Basically as the title says, I love the concept idea of someone who couldn't make it into wizard school or who flunked out and decided to cheat and make a deal to get some power. How would you guys build this concept? Ive never played a pure warlock before so im curious how you guys would do this level by level to say 10?
I'm feeling like fiend warlock might be the patron to go with, with pact of the tome to emulate a wizard's spell book, with the book of ancient secrets invocation.
I'm feeling like fiend warlock might be the patron to go with, with pact of the tome to emulate a wizard's spell book, with the book of ancient secrets invocation.
Character is a Half-Elf who was rejected in his (mother’s) High Elf home village. To learn magic he researched and found Malkizid
Fire Gensai. Pact of the Genie (Efritti). Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast. Devil's Sight. Eventually you want Pact of the Tome. Take all the Fire spells you can grab. They kicked you out of Wizard School? Well they were playing with fire when they kicked you out. You'll show them some fire... (Your Patron lets you turn your Eldritch Blast damage into Fire now and then) Make sure your Genie Vessel is shaped like an oil lamp, because where else does phenomenal cosmic power like yours go?
I would second the concept of utilizing feats to get access to more spells. Magic Initiate Wizard would be a good choice for character reasons. Above you will hear people say Sorcerer so you can use charisma, but you don't need charisma for Mage Hand, Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Prestidigitation, or Mending. On the spell usable once per day I would probably take Absorb Elements, Shield, Sleep, or Mage Armor. In the case of AE, and Shield you would like to have them more often, but once a day is still great if used in the right place.
Remember to get Arcana as a skill so you can play off that you actually were paying attention in class its just the teacher had it out for you. I agree with Pact of the Tome. Its the most wizardy of the pacts. For patrons I like Fiend or GOO, either would be great ways to be touched into a deal. If you went Archfey, I would prefer the Fey Touched feat over magic initiate.
I would second the concept of utilizing feats to get access to more spells. Magic Initiate Wizard would be a good choice for character reasons. Above you will hear people say Sorcerer so you can use charisma, but you don't need charisma for Mage Hand, Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Prestidigitation, or Mending. On the spell usable once per day I would probably take Absorb Elements, Shield, Sleep, or Mage Armor. In the case of AE, and Shield you would like to have them more often, but once a day is still great if used in the right place.
Remember to get Arcana as a skill so you can play off that you actually were paying attention in class its just the teacher had it out for you. I agree with Pact of the Tome. Its the most wizardy of the pacts. For patrons I like Fiend or GOO, either would be great ways to be touched into a deal. If you went Archfey, I would prefer the Fey Touched feat over magic initiate.
Careful, if you take GFB from the wizard's list on MI, the bonus damage scales off INT instead of CHA.
I would second the concept of utilizing feats to get access to more spells. Magic Initiate Wizard would be a good choice for character reasons. Above you will hear people say Sorcerer so you can use charisma, but you don't need charisma for Mage Hand, Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Prestidigitation, or Mending. On the spell usable once per day I would probably take Absorb Elements, Shield, Sleep, or Mage Armor. In the case of AE, and Shield you would like to have them more often, but once a day is still great if used in the right place.
Remember to get Arcana as a skill so you can play off that you actually were paying attention in class its just the teacher had it out for you. I agree with Pact of the Tome. Its the most wizardy of the pacts. For patrons I like Fiend or GOO, either would be great ways to be touched into a deal. If you went Archfey, I would prefer the Fey Touched feat over magic initiate.
I did something very similar to this. Magic Initiate (Wizard) with Cantrips that don’t use intelligence and Shield, Great Old One patron (his patron extruded a piece of itself as a book in the wizard’s school’s library and he found it and made a pact for a shortcut to power without all of that studying), and Pact of the Tome. He calls himself a war wizard and he spends as much time as possible playing cards.
I didn’t optimize him much, I built him for role playing instead and he was a ton of fun to play. You don’t need to optimize warlocks much, just use eldritch blast, agonizing blast, and max out their charisma and you’re good to go.
I'm more partial to the genie pacts, because of the flying, the vessel, and Wish; but that fiend pact is nothing to sneeze at. Why did your character want to be a wizard so bad? Was it just the power itself, or is there something he's so desperate to be able to do that he'd sell his soul for the chance? I think that'll effect how you want it to play out. If he's just in it for the knowledge, then Pact of Tome will give the most wizard-like experience... enough that you could probably pass as a wizard and not tell your party about your pact until the DM decides the chickens are coming home to roost.
For your high elf cantrip especially, try to pick something utility instead of damaging, so it doesn't matter that it scales to intelligence. Shape Water, Prestidigitation, and Minor Illusion are always super useful and versatile, and work the same at any level.
But also, how do you want to play? Unless you go hexblade, warlocks are squishy distance blasters, sort of halfway between bard and wizard. You're great at dealing with NPC's, and less great at investigation or perception. You get a lot of support spells to control the battlefield, Eldtrich Blast (with Agonizing) for good range damage, and the occasional Fireball for show (with your fiend patron). Try to choose things for your invocations that you can use frequently. Remember you can swap out one spell every level, but you're only supposed to swap invocations when you get ASI's/Feats (if your table uses Tasha's), so you'll be stuck with it for a while. In battle, I try to lean on cantrips/invocations as much as possible, and spare my pact slots for the big bosses.
If you want to really lean into the bitter-wannabe-wizard angle, take At Will invocations over once-a-day-ones, so you can show off a little by casting Silent Image, Detect Magic, or Disguise Self way more times than an actual wizard could without resting, like you're compensating.
Mostly, do what sounds like the most opportunities for fun, it probably will be!
From the PHB: "Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at that level."
Basically as the title says, I love the concept idea of someone who couldn't make it into wizard school or who flunked out and decided to cheat and make a deal to get some power. How would you guys build this concept? Ive never played a pure warlock before so im curious how you guys would do this level by level to say 10?
I'm feeling like fiend warlock might be the patron to go with, with pact of the tome to emulate a wizard's spell book, with the book of ancient secrets invocation.
I‘m playing a character like this right now. As cgarciao said:
Character is a Half-Elf who was rejected in his (mother’s) High Elf home village. To learn magic he researched and found Malkizid
Use Magic Initiate (Sorcerer) to add a couple of "wizard" cantrips that key off charisma. Fire Bolt and Mending, or something like that.
Fire Gensai. Pact of the Genie (Efritti). Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast. Devil's Sight. Eventually you want Pact of the Tome. Take all the Fire spells you can grab. They kicked you out of Wizard School? Well they were playing with fire when they kicked you out. You'll show them some fire... (Your Patron lets you turn your Eldritch Blast damage into Fire now and then) Make sure your Genie Vessel is shaped like an oil lamp, because where else does phenomenal cosmic power like yours go?
<Insert clever signature here>
I would second the concept of utilizing feats to get access to more spells.
Magic Initiate Wizard would be a good choice for character reasons. Above you will hear people say Sorcerer so you can use charisma, but you don't need charisma for Mage Hand, Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Prestidigitation, or Mending. On the spell usable once per day I would probably take Absorb Elements, Shield, Sleep, or Mage Armor. In the case of AE, and Shield you would like to have them more often, but once a day is still great if used in the right place.
Remember to get Arcana as a skill so you can play off that you actually were paying attention in class its just the teacher had it out for you. I agree with Pact of the Tome. Its the most wizardy of the pacts. For patrons I like Fiend or GOO, either would be great ways to be touched into a deal. If you went Archfey, I would prefer the Fey Touched feat over magic initiate.
Careful, if you take GFB from the wizard's list on MI, the bonus damage scales off INT instead of CHA.
I did something very similar to this. Magic Initiate (Wizard) with Cantrips that don’t use intelligence and Shield, Great Old One patron (his patron extruded a piece of itself as a book in the wizard’s school’s library and he found it and made a pact for a shortcut to power without all of that studying), and Pact of the Tome. He calls himself a war wizard and he spends as much time as possible playing cards.
I didn’t optimize him much, I built him for role playing instead and he was a ton of fun to play. You don’t need to optimize warlocks much, just use eldritch blast, agonizing blast, and max out their charisma and you’re good to go.
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I'm more partial to the genie pacts, because of the flying, the vessel, and Wish; but that fiend pact is nothing to sneeze at. Why did your character want to be a wizard so bad? Was it just the power itself, or is there something he's so desperate to be able to do that he'd sell his soul for the chance? I think that'll effect how you want it to play out. If he's just in it for the knowledge, then Pact of Tome will give the most wizard-like experience... enough that you could probably pass as a wizard and not tell your party about your pact until the DM decides the chickens are coming home to roost.
For your high elf cantrip especially, try to pick something utility instead of damaging, so it doesn't matter that it scales to intelligence. Shape Water, Prestidigitation, and Minor Illusion are always super useful and versatile, and work the same at any level.
But also, how do you want to play? Unless you go hexblade, warlocks are squishy distance blasters, sort of halfway between bard and wizard. You're great at dealing with NPC's, and less great at investigation or perception. You get a lot of support spells to control the battlefield, Eldtrich Blast (with Agonizing) for good range damage, and the occasional Fireball for show (with your fiend patron). Try to choose things for your invocations that you can use frequently. Remember you can swap out one spell every level
, but you're only supposed to swap invocations when you get ASI's/Feats (if your table uses Tasha's), so you'll be stuck with it for a while. In battle, I try to lean on cantrips/invocations as much as possible, and spare my pact slots for the big bosses.If you want to really lean into the bitter-wannabe-wizard angle, take At Will invocations over once-a-day-ones, so you can show off a little by casting Silent Image, Detect Magic, or Disguise Self way more times than an actual wizard could without resting, like you're compensating.
Mostly, do what sounds like the most opportunities for fun, it probably will be!
From the PHB:
"Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at that level."
The character im creating got kicked out of magic school for not being smart enough, INT of 12 basically. Just barely couldn't cut it academically.
It really depends on how you want to come by your pact.
I made a librarian who became a feylock because of a mysterious book my grandmother slipped him.
You could make a goolock by chasing down a falling star.
An "older" student might help you contact a random other planer being or even "gift" you a cursed item for your bladelock flavor...
Just remember that fiends are drug dealers and fey are con-artists...
Thank you, Elfdope, that's very nice to find out.