Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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The new background pact seeker allows you as your origin feat to pick a pact feat. Which includes
Stats con, int, chr.
A pact feat.
Arcana and persuasion
calligraphers tools
some basic gear or 50 gold
infernal pact gives resistance to fire/poison, see in dim light or darkness as normal 60 feet even magical darkness, deception skill
fey pact seems a bit more balanced, a language, nature skill druidcraft and one divination or enchantment cantrip and once per day can reroll a persuasion/deception check when you roll 5 or less.
infernal pact as a origin feat seems kind of insane. technically not origin so a human can't take it as their second, but whatever.
I don't know seems a bit unbalanced to me for what is effectively a origin feat. slight knock as well since I want a goo one, but so be it
Yeah. That's busted. I am not shelling out for subscription content so I can't see the exact text. Is it a choice of one of those resistances or both resistances? Even one resistance plus a barely toned down version of the Devil's Sight invocation and a Charisma-based skill? That's bonkers. This is pretty much an autopick for every Warlock from a purely optimization perspective.
Fey Pact is also strong, just not as strong. Instead of Skilled or Magic Initiate, you get 2 cantrips, a language, a skill, and a skill reroll. Nature skill and, particularly, Druidcraft are weak options here, but I would still say it needs to be cut back. I feel like you are still getting 2/3rds of 2 origin feats.
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My houserulings.
As someone who is always a day late and an euro short, what are you talking about?
Where are pact feats? Is this warlock related?
apparently beyond subscription exclusive content called D&D drops. don't know if its limited to a certain tier or all subscriptions. But they are giving exclusive content there. I'd be more sold on it as a perk if i thought it was balanced. Going into a game where it would totally fit my character conceptually as he is a warlock, but Id feel almost icky taking something that powerful for a origin feat even if the DM allowed it.
its both resistances, you do not have to choose. And even non warlocks who can figure out how that background fits into their character would want that. I was in a cult searching for power, who knew the power was within me all the time sorcerer.
That's crazy.
With the current conditions at WotC it's not surprising that the quality is falling.
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My houserulings.
I'm not so sure this may be normal power creep. The dragon mark feats offer a bucket load of spells and really good perks like a resistance or movement boost.
I will also point out infernal constitution used to be a tiefling racial feat that gave two resistances. These are 100% strong but I have to question if broken.
While the Dragonmark feats can be obtained at level 1, they are not origin feats.
The Dragonmark feats give +1d4 to two checks. One gives +5 Speed instead of this bonus. They also give two cantrips and then another spell at character level 3. Mark of Storm replaces one cantrip with Lighting resistance and Mark of Making gives a level 2 spell instead of one of the cantrips and the spell at character level 3. The "bucket load of spells" are added to your class spell list but not prepared or castable unless you prepare it normally per your class/subclass.
Getting two resistances is crazy good, particularly when they are Fire and Poison, arguably the two best resistances in D&D. On top of that, you get a Level 2 Warlock Invocation (Devil's Sight) at 60 feet instead of 120 feet and an extra skill proficiency. If it's officially an Origin Feat, a Human can (and probably will) pick it as their Versatile Origin Feat.
D&D Beyond Drops are pay to win and Infernal Pact is broken.
Infernal Constitution was a level 4+ feat that was only available to Tieflings, gave resistance to Poison and Cold, +1 Con, and advantage on saving throws against being poisoned. Infernal Pact is stronger than Infernal Constitution by a long shot.
It's amazing for everyone, but a Warlock without Darkvision can skip one Invocation, effectively getting Devil's Sight from a background.
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My houserulings.
I put the mark feats down to a setting specific power creep, that setting has over powered for other campaign characters. And the marks are supposed to be setting balanced by social issues.
I agree with everything else, but maybe I was not clear as these are similar to dragon mark feats in that they come with a background but are not labeled origin feats. So they can't be taken with the warlock invocation and a human can't take them as their second feat. But the background comes with 2 solid skills, good for all non wisdom caster stats and a tool proficiency. So its not like they skimped in the other background parts to balance the better feat. So it makes it the no brainer background choice for all warlocks, and heck most int/chr casters and quite a few people where int/chr wont be their dump stat.
And whats more is they also have level 4 upgrade feats like dragonmark feats all of which are pretty good. One of them lets you add your charisma to your Ac if you are unarmored, free casting of armor of agythys at 2nd level, and when you make a save you can use a reaction to burn whoever forced the save.
A 2nd feat that givers you a fear aura, a once a day +2 to a test, and magic weapon but when cast without a slot it lasts 8 hours.(damn near perfect for pact of the blade caster)
The fey improv feat gives a once a day invisibility reaction when someone misses you, entangle free cast, plant growth free cast(i get it fits but archfey locks already get it as a known spell so one free cast is not as big of a deal), and a half move teleport as a dash.(id really want a bonus action dash with that)
And for all the spells they can be cast using slots as well.
While I agree that infernal pact is unbalanced, in that it offers benefits greater than the standard feats one can get from a background, "broken" is a significant overstatement. A character with it is somewhat better than one without; they don't dominate the game.
I'm also not worried about people taking it just for the bennies; unless "I have made an infernal pact" is part of your character concept, you're not gonna take a background which says "you've made an infernal pact". It's going to be the fiend warlock players taking it.
And yes, there are people who take it because it gives the most plusses. I am unconcerned with them.
And "pay to win" is nonsense. You cannot win D&D, and the character builder options in drops wouldn't help you do it. I dislike their not being shared, but that's because I think everybody should have the same set of options at the table for fun reasons, and making the DM jump through hoops with the homebrew system to let that happen is dumb.
When you said,"as your origin feat", you meant that instead of an Origin Feat, you get a choice of Pact Feat which is not an Origin Feat? Got it. Marginally better, I guess.
I was more concerned with not taking Devil's Sight when you otherwise would and effectively having 11 invocations at levels 18-20, even if one of those "invocations" is slightly weaker than the standard version.
Oh god. A constant + Charisma to AC at the cost of a feat choice? You will have a host a streaking Hexblades. Does the feat do all of that or are those different feats? Wait. Is it a bonus, not an AC formula? Mage Armor doesn't count as armored. AC 13 + Dexterity + Charisma. That's crazy. Multiclass as College of the Dance Bard and have an AC of Dexterity + Charisma + Charisma! Is that right?
I am not paying for the content, so I have to assess it based on the secondhand knowledge as provided. My assessment differs from yours. The two best damage resistances, an excellent invocation even if you already have Darkvision, and an excellent skill proficiency. This "Pact Feat" is too good. The damage resistance alone will cause the character to outshine other players, particularly if you stack it with other sources of resistance. A Chthonic Tiefling with this background would have resistance to Fire, Poison, and Necrotic damage. If they are then Celestial, Genie (other than efreeti), or Fathomless Warlocks, they gain a 4th resistance. You could layer on a Paladin and some of the Subclasses give additional resistances.
Being unusually tanky isn't as flashy as dealing unusually high damage, but it still creates the situation where enemies have to be more potent to challenge the character in question and create a greater hazard to the rest of the party. Being ridiculously hard to damage is outshining the other players and dominating the game... and a lot of that is coming from a single starter feat.
You are placing mechanics on the feat to make it balanced/less unbalanced. If you have to house rule a feat to make it "balanced", it's not balanced.
It's pay to win in the sense that you have subscriber exclusive rewards that are significantly stronger than other options. Subscribe or be left behind. I see this as inherently as part of their stated goal of driving D&D digital by providing overpowered digital only rewards.
I will not be participating.
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My houserulings.
infernal bulwark 4th level need infernal pat.
+1 to con or charisma
devils flesh: while you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a Shield, your base Armor Class equals 10 plus your Dexterity modifier plus the modifier of the ability increased by this feat. so its a base AC thing it wont work with mage armor etc.
Infernal protection always have armor of agathys prepared can cast ones without a slot, when cast without a slot its cast at 2nd level and does fire damage instead of cold.
vengeful surge prof bonus times a day when someone within 60 feet that you can see forces you to make a save which you succeed at, you can use a reaction to cause 1d10 damage.
so a + 1 to an attribute and 3 features 1 of which is great for the intended class, 1 is decent a free known spell cast for free once a day, and 1 is kind of weak but if you have the reaction minds as well use it.
Meh. It's better than mage armor once you get your stat up, but not that much. Is up to +2 AC worth the cost of a feat? Probably with the other benefits, but it's not out of line.
You have a very expansive definition of "outshine".
If it was one damage resistance, I wouldn't be bothered by it in the slightest. The other two things are nice, but not amazing.
?
I'm doing no such thing. I'm just not expecting anyone to take it unless their character concept is "fiend warlock" or "fiend warlock flavored (other class)". And nothing like all the fiend warlocks will take it either, because that's how character concepts work. (And also because the feat chain overlaps with warlock stuff so much. I suspect it's actually going to be more interesting to players who want warlock-lite flavor.)
Crafter: You can make a torch for free!
Infernal Pact: You're resistant to two damage types, you get a Warlock eldritch invocation, and you get a skill proficiency!
Pretty ridiculous if the Pact feats are supposed to be origin feats.
Please explain how to "win" D&D. I've been playing for decades and haven't won yet
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Ah, so it's an AC formula not an AC Bonus. That's better, but I can't think of another feat that would be equivalent. That's still very strong. Normally, that's something that you would dip into a class, like Bard or Paladin, for and sacrificing some of your class progression.
That's no surprise.
However, "pay to win" is the concept of buying powerful features/power ups outside of the normal game play and gaining an advantage not available to other players. In this case, locking overpowered features behind a D&D Beyond subscription constitutes creating a pay to win (subscribe to win) model. This also increases the WotC's competition with brick-and-mortar stores.
If you're okay with that, you do you. I am not supporting D&D Drops or any D&D Beyond subscription level. If it's not a physical product purchased at a brick-and-mortar store, I'm not buying it and it's not allowed at my table unless it's free content.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Oh my sweet summer child, I am quite familiar with the concept of "pay to win". More familiar than you, apparently, if you think it's remotely applicable to TTRPGs
Does a player "win D&D" if they show up at the table with a character that is significantly more optimized for combat than the rest of the party? Or do they just create a less enjoyable game, as the DM scrambles to create encounters that are still fun for everyone?
Good luck to you though, in your extremely principled stance of... doing exactly what every other DM does by determining what options are and are not available to your players in your game
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)