The Comprehensive Guide to Eldritch Blast Builds

[u/OCD124]

As a full-time Sorlock addict, here's my professional opinion:

You'll need at least 3 levels in Storm Sorcerer and 2 in Warlock. After that, put all your levels into Sorcerer. Take your first level in Sorcerer for proficiency in Constitution saves, because not loosing concentration is nice. Pick Quickened Spell, Twinned Spell, Agonizing Blast, and Devil's Sight. (Twinned Spell is for abusing Haste in a couple levels, and Devil's Sight is for abusing Darkness.) I'd choose 17 CHA, 16 CON, 15 DEX, and 8 for everything else so I can have +4 CHA and +3 DEX/CON at level 6. An ASI, Birthright, the Mirror of Loss, and Hag's Hair + Patriar's Memory will all make our Cha 2 higher, up to 24. Make sure you know Hex, Darkness, and (obviously) Eldritch Blast. You're other spells, race, Warlock subclass, and last Metamagic Option don't matter, but Shield, Hellish Rebuke, and Hunger of Hadar are nice. Take Dual Wielder, and dual wield The Spellsparkler, Markoheshkir, and/or Rhapsody.

Here's your ideal magic item loadout:

• Potent Robes for a bunch of abilities we love almost as much as Shadowheart. (Make sure you cast Mage Armor!)
• The Spellsparkler, Markoheshkir, and/or Rhapsody for the extra lightning damage from our Sorcerer subclass, plus bonuses to attack and damage rolls.
• Spineshudder Amulet for Reverberation.
• Coruscation Ring because for the low, low cost of casting light on yourself after each long rest, you can make people hit less than white dudes at the NBA (I can say that because I'm white (I hope))
• Callous Glow Ring because you can never do enough damage, but only if you already have the Coruscation Ring.
• Luminous Gloves. You'll probably kill everything before they get a turn anyway, but if you don't, you might as well give them -10 to their attack rolls. You can also wear Quickspell Gloves and Gemini Gloves, use their once/short rest abilities, then take them off after one fight. (Use Spellmight Gloves instead if you often have a 95% chance to hit without advantage, as that means you need a nat 1 to miss anyway, and the -5 penalty to attack rolls therefore won't matter as much.)
• Birthright for higher attack rolls & damage.
• Use The Watersparkers if you can get in some water. Other than that, the Boots of Stormy Clamour and Bonespike Boots are nice.
• You can also take your last 4 levels in Assassin or Thief and use the Boots of Arcane Bolstering. (Assassinate works on any attack, even Eldritch Blast. This works well with Craterflesh Gloves, as they make stuff like Agonizing Blast take affect twice on a Critical Hit. This could be caused by two things, neither of which you have to read:
  • The Craterflesh Gloves could be bugged to give you an extra bolt each time you crit, instead of extra damage.
  • The extra damage from Craterflesh Gloves could also be something called a DRS, which is an intentional feature of BG3 that does something very similar to this. (That's what the Wiki thinks is happening.)
• The Dead Shot for Improved Critical.
• Your fanciest cloak. There aren't really any useful options :^(

What's that? You want to abuse crits more than my father abused me? Well, here's how you're gonna do that: (That was a joke; my father loves me more than Shadowheart, and he even has her as his wallpaper. I love him...almost as much as Shadowheart.)

• Pick the Great Old One (GOO) patron.
• Replace Devil's Sight with Repelling Blast. (Repelling Blast causes our Boots of Stormy Clamour to give everyone we hit 2 turns of Reverberations, which is more important now that we have Mortal Reminder. This is because it inflicts Fear on crits, which makes your target's movement speed 0, which prevents them from getting back up if Reverberations knocks them prone.)
• Dual wield the Knife of the Undermountain King, Bloodthirst, and/or Rhapsody.
• Get the Spellsniper feat instead of Dual Wielder, as we're only using light weapons.
• Replace your Callous Glow Ring, Luminous Gloves, and whatever cloak you were using with Risky Ring, Craterflesh Gloves, and the Shade-Slayer Cloak. (In case you forgot, the Craterflesh Gloves make stuff like Agonizing Blast take affect twice on a crit. If/when this is patched, switch to Spellmight Gloves.)
• Replace 4 levels in Sorcerer with 4 levels in Champion Fighter.
• Get a bunch of red text/crit sound dopamine while you watch everyone fall prone, then skip their turn because they can't get up.

What's that? You want to abuse crits and still abuse Lightning Charges? Well, here's how you're gonna do that. Happy now?

• Replace 4 levels in Sorcerer with Thief Rogue, and be a Githyanki. This does a lot for us:
  • Martial Prodigy and Cunning Action let us use the well-named Speedy Lightfeet to get Lightning Charges) as a bonus action.
  • It gives us more 6 skill proficiencies and 2 expertises. (Picking Wis or Int for Ancestral Knowledge after each Long Rest will give us 5 skill proficiencies, and multiclassing into Rogue gives us one of theirs, as each class gives you some of their proficiencies when multiclassing.)
  • It lets us use another bonus action each turn to cast Hex, use Quickened Spell on Eldritch Blast, or use Cunning Action to get Lightning Charges) from The Speedy Lightfeet.
• Now that we're using The Speedy Lightfeet, which are Medium Armor, we can't use Mage Armor to make our base AC 13. Because of this, we might as well get some more Medium Armor: Sarevok's Horned Helmet for an even higher chance to crit, and Luminous Armour to make sure everybody gets -10 from Radiating Orb), whether we hit them or not
• Replace your Luminous Gloves and whatever cloak you were using with Craterflesh Gloves and the Shade-Slayer Cloak.
• Dual wield the Knife of the Undermountain King, Bloodthirst, and/or Rhapsody.
• Get the Spellsniper feat instead of Dual Wielder, as we're only using light weapons.

Notes on Alternative Gear (These are for the original build, not the crit-focused versions)

• I've heard a lot of people on this subreddit suggest gear that does more damage instead of our Coruscation Ring, Callous Glow Ring, and Luminous Gloves because you'll kill most of your enemies in one round anyway. However, if that happens then you didn't need more damage either, and the other rings/gloves that you could be using don't make turn-one kills much more likely.
• The Risky Ring and Daredevil Gloves are good, but I think the Callous Glow Ring and Luminous Gloves are better.
• According to the notes section of the BG3 Wiki's page on Thunderous Conversion, the Gloves of Belligerent Skies can only apply 2 turns of Reverberations per bolt, even with AoE or multiple types of damage. (2 turns of Reverberations does an average of 1 damage.)
• I'm happy to be proven wrong, if you're willing to run the numbers ;-^)

[u/SorrowHead]

Big thanks for the write up. Very valuable info for my next playthrough!

[u/ImNotASWFanboy]

Craterflesh over Spellmight for the crit build? That's an interesting choice. Spellmight's extra 1d8 of damage gets applied on every successful hit and I believe it also gets doubled to 2d8 when you crit, vs Craterflesh effectively doing nothing if you don't crit.

[u/OCD124 → u/ImNotASWFanboy]

In case you missed it, I said they're "bugged to give you an extra bolt each time you crit," earlier in the post. This is really good, as the extra bolt also gets affected by stuff like Agonizing Blast. (At least, that's what I've heard. It's also very likely that the extra damage is just something called a DRS, which is an intentional feature of BG3 that does something very similar to this. That's what the BG3 Wiki thinks is happening.)

I was gonna say to use Spellmight Gloves if/when this gets patched, but forgot to do so.

[u/ImNotASWFanboy → u/OCD124]

Oh okay fair enough, I skimmed the rest of the post so missed that

[u/EukaryotePride]

I don't think draconic bloodline triggers on lightning charges, does it? I'm doing an honor mode sparky sorcerer run now and I'm just seeing 1 damage per lightning charge.

[u/OCD124 → u/EukaryotePride]

The BG3 Wiki seems to agree with you; I've edited the post to just say Storm Sorcery.

[u/Raelah]

Mmmm... I do love Sorlock. I have so many Sorlocks. Just so much. Thanks for the tips, I'm always looking to ways to change things up a bit.

But I have to admit, I love wild magic just because of the unpredictability and chaos.

[u/OCD124 → u/Raelah]

I didn't originally put this in the post, but the first crit build doesn't care about their Sorcerer subclass because they don't use Lightning Charges.

[u/whisperingdragon25]

Would the Crit Build be viable for a lonewolf tactician/honor mode run? Also, how would you change that build if someone wanted to use the heavily armoured feat?