[Cosmos] Subclass - Artificial Intellect Patron

You have bound yourself to the mercy of an Artificial Intellect, a synthetic mind far beyond mortal comprehension. Such entities’ motives are often incomprehensible, obfuscated beneath multitudinous layers of logic, order, and directive.

Your patron is likely a technomantic intellect, such as WARDEN, the master of the technoplanet Atelia, or Atr0pOS, the phantom virus that plagues the holonet. Beyond the realms of technomancy, other kinds of transcendent minds can also serve as your patron, such as the cogwork god-plane of Axiom or the anonymous hacker collective Polyphema.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This warlock entreats with an artificial intelligence, a mechanical mind that far surpasses that of mortals. It’s your favorite Ghost in the Shell/AI warlock — the GLaDOS, SHODAN, Ultron, Guilty Spark, Max Headroom, or whatever current sentient horror in the machine — speaking to you.

Interestingly, 5e designers already released a UA (Unearthed Arcana playtest) warlock with this flavor, one intended for a custom Modern campaign. This Cosmos setting is different enough that both subclass designs aren’t compatible - plus this one has a bit more compatibility with traditional settings.

The design process was long, with many ideas vying for a spot. I also wanted to keep the theming flexible, without forcing the warlock to be one specific type of technomancer/hacker character. In the end, I think it worked out fairly well, with two features that build on each other to reduce overall complexity. There were ideas of artificial minds concentrating on spells for you, but it would have been much too limiting.

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 The typical warlock progression is as follows: a subclass-defining 1st level feature (e.g. Great Old One, Fiend, Fathomless), a defensive, resistive, or mobility-based benefit for 6th and 10th levels (their offensive power comes from full-caster spells, so this adds flavor), and then a 14th level powerful capstone.

Let’s take a look at the Artificial Intellect patron. This warlock is mainly an enchantment/conjuration/control build, themed around running programs and interacting with others intelligently.

Expanded Spells

Each level of spell offers two choices, one technomancy spell from the book and one non-technomancy spell to expand the versatility. Command and lightning bolt are both good combat spells. Overload and Viral Payload leans more toward control. Animate objects, though a weird choice at first, is meant to shore up the control flavor and the visual of a technomancer manipulating everyday devices like printers, computers, etc via malware..

Peripheral Intellect

At this level, you gain a thematic object that links you to your patron: any kind of computing device you choose, which you use to do your magic. The intended imagery is a hacker who presses buttons and executes programs to make things happen. This could be just a handheld phone (a flip phone for cool points), or perhaps a little wrist-strap screen. There’s a lot of text, but it is mainly a read-and-forget situation.

To make the whole chunk of text worthwhile though - the peripheral grants you advantage on one Intelligence check per rest. Advantage is easily gainable, typically through Help, so it’s in the middle for power. I chose a rest limitation because it syncs with the other feature, reducing upkeep. This lends flavor to this intelligent patron who would lend a portion of its intellect to assist you, as well as make hacking (a big part of this subclass) easier.

Quick-Scan

This feature grants either bonus attack or bonus damage, once per creature per rest. While not as useful in single boss monster fights (because you can’t stack these bonuses, e.g. Genie), this shines in fights against hordes. Instead of dealing bonus damage once per turn, you could theoretically activate it several times on your first turn with a well-placed Eldritch Blast. It’s also an interesting 1-level multiclass option for martial classes, but not to the extent of Hexblade.

A d4 is appropriate at this level, equivalent to one bless or one divine favor, just spread across multiple creatures throughout the day. Unless you’re repeatedly escaping and fighting the same monster again (hopefully the GM can use common sense here), the once-per-rest duration is essentially once per creature.

The feature uses a bonus action, but to free up the action economy, it also allows a free action use when rolling initiative. This avoids over-taxing bonus actions, especially when the popular warlock spell hex requires a bonus action. The Genie’s bonus damage doesn’t require actions as well.

Power-wise, a d4 compares well to a Genie’s d4 damage; Fathomless does do d8 damage, BUT it relies on an attack, requires a bonus action, and thus has reduced overall effectiveness. Genie and Fathomless deal this damage once per turn; assuming an average fight length of 3-5 rounds, it should equal out to the average 3-5 enemies per combat.

In any case, d4 is pretty low, so it ramps up to a d6 at 6th level, and d8 at 14th level to keep it kind of relevant. Undying warlock basically gets an extra d10 damage at 6th level, so I feel somewhat comfortable with the scaling.

Admin Access

This feature grants additional options for Quick-Scan. You learn some preliminary info about the monsters you mark (as sort of an exploration feature).

The DDos option is your typical warlock defensive option, causing your target to make a save to attack you. This is the equivalent of a sanctuary spell. It has a similar effect to the Great Old One warlock’s 6th level feature with the benefit of using it more than once per rest, although 1) you don’t gain the subsequent advantage, 2) you may only end up redirecting the attack and thus haven’t mitigated damage, 3) the creature may succeed on the save, and 4) it costs your mark so you can’t use its other benefits. Seems alright to me.

Exploit Vulnerability is a more situational use, since a typical party should have access to alternative damage types to bypass resistances or immunities. It does cost an action, but you learn for free how to hit it and any protections it has. I considered an ability to impose vulnerabilities on the creature (to really drive in the pun), but it’s got too many potential abuse cases to allow on its own (e.g. you effectively double the damage of a Big Spell for basically free).

Ghost in the Machine

(Not Ghost in the Shell)

The warlock gets a free cast of a 4th-level spell with some perks. It’s basically like the Fathomless warlock’s 10th level but slightly different. Instead of gaining temp HP from casting the spell (as a defensive ability), the summoned mech instead grants half cover to you, which is significant! This could stack really well if you choose the Guardian Protocol for the mech, forcing enemies to focus on the mech instead.

The summoned mech is also a great option for roleplay (imagine walking around with a guard mech, or reanimating a dead Construct as a persuasive tactic) or exploration (it can scout for you, or if you’re Small you can even ride it around).

Embrace Singularity

A final capstone, dealing damage comparable to the Fiend’s capstone. 4d10 against multiple targets (who can still succeed on the save) is similar to 10d10 against one target that automatically takes the effect. The nice benefit is that it moves enemies regardless of size - good for positioning - and that you can place the singularity in the air for bonus fall damage.

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Both this warlock and the Cyborg Archetype are among my favorite subclasses. There's so many interesting ways to play and use them, and both are unique in their own right. I hope you get the chance to play them and take them for a test ride!

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As a reminder, this book will be the last scheduled content for Aripockily. Everyone who pledged/supported during the month of September will receive the upcoming book, which will be done by October (hopefully). See this post for more details.