FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
Well - Obviously the wizard is superior at levels 1 and 2 as the tomelock doesn't have his rituals yet.
D&D 5E Charisma Conundrum
Well - Obviously the wizard is superior at levels 1 and 2 as the tomelock doesn't have his rituals yet.
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
I think the notion is that the tomelock could save any found rituals from level 1-2 and scribe them once hitting level 3 (or shortly thereafter).
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
@Ashrym
If I have left out any important abilities please feel free to bring them to my attention. I've not completed the comparison but wanted to get it out there.
I'm comparing your warlock and my wizard
I am going to use a 1-10 rating system (10 being and various categories I find important)
Single Enemy Combat - A general measure of combat competency across various fronts - offensive, defensive, buffing, debuffing, healing etc.)
Warlock - Light Crossbow, shatter, armor of agathys
Wizard - Light Crossbow, Levitate, Shocking Grasp, Shield
Wizard and warlock have the same at will DPR. That DPR is kind of low for both. The wizard has better defensive options (shocking grasp + shield vs armor of agathys). The warlock has a better burst damage spell in shatter. The Wizard has a legitimate single target control spell.
Fairly close overall but the wizard has a slight edge.
Warlock 4
Wizard 5
Multi Enemy Combat - A general measure of combat competency across various fronts - offensive, defensive, buffing, debuffing, healing etc.)
Warlock - Light Crossbow, shatter, armor of agathys, sleep, fey presence
Wizard - Light Crossbow, Shocking Grasp, Shield, sleep, fog cloud
Overall it's shatter+sleep vs sleep+fog cloud and better defensive options. I give the advantage to Warlock - but it's still pretty close.
Warlock 8
Wizard 6
Exploration - A general measure of exploration contributions.
Warlock - find familiar, good dex for stealth, unseen servant, speak with animals
Wizard - find familiar, good dex for stealth, unseen servant, investigation, levitate, rope trick, detect magic, speak with animals from forest gnome, knowledge skills.
Wizard is hands down winner in exploration even though warlock is solid at it. The only thing I can think that can offer more exploration benefits at this level is a bard.
Warlock 6
Wizard 9
Social - A general measure of social contributions
Warlock has this one hands down with charisma for skills and friends cantrip. However, overall warlocks are good but not great here.
Wizard offers pretty much nothing here.
Warlock 6
Wizard 3
(Wizard got 3 for not super dumping charisma)
Other - Measure for other abilities that don't directly fit into the above categories as their applications are quite broad.
Warlock - guidance, misty visions
Wizard - portent, silent image, minor illusion
These abilities are so diverse in what they can achieve that it's difficult to rate them. Overall I'm setting them above average as portent and guidance are both excellent abilities to have.
Warlock 7
Wizard 7
Resources - This is a measure of how many resources in total, how powerful of effects they fuel and how easy it is to conserve resources to fuel the abilities spoken of above.
Warlock has more at will abilities and nearly all his abilities out of combat are at will which allows him to reserve spells for combat.
Wizard has more overall resources but also less at will capabilities. His high ratings in exploration and single enemy combat is driven primarily due to his resources that compete across those functions. Arcane recovery helps but I don't think it's enough.
Warlock 7
Wizard 6
Taking all these ratings as equally important has the warlock coming out on top - but barely so. In fact it's so close on points that I'd call it a draw. However, the real difference is how important exploration is vs social. It doesn't take much of a swing on either of those axis to swing one being better than the other. For my games exploration has been much more important. In my experience, it seems difficult to make social encounters have as meaningful of an impact as exploration challenges.
Also, there's one other important thing to consider beyond the day in and day out contributions. That is which character would you rather have in your party in worst case scenarios. IMO the wizard is more likely than your warlock to turn a worst case style scenario around. That's a very important consideration for me and also plays into how I built my wizard.
So while I'd consider the day in and out contributions of both classes to be similar - I still find the wizard to be the better choice for the reasons I outlined above.
If I have left out any important abilities please feel free to bring them to my attention. I've not completed the comparison but wanted to get it out there.
I'm comparing your warlock and my wizard
I am going to use a 1-10 rating system (10 being and various categories I find important)
Single Enemy Combat - A general measure of combat competency across various fronts - offensive, defensive, buffing, debuffing, healing etc.)
Warlock - Light Crossbow, shatter, armor of agathys
Wizard - Light Crossbow, Levitate, Shocking Grasp, Shield
Wizard and warlock have the same at will DPR. That DPR is kind of low for both. The wizard has better defensive options (shocking grasp + shield vs armor of agathys). The warlock has a better burst damage spell in shatter. The Wizard has a legitimate single target control spell.
Fairly close overall but the wizard has a slight edge.
Warlock 4
Wizard 5
Multi Enemy Combat - A general measure of combat competency across various fronts - offensive, defensive, buffing, debuffing, healing etc.)
Warlock - Light Crossbow, shatter, armor of agathys, sleep, fey presence
Wizard - Light Crossbow, Shocking Grasp, Shield, sleep, fog cloud
Overall it's shatter+sleep vs sleep+fog cloud and better defensive options. I give the advantage to Warlock - but it's still pretty close.
Warlock 8
Wizard 6
Exploration - A general measure of exploration contributions.
Warlock - find familiar, good dex for stealth, unseen servant, speak with animals
Wizard - find familiar, good dex for stealth, unseen servant, investigation, levitate, rope trick, detect magic, speak with animals from forest gnome, knowledge skills.
Wizard is hands down winner in exploration even though warlock is solid at it. The only thing I can think that can offer more exploration benefits at this level is a bard.
Warlock 6
Wizard 9
Social - A general measure of social contributions
Warlock has this one hands down with charisma for skills and friends cantrip. However, overall warlocks are good but not great here.
Wizard offers pretty much nothing here.
Warlock 6
Wizard 3
(Wizard got 3 for not super dumping charisma)
Other - Measure for other abilities that don't directly fit into the above categories as their applications are quite broad.
Warlock - guidance, misty visions
Wizard - portent, silent image, minor illusion
These abilities are so diverse in what they can achieve that it's difficult to rate them. Overall I'm setting them above average as portent and guidance are both excellent abilities to have.
Warlock 7
Wizard 7
Resources - This is a measure of how many resources in total, how powerful of effects they fuel and how easy it is to conserve resources to fuel the abilities spoken of above.
Warlock has more at will abilities and nearly all his abilities out of combat are at will which allows him to reserve spells for combat.
Wizard has more overall resources but also less at will capabilities. His high ratings in exploration and single enemy combat is driven primarily due to his resources that compete across those functions. Arcane recovery helps but I don't think it's enough.
Warlock 7
Wizard 6
Taking all these ratings as equally important has the warlock coming out on top - but barely so. In fact it's so close on points that I'd call it a draw. However, the real difference is how important exploration is vs social. It doesn't take much of a swing on either of those axis to swing one being better than the other. For my games exploration has been much more important. In my experience, it seems difficult to make social encounters have as meaningful of an impact as exploration challenges.
Also, there's one other important thing to consider beyond the day in and day out contributions. That is which character would you rather have in your party in worst case scenarios. IMO the wizard is more likely than your warlock to turn a worst case style scenario around. That's a very important consideration for me and also plays into how I built my wizard.
So while I'd consider the day in and out contributions of both classes to be similar - I still find the wizard to be the better choice for the reasons I outlined above.
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Tony Vargas
Legend
Yeah, I never forget that one, myself, because of the classic Tom Baker Dr Who storyline, The Brain of Morbius.
So when we talk about "early on" or tier-1 or front loaded or before 5th or whatever... we are really talking about level 3 - maybe 4 too? The superiority of the tomelock at lower levels before the wizard gets the good spells is a level bump issue?
Uh huh. OK.
Meaning those resources were not useful for those early levels in the warlock case but were for the wizard.
Zardnaar
Legend
Only if comparing rituals.
Rituals are IMHO pick up steam later on IMHO. It's around then wizards get better than warlocks regardless if rituals are used or not.
I'll discuss any level you want with an open mind. Especially low level because the 1st tier of play doesn't really last long, ime.
That's incorrect. We would assume the same game play for apples to apples which means all of the wizard rituals the wizard finds would have also been found by the warlock. The warlock is waiting until 3rd level to scribe them but he has found the same number of wizard scrolls as the wizard would have.
The difference is the warlock may have also found bard, cleric, or druid rituals so the only conclusion is that warlock will find the same as or more rituals to scribe than the wizard can. Once 3rd level hits finding rituals is a clear advantage for the tome pacts.
It's really not that hard to leave the attitude out of a polite discussion.
Generic the flavor Warlock
Half-Elf -- darkvision, fey ancestry, skill versatility
Ability Scores (point buy) -- 10 STR, 16 DEX, 14 CON, 10 INT, 10 WIS, 16 CHA
Background -- urchin: disguise kit, thieves' tools, city secrets
Skill Proficiencies -- sleight of hand +5, stealth +5, investigation +2, religion +2, perception +2, deception +5
Patron -- Fey, available at 1st level
Pact -- tome, available at 3rd level
Initially, I see a lot more proficiencies on my choice. No need to pick a race for an extra cantrip going tome.
I'll break these next response down by level.
Which 4 spells did you prep?
1st level -- 1 1st-level slot that recovers on a short rest, 2 cantrips, 2 spells known, patron ability
cantrips -- prestidigitation, light
spells known -- sleep, unseen servant
patron ability -- fey presence (recovers on a short rest)
First thoughts: well, no armor, lower CON score and hit dice, lower AC, your damage is lower. More tool proficiencies, more skill proficiencies, and an AoE charm ability for my warlock. The warlock has better damage, accuracy, hit point, and AC.
Heck, I can auto-succeed on DC 25 locks with the "take time" rule.
If you claim 3 slots due to a short rest it's the wizard's 3 spell slots to the warlock's 2 spell slots plus 2 pact abilities. The wizard has more cantrips and 1 ritual, which was expected at 1st level.
Those spells also fail to include spells mentioned earlier like light in the cantrips. I see you did pick up magic missile like I mentioned as an option to Zard earlier and dropped the light cantrip.
Which 5 spells did you prep?
2nd level -- 2 1st-level slots that recovers on a short rest, 2 cantrips, 2 spells known, patron ability, 2 invocations
cantrips -- prestidigitation, light
spells known -- sleep, unseen servant, armor of agathys
patron ability -- fey presence (recovers on a short rest)
invocations -- misty visions (silent image at will), beast speech (speak with animals at will)
First thoughts: The hit point gap increases, you have 2 rituals now, I added another defensive option. If we're assuming only 1 rest so you can count arcane recovery it's your 4 1st level slots and 2 portents vs my 4 1st level slots and my 2 fey presences and my unlimited uses of silent image and speak with animals.
The wizard does have friends or charm person to help with the lower social skill checks based on CHA but fey presence can cover that if needed. Or anyone can give advantage with the help action.
I think the higher DEX, CHA, and additional proficiencies plus invocations are smoking the wizard right now, and I was a little shocked you dumped defense to get to that point.
Which 6 spells did you prep?
3rd level -- 2 2nd-level slots that recovers on a short rest, 2 cantrips, 2 spells known, patron ability, 2 invocations, pact ability
cantrips -- prestidigitation, light, friends, resistance, guidance
spells known -- sleep, unseen servant, armor of agathys, shatter
patron ability -- fey presence (recovers on a short rest)
invocations -- misty visions (silent image at will), book of ancient secrets (rituals; swapped from beast speech)
pact -- tome (book of shadows; 3 cantrips from any class)
book rituals -- speak with animals, find familiar
These are your options for the spell slots: 3 2nd level slots and 4 1st level slots, or 2 2nd-level slots and 6 1st-level slots. That's decent enough at 3rd level and gives the versatility in spells I mentioned earlier. It's compared to my 4 2nd-level slots and unlimited silent images. Or we can forgo any short rests if you prefer and it's your 2 2nd-level slots 4 1st level slots compared to my 2 2nd-level slots and unlimited silent images. Or, we can go with the standard assumed 2 short rests. It doesn't matter; at this level the warlock has the spell slot advantage due to invocations regardless of the number of rests, which is what I stated earlier.
Your build only has 2 rituals compared to my 3 rituals, and you skipped demonstrating that you would have prepped either of them as you had previous stated you could (which I said could but would not). Neither you nor Frogweaver demonstrated prepping a ritual.
The actual rituals you have are alarm and unseen servant. The rituals I have are find familiar, speak with animals, and unseen servant. The ritual advantage unexpectedly went to me in the end. That's the opposite of previous arguments for the ritual advantage. Alarm doesn't offer the utility those rituals do and can be covered by setting watches.
My light crossbow does d8+3 damage compared to your firebolt's d10, and that's not covering the eldritch blast I'm picking up at 4th level and agonizing blast at 5th level. Firebolt was behind from the start.
Your cantrips are minor illusion, firebolt, message, and friends. You added speak with small animals in there and minor illusion via race bonus and that still only gave a temp advantage at 1st level given silent image and speak with animals were at will at 2nd level on my build and firebolt wasn't a better option than a crossbow. Message doesn't beat light and prestidigitation, but adding in guidance and resistance can be rather useful.
Control is a wizard's strong suit. I wouldn't expect DPR to be the primary focus, and mind spike works with expert divination so I think it's a solid choice from 6th to 10th level.
My combat is better hit points and armor, a crossbow, fey presence (it's good for preventing attacks), armor of agathys, silent image, sleep, and shatter. My focus is more on skills, stealth, and trickery. I still covered AoE, damage, and control in there. At 4th level suggestion or invisibility or alter self gets added (I've gone different ways), and at 5th level hypnotic pattern is added while sleep is exchanged.
My concern here is that you just listed 6 spells presumably prepped (magic missile, mind spike, silent image, fog cloud, grease). At 3rd level the wizard only preps 2 more spells than the warlock knows. There's still a crunch against fitting a lot in.
The INT matters here. I fit in religion and investigation (and expertise in it later via prodigy), stealth, perception, thieves' tools, disguise kit, sleight of hand, unseen servant, find familiar, speak with animals, resistance, and guidance. Even light and prestidigitation make a difference here.
The question is which spell do you not have from the combat list in order to have locate object prepped?
Gather information is also a CHA check, btw. It's not associated with a skill, but other social skills can be used to curry favor and gain information that way too.
Friends, fey presence, high CHA, guidance, disguise kit
What spell do you not have prepped to fit in charm person?
Healing potions are on the standard equipment list. AL rules have additional potions and scrolls for gold that can be purchased. Neither one of us is hurting for rituals or utility if we're following AL rules. That's probably moving the goalposts thought.
Thieves' tools, disguise kit, guidance, unseen servant, find familiar, speak with animals, light.
There's always alternatives. That's the problem. People look at the alternatives like the wizard spell list is all there when it's restricted to spells actually in the book, and that's further restricted by spells actually taken. Swapping spells when planning ahead is a thing but there's always a typical favorite list that's default and it's not changed on the fly.
I could say detect magic at will is an invocation too, but since I never take it that wouldn't be discussing in good faith and gets to the shroedinger arguments.
I would though. My warlock has 15 AC and your diviner has 12 AC. My warlock has 24 hit points at 3rd level to go with that and adds 10 temp hp with agathys, and can charm multiple opponents in a pinch for a round. Your diviner has 17 hp and no defensive spells. I have plenty of options for combat assist with silent image, sleep, and shatter. It's hard to use those options at 0 hp.
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
Frogweaver huh? I'm fairly certain I could change one letter in your name and make a lot something a lot more catchy
Anyways, please don't bring me into that. I didn't make the claim. That said, if I was in an environment where my normally prepared spells would not be useful and I only had rituals known that I could prepare then I would at that time. Like a 1 in a million shot of that every happening.
I'll discuss any level you want with an open mind. Especially low level because the 1st tier of play doesn't really last long, ime.
That's incorrect. We would assume the same game play for apples to apples which means all of the wizard rituals the wizard finds would have also been found by the warlock. The warlock is waiting until 3rd level to scribe them but he has found the same number of wizard scrolls as the wizard would have.
The difference is the warlock may have also found bard, cleric, or druid rituals so the only conclusion is that warlock will find the same as or more rituals to scribe than the wizard can. Once 3rd level hits finding rituals is a clear advantage for the tome pacts.
It's really not that hard to leave the attitude out of a polite discussion.
Generic the flavor Warlock
Half-Elf -- darkvision, fey ancestry, skill versatility
Ability Scores (point buy) -- 10 STR, 16 DEX, 14 CON, 10 INT, 10 WIS, 16 CHA
Background -- urchin: disguise kit, thieves' tools, city secrets
Skill Proficiencies -- sleight of hand +5, stealth +5, investigation +2, religion +2, perception +2, deception +5
Patron -- Fey, available at 1st level
Pact -- tome, available at 3rd level
Initially, I see a lot more proficiencies on my choice. No need to pick a race for an extra cantrip going tome.
I'll break these next response down by level.
Which 4 spells did you prep?
1st level -- 1 1st-level slot that recovers on a short rest, 2 cantrips, 2 spells known, patron ability
cantrips -- prestidigitation, light
spells known -- sleep, unseen servant
patron ability -- fey presence (recovers on a short rest)
First thoughts: well, no armor, lower CON score and hit dice, lower AC, your damage is lower. More tool proficiencies, more skill proficiencies, and an AoE charm ability for my warlock. The warlock has better damage, accuracy, hit point, and AC.
Heck, I can auto-succeed on DC 25 locks with the "take time" rule.
If you claim 3 slots due to a short rest it's the wizard's 3 spell slots to the warlock's 2 spell slots plus 2 pact abilities. The wizard has more cantrips and 1 ritual, which was expected at 1st level.
Those spells also fail to include spells mentioned earlier like light in the cantrips. I see you did pick up magic missile like I mentioned as an option to Zard earlier and dropped the light cantrip.
Which 5 spells did you prep?
2nd level -- 2 1st-level slots that recovers on a short rest, 2 cantrips, 2 spells known, patron ability, 2 invocations
cantrips -- prestidigitation, light
spells known -- sleep, unseen servant, armor of agathys
patron ability -- fey presence (recovers on a short rest)
invocations -- misty visions (silent image at will), beast speech (speak with animals at will)
First thoughts: The hit point gap increases, you have 2 rituals now, I added another defensive option. If we're assuming only 1 rest so you can count arcane recovery it's your 4 1st level slots and 2 portents vs my 4 1st level slots and my 2 fey presences and my unlimited uses of silent image and speak with animals.
The wizard does have friends or charm person to help with the lower social skill checks based on CHA but fey presence can cover that if needed. Or anyone can give advantage with the help action.
I think the higher DEX, CHA, and additional proficiencies plus invocations are smoking the wizard right now, and I was a little shocked you dumped defense to get to that point.
Which 6 spells did you prep?
3rd level -- 2 2nd-level slots that recovers on a short rest, 2 cantrips, 2 spells known, patron ability, 2 invocations, pact ability
cantrips -- prestidigitation, light, friends, resistance, guidance
spells known -- sleep, unseen servant, armor of agathys, shatter
patron ability -- fey presence (recovers on a short rest)
invocations -- misty visions (silent image at will), book of ancient secrets (rituals; swapped from beast speech)
pact -- tome (book of shadows; 3 cantrips from any class)
book rituals -- speak with animals, find familiar
These are your options for the spell slots: 3 2nd level slots and 4 1st level slots, or 2 2nd-level slots and 6 1st-level slots. That's decent enough at 3rd level and gives the versatility in spells I mentioned earlier. It's compared to my 4 2nd-level slots and unlimited silent images. Or we can forgo any short rests if you prefer and it's your 2 2nd-level slots 4 1st level slots compared to my 2 2nd-level slots and unlimited silent images. Or, we can go with the standard assumed 2 short rests. It doesn't matter; at this level the warlock has the spell slot advantage due to invocations regardless of the number of rests, which is what I stated earlier.
Your build only has 2 rituals compared to my 3 rituals, and you skipped demonstrating that you would have prepped either of them as you had previous stated you could (which I said could but would not). Neither you nor Frogweaver demonstrated prepping a ritual.
The actual rituals you have are alarm and unseen servant. The rituals I have are find familiar, speak with animals, and unseen servant. The ritual advantage unexpectedly went to me in the end. That's the opposite of previous arguments for the ritual advantage. Alarm doesn't offer the utility those rituals do and can be covered by setting watches.
My light crossbow does d8+3 damage compared to your firebolt's d10, and that's not covering the eldritch blast I'm picking up at 4th level and agonizing blast at 5th level. Firebolt was behind from the start.
Your cantrips are minor illusion, firebolt, message, and friends. You added speak with small animals in there and minor illusion via race bonus and that still only gave a temp advantage at 1st level given silent image and speak with animals were at will at 2nd level on my build and firebolt wasn't a better option than a crossbow. Message doesn't beat light and prestidigitation, but adding in guidance and resistance can be rather useful.
Control is a wizard's strong suit. I wouldn't expect DPR to be the primary focus, and mind spike works with expert divination so I think it's a solid choice from 6th to 10th level.
My combat is better hit points and armor, a crossbow, fey presence (it's good for preventing attacks), armor of agathys, silent image, sleep, and shatter. My focus is more on skills, stealth, and trickery. I still covered AoE, damage, and control in there. At 4th level suggestion or invisibility or alter self gets added (I've gone different ways), and at 5th level hypnotic pattern is added while sleep is exchanged.
My concern here is that you just listed 6 spells presumably prepped (magic missile, mind spike, silent image, fog cloud, grease). At 3rd level the wizard only preps 2 more spells than the warlock knows. There's still a crunch against fitting a lot in.
The INT matters here. I fit in religion and investigation (and expertise in it later via prodigy), stealth, perception, thieves' tools, disguise kit, sleight of hand, unseen servant, find familiar, speak with animals, resistance, and guidance. Even light and prestidigitation make a difference here.
The question is which spell do you not have from the combat list in order to have locate object prepped?
Gather information is also a CHA check, btw. It's not associated with a skill, but other social skills can be used to curry favor and gain information that way too.
Friends, fey presence, high CHA, guidance, disguise kit
What spell do you not have prepped to fit in charm person?
Healing potions are on the standard equipment list. AL rules have additional potions and scrolls for gold that can be purchased. Neither one of us is hurting for rituals or utility if we're following AL rules. That's probably moving the goalposts thought.
Thieves' tools, disguise kit, guidance, unseen servant, find familiar, speak with animals, light.
There's always alternatives. That's the problem. People look at the alternatives like the wizard spell list is all there when it's restricted to spells actually in the book, and that's further restricted by spells actually taken. Swapping spells when planning ahead is a thing but there's always a typical favorite list that's default and it's not changed on the fly.
I could say detect magic at will is an invocation too, but since I never take it that wouldn't be discussing in good faith and gets to the shroedinger arguments.
I would though. My warlock has 15 AC and your diviner has 12 AC. My warlock has 24 hit points at 3rd level to go with that and adds 10 temp hp with agathys, and can charm multiple opponents in a pinch for a round. Your diviner has 17 hp and no defensive spells. I have plenty of options for combat assist with silent image, sleep, and shatter. It's hard to use those options at 0 hp.
Thanks for the analysis, it pretty much backs up my expectations.
A few points...
As noted, given the issue raised was to create a non-vacuum example, I chose to skip Familiar as a choice due to not knowing the material component availability at low levels. So, I prioritized no-material or common material spells.
Additionally, wholr you may want to count speak with animals as ritual in your "edge" I avoided it because I get a lot of that right off by the gnomish feature.
Also, I did not pick a given list prepped because that will vary daily by day, situation and need. It is changed quite often and that is where those synergies eith the Int come to the fore - getting info through investigation is a good thing that gets better when you can swap your options around a bit with a bit of a rest yo emphasize what works best. This aspect will just keep growing, especially as later levels come into play.
So, will I have one or two ritual prepped? Depends on the day? What will not be chosen to make room for Chsrm Person or Locate? Will vary by the day. I can see how you want yo keep trying to turn it into a comparison of two picked lists of prepped, but thats not how it works in practice, unless you assume one day adventures that start in a vacuum.
Also, you have higher AC and HP but I have the ability to craft heslingnpotions... dvdn one Hesling potion averages enough to bridge that HP gap. As for AC, well, in my ecperirnce, the difference between AC 15 and AC 12 is how fast you lose. If AC is bring tested often enough to make 15 vs 12 meaningful, you are losing anyway.
But here we get to some of the key bits... you spread out into thieves tools, disguise, etc. Becsuse this is built to be part of a team game, I didn't. I expect there yo be a rogue or ranger or other going the scouting. No need for me to pick locks.
I dont need guidance because there is often a cleric around with it. So in situations where Guidsnce is applicable to skill checks, we likely both have it to add that d4 to our skills.
Adding in extra Healing, that's always good but still highly variable by game, but I can also be crafting antitoxin iirc.
But the number of other teammates with investigation and knowledge checks backed up with high int is... gonna be low. Add in the ability to plan when to ho do a vs b vs c combining knowledge of my portent rolls before spells prepped. and just planning when to do abc knowing both... adds up to a lot more than a lityle bit of gain.
As stated, after listing it comes down to assumptions and different values placed on things. Which was where we started before the listing of specific builds for a measuring contest.
Not sure where you get better "accuracy" claim, given my firebolt is +5 to hit and my magic missile is auto-hit and I have portent as well. Unless I missed it, you have +5 with your crossbow. Unless this is back to the owl help advantage fiction. I mean, sure, if we are to assume the campaign specs include the oel nit getting pot-shotted and the ready availability of comps for it and time to recast it as ritual- then thst changes my stated assumption and explanation and it gets taken by my Wizard instead of skipped. (Of course, when looking at EB vs Firebolt at 5th plus, EB only gets its advantage on one shot (one d10+C) but the Firebolt gets advantage on one shot (2d10) etc so that familiar has "accuracy" on more dice of damage using firebolt. Not that the familiar being risked for cantrips is a sensible trade versus say saving it for harder hitting attack roll spells.
Of course you chose to go with better backup thievery role while I went other ways. But in my experience, the higher ability scores for Wisdom more than makes up for a lot. Wisdom checks and saves are very common.
Gather Info using Cha-Investigation can absolutely be a thing, just like how investigation can be used to gather info on NPC traits to switch disposition- which really lowers DC for social checks a lot.
If you think Alarm is covered by setting watches, that's another example of how different our games are - how differently we assume things are used.
I also suspect that our games may handle social checks significantly differently if you value a six second charm chance as social tool as highly as it seems like you do. I mean, if it succeeds at its 10' cube vs saves, you only get one round of actions which seems like a very dhortnperiod yo make that psy off socially, unless you are getting to talk somebody into things as a single action in that period. In our games, that us not usually gonna be the case. That's why I vslue Charm with portent and even friends as much.
But to me the core difference is gonna be in how often you assume the wizard has chosen the better of his options for the task at hand versus not. How much do you see daily prep after seeing portent and choosing dprlls to fit those and the needs come together vs the always pre-selected warlock.
Given how often you want to see a prep list without any of that... I can see where we differ. My spells chosen will change once I see portent rolls. My spells picked will vary based on that plus the situational knowledge we have.
That is why my baseline picks dont go for "fixed prep plus rituals" trying to optimize spells off-hand by having no non-ritual spells beyond prep slots. For diviner especially, its key to have flexibility on your choices for prep to better exploit your daily changes and portent rolls.
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