Paladin/Warlock - Pact of the Blade

[svde_schoeni]

I play as a Paladin / Warlock and have now reached level 5. (2 Paladins - 3 Warlocks). This has unlocked the Pact of the Blade. Since it supposedly means that my weapon damage depends on charisma and not strength, I have adjusted my attributes. Strength down and Charisma up.

Unfortunately, my attacks now fail very often, so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I didn't quite understand the whole "bind pact weapon" thing.

What do I have to do to use this Pact of the Blade correctly? At the moment it seems to me that I'm doing something wrong.

Info: I fight with two-handed weapon.

[Kernest]

You have to use Bind Pact Weapon on your current weapon to be able to use Charisma for attacking with it.

But I would recommend re-speccing to just 5 Paladin, maybe go 1 Paladin 5 Warlock once you reach 6, because at level 4 you should get an ASI to increase your stats by 2, and at level 5 you should get an extra attack.

The Paladin/Warlock Multiclass just isn't very good at lower levels, no multiclass is.

[svde_schoeni]

Thanks for your answer! So I have to use "bind pact weapon" in every fight or can I also use it outside fights? And more importantly, Can I see somewhere that my weapon is bound?

I want to go for:

Level 1-2: Paladin
Level 3 - 7: Warlock
Level: 8 - 12 Paladin

I am happy with my build because of a good Eldritch Blast and a good damage dealing in melee, it was just to many missing hits that made me worry about my build.

[Kaisha]

I think you just have to bind it once per long rest, but AFAIK it doesn't say anywhere, it'll just actually hit properly.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by svde_schoeni:

Thanks for your answer! So I have to use "bind pact weapon" in every fight or can I also use it outside fights? And more importantly, Can I see somewhere that my weapon is bound?

I want to go for:

Level 1-2: Paladin
Level 3 - 7: Warlock
Level: 8 - 12 Paladin

I am happy with my build because of a good Eldritch Blast and a good damage dealing in melee, it was just to many missing hits that made me worry about my build.

You have to bind it after every long rest and every time you want to change your weapon.

I understand what you *want* to go for (I think), but multiclass builds are weak until they get to a certain level.

Because a level 5 Paladin at that point would have higher Strength than you AND be able to attack two times per turn, which is massively important.

I would stick to pure Paladin until level 7, and then re-spec to 2 Paladin 5 Warlock, probably.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Kaisha:

I think you just have to bind it once per long rest, but AFAIK it doesn't say anywhere, it'll just actually hit properly.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.

You do see it if you then hover the mouse over the weapon. It says "Bind Pact Weapon (-)" or something like that.

A little purple dot in the icon, like when you've applied a poison or whatever.

[Dank Sidious]

Originally posted by Kernest:

Originally posted by svde_schoeni:

Thanks for your answer! So I have to use "bind pact weapon" in every fight or can I also use it outside fights? And more importantly, Can I see somewhere that my weapon is bound?

I want to go for:

Level 1-2: Paladin
Level 3 - 7: Warlock
Level: 8 - 12 Paladin

I am happy with my build because of a good Eldritch Blast and a good damage dealing in melee, it was just to many missing hits that made me worry about my build.

You have to bind it after every long rest and every time you want to change your weapon.

I understand what you *want* to go for (I think), but multiclass builds are weak until they get to a certain level.

Because a level 5 Paladin at that point would have higher Strength than you AND be able to attack two times per turn, which is massively important.

I would stick to pure Paladin until level 7, and then re-spec to 2 Paladin 5 Warlock, probably.

I personally went for Paladin 1 Warlock 1 and then fully paladin until level 6. Not optimal at all and It slows down your extra attack by one level, but I wanted the RP option of having warlock dialogue from early on while still being melee focused. Then I respeced to Pally 2 Warlock 5 at level 7.

But yeah some of these hyper optimized builds rely on respec as otherwize you are just going to gimp yourself early on.

[redwitch]

could someone please explain the respec mechanism, please? I have built my main char according to a build I found by someone who is supposedly kind of an expert in this.
The leveling so far has been as such:
1. level paladin
2-5 levels warlock
6 level paladin
Now I read that by doing so, you miss such powerful feats/abilities available to paladins like an extra attack, that's why you should go paladin first (5 levels or more) and then respec (like 2 paladin, 5 warlock).

Now, I know how to respec characters, but if I do, do they retain the abilities they have gained before, like an extra attack? This wouldn't make much sense to me. I have assumed they lose those abilities like an extra attack again. So, how does respec work? Thank you.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by redwitch:

Now, I know how to respec characters, but if I do, do they retain the abilities they have gained before, like an extra attack? This wouldn't make much sense to me. So, why does respec work? Thank you.

You simply start at level 1 and take all the levels again, so you get "back" all the abilities you should have.

I don't know how to explain it any easier, it's not a complicated thing.

[redwitch]

Originally posted by Kernest:

You simply start at level 1 and take all the levels again, so you get "back" all the abilities you should have.

I don't know how to explain it any easier, it's not a complicated thing.

thanks for the reply, so you start from scratch again be respec your char, it does not retain any abilities gained before the respec. Is that right? but then, what was said before does not make any sense to me. If I give my char 6 level paladin levels to gain an extra attack, then respec to give him 5 warlock and 1 paladin level, he loses the extra attack. So the right thing to do it, is to wait and make a respec until a much higher level. Is this correct?

[technopl]

Adjusting stats? What kind of mockery is this?

[Dank Sidious]

Originally posted by redwitch:

Originally posted by Kernest:

You simply start at level 1 and take all the levels again, so you get "back" all the abilities you should have.

I don't know how to explain it any easier, it's not a complicated thing.

thanks for the reply, so you start from scratch again be respec your char, it does not retain any abilities gained before the respec. Is that right? but then, what was said before does not make any sense to me. If I give my char 6 level paladin levels to gain an extra attack, then respec to give him 5 warlock and 1 paladin level, he loses the extra attack. So the right thing to do it, is to wait and make a respec until a much higher level. Is this correct?

Warlock 5 gains extra attack with the bound weapon ability and paladin 2 gives you access to smites. The reason why you respec at level 7 is because the bound weapon from warlock level 3 allows you to redistribute your ability points so that you can remove all of your points in strength and refocus them on charisma and warlock level 5 gives you that extra attack. Then finally the 2 paladin levels give you access to your smites.

The reason why this doesn't work well without respecing is that if you have low strength low dexterity and high charisma and try to play a melee character you are going to suck. So the most straightforward way to play this build is to just play Strength Paladin until you reach level 7 at which point you can finally swap out to warlock 5/Paladin 2 and remove your dependency on the strength stat.

If you respec at level 6 into Warlock 5/paladin 1 you lose your access to smites until you reach level 7 (paladin gets smites at lvl 2)

Also when you respec you must take paladin 1 as your first class to get heavy armor and martial weapon proficiencies then you just take levels until your character has 5 in warlock 2 in paladin.

After that you take up paladin levels until lvl 12. ending with Warlock 5/Paladin 7

[Dank Sidious]

Originally posted by technopl:

Adjusting stats? What kind of mockery is this?

This is video game min/maxing. Not really something I would recommend to new players unless they specifically enjoy min/maxing and build crafting in games like these.

[redwitch]

Originally posted by Dank Sidious:

Warlock 5 gains extra attack with the bound weapon ability and paladin 2 gives you access to smites. The reason why you respec then is because the bound weapon from warlock level 3 allows you to redistribute your ability points so that you can remove all of your points in strength and refocus them on charisma and warlock level 5 gives you that extra attack. Then Finally the 2 paladin levels give you access to your smites.

The reason why doesn't work well without respecing is that if you have low strength low dexterity and high charisma and try to play a melee character you are going to suck. So the most straightforward way to play this build is to just play Strength Paladin until you reach level 7 at which point you can finally swap out to warlock 5 and remove your dependency on the strength stat.

If you respec at level 6 into Warlock 5 paladin 1 you lose your access to smites so until you reach level 7 (paladin gets smites alt lvl 2)

Also when you respec you must take paladin 1 as your first class to get heavy armor and martial weapon proficiencies then you just take levels until your character has 5 in warlock 2 in paladin.

After that you continue to be a full paladin

thank you very much, this makes sense and helps a lot

[Dank Sidious]

Originally posted by redwitch:

Originally posted by Dank Sidious:

Warlock 5 gains extra attack with the bound weapon ability and paladin 2 gives you access to smites. The reason why you respec then is because the bound weapon from warlock level 3 allows you to redistribute your ability points so that you can remove all of your points in strength and refocus them on charisma and warlock level 5 gives you that extra attack. Then Finally the 2 paladin levels give you access to your smites.

The reason why doesn't work well without respecing is that if you have low strength low dexterity and high charisma and try to play a melee character you are going to suck. So the most straightforward way to play this build is to just play Strength Paladin until you reach level 7 at which point you can finally swap out to warlock 5 and remove your dependency on the strength stat.

If you respec at level 6 into Warlock 5 paladin 1 you lose your access to smites so until you reach level 7 (paladin gets smites alt lvl 2)

Also when you respec you must take paladin 1 as your first class to get heavy armor and martial weapon proficiencies then you just take levels until your character has 5 in warlock 2 in paladin.

After that you continue to be a full paladin

thank you very much, this makes sense and helps a lot

Glad that cleared it up. The reason why this build is so strong is that you get paladin smites and the extra attack from warlock lvl 5 and paladin level 5 stack giving you 3 attacks per turn and paladin smites when you are lvl 10. However you aren't exactly weak before that either and there's a lot of game left after you reach lvl 10.

Many martial classes get extra attack at level 5, but only warlock's extra attack stacks with the others allowing you to multiclass into some strong builds while getting access to 3 attacks. This works because warlock's extra attack comes from the bound weapon ability while other classes get it naturally. Some people thought this was a bug until a Larian developer confirmed that it was intended behavior.

Normally only fighter gets 3 attacks per turn as they get their second extra attack at lvl 11, no other class can do that without multiclassing into warlock for 5 levels.

TL;DR: just some extra info about why the build works, don't worry about it.

[Moonbane]

Tiny correction. Circle of the Moon druids can also get 3 attacks at high level.