D&D 5E Building a self healing caster

[williams290894]

Wondering if you could give some advice on an idea I'm working on. I want to build a Warlock that has made a deal for an extended life. The Undying Patron seems underwhelming so I have been trying to multiclass something more interesting.

My current thought is Life Cleric (1)/Necromancy Wizard (2)/Fiend Warlock (5+).

Life Cleric is for Disciple of Life. Necromancy Wizard is for Grim Harvest. Fiend Warlock for Dark One's Blessing and Fiendish Vigour for an initial 8thp.

Attack wise I plan to use Eldrich Blast initially and then move to using Vampiric Touch when I need things seem weakened/ I need hp
For Vampiric Touch (3rd Level): 10.5 damage, 5hp healed, +5hp further from Disciple of Life, on top of that on a kill +9hp from Grim Harvest, +7thp from Dark One’s Blessing.

Obviously this is very MAD needing 13+ in WIS, INT, and CHA so any modification suggestions would be ideal.

 

[Kithas]

Wondering if you could give some advice on an idea I'm working on. I want to build a Warlock that has made a deal for an extended life. The Undying Patron seems underwhelming so I have been trying to multiclass something more interesting.

My current thought is Life Cleric (1)/Necromancy Wizard (2)/Fiend Warlock (5+).

Life Cleric is for Disciple of Life. Necromancy Wizard is for Grim Harvest. Fiend Warlock for Dark One's Blessing and Fiendish Vigour for an initial 8thp.

Attack wise I plan to use Eldrich Blast initially and then move to using Vampiric Touch when I need things seem weakened/ I need hp
For Vampiric Touch (3rd Level): 10.5 damage, 5hp healed, +5hp further from Disciple of Life, on top of that on a kill +9hp from Grim Harvest, +7thp from Dark One’s Blessing.

Obviously this is very MAD needing 13+ in WIS, INT, and CHA so any modification suggestions would be ideal.

It does seem that those all work together. Your main issue is as you said the Mad nature of this beast. You did forget one thing though, if you plan on going melee with vamp touch you need some hp and ac to not get dropped. There are two options to help with this; play a hill dwarf(or variantand human with mobile) and use heavy armor, or cast vampiric touch through your familiar(owls are great for this) this is up to your dm though.
As far as int, wis, and cha juggling go you dont need over 13 in int or wis since Eb and vamp touch are your bread and butter. You will want to use spells from cleric and wizard that dont need to hits or saves, magic missile, all healing, detect magic etc are still great options.

Edit. Im not sure that grim harvest is worth 2levels in wizard and the required int. You get virtually nothing from it unless you get the last hit which is rare ime.

 

[williams290894]

So here is where I stand. Basically I want to take up to a 3 level combo of Life Cleric 1/Necromancy Wizard 2/Shadow Sorcerer 2 and then the rest Fiend Warlock, more than 3 classes seems like it would be excessive. I feel like the Life Cleric 1 is a must as it returns hp without requiring the killing blow.

So Strength of the Grave vs. Grim Harvest.
Fiend Warlock and Grim Harvest work together to make killing enemies especially powerful. However, if you don't get the killing blow it's wasted (and also MAD).
Strength of the Grave (possibly comboed with Undying Warlock) would give DC5+damage taken Con Save (followed by any successful death save) would have the character return to consciousness. However, at higher levels DC5+damage could easily become redundant (and the Undying Warlock is meh vs. Fiend Warlock).

 

[mellored]

How about life 1/lore bard/warlock?

Bard has good healing spells, particularly picking up aura of vitality from the paladin at 6, and you get to keep Cha as your casting stat. Warlock gives you decent ranged damage with eldrich blast and slots to spam.

 

[RulesJD]

Just want to point out that the wording of the Life Cleric ability makes it uncertain whether it applies to Vampiric Touch.

 

[bid]

Just want to point out that the wording of the Life Cleric ability makes it uncertain whether it applies to Vampiric Touch.

Why? Heal, healing word, vampiric touch all use "regain hit points". Where's the difference?

 

[RulesJD]

"On a hit, the target takes 3d6 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt."

"Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature"

Does Vampiric Touch "restore hitpoints"? Yes....most of the time. Against a target with immunity to Necrotic damage, you wouldn't be dealing any damage so you wouldn't be recovering any HP as well.

Additionally, the purpose of the spell is to cause damage, albeit as well as healing the caster. So is the purpose of the spell to "restore hitpoints"? Or is it to cause damage and sometimes (granted most times) restore hitpoints as well? More likely than not the DM will let it ride, but it's not a guarantee.

 

[Kithas]

As he said with Cure Wounds and Healing word, spells clearly meant to work with this feature, the same "regains hit points" language is used. The same arguments could be brought against those, if a creature cannot be healed(chill touched) or is at full hp they cannot regain hit points. You still cast a spell to restore them though, whether it worked or not.

 

[bid]

"Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature"

So the only point you have is that "restore hit point" is incidental and not the reason you cast vampiric touch. I was hoping for something with more meat.

 

[Sezarious]

The MAD issue also extends to Strength. There's no way of doing this build with heavy armor (str 15 required) with any race except standard human.... If you're not worried about armor, maybe half elf?

Half elf:
Str: 9
Dex: 10
Con: 13 (+1 racial) 14
Int: 13 (+1 racial) 14
Wis: 14
Cha: 14 (+2 racial) 16

Otherwise, see standard human - +2 in each of his spellcasting skills, his strength being his highest attribute for the armor. An intersting concept i'll say. Almost a caster/fighter who drains the souls of the enemies he defeats. You'd be a very versatile character, a little bit of a tank, reasonable healer, reasonable caster, enduring when you need to survive with only short rests.

I don't know how to progress this further for you, where to put the asi and so on. Maybe Charisma? Maybe shield mastery? Maybe a strength half feat like heavy armor mastery? Depends on the pact you take. Bump up cha or strength probably with pact of the tome (for shilleilaugh) or bump strength if going with pact of the blade. Feats could be pretty awesome too. Polearm mastery or shield mastery plus shilleilaugh is a good combo.

Human (Standard)

Str 14 (7) 15
Dex 8 (0) 9
Con 13 (5) 14
Wis 13 (5) 14
Int 13 (5) 14
Cha 13 (5) 14