Top 10 D&D 5e Warlock Invocations! | Nerd Immersion
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
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This week I'm looking at everyone's favorite edgy spellcaster, the Warlock. Warlock's have the unique mechanic of Invocations, and while there are several, I decided to pick out my Top 10. Out of the 46 options, I still feel like I only see the same 5 or so used in play consistently. What's your favorite Warlock Invocation?
Top 10 D&D 5e Warlock Invocations
10. Tomb of Levistus 2:24
9. Lifedrinker 4:50
8. Voice of the Chain Master 6:06
7. Gift of the Ever-Living Ones 7:56
6. Eldritch Smite 9:36
5. Vision of Distant Realms 11:18
4. Eldritch Sight 13:12
3. Book of Ancient Secrets 15:17
2. Devil's Sight 17:12
1. Agonizing Blast 18:57
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I always felt that the Invocations that allowed you to cast a specific spell should allow you to cast it as an additional spell which you can only cast once per day. Also that the Fiendish Vigour Invocation should still scale up in effectiveness up until 5th level as normal, then past that as they pick up their Mystic Arcanum spells.
Also, I've had a Pact of the Chain Warlock who hit Lvl 20. Gave him the Healer feat, so I usually got max HP, then could heal other party members without burning any spells, mine or others.
Yep blast and blade take up most of the invocations they need more free spells or spread the love to the other pacts
Q
I've used Tomb of Levictus against a Lich's Disintegrate, was very grateful to it!
This was a very good list, but the big missing one for me is Mask of Many Faces. I played a Warlock recently in a 3 year campaign that got up to level 14; it was one of my first two picks and I never regretted it for a moment. Being able to instantaneously change your appearance instantaneously at will without using a spell slot or concentration makes you the ultimate infiltrator, and it opens up possibilities that don't exist for any other disguised character, from the ability to make your way through an enemy base Mission Impossible-style, taking out guards and taking their faces, to abusing Friends to make characters hostile towards your enemies, to even the ability to play a character who is permanently disguised and never lets anyone see their real face.
I played a Tabaxi with this that was always disguised as a human that had been horrifically burnt and wore a mask. The mask was real but still part of the disguise.
He felt he'd be oppressed as tabaxi were rare. He rathered people avoid the burn victim than hunt the tabaxi.
Just organised with the DM that he had an hourly tick like Tourettes that was the recasting (mostly there's a chance to duck away to recast)
Absolutely! It should also be added that the primary ability score of the warlock (charisma) and the recommended background (charlatan) both pair extremely well with Mask of Many faces. Get the actor feat and expertise in deception (prodigy or bard/rogue multiclassing) if you wanna go all out and the synergy remains.
A mere two levels of warlock is an excellent dip for something like an assassin rogue (or in my case, a swashbuckler). With all the infiltration expertise of an assassin and the benefit of magical disguises, you can set up some really interesting scenarios for your party. Disguises, forgery papers and poisons. Need I say more?
I also recently ended up practically soloing the heist part of a heist mini campaign with a 5th level changeling glamour bard. Granted, was largely thanks to the enthralling performance feature and he didn't have any warlock levels, but the power of disguises, the right proficiencies and the actor feat really proved its worth. In terms of story, this bard had already signed a pact of being the avatar of the Archfey of Myths, carving out stories in his name. He was a warlock in every sense except mechanics. For a different type of campaign or even just one where I would get a few more levels, he would have two levels of feylock.
ALL OF THIS! I have a Loki-inspired trickster that puts this and the silent image invocation to WORK.
You could get a lot of those things by being a changeling but that’s basically all you get from your race then
It feels like playing a Mission Impossible movie, especially if paired with the Actor feat, constantly scheming to infiltrate conspiracies and tricking people into revealing information.
Warlock is awesome. Very limited in spells but very versatile. I'm currently playing a Celestial Warlock who pretends to be a Palladin with Eldritch smite.
other people call him Diet Paladin.
One of my Favourits is "Mask of many faces" for a more social Warlock (and later invocation the one that lets you cast alter self).
You can use another face in different towns. Augmenting you appeal/Charisma by choosing the right species.
You can be a Drow without appearing like one and that constantly.
Honestly kinda shocked it's not on this list. I guess it's a bit campaign dependant but very useful indeed.
That invocation is without a doubt my favorite one, the possibilities are literally endless, infiltration, deception, it can really come in clutch in a great number of scenarios. My favorite is especially making your character look like a guard or enemy who had just captured members of your party in order to either get into their base or escape/deescalate a chase. If you’re quick on your feet, you can think your way out of just about anything, a real ace up your sleeve.
Yeah honestly this and Misty visions (Silent image at will) are SOOOOOO under rated, and although great for the edgelord warlock. it can be great for anyone.
Glad to see warlock getting some love. The evocations can be really confusing for new players. So seeing people take the time to point out several that make good starting points is great
*invocations
4:15 To me it sounded like who ever thought up that invocation had been playing a whole bunch of Mage in World of Worldcraft. Iceblock (become immune to all damage but unable to move or act for 8 seconds, aka the "Ohh-shit button") has been a core feature of that class since the release of the game.
I still think we more patron specific invocations, like that one UA we had like 500 years ago, but yeah, Invocations are amazing
Warlock gang, rise
With the new book coming up in November, we might get them
I'd rather just have more boons, which would directly lead to more specific invocations. Patron specific on top of Boon specific invocations would add a lot of customization but would be complicated to balance, and implement
@@axis1247 Both? Yeah, both seems right
I believe the patron-specific invocations were fairly unpopular, so sadly, I don’t think we’ll ever get them in a sourcebook.
Haven't done it yet myself, but you can combo Improved Pact Weapon(to get a bow Pact Weapon) with Eldritch Smite and knock flying creatures out of the sky with no save. Sounds fun though
Caladbolg 2 the sh*t out of something.
"PULL!"
@@Battleguild Greatings fellow Nasutard! It is always a pleasant surprise to see another Fate fan in an unexepected corner of youtube.
I feel like WotC needs to release an Expansion book: more types for totem Barbarian. More fighter maneuvers. More fighting styles. More invocations. Definitely more Pacts. More turn undead abilities. More race variations. Etc etc.... not just new subclasses but go back and add options
Agree, but I think the races are pretty thoroughly covered.
More feats, more metamagic options...
@@nemonomen3340 More subraces is always welcome though. Some races have only 2 choices, and those choices are sometimes skewed to particular roles. It'd be nice to get 4-5 subrace few for each race, honestly.
I think you'd like the "Variant Class Features". It's Unearthed Arcana though so it's not an official release, so you're right there. But it's got new stuff for basically every class, including variant features that you can use instead of some of the base ones, some features are just straight up buffed, they've added more versatility to change up your build if you don't like something as you level up, and they've added a bunch of new fighting styles for Fighter, Ranger and Paladin, including specific fighting styles for Ranger and Paladin where you can get two Druid cantrips if you're a ranger, or two Cleric cantrips if you're a Paladin, as well as unarmed (great for grappling), thrown, blind fighting and interception (you can use your reaction to reduce damage when someone, including you, is hit) fighting styles for all of them.
Edit: They also expanded all classes spell lists.
@@EclecticMystic Many races are meant to be skewed towards certain roles. For the very few people who want to play Vedalken barbarians or Bugbear bards, I suggest re-skinning other races.
I like the devil's sight invocation because is says "you see normally." Most darkvision is colorblind, but with this you can solve that color based riddle without having to light a torch in a dungeon
Good list, though personally I find Thirsting Blade to be much more important than Lifedrinker. I also find Lifedrinker to be poorly named. An invocation with a name like that should either prevent your target from healing or heal you. I would also like it better if the additional damage came in die form.
Gift of the Ever Living Ones would also work with hit dice on a short rest...
BBEG: I'm feeling generous, and will give you 8 hours to prepare for your demise.
Warlock: Give me 30 minutes.
Add in the... I think Mountain Dwarf that can spend Hit Dice on Dodge, then multiclass into Rogue for Cunning Action to dodge as a Bonus Action. That's some serious regeneration
@@Kilo6Charlie Cunning Action doesn't let you dodge as a bonus action. You can dash, disengage, or hide. A monk can use Patient Defense, but that's limited if you're putting your multiclass focus on 'lock.
@@Kilo6Charlie It's not a mountain Dwarf, but Darf Racial Feat. And it works only in a fight, so you can't just spend your hit dices whenever you want, you need to spend your actions in the fight. Still pretty strong though.
@@Kilo6Charlie switch rogue for fighter's second wind, which comes back on a short rest.
Tomb of Levistus was actually used in the High Rollers Aerois campaign by the warlock to survive a magical item exploding and blowing a hole in their ship, otherwise she would have died instantly to the damage with no death saves
Oh hey i should have read the comments before i commented something similar xD glad to see another fan in the wild.
@BlackMage It specifies that the temporary hit points take as much of the triggering damage as possible, so it does have merit against a big blast or a serious crit at low health.
@BlackMage You gain the Temp HP before the damage. You gain the vulnerability to fire damage after the damage.
I'm always amazed that all these lists work from a "what's good at late levels" point of view. Yes, this is a pretty decent list of invocations but there are some truly wonderful ones that always get skipped because you outgrow them. A warlock can replace an invocation every time they level, so there is no reason not to take some and then drop them when they are outgrown. Fiendish Vigor is the poster child for this. Sure it sucks at level L15, but it is super powerful when you take it a level 2. Its not hard to absorb 30-50 hit points in a combat into Fiendish Vigor, you start with 8 temp and can top up every time it gets knocked down. Being in the front lines at L2 is fine for a Vigor powered Warlock; when most damange is d6+3 attacks, d4+4 temp hitpoints on demand is super strong. Then as your tanks improve you fade back and swap out Vigor. Vigor is entirely a top if not the top invocation as your party is bumbling around in early level content.
I'm so happy to see someone give love to Pact of the Chain. It makes me a little sad that it doesn't get picked up as often. I had Gift of the Ever-Living ones when I was playing a Warlock and it was so nice. I'd carry around potions and never worry about my rolls, plus the scouting and RP aspect of a familiar is great. If your DM is nice they may even let you get the Magical Resistance from say an Imp or Psuedodragon.
Pact of the chain is great! For the magic resistance, you need to find the familiar and they aren’t forced to obey you by RAW.
So if the rogue and cleric somehow got the ability to see through magical darkness with a shadow sorcerer and warlock to accompany them your looking at a terrifying party composition
@Nospam Spamisham Does Drow get the ability to see through magical darkness?
@@vonfersen No. But Drow can cast darkness at level 5 once per long rest. So, you get extra darkness for your party with Drow.
The UA Twilight Domain cleric which is most likely going to be released in November in TCoE can see through magical darkness, the UA Eldritch Adept feat has a possibility of being released so Shadow Sorcerer, Twilight Cleric, Hexblade Warlock, and Assassin Rogue with Devil's Sight from Eldritch Adept, and you have near unstoppable party until your DM starts throwing devils at you.
@Nospam Spamisham Drow aren't emo if you play them right, I prefer a british accent and make them a snob, or you could go the good drow so maybe like happy go lucky, or make it a meme how edgy they are. And you usually the tiefling is the go to for edge because sunlight sensitivity is really annoying.
One of my favorite invocations is Eyes of the Rune Keeper its very simple, it just lets you read any writing. Found a note in Draconic but no one can read it? Boom. Eyes of the Rune Keeper. Find some ancient text in a long dead language? Boom, you know what it says. Idk its not the most op thing mechanically but its just really cool. Especially when you roll on the table for a marking that shows your pact and your eye basically looks like one of your patrons eyes. Super flavorful.
The issue with that is simple. If you take the invocation that lets you inscribe rituals into your book... just add comprehend languages and save the invocation slot.
It's very flavorful and useful but there's better ways to get around it and Warlock doesn't really get enough options.
I mean sure but that only works for pact of the Tome, other Warlock pacts don't have that option.
Depends on the campaign
most dms don't even bother with this, situational
as a pact of the blade warlock I tend to use the invocation that lets me cast false life at will so I always have some temporary hit points on hand
Because it's at will, you can keep rolling until you get the maximum temporary hit points.
Especially great at lower levels.
Yep. I also play my hexblade warlock with Armor of Agathys. It takes a little care to manage the different temp hit points, but if you do it right you can do toe to toe with anybody when it comes to ability to soak up damage.
@@rudewalrus5636 Temporary hp don't stack I think, so you wouldn't get them from both false life and armor of agathys.
@@grabeck666 Yes, I know. But if you start with the False Life THPs, and then put up Agathys in the battle, you get a little extra boost. Plus you can pop False Life as often as you want to keep you going (although it does take an action). Like I said, it takes some care to manage, but you have the potential to be able to absorb a LOT of damage. That's not even counting the points from killing your Hexblade Curse target.
Todd Kendrick mentioned recently that he would like to see the piety system (or something similar) added for warlocks & their Patrons - maybe there might be a new UA sometime soon, with new invocations too. It only makes sense that any new cult etc may try to develop new invocations & spells to give themselves an edge and the heroes a nasty surprise.
Ascendant Step needs some love. Unless you're an aarakocra, you'll likely appreciate it.
a small part on Tomb of Levistus that often gets overlooked is, that you get incapacitated. that means you stop concentrationg on whatever spell you currently concentrate on
I know that you didn't specify if multi-classing to increase the effectiveness of Eldritch smite was a matter of having more spells to work with or more smites to work with but as a side note the invocation very specifically indicates that you must expend a warlock spell slot. So in that case multi-classing would definitely give you more utility but you will still only ever have two smites until level 11 warlock.
Came here to say this. I was so sad for my bard/warlock when I learned this.
One benefit of Eldrich Smite though is that it only specifies an "attack with your pact weapon", allowing warlocks to smite at range.
@@trigon525 damn straight! You can literally knock dragons out of the air! Also Bard multi-class is great because you can grab cat nap and get back your smites in 10 minutes rather than short rest! If you're planning an attack against an unaware enemy, grab some high ground drop a tiny hut and phase snipe. One of my favorite combinations to be sure, cheers fellow Bardlock.
@@slickrickard Ah more BardLocks! A criminally underrated combo, and perhaps the most thematically appropriate multiclass in the game. Combine Magical Secrets with more magical secrets, why wouldn't a lore hungry, conniving Bard seek more power? Or you know, what if the Bard dies? Don't worry, he'll just plow a devil or something and come back with sick awesome Warlock powers. They wanted his first born child, and they just might've gotten it ;)
Missing out on Fiendish Vigor is a shame. The replaceable pool of temporary hit points it provides can be a massive help.
The fun part of eldritch smite is that if you go hexblade and improved pact weapon you can take a bow and smite from a distance.
Whereas the paladin can only use lame melee weapons like a bunch of dorks
"I am a hexblade. as you can tell by the name, I'm a sniper." "why didn't you just go arcane archer?" ".."
This is true. I think they're only Smite that allows for range is Branding Smite, but that's a long walk for a short drink of water...
I agree that arcane archer has more arrow options but you get so few times to use them. But I would argue that you would get the ability for spells instead of arrow options. Also you can definitely get more damage out than those arrows
I always loved "misty visions" for at will silent image for the ultimate illusionist. this allows you to do what people think minor illusion can, an animated illusion and a larger area at that. and then you can combine it with minor illusion to add in sound to the image
Playing my first Warlock (GOO) this friday and I have literally been looking into which invocations to get all day! Perfect timing
I've actually seen tomb of levistus used in a streamed dnd game. Specifically the uk high rollers stream. Their hexblade survived a massive explosion with it when some arcane tech exploded on their airship(if i remember correctly).
Yep. She also used it against a giant back when they were in the Dragonborn city.
A similar instance was used to creatively solve an airship catastrophe in Acquisitions Incorporated C Team, where the warlock intentionally took damage to wrap an adjacent overheating pipe in supernatural ice.
I love the Voice of the Chain Master. Because telepathically means you don't have to concentrate on perceiving through the familiar, so you can still walk around, listen, and do other things while scouting. I even had a DM rule I could cast spells around corners and through walls that require sight of the target as long as my familiar could see the target and it was within range. Whenever we split the party (which was often), we basically had a walkie-talkie as a familiar that had unlimited range. I once used my familiar as an alarm system to tell me if anyone was following us, and unlike the alarm spell, I knew exactly what was following us, how many, what they had, and I could issue an invisible warning to people to not go that route.
Fiendish Vigor seems really good for a hexblade in that since you can cast False Life at will without spending a spell slot, you can go ahead and take the max amount of possible temp HP (8) when outside of combat since you could in theory just keep recasting until you got the max benefit. This invocation will tapper off more as you level up, especially if a party member picks up the Inspiring Leader feat, but early on its a pretty big boost to your HP.
Mask of Many Faces + Actor is possibly the least acknowledged literally broken combo in the game 5 years after launch. Level 2 characters with high stats + advantage breaking one social encounter after another, even capable of turning deadly combats into minor inconveniences or strengthening the party with an exceptionally good impersonation. As invocations improve to Alter Self and further the insanity of a character that basically becomes a social deity can make the game speak out of control.
This character also functions as a great villain. Imagine Strahd in reverse - the common grocer you purchased supplies from is secretly the BBEG, pulling strings and monitoring the party while passing themselves off as forgettable nobodies or powerful nobles of countries they're barely familiar with.
'So anyway, I started blasting' every warlock ever. 😂
Except mine cause I got a 8 in cha 😂
My Hexblade Vox almost never used it except when he went on a mild rampage after seeing every NPC he cared about die. When the DM says "have fun auto critting", I'm going to unleash the blasts
More than half of my characters have been warlocks yet none have taken eldritch blast
Rappelling blast to push people off cliffs is always going to be one of my favorite things
Voice of the chain master and the actor feat can be fun to sneak in and call out orders in the voice of the enemy commander to clear the way for your party, get a door unlocked and just cause general chaos
Hexblades vary so much from other warlocks, you could probably include a separate list for them, including Improved Pact Weapon. The ranged weapon option of that invocation let my warlock skip Eldritch Blast.
I've used both pact of the chain invocations and they work really well, chain is great for a more dexterous or sly warlock who wants a nice little spy, especially if you learn the stat blocks and swap between them on long rests
Also if anyone is interested there's an amazing book for warlocks called the compendium of forgotten secrets, I have no connection to it other than that I'm a huge fan
Hells Yea!!!!!! Book of Ancient Secrets!!!! It has so much utility. -signed a Celestial warlock with the Augury, Divination, and Commune Spells!!!!!
As a Celestial Warlock of a nature god, being able to pick up Commune, Commune with Nature, and Ceremony added such an amazing dimension to my character, I used them a *ton*
Book of Ancient secrets is the reason that no one takes chains! Just take Find Familiar with your book!
@@DINGOlord I have actually found that more people take chain over tome.
Tome is honestly underrated and underplayed.
With tome alone you can become a pseudo chainlock and a pseudo bladelock.
@@PyrotechNick77 Can you explain the pseudo bladelock option a bit more? I have a tomelock, and any hints are appreciated. I do already use Hex at times.
@@groadoswaggins so the standard bladelock has am emphasis on melee and weapon damage.
With tomelock, you can do that in a roundabout way. With tomelock, you get access to 3 other cantrips from any class, so to make a pseudo bladelock with Tome you get the Shillelagh cantrip from druid which lets you use your spellcasting stat to make melee weapon attacks using a club or a quarterstaff and the damage die increases. Then you can take the booming blade or greenflame blade cantrips to increase your damage output.
Had a Dwarf life cleric 1 rest of the levels celestial warlock with pact of the chain.
Invocations:
voice of the Chainmaster,
Gift of the ever living one, (and later pland for tomp of levistus )
At warlock lvl 4 (character level 5) I took draven fortitude (race feed that allows you to heal a hit die +con if you take the doge action)
Dam was he tanky always was up fort, cold take hits for days.
Had heavy amor because of Dwarf able to do so with low Str.
My cantrips were lightning lure to pull enemies in and word of raidiance as an option to hit multiple enemies with on cantrip. Also not so weak in damage becouse celestial warlock deals his Char bonus on all raidiant and fire spells on top.
We played with standard aray would even be better with point buy.
He was lawful / neutral and didn't care about good or evel just about order and contract`s. He was a lot of fun all ways looking for a mutual benefit for all party's and profit in every exchange for both sides(if possible)
He was not downd onece and picked ather players up if needed. A great tank and social facetyp. =)
Not a lot of a damage dealer but in my experience there are a lot of other people who like to do damage.
Hope that I get a change to play him again one day
I'd like to officially christen this the Bop Bag build (bop bags are those sand filled dummies that just stand right back up no matter how hard you punch them)
I have Tomb of Levistus on my warlock that i have been playing from 1st-13th level and it has proven very usefull. It's best to basically delay certain death, or give your partymemebers more time to come and assist you when you are surrounded. It's very usefull against spells like disintigrate or dragonbreaths and even falldamage since the 10 hp per level basically means you more than double your total hp for that turn.
You're right about the Tomb of Levistus timing of vulnerability! Real sick tech that makes it totally okay to just drop a Fireball on yourself to nuke anyone near you.
Didnt even think about suicide bombing lol nice one
I like and agree with your point about the invocations attached to Eldritch Blast. I will certainly be interested in your "Fixing the Warlock" video.
I've used Tomb of Levistus, and it saved me character's bacon not once, but 3 times in the course of 4 levels. Its awesome.
DUDE, you impress me, you upload SO many videos, I wanna be like you
Devil's Sight is absolutely wonderful. An absolute lifesaver if you are running a character that lacks Darkvision, because you now get to outclass everyone that does.
I really liked this video, and Ted I feel those "Forever DM" pains too... Same boat.
Great timing literally just leveled up this week
Geez ted how many videos do you get done in a day. This pace is crazy. Great work!!
I been looking for lists like this. I wonder why this subject isn’t more popular.
Just in time! I'm planning to roll for Tiefling Warlock.
Good luck!
Classic. What patron are you gonna go with?
Same
Who isnt?😂
@@palikia3233 either Fiend or Hexblade, whichever backstory would make sense
Hey Ted, love your videos! I agree with most of your choices for this list and would love to see the Tomb of Levistus in Action. The fact that you "lose" your next turn since you are entombed until the END of your turn has always been the dealbreaker for me. However you made a mistake on the Eldritch Smite, while it is quite strong you are not supposed to be able to smite twice a turn as the Invocation states "once a turn". So even with Multiattack you should not be able to smite the proned dudes again, the Paladin does not have this restriction on his smites :) Once again, thanks for your input!
Well, if the enemy destroys your temp hp before your next turn, you won't lose it.
And it's actually more teamplay-focused ability. You give your allies time to heal you, to somehow move you out or you just tank few hits so they can deal much more damage.
Also, it's useful if you're unlikely will be hit after next turn (for example, you were hit by AoE, but the main target of the enemy is someone else). It's better to lose one turn then to drop to 0 hp and lose them all (or force healer to spend spell slots and actions to heal you).
I was looking for this comment. I had to re-read Eldritch Smite to make sure I wasn't the one making the mistake, but it definitely says "once per turn" and not "when you hit" like the Paladin's smite says.
I love that the first Invocation is one Ted says he's never seen in use because I've seen three different warlocks use that one. All of them have not only learned Tomb of Levistus, but all three used it at least once every two or three sessions. It was a hilarious way for them to tank hits for their comrades or distract hordes of enemies.
The first one that used it, I had house ruled that the ice had its own hit points rather than giving you THP, similar to Abjuration wizards Ward ability. That player immediately abused it in a crowd of kobolds in conjunction with Armor of Agathys.
I find I align with Ted on a lot of these Invocations. I played a Celestial Warlock once, pact of the chain, and brought Gift of the Ever Living Ones. Pretty sweet to just decide I want 12 hit points and get them.
Hunger of Hadar is great with Devil's sight because they're taking damage at the top and bottom of their turn in difficult terrain while being disoriented, plus you can still attack them with eldritch blast. As with voice of the chain master, you could have an imp familiar which gives you devil's sight through telepathy, but that's only helpful if the imp is nearby
My man repelling blast got left out of this, little sad over that ngl.
Agree, being able to push someone from melee range to 10-40 feet away from you is great. And being able to push 1-4 critters away from a teammate that needs to escape is even better!
@@HBStone its unearthed arcana but if you combine repelling blast with sea sorcerer you can push them back 25 feet per blast. Its literally "i don't like you. Go over there"
@@samadams5530 if you combine it with sea sorcerer, then there is no reason not to have quicken spell.
So it gets even more ridiculous
Although it says once per turn (up to interpretation still), so I think it is 95 ft pushback, not 200 ft
Expeditious retreat and repelling blast to blow everyone next to the designated PAM sentinel tank lol
I am playing a 8th level Pact of the Blade Celestial Warlock as a variant human in Tomb of Annihilation. High Str. Build. 1st level feat was Moderately Armored for medium armor and shield (although I did an African styled witchdoctor/warrior and only use the shield from this... Its like a Zulu shield). Invocations are: Armor off Shadows (one can swop out for something else and put on armor), Fiendish Vigor (will swop out soon because not as good at higher levels), Devils Sight and Thirsting Blade. Eldrict Blast is just a backup ranged option so have not taken Agonizing Blast yet. Other feats taken was Warcaster and Actor (he tells stories with his hands around the campfire like a bushman would, and helps him a bit as the party face). He also has acquired an Animated Shield and a Rod of the Pact Keeper which is so good for a Warlock for an extra spell slot per long rest if needed. He is not the most optimized character, but really enjoying playing him.
I mean if you ever want to play you're welcome to come by and play over discord with my group Ted
I’m currently playing a Celestial Warlock with Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, and he served as a pretty strong blasting/martial class. Being able to heal myself with Radiant Light and maximizing the dice is SO nice
Hey Ted, a fun detail for using pact of the chain with the chain master invocation is that you can have a sprite as your familiar. the important part about this detail is that sprites can turn invisible at will an unlimited amount of times per day.
The Eldritch Smite invocation has a limit to being used once per turn. Meaning if you knock your opponent prone to get advantage on your next attack, you will not be able to use Eldritch Smite on your second attack.
Idk if it is a good idea but when you make the fixing the warlock video, I would suggest folding in some of the invocations with either the base class or the pact boons options. Like just giving pact of the blade warlocks an extra attack when the other martial classes get it, or giving tomelocks the ritual invocation at a later level because since when has that been *optional*. For agonizing blast you could have it affect all cantrips or tie it into the base class or both! Also, looking at the optional class features UA for inspiration, maybe making Hex tied to a class feature like they did with Hunter's Mark, though that might step on the toes of Hexblade's curse. I would also suggest giving the PHB subclasses each one small additional feature at lvl 1 like additional cantrips or proficiencies like they did for the XGtE subclasses. I just don't think it's fair that Celestial gets cantrips and healing, Hexblade gets a curse and proficiencies, while GOO gets a mediocre telepathy.
Genie patron combines well with Pact of the Chain in at least one way. You can take your party into your vessel and leave your (presumably) flying and invisible familiar outside to carry it around, allowing a fast-travel-while-resting combo.
I've played several warlocks now who've _never_ taken eldritch blast. I totally recommend doing this at least once, just to force yourself to be more creative with the class.
one thing to note about devil's sight is that it is not darkvision, it is not super-darkvision, it means there is no such thing as darkness for you - it allows you to see normally in any kind of darkness - so you do not suffer the effects of dim light etc. - this is a very cool invocation
slight aside - you can also read the text as 'you see normally in darkness' to mean 'you are just as blind as you normally would be in darkness' which i find amusing
I had a Bladelock of a homebrew patron in, a level 12 'one shot', use Tomb of Levistius to tank some pretty big hits. This character actually convinced the player that they wanted to play a full Warlock in a future campaign not just using the class for multi-class dips as they had in the past.
The Character died at the end of the one shot to the BBEG's right hand.
I had a tabaxi celestial warlock in Out of the Abyss. She had Tomb of Levistus, Voice of the Chain Master (with her white "raven"), and Gift of the Ever Living Ones. It was a great build IMO. Tomb saved me from dying vs. Demogorgon. Voice allowed me to scout perfectly. Gift allowed me to heal myself to full easily. I miss her, but she is living somewhere peaceful and green, knowing she saved the world.
One thing to note about Devil's Sight is that it does not grant darkvission, but instead allows you to see normally in darkness. This means that unlike normal darkvission you can see in full color while in complete darkness.
Just started watching the video, and I have to confess, I play a warlock and I used to have tomb of levistus and I have used it a lot! It's really useful and made me escape some really bad situations
I also have to mention I play a lot of lissandra on league and I love her ultimate, so basically having her ulti always apealled to me
Devil's sight saying you see normally means you have 120 feet in full color as if its well lit.
Completely overrides darkvision for creatures who have it as well.
And it also isn't effected by mechanics like the gloom stalkers dread ambusher ability to be invisible to creatures who rely on darkvision
It's truly it's own sense.
Love the HD vision invocation lmao
At the end you mention the given thing, i totally agree, like all rangers want hunter mark, all battlesmith artificers need mending to heal their robot but they dont get the cantrip for free have to use one of their scarce cantrip slots
Tomb of Levistus -- HighRollers DnD show, one of the characters is a Hexblade Warlock who has this invocation. She's used it twice, including absolutely saving her life when she blew something up on an airship and got shot out of a hole in the wall. Hit the ground as a block of ice and then defrosted. Her build is odd: Hexblade pact of the tome, no Agonizing Blast.
I like how there is an evocation in Xanathar's guide called Improved Pact weapon that makes your pact weapon a +1 weapon and gives you the ability to make your weapon a short bow, long bow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.
Tomb of Levistus is a beast spell for personal defense. It allows me to survive stuff like Meteor Swarm and a Goristo's gore attack (which is about 14d10 plus modifiers according to my DM). This was because at level 10, the tomb grants 100 temp hp.
Tomb of Levistus is great . One of my players has it and it has saved his life, and likely the party numerous times. From soaking a dragon's breath weapon to surviving a fall off a bridge.
The pact of chain invocations on class feature variants UA was very nice. If they ever get published I am sure they will be in the top 10.
We have a Chain Warlock/Redemption Paladin in one of my weekly games who uses Gift of the Ever Living Ones. He is a really interesting tank because he is constantly taking damage for others then getting massive bursts of healing. I've never seen a hit point bar fluctuate so dramatically in a combat.
Just starting out playing a warlock (one session, lvl2) and my lovely DM offered to work with me to use/tweak eldritch blast invocations with other cantrips to help keep things interesting. Doesn't have eldritch blast yet but will probably end up taking it the next time he levels up. (Also have that darkness/devil's sight combo and im excited to use it 👀👌)
For my friend's current campaign I decided to play a warlock (after years of wanting to play one). Figured I would have some fun with it. Went Hexblade out of the gate and plan on going Pact of the Chain at 3rd. Definitely not min max optimized but it should be fun to play.
Misty Visions is really fun! Unlimited silent image is super fun to utilize!
The Warlock, Nova, in the High Rollers Aerois campaign took the Tomb of Levistus and it’s been super helpful for her.
Voice of the Chain is what convinced me to multiclass my Sorcerer. It just seems so damn cool. I'm taking 3 ranks into Warlock for it.
I'll also be taking the Investment of the Chain Master, then using a feat to grab the Gift of the Ever Living Ones invocations.
Eldritch Smite is actually a once per turn ability, this means that you can only smite once per turn, not once per attack.
Dang, I'm playing a soon-to-be chainlock right now, thought that gift of the ever living ones was an undead patron option. Gonna have to wait a couple levels to grab that with my current leveling plan. I'm coping with the low combat viability of the chain warlock with a little bit of home brew on the great old one patron, the character's patron is an extradimensional hivemind of bees so at 6th level dude's gonna get a 10ft fly speed with stealth disadvantage and a bonus action disengage once/long rest to help him stay out of range. Factor in repelling blast and the fighter taking polearm expert for his trident and we're golden
For my Hexblade (or even "just" Pact of the Blade) builds, I don't tend to bother with Eldritch Blast; I just lug a bow or crossbow of some sort until I hit level 3 and get the Improved Pact Weapon Invocation. When hitting level 5, Thirsting Blade for a second attack, and I'm sure I could afford picking up the Sharpshooter Feat if the character is explicitly range-oriented, but that's not really crucial... Only downside of the conjured bow/crossbow with Improved Pact Weapon is the need to lug ammunition around. :P
I'm gonna once again call you out on your critique. People seem to miss that because you can customize Eldritch Blast through your invocations, you essentially get a new cantrip each time you customize it.
I like you philosophy of "If it's not a choice. Don't make it a choice". It's something it feels like they learned with ranger ua variant where hunter's mark is a class feature rather than a spell you need to pick.
That said, we do have a fair amount of cases where eldritch blast is choice the warlock doesn't wanna take. You already recognized so with the blade based options. If you go full pact of the blade, you would probably rather switch to a longbow whenever you need range. Using a weapon already means you add your ability score to damage rolls so that means you can ignore agonizing blast and instead focus on invocations that benefit your weapon attacks, both ranged and melee.
Tomb of Levistus is scary, losing an entire turn to hopefully live is a big risk. If used just before your turn then maybe worth it but if you use it on the turn immediately after yours that's almost 2 entire rounds where you do nothing but take hits.
I think either Gift of the Ever-Living Ones or Eyes of the Runekeeper are my favourite.
Hey! You changed up the number! It sounds great!
I used the invocation that lets you cast talk to animals at will, and voice of the chain master. This along with my imp familiar, lets me use him to talk to animals... xtra fun in his shapeshifted forms.
My Pact of the Chain Celestial Warlock uses the Green Flame Blade cantrip, and doesn't know the Eldritch Blast cantrip. It's not necessary to use Eldritch Blast as a Warlock. You don't even have to be a Hexblade Pact of the Blade Warlock if you're not using Eldritch Blast.
Pact of the Chain Celestial Warlock with the Gift of the Ever-Living Ones and Fiendish Vigor invocation is very tanky, especially since I started off with 1 level in Fighter before taking the rest of my levels in Warlock. The Shadow Blade + Green Flame Blade combination deals a lot of damage.
Around the time I reached level 8, I got a Flametongue Short Sword, so now I can cast Shadow of Moil and give opponents disadvantage on their attacks on me on top of my 20 AC (and my self healing abilities are ridiculous with Second Wind, Healing Light, and Cure Wounds). And I get advantage even more often with Shadow of Moil than I did with Shadow Blade (but I still got advantage quite often with Shadow Blade).
Pact of the Chain can also be good at making the Devil's Sight invocation unnecessary (with Imp Familiar), as providing your DM's not a bastard your Imp could sit next to you and give you precise directions etc while in the magical darkness.
Eldritch blast with agonizing blast is basically a guy who has a magic heavy crossbow XD but the difference is that at lvl 17 with any sort of multi class you do your eb is equal to a lvl 20 fighter with the crossbow expert feat XD
Sadly they'll likely still do more damage thanks to magic weapons, Sharpshooter, and buff spells that beat Hex.
Tomb of Levistus is a pretty good "parachute" if you find yourself falling long distances.
The warlock in my party is having a blast with mask of many faces + actor feat.
Still my favorite combo. Powerful enough that it needs constant attention, subtle enough that most DMs don't see it coming until it's taking over the table.
Keep up the good work!
Some background: my group likes to keep things a little more on the realism side of things and math was done that concluded that 600ft was an unreasonable shot distance for the unaided eye in my group.
I once played a sniper warlock with the spell sniper feat in combination with eldritch spear and voice of the chain master who used his owl's sight and mobility to scout a battlefield he was sitting 600ft away from whilst the owl was so high in the air that it was unreasonable for any enemy to shoot it down. Basically the combo is in essence magical artillery at only level 3 for variant human or level 4 for any other race.
This combo is perfect for NPCs for DMs who either want to be an ass, have a hard time dealing with the ranger they "accidentally" gave boots of flying to, or as tower guards in that siege your players have been planning.
To see through your familiar's eyes, you need to spend an action on your turn, so you can't cast Eldritch Blast at the same turn. To use Eldritch Blast you need a clear path to your opponent. You can use Owl to scout where enemies are, but you can't shoot them like that.
And I don't know what campaign you are playing, but I can't think of many cases where you will actually need that 600 ft range.
In the game I’m currently running, most magic and magic items give off a very dim glow that identifies them as magical at first sight called “manalight”. Traps and special magic items are “mana-hidden” and give off no such light. Every caster has a manalight that is unique to them.
One thing I like doing as my current Undying Warlock, is having Aspect of the Moon with Pact of the Tome. Redundant? Yes, but not until level 10 when I swap it out for something else. Combined with the Observant feat makes my party very hard to surprise when we take our short/long rests.
Hell yeah! Warlock is my favorite class. Cant wait to watch you fix it video when u do your fix it video do u plan to do a homebrewed invocations?
Tomb of Levistus is one of the Invocations Kim chose for her character Nova in High Rollers. It saved her bacon multiple times. Very good choice.
I notice eldritch smite is not a saving throw, and looking through some of the monsters, *very* few things are actually immune to being knocked prone, so as long as you land your hit you can make Demogorgon sit the hell down with no save.
Its not so much that eldritch blast is too powerful, its more that other cantrips cannot compare. Having additional invocations for other cantrips like Chilling touch and Magic stone would allow warlocks to diversify the cantrip of choice other than eldritch blast.
Also, a really great combo I like is Minions of Chaos and Chains of Carceri. The big drawback of Minions of Chaos is that you can lose control over your elemental and be more of a liability than a help to the party. With Chains of Carceri you can effectively lock down the elemental when it starts attacking you or your party and because wisdom saves are +0 for all elementals against your DC at level 15, the DM will have to roll a natural 19 or higher for it to fail.
Elementals are immune to Paralyzed condition. So RAW they just can't be affected by Hold Monster.
@@antongrigoryev6381 Well Chains of Carceri says I can so your point is moot.
I'm playing a warlock right now with the Raven Queen Patron and Pact of the Chain. I took Voice of the Chain Master and let me tell you, it's great. I run around with two ravens, one of whom is an imp that prefers the polymorphed form of a raven for the extra fly speed, and I have a bonus to my Perception equal to my CHA mod, unlimited range on recon with my familiar, a familiar that can do melee damage for me including poison damage and the imp has devil sight, so I can see through darkness up to 120 feet, which is double what anyone else in my party has as a racial bonus and it's unaffected by magical darkness despite not being a race with darkvision (human). I dont even need to really pump any proficiency into Perception. We're in a setting right now where ravens aren't uncommon, so my familiar and my spirit guardian just blend in, and next level, I'll be able to merge my form with my spirit guardian to essentially have two raven scouts that could search for things independently of one another and still communicate with the party.