House rule: Magic Circle + Planar Binding for Warlock of Great Old One

Ok, I'm disappointed in the lack of conjuration spells for the Warlock, given that I've got Moorcock's Elric in mind. Warlocks can Conjure Fey but for some reason not fiends or elementals. They even have Banishment to get rid of outer plane critters.

What's the point of serving the Great Old One if you can't summon something madness-inducing from the Far Realm and throw it at the bad guys?

5e House rule
GREAT OLD ONE EXPANDED SPELLS

• 3rd replace Clairvoyance with Magic Circle
• 5th replace Telekinesis with Planar Binding

Magic Circle
Contains the critter while you cast Planar Binding.

Planar Binding
The Warlock variant binds a monster of the "Aberration" category, of equivalent challenge rating to a celestial, fey, elemental or fiend.

Thumbs up!

I think those are excellent house rules.

Great suggestion! But if GOO-locks can summon aberrant horrors, Hell-locks ought to be able to summon fiends.

Actually, rather than mucking around with the spell list, I think these should be 1/day invocations for the warlock. Given the way warlocks use spells it may not make sense to allow a warlock to cast these spells x times per encounter (as per warlock casting rules up to 5th level spells like planar binding), especially given the expensive material component involved.

doctorhook said:

Actually, rather than mucking around with the spell list, I think these should be 1/day invocations for the warlock. Given the way warlocks use spells it may not make sense to allow a warlock to cast these spells x times per encounter (as per warlock casting rules up to 5th level spells like planar binding), especially given the expensive material component involved.

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Ah, I hadn't noticed the 1,000 gp gem material component.

I'll just make the option available to the Warlock, I guess, possibly as a single (new) "Conjure Aberration" spell rather than the Circle of Magic + Planar Binding.

"Arioch! Arioch! Blood and souls for my lord Arioch!"

Agglomérante said:

Ah, I hadn't noticed the 1,000 gp gem material component.

I'll just make the option available to the Warlock, I guess, possibly as a single (new) "Conjure Aberration" spell rather than the Circle of Magic + Planar Binding.

"Arioch! Arioch! Blood and souls for my lord Arioch!"

Click to expand...

Certainly there ought to be a conjure aberration spell; it's an oversight that there isn't one, and I expect WotC will produce one eventually. (Actually, looking through the Player's Handbook I notice there isn't a conjure fiend spell either, so I wonder if both may appear in the DMG along with the Death domain and the Oathbreaker paladin subclass.)

In any case, conjure aberration (whether official or homebrewed) ought to be an invocation, similar to the "Minions of Chaos" invocation in the Player's Handbook. Additionally, the ability to cast planar binding (5th level spell) and magic circle (3rd level spell, but perhaps only able to cast it inside-out for summoning purposes) should also be a single invocation that allows each spell to be cast once per day using a warlock spell slots. We want to minimize potential problems of balance by mirroring existing warlock abilities as closely as possible.

Thanks to Ari's monster sorter, we have this lovely CR-ranked list of aberrations from the MM:

1 Flumph
1 Slaad, tadpole
2 Gibbering mouther
2 Intellect devourer
2 Nothic
3 Beholder, spectator
3 Grell
4 Chuul
5 Otyugh
5 Slaad, red
7 Mind flayer
7 Slaad, blue
8 Cloaker
8 Mind flayer, arcanist
8 Slaad, green
9 Slaad, gray
10 Aboleth
10 Slaad, death
13 Beholder

Dunno if that collection would work. I really thought there were more aberrations!

Magic Circle is already on the Warlock Spell List- Spells granted by Patrons are spells which are not on the Warlock List. Those spells become available to be known. Warlocks are pretty cool even with their limited spells.

The spells in the PHB are the most common in the worlds of D&D, hopefully this means that the DMG will contain some uncommon and rare spells. I reckon that in most D&D worlds Wizards would be uncommon, Warlocks and Sorcerers would be rare. The Archfey would probably have the easiest time of gathering warlocks, but not necessarily be looking. Fiends would be looking but have a hard time avoiding Paladins and Clerics (who are both uncommon). GOO is outside in the Far Realms, may or may not be looking or have an easy/hard time.

Minions of Chaos Invocation enables a Warlock to conjure an elemental once per long rest, using one Pact Spell Slot.

Hopefully there will be more spells and Invocations which deal with summoning. Some Patrons may want their warlock to deal with some of their lesser servants. Queen of Air & Darkness with Sprite/Nymph/Pixie and Shadow servants, Arch Fiends with imps, succubi and other lesser fiends, GOO with Aberrations, Star Vampires and Elder Spawn.

Then again the DMG will give guidance to make your own D&D