Prerequisite: Eldritch Blast cantrip
When you cast eldritch blast, its range is 300 feet.
Eldritch Spear: It’s a Long Shot
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
How long does an attack’s range need to be to always be in range of monsters? That is a question I think you need to ask yourself before taking Eldritch Spear. Eldritch Blast already has a 120 ft. cast range; how does the bonus 180 feet you’re getting empower the spell? How many more opportunities are you going to have to leverage that cast range?
I think at the majority of tables, where you only ever want to cast spells on a battlemap once an encounter has started or is about to, the answer is nearly none. Most maps aren’t going to be spawning more than a hundred fifty feet across, and those that are, the monsters probably are going to be working overtime to close that gap.
This leaves Eldritch Spear in a spot that doesn’t spark joy. It puts it in a build aimed at replicating one of my largest problems with Sharpshooter. By pairing this with Spell Sniper and the Distant Spell metamagic, you’re looking to become the Eldritch Blast equivalent where everyone huddles around you while you kill anything that breathes within 600 feet of you (roughly two city blocks). At least a DM will see that build coming a mile away as it's being assembled, and have a good amount of time to figure out how to manage it, plus (unless they’re “coffee-locking”), they’re gated by their sorcery points on the 600 foot range. Eldritch Spear still then is used as a means of preventing encounters by happening outright by ending three-dozen or more bolts at an enemy before it can get within striking distance, space allowing. It makes it so spacious areas just can’t exist as battlemaps at all, nor can they offer up an adventuring backdrop for chases or tactical navigation. If the party can see a band of villains camped within two blocks of them, the warlock can freely and safely leverage Eldritch Spear to kill them all while the rest of the party sits twiddling their thumbs. Maybe this is used as a covering fire way to get your allies down to them, maybe there is a cool tactical fight to be had here, but I really struggle to see it happening when the enemies are going to have no benefits from non-full cover, and probably are taking four or five bolts to the face before they can even try to shoot back.
I think the majority of people playing “fairly” with Eldritch Blast have no real reason to take Eldritch Spear. You’ve got a ton more compelling options to augment your Eldritch Blast if you want to, and a dozen other invocations that all offer new ways to engage with the game beyond just blasting. I wouldn’t even advocate for the Spell Sniper/Sharpshooter knock-off build; if you want to do that, Sharpshooter fighters are definitely better for it. Eldritch Spear is either going to be used for evil, or not meaningful. That’s why you probably shouldn’t take it.
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