Talk:Warlock Patron - The Inescapable Void (5e Subclass)

Ok would love some constructive criticism on this one. I wanted to make a darkness themed warlock, but the more I worked with it the more it took on its own shape and feel. My initial question was along the lines of 'why would I be afraid of the dark?', and I remembered the fear of everything becoming ultimately meaningless and preyed upon by it.Gr7mm Bobb (talk) 14:38, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Entropy Well seems modeled off Abjuration Ward, so I'm puzzled as to why you're calculating it as 3x Warlock level rather than 2x. Is it because you've subtracted the ability to replenish it with spellcasting? That's misleading since you can recover it's capacity with damage AND that further increases the Warlock's damage output. Is it the reaction cost? That's plausible, but it still seems well ahead of Dark One’s Blessing. The damage bonus alone seems fairly unprecedented.

Hollow Presence is a fun and flavorful ribbon. I was concerned at first until I noticed the "real" feature is the "Projected Ward" effect granted by Entropy Well at 6th. Empty soul seems bland but that's not a fair assessment considering it predates not just the Gloom Stalker, but the Deep Stalker as well! I'd prefer it if you dropped the elemental resistance and punched up the stealth effects a bit. Vaegrim (talk) 18:45, 12 December 2017 (MST)

The original design for the entropy well was actually scaled like the paladins Lay on Hands ability (5/level) that only emptied at the end of a long rest. While it was full it provided the warlock with a small damage bump to his damage. When I reworked the whole patron some abilities moved to other levels and then the Well came under scrutiny. The goal was to provide defensive coverage that had the staying power of the Fiend warlock while providing a unique approach to this durability. From the beginning I knew that I did not want the class to have any other patron based damage boosters, and so that's what came out of this. In playtesting it has been pretty fun to watch both from an RP perspective and a mechanical one. I witnessed a character who, as a "full" caster, spent a lot of their time flirting with that boundary line between life and death with a calculated recklessness. By mechanics alone the player felt encouraged to flex the muscles of their patron, and by doing so serving it faithfully. This was very similar to watching a Fiend warlock make steady use of its 1st level feature. Thus the 5/level was chopped down to 3/level and the warlock was permitted to syphon off of this entropic well of power. I did make sure to limit the total output that can be done to cause the well to be able to fill faster than it would bleed off. The use of a reaction also seemed important and balancing, especially when the Fiend just 'does' its thing.

I feel pretty proud of Hollow Presence as that was actually the main mechanic behind the creation of the patron. As for Empty Soul, it is pretty bland and I have a couple of ideas for tweaking it to be a bit more gratifying. I can shift the resistances to be one or the other chosen at the end of a long rest. And I can potentially tack on other "hide from magic senses" shenanigans. Maybe even something as simple as converting the original Deep Stalker feat from 3.5 (Lords of Madness) into a 10th level feature. It pretty much renders the user immune to super senses like tremorsense, blindsight, web-sense, ect. But that may be too much "stealthiness". Maybe something save or check dependant?--Gr7mm Bobb (talk) 20:44, 12 December 2017 (MST)

Coming back to this after a long break, Entropy Well still seems like a problem. "Dave" is a 6th level Warlock of the Void with 18 Cha. His Entropy well can prevent 22 damage to anyone in 30ft, but more importantly his Eldritch Blast makes two attacks per round. If Dave negates about 12 damage per round as a reaction (roughly equivalent to Aura of Vitality), he can get +6 damage to both eldritch blasts and stay entropy neutral. You say this is intended as the only "patron based damage boosters", but most patrons don't have any way to increase the damage of Eldritch Blast. The Hexblade does under far more limited circumstances, with less damage, and is frequently decried as overpowered. Vaegrim (talk) 23:07, 12 February 2019 (MST)

Alright, I've made some changes to the original version of this archetype. I'll make some adjustments and we can talk about balance issues with new mechanics. Primary change made, maximum additional damage equal to up to class level. If this is still too much, I can limit it to 1/2 level or Cha mod (minimum 1). I am still uncertain of how to add more stealthiness to the patron that the class can't already do with spells and invocations. Do you have any suggestions?--Gr7mm Bobb (talk) 23:37, 28 February 2019 (MST)