Blade of the Frontier build plan.

[Yojo0o]

Finally, we have confirmation that Pact of the Blade will enable charisma-based weapon scaling, a mechanic that in tabletop was reserved for the Hexblade subclass that isn't present in BG3. This is great news for anybody planning on playing Wyll according to his title of Blade of the Frontier, rather than as a traditional back-line blaster.

Now, Hexblade also critically provides medium armor/shield proficiency. To make up for that, my plan with Wyll is to take the Moderately Armored feat at level 4. As a half-feat, that'll round up his dexterity score to 14 and grant medium armor and shield proficiency, which potentially escalates his AC from 13-14 to 17-19, making him more than viable as a melee combatant.

It's a bit clunky to require level 3-4 before Wyll fully comes into his own as a warrior, but that'll go pretty quickly. Pact of the Blade further unlocks critical invocations such as Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, and Eldritch Smite. With either sword+shield or a two-hander, Wyll should make for an effective melee warrior, perhaps not as robust as the likes of Lae'zel, and probably not "main tank" material, but still fully capable as a spellcasting warlock and able to dish impressive damage and control in melee. Armor of Agathys will go a long way towards enhancing his durability, too.

[Metallicus]

Do we know that Wyll won’t have his ability scores re-worked along with his story? I wouldn’t be surprised if they fixed Wyll’s crappy build along with everything else.

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by Metallicus:

Do we know that Wyll won’t have his ability scores re-worked along with his story? I wouldn’t be surprised if they fixed Wyll’s crappy build along with everything else.

He doesn't necessarily need much help if he goes Blade -> Moderately Armored as I've suggested. 14 dexterity is all a hexblade build ever needs, after all. He's even got 15 constitution, which could set him up nicely for Resilient (Con) at level 8, though it would suck to skip two charisma-boosting ASIs.

[Hub]

In the video where the pact is shown, he is 8 13 14 13 10 17

[ComradePreacher]

I don't want to be that guy but I believe Wyll has a 'special' background that let's him have proficiency with rapiers. he uses dexterity like others. I really want hexblade to be a playstyle for warlocks but I've yet to see it.

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by ComradePreacher:

I don't want to be that guy but I believe Wyll has a 'special' background that let's him have proficiency with rapiers. he uses dexterity like others. I really want hexblade to be a playstyle for warlocks but I've yet to see it.

Right, which is why he was so janky in EA, but Pact of the Blade is confirmed to enable charisma-based weapon scaling in BG3.

[ComradePreacher]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Originally posted by ComradePreacher:

I don't want to be that guy but I believe Wyll has a 'special' background that let's him have proficiency with rapiers. he uses dexterity like others. I really want hexblade to be a playstyle for warlocks but I've yet to see it.

Right, which is why he was so janky in EA, but Pact of the Blade is confirmed to enable charisma-based weapon scaling in BG3.

Pact of the blade basically let's you have any melee weapon to conjue, you're proficient on the spot only issue was that it does NOT use your charisma unless you are a hexblade.

I might have missed some details but did they mention in the panel that pact of the blade will use charisma?

Then again going a full blade lock build is fun but costly, if they add in the various invocations like thristing blade and lifedrinker. or improved pact weapon to enable ranged weapons and they gain the +1 benefit.

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by ComradePreacher:

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Right, which is why he was so janky in EA, but Pact of the Blade is confirmed to enable charisma-based weapon scaling in BG3.

Pact of the blade basically let's you have any melee weapon to conjue, you're proficient on the spot only issue was that it does NOT use your charisma unless you are a hexblade.

I might have missed some details but did they mention in the panel that pact of the blade will use charisma?

Then again going a full blade lock build is fun but costly, if they add in the various invocations like thristing blade and lifedrinker. or improved pact weapon to enable ranged weapons and they gain the +1 benefit.

It's been confirmed in the various chatter and screenshots/videos since the PFH, which is why I made the post. I'm very familiar with how the boon usually works in Tabletop, but it seems to have been altered to specifically enable SAD warrior warlocks in BG3, which I think is great news.

[ComradePreacher]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Originally posted by ComradePreacher:

Pact of the blade basically let's you have any melee weapon to conjue, you're proficient on the spot only issue was that it does NOT use your charisma unless you are a hexblade.

I might have missed some details but did they mention in the panel that pact of the blade will use charisma?

Then again going a full blade lock build is fun but costly, if they add in the various invocations like thristing blade and lifedrinker. or improved pact weapon to enable ranged weapons and they gain the +1 benefit.

It's been confirmed in the various chatter and screenshots/videos since the PFH, which is why I made the post. I'm very familiar with how the boon usually works in Tabletop, but it seems to have been altered to specifically enable SAD warrior warlocks in BG3, which I think is great news.

lol SAD warrior.
This is great news, always liked the witch knight style than obligatory eldritch blast and hex.
If you want wyll to have more defense you could plan to get his dex to 16 and have medium armor master. I don't remember if the moderately armoured gives shield proficiency but if war caster will be in final you could be a little AC tank.

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by ComradePreacher:

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

It's been confirmed in the various chatter and screenshots/videos since the PFH, which is why I made the post. I'm very familiar with how the boon usually works in Tabletop, but it seems to have been altered to specifically enable SAD warrior warlocks in BG3, which I think is great news.

lol SAD warrior.
This is great news, always liked the witch knight style than obligatory eldritch blast and hex.
If you want wyll to have more defense you could plan to get his dex to 16 and have medium armor master. I don't remember if the moderately armoured gives shield proficiency but if war caster will be in final you could be a little AC tank.

I'd rather make up the durability difference with magic, 16 dex plus MAM pretty much takes us to level 12 in terms of ASI investment unfortunately.

[xposethedarkside]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Pact of the Blade is confirmed to enable charisma-based weapon scaling in BG3.

Whoa! You're certain of this? Pact of the blade is only supposed to make you proficient with your pact weapon, it's Hexblade that makes it scale off charisma.
Are you saying they just poached this from Hexblade and dumped it into pact of the blade? Where did you hear this?

*I'm not trying to sound obnoxious btw, just really curious and hyped if this is true.*

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by xposethedarkside:

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Pact of the Blade is confirmed to enable charisma-based weapon scaling in BG3.

Whoa! You're certain of this? Pact of the blade is only supposed to make you proficient with your pact weapon, it's Hexblade that makes it scale off charisma.
Are you saying they just poached this from Hexblade and dumped it into pact of the blade? Where did you hear this?

*I'm not trying to sound obnoxious btw, just really curious and hyped if this is true.*

Here's a reddit post with a screenshot of the feature: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/14xneus/looks_like_pact_of_the_blade_is_the_new_version/

Hexblade was always kind of a "fix" to Pact of the Blade, by my estimation, since Pact of the Blade doesn't really do enough to enable a warrior warlock compared to similar class/subclass options. Since we don't have Hexblade in BG3, it looks like Larian is folding some of that functionality back into Pact of the Blade to ease the loss a bit. This is pretty common homebrew anyway, and I'm all for it.

[xposethedarkside]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Originally posted by xposethedarkside:

Whoa! You're certain of this? Pact of the blade is only supposed to make you proficient with your pact weapon, it's Hexblade that makes it scale off charisma.
Are you saying they just poached this from Hexblade and dumped it into pact of the blade? Where did you hear this?

*I'm not trying to sound obnoxious btw, just really curious and hyped if this is true.*

Here's a reddit post with a screenshot of the feature: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/14xneus/looks_like_pact_of_the_blade_is_the_new_version/

Hexblade was always kind of a "fix" to Pact of the Blade, by my estimation, since Pact of the Blade doesn't really do enough to enable a warrior warlock compared to similar class/subclass options. Since we don't have Hexblade in BG3, it looks like Larian is folding some of that functionality back into Pact of the Blade to ease the loss a bit. This is pretty common homebrew anyway, and I'm all for it.

Hell yea! That's what I'm talking about. But wait, is this only for Wyll, or does this go for Tav warlocks as well?

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by xposethedarkside:

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Here's a reddit post with a screenshot of the feature: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/14xneus/looks_like_pact_of_the_blade_is_the_new_version/

Hexblade was always kind of a "fix" to Pact of the Blade, by my estimation, since Pact of the Blade doesn't really do enough to enable a warrior warlock compared to similar class/subclass options. Since we don't have Hexblade in BG3, it looks like Larian is folding some of that functionality back into Pact of the Blade to ease the loss a bit. This is pretty common homebrew anyway, and I'm all for it.

Hell yea! That's what I'm talking about. But wait, is this only for Wyll, or does this go for Tav warlocks as well?

I would assume it's anybody. All warlocks get the choice of blade/tome/chain at level 3, and this just appears to be the functionality of blade.

[Recjawjind]

Honestly I'd just take paladin levels instead of moderately armored. Lets you hit 20 cha very early (ASI + auntie ethels hair), and overall palalock seems like a great choice from what we saw thusfar.

[xposethedarkside]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Originally posted by xposethedarkside:

Hell yea! That's what I'm talking about. But wait, is this only for Wyll, or does this go for Tav warlocks as well?

I would assume it's anybody. All warlocks get the choice of blade/tome/chain at level 3, and this just appears to be the functionality of blade.

Sick. Well I know what my first playthroughs gonna be. I will miss Timmy my little invisible imp, but a warlocks gotta do what a warlocks gotta do.

Thank you sir for making my day.