Rogue would be the obvious choice, using sleight of hand to do magic tricks. The other classes that would be good at this sort of thing are actual magic users, which could also be fun, a bard that does stage magic but also has real magic they use off the stage. Another route would be to play a caster class but consider your spells to be stage magic that has that effect, though that would require careful spell selection.
Nice idea but, unless your charlatan can produce effects produced as cheaply and that are as impressive as those of casters of prestidigitation and minor illusion (supplemented by sleight of hand), I don't think that the charlatan would likely compete.
Well, an artificer is technically channeling magic through mechanical means -- the box about flavoring your spellcasting is all about flavoring it to look like something non-magical, like making a salve or a tiny machine. So artificer could work, either flat out or as magic that they don't realize is magic.
I'd say that to pull it off you'd have to be using sleight of hand, so something with high dex, and you'd probably want for your spell effects proficiency in alchemist tools and I'd also aim for herbalism kit proficiency so you can sell your snake oil potions with some measure of legitimacy.
It is probably an expensive bit so I'd work with your DM to see what they say.
I think in a low magic world you could probably pull it off.
I like to solve ideas of this nature as cosmetic first, then mechanical. It's far better to repurpose a wheel than to reinvent the entire concept of a wheel itself.
As a DM I'd start by asking you "How are you producing certain spell effects? What kind of power levels are we talking here?"
If you want to throw the big spells like Fireball and Finger of Death we need a serious understanding of what the character is actually doing vs how it appears. If you are just thinking about cantrip level spells and simple illusions it's still a question of "What is the character doing to cause these effects?" but I'm a bit more open in terms of what facilitates the simple magics.
Off the cuff here I'd consider letting a player do this with the super simple spells like Prestidigitation and some mechanical effect, etc. causing it. I'd also be willing to tie any saves related to the spells based on the characters Persuasion check. Achieve a certain DC on the check and the 'magic' appears magical. As a bit of flavor and fun to the roleplay it'd be great.
Another good cover for more powerful magic is a roleplay gimmick that's been done several times over. A 'Wizard' who makes potions that create the spell effects. Everything about the spells remains the same, and you don't go into some serious alchemy to get it done, but the spells and their related slots are a bunch of potions, etc. on a bandolier that are consumed, applied, or thrown as needed to "cast" the spell. It's been done several times over because it creates good style but does not touch the power balance of the game. I like those answers.
How about any class that takes the Magic initiate feat and uses their very few spells in a way to make the best demonstrations with the help of non-magical items. For example, a pile of "gun powder" could be ignited by a prestidigitation spell.
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Rogue that stole a bunch of magic items. Re-Flavor Arcane Trickster as the "spells" are a bunch of single use magic items they took from a horde somewhere.
A lot of people seem to be missing the point of the character here. It's a non-magic using character, who tricks people into thinking that they do magic.
All you really need for this is a character with a high Charisma, with proficiencies in Deception, Performance and Sleight of Hand. They can do "street-magic" just like an actual magician does, making coins disappear (sleight of hand) or even bigger conjuration tricks.
I don't know if this is for an NPC or a PC, but I'd assume the latter - in which case it's going to be a bit awkward when other members of the party start doing actual magic. It's a bit of a one-trick pony idea, and in a D&D world typically "I can do magic" is connected with "I am dangerous/can mould reality."
A lot of people seem to be missing the point of the character here. It's a non-magic using character, who tricks people into thinking that they do magic.
All you really need for this is a character with a high Charisma, with proficiencies in Deception, Performance and Sleight of Hand. They can do "street-magic" just like an actual magician does, making coins disappear (sleight of hand) or even bigger conjuration tricks.
I don't know if this is for an NPC or a PC, but I'd assume the latter - in which case it's going to be a bit awkward when other members of the party start doing actual magic. It's a bit of a one-trick pony idea, and in a D&D world typically "I can do magic" is connected with "I am dangerous/can mould reality."
Yeah I've heard this as a pretty common character archetype that's been tried and tried again, and I don't know how they get past this at higher level play. You can fake a Prestidigitation with street magic easily enough, but idk how you'd try to fake like a Levitate or a Fireball in a way that wasn't just playing a magic class but reflavoring it as something mundane. That seems like kind of a cop-out though.
Play a rogue for slight of hand and you'll find yourself probably most often just stabbing with a dagger or shooting with a bow.
Go watch ‘The Illusionist’. Take tinker tools at character creation, hire an assistant to help distract… watch ‘the prestige’ then hire a changeling doppleganger to step out of the other box you supposedly teleported too (or roleplay twin’s who pretend there is only one of them) get expertise in sleight of hand and the rest is just developing the tricks with science or mechanical means. Artificer class might help, rogue would probably be best, they would be good at making a playing card appear in someones pocket. Having an accomplice is crucial to bigger tricks, a supposed volunteer from the audience who pretends to be amazed. how bout running twin changelings…?
Go watch ‘The Illusionist’. Take tinker tools at character creation, hire an assistant to help distract… watch ‘the prestige’ then hire a changeling doppleganger to step out of the other box you supposedly teleported too (or roleplay twin’s who pretend there is only one of them) get expertise in sleight of hand and the rest is just developing the tricks with science or mechanical means. Artificer class might help, rogue would probably be best, they would be good at making a playing card appear in someones pocket. Having an accomplice is crucial to bigger tricks, a supposed volunteer from the audience who pretends to be amazed. how bout running twin changelings…?
Isn't that just running two characters? And what are they supposed to do, carry that stage and door setup around with them and build it everything they need to trick someone into thinking they can teleport? It seems a bit involved...
A lot of people seem to be missing the point of the character here. It's a non-magic using character, who tricks people into thinking that they do magic.
All you really need for this is a character with a high Charisma, with proficiencies in Deception, Performance and Sleight of Hand. They can do "street-magic" just like an actual magician does, making coins disappear (sleight of hand) or even bigger conjuration tricks.
I don't know if this is for an NPC or a PC, but I'd assume the latter - in which case it's going to be a bit awkward when other members of the party start doing actual magic. It's a bit of a one-trick pony idea, and in a D&D world typically "I can do magic" is connected with "I am dangerous/can mould reality."
We had something like this happen in the campaign I played in last year. I was playing a Bard. Another player was playing a Rogue but wanted to pass himself off as a Bard. So he got proficiency with instruments and performance. Then he started presenting himself as a Bard, that always wanted to go off and hide in the shadows before attempting to stab someone. His "cover" was blown when he never cast a spell and never gave out inspiration.
So I took the question to be "How do I select one character class but want other to believe I am a magic user?" So my answer is, Take a feat that allows you to use the smallest bit of magic so you can hope to pass yourself off as a magic user-full blown, when you only have the smallest bit of magic available to you.
I don't consider your interpretation of the question to be any better than mine given the information we have.
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Its only going to last until they hit T2 then the cover is blown for the most part. There just isn't a enough non-magic effects that could look like magic.
Martials in general do not get cool abilities like that in this edition.
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I want to build a charlatan that makes people believe he is a magic user but it's all tricks. Any ideas?
Rogue would be the obvious choice, using sleight of hand to do magic tricks. The other classes that would be good at this sort of thing are actual magic users, which could also be fun, a bard that does stage magic but also has real magic they use off the stage. Another route would be to play a caster class but consider your spells to be stage magic that has that effect, though that would require careful spell selection.
Nice idea but, unless your charlatan can produce effects produced as cheaply and that are as impressive as those of casters of prestidigitation and minor illusion (supplemented by sleight of hand), I don't think that the charlatan would likely compete.
Well, an artificer is technically channeling magic through mechanical means -- the box about flavoring your spellcasting is all about flavoring it to look like something non-magical, like making a salve or a tiny machine. So artificer could work, either flat out or as magic that they don't realize is magic.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
I'd say that to pull it off you'd have to be using sleight of hand, so something with high dex, and you'd probably want for your spell effects proficiency in alchemist tools and I'd also aim for herbalism kit proficiency so you can sell your snake oil potions with some measure of legitimacy.
It is probably an expensive bit so I'd work with your DM to see what they say.
I think in a low magic world you could probably pull it off.
I like to solve ideas of this nature as cosmetic first, then mechanical. It's far better to repurpose a wheel than to reinvent the entire concept of a wheel itself.
As a DM I'd start by asking you "How are you producing certain spell effects? What kind of power levels are we talking here?"
If you want to throw the big spells like Fireball and Finger of Death we need a serious understanding of what the character is actually doing vs how it appears. If you are just thinking about cantrip level spells and simple illusions it's still a question of "What is the character doing to cause these effects?" but I'm a bit more open in terms of what facilitates the simple magics.
Off the cuff here I'd consider letting a player do this with the super simple spells like Prestidigitation and some mechanical effect, etc. causing it. I'd also be willing to tie any saves related to the spells based on the characters Persuasion check. Achieve a certain DC on the check and the 'magic' appears magical. As a bit of flavor and fun to the roleplay it'd be great.
Another good cover for more powerful magic is a roleplay gimmick that's been done several times over. A 'Wizard' who makes potions that create the spell effects. Everything about the spells remains the same, and you don't go into some serious alchemy to get it done, but the spells and their related slots are a bunch of potions, etc. on a bandolier that are consumed, applied, or thrown as needed to "cast" the spell. It's been done several times over because it creates good style but does not touch the power balance of the game. I like those answers.
How about any class that takes the Magic initiate feat and uses their very few spells in a way to make the best demonstrations with the help of non-magical items. For example, a pile of "gun powder" could be ignited by a prestidigitation spell.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Rogue that stole a bunch of magic items. Re-Flavor Arcane Trickster as the "spells" are a bunch of single use magic items they took from a horde somewhere.
A lot of people seem to be missing the point of the character here. It's a non-magic using character, who tricks people into thinking that they do magic.
All you really need for this is a character with a high Charisma, with proficiencies in Deception, Performance and Sleight of Hand. They can do "street-magic" just like an actual magician does, making coins disappear (sleight of hand) or even bigger conjuration tricks.
I don't know if this is for an NPC or a PC, but I'd assume the latter - in which case it's going to be a bit awkward when other members of the party start doing actual magic. It's a bit of a one-trick pony idea, and in a D&D world typically "I can do magic" is connected with "I am dangerous/can mould reality."
Yeah I've heard this as a pretty common character archetype that's been tried and tried again, and I don't know how they get past this at higher level play. You can fake a Prestidigitation with street magic easily enough, but idk how you'd try to fake like a Levitate or a Fireball in a way that wasn't just playing a magic class but reflavoring it as something mundane. That seems like kind of a cop-out though.
Play a rogue for slight of hand and you'll find yourself probably most often just stabbing with a dagger or shooting with a bow.
Go watch ‘The Illusionist’. Take tinker tools at character creation, hire an assistant to help distract… watch ‘the prestige’ then hire a changeling doppleganger to step out of the other box you supposedly teleported too (or roleplay twin’s who pretend there is only one of them) get expertise in sleight of hand and the rest is just developing the tricks with science or mechanical means. Artificer class might help, rogue would probably be best, they would be good at making a playing card appear in someones pocket. Having an accomplice is crucial to bigger tricks, a supposed volunteer from the audience who pretends to be amazed.
how bout running twin changelings…?
Isn't that just running two characters? And what are they supposed to do, carry that stage and door setup around with them and build it everything they need to trick someone into thinking they can teleport? It seems a bit involved...
We had something like this happen in the campaign I played in last year. I was playing a Bard. Another player was playing a Rogue but wanted to pass himself off as a Bard. So he got proficiency with instruments and performance. Then he started presenting himself as a Bard, that always wanted to go off and hide in the shadows before attempting to stab someone. His "cover" was blown when he never cast a spell and never gave out inspiration.
So I took the question to be "How do I select one character class but want other to believe I am a magic user?" So my answer is, Take a feat that allows you to use the smallest bit of magic so you can hope to pass yourself off as a magic user-full blown, when you only have the smallest bit of magic available to you.
I don't consider your interpretation of the question to be any better than mine given the information we have.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Its only going to last until they hit T2 then the cover is blown for the most part. There just isn't a enough non-magic effects that could look like magic.
Martials in general do not get cool abilities like that in this edition.