"Never Again" - A Cleric/Sorcerer Character Concept for Wild Beyond the Witchlight

I'm currently in the process of rolling a new character (my first "serious" character after DM'ing 3-4 campaigns and a multitude of one shots) for my wife's Wild Beyond the Witchlight table. After seeing how amazing it can be to watch her characters grow and change, I've been aiming to do the same.

So far, I've settled on a concept, but Im struggling to decide on the correct mechanical choices. Here goes.

Background

• Name: Emmet
• Race: Harengon
• Physical traits: Short, even among other Harengon. What Emmet lacks in dexterity, he makes up for with intellect and wit.
• General Attitude: Most of the time, Emmet embodies a mix of Brain from "Pinky and the Brain" and Snowball from "The Secret life of Pets." While getting Emmet to stay quiet long enough to hear any advice of use can be challenging, he fundamentally means well and is fiercely protective of his friends.
• Connections: Emmet's friends are often few and far between, though he has found a deep bond in a Kenku from the local village. Their shared position on the outskirts of the local social circles, combined with a pension for trouble, has brought them extremely close. This is especially true given the lack of parents for both creatures, creating a Rocket and Groot-esque dynamic between the two. While Emmet and his Kenku pal often got into all sorts of trouble throughout the village, they had a kind benefactor in the form of Friffin - a town coot who seemed to mysteriously be only a few steps behind the two, often one of the few individuals able to calm Emmet down long enough to see reason.

• Defining Moment: One summer, the Kenku and Harengon duo found themselves at the center of the Witchlight Carnival. They had just broken into the event, along with a ragtag group of other kids from the village, that all shared a mutual friendship with an owlbear cub. Due to their lack of a ticket for the carnival, things soon turned sour. Strange creatures appeared, attempting to harm both Emmet and his Kenku friend. As usual, Friffin came to the rescue. As if his presence and connection the carnival and its proprietors wasn't enough, he was able to save the two children. Unfortunately, the strange creatures appeared to get the better of the trio, with the old man disappearing into pools of the darkest shadow and the Kenku losing his beak in a bloody confrontation. Emmet and his friend are left with only a few final words from the old man, wishing them to never give up.
  Next Steps: "Never again" the young Harengon vowed. He would never again find himself weak, find himself unable to act. He would never again fail to see whatever the old man saw within Emmet. He would devote himself to recovering that which was lost, gods be damned whoever was caught in his way.

Character Direction

Emmet is like any other character with a vendetta - blind but passionate. His overeager personality, most likely a result of his Feywild heritage, often gets in the way but it also spurs him forward. Seeking understanding and clarity about the events of that dark summer night, he has sought to learn anything and everything he can about Friffin.

Unbeknownst to him, the old man is in fact a former necromancer of the highest level, having completed his own journey hundreds of years past. Kept alive by a custom concoction of various necromantic spells, elixirs, and enchantments, Friffin has one singular goal: to never again let another being tread the path he has. Yes, the machinery of death can be meddled with, but that doesn't mean it should.

It's at this moment Emmet enters Friffin's story. The boy, while young, clearly contains great magical power, perhaps even of a divine source. Friffin knows the danger of such latent strength and has done his best to steer the orphans in the best direction without getting directly involved. He hopes that, perhaps with the right education, Emmet will go on to do great and amazing things and that he, for once in his long, long life, may actually leave a positive mark upon the planes.

Concepts and Ideas

Put simply, Friffin and Emmet are reflections of one another. I originally planned to have Friffin be my character for this story, but realized subjecting my table and my New-to-DMing Wife to a player managing 40 minions by 10th level might be a tad unfair. Instead, Emmet is a story seeking to show that the boundary of life and death is an important one. That, just because he lost his familial connection, doesn't mean he must be lost too. My goal as a player at the table is two-fold:

• Serve as a guide for the rest of the players, most of which are new. Whether that be a support character or a representative of how fantastical your character concepts can be in D&D. I don't want to overshadow anyone, but I do want to show why being creative and flexible can be so fun in TTRPGs.
• Tell a tale of life and death, to mimic the connection between the Feywild and the Shadowfell. My last campaign was fortunate enough to be Curse of Strahd, and to say im a big fan of Ravenloft would be an understatement. Provided the rest of the players are interested, my hope is to take the table into a high level game centered on the Domains of Dread, which my wife is equally excited about.

So far, I've started to explore topics like:

• The Raven Queen. Her connection to the Shadowfell and the boundary between life and death is pretty great, and situated in an awesome position for this story. Not to mention Friffin has probably met someone of her caliber, given his own 20 levels of necromantic adventuring prior to this campaign.
• The Jade Rabbit. This is a pretty neat tale in Eastern mythology related to a rabbit sacrificing itself for the Jade Emperor, only to become the Immortal Rabbit on the moon. The connections to the moon also seem pretty Feywild-appropriate, and there is already some symbology related to that in the Wild Beyond the Witchlight. In fact, Harengon lore is so open-ended right now (ie. non-existent), who's to say that they don't already worship the moon in some way?
• The power within. Friffin knows something lurks deep within the spirit of Emmet. What that might become is entirely the result of Emmet's actions, but its likely to have grave consequences if mishandled. In fact, its possible that it might even be a spark of godhood one day, similar to the tale of the Jade Rabbit.

Classes and Mechanics

Right now, I'm currently alternating between a few possibilities for Emmet's class and mechanics, namely centered around the "power within" and the "boundary between life and death." What I've found most fitting so far has been a multiclass between the Grave Domain Cleric and the Divine Soul Sorcerer. I've also looked at things like the School of Divination Wizard. Either way, I think the classes chosen have to represent Emmet's need to better understand death, an understanding of the need for balance, and a want to control the outcome of events. I think the real clincher is what motivates that control.

I imagine that Emmet may start as a sorcerer, representing his latent potential, and perhaps receive guidance through his adventures from a god/goddess and/or Friffin himself. That will likely push him towards a Clerical path, but whether or not he stays purely a Hare of the Moon or he harnesses his inner power as a Sorcerer is hard to say.

Conclusion

Thanks for taking the time to read through my concept! I'm incredibly excited to see where Emmet's journey takes him and what suggestions the community might have. I've had a lot of fun thinking this one through, and now its just a matter of finding the right combination of mechanics to bring him to life.

With careful spell selection, you could likely get much of what you're hoping for from the Grave cleric with Divine Soul sorcerer alone.  If you're looking for a mechanical idea that best aligns with a fascination with the border between life and death, a Divine Soul that focuses on a mix of healing/restorative magic and necromantic damage spells could hit that mark.  Most of the decent necrotic-damage spells kick in only at higher levels, but you can use Inflict Wounds as a first-level spell that literally puts death at your fingertips, Spirit Guardians is an eminently useful third-level spell that can deal necrotic damage (yes, it's technically alignment-based, but I don't know a single DM that won't gleefully throw that out if your story says otherwise) and Toll the Dead is always a delightfully evocative choice for combat cantrip.  I recommend this primarily because sorcerer and cleric don't mesh much at all and trying to pursue more than a token level or two of both paths at once is likely to get you in trouble, but a Divine Soul with a properly evocative spell list would line up neatly with your goals.

Mainlining Sorcerer also gives you room for a feat if you're fortunate, and there's plenty of neat feats that can speak to this idea.  Chief among them being Shadow-Touched, which is not only very useful but also a great piece of storytelling kit.  Turning invisible by wreathing yourself in shadows and discovering a touch of necromantic power within yourself (i.e. a Necromancy spell of 1st level from Shadow-Touched, Cause Fear is a good choice that's never entirely useless no matter your level) could be a cool story moment - or the result of a cool story moment.

Thanks for the response!

I felt similarly, but I also really liked the narrative choice between choosing to hone the power within or seeking understanding through worship. I also noticed there's Shadow Sorcerer as a Sorcerous Origin option, which could represent going the other way. My main draw to Grave Cleric is the Sentinel at Death's Door feature, which feels very very on point with the character concept.