Ok, hiatus over, back on track!
The God-King warlock has been one of the most challenging warlocks I've worked on to-date, and it took me a good bit of back-and-forth (and no small help from fans and friends) to get it in a workable state. Commissioned by zriegel, a Walrock-level backer on my Patreon (thanks again!), the God-King is an ancient Egyptian themed warlock ready for multiclassing, viable as a Stygian cultist, a devotee of Athasian Sorcerer-Kings, or as a wanderer of the wastes, using dark magics to survive the perils of the desert sands.
Pact with an ancient and forgotten God-King, receive their blessing and their curse, and enforce their fell will across the wasteland and beyond!
FEATURES:
- Use a Soul Jar to keep your friends close, probably closer than they would like.
- Transmute your wounds into Hungering Scarabs and share that pain with your foes!
- Use the damage you take to bolster your allies with Pain Into Life!
- Drink the life from those around you, Desiccating all those nearby.
CONCERNS:
- Soul Jar is probably the most ambitious level 1 I've done so far. It has a lot of moving parts, but between all the complication it feels balanced. At least, as far as I can tell.
- Hungering Scarabs has no saving throw by design. It's built upon the damage math for magic missile, which should make it more reasonable?
- Pain Into Life is very versatile. It's balanced around the Fiendlock level 10, but is better and worse in certain areas.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED:
- Things will come together eventually. Sometimes I just have to back up, look at the whole, and be unafraid of weeding out anything that's not working.
I feel that the addition of things like desiccate, wall of sand, and dust devil are out of step with the rest of the archetype. They're very specific to a desert environment, whereas the idea of the patron of a powerful God King inspired by the Pharaohs of Egypt is not in itself geographically specific.
ReplyDeleteThings like Hungering Scarabs and Pain into Life are only very generally thematic, without much connection to the inspiration beyond the most superficial level. I would recommend that the focus on Egyptian history and myth be less aesthetic and more conceptual and mechanical.
For example, conceptually I think Soul Jar is a very good ability, and that along with things like Phantasmal Killer, Spirit Guardians, and Arcane Eye, it gives the archetype a strong sense of purpose in connecting it to Egyptian rites and traditions surrounding the spirit world and the veneration of the dead, especially the God-King's connection to the gods which watched over and facilitated these rites. I would recommend revamping most of the abilities to fit in this thematic space.
Secondly, I think it's important to figure out where mechanically the archetype is going. I like the idea of a warlock that protects allies through risky and unconventional means, requiring a great deal of faith in your companion. Perhaps you could penalize one ally to help others, or grant them some kind of boon at a long-term cost, or even simply make the success of some of your protections contingent on the behavior of those protected.
All in all I like the concept of a God-King patron, but I don't like the direction you've taken with it, and I think almost all of it needs to be scrapped.
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ReplyDeleteYesss I've been running an Egypt-Inspired campaign for about 8 sessions and this would be so good for that this is great
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