PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next New Warlock Patron: The Double Helix (Future Campaign Patron - PEACH)



Levism84
2016-01-09, 04:01 PM
I liked the modern warlock patron in Unearthed Arcana: Modern Magic, but I was wondering what sort of patron would call to a warlock set in a more futuristic campaign. I began to think of the ultimate power in some future campaigns, genetic technology. That led me to an idea of a patron that could not only act as a future warlock patron but also as a patron for other campaign settings. Since evolutionary powers are pretty fun to play with, I wanted to make sure I used broad strokes when designing this patron. For expanded spells, I pulled mostly from the druid spell list to reflect a connection with animals and nature (I am still thinking of replacing awaken with some other spell, mostly in consideration to awaken's high power). The majority of abilities provided by the patron are based on survivability and adaptability.

Please. let me know what you think and whether or not you think it is balanced for gameplay.

THE DOUBLE HELIX
While others look outside themselves for power, you have looked within and found a patron worthy of your devotion. As old as life itself, the Double Helix stands as the pinnacle of what living creatures can aspire to become. Woven within its encrypted genetic code is the latent potential of all life. It holds the record of all those who have come before, from the simplest beast to the most complex humanoid. The Double Helix has no consciousness of its own, but its agenda is timeless: fight for survival. Those that win live and pass on their genetic code. Those that lose die along with their lineage. This is the only law the Double Helix holds to be truth.

The Double Helix needs not entities to act as patrons upon its behalf, for all beings created from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) rely on its fathomless combinations and permutations for their genetic blueprint. While there are those that may espouse a belief that their genetic code is superior to others—either as an individual or as a race—they are wise to tread lightly, for the Double Helix demands proof through deeds, not words.

EXPANDED SPELL LIST
The Double Helix lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Double Helix Expanded Spells
1st: detect poison and disease, longstrider
2nd: darkvision, protection from poison
3rd: fly, water breathing
4th: death ward, polymorph
5th: awaken, commune with nature

DOUBLE HELIX RESILIENCE
Starting at 1st level, your resilient bond with your patron makes you difficult to defeat. Whenever damage reduces you to 0 hit points, you can make a Constitution saving throw (DC 5 + the damage taken). On a success, you instead drop to 1 hit point. You cannot use this feature if you are reduced to 0 hit points by necrotic damage or by a critical hit.

GENETIC SCREENING
Starting at 6th level, if you spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with another creature outside combat, you can learn certain information about its capabilities compared to your own. The DM tells you if the creature is your equal, superior, or inferior in regards to two of the following characteristics of your choice:
• Strength score
• Dexterity score
• Constitution score
• Intelligence score
• Wisdom score
• Charisma score

Once during the next 10 minutes, you may choose to gain advantage on one ability check you make against the target of this feature using either of the two ability scores you gained information about. If you use this feature to gain information about another target or fail to make an appropriate ability check against the target before the time expires, you lose the advantage on the check.

STEAL EVOLUTIONARY ADVANTAGE
At 6th level, you can use a touch to siphon away a target's genetic code and briefly modify your own genetic code to gain an evolutionary advantage. Make a melee spell attack against a living creature. On a successful hit, you deal 3d4 necrotic damage to the target. In addition, choose one ability score the target is your superior in regards to. If you fail to choose an appropriate ability score, the secondary effect of this ability does not affect you or the target. The target has disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws made with that ability score and you gain advantage on ability checks and saving throws made with that ability score. This effect lasts for 1 minute.

Once you use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

ULTRA IMMUNE SYSTEM
Starting at 10th level, your deep connection with your patron allows the cells in your body to efficiently and unerringly identify and expel harmful toxins and pathogens. You are immune to disease and poison.

In addition, whenever you take a long rest, at the end of your rest you gain the benefits of a greater restoration spell but without having to expend a spell slot or material components.

AXIOMATIC SELF
At 14th level, your body becomes perfection. Even death offers you an opportunity to renew yourself, granting you the ability to rewrite—to an extent—your own genetic code.

You gain proficiency in all saving throws.

In addition, so long as you are not killed with necrotic damage and at least a piece of your body remains, 24 hours after your death you reincarnate as the spell in a safe location within 1 mile of where you died. Instead of rolling to determine the race of your new body, you remain a member of your previous race and subrace (if applicable). While your new body is forming, you can determine its cosmetic appearance, so long as the appearance falls within the normal range for your race and subrace (if applicable). This includes eye color, hair color, skin tone, height, weight, age, and gender.

Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again for 7 days.

Fast Jimmy
2016-01-10, 03:13 PM
While I love the fluff, the mechanics leave a lot to be desired.

Expanded Spell List: this seems very nature/life based, which is good thematically. Plus you pick up some decent spells here as well, so not much to complain on, minus the fact that these are primarily utility with no combat by and large.

Double Helix Resistance - make an easy Con Save and avoid death. Great and perfect for the idea of the class and on or power wise compared to what you get from the Fiend, Fey or Old One patrons.

Genetic Screening - unfortunately, here is where things start to take a slide. This is very similar to the Battlemaster's Know Your Enemy, but even more limited - at least with the BM's ability you can target two pieces of information that are more useful, such as class level and HP. Compared to the other Patron level 6 abilities (such as Misty Step, a 1d10 to anything or auto Disadvantage) this is incredibly circumstantial in its use. Maybe combine this with another feature to make it more rounded - perhaps an ability to receive Advantage on the target once you've done such a scan?

Ultra Immune System - this a good ability... in line with the resistances seen with the other patrons at 10th.

Axiomatic Self - So... this seems like a cool feature at first. Change your race at will once a month! Except... it introduces some headaches. First of all, if you are a Variant Human and change to, say, Half Elf, do you maintain your extra Feat and gain all the greatness of the new race? Or do you only change your appearance, while your racial stats don't change...? I get the utility of being able to totally change your appearance once a month, but the Shapeshifter as a race gets this as an at will, so this is patently worse than that. And the number of races you'd actually want to turn into wouldn't be any different at level 14 as it would be at character creation, so this seems like more of a fluff ability than one which would actually make the character any more powerful.


Again - I like the thematic choices, just have some serious questions overall about the power of the abilities and how much mileage they would get.

Amnoriath
2016-01-10, 06:26 PM
As Fast Jimmy said the flavor is fantastic you reflect that perfectly in the abilities, however it is very utility oriented and lacks the power the originals have. First off you have a couple of mistakes that need to be changed. There isn't a diseased condition and Protection from Poison is a 2nd level spell. So you need to change the immunity to being immune to contracting diseases and might I suggest Protection from Energy if you want a similar function or perhaps Fly to emulate a different aspect of your flavor. I would also suggest trading Stoneskin for Polymorph.
As for the others the 1st ability while great when you get it doesn't scale well. The 6th is a worse Know your Enemy without the additional maneuvers and superiority die. Your 14th though is decent on the first end but as Fast Jimmy said it is very cool however it will be problematic in a build.

Levism84
2016-01-11, 04:17 AM
Thank you both, Fast Jimmy and Amnoriath, those were helpful observations and constructive comments.

I appreciate your kind words about the flavor and fluff, but I am very thankful for the catches you made about the spell levels and balance issues. Yes, this is a very utility driven build, more about adaptability and survivability. However, D&D needs representation from the combat aspects of the game as well as the exploration and social aspects. I've changed the list of expanded spells to fix the protection from poison miss-level, removing locate animals and plants, and added polymorph in place of stoneskin. I thought about protection from energy at 3rd, as you suggested, but felt water breathing and fly fit the theme of adaptability better.

Looking at Genetic Screening, I didn't realize it was such an underpowered ability. I actually thought giving the character the ability to learn that information about any ability score might be too overpowered (I suppose I was wrong). I love the suggestion of giving an edge to the character after observing an opponent to learn about their ability scores. I can imagine a strength-based warlock using this on an opponent before an arm wrestling contest, a dexterity-based warlock using this on a mark before attempting to swipe an item, or a charismatic-based warlock using it on a noble before introducing himself for the first time, with guile and charm to spare. I gave it a 10 minute window (might shrink it down to 5 minutes) and hopefully worded it coherently enough to be mechanically sound.

With Ultra Immune System, I was trying to model the monk's Purity of Body feature, but I suppose I got carried away trying to specify immunity to poison damage as well as the poison condition when immunity to poison would suffice. I changed the wording to more closely mirror the monk's ability for which it was modeled on.

In regards to Axiomatic Self, my original idea was to make it a once per month full body rejuvenation, acting to regenerate lost limbs, remove all conditions, remove all exhaustion, remove all ability score reductions and hit point reductions, and otherwise perfectly restore the body. However, the wording was so complicated and exacting, I realized the easiest way to create a new body would be to model it off of reincarnation. Also, just to be clear, a 14th level warlock with the Double Helix patron is effectively immortal (well, ageless). Yes, hardly ever comes up in most campaigns, but I figured that was a pretty powerful patron capstone.

Mechanically, yes, Axiomatic Self can be a headache, but no more so than the reincarnate spell. More than likely, a variant human would lose their feat and instead gain the racial features of the race they adopted. Also, one advantage over the changeling race is this effect cannot be pierced by true seeing or any effect that would reveal a polymorphed creature, since it is its natural body. Also, having complete control over cosmetic features is pretty nice (when it comes into play). One way to keep the headache from persisting is to limit the reincarnation to a member of your previous race and subrace (no mechanical shifting needed).

As far as a more robust main mechanic, a thought was to grant proficiency in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws to reflect the physical perfection of the warlock. This would provide a mechanically more powerful patron capstone that is only slightly behind the monk's Diamond Soul feature at 14th level. Instead of getting proficiency with all saving throws and the ability to expend ki to gain a reroll on a failed saving throw, the warlock would gain proficiency in all but Intelligence saving throws (which could be picked up with a feat) and they gain the once per month reincarnation ability.

Let me know what you think of the changes and if there is anything else I should look at to keep it mechanically balanced.

Amnoriath
2016-01-11, 07:41 AM
Thank you both, Fast Jimmy and Amnoriath

Looking at Genetic Screening, I didn't realize it was such an underpowered ability. I actually thought giving the character the ability to learn that information about any ability score might be too overpowered (I suppose I was wrong). I love the suggestion of giving an edge to the character after observing an opponent to learn about their ability scores. I can imagine a strength-based warlock using this on an opponent before an arm wrestling contest, a dexterity-based warlock using this on a mark before attempting to swipe an item, or a charismatic-based warlock using it on a noble before introducing himself for the first time, with guile and charm to spare. I gave it a 10 minute window (might shrink it down to 5 minutes) and hopefully worded it coherently enough to be mechanically sound.

With Ultra Immune System, I was trying to model the monk's Purity of Body feature, but I suppose I got carried away trying to specify immunity to poison damage as well as the poison condition when immunity to poison would suffice. I changed the wording to more closely mirror the monk's ability for which it was modeled on.

In regards to Axiomatic Self, my original idea was to make it a once per month full body rejuvenation, acting to regenerate lost limbs, remove all conditions, remove all exhaustion, remove all ability score reductions and hit point reductions, and otherwise perfectly restore the body. However, the wording was so complicated and exacting, I realized the easiest way to create a new body would be to model it off of reincarnation. Also, just to be clear, a 14th level warlock with the Double Helix patron is effectively immortal (well, ageless). Yes, hardly ever comes up in most campaigns, but I figured that was a pretty powerful patron capstone.

Mechanically, yes, Axiomatic Self can be a headache, but no more so than the reincarnate spell. More than likely, a variant human would lose their feat and instead gain the racial features of the race they adopted. Also, one advantage over the changeling race is this effect cannot be pierced by true seeing or any effect that would reveal a polymorphed creature, since it is its natural body. Also, having complete control over cosmetic features is pretty nice (when it comes into play). One way to keep the headache from persisting is to limit the reincarnation to a member of your previous race and subrace (no mechanical shifting needed).

As far as a more robust main mechanic, a thought was to grant proficiency in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws to reflect the physical perfection of the warlock. This would provide a mechanically more powerful patron capstone that is only slightly behind the monk's Diamond Soul feature at 14th level. Instead of getting proficiency with all saving throws and the ability to expend ki to gain a reroll on a failed saving throw, the warlock would gain proficiency in all but Intelligence saving throws (which could be picked up with a feat) and they gain the once per month reincarnation ability.

Let me know what you think of the changes and if there is anything else I should look at to keep it mechanically balanced.
1. Well the problem is with the feature itself is the same basic problem with Know your Enemy. When making my Fighter fix the Battlemaster didn't get it simply because it has a 1 minute activation and the only knowledge you get is self-referential, not specific. Instead I gave a blanket proficiency in those kind of checks to identify enemy's capabilities in battle. What you have now does help but it would have to be part of some large plan between all of you to see it come up. What I would suggest is that maybe you should move it to your first level and simplify it as such. You could keep that new rider of yours just make it so that you can't use it any more than once per short or long rest.
2. Well it does knock it down a little bit. A modern/sci-fi campaign might have these come up a little more but most DM's aren't going to hassle with diseases and poison damage is like the standard resistance or even immunity monsters while coming up only in a few instances. Personally I think an increase to your ability scores would round this out better simply because the other ones had an immunity to a serious effect and has a sort of gotcha ability or a resistance of your choice.
3. Your capstone is better but the point of Reincarnation is that you are back from the dead. This doesn't actually do that. It definitely has some interesting implications though.

Fast Jimmy
2016-01-11, 08:03 AM
1. Well the problem is with the feature itself is the same basic problem with Know your Enemy. When making my Fighter fix the Battlemaster didn't get it simply because it has a 1 minute activation and the only knowledge you get is self-referential, not specific. Instead I gave a blanket proficiency in those kind of checks to identify enemy's capabilities in battle. What you have now does help but it would have to be part of some large plan between all of you to see it come up. What I would suggest is that maybe you should move it to your first level and simplify it as such. You could keep that new rider of yours just make it so that you can't use it any more than once per short or long rest.
2. Well it does knock it down a little bit. A modern/sci-fi campaign might have these come up a little more but most DM's aren't going to hassle with diseases and poison damage is like the standard resistance or even immunity monsters while coming up only in a few instances. Personally I think an increase to your ability scores would round this out better simply because the other ones had an immunity to a serious effect and has a sort of gotcha ability or a resistance of your choice.
3. Your capstone is better but the point of Reincarnation is that you are back from the dead. This doesn't actually do that. It definitely has some interesting implications though.

I'll agree with Point 3 here.

I will agree that reincarnation can be used to address some of the things you mention (exhaustion, ability score damage, old age effects), but this is a level 14 feature. Your party cleric (or nearest town NPC cleric) will have access to both Raise Dead and Greater Restoration at this level, so this seems like a convoluted way to get those benefits plus a beefed up version of Alter Self... all at once a month.

While that is kind of cool, it won't really bring much to the table mechanically to what the Warlock is going to be doing 99% of the time.

EDIT: Maybe move away from the Reincarnation spell format (since its primary use in most campaigns is just to work as a poor-man's Raise Dead) and instead keep in line with some of the Warlock Invocations and allow the Warlock to cast either Greater Restoration or True Polymorph once per Long Rest without using a spell slot?

Levism84
2016-01-11, 12:26 PM
1. Well the problem is with the feature itself is the same basic problem with Know your Enemy. When making my Fighter fix the Battlemaster didn't get it simply because it has a 1 minute activation and the only knowledge you get is self-referential, not specific. Instead I gave a blanket proficiency in those kind of checks to identify enemy's capabilities in battle. What you have now does help but it would have to be part of some large plan between all of you to see it come up. What I would suggest is that maybe you should move it to your first level and simplify it as such. You could keep that new rider of yours just make it so that you can't use it any more than once per short or long rest.
2. Well it does knock it down a little bit. A modern/sci-fi campaign might have these come up a little more but most DM's aren't going to hassle with diseases and poison damage is like the standard resistance or even immunity monsters while coming up only in a few instances. Personally I think an increase to your ability scores would round this out better simply because the other ones had an immunity to a serious effect and has a sort of gotcha ability or a resistance of your choice.
3. Your capstone is better but the point of Reincarnation is that you are back from the dead. This doesn't actually do that. It definitely has some interesting implications though.

I think the original reason I went with Genetic Screening at 6th was to give the warlock an ability that could be used in social situations. I do agree it is one of the weaker abilities, even with the additional mechanical rider I added. I will have to take some time and think about how best to address it.

The reason I chose to model the disease/poison immunity off of the monk was because it seemed like a logical feature for this warlock patron to grant. It is too powerful to be a ribbon (mechanically light but flavorful ability) but you are saying it is too weak to fill this spot on the patron's list of features. I had thought of maybe granting an additional Ability Score Increase at 10th or even a "+2 to one ability score of your choice and raising the maximum for that score by 2" but I thought that might be very open for abuse being as warlock is very Charisma heavy, and this patron focuses more on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. Once more, I will have to take some time and think about the best way to address this mechanical issue.

I am not sure if you guys saw the additional saving throw proficiencies in the text. The patron grants the warlock proficiency in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws in addition to the ribbon reincarnate effect. Should I break the ability up so the reincarnate effect is its own fully ribbon ability and the warlock's patron grants proficiency in all saving throws as its 14th capstone?


I'll agree with Point 3 here.

I will agree that reincarnation can be used to address some of the things you mention (exhaustion, ability score damage, old age effects), but this is a level 14 feature. Your party cleric (or nearest town NPC cleric) will have access to both Raise Dead and Greater Restoration at this level, so this seems like a convoluted way to get those benefits plus a beefed up version of Alter Self... all at once a month.

While that is kind of cool, it won't really bring much to the table mechanically to what the Warlock is going to be doing 99% of the time.

EDIT: Maybe move away from the Reincarnation spell format (since its primary use in most campaigns is just to work as a poor-man's Raise Dead) and instead keep in line with some of the Warlock Invocations and allow the Warlock to cast either Greater Restoration or True Polymorph once per Long Rest without using a spell slot?

Reincarnate is no longer the "poor man's raise dead" as it costs twice the amount of material components as raise dead and is gained at the same level. I do understand as a once a month ability it will have little to no mechanical impact on the warlock. It is primarily a ribbon I added to the proficiency in saving throws (first just with Constitution, now with all physical ability scores). I could move it to more of a greater restoration once per long rest with no spell slot and no material components, but even that is relatively weak compared to the ability to completely restore your body to working order. For me, reincarnate provides the simplest mechanics for bringing about the effects I had envisioned. Perhaps if I allowed it to be used once per month when the character dies (as a survival feature), that would make it more useful.

Levism84
2016-01-11, 12:54 PM
I added Steal Evolutionary Advantage as an additional 6th level feature that works with Genetic Screening to provide a combat effect with a curse-like buff/debuff. I also added a once per long rest use of greater restoration usable only on the warlock to boost Ultra Immune System. Finally, I made it so Axiomatic Self grants proficiency in all saving throws, in addition to the reincarnate ribbon effect which now only triggers upon death. I altered it so necrotic damage (as with Double Helix Resistance) and disintegrating the body allow the effect to be negated. Also, reduced the recharge time to 7 days instead of 1 month.

Fast Jimmy
2016-01-11, 02:20 PM
Reincarnate is no longer the "poor man's raise dead" as it costs twice the amount of material components as raise dead and is gained at the same level.

Yuck. You're right. The only time I have ever seen Reincarnate show up in a campaign is when Raise Dead was too far up on the shelf of the party's financial well-being. This may be way off topic, but who would ever use this spell, other than a DM as punishment? The only thing I can think of is your point about it being a back door to immortality against aging, but I'm pretty sure that's never been an issue in your standard campaign, ever. Or, for some reason, you only have a piece of the creature you want to bring back to life? All seems very situational to me, more appropriate for DM plot hooks than an actual spell I'd want to see the light of day in a campaign. /rant

That being said, I like a lot of these changes. Let me mull over them and take a look at the Patron with fresh eyes.

Amnoriath
2016-01-12, 11:32 AM
I really like the 10th level feature now it gives a strong advantage but one that can't be played while in combat or scene. Though your 6th level now is too strong since you kept your original. The new feature itself might be actually a little much since it gives both disadvantage and advantage for a significant duration. In order to make this simple you could go back to the original Genetic Screening base and get rid of the new ability but add this instead.
"Alter Evolution: As an action you can force a living adjacent creature to make a Constitution save equal to your spell save DC. If they fail they take 1d10+warlock level+charisma modifier in necrotic damage and you choose one ability score. They have disadvantage on ability checks and saves for 1 minute. If successful they take half damage and suffer disadvantage until the beginning of your next turn. Alternatively as an action you can touch a willing living creature to have advantage on checks and saves of an ability score of their choice for 1 minute. Once your have used this feature you must complete a short or long rest to use it again."
Also your 14th level is great though to be honest just to round out the flavor I would let them choose if they want to become a different race or subrace. I think this caps it off nicely and provides some interesting options but since they are based off of trading ones you had all along and the long cool down it isn't going to unbalance anything.