Fortune Teller role playing doubts

[adb82]

Hello,
im gonna play a fortune teller starting with 2 lv of wizard diviner and 3 lv of lore bard. Mechanically she ll interact with others rolls, she ll manipulate minds.

The backgroud is kinda simple:
She was a princess of a nomad tribe, her family was used, every five years, to make the members of the family pick one card from the deck of many things, which they have one (in this world exist 6 decks of many things, with different cards and different powers), for their bday. Our charatcter pick it 3 times after she born, getting divination and mental powers, but at the 4th time she used the deck, at age of 20, she picked the ruin card and so she lost her family, her name, her lands and everything she had, no one even remember about who she was and she started to travel the world using her powers for survive, cheating on bets, reading cards or anyway "the future", pretenting to can talk with dead people but using minor illusion, prestidigitation and thaumaturgy (she have magic initiate feat) for fool people about a spiritic conjuration that never happened for real, manipulating people (for exemple she worked in a house of pleasure, but she never had to sell her body, because she suggested every costumers making they want just to talk with her and pay for it!) and of course playing music and writing ballads about the stories and the heroes (or "heroes", if she find someone thinking to be an hero but having just a too big consideration of himself she ll make he feel an hero with her songs and poetry till when he pay for her services), that in her culture was the one way to make new generation get old knoweldge. In the future she may consider to be at some king service for try to manipulate his choices and get political power.

Anyway this is just for introoduce the character.

My point is that i would like to play this character with the rest of group pretending she dont have any magic power...i talked with my DM and he allowed me to use things like suggestion making only the target hear my voice in his mind, i picked find familiar so all the touch spells will be the familiar (that ill introduce as my magic protector) to deliver it, i even picked unseen servant for make it appear like a big guy (also about this my DM is ok) with 2 swords, of course he cant attack or do anything, but ill introduce him as my bodyguard and the one in my tribe who still remind who im.

The problems about this are basically 2:

- Magic Missile the one damage spell i picked (with dissonant whisperers but i dont consider DW a damage spell) from wizard, because it dont need roll to hit as i have only 13 INT, my 2 dip in wizard was for get Portent that is perfect for this character, better saving than bard and low lv rituals. The problem here is that i have no idea about how to hide to the rest of the party that i shot 5 force missile from my fingers...

- I would like to have a more specific reason, something she really cant fail, for pretend to dont have any magic power and be so harmless and with no defence, than just "i dont want to risk in combat becouse im a selfish character that always try to manipulate people for get the best advantage with the less work".

I dont know if (especially the second point) is enough clear, i would like she have a specific reason for have to hide her power to party, but i cant find anything really interesting...any help for solve both problems will be very appreciate.

Thanks.

[Darth Credence]

If you are going for not appearing to have any magic power, I think you need to lean into it and not actually show any magic power. Basically, I don't think you should go with magic missile as a spell, or if you do, it should be a last resort kind of thing you use when you see surviving as better than showing your magical abilities.

I like the concept, if you are in a heavy role playing campaign. If I were playing that character, I'd probably have gone purely with divination type stuff for the wizard spells, and attempt to really lean into the idea that I was granted visions of the future, but not magical power. That's just me, though, and if you are going with magic missile I think you have to get your DM to let you re-flavor it somehow. Maybe he would allow it to come from your familiar if the familiar is in contact with you, or something like that.

As to the second, my first thought is that the ruin card you drew caused the people of your tribe to want to destroy you as well, for what you brought on the tribe. You fled, and while they aren't actively looking for you, if they find you they will want to do something about you. If you use magic openly, you become more likely to be found.

[adb82]

If you are going for not appearing to have any magic power, I think you need to lean into it and not actually show any magic power. Basically, I don't think you should go with magic missile as a spell, or if you do, it should be a last resort kind of thing you use when you see surviving as better than showing your magical abilities.

I like the concept, if you are in a heavy role playing campaign. If I were playing that character, I'd probably have gone purely with divination type stuff for the wizard spells, and attempt to really lean into the idea that I was granted visions of the future, but not magical power. That's just me, though, and if you are going with magic missile I think you have to get your DM to let you re-flavor it somehow. Maybe he would allow it to come from your familiar if the familiar is in contact with you, or something like that.

As to the second, my first thought is that the ruin card you drew caused the people of your tribe to want to destroy you as well, for what you brought on the tribe. You fled, and while they aren't actively looking for you, if they find you they will want to do something about you. If you use magic openly, you become more likely to be found.

Its kind of last resource indeed to use magic missile, but sometime will happen for sure.

About the character, it born as a pure divination, later on i decided to give him portent, lucky feat and cutting words or bardic inspiration for follow the fortune theme also mechanically. She will effectively give or negate fortune around 10 times a day orprobably more, plus she ll have bane, guidace and bless (from magic initiate) that still fill the theme of fortune and are good spell till lv 20, clairvoyance, detect thoughts, detect magic and other divination spells i can put inside, 3rd lv she can choose 3 spells, probably clairvoyance, hypnotic pattern and counterspell, as 4th lv phantasmal killer (polimorph is better for sure but seem not so good for my concept) and charm monster, nosthing so interesting here, i can even give up phantasmal killer for pick other 3rd lv spell like catnap for recover bardic inspiration faster, 5th lv spell modify memory and synaptic static still fill the theme probably, ill add mass cure wounds or reincarnete (because its too fun to reincarnate someone in other race lol) or scrying, 6th trueseeing, 7th eventually simulacrum no matter what...and anything else...i putted in also telekinetic and shadow touched so she can pull enemies and provocate opportunity attacks without her party know its her doing that, plus she add some more lower spells like invisibility.
I give up about the idea of a pure diviner also because my party have no healer, so someone that have some heal spells is really welcome, plus the bard is also the best skill monkey and we just lose our rogue and also i felt like portent and bardinc inspiration all in one character its perfect for a fortune teller, especially adding also the lucky feat.

In this campaign the party tend to change anyway, because its easy to die (so players tend to think before start a fight) and because we give the opportunity every 5 lv to change character. Sometime your character can be interested in do something different than what the party do for exemple, in this way he can go doing what he want and we still can play many classes during a long campaign. There are players that tend to keep their first character till the end and other that change more often , as someone that leave a character for make he do something during 1 year and than he back to play it...assuming this, bard seemed to me more flexible and useful to more aspect of the game than a pure wizard, but well, both are probably the most useful classes in a party wth the cleric.

And yea, it will be an hight role playing campaign, there are fights also, but its much more incentred on role playing than fights.

About the reason for hide her powers its a good one, but i still feel it miss something...i dont know what...

[Nefariis]

I have always wanted to play this character!

Portent, Lucky, Cutting Words, Bardic Inspiration, Halfling Luck, and Bountiful Luck

You are the Queen of Fate and the world seems to bend itself around you and your whims.

As someone else said, see if you can work with your DM to re-flavor magic missiles. It can either seem to come from your familiar or maybe it could also seem that the world or some being is intervening on your behalf. So a zap of energy from the sky, or a tree branch falls on the guy, or a boulder falls from a nearby ledge. Again, you are the Queen of Fate, there is no reason not to believe that the entire universe is on your side and conspiring with you.

A decent reason to hide your powers is that you've been exploited for it before. When you were a child, you were taken away by a local magistrate when he found out you could control peoples' fate - and he held you captive as he forced you to help him gain power and influence. You just managed to escape (Think of the marble/escape scene in the movie Push) and you never want to go back or be used by anyone else. Truthfully. if you made him really powerful, he is probably hunting you down as you would have been his prized possession. Maybe as a ultimate goal, you would like to become more powerful to defeat him or be his undoing.

[adb82]

I have always wanted to play this character!

Portent, Lucky, Cutting Words, Bardic Inspiration, Halfling Luck, and Bountiful Luck

You are the Queen of Fate and the world seems to bend itself around you and your whims.

As someone else said, see if you can work with your DM to re-flavor magic missiles. It can either seem to come from your familiar or maybe it could also seem that the world or some being is intervening on your behalf. So a zap of energy from the sky, or a tree branch falls on the guy, or a boulder falls from a nearby ledge. Again, you are the Queen of Fate, there is no reason not to believe that the entire universe is on your side and conspiring with you.

A decent reason to hide your powers is that you've been exploited for it before. When you were a child, you were taken away by a local magistrate when he found out you could control peoples' fate - and he held you captive as he forced you to help him gain power and influence. You just managed to escape (Think of the marble/escape scene in the movie Push) and you never want to go back or be used by anyone else. Truthfully. if you made him really powerful, he is probably hunting you down as you would have been his prized possession. Maybe as a ultimate goal, you would like to become more powerful to defeat him or be his undoing.

This is exactly the kind of reason i was searching for, and just 4 minutes before i start the session ahahahaha, tnx.

Im just thinking who is him...why she couldnt use her powers aginst him for run away? He have to be an elf...immune to charm and many mental powers, probably a drow hiding his apparance, looking as a moon elf, could fill the role also but will be kinda difficult to explain a drow in this capaign...

[Nefariis]

I would just say your powers were strong enough to help him overcome the average NPC around him, but your powers weren't strong enough to overcome him - and even when you were strong enough to escape, you did it just barely.

Or even easier, maybe you had Stockholm Syndrome as you were abducted from such an early age, you just accepted that this must have been what the universe wanted for you - that is until he had you commit some atrocity and you finally decided enough was enough and then you put all your energy is breaking free and righting the wrong that he had you commit.