Is it just me, or does Wyll kinda suck? I imagine it's down to me not playing him right... but the dude is called the 'blade of frontiers' and he can't seem to hit anything with a sword to (literally) save his life.

He's not great at damage, not great at magic, not great in non-combat dialogues or environmental checks. I'm finding that after recruiting him, I just leave him in camp unless I'm specifically advancing his questline, and when he's in party I feel like I'm playing with one hand tied behind my back.

What am I missing here? I have to assume that I'm just playing him wrong. I'm half tempted to reclass him as something more useful, but I'd rather learn to play him correctly.

I guess my question is, do you all feel the same way? If not, what role is he filling in your party?

Warlocks are really good, but they don't get really good until you get several levels on them. Early-game they are really carried by Eldritch Blast. Make sure you get Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast at level 2. Pretty much all the spellcasters are weak early-game but get dramatically better later on.

I'm in Act 3 and he's at level 12 and still painful to play. Should I just be focusing on his eldrich skills then, and not weapon attacks?

If you want Wyll in Melee, you'll want to take "Pact of the blade" it'll let you use his charisma bonus for his weapon attack and damage when you "bind" it.

My main use of Wyll so far was respecing him to Sorcerer. This way I actually know what I'm supposed to do with the guy.

Yeah use him as a spellcaster. Warlocks can melee, but they will always be outclassed by the actual fighting classes.

Respeccing is a last resort. My goal is to learn how to properly play a warlock, or at least play on tolerably well.

Well, as mentioned, you really can just keep him as Warlock and only use him whenever his quests demands it.

I know of no help on the net how to play Warlocks well. They are a weird mix.

So I just remake Wyll into a Storm Sorcerer, which is a class I understand, even if things have changed since D&D3, but I still know what spells to look for to make Sorcerers great. General a good mix of damage and utility, something that applies to all situations.

By the way the first feat for offensive spellcasters (Wizards and Sorcerers) that I pick is always Spell Sniper, which gives me access to Eldritch Blast anyway. Which already means the main argument for picking Warlock is gone.



P.s.: Spell Sniper is kind of a musthave, because with Spell Sniper you will crit on 20 and 19, not just on 20. You can take it more often, too, but thats a diminishing returns deal, so I'm more interested in War Caster and then either Elemental Adept or simply Tough after that.

I appreciate the attempt nonetheless :)

Warlocks are range fighters and yes Wyll sucks

I use Wyll for utility spells, which frees up Gale's spell slots for more aggressive spells. He's also my spokesperson. Nobody's heard of my character before, but people are willing to give discounts to the blade of frontiers.

I've actually found Wyll to be very powerful although I've mainly focused on a ranged attack build.

Eldritch Blast + Repelling Blast really shines in a few scenarios:

1. One-shot stealth killing enemies in some areas by knocking them off platforms. It's more reliable than shove, since each blast has a separate attack roll and you get additional blasts at levels 5 and 10 so you essentially can shove with advantage and from a distance.

2. Knocking enemies back into area of denial spells, like the Warlock's own Hunger of Hadar spell. This was even effective against a mini boss in one area.

3. Pushing an enemy away from another party member from a distance.

Although a Warlock only has 2 spell slots, 3 at level 10/11 or something, the spell slots are cast at max power. For example, at class level 9, the spell slots are cast at spell level 5. So it can be highly beneficial to choose spells which scale with spell slot level. Additionally, they recharge after short rest. I'm maining a Bard/Wizard so I can short rest 3 times a day, meaning Wyll effectively has 8 spell slots per day. Useful spells I've found include
- Armor of Agathys. Useful to make Wyll more tanky, as it scales with spell slot level
- Hunger of Hadar: great area of denial spell as it turns the area into difficult terrain and does damage
- Hex: additional damage per hit
- Scorching ray and Fireball to grant my party additional damage dealing potential in some encounters, since these are cast at max spell level.

I find a Warlock's greatest weakness to be the light armor limitation. Although Armor of Agathys can help here. You could also obtain medium armor via a feat. Eldritch Blast obtained this way won't grant access to Repelling Blast, so dipping at least 2 levels into Warlock still has an advantage. Additionally, Pact of the blade gains an extra attack at level 5, bringing the Warlock a bit more in line with fighter/paladin/barbarian etc. The main drawback I've found is you have to remember to rebind your blade after each long rest, otherwise you lose both the Cha attack bonus and the extra attack. I've started many fights, only to realize I forgot and having to either reload or just go with it.

Ooh - this helps a lot! Thanks so much!

I probably need to go respec him from scratch with this in mind, but the way you describe it, the dude isn't completely worthless.

As for the light armor restriction - there seems to be a plethora of light armor selections, and I've kept Astarion in light throughout without much trouble. My guess is Wyll will have less evasion since his points all seem to be in Cha, so maybe I'll have to add medium proficiency... I feel like there aren't a lot of great medium options in the game, though.

Would it be bad to put him in heavy? There's that one legendary heavy armor set that adds heavy armor proficiency when worn. I put it on Karlach and it disabled her rage bonuses (which, honestly, I don't use much but probably should use more). Would heavy prevent him from casting or something?

No worries.

Let me rephrase, by 'greatest weakness' I didn't mean it's a great weakness. It's still playable and I've actually left him in light armor, with an AC of 17, including a +2 from a shield and +2 from dex but in comparison I've found it easy to get my most of my medium armor wearing characters to 21-22 AC by Act 3, and hard to do that with light armor and the difference in hit rate is noticeable. Albeit, I bought the medium armor pieces for my PC and handed them down to other characters when I outgrew them, they have a shield equipped and sometimes other magic accessories. I can probably buy something to beef up Wyll a bit more but haven't yet. Actually, just remembered I should give him a +3 shield. I don't use Astarion much since my PC has good sleight of hand skills and I find Astarion annoying, although he has a pretty decent back story.

I haven't come across that legendary heavy armor (yet) but it should work. AFAIK, as long as a spell caster is proficient in an armor, it won't interfere with spell casting.

Heavy armor interfering with Rage is a special case. I have Karlach as a Berserker in medium armor with AC 18. Rage alone provides damage resistance and Berserker's rage provides a frenzy attack as a bonus action and 3 attacks per round with a two handed weapon makes for a lot of carnage. She's a monster. Highly recommended.

Something I forgot with Pact of the Blade. It actually grants two actions: Bind pact weapon and Pact of the blade. The former can be used on any equipped weapon and makes Wyll proficient in the weapon so you can, for example have him wield heavy two handed weapons. The latter can summon one of several weapons which might be handy if you need to temporarily use a weapon of a different damage type. As a really minor benefit, I think Wyll can't be forced to drop either weapon but I only recall one encounter in Act 2 when enemies were using the Heat metal spell against me.

I rather like your role playing justification here.

I picked Astarion as my main. 4 story characters makes it much easier to play through more game content in a single playthrough... less switching, etc.

You may not ever. I looted it from someone I suspect a lot of people won't kill because 1. there's a way to play through without killing, 2. I think you get a beefy sword that way, though I don't know because I didn't take it, and 3. it's a really, really hard fight. Like, hard enough that they have special combat music for it. When it started, I thought for sure it was designed to be unwinnable.

I can think of a number of Act III fights where I would have liked to have that bound weapon feat.

I might have to do another play through with him as a consistent party member... maybe in place of Gale or something.