With our DM’s permission, I played a Gnome Trickster domain Cleric pretending to be a Bard. No-one twigged, and I was VERY careful with spell selection and use.
A bard with the criminal background could probably be a convincing rogue. A rogue with the entertainer background could convince NPCs that they’re a bard, but would need some spells to convince a player.
Bards would probably be particularly good at this kind of thing actually. They have a lot of versatility, and the subclasses kind of work like other classes. Valor and Swords work for the martial classes. Whisper and Satire work for Rogues. Lore Bards work for Wizards, Sorcerers, etc.
Funny, I did the opposite. I had a rogue with performance and deception proficiencies claim to be a bard who had lost her instrument. Unfortunately the campaign died early, so I never got to RP trying to maintain or throw off the deception.
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Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) WoodElf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2 Last Tree StandingTabaxi Ranger, Chef and Hoardsperson lvl 5, Company of the Dragon Team 1 Choir Kenku Cleric, Tempest Domain, lvl 11, Descent Into Avernus Test Drive Poinki Goblin Paladin, Redemption, lvl 5, Tales from Talaveroth Lyrika Nyx Satyr Bard lvl 1, The Six Kingdoms of Talia
I played an INT 8/WIS 8 sorcerer who was convinced he was a wizard. He had a spellbook with nonsense symbols written in crayon and was proud of the fact that he proved the folks at the Wizard's College wrong. "They said I wasn't smart enough to be a wizard but it turns out magic is dead easy!"
If you are really going for it, I think it is easiest to be a bard that wishes to pass themselves off as something else because of their ability to learn other skills, but not quite master them. A Bard may even learn spells not from the bards list.
I have an NPC in my current campaign I am preparing, a Rogue, that wants to pass himself off as an aspiring druid in order to nab a treasure that is right under the druids feet. The druids are good and the NPC is evil so the druids wouldn't let the Rogue futz about in their woods digging up the place looking to enrich himself so he and his higher-ups came up with a plan for him to go act like a level 1 druid that is clumsy about the craft, an aspiring level 1 druid. He is actually a level 3 - 5 Rogue depending on the party's makeup.
Because so many classes have "signature" capabilities, I only think this is possible if you are trying to pass yourself off as level 1. How could a non-cleric be able to explain away not being able to heal someone? How could a non-bard explain their complete absence of bardic inspiration, a free skill, and low charisma; a lack of knowledge of history and such things. How could a non-rogue explain away their ineptness with a thieves pick-and-tools and general clumsiness (low dexterity)? If you are going to play it straight, you should need to build your character as the real class and then figure out how you're going to pass yourself off as the fake class. Otherwise, you're just multi-classing the hard way it seems to me.
The only class that can fold over into another class is a bard and then you're playing as a powered down bard and other class, neither being a strong build. Wouldn't you get better play by simply multi-classing as a level 1 this and a level 1 that? Then you just keep secret which class you want to hide. But as you advance, which one are you going boost if you want to appear as one class but you inwardly want to be the other class.
My proposal is to get with the DM and obtain an agreement, for the fun of it, to start as a multi-class but only show one set of skills to the party. Developing the character through advancement will then be the trick. What choices will you make?
Because so many classes have "signature" capabilities, I only think this is possible if you are trying to pass yourself off as level 1. How could a non-cleric be able to explain away not being able to heal someone? How could a non-bard explain their complete absence of bardic inspiration, a free skill, and low charisma; a lack of knowledge of history and such things. How could a non-rogue explain away their ineptness with a thieves pick-and-tools and general clumsiness (low dexterity)? If you are going to play it straight, you should need to build your character as the real class and then figure out how you're going to pass yourself off as the fake class.
So here's something else to think about:
Game terms are just mechanics we use to describe what we may or may not be seeing in the game world. But they're unknown to the people in the world itself. If I'm down 5 HP so I go to a healer, I don't know, for certain, if I got back 2 or 4. I know I'm still wounded, and owie but... how much? Hard to say for sure. Ditto for saying I'm down 9 of my 10. Did the healer give me back 0 HP or 2 HP? I'm still down a LOT either way.
Likewise we assume from the Lore that healing magic always works. Does it? Always? I mean, really, a level 3 cleric has what, 5-6 max healing spells per long rest. You can't walk into a temple and expect to get a bunch of healing because that's like "one patient an hour". Hardly a successful ER if you ask me... This gives Divine casters a lot of room to "fake it". Nevermind that in some Lore/ Campaigns, if the Gods don't want to intervene, there is no holy casting. And for arcane? SO many ways to mimic simple cantrips with good old fashioned smoke and mirrors and fireworks.
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I am attempting this with my lvl 4 Rogue who has prof. with the disguise kit, and is trying to create another identity separate from the party in the form of "Stephen the Druid," a local do-gooder. I'm going to take some trickery cleric levels so that I can make multiple copies and seem to be my own entire adventuring party, each with their own local reputations. I've even started going around town during down time and hiring other "adventuring groups" to do small tasks to help my Druid's rep. I'm looking for a magic ring or something that will let met cast something inherently Druidic, to prove to people that he's a Druid. Any suggestions?
As a DM I have an evil Pact of Archfey warlock an Arch Fey patron/Pact of the Tomb with the Fey Touched Feat NPC pretending to be a cleric. She can cast Bless and Bane. She doesn't travel with the party so the fact that she can't heal isn't a problem. She can cast Bless and Bane so far they haven't questioned it.
Had a Zealot Barbarian who wished to be a Bard...her rage was a furious singing as she hacked & cleaved the enemy.
She was also partial to "Journey" & "Killers" songs.
Her "Zealous Presence" feature also served as a pretty great alternative to a Bardic Inspiration, which I flavored as a massive power-ballad, symbolic of her dedication to song...
Granting your allies advantage on attack & saving rolls for a whole round is pretty inspirational, too, even if it is only once per long rest.
I've been entertaining the notion of a Swashbuckler Rogue who acts like a sword master or honorable warrior...essentially a Fighter.
Specifically, they'd be like a samurai or ronin warrior...their "Sneak Attack" would be modeled after the Iao quick-draw style of combat...
They would "Cunning Action" Dash into combat, target a single enemy, unsheath their blade (styled as a tachi or katana), deliver a single, powerful strike...and quickly sheath their blade once more...the "Sneak Attack" representing how lethal their blow would be.
Their goal would be the perfection of their swordsmanship, rather than personal greed or ambition...the "Panache" skill is great when you want to single out a "worthy" opponent for an "honorable" duel. : )
A "Long Death" Monk is a perfect surrogate for a Berserker Barbarian...their ability to strike fear into their enemies at-will could be a fantastic alternative for the barbarian's "Rage" mechanic, and could simply be described as a terrible bloodlust.
The temporary HP they gain when they kill an enemy adds to this idea that they are berserkers...that killing excites them and incites them to further violence.
And I don't have to mention that, like barbarians, Long Death monks are remarkably hard to kill...their mid-level ability to use a single ki-point to ignore death makes them terrifying in combat.
Actually, if you describe a Long Death monk as a madman with war paint, a horned helmet, dressed in animal pelts or hides, whose monks weapons are just a pair of hatchets...you would fool the party into actually believing you are a barbarian.
Pick a class that can look similar, introduce yourself as whatever, and reskin other abilities to line up.
Class as a game mechanic isn't the same thing as game characterization.
If I make an arcane trickster who picks up perform, history, and inspiring leader it's not hard to be characterized as a bard in play.
If the idea is to trick the other players then it really depends on which class is mimicking which. Reskinning is still very useful and bards are good for mimicking a lot.
I have a character called Mr Dandy who is a Tiefling, but pretends to be an old Human man, so pretends he has no darkvision. He is a Bard/Sorcerer and says he is a cleric and casts guidance on people but its really only prestidigitation.
He will almost always offer candy to people...he will put his hand in his pocket then say the words "would you like some candy?" and when he opens his hand there will be a piece of candy that looks like a peppermint twist type lolly. If the person eats it, it will taste wonderful something they enjoy and instantly "dissolves" in their mouth, however if they do not pick it up within 10 seconds he will close his hand and put it back in his pocket....however, there is no candy, it is all prestidigitation.
Currently playing as a bardbarrian, Eric thinks of himself as a bard and uses a sax for an instrument, he tends to get carried away smacking enemy's in the face. I've had a lot of fun playing him, I have taken a single level as a bard mostly because our party needed some emergency healing.
I've played an apprentice shaman (as in, a tribal priest) using the bard class once. The character believed his magic and abilities were divine - granted by ancestral spirits - in nature, whereas in reality the magic was arcane and the rest were his bardic abilities.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Easy: You're trying to deceive other casually acquainted NPCS.
Medium: You're trying to deceive other player *characters*.
Hard: You're trying to deceive other *players*.
God tier: You're trying to deceive the DM. You're actually a rogue, but the DM thinks you're a paladin. You only ever do actions that both a rogue and paladin could do, but somehow there's always a plausible deniability that it was in character to do an action, even if it was clearly non-optimal for a paladin of your level. Technically you legally played a whole campaign as a rogue, but the DM believed the whole time you were a paladin.
Role-playing-wise, here are some that would be fun. I don't know if you could pull them off.
Rogue pretending to be a paladin.
I like the idea of an irreverent rogue posing as a pious paladin. He's constantly secretly goofing on his order's up-tight ways.
How about a cleric pretending to be a rogue.
It's juxtaposition of opposites. We have a highly good-aligned class infiltrating (a chaotic act) the neutral or evil underbelly of society to right some wrong.
You can generate these in general, so think for each class, what's the typical dominant alignment?
Fighter - neutral
Rogue - chaotic
Ranger - good
Paladin - lawful
Barbarian - chaotic
Monk - good
Cleric - good
Druid - good
Bard - chaotic
Sorcerer - chaotic
Warlock - evil
Wizard - lawful
You can pretty consistently get dynamic combos if you pick two classes that have opposite typical alignment, like ranger posing as warlock or bard posing as paladin. Or you can get pretty ludicrous stuff like a barbarian posing as a wizard (or vice versa).
The idea of posing as another class seems like it might work for a one-shot, or as a temporary thing for one session of a campaign. Like your bard has to pose as a priest to infiltrate the enemy castle, but it's little more than a disguise self gone wrong. But he's going to drop the disguise once he gets away with the crown jewels. It's not a long con.
Classes don't have alignments. That's a prior edition thing.
I could make a lawful good assassin who was a special operative of the crown and name him James Bond if I wanted. Or organized crime as lawful evil.
A bard as a paladin is easy. Don't confuse game mechanics of a class with general perceptions NPC's and PC's might have. If I make a lawful good bard who acts chivalrous, wears armor, fights with a sword, rides a horse, and focuses on healing and thematic magic characters don't see anything that looks like the bard isn't a paladin if that is how he or she introduces himself or herself.
Players are a different story. A player looks at mechanics and that harder to hide in some cases, but the names of classes are just labels within gameplay.
You *can* make it easy with a lawful good bard posing as a paladin, but it would be more interesting to make it hard. A chaotic neutral bard posing as a paladin has conflicting motivations and predilections, which will make for some dynamic role playing.
Crab? What race is that?
A crab. A literal crab, nothing else.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
both, the real fun is doing it ooc, ic is not to hard as long as you do the minimum and dont use any signature stuff
With our DM’s permission, I played a Gnome Trickster domain Cleric pretending to be a Bard. No-one twigged, and I was VERY careful with spell selection and use.
-- Arms are for hugging The Dandy Warhols --
Funny, I did the opposite. I had a rogue with performance and deception proficiencies claim to be a bard who had lost her instrument. Unfortunately the campaign died early, so I never got to RP trying to maintain or throw off the deception.
Edeleth Treesong (Aldalire) Wood Elf Druid lvl 8 Talaveroth Sub 2
Last Tree Standing Tabaxi Ranger, Chef and Hoardsperson lvl 5, Company of the Dragon Team 1
Choir Kenku Cleric, Tempest Domain, lvl 11, Descent Into Avernus Test Drive
Poinki Goblin Paladin, Redemption, lvl 5, Tales from Talaveroth
Lyrika Nyx Satyr Bard lvl 1, The Six Kingdoms of Talia
I played an INT 8/WIS 8 sorcerer who was convinced he was a wizard. He had a spellbook with nonsense symbols written in crayon and was proud of the fact that he proved the folks at the Wizard's College wrong. "They said I wasn't smart enough to be a wizard but it turns out magic is dead easy!"
If you are really going for it, I think it is easiest to be a bard that wishes to pass themselves off as something else because of their ability to learn other skills, but not quite master them. A Bard may even learn spells not from the bards list.
I have an NPC in my current campaign I am preparing, a Rogue, that wants to pass himself off as an aspiring druid in order to nab a treasure that is right under the druids feet. The druids are good and the NPC is evil so the druids wouldn't let the Rogue futz about in their woods digging up the place looking to enrich himself so he and his higher-ups came up with a plan for him to go act like a level 1 druid that is clumsy about the craft, an aspiring level 1 druid. He is actually a level 3 - 5 Rogue depending on the party's makeup.
Because so many classes have "signature" capabilities, I only think this is possible if you are trying to pass yourself off as level 1. How could a non-cleric be able to explain away not being able to heal someone? How could a non-bard explain their complete absence of bardic inspiration, a free skill, and low charisma; a lack of knowledge of history and such things. How could a non-rogue explain away their ineptness with a thieves pick-and-tools and general clumsiness (low dexterity)? If you are going to play it straight, you should need to build your character as the real class and then figure out how you're going to pass yourself off as the fake class. Otherwise, you're just multi-classing the hard way it seems to me.
The only class that can fold over into another class is a bard and then you're playing as a powered down bard and other class, neither being a strong build. Wouldn't you get better play by simply multi-classing as a level 1 this and a level 1 that? Then you just keep secret which class you want to hide. But as you advance, which one are you going boost if you want to appear as one class but you inwardly want to be the other class.
My proposal is to get with the DM and obtain an agreement, for the fun of it, to start as a multi-class but only show one set of skills to the party. Developing the character through advancement will then be the trick. What choices will you make?
So here's something else to think about:
Game terms are just mechanics we use to describe what we may or may not be seeing in the game world. But they're unknown to the people in the world itself. If I'm down 5 HP so I go to a healer, I don't know, for certain, if I got back 2 or 4. I know I'm still wounded, and owie but... how much? Hard to say for sure. Ditto for saying I'm down 9 of my 10. Did the healer give me back 0 HP or 2 HP? I'm still down a LOT either way.
Likewise we assume from the Lore that healing magic always works. Does it? Always? I mean, really, a level 3 cleric has what, 5-6 max healing spells per long rest. You can't walk into a temple and expect to get a bunch of healing because that's like "one patient an hour". Hardly a successful ER if you ask me... This gives Divine casters a lot of room to "fake it". Nevermind that in some Lore/ Campaigns, if the Gods don't want to intervene, there is no holy casting. And for arcane? SO many ways to mimic simple cantrips with good old fashioned smoke and mirrors and fireworks.
"Teller of tales, dreamer of dreams"
* Sundays 7pm EDT: Ravenloft 1921 / Alt. Tuesdays 5pm EDT: CoHost of Happy Hour at the Old Timer Tavern
* Wednesdays 7pm EDT: The Convergence - Homebrew 5E / Saturdays 8am EDT: The Bitter Victory - Pirate Homebrew 5E
**Streams hosted at at twitch.tv/LaternNoir
Join the table at: Start Playing Games
I am attempting this with my lvl 4 Rogue who has prof. with the disguise kit, and is trying to create another identity separate from the party in the form of "Stephen the Druid," a local do-gooder. I'm going to take some trickery cleric levels so that I can make multiple copies and seem to be my own entire adventuring party, each with their own local reputations. I've even started going around town during down time and hiring other "adventuring groups" to do small tasks to help my Druid's rep. I'm looking for a magic ring or something that will let met cast something inherently Druidic, to prove to people that he's a Druid. Any suggestions?
As a DM I have an evil Pact of Archfey warlock an Arch Fey patron/Pact of the Tomb with the Fey Touched Feat NPC pretending to be a cleric. She can cast Bless and Bane. She doesn't travel with the party so the fact that she can't heal isn't a problem. She can cast Bless and Bane so far they haven't questioned it.
Had a Zealot Barbarian who wished to be a Bard...her rage was a furious singing as she hacked & cleaved the enemy.
She was also partial to "Journey" & "Killers" songs.
Her "Zealous Presence" feature also served as a pretty great alternative to a Bardic Inspiration, which I flavored as a massive power-ballad, symbolic of her dedication to song...
Granting your allies advantage on attack & saving rolls for a whole round is pretty inspirational, too, even if it is only once per long rest.
I've been entertaining the notion of a Swashbuckler Rogue who acts like a sword master or honorable warrior...essentially a Fighter.
Specifically, they'd be like a samurai or ronin warrior...their "Sneak Attack" would be modeled after the Iao quick-draw style of combat...
They would "Cunning Action" Dash into combat, target a single enemy, unsheath their blade (styled as a tachi or katana), deliver a single, powerful strike...and quickly sheath their blade once more...the "Sneak Attack" representing how lethal their blow would be.
Their goal would be the perfection of their swordsmanship, rather than personal greed or ambition...the "Panache" skill is great when you want to single out a "worthy" opponent for an "honorable" duel. : )
A "Long Death" Monk is a perfect surrogate for a Berserker Barbarian...their ability to strike fear into their enemies at-will could be a fantastic alternative for the barbarian's "Rage" mechanic, and could simply be described as a terrible bloodlust.
The temporary HP they gain when they kill an enemy adds to this idea that they are berserkers...that killing excites them and incites them to further violence.
And I don't have to mention that, like barbarians, Long Death monks are remarkably hard to kill...their mid-level ability to use a single ki-point to ignore death makes them terrifying in combat.
Actually, if you describe a Long Death monk as a madman with war paint, a horned helmet, dressed in animal pelts or hides, whose monks weapons are just a pair of hatchets...you would fool the party into actually believing you are a barbarian.
Pick a class that can look similar, introduce yourself as whatever, and reskin other abilities to line up.
Class as a game mechanic isn't the same thing as game characterization.
If I make an arcane trickster who picks up perform, history, and inspiring leader it's not hard to be characterized as a bard in play.
If the idea is to trick the other players then it really depends on which class is mimicking which. Reskinning is still very useful and bards are good for mimicking a lot.
I have a character called Mr Dandy who is a Tiefling, but pretends to be an old Human man, so pretends he has no darkvision. He is a Bard/Sorcerer and says he is a cleric and casts guidance on people but its really only prestidigitation.
He will almost always offer candy to people...he will put his hand in his pocket then say the words "would you like some candy?" and when he opens his hand there will be a piece of candy that looks like a peppermint twist type lolly. If the person eats it, it will taste wonderful something they enjoy and instantly "dissolves" in their mouth, however if they do not pick it up within 10 seconds he will close his hand and put it back in his pocket....however, there is no candy, it is all prestidigitation.
Currently playing as a bardbarrian, Eric thinks of himself as a bard and uses a sax for an instrument, he tends to get carried away smacking enemy's in the face. I've had a lot of fun playing him, I have taken a single level as a bard mostly because our party needed some emergency healing.
I've played an apprentice shaman (as in, a tribal priest) using the bard class once. The character believed his magic and abilities were divine - granted by ancestral spirits - in nature, whereas in reality the magic was arcane and the rest were his bardic abilities.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Yeah. I can think of four tiers:
Easy: You're trying to deceive other casually acquainted NPCS.
Medium: You're trying to deceive other player *characters*.
Hard: You're trying to deceive other *players*.
God tier: You're trying to deceive the DM. You're actually a rogue, but the DM thinks you're a paladin. You only ever do actions that both a rogue and paladin could do, but somehow there's always a plausible deniability that it was in character to do an action, even if it was clearly non-optimal for a paladin of your level. Technically you legally played a whole campaign as a rogue, but the DM believed the whole time you were a paladin.
Role-playing-wise, here are some that would be fun. I don't know if you could pull them off.
Rogue pretending to be a paladin.
I like the idea of an irreverent rogue posing as a pious paladin. He's constantly secretly goofing on his order's up-tight ways.
How about a cleric pretending to be a rogue.
It's juxtaposition of opposites. We have a highly good-aligned class infiltrating (a chaotic act) the neutral or evil underbelly of society to right some wrong.
You can generate these in general, so think for each class, what's the typical dominant alignment?
Fighter - neutral
Rogue - chaotic
Ranger - good
Paladin - lawful
Barbarian - chaotic
Monk - good
Cleric - good
Druid - good
Bard - chaotic
Sorcerer - chaotic
Warlock - evil
Wizard - lawful
You can pretty consistently get dynamic combos if you pick two classes that have opposite typical alignment, like ranger posing as warlock or bard posing as paladin. Or you can get pretty ludicrous stuff like a barbarian posing as a wizard (or vice versa).
The idea of posing as another class seems like it might work for a one-shot, or as a temporary thing for one session of a campaign. Like your bard has to pose as a priest to infiltrate the enemy castle, but it's little more than a disguise self gone wrong. But he's going to drop the disguise once he gets away with the crown jewels. It's not a long con.
Classes don't have alignments. That's a prior edition thing.
I could make a lawful good assassin who was a special operative of the crown and name him James Bond if I wanted. Or organized crime as lawful evil.
A bard as a paladin is easy. Don't confuse game mechanics of a class with general perceptions NPC's and PC's might have. If I make a lawful good bard who acts chivalrous, wears armor, fights with a sword, rides a horse, and focuses on healing and thematic magic characters don't see anything that looks like the bard isn't a paladin if that is how he or she introduces himself or herself.
Players are a different story. A player looks at mechanics and that harder to hide in some cases, but the names of classes are just labels within gameplay.
That's why I said "typical alignments".
You *can* make it easy with a lawful good bard posing as a paladin, but it would be more interesting to make it hard. A chaotic neutral bard posing as a paladin has conflicting motivations and predilections, which will make for some dynamic role playing.
Imagine Han Solo trying to pretend to be Luke Skywalker lol