As a Hexblade Pact of the Blade warlock with the Improved Pact Weapon eldritch invocation, what effects carry over using a bow from Pact of the Blade for melee attacks (e.g. if an enemy is too close to shoot)?
Are you still proficient with it? Does it still use Dex? Does it benefit from Lifedrinker, Improved Pact Weapon, and Thirsting Blade?
Best Answer
When you make a melee attack with your pact bow, it counts as an Improvised Weapon that you are proficient with, uses Str or Cha (your choice) as the modifier, and all the pact features still apply, but your DM may rule otherwise.
From the Player's Handbook section on Weapons (chapter 5):
The bow has the Ammunition property and you are making a melee Attack with it.
According to the rule on Improvised Weapons in the same chapter, the bow deals 1d4 damage if you hit:
You are proficient with your pact weapon when using it this way:
See this passage from the PHB entry on the Warlock (Pact of the Blade):
You're wielding your bow even though you're making a melee attack, so you're proficient with it. Note that this specific rule may contradict the general rule that characters are not usually proficient with Improvised Weapons, but may be proficient at the DM's discretion:
In D&D 5e, the specific rule "you are proficient with it", trumps the general rule "at the DM's option". The introduction to the Player's Handbook has a section titled Specific Beats General:
You use Str or Cha as the ability modifier:
Making an improvised melee attack with the bow counts as a "melee weapon attack". So your attack and damage modifier is Strength. However, since this character is a Hexblade, the Hex Warrior feature applies:
So you can use Cha as the modifier, even with the improvised melee attack.
Lifedrinker, Thirsting Blade, and Improved Pact Weapon all apply:
There is no reason that I can see that your eldritch invocations wouldn't apply. E.g. Lifedrinker applies...
That's unambiguous. If your attack hits, you have in fact hit a creature with your pact weapon.
As for Thirsting Blade:
That also applies. Ditto for Improved Pact Weapon from XGtE. As the adage goes, "the rules do what they say".
But your DM may rule otherwise:
The DM could rule that if you're using your pact weapon in an improvised way, then it's "no longer your pact weapon" somehow.
See also this tweet from Jeremy Crawford (the lead rules designer for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition):
If the DM rules this way, then your pact bow is just an improvised weapon that you're not proficient with, uses Strength as the modifier, and none of the pact features apply.