D&D 5e/Next Otherworldly Patron: The Quintessence, An Update. [Archive]

Composer99

2019-11-04, 11:11 AM

An update of a previously posted patron. Please evaluate and criticize honestly.

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/H17s8WaxEB

It's a solid subclass, although it doesn't really do much other than deal damage and resist damage, which isn't terribly exciting. It'd be nice to see even a ribbon ability that has some out-of-combat functionality other than the day-long damage resistance.

Some general issues:
- Wording nitpick: recommend replacing uses per day with uses per long rest.
- Wording nitpick: there is no such thing as an "elemental type" as such - I recommend an additional "feature" at 1st-level that defines what the "elemental types" are, and then the other features and invocations can refer to that "feature".

Quintessential Burst
By 10th level, you have 5th level spell slots. This feature does 4d8 (18 average) damage per target. By way of comparison, a fireball cast from your pact magic slot does 10d6 (35 average) damage per target and even an eldritch blast will probably do 9.5 or 10.5 average damage per target courtesy of Agonising Blast. So this feature is looking kind of underwhelming for a once-per-day/long rest ability. I wonder if maybe you could add on some kind of rider effect that depends on the damage type chosen? Something that could add some kind of crowd control element?

Aspect of Quintessence
This is really powerful when paired with something like eldritch blast, or any spell that lets you make multiple spell attacks. Is that intended? I'd strongly consider revising so that you can add the additional damage die to a single weapon or spell damage roll on each of your turns - or per turn, if you want to boost opportunity attacks or other reaction-based abilities.

Invocations
I love the Elemental Familiar and Redirect Elements invocations! Expanded Attunement has a prerequisite of the eldritch blast cantrip that doesn't seem to belong.