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Warlock Week: Specific Patrons

So you've chosen a Warlock subclass. Just who is your patron, though? There are so many entities to chose from in the D&D universe, but I have gathered some of my favorites here. Not sure exactly how many of them are canon to which setting but I tried to stick to the Forgotten Realms.

image credit: Walter Brocca

Great Old Ones

Aberrant Deities: As found in the Lords of Madness 3.5e supplement.

Ghaunadaur: That Which Lurks; the Elder Eye. Chaotic-evil god of oozes and nameless things in the dark.

The Great Mother: Deity of the beholders that seeks to remake the world in her image by filling the universe with her progeny. She is either insane or possesses limitless intelligence. It is difficult for mortals to decide which.

Ilsensine: Illithid deity with the form of a giant green brain with ganglia spanning the planes and gathering infinite knowledge. It’s divine mission is the enslavement of all creatures.

Mak Thuum Ngatha: The Nine-Tongued Worm. Deity of wormlike aberrations. Obsessed with the Material Plane for unknown reasons. Mak Thuum Ngatha embodies the opening of infinite knowledge, the destruction of barriers, and the spanning of space, time, and the planes.

The Patient One: Deity of aboleths, chuuls, cloakers, and avolakias. It whispers secrets in the darkness and devours the flesh its worshipers offer it.

Tharizdun: A deity of entropy, darkness, decay, and evil that seeks the unraveling of the universe. He was imprisoned long ago by the collective power of all the human deities. He is worshiped by creatures that believe there will be a place for them when he remakes the universe (IF he remakes it after destroying it).

Stars: Cosmic entities corrupted by the Far Realm as revealed in the Revelations of Melech (and Dragon Magazine). Some invocations in the Warlock Unearthed Arcana are named after these.

Acamar: A corpse star whose motions and size send objects spiraling toward their doom.

Calphon: A Purple star that is often a guiding star on the horizon that sometimes betrays those who rely upon it

Delban: An ice-white star visible during winter.

Gibbeth: A green star that causes madness.

Hadar: the extinguished cinder of a star lurking in a nebula of Ihbar.

Ihbar: A dark nebula expanding and eating the light of neighboring stars.

Khirad: A blue star whose radiance reveals secrets and gruesome insights.

Nihal: A red star that writhes around its portion in the heavens at great speeds.

Ulban: A blue-white light disrupts cognition and numbs your perception to danger.

Zhudun: A corpse star that once shined its baleful light over Cendriane in the Feywild.

Slaadi Lords: The Lords of the Slaad and purveyors of Limbo.

Chourst: Lord of Randomness. A white slaad that cares for nothing other than indulging whatever random whims come into his head.

Rennbuu: Lord of Colors. His skin constantly changes color and he has a grizzled mane of white hair. He is flamboyant and wears colorful costumes. He is at times a passionate artist and at other times a capricious prankster. He has the ability to change colors of anything.

Ssendam: Lord of Madness. The most powerful slaad. A giant golden amoeba with a humanoid brain nucleus. She constantly contacts mortals to drive them insane.

Ygorl: Lord of Entropy. Lord of Limbo. A charred slaad skeleton riding a chaotic-neutral brass dragon and wielding a scythe. He demands for slaads to invade other realms and incubate as many slaad spawn in creatures as possible to spread chaos.

image source: Out of the Abyss D&D 5e module

Fiends

#Warlock Week #D&D #Dungeons and Dragons #Archfey #Fiend #Great Old One #Elder Evil #Patron #Warlock #DnD #deites #gods #vestiges #fey #faeries #demons #devils #yugoloths #slaad #Noblecrumpet #Dorkvision

Warlock Week: New Spells

image credit: Benjamin Ee

Arm of the Far Realm

5th level conjuration Warlock spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 30 ft.

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

You conjure a tentacle whose slick purple skin crackles with electricity. The tentacle sprouts from the ground in an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within range. When you cast this spell, you can direct the tentacle to lash out at a creature within 30 feet of it that you can see. That creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be pulled 20 feet directly toward the tentacle. Creatures pulled in this way take 5d10 lightning damage.

Until the spell ends, you can direct the vine to lash out at the same creature or another one as an action on each of your turns.

Black Spikes of Yeenoghu

#Warlock Week #Homebrew Spells #D&D 5e #Dungeons and Dragons #warlock #spells #magic #DnD #DnD 5e #D&D #Dorkvision #Noblecrumpet #new spells

Warlock Week: New Pacts

Who is to say that all that patrons have to offer is a weapon, a book, or a minion? What other sorts of things could they offer? A Pact Boon should fundamentally change your combat style, whether that means attacking in melee, casting cantrips from the sidelines, or using a minion to distract or flank. I offer these new options for even more interesting playstyles. The invocations listed can be acquired just like any invocation as a warlock levels up.

image credit: Matt Cavotta

Pact of the Eye

You are gifted an eye from your patron. The eye can either take the form of a gem, an orb or an actual preserved eyeball. You can see through the eye at will, regardless of distance between you and the eye. Even being on another plane does not impede this effect. You can use your action to cause the eye to float at a speed of 15 ft. per round and can control its movements as long as you are within 300 ft. of it. The eye has a number of hit points equal to 5 times your CHA modifier and AC 10 + your CHA modifier. If you lose your eye, you can perform 1 hour ritual to create a new one (and remotely destroy the old one, if it still exists).

This pact seemed like a cool idea. On the surface, though, it seems like a worse Pact of the Chain since your familiar is a glorified scout. The bonus to this pact is that you can see through and control the eye at any distance. Add in the Burning Eye invocation and you have a long-range covert ops laser-delivery service.

Invocations:

Inescapable Eye: (prereq: 11th level, Pact of the Eye) Once per day, you can spend a Warlock spell slot to gain truesight while looking through the eye for 1 hour.

Burning Eye: (prereq: Pact of the Eye) You can deliver ranged spell attacks through the eye, such as Eldritch Blast. You can only use this ability while you are within 300 ft. of the eye.

Prying Eye: (prereq: 7th level, Pact of the Eye) You can use your action to cause the eye to become invisible while you are within 300 ft. of it. If the eye touches a creature or makes any aggressive actions against a creature (such as with the Burning Eye invocation) it is no longer invisible.

Eye's Defense: (prereq: Pact of the Eye) You have +1 AC and advantage on Perception checks while your pact eye is within 30 ft. of you.

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Pact of the Mask

#Warlock Week #D&D 5e #Pact Boon #homebrew #warlock #pact #eye #cloak #mask #DnD #D&D #DnD 5e #Dungeons and Dragons #invocations #Noblecrumpet #Dorkvision

Warlock Week Master Post

image credit: Daarken

Warlocks in the Game: Tips on playing and roleplaying with a warlock.

New Invocations: Some homebrew invocations to choose from.

New Subclasses: Four new warlock patrons, including the Thrall of Ilsensine, the Student of the Sphinx, the Sister of Fionnghuala ("Fenn-oo-la." It's Gaelic.), and Binder of Acererak.

New Magic Items: Homebrew magic items for warlocks of all types.

Specific Warlock Patrons: A list of named D&D figures primarily from the Forgotten Realms setting that could make for good patrons.

New Pacts: Four new warlock pacts (instead of chain/blade/tome), including the Pact of the Eye, Pact of the Mask, Pact of the Cloak, and Pact of the Gift.

New Warlock Spells: Homebrew warlock spells, mostly 1st-5th level but there are a few Arcanum choices there as well.

#Warlock Week #Master Post #Noblecrumpet #Dorkvision #D&D 5e #Dungeons and Dragons #warlock #patron #pact #mage #DnD #D&D #DnD 5e #Fiend #Archfey #Fey #Demon #Devil #Great Old One #Aberrations

Warlock Week: New Magic Items

image credit: Viktor Fetsch

Bearded Devil Cowl

Wondrous Item (head), Very Rare, requires attunement by a warlock

This hood has a long tip that falls down the back of the wearer and a connected veil comprised of a Bearded Devil’s beard. Once per short rest, the wearer can use their reaction to attempt to curse a creature that they can see within 90 ft. of them when they take damage. The creature must make a DC 15 CON saving throw to resist the curse. A cursed creature bleeds from their new wound and the creature loses 1d10 hit points at the start of each of their turns until they either receive magical healing or a creature treats them with a DC 12 Medicine check.

Binding Talisman

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Warlock Week: New Subclasses

Four new D&D 5e subclasses for warlocks! Includes the Thrall of Ilsensine, Student of the Sphinx, Sister of Fionnghuala, and the Binder of Acererak!

Thrall of Ilsensine

Ilsensine, the god of illithids, spreads the nerve endings of her divine brain into all corners of the universe, learning every secret ever uttered. Although she is strictly an illithid deity, a warlock might force her into a pact or might agree to aid in her ineffable, alien purpose, or they might be a willing thrall to the deity. Ilsensine is usually using such a creature as her puppet, and often will eventually send mind flayers to try and convert the warlock into an illithid themselves. While under Ilsensine's patronage, a warlock gains command over the minds of other creatures, and can even steal some of their powers through unspeakable acts of cannibalism.

Warlocks of Ilsensine often change slightly in skin color, growing tentacles from either their neck or around their mouth. They must hide these tentacles to blend in with any normal society. The warlock eventually regards themselves as a superior creature compared to others of their race, seeing the others as nothing more than food.

image credit: Graey Erb

Detect Thoughts: At 1st level, you gain the ability to cast Detect Thoughts at will. You also feel an inexplicable hunger while reading thoughts, as if smelling delicious food. You even start to feel specific “preferences” for different minds. You might enjoy minds with a high intellect, spiritually awakened minds, creative minds, manipulative minds, or compassionate minds. When you probe deeper using the Detect Thoughts ability, you learn the creature’s known spells, languages, and skills. When you probe deeper into a creature’s mind in this way, the creature gets feelings of nausea or a headache and might clue them in to their mind being read.

Devour Mind: At 6th level your hunger for brains has reached a tipping point. Although you do not physically require them for sustenance, you can eat a living or recently dead (less than 6 hours), intelligent humanoid's brain to gain some of its knowledge and power. Eating a creature's brain takes about 30 minutes including the time to remove their brain from their skull. After partaking of a creature’s brain, you may choose from any one of the following:

A spell that the creature knows: you may cast the spell once per day without expending a spell slot if your warlock spell slots are a high enough level to cast the spell.

Two skills the creature is proficient with: you gain proficiency in those skills.

A language known to the creature: you learn the language.

This effect persists until you devour another creature’s brain and choose a new spell, language, or pair of skills. Each time you devour a creature’s brain, you learn some information about the creature’s life, and can answer any question about the creature’s life that the creature would have known with a 25% chance of accuracy.

Thought Shield: At 10th level, your thoughts can't be read by telepathy or other means unless you allow it. You have resistance to psychic damage, and whenever a creature deals psychic damage to you, that creature takes the same amount of damage that you do.

Mind Blast: At 14th level, you can use your action to unleash a blast of psionic energy in a 60 ft. cone. Creatures in the area must make a WIS saving throw against your spell save DC. Each creature that fails this saving throw becomes unconscious. A creature can repeat this saving throw each round, ending the effect on a success. Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Invocations:

Yharaskrik's Lantern: (prereq: 5th level, Ilsensine Patron) You can use your action to summon a spectral eyeball that shines light in a 60 ft cone. All creatures in the cone have advantage on saving throws against spells from the enchantment school and creatures that are charmed are no longer charmed while in the lantern's light. Once the creatures leave the light, the charmed condition resumes unless the effect's duration has worn off. Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Root of Ilsensine: (prereq: Ilsensine Patron, Pact of the Tome) You can siphon knowledge of an area by tapping one of the nerve endings of Ilsensine. Once per day, you can spend 1 minute concentrating on a 60 ft. radius area you can see. When you do, learn the history of that area, learning all creatures that have passed through it, what those creatures may have said or done, and any notable moments in the area's past in the past 100 years. This is all written in your Book of Shadows in brain fluid, and disappears once read. The text disregards unimportant or uneventful moments.

Axons of the Great Brain: (prereq: 9th level, Ilsensine Patron) You can expend a warlock spell slot once per day to cause a number of creatures equal to your CHA modifier to erupt with electricity from the omnipresent nerves of Ilsensine. The targeted creatures must make a WIS saving throw against your spell save DC. Creatures that fail their saving throw take 8d6 lightning damage and are paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. Creatures that succeed at their saving throw take half damage and are not paralyzed.

Succulent Encephalon of Oryndoll: (prereq: 5th level, Ilsensine Patron) When you devour a creature's brain using your Devour Mind ability, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the INT score of the creature devoured. These temporary hit points last until you finish a long rest or devour a new brain.

Student of the Sphinx

The warlock enters tutelage of a powerful Sphinx spellcaster. The intentions of the sphinx patron are unclear, but most likely they either have a convoluted plan for the warlock or else are using them to gather information for them. Perhaps the sphinx is testing the warlock. Perhaps the sphinx is a fallen sphinx and wants a minion beyond their lair (as they can never leave). Or perhaps a Gynosphinx is seeking an Androsphinx to mate with, since no other type of sphinx will do. The sphinx grants the warlock abilities for gathering information and confounding their foes.

A warlock with a sphinx patron acquires a mysterious symbol somewhere on their body. The warlock unlocks secrets of this symbol as they increase in level, perhaps learning portents of their destiny.

The warlock gains a different ability at 14th level depending on whether their patron is an Androsphinx (Roar of the Sphinx) or a Gynosphinx (Ultimatum).

image source: Oedipus Wanderer by Gustave Moreau (1888)

#Warlock Week #D&D 5e #warlock #Mind Flayer #Acererak #Swanmay #Fionnghuala #Sphinx #lich #illithid #ilsensine #invocations #homebrew #subclass

Warlock Week: New Invocations

image credit: J R Coffron

A hoary host of homebrew invocations for your D&D 5e warlock! Many of these require specific patrons, but these are homebrew so many of them could be interchangeable as long as the other prerequisites remain. A lot of these would also make great spells, but I decided these ones had more of a once-per-day feel so they were confined here rather than the spell list to be released later this week.

Abyssal Rebuke: (prereq: Hellish Rebuke) The flames summoned by your Hellish Rebuke spell are tainted by fumes from the Abyss. When you cast Hellish Rebuke, the creature must also make a CON saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature becomes poisoned for 1 minute.

Betrayal of Hollow's Heart: (prereq: 5th level, Fiend Patron, Counterspell) Your Counterspell causes a cruel feedback of hellfire against the caster. When you successfully counter a spell with Counterspell, the caster of the countered spell takes 1d6 fire damage per level of the spell countered.

Clutch of Orcus: (prereq: 9th level, Fiend Patron) Once each day using a warlock spell slot, you can target a creature with your demonic clutch. The creature must make a CON saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, you telekinetically grab hold of either their heart or lungs (A creature that does not need to breath or pump blood through its body is unaffected). You can use your action and concentration each round to maintain your grip. The creature starts to convulse and must make a CON saving throw again to be able to act normally during their turn. After a number of rounds equal to 3+the creature's CON modifier, the creature is reduced to 0 hit points and begins dying.

#Warlock Week #Dungeons and Dragons #D&D 5e #Warlock #Invocations #homebrew #DnD #DnD 5e #D&D #fiend #archfey #great old one

Warlock Week: Warlocks in the Game

image credit: Vadim Marchenkov (GreyHues)

As a Player

Warlock Strategy: Try to get at least two rests per day to maximize damage output. Learn how to get the most out of each spell you cast. Only use your crowd control magic once you know that you need it. When you are outnumbered and the enemies have proven to be relatively strong, use it. Otherwise it might be a waste of a spell slot. Use your debuffs on tough monsters where you know you will get the full length out of your spells' durations. If you are in a random encounter or a wilderness encounter where a rest is likely to happen soon afterward, you can safely burn through your spell slots.

Your playstyle will change dramatically based on which pact you take.

Chain Pact: Your familiar is essentially your scout and situational disabler against weak CON targets. They have flight and invisibility (except the pseudodragon) to aid in their stealth and spying. An imp deals the most damage if targets fail their save, while the other three options have either sleep/poison or fear/poison to disable their foes. Besides scouting and situational attacks, you will most likely be having your familiar take the Help action for your attacks since your damage is far better. You can also deliver Touch spells but this is very situational as you don't have any damaging spells with Touch range, but it can let you buff your allies while maintaining your position. If you take a feat that gets you a cantrip (Magic Initiate, Spell Sniper, or Dragon Mark), take Shocking Grasp as that will allow your familiar to get a nice attack in and get out without risking an opportunity attack. Your touch spells are as follows: Remove Curse, Invisibility, Gaseous Form, Fly, Spider Climb, Protection from Evil/Good, Illusory Script.

Tome Pact: Your tome is all about versatility, which means choosing the best spells for the party; filling in blanks where they might be lacking. Shocking Grasp lets you get out of combat easily. Shillelagh lets you have as much power as a blade warlock (for a while). Spare the Dying protects party members. Friends is fantastic paired with the Mask of Many Faces invocation or if you don't mind losing friends once the duration is up. The Book of Ancient Secrets invocation is immensely powerful and opens up many doors by giving you access to eventually all ritual spells if you don't mind playing Wizard and searching for spells to copy. Overall

Blade Pact: This pact is numerically the weakest of the bunch and least versatile without multiclassing. You need to waste all of your invocations on combat buffs to actually function and it still trails behind any other warlock that has Agonizing Blast. You also need good stats in more ability scores (STR or DEX and CON). It takes an action to summon your pact weapon, which means you should do some scouting if you expect combat so you can choose the best weapon for the job. You should be aware that you will be in melee most of the time so defensive spells are useful for you. Be prepared to essentially be playing a fighter with a different flavor. That's not to say that isn't good, it's just usually not what people look for in a warlock.

Invocations can change your playstyle as well. For instance, Devil's Sight pairs well with the Darkness spell, which you can either take as a warlock or get from being a Tiefling or Drow. Mask of Many Faces lets you use Friends without fear of repercussions. Repelling Blast lets you take advantage of difficult terrain or allied area of effect spells by pushing enemies back into them or further in. Vision of Distant Realms gives you Arcane Eye at will which can replace the scouting part of a Pact of Chain warlock. Other great and versatile choices are Misty Visions, Sculptor of Flesh, and Mire the Mind.

Choice Spells: You don't need too many offensive spells as you can cast them so often, so just rely on Eldritch Blast. It's good to have a toolkit of crowd control for each situation (against low WIS, low DEX, and low CON, and against multiple enemies) so when you need it you can whip it out. At least one defensive spell will save your skin. Utility spells are best when versatile. Fly is unnecessary if you take the invocation that lets you cast Levitate on yourself at will which will make you pretty much immune to melee combat. Remember, you only have a few spell slots to work with at a time so make sure they count!

Single Target Crowd Control: Charm Person, Command (Fiend), Hold Person, Banishment, Dominate Person (Archfey/Great Old One), Dominate Monster [Arcanum], Feeblemind [Arcanum], True Polymorph[Arcanum]

Multiple Target Crowd Control: Hypnotic Pattern, Darkness, Wall of Fire (Fiend), Evard's Black Tentacles (Great Old One), Mass Suggestion [Arcanum], Forcecage [Arcanum]

Defense: Armor of Agathys, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Blink (Archfey), Foresight [Arcanum]

Debuff: Hex, Faerie Fire (Archfey)

Utility: Dispel Magic, Fly, Telekinesis (Great Old One), True Seeing [Arcanum], Plane Shift [Arcanum]

Pact of the Blade: Vampiric Touch, Fire Shield (Fiend), Greater Invisibility

Offense: Eldritch Blast, Fireball (Fiend), Finger of Death [Arcanum], Power Word Kill [Arcanum]

Roleplaying a Warlock: Warlocks have some of the best roleplaying potential. Their power source is often controversial compared to sorcerers and wizards. It might be necessary to hide your powers in a lawful-good city that frowns on fey, fiends, or aberrant gods (this of course, omits the Celestial subclass). When in combat mode, it's always fun to play up your pact magic with cool incantations and invoking your patron and their allies. Think Dr. Strange announcing his All-Seeing Eye of Agamotto or his Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth. I mean, "Hunger of Hadar" is pretty much already there.

The Pact of the Chain warlock has a familiar to roleplay with who might even be actively fighting against their master's wills, which can be great for some back-and-forth commentary. For the other pact boons, try to refer to your boon often. Theoretically, this is the object that was bestowed by your deity that gives you your power, not just some little bonus for your effort. It should be personalized from your patron and have deep meaning to you. Make a big to-do when you cast a spell by flipping through your Book of Shadows and have it hover in the air before you and glow with eldritch power. Assume that all of your spells are in the book rather than just three cantrips. For your pact weapon, point it toward your target and have the magic surge through the weapon with arcane spillage dripping onto the ground as you cast spells. Make your boon meaningful!

Specifics of the Pact: Who, specifically, is your patron, or do you even know? The different subclasses are intentionally broad to allow you to choose (I’ll go into this more in a post later this week). Write your pact into your backstory, detailing how you came to meet this patron and how the deal came about. Consider why you made the pact. Was it for power? Faith? Was it out of desperation? Better yet, what did you give your patron in return? Your character must understand these things are never free... right?

How do you feel about your patron? You two might be willing or unwilling allies. Perhaps one side was tricked into service of the other. Whatever the case, your patron is likely working on some plan behind the scenes because DMs can't resist such a tempting opportunity.

Moreover, how does your pact with your patron affect you? Does it affect your mind? Maybe a fiend tempts you with vices while a great old one causes you to slip into madness. An archfey might cause your emotions to surge. Your pact might affect you physically, as well. You might have dark rings around your eyes, tiny horns or spines, warped skin, a strange marking on your body, or be supernaturally beautiful.

As a DM

#Warlock Week #D&D 5e #Dungeons and Dragons #Warlock #Roleplaying #patron #DnD #DnD 5e #D&D #DMG #Dungeon Master #Noblecrumpet #Dorkvision