So, my recollection of the previous version was that it was a solid and interesting design (as I recall, this was my general impression of all the villainous subclasses). Here, you're a warrior for the Nine Hells, whether forced into it via a bargain or doing it for infernal rewards. Primarily, it's built around Infernal wounds, which is an interesting mechanic we'll get into.
Level 3:
Diabolical Gift:
You gain the following benefits:
Devil's Sight: Like the Warlock invocation, 120 feet of regular sight in dim light and darkness, magical or otherwise (technically not Darkvision, so I think you can see colors).
Devil's Talents: You know Infernal, or if you already know it, you can choose another language to learn. You also gain your choice of proficiency in Deception, Performance, or Sleight of Hand.
These are both perfectly nice to have, and particularly if you're in a party with a Shadow Monk, Shadow Sorcerer, and a Warlock with Devil's Sight, you could pull off some fun shenanigans.
Hell-Forged Weapon:
When you take the attack action, you can imbue each weapon you're holding with hellfire, making it a Hell-Forged Weapon, which lasts until you go unconscious or the weapon is 5 feet away from you for more than a minute, or you choose to end it. While wielding a Hell-Forged Weapon, you shed dim light in a 5-foot radius and you can deal your choice of Cold, Fire, or Necrotic damage instead of its regular damage (you choose the damage type when you imbue the weapon.)
Notably, this is no action required, so you can easily have this up all the time. It doesn't do a ton on its own (and might make it harder to sneak around, though given this subclass encourages you to use heavy armor, you probably aren't sneaking anyway).
Infernal Wound:
You have an infernal wound die, which is a d6.
When you hit a creature with a Hell-Forged Weapon, you can deal extra damage equal to the infernal wound die, which is the same damage type as the one chosen for the weapon. Additionally, you can inflict the target with an infernal wound.
While wounded, the target takes damage of the chosen type equal to one roll of the infernal wound die at the start of each of its turns. The wound lasts for 1 minute, or until the target regains hit points, or the target or a creature within 5 feet of it takes an action to stanch the wound.
You can do this Con times per short or long rest (minimum 1).
This is really the central mechanic of the subclass. It does mean you will need to invest in Con, but Fighters can often afford to do that - I'd certainly try to start with a +3 if I could. Unless the monsters are healing each other or going around stanching wounds for one another, you're probably going to get at least 2d6 damage out of this each time, and you can choose to use this on a crit to get an extra d6 in there. It's not enormous, but if combat lasts a while and they don't deal with the wound, the overall damage could build up. I'd probably err on the side of using this just once per combat, at least at this level, unless I knew that a rest was coming soon.
Level 7:
Advanced Wounds:
When you roll your Infernal Wounds Die, you can apply one of the following effects. If you roll a 6 on said die, you get to add the additional Devil's Luck bonus on each of the effects. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until the start of your next turn.
So, as a note, this can happen immediately when you first use the Infernal Wound, or you can have it happen when they take the wound damage at the start of their turns.
Purulence of Minauros: Caustic pus erupts from the wound. Each enemy in a 5-foot emanation from the target takes Acid damage equal to your Con modifier and is poisoned until the end of its next turn. Devil's Luck: Each creature that takes this acid damage also has a -1 penalty to their AC until the end of your next turn.
For elegance's sake I might prefer that the AC penalty and the poisoned condition end at the same time, but I guess we want to make sure we benefit from the AC thing. Note that unless stated otherwise, emanations don't include the source of the emanation, so this only helps if the enemy is next to one of its allies.
Rupture of Cania: The wound ruptures with arcane energy. The target takes Force damage equal to your Con modifier. Devil's Luck: The target also subtracts 1d6 from the next saving throw it makes before the end of your turn.
Pretty simple single-target option here, and the Devil's Luck element can help out our allies.
Stygian Gangrene: Infernal rime spreads from the wound. The target takes Cold damage equal to your Con modifier and can't take reactions until the start of its next turn. Devil's Luck: The target's speed is halved until the end of its next turn.
This could help you set up an ally to escape from a scary monster. Indeed, this is better than Rupture of Cania unless the target is resistant or immune to cold, though the Devil's Luck feature complicates that.
Overall, these are cool little effects. The damage isn't terribly huge, but I think the damage is somewhat secondary to the other effects. And I like the Devil's Luck elements.
Infernal Equipment:
You gain the following:
Infernal Resilience: When you finish a short or long rest, you can choose a damage type from Cold, Fire, or Necrotic. While wearing Heavy armor or wielding a shield, you gain resistance to that damage type until you choose a different one with this feature.
This is akin to a Fiend Warlock feature, though more limited. Notably, this can help if you're traveling across areas with extreme temperatures.
Unholy Power: When you roll your infernal wound die, you can treat a 1 as a 6.
So, this is exciting: first off, it increases the average damage of the die (4.33 up from 3.5) but it also means that the Devil's Luck bonus on your wounds now happens 1/3 of the time rather than 1/6. It's nearly as good as upgrading it to a d8, but without lowering the chance you get that bonus.
Level 10:
Hellfire Surge:
When you use your Action Surge when holding a Hell-Forged Weapon, you erupt in hellfire in a 20-foot emanation that lasts until the end of your next turn. When a creature suffering from an infernal wound starts its turn in the emanation, it takes damage equal to two rolls of your Infernal Wound die instead of one.
So, this does require burning your action surge, which is still pretty precious, though you will be using it regularly. Naturally, this makes the wound do an average of 8.67, which is starting to feel like real damage, but it also means that our chance of getting Devil's Luck goes up to about 56%
Level 15:
Devil's Misfortune:
When a creature with an infernal wound hits you with an attack roll, you can take a reaction to roll your Infernal Wound die and reduce the damage taken by the amount rolled. On a roll of a 6, you can roll again (to a maximum of 6 rolls), reducing the damage by the total of all the rolls. In addition, when you do this, if the attack is a critical hit, it becomes a normal hit.
The crit immunity is nice - not as much need for adamantine plate - but let's figure out what your average damage reduction is. Again, we treat 1s as 6s, and I assume this applies here as well for both the damage reduction and the exploding die. So, one die reduces it by 4.33 on average. Then, we have a 1/3 chance to reduce it by another 4.33. And then we have a 1/9 chance to reduce it by another 4.33. So, I think we're looking at an average damage reduction of 6.26ish. It does take our reaction, so it's not quite as good as Heavy Armor Master, but it works on all damage and isn't mutually exclusive with HAM.
Level 18:
Infernal Bargain:
When you roll a 6 on your Infernal Wound die three or more times before the start of your next turn, you gain Heroic Inspiration. You can use Heroic Inspiration in the following way:
Infernal Inspiration: If a creature you can see within 120 feet rolls a d20 test, you can expend your Heroic Inspiration to force the target to reroll the d20. If the number rolled causes the target to succeed on the d20 test, you regain an expended use of Indomitable or Second Wind (your choice). If the target fails the d20 test, you lose HP equal to 3d6 plus your Fighter level.
Figures they'd fit a devil's bargain into the devil fighter subclass. There are a lot of means to roll infernal wound dice, so you could technically get Heroic Inspiration from a single monster if you first hit them with the initial wound (roll 1) and then they took the wound damage on their turn (roll 2) and then they attacked you and you used Devil's Misfortune. But this is going to be a 1/27 chance. It can get better if you have multiple wounded targets, but I don't see this happening a lot.
However, if you play a Human, you'll have Heroic Inspiration quite often (and DMs should still hand them out for good roleplay). In this case, I think that the Infernal Inspiration feature could be really clutch - you just need to be ready and willing to take a bunch of damage to make that monster fail their save.
Overall Thoughts:
Any Fighter subclass, in my opinion, has to work hard to justify going with it instead of a Battle Master or Eldritch Knight. A lot of them fail to do so. But I think that this one has a unique enough hook that it might do it.
Power-wise, I really don't know if I have a sense of how actually good this is. But there's a really solid concept to it and a really consistent mechanical theme. And while it's built on a limited-used feature, you at least get a few uses that come back on a short rest, so I think you can probably manage to use this at least once in any significant fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment