Warlock Otherworldly Patron: The Primordial Gale

[Liran Sterling]

In an upcoming campaign, a player of mine will be playing a warlock, but he wanted something that fit the campaign setting a bit better. The setting involves airships, and so I made him the following subclass. He's happy with it conceptually, but now I'm looking to balance it. This is version 1.1, as version 1.0 was uploaded to reddit.

My goal with this subclass was to give the feeling of quick and light movements like wind, and to make a subclass for moving about the battlefield, similar in design space as the swashbuckler rogue. So tell me what you think!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bsv...ew?usp=sharing

[Blackbando]

Oooh, wind. I love wind magic stuff.

Expanded Spells List
Seems good to me.

Lightened Step
Also seems good to me.

Zephyr's Flight
Not really the best wording, and could use some clarification. Can you fly upwards? Also, I don't think this is strong enough to warrant recharging on a long rest. I'd make it short or long rest, personally.

Wind's Aegis
The once per turn clause is redundant; you only have 1 reaction per round. It looks fine, though.

Force of Nature
Kinda weird? I guess it synergizes with catapult, but it doesn't really fit the theme of the subclass imo.

Tempetous Updraft
What does it mean by the (Charisma score in d6s)? Is that the max? How much it does?

Overall, not too shabby, but needs some work.

[Composer99]

IMO the Force of Nature feature just doesn't mesh with the theme of the subclass, and it makes Tempestuous Updraft look bizarre while it's at it.

Speaking of Tempestuous Updraft, having "deal force damage" as the trigger for your bonus action also doesn't really seem to mesh with "power of the wind".

[thegreatone5224]

I have to agree that Force of Nature doesn't seem to fit the theme too much. Outside of something like catapult or some attacks with weapons, how often are you really going to be dealing bludgeoning damage? Why doesn't it become force damage and not just magical bludgeoning as if it were a magical weapon?

Also, why doesn't Tempestuous Updraft just deal normal fall damage? Why does it have to be force damage in this case? It seems if you blow them straight up in the air, they would just fall and take damage like normal and the extra text about rolling d6 equal to your Charisma would be unnecessary and make everything much cleaner.

[Fire Tarrasque]

It seems good generally, but as the others have said, force of nature is a bit weird, as it's mostly a buildup to Tempestuous Updraft. Furthermore, Tempestuous Updraft seems a bit... Underwhelming, as it can be casually out damaged by a Witch Bolt from characters five or six levels lower, even ignoring the continuation of Witch Bolt. The flying speed is thematic, but how useful is it really? Honestly, the best part of that ability is probably the fact that it incapacitates an enemy for a turn, though many DMs might render this useless by the effected having a flying speed, the spell fly, feather fall, or levitate.
It really feels like this is two Patrons smashed together, as up to and including Wind Aegis, it seems to be a gentle, stealthy, more utility focused Warlock, and then afterwords, alongside some of the expanded spell list (Basically Storm Sphere and Cloudkill) seem to be focused on more straightforward murder. This honestly seems like a Patron for a stealth Warlock, as Tempestuous Updraft allows the party to all prepare actions for when they come down, allowing you to take out a single target quickly.
All in all: I think it's good, if a bit odd.
I'm no expert though.