Warlock, pact of the blade - thoughts?

[➕⁺+₊ ⁺]

Force cantrip is so good (after some investments ofc) and we get multiple attacks with it at lvl 5 and... 10 I think? 3 rays with pushback is ridiculous yeah, but this pact of the blade at lvl 3 opens up some very interesting possibilities for hybrid CHA builds out there yeah? Like add paladin after that that uses CHA-based 2-hander or smth, we get additional attacks per round much later in this case tho... Gotta level it all up and check all the fun comboes :3

[[Heretic]Rivga]

Warlock opens opportunities, I think the class is awful by itself but mix it and you can do wonders.

[LordAnubis]

Originally posted by HereticRivga:

Warlock opens opportunities, I think the class is awful by itself but mix it and you can do wonders.

Pure warlock gets tons of options through their invocations. They can become skill monkeys, get access to spells like Speak with Animals, etc. If you think pure warlock is awful, you've obviously never played a warlock.

Originally posted by Warden:

Force cantrip is so good (after some investments ofc) and we get multiple attacks with it at lvl 5 and... 10 I think? 3 rays with pushback is ridiculous yeah, but this pact of the blade at lvl 3 opens up some very interesting possibilities for hybrid CHA builds out there yeah? Like add paladin after that that uses CHA-based 2-hander or smth, we get additional attacks per round much later in this case tho... Gotta level it all up and check all the fun comboes :3

Yes Pact of the Blade integrates the best feature of the Hexblade subclass, the ability to use CHA for attacks and damage with weapons. Hexblades are one of the most popular class dips for multiclassing in tabletop for that very reason. It's probably the reason why Larian didn't include Hexblade and instead rolled it into Pact of the Blade, to force people to take at least 3 levels of Warlock to get it.

[Yojo0o]

Just one extra attack at 5.

Blade warlocks are a great Gish option in DnD 5e. It's a bit awkward that you can't really be a proper warrior until level 3, and you need to find a way to get medium armor, but it's a strong build once those hurdles are cleared.

[NotoriousNix]

You should check out the mirror blade mod, it basically functions like green flame sword cantrip from tabletop. Its a mainstay for hexblade if I remember correctly.

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by NotoriousNix:

You should check out the mirror blade mod, it basically functions like green flame sword cantrip from tabletop. Its a mainstay for hexblade if I remember correctly.

Blade cantrips are great at levels 1-4 for bladelocks, but don't really do much after level 5 since you can't use them with the Extra Attack feature. Unless BG3 implements this differently, of course.

[Cinus]

Can you tell me which subclass is good? With 10 WISDOM i think the spells can not work so good like tasha or sleep.

[2LambBuna]

Originally posted by HereticRivga:

Warlock opens opportunities, I think the class is awful by itself but mix it and you can do wonders.

nonsense they're great steady and consistent ranged damage, eldritch blast is best damage cantrip by far, and hex can be re-applied over and over. they wont burn through all their spells and then just do chip damage like the other casters on long fights.

[2LambBuna]

Originally posted by Cinus:

Can you tell me which subclass is good? With 10 WISDOM i think the spells can not work so good like tasha or sleep.

fiend is best for damage, goo opens up crowd control, fey opens up scouting options. all are good, which is best depends on who else is in party

[Arngrim]

My only issue with pact of the blade is that it´s not hexblade.
Anyway it works well as part of a gish.

[Cinus]

Originally posted by 2LambBuna:

Originally posted by Cinus:

Can you tell me which subclass is good? With 10 WISDOM i think the spells can not work so good like tasha or sleep.

fiend is best for damage, goo opens up crowd control, fey opens up scouting options. all are good, which is best depends on who else is in party

I mean...with 10wisdom skill check it is easy to pass for enemy right?

[MagicFetus]

I'm having a bit of trouble seeing the point in taking pact of the blade outside of fun/roleplay, the only good reason I've seen so far is cause of magical weapons but I feel like there are plenty of magic staffs and armor that make straight spell casting just as good if not better. Here's my current thoughts; pact of the blade gives you 2 attacks a turn and pairs nicely with a couple of magic items but you could instead eldritch blast, later in the game a total of 3 times with knock back and a bonus of +10 to damage with agonizing blast and that one chest armor, add in the fact that you could go chain and get a separate creature capable of both setting up surprise rounds for you and attacking twice as well (assuming it's not still bugged, heard it was when I was looking into what the point of choosing the blade pact), it feels like chain and straight blast has more damage potential

[Wuorg]

Originally posted by MagicFetus:

I'm having a bit of trouble seeing the point in taking pact of the blade outside of fun/roleplay, the only good reason I've seen so far is cause of magical weapons but I feel like there are plenty of magic staffs and armor that make straight spell casting just as good if not better. Here's my current thoughts; pact of the blade gives you 2 attacks a turn and pairs nicely with a couple of magic items but you could instead eldritch blast, later in the game a total of 3 times with knock back and a bonus of +10 to damage with agonizing blast and that one chest armor, add in the fact that you could go chain and get a separate creature capable of both setting up surprise rounds for you and attacking twice as well (assuming it's not still bugged, heard it was when I was looking into what the point of choosing the blade pact), it feels like chain and straight blast has more damage potential

It helps to think of Pact of the Blade as more of an alternative to Tome and Chain, rather than an alternative to Eldritch Blast specifically. The Pact Boons are there to augment the things your class and subclass are doing, like any other class feature, rather than replace something they were already doing (in this case, Hex + EB).

With this in mind, Pact of the Blade allows the Warlock to:
- Use weapons they normally aren't proficient in, which in BG3 turns out to be quite impactful.
- Potentially skip the EB Invocations if they wish, opening up other fun (edit: and powerful!) options earlier (consider a Blade Warlock with Devil Sight + the spell Darkness). Yes, theoretically you could also do that with an EB build, but it would come online much later in the playthrough.

EB is *the* most efficient damage cantrip in the game, doubly true with Agonizing Blast (and other abilities), so you could very easily just...also use it with Pact of the Blade (Edit: many of the things that boost EB's damage also boost your melee damage, like Hex. Obviously not all, but you get the point). You could use the melee weapon as a stat stick, close range alternative, to apply coatings, that kind of thing, instead of necessarily relying on it as primary damage. In the same way Tome and Chain aren't trying to replace EB, Blade isn't either.

Also, nice necro. You could have just made your own post, you know?