I dont like how you ignored the Fae. We have taken this as a slight and will be inviting ourselves to the birth of your firstborn and cursing them in retaliation.
Stick to your overly emotional dimension and leave the children out of it. Not everything has to be about you. This is why the Fae have a deservedly bad rep and you are perpetuating it further
I like the "eldritch blast isn't op... everything else is under powered and therefore everyone picks the eldritch blast option leading to boring bullshit" take.
I’m just disappointed other caster classes weren’t made with ways to buff their cantrips. Or I’d love if invocations worked on all cantrips vs solely EB. I’d love a fire bolt that pulls with a fiery grip
@GrayRain0 Thankfully they have actually changed that in the new PHB 2024, so Agonizing Blast (and I would assume the other Eldritch Blast Invocations) now works with any Warlock Cantrip. Which means you can use Booming Blade, pushing someone back 10 feet, making it so they have to move closer to you in order to hit you, which in turn triggers the Booming Blade and potentially an opportunity attack. Which is just cool!
I have a Great Old One Warlock who sort of communicates with her patron through random inscrutable glyphs that appear in her book of shadows. Her patron is a nameless, formless entity of the Elemental Chaos that is just curious about the alien (to it) material plane and is using her as a sensor to look around. It works great for a Chaotic Neutral character with mental health issues.
I've been playing a half-orc barbarian for the last year and a half. I wanted to swap to a Goolock, but was hesitant because of the Eldritch Blast trap. My DM soothed my concerns. Me: "I just don't want to do the same thing in every round of combat..." DM: "What do you do now?" Me: "Rage and hit stuff... oh."
The thing is, when I'm playing a barbarian I feel like I have to make choices. Do i grapple? Do I rage and waste my bonus action? Positioning alone forces a ton of choices regarding risk taking, action economy and strategy. Not to mention the roleplaying aspect, I can describe my weapon attacks so vividly When I'm playing a character that is relying on cantrips alone I feel like I'm just running away and shooting my little lazer, it feels much less involved to me
It really does suck that only casters get a toolbox to deal with issues and martials are stuck with "attack", "attack but less effective" and "attack but with a bit more risk". I wish the Fighter's Battlemaster Archetype worked like a Cleric's spells, and for both fighters and barbs. All known, few prepared.
Also I've tried to build a warlock that wasn't just specifically hexblade bladelock or Eldritch blast every round and...... Yeah my hopes for a more supportive illustration and enchanting focused warlock just...... They give you just enough options to make you hopeful and remove the ability to invest in EB and give you no damage compared to alternatives.
@@PietroMarcer - all very good points. The Repelling Blast invocation and the Telekinetic feat make positioning an important consideration as well, but for the enemy instead, since you can toss them around the battlemap.
In my campaign our Warlock and her patron are pretty much just friends. We reflavored Archfey to fit what she was going for. Basically, her character is really into using psychedelics/tripping. One day she tripped so hard that her consciousness transcended into the Feywild. This is where she met her patron, and they just kind of hit it off so the fey spirit decided to give her power. The fey spirit is now her ”supplier”, and she uses a component pouch filled with ”gifts” as an arcane focus. Also, her pact of the tome is actually a “pact of the pipe”, which she smokes to cast the cantrips it came with.
I've played stoner surf bro rangers, and I've invoked a mushroom trip as a plot device to explain how someone met their Warlock patron, but I've not attempted to play a character that is just tripping balls all the time. I might have to do that for a one-shot. I was in a party that originated as a "traveling relief crew" for taverns, so overworked owners could get a vacation once in a while. At the start of the story (1st level), we were running a tavern that an Aarakocra ranger had won in an archery contest but had no clue how to run himself (other than providing the meat). I was a brewer/journalist/wizard, the face of the crew was a brewer/chef/sorlock, and the third was a bugbear druid that did most of the big-batch cooking. We were putting cannabis in the food to encourage repeat business, and when someone got Intellect Devoured and his friends accused us of impairing him (thus leaving him vulnerable to the attack), the owner agreed to get the guy a Greater Restoration. But we still had to deliver him through terrain that was suddenly crawling with vermin and aberrations, so at fourth level we set out (we usually wait for fifth before setting into the main campaign arc, and pulling the safety net out from under the party). In the FIRST round of the FIRST encounter, the sorlock got Disintegrated by a Beholder Zombie. At first the DM said "perma-death" and the player said "cool, I was going on vacation after this session anyhow, so I may as well start now" and dipped. I talked him into walking it back to "requires Raise Dead, Revivify won't cut it", but the damage was done and that party never ran again.
Counterpoint on Pact of Chain being weak: Imps can turn themselves invisible whenever they want. Just, infinite invisibility. You need a spy, a saboteur, or a thief? Imp's your boy. Imps also have a call-out in the Monster Manual that, when bonded as familiars, they share their Magic Resistance trait with their summoner. Advantage on all saves versus magic, hands down. Might require DM approval, but it's there, Rules As Written.
This. You can literally see through your familiar, and you can cast through them as well! Don't forget that if you can read lips, you can even listen in on conversations! (There's a feat that allows you to read lips) One of the best saboteur/assassin/thief classes in the game.
I just started my first playthrough of BG3 and yeah Pact of the Chain Imp is great for scouting or getting in surprise attacks. Broke alot of the Phase Spider Matriarchs eggs using the invisible bastard while I was outside the cave.
I think the pact of the chain suffers similarly to the whole eldritch blast thing. If youte going chain, you get options, but you're playing Imp because it's leagues above the other options, especially now since you can take a feat so its poison on attack uses your spell save DC
Further Counterpoint that wasn't brought up was some of Pact of the Chain's invocations are nuts on a narrative level. Gift of the Ever-living Ones works well for fight heavy areas and Voice of the Chain Master is really useful on a narrative level. Just have your familiar stick in a towns library or with an important NPC
I would wager that it's because the patrons are based largely of off the various planes of the multiverse, and to a lesser extent creature type: - Archfey = Feywild, Fey. - Celestial = Upper Planes, Celestials. - Fathomless = Material Plane. - Fiend = Lower Planes, Fiends. - Genie = Elemental Planes, Elementals. - Great Old One = The Far Realm, Abberations. - Hexblade = Shadowfell - Undead = I believe The Abyss, specifically the layer of Thanatos, Undead. - Undying = Also Material? Honestly this one is so unclear. What's noticeably missing is a Warlock Patron of the Astral Plane and the Ethereal Plane.
Also lore wise (I know everybody can change the lore) but wizard lore says for a dragon to bestow its power like other powerful beings it needs to under go the quasi-dragon ritual which essentially allows it to share its power the problem with this is that once the ritual is comple the "quasi-dragon" is the lowest form of a divine being making it technically no longer eligible to be a patron. The more the know.
Its technically already a thing. In Fizban's Treasury of Dragons one of the "Draconic Character Ties" in the book is "I have a dragon for a mentor or patron. (Bard, druid, fighter, rogue, sorcerer, warlock)" so you can already have a Dragon be your Warlock Patron, you'd just be flavoring the thematic stuff to more dragon theme. Red/Gold/Brass Dragons = Fiend Warlock or Fire Genie Warlock Green Dragon = Undead or Undying Warlock Faerie Dragon = Archfey Warlock White Dragon = Cold Genie Warlock Silver Dragon = Cold Genie Warlock or Fathomless Warlock Topaz/Shadow Dragon or Dracolich = Hexblade, Undead, or Undying Warlock Crystal Dragon = Celestial Warlock Emerald = Great Old One Sapphire = Thunder Genie Warlock The tough ones are Blue/Bronze, Copper/Black, and Amethyst Dragons as there isn't really a Lightning, Acid, or Force themed Warlock.
@Finalplayer14 this isn't a real patron nobody but a warlock can have patrons my man all those other classes having access to it makes it more like a boon and less a dragon patron for specificly warlocks
My first warlock character had a Great Old One patron. It was fun, because instead of just warlock learning from the patron how to cast spells through understanding secrets of Far Realm, the warlock was also teaching the patron secrets of Material Plane. Many of these Material Plane secrets would be worthless to most, but to the warlock... well it kinda taught him to appreciate the world a new, because the patron made him question things he took for granted.
I never thought I'd see a wholesome warlock but here we are. "So this is what a cricket is and why it is so important to an environment" "FASCINATING!! Here's this power to trap your enemies in a pit of darkness that causes them to slowly freeze and dissolve as a thank you for this valuable knowledge." "COOL! Wait 'till I tell you about squids" "About what now?"
I like GOO patrons - they have a lot more options. Things like "your mission this week is to remove the color purple. Whenever you see something purple, you must some how make it not so, or nonexistent." This sounds like a completely nonsensical task - which GOO can get away with because "incomprehensible," but it can still be interesting. Especially when you hit the royal ball that night and the king is in a purple cape. craaaap. So you some how get the cloak off the king and destroy it...revealing it to have been a mind control device. Did your patron know? Why did it phrase this task in this way? who knows? (your gm better, but he probably will never share it) It gets even better as the weeks, and bizarre tasks, keep mounting, until...something happens, and you are sitting there going "Did I do that? Was this the plan?" Gm is, of course, silent on the matter, but it's such an interesting dynamic to be in, this uncertainty of where this all is going, if it's going anywhere. For a certain style of campaign, this stuff is catnip. Pair up with a Sherlock sort of character - logical, analytical, and completely unforgiving of the inexplicable - and you get one heck of a party dynamic.
Me: Hey Cleeeriiic! Cleric: What did you do Me: I kiiind of made a pact with a sentient hat Cleric: Oh boy... what does it want you to do? Me: It wants me to watch this funny looking scroll and write stuff in it. Cleric: DEAR GOD
Just because I don't seen anyone else brought this up, I believe the full caster/half caster thing comes from the multiclassing rules where some classes only count as partial for the purposes of figuring out spell slots.
The adopted child of the party becoming a Warlock to avenge said party but ending up as the Warlock to the Dragon that slayed said party is a wild story idea even without the cool subclass story going on
This does add a bit of variety but EB still ends up being far and away the best option because of the force damage. Force damage is one of if not the single least resisted damage type in the entire game. There is like a total of 3-4 creatures that resist/are immune to it in all the books. It also doesn't fix the other Invocations also being really strong.
I agree with zooker7938 and I completely love this. Imagine an archfey going full makeover-scene-in-a-teen-girl-movie when they agree to make a pact with you, full heathers the musical style. “You have excellent bone structure, dear, but you represent ME now. No member of my court is going out looking like THAT.” As a bonus, it ties mechanically into the class. Rather than your charisma being high because you have to beseech your patron for goodies, your charisma is high because your patron got you all dolled up. Especially good for a court intrigue campaign, like some god awful fairy godmother!! 🧚♀️👗✨
I've always interpreted Hexblade as making a pact with specifically a warrior entity. Like the Green Knight from Arthurian myth, an Einherjar from Norse mythology, the Archangel Michael from the Bible, Kai from Kung Fu Panda, Saint Celestine from Warhammer 40k etc. That's the reason why your pact primarily manifests through your weapon. Your patron is a supernatural warrior, and as such, so are you.
I think of it as less of a pact, and more as just "you have a legendary magical weapon that requires a great deal of training to unlock its full power."
If you've seen Stardust Crusaders there's this one character who's basically a powerful spirit trapped in a sword. He can possess people and channel his power through them, making them wield the sword. I see Hexblade as s something like that. Some kind of power up warrior spirit bound to a weapon.
Alternate title: “I’ve never hidden myself and my entire party behind an illusory wall while spamming prestidigitation and minor illusion to make some thugs think the place is haunted, while meanwhile, my familiar which I have because tomelocks are the best, keeps watch.”
I don’t think Pointy Hat is saying you can’t play a warlock in a fun way. I think he was more saying that your raw mechanical power is tied to Eldritch blast. The example you provided is cool, but it lacks raw destructive power
In the context of a pure tactical computer rpg, perhaps, but anybody with half a brain should realize that, as far as _real_ power goes, Eldritch Blast is solidly mid at best.
I had a celestial patron warlock that had a patron with a giant god complex and they just absolutely insisted that they were a cleric or a paladin, and it was hilarious. Over the course of the game they slowly built up a cult for their patron until they actually became a god and they became a real paladin.
I can't believe you used footage of Rumpelstiltskin and forgot the Archfey patron. Rude. Loved all the Madoka Magica and Hazbin Hotel's Alastor! My gf once made a great old one kenku warlock. Her patron? A reeeeeeally old tree. "Why does it always have to be cthulhu?" Her eb was flavored as a blast of wind filled with leaves and twigs. It was so cute!
That sounds like a Wold Tree concept. And since the Wold Tree is supposed to hold all the realms within it's branches (which includes the astral plane in D&D context) it would be as near impossible to comprehend the nature of all of existence as it would be the nature of something non-existent or from before existence like the typical lovecraftian themed Old Ones.
I cant stop thinking about the roleplay of the DM using irl modern lingo and the poor Warlock being either extremly dumbfounded or taking it like its some super cryptic, poetic speech they must decypher
My favorite character is a Fighter x Warlock with Great Old one and Pact of the Blade. My patron was Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Instead of being an evil or conquering entity, the whole theme was about balance. It fit really well in the campaign I was in too.
Wouldn't it be fun to play an oathbreaker, renegade warlock trying to escape their pact with the entity? I'm playing a vampire-themed warlock atm and my Patreon wants me to kill his bloodline, which is the opposite my character would actually wanna do, bc I'm playing him empathic and kind-hearted etc
@@afinedaytodie666 | Wyll from BG# hit's that vein. His Feind patron point him at a target who does NOT deserve it and he starts to question her more and more, realizing that he NEEDS to get away from her. The main character can help or harm him here.
It's apparently since warlocks are male practitioners of witchcraft, and those who practice witchcraft were said to be in league with the devil, they have betrayed God
I'm writing a campaign currently and one of the player's will be playing a Dragonborn Warlock whose patron is the Dragon God of my world. Honestly this couldn't BE more perfect. Thank You!
My first ever 5e character was a dragonborn celestial warlock who got their power from Bahumet, their whole goal was to reach level 17 and permanently transform into a gold dragon so they could go up and be one of Bahumet's gold dragons.
I always had the idea that my patron was a Dragonborn with the ambition of controlling one of the nine Hells. And with this draconic patron it absolutely fits with our campaign that has two dragons fighting for the control of an entire region of the Sword Coast. Wish me luck on convincing my DM to accept this patron!
I actually like pact of the talisman, because 1) you don't have to be the one to wear it and 2) there's some invocation to give it special effects. Allows you to sort of protect one party member, which is great for rp. Invocations in general can be a reason for picking a pact, because each one gets a few exclusive ones you can choose
I also like Pact of the Talisman, but that's partly because I mostly play (or build and then never get to play) warlocks where the other options don't fit because I am specifically building them to be blasty magical girls. Don't want a familiar so Pact of the Chain isn't it, Pact of the Blade is strictly worse than me exploding things with arcane might, and I don't want to be lugging a big tome around because the vibe isn't studiousness, the vibe is a girl who stumbled upon raw arcane power and intends to use it to bash things. Plus, the Talisman's boost _is_ nice in scenarios where Guidance isn't an option, such as most social encounters. _And_ it can be stacked with Guidance, and with Dark One's Own Luck.
If only they had expanded on Pacts and Invocations more. I always thought that Pacts should have leveled up with you(the Blade one would have easily covered the Hexblade’s niche) and the Invocations could have had more interesting and useful options, including some exclusive to certain Patrons and not just Pacts(some pacts have more invocations than others, btw)
@@DarksteelPenguin Yeah, fair, I dunno. Just not really my thing most of the time. I was _gonna_ say I was aiming more for Nanoha or the Herrschers in Honkai Impact 3rd aesthetically, but the Herrschers always have fancy weapons and Nanoha magical girls use magical cannons basically. Still closer to Nanoha though, I guess, less cutesy and "childlike" and more explosions and Befriending. (And also befriending people the normal way.)
My party, like 90% of them, usually are heavily multiclassed, usually for rp reasons, so I didn’t realize how much people don’t mix and match with stuff from classes. Also I love warlock, especially my love fathomless, so it’s always cool to see more done for them.
I usually try to find a medium between role play and min maxing. But so often I get frustrated because it's hard to build a character when games tend to hinge off of specific options or modifiers that I don't like from a role play perspective. In last epoch I wanted to build a mage with high mobility and high burst damage, and high survivability. I was willing to sacrifice things to make it work. I was excited. Halfway through the game I was frustrated because there seemed to be no way to transmute mana into the resources I wanted without 100 conflicts of interest of modifiers. (For example the game insisted on growing a useless health pool for me. When in my mind I wanted my ward to scale with my mana regen. Health is useless without damage mitigation, if my ward is down. Im dead so I would rather dump that vitality into mana regen to fuel the ward, but instead I have 1300 points of health that may as well be 100, wasting ability points ) I thought I could make up for no stacking every modifier towards a single spell by using clever synergies of spells, tactics, and trying to reduce my cooldowns (requires more apm, but can gain more options will not sacrificing damage) Sadly. It just doesn't work. The game WANTS you to pick a few modifiers and stack them to all hell. Everytime I think of how I want my hero to progress and what would be cool. There's no way to make it work. But guess what will? *critical hit modifiers x2* All the classes
Love multiclassing. It helps with interesting character concepts and makes building a more interesting puzzle. Though I dislike going beyond 1 planned multiclass. Fine if the story naturally leads there, but it’s less... cohesive. Like someone’s OC w/ at least a dozen plot points.
@@ayoo_wassup I'm not familiar with Last Epoch, but it seems, generally, like a part of game design to not allow mobility, survivability, and damage, you probably have to drop the damage or the survivability in most games to have a fast character, etc for other builds. Trying to find a class/classes in dnd for a character idea I have, I think, has locked me into warlock. It's an interesting challenge building a character effectively. I wanted to play a wis/int character initially, but I'm willing to go charisma for warlock because it seems like it will best fit the character I have in mind.
@@xxXXRAPXXxx You are very correct, well I like multiclassing since I love diverse abilites and do more of what I´m aming for being able to go with one class full through should take present. Like they can add more diverse small abilities to the warlock if power is not what DnD intends for them, just make them equal to the eldrich ones so its not so forced. As well really at least need to make it so they have one other progressable damage option so its not full stuck on one cantrip. Hombrew helps which I use tons of and make myself but it´s not on us to fix a flaw in the game.
Conversely, when he mentioned the best known aspect of Fiend Pact, I expected "Fireball. Just Fireball. NOTHING BUT FIREBALL." from JoCat & ZeeBashew's Crap Guide to Wizard.
Honestly, I don’t even play 5e anymore, but I absolutely adore your videos purely for your art, concepts, and storytelling. Excellent stuff! Can’t wait for the Warlock dragon vid!
I'm not really so sure. I feel like the sailor scouts are closer to Sorcerers, since their power is innate. Transforming just brings their power out of a dormant state. And DBZ are just flying Monks (specifically Sun Soul monks).
@@digifreak90 Their patrons are their celestial bodies. Don't know how Moon has so much power though, maybe anything considered a 'Moon' helps empower the pact.
the subclass you made in this video gave me an absolute brain-blast of an idea for a pairing of two pc's: adopted siblings that are a draconic bloodline sorcerer and dragon patron warlock, with the warlock's patron being the very dragon that spawned the sorcerer's bloodline.
The fix for Eldrich Blast boredom is the Celestial Pact. Eldrich blast for damage and healing spells for support. Makes you great at multiple important battlefield roles
Hex should just be a class ability. You only have 2 spell slots at lower level and both are dedicated to make sure you have hex up. This means you really don't get to use those spells slots for anything else. Real shame because warlocks get some really neat spells.
I like this one. To make Warlock less Eldritch-blasty, I looked at adding and modifying invocations. Eldritch Spear and agonizing blast apply to a cantrip of your choice, not just Eldritch Blast. Chill Touch can restrain an opponent, requiring a wisdom save to escape. Magic Stone can knock a target prone when hit. I also use a Poison Ivy-based subclass that lets you get thorn whip, and that has some fun shenanigans.
The fellow TH-camr Mr.Rhexx noticed this Dragon gap. In previous editions we had Dragons Subclasses and Mr.Rhexx expected the subclass in Fisban's. Then, Mr.Rhexx made the Draconic Warlock in one of his PDFs (I think it is What They Don't Tell You About Dragon Hoards)
Dragon Warlock and Fay Sorcerer (I'd specifically want the Fey to be the Primal/Nature sorcerer, but they'd probably make it the Enchantment-focused charmer) are the two big gaps I've noticed. I'd guess they're trying to keep Sorcerer and Warlock from stepping on each other's toes. But then we wouldn't have the Feind/Celestial Warlock AND the Divine Soul Sorcerer.
@@professordetective807 in the brazilian DnD like sistem, Tormenta (available in english on Roll20) we have as prime sorcerer subclass the Fey (actually is a subsubclass, the class is the Arcanista, then you chose betwen Wizard [inteligence, more spels, can write scrolls], the Witch [inteligence, averege amount of spels, can brew potions, linked to the arcane foccous] and sorcerer [charisma, less spels, more non magic abilites] and if you chose sorcere then you chose betwen Dragon bloodline [basicly the same as DnD], Fey bloodline [you gain some charm resistence and encatation predisposition, can speak to animals and plants at will and other benefits] and the Crimson Corruption [this bloodline is a thing of the base setting, your sorcerer powers are linked to an erly exposition to the Tormenta, an Alien Eldrich Invasion Lovecraft stile with less tentacles and more incects with a blend layer of Red paint])
Very valid criticisms and a super interesting subclass idea, although if I can offer a gentle defence of the base warlock - I find it interesting that it is, arguably, the only casting class that actually encourages players to play in the most strictly optimal way. By which I mean: usually, blasters are the worst casters. Crowd-control and shut down spells are so powerful in 5e that in most cases, the best use of any given spell slot is to spend it on a long concentration support or control spell (sleep and bless for 1st level, spike growth for 2nd, hypnotic pattern and sleet storm for 3rd, etc. etc. etc.). If you want to be able to take a large number of consecutive encounters (which 5e was clearly designed around, even if it's not actually played that way by most players!), then the best possible use of your spellcasting feature is to spend a single slot at the start of each combat on a powerful shutdown or support spell and then chip away at enemies with cantrips for the rest of the fight, only spending another spell slot if your concentration is broken, for defence (e.g. shield, silvery barbs), or if the combat situation changes. Warlocks are exceptionally well designed to fit this playstyle. Having few spell slots encourages you to conserve them, which will naturally push you towards high-impact long-duration options like summons or control over lower-impact damage bursts. They even have one of the best control spells in the game - Hunger of Hadar - unique to their spell list. Recovering these spell slots on every short rest will naturally encourage you to use one every couple of fights rather than save them all up for a big boss fight, because you only need a short break to recover them. And having a strong base cantrip option will make the turns when you sit on your powerful control spells and do cantrip chip damage feel less bad than a wizard in the same situation. Now, this is all built on an assumption of a traditional dungeon crawl-type game: a survival situation where most of each session is spent in a series of increasingly challenging fights, conservation of resources is important, and long rests are few and far between. Which is not what actually happens at most 5e tables. So I do think your criticisms stand pretty well in relation to 5e as it is actually played. But I do think it's worth recognising that the warlock is actually surprisingly well designed to fit a certain niche and encourage a type of play that new players often take a while to get into - they're often naturally drawn to big flashy damage spells like Burning Hands and overlook just how strong a single Sleep or Hideous Laughter can be, so a class that strongly encourages prioritising these long-duration control spells over flashy damage spells can do a really good job of encouraging players to engage with different styles of play and step out of their initial expectations for what a strong caster looks like.
While I agree with your point, I think warlocks are still on the back foot compared to other casters in this regard. If a wizard is running low on big flashy spell slots, they still have lower level options like hideous laughter to fall back on. They have the spare slots to support 'wiggle room' and backup plans while warlocks simply don't. Additionally, at higher levels against bigger threats, if another caster wanted or needed to unload as many spells as possible as fast as possible to meet the challenge (counterspell for example) they have the option to do that. And while warlocks aren't entirely devoid of this potential, the difference is embarrassing.
Fully agree, and this is basically how I play my warlocks (which are always my favorite characters) I usually play blade pact, but don't go for full hexblade because I don't like relying on hex for damage. Some spells that my bladelocks have gotten great use out of have been things like Blur, Blink, Spirit Guardians, Armor of Agathys (usually only until I have Armor of Shadows ofc), basically anything that makes melee combat against me more frustrating for my opponents and/or makes me more survivable for a sustained amount of time. Single target damage spells are very often a bad use of a spell slot for warlocks, especially with Eldritch Blast always available as a backup ranged option. In a similar vein, having only 2 (eventually 3) spell slots *really* discourages using single target save-or-suck style debuff spells against enemies, since more powerful enemies are also far more likely to save against them, and then you've wasted half your spell slots with literally nothing to show for it, not even a small amount of damage or a temporarily confused opponent. And you don't usually have enough slots to want to waste them against weaker enemies. The limited spell slots basically force you to select your spells largely for how much of an impact they can have, and then reserve them until you really need that. Which can be cool, but as mentioned, is very dependent on how often your party short rests, and still means a lot of the time your best option will still be Eldritch Blast. There's a reason for the memes.
Warlocks are just so unbelievably flavorful and I love them, and anytime some homebrew rules change short rests they're just lovely to play. You get a TON of high level spells compared to other classes, and it makes you feel less spellslinger and more spellcannon, and I just like that feeling a ton more personally.
I played in a campaign once with a Warlock who canonically did finger guns whenever he used Eldritch Blast (and that was absolutely the thing he did the most) I was playing an extremely fun "let's blow everything up with fire and lightning" pirate sorcerer, who I still remember fondly. It was absolutely a murderhobo campaign and we did not apologize for it. Very fun and very silly.
I like how for the longest time, P.H. avoided talking about dragons. But now that he made his own, it continues to pop up. And god DAYUM I am loving it!!
Missed point about the Pact of the Talisman: the 1d4 bonus it grants (and all the other powers it can gain through Invocations) are granted _not_ exclusively to you, but to _whoever_ is wearing it. If your Warlock has someone they want to protect, this is the natural choice narratively, and its mechanics reinforce that.
The invocations around the Talisman can also be really powerful and fun and are thematic for a player character who has a loved one in the party they want to protect.
I've been workshopping a rewrite of a fan-patron I found forever ago: The Holy Matrimony Patron. Marital vows so strong, they grant magic power (pairing with the Paladin Oath of Betrothal I'm also fiddling with). Like the Hexblade and the Pact of the Blade, I think Talisman may be the "no-brainer" boon for this one.
Not to mention: - Guidance is an action that you should cast preemptively; Talisman doesnt even require a reaction. - Guidance is a 1-minute concentration; Talisman doesnt require concentration. - Guidance has a range of Touch; a Talisman... essentially the same but matters less because "duration" is much more than 1 minute concentration The only better thing for Guidance is that you can cast it on different people without needing to transfer the Talisman I guess the nature of skill checks is such that they are much more abundant out of combat, where all these issues matter less. But there was a Talisman invocation that expands the usage to saving throws so it becomes useful. Also you can combine Guidance with Talisman, obviously
This is great. I actually had a Warlock planned for a long time who's patron is a dragon. I was going to just take the great old one and say it's a draconic 4th dimensional being, but your subclass is exactly what I needed. Now my part of the pact. The character made the pact because they were almost being killed when finding the place this dragon patron was sealed away. The dragon offered them to give power so they could kill their pursuers in turn help the dragon to break the seal. They actually become friends later, since the dragon is bored being sealed away and can only talk to his warlock telepathically to kill time.
Honestly had a half-dragon warlock I was going to play and was tying him with Tiamat but didn’t want Fiend, so thanks for the help and contribution to my collection!
@@dgauthreaux4522 She is an Archdevil in Rank not racial nature, so that would be something to talk with the DM about, She is a god though so that can give some flexibility in the arguments that could be made such as her "clerics" would be more in line with cultists for devils/demons and use a similar pact nature as them to bind her "faithful" to her.
@@truekurayami If I were DM for a player who wanted Tiamat as Deity/Patron, I'd probably say some combination of Conquest Paladin, War/Death Cleric, and Dragon/Fiend Warlock. It would make a surprisingly cool multiclass, too.
Just sharing an idea I used on years ago for a warlock, a fun thing I used to make the "eldritch blast spammer" interesting was making a cowboy that shot the laser from his magical focus that looked suspiciously like a Revolver So it was a sweet talker that go pew pew with a pistol
I would make the character a philactory for a Draconic Lich. Someone who agreed to be his host in the event of his death. And as a by product of this contract, the host can summon a vestige of it to fight with him. This works very well with jobs the patron assigns as the patron literally manifests itself to take care of the problem. So cool! ❤
My crackpot idea for a warlock subclass is the invisible hand, your pact spells are all spells that have components with required prices, and your main ability is to be able to cast those spells if you sacrifice the specified amount of gold the component would have cost instead of using the component itself.
I'm currently playing with a warlock that made multiple small pacts with various devils, all cautiously crafted to swing in his favor, each fueling a bit of his power.
I think the biggest problem with warlocks is the narrative aspect. If you're making deals with devils then that should come into play in a big way and the PC should suffer some extreme consequences of that. However GMs and probably rightfully so are hesitant to punish players for playing a class even though it makes perfect sense to do so narratively. This falls in line with wotc detaching meaning away from a paladins oath. Instead of the oath being an avenue for dramatic story telling it gets in the way of cool. Long story short what should motivate drama is looked at an obstacle to fun. And I don't why anyone plays a ttrpg if not for the drama. Video games pretty much do every other aspect better.
@@Chameleonred5 only if you get a loan to pay A loan. I did do this, but one of the loans paid other six, so now there's only three to deal with, one of which is going to be null by itself.
@@QuarataiaSo you've consolidated all your debt into one, affordable, monthly payment? That being said, if the deals ultimately land in your favour, I think you've missed the point in Warlocks.
I talked with my DM to majorly buff talisman: the die upgrades as you level, can cast spells from other talismans (meaning you can make some for others) and have it effect initiative. And potentially steal spells you can use once her short rest but it has to be the last spell the enemy casted
Druidic pact(or Locus pact if you want to be fancy): Your patron is a Genius Loci, exchange spell slot for wildshape of the same CR level or lower, charming animals once per short/long rest by trading one spell slot, the ability to poison for one minute whoever was attacked by your unarmed attack and the damage depends on charisma modifier, always by trading those sweet spell slots, and your eldritch blast has ability related to the terrain your patron inhabits if you find yourself on that kind of terrain(ex. forest entangle, desert exhaust, ecc...) and a saving throw is failed. Upon your death, your souls will be turned into a guardian for the locus.
I played a Deep Ones Warlock who went mad and got his powers by seeing the Eldritch being through a portal on a burglary gone wrong and his whole goal was to get his Patrons attention and become the valuable follower. Went a bit non-romantic yandere for his Patron at times thanks to his madness. Another fun Warlock I played was a Hexblade, but I wasn't just the person holding the blade, I was the haunted blade. Possessing the wielder and using him as a meat puppet. Warlock is one of my favorite classes. My other favorite is artificer, which is another very customizable class.
Damn, that sounds like fun! For starters it solves the issue of TPK as you just need to find a new meat puppet, and it creates conflict between the wielder and the wielded. I move unorthodox characters/playing styles
I have a character duo that is a Magician (homebrew class) and a Warlock. The thing is, the Warlock's patron, is the Magician themselves. A dynamic duo of a patron and a warlock who grow stronger together.
My great old one is the flying spagetthi monster. It 'communicates' trough pasta. My DM liked it a lot and has thought up the old ones goal, idk what it is yet. Every once in a while when the party has to eat he sends a mesage trough the pasta.
Couldn’t any of the subclasses be a dragon tho? I feel like having subclasses be that specific with who heir patrons need to be, kinda defeats the point.
@@theguileraven7014 The Warlock subclasses: The Fiend is for hellish and abyssal creatures. The Great Old one is for eldritch horror otherworldly creatures such as Mind Flayers, Beholders or gods from the Far Planes. Celestial is for Mount Celestia and SOME other good aligned outer planes. Fathomless and Genies are for specific elementals. Archfey is selfexplanatory. Undead too. Undying is for non-Undead immortals and gods with Death domain. Hexblade is mostly from Shadowfell. It kinda is a flavour/RPG limiting class regarding subclasses in the same sense as cleric. I also don't think there's a dragon type for each of these "races". The closest ones would be Undead, Hexblade and Archfey.
@@davioliveira5963 Limiting the subclasses to specific flavors/archetypes is not the same as limiting it to something as specific as a “dragon”. Any of the subclasses can have a dragon as their patron. Fiend is a blanket terminology for entities that come from 3 entire planes of existence. It doesn’t mean “must be red man with horns”. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, including dragons such as Tiamat who rules an entire plane of the Abyss, and it’s not hard to imagine that there may be other dragons throughout the lower realms. Great Old Ones, are again… anything from the Far Realms, which is essentially space. Anything with a lovecraftian flavor can be a Great Old One. You can have a Void Dragon, an Elder Brain Dragon, some sort of False Hydra/Dragon type creature, or any other made up Outer God that you can headcanon as being draconic in nature. I mean even Cthulhu himself has explicitly draconic features. Archfey? Korvold, Maleficent, Malkior, are all fey dragons from media you can use as the basis for your patron. Elementals/Djinn… Is it really hard to imagine an elemental dragon? Shadowfel/Undead? Umm… Lich Dragon. Hexblade? This never should have been a subclass to begin with tbh. Should have just been an assortment of abilities available as a buildpath to any Pact of the Blade Warlock. It’s the same issue I have with the dragon Warlock, in that it’s too specific.
To be fair, that one is a tad iffy, getting a +2 to strength at level 1, and at 10 you get a +4 to strength, and a +2 to both constitution and charisma. That's not including all the other ridiculous stuff you get at level 10 there like a permanent AC of 17 at the lowest. Pointy Hat's version may have some problems, but it's better than that at least.
Now I want to play a campaign where each player gets a “patron”. Maybe the rogue gets mentorship from a fae, the wizard takes lessons from an ancient dragon, the warrior is made tougher through training with a genie I think thatd be so much fun
I love how you can work in Backstory inspiration into your subclasses. As someone who is trying his best to come up with compelling characters, it's incredibly helpful to boil down what makes a good character and how to apply it to my own preferences. Thanks for all the work you do!
The EB issue is why I love Hex Blade so much. Even without multi classing it allows me to be effective without spamming Blast and i actually cast my spells
Quick correction, the mod that makes blast reduce movement speed is only for one target once. Warlock was my first character and over a year I got veeery familiar with what I could and couldn't do with it. Voice of the Chain Master + Dimension Door was a great combo for utility. Also I was rarely casting Blast late game because I had gone for AoE control spells and the DM had custom feats. One was an extra pact slot on a repeatable feat which helped solve the spell slots issue (spell gems and rod of the pact keeper are also useful).
I have another idea - I spied on one of the most iconic warlocks - Gul dan. The idea is that for their spell cells, the player must pay with health. And the more often he uses it, the higher the price. From now on, Warlock will have ONLY 2 cells for the entire progression, but he can restore one (or rather, get a new one) by paying the price in hp. At first, it will be a conditional 2 hp. A little bit, yes. The second time it will be 4. The third time it will be 8. The fourth time it will be 16 and I think you understand where this is going. You can take not a fixed number, but a roll of the dice, with the progression of the dice. At first, it's 1d4 damage. On the second 1d6 and so on, up to 1d20. Like ordinary warlock spell cells, we retain their property of maximum strength, and the fact that they "recover" (or rather, burn out) after a short rest. Almost any damage spell will be stronger than the Eldritch Blast, which encourages you to actively sacrifice hp and receive persistent spells, rather than spam with this death ray. eldritch invocations will perfectly suit such mechanics, diversifying the warlock in a variety of ways. We can make an eldritch invocation to reduce the damage from getting cells, to add special powers to the Warlock himself, depending on the cells he received, for example, if the devil acts as a patron, then after receiving 4 cells at the cost of hp, the Warlock receives an aura of fire until the end of the battle. We don't have to do anything with the Eldritch blast anymore. If someone shuts up, he will still be able to play from him. But this will no longer be the "optimal" way, but on the contrary, it will be considered the most "safe", but with a minimum number of rewards. Of course, the numbers and the balance need to be improved, but it seems to me that this will display Warlock as a class much better. From now on, the warlock's body and soul itself acts as something of a focus for the magic of the ancients, and the more actively he uses powers that he should not possess, the more his body and soul suffer.
I just wish that their invocations effecting eldritch blast effected all their cantrips so you could lean into the warlock customizing and let them do whacky cooky stuff
Just vibrate the air in front of your face to produce sound instead of just talking. Just flexing on nerds who have to open their gross mouths to speak.
I love playing warlocks! I usually think of them as almost martial classes or half casters where the multi eldritch blast acts as the multi attacks martial classes get, but also have your spell slots for when shtf (counterspell/misty step/thunder step/fireball/dispell magic/remove curse/etc) Love your videos btw!
I LOVE, all of these videos. They are so very inspiring and really helps my creative juices. I always loved to theory craft and design, so watching your videos just hit that right itch. I love the idea of playing characters that have something more to them than griding the META till you have uniform shapes all over the place that are mirror replicas because that is what is "Best". Hell, the Pathfinder Campaign I'm in currently I am playing a Chaotic Neutral Ratfolk that is a Witch Putrefactor cross-classed now with a Alchemist Plague Bringer who hates necromancers and undead because his Witch Patron is one of Decay and Rot and Entropy and that the undead not being allowed to decay away to be with his "Mother" frustrates him. He is this little enigma in our party that just no one can read at times. So, well, thank you is what I am trying to say. For taking the time and putting yourself and your creativity out there to share with us all and to give back constantly to the TTRPG communities.
So there’s this home-brewed dragon that i found via an animator called dingo doodles that is called the liquid mercury dragon or something similar and from what i gathered there goes is people or the souls of people they come across and i think it would be an interesting idea if you sell your soul to this dragon in advance and are able to live separately for a few extra years before you actually join the dragon
Great video, as alwys! I actually played a kinda similar character once - Dridri, Celestial Warlock. He was a weak kobold that got enslaved and caged, so he formed a pact with a celestial golden dragon (and became golden-scaled as a mark). Loved the little guy and would play him again in an instant 😅
There is always the iconic Dragonheart for inspiration. Dragon gives half his heart to save the life of the adventurer in exchange for that pact, linking the two.😊
@@ChaoticCreatorIn the og Dragonheart, the saved prince becomes a tyrant that can't die because of the titular dragon's heart in their chest, so it's surprisingly a negative FOR THE DRAGON to have done this
I loved playing my Celestial Warlock, Hope. Picking mainly Radiant and Fire spells was fun and having a pool of dice you can use to heal as a bonus action was so nice.
Also, one of my players on Curse of Strahd is a warlock of the Genie, and he was tricked i to service. He's now engaged in "the warlock games" in Barovia.
Recently in a very cosmic horror themed campaign multiple of my players decided to multi class into Warlock which I loved so much. They wanted it to be a huge part of the story and world but also leaned more into their orginal class and mostly multi classed for the story and role play abilities. The Rogue picked up mask of many faces and it changed how he engaged in the world, my paladin broke her oath at one point and decided to reach out to an outer god to help give her the power to stand firm to her virtues. It was lots of fun and one of the few times I actually enjoyed being a DM for multiclass players.
I would die for Bog, he is a good boy Also, a lot of the complaints about Warlocks are addressed in the system Level Up: A5E, it's for 5e basically what Pathfinder 1e was for 3.5, their take on the Warlock class is really cool and I think it fixes a lot of the class. It uses spell points to allow for a more versatile casting mechanic than other casters without being super restrictive, Eldritch Blast is a class feature that gives you multiple ways to use it (including some melee options), and the class is super customizable in deeper and more complex ways than the 5e version
Everytime i see a "dragon subclass" i just wish for it to not be a simple breath, fear, wings. I have high hopes for this one, lets see. Oooofff and it has more options than just fear wing and breath, thank you mister hat.
Fun idea for a Warlock Patron. Shadow Lord. While some make pacts with the Fey lords of the Feywild, others make pacts with rulers of its polar opposite, the Shadowfell. Could make for some pretty cool stealth abilities like sinking into shadows or teleporting from one shadow to the next.
@@323starlight Funnily enough Hexblades weakest point is that their abilities more often enough *Cannot* enhance their skill fighting with a sentient weapon
@@DODUCKAI despise the entire concept of the hexblade being it’s own subclass, instead of just being a build path available to anyone who takes the Pact of the Blade.
I Hexlockadin all the time. It's such a flavorful combo. You can have a nobody who finds a magic sword, gets in touch with the Raven Queen (or setting specific deity/force of your choice), and with the power promised creates/takes the oath that they go as Paladin. Treat the paladin and warlock abilities as coming from the same source and you have potential for a really neat story.
I got pact of the talisman for Rebuke of the Talisman, because its a guaranteed push back and damage if you get hit at melee, combo that with fathomless's, slowing tentacle, lance of lethargy, and repelling blast and you have a powerful CC warlock who can push enemies back into your many different aoes over and over.
@MrRhexx Created that exact warlock subclass at the end, a pact with a dragon, and at a certain level in it you can become a half-dragon. He has it on his store I believe
@se I didn't purchase it I just heard him talk about it in his videos its in his store for like 5-15usd along with a bunch of other content combined with it
Great idea I also like the idea of a giant warlock subclass it would make sense for a character who hates dragon since Giants and dragons are have always been enemies in DND lore.
I fully agree that warlock-Eldrich blast is basically a bad abusive relationship. However i feel like it can be fixed in a rather simple way. Make agonising blast a warlock class feature, and delete the Eldrich blast invocations. Instead add specific new abilities to warlock subclasses that boost eldrich blast in a way unique to each patron. So for example fiend would make the creature hit with Eldrich blast recieve additional fire damage, turning it into a blaster subclass its specific spells want it to be. Meanwhile fay can have a chance to charm them or something. Obviously the details would need to be figured out but it would at least solve the problem of the class seemingly being at war with itself
A good way to kind of nerf eldritch blast a bit was making it's damage type depend on the patron, rather than just being force damage. Fire for the fiend, Psychic for the old one, etc.
Easiest way to make warlocks more distinct, flavorful, and empowered would be to complete shift the way pact gifts function. Instead of being minor nifty benefits, make them large subclass choices. At level 3 you choose between becoming a Warlock Arcana: One additional spell slot per short, or with extra spell slots or something similar to sorc points per long rest. Warlock of might: Prof in medium, heavy armor, shields, all simple and martial weaponry, as well as associated melee buffs. Or a warlock of fate: With additional skill proficiencies, and a pool of dice that can be used to increase the odds of success on skill checks and attack rolls. Then just completely banish hexblade into the ether, or fully rebuild it, since its poorly balanced, and is only needed due to the failing of base warlock in melee. The pacts still provide their benefits, and give warlocks more stuff to do, then you can also drop the eldritch blast invocations and give the + charisma on blast as a feature to the Arcana Lock at a later level.
i'd love to see a "cursed" warlock subclass. cursed warlock is an individual who has had an unbreakable curse bestowed on them, perhaps because they displeased a powerful entity, betrayed their patron, or crossed a very powerful wizard. they have learned to delay the onset of their curse by siphoning power directly from it in order to cast spells. as they level up, the condition of their curse worsens, giving the warlock monstrous traits that they can weaponise into useful abilities (perhaps burning spell slots to do it).
@@paolobucci2761 i had a look, and that isn't really what i was talking about. Sure they both draw power from a curse initially, but wretched bloodline focuses more on where the curse came from whereas this idea focuses more on the effects of the curse. And wretched bloodline also doesn't let you gain any monstrous traits, nor does the curse intensify over time. Also wretched bloodline is really specific about the curse's origins, while this leaves it ambiguous.
To skip the Fae flavor, oh the missed opportunities... But seriously, well said, and well done. If I may just whisper one little piece of feedback... The Draconic Heart gift. Read that alongside the Eldritch Invocation Fiendish Vigor, and the infamous spell Armor of Agathys. I believe you may notice that, since temp HP cannot coexist, that specific gift needs quite the tuning to be an actual choice. 😉
@@xolotltolox7626 It's also not the only ability they have. My Fey warlock kicked ass as Melee dps, mostly because I knew I could dip away from the front line as a reaction when things got hairy. Let's not forget their "No, you," For charm effects even if the enemy is immune to charm, so are you.
I came up with a spell called Patronic Grasp, which is intentionally more thematic than Eldritch Blast, and wanted the new spell to be an alternative to Eldritch Blast; I even shared it on the Homebrew section over on D&D Beyond.
@@burgernthemomrailer While it does deal different damage types based your subclass, I also added in language that says you can work with your DM to decide what specific kind of damage the spell would most likely do, with a few examples of what sort of damage types could be done; the spell also has the added effect of inducing a specific condition that requires a saving throw to break free of.
@@dracone4370 Radiant or Force are the strongest, so those will be automatically chosen. Whichever condition dealt is most debilitating will be chosen.
@@dracone4370 So, all in all, it doesn’t change anything. You grant the illusion of choice, because there will always be an objectively superior choice. And if your answer to this is “just pick the thing that isn’t optimal,” 23:33
@@dracone4370 So many things wrong with the spell’s text too. 1. Duration of 5 rounds. Spells like this either have a duration of 1 round or 1 minute, not the average of those two. 2. Range of 80 feet. Spell ranges are always a multiple of 30. 3. Damage of 2d8. Too many dice for a cantrip. 4. It doesn’t scale. There is no text explaining how the cantrip scales. 5. “Binds in place” should be replaced with “speed reduced to 0.” 6. Not enough specificity. Spell doesn’t specify when a target makes the save, nor what kind of save. Spell doesn’t specify what a “target” even is, whether an object or a creature, or both. 7. Too much specificity. It is not necessary to describe “2 restraints per target,” and that you need to make a specific motion with your hands when casting. 8. “Each turn.” Caster’s turn or target’s turn? Or do you really mean “every single turn in initiative order?” 9. Repeating yourself. “While dealing damage to them each turn.” “Each turn the creature is within the binds it takes damage.” 10. There is no such thing as “elemental damage.” 11. Acid damage is not thematic for the Archfey patron just because the two start with the same letter.
The ability to say "Draagggooon UPPPP!" is certainly enticing alternative to "Eldrich Blast". Also, Props for using Dragon Prince clips. Aaravos is most definitely an otherworldly patron; that dynamic he has with Viren perfectly fits that "I'm going you power so you can do my will" sort of bargain.
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Alright who is giving their soul to me in exchange for magic tricks
hi
Me. No hesitation. Gimme them powers fr.
I wanna put your hat on my lil goblin head and- become this-!
"🤘👁👄👁🤙💥"
Me please
Sir yes sir!
Next series being call "Will it Warlock!?"
Taking random creatures (that aren't patrons already) and turn them into patrons!
"Oh cool! Your a warlock as well! Whats your patron!?"
"Humans"
@@blazichaos7181*cackles in Orzhov*
Perfect name
@@blazichaos7181my manager Mike
genius
I dont like how you ignored the Fae. We have taken this as a slight and will be inviting ourselves to the birth of your firstborn and cursing them in retaliation.
As a fey as well, I second this, and will curse his secondborn
Stick to your overly emotional dimension and leave the children out of it. Not everything has to be about you. This is why the Fae have a deservedly bad rep and you are perpetuating it further
I was waiting for the archfey patron the whole video 😭
I know, my absolute favourite subclass. The fey will not forget this slight.
My real name comes straight from Irish mythology and as such I cast this man into a faerie circle to dance until he drops :D
I like the "eldritch blast isn't op... everything else is under powered and therefore everyone picks the eldritch blast option leading to boring bullshit" take.
I’m just disappointed other caster classes weren’t made with ways to buff their cantrips. Or I’d love if invocations worked on all cantrips vs solely EB. I’d love a fire bolt that pulls with a fiery grip
@GrayRain0 Thankfully they have actually changed that in the new PHB 2024, so Agonizing Blast (and I would assume the other Eldritch Blast Invocations) now works with any Warlock Cantrip. Which means you can use Booming Blade, pushing someone back 10 feet, making it so they have to move closer to you in order to hit you, which in turn triggers the Booming Blade and potentially an opportunity attack. Which is just cool!
“Why do you keep using eldritch blast? It’s so boring.”
I have a gun. An actual gun. Why the hell wouldn’t I use it every round?
@@FlyingPenguin196Because you won't be invited to play anymore if you're this boring.
@@Mr.Heller imagine kicking a warlock out for being a warlock 💀
I have a Great Old One Warlock who sort of communicates with her patron through random inscrutable glyphs that appear in her book of shadows. Her patron is a nameless, formless entity of the Elemental Chaos that is just curious about the alien (to it) material plane and is using her as a sensor to look around. It works great for a Chaotic Neutral character with mental health issues.
I've been playing a half-orc barbarian for the last year and a half. I wanted to swap to a Goolock, but was hesitant because of the Eldritch Blast trap. My DM soothed my concerns.
Me: "I just don't want to do the same thing in every round of combat..."
DM: "What do you do now?"
Me: "Rage and hit stuff... oh."
The thing is, when I'm playing a barbarian I feel like I have to make choices. Do i grapple? Do I rage and waste my bonus action? Positioning alone forces a ton of choices regarding risk taking, action economy and strategy. Not to mention the roleplaying aspect, I can describe my weapon attacks so vividly
When I'm playing a character that is relying on cantrips alone I feel like I'm just running away and shooting my little lazer, it feels much less involved to me
It really does suck that only casters get a toolbox to deal with issues and martials are stuck with "attack", "attack but less effective" and "attack but with a bit more risk".
I wish the Fighter's Battlemaster Archetype worked like a Cleric's spells, and for both fighters and barbs. All known, few prepared.
Also I've tried to build a warlock that wasn't just specifically hexblade bladelock or Eldritch blast every round and...... Yeah my hopes for a more supportive illustration and enchanting focused warlock just...... They give you just enough options to make you hopeful and remove the ability to invest in EB and give you no damage compared to alternatives.
@@PietroMarcer - all very good points.
The Repelling Blast invocation and the Telekinetic feat make positioning an important consideration as well, but for the enemy instead, since you can toss them around the battlemap.
@@PietroMarcer Warlocks can be amazing for roleplaying or utility. IMHO Combats are overrated.
In my campaign our Warlock and her patron are pretty much just friends. We reflavored Archfey to fit what she was going for. Basically, her character is really into using psychedelics/tripping. One day she tripped so hard that her consciousness transcended into the Feywild. This is where she met her patron, and they just kind of hit it off so the fey spirit decided to give her power. The fey spirit is now her ”supplier”, and she uses a component pouch filled with ”gifts” as an arcane focus. Also, her pact of the tome is actually a “pact of the pipe”, which she smokes to cast the cantrips it came with.
oooh, fun! XD
That sounds lit 🔥🔥🔥
So a hippie stoner warlock, nice idea :D
I've played stoner surf bro rangers, and I've invoked a mushroom trip as a plot device to explain how someone met their Warlock patron, but I've not attempted to play a character that is just tripping balls all the time. I might have to do that for a one-shot.
I was in a party that originated as a "traveling relief crew" for taverns, so overworked owners could get a vacation once in a while. At the start of the story (1st level), we were running a tavern that an Aarakocra ranger had won in an archery contest but had no clue how to run himself (other than providing the meat). I was a brewer/journalist/wizard, the face of the crew was a brewer/chef/sorlock, and the third was a bugbear druid that did most of the big-batch cooking. We were putting cannabis in the food to encourage repeat business, and when someone got Intellect Devoured and his friends accused us of impairing him (thus leaving him vulnerable to the attack), the owner agreed to get the guy a Greater Restoration. But we still had to deliver him through terrain that was suddenly crawling with vermin and aberrations, so at fourth level we set out (we usually wait for fifth before setting into the main campaign arc, and pulling the safety net out from under the party). In the FIRST round of the FIRST encounter, the sorlock got Disintegrated by a Beholder Zombie. At first the DM said "perma-death" and the player said "cool, I was going on vacation after this session anyhow, so I may as well start now" and dipped. I talked him into walking it back to "requires Raise Dead, Revivify won't cut it", but the damage was done and that party never ran again.
the fact it’s based on psychedelics alone is worthy of a chalice.
Counterpoint on Pact of Chain being weak: Imps can turn themselves invisible whenever they want. Just, infinite invisibility. You need a spy, a saboteur, or a thief? Imp's your boy. Imps also have a call-out in the Monster Manual that, when bonded as familiars, they share their Magic Resistance trait with their summoner. Advantage on all saves versus magic, hands down. Might require DM approval, but it's there, Rules As Written.
This. You can literally see through your familiar, and you can cast through them as well! Don't forget that if you can read lips, you can even listen in on conversations! (There's a feat that allows you to read lips)
One of the best saboteur/assassin/thief classes in the game.
@@PeaceItUpsounds like a warlock who works as a assassin to appease his patron with the souls of the targets while making some cash
I just started my first playthrough of BG3 and yeah Pact of the Chain Imp is great for scouting or getting in surprise attacks.
Broke alot of the Phase Spider Matriarchs eggs using the invisible bastard while I was outside the cave.
I think the pact of the chain suffers similarly to the whole eldritch blast thing. If youte going chain, you get options, but you're playing Imp because it's leagues above the other options, especially now since you can take a feat so its poison on attack uses your spell save DC
Further Counterpoint that wasn't brought up was some of Pact of the Chain's invocations are nuts on a narrative level. Gift of the Ever-living Ones works well for fight heavy areas and Voice of the Chain Master is really useful on a narrative level. Just have your familiar stick in a towns library or with an important NPC
The soul eater music when you started bringing up Hexblade was a nice touch, very classy
draconic warlock really IS an obviously D&D-appropriate patron type that it's weird isn't official. Your version of it sounds cool!
I would wager that it's because the patrons are based largely of off the various planes of the multiverse, and to a lesser extent creature type:
- Archfey = Feywild, Fey.
- Celestial = Upper Planes, Celestials.
- Fathomless = Material Plane.
- Fiend = Lower Planes, Fiends.
- Genie = Elemental Planes, Elementals.
- Great Old One = The Far Realm, Abberations.
- Hexblade = Shadowfell
- Undead = I believe The Abyss, specifically the layer of Thanatos, Undead.
- Undying = Also Material? Honestly this one is so unclear.
What's noticeably missing is a Warlock Patron of the Astral Plane and the Ethereal Plane.
Also lore wise (I know everybody can change the lore) but wizard lore says for a dragon to bestow its power like other powerful beings it needs to under go the quasi-dragon ritual which essentially allows it to share its power the problem with this is that once the ritual is comple the "quasi-dragon" is the lowest form of a divine being making it technically no longer eligible to be a patron. The more the know.
Its technically already a thing. In Fizban's Treasury of Dragons one of the "Draconic Character Ties" in the book is "I have a dragon for a mentor or patron. (Bard, druid, fighter, rogue, sorcerer, warlock)" so you can already have a Dragon be your Warlock Patron, you'd just be flavoring the thematic stuff to more dragon theme.
Red/Gold/Brass Dragons = Fiend Warlock or Fire Genie Warlock
Green Dragon = Undead or Undying Warlock
Faerie Dragon = Archfey Warlock
White Dragon = Cold Genie Warlock
Silver Dragon = Cold Genie Warlock or Fathomless Warlock
Topaz/Shadow Dragon or Dracolich = Hexblade, Undead, or Undying Warlock
Crystal Dragon = Celestial Warlock
Emerald = Great Old One
Sapphire = Thunder Genie Warlock
The tough ones are Blue/Bronze, Copper/Black, and Amethyst Dragons as there isn't really a Lightning, Acid, or Force themed Warlock.
@Finalplayer14 this isn't a real patron nobody but a warlock can have patrons my man all those other classes having access to it makes it more like a boon and less a dragon patron for specificly warlocks
@Finalplayer14 I apologize it isn't like a boon it's bascly a character backstop meaning it has no real connection to ur class
My first warlock character had a Great Old One patron. It was fun, because instead of just warlock learning from the patron how to cast spells through understanding secrets of Far Realm, the warlock was also teaching the patron secrets of Material Plane. Many of these Material Plane secrets would be worthless to most, but to the warlock... well it kinda taught him to appreciate the world a new, because the patron made him question things he took for granted.
That's actually a really good way to make a neutral or good GOOLock without falling back to the whole "the patron doesn't even know you exist" thing.
Me having a breakdown because i cannot properly explain why things fall to my patron becuse I'm bad at math
I never thought I'd see a wholesome warlock but here we are.
"So this is what a cricket is and why it is so important to an environment"
"FASCINATING!! Here's this power to trap your enemies in a pit of darkness that causes them to slowly freeze and dissolve as a thank you for this valuable knowledge."
"COOL! Wait 'till I tell you about squids"
"About what now?"
I like GOO patrons - they have a lot more options. Things like "your mission this week is to remove the color purple. Whenever you see something purple, you must some how make it not so, or nonexistent." This sounds like a completely nonsensical task - which GOO can get away with because "incomprehensible," but it can still be interesting. Especially when you hit the royal ball that night and the king is in a purple cape. craaaap. So you some how get the cloak off the king and destroy it...revealing it to have been a mind control device. Did your patron know? Why did it phrase this task in this way? who knows? (your gm better, but he probably will never share it) It gets even better as the weeks, and bizarre tasks, keep mounting, until...something happens, and you are sitting there going "Did I do that? Was this the plan?" Gm is, of course, silent on the matter, but it's such an interesting dynamic to be in, this uncertainty of where this all is going, if it's going anywhere. For a certain style of campaign, this stuff is catnip. Pair up with a Sherlock sort of character - logical, analytical, and completely unforgiving of the inexplicable - and you get one heck of a party dynamic.
@@japo3867
That... honestly sounds more Feylock than GOOlock, not gonna lie.
Me: Hey Cleeeriiic!
Cleric: What did you do
Me: I kiiind of made a pact with a sentient hat
Cleric: Oh boy... what does it want you to do?
Me: It wants me to watch this funny looking scroll and write stuff in it.
Cleric: DEAR GOD
No, it's a hat, not a deer.
@@ChargeQMthe cleric was talking about the god they serve, also a sentient hat isn't a god.
Thank you dead pan sarcastic joke explainer. @@Failure-v9l
Just because I don't seen anyone else brought this up, I believe the full caster/half caster thing comes from the multiclassing rules where some classes only count as partial for the purposes of figuring out spell slots.
The adopted child of the party becoming a Warlock to avenge said party but ending up as the Warlock to the Dragon that slayed said party is a wild story idea even without the cool subclass story going on
Kind of reminds me of the story of Vinland Saga.
Agonisizing blast should just apply to all cantrips instead if just eldritch blast. That way all warlocks would use different cantrips.
Would still be best on eldritch blast unfortunately, due to how eldritch blast hits multiple times
OneDnD looks to be letting you choose which cantrip to apply it to based on the playtest materials.
Force damage is better than all other damage types other than against creatures with weakness or troll style regen
This does add a bit of variety but EB still ends up being far and away the best option because of the force damage. Force damage is one of if not the single least resisted damage type in the entire game. There is like a total of 3-4 creatures that resist/are immune to it in all the books. It also doesn't fix the other Invocations also being really strong.
Look up Pact of the Trigger, from Steinhardt's Guide to the Eldritch Hunt!
The Problem with Warlocks: Not having a patron that demands (and funds you) being fashionable in exchange of power.
Mine archsuccubus patron does!! My character was fashionable before though
I had an idea of a Genie (Marid/Water) warlock where your patron forces you to dance when you want to cast a spell. A warlock belly dancer
fashion is subjective. I could argue a bearded bald man with high heels and a thong is fashionable
I agree with zooker7938 and I completely love this. Imagine an archfey going full makeover-scene-in-a-teen-girl-movie when they agree to make a pact with you, full heathers the musical style. “You have excellent bone structure, dear, but you represent ME now. No member of my court is going out looking like THAT.”
As a bonus, it ties mechanically into the class. Rather than your charisma being high because you have to beseech your patron for goodies, your charisma is high because your patron got you all dolled up. Especially good for a court intrigue campaign, like some god awful fairy godmother!! 🧚♀️👗✨
Feels like the Archfey would be perfect for this
I've always interpreted Hexblade as making a pact with specifically a warrior entity. Like the Green Knight from Arthurian myth, an Einherjar from Norse mythology, the Archangel Michael from the Bible, Kai from Kung Fu Panda, Saint Celestine from Warhammer 40k etc. That's the reason why your pact primarily manifests through your weapon. Your patron is a supernatural warrior, and as such, so are you.
I LOVE ALL of your examples! XD
Great way to interpret that as well if I ever want to make my own Hexblade Warlock.
@@ThePa1riot Thank you 😁
I'm honoured to be a source of inspiration 🤝
I think of it as less of a pact, and more as just "you have a legendary magical weapon that requires a great deal of training to unlock its full power."
If you've seen Stardust Crusaders there's this one character who's basically a powerful spirit trapped in a sword. He can possess people and channel his power through them, making them wield the sword.
I see Hexblade as s something like that. Some kind of power up warrior spirit bound to a weapon.
I’m making a warlock NPC for an upcoming campaign for my friends- I’m excited to hear The Twist!!
Alternate title: “I’ve never hidden myself and my entire party behind an illusory wall while spamming prestidigitation and minor illusion to make some thugs think the place is haunted, while meanwhile, my familiar which I have because tomelocks are the best, keeps watch.”
I liked that anime.
I don’t think Pointy Hat is saying you can’t play a warlock in a fun way. I think he was more saying that your raw mechanical power is tied to Eldritch blast. The example you provided is cool, but it lacks raw destructive power
In the context of a pure tactical computer rpg, perhaps, but anybody with half a brain should realize that, as far as _real_ power goes, Eldritch Blast is solidly mid at best.
I think i read that Light Novel
2:57 - 3:03
That's literally me whenever Warlock mains talk about how fast they recover their spell slots
by the way, did you know that warlocks recover all their spell slots on a short rest?
You meant to say both, right? 😢@@calebleach7988
@@calebleach7988 Cool! Shame you’ll never get one!!! ;]
I had a celestial patron warlock that had a patron with a giant god complex and they just absolutely insisted that they were a cleric or a paladin, and it was hilarious.
Over the course of the game they slowly built up a cult for their patron until they actually became a god and they became a real paladin.
That is what should have happened in CR season 2, instead of one player just having cleric powers from and archfey.
@@scottpumo6010I mean, isn’t the a direct cleric class about fey
I love it.
I can't believe you used footage of Rumpelstiltskin and forgot the Archfey patron. Rude. Loved all the Madoka Magica and Hazbin Hotel's Alastor! My gf once made a great old one kenku warlock. Her patron? A reeeeeeally old tree. "Why does it always have to be cthulhu?" Her eb was flavored as a blast of wind filled with leaves and twigs. It was so cute!
Ok, that's pretty dope.
That sounds like a Wold Tree concept. And since the Wold Tree is supposed to hold all the realms within it's branches (which includes the astral plane in D&D context) it would be as near impossible to comprehend the nature of all of existence as it would be the nature of something non-existent or from before existence like the typical lovecraftian themed Old Ones.
imagine a warlock who made a pact with the DM.... or the "Engineer of the Universe" or something... even better, the "Dweomer Mechanus"
there is a book from Mage Hand Press called Valda's Spire of Secrets that has a DM pact subclass for warlocks
Dweomer mechanus
*puts on glasses
Dwemer tonal architect
Is that like a Aeon in wrath of the righteous? Lol
I had a similar idea of a warlock whose pact was with a player
I cant stop thinking about the roleplay of the DM using irl modern lingo and the poor Warlock being either extremly dumbfounded or taking it like its some super cryptic, poetic speech they must decypher
Dragons? AGAIN!? Looks like dragons rolled a nat 20 to seduce Pointy Hat.
My thought exactly.
I think the Algorithm demanded dragons and he's powerless to resist. XD
@@AegixDrakanthe Algorithm is his Patron
easier to say "dragon" than "aboleth and other things" ?
It's almost like dragons take up half the title of the game!
Was that a Contrapoints reference in my DnD video? Immediately subscribed
My favorite character is a Fighter x Warlock with Great Old one and Pact of the Blade. My patron was Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Instead of being an evil or conquering entity, the whole theme was about balance. It fit really well in the campaign I was in too.
My girlfriend did basically the same thing with a tree patron!
Love yggdrasil as a great old one.
Fun fact: The Old English word _warloga_ means _oathbreaker._ Funny how the meanings of words change over time...
OathBREAKER, OathMAKER/TAKER. I can see where the wires may have crossed over the centuries.
Wouldn't it be fun to play an oathbreaker, renegade warlock trying to escape their pact with the entity? I'm playing a vampire-themed warlock atm and my Patreon wants me to kill his bloodline, which is the opposite my character would actually wanna do, bc I'm playing him empathic and kind-hearted etc
@@afinedaytodie666 | Wyll from BG# hit's that vein. His Feind patron point him at a target who does NOT deserve it and he starts to question her more and more, realizing that he NEEDS to get away from her. The main character can help or harm him here.
It's apparently since warlocks are male practitioners of witchcraft, and those who practice witchcraft were said to be in league with the devil, they have betrayed God
same reversal happened to "nice" in English.
BABE NEW VIDEO JUST DROPPED!!! GET THE POP CORN!!!!
Hey give my popcorn back
@@nicolebee3283gimme some
@@nicolebee3283only if you share
Fr Fr 😊
Na you get chips
I'm writing a campaign currently and one of the player's will be playing a Dragonborn Warlock whose patron is the Dragon God of my world. Honestly this couldn't BE more perfect. Thank You!
My first ever 5e character was a dragonborn celestial warlock who got their power from Bahumet, their whole goal was to reach level 17 and permanently transform into a gold dragon so they could go up and be one of Bahumet's gold dragons.
I always had the idea that my patron was a Dragonborn with the ambition of controlling one of the nine Hells. And with this draconic patron it absolutely fits with our campaign that has two dragons fighting for the control of an entire region of the Sword Coast.
Wish me luck on convincing my DM to accept this patron!
I actually like pact of the talisman, because 1) you don't have to be the one to wear it and 2) there's some invocation to give it special effects. Allows you to sort of protect one party member, which is great for rp.
Invocations in general can be a reason for picking a pact, because each one gets a few exclusive ones you can choose
I also like Pact of the Talisman, but that's partly because I mostly play (or build and then never get to play) warlocks where the other options don't fit because I am specifically building them to be blasty magical girls. Don't want a familiar so Pact of the Chain isn't it, Pact of the Blade is strictly worse than me exploding things with arcane might, and I don't want to be lugging a big tome around because the vibe isn't studiousness, the vibe is a girl who stumbled upon raw arcane power and intends to use it to bash things.
Plus, the Talisman's boost _is_ nice in scenarios where Guidance isn't an option, such as most social encounters. _And_ it can be stacked with Guidance, and with Dark One's Own Luck.
If only they had expanded on Pacts and Invocations more. I always thought that Pacts should have leveled up with you(the Blade one would have easily covered the Hexblade’s niche) and the Invocations could have had more interesting and useful options, including some exclusive to certain Patrons and not just Pacts(some pacts have more invocations than others, btw)
Same. Want to play a warlock but don't want fighter, wizard, or ranger vibes? Amulet. Works well with genies, too.
@@FlameUser64 Really, you play a magical girl, and didn't choose the option to have a magic cute pet familiar?
@@DarksteelPenguin Yeah, fair, I dunno. Just not really my thing most of the time. I was _gonna_ say I was aiming more for Nanoha or the Herrschers in Honkai Impact 3rd aesthetically, but the Herrschers always have fancy weapons and Nanoha magical girls use magical cannons basically. Still closer to Nanoha though, I guess, less cutesy and "childlike" and more explosions and Befriending. (And also befriending people the normal way.)
My party, like 90% of them, usually are heavily multiclassed, usually for rp reasons, so I didn’t realize how much people don’t mix and match with stuff from classes. Also I love warlock, especially my love fathomless, so it’s always cool to see more done for them.
I usually try to find a medium between role play and min maxing.
But so often I get frustrated because it's hard to build a character when games tend to hinge off of specific options or modifiers that I don't like from a role play perspective.
In last epoch I wanted to build a mage with high mobility and high burst damage, and high survivability. I was willing to sacrifice things to make it work. I was excited.
Halfway through the game I was frustrated because there seemed to be no way to transmute mana into the resources I wanted without 100 conflicts of interest of modifiers.
(For example the game insisted on growing a useless health pool for me. When in my mind I wanted my ward to scale with my mana regen. Health is useless without damage mitigation, if my ward is down. Im dead so I would rather dump that vitality into mana regen to fuel the ward, but instead I have 1300 points of health that may as well be 100, wasting ability points )
I thought I could make up for no stacking every modifier towards a single spell by using clever synergies of spells, tactics, and trying to reduce my cooldowns (requires more apm, but can gain more options will not sacrificing damage)
Sadly. It just doesn't work. The game WANTS you to pick a few modifiers and stack them to all hell. Everytime I think of how I want my hero to progress and what would be cool. There's no way to make it work.
But guess what will?
*critical hit modifiers x2*
All the classes
I mean it fits rp and mechanically to multiclass but i like my classes pure. Pity warlock seems kinda weak if you go pure with it.
Love multiclassing. It helps with interesting character concepts and makes building a more interesting puzzle. Though I dislike going beyond 1 planned multiclass. Fine if the story naturally leads there, but it’s less... cohesive. Like someone’s OC w/ at least a dozen plot points.
@@ayoo_wassup I'm not familiar with Last Epoch, but it seems, generally, like a part of game design to not allow mobility, survivability, and damage, you probably have to drop the damage or the survivability in most games to have a fast character, etc for other builds.
Trying to find a class/classes in dnd for a character idea I have, I think, has locked me into warlock. It's an interesting challenge building a character effectively. I wanted to play a wis/int character initially, but I'm willing to go charisma for warlock because it seems like it will best fit the character I have in mind.
@@xxXXRAPXXxx You are very correct, well I like multiclassing since I love diverse abilites and do more of what I´m aming for being able to go with one class full through should take present. Like they can add more diverse small abilities to the warlock if power is not what DnD intends for them, just make them equal to the eldrich ones so its not so forced. As well really at least need to make it so they have one other progressable damage option so its not full stuck on one cantrip. Hombrew helps which I use tons of and make myself but it´s not on us to fix a flaw in the game.
Ok I was not expecting "a mimir" in the video lol
Cheers from Brazil
Eu tava procurando um comentário sobre isso 😅
Ngl for the “when I think of ____ I think of…”
I was expecting Jocat’s ‘Eldritch *BLAST* ‘
Also the video is 33:33 minutes long. Nice
Conversely, when he mentioned the best known aspect of Fiend Pact, I expected "Fireball. Just Fireball. NOTHING BUT FIREBALL." from JoCat & ZeeBashew's Crap Guide to Wizard.
As a hopeful DM with plans for a Warlock villain, and a "creature in the lake" (mindflayer dragon), words cannot describe just how *perfect* this is.
No joke, I’m making a sorlock right now and was looking for THIS EXACT video on your channel yesterday only to be disappointed. Thanks Pointy Hat.
Draconic sorcerer draconic warlock multiclass so your patron can be your dragon ancestor?
The only channel on which I actually listen to the sponsor part of the vid instead of skipping
Honestly, I don’t even play 5e anymore, but I absolutely adore your videos purely for your art, concepts, and storytelling. Excellent stuff! Can’t wait for the Warlock dragon vid!
The recurring theme of 'make this person part of my hoard' is giving me high-key polycule vibes and I *love* it 😄
I never would have thought to describe warlocks using Sailor Moon and DBZ, and yet somehow... it just works
So is Sailor Moon's patron...her future self? Because that's an awesome character concept.
I mean what is Ghost Rider if not a Magical Girl?
I've actually seen a Magical Girl build for warlock offered on the DM's Guild, so I guess there's more folks who agree with the idea.
I'm not really so sure. I feel like the sailor scouts are closer to Sorcerers, since their power is innate. Transforming just brings their power out of a dormant state.
And DBZ are just flying Monks (specifically Sun Soul monks).
@@digifreak90 Their patrons are their celestial bodies. Don't know how Moon has so much power though, maybe anything considered a 'Moon' helps empower the pact.
the subclass you made in this video gave me an absolute brain-blast of an idea for a pairing of two pc's:
adopted siblings that are a draconic bloodline sorcerer and dragon patron warlock, with the warlock's patron being the very dragon that spawned the sorcerer's bloodline.
The fix for Eldrich Blast boredom is the Celestial Pact. Eldrich blast for damage and healing spells for support. Makes you great at multiple important battlefield roles
Battle cleric it’s literally battle cleric
@@oinkytheink1228 yeah but Warlocks are cooler. They have that rizz for way better RP
@@beerbatreps3861 i play a drow shadow dragon paladin/warlock celestial pact she's quite fun to play
Hear me out: Healing Blast! It heals for 1d10+CHA, but also repels the target because lawls
Hex should just be a class ability. You only have 2 spell slots at lower level and both are dedicated to make sure you have hex up. This means you really don't get to use those spells slots for anything else. Real shame because warlocks get some really neat spells.
"So how did you become a warlock?"
'Well... I really REALLLLYYY wanted a Klondike bar."
Understandable
Came for a Klondike bar stayed for the 1D10 cantrip.
you study harder than wizards, and somehow end up a charisma caster???
@@Ignisrex He wanted that klondike bar just that badly.
"What would you DO-OOO-OOOOHH for a Klondike bar?"
Antonio: “So, we have a warlock video coming, I need footage. Anyone volunteering?”
His Dragon Ball and John Constantine folder: “Hell yeah.”
thank you for saying who the other one is. google is unhelpful with helping people find things based on description lol
I like this one. To make Warlock less Eldritch-blasty, I looked at adding and modifying invocations. Eldritch Spear and agonizing blast apply to a cantrip of your choice, not just Eldritch Blast. Chill Touch can restrain an opponent, requiring a wisdom save to escape. Magic Stone can knock a target prone when hit. I also use a Poison Ivy-based subclass that lets you get thorn whip, and that has some fun shenanigans.
The fellow TH-camr Mr.Rhexx noticed this Dragon gap. In previous editions we had Dragons Subclasses and Mr.Rhexx expected the subclass in Fisban's. Then, Mr.Rhexx made the Draconic Warlock in one of his PDFs (I think it is What They Don't Tell You About Dragon Hoards)
Dragon Warlock and Fay Sorcerer (I'd specifically want the Fey to be the Primal/Nature sorcerer, but they'd probably make it the Enchantment-focused charmer) are the two big gaps I've noticed. I'd guess they're trying to keep Sorcerer and Warlock from stepping on each other's toes. But then we wouldn't have the Feind/Celestial Warlock AND the Divine Soul Sorcerer.
@@professordetective807 in the brazilian DnD like sistem, Tormenta (available in english on Roll20) we have as prime sorcerer subclass the Fey (actually is a subsubclass, the class is the Arcanista, then you chose betwen Wizard [inteligence, more spels, can write scrolls], the Witch [inteligence, averege amount of spels, can brew potions, linked to the arcane foccous] and sorcerer [charisma, less spels, more non magic abilites] and if you chose sorcere then you chose betwen Dragon bloodline [basicly the same as DnD], Fey bloodline [you gain some charm resistence and encatation predisposition, can speak to animals and plants at will and other benefits] and the Crimson Corruption [this bloodline is a thing of the base setting, your sorcerer powers are linked to an erly exposition to the Tormenta, an Alien Eldrich Invasion Lovecraft stile with less tentacles and more incects with a blend layer of Red paint])
Very valid criticisms and a super interesting subclass idea, although if I can offer a gentle defence of the base warlock - I find it interesting that it is, arguably, the only casting class that actually encourages players to play in the most strictly optimal way.
By which I mean: usually, blasters are the worst casters. Crowd-control and shut down spells are so powerful in 5e that in most cases, the best use of any given spell slot is to spend it on a long concentration support or control spell (sleep and bless for 1st level, spike growth for 2nd, hypnotic pattern and sleet storm for 3rd, etc. etc. etc.). If you want to be able to take a large number of consecutive encounters (which 5e was clearly designed around, even if it's not actually played that way by most players!), then the best possible use of your spellcasting feature is to spend a single slot at the start of each combat on a powerful shutdown or support spell and then chip away at enemies with cantrips for the rest of the fight, only spending another spell slot if your concentration is broken, for defence (e.g. shield, silvery barbs), or if the combat situation changes.
Warlocks are exceptionally well designed to fit this playstyle. Having few spell slots encourages you to conserve them, which will naturally push you towards high-impact long-duration options like summons or control over lower-impact damage bursts. They even have one of the best control spells in the game - Hunger of Hadar - unique to their spell list. Recovering these spell slots on every short rest will naturally encourage you to use one every couple of fights rather than save them all up for a big boss fight, because you only need a short break to recover them. And having a strong base cantrip option will make the turns when you sit on your powerful control spells and do cantrip chip damage feel less bad than a wizard in the same situation.
Now, this is all built on an assumption of a traditional dungeon crawl-type game: a survival situation where most of each session is spent in a series of increasingly challenging fights, conservation of resources is important, and long rests are few and far between. Which is not what actually happens at most 5e tables. So I do think your criticisms stand pretty well in relation to 5e as it is actually played.
But I do think it's worth recognising that the warlock is actually surprisingly well designed to fit a certain niche and encourage a type of play that new players often take a while to get into - they're often naturally drawn to big flashy damage spells like Burning Hands and overlook just how strong a single Sleep or Hideous Laughter can be, so a class that strongly encourages prioritising these long-duration control spells over flashy damage spells can do a really good job of encouraging players to engage with different styles of play and step out of their initial expectations for what a strong caster looks like.
While I agree with your point, I think warlocks are still on the back foot compared to other casters in this regard. If a wizard is running low on big flashy spell slots, they still have lower level options like hideous laughter to fall back on. They have the spare slots to support 'wiggle room' and backup plans while warlocks simply don't. Additionally, at higher levels against bigger threats, if another caster wanted or needed to unload as many spells as possible as fast as possible to meet the challenge (counterspell for example) they have the option to do that. And while warlocks aren't entirely devoid of this potential, the difference is embarrassing.
Fully agree, and this is basically how I play my warlocks (which are always my favorite characters)
I usually play blade pact, but don't go for full hexblade because I don't like relying on hex for damage. Some spells that my bladelocks have gotten great use out of have been things like Blur, Blink, Spirit Guardians, Armor of Agathys (usually only until I have Armor of Shadows ofc), basically anything that makes melee combat against me more frustrating for my opponents and/or makes me more survivable for a sustained amount of time.
Single target damage spells are very often a bad use of a spell slot for warlocks, especially with Eldritch Blast always available as a backup ranged option.
In a similar vein, having only 2 (eventually 3) spell slots *really* discourages using single target save-or-suck style debuff spells against enemies, since more powerful enemies are also far more likely to save against them, and then you've wasted half your spell slots with literally nothing to show for it, not even a small amount of damage or a temporarily confused opponent. And you don't usually have enough slots to want to waste them against weaker enemies.
The limited spell slots basically force you to select your spells largely for how much of an impact they can have, and then reserve them until you really need that. Which can be cool, but as mentioned, is very dependent on how often your party short rests, and still means a lot of the time your best option will still be Eldritch Blast. There's a reason for the memes.
Warlocks are just so unbelievably flavorful and I love them, and anytime some homebrew rules change short rests they're just lovely to play. You get a TON of high level spells compared to other classes, and it makes you feel less spellslinger and more spellcannon, and I just like that feeling a ton more personally.
Eldritch Blast Warlocks are the Barbarians of the spell casters.
And I am here for it.
I played in a campaign once with a Warlock who canonically did finger guns whenever he used Eldritch Blast (and that was absolutely the thing he did the most)
I was playing an extremely fun "let's blow everything up with fire and lightning" pirate sorcerer, who I still remember fondly.
It was absolutely a murderhobo campaign and we did not apologize for it. Very fun and very silly.
I always thought of warlocks like Mega Man
I like how for the longest time, P.H. avoided talking about dragons. But now that he made his own, it continues to pop up. And god DAYUM I am loving it!!
Missed point about the Pact of the Talisman: the 1d4 bonus it grants (and all the other powers it can gain through Invocations) are granted _not_ exclusively to you, but to _whoever_ is wearing it. If your Warlock has someone they want to protect, this is the natural choice narratively, and its mechanics reinforce that.
The invocations around the Talisman can also be really powerful and fun and are thematic for a player character who has a loved one in the party they want to protect.
I've been workshopping a rewrite of a fan-patron I found forever ago: The Holy Matrimony Patron. Marital vows so strong, they grant magic power (pairing with the Paladin Oath of Betrothal I'm also fiddling with). Like the Hexblade and the Pact of the Blade, I think Talisman may be the "no-brainer" boon for this one.
Not to mention:
- Guidance is an action that you should cast preemptively; Talisman doesnt even require a reaction.
- Guidance is a 1-minute concentration; Talisman doesnt require concentration.
- Guidance has a range of Touch; a Talisman... essentially the same but matters less because "duration" is much more than 1 minute concentration
The only better thing for Guidance is that you can cast it on different people without needing to transfer the Talisman
I guess the nature of skill checks is such that they are much more abundant out of combat, where all these issues matter less. But there was a Talisman invocation that expands the usage to saving throws so it becomes useful.
Also you can combine Guidance with Talisman, obviously
This is great. I actually had a Warlock planned for a long time who's patron is a dragon. I was going to just take the great old one and say it's a draconic 4th dimensional being, but your subclass is exactly what I needed.
Now my part of the pact. The character made the pact because they were almost being killed when finding the place this dragon patron was sealed away. The dragon offered them to give power so they could kill their pursuers in turn help the dragon to break the seal. They actually become friends later, since the dragon is bored being sealed away and can only talk to his warlock telepathically to kill time.
Bog's background is INCREDIBLE. Amazinfg work as always :DD keep it coming
I almost cried 😂
I would make a Dorian Gray sort of pact (Warlock Lich?) in a heartbeat
Loved the "take me mother" ocean moment btw, Natalie always being iconic
Honestly had a half-dragon warlock I was going to play and was tying him with Tiamat but didn’t want Fiend, so thanks for the help and contribution to my collection!
Technically, Tiamat lives in the Hells, and I believe counts as an Archdevil, so... Fiend would be correct.
@@dgauthreaux4522 She is an Archdevil in Rank not racial nature, so that would be something to talk with the DM about, She is a god though so that can give some flexibility in the arguments that could be made such as her "clerics" would be more in line with cultists for devils/demons and use a similar pact nature as them to bind her "faithful" to her.
@@truekurayami If I were DM for a player who wanted Tiamat as Deity/Patron, I'd probably say some combination of Conquest Paladin, War/Death Cleric, and Dragon/Fiend Warlock. It would make a surprisingly cool multiclass, too.
Just sharing an idea I used on years ago for a warlock, a fun thing I used to make the "eldritch blast spammer" interesting was making a cowboy that shot the laser from his magical focus that looked suspiciously like a Revolver
So it was a sweet talker that go pew pew with a pistol
I would make the character a philactory for a Draconic Lich. Someone who agreed to be his host in the event of his death. And as a by product of this contract, the host can summon a vestige of it to fight with him. This works very well with jobs the patron assigns as the patron literally manifests itself to take care of the problem. So cool! ❤
My crackpot idea for a warlock subclass is the invisible hand, your pact spells are all spells that have components with required prices, and your main ability is to be able to cast those spells if you sacrifice the specified amount of gold the component would have cost instead of using the component itself.
So a Ferengi-Lock?
I cast "capital gains tax".
I HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY THE GREAT METAL HAND IN THE SKY (here's to hoping someone gets this)
I'm currently playing with a warlock that made multiple small pacts with various devils, all cautiously crafted to swing in his favor, each fueling a bit of his power.
Intelligent. You could meet the demands of one pact through another pact.
@@niictofobiia Isn't that like getting a loan to pay off another loan?
I think the biggest problem with warlocks is the narrative aspect. If you're making deals with devils then that should come into play in a big way and the PC should suffer some extreme consequences of that. However GMs and probably rightfully so are hesitant to punish players for playing a class even though it makes perfect sense to do so narratively. This falls in line with wotc detaching meaning away from a paladins oath. Instead of the oath being an avenue for dramatic story telling it gets in the way of cool. Long story short what should motivate drama is looked at an obstacle to fun. And I don't why anyone plays a ttrpg if not for the drama. Video games pretty much do every other aspect better.
@@Chameleonred5 only if you get a loan to pay A loan. I did do this, but one of the loans paid other six, so now there's only three to deal with, one of which is going to be null by itself.
@@QuarataiaSo you've consolidated all your debt into one, affordable, monthly payment?
That being said, if the deals ultimately land in your favour, I think you've missed the point in Warlocks.
I talked with my DM to majorly buff talisman: the die upgrades as you level, can cast spells from other talismans (meaning you can make some for others) and have it effect initiative. And potentially steal spells you can use once her short rest but it has to be the last spell the enemy casted
Druidic pact(or Locus pact if you want to be fancy): Your patron is a Genius Loci, exchange spell slot for wildshape of the same CR level or lower, charming animals once per short/long rest by trading one spell slot, the ability to poison for one minute whoever was attacked by your unarmed attack and the damage depends on charisma modifier, always by trading those sweet spell slots, and your eldritch blast has ability related to the terrain your patron inhabits if you find yourself on that kind of terrain(ex. forest entangle, desert exhaust, ecc...) and a saving throw is failed. Upon your death, your souls will be turned into a guardian for the locus.
I played a Deep Ones Warlock who went mad and got his powers by seeing the Eldritch being through a portal on a burglary gone wrong and his whole goal was to get his Patrons attention and become the valuable follower.
Went a bit non-romantic yandere for his Patron at times thanks to his madness.
Another fun Warlock I played was a Hexblade, but I wasn't just the person holding the blade, I was the haunted blade. Possessing the wielder and using him as a meat puppet.
Warlock is one of my favorite classes. My other favorite is artificer, which is another very customizable class.
Damn, that sounds like fun! For starters it solves the issue of TPK as you just need to find a new meat puppet, and it creates conflict between the wielder and the wielded. I move unorthodox characters/playing styles
I have a character duo that is a Magician (homebrew class) and a Warlock.
The thing is, the Warlock's patron, is the Magician themselves.
A dynamic duo of a patron and a warlock who grow stronger together.
My great old one is the flying spagetthi monster. It 'communicates' trough pasta. My DM liked it a lot and has thought up the old ones goal, idk what it is yet. Every once in a while when the party has to eat he sends a mesage trough the pasta.
Pointy Hat: Isn't crazy that we don't have a dragon warlock subclass?
MrRexx: Boy do I have something for you!
Couldn’t any of the subclasses be a dragon tho? I feel like having subclasses be that specific with who heir patrons need to be, kinda defeats the point.
@@theguileraven7014 The Warlock subclasses: The Fiend is for hellish and abyssal creatures. The Great Old one is for eldritch horror otherworldly creatures such as Mind Flayers, Beholders or gods from the Far Planes. Celestial is for Mount Celestia and SOME other good aligned outer planes. Fathomless and Genies are for specific elementals. Archfey is selfexplanatory. Undead too. Undying is for non-Undead immortals and gods with Death domain. Hexblade is mostly from Shadowfell.
It kinda is a flavour/RPG limiting class regarding subclasses in the same sense as cleric. I also don't think there's a dragon type for each of these "races". The closest ones would be Undead, Hexblade and Archfey.
@@davioliveira5963 Limiting the subclasses to specific flavors/archetypes is not the same as limiting it to something as specific as a “dragon”. Any of the subclasses can have a dragon as their patron.
Fiend is a blanket terminology for entities that come from 3 entire planes of existence. It doesn’t mean “must be red man with horns”. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, including dragons such as Tiamat who rules an entire plane of the Abyss, and it’s not hard to imagine that there may be other dragons throughout the lower realms.
Great Old Ones, are again… anything from the Far Realms, which is essentially space. Anything with a lovecraftian flavor can be a Great Old One. You can have a Void Dragon, an Elder Brain Dragon, some sort of False Hydra/Dragon type creature, or any other made up Outer God that you can headcanon as being draconic in nature. I mean even Cthulhu himself has explicitly draconic features.
Archfey? Korvold, Maleficent, Malkior, are all fey dragons from media you can use as the basis for your patron.
Elementals/Djinn… Is it really hard to imagine an elemental dragon?
Shadowfel/Undead? Umm… Lich Dragon.
Hexblade? This never should have been a subclass to begin with tbh. Should have just been an assortment of abilities available as a buildpath to any Pact of the Blade Warlock. It’s the same issue I have with the dragon Warlock, in that it’s too specific.
To be fair, that one is a tad iffy, getting a +2 to strength at level 1, and at 10 you get a +4 to strength, and a +2 to both constitution and charisma. That's not including all the other ridiculous stuff you get at level 10 there like a permanent AC of 17 at the lowest. Pointy Hat's version may have some problems, but it's better than that at least.
No dragon warlock or fiend sorc :/
I cry every time someone basically says “the fathomless definitely exists”
Go outside at night and look up. There you go fathomllessness existing.
My current warlock is a fathomless and I feel that it gives really great role-play potential. I love it.
Now I want to play a campaign where each player gets a “patron”. Maybe the rogue gets mentorship from a fae, the wizard takes lessons from an ancient dragon, the warrior is made tougher through training with a genie
I think thatd be so much fun
I love how you can work in Backstory inspiration into your subclasses.
As someone who is trying his best to come up with compelling characters, it's incredibly helpful to boil down what makes a good character and how to apply it to my own preferences.
Thanks for all the work you do!
that was one of the smoothest transitions to the sponsor i have heard.
What sponsor i have 2 addblockers on.
@@bombyouup62 the in vid ad read when he started talking about maps. see how sooth that was, you didn't even notice
@@GeryonM Nope.
The EB issue is why I love Hex Blade so much. Even without multi classing it allows me to be effective without spamming Blast and i actually cast my spells
Quick correction, the mod that makes blast reduce movement speed is only for one target once.
Warlock was my first character and over a year I got veeery familiar with what I could and couldn't do with it. Voice of the Chain Master + Dimension Door was a great combo for utility.
Also I was rarely casting Blast late game because I had gone for AoE control spells and the DM had custom feats. One was an extra pact slot on a repeatable feat which helped solve the spell slots issue (spell gems and rod of the pact keeper are also useful).
I have another idea - I spied on one of the most iconic warlocks - Gul dan. The idea is that for their spell cells, the player must pay with health. And the more often he uses it, the higher the price.
From now on, Warlock will have ONLY 2 cells for the entire progression, but he can restore one (or rather, get a new one) by paying the price in hp. At first, it will be a conditional 2 hp. A little bit, yes. The second time it will be 4. The third time it will be 8. The fourth time it will be 16 and I think you understand where this is going.
You can take not a fixed number, but a roll of the dice, with the progression of the dice. At first, it's 1d4 damage. On the second 1d6 and so on, up to 1d20. Like ordinary warlock spell cells, we retain their property of maximum strength, and the fact that they "recover" (or rather, burn out) after a short rest. Almost any damage spell will be stronger than the Eldritch Blast, which encourages you to actively sacrifice hp and receive persistent spells, rather than spam with this death ray.
eldritch invocations will perfectly suit such mechanics, diversifying the warlock in a variety of ways. We can make an eldritch invocation to reduce the damage from getting cells, to add special powers to the Warlock himself, depending on the cells he received, for example, if the devil acts as a patron, then after receiving 4 cells at the cost of hp, the Warlock receives an aura of fire until the end of the battle.
We don't have to do anything with the Eldritch blast anymore. If someone shuts up, he will still be able to play from him. But this will no longer be the "optimal" way, but on the contrary, it will be considered the most "safe", but with a minimum number of rewards. Of course, the numbers and the balance need to be improved, but it seems to me that this will display Warlock as a class much better. From now on, the warlock's body and soul itself acts as something of a focus for the magic of the ancients, and the more actively he uses powers that he should not possess, the more his body and soul suffer.
damn thats cool
I just wish that their invocations effecting eldritch blast effected all their cantrips so you could lean into the warlock customizing and let them do whacky cooky stuff
@21:08 i believe you meant telepathically; although communicating telekenetically sounds fun !
Like you are tapping Morse code on their head 😂
Just vibrate the air in front of your face to produce sound instead of just talking. Just flexing on nerds who have to open their gross mouths to speak.
I love playing warlocks! I usually think of them as almost martial classes or half casters where the multi eldritch blast acts as the multi attacks martial classes get, but also have your spell slots for when shtf (counterspell/misty step/thunder step/fireball/dispell magic/remove curse/etc) Love your videos btw!
I LOVE, all of these videos. They are so very inspiring and really helps my creative juices. I always loved to theory craft and design, so watching your videos just hit that right itch. I love the idea of playing characters that have something more to them than griding the META till you have uniform shapes all over the place that are mirror replicas because that is what is "Best". Hell, the Pathfinder Campaign I'm in currently I am playing a Chaotic Neutral Ratfolk that is a Witch Putrefactor cross-classed now with a Alchemist Plague Bringer who hates necromancers and undead because his Witch Patron is one of Decay and Rot and Entropy and that the undead not being allowed to decay away to be with his "Mother" frustrates him. He is this little enigma in our party that just no one can read at times. So, well, thank you is what I am trying to say. For taking the time and putting yourself and your creativity out there to share with us all and to give back constantly to the TTRPG communities.
So there’s this home-brewed dragon that i found via an animator called dingo doodles that is called the liquid mercury dragon or something similar and from what i gathered there goes is people or the souls of people they come across and i think it would be an interesting idea if you sell your soul to this dragon in advance and are able to live separately for a few extra years before you actually join the dragon
Great video, as alwys! I actually played a kinda similar character once - Dridri, Celestial Warlock. He was a weak kobold that got enslaved and caged, so he formed a pact with a celestial golden dragon (and became golden-scaled as a mark). Loved the little guy and would play him again in an instant 😅
There is always the iconic Dragonheart for inspiration. Dragon gives half his heart to save the life of the adventurer in exchange for that pact, linking the two.😊
That truly sounds like I can either be the greatest friendship or a slave with an extra string chain
@@ChaoticCreatorIn the og Dragonheart, the saved prince becomes a tyrant that can't die because of the titular dragon's heart in their chest, so it's surprisingly a negative FOR THE DRAGON to have done this
@@raonair (huffs, steam billowing from his nostrils)
"This was... unexpected"
I loved playing my Celestial Warlock, Hope. Picking mainly Radiant and Fire spells was fun
and having a pool of dice you can use to heal as a bonus action was so nice.
"You're a warlock? What's your patron?"
"Humanity."
*Blasts 40k music*
Angels Of Death starts playing.
The Emperor is a Chaos God Confirmed
Making a Techpriest artificer/warlock multiclass feels like a great idea right now
@@samojedanneuron8247 Omnissiah be praised!
Orc warlock Waaaahhhhhhhgg
Also, one of my players on Curse of Strahd is a warlock of the Genie, and he was tricked i to service. He's now engaged in "the warlock games" in Barovia.
I had the same issues, then I realized that Warlock is just a Warrior that can cast sometimes, and now it's my favorite class LOL.
Recently in a very cosmic horror themed campaign multiple of my players decided to multi class into Warlock which I loved so much. They wanted it to be a huge part of the story and world but also leaned more into their orginal class and mostly multi classed for the story and role play abilities. The Rogue picked up mask of many faces and it changed how he engaged in the world, my paladin broke her oath at one point and decided to reach out to an outer god to help give her the power to stand firm to her virtues. It was lots of fun and one of the few times I actually enjoyed being a DM for multiclass players.
I would die for Bog, he is a good boy
Also, a lot of the complaints about Warlocks are addressed in the system Level Up: A5E, it's for 5e basically what Pathfinder 1e was for 3.5, their take on the Warlock class is really cool and I think it fixes a lot of the class. It uses spell points to allow for a more versatile casting mechanic than other casters without being super restrictive, Eldritch Blast is a class feature that gives you multiple ways to use it (including some melee options), and the class is super customizable in deeper and more complex ways than the 5e version
Similar to Spheres of Power?
Everytime i see a "dragon subclass" i just wish for it to not be a simple breath, fear, wings. I have high hopes for this one, lets see.
Oooofff and it has more options than just fear wing and breath, thank you mister hat.
Fun idea for a Warlock Patron. Shadow Lord. While some make pacts with the Fey lords of the Feywild, others make pacts with rulers of its polar opposite, the Shadowfell. Could make for some pretty cool stealth abilities like sinking into shadows or teleporting from one shadow to the next.
the hexblade patron originates from the shadowfell (but yeah that sounds cool, I love shadow stuff so I'm always happy for more)
@DODUCKA yeah, that lore is kinda dumb. I like to apply hexblade to any magical weapon that has a sentient personality inside.
@@323starlight Funnily enough Hexblades weakest point is that their abilities more often enough *Cannot* enhance their skill fighting with a sentient weapon
@@DODUCKAI despise the entire concept of the hexblade being it’s own subclass, instead of just being a build path available to anyone who takes the Pact of the Blade.
@@323starlightimagine them as enemies like one second you see them in a bush and the second they pop behind your shadow and shank you
My favorite part of playing a warlock is begging for a short, 30 minute nap after each combat encounter
I Hexlockadin all the time. It's such a flavorful combo.
You can have a nobody who finds a magic sword, gets in touch with the Raven Queen (or setting specific deity/force of your choice), and with the power promised creates/takes the oath that they go as Paladin. Treat the paladin and warlock abilities as coming from the same source and you have potential for a really neat story.
I got pact of the talisman for Rebuke of the Talisman, because its a guaranteed push back and damage if you get hit at melee, combo that with fathomless's, slowing tentacle, lance of lethargy, and repelling blast and you have a powerful CC warlock who can push enemies back into your many different aoes over and over.
@MrRhexx Created that exact warlock subclass at the end, a pact with a dragon, and at a certain level in it you can become a half-dragon. He has it on his store I believe
XD This needs more attention
Mind sharing this with the class then? I can't find this anywhere on the internet.
@se I didn't purchase it I just heard him talk about it in his videos its in his store for like 5-15usd along with a bunch of other content combined with it
@@Pallaix That's what I meant
You got a link to this? I legit can't find it.
Great idea I also like the idea of a giant warlock subclass it would make sense for a character who hates dragon since Giants and dragons are have always been enemies in DND lore.
I’m excited to hear what you have to say, the other vids have all been bangers
Edit: THE DRAMA
I fully agree that warlock-Eldrich blast is basically a bad abusive relationship. However i feel like it can be fixed in a rather simple way. Make agonising blast a warlock class feature, and delete the Eldrich blast invocations. Instead add specific new abilities to warlock subclasses that boost eldrich blast in a way unique to each patron.
So for example fiend would make the creature hit with Eldrich blast recieve additional fire damage, turning it into a blaster subclass its specific spells want it to be.
Meanwhile fay can have a chance to charm them or something.
Obviously the details would need to be figured out but it would at least solve the problem of the class seemingly being at war with itself
A good way to kind of nerf eldritch blast a bit was making it's damage type depend on the patron, rather than just being force damage. Fire for the fiend, Psychic for the old one, etc.
Easiest way to make warlocks more distinct, flavorful, and empowered would be to complete shift the way pact gifts function. Instead of being minor nifty benefits, make them large subclass choices. At level 3 you choose between becoming a Warlock Arcana: One additional spell slot per short, or with extra spell slots or something similar to sorc points per long rest.
Warlock of might: Prof in medium, heavy armor, shields, all simple and martial weaponry, as well as associated melee buffs.
Or a warlock of fate: With additional skill proficiencies, and a pool of dice that can be used to increase the odds of success on skill checks and attack rolls.
Then just completely banish hexblade into the ether, or fully rebuild it, since its poorly balanced, and is only needed due to the failing of base warlock in melee. The pacts still provide their benefits, and give warlocks more stuff to do, then you can also drop the eldritch blast invocations and give the + charisma on blast as a feature to the Arcana Lock at a later level.
i'd love to see a "cursed" warlock subclass.
cursed warlock is an individual who has had an unbreakable curse bestowed on them, perhaps because they displeased a powerful entity, betrayed their patron, or crossed a very powerful wizard.
they have learned to delay the onset of their curse by siphoning power directly from it in order to cast spells.
as they level up, the condition of their curse worsens, giving the warlock monstrous traits that they can weaponise into useful abilities (perhaps burning spell slots to do it).
Thus sounds cool, but it sounds more like a sorcerer origin
@@benmazzara6216 that's actually a fair point, in that case, you should burn sorcery points to access the monstrous traits
It's literally the wretched bloodline sorcerer from grim hollow
@@paolobucci2761 i had a look, and that isn't really what i was talking about.
Sure they both draw power from a curse initially, but wretched bloodline focuses more on where the curse came from whereas this idea focuses more on the effects of the curse.
And wretched bloodline also doesn't let you gain any monstrous traits, nor does the curse intensify over time.
Also wretched bloodline is really specific about the curse's origins, while this leaves it ambiguous.
6:02 sponsorship ends
To skip the Fae flavor, oh the missed opportunities...
But seriously, well said, and well done. If I may just whisper one little piece of feedback...
The Draconic Heart gift. Read that alongside the Eldritch Invocation Fiendish Vigor, and the infamous spell Armor of Agathys. I believe you may notice that, since temp HP cannot coexist, that specific gift needs quite the tuning to be an actual choice. 😉
Fey patron is sadly incredibly shite
Fey presence is just so insanely underwhelming
@@xolotltolox7626 It's also not the only ability they have. My Fey warlock kicked ass as Melee dps, mostly because I knew I could dip away from the front line as a reaction when things got hairy. Let's not forget their "No, you," For charm effects even if the enemy is immune to charm, so are you.
I came up with a spell called Patronic Grasp, which is intentionally more thematic than Eldritch Blast, and wanted the new spell to be an alternative to Eldritch Blast; I even shared it on the Homebrew section over on D&D Beyond.
Lemme guess, it just deals different damage dice and damage types depending on your subclass.
@@burgernthemomrailer While it does deal different damage types based your subclass, I also added in language that says you can work with your DM to decide what specific kind of damage the spell would most likely do, with a few examples of what sort of damage types could be done; the spell also has the added effect of inducing a specific condition that requires a saving throw to break free of.
@@dracone4370 Radiant or Force are the strongest, so those will be automatically chosen.
Whichever condition dealt is most debilitating will be chosen.
@@dracone4370 So, all in all, it doesn’t change anything. You grant the illusion of choice, because there will always be an objectively superior choice.
And if your answer to this is “just pick the thing that isn’t optimal,” 23:33
@@dracone4370 So many things wrong with the spell’s text too.
1. Duration of 5 rounds. Spells like this either have a duration of 1 round or 1 minute, not the average of those two.
2. Range of 80 feet. Spell ranges are always a multiple of 30.
3. Damage of 2d8. Too many dice for a cantrip.
4. It doesn’t scale. There is no text explaining how the cantrip scales.
5. “Binds in place” should be replaced with “speed reduced to 0.”
6. Not enough specificity. Spell doesn’t specify when a target makes the save, nor what kind of save. Spell doesn’t specify what a “target” even is, whether an object or a creature, or both.
7. Too much specificity. It is not necessary to describe “2 restraints per target,” and that you need to make a specific motion with your hands when casting.
8. “Each turn.” Caster’s turn or target’s turn? Or do you really mean “every single turn in initiative order?”
9. Repeating yourself. “While dealing damage to them each turn.” “Each turn the creature is within the binds it takes damage.”
10. There is no such thing as “elemental damage.”
11. Acid damage is not thematic for the Archfey patron just because the two start with the same letter.
Babe wake up Pointy Hat uploaded
The ability to say "Draagggooon UPPPP!" is certainly enticing alternative to "Eldrich Blast".
Also,
Props for using Dragon Prince clips. Aaravos is most definitely an otherworldly patron; that dynamic he has with Viren perfectly fits that "I'm going you power so you can do my will" sort of bargain.