Warlock feats

[Shonuff]

I'm looking at feats for a drow hexblade warlock. Pact of the tome, focusing on debuffs and out of combat utility. Our DM is thinking about giving us a starting feat

Relevant stats (racially modified):

CHA: 19 DEX: 18 CON: 16 WIS: 14 (only other odd stat is STR)

My question is for ASI/feats:

My top three feat picks are Drow High Magic, Elven Accuracy, and War Caster.

1. I like the extra spells for DHM - especially if DM allows at 1.
2. Elven Accuracy bumps Charisma up to 20, and the reroll is nice.
3. War Caster has the obvious Concentration save advantage, and the shield usage with casting is nice, too -- but not a melee caster.

I was also thinking Resilience (CON), Lucky, and Observant... but by the time I can get Observant, the counterbalance to Sunlight Sensitivity was probably worked out elsewhere. Resilience would need an ASI for ultimate use. So would Resilience CON and CHA/CON ASI be better than Elven Accuracy & something else?

Likewise, if the DM nixes the 1st level feat for all, would that change your priority? Is there anything that I should be thinking about that I'm missing?

[8wGremlin]

For me, I'd take option 2. Elven Accuracy bumps Charisma up to 20, and the reroll is nice.

You increase you're CHA to 20 thus gaining an additional +1 to hit/damage, and +1 DC for saves.
additionally, when you do advantage it's super advantage! which can really be great to land criticals or turn that hit into a miss.

[Shonuff]

For me, I'd take option 2. Elven Accuracy bumps Charisma up to 20, and the reroll is nice.

You increase you're CHA to 20 thus gaining an additional +1 to hit/damage, and +1 DC for saves.
additionally, when you do advantage it's super advantage! which can really be great to land criticals or turn that hit into a miss.




Interesting choice... I have to say it's not one I expected. It's on my shortlist, so I definitely see the merits - especially with capping out early. I have to admit expecting War Caster to be the first choice, or Resilience (CON) and then boosting CHA & CON with an ASI later. I'm leaning towards Drow High Magic because spells, but I'm not married to it yet.

Anyway, thanks for the reply!

[Man_Over_Game]

Generally, the choice for most Warlocks comes down to:
Actor, or Elven Accuracy.

8wGremlin hit some key points, but the bonus can be forced when combined with Darkness and Devil's Sight, for guaranteed advantage almost every combat.

Actor can be combined with Mask of Many Faces for some powerful RP actions. Look like anyone, sound like anyone, all the time, always.

Note that Concentration is extremely important for other casters because they don't have the option of "reloading" their spells like a Warlock can. They lose Concentration, that's a level 3 slot they just wasted for the entire day. If you lose Concentration, you lost a level 3 spell slot for the next couple hours. This is especially true for things like a Sorcerer who Twins Haste, and is an extremely valuable target to take down due to cancelling two spells at once that also penalize the buffed ally.

So I wouldn't really recommend the Concentration options, especially since most of the spells the Warlock utilizes are ones that increase defense (Darkness) or ones that aren't reliant on Concentration.

[8wGremlin]

For me it comes down to how often something will be useful, and how much versatility it provides.
The boost to CHA is always good, and the tri-advantage can be common.

The drow magic is useful, detect magic at will is good, not game-changing, but useful, same with the 1/long levitate and dispell magic very useful. but how often will you be able to capitalise on them?

Same with Warcaster. if you don't get hit and don't get into melee often, how useful will it be to you?

I have played the same character build and by using tactics and the terrain I hardly ever got hit or was within melee range ever.

All the choices you picked all have merits and all are good.

[BarneyBent]

Elven Accuracy - max CHA immediately, and will synergise super well with Faerie Fire or Darkness plus expanded crit range. Obvious choice for mine, even if the feat itself can be overrated at times.

[Foxhound438]

Note that Concentration is extremely important for other casters because they don't have the option of "reloading" their spells like a Warlock can. They lose Concentration, that's a level 3 slot they just wasted for the entire day. If you lose Concentration, you lost a level 3 spell slot for the next couple hours. This is especially true for things like a Sorcerer who Twins Haste, and is an extremely valuable target to take down due to cancelling two spells at once that also penalize the buffed ally.

I would actually argue the opposite. If you lose your spell, you're down to 1 for the rest of the fight unless you're level 11+, whereas a wizard of the same level losing one spell can whip out another one and continue getting value off of his concentration. If you happened to throw out the other one as say a fireball already, you're now down to your cantrip every turn. And while the wizard is losing the slot for the whole day, they have many many multiple times the spell slots to be using over the day anyways.

[Keravath]

A couple of options

1) Resilient con - +1 con and proficiency at con saves which is really useful for concentration checks. Cha at 19 and con at 17 means you can use your first ASI to bump cha to 20 and con to 18 .. leaving lots of room for feats as you level up.

2) Since you are a tomelock, focusing on ranged damage presumably from eldritch blast, then increasing Cha might be the priority. With Elven accuracy and darkness+devils sight (or shadows of moil at level 7), you have your own ways of generating advantage that can be very effective when combined with eldritch+agonizing blast. At the very least you will rarely miss (but you won't be using hex).

3) If you want to be a master of disguise then the actor feat combines well with the mask of many faces invocation. It also would allow you to move about in a human town without your being a drow being noticeable and causing problems ... and it would give you 20 int.

4) You have better choices than Lucky .. though it is always a good last ditch fall back. It is mostly good for that hail mary dice roll in a desperate clutch situation which you probably still have a good chance of failing. I have Lucky on one character and of the 5 or 6 times I have used it ... it has worked about 2 ... the rest of the time it didn't change the outcome. It is pretty much equivalent to giving yourself advantage on three dice rolls/day.

[Zaltman]

Why not spell spell sniper? IMO, the range is just a bonus. The real attraction is being able to EB from the back of the party without having to worry about cover. Plus an extra cantrip. Seems like it will come in handy much more frequently than EA.

[Shonuff]

Why not spell spell sniper? IMO, the range is just a bonus. The real attraction is being able to EB from the back of the party without having to worry about cover. Plus an extra cantrip. Seems like it will come in handy much more frequently than EA.

I'm looking to cap CHA. If I skip EA, it's because I'm getting Resilience (CON) and an ASI to get 20 CHA/18 CON.