My first character in 5e: Tomelock, celestial patron, warforged

[Hexer]

Hello there!

We began a game and we are a party of 7 around the table. 5-6 players are there simultaneously each time. Because we are alot, I didn't focus on maximizing the stats of my character yet and I'm playing with my background more than trying to be the best. We rolled 4d6 for creation of our characters, I got very good scores and I filled my sheet.

We are in the Eberron Setting so I choose the warforged race. I build a tomelock with celestial patron and a criminal background.... yeah my warforged is a good guy but was misleaded in the past. He didn't chose his pact. His patron chose him at his wakening in the Forge. He doesn't quite understand all his somekind of bonding inside of him but he is patient...

Since it is our first 5e ed game, my DM discouraged us of multiclassing and it is ok. So we can see an try our classes.

Here we are: paladin-human, ranger-human, halfling-cleric, half-orc-fighter, tabaxi-sorcerer, goliath-monk and warforged-warlock

We will leveling 4 soon.:biggrin:

I have several spells and cantrips. Eldritch blast of course for range. Shillelag for melee.

Is it too soon to take Spell Sniper or should I boost my Charisma (already at 18)? I played so much the 3.5 ed. and I am still not familiar with the numbers that are lower now (AC, saving throw, spell DC, and more)

What are my best options to boost my spells DC in the future?

Is it a good idea to not forget the fighting abilities of my warforged?


:smile:Will it be the best warlock? I know it will not but I want to have fun with it! Thx.!

[Blood of Gaea]

If your main goal is to boost your save DC, pump charisma up to 20 and don't look back. If you want to have martial capabilities, you'll want to invest in dexterity or strength up to level 16 or 18. That said, a Celestial Warlock really doesn't need to use a weapon at all, so don't feel like that's needed.

[CTurbo]

What are your stats exactly?

[Wilb]

If you want to melee and chose Shillelagh and you want it to be useful, get a cantrip like Green flame blade or Booming blade, because Shillelagh does not scale and these two will help with that.

[Arkhios]

Personally, I think any race works perfectly with any class. You just have to "realize" where your chosen combination is good at.

So, definitely, don't forget warforged fighting abilities ...although... Unless you're using some other stats for your race than the semi-official Unearthed Arcana from 2015, I don't know what else is there except the AC bonus and immunity to disease.
Still, even that +1 to AC can make a remarkable difference, as in 5th edition, in general AC value doesn't rise as ridiculously high as it could in 3.5 (excluding some very fiddly exceptions, which I'm glad that I don't remember how you do it; frankly, don't even try - AC higher than 20 to maybe 24 is certainly great, but not neccessary, given that bounded accuracy is a thing).

That said, if you're looking for advice in order to optimize from here, knowing your exact stats would help us to help you.

[Quoz]

I've always been attracted to warforged for their roleplay potential. The whole concept of being fresh off the forge gives a lot of potential for growth and discovery. Any class with a divine component like your celestial can have some great story building opportunity. Its a theological paradox - faith requires overcoming doubt. How can you truly have faith in a higher power if you were built to believe?

From a mechanical perspective, you are already in a good place with 18 Cha but 20 is nothing to turn down. I'll second that booming blade or greenflame blade paired with shillelagh is a good melee setup. For most any other character I would happily suggest spell sniper as reach with booming blade is really strong but if you are relying on shillelagh for melee you probably wont have a reach weapon. You can get the same effect with an invocation for eldritch blast if range is a concern. If you want a feat for melee, look to polearm master since you will be using a quarterstaff already.

I haven't played ebberon since 3.5 but if I recall it is a setting with fairly high magic item availability. Get as many rings of spell storing or similar magic storing items in the party as you can. you don't need to sleep and you recharge spells on a short rest. While the fleshy members of the party are recharging their inferior meat-brains you can be recharging magic items, casting rituals (or scribing new ones), casting long duration spells (upcast hex and mage armor work well here), or anything under the downtime rules in Xanthar's. Without multiclassing you wont be a true coffeelock and you don't want to hog the spotlight, but having an extra 6-8 hours of usable time in a day is a potent but often overlooked ability.

[Hexer]

Thank you for all your answers! Here are my stats and some options I took. It includes the race mods as the UA 2015.

ST 14
DEX 16
CON 15
INT 12
WIS 15
CHA 18

AC 16, agonizing blast, devil sight, healing light (awesome from my patron)
EB, mage hand, mold earth (good for creating cover), shillelag, spare the dying, sacred flame, light,
Hex, cure wounds, hellish rebuke, lesser restoration

The bonding between me and my patron is a work of faith and discovery, and I don't know yet who it is, but I know I must do good around me for now. I assume I will know some more in near future.

I'll ask if my DM is allowing spells from Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

For level 4, I'm balancing between Spell sniper and boosting my CHA. Maybe I see an ability of 20 early in my adventurer carreer a bit too much. Or take spell sniper on level 8?

I'll take fire spells in future to get advantage of Radiant Soul at level 6.

I took shillelag to get a small plus for melee, but when this situation occur, the party is in trouble.

In-game, the ranger told me after some blast I did, to take advantage of my ranged blasts and run in melee only if needed, even if I am a warforged. Maybe it will keep some attackers at bay seeing me. But as you can see, I'm not built as a soldier.

Polearm master is something interesting, because I want to stick to my wooden quaterstaff that serve as a Focus. That brings me a question: quaterstaff in one hand, eventually a rod of pact keeper in the other, will it be a problem to cast attack spells? Maybe I'm thinking in 3.5 mode again....

Your fresh ideas help me think in differents directions! Thank you.