... frightened is just an all around good condition to apply, even if it is just for a single round. Meanwhile as a party face, in a key negotiation you invoke your fey presence at the key moment and charm your target... with none of the disadvantages of charm person - it doesn't have the "they are hostile afterwords" rider that charm person does. Even simple things like trying to tame animals, quiet horses, etc. Charm could even be used to counter other effects - a succubus charms your barbarian friend, and in response you charm him, and now maybe you are in a dance-off against a sexy succubus?
Interesting thing about the level 6 celestial ability it doesn't say it has to be a warlock spell
Going to be honest, while you are 100% correct about the mechanics of Create Thrall being kinda bad RAW
I've never seen a GM that didn't treat it exactly as the name suggests, a thrall (although I've only seen it in two different games due to the high level req.).
Hard to account for house rules when trying to make objective assessments though.
Sprite and pseudo dragon got better thx to Tasha's imo. I think the new invocation makes it more likely you can knock a creature unconscious. Probs still not good at high levels but considering the likelihood of a warlock having a good spell save and an item to increase their save, it might be worth a try.
Celestial Rogue-lock: Backstab + Eldrich Smite + Green Flame Blade + Radiant Soul = Massive damage.
Having played a mono class hexblade in tier 3, you underrate armor of hexes. It’s a very strong defensive ability. Typically you are relatively hard to hit as a hexblade bc of shadow of moil or darkness/ds. But you can’t use shield much bc of limited slots, and a single bad crit or hit has the chance to drop your concentration (u don’t get res con till later) and that puts you in a world of pain if u are melee. Well, this ability cuts out 50% of that nonsense against the target that’s typically the primary one that can most easily hit you. It ends up being worth very large amounts of effective hit points as well as saving spellslots and action economy. It frequently occurred that I was using that every single turn in that big fight.
I'm building a sorlock with the Pact of the Chain and Celestial patron. I'm 4 levels into sorcerer so far, but I'll be hitting warlock ranks starting my next level up.
I plan to mostly have a pseudodragon for the flavor of my character which is going pretty heavy into a theme. Dragonborn sorcerer of draconic ancestry that will have a pseudodragon familiar connected with Voice of the Chain, and sometimes will use Dragon Breath on the familiar so she can breath cones of elemental damage on enemies.
I'm really excited for this character. I'll only be doing 3 warlock levels, so I will be limited on invocations. I have to choose carefully. I'll only get 2 unless I can manage a way to get bonus invocations through feats or gifts. Probably getting Agonizing Blast as my second invocation for obvious reasons.
I always felt like pact boon and the first level patron effects should be swapped. It think it makes multicassing a little more work and still makes your warlock feel unique from level one.
I very much appreciate the star labeling system, too many guides I’ve seen rely on colors and that unfortunately doesn’t work for me
Good show. Commenting to feed the algorithm.
Thanks for adding the rating at the beginning of the video. It got really annoying to open up a written guide of yours to check what the colors mean.
Glad I stayed up late for this. Might as well post another video in two days.
this video plus your invocation videos really underline how versatile and malleable the warlock class is. each pact/patron combo might not be optimal, but (with the exception of hexblade plus something other than pact of the blade) they're all perfectly viable and feel fairly unique from the others. beyond pure mechanical usefulness, all of the different pact/patron features bring a bunch of flavor that are really fun as well.
what i think i like most about warlocks is that it's the one class that is most suited to crafting specialized characters built to do a specific thing or set of things. wanna make someone focused on communication (and possibly interrogation)? great old one plus pact of the tome is a great stating point. wanna make a scout? archfey plus pact of the chain works wonders. wanna make nightcrawler? i'm sure you can figure it out.
they'll never have the same overall spell access or versatility as other casters (well, maybe pact of the tome could in the right campaign), but if built properly, nothing will be as good as they are at what they're explicitly built to do.
tack on agonizing blast and +5 charisma bonus and they'll always be a reasonably consistent damage dealer in combat.
@@sharkforce8147 hexblade very much shoehorns a character into focusing on dealing damage with a weapon, specifically a melee weapon. it's central to the patron. any pact that you pair with it is either going to do damage with a weapon or avoid fully utilizing most of the features the patron offers. further, if you do choose hexblade and then pick something other than pact of the blade, you'll miss out on all the features that pact of the blade offers that go so well with hexblade.
i think you just like to argue for the sake of arguing.
@@sharkforce8147 a level 7 chain hexblade lock with 18 (or 19) charisma with agonizing blast and gift of the ever-living ones has +7 to hit and shoots two beams each of which doing 1d10+4 force damage. if you first put on your hexblade's curse, then you could do an additional +3 per bolt making it a total of 2d10+14 maximum damage per action.
you are choosing to forego using 3 of the pact spells as they are useless without a weapon. you are also choosing to forego most of the hex warrior feature since you're refusing to use weapons. further, if you do get in melee range, your preferred consistent damage will have disadvantage on the attack, making you have to worry about getting too close to other creatures you're in combat with. oh, and gift of the ever-living ones doesn't stack with your abilities that replenish your health as they don't depend on die rolls. oh, and you can't use your bonus action to cast spells that do damage since you're using your action to cast eldritch blast. this means that your bonus actions are going to be limited to making your familiar attack, and with a pretty low attack bonus, they are going to be far less likely to deal damage. add to it that when they attack they open themselves up for attack and if your dm is anything like the dms i've played with, once a familiar attacks then they focus fire on that familiar to teach the warlock a lesson. chain locks that i play with are fairly protective of their pets for good reason.
a level 7 blade hexblade lock with 18 (or 19) charisma with improved pact weapon (+1 to hit and damage, increased weapon type), eldritch smite (5d8 force and knock prone), relentless hex (teleport up to 30ft to a hexed creature), and thirsting blade (attack twice using attack action), using a mundane greatsword has +8 to hit and attacks twice each swing doing 2d6+5 magical weapon damage. if you first put on your hexblade's curse, then you could do an additional +3 per swing making it 4d6+16 magical weapon damage per action. further, you could use your eldritch smite feature which would cost a spell slot but would allow you to tack on an additional 5d8 force damage to one of your weapon strikes as well as knock it prone with no save and no action required. now if you haven't used your bonus action for this round of combat yet then you have a couple of useful options at your disposal. if you did decide to go with any of those 4 patron spells that you dismissed outright because they don't fit your narrative, say staggering smite, then you can tack on an additional 4d6 psychic damage to one of your strikes and force a wisdom save to keep from neutering your opponent for a round. if you aren't able to use your bonus action in this way then you can use it to help you teleport around the battlefield with relentless hex, which is only worthwhile if you're using a melee weapon. so, to sum up, you could feasibly do 4d6+16 magical weapon damage + 5d8 force damage + prone + 4d6 psychic damage + wis save or they git fukt for a round, all with one action.
+8 to hit for 5d8 + 8d6+16 (66 average) damage + prone + other bad status effects >> +7 to hit 2d10+14 and +5 to hit 1d4+3 + 3d6 (41 average) damage (and that's if they aren't immune to poison which so many creatures are).
in case you want to compare what happens when both of these warlocks run out of spell slots and that pesky familiar is dead...
+8 to hit for 4d6+16 (30 average) damage + prone + getting to teleport to your opponent > +7 to hit 2d10+14 (25 average) damage.
if you think +1 to hit doesn't matter, then it shows how little you know about how 5e works. i guess you can make your hexblade warlock however you want, but pretending like hexblade doesn't heavily encourage their warlocks to pick pact of the blade is asinine. what you're saying is it's basically the same, and is absolutely not.
@@sharkforce8147 Since we're talking about magic items, +2 (or more) magic weapons are much more common than +2 magic items that increase spell hit/damage. There are plenty of weapons out there that add some other additional damage on top of the weapon damage (flame tongue).
So, the hexblade who isn't using a weapon isn't putting hex warrior to full use, and the parts they aren't using are never really replaced with just sticking to eldritch blast.
I agree, it is a nice nova and it is definitely something the hexblade was meant to do. And if you consider having access to a concentration-less bonus action teleport every round to be nothing, then i guess there is no point in arguing with you further. Are you trying to say that a hexblade/blade warlock doesn't also have access to banishment and hypnotic pattern? Really, you're just trying to turn the discussion away from how the hexblade heavily encourages a player to pick pact of the blade and instead trying to say that your chain warlock is better at doing things that a blade lock can't do. It's pretty easy to make a better scout than a hexblade/chain warlock. Just about any patron would be a better choice. They would also probably do very similar damage and would be built in a way as to not really miss the additional armor.
The only semi-reasonable arguments i see that you're actually making for chain over blade for hexblade is 1) battlefield control and 2) the part about polymorph. 1) i feel like what relentless hex gives you is a wash with getting to push a creature 10 feet per bolt of an eldritch blast. 2) for solo target save or suck control spells, i would honestly rather go with banishment as it targets charisma and it completely removes the creature from battle. For wisdom based save or suck control spells, i'd rather go with hypnotic pattern as it can hit a bunch of targets. So, i think polymorph is best used as a buff instead of a debuff. As a buff, it's one of the best in the game. The downside is it costs an invocation slot and does still use one of your spell slots leaving you with one for the rest if the fight. It also eats your concentration, making you a high priority target for your dm. I think every single one of those invocations that just give you access to a spell are bullshit and should be changed to give you a free casting of it or something. But if you want to turn one of your companions into a giant ape every battle, i'm sure you could. One thing though, how is that something that a pact of the blade warlock couldn't do if they wanted?
You double down on saying that the hexblade/blade is only for burst damage and refuse to accept that it's both burst and sustained, but whatever. Look at the numbers again. DND is about the numbers, they matter.
The point isn't that it's impossible to make a hexblade warlock that is able to avoid utilizing the hexblade features, the point is that if you don't choose pact of the blade to go along with hexblade then you are playing in opposition to your class and are choosing to not do what the hexblade very much encourages you to do.
@@p23570 *"you can't use your bonus action to cast spells that do damage since you're using your action to cast eldritch blast."*
I'm pretty sure you can, since Eldritch Blast is a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action, which are the *only* spells you can cast in the same turn as you cast as spell with a bonus action. There's nothing in the rules that I can find which limit spellcasting to 1 damaging spell per round.
Can't wait for one of my characters to die so I can make a warlock
What's your opinion on the Undead Patron from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft?
I love my pact of the tome warlock, but maybe because I talked to the DM about wanting to lean into this aspect of the character. He needs to seek out ritual spells as part of the pact. The book gets hungry, you see :)
I mean yeah sure, Hexblade is good mechanically but I hate the flavor or lack thereof.
Ooh woo magic sword patron big whoop. I can never find a cool way to RP Hexblade.
@@sharkforce8147 a lot of the patrons don’t answer why you are serving them or what they want. I don’t understand this. Sentient weapons all have desires. In fact they are listed in the dmg. It is in fact more clear than other ones. Unite all the sentient weapons is an example of a goal. Whelm wave and dark razor for example
I can’t wait for you to get to re-evaluate on the Celestial patron gift - the book has one feature that is clutch on the healer so it becomes a which situation are you most worried about choice. Thanks again.
What is that feature you are talking about? I'm interested
@@Quintal100kg I would have to read it but I think one thing is a page that you can have people sign and as long as the book is on the same plane of existence if the signer is downed they are reduced to 1 Hp via death ward.
@@leodouskyron5671 Oh, this is pretty cool one. For Tome Pact, I guess?
@@Quintal100kg it’s part of the tome
It doesn’t come until 9th level and it’s once a long rest. So..... it’s not as good as the familiar
I'm late coming to this video. However, in the pact of the chain section you mentioned recasting find familiar as a ritual. Don't you have to be pact of the tome to get ritual casting?
Pact of the Chain gives you the Find Familiar spell, castable as a Ritual, when you choose it.
@@Tzunamii777 thanks. I realized that after I commented. I forgot to come back and edit or delete it.
I could make one of each. Love them!!!
Is fiendish resilience blue or green. It has 5 stars next to it
It's green. It should have had 4 stars.
We need a genielock guide.
Please
PLEASE!!
First character I played is a hybrid storm Sorc/Bard/hexblade. If playing a charisma based character, you almost have to justify a reason to *not* dip at least one level in Hexblade. Even then, you're still probably wrong and will regret choosing otherwise.
I think it strongly depends on how long you expect the campaign to last.
One of the more extreme examples: you will most likely end at lvl 5, so you really shouldn't take even a single lvl outside of your class or you might have to face whatever the DM prepared as the "endgame" without access to 3rd lvl spells.
No matter what kind on campaign you will always have to decide when you will want to slow down your spell progression for a lvl. I really don't want to multiclass before reaching lvl 5 since the 3rd lvl spells are so powerful, but I thing from then on I am much more interested in maybe doing it.
I certainly don't get to play as much D&D as I'd like to, but honestly often I see multiclasses only in one shots or short campaigns that already start at a higher lvl and won't have much or any level progression in them. Though if I ever get the opportunity to DM or play in a 1 - 20 campaign my mileage might change drastically :P
27:50:
Opportunity attacks I guess?
You already used your reaction :)
I guess it is more or less there just in case any magic item or ability would get you extra reactions or similar and there are no cases (yet) where the text is useful (cavalier need 18 levels to get more than 1 reaction for opportunity attacks)
@@S0nyb1ack Them the only thing I can think about is.. prepare action, casting X spell when I see X
And that coming into play before your turn but after your reaction
Its fringe, but I suppose battlemaster could allow you to attack before your turn with misty escape or if you took damage at the top of your turn, use it then attack, but yeah, seems unnecessary.
> Pact of the Chain
> Familiar
Get that one the wizard on the cover of the old Role Aids "Fez II: The Contract" module is conjuring. Best familiar.
Speaking of which, when are you and your friend going to showcase old RPG stuff & lore again?
Not sure, that video did not do particularly well.
@@TreantmonksTemple F - das tut meir leid. I liked it, if that counts for anything (fun fact: it doesn't).
Uhmmm no Genie subclass warlocks? I wanted to see what you had on the Efreeti sub ..
Thought familiars couldnt attack....why is he talking about the pixie doing poison damage?
i often feel hexblade over shadows warlocks so much they should just make medium armor baseline but let hexblade keep shield proficiency
Just take hex warrior out of hexblade and add it to blade pact instead. Then any patron can make a decent bladelock, and blastlocks who want to get the extra armor proficiencies have to give up something actually useful to get it. Plus other classes who want to multiclass for it can still get it, but they have to put in a more substantial investment to do so.
@@Malisteen that would just shift the problem to pact weapons, why pick tome for 3 cantrips when you can pick blade and just be a blaster but with medium armor
@@AsbakNL because tome also grants access to ritual caster (any), which is a big deal for any warlock trying to serve a utility caster role despite the very limited pact spell slots.
Tome is a weak boon regardless. The better comparison would be chain. An imp familiar vs some free armor proficiencies is a much more respectable tradeoff for blastlocks, one that could go either way, but honestly should lean towards chain when you consider that none of the blade specific invocations are useful to a blaster, and they have alternative defensive options, including avoiding melee to begin with.
In any event, a blastlock that spent their boone on equipment proficiencies will at least have given up something of value for it, and a character of another class who dips into warlock far enough for a boon has sacrificed enough of their main class progression that it's no longer a no brainer choice.
@Treantmonk
Hey Chris! Great video, as usual buddy, but I have been wondering what you think of one combination that I have never seen you bring up. If you Hex your Familiar, at 7th level while having the relentless hex invocation, you have effectively infinite Misty Step. It does require that you see the target which can be dealt with one of two ways, you can either have you Imp stay visible or they can drop concentration and hold their action to go invisible again on each of their turns. This allows a lot more mobility than normal and since Hex scales to increase duration you can effectively do this all day. What do you think about this combination?
If I'm using a spell slot and my concentration and my familiar on mobility, what am I doing that's effective on my turns?
Or you can just take Far Step on 9th lvl, which *is* unlimited Misty Step with a bigger range while keeping your Invocation slot. Yes, it lasts only for a minute, but I highly doubt you need Misty Step for any longer.
@@antongrigoryev6381 I’m going to point out that having a 30ft teleportation is incredibly useful all day. There’s many situations that arise from that.
Also if it lasts for a minute then it isn’t unlimited.
@@TreantmonksTemple you can combine this with booming blade to increase the chance of getting the secondary damage.
@@keeganmbg6999 What situations exactly? How often do you need teleportation that you can't just recast Far Step with a slot that recharges on a short rest?