I’m slightly confused by the whole concept of a coffelock. Surely the line ‘You can never have more sorcery points than shown in the table for your class’ (ie maximum of 5 for a fifth-level sorcerer at any point) makes the class just above the verge of broken, just being able to regain some sorcerer spell slots on a short rest - a feat which wizards are already capable of doing through Arcane Recovery. Am I missing something, or is this just not as good as it seems?
I’m slightly confused by the whole concept of a coffelock. Surely the line ‘You can never have more sorcery points than shown in the table for your class’ (ie maximum of 5 for a fifth-level sorcerer at any point) makes the class just above the verge of broken, just being able to regain some sorcerer spell slots on a short rest - a feat which wizards are already capable of doing through Arcane Recovery. Am I missing something, or is this just not as good as it seems?
The value of a Coffeelock is in creating a lot of extra spell slots by chaining short rests instead of taking a long rest. If your first level is in Sorcerer, you'll be proficient in Constitution saves, so if you also have a good Constitution score, you can normally take long rests, then for the entire day before a boss fight, or a dungeon crawl, you can chain short rests to begin the next day for a lot of extra spell slots, and with your Constitution Save Modifier, you have a very good chance of passing the DC10 Constitution Save to avoid any negative effects for skipping the night's rest.
You can also play as a race that long rests in 4 hours, so sort of like a mini-coffeelock, you can chain 4 short rests every day, after completing a long rest, giving you a few extra spell slots every day.
I’m slightly confused by the whole concept of a coffelock. Surely the line ‘You can never have more sorcery points than shown in the table for your class’ (ie maximum of 5 for a fifth-level sorcerer at any point) makes the class just above the verge of broken, just being able to regain some sorcerer spell slots on a short rest - a feat which wizards are already capable of doing through Arcane Recovery. Am I missing something, or is this just not as good as it seems?
Sorcery points are limited to the number in the table. However, spell slots are NOT. This is the key rule that leads to a coffeelock.
A warlock has spell slots that refresh on a short rest. These can be converted into sorcery points, limited to the maximum number in the sorcerer table. These sorcery points can then be converted to spell slots. Spell slots only reset to the number in the table after a long rest when resources are restored.
A coffeelock works by taking 8 short rests instead of a long rest and not long resting at all, ever, if possible. Not taking a long rest could result in increasing levels of exhaustion. However, greater restoration can be used to cure a level of exhaustion (there are probably other ways to avoid the exhaustion issue).
So by the time a coffeelock (3 warlock/9 divine soul sorcerer) reaches 12th level they can cast greater restoration on themselves every day to avoid the exhaustion consequences of not taking a long rest. (Divine soul also has access to the healing spells needed to restore hit points without using hit die). This particular build will generate 4 sorcery points every short rest by using the warlock short rest spell slots. They can have a maximum of 9 sorcery points stored. A 5th level spell slot costs 7 sorcery points. After two short rests, the coffeelock has recovered the 5th level slot needed for greater restoration.
8 short rests generates 32 sorcery points. This could be 4x 5th level spell slots and maybe 2x 1st level slots - which are in addition to any other spell slots the character has. As long as the character doesn't take a long rest, the spell slots keep building up. After a week (7 days) of downtime, the coffeelock could have 28 extra 5th level slots and 14 extra 1st level slots. Unlike any other caster, the coffeelock could cast a 5th level spell, every round of every combat, pretty much every day and not run out. This is why it becomes a potential balance issue. A 12th level wizard has at most 2 x 5th level spell slots each day, a coffeelock that takes a few weeks off will have a practically unlimited number of 1st to 5th level spell slots. Luckily, the sorcerer can't replace 6th to 9th level spell slots this way. (Note: The extra spell slots can be cycled BACK to sorcery points whenever needed so that the sorcerer also has an effectively unlimited number of sorcery points for meta magic).
At lower levels, exhaustion may put a practical limit on how many long rests can be missed before it becomes an issue. In addition, the coffeelock-lite which combines a 4 hour long rest with 4 short rests could still generate 8 (for 2 levels of warlock) or 16 (for 3 levels of warlock) extra sorcery points for spell slots each day. Depending on the sorcerer level, it could be a few extra 3rd and 4th level spell slots or 8 extra 1st level spell slots. Probably not game breaking, especially since they had to multiclass to do this and thus sacrifice at least 2 levels of spell slot progression compared to a single class.
Finally, since the DM is always in charge of their game, whether a DM allows a player to take multiple short rests in a row instead of a long rest is entirely up to the DM. They don't have to do so. So, if you want to build a character around this concept then it is worthwhile chatting to the DM to see what they think and if they would allow it to work.
When I built mine, my DM ruled I could do it twice per day, since two short rests per day were realistically (in our game) the most you'd get any real benefit from. This has put a strong limit on usage, keeping it far more balanced with the other seven party members.
I’m slightly confused by the whole concept of a coffelock. Surely the line ‘You can never have more sorcery points than shown in the table for your class’ (ie maximum of 5 for a fifth-level sorcerer at any point) makes the class just above the verge of broken, just being able to regain some sorcerer spell slots on a short rest - a feat which wizards are already capable of doing through Arcane Recovery. Am I missing something, or is this just not as good as it seems?
The value of a Coffeelock is in creating a lot of extra spell slots by chaining short rests instead of taking a long rest. If your first level is in Sorcerer, you'll be proficient in Constitution saves, so if you also have a good Constitution score, you can normally take long rests, then for the entire day before a boss fight, or a dungeon crawl, you can chain short rests to begin the next day for a lot of extra spell slots, and with your Constitution Save Modifier, you have a very good chance of passing the DC10 Constitution Save to avoid any negative effects for skipping the night's rest.
You can also play as a race that long rests in 4 hours, so sort of like a mini-coffeelock, you can chain 4 short rests every day, after completing a long rest, giving you a few extra spell slots every day.
Sorcery points are limited to the number in the table. However, spell slots are NOT. This is the key rule that leads to a coffeelock.
A warlock has spell slots that refresh on a short rest. These can be converted into sorcery points, limited to the maximum number in the sorcerer table. These sorcery points can then be converted to spell slots. Spell slots only reset to the number in the table after a long rest when resources are restored.
A coffeelock works by taking 8 short rests instead of a long rest and not long resting at all, ever, if possible. Not taking a long rest could result in increasing levels of exhaustion. However, greater restoration can be used to cure a level of exhaustion (there are probably other ways to avoid the exhaustion issue).
So by the time a coffeelock (3 warlock/9 divine soul sorcerer) reaches 12th level they can cast greater restoration on themselves every day to avoid the exhaustion consequences of not taking a long rest. (Divine soul also has access to the healing spells needed to restore hit points without using hit die). This particular build will generate 4 sorcery points every short rest by using the warlock short rest spell slots. They can have a maximum of 9 sorcery points stored. A 5th level spell slot costs 7 sorcery points. After two short rests, the coffeelock has recovered the 5th level slot needed for greater restoration.
8 short rests generates 32 sorcery points. This could be 4x 5th level spell slots and maybe 2x 1st level slots - which are in addition to any other spell slots the character has. As long as the character doesn't take a long rest, the spell slots keep building up. After a week (7 days) of downtime, the coffeelock could have 28 extra 5th level slots and 14 extra 1st level slots. Unlike any other caster, the coffeelock could cast a 5th level spell, every round of every combat, pretty much every day and not run out. This is why it becomes a potential balance issue. A 12th level wizard has at most 2 x 5th level spell slots each day, a coffeelock that takes a few weeks off will have a practically unlimited number of 1st to 5th level spell slots. Luckily, the sorcerer can't replace 6th to 9th level spell slots this way. (Note: The extra spell slots can be cycled BACK to sorcery points whenever needed so that the sorcerer also has an effectively unlimited number of sorcery points for meta magic).
At lower levels, exhaustion may put a practical limit on how many long rests can be missed before it becomes an issue. In addition, the coffeelock-lite which combines a 4 hour long rest with 4 short rests could still generate 8 (for 2 levels of warlock) or 16 (for 3 levels of warlock) extra sorcery points for spell slots each day. Depending on the sorcerer level, it could be a few extra 3rd and 4th level spell slots or 8 extra 1st level spell slots. Probably not game breaking, especially since they had to multiclass to do this and thus sacrifice at least 2 levels of spell slot progression compared to a single class.
Finally, since the DM is always in charge of their game, whether a DM allows a player to take multiple short rests in a row instead of a long rest is entirely up to the DM. They don't have to do so. So, if you want to build a character around this concept then it is worthwhile chatting to the DM to see what they think and if they would allow it to work.
Right, thanks. Makes a lot more sense now.
When I built mine, my DM ruled I could do it twice per day, since two short rests per day were realistically (in our game) the most you'd get any real benefit from. This has put a strong limit on usage, keeping it far more balanced with the other seven party members.
dont allow an elf coffeelock they don't need long rests and only sleep for 4 hours on a long rest