I'm pretty new to DMing and I'm working on writing a campaign in which it's important to the plot that the characters not know at first that the BBEG is a multiclass wizard-warlock. Basically, this character is an Elf Prince who is widely known to be a modestly skilled wizard, but he's also secretly taken on a warlock patron and is the leader of a small rebel cult.
Other than dropping hints about his patron, are there mechanics that can allow my PCs to discover his class, similar to a detect magic spell or an Arcana check? I'd like to avoid relying on meta-knowledge like "oh, that's a warlock spell" as much as possible.
How can my PCs discover an NPC's class if they are trying to hide it?
Best Answer
Attempting to discover class is missing the point
Class is a metagame concept. Although it maps to the game world, there is no way for a PC to know it. Besides, that's not really what you are trying to ask.
Put class out of your mind completely, ask yourself "how can my PCs discover that this character has secretly taken on a warlock patron and is the leader of a small rebel cult?" This is a much easier question to answer, you can probably think of many ways that this could be discovered.
How can my PCs discover that this character has secretly taken on a warlock patron and is the leader of a small rebel cult?