D&D 5E Interesting Warlocks, particularly blade pact with an emphasis on INTERESTING

[Warpiglet]

So much has been said about my new favorite class, the warlock. To date, I have had two of them but have unfortunately only gotten them to third/fourth level. I am thinking about starting over with one of them after a redesign. The possibility of a hexblade patron is the catalyst.

I have a question for others who like this class (and particularly the blade pact): what are some interesting feats and invocations you have chosen? What background have you used to flesh this out? How has it been to play?

The only caveat and exclusion would be this: I am not interested in optimization alone. I avoid feeble characters (incompetent in combat) but much has been written about pumping eldritch blast. I have considered taking agonizing blast (I never have before) along with utility and melee as a secondary feature but might want something more colorful (even repelling blast).

Discussion of patrons would be fun too.

So to summarize: what are some interesting ideas for bladelock you have had fun with? Patron, invocation and feats are certainly a major consideration!

 

[Lanliss]

I quite enjoy my Pirate Bladelock. Swashbuckler 3/Undying Bladelock of Davy Jones 3, Captain Pocartis Forsus, "Privateer" of the Western Land. I grabbed Defensive Duelist feat, since I planned this guy for a lot of close quarters combat, and needed a way to cut some damage down. All of his Warlock choices have been built towards Social and Exploration pillars, while his Swashbuckling handles his combat competence. His story is that he was Pirating and met an ill fate at sea. Davy Jones offered him the customary deal, serve under Jones to live longer, and he made a counter offer. He ensures many people die at sea, feeding Davy Jones more power. To this end, he went to court, incognito, and built up a reputation as a good sailor. He got himself in with higher-ups in the navy, and convinced them that he should go plunder some enemy waters. Now he gets to live, Pirate, and even has a government he hates paying him to do it. Good times all around.

I would recommend figuring out the specifics of the blade you are bound to. Is it the Blade pact weapon you carry, or is it a distant force that you simply draw on? How do you pay homage to the patron? Is it sentient, like Blackrazor, or is it simply a magic hunk of alien metal that you hold a piece of? Does your PC like it, or feel like the powers are a curse? If it is sentient, do you talk with it? are you the only Warlock for this patron?

What style of combat do you want? You could run a good Fighter/Barbarian Great weapon user, with focus on the UA smite invocation (curse bringer for the Hexblade patron, IIRC) for ridiculous damage, or mix in some monk/rogue like I did for extra hit-and-run capabilities. If you are looking for straight Hexblade, with no multiclassing, maybe grab the Battlemaster-lite feat (name escapes me) for some good fun. Personally, I would go for a tripping attack and parry (or whatever the one that boosts your AC is called), for control and protection, but any that fit your play style are good. These should all put heavy focus on the Blade half of your Pact, leaving the Hex half open for either Moar Combat, or social/exploration.

 

[DJCupboard]

Have you felt underwhelming in combat without agonizing blast? My current character is almost at 2nd level, and there are more interesting things I would prefer to take, but it feels almost mandatory.

To your question: that character is a fey pact (so not 100%what you are looking for). Her pact is with her archfey great-grandfather, but due to trickery on his part she thinks she is the chosen acolyte of a deity. Her powers are a mix of gifts he actually gives her (for instance I like the new summer court healing buff invocation) and the manifestation of her (fake) holy destiny (for instance, her eldritch blast is in the form of a magic shortbow that only appears when she fires it).

Sorry I don't have too much crunch info yet...


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[lowkey13]

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[Lanliss]

Have you felt underwhelming in combat without agonizing blast? My current character is almost at 2nd level, and there are more interesting things I would prefer to take, but it feels almost mandatory.

To your question: that character is a fey pact (so not 100%what you are looking for). Her pact is with her archfey great-grandfather, but due to trickery on his part she thinks she is the chosen acolyte of a deity. Her powers are a mix of gifts he actually gives her (for instance I like the new summer court healing buff invocation) and the manifestation of her (fake) holy destiny (for instance, her eldritch blast is in the form of a magic shortbow that only appears when she fires it).

Sorry I don't have too much crunch info yet...


Sent from my iPhone using EN World mobile app

I have not had a whole lot of combat, my DM just wanted me to start at level 6 since it is a 1-on-1 game. We kicked off with a fight that went well, but have not had another fight in the couple of sessions since then. currently working on turning a semi-abandoned set of islands into my home base for pirating. I have a cutlass (scimitar) as a pact weapon, and swing about a dagger as well on bonus actions when I don't have anything better to do. Being Swashbuckler gives me great 1-vs-1 damage, since I can sneak attack every round that I can get an enemy alone, so I dealt decent enough damage to the crew we boarded. I can say that, so far, I have not had any problems that were out of my range, since they were confined to a ship. My main concern is my AC, which is unarmored for thematic purposes. I have Armor of Shadows for free Mage Armor, plus the Duelist feat I mentioned helps a bit, but 16(19 against melee on a reaction) is not high enough for the enemies to miss as often as I would like (ideally, always. ).

The most I can say is that the character looks competent on paper, with his weaknesses being range and a not-so-high AC. Encourages careful planning, and clever thinking if my DM ever thinks to throw ranged enemies at me. At least until I find a way to misty step, or just turn my pact weapon into something throwable. This all makes it so he is not boring/dead when I get into a fight, so I an enjoy his flavor and backstory longer, but not so optimized as to be unstoppable.

 

[Barolo]

Blade packs can have nice quirks for assassin types, if you don't mind multiclassing. An rogue assassin can be really well served by the ability to conjure a weapon out of thin air that this pact boon provides. Moreover, from the base warlock chassis they can get some invocations quite useful for their job, such as devil's sight, mask of many faces and one with shadows. I've heard fiend pacts find the assassin job even more rewarding.

 

[Gonat]

I've played two warlocks so far: A fey/nature chainlock and a fiendish manipulator bladelock.
Both singular class and both a blast to play.

- The first one was an even maiden with a fey patron and a pseudo-dragon familiar. The theme was: hunter-ranger with a nature fey patron
The eldritch blast cantrip was reskinned as a 'ghostly mystical bow' that she invoked and shoot from (a gift from her patron). Beast Speech and Eldritch Spear (I did not like the idea of a mystical bow who shoots short) where the firsts choices of invocations. I choose spells and other invocations to adapt with a nature spirit. She was an eladrin (but a wood elf is also a good match). Some skills like survival and animal handling to strengthen the teme and I really enjoyed playing her. Eldritch blast (later with agonizing blast) let you be useful in combat but you do not need to dedicate every resouce to combat.

- the second was a trickster. Fiend patron (the tempting devil), Mask of many faces was the obvious choice for the first invocation, to be combined with the 'Actor' talent . He was a bladelock, so needed some more resources invested in combat to stay alive but I never got the eldritch blast cantrip. Without it I had more freedom of choice. I counted on temporary HP to survive, so I had more than one source (the first archetype ability and some spells). 'Armor of Agathys' + 'Fireshield' was a good combo when there was time before battle; add 'blade Ward' (or fiendish resilience if you guessed the right type of damage) and put yourself in the middle of the minion crowd... it work like a charm (but keep misty step ready.. you want to get out of there at any moment). More of a minion slayer than a BEEG hunter, at least until the 14th level. That feature give the party a round to catch breath or prepare to strike hard (plus the damage is not to underestimate). Blindness is a wonderful spell versus a good cunck of big enemies. But one must not forget the flavor spells like charm person (and suggestion after) for the 'corruptor' flavor. With him the plan was always stydy the enemy beforehand, turn his allies if possible or at least send them away. And never, ever be yourself.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

One of my planned character is a Mountain Dwarf Blade warlock who made a pact with Mamon, demon lord of greed. In his ''recent'' life, Durgan Gold-Grin was a ruthless mercenary with only one love: gold. He turned his back on his clan, hold and family to seek more monetary gain for himself. While adventuring in a abandoned dwarven hold, he found what he tought to be a shrine to Abator, dwarven god of greed where an a long forgotten idol offered him to ''buy something he did not need anymore in exchange for its equivalent in gold'', something Durgan readily agreed on. The thing is that it was a subterfuge from the demon of greed who turned every member of Durgan's clan into a gold coin (with the faces of the victims on the coins faces). Always carying the heavy gold bag and the cursed maul Gilden Shame with him, he went out to find a way to reverse the curse until he met with a (real) priest of Abathor who told him that the Wyrm of Avarice could intercede in his favor a buy back the clan's souls from Mamon if Durgan brought the invaluable relics of a old dwarven king (the relics on Belsimer in the case of the PotA campaign) to the Trove-House of Abathor.

So to I wanted to play a pact who amplified the ''dwarfiness'' of my character. For invocations I looked at:
Eyes of the Rune keeper
Eldritch Sight
Beguiling Influcence
Life Drinker
Ascendant step
Whisper of the grave
And for the spells: Green-flame blade, Command, Hellish rebuke, and many spells related to stone, refluffed to gold (Flesh to Gold)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I really liked the Undying Light Patron (not the Undying Patron) that they introduced in UA a while back, and someone did a good supplement / additional re-write of it-

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedA...arlock_patron_the_undying_light_revised_from/

(Follow the link at the top).

I've played around with Bladelock builds, and the best ones (IMO) that you make don't have EB.

IME, building Warlocks, you have two choices:

1. EB, and then a few other things.
2. Something else interesting, without EB.

Briefly, if you're going EB, you really should look into max'ing it with invocations, hex, etc. Embrace your inner blaster. OTOH, there are so many other great builds you can make from the Warlock, but given limited choices, you shouldn't premise it on EB at all.

I disagree on this. I take EB, but don't maximize it. I usually take AB or Eldritch Spear, but not always both, and use EB as my backup ranged option on my mixed range Warlocks.

 

[lowkey13]

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