Lunch. I always say it’s mid day and find somewhere for lunch. By the time you’ve cooked or waiting to be served at a bar it’s been an hour. “Does your character not eat?” Is allways my free once per day short rest :P
So much darkness. Just... darkness and devil's sight until the end of the world. Until the DM gives every monster True Sight and you all quit the game in protest ;)
My idea for an all Warlock party needs 5 PCs. Four of them play Genie Warlocks, each with a different element (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water). The fifth is a Celestial warlock (Heart). Their ultimate mission is to figure out a way to combine their powers to summon a powerful avatar of nature.
I love the idea of a group of warlocks that all follow different patrons, but over time realise that they’re all working for the same patron. Imagine Asmodeus as a fiend patron, he puts some of his power into an Eldritch weapon for the hexblade to follow, in his aspect as a deity for the celestial pact, and maybe pretends to be a fey lord or an unspeakable entity (Asmodeus is known as the father of lies for a reason…)
Or tell all of them that they have a pact with asmodeus, but not necessarily the fiend. They are all supposed to take a pact and act as if it's just a random patron, while trying to do as much work for Asmodeus as possible. This will make them think they have to secretly work for Asmodeus and so the others don't catch on. When the reveal happens, they realize they ALL worked for Asmodeus while trying to keep it a secret.
I love story for the sake of it that doesn't say anything about the setting or characters and has no greater thematic purpose, it's just cool, like marvel movies
Have the Genie Warlock take the Dao so they can pick up Spike Growth, and everyone takes both Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar. Cheese Grater taken to the next level.
It's still good to have more than one though. Some of the ritual spells require concentration, so being able to do two at once is great. Not to mention having the extra cantrips is beneficial.
@@andrewdyjach7305While that could be situationally useful in rare cases. Most ritual spells don't need more than one person casting them to get their worth from them. So the other warlocks are better off picking up other pact boons and invocations to support their playstyles.
If I was in that game I would want to play a Celestial Warlock that focus on pact of the blade and summon fey/undead! and my summoned creatures would look like a little green hag with physical features to "Edna Mode" from the Incredibles! Just picture a fuming fey spirit Edna! "No cape!"
If magical girls are warlocks their transformation is the form of dread. Also hear me out. A bunch of warlock looking to escape their patrons' shackles, so the hexblade becomes a fighter, the celestial a cleric, the genie a rogue and the fiend a sorcerer/wizard as the campaign progresses, losing their patrons' powers one by one.
I would take that a step further, because I like options that play out. Make the fiend have a mission to stop the pact breaking from happening. Does he embrace the mission or fight against it? Maybe willpower saves become important in such a campaign. And it gives the rest of the party RP too. In the case of the fiend fighting their mission maybe they can come together to free each other through heart.. if the fiend accepts the mission, it becomes more of a who-dun-it as they secretly act against the others' goals until reveal.
Don't forget the immense range of eldritch blast. Eldritch Spear and/or the Spellsniper feat extend the range to the level of idiocy. You'll rarely have that much distance available underground, but outdoors you can barrage your targets from a ridiculous range. And with Lance of Lethargy and Grasp of Hadar, they can't run away.
And eldritch Spear. Be almost 500 feat away with repelling blast lol. Might be overkill for an adventuring party, but a squadron of those sort of casters in an army would be brutal @@wesglover5369
Take Eldritch spear and make it 600 feet and then the metamagic feat for the option that doubles distance to put it at 1200. The limits become more about line of sight and how far you can perceive in the environment, and what sheninagans the DM is ok with.@@wesglover5369
the short rest mutual goal is what really makes this combination soar. I give it an S. The all Warlock party trashes the all Paladin party. If they went head to head against each other, the Paladin party isn't touching this group (literally), and that's even if you exclude exploration, interrogation, utility, social interplay, etc, which the warlocks do much better than the paladins. This team deserves much better than a B. You've ranked this low because you feel the warlocks are glass cannons, but not more so than the wizard party that you ranked highly, and celestial has healing and revivify.
Yeah for them to be ranked so low compared to the dudes' favourite classes seems crazy. I bet that the Sorcerer will have Kelly in their corner arguing for an A or even S but the warlock couldn't even be ranked higher than the rogues lol.
@@katyprarie yeah, i get that the rogues have expertise up to the hilt, but we know that spells are basically superior as only they are capable at bending the otherwise impossible. The rogues only have the limited access thanks to the arcane trickster subclass, but that spell list pales in comparison to the warlocks'. This team definite trumps the All-rogue team as well. Frankly only the sorcerer and wizard classes can give the warlock team a run for their money.
Warlock party sees Paladin party. "We fly now?" "We fly now." Even though Warlocks have a gimped spell list, and limited spell slots per rest, they are still arcane casters, with access to a heck of a lot of spells that simply warp the game, and get them at normal full caster levels. In combat Paladins are better, yes. Every Paladin is a tank and a healer. It's going to be a grind until the Paladins are out of resources, but they will run out eventually, and then the Warlocks have them.
comparing the two most degenerate and worst designed classes in the game "ah yes a party of all of these is better than a party of all of these", yes cyanide is a deadly poison but that doesn't mean I want to take a load of arsenic because it's LESS bad
20:45 Not sure if I'm reading the rules wrong, but I thought the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation lets the Warlock take ANY ritual spells. Also, with Pact of the Tome, cantrips do not all need to be from the same class list.
Your reading of the rules is correct. They appear to be confusing the more limited seelctions offered by the Ritual Caster and Magic Initiate feats with the more permissive selections afforded by the Pact of the Tome (for cantrip selection) and the Book of Ancient Secrets (for rituals).
Definitely at least A ranking, arguably S for early levels. The Spell Slots are individually limited per encounter, but many parties have only one or two casters in it - four Warlocks offer plenty of Spell Slots between them. A single (levelled) Spell can do the lion's share of an encounter, so you don't need each Warlock throwing out (levelled) Spells in each encounter. It usually isn't difficult to get Short Rests either, it is just usually that if you can get a Short Rest you can probably get a Long Rest - and a single additional Long Rest than the DM planned means a whole new batch of Spellcaster resources to go through (so Warlocks suffer in the comparison). Outside of Spell Slots, the damage is good - about equal to a sword and board Paladin per round, except Warlocks get to do this at ranged so less wasted rounds. The survivability might seem fragile, but you have to consider you have a whole party of ranged that can seriously push enemies back - as well as potential crowd/battlefield control. Get Phantom Steeds (ritual) and you are laughing. The skill potential is all the Charisma ones (which are usually the most important ones), plus decent Stealth (no Disadvantage armour) - better than pretty much all but the Rogue/Bard parties. Exploration is top-notch with familiars and Spells. Honestly, early on they are likely stronger than probably any other class due to the Spell Slot drought for the Spellcasters at early levels, while maintaining good ranged damage and Spells (and the strong martials Feats haven't came into it yet, either). Around mid to late Tier 2 I would say the Wizards and Sorcerer groups would overtake them, but thats a pretty decent ways into the game. Definitely at least A ranking. --- In comparison --- The Rogue party was C for me, possibly even D in a campaign with lots of combat. They just don't offer anything except being a lot of a skill monkey in one class (in an edition where skills are super weak). Having more than one Rogue offers very little (and arguably one is near pointless in the first place). They are fragile, low damage, low utility (no/little Spells), and ironically pretty bad at exploration too due to being high-risk. The Paladin party was B borderline C for me - they are OK for survivability before you factor in the melee nature which drops them to something a little above fragile, the damage is behind Fighters and Barbarians being just OK, the skills are OK being Charisma based but lacking good Stealth (MAD and Heavy Armour), and the spells are weak so little utility. The thing Paladins offer is Aura of Protection - take this feature away and its a near bottom tier class. Like the Rogue party, you only really need one Paladin (and it is usually better off switching out soon as you get Aura of Protection). Summarising this class is basically it being a slightly below jack-of-all-trades with a god-tier Aura.
With the whole Warlock/Magical Girl angle you could probably do a great Madoka Magica campaign. Kelly would especially love how magical girls in that series are basically liches.
The undead warlock is criminally overlooked when it comes to frontline. The form of dread gives them consistent temp hp and an immunity to fear, which is huge. Later on, you become immune to necrotic damage. You can make your attacks do necrotic damage, and when you do, you add a whole extra damage die. Honestly, if it wasn't for hexblades' ability to use charisma for attacks, undead would give it a run for its money. Granted I am very bias my undead warlock fighter multiclass has been just so much fun to play.
@ImpaleTheLiving * looks at d12 halberd I get to use twice thanks to thirsting blade then the d8 from shillaley* nah I'm good lol. I built the character around pole arm master and warcaster. So the reach of the Halbert lets me cast booming blade on approaching enemies. If they want to move into melee they have to take the extra damage. The shillaley and tome lock works well for lower level stuff but as you get up to 10 and above it falls off from other options.
@@TheScottishKayakerBooming Blade _should_ work like that, but it doesn't. 🙁 It only has a range of 5'. Personally, given the chance, I would house rule it that it has a range equivalent to the melee weapon used to cast it (so 10' for a reach weapon).
If you're going Genie for the infiltration, go Pact of the Chain as well. That way, after you pop into your genie vessel to go infiltrate somewhere, your Imp familiar just picks up the vessel, turns invisible, and flies in through a window. From 10th level you can exploit this for travel and exploration too. Do a full day's travel while your familiar gets some beauty sleep, then instead of bedding down for the night you all pop into the vessel, and the imp carries you invisibly for another 8 hours while you get a long rest. Doesn't work well with mounts though.
Unfortunately the genie warlock has to be in the bottle with the rest of the party, so I would probably make the GOO the infiltrator and the genie just houses everyone as the GOO walks in.
This is why the genielock is the one who takes pact of the chain. Now your party lives in an invisible flying pocket dimension. While you rest, your familiar brings you where you need to go.
It's pretty feasible to do the cult, but have "different" patrons. "Different" meaning that you have the same patron who chose to have the warlock powers manifest differently. Fathomless & Great Old One have overlapping themes; depending on how you view fallen angels, Celestial & Fiend can work; Genie, Celestial, & Archfey overlap to a point; Hexblade can basically come from any patron; Undead & Undying quite literally reference some of the same entities (even though one of the subclasses isn't that great). I could actually see a campaign centered around an Archfey giving a group of adventurers different pact magic & a grocery list of rare items because they're too busy, & too stubborn to give them all the same powers.
We played an all warlock party and it was (and still is!) a blast. At level 6 we took on 4 or 5 back to back encounters that came out as deadly for Level 11. We have a Genie Mark of Healing Halfling (our healer, using race and feats to pick up healing spells), a Hexblade Shifter (our tank), and an Archfey Tabaxi (rogue). We've had several other party members over the course of the campaign, including a Fiend Pact (second tank) and a Great Old One Kobold (Blaster). One of the most fun campaigns I've ever played in.
@@yukiminsan Yes, but he lost his divinity after he was killed by Kiaransalee, the drow goddess of vengeace and undeath. Still kicked her ass when he returned though.
Oh, the possibilities with all the Eldritch Blasts! I believe a previous episode here mentioned a 120-foot long hallway with a bunch of warlocks at the end, and the other side had to get to them while continually being pushed back.
'the council of beings' sounds like an interesting idea. A minor deity is way more powerful if it can cooperate with other deities, giving a motivation for devils, archfae etc. to band together, and then through negotiations the order can eliminate common threats. It can be a way to 'punch up' against powerful beings, but each patron has to be able to compromise. 20:48 the pact of the tome, and the book of ancient secrets, are NOT restricted to the cantrips/rituals from a single class. This means you only ever need a single pact of the tome. So for the complete party there would be 1 pact of the blade (hexblade), 1 tome (book of secrets), 1 chain and 1 talisman. The talisman is non concentration, and can actually stack with guidance for important checks (2d4 can do a lot of work). The weaknesses all get solved by 10th level. This is the biggest boost for warlocks. Hexblade gets the defensive 1v1 ability, celestial gives the party temporary hp every rest and the genie gives 10 minute short rest. Before 10th level, the weaknesses are only compensated by crowd contro and good old 'damage solves'.
An interesting note, if you convert and plot Spell Points for the Warlock and other full casters, there is near parity until you hit 9th level where the Warlock falls behind until 11th where it gets to parity again. If you change level 9 Warlock to getting the three Spell Slots instead of level 11 it retains parity throughout. There is a lot of speculation that the warlock was meant to get the third Spell Slot at 9 but this was changed for some reason not related to Spell Slots.
From playing a fiend warlock they're surprisingly difficult to kill especially in encounters with lots of minions to pick off because Eldritch (+agonising) blasts is almost quite likely to kill one and then you're getting the temp hp then at level 6 you get a once per rest d10 to an ability check or saving throw then a damage resistance at level 10 so picking a race with a damage resistance (which is probably fire or poison) and then adding resistance to a damage type you expect to see in the coming day and honestly command is a surprisingly useful spell that by using the right word has gotten me or party members out of a few bad situations I've had encounters where the temp hp meant I took less than 10 points of damage to my actual hp in the entire combat and most of it was because I got attacked twice without getting a turn
The neat thing about an all Warlock party is that as long as you all have max CHA, you could reasonably split up who has which secondary stat just to make sure you do have a guy who can make a STR or DEX check.
Book of Ancient Secrets (the Pact of the Tome Invocation that gets you Rituals) does not restrict you to a single class and just grants access to every Ritual period. Because of this, one of the Warlocks could take Pact of the Talisman and throw that on the Hexblade to help them survive a little better (and also do some extra damage).
On the discussion about the patrons I remembered two of my players, one with a warlock and other a cleric and they were always arguing whose patron was better, in the end they were each others patron, literally being powered by friendship (players idea I just adapted)
My fourth pick would have been fathomless i think their bonus action tentacle ability can add extra damage and battlefield control without using many resources, ao they can use concentration spells in the back and cover the hex blade later with reaction
Yep, between the Tentacle being able to do slows and damage reduction and then Bigby's Hand at later level the Fathomless has great control and support options. Which this party absolutely needs.
@@adambielen8996 And the lv 14 teleport, while admittedly not amazing, could be made to work with a creative enough player. Especially if given prep time.
My guess is the armourer, battle smith, artillerist, and the alchemist. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they choose the artillerist, battle smith, alchemist and armourer. Both combinations would be good
@@lewisgale62Might be the first time they break their rule about repeating subclasses because I would take a second of any over a single-class alchemist.
@@emperortime4380Personally, I kinda hope they just use all four subclasses. One of the more interesting parts of this series is seeing more niche classes being highlighted. Yeah, the alchemist is the weakest, but it’s not nearly as bad as Four-elements monk or purple dragon knight fighter. I like the idea of them trying to build an alchemist that actually works because they just have to.
@@CyberDrewan There’s way to build it to work. Colby did a great hybrid with the Death Cleric but it takes a lot. Straight class can probably be on par with most mid tier monks.
@@emperortime4380 I agree with both of those sentiments, that you can totally build an alchemist to work, and just going the straight class isn’t that strong. I guess I’m just interested on how the alchemist fairs in the context of a full artificer party. When you have the armorer and battlesmith as frontliners and the artillerist as the blaster, the alchemist can focus solely on the support spells. Still not as great as a support as a cleric or bard, but still works.
Per the genie warlock, I don't see anything that allows the warlock to place others in their vessel BUT NOT THEMSELVES. I believe they would have to enter the vessel (along with those they designate), and someone else would have to be the infiltrator.
@@jinetedelfenix I think they would have chosen Genie even without that mistake, they have great perks (can take those rests inside the talisman) and a strong spell list. Generally one of the best Warlocks to not multi-class
@@lockskelington314 Yes. At 10th level, they can designate up to five people (plus themselves) to go into the vessel...but they can't exclude themselves. I do like your idea of using the Pact of the Chain Imp familiar to carry the vessel. My favorite vessel is the ring with a compartment. (I'm doing this now but with a sprite.)
the all warlocks campaign I pitched a while ago was highlander-esque. all their patrons died, and they have to kill the other warlocks of their own patron ( to gain levels ) and eventually take the seat of power, becoming the new patron.
Could definitely have seen this go in the "Warhammer" inspired direction - four warlocks of the chaos gods, all vying for favour and to prove their god is strongest. They all focus on different aspects of the game and patrons that would easily fit with these patrons (Hexblade - Khorne, Blaster/Caster - Tzeentch, Healer - Nurgle, Face/Infiltrator - Slaanesh)
Imagine the terror of seeing Hunger of Hadar, Spike Growth, Sickening Radiance all cast in the same location and a volley of Eldricht Blasts coming at you to cheese grate you. Survivors get Hurled Through Hell!!!
I think one way to deal with the “running out of gas” problem is to leverage feat, race, and invocation choice to be able to add spells and uses - I’m thinking invocations like Eldritch Sight (Detect Magic) or Misty Visions (Silent Image) that give you at-will spells, Fey Touched and Shadow Touched, Drow or Tiefling to get once-a-day useful spells.
I think I'd go undead or fathomless for the fourth party member, especially if you're starting at low levels. This is going to be a squishy party with good but fairly limited heals, and I think someone needs to build around getting the best possible debuff mileage.
You could also build a group of delinquents having to spend the day in detention, similar to the Breakfast Club. Your popular pretty girl as your Fey Warlock, who is constantly using her looks and Charisma to get what she wants. Your athletic jock as your Hexblade Warlock, who also prioritizes more into Strength than Charisma. Your rebellious flunky as a Genie Warlock, who specializes in Dexterity and Stealth. And lastly, your geek/nerd as a Celestial Warlock, who dumps Charisma and has a higher Intelligence. They have the Pact of the Tome and they also heal everyone in hopes that they are excepted by the cool kids.
Another avenue for damage dealing in this party might be a ranged Warlock that takes Eldritch Spear, Spell Sniper, and if they really wanna be a sniper rifle, meta magic adept for distant spell. Potentially up to 1200 feet of ranged eldritch blast. Couple that with Devil's Sight and repelling blast/grasp of hadar, and you could push/pull enemies from virtually anywhere. Also you do all this while avoiding all but total cover and moving enemies about for either your party to dump AoE's on them or the hexblade to smite them into a fine red mist. I really can't imagine many enemies that could make it within striking distance of you before they entered your range. Then, once they were locked down they enter an eldritch meat grinder from the party LMAO. Thematically I imagine a stacking series of Doctor Strange-esque magical sigils that act like focusing rings for your blasts that stack from the length of a small pistol to the barrel length of a 50 cal rifle. The mechanical and role play potential of this party is so juicy. I love it. ❤
One character with the at will detect magic its really great for exploration and investigation because even as a ritual you cant use it casually or for small things
Note on Hero Forge, the color printed minis will be blotchy and fragile. I've ordered two different minis at least 1 year apart and the colors were not what I placed on the design and the colors were not even. Any part of the mini that extends from the core, like most arm or weapon poses, WILL break off with a short drop on carpet. Roughly a four foot drop will do it. These criticisms are only regarding the color printed minis. The normal and premium plastics are great.
I actually made "the magical girl is a Warlock" connection long ago. My first official 5E character (after playing in the D&D Next playtest) was an Archfey patron Warlock for an Adventurer's League game. Laura was a handmaiden of the Summer Queen, Titania, and I would reflavor her Eldritch Blasts as unicorns, rainbows, shooting stars. In addition I drew inspiration from Peulla Magi Madoka Magica, where one of the magical girl characters is always eating something, but never gains weight. Laura was an urchin who stole food from everywhere she went and ate it at inappropriate times. Unfortunately, I never completed Laura's quest to defeat Tiamat, as I moved from New York and couldn't find another AL game to continue playing her in.
And really, Fathomless is just Great Old One, but wet, so you could easily flavor them giving separate warlocks different types of powers. And the hexblade is arguably the easiest: you can say that the sword or whatever is actually a piece of a claw or appendage of the patron, and has become sentient. Why? Well, if I told you how, your brain would melt. Boom. Four warlocks with different subclasses and the same actual patron.
Make a contract with me and become a Magical Girl! /人◕‿‿◕人\ More seriously, I've read an essay on the Magical Girl genre that mentions that either their powers are granted by an outside entity, or they are hers by birthright, with Sailor Moon being a combination of the two, so that would mean Sailor Moon is a Sorlock.
An idea for a group of different people inhabited by different entities would be the Jinchuriki from Naruto. They all hold a different beast that gave then different powers while still having similar ones that all jinchuriki shared
1st warlock disguises as the guard captain and starts the ruse.... the veteran guards are suspicious and won't go against the Lords orders... second warlock arrives disguised as the Lord... but this mission was ordained by the king... third warlock comes disguised as the king.
The genie warlock has to go into the vessel, so they could not put everyone else in there and then sneak into a place. Someone else should be the sneak and carry the vessel with the remaining party members.
All warlocks should definitely be S, based on how you build them. I also think it's an oversight not to mention Fathomless for character number 4. It's the king of area control and its defensive features stack brilliantly with the Hexblade.
Can confirm, my Paladin player loves me because of my tentacle and its ability to just negate 2d8 damage. Tack on its own -10 feet attack, which just has to hit, not damage, my Bigby’s Tentacle, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Forcecage, Sickening Radiance, Sleet Storm, Silence, Gust of Wind… Fathomless Warlocks love crowd control.
@@nocteexmortis979 The tentacle + Lance of Lethargy + Slasher on the Hexblade is excellent single target lockdown. If they are also in Darkness and Spike Growth, they are not having a good time.
Another great video guys! After doing some research on changelings I noticed that the social group they belonged to might share a persona, someone famous that all of them take turns playing so no one suspects any one changeling. Or even a revered persona that only certain changelings have permission to use, usually after partaking in some sort of initiation ritual. The whole thing is ripe with story, and depth, and roleplay opportunities.
I fully agree that magical girls are warlocks. One of the very first characters I tried to play in dnd was a magical girl warlock. I tried making her patron a powerful unicron (celestial) My dm wasn't as enthusiastic about it as I was though and it sort of fell through
That’s why you’re going to have to get really good rolled stats or use a set of stat picking devices instead of the standard array that gives your party the best chance of survival, in addition to getting that special homebrew that lets everybody pick a first level feat, also with ASI’s everybody gets a feat and an ASI boost there’s a lot of considerations for this
You are both 100% correct about Magical Girls being warlocks. You should check out Madoka Magica, anime which is the dark version of what Magical Girls are all about.
The sailor scouts are absolutely all warlocks, but Puella Magi Madoka Magica is basically that realization taken into the extreme! Also, Kelly, please, *please* watch or read “The eminence in shadow”!!!
Thank you for this video! Very fun concepts. I'm so curious about the "all barbarian party" and can't wait to see it. As for the warlocks I can imagine they group up around their enemies in a circle, hunger of hadar in the middle and pushing the enemies into the hadar with their eldrich blasts
At your point around 20:50, why did you say that you needed 2 pact of the tome warlocks to get "nearly" all the rituals? The Book of Ancient Secrets invocation is not the same thing as the Ritual Caster feat. Ritual Caster gets you the rituals from just one spell school; Book of Ancient Secrets gets ALL OF THEM. A single Pact of the Tome Warlock can learn every single one of the 30+ ritual spells in existence, and they are all available for casting at all times.
I like the idea of an order of warlocks who have trapped a Great Old One away, and are siphoning off its power in hopes of one day defeating it. Maybe even having one of their party be coerced into trying to free it. Would be an interesting twist from the traditional way of playing a warlock!
Regarding the squishy nature of Warlocks; Moderately Armored is actually a very solid feat! A 13 DEX from start and Moderately Armored gets you AC 19 at level 4, or 18 and no disadvantage on Stealth.
The "constantly stopping for tea and coffee" bit gave me an idea for a consumable magic item: a flask of arcane arabica thats basically a short rest in a bottle. It would definitely have to be rare, and it wouldn't be of much value to anyone but warlocks
We actually did just that: all party warlock! Part of a Witches's coven, working as a school kinda thing, 3 warlocks and 1 eldritch knight (but with warlock spells and invocations) Was really fun, we had 3 different patrons and we were able to play differently enough to not be identical.
A warlock group also really works well for the Decent into Avernus Campaign, as that campaign can start with your whole party having lost their memory and they don't remember who they are but it turns out they are all Warlock of Zariel in one form or another that went to Avernus with different goals, the fiend wants to free Zariel or find her sword and break it to make sure she can never be redeemed, the Celestial one can be an elf who was her warlock when she was good and he went there with the goal to reunite her with her sword and redeem her, the Hexblade can be someone who directly got his powers from Zariel's sword (as it is an powerful sentient entity in itself) and went into Avernus to find it and kill her with it. But during the game you drop hints why witch warlock was sent there but you also give them a lot of red hearings, like the fiend warlock was maybe a really good guy who helped out a lot of people and takes care of an orphanage while the celestial one is known across the lands as a war criminal, but at no point do you reveal that Zariel is their patron until they come face to face with her.
I love the stream of consciousness campaign idea section! You should do a spinoff: everyone is a X-pact warlock, what are the pact boons? Party of each elemental genie type to start!
I ran a magical girl campaign and it was a ton of fun. They could be whatever class they wanted but they basically had stats on par with a commoner when not transformed and could only transform a number of times per day equal to their proficiency bonus.
One correction to Monty. The pack of the tome doesn't limit the class you can take rituals from. You get access to all ritual spells. The ritual caster feat is the one that limits ritual spells from one class. So you only need one tome pact Warlock. But getting the ritual caster feat on another Warlock would work just fine
You could cover a couple patrons with the Raven queen. The original flavour text for the hexblade alluded to her, and you could argue she could be a celestial patron as a god. Her alleged feywild origin could even very loosely let you lump in a fey patron as if she were patronizing all three.
In Mask of the Betrayer I'm pretty sure the endgame coalition that was sieging Kelemvor's city was a blue dragon, a demilich, and a series of angel siblings. Sometimes strange forces team up for an important cause.
Multiple warlocks in one party (especially, but not necessarily, with different patrons) is just asking the DM to come up with plots where the patrons have the player characters working at cross purposes, and the PCs have to figure out a way to navigate the situation (and potentially subvert the intentions of some or all of the patrons in the process). Potentially in a "bad for the player characters, good for the players (and story)" way. My favorite!
I actually recommend the genie warlock take pact of the tomb for a few reasons. First is the ability to not require sleep with an invocation. While everyone else snoozer the lamp, the genie can stand watch. Also throw in the invocation to make them a ritual caster, allowing for things like the tiny hut, and other useful rituals. Also the invocation to let them basically do sending with their book alongside an auto raise with their book will be immensely useful, and helps with the limited spellslots. On that note. I could see each warlock taking a different pact to further differentiate them, though overlap there isn't an issue.
Front Line: Hexblade (obvious) Fiend or Ifrit Genie (Fire Shield, Shadow of Moil, and Armor of Agathys) Back Line: Celestial (Tome Pact) Great Old One (Chain Pact)
I love Warlock, but for me it's the best when it's combined with something. It can create so interesting backgrounds, plain interesting gameplay mechanics, etc. So it really is a bit unusual to think of it as single class for me. Oh, and I'd be playing the Archfey, almost always. It just resonates. :D One thing I really love about Warlock is that it immediately gives you a nice starting point, to discuss with the DM and your group.
You have a valid point. Warlock is great for multi-class dip from other charisma based members (Bard, Paladin, Sorcerer). It gains fewer benefits after initial levels.
Funny thing about the Sailor Moon as a Warlock and the group being the Power Rangers... is that in the book, Valda's Spire of Secrets, there's an actual Warlock subclass called "The Legacy" which is, in fact, based on transforming heroes! It's got several cool abilities like actually transforming and the capstone ability is you charging up your big flashy finishing move!
Note: the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation doesn't limit you to ritual spells from just a single class (except arguably for the two free ritual spells granted by taking the invocation itself). If you find ritual spells on magic scrolls or in a wizard's spellbook, you can copy said rituals into your book of shadows.
The main campaign I'm playing in started as an all warlock party. Two of us even picked the fathomless subclass, though spell choice and drastically different patrons led to them feeling very different (my friend's tentacle of the deep is a literal tentacle and mine is a quasi-real snake, for example). Of course, two died and now there's a chaotic insane fighter and a crazy barbadin, but its a blast (perhaps even eldritch).
This series has made me crave a series on "How to Build your BBEG: (Bard)" (for each class) and talking about how they could use powerful abilities and items to offer players a fun challenge
When the Genie WArlock is brought up around 11mins, Kelly suggests the Genie stuff the party in their Bottled Respite+Sanctuary Vessel features and stealth. Unfortunately, RAW states that the Genielock uses the Bottled Respite targeted at self, and Sanctuary Vessel allows them to bring a number of willing targets inside with them. Creatures, such as player characters, cannot remain within the Vessel without the Genielock, however objects such as adventure gear, stolen loot, etc can remain in the vessel, unless the genielock dies or the vessel is destroyed. Also rules as written, this is a one-time use per long rest. However, around that time, spells like dimension door, arcane gate and teleportation circle become available for exit strategies after using the Vessel to stealth into where ever the party needs to break in. Also, a 10min short rest is great utility as well.
Couple of things. Genie warlocks get their own flight at level 6 and with the book of ancient secrets invocation you’re not limited to just one class of ritual spells like the ritual caster feat. It specifies that you can pick spells from any class
Bottled Respite requires the warlock to be in the genie vessel so they can’t be the infiltrator themselves. However, they could get their imp or sprite familiar to sneak past guards invisibly, carrying the genie vessel.
Another great thing about having 4 different warlock with 4 different Patrons they can also have 4 different pact forms, like the Hexblade obviously picks Pact of the Blade, you give the Celestial pact of the talisman, the Ginnie pact of the tome and the fiend pact of the chain
The funny thing for the Genie patron is its almost like having 4 sub sub-classes, the base class abilities are the same (with the exception of damage bonus and resistance energy type), but the spell choices change up a bit, add them being genasi and i imagine a crazy captain planet like team. biggest lore issue i think would be that i think a fiend and celestial would team up for sending their warlocks out quicker than some of the genie lords as much as they hate other genie types.
