I made a small rework for the Undying since it is my favorite patron, and warlock is my favorite class. I personally liked all the "I just don't die" features, so I mostly increased their power a little. I also made spare the dying a bonus action, but kept it touch so grave clerics do still have something special. And then using invocations tried to add in a variety of different abilities from different types of undead. Ive played it a couple times and didn't find any glaring issues with it.
Honestly, I think it is about how it gets used. I think people have an idea of what they want to do, and looking at Undying, it doesn’t scream “this is the direction I want to go.” That said, maybe your Fighter gets a disease or curse that is slowly killing them? Undying Patron might be someone they’re willing to make a contract with in order to survive a little longer. That’s what happened to my Grave Cleric. I needed a way to become powerful long enough to see my mission through, and being a Cleric alone wouldn’t do it. So, we figured out a Patron that didn’t involve a Necromancer, and instead a Demi-God, so that’s the story could still work and provide an interesting story twist. That said, I have no intention of taking the Warlock to 14 Lvl, because the 14-20 lvl Warlock bumps just don’t appeal to me nor would they make much of a difference given other choices I’ve made for my character. I think it’s a lot of fun to play though, and it definitely can help create some interesting narrative in the right context.
Those level ability tweaks are exactly what I was looking for, when thinking the patron just needed a little more oomph to it, yet still retain the RP elements already in it. My current GM seems to be alright with it, but thinks they may need to make enemies a bit more difficult. *shrugs* They already are, which is why I had to show them this in the first place. *chuckles*
Didn't really care about the spell list (as the current Warlock Unearthed Arcana spell list seems to add options that are wider, yet still thematically linked to any patron), and the invocations are alright in general, but I won't be using them myself. Still, thank you for putting this out. Have you submitted the level abilities to the UA team? Because this would really breathe some much needed un-life into the patron abilities, so that people will not see them as meh, and more yay. They aren't overpowered and didn't change anything in the process.
I wasn't aware you could submit things to the UA team? The most ive done with it was throw it on reddit.
Do you mind if I ask why you wouldn't use the invocations? Just personal preference or lack of interesting choices?
Personal mostly. First, they don't fit with my own version of the patron (Positive undead, akin to the old AD&D Elven Mythals, and current 5e Eberron Elven Undead worship, eg: Not evil and Negative based). Second, Warlocks don't get that many selections, like they used to in 3rd edition. The ones offered in Player's Handbook and Xanathar's are already hard to choose from depending on your style of character, and the undead ones are niche to that patron, rather than generic and always useful, regardless of the patron.
Having typed all of that, I would use one or two of them if I were say, a 'traditional' undead player, and just wanted to focus like, a pseudo-necromancer. I'd recommend changing the Friends in Low Places to be used once per long rest, instead of taking up one of our limited spell slots. Just like other invocations are either, at will, once per rest etc.
Having typed all of that, I would use one or two of them if I were say, a 'traditional' undead player, and just wanted to focus like, a pseudo-necromancer. I'd recommend changing the Friends in Low Places to be used once per long rest, instead of taking up one of our limited spell slots. Just like other invocations are either, at will, once per rest etc
Using a warlock spell slot to cast a once per long rest spell is based off of how WotC already was doing extra spell invocations. And I kept with that theme for the most part because you kind of have to be careful with overloading warlocks with extra spell casts/slots since they're balanced around short rest slots. Keeping it to a warlock spell slot also does allow it to scale. Otherwise it would just be cast at its base level instead of eventually being able to cast it at 5th.
Where I think it comes up short is its final ability; you can only use it once a day!
If you want to make it more useful, I would recommend swapping it for something similar to the Champion fighter's final ability. This is what I would change it to.
Indestructible Life: Beginning at level 14, you have a mastery over death. On your turn, if you have hit points equal to or less than half your hit point maximum, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d4+ Your Constitution modifier (Minimum of 1 hit point). In addition, once per 24 hours, when you use this ability while holding a severed body part (Other than your head) to wear it fell off, it reattaches.
I feel that this would not be over powered because you need to use a bonus action, but it also doesn't suck like it used to. There are other abilities that are bad with this subclass, but I personally have always liked it, I think it has some interesting flavor, so people should just give it a chance.
Yes yes yes, tell me the undying cannot be killed while I lead him/her to a volcano, just to see how delicious is swimming among the lava pools.... hahahahahahha
Boring: The mechanics are not very engaging. "If there are undead they might not attack you unless you are fighting them" Wow.
Weak: The spells are nothing special, the first level feature is very niche and not even that strong in its niche, level 10 is purely a ribbon. The level 14 capstone ability is essentially the fighters second wind which they get at level 1.
Not fulfilling the fantasy: Sometimes i think about how cool it would be to have a powerful lich or vampire or ghost king as a patron. Then i remember that undying exists already and am sad. From a patron like this one would assume being able to command undead, sapping life from enemies, all in all necromantic powers. What do we get? "You are good at stabilizing people". damn. While i agree that healing yourself and not dieing is a big part of the "undying" fantasy. But tying defy death to stabilizing people? The only control over undead is them not hitting you maybe? And its not even fun undying stuff. Imagine you being able to install fear to everybody when they see you rise from the dead. Or being able to rip off your body parts to let them fight for you and then reattach them.
I know giving warlocks animate dead is dangerous due to pact magic but why not give them the ability to cast animate dead as a class feature a limited number of times daily? The level 10 feature could be split up and added as a secondary feature to lvl 1, and level 10. Maybe the level 14 feature could be the ability to create a phylactery-lite?
Even if you disregard how mechanically weak the patron is because you play very RP heavy... i cant look at the undyings features and not be immediatly bored. Its basically two ribbon features and 2 features that allow you to heal yourself.
Well, tell us how you really feel. I will say, about the animate dead as a feature, not every undying patron is a Necromancer. Gilgeam is a Demigod who basically just keeps resurrecting into a new form. So having the option to create undead minions is cool thematically, but wouldn't fit all patrons of this class. This class really works as a decent support healer. It really just allows the party more customization options. The capstone is nothing to write home about for sure, but it does present itself in a way to sort of encourage the player to step away from Eldritch Blast and see how other cantrips and invocations support it. I really have enjoyed researching how to make this a solid choice and it forced me to look at the lesser used options. As a new class options, I think that's great. If it fit in with all the other Warlock Subclasses, people would just stick with what's comfortable and move on. This definitely opens up the world.
Waayyyy late to the conversation but looking to use this subclass as an NPC or DMPC seems like a great idea and what I'm actually looking into. Combining this with the Hollow One supernatural gift from Wildemount also makes for an NPC that isn't trying to steal the limelight, allows the players to shine and retain agency while being a hard to put down ally to the party.
Undying does have one thing going for it. Short resting and you still have your spell slots? Cast Death Ward on yourself and the party tank or healer. Short rest, get those spell slots back and you STILL have 7 hours of Death Ward.
It works surprisingly well with the death & dismemberment system (Spare the Dying would probably be considered to remove fatal wounds and Death Ward + Aura of Life is a beautiful combination), and in an undead-heavy campaign having perma-sanctuary isn't bad at all.
What I'm saying is, if your DM is running Curse of Strahd using the death and dismemberment system you might actually find the Undying Warlock useful (and the flavor is fantastic-- Strahd has to do a WIS save before he can backhand you! Gorgeous!). If not, you might wanna find another subclass and just change the flavor to fit this better-- or at least see if you can change the lvl 6 ability to once per short rest because jesus christ did this subclass get shafted.
I had a player, almost two years ago now, who ran an Undying Patron warlock. And they focused on ranged combat, which I think was a mistake. This subclass is built for melee. Their armor and hit points are no worse than the rogue's, and with the SCAG cantrips from the same book, it should be obvious. Regardless of which pact they choose, they're going to be fine.
Hopefully, they won't see much use for spare the dying, but if they're in melee they can probably get close to someone else who's down. And most undead attack in melee range, so if you want to impose that disadvantage then you need to be up close. If you spend your time hanging back, then they're not attacking you. And every failed attack directed at the warlock is damage someone else didn't take because of the warlock. It's situational, sure, but like all situational abilities, it's pretty strong when it applies.
Defy Death is...I know a lot of people don't like it, and I can see why some would prefer it come back on a short or long rest. But I disagree. The bonus healing from stabilizing another creature isn't much, and it doesn't need to be. The real kicker is getting those hit points after succeeding on a death saving throw. You normally need a Natural 20 just to get back just 1 hit point and rejoin the fight. Now, once per day, you only need a 10. And you get back even more. Couple that with an upcast false life for 1d4 + 14 hit points at 6th-level, and you're averaging 23 hit points with a +2 Con modifier. That's 23 out of an average of 45. Not too shabby, even if you aren't attacking that round. Or maybe you push to end the fight that much faster.
And the other features at levels 10 and 14 are fine. They're not flashy, but they don't need to be. That said, now the same warlock can use their Bonus Action to get back an average of 23 hit points if they're back on their feat, courtesy of Defy Death, at 14th-level. True, now they have 101 max hit points, so they're closer to empty than full. But choosing between attacking and healing isn't nearly as painful as before.
The "meta" for warlocks is all about combining eldritch blast with hex. And while it's a potent combo, it's also boring. The Undying Patron challenges that conventional wisdom. It's the answer to the Fiend Patron's "blaster" warlock. Or, at least, it was until Xanathar's came out.
False Life is just so much worse than Armor of Agathys, especially when it is upcast, I would think of it as more thematic and situational at Level 1 than as an actual seller for the Patron. As previously mentioned, there are a few subclasses ( Way of the Long Death, Path of the Zealot, etc. ) that actually prevent death several times per Long rest, so having something like this ( which is going to be the defining Patron feature until Level 14 ) be once per Long rest is a bit of a letdown, especially as it won't prevent concentration loss like most anti-death abilities will. Like many more experienced friends before me, I too have upgraded the subclass. I think one of the main issues here is the theme that is wanted.
Preferably, each Pact should have a clear reason to enter it. I would make a pact with a Fiend to gain power ( primarily the power to blast people with fire :), where he would grow in power the more I killed and caused pain; I would make a pact with an Archfey after losing myself in the Feywild, he would grant me a portion of his power and let me free so long as I amused him; I would make a pact with a Great Old One almost by accident, in isolation and despair reaching out for anything, until I found something and welcomed it in, embracing it and being changed forever.
No one reaches out to the masters of undeath to live out a phantasy of avoiding a few skeleton arrows on occasion. While the idea of a child living in the remains of a ruined village haunted by uneasy spirits selling her soul to live among them in peace is a very nice hook, I believe we all follow the example of a certain Skywalker, turning to the dark in order to defy death, whether for others or ourselves.
UNDYING PATRON
Becoming familiar with the thin line between life and death, you can choose either with ease. Starting at 1st level, you see the rolls of death saves made within 5 ft of you and once per round when you see 1, you may change it to a natural 20 on a success or a natural 1 on a failure. You lose your next action if you do either.
Your patron endows you with some of his power, temporarily giving you the relentless nature of the undead. At 6th level you ignore the effects of exhaustion, suffocation, poison, disease, and old age for 1 hour and have resistance to poison and necrotic damage while you do so. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
You have learned to resist the physical deterioration of your body by pure force of will. By 10th level you add your Charisma modifier ( minimum of 1 ) to any constitution saves or checks you make and live twice that many centuries before suffering the crippling effects of old age.
When you reach 14th level, at the end of your turn creatures of your choice within 25 ft of you take necrotic damage equal to your proficiency bonus and 1 creature within 25 ft of you gains a number of hit points equal to the total damage done and ends all exhausted, poisoned, and diseased conditions affecting it. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
This discussion did give me a character idea. A warlock in Ravenloft, the Domain of Dread.
This warlock is a real trooper. Helping the party all through their trials and adventures. He is a nice guy and claims to worship a deity of knowledge but like all PCs never shows it beyond character creation. He will collect books though, and is building a library near the PC's base. He has a bag of holding at least and loves to loot libraries of long dead mansions and such.
~~His goal is to learn enough to become a lich himself. That is what the books are for. at no point will he betray the party. He will never hobo-kill. he despises Vampires for all their weaknesses. and wants to learn a Lich's dark secrets for himself. Once he learns that, he will abandon the party and become a DM run villain. Only then will the party learn of his deeds and they will be forced to kill their friend and comrade in lieu of unleashing yet another evil upon a dark and suffering land.
While mechanically this patron is lackluster it did gain enough thematic elements in Tashas to be a option I'd consider. Pre summon unread and animate dead options, I didn't really get the necromancer feel I'd want. Now at least you have some undead flair.
I actually have a character idea that makes the character godlike due to the background that this patron is critical to. Mechanically it doesn't change the character at all, it's pure story background but it allows for any background you want including and up to killing gods, slaying dragons, liches, whatever. All while still justifying starting at level 1... personally I like this background and don't see any reason to change it... its only unpopular because people don't role-playing seriously anymore they just want to build Mechanically op characters.
I actually have a character idea that makes the character godlike due to the background that this patron is critical to. Mechanically it doesn't change the character at all, it's pure story background but it allows for any background you want including and up to killing gods, slaying dragons, liches, whatever. All while still justifying starting at level 1... personally I like this background and don't see any reason to change it... its only unpopular because people don't role-playing seriously anymore they just want to build Mechanically op characters.
You think that people don't use this subclass because they don't want to RP in games. I believe you are wrong. The fault of this subclass is not because people don't want to roleplay, it's because the features of this class are so situational they're not fun to have the most part. Or like someone else stated in an earlier comment, there are subclasses that do what this class is suppose to do but better.
Breaking down the abilities of this subclass so we can pin point why each one is terrible from even a roleplay aspect. The additional spell list has some good spells, like Death Ward and Silence, but for the rest they are not ones I'd really use regularly. The first level feature gives you a cantrip that as stated is far better on the grave cleric and the other feature is only good in a campaign with a lot of undead. Not ever campaign has tons of dead like Curse of Strahd, so this would rarely be used.
The 6th level feature is probably the only one that is fairly decent. Being able to get back up on a successful Death save or to get someone else up while stabilizing them isn't bad at all. However, this can only be used once and again there are better features or abilities out there. I mean a simple Healing Word or Cure Wounds does this and isn't a once per day mechanic.
The 10th level feature is a good Roleplaying feature, but again it's more situational than anything. It's very rare I've been in a campaign were food and water supply was something to worry about. Not needing to sleep is an invocation you can take, though if you really didn't want to take it and still be able to be up all night I guess this is ok. Then the age this is another thing that just doesn't matter much in most campaigns.
14th Level Feature - once per rest (short or long) you can heal yourself to a maximum of 28 hit points (at level 20). This is not a lot of healing really for something you can only use once in a while. The reattaching your arm is cool, but how many monsters or features out there state they remove limbs. Again doesn't happy very much.
If you want to roleplay an undead patron, that's great and I enjoy the idea of an undead warlock. Sad part is, these features are too situational or lackluster so that when someone plays this subclass they easily get out shined by every other subclass so easily. Personally if I wanted to roleplay something like this, I would ask the DM to allow me to reskin the Celestial Warlock as an undead patron instead and roleplay with those class abilities as most of them aside from the 6th level one, work similar to some of the abilities of the Undying.
I actually have a character idea that makes the character godlike due to the background that this patron is critical to. Mechanically it doesn't change the character at all, it's pure story background but it allows for any background you want including and up to killing gods, slaying dragons, liches, whatever. All while still justifying starting at level 1... personally I like this background and don't see any reason to change it... its only unpopular because people don't role-playing seriously anymore they just want to build Mechanically op characters.
You think that people don't use this subclass because they don't want to RP in games. I believe you are wrong. The fault of this subclass is not because people don't want to roleplay, it's because the features of this class are so situational they're not fun to have the most part. Or like someone else stated in an earlier comment, there are subclasses that do what this class is suppose to do but better.
Breaking down the abilities of this subclass so we can pin point why each one is terrible from even a roleplay aspect. The additional spell list has some good spells, like Death Ward and Silence, but for the rest they are not ones I'd really use regularly. The first level feature gives you a cantrip that as stated is far better on the grave cleric and the other feature is only good in a campaign with a lot of undead. Not ever campaign has tons of dead like Curse of Strahd, so this would rarely be used.
The 6th level feature is probably the only one that is fairly decent. Being able to get back up on a successful Death save or to get someone else up while stabilizing them isn't bad at all. However, this can only be used once and again there are better features or abilities out there. I mean a simple Healing Word or Cure Wounds does this and isn't a once per day mechanic.
The 10th level feature is a good Roleplaying feature, but again it's more situational than anything. It's very rare I've been in a campaign were food and water supply was something to worry about. Not needing to sleep is an invocation you can take, though if you really didn't want to take it and still be able to be up all night I guess this is ok. Then the age this is another thing that just doesn't matter much in most campaigns.
14th Level Feature - once per rest (short or long) you can heal yourself to a maximum of 28 hit points (at level 20). This is not a lot of healing really for something you can only use once in a while. The reattaching your arm is cool, but how many monsters or features out there state they remove limbs. Again doesn't happy very much.
If you want to roleplay an undead patron, that's great and I enjoy the idea of an undead warlock. Sad part is, these features are too situational or lackluster so that when someone plays this subclass they easily get out shined by every other subclass so easily. Personally if I wanted to roleplay something like this, I would ask the DM to allow me to reskin the Celestial Warlock as an undead patron instead and roleplay with those class abilities as most of them aside from the 6th level one, work similar to some of the abilities of the Undying.
All of your arguments here aren't really addressing role play. They are more addressing mechanics. Undead Varies. It's hard to call it rare in a general campaign because they can come up in various situtaions and often come up in streaks in parts of arcs thta do vary. It's only rare in campaigns designed primarily around a different enemy type. Which then an RP person isn't necessarily going to choose Undying if they are thinking about RP usually in those settings.
Another Example about how your not addressing RP but actually addressing mechanics. Is the matter of attaching limbs. Mechanically monsters might not do this a lot in fights. But through Role Playing there are other ways to do this and a variety of ways to make this more or less useful for the RP minded player. There are a lot of descriptive sequences an RP minded player could create with a power like this, particularly with a DM that's willing to add to the story as well by actually making such consequences happen more often or occasionally create openings for the player to use one of those other methods in various ways. Though something to also note when talking about Mechanics. The fact that there are few ways to mechanically lose limbs should be considered a good thing because there are dreadfully few ways to actually reattach limbs after they have been severed when it comes to 5e. Many would assume it's just a matter of a bit of healing magic but it's actually not. This Power, Regeneration, and a couple other things I am sure are there but can't think of right now are about all that do it short of Godly Intervention or Wish.
One fine Role Play First Example about how powerful putting a limb back on can be is in the matter of intimidation. There is serious RP potential here when the one looking to intimidate and scare information out of another can do something like chop their arm off in front of the one being intimidated just to casually reattach it after getting the answer or even as some kind of twisted proof of the warlock's power to get one to talk.
But Purely RP examples can be made in favor of pretty much every power Undying Has. And a couple of Mechanical ones are as well. The ability to pick somebody back up on a non-healer should never be scoffed at even if healing magic can do it too as just one of them. And people always forget that Healing Magic can run out. It does have it's limits in usage.
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I made a small rework for the Undying since it is my favorite patron, and warlock is my favorite class. I personally liked all the "I just don't die" features, so I mostly increased their power a little. I also made spare the dying a bonus action, but kept it touch so grave clerics do still have something special. And then using invocations tried to add in a variety of different abilities from different types of undead. Ive played it a couple times and didn't find any glaring issues with it.
Link if anyone is interested: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/BJUHZGlQ7
Hey thats pretty good.
Honestly, I think it is about how it gets used. I think people have an idea of what they want to do, and looking at Undying, it doesn’t scream “this is the direction I want to go.” That said, maybe your Fighter gets a disease or curse that is slowly killing them? Undying Patron might be someone they’re willing to make a contract with in order to survive a little longer. That’s what happened to my Grave Cleric. I needed a way to become powerful long enough to see my mission through, and being a Cleric alone wouldn’t do it. So, we figured out a Patron that didn’t involve a Necromancer, and instead a Demi-God, so that’s the story could still work and provide an interesting story twist. That said, I have no intention of taking the Warlock to 14 Lvl, because the 14-20 lvl Warlock bumps just don’t appeal to me nor would they make much of a difference given other choices I’ve made for my character. I think it’s a lot of fun to play though, and it definitely can help create some interesting narrative in the right context.
Link if anyone is interested: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/BJUHZGlQ7
Those level ability tweaks are exactly what I was looking for, when thinking the patron just needed a little more oomph to it, yet still retain the RP elements already in it. My current GM seems to be alright with it, but thinks they may need to make enemies a bit more difficult. *shrugs* They already are, which is why I had to show them this in the first place. *chuckles*
Didn't really care about the spell list (as the current Warlock Unearthed Arcana spell list seems to add options that are wider, yet still thematically linked to any patron), and the invocations are alright in general, but I won't be using them myself. Still, thank you for putting this out. Have you submitted the level abilities to the UA team? Because this would really breathe some much needed un-life into the patron abilities, so that people will not see them as meh, and more yay. They aren't overpowered and didn't change anything in the process.
I wasn't aware you could submit things to the UA team? The most ive done with it was throw it on reddit.
Do you mind if I ask why you wouldn't use the invocations? Just personal preference or lack of interesting choices?
Using a warlock spell slot to cast a once per long rest spell is based off of how WotC already was doing extra spell invocations. And I kept with that theme for the most part because you kind of have to be careful with overloading warlocks with extra spell casts/slots since they're balanced around short rest slots. Keeping it to a warlock spell slot also does allow it to scale. Otherwise it would just be cast at its base level instead of eventually being able to cast it at 5th.
Yes yes yes, tell me the undying cannot be killed while I lead him/her to a volcano, just to see how delicious is swimming among the lava pools.... hahahahahahha
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
The undying warlock manages to be all together
I know giving warlocks animate dead is dangerous due to pact magic but why not give them the ability to cast animate dead as a class feature a limited number of times daily? The level 10 feature could be split up and added as a secondary feature to lvl 1, and level 10. Maybe the level 14 feature could be the ability to create a phylactery-lite?
Even if you disregard how mechanically weak the patron is because you play very RP heavy... i cant look at the undyings features and not be immediatly bored. Its basically two ribbon features and 2 features that allow you to heal yourself.
Well, tell us how you really feel. I will say, about the animate dead as a feature, not every undying patron is a Necromancer. Gilgeam is a Demigod who basically just keeps resurrecting into a new form. So having the option to create undead minions is cool thematically, but wouldn't fit all patrons of this class. This class really works as a decent support healer. It really just allows the party more customization options. The capstone is nothing to write home about for sure, but it does present itself in a way to sort of encourage the player to step away from Eldritch Blast and see how other cantrips and invocations support it. I really have enjoyed researching how to make this a solid choice and it forced me to look at the lesser used options. As a new class options, I think that's great. If it fit in with all the other Warlock Subclasses, people would just stick with what's comfortable and move on. This definitely opens up the world.
Waayyyy late to the conversation but looking to use this subclass as an NPC or DMPC seems like a great idea and what I'm actually looking into. Combining this with the Hollow One supernatural gift from Wildemount also makes for an NPC that isn't trying to steal the limelight, allows the players to shine and retain agency while being a hard to put down ally to the party.
Thank u this helped me with my witch dr Build
Undying does have one thing going for it. Short resting and you still have your spell slots? Cast Death Ward on yourself and the party tank or healer. Short rest, get those spell slots back and you STILL have 7 hours of Death Ward.
It works surprisingly well with the death & dismemberment system (Spare the Dying would probably be considered to remove fatal wounds and Death Ward + Aura of Life is a beautiful combination), and in an undead-heavy campaign having perma-sanctuary isn't bad at all.
What I'm saying is, if your DM is running Curse of Strahd using the death and dismemberment system you might actually find the Undying Warlock useful (and the flavor is fantastic-- Strahd has to do a WIS save before he can backhand you! Gorgeous!). If not, you might wanna find another subclass and just change the flavor to fit this better-- or at least see if you can change the lvl 6 ability to once per short rest because jesus christ did this subclass get shafted.
I had a player, almost two years ago now, who ran an Undying Patron warlock. And they focused on ranged combat, which I think was a mistake. This subclass is built for melee. Their armor and hit points are no worse than the rogue's, and with the SCAG cantrips from the same book, it should be obvious. Regardless of which pact they choose, they're going to be fine.
Hopefully, they won't see much use for spare the dying, but if they're in melee they can probably get close to someone else who's down. And most undead attack in melee range, so if you want to impose that disadvantage then you need to be up close. If you spend your time hanging back, then they're not attacking you. And every failed attack directed at the warlock is damage someone else didn't take because of the warlock. It's situational, sure, but like all situational abilities, it's pretty strong when it applies.
Defy Death is...I know a lot of people don't like it, and I can see why some would prefer it come back on a short or long rest. But I disagree. The bonus healing from stabilizing another creature isn't much, and it doesn't need to be. The real kicker is getting those hit points after succeeding on a death saving throw. You normally need a Natural 20 just to get back just 1 hit point and rejoin the fight. Now, once per day, you only need a 10. And you get back even more. Couple that with an upcast false life for 1d4 + 14 hit points at 6th-level, and you're averaging 23 hit points with a +2 Con modifier. That's 23 out of an average of 45. Not too shabby, even if you aren't attacking that round. Or maybe you push to end the fight that much faster.
And the other features at levels 10 and 14 are fine. They're not flashy, but they don't need to be. That said, now the same warlock can use their Bonus Action to get back an average of 23 hit points if they're back on their feat, courtesy of Defy Death, at 14th-level. True, now they have 101 max hit points, so they're closer to empty than full. But choosing between attacking and healing isn't nearly as painful as before.
The "meta" for warlocks is all about combining eldritch blast with hex. And while it's a potent combo, it's also boring. The Undying Patron challenges that conventional wisdom. It's the answer to the Fiend Patron's "blaster" warlock. Or, at least, it was until Xanathar's came out.
False Life is just so much worse than Armor of Agathys, especially when it is upcast, I would think of it as more thematic and situational at Level 1 than as an actual seller for the Patron. As previously mentioned, there are a few subclasses ( Way of the Long Death, Path of the Zealot, etc. ) that actually prevent death several times per Long rest, so having something like this ( which is going to be the defining Patron feature until Level 14 ) be once per Long rest is a bit of a letdown, especially as it won't prevent concentration loss like most anti-death abilities will. Like many more experienced friends before me, I too have upgraded the subclass. I think one of the main issues here is the theme that is wanted.
Preferably, each Pact should have a clear reason to enter it. I would make a pact with a Fiend to gain power ( primarily the power to blast people with fire :), where he would grow in power the more I killed and caused pain; I would make a pact with an Archfey after losing myself in the Feywild, he would grant me a portion of his power and let me free so long as I amused him; I would make a pact with a Great Old One almost by accident, in isolation and despair reaching out for anything, until I found something and welcomed it in, embracing it and being changed forever.
No one reaches out to the masters of undeath to live out a phantasy of avoiding a few skeleton arrows on occasion. While the idea of a child living in the remains of a ruined village haunted by uneasy spirits selling her soul to live among them in peace is a very nice hook, I believe we all follow the example of a certain Skywalker, turning to the dark in order to defy death, whether for others or ourselves.
UNDYING PATRON
Becoming familiar with the thin line between life and death, you can choose either with ease. Starting at 1st level, you see the rolls of death saves made within 5 ft of you and once per round when you see 1, you may change it to a natural 20 on a success or a natural 1 on a failure. You lose your next action if you do either.
Your patron endows you with some of his power, temporarily giving you the relentless nature of the undead. At 6th level you ignore the effects of exhaustion, suffocation, poison, disease, and old age for 1 hour and have resistance to poison and necrotic damage while you do so. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
You have learned to resist the physical deterioration of your body by pure force of will. By 10th level you add your Charisma modifier ( minimum of 1 ) to any constitution saves or checks you make and live twice that many centuries before suffering the crippling effects of old age.
When you reach 14th level, at the end of your turn creatures of your choice within 25 ft of you take necrotic damage equal to your proficiency bonus and 1 creature within 25 ft of you gains a number of hit points equal to the total damage done and ends all exhausted, poisoned, and diseased conditions affecting it. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
This discussion did give me a character idea. A warlock in Ravenloft, the Domain of Dread.
This warlock is a real trooper. Helping the party all through their trials and adventures. He is a nice guy and claims to worship a deity of knowledge but like all PCs never shows it beyond character creation. He will collect books though, and is building a library near the PC's base. He has a bag of holding at least and loves to loot libraries of long dead mansions and such.
~~His goal is to learn enough to become a lich himself. That is what the books are for. at no point will he betray the party. He will never hobo-kill. he despises Vampires for all their weaknesses. and wants to learn a Lich's dark secrets for himself. Once he learns that, he will abandon the party and become a DM run villain. Only then will the party learn of his deeds and they will be forced to kill their friend and comrade in lieu of unleashing yet another evil upon a dark and suffering land.
While mechanically this patron is lackluster it did gain enough thematic elements in Tashas to be a option I'd consider. Pre summon unread and animate dead options, I didn't really get the necromancer feel I'd want. Now at least you have some undead flair.
I actually have a character idea that makes the character godlike due to the background that this patron is critical to. Mechanically it doesn't change the character at all, it's pure story background but it allows for any background you want including and up to killing gods, slaying dragons, liches, whatever. All while still justifying starting at level 1... personally I like this background and don't see any reason to change it... its only unpopular because people don't role-playing seriously anymore they just want to build Mechanically op characters.
You think that people don't use this subclass because they don't want to RP in games. I believe you are wrong. The fault of this subclass is not because people don't want to roleplay, it's because the features of this class are so situational they're not fun to have the most part. Or like someone else stated in an earlier comment, there are subclasses that do what this class is suppose to do but better.
Breaking down the abilities of this subclass so we can pin point why each one is terrible from even a roleplay aspect. The additional spell list has some good spells, like Death Ward and Silence, but for the rest they are not ones I'd really use regularly. The first level feature gives you a cantrip that as stated is far better on the grave cleric and the other feature is only good in a campaign with a lot of undead. Not ever campaign has tons of dead like Curse of Strahd, so this would rarely be used.
The 6th level feature is probably the only one that is fairly decent. Being able to get back up on a successful Death save or to get someone else up while stabilizing them isn't bad at all. However, this can only be used once and again there are better features or abilities out there. I mean a simple Healing Word or Cure Wounds does this and isn't a once per day mechanic.
The 10th level feature is a good Roleplaying feature, but again it's more situational than anything. It's very rare I've been in a campaign were food and water supply was something to worry about. Not needing to sleep is an invocation you can take, though if you really didn't want to take it and still be able to be up all night I guess this is ok. Then the age this is another thing that just doesn't matter much in most campaigns.
14th Level Feature - once per rest (short or long) you can heal yourself to a maximum of 28 hit points (at level 20). This is not a lot of healing really for something you can only use once in a while. The reattaching your arm is cool, but how many monsters or features out there state they remove limbs. Again doesn't happy very much.
If you want to roleplay an undead patron, that's great and I enjoy the idea of an undead warlock. Sad part is, these features are too situational or lackluster so that when someone plays this subclass they easily get out shined by every other subclass so easily. Personally if I wanted to roleplay something like this, I would ask the DM to allow me to reskin the Celestial Warlock as an undead patron instead and roleplay with those class abilities as most of them aside from the 6th level one, work similar to some of the abilities of the Undying.
All of your arguments here aren't really addressing role play. They are more addressing mechanics. Undead Varies. It's hard to call it rare in a general campaign because they can come up in various situtaions and often come up in streaks in parts of arcs thta do vary. It's only rare in campaigns designed primarily around a different enemy type. Which then an RP person isn't necessarily going to choose Undying if they are thinking about RP usually in those settings.
Another Example about how your not addressing RP but actually addressing mechanics. Is the matter of attaching limbs. Mechanically monsters might not do this a lot in fights. But through Role Playing there are other ways to do this and a variety of ways to make this more or less useful for the RP minded player. There are a lot of descriptive sequences an RP minded player could create with a power like this, particularly with a DM that's willing to add to the story as well by actually making such consequences happen more often or occasionally create openings for the player to use one of those other methods in various ways. Though something to also note when talking about Mechanics. The fact that there are few ways to mechanically lose limbs should be considered a good thing because there are dreadfully few ways to actually reattach limbs after they have been severed when it comes to 5e. Many would assume it's just a matter of a bit of healing magic but it's actually not. This Power, Regeneration, and a couple other things I am sure are there but can't think of right now are about all that do it short of Godly Intervention or Wish.
One fine Role Play First Example about how powerful putting a limb back on can be is in the matter of intimidation. There is serious RP potential here when the one looking to intimidate and scare information out of another can do something like chop their arm off in front of the one being intimidated just to casually reattach it after getting the answer or even as some kind of twisted proof of the warlock's power to get one to talk.
But Purely RP examples can be made in favor of pretty much every power Undying Has. And a couple of Mechanical ones are as well. The ability to pick somebody back up on a non-healer should never be scoffed at even if healing magic can do it too as just one of them. And people always forget that Healing Magic can run out. It does have it's limits in usage.