Eyes in the Back of Your Head
Ranger/Warlock Multiclass Build: Part 1
The Character:
It wasn't a beach. It wasn't seafoam that bubbled around his knees, but angry spit. It wasn't land, but chiton, and they weren't puddles, but eyes, thousands of eyes staring up at them. In all his years as navigator, Lochan had never made an error, but at least this would be his first and last.
"Lochan," whispered the bosun, "w-what is this?"
The captain stepped forward, all eyes beneath their feet swiveling to follow his movement, emotionless. He raised his cutlass, tip pointed at the eye closest to him. "What are you shaking for, bilge rats? Start carving out Far Realm eyes or it'll be your heads." He plunged his blade deep, black swirling and staining the milky white pool.
The band stepped forward, hands on weapons, courage restored as the captain flashed a gold-toothed grin. In an instant he was gone, and in the next his coat crumpled to the ground, empty, a hoard of horseshoe crabs scuttling out from beneath the clothes and between their legs. The boots of any they scuttled over suffered a similar fate. It was too fast to scream.
The Concept: Build, Character, Backgrounds
Excluding Unearthed Arcana reconstructions, the Ranger class is infamous for being one of the weakest classes in D&D 5e. However, it is also known as one of the strongest options for a multiclass dip as a lot of its best features are front-loaded. Now, when I say "good for a multiclass dip," that usually doesn't refer to a multiclass pairing with another half-caster that uses a different spellcasting ability . . . but that's exactly what we're doing today. Warlock and Ranger have more in common than one might think and, as always, when combining classes we look for the similarities to anchor our character with. The biggest aspect the two classes share is a thematic relationship with monsters, whether as prey, companions, or patrons. Now, Warlocks are so versatile that I found there are two very different but equally viable builds for this multiclass. Thus, we're doing something unprecedented up to this point for Classes in Session: both builds will be published here, with this entry standing as Part 1.
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After his fateful contact with the creature, Lochan was burdened with an insatiable drive to see the shores of all distant lands and hear the whispers of each creature who walked upon them, though for what purpose neither he nor Chaunta knew. They dubbed it his "Call to the Sea," and it became the focal point of their investigation into the creature's motives. Now, Lochan sails incognito with different ships, covering his deformed skull, following the pull to foreign lands in hopes that he and his lover might glean some insight into what the creature wants. It wasn't until either in port, or at sea, that he encountered a promising adventuring party whose ranks he infiltrated--if any individuals were strong enough to help him seek answers, it would be they.
The intentions of Lochan's abnormal patron, as well as why the seas surrounding it are infested with alien life, are purposely left vague here to be determined by the DM of the campaign Lochan is played in. It's an easy way to get the DM invested in Lochan's story, creates a potential story arc, and leaves a fun investigation for the players to solve with the help of NPC Chaunta. Lochan's patron is based on the undersea life known as Acanthopleura granulata, or the "Sea Cradle," a creature with many eyes all across its back. Many aberrations are described as looking vaguely aquatic, and its said that at the very limit of sight in the Far Realm drift huge multi-layer shapes, vaguely resembling creatures of the deepest ocean. I thought it might be fun to explore that a bit further by creating the mysterious chiton-themed old one that lurks at the bottom of Lochan's sea. In regards to mechanics, we've chosen the Sailor/Pirate character background for its proficiencies in Athletics and Perception, both necessary skills for an infiltrator build. Lochan is a murderous thief, as is the case for most pirates, and for that reason we've chosen a Lawful Evil alignment for him. He is not, however, a wanton murderer, taking life left and right. He does it when it benefits him, particularly if it will make him richer. Most importantly he does it when its easy and convenient for him, out of the sight of authorities. If he can just rob someone without taking their life, that's a lot less work, and he'll likely opt for that. Make sure when playing evil-aligned characters to remember that they are still people with nuanced personalities and motivations, and not to have them killing every NPC that aggravates them, else you risk aggravating the DM and your fellow players.
The Race: Half-Elf
Originally, my idea for this build was a Githyanki pirate sailing the astral sea, pledged to the star they guide their ship by. Unbeknownst to them that star is the dying body of a horror in the Far Realm. Feel free to take this concept, of course. However, this series of builds is meant for optimizing a suboptimal class combo, so for this reason we'll be going with the Half-Elf for full min-maxing capability. The +2 CHA, +1 DEX, +1 WIS, proficiency in two skills (Acrobatics, Stealth), and additional language proficiency (Aquan), put our heavily multi-attribute dependent (MAD) build in the best place possible.
The Stat Spread (Point Buy):
DEX 16 (+3), CHA 16 (+3), CON 14 (+2), WIS 13 (+1), STR 8 (-1), INT 8 (-1)
15 (9pts) 14 (7pts) 14 (7pts) 12 (4pts) 8 (0pts) 8 (0pts)
As will be the case with most of these Optimum Suboptimum Opusculum builds, this multiclass is highly MAD, so point-buy works best. DEX is our primary source of damage, yes, but more important for a scout its what determines our stealth rolls, so we want this stat to eventually be our highest. Most of our spells will be from the Warlock, so we want CHA to be our second highest for spell attack rolls and spell save DCs. Even though we'll be fighting from a distance, as hefty a pool of HP as we can manage is always important, so CON comes in third. We need at least a 13 WIS to multiclass to Ranger (that is, if we were starting as Warlock), but more importantly, a key feature has as many uses as our WIS modifier so we want that to be moderately high. STR and INT will be our dump stats. The 4 ABIs we gain access to with this build will be used as follows: substituted for the Observant feat first (boosting our WIS by 1 making our modifier +2), used to boost DEX by 2, substituted for the Skulker feat, and finally used to boost DEX by 2 one last time. This should leave us with DEX 20 & WIS 14.
The Classes: Notable Features & Synergies
Monster Slayer Conclave Ranger (5)
Great Old One Patron Warlock (15)
The first of our two Ranger/Warlock multiclasses will focus on the role of scouting. Our main goal is to be an expert of infiltration and intel gathering.
Combining the Monster Slayer Conclave Ranger's tracking abilities, cloaking spells, and buffs to perception with the Great Old One Patron Warlock's magically enhanced telepathic abilities, expanded spell list, and various invocations, we can create a versatile spy. For infiltration, we can sneak into enemy quarters ourselves with the aid of magic, send our thrall in as an inside-man, or scry from a distance. For scouting, no walls, or even skulls, will keep information from us. Our eyes see all, our ears hear all--there are no more secrets.
Primary Weapon: Longbow (Two-handed, Ranged) -- Since we'll benefit our scouting role by remaining in stealth, we want to be shooting from the shadows with this weapon most of the time (this also takes advantage of the Skulker feat which we'll discuss later).
Secondary Weapon: Rapier (Finesse) -- It's impossible to avoid getting into close quarters with every single enemy fought over the course of a campaign. For those encounters where we must engage in melee, the rapier is the best DEX-based melee weapon we can utilize.
Tertiary Weapon: Dagger (Finesse, Light, Thrown 20/60) -- In games where RAW is king, using a longbow requires arrows for ammunition. In the event of arrows running out during a long fight, the dagger can substitute as a DEX-based ranged attack, albeit with much less power and accuracy.
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| An Ixitxachitl, or 'Demon Ray,' a deadly aquatic aberration |
-Favored Enemy: Aberrations (with Deep Speech language proficiency). Many of the most powerful aquatic monsters fall under this category, including the aboleth, chuul, and morkoth. Notable exceptions include dragon turtles and amphibious dragons, storm giants, marid djinn and other water elementals, the kraken monstrosity, "giant" varieties of underwater beasts like the giant squid, and humanoid races such as the Sahuagin. Favoring any of these categories is also a solid choice, but those that are less useful are celestials, constructs, fey, fiends, oozes, plants, and undead.
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-Natural Explorer: Our favored terrain should be Coast, naturally. As a DM, I interpret "Coast" to include the sea, and not just be the line between mainland and ocean, and I feel like any reasonable game master would feel the same. The doubled proficiency bonus to scouting abilities (Perception) on favored terrain are the first step to achieving ultimate barrelman status.
-Fighting Style: Archery. Lochan isn't built for melee, and if we're doing our job right, our enemies should never know he's there in the first place; therefore, distance is key. Should we need to axe a guard or two in our way while in an enemy stronghold, Dishonored style, we can do so from a distance with an expertly placed arrow. Should we be fighting a boss, keeping our distance suits our scouting-selves just fine also.
-Hunter's Sense: This feature by itself is truly why we chose the Monster Slayer conclave for our ranger.
"You gain the ability to peer at a creature and magically discern
how best to hurt it. As an action...You immediately learn whether the
creature has any damage immunities, resistances, or vulnerabilities
and what they are." -- XGTE, pg. 43
Now, before even discussing the multitude of multiclass synergies we can get up to with this feature, let's just analyze what this means for our scout on its own. For one, no big bad can surprise us with a damage immunity or resistance and waste one of our party members' big spells. Secondly, never again do we have to approach a battle with the big bad in the dark. Instead, we can spy on them and learn their weaknesses in the span of 6 seconds, a mere action. There is, however, a catch:
"...choose one creature you can see within 60 feet of you."
With a sight-based range like 60 feet, this feature requires us to get pretty close to our foe to work, which puts us at risk of being revealed and killed without our party nearby to aid . . . or does it? This feature is good, but solely in the hands of the Monster Slayer Ranger it could use some help. This is where our Warlock levels come in. Yes, we took 15 levels of Warlock pretty much just to buff this feature, and to be honest, it is absolutely worth it.
-Pact Boon: Pact of the Chain. For a character meant to fulfill a scouting role, a familiar is a welcome boon. Plus, who could pass up the opportunity to give a pirate character a parrot companion? Technically, though, we'll choose the sprite as our familiar for its ability to go invisible and read alignments. As far as I know, the sprite's Heart Sight feature is the only way to learn another creature's alignment definitively. We'll just say for the sake of flavor that aside from his multiple new eyes and 'Call to the Sea,' Lochan gained a strange arcane link with his pet bird who was equally transformed by their patron's alien magics. We can explain the longbow attack away as a Stymphalian bird-like ability to fire its feathers at a foe; this is a parrot touched by the Far Realms after all, no ordinary beast.
-Awakened Mind: And thus begins our path of buffing Hunter's Sense, as well as our general scouting capabilities. Should we not have the luxury of preparing for a fight before hand, we can use our Hunter's Sense at the top of combat and then share our findings telepathically to our allies via Awakened Mind, ensuring our opponent cannot plan for our knowledge of its weaknesses. However, telepathy with a range of 30 feet has many more uses. Get creative with this feature while infiltrating: scare a guard out of the way, create a distraction, give the party a silent signal to act, etc.
-Thought Shield: Its not impossible despite all our skill that we get caught while infiltrating. No doubt soon after our arrest we'll be interrogated, and depending on who we've been spying on they may have magical means of making us talk. Well, no longer. With Thought Shield, our mind is our own. Additionally, as our favored enemies are aberrations, being resistant to psychic damage (and being able to reflect it back) fits our scout perfectly and makes taking those monsters down even easier.
-Create Thrall:
Hunter's Sense is to Ranger as Create Thrall is to Warlock. This feature is the pièce de résistance of our Warlock levels.
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| A Stymphalian bird |
"You gain the ability to infect a humanoid's mind with the alien
magic of your patron....That creature is then charmed by you [indefinitely]...[and] you can communicate telepathically with the charmed creature as long as the two of you are on the same plane of existence." -- PHB, pg. 110
The issue with charm spells is that they have a time limit. If you want an inside man, you need to have a trusted ally talented enough to pass themselves off as loyal to your foe. This is a very special, and rare, relationship to have with an NPC. Well, no longer must you rely on such a thing. The lich king's highest ranking necromancer, leader of all his cults, stands in your way? Nope; now he reports to you. And, more importantly, once your use with him is finished, and your main quarry changes, he can be disposed of and a new mind infected. This feature is already extremely powerful, but then enters the Gaze of Two Minds invocation:
"You can use your action to touch a willing humanoid
and perceive through its senses." -- PHB, pg. 111
Now, a mind infected with the foreign will of our eldritch master sure does qualify as "willing" to me. So, now we can perceive through and speak into the mind of our charmed humanoid. We can see what they see, hear what they hear, and then telepathically tell them what to do/say in response. But that's not all! We're a multiclassed Ranger. What else can we do when seeing a creature? As per Hunter's Sense, we can learn their immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. Now, some DMs may contest this by arguing what the definition of 'sight' is and whether or not it must be from your own body's eyes, but I would argue that if you're perceiving everything through the body of this charmed figure, you are "seeing." This also means we can cast Hunter's Sense through our familiar even before we gain access to the Gaze of Two Minds invocation. This method provides all the same benefits of the Create Thrall + Hunter's Sense synergy, save for if our familiar's invisibility is seen through we make our enemies suspicious, and we cannot sculpt conversations with the BBEG like we can with Create Thrall. For this reason, Create Thrall is strictly an upgrade.
No longer must we hide in the shadows, hoping to overhear a conversation of great importance (though we can choose to in the right circumstances). Now, we can be there for all the important conversations, and tailor our inside man's responses. We are the puppet master, and the BBEG our newest marionette.
-Eldritch Invocations:
- Beguiling Influence: proficiency in Deception and Persuasion rounds out our scouting skills and allows us to gain intel by talking when viable.
-Devil's Sight: as a half-elf, we already have Darkvision, but automatically bypassing magical darkness and receiving a 60 foot buff to our regular Darkvision is a great boon for our scout.
- Gaze of Two Minds: we can make better use of Create Thrall -- our charmed humanoid will be willing to allow us to see through them, and when doing so, if we chose our thrall wisely, we can utilize their status as a member of the institution we're infiltrating to get close to enemies. Since we can communicate with our thrall telepathically over any distance, we can also feed them lines.
- Ghostly Gaze: when scouting, the ability to see through solid walls/objects allows us to more easily pinpoint creatures/items of interest, be immune to truesight, and use Hunter's Sense on a target that's not out in the open without risk of being heard or bumped into by them (like if we were invisible).
- Gift of the Depths: we are a pirate pledged to an aquatic horror, so if this option wasn't already fitting thematically, it becomes so mechanically for infiltrating in the briny depths: we can sneak onto ships by remaining fully underwater, or sneak into forts by swimming through their moat.
- Shroud of Shadows: unlimited casts of Invisibility is incredible for our scout. When we cannot rely on our thrall, or hiding in plain sight, we can resort to good old fashioned sneaking. Witch Sight is another valid option for our 15th-level prerequisite invocation, as it frees up our 8th-level spell slot for something other than Truesight, but unlimited casts of Invisibility is just too good to pass up.
- Voice of the Chain Master: we can already perceive through our familiar and telepathically communicate with it out to a range of 100 feet as per the Find Familiar spell, but Voice of the Chain Master extends that range to infinity so long as Lochan and his parrot are on the same plane of existence. The additional ability to speak through the familiar can also save us a Sending spell if we're beyond our Awakened Mind feature's range.
Spells:
-Ranger Spells: There's a reason we took specifically 5 levels of Ranger. While, yes, doing so robs us of our 9th level Mystic Arcanum, it does grant us access to 2nd level Ranger spells, all of which are immeasurably useful for scouting, especially one in particular. Pass without Trace is the goose that lays the golden egg. A flat +10 to stealth checks without requiring concentration is unbelievably valuable for our scout, especially when paired with Shroud of Shadows, and since only Rangers and Druids gain access to this spell, this synergy is only possible with this unique multiclass.
-Monster Slayer Magic: Lochan isn't all that bulky, so Protection from Evil & Good is a great option for keeping us alive during the more dangerous scraps. Zone of Truth, our 2nd level subclass spell, fits perfectly with our spy. While, yes, this spell is helpful during interrogation, there's no end to its uses when cast from stealth, through a wall, onto two of your quarries mid-conversation...just saying.
We begin with Chill Touch. Despite the misleading name, this spell has a range of 120 feet, and deals necrotic damage. We're not in it for the d8s, though. This cantrip offers the unique debuff of preventing healing for a round. With our intel gathering, we should know whether or not creatures can self-heal or have allies that can heal them, and this will put a stop to it. We take Frostbite as our second cantrip for similar reasons: not for the cold damage, but for the disadvantage it imposes on attacks. Friends (when paired with the Beguiling Influence invocation) is great for getting information through conversation, and Minor Illusion can allow us to get up to some antics while infiltrating without having to waste a spell slot--creating sounds to draw away guards, leading guards into their fort's own traps, etc.
In regards to Warlock spells, we should focus on taking charms and illusions, with a few notable exceptions to make our infiltrating lives easier, such as Comprehend Languages. This spell is great when trying to listen in on non-aberration and non-aquatic foes. Also, its a better option for us than Tongues because as the Pact Magic feature states in Chapter 6...
"If you have both the Spellcasting class feature
and the Pact Magic class feature from the Warlock class,
you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature
to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature,
and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature
to cast Warlock spells you know." -- PHB, pg. 164
Essentially, what this means for us is that we can use either our 1st or 2nd level Ranger spell slots to cast the admittedly slightly worse version of Tongues, Comprehend Languages, multiple times and without the burden of burning through our precious few 5th level Warlock spell slots. Detect Thoughts allows us to gain intel that isn't conveniently discussed in the open for us to hear. Spider Climb gives us easier access to fortresses that require climbing to sneak into and makes up for our negative STR modifier. In the same vein, Gaseous Form can help us squeeze through brick walls or through keyholes, or to make a quick escape out a window.
In terms of manipulating others, Enemies Abound is a very niche spell, but one I think an infiltrator can make great use of. Making a target aggressive toward all nearby creatures is an effect that is quite potent when deep in enemy territory. Suddenly, a powerful general can kill a swathe of their soldiers before being killed in turn, eliminating two large threats. Alternatively, someone that would be more accessible to the party if they were in the dungeons could be sent there as punishment for attacking the castle guard while under the influence of this spell. Major Image, when paired with our Ghostly Gaze invocation and cast through walls, is a great sewer of chaos. Sending is for if our allies happen to be further than 30 feet away, where Awakened Mind cannot reach them. Many strongholds are guarded by monsters or powerful animals, so Charm Monster and Dominate Beast are our key to slipping in without raising suspicion. Dominate Person is of a similar use, but for the much more dangerous mortals that patrol fortresses.
Our damage dealing options are deprioritized (and limited) but Arms of Hadar is nice support and, as an archer, its nice to have at least one option for dealing with melee combatants that get too close. The spell's additional effect of eating reactions allows us to retreat without taking a slew of opportunity attacks. Summon Aberration is an effective spell to concentrate on in battle for dealing damage to crowds when picking off a bigger single threat with Hunter's Mark and our bow isn't the right call.
Lastly, every good scout does their research first, and scouts with access to divinatory magics are the best at this. Sometimes the only person who might know something we want to know is an omnipotent extraplanar horror. Contact Other Plane is the spell we can use to contact our patron or some other knowledgeable sea spirit for answers about cosmic truths or secrets so secure even we cannot unearth them. Before infiltrating a fort, or picking a mark for Create Thrall, we should spend several in-game days Scrying on the location/person to gain as much intel from a distance as possible. This way, we're not going into a highly dangerous situation blind. We might even be able to memorize the layout of a fortress before ever stepping foot inside, that is, if its not protected from probing divination.
-Mystic Arcanum: As it turns out, there are some fantastic spells for scouting at higher levels for Warlocks. For our 6th level, we'll take True Seeing. Paired with our Ghostly Gaze invocation, we can see invisible/the true forms of creatures even through solid surfaces. Nothing can hide from us. For 7th level, we'll take Plane Shift. If our thrall is far away, or even stationed on another plane of existence, we need to be able to physically reach them in order to activate Gaze of Two Minds. Additionally, it's just handy for moving about the multiverse. Finally, for 8th level, we'll take Glibness. Immunity to Zone of Truth and Beguiling-Influence-boosted, guaranteed-15 rolls for CHA checks makes us quite literally the world's greatest speaker. We could pull information from anyone we wanted, even when not in their skin, say, like when we're speaking through our thrall to the BBEG.
Hunter's Sense + Awakened Mind = Quietly telling on our enemies to our allies!
Hunter's Sense + Pact of the Chain = Sneaky weakness identification!
Hunter's Sense + Create Thrall + Gaze of Two Minds = The ultimate inside man!
Hunter's Sense + Ghostly Gaze = Analyzing foes behind the safety of solid walls!
Entropic Ward + Ranger's Medium Armor Proficiency + Slayer's Prey (& Hunter's Mark) = I left mention of Entropic Ward until now because it's not all too important to the build, but when paired with these additional Ranger features it receives a significant boost! Entropic Ward is as follows:
"When a creature makes an attack
roll against you, you can use your reaction to impose
disadvantage on that roll. If the attack misses you, your
next attack roll against the creature has advantage if you
make it before the end of your next turn." -- PHB, pg. 110
Now, Warlocks in general aren't too heavily armored, but since we'll be starting in the Ranger class, we have medium armor proficiency, meaning we have a higher AC than the typical Warlock. This in turn means that when using Entropic Ward, attacks have a higher chance of missing thereby triggering the effect. Pair all of this with our Ranger feature Slayer's Prey (which adds 1d6 damage to attacks) and Ranger spell Hunter's Mark (which adds another 1d6), and we have an attack that deals 1d8+2d6 (not including modifiers) with a higher chance of rolling a critical hit thanks to the advantage. A max roll crit from this attack is a whopping 40 damage (again, not including modifiers)! Not too bad for a non-DPS focused build.
The Feats: Always Watching...
Feats take our spy from well-informed to omnipotent. Even the inability to hear conversations is no longer a barrier to listening in with Observant, so long as we can see, and with Skulker we can always see. We're always watching. And if someone watches for us, Skulker (along with all our other stealth buffs) keeps us safe and sound in the shadows.
Observant: we gain a +5 bonus to our passive Perception and Investigation, meaning only the absolute highest of stealth rolls will escape our notice. More importantly, we now gain the ability to read lips. Pair this ability with our Ghostly Gaze invocation and we can now overhear conversations from several rooms away!
Skulker: dim light and darkness no longer put our Perception at disadvantage. With our Perception buffs from the Observant feat, our Natural Explorer feature, our Devil's Sight and Ghostly Gaze invocations, and our True Seeing spell, there should never be anything that we cannot see. Who needs a lighthouse when a sailing ship has us in the crow's nest? Being able to hide when only slightly obscured is also useful when infiltrating, as not every corridor has a convenient barrel to hide in. With Skulker, we approach true Skyrim levels of being able to press the sneak button right in front of an enemy and no longer existing in their world. Lastly, the built-in cushion of being able to miss a bow attack from stealth and not being revealed automatically is a comfort.
While these are the most optimal feats, if you roll for Lochan's stats rather than using point-buy and have a few extra ABIs to spare, these options could be considered: Actor (plain sight infiltration), Crossbow Expert (allows for a DPS upgrade from the longbow to heavy crossbow), Elven Accuracy (for buffing the critical hit chance of Entropic Ward even further), Medium Armor Master (no stealth disadvantage for best medium armor which also buffs Entropic Ward), Sharpshooter (extra ranged damage).
Leveling: When to Take What
(1-5) Ranger -- We begin this build as the Ranger, and rarely enough for multiclass builds, we'll simply take all our planned levels in Ranger and then switch to Warlock for the remainder of the build. The Ranger is the supreme choice to begin with for its medium armor and martial weapon proficiency. We'll focus on leveling it to its maximum of 5 for the quickest access to Natural Explorer, an ABI, the Extra Attack feature, and the Pass without Trace spell. Pass without Trace is good, but it is best at lower levels. We want to be able to rely on it to carry us through the lower levels of Warlock and the power disparity that will occur when we switch classes.
(6-20) Warlock -- gaining Create Thrall at 19th level is a bummer, but our other familiar and charm spells should substitute for it just fine until then. It's the end-game organizations and bosses that we need the best infiltration tactics for anyway, so this is not a huge loss.
Playstyle: “I think the deeper we go, the less likelihood we'll have of being recognized as something unwanted. It's like the human body - the greatest density of pain receptors lies in the skin.” ― Revelation Space
Pre-Battle: while we are not a battle-focused build, battle is no doubt a key component of D&D gameplay. So, if we have time to prepare for a fight, we should utilize Hunter's Sense, either through our thrall, our familiar, or worst case scenario, our own eyes, and communicate what we learn with our party. Using Primeval Awareness is also a good idea if we have the time in order to gauge how many enemies we're up against. Lastly, we should cast Pass without Trace on ourselves (and the party) and take the Hide action, aided by Skulker. If we're of high enough level, we should utilize the Shroud of Shadows invocation as well.
Early Battle: if killing a single target is our main concern, we should lead off the fight by placing Hunter's Mark and Slayer's Prey on the foe. If crowd control is a concern, utilize Summon Aberration and pick off targets with singular, but weaker, bow shots. Ideally, with the aid of Skulker, Pass without Trace, and Shroud of Shadows, our location should never be discovered. If it is, though, make use of Entropic Ward when attacks miss us. If we need to focus on debuffing, use Chill Touch to prevent a target from healing (or an undead target from attacking you) and use Frostbite to cripple a dangerous melee attacker. If we need to split a large group into more manageable chunks, make use of Major Image or any of our charm/dominate spells to trick/attack enemies, breaking their ranks.
Mid-Late Battle: if we've charmed/dominated a foe, use them against their allies, having them attack with full force. Otherwise, continue laying on either the arrow attacks or the debuffing cantrips until the foes are downed. There's not much that requires too complex a strategy for this build in combat.
Scouting/Infiltrating: generally, this section won't contain a description of non-combat play, as the various scenarios that take place outside of combat are so vast that its difficult to write a catch-all for them. I also prefer to leave that bit of creativity up to the individual player; however, as this build focuses so heavily on infiltrating enemy strongholds, I'll lay out the basic tools at Lochan's disposal when doing so.
-Preparation: if possible, we should be scouting long before hand with an inside man via Create Thrall or another charm spell (and using Hunter's Sense). If this is not an option, using the Scry spell is our next best bet. We should cast it several times over the course of a few days if time is not an issue to fully memorize the layout of the place, the number of foes inside, who quarters where, guard patrol paths and times, etc. We should also cast Contact other Plane with any questions we may have to help us gain a clearer picture. Primeval Awareness when we are within range is a means of determining how many foes are within. Using Locate Object if we're looking to steal something will help us plan out our path as well. When we're right about to infilitrate, casting Comprehend Languages on ourselves is always a good idea just in case. Pass without Trace should most certainly be active, also.
Roleplay: "As I was a-walking down Paradise Street, To me way-aye, blow the man down. A pretty young damsel I chanced for to meet. Give me some time to blow the man down!"
Barrelman Lochan Blackhate is a man taken to wandering, even before his mind was infected with wanderlust by an alien. He is a debaucher, a hedonist, and a storyteller. His first stop in port is likely to be the tavern or the red-light district. Lochan revels in the nomadic lifestyle, taking many partners and having many adventures before it all must come to its inevitable, grizzly end. His one constant in this is Chaunta, who is fully aware of his lifestyle and lives a similar life herself. I've purposely left her background, and what drives her academic interest in aberrations vague so that either the player or the DM can tailor her story to better fit the campaign setting. Take the time over the campaign to explore Lochan's relationship with Chaunta, and perhaps even have it evolve into a full romance arc if that's your thing. Just be careful not to fall into the writing trap of "the polyamorous characters fall for one another and become monogamous." Keep the characters' personalities in-tact while exploring a relationship that deepens in intimacy through shared trauma (ala alien life at the bottom of the sea) and interactions rife with romantic chemistry.
We also have the unique opportunity to play a character with supernatural deformities: in Lochan's instance, eyes all over the top of his head. This frightful sight is easily covered with a bandana or a headscarf, and the material can be thin enough to maintain the advantage of literal eyes in the back of his head. This can explain his otherworldly Passive Perception of 21, and makes for very flavorful storytelling moments. Did Lochan happen to notice a character sneaking up on him, or something else that would have slipped by most others? Narrate that he was facing away from the act, and mysteriously turned to catch the culprit red-handed--a scary and impressive scene. Additionally, his extra eyes can be a secret between the DM and the player, leaving the party members confused as to why he's able to see in situations that don't make sense. This plants the seed of curiosity, which ideally will lead to party members questioning him about his backstory, or even sneaking a peak under his scarf while he's sleeping. Lochan can remain evasive, and eventually, in a climactic moment, the truth can be revealed.
As with all casters, one of the most fun things for character development is the flavoring of their spells. Think about Lochan's patron and put an alien or aquatic spin to each of his magical abilities. Instead of inky black tendrils, Arms of Hadar can summon the tentacles of an aboleth. Spider Climb can sprout arthropod-like legs from Lochan's ribs, allowing him to climb ala the coconut crab. If we need to spy on a pirate ship, we can slide on deck disguised as ocean mist or sea spray via Gaseous Form, and his illusions can be formed from ocean mist smelling strongly of salt. A symptom of his charm spells might be that one of the eyes on his head closes as one of the eyes on his targets opens, revealing Lochan's eye now in their head. The possibilities are limitless.
Conclusion:
The Warlock is an extremely versatile class, its invocations allowing for a wide breadth of fine-tuning, which makes a multiclass with the Ranger something we can use to highlight the strengths of the latter class. Lochan's story is one I was only able to form because of the unique focus these classes bring to monsters and specific mechanics, so whether or not they are as powerful as a typical multiclass build, it cannot be denied that the character potential this build unlocks is unlike anything else in 5e. As always, I wish those future Ranger/Warlocks luck in their adventuring and that they have as much fun playing Lochan as I had building him, or whatever character they choose to make with the race, stats and abilities of this build! And remember, stay tuned for Part 2...
Amazing build AND concept, can't wait for part 2!
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