ENworld Warlock Builds.

[Not a Decepticon]

Reposting some of builds I want to try

Man Shoots, Gods Carry the Bullets
Fighter 1/Celestial Pact Warlock 6
Feats: Alert, if using crossbow then Crossbow Expert
Weapon mastery: slow
Gear: Heaviest armor you can get and either hand crossbow with shield or musket
Cantrip: True Strike
Invocations: Repelling Blast (True Strike), Agonizing Blast (True Strike), Pact of the Chain

Use alert to go after your familiar, who gives you Help action. On your turn you cast True Strike and fire with your charisma, changing damage to radiant. True Strike, Agonizing Blast and Radiant Soul add 15 to damage, you push enemy away and halve their speed. All while sitting on possible ac of 20.

Different variant of the build would be using Assassin Rogue in place of Fighter for more single target damage and Cunning Strike, at cost of armor, works well with musket build.

Will make separate post for each build I'll add

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Team Mom Multiattack
Combination of Coffeelock and Short Rest Superstar

Human Archfey Warlock 6/Clockwork Soul Sorcerer 6/Champion Fighter 3
Feats: Musician, Tireless Reveler, Lord's Alliance Agent, Inspiring Leader, Chef
Spell: Eldritch Blast
Invications: Repelling Blast, Agonizing Blast, Lessons of the Forst Ones, Pact of the Chain (Sphinx of Wonder)

So here is how it works: You give everyone inspiration on a short rest, as well as temporary hit points and better hp recovery. You get inspiration if someone uses one and you give free inspiration out on a crit. With Eldritch Blast, Quicken Spell and Improved Critical, you have around 50-60% chance to crit once a turn. That is before we factor how often you get inspiration and how you can delete dusadvantage on attacis with Restore Balance. On top of a lot of defensive or buff/debuff options like Restore Balance, Bastion iof Law, Steps of the Fey and Misty Escape. On top if usual coffelock silliness.

 

[BigMac75]

Pushlock? Yoyo-lock? Graterlock? Bouncelock? Bladelock-knockback? Bladeknock? Build... maybe it already has a name, new to the Warlock builds. Also not sure if this would actually be fun for us to play but seems interesting / worth describing.

This is an extension of the Push > Persistent AOE Damage Dealers described in D4 Helldritch Blaster (he is better at coming up with names) - I think he also talked about the cheese-grater approach in "Thornlock" which is based on similar premise but with a grappler Warlock doing the pushing...

Basically you need to move enemies into persistent AOE effects that hurt / debuff / incapacitate them.

A few main push / Yo-yo mechanism:

• Eldridge Blast w/ Repelling Blast
  • This gets a big upgrade at Lvl 5 when you can use Gaze of Two Minds w/ Pact of the Chain to cast EB/RB from your own position or from invisible familiar's position (provides lots of flexibility for positioning and direction of movement).
• Weapon Mastery combined with Pact of the Blade to get Push (Pike, Warhammer, Greatclub, Magic Heavy Crossbow - Ask your Artificer friend for a +1 Repeating Shot Heavy Crossbow)
  • This gets a big upgrade if you take Polearm Master Feat and Weapon Mastery with Pike - gives you around 2-3 attacks per turn w/ 10' reach and 10' push per attack (I think you can even get one more attack with push on crits / killed enemies if you also get Great Weapon Master).
  • You obviously get more attacks when Thirsting Blade/Devouring Blade come online.
• Alternatively, True Strike + Repelling Blast = flexibility between melee with Pact Weapon and range (light crossbow or shortbow)
  • Mainly works at lower levels since you cannot combine True Strike with Thirsting Blade so lose too many attacks at higher levels.
• Can also take Charger or Telekinetic Feat to give you more pushin' for the cushions (your enemies)...

Few Persistent AOE Spell Options:

• Hunger of Hadar (Lvl 3 - 150' range, 20' radius AOE, Blinded + 2d6 cold + 2d6 acid damage + difficult terrain).
• Wall of Fire (Lvl 4 - 120' range, 60' long x 20' high x 1' deep AOE, 5d8 w/in 10' of wall on one side)
• Spike Growth (Druid/Ranger Lvl 2 - 150' range, 20' radius AOE, 2d4 for every 5' movement)
• Web (Wizard/Sorcerer/Artificer Lvl 2 - 60' range, 20' cube AOE, Dex ST or restrained + difficult terrain)
• Create Bonfire (Too weak/small? Cantrip - 60' range, 5' cube AOE, Dex ST or 1d8 fire damage)
• Cloud of Daggers (Easier to move spell? Lvl 2 - 60' range, 5' cube AOE, 4d4 slashing damage)
• Prismatic Wall would be insane to push people through (but most 9th level spells are insane)
• Lots of other options - see list below.

So basically the strategy is that you (or your partners) create an AOE hazard - causing the most damage to the most people when you place it (and/or selecting strategic placement that allows you to push people into it). Then you position yourself and your familiar to attack remaining enemies and push them back into the AOE effects in ways that cause them the most damage all over again. Most effects push people 10' - Push Weapon Proficiency, Repelling Blast, Charger but these can stack in multiple ways to move people further: Multiple Beams of Eldritch Blast, True Strike w/ Repelling Blast + Weapon Mastery (I think), Weapon Mastery + Charger.

You and you-through-the-familiar (Gaze of Two Minds) cannot attack on the same round but you should be able to literally yo-yo a handful of enemies back and forth through a Wall of Fire or keep pushing them into the middle of the Hunger of Hadar. Added bonus - the imp can fly through the Wall of Fire without damage and can see into the darkness of the Hunger of Hadar (I think - apparently anyone outside the darkness can see into it if they have darkvision).

EDIT: Added bonus - list of persistent AOE spells (created with AI so forgive errors).
View attachment 429524

I added a list of Persistent AOE spells. Any that I should prioritize?

 

[BigMac75]

So many builds on Youtube use a Point Buy method. I understand why but for those of us rolling dice, it is relatively common to get at least 1 initial score of 16-18 which allows a much more rapid progression to a SAD build (Single Ability Dependent) and allows more focus on Feats instead of ability score increases.

Anyway, This is a bit of a baseline build (nothing too creative) - Pact of the Blade pretty maxed out front-line damage dealer (could do some more damage but I tried to be a bit balanced). This build has a starting 18 charisma (bumped to 20 w/ Origin Feat) and then focuses mostly on combat feats. For this one I started with a 1-level Fighter Dip to get some weapon proficiencies (similar results can be created with a Weapon Mastery Feat at Level 8 or 12 but build winds up more 1-dimensional since you have less weapon proficiencies to play with).

Lvl 0 - Origin Feat (Human) - Savage Attacker / Background: Merchant +2 Chr +1; Feat: Lucky
Lvl 1F - Mastery: Greatsword, Halberd, Heavy Crossbow / Fighting Style: Archer*
Lvl 1W - Pact of the Chain
Lvl 2W - Pact of the Blade, Repelling Blast (True Strike)
Lvl 4W - Feat: Polearm Master
Lvl 5W - Thirsting Blade (2nd Attack), Gaze of Two Minds
Lvl 7W - One With Shadows
Lvl 8W - Feat: Great Weapon Master
Lvl 9W - Eldritch Smite
Lvl 12W - Feat: War Caster / Devouring Blade
* Skipped Great Weapon Fighting since I thought Savage Attacker was better and overlapped significantly.

Below is the estimated DPR for this build at 12th level against AC 18. This assumes Hex is cast and that 1st attack in the round has advantage (familiar flyby). DPR is 67.28. FWIW - this is estimated / mapped on DPRcalc.com (seems to be a great site for estimating damage). EDIT: Fixed percentages to be more realistic (but this still makes lots of assumptions and is inherently multi-target damage due to cleave, hew, reactive / opportunity strike, etc...).

In many / most situations Greatsword w/ GWM has comparable DPR to Halberd w/ PAM (I did a pretty extensive exploration of this in a similar build w/o Fighter L1 checking at Level 4, 5, 8, 12, and 20). However, when you add in Hex, the extra damage on the additional PAM attacks pushes up damage quite a bit higher than with GWM (as you can see here). DPR for this Level 12 against AC 18 is 54.98 (everything else is the same except weapon and applicable feats).

 

[Zardnaar]

So many builds on Youtube use a Point Buy method. I understand why but for those of us rolling dice, it is relatively common to get at least 1 initial score of 16-18 which allows a much more rapid progression to a SAD build (Single Ability Dependent) and allows more focus on Feats instead of ability score increases.

Anyway, This is a bit of a baseline build (nothing too creative) - Pact of the Blade pretty maxed out front-line damage dealer (could do some more damage but I tried to be a bit balanced). This build has a starting 18 charisma (bumped to 20 w/ Origin Feat) and then focuses mostly on combat feats. For this one I started with a 1-level Fighter Dip to get some weapon proficiencies (similar results can be created with a Weapon Mastery Feat at Level 8 or 12 but build winds up a more 1-dimensional).

Lvl 0 - Origin Feat (Human) - Savage Attacker / Background: Merchant +2 Chr +1; Feat: Lucky
Lvl 1F - Mastery: Greatsword, Halberd, Heavy Crossbow / Fighting Style: Archer*
Lvl 1W - Pact of the Chain
Lvl 2W - Pact of the Blade, Repelling Blast (True Strike)
Lvl 4W - Feat: Polearm Master
Lvl 5W - Thirsting Blade (2nd Attack), Gaze of Two Minds
Lvl 7W - One With Shadows
Lvl 8W - Feat: Great Weapon Master
Lvl 9W - Eldritch Smite
Lvl 12W - Feat: War Caster / Devouring Blade
* Skipped Great Weapon Fighting since I thought Savage Attacker was better

Below is the estimated DPR for this build at 12th level against AC 18. This assumes Hex is cast and that 1st attack in the round has advantage (familiar flyby). DPR is 80.65. FWIW - this is estimated / mapped on DPRcalc.com (seems to be a great site for estimating damage).
View attachment 429870
View attachment 429866

In many / most situations Greatsword w/ GWM has comparable DPR to Halberd w/ PAM (I did a pretty extensive exploration of this in a similar build w/o Fighter L1 checking at Level 4, 5, 8, 12, and 20). However, when you add in Hex, the extra damage on the additional PAM attacks pushes up damage quite a bit higher than with GWM (as you can see here). DPR for this Level 12 against AC 18 is 54.98 (everything else is the same except weapon).

View attachment 429867

Did you take disadvantage into effect or did you have 13+ strength?

 

[BigMac75]

Did you take disadvantage into effect or did you have 13+ strength?

I was playing with my son's character (well his ability scores) and moved the lowest score to Int when I decided to try out Greatsword so he had over 13 Str.

EDIT: I think the DPRCalc system would take into account that disadvantage (it seems to catch all the various modifiers and other nested / overlapping factors) - I think it is actually easier to program this rather than trying to calculate in a spreadsheet.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

So many builds on Youtube use a Point Buy method. I understand why but for those of us rolling dice, it is relatively common to get at least 1 initial score of 16-18 which allows a much more rapid progression to a SAD build (Single Ability Dependent) and allows more focus on Feats instead of ability score increases.

Anyway, This is a bit of a baseline build (nothing too creative) - Pact of the Blade pretty maxed out front-line damage dealer (could do some more damage but I tried to be a bit balanced). This build has a starting 18 charisma (bumped to 20 w/ Origin Feat) and then focuses mostly on combat feats. For this one I started with a 1-level Fighter Dip to get some weapon proficiencies (similar results can be created with a Weapon Mastery Feat at Level 8 or 12 but build winds up a more 1-dimensional).

Lvl 0 - Origin Feat (Human) - Savage Attacker / Background: Merchant +2 Chr +1; Feat: Lucky
Lvl 1F - Mastery: Greatsword, Halberd, Heavy Crossbow / Fighting Style: Archer*
Lvl 1W - Pact of the Chain
Lvl 2W - Pact of the Blade, Repelling Blast (True Strike)
Lvl 4W - Feat: Polearm Master
Lvl 5W - Thirsting Blade (2nd Attack), Gaze of Two Minds
Lvl 7W - One With Shadows
Lvl 8W - Feat: Great Weapon Master
Lvl 9W - Eldritch Smite
Lvl 12W - Feat: War Caster / Devouring Blade
* Skipped Great Weapon Fighting since I thought Savage Attacker was better

Below is the estimated DPR for this build at 12th level against AC 18. This assumes Hex is cast and that 1st attack in the round has advantage (familiar flyby). DPR is 80.65. FWIW - this is estimated / mapped on DPRcalc.com (seems to be a great site for estimating damage).
View attachment 429870
View attachment 429866

In many / most situations Greatsword w/ GWM has comparable DPR to Halberd w/ PAM (I did a pretty extensive exploration of this in a similar build w/o Fighter L1 checking at Level 4, 5, 8, 12, and 20). However, when you add in Hex, the extra damage on the additional PAM attacks pushes up damage quite a bit higher than with GWM (as you can see here). DPR for this Level 12 against AC 18 is 54.98 (everything else is the same except weapon).

View attachment 429867

I don't see a subclass, do you have a subclass preference? I think Fiend Pact with old Dark One's Blessing + Armor of Aghatys combo seems to not be interveening in the build and is a solid option in itself.

 

[BigMac75]

I don't see a subclass, do you have a subclass preference? I think Fiend Pact with old Dark One's Blessing + Armor of Aghatys combo seems to not be interveening in the build and is a solid option in itself.

Thank you - yes, I forgot to put Subclass and was thinking of Fiend for a front-line damage dealer to constantly recoup Temporary HPs. Armor of Agathys would be highly complementary (amazing that it does not require concentration). I am basically playing around with this build to help me learn the impact of things like Feats and to understand what is the big deal with Hex.

I was also surprised the DPRCalc had not been mentioned here at all. Seems like a great site for doing this type of check - the creator was also super responsive when I found a bug in how damage modifiers were calculated with Cleave when Pact of the Blade was being used. I know "optimizing" is often frowned upon but I like to understand the tradeoffs and benefits of choices (with DPR being just a part of the story).

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Thank you - yes, I forgot to put Subclass and was thinking of Fiend for a front-line damage dealer to constantly recoup Temporary HPs. Armor of Agathys would be highly complementary (amazing that it does not require concentration). I am basically playing around with this build to help me learn the impact of things like Feats and to understand what is the big deal with Hex.

I was also surprised the DPRCalc had not been mentioned here at all. Seems like a great site for doing this type of check - the creator was also super responsive when I found a bug in how damage modifiers were calculated with Cleave when Pact of the Blade was being used. I know "optimizing" is often frowned upon but I like to understand the tradeoffs and benefits of choices (with DPR being just a part of the story).

Can you use it without having to make D&D Beyond account?

 

[BigMac75]

Can you use it without having to make D&D Beyond account?

Sadly, not at this point. I asked about that but developer said not yet.