they basically didn't talk about not taking hexblade and pact of the blade at all I think their biases show way more this video than most of the other ones
I’m sorry but it seems like the Dudes only like the Pact of the Blade. I think it is the least interesting Pact. The Chain and the Tome are great but it seems like they don’t exists here 😢
I saw a video elsewhere that talked about getting two levels of any warlock, but I guess fiend would be good for THP. Concept is to use those two pact slots primarily for cannon generation. Don't get Eldritch Blast as a warlock spell, but do grab Agonizing Blast. You can then get EB via the Artificer-only magic item All-Purpose-Tool. Get Blade Ward as second warlock cantrip. Cast EB using high INT for the to-hit, then add your at least +1 CHA per bolt. So if you're level 11(9 arti/2 warlock), you're doing 3x1d10+1(min) EB and then a 3d8+1d8(arcane firearm) force from the ballista. And at that point you also have the ability to detonate the cannon, replacing it with pact slots, in which case that spell becomes 3d8 force(+1d8 from arcane firearm) with a 20ft radius as an action, which you can fly into position with an imp.
For Warlock vs Cleric worship, the Cleric deity is your big boss, your warlock patron is your manager. You could easily have overlap between Life/Light Domains + Celestial, or Trickery + Archfey.
I had a Kythri Tiefling Fathomless Warlock who was so devout, that he accidentally became a Tempest Cleric. He was worshiping The Devourer from Eberron. Great character.
I had a Cleric Warlock He was a grave domain cleric pact of the undying warlock multi His patrons were actually the spirits of his ancestors and his deity was the Raven Queen who his family considers to be their patron god.
I love the idea of a devil and a deity that have been fucking with each other for centuries just picking a mortal and both trying to pull them to their side as a sort of competition.
One of the best parts of this series is watching them come into a new class with a grade already in mind, then coming up with cool new combos on the fly and struggling to justify raising that grade.
I feel like it'll be one of the Pact of the Blade non-hexbade options. A barbalock using Armor of Agathys which upcasts that for damage? Maybe a zealot barbarian fiend pact as a yin-yang thing?
@@aidandunne5978 a zealot is just fanatically religious. could be yin-yang, could be double down devotion to the patron. You start the build as a fanatic worshiper of said being/fiend/celestial, and your devotion pays off and they notice you and decide to become your patron and grant you a pack.
If you want to be the strangest character at your table; play as a fairy, be a warlock with a sprite familiar and a swarm ranger with a pixie swarm. You get to roll up to any situation with your fey pose
@@mellowtron1166 and you can flavor the pacts however you want, they can tie into your character's backstory or say something about the being they made a pact with. Pact of the Blade could say you patron is a Celestial warrior of kind, Pact of the Tome could say your patron is a celestial archivist of some kind, Pact of the Chain could be your patron wants to keep an eye on you for whatever reason, and those are just the examples I can think of off the top of my head.
Also great combinations: - Undead + Oathbreaker (I call this one “Barbosa”) - Ancients + Genie (The Primordial) - Conquest + Fathomless (Namor) - Crown + Fiend (Hellraiser, Knight of Asmodeus) - Great Old One + Vengeance (Return Of The Fallen) - Undead + Vengeance (Horror Movie Monster) - Archfey + Crown (The Green Knight) - Devotion + Fiend/GOO (The Cultist) - Glory + Hexblade (The Faustian Deal / Soul for Fame) - Redemption + Undying (The Second Chance) - Watchers + GOO (Venom) - Celestial + Watcher (Guardian of the Galaxy) I could keep going
@@DungeonDudes not a bad thing, but this video showed a definite bias to hexblade. you guys barely talked about any other subclass for anything but barbarian, and you never even mentioned any pact except blade. not a big deal, just wanted to let you guys know
Draconic sorcerers can be paired with either the Celestial (as Bahamut resides on Mt. Celestia, one of his subordinates can be the patron) or the Fiend (in that case, you pick one of Tiamat's lackeys). Undead works too, if the patron is a powerful drakolich.
Yeah but unlike bloodline, gifts abd clerics deity worships. A warlocks pact are VERY serious, you cant break the contracts easly. Sure magic in the bloodline you cant get rid of easly but theres no higher power forcing you to abide to a pact, contract
@@odinulveson9101 yes you can lol. most famous conceptual warlocks go against their pact after getting their main benefits rather easily. there are just consequences of making an enemy of your patron. spawn is one example, he made a deal with a devil to be sent back and was on the condition he'd kill for malboga, which he doesn't and as a result gets hunted by demons and demon hunters. once the patron gives the warlock their powers, the patron cannot take those powers back any more than an angry employer can take their previous checks to your salary back - unlike a cleric, whose power derives directly from their god, in which a god simply stops empowering them until they get their shit together. the lead rules designer when asked about this said "the warlock does not have to be on good terms with their pact broker. they made a magical transaction, and now the warlock has power.", which is a big difference compared to a sorcerer who's power is just their own with no strings attached and a cleric whose power is 100% derived from a continuous supply from their god.
it really feels like sorcerer and warlock synergize more with each other than with the classes alone Like, the late levels of warlock just aren’t worth it compared to grabbing sorcerer levels, and that’s not even worth it compared to just warlock 2/sorcerer 18 also, shoutout to my favorite multiclass name, sorlockadin it’s an abomination and it’s my son and I love it very much
5e is best played by either going full minmax munchkin abomination, or mixing the craziest shit together to see what new shenanigans we can get banned from "civilized" tables. I want my character to end up immortalized in a greentext, not the next Lord of the Rings descendant.
I'm a firm believer that as the evil variant of a class, all Warlock multiclass names should start with "wa-": waladin, warcerer, etc. They should also all have zig zag mustaches, and upside down letters on their hats.
My favorite idea from this is the Fiend Lock with a Barbarian dip! If you go Berzerker, it could just be your patron taking over and not caring if you live so long as their desire is met!
As they were discribing the Warlock/Barbarian with a Fiend Patron, I was getting instant Elric of Melnibone vibes. Temp HP, Pact weapon... "Blood & Souls for Arioch !!!"
I've played a Fallen Aasimar Fiend Warlock with a few levels of Divine Soul Sorcerer for metamagic and some of the nice cleric spells and he hit like a truck in combat but also had some of my favourite story moments of all the characters I've played.
And all of that can come online at level 6. 5 levels of hexblade, 1 level in divine soul, and take the metamagic adept feat. Make sure one of your learned spells for the divine soul is inflict wounds. For Invocations, make sure you have taken pact of the blade so that you can take Improved Pact Weapon, Eldritch Smite, and Thirsting Blade. Make sure one of the metamagics you take from the feat is quicken. Enjoy.
I like the idea of an artificer-genie warlock build. Both are concerned with making things, so there's a concept. The trick is making the Genie Bottle a Homunculus Servant, so it can fly around with you inside it! It's better the other way around, with the higher level in Artificer (and especially if the DM will allow the same trick with a Steel Defender).
3 levels of bard is fantastic. College of Eloquence gives so many options for making your warlock spells hit harder from Mind Sliver to bard dice cutting from saves.
@@goodgulfgas Two levels was my answer. One is kind of meh, but two gives you Jack of All Trades and oh boy is that good on a Warlock, especially if you are Mask of Many Faces infiltrator guy. You can get by in almost any situation. Three is probably better still for the subclass, but two is still very powerful.
People get to overly invested that if you multiclass you will not be as strong . Correction you wont have higher level spells but the combos you get are better . My favorite was a lw 6 eloquence bad/ lw 7-14 fire genie warlock. Start with lw1 bard - then lw7 warlock - then lw6 bard - then rest warlock -(Face/Infiltration)- Have actor feat + mask of many faces + misty visions to be high class illusionist and manipulator + eloquence bard + expertise in Deception and perception ( Rank S) -(Scouting )- Pact of the chain imp to scout situation + high perception from expertise (Rank A) ---(Utility)---Even you your skills are not in History or arcane or religion you do have useful skills (Comp Languages, Detect magic, Identify) And jack of all trades for a little boost (Rank B) -(Dps)- Fireball for low lw crowds(Slots from bard and Warlock) + Concentrated damage from Eldritch blast and summon aberration while flying (Rank A) -(Control)- Class has good combo ,Unsettling Words + Silvery barbs + Hold person/ Raulothim's Psychic Lance to almost guarantee a success on a boss. (Rank A) -(Survivability)- You are not a tank but you do have Armor of agahtis + fly from genie + Misty step to avoid damage (Rank B) -(Support)- Class does not have good support but you can give healing potions if if party has goodbeRry to imp for easy heals for dropped players and bardic inspiration (Rank C)
@@LupineShadowOmegaJoAT also works on Counterspell checks. That's +2 at level 9, and a SAD Cha build bound to have a +4 already. You Counterspell level 7 spells with 50/50 odds.
I'm currently playing a Genie Swarmkeeper, whose Dao patron demands that he retrieve his bodyweight in sufficiently valuable gems as payment for rescuing him from slavery in a duergar mine. The swarm and his eldritch blasts are reflavoured as pebbles and stones which, as he progresses, transform into more and more precious gemstones. It's not especially more powerful (though the swarm + crusher + invocation forced movement + spike growth is *delicious*), but it's a ton of fun!
I designed a Dao warlock as an NPC and that was fun. He was a mountain dwarf obsessed with the secrets of the earth, and was an interesting guide, foil, and eventual benefactor for the party. After they cleared out the Forge of Fury he took over management, and promised them magic items made at the forge a year later in payment.
Despite the lower rankings this video, this one is kinda my favorite of this tier list. This encourages creativity on how these classes could work together in new ways. It's sad that the interesting ones are never used, but it makes sense in the grand scheme. Taking these multiclasses from levels 1-12 could be a painful experience.
Hexblade Warlock is funny on the Monk. Short rest Shield spell, invocation for Mage Armor, and Hexblade’s Curse adds Proficiency Bonus damage to damage rolls - which scales with your total level, not single class level. Also, using Dedicated Weapon lets you take your non-heavy Pact of the Blade weapon and make it a monk weapon.
@@peterriverajr6899Thirsting Blade does not stack with Extra Attack, and even if it did it would add 1, not 2 attacks for a maximum of 5 with Flurry of Blows.
11:20 you could use the genie warlock for the extra damage from genie's wrath 16:37 as for bard lock multiclassing, ive wanted to do a great old one college of whispers multiclass for a while now 46:53 i'd pair draconic sorc with hexblade to use the ac and hp bonuses from the draconic resistance with a melee warlock..
Dude warlocks are my favorite class and I feel like the simple concept of getting magic power from an entity makes a lot of sense in fantasy. I love all the interesting combos that you guys have here! I can't wait to try the swarm ranger and warlock. Maybe with chain and fey pact.
Wizard 2 level dip is a hidden gem that was missed here. Any multiclass will delay spell progression for a warlock, but a small dip into wizard can round out the defensive/utility options. Shield, absorb elements, silvery barbs, etc don’t need Int and can be the difference between losing concentration on a big warlock spell or not without “wasting” 1 of the 2 warlock spells slots. Yes a sorcerer can use any of these spells too, but they can’t learn them all without big level investment because sorcerers know so few spells. Other spells like sleep and magic missile upscale very well. Arcane recovery recharges some slots on a short rest and will get more spell slots over an adventure than other casting classes. Any wizard subclass can work but war magic and bladesinger give good and cheap defensive options even for non-melee builds
Plus, with the dip, you get the ability to learn new spells and rituals. You could have a familiar, without having to have pact of the chain. You get three more cantrips and six spells with just one level. With two levels of wizard, you get any subclass and 8 spells known, To have 8 spells known in warlock you need 7 levels. Also, I cant stress how good war magic is for this. A warlock can do without having to use an spell a round, so you get defensive options for free without having to use your spell slots. But also, most people think that Portent is OP.... Imagine any multiclass, where you could just have portent. I think, wizard often is overlooked as a multiclass option, because of intelligence, but just with two levels, you get a lot. Sure having to dip into intelligence sucks, but you could still have great stats. With point buy and a +2/+1 race, you could have 16 charisma, 16 constitution, 14 dexterity and 13 intelligence.... Every other ability but one, would be an 8, which is not ideal but it is not that bad either.
@@farrex0 Completely agree, Portent, Chronal Shift, and/or silvery barbs are all great ways to ensure a big save or suck spell works (warlocks only have two big spell slots so they need to make them count right?). Being able to swap out prepared spells on a long rest is another huge advantage for the wizard in order to cycle in all the utility 1st level spells out there.
Yeah the spell access is always useful arcane recovery is nice for one more spell and some of the sub class features are solid. A war mages arcane deflections limit of only cantrips doesn't really hit a warlock the same way. The +2 to AC is pretty weak since its for the attack but the +4 to a save will probably cover all a warlocks concentration needs.
I actually played a Warlock/Druid combo before. It was a Feypact Warlock with a dip into Stars Druid (and a bit into Scout Rogue too by the end of it). Anyways, one thing you tend to forget about is that a staff of the Woodlands benefits all spell attack rolls, even Eldritch Blast, and the RP was nice too. He had a personal quest to map out the ways back and forth from the material plane to the feywild, in order to bring lost souls in need of guidance to the archfey he was pacted to. Add a plucky Sprite from the pact of the Chain, and it was a great character to RP. Plus since I had high wisdom and charisma already, it wasn't bad at combat either.
Ok, so hear me out: Fey Warlock with 2 levels of Trickery domain Cleric. Be a gnome, take the feat fade away. Take the repelling blast invocation. By level 8, you can: set up a doppelganger image of yourself, turn invisible upon getting hit, teleport away after getting hit, and blast enemies away from you. You're impossible to pin down, and that's all without using spell slots
I will bring up the War Wizard subclass to potentially boost your blaster character a bit. You get the ability to use a reaction to boost AC and saving throws as long as you don't cast a non-cantrip spell next turn. If you're casting Eldritch Blast anyway, that's not really a cost. I'd probably still also pick up Sorcerer levels with this, but it's not a bad option.
Guys, I haven't even gotten into Baldur's Gate, and now I need to make a Barbarian/Warlock build. Edit: Can't wait to see Colby bust out the Monk/Warlock build. He's pretty much got to, it includes Monk levels.
Great options for the Warlock/Barbarian: Fathomless Warlock can use BA to summon tentacles for more damage and a little battlefield control. Celestial Warlock can heal as a BA and it isn't a spell so can use while raging. And what's worse than a barbarian taking half damage, smacking you, and then healing itself?? You mentioned the fiend and that's fun. ALSO, wild magic barbarian can use Bolstering Magic to give itself spell slots back which you might need in a pinch if you can't get that short rest! Path of the Beast can also use the bite attack to regain HP too so if combined with Celestial Warlock, or Fiend Warlock for more temp HP, this can be incredibly dangerous
Rogue is really good for Expertise in Deception. The other Rogue features are good but increasing your skills on a Warlock really works so well with all day invocations like Mask of Many Faces/Disguise Self.
I've played an Archfey Warlock/Gloomstalker Ranger in a Westmarch campaign, with the concept of an acolyte of the WIld Hunt (more like the traditional myth, less like Witcher), focusing on the bow with Improved Pact Weapon. It definitely takes time to pick up speed in lower levels, especially when you're not playing on a regular basis, and didn't go very far. I'm really looking forward to picking it up again for a higher level one-shot.
Ancestors Barbarian can really get a lot out of Warlock's Armor of Agathas spell (works with clockwork soul sorcerer too). Rage granting resistance to most damage doubles the benefit of the temp HP and maximizes the number of chances you can deal the cold damage. Reckless attack and the 3rd level ancestors ability really encourages enemies to hit you. It's a fun build. Ancestors Barbarian/Fiend Warlock would be especially fun for some very angsty RP (or an evil campaign).
Also consider the Undead patron. Got a 1d12 greataxe? At level 6 it's 2d12, and necrotic. You also get temp HP, frightened immunity, and force frightened on anything that survives your attacks. Pact of the Blade it and eventually you can just Armor of Agathys and use your other slot(s) to eldritch smite.
I did a hexblade 6 arcane trickster 10 in a campaign not too long ago. Almost all my wizard spells were utility based so I didn't really have issues with different spellcasting mods. Getting those low level spell slots for things like shield or silvery barbs really makes the warlock feel a lot more comfortable using their magic, knowing that they'll have a few decently leveled smites on deck still.
I think with the wizard dip is to treat it like the fighter or cleric, it's not there to increase spellcasting but to give access to the 2nd level subclass features. Granted, not all of them are useful to the warlock but Chronal Shift and Portent would really help with warlocks spells that need to saving throws to avoid. Hypnotic Gaze and to a lesser degree, Arcane Ward (because the ward won't have too many points but Armor of Shadows would keep it up pretty much indefinitely), can be pretty useful, too. And you can use the wizard spells to get utility spells so you don't have to get higher than 13 Int (Shield, Feather Fall, Absorb Elements, Silent Image and all the 1st level ritual spells - detect magic, find familiar, identify, etc). Plus Sleep doesn't require high Int to be effective.
Fighter/Warlock is my favorite multiclass in the game, specifically Battlemaster/Celestial or Hexblade, and always as Pact of the Blade. I recomend 6 levels of Fighter so you still get all 5 ASIs, and your Patron's capstone ability at level 14.
I love the mention of GOOlock/Watchers Paladin - it's a concept I'm playing in an upcoming mini campaign. The flavor is a bit different, though I love the story you came up with, but the mechanics are pretty solid as well for a non-hexblade lockadin.
I’m glad the Barbarian got some recognition in here; I think if I play a Barbarian in a full campaign, it’s probably going to be a Zealot or Ancestral Guardian with some levels of Celestial Warlock.
This video is everything I could want of this concept. You did exactly what I do in other games I'm more experienced in, look for a fun idea conceptually, discover an interesting synergy(s), and completely lean into it before deciding whether or not to devote myself to the idea.
Suddenly I hope for a video about "Best Arcane Archer" (if only because I love the concept, but am left completely cold by the actual implementation...). You've opened my eyes to how to achieve something fun there, just need to get over my fear of charisma
I love playing sorcerer, and every campaign my DMs have mentioned “have you thought about multiclassing with warlock?” both for mechanical and RP reasons. I’d love to see an in depth Sorlock video from you guys like you mentioned in this one
Hexblade Warlock + Abjuration Wizard is pretty good if your DM is lenient. The Armour of Shadows invocation is what makes it strong. You can keep your Arcane Ward at max levels between battles. And then you can get Temporary HP from Armour of Agathys.
For the “dragon patron” I made a Fiend Draconic Bloodline combo who was the child of a dark ritual performed by the cult of the dragon. Since Tiamat is currently in Avernus and even made a dragon-demon hybrid race
In defense of the Bard dip, there’s a lot of utility there. With those 4 spells known, get yourself helpful ritual casting spells like Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic or Identify. Healing Word or Faerie Fire always a welcome addition. Add on Bardic Inspiration and an extra skill proficiency and it’s a pretty good deal for just one level.
You said alchemist doesnt excite you but i think thats the coolest mulitclass with artificer here. The potions you make last until your next long rest and you can get your spell slots back on a short rest from warlock alowing you to chain short rests similarly to a coffelock to make a bunch of potions
I agree. The biggest weakness of the alchemist is that it has nothing to do in combat. Eldritch Blast solves that problem nicely. The ability to make potions using spell slots should not be underestimated, especially if your spell slots come back on a short rest. Think of each potion option as another known spell on your spell list. A spell that you can cast and save for later by converting it into a potion. A spell that's concentration free, cannot be counterspelled or dispelled, and can even be given to someone else to cast for you. This gives you the ability to have any unused spell slots carry over from one short rest to another, by "storing" these specialized spells in potions. The healing potion option alone makes this a worthwhile multiclass for a warlock. There are only 3 ways I know of in the game to gain a "heal others" power that comes back on a short rest (Way of Mercy monk using ki points, Celestial warlock via the Cure Wounds spell, and now this multiclass). A healing potion created this way may not be as numerically powerful as a simple cure wounds spell from a celestial warlock, but if I drop to 0 HP in battle, I'd rather have a minor healing potion in the hands of an ally than be a Level 20 Life domain cleric. The other potion options are similar, but one of the biggest advantages is that they free up your known spells. The Fly spell is faster than the potion of flight and can be upcast to target more than one person, but how often do you need 30 feet of flying speed when 10 feet won't work nearly as well? If I knew I could always make a potion of slow flight, I wouldn't learn Fly, giving me what amounts to an extra known spell. And what about Alter Self? The only other way for a warlock to gain the spell is with a high level invocation. This not only lets you gain the benefits, it also lets you give the benefits to someone else. Even your entire party if you're willing to spend the spell slots. And it's concentration free so you don't have to worry about losing your water breathing if you're underwater. And let me reiterate, all of this comes back on a short rest. The other nice thing about this multiclass is that it doesn't require any particular build. Go with your favorite patron and pact boon. You don't need Hexblade/Pact of the Blade to make this work.
One amazing thing action surge does for you is repelling blast. Eldritch knight is really nice because for one more level you get 1st level slots to waste on your defensive spells, and the extra spells known cover all those bases. It is good on any warlock.
One thing these videos do is showcase the *stunning number of combinations* and ideas. It is great to see the Dudes fired up and tossing around character concepts and builds like this.
I will actually be multiclassing my genie warlock into dragon sorcerer. The elemental flavor translates nicely between the two. The aberrant dragonmark feat adds additional flavor and utility
Love the warlock barbarian mix. Invocations can give a barbarian a lot of badly needed utility, but this video is about a warlock dipping into barb. Lots of potential I think.
Pack of the Tome warlock and Order of Scribe Wizard is a cool concept with invocations Aspect of the moon for scribing spells every nights, book of ancient secrets, eyes of the rune keeper, visions of distant realms (15th level but maybe not warlock level) and whispers of the grave for the archaeological side of t hings
@@GhostlyGrimaceI kinda hope not. Given the limit of known spells for sorcerers combined with their different casting abilities, the combinations are worth their own video imo.
Working on an Undead patron Warforged Warlock multiclass into Battlesmith Artificer. Pact of the Chain, Eldritch Invocations for steaith & recon, and using my familiar, homunculus, and iron defender as extra eyes & ears. My patron is basically an artificial AI akin to Brainiac or Ultron. A virus/program that refuses to die.
barbarian warlock with Armour of agathys and Fire shield with fiend patron is a lot of "thorns" damage, with a lot of temp HP on you it's pretty cool doesn't the fire genie also get fire shield? and flight! that'd be pretty nasty?
I think the most underrated multiclass for a Warlock by both the Dudes and their community poll is the Druid. First off, you don't need a high Wisdom to get a lot of value out of the Druid spell list, thanks to spells like Goodberry, Absorb Elements, Healing Word, Pass Without Trace, Locate Object, and Spike Growth. There are plenty of others, but these are the very best for mediocre Wisdom at low Druid levels. Druid levels on any Warlock gives you short rest spell slots for Goodberry and Pass Without Trace. Extremely good. Congrats, you now have as much out of combat healing as you could ever want, and all the surprise rounds you could ever ask for. If you're going mostly Hexblade, dipping any class with Spellcasting is nice because it gives you Shield slots. You don't want to be casting Shield with high level Warlock spell slots. Druid doesn't normally get Shield, but Hexblade does, and Druid gets the low level slots to use it. Or if you really like hanging out in wildshape, GOO gives you telepathy right at level 1 for all your communication needs. Meanwhile, Druids get some of the premier AoE control spells in the game, and Warlocks get Repelling Blast to push enemies into (or through, looking at you, Spike Growth) said spell effects. Wildfire Druid plus EB lets you control ally and enemy position a whole heaping lot, which is very fun and very valuable, while Stars would instead help you protect your precious concentration. As a multiclassed character which is primarily Warlock, this is really important as you only get at most 2 high level slots per combat until very late levels. Oh, and conceptually? It's a witch. Arguably the strongest fantasy character flavour that can't easily be reduced to a single class in 5e. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Playing a Warlock Hexblade/Rogue Swashbuckler in "Rime of the Frost Maiden." been a blast, so far. Mask of Many Faces has come in handy many times and Misty visions gives me a heavily obscured area from which to attack and then break off and hide. Looking forward to relentless Hex invocation. I'll be a true mobility nightmare for my DM.
2 levels of barbarian and all the way with undead (fright + temp HP) or celestial warlock (heals as bonus action without spell casting and temp HP) or Fiendlock for temp HP on the kill. Pact of the Blade for Eldritch Smite. Genielock gives you concentration free flight.
Dudes, this video was so fun! I was kinda dreading it for hexblade reasons, but you guys made it so much more interesting than that! The sans hexblade theory crafting was a really fun listen.
I am actually playing an Undead lock building towards Phantom rogue. Expertise in persuasion/deception can never go wrong, and the Rebuke of the Talisman invocation synergizes real well with a Cunning Action dash back for an Eldritch Blast without disengaging. The way I set up my patron has been really interesting to roleplay too. My patron is the ghost of a child who takes possession of the "character" whenever I take on Form of Dread, allowing the use of their ghostly powers. The connection between us takes the form of a silver necklace that the spirit is bound to as the Talisman. I was very dedicated in not using any magic unless I'm in Form of Dread at first, reinforcing the idea that it's the ghost's power, not mine. I got crazy good rolls for stats, and I ended up with half decent Dex, so I took 2 levels in rogue for mobility and expertise. Now I've got a pattern with rogue abilities being my character's and warlock powers being my patron's. I'm starting to let cantrips through, having my character claim that they now sometimes "feel the spirit's feelings". Soon I'll move it into a full melding of their personalities as the possession becomes less of an event and more of a chronic condition. It'll get worse and worse until I've taken 6 levels in lock for the Grave Touched feature (no need to eat/drink/breathe), and then I'll cap off with that 3rd level in rogue to take the Phantom subclass, once the possession is complete. This will kind of make me my own warlock patron, which my DM is willing to work with. I'll admit, I prioritized roleplay/theming over power with this build, but I've found it very rewarding all the same. All this assumes I live long enough to hit at least 9th level, so fingers crossed.
I actually made a celestial warlock pact of the blade. Cause i wanted to play around with a different type of character, but still get that gish feel. So i made my dex the main stat on my character to multiclass into rouge or fighter. Is it optimal. no not at all. But the theme and feel of the character is a blast! And having contant healing in fight on bonus action has been really nice in fights, to get up people getting knocked unconscious. Sometimes going against the norm is just fun cause it's different flavour of icecream!
I'm currently playing a Gloom-Stalker Ranger/ Genie Warlock multiclass on an Anime-based Discord Server. Both work relatively well together, especially with Pact of the Blade and the 'Enhanced Pact Weapon' Invocation. made some decent use of Fog Cloud (my Genie Warlock is specialized with the Marid patron), one such instance was when dealing with some spell-casting mobs: the Fog provided nice obscurement and enabled other party members to dispatch some melee mobs that were closing in. Also been making some nice use out of the 'Eldritch Smite' Invocation.
One funny combo with warlock artificer is the alchemist. Even two 1st level slots that come back on a short rest allows you to make lots of additional elixirs. I played a high elf for for hour long rests and used the rest of the time my party we're resting to kit them out for the day. The dagda was my patron and the flavor really gelled.
I just wanted to share the Sorlock I made for my friend's campaign: She is a Reborn, Undead/Draconic Bloodline Warlock/Sorcerer and even though there is a bit of overlap between Undead and Reborn, I did it all specifically for the flavoring. The idea behind her is that she is a full-blooded wyrmling that was cut down defending her homeland from an army of invaders. A necromancer shortly after found her remains (specifically her head) and brought her back to life with a few other body pieces that worked well enough to allow her life in a humanoid body again. She appears as an awkward Dragonborn with some peculiar proportions, but keeps herself cloaked to hide that away when not in her form of dread. Her patron is a dracolich that has been based on an ancient relative that was able to persist through the assaults and she has her Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer line for.... fairly obvious reasons. The DM has taken inspiration from you two and crafted a few spells specific to my character's DB spell list to draw from. Once my character is fully leveled, she will be 6 Sorcerer and 14 Warlock, 6 for the Charisma bonus to my spells and 14 for Spirit Projection. The latter of which will be 20th level and her spirit will have the appearance of her full-blooded dragon self. Hope you found my character to be interesting enough to read through all that! I've been anxiously awaiting leveling her up and revealing her secrets to the rest of her party.
Battle master fighter as a foundation works with most other classes. 5 levels gives you second wind, a fighting style, action surge, 4 maneuvers/short rest, a feat (crossbow expert or similar), and extra attack. Then another class like warlock for thematics and eldritch invocations seems really good.
You guys really need to check out the modern magic unearthed arcana. Gives you the Ghost in the Machine patron to pair with the clockwork soul or artificer
I'm going to be playing a G.O.O.lock with a three level dip into Eloquence Bard with Mask of Many in an upcoming heist campaign. My warlock was blackmailed into a pact with the LocNar from Heavy Metal and he has to form a cult of chaos and destruction otherwise his lover gets consumed by the LocNar. He was a writer who found the wrong book while researching a novel. I plan on playing him as a crazed conspiracy theorist possible serial killer who is capable of commiting atrocities and gets progressively unhinged as time goes on, but then revealing his backstory as a gentle nurturing kind young man through weekly letters to his lover delivered via our discord out of character before each session for sympathy. Oh the things one does for love! Thanks for all you do, DD.
Good video as always. I think there is an interesting case for the undear warlock/ barbarian combo, because of the form of the dread. It would be interesting to play like Zealot barbarian/Undead Warlock.
As they were discribing the Warlock/Barbarian with a Fiend Patron, I was getting instant Elric of Melnibone vibes. Temp HP, Pact weapon... "Blood & Souls for Arioch !!!"
A cool concept to also add to the warlock/ranger would be the horizon walker ranger. You could gain powers from a being like celestial or Fey or genie and obviously hexblade, and be a ranger dedicated to keeping portals to other realms protected/closed. And you can take all the good rangers spells that don’t rely on casting stat.
Something interesting you can do with warlock/paladin multiclasses is you can take Pact of the Tome for Shillelagh to attack using Charisma. in that case you end up taking Paladin up to 6 for the Aura and Extra Attack because you don't have access to that invocation anymore, but you can be awesome as a caster and as a melee character. It's something interesting to consider for small parties.
the one nice thing about warlock+wizard is you can go full ritual casting out of combat utility and just take every ritual you can find. it would be terrible in combat, but would be fun to roleplay
I am currently a Sorlock in 2 different games, messing around with builds. In one game, I’ve taken 2 lvls in Warlock (Hexblade for character background reasons), and the rest will be Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. I’ve been playing her as a psychic warrior (an elf with over 500 years of combat/magic experience). The other game I’m in, I started out with 3 lvls of Warlock (Celestial Pact), and the rest will be Divine Soul Sorcerer (she is a Protector Aasimar that discovers she has innate magical ability after having made a pact). This build is a little slower, but RP wise is rewarding. She’s discovering more of her own capabilities and growing more powerful as the game goes on. So far, I’m having a blast with two different Sorlock builds in these games. If you haven’t tried it, highly recommend!
Fey Wanderer/Arch Fey is thematically easier to explain, though it has fewer uses to trigger fear or charm to use the 7th level subclass feature Beguiling Twist. The issue with Fey Wanderer/Warlock is the build comes online late and is primarily a Ranger dipping into Warlock, where as this video is focusing on Warlock as the primary class.
I actually recently built a hexbuckler who was shockingly fun, I took revenant blade as a feat and conjured a double bladed scimitar as my pact weapon essentially giving me three chances to land sneak attack in a turn with the thirsting blade invocation on top of being able to stack a lot of attacks with hex and having an insane initiative bonus. Don't sleep on Rizz Rogue
i think a cool plot thing for the watcher paladin/GOOlock is if there were some corrupt paladins, the GOO is only weaker because its power is divided but there is some sort of ritual or whatever to use the paladins to repower it
I'd B the cleric/warlock. I've played it a lot and it can create some really flexible builds which are survivable at lower-levels. * Heavy armor or the warlock means you can dump dexterity entirely and put those points in constitution or something else. * You do have the option of going strength-based and not doing a hex blade. War, tempest, etc. work well with just a regular bladelock. * Cleric cantrips are useful -- guidance, light, and such. * The extra spell slots, even if first level are amazing to feed hex, even at higher levels, saving your high level warlock slots for something needed. * Clerics can ritual cast, so you can always fill your cleric slots with ritual spells such as detects to gain spells warlocks rarely take. A nature cleric would easily just take cure wounds and detect magic, plus the speak with animals and animal friendship and just ritual detects and speak with animals. * Clerics can also pray for spells, so the next day you could also take say detect poison and disease to check out a potion. * Many cleric spells and cantrips do not require high wisdom. Bless, shield of faith, and other spells are just as effective with a 13 wisdom. * The ability to use your high level warlock spells to do lots of healing prior to a short rest is great. You can do life domain if you are really insane.
Armor of Agathys + Cloak of Flies is a great combo on a barbarian. Also, if you want to say “screw temp HP”, Celestial pact of the blade warlock is easy to combine with Zealot Barbarian and gives them their own in built bonus action healing.
Wartificer: your 40k D&D Mechanicum crossover. Going monk 5? Why not stay till 6 for all those subclass features? You're already in that much. Shadow warlock with those four spells and teleportation? Ki-fueled spells recharging on a short rest? Amazing!
Been playing a bardlock in a game for a few years now, and it's actually been fairly fun. We're level 14 now, my character is a melee undead warlock 8/lore bard 6. It's definitely not the most powerful build, and definitely doesn't do as much damage as some other builds. But it makes for an excellent controller, especially with the extra bard slots (silvery barbs and vortex warp are excellent for preventing damage and getting people where they need to be). And for a long time we didn't have a rogue, so they were doing the skill-monkey/stealth aspects. Been having fun with it, especially since my DM gave me some magic items that help make up for the fact that it's MAD and squishy.
Great video guys! I would say that the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer combos much better with a Fathomless Warlock instead of a GOOlock because the telepathic abilities are redundant between Aberrant and GOO, and with the Fathomless you can double down on the tentacle-y eldritch horror by summoning your tentacle.
I like the idea of an Artillerist/Warlock with Pact of the Chain having their Imp carrying their cannon as sort of a flying turret.
they basically didn't talk about not taking hexblade and pact of the blade at all I think their biases show way more this video than most of the other ones
I’m sorry but it seems like the Dudes only like the Pact of the Blade. I think it is the least interesting Pact. The Chain and the Tome are great but it seems like they don’t exists here 😢
I saw a video elsewhere that talked about getting two levels of any warlock, but I guess fiend would be good for THP.
Concept is to use those two pact slots primarily for cannon generation.
Don't get Eldritch Blast as a warlock spell, but do grab Agonizing Blast. You can then get EB via the Artificer-only magic item All-Purpose-Tool.
Get Blade Ward as second warlock cantrip.
Cast EB using high INT for the to-hit, then add your at least +1 CHA per bolt.
So if you're level 11(9 arti/2 warlock), you're doing 3x1d10+1(min) EB and then a 3d8+1d8(arcane firearm) force from the ballista.
And at that point you also have the ability to detonate the cannon, replacing it with pact slots, in which case that spell becomes 3d8 force(+1d8 from arcane firearm) with a 20ft radius as an action, which you can fly into position with an imp.
Or just giving your imp a cannon 😋
That's a great idea
For Warlock vs Cleric worship, the Cleric deity is your big boss, your warlock patron is your manager. You could easily have overlap between Life/Light Domains + Celestial, or Trickery + Archfey.
I had a Kythri Tiefling Fathomless Warlock who was so devout, that he accidentally became a Tempest Cleric. He was worshiping The Devourer from Eberron. Great character.
I had a Cleric Warlock
He was a grave domain cleric pact of the undying warlock multi
His patrons were actually the spirits of his ancestors and his deity was the Raven Queen who his family considers to be their patron god.
I’m so happy 😁 😅😅😅😅😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
To paraphrase an old meme: Gods are just patrons with a good marketing department.
I love the idea of a devil and a deity that have been fucking with each other for centuries just picking a mortal and both trying to pull them to their side as a sort of competition.
One of the best parts of this series is watching them come into a new class with a grade already in mind, then coming up with cool new combos on the fly and struggling to justify raising that grade.
I wonder what build idea Colby will come up with for the unoptimized choice
BUT it will always be cool
Ends up with bladesinger version 5 :D
By suggestion of colby, i'm playing loxodon star druid with (lvl1) dao genie pact magic with crusher feat; and its lots of fun!
I feel like it'll be one of the Pact of the Blade non-hexbade options. A barbalock using Armor of Agathys which upcasts that for damage? Maybe a zealot barbarian fiend pact as a yin-yang thing?
@@aidandunne5978 a zealot is just fanatically religious. could be yin-yang, could be double down devotion to the patron. You start the build as a fanatic worshiper of said being/fiend/celestial, and your devotion pays off and they notice you and decide to become your patron and grant you a pack.
If you want to be the strangest character at your table; play as a fairy, be a warlock with a sprite familiar and a swarm ranger with a pixie swarm. You get to roll up to any situation with your fey pose
I did a take on this that was a fairy princess and her Patron was her fairy godmother
Every other one is your body double, which is the real PC? They'll never know. xD
I mentioned this in the Paladin multiclassing list, but the Celestial Warlock and just about any Paladin subclass synergize surprisingly well.
Yes! I could see the Oaths of Devotion and redemption working great with the Celestial warlock!
@@mellowtron1166 and you can flavor the pacts however you want, they can tie into your character's backstory or say something about the being they made a pact with. Pact of the Blade could say you patron is a Celestial warrior of kind, Pact of the Tome could say your patron is a celestial archivist of some kind, Pact of the Chain could be your patron wants to keep an eye on you for whatever reason, and those are just the examples I can think of off the top of my head.
Also great combinations:
- Undead + Oathbreaker (I call this one “Barbosa”)
- Ancients + Genie (The Primordial)
- Conquest + Fathomless (Namor)
- Crown + Fiend (Hellraiser, Knight of Asmodeus)
- Great Old One + Vengeance (Return Of The Fallen)
- Undead + Vengeance (Horror Movie Monster)
- Archfey + Crown (The Green Knight)
- Devotion + Fiend/GOO (The Cultist)
- Glory + Hexblade (The Faustian Deal / Soul for Fame)
- Redemption + Undying (The Second Chance)
- Watchers + GOO (Venom)
- Celestial + Watcher (Guardian of the Galaxy)
I could keep going
@@TheJulioToboso Undead + Vengeance, literally Revendread Slayer / Avendread Savior from Yugioh.
@@mardshima2070 That's a deep cut from Yugimans :)
Finally, Warlock my beloved
Indeed. Warlock and Bard are my favorites. And when you combine them 🤯
I agree I've been looking forward to this
Eldritch Blast go Burr ❤
I was expecting the Sorcerer video, but I love the warlock one too!
We had a scheduling mishap. It will be out soon.
@@DungeonDudesoops😂
Lol cool, I was also looking forward to the sorcerer video.
@@DungeonDudes not a bad thing, but this video showed a definite bias to hexblade. you guys barely talked about any other subclass for anything but barbarian, and you never even mentioned any pact except blade. not a big deal, just wanted to let you guys know
Draconic sorcerers can be paired with either the Celestial (as Bahamut resides on Mt. Celestia, one of his subordinates can be the patron) or the Fiend (in that case, you pick one of Tiamat's lackeys). Undead works too, if the patron is a powerful drakolich.
Yeah but unlike bloodline, gifts abd clerics deity worships. A warlocks pact are VERY serious, you cant break the contracts easly. Sure magic in the bloodline you cant get rid of easly but theres no higher power forcing you to abide to a pact, contract
@@odinulveson9101 yes you can lol. most famous conceptual warlocks go against their pact after getting their main benefits rather easily. there are just consequences of making an enemy of your patron. spawn is one example, he made a deal with a devil to be sent back and was on the condition he'd kill for malboga, which he doesn't and as a result gets hunted by demons and demon hunters. once the patron gives the warlock their powers, the patron cannot take those powers back any more than an angry employer can take their previous checks to your salary back - unlike a cleric, whose power derives directly from their god, in which a god simply stops empowering them until they get their shit together. the lead rules designer when asked about this said "the warlock does not have to be on good terms with their pact broker. they made a magical transaction, and now the warlock has power.", which is a big difference compared to a sorcerer who's power is just their own with no strings attached and a cleric whose power is 100% derived from a continuous supply from their god.
@@MVCx_xBin theory, you can't gain any more warlock levels if you break your pact, unless you get a new patron, but that's up to the dm lol
@@fishraposo7192that is false. There are no rules on how to deal with a warlock breaking it's pact.
@@spatha08 and that's why it's up to the DM. Did you even read my whole comment? Lol
I love how well the barblock can adapt to a bunch of different combat and social interactions. Easily my favorite off-meta build!
it really feels like sorcerer and warlock synergize more with each other than with the classes alone
Like, the late levels of warlock just aren’t worth it compared to grabbing sorcerer levels, and that’s not even worth it compared to just warlock 2/sorcerer 18
also, shoutout to my favorite multiclass name, sorlockadin
it’s an abomination and it’s my son and I love it very much
That just sounds like a creature from Star Wars
5e is best played by either going full minmax munchkin abomination, or mixing the craziest shit together to see what new shenanigans we can get banned from "civilized" tables. I want my character to end up immortalized in a greentext, not the next Lord of the Rings descendant.
@@Halinspark This is the way.
I'm a firm believer that as the evil variant of a class, all Warlock multiclass names should start with "wa-": waladin, warcerer, etc.
They should also all have zig zag mustaches, and upside down letters on their hats.
@@saltypork101"Waaaaaaagh!!"
My favorite idea from this is the Fiend Lock with a Barbarian dip! If you go Berzerker, it could just be your patron taking over and not caring if you live so long as their desire is met!
As they were discribing the Warlock/Barbarian with a Fiend Patron, I was getting instant Elric of Melnibone vibes. Temp HP, Pact weapon...
"Blood & Souls for Arioch !!!"
I've played a Fallen Aasimar Fiend Warlock with a few levels of Divine Soul Sorcerer for metamagic and some of the nice cleric spells and he hit like a truck in combat but also had some of my favourite story moments of all the characters I've played.
that does sound like a very interesting character!
And all of that can come online at level 6. 5 levels of hexblade, 1 level in divine soul, and take the metamagic adept feat. Make sure one of your learned spells for the divine soul is inflict wounds. For Invocations, make sure you have taken pact of the blade so that you can take Improved Pact Weapon, Eldritch Smite, and Thirsting Blade. Make sure one of the metamagics you take from the feat is quicken. Enjoy.
This channel is one of my favs for a reason. Always coming with the best D&D content
I like the idea of an artificer-genie warlock build. Both are concerned with making things, so there's a concept. The trick is making the Genie Bottle a Homunculus Servant, so it can fly around with you inside it! It's better the other way around, with the higher level in Artificer (and especially if the DM will allow the same trick with a Steel Defender).
3 levels of bard is fantastic. College of Eloquence gives so many options for making your warlock spells hit harder from Mind Sliver to bard dice cutting from saves.
people always dismiss the bard as a dip. It's a great dip.
@@goodgulfgas Two levels was my answer. One is kind of meh, but two gives you Jack of All Trades and oh boy is that good on a Warlock, especially if you are Mask of Many Faces infiltrator guy. You can get by in almost any situation. Three is probably better still for the subclass, but two is still very powerful.
People get to overly invested that if you multiclass you will not be as strong .
Correction you wont have higher level spells but the combos you get are better .
My favorite was a lw 6 eloquence bad/ lw 7-14 fire genie warlock.
Start with lw1 bard - then lw7 warlock - then lw6 bard - then rest warlock
-(Face/Infiltration)- Have actor feat + mask of many faces + misty visions to be high class illusionist and manipulator + eloquence bard + expertise in Deception and perception ( Rank S)
-(Scouting )- Pact of the chain imp to scout situation + high perception from expertise (Rank A)
---(Utility)---Even you your skills are not in History or arcane or religion you do have useful skills (Comp Languages, Detect magic, Identify) And jack of all trades for a little boost (Rank B)
-(Dps)- Fireball for low lw crowds(Slots from bard and Warlock) + Concentrated damage from Eldritch blast and summon aberration while flying (Rank A)
-(Control)- Class has good combo ,Unsettling Words + Silvery barbs + Hold person/ Raulothim's Psychic Lance to almost guarantee a success on a boss. (Rank A)
-(Survivability)- You are not a tank but you do have Armor of agahtis + fly from genie + Misty step to avoid damage (Rank B)
-(Support)- Class does not have good support but you can give healing potions if if party has goodbeRry to imp for easy heals for dropped players and bardic inspiration (Rank C)
@@LupineShadowOmegaJoAT also works on Counterspell checks. That's +2 at level 9, and a SAD Cha build bound to have a +4 already. You Counterspell level 7 spells with 50/50 odds.
I'm currently playing a Genie Swarmkeeper, whose Dao patron demands that he retrieve his bodyweight in sufficiently valuable gems as payment for rescuing him from slavery in a duergar mine. The swarm and his eldritch blasts are reflavoured as pebbles and stones which, as he progresses, transform into more and more precious gemstones. It's not especially more powerful (though the swarm + crusher + invocation forced movement + spike growth is *delicious*), but it's a ton of fun!
I designed a Dao warlock as an NPC and that was fun. He was a mountain dwarf obsessed with the secrets of the earth, and was an interesting guide, foil, and eventual benefactor for the party. After they cleared out the Forge of Fury he took over management, and promised them magic items made at the forge a year later in payment.
Conquest / Undead wasn't even mentioned in the paladin breakdown and I am devastated. One of my favorite characters I have ever played.
A friend and I, disappointed with the lack of a dragon patron, made the Pact of the Dragon our first homebrew subclass
Despite the lower rankings this video, this one is kinda my favorite of this tier list. This encourages creativity on how these classes could work together in new ways. It's sad that the interesting ones are never used, but it makes sense in the grand scheme. Taking these multiclasses from levels 1-12 could be a painful experience.
But that pain creates so much lore and rp. It really feels like character growth
@toddalexander5015 definitely.
Just built a Sorlock - Aberrant Mind/Fathomless is a really cool combo for a weird sea-monster/Cthulhu connected character.
Sounds perfect for someone with an Aboleth patron!
Hey, I'm in the process of building one following the previous video, would you agree to share what you did ? 🙏
Hexblade Warlock is funny on the Monk. Short rest Shield spell, invocation for Mage Armor, and Hexblade’s Curse adds Proficiency Bonus damage to damage rolls - which scales with your total level, not single class level.
Also, using Dedicated Weapon lets you take your non-heavy Pact of the Blade weapon and make it a monk weapon.
Not to mention if you take pact of the blade and take the thirsting blade invocation you can get 6 attacks per round
@@peterriverajr6899how are you doing 6 attacks per round I can only count 5 at max for monk/warlock
@@hoid4121 thristing blade you attack twice per attack action. Monks attack twice that 4. Plus flurry of blows is 6
@@peterriverajr6899 you can’t stack extra attack and thirsting blade as per the multi-classing rules
@@peterriverajr6899Thirsting Blade does not stack with Extra Attack, and even if it did it would add 1, not 2 attacks for a maximum of 5 with Flurry of Blows.
11:20 you could use the genie warlock for the extra damage from genie's wrath
16:37 as for bard lock multiclassing, ive wanted to do a great old one college of whispers multiclass for a while now
46:53 i'd pair draconic sorc with hexblade to use the ac and hp bonuses from the draconic resistance with a melee warlock..
Dude warlocks are my favorite class and I feel like the simple concept of getting magic power from an entity makes a lot of sense in fantasy. I love all the interesting combos that you guys have here! I can't wait to try the swarm ranger and warlock. Maybe with chain and fey pact.
Wizard 2 level dip is a hidden gem that was missed here. Any multiclass will delay spell progression for a warlock, but a small dip into wizard can round out the defensive/utility options. Shield, absorb elements, silvery barbs, etc don’t need Int and can be the difference between losing concentration on a big warlock spell or not without “wasting” 1 of the 2 warlock spells slots. Yes a sorcerer can use any of these spells too, but they can’t learn them all without big level investment because sorcerers know so few spells.
Other spells like sleep and magic missile upscale very well. Arcane recovery recharges some slots on a short rest and will get more spell slots over an adventure than other casting classes. Any wizard subclass can work but war magic and bladesinger give good and cheap defensive options even for non-melee builds
Oooo, strong argument indeed
Plus, with the dip, you get the ability to learn new spells and rituals. You could have a familiar, without having to have pact of the chain. You get three more cantrips and six spells with just one level. With two levels of wizard, you get any subclass and 8 spells known, To have 8 spells known in warlock you need 7 levels.
Also, I cant stress how good war magic is for this. A warlock can do without having to use an spell a round, so you get defensive options for free without having to use your spell slots.
But also, most people think that Portent is OP.... Imagine any multiclass, where you could just have portent. I think, wizard often is overlooked as a multiclass option, because of intelligence, but just with two levels, you get a lot.
Sure having to dip into intelligence sucks, but you could still have great stats. With point buy and a +2/+1 race, you could have 16 charisma, 16 constitution, 14 dexterity and 13 intelligence.... Every other ability but one, would be an 8, which is not ideal but it is not that bad either.
@@farrex0 Could also go 16 cha, 14 con/dex, 14 int then leave str at 8 and put wis at 10, done.
@@farrex0 Completely agree, Portent, Chronal Shift, and/or silvery barbs are all great ways to ensure a big save or suck spell works (warlocks only have two big spell slots so they need to make them count right?).
Being able to swap out prepared spells on a long rest is another huge advantage for the wizard in order to cycle in all the utility 1st level spells out there.
Yeah the spell access is always useful arcane recovery is nice for one more spell and some of the sub class features are solid. A war mages arcane deflections limit of only cantrips doesn't really hit a warlock the same way. The +2 to AC is pretty weak since its for the attack but the +4 to a save will probably cover all a warlocks concentration needs.
I actually played a Warlock/Druid combo before. It was a Feypact Warlock with a dip into Stars Druid (and a bit into Scout Rogue too by the end of it). Anyways, one thing you tend to forget about is that a staff of the Woodlands benefits all spell attack rolls, even Eldritch Blast, and the RP was nice too. He had a personal quest to map out the ways back and forth from the material plane to the feywild, in order to bring lost souls in need of guidance to the archfey he was pacted to. Add a plucky Sprite from the pact of the Chain, and it was a great character to RP. Plus since I had high wisdom and charisma already, it wasn't bad at combat either.
Ok, so hear me out:
Fey Warlock with 2 levels of Trickery domain Cleric.
Be a gnome, take the feat fade away.
Take the repelling blast invocation.
By level 8, you can: set up a doppelganger image of yourself, turn invisible upon getting hit, teleport away after getting hit, and blast enemies away from you.
You're impossible to pin down, and that's all without using spell slots
Monty should make that an NPC boss guy in Drakkenheim
I will bring up the War Wizard subclass to potentially boost your blaster character a bit. You get the ability to use a reaction to boost AC and saving throws as long as you don't cast a non-cantrip spell next turn. If you're casting Eldritch Blast anyway, that's not really a cost.
I'd probably still also pick up Sorcerer levels with this, but it's not a bad option.
Guys, I haven't even gotten into Baldur's Gate, and now I need to make a Barbarian/Warlock build.
Edit: Can't wait to see Colby bust out the Monk/Warlock build. He's pretty much got to, it includes Monk levels.
Great options for the Warlock/Barbarian: Fathomless Warlock can use BA to summon tentacles for more damage and a little battlefield control.
Celestial Warlock can heal as a BA and it isn't a spell so can use while raging. And what's worse than a barbarian taking half damage, smacking you, and then healing itself??
You mentioned the fiend and that's fun.
ALSO, wild magic barbarian can use Bolstering Magic to give itself spell slots back which you might need in a pinch if you can't get that short rest!
Path of the Beast can also use the bite attack to regain HP too so if combined with Celestial Warlock, or Fiend Warlock for more temp HP, this can be incredibly dangerous
Rogue is really good for Expertise in Deception. The other Rogue features are good but increasing your skills on a Warlock really works so well with all day invocations like Mask of Many Faces/Disguise Self.
I've played an Archfey Warlock/Gloomstalker Ranger in a Westmarch campaign, with the concept of an acolyte of the WIld Hunt (more like the traditional myth, less like Witcher), focusing on the bow with Improved Pact Weapon. It definitely takes time to pick up speed in lower levels, especially when you're not playing on a regular basis, and didn't go very far. I'm really looking forward to picking it up again for a higher level one-shot.
Ancestors Barbarian can really get a lot out of Warlock's Armor of Agathas spell (works with clockwork soul sorcerer too). Rage granting resistance to most damage doubles the benefit of the temp HP and maximizes the number of chances you can deal the cold damage. Reckless attack and the 3rd level ancestors ability really encourages enemies to hit you. It's a fun build. Ancestors Barbarian/Fiend Warlock would be especially fun for some very angsty RP (or an evil campaign).
Also consider the Undead patron. Got a 1d12 greataxe? At level 6 it's 2d12, and necrotic.
You also get temp HP, frightened immunity, and force frightened on anything that survives your attacks.
Pact of the Blade it and eventually you can just Armor of Agathys and use your other slot(s) to eldritch smite.
I did a hexblade 6 arcane trickster 10 in a campaign not too long ago. Almost all my wizard spells were utility based so I didn't really have issues with different spellcasting mods. Getting those low level spell slots for things like shield or silvery barbs really makes the warlock feel a lot more comfortable using their magic, knowing that they'll have a few decently leveled smites on deck still.
I think with the wizard dip is to treat it like the fighter or cleric, it's not there to increase spellcasting but to give access to the 2nd level subclass features. Granted, not all of them are useful to the warlock but Chronal Shift and Portent would really help with warlocks spells that need to saving throws to avoid. Hypnotic Gaze and to a lesser degree, Arcane Ward (because the ward won't have too many points but Armor of Shadows would keep it up pretty much indefinitely), can be pretty useful, too. And you can use the wizard spells to get utility spells so you don't have to get higher than 13 Int (Shield, Feather Fall, Absorb Elements, Silent Image and all the 1st level ritual spells - detect magic, find familiar, identify, etc). Plus Sleep doesn't require high Int to be effective.
Fighter/Warlock is my favorite multiclass in the game, specifically Battlemaster/Celestial or Hexblade, and always as Pact of the Blade. I recomend 6 levels of Fighter so you still get all 5 ASIs, and your Patron's capstone ability at level 14.
I love the mention of GOOlock/Watchers Paladin - it's a concept I'm playing in an upcoming mini campaign. The flavor is a bit different, though I love the story you came up with, but the mechanics are pretty solid as well for a non-hexblade lockadin.
Video drop was perfectly timed for lunch break. Thanks Dudes was a great watch as always.
20:15 Also there is a Warlock Invocation that allows for max healing for yourself! 😊
I really like that Watchers Paladin/Great Old One Warlock idea.
I’m glad the Barbarian got some recognition in here; I think if I play a Barbarian in a full campaign, it’s probably going to be a Zealot or Ancestral Guardian with some levels of Celestial Warlock.
Undead/zealot is brutal
This video is everything I could want of this concept. You did exactly what I do in other games I'm more experienced in, look for a fun idea conceptually, discover an interesting synergy(s), and completely lean into it before deciding whether or not to devote myself to the idea.
Suddenly I hope for a video about "Best Arcane Archer" (if only because I love the concept, but am left completely cold by the actual implementation...). You've opened my eyes to how to achieve something fun there, just need to get over my fear of charisma
You have my attention at the Creation Bard/Genie Warlock combination. I'm going to run with that idea if you don't mind. :D
I love playing sorcerer, and every campaign my DMs have mentioned “have you thought about multiclassing with warlock?” both for mechanical and RP reasons. I’d love to see an in depth Sorlock video from you guys like you mentioned in this one
Hexblade Warlock + Abjuration Wizard is pretty good if your DM is lenient.
The Armour of Shadows invocation is what makes it strong. You can keep your Arcane Ward at max levels between battles. And then you can get Temporary HP from Armour of Agathys.
Dang, we're already at Warlock? Did I miss the Sorcerer one? I don't remember seeing it!
I'd love to see a deeper dive video on the warlock barbarian build. The out of the box example was really intriguing.
I love these multiclass combo videos for each class! Keep up the great work, Dudes!
I would love a sorlock video from you guys!
I really want to build an aasimar divine soul celestial patron now…
For the “dragon patron” I made a Fiend Draconic Bloodline combo who was the child of a dark ritual performed by the cult of the dragon. Since Tiamat is currently in Avernus and even made a dragon-demon hybrid race
In defense of the Bard dip, there’s a lot of utility there. With those 4 spells known, get yourself helpful ritual casting spells like Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic or Identify. Healing Word or Faerie Fire always a welcome addition. Add on Bardic Inspiration and an extra skill proficiency and it’s a pretty good deal for just one level.
You said alchemist doesnt excite you but i think thats the coolest mulitclass with artificer here. The potions you make last until your next long rest and you can get your spell slots back on a short rest from warlock alowing you to chain short rests similarly to a coffelock to make a bunch of potions
My thoughts exactly! This one seems wild to me
I agree. The biggest weakness of the alchemist is that it has nothing to do in combat. Eldritch Blast solves that problem nicely.
The ability to make potions using spell slots should not be underestimated, especially if your spell slots come back on a short rest. Think of each potion option as another known spell on your spell list. A spell that you can cast and save for later by converting it into a potion. A spell that's concentration free, cannot be counterspelled or dispelled, and can even be given to someone else to cast for you.
This gives you the ability to have any unused spell slots carry over from one short rest to another, by "storing" these specialized spells in potions.
The healing potion option alone makes this a worthwhile multiclass for a warlock. There are only 3 ways I know of in the game to gain a "heal others" power that comes back on a short rest (Way of Mercy monk using ki points, Celestial warlock via the Cure Wounds spell, and now this multiclass). A healing potion created this way may not be as numerically powerful as a simple cure wounds spell from a celestial warlock, but if I drop to 0 HP in battle, I'd rather have a minor healing potion in the hands of an ally than be a Level 20 Life domain cleric.
The other potion options are similar, but one of the biggest advantages is that they free up your known spells. The Fly spell is faster than the potion of flight and can be upcast to target more than one person, but how often do you need 30 feet of flying speed when 10 feet won't work nearly as well? If I knew I could always make a potion of slow flight, I wouldn't learn Fly, giving me what amounts to an extra known spell.
And what about Alter Self? The only other way for a warlock to gain the spell is with a high level invocation. This not only lets you gain the benefits, it also lets you give the benefits to someone else. Even your entire party if you're willing to spend the spell slots. And it's concentration free so you don't have to worry about losing your water breathing if you're underwater.
And let me reiterate, all of this comes back on a short rest.
The other nice thing about this multiclass is that it doesn't require any particular build. Go with your favorite patron and pact boon. You don't need Hexblade/Pact of the Blade to make this work.
Finally the Barista.
@@toddhadley9002i want to make this character so what level splits do u recommend
One amazing thing action surge does for you is repelling blast. Eldritch knight is really nice because for one more level you get 1st level slots to waste on your defensive spells, and the extra spells known cover all those bases. It is good on any warlock.
One thing these videos do is showcase the *stunning number of combinations* and ideas. It is great to see the Dudes fired up and tossing around character concepts and builds like this.
Watching you two think through the warlock barbarian combo was so cool
Love all the thinking you guys did with part of the blade instead of just thinking about hexblade
I will actually be multiclassing my genie warlock into dragon sorcerer. The elemental flavor translates nicely between the two. The aberrant dragonmark feat adds additional flavor and utility
Love the warlock barbarian mix. Invocations can give a barbarian a lot of badly needed utility, but this video is about a warlock dipping into barb. Lots of potential I think.
Pack of the Tome warlock and Order of Scribe Wizard is a cool concept with invocations Aspect of the moon for scribing spells every nights, book of ancient secrets, eyes of the rune keeper, visions of distant realms (15th level but maybe not warlock level) and whispers of the grave for the archaeological side of t hings
Wait, shouldn’t Sorcerer come before this?
I feel like they're gonna do that and Wizard as one video as there aren't as many combinations as the other classes, especially for Wizard
@@GhostlyGrimaceI kinda hope not. Given the limit of known spells for sorcerers combined with their different casting abilities, the combinations are worth their own video imo.
Working on an Undead patron Warforged Warlock multiclass into Battlesmith Artificer. Pact of the Chain, Eldritch Invocations for steaith & recon, and using my familiar, homunculus, and iron defender as extra eyes & ears.
My patron is basically an artificial AI akin to Brainiac or Ultron. A virus/program that refuses to die.
barbarian warlock with Armour of agathys and Fire shield with fiend patron is a lot of "thorns" damage, with a lot of temp HP on you
it's pretty cool
doesn't the fire genie also get fire shield? and flight! that'd be pretty nasty?
I think the most underrated multiclass for a Warlock by both the Dudes and their community poll is the Druid.
First off, you don't need a high Wisdom to get a lot of value out of the Druid spell list, thanks to spells like Goodberry, Absorb Elements, Healing Word, Pass Without Trace, Locate Object, and Spike Growth. There are plenty of others, but these are the very best for mediocre Wisdom at low Druid levels.
Druid levels on any Warlock gives you short rest spell slots for Goodberry and Pass Without Trace. Extremely good. Congrats, you now have as much out of combat healing as you could ever want, and all the surprise rounds you could ever ask for.
If you're going mostly Hexblade, dipping any class with Spellcasting is nice because it gives you Shield slots. You don't want to be casting Shield with high level Warlock spell slots. Druid doesn't normally get Shield, but Hexblade does, and Druid gets the low level slots to use it.
Or if you really like hanging out in wildshape, GOO gives you telepathy right at level 1 for all your communication needs.
Meanwhile, Druids get some of the premier AoE control spells in the game, and Warlocks get Repelling Blast to push enemies into (or through, looking at you, Spike Growth) said spell effects.
Wildfire Druid plus EB lets you control ally and enemy position a whole heaping lot, which is very fun and very valuable, while Stars would instead help you protect your precious concentration. As a multiclassed character which is primarily Warlock, this is really important as you only get at most 2 high level slots per combat until very late levels.
Oh, and conceptually? It's a witch. Arguably the strongest fantasy character flavour that can't easily be reduced to a single class in 5e.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
On thing the tempest Cleric 2/Fathomless Warlock 5 can do is a max damage lightning bolt 1/short rest.
With this being the first MC video after BG 3, it’s interesting to see it in the lens of not needing pre-requisite for multi-classing.
Playing a Warlock Hexblade/Rogue Swashbuckler in "Rime of the Frost Maiden." been a blast, so far. Mask of Many Faces has come in handy many times and Misty visions gives me a heavily obscured area from which to attack and then break off and hide. Looking forward to relentless Hex invocation. I'll be a true mobility nightmare for my DM.
2 levels of barbarian and all the way with undead (fright + temp HP) or celestial warlock (heals as bonus action without spell casting and temp HP) or Fiendlock for temp HP on the kill. Pact of the Blade for Eldritch Smite. Genielock gives you concentration free flight.
Dudes, this video was so fun! I was kinda dreading it for hexblade reasons, but you guys made it so much more interesting than that! The sans hexblade theory crafting was a really fun listen.
I am actually playing an Undead lock building towards Phantom rogue. Expertise in persuasion/deception can never go wrong, and the Rebuke of the Talisman invocation synergizes real well with a Cunning Action dash back for an Eldritch Blast without disengaging. The way I set up my patron has been really interesting to roleplay too.
My patron is the ghost of a child who takes possession of the "character" whenever I take on Form of Dread, allowing the use of their ghostly powers. The connection between us takes the form of a silver necklace that the spirit is bound to as the Talisman. I was very dedicated in not using any magic unless I'm in Form of Dread at first, reinforcing the idea that it's the ghost's power, not mine.
I got crazy good rolls for stats, and I ended up with half decent Dex, so I took 2 levels in rogue for mobility and expertise. Now I've got a pattern with rogue abilities being my character's and warlock powers being my patron's. I'm starting to let cantrips through, having my character claim that they now sometimes "feel the spirit's feelings". Soon I'll move it into a full melding of their personalities as the possession becomes less of an event and more of a chronic condition. It'll get worse and worse until I've taken 6 levels in lock for the Grave Touched feature (no need to eat/drink/breathe), and then I'll cap off with that 3rd level in rogue to take the Phantom subclass, once the possession is complete.
This will kind of make me my own warlock patron, which my DM is willing to work with. I'll admit, I prioritized roleplay/theming over power with this build, but I've found it very rewarding all the same. All this assumes I live long enough to hit at least 9th level, so fingers crossed.
I actually made a celestial warlock pact of the blade. Cause i wanted to play around with a different type of character, but still get that gish feel. So i made my dex the main stat on my character to multiclass into rouge or fighter. Is it optimal. no not at all. But the theme and feel of the character is a blast! And having contant healing in fight on bonus action has been really nice in fights, to get up people getting knocked unconscious. Sometimes going against the norm is just fun cause it's different flavour of icecream!
I'm currently playing a Gloom-Stalker Ranger/ Genie Warlock multiclass on an Anime-based Discord Server.
Both work relatively well together, especially with Pact of the Blade and the 'Enhanced Pact Weapon' Invocation.
made some decent use of Fog Cloud (my Genie Warlock is specialized with the Marid patron), one such instance was when dealing with some spell-casting mobs: the Fog provided nice obscurement and enabled other party members to dispatch some melee mobs that were closing in.
Also been making some nice use out of the 'Eldritch Smite' Invocation.
I loved these! Close to complete though, it’s been fun watching all of these, and all the things Colby comes up with from your promos :)
One funny combo with warlock artificer is the alchemist. Even two 1st level slots that come back on a short rest allows you to make lots of additional elixirs. I played a high elf for for hour long rests and used the rest of the time my party we're resting to kit them out for the day. The dagda was my patron and the flavor really gelled.
I just wanted to share the Sorlock I made for my friend's campaign:
She is a Reborn, Undead/Draconic Bloodline Warlock/Sorcerer and even though there is a bit of overlap between Undead and Reborn, I did it all specifically for the flavoring. The idea behind her is that she is a full-blooded wyrmling that was cut down defending her homeland from an army of invaders. A necromancer shortly after found her remains (specifically her head) and brought her back to life with a few other body pieces that worked well enough to allow her life in a humanoid body again. She appears as an awkward Dragonborn with some peculiar proportions, but keeps herself cloaked to hide that away when not in her form of dread. Her patron is a dracolich that has been based on an ancient relative that was able to persist through the assaults and she has her Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer line for.... fairly obvious reasons. The DM has taken inspiration from you two and crafted a few spells specific to my character's DB spell list to draw from. Once my character is fully leveled, she will be 6 Sorcerer and 14 Warlock, 6 for the Charisma bonus to my spells and 14 for Spirit Projection. The latter of which will be 20th level and her spirit will have the appearance of her full-blooded dragon self.
Hope you found my character to be interesting enough to read through all that! I've been anxiously awaiting leveling her up and revealing her secrets to the rest of her party.
She sounds great! Hope you have fun playing her and she finds some peace in her new form!
Battle master fighter as a foundation works with most other classes. 5 levels gives you second wind, a fighting style, action surge, 4 maneuvers/short rest, a feat (crossbow expert or similar), and extra attack. Then another class like warlock for thematics and eldritch invocations seems really good.
You guys really need to check out the modern magic unearthed arcana. Gives you the Ghost in the Machine patron to pair with the clockwork soul or artificer
I'm going to be playing a G.O.O.lock with a three level dip into Eloquence Bard with Mask of Many in an upcoming heist campaign. My warlock was blackmailed into a pact with the LocNar from Heavy Metal and he has to form a cult of chaos and destruction otherwise his lover gets consumed by the LocNar. He was a writer who found the wrong book while researching a novel. I plan on playing him as a crazed conspiracy theorist possible serial killer who is capable of commiting atrocities and gets progressively unhinged as time goes on, but then revealing his backstory as a gentle nurturing kind young man through weekly letters to his lover delivered via our discord out of character before each session for sympathy. Oh the things one does for love! Thanks for all you do, DD.
Good video as always. I think there is an interesting case for the undear warlock/ barbarian combo, because of the form of the dread. It would be interesting to play like Zealot barbarian/Undead Warlock.
As they were discribing the Warlock/Barbarian with a Fiend Patron, I was getting instant Elric of Melnibone vibes. Temp HP, Pact weapon...
"Blood & Souls for Arioch !!!"
A cool concept to also add to the warlock/ranger would be the horizon walker ranger. You could gain powers from a being like celestial or Fey or genie and obviously hexblade, and be a ranger dedicated to keeping portals to other realms protected/closed. And you can take all the good rangers spells that don’t rely on casting stat.
Something interesting you can do with warlock/paladin multiclasses is you can take Pact of the Tome for Shillelagh to attack using Charisma. in that case you end up taking Paladin up to 6 for the Aura and Extra Attack because you don't have access to that invocation anymore, but you can be awesome as a caster and as a melee character. It's something interesting to consider for small parties.
Barbarian + Warlock is honestly my single favorite multiclass because it sounds so off-the-wall but it actually works pretty well
It's Elric of Melnibone
Any class that uses charisma: “I wish there was a way to spice up my build”
Hexblade: 👁️👄👁️
An interesting thing that got glossed over here with the Artificer is that the Alchemist can use pact spell slots to make potions like a coffeelock.
Love seeing your call out to D4. You certainly gave me some unexpected builds for upcoming one-shots
the one nice thing about warlock+wizard is you can go full ritual casting out of combat utility and just take every ritual you can find. it would be terrible in combat, but would be fun to roleplay
Did we skip the sorcerer?
I am currently a Sorlock in 2 different games, messing around with builds. In one game, I’ve taken 2 lvls in Warlock (Hexblade for character background reasons), and the rest will be Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. I’ve been playing her as a psychic warrior (an elf with over 500 years of combat/magic experience).
The other game I’m in, I started out with 3 lvls of Warlock (Celestial Pact), and the rest will be Divine Soul Sorcerer (she is a Protector Aasimar that discovers she has innate magical ability after having made a pact). This build is a little slower, but RP wise is rewarding. She’s discovering more of her own capabilities and growing more powerful as the game goes on.
So far, I’m having a blast with two different Sorlock builds in these games. If you haven’t tried it, highly recommend!
Treantmonk did an incredible Fey Wanderer/Undead build that focused on causing fear.
Fey Wanderer/Arch Fey is thematically easier to explain, though it has fewer uses to trigger fear or charm to use the 7th level subclass feature Beguiling Twist. The issue with Fey Wanderer/Warlock is the build comes online late and is primarily a Ranger dipping into Warlock, where as this video is focusing on Warlock as the primary class.
I actually recently built a hexbuckler who was shockingly fun, I took revenant blade as a feat and conjured a double bladed scimitar as my pact weapon essentially giving me three chances to land sneak attack in a turn with the thirsting blade invocation on top of being able to stack a lot of attacks with hex and having an insane initiative bonus. Don't sleep on Rizz Rogue
What about the sorcerer multi-class video?
Great video guys I love to see you guys come up with a dragon patron sub class or lore.
i think a cool plot thing for the watcher paladin/GOOlock is if there were some corrupt paladins, the GOO is only weaker because its power is divided but there is some sort of ritual or whatever to use the paladins to repower it
I'd B the cleric/warlock. I've played it a lot and it can create some really flexible builds which are survivable at lower-levels.
* Heavy armor or the warlock means you can dump dexterity entirely and put those points in constitution or something else.
* You do have the option of going strength-based and not doing a hex blade. War, tempest, etc. work well with just a regular bladelock.
* Cleric cantrips are useful -- guidance, light, and such.
* The extra spell slots, even if first level are amazing to feed hex, even at higher levels, saving your high level warlock slots for something needed.
* Clerics can ritual cast, so you can always fill your cleric slots with ritual spells such as detects to gain spells warlocks rarely take. A nature cleric would easily just take cure wounds and detect magic, plus the speak with animals and animal friendship and just ritual detects and speak with animals.
* Clerics can also pray for spells, so the next day you could also take say detect poison and disease to check out a potion.
* Many cleric spells and cantrips do not require high wisdom. Bless, shield of faith, and other spells are just as effective with a 13 wisdom.
* The ability to use your high level warlock spells to do lots of healing prior to a short rest is great. You can do life domain if you are really insane.
Armor of Agathys + Cloak of Flies is a great combo on a barbarian.
Also, if you want to say “screw temp HP”, Celestial pact of the blade warlock is easy to combine with Zealot Barbarian and gives them their own in built bonus action healing.
Wartificer: your 40k D&D Mechanicum crossover.
Going monk 5? Why not stay till 6 for all those subclass features? You're already in that much. Shadow warlock with those four spells and teleportation? Ki-fueled spells recharging on a short rest? Amazing!
Kelly! Love the shirt! Come to Bend, Oregon, USA if you want to visit the last Blockbuster in the world!
One of my favortie builds i ever played was a fiend pact warlock 12/battlemaster fighter 3, it was a beautiful mix of fuels control and tankiness
Been playing a bardlock in a game for a few years now, and it's actually been fairly fun. We're level 14 now, my character is a melee undead warlock 8/lore bard 6. It's definitely not the most powerful build, and definitely doesn't do as much damage as some other builds. But it makes for an excellent controller, especially with the extra bard slots (silvery barbs and vortex warp are excellent for preventing damage and getting people where they need to be). And for a long time we didn't have a rogue, so they were doing the skill-monkey/stealth aspects. Been having fun with it, especially since my DM gave me some magic items that help make up for the fact that it's MAD and squishy.
Great video guys! I would say that the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer combos much better with a Fathomless Warlock instead of a GOOlock because the telepathic abilities are redundant between Aberrant and GOO, and with the Fathomless you can double down on the tentacle-y eldritch horror by summoning your tentacle.