Green Lantern Build

[carrdrivesyou]

Was thinking about it, and was curious how you'd build Green Lantern from DC comics. Or any of the other lanterns really.

My first thought would be a Talisman warlock with the telekinetic feat. Maybe a Genie patron. You could have both the ring and the power battery.

Other Ideas were cleric multiclasses...

Thoughts?

[stoutstien]

Creation bard?

[KorvinStarmast]

Was thinking about it, and was curious how you'd build Green Lantern from DC comics. Or any of the other lanterns really.

My first thought would be a Talisman warlock with the telekinetic feat. Maybe a Genie patron. You could have both the ring and the power battery.

Other Ideas were cleric multiclasses...

Thoughts? I like your first idea.

[Unoriginal]

Was thinking about it, and was curious how you'd build Green Lantern from DC comics. Or any of the other lanterns really.

My first thought would be a Talisman warlock with the telekinetic feat. Maybe a Genie patron. You could have both the ring and the power battery.

Other Ideas were cleric multiclasses...

Thoughts?

Psi Warrior Figther?

[Damon_Tor]

A Green Lantern is probably a warlock. This fits both mechanically and in terms of lore. The hexblade patron seems to be the best fit. Armor of shadows for at-will mage armor, the shield spell, and agonizing Eldritch blast form the core of the build, a solid ranged attacker with fair defenses.

But all of that comes on line by warlock level 2.

Moving forward from there, shift to a conjuration, abjuration, or evocation wizard (depending on whether your particular lantern is more focused on defense, offense, or utility) for access to a more appropriate spell list.

Unfortunately neither class offers at-will flight, but you can always select a flying species and reflavor as needed.

Or you could ask your DM if you can use a homebrewed warlock patron. As it happens that's something I've already put together: https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25471481&postcount=6

[Skrum]

A Green Lantern is probably a warlock. This fits both mechanically and in terms of lore. The hexblade patron seems to be the best fit. Armor of shadows for at-will mage armor, the shield spell, and agonizing Eldritch blast form the core of the build, a solid ranged attacker with fair defenses.

But all of that comes on line by warlock level 2.

Moving forward from there, shift to a conjuration, abjuration, or evocation wizard (depending on whether your particular lantern is more focused on defense, offense, or utility) for access to a more appropriate spell list.

Unfortunately neither class offers at-will flight, but you can always select a flying species and reflavor as needed.

Or you could ask your DM if you can use a homebrewed warlock patron. As it happens that's something I've already put together: https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25471481&postcount=6

Not sure why'd you go wizard, when sorcerer is right there, using the same casting stat as warlock and with sorcery point synergy. Sorlock doesn't need to be a coffeelock to get good mileage.

[Nagog]

High level Illusion Wizard has the higher end mechanics (making Real Constructs of Light), but most of the low level stuff is not at all fitting. At lower levels, the Conjuration Wizard has the ability to summon non-magical objects as an action. Both can pick up Telekinesis and Bigby's Hand.

[Unoriginal]

A Green Lantern is probably a warlock. This fits both mechanically and in terms of lore. The hexblade patron seems to be the best fit. Armor of shadows for at-will mage armor, the shield spell, and agonizing Eldritch blast form the core of the build, a solid ranged attacker with fair defenses.

But all of that comes on line by warlock level 2.

Moving forward from there, shift to a conjuration, abjuration, or evocation wizard (depending on whether your particular lantern is more focused on defense, offense, or utility) for access to a more appropriate spell list.

Unfortunately neither class offers at-will flight, but you can always select a flying species and reflavor as needed.

If you want to go Green Lantern as a Warlock, the Genie pact is best for it.

You can have a literal lantern as a power battery, and get a fly speed at lvl 6.

Not to mention Limited Wish and the Wish spell let you do a lot of what powerful Lantern corps members can do.

Talisman is not the best Warlock boon by any metric, but it's still useful and thematically fitting.

Taking the invocations to push and pull people with Eldritch Blast, alongside maybe the Telekinetic feat, would finish the look.

Other useful invocations would be, as you mentioned, the Mage Armor one, plus the Disguise one (to have the whole "get into GL suit" sequence) and the one that let you summon Elementals (since GL can use their rings for creating that kind of fighting helper).

[RogueJK]

If you want to go Green Lantern as a Warlock, the Genie pact is best for it.

You can have a literal lantern as a power battery, and get a fly speed at lvl 6.


Yep. I was just coming here to say that.

It's not quite at-will, but Genielocks can fly starting at Level 6 for 10 minutes at a time, PB times per day. (Plus access to spells like Fly.)


While a Telekinetic Genielock may not be the best fit for Green Lantern lore-wise, mechanically it's a solid option.

[Damon_Tor]

Not sure why'd you go wizard, when sorcerer is right there, using the same casting stat as warlock and with sorcery point synergy. Sorlock doesn't need to be a coffeelock to get good mileage.

Mostly because very few sorcerer subclasses are a good fit: you're either going to be playing against concept (using inappropriate damage types to benefit from class features, for example) or you'll just have features you won't be using.

Meanwhile, the wizard subclasses I mentioned have class features which are exactly on-point.

[GooeyChewie]

Are we going for generic “this character is a Green Lantern” or are we building a specific Green Lantern? Kilowog might be best represented by a Giff. Aaracockra might work for Tomas Re, though he doesn’t actually have wings. Tiefling would make a great Sinestro.

I had not thought of Warlock for Green Lantern, but I do like the whole Genie Talisman thing for the battery and ring. I’ve always thought of Bard College of Creation as a good Green Lantern. Fortunately they share a casting stat, so Genie Talisman Warlock/Creation Bard would work as a multi class.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If you want to go Green Lantern as a Warlock, the Genie pact is best for it.

You can have a literal lantern as a power battery, and get a fly speed at lvl 6.

Not to mention Limited Wish and the Wish spell let you do a lot of what powerful Lantern corps members can do.

Talisman is not the best Warlock boon by any metric, but it's still useful and thematically fitting.

Taking the invocations to push and pull people with Eldritch Blast, alongside maybe the Telekinetic feat, would finish the look.

Other useful invocations would be, as you mentioned, the Mage Armor one, plus the Disguise one (to have the whole "get into GL suit" sequence) and the one that let you summon Elementals (since GL can use their rings for creating that kind of fighting helper).
Agreed. Warlock tends to work well for superhero builds, since supers typically have a more limited range of tricks than spellcasters but don't often have the same kind of usage limits.

If possible, I'd ask the GM for a custom list of bonus spells known:
1st-- Tenser's Floating Disk
2nd-- Gust of Wind
3rd-- Fly
4th-- Otiluke's Resilient Sphere
5th-- Creation

[Person_Man]

RAW way would be to make a list of the spells that duplicate the various things you want to do; Mage Hand, Fly, Bigby's Hands, walls, summon spells, etc, and just re-fluff as needed.

But I also have a homebrew Artificer subclass (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?649882-Artificer-Subclass-the-Technomancer&p=25586385) focused on using mundane items effectively (traps, poison, etc). Just add Marvelous Pigments to the list of magic items you can create with an Artificer Infusion, the ability to paint at a range and with an Action, fiddle with the list of bonus spells, and you're basically done.

If you don't want artificer, you could also easily port it this or similar homebrew to another class. Maybe Fighter if you wanted to hit people with weapons most of the time and add in flight, wall creation, and Bigby like effects occasionally. (Which is how Green Lantern is often portrayed in cartoons, because the animators and writers are lazy and don't want to take the time to do creative things with GL's powers unless he's the focus of an episode). Or maybe a Wizard if you want to Summon a bunch of things to fight for you and refluff them.

[arnin77]

At first glance I thought that the Lanterns oath was similar to the Watchers Paladin but I don’t think the mechanics are there…

Then I thought Willpower was associated with wisdom - so cleric might work? Light, Order, Forge, War etc and their spiritual weapons and guardians could be like their constructs…

I didn’t think of Warlock but I find that interesting and probably the most mechanically compatible…

There’s also 3 attunement slots - so boots of flying would help etc