D&D 5E I have a plan on a character, and I want your opinions on if the planned reclasses are explainable in-character.

[JohnKnobody]

I will be playing Human Rogue with an Entertainer background. The idea is that I have a desire to be the most valued member of my performer's group, and my more roguish skills come from attempting to sabotage the other performers. These attempts at sabotage are eventually discovered and I am cast out from group, forced to rely on my skills as a rogue to survive until I eventually find my way into the party.


My character's goal is to be the star in whatever they do. If there are any tales to be told of this group of adventureres, they will be of me. Besides this obsession with being the star of the show, I am a generally nice and playful individual. I have a natural talent for mimcry (Variant Human into Actor feat), and constantly try to use this to lighten the mood of the party.


On to the actual character build, I am considering Rogue 11/Fighter 7/Warlock 2 (going Rogue 3/Fighter 5/Warlock 2, prioritizing Rogue after finishing the Warlock levels). As of now, I am unsure if my group is using Unearthed Arcana and Wizards of the Coast, so I am going for Arcane Trickster/Battlemaster as my archetypes (I feel Assassin, while powerful, is not what my character would really go for. Arcane Trickster also lets me get Disguise Self, something that I think works really well with Actor, and works well RP-wise with the character). The fighter reclassing, I feel I can explain as feeling as if I am not the main man in combat, and so I become a fighter in the hopes of learning maneuvers to make myself able to handle enemies myself (a way of showing my prowess in battle, as well as outside of it). From Battlemaster, I prioritize techniques to make myself stronger in battle (Feinting for advantage, Trip for the chance to knock the opponent prone, and Precision just in case I miss an attack) before those that help my allies more than me.


I feel as if the reclass to fighter is perfectly explainable given my planned personality. What I think will be more difficult to get is the Warlock reclass. The idea I currently have in mind is that, impressed with the party Warlock's power, I go to them and ask if I can share the power they have (utility based, in this case. My goal is only Mask of Many Faces). From the warlock, I get in touch with their patron, who I make a deal with (in this case, something like lending assistance to the Warlock's tasks for a small bit of power, just 2 Invocations). I don't have a convincing way to get my DM to agree to it, and I don't know if the explanation I have for it now is really acceptable. Would that reason, that my character knows at least to some extent the power Warlocks have, and wants a bit of it because of their desires to be the most important member of the party, be good enough to warrant a small reclass into Warlock?

 

[Corran21]

If you are having difficulty explaining how to acquire the warlock levels during the campaign, then just start with warlock and incorporate the explanation into your backstory. Pick the criminal background to better explain the coming rogue levels. As far as fighter, it is the easiest dip to explain, just make sure to have your character train with the group's fighter (or another martial class), a little before you grab the first fighter level.

 

[JohnKnobody]

I would love to start as warlock, except that we already have one in the party and we all agreed that nobody would start as the same class as somebody else (to encourage diversity, you know). Nobody in the group wants to start with two very similar characters, and the other guy really wants to play warlock as his main class, so it makes sense to let him start as it. That's why I initially had the idea of having my character speak to the warlock in hopes of connecting with the patron, so that I could have a way to explain "oh hey guys I have a few warlock invocations and spells now." I'm just worried that that isn't good enough of a reason for the reclass, and was hoping for opinions on it. Does that sound like a good explanation, given I can't start with Warlock, but really want the Mask invocation for RP-reasons?

 

[ccs]

What's your plan if the Warlock says "No." & doesn't help you get in touch with their patron?

 

[JohnKnobody]

In that case, I would start looking for ways myself. Even if it means stalking the warlock to see if there is some sort of ritual, or searching in towns/wizard lairs for information on it. In my mind, I would pursue that goal relentlessly for a short time (maybe a week in-game) before giving up and just hoping I stumble on the secret later. If the DM doesn't let me do a Warlock reclass by that point, I'll just go on with Rogue 13/Fighter 7.

Like I said, the warlock reclass is solely for the one Invocation, which at that point would give me unlimited uses of Disguise Self rather than the 2-3 uses per long rest, so it is very much possible that I can play the character without the reclass.

 

[Yunru]

Here's an idea: Just go with it.
The class names mean nothing in-game, they're entirely a meta-game construct.