Hello all! I recently made a two part evaluation of the official Sorcerer subclasses, and by popular vote, am going to do an evaluation of the Warlock. I will be doing the first part on the Player's Handbook Patrons and Invocations, then the second part on the ones from Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and if the evaluation is liked, I will do a bonus part on the Pact Boons.
(As a human being, I have my own opinions, which may conflict with your own. Keep this in mind as you read these evaluations. They may bother you, but that is just because opinions sometimes do that to people)
And now, for the judgement of THE Roleplay class! The eldritch pact maker, servant of otherworldly beings, the WARLOCK!!!! *Thunderstrike*
The Archfey
You serve a powerful being of the fey, beings of magic in themselves. Nice. And awesome names for possible patrons I do have to say.
1st level, Fey Presence: Oooohh. This is awesome. As an action, you can cause some creatures in front of you to make a wisdom save or be frightened or charmed. It recharges on a short rest as well as long, so you can use it as often as your spells. And the roleplaying abilities for this are amazing! You can speak in the voice of your patron if your DM allows it, causing their influence even more on the world.
6th level, Misty Escape: When you take damage, you can disappear. You turn invisible and teleport up to 60 feet. The invisibility ends if you attack or cast a spell, or if it reaches the start of your turn and it hasn't ended. This, like Fey Presence, recharges on a short or long rest. This can be cool for roleplaying. For example, if your patron is the ruler of the summer court, you could disappear in a flash of fire. Good ability.
10th level, Beguiling Defenses: First of all, immunity to the charmed condition. That in itself is nice, but whenever someone tries to charm you, you get to try and turn the charm back on them. Really nice, and pretty good for roleplaying.
14th level, Dark Delirium: This one is FULL of roleplaying and power. You plunge a creature into an illusory realm. It must succeed on a Wisdom save or be charmed or frightened for a minute. It believes it is lost in the realm that you create. Imagine if you managed to do this to the boss of the campaign. It ends if the creature takes damage though. Also, it recharges on a short or long rest.
This one is FULL of roleplaying abilities. I give it a 9/10 in roleplaying and a 7/10 in power. Final evaluation 8/10
Something I noticed about this is that it gave a roleplaying ability at 1st level, a panic button at 6th, a passive defense at 10th, and a power move at 14th. Let's see if the pattern continues.
The Fiend
You made a pact with the devil. Or a demon. Or something else evil. Aw man. I hate it when that happens. In all seriousness, this could lead to some very interesting roleplaying.
1st level, Dark One's Blessing: Powerful and simple. Reduce a hostile creature's hp to 0. Get temporary hit points equal to your warlock level plus your charisma modifier. This is good for survivability, though it doesn't have as good of roleplaying ability as Fey Presence.
6th level, Dark One's Own Luck: Panic button, called it. When you fail an ability check or saving throw, you can add 1d10 to the total. Recharges on a rest. Simple and good. I'm starting to pick up a theme here. Also little roleplaying ability
10th level, Fiendish Resilience: You get resistance to one damage type that you can change every rest. Again, simple. Also really good. Kind of good for roleplaying, but not much.
14th level, Hurl Through Hell: Finally, a powerful and roleplay heavy ability. You hit a creature with an attack, and hurl it through the lower planes. When it returns, if it isn't a fiend, it takes 10d10 psychic damage. Since psychic damage is rarely resisted, this is basically a free 55 damage per long rest against one creature of your choice. Also, this is pretty good for roleplaying.
Limited roleplay, but good power. Roleplay is 6.5/10, Power is 8.5/10. Final evaluation 7.5/10
Also, the pattern for the abilities is looking pretty good right now. Onto the eldritch pact maker...
The Great Old One
You made a deal with the one beyond the stars, beyond reality, and one with otherworldly, eldritch knowledge. Nice, nice. Also, you get to be a cultist of Cthulhu if you want.
1st level, Awakened Mind: You can send telepathic messages to creatures within 30 feet of you as if you were speaking to them. This one here is pure roleplay, and you will be able to pull off all sorts of tricks with this. One of the players I DM for used this to make an evil cleric think she was his god, and led him into a trap. This is awesome, though it lacks pure power.
6th level, Entropic Ward: When someone attacks you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack. If that attack misses, you have advantage on your next attack against the creature before the end of your next turn. 1/rest. This one is completely awesome and powerful, though it lacks roleplaying ability. Maybe they were trying to make up for 1st level.
10th level, Thought Shield: Roleplay and power, what's not to like? Your thoughts cannot be read by any means unless you allow it, and you have resistance to psychic damage. If you take psychic damage, the one who damaged you takes the damage as well. Looking at this, I don't know if the damage dealt to the attacker is affected by your resistance or not, but either way, this is an awesome feature.
14th level, Create Thrall: You touch a person (Read: humanoid) who is incapacitated. The person is charmed by you until you use it again or anything that can remove a curse removes it. You can also communicate telepathically with the thrall. This one may seem to be only roleplay, but if you can affect a necromancer who likes AoE spells, you can use this on them and then get your whole party to get near you, and then be invincible. Also you can influence a king, so that's also cool.
Big roleplay, decent power. I'm just gonna say both were 8/10 and let that be the final evaluation. Good job Wizards. (Also I seem to have been right about the RPPBPAPB pattern in all of these Patrons.)
Time for Invocations!!! (Sigh)
Agonizing Blast
When you cast eldritch blast you deal additional damage equal to your charisma modifier. Decent, but is powerful for multiclassing. 8/10
Armor of Shadows
You can cast mage armor at will. Permanent equivalent of +1 studded leather armor. Pretty good 7/10
Proficiency in Persuasion and Deception. This is really good. 7.5/10
Bewitching Whispers (7th level)
You can cast compulsion once per long rest using a warlock spell slot. Unlike a couple later Invocations, the spell granted does not scale with level. 6/10
Book of Ancient Secrets (Tomepact)
You learn two ritual spells, and can add ritual spells to your book of shadows like a wizard would add spells. Nice, and gives roleplaying opportunity. 7.5/10
Chains of Carceri (15th level, Chainlock)
This one is really interesting. You can cast hold monster at will, but only targeting a celestial, fiend, or elemental. If you cast this spell on a creature and the spell ends, you must finish a rest before you can cast it on that creature again. Really powerful for planar adventures. 8/10
Devil's Sight
This one adds something really interesting. Complete darkvision. Within 120 feet, you can see through magical and nonmagical darkness. This counters all magical darkness except for hunger of hadar. This is POWERFUL. 8.5/10
Dreadful Word (7th level)
Using a warlock spell spell slot, you cast confusion. Unlike Bewitching Whispers, this one actually scales when you get to 9th level. Decent. 7.5/10
Eldritch Sight
Really simple. Detect Magic at will. Awesome for dungeons. 7/10
Eldritch Spear
When you cast eldritch blast, it's range is 300 feet. Again, buffing the best cantrip in the game is not bad in terms of power. 8/10
Eyes of the Rune Keeper
This is absolutely powerful. You can read all writing. This will probably go up to the DM's discretion, since being able to read the ancient texts of magic probably will annoy them a lot. 7.5/10
Fiendish Vigor
You can cast false life at will. Starting a fight with 8 extra hit points? Sign me up! 7.5/10
Gaze of Two Minds
You gain the ability to look through someone's senses like one would with a familiar. The creature has to be willing, though, and you have to continue to use you action to keep the effect. Good for roleplaying. 7/10
Lifedrinker (12th level, Bladepact)
When you hit with your pact weapon, you deal your Charisma modifier in extra necrotic damage. I mean, it's good, but a little late for when its as useful. 6/10
Mask of Many Faces
You can cast disguise self at will. This one...is the best roleplay invocation. 9/10.
Master of Myriad Forms (15th level)
You can cast alter self at will. Like Lifedrinker, this one is a little late for when you get it. 6/10
Minions of Chaos (9th level)
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast conjure elemental. This one has roleplaying abilities as well as power, and it's pretty powerful in itself. 8/10
Mire the Mind (5th level)
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast slow. This one is awesome, and gives a cool visual. 7.5/10.
Misty Visions
You can cast silent image at will. Good for roleplaying. 7/10.
One with Shadows (5th level)
You can turn invisible while in darkness until you do anything except speak. Niiiice. 7.5/10
Otherworldly Leap (9th level)
This is where I rant. This invocation would have been fine at 7th level, or even 5th level! They gave disguise self and false life at will for free at 2nd level! Then they make jump at will sound overpowered! Really? If it is 7th or 5th level, I give it 7.5/10. Unchanged, I give it 6/10.
Repelling Blast
Hitting a creature with eldritch blast can knock it 10 feet back. Buffing the best cantrip again, Wizards? 7/10
Sculptor of Flesh (7th level)
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast polymorph. This is a completely average invocation. 7/10.
Sign of Ill Omen (5th level)
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast bestow curse. This one has the capabilities for great roleplaying, as well as scaling when you reach 9th level. 7/10
Thief of Five Fates
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast bane. This is really awesome, since it is good for roleplaying, can affect a long fight, and scales with level. 7.5/10
Thirsting Blade (5th level, bladelock)
Extra attack for bladelocks. What's not to like? 8/10
Visions of Distant Realms (15th level)
You can cast arcane eye at will. I'll be honest, I've never seen this spell used. But I'm sure it''s pretty powerful. 7.5/10
Voice of the Chain Master (Chainlock)
Your familiar is extremely buffed up. You can control it over any distance, and speak through it. This is awesome. 8/10
Whispers of the Grave (9th level)
Here comes a rant about Otherworldly Leap. Just kidding. You can cast speak with dead at will. This seriously has awesome roleplay potential.
Witch Sight (15th level)
This one is really cool. You can see through illusions or transmutation hiding a creature, and the true form of any shapechanger. This one is really cool, but a little late for getting it. 6.5/10
Well! That was exhausting!!! Hope you all enjoyed, and tell me in the comments if I messed something up.
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Countershere(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Countershere(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
Something I want to do but haven't gotten to do yet is make a Conjuration wizard, then have them make a tiny lightweight (but powerful) bomb, and then have fireball at will. It would disappear after doing damage but the damage is already dealt so there isn't anything the monster can do about it.
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Countershere(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
Good work! Hopefully you will do a more indepth one on the warlock as you mentioned. Very good reading for new players to the class!
Glad to hear that you liked this, but what do you mean by in depth? I'm making evaluations, not guides. The class guides are already on D&D Beyond. If you mean more of the patrons, yes, I'm going to evaluate them.
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Good read- interesting perspective. I think the only thing I would add is a caveat that in general, the invocations that grant you a spell but require you to use a spell slot to do the spell are generally very sub-optimal. Having to use one of your spell slots and your rare and important invocation slot just to get a 1 use per day spell? There are almost no spells worth that price.
Very common homebrew for that is to grant a once a day usage at it's lowest spell slot casting for those invocations that just grant a spell. This is how I have handled it with my other players and how my DM and I have agreed to handle it. But to each their own.
Good read- interesting perspective. I think the only thing I would add is a caveat that in general, the invocations that grant you a spell but require you to use a spell slot to do the spell are generally very sub-optimal. Having to use one of your spell slots and your rare and important invocation slot just to get a 1 use per day spell? There are almost no spells worth that price.
Very common homebrew for that is to grant a once a day usage at it's lowest spell slot casting for those invocations that just grant a spell. This is how I have handled it with my other players and how my DM and I have agreed to handle it. But to each their own.
Yeah, I would either do that or just allow it to be added to your spells known list so you can cast it with your spell slots whenever. But remember that bane scales with level so I think that is the best of the lot.
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Countershere(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
Good read- interesting perspective. I think the only thing I would add is a caveat that in general, the invocations that grant you a spell but require you to use a spell slot to do the spell are generally very sub-optimal. Having to use one of your spell slots and your rare and important invocation slot just to get a 1 use per day spell? There are almost no spells worth that price.
Very common homebrew for that is to grant a once a day usage at it's lowest spell slot casting for those invocations that just grant a spell. This is how I have handled it with my other players and how my DM and I have agreed to handle it. But to each their own.
Yeah, the invocations that give you a different spell but make you burn a spell slot are absolute hot garbage as opposed to a series of constant buffs or at-will abilities. Sure, Confusion is a great spell, but, by the time you could take that invocation, you have a bunch of great spell options, and it's just not worth it.
Also, not to be That Guy, but, to be That Guy, I've got one significant disagreement with your list; the essentially iconic ability of the Warlock is Eldritch Blast, and it's considered the singly most-effective combat cantrip in 5e for a good reason. Agonizing Blast adds your CHA mod, and, if you want ranged capability, is the essential invocation. Now, your ranking list is definitely tilted to the roleplaying side, but, if you're getting into combat, EB+AB plus a Hex is incredibly effective. I actually think Archfey is one of the least interesting of the pacts (the Undying patron from SCAG being easily at the bottom, as it's just so annoyingly undead-specific), and I don't like Archfey because most of the pact's abilities are save-or-suck; your target gets a WIS save and, if they make it, nothing happens. There's an additional risk there, and the other pacts like Fiend, GOO, Hexblade, and Celestial all have really solid abilities that don't entirely depend on somebody else's saving throws. Archfey's options look great until somebody rolls a save, at which point you need to take a long nap before trying again.
Good read- interesting perspective. I think the only thing I would add is a caveat that in general, the invocations that grant you a spell but require you to use a spell slot to do the spell are generally very sub-optimal. Having to use one of your spell slots and your rare and important invocation slot just to get a 1 use per day spell? There are almost no spells worth that price.
Very common homebrew for that is to grant a once a day usage at it's lowest spell slot casting for those invocations that just grant a spell. This is how I have handled it with my other players and how my DM and I have agreed to handle it. But to each their own.
Yeah, the invocations that give you a different spell but make you burn a spell slot are absolute hot garbage as opposed to a series of constant buffs or at-will abilities. Sure, Confusion is a great spell, but, by the time you could take that invocation, you have a bunch of great spell options, and it's just not worth it.
Also, not to be That Guy, but, to be That Guy, I've got one significant disagreement with your list; the essentially iconic ability of the Warlock is Eldritch Blast, and it's considered the singly most-effective combat cantrip in 5e for a good reason. Agonizing Blast adds your CHA mod, and, if you want ranged capability, is the essential invocation. Now, your ranking list is definitely tilted to the roleplaying side, but, if you're getting into combat, EB+AB plus a Hex is incredibly effective. I actually think Archfey is one of the least interesting of the pacts (the Undying patron from SCAG being easily at the bottom, as it's just so annoyingly undead-specific), and I don't like Archfey because most of the pact's abilities are save-or-suck; your target gets a WIS save and, if they make it, nothing happens. There's an additional risk there, and the other pacts like Fiend, GOO, Hexblade, and Celestial all have really solid abilities that don't entirely depend on somebody else's saving throws. Archfey's options look great until somebody rolls a save, at which point you need to take a long nap before trying again.
Alright, let's not start arguing about this, but the reason Archfey has decent power is that Fey Presence is basically a free multi-target cause fear or charm person that recharges whenever your spell slots do. It's basically giving you the ability to use already existing warlock spells without using spell slots, even if you don't know those spells. Yes, they get a save, but so do banishment and hold person, both really good spells. I agree that Agonizing Blast is really powerful, but it's boring because almost everyone gets it. You could deal more damage when you use the cantrip you use every turn, or you can see through magical darkness. I know that to make a unique warlock, I'm picking the second one. As I said, I don't want to start a fight, but I just gave my reasons for my evaluations. Have a good day.
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P.S. I agree that Dark Delirium is really not good, but it is powerful if it works, and recharges on a short rest. So overall, the ability is not that bad, but it's not that good either.
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So I am currently playing an Archfey Eladrin in a campaign and the DM and I both noticed the fact that with many beasts immune to charm and the the save or suck nature of the Fey abilities makes them very inconsistent. We just homebrewed an invocation I can take at level 10 (currently level 9) which will basically do psychic damage to any creature that saves against my charm abilities to represent the mental effort of resisting the charm. It won't be game breaking damage (Caster Level plus Spell or Ability Level) but it should help close the gap between Archfey and Celestial or Fiend Warlock. Just a thought for a homebrew for folks wanting to run Archfey but worried about effectiveness.
The big draw of Dark Delirium is it is one of the few charm effects that does not alert the target they were hit with a charm effect. Even if they succeed, it does not state they become hostile to you or know that you charmed them as Charm Person or Friends.
I'm a bit confused. People keep saying that Archfey is "Bad" because it has abilities that require saves that recharge on a rest. Before 14th, there is only one ability which does so. And it doesn't have to be charmed on a failed save, it can be frightened instead. The 10th level ability does not require a rest, and the 14th is really potent if you can get it to stick, especially since it doesn't allow for a save in turns after it, like in hold person. I'm just wanting to see your guys' perspective on this.
Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Countershere(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
You might haveThirsting Blade underrated; it's the equivalent of the Extra Attack feature, which is a huge step up in power, doubling a BladeLock's damage output with their Pact Weapon at 5th level.
Excellent work overall. I hope you'll take the time to give the Warlock entries in Xanathar's Guide to everything the same treatment.
You might haveThirsting Blade underrated; it's the equivalent of the Extra Attack feature, which is a huge step up in power, doubling a BladeLock's damage output with their Pact Weapon at 5th level.
Excellent work overall. I hope you'll take the time to give the Warlock entries in Xanathar's Guide to everything the same treatment.
You bet I will! (Just between you and me though, all the Xanathar stuff seems to be a tad overpowered)
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I disagree on the Eldritch Invocations that give you a spell that you can use one time per long rest at the cost of burning a spell slot. They're all really nice spells that Warlocks normally don't have access to. I've taken a couple of them in the past and used them effectively and never felt limited by the fact that they're only usable once per long rest and that they require a spell slot. Warlocks get their spell slots back every short rest anyway, so giving up one spell slot to cast Slow or Confusion or Summon Elemental isn't much of a sacrifice.
You might haveThirsting Blade underrated; it's the equivalent of the Extra Attack feature, which is a huge step up in power, doubling a BladeLock's damage output with their Pact Weapon at 5th level.
Excellent work overall. I hope you'll take the time to give the Warlock entries in Xanathar's Guide to everything the same treatment.
You bet I will! (Just between you and me though, all the Xanathar stuff seems to be a tad overpowered)
I'd hardly say all of it. I agree 100% on the Hexblade; it's too front-loaded, and making them a Single-Attribute archetype was simply a Bad Idea.
The rest of the new Warlock options are about right.
The Celestial Pact is probably a little weaker than the other patrons, until you get to its 14th level ability, then it's awesome.
The new invocations are mixed bag. Some are extremely situational (Water Breathing + Swim speed), we get more options for Hex, (Maddening Hex is broken) and new options for Eldritch Blast. Unlike Repelling Blast, they're all limited to one use/round, so they're not overpowered. Tomb of Levistus is just weird. Is it overpowered? Is it a trap? I can't even tell.
Most importantly we get a much needed boost in power for Pact of the Blade so non-Hexblade Warlocks with the Blade Pact don't suck. Improved Pact Blade isn't overpowered; Pact of the Blade was weak to begin with and now it's been patched with a mandatory Invocation, because this is exactly what the Blade Pact should have looked like all along. [/rant]
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Hello all! I recently made a two part evaluation of the official Sorcerer subclasses, and by popular vote, am going to do an evaluation of the Warlock. I will be doing the first part on the Player's Handbook Patrons and Invocations, then the second part on the ones from Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and if the evaluation is liked, I will do a bonus part on the Pact Boons.
(As a human being, I have my own opinions, which may conflict with your own. Keep this in mind as you read these evaluations. They may bother you, but that is just because opinions sometimes do that to people)
And now, for the judgement of THE Roleplay class! The eldritch pact maker, servant of otherworldly beings, the WARLOCK!!!! *Thunderstrike*
The Archfey
You serve a powerful being of the fey, beings of magic in themselves. Nice. And awesome names for possible patrons I do have to say.
Expanded Spell List: Faerie Fire, Sleep, Calm Emotions, Phantasmal Force, Blink, Plant Growth, Dominate Beast, Greater Invisibility, Dominate Person, and Seeming. Right off the bat I notice many, many spells for debuffing, tricking, and charming. This fits well if you want a trickster style warlock. Even if you don't, faerie fire and blink are awesome combat spells.
1st level, Fey Presence: Oooohh. This is awesome. As an action, you can cause some creatures in front of you to make a wisdom save or be frightened or charmed. It recharges on a short rest as well as long, so you can use it as often as your spells. And the roleplaying abilities for this are amazing! You can speak in the voice of your patron if your DM allows it, causing their influence even more on the world.
6th level, Misty Escape: When you take damage, you can disappear. You turn invisible and teleport up to 60 feet. The invisibility ends if you attack or cast a spell, or if it reaches the start of your turn and it hasn't ended. This, like Fey Presence, recharges on a short or long rest. This can be cool for roleplaying. For example, if your patron is the ruler of the summer court, you could disappear in a flash of fire. Good ability.
10th level, Beguiling Defenses: First of all, immunity to the charmed condition. That in itself is nice, but whenever someone tries to charm you, you get to try and turn the charm back on them. Really nice, and pretty good for roleplaying.
14th level, Dark Delirium: This one is FULL of roleplaying and power. You plunge a creature into an illusory realm. It must succeed on a Wisdom save or be charmed or frightened for a minute. It believes it is lost in the realm that you create. Imagine if you managed to do this to the boss of the campaign. It ends if the creature takes damage though. Also, it recharges on a short or long rest.
This one is FULL of roleplaying abilities. I give it a 9/10 in roleplaying and a 7/10 in power. Final evaluation 8/10
Something I noticed about this is that it gave a roleplaying ability at 1st level, a panic button at 6th, a passive defense at 10th, and a power move at 14th. Let's see if the pattern continues.
The Fiend
You made a pact with the devil. Or a demon. Or something else evil. Aw man. I hate it when that happens. In all seriousness, this could lead to some very interesting roleplaying.
Expanded Spell List: Burning Hands, Command, Blindness/Deafness, Scorching Ray, Fireball, Stinking Cloud, Fire Shield, Wall of Fire, Flame Strike, Hallow. Many, many, many fire spells. Much burn. There are also many spells for literally blinding people, making them retch, and even commanding them. Hallow, though, is a very neat addition to top off the spell list. Good selection for combat type characters.
1st level, Dark One's Blessing: Powerful and simple. Reduce a hostile creature's hp to 0. Get temporary hit points equal to your warlock level plus your charisma modifier. This is good for survivability, though it doesn't have as good of roleplaying ability as Fey Presence.
6th level, Dark One's Own Luck: Panic button, called it. When you fail an ability check or saving throw, you can add 1d10 to the total. Recharges on a rest. Simple and good. I'm starting to pick up a theme here. Also little roleplaying ability
10th level, Fiendish Resilience: You get resistance to one damage type that you can change every rest. Again, simple. Also really good. Kind of good for roleplaying, but not much.
14th level, Hurl Through Hell: Finally, a powerful and roleplay heavy ability. You hit a creature with an attack, and hurl it through the lower planes. When it returns, if it isn't a fiend, it takes 10d10 psychic damage. Since psychic damage is rarely resisted, this is basically a free 55 damage per long rest against one creature of your choice. Also, this is pretty good for roleplaying.
Limited roleplay, but good power. Roleplay is 6.5/10, Power is 8.5/10. Final evaluation 7.5/10
Also, the pattern for the abilities is looking pretty good right now. Onto the eldritch pact maker...
The Great Old One
You made a deal with the one beyond the stars, beyond reality, and one with otherworldly, eldritch knowledge. Nice, nice. Also, you get to be a cultist of Cthulhu if you want.
Expanded Spell List: Dissonant Whispers, Hideous Laughter, Detect Thoughts, Phantasmal Force, Clairvoyance, Sending, Dominate Beast, Black Tentacles, Dominate Person, Telekinesis. I'm seeing a lot of enchantment and a few divination spells here. This can be good for a psionic warlock, but also be good for damage. Hideous Laughter is awesome for low Wisdom boss monsters. Unless you have tons of archers, of course.
1st level, Awakened Mind: You can send telepathic messages to creatures within 30 feet of you as if you were speaking to them. This one here is pure roleplay, and you will be able to pull off all sorts of tricks with this. One of the players I DM for used this to make an evil cleric think she was his god, and led him into a trap. This is awesome, though it lacks pure power.
6th level, Entropic Ward: When someone attacks you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack. If that attack misses, you have advantage on your next attack against the creature before the end of your next turn. 1/rest. This one is completely awesome and powerful, though it lacks roleplaying ability. Maybe they were trying to make up for 1st level.
10th level, Thought Shield: Roleplay and power, what's not to like? Your thoughts cannot be read by any means unless you allow it, and you have resistance to psychic damage. If you take psychic damage, the one who damaged you takes the damage as well. Looking at this, I don't know if the damage dealt to the attacker is affected by your resistance or not, but either way, this is an awesome feature.
14th level, Create Thrall: You touch a person (Read: humanoid) who is incapacitated. The person is charmed by you until you use it again or anything that can remove a curse removes it. You can also communicate telepathically with the thrall. This one may seem to be only roleplay, but if you can affect a necromancer who likes AoE spells, you can use this on them and then get your whole party to get near you, and then be invincible. Also you can influence a king, so that's also cool.
Big roleplay, decent power. I'm just gonna say both were 8/10 and let that be the final evaluation. Good job Wizards. (Also I seem to have been right about the RPPBPAPB pattern in all of these Patrons.)
Time for Invocations!!! (Sigh)
Agonizing Blast
When you cast eldritch blast you deal additional damage equal to your charisma modifier. Decent, but is powerful for multiclassing. 8/10
Armor of Shadows
You can cast mage armor at will. Permanent equivalent of +1 studded leather armor. Pretty good 7/10
Ascendant Step (9th level)
levitate at will. Wow. 8/10
Beast Speech
speak with animals at will. Not bad, and good for roleplaying. 6.5/10
Beguiling Influence
Proficiency in Persuasion and Deception. This is really good. 7.5/10
Bewitching Whispers (7th level)
You can cast compulsion once per long rest using a warlock spell slot. Unlike a couple later Invocations, the spell granted does not scale with level. 6/10
Book of Ancient Secrets (Tomepact)
You learn two ritual spells, and can add ritual spells to your book of shadows like a wizard would add spells. Nice, and gives roleplaying opportunity. 7.5/10
Chains of Carceri (15th level, Chainlock)
This one is really interesting. You can cast hold monster at will, but only targeting a celestial, fiend, or elemental. If you cast this spell on a creature and the spell ends, you must finish a rest before you can cast it on that creature again. Really powerful for planar adventures. 8/10
Devil's Sight
This one adds something really interesting. Complete darkvision. Within 120 feet, you can see through magical and nonmagical darkness. This counters all magical darkness except for hunger of hadar. This is POWERFUL. 8.5/10
Dreadful Word (7th level)
Using a warlock spell spell slot, you cast confusion. Unlike Bewitching Whispers, this one actually scales when you get to 9th level. Decent. 7.5/10
Eldritch Sight
Really simple. Detect Magic at will. Awesome for dungeons. 7/10
Eldritch Spear
When you cast eldritch blast, it's range is 300 feet. Again, buffing the best cantrip in the game is not bad in terms of power. 8/10
Eyes of the Rune Keeper
This is absolutely powerful. You can read all writing. This will probably go up to the DM's discretion, since being able to read the ancient texts of magic probably will annoy them a lot. 7.5/10
Fiendish Vigor
You can cast false life at will. Starting a fight with 8 extra hit points? Sign me up! 7.5/10
Gaze of Two Minds
You gain the ability to look through someone's senses like one would with a familiar. The creature has to be willing, though, and you have to continue to use you action to keep the effect. Good for roleplaying. 7/10
Lifedrinker (12th level, Bladepact)
When you hit with your pact weapon, you deal your Charisma modifier in extra necrotic damage. I mean, it's good, but a little late for when its as useful. 6/10
Mask of Many Faces
You can cast disguise self at will. This one...is the best roleplay invocation. 9/10.
Master of Myriad Forms (15th level)
You can cast alter self at will. Like Lifedrinker, this one is a little late for when you get it. 6/10
Minions of Chaos (9th level)
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast conjure elemental. This one has roleplaying abilities as well as power, and it's pretty powerful in itself. 8/10
Mire the Mind (5th level)
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast slow. This one is awesome, and gives a cool visual. 7.5/10.
Misty Visions
You can cast silent image at will. Good for roleplaying. 7/10.
One with Shadows (5th level)
You can turn invisible while in darkness until you do anything except speak. Niiiice. 7.5/10
Otherworldly Leap (9th level)
This is where I rant. This invocation would have been fine at 7th level, or even 5th level! They gave disguise self and false life at will for free at 2nd level! Then they make jump at will sound overpowered! Really? If it is 7th or 5th level, I give it 7.5/10. Unchanged, I give it 6/10.
Repelling Blast
Hitting a creature with eldritch blast can knock it 10 feet back. Buffing the best cantrip again, Wizards? 7/10
Sculptor of Flesh (7th level)
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast polymorph. This is a completely average invocation. 7/10.
Sign of Ill Omen (5th level)
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast bestow curse. This one has the capabilities for great roleplaying, as well as scaling when you reach 9th level. 7/10
Thief of Five Fates
Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast bane. This is really awesome, since it is good for roleplaying, can affect a long fight, and scales with level. 7.5/10
Thirsting Blade (5th level, bladelock)
Extra attack for bladelocks. What's not to like? 8/10
Visions of Distant Realms (15th level)
You can cast arcane eye at will. I'll be honest, I've never seen this spell used. But I'm sure it''s pretty powerful. 7.5/10
Voice of the Chain Master (Chainlock)
Your familiar is extremely buffed up. You can control it over any distance, and speak through it. This is awesome. 8/10
Whispers of the Grave (9th level)
Here comes a rant about Otherworldly Leap. Just kidding. You can cast speak with dead at will. This seriously has awesome roleplay potential.
Witch Sight (15th level)
This one is really cool. You can see through illusions or transmutation hiding a creature, and the true form of any shapechanger. This one is really cool, but a little late for getting it. 6.5/10
Well! That was exhausting!!! Hope you all enjoyed, and tell me in the comments if I messed something up.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
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Thank you for a great read :) Im currently thinknig what to do with my warlock when we hit lvl 9, so this rundown of the evocations has helped alot :D
You're Welcome!
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
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The Awakened Mind ability is in my opinion, one of the best non-combat abilities, along with the Conjuration Wizard's Minor Conjuration.
I hadn't really noticed the Warlock class ability pattern before, but it's interesting.
Something I want to do but haven't gotten to do yet is make a Conjuration wizard, then have them make a tiny lightweight (but powerful) bomb, and then have fireball at will. It would disappear after doing damage but the damage is already dealt so there isn't anything the monster can do about it.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
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Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Counters here(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.
Good work! Hopefully you will do a more indepth one on the warlock as you mentioned. Very good reading for new players to the class!
Glad to hear that you liked this, but what do you mean by in depth? I'm making evaluations, not guides. The class guides are already on D&D Beyond. If you mean more of the patrons, yes, I'm going to evaluate them.
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Good read- interesting perspective. I think the only thing I would add is a caveat that in general, the invocations that grant you a spell but require you to use a spell slot to do the spell are generally very sub-optimal. Having to use one of your spell slots and your rare and important invocation slot just to get a 1 use per day spell? There are almost no spells worth that price.
Very common homebrew for that is to grant a once a day usage at it's lowest spell slot casting for those invocations that just grant a spell. This is how I have handled it with my other players and how my DM and I have agreed to handle it. But to each their own.
Yeah, I would either do that or just allow it to be added to your spells known list so you can cast it with your spell slots whenever. But remember that bane scales with level so I think that is the best of the lot.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
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Yeah, the invocations that give you a different spell but make you burn a spell slot are absolute hot garbage as opposed to a series of constant buffs or at-will abilities. Sure, Confusion is a great spell, but, by the time you could take that invocation, you have a bunch of great spell options, and it's just not worth it.
Also, not to be That Guy, but, to be That Guy, I've got one significant disagreement with your list; the essentially iconic ability of the Warlock is Eldritch Blast, and it's considered the singly most-effective combat cantrip in 5e for a good reason. Agonizing Blast adds your CHA mod, and, if you want ranged capability, is the essential invocation. Now, your ranking list is definitely tilted to the roleplaying side, but, if you're getting into combat, EB+AB plus a Hex is incredibly effective. I actually think Archfey is one of the least interesting of the pacts (the Undying patron from SCAG being easily at the bottom, as it's just so annoyingly undead-specific), and I don't like Archfey because most of the pact's abilities are save-or-suck; your target gets a WIS save and, if they make it, nothing happens. There's an additional risk there, and the other pacts like Fiend, GOO, Hexblade, and Celestial all have really solid abilities that don't entirely depend on somebody else's saving throws. Archfey's options look great until somebody rolls a save, at which point you need to take a long nap before trying again.
Alright, let's not start arguing about this, but the reason Archfey has decent power is that Fey Presence is basically a free multi-target cause fear or charm person that recharges whenever your spell slots do. It's basically giving you the ability to use already existing warlock spells without using spell slots, even if you don't know those spells. Yes, they get a save, but so do banishment and hold person, both really good spells. I agree that Agonizing Blast is really powerful, but it's boring because almost everyone gets it. You could deal more damage when you use the cantrip you use every turn, or you can see through magical darkness. I know that to make a unique warlock, I'm picking the second one. As I said, I don't want to start a fight, but I just gave my reasons for my evaluations. Have a good day.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
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P.S. I agree that Dark Delirium is really not good, but it is powerful if it works, and recharges on a short rest. So overall, the ability is not that bad, but it's not that good either.
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So I am currently playing an Archfey Eladrin in a campaign and the DM and I both noticed the fact that with many beasts immune to charm and the the save or suck nature of the Fey abilities makes them very inconsistent. We just homebrewed an invocation I can take at level 10 (currently level 9) which will basically do psychic damage to any creature that saves against my charm abilities to represent the mental effort of resisting the charm. It won't be game breaking damage (Caster Level plus Spell or Ability Level) but it should help close the gap between Archfey and Celestial or Fiend Warlock. Just a thought for a homebrew for folks wanting to run Archfey but worried about effectiveness.
The big draw of Dark Delirium is it is one of the few charm effects that does not alert the target they were hit with a charm effect. Even if they succeed, it does not state they become hostile to you or know that you charmed them as Charm Person or Friends.
I'm a bit confused. People keep saying that Archfey is "Bad" because it has abilities that require saves that recharge on a rest. Before 14th, there is only one ability which does so. And it doesn't have to be charmed on a failed save, it can be frightened instead. The 10th level ability does not require a rest, and the 14th is really potent if you can get it to stick, especially since it doesn't allow for a save in turns after it, like in hold person. I'm just wanting to see your guys' perspective on this.
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You might haveThirsting Blade underrated; it's the equivalent of the Extra Attack feature, which is a huge step up in power, doubling a BladeLock's damage output with their Pact Weapon at 5th level.
Excellent work overall. I hope you'll take the time to give the Warlock entries in Xanathar's Guide to everything the same treatment.
DICE FALL, EVERYONE ROCKS!
You bet I will! (Just between you and me though, all the Xanathar stuff seems to be a tad overpowered)
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
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I disagree on the Eldritch Invocations that give you a spell that you can use one time per long rest at the cost of burning a spell slot. They're all really nice spells that Warlocks normally don't have access to. I've taken a couple of them in the past and used them effectively and never felt limited by the fact that they're only usable once per long rest and that they require a spell slot. Warlocks get their spell slots back every short rest anyway, so giving up one spell slot to cast Slow or Confusion or Summon Elemental isn't much of a sacrifice.
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I'd hardly say all of it. I agree 100% on the Hexblade; it's too front-loaded, and making them a Single-Attribute archetype was simply a Bad Idea.
The rest of the new Warlock options are about right.
The Celestial Pact is probably a little weaker than the other patrons, until you get to its 14th level ability, then it's awesome.
The new invocations are mixed bag. Some are extremely situational (Water Breathing + Swim speed), we get more options for Hex, (Maddening Hex is broken) and new options for Eldritch Blast. Unlike Repelling Blast, they're all limited to one use/round, so they're not overpowered. Tomb of Levistus is just weird. Is it overpowered? Is it a trap? I can't even tell.
Most importantly we get a much needed boost in power for Pact of the Blade so non-Hexblade Warlocks with the Blade Pact don't suck. Improved Pact Blade isn't overpowered; Pact of the Blade was weak to begin with and now it's been patched with a mandatory Invocation, because this is exactly what the Blade Pact should have looked like all along. [/rant]
DICE FALL, EVERYONE ROCKS!
I meant most of the subclasses, but yeah, a lot of it is pretty balanced.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
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Hosted a battle between the Cult of Sedge and the Forum Counters here(Done now). I_Love_Tarrasques has won the fight, scoring a victory for the fiendish Moderators.