Hello everyone!Last time I gave you an evaluation of the Patrons and Invocations in the Player’s Handbook for Warlock.This time, I will be going over the last two patrons and the twenty or so invocations in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.If this thread gets over 25 replies (Not including me) then I will be doing a bonus Evaluation of the Pact Boons.In this thread, you may vote for which Class I should do next.Please note that Sorcerer is not there because I have already done it.
Without further ado, let’s get into it!(Can someone define ‘ado’ for me?)
(Disclaimer:My opinions may clash with yours.Don’t be angry if I ‘insult’ your favorite feature)
The Celestial
You are a servant of a celestial being, such as a pegasus or an angel.Nice, nice, but honestly I think there should be more celestials in general.
1st level, Bonus Cantrips:So you are even more like a cleric.You get the light and sacred flame cantrips.Nothing much to say about this, but is definitely leading the player in a certain path.
1st level, Healing Light:W. H. Y.So, with this feature, you get d6s equal to 1+your warlock level.As a bonus action, spend dice up to your Charisma modifier, and heal a creature within 60 feet of you the amount rolled.This is a better healing word.Plus, if you choose cure wounds from the expanded spell list, you can heal more than a life domain cleric.A little broken in my opinion.
6th level, Radiant Soul:So even more light based.You get resistance to radiant damage, and can add your Charisma modifier to the damage of fire or radiant damage spells, but only to one target.So far this subclass has just been bursting with power and roleplay ability(to be a cleric).The reason I don’t like that is that it makes the others not seem as good.
10th level, Celestial Resilience:You get temporary hit points whenever you finish a rest, and your teammates get temporary hit points, but fewer than you.This one is really weird, because usually 10th level abilities are passive.This one you can control.
14th level, Searing Vengeance:Broken.Once per long rest when you make a death save, you instead stand up and heal half your max hit points, and nearby enemies take 2d8+your Charisma modifier radiant damage, and are blinded.I like the idea, but this feature is doing too much.Either make it heal less, or take away the damage and blinding.That is my opinion, good day.
I give it an 8.5/10 in power, and a 7.5/10 in roleplaying.But, because this one takes away from the other patrons because it is so good, I’m taking 1 away from the final evaluation.Yeah, go ahead and yell at me in your replies, it won’t change my mind.Final evaluation 7/10
I noticed that this breaks the pattern of the Patrons in the PHB, and I’m guessing the next one will as well.
(If you haven’t noticed, I made fun of Celestial to make a drama.I actually think it’s a fine subclass, but make sure not to be the only hero in your campaign.)
The Hexblade
To be honest, the description is a little confusing.“A shadowy force that manifests in sentient magical weapons”.So is your patron the weapon or the forger of the weapon.Either way, this can be perfect for people who want cool dark powers, but don’t want evil fiend powers.
1st level, Hexblade’s Curse:This is awesome.As a bonus action, you can curse a creature within 30 feet of you with a better version of hex.Better crits, damage, and you heal if the creature dies.You get it back on a short rest, so use on the most powerful monsters each encounter.This should honestly be enough for 1st level.It’s cool for roleplaying, and pretty powerful on its own.
1st level, Hex Warrior:Oh.They added more… You get proficiency with martial weapons and medium armor.You can also choose one weapon to use Charisma for the damage and attack rolls for, instead of Strength or Dexterity.This even more focuses the player down a martial path, and is a useless feature for a straight spellcaster.
6th level, Accursed Specter:When you kill a humanoid, you can summon its ghost in the form of a specter, which you control.You can only use this once per long rest.This is an awesome feature, because the specter is powerful as well as awesome to describe.
10th level, Armor of Hexes: Okay then;This is the third feature of this class that has the word ‘hex’ in it.When the creature affected by your Hexblade’s Curse hits you with an attack, you can force a 50% chance for it to miss, no matter the roll.This is a powerful feature for single monster encounters, like the rest of the features, but against a horde, you are pretty much toast.
14th level, Master of Hexes:You now have a fourth ‘hex’ feature.Instead of healing when the target of your Hexblade’s Curse dies, you can choose to move the curse to a different creature.Decent, and balanced for the level.Nothing much to say here.
Not as broken as the Celestial, but still powerful.I give it a 8/10 in Power and a 7.5/10 in roleplaying.Final evaluation 7.75/10
Now, onto the Invocations.(Sigh)
Aspect of the Moon (Tomepact)
You don’t need to sleep and can’t be forced to.You can still benefit from a long rest by just keeping watch or reading books.I can see some good roleplaying from this, and even a combat use.Sleep has no effect on you anymore, in case you have some kind of fey enemy that uses that spell against you.Not bad 7/10.
Cloak of Flies (5th level)
This one is absolutely awesome.As a bonus action, you can surround yourself with a magical aura of flies that deals poison damage to anyone near you, and grants you advantage on intimidation checks.It gives you disadvantage on all other charisma checks, but that’s pretty easy to get around since you can deactivate the swarm whenever you want.I give it a 7.5/10.
Eldritch Smite (5th level, Bladepact)
This one is broken.Whenever you hit with your pact weapon,you can use Paladin’s Divine smite, but it uses force damage.Since Warlock gains spell slot levels much faster than paladin, you can deal 4d6 + 8d8 + modifiers damage on your turn if you hit twice.Admittedly, you can only do it once per short rest, but that’s the damage of blight if the creature fails their save, and with force damage!Oh, plus you can knock them prone if they are huge or smaller.8.5/10.
Ghostly Gaze (7th level)
Pure roleplay.Once per short or long rest, you can see through solid objects for a minute.Really cool, but has a high level requirement.7/10.
Gift of the Depths (5th level)
Lots and lots of mediocre features.You can breathe underwater and swim as well as you can walk.Plus, you can cast water breathing without a spell slot once per long rest.Honestly, this is really good if you have an underwater adventure.Decent 7.5/10.
Gift of the Ever-Living Ones (Chainpact)
You thought this was a good idea wizards!?!?!?As long as your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you get maximized healing.This isn’t just with spells, it also affects hit dice.Broken 8.5/10.
Grasp of Hadar
When you hit with eldritch blast, you can pull it 10 feet closer.You can use this once per turn.You know, this one isn’t as powerful since it doesn’t apply to all hits.7/10.
Improved Pact Weapon (Bladepact(duh))
All your pact weapons that don’t have a bonus to attack and damage rolls get +1 to those rolls.In addition, you can use your pact weapon as a spellcasting focus.Mostly roleplaying, but has slight power.7.25/10.
Lance of Lethargy
Once per turn when you hit with eldritch blast, you can slow the creature’s movement speed by 10 feet.Like Grasp of Hadar, this is decent, but not overly powerful.7.25/10.
Maddening Hex (5th level,Cursing Spell or Feature)
As a bonus action, you can deal your Charisma modifier in psychic damage to the target of your curse as long as you can see it and it is within 30 feet of you.Decent, and not too powerful. 7/10
Relentless Hex (7th level, Cursing Spell or feature)
As a bonus action, you can teleport within 5 feet of your curse’s target, as long as the distance is not farther than 30 feet.Misty step at a single target.Not bad.7/10.
Shroud of Shadow (15th level)
This is so cool.You can cast invisibility at will.I give it a 7.5/10.
Tomb of Levistus (5th level)
Okay, this is my favorite Invocation in Xanathar’s.When you take damage, you can encase yourself in ice, gaining your warlock level times 10 temporary hit points (these do take the triggering damage).Afterwards, gain fire vulnerability and you can’t move or do anything until the end of your next turn, when the ice melts and you lose the temporary hit points.This can be so awesome, since it doesn’t have to be ice that protects you.You can make it light, darkness, earth, or something else.I give this an 8/10 since it is so role-play focused as well.
Trickster’s Escape (7th level)
Nothing much to say about this.Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast freedom of movement.Be slippery.7/10.
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.
You're the first person I've ever seen who said that the Celestial Pact is overpowered in any way, and I've played one. They're a ton of fun and they're the only warlock pact that's designed so that a heroic warlock should have the same goals as his patron instead of being in conflict with his patron. But in my experience they are definitely not over powered. The Celestial may seem powerful compared to the other patrons, but having played a couple of warlocks, the other patrons or more powerful than the Celestial is.
The level 1 Celestial feature just seems like a more complicated version of the level 1 Paladin feature, also what's with the Xanathar Patrons getting 2 level 1 abilities? Part of me thinks the Celestial Patron is cool, but another part of me just thinks it's give a class a role that it wasn't meant to have, none of the other Patrons have any healing abilities but the Celestial is entirely based around healing. I'm still conflicted about whether I like this subclass or not.
One thing I'm still confused about the Hexblade is, your Patron is a weapon, but you don't necessarily have the weapon? I'd the DM supposed to give you a sentient weapon at level 1? It's kind of hard to roleplay when you don't understand how the Patron works. However, I do like the fact that they made a melee focused Warlock an option, I just a little annoyed that previously you had to go out of your way and try to figure out how to make it viable but now to do you just pick Hexblade.
The level 1 Celestial feature just seems like a more complicated version of the level 1 Paladin feature, also what's with the Xanathar Patrons getting 2 level 1 abilities? Part of me thinks the Celestial Patron is cool, but another part of me just thinks it's give a class a role that it wasn't meant to have, none of the other Patrons have any healing abilities but the Celestial is entirely based around healing. I'm still conflicted about whether I like this subclass or not.
One thing I'm still confused about the Hexblade is, your Patron is a weapon, but you don't necessarily have the weapon? I'd the DM supposed to give you a sentient weapon at level 1? It's kind of hard to roleplay when you don't understand how the Patron works. However, I do like the fact that they made a melee focused Warlock an option, I just a little annoyed that previously you had to go out of your way and try to figure out how to make it viable but now to do you just pick Hexblade.
As much as I like the concept of the Hexblade, it is a poorly executed Subclass, I am afraid...
Much better would have been to make the Pact of the Blade more similar to it, granting the use of CHA for attacks and damages when using your Pact weapon. This would have potentially also allowed for a wider range of melee-focused invocations, and more flavored than the ones we have right now. Improved Pact of the Blade could have used a higher level restriction in favor of something that would tie into the nature of the Patron selected, like "The damage of your Pact Weapon changes, based on your Patron [Archfey = Force ; Archfiend = Fire ; Celestial = Radiant ; Undying = Necrotic ; Great Old One = Psychic]" or something along these lines on top of the current benefit. Another one could have been for the increased crit chance and maybe another one for at-will Hex, or something similar.
The Shadowfell Patron could have probably been better served by pushing forward the Raven Queen instead, imho.
You're the first person I've ever seen who said that the Celestial Pact is overpowered in any way, and I've played one. They're a ton of fun and they're the only warlock pact that's designed so that a heroic warlock should have the same goals as his patron instead of being in conflict with his patron. But in my experience they are definitely not over powered. The Celestial may seem powerful compared to the other patrons, but having played a couple of warlocks, the other patrons or more powerful than the Celestial is.
If you look at the end of the Celestial Evaluation, I say that I just made a big deal about it for fun, and that it was a fun subclass. That being said, at first level, a two time healing word at a range of 60 feet is nothing to turn your nose down on.
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.
The level 1 Celestial feature just seems like a more complicated version of the level 1 Paladin feature, also what's with the Xanathar Patrons getting 2 level 1 abilities? Part of me thinks the Celestial Patron is cool, but another part of me just thinks it's give a class a role that it wasn't meant to have, none of the other Patrons have any healing abilities but the Celestial is entirely based around healing. I'm still conflicted about whether I like this subclass or not.
One thing I'm still confused about the Hexblade is, your Patron is a weapon, but you don't necessarily have the weapon? I'd the DM supposed to give you a sentient weapon at level 1? It's kind of hard to roleplay when you don't understand how the Patron works. However, I do like the fact that they made a melee focused Warlock an option, I just a little annoyed that previously you had to go out of your way and try to figure out how to make it viable but now to do you just pick Hexblade.
As much as I like the concept of the Hexblade, it is a poorly executed Subclass, I am afraid...
Much better would have been to make the Pact of the Blade more similar to it, granting the use of CHA for attacks and damages when using your Pact weapon. This would have potentially also allowed for a wider range of melee-focused invocations, and more flavored than the ones we have right now. Improved Pact of the Blade could have used a higher level restriction in favor of something that would tie into the nature of the Patron selected, like "The damage of your Pact Weapon changes, based on your Patron [Archfey = Force ; Archfiend = Fire ; Celestial = Radiant ; Undying = Necrotic ; Great Old One = Psychic]" or something along these lines on top of the current benefit. Another one could have been for the increased crit chance and maybe another one for at-will Hex, or something similar.
The Shadowfell Patron could have probably been better served by pushing forward the Raven Queen instead, imho.
I honestly think that removing the Charisma to attack part and fixing the lore on Hexblade would make it a better subclass to play.
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.
The level 1 Celestial feature just seems like a more complicated version of the level 1 Paladin feature, also what's with the Xanathar Patrons getting 2 level 1 abilities? Part of me thinks the Celestial Patron is cool, but another part of me just thinks it's give a class a role that it wasn't meant to have, none of the other Patrons have any healing abilities but the Celestial is entirely based around healing. I'm still conflicted about whether I like this subclass or not.
One thing I'm still confused about the Hexblade is, your Patron is a weapon, but you don't necessarily have the weapon? I'd the DM supposed to give you a sentient weapon at level 1? It's kind of hard to roleplay when you don't understand how the Patron works. However, I do like the fact that they made a melee focused Warlock an option, I just a little annoyed that previously you had to go out of your way and try to figure out how to make it viable but now to do you just pick Hexblade.
As much as I like the concept of the Hexblade, it is a poorly executed Subclass, I am afraid...
Much better would have been to make the Pact of the Blade more similar to it, granting the use of CHA for attacks and damages when using your Pact weapon. This would have potentially also allowed for a wider range of melee-focused invocations, and more flavored than the ones we have right now. Improved Pact of the Blade could have used a higher level restriction in favor of something that would tie into the nature of the Patron selected, like "The damage of your Pact Weapon changes, based on your Patron [Archfey = Force ; Archfiend = Fire ; Celestial = Radiant ; Undying = Necrotic ; Great Old One = Psychic]" or something along these lines on top of the current benefit. Another one could have been for the increased crit chance and maybe another one for at-will Hex, or something similar.
The Shadowfell Patron could have probably been better served by pushing forward the Raven Queen instead, imho.
I honestly think that removing the Charisma to attack part and fixing the lore on Hexblade would make it a better subclass to play.
I do not think the CHA to attacks is a problem (it is by definition what makes this concept worth it for a Warlock, in the end), but I do agree the lore, and its application, are a mess.
I really believe the whole concept could have been applied as the Pact of the Blade boon and it could work beautifully with any Patron.
Yeah, I'd have no problems adding the charisma mod to the pact of the blade. Currently the pact of the blade is there weakest of the three pact boons, it lets you have proficiency with Martial weapons, but aside from that it just lets you conjure a weapon whose max value is 75GP, it can be cool cause you can just create different weapons for different situations, but once you find a magic weapon and bond with it, you can only use that weapon as your pact weapon. Another thing about changing the pact of the blade to Cha, and removing the feature from Hexblade, is that Paladins would have to think a lot harder about multiclassing to get the feature, since they would have to invest 3 levels instead of just 1.
I agree with both of you. Pact of the blade should get Charisma to attack and damage, and I agree that Improved Pact Weapon should turn the weapon's damage type into a different damage, depending on your patron.
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.
Go ahead! I'm sure many people would read it. I would.
My comment was more geared towards not being an easy way of doing an integrated version of it here in DDB, but then again I'd have no way to really make it public, now that I think about it.
Guess I will have to make a post in the Homebrew section ;)
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.
I meant make a post in the Warlock forums that tells about a homerule people could use.
Being a homebrew, I felt it would be more at home in the Homebrew forum section (as I have also seen posts in the class-specific forum sections being moved there for being homebrews) so...
Anyway, HERE it is, looking forward to everyone's comment :)
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
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Hello everyone! Last time I gave you an evaluation of the Patrons and Invocations in the Player’s Handbook for Warlock. This time, I will be going over the last two patrons and the twenty or so invocations in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. If this thread gets over 25 replies (Not including me) then I will be doing a bonus Evaluation of the Pact Boons. In this thread, you may vote for which Class I should do next. Please note that Sorcerer is not there because I have already done it.
Without further ado, let’s get into it! (Can someone define ‘ado’ for me?)
(Disclaimer: My opinions may clash with yours. Don’t be angry if I ‘insult’ your favorite feature)
The Celestial
You are a servant of a celestial being, such as a pegasus or an angel. Nice, nice, but honestly I think there should be more celestials in general.
Expanded Spell List: Cure Wounds, Guiding Bolt, Flaming Sphere, Lesser Restoration, Daylight, Revivify, Guardian of Faith, Wall of Fire, Flame Strike, Greater Restoration. So you are a cleric now, congrats. In all reality, the spell list is nice, but is essentially a light domain cleric.
1st level, Bonus Cantrips: So you are even more like a cleric. You get the light and sacred flame cantrips. Nothing much to say about this, but is definitely leading the player in a certain path.
1st level, Healing Light: W. H. Y. So, with this feature, you get d6s equal to 1+your warlock level. As a bonus action, spend dice up to your Charisma modifier, and heal a creature within 60 feet of you the amount rolled. This is a better healing word. Plus, if you choose cure wounds from the expanded spell list, you can heal more than a life domain cleric. A little broken in my opinion.
6th level, Radiant Soul: So even more light based. You get resistance to radiant damage, and can add your Charisma modifier to the damage of fire or radiant damage spells, but only to one target. So far this subclass has just been bursting with power and roleplay ability(to be a cleric). The reason I don’t like that is that it makes the others not seem as good.
10th level, Celestial Resilience: You get temporary hit points whenever you finish a rest, and your teammates get temporary hit points, but fewer than you. This one is really weird, because usually 10th level abilities are passive. This one you can control.
14th level, Searing Vengeance: Broken. Once per long rest when you make a death save, you instead stand up and heal half your max hit points, and nearby enemies take 2d8+your Charisma modifier radiant damage, and are blinded. I like the idea, but this feature is doing too much. Either make it heal less, or take away the damage and blinding. That is my opinion, good day.
I give it an 8.5/10 in power, and a 7.5/10 in roleplaying. But, because this one takes away from the other patrons because it is so good, I’m taking 1 away from the final evaluation. Yeah, go ahead and yell at me in your replies, it won’t change my mind. Final evaluation 7/10
I noticed that this breaks the pattern of the Patrons in the PHB, and I’m guessing the next one will as well.
(If you haven’t noticed, I made fun of Celestial to make a drama. I actually think it’s a fine subclass, but make sure not to be the only hero in your campaign.)
The Hexblade
To be honest, the description is a little confusing. “A shadowy force that manifests in sentient magical weapons”. So is your patron the weapon or the forger of the weapon. Either way, this can be perfect for people who want cool dark powers, but don’t want evil fiend powers.
Expanded Spell List: Shield, Wrathful Smite, Blur, Blinding Smite, Blink, Elemental Weapon, Phantasmal Killer, Staggering Smite, Banishing Smite, Cone of Cold. I’m seeing a lot of combat-based and paladin spells. Pretty powerful. But, like celestial, it’s leading the player to be a certain type of player (melee fighter).
1st level, Hexblade’s Curse: This is awesome. As a bonus action, you can curse a creature within 30 feet of you with a better version of hex. Better crits, damage, and you heal if the creature dies. You get it back on a short rest, so use on the most powerful monsters each encounter. This should honestly be enough for 1st level. It’s cool for roleplaying, and pretty powerful on its own.
1st level, Hex Warrior: Oh. They added more… You get proficiency with martial weapons and medium armor. You can also choose one weapon to use Charisma for the damage and attack rolls for, instead of Strength or Dexterity. This even more focuses the player down a martial path, and is a useless feature for a straight spellcaster.
6th level, Accursed Specter: When you kill a humanoid, you can summon its ghost in the form of a specter, which you control. You can only use this once per long rest. This is an awesome feature, because the specter is powerful as well as awesome to describe.
10th level, Armor of Hexes: Okay then; This is the third feature of this class that has the word ‘hex’ in it. When the creature affected by your Hexblade’s Curse hits you with an attack, you can force a 50% chance for it to miss, no matter the roll. This is a powerful feature for single monster encounters, like the rest of the features, but against a horde, you are pretty much toast.
14th level, Master of Hexes: You now have a fourth ‘hex’ feature. Instead of healing when the target of your Hexblade’s Curse dies, you can choose to move the curse to a different creature. Decent, and balanced for the level. Nothing much to say here.
Not as broken as the Celestial, but still powerful. I give it a 8/10 in Power and a 7.5/10 in roleplaying. Final evaluation 7.75/10
Now, onto the Invocations. (Sigh)
Aspect of the Moon (Tomepact)
You don’t need to sleep and can’t be forced to. You can still benefit from a long rest by just keeping watch or reading books. I can see some good roleplaying from this, and even a combat use. Sleep has no effect on you anymore, in case you have some kind of fey enemy that uses that spell against you. Not bad 7/10.
Cloak of Flies (5th level)
This one is absolutely awesome. As a bonus action, you can surround yourself with a magical aura of flies that deals poison damage to anyone near you, and grants you advantage on intimidation checks. It gives you disadvantage on all other charisma checks, but that’s pretty easy to get around since you can deactivate the swarm whenever you want. I give it a 7.5/10.
Eldritch Smite (5th level, Bladepact)
This one is broken. Whenever you hit with your pact weapon, you can use Paladin’s Divine smite, but it uses force damage. Since Warlock gains spell slot levels much faster than paladin, you can deal 4d6 + 8d8 + modifiers damage on your turn if you hit twice. Admittedly, you can only do it once per short rest, but that’s the damage of blight if the creature fails their save, and with force damage! Oh, plus you can knock them prone if they are huge or smaller. 8.5/10.
Ghostly Gaze (7th level)
Pure roleplay. Once per short or long rest, you can see through solid objects for a minute. Really cool, but has a high level requirement. 7/10.
Gift of the Depths (5th level)
Lots and lots of mediocre features. You can breathe underwater and swim as well as you can walk. Plus, you can cast water breathing without a spell slot once per long rest. Honestly, this is really good if you have an underwater adventure. Decent 7.5/10.
Gift of the Ever-Living Ones (Chainpact)
You thought this was a good idea wizards!?!?!? As long as your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you get maximized healing. This isn’t just with spells, it also affects hit dice. Broken 8.5/10.
Grasp of Hadar
When you hit with eldritch blast, you can pull it 10 feet closer. You can use this once per turn. You know, this one isn’t as powerful since it doesn’t apply to all hits. 7/10.
Improved Pact Weapon (Bladepact(duh))
All your pact weapons that don’t have a bonus to attack and damage rolls get +1 to those rolls. In addition, you can use your pact weapon as a spellcasting focus. Mostly roleplaying, but has slight power. 7.25/10.
Lance of Lethargy
Once per turn when you hit with eldritch blast, you can slow the creature’s movement speed by 10 feet. Like Grasp of Hadar, this is decent, but not overly powerful. 7.25/10.
Maddening Hex (5th level,Cursing Spell or Feature)
As a bonus action, you can deal your Charisma modifier in psychic damage to the target of your curse as long as you can see it and it is within 30 feet of you. Decent, and not too powerful. 7/10
Relentless Hex (7th level, Cursing Spell or feature)
As a bonus action, you can teleport within 5 feet of your curse’s target, as long as the distance is not farther than 30 feet. Misty step at a single target. Not bad. 7/10.
Shroud of Shadow (15th level)
This is so cool. You can cast invisibility at will. I give it a 7.5/10.
Tomb of Levistus (5th level)
Okay, this is my favorite Invocation in Xanathar’s. When you take damage, you can encase yourself in ice, gaining your warlock level times 10 temporary hit points (these do take the triggering damage). Afterwards, gain fire vulnerability and you can’t move or do anything until the end of your next turn, when the ice melts and you lose the temporary hit points. This can be so awesome, since it doesn’t have to be ice that protects you. You can make it light, darkness, earth, or something else. I give this an 8/10 since it is so role-play focused as well.
Trickster’s Escape (7th level)
Nothing much to say about this. Once per long rest, you can use a warlock spell slot to cast freedom of movement. Be slippery. 7/10.
Woah! That was tiring! Hope you guys enjoyed!
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
My statblock. Fear me!
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.
You forgot Undying!
Extended Signature! Yay! https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/adohands-kitchen/3153-extended-signature-thread?page=2#c21
Haven’t used this account in forever. Still a big fan of crawling claws.
I can't tell if you're joking or not. I clearly said I was doing the patrons and invocations from Xanathar's Guide to Everything, not including SCAG
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
My statblock. Fear me!
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.
Wait... it’s from SCAG?
huh. I’m an idiot. Don’t mind me! Do monk Next!
Extended Signature! Yay! https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/adohands-kitchen/3153-extended-signature-thread?page=2#c21
Haven’t used this account in forever. Still a big fan of crawling claws.
You're the first person I've ever seen who said that the Celestial Pact is overpowered in any way, and I've played one. They're a ton of fun and they're the only warlock pact that's designed so that a heroic warlock should have the same goals as his patron instead of being in conflict with his patron. But in my experience they are definitely not over powered. The Celestial may seem powerful compared to the other patrons, but having played a couple of warlocks, the other patrons or more powerful than the Celestial is.
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The level 1 Celestial feature just seems like a more complicated version of the level 1 Paladin feature, also what's with the Xanathar Patrons getting 2 level 1 abilities? Part of me thinks the Celestial Patron is cool, but another part of me just thinks it's give a class a role that it wasn't meant to have, none of the other Patrons have any healing abilities but the Celestial is entirely based around healing. I'm still conflicted about whether I like this subclass or not.
One thing I'm still confused about the Hexblade is, your Patron is a weapon, but you don't necessarily have the weapon? I'd the DM supposed to give you a sentient weapon at level 1? It's kind of hard to roleplay when you don't understand how the Patron works. However, I do like the fact that they made a melee focused Warlock an option, I just a little annoyed that previously you had to go out of your way and try to figure out how to make it viable but now to do you just pick Hexblade.
As much as I like the concept of the Hexblade, it is a poorly executed Subclass, I am afraid...
Much better would have been to make the Pact of the Blade more similar to it, granting the use of CHA for attacks and damages when using your Pact weapon. This would have potentially also allowed for a wider range of melee-focused invocations, and more flavored than the ones we have right now.
Improved Pact of the Blade could have used a higher level restriction in favor of something that would tie into the nature of the Patron selected, like "The damage of your Pact Weapon changes, based on your Patron [Archfey = Force ; Archfiend = Fire ; Celestial = Radiant ; Undying = Necrotic ; Great Old One = Psychic]" or something along these lines on top of the current benefit.
Another one could have been for the increased crit chance and maybe another one for at-will Hex, or something similar.
The Shadowfell Patron could have probably been better served by pushing forward the Raven Queen instead, imho.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
If you look at the end of the Celestial Evaluation, I say that I just made a big deal about it for fun, and that it was a fun subclass. That being said, at first level, a two time healing word at a range of 60 feet is nothing to turn your nose down on.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
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I honestly think that removing the Charisma to attack part and fixing the lore on Hexblade would make it a better subclass to play.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
My statblock. Fear me!
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.
I do not think the CHA to attacks is a problem (it is by definition what makes this concept worth it for a Warlock, in the end), but I do agree the lore, and its application, are a mess.
I really believe the whole concept could have been applied as the Pact of the Blade boon and it could work beautifully with any Patron.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Yeah, I'd have no problems adding the charisma mod to the pact of the blade. Currently the pact of the blade is there weakest of the three pact boons, it lets you have proficiency with Martial weapons, but aside from that it just lets you conjure a weapon whose max value is 75GP, it can be cool cause you can just create different weapons for different situations, but once you find a magic weapon and bond with it, you can only use that weapon as your pact weapon. Another thing about changing the pact of the blade to Cha, and removing the feature from Hexblade, is that Paladins would have to think a lot harder about multiclassing to get the feature, since they would have to invest 3 levels instead of just 1.
I agree with both of you. Pact of the blade should get Charisma to attack and damage, and I agree that Improved Pact Weapon should turn the weapon's damage type into a different damage, depending on your patron.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
My statblock. Fear me!
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.
Now I want to be able to make my revised Warlock version XD
Or at least a revised Pact of the Blade feature and invocations...
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Go ahead! I'm sure many people would read it. I would.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
My statblock. Fear me!
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.
My comment was more geared towards not being an easy way of doing an integrated version of it here in DDB, but then again I'd have no way to really make it public, now that I think about it.
Guess I will have to make a post in the Homebrew section ;)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I meant make a post in the Warlock forums that tells about a homerule people could use.
Subclass Evaluations So Far:
Sorcerer
Warlock
My statblock. Fear me!
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.
Being a homebrew, I felt it would be more at home in the Homebrew forum section (as I have also seen posts in the class-specific forum sections being moved there for being homebrews) so...
Anyway, HERE it is, looking forward to everyone's comment :)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games