Can't fool me! Making a hard-to-trick character
Campaign is finished and a new campaign is starting up. I was a late addon to the just-finished campaign and one of my observations is that A LOT of the NPC were hiding stuff. Double/triple agents, shape change, hiding invisibly in the room, hidden agendas. That's the clear norm. I remember especially one of my first session were EVERYONE we interacted with were someone other than first presented or had some hidden agenda (with the exception of some kidnapping henchmen, that were an expectedly level of dodgy, that got beat up). The emperor's oldest daughter was actually the younger sister was actually an evil doppelganger (the emperor's oldest daughter also had her own thing going on, essentially enemy of the throne), the emperor's second-in-command was actually siphoning off from the treasury, a cat walking around was actually and friend/foe-assassin of the group (of course hiding stuff), my "NPC-guide" actually had "something" going on.
I expect the next campaign to be similar, and I want to come more prepared.
I'm looking for perception checks, reading lips, knowing languages, seeing invisible, scrying, true sight, blindsight, insight. All the sights. Having information-gatherers as helpers, access to information in the background. Everything else in that category.
Combat wasn't deadly.
Regarding roleplay, lawful does not seem to be a realistic option. Might be interesting to lean into the chaos.
Do you guys have any suggestions on what sort of builds would work? Both mechanically and roleplay-wise.
Posted Jul 18, 2022, 7:33 PM UTC · edited
Make your pwn Changeling Warlock with Mask of Many Faces and pick up Observant and Actor feats. Possibly MC into rogue or lore bard for Expertise. Skilled feat later on.
Just lean into being deceptive and shit yourself. Don't let the DM get away with deceiving you without checks if he makes you do checks or has NPCs detect your deception all the time, turn about is fair play.
Warlock also solves of of the "mini-problems" of leaning into it. The character will never be horrible in combat with EB.
Seeing invisible characters, items, reading hidden messages, seeing into the other planes, access to the ethereal plane, that still seems like a challenge for this character.
I’m going to have to strongly disagree with you here; Warlocks struggle in certain ways, but they excel at “seeing invisible characters, items, reading hidden messages, seeing into the other planes, access to the ethereal plane.”
The key is their Eldritch Invocations. Pick up any and all of them with “Eyes” or “Sight.” Run a Pact of the Chain Warlock with your own invisible, intelligent, telepathic spy buddy. Have Eldritch Sight to flick on Detect Magic at will. Depending on how many levels the campaign goes, abilities like Witch Sight that come online at level 15 are exactly what you need to cut through a shapechanging enemy’s bullshit.
There's some, fittingly enough, hidden gems here, thank you!
Pact of the blade has a lot of cool stuff. Invisibility, Heart Sight, Devil's Sight, telepathy for messages, depending on the form.
Witch Sight is perfect. Warlock lvl 15 is a steep price, though. Especially since true seeing is on the bard spell list.
Detect magic at will is the bargain bin version, and comes online almost immediately. Will help prioritize spell use.
Thinking Changeling as an upgraded mask of many faces. Actor would pair nicely with that, you're right. Don't think passive perception is ever used, so would go perception expertise (and luck?) instead of Observant.
Bard's expertise and spell-versatility gives a lot, but warlock makes a really solid start.