Hello everyone. So as the title says I’m a new player, never even rolled dice in an actual adventure yet. I’ve looked the books over, tripled these forums for awhile, and pre-made a few characters, but mostly martial classes and quarter-casters, as the whole magic chapter feels...daunting sometimes.
Anyways, I was reading through the list of the Nine Hells in the DMG, and came across the Archduke Levistus. An archduke trapped in ice that communicates telepathically sounds like a perfect patron, and so I worked up the idea of a warlock based around Ice spells and freezing.
And there’s the issue: given how much the Fiend patron emphases fire with it’s expanded spells, would that make sense to take as a Patron. I’m not sure how much our DM will let us home brew, so I want to know if, rules as written, an “Ice-lock” is doable. We plan to run a few level 1 one shots, then a longer level 6 campaign. I thought of taking the variant Human and getting Magic Initiate (Wizard) to get Frost Ray, and obviously Armor of Agathys is a must, but beyond that I’m kinda stumped. Any ideas or suggestions?
p.s. I only have access to the core rule books (MM, DMG, PH), the Player’s Companion, and UA’s
There is a UA that give stats for a Tiefling subrace for levistus, stats as per PHB except for:
Ability Score Increase change to +2 Charisma, +1 Constitution
Replace Infernal Legacy for Legacy of Stygia.You know the ray of frostcantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the armor of Agathysspell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the darkness spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells
A icelock needs a little tweaking, mainly due to the lack of ice based spells. On the fiend spell list you could switch Burning Hands for Ice Knife but you would need Xanathatrs Guide to Everything for that one, you could just amend the fire based spells to be ice based, Burning Hands becomes Frost FIngers, Scorching Ray becomes Icicle Blast, Fireball to Snowball or switch it out for Sleet Storm You would need to find something to replace Wall of Fire though as Wall of Ice exists and is a Leve 6 spell (Ice Storm would be a good subsitute) and switch out Flamestrike for Cone fo Cold.
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Rob has very interesting points but first I would like to point out that various fiend descended Tieflings are actually officially released in the SCAG book (Sword Coast adventure guide).
Crawford put out a Tweet that said that spell types are NOT considered when balancing a spell and that changing a damage type would not break the game (although if you were going into a heavy fire-resistant campaign then obviously having ice is a bigger advantage than fire. Same goes if you were in an undead campaign and had to choose between necrotic and radiant, but other than these specific cases it should not matter). So simply reskinning every spell as ice is the simplest solution. Depending on whether ALL spells are shifted or only fire spells is something to discuss and your DM can then use to his advantage and your detriment. (accept this as a consequence of your character build as long as your DM doesn't abuse it)
Or you can go all out and switch out all of your fire based spells for Ice ones instead
The official Levistus tiefling can be found in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. In addition, some of the Eldritch Invocations and a feat you'd probably want will be in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Cryomancer builds are somewhat niche, but it's doable. A good chunk of ice spells can also be found in the Elemental Evil Player's Companion, which you can get for free. Be wary of the Adventurer's League; you'll only be allowed to pick 1 book outside the PHB to build your character if you participate.
If you're running this sort of Fiend patron warlock, I'd recommend the "hit me" playstyle. Setting yourself to be easily hit while resisting damage with Blade Ward can get a lot of mileage against many of the less intelligent enemies. Armor of Agathys deals a flat 5× your spell slot level in frost damage against anything that hits you with a melee attack. Later on, you'd want to stack this with Fire Shield, likely making it into a chilled shield for more counter damage. Low AC and high constitution makes this easy.
My fiancee is playing a Levistus Tiefling warlock in Descent into Avernus and she's loving it. We even reskinned any fire spells she uses to be more of a "frostbite" than a Fire effect.
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Hello everyone. So as the title says I’m a new player, never even rolled dice in an actual adventure yet. I’ve looked the books over, tripled these forums for awhile, and pre-made a few characters, but mostly martial classes and quarter-casters, as the whole magic chapter feels...daunting sometimes.
Anyways, I was reading through the list of the Nine Hells in the DMG, and came across the Archduke Levistus. An archduke trapped in ice that communicates telepathically sounds like a perfect patron, and so I worked up the idea of a warlock based around Ice spells and freezing.
And there’s the issue: given how much the Fiend patron emphases fire with it’s expanded spells, would that make sense to take as a Patron. I’m not sure how much our DM will let us home brew, so I want to know if, rules as written, an “Ice-lock” is doable. We plan to run a few level 1 one shots, then a longer level 6 campaign. I thought of taking the variant Human and getting Magic Initiate (Wizard) to get Frost Ray, and obviously Armor of Agathys is a must, but beyond that I’m kinda stumped. Any ideas or suggestions?
p.s. I only have access to the core rule books (MM, DMG, PH), the Player’s Companion, and UA’s
Also, I currently
It should be very doable
There is a UA that give stats for a Tiefling subrace for levistus, stats as per PHB except for:
Ability Score Increase change to +2 Charisma, +1 Constitution
Replace Infernal Legacy for Legacy of Stygia.You know the ray of frostcantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the armor of Agathysspell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the darkness spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells
A icelock needs a little tweaking, mainly due to the lack of ice based spells. On the fiend spell list you could switch Burning Hands for Ice Knife but you would need Xanathatrs Guide to Everything for that one, you could just amend the fire based spells to be ice based, Burning Hands becomes Frost FIngers, Scorching Ray becomes Icicle Blast, Fireball to Snowball or switch it out for Sleet Storm You would need to find something to replace Wall of Fire though as Wall of Ice exists and is a Leve 6 spell (Ice Storm would be a good subsitute) and switch out Flamestrike for Cone fo Cold.
Rob has very interesting points but first I would like to point out that various fiend descended Tieflings are actually officially released in the SCAG book (Sword Coast adventure guide).
Crawford put out a Tweet that said that spell types are NOT considered when balancing a spell and that changing a damage type would not break the game (although if you were going into a heavy fire-resistant campaign then obviously having ice is a bigger advantage than fire. Same goes if you were in an undead campaign and had to choose between necrotic and radiant, but other than these specific cases it should not matter). So simply reskinning every spell as ice is the simplest solution. Depending on whether ALL spells are shifted or only fire spells is something to discuss and your DM can then use to his advantage and your detriment. (accept this as a consequence of your character build as long as your DM doesn't abuse it)
Or you can go all out and switch out all of your fire based spells for Ice ones instead
The official Levistus tiefling can be found in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. In addition, some of the Eldritch Invocations and a feat you'd probably want will be in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Cryomancer builds are somewhat niche, but it's doable. A good chunk of ice spells can also be found in the Elemental Evil Player's Companion, which you can get for free. Be wary of the Adventurer's League; you'll only be allowed to pick 1 book outside the PHB to build your character if you participate.
If you're running this sort of Fiend patron warlock, I'd recommend the "hit me" playstyle. Setting yourself to be easily hit while resisting damage with Blade Ward can get a lot of mileage against many of the less intelligent enemies. Armor of Agathys deals a flat 5× your spell slot level in frost damage against anything that hits you with a melee attack. Later on, you'd want to stack this with Fire Shield, likely making it into a chilled shield for more counter damage. Low AC and high constitution makes this easy.
My fiancee is playing a Levistus Tiefling warlock in Descent into Avernus and she's loving it. We even reskinned any fire spells she uses to be more of a "frostbite" than a Fire effect.