Hey folks! Newbie to the forums and D&D but had some thoughts about differences between the Warlock 2014 5e and 2024 5e. My apologies if this is a repeat of similar thread. Basically, I want to bring back the ritual spell learning mechanic featured in the Book of Ancient Secrets Eldritch Invocation.
Now Pact of Tome is an Eldritch Invocation that includes the two ritual spells you used to get from Book of Ancient Secrets but drops the ability to transcribe new ritual spells into your Book of Shadows. By and large, I like the changes made to the class, however, I did like the idea of acquiring ritual knowledge over time. The character is a sagely librarian and seeker of knowledge contained in rare texts whose patron is Hermaeus Mora. I call my Book of Shadows the Ars Goetia.
On your adventures, you can add other ritual spells to your Book of Shadows. When you find such a spell, you can add it to the book if the spell’s level is equal to or less than half your warlock level (rounded up) and if you can spare the time to transcribe the spell. For each level of the spell, the transcription process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp for the rare inks needed to inscribe it. - P. 110, 2014 Player's Handbook
Anyways, I guess I was curious about homebrewing an Eldritch Invocation, prerequisite level 5 and Pact of Tome, that just reintroduces those same transcription mechanics from the 2014 edition. I know there was some ambiguity/disagreement about the nature of transcription (only from spellbooks and scrolls? how about spells from my known spell list or prepared spells?). But disregarding that for now, what do you all think of an Invocation called Ritual Knowledge that acts as described above?
I don't see an issue with just using the old version. It technically does not work backward compatibility wise as pact of the tome is not the same thing anymore, but I think it works well enough. I am kind of baffled they did not include it, instead for their one option for pact of the tome invocations they picked a really lame one. Maybe its a marketing thing, hey we can't give them what they want in the PH, how will we sell our supplements if the only invocations left to bring back are the lame ones. I don't know. I'm sure gift of the protectors has its fans or fan, but it is so damn bad.
Agreed. I mean, I don’t dislike gift of the protectors; a decently versatile death prevention play. But at level 9? I feel like it’s a bit of a let down. It’s a bit too passive/defensive. I like Book of Ancient Secrets because it increases my abilities and options when adventuring and in battle.
Agreed. I mean, I don’t dislike gift of the protectors; a decently versatile death prevention play. But at level 9? I feel like it’s a bit of a let down. It’s a bit too passive/defensive. I like Book of Ancient Secrets because it increases my abilities and options when adventuring and in battle.
I think gift of the protectors is bad. There is an old what is more important for a wizard dex or con discussion. I always go with dex. Why its active, you get to decide when to use it, it open options for things to do that you otherwise might not, you can make the most out of it, you are participating in more things than normal. Con is reactive it comes up maybe, sure you always will take damage and will need to make saves, but do you go down because of those 10 hit points, did you miss your concentration check by 2 and if you did, did it matter in the grand scheme of things.
Gift of the protectors only matters in cases where someone goes down in a fight, them going down has some meaningful effect on how the fight progresses, people don't have a way to easily bring you back up, or stabilize you etc. And frequently you still go down as multi attack is a thing and its not always the last attack that drops you. Maybe that means a party member avoids damage if someone else is within reach but that is it. And it doesn't even stop something that kills you outright which would give it a niche use as a protection vs finger of death etc.
Sure people will get some use out of it, but not enough use to justify a invocation.
To answer your question - there is currently no way to homebrew Eldritch Invocations... but it's easy enough to either use the old one, or to use the new one and create a homebrew Feat that allows you to add ritual spells. Just be sure to talk with your DM about it ahead of time...
Pact of the Tome is one of my favorites... I'd like to see more support for it with more Eldritch Invocations - maybe some buffs that really lean into the Wizardly aspects.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hey folks! Newbie to the forums and D&D but had some thoughts about differences between the Warlock 2014 5e and 2024 5e. My apologies if this is a repeat of similar thread. Basically, I want to bring back the ritual spell learning mechanic featured in the Book of Ancient Secrets Eldritch Invocation.
Now Pact of Tome is an Eldritch Invocation that includes the two ritual spells you used to get from Book of Ancient Secrets but drops the ability to transcribe new ritual spells into your Book of Shadows. By and large, I like the changes made to the class, however, I did like the idea of acquiring ritual knowledge over time. The character is a sagely librarian and seeker of knowledge contained in rare texts whose patron is Hermaeus Mora. I call my Book of Shadows the Ars Goetia.
Anyways, I guess I was curious about homebrewing an Eldritch Invocation, prerequisite level 5 and Pact of Tome, that just reintroduces those same transcription mechanics from the 2014 edition. I know there was some ambiguity/disagreement about the nature of transcription (only from spellbooks and scrolls? how about spells from my known spell list or prepared spells?). But disregarding that for now, what do you all think of an Invocation called Ritual Knowledge that acts as described above?
I don't see an issue with just using the old version. It technically does not work backward compatibility wise as pact of the tome is not the same thing anymore, but I think it works well enough. I am kind of baffled they did not include it, instead for their one option for pact of the tome invocations they picked a really lame one. Maybe its a marketing thing, hey we can't give them what they want in the PH, how will we sell our supplements if the only invocations left to bring back are the lame ones. I don't know. I'm sure gift of the protectors has its fans or fan, but it is so damn bad.
Agreed. I mean, I don’t dislike gift of the protectors; a decently versatile death prevention play. But at level 9? I feel like it’s a bit of a let down. It’s a bit too passive/defensive. I like Book of Ancient Secrets because it increases my abilities and options when adventuring and in battle.
I think gift of the protectors is bad. There is an old what is more important for a wizard dex or con discussion. I always go with dex. Why its active, you get to decide when to use it, it open options for things to do that you otherwise might not, you can make the most out of it, you are participating in more things than normal. Con is reactive it comes up maybe, sure you always will take damage and will need to make saves, but do you go down because of those 10 hit points, did you miss your concentration check by 2 and if you did, did it matter in the grand scheme of things.
Gift of the protectors only matters in cases where someone goes down in a fight, them going down has some meaningful effect on how the fight progresses, people don't have a way to easily bring you back up, or stabilize you etc. And frequently you still go down as multi attack is a thing and its not always the last attack that drops you. Maybe that means a party member avoids damage if someone else is within reach but that is it. And it doesn't even stop something that kills you outright which would give it a niche use as a protection vs finger of death etc.
Sure people will get some use out of it, but not enough use to justify a invocation.
To answer your question - there is currently no way to homebrew Eldritch Invocations... but it's easy enough to either use the old one, or to use the new one and create a homebrew Feat that allows you to add ritual spells. Just be sure to talk with your DM about it ahead of time...
Five bucks we get the cross-class ritual additions AND the free spells. BG3 players will rejoice
Pact of the Tome is one of my favorites... I'd like to see more support for it with more Eldritch Invocations - maybe some buffs that really lean into the Wizardly aspects.