though this is homebrew, this is so warlock oriented I am posting it here.
invocation collateral: you can save your invocation slots for later if you multi-class. for example if you had 2 levels in warlock and multiclassed into say, sorcerer, you would have 2 invocation slots. say you really wanted sign of ill omen (requires 5th level in warlock) you could use one invocation slot and leave the other one empty. now, when you reached total level 5, you could finally use the slot for sign of ill omen. you cannot change the invocation later on.
TL,DR: removing the "in warlock" part of the invocation requirement in exchange for leaving the slot empty until you meet the level requirement.
Is this unbalanced? if it is, are there any restrictions I should add?
By reading this signature, you have agreed to pull 20 cards from the deck of many things. If you lose your soul in any way, it will go to me and the following will happen: When you create your next character, you will become a celestial warlock in servitude to me. Once a month, I require an ounce of empyrean blood. If you fail to deliver on this, all the cards you pulled will converge on you at once.
Rules as written you can swap out one eldritch invocation every time you level up. So that’s weaker than the rules as written because you’ll go at least a full level without an invocation.
that is only for warlock levels, not multiclassed levels. RAW you can change invocations when you level up in warlock only. My homebrew rule lets you save a slot for later to pick while you're in another class.
"At 2nd level, you gain two eldritch invocations of your choice. Your invocation options are detailed at the end of the class description. When you gain certain warlock levels, you gain additional invocations of your choice, as shown in the Invocations Known column of the Warlock table.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at that level."
-dndbeyond warlock page, Eldritch Invocations
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Hello!
By reading this signature, you have agreed to pull 20 cards from the deck of many things. If you lose your soul in any way, it will go to me and the following will happen: When you create your next character, you will become a celestial warlock in servitude to me. Once a month, I require an ounce of empyrean blood. If you fail to deliver on this, all the cards you pulled will converge on you at once.
I’d have no issue with that, but I’d only tie it to Warlock level. For example, if you weren’t sure you wanted to decide on a specific Invocation yet, and wanted a level to decide.
But I wouldn’t allow someone to get a restricted level Invocation. The higher level ones can be quite potent, and messing with those can cause some imbalance.
(not to mention, Sign of Ill Omen requires a 3rd level warlock spell slot, which you don’t have)
though this is homebrew, this is so warlock oriented I am posting it here.
invocation collateral: you can save your invocation slots for later if you multi-class. for example if you had 2 levels in warlock and multiclassed into say, sorcerer, you would have 2 invocation slots. say you really wanted sign of ill omen (requires 5th level in warlock) you could use one invocation slot and leave the other one empty. now, when you reached total level 5, you could finally use the slot for sign of ill omen. you cannot change the invocation later on.
TL,DR: removing the "in warlock" part of the invocation requirement in exchange for leaving the slot empty until you meet the level requirement.
Is this unbalanced? if it is, are there any restrictions I should add?
Sign of Ill Omen might be a bad example, as its prereq doesn't do anything - you have to be a level 5 warlock to use the invocation anyway, due to the need for an L3 warlock spell slot, so your house rule changes absolutely nothing there. Let's change examples, to Maddening Hex, which works on an L2 Warlock just fine.
From a balance perspective, what you're doing is nerfing Warlocks - one of the perqs of being a Warlock is meeting the requirements for invocations, which is why the Eldritch Adept feat explicitly doesn't let you avoid meeting them. From the invocation's perspective, gating the invocation behind level 5 is all the balance needed - what you're doing only mucks with balance across classes, as now there's less of a reason to monoclass Warlock and more of a reason to take a Warlock dip and do something else.
From a gameplay perspective, all forcing the Warlock to leave the invocation empty does is punish them at low levels when the need to punish them is least. And locking them into their invocation is similarly punitive, even though it's RAW - if someone's going to make a multiclass Warlock, they'll have more fun if they have some mechanic for changing invocations, even though for balance reasons it should be incredibly slow.
I suggest the following changes:
Let any Warlock change any invocation they have 1/week (much like the cooldown on cleric Divine Intervention), even if they don't get a Warlock level in that time.
For multiclass Warlocks, let them give up a spell known (which is huge for a Warlock dip - someone with only an L3 dip, for example, goes from 4 Warlock spells known to 3) to count a number of non-Warlock levels equal to their highest Warlock spell slot level as Warlock levels for the purposes of meeting invocation prereqs. For example, our L3 Warlock buddy with Sorcerer levels gives up 25% of their Warlock spells known to count up to 2 Sorcerer levels as Warlock levels for the purposes of being allowed to take Maddening Hex, meaning at level 5 they can legally take Maddening Hex. If this was a reverse situation, a high level Warlock with a Sorcerer dip, they could count up to 5 Sorc levels, as their highest spell slot level would be 5.
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though this is homebrew, this is so warlock oriented I am posting it here.
invocation collateral: you can save your invocation slots for later if you multi-class. for example if you had 2 levels in warlock and multiclassed into say, sorcerer, you would have 2 invocation slots. say you really wanted sign of ill omen (requires 5th level in warlock) you could use one invocation slot and leave the other one empty. now, when you reached total level 5, you could finally use the slot for sign of ill omen. you cannot change the invocation later on.
TL,DR: removing the "in warlock" part of the invocation requirement in exchange for leaving the slot empty until you meet the level requirement.
Is this unbalanced? if it is, are there any restrictions I should add?
Hello!
By reading this signature, you have agreed to pull 20 cards from the deck of many things. If you lose your soul in any way, it will go to me and the following will happen: When you create your next character, you will become a celestial warlock in servitude to me. Once a month, I require an ounce of empyrean blood. If you fail to deliver on this, all the cards you pulled will converge on you at once.
Many thanks,
Gweledydd Slantse
Rules as written you can swap out one eldritch invocation every time you level up. So that’s weaker than the rules as written because you’ll go at least a full level without an invocation.
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that is only for warlock levels, not multiclassed levels. RAW you can change invocations when you level up in warlock only. My homebrew rule lets you save a slot for later to pick while you're in another class.
"At 2nd level, you gain two eldritch invocations of your choice. Your invocation options are detailed at the end of the class description. When you gain certain warlock levels, you gain additional invocations of your choice, as shown in the Invocations Known column of the Warlock table.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at that level."
-dndbeyond warlock page, Eldritch Invocations
Hello!
By reading this signature, you have agreed to pull 20 cards from the deck of many things. If you lose your soul in any way, it will go to me and the following will happen: When you create your next character, you will become a celestial warlock in servitude to me. Once a month, I require an ounce of empyrean blood. If you fail to deliver on this, all the cards you pulled will converge on you at once.
Many thanks,
Gweledydd Slantse
I’d have no issue with that, but I’d only tie it to Warlock level. For example, if you weren’t sure you wanted to decide on a specific Invocation yet, and wanted a level to decide.
But I wouldn’t allow someone to get a restricted level Invocation. The higher level ones can be quite potent, and messing with those can cause some imbalance.
(not to mention, Sign of Ill Omen requires a 3rd level warlock spell slot, which you don’t have)
Sign of Ill Omen might be a bad example, as its prereq doesn't do anything - you have to be a level 5 warlock to use the invocation anyway, due to the need for an L3 warlock spell slot, so your house rule changes absolutely nothing there. Let's change examples, to Maddening Hex, which works on an L2 Warlock just fine.
From a balance perspective, what you're doing is nerfing Warlocks - one of the perqs of being a Warlock is meeting the requirements for invocations, which is why the Eldritch Adept feat explicitly doesn't let you avoid meeting them. From the invocation's perspective, gating the invocation behind level 5 is all the balance needed - what you're doing only mucks with balance across classes, as now there's less of a reason to monoclass Warlock and more of a reason to take a Warlock dip and do something else.
From a gameplay perspective, all forcing the Warlock to leave the invocation empty does is punish them at low levels when the need to punish them is least. And locking them into their invocation is similarly punitive, even though it's RAW - if someone's going to make a multiclass Warlock, they'll have more fun if they have some mechanic for changing invocations, even though for balance reasons it should be incredibly slow.
I suggest the following changes: