Build a intelligence organization/secret police

[Fire Tarrasque]

So. In our current campaign, one of our players is currently the king of Madagascar (don't ask.) I have been placed in charge of the intelligence organization/secret police. Anything that's not in a campaign module is allowed, which means UA, SCAG, VGTM, XGtE, MTOF, and Beyond. Homebrew is also allowed, if approved by the DM. So just don't be blatantly overpowered. We may end up coming into conflict with the military, lead by another player who is not pleased with the organization not being under his command alongside the military, nearly to the point of treason. Might want some way to hide or acquire a safe area. Money is of no real consequence, and we're allowed 10 level 3s, and they will probably gain more levels as time goes on. Might be able to gain one or two more if needed.
Currently, the group is, (not including me;)

V human Level 3 fighter, +Wis +Dex, archery, Sharpshooter feat, Gunslinger subclass from Mercer found here. (http://www.dmsguild.com/product/170778/Gunslinger-Martial-Archetype-for-Fighters) After those three levels, take Rogue, Assassin subclass.
Human Identity Thief Rogue, (from Bando's homebrew found here. (https://blackbando.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/identity-thief/)) Expertise in Disguise and Deception.
Rogue Thief, expertise in Thieves's Tools and Stealth.
Shadow Monk
Lore Bard, expertise in Persausion and Deception, standard Diplomancer fair.
Glamour Bard, expertise in Deception and Performance.
Drunken Master Monk
Moon Druid.
Divination Wizard
Knowledge Cleric.

I haven't thought out races or real specifics yet, i'll figure it out later.
If you were in this situation, what would you do? Even besides the advantage for me, i'm interested in seeing how everyone else would go about creating an intelligence organization. It's a nice little thought experiment.

[Spyderson]

I take like 3 raven queen tomelocks at least a couple v.human with the actor feat. For invocations I would work towards:
Mask of many faces, book of ancient secrets, chronical of the raven queen, and aspect of the moon.

Maybe a couple of hexblades in the mix with blade pact and mask of many faces.

Maybe a couple agonizing blast+eldritch spear blasters too.

That would make up the core group. I really like the warlock chassis. And the variety invocations provide. If they're doing their jobs right you won't know what happened and all your friends are suddenly murdering you. And ripping at least 3 secrets from your corpse through raven Queens chronical.

In support:
A lore bard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?490505-The-Social-God-A-guide-to-an-optimized-party-face)
A divination wizard, maybe a halfling with the lucky feat and the racial feat for even more dice manipulation shenanigans
Moon druid
Maybe a grave cleric

[Finieous]

Courtesy of Dragonstar.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/media/ffg_content/Dragonstar/dragonstar4.png

[SociopathFriend]

Note- Detect Thoughts is actually rather cheap in that the initial read requires no save. The spell text even implies you'll be served best by asking a question with it on. "Yes" "no" "truth" "lie" are all things I would certainly say should be 'surface thoughts'.

[JellyPooga]

As far as secret police go, a band of GOOlock Chain Pact Halflings is pretty solid; all that silent comminication from Telepathy, plus (functionally) Detect Thoughts at-will (because short rests in a non-adventuring environment are insanely easy to come by), plus a "gun" you don't need to conceal (Eldritch Blast), plus (literal) Disguise Self at-will from Mask of Many Faces, plus an Imp each for scouting and shapeshifting OR a Sprite for reading hearts and non-lethal take-downs (sleepy arrows!), plus (Halfling) Lucky minimising failure rates and they're small and hidey...what's not to like?

Also, who wouldn't be terrified of a half-pint, high-Charisma secret police, each and every one of whom has an Imp/Sprite sitting on their shoulders?

[MoiMagnus]

Don't know how much role play there will be in your campaign, but if it takes a significant place, don't forget to have at least one character with Noble background and all the tools to use its influence in the society.
(Why only use the power of 10 characters when you can also use the power of a whole kingdom?)

[darknite]

An intelligence organization and a secret police have two separate missions. Intelligence is typically meant to gather, collate and analyze information regarding external threats. Secret police are usually tasked with internal security, which can include counter-intelligence of foreign agents as well gathering, collating and analyzing information about internal threats. For example, in the US you can consider the CIA to be an intelligence organization and the FBI to be the secret police. Though they are different they do not need to be mutually exclusive.

When putting your intel organization together it's probably best to consider what your targets will be, at least to start with. Is there a primary opposition you want to track, like a competing kingdom or the like? If so you'll want to think about what you want to monitor, how you'll do that, how you'll protect that enterprise from compromise and how you will assemble information and extract meaning from it.

Also look at the options that the game world gives you. Scrying and other magics are amazing tools. In fact if you achieve dominance in being able to gather information magically, you have a substantial advantage over an opponent.

A good place to start is by compartmentalizing. Working from the top down you'll want a directorate that gets executive guidance and provides refined intel to the king. Beneath them you'll want an analysis division that has compartments of subject-matter experts for assessing information regarding various target groups. You'll also want an administration division that handles logistics and accounting, an internal security division that guards against your organization being co-opted and an operations division that handles staffing, training and managing field assets.

Then you'll want compartmentalized teams that gather intel. These might include...
- agents that recruit and run informants
- agents that passively acquire information by observation
- agents that actively acquire information by skullduggery
- magical resources that collect information

You'll also want a field support group that provides services to your operations like safe houses, couriers, equipment and infiltration/exfiltration routes.

[Ratter]

You don't want just 10 good characters (though that is useful) you want 10 characters that mesh well together, You are in charge of the SECRET police. That word is important. SECRET. So obviously take the coolest spellcasters you can and a couple of barbarians

The actual thing to do here is thinking in terms of roles they will serve to the secret police, you need lots of faces, so take a couple of lore bards or other charisma based spellcaster, they will be good at disguising themselves, making them good secret police. They can blend into anywhere. You might also want to take ONLY 1 moon druid. This is so that you have a good spy to get into places you can't lie your way into. The rest of your team should consist of Assasin rogues, this is because if you're going to kill someone, it's gotta be quiet, and it's gotta be fast, sneak attacks are perfect. If you really wanted to you could also deviate to get an Arcane Trickster or Thief. At this point weeding out those you hate should be easy.

[KorvinStarmast]

As far as secret police go, a band of GOOlock Chain Pact Halflings is pretty solid; all that silent comminication from Telepathy, plus (functionally) Detect Thoughts at-will (because short rests in a non-adventuring environment are insanely easy to come by), plus a "gun" you don't need to conceal (Eldritch Blast), plus (literal) Disguise Self at-will from Mask of Many Faces, plus an Imp each for scouting and shapeshifting OR a Sprite for reading hearts and non-lethal take-downs (sleepy arrows!), plus (Halfling) Lucky minimising failure rates and they're small and hidey...what's not to like?

Also, who wouldn't be terrified of a half-pint, high-Charisma secret police, each and every one of whom has an Imp/Sprite sitting on their shoulders?
Heh, in the old comic strip Fineous Fingers, the hobbit thieves guild put fear into the hearts of PC and NPC alike. I love your idea. (And I may adopt it). :smallcool:

[Vogie]

As far as secret police go, a band of GOOlock Chain Pact Halflings is pretty solid; all that silent comminication from Telepathy, plus (functionally) Detect Thoughts at-will (because short rests in a non-adventuring environment are insanely easy to come by), plus a "gun" you don't need to conceal (Eldritch Blast), plus (literal) Disguise Self at-will from Mask of Many Faces, plus an Imp each for scouting and shapeshifting OR a Sprite for reading hearts and non-lethal take-downs (sleepy arrows!), plus (Halfling) Lucky minimising failure rates and they're small and hidey...what's not to like?

Also, who wouldn't be terrified of a half-pint, high-Charisma secret police, each and every one of whom has an Imp/Sprite sitting on their shoulders?

Yeah, the GOO lock with Sprite accompaniment was my thought. At 7 they can see through walls with the Ghostly Gaze invocation.

I've always thought that a Warlock with Ghostly Gaze and an Arcane Archer with Piercing Shot would be very SWAT like - Literally observing and shooting people through walls.

[SirGraystone]

For intelligence, to learn what the nobles are up to a female courtisan is always good, if you can work with your DM to get her in the bed of the one in charge of the military even better.

A servant to gossip with the other nobles' servant, they always gossip and most nobles just ignore them.

For the merchant, another merchant is good or a clerk where they do the contract and papers stuff.

Someone in the military to keep an eye on your rival, some sergeant or better someone working in logistic.

[JackPhoenix]

You don't want just 10 good characters (though that is useful) you want 10 characters that mesh well together, You are in charge of the SECRET police. That word is important. SECRET. So obviously take the coolest spellcasters you can and a couple of barbarians

The blue part shouldn't be a joke. You'll want people nobody would thought could be your agents. If you're doing your job correctly, you'll send someone to watch the military, and for that, you'll want a fighter who'll blend in, not a weakling who can't use a sword or halfling with a devil on his shoulder. Or better yet, you use basic misdirection: you'll send one obvious spy, and one "random person who should be here". Sure, you'll want some specialists, for wetwork and special tasks, but you'll also want informers, and best informers are the ones nobody would ever suspect.

Also, I really suggest reading this article (http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2014/10/04/tailor-tinker-soldier-spy-the-bard-as-a-spy-cryptography-and-the-fantasy-espionage-team/).

[samcifer]

Funny enough that's the kind of campaign my group is now doing. We're basically government-santioned detectives/problem-solvers in a community where non-magical humans can become werewolves or vampires and all other races and magic now exist, but some bigotted non-magical human purists are resorting to terrorist activity to try to drive everyone else away.