Hello!
I wanted to share this because I was immensely surprised at how well it appeared to be, and I wanted to see if I’m missing something.
I have had the opportunity to create a lvl 20 character for a lvl 20 campaign that will be starting soon. I have run such games before, but never played one (I’m almost always a DM) and my DM told me to go nuts. We were allowed to roll our stats, and I rolled exceptionally well (a rare occurrence for me. The last character I rolled stats for wound up with a 4 and a 6.). The stats I rolled were 18, 17, 14, 13, 12, 11.
After what seemed like forever working on it, tweaking it here and there, I finally settled on an Aarikocra Divine Soul Sorcerer 3/Celestial Warlock 17.
After MUCH debate, and playing with the options, I actually, surprisingly, settled on the Pact of the Blade.
For Invocations, I took:
Agonizing Blast
Repelling Bladt
Thirsting Blade
Lifedrinker
Eldritch Smite
Master of Myriad Forms
Shroud of Shadow
For Feats, I wound up with three, including Tough from my background as new background have been coming with a starter Feat. The other two are Metamagic Adept, to get two more Metamagic options and two more Sorcery Points, and Great Weapon Master.
My Metamagics are Subtle Spell, Quicken Spellc Extended Spell and Distant Spell. I have 5 Sorcery Points, but can only convert spell slots into 3 points max. Since I have four 5th lvl warlock slots, when I take a Short Rest I can essentially convert a 5th lvl slot until a permanent 2nd lvl slot that lasts until a long rest. It’s not quite a Coffeelock, but I can have a number of extra 2nd lvl slots to help fuel Sorcery Points. And since I have Greater Restoration as a Celestial Warlock, I COULD go without a long rest if I wanted. But I only like so much Cheese.
As part of the lvl 20 game, I was also allowed to chose a Legendary item and a Very Rare item. I can have other Magic Items (were supposed to be rulers of our respective nations) but only one Rare and one Legendary.
After much deliberation, I wound up choosing a Belt of Storm Giant Strength and a +3 Greatsword.
For spells, I have a couple AOE’s, and Spirit Shroud, but mostly my spells are defensive or utility. Oh, and I took True Polymorph as my lvl 9 Arcanum and Glibness for my lvl 8 Arcanum. I’m a ruler. I need to be Charismatic.
All said and done, my initial thought when I tried this combination was that it would be lackluster. After all, I am not a Hexblade, and everyone knows the Pact of the Blade is lackluster.
But…
I get two attacks. The damage for each is as follows:
2d6+3: +3 Greatsword
+9: Belt of Storm Giant Strength
+5: Lifedrinker
+10: Great Weapon Master
2d8: Spirit Shroud
That’s 2d6+2d8+27 per hit. Thats an average of 45 damage I believe, per hit. And that’s without my smites, which add an additional 6d8, or 32 average damage.
Of course, I’ll save my Smites for when I Crit. So a Crit would wind up with 4d6+16d8+27 for an average of 123 damage. And that’s on a single hit.
Thats two resources used: Spirit Shroud and an Eldritch Smite. Thats half my Spell Slots. But Spirit Shroud is the only spell I’d be casting in this case, and even without it, I’ll be doing substantial damage every turn without needing resources.
And what’s more, I can Quicken Green Flame Blade, which would trigger my Radiant Soul feature adding an additional 5 damage, for a total of 2d6+5d8+32 (ave 65) damage plus 3d8+5 (ave 20) to a second person.
In other words, with one spell slot and two sorcery points letting me attack three times, I can do near to 150 damage in a single round without smiting. If I Crit on any of those attacks, I’d add a 12d6 smite to it.
These are insane number. Yes, I understand I need two high level magic items to make it work. Yes, I understand giving a Fighter those two magic items and the same Feat lets them do this four times a round at this level. But the fighter can’t smite. This build puts the Warlock on par with a Paladin in burst damage.
As for defense, that’s my bane. I use a sorcerer spell slot for Mage Armor and have a 20 Dex, as well as the shield spell, so I can have up to a 23 AC if needed. Thats not bad but not ideal at this level. I do have Armor of Agathys, but that’s another spell slot.
And that’s why I chose Celestial Warlock over the Genie. Genie would give me a little more damage once a round and some neat utility (we reworked Wish, so it isn’t the be all and end all it usually is), but the Celestial gives me a ton of Temp HP, and if I do get knocked out and have to make a death save, I regain half my HP max (max is 199, so I regain 99 hp) and blind everyone around me without a save. So I essentially start each fight with 320 hp. That’s Barbarian levels of health, right there.
For the record, my attack bonus is a +13 AFTER subtracting 5 for Great Weapon Master. Thats the reason for the +3 Greatsword. I also have only used one Attunement slot, so I have room for other items to maybe shore up some other weaknesses.
As for flexibility, I have True Polymorph. I really don’t need anything more flexible than that.
I never thought a Blade Pact Warlock would wind up my favorite, and not even a Hexblade. What do y’all think? Is there something I'm missing?
I wanted to share this because I was immensely surprised at how well it appeared to be, and I wanted to see if I’m missing something.
I have had the opportunity to create a lvl 20 character for a lvl 20 campaign that will be starting soon. I have run such games before, but never played one (I’m almost always a DM) and my DM told me to go nuts. We were allowed to roll our stats, and I rolled exceptionally well (a rare occurrence for me. The last character I rolled stats for wound up with a 4 and a 6.). The stats I rolled were 18, 17, 14, 13, 12, 11.
After what seemed like forever working on it, tweaking it here and there, I finally settled on an Aarikocra Divine Soul Sorcerer 3/Celestial Warlock 17.
After MUCH debate, and playing with the options, I actually, surprisingly, settled on the Pact of the Blade.
For Invocations, I took:
Agonizing Blast
Repelling Bladt
Thirsting Blade
Lifedrinker
Eldritch Smite
Master of Myriad Forms
Shroud of Shadow
For Feats, I wound up with three, including Tough from my background as new background have been coming with a starter Feat. The other two are Metamagic Adept, to get two more Metamagic options and two more Sorcery Points, and Great Weapon Master.
My Metamagics are Subtle Spell, Quicken Spellc Extended Spell and Distant Spell. I have 5 Sorcery Points, but can only convert spell slots into 3 points max. Since I have four 5th lvl warlock slots, when I take a Short Rest I can essentially convert a 5th lvl slot until a permanent 2nd lvl slot that lasts until a long rest. It’s not quite a Coffeelock, but I can have a number of extra 2nd lvl slots to help fuel Sorcery Points. And since I have Greater Restoration as a Celestial Warlock, I COULD go without a long rest if I wanted. But I only like so much Cheese.
As part of the lvl 20 game, I was also allowed to chose a Legendary item and a Very Rare item. I can have other Magic Items (were supposed to be rulers of our respective nations) but only one Rare and one Legendary.
After much deliberation, I wound up choosing a Belt of Storm Giant Strength and a +3 Greatsword.
For spells, I have a couple AOE’s, and Spirit Shroud, but mostly my spells are defensive or utility. Oh, and I took True Polymorph as my lvl 9 Arcanum and Glibness for my lvl 8 Arcanum. I’m a ruler. I need to be Charismatic.
All said and done, my initial thought when I tried this combination was that it would be lackluster. After all, I am not a Hexblade, and everyone knows the Pact of the Blade is lackluster.
But…
I get two attacks. The damage for each is as follows:
2d6+3: +3 Greatsword
+9: Belt of Storm Giant Strength
+5: Lifedrinker
+10: Great Weapon Master
2d8: Spirit Shroud
That’s 2d6+2d8+27 per hit. Thats an average of 45 damage I believe, per hit. And that’s without my smites, which add an additional 6d8, or 32 average damage.
Of course, I’ll save my Smites for when I Crit. So a Crit would wind up with 4d6+16d8+27 for an average of 123 damage. And that’s on a single hit.
Thats two resources used: Spirit Shroud and an Eldritch Smite. Thats half my Spell Slots. But Spirit Shroud is the only spell I’d be casting in this case, and even without it, I’ll be doing substantial damage every turn without needing resources.
And what’s more, I can Quicken Green Flame Blade, which would trigger my Radiant Soul feature adding an additional 5 damage, for a total of 2d6+5d8+32 (ave 65) damage plus 3d8+5 (ave 20) to a second person.
In other words, with one spell slot and two sorcery points letting me attack three times, I can do near to 150 damage in a single round without smiting. If I Crit on any of those attacks, I’d add a 12d6 smite to it.
These are insane number. Yes, I understand I need two high level magic items to make it work. Yes, I understand giving a Fighter those two magic items and the same Feat lets them do this four times a round at this level. But the fighter can’t smite. This build puts the Warlock on par with a Paladin in burst damage.
As for defense, that’s my bane. I use a sorcerer spell slot for Mage Armor and have a 20 Dex, as well as the shield spell, so I can have up to a 23 AC if needed. Thats not bad but not ideal at this level. I do have Armor of Agathys, but that’s another spell slot.
And that’s why I chose Celestial Warlock over the Genie. Genie would give me a little more damage once a round and some neat utility (we reworked Wish, so it isn’t the be all and end all it usually is), but the Celestial gives me a ton of Temp HP, and if I do get knocked out and have to make a death save, I regain half my HP max (max is 199, so I regain 99 hp) and blind everyone around me without a save. So I essentially start each fight with 320 hp. That’s Barbarian levels of health, right there.
For the record, my attack bonus is a +13 AFTER subtracting 5 for Great Weapon Master. Thats the reason for the +3 Greatsword. I also have only used one Attunement slot, so I have room for other items to maybe shore up some other weaknesses.
As for flexibility, I have True Polymorph. I really don’t need anything more flexible than that.
I never thought a Blade Pact Warlock would wind up my favorite, and not even a Hexblade. What do y’all think? Is there something I'm missing?
It's all boss fights.
