Genie Warlock living in a bottle tips?

[werescythe]

So, I really love the idea of the Genie warlock and the concept of a character who is mostly focused around living in their Genie Vessel. I was wondering if there were any special builds for such a character. Like what would be great feats, spells and... maybe minor multiclassing if necessary, options for such a concept?

Bonus points if you can make it work with Pact of the Tome. :smallsmile:

[Athan Artilliam]

Its a real shame 5e doesnt really embrace the shear minutiae that 3.5 did. You could have had all kinds of fun options. Alas we must move onward. If you live in the bottle/ring/lamp/Chuck E. Cheese token you might want a way to protect it from being found while you are away. Other than that? Buy a comfy bed?

[da newt]

I saw the title and was sure you meant your guy lived in a tip jar like on the barista's counter ...

[follacchioso]

I like the Dao warlock more than the others, mainly because of the spells. You can use Wall of Stones to create your own town, or to alter the landscape as you please; and Stone Shape to create statues and other decorations.

One known combo with Dao Warlocks is taking the Crusher feat, which will trigger on your Genie's Wrath feature. Combined with other invocations, you can use eldritch blast to move your enemies on the battlefield wherever you like, possibly into one of the Hadar spells. It's not the most powerful combo but it is another trick in the bag.

When playing warlocks, I like taking one or two levels in bard or sorcerer, just to have some extra known spells and a couple of low level spell slots, so you don't always have to waste your precious warlock slots.

[f5anor]

So, I really love the idea of the Genie warlock and the concept of a character who is mostly focused around living in their Genie Vessel. I was wondering if there were any special builds for such a character. Like what would be great feats, spells and... maybe minor multiclassing if necessary, options for such a concept?

Bonus points if you can make it work with Pact of the Tome. :smallsmile:

I have always been partial to an old Al Quadeem rogue/bard sub-class, which was the Barber. The idea is that Barbers being experts in the ways of the bazaar and the city, and privy to confidential information their customers would divulge while shaving, they had ample opportunity to exploit such knowledge.

I once played a Halfling Sha'ir/Barber multiclass, the Sha'ir being the 2e equivalent of the Genie Warlock, in 5e terms.

This was a very enjoyable character, lots of shenanigans around thieving and genies.

Anyway, I could imagine this little guy living inside one of his cologne bottles :smallsmile:, which could double up as their Genie vessel.

This could be of course fluffed, without a multiclass, however if you would go for another class, I feel the bard would be appropriate in 5e terms, maybe a Lore Bard.

This would give the character a nice storyteller aspect.

[Joe the Rat]

If you want to be self-sufficient, a Genie Chain-Lock would work nicely. A shiny-bauble-sized (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0935.html) vessel could be carried by your familiar, and drop it into your hand when it comes time to make an appearance. Whether or not you are within the same plane of existence (my take is yes) may complicate command and control, but for just travel, "go here, avoid trouble, give a shout when we arrive or something goes down" should suffice. a perfume/scented oil sized vessel should be easily crow-portable, and can be equipped with a thong or necklace chain loop if you don't want to worry about accidental droppage.

For my Kobold Freetlock, I went with the Good Buddy route: One of my teammates carries my brass-and-silver incense burner around, and tosses it for me to pop out when it's time to battle. As a censer, it has a bit of chain so it doesn't get lost easily and I can make a quick grab to get it under my control for a little fire rider on my standard blastlock performance.
(That I am Charmandering out of a Pokéball is gravy)

Don't be afraid to store sundry supplies and excess baggage in your vessel - things you'd really only need to access 1/day. In a pinch, this makes a good short-rest-while-everyone-else-travels-to-the-next-encounter option for when they absolutely, positively can't hold still for an hour.

[Greywander]

I really wish the warlock themselves could freely enter and exit the vessel, and you were only limited on bringing other people into your vessel. At the minimum, they could have made it so that you can enter and exit at will, but you have a daily time limit for how long you can spend in the vessel, and entering the vessel spends a minimum amount of time. For example, maybe popping in and out of your vessel to grab something from inside spends a minimum of an hour of the time you can spend in the vessel, so pop in and out too often and you won't have enough time left to long rest inside. But really, I'd rather there not be a limit. If you hide inside, you can already be forced out by destroying the vessel.

I did have the idea of creating a character who was a literal dragon, using either Draconic sorcerer or the new Way of the Ascended Dragon monk. On either build, I'd dip one level into genielock specifically to get a mobile lair I can store my hoard in.

As has been mentioned, you can leave your familiar outside the vessel and have them pick up and carry it. This works better on Chainlocks, since your familiar can then turn invisible, but even with a standard familiar you should be able to get a lot of mileage out of this. This can be a handy infiltration technique, too, since you can have your familiar carry your vessel around to places, then pop out once you're inside. Also works for exfiltration. Becomes even better when you can bring the whole party inside.

One thing you can do specifically on a tomelock is get the invocation that lets you cast Sending at will. YMMV, but the interior of the vessel is an extradimenional space, and thus might not count as being on the same plane as your familiar on the outside. This would then block your ability to communicate with your familiar and perceive through their senses. But what you could do is cast Sending to speak to your familiar to send them instructions. You can hear what's going on outside your vessel, so if your familiar is able to speak or otherwise communicate with you, then you can establish two-way communication then, otherwise without Sending you're only able to hear what's outside but not send instructions to your familiar.

Some other tricks:

You can store important items inside your vessel to smuggling them places without being noticed. Also works for hiding bodies and whatnot.
You can stuff your vessel full of something, then destroy it to deploy that something. Note: The items appear "harmlessly", so e.g. vials of acid wouldn't spill out and shatter, but rather appear in a neat stack.
You can get a new vessel by performing a 1 hour ritual, which destroys the previous vessel, if it still exists. Sell your vessel to some schmuck, then replace it.
Combine #3 with #2. Fill the vessel with something you want to deploy, give/sell the vessel to the person you want to deploy next/near to, then replace the vessel. Great for frame jobs.
If e.g. you have to jump from somewhere very high, jump off and enter your vessel in mid-air. Either the vessel is destroyed on impact and you pop harmlessly out, or the vessel survives.
You can also enter your vessel and then have someone launch it e.g. with a catapult. Probably not a compelling reason to do this if you have a flying familiar, though.
Hide the party inside the vessel, then give it as a gift to someone you want to assassinate. (You'll need someone else to offer it as a gift, as the party is ejected if you leave the vessel.)

In general, you can hide things in the vessel, or enter the vessel to keep from dying. That's what most of the tricks revolve around.

[Athan Artilliam]

Hide in your vessel.
Have your party gift it to the king/dragon/lich
Pop out of the vessel once it's in the Treasury
Steal everything & pop it back into your vessel
????
Celebrate your daring escape & new found loot

[Spiritchaser]

How do you install a bathroom in your vessel?

[Greywander]

Hide in your vessel.
Have your party gift it to the king/dragon/lich
Pop out of the vessel once it's in the Treasury
Steal everything & pop it back into your vessel
????
Celebrate your daring escape & new found loot
This is tricky to pull off because once you enter your vessel, you can't enter it again until you finish a long rest. To pull it off, you need to enter your vessel, do a long rest, then pop out and grab everything and pop back in. While you're out, I'd summon your familiar to you (if they're not already) and have them carry the vessel away once you're back inside.

There are a couple other ways to make this work, as well. Instead of popping back into your vessel, you could use a teleportation spell to escape. Dimension Door teleports you 500 feet, which may not be enough to get away, but should be enough to put you in a different room some distance from the treasury (for plausible deniability). You can also summon your familiar to the other side of a door or wall, see through their eyes, then BA Misty Step to teleport through a wall (Misty Step requires you to see where you're teleporting to). Mask of Many Faces can also give you a disguise while you exfiltrate. If you have Misty Visions, you can put up a Silent Image to make it look like the treasure is still there, buying you some extra time.

[Athan Artilliam]

How do you install a bathroom in your vessel?

Chamber pot

[Greywander]

How do you install a bathroom in your vessel?


You can stuff your vessel full of something, then destroy it to deploy that something. Note: The items appear "harmlessly", so e.g. vials of acid wouldn't spill out and shatter, but rather appear in a neat stack.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[Athan Artilliam]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Sounds like something from Shadow of the Demon Lord

[JLandan]

I saw the title and was sure you meant your guy lived in a tip jar like on the barista's counter ...

Me too. LOL:smallbiggrin:

[JLandan]

Chamber pot

What if there's a Genie Warlock in the chamber pot?

[Sigreid]

What if there's a Genie Warlock in the chamber pot?

Then he picked a crappy vessel. :smallbiggrin:

[Willowhelm]

Hide in your vessel.
Have your party gift it to the king/dragon/lich
Pop out of the vessel once it's in the Treasury
Steal everything & pop it back into your vessel
????
Celebrate your daring escape & new found loot

Does the vessel show as magical? Do these people usually put unchecked magical items into their treasuries?

[Athan Artilliam]

Does the vessel show as magical? Do these people usually put unchecked magical items into their treasuries?

It's not magical. It doesn't do anything, the Warlock does. It's a bauble given freely by the laws of hospitality, the king may not put it in his most secret of vaults, but he will probably chuck it on his regular treasure pile

[Joe the Rat]

What if there's a Genie Warlock in the chamber pot?

It's probably some sort of Nocturnal Daolock. Night soil, you might say

[Spiritchaser]

Chamber pot

You are a warlock, the unapologetic master forbidden eldritch power…

Chamber pot?

There must be more!

[Athan Artilliam]

You are a warlock, the unapologetic master forbidden eldritch power…

Chamber pot?

There must be more!

Everybody poops.

If you want something fancy, a Decanter of Endless Water & a Bag of Devouring would make a pretty good bidet

[Naanomi]

Be an elf or reborn so you can sleep in there sooner

[Sorinth]

You can only enter the bottle once per long rest so being something like an Elf or Reborn will help since you can LR faster. A Reborn in particular can be a fun take on the warlock class since you maybe sold your soul, died, and you are now serving your patron for all eternity since that was your initial pact.