New Warlock Invocation: Greater Pact Weapon

[Caliban]

Greater Pact Weapon (Pact of the Blade, lvl 7): One of your attunement slots is now permanently devoted to your pact weapon. In return, you may sacrifice magical weapons to your patron, permanently destroying them (or sending them to your patron for their collection, who knows?).

Henceforth, when you summon your pact weapon it may take the form of any weapon you have sacrificed, it may have the attack and damage bonus of any single weapon you have sacrificed, and it may have the additional abilities of any single weapon you have sacrificed (not including sentience). You may change the form, attack and damage bonus, and the additional abilities the first time you summon it after a short or long rest.

If you sacrifice a sentient weapon, you patron will imbue your weapon with a new sentient personality, chosen by the patron. Sacrificing another sentient weapon will not change the personality, but may give it additional abilities (DM's discretion).

You cannot sacrifice legendary weapons using this invocation.

You may now summon your Pact Blade as a Bonus Action instead of needing an Action to summon it.

[I wanted to give the Pact of the Blade something to make it a little more special. Right now I'm setting this as a lvl 7 invocation, but I'm seriously considering folding it into the base Pact instead. Let me know what you think.]

 

[Ryuujin]

I am sorry, I don't see what this invocation does that you can't already do with the Pact Weapon. Except wasting magic weapons, and being able to switch between them on a short rest.

I guess it might be quicker than spending 1 hour during a short rest transforming your magic weapon into your pact weapon. I guess it allows Sentient weapons, but still not Legendary weapons.

 

[Caliban]

I am sorry, I don't see what this invocation does that you can't already do with the Pact Weapon.

Should be obvious. You can mix and match the weapon form, attack and damage bonus, and special abilities.

Let's say you have sacrificed a +2 longsword, a Shortsword of Wounding, and a Giant Slayer Greataxe.

You could make your Pact Weapon a +2 Greataxe of Wounding, or a +2 Giant Slayer Shortsword, or a +2 Longsword of Wounding, etc.

I did forget to add one thing - you can also now summon your Pact Blade as a bonus action, instead of needing an Action to summon it.

I wasn't going to require a short rest to change the abilities, but being able to change your abilities by dismissing and re-summoning your pact weapon seemed a bit too strong.

 

[NeverLucky]

I am sorry, I don't see what this invocation does that you can't already do with the Pact Weapon. Except wasting magic weapons, and being able to switch between them on a short rest.

I guess it might be quicker than spending 1 hour during a short rest transforming your magic weapon into your pact weapon. I guess it allows Sentient weapons, but still not Legendary weapons.

It lets you combine the +bonus of a weapon, with the abilities of another weapon, and the form of a third. So you can sacrifice a +3 spear, a flametongue longsword, and a glaive of warning and create a +3 flametongue glaive.

I like it a lot. It makes Pact of the Blade actually useful, instead of pointless until 12th level. I don't see why it shouldn't be baseline for Bladelocks (minus the attunement part; only cost attunement if you're copying a weapon ability that requires attunement); they're invocation-taxed enough as is, with two must-take invocations.

 

[Ryuujin]

Okay I didn't read that. That is actually really nice. Though of course it depends on actually finding nice magic weapons.

 

[CapnZapp]

Should be obvious. You can mix and match the weapon form, attack and damage bonus, and special abilities.

Let's say you have sacrificed a +2 longsword, a Shortsword of Wounding, and a Giant Slayer Greataxe.

You could make your Pact Weapon a +2 Greataxe of Wounding, or a +2 Giant Slayer Shortsword, or a +2 Longsword of Wounding, etc.

It lets you combine the +bonus of a weapon, with the abilities of another weapon, and the form of a third. So you can sacrifice a +3 spear, a flametongue longsword, and a glaive of warning and create a +3 flametongue glaive.

Be warned - from a powergamer's perspective, this is actually stupidly strong on OMGWTFBBQ levels.

Not saying your idea is bad. It might well work for your home game.

Just saying this can and will be abused to hell and back by players with such an inclination, assuming the campaign isn't outright magic-item poor.

I'm calling this a must-have ability. If you fold this into the base pact I predict every Fighter taking three levels of Warlock.

We could discuss why this is, but to quote Caliban, it "should be obvious"

 

[Caliban]

Be warned - from a powergamer's perspective, this is actually stupidly strong on OMGWTFBBQ levels.

I don't think it's quite that overpowered. Strong, yes, but you can still only use the special abilities of one weapon at a time. It's main strength is being able to add an attack/damage bonus and have the weapon always be your preferred weapon.

Basically it's a way for the Warlock to piece together their own equivalent of a legendary weapon, with the pace controlled by the DM via the rate and type of magical weapon drops.

 

[Vymair]

I don't think it's quite that overpowered. Strong, yes, but you can still only use the special abilities of one weapon at a time. It's main strength is being able to add an attack/damage bonus and have the weapon always be your preferred weapon.

Basically it's a way for the Warlock to piece together their own equivalent of a legendary weapon, with the pace controlled by the DM via the rate and type of magical weapon drops.

The big benefit I see is that you get away from attunement of multiple items. Normally, a fighter can't attune all those different types of weapons so the warlock would have an edge. I'm thinking 7th level restriction is appropriate just to keep other melee characters dipping just for this. It's also possible just to give it to the Bladepact Warlock at some higher level, but I don't think I'd grant it as part of the original pact choice.

 

[Caliban]

The big benefit I see is that you get away from attunement of multiple items. Normally, a fighter can't attune all those different types of weapons so the warlock would have an edge. I'm thinking 7th level restriction is appropriate just to keep other melee characters dipping just for this. It's also possible just to give it to the Bladepact Warlock at some higher level, but I don't think I'd grant it as part of the original pact choice.

Since it takes an hour to switch the abilities around, it's the equivalent of attuning to a new item. You just have a bigger pool of weapons to choose from, due to your ability to mix'n'match.

I originally came up with this because I have a bladelock player in my home game that wants to make a deal with his patron for more power. It hasn't happened yet, but this is going to be the "more power" - basically a free, custom-made invocation. Since he's not paying an invocation slot for it, it's going to have an additional cost - it requires a sacrifice of a new magic weapon periodically or he'll have disadvantage on attacks with the weapon until it's hunger is sated. And its going to be really jealous if he tries to use a different weapon.

He's also going to have to do a few special "jobs" for his patron for his part of the deal, assuming it gets made.

 

[Mirtek]

Since it takes an hour to switch the abilities around, it's the equivalent of attuning to a new item.

But the new item won't have the enhancement of the other. There's a reason why some abilities come with pluses and some not.