D&D 5E Homebrew Ideas For Warlock Recharge (+)

[FrogReaver]

Once per encounter you can transform into a form based on your patron. It has the following stats, etc.

Could make fairly strong if you drop dpell progression entirely. Some forms may have their own spells.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You could also do something along the lines of "if you reduce an enemy to 0 hp's using your pact weapon, attack from your familiar (pact of the chain only), or a cantrip gained from your tome of shadows, then you regain a spell slot."

Definitely an option that would help make the boons stand out more.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Once per encounter you can transform into a form based on your patron. It has the following stats, etc.

Could make fairly strong if you drop dpell progression entirely. Some forms may have their own spells.

This is actually part of the Binder I’m working on. Basically you get limited Spellcasting, but also get ritual casting, and you automatically know find familiar and unseen servant. Some subclasses boost a pet, some do more weird controller stuff, and at least one invokes powers into the self, creating a monstrous transformation.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's too bad they made the Sorcerer's mechanical niche metamagic. Being able to cost action spells as a bonus action, with a very limited set of spells, would be a really fun way to make Warlocks weird.

Maybe on a day off soon I will hash out the outline of an at-will Binder, as an alt Warlock.

Right now, the idea is ritual casting and cantrips but no pact magic or spellcasting feature, Eldritch Blast can be changed to a cone or line that gets bigger at the scaling levels but only goes off once, with a Pact of The Rod. The items associated with your Pact Boon are available as invocations, and thus you can gain more than one, and they are all spellcasting focuses and can gain enchantments via invocation (ie +1 to attack and DC when casting through your tome, rod, sword, or familiar).

You also gain 1 of 3 Ritual Tools at level 1 in place of pact magic. The Atheme, The Chalice, and The Bell. They each give at least 1 spell you can cast once a day, and can regain via some specific event or action, and a couple utility or minor benefit spells you can cast at-will, in addition to a passive benefit (Bell=external control/abjuration buff, challice gives you a spell slot or two pact magic style but per long rest, atheme= basically improved pact of the blade). You choose a second at level 5, and a third at level 11, and you can only have one active as your Implement at a time. Each might give more spells at certain levels, or not. Again, this is replacing Pact Magic.

Add in an Invocation that lets you use two spellcasting focuses at once, gaining a benefit when you do so. Maybe based on the type?

Your patron spells are each 1/LR, providing the bulk of your spellcasting unless you invest in a lot of spellcassting invocations.

I also want to fit in a Warlock's Curse of some kind, which might require pushing something else back further down the line, unless I can make it part of the Ritual Tools feature somehow. Perhaps each tool gives a different type of Curse you can use, and the Curse defines how you get back the spell that comes with that Tool?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

working on an outline draft that uses more of the ideas from this thread, now. TBH, it's tough.

Like, too many cast spell as daily power features and it just isn't distinct enough from Spellcasting to be worth the extra work.

I'll come back to it later.

 

[Pedantic]

How about some kind of variable spellcasting? Calling on your patron for aid is an uncertain process, and you don't know exactly what ability package you'll get.

Easiest option is just to take a couple of the expanded spell access lists, or maybe some standard warlock spells and one of those lists, and then generate something like 4 spells a level. You then roll a d4 for each spell level you know, and those are the spells you currently have.

You can set up any sort of conditional recharge effect from the stuff discussed, with the caveat that recharging means rerolling, and changes what effects you have.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

How about some kind of variable spellcasting? Calling on your patron for aid is an uncertain process, and you don't know exactly what ability package you'll get.

Easiest option is just to take a couple of the expanded spell access lists, or maybe some standard warlock spells and one of those lists, and then generate something like 4 spells a level. You then roll a d4 for each spell level you know, and those are the spells you currently have.

You can set up any sort of conditional recharge effect from the stuff discussed, with the caveat that recharging means rerolling, and changes what effects you have.

Generally I want to move the Warlock further away from being similar conceptually to the cleric in terms of how they are able to cast a spell. However, this is a great idea that would kick ass as the centerpiece of a reworked Wild Magic Sorcerer.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Okay, a nearly at-will warlock would require more redesign than I want to do I think. But I think we can build one like a half caster with artificer in mind more than the other two half casters, and using cantrip scaling and Warlock’s Curse and Implements as a class-wide offense scaling.

Then, we can go from there, probably still making their Spellcasting weirder than it is, but Not worrying as much about if it’s different enough. More important that it doesn’t become hard to use.

I do think that I will make the pact boons into “vestiges” that are basically greater invocations. One vestige early on, level 3 or 5, then the rest in place of the mystic arcanum, with some level locked, if needed. Maybe the mystic arcanums become vestiges, so they’re also an option?

Idk