Pirate Patron for warlock

[wheatbyproducts]

A couple of Patron abilities for a pirate themed warlock. I'm looking for balance critiques and advice for making this patron more useful for Tome and Chainlocks.

[wheatbyproducts]

Davy Jones
Spells
1 Thunderwave, Bane/Bless
2 Rope Trick, Gust of Wind
3 Call Lightning, Water Breathing
4 Black Tentacles, Control Water
5 Cloudkill, Dominate Person

1 Up Close and Personal
When you land a melee attack, you can make a ranged spell attack with advantage on the same target as a bonus action. You can use this a number of times equal to your CHA mod per short rest.
6 Dread Pirate
Any creature hit by a ranged spell attack in melee range must make a wisdom save against your spell save DC or become frightened until the end of its next turn.
10 Walk the Plank
After restraining a creature, you can force it to walk the plank. A hole in space opens beneath the creature, and it is sucked into the watery abyss. It takes 7d10 water damage unless it can breathe underwater.
14 Black Spot
Touch a creature on the hand or limb. A large black spot appears on the limb, and the creature is marked. You can sense whether the target is alive, and if they are over water (in a boat, on a bridge, etc.) If they are over water, as an action you can summon a colossal squid (CR 13) to attack the target. The squid can appear in any size body of water, and focuses on the target, vanishing back into the depths once the target is dead. You cannot mark a target that is in combat.

[Sharur]

My Two Cents:

1. Concept: I have an issue with the concept as "Pirate", which is not a source of arcane power. That said, I can appreciate the nautical theme. The Sea is definitely inscrutable enough, mysterious enough, and potent enough to be a Patron.

2. Patron: I have have an additional issue with "Davy Jones" as a patron, as it indicates a single person (unless you follow Pirates of the Caribbean, in which case it's a position, but still). A Patron-type should be a class, so that a) you can have multiple warlocks of the same type, in the party and without, and have them with different masters (potentially in conflict) and b) if a player chooses this Patron, it's individual wants, needs, and foibles can be different than previous Patrons of this type.

In order to accomplish this, and taking on the additional plundering themes of the Pirate, I would suggest the Marid as a Patron. Aquatic if not nautical, treasure hoarding if not piratical.

3. Bonus Spells: By and large, I like it and don't see any major issues with it.

Possible removals:
-Rope Trick: This is just personal; these days I mostly DM, and dislike the shenanigans(by which I mean the safety it provides for resting purposes, not clever applications, which I adore) that can be gotten up to with Rope Trick.
-Bless: This seems more like a divine spell to me, for clerics and paladins. Again, just doesn't feel right.

Possible additions/replacements:
-Misty Step: Goes with the Genie theme
-Invisibility: Goes with the Genie theme
-Armor of Armor of Agathys: Goes with the watery theme, and a somewhat useful spell that won't generally be taken for lack of spells known.
-Fog Cloud: For when you want to attack out of a cloud bank, and the barometer's not in your favor.

4. Lvl 1 Boon

Major issues with this, in concept, positioning, and balance. A) This is all but useless for non-Pact of the Blade warlocks (hereafter referred to as "bladelock"). B) It is unclear what you mean by "ranged spell attack". I presume you mean cast a spell (with a ranged attack), which steps on the feet of a (high level) Eldrich Knight class feature. Do you mean a cantrip? Then it steps on the feat of a lower level Eldrich Knight feature C) Making a ranged spell attack in melee grants disadvantage. It is unclear whether you mean to grant advantage to negate the disadvantage, which is somewhat strong as makes any kind of disadvantage meaningless for this attack, or if you mean to negate the disadvantage due to using a ranged attack in melee and then provide advantage, it's completely broken. That's advantage and inspiration CHA times a short rest on a CHA based character D) Whatever this means or is implemented, this is a second attack and IMO overpowered for the Level 1 boon; it's essentially a limited action surge at level 1 on a bladelock, CHA times per short rest E) In summary, massively overpowered for Bladelock, useless for everyone else

5. Lvl 6 Boon: More issues here, I'm afraid.
It's essentially built on Up Close and Personal (technically not, but without it, a ranged attack in melee is useless), which I believe needs to be rebuilt from the ground up if not replaced. Thematically, it works and I like the mechanical benefit; however I'm wishy-washy on if it's two powerful or not. On the one hand, it requires it a hit on AC, and then a saving throw; on the other it's always on. It could be over powered, on the other hand even CHA times a short rest may be too weak. I don't know someone would have to play tested. That said it's biggest problem is that it's a beast on a bladelock and horrible elsewhere (Especially when the fear afflicted creature is forced to retreat and takes an AoO with advantage).

6. Lvl 10 Boon: It seems like a watered-down (sorry) version of the fiend level 14 boon. The damage is okay-ish, though it seems like a lot for drowning damage (seeing as water breathing defeats it). If were supposed to more "crushing depths" it should be bludgeoning, force, or cold damage.A bigger issue is the requirement to be restrained; it works for the GOO 14 boon, that seems more like an out of combat skill, but not so much here.

7. Lvl 14 Boon: MASSIVELY overpowered. A single colossal squid would need, based on conjure elemental, a level 13 spell (which doesn't exist) to conjure and it doesn't even have the conjure elemental issue of turning on you on breaking conjuration. It's not even a concentration spell, or uses a spell slot of any kind. But it gets worse: as written, you can summon a colossal squid every turn (from the other side of the planet technically). I'm going to assume that's an oversight, but even the single squid is too much. To make matters worse, unless your in a ocean, etc. based campaign this is entirely location based.

8. Pact Balance: This is practically a bladelock only patron.

9. Class Balance:Spells seem alright. Assuming a bladelock, boons 1 and 14 are extremely overpowered. If we remove the extra attack of boon 1, boon 6 could potentially be decent. Boon 10 is overly restrictive. To reiterate, for a level 14 character, the level 14 boon with no boon, no pact magic, no invocations, no other patron features, is over powered.

10. Overall: The boons need a serous overhaul. That said I really like the angle of the level 6 boon.

I have some suggestions for a nautical themed warlock, if you want them, but it's less of a advice as a whole build so I'll wait until/unless asked to post that.

[wheatbyproducts]

I've never played a tome or chainlock, so I'd welcome suggestions for making the balance more even.

I have some ideas for reworking dread pirate and up close and personal, but I need to make sure they don't outplay other classes.

I imagined the black spot ability as a way to separate the target from their allies (no one would sail with a sailor with the black spot) or as a bargaining chip (I'll remove the spot if you do X). Since it can't be applied during combat, and the squid only attacks the target then disappears, I imagined it being useful as a distraction for one or two turns, but not as a bbeg eater - if the bbeg recognizes the heroes and attacks, the spot cannot be applied.

Walk the plank is a blatant rip off of the hurl through hell ability, but it fits thematically. I imagined using it as a finisher, but it was certainly meant to be an in combat spell. Restrained has been a fairly common condition in my games (Druid spells, paladin, etc.) on stronger monsters, but it might be worth removing