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The Actor feat states (PHB, p. 165):

You can mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures. You must have heard the person speaking, or heard the creature make the sound, for at least 1 minute. A successful Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check allows a listener to determine that the effect is faked.

The Voice of the Chain Master eldritch invocation for warlocks states (emphasis mine):

You can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar’s senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. Additionally, while perceiving through your familiar’s senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.

In a nutshell: Can I make my familiar imitate someone else's voice in a way that might fool them?

Basically, I'm hoping for some fun ways to sow discord, confusion, and otherwise mess (or even parley) with my enemies, all from the safety of a distant enough location on the same plane of existence.

Similar questions have been asked here, but they all centered around the ability to cast spells, or use spell-like abilities (you can't).

My gut says that while technically it's not my characters' voice per se, it is my character's voice imitating someone else's in a mundane (non-magical) way, so it should function properly.

Is there an official rule or ruling on whether this works?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Not an answer, but the Actor feat is very unpopular, as well as the the Pact of the Chain feature. Both are considered inferior comparing to their counterparts. So as a DM I'd definitely allow synergy between them, regardless of the RAW. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 8:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ I agree with the popularity part. This seems odd to me because it also stacks really well with the "Mask of many faces" Eldritch invocation. Sure you can look like a henchman or boss, but can you sound like them? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 8:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ A relevant question: Can anyone mimic a sound or speech and what do they roll? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 8:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ While these 2 may be unpopular among optimizers, I think actor is used often enough, and VotCM is used for the telepathy part, which makes scouting trivial. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 15:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think the reason it isn't picked much is precisely because of the linked question, who picks a feat that simply saves them time? Generally I rule that if a feat lets you do something, then you can't do it without the feat, or at least not very well, so if it becomes important to your character concept you lean into it and pick the feat! \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 19:07

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You're speaking in your own voice, so you can mimic speech.

There's no strict ruling regarding this, but the rules you mention specify that you're speaking using your own voice, so it stands to reason that you can mimic others using the Actor feat. As it is your own voice, the listener could still attempt the opposed Wisdom (Insight) check against your Charisma (Deception) check, even though it's technically your familiar making the noise.

The same thing would apply to spells like Animal Messenger or Magic Mouth that play back the sound of your voice--you're doing the mimicry when you create the message, and thus the Actor feat applies.

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This is up to your DM

The rules do not further elaborate what is meant by "your voice". This answer argues anything that you can produce as sound is "your voice". I think it is not as clear cut.

By necessity for any sound you utter, you must use your speech apparatus, including to mimic another voice, so you could argue that it just does not sound like your voice while it still is, but I think that is sophistry. It is not even clear what the "in your own voice" clause is doing, if any sound you can utter anyways is your own voice. If you interpret anthing you can produce to be your "own" voice, the clause does exactly nothing.

I think this is not about how you generate the voice, it is about what it sounds like.

You can speak louder or less loud in your normal voice, or you can maybe even have different sounding voices in differnt languages, or speak higher or lower, depending on how threatening or excited you feel. But typcially, a persons voice is recognizable as that persons voice, and you can make out who is speaking just by "their voice". And when you have a bad cold, you say "My voice is gone", even though you can still audibly speak, using your vocal chords.

5e is meant to be read as idiomatic English, not as a physics or biology simulation. When you imitate another person's voice, in normal English one would not say that you speak in your own voice. So, when you make up or mimic another voice, you may be using your vocal apparatus, but not in your "own" voice.

I think that the reason the clause is there is exactly to limit presenting the voice as not yours. But, in the end, there is no explict definition of what this means, so this is the DMs job to decide.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think you've made much of a case here. You're presenting it like your conclusion follows naturally from the rules, but you're not supporting that. It sounds like you're saying you can ONLY use Voice of the Chain Master to speak in your "normal" voice. That seems extremely restrictive. It sounds like you're arguing that you couldn't purposely pitch your voice higher or lower or speak faster or slower than normal. At a minimum you might suggest this is up to the DM, and that some DMs may reasonably be less restrictive. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 3 at 18:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Jack - you may be right I'll tone it down a bit, but I think there is some point here. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 3 at 18:08

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