Lurker in the Deep vs Revised Genie

[Seekergeek]

So I'm heading to avernus any session now. We've been in Baldur's Gate for a while and without too much by way of spoilers, we're in a very unpleasant basement and about to enter into some sewers. We're almost entirely drained of resources as a party, and have no opportunity to retreat because of some...character choices. I feel it is prudent to enter this coming session prepared with a backup character in case my 10 hit points fail me.

Concept-wise, I've settled on an sailor themed warlock which, at least from level 5 - 9 uses at least one of his short-rest slots on summoning an undead spirit which will manifest as his various dead crewmates. I'm wondering which of the two above-captioned patrons you might choose if you were rolling up a new warlock. Marid is probably my least favourite of the genie-sub patrons as far as spell selection goes (we've got a rogue, illusionist, barbarian, cleric, and myself - currently a lore bard), but for this idea it's the one that works best.

We used a pretty generous party-rolling system whereby each player rolled a full set of stats at the table on session 0 and the DM chose the spread from our rolls. We ended up with 17, 16, 16, 15, 14, 7. I have no racial preferences though, as always, half-elf seems like the clear choice.

Given those two choices and a reluctance to multiclass what would you do? I'm tempted to try and go non-hexblade bladelock with those stats, myself.

[micahaphone]

I'd personally go Lurker in the Deep - what level are you preparing this character for? You could reflavor the tentacle as a drowned spectre reaching out to drag enemies down with it.

Tentacle's speed reduction will help with a bladelock, and gives you a consistent use of your bonus action. If you wanted a polearm, a boat hook could be a cool and thematic reskin of a halberd.

On the expanded list, Lightning Bolt will be just peachy against devils, but Cone of Cold will be resisted. Not sure if Control Water or Commune with Nature will be useful to you.


The default genie half of the expanded list doesn't seem to give you much other than wish, of course. Efreeti would give you fire damage resistance but a list of useless spells. I do like the Dao's spell list, and bludgeoning resistance is decent.

[Seekergeek]

You could reflavor the tentacle as a drowned spectre reaching out to drag enemies down with it.

Thanks for the feedback! I love this idea, and it helped make the decsion a lot easier! Between the reflavoured tentacle and spirit shroud I'll be in good shape for damage and ghost pirates even when I don't use a summon. Much thanks!