I was in a game where Calm Emotions was cast to suppress the charm against PCs from a vampire. We had a party combination where no one had any other defense against it. Without that spell we would have been in trouble.
I remember one time I had to have a charm fight over our party member, that got hit by one such spell. "Come to me..." "NO, COME TO US, YOUR PARTY, WHO AREN'T TRYING TO EAT YOUR FACE OFF!!!" *A charm goes flying from the monster* "idk guys, this monster makes a compelling argument for why I should let it eat my face" *A charm goes flying from me* "Hm... on second thought, what if it hurts having my face eaten?" 😂
A similar situation for myself. Low level fight against a banshee, we all fail our save for fear. Calm emotions was the only thing between us and a tpk.
I think why its rarely seen cast is because you have to prepare it normally and its niche enough most people wont prepare it. But like many niche spells when you need it, its really damn awesome that you did have it prepared. That is kind of a perfect spot for bonus always known spells imo. You can pick your go to spell or two from each level with your normal known picks. But you want to broaden things out with your other spells to cover niche situations. Warlocks are well placed for this as they have a base level of damage they can knock out through core features, sadly not that well anymore with EB, but pact of the blade can really do some solid damage.
I am playing in an Aberration heavy Spelljammer campaign right now. Calm Emotions has consistently been on the lists for multiple spell casters. Fighting Neogi? Calm Emotions. Fighting Mindflayers? Calm Emotions. Fight whattheheckisthatstrange abomination? Calm emotions. It has been a pivotal spell more times then I can count.
Calm Emotions is one of my favorite spells as a bard. Used it to escape an encounter with a giant once. Had a campaign where people were being corrupted by chaos and Calm Emotions was how we learned that we were fighting corrupted people and not monsters. It returned them to their senses long enough to be saved. That's how my bard Ellashan met her future husband, the werewolf druid Arthas.
There was much writing done about this relationship. We had a post-campaign one shot where while 6 months pregnant, she used Wish to summon the phylacteries of a lich to her hand and destroyed them. It was the one and only time she cast Wish.
The giant in the first story isn't an eligible target for calm emotions. But I think it should be. Removing the Humanoid restriction makes this a much better spell.
All you really need to do is combine Celestial Warlock with Divine Soul Sorcerer and you are good to go. Not sure how well that will work with changes to spells in 2024, but in 2014, you toss out Spiritual Weapon so you can Eldritch Blast and bonus action attack and you have some good healing options.
@@bradleyhurley6755the only thing in this combo that changes is that Spiritual weapon is concentration, so you can’t hold a powerful AOE while you’re doing all that
Guys: Great Old One can subtle spell Enchantment and Illusion spells. Power Word Kill is an Enchantment spell. "I look at the BBEG, and he just falls dead." (assuming said BBEG is below 100hp) That's a missed opportunity to market the Great Old One😅
So...a fake fencer who was very good at _pretending_ to be a blademaster and convincing noble families to bring her on as a bodyguard (or "negotiator" or hero-for-hire) eventually has her luck run out and ends up in a situation where her lack of _actual_ skill with the sword may prove fatal -- when a bored archfey who has been idly watching from the shadows and has found her shenanigans _endlessly_ entertaining offers her a pact that would magically amplify her ability to BS into being physically usable in combat. And so she spends the campaign bamfing around the battlefield stabbing villains when she's not cheating more money out of the people who hired her to do the stabbing. I actually want to play this character now.
I agree w Kelly's take on the Celestial. You guys have talked numerous times about how a combat medic is a far better in D&D than a "full healer." This is why you have always scored other cleric options over the Life Domain. So, to have a battle medic, warlock is one of the best healers. Eldritch blast + healing word = Good!
FYI Agathys is the lowest layer of Carceri, the NE/CE outer plane. It's a frozen wasteland. Though the Nine Hells do have two frozen layers: Stygia and Cania.
@@CecilQuetzalcoatlit's occupied mostly by these funny guys called Demodands which are like other fiends except they're all slimy and you can put them in a bottle and throw em like a grenade. Also, carceri is basically one giant planar prison so the Demodands are both prisoners and wardens as they cannot leave the plane and so style themselves the enforcers of their own rule.
I played a feylock before and it very much is an A to S tier for me. The combo between blink and taunting step every turn while also using a concentration spell is absurd.
I don’t think you guys were entirely honest about the nature of healing in 5e. The most valuable healing is that which is inexpensive and gets a downed player up quickly without using up a turn. Celestial Warlock has that more than any other subclass or class in the game. Healing Word heals for more, but that doesn’t really matter when you’re just trying to get someone back above 0 HP. It’s actually a big problem the game has. There’s usually no reason to keep people above 50% or 30% HP. You just need to keep them above 0 and do it as cheap as possible.
A home rule would be that, for each time a character reaches 0 hit points after the 1st, they have 1 cumulative failed death saving throw, and this only goes away on a Long Rest. This would prevent many shenanigans
@@diegoperez-dq7qe Even easier, I just say dying adds a stack of Exhaustion. See how much your players care about not hitting 0 after that lol. The Fighter doesn’t want lower attack rolls so they’ll actually care about healing.
This is true, but turn order does matter. Players can lose turns while at zero if their turn comes up before the healer's. This type of healing is still an issue but there is at least one downside to it.
I would also add on that healing word still won't heal enough to stay up for another turn anyways. The extra 5 or so hit points you get from healing word doesn't matter when an enemy can do 20 damage in a turn. You'll get dropped again either way
With Radiant Soul and the new version of Agonising Blast, you could take it for Sacred Flame as a Celestial, and add your Cha mod twice in extra damage Even if you don't take Agonising Blast for any cantrips, this basically gives you it for free on one you get anyway, and a little bonus to at least several other spells you know
@@benk6713 You can take pact of the tome, choose firebolt as your warlock cantrips and add your cha twice. select find familiar as a pact of the tome spells summon it and let him help you on your attack. Assuming a 60% chance to hit you will get to a 84% with it. On a hit is an average of 2d10+10 dmg (21dmg on avg) from 5th to 8th and 3d10+10 (26 dmg on avg) at 11th. The dmg is comparable with EB since the chance to hit with all rays it's way lower than 84%. Sure True strike might have the best dmg otput but I like it the most for tematc reasons. I might like the idea of using a bow with true strike though..
I ran a one-shot recently with a player using a Celestial Pact Warlock. The Dudes are sleeping on its potential--I would call it an A tier class, albeit a low A.
Yeah, but putting an Agonizing Blast on Eldritch Blast kinda gets that ability anyway seeing as you fire multiple bolts. (+CHA per bolt) So at best that option is a side grade, and past lvl 11 Eldritch blast outpaces it again. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the option exists. But for an entire lvl 6 subclass feature being only kinda sorta as good as Eldritch blast (something any warlock can do for free) its kinda mediocre. Compared to +5 free castings of misty step as a reaction (that also turns you invisible) it's pretty underwhelming.
For celestials, after a fight if they still have spell slots and are about to take a short rest, they could dump their slots on cure wounds or whatever since they’ll get them all back anyway. That’s pretty good I think
@@bradleyhurley6755I guess it depends how the encounter goes and what your build is, IDEALLY if you use 1 good concentration spell for the whole encounter then sure, you have what’s left to heal before your next rest. That’s why the dudes give so much emphasis on resilient con or eldritch mind to help not having to recast hunger of hadar
@@allenbehreandt6844 I think that was my issue. There was one encounter per day, so it didn't really matter what I had left after the encounter. The real issue was having one spell slot to do something and the second spell slot in case things went downhill.
@@WanderingRagabond I would not allow it because Rage doesn't specify it can be ended by anything other than what it lists. Taking away someone's biggest class feature over a first level spell is not a good precedent to set, and "rage" doesn't even need to specifically be anger induced raging since I've had players roleplay it as an adrenaline rushed battle focus and there's nothing wrong with wanting to play a barbarian whose strength isn't proportional to how angry they are
@@ltcaphide Why not both? Let it slow down or affect all barbs while the ones that need all them raging chemicals to fight good get neturalized. It not like you cant change the vectors of the spell and game. 😂
I think you guys are sleeping on Cure Wounds on the Celestial Warlock. At level 9 they can do 10d8+5 healing in combat with Cure Wounds. They can combine that with up to 5d6 from their healing pool. That’s significant and will get people back into combat.
@@bradleyhurley6755 I think that the primary reason to play Celestial is to have access to healing and support spells. The Aid + Inspiring Leader combo is crazy good (I'd take that at level 4 and just ignore the level 10 feature), and then strong heals that come back on a short rest are fantastic. It might not be what you do all of the time, but when the moment comes up it's way more worthwhile than it used to be. A level 9 Cleric is going to feel pretty bad dropping a 5th level spell on a Cure Wounds even if it is potent, but if you can regen the slots on a short rest that's a lot more digestable. Hell, even for just burning a spell slot before a short rest to save hit die it's pretty nice.
@TheWanderersWit the one issue I have is that according to Sage Advice the DM determines when you have a short rest and I can see many DMs saying that you can't take a short rest immediately after waking up. So you may be playing down a spell slot that day. (I think it's fair to say most games only have 1-3 encounters per day and are lucky to get a short rest in)
@@bradleyhurley6755 Ideally that'd be session 0 stuff. I've not personally run into DM's who'd have a problem with that beyond maybe ocasionally interrupting our breakfast with an encounter. Most of the time cleaning up the camp site and eating is just hand waived, and I think it'd be funny for the Warlock to burn their slots buffing the group just so they don't have to tend to camp.
@@bradleyhurley6755 If your DM doesn't allow a short rest right after you wake, you could cast aid and use your spell slot recovery ability. Only takes a minute. At level 10 couples with the temp hp ability, you are increasing party hp by about 37% on a d8 hit die.
Some of the consensus online is that Radiant Soul can be triggered every turn now with spells like Divine Favor and Searing Smite, since they changed the wording of the feature from what it was in the original version. It makes the feature pretty strong that way.
@@Silverythoughts Yes, it's worded differently on purpose, so I think it's a correct interpretation. Especially when you compare it with a similar feature like the Draconic Sorcerer's.
With backwards compatibility this makes Gift of the Ever-Living Ones unbelievable powerful. ''oh don't mind me getting 80 hp from a 5th lvl cure wounds''
They did, but it almost doesn't matter. On average, 2d4 + 4 isn't going to keep you up any longer than 1d6. Monsters are going to do 2d6 + 4 damage to you on average if not a lot more.
@@bradleyhurley6755I don't know what campaign you are playing in that monsters do at least 2d6+4 at lvl. 1. If you aren't lvl. 1, then you can up cast the spell, now you can also use more than one of your d6's but the point is that the spells scale better than this ability now. Admitabaly, if you want to heal a chunk of hp to stay up through multiple hits cure wounds might be more appropriate, which is on Celestial Warlock's spell list, so the ability still replaces, the primary purpose of healing word.
18:18 not going to lie I'm disappointed they didn't buff this, at the very least give fire resistance to make it a B tier feature as having resistance to the most common and damaging elemental type would be handy, and honestly to boost it up, though this might be strong, Celestial warlocks should be able to change their spell damage to radiant when they caste spells, imagine how cool it be flinging holy fireballs at red dragons or Devils who are fire immune and watch them scream as they burn in holy fire. That be a cool feature.
There is a subtle buff there. The old celestial could add the damage only when they cast. Now it's once per turn, radiant OR fire. So wall of fire or jallarzi's storm of radiance. Couple with repelling blast and just keep knocking enemies into it.
You can also use true strike on a pact of the blade warlock to do radiant damage and add your CHA modifier multiple times in the same attack. There are some ways to use this feature
Calm Emotions is quite an important spell when in the Feywild. When your emotions can dictate your environment and the creatures around you using a spell to prevent negative effects, it is quite useful. Very fitting for the origin of the ability. There are also other practical uses to avoid hostile encounters. Just not the type of roleplay most groups want. Works well in a sandbox encounter where you can wander into danger that is beyond what you're prepared to deal with.
So I've got a Feylock in my campaign for 2024 rules, and he absolutely dominates. He's Pact of the Blade and he can dice people up and move around. Spell cast as needed. Use Charisma in social situations. He is elusive, deals great damage, great mobility, useful in social interactions. He is S-Tier as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks for the vid, guy! Good job as yoozsh. I love all things magic-user, and do agree with your rankings. I know, I know, you wanted my validation :D I wouldn't overly weigh player skill into this. If they are blah as a player or don't care as much, it won't matter that much anyway. If they're watching this video they probably either have enough skill to play enough of the ass-kicking trickeries, or they will have enough trickiness after listening to you guys. Kelly, you said you played next to a great old one warlock for 5 years so you didn't get as excited about it as they fey warlock; but really IMO the great old one is sooo much more after 2024 update (well all it's subclasses really) it doesn't seem fair you said that :p Both your top 2 builds for warlock you stated are really good though, and I pretty much concur.
The Celestial's Level 6 ability Radiant Soul could add Chr mod damage for a second time to an attack made with TrueStrike, couldn't it? It's a spell, it changes damage to Radiant at low levels and then adds Radiant damage beyond 5th level. So without even needing Pact of the Blade, if your Radiant Soul is making a weapon attack using Truestrike, and say your character has maxed out Charisma, that's +5 to hit, +10 damage from Charisma mod, +extra radiant damage depending on your level. That's pretty sweet. :D
Not only can it do that, it will work with spirit shroud too because radiant damage is an option. It'll also work with searing smite TWICE before the target even gets a save.
@@benk6713 Duuuuuude. That's f'ing great. :D I was also going to point out that if you're doing a Celestial Warlock as a Blaster, yeah you've got Guiding Bolt but I think the Dudes are correct in saying that's probably not the best use of your limited spell slots. But you do get Sacred Flame, and if you take Pact of the Tome you can also pick up Word of Radiance. Use Agonizing Blast on both and there are your two cantrips adding double Charisma mod to damage, one as a ranged saving throw, one as a close-in AoE. But seriously, that TrueStrike combo is awesome.
Going to multiclass into Feylock for the Glamour Bard, her bamfing out of danger whilst dropping debuffs on enemies and buffs on allies really feels like a vibe.
After tier 1, Archfey Gish does seem better than Feywanderer Ranger. So much teleportation + otherwind stride and 3 attacks, sounds pretty fun + EB for a ranged options.
A little surprised you didn't think about dipping barbarian for the fiendlock, set the armor spells, rage for additional resistances, and your tank build can skip armor.
Question about the Bewitching Magic ability for Fey Warlock and Steps of the Fey: Since neither ability uses a spell slot, can you Bonus Action Misty Step in, drop an Enchantment or Illusion spell, then immediately Misty Step away as part of the same action? It sounds like you could do that, since neither Misty Step is using a spell slot and aren't conflicting with your action economy. That means you can double teleport and cast a spell in one turn. That can be pretty shenanigans in of itself. =p
It's interesting imo to see how the warlock went from a beginner friendly spellcaster in 2014 to a bit more of an advanced player kind of class in 2024 from what I've been seeing
That's interesting because I don't think the difficulty has actually changed. If all you want to do is cast hex and eldritch blast it's still beginner friendly. But to get the most out of the class it's always had that challenge of putting together the perfect pizzle of spells feats and invocations. Honestly though they're great fun regardless
Another aspect of the Fiendlock that I like is that just, thematically it fits very well dragonborn and tieflings that can get resistances to very common damage types like poison and fire so on top of your fiendish resilience and any spells that give resistance you could be resisting like 4 super common damage types at a time during combat which will not be great in most circumstances because most monsters tend to do one type but in the instances of monsters that *can* do a variety of damage it'll make you super tanky for having a d8 hit dice, but if you really want to be safe you can use fiendish resilience on psychic and take one level of barbarian since your best buffs are going to be non-concentration anyway, it does limit your spell slots to smite slots but I could definitely see this being a fun way to play the game
True Strike works with Radiant Soul. Agonizing Blast allows to add your Cha modifier to a Warlock Cantrip (and True Strike is one). So you can do a single hit pact of the blade build. More importantly you could use ranged weapons or even thrown ones. In a Oneshot I did a Goliath Celestial Warlock throwing glowing Javelins with 2d6+12 Radiant damage on hit.
One of my favorite characters was my GOO Pact of the Tomb Warlock. So many options and that part about causing absolute carnage at the table with Mask of Many Faces and Actor.
DM: The lone survivor is too panicked/frightened to speak with the party about the monster. Cast Calm Emotions DM: An angry crowd with torches and pitchforks is heading your way. Cast Calm Emotions
21:22 Yeah I remember when they said the dream druid's bonus action healing wasn't that great way back then even though it was a 1d6 and you can still use a spell afterwards. I used this to revive a fallen ally then delete a bunch of minions with Tidal wave on the same turn.
Celestial Warlock with True Strike, Radiant Soul, and Agonizing Blast adds your CHA modifier 3 times to the damage. So a you get weapon damage, True Strike extra d6s based on level, 3*CHA.
@@DeadmanwalkingXI I'm not sure that's actually true in the 2024 rules. Let's look at Eldritch Blast vs True Strike. Levels 1-4: Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast. +3 Chr mod for levels 1-3 and a +4 at level 4. That's +5/6 to hit, 1d10+3/4 Force damage. Average 8 or 9 damage. True Strike with Agonizing Blast. +3 Chr mod, +4 at level 4. That's +5/6 to hit, for weapon, let's say 1d8 for a 2 handed Spear +6/8 (using Charisma mod for attack and damage, then adding Chr mod again for Agonizing Blast). Average 10 or 12 damage. (if you also take Pact of the Blade you could do a Greatsword for 2d6 damage, or a Greataxe for 1d12 damage) At level 5 you get another beam of Eldritch Blast and extra damage from TrueStrike. EB: 2 attacks at +7 to hit, 1d10+4 Force Damage, Average 9 damage. If you hit with both that's 2d10+8 damage, or average 18 damage. TS: 1 attack at +7 to hit, 1d8+8 + 1d6. Average damage 15. At level 6 True Strike gets to use Radiant Soul. TS: 1 attack at +7 to hit, 1d8+12 +1d6. Average damage 19. At level 11 EB gets another beam, TS does more bonus damage. Lets say tha both have Maxed CHR. EB: 3 attacks at +8 to hit, 1d10+5 damage. Average 10 damage. If you hit with all three beams that's 30 damage. TS: 1 attack at +8 to hit, 1d8+15 damage +2d6 radiant. Average 25 damage. At level 17, EB gets another beam, TS does more bonus damage. EB: 4 attacks at +11 to hit. 1d10+5 damage. If you hit with all four beams that's 40 damage. TS: 1 attack at +11 to hit. 1d8+15 damage +3d6 radiant. Average 28 damage. So yeah, at level 17 and up, EB with Agonizing Blast is better. Up to level 17, they're pretty comparable. Note: I didn't do the Pact of the Blade invocations to add extra attacks because TS won't work with multiple attacks and Radiant Soul only adds Chr mod once per round.
@@EvilGeniusPrime I mean, Eldritch Blast pulls ahead at 11th you list that right there, which is a lot earlier and more relevant than 17th...it's only modestly ahead at that level, but it is ahead. But actually, at least at lower levels, there's a reason I specified 'or Pact of the Blade'. It wasn't my point that Eldritch Blast alone was better, but that it wasn't the best option at any level after about level 4. At 5th level, with Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade, and, say, Great Weapon Mastery, you can be attacking for 2d6+6 or 7 twice per turn, for a net of 4d6+12 or 14 to the True Strike's 3d6+12 at most (at the same to-hit bonus). That obviously only becomes more true at 12th when you get Devouring Blade. Basically, as soon as you get Extra Attack, you're always gonna be better off actually behaving as a martial in terms of your attacks than going all-in on the True Strike thing. So True Strike is very good at levels 1-4 (by any measure) and a tad better than Eldritch Blast at levels 6-10, it's true, but at level 5+ you're always gonna be better off if going Pact of the Blade and actual martial stuff.
@@DeadmanwalkingXI I think that's a fair point. Multiple attacks with the Pact of the Blade progression is powerful, especially when you are adding martial feats like Great Weapon Master. I think though, that the difference between EB and TS for the Celestial is small enough that you could do either play style and not feel underpowered, you know? Like, yes, EB could have done 5 more damage at 11th level, on average, but is that so much that you would feel like you were playing warlock 'wrong' by going with the True Strike build? IMO, it's close enough that I wouldn't register a difference. But there is a bigger difference between EB/TS and Devouring Blade's 3 attacks per round, using a big weapon, using something like Great Weapon master. Maybe not enough of a difference that you're playing 'wrong' if you don't do Pact of the Blade, but enough of a difference to be noticable.
@@EvilGeniusPrime Yeah, pretty much. It's a perfectly decent build and I'm not saying otherwise, just noting that it's not an optimal one. An important thing to note when talking about something like 'adds Charisma three times to damage'.
Speaking on the celestial warlock, the thing I like about celestial warlocks is that your patron isn’t necessarily inherently evil. I enjoy it a little more for the role-play perspective. I feel like every table I see a warlock, their patron is this otherworldly horrifying demon that wants to consume the players’ soul as a measure of their pact. I always thought, couldn’t you have a symbiotic relationship with your patron where you don’t have to be their next meal? I feel like I can roleplay the celestial the closest to that.
28:30 this point made me realise maybe taking a 1 level dip in warlock as a Druid, upcasting armour of Agathys, and having all that temp hp as a wild shape. Could be crazy
Another neat synergy with Psychic Casting of the GOO warlock is that Mask of Many Faces allows you to cast Disguise Self at will. So now you can cast the spell constantly and almost instantly without any gestures or verbal casting. One moment someone could be talking to a sweet old lady and the next she’s gone and a lost child stands in her place. If anyone takes their attention off of you for even a moment, you could be someone entirely different. A similar synergy with One with the Shadows and Invisibility. No gestures or voice required, you just seemingly and eerily meld into every shadow you step in (as long as you aren’t concentrating on anything).
Goolock is full of some crazy synergistic stuff if you're creative. I think the silliest thing I thought of was that Synaptic Static requires no material components and is an enchantment, so you could literally be in a crowd of people, synaptic static a group of enemies in front of you, and no one would know it was you or even where the psychic fireball came from as you walked away. And you can do similar things with Dissonant Whispers, Hideous Laughter, and about a dozen other spells (like the aforementioned mind sliver). I think Field warlocks are worthy of an A tier spot though. They're a bit generic yeah, but they have a lot of iconic flavor going for them and realistically their ability to bring bigger AOE damage than other warlocks really helps them stand out as good combat options for me. Plus I think Dark One's Own Luck is mostly "I use this and practically auto-save on the BBEG's spell" rather than making sure standard attacks hit, so realistically I think the class is a lot more resilient than it looks (and it already looks good). Also, if I'm understanding correctly you can apply the new agonizing blast to sacred flame (or any cantrip with damage), which means celestial warlocks can potentially be hitting for 1d8 + CHA on a DEX save regardless of cover. EB is probably still better overall, but it's definitely funny.
Imo the only thing that the Celestial needs is the ability to transmute damage from warlock spells into radiant spells. Then, they could excel not only as a healer but as a blaster, and their level 6 ability wouldnt just be a trap. Plus it makes reflavoring the dark, edgy warlock spells a little easier.
Their level 6 ability isn't a trap. The wording was changed from the Xanathar's version. In Xanathar's you got the damage boost only when you cast the spell, and only against one target. Now it's once *per turn*. So a concentration spell that does radiant or fire damage on enemy's turns can keep getting that damage boost. They have 3 that I'm aware of: Wall of Fire, Guardian of Faith, and Jallarzi's storm of radiance. Storm of radiance is particularly potent in my opinion because--in addition to the damage--it blinds and deafens creatures within it and they can't cast spells with verbal components. Repelling blast can just keep pushing them back in, and your party can do the same with push weapon mastery or spells and abilities that force movement. And each turn they get shoved in, they take damage.
My Devotion Paladin found, in Barovia, his mother's locket and, on attuning to it, found it could cast Calm Emotions. It was so lovely as a gesture. I don't know if I ever used it. He had it for the whole two year campaign.
Seeing the Dungeon Dudes outside outside their office is a nice change! That was a fun Sponsor! And it looks so good! It's a bit far away for me from Europe but maybe one day, I may be able to go there :)
I actually feel like Archfey still has a little bit of social shenanigannery. Calm Emotions means you can settle bar fights or quarreling lovers long enough to perhaps dissuade, reinforce, or redirect their actions via Persuasion checks, as a way to get npc’s to do something to calm down like lie down or breathe deeply for a conversation reset. Openly offer your service as a counselor, climb the social ladder by helping people in their daily anxieties, and prevent or minimize confrontations throughout the city. Additionally, Plant Growth as a Ritual means you supply the people you are consoling with a bountiful harvest, which means farmers can focus on other things, nobles can enjoy luxurious gardens, and diplomacy with the wilder folk is a breeze. Caring for the bodies and minds of the people is a fast way to gain trust, and then you have the backing of others. It’s similar to a Druid Awakening a whole forest, so that when the bbeg tries to invade the squirrels have moose-mounted acorn cannons, very funny. But with the Archfey Warlock Duchess, the Mother of her City, an entire countryside can rise up to defend their lady in her time of need, and she by their side if deemed necessary, with trebuchets and cavalries and spies and more. Her actions can be seen as constructive caring and even holy in the eyes of the holy ones for the service done for the people at all times. The archfey warlock’s social potential is massive. Use Calm Emotions to secure allies by preventing domestic harm throughout the realm.
Targeting Con saving throws also affects enemy concentration checks so great against enemy spellcasters and you can blast them multipls times with eldritch blast for multiple disadvantaged saving throws
Warlocks has so much back story and roleplay potential. I'm really enjoying the class and learning how to play a magic user in D&D. My fiendlock uses pact of the tome to get help fill the swiss army knife of the party. I may not do as much raw damage, but so many times I have casted counterspell or hold person to lock down an enemy. I love hearing what other people are playing with the class, they all sound so fun.
I've been kicking around an idea for a fiendlock similar to what you're talking about in there for sometime. At the end, you mention a fighter dip, but really, I feel the pick is barbarian. The changes to AoA make it a bit spicy in that you can recharge the shield with your dark one's blessing. AoA does not use concentration, so you can use it while raging, to get resistance to mitigate how quickly your THP drop off. You'll get medium armor to help with the AC problem. While you can't cast a spell while raging, you can expend spellslots using eldritch smite. Since you're not casting spells in combat, you can just dump charisma, and for spell picks take out of combat utility stuff, while picking up weapon feats to support blade pact. The biggest problem is both AoA and rage eating a bonus action, so finding a time/place to precast AoA with it's 1 hour duration is going to be the struggle. With the celestial, in a jam you'd be able to Cure Wounds at range with an Imp from chain pact for a pretty chunky heal if it's absolutely necessary above and beyond healing light.
Great Old One was the first character I played when I started BG3, and I loved it even though it felt weak at times. I'm just so happy that its really good now (even though it can't get Dominate Person anymore)
I got Sebastien Crowe's Guide To Everything book for Christmas and it's beautiful! I've always loved illustrated coffee book style books and this has so much added lore and history to Drakkenheim, the art is incredible, the added spells are super fun...the apothecary is INSANE and I'm making homebrew apothecary builds in DnD Beyond now. Drakkenheim is truly one of the great franchises of all time, thank you Dungeon Dudes for producing consistently amazing content!!
I’ve started using a Celestial bladelock in AL, and it’s a lot of fun. The key is starting with one level in paladin for weapon mastery and the concentration free spell Divine Favor. (Use & make scrolls for that and the shield spell) The radiant dmg from pact of the blade plus divine favor procs the extra damage all the time. You can do just about anything, scout with a pact of the chain familiar, frontline or ranged combat, be a party face with high charisma, buff and heal party members… It’s a very strong build that doesn’t even need eldrich blast. Seems like you could be just about whatever a party might need, besides some rogue stuff.
One thing thats super admirable about the dungeon dude is their mastery of a ‘yes and’ style of conversation, especially with these kind of topics. Rarely do you ever see one directly oppose the other, rather they’ll go with “yes, youre right, and heres my interpretation of that”. Such great and humble people
Adding to the Calm Emotions chorus here: mostly just-ok-to-poor BUT my cleric once used it to prevent our team from getting charmed or frightened during a beholder fight and it saved our lives
in all the other tier rankings you haven't compared them to other classes, but in watching your celestial warlock one, you just compare this to other classes. Celestial is A+ for sure, you guys didn't talk about their EB + bonus action flaming sphere, which is massive damage, and the warlock can basically pickup downed characters when they need it via healing light. The celestial gives the fiend pact a run for their money in damage alone, even discounting their healing. Similar to your last warlock video, i think you guys are biased against warlocks, in particular warlocks that are not hexblade. With only 2 spell slots available, the warlock needs spells that last, hence why the permanence of flaming sphere is arguably better than fireball for a warlock over the time of a battle
When talking about a burst of needed healing it felt like they forgot the Celestial Warlock can cast Cure Wounds. Getting that back on short rest means any battle you can escape from for an hour is a battle you can outlast.
@ since Ive mained as a celestial warlock for the past 3 years, I can confidently say that you are wrong. The celestial comes from xanathars guide to everything. Its expanded spell list has flaming sphere. Why don’t you research before erroneously rebutting me
@@HenshinFanatic i didn't notice that this was cut from the 2024 celestial.. in favour of Aid by the looks of it. What a poor move by WOTC. That said, the Dungeon Dudes didn't even recognise the combo or the utility when they were ranking the 2017 (xanathars) celestial warlock and ranked it poorly in their old video as well. But I will concede that the 2024 celestial is quite a bit sh*tter in the damage dealing stakes than the 2017 version with this change.
For me, Celestial Warlock is the better Paladin. Eldritch Smite beats Divine Smite these days, and getting downed people up with from 60 feet is pretty good. All in all, the Celestial has a really strong packet.
Its pretty good, but paladins are bringing a LOT to the table: Searing Smite does a minimum of 2d6 per spell level, with an extra d6 damage per failed constitution save, the paladin bonus to saves is amazing. That said, they multiclass well. A devotion paladin/celestial bladelock can add 2x their charisma to hit, and the searing smite can add the charisma bonus to damage once per turn-- So twice, minimum. Both are great on their own, and they're great together.
Tactically a tank support is always better than a blaster support. It resists better in case he gets focused by the enemy, can safely get closer to his focus targets (help or debuff, w/e), and most of all if you have to either dmg or heal it is a tough choice, doesnt matter what you do it feels you are giving up on something. A tank support is not giving up anything by supporting, since he can tactically position to fullfil BOTH roles most of the times. A good example of it is Way of Mercy monk, who can heal WITHOUT giving up his attack action. This warlock can not.
In my game, the life cleric has cast Calm Emotions so many times its become a running gag that its his omnitool. It has somehow come up constantly. We've really run it into the ground really.
I can see the goolock as a jedi/sith build with pact of the blade a your lightsaber, enchantment, and illusion spells as your jedi mind tricks, repelling blast as a force push, jump invocation for the Yoda acrobatics, witch bolt for force lightning, telekinesis for force choke and so on. Also, a goolock at 19th level with the boon of the night and the shadow of moil spell up has resistance to all damage and can gain the invisible condition as a bouse action.
Calm emotions is such a great spell. It can end quite a few combats with "neutral" enemies before they begin. And it is great in social encounters too, whenever you piss someone off you have a second chance.
About the celestial patron Warlock.. Cure wounds scales pretty well now it's not such a bad Idea using a spell slot at maximum level to heal up a party memeber. At 5th level its 6d8+4 ( 31 hp), at 7th 8d8+4 ( 40 hp), at 9th 10d8+5 or 50 hp back. Coming back with a short rest. Plus Aid maxed out, a free inspiring leader with celestial resistence. Level +1 number castings of spell-slot-free healing word. I don't think a paladin can dish out that much healing. You can revive a party member with a BA at range and cast a spell in the same turn. Or healing while keep blasting with radiant dmg cantrip (true strike for example..) buffed by both Radiant soul and Agonizing blast for a +10 dmg on damage (+15 with truestrike). Does not look that bad to me.
And since it is not a splell slot casting you can revive a party members within 60 ft with a BA and cast another leveled spell in the same turn. At 9th level you can do it 10 without spending any spell slot. Plus your normal healing, Temp hp at SR.. At 5th lvl cure wounds heals on average 50hp. Coming back in a short rest. It's not over. Because of you, at 9th level your party gets 20hp more for Aid, and 10ish other temp HP because of Celestial Resistance. Your party members will start the next combat with 30hp more..each. Not bad as a healer. Someone petrified? Greater restoration coming back in a shor rest. Someone dropped? I am using one of my 10ish healings dice to take him up, back into battle. Oh and I cast wall of fire in the same turn.. or Summon Celestial or.. I don't know? Invisibility..? Dimension door ? oh well let's just cast a cantrip in which I can add my carisma twice as a bonus damage with agoninzing balst piled on top of Celestial Radiance. Did I missed someone ? Revivify.. finished spell slots? Give me an hour.. or a minute.. and I ll cast revivify. I mean.. doesn't look so bad to me.
Have the cleric concentrate on beacon of hope and a 5th lvl spell slot will give back 80 hp and prayer of healing gives a short rest you have a few slots that you can burn.
@@JugglingAddict 85 assuming a +5 in Cha / Wis.. 15 more than the 6th lvl spell Heal. A Cleric and a Celestial warlock in combo could be pretty damm close to write off PC death in combat. And they could fit together perfectly in a party too tematically. Niether of them would be too shy of dishing out damage too. I mean I like the idea, I don't see them as competing but more as synergic.
@@Ali40L Yep that's my interpretation of them too. I didn't want to have to do too much math so I went conservative. Taking Gift of the ever-living ones keeps you longer in play and you have a little cast touch-spell-at-range friend flying around.
@@JugglingAddict Yeha with pact of the tome or chain.. pact of the protector.. nice. And I forgot about Gift of the ever living one. Damm.. It's getting harder and harder to kill a PC here. Just saying.. I mean let's just imagine we add a barbarian (any subclass) with the Celestial Warlock and the cleric (any subclass). I mean.. it's going to be tricky to put him down for good.. And in the meantime you can do all the warlock shananingns you want. Summon an Aberration, an Undead or a Demon? Why not? Don't like casting firebolt or true strike with +10 and +15 to dmg? Prefer the classic Hex plus eldritch blast? sure go for it. Banishment, dimension door, synaptic static, Fly, Fear.. Hunger of hadar or darkness plus Repelling blast and devil sight? hell yeah.. At the end of the day you still are the freak of the party, you still are a warlock.
I have been thinking a lot about an archfey and fey wanderer multiclass build. Like they are a fey wanderer who ends up making a pact with a powerful fey lord they encounter. The adding wisdom to charisma skills, so you add your chisma and wisdom, along with an expertise seems like you can make a really cool party face.
Made an encounter with some enemies who had a sort of stacking rage ability where they got more and more powerful as they got angrier. Cleric cast calm emotions and crushed the encounter, pretty great
Fiend Patron combined with Boon of the Night Spirit can be extremely powerful when combined with Armor of Agathys and Fire Shield. You gain resistance to nearly damage type except Psychic OR Radiant while in dim light or darkness (doesn't matter if the creature has darkvision, truesight, etc). If you take Aasimar you'll get a redundant resistance to necrotic but also you'll get resistance to Radiant, which means you can take Psychic resistance through Fiendish Resilience and have resistance to EVERY SINGLE DAMAGE TYPE at once. Once you have 3 spell slots you can cast AoA, FS, and in combat cast Darkness if needed or save the slot for Eldritch Smite (6d8 damage) or Hex (1d8 per hit). Still works if you take Fighter or Paladin 1 as well for Heavy Armor Training. A build of Aasimar, Merchant (+2 Cha, +1 Con), 13 Str, 15 Con, 15 Cha, 12 Dex or Wis, Fighter 1/Warlock 19 (Fiend Patron), War Caster +1 Cha (5), ASI +2 Cha (9), GWM (13), HAM +1 Str (17), BNS +1 Cha (20) and Mystic Arcanum Foresight; will give you at level 20 (Assuming No Magic Items and Correct Invocations): 15 Str, 16 Con, 12 Dex or Wis, 21 Cha, 205 HP, Plate Armor (AC 18), Greatsword (+11 to hit, 2d6+11 damage), Advantage on every d20 test, Disadvantage on every attack roll against you, 25 Cold + 2d8 Cold or Fire damage to every enemy that hits you with a melee attack, Resistance to every damage type, and leaves you Concentration Free to cast Darkness, Hex, Hold Monster, Advantage on Concentration Saves, 30 ft Truesight, MI (Wizard) for Shield, Heavenly Wings for a Fly Speed, and 24 restoring temp hp from Dark One's Blessing to top up AoA.
If you allow pre-2024 content then slapping agonizing blast and repelling blast on either booming blade or green-flame blade works really well for any of the subclasses given that agonizing blast would add to both the primary and secondary damage from them and repelling blast hugely increases your odds of triggering the secondary damage. Starting with a one level fighter dip to fix your AC, get your con save proficiency, and give you weapon mastery on a war hammer for the push property works really well with this. I have a player playing an archfey warlock who is using the booming blade option in a game I am running and he is having a great time bamfing around the battlefield and then picking off enemies by knocking them back out of melee reach of anyone and thus forcing them to either use ranged attacks (if they have any) or trigger the secondary booming blade damage. If I get a chance I think I would like to try a celestial warlock and do this with green-flame blade. Even with the celestial warlock boost to the fire damage I don't think it would be as good as the booming blade option but I just think it would be a fun tactical exercise to pinball enemies into each other so that I could trigger the secondary fire damage.
Last year, I was running a campaign where the party was in the 100 acre woods and facing an enraged Kanga searching for Roo. The bard cast Calm Enotions and turned a combat encounter into a Social one with one spell!
I like the thought of a Celestial Warlock and Divine Soul Sorcerer multiclass sorlock as a Battle Medic. It has the feel of the 3.5 edition prestige class of Radiant Servant of Pelor
Calm Emotions saved my party on the regular in Icewind Dale, and any time there are charm effects or mind games on the party really. I suppose it depends on the DM how often that comes up. Definitely niche, but when you need it you *need* it.
27:08 That is a fascinating exploit that I had never considered. It is dangerous in that the spell ends if you ever run out of temp hp, but honestly that fits the flavour pretty well for a Fiend warlock to keep killing enemies or risk their spell ending. (also it doesn't work with the 2014 version, only the 2024 version)
One thing I noticed for the Celestial Warlock, the Invisibility spell ends if you make and attack roll, cast a spell, or deals damage however the Celestial warlocks healing light is not a spell and doesn't deal damage so you can theoretically sneak around the battlefield while invisible and healing your allies.
I'm actually playing a phoenix sorcerer in the way you described that jank fiend build. Armour of Agathys transmuted to fire and fire blade. Gotta say, it's more effective than I would have thought, is casting scorching ray better on a per round damage basis? Yeah absolutely, but being a fiery porcupine with an extremely damaging sword is really fun and also a good way to confound your enemies if they're mostly melee. (For anyone not in the know, phoenix sorcerers are a ua subclass that has an ability called mantle of flame, any time you get hit, the enemy takes fire damage equal to cha modifer, any time you deal damage with a fire spell, the enemy takes damage equal to your cha modifer, so it can scale very quickly especially when I get fire shield.)
I ended up designing a fiend bladelock character this week as a backup character for a campaign I am in. It really felt like you need that level of fighter to get better armor and weapon masteries, but given you can summon basically any melee weapon with pact of the blade, you can pick some good masteries and use what is needed.
Your wounds with the new updated healing on a warlock is absolutely amazing, especially late game when you can only use half your hit dice, what you guys commonly do wrong in your live play, to heal up your friends with whatever spell slots you had left before a short rest.
I've cast calm emotions, and more importantly, I've carried it in my back pocket while pulling off some daring, cinematic, split the party infiltrations that I wouldn't have had the confidence to try otherwise.
My sorcerer used Calm Emotions to save our whole party when we kept rolling like shit against a ghost's fear effect (and possible losing of decades of life!) I wish I'd realized I could use it way earlier in that fight, tbh.
I’m playing in a game as a Warlock-esque homebrew class made by these two dudes on UA-cam who gets Cure Wounds with the new healing spells. 5th level spell slot to heal someone for 10d8 + 4 or 5 is really good! Last time I cast it, it healed the other PC for 62!
Alright kelly, think about this. I was also making a Magik build with feind pact warlock, but with 3 levels of barbarian for Wildheart or Berserker. Armor of Agathis doesn't go away when you rage, Eldritch Smite isnt a spell so can be used while ragiing, and you just get resistance to buldening, pericing, and slashing just for raging, not to mention medium armor proficiency. It just sound so fun! This is gonna be the next character I play, maybe itll be yours too!
@@adambielen8996 Well yes, but actually no. Yes, teleportation is extremely important for Magik, but Archfey only gives you free castings of misty step, which you cant use while raging. That, and i think Fiend has it beat on flavor. Im just gonna hope my DM can cook up a magic item that allows for teleportation
I was in a game where Calm Emotions was cast to suppress the charm against PCs from a vampire. We had a party combination where no one had any other defense against it. Without that spell we would have been in trouble.
I remember one time I had to have a charm fight over our party member, that got hit by one such spell.
"Come to me..."
"NO, COME TO US, YOUR PARTY, WHO AREN'T TRYING TO EAT YOUR FACE OFF!!!"
*A charm goes flying from the monster*
"idk guys, this monster makes a compelling argument for why I should let it eat my face"
*A charm goes flying from me*
"Hm... on second thought, what if it hurts having my face eaten?"
😂
Back in 3E, I saw someone cast it to make an enemy Barbarian stop raging.
A similar situation for myself. Low level fight against a banshee, we all fail our save for fear. Calm emotions was the only thing between us and a tpk.
I think why its rarely seen cast is because you have to prepare it normally and its niche enough most people wont prepare it. But like many niche spells when you need it, its really damn awesome that you did have it prepared. That is kind of a perfect spot for bonus always known spells imo. You can pick your go to spell or two from each level with your normal known picks. But you want to broaden things out with your other spells to cover niche situations. Warlocks are well placed for this as they have a base level of damage they can knock out through core features, sadly not that well anymore with EB, but pact of the blade can really do some solid damage.
I am playing in an Aberration heavy Spelljammer campaign right now. Calm Emotions has consistently been on the lists for multiple spell casters. Fighting Neogi? Calm Emotions. Fighting Mindflayers? Calm Emotions. Fight whattheheckisthatstrange abomination? Calm emotions. It has been a pivotal spell more times then I can count.
Calm Emotions is one of my favorite spells as a bard. Used it to escape an encounter with a giant once.
Had a campaign where people were being corrupted by chaos and Calm Emotions was how we learned that we were fighting corrupted people and not monsters. It returned them to their senses long enough to be saved.
That's how my bard Ellashan met her future husband, the werewolf druid Arthas.
"Thats how my Bard Ellashan met her future Husband, the Werewolf Druid Arthas." Why do I feel I must write the novel seeded by your sentence?
There was much writing done about this relationship.
We had a post-campaign one shot where while 6 months pregnant, she used Wish to summon the phylacteries of a lich to her hand and destroyed them. It was the one and only time she cast Wish.
The giant in the first story isn't an eligible target for calm emotions.
But I think it should be. Removing the Humanoid restriction makes this a much better spell.
@broomemike1 Oh fair. Didn't catch that and neither did the DM. 😂
Celestial warlock is basically a combat medic where a cleric is a physician is what I'm getting here
All you really need to do is combine Celestial Warlock with Divine Soul Sorcerer and you are good to go. Not sure how well that will work with changes to spells in 2024, but in 2014, you toss out Spiritual Weapon so you can Eldritch Blast and bonus action attack and you have some good healing options.
A doctor cures people while a medic makes them more comfortable while they die
@@bradleyhurley6755the only thing in this combo that changes is that Spiritual weapon is concentration, so you can’t hold a powerful AOE while you’re doing all that
Guys:
Great Old One can subtle spell Enchantment and Illusion spells.
Power Word Kill is an Enchantment spell.
"I look at the BBEG, and he just falls dead."
(assuming said BBEG is below 100hp)
That's a missed opportunity to market the Great Old One😅
this
What lvl you need to do this?
Everything over 12 lvl is close to be irrelevant
@@wiglaff around t3-t4 iirc
The deadpan "I am the unicorn prince" really got me 😂😂😂😂
So...a fake fencer who was very good at _pretending_ to be a blademaster and convincing noble families to bring her on as a bodyguard (or "negotiator" or hero-for-hire) eventually has her luck run out and ends up in a situation where her lack of _actual_ skill with the sword may prove fatal -- when a bored archfey who has been idly watching from the shadows and has found her shenanigans _endlessly_ entertaining offers her a pact that would magically amplify her ability to BS into being physically usable in combat.
And so she spends the campaign bamfing around the battlefield stabbing villains when she's not cheating more money out of the people who hired her to do the stabbing.
I actually want to play this character now.
Now I do to wtf nice work my dude 👍
I would LOVE to have this in a campaign. Sounds so much fun for a DM to come up with scenarios.
Dark One's Own Luck is fantastic for saving throws, which I think has been completely overlooked.
Calm emotions is great for making a peaceful escape when you've angered a large pub full of NPCs you'd rather not murder.
but that's not a warlock spell
But calm emotions is not a Warlock spell
@@xcar0982Archfey warlocks have this spell always prepared.
I agree w Kelly's take on the Celestial. You guys have talked numerous times about how a combat medic is a far better in D&D than a "full healer." This is why you have always scored other cleric options over the Life Domain. So, to have a battle medic, warlock is one of the best healers. Eldritch blast + healing word = Good!
FYI Agathys is the lowest layer of Carceri, the NE/CE outer plane. It's a frozen wasteland. Though the Nine Hells do have two frozen layers: Stygia and Cania.
If it's neutral and chaotic is it occupied by both demons and aboleths?
@@CecilQuetzalcoatlit's occupied mostly by these funny guys called Demodands which are like other fiends except they're all slimy and you can put them in a bottle and throw em like a grenade.
Also, carceri is basically one giant planar prison so the Demodands are both prisoners and wardens as they cannot leave the plane and so style themselves the enforcers of their own rule.
@@CecilQuetzalcoatlYugoloths
@off6848 of course. My bad, that's what I meant. I don't know why but I always call yugoloths aboleths
I played a feylock before and it very much is an A to S tier for me.
The combo between blink and taunting step every turn while also using a concentration spell is absurd.
I wanna play it but start as a fighter with 14 is str so i can bump it up to a 15 with GWM and weapon masteries. Then go the rest warlick.
I'm going to miss fey presence, but the teleportation abilities of the new archfey warlock are definitely very cool.
If you got Eladrin you get more Misty steps and more rider effects like charming or frightening foes
I don’t think you guys were entirely honest about the nature of healing in 5e.
The most valuable healing is that which is inexpensive and gets a downed player up quickly without using up a turn.
Celestial Warlock has that more than any other subclass or class in the game.
Healing Word heals for more, but that doesn’t really matter when you’re just trying to get someone back above 0 HP.
It’s actually a big problem the game has. There’s usually no reason to keep people above 50% or 30% HP. You just need to keep them above 0 and do it as cheap as possible.
A home rule would be that, for each time a character reaches 0 hit points after the 1st, they have 1 cumulative failed death saving throw, and this only goes away on a Long Rest. This would prevent many shenanigans
they touched on that with a 5 foot stick despite it being something theyve talked about before and then settled on it being a B anyways somehow lol
@@diegoperez-dq7qe Even easier, I just say dying adds a stack of Exhaustion. See how much your players care about not hitting 0 after that lol. The Fighter doesn’t want lower attack rolls so they’ll actually care about healing.
This is true, but turn order does matter. Players can lose turns while at zero if their turn comes up before the healer's. This type of healing is still an issue but there is at least one downside to it.
I would also add on that healing word still won't heal enough to stay up for another turn anyways. The extra 5 or so hit points you get from healing word doesn't matter when an enemy can do 20 damage in a turn. You'll get dropped again either way
I was definitely most excited for the new Great Old One Warlock, and the Archfey looks rather fun, so your rankings all make sense to me.
With Radiant Soul and the new version of Agonising Blast, you could take it for Sacred Flame as a Celestial, and add your Cha mod twice in extra damage
Even if you don't take Agonising Blast for any cantrips, this basically gives you it for free on one you get anyway, and a little bonus to at least several other spells you know
You can add it to True Strike and get 3 times your CHA mod
@@benk6713 You can take pact of the tome, choose firebolt as your warlock cantrips and add your cha twice. select find familiar as a pact of the tome spells summon it and let him help you on your attack. Assuming a 60% chance to hit you will get to a 84% with it. On a hit is an average of 2d10+10 dmg (21dmg on avg) from 5th to 8th and 3d10+10 (26 dmg on avg) at 11th. The dmg is comparable with EB since the chance to hit with all rays it's way lower than 84%. Sure True strike might have the best dmg otput but I like it the most for tematc reasons. I might like the idea of using a bow with true strike though..
@@benk6713True that
I love what they've done to True Strike
I ran a one-shot recently with a player using a Celestial Pact Warlock. The Dudes are sleeping on its potential--I would call it an A tier class, albeit a low A.
Yeah, but putting an Agonizing Blast on Eldritch Blast kinda gets that ability anyway seeing as you fire multiple bolts. (+CHA per bolt)
So at best that option is a side grade, and past lvl 11 Eldritch blast outpaces it again. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the option exists. But for an entire lvl 6 subclass feature being only kinda sorta as good as Eldritch blast (something any warlock can do for free) its kinda mediocre.
Compared to +5 free castings of misty step as a reaction (that also turns you invisible) it's pretty underwhelming.
For celestials, after a fight if they still have spell slots and are about to take a short rest, they could dump their slots on cure wounds or whatever since they’ll get them all back anyway. That’s pretty good I think
Is there a warlock who has spells left? I know in playing one, I was always in need of more spell slots. (Mostly cause there were few short rests)
@@bradleyhurley6755I guess it depends how the encounter goes and what your build is, IDEALLY if you use 1 good concentration spell for the whole encounter then sure, you have what’s left to heal before your next rest. That’s why the dudes give so much emphasis on resilient con or eldritch mind to help not having to recast hunger of hadar
@@bradleyhurley6755let me rephrase, if you HAPPEN to have leftover slots and are about to take a short rest, you might as well use them for heals lol
@@allenbehreandt6844 I think that was my issue. There was one encounter per day, so it didn't really matter what I had left after the encounter. The real issue was having one spell slot to do something and the second spell slot in case things went downhill.
@allenbehreandt6844 oh yeah if you have the slot and a DM who rarely interrupts short rests you are good to go
In bg3 calm emotions can prevent barbarians from raging
That's amazing.
Really?! 🤯🤯🤯
I've never DM'd, but I think I'd allow that at my table. It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Quite clever and unexpected use of the spell.
@@WanderingRagabond I would not allow it because Rage doesn't specify it can be ended by anything other than what it lists. Taking away someone's biggest class feature over a first level spell is not a good precedent to set, and "rage" doesn't even need to specifically be anger induced raging since I've had players roleplay it as an adrenaline rushed battle focus and there's nothing wrong with wanting to play a barbarian whose strength isn't proportional to how angry they are
@@ltcaphide Why not both? Let it slow down or affect all barbs while the ones that need all them raging chemicals to fight good get neturalized.
It not like you cant change the vectors of the spell and game. 😂
I think you guys are sleeping on Cure Wounds on the Celestial Warlock. At level 9 they can do 10d8+5 healing in combat with Cure Wounds. They can combine that with up to 5d6 from their healing pool. That’s significant and will get people back into combat.
Yeah, but are you really going to save 50% of your spells for a single cure wounds?
@@bradleyhurley6755 I think that the primary reason to play Celestial is to have access to healing and support spells. The Aid + Inspiring Leader combo is crazy good (I'd take that at level 4 and just ignore the level 10 feature), and then strong heals that come back on a short rest are fantastic. It might not be what you do all of the time, but when the moment comes up it's way more worthwhile than it used to be. A level 9 Cleric is going to feel pretty bad dropping a 5th level spell on a Cure Wounds even if it is potent, but if you can regen the slots on a short rest that's a lot more digestable. Hell, even for just burning a spell slot before a short rest to save hit die it's pretty nice.
@TheWanderersWit the one issue I have is that according to Sage Advice the DM determines when you have a short rest and I can see many DMs saying that you can't take a short rest immediately after waking up. So you may be playing down a spell slot that day. (I think it's fair to say most games only have 1-3 encounters per day and are lucky to get a short rest in)
@@bradleyhurley6755 Ideally that'd be session 0 stuff. I've not personally run into DM's who'd have a problem with that beyond maybe ocasionally interrupting our breakfast with an encounter. Most of the time cleaning up the camp site and eating is just hand waived, and I think it'd be funny for the Warlock to burn their slots buffing the group just so they don't have to tend to camp.
@@bradleyhurley6755 If your DM doesn't allow a short rest right after you wake, you could cast aid and use your spell slot recovery ability. Only takes a minute. At level 10 couples with the temp hp ability, you are increasing party hp by about 37% on a d8 hit die.
Some of the consensus online is that Radiant Soul can be triggered every turn now with spells like Divine Favor and Searing Smite, since they changed the wording of the feature from what it was in the original version. It makes the feature pretty strong that way.
ohhh that's an interesting interpretation, its not "When you cast a spell..." Its when a spell you cast deals radiant or fire damage..."
@@Silverythoughts Yes, it's worded differently on purpose, so I think it's a correct interpretation. Especially when you compare it with a similar feature like the Draconic Sorcerer's.
@@Awoken0 time to make a paladin Warlock for the next game I play 😈
OMG that sponsor looks so cool, shame I live on the literal other end of the continent. Shout out from Argentina 🤘
Ey! Que buena onda encontrar un compatriota por acá!
I actually forgot that Healing Word and Cure Wounds got their dice doubled
With backwards compatibility this makes Gift of the Ever-Living Ones unbelievable powerful. ''oh don't mind me getting 80 hp from a 5th lvl cure wounds''
@@JugglingAddict Pact of the protector, in case you know, you die. haha
Healing isn't only reactive because of this.
They did, but it almost doesn't matter. On average, 2d4 + 4 isn't going to keep you up any longer than 1d6. Monsters are going to do 2d6 + 4 damage to you on average if not a lot more.
@@bradleyhurley6755I don't know what campaign you are playing in that monsters do at least 2d6+4 at lvl. 1. If you aren't lvl. 1, then you can up cast the spell, now you can also use more than one of your d6's but the point is that the spells scale better than this ability now. Admitabaly, if you want to heal a chunk of hp to stay up through multiple hits cure wounds might be more appropriate, which is on Celestial Warlock's spell list, so the ability still replaces, the primary purpose of healing word.
18:18 not going to lie I'm disappointed they didn't buff this, at the very least give fire resistance to make it a B tier feature as having resistance to the most common and damaging elemental type would be handy, and honestly to boost it up, though this might be strong, Celestial warlocks should be able to change their spell damage to radiant when they caste spells, imagine how cool it be flinging holy fireballs at red dragons or Devils who are fire immune and watch them scream as they burn in holy fire. That be a cool feature.
There is a subtle buff there. The old celestial could add the damage only when they cast. Now it's once per turn, radiant OR fire. So wall of fire or jallarzi's storm of radiance. Couple with repelling blast and just keep knocking enemies into it.
You can also use true strike on a pact of the blade warlock to do radiant damage and add your CHA modifier multiple times in the same attack. There are some ways to use this feature
Calm Emotions is quite an important spell when in the Feywild. When your emotions can dictate your environment and the creatures around you using a spell to prevent negative effects, it is quite useful. Very fitting for the origin of the ability.
There are also other practical uses to avoid hostile encounters. Just not the type of roleplay most groups want. Works well in a sandbox encounter where you can wander into danger that is beyond what you're prepared to deal with.
When I realized Spell Sniper allows you to cast into melee, it got me to change several of my warlock builds from Pact of the Blade.
You guys can have your Archfey-art lady. I'm simping for that Great Old One Queen all day, erry day.
So I've got a Feylock in my campaign for 2024 rules, and he absolutely dominates. He's Pact of the Blade and he can dice people up and move around. Spell cast as needed. Use Charisma in social situations. He is elusive, deals great damage, great mobility, useful in social interactions. He is S-Tier as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks for the vid, guy! Good job as yoozsh. I love all things magic-user, and do agree with your rankings. I know, I know, you wanted my validation :D I wouldn't overly weigh player skill into this. If they are blah as a player or don't care as much, it won't matter that much anyway. If they're watching this video they probably either have enough skill to play enough of the ass-kicking trickeries, or they will have enough trickiness after listening to you guys. Kelly, you said you played next to a great old one warlock for 5 years so you didn't get as excited about it as they fey warlock; but really IMO the great old one is sooo much more after 2024 update (well all it's subclasses really) it doesn't seem fair you said that :p Both your top 2 builds for warlock you stated are really good though, and I pretty much concur.
The Celestial's Level 6 ability Radiant Soul could add Chr mod damage for a second time to an attack made with TrueStrike, couldn't it? It's a spell, it changes damage to Radiant at low levels and then adds Radiant damage beyond 5th level. So without even needing Pact of the Blade, if your Radiant Soul is making a weapon attack using Truestrike, and say your character has maxed out Charisma, that's +5 to hit, +10 damage from Charisma mod, +extra radiant damage depending on your level. That's pretty sweet. :D
I like this that's fun! Great base for a holy archer build
You can also add Agonizing Blast to any Warlock Cantrip. So you can add it to True Strike. This makes it +15
Not only can it do that, it will work with spirit shroud too because radiant damage is an option. It'll also work with searing smite TWICE before the target even gets a save.
@@benk6713 Duuuuuude. That's f'ing great. :D
I was also going to point out that if you're doing a Celestial Warlock as a Blaster, yeah you've got Guiding Bolt but I think the Dudes are correct in saying that's probably not the best use of your limited spell slots. But you do get Sacred Flame, and if you take Pact of the Tome you can also pick up Word of Radiance. Use Agonizing Blast on both and there are your two cantrips adding double Charisma mod to damage, one as a ranged saving throw, one as a close-in AoE.
But seriously, that TrueStrike combo is awesome.
I think it might be better on a radiant damage smite spell. Like divine smite or shining smite.
I'm going into a new campaign as an Archfey bladelock. Super happy to see the A ranking 😊
This is the Nightcrawler build!
That's my build and it's SO good. I'm level 5 rn and I've shut down two encounters just on my own
@@nyxisrealtired yesssss can't wait
I've been anxiously awaiting this video! Good job!
Going to multiclass into Feylock for the Glamour Bard, her bamfing out of danger whilst dropping debuffs on enemies and buffs on allies really feels like a vibe.
After tier 1, Archfey Gish does seem better than Feywanderer Ranger. So much teleportation + otherwind stride and 3 attacks, sounds pretty fun + EB for a ranged options.
A little surprised you didn't think about dipping barbarian for the fiendlock, set the armor spells, rage for additional resistances, and your tank build can skip armor.
Also Eldritch Smite isn't "casting a spell", so can be done during Rage...
Fire shield stacks with armor of agathys, too. 2d8 damage to everyone that hits you, no concentration.
Karlach 😮
Kratos is basically a Barbarian Warlock, specifically him in GOW1.
8:00 I, personally, used it by NPC, as a DM, to pacify the party and deescalate a sudden conflict with PCs :D
Question about the Bewitching Magic ability for Fey Warlock and Steps of the Fey: Since neither ability uses a spell slot, can you Bonus Action Misty Step in, drop an Enchantment or Illusion spell, then immediately Misty Step away as part of the same action? It sounds like you could do that, since neither Misty Step is using a spell slot and aren't conflicting with your action economy. That means you can double teleport and cast a spell in one turn. That can be pretty shenanigans in of itself. =p
Yes you absolutely can! At level 14 you can potentially use Misty Step 3 times in a round, 2 during your turn + as a reaction
It's interesting imo to see how the warlock went from a beginner friendly spellcaster in 2014 to a bit more of an advanced player kind of class in 2024 from what I've been seeing
That's interesting because I don't think the difficulty has actually changed. If all you want to do is cast hex and eldritch blast it's still beginner friendly. But to get the most out of the class it's always had that challenge of putting together the perfect pizzle of spells feats and invocations. Honestly though they're great fun regardless
theyve ALWAYS been an advanced class since they are exceptionally more modular than the others, even in the old rules
Another aspect of the Fiendlock that I like is that just, thematically it fits very well dragonborn and tieflings that can get resistances to very common damage types like poison and fire so on top of your fiendish resilience and any spells that give resistance you could be resisting like 4 super common damage types at a time during combat which will not be great in most circumstances because most monsters tend to do one type but in the instances of monsters that *can* do a variety of damage it'll make you super tanky for having a d8 hit dice, but if you really want to be safe you can use fiendish resilience on psychic and take one level of barbarian since your best buffs are going to be non-concentration anyway, it does limit your spell slots to smite slots but I could definitely see this being a fun way to play the game
True Strike works with Radiant Soul. Agonizing Blast allows to add your Cha modifier to a Warlock Cantrip (and True Strike is one). So you can do a single hit pact of the blade build. More importantly you could use ranged weapons or even thrown ones.
In a Oneshot I did a Goliath Celestial Warlock throwing glowing Javelins with 2d6+12 Radiant damage on hit.
Lets gooooo! Been waiting for this one
One of my favorite characters was my GOO Pact of the Tomb Warlock. So many options and that part about causing absolute carnage at the table with Mask of Many Faces and Actor.
My table has used Calm emotions a number of times to shut down barbarians.
I rage! Shh, calm down.
I love your channel! Great Old One warlocks are my fav ❤
They're pretty great. Glad you enjoy them!
7:35 Laura Bailey and other characters have been casting Calm Emotions all of Campaign 3. And it’s been helpful
DM: The lone survivor is too panicked/frightened to speak with the party about the monster.
Cast Calm Emotions
DM: An angry crowd with torches and pitchforks is heading your way.
Cast Calm Emotions
21:22 Yeah I remember when they said the dream druid's bonus action healing wasn't that great way back then even though it was a 1d6 and you can still use a spell afterwards. I used this to revive a fallen ally then delete a bunch of minions with Tidal wave on the same turn.
32:15 YESSSS FELLOW MAGIK FAN!!! She's so underrated!!
Yes! Been looking forward for this one since the start of these.
Celestial Warlock with True Strike, Radiant Soul, and Agonizing Blast adds your CHA modifier 3 times to the damage. So a you get weapon damage, True Strike extra d6s based on level, 3*CHA.
This is true, but usually winds up outstripped by Eldritch Blast or Pact of the Blade and/or other options.
@@DeadmanwalkingXI I'm not sure that's actually true in the 2024 rules. Let's look at Eldritch Blast vs True Strike.
Levels 1-4: Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast. +3 Chr mod for levels 1-3 and a +4 at level 4. That's +5/6 to hit, 1d10+3/4 Force damage. Average 8 or 9 damage.
True Strike with Agonizing Blast. +3 Chr mod, +4 at level 4. That's +5/6 to hit, for weapon, let's say 1d8 for a 2 handed Spear +6/8 (using Charisma mod for attack and damage, then adding Chr mod again for Agonizing Blast). Average 10 or 12 damage.
(if you also take Pact of the Blade you could do a Greatsword for 2d6 damage, or a Greataxe for 1d12 damage)
At level 5 you get another beam of Eldritch Blast and extra damage from TrueStrike.
EB: 2 attacks at +7 to hit, 1d10+4 Force Damage, Average 9 damage. If you hit with both that's 2d10+8 damage, or average 18 damage.
TS: 1 attack at +7 to hit, 1d8+8 + 1d6. Average damage 15.
At level 6 True Strike gets to use Radiant Soul.
TS: 1 attack at +7 to hit, 1d8+12 +1d6. Average damage 19.
At level 11 EB gets another beam, TS does more bonus damage. Lets say tha both have Maxed CHR.
EB: 3 attacks at +8 to hit, 1d10+5 damage. Average 10 damage. If you hit with all three beams that's 30 damage.
TS: 1 attack at +8 to hit, 1d8+15 damage +2d6 radiant. Average 25 damage.
At level 17, EB gets another beam, TS does more bonus damage.
EB: 4 attacks at +11 to hit. 1d10+5 damage. If you hit with all four beams that's 40 damage.
TS: 1 attack at +11 to hit. 1d8+15 damage +3d6 radiant. Average 28 damage.
So yeah, at level 17 and up, EB with Agonizing Blast is better. Up to level 17, they're pretty comparable.
Note: I didn't do the Pact of the Blade invocations to add extra attacks because TS won't work with multiple attacks and Radiant Soul only adds Chr mod once per round.
@@EvilGeniusPrime
I mean, Eldritch Blast pulls ahead at 11th you list that right there, which is a lot earlier and more relevant than 17th...it's only modestly ahead at that level, but it is ahead. But actually, at least at lower levels, there's a reason I specified 'or Pact of the Blade'. It wasn't my point that Eldritch Blast alone was better, but that it wasn't the best option at any level after about level 4.
At 5th level, with Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade, and, say, Great Weapon Mastery, you can be attacking for 2d6+6 or 7 twice per turn, for a net of 4d6+12 or 14 to the True Strike's 3d6+12 at most (at the same to-hit bonus). That obviously only becomes more true at 12th when you get Devouring Blade.
Basically, as soon as you get Extra Attack, you're always gonna be better off actually behaving as a martial in terms of your attacks than going all-in on the True Strike thing.
So True Strike is very good at levels 1-4 (by any measure) and a tad better than Eldritch Blast at levels 6-10, it's true, but at level 5+ you're always gonna be better off if going Pact of the Blade and actual martial stuff.
@@DeadmanwalkingXI I think that's a fair point. Multiple attacks with the Pact of the Blade progression is powerful, especially when you are adding martial feats like Great Weapon Master. I think though, that the difference between EB and TS for the Celestial is small enough that you could do either play style and not feel underpowered, you know? Like, yes, EB could have done 5 more damage at 11th level, on average, but is that so much that you would feel like you were playing warlock 'wrong' by going with the True Strike build? IMO, it's close enough that I wouldn't register a difference.
But there is a bigger difference between EB/TS and Devouring Blade's 3 attacks per round, using a big weapon, using something like Great Weapon master. Maybe not enough of a difference that you're playing 'wrong' if you don't do Pact of the Blade, but enough of a difference to be noticable.
@@EvilGeniusPrime Yeah, pretty much. It's a perfectly decent build and I'm not saying otherwise, just noting that it's not an optimal one. An important thing to note when talking about something like 'adds Charisma three times to damage'.
Speaking on the celestial warlock, the thing I like about celestial warlocks is that your patron isn’t necessarily inherently evil. I enjoy it a little more for the role-play perspective. I feel like every table I see a warlock, their patron is this otherworldly horrifying demon that wants to consume the players’ soul as a measure of their pact. I always thought, couldn’t you have a symbiotic relationship with your patron where you don’t have to be their next meal? I feel like I can roleplay the celestial the closest to that.
28:30 this point made me realise maybe taking a 1 level dip in warlock as a Druid, upcasting armour of Agathys, and having all that temp hp as a wild shape. Could be crazy
Another neat synergy with Psychic Casting of the GOO warlock is that Mask of Many Faces allows you to cast Disguise Self at will. So now you can cast the spell constantly and almost instantly without any gestures or verbal casting.
One moment someone could be talking to a sweet old lady and the next she’s gone and a lost child stands in her place. If anyone takes their attention off of you for even a moment, you could be someone entirely different.
A similar synergy with One with the Shadows and Invisibility. No gestures or voice required, you just seemingly and eerily meld into every shadow you step in (as long as you aren’t concentrating on anything).
Goolock is full of some crazy synergistic stuff if you're creative. I think the silliest thing I thought of was that Synaptic Static requires no material components and is an enchantment, so you could literally be in a crowd of people, synaptic static a group of enemies in front of you, and no one would know it was you or even where the psychic fireball came from as you walked away. And you can do similar things with Dissonant Whispers, Hideous Laughter, and about a dozen other spells (like the aforementioned mind sliver).
I think Field warlocks are worthy of an A tier spot though. They're a bit generic yeah, but they have a lot of iconic flavor going for them and realistically their ability to bring bigger AOE damage than other warlocks really helps them stand out as good combat options for me. Plus I think Dark One's Own Luck is mostly "I use this and practically auto-save on the BBEG's spell" rather than making sure standard attacks hit, so realistically I think the class is a lot more resilient than it looks (and it already looks good).
Also, if I'm understanding correctly you can apply the new agonizing blast to sacred flame (or any cantrip with damage), which means celestial warlocks can potentially be hitting for 1d8 + CHA on a DEX save regardless of cover. EB is probably still better overall, but it's definitely funny.
Imo the only thing that the Celestial needs is the ability to transmute damage from warlock spells into radiant spells. Then, they could excel not only as a healer but as a blaster, and their level 6 ability wouldnt just be a trap. Plus it makes reflavoring the dark, edgy warlock spells a little easier.
Their level 6 ability isn't a trap. The wording was changed from the Xanathar's version. In Xanathar's you got the damage boost only when you cast the spell, and only against one target. Now it's once *per turn*. So a concentration spell that does radiant or fire damage on enemy's turns can keep getting that damage boost. They have 3 that I'm aware of: Wall of Fire, Guardian of Faith, and Jallarzi's storm of radiance. Storm of radiance is particularly potent in my opinion because--in addition to the damage--it blinds and deafens creatures within it and they can't cast spells with verbal components. Repelling blast can just keep pushing them back in, and your party can do the same with push weapon mastery or spells and abilities that force movement. And each turn they get shoved in, they take damage.
My Devotion Paladin found, in Barovia, his mother's locket and, on attuning to it, found it could cast Calm Emotions. It was so lovely as a gesture. I don't know if I ever used it. He had it for the whole two year campaign.
Seeing the Dungeon Dudes outside outside their office is a nice change! That was a fun Sponsor! And it looks so good! It's a bit far away for me from Europe but maybe one day, I may be able to go there :)
I actually feel like Archfey still has a little bit of social shenanigannery. Calm Emotions means you can settle bar fights or quarreling lovers long enough to perhaps dissuade, reinforce, or redirect their actions via Persuasion checks, as a way to get npc’s to do something to calm down like lie down or breathe deeply for a conversation reset. Openly offer your service as a counselor, climb the social ladder by helping people in their daily anxieties, and prevent or minimize confrontations throughout the city. Additionally, Plant Growth as a Ritual means you supply the people you are consoling with a bountiful harvest, which means farmers can focus on other things, nobles can enjoy luxurious gardens, and diplomacy with the wilder folk is a breeze. Caring for the bodies and minds of the people is a fast way to gain trust, and then you have the backing of others. It’s similar to a Druid Awakening a whole forest, so that when the bbeg tries to invade the squirrels have moose-mounted acorn cannons, very funny. But with the Archfey Warlock Duchess, the Mother of her City, an entire countryside can rise up to defend their lady in her time of need, and she by their side if deemed necessary, with trebuchets and cavalries and spies and more. Her actions can be seen as constructive caring and even holy in the eyes of the holy ones for the service done for the people at all times. The archfey warlock’s social potential is massive.
Use Calm Emotions to secure allies by preventing domestic harm throughout the realm.
its always crazy to be reminded you guys are in toronto, just a mere 2 hour drive D:
Targeting Con saving throws also affects enemy concentration checks so great against enemy spellcasters and you can blast them multipls times with eldritch blast for multiple disadvantaged saving throws
Warlocks has so much back story and roleplay potential. I'm really enjoying the class and learning how to play a magic user in D&D.
My fiendlock uses pact of the tome to get help fill the swiss army knife of the party. I may not do as much raw damage, but so many times I have casted counterspell or hold person to lock down an enemy.
I love hearing what other people are playing with the class, they all sound so fun.
I've been kicking around an idea for a fiendlock similar to what you're talking about in there for sometime. At the end, you mention a fighter dip, but really, I feel the pick is barbarian. The changes to AoA make it a bit spicy in that you can recharge the shield with your dark one's blessing. AoA does not use concentration, so you can use it while raging, to get resistance to mitigate how quickly your THP drop off. You'll get medium armor to help with the AC problem. While you can't cast a spell while raging, you can expend spellslots using eldritch smite. Since you're not casting spells in combat, you can just dump charisma, and for spell picks take out of combat utility stuff, while picking up weapon feats to support blade pact. The biggest problem is both AoA and rage eating a bonus action, so finding a time/place to precast AoA with it's 1 hour duration is going to be the struggle. With the celestial, in a jam you'd be able to Cure Wounds at range with an Imp from chain pact for a pretty chunky heal if it's absolutely necessary above and beyond healing light.
Great Old One was the first character I played when I started BG3, and I loved it even though it felt weak at times. I'm just so happy that its really good now (even though it can't get Dominate Person anymore)
I got Sebastien Crowe's Guide To Everything book for Christmas and it's beautiful! I've always loved illustrated coffee book style books and this has so much added lore and history to Drakkenheim, the art is incredible, the added spells are super fun...the apothecary is INSANE and I'm making homebrew apothecary builds in DnD Beyond now. Drakkenheim is truly one of the great franchises of all time, thank you Dungeon Dudes for producing consistently amazing content!!
I’ve started using a Celestial bladelock in AL, and it’s a lot of fun.
The key is starting with one level in paladin for weapon mastery and the concentration free spell Divine Favor. (Use & make scrolls for that and the shield spell)
The radiant dmg from pact of the blade plus divine favor procs the extra damage all the time.
You can do just about anything, scout with a pact of the chain familiar, frontline or ranged combat, be a party face with high charisma, buff and heal party members…
It’s a very strong build that doesn’t even need eldrich blast. Seems like you could be just about whatever a party might need, besides some rogue stuff.
I made a Sphinx patron subclass for the Warlock that I was really proud of because Celestial wasn't Sphinxy enough.
The hocus pocus movies when they sing on the stage is a great example of blending verbal components in with the suggestion spell
Finally!!!!! Ive only been waiting like 2 months for this!
Need the Project WARlock subclass 😂
The video was amazing and Immersive Quest seems really really fun
I have this concept of a fey wild pact of the blade warlock… just misty step hack and slash!!
One thing thats super admirable about the dungeon dude is their mastery of a ‘yes and’ style of conversation, especially with these kind of topics. Rarely do you ever see one directly oppose the other, rather they’ll go with “yes, youre right, and heres my interpretation of that”. Such great and humble people
Thanks 🙏. We try and stay positive and supportive.
@@DungeonDudesOmg thank you so much for replying! This made my day
Thanks dudes! ❤
Adding to the Calm Emotions chorus here: mostly just-ok-to-poor BUT my cleric once used it to prevent our team from getting charmed or frightened during a beholder fight and it saved our lives
Monty can see "Calm Emotions" being cast if he watches Oxventure.
in all the other tier rankings you haven't compared them to other classes, but in watching your celestial warlock one, you just compare this to other classes. Celestial is A+ for sure, you guys didn't talk about their EB + bonus action flaming sphere, which is massive damage, and the warlock can basically pickup downed characters when they need it via healing light. The celestial gives the fiend pact a run for their money in damage alone, even discounting their healing. Similar to your last warlock video, i think you guys are biased against warlocks, in particular warlocks that are not hexblade. With only 2 spell slots available, the warlock needs spells that last, hence why the permanence of flaming sphere is arguably better than fireball for a warlock over the time of a battle
When talking about a burst of needed healing it felt like they forgot the Celestial Warlock can cast Cure Wounds. Getting that back on short rest means any battle you can escape from for an hour is a battle you can outlast.
Flaming sphere? As far as I know, it's a spell beyond Celestial Warlock's reach.
@ since Ive mained as a celestial warlock for the past 3 years, I can confidently say that you are wrong. The celestial comes from xanathars guide to everything. Its expanded spell list has flaming sphere. Why don’t you research before erroneously rebutting me
@@danzai not the 2024 version though, which is what the two hosts are discussing.
@@HenshinFanatic i didn't notice that this was cut from the 2024 celestial.. in favour of Aid by the looks of it. What a poor move by WOTC. That said, the Dungeon Dudes didn't even recognise the combo or the utility when they were ranking the 2017 (xanathars) celestial warlock and ranked it poorly in their old video as well. But I will concede that the 2024 celestial is quite a bit sh*tter in the damage dealing stakes than the 2017 version with this change.
Finally making the jump from 3.5 to 5th ed and I'm going to try the Fiend Lockadin. Sounds like a ton of fun to play.
For me, Celestial Warlock is the better Paladin. Eldritch Smite beats Divine Smite these days, and getting downed people up with from 60 feet is pretty good.
All in all, the Celestial has a really strong packet.
Its pretty good, but paladins are bringing a LOT to the table: Searing Smite does a minimum of 2d6 per spell level, with an extra d6 damage per failed constitution save, the paladin bonus to saves is amazing. That said, they multiclass well. A devotion paladin/celestial bladelock can add 2x their charisma to hit, and the searing smite can add the charisma bonus to damage once per turn-- So twice, minimum.
Both are great on their own, and they're great together.
Tactically a tank support is always better than a blaster support. It resists better in case he gets focused by the enemy, can safely get closer to his focus targets (help or debuff, w/e), and most of all if you have to either dmg or heal it is a tough choice, doesnt matter what you do it feels you are giving up on something. A tank support is not giving up anything by supporting, since he can tactically position to fullfil BOTH roles most of the times. A good example of it is Way of Mercy monk, who can heal WITHOUT giving up his attack action. This warlock can not.
@@boniakarlo They can... Celestial light is a bonus action heal.
In my game, the life cleric has cast Calm Emotions so many times its become a running gag that its his omnitool. It has somehow come up constantly. We've really run it into the ground really.
I can see the goolock as a jedi/sith build with pact of the blade a your lightsaber, enchantment, and illusion spells as your jedi mind tricks, repelling blast as a force push, jump invocation for the Yoda acrobatics, witch bolt for force lightning, telekinesis for force choke and so on. Also, a goolock at 19th level with the boon of the night and the shadow of moil spell up has resistance to all damage and can gain the invisible condition as a bouse action.
Calm emotions is such a great spell. It can end quite a few combats with "neutral" enemies before they begin. And it is great in social encounters too, whenever you piss someone off you have a second chance.
About the celestial patron Warlock.. Cure wounds scales pretty well now it's not such a bad Idea using a spell slot at maximum level to heal up a party memeber. At 5th level its 6d8+4 ( 31 hp), at 7th 8d8+4 ( 40 hp), at 9th 10d8+5 or 50 hp back. Coming back with a short rest. Plus Aid maxed out, a free inspiring leader with celestial resistence. Level +1 number castings of spell-slot-free healing word. I don't think a paladin can dish out that much healing. You can revive a party member with a BA at range and cast a spell in the same turn. Or healing while keep blasting with radiant dmg cantrip (true strike for example..) buffed by both Radiant soul and Agonizing blast for a +10 dmg on damage (+15 with truestrike). Does not look that bad to me.
And since it is not a splell slot casting you can revive a party members within 60 ft with a BA and cast another leveled spell in the same turn. At 9th level you can do it 10 without spending any spell slot. Plus your normal healing, Temp hp at SR..
At 5th lvl cure wounds heals on average 50hp. Coming back in a short rest. It's not over. Because of you, at 9th level your party gets 20hp more for Aid, and 10ish other temp HP because of Celestial Resistance. Your party members will start the next combat with 30hp more..each. Not bad as a healer.
Someone petrified? Greater restoration coming back in a shor rest. Someone dropped? I am using one of my 10ish healings dice to take him up, back into battle. Oh and I cast wall of fire in the same turn.. or Summon Celestial or.. I don't know? Invisibility..? Dimension door ? oh well let's just cast a cantrip in which I can add my carisma twice as a bonus damage with agoninzing balst piled on top of Celestial Radiance. Did I missed someone ? Revivify.. finished spell slots? Give me an hour.. or a minute.. and I ll cast revivify. I mean.. doesn't look so bad to me.
Have the cleric concentrate on beacon of hope and a 5th lvl spell slot will give back 80 hp and prayer of healing gives a short rest you have a few slots that you can burn.
@@JugglingAddict 85 assuming a +5 in Cha / Wis.. 15 more than the 6th lvl spell Heal. A Cleric and a Celestial warlock in combo could be pretty damm close to write off PC death in combat. And they could fit together perfectly in a party too tematically. Niether of them would be too shy of dishing out damage too. I mean I like the idea, I don't see them as competing but more as synergic.
@@Ali40L Yep that's my interpretation of them too. I didn't want to have to do too much math so I went conservative. Taking Gift of the ever-living ones keeps you longer in play and you have a little cast touch-spell-at-range friend flying around.
@@JugglingAddict Yeha with pact of the tome or chain.. pact of the protector.. nice. And I forgot about Gift of the ever living one. Damm.. It's getting harder and harder to kill a PC here. Just saying.. I mean let's just imagine we add a barbarian (any subclass) with the Celestial Warlock and the cleric (any subclass). I mean.. it's going to be tricky to put him down for good.. And in the meantime you can do all the warlock shananingns you want. Summon an Aberration, an Undead or a Demon? Why not? Don't like casting firebolt or true strike with +10 and +15 to dmg? Prefer the classic Hex plus eldritch blast? sure go for it. Banishment, dimension door, synaptic static, Fly, Fear.. Hunger of hadar or darkness plus Repelling blast and devil sight? hell yeah.. At the end of the day you still are the freak of the party, you still are a warlock.
I have been thinking a lot about an archfey and fey wanderer multiclass build. Like they are a fey wanderer who ends up making a pact with a powerful fey lord they encounter. The adding wisdom to charisma skills, so you add your chisma and wisdom, along with an expertise seems like you can make a really cool party face.
Made an encounter with some enemies who had a sort of stacking rage ability where they got more and more powerful as they got angrier. Cleric cast calm emotions and crushed the encounter, pretty great
The one sponsor... that i got my eyes on 😂
Coool
Fiend Patron combined with Boon of the Night Spirit can be extremely powerful when combined with Armor of Agathys and Fire Shield. You gain resistance to nearly damage type except Psychic OR Radiant while in dim light or darkness (doesn't matter if the creature has darkvision, truesight, etc). If you take Aasimar you'll get a redundant resistance to necrotic but also you'll get resistance to Radiant, which means you can take Psychic resistance through Fiendish Resilience and have resistance to EVERY SINGLE DAMAGE TYPE at once. Once you have 3 spell slots you can cast AoA, FS, and in combat cast Darkness if needed or save the slot for Eldritch Smite (6d8 damage) or Hex (1d8 per hit). Still works if you take Fighter or Paladin 1 as well for Heavy Armor Training. A build of Aasimar, Merchant (+2 Cha, +1 Con), 13 Str, 15 Con, 15 Cha, 12 Dex or Wis, Fighter 1/Warlock 19 (Fiend Patron), War Caster +1 Cha (5), ASI +2 Cha (9), GWM (13), HAM +1 Str (17), BNS +1 Cha (20) and Mystic Arcanum Foresight; will give you at level 20 (Assuming No Magic Items and Correct Invocations): 15 Str, 16 Con, 12 Dex or Wis, 21 Cha, 205 HP, Plate Armor (AC 18), Greatsword (+11 to hit, 2d6+11 damage), Advantage on every d20 test, Disadvantage on every attack roll against you, 25 Cold + 2d8 Cold or Fire damage to every enemy that hits you with a melee attack, Resistance to every damage type, and leaves you Concentration Free to cast Darkness, Hex, Hold Monster, Advantage on Concentration Saves, 30 ft Truesight, MI (Wizard) for Shield, Heavenly Wings for a Fly Speed, and 24 restoring temp hp from Dark One's Blessing to top up AoA.
If you allow pre-2024 content then slapping agonizing blast and repelling blast on either booming blade or green-flame blade works really well for any of the subclasses given that agonizing blast would add to both the primary and secondary damage from them and repelling blast hugely increases your odds of triggering the secondary damage. Starting with a one level fighter dip to fix your AC, get your con save proficiency, and give you weapon mastery on a war hammer for the push property works really well with this.
I have a player playing an archfey warlock who is using the booming blade option in a game I am running and he is having a great time bamfing around the battlefield and then picking off enemies by knocking them back out of melee reach of anyone and thus forcing them to either use ranged attacks (if they have any) or trigger the secondary booming blade damage.
If I get a chance I think I would like to try a celestial warlock and do this with green-flame blade. Even with the celestial warlock boost to the fire damage I don't think it would be as good as the booming blade option but I just think it would be a fun tactical exercise to pinball enemies into each other so that I could trigger the secondary fire damage.
Last year, I was running a campaign where the party was in the 100 acre woods and facing an enraged Kanga searching for Roo. The bard cast Calm Enotions and turned a combat encounter into a Social one with one spell!
Didn't see you guys at pax Unplugged this year, but i love your stuff!
I like the thought of a Celestial Warlock and Divine Soul Sorcerer multiclass sorlock as a Battle Medic. It has the feel of the 3.5 edition prestige class of Radiant Servant of Pelor
Been playing fiend and absolutely love it. Great old one sound like so much fun though!
Both of them are pretty awesome!
GENIE SUPREMACY 🔥🔥🔥
Calm Emotions saved my party on the regular in Icewind Dale, and any time there are charm effects or mind games on the party really. I suppose it depends on the DM how often that comes up. Definitely niche, but when you need it you *need* it.
27:08 That is a fascinating exploit that I had never considered.
It is dangerous in that the spell ends if you ever run out of temp hp, but honestly that fits the flavour pretty well for a Fiend warlock to keep killing enemies or risk their spell ending.
(also it doesn't work with the 2014 version, only the 2024 version)
One thing I noticed for the Celestial Warlock, the Invisibility spell ends if you make and attack roll, cast a spell, or deals damage however the Celestial warlocks healing light is not a spell and doesn't deal damage so you can theoretically sneak around the battlefield while invisible and healing your allies.
I'm actually playing a phoenix sorcerer in the way you described that jank fiend build. Armour of Agathys transmuted to fire and fire blade. Gotta say, it's more effective than I would have thought, is casting scorching ray better on a per round damage basis? Yeah absolutely, but being a fiery porcupine with an extremely damaging sword is really fun and also a good way to confound your enemies if they're mostly melee.
(For anyone not in the know, phoenix sorcerers are a ua subclass that has an ability called mantle of flame, any time you get hit, the enemy takes fire damage equal to cha modifer, any time you deal damage with a fire spell, the enemy takes damage equal to your cha modifer, so it can scale very quickly especially when I get fire shield.)
I ended up designing a fiend bladelock character this week as a backup character for a campaign I am in. It really felt like you need that level of fighter to get better armor and weapon masteries, but given you can summon basically any melee weapon with pact of the blade, you can pick some good masteries and use what is needed.
Your wounds with the new updated healing on a warlock is absolutely amazing, especially late game when you can only use half your hit dice, what you guys commonly do wrong in your live play, to heal up your friends with whatever spell slots you had left before a short rest.
I've cast calm emotions, and more importantly, I've carried it in my back pocket while pulling off some daring, cinematic, split the party infiltrations that I wouldn't have had the confidence to try otherwise.
My sorcerer used Calm Emotions to save our whole party when we kept rolling like shit against a ghost's fear effect (and possible losing of decades of life!) I wish I'd realized I could use it way earlier in that fight, tbh.
I’m playing in a game as a Warlock-esque homebrew class made by these two dudes on UA-cam who gets Cure Wounds with the new healing spells. 5th level spell slot to heal someone for 10d8 + 4 or 5 is really good! Last time I cast it, it healed the other PC for 62!
Alright kelly, think about this. I was also making a Magik build with feind pact warlock, but with 3 levels of barbarian for Wildheart or Berserker. Armor of Agathis doesn't go away when you rage, Eldritch Smite isnt a spell so can be used while ragiing, and you just get resistance to buldening, pericing, and slashing just for raging, not to mention medium armor proficiency. It just sound so fun! This is gonna be the next character I play, maybe itll be yours too!
Archfey works better for Magik as the Misty Step works for her portals.
@@adambielen8996 Well yes, but actually no. Yes, teleportation is extremely important for Magik, but Archfey only gives you free castings of misty step, which you cant use while raging. That, and i think Fiend has it beat on flavor. Im just gonna hope my DM can cook up a magic item that allows for teleportation