new Dragonborn Warlock

[Killoth]

any one know a good first level ritual spell I can use I picked find familiar and identify but found Id to be useless

 

[TwinPeaksGuy]

A familiar with a fly speed is super for recon and placing a tail on someone- you can tail from so far back they'll never pick up they're being tailed.

Identify can largely be skipped: magic items let you know what they do with just a short rest attunement and potions you can figure out with a single drop taste. Casting Identify on people who have a curse or are attuned to a cursed item might be the best use for the spell.

If you don't like either of those, try Alarm. Boom, no more need to set a watch rotation, and everyone in the party gets to actually rest for all of a long rest. Only some of the DDAL adventures have a long rest for the party tho, so YMMV. Not sure if it's on your list of available spells.

 

[spanglemaker]

Ritual Spells include Detect Magic, Alarm, Find Familiar, Detect Poison and Disease, Purify Food and Drink plus more. Find Familiar is highly reccomended as an Owl familiar is useful for helping you in combat, by watching and distracting your enemy.
Identify can be useful in avoiding cursed magic items, as spending time with a short rest attunement could potentially be dangerous.

Cantrips like Guidance, Message and Spare the Dying are very useful. My warlock character has been able to sneak around and message a party member, what they had seen and what their familiar saw.

Intelligence is not that necessary for Warlocks, unless that's your character concept. Warlocks use sheer chutzpah their charisma to persuade folk that they know more than they actually do. A warlock at Mage School, could always persuade the swot wizard to do their homework for them, through friendship, threats or creativity (deception and trickery).

 

[Killoth]

Ritual Spells include Detect Magic, Alarm, Find Familiar, Detect Poison and Disease, Purify Food and Drink plus more. Find Familiar is highly reccomended as an Owl familiar is useful for helping you in combat, by watching and distracting your enemy.
Identify can be useful in avoiding cursed magic items, as spending time with a short rest attunement could potentially be dangerous.

Cantrips like Guidance, Message and Spare the Dying are very useful. My warlock character has been able to sneak around and message a party member, what they had seen and what their familiar saw.

Intelligence is not that necessary for Warlocks, unless that's your character concept. Warlocks use sheer chutzpah their charisma to persuade folk that they know more than they actually do. A warlock at Mage School, could always persuade the swot wizard to do their homework for them, through friendship, threats or creativity (deception and trickery).

I went with find familiar and detect magic..Im only able to ahve the standard familairs so I was wondering what would be the best one to get. I like the idea of the owl but not sure if it will go with my black dragonborn

 

[kalani]

What most people don't realize is that you can make cosmetic changes to pretty much anything you want. You could, for instance - reflavour your owl familiar so that it becomes a small cousin of a dragon, perhaps something akin to a fire lizard (Dragonriders of Pern series). It would be mechanically identical to an owl however (100% identical stats, including the beast type), but would fit the theme of your dragonborn better. Just be careful not to refer to it as a pseudodragon or any other dragon creature that has game statistics, to avoid confusion. Also, when making such cosmetic changes - I strongly advise you put the actual creatures name in brackets -eg. Dragonling (Owl).

I have a Leprechaun wizard as my main character. Mechanically, he is a forest gnome in every way, but cosmetically - he shares little in common with gnomes other than his size and spunkiness. I was also talking with another player yesterday who wanted to play a wingless aarakocra. I told them that the only way to play such a character would be to reflavour an existing legal race (such as a wood elf), and that unfortunately - he will lack the claws trait (as no legal races have claws as a racial feature as yet). To my knowledge, he plans on taking my advice and so will end up playing a wingless aarakocra (wood elf).

 

[Killoth]

What most people don't realize is that you can make cosmetic changes to pretty much anything you want. You could, for instance - reflavour your owl familiar so that it becomes a small cousin of a dragon, perhaps something akin to a fire lizard (Dragonriders of Pern series). It would be mechanically identical to an owl however (100% identical stats, including the beast type), but would fit the theme of your dragonborn better. Just be careful not to refer to it as a pseudodragon or any other dragon creature that has game statistics, to avoid confusion. Also, when making such cosmetic changes - I strongly advise you put the actual creatures name in brackets -eg. Dragonling (Owl).

I have a Leprechaun wizard as my main character. Mechanically, he is a forest gnome in every way, but cosmetically - he shares little in common with gnomes other than his size and spunkiness. I was also talking with another player yesterday who wanted to play a wingless aarakocra. I told them that the only way to play such a character would be to reflavour an existing legal race (such as a wood elf), and that unfortunately - he will lack the claws trait (as no legal races have claws as a racial feature as yet). To my knowledge, he plans on taking my advice and so will end up playing a wingless aarakocra (wood elf).

Im pacted to Cthulhu Id like something fitting that so cosmetically what would I use?

 

[kalani]

IDK - come up with some kind of imp-like far-realm entity. The far realm is inspired heavily from Lovecraftian lore after all, so anything with eyes and tentacles should be fine. Many aberrations hail from the far realm as well (or were descended/created by such beings).

Perhaps keeping it simple would be best
A bat-like creature with the head of an illithid. Keep in mind that while you can make cosmetic changes, I don't recommend giving it arms or hands (as owls lack those features, and it could result in mechanical changes during adventuring). Keep the form bird/bat-like, but feel free to add extra wings, tentacles, eyes, and the like. Also feel free to change its coloration, and external features (scales, slime, bumps, etc). The creature itself only has the slightest hint of aberration DNA, and so retains the beast type (much like how genasi, tieflings, and aasimar have the humanoid type).

 

[Killoth]

IDK - come up with some kind of imp-like far-realm entity. The far realm is inspired heavily from Lovecraftian lore after all, so anything with eyes and tentacles should be fine. Many aberrations hail from the far realm as well (or were descended/created by such beings).

My guess - a small flying multi-eyed blob covered in tentacles that flies. That or a miniature cthulu-esque creature (think: imp with the head of an illithid). Either way, just remember that the creature is so far removed from the far-realm now, that it has long since lost its aberration type and gained the beast type instead. As such, perhaps it might be best to heavily dilute the form, so that the creature is many hundreds of generations removed from its aberration forebears.

thanks I like that I got a few ideas.. how are bats compared to owls

 

[kalani]

Bats lack the fly-by feature, which is why owls were recommended (it lets an owl use the help action in combat without risk of reprisal). Mechanically, owls are superior - but thematically, I would probably recommend using a bat as the base creature, as bats are a closer template to a chthulid (TM)

 

[Killoth]

I found this picture and thought it would work perfectly as a cthululid type creature
http://ubermonster.deviantart.com/art/H-P-Lovecraft-inspired-419031664