"Help" Lore Bard / Raven Queen Warlock with a hint of Rogue

[sightlessrealit]

So I'm playing a Lore Bard 4/ Rogue 1 Tiefling currently. At next level for RP reasons I will be going for a Raven Queen Warlock dip.

How best after this should I proceed onward?

Current Statistics

Tiefling (Standard)

Rogue 1st Level, Lore Bard upto now

Str 10
Dex 15
Con 16
Int 11
Wis 13
Cha 20

Feats(gained a free 1 at first level)
Infernal Resilience(Tiefling exclusive feat): +1 Con, Resist Cold, Poison, & advantage on Poison Saving Throws)
Diplomat: +1 Cha Expertise in Persuasion + Broken Charm Ability

Pro/Exp Skills:
Acrobatics(Pro)
Deception(Pro)
Insight(Exp)
Intimidation(Pro)
Investigation(Exp)
Perception(Exp)
Performance(Pro)
Persuasion(Exp)
Sleight of Hand(Pro)
Stealth(Exp)

Tool Skills:
Thieves Tools
Disguise Kit
Lute
Flute

That should mostly be it that is relevant. I do want to go at least up to to 3 levels in Warlock.
This character is meant to be the Skill/Monkey face of the group. Well, at least the cheerful one...everyone else apart from the Gnome Mystic is doom and gloom backstory kind of characters. There is already a Warlock in the group but he hasn't really struck me as the face type. Help with what spells/feats/ASI's would be welcome. As well and level placement.

Group Party atm is(has changed a bit):
Open Hand Monk
Fiend Warlock
Fighter(not sure which sub)
Light Cleric
Nomad Mystic
Draconic Sorcerer

[sightlessrealit]

A bump in the right direction. <-<

[sightlessrealit]

Does no one really have an opinion on how best I should progress?? If it helps my DM is power leveling us...

[Sans.]

Eek. Lots of multiclassing. I'd say ignore the rogue and get to Lore Bard 6/Rogue 1(lol)/Warlock 3 asap.

[sightlessrealit]

W
Eek. Lots of multiclassing. I'd say ignore the rogue and get to Lore Bard 6/Rogue 1(lol)/Warlock 3 asap.

Just keep in mind that this character started at level 5 & I wanted to ensure this was a skill monkey without going over board.
AKA doing something like
Half-Elf
+ Both Half-Elf Proficiency Feats
+ Level 1 Rogue & Lore Bard following it

So doing the level 1 Rogue was necessary to get that skill monkey area going.

[Princess]

Rogue 1/Lore Bard X is pushing skill monkeying to its limits. I agree with the previous commenter that you want Lore Bard 6 ASAP and I'd recommend you pick 2 spells no one else can cast to make the most of Magical Secrets. Conjure Animals is useful, because it can help both the offense and defense capabilities of an otherwise skill-centric character. And who doesn't want a panic button that summons a pack of wolves?

As for the warlock dip, level 1 gets you eldritch blast and hex (big bump to ranged effectiveness but mind the concentration on Hex), plus just having more spells known tends to make a 1 level dip in any other Cha-based caster class handy. Level 2 in warlock gets you invocations (Beguiling Influence lets *any two skills* if you already have Deception and Persuasion, so you can really go nuts there), and 3 gets you pact of the tome and book of ancient secrets or the Raven Queen special tome invocation. But past those 3 levels, I'd recommend sticking with Bard if you are happy barding around. Really, I think that Rogue level may have been unnecessary where a background would do to justify thieves' tools, but if you are the primary misc. problem solver for your group it could be perfect.

YMMV, but without getting into more details about your group, I'd recommend getting bard to 6 asap, then warlock to 3, then back to bard for the remainder of the campaign. More than 3 levels in more than one primary spellcasting class (which both warlock and bard are) tends to interfere with having level-appropriate spells when something tough comes along.

[sightlessrealit]

Rogue 1/Lore Bard X is pushing skill monkeying to its limits. I agree with the previous commenter that you want Lore Bard 6 ASAP and I'd recommend you pick 2 spells no one else can cast to make the most of Magical Secrets. Conjure Animals is useful, because it can help both the offense and defense capabilities of an otherwise skill-centric character. And who doesn't want a panic button that summons a pack of wolves?

As for the warlock dip, level 1 gets you eldritch blast and hex (big bump to ranged effectiveness but mind the concentration on Hex), plus just having more spells known tends to make a 1 level dip in any other Cha-based caster class handy. Level 2 in warlock gets you invocations (Beguiling Influence lets *any two skills* if you already have Deception and Persuasion, so you can really go nuts there), and 3 gets you pact of the tome and book of ancient secrets or the Raven Queen special tome invocation. But past those 3 levels, I'd recommend sticking with Bard if you are happy barding around. Really, I think that Rogue level may have been unnecessary where a background would do to justify thieves' tools, but if you are the primary misc. problem solver for your group it could be perfect.

YMMV, but without getting into more details about your group, I'd recommend getting bard to 6 asap, then warlock to 3, then back to bard for the remainder of the campaign. More than 3 levels in more than one primary spellcasting class (which both warlock and bard are) tends to interfere with having level-appropriate spells when something tough comes along.

So after next level go back to leveling up bard again. Then I can go back to warlock.

[Princess]

So after next level go back to leveling up bard again. Then I can go back to warlock.

Yep, that's the summary.

[sightlessrealit]

Yep, that's the summary.

Any Feat recommendations?

[Princess]

Any Feat recommendations?

Get charisma to 20 ASAP. There aren't many feats more useful to a Bard or Warlock than pure charisma boosts. Unless, maybe, if you were getting smacked around a lot, but that means the rest of your group aren't doing their part.

[sightlessrealit]

Get charisma to 20 ASAP. There aren't many feats more useful to a Bard or Warlock than pure charisma boosts. Unless, maybe, if you were getting smacked around a lot, but that means the rest of your group aren't doing their part.

Charisma is already 20 so yeah. :D Stats & stuff are in the first post by the way. ^^;

[Princess]

Charisma is already 20 so yeah. :D Stats & stuff are in the first post by the way. ^^;

Right, my mistake. Warcaster is useful if your spellcaster ends up on the front lines, but it's best to avoid that with a lore bard usually. Ritual Caster as a Wizard offers many lovely utility spells, especially long term since Book of Ancient Secrets as a Warlock option would be limited by Warlock level but Ritual Caster is based on character level. Lucky is always nifty and can help in various ways regardless of circumstance and might be your best first choice of feat. Resilient Constitution might also be helpful and the next ASI could be +1 dex, +1 con to improve HP, AC, and Init all together as well as common saving throws.

If UA is allowed, there have been a couple of feats there that might amuse a skill monkey build, as well.

[Maxilian]

I don't agree with princess to jump to lvl 6 Bard that fast, IMHO if you plan on taking first 1 lvl in Warlock, then take the second lvl in Warlock, to get the ability to add your CHA mod to your EB, that will give you a good at-will damage spell when needed, without affecting your skill monkey abilities.

I would have recommended going Fiend Patron so you could take the Cloak of Baalzebul, giving you advantage on INTIMIDATION and a nice 5 poison damage to everyone who gets at 5 feet of you, mainly to work with the Rogue or Bard Expertise and get INTIMIDATION (letting you add double prof and roll with advantage).

Note: Increasing WIS (at least by 1, is not bad) it will increase your Perception (that you have exp), if you end up going Raven Patron, you will also add your CHA to it, so if the UA (Feat for Skills) its avaible to you, you could take -Animal Handler, giving you prof on Animal handling (or exp in it if you have prof), that would be really helpful if you are those kind of players that want to tame everything (or just like having pets -like me-), could use the Medic feat instead, giving your group better survivability (making sure you don't need to use as many spell slot to heal or whoever is the healer in your group, depending how your group plays you may find this more or less useful) or get the Empathic feat (not my coup of tea) or the Perceptive feat (i think you already have expertise on it so not that useful)

[sightlessrealit]

I don't agree with princess to jump to lvl 6 Bard that fast, IMHO if you plan on taking first 1 lvl in Warlock, then take the second lvl in Warlock, to get the ability to add your CHA mod to your EB, that will give you a good at-will damage spell when needed, without affecting your skill monkey abilities.

I would have recommended going Fiend Patron so you could take the Cloak of Baalzebul, giving you advantage on INTIMIDATION and a nice 5 poison damage to everyone who gets at 5 feet of you, mainly to work with the Rogue or Bard Expertise and get INTIMIDATION (letting you add double prof and roll with advantage).

Note: Increasing WIS (at least by 1, is not bad) it will increase your Perception (that you have exp), if you end up going Raven Patron, you will also add your CHA to it, so if the UA (Feat for Skills) its avaible to you, you could take -Animal Handler, giving you prof on Animal handling (or exp in it if you have prof), that would be really helpful if you are those kind of players that want to tame everything (or just like having pets -like me-), could use the Medic feat instead, giving your group better survivability (making sure you don't need to use as many spell slot to heal or whoever is the healer in your group, depending how your group plays you may find this more or less useful) or get the Empathic feat (not my coup of tea) or the Perceptive feat (i think you already have expertise on it so not that useful)

Medic Feat does seem really tempting. And yeah Raven Queen is definitely happening so a 12+ Perception & a 22 Passive Perception is going to be pretty strong.

I think if I were to go the Intimidation route I'd probably just get the Barbed Skin Tiefling Feat for the +1 Con & Expertise, the grapple effect is just a cherry on top.

Also, is it worth eventually getting to the 6th level Raven Queen feature? Seems pretty solid for a number of purposes.Or is that to much since I miss Lore Master's 14th ability?

[Banana3lf]

I think these 3 work really well together. Maybe if you are still playing tack on observant and get to lvl 7 warlock to see through objects up to 30'. Tack on two levels of fighter for action surge and go rogue 3 for swash buckler and sneak attack melee