Cantrip for Investment of the Chain Master Warlock

[diplomancer]

So, I'm reaching level 4, and have a choice of cantrips for my current warlock (celestial patron, agonizing blast and investment of the chain master); my current cantrips are EB and Prestidigitation (minor illusion is a racial cantrip).

As I see it, I have 3 choices:
1- grab Magic Stone; my usual familiar form is the sprite, which is really good with Investment, specially now that I'll be reaching Cha 20 at level 4; but Magic Stone would give it a reasonable attack option when facing foes with either poison immunity or very high Con saves. This choice, therefore, mitigates a weakness (reliance on the poisoned condition and Con saves)
2- grab Mind Sliver; this is the opposite direction, it's leaning even more into the debuff nature of the Sprite; it will definitely help proc the poisoned condition more often; the main drawback is that, unlike, Magic Stone, this one competes with eldritch blast.
3- grab both, ditching Prestidigitation; it's a bit of having your cake and eating it too. I've used prestidigitation a few times to clean the party up, but it IS entirely flavor.

So, what would you do?

[RogueJK]

Prestidigitation is one of the best cantrips for a creative roleplayer, but if you're the kind of player who likes to optimize and crunch numbers in combat but then fade into the background in social/roleplaying periods, then it's almost entirely fluff.


Keep in mind that Magic Stone only lets you create up to 3 stones at a time, and they only last for up to 1 minute. So unless you have time to prep in the minute before combat begins, in the first round of combat you'd have to be spending a Bonus Action to make magic stones for your familiar. And then every 4 rounds afterwards, you'd have to be doing the same to re-up the supply of magic stones. Spending your Bonus Action on Magic Stone in each of those turns means you can't command your Familiar to attack that turn.

So you could still grab Magic Stone, which could be useful as a backup when fighting poison-proof enemies or high CON enemies as you noted, but just understand that it's not a very optimal choice for action economy purposes in most other fights.


Mind Sliver would give you an offensive option to supplement EB against high AC enemies or enemies behind cover, plus be useful at times when you want your Sprite's poison to have greater chance of sticking. Especially with their now much higher save DC thanks to Investment. But it would be more of a backup to EB in most other fights.


So I guess my vote is both, if you're wanting to cover your bases with additional backup options, and you're not the kind of player who will make use of Prestidigitation creatively. (And there's nothing wrong with that.) Or take one, and swap Prestidigitation for something like Mage Hand, which you might find to be more useful.

[diplomancer]

Prestidigitation is one of the best cantrips for a creative roleplayer, but if you're the kind of player who likes to optimize and crunch numbers in combat but then fade into the background in social/roleplaying periods, then it's almost entirely fluff.


Keep in mind that Magic Stone only lets you create up to 3 stones at a time, and they only last for up to 1 minute. So unless you have time to prep in the minute before combat begins, in the first round of combat you'd have to be spending a Bonus Action to make magic stones for your familiar. And then every 4 rounds afterwards, you'd have to be doing the same to re-up the supply of magic stones. Spending your Bonus Action on Magic Stone in each of those turns means you can't command your Familiar to attack that turn.

So you could still grab Magic Stone, which could be useful as a backup when fighting poison-proof enemies or high CON enemies as you noted, but just understand that it's not a very optimal choice for action economy purposes in most other fights.


Mind Sliver would give you an offensive option to supplement EB against high AC enemies or enemies behind cover, plus be useful at times when you want your Sprite's poison to have greater chance of sticking. Especially with their now much higher save DC thanks to Investment. But it would be more of a backup to EB in most other fights.


So I guess my vote is both, if you're wanting to cover your bases with additional backup options, and you're not the kind of player who will make use of Prestidigitation creatively. (And there's nothing wrong with that.) Or take one, and swap Prestidigitation for something like Mage Hand, which you might find to be more useful.

Update: I went with magic stone, and it was great; at least for now (level 4) I was doing better resourceless damage than the martials in the group in a big fight against a bunch of undead (Paladin critted and smited on it, so he outdid me, but that wasn't resourceless). True, it was a long fight (I had to cast Magic Stone twice), but on the rounds your familiar can't attack, he can turn invisible, which at least gives it advantage on the next attack, which is only slightly worse than two attacks. 1d10+5 + 1d6+5 is no joke at this level, specially with two good damage types.

[prototype00]

I’m confused here, how is your familiar attacking with Magic Stone? Are you giving up your own action to allow it to make an attack?

[RogueJK]

The Investment of the Chain Master Invocation allows Chainlocks to command their Familiar to attack using a Bonus Action, rather than giving up an Attack to allow their Familiar to attack instead.

[prototype00]

The Investment of the Chain Master Invocation allows Chainlocks to command their Familiar to attack using a Bonus Action, rather than giving up an Attack to allow their Familiar to attack instead.

Oh, yeah, that works.

It’s an interesting alternative to just using my turbocharged DC for their poison.