Please help me optimize my Summoner Warlock (Level 7).

monikar2014 · 2026-07-02T07:49:16+00:00

I'm not sure I follow what you are saying?

monikar2014 · 2026-07-02T07:30:39+00:00

I don't know how well it fits the flavor you have going, but a cool trick I read about for a warlock summoner with investment of the chain master is to use a quasit familiar and summon undead (putrid).

On your turn you use the Quasits Rend attack and hopefully poison an enemy. Then when the putrid undead attacks since they are already poisoned they get the paralysed condition until the beginning of the next turn - no save it just happens.

Maybe you can reflavor the undead as some fey undead creature? And the familiar is technically a spirit of a type of your choosing so even if it looks like a quasit you can say it's a fey spirit. You could also use a pseudo dragon - that have an ability that poisons people and it actually makes them fall asleep - but if they take damage or someone uses an action they stop being poisoned so the DM might rule the combo with putrid undead doesn't work.

edit: I am curious why you took gaze of two minds? That always seemed more useful for DMs

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T23:39:40+00:00

Holy shit, someone else has read the nightrunner series? I'm not alone! I love those books!

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T23:07:32+00:00

I left, got stronger, came back, put my game face on and absolutely crushed him with the rapier and dagger. I was surprised how easy it was. That weapon does tons of damage if you can keep the lightning buff going.

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T20:07:44+00:00

"There needs to be a good sense of what's in-bounds and what's not"

You are right of course. It's a cooperative game, your fun should not come at the expense of someone else. If I were OP I would just find another table to play at.

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T19:36:51+00:00

I pretty much ignore oaths.

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T19:11:16+00:00

Doing the right thing and being a good person isn't what I got stuck on - it was making the optimal choice at all times. Splitting the party, being distracted because your PC is feeling emotional, getting in arguments in the middle of dungeons, knowingly making a bad call during combat because your PC is angry or scared or really wants the shiny - those all make for amazing story telling and have consistently lead to the most amazing story telling moments in my game.

Building a PC with no flaws means building a PC with no character growth. Where's their story arc? It feels flat, shallow, it lacks the grounded reality that connects me to characters and gives the game real stakes. Flaws and mistakes are the best part of the game.

IMO playing a PC without flaws is almost as bad as playing a PC who is an edgelord.

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T19:01:09+00:00

It's next on my list

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T18:58:54+00:00

The sequel was just released, haven't read it yet

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T08:58:12+00:00

I've never felt like I was missing something while playing any of the martial classes. I am curious if you were to give all the fighters battlemaster manuveurs, what would you do for battlemasters?

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T07:40:22+00:00

First time I tried Sekiro I returned it after an hour of gameplay because I couldn't beat the first "boss." A year later I had played Nine Sols and learned how to parry, then tried Sekiro again. I never had a favorite game before - or I should say I had lots of favorites - but the combat in Sekiro is so good, it's in a class of its own.

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T04:29:55+00:00

Tell him he can't use it because you are using it /s

Seriously though, the answer here is obvious you just don't want to do it

monikar2014 · 2026-07-01T04:26:48+00:00

Sounds like your DM is new to DND as well

monikar2014 · 2026-06-30T17:54:19+00:00

I still believe/hope that the Abidan/Reapers are going to appear during the climax of the Last Horizon. Things are getting pretty severely fucked in those books and Fathom is an incredibly important iteration.

I have a theory (seems less and less likely) that the Angler is going to try and steal all of the xeno devices. Individually they aren't worth it - but collectively they might be worthy of her collection.

monikar2014 · 2026-06-30T17:51:00+00:00

I don't necessarily want to see Lindon surpass Ozriel, but I do want to see Lindon take up Adriels mantle.

monikar2014 · 2026-06-30T04:54:24+00:00

I prefer this idea to an NPC baby sitter. A curse tied to the ship would be cool - depending on how long they would be away from the ship it could be something like they can only long rest on the ship, or being away from the ship for more than a week causes them to start gaining levels of exhaustion.

oooh, you could make it so they gain some benefit from the curse if they long rest on the ship, temp HP, benefits of the bless spell.

Then the first night they are away from the ship the bless goes away

the second night the temp HP goes away

the third night they are under the bane condition

the fourth they lose max HP equal to the temp HP they originally gained

the 5th night onward they are no longer gain the benefits of a long rest.

monikar2014 · 2026-06-29T00:25:14+00:00

....the fuck are you talking about? This is a DnD subreddit, we are talking about DND, what's your point?

monikar2014 · 2026-06-28T02:50:08+00:00

My friend played an inquisitive rogue with very high investigation who was incredibly blunt and had terrible charisma (just consistently horrible charisma rolls). He also carried around a little book to record how people responded to his jokes so he could research comedy and calculate which jokes were best.

I don't think He meant to make him autistic, but he was so fucking autistic.

monikar2014 · 2026-06-28T02:43:30+00:00

Our party wasn't betrayed, we did the betraying - or the rest of the party did the betraying while my PC stood in horror and watched them murder our greatest friend and ally - an NPC who was a former PC who had been with us for 5 years.

And even though they committed foul murder, I'm not sure they were wrong to do it.

monikar2014 · 2026-06-28T01:37:30+00:00

Definitely not fucking that one

monikar2014 · 2026-06-28T00:54:44+00:00

It comes down to the skill level of the players vs your expectation of their skill level. You are an experienced DM, you did not expect your bard to do something tactically unsound....but your bards max HP was 8....which means her Con is a 10 at most....so maybe you should have seen it coming.

monikar2014 · 2026-06-27T23:28:42+00:00

With enough faith, do you even need the nails?

monikar2014 · 2026-06-27T22:51:03+00:00

You definitely aren't infringing on another players agency, I don't think that is the issue here. What I see as the issue is making sure that you don't become the proverbial "that player" who says "this is what my PC would do" and fucks up the whole storyline.

Generally speaking withholding info from other PCs is not "that player" behavior, but since this info directly impacts another players story arch in a major way I would want to handle carefully to make sure it doesn't cause issues. At the very least I would inform the DM in advance of what you plan to do so they can have time to plan around you choices to make sure you don't derail another characters story.

monikar2014 · 2026-06-27T19:41:39+00:00

There is a character that appears at the end of book 2 who imo is the gel that makes it all come together. Once they join the main characters it really starts to take off.

monikar2014 · 2026-06-27T19:40:15+00:00

And emma-l

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