First time posting plus I’m new to D&D so bear with me. I have a character idea I was hoping y’all could help me flesh out. Basically this character is a little bit of a shit. He’s he's son of a noble house who was blessed by a deity generations ago to his ancestor some heroic feat. He’s charismatic and talented because he’s been spoiled his whole life, but that’s led to arrogance. (I’m thinking Jezal from the First Law series) But that blessing from the deity has worn out now and he has to maintain the family’s heroic image and name. So to do that he makes a pact with some patron for power. I’m his mind the pact is just a stepping stone to more power. He can’t reveal his power isn’t from the original deity so he’s putting up a farce. I think the character has a lot of room for growth and opportunity for multiclassing into paladin or cleric eventually.
My questions are (aside from general feedback) “who is his patron and what is the deal?” I’m imagining some Fey or trickster god who simply asks for (aside from family money) to be ’entertained’, which could be watching him put on this charade. Do I need something else? Is it too complicated going for the deception route? I’d love any and all advice y’all have!
My 2cp worth is to make sure you DM is happy with what you propose and bear in mind that some players do not like being lied to by other players, that said......
I'd go for something like this:
Go for Celestial Warlock. The Deity in question is a trickster god, I would suggest one such as Valki the God of Lies from Magic the Gathering who is actually just a very powerful plane hopping individual called Tibalt.
The ‘pact’ you have is:
1) Never correct another persons incorrect assessment, opinion, decision, understanding or assumptions about your Character or Powers. (Character in this regard means the motivations and psychological make up of your character not the contents of your character sheet, Powers being any in character reference to your abilities or magical prowess).
2) Tell one lie per day.
3) Only ever refer to yourself as a Priest (or some other non-cannon class name or job title).
When you start your adventures just go around behaving like a bard or cleric, when you use Healing Light describe your character uttering a small prayer or song and their words coalescing into a ball of light and flying off to heal the target, this is a good way to make others think you have actually cast Healing Word instead of using a warlock power.
Being a Celestial Warlock also gives you access to some Cleric spells such as Guiding Bolt so these can also be sprinkled in to throw other off of your true class and you can obfuscate this a little more with your selection of pacts and invocations such as by taking the Pact of Blade and Eldritch Smite which might make people think your actaully a Paladin or Pact of Tome and Armour of Shadows to make them think of a multiclass to Wizard etc.
But, again, make sure to tell your DM what you're upto in case other players start to query or complain about what you are doing and also sooner or later the other players will realise whats up so don;t go too over board with any deceptions, keep it all as friendly as possible.
Above all, one thing that will give the game away very quickly is casting Eldritch Blast, so this might be one of those occasions when a warlock doesn't take it as a cantrip and you focus on using the Sacred Flame cantrip granted by the Celestial Warlcok instead.
I mean how dark do you want think to go? Because you could go celestial, trying to deal with goodly beings to entice the original back. Or you could go DARK. Maybe a demon saw a chance here and the fiend is an option, I can give you that illusion but there are costs. Maybe a great old one. They can help him but he has to do strange, unknowing things for them.
it depends how involved you want a patron to be. If you just want a background being archfey maybe. Even undead could work. Gain powers but there is a creepy undertone to some of them. And the undead creature could want to share in their kingdoms power or resources.
Nothing wrong with this type of character. It could be very fun. just depends how far you want to go. Whether you want some spells to be distinctly different and you go as far as you can without using them
I haven't played a Warlock this way, but I once played a Nomad (3.5e) as if he was a Fighter. I managed to fool the party for a good 4 or 5 sessions. When I finally revealed the truth... Nobody cared.
It's not as interesting as you think it'll be, because you're not as good at subtle foreshadowing as you think you are. And the game isn't going to perfectly present you with opportunities to push that story forward.
Tell all the players upfront what's going on with your character. Let them share in the dramatic irony.
Anyway, it sounds like the patron doesn't have to care about keeping it a secret -- only the Warlock is trying to cover it up. So it could be fun to have some blatantly unholy spells and powers, that your character has to desperately try to pass off as godly blessings. Maybe peace-loving Ilmater has decided to enter a "fire and brimstone" era. No more mister nice god.
Maybe consider a Cleric with the Arcana Domain from the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide as a Multiclass or even just the class to go with.
Their domain list takes a healthy amount of spells from the wizard spell list, in particular Nystuls Magical Aura. Its a level 2 spell that lets you mask a creature or object for 24 hours, so you could mask yourself and go masquarading as an Undead or Fiend or just another mundane creature type and if you could combine it with the Disguise Self spell then you have a few more shennanigans up your sleeve.
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First time posting plus I’m new to D&D so bear with me. I have a character idea I was hoping y’all could help me flesh out. Basically this character is a little bit of a shit. He’s he's son of a noble house who was blessed by a deity generations ago to his ancestor some heroic feat. He’s charismatic and talented because he’s been spoiled his whole life, but that’s led to arrogance. (I’m thinking Jezal from the First Law series) But that blessing from the deity has worn out now and he has to maintain the family’s heroic image and name. So to do that he makes a pact with some patron for power. I’m his mind the pact is just a stepping stone to more power. He can’t reveal his power isn’t from the original deity so he’s putting up a farce. I think the character has a lot of room for growth and opportunity for multiclassing into paladin or cleric eventually.
My questions are (aside from general feedback) “who is his patron and what is the deal?” I’m imagining some Fey or trickster god who simply asks for (aside from family money) to be ’entertained’, which could be watching him put on this charade. Do I need something else? Is it too complicated going for the deception route? I’d love any and all advice y’all have!
My 2cp worth is to make sure you DM is happy with what you propose and bear in mind that some players do not like being lied to by other players, that said......
I'd go for something like this:
Go for Celestial Warlock. The Deity in question is a trickster god, I would suggest one such as Valki the God of Lies from Magic the Gathering who is actually just a very powerful plane hopping individual called Tibalt.
The ‘pact’ you have is:
1) Never correct another persons incorrect assessment, opinion, decision, understanding or assumptions about your Character or Powers. (Character in this regard means the motivations and psychological make up of your character not the contents of your character sheet, Powers being any in character reference to your abilities or magical prowess).
2) Tell one lie per day.
3) Only ever refer to yourself as a Priest (or some other non-cannon class name or job title).
When you start your adventures just go around behaving like a bard or cleric, when you use Healing Light describe your character uttering a small prayer or song and their words coalescing into a ball of light and flying off to heal the target, this is a good way to make others think you have actually cast Healing Word instead of using a warlock power.
Being a Celestial Warlock also gives you access to some Cleric spells such as Guiding Bolt so these can also be sprinkled in to throw other off of your true class and you can obfuscate this a little more with your selection of pacts and invocations such as by taking the Pact of Blade and Eldritch Smite which might make people think your actaully a Paladin or Pact of Tome and Armour of Shadows to make them think of a multiclass to Wizard etc.
But, again, make sure to tell your DM what you're upto in case other players start to query or complain about what you are doing and also sooner or later the other players will realise whats up so don;t go too over board with any deceptions, keep it all as friendly as possible.
Above all, one thing that will give the game away very quickly is casting Eldritch Blast, so this might be one of those occasions when a warlock doesn't take it as a cantrip and you focus on using the Sacred Flame cantrip granted by the Celestial Warlcok instead.
I mean how dark do you want think to go? Because you could go celestial, trying to deal with goodly beings to entice the original back. Or you could go DARK. Maybe a demon saw a chance here and the fiend is an option, I can give you that illusion but there are costs. Maybe a great old one. They can help him but he has to do strange, unknowing things for them.
it depends how involved you want a patron to be. If you just want a background being archfey maybe. Even undead could work. Gain powers but there is a creepy undertone to some of them. And the undead creature could want to share in their kingdoms power or resources.
Nothing wrong with this type of character. It could be very fun. just depends how far you want to go. Whether you want some spells to be distinctly different and you go as far as you can without using them
I haven't played a Warlock this way, but I once played a Nomad (3.5e) as if he was a Fighter. I managed to fool the party for a good 4 or 5 sessions. When I finally revealed the truth... Nobody cared.
It's not as interesting as you think it'll be, because you're not as good at subtle foreshadowing as you think you are. And the game isn't going to perfectly present you with opportunities to push that story forward.
Tell all the players upfront what's going on with your character. Let them share in the dramatic irony.
Anyway, it sounds like the patron doesn't have to care about keeping it a secret -- only the Warlock is trying to cover it up. So it could be fun to have some blatantly unholy spells and powers, that your character has to desperately try to pass off as godly blessings. Maybe peace-loving Ilmater has decided to enter a "fire and brimstone" era. No more mister nice god.
as a PS to my previous post....
Maybe consider a Cleric with the Arcana Domain from the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide as a Multiclass or even just the class to go with.
Their domain list takes a healthy amount of spells from the wizard spell list, in particular Nystuls Magical Aura. Its a level 2 spell that lets you mask a creature or object for 24 hours, so you could mask yourself and go masquarading as an Undead or Fiend or just another mundane creature type and if you could combine it with the Disguise Self spell then you have a few more shennanigans up your sleeve.