I'm not dead yet!
It's been a while, but I'm back with a brand-new warlock patron option. Before my long and unplanned hiatus, this was one of the things I was looking forward to the most, and (in fact) part of the reason I developed the Codex of Waves in the first place.
First, though: apologies for the absence. Life has twists and turns, and homebrew (sadly, much as I love it) is usually the first thing to end up on the back burner. If I'm on hiatus in the future, I'll do a much better job of labeling it as such, as I had more than a few concerned messages asking me if I was physically alright during my time gone.
While gone, my DM's Guild presence grew surprisingly. Both Merchants and the core Strongholds options have become Electrum best-sellers, putting them in the top 1.3% of most-sold content on the DM's Guild. Now, as they're pay-what-you-want, that doesn't mean I'm necessarily selling them for anything above $0, but it's still nice to know that they've become very widely-used and well-reviewed rulesets.
But enough about things that aren't this warlock, I'm sure you're all very interested to hear the intricacies of forming a pact with the nightmares beneath the waves. Here's the features list, then:
FEATURES:
- Class features that epitomize the grossest parts of undersea life, from conjuring horrid tentacles to transmuting your foes into sea jelly.
- All-new invocations based on the Warlocks and Wizards Unearthed Arcana, allowing you access to near-infinite treasure maps and the ability to bean your foes with an enormous anchor.
- Spells directly from Codex of Waves, referenced here for your convenience.
CONCERNS:
- Lots of points of balance that might be wacky. I'm primarily unconcerned with the spells because I've had them looked at so much already, but the long-term effects of Brine and Jellify might need a critical eye.
- I did a couple new things with invocations here. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but Sea Serpent and Anchor of Drowned Sailors could definitely use a look.
WHAT I LEARNED:
- Let people know I'm not dead before I go on hiatus next time. Whoops. =x
You should be aware that the balance of the UA warlock stuff was changed in Revised Class Options : https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/June5UA_RevisedClassOptv1.pdf
ReplyDeleteGood call, I actually just had someone link me that.
DeleteI'll be dropping Anchor of Drowned Sailors to be in-line with that, at 1d8 + 1d8 per level.
Are you in contact with WHK, also known as Genuineheathen or Genuinebeliever? They make some pretty great warlock stuff, and just released an update of what they did for warlocks on the Unearthed Arcana subreddit. They would probably have some pretty good stuff ideas about warlock balance, if you want to ask.
ReplyDeleteI've heard about Genuine and their stuff, haven't really gotten a chance to give it a look-see though.
DeleteI'll track it down and take a peek, it's always good to have more balance information to mentally digest.
Hey, great to see you're back!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Great to be back. =)
DeleteYou may want to change the "any direction" clause of that anchor invocation. Being able to smack your enemy 20 feet upwards for some additional falling damage on top of smite and weapon damage seems a bit much.
ReplyDeleteYeah, definitely a good point.
DeleteIIRC, fall damage happens as 1d10 for every 10 feet after the first 10 feet. If (I'm right, and) I reduce it to 15 feet, that should solve the fall damage issue.
Fall damage is 1d6 for every ten feet they fall. You may just have to specify that they can't hit them upwards.
DeleteYeah, don't know how I got my idea of what fall damage was. I'll disallow upward movement specifically.
DeleteIt's so good you're back, I was worried I'd be getting a Dear John letter soon. Also great to see you're back with a rip-roarer!
ReplyDeleteI love the feel of this Warlock. Even without the lovecraft touch, deep sea creepies are perfect for a warlock pact.
What happens if Pelagic Tentacle is used on a flying creature? Do they fall to earth or are they held aloft?
Brine is just really cool. I can imagine a warlock just slapping an enemy orc's sword aside and wiping some rust off his hands.
Squamous Hide is disgusting, I love it. I feel like it should allow limited water breathing but you do have the eldritch invocation for that.
Jellify is a great capstone. I love the idea of reducing enemies to sea sludge. One thing I might add is that Jellify gets some kind of rider to it. It's basically on par with hurl through hell (even if acid is more commonly resisted than psychic) but the pact as a whole isn't particularly strong. Maybe an enemy killed by jellify is turned into some kind of CR 1 slime under the control of the warlock that dies after 1 hour?
Aside from the already mentioned issue with the anchor, the pacts are all pretty solid mechanically. My only complaint is that they're all restricted to the Fathom horror pact. In general I don't like pact restricted invocations but some of these would be fine in other pacts anyway. All of these pacts are good for GoO because of the strong aquatic themes they have, siren song is superb for fey pacts, aquatic evolution could work for a Fey pact with a water/river/sea nymph with no mechanical change or as some kind of infernal corruption.
The spells are all good, though depth surge should clarify if it can push people up. I'd also like a clarification on what other classes could use these spells or if they're warlock exclusive. Depthsurge is perfect for my heavy metal valour bard.
All in all, I'd rate this an 8/10. No real issues a quick grammar check couldn't fix and some great fluff.
Thanks for the welcome back! Good to be homebrewing again.
Delete>pelagic tentacle on flying
RAW, the tentacle comes from an interdimensional space to hold the creature. If the creature's in the air, the tentacle probably spawns in the air as well, holding them in place. I should definitely specify, though.
>Jellify and spawning a slime
Love it, I feel that'd really help diversify the ability.
>invocations and pact restrictions
I get where you're coming from with that, but I like pact restrictions because it hems out some of the really weird combos. It'd be odd to see a fiend or undying 'lock with Siren's Song, for example.
>depth surge
RAW, it doesn't really say how the direction the creatures are pushed in is chosen, aside from being away from the origin of the spell. RAI, they're supposed to be automatically pushed in a straight line away from the origin, which could be upwards if the origin is underneath them.
The spells all come from my Codex of Waves that I did previously, which holds tons more water spells as well as which classes get access to which spells, kinda like the spell portion of the EEPG. If you'd like to see who gets what, I'd recommend taking a look!
>invocations and pact restrictions
DeleteWell, with the Fiend using Siren's Song it could be they made a pact with one of the more alluring fiends like a succubus or an Eriynes. There's a lot of higher level fiends that use temptation as well. Heck, I can even see a Horned Devil giving out that power.
While there are certainly some odd mismashes, almost every ability that I know of can fit other pacts with moderate fluff changes. I can't think of an undying version of sirens song but considering how vague and open ended Undying Patrons can be I'm sure a player could think of something. Maybe a lich that used to be an enchantment/illusionist wizard.
>Depth Surge
Bah, can't believe I forgot that the CoW has all the information in it. Still, now I'm sad I can't get depth surge for my bard. ;D
this is the perfect kind of archetype for an npc in a pirate campaign i'm working on.
ReplyDelete