Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Suggestions for a melee Warlock ?

Im new to D&D due to BG3 and i know when it comeds to Warlocks everyone is in for Eldritch Blast, however i was thinking if a melee warlock (Wyll with his rapier and maybe poison infusion) is any viable and if the Warlock gets access on abilities that enhance his melee capability in later levels (after EA)

I have a melee warlock and she works reasonably well.

Give the character plenty of DEX and equip with Finesse weapons (the rapier is, of course, the best one). You may want to look at the free Mage Armour power when you level up.

To be honest, you'll rarely be using the weapon in the early levels, though, because Eldritch Blast is so superior. What is implemented after EA is still up in the air, but the PnP Warlock can have the Hexblade variant which is pretty good in melee.

Hex Warrior
At 1st level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle. You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons.

The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon's type.

You can make warlocks decent in melee, but not Wyll. Wyll just doesn't have the stats for it - with 9 STR and 13 DEX he's just going to be bad at using weapons no matter how you cut it.

If you want a custom melee warlock, what I would do personally is play as a half-elf (any type would be okay I guess but half-wood elf is probably the best because of the increased movement speed) and get 16 DEX, CON, CHA - the leftover 2 points don't matter a huge amount, probably put it in WIS for the saving throw. Since resting is freely available in this game, you can use armor of agathys + hellish rebuke (or any 'lasts until long rest' spell), then short rest to recover your spell slots and you'll still have the buffs up after a short rest and still have all your spell slots available in a fight. You can dual wield daggers, and either cast a spell + attack with offhand or just attack twice (and be sure to try to get backstabs of course for the free advantage). Hellish rebuke is a decent way to use your spell slots with this kind of build, but you should be warned that it's very buggy and often doesn't work properly, especially against enemies that can push you or knock you prone or enemies that have multiple attacks per round.. but when it does work it's pretty decent.

As far as higher levels go, I wouldn't count on it. Warlocks don't get any extra attacks per round from leveling up, so the gap between them and an actual martial class at using weapons will only get bigger at higher levels.

you could toss wyll the medium armor prof feat and bump up his dex 1 to 14 so you get +2 from dex, +2 from a shield, and can wear medium armor so he is a little more tanky that can make for some fun gameplay, but as others said the 9 str kinda holds him back from wading into melee. (i also wish we could select feats at first level as a toggable campaign option too so to open up some character builds, but thats an aside)

i just want to make another plug here about not being in favor of having players totally revamp origin character stats, classes, weapon proficiencies, domains, etc. as others in the forums have requested, at either origin character creation or once recruited in the world, as i would argue it works against the resources/effort larian has put into creating these origin characters and their personal plotlines. i wouldnt be opposed to allowing the players to make those changes, being pro more player options (altho idk if id take advantage of that feature) or larian adjusting stats themselves down the line, i just think at this stage in ea there are other game mechanics that need attention instead of allocating more time to the integration of these origin characters.

i do think that you should be able to multiclass any recruited companions post lvl 1 as the player desires tho, given the companion has the required attribute scores needed in 5e to multi

Why would 9 str hold him back if he is using finesse weapons and does not have proficiency in martial anyway?
Biggest thing holding him back from a melee build I feel is the lack AC (mirror image/mage armor helps this) and the fact that eldritch blast is so good.
In melee you have a hard time maintaining concentration for Hex as well, losing out on bonus damage, so your have to resort to Helish Rebuke or Armor of Agathys, witch provide less consistent damage over the course of a fight and require you to be hit, which you don't want to be hit in the first place due to lower health pool (made up for a bit with temporary life buffers).

Seems like the "idea" is to create a highly agile, hard to hit melee character with Darkness and Devil's Sight (bugged) and Mirror Images.

If melee your options are:
Rapier (1d8+dex bonus) so about 4-11 dmg.
or
Dual Wield Daggers (1d4+dex bonus *2) so about 8-14 dmg (I believe offhand weapons are not supposed to apply dex bonus unless 2hand fighting is selected as a skill, but they currently do)

Remember Eldritch Blast counts as a ranged attack, so being in melee puts you at a disadvantage and reduces chance to hit.

I'm not saying the strength by itself holds him back, I'm saying that both his dexterity and strength are garbage for using weapons so he can't use either of them. Low strength is fine if the dexterity is high.. his dexterity is not high though. He only gets a +1 modifier which is horrible

Pure melee warlocks with Hexblade are viable, but if you really want to play a melee warlock the better route is a paladin with a few levels dipped into warlock. That’s the business.

Honestly, the best suggestion is to not play one. You waste invocations and feats just trying to break even with your bog standard agonizing eldritch blast. Pact of the Blade/Hexblade are basically trap options. If they got the extra attack invocation for free it might balance better, but you just keep having to throw more and more build options to try and keep up, while the EB warlock is getting to expand their versatility and increase their power. Granted, 5E is kind of easy mode, so pretty much anyone can function, but its decidedly less effective.

hopefully they add hexblade warlock as an option, then it'll work

double post

I found that playing a STR/CON/CHA Shield Dwarf (gets medium armor and axe + hammer profiency) makes melee a pretty viable secondary option but it's hard to compete with the raw damage output of just Eldritch Blasting everything