[GUIDE] The Sorlock – Guide to the tormented divine soul with Xanathar's Divine Soul(17)+Hexblade(3)
Why the Sorlock?
This is not a beginner guide and I have no intention of including the basics of either the warlock or the sorcerer. Plenty of other guides do a fantastic job of this already.
Pros
Ability Scores
I personally use dice rolled stats but if you use point buy
Charisma is your spell-casting modifier for both classes - vital.
Constitution,Dexterity and Wisdom are the most common spell saves.
Intelligence and Strength are the least common spell saves.
You want 14 or 16 Dexterity for the +2 or +3 to Armor Bonus
Constitution is to maintain concentration and is a common spell save
Wisdom is a common save and governs perception.
Races
Half Elf (Drow)- There is really no point considering anything else +2Cha and access to the Elven Accuracy Feat, +1 to two other stats.
Drow can give you Faerie Fire(The best spell in the game) & Darkness on long rest at a very annoying cost.
If you want to play another race, first ask yourself 'Does this race offer me triple advantage?' if the answer is no, play half elf.
If Elven Accuracy is banned or you just don't want to be a half elf other good races include.
Update 12/10/2021
Changeling - As a changeling you can achieve +3 on Charisma, with dice rolled stats giving you the possibility to roll a 17 or 18 and reach 20 Charisma from level 1, changeling becomes very attractive.
Satyr - From Mythic Odysseys of Theros, Satyrs are quite a strong +2 Charisma race with their magic resistance and the fact that you are a Fey and not a humanoid providing immunity to spells that target humanoids.
Skills
Voice of the Chain Master [Updated 12/20/21] Despite the text in the book, Crawford has tweeted that this requires an action making it significantly less useful.
The power of this invocation often goes unrealized, you now have multiple angles of sight on the battlefield, you cannot be blinded meaning you still have devil sight unless you and your familiar are both blinded. This is both hilarious and incredibly useful. Your familiar can simply fly above the battlefield, invisible, providing you with your second set of eyes.
Picking your Sorcerer background.
Update 12/10/2021
Abberant Mind - Besides the extra spells its complete Garbage
ASI/Feats (4)
Whats the deal with Elven Accuracy?
Value of AC & Effective HP vs An Ancient White Dragon (CR20)
Here is some simple calculations for the value of Armor Class vs the auto attacks of an ancient white dragon.
With 165 HP vs +14 Chance to Hit of a AWD with 17 Average Damage
Items to seek
Spell Suggestions
Concentration Priority
Boss Damage Combinations
Why is the damage so good?
Up-casting Bestow Curse for additional shenanigans
Hitting AC 20 with Eldritch Blast
Non-Boss Damage
FAQ
Why Sorcerer 17, Warlock 3 over Warlock 2, Sorcerer 18???
Why not 2 levels in fighter for action surge?
Where are all the aoe spells?
Why would you quicken eldritch blast when you can quicken two fireballs?
You cannot quicken two fireballs, quickening spells allows you to cast one spell of any level as a bonus action and one cantrip as your action.
Hey! You cannot cast spells with a shield, you need warcaster!
Please let me know if you think I miss some vital spells or have some ideas for improvement.
Sample Build Paths
Many spells that are not listed above might be required by your party.
Missing non-concentration buffs
Why the Sorlock?
- Combining sorcerer and warlock is one of the most powerful builds in the game when it comes to direct damage thanks to the wonders of eldritch blast.
- You primarily excel at boss damage by having one of the highest single target average damage per round (aDPR).
This is not a beginner guide and I have no intention of including the basics of either the warlock or the sorcerer. Plenty of other guides do a fantastic job of this already.
Pros
- High AC 20-26 + Shield Spell
- Amazing single target boss damage | 8d10+8d6+88 | 160aDPR (One target per short rest)
- 4 Sorcerer points per short rest at level 8 you know the level 20 sorcerer ability?
- Amazing Utility through the Cleric Spell-list, Twinning Spells and Careful Hypnotic Patterns
- The damage you do is only resisted by two official enemies (See Cons)
- Rakshasa & Helmed Horror are not your friends.
- You sufferer disadvantage on eldritch blast when enemies are in melee range of you.
- You are extremely effective vs bosses and hordes but fairly average vs a multitude of competent enemies.
- Converting spell-slots to sorcerer points is a bonus action. (Best done outside combat)
- As far as min-max builds go, this is a build that scales throughout the game but is weaker than Great Weapon Master / Sharpshooter builds in early levels.
- ENWorld threads often treat feats and multi-classing as universal however,
- Feats are an optional rule
- Multi-classing is an optional rule
- Monsters are not balanced around multi-classing & feats which make characters significantly stronger, if everyone is on board for this that's fine but be aware. Keep in mind that a GWM+PAM dice-rolled fighter can be doing 40/80 more damage per round than the rest of your party if the rest don't also take advantage of feats and multi-classing.
- Roleplaying with 4 players who all dip into Hex-blade can be tiresome. This is also true for the plate wearing fighter who sits in the back with a handcrossbow. There is merit to nerfing hex-blade,CBX,GWM,SS.
Godlike - Close to Mandatory
Great - Great Choice
Average - Not bad or Situational
Bad - Bad.
Ability Scores
I personally use dice rolled stats but if you use point buy
Strength 8
Dexterity 15
Constitution 13
Intelligence 8
Wisdom 12
Charisma 15
orStrength 8
Dexterity 13
Constitution 15
Intelligence 8
Wisdom 12
Charisma 15
Charisma is your spell-casting modifier for both classes - vital.
Constitution,Dexterity and Wisdom are the most common spell saves.
Intelligence and Strength are the least common spell saves.
You want 14 or 16 Dexterity for the +2 or +3 to Armor Bonus
Constitution is to maintain concentration and is a common spell save
Wisdom is a common save and governs perception.
Races
Half Elf (Drow)- There is really no point considering anything else +2Cha and access to the Elven Accuracy Feat, +1 to two other stats.
Drow can give you Faerie Fire(The best spell in the game) & Darkness on long rest at a very annoying cost.
If you want to play another race, first ask yourself 'Does this race offer me triple advantage?' if the answer is no, play half elf.
If Elven Accuracy is banned or you just don't want to be a half elf other good races include.
- Aasimar (Protector, Fallen) Aasimar with innate resistance, a free cantrip, healing and flying with bonus damage is a great choice.
- Tiefling Bonus spells is always nice.
- Yuan-ti Pureblood Magic Resistance and Poison Immunity with additional spells is a bit ridiculous.
Changeling - As a changeling you can achieve +3 on Charisma, with dice rolled stats giving you the possibility to roll a 17 or 18 and reach 20 Charisma from level 1, changeling becomes very attractive.
Satyr - From Mythic Odysseys of Theros, Satyrs are quite a strong +2 Charisma race with their magic resistance and the fact that you are a Fey and not a humanoid providing immunity to spells that target humanoids.
Skills
Perception- Arguably an essential skill for all characters.
Persuasion - Arguably an essential skill for all characters.
Stealth - Arguably an essential skill but only if stealth is used liberally in your games.
__
Deception - Not as vital as Persuasion but has many uses
Intimidation - Not as vital as Persuasion or Deception but still useful
__
Investigation - Even though you are bad at this, investigation is extremely valuable given it gives loot rolls and trap checks.
Arcana - Even though you are bad at this, sometimes you will be expected too take it as the spell caster in the group for it still.
__
Acrobatics - Useful for escaping grapples however, misty step accomplishes the same job.
__
Athletics
Slight of Hand
History
Nature
Religion
Animal Handling
Medicine
Survival
Build
Start Sorcerer
Starting Sorcerer gives us constitution saving throws, sub classes listed below.
Hexblade Warlock 2
Baleful Curse
The fundamental reason we pick Hexblade Warlock is for Baleful Curse
- Critical on 19-20
- Add proficiency bonus to damage rolls
- Baleful Curse damage bonus works with each and every beam from eldritch blast.
Hex Warrior
The second reason Hexblade Warlock is incredibly stacked is for Hex Warrior which gives us medium armor and shields.
Eldritch Innvocations
Pick Agonizing Blast & Devil Sight/Repelling Blast
Devil Sight
Allows you to see through magical darkness meaning you can cast Darkness©and are heavily obscured to enemies effectively causing them to be blinded.
- When casting spells you no longer have disadvantage when enemies are in melee range.
- You cannot be targeted by spells and magical effects that require sight.
- Attack Rolls against you are made at disadvantage.
- You make attack rolls against enemies with advantage.
Notes - Tremorsense, Blindsense and Truesight counteract this ability. All of these senses have a range limit you can often stay outside of.
- Requires Concentration©
- Your allies can not cast spells on you and are blinded just as your enemies are.
- If you cast darkness on an object you hold that you can smother, covering the source of the darkness with an opaque object blocks the darkness.
- If you go shadow sorcerer over divine sorcerer devil sight is useless, just take repelling blast.
Repelling Blast
Highly DM/Scenario dependent, if you are playing with a physical or digital map, repelling blast can be incredibly useful.
- Knock enemies off ledges
- Keep enemies away from you
- Keep enemies away from your allies.
- It only gets better the higher your level.
Hexblade Warlock 3 (Optional)
3 levels of warlock gives you.
- 4 Sorcerer points per Short Rest (You know the sorcerer level 20 ability?) over the 2 Sorcerer points per Short Rest of Warlock 2
- This works by converting the spell slots to sorcerer points, this is a bonus action.
Warlock 3 - Pact Boon
Pact of the Tome
Pact of the Tome is fairly useless to you, its when combined with the invocation Book of Ancient Secrets that makes it so interesting.
Book of Ancient Secrets gives you
- 2 free level 1 ritual spells
- Ability to prescribe every 1st and 2nd level ritual spell
Pact of the Talisman
Strangelove but not great for combat.
Pact of the Blade
We are not a bladelock.
Pact of the Chain
Pact of the Chain is great for getting find familiar except you can get this through Pace of the Tome.
The reason to go Pact of the Chain is the two powerful invocations that are certainly worth consideration.
First you now have an Imp familiar.
AC13
10 Health
Can turn invisible permanently as an action
+5 to Stealth
Has Devil Sight built in
Can polymorph itself.
Additional your familiar can cast the help action, it only gives you advantage on one roll so does not synergise with eldritch blast / scorching ray.
You can communicate telepathically with your familiar.You can use all of your familiars sense while you are on the same plane of existence. Without requiring an action.This means you can always see through its eyes, hear conversations, smell, touch.You can also talk through its mouth.
Gift of the Ever-Living Ones
- It can be hard to correctly value this invocation, everytime you are healed from any source, hexblade curse, hit dice, cleric/druid etc healing. You always heal the maximum amount (provided your familiar is alive)
In endurance based combat situations where you cannot always rest this invocation can be incredibly valuable.
If you have a cleric, when healing you he effectively get the grave cleric max healing ability for free, except all the time, at any health value.
Personally I think Voice of the Chain master is the better choice, immunity to blind and free devil sight is great. Max Healing is of course amazing but you are back-line and shouldn't often need it.
Picking your Sorcerer background.
There are two viable options to consider but I have included the others for the sake of completion.
Divine Soul
Divine Magic- Sacred Weapon, Bless, Healing Word, Twin Heal, Mass Healing, Revivify, Heroes Feast/Death Ward/Freedom of Movement, Holy Aura.
Favored by the Gods - Great to save against that clutch ability and on a short rest too.
Empowered Healing - Waste of sorcery points, unlikely to alter the battle in any meaningful way.
Angelic Form - Bonus Action Flying with no Cooldown or duration limit, fantastic.
Unearthly Recovery - 50% Heal as a Bonus Action is nothing to scoff at.
Shadow
Eyes of the Dark - Gain the famous Darkness/Devil Sight combo.
Strength of the Grave - Not a bad death save but by no means guaranteed.
Hound of Ill Omen - This straight up gives you the Heightened Spell Metamagic in the form of a ghostdog.
Shadow Walk - Use your bonus action to teleport between shadows, depends on your DM but is effectively a super misty step.
Umbral Form - Expensive, resistance is nice but with your low health its not all that useful, the main advantage it gives you is the ability to be inside objects making you untargetable.
Dragon
Draconic Resilience - Fairly useless given warlock gives you medium armor and shields however useful at early levels.
Elemental Affinity - The Primary reason you go dragon, add charisma to your fireballs.
Dragon Wings - Bonus Action Flying with no Cooldown or duration limit.
Storm
Wild Speaker - Learn Primordial
Tempestuous Magic - Escape Opportunity Attacks & Hover
Heart of the Storm - Resistance to Lightning and Thunder, Creatures within 10 feet take SorcerLevel/2 damage when you cast Lightning/Thunder Spells.
Storm Guide - Not very useful
Storm's Fury - Only once per round but still useful
Wild Magic
Wild Magic Surge - Depends on how your DM uses this. Hard to judge.
Tides of Chaos - Long Rest or Surge based, otherwise useful.
Bend Luck - Great use of reaction to save people from hardful affects or force a spell to land.
Controlled Chaos - Makes wild magic less random. Still hard to judge its usefulness.
Update 12/10/2021
Abberant Mind - Besides the extra spells its complete Garbage
Psionic Spells - Additional spells is nice but nothing here to salivate over.
Telepathic Speech - Flavour but not all that great for combat
Psionic Sorcery - Fun flavour to 'subtle' spell but seems to be a waste of sorcery points in most situations.
Psionic Defenses - Useful but not enough to sell the class
Revelation in Flesh - Useful but at this point but by 14th level these aren't problems you need solved.
Warping Implosion - Strength Saving throw is often monsters best save.
Clockwork Soul - If you are playing a campaign at levels past 14 Trance of Order is the strongest class ability bar none. However keep in mind (in my experience) that few campaigns spend much time at lvl 14+.
Clockwork Spells - Wall of Force, FOM, are great pickups, doesn't compete with the Divine Soul list obviously.
Restore Balance - Very Solid use of a reaction
Bastion of Law - Wards are better left to Abjuration Wizards. Its a very expensive way to get damage reduction.
Trance of Order - This is the MVP of this Class, this ability is utterly insane.
Clockwork Cavalcade - A wide variety of uses for this ability.
Telepathic Speech - Flavour but not all that great for combat
Psionic Sorcery - Fun flavour to 'subtle' spell but seems to be a waste of sorcery points in most situations.
Psionic Defenses - Useful but not enough to sell the class
Revelation in Flesh - Useful but at this point but by 14th level these aren't problems you need solved.
Warping Implosion - Strength Saving throw is often monsters best save.
Clockwork Soul - If you are playing a campaign at levels past 14 Trance of Order is the strongest class ability bar none. However keep in mind (in my experience) that few campaigns spend much time at lvl 14+.
Clockwork Spells - Wall of Force, FOM, are great pickups, doesn't compete with the Divine Soul list obviously.
Restore Balance - Very Solid use of a reaction
Bastion of Law - Wards are better left to Abjuration Wizards. Its a very expensive way to get damage reduction.
Trance of Order - This is the MVP of this Class, this ability is utterly insane.
Clockwork Cavalcade - A wide variety of uses for this ability.
For damage and self survival Shadow is king, it cannot be overstated how powerful eyes of the dark is, shadow walk is also a free misty step at the cost of a bonus action.
Keep in Mind Darkness is Concentration, and can be super annoying for your allies. It also costs you sorcerer points to cast.
For utility Divine Soul is hilarious and incredibly powerful. There are many cleric spells that change the game and twinning cleric spells is a quick way to frustrate your dm.
I.E Twinning Healing word to get two allies off death rolls, for six straight rounds.
One of the main gripes with divine soul is that you waste spell slots on healing/resurrecting allies if you can call that a downside.
My primary argument for divine soul is you are already efficient enough in combat to warrant building for utility.
Finally Eldritch Blast + Spiritual Weapon is a very respectable aDPR
Metamagic ChoicesQuickened Spell - Duh
Twinned Spell- Twin Healing Word is great, Twin Haste, Twin Greater Invis, Twin Heal
Your remaining two choices are not as easy as most people think. Your third choice at level 13 will be one of the following 3.
Careful Spell - Careful spell is stronger than most people think it is but not as strong as some people think it is. Careful spell works on the initial spell cast allowing a successful save to any friendly creature you want. This combos amazingly with the spell Hypnotic Pattern. However it does not combo at all with the spell Web, the save from Web only activates on the creatures turn.
If you choose Careful Spell - Hypnotic Pattern, Reverse Gravity and Confusion are excellent choices
Heightened Spell - Disadvantage on the save to any of your spells. With a +5 Modifier vs your 19 Spell Save, disadvantage takes their roll from a 35% chance of success to a 12% chance of success. This is huge for save or suck spells. Choose one target only.
If you choose Heightened Spell - Banishment, Hold Monster, Hold Person, and Plane Shift are excellent choices
Keep in mind that shadow sorcerer effectively gets heightened spell for free at level 6.
Subtle Spell- Just like Careful Spell, Subtle Spell is also usually highly underrated but it depends on your campaign. If you are a mercenary company who just kills monsters than this has highly diminished use but if you have far more role-playing in your campaign subtle spell gains a plethora of uses outlined in this thread
Additionally Subtle spell prevents your abilities from being counterspelled, including your own counterspell.
Personally I would forgoe crowd control to other party members and chose heightened spell. If however, your team needs you for crowd control I would pick careful spell. Subtle spell is a lot of fun for roleplaying.
Extended Spell - Doubling spell duration can be useful but usually not.
Distant Spell - Doubling spell range can be useful but usually not.
Empowered Spell - Rerolling dice can result in increasing your damage but not usually worth spending your sorcerer points on.
ASI/Feats (4)
Lvl 6 | Elven Accuracy (+1 Cha)This ability is utterly crazy and completely mandatory the math is detailed below.
Lvl 11 | Charisma +2
LvL 15 |Warcaster Advantage on Con Saves and allows you to use a Magic Staff or Wand with your shield (See FAQ)
Lvl 19 | You have several options for your final feat.
Polearm Master What?? Polearm master allows you to make opportunity attacks when enemies come into reach, because you already have warcaster allowing you to cast spells on opprtunity attacks, polearm master starts to look attractive considering it works with staffs(staffs are quarterstaffs), you can eldritch blast+repelling blast boot them away 40ft for having the audacity to approach you!
Medium Armor Master If you choose 16 Dexterity this gives you+2AC. Upgrading to half-plate & No stealth disadvantage is great.
Crossbow Expert Alright let me explain, Crossbow expert allows you avoid the disadvantage on eldritch blast while in meele, read the sage advice for the crossbow expert feat, redundant if you are using devilsight/darkness or you are a shadow sorcerer.
Resilient(Dex) or (Wis) you cannot take both. or Shield Master (mini evasion), Anytime you can get better dex or wisdom saving throws is a good time.
Lucky Being able to re-roll that 1 on a crucial attack role or save against an ugly spell is amazing.
Spell Sniper The primary reason I would choose this feat is for the ability to ignore cover, if cover is a constant theme in your games this feat can be very important.
Update 12/10/2021
Metamagic Adept - Additional sorcery points are always welcome and picking up two additional metamagics means you can have a lot of fun. I wouldn't give up 20 charisma or warcaster but I would almost take this just for how fun additional metamagics can be.
Update 12/10/2021
Metamagic Adept - Additional sorcery points are always welcome and picking up two additional metamagics means you can have a lot of fun. I wouldn't give up 20 charisma or warcaster but I would almost take this just for how fun additional metamagics can be.
Whats the deal with Elven Accuracy?
When you are rolling 8 attacks in a round & critting on 19 & 20s advantage is king.
Look at the following
- Your chance to roll a 19 or 20 goes from 10%, to 19% to 27.1%
- Your chance to hit 16-20 on the dice roll goes from 20% to 31% to 48.8%
- Your chance to hit vs 20AC with +11 to hit goes from 60% to 84% to 93.6%
- Your chance to hit vs 25AC enemy with +11 to hit goes from 35% to 57.75% to 72.54%
- Your chance to hit all 8 attacks vs 20AC enemy with +11 to hit goes from 1.7% to 24.8% to 58.9%
- Your chance to hit all 8 attacks vs 25AC enemy with +11 to hit goes from 0.2% to 1.2% to 7.7%
At face value the 9.6% increase in hit chance might seem insignificant but when you add in the number of attacks you are doing per round it becomes paramount.
Additionally what many people don't seem to understand is that hit chance is the king of reliable damage per round. The difference between a success or a miss on attack roles is widely consider the most important stat to build in rpgs. Dungeons in Dragons is no different.
The counterpoint to this is always the following 'Advantage by itself is already enough that the additional increase is not worth it' I don't agree with this, I will always take additional hit and crit chance when available. Perhaps if you cannot make use of the +1 to ability scores then its worth considering another feat.
The counterpoint to this is always the following 'Advantage by itself is already enough that the additional increase is not worth it' I don't agree with this, I will always take additional hit and crit chance when available. Perhaps if you cannot make use of the +1 to ability scores then its worth considering another feat.
Equipment
Speaking optimally you would use Mage Armor until you can equal or beat its 16AC.
Breastplate + 2 into Halfplate +2(With Medium Armor Master Feat)
Shield +2
Keep in mind for most of the game you will sit on 18-20AC (Breastplate +0 to+2 and a Shield +0)
It is likely you wont go beyond a +2 Halfplate and +2 Shield meaning your final 24AC and 29AC with the Shield Spell
+3 Half-plate and +3 Shield brings you to 26AC and 31AC with the shield spell.
Armor Class is extremely valuable in 5E. If you are comfortable sitting at 16AC all game, that's up to you but I would highly advise against it..
Value of AC & Effective HP vs An Ancient White Dragon (CR20)
Here is some simple calculations for the value of Armor Class vs the auto attacks of an ancient white dragon.
With 165 HP vs +14 Chance to Hit of a AWD with 17 Average Damage
16AC =95% Chance to hit = 173 = 11 Hits
17AC =90% Chance to hit = 182 = 11 Hits
18AC =85% Chance to hit = 190 = 12 Hits
19AC =80% Chance to hit = 198 = 12 Hits
20AC =75% Chance to hit = 206 = 13 Hits
21AC =70% Chance to hit = 215 = 13 Hits
22AC =65% Chance to hit = 223 = 14 Hits
23AC =60% Chance to hit = 231 = 14 Hits
24AC =55% Chance to hit = 239 = 15 Hits
25AC =50% Chance to hit = 248 = 15 Hits
26AC =45% Chance to hit = 256 = 16 Hits
You do not get much higher than +14 Chance to hit and most creatures have a lower hit chance than +14. This makes Armor Class even more effective, taking an additional 1-6 attacks in combat before you even consider the shield spell makes you extremely formidable. Between your high AC, Absorb Elements, Shield, Misty Step, Mirror Image, Blink & Greater Invisibility your only real problem is the rest of your party surviving.Items to seek
Staff of Swarming Insects The ability to cast insect plague or giant insect is meaningless, the reason you take this staff is for the amazing insect cloud buff which can be done a minimum of four times per day. This buff essentially gives you the darkness+devil-sight combo and it cannot be dispelled or counter-spelled. The only downside is the same as darkness which is its potential negative effect on your allies.
Staff of Power (+2AC, +2SpellHit, +2Saving Throws) or Wand of the Warmage +3 or Rod of the Pact Keeper +3
Ioun Stone of Mastery (Increasing proficiency bonus is bonkers)
Robe of the Archmage (+2Spell Save DC, +2Spell Save DC, +2Spell Save DC, Did I mention +2Spell Save DC?)
Spell Suggestions
® Reaction Spell
© Concentration Spell
Sorcerer SpellsC | Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Message, Firebolt/Chill Touch/Shocking Grasp
1 | Absorb Elements®, Sleep(Early Game), Shield®
2 | Mirror Image, Scorching Ray, Web©, Misty Step, Invisibility©, Hold Person©, Suggestion©, Phantasmal Force©
3 | Fireball, Haste©, Blink, Hypnotic Pattern©, Counterspell®, Dispel Magic
4 | Polymorph©, Greater Invisibility©, Banishment©, Fly©, Slow©
5 | Hold Monster ©
6 |
7 | Reverse Gravity©
8 |
9 | Wish
Primarily utility and defensive spells on this list, Hypnotic Pattern is bonkers with Careful Spell, Twinning Haste or Polymorph or Greater Invisibility is invaluable. Fireball is your AOE damage.
Warlock SpellsC | Friends, Eldritch Blast | Tome C | Thaumaturgy, Prestidigitation, Spare the Dying
1 | Shield®(HB), Wrathful Smite(HB) Armor of Agathys, Hex©
2 | Mirror Image, Misty Step, Invisibility©, Hold Person©, Suggestion©
Here it is, Eldritch Blast. Hexblade gives you the immortal Shield Spell, Picking up Armor of Agaths and Hex at level 1 and at level 2 You can either expand your spell list or pick up misty step and mirror image to free up Sorcerer slots.
Cleric Spells - If Divine SoulC | Toll the Dead,Sacred Flame, Guidance©
1 | Healing Word, Bless©, Cure Wounds
2 | Prayer of Healing, Spiritual Weapon, Lesser Restoration, Enhance Ability©
3 | Revivify, Mass Healing Word, Spirit Guardians©
4 | Death Ward, Freedom of Movement
5 | Mass Cure Wounds, Greater Restoration
6 | Heroes Feast, Heal, Word of Recall
7 | Conjure Celestial©, Plane Shift, Temple of the Gods, Divine Word, Regenerate, Resurrection
8 | Holy Aura©
9 |
Lots of good options from the cleric spell list. Heroes Feast, Death Ward and Freedom of Movement are crutch non-concentration buffs. Divine Word is interesting as a horde stopper. Holy aura does not give your party advantage, otherwise its very strong.
Concentration Spell OptionsMost of the spells I have selected are concentration spells and they give you a wide variety of options. Keep in mind the limited number of slots you have to work with, given you can only use one of these at a time there is an immense opportunity cost. You need to make 8 attack rolls to quicken a max level eldritch blast. This makes bless or advantage or both invaluable.
- Bless – Not better than advantage but still a useful buff (Math Below)
- Haste (Twin) – Extra attack for two party members and +2AC to each party member.
- Greater Invisibility (Twin) – Advantage to yourself and your rogue.
- Polymorph - Save an Allies life by giving them the health of a T-Rex
- Hex (Twin)– Extra 1d6 on All Eldritch Blast Beams. Great if you have high enough hit chance.
- Conjure Celestial – Summon a Couatl and laugh.
- Hold Person (Twin) – Advantage and Auto Critical
- Hold Monster(Twin) – Advantage and Auto Critical
- Suggestion (Twin) – One Save 8 Hour Disable..What???
- Banishment – Save or Suck remove an enemy from the fight.
- Reverse Gravity – Powerful Disable make sure to ask your DM if the enemies are on a flat surface
- Web – Advantage on Attack Rolls, Dex Disadvantage, Amazing Fireball Combo.
- Hypnotic Pattern (Careful Spell) – Incapacitates your enemies who have eyes.
- Holy Aura 1000gp – Blind Fiends and Undead, Advantage on Saving Throws, Disadvantage on Enemy Attack Rolls
Concentration Priority
Concentration Priority is complicated, subjective and situational. It is also dependent on your party composition.
In general I would argue for;
Disabling Enemies > Polymorph > Group Advantage > Greater Invisibility (Twin)> Haste (Twin)> Hex
Disabling Enemies Crowd control is the king of situational advantage. When versing multiple powerful enemies priority should always be given to Hypnotic Pattern or Reverse Gravity.
Polymorph Extremely versatile spell, see an ally on 1hp? Transform him into a T-Rex from level eight which is essentially a massive heal. You can twin this if the situation requires it. There are better spells to disable enemies.
Group Advantage Drow Faerie Fire when successful gives your group advantage on every target in the area. You only get the one cast but if I was playing a druid or bard I would simply spam faerie fire and likely use every legendary resistance of the enemy.
Greater Invisibility Gives you and an ally or two allies advantage, activates sneak attack, gives all attacks against you and an ally or two allies disadvantage.
Haste Gives two allies an additional melee attack and increases their armor class by two each for one minute and advantage on dexterity saves.
Hex Simply increasing your damage. In combat the only slightly useful ability check disadvantage to give is strength or dex vs grapples.
I'm considering doing the math comparing a Lvl 20 Rogue & Lvl 20 Fighter + This Build + Lvl 20 Cleric as a base party for calculating optimal use as well as Bless but this will take some time.
Boss Damage Combinations
If you are able to get advantage without using your concentration, your ability to take down large single targets is unmatched. While an action surge GWM/SS will beat you for two rounds your sustained damage is simply absurd.
Because Hexblade Curse and Hex are both bonus actions it takes you three rounds to come online.
Level 8
Round 1, Eldritch Blast + Hexblade Curse for 2d10+14 for for 25 average damage before hit chance.
Round 2, Eldritch Blast + Hex for 2d10+2d6+14 for 32 average damage before hit chance.
Round 3, Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast for 4d10+4d6+28 for 64 aDPR before hit chance. (2 Sorcerer Points)
Round 4, Repeat 2x Eldritch Blast at the cost of 2 sorcerer points (one left).
Level 11
Round 1, Eldritch Blast + Hexblade Curse for 3d10+27 for for 43.5 average damage before hit chance.
Round 2, Eldritch Blast + Hex for 3d10+3d6+27 for 54 average damage before hit chance.
Round 3, Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast for 6d10+6d6+54 for 108 aDPR before hit chance. (2 Sorcerer Points)
Round 4,5,6 Repeat 2x Eldritch Blast at the cost of 2 sorcerer points per round.
Level 17
Round 1, Eldritch Blast + Hexblade Curse for 4d10+44 for for 66 average damage before hit chance.
Round 2, Eldritch Blast + Hex for 4d10+4d6+44 for 80 average damage before hit chance.
Round 3, Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast for 8d10+8d6+88 for 160 aDPR before hit chance. (2 Sorcerer Points)
When running out of spell slots and sorcerery points you can cast spiritual weapon at base or higher levels.
Eldritch Blast & Spiritual Weapon 2+Hex+Hexblade Curse for 4d10+1d8+5d6+55 for 99 aDPR before hit chance.
Eldritch Blast & Spiritual Weapon 4+Hex+Hexblade Curse for 4d10+2d8+5d6+55 for 103.5 aDPR before hit chance.
Eldritch Blast & Spiritual Weapon 6+Hex+Hexblade Curse for 4d10+3d8+5d6+55 for 108 aDPR before hit chance.
Eldritch Blast & Spiritual Weapon 8+Hex+Hexblade Curse for 4d10+4d8+5d6+55 for 112.50 aDPR before hit chance.
This increases your aDPR by 20-30 damage, Spirtual weapon is fantastic but it scales poorly, best to use low level spell slots.
Why is the damage so good?
Eldritch Blast at max level shoots four beams at your target.
Agonizing Blast lets each of these beams benefit from your Charisma bonus.
Hexblade Curse adds your profeciency bonus to each attack and it crits on a 19.
Hex adds another 1d6 to each beam.
Quicked Spell lets you do it all over again as a bonus action.
Keep in mind moving hex to another target is a bonus action and you cannot move your hexblade curse.
You can also expunge your spell slots for more sorcerer points and expunge your pact magic slots for 4 points per short rest.
If you are running out of slots, cast a high level spiritual weapon. Eldritch Blast + Spiritual Weapon with Hex is still great damage without using sorcerer points.
This has all been confirmed to work by the developers.
Scorching Ray over Eldritch Blast for immediate impact.After discussion with Yunru on pages 5-6 of this thread I feel it worth mentioning the power of Hexblade Curse & Hex combined with Scorching Ray.
Very early on you could play a fire dragon sorcerer and add your charisma bonus to each ray thanks to elemental affinity. This was nerfed in an Errata to only effect the first beam of a spell.
Hexblade Curse allows you to once again add your Profeciency bonus to each and every beam of scorching ray which can pull impressive numbers when used with high level spell slots.
Additionally, scorching ray also works with hex allowing you to also add 1d6 to each and every ray.
Here is a level 13 comparison (Warlock 2, Sorcerer 11)
View the above link and click on summary, notice that scorching ray easily outperforms disintegrate at all levels.
There is a catch however,
If you cast a spell as a bonus action, you can only cast a cantrip as an action
This means that you cannot cast scorching ray the round you cast hex
but
You can quicken a scorching ray while casting eldritch blast for some disgusting numbers.
Its up to you whether you think it is worthwhile burning the spellslots for scorching ray.
Up-casting Bestow Curse for additional shenanigans
After discussion with Voitan Rex, there is an additional level of absurdity you can achieve with the cleric spell Bestow Curse
Bestow Curse when cast at 5th level allows you to cast the spell without requiring concentration. It is save or suck giving you the ability to do an additional 1d8 damage on attacks.
So now our maximum damage is 8d10+8d8+8d6+88 for 196 adpr before hit chance
or
With scorching ray 9th level its 4d10+14d8+34d6+104 for 308 adpr before hit chance
Keep in mind, setting up for 3 rounds is already extreme, 4 rounds is absurd.
Hitting AC 20 with Eldritch Blast
Given your numerous attack rolls buffing your +hit items, bless and gaining advantage are all extremely useful. Your 160 average damage per round (aDPR) with Hex is reduced significantly depending on your hit chance.
With 1d20 + 11 your chance to hit AC20 is 60% for 96 aDPR
With bless its (1d20)+(1d4)+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 72.5% for 116 aDPR
With advantage its (2d20)+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 84% for 134 aDPR
With bless and advantage its (2d20)/2+(1d4)+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 92.13% for 147 aDPR
With elven accuracy its (3d20)+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 93.6% for 150 aDPR
With elven accuracy and bless its (3d20)+1d4+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 97.66% for 156 aDPR
Reference AnyDice (select atleast)
Keep in mind by the time you reach level 20 (which you probably wont) you should at a minimum be rocking +3 to spell attack rolls.
With 1d20 + 14 your chance to hit AC20 is 75% for 120 aDPR
With bless its (1d20)+(1d4)+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 87.5% for 140 aDPR
With advantage its (2d20)+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 93.75% for 150 aDPR
With bless and advantage its (2d20)/2+(1d4)+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 98.13% for 157 aDPR
With elven accuracy its (3d20)+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 98.44% for 157.5 aDPR
With elven accuracy and bless its (3d20)+1d4+11 your chance to hit AC20 is 99.69% for 159.54 aDPR
Reference AnyDice (select atleast)
Non-Boss Damage
You are significantly weaker in multi-target situations however your damage still rivals disintegrate's 75 aDPR. Keep in mind moving hex is chewing up you bonus action each time you do it.
Damage before considering your hit chance.
Level 8
Eldritch Blast for 2d10+8 for 19 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast for 4d10+16 for 38 aDPR
Eldritch Blast with Hex for 2d10+2d6+8 for 26 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast with Hex for 4d10+4d6+16 for 52 aDPR
Level 11
Eldritch Blast for 3d10+15 for 31.5 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast for 6d10+30 for 63 aDPR
Eldritch Blast with Hex for 3d10+3d6+15 for 42 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast with Hex for 6d10+6d6+30 for 84 aDPR
Level 17
Eldritch Blast for 4d10+20 for 42 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast for 8d10+40 for 84 aDPR
Eldritch Blast with Hex for 4d10+4d6+20 for 56 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast with Hex for 8d10+8d6+40 for 112 aDPR
A level 8 fighter sharpshooter or great weapon master can be easily doing 40-55 average damage with the -5 to hit which is competitive with your damage.
A level 11 fighter sharpshooter or great weapon master can be easily doing 66-74 average damage with the -5 to hit which is competitive with your damage.
Hex vs Advantage at AC 20 with +11 to Hit
Finally if we are unable to obtain Advantage and/or Bless from our party, we must choose where to spend our concentration. Either the increased damage from Hex or Advantage.
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast for 8d10+40 at 60% Chance to Hit for 50 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast + Hex for 8d10+8d6+40 at 60% Chance to Hit for 67.2 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast + Advantage for 8d10+40 at 84% Chance to Hit for 71 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast + Elven Accuracy for 8d10+40 at 93.6% Chance to Hit for 78 aDPR
Advantage is superior to the bonus damage of Hex vs High AC, however the greater your base hit chance the smaller this bonus is until hex becomes better.
Hex vs Advantage at AC 15 with +11 to Hit
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast for 8d10+40 at 85% Chance to Hit for 50 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast + Hex for 8d10+8d6+40 at 85% Chance to Hit for 95 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast + Advantage for 8d10+40 at 97.75% Chance to Hit for 82 aDPR
Quicken 2x Eldritch Blast + Elven Accuracy for 8d10+40 at 99.20% Chance to Hit for 83 aDPR
The sweet spot between choosing Hex vs Advantage seems to be anytime you are above a 75% Chance to hit, choose hex.
However, keep in mind that advantage offers increased critical strike chance, your critical strike chance goes from 5% to 14.26% (no hexblade curse), because of the separate attack rolls critical hits are only 1d10 additional damage per strike but that is not insignificant.
FAQ
Why Sorcerer 17, Warlock 3 over Warlock 2, Sorcerer 18???
Sorcerer 18
1 Level 6 Spell
Devil Sight (Combines with Darkness which is still absurdly powerful (But not for your allies)) or Repelling Blast to knock back one enemy eighty feet or eight enemies ten feet.
Level 18 Sorcerer Ability
Warlock 3
2 More Sorcerer points per short rest. (This gives you your 20th level ability Sorcerous Restoration at level 8)
Rituals or Super Imp- Gives you a wide amount of utility.
Choice is yours but personally I'd pick Warlock 3 every time.
What is it with you and faerie fire?As a 1st Level Spell, Faerie Fire is the strongest spell in the entire game (healing word is arguably also competitive with ff for the top slot)
Why? Group advantage is incredibly powerful. The increased damage output to your entire party is simply unmatched.
Most of my time playing as a druid would result in casting faerie fire until the DM ran out of legendary reactions.
Look at the math above on Advantage, if you and 3-4 other allies have advantage that can easily equal an additional 100 extra DPR at max level. Variance is the death of a party and advantage goes a long way in curbing it.
Why do you keep mentioning healing word?
TLDR: Because of the nature of death saves, when taking lethal damage of any amount below your Max HP, healing words ability to revive from range is extremely strong.
If the enemy does 40 damage per round, healing 1 hp or 39 hp makes no difference.
Why not 2 levels in fighter for action surge?
You already get con saves and armor by starting sorcerer and picking up Hexblade. Double fireball or scorching ray is really nice but...
Action Surge does not give you an additional bonus action.
You also lose out on high level spell slots.
I think the cost is simply too high and the spell slot reduction and delay too long for action surge to be worth it.
Where are all the aoe spells?
This build is primarily about single target damage and especially boss damage. I build for utility over aoe damage. Fireball is also fantastic in almost every situation and otherwise Hypnotic Pattern usually works extremely well.
Why would you quicken eldritch blast when you can quicken two fireballs?
You cannot quicken two fireballs, quickening spells allows you to cast one spell of any level as a bonus action and one cantrip as your action.
Hey! You cannot cast spells with a shield, you need warcaster!
Well this is highly debated, I recommend viewing this link The Rules of Spellcasting | Dungeons & Dragons and reading page 203 of the player hand book. Essentially having a hand for a component pouch or arcane orb counts as a free hand for somatic components. If you want to wield a wand or staff with a shield you must have warcaster.
Please let me know if you think I miss some vital spells or have some ideas for improvement.
Sample Build Paths
Divine Soul Sorcerer 5 - Warlock 3 - Sorcerer 17
Going five levels in sorcerer gives you the fastest route to Fireball.
L1 | +Guidance +Sacred Flame +Toll The Dead +Mage Hand | +Mage Armor +Sleep | Sorcerer 1 – Divine Soul
L2 | +Healing Word | Sorcerer 2
L3 | +Spirtual Weapon | Sorcerer 3 & Quicken + Twin Spell Metamagic
L4 | +Minor Illusion | +Invisibility | Sorcerer 4 & +2 Charisma ASI
L5 | +Fireball -Sleep +Haste | Sorcerer 5
L6 | +Eldritch Blast +Friends | +Shield +Hex | Warlock 1 - Hexblade
L7 | +Devil Sight +Agonizing Blast | +Hellish Rebuke | Warlock 2
L8 | +Book of Ancient Secrets -Devil Sight | -Hellish Rebuke +Mirror Image +Misty Step | +Spare the Dying +Thaumaturgy +Prestidigitation | Warlock 3 - Pact of the Tome
L9 | +Revivify | Sorcerer 6
L10 | +Message | -Mage Armor +Scorching Ray +Greater Invisibility | Sorcerer 7
L11 | +Polymorph | Sorcerer 8 & Elven Accuracy Feat
L12 | +Blink | Sorcerer 9
L13 | +Counterspell | Sorcerer 10 | Metamagic Choice: Careful Spell
L14 | +Heal | Sorcerer 11
L15 | Sorcerer 12 & Warcaster Feat
L16 | +Conjure Celestial | Sorcerer 13
L17 | Sorcerer 14
L18 | +Reverse Gravity | Sorcerer 15
L19 | Sorcerer 16 & Medium Armor Master Feat
L20 | +Wish | Sorcerer 17 | Metamagic Choice: Heightened Spell
Sample Final Spells
Warlock
C | Eldritch Blast, Friends
B | Thaumaturgy, Prestidigitation, Spare the Dying
1 | Hex, Shield®
2 | Mirror Image, Misty Step
Sorcerer
C | Guidance, Mage Hand, Minor Illuson, Sacred Flame, Message, Toll the Dead
1 | Absorb Elements®, Healing Word
2 | Spiritual Weapon, Scorching Ray
3 | Revivify, Fireball, Haste©, Blink, Counterspell®
4 | Polymorph©, Greater Invisibility©
5 |
6 | Heal
7 | Conjure Celestial©, Reverse Gravity©
8 |
9 | Wish
Shadow Sorcerer 5 - Warlock 2 - Shadow Sorcerer 18
Going five levels in sorcerer gives you the fastest route to Fireball.
L1 | +Firebolt +Shocking Grasp +Dancing Lights +Mage Hand | +Mage Armor +Sleep | Sorcerer 1 – Shadow Sorcerer
L2 | +Absorb Elements | Sorcerer 2
L3 | +Misty Step | Sorcerer 3 & Quicken + Twin Spell Metamagic
L4 | +Minor Illusion | +Invisibility | Sorcerer 4 & +2 Charisma ASI
L5 | +Fireball -Sleep +Haste | Sorcerer 5
L6 | +Eldritch Blast +Toll the Dead | +Shield +Hex | Warlock 1 - Hexblade
L7 | +Repelling Blast +Agonizing Blast | +Hellish Rebuke | Warlock 2
L8 | +Blink | Sorcerer 6
L9 | +Message -Firebolt +Friends| -Mage Armor +Scorching Ray +Greater Invisibility | Sorcerer 7
L10 | +Polymorph -Invisibility +Counterspell| Sorcerer 8 & Elven Accuracy Feat
L11 | +Hold Monster | Sorcerer 9
L12 | +Slow | Sorcerer 10 | Metamagic Choice: Subtle Spell
L13 | +Reverse Gravity | Sorcerer 11
L14 |+Mirror Image | Sorcerer 12 & Warcaster Feat
L15 | +Invisibility | Sorcerer 13
L16 | Sorcerer 14
L17 | Sorcerer 15
L18 | Sorcerer 16 & Medium Armor Master Feat
L19 | +Wish | Sorcerer 17 | Metamagic Choice: Heightened Spell
L20 |
Sample Final Spells
Warlock
C | Eldritch Blast, Toll the Dead
1 | Hex, Shield®, Hellish Rebuke
Sorcerer
C | Mage Hand, Minor Illuson, Shocking Grasp, Message, Friends, Dancing Lights
1 | Absorb Elements®
2 | Misty Step, Mirror Image, Scorching Ray
3 | Fireball, Haste©, Blink, Counterspell®, Slow©
4 | Polymorph©, Greater Invisibility©
5 | Hold Monster©
6 |
7 | Reverse Gravity©
8 |
9 | Wish
Many spells that are not listed above might be required by your party.
Missing non-concentration buffs
- Aid (Nice Max Health Boost)
- Heroes Feast (Amazing Buff for 1000gp)
- Freedom of Movement (Your allies can't get paralyzed or restrained, especially useful while flying)
- Death Ward (Pop right back up on death which translates to straight up immunity from disintegrate,finger of death and power word kill death effects)
- Warding Bond (Free Ring of Protection & Share your healthpool, smoothing out incoming damage)
- Plane Shift
- Teleportation Circle (1 Minute Casting Time)
- Arcane Gate (Stays open for 10 Minutes)
- Teleport
- Word of Recall (Action only GTFO if you planned ahead)
- Dispel Magic
- Disintegration (Dispels several effects dispel magic does not)
- Hold Person/Monster
- Banishment
- Remove Curse/Restoration/Greater Restoration
- AoE Healing (Mass Cure Wounds, Mass Healing Word, Mass Heal)
- Fly
- Home (Temple of the Gods)
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