Favorite Invocations?

[Verble]

What are your favorite warlock Invocations either from the class itself or the feat?

Any fun stories of how they helped?

I'm partial to Sculptor of Flesh on my celestial warlock. That I can pick up a fallen ally as a bonus action then polymorph them into a scary creature like a T Rex or a giant ape or elk is a great turn of fate.

[Segev]

Misty Visions on Eldritch Adept for an Illusionist Wizard. It finally lets me play the Illusionist Wizard without wishing I was a Warlock until level 11.

[Millstone85]

I'm partial to Sculptor of Flesh on my celestial warlock. That I can pick up a fallen ally as a bonus action then polymorph them into a scary creature like a T Rex or a giant ape or elk is a great turn of fate.Just so you know, polymorph has been errata'd so it no longer works on a creature at 0 hit points.

[msfnc]

Just so you know, polymorph has been errata'd so it no longer works on a creature at 0 hit points.

That’s why they use the Celestial Warlock bonus action healing first.

[msfnc]

I’m a sucker for the at-will, no-slot casting. Eldritch Sight, Mask, Levitate, Speak with Dead, etc. So much utility and flavor, so few resources expended...

[RogueJK]

Mask of Many Faces is very fun and useful.

[Millstone85]

That’s why they use the Celestial Warlock bonus action healing first.My bad. I misinterpreted the picking-up part.


I’m a sucker for the at-will, no-slot casting. Eldritch Sight, Mask, Levitate, Speak with Dead, etc. So much utility and flavor, so few resources expended...Me too.

[Ogun]

I like using Misty Visions to make creatures, plus Minor Illusion for the sound effects.
Im dissapointed there aren't more at-will infinite use invocations.
I despise the once per long rest invocations, except for the one that makes undead.

[KorvinStarmast]

Just so you know, polymorph has been errata'd so it no longer works on a creature at 0 hit points.
That’s why they use the Celestial Warlock bonus action healing first. Yep, that's on my Warlock to do list next time she levels up ...

I’m a sucker for the at-will, no-slot casting. Eldritch Sight, Mask, Levitate, Speak with Dead, etc. So much utility and flavor, so few resources expended... The pact of chain invoc at level 15, if you get there, is IMO nice.

Mask of Many Faces is very fun and useful. yes

[solidork]

Keep in mind that I play in a pretty high magic game, but even then its hard to overstate how useful at will Detect Magic has been on my Warlock/Fighter.

Just think about how often you see something weird or unusual and you have to wonder, "Is this a thing? Or just set dressing." You're not going to wait 10 minutes every time you run across a threatening statue or a mysterious glyph. Same thing if you're getting a weird vibe from someone and want to see if they're enchanted, or transformed or under an illusion. Same thing if you're searching for the good treasure and don't have all day, or if you're worried about magical traps.

When I started my character I only had two invocations and picked Eldritch Sight and Book of Ancient Secrets. I leveled up and switched ES to Agonizing Blast - I figured, "I've got this as a Ritual, that's good enough." It was not, in fact, good enough. I regretted it immediately and picked Eldritch Sight up again the next chance I could. A lot of that was just that my character concept really needed Eldtirch Sight to feel like it worked (he's a detective that solves magical crimes) but, still, it was noticeable.

[Emongnome777]

Not sure it's a favorite, but we have a 10th level fiend warlock that's used Tomb of Levistus a couple of times. It took some hits and he would've been down without it (he fell after the ice melted one of those times). It wasn't one I'd ever really take, but it's certainly different and he's enjoyed using it.

The invocation in question:

Tomb of Levistus
Prerequisite: 5th level

As a reaction when you take damage, you can entomb yourself in ice, which melts away at the end of your next turn. You gain 10 temporary hit points per warlock level, which take as much of the triggering damage as possible. Immediately after you take the damage, you gain vulnerability to fire damage, your speed is reduced to 0, and you are incapacitated. These effects, including any remaining temporary hit points, all end when the ice melts.

Once you use this invocation, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Edit: LOL, field =/= fiend

[sophontteks]

Misty Visions on Eldritch Adept for an Illusionist Wizard. It finally lets me play the Illusionist Wizard without wishing I was a Warlock until level 11.
Simple and genius solution to illusion wizards lacking that real flavor.

[Kane0]

My top ones are Ghostly Gaze, Misty Visions, Whispers of the Grave and Mask of Many Faces/Master of Myriad Forms. They're pretty much all utility but they heavily reward creativity, giving you a bunch of new tricks you can do especially if your Warlock is prone to abusing power.

Honorable mention to Book of shadows because it's also really good.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Devil's sight is nice, as is eldritch sight and mask of many faces.

[Ogre Mage]

Agonizing blast. BWHAHAHAHAHA

[Wizard_Lizard]

Agonizing blast. BWHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah just have all of the eldritch blast things, blast people back with extra damage from 600ft away!!

[Evaar]

I'm pretty partial to Whispers of the Grave. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?628110-Whispers-of-the-Grave-is-underrated)

[MaxWilson]

Yeah just have all of the eldritch blast things, blast people back with extra damage from 600ft away!!

Especially as a Dao Genielock with Spike Growth, so that each hit can do d10+4d4+5 (20.5) damage as you blast enemies back into the Spike Growth. Then they take MORE damage crossing it again.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Especially as a Dao Genielock with Spike Growth, so that each hit can do d10+4d4+5 (20.5) damage as you blast enemies back into the Spike Growth. Then they take MORE damage crossing it again.

And if they begin to run away you can pull 'em back into the spikes!!

[Verble]

I had an Arcane Trickster with a dip in warlock that made great use of Mask of Many Faces combined with the friends cantrips to change appearance and evade the anger of the target turning hostile. He would often change shape on a whim and the party learned to recognize it was him by his distinctive tattoos and telepathic communication.

The invocation opens so many doors for deception, even in the middle of a dungeon.

I also took Devil's Sight on him but I didn't like using the darkness spell as it often screwes over my teammates, and the party rarely had me scout ahead alone. All in all I didn't get much use out of it.

I did like Eyes of the Rune Keeper but you really need DM buy in the make that ability feel useful.

I love the at will Invocations and wish we got to choose more or that the EB ones weren't in such high demand. I honestly wish more classes were alla carte like the warlock, though perhaps more balanced.

[Porcupinata]

Keep in mind that I play in a pretty high magic game, but even then its hard to overstate how useful at will Detect Magic has been on my Warlock/Fighter.

Just think about how often you see something weird or unusual and you have to wonder, "Is this a thing? Or just set dressing." You're not going to wait 10 minutes every time you run across a threatening statue or a mysterious glyph. Same thing if you're getting a weird vibe from someone and want to see if they're enchanted, or transformed or under an illusion. Same thing if you're searching for the good treasure and don't have all day, or if you're worried about magical traps.

When I started my character I only had two invocations and picked Eldritch Sight and Book of Ancient Secrets. I leveled up and switched ES to Agonizing Blast - I figured, "I've got this as a Ritual, that's good enough." It was not, in fact, good enough. I regretted it immediately and picked Eldritch Sight up again the next chance I could. A lot of that was just that my character concept really needed Eldtirch Sight to feel like it worked (he's a detective that solves magical crimes) but, still, it was noticeable.

I've got to agree with this one. I might not take Eldritch Sight if I know that there's going to be a wizard in the party who can use Detect Magic as a ritual (because invocation slots are a limited and valuable resource), but if I don't know that then I'll take Eldritch Sight pretty much every time.

If I'm going chain-pact then I'll usually go for Voice of the Chain Master too. This one is almost entirely for role-playing purposes, but I just love the idea that I can talk to my familiar regardless of distance. It's useful if the party splits up and my familiar accompanies the half of the party I'm not in, or if the familiar is flying off to scout something, but to be honest the role-playing benefit is the main thing I like it for.

[Houster]

I did not play warlock, but cloak of flies seems very flavorful and very cool imagery for a darker type of warlock like fiend or hexblade. Always wanted to make an intimidation with that on.

Beyond that repelling blast seems really neat, especially on sorlock who can make a ton of beams in one turn.

[ATHATH]

I like using Misty Visions to make creatures, plus Minor Illusion for the sound effects.
Im dissapointed there aren't more at-will infinite use invocations.
I despise the once per long rest invocations, except for the one that makes undead.
The Animate Dead one does at least make sense, although it's still pretty bad, as you are forced to cast it without using a spell slot, meaning that you can't upcast it. To make matters worse, because you can only cast it once per long rest, you can only have up to one skeleton or zombie under your control at a time (instead of the 4 minions per daily (upkeep) casting that most other casters can keep under their thrall), since you can't animate a new undead creature on the same day that you extend the duration of your control over your existing one(s). Remember, you can only take 1 long rest per 24 hours.

[Glorthindel]

I despise the once per long rest invocations, except for the one that makes undead.

I am like that for basically any class feature that is once per long rest; It just evokes the old too-awesome-to-use feeling, so ends up sitting unused.

[Ogun]

The Animate Dead one does at least make sense, although it's still pretty bad, as you are forced to cast it without using a spell slot, meaning that you can't upcast it. To make matters worse, because you can only cast it once per long rest, you can only have up to one skeleton or zombie under your control at a time (instead of the 4 minions per daily (upkeep) casting that most other casters can keep under their thrall), since you can't animate a new undead creature on the same day that you extend the duration of your control over your existing one(s). Remember, you can only take 1 long rest per 24 hours.
Ok, that just sucks.

[SLOTHRPG95]

My Celestial 'lock got a lot of mileage out of Beast Speech of all things, given the amount of time we spent wilderness. We even had a Druid in the party, but wild beasts often won't want to stick around for 10 minutes while you chant at them (ritual casting) just so you can speak to them after. MoMF was also great, as many have said before, especially when you're a Tabaxi not trying to draw attention in human-dominant towns and cities.

[Houster]

My Celestial 'lock got a lot of mileage out of Beast Speech of all things, given the amount of time we spent wilderness. We even had a Druid in the party, but wild beasts often won't want to stick around for 10 minutes while you chant at them (ritual casting) just so you can speak to them after. MoMF was also great, as many have said before, especially when you're a Tabaxi not trying to draw attention in human-dominant towns and cities.
It is a paradox that warlocks get beast speech and druids need to use spell slots for that. I would give all druids the ability to speak to animals at will in my games. I think there's a subclass of druid that gets this too... Shepherd maybe?

[Segev]

The Animate Dead one does at least make sense, although it's still pretty bad, as you are forced to cast it without using a spell slot, meaning that you can't upcast it. To make matters worse, because you can only cast it once per long rest, you can only have up to one skeleton or zombie under your control at a time (instead of the 4 minions per daily (upkeep) casting that most other casters can keep under their thrall), since you can't animate a new undead creature on the same day that you extend the duration of your control over your existing one(s). Remember, you can only take 1 long rest per 24 hours.


Ok, that just sucks.

It's depressing, that's for sure. But the goal was to prevent the short rest recharge from making warlocks better than any other necromancer.

That said, there is a limited way around it: spell scrolls. The warlock can even make them, himself, since he has the spell. Use them to animate your zombies initially, and then maintain control with the daily spell. It's STILL not as good as it should be.

Really, the Invocation should probably have just let you control some number of undead that you can replenish at will (provided the corpses are present).

Undying Servitude
Prerequisite: 5th level
When you kill a humanoid creature, you may force it to remain animate as a zombie under your control. You may also use an action to animate a humanoid corpse or pile of humanoid bones as a zombie or skeleton under your control. These undead remain bound to your will until you choose to release them. You cannot have more than four undead under your control in this fashion at a time. If you create a fifth, you may cause one of the others to collapse into a lifeless husk, or release it to continue acting on its own lifeless urges.

[Joe the Rat]

As a DM my least favorite invocation is Eyes of the Runekeeper. No more thematic, decorative runes on weapons and gates and whatnot unless you are prepared to answer "what does it say?"
As a player Misty Visions and Mask of Many Faces are pure gold.


I'm pretty partial to Whispers of the Grave. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?628110-Whispers-of-the-Grave-is-underrated)I always point this one out, since it makes them best in Actual Necromancy.



Really, the Invocation should probably have just let you control some number of undead that you can replenish at will (provided the corpses are present).

Undying Servitude
Prerequisite: 5th level
When you kill a humanoid creature, you may force it to remain animate as a zombie under your control. You may also use an action to animate a humanoid corpse or pile of humanoid bones as a zombie or skeleton under your control. These undead remain bound to your will until you choose to release them. You cannot have more than four undead under your control in this fashion at a time. If you create a fifth, you may cause one of the others to collapse into a lifeless husk, or release it to continue acting on its own lifeless urges.
All of the mechanics, none of the spell. Which also means they cannot make animate dead scrolls. A fair trade, I think.
Alternatively, you could leave the animate dead, but then add a provision to the invocation where the undead remain under your control (limit 4) until you 'release' them.

[KorvinStarmast]

It is a paradox that warlocks get beast speech and druids need to use spell slots for that. I would give all druids the ability to speak to animals at will in my games. I think there's a subclass of druid that gets this too... Shepherd maybe? Yeah, but it's kind of only one channel.

[Verble]

It is a paradox that warlocks get beast speech and druids need to use spell slots for that. I would give all druids the ability to speak to animals at will in my games. I think there's a subclass of druid that gets this too... Shepherd maybe?

Honestly I like the idea of giving every class an at will utility spell that can be flavored as mundane or magical. I'd probably tailor it to the individual character but something like at will jump for barbarian, at will speak with animals for druid etc.

[Noodz]

I don't think this is usual, but my goolock unexpectedly ended up on an interminable string of dungeon crawls in the thick of the jungle with no civilization nearby. I really wanted some summons, but most of Tasha's summon spells require expensive components that I can't acquire because I need civilization to find someone able to make these. I've been making do with Summon Greater Demon, but even then the DM requires me to have fresh humanoid blood since this is demon summoning and all that.

So I had zero qualms about taking Minions of Chaos for a decent summon with no material component. Best of all: as soon as I can summon a Salamander (or maybe even an Azer), I will give him 40 platinum coins and ask them to quickly craft "a platinum inlaid vial" (which will be worth 400 gp by definition) with a lid, plop an eyeball and a pickled tentacle inside, and I will finally have the material component for Summon Aberration.

[SirMoogle]

I'm currently playing a Chain GOOlock in a PbP game, and I have to say Voice of the Master is pretty fun (extended range for communication) for a character who isn't combat-optimised. Waiting for a level up to pick up Investment of the Chain Master for more features like using my character's DC for my familiar's actions.

[SLOTHRPG95]

It is a paradox that warlocks get beast speech and druids need to use spell slots for that. I would give all druids the ability to speak to animals at will in my games. I think there's a subclass of druid that gets this too... Shepherd maybe?

Druids can ritual cast Speak w/ Animals if they have it prepared, but it's true that they have to spend a slot if they want to cast it in a single round. Either way, I think at the cost of an invocation, it's fine if Warlocks get to cast it in a single action "resource-free" and the Druid doesn't. Invocations are a character build resource, and meanwhile the Druid still gets a whole bunch of other nature-themed spells to keep its identity.