Warlock may need some adjustment

[ElterAgo]

Ok, so the GM lets us adjust the PC's up until they have played at 5th level. I'm getting ready to start playing this guy at 5th level. If I want to make any particular adjustments, I need to decide now.

This guy is a pathological liar. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending upon your outlook), he also tends to be the default spokesperson of the group. I have been getting a lot of mileage out of the Deception skill. I try to lie my way around or out of most situations. If that doesn't work then I start throwing out some debuff and/or eldritch blasts. Has been quite successful so far.

Tiefling
1st level is bard
2nd to 5th level is 4 levels of warlock
Patron is the Great Old One
Pact of the Tomb
Invocations are Agonizing Blast and Book of Ancient Secrets
Feat is Actor
Str: 8, Dex: 14, Con: 14, Int: 12, Wis:8, Cha: 18
Background is Charlatan
Skill Proficiency in Deception, Insight, Investigation, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth
Save Proficiency in Charisma and Dexterity
Tool Proficiency in Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit, Viol, Flute, and Shawm
Spells:
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Friends, Guidance, Mending, Prestidigitation, Produce Flame, Resistance, Thaumaturgy, Vicious Mockery
Level 1: Armor of Agathys, Bane, Disguise Self, Dissonant Whispers, Feather Fall, Hex, Silent Image
Level 2: Darkness, Hellish Rebuke, Invisibility, Shatter
Rituals: Alarm, Identify

Magic Items:
Potion of Healing
Circlet of Blasting

Not sure how happy I am with the spell selection. Was thinking about switching out the prof in Disguise Kit for Thieves Tools since I have the spell Disguise Self. But the duration isn't that long, so not sure. I haven't been playing 5thEd all that long, so any advice will be appreciated.

Future Plans are still in flux. Next feat is almost certain to be the +2 to charisma. I haven't been able to decide if I want to just go all warlock or not. Seriously considering 1 level of rogue and/or 2 more levels of bard. That would really pump up my skills, but it would also greatly delay the higher level warlock goodies. What are your thoughts?

 

[Esker]

What does the single bard level do for your concept? It seems to me that a small warlock dip helps a bard more than a small bard dip helps a warlock. Have you considered reversing your multiclass to be primarily bard with a small dip in warlock? If you want to play up the pathological liar thing, going Warlock 2 / Bard X, and taking the Mask of Many Faces invocation, would be quite nice. You delay Actor by a level, and so your spell DC will be held back a bit until 6th, but you can now disguise yourself at will, and have expertise in deception to pull off the disguise. Bards are fantastic debuffers, and with the warlock dip you'll have all the at-will damage you need.

Switching from GOO to Hexblade is probably mechanically the best here, since GOO overlaps with Bard, and getting medium armor and shields (not to mention the shield spell) lets you go Lore Bard for more skills and Cutting Words. With that 14 in DEX medium armor is perfect for you.

I assume swapping out magic items isn't part of the deal, but if it is you could trade your Circlet of Blasting (which is a piece of crap magic item) for a hat of disguise, and keep your warlock dip to a single level; you lose out on at will damage that way, but it might be worth it to learn higher level spells earlier.

If the party is depending on you to be the ritual guy, you can still get the key ones (like detect magic, and later, Leomund's Tiny Hut) as a bard and cast them as rituals, though it will cut into your limited spell choices (on the other hand, you get the Disguise Self pick back).

If you want to stick with warlock as your primary class, you're probably better off either staying single classed and getting 3rd level spells and your third invocation now (I'd suggest Hypnotic Pattern, and maybe Thunder Step for spells, and again, Mask of Many Faces as the invocation), and maybe taking a single level in rogue at 6th.

 

[Esker]

I would also swap out Prestidigitation for maybe Minor Illusion, or Toll the Dead, since you already have Thaumaturgy from being a Tiefling, and I don't think Vicious Mockery is worth it since you have Eldritch Blast. If Warlock 1 / Bard 4, I'd take Eldritch Blast and Toll the Dead from Warlock, and Minor Illusion, Friends, and some other nice utility cantrip (Mage Hand, maybe?) from Bard. If staying Warlock, swap Prestidigitation for Minor Illusion, and swap Resistance for Sacred Flame (Resistance is overrated, IMO, since you don't want to use your concentration on it in combat, and out of combat you rarely know ahead of time that you're going to need to make a save). Or swap Prestidigitation for Toll the Dead, and swap Resistance for Mage Hand or a melee cantrip.

In terms of leveled spell selection, you probably want to decide whether you're focusing on debuffing when in combat; if so, I'd drop Hex since it eats up your concentration. If switching to Hexblade, replace it with Shield. I'd switch Darkness for Suggestion, to enhance your manipulation game. And dropping Disguise Self frees you up to take a ritual from the bard list, if dropping warlock down to 1 or 2, or maybe Charm Person, or possibly something like Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

 

[ElterAgo]

Don't want to do Hexblade with this character. My next character will either be a full out Hexblade or a barbarian.

The Bard level was primarily to get a few more spells known and a few extra spell slots for things like the Hex spell. Only 2 spell slots with a group that doesn't like to take many short rests has been limiting.

Yeah, I don't think I've used Resistance once. That can go. I don't think I've used Produce Flame either.

I was thinking the Vicious Mockery for the disadvantage on the next attack roll for a high damaging opponent. Might chuck that one also. Will consider.

Can't switch out Darkness because it is a race spell.

I want to be primarily a debuff caster. However, the group seems to get split up a lot. So I need to have at least decent capacity to some damage when there aren't enough of the others around. If the full group is present I would prefer to use debuff spells.

Yeah, I know the Circlet of Blasting isn't that great. But nothing else we have found so far is better for my PC except for an amulet that was found one of the sessions when I wasn't present. So the druid ended up with that. The other things have mostly been weapons or potions to buff melee combat.

 

[Esker]

Don't want to do Hexblade with this character. My next character will either be a full out Hexblade or a barbarian.

The Bard level was primarily to get a few more spells known and a few extra spell slots for things like the Hex spell. Only 2 spell slots with a group that doesn't like to take many short rests has been limiting.

...

I want to be primarily a debuff caster. However, the group seems to get split up a lot. So I need to have at least decent capacity to some damage when there aren't enough of the others around. If the full group is present I would prefer to use debuff spells.

If the group doesn't like short rests, then I definitely think going primarily bard is going to work out better for you. Warlocks just fall way behind if you're not getting regular short rests. Since you want to be able to do some decent damage, I'd keep two levels of warlock for agonizing blast and Mask of Many Faces, and you may as well keep Hex too, since I don't really see three worthwhile 1st level Warlock spells, unless you want to grab Tasha's Hideous Laughter and/or Dissonant Whispers from the GOO list on the Warlock side to make room on the Bard side, which, thinking for the future, might be a good idea, since both of those scale well so you're unlikely to want to trade them out as you level Bard. Otherwise, Armor of Agathys, Charm Person, Hex (though come to think of it, Charm Person is kind of redundant if you have Friends and Mask of Many Faces).

In the end, between the two classes I'd want to have:

Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Friends, Minor Illusion, <misc utility or Toll the Dead>
1st: Armor of Agathys, Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Detect Magic, Silent Image, Bane, <one more based on the party's needs, such as a heal, Feather Fall, or another ritual>
2nd: Suggestion, <something else that complements your party>

Can anyone in the party get Fireball or any other 3rd level AoE since you're level 5 now? If so, you don't need Shatter; it's going to be pretty weak relative to the monsters you'll be facing by now.