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New Showroom Reflection: The Leviathan

Every once in a while, I look back on my work and consider the decisions I’ve made and why I’ve made them. If you ever find yourself wondering why a piece came out the way it did, or just want some insight into the thought behind homebrew in general, you’ll find these articles interesting.

Today, I’m looking back at my Leviathan Warlock Patron, and considering its similarities to and differences from the new Unearthed Arcana Warlock Patron, The Lurker in the Deep. 

Full article here, and a preview below the read-more!

Showroom Reflection: The Leviathan Patron

This reflection addresses my Leviathan otherworldly patron for the Warlock class. Click through here to view the Leviathan patron as a PDF, or see the end of this article to view it in image form.

While I did produce this before the similarly themed Lurker in the Deep patron was released in the official UA articles, I'll address some differences in design philosophy, since comparisons are inevitable.

Groundwork

Some time ago, I ran a campaign that took place in the depths of the sea. With a player looking to branch out into spellcasting with the Warlock, I offered to produce a new patron- which soon came to be called the Leviathan- to fit the player's character as smoothly into the campaign as possible. If memory serves, my two major goals at the time were the following:

Make sure that no matter what Race my player chose, they felt at home in the water.

Building off of that last goal, make sure that none of the subclass' features conflict with an already aquatic race.

I did have a third goal, though, which I address in all of my designs:

This content must accommodate more than one character or campaign type.

What I mean by that, in this case, is that if a player is drawn to this patron in a non-aquatic campaign setting, there should still be something to draw them to the class.

After setting my goals, I looked over the core Warlock Patrons found in the Player's Handbook to determine what sort of abilities were given to the Warlock at any given level. I left out the Xanathar's patrons because what I wanted was a baseline, not a comprehensive analysis of trends in Warlock design. I was prepared to break these 'rules', but I thought it best to know what they were first:

1st Level: The Mark- These features are low on mechanical impact, but heavy on Narrative flavor.

6th Level: Intervention- These features provide some sort of fail-safe for the warlock when things aren't going their way, usually costing them their Reaction.

10th Level: Adaptation- These features grant the warlock a passive resistance to effects that their patron would normally resist or be immune to.

14th Level: Taste of Power- These features grant the warlock a powerful active ability that channels the wrath of the warlock's patron.

I'll break down the rest of this reflection by feature, to make this more digestible.