Warlock Patron: Io, God of Dragons

[Submortimer]

Io, The Ten-Fold Dragon, Creator of the heavens and lord of all dragonkind, is something of a mystery to those not of his kind. Though he is not without non-draconic worshipers, they are so few and far between that he is almost bereft of them. His Son, Bahamut, and Daughter, Tiamat, Are the only widely known draconic gods, and as such, he has no clerics.

Not to be swayed, resourceful humans, elves, dwarves, and especially dragonborn seek him out through their own, mysterious means, and stirke bargians with Io directly in exchange for power rivaling that of dragons themselves.

Draconic Warlock

Draconic Warlock Spell list



Warlock Level
Spells


1st
Chromatic Orb, Absorb Elements


3rd
Scorching Ray, Agnazzar’s Scorcher


5th
Fireball, Protection From Energy


7th
Wall Of Fire, Elemental Bane


9th
Cone of Cold, Conjure Elemental



Draconic Fealty
Starting at 1st level, a Draconic warlock chooses which type of dragon to embody: Select a metallic or Chromatic dragon. The Warlock’s invocations that deal damage and any spell that the warlock casts that deals an elemental damage type (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Poison) may deal damage based on the warlock’s chosen dragon type instead of it's normal type:

Red: Fire
White: Cold
Green: Poison
Blue: Lightning
Black: Acid
Brass: Fire
Bronze: Lightning
Gold: Fire
Silver: Cold
Copper: Acid

The warlock may also chose to change his Eldritch Blast to his chosen damage type. If this would allow you to add your Charisma bonus to damage from multiple sources (Such as Agonizing blast) you only receive the benefit from one source.

Dragon Skin
At 6th level, the Draconic warlock grows a covering of dragon scales, the color of his dragon type. While he is not wearing armor, his AC equals 10 + dex mod + Cha Mod.

Draconic Protection
Once he reaches 10th level, the Draconic warlock forges a beneficial protective shell based on his Chosen Dragon Type:

Blue/Bronze: Resistance to lightning damage
Red/Gold/Brass: Resistance to fire damage
White/Silver: Resistance to cold damage
Black/Copper: Resistance to acid damage
Green: Resistance to poison damage

Dragon Ascendence
Starting at 14th level, the Draconic Warlock grows a pair of dragon wings, giving him fly speed equal to his normal movement speed.

[DracoKnight]

Io, The Ten-Fold Dragon, Creator of the heavens and lord of all dragonkind, is something of a mystery to those not of his kind. Though he is not without non-draconic worshipers, they are so few and far between that he is almost bereft of them. His Son, Bahamut, and Daughter, Tiamat, Are the only widely known draconic gods, and as such, he has no clerics.

Not to be swayed, resourceful humans, elves, dwarves, and especially dragonborn seek him out through their own, mysterious means, and stirke bargians with Io directly in exchange for power rivaling that of dragons themselves.

Draconic Warlock

Draconic Warlock Spell list

1. Chromatic Orb, Absorb Elements
2. Scorching Ray, Agnazzar’s Scorcher
3. Fireball, Protection From Energy
4. Wall Of Fire, Elemental Bane
5. Cone of Cold, Conjure Elemental

Draconic Fealty
Starting at 1st level, a Draconic warlock chooses which type of dragon to embody: Select a metallic or Chromatic dragon. The Warlock’s invocations that deal damage and any spell that the warlock casts that deals an elemental damage type (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder) may deal damage based on the warlock’s chosen dragon type instead of it's normal type:

Red: Fire
White: Cold
Green: Acid
Blue: Lightning
Black: Acid
Brass: Fire
Bronze: Lightning
Gold: Fire
Silver: Cold
Copper: Acid

The warlock may also chose to change his Eldritch Blast to his chosen damage type. If this would allow you to add your Charisma bonus to damage from multiple sources (Such as Agonizing blast) you only receive the benefit from one source.

Dragon Skin
At 6th level, the Draconic warlock grows a covering of dragon scales, the color of his dragon type. While he is not wearing armor, his AC equals 10 + dex mod + Cha Mod.

Draconic Protection
Once he reaches 10th level, the Draconic warlock forges a beneficial protective shell based on his Chosen Dragon Type:

Blue/Bronze: Resistance to lightning damage
Red/Gold/Brass: Resistance to fire damage
White/Silver: Resistance to cold damage
Black/Green/Copper: Resistance to acid damage

Dragon Ascendence
Starting at 14th level, the Draconic Warlock grows a pair of dragon wings, giving him fly speed equal to his normal movement speed.

This looks like a lot of fun, I've been trying to figure it out for a while :D

[Soommor]

I could run a play test with a few friends for a couple of encounters if you like. I'll get back to you with the results and things that seem a little off?

[Submortimer]

sure! I whipped this up for another thread, it's based mostly off the Elemental Warlock in my sig.

[Ziegander]

So it's literally just the Draconic Sorcerer, but better, and given to Warlocks? I guess it works, but it feels a little uninspired, doesn't it?

[JNAProductions]

Why do Dragon Scales add Charisma modifier? Kinda stepping on Monk and Barbarian toes there. Should probably just be 13+Dex.

[Geodude6]

The green dragon breathes poison, not acid.

[/pedantry]

This is a cool concept, though something about it feels lacking; I don't know what. Perhaps it just feels too similar to the draconic sorcerer. The bit about adding the Cha mod seems a tad out-of-place; nothing here says that you would add your Cha mod to damage. Scratch that, I just realised that without that bit in there there could be great potential for SorcLock shenanigans.

Again, neat concept!

[Submortimer]

So it's literally just the Draconic Sorcerer, but better, and given to Warlocks? I guess it works, but it feels a little uninspired, doesn't it?

It's not better, just different:
- It doesn't get any bonus damage to spells, just can change the damage type
- I gets resistance to an energy type, not extra HP
- It's armor bonus is more powerful, but more demanding
- it doesn't get a fear aura

Both get wings, that about as similar as they get.



Why do Dragon Scales add Charisma modifier? Kinda stepping on Monk and Barbarian toes there. Should probably just be 13+Dex.

Why does it matter that it steps on the monk or barbarian's toes? I specficially wanted it to be different from the Draconic Sorcerer ability and/or Armor of Shadows: this is potentially more powerful, but is also more demanding (The sorcerer's ability/Armor of shadows is better if your Dex is less than 16)

[JNAProductions]

Yeah, but in practice it'll be pretty easy to make it better. Overall, I'd rate that as a serious buff, especially since it frees up an Invocation from Armor of Shadows.

[Amnoriath]

This is a rather large departure from the Warlock format. You don't have any active abilities that are keyed off of short rests/long rests and ultimately makes it rather bland. Is it balanced against the Draconic Sorcerer, yes, but the Sorcerer actually still wins in terms of capturing the full flavor of being a Dragon. This though gives more spell selection with damage.

[Amnoriath]

Why does it matter that it steps on the monk or barbarian's toes? I specficially wanted it to be different from the Draconic Sorcerer ability and/or Armor of Shadows: this is potentially more powerful, but is also more demanding (The sorcerer's ability/Armor of shadows is better if your Dex is less than 16)

But this really makes a non-Bladelock more powerful. Ultimately maxing charisma will be the goal and therefore will probably will have a higher AC than the Sorcerer.

[Submortimer]

This is a rather large departure from the Warlock format. You don't have any active abilities that are keyed off of short rests/long rests and ultimately makes it rather bland. Is it balanced against the Draconic Sorcerer, yes, but the Sorcerer actually still wins in terms of capturing the full flavor of being a Dragon. This though gives more spell selection with damage.

What would you change? Would you give them a full on breath weapon that recharges on a long rest instead of wings? Get rid of the scales?

I don't particularly feel that it's bland just because it only has passive abilities: It has wings, it has scales, it uses a bunch of elemental spells keyed to it's Chosen element, it has resistance...
What it doesn't have that are dragon-esque are the Fear aura and a breath weapon. I chose to leave those out, because a Dragon born gets a breath weapon, a sorcerer gets the fear abilities, and this is meant to be different.


But this really makes a non-Bladelock more powerful. Ultimately maxing charisma will be the goal and therefore will probably will have a higher AC than the Sorcerer.

I'm alright with that, frankly.

[Gr7mm Bobb]

Something I recommend for this to help set it apart from the dragonblood sorcerer, Maybe try to turn from the more physical aspect of dragons and focus more on their sheer presence that they bring to the mind. They inspire fire fear and awe, they change shape and constantly play games of grand scales with and against each other and other creatures proven more useful than pawns.

Mechanically, I would recommend for their 1st level (defining ability that sets the tone) allow them to use their cha instead of Dex for their AC. If this proves far too much to deal with, add the limitation that the amount utilized cannot exceed you proficiency bonus. I do like the energy swap feature and the fact that it is a choice to do so.

If the above ability proves too troublesome with lower level multi-classing, then just put it at 10th level where most warlock defensive abilities are.

As said above, try to make green choice deal with poison damage. I understand that of all the damage types it is the least powerful with 90~ MM creatures being straight out immune to it.

One ability that used to be a high level spell for 3.5 was Undying Vigor of the Dragon Lords, long made short of it: you recover a bunch of HP and remove debuffs. Suggested Ability:

Undying Vigor of the Dragon Lords:
- Recover HP = Cha(min 1) x Warlock Level and immediately end any debilitating effect (note special rule about not negating curses and other recovery specific effects)
- useable 1 per long rest
- Another version I toyed with is having it be a reaction that only gives temp HP, removes debuffs, and afterward you have immunity to your chosen element for 1 minute

14th level. Dragons Are masters of their assigned element and you too have achieved a warped gift of this mastery:
- After a long rest select 2 spells or abilities that deal damage.
- The chosen spell ability can has its damage changed to match your selected dragon.
- When using the selected spell or ability, you treat immunity against your elemental damage as resistance instead

@ max cha for character generation, this would heal as much as the paladins, but all at once and can't be shared.

- The other option is to have it be able to affect any of your spells or abilities that deal that damage and just have it limited to a number of uses per long rest.

Good catch on the double stack of Cha on eldritch blast. When I was thinking of what to write for that when making an elemental themed lock, I could only think to make it the 14th level ability and hope it didn't break the game with it's potential (1d10+10)4 damage output at 20th level

Hopefully this might help your dragon warlock find a better soul to feel different than the dragonblood sorcerers.

[Ralanr]

Isn't Io dead? I love the concept (I like looking into dragon lore for D&D so when my group makes homebrew worlds I can put in awesome stuff I like for dragons). I'm just wondering if Io was brought back and I never noticed.

Or is this powered off of his corpse?

[Submortimer]

Maybe, I haven't kept up on any official lore. I'd say that it's something like a Vestige: true God hood never goes away, even if said god is dead. After all, people can still contact Tenebrous, and Orcus is alive and kicking.

[Geodude6]

Isn't Orcus undead?

[Ralanr]

Isn't Orcus undead?

Is that an oxymoron?

[Submortimer]

Isn't Orcus undead?

In the lore, no. He died, became undead, became the god of undead (tenebrous), then came back to life as regular ol' orcus.

[ImSAMazing]

Io, The Ten-Fold Dragon, Creator of the heavens and lord of all dragonkind, is something of a mystery to those not of his kind. Though he is not without non-draconic worshipers, they are so few and far between that he is almost bereft of them. His Son, Bahamut, and Daughter, Tiamat, Are the only widely known draconic gods, and as such, he has no clerics.

Not to be swayed, resourceful humans, elves, dwarves, and especially dragonborn seek him out through their own, mysterious means, and stirke bargians with Io directly in exchange for power rivaling that of dragons themselves.

Draconic Warlock

Draconic Warlock Spell list

1. Chromatic Orb, Absorb Elements
2. Scorching Ray, Agnazzar’s Scorcher
3. Fireball, Protection From Energy
4. Wall Of Fire, Elemental Bane
5. Cone of Cold, Conjure Elemental

Draconic Fealty
Starting at 1st level, a Draconic warlock chooses which type of dragon to embody: Select a metallic or Chromatic dragon. The Warlock’s invocations that deal damage and any spell that the warlock casts that deals an elemental damage type (Acid, Cold, Fire, or Lightning) may deal damage based on the warlock’s chosen dragon type instead of it's normal type:

Red: Fire
White: Cold
Green: Acid
Blue: Lightning
Black: Acid
Brass: Fire
Bronze: Lightning
Gold: Fire
Silver: Cold
Copper: Acid

The warlock may also chose to change his Eldritch Blast to his chosen damage type. If this would allow you to add your Charisma bonus to damage from multiple sources (Such as Agonizing blast) you only receive the benefit from one source.

Dragon Skin
At 6th level, the Draconic warlock grows a covering of dragon scales, the color of his dragon type. While he is not wearing armor, his AC equals 10 + dex mod + Cha Mod.

Draconic Protection
Once he reaches 10th level, the Draconic warlock forges a beneficial protective shell based on his Chosen Dragon Type:

Blue/Bronze: Resistance to lightning damage
Red/Gold/Brass: Resistance to fire damage
White/Silver: Resistance to cold damage
Black/Green/Copper: Resistance to acid damage

Dragon Ascendence
Starting at 14th level, the Draconic Warlock grows a pair of dragon wings, giving him fly speed equal to his normal movement speed.

isn't this just the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer? It seems the same, except that some features are gained earlier/later...