An Eclectic Collection of Fun and Effective Builds

[Story_Optimized]

Looks like it’s been a while since anyone has added a build here, so I’ll give it a go.

This build focuses on a specific weapon I find extremely fun and eclectic, though difficult to optimize, and I’ve named the character based on the weapon.

The Shadow Whip

vHuman Hexblade 1, Shadow Sorcerer X
Abilities: 8, 14, 16, 8, 10, 16
ASIs: Spell Sniper (Booming Blade), Cha+4, War Caster, Con+4
Grab the Orzhov background from GGtR if you can. Adding Spirit Guardians to this makes things even more fun. I’m going to pretend you don’t have it though.

Option 4: The Shadow Whip.

The goal here is to control the battlefield by twinning Booming Blade at reach. Shadow sorcerer allows us to effectively debuff our enemies while we do so. It also gets us around the most obvious downside of the vHuman: Lack of darkvision. You get it to 120 feet, as good as a Drow, and without the sunlight sensitivity.

Here is the beginning of the build progression with suggested combat tactics. Admittedly, you stop gaining features later on that really add to your DPR, but your ability to give permanent disadvantage on saves (like quickened hold monster) makes your DPR stupidly high without you needing to deal the damage yourself.

1. Shadow sorcerer 1: take GFB to go along with BB from Spell Sniper and whatever 3 non-combat cantrips you like. I like Friends to pair with disguise self (more on that later). Take Shield and Absorb Elements as your spells. You’ll need them.

2. Hexblade 1: Now you can use your whip! I also take EB here for a ranged option, and I think AoA and Hex (for social encounters) are my two favorite warlock spells. Hellish Rebuke is also a great option.

3. Sorcerer 2: Take Disguise Self. Nothing really exciting happens this level, but Disguise Self and Friends combine for one hell of a social play, and unless you have a bard or rogue in the party, you’ll double as the FoP.

4. Sorcerer 3: Twinned Spell is mandatory. It doubles your damage output pretty frequently, and at this level, will have you dealing almost as much damage on opponents turns as your own, because low level mooks tend not to have great range or reach, so they’ll be forced to move off of booming blade.

Your other metamagic is up to you. Quicken is the best, but spending 2 sorcery points is pretty brutal at this level. I would pick up subtle, as it will let you use your shield and still cast Shield, and also lets you subtlecast Friends in social situations.

You also get Darkness that you can see through at this level, which means your DM is about to start digging through the Monster manual for mooks with tremorsense or you’ll be making your 2 attacks with advantage. This saves you from needing to pick up greater invisibility in the long run. I take misty step as my other spell.

5. Sorcerer 4: ASI should be Charisma+2, and feel free to take whatever sorcerer spell you like. At this point I’m probably concentrating on Darkness, but Enlarge/reduce or Blur aren’t terrible options. I would take Mirror Image.

6. Sorcerer 5: Twinned Haste is a hallmark of any sorcerer build. It works for you too, though maybe better if you twin it on two allies than yourself. You don’t have to pick Haste though, something like Fear can be great for you, with all the OAs it might cause from your reach. Counterspell and Hypnotic Pattern are also great choices. You can make this build what you want at this point.

7. Sorcerer 6: This is the reason you’re a shadow sorcerer. You just got a better version of heightened spell for the same cost. This ability meshes particularly well with effects that immobilize a target, like confusion and hold monster/person. If you think you’ll be fighting any humanoids soon, take hold person here. Otherwise, Slow is a debilitating debuff that’s also a save-or-suck. Your four-legged friend will make sure at least one of them won’t make that save.

From this point on, you can get more creative with your choices. I generally think that Cha 20 is better than War Caster at 8, but you’ll have to decide if you’re getting enough OAs to change up the order. Additionally, I take wrote in Con as my last 2 ASIs because you’re a d6 hit die frontliner, but you can choose if you’d rather go another (perhaps more offensive) route.

Metamagic: I would take quicken at 10 and heightened at 17. You can then summon a hound, and upcast hold monster to give 2 enemies disadvantage on their saving throw for 6 sorcery points and a 6th level spell. That’s an encounter ender there.

Spells I like from here are generally save spells. Things like hold monster and disintegrate are spells that your wizard stays away from, but you turn them into your DM’s bane.

If this gets any traction maybe I’ll post a whole spell progression, but this post is long enough as is.

I love this build - I used to play a whip-inquisitor in Pathfinder, and had given up on the build for 5e. Well done!

If I may make a suggestion, I think you can get more mileage out of this build in reverse - Sorc 2 / Hexblade X. The big advantage is that you eventually can apply Eldritch Smite to your booming blades to add an additional 6d8 force damage to your attacks (and knock your Huge or smaller opponents prone). It also enables the decaf coffeelock that another poster mentioned - even with Aspect of the Moon nerfed, a few short rests at the beginning of the day give you an expanded pool of sorcery points to booming blade with; after a short rest, you still have warlock slots you can use for Eldritch smite. Possible build would be Drow, or variant human and spend 8-12 hrs on a long rest, instead of 4-8. It also opens up all of your other pact weapon goodness - magic weapon via an invocation, darkness/devi'ls sight shenanigans, etc.