[In my best narrator voice] We started playing 5E with a custom campaign, and I was the Totemic Barbarian. Then we started a second one while still playing the first, Journey to Ragnarok, and I was the DM.
*Record scratch, freeze frame, norse music stops*
Now we're about to embark ourselves in a third parallel adventure, (sort of) a mini-campaign based on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Our usual party is RP-medium, exploration-light, puzzle-heavy and combat-medium-to-heavy, and we'll probably use a Point-Buy system.
Now I'm going to lay on the table all the planning I have done so far, and I'll be grateful for every bit of advice that will help me narrow down the options and decide which path I should follow. This is going to take a while, so let's brew a nice tea or some coffee, and let's get to work.
Prologue
I'd love to play a Warlock: in every RPG and videogame, after a male melee-oriented character, my second PC is always a female spellcaster. Enter Mograine Faust, my occult investigator who's a geek for all things arcana and all things infernal; she aims to achieve greater power, by manipulating others and trading favors instead of money.
She'll be a Hexblade Warlock with the Pact of the Tome, and she'll either use a shield and a weapon (longsword) / a rod (of the Pact Keeper, hopefully), or she'll wields just her dark magic and a shield.
«And what about your Hexblade, dude?» Yeah, I know: I'll use my IRL Persuasion to whip something up for my DM, or maybe I'll just draw / sheathe my weapon a lot in-between casts, I don't know.
Alignment and background
I like the homebrew background Occult Investigator, that gives me Investigation + Arcana (or Religion), two languages or one langauage and a tool, plus stuff. I'd have a Cultist Contact somewhere, and lots of fluff about cults to play onto. I really love this stuff.
Anyway, she might be evil-ish (but absolutely non-edgy!), and the party's OK with that because we've been playing together for years, but a pact is a pact: she'll be Lawful Evil, meaning that she doesn't harm innocents because there's nothing to be gained from that, but she will certainly nuke a goody two-shoes who slightly berates on her, and meanwhile she'll delve deep in arcane misteries, cults and the Blood War. She likes the professional attitude of Baatezu, while she despises the haphazardly Tanar'ri! In fact I'll secretly try to have the campaign go on towards Descent into Avernus when the planned part will be over, but alas, let's go back to Waterdeep for now.
The race
First issue: I cannot pick her race. I narrowed it down to three choices: I'd really like to play a Tiefling, and the Winged variant looks amazing, but Variant Human is really tickling my optimization sense.
The DM for that campaign said that there will be some medium or light racism against a Tiefling, and I'm fine with that; I'd like to use guile, wits and a healthy dose of Illusion to have NPCs eating out of my PC's hand, before the dramatic revelation: she was a she-devil all along! *thunder crack*
The standard Infernal Legacy gives me a much-needed Thaumaturgy, plus Hellish Rebuke and Darkness; I'm not going to be a Darkness - Devil's Sight jock, because I like to coordinate with my fellow players, but Darkness can be a great defensive tool. I like the Dispater Tiefling, but I'll try and convince the DM to let me take the standard Legacy if I'll pick this race. The usual: big smiles, puppy eyes (somewhat hampered but my dwarven beard, but oh well), and bring his favourite snacks.
The Winged variant gives me 30 ft of flying speed, which could potentially ruins any melee-only foe's plan, but the DM already remarked that my PC won't always be able to fly, and it's quite reasonable I guess.
Lastly, Variant Human brings a very-much-needed bonus Feat to this particular feisty table. Which brings us to the next chapter.
Stats and feats
The path here splits into three branches.
Tiefling (Dispater)
STR 10, DEX 13+1, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 14+2 Level 4: +2 CHA (18); level 8: +2 CHA (20); level 12: War Caster; level 16: Crossbow Expert (no disadvantage casting in melee range); level 19: Actor or maybe Lucky. War Caster would streamline the drawing / sheating routine, and Crossbow Expert will potentially let me focus on using my staple Eldritch Blast instead of getting my hands dirty. Sadly, they come quite late in the progression, if I want to raise Charisma as soon as possible.
Tiefling (Dispater) - Winged variant
STR 10, DEX 13+1, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 14+2 Same as the vanilla Tiefling. Level 4: +2 CHA (18); level 8: +2 CHA (20); level 12: War Caster; level 16: Crossbow Expert (no disadvantage casting in melee range); level 19: Actor / Lucky. Still need those two late feats, but hey, at least I'm flying.
Variant Human
STR 10, DEX 13+1, CON 13, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 15+1 or maybe STR 8, DEX 13+1, CON 13 [+1 Durable], INT 12, WIS 12, CHA 15+1
Bonus Feat: Resilient (CON), that synergizes well with War Caster and rounds up my CON. Then +2 CHA (18), +2 CHA (20), War Caster, Crossbow Expert, Actor / Lucky or maybe even Magic Initiate, I don't know yet.
Sadly, I can't manage to fit Spell Sniper anywhere, here. Double range, ignore some cover and -mostly- 1 juicy additional cantrip? *Sigh*
Skills and stuff
Tiefling and the Winged variant could get Arcana and Investigation from the background, Deception and Intimidation from the Warlock class, and Persuasion + Deception (switched with Perception, DM willing) with the Beguiling Influence invocation.
The Variant Human would get Arcana and Investigation from the BG), Perception from the Race and Deception and Intimidation from the Warlock class, freeing up one invocation slot.
All the three of them would learn Common, Infernal and a third language, plus the Disguise Kit proficiency. They all have the same speed and stuff (except for flying, of course), but the Human wouldn't get Darkvision, so I'll probably end up taking Devil's Sight, using the invocation slot freed up by not taking Beguiling Influence.
All the Invocations, all of them!
Speaking of invocations, I'd pick them as following: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast and Book of Ancient Secrets for the casting part, then Mask of Many Faces to disguise myself and lean onto the infiltration / covert investigation stuff, paired with Beguiling Influence (for the two Tiefling versions) / Devil's Sight (for the Human version), and eventually Master of Myriad Forms and Misty Visions to become a true Trickster. I'd fill the list up with Grasp of Hadar or Lance of Lethargy, whatever seems more useful based upon the party composition.
Gosh, I want all of them.
Endgame spells
I'd take these 4 + 3 [ +1] cantrips: Eldritch Blast (of course), Minor Illusion, Thaumaturgy (either from Legacy or Tome), Guidance (Tome), Mage Hand, Toll the Dead, Mold Earth (Tome) and Message or Booming Blade if I'll take the Thaumaturgy-giving Infernal Legacy.
My 15 known spells could be: Hex (C), Shield, Armor of Agathys, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Hunger of Hadar (C), Hypnotic Pattern (C), Sickening Radiance (C), Counterspell, Banishment (C), Synaptic Static, Cone of Cold, Dimension Door, Dispel Magic, Blink or Invisibility (C) or maybe even Fly (C) if I'm not Winged. The Dispater Infernal Legacy would also get me Hellish Rebuke and Darkness, while the Tome rituals would include Find Familiar and Identify at first, then I'd try to learn others along the way, mostly Detect Magic and Contact Other Plane that seems... appropriate.
Tons of Concentration spells, damn it, but this looks a good mix of crowd control, buffing / debuffing, utility and plain old blasting.
Gear, setup and wishlist
I aim to wear either Breastplate or Half-Plate armor, hopefully Mithral or Adamantine and / or enchanted, plus a shield (maybe a Sentinel Shield?), a Rod of the Pact Keeper or a longsword. I couldn't leave out of my wishlist, of course, a Ring or Cloak of Protection, and maybe a Ruby of the War Mage (Xanathar) / Dark Shard Amulet (Xanathar) on the third attunement slot, that could help with the Somatic - Material - drawing - sheating conundrum, at least until I get the War Caster feat.
If attunement-free magic items will be a-plenty, Smoldering armor, Dread helm and Billowing cloak could take the illusion / deception / intimidation schtick ever further, and the Gloves of Thievery + Boots of Elvenkind combo is always nice to have. Also, a Broom of Flying and a Driftglobe could help the non-flying and non-darkvision versions. And of course who doesn't want a Bag of Holding?
...I'll have to bring A LOT of my DM's favourite snacks, I guess.
Thank you so much if you managed to get to the end: the textwall has no power over you, so you all get Inspiration points and my gratitude! Yay!
I love the thought and planning that has gone into this, but I think you are jumping ahead massively and missing out on what makes the Warlock fun in the first place. We are good at everything (not neccessarily great, but good) a kind of jack of all trades. If you want to be better at something you need to trade off on something else or just settle for the middle of the road on everything. Even with the primary Charisma stat, if you want to be mean and intimidating you pass over the option of being really good at charming the arse off of people, and vice versa. Its good to have an idea of what you would like to see in later levels, but your campaign will dictate that and the warlock is versatile enough to role with it. Here is my Tomelock sage researcher background ddb.ac/characters/2742301/9pRThj
Bit of a jack of all trades, but I wanted to play a warlock and at most I look one or two levels ahead and have about 3 plans for each level depending on how the campaign takes us lol
I know it isn't much help in your decision, but see what looks cool (to you) and play it, have you considered Yuan-Ti Pureblood?
similar to what Zyonchaos indicated, I think you also have to be careful, because the party's needs will change over time. your DM might be good with giving out magical items, or some of your invocations might be utilized eventually as ritual cast spells. You've done an absolutely incredible job with an idealized character. However, role-playing needs May dictate a change in plans. So don't be afraid to go off your script to develop a more appropriate character. For example, my Warlock who is currently sixth level, was going to be the party's arcane research analyst. However, as the game has unfolded, he has increasingly become the face of the party, its primary caster, and for multiple roleplay flavor reasons, will take a three-level dip in druid to become both the party's healer and actually increase the bond with his Patron. As I've heard it told before, life is what happens when you're making other plans.
All of that said, I really like the winged tiefling. You're just going to have to be careful where he or she goes.
Like you I also ended up as the face, which with my stats is not surprising so I started playing my character around that with my feat choice (actor) and various spells and cantrips. However I am also to a degree the parties scout using my familiar, and identifier of magical items, I am also fun for area affect and ranged damage, as the rest of my party likes to get up close and personal with the enemy. However I did get really lucky when I rolled my stats, so at lvl 4 my charisma is already maxed out and apart from strength at 15 everything else is sat on a 16. We have a pretty decent split in the campaign of RP and combat as we all like both, my character is good in combat, but better out of combat. But this has developed as we have played, all I started off with was a warlock to begin with everything else has kinda fed off of that!
I love the thought and planning that has gone into this, but I think you are jumping ahead massively and missing out on what makes the Warlock fun in the first place. We are good at everything (not neccessarily great, but good) a kind of jack of all trades. [...] Its good to have an idea of what you would like to see in later levels, but your campaign will dictate that and the warlock is versatile enough to role with it. [...] I know it isn't much help in your decision, but see what looks cool (to you) and play it, have you considered Yuan-Ti Pureblood?
Hi and thank you for your answers! Thanks, I've been wearing my thinking cap for a while on this; I like to be a jack of all trades, and I'll probably end up being the face of my party, together with a Bard: she could handle the Persuasion / Charming, while I could focus on the Deception and the Intimidating presence.
We usually plan ahead in Session 0, and the DM of that campaign is a first-time dungeon master, so he won't purposefully bust our plans. I actually don't like Yuan-Tis, because of the whole jungle & snakes schtick. I remember them from the days of Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir, where I incidentally played a Warlock.
similar to what Zyonchaos indicated, I think you also have to be careful, because the party's needs will change over time. your DM might be good with giving out magical items, or some of your invocations might be utilized eventually as ritual cast spells. You've done an absolutely incredible job with an idealized character. However, role-playing needs May dictate a change in plans. So don't be afraid to go off your script to develop a more appropriate character. [...] All of that said, I really like the winged tiefling. You're just going to have to be careful where he or she goes.
Thanks for your suggestion! The DM will perhaps be... frugal with magic items, because he's an old-school player and an AD&D 2E nostalgic. *rolling eyes* I don't get what you're saying about rituals and invocations: a ritual could free some invocation slots? I tried to avoid redundant invocations, but maybe something fell through the cracks.
Like you I also ended up as the face, which with my stats is not surprising so I started playing my character around that with my feat choice (actor) and various spells and cantrips. [...] However I did get really lucky when I rolled my stats, so at lvl 4 my charisma is already maxed out and apart from strength at 15 everything else is sat on a 16. We have a pretty decent split in the campaign of RP and combat as we all like both, my character is good in combat, but better out of combat.
Yeah, I noticed how lucky your rolls are! The Actor feats really speaks to me (please excuse the pun), but it's hard to fit it in there.
The main issue, here, is that I don't know how to joggle between melee and casting: I'd prefer to be a back-row blaster and controller, capable of dishing out a couple of whacks when things get close up and personal. Otherwise I could go Variant Human, start with Crossbow Expert and forget about a weapon altogether, hoping that my DM will let me have a shield as pact item. But I really, really love the Tiefling... *cries in Infernal*
A Tiefling with a bonus feat instead of a Infernal Legacy could be perfect for that, but I certainly would have to do unspeakeble things to my DM for him to let me have it.
Re: "some of your invocations might be utilized eventually as ritual cast spells," and your response of "I don't get what you're saying about rituals and invocations: a ritual could free some invocation slots? I tried to avoid redundant invocations, but maybe something fell through the cracks." Quick background. My character had eyes of the Runekeeper, Eldritch sight and book of ancient secrets for invocations. After a long time of using it as party research specialist, I asked the DM if I could inscribe the Eyes of the Runekeeper as a ritual in my Grimoire. This would free up an Invocation slot, which allows me to add Aspect of the Moon when I next leveled up. For rp reasons, it makes sense. I now ritual cast eyes of the Runekeeper as one might comprehend languages, and I can read them. Most of the time you're reading ancient script, you have time to do so, i.e. not being assaulted by a monster, so 10 minutes to cast ritual spells is immaterial.
Relatedly, this isn't abuse of system, trying to get some superpower for nothing, but rather using prior experience, writing it down, and approaching the spell differently as you advance in ability. Along with a proper use of arcana, you can update your grimoire, or write scrolls for "one off" spell usage, given the time and money. This expands the caster ability of the Warlock while still keeping its flavor. Unless your DM is a total tight ass, this should be ok as a mechanic going forward. I'd certainly discuss it with him or her.
1.) The Hexblade is your patron, not your weapon. Literally everyone makes this assumption, that a Hexblade warlock has to carry a hexed blade, but it's not actually true at all. What Hexblade means is that you forge a bond/pact with an entity that appears to you in the form of a weapon, i.e. the Blackrazor-esque sentient weapons of the Shadowfell. The subclass is designed to make melee combat more worthwhile on a warlock, but you shouldn't feel like you need to make use of a weapon or even carry one if you don't want to.
2.) Unpopular idea: push your +2 CHA ASIs back a stage or two. The early levels of D&D, T1 and T2, are where your character is defining herself and demonstrating, to both you-the-player and the rest of her party, who she is. Character-defining feats should be taken in this stage of the game, not pushed off till later (one reason why my own games all include a single starting feat for everyone, within certain restrictions). If you want Actor to be a part of that, you should take it as your first feat so that those skills are part of your toolkit as early as possible. On either of the tieflings, you can reshuffle points in the point buy a bit to get a starting 15 in CHA, 17 after tiefling bonus, and still hit 18 at level 4 with the +1 CHA from Actor. 18 is more than sufficient at that point in the game; you could even push off the +2 to get to 20 until you hit level 12 and take whatever interests you at 8.
Most any ASI after the level 8 one is used to refine who your character already is, while the levels 4 and 8 one can be used to[i]de[/i]fine it instead. if you plan on Actor at 4th level, you can see how that goes and get your party used to the idea of having a deceptive Reindeer Games trickster around doing all the celebrity impressions early, rather than late.
3.) Similar vein: drop Crossbow Expert. Repelling Blast should do most of what you're hoping XbowXpert does, this is a deeply overcosted pick when you're not intending to use actual crossbow combat. Between smart positioning, Repelling Blast, and simply sucking down an AoO and hoping your AC holds on occasion, you should be fine. You've stated your games focus on puzzles first, combat second, and roleplay third, with other stuff to taste after that. Crossbow Expert doesn't help much with any of that.
4.) I'd reshuffle your Invocations such that you get Mask of Many Faces early on, especially if you end up taking Actor at 4th level. MoMF + Actor is just rife for fun; the feat explicitly states that you get advantage for doing exactly what people always try to do with Mask of Many Faces. Honestly? Agonizing/Repelling Blast can wait until level 5; for the sort of character you want to play, getting the Mask/Actor combo into the game as quick as you can should be key.
5.) Alternatively, depending on how Hexblade-y you want to be, you could dispense with Eldritch Blast altogether and go with Booming/Green Flame Blade as your primary attacking option. Obviously a huge change in overall combat style, but it frees up a lot of pressure on your invocations, and a serpentine dagger wreathed in baleful green hellfire is certainly occult-y. Then you could take Mask and Beguiling Influence right off at level 2, grab Book of Ancient Secrets at 5, and perhaps only pick up Eldritch Blast and related invocations later on, as your gal deepens her Pact and drinks more deeply of her patron's power. EB only really starts exploding into oodles of bugnuts at level 11+ anyways when you get your third beam; perhaps Morgaine here only learns that trick later on in her career?
Anyways. Those were the immediate thoughts I had. Hope it's at least brainstorming fodder for ye. Enjoy, and remember - warlock? Bestlock.
After a long time of using it as party research specialist, I asked the DM if I could inscribe the Eyes of the Runekeeper as a ritual in my Grimoire. This would free up an Invocation slot, which allows me to add Aspect of the Moon when I next leveled up. For rp reasons, it makes sense. I now ritual cast eyes of the Runekeeper as one might comprehend languages, and I can read them. Most of the time you're reading ancient script, you have time to do so, i.e. not being assaulted by a monster, so 10 minutes to cast ritual spells is immaterial.
That's a quite nice idea! My invocations are more guile and action oriented, but I could work something out with my DM.
1.) The Hexblade is your patron, not your weapon. [...] but you shouldn't feel like you need to make use of a weapon or even carry one if you don't want to.
That's something that, in fact, I actually did read somewhere, but I keep assuming that I need that blade in my hands! I could just have some kind of Hexblade (patron) - related effigy on my shield, and call it a day.
2.) Unpopular idea: push your +2 CHA ASIs back a stage or two. The early levels of D&D, T1 and T2, are where your character is defining herself and demonstrating, to both you-the-player and the rest of her party, who she is. Character-defining feats should be taken in this stage of the game, not pushed off till later (one reason why my own games all include a single starting feat for everyone, within certain restrictions).
That's honestly encouraging. Yes, I can work with that.
4.) I'd reshuffle your Invocations such that you get Mask of Many Faces early on, especially if you end up taking Actor at 4th level. MoMF + Actor is just rife for fun; the feat explicitly states that you get advantage for doing exactly what people always try to do with Mask of Many Faces.
Yeah, at that point I could very well be a winged version of Mystique!
5.) Alternatively, depending on how Hexblade-y you want to be, you could dispense with Eldritch Blast altogether and go with Booming/Green Flame Blade as your primary attacking option. [...] Anyways. Those were the immediate thoughts I had. Hope it's at least brainstorming fodder for ye. Enjoy, and remember - warlock? Bestlock.
I discarded that option because another player used to play a purely melee Warlock in another campaign: quite min-maxed with Polearm Master, Sentinel and whatnot, but I prefer guile and creativity over being an extremely powerful one-trick pony.
Thanks a lot for your advice! So, to recap what you suggested, I could go for:
Winged Tiefling (Dispater)
STR 10, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 17, or I might as well work with STR 8, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 17, to be better at some of that Investigation and Arcana stuff. A weak spot (Strength) is something I could lean onto for RP reasons, anyway. My current Barbarian has 8 INT and I can easily work with that.
Level 4: Actor (18 CHA), level 8: War Caster, level 12: +2 CHA (20), level 16: Spell Sniper, level 19: Lucky, or whatever comes to my mind when I get there.
I'd grab Mask of Many Faces and Book of Ancient Secrets as soon as level 2/3, than I'd add Beguiling Influence at level 5, Agonizing Blast at level 7, Repelling Blast at level 9, then Misty Visions at level 12, Master of Myriad Forms at 15 and, eventually, something else when I get to lv.18. Might play around with the order, but I think we're getting there.
I could even drop Beguiling Influence to take Misty Visions at level 7, pick Deception and Intimidation from the Warlock class list, and maybe Arcana and Perception from a custom background. I'd think Perception is used and valued more than Investigation, or maybe Insight to notice those who try to trick the Trickster? Hmmm. This is getting awesome. And I loved the Bestlock thing!
A lot of the specific level-by-level planning depends on how likely it is that your campaign will hit those levels and what the other players in your party are doing. In a vacuum I'd probably switch Beguiling Influence and Book of Ancient Secrets, but then I'm an absolute skillwhore and just love playing characters with tons of proficiencies. BoAS is good at low levels but it only comes into its own when you start getting to warlock level 6+ and can start adding some of the Real Boi rituals to the book. Having Detect Magic and Identify on tap by level 3 is nice, but not generally crucial at that early-game level, where being able to reliably nail social checks with a solid +6 to each by level 4 would likely be more memorable in the end.
But that's in a vacuum. Heh, I always advocate letting the game tell the player what works best for them and not locking yourself down into a progression path that may not end up fitting as well as you thought it would. Telling yourself "I want a sneaky, deceptive tiefling warlock who gets by on manipulating and fooling people" and playing to that ideal without forcing yourself to make specific decisions for it ahead of time is the better idea.
A lot of the specific level-by-level planning depends on how likely it is that your campaign will hit those levels and what the other players in your party are doing. In a vacuum I'd probably switch Beguiling Influence and Book of Ancient Secrets, but then I'm an absolute skillwhore and just love playing characters with tons of proficiencies. BoAS is good at low levels but it only comes into its own when you start getting to warlock level 6+ and can start adding some of the Real Boi rituals to the book.
I look at Book of Ancient Secrets and I mostly see three juicy additional cantrips, like Guidance and Thaumaturgy: the human noble you were partying with suddenly comes forward, the flames coming from the torches flicker, dim and then become purple, the ground starts shaking and all of a sudden he's a she-devil with flaming eyes and a very, very, very intimidating presence.
Mask of Many Faces + Thaumaturgy + Guidance with a dash of Actor seems a very fun combo, in my opinion. Anyway, our campaigns tend to last: we've been playing the same one for twelve years, and we're still going somehow. We switched to 5E because it's way less cumbersome, intricate and pompous than the system we've been using until recently.
Heh. You get the cantrips for taking Pact of the Tome; all Book of Ancient Secrets gives you is the ritual spells. Admittedly, BoAS is super boss because it transcends spell lists and lets you potentially learn every ritual spell in the game, but you get to snag Thaumaturgy, Guidance, and choice of third cantrip at level 3 just by taking Tome.
In the FWIW column, think of my Tomelock as very very connected to the Feywild via his patron. Currently 6th level. Half moon elf, half human. Maternal grandfather is Eladrin, who didn't approve of his daughter marrying a human.
Str: 9, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 18. Feat: Fey ancestry (boosted his Cha to 18 from 16).
I don't worry about combat, aside of Eldritch blast and Ray of frost (very useful for an always available debuff). The goal is being the off combat guy who can ID anything Arcane. Obviously, hexblades are more combat oriented, but I think you could fulfill the role of arcane weapons master and even a student of mystical fighting styles. Seems Hexblade as a patron - as a living weapon - could encourage that. No matter what, kudos on a cool idea
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May the gentle moonlinght guide you to greater wisdom
Heh. You get the cantrips for taking Pact of the Tome; all Book of Ancient Secrets gives you is the ritual spells. Admittedly, BoAS is super boss because it transcends spell lists and lets you potentially learn every ritual spell in the game, but you get to snag Thaumaturgy, Guidance, and choice of third cantrip at level 3 just by taking Tome.
You are absolutely right: I mixed the perks of PoT and BoAS up! Maybe it means I'm burning myself up by overthinking it, lol.
I don't worry about combat, aside of Eldritch blast and Ray of frost (very useful for an always available debuff). The goal is being the off combat guy who can ID anything Arcane. Obviously, hexblades are more combat oriented, but I think you could fulfill the role of arcane weapons master and even a student of mystical fighting styles. Seems Hexblade as a patron - as a living weapon - could encourage that. No matter what, kudos on a cool idea
I'd use Eldritch Blast and Toll the Dead for combat, because the first is a ranged spell attack, and the second goes against Wisdom. Yeah, I like what I see here. I could even drop Book of Ancient Secrets altogether if the party will already have a ritual caster: by doing this I'd have Agonizing Blast + Repelling Blast at level 7, and that's quite acceptable I guess.
[In my best narrator voice]
We started playing 5E with a custom campaign, and I was the Totemic Barbarian.
Then we started a second one while still playing the first, Journey to Ragnarok, and I was the DM.
*Record scratch, freeze frame, norse music stops*
Now we're about to embark ourselves in a third parallel adventure, (sort of) a mini-campaign based on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Our usual party is RP-medium, exploration-light, puzzle-heavy and combat-medium-to-heavy, and we'll probably use a Point-Buy system.
Now I'm going to lay on the table all the planning I have done so far, and I'll be grateful for every bit of advice that will help me narrow down the options and decide which path I should follow. This is going to take a while, so let's brew a nice tea or some coffee, and let's get to work.
Prologue
I'd love to play a Warlock: in every RPG and videogame, after a male melee-oriented character, my second PC is always a female spellcaster. Enter Mograine Faust, my occult investigator who's a geek for all things arcana and all things infernal; she aims to achieve greater power, by manipulating others and trading favors instead of money.
She'll be a Hexblade Warlock with the Pact of the Tome, and she'll either use a shield and a weapon (longsword) / a rod (of the Pact Keeper, hopefully), or she'll wields just her dark magic and a shield.
«And what about your Hexblade, dude?»
Yeah, I know: I'll use my IRL Persuasion to whip something up for my DM, or maybe I'll just draw / sheathe my weapon a lot in-between casts, I don't know.
Alignment and background
I like the homebrew background Occult Investigator, that gives me Investigation + Arcana (or Religion), two languages or one langauage and a tool, plus stuff. I'd have a Cultist Contact somewhere, and lots of fluff about cults to play onto. I really love this stuff.
Anyway, she might be evil-ish (but absolutely non-edgy!), and the party's OK with that because we've been playing together for years, but a pact is a pact: she'll be Lawful Evil, meaning that she doesn't harm innocents because there's nothing to be gained from that, but she will certainly nuke a goody two-shoes who slightly berates on her, and meanwhile she'll delve deep in arcane misteries, cults and the Blood War. She likes the professional attitude of Baatezu, while she despises the haphazardly Tanar'ri! In fact I'll secretly try to have the campaign go on towards Descent into Avernus when the planned part will be over, but alas, let's go back to Waterdeep for now.
The race
First issue: I cannot pick her race. I narrowed it down to three choices: I'd really like to play a Tiefling, and the Winged variant looks amazing, but Variant Human is really tickling my optimization sense.
The DM for that campaign said that there will be some medium or light racism against a Tiefling, and I'm fine with that; I'd like to use guile, wits and a healthy dose of Illusion to have NPCs eating out of my PC's hand, before the dramatic revelation: she was a she-devil all along! *thunder crack*
The standard Infernal Legacy gives me a much-needed Thaumaturgy, plus Hellish Rebuke and Darkness; I'm not going to be a Darkness - Devil's Sight jock, because I like to coordinate with my fellow players, but Darkness can be a great defensive tool. I like the Dispater Tiefling, but I'll try and convince the DM to let me take the standard Legacy if I'll pick this race. The usual: big smiles, puppy eyes (somewhat hampered but my dwarven beard, but oh well), and bring his favourite snacks.
The Winged variant gives me 30 ft of flying speed, which could potentially ruins any melee-only foe's plan, but the DM already remarked that my PC won't always be able to fly, and it's quite reasonable I guess.
Lastly, Variant Human brings a very-much-needed bonus Feat to this particular feisty table. Which brings us to the next chapter.
Stats and feats
The path here splits into three branches.
Tiefling (Dispater)
STR 10, DEX 13+1, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 14+2
Level 4: +2 CHA (18); level 8: +2 CHA (20); level 12: War Caster; level 16: Crossbow Expert (no disadvantage casting in melee range); level 19: Actor or maybe Lucky.
War Caster would streamline the drawing / sheating routine, and Crossbow Expert will potentially let me focus on using my staple Eldritch Blast instead of getting my hands dirty. Sadly, they come quite late in the progression, if I want to raise Charisma as soon as possible.
Tiefling (Dispater) - Winged variant
STR 10, DEX 13+1, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 14+2
Same as the vanilla Tiefling. Level 4: +2 CHA (18); level 8: +2 CHA (20); level 12: War Caster; level 16: Crossbow Expert (no disadvantage casting in melee range); level 19: Actor / Lucky. Still need those two late feats, but hey, at least I'm flying.
Variant Human
STR 10, DEX 13+1, CON 13, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 15+1 or maybe STR 8, DEX 13+1, CON 13 [+1 Durable], INT 12, WIS 12, CHA 15+1
Bonus Feat: Resilient (CON), that synergizes well with War Caster and rounds up my CON. Then +2 CHA (18), +2 CHA (20), War Caster, Crossbow Expert, Actor / Lucky or maybe even Magic Initiate, I don't know yet.
Sadly, I can't manage to fit Spell Sniper anywhere, here. Double range, ignore some cover and -mostly- 1 juicy additional cantrip? *Sigh*
Skills and stuff
Tiefling and the Winged variant could get Arcana and Investigation from the background, Deception and Intimidation from the Warlock class, and Persuasion + Deception (switched with Perception, DM willing) with the Beguiling Influence invocation.
The Variant Human would get Arcana and Investigation from the BG), Perception from the Race and Deception and Intimidation from the Warlock class, freeing up one invocation slot.
All the three of them would learn Common, Infernal and a third language, plus the Disguise Kit proficiency. They all have the same speed and stuff (except for flying, of course), but the Human wouldn't get Darkvision, so I'll probably end up taking Devil's Sight, using the invocation slot freed up by not taking Beguiling Influence.
All the Invocations, all of them!
Speaking of invocations, I'd pick them as following: Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast and Book of Ancient Secrets for the casting part, then Mask of Many Faces to disguise myself and lean onto the infiltration / covert investigation stuff, paired with Beguiling Influence (for the two Tiefling versions) / Devil's Sight (for the Human version), and eventually Master of Myriad Forms and Misty Visions to become a true Trickster. I'd fill the list up with Grasp of Hadar or Lance of Lethargy, whatever seems more useful based upon the party composition.
Gosh, I want all of them.
Endgame spells
I'd take these 4 + 3 [ +1] cantrips: Eldritch Blast (of course), Minor Illusion, Thaumaturgy (either from Legacy or Tome), Guidance (Tome), Mage Hand, Toll the Dead, Mold Earth (Tome) and Message or Booming Blade if I'll take the Thaumaturgy-giving Infernal Legacy.
My 15 known spells could be: Hex (C), Shield, Armor of Agathys, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Hunger of Hadar (C), Hypnotic Pattern (C), Sickening Radiance (C), Counterspell, Banishment (C), Synaptic Static, Cone of Cold, Dimension Door, Dispel Magic, Blink or Invisibility (C) or maybe even Fly (C) if I'm not Winged. The Dispater Infernal Legacy would also get me Hellish Rebuke and Darkness, while the Tome rituals would include Find Familiar and Identify at first, then I'd try to learn others along the way, mostly Detect Magic and Contact Other Plane that seems... appropriate.
Tons of Concentration spells, damn it, but this looks a good mix of crowd control, buffing / debuffing, utility and plain old blasting.
Gear, setup and wishlist
I aim to wear either Breastplate or Half-Plate armor, hopefully Mithral or Adamantine and / or enchanted, plus a shield (maybe a Sentinel Shield?), a Rod of the Pact Keeper or a longsword. I couldn't leave out of my wishlist, of course, a Ring or Cloak of Protection, and maybe a Ruby of the War Mage (Xanathar) / Dark Shard Amulet (Xanathar) on the third attunement slot, that could help with the Somatic - Material - drawing - sheating conundrum, at least until I get the War Caster feat.
If attunement-free magic items will be a-plenty, Smoldering armor, Dread helm and Billowing cloak could take the illusion / deception / intimidation schtick ever further, and the Gloves of Thievery + Boots of Elvenkind combo is always nice to have. Also, a Broom of Flying and a Driftglobe could help the non-flying and non-darkvision versions. And of course who doesn't want a Bag of Holding?
...I'll have to bring A LOT of my DM's favourite snacks, I guess.
Thank you so much if you managed to get to the end: the textwall has no power over you, so you all get Inspiration points and my gratitude! Yay!
I love the thought and planning that has gone into this, but I think you are jumping ahead massively and missing out on what makes the Warlock fun in the first place. We are good at everything (not neccessarily great, but good) a kind of jack of all trades. If you want to be better at something you need to trade off on something else or just settle for the middle of the road on everything. Even with the primary Charisma stat, if you want to be mean and intimidating you pass over the option of being really good at charming the arse off of people, and vice versa.
Its good to have an idea of what you would like to see in later levels, but your campaign will dictate that and the warlock is versatile enough to role with it. Here is my Tomelock sage researcher background ddb.ac/characters/2742301/9pRThj
Bit of a jack of all trades, but I wanted to play a warlock and at most I look one or two levels ahead and have about 3 plans for each level depending on how the campaign takes us lol
I know it isn't much help in your decision, but see what looks cool (to you) and play it, have you considered Yuan-Ti Pureblood?
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
similar to what Zyonchaos indicated, I think you also have to be careful, because the party's needs will change over time. your DM might be good with giving out magical items, or some of your invocations might be utilized eventually as ritual cast spells. You've done an absolutely incredible job with an idealized character. However, role-playing needs May dictate a change in plans. So don't be afraid to go off your script to develop a more appropriate character. For example, my Warlock who is currently sixth level, was going to be the party's arcane research analyst. However, as the game has unfolded, he has increasingly become the face of the party, its primary caster, and for multiple roleplay flavor reasons, will take a three-level dip in druid to become both the party's healer and actually increase the bond with his Patron. As I've heard it told before, life is what happens when you're making other plans.
All of that said, I really like the winged tiefling. You're just going to have to be careful where he or she goes.
May the gentle moonlinght guide you to greater wisdom
Like you I also ended up as the face, which with my stats is not surprising so I started playing my character around that with my feat choice (actor) and various spells and cantrips. However I am also to a degree the parties scout using my familiar, and identifier of magical items, I am also fun for area affect and ranged damage, as the rest of my party likes to get up close and personal with the enemy. However I did get really lucky when I rolled my stats, so at lvl 4 my charisma is already maxed out and apart from strength at 15 everything else is sat on a 16.
We have a pretty decent split in the campaign of RP and combat as we all like both, my character is good in combat, but better out of combat. But this has developed as we have played, all I started off with was a warlock to begin with everything else has kinda fed off of that!
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Hi and thank you for your answers! Thanks, I've been wearing my thinking cap for a while on this; I like to be a jack of all trades, and I'll probably end up being the face of my party, together with a Bard: she could handle the Persuasion / Charming, while I could focus on the Deception and the Intimidating presence.
We usually plan ahead in Session 0, and the DM of that campaign is a first-time dungeon master, so he won't purposefully bust our plans. I actually don't like Yuan-Tis, because of the whole jungle & snakes schtick. I remember them from the days of Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir, where I incidentally played a Warlock.
Thanks for your suggestion! The DM will perhaps be... frugal with magic items, because he's an old-school player and an AD&D 2E nostalgic. *rolling eyes*
I don't get what you're saying about rituals and invocations: a ritual could free some invocation slots? I tried to avoid redundant invocations, but maybe something fell through the cracks.
Yeah, I noticed how lucky your rolls are! The Actor feats really speaks to me (please excuse the pun), but it's hard to fit it in there.
The main issue, here, is that I don't know how to joggle between melee and casting: I'd prefer to be a back-row blaster and controller, capable of dishing out a couple of whacks when things get close up and personal. Otherwise I could go Variant Human, start with Crossbow Expert and forget about a weapon altogether, hoping that my DM will let me have a shield as pact item. But I really, really love the Tiefling... *cries in Infernal*
A Tiefling with a bonus feat instead of a Infernal Legacy could be perfect for that, but I certainly would have to do unspeakeble things to my DM for him to let me have it.
Re: "some of your invocations might be utilized eventually as ritual cast spells," and your response of "I don't get what you're saying about rituals and invocations: a ritual could free some invocation slots? I tried to avoid redundant invocations, but maybe something fell through the cracks." Quick background. My character had eyes of the Runekeeper, Eldritch sight and book of ancient secrets for invocations. After a long time of using it as party research specialist, I asked the DM if I could inscribe the Eyes of the Runekeeper as a ritual in my Grimoire. This would free up an Invocation slot, which allows me to add Aspect of the Moon when I next leveled up. For rp reasons, it makes sense. I now ritual cast eyes of the Runekeeper as one might comprehend languages, and I can read them. Most of the time you're reading ancient script, you have time to do so, i.e. not being assaulted by a monster, so 10 minutes to cast ritual spells is immaterial.
Relatedly, this isn't abuse of system, trying to get some superpower for nothing, but rather using prior experience, writing it down, and approaching the spell differently as you advance in ability. Along with a proper use of arcana, you can update your grimoire, or write scrolls for "one off" spell usage, given the time and money. This expands the caster ability of the Warlock while still keeping its flavor. Unless your DM is a total tight ass, this should be ok as a mechanic going forward. I'd certainly discuss it with him or her.
May the gentle moonlinght guide you to greater wisdom
A few things spring to mind as I read this.
1.) The Hexblade is your patron, not your weapon. Literally everyone makes this assumption, that a Hexblade warlock has to carry a hexed blade, but it's not actually true at all. What Hexblade means is that you forge a bond/pact with an entity that appears to you in the form of a weapon, i.e. the Blackrazor-esque sentient weapons of the Shadowfell. The subclass is designed to make melee combat more worthwhile on a warlock, but you shouldn't feel like you need to make use of a weapon or even carry one if you don't want to.
2.) Unpopular idea: push your +2 CHA ASIs back a stage or two. The early levels of D&D, T1 and T2, are where your character is defining herself and demonstrating, to both you-the-player and the rest of her party, who she is. Character-defining feats should be taken in this stage of the game, not pushed off till later (one reason why my own games all include a single starting feat for everyone, within certain restrictions). If you want Actor to be a part of that, you should take it as your first feat so that those skills are part of your toolkit as early as possible. On either of the tieflings, you can reshuffle points in the point buy a bit to get a starting 15 in CHA, 17 after tiefling bonus, and still hit 18 at level 4 with the +1 CHA from Actor. 18 is more than sufficient at that point in the game; you could even push off the +2 to get to 20 until you hit level 12 and take whatever interests you at 8.
Most any ASI after the level 8 one is used to refine who your character already is, while the levels 4 and 8 one can be used to[i]de[/i]fine it instead. if you plan on Actor at 4th level, you can see how that goes and get your party used to the idea of having a deceptive Reindeer Games trickster around doing all the celebrity impressions early, rather than late.
3.) Similar vein: drop Crossbow Expert. Repelling Blast should do most of what you're hoping XbowXpert does, this is a deeply overcosted pick when you're not intending to use actual crossbow combat. Between smart positioning, Repelling Blast, and simply sucking down an AoO and hoping your AC holds on occasion, you should be fine. You've stated your games focus on puzzles first, combat second, and roleplay third, with other stuff to taste after that. Crossbow Expert doesn't help much with any of that.
4.) I'd reshuffle your Invocations such that you get Mask of Many Faces early on, especially if you end up taking Actor at 4th level. MoMF + Actor is just rife for fun; the feat explicitly states that you get advantage for doing exactly what people always try to do with Mask of Many Faces. Honestly? Agonizing/Repelling Blast can wait until level 5; for the sort of character you want to play, getting the Mask/Actor combo into the game as quick as you can should be key.
5.) Alternatively, depending on how Hexblade-y you want to be, you could dispense with Eldritch Blast altogether and go with Booming/Green Flame Blade as your primary attacking option. Obviously a huge change in overall combat style, but it frees up a lot of pressure on your invocations, and a serpentine dagger wreathed in baleful green hellfire is certainly occult-y. Then you could take Mask and Beguiling Influence right off at level 2, grab Book of Ancient Secrets at 5, and perhaps only pick up Eldritch Blast and related invocations later on, as your gal deepens her Pact and drinks more deeply of her patron's power. EB only really starts exploding into oodles of bugnuts at level 11+ anyways when you get your third beam; perhaps Morgaine here only learns that trick later on in her career?
Anyways. Those were the immediate thoughts I had. Hope it's at least brainstorming fodder for ye. Enjoy, and remember - warlock? Bestlock.
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That's a quite nice idea! My invocations are more guile and action oriented, but I could work something out with my DM.
That's something that, in fact, I actually did read somewhere, but I keep assuming that I need that blade in my hands! I could just have some kind of Hexblade (patron) - related effigy on my shield, and call it a day.
That's honestly encouraging. Yes, I can work with that.
I guess I was just playing it safe here, but you're right: I don't really need that feat.
Yeah, at that point I could very well be a winged version of Mystique!
I discarded that option because another player used to play a purely melee Warlock in another campaign: quite min-maxed with Polearm Master, Sentinel and whatnot, but I prefer guile and creativity over being an extremely powerful one-trick pony.
Thanks a lot for your advice! So, to recap what you suggested, I could go for:
Winged Tiefling (Dispater)
STR 10, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 17, or I might as well work with STR 8, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 17, to be better at some of that Investigation and Arcana stuff. A weak spot (Strength) is something I could lean onto for RP reasons, anyway. My current Barbarian has 8 INT and I can easily work with that.
Level 4: Actor (18 CHA), level 8: War Caster, level 12: +2 CHA (20), level 16: Spell Sniper, level 19: Lucky, or whatever comes to my mind when I get there.
I'd grab Mask of Many Faces and Book of Ancient Secrets as soon as level 2/3, than I'd add Beguiling Influence at level 5, Agonizing Blast at level 7, Repelling Blast at level 9, then Misty Visions at level 12, Master of Myriad Forms at 15 and, eventually, something else when I get to lv.18. Might play around with the order, but I think we're getting there.
I could even drop Beguiling Influence to take Misty Visions at level 7, pick Deception and Intimidation from the Warlock class list, and maybe Arcana and Perception from a custom background. I'd think Perception is used and valued more than Investigation, or maybe Insight to notice those who try to trick the Trickster? Hmmm. This is getting awesome. And I loved the Bestlock thing!
A lot of the specific level-by-level planning depends on how likely it is that your campaign will hit those levels and what the other players in your party are doing. In a vacuum I'd probably switch Beguiling Influence and Book of Ancient Secrets, but then I'm an absolute skillwhore and just love playing characters with tons of proficiencies. BoAS is good at low levels but it only comes into its own when you start getting to warlock level 6+ and can start adding some of the Real Boi rituals to the book. Having Detect Magic and Identify on tap by level 3 is nice, but not generally crucial at that early-game level, where being able to reliably nail social checks with a solid +6 to each by level 4 would likely be more memorable in the end.
But that's in a vacuum. Heh, I always advocate letting the game tell the player what works best for them and not locking yourself down into a progression path that may not end up fitting as well as you thought it would. Telling yourself "I want a sneaky, deceptive tiefling warlock who gets by on manipulating and fooling people" and playing to that ideal without forcing yourself to make specific decisions for it ahead of time is the better idea.
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I look at Book of Ancient Secrets and I mostly see three juicy additional cantrips, like Guidance and Thaumaturgy: the human noble you were partying with suddenly comes forward, the flames coming from the torches flicker, dim and then become purple, the ground starts shaking and all of a sudden he's a she-devil with flaming eyes and a very, very, very intimidating presence.
Mask of Many Faces + Thaumaturgy + Guidance with a dash of Actor seems a very fun combo, in my opinion. Anyway, our campaigns tend to last: we've been playing the same one for twelve years, and we're still going somehow. We switched to 5E because it's way less cumbersome, intricate and pompous than the system we've been using until recently.
Heh. You get the cantrips for taking Pact of the Tome; all Book of Ancient Secrets gives you is the ritual spells. Admittedly, BoAS is super boss because it transcends spell lists and lets you potentially learn every ritual spell in the game, but you get to snag Thaumaturgy, Guidance, and choice of third cantrip at level 3 just by taking Tome.
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In the FWIW column, think of my Tomelock as very very connected to the Feywild via his patron. Currently 6th level. Half moon elf, half human. Maternal grandfather is Eladrin, who didn't approve of his daughter marrying a human.
Str: 9, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 18. Feat: Fey ancestry (boosted his Cha to 18 from 16).
I don't worry about combat, aside of Eldritch blast and Ray of frost (very useful for an always available debuff). The goal is being the off combat guy who can ID anything Arcane. Obviously, hexblades are more combat oriented, but I think you could fulfill the role of arcane weapons master and even a student of mystical fighting styles. Seems Hexblade as a patron - as a living weapon - could encourage that. No matter what, kudos on a cool idea
May the gentle moonlinght guide you to greater wisdom
You are absolutely right: I mixed the perks of PoT and BoAS up! Maybe it means I'm burning myself up by overthinking it, lol.
I'd use Eldritch Blast and Toll the Dead for combat, because the first is a ranged spell attack, and the second goes against Wisdom.
Yeah, I like what I see here. I could even drop Book of Ancient Secrets altogether if the party will already have a ritual caster: by doing this I'd have Agonizing Blast + Repelling Blast at level 7, and that's quite acceptable I guess.