New Warlock Patron: The Inescapable Void (PEACH)

[Gr7mm Bobb]

The Inescapable Void

http://i489.photobucket.com/albums/rr256/Simpsonfam5/25114Wraith202.jpg

In the beginning there was Nothing. From the nothing two things were created, the Chaos and the Void. From the Chaos the Everything was defined as the shapes of the multiverse were forged in the Creation. All the while, the Void waits. The Creation continued as was its nature and Order was pulled from Chaos and the predecessors of the known Laws defined the paths of Creation. As the Chaos was picked and pulled upon it, it weakened as is essence was used to give Substance and Meaning to All That Is. All the while, the Void waits. The Void is the Emptiness that Swallows, it seeks only to unite with All That Is to become Nothing once again.
The Void is a power, a force that pulls at all things. This pull is felt by some and those that feel the great truth of Nothing, and those that heed its call are given the tools to hasten the return to Nothing. Whether it is for selfish or more philosophical reasons the Void cares not, the mere use of its gifts only furthers its goals.

Expanded Spell List
Spell Level Spells
1st Level: Inflict Wounds, Sleep
2nd Level: Blindness/Deafness, Silence
3rd Level: Nondetection, Phantom Steed
4th Level: Evard’s Black Tentacles, Dimension Door
5th Level: Dispel Evil and Good, Mislead

1st- Hollow Presence -
Starting at 1st level, your patron bestows upon you the ability to emanate the emptiness of the void. You add Stealth to the list of skill proficiencies you can choose from. When a creature tries to recall firsthand knowledge of you it must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw against your warlock spell save DC. On a failure the creature forgets specific details about you or in particularly vivid memories, they recall false information about you. You can choose for any creature to ignore this saving throw and when to have them resume making saving throws. You can also suspend and resume this effect at any time as a bonus action. By touching a creature you can choose to allow it to recall information of your choice unimpeded by this feature. Creatures outside of a 100 foot per warlock level radius of you make the saving throw against this feature with advantage. Creatures within a 10 foot per warlock level radius of you make the saving throw against this feature with disadvantage. This is a mind affecting ability.

6th- Entropy Well -
Starting at 6th level, you have learned the path of entropy and its effects on the world both to reduce another's efforts null and rip the energy from the planes themselves. You gain access to and additional source of power called an Entropy Pool with which you can prevent damaging effects. The amount of damage your pool can hold before it is full is equal to 5 x Warlock level. If you use your pool to prevent all damage from an effect, the effect is absorbed completely and no further effects occur.
You may use your reaction to direct any damage received into your entropy well. Damage that exceeds the total limit of your pool is applied to you. If the damage being prevented is from an area of effect, the damage you redirect is subtracted from that effects total damage. The damage stored in your entropy pool is reduced to 0 after you finish a long rest. While your entropy pool is full, you may deal an additional 1d8 of Cold or Necrotic Damage once per turn.

10th- Empty Soul -
The emptiness within you overwhelms even that of outside influences and you become closer to the darkness that awaits all. You gain resistance to necrotic and cold damage. You have advantage on saving throws made against mind affecting spells and abilities. You are invisible to creatures that are using darkvision to perceive you.

14th- Knowledge of the Void -
Starting at 14th level, you can bestow a creature with the knowledge of how infinitely meaningless they are when compared to the emptiness that awaits all. The touched creature must succeed on a Charisma saving throw against your warlock spell save DC, on a failure the character is filled with a wave of apathy as the very will to exist leaves them. The creature immediately falls prone and becomes incapacitated until a Remove Curse spell is used on the creature or this ability is used again while another use is still active. If the creature takes damage while the effect is active, it may make another saving throw. This ability doesn't work on creatures with an intelligence of 4 or lower. A creature that succeeds against the saving throw of this ability is immune to it for the next 24 hours.

[Submortimer]

Expanded Spell List
Spell Level Spells
1st Level: Inflict Wounds, Sleep
2nd Level: Blindness/Deafness, Silence
3rd Level: Nondetection, Phantom Steed
4th Level: Evard’s Black Tentacles, Dimension Door
5th Level: Dispel Evil and Good, Mislead


Good stuff here, no complaints.



1st- Hollow Presence -
Starting at 1st level, your patron bestows upon you the ability to emanate the emptiness of the void. You add Stealth to the list of skill proficiencies you can choose from. When a creature tries to recall firsthand knowledge of you it must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw against your warlock spell save DC. On a failure the creature forgets specific details about you or in particularly vivid memories, they recall false information about you. You can choose for any creature to ignore this saving throw and when to have them resume making saving throws. You can also Suspend and resume this effect at any time as a bonus action. You may also allow a creature to be able to recall information that was initially lost to them from this feature. This is a mind affecting ability.


I really dig this, it's a great and flavorful use of the "at will" ability.



6th- Will of Entropy -
Starting at 6th level, when you take damage, you can choose to ignore an amount up to twice your warlock level plus your Charisma modifier. This damage is stored inside you, when you deal damage to a creature you may add the stored damage to as bonus damage, this bonus damage is either necrotic or cold damage. While this bonus damage is stored within you you take 1d6 radiant damage at the end of each of your turns, this damage cannot be reduced by resistances or immunities. The damage stored is also reduced by this radiant damage. When there is no damage stored you stop receiving this radiant damage. You must finish a short or long rest before you can use this ability again.


Two things:
1 - since the damage can't be reduced by resistance or immunity, I'd just leave it as necrotic damage.
2 - I'd leave this as an at will ability, and reduce the damage pool to level + Cha mod. Then treat it like the 3.5 crusader's delayed damage pool: while you have any damage stored, you deal an additional 1d6 necrotic/cold damage once per round (I wouldn't even make it cost a bonus action, just treat it like Colossus Strike). Then, you still have to pay your dues and burn off the damage later.

I'd also make an edit that says this damage ignores temp HP.



10th- Empty Soul -
The emptiness within you overwhelms even that of outside influences and you become closer to the darkness that awaits all. You gain resistance to necrotic and cold damage. You are invisible to creatures that are using darkvision to perceive you.


Yep, totally love this. That second ability is just killer.



14th- Knowledge of the Void -
Starting at 14th level, you can bestow a creature with the knowledge of how infinitely meaningless they are when compared to the emptiness that awaits all. The touched creature must succeed on a Charisma saving throw against your warlock spell save DC, on a failure the character is filled with a wave of apathy as the very will to exist leaves them. The creature immediately falls prone and becomes incapacitated until a Remove Curse spell is used on the creature or this ability is used again while another use is still active. This ability doesn't work on creatures with an intelligence of 4 or lower.

"When you stare onto the void, the void stares back at you."

Yeah, I like this capstone a lot.

Overall, I like this a TON. I'd think about changing the level 6 ability, but it's not a deal breaker if you chose not to.

[khadgar567]

I think 14 level one requires miracle or greater wish spell to save the fool you are basically mind raping him to a mental wreck there is no chance that fool forgets the experience of how insignificant he or she is to you when he regains the mental faculties

[Gr7mm Bobb]

Ok retooled the 6th level ability to be a constant effect. Because the rest of the abilities are not combat intensive I feel a bit more comfortable building in a scaling feature into this patron. Keeping the burn damage as radiant because you are storing what might have been destructive energies within you that WANT OUT, whether its by your own abilities or forcing its way through you by being your polarized energy.

Also in case it gets called into question, the cold/necrotic damage from this ability does not proc the dragon sorcerer's 6th level feature, so that's nice.

I know it does significantly increase your temporary tanky-ness and output in almost equal measures, but I plan on field testing it and seeing how it works. My biggest issue is that it might be a bit complex for 5e's simplistic setup and being as fluffy as it is, might be a bit intense on the bookkeeping side of things. There are a lot of playgrounders who like the complex high-math high-reward mechanics, but I would also like to tailor it to fit the more relaxed player as well.

Also I made the capstone a 14th level ability because of it raw potential to simply drop a BEBG (that is very frustrating as a DM) with a touch, especially with the ability to spam-for-success that it was. Yes it's melee range, but not much removes it and it targets a rare save. Depending on how volatile it is, I am also considering allowing for additional save at the disadvantage to shake it off when they take damage.

[Inchoroi]

I think it's fine, balance-wise, but the 6th-level feature adds an annoying amount of bookkeeping which I'd like to avoid in 5e; however, just some clearing up will be good enough to make things easier.

EDIT: Actually, just to make sure I understand this right:

When you take damage (this should really use your reaction***), you can store it inside you, to a max of level + CHA mod; while you have damage stored in this fashion, you deal additional damage on attacks, and a like amount is subtracted from the damage you have stored in your entropy pool, for want of a better name. Healing can reduce this damage pool as you see fit, and radiant damage does as well?

[Gr7mm Bobb]

Pretty well close. Consuming a reaction is a solid thought.
While there is damage stored in the 'entropy pool' you will burn with radiant damage at the end of each of your turns.

3 things lower the amount you have stored in your pool:

The amount of bonus damage you deal.
The amount of radiant damage recieved at the end of your turns from this ability.
Healing that you divert into the entropy pool.


I might post the orignal 1/short rest as an alternative in a spoiler. Its a fun gimmick that still needs fleshing out.

[Submortimer]

It using your reaction is a great balancer for it.

[Gr7mm Bobb]

So make it reaction based
clarify wording
give a name (@ inchoroi if you're ok with me knabbing 'entropy pool')

Also how should i express its interaction with multi target effects? Should it deal bonus damage to 1 affected target or all of them?

[Inchoroi]

So make it reaction based
clarify wording
give a name (@ inchoroi if you're ok with me knabbing 'entropy pool')

Also how should i express its interaction with multi target effects? Should it deal bonus damage to 1 affected target or all of them?

By all means, go ahead.

I almost want to say instead of bonus damage make it a sort of Black Hole Lay On Hands...but that might be a bit OP at higher levels. "The ancient white dragon deals 121 damage to you." "Oo, no he doesn't. He only deals 21 instead."

To stop it being quite crazy for AoEs, I would say single targets only. If you didn't, you would reduce it too quickly, I think.

EDIT: On second thought, it might not be all that bad...hm. I could also see an invocation that lets you extend the reach of your gravity well, drawing in attacks that originate or target a space within a certain distance of you.

Well of Entropy

At 6th level, you gain a pool of hit point damage equal to 5 x your warlock level. You fill this damage by using your reaction in response to an attack or spell targeting you, and you can absorb up to the damage dealt by the attack or effect, but you may not absorb radiant damage.

Once you have filled your pool to its maximum, you may not absorb any further points of damage until you take a long rest, which resets your pool to 0.

[Gr7mm Bobb]

EDIT (2015-07-14 at 21:43 AM):Alright, i think i came up with a decent hybrid of ideas without much in the way of complex bookkeeping for the 6th level ability. Let me know what you guys think and if i overstepped the power of the class any. I'm also considering allowing the 10th level ability to allow them to hide from other types of extraordinary senses.

EDIT (2015-07-15 at 11:40 AM): Mechanical change on knowledge of the void, changed 1/rest into 24hr immunity if the target has a successful save. Also allowed for an additional save with disadvantage if the creature affected takes damage.

Need to trim the phrasing on entropy well down but retain clarity. because it feels like a confusing mess to me atm.

Fluff added, kind of an Origin story as well.

Will be making a series of subclasses based on the colors of Magic. One of the worlds that I'm using is Mirrodin both with and after Memnarch. I love the Planeswalkers of the magic universe and am trying to capture that feeling with my current games as players move about different planes/universes in the own 'Weatherlight' rip-off. I will be using Warlock as the Chassis for the colored subclasses because of my familiarity with the class and the neat mechanics make it stand out from other casters.

Beginning to think that this should've just been an Edit to the post above and pray that someone is willing to give feedback. As usual, if you use this in a game please let me know how it goes, I love the stories and to see something I made be useful.

[McBeefsteak]

I really like this idea and am suggesting that one of my players take it as his warlock Pact. It fits quite nicely with his character concept.

On the mechanical side I think it works as written but will provide playtest feedback as we get there (this could take some time as we only play 1-2 times monthly). With that said I do have some wording/grammar tweaks I think would make the 6th level feature more easily understood.


6th- Entropy Well -
Starting at 6th level, you have learned the path of entropy and its effects on the world both to reduce another's efforts null and rip the energy from the planes themselves. You gain access to and additional source of power called an Entropy Pool in which you can store damage. The amount of Damage your pool can hold before it is full is equal to 5 x Warlock level. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to place this damage into your entropy pool, any damage in excess of your pool is dealt to you. You can also use your reaction to divert damage to your pool that would be taken by a creature or creatures within 30 feet of you. If an affect would deal damage to multiple targets within this range at the same time, you can use your reaction to absorb the damage simultaneously but cumulatively that would be taken by any number or targets. This redirection of damage takes place after any saving throws are determined, but before resistances and immunities are applied. Any damage in excess of your pool is dealt to you instead of being dealt to its original target. The damage stored in your entropy pool is reduced to 0 after you finish a long rest. While your entropy pool is full, once per when you deal damage you can deal an additional 1d8 of Cold or Necrotic Damage.

Starting at 6th level you develop the ability to redirect and store entropic energy within your body. When you or any number of targets within 30' take damage you may use your reaction to place this damage into your entropic well. The amount of damage absorbed is cumulative when there are multiple source creatures and is calculated after any saving throws but before resistance or immunity are applied.

Your well holds 5 x Warlock Level HP and any damage beyond this number is deducted from your current HP instead of the original targets. When your well is full you may deal an additional 1d8 Cold or Necrotic damage 1/round when you deal damage. The well empties any time you finish a long rest.

I think this makes it much easier to read/understand while still getting the same mechanics! Thanks for the great work!

[Gr7mm Bobb]

That would be great to hear about. I definitely feel that the 6th level ability is a bit wordy and appreciate the help with the clarification. I am trying my best to make sure it sounds as close to what is presented in the 5e PHB. Been really busy lately and still have other projects that are occupying my attention (and then there's life that happens). Changes will be implemented, but not just yet.

Also if you have any stories from the playtest let me know please.

[Gr7mm Bobb]

Old project that I had promised to get back to.

1st level feature now has a bit of a range mechanic added to reward closeness and make the player have a bit more regard towards hows they interact with people.

6th level feature, major word cleanup so it feels a bit more streamlined. Also considering creating an invocation that allows them to regurgitate spells or abilities. Idk, seems like fun but for another time.

10th level adjusted to be more in line with other patrons power levels. Uncommon damage resistances are not as valuable as uncommon damage types. Added adv against mind-effecting.

14th level, allowed the rerolled saving throw to be done normally instead of disadvantage. Wasn't really a good thing to do as it already targets an uncommon save.

Anyway, comments always welcome and appreciated.