D&D 5E Tomelock with Shillelagh and Greenfire

[maceochaid]

I was thinking of trying to make a little bit of a tomelock/bladelock hybrid by choosing Shillelagh and Greenfire Blade as two of my cantrips (3rd level with pact, and 4th level just in time for 5th level buff) what do people think? Not quite certain of my party (a lot of open table stuff with him). If so, and I am doing a variant human, should I choose medium armor mastery or warcaster?

 

[mellored]

Green flameblade (and booming blade + misty step) pretty much replaced bladelocks.

Medium armor expertise and warcaster are both good choices. Which is better depends on what you want to do, and if you are using concentration spells. Also consider Inspiring leader to get a bunch of THP, not to mention help everyone else out as well.

Armor of Agathys and Hellish rebuke are good spells for melee, and either fiend (fire shield), or fey (greater invisibility) for later. You can potentially do a lot of damage simply by getting hit.

 

[pdegan2814]

I had intended to make a Bladelock for my Friday night campaign that's about to start Out Of The Abyss, but I may go this route instead, assuming I can get something to Shillelagh with in a reasonable timeframe

 

[mellored]

I had intended to make a Bladelock for my Friday night campaign that's about to start Out Of The Abyss, but I may go this route instead, assuming I can get something to Shillelagh with in a reasonable timeframe

You get shillelagh at level 3 if you are tome warlock. and you'll want some dex for AC anyways, so at worst you'll be attacking with +2 dex (assuming medium armored) from 1-2, then switch to +3 cha at level 3.

blade isn't completely out classed though, since that can still add +cha to attacks, but that takes a while to get and you don't get the utility of tome or even familiar.

 

[pdegan2814]

You get shillelagh at level 3 if you are tome warlock. and you'll want some dex for AC anyways, so at worst you'll be attacking with +2 dex (assuming medium armored) from 1-2, then switch to +3 cha at level 3.

blade isn't completely out classed though, since that can still add +cha to attacks, but that takes a while to get and you don't get the utility of tome or even familiar.

My main concern about Shillelagh in this campaign is getting a proper club or quarterstaff after escaping from the Drow deep in the Underdark. I could bring a staff with me as a spell focus, as long as I'll be able to find where those $#^%ing Drow hid my stuff!

 

[mellored]

My main concern about Shillelagh in this campaign is getting a proper club or quarterstaff after escaping from the Drow deep in the Underdark. I could bring a staff with me as a spell focus, as long as I'll be able to find where those $#^%ing Drow hid my stuff!

Any chair or table leg should do.

But, the difficulty is no different then a drow stealing your component pouch or sword.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

I actually have a Shillelagh/GFB build that I use in AL play. It's a little bit of a late-bloomer, but it gets the job done fantastically at either melee or ranged combat.

Fighter 1/Warlock 3/Sorcerer X (taken in that order)
Str 8 Dex 14 Con 16 Int 8 Wis 10 Cha 16
Race: Variant Human
Human Feat: Mobile (to use heavy armor without penalty and free pseudo-disengage that works with GFB)
Fighting Style: Dueling or Defense (depending on which is more important to you, damage or AC)
Patron/Pact: Infernal (for THP)/Tome (duh)
Sorcerous Origin: Fire Draconic (+Cha to GFB primary damage and equivalent HP to Warlock)

Finesse weapon your way through 1st level. Eldritch Blast is your go-to damage for 2nd & 3rd levels, especially with Agonizing Blast. At 4th level, realize that your arcane focus staff makes a good whupping stick, especially with fire attached to it. The rest of your career is spent doing what most Warlocks do to be better, take Sorcerer levels for metamagic shenanigans. Best part is that all of this is done while rocking heavy armor and a shield.

Getting back your stuff at the start is not really that difficult, unless your DM is a jerk. Without spoiling too much, I'll say this. Don't be afraid to sacrifice a pawn in the early game if need be. Chances are that your DM will want to get rid of one or two anyways. The best advice that I can give you regarding Ch 1 is to plan your escape more like a snatch & extract mission, rather than a simple prison break.

 

[pdegan2814]

I was thinking of trying to make a little bit of a tomelock/bladelock hybrid by choosing Shillelagh and Greenfire Blade as two of my cantrips (3rd level with pact, and 4th level just in time for 5th level buff) what do people think? Not quite certain of my party (a lot of open table stuff with him). If so, and I am doing a variant human, should I choose medium armor mastery or warcaster?

Wait, don't you need to be proficient in Medium Armor already to take the Medium Armor Master feat? Warlocks are only proficient in Light Armor, so you wouldn't be able to take Medium Armor Master as your Lvl1 feat, correct? Unless you actually meant "Moderately Armored". Might be better to take War Caster at Lvl1, then a level of Fighter somewhere to get Medium Armor proficiency, and then perhaps Medium Armor Master at some point if your Dex is at 16 and you don't intend to take it to 20.

 

[ZickZak]

Warlock 3 - Tome - Shillelagh
Sorcerer 6 - Fire Dragon, Greenflame Blade
Fighter 1 - Shield, Dueling, Second Wind

If you can MC...
I dont know how Fire Dragon Origin interacts with Greenflame Blade.
At level 10 you look at AC 18 with the shield and pretty sick damage fighting two opponents. Especially if the +Cha goes to both of the parts of the cantrip.

 

[the_move]

Would it not be better to go fighter first to gain access to heavy armor? That's AC 20 with the shield. Fire dragon's Element Affinity works on only one damage roll per spell. GFB has two seperate rolls, so you might have to choose, which one gets affected. Also as of errata you might not be able to twin GFB.