Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock Build Guide: Melee Warlock (Advanced Guide)

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock Build Guide: Melee Warlock (Advanced Guide).
In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock Build Guide I’m going to be covering my Melee Warlock Build for Update 4 of Early Access, and showing you not only what has changed with the Class that allows this to be possible, but also how to do it effectively. If you’ve been wondering how to make a Melee Warlock in Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access, read on to find out. Note that this is an advanced Guide and it already assumes that you have some knowledge of the Warlock Class, or that you’ve watched my Warlock Guide.
https://fextralife.com/baldurs-gate-3-warlock-build-guide-melee-warlock-advanced-guide/

BG3 Character Creation: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Character+Creation
BG3 Wiki: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Baldur’s+Gate+3+Wiki
BG3 Early Access: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Early+Access
BG3 Early Access Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyT5NcCVqdX9Mv4xfeJzToPxgq1Z6Wf71&playnext=1&index=1

Timestamps
0:00 – Early Access Build Intro
0:23 – Melee Warlock (Advanced Guide)
2:33 – Character Progression
5:06 – Melee Warlock Equipment
6:21 – Melee Warlock Darkness Strategy

Warlocks in Baldur’s Gate 3 are extremely powerful because of their Cantrip Eldritch Blast that does between 1-10 Force Damage every use from 18m away, and Cantrips can be cast every turn without using up Spell Slots. Eldritch Blast gets even stronger at Level 2 if you select the Agonizing Blast Eldritch Invocation, allowing for a damage potential of 5-15 damage every use at 18 Charisma. If you factor in the use of Hex, which can add another 1-6 Necrotic Damage, this becomes 6-21 damage nearly every turn. And that’s even before you mention that Eldritch Blast gains an Advantage if used from elevation.

Why on earth then would anyone want to play a Melee Warlock in Early Access? If you factor all those things together it seems like there would be no reason to, but there is, and that’s because of the change to the Eldritch Invocation Devil’s Sight in Update 4. Devil’s Sight now allows Warlocks to see inside their Darkness Spell, and not suffer Blindness while standing in it. So what? Big deal right? Wrong.

The benefit of Darkness is that it causes Blindness on enemies standing inside it, and you gain Advantage when attacking enemies that are Blind, and they gain Disadvantage when attacking you. However, you cannot attack enemies with Ranged Attacks who are inside Darkness, so you must melee to gain the full benefit of this Spell. How does the damage compare? Let’s check it out.

At 16 Strength, using a Greatsword +1 you will deal 6-16 damage per swing. This is actually a bit more than Eldritch Blast if you’re not using Hex, but this damage can be increased further at Level 4 if you take the Great Weapon Master Feat. Great Weapon Master allows you to deal an extra 10 Damage but suffer – 5 to your Attack Roll. This means this should only be used if you have Advantage on your attack, which you will if you are standing in Darkness, and will increase your damage to 16-26 damage per swing. You’ll still have decent accuracy on your attacks, but will hit for mega damage, but there is more. You also gain a bonus attack if you kill a target, so you can attack twice in one turn fairly regularly.

However, the true power of the Darkness is that if used properly you can pick off enemies without ever triggering combat, allowing you to systematically wipe out entire groups solo, never taking damage. Enemies cannot see what is happening in Darkness, allowing you to perform nefarious deeds, and then stroll out as if nothing at all has happened. I’ll explain how to do this at the end of this Guide, but for now let’s look at how to setup this Build.

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39 thoughts on “Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock Build Guide: Melee Warlock (Advanced Guide)”

  8. Oh, you think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING!

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  9. Bc of the game mechanics… This seems unfun and broken in the current state… hopefully they make some adjustments… such as the darkness like in 5e being able to follow a target, and hopefully targets react to you know…. magical darkness being dropped on their head.

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  13. Also, you don't have to go melee to make use of Darkness/Devil's Sight. Cast it on yourself, and blast enemies from range before they even reach you. The biggest issue is if they throw grenades at you to break your concentration, so you want a high Con.

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  14. Here's how I do this build:

    1/2 Wood Elf
    12 Str, 14 Con, 16/17 Dex, 8 Int, 8 Wis, 16/17 Cha

    Dual Wield short swords, take Armor of Agathys and Hellish Rebuke at Lv 1 (although you'll only be able to cast one at first, I usually cast Armor of Agathys until Lv 2). Grab Armor of Shadows and Devil's Sight at Lv 2. I usually use a Light Xbow as backup (which, when dipped in fire, actually does better damage than your Eldritch Blast and has a better hit chance too thanks to Dex). At Lv 3 I end up getting Dissonant Whispers, but I don't think I'll use it much as my spell slots are saved for defense (Agathys + Hellish Rebuke) and then I need a slot for Darkness every fight too.

    Once you are cloaked in Darkness during a battle, you can either step to the edge of the Darkness on your turn to hit with a ranged attack (Blast or a xbow shot), or if anything actually follows you into the Darkness you can hit them twice with dual wielded short swords. Also, you could take a ranged shot at someone outside the cloud and then use your bonus action to hit someone inside the cloud.

    Alternatively, you could use your bonus action to hide inside the cloud, which along with Mage Armor, Armor of Agathys, Hellish Rebuke, and a 14 Con not only makes you insanely hard to hit in the first place, but also extremely resistant to damage and you've got retaliation damage IF you get hit, plus you're probably going to pass your concentration checks. Not sure if Warlocks get Blade Ward or not, but if they did you could become even tougher that way too.

    Right now, the biggest limitation to this build is not being able to cast Darkness on an object (which would allow us to cast it on our weapon, for example, and then move with the Darkness following us) and the lack of the Green Flame Blade cantrip, which is really cool for melee builds and dual wielding).

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  17. This build is gonna be even more insane when they let you target with ranged attacks in darkness because you should be able to. Then it'll get another boost when they finally add pact of the blade.

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  24. Mountain Dwarf (or whatever they call it in BG3) is also amazing for this kind of built. The Gith’s +1 to int is pretty meaningless. But taking Mountain Dwarf nets you a +2 in constitution on top of +2 strength which makes dealing with your stat spread way easier.
    The only real different is the lack of greatsword in the place I’d greataxe. The greatsword technically does more damage of average being 2d6 instead of 1d12 but it’s negligible when you don’t have access to the great weapon fighting style.

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  26. If you don't find the stealth cheese boring this is great for EA; but longer term at level 5 Eldritch Blast gets a 2nd beam for another d10+4, and as written Hex would apply to both as there is no 'once per round' limitation. Now just pray for Shadow Monk multiclass option!

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  27. The stealth stuff is prob going to change, but the devil sight and darkness is a bread & butter build. Hoping hexblade and pact of the blade make it's way to BG3.

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  33. If you really want to go ham on the min/maxing, start with 17 Strength at creation, then at level 4 take Weapon Master to increase to 18 and choose Greatclub as a weapon proficiency. Then you can use the Minotaur Greatclub that has 2d12 base damage…

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  34. Thank you for the guide. Few days ago I got BG3 and I was thinking about my final build for the time when EA will be over and multiclassing will be on. I guess that I will use similar stats like you in the "Dark Knight" build: Human, Fighter 6 (for all weapons/armors and RP purposes: merc who signs the pact with the devil) / Warlock 4 (for darkness and devil sight – which kind of compensate the human weakness of lack of the dark vision). I'm not sure which stats I should prioritize in this build? Assuming that Larian will fix AI related to darkness (mages will cast dispel magic, enemies will try to run away from the area because it gives them great disadvantage) so it should be combat effective without darkness – what is more important: DEX, CON, or CHA? Does CHA influence anything about Darkness or Misty Steps spells or could I drop it to 10-12? Not interested in the eldritch blast. Considering access to all armors do I need to care about DEX? Does armor or great sword somehow affects warlock spells?

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