5E Blade Lock

So how or why would you play Warlocks then over a wizard or a sorcerer?

From a purely mechanical perspective, what do they BRING.

And dont give me the "YOU PLAY IT FOR THE STORY" crap. 9/10 tables are not set up like that.

This is just an extension of the mindset. If you roll with other people that are just looking to have a good time then there won't be a "weak link" because it won't matter. If you wanna play a sword warlock or whatevery tucking play a sword warlock brotha. Fuckin' come play a sword warlock in my group. Who fucking cares.

Warlocks are the "fighter" of casters. A warlocks abilities all recharge on short-rest instead of long rest, this is the main reason to play them. Eldritch Blast also does better single-target damage (with effects like knockback and longer range) than most other casters have access to.

IMO it's not really worth enough to justify playing them over any other casters, but that's the niche they're meant to play. In older versions of DnD and it's spinoffs (Pathfinder, ect) warlocks were basically wizards who did away with spell slots but got a bunch of buffs to weaker cantrips they could use infinitely. 5E seems to have done some weird half-of-each-world hybrid.

Why can't they communicate through the weapon? You seem to have a very biased view and clearly just came here to find an echo chamber or a hugbox that supports your predisposition.

Burst damage from the new UA evocations Curse Bringer/Mace of Dispater, I guess.
Enjoy being a Short Rest Paladin with weaker healing and generally suckier utility. I guess.

So you think a talking sword (that other people can hear) makes more sense than a book that everyone could read?

Sure.

Warlocks are a balanced caster with a thematic spell list that fills a few specific niches.

Wizards and Sorcerers are reality-warpers who start to bend a game over their knee by mid-level unless a DM bans full-casters or imposes some heavy limitations on those classes.
Personally I find limiting wizards to a major and minor school and not letting them learn anything else, and limiting sorcerers to spells appropriate to their bloodlines works well, but I'm getting into retarded off-topic homebrew now.

If you play at a table with lots of short rests, then they get lots of strong spell spamming. While wizards have a higher cap, warlocks get a stronger baseline as long as they're getting enough short rests (e.g. being able to throw a bunch of 5th level fireballs over the course of the adventuring day).

Sometimes I wonder if 5e could be fixed by making warlocks the only caster class.
Then I remember that this is a pen and paper RPG and so it can never be fixed, only tweaked to that the people at the table don't want to kill one another.

Every caster in the game except for wizards and sorcerers (and mystics) are fine. Clerics have a thematic spell list that fills a couple of useful niches. Druids have a thematic spell list that fills a couple of useful niches. Warlocks have a thematic spell list that fills a couple of useful niches.

Wizards and Sorcerers have spell list that fills EVERY NICHE IN THE GAME except healing (which Theurge and Favored soul do so fuck you) and Wizards at least get enough spells that there's nothing forcing them to pick and choose or allocate their resources.

I'm telling you man, limit Wizards to a major school (the one that they choose as their Arcane Tradition) and a secondary school (school they can cast any spell from) and don't let them use anything except cantrips from any other schools. Retards will whine that you're nerfing them "unfairly", but they're still extremely powerful characters who now have a thematic spell list and can fill useful niches in the game without making everyone else feel useless. It's a simple fix, and it WORKS, if you can get past wiz-fanboys bitching about it constantly.

Makes perfect sense desu.

>What is telepathy?

Does the book have a fucking mouth and no other way to communicate? What magical items that can speak don't have selective speaking ability?

Okay, what about Bards? Full casters with good nonmagic utility and skills, healing and a gish option, and the ability to take spells from any other spell list, as well as Power Word and Kill?
Is their spell list really that limited enough to justify keeping them?

Been doing this since I saw it suggested in a 5eg thread about a year and a half ago. Told my players that casters who aren't getting their powers from a god or patron can only train their mana to adapt to two types of magic at a time. They're still the best at those schools, but at least the other casters have some versatility that makes them not just inferior wizards.

>*Power Word Heal
I may be tired and tipsy, so excuse me my devil's advocating.

Bards are fine, they're meant to be utility characters in every sense of the word. They can't put out massive multi-target damage like an Evocationist. They can't shapeshift and teleport around and astral project and see into the future and make zombies. Bard's spell list is usually about more subtle social magic or more support-oriented combat magic that multiplies the effectiveness of other party members rather than wins fights on it's own.

That being said, Lore Bards can still fuck over a game hard if players wana abuse it. They can even grab Warlock spells that were never meant to be scaled above 5th level, such as Armor of Agathys.

I wouldn't say ban the class outright, but keep an eye on min-maxers who seem interested in it.

Hell, as a sorceror, it's even justified in that you can say bloodlines only naturally channel two types of magic.
As a wizard, you could say that they learned by training in the same way as sorcerors and have the same sort of limitations as a result.
Alright, so Lore Bards are on a leash. Maybe restrict them to a specific subset of spells or something?

This, but I also remove a few more the more "gamey" spells from the game, or reign them in a little.

Create Food and Water I banned from the game entirely, for example, because it trivializes survival skills and bypasses entire roleplaying opportunities like hunting or packing rations. Rope Trick I banned for being a way to literally hide in plain site in a pocket dimension at level 1, ect.

Others I've just nerfed a bit. Leomund's Tiny Hut can be breoken if it takes enough damage instead of being an unbreakable bubble shield. Teleportation spells only work in open areas (AKA you can't just teleport past all the doors in a dungeon) or only work if a "return point" has been set up beforehand, ect.

You need to use some common sense with magic, otherwise it WILL destroy your game and turn it into a player vs DM contest of who can bullshit harder.

I'm getting more booze, and I was thinking, hey, why not have a Perils of the Warp for characters that bullshit too hard.
Except you lay out the 'rules of magic' (no creating new things, no bringing people back from the dead, no skellytons) beforehands and say if you do certain things Bad Stuff happens because magic freaks out in response.

I just prefer to have the limits be more hard "this is not possible" ones rather than "This is possible but..."

Depending on your game though, either one works well.

To add to that. As a GM you can make a super powerful "sage" character to guide your players, maybe a wizard wants to be taken and taught by them, and you can allow access to a number of limited spells from his "library" and even more fun you can have a special sealed off library with more stuff the players can opt to try and break into. Leads to some fun story options for you.

Well, I'm the sort of DM who loves risk-reward and biting off more you can chew being met with a huge complication than just "nah nigga".
My setting actually involves a goddess of magic who fucking hates wizards and sometimes sorcerers because they tend to assume that magic 'belongs to them' instead of her. She's totally pissed about it, and most wizards don't try pushing the bill on stuff like infinite food traps because when they do she fucks them over.
She's also the goddess of fate and by the way a gigantic bitch, mostly because people try to make magic a super sekret club and, like I said, she fucking hates that.
So someone being fucked over by a Wish spell? That's her getting her jollies.

>Is there absolutely any reason to ever go Pact of the Blade warlock?
Yes.

>Is there absolutely any reason to ever go Pact of the Blade warlock if you aren't a hexblade?
No.

It's not about accessing the spells though. If it were that simple, a wizard who Evocation and Transmutation could learn Abjuration simply by finding books from an academy that teaches Abjuration or whatever.

The "limit" on how many schools a caster learns should be more intrinsic than just the availability of knowledge. There should be some distinct "trying to bend your soul/spirit/magicka in this many directions will cause some bad shit" or something of that nature rather than just "Yeah, you've somehow never found any books about Abjuration until you met this sage... huh?"

I meant more that the sage was knowledgeble enough to impart what he had learned upon those worthy.

Like any form of study. A string theory physicist can try and explain what he knows to someone that was taught biology or was a truck driver, that does not mean they will understand what hes saying nor do the work he can.

However someone else that is also studying, maybe a different field of physics could be taught over the course of many weeks, the basics of what he wants to explain and have them try their hand at very basic methods of what hes teaching.

If he is even willing to teach someone.

Like sure your average wizard can teach you "oh heres how you do a firebolt" even though youre not a wizard of that school. But they wouldnt be able to teach you the basics of their higher level spells, because you simply have not mastered that arcant tradition.

A sage would not jsut be "oh i know every school" but maybe instead of 2 schools of magic, they know 3! and they have heard stories that there is one, deep in the bowels of an ancient mystic library that has mastered 4 schools of magic! etc.

And these sages, being true masters of their art could in theory teach others the basics of their schools of spellcasting (if they had any arcane traditions to begin with to base this teaching on that is. so no they couldnt teach a barbarian to summon firebolts)

Well what fun things can a hexblade warlock, with pact of the blade do then?

No.

The Smiting Invocations.
Those should really be expanded, to work with every weapon, and to be modular with the bonus they provide and extra effect on hit.
Now that would be FUN.

>1.) You cant use spellcasting modifier on your attack rolls without Hexblade and only on 1handed weapons.

WRONG. You can't use weapons with the twohanded property.

>2.) You cant summon ranged weapons.
Yes you can. A nice bow that deals radiant damage and needs no ammo.

>3.) To summon a weapon requires an action.

This is true.

>4.) Pact of the Tome allows you to get Shillelagh and Find Familiar(Ritual invocation) so you literally get both Pact of Blade and Pact of Chains features anyway.
>BONUS: Shillelagh is a bonus action and already applies casting modifiers!

A major design flaw with allowing classes to take spells from other classes.

It would be BORING AS FUCK.
Illusions and enchantments don't get much use already, those will disappear, and only that guy that specializes will use them.
Divination and Necromancy are cool, but easily cut away, Evocation can be subbed in with other schools.
Everybody will pick Abjuration and either Conjuration or Transmutation
>BORING
>AS
>FUCK
This is not the nerf you're looking for.
Let skills do superhuman shit instead.

At 1st level, you gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. In addition, when attacking with a melee weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the twohanded property, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls.

Source: media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/20170213_Wizrd_Wrlck_UAv2_i48nf.pdf

This also means if you are using Curse Bringer or Moon Bow which both have Two-Handed properties you cannot use charisma as attack or damage modifiers.

Sure if your GM allows you thats fine but im just going by RAW here.

Was wondering when the wizard fanboys would show up.

>"I CAN'T DO EVERYTHING IN THE GAME ANYMORE! YOU SUCK!"

Illusion is one of the strongest schools in the game, I don't know what you're talking about with it "not getting much use". Even it's low level spells are amazing for confusing enemies into wasting their turns or exposing themselves to compromising situations. There are so many situations you can bypass entirely just by having an illusion of yourself draw attention away from you and your party.

Enchantment is literally mind-control, and if that doesn't sound like a cool niche to you, I'm sorry your imagination sucks so much.

Divination is widely considered the most powerful Arcane Tradition in the PHB and gives you multiple ways to "read the script" and be prepared for anything. Also an amazing niche for a character to specialize in.

Necromancy is necromancy, and something that really shouldn't be in the players' hands most of the time anyway unless you're playing an evil campaign. Still has it's uses though.

So yeah, sorry those all sound "BORING AS FUCK" to you because you can't do them all on one character. Now tell me about how Martials are perfectly fine and there's no problem with full-casters.

You're missing the point completely.
The schools aren't balanced one against the other. Forcing players to choose 2 and 2 only will only show how not balanced they are - some you can live without, some have cool but hard to adjudicate effects so you shouldn't pick them unless you already know your DM will play ball, others are the mainstay of adventuring wizards.
Your rule takes away interesting choices (casting illusions or enchantments, arguably the coolest but not as direct and easy to use in combat), and makes all wizards more similar to each other.
Your rule looks like it promotes variety, but it's a step towards omogeneization. And that's what's BORING AS FUCK.

If you really wanted to, you could rebalance the schools, at all levels, covering the needed basics, while keeping their unique aspects. The result, with your rule, would ideally allow for many different varieties of wizard.
As is, it's just an hamfisted attempt that doesn't fix a thing.

Heres what they should do

Hexblade: Whenever you make a weapon attack with your bonded weapon, you can choose to apply your spellcasting modifier with your proficiency to the attack instead of str or dex modifiers.

Curse Bringer can take the shape of a Shortsword, a Longsword or a Greatsword.

Pact of Blade always weapon uses charisma modifier for attacks, you can summon this weapon instantaneously, does not need an action.

Basically this allows you to do several thing.

So you basically get two-weapon fighting with your spellcasting modifier when you attack with your cursed weapon. You could use your main-action to attack with your Blade Pact weapon which applies proficiency and charisma, then attack with your bonus-action using your hexblade weapon and use the charisma + proficency option.

Secondly this allows you to have much more "utility" in terms of what weapons you use. On your turn you can drop your cursed weapon, and summon a reach weapon and attack with that. Sure you miss out on "extra attack" being a warlock, but you have spells, you have warlock smite, you have invocations.

And since youll be using curse-bringer youll get more use out of your hex.

It allows you to focus on 2 main stats: Charisma and Constitution. You may dip into Dex for bonus AC but its not mandatory.

It just feels like, if they had given more than 5 minutes of thought to the Hexblade Patron, the Blade Pact warlock... they could have made a fun and cool class.

>(casting illusions or enchantments, arguably the coolest but not as direct and easy to use in combat)

Hypnotic motherfucking pattern.

Great spell, fun and tactical, but immunity to charm is pretty common.
That's not much of a problem when you have a spread of spells and have something else to cast to cover your ass if needed, but when you're choosing them from only 2 schools Illusion is a weak choice, it's unreliable.
Some people will specialize in it and make it work anyway, as much as the system allows, but most players will just forget about the whole school.

Bullshit.

>The schools aren't balanced against eachother

Yeah... neither or most of the classes in the game. Still sounds like you're whining because you can't play a character who's best at everything. Full casters are broken, nobody wants to go through the autism of every single DM in the world having a completely re-written balance-book for magic. user's solution is simple and it works unless you're so obsessed about min-maxing that you're unable to wrap your head around any kind of playstyle that isn't directly killing things.

>It just feels like, if they had given more than 5 minutes of thought to the Hexblade Patron, the Blade Pact warlock... they could have made a fun and cool class.

They literally just went "Give them Smites and better armor! That will fix the problem lol!"

UA content is garbage. I went from excitedly awaiting every new UA to just telling my players none of them are allowed, because nowadays they're so poorly thought-out and balanced that it's easier to just ban them all than to have list every one that's broken and what's wrong with it.

>nowadays
The brokenness begins in core and just gets bigger the further out you go.

Wow man, it's almost like characters are supposed to have strengths and weaknesses instead of always being good in every situation.

I'm sorry you have a DM who mercilessly tries to pick on any weaknesses your character has instead of letting you have fun.

>Immunity to charm is pretty common

Huh, so is immunity or resistance to most of the elements of evocation, magical damage in general, enchantment effects, status effects, and things from almost every school. I wonder if this was because they thought players would pick a theme for their casters instead of picking up everything to cover every base ever?

It's really shitty design to have a class jump off a cliff the second their specialty isn't applicable and you know it.

>Still sounds like you're whining because you can't play a character who's best at everything.
Actually, I'm saying that limiting players to fewer schools won't do much to make them weaker, but will just remove the variety that having access to situational spells (with general use spells to fall back on) gave before.

>Great spell, fun and tactical, but immunity to charm is pretty common.

No, it's a fucking terrible spell, basically a 3rd level "I win" whenever it works. And because of how save scaling works in 5e, it becomes even better at higher levels, because the weak saves stay +0, while your DC advances.

Some creatures are immune? Sure, whatever. You are only winning the fights when they are not, I guess. Such a terrible school, only having a spell that auto-wins some fights.

In a vacuum, yes. However DnD is a team-based game. In a team-based game it's very very GOOD game design to give characters strengths and weaknesses that they can use to cover other characters with.

It's very BAD design, in a team-based game, to make characters who can do everything by themselves and don't need help from the other characters. As 5th Edition is written right now, that's what Wizards and Sorcerers become after mid-level. The only niche they can't fill is healing, and Theurge and Favored Soul get THAT too. Why play anything else ever?

Think it's one of those NPC-only subclasses that you're only supposed to see on encounters. It's like choosing to be a warrior when the fighter exists.

1D6 HD + No armor proficiency + being the PC any intelligent enemy is targeting means they need protection.

Right now I'm running an assassin/bladelock Yuanti.
Great old one as my patron (dendar the night serpent)
It's working very well so far.
Get in to a large group Arms of hadar to weaken them down.
Dash out
Hex then rush in and mop up.
Being able to communicate telepathically makes scouting muuuuuch easier.

It's the multi-classing option if you want to splash a little bit of a casting class and not loose too much melee capability.

It's not even about optimization. It's about not being a burden to everyone else playing. Deliberately picking weak options might seem like a good roleplaying opportunity, but you're compromising everyone else's fun. How can you expect them to create any sort of story when they have to babysit your dumb special snowflake character all the time?

You can summon your wizard staff to you. Never be without your most essential magical item ever again!

The thing to remember is that it is *NOT* the option for casters who want to splash a little bit of Melee. It is the option multiclass melee fighters take to splash a little bit of magic. The pact blade is an improved version of the Arcane Fighter's class feature that let's them summon a weapon. Pact Blades actually become magical weapons. So if you're in a magic-poor setting, it's easy access to an enchanted weapon you can't be disarmed of. The warlock list offers some minor battlefield control spells that synergize well with a melee combatant.

In short: It's JUST there for multiclassing.

This is more a personal question and I expect it to be met with "it's your own game do what you want" but is it unbalancing to allow hexblades to use two handed weapons and just houserule it? Does it apply to versitile weapons already used in two hands?

I’ve played a warlock in a long-running 5e campaign that unfortunately ceased due to other player’s commitments. Upon reaching 3rd level I realised I didn’t like playing a guy who just sat in the back of combat blasting things all day long, so I talked to my DM, adjusted some ability scores to better suit it, and took pact of the blade. This was before the hexblade patron was even a thing.

It was a absolute blast. By 5th level I was barely behind the polearm fighter in damage output and with my fiend patron was in certain situations even better at tanking. Sure, as a optimized blastlock I could see myself dealing more damage, but being up close and personal makes many of the warlock’s most powerful spells even more useful. And, with 2 of them to throw out per short rest, I was the envy of the fighter, who was stuck complaining to be completely useless out of combat.

Fighter’s damaged? I threw up armor of agathys and tanked for a while. Archers ruining our day? Hunger of Hadar, we decimated their numbers. I even had enough invocations left to pull the devils sight + darkness trick every now and again, to the dismay of the party.

Pact of the Blade warlock loses some utility to the other pacts, but makes up for it in a genuinely interesting and variable melee playstyle. Something that pact of the tome can’t replicate, that extra attack goes a long way, especially considering the use of hex.

>reason to ever go Pact of the Blade warlock
HE IS COOL.

Depends on the answer to the question.
Do you play a character or an optimized set of numbers?
And the question is for the whole group.

>Monster can fly
>Fighter stuck throwing axes
>Monster has blindsight
>Rogue has trouble landing sneak attacks from a range
>Monster is immune to charm
>Wizard throws a hissy fit to the DM about how he has to have his character jump off a cliff instead of pulling out a crossbow

>Sometimes I wonder if 5e could be fixed by making warlocks the only caster class.
Something similar to this has been tried.

It's called 4e.
I really like this idea but rather than limit them outright maybe give them advantage on major school, normal casting on minor, and disadvantage at everything else

Meanwhile yes sorcs should be bloodline appropriate within reason. I would have no problem given a celestial blood fireball for instance. But heaven forbid we make 'work it out with your player/dm' an actual requirement

>Implying they're mutually exclusive.

Sometimes yes.
In such a group, bladlock is not needed.

5e paladin is an abomination that should never have been.

I avoided UA at first in general because the words "5e" and "playtest" together already send my group into a raging frenzy after the shitshow the original playtest was.

After actually reading it, I avoid most of it on principle.

I played Warlock because i wanted to be a cultist that's willing to do anything for knowledge.

Then I found out DUDE ELDRITCH BLAST EVERY TURN LMAO and multiclassed into Lore Bard immediately.

Why are Warlocks so boring?

What about that is hexblade?

>Pack of the Blade on Warlock isn't meant to be a character who relies primarily on melee. Having a pact-weapon is a contigency for when the enemy is magic-resistant or slinging counter-spells at you or something of the sort. It is not meant to be your primary means of engagement. Just like Tomelocks aren't emant to rely primarily on rituals and Chainlocks aren't meant to rely primarily on their familiar. These things are all BONUSES, not the focus of the character.

There are several things to dispute this. If this was the case, things like the hellish rebuke, armor of agathys, arms of hadar, and invocations like fiendish vigor and armor of shadows, which are all clearly very focused on serving a melee-oriented character, would be very out of place.

>Pack of the Blade on Warlock isn't meant to be a character who relies primarily on melee. Having a pact-weapon is a contigency for when the enemy is magic-resistant or slinging counter-spells at you or something of the sort. It is not meant to be your primary means of engagement. Just like Tomelocks aren't emant to rely primarily on rituals and Chainlocks aren't meant to rely primarily on their familiar. These things are all BONUSES, not the focus of the character.

There are several things to dispute this. If this was the case, things like the hellish rebuke, armor of agathys, and arms of hadar spells, as well as invocations like fiendish vigor and armor of shadows, which are all clearly very focused on serving a melee-oriented character, would be extremely out of place.

Hellish Rebuke is usable at a decent range and fiendish vigor/armor of shadows are pure defense, which is good on anyone.

Arms of Hadar prevents reactions, which allows you to walk out of melee safely, and resume your regular ranged blasting.

Armor of Agathys is admittedly best used in melee, and is pretty nice when you're a gish.

That's they kind of thing I like to do on my own regardless of houserules. If I didn't want a strong thematic link to my magic, I wouldn't play sorcerer in their first place.

Why? Because they break the save system/the save system is broken without them?

If we were to compare... You can do an additional 10d8 force damage and knock prone with the Mace of Dispater or deal 3d10 damage with eldritch blast. So basically the mechanical advantage is in single target damage for your giants or dragons or other high health opponent. Also knock prone is nice as an extra. Alternatively use Claw of Acamar so that you deal an additional 10d8 necrotic damage and your target cannot move and you have reach so you can just hit them over and over with no risk of retaliation if they are a melee combatant.

The major downside of course is that you'll use up your maximum of three spell slots and then that's done. But desu so what? Just fall back on eldritch blast at that point. It's been three rounds so the fight should be over soon. You wouldn't do this single target smacking all the time; when there's a big mob of enemies just throw a fireball but when a dragon runs at you pull out the mace.

I'd totally be a cleric for that goddess, she sounds rad.

>warlock
>D&D
No thanks, I didn't come here to play vampire the trashquerade

Sure, if you're willing to deal with her at times extreme pettiness. She turned CE a while back because she essentially threw a hissy fit about how the setting was being run and decided she was going to get her way by force. She failed and has been butthurt about it ever since.
She's more along the lines of 'Me and mine are gonna get what's ours' than 'Everything must be destroyed', but the level of selfishness makes her more evil than not.

user, my favourite character ever had friggin' Umberlee "the Bitch Queen" as a patron deity. You're only making me more erect.

Good thing that problematic term got removed

No one is going to take bait that weak, /pol/.

Looking at potentially doing a monk/warlock multiclass for hex and mostly because I think the idea would be fun overall.
Any tips for how to go about this? Just playing off of standard handbook and have little to no experience with DnD at all.

one of the players peeked behind my screen while I was ordering the pizza and saw my colour coded random NPC name cheat cards. We continued after the order was placed, and the second I referenced the card I was accused of being sexist because the female dwarf card had a pink accent and my female elf card has a cyan accent, while my male dwarf card had a crimson accent and my male elf had a green accent. It spiraled in to some ten minute rant about gender roles/stereotypes and the patriarchy.

Needless to say this player's trial run is not going well for her. She's a good friend's +1 that I'm assuming he wants to pork, so I haven't kicked her from the table yet. This is undeniably a red flag and I'm correct in not wanting to extend another invitation yeah?

>peeked behind your screen

that was probably the point at which you had the right to remove them

Yep, like, if you peek behind the screen it's already a problem.

Multiclass. Battlemaster + Pact of Blade Fiend

I made a gladiator pit fighter style character that made a blood pact and would sacrifice his opponents to a Heathen Blood God.

If she'll cheat at a game, she'll cheat on a lover. S'all I'm saying.

>peeking at your notes
>bringing up anything gender-discussion
Kick her from the game and don't ever even consider letting her back in. That bullshit has absolutely no place anywhere near a D&D session and if someone says you're racist because you use the lighter color for females and darker one for males they can get right the fuck out of there. Also, save your friend, convince him that getting near anyone with that kind of behaviour and worldview is a terrible idea. Not to mention that bringing some stranger to your D&D session only because you want to get into their pants is a shitty move anyway.

>racist
I mean sexist. People like that trigger me way to fucking much at this point.

There, there. Poor Millennial.

kys eyol

Usually go Pact of the Blade if you're multiclassing or doing a Warlock dip.

For full Warlock, the Pact of the Chain's super familiar is really great for utility, and the Tome is just awesomely flexible.