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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Michael's Specific Warlock Patron #16: Yeenoghu, Demon Lord of Gnolls



Michael7123
2015-08-25, 02:09 PM
I love the themes the warlock class bring to the table. Any character who wound up pledging himself to some sort of mysterious (Great old one), downright weird (Archfey), or devil (Fiend) will almost always have some sort of interesting backstory which is fun to explore in game.

However, the warlock subclasses in of themselves are pretty limited. Playing a warlock of Dagon, a demon lord of the abyss who resides in water, gives you the same classic "kill them all with fire" benefits as playing a warlock of Asmodeus. This is my attempt to change this.



Yeenoghu, Demon Lord of Gnolls

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs32/f/2008/203/1/8/Domination_by_JasonEngle.jpg
Long live the king.

Expanded Spell list:



Spell Level
Spells


1st
Wrathful Smite, Searing Smite



2nd
Branding Smite, Magic Weapon


3rd
Elemental Weapon, Blinding Smite


4th
Staggering Smite, Stoneskin



5th
Banishing Smite, Destructive Smite




Pact features:

Rage of Demons:
Starting at level 1, you can enter into a rage once per long rest. This works exactly as the rage class feature available to barbarians, but you can still cast spells that modify your weapon (such as searing smite). You gain an additional use of the ability once you reach level 10, and three times per day once you reach level 20.

Abyssal Strength:
Starting at level 6, your fury gives you a boost to strength both in and out of combat. You now have advantage on Strength checks.

Flailing Fury:
Starting at level 10, you can attack three times per round when you use your action to attack with a melee weapon. You can only use this ability an amount of times per long rest equal to your charisma modifier (minimum of 1 use per long rest).

Vicious Maw:
Starting at level 14, your body transforms in a horrifying way, and you grow razor sharp teeth. Whenever you use your action to attack, you may also make an additional attack with your mouth. The attack roll uses your Strength modifier in the attack roll, and it deals 1d4 piercing damage + your strength modifier if your size is small, and 1d6 + your strength modifier piercing damage if your size is medium. You may use this bite attack as a seperate, fourth attack when you use your Flailing Fury ability.

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If you ever use this class in a game, please post a link to the game in this thread or send me a pm telling me how this class performed. Any tips you can offer are helpful!

Michael7123
2015-08-25, 02:10 PM
This patron seemed to be the most fitting choice to make a sort of barbarian/ warlock hybrid. I worry that allowing the player to make this many attacks might be a bit too much, so please give me some feedback on this.

Belac93
2015-08-25, 03:05 PM
Looks good. I recently made a gnoll pc race here on gantip, and was hoping to be able to play it in a campaign with this subclass.

Princess
2015-08-25, 10:08 PM
Why not tone that down a bit to "one additional time" and note that it stacks with the class ability? That would at least stop it from making Pact of the Blade lose its luster.

Michael7123
2015-08-26, 11:15 AM
Why not tone that down a bit to "one additional time" and note that it stacks with the class ability? That would at least stop it from making Pact of the Blade lose its luster.

That would help. Thanks!

Princess
2016-01-09, 12:53 PM
After experimentation (read:playtesting) and comparison to a vanilla fighter, I have some notes on what makes this more balanced (read: changes that I think stop this from being overwhelming or underwhelming compared to fighters, paladins, and barbarians). Flip "vicious maw" and "flailing fury" and adjust them as follows.


Vicious Maw:
Starting at level 10, your body transforms in a horrifying way, and you grow razor sharp teeth. Whenever you use your action to attack, you may use a bonus action to make an additional attack with your mouth. The attack roll uses your Strength modifier in the attack roll, and it deals 1d8 + your strength modifier piercing damage.

Flailing Fury:
Starting at level 14, whenever you use your action to attack with a melee weapon, you may make one additional attack. This ability stacks with Thirsting Blade or the Extra Attack class feature.


This way, vicious maw is competitive with good dual-wielding and the bonus attack monks receive, and anyone who commits to being a bladelock with this archetype gets a third attack only 3 levels behind a fighter, making them the fightin'est gish after an Eldritch Knight (which is balanced a bit by opportunity cost lost on all the more magical options they didn't take as a Warlock, I hope). Of course, everything is worth testing over and over.