Jathaan
2020-03-10, 12:37 PM
I'm a new GM preparing for the first game I get to run, and I'm not satisfied with the PHB warlock - in particular, Pact of the Chain and Pact of the Blade. This is my first attempt to homebrew anything, and I'm looking for advice. Thank you in advance for your input; I want to make sure we end up with something my players can enjoy playing and not feel like they had to sacrifice in-game utility for flavor.
Are the following re-written pacts and invocations something you would allow at your table? Why or why not?
My reasoning for the changes:
Pact of the Chain strikes me as kinda useless after tier 2 play. Your little minion is squishy and easy to hit. Yes it can attack, unlike the generic familiar; the Sprite for instance can do a whopping 1 slashing or piercing damage, with a slight chance of a poisoned effect. Even at third level, that's not going to be much of a contribution. Pact of the Chain seems like an opportunity to play a battle summoner who calls up magical beasts to do his fighting for him. Instead, Chainlocks have a scout minion that is going to be less and less effective or necessary at higher levels of play.
Chainlocks don't get the the wide out of combat ritual utility of Tomelocks or the melee options of Bladelocks; their familiar is their thing, and it's a shame it's so bland and useless. I'd like to make the Chainlock familiar much more useful in combat, and scale with their warlock level.
Pact of the Blade shouldn't have to be Hexblade just to be useful in combat. I think that's about it. You should be able to play a GOO bladelock, or a Archfey bladelock, and be equally effective in melee once your spells run out.
I've looked at other homebrew overhauls of the class, particularly dracodruid's Promised Warlock on GMBinder and Segev's modular hexblade dissection/overhaul on this site. I liked several things about the Promised, and started by re-writing elements of that to better fit what I wanted; I'm not sure how much of their work is left in what I'm presenting, frankly, since I've gone to much more of an invocation based system, but credit where it's due. The rewrite changed significantly after reading Segev's work, but I'm not sure what specifically I lifted from him. Mostly a focus on making the powers optional invocations, rather than automatically gained by level.
Rewritten pacts:
Pact of the Chain
This boon gives the warlock a faithful minion, a magical creature who will fight their battles for them. Warlocks that take this boon are driven to be the very best, like no-one ever was before them.
At 3rd level, you can cast the find familiar spell at will without expending a spell slot or material components.
When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: mephit (any), pseudodragon, sprite, or any other tiny creature CR1 or lower appropriate to your Patron, subject to the GM’s approval.
You can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar's senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. While perceiving through your familiar's senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.
Your familiar acts in combat on its own turn of initiative, immediately after yours, and acts on your telepathic or spoken orders. Unlike familiars summoned by any other class, your familiar may make attacks and other actions as shown in its stat block. If you do not give it any orders, it will defend itself if attacked but otherwise take the dodge action.
Master’s Right Hand
Beginning at 5th level, the connection between you and your familiar strengthens. Your familiar can now use its action to cast any cantrip you know, though the cantrip does not benefit from any of your Invocations. In addition, any attacks it makes are considered magical for the purposes of overcoming magical resistance.
Pact of the Blade
Warlocks driven by the pursuit of physical might often were weak before forging their pact. They brave the perilous and uncertain path of service to their patron for one thing - never being helpless again.
At 3rd level, you can transform any one weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest, holding the weapon the entire time. You can transform any normal or magical weapon; however, you can’t affect an artifact or a sentient weapon in this way. You are proficient in the use of this weapon while it is your pact weapon.
Your pact weapon grants the following benefits:
You can use a bonus action to summon your pact weapon into your hand or dismiss it into an extradimensional space.
The pact weapon counts as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.
You can use your pact weapon as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells.
When making a weapon attack with your pact weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for the attack and damage rolls.
The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it. The weapon appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when the bond breaks.
Thirsting Blade
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack with your pact weapon twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
If you possess the Extra Attack feature from another class, you don't gain an additional attack from Thirsting Blade.
2nd Level Invocations
Unearthly Dodge
Your AC is 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Charisma modifier unless you are wearing armor. A shield's benefits apply as normal.
5th Level Invocations
To Train Them Is My Cause
(Pact of the Chain)
Your familiar can now be any Small or Tiny creature CR2 or less, subject to DM approval.
Unearthly Mark
As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target is cursed for 1 hour. The curse ends early if you die or you are incapacitated. Until the curse ends, any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20. When you hit the cursed creature with an attack, your weapon or spell does additional damage equal to your warlock level. If the target dies before the curse ends, you may use a bonus action to move the mark to another target. You can't use this invocation again until you finish a short or long rest.
Witchblade
(Pact of the Blade)
Your pact weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls.
9th Level Invocations
Shadowblade
(Pact of the Blade)
Your pact weapon takes on a shadowy and insubstantial appearance. When you use your pact weapon to attack a target that is in dim light or darkness, you make the attack roll with advantage. Your pact weapon gains a +2 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. This does not stack with Witchblade.
The Power That’s Inside
(Pact of the Chain)
Your familiar can now be any Medium or smaller creature CR2 or less, subject to DM approval. You may use your familiar as a mount if they are at least one size larger than you and capable of being ridden.
Unearthly Armor
If the target cursed by a spell or a warlock feature of yours - such as Hex, Unearthly Mark, or Sign of Ill Omen - hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, the attack instead misses you, regardless of its roll.
12th Level Invocations
Lifedrinker
When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, the creature takes extra necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1) and you gain an equal amount of temporary hit points. The creature's resistance, immunity, or vulnerability to necrotic damage also affects the amount of temporary hit points you gain.
15th Level Invocations
Ghostblade
(Pact of the Blade)
Your pact weapon takes on a faintly luminous and insubstantial appearance. When you hit a creature with an attack with your pact weapon, it must succeed on a Charisma saving throw against your spell DC or be frightened of you until the end of it’s next turn. Your pact weapon gains a +3 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. This does not stack with Witchblade or Shadowblade.
Hungering Blade
You may now attack three times with your pact weapon when you take the Attack action. This does not stack with Thirsting Blade or any extra attacks you may get from another class feature.
To Protect The World From Devastation
(Pact of the Chain)
Your familiar can now be any Large or smaller creature CR3 or less, subject to DM approval. You may use your familiar as a mount if they are at least one size larger than you and capable of being ridden.
18th Level Invocations
To Extend Our Reach To The Stars Above
(Pact of the Chain)
Your familiar can now be any Huge or smaller creature CR5 or less, subject to DM approval.
Are the following re-written pacts and invocations something you would allow at your table? Why or why not?
My reasoning for the changes:
Pact of the Chain strikes me as kinda useless after tier 2 play. Your little minion is squishy and easy to hit. Yes it can attack, unlike the generic familiar; the Sprite for instance can do a whopping 1 slashing or piercing damage, with a slight chance of a poisoned effect. Even at third level, that's not going to be much of a contribution. Pact of the Chain seems like an opportunity to play a battle summoner who calls up magical beasts to do his fighting for him. Instead, Chainlocks have a scout minion that is going to be less and less effective or necessary at higher levels of play.
Chainlocks don't get the the wide out of combat ritual utility of Tomelocks or the melee options of Bladelocks; their familiar is their thing, and it's a shame it's so bland and useless. I'd like to make the Chainlock familiar much more useful in combat, and scale with their warlock level.
Pact of the Blade shouldn't have to be Hexblade just to be useful in combat. I think that's about it. You should be able to play a GOO bladelock, or a Archfey bladelock, and be equally effective in melee once your spells run out.
I've looked at other homebrew overhauls of the class, particularly dracodruid's Promised Warlock on GMBinder and Segev's modular hexblade dissection/overhaul on this site. I liked several things about the Promised, and started by re-writing elements of that to better fit what I wanted; I'm not sure how much of their work is left in what I'm presenting, frankly, since I've gone to much more of an invocation based system, but credit where it's due. The rewrite changed significantly after reading Segev's work, but I'm not sure what specifically I lifted from him. Mostly a focus on making the powers optional invocations, rather than automatically gained by level.
Rewritten pacts:
Pact of the Chain
This boon gives the warlock a faithful minion, a magical creature who will fight their battles for them. Warlocks that take this boon are driven to be the very best, like no-one ever was before them.
At 3rd level, you can cast the find familiar spell at will without expending a spell slot or material components.
When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: mephit (any), pseudodragon, sprite, or any other tiny creature CR1 or lower appropriate to your Patron, subject to the GM’s approval.
You can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar's senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. While perceiving through your familiar's senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.
Your familiar acts in combat on its own turn of initiative, immediately after yours, and acts on your telepathic or spoken orders. Unlike familiars summoned by any other class, your familiar may make attacks and other actions as shown in its stat block. If you do not give it any orders, it will defend itself if attacked but otherwise take the dodge action.
Master’s Right Hand
Beginning at 5th level, the connection between you and your familiar strengthens. Your familiar can now use its action to cast any cantrip you know, though the cantrip does not benefit from any of your Invocations. In addition, any attacks it makes are considered magical for the purposes of overcoming magical resistance.
Pact of the Blade
Warlocks driven by the pursuit of physical might often were weak before forging their pact. They brave the perilous and uncertain path of service to their patron for one thing - never being helpless again.
At 3rd level, you can transform any one weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest, holding the weapon the entire time. You can transform any normal or magical weapon; however, you can’t affect an artifact or a sentient weapon in this way. You are proficient in the use of this weapon while it is your pact weapon.
Your pact weapon grants the following benefits:
You can use a bonus action to summon your pact weapon into your hand or dismiss it into an extradimensional space.
The pact weapon counts as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.
You can use your pact weapon as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells.
When making a weapon attack with your pact weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for the attack and damage rolls.
The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it. The weapon appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when the bond breaks.
Thirsting Blade
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack with your pact weapon twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
If you possess the Extra Attack feature from another class, you don't gain an additional attack from Thirsting Blade.
2nd Level Invocations
Unearthly Dodge
Your AC is 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Charisma modifier unless you are wearing armor. A shield's benefits apply as normal.
5th Level Invocations
To Train Them Is My Cause
(Pact of the Chain)
Your familiar can now be any Small or Tiny creature CR2 or less, subject to DM approval.
Unearthly Mark
As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target is cursed for 1 hour. The curse ends early if you die or you are incapacitated. Until the curse ends, any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20. When you hit the cursed creature with an attack, your weapon or spell does additional damage equal to your warlock level. If the target dies before the curse ends, you may use a bonus action to move the mark to another target. You can't use this invocation again until you finish a short or long rest.
Witchblade
(Pact of the Blade)
Your pact weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls.
9th Level Invocations
Shadowblade
(Pact of the Blade)
Your pact weapon takes on a shadowy and insubstantial appearance. When you use your pact weapon to attack a target that is in dim light or darkness, you make the attack roll with advantage. Your pact weapon gains a +2 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. This does not stack with Witchblade.
The Power That’s Inside
(Pact of the Chain)
Your familiar can now be any Medium or smaller creature CR2 or less, subject to DM approval. You may use your familiar as a mount if they are at least one size larger than you and capable of being ridden.
Unearthly Armor
If the target cursed by a spell or a warlock feature of yours - such as Hex, Unearthly Mark, or Sign of Ill Omen - hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, the attack instead misses you, regardless of its roll.
12th Level Invocations
Lifedrinker
When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, the creature takes extra necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1) and you gain an equal amount of temporary hit points. The creature's resistance, immunity, or vulnerability to necrotic damage also affects the amount of temporary hit points you gain.
15th Level Invocations
Ghostblade
(Pact of the Blade)
Your pact weapon takes on a faintly luminous and insubstantial appearance. When you hit a creature with an attack with your pact weapon, it must succeed on a Charisma saving throw against your spell DC or be frightened of you until the end of it’s next turn. Your pact weapon gains a +3 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. This does not stack with Witchblade or Shadowblade.
Hungering Blade
You may now attack three times with your pact weapon when you take the Attack action. This does not stack with Thirsting Blade or any extra attacks you may get from another class feature.
To Protect The World From Devastation
(Pact of the Chain)
Your familiar can now be any Large or smaller creature CR3 or less, subject to DM approval. You may use your familiar as a mount if they are at least one size larger than you and capable of being ridden.
18th Level Invocations
To Extend Our Reach To The Stars Above
(Pact of the Chain)
Your familiar can now be any Huge or smaller creature CR5 or less, subject to DM approval.