Ultimate Undying Warlock: HP Siphoning Build

Warlock: The Undying Patron

Self-Sufficient HP Siphoning Build

 

The Character: 

With a pale, moonlit hand, Elwin brushed away the scum that had festered and clumped along the surface of an ancient stone tablet. He'd found the artifact buried beneath mossy rubble ruins of the rotting tower. As he suspected, inscribed on its surface were the symbols of the enemy: the eye and hand of Vecna. Bloody-Handed be pleased.

A fluttering of wings announced Hog's return. He swooped through darkness in the shape of a bat, his preferred form, cloaked in the charcoal shade. In a puff of midnight mist, he landed on the cobblestone floor of the collapsed mage stronghold. A clacking of untrimmed claws shuffled closer to Elwin: Hog hobbling in his true quasit form, scaly and gnarled.

"The tower is empty, Master. No more cultists. I believe they fled in fear of your presence." Hog spoke with difficulty, the skin of his upper lip pinched into that swine's nose of his, the nose of a bat. 

"As they should. I cannot blame them for fearing the man who lays claim to the life of their god. I would fear me, too."

The Concept: Build, Story, Backgrounds

It's not that the Undying Patron Warlock is hated, more that it kind of just falls to the wayside. It gets forgotten, and I feel that this is more than certainly because of the Necromancy Wizard dominating the undead theme, as well as its abilities being uniquely oriented toward health and utility, but not healing: an interesting field. The subclass has amazing story potential and fills an extremely strange niche,  and it is for this exact reason that we can make a very interesting build with it and only it: a character that has no fear of death, recklessly attacking foes and remaining unpunished for it due to quickly regenerating HP.

Kas (left) & Vecna (right) fight to the death

The character is a descendant of the vampire knight Kas the Bloody-Handed, immortal enemy of the lich god Vecna. The story goes that Kas was Vecna's right-hand man before he ascended to godhood and Kas grew jealous of his master's power. His honor demanded he challenge Vecna's right to rule, so the two fought, Kas wielding a magic sword that Vecna had made and gifted him. Their war waged into the planes of the afterlife before both of their realms were eventually destroyed and Kas was caught up in the destruction, the loser of the battle. His essence was left to wander outside both time and space as a vestige, a soul that can only be used by binders like warlocks, waiting for a chance at vengeance on his sworn foe.

Sometime before his near-obliteration, Kas sired several lines via his servants, and Elwin descends from one of those various lines - a spawn of demonic vampire and human heritage. As is the family tradition, Elwin has pledged himself to the soul of his ancient ancestor, gaining access to some of his abilities and dark magics, and sworn himself to the cause of recovering Kas' magical blade. The sword is rumored to be the only weapon able to harm the lich, and with it, Elwin can kill him. Once the god, Vecna, is dead, Kas may rise and take his place, but it would appear betrayal runs in the family. Elwin plots the death of his patron in secret, a new Bloody-Handed in the making.

Vampires tend toward a Lawful Evil alignment. Elwin embodies the best (or worst) of his vampiric heritage, and so any Lawful Alignment is appropriate. Backgrounds that fit the character and class include Noble and Urban Bounty Hunter (re-flavored to a hunter of Vecna cultists). They both prioritize Charisma based skills and fit the theme, though as with most builds, backgrounds are dependent on player preference more so than optimization.

The Race: Tiefling (Abyssal; UA)

Both the Charisma and Constitution stats are critical to this build. I had a few options, namely the Scourge Aasimar and the chosen race, the Abyssal Tiefling. It was honestly a very difficult choice to make. The Aasimar's Healing Hands feature plays right into the build's purpose of regaining HP, and while the Radiant Consumption feature serves to do the opposite, the build would allow the Warlock to take advantage of it more than most other classes. In the end, though, I decided the less damage the character does to themselves the better. The Abyssal Tiefling's Abyssal Arcana trait that grants a few random spells per day is nice, especially since one of those spells can be Cure Wounds (HP regen); however, the really nice thing about the race is their boost to maximum HP, another overall goal of the build. 

Once the race was chosen, I moved on to crafting the story for them, and honestly, I'm really glad I chose the Tiefling, because this story has a lot of in-game potential. Please note that both races are equally viable for this subclass, but not for the story and patron I've crafted. Feel free to substitute the Scourge Aasimar for the Abyssal Tiefling in this build, but note that this will mean creating a new, original story to fit the race - this is half the fun of D&D though, so certainly do not feel discouraged!

The Stat Spread (Standard Array): 

CHA 16 (+3), CON 16 (+3), DEX 13 (+1), INT 12 (+1), WIS 10 (+0), STR 8 (-1)

Constitution is very important for this build, but our primary attack, the spell Vampiric Touch, is going to be using a spell attack modifier, so Charisma will take priority for the sake of accuracy. After taking the feats listed later in the build, which will assist further toward the goal of HP regeneration, the player should focus on boosting Constitution to 19 (would be 18, except for the +1 from one of our feats) and then Charisma to its maximum. 

The Class: Notable Features & Spells

A quasit & its possible forms

Pact Boon (Pact of the Chain): Pact of the Chain fills a certain niche that is not often taken advantage of: distance use of touch-based spells. With one of the Eldritch Invocations we have planned, and our planned primary damage dealing spell, Vampiric Touch, the familiar granted by the boon becomes an absolute crux of the build. The familiar will be our primary dealer of damage, but only by serving as a conduit for our own spells.

The familiar we are choosing, in all technicality, is the owl for its Flyby feature; however, to fit the theme, we are changing aesthetics to say it takes the form of a bat (vampires, bats, c'mon). I love the idea of having one of the familiars capable of speech, though, that the Pact of the Chain grants access to, so for roleplaying purposes our familiar is a Quasit which do, canonically, have the ability to transform into a bat, but we're really using the stats of the owl . . . if that's not too confusing. It's all quite legal, just a couple hoops to jump through for story-telling purposes. Alternatively, the DM could just choose to grant the Flyby feature to the Quasit's bat form, which works just as well. 

Eldritch Invocations: There are many invocations for the warlock, but only a select few that take this build from good to great. 

-Fiendish Vigor grants a spell-slot free use of the False Life spell at 1st level, which grants 1d4+4 temporary hit points. This is a great invocation to take as the warlock's first option, as having a potential 8 extra HP every battle for a caster, especially at lower levels, can be a life saver, and pairs with this build's purpose of generating health for itself.

-Gift of the Ever-Living Ones allows any rolls for regaining HP to be considered as having rolled max when the Warlock's familiar is within 100 feet, which will begin to be useful when paired with the Defy Death subclass feature at level 6, but will be absolutely overpowered at level 14 with the Indestructible Life feature. Read on to learn more, but this invocation is a must take when the Warlock gains the option for it at level 5. 

No other invocations are absolute necessary, but one I'd suggest is Voice of the Chain Master, which merely increases an already present ability of the familiar. All other choices will be up to play-style preference.

Expanded Spell List: The expanded spell list of the Undying Patron offers some great support options. Blindness/Deafness and Silence are both great for incapacitating both melee attackers or mages respectively, Deathward is good for keeping allies up, and the others are just okay. There are two spells, though, that really shine with this subclass.

-False Life for the most part will be useless when paired with the Fiendish Vigor invocation, but when a whole lot more temporary HP needs to be generated, having this spell on backup to be cast at a higher level is always great. 

-Aura of Life is a spell for countering demons, devils and necromancers - particularly cultists of Vecna! It halves necrotic damage taken for the Warlock and any allies within 30 feet, prevents a reduction of HP maximums, and recovers 1 HP per round. Situational, yes, but another means of recovering HP and a very hard counter to this build's sworn foes.

Spells: There is only one Warlock spell that this build will rely on frequently, which is fine seeing as Warlocks receive very few spell slots to begin with.

-Vampiric Touch is the only attack this build should be using once it's available at 5th level. The Warlock can be up to 100 feet away from their target and still cast this spell with the use of the familiar*. It requires concentration and lasts for up to a minute, so 10 rounds of combat, and deals 3d6 necrotic damage (+1d6 per level above 3rd) and heals the caster for half the damage dealt. Not only does it deal decent damage, it keeps the caster perpetually on their toes, another source of HP recovery to go along with Defy Death and Indestructible Life.

*Controversy: The Find Familiar spell says "when you cast a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell." Now, Vampiric Touch actually has a range of "self." I know, misleading name. So, while this does not function in RAW, as a DM, I would personally allow for some flexibility here. The risk of putting the 1HP familiar right in the enemy's face and the fact that the spell has "Touch" in the name would be enough for me to allow it; however, if your DM/group does not allow homeruling, casting this spell in melee is still perfectly viable for this build--we'll be regaining HP constantly after all. 

Among the Dead: the ability to make an undead waste a turn in combat is phenomenal, and so is access to the Spare the Dying cantrip, especially when paired with the Defy Death feature later. For reference, creatures classified as undead, yes, include skeletons and zombies, but also include wights, banshees, ghosts, wraiths, revenants, vampires, death tyrants, dracoliches, death knights, and of course, the lich, Vecna himself. Many of the most powerful and common late-game enemies are classified as undead - this ability makes it much harder to even be touched in certain encounters.

Defy Death: Somehow took too much damage even with all the warlock's temporary HP and HP regen and went down in the fight? No problem. Just succeed on a death saving throw and get back up with 1d8 + the Warlock's Constitution modifier HP (or the maximum amount of HP when the familiar is within 100 feet thanks to Gift of the Ever-Living Ones). Someone else goes down and the cleric is too busy, or can't reach them? Send the Warlock's familiar with Spare the Dying and receive free healing as a reward. Cheating death has never been so easy.

Indestructible Life: Up until 14th level, the Warlock has been carefully managing temporary HP and uses of the Vampiric Touch spell to keep that HP recovery up. Now, we add some icing on the cake. The Warlock's bonus action, which with their limited spell usage was likely going unused, now regains for them 1d8 + their Warlock level in HP, or the max with Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, which is 22 HP at 14th level. This can only be used once per short/long rest, but a free self-heal of this caliber can completely turn the tide of battle.

With this recovery being so reliant on Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, which requires the familiar to be alive, it may be best for Hog to go invisible and hide for fights. This requires the Warlock to now get up in melee range to cast Vampiric Touch, but with the spell's built-in HP recovery and the Indestructible Life feature, any punishment the Warlock receives while being so close will now automatically be reversed, or at least dampened so heavily the damage taken doesn't matter. With this playstyle in effect, it would be a miracle for this class to ever fall to 0 HP again, and even if they do, Defy Death is there waiting to resurrect them.

The Feats: Heir to a Vampiric Lineage

These two feats should be taken in the order presented here and will serve to strengthen our primary spell, Vampiric Touch. While not technically necessary, these will vastly improve the quality of the build.

War Caster: As Vampiric Touch is our main source of damage output, and as the Warlock has limited spell slots, its in our best interest to keep concentration up on Vampiric Touch else be reduced to relying on Eldritch Blast for damage, and have an important means of HP recovery taken away from us. This is where War Caster comes into play. Advantage on those concentration checks is a blessing.

Resilient (Constitution Variant): The +1 to Constitution is very nice, and proficiency in concentration saving throws makes it even harder for foes to break concentration on Vampiric Touch.

Other feats that can be useful, though I would suggest boosting Charisma to its max instead, are Inspiring Leader (an effective way of opening up an invocation slot by being able to remove Fiendish Vigor and it also frees up a spell slot by removing a need for False Life; plus. this temporary HP can be given to the whole party rather than just the Warlock) and Tough (a huge bump to maximum HP which allows for even more self-sufficiency).

Play Style: Reckless Recovery

Pre-Battle: A great preparation for battle is a use of the Fiendish Vigor invocation, or if needed, the False Life spell. These will ensure that the enemy must chew through a wall of HP before even dealing damage to the Warlock, and even once they've breached their main HP pool, the recovery the Warlock has access to will be more than enough to compensate. 

Early Battle: Wait for the opponent to break through the Warlock's temporary HP before casting Vampiric Touch. Use those early rounds of combat to get Hog the familiar into position and use the Warlock's free cantrip Eldritch Blast to deal some damage. Once the stage is set, and the temporary HP has been broken, switch into hardcore recovery mode and cast Vampiric Touch. There are two strategies to follow: 1) if Hog the familiar can swoop in, cast Vampiric Touch, and get away to cover where it cannot be target and killed, stay at a distance and rely on it to do the damage; 2) if Hog cannot, have him go invisible and stay within 100 feet and switch to melee casting. The recovery from all the Warlock's features and spells should be enough to keep them up on their feet.

Mid-Late Battle: Say the Warlock was dealt a poor-hand and knocked out of their Vampiric Touch spell, despite all precautions. This happens, and usually happens a bit into the battle. Then is the time to switch to support. Don't waste the last, or second-to-last spell slot on another Vampiric Touch. Instead, throw up an Aura of Life spell, or cast Blindness/Deafness or Silence to cripple foes. Remain in the fray and use those concentration boosts to bolster the Warlock's allies and allow them to finish the fight. The recovery of Indestructible Life will be more than enough to keep the Warlock up when not locked in direct combat with the enemy, even without Vampiric Touch, and hopefully by now the enemy/boss if close to defeat.

Roleplay: Descendant of The Bloody-Handed Destroyer

Elwin does not struggle with his identity. Unlike many tieflings, he looks relatively human, save for his pale skin, red eyes and elongated canines, but these are easily overlooked -- probably why vampires are such successful predators. He was also raised in a family of kin with similar heritage. He was never made to feel the outsider; he was made to feel the superior. He is above the average mortal. His destiny is to slay a god, and elevate their blood relative to take its place. They are Kas' favored, his chosen, and will be rewarded unlike any other upon his ascension. 

Elwin does believe this, but like his ancient evil sire he plots a betrayal, though his reasoning for doing so depends on his alignment. If he is good, perhaps he seeks for no god to rise in the place of the lich Vecna, and wishes to end the war between the two factions once and for all by destroying both parties. If he is evil, he believes he deserves that ascension to godhood. It was he that killed Vecna after all, did what his ancestor failed to do millennia ago. Why should Kas receive the reward when he failed at the task, and Elwin succeeded? If he is neutral, he might seek either of these goals for slightly more nuanced reasons. Whatever his logic, he does this in secret. This is why Kas has sent Hog to serve at Elwin's side. He is a great boon, for certain, but also a spy for Elwin's patron. Kas can trust no one, not even his own children, for he knows they might just follow the same path he did, and oh, how right he is.

Elwin is a vampire, or at least of that heritage, and so many things can be flavored to reflect this. He would favor necromancy spells, those that deal cold and necrotic damage. His HP recovery is thematically appropriate as vampires are known for recovering health extremely rapidly. The One with Shadows invocation can be reflavored to him becoming an eerie, easily missable fog, or when using the Sculptor of Flesh invocation, he might prefer to use the polymorph spell to take the form of a bat. Perhaps his Spare the Dying cantrip is Hog in bat form biting the necks of his companions, temporarily infecting them with vampiric vigor. There are many ways to further sell the gothic vampire theme this build thrives in.

Conclusion:

The amount of self-sustainability this subclass provides is genuinely astounding but I'm not surprised it has been ignored for so long. It took me a bit of sitting down and ruining a sheet of notebook paper with notes and scribbles before putting all the pieces in place to maximize efficiency for an HP recovery centered build that was not also a healer. I am extremely happy with the story for this character, though, and he is currently my favorite of the builds I've posted. He was originally to be a warlock pledged to Vecna, though secretly an heir to Kas, seeking to kill the lich in vengeance; however, I felt it might be hard to pull wool over the eyes of the god of secrets, himself, so I rewrote the story. The new tale, though, has great potential to make a campaign pop. I feel Kas is left out or overlooked in most campaigns where Vecna is the main villain, so this character serves to fix that.

As always, I wish the future Undying Patron Warlocks much luck in their adventuring, and that they have as much fun with playing Elwin as I had making him, or whatever character they choose to make with the race, stats, and abilities of the build!

Character Sheets:

LVL 1 Character Sheet

LVL 20 Character Sheet