So the character concept is moonknight inspired he made a pact wit a twilight domain or vengeance god or celestial along the lines of
Do you swear to protect the travelers of the night and bring my vengeance to those who would do them harm?" "Yes"
I was wanting elf (including eladrin or Shadrakai) or half elf with teleportation (e.g. high elf with fey teleportation feat or half elf with fey touch) but decided to go with Shadrakai to save a feat and it was more thematic to a "moon knight I ght" than eladrin.
So here are 2 very similar builds angling at the same concept and I wad hoping you all could way in on which one was better using whatever definition of why the one you chose as "better" just explain what it is. If you insist on me providing a definition of better it's more effective at fulfilling the oath I quoted above.
Both are Shadrakai, Rogue 15 or 16, warlock 4 or 5, maybe a level of bard.
Both start with attributes after racial boosts of
10 14 14 10 10 17
This one has the bard level, and starts with the faction agent background.
Bard 1 (prestidigitation and I forget what for cantrip, faerie fire, feather fall, healing word, and silvery barbs for the level 1 spells)
Rogue 2-4 swashbuckler, taking elven accuracy to boost cha to 18.
Warlock 3-4, pact of blade, at W4 retrain eldritch mind to improved pact weapon and take war caster. The primary ranged attack is a longbow that uses the cha bonus for attack and damage and he can apply sneak attack to.
Rogue from there out.
This one uses the silverquill student background to get the strixhaven iniate feat and picks thaumatology and vicious mockery as the cantrips and faerie fire as the level 1 (charisma is the attribute used). By the way that adds silvery barbs to the warlock level spell list options.
Hexblade Warlock 1&2, eldritch blast and booming blade are cantrips, taking armor of agathys (sp?) Silvery barbs and eithet hex or hellish rebuke as level 1 (he already has faerie fire as a go to concentration spell) agonizing blast and eldritch mind are the invocations
Rogue 2-4, swashbuckler, R4 feat is elven accuracy boosting cha to 18
Warlock 3-4, pact of tome, selecting mind sliver, minor illusion, word of radiance as the pact boon cantrips, at W4 I retrain eldritch mind to book of ancient secrets (ritual casting) getting find familiar and identify (and detect magic asap) and pick up the warcaster feat. 4th level cantrip is mage hand. I'm undecided about going for warlock 5... he'd get 3rd level spells and upgrade his 2 slots per short rest to level 3... and I'm unsure about whether devil's sight, mask of many faces or repelling blast for the w5 invocation
Rogue from there on out.
So which is "better"?
You could even hybridize them (silverquill student background, Rogue x, warlock 4, bard 1, here is one way to do that this one has pact of tome but you could also do.pact of blade https://www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/EliasWindrider_83470575.pdf progression is R1, W1, B1, W2, R2-4, W3-4, R5-X) if you thought that was better.
2. Will your DM (if this is for a game) allow Strixhaven feats?
more effective at fulfilling the oath I quoted above. To me this means more mechanically effective. Flavour is free, but my suggestion easily adapts to the flavour you seem to want. Assuming I was starting at quite a high level I'd make something like this:
It always has advantage in the first round (assassin). 300 ft dark vision (Tw Cleric) and is invisible to darkvision (GS ranger). Rolls d20 + 7 (GS ranger) + d4 (guidance) with advantage (Tw Cleric) for initiative. 8d6 + 8d8 + 84 damage in the first round (action surge, dread ambuser, sharpshooter, sneak attack). Assuming a chance to hit of 90% (elven accuracy) that's an average damage of 133 on the first round across 6 attacks at L12, unless it crits.
It will always get surprise if it can attack in the dark (Umbral sight, eyes of night and expertise in stealth) which means guaranteed crits from assassin- so double those dice most of the time :-)
You could tweak the stats to give it 4/5 levels of warlock (counterspell and fly are great but stopping at 4 for spider climb would fit with what you want) and/or more fighter for the L4 ASI. Fey touched would give you Misty step for the teleportation you want but it works fine as Shadar Kai too. Assassin can probably wait if you'd rather have these earlier, since GS and Tw Cleric mean almost permanent advantage anyway.
Starting at L1 I'd take custom lineage instead and crossbow expert, giving up elven advantage for a better teir 1.
So the character concept is moonknight inspired he made a pact wit a twilight domain or vengeance god or celestial along the lines of
Do you swear to protect the travelers of the night and bring my vengeance to those who would do them harm?"
"Yes"
I was wanting elf (including eladrin or Shadrakai) or half elf with teleportation (e.g. high elf with fey teleportation feat or half elf with fey touch) but decided to go with Shadrakai to save a feat and it was more thematic to a "moon knight I ght" than eladrin.
So here are 2 very similar builds angling at the same concept and I wad hoping you all could way in on which one was better using whatever definition of why the one you chose as "better" just explain what it is. If you insist on me providing a definition of better it's more effective at fulfilling the oath I quoted above.
Both are Shadrakai, Rogue 15 or 16, warlock 4 or 5, maybe a level of bard.
Both start with attributes after racial boosts of
10 14 14 10 10 17
This one has the bard level, and starts with the faction agent background.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/EliasWindrider_82164345.pdf
Progression is
Rogue 1
Hexblade Warlock 1 & 2 (devil's sight & eldritch mind)
Bard 1 (prestidigitation and I forget what for cantrip, faerie fire, feather fall, healing word, and silvery barbs for the level 1 spells)
Rogue 2-4 swashbuckler, taking elven accuracy to boost cha to 18.
Warlock 3-4, pact of blade, at W4 retrain eldritch mind to improved pact weapon and take war caster. The primary ranged attack is a longbow that uses the cha bonus for attack and damage and he can apply sneak attack to.
Rogue from there out.
This one uses the silverquill student background to get the strixhaven iniate feat and picks thaumatology and vicious mockery as the cantrips and faerie fire as the level 1 (charisma is the attribute used). By the way that adds silvery barbs to the warlock level spell list options.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/EliasWindrider_83231693.pdf
Progression is
Rogue 1
Hexblade Warlock 1&2, eldritch blast and booming blade are cantrips, taking armor of agathys (sp?) Silvery barbs and eithet hex or hellish rebuke as level 1 (he already has faerie fire as a go to concentration spell) agonizing blast and eldritch mind are the invocations
Rogue 2-4, swashbuckler, R4 feat is elven accuracy boosting cha to 18
Warlock 3-4, pact of tome, selecting mind sliver, minor illusion, word of radiance as the pact boon cantrips, at W4 I retrain eldritch mind to book of ancient secrets (ritual casting) getting find familiar and identify (and detect magic asap) and pick up the warcaster feat. 4th level cantrip is mage hand. I'm undecided about going for warlock 5... he'd get 3rd level spells and upgrade his 2 slots per short rest to level 3... and I'm unsure about whether devil's sight, mask of many faces or repelling blast for the w5 invocation
Rogue from there on out.
So which is "better"?
You could even hybridize them (silverquill student background, Rogue x, warlock 4, bard 1, here is one way to do that this one has pact of tome but you could also do.pact of blade https://www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/EliasWindrider_83470575.pdf progression is R1, W1, B1, W2, R2-4, W3-4, R5-X) if you thought that was better.
But which one would you pick and why?
1. What level are you starting at?
2. Will your DM (if this is for a game) allow Strixhaven feats?
more effective at fulfilling the oath I quoted above. To me this means more mechanically effective. Flavour is free, but my suggestion easily adapts to the flavour you seem to want. Assuming I was starting at quite a high level I'd make something like this:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/82966521
It always has advantage in the first round (assassin). 300 ft dark vision (Tw Cleric) and is invisible to darkvision (GS ranger). Rolls d20 + 7 (GS ranger) + d4 (guidance) with advantage (Tw Cleric) for initiative. 8d6 + 8d8 + 84 damage in the first round (action surge, dread ambuser, sharpshooter, sneak attack). Assuming a chance to hit of 90% (elven accuracy) that's an average damage of 133 on the first round across 6 attacks at L12, unless it crits.
It will always get surprise if it can attack in the dark (Umbral sight, eyes of night and expertise in stealth) which means guaranteed crits from assassin- so double those dice most of the time :-)
You could tweak the stats to give it 4/5 levels of warlock (counterspell and fly are great but stopping at 4 for spider climb would fit with what you want) and/or more fighter for the L4 ASI. Fey touched would give you Misty step for the teleportation you want but it works fine as Shadar Kai too. Assassin can probably wait if you'd rather have these earlier, since GS and Tw Cleric mean almost permanent advantage anyway.
Starting at L1 I'd take custom lineage instead and crossbow expert, giving up elven advantage for a better teir 1.