Ok, we conclude our survey of Warlock patrons with the ones that have come out recently - the Fathomless and Genie patrons in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and the Undead patron from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.
In some ways, I see the Fathomless and the Undead patron as second runs at existing patrons. The Fathomless is probably most typically meant to represent a Kraken (which of course in D&D are powerfully ancient titans from the earliest days of the material plane). While not an aberration, Krakens nevertheless have a strongly Lovecrafitan/Cosmic Horror vibe, as these beings of immense and ancient power who reside in the deepest parts of the ocean, with powerful magic and knowledge. That being said, the Fathomless could also represent any underwater entity, from your Krakens and Aboleths to some kind of Merfolk monarch, or just about anything from there (the subclass didn't exist yet when Critical Role's second campaign started, but Uk'atoa from that setting would be an obvious Fathomless patron.) This focuses more on the subaquatic elements than the alien and psionic ones that the Great Old One represents. Let's see what they get:
Your expanded spell list is create or destroy water, thunderwave, gust of wind, silence, lightning bolt, sleet storm, control water, summon elemental (water elementals only,) Bigby's hand (which appears as a tentacle,) and cone of cold. There are some strong ones here - lightning bolt being an obvious one, but also Bigby's Hand and Cone of Cold. Summon Elemental being limited to water elementals does limit it a bit (given that they do nonmagical bludgeoning damage,) but overall there are some good options.
At 1st level, you get Tentacle of the Deeps, which is the central feature. As a bonus action, a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest, you can summon a spectral tentacle at a point you can see within 60 feet. The tentacle is 10 feet long and lasts for 1 minute. When you summon it, you can make a melee spell attack against a target within 10 feet of it, dealing 1d8 cold damage and reducing their speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. When you hit level 10, this goes up to 2d8. Then, on subsequent turns, you can move the tentacle up to 30 feet and repeat the attack as a bonus action.
This will, of course, take up your bonus actions each turn, but the extra pressure you get to add (and slowing foes) is pretty great, and the tentacle not having hit points or a form to grapple makes it very reliable. (Also, there's nothing saying the tentacle can't come out of the air, so you can hit flying targets.)
Additionally at 1, you get Gift of the Sea, giving you a swimming speed of 40 feet and the ability to breathe underwater. This makes you actually more capable underwater than above it - having a swim speed means you can attack normally with any weapons, and being able to breathe underwater means you have no problems with verbal spell components.
At level 6, you get two features. The first is Oceanic Soul. You have resistance to cold damage (which is great - one of the most common damage types, and also lets you avoid exhaustion from extreme cold) plus, while fully submerged in water, any creature that is also fully submerged can understand your speech, and you theirs. Technically, this would mean that non-linguistic creatures like sharks and fish and even just a dog who's taking a swim will understand you, though I don't know if this is the intent.
You also get Guardian Coil. If a creature you can see (or yourself) within 10 feet of your tentacle takes damage, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by 1d8, or 2d8 after you hit level 10. This is not huge, but it's a nice bit of defensive capability.
At level 10, you get Grasping Tentacles. You learn Evard's black tentacles, which does not count against your spell list (though it counts as a warlock spell for you.) You can also cast it once for free per long rest, though you can also use spell slots as normal. Additionally, when you cast this spell, you gain temporary hit points equal to your warlock level and you don't need to concentrate on it. A pretty strong spell that you can use a lot, and without needing concentration - this is pretty good (and the 10+ extra temp HP each time is also pretty good.)
Finally, at level 14, you get Fathomless Plunge. As an action, you teleport yourself and up to five other willing creatures within 30 feet, vanishing in a whirl of tentacles and appearing in a body of water the size of a pond or larger that is within 1 mile, or within 30 feet of it. You can do this once per short or long rest. This is a great "oh crap" button to hit. If you find yourself deep in a dungeon or just in a bad situation, but you've clocked that there's a body of water nearby, you can get the party out very easily. Or, you can just leave a dangerous dungeon once you've cleared it.
I think the Fathomless has a lot of really cool stuff going on. It's maybe unparalleled for an underwater adventure, and nothing here feels useless.
Now, let's look at the Genie. This always seemed like an obvious one, and I'm glad they eventually added it. This is also kind of four patrons in one, given that you get some differences based on whether your patron is a Djinni, Marid, Efreeti, or Dao.
The expanded spell list for all genie warlocks includes detect evil and good, phantasmal force, create food and water, phantasmal killer, creation, and wish. Notably, this is the only warlock patron with an expanded spell beyond 5th level, and it's freaking wish, the hands-down most powerful one in the game. If you take this warlock to level 17 and you don't get wish, I think something's wrong with you.
Individually:
Dao get sanctuary, spike growth, meld into stone, stone shape, and wall of stone.
Djinn get thunderwave, gust of wind, wind wall, greater invisibility, and seeming.
Efreet get burning hands, scorching ray, fireball, fire shield, and flame strike.
Marid get fog could, blur, sleet storm, control water, and cone of cold.
For damage, the Efreeti warlock obviously wins with fireball and other good fire spells. In terms of utility, I think the Djinni appeals the most to me.
At level 1, you get Genie's Vessel. You get a tiny object (a lamp, bottle, ring with a compartment, or other thing with an interior space) that you can use for a spellcasting focus. The vessel has two benefits:
Bottled Respite lets you, as an action, magically vanish into the vessel and into an extradimensional space in the shape of a 20-foot radius cylinder 20 feet high that resembles the interior of your vessel (yes, it's straight up from I Dream of Jeannie,) with luxurious low tables and cushions and comfortable temperatures. You can hear the area outside of the vessel, and you can remain inside the vessel for a number of hours equal to twice your proficiency bonus, though you can exit early if you use a bonus action to do so or if the vessel is destroyed. Any objects left in stay there, and harmlessly appear outside if the vessel is destroyed. You can enter this once per long rest.
So: to be clear, not only is the RP potential of this freaking awesome, but you also have what amounts to an utterly huge bag of holding for free. Plus, it's a great hiding place - you find a place to hide the vessel in a dungeon and then just slip in and wait out the danger (by level 9, you can be in there for a full 8 hours.)
The other feature is Genie's Wrath. Once on your turn when you hit with an attack, youc an deal extra damage to the target equal to your proficiency bonus - determined by the patron type (bludgeoning for dao, thunder for djinni, fire for efreeti, or cold for marid. Note that I think this bludgeoning is not coming from a weapon, so it should overcome any resistance or immunity to nonmagical bludgeoning - especially if part of an Eldritch Blast or other attack spell.)
The vessel's AC is equal to your spell save DC, and its hit points are equal to your warlock level plus your proficiency bonus, and it's immune to poison and psychic damage. If you're worried that it will be destroyed the moment you get hit with a fireball, the good news is that most AoE attacks ignore objects that are worn or carried (fireball, for example, only damages creatures - not objects.)
If the vessel is destroyed or lost, you can get it back during a 1 hour ceremony, destroying the previous vessel if it still exists. Also, it vanishes if you die.
Whoo, that's just level 1! The Genie's Wrath element on one hand doesn't scale with more attacks the way that Hexblade's Curse does, but it's always active, so a little extra damage every turn is quite nice. And everything about Bottled Respite is wonderful (and gets better!)
At level 6, you gain resistance to the damage associated with your patron, which again is Dao - Bludgeoning, Djinni - Thunder, Efreeti - Fire, and Marid - Cold. This actually makes the Dao a lot more impressive, as having resistance to all bludgeoning damage covers a whole lot (including falling!)
In addition, as a bonus action, you can give yourself a flying speed of 30 feet for ten minutes, during which you hover. And you can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. This is actually really powerful, especially because if you hover, being knocked prone doesn't send you hurtling to the ground. Against melee opponents, this can make you a terror from above, not to mention all the other great uses for flight. (And multiple times a day, too!)
At 10th level, you get maybe my favorite feature: Sanctuary Vessel. You can now bring up to 5 willing friends within 30 feet into your vessel when you use Bottled Respite. You can eject any of them as a bonus action (and if the vessel is destroyed everyone gets ejected.) Additionally, you and anyone else in there who stays for 10 minutes gets the benefit of a short rest, and also adds hit points equal to your proficiency bonus if they spend any hit dice in there.
A 10 minute short rest in a comfortable lounge is pretty amazing, especially for a warlock (though your Fighter and Monk friends will also love you.) Plus, just being able to chill out in a super comfortable room (and also take all the stuff you need to store there) is an amazing opportunity for RP (and great for camping, if you can hide the vessel well.)
Finally, at 14, you get Limited Wish. As an action, you can speak into your Genie's Vessel and request the effect of any one spell that is 6th level or lower and has a casting time of 1 action, from any class, requiring no components (even the ones that have a gold cost or are consumed!) And the spell just happens as a part of the action. Once you use this, you can't again until you finish 1d4 long rests.
While the cooldown is one of the rare more-than-one-long-rest, the possibility here is incredible - you can get a Revivify, or Heal, or Transport Via Plants, or all manner of powerful spells. Sadly, other than Revivify, you can't cast Raise Dead or Reincarnation, but at least with Revivify you can get the healer back if they die. Of course, later on, you'll get the real Wish (which you're obviously going to take,) which is just... well, that means you get every spell from cantrips to 8th level once a day (and that one can turn any of those spells into a single action to cast.)
Once again, the Genie steps up the game, bringing in some really amazing utility. While I still think the Hexblade beats it for melee combat, the Genie Warlock is arguably better in most other circumstances.
Finally, we come to the most recent Warlock patron - the Undead. Introduced in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, it's one of the two subclasses that haven't been given setting-agnostic reprints (that weren't in SCAG,) though given how common undead are in most D&D settings, I think this could easily work in a non-Ravenloft setting. Obviously, this seems to be a replacement for the Undying, and its flavor if fully explicitly undead, even if the Undying had more or less meant that.
Let's look at it, mechanically.
First off, your expanded spell list has bane, false life, blindness/deafness, phantasmal force, phantom steed, speak with dead, death ward, greater invisibility, antilife shell, and cloudkill. Some of these are really strong (there's also a bit of an overlap with the Undying spell list, which isn't surprising.)
At 1st level, you get Form of Dread. As a bonus action, you transform into a more horrifying version of yourself that resembles your patron. For one minute, you gain 1d10 plus your warlock level's worth of temp hit points. Also, once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can force a wisdom save, making it frightened of you until the end your next turn if they fail. And finally, you're immune to the frightened condition.
You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.
Being immune to fear can be very useful in a lot of fights, and being able to frighten foes can also be great - both to keep them away from you and make you harder to hit. This all combines to aid with your survival, which is very nice in early levels.
At level 6, you get Grave Touched. First off, you don't need to eat, drink, or breathe. In addition, once per turn, when you hit with an attack roll, you can change the damage to necrotic, and if you're in your Form of Dread, you can roll an additional damage die to determine the necrotic damage. While this was crazy-overpowered in the UA version (letting you do this for all your attacks in Form of Dread, thus essentially doubling your Eldritch Blast rolls,) this is still pretty good, and of course will benefit from crits. Just hope you aren't fighting monsters that are resistant or immune to necrotic damage (which to be fair isn't a ton of them.)
At level 10, you get Necrotic Husk. You have resistance to necrotic damage, or full immunity to it while in Form of Dread. Damage immunities for player characters is very rare, so being able to fully nope out of anything a Nightwalker can do, or the breath of a Shadow Dragon, or two of the three damaging eye beams of a Beholder is pretty freaking strong.
Additionally, if you would be reduced to 0 hit points, instead, you can use a reaction to drop to 1 hit point and cause your body to erupt with deadly energy (the old phrasing said your body exploded, which was kind of hilarious,) and each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you takes necrotic damage equal to 2d10 plus your Warlock level, and then you gain a level of exhaustion. Once you use this, you can't for another 1d4 long rests. This is a pretty cool emergency survival ability, which is fine as long as you aren't already suffering any exhaustion (thankfully, not having to eat or drink makes it less likely for you to be exhausted.) Definitely reminiscent of the Celestial Warlock's ability, though without requiring you to go unconscious first.
Finally, at level 14, you get Spirit Projection, and can, as an action, project your spirit from your body. You leave behind an unconscious body in a state of suspended animation. The spirit body has your statistics, but not your possessions (not sure if this also applies to worn armor?) Damage that your spirit form takes is also taken by your body, and vice versa. You can remain outside your body for up to 1 hour or until your concentration is broken. When the projection ends, your spirit returns to your body or your body teleports to your spirit as the two merge again.
While in this form, your spirit and body both get resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. If you cast a spell of the conjuration or necromancy schools, you don't need to provide any verbal or somatic components or material components that lack a gold cost. You also have a flying speed equal to your walking speed and can hover. You can also move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain (though you take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn within a creature or object.) Finally, if you are using Form of Dread, once per turn when you deal necrotic damage to a creature, you regain hit points equal to half the necrotic damage dealt.
And you can use this once per long rest.
This has plenty of uses - both as an amazing infiltration feature (never worry about being bound by walls!) and potentially great in combat, as you can hide your body away and then emerge in spectral form of dread, healing yourself while blasting away with necrotic damage.
There are a lot of stacking bonuses in the Undead patron. Almost everything relies on some feature with limited uses, though between all of them, you get some very powerful effects.
So, reviewing all the Warlock subclasses, I think it's clear that things got a lot more powerful with the Xanathar subclasses, and for the most part I think the subsequent ones have followed suit. I still think the Hexblade's bonuses for a Bladelock are unassailable. However, for more spellcasting-focused warlocks, pretty much any of the other subclasses can do quite well (though the limit to light armor makes them squishier.) Of course, Warlocks are famously a couple-level-dip-friendly class. I think a fair number of these have quite good 1st-level features (especially in the Xanathar's-and-later subclasses.)
I love Warlocks, and have concepts for characters of the Undead, Genie, and Fathomless patrons, and I've already played a Hexblade Warlock and my very first character (who only got to level 2 in a brief adventure) was a Great Old One Warlock. There are some very cool options here.
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