How can I get the highest Damage-Per-Round (both melee and ranged using pact weapon and Eldritch Blast) and AC possible (with DPR being more important than AC) with a Dragonborn Warlock taking the Pact of the Blade and a Fiend as otherworldly patron? Assume the character has the standard ability array or uses point-buy and prioritizes STR, CHA, and CON in that order. Also assume multiclassing and feats are allowed.
[RPG] Optimal Dragonborn Warlock for DPR/AC with Blade pact and Fiend patron
dnd-5edragonbornoptimizationwarlock
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Yes, you are overlooking some major flaws
I'm only going to address the Major Flaws you're concerned with, since the rest is subjective to both your game play and how people play the class. This should help you get through at least a couple of misconceptions you have.
- Pact Weapon (PHB. pg 108) - You can only have one of these, and due to that, Thirsting Blade can only be used with your one pact weapon. If your DM does happen to allow you to take two pact weapons, that's cool, but is clearly a house rule. Make sure your DM knows about the wording of Thirsting Blade with respect to Pact Weapons.
- You have only one bonus action possible per turn (PHB. pg 189). If you have many abilities that use the bonus action (Cunning action, offhand attack, specific spells, etc) you have to choose which ONE to use.
- Survival wise - largely dependent on magical item availability, your feats, and potion use. If you take fighter at level 1, you'll have higher hit points to start, but your saves will leave you mentally vulnerable. That's why I recommend Archfey pact below, to remove that problem.
The following part is only my opinion on the build itself, and where I would make changes to better fit your stated style of play.
Personal build recommendations:
- Take 3 levels of fighter to become an Eldritch Knight so you can have weapon bond (two weapons bonded, functions very similar to Weapon Pact, allowing for 3 summonable weapons.)
- Instead of Fiend, use Archfey as patron because the up close abilities and immunity to charm are superior for an up close fighter. Especially since Misty Escape gives you a free exit in overwhelming situations.
- Feats - Heavy Armor Mastery, Tough.
Start with 1 level of Fighter
As a melee spellcaster you need good AC and Con save for concentration, a single-class Warlock has neither.
That one level of Fighter will give you Two-Weapon Fighting and better armor until you reach acceptable Dex.
Str: 8
Dex: 15
Con: 14 (13+1)
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 16 (14+2)
The Charisma could be lower, as Hex is your bread and butter, but there is no better place for the points. At the first chance, get Resilient(Dex), for an even Dex score, and better saves.
Every level indicator is for character level, so subtract 1 for Warlock level.
Feats/ASI
Nothing raises DPR like an increase in your attack stat, it is about 15-20%.
L5: Resilient(Dex)
L9: +2 Dex
L13: +2 Dex
L17: Dual Wielder1
L20: Warcaster or Sentinel
Equipment
Pick up two Short Swords, and the largest Medium armor, as you do not have the Strength for Heavy.
Invocations
L3: Fiendish Vigor
L3: Agonizing Blast2
L6: Thirsting Blade
L8: Devil's Sight?3
L10: Armor of Shadows4
L13: Lifedrinker
Spells
By the level you take it
Cantrips:
L2: Eldritch Blast
L2: Green-Flame Blade (or Booming Blade, if you find very generous or stupid GMs)
L5: Frostbite, Sword Burst or Thunderclap, great when you would have Disadvantage on attacks
L11: Lightning Lure
Spells known:5
L2: Hex
L2: Hellish Rebuke
L3: Dissononant Whispers6
L4: Invisibility
L5: Hold Person
L6: Fear
L7: Fly
L8: Evard’s black tentacles7
L9: Banishment
L10: Telekinesis
L12: Counterspell
Further multiclassing
As a Warlock, you reach 90% of your full potential on level 12 in my opinion. You will never get any spell slots above 5th, and Mystic Arcanum is very far behind what full spellcasters get. You just got Lifedrinker and an ASI, time to change.
Rogue
Up to 9 levels. You will use Finesse weapons anyway, preferably next to one of your colleagues, so Sneak Attack is a simple DPR increase. Swashbuckler is good for Initiative, Assassin for critical, and Arcane Trickster gives new spells known.
Fighter
3 more levels. Battlemaster is great, but you can get some nice things out of Eldritch Knight as well.
Bard
Up to 9 levels. Lore Bards are awesome, both spells and Bardic Inspiration are great.
Sorcerer Up to 9 levels. Metamagic is good, you can convert unused spell slots to Sorcery Points before short rests. Use them for Twinned Dissonant Whispers, or Quicened Hold Person for two critical attack from your Action.
Full Build
L1: Fighter for AC and Con save and Fighting Style
L2-L6: Warlock for Hex, Invocations, ASI and Extra Attack
L7: Bard for extra spells and cantrips and Inspiration
L8-L14: Warlock for Entropic Ward, Evard’s black tentacles, Banishment and Lifedrinker
L15+: Bard for more frequent Inspiration
1) Dual Wielder is popular and cool, but it is strictly worse than +2 Dex, as it provides about half the DPR increase. AC increase is the same, damage increase marginally better than an ASI, but +2 Dex also improves your attack. And your Initiative, and your save, and your Stealth.
Only take DW if you can not increase your attack stat, so once it is maxed out, or on 1st level as a Variant Human.
2) Agonizing Blast makes your backup ranged option viable.
3) You could take Devil's Sight earlier, it is popular with Darkness, but it is very party unfriendly, and I find it overrated. I would take it for a human, but you have Darkvision anyway.
4) Improves AC by one once you have 20 Dex.
5) As you do not increase your Charisma, I focus on spells that are not based on it, like Fly, Invisibilty, or Hex. Otherwise, I go for multi-target spells, so at least some of the them fails the save.
Take single target spells that you could upcast for more targets (Hold Person, Banishment) when you can already upcast them, or on the level right before.
6) Dissonant Whispers does not fit the criteria from 5), but is great anyway. Can target virtually everything, does some damage on a save too, and provokes Opportunity Attacks.
7) Arguably the best controlling spell in the game, and not even Sorcerers get it, so use it proudly!
Does damage, provides Advantage, imposes Disadvantage. Getting out takes an ability check, so no one is proficient, similarly, Magic Resistance only applies to the initial save. If an enemy manages to get out, you can push it back in.
Related Topic
- [RPG] As a level 4 halfling hexblade pact of the blade warlock, what are the options for high damage per round
- [RPG] Is the Warlock useless to the group now that we have a wizard with Eldritch Blast and two Bards who focus on utility
- [RPG] the highest consistent damage output for a 20th level Warlock of the Fiend? (Pact of the Chain)
Best Answer
Answer: {Fighter 1 / Warlock 19} is the Optimal Build (Hat Tip to Strill!)
By exploiting Devil's Sight + Darkness cheese available as early as level 4, you can reliably increase your accuracy enough against most foes throughout the game that the Greatsword combined with Great Weapon Master provides the best average damage numbers. Dragonborn Warlocks (and Human Variant Warlocks, see below) specifically are perfect for exploiting Devil's Sight because they don't get Darkvision as a racial trait and so for maximum effectiveness you really have to take Devil's Sight anyway! You might as well get a return on your investment by being able to pull a Riddick on groups of unsuspecting foes who may feel perfectly at home in non-magical darkness, like Half-Elf or Drow Warlocks who opted not to take Devil's Sight because they could already see in the dark. Keep in mind you can cast Darkness at targets as far away as 60 feet, and affect enemies within a 15 foot sphere of the target so this tactic isn't restricted to just melee combat. It's also an effective way to reliably get advantage on ranged attack rolls. The only downside is your team-mates are unlikely to be able to effectively engage enemies caught within the sphere. On the other hand, for maximum damage you really want to be hitting targets with Eldritch Blast that have been affected by Hex first. Unfortunately, Hex and Darkness cannot be active simultaneously because they both require concentration.
When not casting Hex or Darkness, make sure you respond to enemy attacks with Hellish Rebuke. One of the big advantages to this build is it doesn't take up your reaction with the off-hand attack from Polearm Master but still offers comparable damage, and that reaction can be used to great effect with Hellish Rebuke. Further DPR optimization can be obtained from Fire Shield which is available as a 4th-level spell gained from the Fiend patron. Another reason to take Fire Shield is for resistance purposes. Combining Dragonborn resistance, Fire Shield, and Fiendish Resilience (level 10 Fiend Patron benefit) allows you to gain three different elemental resistances. Later on you can take Foresight as your 9th-level Mystic Arcanum at level 18 and you will basically be an unstoppable killing machine with or without Darkness. Fun fact: Foresight grants advantage on initiative rolls since initiative is a Dexterity ability check! Magical weapons will further increase your destructive potential.
Using point-buy as opposed to the standard ability score array allows the build to remain Adventurer's League legal while also minimizing the need for Ability Score Improvements to get STR and CHA to 20. This allows us to fit the Heavy Armor Master feat in for improved survivability at level 9. If you prefer or are required to use the standard array for whatever reason, take the STR+2 Ability Score Improvement instead.
As an aside concerning Human Bladelocks, if you choose the Human Variant race and take +1 to STR and +1 to CHA as your stat bonuses, you can take the Athlete feat and increase STR by another +1 to make your starting ability scores identical to the Dragonborn version of the build. In effect, you are trading the Dragonborn benefits (Draconic language proficiency, Breath weapon, Resistance, advantage on social interactions with dragons) for the benefits of the Athlete feat (better mobility). Any feat that provides +1 to STR could fill this role, but at the time of writing this answer Athlete is in my humble opinion the best option for this build.
Minor Hoard of the Dragon Queen Spoiler Below (Hover over it for text)
Build Requirements
Average Pact Weapon Attack Rolls By Level /w Advantage (AnyDice Link)
As long as you have advantage on the roll, you have a 9.75% chance to land a critical hit and activate the bonus attack from Great Weapon Master. That chance drops to 5% without advantage, but hopefully those instances will be few and far between. The real beauty here though is that the lowest average attack roll with advantage is a 19! That means on average you can take the -5 penalty in exchange for +10 damage from Great Weapon Master and still end up with a 14 or better! That is good enough to hit most creatures in the early game, and by the time you reach top tier play (levels 17-20) your average attack roll after the penalty will still be 20 or higher. To put that another way, that's almost high enough to hit a Challenge 21 Ancient Blue Dragon!
Average Eldritch Blast Attack Rolls By Level /w Advantage (AnyDice Link)
As long as you have advantage on the roll, you have a 9.75% chance to land a critical hit. That chance drops to 5% without advantage, but hopefully those instances will be few and far between. We also see the same lowest average attack roll with advantage from our Pact Weapon. The big difference between these numbers and the Pact Weapon numbers is these will scale up more slowly because we are bumping CHA last to maximize melee damage first. The good news is we don't have to worry about the -5 penalty from Great Weapon Master with Eldritch Blast attack rolls, so scaling up more slowly won't be too big of a deal. It will also not be as rough on your Eldritch Blast attack rolls if for some reason you can't get advantage, or if you want to use Hex instead of Darkness.
Average Pact Weapon Damage Rolls By Level (AnyDice Link)
As you can see, assuming you hit with every attack, with this build you can be dealing ~43 on average per turn with just your Pact Weapon as early as level 6. Add in damage from Hellish Rebuke and Fire Shield for devastating results (see below). Once you get Foresight at level 18, you can drop Darkness from your strategy and add Hex damage on top of your already brutal attacks. Just because I'm so nice, here is another AnyDice link which provides numbers for an additional attack in case you trigger the bonus attack from Great Weapon Master or have the Haste buff thanks to a Wizard party member.
Average Eldritch Blast Damage Rolls By Level (AnyDice Link)
The numbers above include Hex damage. They are almost identical to Strill's answer, though there is a slight deviation resulting from me choosing my ability score improvements differently. Here is another AnyDice link to numbers that don't take Hex into account in case you're attacking difficult-to-hit foes with Darkness for advantage on your attack rolls.
Average Hellish Rebuke Damage Rolls By Level (AnyDice Link)
This is important because if you had chosen Polearm Master and a Glaive you would not be able to cast Hellish Rebuke using your reaction. There are at least two ways to approach average Hellish Rebuke damage: assume the target fails its save or assume the target succeeds its save. The numbers shown above opt for the former option. However, here is another AnyDice link which shows the numbers for successful saves.
Bottom Line: Total Average Melee DPR By Tier
The above numbers are single target damage. They assume you hit your target with all applicable melee attacks. Averages for critical strikes are also given assuming only one crit for each distinct multiple attack sequence. For each additional crit add 8.33, which is the average damage for a Greatsword with Great Weapon Fighting and no bonuses to represent doubling the damage dice from 2d6 to 4d6. It is further assumed that the target you are attacking is attacking you back. These numbers do not assume targets of Hellish Rebuke fail their saves. Instead, for total average DPR I used the average damage for a successful save and the average damage for a failed save at that level to find an average damage independent of the saving throw. You can check out my formulas for this at this AnyDice link.
Final Recommendations
These last few pieces of advice are not absolutely vital to the build, but I felt I would share my feelings on final spell and invocation choices at level 20. I've also included some suggestions for what magic items from the DMG are best to craft in the event your DM allows you to craft magic items using your money and downtime. They are organized by item rarity.
Invocations by Level
If you can't convince your DM to let you bind Hazirawn as your Pact Weapon or you're not going to be playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen, then you may want to swap out either Mask of Many Faces or Visions of Distant Realms for Eldritch Sight.
Final Spell Choices
Some of these are admittedly purely for flavor reasons (hi Plane Shift!). At level 18 I gained Foresight and swapped out Darkness for Invisibility. Disguise Self and Arcane Eye are the result of at-will invocations from the list above. As previously mentioned, you may or may not want to swap one of those at-will utility spells for Detect Magic.
DMG's Magic Item Crafting Considerations
For the Rod of the Pact Keeper, ask your DM if you can make it a ring instead that you can wear.
Uncommon:
Rare:
Very Rare:
Legendary: