Cool idea or too much work?

[SmartAlec13]

Hello, new to this forum.

I have a cool idea for my character in a new campaign, but I am wondering if it would be too complicated to manage, for both me and my DM, and even if its a good idea at all.

The campaign is the starter-set campaign, probably going to be expanded if we get past it.

For my character, he is a half elf astronomer. He has always loved looking at the stars, ever since he was young. His father, a sailor, would take him out on the boat at night and they would look at the stars through telescope. My character grows up and becomes an astronomer at some university, blablabla, he has a girlfriend, they have a child, the girlfriend leaves. Blablabla, years pass. The character is like late 20's or early 30's, and tragedy strikes. His son, Carl (coral from the walking dead) dies. Within a short timespan, the character also begins losing funding for his projects. In a fit of rage and agony, he messes up/destroys a bunch of his astronomy equipment, and gazes up at the sky, asking WHY. (as in, why do we do the things we do, what is the purpose of life, etc). He isn't religious, but a small part of him hopes someone will answer.

And someone does.

Enter, the Great Old One. A voice speaks out, blabla, offers him answers and purpose through power and patronage, blabla, character is now a Warlock, going on adventures (he is Neutral Good, keep in mind).

Now this is where my idea takes place.

What if, he isn't actually a Warlock.

He's actually a wizard. The grief from the loss of his girlfriend, the death of his son, and losing his passion, astronomy, drove him mad. So crazy, that the whole GreatOldOne is actually just his own insanity. His magic is actually his own that he has learned from working at the university, and from travels and his own mad thoughts and ramblings. He thinks he gets the book as a pact item, but it is actually just his actual magic book.

Obviously the characters aren't conciously thinking "this guy is a warlock" or "I am a warlock", but this could be some interesting metagaming and RP with the rest of the players. They wouldn't know, it would just be me and the DM.

Would this be too complicated? Is it lacking a point? Is it just a bad idea?

[eastmabl]

Hello, new to this forum.

I have a cool idea for my character in a new campaign, but I am wondering if it would be too complicated to manage, for both me and my DM, and even if its a good idea at all.

The campaign is the starter-set campaign, probably going to be expanded if we get past it.

For my character, he is a half elf astronomer. He has always loved looking at the stars, ever since he was young. His father, a sailor, would take him out on the boat at night and they would look at the stars through telescope. My character grows up and becomes an astronomer at some university, blablabla, he has a girlfriend, they have a child, the girlfriend leaves. Blablabla, years pass. The character is like late 20's or early 30's, and tragedy strikes. His son, Carl (coral from the walking dead) dies. Within a short timespan, the character also begins losing funding for his projects. In a fit of rage and agony, he messes up/destroys a bunch of his astronomy equipment, and gazes up at the sky, asking WHY. (as in, why do we do the things we do, what is the purpose of life, etc). He isn't religious, but a small part of him hopes someone will answer.

And someone does.

Enter, the Great Old One. A voice speaks out, blabla, offers him answers and purpose through power and patronage, blabla, character is now a Warlock, going on adventures (he is Neutral Good, keep in mind).

Now this is where my idea takes place.

What if, he isn't actually a Warlock.

He's actually a wizard. The grief from the loss of his girlfriend, the death of his son, and losing his passion, astronomy, drove him mad. So crazy, that the whole GreatOldOne is actually just his own insanity. His magic is actually his own that he has learned from working at the university, and from travels and his own mad thoughts and ramblings. He thinks he gets the book as a pact item, but it is actually just his actual magic book.

Obviously the characters aren't conciously thinking "this guy is a warlock" or "I am a warlock", but this could be some interesting metagaming and RP with the rest of the players. They wouldn't know, it would just be me and the DM.

Would this be too complicated? Is it lacking a point? Is it just a bad idea?

Are you having fun? Are other players having fun? Is the DM having fun?

If all three answers are "yes," you're probably fine.

I don't think that it's too much work - just run it past your DM first.

Also, presumably you would make an effort to use spells that are common to both classes (spells, invocations).

[Ninja_Prawn]

I don't really see how that is any more 'work' than any other character. Even if you try to use only warlock spells, you'll still have most of the warlock list available because the wizard one is so big.

Maybe take Magic Initiate (Warlock) for Eldritch Blast and Armour of Agathys?

As an aside, if you're into homebrew, I saw an excellent 'astromancer' class a while back, and I'm sure there have been star-sorcerers. They might be possibilities to look at.

[SmartAlec13]

Thanks for the suggestions. I just thought its a bit more complicated then having a regular character, since there is an extra level of game happening with this one. I decided to try just messaging my DM, I just wanted to see what other DnD players thought before running it by my DM.

Also, I am definitely gonna look for that class, it sounds sweet

[Flashy]

As an aside, if you're into homebrew, I saw an excellent 'astromancer' class a while back, and I'm sure there have been star-sorcerers. They might be possibilities to look at.

We're you thinking of Mr. Moron's Mystic Warrior? I'm on my phone so I can't hyperlink, but it's in this thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?411727-New-Class-Mystic-(Fighting-Arcane-Hybrid)

[Ninja_Prawn]

We're you thinking of Mr. Moron's Mystic Warrior? I'm on my phone so I can't hyperlink, but it's in this thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?411727-New-Class-Mystic-(Fighting-Arcane-Hybrid)

Actually, I was mostly thinking of this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?472061-The-Astromancer) (also by Mr. Moron). :smalltongue:

[Typewriter]

Hello, new to this forum.

I have a cool idea for my character in a new campaign, but I am wondering if it would be too complicated to manage, for both me and my DM, and even if its a good idea at all.

The campaign is the starter-set campaign, probably going to be expanded if we get past it.

For my character, he is a half elf astronomer. He has always loved looking at the stars, ever since he was young. His father, a sailor, would take him out on the boat at night and they would look at the stars through telescope. My character grows up and becomes an astronomer at some university, blablabla, he has a girlfriend, they have a child, the girlfriend leaves. Blablabla, years pass. The character is like late 20's or early 30's, and tragedy strikes. His son, Carl (coral from the walking dead) dies. Within a short timespan, the character also begins losing funding for his projects. In a fit of rage and agony, he messes up/destroys a bunch of his astronomy equipment, and gazes up at the sky, asking WHY. (as in, why do we do the things we do, what is the purpose of life, etc). He isn't religious, but a small part of him hopes someone will answer.

And someone does.

Enter, the Great Old One. A voice speaks out, blabla, offers him answers and purpose through power and patronage, blabla, character is now a Warlock, going on adventures (he is Neutral Good, keep in mind).

Now this is where my idea takes place.

What if, he isn't actually a Warlock.

He's actually a wizard. The grief from the loss of his girlfriend, the death of his son, and losing his passion, astronomy, drove him mad. So crazy, that the whole GreatOldOne is actually just his own insanity. His magic is actually his own that he has learned from working at the university, and from travels and his own mad thoughts and ramblings. He thinks he gets the book as a pact item, but it is actually just his actual magic book.

Obviously the characters aren't conciously thinking "this guy is a warlock" or "I am a warlock", but this could be some interesting metagaming and RP with the rest of the players. They wouldn't know, it would just be me and the DM.

Would this be too complicated? Is it lacking a point? Is it just a bad idea?

This is the exact sort of thing that fluff should be used for in my opinion - nothing too hard or weird about it. The only thing that might be a bit complex is what the other players know - people look at each others character sheets for various reasons from time to time and it would be pretty easy for someone to identify you as a wizard. Even without seeing your sheet - just being able to see what you can and can't do will spill the beans a bit.

What you could do is just play up the fluff aspects. Tell the other players that you're playing a wizard because you like the class mechanics but that you spoke to the DM and are going to use a Warlocks fluff. Tell them all the things you're doing - spell book is a pact item and all that. So the players know the fluff that you're going with, but you and the DM know that the fluff is a lie.

[YCombinator]

Hello, new to this forum.

I have a cool idea for my character in a new campaign, but I am wondering if it would be too complicated to manage, for both me and my DM, and even if its a good idea at all.

...

What if, he isn't actually a Warlock.

He's actually a wizard.

Personally, as a DM I'd love to have a player like you in my game. I have five players like you in my game, come to think of it and I specifically chose them for that reason. My group goes to great lengths to do stuff like this and anyone who DMs within our group generally has a very high tolerance for adding additional complication or homebrew stuff to characters because we're often doing it to increase the flavor and roleplaying of the character.

You have a great backstory and cool angle that you're coming at the Warlock to Wizard thing from. And really, if it's all backstory and your character is really a Wizard according to literally every game rule it's not adding any complication for your DM to deal with in terms of the rules or balance. If you do end up requiring bending the rules a little, well, hey, that's D&D, right? It's probably worth it because your character idea is pretty great.

I'd say go with this but naturally it's up to your DM what things are allowed.

[Arelai]

I would think sorcerer fits better than wizard. OR you could just go-warlock, but find out later than the magic isn't coming from any diety or being.

If the whole reason for it is to trick your fellow players for a little while, they'll know after the first session once you cast more than 2 spells.

[Theodoxus]

I'm not against the idea, but I do wonder what's the actual point? If it looks like a wizard, plays like a wizard and talks like a wizard, but calls itself a warlock... (or vice versa) and then?

So your wizard believes he's been picked by a GOO to do Great Things and uses that delusion to hide from himself that he's actually using knowledge he's gleamed from his university life... ok.

What mechanically are you looking to accomplish? Int or Cha for casting? Spell list available? What specialization (wizard) are you thinking - or are you gaining warlock abilities?

In my first game I ran, I had a warlock player who received his Tome at first level, as part of gaining the pact. The Tome didn't actually do anything yet - that still unlocked at 3rd, but he knew he was going Tomelock - so I had no reason not to use it as a 'welcome to the club' type mcguffin.
Something to think about, since a wizard without a spellbook until level 3 isn't a wizard...

[Vogonjeltz]

Obviously the characters aren't conciously thinking "this guy is a warlock" or "I am a warlock", but this could be some interesting metagaming and RP with the rest of the players. They wouldn't know, it would just be me and the DM.

Would this be too complicated? Is it lacking a point? Is it just a bad idea?

I'd caution that if any of your co-players are saavy, they might notice that you end up using abilities that aren't available to a Warlock leading to out of character (or possibly in character) conflict.

Otherwise I think it's a really fun concept.