D&D 5E [GUIDE] The Sorlock – Guide to the tormented divine soul with Xanathar's Divine Soul(17)+Hexblade(3) [Updated 12/20/21]

[Voitan Rex]

Sorry to occupy your time, because now you will have to redo all your damage calculations.

Divine Soul Sorcerer can get Bestow Curse, and every attack (including your Spiritual Weapon) gets an additional 1d8 dice of necromantic damage, besides all the other unbelievably amazing debilitations the target suffers. Cast it at 5th level spell slot at no concentration to stack it with Hex.

Consider the combo potential of Warcaster feat, and Polearm Mastery. Casting a spell on your Reaction when an enemy enters your Reach because they provoke an attack of opportunity with both of these feats combined. Oddly, you can use a Quarterstaff with this, so our ideal gear set up with a Staff of Power still works.

I admire the guide's work. I came upon my own variation of this build as well for the raw damage of Hexblade's Curse adding onto Eldritch Blast, but didn't catch Spiritual Weapon would benefit from spells like Hex, and also Hexblade's Curse as well.

 

[Obliza]

Sorry to occupy your time, because now you will have to redo all your damage calculations.

Divine Soul Sorcerer can get Bestow Curse, and every attack (including your Spiritual Weapon) gets an additional 1d8 dice of necromantic damage, besides all the other unbelievably amazing debilitations the target suffers. Cast it at 5th level spell slot at no concentration to stack it with Hex.

Consider the combo potential of Warcaster feat, and Polearm Mastery. Casting a spell on your Reaction when an enemy enters your Reach because they provoke an attack of opportunity with both of these feats combined. Oddly, you can use a Quarterstaff with this, so our ideal gear set up with a Staff of Power still works.

I admire the guide's work. I came upon my own variation of this build as well for the raw damage of Hexblade's Curse adding onto Eldritch Blast, but didn't catch Spiritual Weapon would benefit from spells like Hex, and also Hexblade's Curse as well.

Oh, thankyou this is juicy. I had no idea upcasting bestow curse allows you to remove the concentration requirement, now I need to look for other spells that do this.....

• While the target is cursed, your attacks and spells deal an extra 1d8 necrotic damage to the target.

So that would be for the 8 attacks of eldrich blast giving you.
1d10+1d8+1d6+11 per Beam
or
8d10+8d8+8d6+88 for 196aDPR, range 112-280, deviation 11.46

Not bad.

 

[Voitan Rex]

Don't forget you can get another 4 Eldritch Blasts if the enemy closes in on you using a staff/polearm with Warcaster feat, and Polearm Mastery, for a total of 12 Eldritch Blasts in a round potentially.

With Repelling Blast you knock the enemy out of their Reach to target you by 10 feet for each Eldritch Blast hit, making them competely miss their chance to hurt you, and back where they started, possibly even further away than they began.

 

[MotoMkali]

Thanks for the excellent guide I am starting a campaign soon with a character based on this guide.

I was wondering what your opinion is with half-elf vs aasimar is. As with advantage and bless you aren't hitting much less frequently than with elven accuracy but you are gaining healing and the ability to do additional radiant damage when you hit an opponent with a spell equla to your level (once per turn I think but the wording isn't super clear as it could be each time you hit with a single spell so 80 extra damage at level 20 as opposed to 20.) but either this bumps your damage to about 174 at level 20 as opposed to 159 with elven accuracy. This also frees you up to take another feat such as warcaster at a lower level.
So what are your thoughts regarding this.

Also warlock 2 vs warlock 3. Is unearthly recovery better than 4 sorcerery points per short rest?
And if not then if should I take the pact of the chain do I take voice of the chain master or repelling blast.

 

[elganaurion]

Build

Hexblade Warlock 2
​

First of all thanks for the great guide, just one question. It looks like you suggest starting with 2 or 3 levels in warlock in this guide. Is this true? or do you mean 1 - Sorc and then Warlock? I might be missunderstanding some part of it, but it isn't completely clear what you suggest per level. The leveling paths in the end just describes variants where you go 5 levels sorc to start with?

Anyhow, isn't it a good idea to start lvl 1 as sorc to get con+cha saves? Hex warrior gives you the Armor proficiencies needed anyway (when you take your first warlock lvl). However the first ASI/Feat would come at lvl 7 if you do 3 levels of warlock.

1 - S
2 - W
3 - W
4 - W
rest - S
7 - ASI /FEAT

So maybe the 5 sorc levels in the beginning is a better choice anyhow.

 

[Obliza]

It looks like you suggest starting with 2 or 3 levels in warlock in this guide.

Now that you mention it it does seem confusing the way I put it but your intution is correct, always start sorcerer for con saves.

The leveling paths in the end just describes variants where you go 5 levels sorc to start with?

Going 5 levels of sorcerer seems to be the ideal route in my opinion, you get the lvl 4 ASI and fireball at level 5. Delaying this hurts.

I was wondering what your opinion is with half-elf vs aasimar is.

Aasimar is brilliant, you just have to ask yourself if its worth giving up elven accuracy which is a tough ask on eldritch blast. If your campaign makes use of flying and you make use of the +1 to wisdom, Protector Aasimar are very strong. Unless you are at a table of mix-maxers it might be more fun to play Aasimar anyway. Elven Accuracy is great, brilliant with hexblade curse but its not 'necessary'. Still in terms of strongest possible I think Half-Elf is simply too good although you make a good argument for Aasimar.

Also warlock 2 vs warlock 3. Is unearthly recovery better than 4 sorcerery points per short rest?

Personally I think 4 sorcery points per short rest is superior. It depends on how often you get to short rest. Additionally, as much as I advertise 20th level damage, the attractiveness of Warlock 3 is that you get it at level 8, not level 20.

Should I take the pact of the chain do I take voice of the chain master or repelling blast.

Pact of the Chain, Tome and Repelling Blast are all viable. I think if you are playing digitally or with a physical board, repelling blast is very good for control. If you are playing without those I would look at other options.

 

[elganaurion]

Now that you mention it it does seem confusing the way I put it but your intution is correct, always start sorcerer for con saves.
Going 5 levels of sorcerer seems to be the ideal route in my opinion, you get the lvl 4 ASI and fireball at level 5. Delaying this hurts.

Super, thanks for the clarification.
And as a tip you might want to start the "Build section" with a reference to the leveling path guide at the bottom of your post and add a mention that picking Sorc as level 1 is recommended for the con saves. But, I guess this depends on what you what you want to play on lower levels. You will get the eldritch blasting feeling earlier if you start as warlock, but way less spell options. For the campaign we are starting I will get sorc first since the subtle metamagic will be very usefull as it will be RP heavy and it's hinted that there are laws against magic.

 

[LordRage1983]

I am playing a campaign in which our DM allowed us an extra 6 attribute points upon character creation if we take a certain flaw or deficit. He also may be allowing a attribute cap of 24 or 26, that being said, how would you start your character assuming an extra 6 attributes, or what other combination of feats would you add on since you wouldn't need to dump into charisma.

I should also mention we cant start the campaign with any attributes above 18 (before racials)

 

[Yunru]

Well with a cap of 26 that'd still be all but one of your ASI into Charisma. You want Charisma. It makes your stuff actually do stuff, as apposed to miss by 1.

 

[LordRage1983]

Well with a cap of 26 that'd still be all but one of your ASI into Charisma. You want Charisma. It makes your stuff actually do stuff, as apposed to miss by 1.

So +2 CHA outperforms every other feat except eleven accuracy? This is my first character/game of D&D, sorry for lack of knowledge here.