I believe 4th Edition really centered the cosmic story of D&D on a conflict between the Gods and the Primordials, and there's an element of that as well in the ancient history of the Exandria setting (the setting for campaigns 1-3 of Critical Role, and also the setting of the campaign where I play my Wizard).
Primordials are linked to the Inner Planes, and thus very much have an Elemental theme. While we already have the Genie Patron, Genies, while they are elementals in D&D, are still very much their own thing. Here, our Primordial patrons might be embodiments of Elemental Evil.
Like the Genie, your patron will be affiliated with one of the four classical elements, but in this case, you can also swap patrons when you gain a level, owing to the capricious nature of the elements and their shifting alliances.
Notably, each element is associated with a damage type: Thunder for Air, Acid for Earth, Fire for... Fire, and Cold for Water.
Elemental Spells:
(All Patrons):
1st: Chromatic Orb
2nd: Darkvision
3rd: Elemental Weapon
4th: Summon Elemental (always taking the Elemental type of your current patron)
5th: Commune with Nature
Air:
1st: Feather Fall
2nd: Shatter
3rd: Fly
4th: Freedom of Movement
5th: Steel Wind Strike
Earth:
1st: Entangle
2nd: Knock
3rd: Plant Growth
4th: Vitriolic Sphere
5th: Wall of Stone
Fire:
1st: Burning Hands
2nd: Heat Metal
3rd: Fireball
4th: Wall of Fire
5th: Flame Strike
Water:
1st: Ice Knife
2nd: Alter Self
3rd: Water Walk
4th: Control Water
5th: Cone of Cold
Hoo, that's a lot to go through.
Of these, I think Air speaks to me the most, as it's pretty much all bangers (though Feather Fall will feel pretty expensive as a Warlock when you're casting it at 5th level). Of the core spells, naturally Elemental Weapon is going to be best on a Bladelock (though you could always cast it on a friend's weapon). I think there are some solid options for all patrons, though I think I'm less impressed with Water. (Earth could maybe get Spike Growth, though that overlaps a little with the Dao Genie).
Level 3:
Elemental Node:
As a magic action, you can create a 5-foot radius sphere of elemental magic centered on a point you can see within 60 feet of yourself. The magic of that node resembles your chosen element. On a later turn, you can move it up to 30 feet as a bonus action.
When it appears, each creature in the node other than you must make a Dex save against your spell save DC, taking 1d6 damage of your chosen element's type or half as much on a success. A creature also makes this save when the node moves into its space and when it enters the space or ends its turn there. The creature only makes the save once per turn.
The node lasts for 1 minute, until you dismiss it (no action required) or until you use this to make another node. You can use this feature once per short or long rest, but you can expend a Pact Magic slot to use it again. The node's damage increases by 1d6 at levels 6 and 14.
Ok, so the damage here is quite low, but you can potentially get more out of it if you use a lot of forced movement - while you can't fully Cheese-Grate with it, you can bang it into foes and then push them back into it to double-dip during a round. This is a feature that the subclass builds on, so we'll reserve judgment a bit until we get the full picture. But as it recharges on a short rest, I think you can expect to have this available to you most fights - if you find it good enough to spend an action to create it.
The Node also can do friendly-fire damage, which is not great. It's a very small radius, but assuming it's centered on a corner if playing on a grid, you should be able to affect four squares with it - good for hitting enemies, bad for hitting allies.
Level 6:
Elemental Haven:
Your Elemental Node protects you in the following ways:
Elemental Protection: While within the node, you gain a bonus to your AC equal to your Charisma modifier.
Ok! Ok! This is going to be a substantial chunk of AC for a class that often struggles to have a decent AC given their limitation to Light armor (without feats or multiclassing). If I have +2 to Dex and +3 to Charisma at level 3, in Studded Leather I could get an AC of 17, which is actually respectable. Notably, we do need to spend the action to get the Node out there on our first turn, which is a bummer, and we need to ensure that we're bonus action moving our Node with us. (Hm, maybe that's the main problem with this subclass).
Elemental Teleport: As a bonus action, you can teleport into your node or the nearest unoccupied space within 5 feet of it. You can do this Cha times per long rest.
Our bonus action is already tied into moving the node, but while the most obvious use here is to jump across the battlefield after being separated from the node, I could see using this out of combat: say we need to get across a big chasm. We can send our Node out for 9 rounds, summoning it 60 feet away and then moving it 30 feet for rounds 2-9 (total of 8 rounds) and thus it's now 300 feet away, at which point we teleport into it. It's kind of a single-passenger Dimension Door that takes a minute (and has 75% of the range). Hm. Maybe that's not that impressive.
Level 10: Primeval Protection:
You gain the following:
Elemental Fortitude: You have resistance to your patron's elemental damage type. While within your Node, you have immunity to it.
That's cool - but I think we're going to need to talk about some issues with the need to micromanage the node in my Overall Thoughts.
Node Improvement: Your elemental Node is now a 10-foot radius sphere.
This is great... except that it hits your friends as well. The damage is low, and clearly not the main focus of the ability, but while this is a natural upgrade to the feature, it also potentially makes your life harder.
Level 14: Elemental Harbinger
Your node grants the following new benefits:
Elemental Vortex: When you expend a Pact Magic slot while within your Elemental Node, you can attempt to pull a creature into the node. One creature you can see within 30 feet of the node must succeed on a Strength save or be pulled up to 15 feet toward the Node's center.
Ok, that's fun, and it's no extra action to do. Warlocks are not generally going to be expending a spell slot every turn, so it's a bit more limited than it might look at first.
Node Improvement: Your elemental Node now lasts up to 1 hour.
This is nice, given how expensive it is to set this up.
Primordial Herald: When you're within your node's area, you can cast the Planar Ally spell without expending a spell slot, speaking the name of your Patron. Once cast this way, you can't do so again until you finish 2d4 Long Rests.
Planar Ally is one of those more loosey-goosey spells. In this case, your patron will probably send you an Elemental of some sort. The entity summoned by the spell is under no obligation to do anything, even if you offer payment for its services, though the expectation is that they will aid you for proper payment (which could be gold or other things). So yeah, this is thematically cool but A: kind of makes sense for basically any patron and B: is extremely DM-dependent.
Overall Thoughts (though wait, there's a bit more after them):
Thematically, having a powerful Elemental patron makes a lot of sense, and while we have the (excellent) Genie patron, Genies have always been almost their own category of creature with a more specific vibe.
Here's my problem: Building around Elemental Node is all well and good, but I think that using it in-game would be a real pain in the ass: You have to use your whole entire action to summon it at the start of combat (and it only lasts a minute, so pre-casting it is unlikely) and then you're going to be spending your bonus action every turn to move it around. It doesn't move any faster than a typical walking adventurer, so it might not even reach where you need it to each turn.
I'd go back to the drawing board here, and probably change it so that the Warlock becomes the elemental node - that it becomes an emanation around you rather than some object to track on the map. This would require changing some of the features related to it (like the teleportation one). I'd then also either make it a bonus action to activate or even just make it one of those "at the start of your turn" no-action activations.
I think redesigning around that notion - the Warlock being a Node of elemental power - could make this a far better subclass.
Eldritch Invocations:
Yes, we're not done yet! There are two new Eldritch Invocations to look at.
Elemental Overflow:
(Prerequisite: Level 5+ Warlock)
Choose Acid, Cold, Fire, Lighting, or Thunder. When you cast a spell that deals the chosen damage type, you can cause elemental energy to wreathe you until your next turn. When a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack, that creature takes 1d4 damage of the chosen damage type. (This invocation is repeatable if you choose a different damage type each time).
The punishment damage here isn't huge, and that's really the only benefit you're getting. And as a Warlock, you really prefer not to get hit at all. Also, to activate this, you need to regularly be casting a spell that does that damage type. Ideally a cantrip, which means something other than Eldritch Blast. I just don't see myself ever picking this, even if I'm going with Green-Flame Blade as a Bladelock.
Elemental Transmutation
(Prerequisite: Level 2+ Warlock)
Choose Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder. Once per turn, whenever you deal damage of any of the above types, you can deal the chosen damage type instead.
I guess you could use this to activate Elemental Overflow. Honestly I think that this demonstrates one of the challenges of building an Elemental-themed Warlock - Warlocks already get a lot of the most reliable damage types - Force with Eldritch Blast and Radiant/Necrotic/Psychic with Pact of the Blade. How do you incentivize a Warlock to deal, say, Fire damage, which is so often resisted?
Anyway, that wraps up a much shorter UA than last time (only 5 pages). Once again, these "villainous" options don't seem so villainous (Warlocks in particular are always making pacts with dangerous entities even if they're good guys).
If these come out in a book, I wouldn't expect it until late next year at the earliest, as I think we're still waiting to even get announcements for things like the presumed Dark Sun book and a few others. I think that all three of this UA's options have at least the core of a good idea, but might need extensive redesign (particularly this one) for me to be satisfied with them.
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