Building the Occultist?

[tmjr6]

Hey Guys,

I'll be joining a campaign soon and after some discussion with my DM I've decided to play a more morally ambiguous character than I usually play. The general idea is an occultist spellcaster who collects spells that fall under the darker arts to use them for more neutral purposes. He doesn't seek to discover spells to "use them for the greater good" or "prevent them from falling in the wrong hands" he's a former magic college professor whose thesis was on forgotten, sometimes darker, magic. Having since left the college he's been pursuing his research and adventuring has been helping that pursuit.

We'll be starting at level 5 and going until we all decide to stop, because of this if you have build suggestions all the way up to level 20 that will be fine. The only thing that's been decided for me is the background being Sage, everything else is fair game. I'm leaning towards Wizard for the class, and any race is fine. I'm allowed to use any UA, with restrictions nothing overpowered like the Loremaster without major nerfing, and all books. I can use homebrew but it will be on a case by case basis. Thanks in advance!

[xen]

Occult scholar eh. Need to study arcane and religious rituals.

This screams Theurgy Wizard with Knowledge domain to me (UA Wizard Revisited). Go gnome or high elf for the frail scholar feel.

That subclass may be too op but really fits the concept, imo. Take ritual caster feat to pick up druid rituals (What are druids if not a hippy treehugging cult?) for bonus points (not op, there's only 5 spells you wouldn't already have access to, but thematic depending on your concept).

[Clone]

I'd pick up a Conjuration Wizard and look at the extra summoning spells from UA, "That Old Black Magic". Being able to summon demons and other creatures to do your will, sounds like dark arts to me. Combine this with Conjure Elemental, minor elementals, animate objects for various spooky interactions and a reflavoured Bigby's Hand and you have a lot of other-worldly beings to help you out. They'll also probably listen more than his students ever did anyway!

Conjuration wizard is because of the concentration checks, teleportation and the glorious THP for your summons to keep them around that bit longer. The 2nd level ability can have a multitude of uses so long as you have the creativity too!

[Mortis_Elrod]

might i suggest this homebrew (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2016/04/hedge-wizard.html) It's a bit off for the flavor though in the general direction. You're already a learned professor but now you're looking for more powerful magic so you have to do field research and teach yourself.

If not then I would suggest Conjuration or Transmutation Wizard, focusing on summoning as 'dark arts' and the powerful secret magic is actually just the philosopher stone.

Last option might be a lore bard or some sort of warlock (maybe seeker) (https://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA%20Non-Divine%20Faithful%20SFG.pdf) with a pact of Tome and book of ancient secrets.