Alright who is giving their soul to me in exchange for magic tricks

I dont like how you ignored the Fae. We have taken this as a slight and will be inviting ourselves to the birth of your firstborn and cursing them in retaliation.

Next series being call "Will it Warlock!?" Taking random creatures (that aren't patrons already) and turn them into patrons!

I like the "eldritch blast isn't op... everything else is under powered and therefore everyone picks the eldritch blast option leading to boring bullshit" take.

The soul eater music when you started bringing up Hexblade was a nice touch, very classy

The Problem with Warlocks: Not having a patron that demands (and funds you) being fashionable in exchange of power.

Me: Hey Cleeeriiic! Cleric: What did you do Me: I kiiind of made a pact with a sentient hat Cleric: Oh boy... what does it want you to do? Me: It wants me to watch this funny looking scroll and write stuff in it. Cleric: DEAR GOD

I had a celestial patron warlock that had a patron with a giant god complex and they just absolutely insisted that they were a cleric or a paladin, and it was hilarious. Over the course of the game they slowly built up a cult for their patron until they actually became a god and they became a real paladin.

I have a Great Old One Warlock who sort of communicates with her patron through random inscrutable glyphs that appear in her book of shadows. Her patron is a nameless, formless entity of the Elemental Chaos that is just curious about the alien (to it) material plane and is using her as a sensor to look around. It works great for a Chaotic Neutral character with mental health issues.

I've been playing a half-orc barbarian for the last year and a half. I wanted to swap to a Goolock, but was hesitant because of the Eldritch Blast trap. My DM soothed my concerns. Me: "I just don't want to do the same thing in every round of combat..." DM: "What do you do now?" Me: "Rage and hit stuff... oh."

In my campaign our Warlock and her patron are pretty much just friends. We reflavored Archfey to fit what she was going for. Basically, her character is really into using psychedelics/tripping. One day she tripped so hard that her consciousness transcended into the Feywild. This is where she met her patron, and they just kind of hit it off so the fey spirit decided to give her power. The fey spirit is now her ”supplier”, and she uses a component pouch filled with ”gifts” as an arcane focus. Also, her pact of the tome is actually a “pact of the pipe”, which she smokes to cast the cantrips it came with.

Just because I don't seen anyone else brought this up, I believe the full caster/half caster thing comes from the multiclassing rules where some classes only count as partial for the purposes of figuring out spell slots.

Ok I was not expecting "a mimir" in the video lol Cheers from Brazil

Counterpoint on Pact of Chain being weak: Imps can turn themselves invisible whenever they want. Just, infinite invisibility. You need a spy, a saboteur, or a thief? Imp's your boy. Imps also have a call-out in the Monster Manual that, when bonded as familiars, they share their Magic Resistance trait with their summoner. Advantage on all saves versus magic, hands down. Might require DM approval, but it's there, Rules As Written.

draconic warlock really IS an obviously D&D-appropriate patron type that it's weird isn't official. Your version of it sounds cool!

I like this one. To make Warlock less Eldritch-blasty, I looked at adding and modifying invocations. Eldritch Spear and agonizing blast apply to a cantrip of your choice, not just Eldritch Blast. Chill Touch can restrain an opponent, requiring a wisdom save to escape. Magic Stone can knock a target prone when hit. I also use a Poison Ivy-based subclass that lets you get thorn whip, and that has some fun shenanigans.

Eldritch Blast Warlocks are the Barbarians of the spell casters. And I am here for it.

Agonisizing blast should just apply to all cantrips instead if just eldritch blast. That way all warlocks would use different cantrips.

My first warlock character had a Great Old One patron. It was fun, because instead of just warlock learning from the patron how to cast spells through understanding secrets of Far Realm, the warlock was also teaching the patron secrets of Material Plane. Many of these Material Plane secrets would be worthless to most, but to the warlock... well it kinda taught him to appreciate the world a new, because the patron made him question things he took for granted.

I'm writing a campaign currently and one of the player's will be playing a Dragonborn Warlock whose patron is the Dragon God of my world. Honestly this couldn't BE more perfect. Thank You!

Was that a Contrapoints reference in my DnD video? Immediately subscribed

The adopted child of the party becoming a Warlock to avenge said party but ending up as the Warlock to the Dragon that slayed said party is a wild story idea even without the cool subclass story going on

Dragons? AGAIN!? Looks like dragons rolled a nat 20 to seduce Pointy Hat.

I've always interpreted Hexblade as making a pact with specifically a warrior entity. Like the Green Knight from Arthurian myth, an Einherjar from Norse mythology, the Archangel Michael from the Bible, Kai from Kung Fu Panda, Saint Celestine from Warhammer 40k etc. That's the reason why your pact primarily manifests through your weapon. Your patron is a supernatural warrior, and as such, so are you.

The only channel on which I actually listen to the sponsor part of the vid instead of skipping

i love the (correct) implication that sailor jupiter is a warlock

Fun fact: The Old English word _warloga_ means _oathbreaker._ Funny how the meanings of words change over time...

Just sharing an idea I used on years ago for a warlock, a fun thing I used to make the "eldritch blast spammer" interesting was making a cowboy that shot the laser from his magical focus that looked suspiciously like a Revolver So it was a sweet talker that go pew pew with a pistol

I talked with my DM to majorly buff talisman: the die upgrades as you level, can cast spells from other talismans (meaning you can make some for others) and have it effect initiative. And potentially steal spells you can use once her short rest but it has to be the last spell the enemy casted

BABE NEW VIDEO JUST DROPPED!!! GET THE POP CORN!!!!

I have another idea - I spied on one of the most iconic warlocks - Gul dan. The idea is that for their spell cells, the player must pay with health. And the more often he uses it, the higher the price. From now on, Warlock will have ONLY 2 cells for the entire progression, but he can restore one (or rather, get a new one) by paying the price in hp. At first, it will be a conditional 2 hp. A little bit, yes. The second time it will be 4. The third time it will be 8. The fourth time it will be 16 and I think you understand where this is going. You can take not a fixed number, but a roll of the dice, with the progression of the dice. At first, it's 1d4 damage. On the second 1d6 and so on, up to 1d20. Like ordinary warlock spell cells, we retain their property of maximum strength, and the fact that they "recover" (or rather, burn out) after a short rest. Almost any damage spell will be stronger than the Eldritch Blast, which encourages you to actively sacrifice hp and receive persistent spells, rather than spam with this death ray. eldritch invocations will perfectly suit such mechanics, diversifying the warlock in a variety of ways. We can make an eldritch invocation to reduce the damage from getting cells, to add special powers to the Warlock himself, depending on the cells he received, for example, if the devil acts as a patron, then after receiving 4 cells at the cost of hp, the Warlock receives an aura of fire until the end of the battle. We don't have to do anything with the Eldritch blast anymore. If someone shuts up, he will still be able to play from him. But this will no longer be the "optimal" way, but on the contrary, it will be considered the most "safe", but with a minimum number of rewards. Of course, the numbers and the balance need to be improved, but it seems to me that this will display Warlock as a class much better. From now on, the warlock's body and soul itself acts as something of a focus for the magic of the ancients, and the more actively he uses powers that he should not possess, the more his body and soul suffer.

This is great. I actually had a Warlock planned for a long time who's patron is a dragon. I was going to just take the great old one and say it's a draconic 4th dimensional being, but your subclass is exactly what I needed. Now my part of the pact. The character made the pact because they were almost being killed when finding the place this dragon patron was sealed away. The dragon offered them to give power so they could kill their pursuers in turn help the dragon to break the seal. They actually become friends later, since the dragon is bored being sealed away and can only talk to his warlock telepathically to kill time.

2:57 - 3:03 That's literally me whenever Warlock mains talk about how fast they recover their spell slots

Alternate title: “I’ve never hidden myself and my entire party behind an illusory wall while spamming prestidigitation and minor illusion to make some thugs think the place is haunted, while meanwhile, my familiar which I have because tomelocks are the best, keeps watch.”

My favorite part of playing a warlock is begging for a short, 30 minute nap after each combat encounter

"So how did you become a warlock?" 'Well... I really REALLLLYYY wanted a Klondike bar."

imagine a warlock who made a pact with the DM.... or the "Engineer of the Universe" or something... even better, the "Dweomer Mechanus"

I play as Pact of The Talisman is a Reaction steady of an Action (like guidance) and you can use it after you know if the attack or ability check has failed or not (what is a little bit different of guidance where you can cast after the dice roll but before the result). Guidance is much like you asking for help before something bad occurs, and pact of talisman is like you twisting the reality that already happened

My great old one is the flying spagetthi monster. It 'communicates' trough pasta. My DM liked it a lot and has thought up the old ones goal, idk what it is yet. Every once in a while when the party has to eat he sends a mesage trough the pasta.

I’m making a warlock NPC for an upcoming campaign for my friends- I’m excited to hear The Twist!!

My favorite character is a Fighter x Warlock with Great Old one and Pact of the Blade. My patron was Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Instead of being an evil or conquering entity, the whole theme was about balance. It fit really well in the campaign I was in too.

i always felt like eldritch blast was a bit of a mandatory choice when it came to playing a warlock. i like the variety your ideas adds! def taking inspiration from this. also, nice mustache

I think you started talking about another game starting at 22:30 - I don't think "there's [an eldritch invocation] that heals you when you score a crit [with Eldritch Blast]" or "one that allows you to cast fireball as a bonus action with a hit." As far as your proposal goes, I like the dragon patron but it doesn't do much about Eldritch Blast. The dragon patron consumes spell slots; EB doesn't compete with spell slots. EB is heavily used BECAUSE warlocks have pitifully few spell slots (as you point out earlier, short rests aren't as common as designers planned for several reasons). I foresee dragon patron warlocks STILL loaded up with EB and invocations, so they can preserve their precious spell slots for the right moment.

I never would have thought to describe warlocks using Sailor Moon and DBZ, and yet somehow... it just works

Antonio: “So, we have a warlock video coming, I need footage. Anyone volunteering?” His Dragon Ball and John Constantine folder: “Hell yeah.”

Fantastic work and a great video, as always! Love your content...

Finally was able to look at this, love the flavor and options, but I think it could help significantly to scale the draconic form and and eldritch breath a bit. Maybe rounds equal to prof bonus plus spell slot, and breath damage equal to pact slot d10s? I dunno. Great work as always.

I can't believe you used footage of Rumpelstiltskin and forgot the Archfey patron. Rude. Loved all the Madoka Magica and Hazbin Hotel's Alastor! My gf once made a great old one kenku warlock. Her patron? A reeeeeeally old tree. "Why does it always have to be cthulhu?" Her eb was flavored as a blast of wind filled with leaves and twigs. It was so cute!

I actually like pact of the talisman, because 1) you don't have to be the one to wear it and 2) there's some invocation to give it special effects. Allows you to sort of protect one party member, which is great for rp. Invocations in general can be a reason for picking a pact, because each one gets a few exclusive ones you can choose

Thanks pointy. You're videos and docs have been extremely helpful

Ngl for the “when I think of ____ I think of…” I was expecting Jocat’s ‘Eldritch *BLAST* ‘ Also the video is 33:33 minutes long. Nice

I always had the idea that my patron was a Dragonborn with the ambition of controlling one of the nine Hells. And with this draconic patron it absolutely fits with our campaign that has two dragons fighting for the control of an entire region of the Sword Coast. Wish me luck on convincing my DM to accept this patron!

I always love things like 15:56 when he plays 1 second of "CRAWL" with that one picture. Always gets me laughing. Made an edit bc I put the wrong timestamp.

Great idea I also like the idea of a giant warlock subclass it would make sense for a character who hates dragon since Giants and dragons are have always been enemies in DND lore.

Missed point about the Pact of the Talisman: the 1d4 bonus it grants (and all the other powers it can gain through Invocations) are granted _not_ exclusively to you, but to _whoever_ is wearing it. If your Warlock has someone they want to protect, this is the natural choice narratively, and its mechanics reinforce that.

My party, like 90% of them, usually are heavily multiclassed, usually for rp reasons, so I didn’t realize how much people don’t mix and match with stuff from classes. Also I love warlock, especially my love fathomless, so it’s always cool to see more done for them.

I recently allowed an oneshot where all players could make level 20 characters. It was pretty fun. You can just make up power boosts as you in a way that makes sense to your campaign.

I am dying at that contrapoints meme 17:11

The fix for Eldrich Blast boredom is the Celestial Pact. Eldrich blast for damage and healing spells for support. Makes you great at multiple important battlefield roles

The recurring theme of 'make this person part of my hoard' is giving me high-key polycule vibes and I *love* it 😄

Dude! All these series you have are AMAZING, I listen to them at work (your familiar is outstanding) so thank you for all your hard work. If I were a warlock I would form a pact for the ability to watch the world turn till it ends. I love a good story and try to complete each one I pick up so I would want to witness how things end when the last grain of sand falls. Oh and btw I'm wondering what info you can give on playing a Yuan-ti/Yuan-li? I love reptiles but like you I stay away from dragon's.

Okay this subclass got me thinking. What if the Warlock was rescued by their patron and to repay their debt they serve their patron. So I was thinking this. Reynold was hunted by the hag that has been ruling over his village. The hag demanded a sacrifice and she wanted Reynold. The young half orc ended up lost in the forest. He wished to live to survive. The hag and several villagers found the young child but they were burned asunder by a dragon…said dragon glanced and half breed demanded payment. Half Orc had no but said he would do anything. The dragon smiled and told him that the Half Orc now served him as his Warlock. What do you think?

As a hopeful DM with plans for a Warlock villain, and a "creature in the lake" (mindflayer dragon), words cannot describe just how *perfect* this is.

Warlocks are just so unbelievably flavorful and I love them, and anytime some homebrew rules change short rests they're just lovely to play. You get a TON of high level spells compared to other classes, and it makes you feel less spellslinger and more spellcannon, and I just like that feeling a ton more personally.

Funny how Hat mentions Kiss of Mestistopheles without mentioning other UA stuff like Cursebringer, which is an invocation you can get at any level with pact of the blade hexblade, that grants you a weapon that has a smite that scales 2d8 per spell level. It also stacks with eldritch smite, which means that yes, warlock did just make paladin obsolete.

Another way to correct would be if patrons gave options for other cantrips to replace or be counted as eldrich blast or multiple eldrich cantrips you can only choose one of and remaking the modifiers for any eldrich cantrip.. or limiting eldrich boosting innvocations to 1. Would add options like a vine whip that pulls you 10 ft closer.

The fellow KZfaqr Mr.Rhexx noticed this Dragon gap. In previous editions we had Dragons Subclasses and Mr.Rhexx expected the subclass in Fisban's. Then, Mr.Rhexx made the Draconic Warlock in one of his PDFs (I think it is What They Don't Tell You About Dragon Hoards)

No joke, I’m making a sorlock right now and was looking for THIS EXACT video on your channel yesterday only to be disappointed. Thanks Pointy Hat.

I hadn't considered just how *right* a Draconic patron was until you pointed out the idea of becoming part of the dragon's hoard.

I say the solution is simple. 1. Alter eldritch blast, and turn it into “channel essence” so to speak. Fiend pact? Hellish expulsion. A cantrip that takes 3 different forms. Form 1, a forward blast of power from the fiend itself (basically eldritch blast) that does 1d10 if hit. Form 2, a wide blasting attack that hits multiple enemies in all directions. All enemies caught in the attack if hit take 1d6. Form 3, an upward pillar which strikes in a rotating pattern. Hits like form 2 with smaller range, unless the enemy is above, where they are swept into the blast and thrown to the ground. (Only works on medium size creatures or smaller) 1d8 unless above where the attack hits 1d12 and possible extra damage depending on the fall.

Pointy Hat: Isn't crazy that we don't have a dragon warlock subclass? MrRexx: Boy do I have something for you!

My crackpot idea for a warlock subclass is the invisible hand, your pact spells are all spells that have components with required prices, and your main ability is to be able to cast those spells if you sacrifice the specified amount of gold the component would have cost instead of using the component itself.

Devil Sight and the Spell Darkness is a great combination. Hide in the shadows while blasting enemies and any enemies that enter get disadvantage, add a Cleric with spirit guardians and you have a extremely potent magic shield.

I liked warlock so much better in 3.5 Eldritch Blast scaled like Sneak Attack, so you didn't need to turn all your invocations towards it to remain powerful and just beam-spam. I also like adding flavor to my eldritch blasts, altering how it's described for each character. One it's a pale white flame that lanced out at the target. Another was a ball of force they lobbed at enemies. My personal favorite was the half-construct minotaur that fired dozens of tiny motes that spiraled down his arm in bursts, as what is essentially an eldritch minigun. An absolute unit of a 'caster' that also ran tank, and brought the BRRRRT.

I'm currently playing with a warlock that made multiple small pacts with various devils, all cautiously crafted to swing in his favor, each fueling a bit of his power.

Very valid criticisms and a super interesting subclass idea, although if I can offer a gentle defence of the base warlock - I find it interesting that it is, arguably, the only casting class that actually encourages players to play in the most strictly optimal way. By which I mean: usually, blasters are the worst casters. Crowd-control and shut down spells are so powerful in 5e that in most cases, the best use of any given spell slot is to spend it on a long concentration support or control spell (sleep and bless for 1st level, spike growth for 2nd, hypnotic pattern and sleet storm for 3rd, etc. etc. etc.). If you want to be able to take a large number of consecutive encounters (which 5e was clearly designed around, even if it's not actually played that way by most players!), then the best possible use of your spellcasting feature is to spend a single slot at the start of each combat on a powerful shutdown or support spell and then chip away at enemies with cantrips for the rest of the fight, only spending another spell slot if your concentration is broken, for defence (e.g. shield, silvery barbs), or if the combat situation changes. Warlocks are exceptionally well designed to fit this playstyle. Having few spell slots encourages you to conserve them, which will naturally push you towards high-impact long-duration options like summons or control over lower-impact damage bursts. They even have one of the best control spells in the game - Hunger of Hadar - unique to their spell list. Recovering these spell slots on every short rest will naturally encourage you to use one every couple of fights rather than save them all up for a big boss fight, because you only need a short break to recover them. And having a strong base cantrip option will make the turns when you sit on your powerful control spells and do cantrip chip damage feel less bad than a wizard in the same situation. Now, this is all built on an assumption of a traditional dungeon crawl-type game: a survival situation where most of each session is spent in a series of increasingly challenging fights, conservation of resources is important, and long rests are few and far between. Which is not what actually happens at most 5e tables. So I do think your criticisms stand pretty well in relation to 5e as it is actually played. But I do think it's worth recognising that the warlock is actually surprisingly well designed to fit a certain niche and encourage a type of play that new players often take a while to get into - they're often naturally drawn to big flashy damage spells like Burning Hands and overlook just how strong a single Sleep or Hideous Laughter can be, so a class that strongly encourages prioritising these long-duration control spells over flashy damage spells can do a really good job of encouraging players to engage with different styles of play and step out of their initial expectations for what a strong caster looks like.

pointy hat suggesting a dragon thing is unexpected but nice. great video, love your channel

this was one of the first homebrew i did when i had no idea of balance, its nice to see it being made from someone else who can manage it way better.

I like how for the longest time, P.H. avoided talking about dragons. But now that he made his own, it continues to pop up. And god DAYUM I am loving it!!

"You're a warlock? What's your patron?" "Humanity." *Blasts 40k music*

Great video, I took a look at the subclass document and noticed that Fear, Fly, and Hallucinatory Terrain were included on the expanded spell list. Those three spells are already on the Warlock spell list so having them be on the expanded spell list is not adding anything to the subclass. I would recommend swaping those spells out. For the 3rd level spells I think Glyph of Warding would be a good choice playing off the a dragon's want to protect their horde. Conjure Animals but changing the creature type from beast to dragon could also be interesting. Then for 4th level, I would recommend something like Wall of Fire or Watery Sphere.

I really dig the dragon patron, and was also surprised when i realized that there wasn't one in 5e (unless you count the Dread Overlord mod for BG3). I would love to try this in a game one day.

I played a Deep Ones Warlock who went mad and got his powers by seeing the Eldritch being through a portal on a burglary gone wrong and his whole goal was to get his Patrons attention and become the valuable follower. Went a bit non-romantic yandere for his Patron at times thanks to his madness. Another fun Warlock I played was a Hexblade, but I wasn't just the person holding the blade, I was the haunted blade. Possessing the wielder and using him as a meat puppet. Warlock is one of my favorite classes. My other favorite is artificer, which is another very customizable class.

Honestly, I don’t even play 5e anymore, but I absolutely adore your videos purely for your art, concepts, and storytelling. Excellent stuff! Can’t wait for the Warlock dragon vid!

Thank you for acknowledging that invocations to boost eldritch blast are thieves of joy

another goofy thing about eldritch blast (At least in bg3): so many builds go around it because of crits being funny in the game, a level 10 evocation wizard using fire bolt gets a crit, that's 4d10+INT fire damage, pretty good for a cantrip, but if the same wizard casts eldritch blast using the feat spell sniper, then boom, suddenly they do 3d10+INT*3 to up to 6d10+INT*3 which can easily out damage level 6 spells like sunbeam against single targets, and that's without other modifiers such as the equipment in the game that can add additional INT scaling or even to cast it as a bonus action as well. Either way, the reputation it has completely changes how players use warlock, but I accidentally found out in a great campaign playing as a Wizard/Warlock who made a deal with an elder god to bestow knowledge on him, I picked up agonizing blast and the damage spiked so bad we didn't know what to do to balance things out.

Honestly had a half-dragon warlock I was going to play and was tying him with Tiamat but didn’t want Fiend, so thanks for the help and contribution to my collection!

I would make the character a philactory for a Draconic Lich. Someone who agreed to be his host in the event of his death. And as a by product of this contract, the host can summon a vestige of it to fight with him. This works very well with jobs the patron assigns as the patron literally manifests itself to take care of the problem. So cool! ❤

I love how on most of your videos you start by saying something that I deeply disagree with but by the end you explain yourself enough and give us options that I just go "yeah, that's fair"

In my last campaign I got to play a rogue swashbuckler who multiclassed into an undying warlock with pact of the blade due to campaign events. it was quite fun, and I didn't get eldritch blast since it didn't work with sneak attack anyway.

Druidic pact(or Locus pact if you want to be fancy): Your patron is a Genius Loci, exchange spell slot for wildshape of the same CR level or lower, charming animals once per short/long rest by trading one spell slot, the ability to poison for one minute whoever was attacked by your unarmed attack and the damage depends on charisma modifier, always by trading those sweet spell slots, and your eldritch blast has ability related to the terrain your patron inhabits if you find yourself on that kind of terrain(ex. forest entangle, desert exhaust, ecc...) and a saving throw is failed. Upon your death, your souls will be turned into a guardian for the locus.

Now I want to play a campaign where each player gets a “patron”. Maybe the rogue gets mentorship from a fae, the wizard takes lessons from an ancient dragon, the warrior is made tougher through training with a genie I think thatd be so much fun

The Strahd campaign I did with my group last year, I ran a Owlin Celestial Warlock (be a healer for the party). We did the Dark Powers optional thing. I had so much fun (though I did get some of the frustrations Pointy Hat mentioned). We got to level 14 (if I remember correctly, don't have my character sheet on front of me). By the end, my Owlin got the Lich Dark Power, which was fascinating. The DM worked on a compromise so I could still keep playing my Owlin (he didn't go full Lich, no phil {however it's spelled}, a few other things). A lot of fun eas had.

Note that in the monster manual, it says that if you have an Imp as a familiar, you share it’s magic resistance

I have a character duo that is a Magician (homebrew class) and a Warlock. The thing is, the Warlock's patron, is the Magician themselves. A dynamic duo of a patron and a warlock who grow stronger together.

The EB issue is why I love Hex Blade so much. Even without multi classing it allows me to be effective without spamming Blast and i actually cast my spells

In 3.5 there was sort of an alternate version of a warlock with a dragon patron called a dragon shaman. It got energy resistance, a few spell like abilities, a breath weapon INSTEAD of Eldritch blast, and specific other resistance as well as dragon invocations which were different and cool.

I once got a player to sell their soul to a devil, and they died three sessions later so I let them actually come back as a devil, pretty high ranked too due to their abilities (level 10 fighter be like that)

I cry every time someone basically says “the fathomless definitely exists”

Bog's background is INCREDIBLE. Amazinfg work as always :DD keep it coming