Originally Posted by JoB
Originally Posted by Blotter
For my money, though, I'd expect the official approach to be that Wyll keeps the Fiend patron and gets Pact of the Blade when it's introduced (assuming that Hexblade makes it into the game, though, I'd expect a "Wyll is a Hexblade now"-type mod to crop up pretty quickly).
I was reading about the Pact of the Blade. My problem with it is that I don't see how it's useful.

It gives him a weapon that he can use...

He already has a weapon he can use. What's special about the new weapon? Sure, I guess it can be any type, and it can "count" as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance.

But it doesn't make him better with a blade. He's still a crappy swordsman, only now with a weapon that counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance.

Personally, I'd like to see something like giving him a complete stat readjustment and then allowing him to use eldritch blast through his weapon. As well as allowing all of his weapon attacks (melee blade attacks, that is) to be based off his CHA rather than STR or DEX.

You're not wrong. Pact of the Blade in tabletop provides flexibility by allowing the warlock to gain proficiency with any melee weapon that they want (along with the ability to designate existing magic weapons as pact weapons) along with the ability to basically pull it out of thin air, which is of admittedly circumstantial use at best. It doesn't do much else to make warlocks better at melee out of the gate, however, and even the floating, variable proficiency that it offers is partially invalidated by the fact that Wyll already has a passive that grants him proficiency with rapiers. I don't know exactly how Larian plans to implement Pact of the Blade, but as it does seem to be commonly complained about, perhaps they'll make some adjustments to it, much like they did with Rangers. Either way, stat adjustments could easily be in the cards for him, since we have seen some for Shadowheart already.

Another thing worth mentioning is that Pact of the Blade provides access to specific invocations that improve a warlock's ability to perform in melee combat; there are also complaints about how well they stack up against less investment-heavy options, but they're there. Maybe a simple buff to the pact would be to also grant the warlock a fighting style or a bonus invocation that has Pact of the Blade as a prerequisite (with Armor of Shadows and Fiendish Vigor as other potential options on the side).

Last edited by Blotter; 07/03/21 10:16 PM.