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AmberVael
2015-05-29, 09:47 AM
Sometimes, power arises from a hopeful soul and a wishful yearning. Other times it awakens from innocence and a deceitful pact. Whatever the cause, magic rests in the heart and its deepest desires- and those who come to learn that magic find themselves on a peculiar road, one often fraught with peril and adventure where their only defense and salvation is power within them and the friends around them.
The path of a magical girl is rarely an easy journey.

After a substantial delay, I'm continuing my invocation making project! One day my Invocations will outnumber the stars!
...okay, well, probably not, but perhaps I can get over a hundred. That'd be nice, right?


Breath of Life
Greater; 6th
When a creature within 60ft would die, you may use an immediate action to rescue them. Instead of dying, they are stabilized at the lowest hit point total they can sustain without dying (typically -9) and rendered incapacitated but incapable of dying for the next five rounds. You may protect any given target this way only once per day.
This invocation also allows you to conduct a one minute ritual to protect a touched target against future harm. The next time they would affected by a death effect or death spell, that spell or effect automatically fails against them. This protection lasts for 24 hours, or until it has negated one spell or effect.

Eldritch Beam
Dark; 8th; Blast Shape
When you apply this blast shape invocation, you may choose to invoke your eldritch blast as either a focused beam or an unfocused beam.
As an unfocused beam your eldritch blast affects a 15ft wide, 180ft long area that starts from any side or corner of your square. Each target can attempt a reflex save for half damage.
As a focused beam you instead affect a 60ft line. Each target in the area is automatically struck by your eldritch blast. In addition, they must make a reflex save or be struck by a second, identical eldritch blast.

Eldritch Weaponry
Least; 2nd; Blast Shape
As a free action you may invest your eldritch blast into your weapon attacks for one round, and anyone struck by your weapon attacks are also affected as if struck by your eldritch blast (including any eldritch essence applied to the blast). The effects of this invocation end if you use your eldritch blast again.

Externalize Soul
Dark; 9th
Using this invocation takes a full day, and requires an art object, gem, or other valuable object with a value of 50,000 gp or more. When finished, you invest your soul into the object, distancing your body from your animating force to protect yourself from harm.
After you have used this invocation, you gain resistance to acid, cold, electric, fire, and sonic damage equal to your caster level, as well as damage reduction equal to half your caster level that has no vulnerability. You cease to age and gain regeneration equal to one fourth your caster level and can regrow lost limbs and body parts in 1d6 minutes, or reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump. No form of attack deals lethal damage to you. Any attack that would kill you instantly instead deals nonlethal damage equal to your full hit points +10. You are never immune to the nonlethal damage caused by your regeneration ability.
While the object is reinforced by the magic that went into it, gaining 10 hardness and 50 hit points, if it is destroyed you immediately lose all the benefits of this invocation and any damage converted to nonlethal by the bestowed regeneration becomes lethal, possibly killing you outright. In addition, you gain five negative levels. You lose one of these negative levels automatically at the end of each day, but they cannot be prevented, removed, or relieved by any other means. Until all of these negative levels are gone, you may not use this invocation again.
The effects of this invocation are instantaneous in duration, and its benefits nonmagical.

Friendship Blast
Least; 1st; Eldritch Essence
A friendship blast may deal lethal or nonlethal damage, chosen when it is applied, and deals additional damage equal to your invoker modifier. In addition, if a friendship blast would deal enough damage to kill or destroy an enemy the invoker may choose to spare them- leaving them stable and at the minimum number of hit points to keep them alive, though they become helpless until they heal any number of hit points.
If an enemy struck by a friendship blast is rendered unconscious, helpless, or otherwise defeated in the same encounter, the invoker may immediately make a diplomacy check to improve their attitude, gaining a +4 morale bonus to the attempt. You may not improve any attitude past friendly in this way.

Guardian Shield
Lesser; 4th
When you use this invocation, you summon a floating shield. It grants a +2 shield bonus to your armor class, has no weight, armor check penalty, or spell failure, and floats and protects you as if it had the animated special quality. It may be enchanted like a normal shield, though you must be present for the entire enchanting process. Enchantments persist between summonings, as you summon the same shield each time. While it can’t be damaged or taken away from you, you may dismiss it as a free action.
In addition, you may extend the shield’s protection further- as a standard action you can extend its edges into a wall of force that is up to ten feet tall and fifteen wide. The area of the wall is centered on an edge of your square chosen when you summon it and moves with you. While it affects others normally, this wall never provides you any cover or protection and does it affect your attacks or movement. You can dismiss this wall with another standard action.

Hammer Space
Least; 2nd
This invocation allows you to access a personal extradimensional storage space. You can store a number of objects inside this space equal to your invoker modifier plus half your caster level- these objects may be anything you can lift with two hands, but otherwise can be of any size or weight. As a move action you may store one object you are holding and also may retrieve one object stored in this space.

Infinite Armory
Greater; 6th
You may draw weapons from thin air using the draw a weapon action, summoning them for your personal use. You may summon any weapon you are proficient with in this way, and any weapon you summon has an enhancement bonus of +1 per four caster levels and may have a single special ability that is equivalent to a +1 bonus or has a worth of 10,000 gp or less. If you desire you may have these weapons enchanted with further special abilities- treat the summoned weapons as if they were +1 (plus any previous special abilities) when determining cost. Thereafter, any weapon you summon also has any special abilities you have paid for, if they would apply. You must be present for the entire enchanting process.
If these weapons leave your hands they immediately disappear. You may apply special abilities with limited uses to your summon weapons, but summoning a new weapon will not recharge these uses.
You may also use this invocation as a blast shape- as a free action you may invest your eldritch blast into your summoned weapons for one round, and anyone struck by your weapon is also affected as if struck by your eldritch blast (including any eldritch essence applied to the blast).

Prismatic Blast
Greater; 6th; Eldritch Essence
This eldritch essence invocation changes your eldritch blast into a prismatic blast. When a creature is struck by a prismatic blast, they take normal eldritch blast damage, and then roll a d8 to determine its additional effect:


1d8
Color
Effect


1
Red
Fire damage equal to caster level, reflex half.


2
Orange
Acid damage equal to twice caster level, reflex half.


3
Yellow
Electric damage equal to three times caster level, reflex half.


4
Green
Poison, 1d8 constitution damage, fortitude half.


5
Blue
Petrified for one round, fortitude negates.


6
Indigo
Confused for 1d3 rounds, will negates.


7
Violet
Blinking, 50% miss chance on all attacks for 1d6 rounds, will negates.


8
Multicolored
Roll twice more and ignore results of 8.



Radiant Heart
Lesser; 3rd
While this invocation is active the light and strength of your magic flows through you. You gain the benefits of the endure elements spell, and also may radiate light as bright as full daylight in a 20ft radius centered on you, and dim light in a 20ft radius beyond that. You may dismiss or radiate this light as a free action.
In addition, once per encounter you may use an immediate action to remove one of the following conditions from yourself: Blinded, confused, cowering, dazed, dazzled, deafened, exhausted, fascinated, fatigued, frightened, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, shaken, sickened, or turned. At caster level 11th you can remove a condition twice per encounter.

Six Winged Seraph
Dark; 9th
Six wings of light raise behind you, granting a 60ft fly speed with perfect maneuverability for 24 hours. You may shed these wings for a variety of effects.
By shedding a wing as a swift action, you gain the effects of freedom of movement for one round.
By shedding one wing or more wings as an immediate action when you would take ability damage, drain, or negative levels, you may negate or reduce the effect. Each wings shed reduces energy drain by one negative level, ability drain by two, or ability damage by three.
By shedding a wings as an immediate action you may ward yourself against a hostile spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability, decreasing all of its variable numeric effects to their minimum possible value. This does not reduce the damage for any other possible targets of the effect.
You may restore your wings to their full amount by resting for one minute; using this invocation again before it has ended has no effect on your number of wings. Even if you have no more wings, you can still fly.

Sparkle Field
Lesser; 4th
You create a field of sparkling motes which emanates from you in a 30ft radius. The motes move and cling to those within the field, revealing invisible creatures and imposing a -20 penalty on hide checks so long as they remain within it. In addition, as a standard action you can cause the field to gleam and glare, causing enemies within the field to be blinded for one round unless they make a reflex save.
This invocation lasts for a number of rounds equal to your caster level.

Transformation Sequence
Least; 1st
When you activate this invocation as a swift action you may don any armor or shield in your possession, as well as draw any of your weapons. You may additionally choose to unequip or sheathe any weapons and armor you are already using, placing them into any storage you are carrying (or dropping them in your square). You may even don or remove any number of worn mundane or magic items in this same manner. This allows you to create a disguise as part of using this invocation.
Additionally, you may activate a number of personal range invocations equal to the number of invocation grades you have access to. You may only activate invocations that normally have a duration of 24 hours or more this way.
Lastly, the first time you activate this in an encounter you gain temporary hit points equal to your caster level. These temporary hit points last for the duration of the encounter.

Network
2015-05-30, 12:00 AM
Sometimes, power arises from a hopeful soul and a wishful yearning. Other times it awakens from innocence and a deceitful pact. Whatever the cause, magic rests in the heart and its deepest desires- and those who come to learn that magic find themselves on a peculiar road, one often fraught with peril and adventure where their only defense and salvation is power within them and the friends around them.
The path of a magical girl is rarely an easy journey.

After a substantial delay, I'm continuing my invocation making project! One day my Invocations will outnumber the stars!
...okay, well, probably not, but perhaps I can get over a hundred. That'd be nice, right?
It's always nice to have new invocation. So... I assume these are for warlocks? I ask because invocations are usually class-specific, so it makes a difference. But I'll pass...

Breath of Life
Greater; 6th
When a creature within 60ft would die, you may use an immediate action to rescue them. Instead of dying, they are stabilized at the lowest hit point total they can sustain without dying (typically -9) and rendered incapacitated but incapable of dying for the remainder of the encounter. You may protect any given target this way only once per day.
This invocation also allows you to conduct a one minute ritual to protect a touched target against future harm. The next time they would affected by a death effect or death spell, that spell or effect automatically fails against them. This protection lasts for 24 hours, or until it has negated one spell or effect.
The first part of this invocation seems overly powerful. Immunity to death is not something that characters should get at any level, even if it requires them to get close to dying at then get magical healing. Even the whole 'save an ally from death' may be too much since invocations are useable at-will, so as soon as you enter a large-scale battle, your warlock suddenly becomes capable of saving a life every round. This is not appropriate at 11th level and probably not until epic levels, when the cleric becomes effectively capable of respawning his teamates every round. You also don't mention whether the warlock can use the invocation on himself.
The second part of the ability, on the other hand, seems level-appropriate.

Eldritch Beam
Dark; 8th; Blast Shape
When you apply this blast shape invocation, you may choose to invoke your eldritch blast as either a focused beam or an unfocused beam.
As an unfocused beam your eldritch blast affects a 15ft wide, 180ft long area that starts from any side or corner of your square. Each target can attempt a reflex save for half damage.
As a focused beam you instead affect a 60ft line. Each target in the area is automatically struck by your eldritch blast. In addition, they must make a reflex save or be struck by a second, identical eldritch blast.
I think this ability is level appropriate, but you could also render the focused beam as 'each target takes double your normal eldritch blast damage (reflex half)', unless you specifically intended for targets to suffer the effect of the eldritch essence twice, which I'm not sure is a good idea (I will have to check).

Eldritch Weaponry
Least; 2nd; Blast Shape
As a free action you may invest your eldritch blast into your weapon attacks for one round, and anyone struck by your weapon attacks are also affected as if struck by your eldritch blast (including any eldritch essence applied to the blast).
Is this specifically intended as a buffed-up version of Hideous Blow? Because I'm pretty sure it is. Not necessarily bad, it's just... not on the power-level of warlock invocations.

Externalize Soul
Dark; 9th
Using this invocation takes a full day, and requires an art object, gem, or other valuable object with a value of 50,000 gp or more. When finished, you invest your soul into the object, distancing your body from your animating force to protect yourself from harm.
After you have used this invocation, you gain resistance to acid, cold, electric, fire, and sonic damage equal to your caster level, as well as an equal amount of damage reduction. You cease to age and gain regeneration equal to one fourth your caster level and can regrow lost limbs and body parts in 1d6 minutes, or reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump. No form of attack deals lethal damage to you. Any attack that would kill you instantly instead deals nonlethal damage equal to your full hit points +10. You are never immune to the nonlethal damage caused by your regeneration ability.
While the object is reinforced by the magic that went into it, gaining 10 hardness and 50 hit points, if it is destroyed you immediately lose all the benefits of this invocation and any damage converted to nonlethal by the bestowed regeneration becomes lethal, possibly killing you outright. In addition, you instantly gain five negative levels that cannot be prevented or removed by any normal means. Instead, you lose a single negative level at the end of each day. Until all of these negative levels are gone, you may not use this invocation again.
The effects of this invocation are instantaneous in duration, and its benefits nonmagical.
This invocation is troublesome for a variety of reasons. You don't mention what type of damage can bypass the damage reduction. DR=level may already be too much; the 20th level capstone of many classes is 10/magic. While anything /magic is worthless at level 20, the DR of this invocation should probably be half level. Also, anything that turn a character into the Tarasque at level 16 is definitely too strong. You could give immunity to death effect, but stuff like phantasmal killer and implosion should probably work at this level, plus it'd be much more balanced if there was at least one way to deal lethal damage to the warlock, an IKEA Tarasque build is so far away from what players need after all.
Thinking about it, the ability to turn an item into a phylactery is probably more balanced than regeneration. And thematically, it makes sense.
The negative level thing is poorly worded and, by RAW, could be avoided in a number of ways. Wouldn't the wording of Astral Seed be better? Also, 5 negative levels is probably a bit too much; you don't make a broken ability balanced by adding a broken drawback.
Edit: Oh, and I find the prospect of a nonmagical spell-like ability ridiculous. I know you made it this way so the warlock can keep his IKEA Tarasque regeneration ability even in an AMF, but there is no logical reason for the warlock to be able to use it here. At most, you could make it a spell-like ability that works in AMF (like mind blade is a Su ability that works in AMF), but that's as far as it can go without sounding absurd.

Friendship Blast
Least; 1st; Eldritch Essence
A friendship blast may deal lethal or nonlethal damage, chosen when it is applied, and deals additional damage equal to your invoker modifier. In addition, if a friendship blast would deal enough damage to kill or destroy an enemy the invoker may choose to spare them- leaving them stable and at the minimum number of hit points to keep them alive, though they become helpless until they heal any number of hit points.
If an enemy struck by a friendship blast is rendered unconscious, helpless, or otherwise defeated in the same encounter, the invoker may immediately make a diplomacy check to improve their attitude, gaining a +4 morale bonus to the attempt. You may not improve any attitude past friendly in this way.
What's an 'invoker modifier', please? Otherwise, this seems like a cool and balanced invocation.

Guardian Shield
Lesser; 4th
When you use this invocation, you summon a floating shield. It grants a +2 shield bonus to your armor class, has no weight, armor check penalty, or spell failure, and floats and protects you as if it had the animated special quality. It may be enchanted like a normal shield, though you must be present for the entire enchanting process. Enchantments persist between summonings, as you summon the same shield each time. While it can’t be damaged or taken away from you, you may dismiss it as a free action.
In addition, you may extend the shield’s protection further- as a standard action you can extend its edges into a wall of force that is up to ten feet tall and fifteen wide. The area of the wall is centered on an edge of your square chosen when you summon it and moves with you. This wall never provides you any cover or protection, but neither does it affect your attack or movement. You can dismiss this wall with another standard action.
What's the point of creating a wall of force that is pervious on both sides? I can see two problems with this. First, by RAW, everything passes through the wall as if it wasn't there. Second, you don't mention what happens if the wall has to pass through the square of another creature to follow the warlock I'd probably consider this an overrun attempt, does it feel appropriate for you?
The shield itself is fine though.

Hammer Space
Least; 2nd
This invocation allows you to access a personal extradimensional storage space. You can store a number of objects inside this space equal to your invoker modifier plus half your caster level- these objects may be anything you can lift with two hands, but otherwise can be of any size or weight. As a move action you may store one object you are holding and also may retrieve one object stored in this space.
Seems good, escept I still don't know what an 'invoker modifier' is.

Transformation Sequence
Least; 1st
When you activate this invocation as a swift action you may don any armor or shield in your possession, as well as draw any of your weapons. You may additionally choose to unequip or sheathe any weapons and armor you are already using, placing them into any storage you are carrying (or dropping them in your square). You may even don or remove any number of worn mundane or magic items in this same manner. This allows you to create a disguise as part of using this invocation.
Additionally, you may activate a number of personal range invocations equal to the number of invocation grades you have access to. You may only activate invocations that normally have a duration of 24 hours or more this way.
Lastly, the first time you activate this in an encounter you gain temporary hit points equal to your hit dice. These temporary hit points last for the duration of the encounter.
Personaly, I'd say the ability to switch armor as a swift action should be a Lesser invocation at minimum, because there are so many ways to abuse it. And the third ability, the one that gives temporary hit points, is too much IMHO. It should probably be based on caster level, not HD. If you do want to keep it a Least invocation, make it only give 1 temporary hp/2 caster levels. For a Lesser invocation, 1 hp/caster level is enough. A Greater (or better) invocation could give more, but I'm not sure the other parts of the invocation are good enough to make it Greater.

That's all for now. I skipped a few invocations, but it's 1 AM for me and so I preferred to comment only the invocations that caught my attention.

AmberVael
2015-05-30, 02:13 AM
Thank you for your comments and thoughts! I'm not sure I agree with everything you've said though, and I'd like to elaborate on my thoughts and reasoning to see if they make sense or not.


It's always nice to have new invocation. So... I assume these are for warlocks? I ask because invocations are usually class-specific, so it makes a difference. But I'll pass...
They're largely intended to be for warlocks, but with homebrew classes out there I don't want to specifically say warlocks only.


The first part of this invocation seems overly powerful. Immunity to death is not something that characters should get at any level, even if it requires them to get close to dying at then get magical healing. Even the whole 'save an ally from death' may be too much since invocations are useable at-will, so as soon as you enter a large-scale battle, your warlock suddenly becomes capable of saving a life every round. This is not appropriate at 11th level and probably not until epic levels, when the cleric becomes effectively capable of respawning his teamates every round. You also don't mention whether the warlock can use the invocation on himself.
The second part of the ability, on the other hand, seems level-appropriate.
The first part of the ability is largely based on the 4th level cleric spell Delay Death (with a few modifications). 4th level spells are generally the balance point of Greater Invocations (see: Chilling Tentacles, Nightmares Made Real, Painful Slumber of the Ages), and its my outlook that player death is not meant to be a common occurrence in game which would mean it is a circumstantial invocation (hence the secondary, weaker and more readily usable component). For a party the fact that it only allows you to target any given ally with the effect once per day is the most important limitation- and given that allies remain incapacitated, and you must perform this in the instant that they would die, it isn't quite as simple or powerful as respawning the party constantly. If an enemy wins, you're still all doomed. If an enemy retreats with the body of someone you saved, they're probably going to still die (or worse). If they fall again during the day, there's nothing you can do. If they're 65ft away, you also can't do anything. It good for keeping your allies from suffering unduly from a random enemy that gets two critical hits in a row, but its got limits. Though I do suppose it is a bit more broadly applicable than Delay Death. It might be worth recomparing the two and thinking of decent ways to bring Breath of Life a bit more in line.

I suppose It is fairly spammable in a mass combat setting, but those aren't really the focus of D&D, so I hadn't considered it too much- nor am I sure I should be terribly worried about it.

Does this elaboration change your mind at all? Are there any pieces of it that still seem problematic that you might change? If they were rendered invulnerable for a set number of rounds rather than until the end of the encounter, would you think that better?


I think this ability is level appropriate, but you could also render the focused beam as 'each target takes double your normal eldritch blast damage (reflex half)', unless you specifically intended for targets to suffer the effect of the eldritch essence twice, which I'm not sure is a good idea (I will have to check).
I did intend it. Blast shapes, particularly area blast shapes, tend to suffer in comparison to other options. I've been considering and exploring the idea of iterative replacing blast shapes for a while. My thought is, if you spend a Dark invocation on a blast shape you deserve to get something pretty excellent- something that really compares to other Dark options rather than... Eldritch Doom.


Is this specifically intended as a buffed-up version of Hideous Blow? Because I'm pretty sure it is. Not necessarily bad, it's just... not on the power-level of warlock invocations.
Pretty much. Hideous Blow has a very apt name, and is abandoned in favor of Eldritch Glaive for a reason.


This invocation is troublesome for a variety of reasons. You don't mention what type of damage can bypass the damage reduction. DR=level may already be too much; the 20th level capstone of many classes is 10/magic. While anything /magic is worthless at level 20, the DR of this invocation should probably be half level. Also, anything that turn a character into the Tarasque at level 16 is definitely too strong. You could give immunity to death effect, but stuff like phantasmal killer and implosion should probably work at this level, plus it'd be much more balanced if there was at least one way to deal lethal damage to the warlock, an IKEA Tarasque build is so far away from what players need after all.
Thinking about it, the ability to turn an item into a phylactery is probably more balanced than regeneration. And thematically, it makes sense.
The negative level thing is poorly worded and, by RAW, could be avoided in a number of ways. Wouldn't the wording of Astral Seed be better? Also, 5 negative levels is probably a bit too much; you don't make a broken ability balanced by adding a broken drawback.
Upon closer review of the numbers, I'm inclined to agree that half caster level is probably a better choice for the amount for the DR. And it is meant to be DR X/-. I was uncertain of how to word it, and so took a cue from the Barbarian damage reduction feature which simply does not specify that it is overcome by anything, and the description of damage reduction that says "a certain kind of weapon can sometimes damage the creature normally," indicating that the default would be damage reduction overcome by nothing.

As for regeneration, I came to the opposite conclusion; regenerating over reforming has some substantial downsides. First, there are already ways to directly bypass or remove regeneration (Graymantle being a good example) which can just lead to you dying regardless of the condition of your object, which is not a danger with a phylactery. Second, your enemies will be much more likely to know something is up, rather than being caught off guard by your return- it'll be fairly obvious that you're healing and not taking damage normally the moment they start attacking. Third, if you're defeated your enemies have immediate access to you, allowing them to capture you and work against you regardless of whether they can find the object sustaining you (and even read your mind, divine, or torture you to find out where it is). The advantage regeneration offers over reformation (not being out for a time) is negated by any enemy with the intellect to impale you on a flaming spike until they figure out how to finish you off.

Plus, thematically I feel regeneration is more closely tied to the inspiration material, and it makes it more distinct from the lich's phylactery, which is always nice.

I'm not sure what you mean about the wording of Astral Seed. A destroyed astral seed has no backlash at all. As for negative levels being avoidable by RAW, I'd be interested to know how. Also, what difficulty are you having with its wording? If something is unclear I should definitely be rewording it.


What's an 'invoker modifier', please? Otherwise, this seems like a cool and balanced invocation.
This gets back to me not wanting to be specific to a single invocation using class. Its the analogue to Casting Stat/Modifier for spellcaster classes- which means Charisma for warlocks, but potentially a different ability score for other invoker classes. Which basically means 'if you have a homebrew invocation using class that doesn't primarily use charisma, you can their primary stat here instead.' Like the Ebon Initiate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?163297-3-5-The-Ebon-Initiate-warrior-necrolock-Base-Class) that uses Intelligence.


What's the point of creating a wall of force that is pervious on both sides? I can see two problems with this. First, by RAW, everything passes through the wall as if it wasn't there. Second, you don't mention what happens if the wall has to pass through the square of another creature to follow the warlock I'd probably consider this an overrun attempt, does it feel appropriate for you?
The shield itself is fine though.
The wording specifies that it doesn't protect/affect you. Everyone else is covered by it normally- its supposed to enable a bit more crowd control/tanking, with the idea of making yourself into a literal wall.
I probably do need a line about it running into creatures or something though. Good thought.


Personaly, I'd say the ability to switch armor as a swift action should be a Lesser invocation at minimum, because there are so many ways to abuse it. And the third ability, the one that gives temporary hit points, is too much IMHO. It should probably be based on caster level, not HD. If you do want to keep it a Least invocation, make it only give 1 temporary hp/2 caster levels. For a Lesser invocation, 1 hp/caster level is enough. A Greater (or better) invocation could give more, but I'm not sure the other parts of the invocation are good enough to make it Greater.
Could you elaborate on what abuse you're seeing for armor swapping? I admit, I can't really think of anything that would make it bad.

As for the amount of temporary hit points, I'm really not sure I agree. If you could spam this and continually refresh the temporary hit points I'd understand, but its a once per encounter bonus. It'll absorb maybe one hit before fading away. At level one you're only gaining a single temporary hit point each fight. Its certainly no Minor Shapeshift.

Network
2015-05-30, 03:22 PM
Thank you for your comments and thoughts! I'm not sure I agree with everything you've said though, and I'd like to elaborate on my thoughts and reasoning to see if they make sense or not.
Of course! Not everybody will agree with every comment that is said on board. Many homebrewers have very different views on balance and such. Since I wasn't sure what was the balance level of your invocations, I compared them to CAr's invocations, but this may have been a mistake of my part.

They're largely intended to be for warlocks, but with homebrew classes out there I don't want to specifically say warlocks only.
Fine with me.

The first part of the ability is largely based on the 4th level cleric spell Delay Death (with a few modifications). 4th level spells are generally the balance point of Greater Invocations (see: Chilling Tentacles, Nightmares Made Real, Painful Slumber of the Ages), and its my outlook that player death is not meant to be a common occurrence in game which would mean it is a circumstantial invocation (hence the secondary, weaker and more readily usable component). For a party the fact that it only allows you to target any given ally with the effect once per day is the most important limitation- and given that allies remain incapacitated, and you must perform this in the instant that they would die, it isn't quite as simple or powerful as respawning the party constantly. If an enemy wins, you're still all doomed. If an enemy retreats with the body of someone you saved, they're probably going to still die (or worse). If they fall again during the day, there's nothing you can do. If they're 65ft away, you also can't do anything. It good for keeping your allies from suffering unduly from a random enemy that gets two critical hits in a row, but its got limits. Though I do suppose it is a bit more broadly applicable than Delay Death. It might be worth recomparing the two and thinking of decent ways to bring Breath of Life a bit more in line.

I suppose It is fairly spammable in a mass combat setting, but those aren't really the focus of D&D, so I hadn't considered it too much- nor am I sure I should be terribly worried about it.

Does this elaboration change your mind at all? Are there any pieces of it that still seem problematic that you might change? If they were rendered invulnerable for a set number of rounds rather than until the end of the encounter, would you think that better?
Since Delay Death was the balance point here, I suggest you put the same restriction as the spell:
A condition or spell that destroys enough of the subject's body to prohibit raise dead (such as a disintegrate effect) still kills the creature, as does death brought about by ability score damage or drain, level drain, or a death effect.
I think this and adding a duration of 1 round/level (instead of until the end of the encounter; not a big difference unless the battle is over-extending itself, but that could happen) could solve the issues I had with the invocation. As for mass combat setting, I think I was mostly worried about a Breath of Life + Mass Heal combo that players may or may not be able to pull into play, but with a duration and the restrictions of Delay Death it shouldn't be a problem anymore.

I did intend it. Blast shapes, particularly area blast shapes, tend to suffer in comparison to other options. I've been considering and exploring the idea of iterative replacing blast shapes for a while. My thought is, if you spend a Dark invocation on a blast shape you deserve to get something pretty excellent- something that really compares to other Dark options rather than... Eldritch Doom.
I still think the wording is a bit off, but maybe that's just me. I'd also allow evasion and improved evasion to work on the blast shape, but I don't know what's your opinion about this.

Pretty much. Hideous Blow has a very apt name, and is abandoned in favor of Eldritch Glaive for a reason.
Eldritch Weaponry is still better than Eldritch Glaive, but I see what you mean here.

Upon closer review of the numbers, I'm inclined to agree that half caster level is probably a better choice for the amount for the DR. And it is meant to be DR X/-. I was uncertain of how to word it, and so took a cue from the Barbarian damage reduction feature which simply does not specify that it is overcome by anything, and the description of damage reduction that says "a certain kind of weapon can sometimes damage the creature normally," indicating that the default would be damage reduction overcome by nothing.

As for regeneration, I came to the opposite conclusion; regenerating over reforming has some substantial downsides. First, there are already ways to directly bypass or remove regeneration (Graymantle being a good example) which can just lead to you dying regardless of the condition of your object, which is not a danger with a phylactery. Second, your enemies will be much more likely to know something is up, rather than being caught off guard by your return- it'll be fairly obvious that you're healing and not taking damage normally the moment they start attacking. Third, if you're defeated your enemies have immediate access to you, allowing them to capture you and work against you regardless of whether they can find the object sustaining you (and even read your mind, divine, or torture you to find out where it is). The advantage regeneration offers over reformation (not being out for a time) is negated by any enemy with the intellect to impale you on a flaming spike until they figure out how to finish you off.

Plus, thematically I feel regeneration is more closely tied to the inspiration material, and it makes it more distinct from the lich's phylactery, which is always nice.

I'm not sure what you mean about the wording of Astral Seed. A destroyed astral seed has no backlash at all. As for negative levels being avoidable by RAW, I'd be interested to know how. Also, what difficulty are you having with its wording? If something is unclear I should definitely be rewording it.
I suppose a X/- damage reduction, where X is half the caster level would work as a high-powered invocation (or a quarter of the caster level, if you don't want to overshadow the barbarian).

I'd still give some ways to bypass the regeneration. Maybe instant-kill effects work except those that have the Death descriptor. Maybe if your 'soul gem' is incrusted in a weapon, the weapon becomes capable of dealing lethal damage. Or maybe Constitution damage can kill you. But yeah, you're right that regeneration isn't as good as a respawn if your enemies can take you down. The problem is that I don't think there are easy ways to take you down; the staggered condition is pretty scrappy and doesn't do much that an invincible character will care about.

I dunno why I brought up Astral Seed. Must've been sleep. What I would suggest is that you reduce the negative levels from 5 to 1 and stated that the negative level 'cannot be healed', instead of 'cannot be prevented or removed by any normal means', because this implies that the negative levels can be removed by unconventional methods, the standard ways to remove negative levels being defined in the SRD as such:

Negative levels remain until 24 hours have passed or until they are removed with a spell, such as restoration.
Even if we were to count psionics and other subsystems under the 'spell' flag, characters may find other ways to remove the negative levels that do not count as conventional methods by any person's standards. Generous Sacrifice and Lasting Life are feats that could achieve this (from the RAW of Generous Sacrifice, the negative levels are not even prevented or removed; they are transfered). And any amount of level loss can be thought bottled away for 500 XP, so there really is no reason to make the warlock lose 5 levels instead of 1.

This gets back to me not wanting to be specific to a single invocation using class. Its the analogue to Casting Stat/Modifier for spellcaster classes- which means Charisma for warlocks, but potentially a different ability score for other invoker classes. Which basically means 'if you have a homebrew invocation using class that doesn't primarily use charisma, you can their primary stat here instead.' Like the Ebon Initiate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?163297-3-5-The-Ebon-Initiate-warrior-necrolock-Base-Class) that uses Intelligence.
Fine, I was 99% sure that is was an analogy to the casting stat, but I thought the wording was a bit off.

The wording specifies that it doesn't protect/affect you. Everyone else is covered by it normally- its supposed to enable a bit more crowd control/tanking, with the idea of making yourself into a literal wall.
I probably do need a line about it running into creatures or something though. Good thought.
You should probably specify that the cover applies to other creatures normally.

Could you elaborate on what abuse you're seeing for armor swapping? I admit, I can't really think of anything that would make it bad.

As for the amount of temporary hit points, I'm really not sure I agree. If you could spam this and continually refresh the temporary hit points I'd understand, but its a once per encounter bonus. It'll absorb maybe one hit before fading away. At level one you're only gaining a single temporary hit point each fight. Its certainly no Minor Shapeshift.
Dunno what I was thinking. Most characters do not carry two sets of armor on their person, after all. Maybe the ability to switch two sets of weapons as a swift action is a bigger issue, but I can't think of any combo that would require it.

I think my greatest issue with temporary hit points is that they scale with character level instead of caster level, making a 1st-level dip into warlock suddenly worthwile for a tank build. But yeah, temporary hp=caster level isn't going to unbalance anything as it is a one-time/encounter thing.

AmberVael
2015-05-31, 05:27 AM
Of course! Not everybody will agree with every comment that is said on board. Many homebrewers have very different views on balance and such. Since I wasn't sure what was the balance level of your invocations, I compared them to CAr's invocations, but this may have been a mistake of my part.
In general I aim towards the high end of existing invocations. There is a wide range of power within invocations, going from the pure sweetness of Chilling Tentacles to the utterly horrific Thieve's Bane. (Thieve's Bane: Hold Portal wasn't a bad enough level 1 spell, so we made it a Lesser Invocation).


I'd still give some ways to bypass the regeneration. Maybe instant-kill effects work except those that have the Death descriptor. Maybe if your 'soul gem' is incrusted in a weapon, the weapon becomes capable of dealing lethal damage. Or maybe Constitution damage can kill you. But yeah, you're right that regeneration isn't as good as a respawn if your enemies can take you down. The problem is that I don't think there are easy ways to take you down; the staggered condition is pretty scrappy and doesn't do much that an invincible character will care about.
I feel adding in a way to directly bypass it defeats the very idea of the invocation (and if someone had your soul gem, they could just smash the thing rather than sticking it in a weapon and be done with the whole problem). And the thing is, even if they can't kill you, taking you down is easy- enough lethal damage (just a little more than needed for staggered) and you're unconscious and helpless, invincible regeneration or not.

I changed up the wording on the negative levels, see if you like that better.



I made a few tweaks here and there to wording and mechanics.

I made Breath of Life's effect last for a fixed number of rounds- given that it enforces incapacitation, it felt better to have it fixed than scaling.
Changed a lot of wording on Externalize Soul and reduced DR to half caster level.
Slight tweak to Guardian Shield's wording.


Other stuff is still in consideration (how exactly I want to handle guardian shield running into someone, whether or not I like the negative level penalty of externalize soul, maybe another weakness for Breath of Life).

Lix Lorn
2015-07-23, 09:56 AM
It amuses me that when combined with Super Diehard homebrew, Breath of Life could see you stabilise at -179 or something. That's a lot of cure spells.
Love 'em though.

Edit: Does Guardian Shield still function as a shield while it's a wall of force?

Princess
2015-07-23, 09:26 PM
Cool stuff :) Most of this looks ready to go in games to see if it's balanced. I'd probably relable "frienship blast" as "merciful blast" though, to fit in with other nonlethal abilities.

AmberVael
2015-07-23, 10:09 PM
Edit: Does Guardian Shield still function as a shield while it's a wall of force?
Yes it does. It just gets a bit bigger.



Cool stuff :) Most of this looks ready to go in games to see if it's balanced. I'd probably relabel "friendship blast" as "merciful blast" though, to fit in with other nonlethal abilities.

The nonlethal effect is an afterthought, not the primary focus of the ability; the invocation name should reflect the concept, and the concept is the theme of magical girls defeating their foes and making friends of them. Anyway, merciful isn't exactly a common word for those abilities to begin with. You have the weapon ability 'Merciful,' then you have Nonlethal Substitution for metamagic, Bring 'Em Back Alive for the Justicar ability...

I think Friendship Blast works better.