The firm of Raven, Dispater, and Ghaunder called That Which Lurks

[Captain Morgan]

So I got this prompt for making a character for a mini campaign. Level 6. As far as magic items... Consumables: one common, one uncommon. Permanent: one uncommon, one rare

Vexed: For years, you have been building up a business, kept away from the freedom of adventure by the tedium of ledgers and abacuses, and you are finally poised to sell it all off. One of the greatest challenges has been enduring your business partner, Nico, whose family connections made it possible to get your business off the ground but whose flaky and fickle temperament forced you to shoulder the burden of responsibility time and time again. Now, with a week until the buyout Nico has gone missing, imperiling the plan you have so painstakingly arranged. From the clues you got from his paramour Ravenelle and his layabout friends, he has gone in pursuit of rumors of a hidden city called Tanelorn. You have hired the other members of the party to come with you to retrieve him - or, failing that, find proof of his demise - so that the buyout can continue as planned and you can enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Questions for you as player: What kind of a business did you and Nico build up? How did you meet originally?

My idea is that I formed a cross patron Warlock conglomerate which offers a variety of services including translation, telecommunications, surveillance, security, and more. Warlocks can be hired out on temporary or a long-term basis, and for those willing to buy the executive package, we will draw up a contract to sell your soul to right patron for you. The at will utility options and short rest casting makes warlocks incredibly cost effective in the non-adventuring sector.

I'm now trying to figure out how to make this character into something which reflects these values while also being fun for a more standard adventure. I like the idea of a tiefling in a well tailored suit for race. Definitely some flavor of Lawful based on the prompt, maybe LE. I don't need to be entirely suited to providing the above utility services since we have other warlocks on the payroll. I'm having trouble imagining Great Old One or Archfey being reliable enough to choose as my own patron. Seeker would be great for a desk jockey but less so for my needs.

Everything else is still up in the air. I could potentially enjoy playing blade, tome, or chain. Not sure what to grab for items. Party seems to have a barbarian, a cleric or bard, and some unknown fourth character.

Can I get some input on both for mechanics and flavor?

Edit: Also, I will have a few extra spells known because the DM is increasing spell access across classes.

[JackOfAllBuilds]

Guild Merchant or a Courtier for the business/bureaucracy backstory

I mean guiding others into soul-services is very Fiendish, though your operation could always just be a franchise of a long-established mortality-contract specialized firm of Undying Lawyers. (An ambulance/hearse chaser who won't ever stop, ha)

Eyes of the Rune Keeper to understand all the foreign fine print? Beguiling Tongue if you take a different background, or DM swaps skills of Courtier.

Pact of the Chain with a crawling claw if you go Undying, Pact of the tome+book of ancient secrets if you go Fiendish.

[JackOfAllBuilds]

More Invocations:
Armor of Shadows. If you go Pact of the Chain, get Voice of the Chain Master, Sign of Ill Omen otherwise.

I think that's all 3 for a level 6 character.

Spell selection is up to you, but there are some good ones (Counterspell, speak with dead, vampiric touch, silence, invisibility, hex). On race, go Variant Tiefling to get Devils Tongue instead of Infernal Legacy for better racial spells

[Captain Morgan]

More Invocations:
Armor of Shadows. If you go Pact of the Chain, get Voice of the Chain Master, Sign of Ill Omen otherwise.

I think that's all 3 for a level 6 character.

Spell selection is up to you, but there are some good ones (Counterspell, speak with dead, vampiric touch, silence, invisibility, hex). On race, go Variant Tiefling to get Devils Tongue instead of Infernal Legacy for better racial spells


Guild Merchant or a Courtier for the business/bureaucracy backstory

I mean guiding others into soul-services is very Fiendish, though your operation could always just be a franchise of a long-established mortality-contract specialized firm of Undying Lawyers. (An ambulance/hearse chaser who won't ever stop, ha)

Eyes of the Rune Keeper to understand all the foreign fine print? Beguiling Tongue if you take a different background, or DM swaps skills of Courtier.

Pact of the Chain with a crawling claw if you go Undying, Pact of the tome+book of ancient secrets if you go Fiendish.

If I'm a TomeLock, wouldn't it be better to just get the Comprehend Languages ritual?

Also, Armor of Shadows and Sign of Ill Omen seem like they provide neither business utility or amazing adventuring tools. Maybe if I was level 9 and my Curses didn't require concentration? Seems like an invocation, aspell slot, and my concentration is a lot to pay for a once a day ability that lasts 1 minute. Especially when other spells can achieve similar effects...

[JackOfAllBuilds]

If I'm a TomeLock, wouldn't it be better to just get the Comprehend Languages ritual?

Also, Armor of Shadows and Sign of Ill Omen seem like they provide neither business utility or amazing adventuring tools. Maybe if I was level 9 and my Curses didn't require concentration? Seems like an invocation, aspell slot, and my concentration is a lot to pay for a once a day ability that lasts 1 minute. Especially when other spells can achieve similar effects...

I didn't think about that, very true with the tome ritual.
And I wasn't sure what type of Invocations you wanted, you said you didn't need the utility of other offered warlocks, so I was going more for flavor

Which are your personal favorites?

[Captain Morgan]

I didn't think about that, very true with the tome ritual.
And I wasn't sure what type of Invocations you wanted, you said you didn't need the utility of other offered warlocks, so I was going more for flavor

Which are your personal favorites?

To clarify, I need some utility for actual adventuring because well, I'm going on an adventure. And since Locks can trade in invocations I could just say I packed a set that would be useful for that, but I'd like to maintain SOME degree of business related flavor.

Normally for Warlocks I favor the basic stuff like Agonizing Blast, hopefully with room for Repelling Blast but not mandatory. I really like Misty Visions and Mask of Many Faces for the shenanigans you can pull with them, but I usually play my Warlocks as sneaky trickster types and I don't really see that being this guy's jam as a lawful type so I'm not sure that I should go that way. Though Mask of Many Faces would be a good tool for avoiding Tiefling discrimination, and I could see there being some use in adopting the race of whatever potential clients walk in the door. Hmm...

Devil's Sight is really good but if I go chainlock I usually just use the imp's eyes to cover it if my own don't cut it.

Also, I don't feel super drawn to Devil's Tongue. The stand out option seems to be Charm Person but that's useful enough and scales well enough to probably take as a spell so it can be used more often. Vicious Mockery is all right, and Enthrall just seems terrible to me.

Hellish Rebuke at least doesn't compete for my actions, though Darkness falls into the same category as charm person of being useful enough to maybe use more than once, though it at least doesn't face the scaling woes of charm person.

What's more tempting though is wings. Or Abyssal which seems Mechanically superior, but I think Infernal fits better thematically.

Edit: Also I love the idea of a little imp personal assistant in glasses who normally acts as my secretary or attends meetings I can't, so voice of the Chainmaster would be dope.

[JackOfAllBuilds]

If they are on your class list, I believe you can cast and upcast racial spells using your spell slots, same as if you magic initiate into the caster class you already have

I saw Vicious Mockery and Charm as the good ones, Enthrall is just garnish, though it fits a "lawyer capturing the attention of the jury" trope

Also devils tongue just fit the flavor better than infernal legacy. Silver tongued smooth-talker

Edit: on Armor of Shadows, you said wearing a business suit not leather or studded leather, so I thought unseen force armor over your silk suit would be appropriate

[JackOfAllBuilds]

Edit: Also I love the idea of a little imp personal assistant in glasses who normally acts as my secretary or attends meetings I can't, so voice of the Chainmaster would be dope.

That is a pretty funny mental picture. I was also thinking of Undying giving a crawling claw for a file-clerk, and little marble shooter using Magic Stone (EE) touch cantrip, like playing marbles with its thumb

Think of an undead Thing from Adams Family, basically.

Edit: I've done a rough build of the character, with spells I thought were generally useful, but I'd love to know what you'd take and keep (retraining level 1 spells into 2 and 3 on leveling up, keeping only hex known, plus ritual Familiar, and racials)

[Captain Morgan]

If they are on your class list, I believe you can cast and upcast racial spells using your spell slots, same as if you magic initiate into the caster class you already have

I saw Vicious Mockery and Charm as the good ones, Enthrall is just garnish, though it fits a "lawyer capturing the attention of the jury" trope

Also devils tongue just fit the flavor better than infernal legacy. Silver tongued smooth-talker

Edit: on Armor of Shadows, you said wearing a business suit not leather or studded leather, so I thought unseen force armor over your silk suit would be appropriate

Wow, I didn't know that about the racial spells. Looking into it further it seems a little unclear if that's intended or not. I'll admit Devil's Tongue fits the flavor more.

It's a fair point on armor of Shadows, though I could accomplish something similar by wearing armor and using Many Faces to emulate a suit instead.

As for what I'm currently thinking for build... Probably a Rod of the Pact Keeper and Helm of Telepathy for my gear. Hex is a must for clouding the heads of people during dealings. Command, Charm Person, and Suggestion are all solid spells that a manager/business man might like to have. Comprehend Languages in some form or another would be solid for reading contracts, but Tongues might be needed for interplaner negotiating. That is, unless you're GOO and can speak all the languages mentally.

Speaking of GOO, it gets Sending and Clairvoyance, both of which seem highly marketable. But as mentioned it just seems harder to flavor that patron for this.

Beyond that, I think a tiefling who might be running other tradesmen and magicians out of business would want a couple tools to discourage people from sabotaging him or his. Fireball, Stinking Cloud, Hunger of Hadar, Fear, Repelling Blast, Hellish Rebuke, Thaumaturgy, Agonizing Blast, and (Cloak of Beazlebub or whatever that new invocation is called) could all fit this purpose.

Still feeling torn on Chainlock vs TomeLock.

[Millstone85]

This reminds me of Wolf, Ram & Hart from Angel. :smallbiggrin:

And also those three fiends from OotS, obviously.

[Captain Morgan]

Yeah, the parrelels did occur to me. Or those 3 fiends teaming up to screw with V in OotS. I like the idea of hell as a bureaucracy.

[Captain Morgan]

So we've played 4 or 5 sessions, and I managed to drag my business partner back and finish the merger. Unfortunately, the partner got kidnapped immediately afterwards, and I'm going to have to rescue him AGAIN. But I hit level 7! FiendChainLock has rocked so far. Voice of the Chainmaster has been really nice because we have a large open world to explore which is much easier to navigate by flight, and there have been lots of opportunities for short rests. My other 2 invocations were Agonizing Blast and Mask of Many Faces.

I'm thinking Repelling Blast next to combo with Wall of Flame/Hunger of Hadar and knock enemies off their flying mounts in our many midair battles. I'm tempted to trade in Mask of Many Faces now that I've sold my business and have had enough sneaking around. Feels like time to kick down the door and melt faces. Maybe Sculptor of Flesh? People rate that pretty highly. Eldritch Sight seems like it could be handy with how highly magical our shenanigans have been though.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Sculpture of flesh is good. You could also go for dreadful word or bewitching whispers to keep that suave business man flavor. if you eve get that masters of chaos could be fun too.

[Captain Morgan]

Sculpture of flesh is good. You could also go for dreadful word or bewitching whispers to keep that suave business man flavor. if you eve get that masters of chaos could be fun too.

I suppose, but Command seems like it covers that flavor pretty darn well and can serve a pretty similar function in combat. Plus, I already have a lot of competition for concentration... Turning someone into a Giant Ape is also pretty darn hilarious, although all of these "once per day and uses a spell slot" invocations bum me out a bit since Wizards and Sorcerers don't get that restriction. Makes me wish my familiar had class levels.

Cloak of Baalzebul would be cool and would give me something to do with my bonus action, so I'm kinda tempted by that, but it doesn't feel like as much of a game changer as the above.

[Mortis_Elrod]

I suppose, but Command seems like it covers that flavor pretty darn well and can serve a pretty similar function in combat. Plus, I already have a lot of competition for concentration... Turning someone into a Giant Ape is also pretty darn hilarious, although all of these "once per day and uses a spell slot" invocations bum me out a bit since Wizards and Sorcerers don't get that restriction. Makes me wish my familiar had class levels.

Cloak of Baalzebul would be cool and would give me something to do with my bonus action, so I'm kinda tempted by that, but it doesn't feel like as much of a game changer as the above.

Yeah I kinda agree nothing beats turning things into silly animals. Or turning something silly into scary animals. But if you flashy kiss of Mephistopheles is pretty flashy, tomb of Levistus is cool too, uses a reaction which you might have used for hellish rebuke but that's about it, and it could save you. Oh and short rest cool down.
My personal flashy blasts casty combo is spellsniper+eldritch spear+repelling blast+Agonizing blast+kiss of Mephistopheles.
Fire an EB off knock a charging mook back into his friends before he explodes like a grenade

[Unoriginal]

This reminds me of Wolf, Ram & Hart from Angel. :smallbiggrin:

And also those three fiends from OotS, obviously.

I thought the title of the thread was a reference to Wolf, Ram and Hart.

[Captain Morgan]

Yeah I kinda agree nothing beats turning things into silly animals. Or turning something silly into scary animals. But if you flashy kiss of Mephistopheles is pretty flashy, tomb of Levistus is cool too, uses a reaction which you might have used for hellish rebuke but that's about it, and it could save you. Oh and short rest cool down.
My personal flashy blasts casty combo is spellsniper+eldritch spear+repelling blast+Agonizing blast+kiss of Mephistopheles.
Fire an EB off knock a charging mook back into his friends before he explodes like a grenade

I've actually given my familiar a necklace of fire balls, so I've already got a way to launch a fire ball on top of EB. Also, I'm the only arcane Caster, and despite short rests being frequent I'm worried about novaing too hard. Been a lot of situations where I've been the only one who could counter spell, dispel magic, cast fly, etc.

Tomb is cool, but this demi plane we are on had this neat revival mechanism built in, and pretty interesting consequences for dying. So I'd rather not optimize myself any harder against dying than I already have.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

I'd say make it a legal firm, perhaps with the motto Dare Diabolo Beneficium Legis ('Give the Devil Benefit of Law (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDBiLT3LASk)'). Also, there's a lot of evil lawyer jokes in there.