So, I'm looking to make a Fathomless Tomelock, which brought up an interesting combination: On one turn, I can cast Ray of Frost and use my bonus action to hit the same target with Tentacle of the Deeps. Both of these reduce the targets speed by 10 feet, so my question is would hitting a target with both reduce their speed by 20 feet?
And later, I could couple this with Evard's Black Tentacles to lock them into the area for a minimum of 4 rounds (because the difficult terrain would reduce their speed to 5), giving me that many chances to restrain/damage them.
Yes. In general, you can assume effects with different names stack, for anything - you'll be told when effects with different names don't stack. The only exception I can think of is that regardless of ability name, you can't stack someone's proficiency bonus more than once (which is why expertise is worded so carefully to double the existing bonus, rather than try to add the bonus a second time). Come to think of it, I don't actually know what happens when you try to add a half proficiency bonus twice - can a Bard/Champion add their entire pb to initiative? That's an odd duck. But otherwise, it's as I stated.
You could hit them with Eldritch Blast and the Lance of Lethargy invocation, too.
True, but that requires an Invocation I'm not sure I want to spend yet. Ray of Frost does this automatically with only 1 damage less on average.
True, it costs an Invocation, but every time you take another level in Warlock you can swap one of your Invocations for another. So if you take Lance Of Lethargy and find it's not helpful, you're only stuck with it for one level. Yes, Ray Of Frost has the speed reduction built in. And yes, by default it only averages one less damage than Eldritch Blast. BUT... Eldritch Blast does Force damage, which is resisted far less often than Cold. AND, the average damage of Eldritch Blast increases significantly if you have Agonizing Blast. So instead of averaging 4.5/9/13.5/18 with RoF, you're averaging more like 8.5/19/28.5/42 with EB assuming all of the beams hit(which granted will not always happen), and you're working your Charisma score up to 20 eventually.
You could hit them with Eldritch Blast and the Lance of Lethargy invocation, too.
True, but that requires an Invocation I'm not sure I want to spend yet. Ray of Frost does this automatically with only 1 damage less on average.
True, it costs an Invocation, but every time you take another level in Warlock you can swap one of your Invocations for another. So if you take Lance Of Lethargy and find it's not helpful, you're only stuck with it for one level. Yes, Ray Of Frost has the speed reduction built in. And yes, by default it only averages one less damage than Eldritch Blast. BUT... Eldritch Blast does Force damage, which is resisted far less often than Cold. AND, the average damage of Eldritch Blast increases significantly if you have Agonizing Blast. So instead of averaging 4.5/9/13.5/18 with RoF, you're averaging more like 8.5/19/28.5/42 with EB assuming all of the beams hit(which granted will not always happen), and you're working your Charisma score up to 20 eventually.
Yes, but now you're talking TWO invocations required. As a Tomelock, I want BoAS at least and I'm leaning Armor of Shadows, so my level 3 invocations are spoken for.
Armor Of Shadows is nice, but it's only a +1 AC above basic Studded Leather armor, which you should be able to obtain pretty easily by Level 3. Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast scales quite well as you level up, and if you toss Hex in there that's another 1d6 per beam if you're focusing fire on a single target. You can absolutely choose to build a Warlock that doesn't use Eldritch Blast, just be sure you know what the tradeoff is.
Yes, we know that focusing on Eldritch Blast is a powerful ranged option. But it doesn't fit with all character concepts. Maybe they want to focus on utility (this is very possible with Tomelocks) or be more thematic, like a cold mage (Armor of Agathys, Ray of Frost, maybe Frostbite, Hunger of Hadar, etc)
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So, I'm looking to make a Fathomless Tomelock, which brought up an interesting combination: On one turn, I can cast Ray of Frost and use my bonus action to hit the same target with Tentacle of the Deeps. Both of these reduce the targets speed by 10 feet, so my question is would hitting a target with both reduce their speed by 20 feet?
And later, I could couple this with Evard's Black Tentacles to lock them into the area for a minimum of 4 rounds (because the difficult terrain would reduce their speed to 5), giving me that many chances to restrain/damage them.
Yes. In general, you can assume effects with different names stack, for anything - you'll be told when effects with different names don't stack. The only exception I can think of is that regardless of ability name, you can't stack someone's proficiency bonus more than once (which is why expertise is worded so carefully to double the existing bonus, rather than try to add the bonus a second time). Come to think of it, I don't actually know what happens when you try to add a half proficiency bonus twice - can a Bard/Champion add their entire pb to initiative? That's an odd duck. But otherwise, it's as I stated.
You could hit them with Eldritch Blast and the Lance of Lethargy invocation, too.
True, it costs an Invocation, but every time you take another level in Warlock you can swap one of your Invocations for another. So if you take Lance Of Lethargy and find it's not helpful, you're only stuck with it for one level. Yes, Ray Of Frost has the speed reduction built in. And yes, by default it only averages one less damage than Eldritch Blast. BUT... Eldritch Blast does Force damage, which is resisted far less often than Cold. AND, the average damage of Eldritch Blast increases significantly if you have Agonizing Blast. So instead of averaging 4.5/9/13.5/18 with RoF, you're averaging more like 8.5/19/28.5/42 with EB assuming all of the beams hit(which granted will not always happen), and you're working your Charisma score up to 20 eventually.
Armor Of Shadows is nice, but it's only a +1 AC above basic Studded Leather armor, which you should be able to obtain pretty easily by Level 3. Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast scales quite well as you level up, and if you toss Hex in there that's another 1d6 per beam if you're focusing fire on a single target. You can absolutely choose to build a Warlock that doesn't use Eldritch Blast, just be sure you know what the tradeoff is.
Yes, we know that focusing on Eldritch Blast is a powerful ranged option. But it doesn't fit with all character concepts. Maybe they want to focus on utility (this is very possible with Tomelocks) or be more thematic, like a cold mage (Armor of Agathys, Ray of Frost, maybe Frostbite, Hunger of Hadar, etc)