I am playing a Vengeance Paladin 6/Shadow Sorcerer 8/Hexblade 1 in a heroic, save the world type of campaign. I chose shadow sorcerer for the free darkness spell and because the Strength of the Grave ability was a cool feature for my melee gish. Overall the character has performed like I hoped, but I am puzzled by the hound of ill omen ability.
At 6th level you gain the ability to call forth a howling creature of darkness to harass your foes. This description is just fluff; everyone can see the hound, right?
The hound uses the dire wolf statistics with the following changes:
It appears with a number of temp hp equal to half your sorcerer level. I assume this means that it has 37 hp (the dire wolf stat block) plus the temp hp. I thought this was obvious but I have been in some discussions outside of the campaign with people suggesting that the intent of the temp hp was that the hound should have low hp and couldn't be healed.
At the start of its turn, the hound automatically knows its target's location. If the target is hidden, it is no longer hidden from the hound. Since my character has to be able to see the target to summon the hound in the first place, this feature only comes into play if the target hides after the hound is summoned. Furthermore, just because the hound knows the location of the target doesn't mean my character does, and this feature doesn't give the hound any way to help my character know the target's location. Finally, knowing the location of a target isn't the same as seeing it. Does the hound still have disadvantage on attacks against a target that is invisible or within the radius of a darkness spell, and does such a target have advantage on attacks against the hound? By RAW I think the answer is yes to both. That hardly seems worth 3 SP.
...while the hound is within 5 feet of the target, the target has disadvantage on saving throws against spells you cast. This seems to be the main benefit of the hound. It grants the same benefit as Heightened Spell for the same 3 SP cost, but Heightened Spell only lasts for one spell while the hound could potentially force disadvantage on saves for more than one round.
On its turn it can move only toward its target by the most direct route, and it can use its action only to attack the target...The hound disappears if it is reduced to 0 hp, if its target is reduced to 0 hp, or after 5 minutes. In a recent session I used a bonus action to summon the hound next to a demon, used my action to cast banishment, and succeeded in banishing the demon. At that point the target was neither present nor at 0 hp so the hound could neither move nor attack. Can it do anything? Is it a sentient being capable of defending itself? I would say the answer is no.
Overall I like shadow sorcerer and feel like the hound is a good fit for my character's outlander/hunter background, but it seems like a weak 6th level ability, especially considering that 3 SP could be used to twin a 3rd level spell like Haste. The few times I have used it was primarily to improve my chances of landing a spell and the hound was only useful for 1-2 rounds. If that's all it's used for, it really doesn't matter if it's a dire wolf. It could just as well be a dire mouse. The 5 minute duration is odd. It's much longer than any combat but not long enough to track anything outside of combat. I would rate this ability much higher if it would help me target hidden creatures, or if it could change to a new target a la Hunter's Mark, or if it didn't require 3 SP to cast and recharged on a short or long rest. Am I missing something? I was hoping you all could help me better understand this class ability.
At 6th level you gain the ability to call forth a howling creature of darkness to harass your foes. This description is just fluff; everyone can see the hound, right?
The hound uses the dire wolf statistics with the following changes:
It appears with a number of temp hp equal to half your sorcerer level. I assume this means that it has 37 hp (the dire wolf stat block) plus the temp hp. I thought this was obvious but I have been in some discussions outside of the campaign with people suggesting that the intent of the temp hp was that the hound should have low hp and couldn't be healed.
At the start of its turn, the hound automatically knows its target's location. If the target is hidden, it is no longer hidden from the hound. Since my character has to be able to see the target to summon the hound in the first place, this feature only comes into play if the target hides after the hound is summoned. Furthermore, just because the hound knows the location of the target doesn't mean my character does, and this feature doesn't give the hound any way to help my character know the target's location. Finally, knowing the location of a target isn't the same as seeing it. Does the hound still have disadvantage on attacks against a target that is invisible or within the radius of a darkness spell, and does such a target have advantage on attacks against the hound? By RAW I think the answer is yes to both. That hardly seems worth 3 SP.
...while the hound is within 5 feet of the target, the target has disadvantage on saving throws against spells you cast. This seems to be the main benefit of the hound. It grants the same benefit as Heightened Spell for the same 3 SP cost, but Heightened Spell only lasts for one spell while the hound could potentially force disadvantage on saves for more than one round.
On its turn it can move only toward its target by the most direct route, and it can use its action only to attack the target...The hound disappears if it is reduced to 0 hp, if its target is reduced to 0 hp, or after 5 minutes. In a recent session I used a bonus action to summon the hound next to a demon, used my action to cast banishment, and succeeded in banishing the demon. At that point the target was neither present nor at 0 hp so the hound could neither move nor attack. Can it do anything? Is it a sentient being capable of defending itself? I would say the answer is no.
Overall I like shadow sorcerer and feel like the hound is a good fit for my character's outlander/hunter background, but it seems like a weak 6th level ability, especially considering that 3 SP could be used to twin a 3rd level spell like Haste. The few times I have used it was primarily to improve my chances of landing a spell and the hound was only useful for 1-2 rounds. If that's all it's used for, it really doesn't matter if it's a dire wolf. It could just as well be a dire mouse. The 5 minute duration is odd. It's much longer than any combat but not long enough to track anything outside of combat. I would rate this ability much higher if it would help me target hidden creatures, or if it could change to a new target a la Hunter's Mark, or if it didn't require 3 SP to cast and recharged on a short or long rest. Am I missing something? I was hoping you all could help me better understand this class ability.
