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Blue_C.
2017-07-11, 01:26 AM
Warlock Patron: Urbanus, the Soul of the City
Though a mostly forgotten minor deity, Urbanus took an early interest in the development of cities, and continues to influence and protect them as best he can. Eschewing paladins and clerics, he prefers his Urban Souls, people with an already inherent connection to a city that he empowers with the ability to sense the heart and soul of a city's populace, and reshape it at their whims.

Expanded Spell List
Urbanus 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.

Urbanus Expanded Spells


Spell Level
Spells


1st
Catapult*, Fog Cloud


2nd
Detect Thoughts, Dust Devil*


3rd
Clairvoyance, Meld Into Stone


4th
Arcane Eye, Stone Shape


5th
Animate Objects, Wall of Stone


*from Elemental Evil Player's Handbook

Sense the City
Starting at 1st level, your senses and speed are heightened within the limits of an urban environment. When in an Urban terrain, you gain the benefits of the Natural Terrain revised ranger class feature.

City Ramparts
Starting at 6th level, you can call on the strength of all walled cities to augment your own defenses. You gain proficiency on constitution checks, and as a reaction you can give yourself advantage on any saving throw. Once used, you cannot use this feature to give yourself advantage on a saving throw until you complete a long or short rest.

Sleepless in the City
Starting at 10th level, you begin to be sustained by the energy of cities alone. While within an urban environment, you no longer need to eat, drink, or sleep, and you are immune to magical sleep effects. If another creature attempts to affect you with a magical sleep effect, you can use your reaction to attempt to turn it back on that creature. The creature must succeed a charisma saving throw against your warlock spell save DC or fall asleep for one minute or until the creature takes any damage.

Mob Violence
Starting at 16th level, you can augment the damage of your attacks by channeling the rage of a vengeful mob. As part of an attack action, or as part of casting a cantrip that deals damage, add 2d6 to that attack and all other attacks you make for one round.
Once used, you must complete a long or short rest before using this feature again.

New invocation
The following invocation requires Urbanus as a patron:
City Walk
Prerequisite: 14th level
Urbanus allows you the ability to travel between urban areas. You may expend a warlock spell slot to cast teleport as a warlock spell, except that both your start and end points must both be urban areas. Once used, you must complete a long rest before using this invocation again.

So, a couple years ago I came across a homebrew request to port the urban soul to 5E. I picked it apart, wrote some notes, and promptly forgot about it.

After recently getting back into 5E (thanks to Critical Role) I found my old notes, and here we are.

This was almost a Cleric domain. And then a ranger conclave. Possibly even a bardic college. But I felt the warlock, reflavored a bit, made the most sense in terms of the original PrC flavor.

Please critique. I'm especially unsure on the first level ability, and almost swapped it out with armor proficiency and a pair of bonus cantrips. In fact, I still might, and give the option of choosing between a single city (Natural Terrain)
and all cities (the armor and cantrips).
Also, the wording of Mob Violence is weird. I didn't want to make it TOO powerful, but at the same time other warlock abilities of the same level do 5d10 damage and take an opponent out of the game for a round, with no save,
so...

Vogie
2017-07-11, 11:36 AM
This is really cool. I always love urban tropes applied in a metaphysical sense.

I would love to see more Tie-ins with what an UrbLock would look like, pact-wise.

* What sample pact weapons would one generate, or are there pact weapons that are unique to the Urbanus? Maybe something like a grappling gun, or a hand crossbow, or the like.
* Anything new with the pact of the Chain? Perhaps the introduction of Animated Object Familiars, such as flying books, magic carpets/brooms or a small animated wagon.
* What does the Pact of the Tome look like? An Urbanus Codex may contain listings of family trees from the ancient houses, maybe a myriad of blueprints for local buildings or sewer systems, or just a series of maps of the local area, with magical updates that could indicate where your companions are, or even the local's love/distaste for local restaurants.

JBPuffin
2017-07-11, 01:57 PM
Save proficiency at 6th level is too early - Rogues get theirs at 15, and that's without any other benefits. Beyond that, I'm not sure, I'd have to play with/DM opposite it to know for sure.

Blue_C.
2017-07-13, 06:47 AM
Save proficiency at 6th level is too early - Rogues get theirs at 15, and that's without any other benefits.
I'm not sure slippery mind is a good benchmark to set against; IMO that's way too late for that ability.
But I guess I can just take it out entirely. The save protection is close to on par with other patrons 6th level ability on its own. I'll update it when I get home this morning.

T
* What sample pact weapons would one generate, or are there pact weapons that are unique to the Urbanus? Maybe something like a grappling gun, or a hand crossbow, or the like.
* Anything new with the pact of the Chain? Perhaps the introduction of Animated Object Familiars, such as flying books, magic carpets/brooms or a small animated wagon.
* What does the Pact of the Tome look like? An Urbanus Codex may contain listings of family trees from the ancient houses, maybe a myriad of blueprints for local buildings or sewer systems, or just a series of maps of the local area, with magical updates that could indicate where your companions are, or even the local's love/distaste for local restaurants.
In order:
*I imagine the pact blade using a club's statistics. Be it a guardsmans truncheon, a noble's scepter, or an urchin's board with a nail in it, clubs just seem more appropriate for this patron to me. Heck, they could even be in the shape of a large key that is somehow not unwieldy.
*that is an EXCELLENT idea. Maybe use a gnome's clockwork toy as a starting point? Although part of me likes an imp to play the part of Vimes disorganizer.
*I had in mind an atlas, perhaps even an address book (or a mystical yelp guide), but any of your ideas sound good as well.