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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Character Builds  > 5E D&D Character Build — Sorcerer Warlock

5E D&D Character Build — Sorcerer Warlock

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I am going to share a cool character build for a character I have played recently in a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game. I was entering a game that had been going on for a while so I was told to make an 11th level character. When doing a character build all the pieces of the puzzle are important. In my past I have played a lot of strong melee characters but the new edition of D&D offers so many cool powers I wanted to play a spellcaster. I’m Not saying there is not a draw to do a character build for a melee character — there is — but I felt a diversion is necessary. So with this spellcaster, as with any character build, you need all the pieces: race, background and class. I typically like to have these decided for the most part before I focus on stats, but at least race and class before I do stats always. This makes sure I can place my stats as effectively as I can, even if it is not an optimized race and class combination. For this one I certainly veered off the beaten path. I made a multiclass warforged sorcerer/warlock. Getting a bonus to Strength and Constitution does not make for a Charisma focused character, so if you want to use the concept and change the race to a tielfling, half-elf or aasimar I am not going to be able to stop you. On the other hand I like to try interesting character builds based on what I think would make a cool concept rather than focusing entirely on mechanics. So let’s get in my head on these choices. With the Eberron PDF recently released by WotC people are jumping at the chance to try out the new material. I am not immune to this hype or craze so I jumped in head first.

Dungeons and Dragons character build

My warforged was a prototype designed to look like a dragonborn, which essentially gave them access to the draconic ancestry path in sorcerer. And it made them look cooler in my opinion. So I would be able to combine the armor class bump from this sorcerer path with the one from the race. This race character build is the only current armor class stacking I have seen so far. One might say it would be a better character build to do a barbarian as the Constitution bonus will give more AC and the bonus to Strength is more useful.

As stated above I was not interested in playing a melee character. But yes, warforged mixes well with barbarian or monk as well as the AC works with all of them. I used the point buy system and focused my points on Constitution and Charisma. My secondary stats were Dexterity and Intelligence, followed by dump stats on Strength and Wisdom. This offers a great amount of flaws because I made him very trusting. I combined the naivety of a young warforged with the concept I had for him.

With him being made from a dragonborn I wanted fire, and fire power. With fire spells being the most common in the Player’s Handbook this character build was rounding out. So we have a warforged sorcerer with stats geared for that class and to try and have a decent armor class without anything special.

But when I looked at the decent Charisma I thought if I splashed in some warlock levels I could add some darker flavor into the campaign and get some really neat abilities. How to decide on the levels?  I felt it was important the sorcerer part of the character be their main focus as that was his ancestry. I looked at the options and with wanting to experiment with sorcery points I would need a bunch. A few would not cut it for this character build. I went sorcerer 7/warlock 4.  This gave me 4th level spells from sorcerer, two metamagic powers and an elemental affinity to fire allowing me to add my Charisma modifier to damage rolls for any fire spells I cast.

Four levels in warlock gave me Pact of the Tome, an obvious choice for a spellcaster who does not want to go into melee. I also got two 2nd level spell slots, which I would get back after any short or long rest and the Otherwordly Patron — I went with the Great Old One for the telepathic communication. I am not sure why I love this one so much but I do. Last but not least my Eldritch Invocations. I went with Eldritch Sight and Book of Ancient Secrets. The Eldritch Sight would mean one less spell I would have to select, and Book of Ancient Secrets is the best access to rituals in 5E D&D.

Starting with lots of wealth and access to all low level rituals meant I could literally afford every single 1st and 2nd level ritual in 5E D&D and they can cast them right out of the book without using a spell slot. This is a very powerful option for anyone looking to make a character build around spellcasting.

Having this many levels to play with is going to give access to stat bumps or feats. Even with his diverse spellcasting I still wanted more. I placed their first stat bump in Charisma bringing it to a 16, respectable in this edition but their second I needed some more spellcasting. I went with Magic Initiate — Cleric. This allowed my fire throwing sorcerer/warlock to be able to cast cure wounds and spare the dying. Truly awesome!

This warforged sorcerer/warlock is really getting fleshed out now and ready to hit the table but they need a background and a backstory. The Dungeon Master was giving each character a mount of choice as part of their starting equipment. This meant my warforged would need a way to control their beast and they were not going to get it through sorcerer. Background it is!

With this character build sage would be the obvious choice and if I was playing them from the ground up I sure would have but since I was getting the privilege of making this character at a higher starting level I needed to be able to control my mount, so I needed Animal Handling. I went with folk hero forcing me to affix this element in their backstory. It added some diverse elements to the actual story and made them even more unique. For his tools I went with alchemist’s supplies to still be spellcasting adjacent.

A construct viewed as one of the people for saving them while actually being one of them, this warforged experienced acceptance where others of their kind do not. With those choices Onikam was born, or in their case made. They have a decent AC for being a spellcaster and their spell options were off the charts with 13 cantrips — 5 from sorcerer, 3 from warlock, 3 from Pact of the Tome and 2 from Magic Initiate. I focused my sorcerer spells on all the fire I could get first, as that is their forte and then chose the remaining on having options.

After playing the Dungeon Master awarded us a staggering 2 levels. I was shocked. But oh, where to go next? 8th level sorcerer gets another stat bump or feat, and I did not want to lose out on that but do I get 9th in sorcerer or something else. And then my mind was blown. What if I add even more casting to his menagerie? I take my first level in wizard and then my 8th level in sorcerer. This effectively increases my caster level by 2 so I suffer no serious spell loss from sorcerer and I still get 5th level spells. I get 3 more cantrips for an amazing 16 cantrips. I can now deal any damage type in 5E D&D with just cantrips.  Cantrips gain power as you do so they are very effective as a standard attack.

Want to use this character build in your game? Get it here — warforged – warlock, sorcerer.

Until next time, stay nerdy

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Ted Adams

The nerd is strong in this one. I received my bachelors degree in communication with a specialization in Radio/TV/Film. I have been a table op role player for about 20 years 17 of which with the current group. I have played several itterations of D&D, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd and 3rd editions, Star wars RPG, Shadowrun and World of Darkness. I am an avid fan of books and follow a few authors reading all they write. Favorite author is Jim Butcher I have been an on/off larper for around 15 years even doing a stretch of running my own for a while. I have played a number of Miniature games including Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy, Heroscape, Mage Knight, Dreamblade and D&D Miniatures. I have practiced with the art of the German long sword with an ARMA group for over 7 years studying the German long sword, sword and buckler, dagger, axe and polearm. By no strecth of the imagination am I an expert but good enough to last longer than the average person if the Zombie apocalypse ever happens. I am an avid fan of board games and dice games with my current favorite being Quarrios.

1 Comment

  • Mook T
    April 17, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    Love the character concept you’ve got there Ted, in fact I have something like this in mind for my first 5e character; I’m going for a half drow warlock who unlocks his inner divine soul sorcerer. Started as lvl 3 celestial warlock and taken 1 level in sorcerer so far. I’m playing him as a natural liar and deceitful character who puts together a party calling themselves heroes for hire, because his pact is with a solar who is driving him away from Evil towards the path of good. And through role play I will play out elistraee granting him more spellcasting power as he does more noble and goodly deeds.
    The rest of the party is a barbarian half orc, a dragonborn monk, and a halfling rogue, so I’m trying to pick up the time pact and healing spells for playing both healer and blaster. It’s tricky to balance playing both but I’m really loving the build so far, you have any advice?

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