Warlock Pact of the Blade and Grappling and Tanking... Can it be done?

[Talionis]

My play group could really use a front line melee/tank. I'm entering late about third level. I want to play a Warlock and am thinking of doing a Mountain Dwarf Bladelock. Playgroup includes two sorcerers, a druid, and a ranger. DM will probably not allow me to multiclass, I have to have really good (role play) reasons for multiclass...

1. What feats should I look at? And what order should I get them in?
2. Are there items or tactics I should be looking for to make this work?
3. What Spells should I be looking to pick up (I think I'll have a basic package of Offensive/Defensive, but what are some utility spells)?
4. How do I best protect Hex to keep it up without having to recast it... One of the nice things about Hex is that as you level you basically can keep it up all day if you can keep your Concentration up.
5. What one level dip would I get the most bang for my buck from if my DM allows the dip?
6. Any other advice for a Warlock trying to do front line fighting and protecting the group?

What I'm thinking so far:
Mountain Dwarf gets me medium armor (no shield), +2 Strength and +2 Constitution. But I'm thinking about using a Versatile Weapon for my Pact Blade either a Warhammer / Battle Axe / Quarter Staff so that I can grapple with an open hand if I want to keep some thing away from the squishies. I'll have Hex to help. Hopefully, I'll have pretty good strength. I'll add Athletics as a skill with Soldier background most likely.

Damage Prevention: Blade Ward, Armor of Agathys, False Life Invocation, and Fiend Ability to get Temporary Hit Points, later I'll be able to pick up Mirror Image and Fire Shield and I'll get a Fiendish Resistance.

I feel like we have so few spells that you can plan to use one a fight without too much problem and if a fight gets out of hand you blow your remaining spells.

But keeping Armor of Agathys up and keeping Hex up as a frontliner seems like it might be hard. Also I'm worried because AoA, False Life, and Fiend Temporary Hit Points are all temporary hit points. I know that if I have AoA up I probably don't want to use the Fiend Temp Hit Points even if I get them to get another activation out of AoA retribution ability. At some point, I'll probably trade out False Life because gaining 8 temporary Hit Points between fights if I don't have any left from my Fiend Temp Hit Points may not seem like much, and AoA can't overlap with False Life either. Since I'll probably be trying to get AoA up every fight after the first few levels I'll probably not need False Life anymore, right?

Also thinking of using Vampiric Touch to attack later in fights after I lose Hex from Damage so that I can use one of my attacks to get a little life back. Flame Wall can probably help me tank since I can try to make myself the gate in the fire wall where the only way not to run through the Fire is to go through me. That's the nice thing is that I'll get Fire Wall, Fireball and Flame Strike from Fiend spell list so I can probably save my spell selections for out of combat utility and/or counterspell as an OS button.

What am I missing? I know it would be great to be able to Enlarge to grapple some bigger things. I guess the Ebon Eyes/Darkness combination can also help with grappling... I may use that some, but I feel like its hard to make that party friendly. Grappling seems pretty hard for a Blade lock to be good at. So maybe I give up on it?

Bladeward seems terrible, but it makes a good buff to do before you are the first one through a door. Since its essentially free.

Backstory, I'm looking at a soldier whose two brothers became Dwarven Defenders, but he was passed over for it and he goes to his scary uncle to help him get a different kind of training.

As for if I'm allowed to multiclass:

I'm thinking its either Barbarian or Fighter. Both get shields, fighter gets heavy armor, but Barbarian gets nice resistances. Rage is a little hard on a Warlock since you have spells you'd like to cast, but not every time. A lot of times its just AoA and then Rage? Fighter also gets Constitution Proficiency which would be nice to protect Hex Concentration, without blowing a feat like Resilient Constitution or Warcaster. Am I missing a good choice?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Addaran]

That's the nice thing is that I'll get Fire Wall, Fireball and Flame Strike from Fiend spell list so I can probably save my spell selections for out of combat utility and/or counterspell as an OS button.



Just to make sure you know, the patron only adds spell to your spell list so that you can potentially learn them. You don't get them for free, you'll need to use some of your spell known for them.

A str warlock should be pretty good at grappling thanks to Hex. Sure it's not expertise, but giving disadvantage to one of the two ways to escape grapple will be nice. Most monster are probably good at only one of the two, so if you guess right they won't have much chance.

Since you start at lvl 3, False Life might already be a less optimal choice, especially if you were going to open with AoA.

[Talionis]

Just to make sure you know, the patron only adds spell to your spell list so that you can potentially learn them. You don't get them for free, you'll need to use some of your spell known for them.

A str warlock should be pretty good at grappling thanks to Hex. Sure it's not expertise, but giving disadvantage to one of the two ways to escape grapple will be nice. Most monster are probably good at only one of the two, so if you guess right they won't have much chance.

Since you start at lvl 3, False Life might already be a less optimal choice, especially if you were going to open with AoA.

Addaran,

Thank you. Its still not the worst to have to select those spells off my Pact list. Any spells you really would suggest for tanking and grappling at higher levels?

[Addaran]

Addaran,

Thank you. Its still not the worst to have to select those spells off my Pact list. Any spells you really would suggest for tanking and grappling at higher levels?

They are very good spells. It's even more apparent when you're playing a non-fiend warlock and realize at lvl 5 that you aren't getting fireball. =P
For grappling, there's not much more then hex and enlarge/reduce. Since you're already using your concentration... There doesn't seem to be spells that hurts the enemy just for touching you (fire shield and armor of agathys are both if you're attacked).

The grappler feats seems good. You have advantage against the target you're grappling. And you can do a special pin move, that will give him disadvantage to attacking you (wich he'll probably do when he realize he can't escape) but you lose your advantage (you're also restrained, so disadvantage to your attack, but since you have advantage, it cancels out).

Protecting Hex, lots of con (easy with dwarf), proficiency in con saves and possibly warcaster.


Sorry i can't answer to all your questions in details, i'm not a super optimizer and haven't played a grappler yet. =P

[eldamir]

You should be able to roleplay a 2 level splash into a melee class as "I was a barbarian/fighter/paladin/ranger/rogue before I took an arrow to the knee found something I shouldn't have."
A 2Pal / 18 Wlk can be pretty potent.

[Talionis]

Sorry i can't answer to all your questions in details, i'm not a super optimizer and haven't played a grappler yet. =P

No truly, thank you! I just didn't want to miss anything fun or big. If there was something I was missing that would be a big help I'd want to do it. Warlocks should not be good at Grappling so I was looking for anything that would be fun that would make me more tanky for the group.

[gfishfunk]

1. What feats should I look at? And what order should I get them in?

Grappler is obvious.

Some ideas:

Tavern Brawler is not terrible, as you can hit with an unarmed attack and immediately initiate a grapple. Your melee weapon attack will only do 1d4+Str, however, and in that case you would not want to go Blade Pact...but Chain (or Tome) might be just as good for this build if you are not optimizing damage. Theoretically, a familiar could assist on a grapple, potentially giving you advantage whenever you grapple.

Alternatively, if you wanted to go Blade Pact and get a familiar, you could get the magic initiate or the ritual caster feat to grab 'Find Familiar' and other goodies.


2. Are there items or tactics I should be looking for to make this work?

The Mage Armor invocation would be much better than the temp HP invocation, but you will probably already have medium armor proficiency through dwarfiness.

Devil's Sight + Darkness (lv2 spell) could make grappling much easier for you, and make you harder to hit by others.


3. What Spells should I be looking to pick up (I think I'll have a basic package of Offensive/Defensive, but what are some utility spells)?

Misty Step is a great way to close in on the specific person you want to grapple. You already mentioned Fire Shield and Armor of Agathys. The real utility to the Fiend Pact temp HP is when you run out of AoA, or when you run out of spells.


4. How do I best protect Hex to keep it up without having to recast it... One of the nice things about Hex is that as you level you basically can keep it up all day if you can keep your Concentration up.

5. What one level dip would I get the most bang for my buck from if my DM allows the dip?

War Caster or Resilience Con. Alternatively, multiclass from Barbarian (lv 1) into Warlock (lvs 2-3), which gives you proficiency in Con as well as advantage on strength checks for grapples. The good news is that your Strength Warlock should pre-qualify for multiclassing by default.


6. Any other advice for a Warlock trying to do front line fighting and protecting the group?

Think outside the box with your spells. Sometimes you will want to do Hex, but sometimes you should grab a rock, cast Darkness on the rock, and throw it to a corner in the room in order to provide zone control.

[MrStabby]

You should be able to roleplay a 2 level splash into a melee class as "I was a barbarian/fighter/paladin/ranger/rogue before I took an arrow to the knee found something I shouldn't have."
A 2Pal / 18 Wlk can be pretty potent.

There is the other justification for multiclassing. Say you want to be tougher, so you take some levels of barbarian. This doesn't have to be you finding the wilderness, communing with nature or whatever. The barbarian features can be features your patron gave you - fiends tend to have damage resistance so the rage damage resistance could be fluffed as from a fiend pact. Rage itself is pretty demonic so that fits in. More HP - well fiendish resilience is already a thing. There is no fluff reason why the magic from your patron needs to be manifest as spells - as evidenced by being able to get a second attack as you level up.

Of course some classes work better than others for this.

As to warlocks being good at the grapple - they are probably not the best but Hex is pretty damn useful for those ability checks you enemies need to make. You can pick up create bonfire - so you have something to hold their face in. Even if the DM rules you have to be in the same fire yourself fiend pact can get resistance and dragon-born is not a bad race for a Str and Cha focused character.

[Addaran]

As to warlocks being good at the grapple - they are probably not the best but Hex is pretty damn useful for those ability checks you enemies need to make. You can pick up create bonfire - so you have something to hold their face in. Even if the DM rules you have to be in the same fire yourself fiend pact can get resistance and dragon-born is not a bad race for a Str and Cha focused character.

Sadly, create bonfire is also concentration, so you can only use it against easy to grapple targets where you don't need hex or when you're out of spell.

[Mandragola]

Making a properly tanky warlock is hard to do. You've got D8s for hit dice and no charisma bonus to start with. It's a very MAD character that probably needs feats. Warlocks normally aren't proficient with much armour or shields either.

Best thing I can suggest would be to go with 17 strength to start, as a mountain dwarf. You could maybe then have 17 con and 15 cha, with 8s in your other stats. Maybe this guy is clumsy and not too bright, so despite being strong and tough he messed up his dwarven defender exams, then thought selling his soul to a fiend was a reasonable alternative option.

Then at lvl 4 you take heavy armour proficiency, so your strength hits 18 and you get a decent AC . At lvl 8 you can get con 18 and cha 16. If you mainly expect to cast spells that don't require a save (like hex, misty step, and armour of agathys) you actually don't need much charisma, so you could instead start with 17 con and only 14 cha, picking up resilient constitution at 8.

There's no reason to favour a versatile weapon over a true two-hander. There's been an official clarification that you only need two hands on a two-hander when you're actually attacking with it. One hand is sufficient just to hold it. So I'd actually always recommend going with a two-hander for a pact of the blade warlock, as that way you can counterspell and cast fireballs when you're in the mood to do so.

[Tanarii]

Yes. Especially with a Mountain Dwarf. Just start with (assuming standard array) Str 16, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 12. Buy Scalemail as soon as you can afford it (probably by 2nd level). First ASI goes to Resilient (Con) Feat, after that you're pumping Str and Con, or taking appropriate combat-related feats. All your spell picks are ones that don't require attack rolls or saving throws. Make sure to take Armor of Agathys. (Note: technically you don't even need Cha 12 for this build.)

[wilhelmdubdub]

You can go fighter dip for heavy armor, defense for +1AC, and profeciency in Con saves for maintaining hex. Warcaster gives you advantage on the saves. Concentration is 10 or 1/2 the damage done whichever is greater. So in that regard Heavy armor master gives you +1 strength and 1 or 2 less to roll on you concentration check. Cantrips would be eldritch blast for your ranged and booming blade. Use booming blade for attacks of opportunity. If your pact weapon use a greatsword, swing twice, if it is a longsword use a shield and warcaster to cast booming blade. then on your opportunity attacks cast a spell, booming blade, to get weapon damage plus a ton of sonic damage.

Also you get athletics with fighter on first level so feel free to look for another cool background