D&D 5E Shield vs Protection from Evil and Good on a 1-level Warlock Dip

[ECMO3]

I am planning out my character design for a 1-10 campaign (the campaign is Storm King's Thunder).

Character will primarily be a creepy Glasya Tiefling Arcane Trickster Rogue from the Feywild, with a 1 level dip in Hexblade at level 2 and a 1 level dip in Fighter at level 7. The other 8 levels will be Rogue and she will start as a Rogue.

I am debating Warlock spell selection. One of her spells is going to be Wrathful Smite. That is one of the best 1st level spells in the game. For her second spell I am wavering between PEG or Shield. Shield seems like the more powerful choice, but with only 1 Warlock slot and few Rogue slots and uncanny dodge coming online about halfway through the game I think PEG may be a better choice, especially since her Wisdom saves will be weak.

Her starting stats, after bonuses are S6 D16 C10 I15 W8 CH16. I plan on taking Fey Touched (Intelligence) with Hex at Rogue 4 and Martial Adept at Rogue 8. Her fighter fighting style will be Superior Technique with Quik Toss.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Shield works on anything.

Unless you have the DM's monster proclivities pinned down, or they're running an official adventure, which will likely be at least 60% undead, Shield is going to be your best bet.

 

[billd91]

I am debating Warlock spell selection. One of her spells is going to be Wrathful Smite. That is one of the best 1st level spells in the game. For her second spell I am wavering between PEG or Shield. Shield seems like the more powerful choice, but with only 1 Warlock slot and few Rogue slots and uncanny dodge coming online about halfway through the game I think PEG may be a better choice, especially since her Wisdom saves will be weak.

If it's Storm King's Thunder you can probably expect a lot of beast, humanoid, and giant opposition. Shield's going to be more useful against most of them than protection from evil/good. None of them are particularly notorious for their fear or charm effects either. I'm not saying PfEG isn't going to occasionally be useful - some elementals and fey might figure into things - but it's probably not going to be as useful as it would be in, say, Curse of Strahd.

 

[Mort]

I am planning out my character design for a 1-10 campaign (the campaign is Storm King's Thunder).

Character will primarily be a creepy Glasya Tiefling Arcane Trickster Rogue from the Feywild, with a 1 level dip in Hexblade at level 2 and a 1 level dip in Fighter at level 7. The other 8 levels will be Rogue and she will start as a Rogue.

I am debating Warlock spell selection. One of her spells is going to be Wrathful Smite. That is one of the best 1st level spells in the game. For her second spell I am wavering between PEG or Shield. Shield seems like the more powerful choice, but with only 1 Warlock slot and few Rogue slots and uncanny dodge coming online about halfway through the game I think PEG may be a better choice, especially since her Wisdom saves will be weak.

Her starting stats, after bonuses are S6 D16 C10 I15 W8 CH16. I plan on taking Fey Touched (Intelligence) with Hex at Rogue 4 and Martial Adept at Rogue 8. Her fighter fighting style will be Superior Technique with Quik Toss.

Since you know it's Storm King's Thunder, I'd stay away from Protection from Evil - it's just too niche.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

If, and only if, you expect the vast majority (e.g. more than 2/3) of your opponents to be among the six types affected by PEG (aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead), then it will on average be better, because it has a longer duration and largely eliminates enemy crits.

Unless you have pretty high confidence that this would be true, I suggest sticking with shield. It is reliably good and, while it doesn't have a menaingful duration, you only use it when you need it, so it's almost impossible to waste it.

 

[SteveC]

Oh shield, without a doubt. It's just an amazing spell. It would be good if it just added to your AC versus one attack, but it actually works until your next turn. That's crazy good.

 

[jgsugden]

There are a lot of good points here against PEG, and I would normally favor Shield over PEG, but my answer is going to be: Neither.

Shield, while usually great, is a problem for efficient rogues as you often want to use your reaction to get that second sneak attack. I had a rogue that had access to shield, and I often found I either didn't have the reaction to use, or wanted to save the reaction to either get the 2d sneak attack, or to keep the enemy from retreating for fear of the attack.

PEG is conditional. High value when you can use it, but I have seen PCs go months without a chance to cast it. To me, it is a spell to be taken when you're higher level.

I would instead point you back to Hex - and not just for the damage. As a rogue, the secondary ability of Hex is great at diminishing Perception or Insight to allow you to be better at what you do. If you drop Hex on a guard and target wisdom, that gives them a -5 to their passive perception and passive insight. If you don't want the guard to catch you, give them disadvantage on their strnegth to hamper their ability to grapple you. Especially when you have very few spell slots - Hex is great.

 

[Stormonu]

Wrathful Smite? For a Warlock whose only gets two spell slots at a time, that spell seems a waste (it only works on 1 hit). Hex seems much better, both for the offensive & utility use of the spell. In the games I've seen the Warlock is far better off getting non-combat utility spells than combat spells like shield, wrathful smite, witch bolt and the like. I've seen that a Warlock uses leveled slots too quickly to expend them in most fights. Spamming Eldritch Blast may not be very spectacular, but it gets the job done so you can do the really interesting stuff between combats.

I also question why the one level dip into Warlock instead of just doing Eldritch Adept, and why the fighter level instead of just a martial feat?

 

[SteveC]

I will caution about the use of Hex on a rogue: it's a concentration spell. If you're in the thick of it as a rogue, your AC is likely to not be that great, so you'll be faced with losing the spell fairly often. And additionally, 1D6 of extra damage is decent at low levels but it doesn't scale particularly well.

 

[ECMO3]

I would instead point you back to Hex - and not just for the damage. As a rogue, the secondary ability of Hex is great at diminishing Perception or Insight to allow you to be better at what you do. If you drop Hex on a guard and target wisdom, that gives them a -5 to their passive perception and passive insight. If you don't want the guard to catch you, give them disadvantage on their strnegth to hamper their ability to grapple you. Especially when you have very few spell slots - Hex is great.

I am going to get Hex through the Fey touched Feat at level 4 Rogue (level 5 total).

I agree it is great. I would take Hex at 2nd level but then that leaves me kind of out on a limb at 5th level, having to take an enchantment or divination spell I won't use much.

Having Hex from Fey Touched instead of Warlock gives me two advantages: First it gives me a free cast and Hex is something you will always find a use for at some point. Second Arcane Trickster already needs to pick mostly enchantment spells for their spell selections, so the good enchantments will already be on my Rogue spell list. Bless would be ok, but the action economy to use it is not great on a Rogue, especially when it would be competing with Hex.