u/Balesio

When I was talking to the DM about a build that let me move 2240 feet in a single turn, I also mentioned that it could deal 896d4 piercing damage. The idea was to drag an enemy that full distance through Spike Growth, which would deal 896d4 piercing damage, averaging around 2240 damage.

I love moments like that in roleplay. I’m not a DM, but if I were, I’d want my players to make entrances like that.

Hey everyone,

I've been working on a Hexblade concept for a while and I wanted to see what other people think because I'm at the point where I've been staring at it for so long that I genuinely can't tell if it's interesting or if I've just disappeared into my own rabbit hole.

The character is called Balesio. He used to be a military scout and logistics sergeant. Years before the campaign started, his patrol was sent to investigate some weird fissure that had opened up in the mountains.

Something happened there.

The thing is, I'm not even sure anymore if what he remembers is what actually happened.

According to Balesio, they found some kind of ancient infernal seal and it broke. Most of his unit died. He survived. When he woke up there was a small silver-gray owl sitting nearby watching him.

For some reason he immediately called it Rain.

After that his life basically fell apart.

He started losing time. First a few hours, then entire days. He'd wake up somewhere else with no memory of how he got there. Sometimes there'd be blood on his clothes. Sometimes people would recognize him from places he didn't remember visiting.

Eventually he came up with an explanation.

He convinced himself he'd developed a second personality because of the trauma.

He calls that personality Rain too.

Rain is basically everything Balesio isn't. More decisive, more ruthless, more willing to do whatever needs to be done. Whenever things get dangerous, Rain seems to take over.

At least that's what Balesio thinks is happening.

The owl is still around as well. He doesn't know what it is. Familiar, hallucination, fragment of the pact, stress response, who knows.

The patron is where things get weird.

Right now I'm calling it The Hollow Playwright.

In my head it's this ancient entity from the Shadowfell that treats reality the same way a writer treats a story.

Not in the sense that it secretly controls everything or has some grand plan.

It just likes stories.

That's basically it.

The thing that makes it dangerous is that I don't think it really understands the difference between fiction and reality anymore.

People aren't people to it.

They're characters.

Relationships are scenes.

Memories are drafts.

A person's identity is just another part of the manuscript that can be edited if the story would be better afterward.

I picture it as this tall figure wearing black and gold robes covered in constantly shifting text. Its face is hidden behind a cracked porcelain mask and there are multiple golden eyes staring through the cracks. No mouth, but it still talks.

What people hear seems to vary. Some hear a narrator. Some hear an audience whispering. Some apparently hear their own voice.

The part I like most is that it doesn't really think it's doing anything wrong.

A demon knows it's corrupting people.

A devil knows it's manipulating people.

The Hollow Playwright genuinely thinks it's improving the story.

One thing that changed while I was developing the idea is how the corruption works.

Originally Rain was literally just a split personality.

Then I started wondering if it would be more interesting if Rain wasn't another person at all.

What if Rain is actually the role the Playwright created for Balesio?

Not a possession.

Not mind control.

Not another soul living in his head.

Just... edits.

Small changes over time.

A memory here.

A reaction there.

A little adjustment to who he is until eventually nobody can really tell where the original version ends and the revised version begins.

The idea that keeps getting stuck in my head is that maybe even the incident in the mountains isn't entirely real.

Maybe it happened exactly the way Balesio remembers.

Maybe parts of it are fake.

Maybe the infernal seal never existed and it's just a backstory the Playwright wrote into his life because it created a better protagonist.

I honestly don't know if I ever want a concrete answer to that.

Anyway, that's basically the concept.

Does this sound like an interesting Hexblade patron, or am I overcomplicating it?

And if you were DMing for a character like this, what parts would you lean into?

Hey everyone,

I've been messing around with an idea for a Shadowfell patron and wanted to see what people think.

The basic concept is a being called The Hollow Playwright. It's an ancient entity that treats reality like a stage and people like characters, but not in the usual "master manipulator" way.

It doesn't seem interested in ruling anything, collecting souls, or spreading misery. As far as anyone can tell, it just likes creating stories.

What makes it dangerous is that it doesn't really recognize the difference between fiction and real life. To the Playwright, a person's identity, relationships, ambitions, and failures are all just narrative elements that can be rearranged if doing so makes the story more interesting.

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Appearance

The Playwright usually appears as a tall, unnaturally thin figure wrapped in black and gold robes.

The fabric is covered in lines of text that constantly shift and rewrite themselves. Pieces of script peel away from the robes and drift through the air before fading or stitching themselves back into place.

Its face is hidden behind a cracked porcelain mask. Through the cracks, several golden eyes can be seen staring in different directions at once. It has no visible mouth, but it still speaks.

People who encounter it often describe its voice differently. Some hear a calm narrator. Others hear an audience whispering among themselves. A few claim they heard their own voice speaking back to them.

---

Pacts and Corruption

A warlock chosen by the Hollow Playwright doesn't receive a fragment of the patron itself.

Instead, the patron creates a role for them.

At first, the change is subtle. The warlock starts imagining conversations with an idealized version of themselves. Sometimes that imagined self seems wiser. Sometimes it's crueler. Sometimes it's simply more confident.

Over time, the distinction becomes less clear.

The warlock begins remembering things differently. Their reactions change. Decisions that once felt obvious start feeling strange, while actions they never would have considered before begin to feel natural.

The unsettling part is that nothing is being forcibly removed. The warlock's personality is still there.

It's just slowly being edited.

The Playwright isn't trying to possess anyone. It's rewriting a character.

The tragedy is that the character happens to be a real person.

---

Alignment

I'd probably put it somewhere around Chaotic Neutral.

The Playwright doesn't seem to care whether a story ends happily or horribly. A hero's triumph and a kingdom's collapse are equally valuable if they make for a memorable ending.

That's probably the closest thing it has to a motivation.

It isn't chasing power.

It's chasing a good story.

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One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how obvious the corruption should be. Right now I like the idea that most victims don't realize what's happening because the changes feel like their own thoughts and decisions.

I'd love to hear any suggestions or ideas.