D&D 5E Warlock, Pact of the Blade, Melee

[Chaosmancer]

Wow, all that discussion and no one came up with the most thematic/cheesy blade warlock combo.

Get Devil's Sight to see in magical darkness, cast Darkness on yourself, fight in melee as the only guy who can see. Good combo mechanically, and thematically you are a moving cloud of darkness that cuts those who enter it.

Also, Pact of the Blade allows you to always be armed (useful when captured or approaching someone of importance) and the weapon can change depending on your needs. I'd stick with a finesse weapon, but if your rapier isn't good because the creature is resistant to piercing, change it to a maul and deal bludgeoning.

I won't deny Eldritch blast it's top spot, but Blade warlocks despite being a little MAD are still very good.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

I notice I enjoy playing my bladelock a lot more when I'm not framing my thoughts in optimization and/or DPR cheese. I just play him to enjoy playing him and find I have a (non-eldritch) blast doing so.

<shrug> 5e is so much more forgiving than the last two editions when it comes to style over substance. Play whatever sounds fun and don't worry so much about squeezing every edge or playing the best builds. You'll be just fine.

 

[Zardnaar]

Wow, all that discussion and no one came up with the most thematic/cheesy blade warlock combo.

Get Devil's Sight to see in magical darkness, cast Darkness on yourself, fight in melee as the only guy who can see. Good combo mechanically, and thematically you are a moving cloud of darkness that cuts those who enter it.

Also, Pact of the Blade allows you to always be armed (useful when captured or approaching someone of importance) and the weapon can change depending on your needs. I'd stick with a finesse weapon, but if your rapier isn't good because the creature is resistant to piercing, change it to a maul and deal bludgeoning.

I won't deny Eldritch blast it's top spot, but Blade warlocks despite being a little MAD are still very good.

It dumps on the rest of the party though.

I am going to write up a bladelock guide at some point.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Just adding: Warlocks can get good Invocations that enhance their Blade Pact. They can have near permanent Mage Armour (AC 13+Dex) with Armour of Shadows while other spells can also give them some defensive boosts. If they have a Fiend patron, then they can boost their HP (temporary) by killing things. Best start with weak targets. They probably do best with finesse weapons like the rapier, and place more emphasis on Dex rather than Str. Thirsting Blade allows an extra strike when you get it.

Beyond that, spells carefully selected can swing things in your favour in combat: Blade Ward and True Strike are useful cantrips, Armour of Agythys, Hellish Rebuke and Hex can all be effective. Various illusion spells can bamboozle your opponents. Warlocks tend to still be more sneaky attackers rather than front on combatants, although a Mountain Dwarf Warlock may be a different approach (which I've not tried), but that doesn't mean they are not effective.

The Blade is magical, by the way, and can be used to attack creatures with various immunities. However, getting a real magical weapon of some sort to combine with the feature is a priority of sorts. This is dependent on the campaign your in of course, but there is evidence that a Bladelock would make better use of a magical weapon than other Classes.

 

[pdegan2814]

I...well, I'm about as far as one can get from being a 5e apologist, as I'm sure you're aware by now. But I really can't agree with you on this one. The books left it very ambiguous--for example, the whole "gaining/retraining invocations" section exclusively talks about how you acquire this stuff via taking levels in Warlock, but the prerequisites listed in the actual Invocations section only say level. Their intent here is not clearly discernible.

Personally, I think it's really not a big deal--despite claims to the contrary, I think multiclassing without a specific 'plan of attack' is generally inadvisable. The single most exploitative thing I can think of is going Fighter 11/Warlock 3 and picking up Lifedrinker; Thirsting Blade is useless because you already have two extra attacks and they very clearly don't stack, and Lifedrinker requires the Blade pact which you can't get until Warlock 3 anyway. All that effort goes into...getting you +Cha to your attacks, and two first-level spells per short rest. Forgive me for being underwhelmed.

The ruling is pretty consistent with how they've handled other things so far. Class-specific abilities like invocations, class archetype features etc. are dependent on your class level, not total level(including ability score increases since the frequency of them varies by class). Spells "level up" in power based on the level of the slot used to cast them. I believe only your proficiency bonus and your cantrips increase in strength based on your total level.

 

[Blue]

Blaster CAN add to each bolt

Viable but tricky. I spent a while tinkering with it the other day. You do get more damage output than a straight blaster; the blaster only gets to add her Charisma bonus to damage once per round,

Just to clear up some confusion, this isn't actually true. Blaster may add Chr to each bold with Agonizing Blast.

It's been answered a few times in Sage Advice, it's a common question:
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/06/agonizing-blast-damage/
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/06/28/warlocks-agonozing-blast/

 

[Chaosmancer]

It dumps on the rest of the party though.

I am going to write up a bladelock guide at some point.

It can, but different party make ups or plans can alter that. A shadow monk for example doesn't care if they can't see after they bamf in. Also, the bladelock could be the front runner, while the rest of the party works around the darkness and kills anything that stumbles out.

So, yeah, using it indiscriminately without thought of the team is bad, but it is still a cool combo.

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

It can, but different party make ups or plans can alter that. A shadow monk for example doesn't care if they can't see after they bamf in. Also, the bladelock could be the front runner, while the rest of the party works around the darkness and kills anything that stumbles out.

So, yeah, using it indiscriminately without thought of the team is bad, but it is still a cool combo.

Darkness and Blink work rather well together (or at least they have a 50% chance of working well together each round) if you're a Fey pact BladeLock. I use this combo by casting Darkness on my Pact Blade, then casting Blink on myself. When I blink out at the end of my turn, the darkness field follows me to the ethereal plane so the rest of my party can see until I blink back in.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Darkness and Blink work rather well together (or at least they have a 50% chance of working well together each round) if you're a Fey pact BladeLock. I use this combo by casting Darkness on my Pact Blade, then casting Blink on myself. When I blink out at the end of my turn, the darkness field follows me to the ethereal plane so the rest of my party can see until I blink back in.

Oooh, I like that. Great idea.

 

[Celondon]

My issue with 'locks is also an issue I have with Rangers -- in order for them to deal competitive damage, they need Hex up. A Bladelock has to be in melee, so odds of being able to rely on Hex remaining up are lower than it would be for a Boltlock. Combine with the fact that Hex requires Concentration, which reduces the overall effectiveness of their spell casting and you have some problems. Add in the loss of Bonus Actions switching targets for the Hex and it gets even worse.

I love the concept of Bladelocks and enjoyed playing the one I did, but in terms of 'balance' there are issues.