5 levels of Warlock gets you Hunger of Hadar, which is a really strong spell. You can stay pure warlock the rest of the way if you want, or branch out into Sorcerer, Bard, or Paladin.

With a pure warlock, I would still be using Hunger of Hadar at higher levels. Fiend patron adds Wall of Fire, Cone of Cold, and Flame Strike as options. Archfey lets you toss Plant Growth on top of Hunger so it is nearly impossible to escape. You also could play with Greater Invisibility if you have decent stealth. Great Old One has the fear effect on critical hits, and entropic ward is nice.

Sorcerer is a great mix if you want to do more blasting- you can quicken Eldritch Blast, or Fireball then Eldritch Blast anything that survives. The extra spell slots from Sorcerer or Bard give you more options for using utility spells.

Bard gives you more skill proficiencies if you want to do sleight of hand things with your main character. Or just play music randomly and have fun dialogue options.

Paladin is for armor and smiting things!

Depends a bit on how you like to play, do you prefer casting spells from afar, being up close and personal, do you want to be more combat oriented or do you want utility in exploration or social skills? Warlock is really versatile so you do have a lot of options and I'm sure people here can help you with a build, but it all depends on what you want to do :)

My opinion:

Go first 4 levels Warlock. ASI into Charisma. After that, 8 levels of Sorcerer.

Use Potent Robes, Agonizing Blast, and any charisma bonuses you can find (Mirror, Hat, etc).

I prefer the lightning charge staff.

2nd ASI into Charisma to cap at 20. Last ASI into Moderately Armored, use Ketherick’s shield for +1 spell attack and save DC.

You can quicken Eldritch blast + Eldritch blast for…(With Hex up)

6d10+(66 to 84 depending on Charisma)+6d6+Xlightning dmgX in 1 turn.

I’m also a big fan of, due to Eldritch Blasts splitting ability, using the Radiant Ring - I forget the name. The one that puts Radiant Light or whatever on any enemy you hit with a spell that gives them like -1AC and makes them radiate light or something. It’s actually a sick debuff and if you pop like 3-5 enemies you can debuff, do big dps, and light them all up for any reason it may help (Darkvision, hiding, etc)

It’s a total beast

For a character not going for melee combat and focusing on the eldritch, I like 2-warlock/x-sorcerer. This lets you get more blasts each turn with quickened meta a few times per long rest. You also get some nice utility, such as twinned haste.

Also, if you go draconic blood line with a lightning dragon, when you pick up the lightning staff (adds 1 lightning damage to your magic attacks when charged) it should add another charisma bonus to your damage (currently the weapon seems bugged to be doing even more).

Another option is to go 3 levels into rogue for thief and get the bonus action disengage action and sneak attack. I haven’t tried it out, but I hear sneak attack works with EB dealing extra damage to opponents in melee range of your allies. One of the toughest parts of trying to play my sorcerer/warlock right now is getting away from a character engaging him in melee without giving them a free attack.

If you like the melee/ranged as the situation demands style. I’d go 5 levels of warlock then go Paladin or any fighter for 5. Paladin gives additional damage by using their spells as smite while fighter gives you a bonus action once per rest. (Once you hit level 6 retrain and take the first level of the martial class first)

You could retrain your team and do all three of these if you want. Pure caster, sneaky rogue, and front line character. Then just keep a healer in your party and you have the standard party composition with 3 EB users.

For eldritch blast dmg, imo the best build is going sorclock. you get access to twinned eldritch blasts, or quickened eldritch blasts aswell as haste for even more eldritch blasts. You could either go 4warlock/8sorc or 2 warlock / 10 sorc. Just depends on whether you want a 3 rd feat or more meta magic to play with. There is a weapon called the spell sparkler which you can get from act 1, it is amazing for eldritch blast damage

Basically i use Warlock as an S tier crowd controller. I use mine to apply Hunger of Hadar over spike growth/tentacles, essentially making a large pit of blind enemies that get damaged if they move or stand still. Eldritch blast then launches them back into the middle if they try and escape.

It’s one of the strongest single class in the game. I go with fiend warlock for the extra health on kill. You should focus on boosting your charisma and using eldritch blast. Once you get hunger of hadar they become really powerful

Warlocks aren't useless, they just don't have a lot of variety in the way that they play. 95% of the time your best choice is going to be Eldritch Blast, which can be very poweful if you build around it, but it can get kinda samey. That's why it's more fun to Multiclass as a Warlock. Sorcerer, Bard and Paladin are all good multiclass options.

You’re not necessarily wrong. Warlock as a class doesn’t particularly excel at what generally defines the strongest strategies in this game (turn 1 burst/CC). It keeps a pretty steady power level throughout combat and the day in general with its spell slots refreshing on short rest, but lack of burst capabilities (compared to other classes anyway) keeps it back, and its CC abilities are decent but not amazing in the context of what other classes can do, lack of spell slots hurts it in this regard as well. It can abuse darkness before anyone else with devil’s sight though so that’s a plus from a power-gamey perspective.

Strongest warlock build you can make is one that swings shadow blade or a 2h weapon with GWM around (shadow blade is stronger). People will tell you eldritch blast + potent robe OP or whatever but even halfway decently optimized weapon damage clears eldritch blast.

Basically warlock is pretty strong if the question is “can this be a useful member in a party to beat the game?”, given it gets the strongest melee weapon in the game it’s never a straight up bad pick. It’s not particularly strong if the question is more like “is this the best character/class/multi I could use for this role in the party”.

Not a pro

Eldritch blast go burrrr

Take illithid power for extra spell slot and use spell slot necklace.

You do know eldritch sorlock build has 3 attacks per action and at worst 3 actions = 9 attacks at worst, dont you? Not to mention 3 shots delete 90% of enemies in act3

I like to use Misty Step to position my warlock somewhere they can Eldritch Blast or Thunderwave enemies off the map or into AoE effects. It's been pretty strong. Hunger of Hadar also really fucks up the AI of enemies if positioned correctly.

I really enjoyed 2 warlock 10 rogue. Sneak attacking with Eldridge blast is fun 😊

I'm wondering how well 2 Warlock, 6 lore Bard, 4 Sorcerer would work out. Grabbing Hunger of Hadar and Haste from Bard

I'm a fan of starting Warlock 5.

At lv 6 re'spec to Sorcerer (Draconic) 4 / Warlock 2 (Great Old One). Get Quickened Spell and ASI CHA +2 as your feat.

Then I would go two more levels of Sorcerer then finish off with 4 levels of Fighter (Champion). Take Spell Sniper as your feat.

Start the game with Spellsparkler and other damage riders. In Act 2, begin adding the Reverberation items and most importantly, the Portent Robe. In Act 3, you turn into a crit-monster.

Currently Craterflesh Gloves are bugged and instead of adding a damage rider on crit, it triggers a full beam of EB (and all the riders).

I wouldn't personally do Hag Hair for CHA +1 since you can get it from Mirror of Loss with some luck/scum but I know it's hard to look at odd numbers.

This melted all bosses on Tactician for me. The only tricky one was Ansur; I needed Globe to get past his tanky phase but finally got him after he landed.

I THINK it’s still 2 lock 8 sorc 2 fighter, but I could be leagues off some other smarter warlock plz correct me as I too would like to know

Probably not worth on an evil durge run since you wont get potent robe, right?

Welcome to Warlock!

Are you planning on making a pure Warlock or multi-classing at some point? Best tips I can give you is: Eldritch Blast is your bread and butter. Make sure you pick up Agonizing Blast to increase damage + use Hex on an opponent before launching the blast for extra damage.

Fiend Warlock is really fun and simple. Grab Elemental Adept: Fire with it and you do extra damage with your fire-based spells + having old reliable Eldritch Blast to fall back on. Keep in mind, you don't have as many spell slots as Sorcerer/Wizard but the Warlock's versatility in using melee weapons and spell-flinging makes up for it.

Focus on getting CHA to 20. I'd consider the Alert feat with 18 CHA, but probably no others.

Yeeting goblins off of cliffs (Repelling Blast) is fun but not as good as grabbing Devil's Sight and either casting Darkness or using a Darkness Arrow around yourself for cover while you sling spells and blasts.

The invocation to aquire the Slow spell is great, because Slow is great. Hunger of Hadar is fantastic in choke points, especially with a certain very rare staff.

Here is everything you should need.

Warlock for me is a built where you can customize to your liking, either melee or range caster. It really is the built to talk to people, while being a caster without I dying too easily. I personally love roleplaying as range caster with broken EB lol. As a range caster, you're basically the control tower, you don't do front line... but you dabble in sniping, and you're deadly at it . For bg3 my fave built is the Great Old One. In this playthru, you need Alfira, so make sure you don't play durge OR if you do, make sure she doesn't die.

Ofc i put 17 on CHA, 14 on DEX. At level 2 you can get agonizing blast (or speak with animal if you like animal more, i did) and armor of shadow. This takes your AC to 15, then use the brace of defense in the cellar where you get the Thay's which makes your AC 17. [If you like min-maxing, you can dip 1 level on draconic sorc to get base 13 AC so you can get a different invocation aka agonizing blast at lvl 2.]

At level 3, since i like range caster more, i pick Chain or Tome. I personally enjoy Tome more for roleplaying reason, and free guidance and vicious mockery cantrip is pretty nice since i don't always have Shart in squad. Then at L5, i get free haste (and a lighting and silence spell) once a day without using my spell slot, so these are great too for early game.

L4, i take ability improvement and the boon from Ethel. This max up my CHA to 20 aka +5 dmg per EB projection. Around this time, i also take the Spellsparkler from Waukeen's Rest quest, basically give me boost of lighting dmg on my cantrips.

Then I get the Protection of Sparkswall robe in the Underdark Grymforge temple. This, along with the Spellsparkler is a deadly combo as it boost your dmg and occasionally AC. By now, your DC is also pretty high, i think it's 16 [8 +5 from CHA +2 from proficiency + 1 from robe].

L5 and 7, i basically added repelling blast and another one you find useful. I personally like beguile influence.

By now you're in Act 2, after you free the tieflings and get the reward from Alfira which is the Potent Robe. This adds your CHA mod to each of your EB projectiles. Now, replace your Spellsparkler with Mourning Frost for the extra 1cold dmg, get the orb ring from under the Last Light basement for extra radiant damage (+1 iirc) and lighting orb... you need this orb to make life easier in act 2 anyway. Anyhow, by now your EB should be 1d10 +1cold +1 radiant +5 agonising blast +5 potent robe... times 2, coz 2 projectile... that is 13-22 dmgs on a hit, and even if you miss one projectile (each is roll separately), your chance of hitting the other one is still good.

L8, i take either DEX improvement, or Warcaster, or Dual Weapon feat. Dual weapon was my choice ofc.

In Act 3, i would stack up my dmg and DC with these following items: Birthright hat for +2 CHA, Markhoheskir Staff (+1), other staffs with bonus to DC and attack roll (+1), Ring of Feywild (+1), Cloak of the Weave (+1), and depending on whether or not i have a cleric i'd wear the Amulet of the Devout (+2), Spellmight Gloves for 1d8 cantrip dmg bonus on cantrips.

At this point, my dmg is often hit 60 per 3 projectiles, my DC is at 22-24 which means almost no one can survive my spells. I rarely use my spell slots for damage based spells anymore by then, mostly just Hold Monster/Person, Dominate Person to make life easier (even on Orin, Raphael, etc). I use a some Counterspells, Flight, and Dimension Door tho... and in big fights (like against Viconia), i use Hunger of Hadar for area control.

Paladins are one of the strongest classes in the game and are strong right from the beginning, so few classes really compare to them.

As to Warlock, it has two main strengths which kinda work together. Obviously you already found Eldritch Blast, which is strong because it's a cantrip (so you can cast it every round) and gets bonus to damage from your Charisma score if you take Agonizing Blast at level 2.

The second strong thing about Warlocks is Pact of the Blade which you get at level 3. This lets you make ANY WEAPON that's in your hand a Pact Weapon, which uses your Charisma for attack and damage and gives you proficiency with that weapon. At level 5 you get a 2nd attack with this weapon as if you were a fighter.

Finally, one of the other abilities you get at 2nd level is called Devil's Sight. This lets you see in normal or magical darkness which, if you pick up the Darkness spell at level 3, means you can basically blind all your enemies and then kill them either at range or in melee.

So there's three things which are pretty great about a Warlock and that's only right at the beginning. Once you hit level 5 they actually multiclass really well into Paladin, which is one of the sickest combinations in the game.

Warlock 4, theif Rogue 4, sorcerer 4.

The biggest "whoa" moment for me was getting The Spellsparkler from the quest, the way it all interacts with your Eldritch Blast and Hex turns it into a powerhouse, not to mention the comfort of getting your spells back on short rest

It powers up a lot at level 5. Imagine casting Hunger of Hadar between your party and an enemy mob. They’ll spend their turn crawling through difficult terrain while taking two types of damage. Then, on your next turn you can use EB with the Repelling Blast invocation to knock two of them back into the cloud for more pain.

You get two high-level spells per short rest, which is at least 2x as many per day as your other casters.

Where do you find this stuff?

I went pure warlock and really enjoyed it. Nothing fancy. Eldritch blasts, hunger of hadar, and fire spells. I loved getting all my spells back every short rest. Big fan.

It's a solid class with a lot of flexibility. You can melee with PotB, you can blast with EB, you can be the face thanks to high charisma, Hunger of Hadar is easily among the best spells in the game and Darkness + Devil's Sight makes a lot of the fights that much easier.

warlock is a strong class, particularly on honor mode where many burst classes have been hit by the Haste nerf the lock has not. they can still throw out 6x Eldritch Blast beams per turn + Hex dmg hasted

Just finished my honor mode last night and my Warlock / Sorcerer hit a certain BBEG for nearly 250 damage in one round with 9 Eldritch Blast bolts. He was also my source of twin cast haste, and my #1 counterspell caster. Incredible Swiss Army knife sort of character.

Warlock has infinitely many mitigation tools that you really won’t even be hit that much. Nothing more satisfying than wrapping yourself in a cloud of darkness and sniping people from within it

One of if not the best multi class dip, and pure warlock can be great too. I’d recommend trying to lean into eldritch blast with warlock if you want to focus on warlock level, and you can drop hunger of hadar twice per short rest (you get another short rest each bard you keep in your party). Lots of specific builds out there, but that’s what I’d focus on

Oh good! In that case I’ll mention a couple other things: Hunger of Hadar (especially after a black hole) and Create Water to set up my Tempest Cleric were both situationally excellent.

I had the Alert feat on him, too, so I always had access to his toolkit nice and early in the round. HTH 😁

I do a Human Purelock (actually Warlock 11 and Rogue 1 for expertise in Sleigh of Hand and Persuasion)

Holding Ketheric Shield is great because +2AC and +1 spell attack and DC (it helps with Spellmight gloves later in)

Can’t speak to non-combat spells, but Hex/Eldrich Blast are the warlocks bread and butter in battle. Combat begins, hex an enemy, eldrich blast until dead, recast hex on another enemy for free, repeat.

This is a good guide for a basis.

There are a couple of different things I’d choose (for example Minions of chaos invocation over devils sight) but still not a bad start.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UAmUDNhmvoU

Warlock has only 2 spell slots for the longest time, but these slots are always cast at the highest level you've unlocked. This means you really want to pick spells that have a lasting impact or have high value burst.

TLDR: pick spells that have lasting effects or are extremely potent for their level.

Level 1: Hex- adds damage every time you attack the target and can be used repeatedly as long as you don't break concentration.

Armor of Agathys- scales very well with spell slot levels and can be cast before combat/before a short rest.

Command/Tasha Hideous Laughter/Faerie Fire- Each of these spells are from the subclass options but all offer great CC or lasting benefits to the team for a duration. Command may not be as long lasting but it does scale with spell levels so that you can make multiple enemies lay down or drop their weapons. Very devastating if you can capitalize on it

Level 2: Darkness- can really mitigate the damage your team takes. Ranged attacks can't target your team onside the bubble and will have to approach or do nothing. Your team can step out, strike, and duck back into the bubble to whittle enemies down. Devil Sight also makes your warlock immune to the darkness debuff so you can snipe anyone you want from inside the bubble.

Cloak of daggers- does immense damage to anyone stuck inside. Use this on choke points or have a high strength teammate push enemies into it. I have enemies who could not make a single attack because of this spell.

Level 3: Counterspell- is insanely powerful. Warlocks may not be able to use it as much as other classes later on but having this as an option can save your team from extremely bad situations. Do not underestimate it.

Hunger of Hadar- is a lot like cloak of daggers. If you can keep enemies inside the bubble they will die without being much of a threat.

Sorry for the massive wall of text, just figured I'd explain some of my favorites.

Personally for me
For moves

• Dark Ritual - 1/3.
• Pillage Vitality - 5/5.
• Dark Pulse - 7/7 (without desecrate) 1/7 (with desecrate).
• Desecrate - 7/7.
• Blood Plague - 5/5.
• Chain Binding - 5/5 (for pvp) 0/5 (casual).

In my opinion always go for desecrate > dark pulse as you need to aim with with dark pulse, desecrate is also able to do more wide spread damage (even though warlock and croud clearing are like mixing oil and water). Chain binding is only useful if you max it out which for pvp is amazing but for casualnot so much.

For armour i am not sure as earlier archaromages robes were the best but not so much now especially without any upgrades. So just get the armour which boostes VIT and INT and has over 100 def

For stats
PUT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE INTO INT. Also keep vit at 50, maybe DEX 30 if you want multi bomb