Pact of the Pretender

Your warlock's patron has dreams of being great and powerful.

Unfortunately, it's actually so weak that it can't really be a patron at all. Don't get it wrong, it's flattered that your warlock managed to contact it and offer it service in exchange for power, and it'll get them some of that power, to be sure. It's just going to have to ... borrow ... some of that ... from something else. It's sure whatever it seeks out as a source won't miss a proffered boon or two.

Abilities your warlock gains from this pact will either be outright stolen from a more powerful being (in this version, an Archfey) or will relate to skills the pretender patron already has: being deceptive and moving things from one being to another.

The pretender patron itself could be an anonymous trickster, but it would be much better (read: funnier) if it's revealed to be a very low CR being from the same plane as the source of its own power. (Going again with the Archfey, the pretender might be a boggle, darkling, satyr, or even a quickling. More powerful pretenders might be hags, as they do so love to make bargains and don't shy away from taking things from others.)

Your character may or may not figure out their patron is a sham through the course of your game, but it's recommended that this starts being hinted at early in the campaign with the whole thing falling apart in spectacular fashion later on.

A pact is a pact, though, and at higher levels, when your warlock is obviously significantly more powerful than the patron they serve, there might be some contention in the ranks. Contract negotiation might be in order, particularly of the patron is not quite powerful enough to turn your warlock into a deathlock.

Expanded Spell List

The Pretender lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Pretender Expanded Spells

Spell Level	Spells
1st	expeditious retreat, find familiar
2nd	suggestion, arcanist's magic aura
3rd	blink, haste
4th	dominate beast, greater invisibility
5th	dominate person, seeming

Conflict Avoidance

Starting at 1st level, your patron bestows upon you the ability to avoid being entirely truthful about certain inalienable facts as a way of getting out of troublesome situations that may or may not be your fault. This extends to your positioning, leading to your appearance seeming to become something of a blur to casual observers. You have no idea how your patron honed such a skill to a level of perfection that enabled it to pass it along to you.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

My Planet Needs Me

Beginning at 6th level, once per short rest, when you take damage, you can use your reaction to turn disengage and levitate without expending a spell slot or using any of the normally required components. In addition to the normal reasons for the spell to end, it also will end if you attack or cast another spell.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Passing the Buck

At 10th level, you've become so good at avoiding blame that you are now able to avoid it even from extreme distances. Anyone attempting to target you with divination magic must make a Wisdom save vs your spell save DC or instead target a random person (chosen by the DM) no closer to you than 10 feet.

Scapegoat

Starting at 14th level, you can cast mislead as a reaction once per short rest without expending a spell slot. If you use this ability while being targeted by a spell or effect but have not yet had that spell or effect applied to you, you may have your illusory double instead be the target.

If you are being targeted by something that can detect you while you are invisible, you are not able to shift the blame to your double and will remain the target of any spells or effects that are heading your way.

Area of effect spells resolve normally.