Bunch of Warlock Invocations

[sandmote]

this page on the hombrewery

I like warlocks, and was hoping to add some more invocations, particularly since the Pact of the Talisman seems to scale pretty poorly. Some of these are also tied tospecific creatures from faerun, the same way some published invocations mention Hadar or Levistus in the name. Similarly, there a few invocations that are tied to fiends in the fluff, but not a lot of similar options for other patrons; I've added a few, including for my homebrew dragon and forest guardian patrons.

Pact Specific:

Book of Power
Prerequisites: Pact of the Tome Feature
You can use your Book of Shadows as a spellcasting focus.

Additionally, when you cast a spell, you can treat the spell as having been cast using a spell slot one level higher than you expended (you must still expend a spell slot of equal or higher level than the spell). Once you use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.

Burdened Form
Prerequisite: 5th level, Pact of the Chain
You can cast the Find Steed spell as a ritual. When you cast Find Steed in this manner, you transform your familiar instead of gaining a new steed.

Avoiding Familiar
Prerequisites: 9th level, Pact of the Chain Feature
When subject to an effect that allows your familiar to make any saving throw to take only half damage from a spell or similar feature, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails. Additionally, you familiar gain a bonus to saving throws equal to your proficiency modifier.

Possessing Aid
Prerequisite: 9th level, Pact of the Chain feature
As an action, you can animate a medium or smaller object, filling it with a spirit sent by your patron that obeys your orders. The object uses the statistics given by the animate objects spell, but shares your patron's alignment and remains animated for 10 minutes. If you use this feature on an additional object, the effects ends on the previous object.

Guarding Weapon
Prerequisites: 9th level, Pact of the Blade Feature
Your pact weapon creates a shimmering field of force while you wield it, granting you a +2 bonus to your AC. You do not gain this benefit wielding a shield.

Intended to help bladelocks stay alive, especially the Hexblades that want to be in melee.

Blessing by Talisman
Prerequisite: 9th level 5th level, Pact of the Talisman feature
When you cast a spell with a range of touch, your talisman can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell from the talisman's position. Your talisman must be within 60 feet of you, and the spell must target the creature wearing or holding the talisman. If the spell requires an attack roll, you use your attack modifier for the roll.

Heightened Talisman
Prerequisite: 12th level, Pact of the Talisman feature
When a creature uses your talisman to increase the result on an ability check or saving throw, it can roll a d8, instead of a d4, and add the result to the check. This expends a use of that feature of your talisman as normal.

Soullinked Talisman
Prerequisite: 18th level, Pact of the Talisman feature

When you would die and your talisman is within 100 feet, you can choose to have your soul enter the talisman instead of passing on. You are incapacitated as long as your soul is within talisman, and can remain within the talisman for 1 week or until you decide to leave it. While within the Talisman, you can perform a 1-hour ceremony, after which the talisman turns to dust and your soul leaves it. If a creature casts a spell that would return you to life while holding the talisman, the creature can substitute your talisman for any material components the spell requires.
You can communicate telepathically to any creature wearing or touching the talisman as long as your share a language and hear normally, but are blinded and otherwise unaware of your surroundings. but are otherwise blind and deaf to your surroundings. The talisman is treated as an inanimate magical object while you inhabit it.

Themed for Certain Patrons and Effects for Brining in Patrons:

Mindreader's Touch
As an action, you can cast Detect Thoughts at will without requiring a spell slot or your concentration. When you cast the spell in this manner, you must be touching a creature to detect the presence of thinking creatures or to probe a creature's mind.

Roots of Emmantiensien
As an action, you can root yourself to the ground you stand on. While rooted your speeds are all reduced to zero, and you cannot benefit from any increase to your speed and disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. However, you gain advantage on Strength and Constitution saving throws, a well as advantage on Strength checks. While rooted you cannot be forcibly moved unless the ground you are rooted to is also moved. You can end this state as a bonus action.

Path of Pistis Sophia
Prerequisite: 5th level
As long as you are not carrying a simple or martial weapon, you can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and can roll a d6 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike.

Hidden Hoard
Prerequisite: 5th level
As an action you can touch an object, which is moved to an extraplanar gap provided by your patron or to produce an object from this gap. The gap contains enough space to hold up to a 5 foot cube and 200 pounds. Once you have moved a number of items between yourself and the gap equal to twice your proficiency bonus, you cannot use this feature until you finish a long rest.
If you know the demiplane spell, you can send and retrieve items from demiplanes you have created.

Actually written before Zecrin's Void Cleric was posted, but it fills the same role, and I think Zecrin's take is notably better.

Provided Courier
Prerequisite: 5th level
You can summon a tiny servant of your patron as an action, which has a 30 foot fly speed, 1 hit point, and an appearance befitting your patron. You must specify a location that you have visited to the servant and a recipient who matches a general description, such as "a man or woman dressed in the uniform of the town guard" or "a red-haired dwarf wearing a pointed hat." You also speak a message of up to twenty-five words. The servant travels for up to 24 hours toward the specified location, covering about 50 miles over the duration.

When the messenger arrives, it delivers your message to the creature that you described, replicating the sound of your voice. The messenger speaks only to a creature matching the description you gave. If the messenger doesn't reach its destination within 24 hours, the message is lost, and the servant makes its way back to your patron. When the servant drops to 0 hit points, it returns to your patron, leaving behind no physical form. At the end of a long rest, your patron informs you if the servant has returned to it in failure.

Faithful Watcher
Prerequisite: 7th level
As an action, you can summon an observer of your patron, which begins spying for you from a location within 30 feet of you. The ally is invisible, but is clearly the same type as your patron. The invisible observer telepathically informs you of each creature to appear within 30 feet of it, waking you if you are within 100 feet of it. The observer can see invisible creatures, but not into the ethereal plane or through disguises or illusions. The observer vanishes after eight hours, when dispelled, or when you sue an action to dismiss it. You can use this invocation once, and regain the ability to do so after a long rest.

The two preceding invocations are intended to make it easier to bring in the patron slightly more.

Hlal's Exchange
Prerequisite: 7th level
As an action, you can hold a object and switch the contents of that object to a different object of similar function, such as the writing between two books or objects between a locked and unlocked chest. The exchange fails if either object or any of the contents exchanged are magical in nature, or if one of the two objects are empty: for instance, you can't empty the pages of a ledger by exchanging the information within with that of a blank book.
You can use this feature once, and regain it at the end of a short rest.

Generic:

Mistguide
You can see normally through fog, mist, rain, snow, and sleet, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 30 feet.

Fruits of the Wilds
You can cast Goodberry once using a warlock spell slot. You can't do so again until you finish a long rest.

Patron's Investiture
You hit point maximum increases by 1 2 for every warlock level you possess.

Heavenly Temperance
You have advantage on saving throws against seductive glamour and emotion based abilities, such as an Incubus' Draining Kiss, a Dryad's Fey Charm, or a Harpy's Luring Song.

I feel like something like this is really thematic, but kind of takes a lot of work to function an no real benefit?

Scarring Mark
Prerequisite: 5th level
As an action, you can make a melee touch attack against a creature within reach. A distinct scar, no more than 3 inches across appears on a part of the creature's body of your choice and remains for 8 hours. You count as having a body part from the target for the purposes of spells and special effects for as long as the mark remains, and you always know the direction of the target. This invocation counts as a curse of the purposes of spell effects such as Relentless Hex or Maddening Hex. A remove curse spell ends the hex early.

Shaktari's Touch
Prerequisite: 5th level.
When making a melee weapon attack or casting a spell, your attacks and spells ignore resistance to poison damage and treat immunity as resistance. you ignore immunity to poisons, the poisoned condition and resistance to poison damage, and you treat immunity to poison damage as resistance to poison damage.

Titania's Trickery
Prerequisite: 5th level

As a bonus action, you can reach out and touch a creature you can see within reach. The creature must make a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC or be charmed by you until the start of your next turn.

Reward for Diligence
Prerequisite: 7th level
You instantly regain the first hit die you expend at the end of a long rest.

Touch of Wrath
Prerequisite: 12th level
As an action, you can choose a creature within 30 feet, which must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save the creature must use its reaction to make a melee weapon attack against a creature of your choice within its reach.

Slightly Odd:

Bond of Eachthighern
When controlling a mount, you can use an action expend a spell, restoring 2d8 of your mount's hit points for each slot level. You only need to expend 5 feet of movement to mount or dismount.

To function with a mount

Warning Echo
You can cast Magic Mouth at will, without expending a spell slot or requiring material components. The magic mouth lasts up to 24 hours or until you use this feature again, at which point it vanishes without repeating its message.

Wrath of Barachiel
Prerequisite: 15th level
You can launch bolts of lightning from your weapon as a melee weapon attack at creatures you can see within 15 feet. On a hit, the attack deals magical lightning damage equal to the damage your weapon would do on a hit. Poisons and other effects applied to a weapon are not expended and have no effect on these lightning blasts.

To try to give Hexblades some range, s they don't need to stay on the front lines so much.

[BerzerkerUnit]

A lot of good ideas that can use a little oomph.

Book of Power- too weak. Add something like 1/day heighten spell when you use the book in this way, or make it like arcane tome and explicitly doesn’t stack with save dc or spell attack bonus of Rod.

Avoiding Familiar feels weak given how terrible familiar saves are. Add familiar adds your proficiency to all saves.

Possessing spirit is a-ok.

Guardian weapon is good.

Bless by Talisman should include self spells and be available at level 5.

Heightened talisman should be d10s at that level.

Soul link talisman is ok, feels like it should be undead/undying patron specific and be a little more like a phyllactery. At least make you aware of surroundings (30 ft BlindSense and can hear normally). The ritual thing to exit talisman is unnecessary and kind of weird.

Mind reader’s touch should just be the detect thinking portion of the spell and complement GOO telepathy.

Mist guide is awesome but feels fey only.

Fruits of Wilds- these invocations are bad design.

Patron Investiture- needs more, maybe prof in con saves. Blade locks are starved for invocations already.

Heavenly temperance- far too niche make it immune to charmed condition at 12+

Scarring Mark is great if you make it “when you hit with an attack or touch a creature” instead of eating your action.

Shaktari- “your attacks and spells ignore resistance to poison damage and treat immunity as resistance.

The Mount stuff is good but could probably be a lot easier to manage if you made two invocations- Pact of Chain only-
1- you learn the Find Steed spell. At 9th level this becomes Find Greater Steed.
2- you can apply the effects of your pact of the Chain specific invocations to your mount.

All in all some great foundations. Thanks for sharing!

[sandmote]

Book of Power- too weak. Add something like 1/day heighten spell when you use the book in this way, or make it like arcane tome and explicitly doesn’t stack with save dc or spell attack bonus of Rod.

I agree its too weak, but wasn't sure how to handle it. the 1/day heighten I actually like; makes Major Image work really well with warlocks.

Avoiding Familiar feels weak given how terrible familiar saves are. Add familiar adds your proficiency to all saves.

I grant this by default, but I'll add it in here as well.

Bless by Talisman should include self spells and be available at level 5.

Heightened talisman should be d10s at that level.

On the former, I'm absolutely not making that any less than a major class or subclass feature. On the latter, this invocation synergizes with several others, so I'm a bit nervous about pumping it up by more than 100% to the average roll.

Soul link talisman is ok, feels like it should be undead/undying patron specific and be a little more like a phyllactery. At least make you aware of surroundings (30 ft BlindSense and can hear normally). The ritual thing to exit talisman is unnecessary and kind of weird.

Sure, I'll add hearing and make the exiting automatic.

Mind reader’s touch should just be the detect thinking portion of the spell and complement GOO telepathy.

I was trying to keep it simple, since I assume you can feel any creature touching you. For the purpose of simplicity, I'll leave it for now.

Mist guide is awesome but feels fey only.

I'd say it fits the Undying (psychopomp an typically see better), the Fathomless (given the water theme), and some great old ones (since it makes it easier to see horrors) as well.

Fruits of Wilds- these invocations are bad design.

I don't disagree, but I really wanted the theming. Not everything needs to be powerful.

Patron Investiture- needs more, maybe prof in con saves. Blade locks are starved for invocations already.

Proficiency seems a bit much. for now I'll double the bonus.

Scarring Mark is great if you make it “when you hit with an attack or touch a creature” instead of eating your action.

I'm not sure about this one. Initially it was intended as an out of combat effect to give warlocks some "cursing" ability without letting them spam Bestow Curse.

Shaktari- “your attacks and spells ignore resistance to poison damage and treat immunity as resistance.

Whoops, thanks.

The Mount stuff is good but could probably be a lot easier to manage if you made two invocations- Pact of Chain only-
1- you learn the Find Steed spell. At 9th level this becomes Find Greater Steed.
2- you can apply the effects of your pact of the Chain specific invocations to your mount.

I... do not like that. At a minimum is allowing Find Greater Steed before the paladin gets it. I'm also trying to avoid Invocation trees, and I don't think it should get as many bonuses at the familiar does.

[BerzerkerUnit]

...

1. I don't disagree, but I really wanted the theming. Not everything needs to be powerful.
...

2. I'm not sure about this one. Initially it was intended as an out of combat effect to give warlocks some "cursing" ability without letting them spam Bestow Curse.

...

3. I... do not like that. At a minimum is allowing Find Greater Steed before the paladin gets it. I'm also trying to avoid Invocation trees, and I don't think it should get as many bonuses at the familiar does.

Numbering is mine for ease of reference-

1. I agree, but making theme come at the cost of power is not fun or good design (one of the main reasons these invocations are bad. Why are wizards better at cursing than Warlocks and Witches?) Goodberry has its purpose. Depending on the DM it can eliminate about 20% of a campaign’s challenge (see Rime of the Frost maiden and Descent into Avernus where gathering supplies is supposed to be a major hurdle.) but in those instances Goodberry is game breaking. So creating an invocation which is binary bad or game breaking isn’t the best. I don’t recommend a different spell, just think about what you want to do and try to approach it differently altogether.

2. The scarring mechanic screams bladepact though and having it function on an attack (so a foe can be taken prisoner without realizing they’ve been marked) is very thematic and makes the likelihood of using it far greater.

3. Most Paladin characters will never see Find greater steed since most games end at or before level 13. Also note, any Lore Bard can (and should) take Find Greater Steed at 7th. I said 9th since that’s the invocation cut off.

Chain and Blade pact are already full of Invocation trees, Blade does not function without them. Notably, Mounted combat (where those chain investments would shine) is not ideal for the chain pact warlock who gets one melee attack and has to either employ suboptimal melee Cantrips or invest a feat to use Eldritch blast effectively, but, being able to buff themselves and their mount with Armor of Agathys, Mage Armor, etc creates some interesting combos that can help offset that deficiency.

Actually, having the invocation transform their familiar into a mount as if they’d cast Find Greater steed is even more thematic.

There was a bullet I deleted RE the talisman. I’ll come back to that in a later post.

[sandmote]

I agree, but making theme come at the cost of power is not fun or good design (one of the main reasons these invocations are bad. Why are wizards better at cursing than Warlocks and Witches?)

A lot of these spells would be noticeably broken if they could be cast regularly with pact casting's refresh on a short rest, although Bestow Curse could be fine in your bumped up the "does not concentration" bit to require a 6th level slot.

Goodberry has its purpose. Depending on the DM it can eliminate about 20% of a campaign’s challenge (see Rime of the Frost maiden and Descent into Avernus where gathering supplies is supposed to be a major hurdle.) but in those instances Goodberry is game breaking. So creating an invocation which is binary bad or game breaking isn’t the best. I don’t recommend a different spell, just think about what you want to do and try to approach it differently altogether.

Given goodberry lasts 24 hours, I think its works better than some of the other stuff: cast it in the morning then take a short rest before the rest of the party is ready to head off.
Otherwise, I think goodberry itself is the issue, rather than the invocation in particular.

2. The scarring mechanic screams bladepact though and having it function on an attack (so a foe can be taken prisoner without realizing they’ve been marked) is very thematic and makes the likelihood of using it far greater.

Okay, I'll add it.

3. Most Paladin characters will never see Find greater steed since most games end at or before level 13. Also note, any Lore Bard can (and should) take Find Greater Steed at 7th. I said 9th since that’s the invocation cut off.

I feel like giving it to other classes rubs salt in the wound for half casters. Table rule is to make bards pick a class and then pick a spell available to the class at that level.

Chain and Blade pact are already full of Invocation trees, Blade does not function without them. Notably, Mounted combat (where those chain investments would shine) is not ideal for the chain pact warlock who gets one melee attack and has to either employ suboptimal melee Cantrips or invest a feat to use Eldritch blast effectively, but, being able to buff themselves and their mount with Armor of Agathys, Mage Armor, etc creates some interesting combos that can help offset that deficiency.

Your versions were chain invocations, I just wanted some healing for mounts that didn't require a celestial patron. Although now that I think about it,

Maybe as follows:

Burdened Form
Prerequisite: 5th level, Pact of the Chain

You can cast the Find Steed spell as a ritual. When you cast Find Steed in this manner, you transform your familiar instead of gaining a new steed.

[BerzerkerUnit]

That last one is not bad.

[SharkForce]

if you're just trying to give a mount that can be healed, why not just give the ability to cast phantom steed as a ritual, and maybe 1/day empower it with extra hit points (equal to warlock level or warlock level x 2 perhaps), a longer duration (at least 8 hours, maybe 24 hours if you want it to have the potential to be always up), and give it a small amount of regeneration or something like that?

[sandmote]

Finally got around to adding Burdened Form to the printer friendly version of this.

if you're just trying to give a mount that can be healed, why not just give the ability to cast phantom steed as a ritual, and maybe 1/day empower it with extra hit points (equal to warlock level or warlock level x 2 perhaps), a longer duration (at least 8 hours, maybe 24 hours if you want it to have the potential to be always up), and give it a small amount of regeneration or something like that?

Issues I have with this:

• Phantom Steed is on the Undead Patron's spell list.
• Normally, Phantom Steed ends as soon as it takes any damage, rather than having any hit points.
• This doesn't actually make the steed capable of coming back; you're just recreating a new steed.
• Per the previous points, you'd be slapping a new effect under the phantom steed name to make such an invocations.

I prefer the direct healing option as well as transforming the familiar; they seem easier to follow than granting a steed with its own custom rules.