D&D 5E Mike Mearls Lolth Patron for Warlock

[MechaTarrasque]

The subclass write up can be found at: https://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/11/20/warlock-patron-lolth-the-spider-queen-by-mike-mearls/. Goddess, demon lord, archfey--is there anything Lolth can't do?

It might be showing up in a future UA.

The first pact boon is an interesting 4e-ish take on changing shape to spider.

Speaking of 4e and thinking of the idea that settings are genre, it looks like Nentir Vale might have one: Wanted a setting that had a limited space, but in that space tapped into a lot of its big conflicts (rather than regional ones).

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting: the design team seems to be moving from generalized types to particular, in their home stuff and in UA stuff...

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Interesting: the design team seems to be moving from generalized types to particular, in their home stuff and in UA stuff...

Good point.

In some ways, Lolth straddles the fiend/fey patron divide: she is a fiend whose worshippers are mostly descended from fey. Jubbilex and Demogorgon are GOO-ish fiends--it makes me wonder if there could be distinct warlock pacts for them. I could see the Jubbilex one having you turn into an ooze, maybe conjure a couple of low-level oozes at 6th level, added resistances at 10th level, and at 14th level you can summon an ooze somewhere you were a day ago and switch places with it (fake your own death). I admit I am stretching on the last one.

For spells:

1st entangle, grease
2nd enlarge/reduce (become a bigger ooze), melf's acid arrow
3rd slow, stinking cloud
4th evard's black tentacles, vitriolic sphere
5th cloudkill, contagion

 

[pukunui]

This is cool. I can see Lolth making pacts with warlocks as well as giving spells to clerics.

And I hope this is a hint that we might see the Nentir Vale make a comeback in some form.

 

[Parmandur]

This is cool. I can see Lolth making pacts with warlocks as well as giving spells to clerics.

And I hope this is a hint that we might see the Nentir Vale make a comeback in some form.

It's in the same boat as Birthright or Mystara, in that the developers remember it and continue yo bring it up, but it didn't rate a mention in the setting popularity survey they did a while back. Also, not sure what the genre hook the setting might have, which seems to be the new thing for WotC...

 

[pukunui]

I know. It's just wishful thinking on my part really.

 

[Parmandur]

I know. It's just wishful thinking on my part really.

Given strange aeons, who knows what they may do?

 

[Aviose]

It seems to be something he did primarily for his own home-brew campaign.

 

[Parmandur]

It seems to be something he did primarily for his own home-brew campaign.

On one hand, that is true: on the other, it is pretty clearly a trial balloon to see how the ideas are received.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I think it is easier to bring fluff from the Vale into FR than it is from Dark Sun or Eberron (which to a certain extent are reactions to "basic fantasy" D&D), so I suspect we will see it mined more frequently than those other settings (until they set an adventure in one of those settings).

Bring back PoL as a supported setting? I am not sure. There are things you can do there, such as the underdark being more open to elemental intrusions (including demons), demons as elementals, angels that work for any god, primal spirits vs. everyone, and an A List pantheon, but I think they need a genre hook, maybe metaplot something to the effect that the barriers separating the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos have opened enough to let more things through in the Vale. That would make it valuable real estate for celestials, elementals, and primal spirits (and maybe abberations, fey, and shadow types if more than one barrier weakened) trying to control a beachhead. Due to power sources, they all have people getting power from them in the Vale. In addition, you would have humanoids trying to keep the Vale livable for themselves (and maybe get some power on the side). While FR has an apocalypse every other week, it isn't like Tiamat is running into the Elemental Princes or the Demon Lords, so a potential convergence of apocalypses (and the struggle to prevent this) could be PoL's gimmick.