It sucks that the Eldritch Armor Invocation didn’t make it past play-testing. It gave you the option to make a good melee Pact of Blade Warlock without having to use Hexblade.
It let a warlock put a suit of armor on as an action and made the warlock proficient in the armor even if the warlock isn’t normally proficient in it. It was nice and I agree, it was made for a Pact of the Blade warlock whose patron isn’t the Hexblade.
It takes a full minute (6 actions) to put on Light armor. 5 minutes (30 actions) for Medium. 10 minutes (60 actions) for Heavy. It takes half that much time just to take the armor off.
The ability to put on a suit of Medium armor in a single action is clearly out of the question.
Your metallurgical pursuits have led to you making armor a conduit for your magic. As an action, you can turn a suit of armor you are wearing into Arcane Armor, provided you have smith’s tools in hand.
You gain the following benefits while wearing this armor:
If the armor normally has a Strength requirement, the arcane armor lacks this requirement for you.
You can use the arcane armor as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells.
The armor attaches to you and can’t be removed against your will. It also expands to cover your entire body, although you can retract or deploy the helmet as a bonus action. The armor replaces any missing limbs, functioning identically to a limb it replaces.
You can doff or don the armor as an action.
The armor continues to be Arcane Armor until you don another suit of armor or you die.
Yeah. Took a closer look and found it. I don't allow Artificers in my games. I don't own any of the sourcebooks they are found in. It's slightly off topic in the Warlock forum and I shouldn't have said anything anyway. Oops.
I believe the point that was implied was that being able to move it in a round would break the game. The objection was that the Artificer can do it in a round and the game isn't broken.
It doesn't break the game to have that ability.
Personally I would have limited it to medium armor, or did some other fix. I think it does take away from the way they want Warlock to function.
Artificers come from Eberron, as do Warforged. Eberron is a high magic setting, closer to Steampunk than to Swords And Sorcery Fantasy. The lines between magic and technology are blurred, the technology level is at the outer edge of what you typically find in Dungeons And Dragons.
In Eberron, it's not such a big deal if you can take your armor off or put it on in a single action. Warforged have their armor built in. A Warforged would make a wonderful Warlock. They don't really sleep, they can remain on watch as long as needed, and given that Warlocks only need a Short Rest to recover almost all their abilities, they can fight battles and go back on watch again without losing a thing. Devil's Sight is wonderful for keeping watch at night. Coffeelocks, eat your hearts out. People consider those game breakers too.
My own setting is low-magic, and existed long before Warlocks or Eberron. Most things from Eberron I will not allow. I'm not totally sold on Warlocks, but I want to give them a try. Artificers and Warforged would be game breakers for me, Warlock or not.
Wizards Of The Coast would appear to agree with me. Eldritch Armor didn't make it into play. They had people test the idea out, took in the reports and chose not to implement Eldritch Armor.
Artificer is now functionally in everything post Tasha's. I don't think the armor removal was the reason. I think it was because it gave the Warlock medium and heavy armor prof. I think it was a step too far on the martial warlock. I think if it didn't allow heavy it would be fine.
"Eldritch Armor (UA)Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade feature As an action, you can touch a suit of armor that isn’t being worn or carried by anyone and instantly don it, provided you aren’t wearing armor already. You are proficient with this suit of armor until it’s removed."
Agreed Elfdope. There is nothing too powerful about getting an ability that lets you don/doff as an action. It's the heavy armor proficiency. They could have easily tweaked it to only be medium armor and it would be totally fine.
The other negative consequence is frankly a really boring Warlock. Pact of the blade would be spending their invocations on extra attack, armor proficiency, maybe one other thing.
It would even things up for the non-hexblades to have a way to get medium armor.
*shrugs* So what's wrong with taking the Moderately Armored Feat? Play a Human and you can have it at first level. The bonus to Strength might even be marginally useful.
This invocation have so many bug, not to mention you can disguise yourself, go into and armor shop, touch a full plate and the invisible out.
Bang! Free 1000g
Because plate armour is renowned for how quiet it is to move in? Something being invisible does not mean that you cannot hear it clanking about, and if the store owner blocks your path or grabs you then anything you want to do to get rid of them is probably going to end invisibility in time for the guards to arrive. A decent town guard may have (or know) mages who can do a quick Locate Object to find the thief stealing thousands of gold worth of gear. 😝
It's also exactly the kind of thing an Armorer Artificer could do, going back to the point that this would not be a new ability.
And yeah, I'm disappointed it didn't make it out of UA; keep it Pact of the Blade only, limit it to medium armour and it would have been fine. Hexblades get plenty of other bonuses that mean that spending an invocation to get the same armour proficiency wouldn't devalue them, and it would open up the pact choices nicely for any kind of melee build.
I definitely think Eldritch Armor would've helped keep non-Hexblade Bladelocks competitive, though I too would have limited it to Light & Medium Armor. A Warlock in plate mail just seems too weird.
But honestly, I'd probably end up just dipping a level in Fighter instead. I'd get Medium Armor proficiency, a Fighting Style, and Second Wind. It's a pretty easy multiclass to justify from an RP perspective as well.
I definitely think Eldritch Armor would've helped keep non-Hexblade Bladelocks competitive, though I too would have limited it to Light & Medium Armor. A Warlock in plate mail just seems too weird.
But honestly, I'd probably end up just dipping a level in Fighter instead. I'd get Medium Armor proficiency, a Fighting Style, and Second Wind. It's a pretty easy multiclass to justify from an RP perspective as well.
If planning a dip start as fighter, you get con saves and heavy armor.
I kinda wish it would have had heavy armour but at a level requirement. Could that be strong? Maybe, but the reason is cause of the Heavy Armor Master feat of which Warlocks are one of the only good users for thanks to Armor of Agathys (Yes I know Conquest Paladins also get it, but they have better feat choices generally). As mentioned previously you can get it in a single level dip either starting as Paladin or Fighter anyway, or dipping later into one of the many cleric archetypes that get it as a class feature, and most games I've been in haven't cared too much about the whole time putting on armour thing anyway unless it's a night ambush and you're unarmoured to sleep.
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It sucks that the Eldritch Armor Invocation didn’t make it past play-testing. It gave you the option to make a good melee Pact of Blade Warlock without having to use Hexblade.
What did it do?
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It let a warlock put a suit of armor on as an action and made the warlock proficient in the armor even if the warlock isn’t normally proficient in it. It was nice and I agree, it was made for a Pact of the Blade warlock whose patron isn’t the Hexblade.
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It takes a full minute (6 actions) to put on Light armor. 5 minutes (30 actions) for Medium. 10 minutes (60 actions) for Heavy. It takes half that much time just to take the armor off.
The ability to put on a suit of Medium armor in a single action is clearly out of the question.
<Insert clever signature here>
The armorer artificer would beg to differ
Fresh from a quick check of the rules for Artificers, I find no mention at all of armor that can be donned or doffed any faster than normal armor.
<Insert clever signature here>
Arcane Armor
3rd-level Armorer feature
Your metallurgical pursuits have led to you making armor a conduit for your magic. As an action, you can turn a suit of armor you are wearing into Arcane Armor, provided you have smith’s tools in hand.
You gain the following benefits while wearing this armor:
The armor continues to be Arcane Armor until you don another suit of armor or you die.
Yeah. Took a closer look and found it. I don't allow Artificers in my games. I don't own any of the sourcebooks they are found in. It's slightly off topic in the Warlock forum and I shouldn't have said anything anyway. Oops.
<Insert clever signature here>
I believe the point that was implied was that being able to move it in a round would break the game. The objection was that the Artificer can do it in a round and the game isn't broken.
It doesn't break the game to have that ability.
Personally I would have limited it to medium armor, or did some other fix. I think it does take away from the way they want Warlock to function.
Artificers come from Eberron, as do Warforged. Eberron is a high magic setting, closer to Steampunk than to Swords And Sorcery Fantasy. The lines between magic and technology are blurred, the technology level is at the outer edge of what you typically find in Dungeons And Dragons.
In Eberron, it's not such a big deal if you can take your armor off or put it on in a single action. Warforged have their armor built in. A Warforged would make a wonderful Warlock. They don't really sleep, they can remain on watch as long as needed, and given that Warlocks only need a Short Rest to recover almost all their abilities, they can fight battles and go back on watch again without losing a thing. Devil's Sight is wonderful for keeping watch at night. Coffeelocks, eat your hearts out. People consider those game breakers too.
My own setting is low-magic, and existed long before Warlocks or Eberron. Most things from Eberron I will not allow. I'm not totally sold on Warlocks, but I want to give them a try. Artificers and Warforged would be game breakers for me, Warlock or not.
Wizards Of The Coast would appear to agree with me. Eldritch Armor didn't make it into play. They had people test the idea out, took in the reports and chose not to implement Eldritch Armor.
<Insert clever signature here>
Artificer is now functionally in everything post Tasha's. I don't think the armor removal was the reason. I think it was because it gave the Warlock medium and heavy armor prof. I think it was a step too far on the martial warlock. I think if it didn't allow heavy it would be fine.
"Eldritch Armor (UA)Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade feature
As an action, you can touch a suit of armor that isn’t being worn or carried by anyone and instantly don it, provided you aren’t wearing armor already. You are proficient with this suit of armor until it’s removed."
Agreed Elfdope. There is nothing too powerful about getting an ability that lets you don/doff as an action. It's the heavy armor proficiency. They could have easily tweaked it to only be medium armor and it would be totally fine.
The other negative consequence is frankly a really boring Warlock. Pact of the blade would be spending their invocations on extra attack, armor proficiency, maybe one other thing.
It would even things up for the non-hexblades to have a way to get medium armor.
*shrugs* So what's wrong with taking the Moderately Armored Feat? Play a Human and you can have it at first level. The bonus to Strength might even be marginally useful.
<Insert clever signature here>
Yeah absolutely. Invocations are a huge cost for Warlocks. Those kinds of choices don't come free.
This invocation have so many bug, not to mention you can disguise yourself, go into and armor shop, touch a full plate and the invisible out.
Bang! Free 1000g
Because plate armour is renowned for how quiet it is to move in? Something being invisible does not mean that you cannot hear it clanking about, and if the store owner blocks your path or grabs you then anything you want to do to get rid of them is probably going to end invisibility in time for the guards to arrive. A decent town guard may have (or know) mages who can do a quick Locate Object to find the thief stealing thousands of gold worth of gear. 😝
It's also exactly the kind of thing an Armorer Artificer could do, going back to the point that this would not be a new ability.
And yeah, I'm disappointed it didn't make it out of UA; keep it Pact of the Blade only, limit it to medium armour and it would have been fine. Hexblades get plenty of other bonuses that mean that spending an invocation to get the same armour proficiency wouldn't devalue them, and it would open up the pact choices nicely for any kind of melee build.
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I definitely think Eldritch Armor would've helped keep non-Hexblade Bladelocks competitive, though I too would have limited it to Light & Medium Armor. A Warlock in plate mail just seems too weird.
But honestly, I'd probably end up just dipping a level in Fighter instead. I'd get Medium Armor proficiency, a Fighting Style, and Second Wind. It's a pretty easy multiclass to justify from an RP perspective as well.
If planning a dip start as fighter, you get con saves and heavy armor.
I kinda wish it would have had heavy armour but at a level requirement. Could that be strong? Maybe, but the reason is cause of the Heavy Armor Master feat of which Warlocks are one of the only good users for thanks to Armor of Agathys (Yes I know Conquest Paladins also get it, but they have better feat choices generally). As mentioned previously you can get it in a single level dip either starting as Paladin or Fighter anyway, or dipping later into one of the many cleric archetypes that get it as a class feature, and most games I've been in haven't cared too much about the whole time putting on armour thing anyway unless it's a night ambush and you're unarmoured to sleep.