Character concept

[carrdrivesyou]

So, I am entering a new campaign (our old one is wrapping up), and I am going with warlock as a class. Given my patron is the new Lurker UA, I wanted to start out as "human" and end up as some sort of weird tentacled sea critter. Still a bipedal humanoid, but a tentacle instead of an arm, big bulgy fish eyes, etc. For a mechanical focus, I am thinking of going the "see all, know all" route and taking things like devil's sight, eldritch sight, observant feat, etc.

What are some ideas on how to optimize this without too much cheese? We rolled stats, and I ended up with: 9, 14, 17, 15, 14, 8.

I am thinking variant human, prodigy feat for expertise in perception out of the gate.

What are your thoughts Playgrounders?

[CheddarChampion]

Well if damage is important then you can get a good bang for your buck with agonizing blast and hex. Maybe ask your DM if you could swap your spellcasting stat to Int. From what I can tell it would better fit your concept.

If you can use Int instead of Cha, 9/14/15/18/15/8.
Take Int+2, Observant (Wis+1), Resilient (Con+1), and Moderately Armored (Str+1).
I'd also take a single level dip into Rogue at some point (instead of getting prodigy) for expertise in perception and investigation.

And Pact of the Tome (for the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation that gives you the ability to cast any ritual) seems right up your alley.

[bored_acel]

Rather than using Prodogy as your v.Human feat, you could take Observant and add +1 WIS & pump your points into CHA and DEX/CON. Either would help, depends on how close to the fray you want to get- CON might help more if you want to have a front row seat to the workings of mortal bodies, expecially with concentration.



STR
8
-1


DEX
10
0


CON
14
+2


INT
14
+2


WIS
16
+3


CHA
18
+4

[carrdrivesyou]

What's the big difference between having expertise in perception and having the observant feat?

[CheddarChampion]

What's the big difference between having expertise in perception and having the observant feat?

Observant only applies to passive perception but it gives a +5 which is more than your proficiency bonus for most games.
Observant also boosts Wis or Int by 1 point which can mean a further +1 to Wis skills and saves (perception) or Int skills and saves.
Prodigy also gives proficiency with a skill, a language, and a tool.

[carrdrivesyou]

I meant more as in the practicality of the choice. Which is better, active searches, or passive awareness? Which sees more use in play?

[bored_acel]

And the coolest part of Observant:
If you can see a creature's mouth while it is speaking a language you understand, you can interpret what it's saying by reading its lips.

edit: I've never seen Prodigy in play. The additional tool & language might be nice, but the bonus to Perception at low levels is incredibly helpful for noticing anything from ambushes to forbidden knowledge.

[CheddarChampion]

I meant more as in the practicality of the choice. Which is better, active searches, or passive awareness? Which sees more use in play?

I play in a weekly game with 6 others. The only person who has used passive perception is me when I DM.

Observant is better if your DM uses passive perception and you don't want to get snuck up on. Expertise is better in any other case where you would use perception.

[carrdrivesyou]

what i'm thinking is that passive is less useful than expertise in module play?