Warlock - The Great Old One

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Overview & Creation

With a pseudodragon curled on his shoulder, a young elf in golden robes smiles warmly, weaving a magical charm into his honeyed words and bending the palace sentinel to his will. As flames spring to life in her hands, a wizened human whispers the secret name of her demonic patron, infusing her spell with fiendish magic.   Shifting his gaze between a battered tome and the odd alignment of the stars overhead, a wild-eyed tiefling chants the mystic ritual that will open a doorway to a distant world.

Warlocks are finders and keepers of secrets. They push at the edge of our understanding of the world, always seeking to expand their expertise. Where sages or wizards might heed a clear sign of danger and end their research, a warlock plunges ahead, heedless of the cost. Thus, it takes a peculiar mixture of intelligence, curiosity, and recklessness to produce a warlock. Many folk would describe that combination as evidence of madness. Warlocks see it as a demonstration of bravery.   Warlocks are defined by two elements that work in concert to forge their path into this class. The first element is the event or circumstances that led to a warlock's entering into a pact with a planar entity. The second one is the nature of the entity a warlock is bound to. Unlike clerics, who typically embrace a deity and that god's ethos, a warlock might have no love for a patron, or vice versa.

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Class Features

Otherworldly Patron.

At 1st level, you have struck a bargain with an otherworldly being chosen from the list of available patrons. Your choice grants you features at 1st level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.

Eldritch Invocations (2nd level)

In your study of occult lore, you have unearthed eldritch invocations, fragments of forbidden knowledge that imbue you with an abiding magical ability. At 2nd level, you gain two eldritch invocations of your choice. A list of the available options can be found on the Optional Features page. When you gain certain warlock levels, you gain additional invocations of your choice. Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at that level. A level prerequisite in an invocation refers to warlock level, not character level.

Pact Boon (3rd level)

At 3rd level, your otherworldly patron bestows a gift upon you for your loyal service. You gain one of the following features of your choice.

Pact of the Blade

You can use your action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you create it (see chapter 5 for weapon options). You are proficient with it while you wield it. This weapon counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.   Your pact weapon disappears if it is more than 5 feet away from you for 1 minute or more. It also disappears if you use this feature again, if you dismiss the weapon (no action required), or if you die.   You can transform one magic weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual while you hold the weapon. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. You can then dismiss the weapon, shunting it into an extradimensional space, and it appears whenever you create your pact weapon thereafter. You can't affect an artifact or a sentient weapon in this way. The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it. The weapon appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when the bond breaks.

Pact of the Chain

You learn the find familiar spell and can cast it as a ritual. The spell doesn't count against your number of spells known. When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite. Additionally, when you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to use its reaction to make one attack of its own.

Pact of the Tome

Your patron gives you a grimoire called a Book of Shadows. When you gain this feature, choose three cantrips from any class's spell list. The cantrips do not need to be from the same spell list. While the book is on your person, you can cast those cantrips at will. They don't count against your number of cantrips known. Any cantrip you cast with this feature is considered a warlock cantrip for you. If you lose your Book of Shadows, you can perform a 1-hour ceremony to receive a replacement from your patron. This ceremony can be performed during a short or long rest, and it destroys the previous book. The book turns to ash when you die.

Mystic Arcanum (11th level)

At 11th level, your patron bestows upon you a magical secret called an arcanum. Choose one 6th-level spell from the warlock spell list as this arcanum. You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again. At higher levels, you gain more warlock spells of your choice that can be cast in this way: one 7th-level spell at 13th level, one 8th-level spell at 15th level, and one 9th-level spell at 17th level. You regain all uses of your Mystic Arcanum when you finish a long rest.

Mystic Arcanum (13th level)

At 13th level, your patron bestows upon you a magical secret called an arcanum. Choose one 7th-level spell from the warlock spell list as this arcanum. You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

Mystic Arcanum (13th level)

At 15th level, your patron bestows upon you a magical secret called an arcanum. Choose one 8th-level spell from the warlock spell list as this arcanum. You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

Mystic Arcanum (17th level)

At 17th level, your patron bestows upon you a magical secret called an arcanum. Choose one 9th-level spell from the warlock spell list as this arcanum. You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

Eldritch Master (20th level)

At 20th level, you can draw on your inner reserve of mystical power while entreating your patron to regain expended spell slots. You can spend 1 minute entreating your patron for aid to regain all your expended spell slots from your Pact Magic feature. Once you regain spell slots with this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

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Starting Equipment

You start with the following equipment in addition to the following granted by your background   (a) a light crossbow with 20 bolts or (b) any simple weapon
(a) a components pouch or (b) an arcane focus
(a) a scholars pack or dungeoneers pack
leather armor, any simple weapon, and two daggers

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Spellcasting

Pact Magic

Your arcane research and the magic bestowed on you by your patron have given you facility with spells. See chapter 10 for the general rules of spellcasting and chapter 11 for the warlock spell list.

Cantrips

You know two cantrips of your choice from the warlock spell list. You learn additional warlock cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Warlock table.

Spell Slots

The Warlock table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your warlock spells of 1st through 5th level. The table also shows what the level of those slots is; all of your spell slots are the same level. To cast one of your warlock spells of 1st level or higher, you must expend a spell slot. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a short or long rest. For example, when you are 5th level, you have two 3rd-level spell slots. To cast the 1st-level spell witch bolt, you must spend one of those slots, and you cast it as a 3rd-level spell.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

At 1st level, you know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the warlock spell list.   The Spells Known column of the Warlock table shows when you learn more warlock spells of your choice of 1st level and higher. A spell you choose must be of a level no higher than what's shown in the table's Slot Level column for your level. When you reach 6th level, for example, you learn a new warlock spell, which can be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level. Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the warlock spells you know and replace it with another spell from the warlock spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability

Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your warlock spells, so you use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a warlock spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.  

Spellcasting Focus

You can use an arcane focus (found in chapter 5) as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells.

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Subclass Options

Your patron is a mysterious entity whose nature is utterly foreign to the fabric of reality. It might come from the Far Realm, the space beyond reality, or it could be one of the elder gods known only in legends. Its motives are incomprehensible to mortals, and its knowledge so immense and ancient that even the greatest libraries pale in comparison to the vast secrets it holds. The Great Old One might be unaware of your existence or entirely indifferent to you, but the secrets you have learned allow you to draw your magic from it. Entities of this type include Ghaunadar, called That Which Lurks; Tharizdun, the Chained God; Dendar, the Night Serpent; Zargon, the Returner; Great Cthulhu; and other unfathomable beings.

Expanded Spell List

The Great Old One lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Spell Level	Spells
1st	Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's Hideous Laughter
2nd	Detect Thoughts, Phantasmal Force
3rd	Clairvoyance, Sending
4th	Dominate Beast, Evard's Black Tentacles
5th	Dominate Person, Telekinesis

Awakened Mind

Starting at 1st level, your alien knowledge gives you the ability to touch the minds of other creatures. You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.

Entropic Ward

At 6th level, you learn to magically ward yourself against attack and to turn an enemy's failed strike into good luck for yourself. When a creature makes an attack roll against you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on that roll. If the attack misses you, your next attack roll against the creature has advantage if you make it before the end of your next turn. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Thought Shield

Starting at 10th level, your thoughts can't be read by telepathy or other means unless you allow it. You also have resistance to psychic damage, and whenever a creature deals psychic damage to you, that creature takes the same amount of damage that you do.

Create Thrall

At 14th level, you gain the ability to infect a humanoid's mind with the alien magic of your patron. You can use your action to touch an incapacitated humanoid. That creature is then charmed by you until a Remove Curse spell is cast on it, the charmed condition is removed from it, or you use this feature again.