Warlock - The Owl Patron (Patreon)

Sometimes you don't find a patron. Sometimes the patron finds you. Sometimes, your patron is a great green owl that really wants you to finish your lessons., and if you don't listen to it, it may kidnap your family until you learn some new verbs.

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This is one of the first subclass I made for a player.  It's mainly for fun, but it uses an interesting mechanic designed around maximizing damage. You'll see this mechanic in some my other subclasses, too! Overall this is a fun warlock focused on being smart (similar to the Astral Chain UA), so be prepared to learn lots of languages.

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The typical warlock progression is simple: gain a subclass-defining 1st level feature, some defensive, resistive, or mobility-based 6th and 10th level features (their offensive power comes from full-caster spells), and then a 14th level powerful capstone.  With that in mind, let's dive into the Owl patron:

The first feature is purely roleplay flavor and fits well with the patron's idea of learning languages. There is nothing too powerful about this.

The Lesson Streak feature basically allows the warlock to deal additional damage. There are lots of different calculations for the damage boost, but on average each additional re-roll possibility adds about 1-2 points of additional damage. Maximizing damage gets easier when you can re-roll more dice and when you roll more dice for damage.

Like the Genie or Astral Chain UA, this subclass comes with a new Pact option. This Pact focuses on language and intelligence, so it comes with a few options to learn and speak languages. The more interesting option is the ability to copy one spell like a Wizard, which helps expand the Warlock's limited spell list and still remains controlled by the DM. It also provides new Invocations, which grants more power in exchange for the relatively weaker Pact (compared to Blade or Tome).

The 6th level feature is a simple defensive one like the Fiend, and the 10th level feature is very similar to that of the Great Old One.

The 14th level feature is theme first (the stalking owl). It makes for some interesting roleplay or exploration uses, like following a creature even as it escapes. To round that out, the combat advantage is powerful (at the cost of being close to the target). Overall, it's probably similar in power to the Fiend, who can do 10d10 damage on an attack.

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Disclaimer: This is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved or endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of the Wizards of the Coast.