I've been muddling this concept over in my head for a while now. I'm obsessed with Tool's Ænema and I love Lovecraft's work to bits (while not having read all of them) and so I have wanted to build a backup character based around them for a while. Im thinking Half-Elf Tome Warlock of GOO: Ghaunadar, That Which Lurks (I was originally thinking Lurker In The Deep buuuuut meh, I dunno, it seems OP and undercooked) Inheritor; a simple preacher who took on his dad's parish after he <something something> and upon reading his dad's ravings in his book, something began to anchor in his own mind from them. He began having nightmares, hearing voices, realising he was drenched and didnt know why, etc. Then the nightmares presented as premonitions of a great flood coming and now he has to <something something to do with the homebrew setting>.

ANYWAY. I normally find I can craft a backstory and even hone mechanics better if I have a sweet image or sick mini to get the character  juices flowing, but I can't settle on one. I kinda like this, or even this one or maybe this one, but kinda like the look of this fanart (not mine) of The Music of Eric Zann, just sans violin.

I dunno, I guess Im asking do any of you know of any cool Lovecraftian preacher or priest images, you can suggest? The more shadowy and tentacled the better. Please and thank youuuu!

Cool idea, but think about the party you'll be with. It'll be very hard (outside an evil campaign) to play with people who want to go on adventuring and saving the world whilst being a preacher of an Eldritch entity that heralds madness. Unless! You are starting a cult which requires you to travel around the world spreading rumors and teach the the eldritch truth to the blind folk and make a following wherever you go and all of this is happening behind the back of your party  (Ask the DM first before going with that). It'll take time but the rewards will be fantastic, assuming your DM understands what you are aiming for, again, consult your DM first because the last thing you want is to anger your DM and fellow party members. I personaly never managed to get to play a lovecraftian warlock since most of my DMs don't know much about HPL's works nor do they like evil characters so..... hope you get a better shot!

As for an art for your character i am very fond of the third one, the character doesn't look creepy and you'll most likely get people to listen to him.

Side note: Unearthed arcana is meant to be unbalanced for testing purposes so it should be balanced when fully released.

Quote from Arlong >>

Cool idea, but think about the party you'll be with. It'll be very hard (outside an evil campaign) to play with people who want to go on adventuring and saving the world whilst being a preacher of an Eldritch entity that heralds madness. Unless! You are starting a cult which requires you to travel around the world spreading rumors and teach the the eldritch truth to the blind folk and make a following wherever you go and all of this is happening behind the back of your party  (Ask the DM first before going with that). It'll take time but the rewards will be fantastic, assuming your DM understands what you are aiming for, again, consult your DM first because the last thing you want is to anger your DM and fellow party members. I personaly never managed to get to play a lovecraftian warlock since most of my DMs don't know much about HPL's works nor do they like evil characters so..... hope you get a better shot!

As for an art for your character i am very fond of the third one, the character doesn't look creepy and you'll most likely get people to listen to him.

Side note: Unearthed arcana is meant to be unbalanced for testing purposes so it should be balanced when fully released.

 

 Yes! I totally agree with where you're coming from, luckily the narrative of the campaign will have our goals aligned. My current character's party (the plague doctor in my signature below is a link to it's sheet) is looking for the forgotten/banned sixth god of the homebrew world we're playing in as it's domain and teachings are the only hope in counteracting the current big bad's plan. Especially after they have literally stolen our entire coastal home city and bamfed it somewhere (we think the underdark as there's an element of Drow influence), leaving nothing but a spherical crater where it was once that is now filled with sea water. We've recently discovered this sixth god is none other than Ghaunador (my DM and I are the only two fans of Lovecraft in our circle and have often bantered over who is the bigger bad ass, Dr Armitage or Prof. Dyer, with an honourable mention to Gustaf Johansen). One of his main temples in the land was submerged in the bay of our city that history had forgotten about. So yes, roaming the land looking for the temple and recruiting followers is my main aim and me being a conduit of the GOO is inline with what our party keep saying ("we need to find someone who knows more about the GOO").

I have since made this one heroforge and am very happy with it and as a result I am also leaning heavily towards the third image. Thank you very much for your input!

P.S. I fixed the broken link to the fan art of Eric Zann too. Sorry about that.

Edit RE: Side Note. Absolutely agree. I've had players that started playing a UA content or am official class and jumped across to the new content on release for the same reason. SO I'm hoping my DM will allow that if official Lurker is better than its current iteration (I'd love to not waste an invocation on Gift of the Depths if its a class ability, but I'm just a little meh about the tendrils mechanics but the flavour),