D&D 5E Shadow Warlock

[Ancalagon]

The hexblade is awesome, but in my mind the Shadow Warlock I was thinking of emphasizes casting more than martial prowess.

oh absolutely! I wasn't recommending making a pseudo-martial characters. But there is a bit of "shadows" in the hexblade kit - the specter for example. The unearthed arcana perhaps more (I think it had the shadow of ill omen for the hexblade, and some of the invocations that didn't make it to the official version may be useful).

Xanathar's guide has spells in it that would be good too - shadowblade, shadow of moil...

 

[Pauln6]

oh absolutely! I wasn't recommending making a pseudo-martial characters. But there is a bit of "shadows" in the hexblade kit - the specter for example. The unearthed arcana perhaps more (I think it had the shadow of ill omen for the hexblade, and some of the invocations that didn't make it to the official version may be useful).

Xanathar's guide has spells in it that would be good too - shadowblade, shadow of moil...

They are fun spells but melee focused. If you want more of a spell casting shadow mage all you have to play with are darkness and creation spells? You can add other thematic spells to the custom list such as illusions. I think it's more of an issue that there are no thematic invocations to help enhance or boost this theme. I am lucky that my PC was converted from 1e where I had a wand of conjuration that was refluffed as a wand of shadowshaping. We refluffed it so it does darklight, darkness, and summon shadowspawn.

I also used magical Adept and shadow touched feats to boost my casting potential.

 

[vulcan_idic]

Just noticed nobody talked about the new Undead patron from Tasha's.

Despite the name, it is pretty spot on for a shadow caster, being all about necrotic damage, illusions spells and spirit form.

Do you mean the Undead patron from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft? I don't have the book yet and had to look it up... Fathomless and Genie were the only two I thought I saw in Tasha's.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Do you mean the Undead patron from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft? I don't have the book yet and had to look it up... Fathomless and Genie were the only two I thought I saw in Tasha's.

Yep, sorry, I skipped a line in my list.

Van Richten's it is.