The Daolock: A Warlock build for 5e D&D

[@HERECMSTHERANE]

The idea of making an unspeakble deal with a powerful and mysterious patron for personal power as a 2 level dip always cracked me up.

[@davidtobias6893]

idk. I can see it happening cause anyone from any walk of life could make that kinda deal

[@andruism7]

I mean, it's certainly effective. And a good deal for the patron. Only has to put in a few levels of work.

[@Grorl]

Mechanically it is pretty funny. Rp wise, could always make that patron continue to have an impact on the character. Dont matter what other class they fully delve into, the patron can still be worked into the flavor. I like to think of multiclassing as a "create your own class" kinda thing, more than, "I'm a warlock/---- " thing. xD

[@pranakhan]

It is part of the mythology of The Contract. From the Pick of Destiny to Wolf of Wall Street, many have a moment in time where they chose money/power over their hearts desire; the girl or boy who got away, the dream job sacrifice. That is the domain of the Warlock.

[@andruism7]

​@@pranakhan yes, hi, hello, my patron is the Almight Dollar, and it not only controls me but all of you as well! Only difference is that while you got a luxury yacht and can pay all your medical bills, I get to spam Eldritch Blast fifty times a day and can see in the dark. Also, can we just imagine a guy becoming a patron because he was simping on some goddess? Might actually be a good story hook, though not sure if that's sad or sweet.

[@OGPedXing]

I love how Warlock "dips" have this inherent temptation to be more than a dip - seems on brand, lol. Here's what I mean:. 1 lvl of hexblade is great. Weapon/armor/hex weapon, some cantrips and a slot that resets every short rest. But might as well do 2 lvls for the evocations right? Well, 3rd lvl is my pact boon, and that can be really cool. And while we're here we need that 4th level since otherwise we'd be wasting an ASI or feat of course. But man, 5th level and an extra attack would be really nice, hmmm.... 😂. Next thing you know you've devoted your whole life to your patron. It's perfect.

[@honahamomoru151]

That’s how you recruit more Warlock

[@Jimbob1337]

Come to the Dark Side, we have all this awesome shit 😊😊

[@gladiusgamer9324]

I happen to play on a server on discord that allows you to go to lvl 30(no more than 20 in a single class) so this is perfect to "dip" and accidentally devote your life to your patron...lol

[@joda7697]

invocations evocation is a school of magic, invocation is the stuff warlocks get

[@JoschiChr]

Pact of the chain is incredibly powerful here. Go in the vessel, have the Imp or whatever pick it up and let it become invisible.

[@SpiderWaffle]

Yes, you get some great utility with genie, not just combat mechanics, it's so good, this is great synergy.

[@regaleagle6533]

I find the healing bonus effective as well

[@mrjek01]

I have a djinn lock/glamour bard that is a Harengon with a top hat for a vessel and a fairy for familiar (assistant). I play him as a stage magician and his tricks are not just for kids...

[@regaleagle6533]

@@mrjek01 that is pretty cool.

[@Iamstrad]

The imp, being immune to fire, can then go hide in a lava flow while you take a nice warm rest (sauna)!

[@tholden77]

As for the Command spell, I really like using "monologue". Can make for an interesting little info dump on the baddie, and some rather exasperated looks from the DM

[@dogwalter3655]

This is actually golden

[@010WhatMy]

I am going to use this

[@lokithecat7225]

Speaking is a Free action, they can do while killing you... Unless they need Verbal to cast spells, this is just stupid.

[@gabrielseller6434]

I kind of like the commonality of the Warlock dip as a lore thing. Warlock is probably the most lore friendly caster multiclass. I like the idea of various patrons being either totally fine with adventurers just making small pacts with them for a bit of power, or be really mad that no one wants to make big long lasting pacts with them.

[@pranakhan]

More of a Patreon Warlock. Lol, see what I did there?!

[@FeignJurai]

Pretty sure *every pact* is long lasting. But I get what you mean. Everyone just wants to use them for their blast, but nobody wants to form a deeper relationship.

[@feed-backl6876]

I always loved the sorcerer multiclass. Your power AWAKENS they certainly make the most sense

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Passive aggressive, browbeaten Hexblade patrons are the best. "Hey, hope I'm not bugging you or anything, I know you're pretty busy these days, but, it'd be really great if you could just kinda go over to that structure. You don't have to go in or anything, I'll manage.Thanks, bud. ... I mean, sure we can do it tomorrow."

[@jackbagdadi6117]

Hexblade patrons are the most sad for sure. They’re just out there begging you to hang out with them for longer but you’re too distracted by Bard/Paladin/Sorcerer 😂

[@kelvinlau1229]

I can't help but notice that this build is missing the Warcaster feat and am uncertain if anyone else mentioned this or if I missed this in the video but: Under Components - Somatic in PHB: "If a spell requires a somatic component, the caster must have free use of at least one hand to perform these gestures." Under Components - Materials in PHB: "A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components - or to hold a spellcasting focus - but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components." So while picking up the Moderately Armored feat is nice and all so we can wear medium armor and equip a shield, it cripples the build at higher levels (and possibly earlier) unless you don't ever plan on wielding a staff or rod of the pact keeper (should be fairly common and very helpful for warlockw) while equipped with a shield. Let's say our warlock equips a shield and a rod of the pact keeper or any other spell casting focus in the other hand, you are now unable to cast the following unless you get rid of one or the other: (Spells below were the spells chosen for the build, I'm sure there are other spells but here are the key ones that run into this issue.) - Eldritch Blast (warlock signature spell) - Mage Hand - Prestidigitation - Counter Spell - Dispel Magic - Sickening Radiance - Synaptic Static - Mass Suggestion TL;DR: Unless you never intend to use a spell casting focus while you have a shield equipped you will be unable to cast spells that have a Somatic component as it requires a free hand or Warcaster. (Strangely enough if the spell requires Material and Somatic then you are all good).

[@MarcusVance]

So many people willing to casually give something up for power. Probably the most realistic thing about D&D

[@johngleeman8347]

The Warlock I'm running was helped out of a lethal situation by her patron. The pledge to serve them came after the aid was rendered. You're right though. Many souls sold for death rays and devil vision. XD

[@morganpetros9635]

@@johngleeman8347 One of my favorite backstories for only taking a one-or-two-level dip in warlock is that the character is actually paying a family debt or that the *PATRON* chose the *CHARACTER* and not the other way 'round. This means the character might actually want nothing to do with whatever weird and likely evil Being has insinuated itself into your life. Kind of reminds me of the character Tempus from the old "Thieves' World" book series. ;)

[@zeestar0112]

@@morganpetros9635 yes! Or something I like to do, The character was put into a situation and the patron made a deal. "hey, return this item and I'll give you some magic." That second level could be developing that power or another deal

[@thewholehorse7140]

My Genie Warlock was a Guild Merchant instead. They were good at their job, but they weren't particularly enjoying it. They understood that they were going to be stuck in their dead end position for the Guild forever. However, they came in possession of my Dao's Vessel while trading in the market. Sensing the opportunity of which to manipulate my character, the Dao offered them power and recommended that the two of them begin adventuring together to seek more power and money, an idea which my character was quickly brought around to.

[@TheClericCorner]

The genie warlock is SO evocative. For Fizbans, I think this patron would be the best for dragon-themed warlocks as well with their elemental spells, a 'demi-plane' hoard, and flight

[@ryansalmon6507]

Dimension 20 did this with Siobhan’s character in season 2 of unsleeping city!

[@hopeforescape884]

Yeah I'm playing a marid (I'm a sucker for sleet storm) genie kobold and re-flavored my patron as an ancient silver dragon.

[@medisshehi9335]

Chromatic Dragonborn with the Vassel full of gold because it's a dragon thing

[@benhatcher9396]

Had a kobold genie warlock.. genuinely *believed* he was a dragon. And his ring contained his portable "hoard". Themed all his fire spells as variant breath weapons, very fond of flaming hand (breath).

[@medisshehi9335]

@@benhatcher9396 I love it, and I'm playing the character I described because I really love this concept

[@Ciberbuster]

I'd go with an Artificer dip and take the trope: "Actually I didn't find the lamp, I made it and captured my genie." Crazy good roleplay with the reluctant patron, plus the proficiencies and extra spells helps.

[@woodsman105]

If lamps are to genie's what cardboard boxes are to cats... if it fits, I sits. 😉

[@andrewfornes5320]

I imagine a ghost busters type of equipment sucking a genie up inside it lol.

[@lapetitecuillereetlepaindo3005]

Also people saying things increase exponentially when the slope is steep but the whole point of exponential growth is that the slope is proportional to the current value.

[@zil5697]

@Treantmonk - Genie fly + grasp of hadar means you can "pull" them into the air 10ft, after which they fall prone and take 1d6 bludgeoning damage. If you put them into a status effect, they now have to spend 1/2 their movement to just stand up. Lance of Lethargy with this reduces their speed by 10ft. Meaning if they have a 30ft move speed, they now have only 10ft left...if that effect is difficult terrain they can only move 5ft, then would have to spend their action to move another 10ft..still potentially not getting out.

[@Haveuseenmyjetpack]

isnt is 30ft / 2 = 15 ft - 10ft from lance of lethargy? so....in difficult terrain they have zero movement?

[@zil5697]

@@Haveuseenmyjetpack I think you have to do the Lethargy first. Because that is a reduction to their speed. The rest of it is their choice on how to spend their movement.

[@Gingerbreadley]

Making as many spell scrolls as possible is in my opinion one of the best ways to power up a straight warlock. Being actually able to cast all those circumstantial spells or lower level ones feels great. Doesn’t work for every campaign tho. I’ve also had a few dms not like it and it can feel gamy at times and kinda forced them to not give me tons of down time.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Yeah, buckets of scrolls tend to go sour pretty quick. Dipping 1 level in Sorcerer (it is just 1 level, right? I'm hazy for some reason) to just stockpile sorcery points is, most of the time, a much more palatable way to squeeze that blood out of stony pact slots. That or dip divine soul to get healing out of them, and maybe free up the hour on a character that doesn't need the rest besides health, like a wizard or something, to cast spells, work towards crafting something, or whatever that character does.

[@georgeadams1347]

Kain Tugwell-Fisher two-levels for Sorc points. You’re thinking coffeelocking. It’s ok but not insane.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

@@georgeadams1347 Ah, thanks for the reminder. I have a nasty habit of thinking a lot of level 2 features are level 1.

[@goatmeal5241]

This is a SUPER minor thing, but you might find it worth knowing: when we increase both number of attacks and damage per attack, it's not technically "exponential" as everyone likes to say. It's quadratic. "Super-linear" (faster-than-linear) scaling is what people are noticing, and everyone just calls it exponential.

[@eshansingh1]

Doesn't quadratic mean x squared? Thus definitely being exponential

[@luiswi]

@@eshansingh1 exponential wouldn't be x raised to a power but a base raised to the power of x. If eldritch blast would double its power every level, that would be exponential.

[@JohnnyTightIips]

Appreciate you doing single class builds too Chris, as my group don't like the idea of me dipping/multiclassing Warlock because it's seen as min-maxy.

[@keeganpogue1856]

Min maxing is my one of my favorite parts of the game, I’m glad my group lets me do it.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

There's an artform to it. Using optimized cheese to weld together a dysfunctional character concept is how you do it. Like, the Barbarian x Hexblade. All Con and Charisma, all show muscle, and you deal damage by flexing, and pass this character down the Armstrong line. Or the Hexblade with a Rapier that still uses Dex. Or the Booming Blade, Familiar Aid, Echo Fighter Lizardfolk, that only uses their bite attack, to drag opponents into the bite dimension. Using optimization to hold terribly optimized characters together is an artform, and tends to go over well, I find. That, or hold an optimized character's full potential in reserve as a trump card. Make it a dramatic moment when you finally use the synergy between those two features.

[@mhelvens]

In my experience there are two types of optimized multiclass builds. The first, esoteric builds designed to enable specific overpowered combos is something my group sometimes does for combat-focused one-shots. It's fun to experiment, but such characters tend to be effective for only a short specific few levels, and I worry that one gimmick will get old after a while in a long campaign. But I am currently playing a Scribes Wizard with a first level Artificer dip. That too is a bit min-maxy, but my DM is fine with it if it makes sense in the character's backstory. And that dip will stay valuable for the rest of the campaign.

[@Year2047]

@@keeganpogue1856 same.

[@rdchris6556]

Ironic as multiclassing is on average less powerful. It's usually only good for 1.) Creating a gimmick build, or 2.) Creating a Nova build Now bear in mind I'm talking on average. Not always. There are some combinations that are very powerful (hexadins, etc), but even then, you still need to carefully craft it to be as good as a flat paladin or hexblade

[@WilliamMoses355]

Was I the only one who forgot that a Dao was a type of genie and was curious how much Taoist philosophy you could get into a warlock?

[@ramshacklewizard]

A useful circumstance for Sanctuary Vessel, your party Paladin/Fighter/Cleric in heavy armor need to infiltrate an area, you go inside the vessel with them, let the rogue carry the vessel, being the only one to need to make stealth checks (and lets be honest...succeed) and then drop the nuke of a freshly rested chunky party when needed :D

[@woodsman105]

For some reason, I picture the sanctuary vessel being a large wooden rabbit, which you could present as a gift to some French lord.

[@poilboiler]

@@woodsman105 If you fail the deception check you're getting yeeted out by catapult.

[@SpiderWaffle]

@@woodsman105 or any character or summon that can turn invisible, easier access to this now with shadow touched and pact of the chain. The vessel becomes their possession that turns invisible too.

[@1217BC]

That rest tricking thing is definitely something to check with your dm. Since the short rest rules specify that you can't do anything more strenuous than eating, drinking or tending wounds, and long rest rules clearly call out spell casting as strenuous activity, it's a very reasonable ruling that such casting would ruin your short rest.

[@HammerheadStarcraft]

I honestly can’t imagine any other way to read that passage. “Rest tricking” makes about as much sense as allowing allies to ride your dragon companion (I.e. being willfully obtuse).

[@LukeTarver]

Rest tricking works for long rests, as you’re allowed to spend an hour spellcasting. Not short rests though.

[@Indigo1559]

Yea I don't mess with rests. My players get 2-3 short rests and 1 long rest per adventuring day. I might be willing to let you trade that 1 long rest for 1 short rest, but definitely not letting you trade 1 long rest for more than 1 rest of any type.

[@jeanief.6036]

The Crusher feat is a must have on a Daolock build. I picked it up early and I like the combo of it and the Booming Blade cantrip to keep an enemy away if one gets close to me. The idea that I cast the cantrip, use Crusher to move them back so I can retreat without provoking an AoO, and now they have to decide if they want to pursue me and trigger the Booming Blade damage or not is great. And that's not even going into all the other Spike Growth / Sickening Radiance shenanigans.

[@BayardHamar]

Even better is the fact that the "Crusher-push" would activate off your Eldritch Blast + Genie's wrath (Dao = bludgeoning damage) which would allow you to move one creature 10 ft away from you (Eldritch Blast + Repelling Blast) and the same creature 5ft in any direction (Eldritch Blast + Genie's wrath + Crusher). This can work right from Level 2 on and compensates a bit for the direction "away from you in a straight line" from Repelling Blast.

[@GrrumpyPants]

Pact of the chain is so useful for a genie warlock. Your familiar can carry your vessel around while you're inside it. Simply instruct your familiar to follow the party, hop inside, and you can take a short rest while the party travels. An imp can turn invisible with the vessel, turning it invisible as well. You can go inside the vessel as an action, so this can even be used in combat to disappear and reappear somewhere else, or to make a quick getaway. Need to reach an enemy on top of a 100ft wall? Instruct the imp to carry the vessel to the top. Hop inside, and it can fly you up. The utility of pact of the chain is already great, and the bottled respite ability of the genie warlock only amplifies that.

[@BrandonStoudt]

I have a pact of the chain Daolock goblin. Since the imp can carry small creatures, I can have the imp fly me around. Nothing like a goblin flying around 30ft in the air launching Eldritch blasts everywhere it goes. Technically it should also turn me invisible when the imp is holding me and goes invisible, but I haven’t tried that on my DM yet…😅

[@sharkwang1542]

You’re optimization skills blow me away every time, fey touched pact magic synergy *chefs kiss

[@SunLovinSolaire]

Sickening Radiance was the first spell I ever really learned about in D&D. The idea of HP being pretty irrelevant seemed awesome.

[@krishollow]

Jolly good, jolly good indeed! Got to comment for the algorithm AND motivational boost. Glad you started this channel!

I recently did fun tweak to build: My DM really hates my concentration usually, so I struggle really hard to keep it up most of the time. So I switched it up a little bit, and started with lvl1 of ARTIFICER. As artificer, you get cantrips (guidance!! and thornwhip are awesome) 2 level 1 spell slots (mainly for your utility spells), ritual casting, medium armor, shield and CONSTITUTION saving throw proficiency. So as soon as you get proper armor and shield, you can have 19 AC and proficiency for your concentration checks. Combined effect of these for 1 level dip could not be understated. Then I go straight warlock, usually upto level 4 (where you get spike growth as massive power spike imo) or level 5 for ASI (feytouched, crusher, telekinetic... they are all faaantastic). Now if you really want you can add one more level of artificer for infusions. There is nice amount of possibilities - enhanced defense is great, so you have 20 ac (you now have AC of plate armor+shield), enhanced arcane focus for +1 to hit for your eldritch blasts is amazing or if you really need keep up your concentration, you can go mind sharpener, so even if you fail - you just dont fail - it is the single best tool for maintaining concentration in the game, as it works even against those huge, high damage spells. And it frees up one of your invocations. It requires bit of tinkering with stats so you can get 13 int but variant human should be able to do it and it feels so worth it imo as it easily covers up biggest weaknesses warlocks usually have, while even enhancing your damage capability and utility. If you do it this way, you can also get 20 charisma at level 10 already. 16 from variant humant+feytouched for 17 at lvl1, at level 6 (if you took 2 levels of artificer already) you can add telekinetic (18char) and at level 10 you can just add whole ASI into charisma for 20, all while having indestructible concentration and AC by then, and best "to hit" ever for your EB with enhanced arcane focus. Going further in artificer is not really necessary, but armorer could allow you to wear heavy armor (21ac) and with infiltrator model you gain movespeed (with longstrider its 45ft, very useful for quick repositioning for repelling blast) and dont have disadvantage on stealth checks (yay!) AND you gain access to magic missile. With warlock scaling spell slots, its very potent spell. This is great option if you need to stealth often. Artillerist would give you access to shield spell and eldritch cannon - damage cannons are useless, but protector is useful even with just +1 int, so great option if you want to be tankiest warlock to ever live. Or alchemist can give you some nice fun abilities with elixirs to use your 3 lvl1 spell slots (+ac, alter self, extra flying speed, even better saves or attack rolls and so on), but I dont think this is all that worth it. All in all, its nice option for later levels, if you feel like another warlock level is not all that beneficial for you.

[@BenjaminJohnGates]

The fact that you can ping pong even a gargantuan creature (with no save) back and forth is hilarious. Visually it's a raw display of power fitting for a warlock. Mechanically it's quite satisfying that they can't do anything about it.

[@jrg305]

I think it's a glitch. Yet another thing they didn't get right about 5e. You shouldn't be able to do something like that with a two-level class dip that's more powerful than going the full class

[@MaskedMike004]

Love the Genie Warlock, powerful as well as an interesting concept. I finally get the chance to play one in a one-shot this week, so this was very helpful. Thanks :)

[@moto2442]

An over sight you made with dark vision is that devil sight doesn't let you see through dim light normally. If you want to see in all light conditions you need dark vision as well

[@TreantmonksTemple]

True, but it's just disadvantage on perception checks in dim light, you can still see.

[@moto2442]

@@TreantmonksTemple Still annoying and as you say Perception is the most used skill in the game. Especially since you might have party members still having a lamp or something that spreads dim light.

[@Wolfslayer6980]

I feel like this is kinda funny and some dms would probably just void that ruling, I get raw it’s probably right but it’s just funny you can see normally through darknes. But a little dim light and you can’t see anymore.

[@MrTique-ux8ob]

This would be really cool to flavor as a Dune-setting character. Sand worms and the weirding way. Thanks Treantmonk!

[@Year2047]

I'm working on a nacholock right now. Going genie cause its awesome and offers create food and water. Dude took the power cause who turns down free nachos.

[@D1j1tleShr4pnl]

Nacholock? Color me intrigued 🤔

[@ZoroarkChampion]

I find summoning spells like Summon Shadowspawn and Summon Undead to work really well on warlocks too, especially in tier 2. They scale automatically, and they all have a few different (mostly control) options so they are tactically versatile. Not only that, they last one hour so you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. And they are uniquely good on warlocks damagewise, because unlike other summoners who have to rely on mediocre cantrips, you can Eldritch Blast on your turn. A level 8 warlock that has summoned a Shadow Spirit can dish out two Eldritch Blasts and two Chilling Hands for (assuming 18 charisma) 2d10+8+2d12+14. Factoring probability to hit that comes out to 26.5 damage, and you still have control options like an AoE fear effect and a slow option.

[@Serejun]

Darkvision is superior to Devils sight in some cases. Devils sight RAW does not allow you to see in dim light. From personal experience dim light is more common although less of a hinderance.

[@thewholehorse7140]

Tbf, you're not the one who's gonna need to make those kind of checks for the party anyway, leave the big Perception challenges to your Rogue/Bard, dim light is only a problem for Perception checks so Darkvision with Devil Sight would be redundant. Plus Devil's Sight is 120ft, so your getting the maximum range out of Elderich Blast even in darkness

[@paytonmiller768]

The repelling blast + grasp of hafar invocations work very well with spike growth. Adding both to each beam gives you 20 ft of forced movement, or 8d4 slashing per beam. In campaigns where you get frequent rests, I’d consider swapping agonizing blast or devil’s sight for this early on, then picking up the other when it becomes more relevant at higher levels.

[@gordongreene7360]

You can only Grasp of Hadar once per turn, but still badass combo

[@captainpandabear1422]

With hexblade, you forgot that they also give you a good attack cantrip (or two), the shield spell, and another potential warlock exclusive pickup if you're playing a bard. Such a great dip. Better than hummus.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Yeah. I've seen it grabbed by Fighters, barbs, and rogues JUST for one of the blades, and maybe shield or absorb elements for good measure. Imagine the poor Monk completely supplanting everything his character is supposed to be good at with one simple trick, Hexblade patrons and kung fu grandmasters HATE him! Or at least they would if the average Monk could afford a charisma north of 8.

[@Domkhxiii]

I love the genie warlock. I’ve a character who’s vessel is a false eye that was taken as part of the payment. She taps the pupil which opens it up.

[@shotgunridersweden]

Im currently playing a mountain dwarf daolock which follows the same ideas. I have thanks to the best abillity score nonuses kn the game, a very solid con and proficiency with medium armor from the getgo, albeit no shields

[@Dave004]

lol I like how I just thought about playing a Mountain Dwarf Dao and then read these comments thinking "oh wow i'm the last one to realize that is a good combo" lol

[@brandonisom7870]

I'm going to try this build, but with a mountain dwarf using custom ability scores. I love the idea of a very stereotypical dwarf miner uncovering a portal to the plane of elemental earth in their everyday life. They then become a warlock, leave home, and have a completely different life then they ever imagined having by fully embracing their genie overlord.

[@goblinking1349]

19:28 rest tricking with AoA only works with long rests, not short rests. Any spell cast during a short rest cancels out the entire rest.

[@Caiphex]

The point would be to cast it before initiating your short rest. I'm not really sure what the point would be however since you'd get the armor of agathist which lasts an hour and a short rest requires an hour. If there's a way to extend the spells duration then there could be merit to it but the spell would time out as you complete your short rest.

[@veras7927]

@@Caiphex You can use extended spell metamagic, which you can grab from metamagic adept (or 3 levels of sorc)

[@elliotbryant3459]

@@Caiphex one work around is casting AoA before your 10 minute Genie's Sanctuary Vessel short rest, or before an ally targets you with the Catnap spell. Either will leave you with up to 50 minute remaining on the spell. Sanctuary Vessel has the benefit of not making a creature unconscious, so they could maintain concentration on a spell like conjure elemental [via minions of chaos invocation] and even the summon could recover during since they have hit dice, returning to full health for the remaining duration.

[@jrg305]

If you read the description of a long rest, it says that casting a spell interrupts the long rest. I'm not sure where this rest tricking idea became mainstream because it's not allowable by raw rules

[@veras7927]

@@jrg305 This is technically true, but I think it's a ruling most tables would ignore. For instance, consider the following situation: 4 hours into the long rest, the party cleric wakes up to take his watch. The cleric casts the light cantrip on his shield for better visibility. At the end of his 2 hour watch, he wakes up the next person for their turn and goes back to sleep to finish the long rest. Does casting the light cantrip really count as strenuous enough that the cleric needs an extra 4 hours more sleep than everyone else? I think the reasonable answer is no.

[@brianpious3242]

In my current campaign I went Dao Genie with a plan to go Tome since our party has no wizard and am 1 of 2 full casters. I was originally thinking of going Wildfire Druid but saw too much crossover with our Cleric and I wanted to be a caster that uses a different stat than wisdom to bring in more variety.

[@muriomoira]

Never autoclicked a video faster!

[@lrioje1]

From my understanding, there’s no such thing as “magical” bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage. Instead, creatures that we think have those resistances/immunities have a line that says “resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non magical weapons” so B/P/S damage that isn’t from a weapon would not be resisted by those creatures, regardless of if it’s magical. This is why rage is so good, because it simply states B/P/S damage so it resists magical weapons and even, say, the bludgeoning damage from falling. Edit: changed a spot where I said “damage” instead of “weapons”.

[@Caiphex]

Tldr I have seen a Barb resist fall damage this way On the show Dimension 20 by CollegeHumor and dm'd by Brennen Lee Mulligan this exact thing happens during their a crown of candy campaign. A barb is paralyzed and thrown off a mega height that takes three turns. He manages to succeed the Constitution check to become unparalized and rage before he hits the ground. Something along the lines of 80 points of damage got halved so though being injured he could still survive it at I think level 10

[@rocknut144]

Um isn't shilleleagh and magic stone magic bludgeon damage? And thorn whip I thought was piercing?

[@lrioje1]

@@rocknut144 Yes, they are, but that’s only specified because those are weapon attacks. If they didn’t say that, then they wouldn’t overcome resistance that certain creatures to damage from nonmagical weapons, but the bludgeoning damage from falling, which isn’t magical, overcomes that resistance. Your point is correct, I’m just saying that in the case of anything but weapons, B/P/S damage doesn’t need to be specified as magical to overcome those resistances.

[@lrioje1]

@@rocknut144 In response to thorn whip, it just says “piercing” damage, rather than magical piercing damage because it is a melee spell attack rather than a melee weapon attack.

[@rocknut144]

@@lrioje1 I'll give you shilleleagh and possibly magic stone modifying the damage but both magic stone and thorn whip need a melee "spell" attack to deal damage by default making them magical.

[@emirwattabor6991]

I ran a Dao Genie Warlock as a Mountain Dwarf for free medium armor. Makes the feat tax a little more manageable, though you miss out on a shield. Also fun to get a ton of tool proficiencies with Customizable Origin swapping weapons for tools. I also grabbed Pact of the Chain with the Quasit for the free Scare ability and a ton of resistances to stack with Armor of Agathys. I combine this with Magic Stone and Investment of the Chain Master so I can deal damage with my bonus action (significantly more than Hex even with the bonus action spent on refilling the ammunition) and inflict both poisoned and frightened with the same familiar if I land both a scare and a melee attack (quite possible if I want to use my action for it). I'll also use Armor of Agathys to beef him up if necessary which gets double value due to his resistances. It's also fun to roleplay the Quasit as a miniature gargoyle so I can lean into the elemental themes. I did a similar thing with my Summon Shadowspawn spell.

[@ArtGuyCharlie]

CL is clearly the most optimal race choice for the build but I’m also a fan of the Lotusden Halfling option here for the free extra casting of Spike Growth each day.

[@CanisMythson]

As far as the Fiend Warlock I've actually got a funny build of my own for that. It's really unorthodox, but you only need minimum charisma starting off; may end up higher later on. The weirdest bit is that it requires a bit of a reflavoring. Instead of a devil or demon, your pact was instead with the guardian of the underworld, the ferryman... The Grim Reaper. It's kinda important for how the build works that this is the case. Point buy stats for this are 15, 12, 13, 8, 10, 14 Works best if you're Human Variant, and take +1 to Str and Con, followed by the Tough feat; the build will need a little extra durability in the beginning. You'll start Warlock, cuz the saves are good, and go Fiend of course. Start with Hex and Armor of Agathys as your spells; EB is useful but a blade cantrip is more likely to serve you for now. Then... 2nd level, out of complete left field... Multiclass *Barbarian*. Yes, you read that right. Barbarian, on a Warlock. Keep reading, it'll make sense. Once you've got that one level dip in Barb, you get the martial weapons and shield prof you need to make this work. You also get an unarmored AC that is somewhat better then others, though it may still be required to utilize non-concentration magics to shield yourself. The goal here right now is to maximize the value of THP. Then continue on Warlock, taking Devil's Sight and either Ag Blast for something to do when you're not raging or a flavor option of your choosing. 3rd level, go Pact of the Blade, and at that moment swap out AB for Improved Pact Weapon. Use a greatsword/maul, go ham, you're now the damage. 4th level Warlock, which is 5th level overall, you'll want to ASI and bump STR to 18. You could also grab GWM at this time but you won't have great accuracy just yet. Warlock 5th, you'll mostly be gaining Thirsting Blade. Spell wise, focus on out of combat utility for the most part, as in combat you're more likely to be unable to cast spells. So coming online at 6th level, you have good damage, coupled with a higher level of durability then a blade pact warlock would normally have. The goal is to lead with Armor of Agathys, make as much use of those THP as possible via Rage Resistance, and once those are gone, focus down weaker targets to keep a good amount of THP out of Fiendish Vigor, which at this point grants 7 thp every time you kill something. After this, you're going to start leveling Barb more. 2nd level, once you unlock Reckless, you're gonna want to use it in most cases. The rage resistance coupled with the THP you're getting on a kill will be enough to keep you going even with the lower AC. 3rd level Barb, take Zealot. Divine Fury is the reasoning here, adding necrotic (or radiant if you don't care about the 'grim reaper' flavor) damage to your first hit that connects. It's a decent jump in damage. 4th level, now is where I'd take GWM. Your prof just went up, and you have access to Reckless for advantage, making that -5 a negligible cost for the extra damage. And yes, you'll take 5th level Barb too. Yes, you already have Thirsting Blade. But I'd rather do it this way then have one level where you just lose your second attack for some reason. Fast Movement too. Next level is Warlock 6. You'll be dropping Thirsting Blade to grab whatever other pick you like, though in this case my fave pick would be Eldritch Smite. Because you'll be critting pretty regularly, you can use it if your rage boosted GWM damage just barely isn't enough to down your target. Oh, and Dark One's Own Luck, which is a nice saving throw booster, coming right when you needed one. Now here you are at level 11, with some saving throw bonuses, good physical durability, and damage a good amount above the baseline. From this point, I can say grabbing one final level of Barbarian might be a solid choice, giving you another boost to saving throws, and an extra use of Rage. 4 rages per day should be enough for the majority of encounters. Then everything else all the way to level 20 is Warlock levels. Nothing else is set in stone; ASIs should likely be used to grab Medium Armor prof if you feel your AC is too low, though with Armor of Agathys thrown back up after every fight you kinda *want* them to hit you; and beyond that, max Str and then focus on raising your Cha. I say Cha and not Con, as Cha also somewhat functions as extra HP for you through Dark One's Blessing. At level 16 you'll get Fiendish Resilience, and the beauty of this is you can use it to shore up and gain resistance to a particular damage type you know you might face, and even add a little extra protection should you go through a long adventuring day where you run out of Rages. And because the only Invocation left that I recommend nabbing is Lifedrinker at level 18, which adds your Cha to all your weapon attacks. Comes online late, but your damage should be keeping up just fine outside of it. If you've got 18 cha, you'll be gaining 20 THP when you kill something, which accounting for resistance equates to 40 damage that you don't take, in addition to the 50 out of your 5th level Armor of Agathys you cast ideally before combat, if you're aware it's coming. And likely throwing out a similar amount of cold damage with, if not loads more if something's hitting you for lower damage numbers. Final level spread: 14 Warlock (Fiend), 6 Barbarian (Zealot). You have become the very face of Death himself, drawing on the vitality of those that perish to your mighty, death-dealing blows, giving you a ghoulish vigor that most foes would be hard pressed to break through. You are resistant to any weapon you might face, and can even tailor your magical protection to defend against any threat you are aware of. You are far and above less susceptible to the debilitating mental effects that most frontliners fail to; having multiple ways to shore up your saving throws if need be. Forget concentration, you cast sword.

[@nathans9764]

The genie vessel is also 20 feet tall. So you can use wall of stone and stone shape to make 2-3 stories and have your own extradimensional mage tower at a pretty low level. Can do even more stories if you're a gnome or halfling.

[@yesanderson]

I play a Daolock and as a long time fan I'm proud to say our builds are eerily similar! At first level the only difference is the second spell with feytouched. The only big difference is I went Chain and got a ring of spell storing so at 5 I'm going to try out a Sprite and 2 putrid undead synergy. I know it's all con saves but SO many.

[@chromacypher8409]

First dip was Arcane Trickster/ Warlock of the Celestial. Lots of shenanigans, including healing, misty step, and eldritch blast. I was able to move all over the battlefield, hide, and heal. I was more effective than our cleric. Now I am running a Hexlock for the Paladin like features! Stoked to see how much chaos I can wreak!

[@THEMithrandir09]

Devil's Sight is not strictly superior to Darkvision. If you are in dim-light, Devil's Sight won't do anything, it only works in complete darkness(be that magical or non-magical). So if you have both Darkvision and Devil's Sight and are in dim light, you'll see normally until your Darkvision range and from then on, as if you were in dim light.

[@geoffreyperrin4347]

Never thought to cast a spell right before a short rest ended as a warlock. Always though spellcasting was more strenuous than the examples provided, thus negating the short rest

[@Ahglock]

That's how everyone I know plays it. So in those groups you can cast it right before the rest, but not at the end which makes its 1 hour duration pointless for it. Which is how Hex stays okay even in late levels, finish your long rest, cast hex, take a hour eating breakfast etc, it can go all day if you ever feel like you need a different spell go for it drop the hex it cost you nothing. Edit to say, they allow it for long rests in most though in some of them as they specify in long rests the strenuous activities must be for an hour, casting a spell is on the list of strenuous activities. While some do and some don't with long rests is some are okay with the technique as it fits the letter of the rule others say its not in game reasonable to think you'd know to the minute when the magic would poof back into your head so it doesn't work on a RP perspective for them.

[@regaleagle6533]

I’ve never met anyone that allows this nonsense

[@TreantmonksTemple]

The idea is to use Sanctuary vessel allowing you to cast before the short rest begins.

[@regaleagle6533]

@@TreantmonksTemple oh that makes way more sense I don't know why that didnt click in my head in the video

[@geoffreyperrin4347]

@@TreantmonksTemple I was referring to the comment made on Amor of Agathys right before the short rest ended, though the 10 min version is good in case the DM doesn't go for that

[@toondemaere3080]

You're reading my Mind Chris. I was thinking about making an optimised warlock. I really love warlock's thematically but there are thing's in their 5e design that are not good enough or situational in my opinion.

[@abelsampaio389]

I'm playing a warlock right now and I'm just gonna throw out that spider climb is a nice spell for warlocks during levels 3~4. It's a defensive option, because depending on the terrain, you can be away from melee and even some ranged attackers. The drawback is: you need some vertical features, but in my experience you often get at least a tree or a wall to climb during those levels. And it's also a mobility option, being basically a poor man's levitate (although it lasts a lot more, and we know how warlock slots are valuable). If you preparred your shatter or spike growth or scorching ray as your nuke option, and you're wondering wether to pick mirror image or misty step, get spider climb and have neither (and sort of both)!

[@martinwigham]

My only concern with Spike Growth and Sickening Radiance would be friendly fire. It pretty much takes your own melee fighters out of the combat.

[@SilverKarlov]

I'd assume you're not gonna be able to get every single enemy in your area of effect spell for the most part, so your melee friends will definitely have enemies to target.

[@Okkebeltman]

Im combining this with a Ghostlance build. So 3 lvl's fighter (echo knight), rest in warlock. Make sure you get warcaster, and you can eldritch blast oppertunity attacks from the echo knight. If using variant human or custom lineage build is working from lvl 5, and starting at lvl 6 (when you get spike growth) it can start combining with dao warlock quite well. You can use action surge to cast spike growth and still use eldritch blast if you were unable to prepare the battlefield ahead of time.

[@jonathanmartin8716]

I have so much fun playing my Eladrin Bardlock (Eloquence/Dao) :), the 4 hr trance in a bottle right off the bat, my DM let me have a Doalani (Earth Gen) familiar, and as many times as I've tried to use Sanctuary effectivly with my pally or cleric in the past, I find great use of it now. As a bonus action, it can be done after your attack, my friends are huge wrestling fans, so I hammed it up, I ran up there, smacked the biggest thing as hard as I could (an undead ogre) and did the whole, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't hit me!" He failed his check, grunted and punted the gnome artificer instead. :) I just added shatter to my spells prepared because I like the concept controllign when the earth breaks. Bard was my dip, Warlock will be my main class.

[@elementual]

Someone might have already mentioned it (especially since this is a year old video) but repelling something into the spike growth isn't forcing movement, technically, so no automatic damage. But they do have to move to get out of it in most cases and with it being difficult terrain and all, they can't typically make it out effectively and you being able to push them back in, it's still super effective.

[@monkeyjay13]

Repelling blast IS forced movement. It does cause damage with spike growth. Any movement over the spike growth causes the damage, including repelling blast, thunderwave, telekenetic, and of course them using their movement.

[@Serkesh77]

I was thinking about playing a daowarlock in my next campaign, this video came at a good time

[@GangurEXE]

I'm currently playing as a Kobold genie warlock who started of as a tomb raider but had to make a deal with a Dao after getting stuck in one of said tombs. He's a really squishy guy so he heavily relies on control spells and his familiar which is basically his eyes, ears and mouth during potentially risky social encounters.

[@nunoazevedo8828]

I'm taking the feat Metamagic Adept in my genie warlock build, subtle (to be able to cast while silenced) and twinned spell are very useful, specially with Grasp of Hadar/Repelling Blast.

[@michaelbenson5677]

Sorry for the necro, but I was curious--what did you twin with 2 sorcery points? All pact magic is cast at max level and twinning costs 1 SP per spell level, so it's unusable with any warlock leveled spell by character level 5. You'd be stuck with cantrips and feat/racial spells.

[@matthuck378]

IIRC, the wording of Wish states that you can use it to replicate ANY other spell...In addition to other wish-y things you and your DM work out. That alone makes it the best spell in the game, IMO.

[@Swimavidly]

Treantmonk: "We're making Rock Hudson." Me: "Here. Take all my likes."

[@arsov9885]

About Pact of the Talisman: Is saving throw an ability check? You have to wait till Protection of the Talisman eldritch invocation to use it at saving throw.

[@utkarshgaur1942]

Yes! I've been waiting for a treantmonk cheese grater! Gonna get some popcorn to watch this video to.

[@bwhit7919]

I don’t think devil’s sight provides any benefit in dim light. Isn’t there an invocation that gives advantage on saving throws to maintain concentration? Would you ever consider taking Githyanki on this build? They give medium armour proficiency and two free spells per day. Sure, they’re a bit worse in some areas, but it would give an excuse to not go custom lineage.

[@mattdahm4289]

Thank you!

[@williamwooley2693]

I’ll be taking pact of the chain for mine, using magic stone to let my imp have ranged attacks and use my spell attack at tier 2 and 3

[@tscoff]

How do you get three 3rd level spells known at 5th level? Warlocks can only swap out one spell per warlock level and they only get one spell at 5th level. You can get four 3rd level spells known at 6th level though.

[@PiiskaJesusFreak]

Already liked before watching, daolock is one of my favorite things in dnd. Spike growth ftw!

[@Robert-iu4bx]

I get your point with pact/protection of talisman, but I think that added utility of having an imp take your "bottle" undetected (flying + invisibility), giving you sign that you can go out, then cast invisibility and do whatever you want. I think this is really potent infiltration option....

[@DuBMaNiaK]

Go mountain dwarf to get that medium armor proficiency AND another +2 (to your CON or DEX) And mountain dwarf fit with Daos

[@phillipheaton9832]

I prefer to start with Half Elf. It gives me more skills, pluses on three abilities and an extra language A couple of questions about the genie's vessel: First, since you can only enter and exit it once a day, how useful is it as a gigantic bag of holding? Second, since it is an extra-dimensional space, what happens if you bring a bag of holding, or a Heward's handy haversack, or a portable hole in with you? Or, for that matter, what happens if you put your genie's vessel into one of those? What about Booming Blade as a cantrip, as opposed to Minor Illusion? I prefer to take Armor of Agathys later, once it will hang around longer. I'd take Shield instead. I prefer Pact of the Tome. Unless I'm building a Hexblade, this is always the one that I want. The extra cantrips are nice, but I can get every ritual in the game that I'd want. I'd start out with Find Familiar and go from there. I'd rather take Telekinetic at 4th level, for the extra forced movement and taking my Cha to 18.

[@Elvenbane1520]

Spike Growth is piercing not slashing damage. Not that it makes a difference to this build.

[@Zswasd]

Recently i was trying to make this kind of Warlock build but you always make builds that i like more than my own hehehhe, keep it up i luv u

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Thanks, will do!

[@jamylegarmon8023]

i absolutely love this build my dude

[@AllThingsFascinate]

Hexbow seems so, so good, and so, so fun. Adding all the stat, with sharpshooter, with lifedrinker making each arrow seem like a ballista (not to mention smite potential) really helps me imagine the character as a magic archer. But man, the genie seems so fun! I love the flavor, the vessel, the flight, beautiful. It just seems so much weaker if it's not leveraging spike growth. And even though I want dao mechanically, the Djinn seems more fun to me from a roleplay standpoint. Either way, I wish I could combine my warlock archer with arcane archer for all the flavor or arrow effects and curving arrows, but man, that's bad. As always, I can't decide what to play next

[@TheSkasupah]

Would this work with something like a Mountain Dwarf since you get armor and two plus 2 stat increases. Also I think mountain dwarf and dao genie fit well together 😊 I know that won’t give you shield proficiency but you have the extra stat to put into dex and even out your charisma at lvl 4 when you get a get touched.

[@Dave004]

I planned on going Mountain Dwarf Dao Genie for my next campaign. Medium armor off the start with +4 stats and Mountain/Dao makes sense together. I think once you're able to get Half Plate a 17 AC while always being in the back should do quite well, you might even get +1 armor at some point.

[@robjob34]

Been waiting/hoping for this one!

[@Takintomori]

I have an idea for a Warhammer-wielding Fathomless Warlock. Take the Crusher feat at level 4 and use the hammer and the tentacle to zone forever. If they get through the tentacle, you can knock them back, and then have the tentacle knock them back again on your next turn. If you can keep playing until 14th lv, you can cast evards for free, which causes bludgeoning damage. You can make a popcorn machine in an enclosed space

[@tpete096]

For a recent campaign I built the character you're building in your next video. I opted for pact of the Talisman over Fiend because you can get a reaction effect that allows you to push people back (if they hit the wearer). It's not optimal but it fits the theme better and gets someone else in the party involved.

[@goatmeal5241]

Talisman and Fiend aren't in competition with each other, Fiend is a patron (spell list, abilities, etc) and Talisman is just a pact---you might be thinking Talisman vs Chain?

[@tpete096]

@@goatmeal5241 Oops yeah I got Fiend patron confused with pact of the Chain.

[@JagoTFC]

On Sickening Radiance, exhaustion doesn't last beyond the duration of the spell. Does this mean that a raised back enemy shouldn't have any level of exhaustion as long as you are not concentrating anymore. I don't think anyone would go inside Sickening Radiance to grapple somebody.

[@EmanueleCappello]

Quick question about something you said about Armor of Agathys: isn't the rule that to benefit from a short/long rest you have to do light activity only? In that case, wouldn't casting a spell break that rule?

[@phelps6205]

yes.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

The suggestion isn't to cast the spell during the short rest, but to take advantage of the Sanctuary Vessel feature and cast the spell before the short rest begins, leaving you 50 minutes of duration afterwards.

[@EmanueleCappello]

@@TreantmonksTemple ah, it's more clear now, thanks!

[@wyattweber9983]

@@TreantmonksTemple you definitely suggest it even earlier before that feature comes up which is surprising coming from you. I'm glad you have at least one comment correcting what you said in the video, that rest-tricking idea is some munchkiny BS

[@lukesandadordoceu4835]

Usually with warlocks, all I can think of is how hard it must be to have such a small amount of spells to cast, unless your party takes a lot of short rests. But this is a build I’d absolutely play, especially if there were other casters with AOE spells that you could push/pull creatures into

[@migthulhu]

If you use an earth Genasi then you will be able to move across difficult terrain without expending extra movement, it won't matter where you drop the spike growth you will at least be able to run through it unimpeded

[@SpiderWaffle]

27:21 Or any grappler in your party is going to love spike growth, get them a mount to go crazy. Or summons that can grapple and move fast.

[@Forewarned76]

Feats to add: Metamagic adept for access to distant spell when you gain access to Eldridge Spear, them you can really reach out and touch someone...

[@joelrandall2348]

Wouldn't going mountain dwarf with flexible stats be even slightly better than custom lineage? You net another stat point and get that medium armor proficiency, but have to have it as your "first" feat instead of later.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Medium armor proficiency without shield proficiency is a half measure at best.

[@joelrandall2348]

@@TreantmonksTemple fair enough. I kinda forget that you don't get that proficiency with shield for mountain dwarf. If only you could trade a weapon proficiency with the custom origin to get it.

[@Ahglock]

My problem with sickening radiance maddening darkness etc in play is the area is actually too big in far too many of the encounters I can almost never place it without placing the party in it as well. I guess if you are outdoors a lot it works.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Yeah, and slapping 3 levels of exhaustion on a teammate is WAY worse than inflicting it on an enemy. 3 levels on an ally means I hope whatever we were doing can wait until tomorrow, because we aren't doing it until then.

[@honahamomoru151]

@@aprinnyonbreak1290 bit late but aren’t the exhaustion levels go away when the spell end?

[@charliebush4677]

I think Charm Person is the best first level spell for a warlock with Fey Touched. It doesn't require concentration is my main reason for favoring it.

[@regaleagle6533]

Gift of alacrity is a clear winner for me

[@eshansingh1]

Gift of Alacrity doesn't require concentration either and is about a billion times better than Charm Person

[@elliotbryant3459]

I like bane and command a lot on a warlock. Bane effectively adds +2.5 to the party's AC, DC's, and contested ability checks against affected creatures. -Throw in synaptic static for another -1d6 to their attack rolls, ability checks and concentration saves. Command upcasts to have 5 creatures potentially wasting their turn and maneuvered to the party's advantage. Heroism upcast can provide fear immunity to 5 creatures and negate a ton of damage for the party too if there's no other THP spamming available.

[@regaleagle6533]

@@elliotbryant3459 I mean you can upcast command but the point of picking up feats is usually to get more spells to cast not more things to share the already crowded warlock slots I guess

[@elliotbryant3459]

@@regaleagle6533 Standalone castings generally don't seem like a great value for half of an asi in my opinion [though Fey teleportation could get a high elf misty step on a short rest recovery]. But if using that criteria, then ya, gift of alacrity would be a good value and is clearly the best option -but that's probably more telling about critical role content balancing.

[@SwedishSalmonbox]

A thought: If you put sanctuary on yourself, you can still command your imp to attack, yes? So the spell does not scale, but could be clutch if you are about to die, and more useful if you could attack with your imp instead for a while, which isnt a lot, but better than going unconsious and doing nothing. Do yall think it would be worth it?

[@jrg305]

I don't think that would be allowed at our table. You're still taking the attack action. You can only command the Imp when you take the attack action

[@SwedishSalmonbox]

@@jrg305 With "investment of the chain master" you can command it as a bonus action, thus you are not taking any attack actions.

[@jrg305]

@@SwedishSalmonbox then it could take an extra attack but it still can't take the cast a spell action

[@SwedishSalmonbox]

@@jrg305 yeah i was talking about The imp's normal sting attack

[@torunsmok5890]

Right at the start and I just wanna point out that it's not just fiend and genie that stay good to late levels... Hexblade is amazing into late levels, but I wouldn't do pure warlock all the way to 20 with any of them, especially with hexblade bc they can get so much more value from other classes in the last couple levels than they would from the last 2 Arcanum usually

[@Forewarned76]

This is the pact, my Dao patron gets to be the Party Mom when we're taking a long rest

[@dragonhearthx8369]

Something to point out devil sight does NOT work in dim light. So it actually complements dark vision, in that you see normally regardless of the light level.

[@WarDragonOfTheLight]

Can't lie. When I saw the title, I thought this was going to be about a warlock running a polearm.

[@LuxTheSlav]

I'm not getting how you're learning three 3rd lvl spells at 5th level. You go from 5 spells known to 6, that's one, you replace Sanctuary, that's two. Where does the third come from?

[@dennisfuery3426]

At 4th level, he just went over adding a cantrip and didn't actually select a new spell known at 4th level. This is where the third known spell opening is from.

[@LuxTheSlav]

@@dennisfuery3426 But you can't get three 3rd levels right at 5th, because there's no mechanism to get more than two. At 4th, you can still only learn 2nd level spells.

[@kylecharneski3318]

I was trying to figure this out as well. At level 4 you could only pick up a level 2 spell. At 5 you would be getting your normal level 3 spell, plus dropping a spell for a second level 3 spell. No clue how he got 3 new level 3 spells there.

[@dennisfuery3426]

@@kylecharneski3318 That’s fair. He forgot to pick spell at 4th level, leaving that spot open, so at 5th level, he had an open spot he should not have had.

[@dennisfuery3426]

@@LuxTheSlav you are correct, but like I said, he forgot to pick a spell at 4th level. He had three 3rd level picks because he made a mistake.

[@michaelburton286]

I see the pact of the talisman boosts ability checks but you were talking about protecting concentration. Is a concentration check an ability check?

[@ibsensantiago4096]

with dao you can take crusher and then move them 5 ft in any direction then the 10ft push of the blast lol

[@nericohen-muaythai8875]

I want to make a dao hex blade warlock earth ginasi that lived his whole life in the desert, In a fremen type society. Earth ginasi can ignore difficult terrain out of stone, so I would imagine spike growth wouldn't affect him. So you can cast it around you, and them use grasp of hagar to pull them in to the spikes. I might be wrong but I find the imagine amazing

[@FoxItAll]

I had a 2nd edition psionist build around the firemen. Lived in the desert, eventually became its defender when I psioniclly linked myself to most of the sand in the area. Later became a sand mummy and buried my organs in a sunken tomb to set the tone.

[@WarpKL]

Crusher feat works with Dao's budging damage. Forced movement though spike growth with no save no action required. Telekinesis is also really good. Can be used on allies to break a grapple. Weaponizeds our bonus action for 2d4 damage from spike growth.

[@paulknight4450]

Thank you for the video!

[@chriscampion6721]

Man where were you two weeks ago?!? Group did a one shot (thankfully it's going to now be a legit campaign) and after seeing your subclass tier ranking I'd been dying to do a genie build. We're only at level 4 so a lot of this will be helpful for later, but I was happy to see a lot of my ideas matched this. I took Telekinetic at 4 though for the extra push and have been thinking about getting crusher next for the extra push. You like to make saving throws and don't care who knows it so I get going resilient but I wanted as much movement as possible.

[@MrSticklife]

Do you think both feats is worth it at four? Or should I just take telekinesis and the ASI for 20 CHA?

[@chriscampion6721]

@@MrSticklife I actually wish I would have taken crusher over telekinetic. A lot of monsters beat the strength check while at that low of a level. Since the dao give you bludgeoning damage and an eldritch blast to hit is solid crusher would have been a good boost ton Con and more movement. I'd wait on telekinetic until the math on the DC is better.

[@MrSticklife]

@@chriscampion6721 Okay, I'll take your experienced advice on board. I was leaning towards both feats to lean into the forced movement gimmick fully and so if I ended up in melee I could potentially lift them into the air, then blast them without disadvantage a total of 20 feet high so they take fall damage and land prone lol. Seems crusher at level one and either an ASI or something like fey touched/moderately armoured might end up being better for survivability.

[@Scysir]

If spells are an issue, Glibness might be one of the better choices for 8th level. With an 18 Charisma, you automatically counter/dispel 9th level spells. Might not be the best for every campaign, but it could be situationally useful.

[@drguthrie7621]

With the amount of forced movement you get I can totally see just keeping spike growth even though it doesn't upcast. It just provides so much upfront damage cheese grading enemies along with you eldritch blast damage even at high levels it can be worth it on top of the crowd control it offers. I wouldn't drop it for stuff like planar binding or contact other plane especially and I could see cases where I would use it over other aoe damage over time effects.

[@metalmattchew]

I'm playing this build in a Ghost of Saltmarsh. Going to make changes for my group but that for the core idea.

[@bigklu4756]

Hey Chris, do you have a Scribes build yet? Can't seem to find one?