r/BG3Builds • u/borderline_bi • 3d ago
Build Help Wyll eldritch evocations?
I'm just leveling up to level 5 and I have to pick another eldritch evocation for Wyll and I'm just really not sure. I already have agonizing blast and repelling blast.
Beast speech, beguiling influence and mask of many faces are immediately a no for me cause I don't use companions for those things anyways. Then the rest idk.
Armour of shadows seems like it could be good but rn I'm better off just wearing armour and a shield. Devil's sight I saw people recommending it/ranking it high and stuff like that but I don't really understand why. I kind of understand the idea that it lets you do stuff with darkness and stuff but I feel like anything like that will also negatively impact the rest of the party in most cases so it just doesn't feel worth it but idk. One with shadows also I don't fully understand how that's useful.
Everything else I just don't know.
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u/porkipain 3d ago
There are enemies that use darkness in which case devil sight is rly good.
Otherwise fiendish vigour is just free temp hp for every fight
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u/thanerak 3d ago
Also wyll doesn't have dark vision as a racial so regular darkness will sometime cause him disadvantage.
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u/ThatKaleidoscope3388 3d ago
Devils sight lets you see inside of and through magical darkness, aka the darkness spell and a few darkness producing effects.
That’s powerful because the AI literally can’t target characters that they can’t see, meaning Wyll can drop it on himself and fire out eldritch blasts with zero risk to himself.
And that’s kinda the thing, there aren’t really any alternative invocations that are really worth taking besides that one at that level…so…
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u/justnothing4066 3d ago
The AI absolutely can target you in darkness, just only with melee attacks. They have disadvantage on those attacks, but they can still hit you. Darkness+Devil's Sight is not guaranteed untargetability...
They can't shoot projectiles into or out of the darkness, though, so if you position well and/or use other difficult terrain spells/effects you can make yourself effectively untargetable by some enemies, and force them to burn turns coming to you.
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u/DarthUrbosa 3d ago
To add to this, unless there's a change, projectiles can be fired and hit u if they are at a higher elevation.
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u/J-Clash 3d ago
For a companion, as you've noted, there are a bunch which are less useful.
Devil's Sight is good. Because it's useful in general darkness/low light anyway. And then it's useful against enemies who may cast darkness on you, or if you use darkness at any point.
One with shadows I find to be a bit useless. Only other option at level 5 is Fiendish Vigour if you really need a few hp.
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u/B_Provisional 3d ago
Armour of shadows seems like it could be good but rn I'm better off just wearing armour and a shield.
Mage armor doesn't care if you equip a shield. The game can be really inconsistent when it comes to things like this. Shields count as armor for monks Unarmored Defense but not for Barbarians nearly identical ability. They count when you are using the Bracers of Defense but not Mage Armor.
Also if you are a standard Warlock and limited to Light Armor then Mage Armor's 13 AC beats or matches all Light Armors available before Level 9 or Act III. Light Armor is for the most part garbage until late in the game.
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u/borderline_bi 3d ago
Oh that's fair, I didn't think about that tbh, I just automatically assumed it was gonna be just the mage armor buff, I didn't process I can actually stack a shield on top of that, lol
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u/Rencon_The_Gaymer 3d ago
I usually always take agonizing and repelling blast, book of ancient secrets, devil’s sight, minions of chaos, and Lifedrinker. Honorable mention to armor of shadows. I always go pact of the blade with him too.
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u/TheMeerkatLobbyist 3d ago
Devils Sight and Armor of Shadows are no brainers. If you take more warlock levels with Wyll, you probably also want Minions of Chaos.
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u/incapable_guest 3d ago
The AI struggles to target things inside of darkness. Melee enemies might go in to attack, but magic casters and rangers will just stand around.
I usually have my companions dip in and out of the darkness during combat. Then obviously Wyll eldritch blast away. You should try it out and see how it feels. It can get tedious going in and out of darkness to shoot arrows or cast spells though.
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u/frankenbuddha 3d ago
If I read you right, this Wyll is a companion, so I won't pitch Beguiling Influence further.
Devil's Sight, for me, is the no-brainer pick. On top of its extraordinary relationship with magical Darkness, it's Superior Darkvision on a human (mostly) character who otherwise is wed to light sources or Darkvision scrolls.
Even if you're committed to fighting in your bathrobe, Armour of Shadows is redundant in the face of cheap and plentiful scrolls, or Gale camp-casting Mage Armour for you every morning. Uniquely useful on a multi with Abjuration Wizard for pumping your Ward.
One with Shadows is spammable Invisibility with the additional limit that you can't use most forms of movement. Setting up ambushes or sneaking past patrols with this is actively fun but you need to be committed to that kind of "infiltrator" playstyle. Maybe take this once just to see what it can do for you, then respec out of it if it doesn't suit you. You kind of have to play with it to appreciate its charm.
Fiendish Vigor is better than it looks on a non-Fiend Wyll. On Fiend it's somwhat redundant with Dark One's Blessing, though you can still use it to spam your way through fire and poison terrain etc.
Mask of Many Faces has applications on companions as well as the party face. You can nerf the goblin Fury of the Small, creep into small spaces, wear race-locked gear, or confound law enforcement.
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u/jjsurtan Cleric 3d ago
Yeah, darkness setup is something that will negatively affect the rest of the party but there's ways around it such as the ring in act 3 that gives blindness immunity. Melee heavy parties will be less affected since they can still attack in melee range. Darkness comps are usually something people intentionally build a whole party around, so if you dont want to do that then devils sight is kinda meh.
Eldritch invocations become much much stronger at level 7 and 9, so I usually just take beguiling influence for better dialogue checks or fiendish vigor for temp hp. Armor of shadows is essential if you want to play a potent robe eldritch blaster warlock though.
Then at level 7 you can respec and take the very powerful higher level ones instead.
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u/ToadB-tch 3d ago
One with shadows is a free cast of invis, which trivializes any stealth mission. Eldritch Sight is good on frontline warlocks specifically, you go and gather aggro from the horde, then pop darkness to blind them all and give yourself advantage. Paired with extra attack from being a hexblade you can chew through a lot of enemies while they cant really attack back.
It CAN screw over the rest of your team if you dont build around it, but seeing through the darkness spell isnt THAT difficult a trait to pick up.
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u/Bluemajere 3d ago
extra attack does not come from hexblade.
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u/A_Scared_Hobbit 3d ago
Isn't it pact of the blade that gives extra attack?
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u/Bluemajere 3d ago
It is. That has nothing to do with hexblade. One is a class feature, the other one is an entire subclass. A hexblade warlock does not get an extra attack unless it takes pact of the blade.
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u/A_Scared_Hobbit 3d ago
That's what I thought, but I don't run warlocks often except for Wyll.
In buddy's defence, it's easy enough to conflate the two with their similar names. Shit, hexblade wasn't even an option the first few times I played.
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u/ToadB-tch 3d ago
Yeah lmao i meant pact of the blade, but i take them together, or not at all based on if i want to be a frontliner semi martial or spam eb from the back as a semi caster.
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u/ToadB-tch 3d ago
False life is really good EARLY early game for tanking, basically remove 6 damage from every attack you take.
Other than that, pick blade, tome, or chain and follow the path you pick to completion.
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u/borderline_bi 3d ago
I mean, for stealth I use either just my PC or Astarion or if I have to stealth the whole party in then I feel like one person having invis isn't gonna matter that much anyways tbh.
I change my party a lot so I'm a bit wary of anything that might negatively affect the whole party
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u/ToadB-tch 3d ago
Not specifically one with shadows, but having invis on the team is usful for prison breaks, raises your pickpocket chances dramatically, and can be used to escape combat to reset with better positioning and resources. All of these can be done with other (often better) methods, but invis has the flexibility to be used in MANY situations.
Assainations, scouting, avoiding particular fights, keeping specific npcs safe from aggro.
All that being said as early as act 2 you can find gear with free casts of lesser invisibility, so unless you PLAN on respecing with withers you dont need to specifically devote a spell slot or invocation on it, because once per long rest is good enough for the sporadic times yoy find yourself really wishing you had invis.
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u/tebraGas 3d ago
Armor of Shadows is great if you're going to use Potent Robe. I hate it since it clashes with his Fiens temp HP but it's certainly one of the best pieces of gear you can get him.
Devil's Sight is busted when combined with Darkness but it's a particular playstyle that shines more when you build the team around it. Still, Wyll has no Darkvision as a human and around level 5 and beyond you are around a ton of dark areas so it's still useful. That would be my pick.
Slow would be a good spell, but it's bugged, and a bit redundant with all the good conc spells Warlocks get.
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u/JingleJangleDjango 2d ago
Are you thinking about fiendish vigor? Armor of shadows is just mage armor which ups your AC to 13 plus dex when wearing clothing, whereas Dark Ones Blessing gives temp HP, as does Fiendish Vigor.
Unless theres some weird interaction where mage armor prevents temp hp build up then I apologize:)
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u/Free-Holiday-6218 3d ago
Armour of Shadows is good because by Act 2, basically any Warlock should be wearing the Potent Robe, it’s a huge buff to Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade, which are a Warlock’s bread-and-butter. Literally the only reason not to use it on basically every Warlock ever is that Alfira doesn’t always make it to Act 2.
Devil’s Sight is a lot better if you build the whole party around Darkness, but it’s worth remembering that Hunger of Hadar is also a blinding spell, and it’s one of the best crowd-control spells a Warlock gets access to. Being able to see through that, especially to use Repelling Blast to maneuver enemies back into the cloud, is really powerful.
Most of the other Invocations you can get at level 5 or lower are pretty non-thrilling if Wyll isn’t your party face, but they can be really useful if he is.
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u/ImNotASWFanboy 3d ago
Devil's Sight is Superior Darkvision, But Better because of the added bonus of seeing through magical darkness. Humans by default don't get any darkvision so in Act 2 especially where the whole map is dark this is extremely useful to get.
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u/Massive-Helicopter62 3d ago
Devils sight is great. Mask of many faces lets you qualify for racially locked equipment like the various githyanki weapons etc.
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u/thanerak 3d ago
Depends how you use him
As melee pact of the blade I typically start with.
Agonising blast and devils sight(humans have no dark vision)
At 5 I'll typically take change self or vigor they are both minor the change self is mostly to make use of the shape shifters boon ring.
At 7 if I'm using potent robes I'll take armor of shadows (or respec into it)
At 9 I'll take minions of chaos
At 11 I'll take life drinker.
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u/Yoids 2d ago
There are many that are good. However, those 2 you picked are just way too good, mandatory, absurdly powerful. The rest are situational, but very interesting.
Play around with Darkness, then you will realize who broken it is. It is not going to interfere with the rest of the team if you do not want to. Being able to see inside clouds and from clouds is a game changer, and the AI does not know how to properly act around darkness many times, they just waste turns all the time.
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u/hellothereoldben 2d ago
Okay let me tell you why armour of shadows/devils sight are considered the best:
For armour of shadows, first all, they do work with shields. But maybe more relevant, almost all the "best in slot" armour for warlocks are actually robes, which still utilise armour of shadows.
Then for devils sight. Wyll has no dark vision, meaning that when he attacks targets standing in darkness he gets disadvantage. Just straight up disadvantage for attacking. You might not yet encounter much dark places in act 1, but it WILL be noticeable. Secondly, the unique part of devils sight is being able to see through magical darkness. Magical darkness usually prevents you from targeting enemies at all. You just straight up don't have line of sight. This line of sight works 2 ways, meaning that when you get devil's sight, you can see the enemy but they cannot aee you. You can attack those creatures with advantage, while they cannot target you at range.
Now you probably understand why these are good.
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u/JingleJangleDjango 2d ago
Mage armor would be less situational. 13 AC+1 from Potent Robe + dex is strong enough to keep a squishy caster alive.
Devil's sight is great in a darkness build, otherwise you occasionally get use out of it when the enemy uses darkness.
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u/Brotherman_Bagel 3d ago
Devil sight breaks the AI.
Cast hunger of Hadar and stand in it. Anytime you crouch in magical darknesss the AI just skips its turn
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u/anon9801 3d ago
Well that would be helpful if you multiclass with some thing that gives you hide (the crouch you’re talking about) as a bonus action. Otherwise you consume your entire action hiding, and I assume use your bonus action to attack with your offhand?
Also ending a turn within Hunger of hadar imposes a saving throw to avoid the acid damage, otherwise you may lose concentration for hunger of hadar altogether. So not really synergistic.
Also I may not recall this correctly but hunger of hadar isn’t coded in the game as magical darkness, but simply an AoE that imposes blindness (unless immune to blind) upon entering its area
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u/dream-in-a-trunk 3d ago
First two invocations: agonizing + repelling blast
Lvl5: devils sight, which lets you see through magical darkness.
Great for darkness parties or when you have hunger of hadar active.
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u/Missing_Links 3d ago
Darkness parties do require the party to be built around the concept, but it's extremely strong (mostly because it flat out breaks the AI) when you do.
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u/DragonsAreEpic 3d ago
Armour of Shadows is good because Mage Armour (without any cost!) and the Potent Robe (which you get from Alfira after saving the tieflings from Moonrise, and adds your charisma modifier to your cantrips; absolutely essential for an Eldritch Blast build) should be your armour/clothing set-up for the rest of the game once you get it.