While not necessary, it is highly encouraged that the initial meeting with your Genie patron involves said patron doing an elaborate song and dance number about how you'll never have a friend like them.
Swear if one of my players (right now it’s just my son and fiancée lol) ever decide to roll a Genie Warlock that’s gonna be their character’s introduction to the genie. Just gonna play the scene from Aladdin like “Okay, pay attention, this is your backstory…”
Earth Genie Patron and their vessel is an unsuspecting rock with a small crack. But when Bottled Respite is used, the inside reveals it to actually be a beautiful geode. Edit: Wow guys. Thanks for the likes and comments. This was the first idea I had when making a GenieLock because my mom was super into geodes.
Just thought it something. In some magic systems, different minerals and greens are associated with different elements. Depending on the game you're playing, that could be linked as well
This is why I love this community... A lot of hidden genius ideas... Edit: Or it could be either a iron or clay ringband that encloses a gem... So it looks inconspicuous enough to get overlooked if you just leave it somewhere without the danger of being stolen...
One thing with Kelly's feats... if you take the +2 Cha at lvl8 and Fey Touched at 12, you're sitting at 19 Cha for 4 levels. Why not take Fey Touched at 8, making Cha an 18, which is basically the same as 19, and getting the Misty Step and other spell?
Right now I'm playing a marid genie/ pact of the tome warlock, and have it flavored as an ink spirit that lives in the tome and feeds off of knowledge written in the tome. The DM allowed me to make the tome also be the genie vessel, and every time I enter it I go into like an illustrated form on the pages. I'm still pretty early in the campaign (only 3 sessions), but I'm absolutely loving the flavor. My eldritch blast is an ink glob, I have inky tendrils when I use arms of hadar, I have an ink puddle for grease, and I have an inky raven as a familiar. I play them as a curmudgeonly old man who couldn't quite cut it as a scholar, and lived most of his life as a librarian, where he found the magic tome.
Sounds awesome! Another option for the Genie's Vessel is that it could be a metallic/armored "Book Cover" for your Pact Tome, which could even be kinda like "armor" for your Tome, protecting it with that little bit extra. Plus, nothing in the Text says that you have to be *holding* your Tome when using it as a spellcasting-focus, so the warlock could have it strapped/chained to his back or chest and everybody else would just thing it a piece of armor or something and if you put some Charisma(Deception) into it, you could make the 'enemies' think he's a different kind of Warlock and other neat little stuff like that! Nice to see someone is thinking along similar 'lines of thought' for a character I'm hoping to build. So awesome! Hey, anybody know if anyone has tried to Multiclass a "Pact of the Tome" Warlock with a "Order of Scribes" Wizard... and made the Awakened Spellbook and the Book of Shadows one in the same? Might be neat to use the Magic Quill in combination with the "Book of Ancient Secrets" Invocation to cut down on the time and resources to copy rituals into the "Awakened SpellBook of Shadows". Really, sounds awesome!
I'm pretty new to D&D and Genie Warlock was a love at first sight. The theme and flavor of the subclass is so good that I had to try it out and so I made a kobold tomb raider who during a heist gone bad had to make a deal with a Dao who was bound to a magic ring to save his friends and himself from being buried alive under the desert sands.
The shenanigans of theft using the ring are insane. You just need six seconds with nobody looking and anything you can hold is transported into your vessel, dropped as a free action, and you jump back out empty handed. They can search you all they want. Dig through your gear. You have nothing stolen in your pack 😂
One of my PCs is a genie warlock, and stealing things and storing them in her ring is a big part of her backstory. Which, once she got to third level, was flown away with her inside by her invisible pseudodragon familiar - the ultimate grab and go combo I could come up with.
I have a bottle in our dnd campaign in curse of strahd and we used that feature to sneak all our weapons into town. I’ve also been hoovering up anything not nailed down and forcing my dm to give me prices for all the useless junk I pick up to sell to settle my character’s debt
I'm playing a Dwarven Dao Genie warlock with the pact of the blade named Einar Brinjar. He won his abilities through a drinking contest with a Dao when that Dao attacked his city. The Dao granted his pact in exchange for not telling his peers that he lost to him.
Playing an Air Genasi/Sylph named Scheherazade (Scher for short) who's the daughter of her Djinn Queen mom warlock patron. Her quest, go out to the material plane, write down as many people's life stories, historical events, or adventures she goes on and bring them back to her mom to read to her. Scher's hoping to find at least 1001.
Genie Warlock is my favorite of them all. It's so good! I think the overall plan that Kelly had in mind would've worked better with Dao Genie, since they get Spike Growth added to their spell list. All that forced movement would synergize really well with it.
I fell into playing the genie warlock as my first real character (only played short campaigns before now) and it's so damned good! I went with aasimar as my race and efreeti genie. So if I invoke "radiant soul" it adds extra radiant damage to one hit per turn (equal to my level). So eldritch blast does 1d10 plus 1d6 from hex; then one blast per turn also gets fire damage equal to my proficiency and radiant damage equal to my level. At LVL 11, each turn I basically do 3d10+3d6+4+11 Without expending an extra spell slot (other than the one needed to hex an enemy) Next level, I'm taking "kiss of Mephistopheles" so that I can cast fireball as a bonus action when I hit with an eldritch blast. So it'll be 3d10+3d6+4+11+10d6 But I will have to expend another spell slot to add the fireball.
I played with a Dao Genie with the Crusher feat and it was very fun. Crusher with Eldritch Blast has a bit of decision making. Since you get more attacks at higher levels you might not want to use Genie's Wrath on your first hit cuz you might get a crit on the 2nd/3rd blast and give everyone advantage attacking the target you just critted on. Also resistance to bludgeoning in general is nice. Useful with Armor of Agathys.
@@aus__ Genie's Wrath lets you apply bonus damage to an attack equal to your proficiency modifier once per turn. The extra damage type depends on your patron, and in the case of a Dao you deal bludgeoning damage, so you can get Crusher's effect on one of your attacks. It doesnt need to be eldritch blast specifically, but its probably the thing you will be using the most as an attack (The extra damage can be applied to anything as long as it uses an attack roll)
@@OmegaNeo That's a nice combo, i didn't think about that before - mostly, as there is a lot of creature and skill with resistance against bludgeoning attacks, and far less against elemental attacks... But critical strikes are so rare, i never count on them. My most "oldest" character (which means i play as him for the longest time) had less than ten critical attacks (during other skill checks there were more), and all of them against spellcasters... In the end my DM suggested, that i should take up the "Mage Slayer" talent with him. [In the world setting the Dragonborn have a cast-system, "Noble" Dragonborns are the ones who inherited within their blood some magic (basically sorcerers only). As my character isn't one of them, there would be a reason, why he hates them so much...]
@@Senok13 While there are a lot of enemies resistant to bludgeoning, the vast majority of them are only resistant to nonmagical bludgeoning, so I don't think you'll have a problem with the Dao damage. You'll find more enemies resistant (and immune) to fire, cold and thunder damage than bludgeoning. Off the top my head I can only remember swarms having resistance to magical bludgeoning and thats about it for the more common enemies? When you stop encountering swarms (if you did at all) at higher levels, you'll find more enemies resistant to the other damage types. And yeah while it's luck dependant, I got a decent mileage out of it. Luck was on my side and having 3 attacks with Eldritch Blast definitely helps lol. You can still push enemies an extra 5ft once per turn if you're not inclined to wait on crits.
With Metamagic Adept, I actually think Distant Spell is incredibly useful for warlocks. Because you’re forced to upcast a lot of really good spells (invisibility, fly, etc.) at later levels, you often get to choose more than one target. The biggest limitation, especially in a chaotic combat encounter, is that they’re touch spells, but not with Distant Spell. When it hits the fan, whole party is now invisible or flying with 1 spell slot and 1 sorcery point. And then even with some of the Limited Wish options y’all discussed, Revivify and Greater Restoration being delivered from downtown is so incredibly strong. Makes a support warlock so much more viable.
600 foot elderich blast with the elderich spear invocation for one sorcery point could prove useful for enemies that try to fly away. If you take Spell Sniper a 1200 ft ranged spell with no disadvantage can ruin a poor Dragons day when they just wanted to get out of there. Meanwhile even if you don't have the sorcery points your still hitting them with the range of a longbow and giving even rangers a run for their money in damage because you don't miss as much.
With metamagic adept on warlock i can strongly recommend subtle spell + extended spell. Extend it where it counts, extend an hour duration spells to 2 hours, so you can cast them, short rest and still have it around for another round, etc
I played as a Genie warlock in a Dragon Heist game. She was a curious scholar from the City of Brass in Waterdeep to study, and got roped into the party's shenangians. She was the unofficial party caretaker as she got them all out of trouble with her charisma and even saved them from a sudden ambus of a ghost and animated furniture (she now has a phobia of brooms). I really enjoyed playing her and the Genie Warlock is my favourite Warlock subclass
I think it would be great to have a tool kit being my genie vessel, based on what my genie patron is: for example a Marid patron where the vessel is a set of Navigator's tools, and inside the compartment is a Captain's cabin (which is always swaying as if it were at sea), complete with charts on the desk, etc
For an Efreeti-focused Warlock, one fun idea I've had for a vessel is an old, rusted censer that nonetheless always seems to be smoldering or giving off just a little bit of smoke. And also ignites in certain ways whenever you cast fire-bases spells :)
Rules as written you actually don't need to worry about losing wish because you can create a simulacrum with wish and then it can cast wish instead of you. Also a bonus for warlocks is that because arcanums are a class feature not a spell slot their simulacrums can use wish multiple times before you have to summon a new one.
Whew! That's some loophole......in fact ....technically...couldn't your first simulacrum use its daily wish acranum to create a second simulacrum, which itself creates a third simulacrum etc etc.... So if you had say, 88hp at lvl 17, after 6 days you would have 7 simulacrums (which would be the maximum because the last one would only have 1 hp) and on day 8 you could cast 8 separate wishes in one single round!
@@Wintermute909 The simulacra can cast Simulacrum on you after you've rested and regained your slot. You get effectively infinite simulacra and wishes. This is of course a bug, and should not be allowed.
@@Wintermute909 It's actually even stronger than this because simulacrum doesn't have to be cast on yourself so your simulacrums can make another simulacrum of you, giving you infinite simulacrums.
If I put a DM hat on for a minute I think I would make the patron grant the simulacrum wishes, when it could no longer cast wish it would be like oh you are all out of wishes. The warlock would probably get smug and be like no I'm not to which the patro would realise their mistake and get angry. The patron would let the warlock off with it on the condition they don't do it again and don't tell anyone about this loop hole.
I played the Genie Warlock for awhile & it was awesome. Our party was about to get TPK’d, but I was the last one left. My friends were dead aka objects, so I brought them into my bottle & was able to escape. It set up a whole arch of the campaign where I teamed up with other characters (the other players) to search out a cleric who could bring them back to life, and getting the components. Fun times.
I've been playing a Marid Genie warlock for a long time and I LOVE this subclass so much. It made me realize that warlocks are my favorite class to play because of the versatility.
I recently dipped into Warlock in my campaign after taking six levels of Paladin. I am going Celestial Warlock and plan eventually on taking Pact of the Tome. I really like the potential of the Warlock class and the roleplay it offers with the patron, since there are now solars in the campaign. Love the content on the channel, as always.
I love this format, one of my favorites that you do. Seeing how much you can personalize a subclass for variety and flavor while still making something effective at the table. Been a fan since I saw you do this for the Battesmith Artificer, I'd love to see more subclasses built "the Monty way" and "the Kelly way"
FINALLY IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A VIDEO LIKE THIS! I have my own Dao Genie Warlock and when i was making it, i was looking for advice on how to build one, so this helps alot
Genie warlock has been one of my new favorites. I played a one shot with a dao patron. Added crusher feat and all three forced movement invocations and flavored as gravity magic and had a blast jumping in my ring and letting the rogue get both of us behind enemy lines. I would love to have played this character to high levels, since we only were at lvl 10. One of the few times i would be actually willing to NOT multiclass. Which for me is crazy.
Ever since this subclass was released I wanted to play it. Finally got the chance last year and built a water genasi with a marid patron who's spells were thunder damage themed. The lore was that her patron was her distant ancestor and so she called her grandma. Took pact of the blade and used far step to teleport around the battlefield slashing at enemies with booming blade. It was a lot of fun.
Also the Dao Genie gives you Spike Growth which you can abuse with Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar. I have a character who is Custom Lineage who is based on a kakapo who grew up among his flying brethren but one day found himself falling into the plane of earth, and meeting a Dao who offered to show him how powerful earth can be.
This guy knows what's up. Crusher and telekinetic feats give you even more movement. Amazing with spike growth and sickening radiance stacking multiple exhaustions in one turn.
Yeah its a great combo. You could also take metamagic adept and quickened spell, so you can cast spike growth or sickening radiance and push them into it with eldritch blasts on the same turn.
I have a plasmoid genie sorlock that’s pact of the chain for filler sessions when people can’t make it. Such a blast, so many goofy ability interactions for endless fun
My favorite is using concentration on an important spell, then casting sanctuary on your sprite the following turn, which is carrying your magic ring. Then you action hide in the ring, and your flying sprite is now invisible, and they have to pass a save to even attack it. So fun
I'd love to see how the Eladrin race interacts with the Genie Patron Warlock. The combination of seasons with elements could be interesting, at least thematically
I'm playing a Tortle genie warlock and my patron is a marrid, and I'm absolutely loving the flavor and the theme of it. I chose the tome as well as it just adds so much
@@timvallier9701 unfortunately no, I went with a busted up, barnacle encrusted oil lamp that doubles as his reading lamp. He's old, even for tortles. My DM was kind enough to extend his lifespan to fit the theme of an old tortoise, so as long as the pact remains, my character ages slower, but he's still old.
Another great feature that I don’t remember hearing being covered is that genie warlocks are able to bring their entire party into the vessel and complete a short rest in 10 minutes! Amazing utility there too
Currently, I’m playing a Hexblood Genie Warlock with Pact of the Chain. The Toothie Talkie (eerie token), Familiar, and the Ring (vessel) itself are there, so they can be effectively be in 3 places at once, talking to the whole party while split up… I also flavored them as a witch with a demonic patron (Flying on a Broom, Imp familiar, and the food creating spell from the genie fits well, as a particular witch does live in a gingerbread house…).
Imagine a Warforged holding the Vessel (or wearing the Ring) with the whole party in it, then taking advantage of both their ability to look like an actual suit of armour AND their ability to "keep watch" while long-resting for the ultimate in hidden party long rest defence; now that's a good party combo (or even all on one character) I almost imagine Futurama's Bender putting the Vessel inside his chest compartment, even, though of course that's DM fiat on rule-of-cool
7 месяцев назад
You guys have like the best build ideas ever. I absolutely love your creativity
I was fascinated by the way they did the genie warlock in dimension 20 unsleeping city season 2. Interesting to tie the genie and the vessel into a family heirloom and cultural inheritance.
Currently playing an autognome Dao Genie Warlock in a Spelljammer campaign. The synergy of repelling blast and spike growth on the small battlefield of a spelljammer ship has been very effective. The autognome "built for success" feature also allows me to add a d4 to proficiency bonus number of attack rolls if I miss a blast by a point or two to make sure I'm keeping enemies in the spike growth field.
One of my favorite things about the Limited Wish feature it states, "the spell simply takes effect as part of this action" so RAW the spell you use can't be counterspelled.
I´ve built a warforged genie warlock called "Clothes" - he was basically a set of magical garments that could retract himself inside his hat, pretty fun character, went wild sorcerer also
A dwarf that wished to become a wizard. Received a magic tome, he can go inside the pages and it teaches him spells. With his high charisma he can just act smart.
the strategy of "get into the ring and have the familiar carry it away" is exactly what my own genie warlock had been doing to run away from places, have yet to test it to sneak into places!
It even better with Pact of the Chain where you can just have an invisible familiar that just picks up the vessel and flies off. Though to be fair my Warlock started with Mask of Many Faces and also had the actor feat so I got away with tons of nonsense and could easily use my familiar to escape or just decide to be someone else. XD
AH! I have another one; Air Genie patron and their vessel is a metal (like brass, copper or silver) or crystal wind chime with oscillating fascinators that orbit around the chime itself, strung with chains and a little hoop to hook it onto the ceiling or whatever. When Bottled Respite is used, you go inside a chamber at the center of the chime. The chime can ring, but since everyone is so small/the influence of the Djinni, the sound is soft and melodious.
Can't believe they didn't mention the weird edge case of Dao Genie and crusher feat. Especially since they get spike growth on expanded spell list. Best cheese grater build in the game.
The Genie subclass also gives the DM some fun opportunities to add some RP, character, backstory, connections to campaign-wide stories, etc. The different elemental patrons expand on this, especially with questions about whether the player's specific patron is typical or unusual for their culture in terms of attitude, plans (or lack thereof), alignment, politics and plotting among genies, etc. Just about any player character will have connections with individuals/groups/organizations, but warlocks in particular have a built-in connection for story hooks built into the class, and the various genie patrons are already notorious for schemes both convoluted and improvised, so...
I just started of a fire genasi genie warlock just to lean into the fire thing a lot and it ties in the the background story for the character. Chose the pact of chain, pseudodragon, for the practical reasons of scouting and helping out. Went with a oil lamp vessel cause, well fire and theme :P The general idea of the character is that they are distantly related to the patron but as they live in the material plane they can act there to help the patron out with information and (the sort of main thing here) finding relics and artifacts to further the patron goals (these are not made quite clear to give out DM something to have fun working with). Just remember for camping in the vessel, you can still hear everything around you so someone can still be on watch to avoid being snatched up or at least you can wake people up and handle the situation, that is if the thing taking the vessel makes enough sound.
The addition of Spike Growth to the Dao spell list is a great pickup too. Most of the time if you're playing a blastlock pushing enemies around the battlefield, you're pushing them into a spell AoE that doesn't take effect until the start of the creature or caster's turn. So there's always a chance that they might be moved by another effect, or have a reaction that allows them to escape, or else they just die before the next round of combat. Plus it usually only does damage once. Spike Growth is nice because it does damage whenever the creature moves, immediately, and it does damage based on however much distance they cover. So every time you hit an enemy in the area with a Repelling Blast or Grasp of Hadar, they take an extra 4d4 piercing damage. If you hit them with more than one blast, you can push and pull them through the spikes, creating the cheese grater of death.
Dao genie gets Spike Growth… combine that with repelling Blast and two EB bolts and you’re looking at 2d10+4d4 damage… which is pretty blasty for only one concentration spell slot lol
Multiclassed into a genie warlock for a campaign not long ago. He is an arcane trickster noble who tried to steal from his family but eventually got caught and imprisoned. The item that he was caught stealing was fist-sized, golden jar, encrusted with rare gemstones. When we leveled up to 6th level, he got sucked into the jar and found that it was the home of a powerful marid that was imprisoned there eons ago by his ancestors. They made a pact together and in exchange of power, he would need to find a way to set him free. The marid is named Bloib and is pronounced buh-low-ee-uh-buh.
The Genie Vessel is BIG inside. 20' radius is a small two bedroom apartment. Mine has a bedroom with a featherbed, an alchemy lab, library with comfy chairs and a bar, a bathroom with plumbing, and a storeroom full of chests for storing our party stuff in an impregnable vault. I went Pact of the Chain with the Ritual Caster feat. The Chain familiar is just. so. good. A familiar with hands can cast a Magic Stone on your Bonus Action, if you have the Investment of the Chain feat. Currently level 11 and I could go on for pages on the shenanigans you can pull off with a familiar that's smarter than most of the party (INT 14 WIS 13) and can use magic items.
I was waiting so much for this video from you, and I loved it! Also happy that you didn't do the "classic Daolock", the Dao is amazing (probably the best), but there are already a lot of videos about it and you show that the others have a lot of potential too! As always, thank you for the amazing video!
I play a level 10 Grung Genie (Marid obvi) in my friend’s homebrew campaign. I took pact of the chain so my invisible imp can carry me around in my locket which is my bottled respite. It’s cool because the party can camp anywhere with my Imp Giph Baseus wearing my locket, perched anywhere and being invisible makes it even safer. The Grung needs water 1 hour a day so at the end of the day I go into the locket which is a 20 by 20 rain forest with a little pond that I can splash around in. I love playing it. I have to recruit more followers to my patron so I’ve set up a multilevel marketing scheme to recruit more followers.
kobold genie warlock with a pillowcase as the vessel and a stuffed animal pseudodragon familiar. the goal is to build up a hoard of pillows and blankets in the vessel so when you can bring friends in, they can be comfy.
My character only splashed 3 levels of Genie (Dao) Warlock. He's a Rock Gnome that really wanted to become a Wizard, but didn't have enough skill in magic to attend the academy. He makes a pact with a Dao to cheat his way in, then starts levelling Wizard. His goal is to open a magical museum for wonderous and historical magical artifacts. The Dao points him towards these artifacts (which are often guarded by his enemies and rivals). My character doesnt particularly like his patron, and the Dao isnt too fond of him either, but for now, their goals are somewhat aligned. I flavor his Eldritch blasts as magically imbued peddles he flicks at people like marbles.
Air Genie Patron, with a primal element orb vessel, that's a glass like sphere containing a captured thunderstorm, and on the inside it looks like your in the eye of a hurricane.
Because the Jin are haughty and would almost always have some valuable if not gaudy item as the vessel. I wouldn’t allow it to be an unadorned clay vessel.
If the vessel is something expensive looking, and the whole party goes in. Then you actually use that to get in somewhere. If you've stacked out the location in advance, and you wait for the guards to switch out. Then you can drop this expensive looking item along the guards route, and there's a pretty good chance that guards will pick it up and take it inside with him. Now you've effectively snuck past the guards and into the building. Sure your now in the location where the guards rest between shifts. But that just means you all get a surprise round against the guards in the room, and they have likely taken off their armor to be more comfortable.
campaign I'm doing now features an Efreeti Genie Warlock, he took variant human-polearm master and basically is all about stacking those hex+fire damage on the multiple hits using the polearm and later eldritch blast, and eventually he also got a wand of magic missile to combo with it further.
I am playing a Deep Gnome Djinni Warlock in Out of the Abyss. Currently at level 4. Invocations Misty Visions and Armor of Shadows, Spells are mostly bamboozlery and enemy disruption like Cause Fear, Crown of Madness and Gust of Wind, Pact of the Talisman (with the proficiency bonus restriction removed per my DM). Her best moment in combat so far: the party is outnumbered by hostile kuo-toa, after a couple rounds of information gathering, my warlock removes the will to fight from over half the enemies by using Minor Illusion to make an angry booming voice from the sky berating his followers for attacking pilgrims to his glory. Those fooled by her deception dropped to their knees and refused to fight further, making the rest of the encounter super easy.
The genie warlock is such an amazing 1 level dip. Both the vessel & genies wrath dcale with proficiency bonus so it doesn't matter that you only have 1 level of warlock. I just took one level of it with my Wildfire Druid to get hellish rebuke & the fire damage on eldritch blast. I flavored my patron as a Phoenix that my character worships instead of an Ifeeti.
Extremely tangential to the point of the video, but I'll note that I did take Modify Memory on my warlock (her whole theme is playing with people's minds, so it was really on-theme), and it's gotten extensive use! In particular, we had an adventure where we were travelling back in time to visit all of someone's previous lives at the moment of their deaths--the DM had just intended us to get information from these lives to help us address their cumulative karmic trauma, but my warlock repeatedly used Modify Memory to ease these lives' passing, giving us a huge leg up on helping them in the current day.
I multiclassed a Lore Bard with Genie Warlock. It was super fun and flavorful. The DM was kind enough let me use my lire as my genie vessel. Would recommend.
My favorite genie build is Dao genie (I like using a amulet/locket for my vessel for the same reasons as the ring) then take the pact of chain (imp) and voice of the chain master to be an unembodied voice that poofs out, drops a spike growth, then push and pull with the eldritch blast invocations and crusher feat. Then take spell sniper and metamagic adept for quickened spell.
Dao with crusher, telekinetic, repelling blast and grasping blast all paired with spike growth or sickening radiance (stacking multiple exhaustions in one turn) is terrifyingly good. Battlefield control god.
I've been waiting for this for a while guys. I really like the way you guys break down information and couldn't wait to see what you guys would come for my favorite subclas of my favorite class
I’m a big fan of using Pact of the Chain to allow your follower to pick up your Vessel. Extra points if you choose the Sprite, who could pick up your Vessel and turn Invisible while carrying you around.
Dao is arguably the best choice, because of the Crusher feat. Magical bludgeoning damage that gets added each round let's you move creatures you hit (above and beyond the Grasp and Repelling Invocations).
I'm playing a Dao Human Warlock 10 + Divine Soul Sorcerer 4. Spell Sniper + Crusher. My vessel is a ring that inside has an arabian room. Recently unlocked the party vessel, and now it's like a whole house for relax (smoke pipes, telescope, japanese garden, lots of sofas, rugs). We are going to travel using my crow carrying the ring. Anyway the Genie is very powerful. I'm the strategist of the group. Every action I take shapes the fight (pushing enemies, blocking sight, making walls, incapacitating them, kill everything with radiations) and I can play recklessly without fearing to go first and absorb hits.
@@AlessandroPesce-profile with Hypnotic Pattern, and the other crowd control spells. I picked careful spell and quicken spell metamagic. Once you go dao you should go 300% eldritch blast (quicken spell+action surge). When you crit everyone get advantage on all attacks until you start another turn. But I can understand 4 lvl in fighter are somewhat wasted (it must be echo or rune knight). Feats are too important once you have maxed out charisma. In my case I wanted crusher, telekinetic and metamagic adept but I got a permanent +1 to CON so resilient CON will be and metamagic will be the very last.
I recently started playing a Djinni Pact of the Tome warlock just like Monty, but with Kelly's idea of battlefield control, especially with something like thunderwave. But one of the main appeals to Tome besides utility was the Shillelagh cantrip paired with a quarterstaff, and that with Maddening Hex and a few paladin levels basically made me a more versatile Hexblade.
One of my favorite character concepts I've made is a triton efreeti warlock based around the idea of being a literal fish out of water, being stranded in the desert by her patron's malevolent trickster brother.
Every other optimizer out there has chosen the Earth Dao Genie so far, so I decided to choose an Air Djinni named Zephyra. She chose a Water Genasi youth nicknamed "Gurgle" to be her representative in the Material Plane. But she looked into his lineage and found he was also descended from an ancient Silver Dragon ancestor. Thus upon offering Gurgle a pact to become a Genie Warlock with her as his Patron, she helped him draw out his Draconic Bloodline to become a Sorcerer with higher AC when he first starts out as an adventurer before transitioning into a Warlock. When he gains Pact of the Chain, he selects an Imp as a familiar who could carry his Genie Vessel as a ring in the talons while flying invisibly. Thus the Warlock can see through the familiar's vision while lounging inside his Genie Vessel. It's almost like having Arcane Eye and being able to infiltrate inside a castle or dungeon.
I play a hairless tabaxi with a dao genie patron and pact of the tome. When using my elemental gift to fly a sand cloud lifts me off the ground. We also changed the cantrip sword burst to claw burst to fit the feline theme. I’m constantly collecting gems to give to my patron to eat as they are one of his favorite snacks 😸
There is a problem with being a Talisman Pact Warlock with the combined talisman/vessel. You can't give it away to someone to do the teleport thing or give them the bonuses of it. That being you will not be in touch with your vessel to do the extra damage
So a little thing about the thought process I do when building a character. (I've never played this version of a warlock) I'm thinking first what is my race... how did I get a Jinn to talk to me. Did i save it, is it common for my race... etc Next I'm thinking about my background. I tend to pick backgrounds that give me expanded skills... if I am a warlock I'm probably taking outlander, Hermit, Urchin, or something like that. Something that made me an outsider and made me more willing to take a Jinn as my friend. (Normally here is where I put my class in but I've already decided that) Ability Scores Chrisma is most important, I think Dex and Con come next. Wisdom solid fourth. I don't need to be a brain or the party brawn. To use an A-team reference I'm likely Faceman. I'll be doing the talking and diplomacy. Skills I'm probably taking int based skills even though I am not very smart. I had to find the Jinn one way and investigation is most likely. Arcana, history, religion... something led me there. I understand sometimes that people take warlock to do eldrich blast most of the time. There are other spells that I could see here. I'm much more likely to get utility invocations than the blast upgrade. Early levels I'm going to take Armor of shadows and Begiling influnce. I'm likely to switch those out after level 5 BUT for the early levels I'm getting extra skills to make me the face and I am not using a spell slot to cast mage armor. +3 to my ac when I'm likely to push my dex to +3... important. Now I'm taking the pact of the blade. The reason for this is that I Don't have to worry about having a weapon. I can take the extra attack at level 5 and/or improved pact weapon for versitality. This choice is going to lead me to spells that allow me freedom of movement like Misty step, thunder step, etc. IT's also going to push me into feats that help like ... wait for it... defensive duelist, warcastor etc. Medic is not beyond the scope IF we look at the Hermit background it makes sense. That leads me down the dark path of being an Exile Goliath(MOM) from the rock tribe making a pact with an effret my only friend. I traveled as a hermit for years talking to my friend until the day he offered me power because I didn't want any wishes. My god offering me a gift hell yea. He even gives me weapons, This silver rapier lit on fire. cool right... he's such a nice guy you would like him. 4th level I'm taking skill expert to be more stealthy and to fix my Constitution which is 13. 5th level I'm taking Eldrich Smite and Thirsting blade.(Yes I am losing free mage armor but I am gaining the ability to cast spells and attack twice with a weapon. I now have good stealth I now have options to attack and do 5d8 damage (or lets be real 10 D 8) twice per combat. I meld well with the Rogue or the Fighter At level six goodbye being the face skills Hello Rebuke of the Talisman!. 7th level madning hex or one with the shadows. at 8th level Fay touched to up my Charisma and get hex once a day for free. Conversly I can take medium armor to up my dex and AC with a shield. At 9th level my smite maxes out at 8d8 (or 16D8 on a crit... which lets face it crit). I've got ways of getting extra damage, ways of crowd control. freedom of movement I don't have to worry about restraint. 12th level I continue to go up in my Charisma or dex with a feet, while also taking Life Drinker or Bond of the Talisman. I'm now the exempler of my "God". I am to the Fire element what a Pali is to the crown. ... Admit it you want a good looking Goliath who can carry your shit and still wack your enemies. One who talks directly to his "God" and that "God" talks back... and can even talk to you.
Mark of the Storm Half Elf (born in Ebberon but raised in the Elemental Plain of Air) Started off level 5 at 8/14/16/10/10/17 with Moderately armored at 4 At 8, bumped Charisma to 18 with Elven Accuracy then capped to 20 at level 12
in our last campaign, we had a genie warlock and I played a Harengon Scout Rogue. We had one situation where the DM basically had poison cloud in a combat situation against Yuan-Ti. My rogue had 10 feet blind sense . Party hopped in the ring, Rogue went hunting for the caster. Then tossed the ring at their feet. Party hopped out and had surprise because the caster didn't see a group of people coming out of no where. We used that ring for transport -- stealth, escape, etc. Because the Rogue could get in and out without really being seen. And while doing that, the casters could get their short rest / get your spell back situation.
I had the idea for a Genie Warlock whose dad was actually some devil who gave him the Genie as a gift and who had to in return to comvince people to become his dads Warlocks... Not sure from where to go there as of yet... if it's a Genie that was forced or more of a servant kind of character or just a friend who decided to help out. The only thing I know I want is for my character trying to help out his father who he doesn't even know that well or what he does, but still helps. By trying to convince people to make a contract with his father while being someone who didn't even make one with his father himself.
I love playing the Genie Warlock. I typically use the Efreeti Genie but someday I'm tempted to try out the Dao Genie. Then again, after hearing Kelly's take on the former, I might not. :D He made it sound even more interesting than I have thus far explored. :D
![OsamaSon - ik what you did last summer [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4DIQDnu3mr4/mqdefault.jpg)
While not necessary, it is highly encouraged that the initial meeting with your Genie patron involves said patron doing an elaborate song and dance number about how you'll never have a friend like them.
Make the PCs role play it, joining in 😂
You ain't never had a fiend, never had fiend, you ain't never..had....a...fiend....like meeeee!!!!!
It's more accurate
Yesssss
Swear if one of my players (right now it’s just my son and fiancée lol) ever decide to roll a Genie Warlock that’s gonna be their character’s introduction to the genie.
Just gonna play the scene from Aladdin like “Okay, pay attention, this is your backstory…”
Earth Genie Patron and their vessel is an unsuspecting rock with a small crack. But when Bottled Respite is used, the inside reveals it to actually be a beautiful geode.
Edit: Wow guys. Thanks for the likes and comments. This was the first idea I had when making a GenieLock because my mom was super into geodes.
I love the theming here!
Consider it stolen!
Just thought it something. In some magic systems, different minerals and greens are associated with different elements. Depending on the game you're playing, that could be linked as well
I like it, I’m going to use this as well.
This is why I love this community... A lot of hidden genius ideas...
Edit: Or it could be either a iron or clay ringband that encloses a gem... So it looks inconspicuous enough to get overlooked if you just leave it somewhere without the danger of being stolen...
One thing with Kelly's feats... if you take the +2 Cha at lvl8 and Fey Touched at 12, you're sitting at 19 Cha for 4 levels. Why not take Fey Touched at 8, making Cha an 18, which is basically the same as 19, and getting the Misty Step and other spell?
Right now I'm playing a marid genie/ pact of the tome warlock, and have it flavored as an ink spirit that lives in the tome and feeds off of knowledge written in the tome. The DM allowed me to make the tome also be the genie vessel, and every time I enter it I go into like an illustrated form on the pages. I'm still pretty early in the campaign (only 3 sessions), but I'm absolutely loving the flavor. My eldritch blast is an ink glob, I have inky tendrils when I use arms of hadar, I have an ink puddle for grease, and I have an inky raven as a familiar. I play them as a curmudgeonly old man who couldn't quite cut it as a scholar, and lived most of his life as a librarian, where he found the magic tome.
Becoming an "illustrated form" on the pages is brilliant!
Cool idea, but what if someone finds the book while you're in it and draws a beard on your illustrated form? Do you get a beard when you emerge?
@@galithir5393 Now that's a question I need answered.
Sounds awesome! Another option for the Genie's Vessel is that it could be a metallic/armored "Book Cover" for your Pact Tome, which could even be kinda like "armor" for your Tome, protecting it with that little bit extra. Plus, nothing in the Text says that you have to be *holding* your Tome when using it as a spellcasting-focus, so the warlock could have it strapped/chained to his back or chest and everybody else would just thing it a piece of armor or something and if you put some Charisma(Deception) into it, you could make the 'enemies' think he's a different kind of Warlock and other neat little stuff like that!
Nice to see someone is thinking along similar 'lines of thought' for a character I'm hoping to build. So awesome!
Hey, anybody know if anyone has tried to Multiclass a "Pact of the Tome" Warlock with a "Order of Scribes" Wizard... and made the Awakened Spellbook and the Book of Shadows one in the same? Might be neat to use the Magic Quill in combination with the "Book of Ancient Secrets" Invocation to cut down on the time and resources to copy rituals into the "Awakened SpellBook of Shadows".
Really, sounds awesome!
Love this. Flavoring abilities is the bomb
I'm pretty new to D&D and Genie Warlock was a love at first sight. The theme and flavor of the subclass is so good that I had to try it out and so I made a kobold tomb raider who during a heist gone bad had to make a deal with a Dao who was bound to a magic ring to save his friends and himself from being buried alive under the desert sands.
Yo I LOVE that
I’m not gunna lie homie. I’m stealing that.
@@_Dogberry_ I'm glad to hear that
I quite literally searched for this video 3 days ago hoping you guys did a video on it, and low and behold my WISH was granted
Ah!! Haha! I see what you did there
The shenanigans of theft using the ring are insane. You just need six seconds with nobody looking and anything you can hold is transported into your vessel, dropped as a free action, and you jump back out empty handed. They can search you all they want. Dig through your gear. You have nothing stolen in your pack 😂
One of my PCs is a genie warlock, and stealing things and storing them in her ring is a big part of her backstory. Which, once she got to third level, was flown away with her inside by her invisible pseudodragon familiar - the ultimate grab and go combo I could come up with.
I have a bottle in our dnd campaign in curse of strahd and we used that feature to sneak all our weapons into town. I’ve also been hoovering up anything not nailed down and forcing my dm to give me prices for all the useless junk I pick up to sell to settle my character’s debt
@@juliavanfleet9641 Howd the Psuedodragon turn invisible?
And boy once the ruling authorities learn that such thieves are about...the draconian measures to stop them would be extreme.
@@bradwillis7415 You have jewelry in the city limits? Either hand it over ot face imprisonment/execution.
Anyone seen doing magic? Dead.
I'm playing a Dwarven Dao Genie warlock with the pact of the blade named Einar Brinjar. He won his abilities through a drinking contest with a Dao when that Dao attacked his city. The Dao granted his pact in exchange for not telling his peers that he lost to him.
I play a Water Genasi, Marid Genie Warlock with a Germphobia and a soap dispenser as a vessel. Im Excited to hear what you guys have to say :)
Sounds hygienic
The hero we didn't know we needed a few years ago xD
Gah damn that is one clean build :)
Lol that is a great character!
@@hah-vj7hcyep. 3rd level paladin ability.
Love the content you guys make, however, I must say that I am very excited for the “All bard party” video.
Playing an Air Genasi/Sylph named Scheherazade (Scher for short) who's the daughter of her Djinn Queen mom warlock patron. Her quest, go out to the material plane, write down as many people's life stories, historical events, or adventures she goes on and bring them back to her mom to read to her. Scher's hoping to find at least 1001.
sounds like a setup for a sorlock to me
@@dleonidae Any suggestions for a Sorcerer subclass that fits a Genie?
@@andrewdowns3673 thematically with what you got going on, Storm; not sure how well it'll all gel mechanically though
@@dleonidae Gotcha.
Nice reference, esp in the name
Genie Warlock is my favorite of them all. It's so good! I think the overall plan that Kelly had in mind would've worked better with Dao Genie, since they get Spike Growth added to their spell list. All that forced movement would synergize really well with it.
Daolock = best lock
I fell into playing the genie warlock as my first real character (only played short campaigns before now) and it's so damned good!
I went with aasimar as my race and efreeti genie. So if I invoke "radiant soul" it adds extra radiant damage to one hit per turn (equal to my level).
So eldritch blast does 1d10 plus 1d6 from hex; then one blast per turn also gets fire damage equal to my proficiency and radiant damage equal to my level.
At LVL 11, each turn I basically do 3d10+3d6+4+11
Without expending an extra spell slot (other than the one needed to hex an enemy)
Next level, I'm taking "kiss of Mephistopheles" so that I can cast fireball as a bonus action when I hit with an eldritch blast.
So it'll be 3d10+3d6+4+11+10d6
But I will have to expend another spell slot to add the fireball.
@@Plant_Parenthood sounds like a blast! (pun intended)
@@ChocolateFishBrains After lvl 11 it's 3 blasts!
Ah yes, the cheese grater technique
I played with a Dao Genie with the Crusher feat and it was very fun. Crusher with Eldritch Blast has a bit of decision making. Since you get more attacks at higher levels you might not want to use Genie's Wrath on your first hit cuz you might get a crit on the 2nd/3rd blast and give everyone advantage attacking the target you just critted on. Also resistance to bludgeoning in general is nice. Useful with Armor of Agathys.
maybe i’m confused, but eldritch blast doesn’t do bludgeoning damage does it?
@@aus__ Genie's Wrath lets you apply bonus damage to an attack equal to your proficiency modifier once per turn. The extra damage type depends on your patron, and in the case of a Dao you deal bludgeoning damage, so you can get Crusher's effect on one of your attacks.
It doesnt need to be eldritch blast specifically, but its probably the thing you will be using the most as an attack (The extra damage can be applied to anything as long as it uses an attack roll)
@@OmegaNeo That's a nice combo, i didn't think about that before - mostly, as there is a lot of creature and skill with resistance against bludgeoning attacks, and far less against elemental attacks... But critical strikes are so rare, i never count on them. My most "oldest" character (which means i play as him for the longest time) had less than ten critical attacks (during other skill checks there were more), and all of them against spellcasters... In the end my DM suggested, that i should take up the "Mage Slayer" talent with him. [In the world setting the Dragonborn have a cast-system, "Noble" Dragonborns are the ones who inherited within their blood some magic (basically sorcerers only). As my character isn't one of them, there would be a reason, why he hates them so much...]
@@Senok13 While there are a lot of enemies resistant to bludgeoning, the vast majority of them are only resistant to nonmagical bludgeoning, so I don't think you'll have a problem with the Dao damage. You'll find more enemies resistant (and immune) to fire, cold and thunder damage than bludgeoning. Off the top my head I can only remember swarms having resistance to magical bludgeoning and thats about it for the more common enemies? When you stop encountering swarms (if you did at all) at higher levels, you'll find more enemies resistant to the other damage types.
And yeah while it's luck dependant, I got a decent mileage out of it. Luck was on my side and having 3 attacks with Eldritch Blast definitely helps lol. You can still push enemies an extra 5ft once per turn if you're not inclined to wait on crits.
@@OmegaNeo that’s amazing, good thinkin
With Metamagic Adept, I actually think Distant Spell is incredibly useful for warlocks. Because you’re forced to upcast a lot of really good spells (invisibility, fly, etc.) at later levels, you often get to choose more than one target. The biggest limitation, especially in a chaotic combat encounter, is that they’re touch spells, but not with Distant Spell. When it hits the fan, whole party is now invisible or flying with 1 spell slot and 1 sorcery point. And then even with some of the Limited Wish options y’all discussed, Revivify and Greater Restoration being delivered from downtown is so incredibly strong. Makes a support warlock so much more viable.
600 foot elderich blast with the elderich spear invocation for one sorcery point could prove useful for enemies that try to fly away. If you take Spell Sniper a 1200 ft ranged spell with no disadvantage can ruin a poor Dragons day when they just wanted to get out of there. Meanwhile even if you don't have the sorcery points your still hitting them with the range of a longbow and giving even rangers a run for their money in damage because you don't miss as much.
Upcast, distant invisibility, now becomes a super useful support and utility spell.
With metamagic adept on warlock i can strongly recommend subtle spell + extended spell. Extend it where it counts, extend an hour duration spells to 2 hours, so you can cast them, short rest and still have it around for another round, etc
I played as a Genie warlock in a Dragon Heist game. She was a curious scholar from the City of Brass in Waterdeep to study, and got roped into the party's shenangians. She was the unofficial party caretaker as she got them all out of trouble with her charisma and even saved them from a sudden ambus of a ghost and animated furniture (she now has a phobia of brooms). I really enjoyed playing her and the Genie Warlock is my favourite Warlock subclass
I think it would be great to have a tool kit being my genie vessel, based on what my genie patron is: for example a Marid patron where the vessel is a set of Navigator's tools, and inside the compartment is a Captain's cabin (which is always swaying as if it were at sea), complete with charts on the desk, etc
For an Efreeti-focused Warlock, one fun idea I've had for a vessel is an old, rusted censer that nonetheless always seems to be smoldering or giving off just a little bit of smoke. And also ignites in certain ways whenever you cast fire-bases spells :)
Rules as written you actually don't need to worry about losing wish because you can create a simulacrum with wish and then it can cast wish instead of you. Also a bonus for warlocks is that because arcanums are a class feature not a spell slot their simulacrums can use wish multiple times before you have to summon a new one.
Whew! That's some loophole......in fact ....technically...couldn't your first simulacrum use its daily wish acranum to create a second simulacrum, which itself creates a third simulacrum etc etc....
So if you had say, 88hp at lvl 17, after 6 days you would have 7 simulacrums (which would be the maximum because the last one would only have 1 hp) and on day 8 you could cast 8 separate wishes in one single round!
@@Wintermute909 The simulacra can cast Simulacrum on you after you've rested and regained your slot. You get effectively infinite simulacra and wishes. This is of course a bug, and should not be allowed.
@@Wintermute909 It's actually even stronger than this because simulacrum doesn't have to be cast on yourself so your simulacrums can make another simulacrum of you, giving you infinite simulacrums.
If I put a DM hat on for a minute I think I would make the patron grant the simulacrum wishes, when it could no longer cast wish it would be like oh you are all out of wishes. The warlock would probably get smug and be like no I'm not to which the patro would realise their mistake and get angry. The patron would let the warlock off with it on the condition they don't do it again and don't tell anyone about this loop hole.
For me I play an elf Genie Warlock which I really love because it means I can long rest in my vessel right away without waiting for higher levels!
Which elf?
All of them should have trance for 4 hour long rests which would only need the plus 2 prof to satisfy in the bottled respite
I played the Genie Warlock for awhile & it was awesome.
Our party was about to get TPK’d, but I was the last one left. My friends were dead aka objects, so I brought them into my bottle & was able to escape.
It set up a whole arch of the campaign where I teamed up with other characters (the other players) to search out a cleric who could bring them back to life, and getting the components.
Fun times.
Starting 13 dexterity and getting moderately armored is also worth a mention. As it massively increases your survivability. Also allows for 12 Wisdom.
I've been playing a Marid Genie warlock for a long time and I LOVE this subclass so much. It made me realize that warlocks are my favorite class to play because of the versatility.
I recently dipped into Warlock in my campaign after taking six levels of Paladin. I am going Celestial Warlock and plan eventually on taking Pact of the Tome. I really like the potential of the Warlock class and the roleplay it offers with the patron, since there are now solars in the campaign. Love the content on the channel, as always.
I love this format, one of my favorites that you do. Seeing how much you can personalize a subclass for variety and flavor while still making something effective at the table. Been a fan since I saw you do this for the Battesmith Artificer, I'd love to see more subclasses built "the Monty way" and "the Kelly way"
FINALLY IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A VIDEO LIKE THIS! I have my own Dao Genie Warlock and when i was making it, i was looking for advice on how to build one, so this helps alot
Genie warlock has been one of my new favorites. I played a one shot with a dao patron. Added crusher feat and all three forced movement invocations and flavored as gravity magic and had a blast jumping in my ring and letting the rogue get both of us behind enemy lines. I would love to have played this character to high levels, since we only were at lvl 10. One of the few times i would be actually willing to NOT multiclass. Which for me is crazy.
Ever since this subclass was released I wanted to play it. Finally got the chance last year and built a water genasi with a marid patron who's spells were thunder damage themed. The lore was that her patron was her distant ancestor and so she called her grandma. Took pact of the blade and used far step to teleport around the battlefield slashing at enemies with booming blade. It was a lot of fun.
Also the Dao Genie gives you Spike Growth which you can abuse with Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar. I have a character who is Custom Lineage who is based on a kakapo who grew up among his flying brethren but one day found himself falling into the plane of earth, and meeting a Dao who offered to show him how powerful earth can be.
This guy knows what's up. Crusher and telekinetic feats give you even more movement. Amazing with spike growth and sickening radiance stacking multiple exhaustions in one turn.
Yeah its a great combo. You could also take metamagic adept and quickened spell, so you can cast spike growth or sickening radiance and push them into it with eldritch blasts on the same turn.
hot damn, i've been designing a genie warlock for the past two weeks as my next PC. this could not have come at a better time.
I have a plasmoid genie sorlock that’s pact of the chain for filler sessions when people can’t make it. Such a blast, so many goofy ability interactions for endless fun
Sounds like a master of versatility.
My favorite is using concentration on an important spell, then casting sanctuary on your sprite the following turn, which is carrying your magic ring. Then you action hide in the ring, and your flying sprite is now invisible, and they have to pass a save to even attack it. So fun
Thank you guys for the steady amazing content.
I'd love to see how the Eladrin race interacts with the Genie Patron Warlock. The combination of seasons with elements could be interesting, at least thematically
I'm playing a Tortle genie warlock and my patron is a marrid, and I'm absolutely loving the flavor and the theme of it. I chose the tome as well as it just adds so much
Please tell me you bottle is your shell
@@timvallier9701 unfortunately no, I went with a busted up, barnacle encrusted oil lamp that doubles as his reading lamp. He's old, even for tortles. My DM was kind enough to extend his lifespan to fit the theme of an old tortoise, so as long as the pact remains, my character ages slower, but he's still old.
Another great feature that I don’t remember hearing being covered is that genie warlocks are able to bring their entire party into the vessel and complete a short rest in 10 minutes! Amazing utility there too
Currently, I’m playing a Hexblood Genie Warlock with Pact of the Chain. The Toothie Talkie (eerie token), Familiar, and the Ring (vessel) itself are there, so they can be effectively be in 3 places at once, talking to the whole party while split up…
I also flavored them as a witch with a demonic patron (Flying on a Broom, Imp familiar, and the food creating spell from the genie fits well, as a particular witch does live in a gingerbread house…).
Imagine a Warforged holding the Vessel (or wearing the Ring) with the whole party in it, then taking advantage of both their ability to look like an actual suit of armour AND their ability to "keep watch" while long-resting for the ultimate in hidden party long rest defence; now that's a good party combo (or even all on one character)
I almost imagine Futurama's Bender putting the Vessel inside his chest compartment, even, though of course that's DM fiat on rule-of-cool
You guys have like the best build ideas ever. I absolutely love your creativity
I was fascinated by the way they did the genie warlock in dimension 20 unsleeping city season 2. Interesting to tie the genie and the vessel into a family heirloom and cultural inheritance.
Currently playing an autognome Dao Genie Warlock in a Spelljammer campaign. The synergy of repelling blast and spike growth on the small battlefield of a spelljammer ship has been very effective. The autognome "built for success" feature also allows me to add a d4 to proficiency bonus number of attack rolls if I miss a blast by a point or two to make sure I'm keeping enemies in the spike growth field.
One of my favorite things about the Limited Wish feature it states, "the spell simply takes effect as part of this action" so RAW the spell you use can't be counterspelled.
I´ve built a warforged genie warlock called "Clothes" - he was basically a set of magical garments that could retract himself inside his hat, pretty fun character, went wild sorcerer also
A dwarf that wished to become a wizard. Received a magic tome, he can go inside the pages and it teaches him spells. With his high charisma he can just act smart.
the strategy of "get into the ring and have the familiar carry it away" is exactly what my own genie warlock had been doing to run away from places, have yet to test it to sneak into places!
It even better with Pact of the Chain where you can just have an invisible familiar that just picks up the vessel and flies off. Though to be fair my Warlock started with Mask of Many Faces and also had the actor feat so I got away with tons of nonsense and could easily use my familiar to escape or just decide to be someone else. XD
AH! I have another one; Air Genie patron and their vessel is a metal (like brass, copper or silver) or crystal wind chime with oscillating fascinators that orbit around the chime itself, strung with chains and a little hoop to hook it onto the ceiling or whatever. When Bottled Respite is used, you go inside a chamber at the center of the chime. The chime can ring, but since everyone is so small/the influence of the Djinni, the sound is soft and melodious.
Dao genie for that spikey growth and push pull invocations for the cheese grater!
Having the ring on the Ranger using that Natural Camouflage ability is the one use I've ever seen for the natural Camouflage ability.
Can't believe they didn't mention the weird edge case of Dao Genie and crusher feat. Especially since they get spike growth on expanded spell list. Best cheese grater build in the game.
The Genie subclass also gives the DM some fun opportunities to add some RP, character, backstory, connections to campaign-wide stories, etc. The different elemental patrons expand on this, especially with questions about whether the player's specific patron is typical or unusual for their culture in terms of attitude, plans (or lack thereof), alignment, politics and plotting among genies, etc. Just about any player character will have connections with individuals/groups/organizations, but warlocks in particular have a built-in connection for story hooks built into the class, and the various genie patrons are already notorious for schemes both convoluted and improvised, so...
I just started of a fire genasi genie warlock just to lean into the fire thing a lot and it ties in the the background story for the character. Chose the pact of chain, pseudodragon, for the practical reasons of scouting and helping out. Went with a oil lamp vessel cause, well fire and theme :P
The general idea of the character is that they are distantly related to the patron but as they live in the material plane they can act there to help the patron out with information and (the sort of main thing here) finding relics and artifacts to further the patron goals (these are not made quite clear to give out DM something to have fun working with).
Just remember for camping in the vessel, you can still hear everything around you so someone can still be on watch to avoid being snatched up or at least you can wake people up and handle the situation, that is if the thing taking the vessel makes enough sound.
The addition of Spike Growth to the Dao spell list is a great pickup too. Most of the time if you're playing a blastlock pushing enemies around the battlefield, you're pushing them into a spell AoE that doesn't take effect until the start of the creature or caster's turn. So there's always a chance that they might be moved by another effect, or have a reaction that allows them to escape, or else they just die before the next round of combat. Plus it usually only does damage once.
Spike Growth is nice because it does damage whenever the creature moves, immediately, and it does damage based on however much distance they cover. So every time you hit an enemy in the area with a Repelling Blast or Grasp of Hadar, they take an extra 4d4 piercing damage. If you hit them with more than one blast, you can push and pull them through the spikes, creating the cheese grater of death.
Dao genie gets Spike Growth… combine that with repelling Blast and two EB bolts and you’re looking at 2d10+4d4 damage… which is pretty blasty for only one concentration spell slot lol
Multiclassed into a genie warlock for a campaign not long ago. He is an arcane trickster noble who tried to steal from his family but eventually got caught and imprisoned. The item that he was caught stealing was fist-sized, golden jar, encrusted with rare gemstones. When we leveled up to 6th level, he got sucked into the jar and found that it was the home of a powerful marid that was imprisoned there eons ago by his ancestors. They made a pact together and in exchange of power, he would need to find a way to set him free. The marid is named Bloib and is pronounced buh-low-ee-uh-buh.
Next you need to do a DM tips video for playing patrons, specially Noble Genies. What are the things they may ask of their warlocks?
The Genie Vessel is BIG inside. 20' radius is a small two bedroom apartment. Mine has a bedroom with a featherbed, an alchemy lab, library with comfy chairs and a bar, a bathroom with plumbing, and a storeroom full of chests for storing our party stuff in an impregnable vault.
I went Pact of the Chain with the Ritual Caster feat. The Chain familiar is just. so. good. A familiar with hands can cast a Magic Stone on your Bonus Action, if you have the Investment of the Chain feat. Currently level 11 and I could go on for pages on the shenanigans you can pull off with a familiar that's smarter than most of the party (INT 14 WIS 13) and can use magic items.
I was waiting so much for this video from you, and I loved it! Also happy that you didn't do the "classic Daolock", the Dao is amazing (probably the best), but there are already a lot of videos about it and you show that the others have a lot of potential too! As always, thank you for the amazing video!
I play a level 10 Grung Genie (Marid obvi) in my friend’s homebrew campaign. I took pact of the chain so my invisible imp can carry me around in my locket which is my bottled respite. It’s cool because the party can camp anywhere with my Imp Giph Baseus wearing my locket, perched anywhere and being invisible makes it even safer. The Grung needs water 1 hour a day so at the end of the day I go into the locket which is a 20 by 20 rain forest with a little pond that I can splash around in. I love playing it. I have to recruit more followers to my patron so I’ve set up a multilevel marketing scheme to recruit more followers.
kobold genie warlock with a pillowcase as the vessel and a stuffed animal pseudodragon familiar. the goal is to build up a hoard of pillows and blankets in the vessel so when you can bring friends in, they can be comfy.
My character only splashed 3 levels of Genie (Dao) Warlock. He's a Rock Gnome that really wanted to become a Wizard, but didn't have enough skill in magic to attend the academy. He makes a pact with a Dao to cheat his way in, then starts levelling Wizard.
His goal is to open a magical museum for wonderous and historical magical artifacts. The Dao points him towards these artifacts (which are often guarded by his enemies and rivals). My character doesnt particularly like his patron, and the Dao isnt too fond of him either, but for now, their goals are somewhat aligned.
I flavor his Eldritch blasts as magically imbued peddles he flicks at people like marbles.
Air Genie Patron, with a primal element orb vessel, that's a glass like sphere containing a captured thunderstorm, and on the inside it looks like your in the eye of a hurricane.
My character recently died so I building a air genasi Djinni warlock right now. I really like this idea and might steal it!
@@marissasmith1579 Go for it! I'm having a lot of fun with mine, I can even get my imp to carry me around glutching this orb in his tiny palms
Because the Jin are haughty and would almost always have some valuable if not gaudy item as the vessel. I wouldn’t allow it to be an unadorned clay vessel.
If u make your vessel a coconut you could use your swallow familiar as easy transportation across continents
If the vessel is something expensive looking, and the whole party goes in. Then you actually use that to get in somewhere. If you've stacked out the location in advance, and you wait for the guards to switch out. Then you can drop this expensive looking item along the guards route, and there's a pretty good chance that guards will pick it up and take it inside with him. Now you've effectively snuck past the guards and into the building. Sure your now in the location where the guards rest between shifts. But that just means you all get a surprise round against the guards in the room, and they have likely taken off their armor to be more comfortable.
I'm not in a game and this is what I want to play next campaign. I love warlocks, and this is just so thematically and mechanically op
campaign I'm doing now features an Efreeti Genie Warlock, he took variant human-polearm master and basically is all about stacking those hex+fire damage on the multiple hits using the polearm and later eldritch blast, and eventually he also got a wand of magic missile to combo with it further.
I played a Deep Gnome Dao Genie Warlock in Curse of Strahd to level 15. It was great fun. I to am excited to hear what you have to say about it.
I am playing a Deep Gnome Djinni Warlock in Out of the Abyss. Currently at level 4. Invocations Misty Visions and Armor of Shadows, Spells are mostly bamboozlery and enemy disruption like Cause Fear, Crown of Madness and Gust of Wind, Pact of the Talisman (with the proficiency bonus restriction removed per my DM).
Her best moment in combat so far: the party is outnumbered by hostile kuo-toa, after a couple rounds of information gathering, my warlock removes the will to fight from over half the enemies by using Minor Illusion to make an angry booming voice from the sky berating his followers for attacking pilgrims to his glory. Those fooled by her deception dropped to their knees and refused to fight further, making the rest of the encounter super easy.
Monty, a lighting designer, chooses a lantern. Love it.
The genie warlock is such an amazing 1 level dip. Both the vessel & genies wrath dcale with proficiency bonus so it doesn't matter that you only have 1 level of warlock. I just took one level of it with my Wildfire Druid to get hellish rebuke & the fire damage on eldritch blast. I flavored my patron as a Phoenix that my character worships instead of an Ifeeti.
Extremely tangential to the point of the video, but I'll note that I did take Modify Memory on my warlock (her whole theme is playing with people's minds, so it was really on-theme), and it's gotten extensive use! In particular, we had an adventure where we were travelling back in time to visit all of someone's previous lives at the moment of their deaths--the DM had just intended us to get information from these lives to help us address their cumulative karmic trauma, but my warlock repeatedly used Modify Memory to ease these lives' passing, giving us a huge leg up on helping them in the current day.
feels like yall read my mind, gonna be playing my first session as a genie warlock in just a few days :o
I multiclassed a Lore Bard with Genie Warlock. It was super fun and flavorful. The DM was kind enough let me use my lire as my genie vessel. Would recommend.
My favorite genie build is
Dao genie (I like using a amulet/locket for my vessel for the same reasons as the ring) then take the pact of chain (imp) and voice of the chain master to be an unembodied voice that poofs out, drops a spike growth, then push and pull with the eldritch blast invocations and crusher feat. Then take spell sniper and metamagic adept for quickened spell.
Dao with crusher, telekinetic, repelling blast and grasping blast all paired with spike growth or sickening radiance (stacking multiple exhaustions in one turn) is terrifyingly good. Battlefield control god.
I've been waiting for this for a while guys. I really like the way you guys break down information and couldn't wait to see what you guys would come for my favorite subclas of my favorite class
Loved Kelly's shirt in the sponsored segment.
I like coupling the genie with the genasi race. Pact of the tome can help build a full singular element character. I too played with fire.
I’m a big fan of using Pact of the Chain to allow your follower to pick up your Vessel. Extra points if you choose the Sprite, who could pick up your Vessel and turn Invisible while carrying you around.
I like the idea of using Galder's Speedy Courier to deliver your vessel, with the party inside, to anyone you want in the world.
Dao is arguably the best choice, because of the Crusher feat. Magical bludgeoning damage that gets added each round let's you move creatures you hit (above and beyond the Grasp and Repelling Invocations).
I'm playing a Dao Human Warlock 10 + Divine Soul Sorcerer 4. Spell Sniper + Crusher. My vessel is a ring that inside has an arabian room. Recently unlocked the party vessel, and now it's like a whole house for relax (smoke pipes, telescope, japanese garden, lots of sofas, rugs).
We are going to travel using my crow carrying the ring. Anyway the Genie is very powerful. I'm the strategist of the group. Every action I take shapes the fight (pushing enemies, blocking sight, making walls, incapacitating them, kill everything with radiations) and I can play recklessly without fearing to go first and absorb hits.
How do you incapacitate creatures?
@@AlessandroPesce-profile with Hypnotic Pattern, and the other crowd control spells. I picked careful spell and quicken spell metamagic. Once you go dao you should go 300% eldritch blast (quicken spell+action surge). When you crit everyone get advantage on all attacks until you start another turn. But I can understand 4 lvl in fighter are somewhat wasted (it must be echo or rune knight). Feats are too important once you have maxed out charisma. In my case I wanted crusher, telekinetic and metamagic adept but I got a permanent +1 to CON so resilient CON will be and metamagic will be the very last.
You can flavor a talisman genie warlock as a member of the Green Lantern Corps with the lantern as the vessel and the ring as the talisman.
I recently started playing a Djinni Pact of the Tome warlock just like Monty, but with Kelly's idea of battlefield control, especially with something like thunderwave. But one of the main appeals to Tome besides utility was the Shillelagh cantrip paired with a quarterstaff, and that with Maddening Hex and a few paladin levels basically made me a more versatile Hexblade.
YES! I've been looking forward to this episode since I discovered their class a few months ago! ^_^
One of my favorite character concepts I've made is a triton efreeti warlock based around the idea of being a literal fish out of water, being stranded in the desert by her patron's malevolent trickster brother.
Every other optimizer out there has chosen the Earth Dao Genie so far, so I decided to choose an Air Djinni named Zephyra. She chose a Water Genasi youth nicknamed "Gurgle" to be her representative in the Material Plane. But she looked into his lineage and found he was also descended from an ancient Silver Dragon ancestor. Thus upon offering Gurgle a pact to become a Genie Warlock with her as his Patron, she helped him draw out his Draconic Bloodline to become a Sorcerer with higher AC when he first starts out as an adventurer before transitioning into a Warlock. When he gains Pact of the Chain, he selects an Imp as a familiar who could carry his Genie Vessel as a ring in the talons while flying invisibly. Thus the Warlock can see through the familiar's vision while lounging inside his Genie Vessel. It's almost like having Arcane Eye and being able to infiltrate inside a castle or dungeon.
Gosh I miss my Dwarf Dao Genie Warlock. Rarely do I play a character back again... but I might!
I play a hairless tabaxi with a dao genie patron and pact of the tome. When using my elemental gift to fly a sand cloud lifts me off the ground. We also changed the cantrip sword burst to claw burst to fit the feline theme. I’m constantly collecting gems to give to my patron to eat as they are one of his favorite snacks 😸
A large key as a vessel, carried by a tortoise-like familiar with a specifically shaped recess in its shell
There is a problem with being a Talisman Pact Warlock with the combined talisman/vessel. You can't give it away to someone to do the teleport thing or give them the bonuses of it. That being you will not be in touch with your vessel to do the extra damage
Great stuff, guys!
In the campaign I'm in as a Dao genie warlock, they are based off of an old noir detective, so the inside of the vessel is my detectives office
So a little thing about the thought process I do when building a character. (I've never played this version of a warlock)
I'm thinking first what is my race... how did I get a Jinn to talk to me. Did i save it, is it common for my race... etc
Next I'm thinking about my background. I tend to pick backgrounds that give me expanded skills... if I am a warlock I'm probably taking outlander, Hermit, Urchin, or something like that. Something that made me an outsider and made me more willing to take a Jinn as my friend.
(Normally here is where I put my class in but I've already decided that)
Ability Scores Chrisma is most important, I think Dex and Con come next. Wisdom solid fourth. I don't need to be a brain or the party brawn. To use an A-team reference I'm likely Faceman. I'll be doing the talking and diplomacy.
Skills I'm probably taking int based skills even though I am not very smart. I had to find the Jinn one way and investigation is most likely. Arcana, history, religion... something led me there.
I understand sometimes that people take warlock to do eldrich blast most of the time. There are other spells that I could see here. I'm much more likely to get utility invocations than the blast upgrade. Early levels I'm going to take Armor of shadows and Begiling influnce. I'm likely to switch those out after level 5 BUT for the early levels I'm getting extra skills to make me the face and I am not using a spell slot to cast mage armor. +3 to my ac when I'm likely to push my dex to +3... important.
Now I'm taking the pact of the blade. The reason for this is that I Don't have to worry about having a weapon. I can take the extra attack at level 5 and/or improved pact weapon for versitality. This choice is going to lead me to spells that allow me freedom of movement like Misty step, thunder step, etc. IT's also going to push me into feats that help like ... wait for it... defensive duelist, warcastor etc.
Medic is not beyond the scope IF we look at the Hermit background it makes sense.
That leads me down the dark path of being an Exile Goliath(MOM) from the rock tribe making a pact with an effret my only friend. I traveled as a hermit for years talking to my friend until the day he offered me power because I didn't want any wishes. My god offering me a gift hell yea. He even gives me weapons, This silver rapier lit on fire. cool right... he's such a nice guy you would like him. 4th level I'm taking skill expert to be more stealthy and to fix my Constitution which is 13.
5th level I'm taking Eldrich Smite and Thirsting blade.(Yes I am losing free mage armor but I am gaining the ability to cast spells and attack twice with a weapon. I now have good stealth I now have options to attack and do 5d8 damage (or lets be real 10 D 8) twice per combat. I meld well with the Rogue or the Fighter At level six goodbye being the face skills Hello Rebuke of the Talisman!. 7th level madning hex or one with the shadows. at 8th level Fay touched to up my Charisma and get hex once a day for free. Conversly I can take medium armor to up my dex and AC with a shield. At 9th level my smite maxes out at 8d8 (or 16D8 on a crit... which lets face it crit). I've got ways of getting extra damage, ways of crowd control. freedom of movement I don't have to worry about restraint. 12th level I continue to go up in my Charisma or dex with a feet, while also taking Life Drinker or Bond of the Talisman. I'm now the exempler of my "God". I am to the Fire element what a Pali is to the crown. ...
Admit it you want a good looking Goliath who can carry your shit and still wack your enemies. One who talks directly to his "God" and that "God" talks back... and can even talk to you.
Mark of the Storm Half Elf (born in Ebberon but raised in the Elemental Plain of Air)
Started off level 5 at 8/14/16/10/10/17 with Moderately armored at 4
At 8, bumped Charisma to 18 with Elven Accuracy then capped to 20 at level 12
in our last campaign, we had a genie warlock and I played a Harengon Scout Rogue. We had one situation where the DM basically had poison cloud in a combat situation against Yuan-Ti. My rogue had 10 feet blind sense . Party hopped in the ring, Rogue went hunting for the caster. Then tossed the ring at their feet. Party hopped out and had surprise because the caster didn't see a group of people coming out of no where.
We used that ring for transport -- stealth, escape, etc. Because the Rogue could get in and out without really being seen. And while doing that, the casters could get their short rest / get your spell back situation.
☆ Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Heart!
GO PLANET‼️ 🌎
I had the idea for a Genie Warlock whose dad was actually some devil who gave him the Genie as a gift and who had to in return to comvince people to become his dads Warlocks...
Not sure from where to go there as of yet... if it's a Genie that was forced or more of a servant kind of character or just a friend who decided to help out.
The only thing I know I want is for my character trying to help out his father who he doesn't even know that well or what he does, but still helps. By trying to convince people to make a contract with his father while being someone who didn't even make one with his father himself.
it's nice to see a genielock build that isn't just a cheesegrater
42:07
wish cast simulacrum
you now have a weird snow clone of yourself to do all the wish casting for you
I love playing the Genie Warlock. I typically use the Efreeti Genie but someday I'm tempted to try out the Dao Genie. Then again, after hearing Kelly's take on the former, I might not. :D He made it sound even more interesting than I have thus far explored. :D
You guys are like my comfort channel :))