D&D 5E Bard/paladin: take 2 or 3 warlock levels?

intently · Jan 1, 2017

Absolutely!

Side note: feats are way more appealing to me than ASI... How hampered will a character be with a 16 instead of a 20 in her primary attribute?

Yunru · Jan 1, 2017

Quite a bit. Enough to be noticable, but not beyond mitigation.
Unless you're a spellcaster, in which case either it really affects you, or it doesn't at all, depending on spell selection.

intently · Jan 1, 2017

For a bard, CHA mod affects inspiration also. Starting at level 5, I'm thinking of a lore bard 3 / warlock 2, var human with the alert feat, agonizing blast, and darkvision invocation. Goal is to be party face and combat crowd control.

Never played a bard... how important are maxing inspiration uses?

mellored · Jan 2, 2017

Paladin should go 6, then tome 3 for shillelagh, allowing you to attack with Cha. At some point you'll probably want warlock 5 for the ASI and all the level 3 spells/slots. If your party lacks ranged damage, going before 6 makes more sense. You can also smite with booming blade, which makes multi-attack less important.

Bard has less to gain and more to lose. Most of your actions, especially as you go higher, will be casting spells, not cantrips, and you will slow down access to your high-level spells. Still not a bad choice if your party lacks damage; hypnotic pattern can't kill anything by itself. Either way, you probably want to go straight to bard 5 for both hypnotic pattern and short rest inspiration. Vicious mockery works well enough at low levels. Bards can also grab shillelagh.

Vulf · Jan 2, 2017

intently said:
For a bard, CHA mod affects inspiration also. Starting at level 5, I'm thinking of a lore bard 3 / warlock 2, var human with the alert feat, agonizing blast, and darkvision invocation. Goal is to be party face and combat crowd control.

Never played a bard... how important are maxing inspiration uses?

Depends on your party. If you have a crossbow expert assassin with sharpshooter, his build only works with party support giving him inspiration and casting magic weapon. Unless your DM is fast and loose with the magic items.

Alatar · Jan 2, 2017

intently said:
How hampered will a character be with a 16 instead of a 20 in her primary attribute?

The answer to that question cannot be quantified. You can generate a probability table to quantify the hit frequency at 16, 18 and 20, but you can't quantify the thing(s) you got for deferring one or more ability score bumps. That will vary by feat selection, playing style, party composition and DM. Unquantifiable things. And who can say in advance which moments will be the sweetest and why?

I might split the difference. Take the ASI at 4th level; get that primary ability up to 18. Take a fun-filled feat at 8th. Max out the ability score at 12th. I say "might" because so many variables will come into play to influence that calculus, not the least of which is multiclassing before 12th means the ASI/feat progression gets pushed back. In any case, we're in subjective territory.

If I was building a controller wizard, I'd pump Int at 4th and 8th. Spell slots are a precious commodity and spell DC is crucial. For a cleric/fighter, deferring a stat bump is easier to justify. Healing spells never miss. I could see sitting at Wisdom 16 for a while. The primary fighter attribute will probably never get higher than that.

For a middle case, one ASI at 4th would keep me contented. It depends on what you are after, what makes it fun for you. D&D works with a 14. And the DM adjusts the combats to challenge but not destroy the party. Don't tell anybody.

feats are way more appealing to me than ASI

Yeah, you and me both. And fun is where it's at. When it comes to building characters, I consider myself an unapologetic powergamer, but I powergame to build a character that will be the most fun to play, not a character that will do the most damage.

WarpedAcorn · Jan 3, 2017

intently said:
Absolutely!

Side note: feats are way more appealing to me than ASI... How hampered will a character be with a 16 instead of a 20 in her primary attribute?

My current character is a Cleric 1 / Fighter-Battlemaster 5, and he has a 17 in Str and 16 in Wis. I don't really feel hampered in any way. I've taken nothing but Feats so far, and if I take another Fighter level I will take another Feat. As previously mentioned, Feats are more fun than just adding a couple of points to a Stat.

That being said, my character is a Defensive guy and I am referencing Strength. I *might* sing a different tune if I was a Rogue using Dex where I would be increasing not only my Hit/Damage stat, but also a major Skill and Save stat.

So I guess the verdict of whether a character with a 16 in a primary stat will be hampered is...definite maybe. =D