We are starting our new campaign soon, we are running Ghosts of Saltmarsh with some homebrew stuff mixed in.
I am playing a homebrew Kraken Warlock with a smuggler background. I am going to be a smooth talking, very deceptive, con-man smuggler, who can convince just about anyone to trust him but always conning everyone.
I was thinking about starting as a rogue to level 3 to get swashbuckler then multiclassing into my main character the warlock. we were going to have the group encounter it and it ends up killing me, but I show up next session still alive. My party doesn't know that the Kraken was impressed with my skill and brought me back with my new powers.
My question is, since I am not going hexblade, is a warlock using melee a waste? Pact of the blade looks decent, but it seems that without hexblade, pact of the tome would be much more useful and not worry about melee? Plus we will have a soul-knife rogue in the class and I don't want to take away his fun of doing rogue stuff by me doing it instead. (the other rogue is my real life son).
Is there a class that would fit better for starting out? Or should I use our other idea and start as the warlock, then at some point later go through a redemption arc where I defy my patron and multi-class out instead?
Does anyone have any suggestions that may help me decide what I should do instead of a melee multiclass?
You could go with the oath of the open sea paladin instead of swashbuckler. It would make you a bit more melee and less roguey.
Personally I would make it obvious to the players at the table what happened and then role play what your character is going through. The big reveal isn't as awesome as it is in your head usually. Letting them lean into your character concept can also help.
Since you're describing your character being a smooth-talking, con-man smuggler, then I would recommend looking at the bardic options (especially if you're shying away from doubling up on the rogue aspects). Being a bard would definitely help with making your character a smooth-talking con-man build. Plus, the bard class tends to lend well to multiclassing with warlock (and vice versa), since they're both CHA-based spellcasters.
As for which bardic college (i.e., subclass) to choose, I think that Swords would be a very good replacement for your initial swashbuckler idea. Both versions would be pretty handy with a melee weapon in hand. There'd be some decent benefit with going Pact of the Blade from the warlock portion as well. However, if you want to be even less melee focused, then I'd probably recommend Eloquence instead. The silver tongue feature would be that you'd be a very conveniencing con-man, and unsettling words would lend well to spellcasting being a stronger avenue for you.
If you're wanting a redemption arc over the long term, you can always go back to being more bard than warlock and play the Eloquence aspect as a more respectable mediator whose trying to fix things rather than take advantage of them.
Just because the Hexblade is the better option for Pact of the Blade doesn't mean the other Patrons aren't good enough.
My advice is to use the Fathomless Warlock from Tasha's. Start with either variant Human or Custom Lineage and take the Slasher feat for the movement reduction. Get yourself a Scimitar for this, you'll find it easier to go DEX than STR.
You can go with Swashbuckler or straight into Warlock. Either way, Tentacle of the Deeps reduces your foe's movement by 10 feet, which stacks with the movement reduction from Slasher.
At 5th level, get the Spirit Shroud spell for another 10 feet of movement reduction; you can now reduce a foe's movement by 30 feet and immobilize almost anyone/anything.
If you'd rather go Tome Pact, choose Ray of Frost as one of your Tome spells and use that in place of the Slasher feat. If you go this route you'll be doing lots of cold damage (Ray of Frost, Tentacle of the Deeps, and Spirit Shroud can all do cold damage) so maybe choose Elemental Adept for your starting feat and lean into that.
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Behind every successful Warlock, there's an angry mob.
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We are starting our new campaign soon, we are running Ghosts of Saltmarsh with some homebrew stuff mixed in.
I am playing a homebrew Kraken Warlock with a smuggler background. I am going to be a smooth talking, very deceptive, con-man smuggler, who can convince just about anyone to trust him but always conning everyone.
I was thinking about starting as a rogue to level 3 to get swashbuckler then multiclassing into my main character the warlock. we were going to have the group encounter it and it ends up killing me, but I show up next session still alive. My party doesn't know that the Kraken was impressed with my skill and brought me back with my new powers.
My question is, since I am not going hexblade, is a warlock using melee a waste? Pact of the blade looks decent, but it seems that without hexblade, pact of the tome would be much more useful and not worry about melee? Plus we will have a soul-knife rogue in the class and I don't want to take away his fun of doing rogue stuff by me doing it instead. (the other rogue is my real life son).
Is there a class that would fit better for starting out? Or should I use our other idea and start as the warlock, then at some point later go through a redemption arc where I defy my patron and multi-class out instead?
Does anyone have any suggestions that may help me decide what I should do instead of a melee multiclass?
Thank you
You could go with the oath of the open sea paladin instead of swashbuckler. It would make you a bit more melee and less roguey.
Personally I would make it obvious to the players at the table what happened and then role play what your character is going through. The big reveal isn't as awesome as it is in your head usually. Letting them lean into your character concept can also help.
Since you're describing your character being a smooth-talking, con-man smuggler, then I would recommend looking at the bardic options (especially if you're shying away from doubling up on the rogue aspects). Being a bard would definitely help with making your character a smooth-talking con-man build. Plus, the bard class tends to lend well to multiclassing with warlock (and vice versa), since they're both CHA-based spellcasters.
As for which bardic college (i.e., subclass) to choose, I think that Swords would be a very good replacement for your initial swashbuckler idea. Both versions would be pretty handy with a melee weapon in hand. There'd be some decent benefit with going Pact of the Blade from the warlock portion as well. However, if you want to be even less melee focused, then I'd probably recommend Eloquence instead. The silver tongue feature would be that you'd be a very conveniencing con-man, and unsettling words would lend well to spellcasting being a stronger avenue for you.
If you're wanting a redemption arc over the long term, you can always go back to being more bard than warlock and play the Eloquence aspect as a more respectable mediator whose trying to fix things rather than take advantage of them.
Just because the Hexblade is the better option for Pact of the Blade doesn't mean the other Patrons aren't good enough.
My advice is to use the Fathomless Warlock from Tasha's. Start with either variant Human or Custom Lineage and take the Slasher feat for the movement reduction. Get yourself a Scimitar for this, you'll find it easier to go DEX than STR.
You can go with Swashbuckler or straight into Warlock. Either way, Tentacle of the Deeps reduces your foe's movement by 10 feet, which stacks with the movement reduction from Slasher.
At 5th level, get the Spirit Shroud spell for another 10 feet of movement reduction; you can now reduce a foe's movement by 30 feet and immobilize almost anyone/anything.
If you'd rather go Tome Pact, choose Ray of Frost as one of your Tome spells and use that in place of the Slasher feat. If you go this route you'll be doing lots of cold damage (Ray of Frost, Tentacle of the Deeps, and Spirit Shroud can all do cold damage) so maybe choose Elemental Adept for your starting feat and lean into that.
Behind every successful Warlock, there's an angry mob.