What to do with my standard human Champion?

[Crgaston]

Meet Bob. Bob was my first 5e character rolled up at L10 for a Tomb of Horrors conversion. I didn't really expect him to live very long, but he has made it through and is about 8,000 xp away from L14 now. Next up for these characters will be a Rod of Seven Parts quest (our DM is pretty amazing).



So currently he looks like this...

S14 D20 C16 I12 W17 Ch12
Spy background
+1 longbow, Goggles of Night, +2 Studded leather and a Ring of Fire Resistance

AC 19
HP 158
Saves: Str, Con & Wis
Skills: Acrobatics +10, Deception +6, Perception +8, Stealth +10, Thieves Tools +10
Archery and Close Quarters Shooter fighting styles
+1 longbow (+14 to hit, +8 to damage)
Scimitar (+10/+5)
plus a few more regular weapons.

The rest of the party are mostly casters. We had a melee fighter NPC helping us out but he died, and the tanky cleric kind of went insane, leaving Bob, a Necromancer, a melee rogue (who pretty much sticks next to the Necromancer... they are twins) and a Sorcerer plus whatever the Cleric's player brings to the table. Bob has essentially been acting like a security contractor for the casters. He's been a fun character!

I had no clue about optimization or anything when I built this guy, but I knew I wanted a stealthy-ish archer and after digesting the PHB for a few days came up with Bob. Rolled stats (4D6b3x7b6) were 15, 15, 15, 13, 11, 11. So +1 to everything looked like a great idea. I statted him up S14 D16 C16 I12 W16 Ch12. Then took +2 Dex at 4&6 and Tough at 8. Resilient Wis at 12. His next feat at 14 will be Sharpshooter, but for the L16 I'm torn between Alert and Observant.

Any thoughts or other opinions on the feat?

[Unoriginal]

What is his story? What kind of person is he?

[Crgaston]

What is his story? What kind of person is he?
He's quiet and observant, cautious, patient, loyal and persistent. He is content to take a supporting role but quick to take the initiative when things go sour.

He had been employed as a freelance government agent in a not-so-far-away kingdom but after an operation went bad (cover blown, people died) decided it was time to move on. He ran into this group while their caravan was being attacked by a couple of wyverns and managed to take one (already injured) down with his bow and jumped in front of the other on the ground to save the driver's and one of the other PC's lives. They decided to hire him for security for their adventure.

In the down time after the ToH, he's helped the sorcerer set up a tower and has hired some of his former associates to form a security company.

[Unoriginal]

Well, seems to me Observant would be more fitting for this character

[Tanarii]

Observant. +5 passive investigation to figure out how to disable traps pairs well with using Thieves tools for disabling traps. And of course + 5 passive perception makes it unlikely you won't fail to spot something hinting at the threat in the first place, although your perception is pretty sweet already. And the +1 Wis is obviously useful.

Alerts not able to be surprised isn't as useful when you've already got high perception, and it'll get way better with Observant anyway. And you already have pretty good initiative too.

[Biggstick]

Sharpshooter will do wonders for your ranged damage. I would highly recommend it to you if you're at all worried about doing damage in your party.

Otherwise, I'm partial to Observant. With how you've described the character, it would be very fitting imo.

[djreynolds]

#1 Sounds like a fun build and observant seems logical.

#2 Alert rocks. A very good feat

#3 Lucky is always a good choice, good when paired with indomitable or missing an important shot or skill re-roll

#4 I like mage slayer, as the second part of the feat has no range requirement, so even from a distance you can hit caster's enough to break concentration if you hit with sharpshooter's damage.

Also if you use the UA skills as feats, "perceptive" gives +1 wisdom and expertise in perception... could be better than observant, as it also affects rolls and would give you the same passive perception score

[Sigreid]

To me, the best two choices are Sharpshooter for enhanced damage (by a lot) or Alert for +5 to initiative.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Either feat seems sound, so I'd say it depends on whether anyone else in the party has perception expertise or something similar - if they do, you probably don't need two people with it, so I'd go alert. If there isn't anyone like that, I'd go Observant.