My DM doesn’t use Multiclassing optional rule, which is fine. Although that means I have a lot of characters I’ve built in DDB that I wouldn’t be able to use, lol.
I like the Warlock but usually do builds as multiclass when I come up with a cool idea
That got me to thinking of what might be a cool character concept for just a straight Warlock
So what are some of your favorite full Warlock character concepts you would like to share?
I am playing a Hexblade/chain lock with 4 levels of sorcerer, That is enough to get sorcery points and quicken spell, Now my Eldritch blast can do twice as much damage as I did before.
I had built a Genie patron Warlock that I was looking forward to that never manifested. The idea of having a personal livable extra dimensional space is just too much fun to ignore.
Not certain what the full concept would be, but the Warlock could be a world traveller stowaway; hiding inside their vessel (4 hours at level 1) until the boat/airship/train/caravan leaves the station, and then they pass themselves off as a guest or member of the crew until they arrive at the next station using Mask of Many Faces.
By 9th level, you can take a long rest inside your vessel, which resets its feature.
At 10th, you can bring 5 friends along with you.
As an elf, you would be able to take a Long Rest in your vessel at level 1.
Maybe you are a travelling treasure hunter/merchant, who uses their vessel as a mobile warehouse. Maybe you just wanted to see the world, and the Genie granted you the ability to go anywhere and be anyone.
The me, the Genie patron represents Freedom; Private Sanctuary, Flight, Limited Wish. It's... refreshing.
I played a variant human warlock who took the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat at first level. He's a hedonist and he was sent to study to be a wizard against his wishes at a school for wizards. He found a book that promised him a shortcut to power in the library and he made a pact with the book, which was really an extrusion of a Great Old One into the library. He took Pact of the Tome and calls himself a "War Mage" and pretends that he's a wizard.
He can usually be found playing cards in the nearest tavern when he's not exploring and searching for more magical secrets, meaning shortcuts to power.
I'm working on a Goblin Warlock with a Sailor Background. His Fiend Patron is Charon the Boatman of the River Styx.
He stumbled upon a dark backwater in the Great Swamp of Rethild that contained a portal to the River Styx. Charon, who jealously guards the portal, offered the goblin a Pact in return for his services as a ferryman. When called by Charon, he must ferry passengers between locations on Faerun and the River Styx. Mostly, he provides transportation for Night Hags bringing larvae to the market.
I'm playing a Changeling Hexblade Bladepact warlock named Chance with the Charlatan background. Their patron is Karsus, and they focuses on blending arcane magic and melee fighting, attempting to create a great empire in the name of their patron. Chance uses deceit, tricks, and different battle tactics to get others to join the empire. The empire is spreading across Faerun, gathering forgotten lore, magical relics, powerful artifacts, and notable NPCs from various locations.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
I played a variant human warlock who took the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat at first level. He's a hedonist and he was sent to study to be a wizard against his wishes at a school for wizards. He found a book that promised him a shortcut to power in the library and he made a pact with the book, which was really an extrusion of a Great Old One into the library. He took Pact of the Tome and calls himself a "War Mage" and pretends that he's a wizard.
He can usually be found playing cards in the nearest tavern when he's not exploring and searching for more magical secrets, meaning shortcuts to power.
This feels like a very good concept to me. It is downright warlock-y to skip the nerdy Wizard classes and go to the pub!
Hector, the first child of King Xemnon and Queen Mistari, was born in the nature kingdom and trained to be a fighter. A month before his twenty-first birthday, Hector began having dreams. These dreams showed Hector standing over a faceless body, a sense of victory in his chest. As Hector lied down to rest, the day before he was to depart on his journey to complete the Cornerstone Ritual, he found himself standing in a wide cavern. The cavern was crammed with gold and gems, but only one thing caught his eye: a sharp glaive with a gleaming, black blade, on a stand in the center of the room. Feeling an aura of power, he could not resist the weapon. As he approached the blade, a low voice rang out in his ear, “Take my power and the prophecy will be sealed. I have no form but will manifest when needed.” Hector reached forward and grasped the handle of the glaive. Instantly, a hot, pain seared through his body, and he woke up, knowing what he must do.
Hector accepted the pact, not knowing what he was getting into, now he is in constant conflict with the demon that lives inside of him. They each fight for control of body and power. Eventually, my plan is to try and overcome the demon and become the master of the power. He has a noble duty to travel and finish a treaty. His patron only wants death and he doesn't know what he wants.
He's a hex blade leonine warlock/pact of the blade. Probably Ranged.
I really want my character's patron to be a part of the story.
Sindri is the half-elven daughter of a human and an elven diplomat. She was bored with the machinations of court, and wasn't interested in pursuing arcana at the Elvish universities. A lucky coincidence of one of the royal guards being a Hexblade warlock led Sindri to meeting her patron and seeing a path to power.
Rhogar the pale one, (White dragonborn GOO lock. Man i reworked this guy a lot)
A dragonborn who was kidnapped by an Alhoon (Who is a warlock to an unknown entity from the far realms) and was subjected to Ceramorpheses along with others but the tadpole was infused with some sort of otherwordly magic. After couple of days Rhogar started hallucinating and entered a state where he couldn't differentiate between what is real and what is not and as the time went on, he felt at times pain as his body was slowly morphing into what was suppose to be another Illithid but it before the transformation was complete the Alhoon took his semi conscious body and engraved his flesh with symbols and circles all around his body and when his consciousness returned, he saw the Alhoon releasing him but before he had a taste for freedom Rhogar noticed his body became more translucent and his features became malformed, 4 small tentacles protruded from his upper and lower jaw, few eyes that he can't control were on his arms and two mouths that grew on the palm of his hands in addition to the fact that a lot of his scales with missing.
Now he is haunted by whispers and hallucinations that seem to guide him to do things otherwise his mind will be driven to madness should he not obey. And his first task is find a certain Aboleth to complete the "triangle" whatever that means.
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
I am currently playing a Tiefling Warlock whose GOO patron is a Draconic God. He will also be a Tomelock.
His ancestor was a hero known for slaying evil dragons. Eventually, he was cursed by a dragon, and even after his death, the cursed passed through generations. It grew so bad that by the time my character was 18, some 500 years after the curse was made, it led to the destruction of his home. He died, but he appeared in front of a mighty Dragon. he begged for the curse to end, and the Dragon God offered to remove the curse if he became his underling and would do service to him, spreading his image. He agreed, and was imbued with draconic power. He has a tattoo going from his right arm to his right wing to his tail and horns. It is his arcane focus and glows when he casts a spell. He learned to speak draconic and wield draconic power. He is punished if he harms a dragon or goes against his patron. The punishment manifests as scales growing over his tattoo painfully. He currently roams the world in search of gold and a place to create the Church of Sahk'ura.
I created a Hexblade Warlock with a Patron who I pretty much created from scratch; but who was associated with The Raven Queen.
The Patron was called The Adversary, and his name was pretty self-explanatory...he was an unbeatable adversary tasked with finding Warlocks who might make for good warriors.
Once he found these warlocks, he would test them in combat...visit them in dreams, appearing as a hulking wraith-like warrior in black armor.
These "visits" essentially became sparring matches...the Warlock would try to fight this superior warrior, and usually fail.
However, if The Adversary found that the Warlock was getting stronger, they would reward the Warlock with more power (the equivalent of levelling up).
What you would find out, if your Warlock achieved enough levels in the class, is that The Adversary was a general of The Raven Queen, and his "tests" were ways to train warriors to join her army in the afterlife when they died.
The Adversary may look like a wicked knight...but like The Raven Queen, he was more neutral; he wanted his students to become strong. Sometimes that meant bruises or broken bones...other times, it was tactical advice.
A fully-levelled Hexblade actually packs quite a punch..."Eldritch Smite" can decimate a target, "Hexblades Curse" never stops being useful, and when you gain "Armor of Hexes", your defense gets pretty good...I flavored the Armor of Hexes as my Patron's armor briefly manifesting to defend their pupil.
Right now I play a Variant Human Sorlock. Divine sorc / hexblade warlock. She has alot of utility and can help out as an off healer though we have no real healer in our group. she's only lvl 8 atm. I'm playing her as kind of like a dark jedi her lvl breakdown atm is. Sorc 5/ warlock 2/ rogue 1
Ever seen or read A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick?
I am Bob Arctor, I am Bruce, I am Hank. Mask of Many Faces (as the scanner suit) and patron is Substance D (Fey). Focus on things like Druidcraft, Minor Illusion, Hypnotic Gaze, Plant Growth, etc. instead of the usual Warlock damage spells; because now in the dark world where I dwell, ugly things, and surprising things, and sometimes little wondrous things, spill out in me constantly, and I can count on nothing.
Could certainly do it a Chain Lock instead of Tome Lock if you wanted to. Feys and Demons manifest in interesting ways when your brain is splitting in two.
My character is a human with a noble background. Magic is power but being a wizard takes way too much time away from the important work of enjoying being powerful, being a sorcerer is more about luck than ambition but warlocks strike a nice middle ground. Her family has a long history of contractual relationships with entities of power, most are multi-generational and since they have a good deal of experience writing these contracts, and a team of very well paid lawyers, the patronic demands tend to lighter than those of lesser folk.
This leaves the PC to do whatever the hell she likes, which primarily entails making poor life choices and disappointing her mother.
Half orc haunted one background. You were abused as a youngling treated as nothing more than a slave to the orc tribe you had the unfortune to be born in. The physical abuse made you tough and angry. But the desperation was even worse, always looking to escape having made many attempts only to be brought back and beaten to submission time and again. They eventually chained you in the caves mining as a "canary" of sorts when new areas found....it was in that role you found your "symbiote" patron. A Fiendish amorphous creature, it merged with you and took over for a time, killing your tormentor and his small band in the underdark. It gave you your freedom, but is constantly there urging you forward, and in desperate times takes over, when you come around there is death and gore all around you....
I suggest roleplay the symbiote taking over when things are dire, as you level up assert yourself more and become synergistic.
Fiend pact warlock:
LEVEL1 toll the dead, poison spray, hex, arms of Hadar
LEVEL 2 mask of many faces, armor of Shadows (when up you look like venom), cause fear
LEVEL 3 pact of the tome (primal savagery (claws or bite), thorn whip (tendrils), sword burst(tendrils when surrounded).
I am playing a Hexblade/chain lock with 4 levels of sorcerer, That is enough to get sorcery points and quicken spell, Now my Eldritch blast can do twice as much damage as I did before.
I don't think I was fully participating in this thread.
I took two levels of Hexblade. 4 levels of Dragon sorcerer. and the rest of my career, will be Hexblade/Pact of the Chain. Like I said above, the four levels of sorcerer serve only to grant me points to use as quicken spells to double my eldritch blasts. That will be my shtick. I will convert my warlock spells into sorcery points first thing every day and regain the spells at our lunch/short rest. That should be more than enough for any big fight.
I just turned 8th level and now have 4 levels in both Hexblade and sorcery. I can toss two blasts (or four) each turn. My sorcery spells are mostly defensive or utilitarian. I have already used Feather Fall once and it paid for itself. I have yet to use my ultimate defense Mirror Image and Blur (they stack).
for invocations, I had the mask of many faces for a long time, but I traded it out for the basic chain Pact spell. Beyond that I haven't anything serious planned out. The whole focus is on the Blast.
The hexblade warlock I have waiting in the wings is a half-orc with the gladiator background. Their career plateaued so they cried out to the cosmos and something answered. But now their honor and reputation are tarnished because they weren't winning under their own power. They adventure because fighting is all they really know how to do. That and the life of a merc doesn't really hinge on how you can do what you do, so long as you can get the job done.
TL;DR A disgraced former athlete with an asterisk next to their name and record because of performance enhancement issues.
Except this version has a homebrew race because warforged / goblin mix made sense for a 2 ft doll. Either way, Her general concept is literally an obnoxious shyster. She just games everything and has most of the tools needed to do so. Deception and Slight of Hand are there for card game shenanigans, pick pocketing things, or just fast swapping that "health pot" she's selling for a "bottle of red fluid" and hope no one noticed. etc:. Change familiar type for cheating or shenanigans needed, some have invisibility, some blindsight, all glorious when gaming any system or fooling people. While competent in combat it certainly isn't her only game and she has good healing for that moment when you gotta pack your porcelain butt up and go, and thats sorta why hypnotic patterns there too... stop the immediate crowd from beating her to a pulp.
Described by myself and friends as "The Stereotypical 1980's Used Car Salesman"
You might be thinking, butall the way to 20?
Yes.
Investiture of flame Because no regular persons going to catch you when you're on fire. (Dr. McNinja logic right there) Demiplane to hide your ill gotten goods, money or other things around as needed. Imprisonment to keep that one obnoxious person sealed and then sell them as a trinket. Making even more money
Invocations match this later on as : Tricksters escape (bad gambling habbit) Whispers of the grave (dead men gotta know something profitiable right? Or perhaps its location?) Ghastly Gaze (for seeing into peoples coin purses.) Visions of distant realms (follow nobles home, watch their security process, find their safe combination) Witch Sight (combine this with all her other scrying like features and yeah... )
While there's a strong argument that this is really a rogue concept. I won't disagree except IMO Whertvol does it better.
So the next time your looking for a solid concept remember that the warlock can do whatever a current concept does, just in different, better ways.
"I once knew this fella, Aasimar raised in the Underdark. Was like a brother to me. When he escaped we couldn't take much with us. Poor, emaciated husks of the living we were. 'ts okay though. We survived and made our ways. I'll never forget the way the people from my home looked at us when we walked in the archway. Though, I'm frighteningly certain the feelings they would have, had they but the opportunity ta see us leave." --Manolovo the Traitor, Memoirs of a Scoundrel
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My DM doesn’t use Multiclassing optional rule, which is fine. Although that means I have a lot of characters I’ve built in DDB that I wouldn’t be able to use, lol.
I like the Warlock but usually do builds as multiclass when I come up with a cool idea
That got me to thinking of what might be a cool character concept for just a straight Warlock
So what are some of your favorite full Warlock character concepts you would like to share?
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
I am playing a Hexblade/chain lock with 4 levels of sorcerer, That is enough to get sorcery points and quicken spell, Now my Eldritch blast can do twice as much damage as I did before.
I had built a Genie patron Warlock that I was looking forward to that never manifested. The idea of having a personal livable extra dimensional space is just too much fun to ignore.
Not certain what the full concept would be, but the Warlock could be a world traveller stowaway; hiding inside their vessel (4 hours at level 1) until the boat/airship/train/caravan leaves the station, and then they pass themselves off as a guest or member of the crew until they arrive at the next station using Mask of Many Faces.
Maybe you are a travelling treasure hunter/merchant, who uses their vessel as a mobile warehouse.
Maybe you just wanted to see the world, and the Genie granted you the ability to go anywhere and be anyone.
The me, the Genie patron represents Freedom; Private Sanctuary, Flight, Limited Wish. It's... refreshing.
I played a variant human warlock who took the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat at first level. He's a hedonist and he was sent to study to be a wizard against his wishes at a school for wizards. He found a book that promised him a shortcut to power in the library and he made a pact with the book, which was really an extrusion of a Great Old One into the library. He took Pact of the Tome and calls himself a "War Mage" and pretends that he's a wizard.
He can usually be found playing cards in the nearest tavern when he's not exploring and searching for more magical secrets, meaning shortcuts to power.
Professional computer geek
I'm working on a Goblin Warlock with a Sailor Background. His Fiend Patron is Charon the Boatman of the River Styx.
He stumbled upon a dark backwater in the Great Swamp of Rethild that contained a portal to the River Styx. Charon, who jealously guards the portal, offered the goblin a Pact in return for his services as a ferryman. When called by Charon, he must ferry passengers between locations on Faerun and the River Styx. Mostly, he provides transportation for Night Hags bringing larvae to the market.
I'm playing a Changeling Hexblade Bladepact warlock named Chance with the Charlatan background. Their patron is Karsus, and they focuses on blending arcane magic and melee fighting, attempting to create a great empire in the name of their patron. Chance uses deceit, tricks, and different battle tactics to get others to join the empire. The empire is spreading across Faerun, gathering forgotten lore, magical relics, powerful artifacts, and notable NPCs from various locations.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
This feels like a very good concept to me. It is downright warlock-y to skip the nerdy Wizard classes and go to the pub!
Hector, the first child of King Xemnon and Queen Mistari, was born in the nature kingdom and trained to be a fighter. A month before his twenty-first birthday, Hector began having dreams. These dreams showed Hector standing over a faceless body, a sense of victory in his chest. As Hector lied down to rest, the day before he was to depart on his journey to complete the Cornerstone Ritual, he found himself standing in a wide cavern. The cavern was crammed with gold and gems, but only one thing caught his eye: a sharp glaive with a gleaming, black blade, on a stand in the center of the room. Feeling an aura of power, he could not resist the weapon. As he approached the blade, a low voice rang out in his ear, “Take my power and the prophecy will be sealed. I have no form but will manifest when needed.” Hector reached forward and grasped the handle of the glaive. Instantly, a hot, pain seared through his body, and he woke up, knowing what he must do.
Hector accepted the pact, not knowing what he was getting into, now he is in constant conflict with the demon that lives inside of him. They each fight for control of body and power. Eventually, my plan is to try and overcome the demon and become the master of the power. He has a noble duty to travel and finish a treaty. His patron only wants death and he doesn't know what he wants.
He's a hex blade leonine warlock/pact of the blade. Probably Ranged.
I really want my character's patron to be a part of the story.
Sindri is the half-elven daughter of a human and an elven diplomat. She was bored with the machinations of court, and wasn't interested in pursuing arcana at the Elvish universities. A lucky coincidence of one of the royal guards being a Hexblade warlock led Sindri to meeting her patron and seeing a path to power.
Rhogar the pale one, (White dragonborn GOO lock. Man i reworked this guy a lot)
A dragonborn who was kidnapped by an Alhoon (Who is a warlock to an unknown entity from the far realms) and was subjected to Ceramorpheses along with others but the tadpole was infused with some sort of otherwordly magic. After couple of days Rhogar started hallucinating and entered a state where he couldn't differentiate between what is real and what is not and as the time went on, he felt at times pain as his body was slowly morphing into what was suppose to be another Illithid but it before the transformation was complete the Alhoon took his semi conscious body and engraved his flesh with symbols and circles all around his body and when his consciousness returned, he saw the Alhoon releasing him but before he had a taste for freedom Rhogar noticed his body became more translucent and his features became malformed, 4 small tentacles protruded from his upper and lower jaw, few eyes that he can't control were on his arms and two mouths that grew on the palm of his hands in addition to the fact that a lot of his scales with missing.
Now he is haunted by whispers and hallucinations that seem to guide him to do things otherwise his mind will be driven to madness should he not obey. And his first task is find a certain Aboleth to complete the "triangle" whatever that means.
(is it me or it feels kinda edgy?)
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
I am currently playing a Tiefling Warlock whose GOO patron is a Draconic God. He will also be a Tomelock.
His ancestor was a hero known for slaying evil dragons. Eventually, he was cursed by a dragon, and even after his death, the cursed passed through generations. It grew so bad that by the time my character was 18, some 500 years after the curse was made, it led to the destruction of his home. He died, but he appeared in front of a mighty Dragon. he begged for the curse to end, and the Dragon God offered to remove the curse if he became his underling and would do service to him, spreading his image. He agreed, and was imbued with draconic power. He has a tattoo going from his right arm to his right wing to his tail and horns. It is his arcane focus and glows when he casts a spell. He learned to speak draconic and wield draconic power. He is punished if he harms a dragon or goes against his patron. The punishment manifests as scales growing over his tattoo painfully. He currently roams the world in search of gold and a place to create the Church of Sahk'ura.
I created a Hexblade Warlock with a Patron who I pretty much created from scratch; but who was associated with The Raven Queen.
The Patron was called The Adversary, and his name was pretty self-explanatory...he was an unbeatable adversary tasked with finding Warlocks who might make for good warriors.
Once he found these warlocks, he would test them in combat...visit them in dreams, appearing as a hulking wraith-like warrior in black armor.
These "visits" essentially became sparring matches...the Warlock would try to fight this superior warrior, and usually fail.
However, if The Adversary found that the Warlock was getting stronger, they would reward the Warlock with more power (the equivalent of levelling up).
What you would find out, if your Warlock achieved enough levels in the class, is that The Adversary was a general of The Raven Queen, and his "tests" were ways to train warriors to join her army in the afterlife when they died.
The Adversary may look like a wicked knight...but like The Raven Queen, he was more neutral; he wanted his students to become strong. Sometimes that meant bruises or broken bones...other times, it was tactical advice.
A fully-levelled Hexblade actually packs quite a punch..."Eldritch Smite" can decimate a target, "Hexblades Curse" never stops being useful, and when you gain "Armor of Hexes", your defense gets pretty good...I flavored the Armor of Hexes as my Patron's armor briefly manifesting to defend their pupil.
Right now I play a Variant Human Sorlock. Divine sorc / hexblade warlock. She has alot of utility and can help out as an off healer though we have no real healer in our group. she's only lvl 8 atm. I'm playing her as kind of like a dark jedi her lvl breakdown atm is. Sorc 5/ warlock 2/ rogue 1
Ever seen or read A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick?
I am Bob Arctor, I am Bruce, I am Hank. Mask of Many Faces (as the scanner suit) and patron is Substance D (Fey). Focus on things like Druidcraft, Minor Illusion, Hypnotic Gaze, Plant Growth, etc. instead of the usual Warlock damage spells; because now in the dark world where I dwell, ugly things, and surprising things, and sometimes little wondrous things, spill out in me constantly, and I can count on nothing.
Could certainly do it a Chain Lock instead of Tome Lock if you wanted to. Feys and Demons manifest in interesting ways when your brain is splitting in two.
My character is a human with a noble background. Magic is power but being a wizard takes way too much time away from the important work of enjoying being powerful, being a sorcerer is more about luck than ambition but warlocks strike a nice middle ground. Her family has a long history of contractual relationships with entities of power, most are multi-generational and since they have a good deal of experience writing these contracts, and a team of very well paid lawyers, the patronic demands tend to lighter than those of lesser folk.
This leaves the PC to do whatever the hell she likes, which primarily entails making poor life choices and disappointing her mother.
Abide.
here is my Venom Straight Warlock build:
Half orc haunted one background. You were abused as a youngling treated as nothing more than a slave to the orc tribe you had the unfortune to be born in. The physical abuse made you tough and angry. But the desperation was even worse, always looking to escape having made many attempts only to be brought back and beaten to submission time and again. They eventually chained you in the caves mining as a "canary" of sorts when new areas found....it was in that role you found your "symbiote" patron. A Fiendish amorphous creature, it merged with you and took over for a time, killing your tormentor and his small band in the underdark. It gave you your freedom, but is constantly there urging you forward, and in desperate times takes over, when you come around there is death and gore all around you....
I suggest roleplay the symbiote taking over when things are dire, as you level up assert yourself more and become synergistic.
Fiend pact warlock:
LEVEL1 toll the dead, poison spray, hex, arms of Hadar
LEVEL 2 mask of many faces, armor of Shadows (when up you look like venom), cause fear
LEVEL 3 pact of the tome (primal savagery (claws or bite), thorn whip (tendrils), sword burst(tendrils when surrounded).
At this point you are VENOM!
I don't think I was fully participating in this thread.
I took two levels of Hexblade. 4 levels of Dragon sorcerer. and the rest of my career, will be Hexblade/Pact of the Chain. Like I said above, the four levels of sorcerer serve only to grant me points to use as quicken spells to double my eldritch blasts. That will be my shtick. I will convert my warlock spells into sorcery points first thing every day and regain the spells at our lunch/short rest. That should be more than enough for any big fight.
I just turned 8th level and now have 4 levels in both Hexblade and sorcery. I can toss two blasts (or four) each turn. My sorcery spells are mostly defensive or utilitarian. I have already used Feather Fall once and it paid for itself. I have yet to use my ultimate defense Mirror Image and Blur (they stack).
for invocations, I had the mask of many faces for a long time, but I traded it out for the basic chain Pact spell. Beyond that I haven't anything serious planned out. The whole focus is on the Blast.
The hexblade warlock I have waiting in the wings is a half-orc with the gladiator background. Their career plateaued so they cried out to the cosmos and something answered. But now their honor and reputation are tarnished because they weren't winning under their own power. They adventure because fighting is all they really know how to do. That and the life of a merc doesn't really hinge on how you can do what you do, so long as you can get the job done.
TL;DR
A disgraced former athlete with an asterisk next to their name and record because of performance enhancement issues.
Some Warlock concepts:
Elvis 'Isn't Dead' Undead: Half Elf Warlock, with Entertainer Background. Patron: The Undying, Tome or Chain
The Starchild: Ancestry- Variant Human or Aasimar or Genasi (Fire or Air). Background: Urchin. Patron: Celestial or Fiend. Chain, Tome or Blade
Paula Treides- Variant Human (Alert Feat), Noble Background. Patron: Great Old One, Blade Pact
Lady Jessica of the Bene Gesserit: Variant Human (Observant Feat), Spy (Criminal) or Acolyte Background. Patron: Great Old One, Blade Pact
Thufir Hawat (Mentat Master of Assassins): Background: Soldier. Variant Human (Prodigy). Patron: Undying. Blade or Tome Pact.
Most probably has levels in Rogue (Inquisitive) and Bard (Lore).
From one of the recent build competitions I entered a future build of this DM infuriatingly obnoxious shyster
https://ddb.ac/characters/26943242/TOLLH2
Except this version has a homebrew race because warforged / goblin mix made sense for a 2 ft doll. Either way, Her general concept is literally an obnoxious shyster. She just games everything and has most of the tools needed to do so. Deception and Slight of Hand are there for card game shenanigans, pick pocketing things, or just fast swapping that "health pot" she's selling for a "bottle of red fluid" and hope no one noticed. etc:. Change familiar type for cheating or shenanigans needed, some have invisibility, some blindsight, all glorious when gaming any system or fooling people. While competent in combat it certainly isn't her only game and she has good healing for that moment when you gotta pack your porcelain butt up and go, and thats sorta why hypnotic patterns there too... stop the immediate crowd from beating her to a pulp.
Described by myself and friends as "The Stereotypical 1980's Used Car Salesman"
You might be thinking, but all the way to 20?
Yes.
Investiture of flame Because no regular persons going to catch you when you're on fire. (Dr. McNinja logic right there)
Demiplane to hide your ill gotten goods, money or other things around as needed.
Imprisonment to keep that one obnoxious person sealed and then sell them as a trinket. Making even more money
Invocations match this later on as :
Tricksters escape (bad gambling habbit)
Whispers of the grave (dead men gotta know something profitiable right? Or perhaps its location?)
Ghastly Gaze (for seeing into peoples coin purses.)
Visions of distant realms (follow nobles home, watch their security process, find their safe combination)
Witch Sight (combine this with all her other scrying like features and yeah... )
While there's a strong argument that this is really a rogue concept. I won't disagree except IMO Whertvol does it better.
So the next time your looking for a solid concept remember that the warlock can do whatever a current concept does, just in different, better ways.
"I once knew this fella, Aasimar raised in the Underdark. Was like a brother to me. When he escaped we couldn't take much with us. Poor, emaciated husks of the living we were. 'ts okay though. We survived and made our ways. I'll never forget the way the people from my home looked at us when we walked in the archway. Though, I'm frighteningly certain the feelings they would have, had they but the opportunity ta see us leave." --Manolovo the Traitor, Memoirs of a Scoundrel