Ascendant Step might not be the best invocation, but I like the idea of a warlock that makes his party pull him around while he levitates all the time, like an eldritch balloon
Cloak of Flies with Silver Tongue (eloquence bard). It doesn't matter how bad your Charisma roll is from Cloak of Flies, Silver Tongue replaces it with a 10. So imagine this smelly homeless tabaxi with flies everywhere being absolutely charming and Persuading his way into high class households like "I know he's smelly and looks like trash but he has such a nice voice." It's a hilarious mental picture and I play this combo currently on Tuesdays.
I think it's worth mentioning that flying creatures that lack the "hover" descriptor fall when prone. Size Huge dragon flying around giving you grief? Smite it & toss that sweet, sweet, falling damage on top! An easy-to-save-against stunning fist one-shoted a Manticore in one of our games. Do not underestimate falling damage!
It does, but in most cases it doesnt do much. An adult red dragon has a fly speed of 80. If you shoot that sucker at 250 feet, its still going to take a shit ton of falling damage.
I've gotten to the point where I generally ignore mechanical analysis videos from my other subscriptions. Treeantmonk is generally just the best that I've found for that sort of stuff
An argument for Myriad Forms over Many Faces: When you use these spells, you're likely going for espionage. If you're doing espionage, then engaging in combat is generally a 'lose state'. It means you've failed in your deception, and now have to fight your way out. Unless you're fighting, concentration is generally not much of a concern. In addition, Alter Self actually changes your body, so upon close inspection, you'll hold up. With Disguise Self, even something like a handshake could be dangerous. In addition, Alter Self allows you to alter your voice. In addition to being able to mimic a specific person's voice perfectly, which comes with its own merits, this means that you can very accurately mimic other genders or races as the situation calls for, no problem. The only bad part is that it requires a degree of foresight, because your clothes will NOT change, unlike with Disguise Self. You'll want to keep a set of outfits in different sizes with you, and you'll definitely want the Disguise Kit proficiency in order to make new outfits or alter old ones. However, with a degree of planning, I think that Myriad Forms overtakes Many Faces. With enough work (observation, research, papers), you could even completely steal someone's life. Though, uh, that's probably an evil application.
@@sharkforce8147 the thing about aquatics is if the story requires it, the gm will have to provide some means anyways. As a genie tome lock with book of shadows, my gm just let me find the water breathing spell.
Get the Actor feat early, use Mask of Many Faces/Master of Myriad Forms, Misty Visions, Shroud of Shadows, One with Shadows, and Beguiling Influence. You are now a better Rogue than most Rogues. Study someone for a bit, then impersonate them perfectly and look the part. Master of Myriad Forms lets you fake more than just the look, as physical inspection won't reveal you're a fake. A good escape plan is getting the Talisman pact boon and the invocation to teleport to whoever has your amulet. Give it to the party when you infiltrate. If something happens, poof.
I have a couple of house rules for innvocations. 1. Innvocations which effectively add a spell to warlock spell list, can be cast once without expending a spell slot. 2. The hex related innvocations can be used alongside the casting of the spell or usage of the feature
Yeah, I like those changes. I think more class-defining abilities (Rage for a Barb comes to mind, for example) can be made less restrictive without un-balancing things a lot.
I let my pure class warlocks change their invocations on a long rest if it's a multi-class they have to commit. This represents your connection to your patron and your ability to bend its rules for power, but at what cost? Anyways my players seem to like it I may add something similar to your rules in the next game though, options are always a good thing imo.
I did a class rewrite myself with something similar. Aside from at-will casts, all the spell invocations add the spell to your list and can be cast once a day without expending a pact slot. I don't recall including anything specific to hex but if I did, I'll have to see about the other change.
One thing about tomb of levistus to keep in mind- incapacitation breaks concentration. If you use it, you give up any spell you were concentrating on. For a warlock with limited slots, a big loss.
My Hexblade uses Relentless Hex to do bad-ass maneuvers that would be suicidal with most classes. I've attached Hex to an enemy 50 feet below the balcony we were on, and fired a few Eldritch Blasts at them. The next turn, I jumped off the ledge and before hitting the ground, I teleported behind the enemy and attacked. It's also damn near impossible for the enemy to shake me. It mostly gets used in boss fights or against really sturdy enemies, but my Hexblade is built for sustained damage anyway, not bursting his target down. It may not be useful against worthless mooks, but they aren't a concern I need to worry about my invocation choices over.
Use sign of Ill omen, at 5th level it's no concentration and it lasts 8 hours. So you have a no concentration 30 foot teleport for 8 hours. I think it's worth the 2 invocations and makes the warlock extremely slippery.
Extra bonus to Eldritch Smite: When you can pick it up or will already do more damage than a Divine Smite AND it will reach max damage by the time paladins do as much as you did at 5th.
@@noncanalepricnipale Lots of non concentration spells like Armor of Agathys and False Life Invocation make rage even more impressive since you get double duty from Temp HP (and I'm Fiend so if I kill something the party just keeps rolling). Spider Climb, Jump (with Githyanki), and Invisibility are great for exploration, while Mirror Image makes you MORE tanky than you otherwise are! And with 14 Cha and Eldritch Blast you've still got a reliable 120 ft ranged option. I've loved it!
I would argue that Maddening Hex also works with Bane. The Invocation specifically list's, Hex, Hexblade's Curse, and Sign of Ill Omen (Bestow Curse). It, however, never limits the feature to these; it says 'such as' in the description when referring to the non Hex spell 'curses', suggesting there could be others. Bane provides a similar effect to one of Bestow Curse's possible effects (-1d4 to saving throws and attack rolls vs disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws of one ability respectively), which we know qualifies for this ability. Bane also doesn't provide additional saves after the initial save, which appears to be a feature of all the listed cursing abilities (saves to get rid of the curse anyway). But at the root of it all, is that 'curses' are not defined in dnd. Bane provides the exact opposite effect of the Bless spell. What is the opposite of blessing someone? Cursing them. Maddening Hex does refer to who you can effect in the singular rather than plural, though, so I would say you can only target one person affected by Bane per bonus action.
I think Travis on critrole just used relentless hex in a chase scene that ended up working really well. super circumstantial, but funny i just saw one of those uses last thursday.
Long bow pact weapon plus Eldrich smite makes “Flying” enemies splatting enemies. Also, Tomb effects end of either the temporary hit points are used or the end of your next turn, which Evers first
I really wish the "once per long rest" invocation spells, simply let you cast them at you Warlock Spell Slot level. (Without expending the spell slot.) Their is already fierce competition on what the warlock can cast with its extremely limited spell slots. The Invocations are also very limited, and you're already casting them once per long rest, was it that hard to grant some extra breathing room? The warlocks shine if your campaign supports the recommended 2-3 Short Rests per day, but a lot of campaigns run from Long Rest to Long Rest, and it stifles the Warlocks options.
Shroud of Shadow is amazing. It may take concentration, but it's like Disengage Plus. You can just reposition as an action during your turn without opportunity attacks, and get advantage on your next attack roll. And that's just in combat. Outside of combat, being able to go invisible at will is incredibly strong for infiltration and information gathering. It's basically the upgrade to One with Shadows.
Hi, just watched your Invocation vids back to back, and it helped me to see some things about them I didn't realize before. In the same way, I'd wanted to add my perspective to what you said. - Tomb of Levistus: I think this is definitely a 4/5 - it is a good invocation to survive that nasty dragon breath, but it is also amazingly useful out of combat, when turns don't matter. Whether you waltz into a deadly trap or decide to jump down a cliff with no parachute (i.e. feather fall), Tomb of Levistus is there to save your butt. - Relentless Hex: Since you can also cast Hex on allies, Relentless Hex can be useful in non-combat situations, in particular since the Warlock has few other means of moving around via magical means. Still agree with 2/5. - Ascendant Step: imho only a 2/5, since the Levitate spell is so limited. In theory you can lift yourself into the air, out of reach of your enemies, but there are quite a few combat situations (houses, caverns) where this is not an option, and even then - by 9th level you often fight big or agile foes, who will still be able to hit you when floating 20ft above. Since you can't move properly while Levitating, casting it before combat is not an option, so it will mostly feel you're wasting an action. Even out of combat it isn't all that great, because if the extra 20ft of Levitate allow you to reach a ledge or whatever, you would have probably also been able to do so without it. - Whispers of the Grave: maybe not as situational as you suggest, as in D&D you kill things all the time, and being able to ask minons of your foes questions should typically net a lot of useful information. However, the DM needs to accomodate that, so I feel whether or not this invocation is useful depends more on the DM than the setting. - Chains of Carceri: again, not as situational, simply because 'Fiend' is one of the most common enemy types. If you hit D&D Beyond's monster database, around 1/3 of all monsters of CR 15 and up are fiends, and together with Undead they are probably some of the most heavily used enemy types in a lot of campaigns. I think this is more of a 3/5. - Master of Myriad Forms: in many ways its better than the Mask of Many Faces, because you actually transform into a creature (instead of creating an illusion), which makes it a much more solid option for disguising. Both of those invocations are usually used almost exclusively out of combat, so the whole concentration thing isn't as relevant. I'd give it a 2/5. - Shroud of Shadow: It's only 'regular' invisibility, but regular invisibility is still pretty darn good. Being able to cast it at will means you'll basically never enter combat without it, which is worth a lot - and the out of combat applications are also aplenty. I'd slap a 3/5 on it, but only because it comes so late (as you said). Moving on to the
Very insightful and well reasoned. I still think you should have bumped up chains of C to purple. Yeah the restriction sucks but with minions of chaos or the demon summoning spells, it makes it a lot safer to play or play with a summoner in case concentration is lost. Spending only an action to 'probably' shut down an Ally who turns on you cannot be understated.
Thanks for covering all the Invocations. I hadn't realized that you could use Eldritch Smite on a ranged weapon. If you loaded up on Pact of the Blade Invocations you could make an interesting Eldritch Archer. Then again you already can just use Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast which is more than enough.
That's how I use mine. In our last session, Orcus did not appreciate taking 90 damage from an arrow crit, then falling 80 feet out of the sky and landing prone at the feet of our fighters.
26:50 I prefer "Whispers Of The GRAVY" able to brew a potent meaty sauce to make the driest most flavourless meats succulent and delicious and grants advantage on constitution saves.
"One with Shadows".... mixed with Echoknight is pretty good. As transferring places take a BONUS action... and is not moving. So you can maintain invisibility. Ghostly Gaze also.... since you can teleport through walls then.
Ghostly gaze is great if you get an eversmoking bottle or a party member drops a fog cloud. I know devil's sight can give you the same effect but darkness only has a 10' radius. You could fill a giant area with heavy obscurement knowing you'll see through it.
1. I totally believe that "until you take an action" means bonus actions too. At least I would rule it like this. 2. I also believe that teleporting is moving. You *do* change your position. Just a different type of it.
You need to maintain a target for your hex. So you can use a party member to "carry" your hex for you. With relentless hex, you can then teleport to this party member. Put this on the wizard or someone else with misty step, and it helps a bit with your mobility
After the first target dies, you don't actually need another target to maintain concentration. At any time after the original target drops to 0hp, you can use a bonus action to apply Hex to another target. Nothing stops you from placing it on an ally and using it to follow them, though. Could be useful.
Reducing an ability check of an ally so you can teleport to them, as long as they are within sight, doesn't seem like a good deal. Also, any ally "carrying a Hex" would have to drop to zero hit points in order for you to move your Hex to an actual enemy. These all seem like really not so good ideas to me. LOL
@@blshouse ability checks dont matter in fights with the exception of grapple checks. I guess if you were planning on keeping hex up for the full 24 hour duration that would be a problem, but I dont think that is what the original poster had in mind.
Cloak of flies imposes disadvantage on all other Charisma checks. This includes counterspells, dispel Magic’s, telekinesis(goo) Warlock mitigates counterspell and dispel magic a bit because of their higher slot level, but it still drastically reduces success vs any high level spell.
I'm wondering, how many times have you actually played a pure warlock to this stage. I'm not arguing you're not qualified to judge these invocations, on the contrary your judgements are mostly spot on. My issue is especially the 15+ invocations are impossible to judge without having a specific campaign in mind. I played a warlock to 20 but in our game, we were going through an updated version of against the demon queen for 5e. So we went through the underdark to reach the drow city, messed it up then travelled to the abyss. For me, being invisible at will and casting chains of carceri at will WAS what my character was doing constantly, except when he was casting arcane eye to explore the passages ahead. In addition, witch sight was constantly helping us against invisible, greater invisible, dopplegangers, altered form yochols, drow, demons and all manner of evil that can be found in the underdark. Heck we even met a couple of shapeshifted dragons in the drow city. If you are level 15 and not fighting in other dimensions, what are you doing? Saving people from lowly bandits?
I respectfully disagree about witch sight, when you consider invisibility and improved invisibility are illusions as is hullusatory terrain, if you pass with in 30 ft of a creature hidden by it, be it even a wild animals or butterfly. Some creature hidden behind an illusionary wall. I think I should be purple because it's persistent, and greatly impacts the school of illusion and to a lesser degree transmutation.
I was about to write the same thing. Witch Sight makes it so melee enemies can't sneak up on you with invisibility, which my DM likes to do a lot. Yes, it's range is 30 feet, but in many encounters, that will cover most, if not all of the room. Honestly, the only thing I have against Witch Sight is that level 15 seems a little late to get this useful of an ability.
Sculptor of Flesh is particularly good for a Celestial Warlock. If an ally goes down, you can use a bonus action to drop a Healing Light die and then immediately turn them into a giant ape, t-rex, or whatever.
How exactly does it work though? In my campaign, we interpreted as "if you melt through the ice (the damage is high enough)", you CAN act on your next turn
@@aldoushuxley5953 The invocation says that the incapacitate ends when the ice melts, so RAW it seems pretty clear that if they break through the ice to hurt you the ice is no longer surrounding you.
@@flaisemoroz7800 Yeah but it doesnt say that the ice disappears if you run out of temp hp, it only says the ice melts on the next turn. Strict RAW you always lose a turn I think. A nice DM might let you get away with not being incapacitated, but I dont think its RAW.
Thank you for this insight. I would also be especially interested in your assessment of the new eldritch invocations in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
I think it might be ranked so low because it’s only an automatic for weapon-based hexblades that take pact of the blade. You can be just as effective with an Eldritch Blast based Hexblade with pact of the chain or tome.
@@thunderdragonish the same is true for lifedrinker too, no? Both are "must haves" for any pact of the blade warlocks, not just hexblades. And since you have to be a bladelock to even get them, chain and tome don't really factor into it
After 30+ videos I have finally run across something that I feel you got completely wrong. Thirsting blade is 100% blue. Which would you rather have life drinker(blue) or thirsting blade(green). Life drinker =add charisma to damage. Thirsting blade = add your charisma to damage+ any hex + weapon damage dice + magical effects from a weapon. With all that said you sir are absolutely my go to resource when I need a deep dive into D&D character creation.
Put hexblade's curse on your own familiar. Then you can teleport next to your familiar as a bonus action. You're losing out on the extra damage to a big target in exchange for a free misty step each round.
I think that I have found an alternative use for Tomb of Levistus that, while it probably wouldn't increase the rating, could make it a bit more useful. I will provide the bets example for what I am thinking. Let's say you are on top of a cliff, and there is something you need to get to is at the bottom. You can't just jump down, because you'd never survive the fall. However, the warlock leaps off the cliff, and just as they meet the ground, ice encases them, severely reducing or negating the fall damage.
to be honest i thought so as well. At least until i saw one of my players use it as a poor mans featherfall. It sets a flying creatures speed to 0 and it specifically calls out '(if any)'. And an airborne target (aka anyone not touching the ground) is brought to the ground at a rate if 60ft per round. So yeah, it works, so long as you fail your strength save. To make this work you either need to be high enough up to not hit the ground in a single roynd before casting. Or with a readied action.
Relentless Hex, the "teleport to your Hex target" one, has a utility use that didn't get mentioned. You can Hex an ally with some form of enhanced movement and then teleport to them every round. The one that springs to mind for me it a familiar with flight. Yes, still situational. But if Shadow Step on a Monk is good, this is better.
19:32 you could potentially use this in conjunction with hexblade’s curse on a party member in order to be able to teleport to them, or use hex with rest casting to be able to teleport to your familiar for an hour. And since hex’s duration is lengthened when your upcast it, this could be up to 24 hours. But yeah, even then the use is fairly limited, and you’re giving up a use of a feature or your concentration to be able to teleport Edit: Actually, once you’re level 9, you can rest cast a 5th level bestow curse through sign of ill omen, allowing it to last 8 hours and not use concentration. This could be used in conjunction with a familiar to have something akin to an at will misty step, albeit limited by your familiar’s location.
One alternate use i can think of for Relentless Hex is to cast your Hex on a party member (like a wizard or sorcerer) as a means of easily getting where you would prefer to be. Sure, you have to concentrate on an effect that will be a minor debuff for that character, but it would be another way of using this ability. Also, this could be a means of getting somewhere you wouldn't normally be able to, such as through a portcullis or out of a jail cell. I'm not saying these uses make it great, but they do present a few options. Heck, you could Hex your familiar (target, say, intelligence) and move wherever your familiar is located (within 30 ft.) That could be very useful. Could get you into or out of different situations.
@@adamkaris Certainly not ideal, but by the time you get access, Hex lasts 8 hours, which should be most of an adventuring day, and at 9th level it's 24 hours worth of at-will short range teleportation at the cost of one fairly easily renewable spell slot. Put it on your owl familiar and go nuts! Hahaha!
Great video as always. I’ve always wondered why your ranking system isn’t Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue So it would be Red, Yellow, and Blue and the mixes of those colors in between.
So many invocation are just meh. A lot of them would be better if you got them sooner and if the spells granted were 1 per day without using a spell slot.
Fire shield + Tomb of levistus is a pretty good combo because fire shield doesn't require concentration. So even though you lose a turn, you basically are forcing your melee enemies to wait it out as well, or take damage from hitting you. Tomb of levistus is basically built for tanking some big combo or heavy damage that an enemy can only do once. like if you were fighting a paladin for some reason and got crit smited. or you got sneak attacked by an assassin, you can just negate that and equalize the fight. Getting it back on short rest is good too, so if you're resting between major fights, you will essentially always have an ace up your sleeve for big damage.
Great video! Love your content, has always guided me to improving my gameplay! Looking at Eldritch Smites, what I would love to see: powerful melee sorcerer-hexblade or even paladin-hexblade combo!
I've got a Warlock right now with the Robe of Eyes and I took Devil's Sight and I'm looking to take Ghostly Gaze and maybe Witches Sight to top it off. I want to see if my DM will allow me to be treated as if I have True Sight all the time because I have all the individual pieces. • Seeing through darkness and magical darkness • Seeing invisible creatures & objects • Seeing into the ethereal plane • Seeing the true form of shapeshifters & illusions
Good analysis, but I've gotta sharply disagree with Master of Myriad Forms. The reasons given for the low ranking is that Alter Self is second level; it is concentration; and a similar effect is gained by another, level 2 invocation. First off, the concentration bit is almost irrelevant. When you are in a social situation, your concentration is much more free, and there simply aren't any spells like Enhance Ability on the warlock's list to compete. The other two spells on the warlock list for social situations, Tongues and Glibness, are both non-noncentration. Suggestion and friends are concentration, but you will rarely be casting them at this level. As far as only getting a level 2 spell goes, it is likely that you still have Mask of Many Faces, a level 1 spell. Assuming you don't care about concentration (which you won't in the social circumstances you'd use either spell), alter self is simply an improvement on an already-good feature. Since there is no cost to replacing mask of many faces with master of myriad forms, why not do so? Alter self is an excellent utility spell, and you'll get a lot of mileage out of it. On my eldritch knight, alter self is my only utility spell, and I use it very frequently. If it is worthwhile to cast for a level 10 character using their best spell slot to cast, it is probably viable for a level 15 warlock to cast for free.
Note that, unlike Disguise Self, Alter Self says nothing about your clothing or other equipment. RAW, you not fit into your armor and if you are carrying anything distinctive it may give you away pretty easily.
@@DougAdams that is a good point, but it cuts both ways. Using Disguise Self to appear as someone with different armor than your own is pretty risky when armor is so noisy. Plus, disguise self maintains your own voice, which is rather suspect as well. Disguise self is a good spell, but if I can choose between that and Alter Self, I'd expect that Alter Self would be useful in a larger number of scenarios than Disguise Self. Not all of them, but a majority. Highly DM-dependent, in any case.
>Since there is no cost to replacing mask of many faces with master of myriad forms, why not do so? There is a slight cost. From the PHB: Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at that level. You can only take 2 invocations total which require level 15+. You can't replace Mask with this, you take this and replace mask with something else, depending on when you took Mask.
@@TheGoatFish This is open to interpretation, depending upon what level you believe the indicative word "that" refers to. An argument can be made that it refers to the level of the invocation you are replacing (what you are saying here); you could also argue that it refers to the level that your character has gained. In the later case you could have as many as 6 invocations that require 15th level, since you could take one each time you gain a level.
And incapacitated means I loose concentration on spells. Which as a warlock I'm always trying to concentrate on spells to maximize my pact slot mileage.
I got hit with a 70 damage dragon breath in round 2 of combat. Thankfully my Tomb of Levistus could tank 70 points of damage for me. Not to mention an easy way to mitigate some falling damage on a class without feather fall.
I read a sage advice a while back that said if a feature prevented actions it also prevents bonus actions, -probably with reference to the phb’s definitions for action types. So ymmv with that.
@@undrhil Right, but the RAI reasoning is that a bonus action for all intents and purposes is considered a subcategory of an action. -an extra mini-action. -There's actually a sage advice ruling for this very instance for people who value those. [www.sageadvice.eu/2015/09/20/does-using-a-bonus-action-break-invisibility/]
I like to speak a case for One With Shadows, there are 2/3 upsides you did not talk about 1: It not does use concentration so you can cast a spell with concentration and then on the next turn hide, useful with long effect time spells like Sickening Radiance or Scrying 2: It not a magic effect, it just something you can do, you become invisible not cast it, so detect magic would not pick you up (well if you hiden your magic items or have a way to hide them) 3: if your running a darkness warlock like with Devil's Sight, you can cast the darkness spell and step in your own darkness and hide in it, even if the spell does down, your still hidden untill you move (you only need dim or darkness to use it)
I do not get what's the deal with Eldritch Smite hype. You already use a slot for darkness/Shadow of Moil, so you can use it only 1-2 times per rest. To be really effective, you have to use it on crit. So you can use it 1/rest AND you have to specialize with Pact Weapon (2-4 Invocations used) AND and still have one slot left (so no casting spells like Synaptic Static or Sickening Radiance) AND be a Crit Fisher (which has its own annoying limits). Crapton of requirements for a good (6d8 average 27, or 54 on crit), but not so huge burst damage once per rest, especially on higher levels (and once per few fights)
I've had great fun with Otherwordly Leap ... On a str-based melee-lock (with gear for stupid high strength). ASSUMING a belt of giant strength, Jump starts getting closer than you'd think to "most of the advantages of fly". But ... as per your rating, super circumstantial.
I notice that you've put the rankings & time stamps in the description (which is super useful!). I've actually done something similar for all the videos where you ranked all the wizard spells. As of the time of writing, I believe 5th level and onwards are missing the time stamps, but all the rankings are there. If you want to just copy them into the description (especially the time stamps, which I believe is what makes RUclips break up the time bar and label different sections) feel free.
About Chains of Carceri... At level 15 to 20, where do you expect yourself to be at, fighting goblins and skeletons? Sure destroying the gods of the giants/dragons/etc will probably not be an ability you(warlock) use each fight, but DM should add some just for the warlock
You know, if you hex an ally/party member, your mount, or your familiar and have Relentless Hex, you'll basically never have to walk ANYWHERE again ... ever. ;) Also, Polymorph is possibly the best spell in the game, PERIOD. Being able to cast it ... even ONCE, even using a pact slot, is invaluable. It has utility, exploration, combat and HEALING functions. Dropping in hit points? Afraid the next hit is going to kill you? "Whoops ... panic mammoth" and suddenly you've got a 126 HP buffer. And since warlocks *CAN'T* get this spell any other way, this is an *AMAZING* invocation. Frankly, I consider Sculptor of Flesh a must-have. By the time you're 15th level, what are the chances you're going to be fighting *ANYTHING BUT* celestials, fiends or elementals? Sure, if you're doing the Against the Giants and Descent into the Depths of the Earth adventures, it's possible your adversaries won't be one of these three (for a while; please remember Queen of the Demonweb Pits). But otherwise? Otherwise you're likely to be facing one or the other of these basically constantly. Sure, once in a while you might face an Archmage or an Aboleth or a dragon, but otherwise these beings are the only things that can even challenge a party of this level, *DMs KNOW THIS,* and thus Chains of Carceri should be considered an invaluable invocation for Pact of the Chain warlocks. In fact, it's basically the *ONLY* reason I would consider Pact of the Chain over Pact of the Tome.
Question - Shroud of Shadows, being a “At Will” casting, could it not be used to gain advantage in combat? I’m not talking about creatures who can see the invisible obviously but… Start combat invisible, attack with advantage, instantly turn invisible again and move away & just rinse/repeat…what say ye?
It is worth noting that the Paladin’s Divine Smite was Errata’d to cap at 6d8 rather than 5d8. Not that any sane Paladin should ever use their only 5th level slot on a smite. They’d get more mileage out of 3 hits with holy weapon, or using circle of power against a spellcaster.
It’s crazy how many of these are poorly rated (2 or less stars) because they require the use of spell slots that the warlock cannot spare. This is why I homebrewed the warlock using your spell point system as inspiration. For your Minions of Chaos invocation id recommend having it work like this: once per long rest you can spend a number of spell points to conjure a fiend, fey, or aberration equal to the number of spell points spent. A creature with less than 1 CR still requires 1 spell point to conjure. It requires your concentration and acts otherwise like conjure elemental does in terms of losing control of it if you lose concentration. That way your invocation gets better as you level, though they still can’t spam summons because it’s limited to once per long rest. It’s also thematic; your fey pact can summon forth a centaur or something, while your GOO pact can rip a hole in spice time and summon forth a gibbering mouther.
I’d love to see you go over an Arcane Trickster/Hexblade build. I’m currently building one, and it’s super utility heavy and fun, while still being capable in combat
Gift of the depths is out done by fathomless. If you’re playing in a campaign focused around water and you want at least a 2 levels of warlock; just go Fathomless. Having started 2 FathWlock; my now 4 Lore Bard loves the bonus action attack from the tentacles using a reaction and not BA for CuttingWords to help stave off damage. Helping your party not get hit is just as good if not better than healing them with a BA healing word.
You could use One with shadows+far step for some weird 1min long version of invisibility I also think that ascendant step becomes necessary in current meta. Everyone gets lvl 6/9 flight. Half the races are flying. If you don't fly by now, you'd rather have bad flight than use slots on the spell. You also have eldrich blast so just going up and blasting is totally viable
One interesting thing you could do is play an elf. And at night use the extra 4-6 hours that everyone's sleeping to use all your pact slots on animate dead, then short rest for an hour and repeat. Thsrs like 18 extra castings of animate dead which probably means you can get more undead than the necromancy wizard (not sure if its better, I haven't done the math).
Treantmonk has mentioned that he's not planning on doing any updated builds related to tasha's content until we officially has the book in hand and has the opportunity to evaluate everything since technically most everything out there is still conjecture at this point.
@@levifjellman6378 hexblade oathbreaker could be a powerful and thematic combination, and at least at higher levels also a good necromancer. Something like Oathbreaker 8/ Hexblade 12, maybe as a fallen Aasimar
A paladin MC with 5th level warlock dropping a Divine Smite and an Eldritch Smite on a crit, potentially adding a max of 22d8 (24d8 on an undead or fiend) damage and knocking prone, is a-mazing.
Too bad my friend didn't know about Chains of Carceri, we just finished a 15-17 lvl adventure in the Abyssian realm of Thanatos. Demons and undead all day, every day.
In defence of Dreadful Word, it doesn't grant the Charmed condition, so at higher levels there will be less creatures immune to it than say, suggestion.
I guess it's "Lev-EE-stus" Also, I think that "when the ice melts" is when you have expended your temporary HP. That's what has given you those THP, the ice. Gone the THP, gone the ice, you are free to take your turn. But I guess that's open to interpretation.
@@ATMOSK1234 It's nice if not very fitting on a Efreet warlock since the efreet warlock has fire resistance which means that and the fire vulnerability essentially cancel out.
Invisibility at will seems super powerful to me. I’m playing a Goo-lock right now. I can’t wait to communicate with NPCs through their minds while being invisible. I took two levels in Rogue to gain expertise in Persuasion and Deception. They’ll think I’m their God, or their own conscience.
TECHNICALLY you can use a 5th level slot on divine Smite, but you stil only do 5d8 bonus damage. ;) I would personally almost rate Eldritch Smite only ***, because of the limit on spell slots, but since you can use it after a crit, is jsut so insanly string, combined with the fact that warlock spells scale way faster on spell level then paladins, the sweet sweet damage is just so tempting, ESPECIALLY with a hexblade and their increased crit from their curse. ESPECIALLY with lifedrinker later. Who doesnt want to hit for 2d6+20 two to three times per turn (Great weapon master) Chains of Carceri obviously depends massivly on the campaign. I am in a campaign right now, where it is clear that at some points our enemiey are probably mainly fiends, so there this would be realyl really good, especially on a warlock, who cout get a rod of the pact keeper, wich makes DC spells so much better. And lastly, wich sights can see through "invisibility" and "greater invisibility". This might seem counter Intuitive, but both spells are "Illusion"-school spells, therefore Witch's sight thwarts them. The same with Blur and Mirror Image, though this is probably less common. It is still the little sibling of true sight. But all in all I agree with most of yourreasoning, amd even if not I really like how thorough you usually explain your choices. Good job as usual.
There are a few fixes I can think of that will make some invocations way better: 1. Cloak of Flies Make it at will. This was addressed in the video, and this would make it an aura that you must think about using. 2. Hex improvements I think they should be just that. Making them activate on use of the spell as well as a bonus action is great. Another person suggested this and we had the same idea, and I don't think this would be too game breaking. (It isn't Sorlock level game breaking anyway, so competing with that with a class feature is good). I should also mention this would make relentless hex amazing for melee Hexblades. 3. Tomb of Levistus I don't think that losing a turn is that big of a deal for this. The main issue is that you become incapacitated. This means you lose concentration, which on the builds which will be using this (Eldritch Blast Hex in all likelihood), this is bad. Comparatively, Armour of Agathys can be pre cast and can deal damage, albeit with lower hitpoints. I think to fix this we can do two things: if you lose the temporary hitpoints on your next turn you can move at half speed, and secondly you can't take actions or reactions on your next turn. 4. Ghostly Gaze Remove concentration. I think it's fair to be able to use this with Hex up, and with detect magic it also seems fair to be able to use it with detect magic. 5. Ascendant Step Allow it to be used on other players. This will be especially necessary as the Genie Warlock gets released in Tasha's Cauldron, which lets you fly for ten minutes as a bonus action up to your charisma, which for an earlier level overshadows Ascendant Step in most cases, in my opinion. 6. Otherworldly Leap Remove the level dependency. This makes it appropriate to the power level of the spell. 7. Whispers of the Grave Maybe force the creature to succeed on a charisma save or be forced to speak truthfully. Or perhaps the player has to make some kind of charisma check or spellcasting modifier check. 8. Chains of Carceri Make it able to target any creature. 9. Witch Sight Remove the range limit.
About Tomb of Levistus - if you're using it, you would likely lose concentration anyways, be it from especially huge crit or falling to 0. So it's not a big deal I think.
@@antongrigoryev6381 That's true, but at least with a save you get a chance to succeed; with the incapacitated condition there is no chance of keeping concentration. For a class which can really benefit from casting concentration spells, that kinda hurts. This is especially true if you're just using it to save some damage; not all fights are challenging, and sometimes it might be worth just getting some use out of it.
@@Chrokosaur I don't think that Tomb of Levistus worth using outside of a Life-or-Death situation. If the fight isn't challenging, then it's better to not waste your turn and finish it quicker.
@@antongrigoryev6381 That's true. I do think it could have some nice applications for blocking corridors, say. I'd say it would be worth it if you wanted to bait someone into attacking the vulnerable back line, and thus waste their turn, which would be great if you could get out of range. In that case (one which I could see coming up as a strat, as a kind of 'surprise Barbarian') you can neutralise an opponent by forcing them to waste their damage on hitpoints which aren't their target. I'd say if you play it well you can get good use out of it without being in a life or death situation.
I do want to point put that Cloak of Flies is Great for Melee Warlocks like the Hex-Blade who are within 5 feet of enemys most of the time it can take out groups of weaker enemys this way. Also Question for Tomb of Levistus, If you use it with Tricksters Escape can you just be a Moving statue?
Something I'm curious about: If you have Armor of Agathys up and you take damage and activate Tomb of Levistus, what happens? Does the creature take the damage from your armor of agathys? Do creatures that hit you subsequently on your turn while you have the temporary hit points from Tomb of Levistus take damage from armor of agathys?
Apparently Tasha's book will include two full pages with new invocations. Can you make a third video on this subject when the book officially comes out?
I’m going to have to disagree with bestow curse. I think if you look at it besides another hex spell it excellent. Like the fact you can prevent the cursed from making an attack. Just like eldritch smite this has the ability to end boss encounters. Also it might be one of the best spells to use with team work you use bestow curse and an AOE spell. If only it was warlock spell or came on at 9th level and allowed you to use it at 5th level with out using a spell slot
Goodness they could have saved so much time writing all those subpar invocations that give the option of one circumstantial spell per long rest if they just wrote it like so: Lesser/Greater/Dark Forbidden Knowledge: "Pick a spell of level X/Y/Z. You can cast it at-will, without using a warlock spell slot." Would allow players to comb the spell descriptions to find something useful to cast over and over again and really set themselves apart from the other spellcasters relying on good old Vancian principles.
Thirsting Blade and Eldritch Smite are must haves for Hex Blades. TB with DS/Darkness and Polearm Master is must for crit fishing. Throw in Elvin Accuracy and both your sustain and burst damage will be ridiculous.
Ah yes I remember doing a one shot with 18th level characters. 13 Paladin, 5 Hexblade Warlock. I Eldritch and Divine Smited on a crit and turned one of the mini bosses to dust.
Ascendant Step might not be the best invocation, but I like the idea of a warlock that makes his party pull him around while he levitates all the time, like an eldritch balloon
That’s absolutely hilarious
🤣😂 I'm just imagining a warlock in a tether following around a barbarian like Mad Max's Master Blaster.
Hedonism Warforgedbot
I love it
Pact of Hedonism@@Westnator
Cloak of Flies with Silver Tongue (eloquence bard). It doesn't matter how bad your Charisma roll is from Cloak of Flies, Silver Tongue replaces it with a 10. So imagine this smelly homeless tabaxi with flies everywhere being absolutely charming and Persuading his way into high class households like "I know he's smelly and looks like trash but he has such a nice voice." It's a hilarious mental picture and I play this combo currently on Tuesdays.
So the plot of cats?
@@DaDunge perhaps
haha! Great idea! The only problem is the fact that all the noblemen would be dropping dead from poisonous bites from the flies in the area of effect.
@@monohybridstudios that's a problem? Haha
Rasputin...
I think it's worth mentioning that flying creatures that lack the "hover" descriptor fall when prone. Size Huge dragon flying around giving you grief? Smite it & toss that sweet, sweet, falling damage on top!
An easy-to-save-against stunning fist one-shoted a Manticore in one of our games. Do not underestimate falling damage!
Even better if you use an improved pact weapon long bow.
@Dallin Barger does it? You have the page reference for that? And is that listed as an optional rule?
It does, but in most cases it doesnt do much. An adult red dragon has a fly speed of 80. If you shoot that sucker at 250 feet, its still going to take a shit ton of falling damage.
The only person on youtube that trust knows 100% what hes talking about when i watch DnD content.
strong agree!! dude never fucks up!!
Definitely my go-to for spells/feature analysis and builds!
I've gotten to the point where I generally ignore mechanical analysis videos from my other subscriptions. Treeantmonk is generally just the best that I've found for that sort of stuff
Totally agree! This dude knows his sh*t
An argument for Myriad Forms over Many Faces:
When you use these spells, you're likely going for espionage. If you're doing espionage, then engaging in combat is generally a 'lose state'. It means you've failed in your deception, and now have to fight your way out. Unless you're fighting, concentration is generally not much of a concern. In addition, Alter Self actually changes your body, so upon close inspection, you'll hold up. With Disguise Self, even something like a handshake could be dangerous. In addition, Alter Self allows you to alter your voice. In addition to being able to mimic a specific person's voice perfectly, which comes with its own merits, this means that you can very accurately mimic other genders or races as the situation calls for, no problem.
The only bad part is that it requires a degree of foresight, because your clothes will NOT change, unlike with Disguise Self. You'll want to keep a set of outfits in different sizes with you, and you'll definitely want the Disguise Kit proficiency in order to make new outfits or alter old ones. However, with a degree of planning, I think that Myriad Forms overtakes Many Faces.
With enough work (observation, research, papers), you could even completely steal someone's life. Though, uh, that's probably an evil application.
Disguise self is not concentration, alter self does. Stub your toe and you could be made.
@@sharkforce8147 the thing about aquatics is if the story requires it, the gm will have to provide some means anyways. As a genie tome lock with book of shadows, my gm just let me find the water breathing spell.
@@I..cast..fireball Because it is at will, then just cast it again, but the described case is rather niche
That's why I love changelings. Do all that, but at lvl1 and without concentration/invocation slot
Get the Actor feat early, use Mask of Many Faces/Master of Myriad Forms, Misty Visions, Shroud of Shadows, One with Shadows, and Beguiling Influence.
You are now a better Rogue than most Rogues. Study someone for a bit, then impersonate them perfectly and look the part. Master of Myriad Forms lets you fake more than just the look, as physical inspection won't reveal you're a fake. A good escape plan is getting the Talisman pact boon and the invocation to teleport to whoever has your amulet. Give it to the party when you infiltrate. If something happens, poof.
I have a couple of house rules for innvocations.
1. Innvocations which effectively add a spell to warlock spell list, can be cast once without expending a spell slot.
2. The hex related innvocations can be used alongside the casting of the spell or usage of the feature
Yeah, I like those changes. I think more class-defining abilities (Rage for a Barb comes to mind, for example) can be made less restrictive without un-balancing things a lot.
I let my pure class warlocks change their invocations on a long rest if it's a multi-class they have to commit. This represents your connection to your patron and your ability to bend its rules for power, but at what cost? Anyways my players seem to like it I may add something similar to your rules in the next game though, options are always a good thing imo.
@@slickrickard I think there was a UA awhile back that did something like that? maybe we will see it as a variant in tashas later in the year.
I did a class rewrite myself with something similar. Aside from at-will casts, all the spell invocations add the spell to your list and can be cast once a day without expending a pact slot. I don't recall including anything specific to hex but if I did, I'll have to see about the other change.
I find that Relentless Hex gives great mobility to any Warlock that has a familiar. Hex the familiar and you gain a teleport every turn.
One thing about tomb of levistus to keep in mind- incapacitation breaks concentration. If you use it, you give up any spell you were concentrating on. For a warlock with limited slots, a big loss.
Though if you need to use tomb of levistus, you were probably going to lose concentration reglardless.
Agreed, I would only use it on a critical hit, or if I was on low hit points.
@@TreantmonksTemple Exactly this.
With relentless hex, I always cast hex on my flying familiar. It’s essentially a free, worse version of misty step that happens to take concentration.
My Hexblade uses Relentless Hex to do bad-ass maneuvers that would be suicidal with most classes. I've attached Hex to an enemy 50 feet below the balcony we were on, and fired a few Eldritch Blasts at them. The next turn, I jumped off the ledge and before hitting the ground, I teleported behind the enemy and attacked. It's also damn near impossible for the enemy to shake me. It mostly gets used in boss fights or against really sturdy enemies, but my Hexblade is built for sustained damage anyway, not bursting his target down. It may not be useful against worthless mooks, but they aren't a concern I need to worry about my invocation choices over.
Use sign of Ill omen, at 5th level it's no concentration and it lasts 8 hours. So you have a no concentration 30 foot teleport for 8 hours. I think it's worth the 2 invocations and makes the warlock extremely slippery.
There are no videos I click as fast as Treantmonk's! Keep up the excellent work, Chris!
Same here
Really enjoy his content
Glad I'm not the only one that thinks a lot of invocations are lackluster, which is a shame because I really love the concept of the warlock class.
Extra bonus to Eldritch Smite:
When you can pick it up or will already do more damage than a Divine Smite AND it will reach max damage by the time paladins do as much as you did at 5th.
Would love to see a mystic arcanum guide
Stay tuned.
@@TreantmonksTemple please inform people on how underrated crown of stars is. It works with hex!
Warlocks are one of my favorite classes in 5e, especially when mixed with barbarian! Great videos man! Excited for more!
@@noncanalepricnipale Lots of non concentration spells like Armor of Agathys and False Life Invocation make rage even more impressive since you get double duty from Temp HP (and I'm Fiend so if I kill something the party just keeps rolling).
Spider Climb, Jump (with Githyanki), and Invisibility are great for exploration, while Mirror Image makes you MORE tanky than you otherwise are!
And with 14 Cha and Eldritch Blast you've still got a reliable 120 ft ranged option. I've loved it!
@@S1leNtRIP Very interesting
I would argue that Maddening Hex also works with Bane.
The Invocation specifically list's, Hex, Hexblade's Curse, and Sign of Ill Omen (Bestow Curse).
It, however, never limits the feature to these; it says 'such as' in the description when referring to the non Hex spell 'curses', suggesting there could be others.
Bane provides a similar effect to one of Bestow Curse's possible effects (-1d4 to saving throws and attack rolls vs disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws of one ability respectively), which we know qualifies for this ability.
Bane also doesn't provide additional saves after the initial save, which appears to be a feature of all the listed cursing abilities (saves to get rid of the curse anyway).
But at the root of it all, is that 'curses' are not defined in dnd. Bane provides the exact opposite effect of the Bless spell. What is the opposite of blessing someone? Cursing them.
Maddening Hex does refer to who you can effect in the singular rather than plural, though, so I would say you can only target one person affected by Bane per bonus action.
Thanks for adding time stamps into the video, it’s the difference between us watching once and going back to watch again.
I think Travis on critrole just used relentless hex in a chase scene that ended up working really well. super circumstantial, but funny i just saw one of those uses last thursday.
He did use it well, but the same thing could've been accomplished just by chasing them and peppering them with eldritch blasts.
@@araccoonstolemyradiator You can't KO with EB so I suspect they wanted to take the guy in alive.
Long bow pact weapon plus Eldrich smite makes “Flying” enemies splatting enemies.
Also, Tomb effects end of either the temporary hit points are used or the end of your next turn, which Evers first
I really wish the "once per long rest" invocation spells, simply let you cast them at you Warlock Spell Slot level. (Without expending the spell slot.)
Their is already fierce competition on what the warlock can cast with its extremely limited spell slots.
The Invocations are also very limited, and you're already casting them once per long rest, was it that hard to grant some extra breathing room?
The warlocks shine if your campaign supports the recommended 2-3 Short Rests per day, but a lot of campaigns run from Long Rest to Long Rest, and it stifles the Warlocks options.
This is why I pretty much discount any invocation that requires using a spell slot
Shroud of Shadow is amazing. It may take concentration, but it's like Disengage Plus. You can just reposition as an action during your turn without opportunity attacks, and get advantage on your next attack roll. And that's just in combat. Outside of combat, being able to go invisible at will is incredibly strong for infiltration and information gathering. It's basically the upgrade to One with Shadows.
I didn’t realize there were so many mediocre Warlock Invocations, which is a shame since the Invocations make the class.
The more you dig into this class the more front loaded it seems.
Always looking forward to these! Much love from Chicago
Hi, just watched your Invocation vids back to back, and it helped me to see some things about them I didn't realize before. In the same way, I'd wanted to add my perspective to what you said.
- Tomb of Levistus: I think this is definitely a 4/5 - it is a good invocation to survive that nasty dragon breath, but it is also amazingly useful out of combat, when turns don't matter. Whether you waltz into a deadly trap or decide to jump down a cliff with no parachute (i.e. feather fall), Tomb of Levistus is there to save your butt.
- Relentless Hex: Since you can also cast Hex on allies, Relentless Hex can be useful in non-combat situations, in particular since the Warlock has few other means of moving around via magical means. Still agree with 2/5.
- Ascendant Step: imho only a 2/5, since the Levitate spell is so limited. In theory you can lift yourself into the air, out of reach of your enemies, but there are quite a few combat situations (houses, caverns) where this is not an option, and even then - by 9th level you often fight big or agile foes, who will still be able to hit you when floating 20ft above. Since you can't move properly while Levitating, casting it before combat is not an option, so it will mostly feel you're wasting an action. Even out of combat it isn't all that great, because if the extra 20ft of Levitate allow you to reach a ledge or whatever, you would have probably also been able to do so without it.
- Whispers of the Grave: maybe not as situational as you suggest, as in D&D you kill things all the time, and being able to ask minons of your foes questions should typically net a lot of useful information. However, the DM needs to accomodate that, so I feel whether or not this invocation is useful depends more on the DM than the setting.
- Chains of Carceri: again, not as situational, simply because 'Fiend' is one of the most common enemy types. If you hit D&D Beyond's monster database, around 1/3 of all monsters of CR 15 and up are fiends, and together with Undead they are probably some of the most heavily used enemy types in a lot of campaigns. I think this is more of a 3/5.
- Master of Myriad Forms: in many ways its better than the Mask of Many Faces, because you actually transform into a creature (instead of creating an illusion), which makes it a much more solid option for disguising. Both of those invocations are usually used almost exclusively out of combat, so the whole concentration thing isn't as relevant. I'd give it a 2/5.
- Shroud of Shadow: It's only 'regular' invisibility, but regular invisibility is still pretty darn good. Being able to cast it at will means you'll basically never enter combat without it, which is worth a lot - and the out of combat applications are also aplenty. I'd slap a 3/5 on it, but only because it comes so late (as you said).
Moving on to the
Very insightful and well reasoned. I still think you should have bumped up chains of C to purple. Yeah the restriction sucks but with minions of chaos or the demon summoning spells, it makes it a lot safer to play or play with a summoner in case concentration is lost. Spending only an action to 'probably' shut down an Ally who turns on you cannot be understated.
Thanks for covering all the Invocations. I hadn't realized that you could use Eldritch Smite on a ranged weapon. If you loaded up on Pact of the Blade Invocations you could make an interesting Eldritch Archer. Then again you already can just use Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast which is more than enough.
I did a Warlock archer build: ruclips.net/video/mf91OMbQtKE/видео.html
That's how I use mine. In our last session, Orcus did not appreciate taking 90 damage from an arrow crit, then falling 80 feet out of the sky and landing prone at the feet of our fighters.
26:50 I prefer "Whispers Of The GRAVY" able to brew a potent meaty sauce to make the driest most flavourless meats succulent and delicious and grants advantage on constitution saves.
I really appreciate how you organize your videos
One thing to note about Maddening Hex that you just helped me realize. It weaponized my bonus action. Super important
Witch Sight does see through Invisibility as that is a illusion spell... so It's kinda good.
This couldn't have come at a better time. I'm gonna play a warlock in an upcoming campaign taking place in Dark Sun. Thanks for the tips!
"One with Shadows".... mixed with Echoknight is pretty good. As transferring places take a BONUS action... and is not moving. So you can maintain invisibility. Ghostly Gaze also.... since you can teleport through walls then.
Ghostly gaze is great if you get an eversmoking bottle or a party member drops a fog cloud. I know devil's sight can give you the same effect but darkness only has a 10' radius. You could fill a giant area with heavy obscurement knowing you'll see through it.
1. I totally believe that "until you take an action" means bonus actions too. At least I would rule it like this.
2. I also believe that teleporting is moving. You *do* change your position. Just a different type of it.
You need to maintain a target for your hex. So you can use a party member to "carry" your hex for you.
With relentless hex, you can then teleport to this party member.
Put this on the wizard or someone else with misty step, and it helps a bit with your mobility
After the first target dies, you don't actually need another target to maintain concentration. At any time after the original target drops to 0hp, you can use a bonus action to apply Hex to another target.
Nothing stops you from placing it on an ally and using it to follow them, though. Could be useful.
Would be great to put it on your Imp familiar.
Reducing an ability check of an ally so you can teleport to them, as long as they are within sight, doesn't seem like a good deal. Also, any ally "carrying a Hex" would have to drop to zero hit points in order for you to move your Hex to an actual enemy. These all seem like really not so good ideas to me. LOL
@@blshouse ability checks dont matter in fights with the exception of grapple checks. I guess if you were planning on keeping hex up for the full 24 hour duration that would be a problem, but I dont think that is what the original poster had in mind.
Or get a bug in a cage. Then crush it when combat starts.
Conquest Paladin + Warlock with Relentless Hex is a thing of beauty. Could even throw in Cloak of Flies and be truly menacing.
Cloak of flies imposes disadvantage on all other Charisma checks. This includes counterspells, dispel Magic’s, telekinesis(goo)
Warlock mitigates counterspell and dispel magic a bit because of their higher slot level, but it still drastically reduces success vs any high level spell.
I'm wondering, how many times have you actually played a pure warlock to this stage. I'm not arguing you're not qualified to judge these invocations, on the contrary your judgements are mostly spot on. My issue is especially the 15+ invocations are impossible to judge without having a specific campaign in mind. I played a warlock to 20 but in our game, we were going through an updated version of against the demon queen for 5e. So we went through the underdark to reach the drow city, messed it up then travelled to the abyss. For me, being invisible at will and casting chains of carceri at will WAS what my character was doing constantly, except when he was casting arcane eye to explore the passages ahead. In addition, witch sight was constantly helping us against invisible, greater invisible, dopplegangers, altered form yochols, drow, demons and all manner of evil that can be found in the underdark. Heck we even met a couple of shapeshifted dragons in the drow city. If you are level 15 and not fighting in other dimensions, what are you doing? Saving people from lowly bandits?
Bandits are bad people!
I respectfully disagree about witch sight, when you consider invisibility and improved invisibility are illusions as is hullusatory terrain, if you pass with in 30 ft of a creature hidden by it, be it even a wild animals or butterfly. Some creature hidden behind an illusionary wall. I think I should be purple because it's persistent, and greatly impacts the school of illusion and to a lesser degree transmutation.
I was about to write the same thing. Witch Sight makes it so melee enemies can't sneak up on you with invisibility, which my DM likes to do a lot. Yes, it's range is 30 feet, but in many encounters, that will cover most, if not all of the room. Honestly, the only thing I have against Witch Sight is that level 15 seems a little late to get this useful of an ability.
Sculptor of Flesh is particularly good for a Celestial Warlock. If an ally goes down, you can use a bonus action to drop a Healing Light die and then immediately turn them into a giant ape, t-rex, or whatever.
I know this video is a year old and you probably won’t see this. But thank you for sorting it by Level and *then* Alphabetical.
Tomb of Levistus might not be the strongest, but it will always be my favourite :)
How exactly does it work though?
In my campaign, we interpreted as "if you melt through the ice (the damage is high enough)", you CAN act on your next turn
@@aldoushuxley5953 you guys play it more powerful, appreciate the boon you have received.
@@keeganmbg6999 Idk, I am pretty sure, that this is how it should work RAW.
(I agree though, that it is not RAI)
@@aldoushuxley5953 The invocation says that the incapacitate ends when the ice melts, so RAW it seems pretty clear that if they break through the ice to hurt you the ice is no longer surrounding you.
@@flaisemoroz7800 Yeah but it doesnt say that the ice disappears if you run out of temp hp, it only says the ice melts on the next turn. Strict RAW you always lose a turn I think.
A nice DM might let you get away with not being incapacitated, but I dont think its RAW.
Thank you for this insight. I would also be especially interested in your assessment of the new eldritch invocations in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
Damn only one rated blue, that's surprising thought the high level invocations would be a little better
I was surprised that thirsting blade was not blue.
Without an extra attack, lifedrinker is not very powerful.
@@aldoushuxley5953 yeah it's an automatic pick on a pact of the blade warlock,except for very very niche builds
@@aldoushuxley5953 yeah this is a weird oversight.
I think it might be ranked so low because it’s only an automatic for weapon-based hexblades that take pact of the blade. You can be just as effective with an Eldritch Blast based Hexblade with pact of the chain or tome.
@@thunderdragonish the same is true for lifedrinker too, no?
Both are "must haves" for any pact of the blade warlocks, not just hexblades.
And since you have to be a bladelock to even get them, chain and tome don't really factor into it
Whispers of grave is just a flavor I like to add to my warlock. They always talk to dead but now they talk back
After 30+ videos I have finally run across something that I feel you got completely wrong. Thirsting blade is 100% blue. Which would you rather have life drinker(blue) or thirsting blade(green).
Life drinker =add charisma to damage.
Thirsting blade = add your charisma to damage+ any hex + weapon damage dice + magical effects from a weapon.
With all that said you sir are absolutely my go to resource when I need a deep dive into D&D character creation.
Wow this surely takes some air out of the warlock baloon. But it's all truth.
Good video, thanks treantmonk.
Minions of Chaos is okay but it's strictly inferior to Mini-Onions of Chaos.
Put hexblade's curse on your own familiar. Then you can teleport next to your familiar as a bonus action. You're losing out on the extra damage to a big target in exchange for a free misty step each round.
I think that I have found an alternative use for Tomb of Levistus that, while it probably wouldn't increase the rating, could make it a bit more useful. I will provide the bets example for what I am thinking. Let's say you are on top of a cliff, and there is something you need to get to is at the bottom. You can't just jump down, because you'd never survive the fall. However, the warlock leaps off the cliff, and just as they meet the ground, ice encases them, severely reducing or negating the fall damage.
...and assuming nobody in the party has the Feather Fall spell, which is first level, or Fly, which is 3rd level and is on the warlock spell list.
@@Nurk0m0rath or levitate, or earthbind, or polymorph, or rope etc...
@@vadaritis Earthbind? That's about dragging flying creatures to the ground. The rest I can see though.
to be honest i thought so as well. At least until i saw one of my players use it as a poor mans featherfall. It sets a flying creatures speed to 0 and it specifically calls out '(if any)'. And an airborne target (aka anyone not touching the ground) is brought to the ground at a rate if 60ft per round. So yeah, it works, so long as you fail your strength save.
To make this work you either need to be high enough up to not hit the ground in a single roynd before casting. Or with a readied action.
@@vadaritis Huh, clever player. I wouldn't have thought of that. But I'll have to remember it.
Relentless Hex, the "teleport to your Hex target" one, has a utility use that didn't get mentioned. You can Hex an ally with some form of enhanced movement and then teleport to them every round. The one that springs to mind for me it a familiar with flight.
Yes, still situational. But if Shadow Step on a Monk is good, this is better.
19:32 you could potentially use this in conjunction with hexblade’s curse on a party member in order to be able to teleport to them, or use hex with rest casting to be able to teleport to your familiar for an hour. And since hex’s duration is lengthened when your upcast it, this could be up to 24 hours.
But yeah, even then the use is fairly limited, and you’re giving up a use of a feature or your concentration to be able to teleport
Edit: Actually, once you’re level 9, you can rest cast a 5th level bestow curse through sign of ill omen, allowing it to last 8 hours and not use concentration. This could be used in conjunction with a familiar to have something akin to an at will misty step, albeit limited by your familiar’s location.
One alternate use i can think of for Relentless Hex is to cast your Hex on a party member (like a wizard or sorcerer) as a means of easily getting where you would prefer to be. Sure, you have to concentrate on an effect that will be a minor debuff for that character, but it would be another way of using this ability. Also, this could be a means of getting somewhere you wouldn't normally be able to, such as through a portcullis or out of a jail cell. I'm not saying these uses make it great, but they do present a few options.
Heck, you could Hex your familiar (target, say, intelligence) and move wherever your familiar is located (within 30 ft.) That could be very useful. Could get you into or out of different situations.
Then you just have to kill that ally to put hex on an enemy. Or end it and recast it.
@@adamkaris Certainly not ideal, but by the time you get access, Hex lasts 8 hours, which should be most of an adventuring day, and at 9th level it's 24 hours worth of at-will short range teleportation at the cost of one fairly easily renewable spell slot. Put it on your owl familiar and go nuts! Hahaha!
Great video as always.
I’ve always wondered why your ranking system isn’t Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue
So it would be Red, Yellow, and Blue and the mixes of those colors in between.
Yellow would look horrible.
So many invocation are just meh. A lot of them would be better if you got them sooner and if the spells granted were 1 per day without using a spell slot.
Wow! Been waiting for this!
Fire shield + Tomb of levistus is a pretty good combo because fire shield doesn't require concentration.
So even though you lose a turn, you basically are forcing your melee enemies to wait it out as well, or take damage from hitting you.
Tomb of levistus is basically built for tanking some big combo or heavy damage that an enemy can only do once.
like if you were fighting a paladin for some reason and got crit smited.
or you got sneak attacked by an assassin, you can just negate that and equalize the fight.
Getting it back on short rest is good too, so if you're resting between major fights, you will essentially always have an ace up your sleeve for big damage.
Great video! Love your content, has always guided me to improving my gameplay!
Looking at Eldritch Smites, what I would love to see: powerful melee sorcerer-hexblade or even paladin-hexblade combo!
I've got a Warlock right now with the Robe of Eyes and I took Devil's Sight and I'm looking to take Ghostly Gaze and maybe Witches Sight to top it off. I want to see if my DM will allow me to be treated as if I have True Sight all the time because I have all the individual pieces.
• Seeing through darkness and magical darkness
• Seeing invisible creatures & objects
• Seeing into the ethereal plane
• Seeing the true form of shapeshifters & illusions
Good analysis, but I've gotta sharply disagree with Master of Myriad Forms. The reasons given for the low ranking is that Alter Self is second level; it is concentration; and a similar effect is gained by another, level 2 invocation.
First off, the concentration bit is almost irrelevant. When you are in a social situation, your concentration is much more free, and there simply aren't any spells like Enhance Ability on the warlock's list to compete. The other two spells on the warlock list for social situations, Tongues and Glibness, are both non-noncentration. Suggestion and friends are concentration, but you will rarely be casting them at this level.
As far as only getting a level 2 spell goes, it is likely that you still have Mask of Many Faces, a level 1 spell. Assuming you don't care about concentration (which you won't in the social circumstances you'd use either spell), alter self is simply an improvement on an already-good feature. Since there is no cost to replacing mask of many faces with master of myriad forms, why not do so?
Alter self is an excellent utility spell, and you'll get a lot of mileage out of it. On my eldritch knight, alter self is my only utility spell, and I use it very frequently. If it is worthwhile to cast for a level 10 character using their best spell slot to cast, it is probably viable for a level 15 warlock to cast for free.
Note that, unlike Disguise Self, Alter Self says nothing about your clothing or other equipment. RAW, you not fit into your armor and if you are carrying anything distinctive it may give you away pretty easily.
@@DougAdams that is a good point, but it cuts both ways. Using Disguise Self to appear as someone with different armor than your own is pretty risky when armor is so noisy. Plus, disguise self maintains your own voice, which is rather suspect as well.
Disguise self is a good spell, but if I can choose between that and Alter Self, I'd expect that Alter Self would be useful in a larger number of scenarios than Disguise Self. Not all of them, but a majority. Highly DM-dependent, in any case.
It's also worth mentioning that Alter Self can't be seen through True Sight and other magical sight-related perception.
Disguise Self is
>Since there is no cost to replacing mask of many faces with master of myriad forms, why not do so?
There is a slight cost. From the PHB: Additionally, when you gain a level in this class,
you can choose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at that level.
You can only take 2 invocations total which require level 15+. You can't replace Mask with this, you take this and replace mask with something else, depending on when you took Mask.
@@TheGoatFish This is open to interpretation, depending upon what level you believe the indicative word "that" refers to. An argument can be made that it refers to the level of the invocation you are replacing (what you are saying here); you could also argue that it refers to the level that your character has gained. In the later case you could have as many as 6 invocations that require 15th level, since you could take one each time you gain a level.
You underrate tomb of Levistus. Taken with Tricksters escape is very powerful (so you can move) and synergistic
That is a very specific use case. I have found tomb of levistus pretty bad stone you lose an action and enemy can still go before you next turn.
And incapacitated means I loose concentration on spells. Which as a warlock I'm always trying to concentrate on spells to maximize my pact slot mileage.
I got hit with a 70 damage dragon breath in round 2 of combat.
Thankfully my Tomb of Levistus could tank 70 points of damage for me.
Not to mention an easy way to mitigate some falling damage on a class without feather fall.
You can still use bonus actions and stay invisible with One with Shadows
yes but you still need to hide before becoming invisible, or else the enemys are just going to atack with disadvantage
@@Faircrow yep. That usually requires an action so you won't be invisible anymore 😂
I read a sage advice a while back that said if a feature prevented actions it also prevents bonus actions, -probably with reference to the phb’s definitions for action types. So ymmv with that.
@@elliotbryant3459 it's not preventing you from taking actions, like Incapacitated. It just makes you no longer invisible if you take an action
@@undrhil Right, but the RAI reasoning is that a bonus action for all intents and purposes is considered a subcategory of an action. -an extra mini-action. -There's actually a sage advice ruling for this very instance for people who value those. [www.sageadvice.eu/2015/09/20/does-using-a-bonus-action-break-invisibility/]
I like to speak a case for One With Shadows, there are 2/3 upsides you did not talk about
1: It not does use concentration so you can cast a spell with concentration and then on the next turn hide, useful with long effect time spells like Sickening Radiance or Scrying
2: It not a magic effect, it just something you can do, you become invisible not cast it, so detect magic would not pick you up (well if you hiden your magic items or have a way to hide them)
3: if your running a darkness warlock like with Devil's Sight, you can cast the darkness spell and step in your own darkness and hide in it, even if the spell does down, your still hidden untill you move (you only need dim or darkness to use it)
I do not get what's the deal with Eldritch Smite hype.
You already use a slot for darkness/Shadow of Moil, so you can use it only 1-2 times per rest.
To be really effective, you have to use it on crit. So you can use it 1/rest AND you have to specialize with Pact Weapon (2-4 Invocations used) AND and still have one slot left (so no casting spells like Synaptic Static or Sickening Radiance) AND be a Crit Fisher (which has its own annoying limits).
Crapton of requirements for a good (6d8 average 27, or 54 on crit), but not so huge burst damage once per rest, especially on higher levels (and once per few fights)
I've had great fun with Otherwordly Leap ... On a str-based melee-lock (with gear for stupid high strength). ASSUMING a belt of giant strength, Jump starts getting closer than you'd think to "most of the advantages of fly". But ... as per your rating, super circumstantial.
Hey Treantmonk, will you do a seperate video for invocations in Tasha’s when it comes out.
I notice that you've put the rankings & time stamps in the description (which is super useful!). I've actually done something similar for all the videos where you ranked all the wizard spells. As of the time of writing, I believe 5th level and onwards are missing the time stamps, but all the rankings are there. If you want to just copy them into the description (especially the time stamps, which I believe is what makes RUclips break up the time bar and label different sections) feel free.
About Chains of Carceri... At level 15 to 20, where do you expect yourself to be at, fighting goblins and skeletons? Sure destroying the gods of the giants/dragons/etc will probably not be an ability you(warlock) use each fight, but DM should add some just for the warlock
i hope they will change all invocations that give you only 1 spell known and often with additional handicap of casting only once per long rest
You know, if you hex an ally/party member, your mount, or your familiar and have Relentless Hex, you'll basically never have to walk ANYWHERE again ... ever. ;)
Also, Polymorph is possibly the best spell in the game, PERIOD. Being able to cast it ... even ONCE, even using a pact slot, is invaluable. It has utility, exploration, combat and HEALING functions. Dropping in hit points? Afraid the next hit is going to kill you? "Whoops ... panic mammoth" and suddenly you've got a 126 HP buffer. And since warlocks *CAN'T* get this spell any other way, this is an *AMAZING* invocation. Frankly, I consider Sculptor of Flesh a must-have.
By the time you're 15th level, what are the chances you're going to be fighting *ANYTHING BUT* celestials, fiends or elementals? Sure, if you're doing the Against the Giants and Descent into the Depths of the Earth adventures, it's possible your adversaries won't be one of these three (for a while; please remember Queen of the Demonweb Pits). But otherwise? Otherwise you're likely to be facing one or the other of these basically constantly. Sure, once in a while you might face an Archmage or an Aboleth or a dragon, but otherwise these beings are the only things that can even challenge a party of this level, *DMs KNOW THIS,* and thus Chains of Carceri should be considered an invaluable invocation for Pact of the Chain warlocks. In fact, it's basically the *ONLY* reason I would consider Pact of the Chain over Pact of the Tome.
Question - Shroud of Shadows, being a “At Will” casting, could it not be used to gain advantage in combat?
I’m not talking about creatures who can see the invisible obviously but…
Start combat invisible, attack with advantage, instantly turn invisible again and move away & just rinse/repeat…what say ye?
Relentless Hex. Wondered about Hexing an ally and being able to move them boomerang back to my ally.
It is worth noting that the Paladin’s Divine Smite was Errata’d to cap at 6d8 rather than 5d8. Not that any sane Paladin should ever use their only 5th level slot on a smite. They’d get more mileage out of 3 hits with holy weapon, or using circle of power against a spellcaster.
It’s crazy how many of these are poorly rated (2 or less stars) because they require the use of spell slots that the warlock cannot spare. This is why I homebrewed the warlock using your spell point system as inspiration.
For your Minions of Chaos invocation id recommend having it work like this: once per long rest you can spend a number of spell points to conjure a fiend, fey, or aberration equal to the number of spell points spent. A creature with less than 1 CR still requires 1 spell point to conjure. It requires your concentration and acts otherwise like conjure elemental does in terms of losing control of it if you lose concentration.
That way your invocation gets better as you level, though they still can’t spam summons because it’s limited to once per long rest. It’s also thematic; your fey pact can summon forth a centaur or something, while your GOO pact can rip a hole in spice time and summon forth a gibbering mouther.
Paladin smites cap out at fifth level not at fourth. There was an errata that fixed it.
Sign of III Omen's Bestow Curse at 5th level no longer requires concentration and can stack with both Hex and Hexblade curse.
I’d love to see you go over an Arcane Trickster/Hexblade build. I’m currently building one, and it’s super utility heavy and fun, while still being capable in combat
Gift of the depths is out done by fathomless. If you’re playing in a campaign focused around water and you want at least a 2 levels of warlock; just go Fathomless. Having started 2 FathWlock; my now 4 Lore Bard loves the bonus action attack from the tentacles using a reaction and not BA for CuttingWords to help stave off damage. Helping your party not get hit is just as good if not better than healing them with a BA healing word.
You could use One with shadows+far step for some weird 1min long version of invisibility
I also think that ascendant step becomes necessary in current meta. Everyone gets lvl 6/9 flight. Half the races are flying. If you don't fly by now, you'd rather have bad flight than use slots on the spell.
You also have eldrich blast so just going up and blasting is totally viable
honestly by the time it becomes available, i would only give up another invocation for ghostly gaze if it was always on
Can you do a necromancer warlock build, now that warlocks will likely get animate dead in TCoE?
One interesting thing you could do is play an elf. And at night use the extra 4-6 hours that everyone's sleeping to use all your pact slots on animate dead, then short rest for an hour and repeat. Thsrs like 18 extra castings of animate dead which probably means you can get more undead than the necromancy wizard (not sure if its better, I haven't done the math).
Treantmonk has mentioned that he's not planning on doing any updated builds related to tasha's content until we officially has the book in hand and has the opportunity to evaluate everything since technically most everything out there is still conjecture at this point.
They get Danse Macabre, which I think does a better job of making you feel like a Necromancer.
@@levifjellman6378 also create undead and finger of death as arcana.
And the hexblade gets the specter
@@levifjellman6378 hexblade oathbreaker could be a powerful and thematic combination, and at least at higher levels also a good necromancer.
Something like Oathbreaker 8/ Hexblade 12, maybe as a fallen Aasimar
A paladin MC with 5th level warlock dropping a Divine Smite and an Eldritch Smite on a crit, potentially adding a max of 22d8 (24d8 on an undead or fiend) damage and knocking prone, is a-mazing.
I was just watching your other one a hour before the new one popped up
Too bad my friend didn't know about Chains of Carceri, we just finished a 15-17 lvl adventure in the Abyssian realm of Thanatos. Demons and undead all day, every day.
In defence of Dreadful Word, it doesn't grant the Charmed condition, so at higher levels there will be less creatures immune to it than say, suggestion.
I guess it's "Lev-EE-stus"
Also, I think that "when the ice melts" is when you have expended your temporary HP.
That's what has given you those THP, the ice. Gone the THP, gone the ice, you are free to take your turn.
But I guess that's open to interpretation.
Yup, that is how we interpret it too
I thought so too, but treantmonk might be correct. depending on how your DM rules it the invocation could be pretty powerful.
@@ATMOSK1234 It's nice if not very fitting on a Efreet warlock since the efreet warlock has fire resistance which means that and the fire vulnerability essentially cancel out.
Great video about my favourite class from my favourite dndtuber. Was just wondering if you planned to make a chronurgist build at some stage?
Tomb of Levestus is great for an Undead Warlock's Mortal Husk ability combo.
what do you mean? they both require reactions to activate
One with Shadows lets you be invisible while sleeping!
Or when standing watch.
Invisibility at will seems super powerful to me. I’m playing a Goo-lock right now. I can’t wait to communicate with NPCs through their minds while being invisible. I took two levels in Rogue to gain expertise in Persuasion and Deception. They’ll think I’m their God, or their own conscience.
Ghostly gaze can be used to cast spells through walls. Fireball a room you aren't in, for example. I'd say it's green
What tHE FUCK I HADNT THOUGHT OF THAT
Thoughts on Gift of the Protectors?
Master of myriad forms should be without concentration, for sure. It would also be cool if it let you reduce or enlarge your size.
TECHNICALLY you can use a 5th level slot on divine Smite, but you stil only do 5d8 bonus damage. ;)
I would personally almost rate Eldritch Smite only ***, because of the limit on spell slots, but since you can use it after a crit, is jsut so insanly string, combined with the fact that warlock spells scale way faster on spell level then paladins, the sweet sweet damage is just so tempting, ESPECIALLY with a hexblade and their increased crit from their curse. ESPECIALLY with lifedrinker later. Who doesnt want to hit for 2d6+20 two to three times per turn (Great weapon master)
Chains of Carceri obviously depends massivly on the campaign. I am in a campaign right now, where it is clear that at some points our enemiey are probably mainly fiends, so there this would be realyl really good, especially on a warlock, who cout get a rod of the pact keeper, wich makes DC spells so much better.
And lastly, wich sights can see through "invisibility" and "greater invisibility". This might seem counter Intuitive, but both spells are "Illusion"-school spells, therefore Witch's sight thwarts them. The same with Blur and Mirror Image, though this is probably less common. It is still the little sibling of true sight.
But all in all I agree with most of yourreasoning, amd even if not I really like how thorough you usually explain your choices. Good job as usual.
There are a few fixes I can think of that will make some invocations way better:
1. Cloak of Flies
Make it at will. This was addressed in the video, and this would make it an aura that you must think about using.
2. Hex improvements
I think they should be just that. Making them activate on use of the spell as well as a bonus action is great. Another person suggested this and we had the same idea, and I don't think this would be too game breaking. (It isn't Sorlock level game breaking anyway, so competing with that with a class feature is good). I should also mention this would make relentless hex amazing for melee Hexblades.
3. Tomb of Levistus
I don't think that losing a turn is that big of a deal for this. The main issue is that you become incapacitated. This means you lose concentration, which on the builds which will be using this (Eldritch Blast Hex in all likelihood), this is bad. Comparatively, Armour of Agathys can be pre cast and can deal damage, albeit with lower hitpoints. I think to fix this we can do two things: if you lose the temporary hitpoints on your next turn you can move at half speed, and secondly you can't take actions or reactions on your next turn.
4. Ghostly Gaze
Remove concentration. I think it's fair to be able to use this with Hex up, and with detect magic it also seems fair to be able to use it with detect magic.
5. Ascendant Step
Allow it to be used on other players. This will be especially necessary as the Genie Warlock gets released in Tasha's Cauldron, which lets you fly for ten minutes as a bonus action up to your charisma, which for an earlier level overshadows Ascendant Step in most cases, in my opinion.
6. Otherworldly Leap
Remove the level dependency. This makes it appropriate to the power level of the spell.
7. Whispers of the Grave
Maybe force the creature to succeed on a charisma save or be forced to speak truthfully. Or perhaps the player has to make some kind of charisma check or spellcasting modifier check.
8. Chains of Carceri
Make it able to target any creature.
9. Witch Sight
Remove the range limit.
About Tomb of Levistus - if you're using it, you would likely lose concentration anyways, be it from especially huge crit or falling to 0. So it's not a big deal I think.
@@antongrigoryev6381 That's true, but at least with a save you get a chance to succeed; with the incapacitated condition there is no chance of keeping concentration. For a class which can really benefit from casting concentration spells, that kinda hurts. This is especially true if you're just using it to save some damage; not all fights are challenging, and sometimes it might be worth just getting some use out of it.
@@Chrokosaur I don't think that Tomb of Levistus worth using outside of a Life-or-Death situation. If the fight isn't challenging, then it's better to not waste your turn and finish it quicker.
@@antongrigoryev6381 That's true. I do think it could have some nice applications for blocking corridors, say. I'd say it would be worth it if you wanted to bait someone into attacking the vulnerable back line, and thus waste their turn, which would be great if you could get out of range. In that case (one which I could see coming up as a strat, as a kind of 'surprise Barbarian') you can neutralise an opponent by forcing them to waste their damage on hitpoints which aren't their target. I'd say if you play it well you can get good use out of it without being in a life or death situation.
How does Tomb of Levistus work with a Warlock who has Resistance to Fire damage?
I do want to point put that Cloak of Flies is Great for Melee Warlocks like the Hex-Blade who are within 5 feet of enemys most of the time it can take out groups of weaker enemys this way.
Also Question for Tomb of Levistus, If you use it with Tricksters Escape can you just be a Moving statue?
Something I'm curious about: If you have Armor of Agathys up and you take damage and activate Tomb of Levistus, what happens? Does the creature take the damage from your armor of agathys? Do creatures that hit you subsequently on your turn while you have the temporary hit points from Tomb of Levistus take damage from armor of agathys?
Sadly, you can only have one source of temp HP, so your armor of agathys would just end
THP doesnt stack so AoA just stops working.
Armor of Agathys ends when its temp hp gets replaced.
Take a small dip as a rogue, one with shadows is HUGE
Apparently Tasha's book will include two full pages with new invocations. Can you make a third video on this subject when the book officially comes out?
I’m going to have to disagree with bestow curse. I think if you look at it besides another hex spell it excellent. Like the fact you can prevent the cursed from making an attack. Just like eldritch smite this has the ability to end boss encounters.
Also it might be one of the best spells to use with team work you use bestow curse and an AOE spell. If only it was warlock spell or came on at 9th level and allowed you to use it at 5th level with out using a spell slot
Goodness they could have saved so much time writing all those subpar invocations that give the option of one circumstantial spell per long rest if they just wrote it like so:
Lesser/Greater/Dark Forbidden Knowledge: "Pick a spell of level X/Y/Z. You can cast it at-will, without using a warlock spell slot." Would allow players to comb the spell descriptions to find something useful to cast over and over again and really set themselves apart from the other spellcasters relying on good old Vancian principles.
Thirsting Blade and Eldritch Smite are must haves for Hex Blades. TB with DS/Darkness and Polearm Master is must for crit fishing. Throw in Elvin Accuracy and both your sustain and burst damage will be ridiculous.
Ah yes I remember doing a one shot with 18th level characters. 13 Paladin, 5 Hexblade Warlock. I Eldritch and Divine Smited on a crit and turned one of the mini bosses to dust.