So, I didn't fully read the Hollin guide until today. I had an idea for a warlock, who was masquerading as a wizard (complete with forgoing armor, getting the Tome of Secrets pact boon to have to pass off as a spellbook, and using primarily wizard spells). Essentially he was desperate that no one find out he made a deal with demons for his powers. And just to make his life more miserable, he gets a thrill out of lying and making his lies more and more complex. I would not reveal his class to the other players either. I think I'd be curious if anyone could figure it out. The character is neutral. In reading through the guide, I'm on the fence about the character. - Is magic outlawed? I skimmed over one of the party profile's from a previous campaign, and it sounds like it could be - Is there a school of magic / wizard's guild / similar? Something he could claim to belong to - Is there an evil deity he would have made a pact with? (does Asmodeus or similar exist in this world?) Would one of the 99 Caliphate gods work? If it's not terribly workable, I'll keep the same general idea but rebuild him as either a warlock hexblade or a bard swashbuckler. Or maybe even an artificer, if you're OK with using Tasha's. In either case, a spellcaster who disguises their spellcasting as natural abilities. ---- Hi Nick, Thanks for looking over the stuff and making the nice character idea! The idea of a demon-dealing warlock who disguises himself as a wizard would be great, and the escalating lies sound fun. On your specific questions: Magic isn't exactly outlawed. In the first Hollin campaign, part of the world introduction said that Hollinders were scared of witchcraft, because I wanted to explore an "anyone can be a cylon" theme like the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, and witches seemed like the fantasy equivalent. So, the players were on notice that Hollinders might think magic was witchcraft. That's still kind of the case but given that magic is so pervasive in D&D, I let the PCs do any magic they want without repercussions else the game breaks. :) There isn't any public school of magic or wizard's guild. The Hollin Oracle (https://hollincodex.com/codex_versions/4/hollin/index.html) could be considered one (and specializes in summoning demons spirits), but it's a reveal rather than a publicly-known org (which is why I removed it from the current version of the Hollin overview). If you're looking for something public to claim to belong to, it would be ok to publicly claim to be a member of one of the many monuments to Ajana in the city - every monument has a different story but they're good homes to magic user types (https://hollincodex.com/hollin/#worship). Or, if you want to be a foreigner, the Caliphate's religion has Directorate of inquisitors that's publicly known (https://hollincodex.com/journal/36_the_suns_anvil/index.html, "As Alim is threatening you, another group of men comes in, this time older....). On evil deities: a few of the 99 actually live secretly in Hollin and one there is straight-up evil. So, I could give you that guy's name or you could just make up an evil diety as say he's one of the 99. Basically the 99 are each individual manifestations of the 99 names of Allah (https://99namesofallah.name/), so if one of those sounds like a good evil deity (The Abaser, The Dishonourer, etc.) feel free. Or, part of the charm of Ajana is that everyone has their own wildly different interpretation of Ajana, so if you want to say that you had an evil pact with Ajana, that's ok, either for your character to claim, or to have one in fact and we'll say e.g. that was with an evil aspect of Ajana. If none of these sounds like the exact right thing, also feel free to make up stuff out of whole cloth. Particularly if your character is a foreigner from Naumkaeg, Welkin, etc., almost nothing is known about those other city-states. Let me know what you think. Looking forward to playing! Dennis. ---- I'm actually finishing DMing a campaign on Saturday that I've been running for nearly 2 years (with some breaks) all in a completely custom world with hand-created maps, cities, politics, people. I really appreciated those players who connected themselves to the world, rather than imposing something onto it. Anyway - all that to say, good notes. I will take your first note to heart and tweak him just a little bit. I think the basic details are probably good to go. Warlock, hiding his true nature, lies a lot. Human. Alignment neutral. Instead of masquerading as a mage, I'll fiddle with him and go more hexblade. That's perfect that the dieties actually lie in Hollin. The evil one (assuming he/she is crafty and deceptive vs. brute in-your-face butcher) is probably most appropriate. The character would make the bargain either mistakenly assuming it's no big deal, incorrectly thinking he was getting the better end of the deal, being tricked into it, or through his ever-mounting series of lies end up having no choice but to make the deal --- OK, sound good. (As far as imposing stuff onto Hollin, the Far Shore is just 5 games so it wouldn't be too damaging. Although, potentially I could come up with other mini-campaigns in the future if people wanted to revisit their characters.) OK, the evil one I had in mind was Ishild, who was simultaneously a grotesque lich and the Ninety-Nine god "the Hidden" (so he is the crafty and deceptive type). During the original campaign 17 years ago in game time, he ended up attacking the Holliln Oracle and taking their space, so that's where he is now. You would know that it's a giant grimoire library hidden in the basement of the Gramercy book store in Braddock, and that Ishild is a kind of gentleman scientist who spends centuries researching spells, weird science, and math. Is the material from your own campaign online? Congrats on running the long campaign, I know that's a lot of work. ---- To your last question; it's not - I was running an app for a while that contained maps and some utilities for generating names and stats. But it was a little too clunky to be opening it up all the time, and players were having trouble installing it. But it is all pretty thoroughly documented in word docs, if you're super curious. The very, very basic high level premise is that the players are working for a stereotypical evil necromancer in his evil tower where he was hatching a plot to take over the world. But then he dies unexpectedly, and things get... weird. Ishild sounds perfect, dead-on, sounds like a good choice for a "fiend" patron. I'll retool the character and send you a couple paragraphs of his background sometime next week. ---- Yeah, if you have something good to share (and it doesn't make work for you to share it) it would be fun to look at it. Sounds like we're good then. Do you want to send out something about your character like Scott did, so e.g. Rob doesn't make a character that's redundant with your class and skills? --- (Nick to the whole group:) Hey, I'm playing a middle-aged character more at home in the woods. He wears leather armor, wields a light crossbow, with an owl often perched on his shoulder. His name is Modalye (Mod - a - lie) Grellen. I didn't min-max his stats, so the skills he has are all OK. Some useful investigatory skills - arcana +3, nature +3, persuasion +4. He can speak with animals when needed. -- A little summary of the character: Name: Modalye Grellen, warlock (fiend pact, pact of blade boon), neutral alignment. Masquerading as a ranger (or trying anyway) . Invocations: beast speech & improved pact weapon (allowing a light crossbow to serve as a spell focus) Modalye grew up more or less on the streets, living in the Braddock district. He survived by pickpocketing, swindling strangers with silly trick games (card tricks, 3 cups, and the like). As he got older, he became more brazen - lying about magical healing elixirs to tourists and some merchants (snake oils); sweet talking innkeepers into free rooms, and impersonating minor nobles. He was always able to worm out of a jam with parler magic, persuasion, or just slipping away quietly. When he passed a plain old dowel rod off as a magic wand to a merchant from the Anhault Charter Company, he got in too deep. The merchant figured out the stick was just a stick rather quickly - faster than Modalye could even get out of the district. The merchant summoned the guards and chased Modalye for blocks, until Modalye eventually stumbled through a shop door and down a flight of stairs into the store's basement. When he stood up, he realized he was in an antique bookstore. Its owner was standing over him, and sensing an opportunity, revealed his true nature. Caught between the guards who doubtlessly wanted him hung, and the lich, Modalye was coerced into serving the lich, who became Modalye's patron. In return, Ishild masked Modalye's presense, hiding him in a veil. The guards moved on. Modalye was also granted extensive powers. As part of the agreement, Modalye was set loose to learn and grow, and after months or years, Ishild will someday call upon him to return the favor. Desperate to hide the real source of his power, Modalye eventually made his way to Lofton, where he fell in with rangers and does his best to mimic their fighting style, dress, and behavior, hoping to pass himself off as a ranger for as long as he can.