Easy Roller Dice Trays: bit.ly/EasyRollerColorShift Anyone here enjoying Outriders as much as I am right now? (PS thanks to all who have come out to the Twitch Streams the past two weeks 😁)
You did a great job but the synergy and flavor of the hexblDe don't really make all that much sense also their level one ability the hexblades curse is against one person and once per day it isn't very good at all.
The rest of it though was fairly spot on. The flavor of a magic sword is cool but all features outside of level one don't deal with weapons or have any cohesion with the rest of the weapon motif.
@@dr.slaughterstein1879 eh, it's often just easier to pick a race that has reduced or no sleep requirements instead, if that's essential to you. There are So many more impactful invocations that it's a hard sell.
I'm really hoping the Undead warlock becomes a replacement for Undying instead of a separate subclass. We don't need more abandoned F tier subclasses like Purple Dragon Knight.
@@toomanysecrets It definitely would be nice if they went around to various old bad subclasses and re-released and new and improved version. There are a lot of subclasses that have great thoughts behind them and a lot of flavor but are mechanically weak.
I wish that Tasha added a ghost warlock. Imagine that, a pact where the burden falls on the ghost though. Sacrificing time in heaven so they can protect someone they love, there child or spouse perhaps. Or maybe the ghost is just a simp, go crazy with it. I homebrewed my own but it’s not particularly amazing
This is actually a lot like how World of Darkness's "Geist:The Sin Eaters" can feel. The pitch is this. You died... and as you were dying you were given a second chance by an amalgam of spirits that form a single concept (like a "First Love" or a "Woman Scorned") and they confer you spooky ghost powers while you work to mediate the restless dead elsewhere... or just live up your 2nd life. Your call.
@@ChibiHoboProductions I made the subclass because my character had a adopted daughter who she’s super protective of and this would make a nice back up character that could easily fit into the game quickly
As far as flavor goes, for a celestial pact warlock, I like the idea of a lazy or evil character that has found themselves under the thumb or indebted to a celestial who is bent upon saving the character's soul.
I had an idea for a grumpy old dwarf who ends up being given powers by a goddess of love and kindness to help him find a family (party) to replace the wife and son he lost. I made him a life cleric, but maybe celestial warlock would work better in this regard.
My celestial warlock was a riff in the classic "trying to resurrect a dead god" trope, except it was a benevolent nature deity which needed resurrecting.
Combo with the Pact of the Chain invocation Gift of the Ever-Living Ones to max out your healing rolls on self. If you use the max number of healing light dice on yourself, you can heal for 24 HP as a bonus action as early as level 4. You'll make the Paladin blush.
I think Genie vessel is stronger than you’re giving it credit for. You can have it as a ring which can also serve as your arcane focus. It’s a 1,250 storage room with 20 ft. ceiling. You can have a library, a lab/workshop, a treasure room, etc and still have room to relax. Couple with a trusted familiar and your ring can stay out of danger while you rest or be used to sneak you into an area that you might not be able to reach normally.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub He overstated and understated it at the same time. On one hand, being able to do it once per long rest is less powerful, but he severely understated the usefulness of it as a ring. And not only that, but when you hit 5th level you can just spend your entire sleep portion of your rest in there. Congrats, no more getting attacked mid rest for you. And the stuff brian mentioned? absolutely stellar. You could also use it in different more unique ways, since you go inside the ring, you could do things like sending yourself via bird to another location, or you could use it to escape a situation with going into the ring, getting it tossed out of a jail cell or to freedom, and then coming out of the ring. So many possibilities.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub Groups can also get attacked in their sleep. Either through bad rolls detecting people and getting surprised or through negligence. Either way it becomes not your problem. Also all my other points had nothing to do with being solo or not.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub Since when don't groups get attacked in their sleep? Keeping watch just lets you have a chance to not be surprised. Do you have some misconception that a watch automatically prevents attacks?
It seems especially nice to use for long rests if you're in a harsh environment, like a desert or the arctic, since it's always a comfortable temperature inside.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub You're legitimately dense, he's totally right and you completely stopped talking to me because you must've realized you were wrong. With how after a certain point, the party can come in with you, it entirely prevents attacks unless someone happens to both find it and understand what it is, which is very low chance if you hide it proper.
One thing I love about the Fiend Pact is that the abilities kinda tell a story on their own. Your patron does _not_ respect you, and doesn't believe for a second you can make it. "Here, have more HP, you weakling." "Here, take some luck, you'll need it." "Here, have some resistance, since a stiff breeze knocks you on your ass." Then, when you're entering the epic at lvl14, they finally give you something that isn't defensive.
Warlock: "can I have something to kill them before they hit me!?" Fiend: "mortals are so fragile and I'd prefer to make my investments actually return"
Oh my stars! I played a Warlock of Bill Cipher (HB) named Willamina "Will" Crowe. She's a combo of Ford, Dipper, Indiana Jones, & Buffy the Vampire Slayer, & accidentily looks kind of like Reverse Mabel. Also her nickname "Will" wasn't chosen on a whim. 😁 Her relationship with Bill was an interesting one. Think Heart (Bill)-Mind ("Will") relationship most character duos have
I feel like he's really underplaying just how good Fiend Warlocks are. Hurl through Hell is amazing, their spell list is fantastic, and the fact that they don't synergize well with any of the pacts is a blessing in disguise because it means you can do whatever you want with it. I almost kinda hate the Hexblade because of how front-loaded it is how it does just have weird flavor.
Exactly! I think what he missed with hurl through hell is that there’s *no save* for hurl through hell. That’s SO good!! You can be fighting the BBEG with some Allies down, then all the sudden you can hurl them through hell and give health potions to all the downed teammates! Every time! It’s so good
Half Elf Fiend Warlock with 15+1, 10, 13+1, 10, 10, 14+2 Point Buy with the High Elf variant (extra cantrips are always welcome). Level 1 start Fighter for heavy armor, constitution saves & a fighting style--3 feats out of the way for a 1 level delay is so worth it At levels 5, 9, 13, 17 & 20 add 2 to Strength, Charisma, Constitution, Strength & Charisma in that order to end at 20/10/16/10/10/20. 165 base health doesn't seem like much but between your passive giving you 24 temporary HP a pop & the occasional Armor of Agathys you'd be looking at an effective 261+ hit points if you kill 3+ targets in a day.
The Undead Warlock is coming officially with Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft. Not sure if it's different from the UA, but we're getting that and the Spirits Bard when the book comes out
This, and I would probably rank it way higher just on how well all the subclass abilities work together with each other, and because I mostly play on Ravenloft where the flavor is bloody amazing.
hello im posting from the future where the book is already out to say the UA and the released version of the Undead warlock pretty much didnt change at all and its flavor is chefs kiss for ravenloft/ curse of strad
Bottled Respite is very underated imo: being able to short rest while the party carry your lazy-cheating-ask-patron-for-magic-behind in a bottle is sooo fun.
I was thinking of using the ring as a vessel. Easier to conceal and SO many options for being sneaky. Port into the ring and have someone drop the ring through the crack in a locked door or leave it somewhere for >insert target here< to find. You can gain access to places that you might not be able to otherwise without significant combat. Have the rogue wear the ring with you inside waiting while they sneak around and if they get discovered now all of a sudden they aren't alone. Need to get across a river, attach the ring and line to an arrow and have it shot to the other side. Now you have someone to tie off the rope. Slip it in the pitcher of beer going to a table of baddies you want to listen in on. With creative thinking this one could have many uses throughout the campaign.
@@Weezlenut My party and I wanted to save a small opressed town and for that we had to infiltrate a keep. The city sold us as "slaves" so that we can get into the keep and we dumped all of our armor and weapons into the ring of the warlock and then hid the ring in the druids... bottom... A lot of druidcraft was necessary to get the stank off the ring afterwards, but hey, we had our own Trojan horse
@@P-diddykong Very nice. I'll have to remember that trick. Except the prison purse part, there ain't enough druid craft in the Forgotten Realms for me to use that ring again.
@@Weezlenut I completely agree with you. You ain’t doing that to my ring! If it did happen I’d just smash my ring and get a new one. No cleaning required.
I think the synergy between pact of the chain and Genie is awesome. Once you have an invisible flying imp carrying your bottle you can get in or out of anywhere and basically that respite ability should give you an extra short rest a day which is no bad thing for a warlock.
Yeah, he massively under-estimated the utility bottled respite gives in the hands of a creative player. Having played a genie warlock, I can give a perfect example. During a campaign there was an incident in which my character (a tiefling) was currently in hot water because of having to uh, throw a guy out of the second story window of a tavern. Guards were coming to investigate and the guy was shouting about a demon having attacked him(He was drunk), and my character had to find a way to avoid the guard to prevent further issues. So basically, she put her genie's vessel(which was just a regular looking bottle) onto a table, hopped in it, and disappeared while the guard did their search. Not to mention, with your example of the invisible flying imp carrying the bottle, you could easily use it to bring the bottle into places to spy if need be. Keep in mind you can hear -everything- that happens outside of the bottle as if you were in that space. Also if you've got a rogue in the party, can have them sneak you into a place if need be....so many ways it can be used outside of just "a comfy place to rest".
Have an idea (feel free to steal it) for an rival NPC adventure who is a Genie-Chainlock who'd be completing dungeons, missions, etc. faster than the party due to the short rest spamming and the versatility of the subclass.
@@InfinityImplosion excellent if you want a friend in there to chat too and can't wait till tenth level the pot of awakening from xanathar's would make a lovely addition to your hideaway. I guess a dragon's egg might work too but a little baby Groot is safer.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub Yes, I know, that doesn't negate any of the many ways it can be used in the hands of a creative player that aren't obvious. Unless you weren't meaning to respond to me in that lol..
@@PelicansCourtsideClub that's why elves are best Genie warlocks, as they need only 4 hours to have a long rest and they can have a long rest inside the bottle from the level one. The best part is that you can have a long rest, while your invisible familiar is transporting you to the destination. Alternatively, if UA is allowed, one could use a Reborn, eg. flavor it as a half human half stone construct, resurrected by his Dao overlord for some task.
Seriously, I haven't had the chance to play one yet but I love the flavor of carrying basically a small house with you in something as small as a ring. That coupled with the fact that elves can take a long rest in it at level 1, and then it refreshes when their trance ends, seems so cool.
Right?? Honestly that and complimenting the Hexblade's lore (something every avid warlock player ive ever met fucking hates), narrow-minded "its cthulhu lol" take about my son the GOOlock, how low down he ended up ranking the Fiend- There's. A lot of misses here
Everytime my party needs to go "stealth mode" my paladin/warlock just jumps into his egg. They don't need my -2 with disadvantage as dragging down the average :P
It's fascinating how all the youtuber's can't agree on the warlock ratings at all with two exceptions: The Undying being the worst and The Hexblade being the best :D
Hexblade is also the most overrated subclass of Warlock too. I find it absolutely boring because you legit just get "moar damage" and thats it. It feels like a cop out of a subclass tbh
Genie is better than hex blade levels 1-20, wish spell, limited wish, + profiency bonus in damage, flight 3 times a day no concentration, and a free short rest in your lamp once a day. Hexblade will do slightly more damage, but I built a dexterity based genie/blade pact warlock that could out damage any hexblade. Of course for a 1-2 level dip hexblade is still king
@@therandom58 genie warlock gets +profiency bonus every turn and my genie warlock basically would get a free short rest in his lamp everyday giving him 2 more spell slots than the hexblade. Sure his charisma was lower but his dex is what he used for damage. Every damage boost the hex gets the genie warlock gets except hexblade curse but that’s only once per short rest. Sure genie doesn’t get extra crits but it gets same ability every turn. Extra weapon profiencies? Nice but pact of the blade let’s u use any weapon with the blade pact invocation. Charisma based attacks? My dex based genie doesn’t need charisma because most of its spells aren’t charisma based. Medium armor and shields? I played tashas custom lineage and got that +1 to my dex for a total of 18 dex at level 1 with thee medium armor feat. Again hexblade is an unbeatable dip but with the right choices a genie can match or even out damage it
I’d like to point out that celestial warlock is not limited to just being the goody two shoes warlock, it’s flavor text mentions being magically influenced by your patron, and the idea of a person with complicated morals succumbing to the black and white dogma of an angelic patron is really interesting.
I played this with a naive character, and angelic patron, and a pact of the chain sprite celestial familiar with complicated morals who had been tasked with keeping the kid on the proper path to redeem himself. He wasn't very good at it.
Not the same but similar. I once had a 2nd ed paladin LG Inquisitor, he executed sooooo many people for so many minor causes. "Iv'e sacrificed my chance at heaven to save your souls, don't make me regret my decision!"
Agree. I have watched the Warlock and Paladin ranking videos. Great analysis. I have watched ratings by others on RUclips and it is crazy to see the wild variability between one to the other. I feel like your ratings of all the various aspects of each subclass lends credence to your ranking.
The Genie Warlock can only enter their vessel once per short rest, so it is more like a free cast of catnap. Although they can stay there with the whole party for 8 hours so they can possibly long rest in a dungeon with little to no risk.
Until a patrol of the BBEG's henchmen find a strange looking lamp, and take it to their master, who keeps it with the rest of their unique looking items, right in the center of all their guards
Yeah, I think that was missed. I think the most important thing about this ability is that your lamp can be carried by a party member that doesn't necessarily need the short rest and the "party" doesn't lose any travel time.
@@ezrashelton4464 that plus once you hit tenth level and the whole party can enter the vessel you can travel relatively huge distances basically for free. if you've the basic find familiar through tome of ancient secrets, depending on your GM of course, your're familiar should be able to carry the vessel and move 30 ft per round for 8 hours maybe with some breaks, while flying in a straight line over terrain, and it's twice that if you have pact of the chain because the pseudodragon has a 60 ft fly speed while being invisible which is pretty incredible. I'm really glad to see people give the genie warlock it's due, in my circle of friends and some general internet discussion about the subclass has been pretty dour but I think it's probably my favorite warlock and definitely going to be my first warlock.
For the old one warlock: With the create thrall feature your thrall has telepathy at an infinite range, it's basically just like having a cellphone with a single person if you or him infiltrates somewhere. Now, of course, this is still situational, but it's at least something that you can do
I always liked the idea of a tiefling warlock with a fiend pact, but his patron is his overbearing mother and only does the warlock thing because he’s being forced to.
i made this but the patron was an uncaring father figure for a female tiefling and was allowed to use grim hallow transformation into the fiend so much fun and lots of social checks on my part but worth it
Hexblade + Tavern Brawler, watch your DM either kick you, Kill you, or ban you as you summon a magical bar-stool for a fight. Prof with "improvised" weapons" is amazing
Dark one’s blessing. This has been one or two totally free healing spells for me in almost every encounter. Gaining temp hit points that then also get used up. Mileage may vary, sure. Mechanically, I keep near the melee presenting a formidable force with agonizing eldritch blasts. With the range it’s not hard to pick off weakened targets to get the temp hit points. Once I have the temp hit points I spend time in a vulnerable position to take a hit or two to elevate damage from the tank, then retreat and go back to sniping. My experience may be different because I’ve only done this at low level. Up to level 6 once, and starting a new campaign and up to level 3 again with the same character concept. The temp hit points have been huge.
Up to level five now. Those hit points are outstanding! I took enough damage to knock me unconscious in a session but because of temp hit points I was almost full when the encounter ended and I required no healing (spell slots, or combat actions or bonus actions) to keep me at or hear full for the fight duration. At this point I’m level 5. I’ve got about 33 hit points and I get 9 temp hit points when I kill a thing. It’s HUGE! Average healing from a first level spell slot is 7.5 on cure wounds and 6.5 on healing word … a second level spell slot cure wounds is 9 hit points (4 wis mod, 2.5 + 2.5 from 2D4) … I get that for FREE when I kill something. And that happens multiple times in every encounter. Just laying down hate with 1D10+1D6+4 (13 avg) eldritch blasts two per round with hex and a cantrip.
I still like the Feypact as a CC style caster. Yeah Wizard can do better, as an Illusionist style, but with evocations you can make it just as fun without feeling overwhelmed by all the spells a Wizard can have.
Virgin Unicorn: Must be virgin to ride Looks like a normal horse Can't fly without being another creature entirely More like a fey, but changed in the monster manual for variety Used as a symbol of purity Chad Coutl: Literal Aztec God Giant Telepathic Snake Monster Flies using magnificently colored wings Never restricted to one form, can change it at will Used as a symbol of power
Long ago, before the 'Rona, I was in a campaign as a Celestial Patron warlock. I think you may be underestimating the flavor potential of this particular patron option. I like to use my character, Holla Bak, as an example of that. His patron ended up being a homebrewed Gold Dragon angel thing that was well known for healing during its lifetime. How was this deal struck? Well, Holla had wanted to be a doctor from a young age, but had no aptitude for medicine or healing. Failing out of several apprenticeships and schools, eventually he had a breakdown and screamed into the void, being quite surprised when the void screamed back. Ungrenotorum(the Gold Dragon angel thing) had been watching Holla for some time, as he seeks out those who truely desire to help, but for various reasons are ignored by the gods. The major end of the deal is having to work in, and eventually start, clinics or hospitals in places that have none during your travels, only engaging in violence when violence is first used agsinst you. In exchange, Ungrenotorum grants you the knowledge of medicine you need, and magic to both aid that healing and keep you safe during your travels. Failure to abide these confitions, simple as they are, puts you on the bad side of an ancient celestial dragon that can yoink your powers at any time. Holla Bak was working at a clinic at the start of the campaign, but was extremely paranoid about anyone finding out he was a warlock- knowing society's general views on warlocks, regardless of who the deal is with, and believing that even if people accepted him being a warlock, it would lessennhis reputation as a doctor. As a result, he never told anyone, and actively kept it a secret, even from his adventuring buddies. This caused alot of stress, so Holla ended up being a bit of an alcoholic. Made for some great RP opportunities, especially when I had to call on Ungrenotorum for a favor when we found ourselves in over our heads. He wasn't a big fan of Holla keeping his warlockness secret, so he gave Holla a big glowing magic tattoo on his forehead(the symbol of Ungrenotorum, a dragon scale with stylized flames coming out the top). Lots of flavor potential with the Celestial, I don't really think it swings too far from the typical idea of what a warlock is. You gotta be a bit more creative I think, but the flavor potential is super high.
I play a genie warlock, and have made my bottled respite a funny roleplay thing. Basically, everyone else is out here sleeping on bedrolls and eating hardtack rations and I get to go to my bottle with satellite TV, a king sized bed, and bacon&eggs for breakfast.
I recently made a hexblade pact of the blade combo warlock... And then my DM gave my level 6 Warlock a Vorpal long sword in my first session with the character.... Feeling pretty incredible not gonna lie...
Enjoy being significantly better than 90% of your party, it never stops being fun to be both the best damage dealer, a decent tank AND the charismatic face of the group ;)
As a big fan of the edgy caster myself, all I want in the future is a dragon or draconic themed warlock. There are so many cool things you can do with a dragon patron and I really hope we see an iteration of that in the future.
The dragon monk that was added in a UA is VERY cool and way more active than other subclasses without being broken. I would love to see a dragon warlock patron that followed that idea.
As a Fiend Warlock in a Mad Mage campaign, I have found the level 1 ability to gain temps to be quite good. I would consider the multiple attack nature of Eldritch Blast to synergize well with it. Further, I went full meme and am playing a Tiefling, so I have absolutely baited opportunity attacks to use Hellish Rebuke, and the temps allow me to do this with lower risk.
My first 5e warlock was an archfey warlock. I had a patron concept that I really liked, but it really felt it wall all flavour not much else. When Xanathars came out my DM was nice enough to let me switch patron.
I really like the great old one. I don’t limit the patron to being just Cthulhu. It can be any distant powerful being, either making one up or taking from a different worlds gods. For example I have allowed people to have a chaos god from war hammer as the great old one. I also play this character differently than is maybe the typical dynamic between power and servant. With the great old one they creature doesn’t need to know you exist, meaning you can simply use them as like a battery pack. That’s what I like to do.
We had a great old one warlock that was serving a long dead and forgotten god! He spent the first 10 levels slowly corrupting a CG cleric from his deity to his patron. By level 12 the cleric was full on Cthuluist and had quickly changed to CE. The last 3 games sessions were spent hunting down the warlock and cleric before they fully woke their patron/deity! In the end of that campaign the deity does attain full consciousness, and when the characters make new players they find themselves seeing the world already being influenced by the madness and chaos of the now woken god. The bard character that survived became a NPC and the party encountered him a number of times!
21:02 Yeah you're still gonna want to stick with Agonizing Blast. AB adds CHA damage per beam, Radiant Soul only adds once per spell cast, and only against one target (no benefit to an AOE). Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast >>> Sacred Flame with Radiant Soul. Though I could see it if you really wanted a different Invocation to help your build, or if your plan is to go in melee with Green-Flame Blade.
When you're DM'ing GOO Warlocks it's worth bearing in mind there are a whole lot of different potential patron GOO's (other than Cthulu), some of whom can take the appearance of a humanoid approximation - such as Nyarlathotep.. Some of the less well known ones might be easier to weave into your world-building / back-story etc..
Well, i knew it, but you forgot one of the most OP things about the hexblade. It allows the warlock to equip Medium armor and shields. This leaves a sorlock with, easily 19AC as soon as he can buy a decent medium armor, and it gives the Shield spell for an insane 24AC in the early game. Damn i love this class.
I just want to play a Warlock all the way to level 20. Personally, I can't stand multiclassing because I feel that you can get any flavor you want out of a subclass, background, feature, and race. Multi-classing feels meta to me but that's probably just a me thing.
We have a running joke in my campaign that I am trying to get everyone to be a Warlock. It started with the Dragonborn Sorcerer. He was reached out to by a mysterious psychic that offered him in power as a Great Old One Patron. He just recently found out his patron was an Illithid who the party had messed with the plans of. The mind network so the potential in him, and decided he would be better as an ally than an enemy.
I'm still hoping for a dragon/wyrm warlock to compliment the other dragon subclasses we got in a previous UA. The Undead patron should be out in May with the Ravenloft book. At least that's what we were promised. I'm curious to see how much it changed, and look forward to seeing you do an addendum of this video and inserting that patron. I'm hoping it's good enough to go higher than #5.
@@akrinornoname2769 id argue against that draconic sorcerer are more people who have draconic powers in their blood and very souls while a warlock is just borrowing them for a lifetime nothing is really passed down like sorcerer powers are though a draconic patron would also be hard unless its like an ancient dragon i guess since dragons dont really go about giving powers away kinda goes agaisnt their whole we are the top and you deserve to be lower then us mentality most of them have
The genie Warlock can only enter their vessel once per day, as stated clearly in the Bottled Respite feature: Once you enter the vessel, you can't enter again until you finish a long rest. So you can take a single quick 10-minute buffed up short rest per day and that's it.
17:03 While there is no cap on how many times you can benefit from a short rest, you can only use your Bottled Respite (the feature that allows you to enter your vessel and gets improve by Sanctuary Vessel) once per long rest. Meaning your party only get one 10 minute short rest per long rest.
Currently playing in a campaign as a Genie Warlock and I thought the flavour was very good as I made my character who has heavy ties as a slave trader in the city of brass with of course an Efreeti patron. So far haven't decided to play campy but it has worked so far as a nice class for travelling rest, though I can see how you'd play them that way. The list is very accurate and I love where the class falls in but everything in warlock has potential as far as rp goes, you just need to be creative. Love the vids man and keep doing what you're doing
Cool subclass breakdown!! Love your opinions on all things D&D and it’s about time we got a new, decent subclass breakdown list. Would love to see more on other subclasses, especially ones like Cleric and Ranger where subclasses and builds can really change what a character looks like.
I feel like Fiend should’ve been ranked a little higher, but I definitely don’t have the same experience. I do feel like, more than some of the others, the invocations you choose can make it incredible or ruin it.
Fathomless Warlock is my first "real" warlock character ("real" in quotations because I did play a Fiend Warlock for a campaign that lasted all of two sessions), and I completely agree with your assessment. Spell list is meh, but everything else is SO AWESOME. I love summoning tentacles that b-tch-slap my enemies, and I love being able to say that my warlock's Spider Climb spell works by creating octopus-like suction cups on my limbs. The only downside is that the tentacle ability fights with Hex for bonus action usage. It's truly awesome when I can get the tentacle and hex going on at the same time, but it doesn't happen often enough.
You're the first person I've seen who has rated the Fiend warlock near the middle. Nearly everyone else sings its praises as one of the best warlock subclasses.
a big reason why most warlock players who try out the other subclasses through many campaigns sing praises for fiend is how good it is at making sure you dont fail essentually that is the basic core of the subclass you made a deal for your soul with a devil and they will by the hells makes sure you keep your end and finish your job before they come to collect
I love your videos so much! They really help me learn more about dnd. I especially like this series because my friends are always better at making more powerful characters than I am because I am too focused on backstory and stuff. Thanks!!
grab a sun blade when your a high enough level and boom lightsaber for more memes and if you have to multi-class psi-fighter is where to go as it gives you the force powers as class features
You're definitely underestimating The Fiends Level 14 feature Hurl Through Hell. There's no save, there's no way to avoid it, their legendary resistances is useless. You just say they're hurled and they're hurled, and it only comes back at THE END of your next turn, meaning you and your entire party can hold their action to attack. When facing the BBEG, with Hex + Scorching Ray, you yourself deal 18d6 + 10d10 + 18d6 damage, PLUS your parties held action damage, before they've even had a turn. Almost any BBEG at this point is dead before they've even had a turn, almost any other ability in the game requires a saving throw which their legendary resistances is used for. This doesn't, making it extremely powerful against anything. "Great against single target, bad against lots of minions" Which is why they have Fireball. If there's too many minions, just fireball them, then Hurl Through Hell the BBEG afterwards.
I very rarely subscribe to channels but I did to yours after the first video I watched and haven’t regretted it yet! 😁 As always you have given an in depth and well thought out explanation of your reasoning and coupled that with the caveat of ‘these are my opinions’ since there’s always subjectivity in these lists. Please continue making awesome content and please consider doing this for the rest of the classes.
My next warlock is going to be of the Fathomless pact with the kraken. He was a slave who made a deal with the kraken to gain the power to overcome his masters, took the ship for his own, and became a feared pirate. After a mutiny, his patron stripped him back down to his basic power due to the amount of sacrifice falling, so now he works to rebuild his power and hunt down those who betrayed him.
Kick ass backstory, I love it. I once made a Tortle Sorc/Monk (Dragon Sorcerer and Open Hand monk) that was a Dragon Turtle that was shrunk by a fleet of wizards and was now the size of a human, he is often mistaken for a tortle. He was always looking for a way to return to his original form
I've had one of my PC'S have unknown sleepwalking tick because of it sometimes having some small animal part in their hand or strange etching around them in the dirt, grass, w/e with other Warlocks still in trance. Really sells the they don't think of you as anything but a tool without literally ignoring the PC'S class altogether.
I love that he called plant growth a "gem" after a short pause. It's real value is in its long cast ability. Nothing makes a town love you like growing out their crops for a season.
Archfey, fey presence, is literally the equivalent of getting a good 1st level spell on a short rest cooldown, usable in both combat and social environments, once per short rest. Since no other warlock gets effectively 2 spells at level 1, and then 3 spells cast per short rest until 11th level... calling this bad is pretty mystifying.
17:00 - You can only use Sanctuary Vessel once per long rest. It requires that you use Bottled Respite which doesn't allow you to enter the vessel again until you finish a long rest.
I don't think the genie's vessel ability is boring, especially with pact of the chain. Go inside your vessel for a little bit, and have your familiar fly you around like your own luxurious taxi service and just pop out wherever you need to.
The ammount of times that saved my character from death is concerning. Falling iff a huge cliff? Genie's vessel. Got surrounded by werewolves and you're out of spell slots? Genie's vessel. A house collapsed on you and the dn asked for a dex save? Genie's freaking vessel. And yes all that happened to me... Strahd is one mad campaign. But also concentration free flight with hover is just incredibly useful. And the dao patron has a lot of good stuff to add to your lock. Sanctuary is great especially if you dip into sorcerer fir some extra spell slots, wall of stone, always useful and can't be misty stepped through like a wall of force, and of course spike growth with the class that gets to push and dealing extra bludgeoning damage paired with the crusher and telekenetic feats make for a greatly powerful combo if you run it wisley. The ammount of dash actions i made my DM take from shoving hus enemies really far back was a lot. Lol.
Genie Warlock is a little underrated imo. Dao Patron can get spike growth, with repelling blast invocation at lvl 3 that's an extra 4d4 damage then they have to move through the spike growth again to get to you. Pick up the crusher feat and you get to move them an extra 5 feet bc you deal bludgeoning damage once per turn. Keeps scaling up as you level up because you get more EB beams and more control options such as the pact of the talisman. Not to mention that your vessel is an arcane focus that doesnt need to be held.
"That sold their souls for gifts and powers" My character based on a quiz that ended up with lycanthropy at creation: his pact is legit just him asking hid patron to keep the curse at bay because he's scared to hurt someone. So healing flavour of the celestial warlock just *fit*
Genie is EASILY my favorite warlock pack, plus it gives me the ability to get a flaming sword without waiting on my DM to give me a flame tongue... IF he/she gives me a flame tongue.
@@martaneon5310 For sure. And if we're going full out numbers here, just use a heavy weapon with gwm. For a -5 to attack, assuming you max str and cha, you get a bonus +26 damage on each hit, and that's not adding dice rolls. It's nasty for sure.
I feel like the effect of Radiant soul was overstated: You can only add your charisma to 1 damage roll per spell cast. So if you throw a fireball at 3 targets, only 1 of them takes the additional damage. It doesn't apply to Eldritch blast, and even if it did, only to a single hit of it. I don't think it changes the overall verdict on the Celestial, though. ^^ Also, the GOO only allows you to talk to someone telepathically - not them to talk back. It's not a conversation, it's not a suggestion or anything, they're literally just hearing a disembodied voice. Which can be useful, obviously, but exchanging information with this is limited.
Huh. This definitely made me reconsider the Undying Warlock. I mean, I love the flavor. But man, I also didn't respect the Hexblade quite enough yet it seems. No wonder Fjord comes off as such a badass in combat. :D
Cody, I really liked your review on Warlocks. I was happy to see the Celestial get rated as high as it did. My 13 y/o daughter wanted to join a campaign we were doing with another family in the neighborhood. She ended up with a Fairy Celestial Warlock. I was worried that playing a Warlock as her 1st character would be too complex. She did great. She loved everything about her character which, probably as no surprise, even included a unicorn as her patron. All in all, this made for a very happy daughter. What was a pleasant surprise was how good she turned out to be at role playing. The DM, the other dad in the group, is an experienced DM and was blown away at how naturally she be stepped into role playing. As she had the highest charisma of anyone in the group, she fell into the face role by default but handled it with surprising ease. Unicorns and fairies may not be for everyone but for a young girl taking her first steps into D&D it was amazing. Despite watching your videos, I rarely comment. When Celestial hit #2, I felt I had to chime in.
Genie's vessel is really good, if you know how to use it: First of, pick a ring, not a lamp. If you get thrown in jail, stick your hand trough the bars, enter your vessel, the ring falls on the other side and when you leave your vessel you're out of jail. Or smuggle yourself inside a castle by entering your ing and have the rogue slight of hand you into a visitor's pocket. Or, you load up on tons of gear or treasure and then dump it inside your vessel when you enter like it's a bag of holding. Or take Voice of the chain master and have your imp familiar fly around invisably while carrying you inside your vessel.
This is the perfect video. I literally just got done homebrewing a warlock patron. And its name is THE UNKNOWING WARLOCK. It is a warlock that made a pact with a Archmage. To be ther aprentis UNKNOWINGLY becoming a warlock in the process as thay lern from the Archmage.
@@chinchillacat9964 It's a new Sorcerer in Tasha's that overshadows the Great Old One Pact, but with more spell slots and creepier...and no Pact to uphold.
Great video! I will note that HxBld AoH ability is not 50% miss. It’s 50% on attack’s that actually rolled to hit. The ones that actually missed naturally aren’t even considered. Even more powerful.
I genuinely don't know about the soundness of this argument. Yeah sure, archfey gives warlock a bunch of tricks wizards get, but the fact is warlocks aren't wizards and they wouldn't have gotten those tricks, tools, and toys anyway. Also the charm/fear effect Archfey gives is automatically superior to casting the charm spell because it doesn't include the tag line "the target knows you cast this spell on them" like half of all enchantment school spells do. At the end of the day if the best argument against the subclass is "it gives you a bunch of stuff from a much more poweful base class" then the subclass can't be all that underpowered.
tbh archfey just needs a little adjustment to be srly strong also I have always seen them as an odd warlock either as Excellent at subterfuge or you put them a bow and arrow with potb and be great at hitting without being hit (yeah you can launch you eldritch blasts from your bow with Tasha's rules i think 🤔)
@@eldritch0golem698 The 'Improved Pact Weapon' invocation is what you want for using a weapon as Warlock casting focus and letting you use a bow for your pact weapon (Pact of the Blade only allows melee weapons without IPW). As far as I know, there's nothing in Tasha's that lets you do that outside of IPW. Could be wrong, though. Pact of the Blade: You can use your action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you create it. You are proficient with it while you wield it. This weapon counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. Your pact weapon disappears if it is more than 5 feet away from you for 1 minute or more. It also disappears if you use this feature again, if you dismiss the weapon (no action required), or if you die. You can transform one magic weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual while you hold the weapon. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. You can then dismiss the weapon, shunting it into an extradimensional space, and it appears whenever you create your pact weapon thereafter. You can't affect an artifact or a sentient weapon in this way. The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it. The weapon appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when the bond breaks. Improved Pact Weapon: You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells. In addition, the weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. Finally, the weapon you conjure can be a shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.
I once played a celestial warlock with 3 levels in paladin as a Mephistopheles Tiefling, smite and flame blade got a huge boost from its 6th level ability to add damage to fire and radiant damage. I served a Phoenix that lived in a vulcano. The citizens of the city that was build on the vulcano prayed and worshiped the Phoenix to not let the vulcano erupt and to fertilize the surrounding ground for their farming. Happy to see it in the runner up spot
Celestial Warlock’s Healing light: “The only reason this ability isn’t considered downright broken, is because of how limited we are on spell slots as a warlock. If we had more spell slots to generally heal, this ability would’ve never made it in the game as it.” 😂 *I laugh in dream druid* who has the same ability with 1 fewer die but also gets an extra temp hp for each die spent. AND can spend dice equal to half character level as opposed to cha mod, which is big difference at very high level. Oh yeah, and has druid spell slot progression.
I feel that you are right about hexblade however I feel if it doesn't get paired with pact of the blade it's effectiveness drops noticeably. One reason I think hexblade and even celestial warlocks are so loved is because they give good ways to build a warlock without feeling the need to run the hex and blast routine that many warlock builds rely upon. However they still can take advantage of that if they want, which makes them more versatile.
Genie’s Vessel ( Bottled Respite) is pretty awesome if you play with a lot of stealthy party members. You hop in it, stealthy team picks it up and sneaks around. If they get caught it's only a bonus action to hope out and kick some butt. Party member told to meet someone alone, now they got a pocket warlock buddy. Want to eavesdrop on a private meeting? Have someone plant your vessel in the room before it starts and it's like your standing in the room. Need some free gear earned in questionable ways? Have a party member sell you vessel to a shop right before it closes. pop out an hour or so afterward bag some loot and teleport out. Pokeball power FTW.
I agree that it's not great, especially if you play it as a support character like I did. But you could just go for the damage, and with getting Sacred Flame as a cantrip, it's still fine. Resistance to radiant damage, though, yeah, that's never relevant.
I always had the idea for a celestial warlock that you tricked your patron into signing the contact. That gives you the cunning and mischeviousness of the warlock but the catch is your patron tricked you into being the party healer
I would love to hear somebody argue that blade locks aren’t the most Flavorful subclass, cuz they’d be wrong. Edit, unless you have third party content, with deep magic for 5th edition, the great old one towers above anything else in the game ever by a thousand fold. Check out void magic and mythos magic, pure flavor gold, and still being (almost ) optimal for practical spell use
Hexblade is a little muddled. So I’ve made a pact with a weapon, but it’s not the weapon I use, which I may also have made a pact with but not the same pact, but I can switch which weapon I made the smaller pact with because of the bigger pact I made with the other weapon that I don’t use?
@@Ellebeeby you can use your patron for hex warrior if they are a one handed weapon or if you talk to your dm to adding the feature to your patron weapon allowing them to be used for the hex warrior feature
id say really go into other guides as well and take a good deep look at things warlock can do while this video is pretty good at getting your first step into warlock the class is really a swiss army knife of builds where you can do all kinds of crazy things and sum of these sub-classes that are rated low can very easily out shine the higher ones when built well and in a group where they can make full use of their abilities
A Fiend Warlock was my first ever character in 5e. The campaign has since evolved into a Risk/Sengoku Basara campaign where we conquer territories, fight armies and have a main stronghold. Dark One's Blessing has been my lifeblood, making me nigh immortal against throngs of enemies (the Dakrness spell helps. Add resistance to slashing or piercing from Fiendish Resilience and my job becomes to "occupy the opposing armies" while the party infiltrates the castle. Then, the spell I never thought I'd take, "Hallow", has been applied in different ways to almost every section of our stronghold: - Dungeons prevent teleportation and extra-planar movement - Banquet Room has "tongues" applied for when receiving diplomats - Throne Room and Porticulis have a Fear effect in place, to slow down invaders and impose respect to the throne - Library is in Darkness so only my Warlock can consult its tomes - One room has a "Tongues" effect applied only to allies of our side. When someone swears fealty, we take him there and ask him a question in Druidic, to make sure he was sincere. So... in the right context, the Fiend abilities can be great.
One little thing though in regards to Genie Warlock's Sanctuary Vessel - Since it is tied to your party being in the vessel with you and Genie's Vessel can only be used once per long rest, Sanctuary Vessel can only be used once per long rest as well. So not all short rests will be ten minutes, just one short rest per day will be. What the feature is incredible for however is infiltration. Either have your party's face carry the rest of the squad into somewhere they can charm or socialise their way into the rest normally wouldn't dream of being able to be permitted, or if you're a Pact of the Chain warlock, have an invisible imp familiar carry your party wherever you need to get. On top of the ten minute short rest, additional healing, etc.
I'm playing a genie Warlock (Djinni) right now. While it's true you have no limit on short rests, you cannot enter your vessel again until you complete a long rest. So you can technically long rest in it every night, if you don't go into it, otherwise. You cannot, however, use it for multiple short rests in a day. That removes so much versatility from the vessel. However, the vessel is a bag of holding. So there's that. I keep all my extra rations and heavier loot in there.
That awkward moment when the video forgets the level 10 ability for Archfey also makes you IMMUNE to Charm which means immune to a lot of spells and abilities. I do agree Archfey is under-tuned but the level 10 ability isn't fundamentally the problem.
It may be a very old video, but I cannot believe you said that Archfey warlock has no flavour - you literally have a partron who is a powerful fey. There's so much flavour there with links to fey, Feywild and all sorts of shenanigans and tricky fearies. This is one of the best possible flavourful connection among the warlocks, with so much fun to be had.
My very first PC was a Great Old One Warlock, which became a lot more fun than it might have been because of a slight verbal flub my DM made when we were building my character. He was trying to offer suggestions for a Patron, and tried to say "Shub-niggorath", but messed it up and said "Sheogorath". Since the 'God of Madness and Chaos' not only sounded like a lot of fun for us both, but also still fits with a Great Old One, we just ran with it.
What!? Fiend at 5th?! It is second at worst. Raw damage is unparalleled. Abilities are all relevant. It's uninteresting flavorwise but way better than 5th
I am planning to do a scourge aasimar with the Great Old One subclass. Making him chaotic good with the "haunted one" background. The Great Old One just fits with what I want to do with the character. I agree with the Cthulu summary, but it's easy enough to just replace Cthulu with a deity that works within the standard D&D pantheon (it's really just a name, after all). The fun part will be that the character I am making will hear voices (regularly speaking with them as though they are audible to everyone), and will spend the entire campaign trying to come to terms with using evil powers for good purposes.
I’m currently playing a Fiend Warlock, and I’ll just add something to Dark One’s Blessing: if your party works with you to let you get the temporary hit points when you need them, it’s great.
I know that this is off topic. But it's your most recent upload. I just gotta say man... You are to Dungeons & Dragons as well as DM'ing/GM'ing what Matt Mercer has arguably become. (Not that I'm hating on Critical Role, I find there streams to be fantastic and entertaining, I just think they set an unrealistic precedent on playing D&D.) You have some of the most informative, well delivered, down to earth videos that I've ever seen. Keep. Them. Coming. And thank you for taking the time to share your wealth of experience and knowledge!
Easy Roller Dice Trays: bit.ly/EasyRollerColorShift
Anyone here enjoying Outriders as much as I am right now? (PS thanks to all who have come out to the Twitch Streams the past two weeks 😁)
Arthas was a Vengeance Paladin that got at least a level on Hexblade =X
yes
You did a great job but the synergy and flavor of the hexblDe don't really make all that much sense also their level one ability the hexblades curse is against one person and once per day it isn't very good at all.
The rest of it though was fairly spot on. The flavor of a magic sword is cool but all features outside of level one don't deal with weapons or have any cohesion with the rest of the weapon motif.
PLEEEESE! Make videos for the rest of the classes as well
Undying Warlock: I don't need to eat, sleep or breathe at level 10
Warforged: I get that at level 1.
Same with Reborn!
Also a tome pact invocation that does it even better.
@@dr.slaughterstein1879 though that wastes a precious Invocation
@@karsten69 whilst this is can be the case with some warlock builds, in others or certain campains it could make a huge difference.
@@dr.slaughterstein1879 eh, it's often just easier to pick a race that has reduced or no sleep requirements instead, if that's essential to you. There are So many more impactful invocations that it's a hard sell.
The undying warlock feels like the ranger: all the right ingredients, but not fully baked.
I think the Undead does it better, probably not perfect, but definitely better.
I'm really hoping the Undead warlock becomes a replacement for Undying instead of a separate subclass. We don't need more abandoned F tier subclasses like Purple Dragon Knight.
@@toomanysecrets It definitely would be nice if they went around to various old bad subclasses and re-released and new and improved version. There are a lot of subclasses that have great thoughts behind them and a lot of flavor but are mechanically weak.
@@danielbernhardt1327 100% YES!
@@jamesmayle4712 Good speech, you should use it in a church instead of youtube comments.
I wish that Tasha added a ghost warlock. Imagine that, a pact where the burden falls on the ghost though. Sacrificing time in heaven so they can protect someone they love, there child or spouse perhaps. Or maybe the ghost is just a simp, go crazy with it. I homebrewed my own but it’s not particularly amazing
You can't just say that you made this amazing concept for a subclass and not share it! Put that into a google document and share that!
This is actually a lot like how World of Darkness's "Geist:The Sin Eaters" can feel. The pitch is this. You died... and as you were dying you were given a second chance by an amalgam of spirits that form a single concept (like a "First Love" or a "Woman Scorned") and they confer you spooky ghost powers while you work to mediate the restless dead elsewhere... or just live up your 2nd life. Your call.
@@ChibiHoboProductions I made the subclass because my character had a adopted daughter who she’s super protective of and this would make a nice back up character that could easily fit into the game quickly
what about the new "The Undead" patron that's coming in May?
@@Kusabiii I haven’t checked that out yet
As far as flavor goes, for a celestial pact warlock, I like the idea of a lazy or evil character that has found themselves under the thumb or indebted to a celestial who is bent upon saving the character's soul.
I had an idea for a grumpy old dwarf who ends up being given powers by a goddess of love and kindness to help him find a family (party) to replace the wife and son he lost. I made him a life cleric, but maybe celestial warlock would work better in this regard.
My celestial warlock was a riff in the classic "trying to resurrect a dead god" trope, except it was a benevolent nature deity which needed resurrecting.
Mine got forced into a pact to repay the damage of accidentally killing an acolyte that was about to cure a plague.
@@jamesmayle4712 I hope your stay in hell is filled with legos.
@@jamesmayle4712 Log out, bro. You're done for the night.
As someone whose first character was a Celestial Warlock, I am so happy to see that SOMEONE recognizes the glory!
mix in some divine soul and its just amazing
@@galemygg
Same.
It's my favorite version of the support/healer sorlock.
I love love love the Celestial patron
Combo with the Pact of the Chain invocation Gift of the Ever-Living Ones to max out your healing rolls on self. If you use the max number of healing light dice on yourself, you can heal for 24 HP as a bonus action as early as level 4. You'll make the Paladin blush.
@@McCrappy
Excatly. Though I just like healing with hit die, max hit die heal you can get full health if need be.
I think Genie vessel is stronger than you’re giving it credit for. You can have it as a ring which can also serve as your arcane focus. It’s a 1,250 storage room with 20 ft. ceiling. You can have a library, a lab/workshop, a treasure room, etc and still have room to relax. Couple with a trusted familiar and your ring can stay out of danger while you rest or be used to sneak you into an area that you might not be able to reach normally.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub He overstated and understated it at the same time. On one hand, being able to do it once per long rest is less powerful, but he severely understated the usefulness of it as a ring. And not only that, but when you hit 5th level you can just spend your entire sleep portion of your rest in there. Congrats, no more getting attacked mid rest for you. And the stuff brian mentioned? absolutely stellar. You could also use it in different more unique ways, since you go inside the ring, you could do things like sending yourself via bird to another location, or you could use it to escape a situation with going into the ring, getting it tossed out of a jail cell or to freedom, and then coming out of the ring. So many possibilities.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub Groups can also get attacked in their sleep. Either through bad rolls detecting people and getting surprised or through negligence. Either way it becomes not your problem. Also all my other points had nothing to do with being solo or not.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub Since when don't groups get attacked in their sleep? Keeping watch just lets you have a chance to not be surprised. Do you have some misconception that a watch automatically prevents attacks?
It seems especially nice to use for long rests if you're in a harsh environment, like a desert or the arctic, since it's always a comfortable temperature inside.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub You're legitimately dense, he's totally right and you completely stopped talking to me because you must've realized you were wrong. With how after a certain point, the party can come in with you, it entirely prevents attacks unless someone happens to both find it and understand what it is, which is very low chance if you hide it proper.
One thing I love about the Fiend Pact is that the abilities kinda tell a story on their own. Your patron does _not_ respect you, and doesn't believe for a second you can make it.
"Here, have more HP, you weakling."
"Here, take some luck, you'll need it."
"Here, have some resistance, since a stiff breeze knocks you on your ass."
Then, when you're entering the epic at lvl14, they finally give you something that isn't defensive.
Warlock: "can I have something to kill them before they hit me!?"
Fiend: "mortals are so fragile and I'd prefer to make my investments actually return"
Davvychappy described the Fiendlock's kit as "let's just really make sure he doesn't fuck up"
"The Fiend patron is any show on the CW in the past fifteen years" - The Santa Ana Winds from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was a trickster demon confirmed
They really had us thinking Archfey with that Jersey Boys parody. But I suppose thats exactly the kind of trickery we should expect.
You did not need to call the cw out like that man. That was .... Like there inst enough alovera in the world to help that burn
I created a great old one warlock who was essentially dipper from gravity falls, and who’s patron is Bill Cypher.
Here ya go kid. Deer teeth!
Oh my stars!
I played a Warlock of Bill Cipher (HB) named Willamina "Will" Crowe. She's a combo of Ford, Dipper, Indiana Jones, & Buffy the Vampire Slayer, & accidentily looks kind of like Reverse Mabel. Also her nickname "Will" wasn't chosen on a whim. 😁
Her relationship with Bill was an interesting one. Think Heart (Bill)-Mind ("Will") relationship most character duos have
I feel like he's really underplaying just how good Fiend Warlocks are. Hurl through Hell is amazing, their spell list is fantastic, and the fact that they don't synergize well with any of the pacts is a blessing in disguise because it means you can do whatever you want with it. I almost kinda hate the Hexblade because of how front-loaded it is how it does just have weird flavor.
Hexblade was creared with the sole purpose of playing Vanitas
Fiend warlock is the most wizard like patron, working well with pact of the tome
Hurl through hell is cool but it only targets one enemy and while the spells themselves are good, they are limited by the warlocks spell slots
Exactly! I think what he missed with hurl through hell is that there’s *no save* for hurl through hell. That’s SO good!! You can be fighting the BBEG with some Allies down, then all the sudden you can hurl them through hell and give health potions to all the downed teammates! Every time! It’s so good
Half Elf Fiend Warlock with 15+1, 10, 13+1, 10, 10, 14+2 Point Buy with the High Elf variant (extra cantrips are always welcome). Level 1 start Fighter for heavy armor, constitution saves & a fighting style--3 feats out of the way for a 1 level delay is so worth it
At levels 5, 9, 13, 17 & 20 add 2 to Strength, Charisma, Constitution, Strength & Charisma in that order to end at 20/10/16/10/10/20. 165 base health doesn't seem like much but between your passive giving you 24 temporary HP a pop & the occasional Armor of Agathys you'd be looking at an effective 261+ hit points if you kill 3+ targets in a day.
The Undead Warlock is coming officially with Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft. Not sure if it's different from the UA, but we're getting that and the Spirits Bard when the book comes out
This, and I would probably rank it way higher just on how well all the subclass abilities work together with each other, and because I mostly play on Ravenloft where the flavor is bloody amazing.
hello im posting from the future where the book is already out to say the UA and the released version of the Undead warlock pretty much didnt change at all and its flavor is chefs kiss for ravenloft/ curse of strad
Bottled Respite is very underated imo: being able to short rest while the party carry your lazy-cheating-ask-patron-for-magic-behind in a bottle is sooo fun.
Bottled respite only works once per long rest though, so the party only gets one short short rest per day
I was thinking of using the ring as a vessel. Easier to conceal and SO many options for being sneaky. Port into the ring and have someone drop the ring through the crack in a locked door or leave it somewhere for >insert target here< to find. You can gain access to places that you might not be able to otherwise without significant combat. Have the rogue wear the ring with you inside waiting while they sneak around and if they get discovered now all of a sudden they aren't alone. Need to get across a river, attach the ring and line to an arrow and have it shot to the other side. Now you have someone to tie off the rope. Slip it in the pitcher of beer going to a table of baddies you want to listen in on. With creative thinking this one could have many uses throughout the campaign.
@@Weezlenut My party and I wanted to save a small opressed town and for that we had to infiltrate a keep.
The city sold us as "slaves" so that we can get into the keep and we dumped all of our armor and weapons into the ring of the warlock and then hid the ring in the druids... bottom...
A lot of druidcraft was necessary to get the stank off the ring afterwards, but hey, we had our own Trojan horse
@@P-diddykong Very nice. I'll have to remember that trick. Except the prison purse part, there ain't enough druid craft in the Forgotten Realms for me to use that ring again.
@@Weezlenut I completely agree with you. You ain’t doing that to my ring!
If it did happen I’d just smash my ring and get a new one. No cleaning required.
I think the synergy between pact of the chain and Genie is awesome. Once you have an invisible flying imp carrying your bottle you can get in or out of anywhere and basically that respite ability should give you an extra short rest a day which is no bad thing for a warlock.
Yeah, he massively under-estimated the utility bottled respite gives in the hands of a creative player. Having played a genie warlock, I can give a perfect example. During a campaign there was an incident in which my character (a tiefling) was currently in hot water because of having to uh, throw a guy out of the second story window of a tavern. Guards were coming to investigate and the guy was shouting about a demon having attacked him(He was drunk), and my character had to find a way to avoid the guard to prevent further issues.
So basically, she put her genie's vessel(which was just a regular looking bottle) onto a table, hopped in it, and disappeared while the guard did their search.
Not to mention, with your example of the invisible flying imp carrying the bottle, you could easily use it to bring the bottle into places to spy if need be. Keep in mind you can hear -everything- that happens outside of the bottle as if you were in that space. Also if you've got a rogue in the party, can have them sneak you into a place if need be....so many ways it can be used outside of just "a comfy place to rest".
Have an idea (feel free to steal it) for an rival NPC adventure who is a Genie-Chainlock who'd be completing dungeons, missions, etc. faster than the party due to the short rest spamming and the versatility of the subclass.
@@InfinityImplosion excellent if you want a friend in there to chat too and can't wait till tenth level the pot of awakening from xanathar's would make a lovely addition to your hideaway. I guess a dragon's egg might work too but a little baby Groot is safer.
@@PelicansCourtsideClub Yes, I know, that doesn't negate any of the many ways it can be used in the hands of a creative player that aren't obvious. Unless you weren't meaning to respond to me in that lol..
@@PelicansCourtsideClub that's why elves are best Genie warlocks, as they need only 4 hours to have a long rest and they can have a long rest inside the bottle from the level one. The best part is that you can have a long rest, while your invisible familiar is transporting you to the destination. Alternatively, if UA is allowed, one could use a Reborn, eg. flavor it as a half human half stone construct, resurrected by his Dao overlord for some task.
"bottled respite is lame and boring"
clearly someone has never played a genie warlock
Seriously, I haven't had the chance to play one yet but I love the flavor of carrying basically a small house with you in something as small as a ring. That coupled with the fact that elves can take a long rest in it at level 1, and then it refreshes when their trance ends, seems so cool.
Right?? Honestly that and complimenting the Hexblade's lore (something every avid warlock player ive ever met fucking hates), narrow-minded "its cthulhu lol" take about my son the GOOlock, how low down he ended up ranking the Fiend-
There's. A lot of misses here
Everytime my party needs to go "stealth mode" my paladin/warlock just jumps into his egg. They don't need my -2 with disadvantage as dragging down the average :P
@@jamesmayle4712 can i fucking help you
@@heltech3068 resting in a bottle is by far the most appealing aspect of the genie
It's fascinating how all the youtuber's can't agree on the warlock ratings at all with two exceptions: The Undying being the worst and The Hexblade being the best :D
Hexblade is also the most overrated subclass of Warlock too. I find it absolutely boring because you legit just get "moar damage" and thats it. It feels like a cop out of a subclass tbh
@@sparki420
Sounds like a personal problem.
Genie is better than hex blade levels 1-20, wish spell, limited wish, + profiency bonus in damage, flight 3 times a day no concentration, and a free short rest in your lamp once a day. Hexblade will do slightly more damage, but I built a dexterity based genie/blade pact warlock that could out damage any hexblade. Of course for a 1-2 level dip hexblade is still king
@@Johnrobertx I severely doubt that ur genie could out damage “any hexblade”
@@therandom58 genie warlock gets +profiency bonus every turn and my genie warlock basically would get a free short rest in his lamp everyday giving him 2 more spell slots than the hexblade. Sure his charisma was lower but his dex is what he used for damage. Every damage boost the hex gets the genie warlock gets except hexblade curse but that’s only once per short rest. Sure genie doesn’t get extra crits but it gets same ability every turn. Extra weapon profiencies? Nice but pact of the blade let’s u use any weapon with the blade pact invocation. Charisma based attacks? My dex based genie doesn’t need charisma because most of its spells aren’t charisma based. Medium armor and shields? I played tashas custom lineage and got that +1 to my dex for a total of 18 dex at level 1 with thee medium armor feat. Again hexblade is an unbeatable dip but with the right choices a genie can match or even out damage it
I’d like to point out that celestial warlock is not limited to just being the goody two shoes warlock, it’s flavor text mentions being magically influenced by your patron, and the idea of a person with complicated morals succumbing to the black and white dogma of an angelic patron is really interesting.
I played this with a naive character, and angelic patron, and a pact of the chain sprite celestial familiar with complicated morals who had been tasked with keeping the kid on the proper path to redeem himself. He wasn't very good at it.
Anders surely had a few interesting days
Not the same but similar. I once had a 2nd ed paladin LG Inquisitor, he executed sooooo many people for so many minor causes. "Iv'e sacrificed my chance at heaven to save your souls, don't make me regret my decision!"
I'd love to see the other classes ranked like this
Agree. I have watched the Warlock and Paladin ranking videos. Great analysis. I have watched ratings by others on RUclips and it is crazy to see the wild variability between one to the other. I feel like your ratings of all the various aspects of each subclass lends credence to your ranking.
When you said we are 6.5 years into 5th edition I nearly died. I feel super old now.
The Genie Warlock can only enter their vessel once per short rest, so it is more like a free cast of catnap. Although they can stay there with the whole party for 8 hours so they can possibly long rest in a dungeon with little to no risk.
Until a patrol of the BBEG's henchmen find a strange looking lamp, and take it to their master, who keeps it with the rest of their unique looking items, right in the center of all their guards
Once per long rest, up to a number of hours equal to twice your proficiency bonus. So no long resting in there til level 9.
@@McCrappy unless you're an elf since trance got errata'ed then you can long rest as soon as you get the vessel
Yeah, I think that was missed. I think the most important thing about this ability is that your lamp can be carried by a party member that doesn't necessarily need the short rest and the "party" doesn't lose any travel time.
@@ezrashelton4464 that plus once you hit tenth level and the whole party can enter the vessel you can travel relatively huge distances basically for free. if you've the basic find familiar through tome of ancient secrets, depending on your GM of course, your're familiar should be able to carry the vessel and move 30 ft per round for 8 hours maybe with some breaks, while flying in a straight line over terrain, and it's twice that if you have pact of the chain because the pseudodragon has a 60 ft fly speed while being invisible which is pretty incredible. I'm really glad to see people give the genie warlock it's due, in my circle of friends and some general internet discussion about the subclass has been pretty dour but I think it's probably my favorite warlock and definitely going to be my first warlock.
For the old one warlock: With the create thrall feature your thrall has telepathy at an infinite range, it's basically just like having a cellphone with a single person if you or him infiltrates somewhere. Now, of course, this is still situational, but it's at least something that you can do
I always liked the idea of a tiefling warlock with a fiend pact, but his patron is his overbearing mother and only does the warlock thing because he’s being forced to.
i made this but the patron was an uncaring father figure for a female tiefling and was allowed to use grim hallow transformation into the fiend so much fun and lots of social checks on my part but worth it
That's what I'm doing with my air genasi genie warlock.
Yeah I'm doing that with a fairy with an archfey patron 😂
Hexblade + Tavern Brawler, watch your DM either kick you, Kill you, or ban you as you summon a magical bar-stool for a fight. Prof with "improvised" weapons" is amazing
Ey ey! Don't diss the unicorn, celestial warlocks are the only class that can call itself the unicorn knight at level one.
Unicorn Boys rise up
Yeah... yeah, you got it. That was perfect!
This made me laugh... xD
Darn you, you beat me to it.
Dark one’s blessing. This has been one or two totally free healing spells for me in almost every encounter. Gaining temp hit points that then also get used up. Mileage may vary, sure. Mechanically, I keep near the melee presenting a formidable force with agonizing eldritch blasts. With the range it’s not hard to pick off weakened targets to get the temp hit points. Once I have the temp hit points I spend time in a vulnerable position to take a hit or two to elevate damage from the tank, then retreat and go back to sniping.
My experience may be different because I’ve only done this at low level. Up to level 6 once, and starting a new campaign and up to level 3 again with the same character concept.
The temp hit points have been huge.
Up to level five now. Those hit points are outstanding!
I took enough damage to knock me unconscious in a session but because of temp hit points I was almost full when the encounter ended and I required no healing (spell slots, or combat actions or bonus actions) to keep me at or hear full for the fight duration.
At this point I’m level 5. I’ve got about 33 hit points and I get 9 temp hit points when I kill a thing. It’s HUGE! Average healing from a first level spell slot is 7.5 on cure wounds and 6.5 on healing word … a second level spell slot cure wounds is 9 hit points (4 wis mod, 2.5 + 2.5 from 2D4) … I get that for FREE when I kill something. And that happens multiple times in every encounter.
Just laying down hate with 1D10+1D6+4 (13 avg) eldritch blasts two per round with hex and a cantrip.
I still like the Feypact as a CC style caster. Yeah Wizard can do better, as an Illusionist style, but with evocations you can make it just as fun without feeling overwhelmed by all the spells a Wizard can have.
I did a fey pact roguelock once for a heist. It was super fun sneaking sometimes and others just walking up to charm and bs my way through the guards.
Virgin Unicorn:
Must be virgin to ride
Looks like a normal horse
Can't fly without being another creature entirely
More like a fey, but changed in the monster manual for variety
Used as a symbol of purity
Chad Coutl:
Literal Aztec God
Giant Telepathic Snake Monster
Flies using magnificently colored wings
Never restricted to one form, can change it at will
Used as a symbol of power
In the campaign I am in, my Celestial Warlock’s patron is a Ki-Rin.
Long ago, before the 'Rona, I was in a campaign as a Celestial Patron warlock. I think you may be underestimating the flavor potential of this particular patron option. I like to use my character, Holla Bak, as an example of that. His patron ended up being a homebrewed Gold Dragon angel thing that was well known for healing during its lifetime. How was this deal struck? Well, Holla had wanted to be a doctor from a young age, but had no aptitude for medicine or healing. Failing out of several apprenticeships and schools, eventually he had a breakdown and screamed into the void, being quite surprised when the void screamed back. Ungrenotorum(the Gold Dragon angel thing) had been watching Holla for some time, as he seeks out those who truely desire to help, but for various reasons are ignored by the gods. The major end of the deal is having to work in, and eventually start, clinics or hospitals in places that have none during your travels, only engaging in violence when violence is first used agsinst you. In exchange, Ungrenotorum grants you the knowledge of medicine you need, and magic to both aid that healing and keep you safe during your travels. Failure to abide these confitions, simple as they are, puts you on the bad side of an ancient celestial dragon that can yoink your powers at any time.
Holla Bak was working at a clinic at the start of the campaign, but was extremely paranoid about anyone finding out he was a warlock- knowing society's general views on warlocks, regardless of who the deal is with, and believing that even if people accepted him being a warlock, it would lessennhis reputation as a doctor. As a result, he never told anyone, and actively kept it a secret, even from his adventuring buddies. This caused alot of stress, so Holla ended up being a bit of an alcoholic. Made for some great RP opportunities, especially when I had to call on Ungrenotorum for a favor when we found ourselves in over our heads. He wasn't a big fan of Holla keeping his warlockness secret, so he gave Holla a big glowing magic tattoo on his forehead(the symbol of Ungrenotorum, a dragon scale with stylized flames coming out the top).
Lots of flavor potential with the Celestial, I don't really think it swings too far from the typical idea of what a warlock is. You gotta be a bit more creative I think, but the flavor potential is super high.
I play a genie warlock, and have made my bottled respite a funny roleplay thing.
Basically, everyone else is out here sleeping on bedrolls and eating hardtack rations and I get to go to my bottle with satellite TV, a king sized bed, and bacon&eggs for breakfast.
Yep! It's also a great place to store your equipment without being encumbered.
That CW reference was on point
Glad someone appreciated it hahaha
Lmao I watched supernatural as a kid so I felt it
I recently made a hexblade pact of the blade combo warlock... And then my DM gave my level 6 Warlock a Vorpal long sword in my first session with the character.... Feeling pretty incredible not gonna lie...
Enjoy being significantly better than 90% of your party, it never stops being fun to be both the best damage dealer, a decent tank AND the charismatic face of the group ;)
As a big fan of the edgy caster myself, all I want in the future is a dragon or draconic themed warlock. There are so many cool things you can do with a dragon patron and I really hope we see an iteration of that in the future.
The dragon monk that was added in a UA is VERY cool and way more active than other subclasses without being broken. I would love to see a dragon warlock patron that followed that idea.
*throws this in my list of things to homebrew*
@@Immudzen found the dragon monk to be underwhelming
As a Fiend Warlock in a Mad Mage campaign, I have found the level 1 ability to gain temps to be quite good. I would consider the multiple attack nature of Eldritch Blast to synergize well with it. Further, I went full meme and am playing a Tiefling, so I have absolutely baited opportunity attacks to use Hellish Rebuke, and the temps allow me to do this with lower risk.
My first 5e warlock was an archfey warlock. I had a patron concept that I really liked, but it really felt it wall all flavour not much else. When Xanathars came out my DM was nice enough to let me switch patron.
Now I'm thinking about a swashbuckler rogue with one level of hexblade.
And also multiclassing into bard
I'm playing with one of them right now. Their build is awe-inspiring.
Swashbuckler rogue with 1 lvl of Hexblade and 2 lvls of Bladesinger Wizard. Max out CHA and INT and you’ll be unstoppable
@@andrewshroll3367 All have to try that.
Played a build with those subclasses with the Alert feat.. I like going first.
I really like the great old one. I don’t limit the patron to being just Cthulhu. It can be any distant powerful being, either making one up or taking from a different worlds gods. For example I have allowed people to have a chaos god from war hammer as the great old one. I also play this character differently than is maybe the typical dynamic between power and servant. With the great old one they creature doesn’t need to know you exist, meaning you can simply use them as like a battery pack. That’s what I like to do.
We had a great old one warlock that was serving a long dead and forgotten god! He spent the first 10 levels slowly corrupting a CG cleric from his deity to his patron. By level 12 the cleric was full on Cthuluist and had quickly changed to CE. The last 3 games sessions were spent hunting down the warlock and cleric before they fully woke their patron/deity!
In the end of that campaign the deity does attain full consciousness, and when the characters make new players they find themselves seeing the world already being influenced by the madness and chaos of the now woken god.
The bard character that survived became a NPC and the party encountered him a number of times!
I personally wouldve switched Genie and Fathomless, but your callouts on abilities are on point. That level 1 telepathy on GOOlock is endless fun :)
I like the name goolock
21:02 Yeah you're still gonna want to stick with Agonizing Blast. AB adds CHA damage per beam, Radiant Soul only adds once per spell cast, and only against one target (no benefit to an AOE).
Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast >>> Sacred Flame with Radiant Soul.
Though I could see it if you really wanted a different Invocation to help your build, or if your plan is to go in melee with Green-Flame Blade.
When you're DM'ing GOO Warlocks it's worth bearing in mind there are a whole lot of different potential patron GOO's (other than Cthulu), some of whom can take the appearance of a humanoid approximation - such as Nyarlathotep.. Some of the less well known ones might be easier to weave into your world-building / back-story etc..
Well, i knew it, but you forgot one of the most OP things about the hexblade. It allows the warlock to equip Medium armor and shields. This leaves a sorlock with, easily 19AC as soon as he can buy a decent medium armor, and it gives the Shield spell for an insane 24AC in the early game. Damn i love this class.
Power creep isn't real
Power creep can't hurt us ...
I just want to play a Warlock all the way to level 20. Personally, I can't stand multiclassing because I feel that you can get any flavor you want out of a subclass, background, feature, and race. Multi-classing feels meta to me but that's probably just a me thing.
Good to see you again! Hope to see more tier videos like this.
We have a running joke in my campaign that I am trying to get everyone to be a Warlock. It started with the Dragonborn Sorcerer. He was reached out to by a mysterious psychic that offered him in power as a Great Old One Patron. He just recently found out his patron was an Illithid who the party had messed with the plans of. The mind network so the potential in him, and decided he would be better as an ally than an enemy.
I'm still hoping for a dragon/wyrm warlock to compliment the other dragon subclasses we got in a previous UA. The Undead patron should be out in May with the Ravenloft book. At least that's what we were promised. I'm curious to see how much it changed, and look forward to seeing you do an addendum of this video and inserting that patron. I'm hoping it's good enough to go higher than #5.
I'd argue that a dragon warlock would be a draconic sorcerer
@@akrinornoname2769 id argue against that draconic sorcerer are more people who have draconic powers in their blood and very souls while a warlock is just borrowing them for a lifetime nothing is really passed down like sorcerer powers are though a draconic patron would also be hard unless its like an ancient dragon i guess since dragons dont really go about giving powers away kinda goes agaisnt their whole we are the top and you deserve to be lower then us mentality most of them have
The genie Warlock can only enter their vessel once per day, as stated clearly in the Bottled Respite feature: Once you enter the vessel, you can't enter again until you finish a long rest. So you can take a single quick 10-minute buffed up short rest per day and that's it.
An elf could easily manage it several times a day, assuming the DM and other party members are okay with that possibility.
@@The_Babe You can only benefit from 1 long rest once per 24 hours, so no that wouldn't work.
@@icebergen5384 That's dumb.
@@The_Babe its in the PHB ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@icebergen5384 PHB is dumb. Screw D&D, worst tabletop ever (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻
17:03 While there is no cap on how many times you can benefit from a short rest, you can only use your Bottled Respite (the feature that allows you to enter your vessel and gets improve by Sanctuary Vessel) once per long rest. Meaning your party only get one 10 minute short rest per long rest.
Elf can help remedy that issue, knocking off four hours on a long rest is nothing to scoff at.
Currently playing in a campaign as a Genie Warlock and I thought the flavour was very good as I made my character who has heavy ties as a slave trader in the city of brass with of course an Efreeti patron. So far haven't decided to play campy but it has worked so far as a nice class for travelling rest, though I can see how you'd play them that way. The list is very accurate and I love where the class falls in but everything in warlock has potential as far as rp goes, you just need to be creative. Love the vids man and keep doing what you're doing
Cool subclass breakdown!! Love your opinions on all things D&D and it’s about time we got a new, decent subclass breakdown list. Would love to see more on other subclasses, especially ones like Cleric and Ranger where subclasses and builds can really change what a character looks like.
I love the flavor of bottled respite on the genie warlock, you can design your own sanctuary with a ton of flavor and nuance for your character
I feel like Fiend should’ve been ranked a little higher, but I definitely don’t have the same experience. I do feel like, more than some of the others, the invocations you choose can make it incredible or ruin it.
Fathomless Warlock is my first "real" warlock character ("real" in quotations because I did play a Fiend Warlock for a campaign that lasted all of two sessions), and I completely agree with your assessment. Spell list is meh, but everything else is SO AWESOME. I love summoning tentacles that b-tch-slap my enemies, and I love being able to say that my warlock's Spider Climb spell works by creating octopus-like suction cups on my limbs.
The only downside is that the tentacle ability fights with Hex for bonus action usage. It's truly awesome when I can get the tentacle and hex going on at the same time, but it doesn't happen often enough.
You're the first person I've seen who has rated the Fiend warlock near the middle. Nearly everyone else sings its praises as one of the best warlock subclasses.
a big reason why most warlock players who try out the other subclasses through many campaigns sing praises for fiend is how good it is at making sure you dont fail essentually that is the basic core of the subclass you made a deal for your soul with a devil and they will by the hells makes sure you keep your end and finish your job before they come to collect
I love your videos so much! They really help me learn more about dnd. I especially like this series because my friends are always better at making more powerful characters than I am because I am too focused on backstory and stuff. Thanks!!
Hexblade, especially when you wanna play essentially a Jedi Knight in a Ravnica campaign, because what is Ravnica but fantasy Courascant
grab a sun blade when your a high enough level and boom lightsaber for more memes and if you have to multi-class psi-fighter is where to go as it gives you the force powers as class features
You're definitely underestimating The Fiends Level 14 feature Hurl Through Hell.
There's no save, there's no way to avoid it, their legendary resistances is useless. You just say they're hurled and they're hurled, and it only comes back at THE END of your next turn, meaning you and your entire party can hold their action to attack.
When facing the BBEG, with Hex + Scorching Ray, you yourself deal 18d6 + 10d10 + 18d6 damage, PLUS your parties held action damage, before they've even had a turn.
Almost any BBEG at this point is dead before they've even had a turn, almost any other ability in the game requires a saving throw which their legendary resistances is used for. This doesn't, making it extremely powerful against anything.
"Great against single target, bad against lots of minions" Which is why they have Fireball. If there's too many minions, just fireball them, then Hurl Through Hell the BBEG afterwards.
I very rarely subscribe to channels but I did to yours after the first video I watched and haven’t regretted it yet! 😁
As always you have given an in depth and well thought out explanation of your reasoning and coupled that with the caveat of ‘these are my opinions’ since there’s always subjectivity in these lists. Please continue making awesome content and please consider doing this for the rest of the classes.
My next warlock is going to be of the Fathomless pact with the kraken. He was a slave who made a deal with the kraken to gain the power to overcome his masters, took the ship for his own, and became a feared pirate. After a mutiny, his patron stripped him back down to his basic power due to the amount of sacrifice falling, so now he works to rebuild his power and hunt down those who betrayed him.
Kick ass backstory, I love it. I once made a Tortle Sorc/Monk (Dragon Sorcerer and Open Hand monk) that was a Dragon Turtle that was shrunk by a fleet of wizards and was now the size of a human, he is often mistaken for a tortle. He was always looking for a way to return to his original form
That's why great old one says the patron probably doesn't know you exist.
I've had one of my PC'S have unknown sleepwalking tick because of it sometimes having some small animal part in their hand or strange etching around them in the dirt, grass, w/e with other Warlocks still in trance.
Really sells the they don't think of you as anything but a tool without literally ignoring the PC'S class altogether.
I love that he called plant growth a "gem" after a short pause. It's real value is in its long cast ability. Nothing makes a town love you like growing out their crops for a season.
Archfey, fey presence, is literally the equivalent of getting a good 1st level spell on a short rest cooldown, usable in both combat and social environments, once per short rest. Since no other warlock gets effectively 2 spells at level 1, and then 3 spells cast per short rest until 11th level... calling this bad is pretty mystifying.
17:00 - You can only use Sanctuary Vessel once per long rest. It requires that you use Bottled Respite which doesn't allow you to enter the vessel again until you finish a long rest.
I don't think the genie's vessel ability is boring, especially with pact of the chain. Go inside your vessel for a little bit, and have your familiar fly you around like your own luxurious taxi service and just pop out wherever you need to.
The ammount of times that saved my character from death is concerning. Falling iff a huge cliff? Genie's vessel. Got surrounded by werewolves and you're out of spell slots? Genie's vessel. A house collapsed on you and the dn asked for a dex save? Genie's freaking vessel. And yes all that happened to me... Strahd is one mad campaign.
But also concentration free flight with hover is just incredibly useful. And the dao patron has a lot of good stuff to add to your lock. Sanctuary is great especially if you dip into sorcerer fir some extra spell slots, wall of stone, always useful and can't be misty stepped through like a wall of force, and of course spike growth with the class that gets to push and dealing extra bludgeoning damage paired with the crusher and telekenetic feats make for a greatly powerful combo if you run it wisley. The ammount of dash actions i made my DM take from shoving hus enemies really far back was a lot. Lol.
Genie Warlock is a little underrated imo. Dao Patron can get spike growth, with repelling blast invocation at lvl 3 that's an extra 4d4 damage then they have to move through the spike growth again to get to you. Pick up the crusher feat and you get to move them an extra 5 feet bc you deal bludgeoning damage once per turn. Keeps scaling up as you level up because you get more EB beams and more control options such as the pact of the talisman. Not to mention that your vessel is an arcane focus that doesnt need to be held.
Please do more classes! I would love to see this as a series!
"That sold their souls for gifts and powers"
My character based on a quiz that ended up with lycanthropy at creation: his pact is legit just him asking hid patron to keep the curse at bay because he's scared to hurt someone. So healing flavour of the celestial warlock just *fit*
Genie is EASILY my favorite warlock pack, plus it gives me the ability to get a flaming sword without waiting on my DM to give me a flame tongue... IF he/she gives me a flame tongue.
Flame tongue is so stupidly strong for a rare magic weapon. 2d6 extra damage per attack + the ability to double it on crits is so powerful.
@@Demonrifts hence why efreeti genie warlock is a good alternative for getting a flaming sword
@@martaneon5310 Indeed. With eldritch smite and pact of the blade, it can pack a wallop.
@@Demonrifts don't forget Lifedrinker
@@martaneon5310 For sure. And if we're going full out numbers here, just use a heavy weapon with gwm. For a -5 to attack, assuming you max str and cha, you get a bonus +26 damage on each hit, and that's not adding dice rolls. It's nasty for sure.
I feel like the effect of Radiant soul was overstated: You can only add your charisma to 1 damage roll per spell cast. So if you throw a fireball at 3 targets, only 1 of them takes the additional damage. It doesn't apply to Eldritch blast, and even if it did, only to a single hit of it. I don't think it changes the overall verdict on the Celestial, though. ^^
Also, the GOO only allows you to talk to someone telepathically - not them to talk back. It's not a conversation, it's not a suggestion or anything, they're literally just hearing a disembodied voice. Which can be useful, obviously, but exchanging information with this is limited.
Huh.
This definitely made me reconsider the Undying Warlock.
I mean, I love the flavor.
But man, I also didn't respect the Hexblade quite enough yet it seems.
No wonder Fjord comes off as such a badass in combat. :D
For the 'create thrall' ability, you can use it on a highly influential noble whilst they are sleeping =)
...and then send the noble's army at the boss
Missed you buddy. Good to see you still making great videos.
Cody, I really liked your review on Warlocks. I was happy to see the Celestial get rated as high as it did. My 13 y/o daughter wanted to join a campaign we were doing with another family in the neighborhood. She ended up with a Fairy Celestial Warlock. I was worried that playing a Warlock as her 1st character would be too complex. She did great. She loved everything about her character which, probably as no surprise, even included a unicorn as her patron. All in all, this made for a very happy daughter. What was a pleasant surprise was how good she turned out to be at role playing. The DM, the other dad in the group, is an experienced DM and was blown away at how naturally she be stepped into role playing. As she had the highest charisma of anyone in the group, she fell into the face role by default but handled it with surprising ease. Unicorns and fairies may not be for everyone but for a young girl taking her first steps into D&D it was amazing.
Despite watching your videos, I rarely comment. When Celestial hit #2, I felt I had to chime in.
One day I'll get to play my genasi genie warlock whose patron is one of his parents, always nagging him...
Genie's vessel is really good, if you know how to use it: First of, pick a ring, not a lamp. If you get thrown in jail, stick your hand trough the bars, enter your vessel, the ring falls on the other side and when you leave your vessel you're out of jail. Or smuggle yourself inside a castle by entering your ing and have the rogue slight of hand you into a visitor's pocket. Or, you load up on tons of gear or treasure and then dump it inside your vessel when you enter like it's a bag of holding. Or take Voice of the chain master and have your imp familiar fly around invisably while carrying you inside your vessel.
Genie warlock: With pact of the chain, you can infiltrate while inside the ring, and can hear and see through the familiar’s senses.
This is ingenious
This is the perfect video. I literally just got done homebrewing a warlock patron. And its name is THE UNKNOWING WARLOCK. It is a warlock that made a pact with a Archmage. To be ther aprentis UNKNOWINGLY becoming a warlock in the process as thay lern from the Archmage.
The best Warlock in 5E is the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer....
I'll show myself out.
Don't leave I need to see more jokes like this in my life
I'm not familiar with the aberrant mind sorcerer. I know it is no fun to explain jokes, but can you explain it to me, please?
@@chinchillacat9964 It's a new Sorcerer in Tasha's that overshadows the Great Old One Pact, but with more spell slots and creepier...and no Pact to uphold.
Great video! I will note that HxBld AoH ability is not 50% miss. It’s 50% on attack’s that actually rolled to hit. The ones that actually missed naturally aren’t even considered. Even more powerful.
Ah yes, Archfey, the basic wizard subclass lol
Also gotta love Awakended mind
I mean... you're not far off the mark
I genuinely don't know about the soundness of this argument. Yeah sure, archfey gives warlock a bunch of tricks wizards get, but the fact is warlocks aren't wizards and they wouldn't have gotten those tricks, tools, and toys anyway.
Also the charm/fear effect Archfey gives is automatically superior to casting the charm spell because it doesn't include the tag line "the target knows you cast this spell on them" like half of all enchantment school spells do.
At the end of the day if the best argument against the subclass is "it gives you a bunch of stuff from a much more poweful base class" then the subclass can't be all that underpowered.
tbh archfey just needs a little adjustment to be srly strong also I have always seen them as an odd warlock either as Excellent at subterfuge or you put them a bow and arrow with potb and be great at hitting without being hit (yeah you can launch you eldritch blasts from your bow with Tasha's rules i think 🤔)
@@eldritch0golem698 The 'Improved Pact Weapon' invocation is what you want for using a weapon as Warlock casting focus and letting you use a bow for your pact weapon (Pact of the Blade only allows melee weapons without IPW). As far as I know, there's nothing in Tasha's that lets you do that outside of IPW. Could be wrong, though.
Pact of the Blade: You can use your action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you create it. You are proficient with it while you wield it. This weapon counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Your pact weapon disappears if it is more than 5 feet away from you for 1 minute or more. It also disappears if you use this feature again, if you dismiss the weapon (no action required), or if you die. You can transform one magic weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual while you hold the weapon. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. You can then dismiss the weapon, shunting it into an extradimensional space, and it appears whenever you create your pact weapon thereafter. You can't affect an artifact or a sentient weapon in this way. The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it. The weapon appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when the bond breaks.
Improved Pact Weapon: You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells. In addition, the weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. Finally, the weapon you conjure can be a shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.
I once played a celestial warlock with 3 levels in paladin as a Mephistopheles Tiefling, smite and flame blade got a huge boost from its 6th level ability to add damage to fire and radiant damage. I served a Phoenix that lived in a vulcano. The citizens of the city that was build on the vulcano prayed and worshiped the Phoenix to not let the vulcano erupt and to fertilize the surrounding ground for their farming. Happy to see it in the runner up spot
Celestial Warlock’s Healing light:
“The only reason this ability isn’t considered downright broken, is because of how limited we are on spell slots as a warlock. If we had more spell slots to generally heal, this ability would’ve never made it in the game as it.” 😂
*I laugh in dream druid* who has the same ability with 1 fewer die but also gets an extra temp hp for each die spent. AND can spend dice equal to half character level as opposed to cha mod, which is big difference at very high level.
Oh yeah, and has druid spell slot progression.
I feel that you are right about hexblade however I feel if it doesn't get paired with pact of the blade it's effectiveness drops noticeably. One reason I think hexblade and even celestial warlocks are so loved is because they give good ways to build a warlock without feeling the need to run the hex and blast routine that many warlock builds rely upon. However they still can take advantage of that if they want, which makes them more versatile.
These dice trays look amazing.
Genie’s Vessel ( Bottled Respite) is pretty awesome if you play with a lot of stealthy party members. You hop in it, stealthy team picks it up and sneaks around. If they get caught it's only a bonus action to hope out and kick some butt. Party member told to meet someone alone, now they got a pocket warlock buddy. Want to eavesdrop on a private meeting? Have someone plant your vessel in the room before it starts and it's like your standing in the room. Need some free gear earned in questionable ways? Have a party member sell you vessel to a shop right before it closes. pop out an hour or so afterward bag some loot and teleport out. Pokeball power FTW.
Take a closer look at the Celestial warlock’s 6th level ability. In reality it’s a trap.
I agree that it's not great, especially if you play it as a support character like I did. But you could just go for the damage, and with getting Sacred Flame as a cantrip, it's still fine.
Resistance to radiant damage, though, yeah, that's never relevant.
I always had the idea for a celestial warlock that you tricked your patron into signing the contact. That gives you the cunning and mischeviousness of the warlock but the catch is your patron tricked you into being the party healer
I would love to hear somebody argue that blade locks aren’t the most
Flavorful subclass, cuz they’d be wrong.
Edit, unless you have third party content, with deep magic for 5th edition, the great old one towers above anything else in the game ever by a thousand fold. Check out void magic and mythos magic, pure flavor gold, and still being (almost ) optimal for practical spell use
Hexblade is a little muddled. So I’ve made a pact with a weapon, but it’s not the weapon I use, which I may also have made a pact with but not the same pact, but I can switch which weapon I made the smaller pact with because of the bigger pact I made with the other weapon that I don’t use?
@@Ellebeeby you can use your patron for hex warrior if they are a one handed weapon or if you talk to your dm to adding the feature to your patron weapon allowing them to be used for the hex warrior feature
I started playing a Celestial tomelock shortly after release and I absolutely love it. Glad to know I saw the potential early on.
Whenever I decide to play a warlock, this guide is sure to be very pactical.
You're not the only one who can say "See what I did there?". ;-)
id say really go into other guides as well and take a good deep look at things warlock can do while this video is pretty good at getting your first step into warlock the class is really a swiss army knife of builds where you can do all kinds of crazy things and sum of these sub-classes that are rated low can very easily out shine the higher ones when built well and in a group where they can make full use of their abilities
A Fiend Warlock was my first ever character in 5e.
The campaign has since evolved into a Risk/Sengoku Basara campaign where we conquer territories, fight armies and have a main stronghold.
Dark One's Blessing has been my lifeblood, making me nigh immortal against throngs of enemies (the Dakrness spell helps. Add resistance to slashing or piercing from Fiendish Resilience and my job becomes to "occupy the opposing armies" while the party infiltrates the castle.
Then, the spell I never thought I'd take, "Hallow", has been applied in different ways to almost every section of our stronghold:
- Dungeons prevent teleportation and extra-planar movement
- Banquet Room has "tongues" applied for when receiving diplomats
- Throne Room and Porticulis have a Fear effect in place, to slow down invaders and impose respect to the throne
- Library is in Darkness so only my Warlock can consult its tomes
- One room has a "Tongues" effect applied only to allies of our side. When someone swears fealty, we take him there and ask him a question in Druidic, to make sure he was sincere.
So... in the right context, the Fiend abilities can be great.
One little thing though in regards to Genie Warlock's Sanctuary Vessel - Since it is tied to your party being in the vessel with you and Genie's Vessel can only be used once per long rest, Sanctuary Vessel can only be used once per long rest as well. So not all short rests will be ten minutes, just one short rest per day will be.
What the feature is incredible for however is infiltration. Either have your party's face carry the rest of the squad into somewhere they can charm or socialise their way into the rest normally wouldn't dream of being able to be permitted, or if you're a Pact of the Chain warlock, have an invisible imp familiar carry your party wherever you need to get. On top of the ten minute short rest, additional healing, etc.
I wasn’t expecting the fathomless to be so low, but I’m glad that at least 2 of my 3 favs made top 3.
I'm playing a genie Warlock (Djinni) right now. While it's true you have no limit on short rests, you cannot enter your vessel again until you complete a long rest. So you can technically long rest in it every night, if you don't go into it, otherwise. You cannot, however, use it for multiple short rests in a day. That removes so much versatility from the vessel.
However, the vessel is a bag of holding. So there's that. I keep all my extra rations and heavier loot in there.
That awkward moment when the video forgets the level 10 ability for Archfey also makes you IMMUNE to Charm which means immune to a lot of spells and abilities. I do agree Archfey is under-tuned but the level 10 ability isn't fundamentally the problem.
It may be a very old video, but I cannot believe you said that Archfey warlock has no flavour - you literally have a partron who is a powerful fey. There's so much flavour there with links to fey, Feywild and all sorts of shenanigans and tricky fearies. This is one of the best possible flavourful connection among the warlocks, with so much fun to be had.
15:01 #ForeverDM
My very first PC was a Great Old One Warlock, which became a lot more fun than it might have been because of a slight verbal flub my DM made when we were building my character. He was trying to offer suggestions for a Patron, and tried to say "Shub-niggorath", but messed it up and said "Sheogorath". Since the 'God of Madness and Chaos' not only sounded like a lot of fun for us both, but also still fits with a Great Old One, we just ran with it.
What!? Fiend at 5th?! It is second at worst. Raw damage is unparalleled. Abilities are all relevant. It's uninteresting flavorwise but way better than 5th
I am planning to do a scourge aasimar with the Great Old One subclass. Making him chaotic good with the "haunted one" background. The Great Old One just fits with what I want to do with the character. I agree with the Cthulu summary, but it's easy enough to just replace Cthulu with a deity that works within the standard D&D pantheon (it's really just a name, after all). The fun part will be that the character I am making will hear voices (regularly speaking with them as though they are audible to everyone), and will spend the entire campaign trying to come to terms with using evil powers for good purposes.
That sounds like edge personified. I like it.
I’m currently playing a Fiend Warlock, and I’ll just add something to Dark One’s Blessing: if your party works with you to let you get the temporary hit points when you need them, it’s great.
I know that this is off topic. But it's your most recent upload. I just gotta say man... You are to Dungeons & Dragons as well as DM'ing/GM'ing what Matt Mercer has arguably become. (Not that I'm hating on Critical Role, I find there streams to be fantastic and entertaining, I just think they set an unrealistic precedent on playing D&D.) You have some of the most informative, well delivered, down to earth videos that I've ever seen. Keep. Them. Coming. And thank you for taking the time to share your wealth of experience and knowledge!