Warlock Infiltrator; RAW Possible?

[SouthpawSoldier]

I have an idea for a character concept, and I'm curious if you folks think it's doable. Essentially, the character has been wronged or failed by a church or deity, and pledged themselves to a Patron in exchange for the necessary power to destroy it from within. I'm thinking a Bladelock that impersonates a Paladin or a Tomelock impersonating a Cleric.

I've already looked at Trickery Cleric and Vengeance Paladin, but neither quite has the flavor I'm looking for. The goal is to accomplish the goals of my target organization, but in such a way that the solutions are untenable long term. Healing someone of the symptoms of a disease, so they become patient 0 of a plague years later. Being so zealous in my pursuit of evil that "my" church gains a reputation equivalent to the Children of Light from Wheel of Time. Nothing blatant enough to arouse suspicion that I'm working cross-purposes to the church, ergo no checks to determine my true loyalty.

I have multiple backstory/motivation ideas, so I can adapt fluff to match; I just need a method to make this mechanically possible by RAW. I 'm joining a new table next week, and I'd like to use this concept there.

[Submortimer]

I have an idea for a character concept, and I'm curious if you folks think it's doable. Essentially, the character has been wronged or failed by a church or deity, and pledged themselves to a Patron in exchange for the necessary power to destroy it from within. I'm thinking a Bladelock that impersonates a Paladin or a Tomelock impersonating a Cleric.

I've already looked at Trickery Cleric and Vengeance Paladin, but neither quite has the flavor I'm looking for. The goal is to accomplish the goals of my target organization, but in such a way that the solutions are untenable long term. Healing someone of the symptoms of a disease, so they become patient 0 of a plague years later. Being so zealous in my pursuit of evil that "my" church gains a reputation equivalent to the Children of Light from Wheel of Time. Nothing blatant enough to arouse suspicion that I'm working cross-purposes to the church, ergo no checks to determine my true loyalty.

I have multiple backstory/motivation ideas, so I can adapt fluff to match; I just need a method to make this mechanically possible by RAW. I 'm joining a new table next week, and I'd like to use this concept there.

Step One: Be variant human, take the Actor feat, religion skill, and medicine skill.
Step Two: Take the Mask of Many Faces and Beguiling Influence invocations.
Step Three: Be a tomelock, take sacred flame, thaumaturgy, and guidance.
Step Four: start impersonating a cleric. Once the cover is blown, start impersonating another cleric. Continue till organization is done for.

[charcoalninja]

Step One: Be variant human, take the Actor feat, religion skill, and medicine skill.
Step Two: Take the Mask of Many Faces and Beguiling Influence invocations.
Step Three: Be a tomelock, take sacred flame, thaumaturgy, and guidance.
Step Four: start impersonating a cleric. Once the cover is blown, start impersonating another cleric. Continue till organization is done for.

Win good sir. Win. Though I recommend a bard dip for healing magic to better pull off the spell emulation.

[GiantOctopodes]

I agree with both of the points above, and will point out that Bard, with its focus on strong performances and with Cha as a primary stat, is a natural fit all around. Healing Word, Charm Person, Illusory Script, and either Disguise Self or Cure Wounds would all be fantastic choices for the infiltrator pretending to be a cleric, and ritual magic will take you pretty far from there, with things like Feign Death to get you out of a jam and / or allow you to "ressurect" people, augury, commune and divination to prove your connection to your "diety", water walk to prove your miraculous nature, etc. Even though you can't actually turn undead, you can put on a darn good show with Thaumaturgy, and pretend the undead are just unusually resistant to your efforts.

It's *way* easier to feign cleric than Paladin, after all ultimately your audience will expect paladins to have a mount, and you just can't really do that, at least not in the fashion they're expecting. Should you not be able to, or strongly oppose for whatever reason taking that level of Bard (personally I find it a flavorful way to represent the beginning of your career, but if you start at 1st level and want to be fleshed out then I understand), I recommend not trying to impersonate a Cleric per se, but rather an Acolyte or equivalent, as it will be easier to explain away your lack of magical healing, and the differences in your abilities where they exist.

Finally, since you're talking about him having taken this oath for this express purpose, and being granted his abilities to help him achieve this task, I strongly recommend reflavoring some of the Warlock pact magic you take to have a divine bent to it. Hellish Rebuke becomes divine rebuke, doing the same thing, but looking like it's holy light and not searing hellfire, that kind of thing. No matter what, I think it's a cool concept. Best of luck!

[ThermalSlapShot]

Win good sir. Win. Though I recommend a bard dip for healing magic to better pull off the spell emulation.

Unless you are impersonating a life cleric there is no need for healing spells as it isn't a requirement of a.cleric to have healing spells and clerics can't autoconvert spell slots to healing spells.

Warlocks gain similar Spells and abilities as the knowledge cleric and Light cleric.

[SouthpawSoldier]

Thanks for the tips! That's close t perfect for what I had in mind. Ideally, with proper RP and a supportive DM, I won't need to make too many rolls to back up the idea; with a good build though, it's rare I'll fail the few I have to make. I haven't looked much at feats besides Healer, since my main focus lately has been putting together a Herbalist class that crafts healing potions (long story short: really a PITA to do RAW).

for S&G's I flipped through the rest of the feats, and came across another that may be useful; Magic Initiate.

Now I have a choice; which makes for better impersonation of a Cleric?

Actor gives me an additional point of Charisma; I'll still need 2 ASI's to reach 20. Advantage on the skill rolls is nice, and fits the character well.

Magic Initiate gives me a 1/day 1st level spell, and 2 additional Cantrips from a spell list of my choice. Gives me a 1/day Cure Wounds, Healing Word, etc; not really going for a healing Cleric though, so that's not a big loss. 2 additional Cleric cantrips may help sell the act, and if I RP right, it's not often I'll need to make the skill checks to maintain the façade. heck, one could argue that using Cleric cantrips should give situational Advantage, but that would mean a very generous DM.

Proficiency with Deception and Persuasion (Beguiling Influence), Religion & Investigation (Warlock); Acolyte Background adds Insight & Medicine (subbed for duplicate Religion), and 1 more for a racial Proficiency (thinking Performance, to go with the Advantage from Actor).

Languages will be Common and Infernal. Inspiration for the character comes from a couple sources; Shepherd Book (quoth Jubal Early; "That ain't no Shepherd") and a short story I read ages ago in an issue of Heavy Metal; a priest who performed exorcisms with a partner in crime devil in exchange for his soul; so successful that he was canonized and Hell lost out on his soul.

Not sure how the character will develop, but at least I have the building blocks to get it started.

[Kane0]

I second the Variant human tome warlock with the acolyte background and the actor and/or magic initiate alongside mask of many faces and beguiling influence idea

[SouthpawSoldier]

It's looking like I may get both Feats; applying for a 6th level PbP game with insane starting scores: 18, 16, 15, 15, 11, 11. With the +2CHA/+1___ from V. Human and Actor, I can easily afford to use the 4th level ASI for Magic Initiate. Tack on Ring of Mind Shielding as a WBL item, and crunch is pretty taken care of, other than spell selection and equipment.

This will be pared down for the RL table next week; I'll be starting that game at 1st level with the standard array. Probably stick with Actor then, over Magic Initiate; additional spells aren't as much of a must as keeping the deception up.

[SouthpawSoldier]

Random question; Warlock spell progression. PHB says when a Warlock gains a level, they can exchange a spell known for a new one, as long as it's equal or less than their highest spell slot. Does this stack with gaining a new spell? This would make the progression look like this.



Class Level; Spell Level>
1
2
3


1
2
0
0


2
3
0
0


3
2
2
0


4
1
4
0


5
0
4
2


6
0
3
4



Seems a bit overpowered.

[GiantOctopodes]

Random question; Warlock spell progression. PHB says when a Warlock gains a level, they can exchange a spell known for a new one, as long as it's equal or less than their highest spell slot. Does this stack with gaining a new spell? This would make the progression look like this.



Class Level; Spell Level>
1
2
3


1
2
0
0


2
3
0
0


3
2
2
0


4
1
4
0


5
0
4
2


6
0
3
4



Seems a bit overpowered.

Not even slightly. Keep in mind that Wizards, Clerics (most relevant to this discussion) and Druids all cast from the entire spell list (explicitly so with Druids and Clerics, theoretically possible with Wizards). So do Paladins. In fact, Bards and Sorcerers are the only full casters saddled with a limitation to spells known. And they, as well as all half casters with similar limitations, all share the same language and can do the exact same thing. Frankly, being able to know a total of 7 spells at 6th level, 3 of which are 2nd level and 4 of which are 3rd level, compared to the equivalent level Cleric knowing 52 spells, 17 of which are 2nd level and 20 of which are 3rd level, is likely a little *under* powered in comparison. These limitations are balanced by additional abilities as it relates to spellcasting, such as metamagic for sorcerers, out of class spells for bards, and spell scaling / short rest recovery for Warlocks.

Note too that due to their automatic spell scaling, Warlocks are more likely than most to still be able to get significant mileage out of 1st level spells later on. A 3rd level spell cast as a 3rd level spell is usually, but not automatically and always, better than a 1st level spell being cast as a 3rd level spell. And if you feel it is, well, the rules explicitly allow you to trade up to help overcome your incredibly limited number of total spells known, so you're not saddled with spells that *are* useless cluttering up your narrow spell list.