• 2014 False Life: 1d4 + 4 (6.5 average, range of 5-9)
• 2024 False Life: 2d4 + 4 (9 average, range of 6-17)

With the floor being 20% higher, the average nearly 40% better, and the ceiling nearly doubled, this is a pretty nice buff to a level 1 spell for a squishy necromancer.

They actually forgot they buffed this spell when redesigning fiendish vigor. Or they redesigned this spell after fiendish vigor. You can tell because fiendish vigor says you don't roll the 'die', which means that invocation is 50% more effective than intended, and that's both hilarious and sad. 

I agree, renny. It was decent before, but now it's vital and will save alot of wizards in the future I bet.

When using this as a warlock invocation, it says you can cast without spending a spell slot. If you are of a higher level and have access to higher level spells, do you still always cast it as a lvl 1 spell? Do you always up cast at your highest possible slot (but still free)? Or is it a choice to cast for free at lvl 1 and up cast at your available slot for cost?

I know asking my DM is the best answer, but how do you think its intended to work? 

My understanding, unless it has changed in 2024, is that if a warlock invocation gives you a spell that you can cast at will for free, it will always be the base level spell. So with Fiendish Vigor, one could keep a pool of 12 temp hp on basically all the time.

With fiendish vigor, as a warlock, would the casting of it without a spell slot automatically upcast it to the highest level it can be cast at BECAUSE of being a warlock? I can't find it explicitly stated that spells cast without a spell slot are always at their lowest level. 

So one would assume, that Fiendish Vigor/False Life would be cast as a normal warlock spell, which would be from 1st level up to 5th level. Thus a level 9 warlock could cast False Life as an action and immediately gain 32 temp Hp, as many times as they'd like per day.

If someone could direct me to any rule that would negate this, I'd really appreciate it.

Fiendish Vigor

Prerequisite: Level 2+ Warlock

You can cast False Life on yourself without expending a spell slot. When you cast the spell with this feature, you don’t roll the die for the Temporary Hit Points; you automatically get the highest number on the die.

Quote from Michaelaeus >>

My understanding, unless it has changed in 2024, is that if a warlock invocation gives you a spell that you can cast at will for free, it will always be the base level spell. So with Fiendish Vigor, one could keep a pool of 12 temp hp on basically all the time.

 

 I agree with this "ruling" and it does seem to be supported by the dndbeyond character sheet on testing it.

My test pc has access to higher lvl spells but the sheet appears to still only show false life in the lvl 1 spot.

Would be nice if the system showed the max roll automatically instead of 2d4 tho. Just to remind the player not to roll it.

It lasts longer now too, doesn't it? 2014 rules say it lasts for the duration (an hour). This wording just says "you gain 2d4+4 temp hp" so it sounds like it lasts until a long rest.

Yep!

Quote from Grizzly2k >>

With fiendish vigor, as a warlock, would the casting of it without a spell slot automatically upcast it to the highest level it can be cast at BECAUSE of being a warlock? I can't find it explicitly stated that spells cast without a spell slot are always at their lowest level. 

So one would assume, that Fiendish Vigor/False Life would be cast as a normal warlock spell, which would be from 1st level up to 5th level. Thus a level 9 warlock could cast False Life as an action and immediately gain 32 temp Hp, as many times as they'd like per day.

If someone could direct me to any rule that would negate this, I'd really appreciate it.

Fiendish Vigor

Prerequisite: Level 2+ Warlock

You can cast False Life on yourself without expending a spell slot. When you cast the spell with this feature, you don’t roll the die for the Temporary Hit Points; you automatically get the highest number on the die.

 I can’t find anywhere that explicitly states this, but my understanding was that spells cast without expending a spell slot (from evocations, magic items, species abilities, etc.) are cast at their lowest level.

Quote from Grizzly2k >>

With fiendish vigor, as a warlock, would the casting of it without a spell slot automatically upcast it to the highest level it can be cast at BECAUSE of being a warlock? I can't find it explicitly stated that spells cast without a spell slot are always at their lowest level. 

So one would assume, that Fiendish Vigor/False Life would be cast as a normal warlock spell, which would be from 1st level up to 5th level. Thus a level 9 warlock could cast False Life as an action and immediately gain 32 temp Hp, as many times as they'd like per day.

If someone could direct me to any rule that would negate this, I'd really appreciate it.

Fiendish Vigor

Prerequisite: Level 2+ Warlock

You can cast False Life on yourself without expending a spell slot. When you cast the spell with this feature, you don’t roll the die for the Temporary Hit Points; you automatically get the highest number on the die.

Spells cast without using a spell slot are always cast at their minimum level. The fact that you have spell slots of a higher level is irrelevant, because you're not using those spell slots to cast the spell.

This is clear just from the spell description itself, without having to look at any other rules. It says:

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. You gain 5 additional Temporary Hit Points for each spell slot level above 1.

It very explicitly states that the benefit applies when using a higher level spell slot, which you are not doing if you're not using a spell slot at all.

wait duration Instantaneous, does that mean you use your action to get temp hp all for it to immediately fade away once your turn ends???

Hey @spader2002

Duration

Temporary Hit Points last until they’re depleted or you finish a Long Rest (see the rules glossary).

You aren't casting it with pact magic, so it is the baseline 1st level spell.

That being said, there is not restriction on how often you can cast it. So cast it whenever you want to replenish the 12 bonus HP. Pretty strong early game, and negligible later on.

There's a Typo in the Duration. It lists the Duration as Instantaneous which implies the temporary HP's would appear then disappear. The old one had a Duration of 1 hour.

I do not see Duration in the 2024 rules glossary.

Quote from Emberskyes29821 >>

There's a Typo in the Duration. It lists the Duration as Instantaneous which implies the temporary HP's would appear then disappear. The old one had a Duration of 1 hour.

The Duration is correct; the spell grants you temporary hit points and then the spell ends immediately. The temporary hit points don't go away when the spell ends; they go away at the end of your next long rest, per the general rules on temporary hit points.

Damn. I'm now torn between having this with 'Fiendish Vigor', or 'Lessons of the First Ones: Tough'
What would be better?

From Level 6 onwards, 'Tough' would give you more HP, but with this, you can get 12 THP so long as you have an action.

Quote from Grygus_Triss >>

Damn. I'm now torn between having this with 'Fiendish Vigor', or 'Lessons of the First Ones: Tough'
What would be better?

From Level 6 onwards, 'Tough' would give you more HP, but with this, you can get 12 THP so long as you have an action.

One benefit of Fiendish Vigor is that it synergizes surprisingly well with the 2024 version of Armor of Agathys, a common Warlock defensive spell. Armor of Agathys provides a reactive damage effect that deals level-scaled cold damage to anyone hitting you with a melee attack, as well its own pool of temporary hit points.

While temporary hit points from different sources don't stack, the new version of Armor of Agathys says that its reactive damage effect persists while you have any temporary hit points, a change from the 2014 version that only persisted while you had temp HP from that spell. This means that you can now extend that spell's effects (up to its max of 1 hour) by topping up your temp HP via other sources. Having a source of temp HP that you can activate whenever you want, like Fiendish Vigor, is very handy for this.

Oh, now thats interesting!