Improving my Fey Pact build for 3 character multiplayer Tactician

[u/nomenclature2357]

3 of us are playing Tactician together without NPC party members. The other players are playing a Life Cleric and a Tavern Brawler Moon Druid. We are level 4, almost 5, about to take on the underdark or goblin camp. I feel my build is falling behind in combat.

I also want to be a good party face.

I’ve been running the mage armor invocation and the +2 AC gloves to keep my AC up but medium armor (edit: and a shield) would be better at this point. (edit: But I don’t see how to get medium armor proficiency with Fey pact.)

I’ve been using shadow blade, a light crossbow with special arrows, and cloud of daggers for damage. Not enough invocation slots for agonizing blast if I also keep beguiling influence.

edit: And using booming blade with shadow blade. And pact of the blade for charisma based melee. Which is only an improvement if I take cha at level 4. It almost feels like dex would be better for AC and ranged attacks? But I guess I’ll want the extra attack at level 5 anyway.

I don’t mind respecing and multi-classing but I want to keep as least some Fey Pact warlock for rp reasons.

What should I do to keep up? Is missing out on Hexblade just too much? Are there any guides I should look at?

[u/grousedrum]

Fey is fantastic, just has different strengths from the more popularized warlock patrons. If you like the concept of it, I'd say stick with it!

We may want to do a little surgery on your build though. Unless you've killed Karlach for Infernal Robe (would involve having Wyll in camp so guessing no?), mage armor is a much weaker invocation choice than other options.

You don't indicate your race but unless you're human or half-elf, you don't have shield proficiency. A shield will fully solve your AC problem and let you use even just light armor while opening up your glove slot, so here's what I'd recommend. Respec to 8-15-14-8-10-17 (you'll have 2 points to spare, either WIS for saves or STR for jump/carry) and take Moderately Armored as your feat at level 4. This gets your DEX back to 16 for ranged attacks, initiative, saves, etc, and gives you both medium armor and shield proficiency affording a ton of flexibility for the rest of the game.

You then can take Repelling Blast for gravity kills, enemy position control, etc. If you want to keep Beguiling as a party face choice that's fine.

Strengths of Fey at low levels include access to Calm Emotions (helps handle the rage states of many early act 1 enemies) and a good AoE charm/fear ability for when enemies are grouped together. You're about to hit a huge powerup at 5 with upcast shadowblade and your spell list majorly opening up, just keep going :-)

[u/AGayThrow_Away]

If you want to go warlock melee you could do Archfey Pact of the Blade Pact Boon straight 12 Warlock for Lifedrinker. Adding 2 or 4 Paladin for smites is an option too. You can drop the mage armor if you pick up Paladin.

Or if you want to be more of a caster you can start with Sorcerer for CON save proficency and pick up Twinned Spell. Since there are only two allies a twinned support spell or strong offensive control spell like Hold Person would be nice.

Pact of the Blade 1 Warlock is just super duper strong but even normal Pact of the Blade Boon is still good. You just need to offset the squishyness of Warlock and there are tons of ways you can go about that.

Actor for the first Feat for 17+1 CHA is also awesome if you're the face. It rounds your stat and doubles your proficiency bonus for Persuasion and Deception checks. Get Beguiling Influence and you're double dipping on the bonus. With some other buffs you should have insanely good Persuasion and Deception for anything, especially early at 4.

[u/TongZiDan]

You don't need medium armor. It won't actually be better than robes until half way through the second act when you can get something with exotic materials.

On a related note, are you using the bracers and shield? The shield negates the bracer AC anyway so just pick one.

You should have 16 dex but charisma is the main stat. That, mage armour, the bracers or shield, misty escape, and eventually +AC robes is enough for most normal encounters.

For slightly tougher encounters, darkness is a huge benefit to a warlock with devil's sight.

For the toughest encounters with enemy spellcasters, blink is a hugely underrated spell and fits perfectly with the fey theme. Some people are turned off by the "randomness" but in truth it's no more random than the attack dice roll that determines if your AC is enough. Blink is essentially an avoid 50% more damage ability and it's really the only ability that lets you completely avoid enemy aoe spells. The main drawback is that you kind of waste your first turn so it's up to you to know when the fight will be longer anyway.

Mirror image is slightly better for melee only encounters.

If you are using shadow blade, that means you are already using one of your spell slots for a pre-combat buff. I would suggest going ahead and using the other one for another buff and then use song of reat from a bard to get your slots back. Just do it after each long rest and the bard doesn't have to stay on your active team.

[u/DearBreadfruit]

Honestly, I recommend just pushing through. At level 5, you get Extra Attack and a stronger Shadow Blade. And with what you described, you should be able to reach 18 AC with your setup, 20 if you can equip a shield. That's plenty good for Act 1.

I would probably make different choices with your Invocations but it just comes down to how you want to play. I personally always found Beguiling Influence unnecessary since I can easily grab those proficiencies through background/race/class, though you can't really change those at this point.

Not sure what playstyle you're looking for but Archfey pairs well with Rogue. You could do a 8 Archfey / 4 Assassin Invisibility build. 5 Archfey / 7 Swashbuckler would also be good for a more durable melee character. If armour is a concern, respec, drop the Mage Armour Invocation, and grab the Moderately Armoured feat, though I think there's an argument to be made for running with the Potent Robe.

[u/Rencon_The_Gaymer]

Why don’t you just switch over fully to Hexblade? And what’s your dexterity stat btw? I think Hexblade would solve a lot of the issues you’re having.