Let me know what you all think of this and where it should be improved upon. I'm liking the concept but I'm not that experienced of a player and am worried about balance issues.
Warlock Patron: Soul Broker
When you choose this Warlock Patron, you must decide if your patron deal was with either a Devil or a Demon. Warlocks, who have chosen a Soul Broker for a Patron, have sold your soul and gained power. The exact details should be spoken about with your DM. You specialize in a damage type determined by your Patron.
Devil: Fire damage typing
Demon: Cold damage typing
You will gain the below benefits from choosing this warlock subclass.
Soul-Bound Spells & Expanded Warlock Spell List
You may choose from the following spells when determining your class spell list and each spell counts as a spell or cantrip known.
Spare the Dying (Cantrip)
Thorn Whip (Cantrip)
Vicious Mockery (Cantrip)
Fog Cloud (1)
Find Steed (2)
Devil Patron- Fireball (3)
Demon Patron – Sleet Storm (3)
Devil Patron – Wall of Fire (4)
Demon Patron – Ice Storm (4)
Planar Binding (5)
In addition to the Expanded Spell List, some of your spells may be forever altered. The following spells benefit from the Soul-Bound Spell affect, this means that the damage typing or theme of the spell is altered to the damage typing specified by the Patron type you chose. Eldritch Blast and Thorn Whip now have your Patrons damage type, replacing the type listed in the Player’s Handbook for each Cantrip. Also, if you have the Find Familiar spell, when you cast the spell you may summon either a Flame Specter (Devil Patron) or Ice Wraith (Demon Patron), however they do not have any abilities other than that mentioned in the spells description in the Player’s Handbook.
Form of the Soulless
At first level, as an action, you may transform into a skeletal creature of your race. When you do so you gain the following benefits:
Temporary Hit Points equal to 2 times your Warlock level.
Unarmored Defense: Your armor class when you are not wearing any armor or a a shield is now equal to 11+ your dexterity modifier + your charisma modifier.
You are also resistant to piercing and slashing damage from non-magical weapons and damage from your Patron’s damage type.
The form lasts for 1 minute at 1 level, 10 minutes at 6 level, 1 hour at 10 level and 4 hours at 14 level or until cancelled.
You may use this ability a number of times equal to your charisma modifier per long rest.
Soulless Symbiosis
At sixth level, when you use Form of the Soulless your form now takes on aspects of Fire (Devil) or Ice (Demon). Your entire skeletal body is now wreathed in flame or chunked with frost and ice and because of this you are immune to your patron’s damage type and your weapon attacks and unarmed strikes damage type changes to your Patron’s damage type. You also may use Charisma, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for attack and damage rolls for all weapons you are proficient with and unarmed strikes.
In addition to this, if you know the Find Steed spell and the Find Familiar spell, when you have your Steed and your Familiar summoned at the one time, your Familiar disappears and is one being with your Steed, becoming the Other Planar Steed, and takes on the same Skeletal and elemental appearance that you do while you are using the Form of the Soulless. Your steed now serves as both your Steed and Familiar from each spell, is immune to your patron’s damage type and benefits from any additional changes from Warlock Invocations.
Vengeance of the Soul-Bound
At tenth level, you gain expertise in 2 skills you are proficient with or choose to gain 2 additional proficiencies of your choice.
While using Form of the Soulless, you are now immune to piercing and slashing damage from non-magical weapons. Additionally, when you make a weapon attack or unarmed strike, you may add 1d6 of your Patron’s damage type to your damage rolls, increasing to 2d6 at level 14.
Unstoppable Might
At fourteenth level, when your Form of the Soulless ends and you are not at 0 hit points already, you heal yourself for all your lost hit points.
Is this based on some character or other media? Because there are definitely some neat ideas here, but I don't really understand the connections between them. Why is your "Soulless form" as skeleton? What does that have to do with devils or demons?
Self-Transformation is usually a druid thing, so I could totally see this as a really cool druid subclass based around bones & curses and undead - like an evil version of the Spore Druid.
But I digress, giving non-paladins Find Steed is generally frowned upon - mounts are kind of what make them special, and I don't understand why I would want to merge my familiar with my steed? They give different benefits that one could want at the same time.
But I guess my big question is "What's the theme?" What does this warlock do that is different from the Fiend or the Undead warlock? What makes it warlock-y? What is it's role in the party? Is it supposed to be a melee-tank? because when I think of a melee-tank I don't think of a skeleton...
Is this based on some character or other media? Because there are definitely some neat ideas here, but I don't really understand the connections between them. Why is your "Soulless form" as skeleton? What does that have to do with devils or demons?
Self-Transformation is usually a druid thing, so I could totally see this as a really cool druid subclass based around bones & curses and undead - like an evil version of the Spore Druid.
But I digress, giving non-paladins Find Steed is generally frowned upon - mounts are kind of what make them special, and I don't understand why I would want to merge my familiar with my steed? They give different benefits that one could want at the same time.
But I guess my big question is "What's the theme?" What does this warlock do that is different from the Fiend or the Undead warlock? What makes it warlock-y? What is it's role in the party? Is it supposed to be a melee-tank? because when I think of a melee-tank I don't think of a skeleton...
So the theme was ghost rider. I wanted to give warlocks better self defense and allow a sublcass where the pact that you make has more influence and benefits. If you chose tome, your spellcasting is well supported to the theme, if your pact is chain then you get a new type of mounted combat, if your pact is blade then it feels well supported as you progress the character. I'm not sure what you mean by tank since d&d doesn't have much support for taunts and this subclass has none.
By tank I mean that almost all the features focus on defense and survivability. There isn't any : out of combat utility, nor much in the way of offense, nor any extra maneuverability, nor much enhancement of spellcasting etc... Almost all features focus on just survivability, and not even things like saving throws, just pure HP & damage mitigation.
By tank I mean that almost all the features focus on defense and survivability. There isn't any : out of combat utility, nor much in the way of offense, nor any extra maneuverability, nor much enhancement of spellcasting etc... Almost all features focus on just survivability, and not even things like saving throws, just pure HP & damage mitigation.
Would you recommend anything to help build it up? Like another saving throw proficiency or perhaps advantage on a saving throw?
Ooooh... ghost rider. I get it now, makes a lot more sense, flaming skeletal form, with a horse as your motorcycle. Ok so ghost rider is kind of a bounty-hunter type if I remember correctly? Hm... looking at the wiki they look like hybrids between paladins & warlocks thematically...
Ok some suggestions:
1. Pact Spells are always 2 spells of each spell level from spell level 1-5, and don't include cantrips. Since you want this subclass to build off of different pacts I'd leave the extra cantrips you added out of the subclass and let people take those by taking the Pact of the Tome, then you can add a feature that changes the damage type of EB and any cantrip in your Pact of the Tome to Ice/Fire. Remember warlocks don't automatically get their pact spells, so you can give them both the Devil & Demon options at 3rd & 4th level and let them pick which one they want based on their theme. Pact Spells 1 = Fog Cloud, Hideous Laughter 2 = Find Steed, Dragon's Breath (this gives a fire/cold blast spell earlier) 3 = Fireball, Sleet Storm 4 = Wall of Fire, Ice Storm 5 = Planar Binding, Magic Circle
2. Soulless Form has weird scaling - since one of the main benefits is temporary hit points as a player I don't think I want it to last 4 hours I want more uses of it to get more temporary hitpoints, and it's also odd to include Unarmoured Defense in a feature that has to be activated because it takes a long time to don/doff armour, so I don't know why this warlock would ever be wandering around with no armour on before activating Soulless Form. Resistance to most types of physical damage is already very potent, so I don't think you need much else here. - not everything has to scale all the time, you've got scaling temporary hit points, you don't need the time to scale as well.
Maybe make the Soulless Form give resistance to slash/pierce + level temporary hit points + Adv on Intimidation checks.
3. For Soulless Symbiosis: I have no idea what "Your steed now serves as both your Steed and Familiar from each spell" means mechanically? If I have an Imp familiar can my horse now turn invisible? - if not this is actually a bad thing for me. For Pact of the Blade, magical weapon damage is better than fire/cold so it's actually a bit of a bad thing to gain this feature. This also seems in conflict with adding Find Steed as an extended spell because you get them automatically from this feature.
You could do a "different thing for each pact" here:
give Blade Pact the option to make their weapon do the elemental damage and use of CHA for attacks/damage or a 1/turn bonus 1d8 elemental damage on top of their weapon damage while Soulless.
give Tome advantage on all Intelligence checks related to fiends, and undead and a 1/SR ability to force one creature to have disadvantage on a save against a spell they cast.
give Chain the ability to have their familiar deal elemental damage and have their familiar gain the same damage resistances as the warlock does from Soulless.
4. Immunity to non-magical slashing & piercing is insanely powerful - much more powerful than your 18th level feature - it should be the 18th level feature not something anyone should get at level 10.
Instead I'd just give them unlimited uses of Soulless Form / Soulless Form never runs out.
5. Vengeance of the Soul-Bound synergizes incredibly well with Pact of the Blade since they get an invocation that lets them add 1d6 necrotic damage to their attacks which stacks with the 1d6/2d6 from this feature, and they can cast Spirit Shroud to add another 2d8 damage to every melee attack for an absolute pile of damage.
Maybe instead let them change the damage of any spell they cast to their Patron's damage type, and add their CHA bonus once to spells they cast that deal damage of their Patron's type.
If you're trying to build off of pact boons I'd make that explicit because a warlock can get a familiar in many different ways not just Pact of the Chain - Book of Ancient Secrets, Magic Initiate, Ritual Caster.
PS not all pacts are supported here. Tome gets very little and Chain is actively discouraged, Pact of the Blade is basically mandatory to get the most out of the subclass.
Saw the Ghost Rider theme when reading for sure! Lol.
Instead of thorn whip, which Warlocks don’t normally get access to, why not lightning lure? It’s besically the same thing only more elemental in nature, making it more fitting for substitution in typing.
I do agree warlocks don’t usually get free cantrips in that way, but I do know Celestial Warlocks automatically get light and sacred fire. I’m not any good with home-brewing, so how you pull this off with lighting lure or whichever ones you choose is beyond me.
I’m not sure how to balance out the other pacts any better, but even if you can’t or don’t it’s bot the end of the world. Hexblade typically revolves around the Pact of the Blade anyway, unless you are just doing it for the armor boost. I recognize you were trying to do a barbarian/monk thing eith the no armor, which kind of mimics Hexblade access to medium armor and shields. I think you are the right track at least. If anything it’s just then a matter of how you convince others to not just dip for the unarmored defenses like so many do with hexblade. Delaying turning your Charisma into your melee attack stat helps with that some. So long as it’s’ balanced.
Everything beyond that is just balancing, which you have already gotten some great advice for.
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Let me know what you all think of this and where it should be improved upon. I'm liking the concept but I'm not that experienced of a player and am worried about balance issues.
Warlock Patron: Soul Broker
When you choose this Warlock Patron, you must decide if your patron deal was with either a Devil or a Demon. Warlocks, who have chosen a Soul Broker for a Patron, have sold your soul and gained power. The exact details should be spoken about with your DM. You specialize in a damage type determined by your Patron.
Devil: Fire damage typing
Demon: Cold damage typing
You will gain the below benefits from choosing this warlock subclass.
Soul-Bound Spells & Expanded Warlock Spell List
You may choose from the following spells when determining your class spell list and each spell counts as a spell or cantrip known.
Spare the Dying (Cantrip)
Thorn Whip (Cantrip)
Vicious Mockery (Cantrip)
Fog Cloud (1)
Find Steed (2)
Devil Patron- Fireball (3)
Demon Patron – Sleet Storm (3)
Devil Patron – Wall of Fire (4)
Demon Patron – Ice Storm (4)
Planar Binding (5)
In addition to the Expanded Spell List, some of your spells may be forever altered. The following spells benefit from the Soul-Bound Spell affect, this means that the damage typing or theme of the spell is altered to the damage typing specified by the Patron type you chose. Eldritch Blast and Thorn Whip now have your Patrons damage type, replacing the type listed in the Player’s Handbook for each Cantrip. Also, if you have the Find Familiar spell, when you cast the spell you may summon either a Flame Specter (Devil Patron) or Ice Wraith (Demon Patron), however they do not have any abilities other than that mentioned in the spells description in the Player’s Handbook.
Form of the Soulless
At first level, as an action, you may transform into a skeletal creature of your race. When you do so you gain the following benefits:
Temporary Hit Points equal to 2 times your Warlock level.
Unarmored Defense: Your armor class when you are not wearing any armor or a a shield is now equal to 11+ your dexterity modifier + your charisma modifier.
You are also resistant to piercing and slashing damage from non-magical weapons and damage from your Patron’s damage type.
The form lasts for 1 minute at 1 level, 10 minutes at 6 level, 1 hour at 10 level and 4 hours at 14 level or until cancelled.
You may use this ability a number of times equal to your charisma modifier per long rest.
Soulless Symbiosis
At sixth level, when you use Form of the Soulless your form now takes on aspects of Fire (Devil) or Ice (Demon). Your entire skeletal body is now wreathed in flame or chunked with frost and ice and because of this you are immune to your patron’s damage type and your weapon attacks and unarmed strikes damage type changes to your Patron’s damage type. You also may use Charisma, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for attack and damage rolls for all weapons you are proficient with and unarmed strikes.
In addition to this, if you know the Find Steed spell and the Find Familiar spell, when you have your Steed and your Familiar summoned at the one time, your Familiar disappears and is one being with your Steed, becoming the Other Planar Steed, and takes on the same Skeletal and elemental appearance that you do while you are using the Form of the Soulless. Your steed now serves as both your Steed and Familiar from each spell, is immune to your patron’s damage type and benefits from any additional changes from Warlock Invocations.
Vengeance of the Soul-Bound
At tenth level, you gain expertise in 2 skills you are proficient with or choose to gain 2 additional proficiencies of your choice.
While using Form of the Soulless, you are now immune to piercing and slashing damage from non-magical weapons. Additionally, when you make a weapon attack or unarmed strike, you may add 1d6 of your Patron’s damage type to your damage rolls, increasing to 2d6 at level 14.
Unstoppable Might
At fourteenth level, when your Form of the Soulless ends and you are not at 0 hit points already, you heal yourself for all your lost hit points.
Is this based on some character or other media? Because there are definitely some neat ideas here, but I don't really understand the connections between them. Why is your "Soulless form" as skeleton? What does that have to do with devils or demons?
Self-Transformation is usually a druid thing, so I could totally see this as a really cool druid subclass based around bones & curses and undead - like an evil version of the Spore Druid.
But I digress, giving non-paladins Find Steed is generally frowned upon - mounts are kind of what make them special, and I don't understand why I would want to merge my familiar with my steed? They give different benefits that one could want at the same time.
But I guess my big question is "What's the theme?" What does this warlock do that is different from the Fiend or the Undead warlock? What makes it warlock-y? What is it's role in the party? Is it supposed to be a melee-tank? because when I think of a melee-tank I don't think of a skeleton...
So the theme was ghost rider. I wanted to give warlocks better self defense and allow a sublcass where the pact that you make has more influence and benefits. If you chose tome, your spellcasting is well supported to the theme, if your pact is chain then you get a new type of mounted combat, if your pact is blade then it feels well supported as you progress the character. I'm not sure what you mean by tank since d&d doesn't have much support for taunts and this subclass has none.
By tank I mean that almost all the features focus on defense and survivability. There isn't any : out of combat utility, nor much in the way of offense, nor any extra maneuverability, nor much enhancement of spellcasting etc... Almost all features focus on just survivability, and not even things like saving throws, just pure HP & damage mitigation.
Would you recommend anything to help build it up? Like another saving throw proficiency or perhaps advantage on a saving throw?
Ooooh... ghost rider. I get it now, makes a lot more sense, flaming skeletal form, with a horse as your motorcycle. Ok so ghost rider is kind of a bounty-hunter type if I remember correctly? Hm... looking at the wiki they look like hybrids between paladins & warlocks thematically...
Ok some suggestions:
1. Pact Spells are always 2 spells of each spell level from spell level 1-5, and don't include cantrips. Since you want this subclass to build off of different pacts I'd leave the extra cantrips you added out of the subclass and let people take those by taking the Pact of the Tome, then you can add a feature that changes the damage type of EB and any cantrip in your Pact of the Tome to Ice/Fire. Remember warlocks don't automatically get their pact spells, so you can give them both the Devil & Demon options at 3rd & 4th level and let them pick which one they want based on their theme.
Pact Spells
1 = Fog Cloud, Hideous Laughter
2 = Find Steed, Dragon's Breath (this gives a fire/cold blast spell earlier)
3 = Fireball, Sleet Storm
4 = Wall of Fire, Ice Storm
5 = Planar Binding, Magic Circle
2. Soulless Form has weird scaling - since one of the main benefits is temporary hit points as a player I don't think I want it to last 4 hours I want more uses of it to get more temporary hitpoints, and it's also odd to include Unarmoured Defense in a feature that has to be activated because it takes a long time to don/doff armour, so I don't know why this warlock would ever be wandering around with no armour on before activating Soulless Form. Resistance to most types of physical damage is already very potent, so I don't think you need much else here. - not everything has to scale all the time, you've got scaling temporary hit points, you don't need the time to scale as well.
3. For Soulless Symbiosis: I have no idea what "Your steed now serves as both your Steed and Familiar from each spell" means mechanically? If I have an Imp familiar can my horse now turn invisible? - if not this is actually a bad thing for me. For Pact of the Blade, magical weapon damage is better than fire/cold so it's actually a bit of a bad thing to gain this feature. This also seems in conflict with adding Find Steed as an extended spell because you get them automatically from this feature.
You could do a "different thing for each pact" here:
4. Immunity to non-magical slashing & piercing is insanely powerful - much more powerful than your 18th level feature - it should be the 18th level feature not something anyone should get at level 10.
5. Vengeance of the Soul-Bound synergizes incredibly well with Pact of the Blade since they get an invocation that lets them add 1d6 necrotic damage to their attacks which stacks with the 1d6/2d6 from this feature, and they can cast Spirit Shroud to add another 2d8 damage to every melee attack for an absolute pile of damage.
If you're trying to build off of pact boons I'd make that explicit because a warlock can get a familiar in many different ways not just Pact of the Chain - Book of Ancient Secrets, Magic Initiate, Ritual Caster.
PS not all pacts are supported here. Tome gets very little and Chain is actively discouraged, Pact of the Blade is basically mandatory to get the most out of the subclass.
Saw the Ghost Rider theme when reading for sure! Lol.
Instead of thorn whip, which Warlocks don’t normally get access to, why not lightning lure? It’s besically the same thing only more elemental in nature, making it more fitting for substitution in typing.
I do agree warlocks don’t usually get free cantrips in that way, but I do know Celestial Warlocks automatically get light and sacred fire. I’m not any good with home-brewing, so how you pull this off with lighting lure or whichever ones you choose is beyond me.
I’m not sure how to balance out the other pacts any better, but even if you can’t or don’t it’s bot the end of the world. Hexblade typically revolves around the Pact of the Blade anyway, unless you are just doing it for the armor boost. I recognize you were trying to do a barbarian/monk thing eith the no armor, which kind of mimics Hexblade access to medium armor and shields. I think you are the right track at least. If anything it’s just then a matter of how you convince others to not just dip for the unarmored defenses like so many do with hexblade. Delaying turning your Charisma into your melee attack stat helps with that some. So long as it’s’ balanced.
Everything beyond that is just balancing, which you have already gotten some great advice for.