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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next New Warlock Pact Boons: Pact of the Shield and Pact of the Pauldron



ES Curse
2016-08-05, 04:34 PM
"I am your shield!"
Pact of the Shield: You can use your action to create a pact shield in your empty hand. You are proficient with this shield while you wield it. This shield can be used as an arcane focus. You can transform one magic shield into your pact shield by performing a special ritual while you hold the shield, over the course of 1 hour, which may be done over a short rest. You cannot affect an artifact or sentient shield in this way, and your pact shield ceases to be your pact shield if you die.

"I... am... IRON MAN"
Pact of the Pauldron: You can use your action to conjure a suit of armor onto your body while you are not already wearing armor. You choose the type of armor formed when you create it, such as hide armor or plate mail. You are proficient with this armor while wearing it. You can transform one suit of magic armor into your pact armor by performing a special ritual while you wear the armor, over the course of 1 hour, which may be done over a short rest. You cannot affect artifacts or sentient armor in this way, and your pact armor ceases to be your pact armor if you die.

[Invocations Pending]

BurchardOfEn
2016-08-05, 05:23 PM
The most obvious thing that I see here is that the Shield Pact feels inferior to the Blade Pact while the Armor Pact is probably the strongest if we ignore invocations(since you haven't made yours). The Armor Pact would allow this Warlock to go into melee as a far tankier bladelock than any bladelock.

ES Curse
2016-08-05, 07:50 PM
Is the lack of martial weapons not enough to offset the higher AC? And conversely, does the shield (which also comes with part of the war caster feat) not provide enough to justify it over the blade?

JNAProductions
2016-08-05, 07:52 PM
Is the lack of martial weapons not enough to offset the higher AC? And conversely, does the shield (which also comes with part of the war caster feat) not provide enough to justify it over the blade?

Lack of martial weapons is -1 damage (one-handed) or -2.5 damage (two-handed). For a big ol' AC boost and SADness? No, it's not nearly enough.

BurchardOfEn
2016-08-05, 08:16 PM
The Shield getting part of the Warcaster feat doesn't really help it extremely. Any Melee Warlock is going to want to take the Warcaster feat(AoO SCAG cantrips are necessary) which they can either get next level or already have it because Variant Human. This isn't necessarily to bash it as being really bad, but it's just slightly sub-par to the base Pact of the Blade(which ignores basically all early melee resistances and maybe just all melee resistances?). This is all without seeing any of the Invocations, mind. Less useful Invocations for the Armor and some good Invocations for the Shield would probably make it fine since it's hard to compare Pact Boons without comparing their unique Invocations.

PotatoGolem
2016-08-05, 11:58 PM
The other huge bonus of blade pact is extra attack. This is harder to kill, but much easier to just ignore. Doesn't seem imbalanced

ES Curse
2016-08-06, 01:05 AM
Invocations Draft 1

Attack Shield (Requires Shield Pact): Can use pact shield as a melee or thrown weapon (range 20/60) that returns to the user as a free action when thrown. Counts as a magic weapon. Would a d8 damage die be fair?

Guardian Shield (Shield Pact, Level 5 required): When an ally is targeted by an attack roll, the warlock may use their reaction to add their CHA modifier to the ally's AC, possibly preventing the attack.

Durable Armor (Requires Pauldron Pact): When this invocation is taken, the Warlock's Hit Point maximum is increased by one point per Warlock level. From then on, the Warlock gains an additional hit point when another Warlock level is added. If this invocation is swapped out, all hit points gained by this feature are lost.

Resisting Armor (Pauldron Pact, Level 5 required): During a long rest, choose one of the following damage types: fire, cold, lightning, acid, necrotic, psychic, acid, or nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing. You have resistance to that damage type while wearing your pact armor until you change the damage type resisted over a future long rest.

BurchardOfEn
2016-08-06, 01:11 AM
A d8 for a throwable shield that auto-returns might be a bit much. A d6 is definitely fine.

Resisting Armor is probably too good if the Warlock is a Fiend or Seeker. 2 floating resistances and then possibly Fire resistance if Warlock is a Tiefling for the Fiend. A floating resistance plus Fire and Cold resistance for the Seeker. 3 potential resistances is pretty strong for a hypothetical 10th level character.

ES Curse
2016-08-07, 02:49 AM
Invocations Draft 2

Attack Shield (Requires Shield Pact): Can use pact shield as a melee or thrown weapon (range 20/60) that returns to the user as a free action when thrown. This shield is a magical light finesse weapon with a 1d6 damage die that deals bludgeoning damage.

Guardian Shield (Shield Pact, Level 5 required): When an ally is targeted by an attack roll, the warlock may use their reaction to add their CHA modifier to the ally's AC, possibly preventing the attack.

Durable Armor (Requires Pauldron Pact): When this invocation is taken, the Warlock's Hit Point maximum is increased by one point per Warlock level. From then on, the Warlock gains an additional hit point when another Warlock level is added. If this invocation is swapped out, all hit points gained by this feature are lost.

Resisting Armor (Pauldron Pact, Level 5 required): When you take damage of the fire, cold, lightning, acid, necrotic, psychic, acid, or nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing types and do not have resistance or vulnerability to that damage, you may expend your reaction to gain resistance to that damage type for one minute, including the triggering attack. You may only use this feature once per long rest.

ravencroft0
2017-04-21, 03:11 PM
I'm very late to the party but I wanted to chime in to say this is what I was looking for in a defensive option for my warlock concept. Both of your boons mesh well with current feat options and don't outshine anything, except for the bladelock perhaps. But that's not hard to do, anyway. Good work.