Thanks to Mark Hulmes, we have a preview of the Great Old One Warlock subclass for the 2024 PHB. As far as I can tell, the subclass will be unchanged from the most recent Unearthed Arcana playtest, which means that it's an enormous improvement over the 2014 version that has very appropriately-flavored subclass features, but it also retains one of the odd mechanical wrinkles that I had identified in the playtest.
The Great Old One patron is a subclass very close to my heart, as the very first D&D character I ever played was a GOO-lock, and it's a character to whom I've always wanted to return.
This doesn't break the subclass by any stretch, but it does mean that I think in many situations, players will not play this "as intended" if they want to maximize damage output. Let's explore:
Warlocks, like all classes, now gain their subclass at level 3, and so you'll be gaining the features here a little later than normal. Awakened Mind has been redesigned to function identically to the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer's Telepathic Speech. It is now a two-way connection that lasts for a number of minutes equal to your Warlock level and while you're within a number of miles equal to your Charisma modifier. While the two-way change is nice, it no longer automatically translates, so you can't use this to bypass a language barrier.
Warlocks are all now gaining all the spells granted by their patron as simply spells known, rather than simply getting additional options. This means that you'll get 10 more spells by level 9, which is quite nice. (GOO-locks will also get Hex for free at level 10, which means it'll be the right time to swap the spell out, I guess). The spells are:
Level 3: Detect Thoughts, Dissonant Whispers, Phantasmal Force, Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Level 5: Clairvoyance, Hunger of Hadar
Level 7: Confusion, Summon Aberration
Level 9: Modify Memory, Telekinesis
GOO-locks will also get a new 3rd level feature called Psychic Spells, which allows you first to replace the damage of any of your spells to Psychic, and then also lets you ignore the verbal and somatic components of any Enchantment or Illusion spells (your Warlock spells only, if you're multiclassed).
The damage thing here is one I suspect won't be all that commonly useful, as while Psychic damage is only rarely resisted, you're also sitting on Eldritch Blast, which is almost never resisted thanks to being Force damage. That said, the lack of Verbal and Somatic components for two spell schools could potentially be very helpful in social situations - allowing you to charm or distract foes without giving away that you're the one casting the spell.
At level 6, you get Clairvoyant Combatant. When you use Awakened Mind to create a psychic connection to a target, you can force them to make a wisdom save, and on a failure, they have disadvantage on attacks against you and you have advantage on attacks against them for the duration of the bond (which by this level is 6 minutes, as long as you don't end the connection early). You get to do this once per short or long rest, but you can do it again if you spend a pact magic slot.
While this is somewhat mechanically related to Entropic Ward, this one feels like it makes way, way more sense with your theme and suite of abilities. It's also clearly much better, though you will need to get relatively close (30 feet) and use a bonus action. On a Bladelock, this will be a no-brainer (especially since the defensive bonus will be so welcome) but 30 feet is also not that difficult - even if you want to stay in range, you could be 45 feet away, dip into range and then back out without provoking opportunity attacks. Not ideal if you're making full use of Spell Sniper and Eldritch Spear, but still very doable.
At level 10, Thought Shield is, as far as I can tell, identical to its old version.
However, we also get Eldritch Hex. Hex is, of course, an efficient but not terribly strong spell at high levels. However, it gains some utility here because you'll now be able to impose disadvantage not only on ability checks of the chosen ability, but also saving throws. Granted, Warlocks tend to focus on the attack-based Eldritch Blast for their main source of damage, but you're a team player! If your Cleric has their Spirit Guardians up, you can impose disadvantage on Wisdom saves and make them more likely to fail. Maybe you have a Fighter with a Topple weapon mastery. Give them a Dex disadvantage and they'll be tripped up. Oh, also we automatically get Hex as known spell. I imagine most of us would have already picked it up at level 1, but we can get it back if we swapped it out at a level up, or we can swap it out now for another spell and not lose it.
Now, here's where the true wrinkle comes: At 14, we have a fully redesigned Create Thrall. Summon Aberration is already one of our Patron spells, so we've had it since level 7. But this creates a new option, and the implications are crazy.
We can now cast Summon Aberration in one of two ways: normally, or doing so in a manner that does not require concentration. Doing so reduces the duration to 1 minute (down from an hour) but also gives the Aberration Temp Hit Points equal to your Warlock level plus your Charisma modifier (so possibly 19 at this level).
When cast this way, the first time the Aberration hits a target affected by your Hex (and since you don't have to concentrate, you can have both spells active at a time) the Aberration deals additional Psychic damage to the target equal to the bonus damage from Hex.
So, there's a lot to unpack here.
The intended use, I assume, is that we maintain Hex on the target and then get our Aberration up and focus fire them. But I don't know that that's actually the optimal option.
First off, we need to consider two possibilities: in the UA playtest, we did see a version of Hex that only deals its bonus damage once per turn, but that single burst of damage goes up as we upcast it. It goes from 1d6 at 1st level to 2d6 at 3rd level and 3d6 at 5th level. This is actually a better version of the spell, because as long as we land at least one hit, we'll get the full damage potential of the spell, whereas the current version's damage is only proportional to how many of our attacks hit.
This would also make Hex with an Aberration better, as that "first time they hit" rider will still allow it to fully benefit from the spell.
However, in a more recent playtest, Hex was reverted to its old mechanics, which would reduce the benefit of the Aberration's bonus damage to a mere d6.
But let's try an off-label use of Create Thrall. We can summon our Aberration without requiring concentration.
So why not just summon a second aberration?
We're expending a spell slot on Summon Aberration or on Hex anyway, so why not just put more damage out there?
Ok, so here I want to run through three different scenarios and see what does the most damage. We'll go 3 rounds in each case, and for simplicity's sake, we'll assume that we hit with every attack and don't crit. We're going to choose the Beholderkin and assume it does the same damage it does in the Tasha's version. We're also assuming we have Agonizing Blast and +5 to Charisma.
Old Hex and Summon Aberration
First turn: Action to cast Summon Aberration, Beholderkin makes two Eye Ray attacks that each deal 1d8+3+5, or 12.5 damage each, for a total of 25 damage.
Second Turn: Bonus Action to cast Hex, Action to cast Eldritch Blast, making three EB attacks, dealing 1d10+1d6+5, or 14 damage per blast, or 42 total, plus the two Eye Rays for 25, and 3.5 additional from Hex, for a grand total of 70.5 damage.
Third Turn: Same as turn two minus casting Hex, so another 70.5.
Total: 166.5 damage.
"Bunched" Hex and Summon Aberration
First Turn: Same as the first turn scenario above, 25 total damage.
Second Turn: Bonus Action Hex, Action Eldritch Blast. Damage here is the same but all the Hex damage comes on the first attack, so 42 total. However, our 25 damage from the Eye Rays is bolstered by 3d6 from hex, or 10.5, so our total for this turn is 77.5.
Third Turn: Again, same as before but no bonus action required, so 77.5 damage.
Total: 180 damage.
Double Aberration:
First Turn: Action to summon Aberration, 25 damage from our Beholderkin.
Second Turn: Action to summon a second Aberration, so our summoned creature damage is doubled to 50.
Third Turn: 3 Eldritch Blasts for 1d10+5, so 31.5 damage total, then 50 from our two Aberrations, for a total of 81.5 damage.
Total: 156.5
So, this is interesting: for relatively short fights, it does seem that the slow build-up for the multiple aberrations is preventing too many Eldritch Blasts. However, in a longer fight, it could wind up overcoming things. We could, at level 14, technically get three Aberrations up and running, dealing 75 damage per turn, but it would take us three turns to get to that point.
In all cases, Eldritch Blast will out-damage the Aberration, but Summon Aberration will, given a couple rounds, will out-damage Hex. The "bunched" version of Hex is way, way better for this mechanic, but we don't know if it will be released that way. Hex being only a bonus action makes it a lot more efficient in short fights - if the fight only lasts a single round, it's definitely better than summoning the aberration. But the longer the fight goes on, the more worthwhile investing your actions into summoning aberrations becomes - as long as the fight does actually last long enough for you to get a turn casting Eldritch Blast.
No comments:
Post a Comment