Optimizing the Underdog: Kobold Caster?

[CrazyCrab]

Hi everyone,
making a new character as I'm moving and will be joining the Adventurer's league there. As usual, when I'm looking for a cool idea I messed around in HeroForge looking for a fun looking hero. I ended up with a pretty neat looking Kobold caster, then realized that I've never seen anyone play one in my meetup - which is, currently, a 50+ members London based group. Being THAT guy, I figured I should at least try playing one and see if it's really so bad. (If anyone's curious, here's the guy I came up with https://www.heroforge.com/load_config=631405 )

So, having looking around on the net, the general consensus is that 5e (unlike the quite alright 3.5e) Kobolds are bad. I mean, if we look at the breakdown...
# +2 DEX -2 STR... a net 0. While others are generally a net +3. Ouch.
# Small. Like, very small. Smaller than half lings, at an average 2.5 feet. Can be useful?
# Speed 30. That's nice, given the size.
# Darkvision. Alright, but why not Superior Darkvision, being always underground?
# 'Grovel, Cover and Beg' Action, all allies have adv. on attacks vs enemies within 10 feet of you. Recovers on SR/LR. Hmm. Somewhat mediocre, but maybe we can work with this...
# Pack Tactics. Know them, love them. Undoubtedly the best feature. Would make them perfect ranged heroes, if it wasn't for...
# Sunlight Sensitivity. Aww. Why do you do this, Wizard.

Overall, pretty bad with little to no flavor. No trap proficiencies or even bonuses to mining, despite the earlier chapter in the same book which focused on the two aspects. When it comes to reptiles Lizardmen are better in pretty much every way, with free mage armour and more.

Let's assume that the adventure will be 1/2 sunlight, 1/2 darkness. Being unable to tell in what kind of game I will be playing, I think it sounds fair and is somewhat cautious.
This means that the natural go-to, Rogue/Ranger will not have advantage 1/2 the time, unless you're running a mega-dungeon or something. As it's Adventurer's League, no Sunglasses cheat either - was never a big fan of DMs doing it anyway and wouldn't ask for them in the 1st place. This means that the crowd favorite, Rogue, will not get to use sneak attack 1/2 the time. That's... fun? Being at a -3 net Stats, MAD classes are almost kind of out of the question... and you cannot multiclass with Barbarian or Paladin without 1st putting an ASI into STR. So for multi-classing, we're looking at DEX + One Stat.

I've given it some thought on my way from work and here are the two 'gimmicks' I came up with.

1) Minionmancer Wizard OR Druid: Thanks to 'save or hurt' spells, you don't care about Sunlight Sensitivity and when it it's dark you have advantage on spell attacks. The big combo is casting a horde summon, then moving in, using Grovel and giving advantage to all your summons. Looks lethal? Concentration will be an issue though.

2) Warlock Blaster / Champion 3: Devil's Sight which means that 1/2 the time you can get around Sunlight Sensitivity with Darkness when outside. At max level, with hex, 4 rays with advantage and 19/20 crits, then action surge and 4 more, I think you'll be getting quite ridiculous damage... Never mind, doesn't work with spell attacks. (EDIT)

Thoughts? Opinions? Tips? Looking forward to it!

[Scathain]

I can understand why 3.5ers (myself included) miss Dragonwrought Kobolds, but to call them bad? I'd have to disagree. Pack tactics is amazing, and with a Druid you don't even have to worry about sunlight sensitivity to balance it out. Never mind the setting: I played a kobold Moon Druid in COS and did just fine.

So as far as optimization? Druid is a helluva choice.

[Dalebert]

I love my kobold chain lock. He's so tiny his imp can carry him, though you have to account for everything carried and keep it very lean. You're primarily about the eldritch blast and pack tactics is great. I have magical darkness for when in daylight. Imp can usually provide pack tactics if no one else can, while staying invisible. If Darkness doesn't work out, pack tactics usually at least cancels out the problem but you can have some save-based attacks as a fall back. You can have a mastiff mount with saddle bags to carry most of your gear and they can go just about anywhere the party can go since they're medium.

I took one level of draconic sorcerer. Why? Because studded leather is 13 pounds. That's the biggest hindrance to your imp being able to carry you. Also, they get con save proficiency and you really need to spend a couple ASIs catching up on charisma so can't afford resilient con which most casters desperately need. Doesn't hurt that you also have a couple 1st level slots, 4 more cantrips (which can include Acid Splash for a save-based option in sunlight), as well as Shield and Feather Fall. You'll be wanting Feather Fall since you'll be flying a lot and someone might take out your imp.

[RickAsWritten]

He's so tiny his imp can carry him

This is amazing, and just became my next character. You can use "darkness shenanigans" to cancel out Sunlight Sensitivity, and not piss off your teammates because you're up in the air.

[Zene]

5e kobolds are so far from bad, they can't even see bad on a clear day. (Underdog?!? Lol!)

-2 to a stat isn't a drawback, it's an attempted counterbalance to an otherwise superior racial benefits package. In other words, kobolds are a min-maxer's dream.

To answer your question: Moon druid, and EB or blade pact warlock (or sorclock), are the obvious full caster choices to maximize Pack Tactics; but no caster class is actually bad as a kobold. They all benefit from the dex boost, and all can select spells with attack rolls to benefit from pack tactics. A melee cleric build, in prticular, could be a lot of fun. The only downside is in AL you can't be a Volo's race and use SCAG cantrips, so a melee cleric build would necessarily be leaving a lot of dpr on the table. So maybe not that.