UA: Undead Patron

 The UA's second Warlock subclass and the second subclass from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft to get a revamp, the Undead Patron is a subclass so obvious, so inevitable, that I was kind of surprised it didn't make it into the Player's Handbook. I generally consider this one to be among the Warlock's best subclass options, if not necessarily the best (though which one actually takes that title is up for debate,) so I'm curious to see how they intend to alter it.

I have actually played a very little bit of this subclass (the Van Richten's version), though only with the first features. Let's check it out!

Undead Patron Spells:

1st: False Life, Ray of Sickness

2nd: Blindness/Deafness, Phantasmal Force

3rd: Speak with Dead, Vampiric Touch

4th: Death Ward, Phantasmal Killer

5th: Antilife Shell, Cloudkill

    So, the changes here from the old expanded spell list are the following: Ray of Sickness replaces Bane, Vampiric Touch replaces Phantom Steed, and Phantasmal Killer replaces Greater Invisibility. Obviously, though, Patron spells are better than an expanded spell list, because you automatically get all these spells.

3rd Level:

Form of Dread lets you use a bonus action to transform into a dreadful form that is linked to your patron, which you can do a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier per long rest, and which lasts a minute or until you're incapacitated. While transformed, you have the following benefits:

Facsimile of Life says that when you transform, you gain Temp HP equal to 1d10 plus your Warlock level (I believe these don't go away when the form ends).

Frightful Avatar gives you immunity to being frightened and once per turn, you can force a creature you hit with an attack roll, you can force them to make a Wisdom saving throw, and on a failure, they are frightened until the end of your next turn.

    The only distinction here from the 2021 version is how many uses you have: your Charisma modifier rather than your Proficiency Bonus. This is a buff up until you get into late tier 3, and becomes a bit of a nerf in tier 4, but I think that's probably fine.

6th level:

Grave Touched has the following sub-features:

Arcane Necrosis allows the Necrotic damage of your attacks to ignore resistance to Necrotic damage. Remember that Pact of the Blade can now have you deal Necrotic damage with your weapon. Additionally, once per turn when you cast a spell that deals damage while in Form of Dread, you can change the spell's damage to Necrotic.

    Now, Necrotic is a good damage type that works against most creatures, even a lot of undead, though incorporeal undead tend to be fully immune. That said, the spells we cast are likely to be things like Eldritch Blast, which are even less likely to be resisted given that they're Force damage. However, if we cast things like Ray of Sickness, swapping from Poison to Necrotic is a huge upgrade (sadly, because it has to be an attack, this won't work on Cloudkill). I don't know that there are a ton of creatures that are resistant, but not immune to necrotic damage. I think vampires?

    However, compared with the old version of this, we're getting a slight nerf: the old version allowed you to roll one additional die of damage when replacing the attack's damage type, meaning you could effectively turn one of your Eldrtich Blasts into a crit. There's no actual damage boost from this feature. In fact, looking at this overall, I don't know that you really get much out of this feature at all, except maybe making Ray of Sickness better.

Undead Endurance causes you to no longer gain exhaustion from dehydration, malnutrition, or suffocation, and you don't need to sleep and can't be put to sleep magically.

    So, this can potentially be useful - if you need to infiltrate somewhere, there's nothing preventing the Rogue from sticking you in a Bag of Holding, where you could last kind of indefinitely. This is the kind of feature that isn't likely to come up much, but can be cool when it does (also will make wilderness survival easier as you don't have to feed yourself.) I do also think this technically means you can keep watch all through a long rest.

10th level:

Necrotic Husk has two sub-features:

Necrotic Resilience gives you Resistance to Necrotic damage, as well immunity to it while in Form of Dread. Necrotic immunity is potentially huge if fighting Dracoliches and Shadow Dragons, or any other creature that can do massive Necrotic damage.

Unholy Resuscitation causes your body to erupt with energy when you hit 0 hit points, forcing creatures of your choice within 30 feet to make a Con save or take 2d10 plus your Warlock level Necrotic damage on a failure or half as much on a success, and then your HP becomes 10 times your Charisma modifier and you gain a level of Exhaustion. You can use this once per short or long rest.

    This is similar but greatly buffed from the old version: the old one let you use it again only after 1d4 long rests - one of the few features that doesn't necessarily recharge on after a long rest. Exhaustion is also not quite as terrible as it used to be, though using this twice in a day would be pretty rough. The other buff is that the HP you are restored to is far, far higher - the old one only putting you at 1 HP. Now, you actually stand a chance of surviving a second hit. I think this counts as a buff in every way.

14th level:

Superior Dread gives three sub-features, enhancing Form of Dread.

Flight gives you a fly speed equal to your speed and the ability to hover while transformed.

Profane Casting lets you cast Conjuration and Necromancy spells without any spell components except costly or consumed material components.

Vitality Siphon lets you regain HP equal to your Charisma modifier once per turn when you deal Necrotic damage.

    This effectively combines the old Spirit Projection with Form of Dread, which does shorten its duration dramatically from an hour to a minute, but you'll get more uses of it. There's also less weirdness of you having your physical body and your spirit floating around, and no longer requires concentration. You lose the damage resistances as well.

    I think there are aspects of this that are both buffs and nerfs, though it's certainly simpler this way.

Overall, I think this subclass is looking fine - it's a mix of buffs and nerfs that probably overall just feel better because of how the Warlock class has been improved. Unlike the new Hexblade, which is weighed down by all being tied to a single concentration spell, the Undead subclass feels more flexible, and both in flavor and in mechanics, is among my favorite Warlock subclasses, both in the old and new versions.

And there we have it! As many have noted, it's strange not to see the Necromancer Wizard represented in this UA. I do wonder if we'll be getting a new Ravenloft supplement (one that I hope doesn't walk back the changes to the setting made in Van Richten's - I'm disappointed how they've done so with aspects of Volo's and Mordenkainen's).

I would prefer that WotC focus more on brand-new options, though. But I'm glad that the Artificer is getting some love here, and just the tweak of letting Undead Warlocks treat their expanded spell list as patron spells is something I'm happy about.