Breaking down "Psychic Spells" from Great Old One warlock and consequences
I really like the new Psychic Spells feature of the Great Old One warlock.
I'm writing this post to get my thoughts in order about it, and get your feedback on my interpretation of that feature.
It also comes with a few questions I have on the consequences.
Level 3: Psychic Spells
When you cast a Warlock spell that deals damage, you can change its damage type to Psychic. In addition, when you cast a Warlock spell that is an Enchantment or Illusion, you can do so without verbal or somatic components.
There are two things: Changing the damage type, and the removal of verbal and somatic components for a subset of the warlock spells.
Changing the damage type.
That's kind of neat without breaking anything.
- A Psychic Fireball must be nice thing to behold
- The ability to still eldritch blast the shit out of that helmed horror is a nice backup plan.
- It seems to be a good way to make sure that you're not going to be resisted too much.
Some weird question come to my mind, tho.
Q1: Does a fireball/fire bolt still set things on fire if their type is changed to psychic ?
Q2: If the answer to Q1 is "yes" would it be a psychic fire dealing psychic damage ?
Q3: Would that work with spells that don't directly deal damage, or deal damage just on a condition ? Like, say ... Hex ?
Removing Verbal and Somatic Components.
Affected spells
The list of affected spells:
| Spell | Level | Comment / Usefulness of Psychic Spell for this spell |
|---|---|---|
| Friends | 0 (at will) | Nice to use this in social situation where casting spell could lead to problems. |
| Mind Sliver | 0 (at will) | Deal damage with no V/S/M components as a cantrip |
| Minor Illusion | 0 (at will) | Being able to cast minor illusion in a crowded area without being detected opens a lot of nice interactions. |
| Vicious Mockery (*) | 0 (at will) | (through Pact of the tome) Deal damage with no V/S/M components |
| Bane | 1 | |
| Charm Person | 1 | see Friends, but longer duration and costs a spell slot |
| Disguise Self (#) | 1 (at will) | At will, component less disguise is very VERY cool. If you can't think of anything to do with that, think again. |
| Hex | 1 | Allowing to use Hex in a social situation to give someone disadvantage to Insight/Perception/Persuasion/Whatever is really cool. Can also be cast before combat, saving a bonus action on the first round. |
| Illusory Script | 1 | |
| Silent Image (#) | 1 (at will) | Spammable Silent Image is very nice. You can do it all day and cast minor illusion to do the sound and make your Silent Image not so silent. Definitely opens some nice things. Maybe even usable in combat. |
| Tasha's Hideous Laughter | 1 | Opening move ? |
| Crown of Madness | 2 | Can create really messed up situations without actually participating to the combat. The visible crown is still an indication that something is happening. |
| 2 | Sadly, not eligible. | |
| Dissonant Whispers(@) | 2 | |
| Enthrall | 2 | |
| Hold Person | 2 | Opening move ? |
| Invisibility | 2 | Opening Move ? Nice escape button at low level. Getting away before thing get sour can be cool with no notice can be cool. |
| Mirror Image | 2 | |
| Suggestion | 2 | Potentially awesome. |
| Phantasmal Force(@) | 2 | An illusion that only the victim sees can be fun in a social setting where you want people. to believe the victim is mad. |
| Fear | 3 | Opening Move ? Also, they drop whatever they are holding. |
| Hypnotic Pattern | 3 | Opening Move ? |
| Major Image | 3 | |
| Charm Monster | 4 | |
| Confusion (@) | 4 | Possibly as an opening move ? Confusion does not break when enemies are taking damage, so dropping this on a group and taking them down as they emerge from Confusion is possibly viable, even if the spell is not that good to begin with. |
| Hallucinatory Terrain | 4 | |
| Dream | 5 | |
| Hold Monster | 5 | Opening Move ? |
| Mislead | 5 | Now usable in a social setting. Not sure what we're trying to achieve tho. Possibly give you an alibi while you're stealing something in an other room ? Also, that's a 1 hour invisibility. |
| Modify Memory (@) | 5 | |
| Synaptic Static | 5 | Opening Move ? |
| Befuddlement | 8 | End the fight against the enemy caster before it started. |
| Dominate Monster | 8 | Opening Move ? |
| Glibness | 8 | |
| Power Word Stun | 8 | Opening Move ? |
| Power Word Kill | 9 | Oops. The king got an stroke ! |
| Weird | 9 |
(*) Through Pact of the Tome only
(#) Through Mask of Many Faces or Misty Visions only
(@) From subclass only
For me the moist interesting spells are:
- (S) Mind Sliver, (Vicious Mockery), Minor Illusion, Hex
- (A) Friends, Disguise Self, Silent Image
- (B) Suggestion, Modify Memory , Confusion, Fear, Crown of Madness
- (C) Phantasmal Force
Hidden damage
One straightforward usage for that is to use damaging spells without being obviously threatening and not being identified as the source of the damage.
You can do this by hiding in plain sight (possibly with a false apparence), quietly sitting on a chair somewhere in the room.
You can do this hidden for real with the hide action. Casting a spell without a verbal component does not break stealth in 2024 ! This makes me want to play a wood-elf warlock :)
check while you're Heavily Obscured or behind Three-Quarters Cover or Total Cover, and you must be out of any enemy's line of sight; if you can see a creature, you can discern whether it can see you.
On a successful check, you have the Invisible condition. Make note of your check's total, which is the DC for a creature to find you with a Wisdom (Perception) check.
The condition ends on you immediately after any of the following occurs: you make a sound louder than a whisper, an enemy finds you, you make an attack roll, or you cast a spell with a Verbal component*.*
Q4: Can you cast Mind Sliver (VS) while hidden without breaking stealth, giving away your position or your identity ?
Q5: If you're in a crowd and casting Mind Sliver (VS) at someone, can the victim pinpoint where the damage is coming from ?
Giving Instructions
Some spells require you to give instructions to the victim orally (Suggestion / Modify Memory) or have the victim hear what you're saying (Vicious Mockery, presumably power words ). That's where our innate telepathic powers got us covered. Possibly.
Q6: Can you use Vicious Mockery to kill people while insulting them telepathically without emitting a sound ?
Q7: Can you use your telepathy with Suggestion to suggest something and still avoid being seen speaking to the victim ?
Q8: Can you use your telepathy with Modify Memory dictate new memory and still avoid being seen speaking to the victim ?
Opening Moves
I am wondering what happens if you cast an effectively hostile spell without any component to trigger the combat.
I think there is a niche utility for Psychic Spells here.
Example: lets say you cast Fear on a group you're talking to. They probably have no clue you're doing anything until Fear kicks in, at which point they have no doubt someone casted an aggressive spell on them. Combat ensues.
How should we handle that ?
Q9: Would you have everyone roll for initiative before or after FEAR resolves ?
Q10: In case the answer to the question above is "after", would the warlock have their action available on the first round ? If answer is "before", what would you do for the characters that act before the warlock and are not aware a combat is about to stat ?
Q11: Are there other inventive ways to manage this without giving a free additional action to the warlock or having ennemies getting to act before they even know there is a combat ?
Bonus questions:
- A: Are there any nice interactions I might have missed ?
- B: Some other cool things that Psychic Spells can do ?
- C: Some spells that I did not list is my top list and are worth it with Psychic Spells ?
Answers ?
Some of the questions above are purely rhetorical, some others are a verification and some others are really open to interpretation.
I'm really looking forward to check what everyone thinks about this very nice class feature.
My personal answers to this would be:
Q1: by RAW, yes. Fireball says "It ignites flammable objects in the area that aren’t being worn or carried." and changing the damage type does not affect this line.
Q2: I'd say, sadly "no". The fire is on ignited object is a normal fire, not tied to the fireball spell.
Q3: I would say that it works with Hex. Hex does damage.
Q4: I would say yes. You stay hidden. One person has a serious headache, but noone knows where you are. But they will probably search you.
Q5: I would say "no" you're not doing anything obvious. I'd be possibly asking for a Performance roll to blend in the crowd to avoid making
Q6: Vicious Mockery says nothing about deafen creature, or not being able to hear you. I would say "yes" by RAW.
Q7: spell says "you suggest" without more precision. I'd say "yes" ?
Q8: Modify Memory says "You must speak to the target to describe how its memories are affected, and it must be able to understand your language for the modified memories to take root." I would say "no" by RAW. I'd probably still allow it in a game. The spell is not game breaking and the fix (remove curse is only lvl 3)
Q9: I'd say I would roll the initiative after Fear resolves.
Q10: by RAW, combat starts only after initiative has been rolled. by RAW warlock should have their action on the first round. But that seem overpowered.
Q11: I would probably move the warlock on top of initiative regardless of their roll but not give them an action on the first round. So there is an advantage (starting combat with a control spell ongoing and ability to move first) but no double action to really take advantage of that.