Hey, everyone! Haven't posted to the forums much, but just recently felt very satisfied with this new Warlock Pact I just created recently and wanted to share and see what people think. Tried my best to mimic the actual wording and style of DnD 5e, while still conforming to the strict rules in some ways (such as having "conjure animals" as a 10th level spell feature, but not actually, just to get the checkboxes working in the features page on a character sheet).
The whole subclass is structured mainly off of The Fathomless, which is a subclass that already has some level milestones giving a multiple amount of class features. At the risk of sounding like so many heathens that have come before me, I think this subclass is actually pretty balanced. The expanded spell list is smaller than equivalent classes, and in exchange you get a slightly broader skillset of abilities.
Anyway, below you'll find a link to the subclass. Feel free to let me know what you think or what notes you might suggest; looking to make this a class I can reasonably play myself one day, even. I feel like giant eldritch spiders fit very well as a warlock patron, and I loved exploring this idea.
Seems cool! Here's my breakdown, feel free to take what you like out of it, this is just my view on it.
Arachnid Form Not a bad ability with the AC, it fits and seems to be standard with something like a sorcerer. The problem comes with the other abilities I feel.
There should be clearer wording around how you gain the ability. It's a bit confusing currently, do you gain both or one of your choice? I'd word it something like this: In addition, choose a feature that matches your patron's arachnid origins, from Scorpion Incarnate or Wall Crawler.
Scorpion Incarnate I feel like this is a very big ability, you gain a huge tail attack that will deal lots of damage, you gain claws with an extra attack, a free bonus action grapple and grapple damage. All at level 1, in addition to two other abilities. It's a lot. I'd look over what you really want with it, remove some of the abilities, scale down the damage, limit its usage or something, or space it out over other levels.
Wall Crawler Compared to Scorpion Incarnate, this ability gives very little. You can climb around with your hands-free, but also gain an ability that lets you climb with your hands-free. Seems like an oversight and an accidental doubling up of abilities. The extra limbs are useless since you can already climb with your hands-free.
Web Weaver You gain another impactful ability at level 1. It's too much at this point, consider spacing these abilities over a few levels or removing some of them. Being able to do all these things with the web, up to three at a time and (improved) grappling many people with no limit, seems crazy. It's also confusing in the way the stacking works and doesn't have a range specified.
Gaze of the Spider Not bad. As opposed to just expertise in perception I might have instead done something with surprise, maybe you can add your Charisma modifier to perception checks? And I'd specify that if you already have darkvision, this ability improves it.
Web Warrior This similarly looks a bit overtuned. I might limit its usage, maybe using the same resource Web Weaver might use. The ability to grant disadvantage on any attack roll once per turn, no limit to webs, casting touch spells from 40 feet, and allowing multiple creatures to be targeted by a single spell, all with no resource cost? Holy smokes.
Crawling Allies I like this idea of this ability and it's pulled off nicely. There is some confusion when you bring up the conjure animals spell, I'm not sure what the reasoning is there. You could just let it be its own feature without having to psuedo-cast the spell unless you want it to be dispelled/counterspelled or something.
Web Portals Not bad, I like it.
Overall it's really strong with lots of things it can do for free that other classes would have to spend resources on. First level is especially heavy with three highly impactful abilities. Some of the features are worded a little strangely too and aren't super clear. However, the flavour and ideas in the subclass are very nice, I can clearly see what you're going for.
Harry's review is pretty solid, I'll add what I can:
I really like the theme and the powers are very evocative, but I do agree it's a bit too strong.
To put the scorpion stuff in perspective:
The tail is doing double stat damage and the claws are free Extra Attacks and most of the Tavern Brawler feat. That's a whole lot, especially at level 1.
I'd rearrange some stuff with your Scorpion/Spider paths:
Give both spider climb
Make Web Weaver the main benefit to choosing the Wall Crawler/Spider path
Start off the scorpion stuff at a lower power level and make it better at 6 when the other path is getting improved Web Weaver
Regarding Web Weaver, grappling at range is extremely powerful. The main downside of grappling is that the enemy is right there and can still attack you. I would recommend that Wrap decreases movement speed instead. Also, I don't see a range given for this.
I agree with Harry that the Web Weaver upgrade Reaction to grant disadvantage should be limited - probably to either CHA mod or prof. bonus per day. And the ability of applying a touch spell to everyone in a web is cool thematically, but potentially super, super powerful. And not even really in the intended way, I think. Looking at Warlock touch spells, your best use of this is to have the whole party stand in a web and cast fly or invisibility to potentially affect more targets than those spells can even when upcast to level 9. So I'd try to find a way to keep that thematic idea but do it in a different way. Maybe it could be ok limited to cantrips?
Crawling Allies
I think this is fine, but the wording and the way it works is kind of confusing as conjure animals already has scaling built in and it can't summon a CR3 creature. I would look at Fey Reinforcements from the Fey Wanderer path, and word it that way except with CA and the list of creatures you can summon with it, or as Harry said just make it its own thing since it surpasses the limits of CA.
Seems cool! Here's my breakdown, feel free to take what you like out of it, this is just my view on it.
Arachnid Form Not a bad ability with the AC, it fits and seems to be standard with something like a sorcerer. The problem comes with the other abilities I feel.
There should be clearer wording around how you gain the ability. It's a bit confusing currently, do you gain both or one of your choice? I'd word it something like this: In addition, choose a feature that matches your patron's arachnid origins, from Scorpion Incarnate or Wall Crawler.
Scorpion Incarnate I feel like this is a very big ability, you gain a huge tail attack that will deal lots of damage, you gain claws with an extra attack, a free bonus action grapple and grapple damage. All at level 1, in addition to two other abilities. It's a lot. I'd look over what you really want with it, remove some of the abilities, scale down the damage, limit its usage or something, or space it out over other levels.
Wall Crawler Compared to Scorpion Incarnate, this ability gives very little. You can climb around with your hands-free, but also gain an ability that lets you climb with your hands-free. Seems like an oversight and an accidental doubling up of abilities. The extra limbs are useless since you can already climb with your hands-free.
Web Weaver You gain another impactful ability at level 1. It's too much at this point, consider spacing these abilities over a few levels or removing some of them. Being able to do all these things with the web, up to three at a time and (improved) grappling many people with no limit, seems crazy. It's also confusing in the way the stacking works and doesn't have a range specified.
Gaze of the Spider Not bad. As opposed to just expertise in perception I might have instead done something with surprise, maybe you can add your Charisma modifier to perception checks? And I'd specify that if you already have darkvision, this ability improves it.
Web Warrior This similarly looks a bit overtuned. I might limit its usage, maybe using the same resource Web Weaver might use. The ability to grant disadvantage on any attack roll once per turn, no limit to webs, casting touch spells from 40 feet, and allowing multiple creatures to be targeted by a single spell, all with no resource cost? Holy smokes.
Crawling Allies I like this idea of this ability and it's pulled off nicely. There is some confusion when you bring up the conjure animals spell, I'm not sure what the reasoning is there. You could just let it be its own feature without having to psuedo-cast the spell unless you want it to be dispelled/counterspelled or something.
Web Portals Not bad, I like it.
Overall it's really strong with lots of things it can do for free that other classes would have to spend resources on. First level is especially heavy with three highly impactful abilities. Some of the features are worded a little strangely too and aren't super clear. However, the flavour and ideas in the subclass are very nice, I can clearly see what you're going for.
Appreciate the response! Always glad to get some feedback on something like this.
Arachnid Form + Choices Good point on the wording and balance between both choices. In an earlier draft, I had spider climb granted no matter what, and the choices just simply came down to having a stinger tail or the hands-available feature via spider appendages. I corrected this and added in the pincers to create a sense of balance in my mind.
My intention was to make the two choices a difference between utility and combat prowess, with the versatility of spider-climbing while still being able to cast spells and perform other attacks/actions with your hands can have a plethora of uses, while the usage of the scorpion combat abilities is limited very much so by a warlock's ability to only attack once per turn. That said, it being fully granted at 1st-level leaves it open to being an overpowered ability via multiclassing, for sure. I'll probably revise the pincers to not include the starting turn damage, or instead grant the pincers all together at a later level in the same feature: "When you reach 6th level, you gain the ability to... [pincerpincerdoyouwannagetclamped]" - Perhaps I'll just leave it at the tail, even.
To answer your question about the messy wording about Wall Crawler, I copied a word-for-word description of the Spider Climb ability, so "while your hands are free" actually is meaning to say "you can spider climb if you are not holding anything else in your hands" - this is a messy description by Wizards, but I tried to keep it consistent. Perhaps it's time to fix their clarity issues there.
Web Weaver + Web Warrior Honestly I was on the fence with the pact-slot expenditure equaling a multiplication of casting targets; I think the "Web Shot" ability could simply be moved to the 6th level spot in whole, with the removal of a reactionary forced disadvantage (although perhaps an "X times per short rest" situation may be nice).
Good note on the range not being mentioned; this is word-for-word a copy of a homebrew spell I had created called Web Shot, but DnD Beyond won't let you publish content that references either homebrew or purchased content within your homebrew pieces. My solution was instead to just put the wording of the spell in, but I mistakenly excluded a range in the wording since it was previously mentioned in the spell properties. The range on the webs shows up on character sheets as 40ft, as intended.
I think ideally, I might make the 6th-level ability the first and only unlock of the web shot ability, with no limit to the number of webs created, each fading after 10 minutes of being summoned. I may keep the ranged-touch spell delivery, but I once again admit to being on the fence with the pact-slot no-limit multicasting, now admitting that could be bonkers. I think this ranged-touch will be effectively balanced by the limiting of shooting a web taking a full action, so this ranged-touch spell delivery will need to be a coordinated effort; multitarget should definitely be gone, though.
Gaze of the Spider I think I like the aesthetic of this feature the most, but am unsure of what final ability to settle on for it. I considered surprise, but was afraid of negating the Alert feat slightly. Ignoring that concern, what are your thoughts on:
"Your arachnid form has become even more apparent, as you can now summon 6 more eyes on your face that are invisible when closed. With this new array of eyes and a heightened awareness of danger, you can now add a bonus to your Initiative that is equal to your Charisma modifier.
In addition, you can now see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. If you already have darkvision, you can instead now see see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light."
Do you know how I could code in an improvement to darkvision with the homebrew builder, by the way?
Crawling Allies
This is a messy one with the "Conjure Animals" spell, I understand 100%. The homebrew builder unfortunately won't let you match the usage of abilities' number by an ability score unless it's for a spell, so I was stuck if I wanted a checkbox tracker on character sheets. Ideally, I would've removed the entire bit about Conjure Animals, but really wanted it to work mechanically on a character sheet primarily.
Web Portals Thank you! I was 100% tempted to just call this the "Interweb", but restrained myself. lol
Harry's review is pretty solid, I'll add what I can:
I really like the theme and the powers are very evocative, but I do agree it's a bit too strong.
To put the scorpion stuff in perspective:
The tail is doing double stat damage and the claws are free Extra Attacks and most of the Tavern Brawler feat. That's a whole lot, especially at level 1.
I'd rearrange some stuff with your Scorpion/Spider paths:
Give both spider climb
Make Web Weaver the main benefit to choosing the Wall Crawler/Spider path
Start off the scorpion stuff at a lower power level and make it better at 6 when the other path is getting improved Web Weaver
Regarding Web Weaver, grappling at range is extremely powerful. The main downside of grappling is that the enemy is right there and can still attack you. I would recommend that Wrap decreases movement speed instead. Also, I don't see a range given for this.
I agree with Harry that the Web Weaver upgrade Reaction to grant disadvantage should be limited - probably to either CHA mod or prof. bonus per day. And the ability of applying a touch spell to everyone in a web is cool thematically, but potentially super, super powerful. And not even really in the intended way, I think. Looking at Warlock touch spells, your best use of this is to have the whole party stand in a web and cast fly or invisibility to potentially affect more targets than those spells can even when upcast to level 9. So I'd try to find a way to keep that thematic idea but do it in a different way. Maybe it could be ok limited to cantrips?
Crawling Allies
I think this is fine, but the wording and the way it works is kind of confusing as conjure animals already has scaling built in and it can't summon a CR3 creature. I would look at Fey Reinforcements from the Fey Wanderer path, and word it that way except with CA and the list of creatures you can summon with it, or as Harry said just make it its own thing since it surpasses the limits of CA.
Web Portals
This seems fine to me.
Thank you for the response! Glad that you both like the general theme of the subclass.
Scorpion + Arachnid Paths
This is something I was considering, and honestly this might be a cool thing to explore; two entirely different paths that split between more utility and combat. My main concern with this was that conjuring Web Portals later on wouldn't line up with the scorpion path if Web Weaving wasn't part of their abilities earlier.
I initially had spider climb granted to both, but was feeling like it might be getting a bit too powerful, as climbing on a ceiling/wall and casting eldritch blast completely out of reach I saw as a huge benefit. I'll toy around with this a bit more, as you have a good point of tavern brawler being largely negated with the claws as they currently are.
Web Weaving
Mentioned this above just now, but here it is again; this is word-for-word a copy of a homebrew spell I had created called Web Shot, but DnD Beyond won't let you publish content that references either homebrew or purchased content within your homebrew pieces. My solution was instead to just put the wording of the spell in, but I mistakenly excluded a range in the wording since it was previously mentioned in the spell properties. The range on the webs shows up on character sheets as 40ft, as intended.
I kind of like the idea of Web Weaving instead being just for a Wall Crawler path, but I once again see just a thematic issue if Web Portals is the 14th level unlock if you've been a scorpion-path character. Could easily think of something else for that, though.
As for the ranged-touch spell delivery, I'm still debating on some things with that. I feel like it somewhat balances it with needing to use a full action to cast a web shot in the first place, so a ranged-spell delivery with it then relies on either two turns or some clever coordinating. The multitarget casting of pact slots is bonkers in potential, though, so I totally see how that can be out of balance.
With the distanced grappling, you have a good point. I may either go with your idea of reducing speed, or might even give an X number of uses of a distanced grapple per long rest. It's extremely powerful, but as a limited ability could be tempered quite well, especially since they could choose to just attack/slash the 5HP webs instead of escaping the grapple on their turn. - In my head, this was the balance; when grappled up-close, you really can only attempt to escape the grapple or hope that you kill the one grappling you by chance. With only 5HP, slashing the webs off you winds up being an easier option. I was seeing the webs as not just a grapple, but a way to eat-up one or all of a creature's attacks on their turn trying to escape.
Crawling Allies
This is a messy one with the "Conjure Animals" spell, I understand 100%. The homebrew builder unfortunately won't let you match the usage of abilities' number by an ability score unless it's for a spell, so I was stuck if I wanted a checkbox tracker on character sheets. Ideally, I would've removed the entire bit about Conjure Animals, but really wanted it to work mechanically on a character sheet primarily.
If you have any ideas for how I can add checkboxed usages that are still publishable, I'd love some advice.
Web Portals
Glad you like it! Feels like something very powerful, yet also limiting by the fact that they're still webs and can easily be destroyed; also lines up around the levels that a druid would unlock teleportation via plants, so I felt like it lined up level-wise.
Feel like I nerfed it a good amount, spread out unlocks better, and also gave a lot more customization, with there now being a two-tiered progression for each designation of arachnid patron.
Feel like I nerfed it a good amount, spread out unlocks better, and also gave a lot more customization, with there now being a two-tiered progression for each designation of arachnid patron.
Hey, everyone! Haven't posted to the forums much, but just recently felt very satisfied with this new Warlock Pact I just created recently and wanted to share and see what people think. Tried my best to mimic the actual wording and style of DnD 5e, while still conforming to the strict rules in some ways (such as having "conjure animals" as a 10th level spell feature, but not actually, just to get the checkboxes working in the features page on a character sheet).
The whole subclass is structured mainly off of The Fathomless, which is a subclass that already has some level milestones giving a multiple amount of class features. At the risk of sounding like so many heathens that have come before me, I think this subclass is actually pretty balanced. The expanded spell list is smaller than equivalent classes, and in exchange you get a slightly broader skillset of abilities.
Anyway, below you'll find a link to the subclass. Feel free to let me know what you think or what notes you might suggest; looking to make this a class I can reasonably play myself one day, even. I feel like giant eldritch spiders fit very well as a warlock patron, and I loved exploring this idea.
The Arachnid: https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/1093286-the-arachnid
EDIT: Revised version: https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/1094269-the-arachnid
Seems cool! Here's my breakdown, feel free to take what you like out of it, this is just my view on it.
Arachnid Form
Not a bad ability with the AC, it fits and seems to be standard with something like a sorcerer. The problem comes with the other abilities I feel.
There should be clearer wording around how you gain the ability. It's a bit confusing currently, do you gain both or one of your choice? I'd word it something like this:
In addition, choose a feature that matches your patron's arachnid origins, from Scorpion Incarnate or Wall Crawler.
Scorpion Incarnate
I feel like this is a very big ability, you gain a huge tail attack that will deal lots of damage, you gain claws with an extra attack, a free bonus action grapple and grapple damage. All at level 1, in addition to two other abilities. It's a lot. I'd look over what you really want with it, remove some of the abilities, scale down the damage, limit its usage or something, or space it out over other levels.
Wall Crawler
Compared to Scorpion Incarnate, this ability gives very little. You can climb around with your hands-free, but also gain an ability that lets you climb with your hands-free. Seems like an oversight and an accidental doubling up of abilities. The extra limbs are useless since you can already climb with your hands-free.
Web Weaver
You gain another impactful ability at level 1. It's too much at this point, consider spacing these abilities over a few levels or removing some of them. Being able to do all these things with the web, up to three at a time and (improved) grappling many people with no limit, seems crazy. It's also confusing in the way the stacking works and doesn't have a range specified.
Gaze of the Spider
Not bad. As opposed to just expertise in perception I might have instead done something with surprise, maybe you can add your Charisma modifier to perception checks? And I'd specify that if you already have darkvision, this ability improves it.
Web Warrior
This similarly looks a bit overtuned. I might limit its usage, maybe using the same resource Web Weaver might use. The ability to grant disadvantage on any attack roll once per turn, no limit to webs, casting touch spells from 40 feet, and allowing multiple creatures to be targeted by a single spell, all with no resource cost? Holy smokes.
Crawling Allies
I like this idea of this ability and it's pulled off nicely. There is some confusion when you bring up the conjure animals spell, I'm not sure what the reasoning is there. You could just let it be its own feature without having to psuedo-cast the spell unless you want it to be dispelled/counterspelled or something.
Web Portals
Not bad, I like it.
Overall it's really strong with lots of things it can do for free that other classes would have to spend resources on. First level is especially heavy with three highly impactful abilities. Some of the features are worded a little strangely too and aren't super clear. However, the flavour and ideas in the subclass are very nice, I can clearly see what you're going for.
Harry's review is pretty solid, I'll add what I can:
I really like the theme and the powers are very evocative, but I do agree it's a bit too strong.
To put the scorpion stuff in perspective:
The tail is doing double stat damage and the claws are free Extra Attacks and most of the Tavern Brawler feat. That's a whole lot, especially at level 1.
I'd rearrange some stuff with your Scorpion/Spider paths:
Regarding Web Weaver, grappling at range is extremely powerful. The main downside of grappling is that the enemy is right there and can still attack you. I would recommend that Wrap decreases movement speed instead. Also, I don't see a range given for this.
I agree with Harry that the Web Weaver upgrade Reaction to grant disadvantage should be limited - probably to either CHA mod or prof. bonus per day. And the ability of applying a touch spell to everyone in a web is cool thematically, but potentially super, super powerful. And not even really in the intended way, I think. Looking at Warlock touch spells, your best use of this is to have the whole party stand in a web and cast fly or invisibility to potentially affect more targets than those spells can even when upcast to level 9. So I'd try to find a way to keep that thematic idea but do it in a different way. Maybe it could be ok limited to cantrips?
Crawling Allies
I think this is fine, but the wording and the way it works is kind of confusing as conjure animals already has scaling built in and it can't summon a CR3 creature. I would look at Fey Reinforcements from the Fey Wanderer path, and word it that way except with CA and the list of creatures you can summon with it, or as Harry said just make it its own thing since it surpasses the limits of CA.
Web Portals
This seems fine to me.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Appreciate the response! Always glad to get some feedback on something like this.
Arachnid Form + Choices
Good point on the wording and balance between both choices. In an earlier draft, I had spider climb granted no matter what, and the choices just simply came down to having a stinger tail or the hands-available feature via spider appendages. I corrected this and added in the pincers to create a sense of balance in my mind.
My intention was to make the two choices a difference between utility and combat prowess, with the versatility of spider-climbing while still being able to cast spells and perform other attacks/actions with your hands can have a plethora of uses, while the usage of the scorpion combat abilities is limited very much so by a warlock's ability to only attack once per turn. That said, it being fully granted at 1st-level leaves it open to being an overpowered ability via multiclassing, for sure. I'll probably revise the pincers to not include the starting turn damage, or instead grant the pincers all together at a later level in the same feature: "When you reach 6th level, you gain the ability to... [pincerpincerdoyouwannagetclamped]" - Perhaps I'll just leave it at the tail, even.
To answer your question about the messy wording about Wall Crawler, I copied a word-for-word description of the Spider Climb ability, so "while your hands are free" actually is meaning to say "you can spider climb if you are not holding anything else in your hands" - this is a messy description by Wizards, but I tried to keep it consistent. Perhaps it's time to fix their clarity issues there.
Web Weaver + Web Warrior
Honestly I was on the fence with the pact-slot expenditure equaling a multiplication of casting targets; I think the "Web Shot" ability could simply be moved to the 6th level spot in whole, with the removal of a reactionary forced disadvantage (although perhaps an "X times per short rest" situation may be nice).
Good note on the range not being mentioned; this is word-for-word a copy of a homebrew spell I had created called Web Shot, but DnD Beyond won't let you publish content that references either homebrew or purchased content within your homebrew pieces. My solution was instead to just put the wording of the spell in, but I mistakenly excluded a range in the wording since it was previously mentioned in the spell properties. The range on the webs shows up on character sheets as 40ft, as intended.
I think ideally, I might make the 6th-level ability the first and only unlock of the web shot ability, with no limit to the number of webs created, each fading after 10 minutes of being summoned. I may keep the ranged-touch spell delivery, but I once again admit to being on the fence with the pact-slot no-limit multicasting, now admitting that could be bonkers. I think this ranged-touch will be effectively balanced by the limiting of shooting a web taking a full action, so this ranged-touch spell delivery will need to be a coordinated effort; multitarget should definitely be gone, though.
Gaze of the Spider
I think I like the aesthetic of this feature the most, but am unsure of what final ability to settle on for it. I considered surprise, but was afraid of negating the Alert feat slightly. Ignoring that concern, what are your thoughts on:
"Your arachnid form has become even more apparent, as you can now summon 6 more eyes on your face that are invisible when closed. With this new array of eyes and a heightened awareness of danger, you can now add a bonus to your Initiative that is equal to your Charisma modifier.
In addition, you can now see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. If you already have darkvision, you can instead now see see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light."
Do you know how I could code in an improvement to darkvision with the homebrew builder, by the way?
Crawling Allies
This is a messy one with the "Conjure Animals" spell, I understand 100%. The homebrew builder unfortunately won't let you match the usage of abilities' number by an ability score unless it's for a spell, so I was stuck if I wanted a checkbox tracker on character sheets. Ideally, I would've removed the entire bit about Conjure Animals, but really wanted it to work mechanically on a character sheet primarily.
Web Portals
Thank you! I was 100% tempted to just call this the "Interweb", but restrained myself. lol
Thank you for the response! Glad that you both like the general theme of the subclass.
Scorpion + Arachnid Paths
This is something I was considering, and honestly this might be a cool thing to explore; two entirely different paths that split between more utility and combat. My main concern with this was that conjuring Web Portals later on wouldn't line up with the scorpion path if Web Weaving wasn't part of their abilities earlier.
I initially had spider climb granted to both, but was feeling like it might be getting a bit too powerful, as climbing on a ceiling/wall and casting eldritch blast completely out of reach I saw as a huge benefit. I'll toy around with this a bit more, as you have a good point of tavern brawler being largely negated with the claws as they currently are.
Web Weaving
Mentioned this above just now, but here it is again; this is word-for-word a copy of a homebrew spell I had created called Web Shot, but DnD Beyond won't let you publish content that references either homebrew or purchased content within your homebrew pieces. My solution was instead to just put the wording of the spell in, but I mistakenly excluded a range in the wording since it was previously mentioned in the spell properties. The range on the webs shows up on character sheets as 40ft, as intended.
I kind of like the idea of Web Weaving instead being just for a Wall Crawler path, but I once again see just a thematic issue if Web Portals is the 14th level unlock if you've been a scorpion-path character. Could easily think of something else for that, though.
As for the ranged-touch spell delivery, I'm still debating on some things with that. I feel like it somewhat balances it with needing to use a full action to cast a web shot in the first place, so a ranged-spell delivery with it then relies on either two turns or some clever coordinating. The multitarget casting of pact slots is bonkers in potential, though, so I totally see how that can be out of balance.
With the distanced grappling, you have a good point. I may either go with your idea of reducing speed, or might even give an X number of uses of a distanced grapple per long rest. It's extremely powerful, but as a limited ability could be tempered quite well, especially since they could choose to just attack/slash the 5HP webs instead of escaping the grapple on their turn. - In my head, this was the balance; when grappled up-close, you really can only attempt to escape the grapple or hope that you kill the one grappling you by chance. With only 5HP, slashing the webs off you winds up being an easier option. I was seeing the webs as not just a grapple, but a way to eat-up one or all of a creature's attacks on their turn trying to escape.
Crawling Allies
This is a messy one with the "Conjure Animals" spell, I understand 100%. The homebrew builder unfortunately won't let you match the usage of abilities' number by an ability score unless it's for a spell, so I was stuck if I wanted a checkbox tracker on character sheets. Ideally, I would've removed the entire bit about Conjure Animals, but really wanted it to work mechanically on a character sheet primarily.
If you have any ideas for how I can add checkboxed usages that are still publishable, I'd love some advice.
Web Portals
Glad you like it! Feels like something very powerful, yet also limiting by the fact that they're still webs and can easily be destroyed; also lines up around the levels that a druid would unlock teleportation via plants, so I felt like it lined up level-wise.
Have made a few changes that I'm pretty happy with! Curious to know what you think about the new revision. https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/1094269-the-arachnid
Feel like I nerfed it a good amount, spread out unlocks better, and also gave a lot more customization, with there now being a two-tiered progression for each designation of arachnid patron.
Have made a few changes that I'm pretty happy with! Curious to know what you think about the new revision. https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/1094269-the-arachnid
Feel like I nerfed it a good amount, spread out unlocks better, and also gave a lot more customization, with there now being a two-tiered progression for each designation of arachnid patron.