Nightmare Warlock Patron Peach

[demonickin0]

I wanted to make a Warlock that made a pact with a being of shadows/nightmares/sleep etc. Something a bit more sinister then just Hellfire. Let me know what you all think and if there is anything that is overpowered or underpowered.

https://merovia.obsidianportal.com/wikis/dread-patron

[JNAProductions]

Gaze of Ruin should allow a saving throw every round.

Cranial Extraction is... 3.Pathfinderish. No ability should grant feats like that, and vile damage doesn't exist.

Just raw damage, though, should be okay.

[demonickin0]

Gaze of Ruin should allow a saving throw every round.

Cranial Extraction is... 3.Pathfinderish. No ability should grant feats like that, and vile damage doesn't exist.

Just raw damage, though, should be okay.

Fair enough on the gaze of ruin, i changed its wording. I changed the damage to necrotic to fit the theme. Do you have a better idea on what you gain from the capstone instead of a feat? Would maybe life steal be applicable, like you gain half the damage deal as hit points? or maybe bonus hit points?

[JNAProductions]

If it kills them, gain Temp HP, like a lot of other Warlock abilities.

[ZenBear]

The spell list is good. Very thematic.

Aura of Nightmare is the bane of a resting party. Sometimes you have to sleep in close quarters, and your warlock wont be able to stay 20 ft. away from every sleeping party member. You will murder your own team this way. It's a interesting idea, but it definitely needs a rework. Perhaps a limited resource (CHA per day) selected target effect? I don't see many players ever choosing to stand near a sleeping enemy and NOT coup de grace them, but if you really want an ability that only affects sleeping targets, go ahead. I would overhaul it entirely.

Nightmare Mount gives you a CR 3 pet you can have around indefinitely. Pretty strong if you ask me, but perhaps not broken.

Gaze of Ruin should just cause them to be Frightened as per the defined status effect. Things get confusing when you customize your own condition. Having no limit is pretty strong, once again CHA per day would be good. I would change the name, too. Ruin implies destruction, not fear.

Cranial Extraction is weird. It's like a crazy powerful once per day Paladin Smite without a spell slot cost. The limitation to "ranged attack" means nobody will ever play a melee Pact of the Blade Warlock with this Patron. There's also no precedent for gaining bonus Feats in 5E from abilities, and seeing as how Feats are an optional rule and you can at most get 6 of them in your entire career outside of Epic Level boons, this is super OP. Another one I would overhaul.

I don't quite understand the theme you are going for with this. Obviously fear based, giving people nightmares that hurt. Cranial Extraction seems more like a Great Old One thing. Stealing information (ie Feats) from creatures that don't even necessarily have the Feat you take... just weird. Clarify the theme and try to align the features with those of the other Pacts both in power and situational utility. Pick a niche for your Pact to fill. Fiend is combat focused with better defenses and combat focused spells. Fey is socially inclined with Fear and Charm effects and defense against such. Great Old One is all about control, one-way telepathy to direct allies/misdirect foes, defense against telepathy, and full-on Domination of an enemy. What is your Nightmare Pact's niche?

[demonickin0]

Aura of Nightmare is the bane of a resting party. Sometimes you have to sleep in close quarters, and your warlock wont be able to stay 20 ft. away from every sleeping party member. You will murder your own team this way. It's a interesting idea, but it definitely needs a rework. Perhaps a limited resource (CHA per day) selected target effect? I don't see many players ever choosing to stand near a sleeping enemy and NOT coup de grace them, but if you really want an ability that only affects sleeping targets, go ahead. I would overhaul it entirely.

Fair enough, I changed it to where it is an immediate effect, the reason it works so cleverly is because you don't have to see them. It's great for espionage.


Gaze of Ruin should just cause them to be Frightened as per the defined status effect. Things get confusing when you customize your own condition. Having no limit is pretty strong, once again CHA per day would be good. I would change the name, too. Ruin implies destruction, not fear.

I changed this too, Frightened does make more sense, and yeah, limiting would be a good call too. Ruin was supposed to imply an emotional devastation, but I see how you could see that.


What is your Nightmare Pact's niche?

Yeah, honestly I was never a huge fan of the cranial extraction, but it was a lot of fun. What about an ability that allows you to cast Sleep for cheaper and more powerfully? thoughts?

[ZenBear]

Yeah, honestly I was never a huge fan of the cranial extraction, but it was a lot of fun. What about an ability that allows you to cast Sleep for cheaper and more powerfully? thoughts?

Sleep is actually a very powerful spell, so be careful with that. Incapacitation on a failed save is incredibly scary. Perhaps a boost in power though, like once per day choose a single target and cast Sleep without an HP limit, only a saving throw. This makes it possible to Sleep a full-health dragon so long as it fails the save and doesn't have any Legendary Saves left.

I'm still a little iffy on Aura of Nightmare. Having an ability at level 1 that can't be countered except by a 5th level spell or similar is imbalanced. Just make it that the target cannot restore its lost max HP until it completes a full, uninterrupted long rest. So long as the Warlock is around the sleeping target each night the effect can stack and eventually kill, and the target will never know the Warlock did it, I presume. Maybe add some words to explicitly state whether the target is aware of the source.

Last thing, you have a typo. It's not Strix, it's Santa.

"He sees you when you're sleeping..." :smallbiggrin:

[demonickin0]

"He sees you when you're sleeping..." :smallbiggrin:

HA!

Well I changed it up and made the capstone "Greater Sleep." Does the wording work? and how's the new wording on Aura of Nightmares?

[ZenBear]

Looks solid. My only remaining points of contention are:

1. All other Patrons grant a defensive ability at level 6, and yours does not. The Nightmare is cool and thematic, but does not fit the mold. It's not a big deal and I'm not saying you have to change it, but it is worth noting.

2. Greater Sleep is a boring name. A capstone feature deserves a more dramatic title.

3. The wording of the entire document could use some cleaning up. Make it more homogeneous to the PHB.

Playtest this out and let me know how it feels in-game. Whiteroom theorycrafting can only get you so far.

[demonickin0]

Looks solid. My only remaining points of contention are:

1. All other Patrons grant a defensive ability at level 6, and yours does not. The Nightmare is cool and thematic, but does not fit the mold. It's not a big deal and I'm not saying you have to change it, but it is worth noting.

2. Greater Sleep is a boring name. A capstone feature deserves a more dramatic title.

3. The wording of the entire document could use some cleaning up. Make it more homogeneous to the PHB.

Playtest this out and let me know how it feels in-game. Whiteroom theorycrafting can only get you so far.

Perfect, thanks ZenBear for the helpful feed back. I thought the Nightmare would be a nice change up to the customary Defensive ability which makes the ability less Broken as a whole. I changed the name of the capstone and yeah, i currently can't view the PHB, but when I get home I'll check it out. Not my best subclass yet, but definitely better