D&D 5E Tomelock with Shillelagh and Greenfire

[Z. H. Darkstar]

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.

You're right about taking Fighter 1 at the start for heavy armor proficiency. Combine that with Mobile, and you can dump Str while maintaining 30' speed in heavy armor. See my build above for how this comes together nicely.

You're almost always going to add EA to the primary target damage of GFB, as there's no guarantee of a secondary target to be present each casting.

As for Twinned Spell, GFB isn't compatible as far as I can tell. However, it is still capable of working with Quickened Spell without the mandatory targeting of a different creature of TS. It is a cantrip after all, so it can be cast twice in one turn via QS. At the level it would all come together, you're looking at 4d8+16 to the primary target and 2d8+8 to the shmuck stupid enough to be next to the guy getting whacked with a flaming stick. One more level adds another 2d8 to each set of potential damage dice for the QS GFB nova rounds. Stack Hex on top for an extra 1d6 per hit on the primary target. This is how that would ideally play out.

Turn 1: Drop Hex on target, Eldritch Blast, move closer to the target
Turn 2: Close the gap, Shillelagh, GFB
Turn 3: GFB Nova!

After the first guy dies, move Hex to the next victim and GFB/EB depending on range. Resume Nova once in range. Use your sorcerer slots to cast Hex, so your warlock slots can feed your metamagic habit.

 

[pdegan2814]

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.

Would the Mobile feat be a halfway decent substitute for Misty Step in combo with Booming Blade? I assume the point is to make your strike and then get away from him so he can't stay where he is and still be able to hit you, yes? And Mobile provides essentially a free Disengage from anyone you take a swing at, plus some extra movement to get away from him. Given the Warlock's limited number of spell slots, I'd rather avoid using them on Misty Steps, as nice as that spell can be.

I'm actually playing two Archfey Warlocks in two different campaigns right now. One was via point-buy and one via actual rolled stats. Oddly the point-buy is proving a little trickier to spec out. Both have a 16 Dex to start, but the rolled one has a 14 Dex while the point-buy one has a 16(both are Half-Elves). The rolled one I'm figuring I'll take a level of fighter for medium armor and defense fighting style, save up for a breastplate and sit pretty with an AC 17 w/o need of Armor Of Shadows, saving my ASI's for Charisma and go Tomelock. But I might add Mobile at Level 8 so I can Shillelagh/Boom then just walk away. But the one with a 16 Dex, I feel like if I go for medium armor I'm wasting those extra Dex points, and I'd originally planned to go Blade with him(it kinda suited his story, he's out for revenge). Maybe I'll still go Blade, stick with Light or Mage armor, and keep my spell selection to stuff such as Armor Of Agathys and Hellish Rebuke like you mentioned, that doesn't need my save DC maxed out. We're doing OotA in that campaign though, pretty sure higher-level fiends resist both fire & cold damage.

 

[mellored]

Would the Mobile feat be a halfway decent substitute for Misty Step in combo with Booming Blade?

Yes.

But feats arn't free either. You also need to make sure the rest of your party is in on it.

 

[pdegan2814]

Yes.

But feats arn't free either. You also need to make sure the rest of your party is in on it.

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how to build that guy. I'm also half-tempted to skip Mobile, swing with Booming Blade, step away and let him take an opportunity attack, and if he hits with it, use Hellish Rebuke. Are you able to use your reaction on your own turn like that? It feels like stacking Instants in Magic: The Gathering, "I cast Fireball!" "Counterspell your Fireball!" "Counterspell your Counterspell!"

 

[Blue]

If playing with the Unearthed Arcana, the Undying Light patron from the Underdark one will give +Chr to radiant/fire at 1st, so that boosts greenflame blade earlier (and in addition) to Sorcerer 6. They also get fireshield.

 

[pdegan2814]

If playing with the Unearthed Arcana, the Undying Light patron from the Underdark one will give +Chr to radiant/fire at 1st, so that boosts greenflame blade earlier (and in addition) to Sorcerer 6. They also get fireshield.

The DM for my OotA campaign limited us to the PHB and SCAG books, a couple of us are lobbying him to let in the EE spells, he's going to revisit the idea. Even if all the patron options were available, I still would have chosen Archfey for the flavor of it. I'm a huge Dresden Files fan. My Tomelock has the Leanan Sidhe as his patron, my Warlock for the OotA campaign has the Queen Of Air And Darkness.

 

[mellored]

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how to build that guy. I'm also half-tempted to skip Mobile, swing with Booming Blade, step away and let him take an opportunity attack, and if he hits with it, use Hellish Rebuke. Are you able to use your reaction on your own turn like that? It feels like stacking Instants in Magic: The Gathering, "I cast Fireball!" "Counterspell your Fireball!" "Counterspell your Counterspell!"

Yes you can take reactions on your own turn.

Just remember that actions refresh at the START of your turn, so you can't rebuke then OA.

 

[Kithas]

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.

IIRC GfB only does fire damage to the secondary target and your normal damage to the guy you swing on. Therefore you can only add your cha to the second one.
Also it is definitely not twinnable.
Personally I would just save myeself the feat and play a Dwarf...

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

IIRC GfB only does fire damage to the secondary target and your normal damage to the guy you swing on. Therefore you can only add your cha to the second one.
Also it is definitely not twinnable.
Personally I would just save myeself the feat and play a Dwarf...

At 5th character level, GFB does fire damage to the primary target, so you can totally add your Elemental Affinity bonus to the primary target. It is definitely not Twinnable, but it can be Quickened. A GFB Nova round can still get you out of a 2v1 scenario with the Mobile feat. Plus, you don't have to worry about nonsynergistic racial ability bonuses from being a Dwarf. A Variant Human can overcome the speed penalty at 1st level and still have the racial ability bonuses go to Cha and Dex/Con.

 

[Kithas]

At 5th character level, GFB does fire damage to the primary target, so you can totally add your Elemental Affinity bonus to the primary target. It is definitely not Twinnable, but it can be Quickened. A GFB Nova round can still get you out of a 2v1 scenario with the Mobile feat. Plus, you don't have to worry about nonsynergistic racial ability bonuses from being a Dwarf. A Variant Human can overcome the speed penalty at 1st level and still have the racial ability bonuses go to Cha and Dex/Con.

That's a fair point, I could see that being more beneficial. I forget what the duergars get but +2 con still useful :/