Celestial Warlock: now 7th level, 4th level spell picks

[KorvinStarmast]

I just leveled up and I traded in one old spell (shatter) for a Warlock Spell (Banishment) and also chose Wall of Fire since Celestial can use that.

I have two questions:

1. Is there a juicy/excellent 4th level spell that I am missing out on?

When I cast wall of fire, does my Charisma Bonus (being Celestial and this being a fire spell) simply att my +4 (Cha = 18) to the damage the wall does?
I think that it does, but I have seen some odd discussions on how the Celestial 6th level trait works.


Radiant Soul. Starting at 6th level, your link to The Celestial allows you to serve as a conduit for radiant energy. You have Resistance to radiant damage, and when you Cast a Spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its Targets. It's the "against one of its targets" bit that makes both me, and my DM brother, scratch our heads. (My Sacred Flame Cantrip on the other hand we have no question about)

Here is what I think happens:
I cast a wall of fire and roll 5d8. 5 Ogres affected by the spell. Common sense tells me "they all take 5d8 + 4 (save for half) but there is the thought that only one of them takes the +4, the others just take 5d8 fire damage (save for half).

And since I am picking which one would take it (or is that a random roll?) the would it be before or after the save?

I honestly think they really screwed up the words on that 6th level feature.

[stoutstien]

Sicking radiance can be very good if you can keep enemies in it.

Yes the lv 6 celestial feature add you Cha modifier to one damage roll per spell cast to one target. It limited but free damage is free damage.

[KorvinStarmast]

Sicking radiance can be very good if you can keep enemies in it.
Hmm; should I keep knocking them back in with repelling blast?
Hold Person (No, that's two concentration spells, right?)

[clash]

Also dont forget Dimension Door. The amount of issues out of combat that can help with is huge and given that warlocks are short rest recharge they are exceptional for out of combat spells.

[KorvinStarmast]

Also dont forget Dimension Door. The amount of issues out of combat that can help with is huge and given that warlocks are short rest recharge they are exceptional for out of combat spells.
Yeah, that was sooooooooo tempting.
But, I already have fly, and I can now get two of us to fly if I need to, since all spells cast as 4th.
DD has so many great uses, I may pick it up at 8th (if we get that far).

[stoutstien]

Hmm; should I keep knocking them back in with repelling blast?
Hold Person (No, that's two concentration spells, right?)

Lance of lethargy helps as well. Celestial warlocks have plenty of tools so it a matter of taste more than anything. I personally like grabbing all the EB modifying invocations over AB to push/pull enemies where the party wants them.

[KorvinStarmast]

Lance of lethargy helps as well. Celestial warlocks have plenty of tools so it a matter of taste more than anything. I personally like grabbing all the EB modifying invocations over AB to push/pull enemies where the party wants them. heh, I am already doing that. I have Repelling, and I just picked up Grasp of Hadar. (I can push or pull). Lethargy (slowing them down) I can already do with Ray of Frost (I have quite a few cantrips, being Pact of Tome). My one super useful Magic Item is a Wand of Web. Love it.

[RSP]

Sickening Radiance and RB are a great combo, but are tough to synergize in actual game play (though adding LoL would help), as most creatures have at least 30’ of movement and you’d need both blasts to hit just to move them back 20’. Though once you get two failed saves on a creature, they’re pretty much toast, due to 1/2 movement from 2 levels of exhaustion. SR is a great spell to have regardless, though, particularly if you need to hold a doorway or some such.

I do like DD as well. Banishment isn’t bad, but I usually pass on it. SoM is okay but there’s usually better options for concentration, a spell slot and an Action.

As for the Radiant Soul ability, yeah, it only affects one creature, and only when you first cast the spell, RAW. So cast WoF and roll the damage, and choose which creature will take the +4. Unfortunately, since the wording is “when you cast a spell...”, that rules out adding the +mod damage on later rounds when creatures enter the area.

[KorvinStarmast]

Sickening Radiance and RB are a great combo, but are tough to synergize in actual game play (though adding LoL would help), as most creatures have at least 30’ of movement and you’d need both blasts to hit just to move them back 20’. And there's no way for me to increase the AoE ... but if the Cleric also has Spirt Guardians up? Hmm. synergy is good ... but that might be a rare combo.


As for the Radiant Soul ability, yeah, it only affects one creature, and only when you first cast the spell, RAW. So cast WoF and roll the damage, and choose which creature will take the +4. Unfortunately, since the wording is “when you cast a spell...”, that rules out adding the +mod damage on later rounds when creatures enter the area. Did you all have the warlock pick who gets the extra damage or did the DM roll (random) for it? I can see doing it either way.
/mini rant
As I read this again, that seems to be a completely pointless "fiddly bit" (they'd have been better off to just add the damage ... oh well, so it goes). I may suggest to my brother that we just add the damage and avoid the fiddly bit, I'll see what he says.

[RSP]

Did you all have the warlock pick who gets the extra damage or did the DM roll (random) for it? I can see doing it either way.
/mini rant

We always just allow the player to select which creature gets the added damage on these types of abilities. I never even considered it wouldn’t be player’s choice.

[BloodBrandy]

Did you all have the warlock pick who gets the extra damage or did the DM roll (random) for it? I can see doing it either way.

Since it says you add it to one damage roll on one enemy, wording would suggest it is your decision.

As for other spells, if you are a range blaster, Shadow of Moil is a solid defensive option since 1. You are hidden from your enemies, making attack rolls against you be at disadvantage unless they have Blindsight, and your attack rolls against others be at advantage (Including Spell Attack rolls), 2. Since you are completely hidden from view, a lot of directly attacking spells can't, RAW, even target you, and 3. If someone walks up to try and hit you, you can likely hit them back with the spell without even using a reaction.

Sickening Radiance is a save or suck spell, but if they fail the save, boy oh boy will it suck for them. Exhaustion aside, it's 4d10 damage on a type rarely resisted.

Depending on your other spells and if you have any Fire cantrips, Elemental Bane could be great since, if it sticks, you have a solid boost to one of your natural elements that your allies can take advantage of too (Even smacking them with a Torch would trigger it, so you would do 1+2d6 fire damage with a Torch of all things).

[KorvinStarmast]

We always just allow the player to select which creature gets the added damage on these types of abilities. I never even considered it wouldn’t be player’s choice. OK, that seems simple enough and it does not add yet another burden to the DM. I like that approach, I'll suggest it to my brother.
BloodBrandy, I gently reformatted your reply to pull out a few points because I think they are pretty good ones ... hope you don't mind
As for other spells, if you are a range blaster, Shadow of Moil is a solid defensive option since
1. You are hidden from your enemies, making attack rolls against you be at disadvantage unless they have Blindsight, and your attack rolls against others be at advantage (Including Spell Attack rolls),
2. Since you are completely hidden from view, a lot of directly attacking spells can't, RAW, even target you, and
3. If someone walks up to try and hit you, you can likely hit them back with the spell without even using a reaction.

Sickening Radiance is a save or suck spell, but if they fail the save, boy oh boy will it suck for them. Exhaustion aside, it's 4d10 damage on a type rarely resisted.

Depending on your other spells and if you have any Fire cantrips, Elemental Bane could be great since, if it sticks, you have a solid boost to one of your natural elements that your allies can take advantage of too (Even smacking them with a Torch would trigger it, so you would do 1+2d6 fire damage with a Torch of all things). I had flaming sphere at an earlier level, but it's gone now.

Hmm, I did not take fire bolt; I waffled over the create bonfire cantrip (pact of tome, I got to steal!) before deciding against it due to not wanting concentration to be required. That was a hard call.
(Plus, I had to take pretidigitation for some RP and back story reasons).
I'll look into SR (per various suggestions) when we get to 8th.

[BloodBrandy]

OK, that seems simple enough and it does not add yet another burden to the DM. I like that approach, I'll suggest it to my brother.
BloodBrandy, I gently reformatted your reply to pull out a few points because I think they are pretty good ones ... hope you don't mind I had flaming sphere at an earlier level, but it's gone now.

Hmm, I did not take fire bolt; I waffled over the create bonfire cantrip (pact of tome, I got to steal!) before deciding against it due to not wanting concentration to be required. That was a hard call.
(Plus, I had to take pretidigitation for some RP and back story reasons).
I'll look into SR (per various suggestions) when we get to 8th.

I mean, you don't have to steal Create Bonfire, it's on the Warlock list. That said, that and Flaming Sphere wouldn't help on this since you can't cast them while keeping Elemental Bane active, as all are concentration. That said, Elemental Bane can be triggered on every round, and removes resistance (Not immunity, just resistance), so if you can get it on an enemy, you can have allied with elemental skills/magics (Flame-tongue weapons, Searing Smite, Fireball, shatter, etc) to trigger it. honestly, I think the best synergy is having someone else on the team who can cast Heat Metal, then you have a guaranteed 2d8+2d6 damage per tern on a bonus action as long as both are active. And during