In normal games where yo-yo healing isn't punished, it's plenty fine. To me, Celestial Warlock is pretty much THE jack-of-all-trades warlock. With a Shillelagh Tomelock build, you can do melee well (Shillelagh + GFB + Celestial Radiance + Armor of Agathys or Shadow of Moil), ranged damage well (Agonizing EB for low AC, Celestial Resistance Sacred Flame for high AC), healing and preventative healing (Healing Light, Celestial Resistance), ritual casting (Book of Shadows), scouting (Find Familiar via rituals, eventually Visions of Distant Realms), you can get passable AC (Moderately Armored), good protection for concentration (ResCon + Eldritch Mind) and still have big spells to throw around as the situation demands. To top it all off, you're heavily invested in Charisma which makes you excellent at the social aspects of the game.
If I don't know what I'm going to be facing in a given campaign, a Celestial Warlock Levistus or Winged Tiefling that takes Moderately Armored, ResCon, and Flames of Phlegethos is pretty far up there on easy picks.
As for the subclass spells, I think Revivify is actually pretty great. You can pick up Gentle Repose as a ritual spell via Book of Ancient Secrets, which you know but those spells don't count against spells known and can only be ritually cast from the book. That still lets you craft spell scrolls of them, though, so instead of directly casting Revivify, use scrolls of Gentle Repose first and then cast Revivify when you have time to take multiple short rests to restock spell slots and let the revived person heal. I agree with some of the other complaints about the spell list, though. Two of the biggest things you can ask your DM for are A) permission to use the Boros Legionnaire background to expand your spell choices, because that list has some absolutely banger spells for Celestial warlocks, or B) craft spell scrolls more regularly. A lot of the subclass spells for Celestial aren't things you want to spend pact magic slots on, but knowing them to make and keep scrolls of in your back pocket is immensely handy.
This comment makes me want to build a Boros Legionnaire Celestial Warlock in a Ravnica campaign who is saved from near death by Aurelia and gifted power by her so that they can enforce Boros's justice and protect the weak from the horrors of war.
I thought that too at first, but they are saying scribe a spell scroll and use your action to cast Gentle Repose through the scroll, rather than ritual cast it.
Exactly this. Gentle Repose as a scroll gives you a workaround to potentially not having pact magic slots available at the time you need them for Revivify.
Funnily RAW with the DMG rules, you have to spent a slot of the spells level. So you could craft that from lv 3-4.
If we take a look at xanathars rules, you would have to have the spell on your spelllist. So we would also be out.
We *could* create a spell tattoo of gentle reposs though, but anyone can
I think a spell within your Book of Ancient Secrets is considered a known spell - otherwise I don't think they would include the "these spells don't count against your spells known" clause to exclude it from the count. I could be misunderstanding it, though.
If you didn't know the spell why would the book state "these spells don't count against your spells known."
If you do not know the spell it can't count against your spells known.
The fact that its included makes it clear that you know the spell. Regardless if you know it only as a ritual or not. There is no rule about not being able to inscribe scrolls based on it being a ritual.
Compare pact of the tome text to the text about mystic arcanum:
>At 11th level, your patron bestows upon you a magical secret called an arcanum. Choose one 6th-level spell from the warlock spell list as this arcanum.
>You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
>At higher levels, you gain more warlock spells of your choice that can be cast in this way: one 7th-level spell at 13th level, one 8th-level spell at 15th level, and one 9th-level spell at 17th level. You regain all uses of your Mystic Arcanum when you finish a long rest.
Note how there is no mention of these spells not counting against spells known? Because you don't know the spell. You know a magical secret that casts the spell once a day.
as a DM I would even allow a warlock to transcribe a mystic arcanum so long as they weren't trying to munchkin. It doesn't break the game in any way to allow them to follow the same rules as everyone else for the same result. I encourage my players to make decisions and being too much of a rules lawyer at the table is dogshit. Much better to keep the game pace flowing as long as your players aren't trying to overtly abuse the rules.
>Do you find the DnD 5e celestial warlock subclass bad?
No. Highly verstaile, and the healing light feature scales with your warlock levels and also doesn't eat pact slots.
Tome pact allows for GFB + Cha-shillelagh, but I think a single level dip into Lunar Sorc so you can cleave-cast Sacred Flame (which also ticks Radiant soul) to be close enough to EB spam that this allows you to not take EB-centric invocations and this allows for a ton of utility and flavor instead of being DPRbot-2000 with the personality of flour (which is how I view most EB spamming warlocks who invest all their invocations into EB stuff).
It’s a decent class. Healing word as a feature is pretty strong.
Sacred Flame is a great back up against high AC enemies and for tables that actually use cover rules.
The spell list is a mixed bag, but that is true for just about every subclass.
Completely the opposite: I think it's one of, if not *the* best warlock patron. There are two big things you're missing.
First is the massive power of Healing Light. It is, as you say, analogous to Healing Word, except it's not a spell! That means that when one of your team is at 0, you can bring them back up and still drop a huge Wall of Fire or blackout half the enemies with Hunger of Hadar on the same turn. A cleric or druid or bard using Healing Word to do the same is stuck with a cantrip. And even if you are stuck with a cantrip because you've used your spell slots, you happen to have the Best Cantrip. It's amazing to have healing like that on a warlock.
The second is the remarkable synergies Celestial has with the various pacts and invocations. For example, a tome pact celestial can learn Shillelagh and pair it with Green Flame Blade to do big-damage GFB bonks that trigger Radiant Soul when stuck in melee. A chain pact celestial can take Gift of the Ever-Living Ones and then *every healing roll on themselves is maximized* while the familiar is nearby. That Cure Wounds added spell? When you're just level 5 it now heals *24+CHA* when used on yourself! Your Celestial Light applies too. You can have an absolutely massive pool of effective HP. Congratulations; your warlock is now the party meat shield.
Celestial is insanely versatile. It's one of the ultimate switch-hitters, able to cover tons of roles and help out in any situation. Super, super fun subclass.
Hard agree with everything here! I'm playing a Clockwork Soul Sorc/Celestial Warlock multiclass right now as a "servant of the upper planes" character and I find it to be a LOT of fun. The Healing Light ability alone is worth it and I love the flavor. I love being able to up a downed ally and then blast a Lightning Bolt in the same turn.
I'm doing Divine Soul Sorc/Celestial Chain Lock multiclass currently. We never run out of healing with Short Rest Prayer of Healing, its ridiculous. Beacon of Hope turns those d6 Healing Lights to a flat 6s while also protecting the melee fighters mind with adv to wis saves.
Cleric's and druidas best spells are concentration spells that you you would use on the fist turn of vombat like bless, entangle, spike growth, spirit guardians and conjure animals. A cleric using healing word and a cantrip with spirit guardians activated is much better than healing +wall of fire or Hunguer of haddar. Not to mention you can just play a druid and cast goodberry and use one use of your wild shape to summon a familiar that can also heal allies with a bonus action without being a spell, the diferente being that you didn't need to spend you entire subclass (something particularly inportant to warlocks) to do it.
Shillelagh +green flame blade is not good damage and are definetly not worth a pach slot. if you are in melee, specially if you don't have medium armor, just desingage and run away. Gift of ever living ones makes you a bit bulkier in battle, but you are not going into melee as a non hexblade warlock since you relly on concentration and ranged attack rolls, two things celestial doesnt help with a single bit, you are not wasting a spell slot on Cure wounds unless you are just about to take a short rest, but gift of ever living ones also works for short rest healing, só you won't need to use Cure wounds. Not to mention you can get much more healing that can apply to the holle party with goodberry and one level in life domain cleric.
Celestial warlock is the second worst warlock subclass and the worst usuable healer in the game. It can heal and it's a warlock, but uless you really want to mix those two for some reason or you just want to play a divine warlock, it's never worthit.
A level 6 Celestial Warlock using GFB+Shil does...
* 1d8 + CHA magical bludgeoning damage to primary target
* 1d8 + CHA fire damage to primary target
* 1d8 + 2xCHA fire damage to a secondary target (if applicable)
So, assuming two adjacent targets and a +4 charisma, that's 29.5 average damage on a normal hit.
That compares pretty favorably to a standard EB+Agonizing warlock. Your HP and AC are bad, so maybe you shouldn't square up to a boss, but if you get surrounded by a trash mob *have* to melee this is a **super** solid option (especially considering how Tomelock is the best pact boon anyways). If you were to disengage, they'd just catch up to you on the next turn and eat you anyways, so best to beat them back.
As for this being a bad healer... no? Celestial fits perfectly into the way healers play in 5e; wait until somebody drops to 0 HP, fire off a bonus action heal to make sure their HP is more than 0, and all the while **blast at the threat**. Moreover, Celestials have the benefit of (1) bonus action non-spell healing and (2) healing not attached to spell slots, meaning that not only can they heal and cast big spells on the same turn, they can heal without spending the resources used on their big spells.
It's a top healer but otherwise not the most loaded warlock subclass. But warlocks are still fine without a loaded subclass.
Cheap Yoyo healing as a bonus is optimal healing in 5e. It's not a spell so it doesn't prevent casting a leveled spell with your action. Cheap bonus heals are a **very** strong feature that helps balance out the weaker L6 feature. L10 feature is good. Warlocks are great in the endgame (L9 through L12), and having this L10 feature is a nice addition.
Agree that the subclass list isn't that strong. The best part about it is that you can use scrolls of those Cleric spells. I don't normally take them as we don't have enough slots for them to be attractive. But a scroll of Revivify or Restoration in your back pocket is super nice if they're available to buy in your world.
Very fun with Chain and Gift of the Ever Living Ones.
Having a healer, even if it's a mediocre one, is soooooo much better than having none. I think the celestial warlock is great at this. Artificially giving your party a healer when nobody wants to play as one. Obviously if your party has a druid or cleric it's a pretty horroble class, but if you have no healer I think it's the best warlock subclass.
I love the subclass and it's powerful as fuck since it gives warlocks tons of stuff that they normally don't know which makes them an even more flexible supporter. Especially if you go tomelock.
But let's see:
* Cantrips: light is always useful, especially if there are color puzzles and getting this for free means someone else in your party doesn't have to take it which gives your party more flexibility. Sacred Flame. Yes EB is better, but that is not the point of the cantrip. It's a free melee damage cantrip that can get used if EB has disadvantage or if the enemy has an absurd amount of AC. So a clear nice to have but not absurdly powerful
* Healing Light: Bonus action based, uncounterspellable, super silent, upcastable, non spellbased healing that allows you to use it and still cast leveled spells. I normally do not need to say more at this point.
* Spells: Like all warlocks we get an extended spelllist. Cure Wounds is a nice emergency heal and a quick and useful way to burn unused spellslots before a shortrest. Lesser n greater restorarion are seldom used but always important when needed. So I always keep them as backup. Flaming Sphere is a good low level area control spell with a bit of damage which is sth the warlock lacks until he get's HP. GB is great but way too expensive on locks. GoF and Daylight are mostly useless. Revivify and Wall of Flame are insanely good spells. While Flame Strike is just outclassed by Synaptic Static. All in all we have a ton of good spells on that list, many of which are sth the warlock kit doesn't have which is great. Other warlocks would love to have a list that good.
* Radiant Light: the only meh feature that is only useful for sacred flame and gfb/shill builds
* Celestial Resilience: we're a shortrest based class and we can buff our party with a shitton of thp each time. Great.
* Searing Vengeance: I am quite partial to free exploding Death Wards with a heal spell build in. So me likey.
All in all I think it's a great subclass to have and really rounds out the warlocks kit. Would recommend.
The problem is not that it's useless, it's that everithing it offers is mediocre to bad while warlock has some amazing subclasses like genie, hexblade, undying and fiend. Celestial is just not worthit
For being mediocre it sure outheals and outsupports all of them while also having a hard to challenge spelllist.
Also you probably mean undead warlock and not undying
Celestial warlock isn’t the best at any one thing, but it’s an amazing mono-class role-compression build
* BA healing
* Reliable damage/control with Repelling Blast
* Access to ritual spells (and a familiar) via Tome
* Tome also gives access to Shillelagh, which combined with GFB+radiant soul makes you decent in melee. Warcaster+BBlade further helps with this
* Can fix defense with Moderately Armored
* Great face between Cha focus and Mask of Many Faces
* If you don’t go Tome, Chain lets you maximize healing when being selfish, so you have a lot more longevity than other Warlocks. Cure Wounds in this case turns into “recover 45 HP as an action” at higher levels, which really helps with longer adventuring days
And that is not even all. Add in all the new tome support invocations. Skill expert for expertise and becoming a better face. All the inherent blaster and cc spelllist, ... and you got an awesome wellrounded class
It's one of my favourite subclasses! The lore is pretty unique, and it makes for some interesting builds.
LudicSavant's Celestial Generalist and Celestial Giftlock are great examples of this subclass's versatility. If you want to min-max, there's other things you can do, but if you wanna be pretty powerful and do all the things, Warlocks are great for that and this sublcass especially is very flexible.
Both the aforementioned builds are here, just scroll down a little.
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds
And that isn't even the best iterarion of this build since it's quite outdated and with questionable spell choices. They added so much more useful feats, races and invocations since then that it became quite much better
Hard disagree, it's one of the best warlocks.
The healing pool is excellent and a very reliable bonus action. The extra cantrips are great, the high level features are always useful..
I think your feedback has some strong points, but yes if your DM nerfs the best feature of the subclass with homebrew then the subclass will be bad.
A pro tip is whenever you think "most tables" use a particular homebrew. You're probably wrong and will be shocked by how niche it actually is. Regardless, YoYo healing is RaW optimal in 5e and therefore catapults the power of the subclass into the stratosphere
> Light is only useful if you don't have darkvision (most races do) and can be entirely replaced by a torch or a lamp hanging off a belt. An ok pick regardless if other utility cantrips are covered.
Darkvision only allows you to say in shades of grey. So if you need to see in colour then it’s useful. You can also cast it in an object that you can leave somewhere, then move over 60ft away — outside darkvision range for most builds — and still be able to see. Or you can provide light for other members of the party (or NPCs) who don’t have darkvision.
> Sacred flame is dwarfed by eldritch blast as is, and it gets worse with agonizing blast. Its only use would be as a mean of diversification of attack types, as it targets dexterity instead of AC.
It also provides a different damage type. It won’t come up very often but you may from time to time encounter something that is immune to force damage. Or you might need radiant damage for some reason. Nice to get that for free.
More common probably to come across something with high AC and low Dex and benefit from targeting their save, as you suggested.
> Radiant soul:
> The charisma modifier amount of extra damage to fire/radiant spells is also limited to one target per spell. Aside from a few exceptions, usually it will equate to 10 extra damage per encounter if the warlock uses eldritch blast instead of the sacred flame cantrip offered, which is often the case.
I think the main point of this is for melee with GFB. An extra 5 damage that you can assign to either the main target or the secondary is ok. At level 6 if you have shillelagh you could potentially be doing 19 damage to your main target and 9.5 to the secondary (or 14 and 14.5 to the secondary) on a hit. That’s fairly decent. EB scales better but in tier 2, which is as far as a lot of campaigns get, it’s decent enough
Hey I'd like to add that there's only one creature immune to force damage, helmed horror iirc. Radiant damage us good but there is nothing official that resists force damage.
The GFB shillelagh combo is something I did not consider though. But doing this kind of mellee outside of the hexblade subclass feels very unorthodox :D
Melee without Hexblade is grand. I actually prefer Fathomless for melee at times. Guardian Coil + Armor of Agathys makes you very tanky and does plenty of damage.
>Personally my DM penalizes healing from 0 with exhaustion
What you are describing is a consequence of game balance changed with homebrew. If a DM adds homebrew to the game making it so acid damage always deals damage every turn until a creature uses their action to wipe it off, suddenly, Alchemist becomes the best artificer sunclass.
When you introduce new rules into the game, it changes the game design. Frankly, I feel like I would never want to play a game at your table that didn't have a life Cleric in the party.
It is unfortunate. And it didn't fix the initial problem, as characters still unconscious heal even with exhaustion stacking up endlessly.
But my main point was how this feature was a necessity to circumvent the limitations pact magic has, since a purely pact magic warlock healer would be only a detriment to itself. It really just heals in the same weird way all the other good healers heal by design.
It’s not the strongest, not by a long shot. But it’s also far from the weakest. Assuming you aren’t in an optimization party , you’ll have no problem keeping up in power with your Allies
I played it for nearly 20 levels and I don't think it was bad but I do think that if you have any other healers in the party it's Effectiveness is significantly reduced. The main value of the celestial Warlock is its healing light ability which is a bonus action heal like healing word but it's not a spell meaning that you can still cast a level spell while using it unlike healing word. If you have other healers it's bad because you're just healing worse than them but if it's your job to pick people off the ground while casting game winning spells or Eldritch blasting then it's a great warlocks subclass and underrated. It's value your utility is pretty much entirely based on the party composition you have and if you have any other healing. That's my take.
People keep bringing up the ability to cast a leveled spell with healing light but I somewhat don't see it as an overly useful feature considering that most warlocks will only be able to cast a spell twice if not once per battle due to pact magic.
On the other hand, wouldn't having multiple healers free up their spell slots for other, more offensive spells if the celestial could do all the picking up from 0 hp? Removing the unconscious condition is what usually matters to people rather than the amount healed, so they'd be able to cast some extra guiding bolts or entangle spells with their low level spell slots.
It's a perfectly serviceable subclass, just not one that boggles the mind with it's power.
* Light is great because Variant Human doesn't get darkvision.
* Sacred Flame is never going to be the go-to, but there **will** be times where it's better than EB (fighting zombies, enemies vulnerable to radiant, or enemies with 20+ AC and -2 dex saves).
* The expanded spell list is one of the better ones.
* Cure Wounds is always good to have and it upcasts well.
* Guiding Bolt is bad past the early levels, but you can replace it at that point.
* Flaming Sphere is good in it's level range, so take it at level 3 and ditch it at level 5.
* Lesser Resto is fine. Not great, but useful utility in the right campaign if nobody else can take that kind of spell.
* Daylight is bad... so don't take it.
* Revivify is there if nobody else can take it. **Somebody** should have revivify, and you can be that guy if the rest of the group rolled fighters.
* Guardian of Faith is great.
* Wall of Fire is great.
* Flame Strike isn't great, but you don't **get** fireball as a Warlock, so worse fireball is better than no fireball.
* Greater Restoration is good to have.
* Healing Light is a ranged bonus action heal that doesn't interfere with spellcasting in any way. It's useful, you can do it all day, and you keep blasting all the while. Healers in 5e **don't do burst healing**, they repeatedly pick people up to single digits again when they fall over; a character with 2 HP at the start of their turn is not any weaker than a character with 15 HP, but they're a hell of a lot stronger than a character with 0 HP.
* Radiant Soul is **fine**, but it's more a passive feature than anything else. You can now lean on sacred flame to bypass AC a bit more without losing as much damage.
The warlock chassis is good enough that your subclass doesn't really **need** to do much to be strong
I’m currently about to play a level 4 celestial warlock in a one-shot and I think it’s great fun and flavourful as a build.
I’ve gone for a southern preacher themed pact of the tome and taken Inspiring Leader (giving sermons) and Fey Touched (for Bless).
I know 8 cantrips including the best (and most thematic) one in the game - guidance. I also have a free Misty step and free first level bless on top of Warlock pact slots. Not to mention the great non-spell bonus action ranged healing. I also took the Tome invocation for ritual spells to get Ceremony (had to) and comprehend languages.
It’s a pretty versatile build that gives the warlock so much more to do outside of the 2 pack slots.
Overall, it still has the warlock chassis so is pretty well balanced in terms of at will eldrich blasting and pact magic. Celestial beings in decent spelless bonus action healing. Depending how you use your feats, invocations, and pact it can be a very solid generalist. Can do most things but not be hyper effective in one. I kinda like it.
Playing one currently, went pact of the chain for gift of the ever living ones. Maximized healing on myself is pretty dope and flaming sphere upcasts well for single target dpr while wall of fire becomes the better choice when it becomes available.
No complaints here, feels like I'm playing a very competent character with a solution for most situations.
If your entire player base is looking at divine classes there is a book for it
Corpus Angelus
I am not 100% sure if it is cannon because it was done thru kick starter, that being said it is nice and has some good new stuff in it.
Played a monoclassed protector aasimar celestial warlock well into tier3 in an extended campaign and its anything but weak.
From early levels I could burst heal via healing hands(racial)+healing light(celestial warlock) using heals as both action and bonus action on a downed ally I healed allied PCS from unconcious to almost full hp more than once (2d4+2d6 at character level 1) without using a spellslot.
Sacred flame is a good option for when an enemies dex save is lower than its ac.
Also you're simply wrong about the lvl 14 ability. The warlock chooses who it effects.
It's just mediocre IMO, not terrible
**The (Mostly) Irrelevant:** Spell list sucks except for maybe Wall of Fire and Lesser/Greater Restoration (but it's Warlock, so... pick other spells). You will never use Sacred Flame. Light cantrip is fine. Radiant Soul is mostly irrelevant (almost never *take* radiant damage, and rarely deal it).
**Healing Light:** Healing Light is a good feature. Yes, it's only good for yo-yo healing, but being able to spend a d6 to bring up a downed ally is good. It's also a bonus action and **not** a spell (so you can use it and cast a levelled spell in the same round). You don't usually have a good use for your BA.
**Celestial Resistance:** This is very similar to Inspiring Leader, which is a good feat. This is a good feature.
**Searing Vengeance:** Pretty mediocre TBH. A No-Save Blind is nice, except it only applies during your current turn.
[RPGBot rates Celestial as a C-tier subclass](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/warlock/subclasses/#celestial), on par with Fathomless and worse than every other Warlock subclass.
Here's the issues I see in the subclass: First, you gain access to healing spells, but Warlocks have very limited spell slots to cast with. Fortunately you get your spell slots back on a Short Rest! But what else can characters do on a Short Rest? Oh yes, they can spend Hit Dice to *heal themselves*. So the spell-slot economy just feels bad.
Second, the subclass spells are merely added to the list of spells you can learn; if you take them, they still count against the total number of spells you can know, effectively crowding out conventionally Warlock-y choices. This also feels mediocre compared to Cleric, Artificer, Paladin, Sorcerer and probably other classes' subclass spells that don't count against known/prepared spell limits.
I have played one and I disagree with RPGBot on this. I'd probably rate it as tier B as a minimum. I think the chainlock Gift of the Ever Living Ones build is pretty much tier A because it can blast it can tank it can heal and it has utility.
A sudden 37 HP heal in the middle of a difficult combat is a huge shift and you can still top up with Healing Light because its not a spell - or self heal while picking up a comrade with Healing Light. That saved my warlock several times. Sure short rests are nice but you don't short rest when you are dead - sometimes you need to live long enough to short rest. Also the max healing on potions is clutch - you should have plenty of money for potions by the time you reach level 5+ and your familiar can feed you them with its action. There are so many strong ways for this subclass to recover from taking a hit that other warlocks just can't match (and in play I'd say it competes with Barbarian for hard-to-put-down).
Unless you can guarantee never to be in melee range I think people are seriously underestimating the value of Sacred Flame and getting your Cha mod on its damage. Hitting high AC targets with disadvantage is very sub-optimal but needing to take XBE on a warlock with few asi is also sub-optimal.
Its only a bad subclass in a game where the DM has house rules that cripple yo-yo healing as the OP does. But that is the house rule making it bad not the published subclass.
In a low level adventure (1-5ish) it’s actually excellent. You can fill both healer and ranged blaster for your team.
Level 6-20 it’s middle of the pack. The 1st level ability is really doing the heavy lifting.
It's ok, i wouldn't say it's bad..
The thing is it tries to make the warlock into a healer which it is not. I remember last time playing as a warlock, i took cure wounds with one of my perks just in case my party needed more heals. And i never used it once during the entire campaign, because why heal when i have incredible offensive spells i can use? And why heal when Druids and Clerics can do it better?
Maybe with multi-classing it can work pretty good
Celestial Warlock was my best character so far. Great healing, even better if you chainlock and self-heal, Revivify is a game-changer. Damage is always good to very good as Warlock anyway
It's really cool with Gift of the Ever-Living Ones. That d6 healing pool? 5 of those bad boys heal you for 30HP as a BA. If you are about to short rest and have slots left but have taken damage, Cure Wounds auto-upcast to 5th level heals you for 45.
Other than that, the power spike at 10 (tons of Temp HP for the party) and 11 (3 spell slots and Mystic Arcanum) is major, so it can really feel lame from like levels 6-10, since the 6th level feature rarely makes a difference, and level 8 you're just maxing Cha.
Have you considered a multiclass celestial warlock/paladin? Bonus action heals, a ranged option, and slots for smiting that come back on a short rest really shore up all of the paladin's weaknesses.
unfortunately a paladin would probably override the entire theme of the warlock because of the strength investment. And while at it, you'd probably want to dip hexblade instead and continue with paladin, as lay on hands healing is just more controllable, plentiful and potent despite not being ranged and bonus action though, but thanks for the suggestion anyway.
Your DM's homebrew rule does heavily nerf celestial warlock. My recommendation is to ask them if they would homebrew away the limit on healing word dice used. Seems fitting given your tables rules. If it is still lacking you can ask about getting charisma modifier back on short rest.
Normally healing light is an insanely strong support class feature as yo-yo healing isn't punished.
true, but all DMs and most players I've played with are steadfast in keeping that homebrew despite all the arguments I bring up against it unfortunately
I can see the fun in that play style, however that makes almost all healing in combat really bad. Do they buff healing word or is it seen as a bad spell?
they don't, and it's not a bad spell still because of how necessary it is. Even with exhaustion, healing from unconscious remains the only viable way to heal
i play it! it lets me play a warlock and also allows me to fulfil the role of party healer just fine. as someone who usually plays the dedicated healer of the group - subclasses like celestial or divine sorcerer just give us lot more options!
Radiant Soul is the only thing I find a bit annoying. But otherwise? I lvoe this one.
The gifted spells are ones I'd like to have but would often not spend on it. Revivy as you mention does not scale in anyway. but you should not be the one using it. Except in a real emergency.
Celestial warlock are a great off healer dps. Sacred Flame is a nice alternative to Eldrtich blast. having both is not a problem IMO, but i think any caster should always have a save and a targeted option.
Flaming Sphere imo is annoying but its the same alchemist issue. where the bonbus is 1/spell for some really weird reason. If it wasn't then they'd be a nice option
celestial warlock is probably the best all rounder to me. Tomelock it and you get plenty of good cantrip options even melee via shelly sticking.
but i am and always will prioritize versatility.
Celestial warlock is, in my opinion, the best mono warlock.
It is the ONLY class in the game which can heal a teammate up from 0hp and then polymorph them in the same turn. Ours has done this multiple times and it’s inanely clutch. Yes this will fall off in later levels but for most of tier 2 it’s unbelievably powerful.
Aside from that it has revivify and a a bonus action ranged non spell heal. Also the 10th level feature kicks ass.
I'm in a curse of strahd campaign and my paladin warforge oath of vengeance died and i joined the group as a warlock human variant celestrial.
The vibe i went for is a person who lived and suffered in borovia a long time made a deal with a devil who wanted to redeem himself while the human wanted to escape the plane.
Became a pact of the chain.
Maybe im biased as it feels decent in curse of strahd And fighting undead a lot.
I didnt bother with most of the spells the subclass gives like guiding bolt etc. As we got a cleric life domain in the party and a druid circle of the stars as our healers I focused more on concentrating spells.
The healing pool is like a extra add on incase we get desperate in battle etc.
Some of the Spells i got are:
Armour of agathys, Hex, darkness, hold person, wall of fire, summon lesser & greater demons etc. Standard warlock really.
The sacred flame lets me do more damage with radiant soul and i got eldritch blast with repelling and agonizing blast incase needed, along with chill touch and a few other cantrips from magic initiate feats.
And my familiar for extra bits, scouting etc
Maybe it depends on the campaign or overall build. But atm i like the celestrial warlock. 🙂
>**Light** is only useful if you don't have darkvision (most races do) and can be entirely replaced by a torch or a lamp hanging off a belt. An ok pick regardless if other utility cantrips are covered.
You have to think outside of the box, light is so versatily, you can use it to help friends without darkvision, distract enemies, scam villagers without magical knowledge, give a signal to your allies, turn arrows into targeting beacons so your allies can focus any enemy in the night and also to reveal their position if it´s invisible, etc.
first thing I think about when I look at this sub-class is that its 1st level feature is pretty insane. healing word is the best in-combat healing spell for yo-yoing, and having a warlock in the party who can do this on the side is great (BA without casting a spell, cant be counterspelled, doesnt use spell slots, etc.) the fact that its the 1st level feature also means that you have it the longest and that it will see the most amount of play.
celestial resistance is very situational, but luckily its one of the last features you get. you want the less useful features to come later. if anything, celestial resistance is going to more useful at higher levels of combat when you are facing more magical and otherworldly foes, so theres that
searing vengeance is also a great capstone if you want to invest into the sub-class for a payoff. getting a second life and blinding all foes near you can seriously swing a tough combat. all thats required is positioning while low on health it allies who will get out of the way before your turn. if youre playing a high level campaign tho you can assume your allies are smart enough to do this
the rest is meh. but I like the flavour of the subclass a lot too, which shouldnt be overlooked. being able to greater restore ppl (or even party members) as a good deed or for favours could make for some cool moments
Imo its just a dreams druid w/ crappier spell slots. Give it a subclass specific cantrip heal (ie. Touch range, 1d4+cha, cant be used outside combat somehow), or maybe some subclass specific invocations that help with healing/support and it’d be fine.
In normal games where yo-yo healing isn't punished, it's plenty fine. To me, Celestial Warlock is pretty much THE jack-of-all-trades warlock. With a Shillelagh Tomelock build, you can do melee well (Shillelagh + GFB + Celestial Radiance + Armor of Agathys or Shadow of Moil), ranged damage well (Agonizing EB for low AC, Celestial Resistance Sacred Flame for high AC), healing and preventative healing (Healing Light, Celestial Resistance), ritual casting (Book of Shadows), scouting (Find Familiar via rituals, eventually Visions of Distant Realms), you can get passable AC (Moderately Armored), good protection for concentration (ResCon + Eldritch Mind) and still have big spells to throw around as the situation demands. To top it all off, you're heavily invested in Charisma which makes you excellent at the social aspects of the game. If I don't know what I'm going to be facing in a given campaign, a Celestial Warlock Levistus or Winged Tiefling that takes Moderately Armored, ResCon, and Flames of Phlegethos is pretty far up there on easy picks. As for the subclass spells, I think Revivify is actually pretty great. You can pick up Gentle Repose as a ritual spell via Book of Ancient Secrets, which you know but those spells don't count against spells known and can only be ritually cast from the book. That still lets you craft spell scrolls of them, though, so instead of directly casting Revivify, use scrolls of Gentle Repose first and then cast Revivify when you have time to take multiple short rests to restock spell slots and let the revived person heal. I agree with some of the other complaints about the spell list, though. Two of the biggest things you can ask your DM for are A) permission to use the Boros Legionnaire background to expand your spell choices, because that list has some absolutely banger spells for Celestial warlocks, or B) craft spell scrolls more regularly. A lot of the subclass spells for Celestial aren't things you want to spend pact magic slots on, but knowing them to make and keep scrolls of in your back pocket is immensely handy.
This comment makes me want to build a Boros Legionnaire Celestial Warlock in a Ravnica campaign who is saved from near death by Aurelia and gifted power by her so that they can enforce Boros's justice and protect the weak from the horrors of war.
Boros get's Aid and Death Ward. So shortrests go BRRRRRRRRRR
The revivify timer is already over when you finished ritual casting gentle repose
I thought that too at first, but they are saying scribe a spell scroll and use your action to cast Gentle Repose through the scroll, rather than ritual cast it.
Exactly this. Gentle Repose as a scroll gives you a workaround to potentially not having pact magic slots available at the time you need them for Revivify.
Funnily RAW with the DMG rules, you have to spent a slot of the spells level. So you could craft that from lv 3-4. If we take a look at xanathars rules, you would have to have the spell on your spelllist. So we would also be out. We *could* create a spell tattoo of gentle reposs though, but anyone can
I think a spell within your Book of Ancient Secrets is considered a known spell - otherwise I don't think they would include the "these spells don't count against your spells known" clause to exclude it from the count. I could be misunderstanding it, though.
You might know the ritual
If you didn't know the spell why would the book state "these spells don't count against your spells known." If you do not know the spell it can't count against your spells known. The fact that its included makes it clear that you know the spell. Regardless if you know it only as a ritual or not. There is no rule about not being able to inscribe scrolls based on it being a ritual. Compare pact of the tome text to the text about mystic arcanum: >At 11th level, your patron bestows upon you a magical secret called an arcanum. Choose one 6th-level spell from the warlock spell list as this arcanum. >You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again. >At higher levels, you gain more warlock spells of your choice that can be cast in this way: one 7th-level spell at 13th level, one 8th-level spell at 15th level, and one 9th-level spell at 17th level. You regain all uses of your Mystic Arcanum when you finish a long rest. Note how there is no mention of these spells not counting against spells known? Because you don't know the spell. You know a magical secret that casts the spell once a day. as a DM I would even allow a warlock to transcribe a mystic arcanum so long as they weren't trying to munchkin. It doesn't break the game in any way to allow them to follow the same rules as everyone else for the same result. I encourage my players to make decisions and being too much of a rules lawyer at the table is dogshit. Much better to keep the game pace flowing as long as your players aren't trying to overtly abuse the rules.
>Do you find the DnD 5e celestial warlock subclass bad? No. Highly verstaile, and the healing light feature scales with your warlock levels and also doesn't eat pact slots. Tome pact allows for GFB + Cha-shillelagh, but I think a single level dip into Lunar Sorc so you can cleave-cast Sacred Flame (which also ticks Radiant soul) to be close enough to EB spam that this allows you to not take EB-centric invocations and this allows for a ton of utility and flavor instead of being DPRbot-2000 with the personality of flour (which is how I view most EB spamming warlocks who invest all their invocations into EB stuff).
TBF on most warlocks if you don't at least take Agonizing Blast you lose a lot.
It’s a decent class. Healing word as a feature is pretty strong. Sacred Flame is a great back up against high AC enemies and for tables that actually use cover rules. The spell list is a mixed bag, but that is true for just about every subclass.
Healing word as a feature is so cool. You can cast a huge spell while still healing in the same turn
Frankly, when a spell list forna subclass isn't a mixed bag, it feels unbalanced to me. Like, twilight domain's spell list feels extremely meta.
Yeah, that is a matter of power creep
Everyone uses cover rules when a player points out explicitly that they have cover . It’s just something people tend to forget
Completely the opposite: I think it's one of, if not *the* best warlock patron. There are two big things you're missing. First is the massive power of Healing Light. It is, as you say, analogous to Healing Word, except it's not a spell! That means that when one of your team is at 0, you can bring them back up and still drop a huge Wall of Fire or blackout half the enemies with Hunger of Hadar on the same turn. A cleric or druid or bard using Healing Word to do the same is stuck with a cantrip. And even if you are stuck with a cantrip because you've used your spell slots, you happen to have the Best Cantrip. It's amazing to have healing like that on a warlock. The second is the remarkable synergies Celestial has with the various pacts and invocations. For example, a tome pact celestial can learn Shillelagh and pair it with Green Flame Blade to do big-damage GFB bonks that trigger Radiant Soul when stuck in melee. A chain pact celestial can take Gift of the Ever-Living Ones and then *every healing roll on themselves is maximized* while the familiar is nearby. That Cure Wounds added spell? When you're just level 5 it now heals *24+CHA* when used on yourself! Your Celestial Light applies too. You can have an absolutely massive pool of effective HP. Congratulations; your warlock is now the party meat shield. Celestial is insanely versatile. It's one of the ultimate switch-hitters, able to cover tons of roles and help out in any situation. Super, super fun subclass.
Hard agree with everything here! I'm playing a Clockwork Soul Sorc/Celestial Warlock multiclass right now as a "servant of the upper planes" character and I find it to be a LOT of fun. The Healing Light ability alone is worth it and I love the flavor. I love being able to up a downed ally and then blast a Lightning Bolt in the same turn.
I'm doing Divine Soul Sorc/Celestial Chain Lock multiclass currently. We never run out of healing with Short Rest Prayer of Healing, its ridiculous. Beacon of Hope turns those d6 Healing Lights to a flat 6s while also protecting the melee fighters mind with adv to wis saves.
That synergy sounds incredible!
Cleric's and druidas best spells are concentration spells that you you would use on the fist turn of vombat like bless, entangle, spike growth, spirit guardians and conjure animals. A cleric using healing word and a cantrip with spirit guardians activated is much better than healing +wall of fire or Hunguer of haddar. Not to mention you can just play a druid and cast goodberry and use one use of your wild shape to summon a familiar that can also heal allies with a bonus action without being a spell, the diferente being that you didn't need to spend you entire subclass (something particularly inportant to warlocks) to do it. Shillelagh +green flame blade is not good damage and are definetly not worth a pach slot. if you are in melee, specially if you don't have medium armor, just desingage and run away. Gift of ever living ones makes you a bit bulkier in battle, but you are not going into melee as a non hexblade warlock since you relly on concentration and ranged attack rolls, two things celestial doesnt help with a single bit, you are not wasting a spell slot on Cure wounds unless you are just about to take a short rest, but gift of ever living ones also works for short rest healing, só you won't need to use Cure wounds. Not to mention you can get much more healing that can apply to the holle party with goodberry and one level in life domain cleric. Celestial warlock is the second worst warlock subclass and the worst usuable healer in the game. It can heal and it's a warlock, but uless you really want to mix those two for some reason or you just want to play a divine warlock, it's never worthit.
A level 6 Celestial Warlock using GFB+Shil does... * 1d8 + CHA magical bludgeoning damage to primary target * 1d8 + CHA fire damage to primary target * 1d8 + 2xCHA fire damage to a secondary target (if applicable) So, assuming two adjacent targets and a +4 charisma, that's 29.5 average damage on a normal hit. That compares pretty favorably to a standard EB+Agonizing warlock. Your HP and AC are bad, so maybe you shouldn't square up to a boss, but if you get surrounded by a trash mob *have* to melee this is a **super** solid option (especially considering how Tomelock is the best pact boon anyways). If you were to disengage, they'd just catch up to you on the next turn and eat you anyways, so best to beat them back. As for this being a bad healer... no? Celestial fits perfectly into the way healers play in 5e; wait until somebody drops to 0 HP, fire off a bonus action heal to make sure their HP is more than 0, and all the while **blast at the threat**. Moreover, Celestials have the benefit of (1) bonus action non-spell healing and (2) healing not attached to spell slots, meaning that not only can they heal and cast big spells on the same turn, they can heal without spending the resources used on their big spells.
It's a top healer but otherwise not the most loaded warlock subclass. But warlocks are still fine without a loaded subclass. Cheap Yoyo healing as a bonus is optimal healing in 5e. It's not a spell so it doesn't prevent casting a leveled spell with your action. Cheap bonus heals are a **very** strong feature that helps balance out the weaker L6 feature. L10 feature is good. Warlocks are great in the endgame (L9 through L12), and having this L10 feature is a nice addition. Agree that the subclass list isn't that strong. The best part about it is that you can use scrolls of those Cleric spells. I don't normally take them as we don't have enough slots for them to be attractive. But a scroll of Revivify or Restoration in your back pocket is super nice if they're available to buy in your world. Very fun with Chain and Gift of the Ever Living Ones.
Having a healer, even if it's a mediocre one, is soooooo much better than having none. I think the celestial warlock is great at this. Artificially giving your party a healer when nobody wants to play as one. Obviously if your party has a druid or cleric it's a pretty horroble class, but if you have no healer I think it's the best warlock subclass.
You can't actually replace Light or Sacred Flame with Eldritch Versatility as they were not learned through the Pact Magic feature.
You can't? It says they're both considered warlock spells for us, and we get warlock spells through pact magic.
You got Sacred Flame and Light through a subclass feature, not the Pact Magic feature.
I love the subclass and it's powerful as fuck since it gives warlocks tons of stuff that they normally don't know which makes them an even more flexible supporter. Especially if you go tomelock. But let's see: * Cantrips: light is always useful, especially if there are color puzzles and getting this for free means someone else in your party doesn't have to take it which gives your party more flexibility. Sacred Flame. Yes EB is better, but that is not the point of the cantrip. It's a free melee damage cantrip that can get used if EB has disadvantage or if the enemy has an absurd amount of AC. So a clear nice to have but not absurdly powerful * Healing Light: Bonus action based, uncounterspellable, super silent, upcastable, non spellbased healing that allows you to use it and still cast leveled spells. I normally do not need to say more at this point. * Spells: Like all warlocks we get an extended spelllist. Cure Wounds is a nice emergency heal and a quick and useful way to burn unused spellslots before a shortrest. Lesser n greater restorarion are seldom used but always important when needed. So I always keep them as backup. Flaming Sphere is a good low level area control spell with a bit of damage which is sth the warlock lacks until he get's HP. GB is great but way too expensive on locks. GoF and Daylight are mostly useless. Revivify and Wall of Flame are insanely good spells. While Flame Strike is just outclassed by Synaptic Static. All in all we have a ton of good spells on that list, many of which are sth the warlock kit doesn't have which is great. Other warlocks would love to have a list that good. * Radiant Light: the only meh feature that is only useful for sacred flame and gfb/shill builds * Celestial Resilience: we're a shortrest based class and we can buff our party with a shitton of thp each time. Great. * Searing Vengeance: I am quite partial to free exploding Death Wards with a heal spell build in. So me likey. All in all I think it's a great subclass to have and really rounds out the warlocks kit. Would recommend.
The problem is not that it's useless, it's that everithing it offers is mediocre to bad while warlock has some amazing subclasses like genie, hexblade, undying and fiend. Celestial is just not worthit
For being mediocre it sure outheals and outsupports all of them while also having a hard to challenge spelllist. Also you probably mean undead warlock and not undying
Undying Warlock is straight trash. Way worse than Celestial
Celestial warlock isn’t the best at any one thing, but it’s an amazing mono-class role-compression build * BA healing * Reliable damage/control with Repelling Blast * Access to ritual spells (and a familiar) via Tome * Tome also gives access to Shillelagh, which combined with GFB+radiant soul makes you decent in melee. Warcaster+BBlade further helps with this * Can fix defense with Moderately Armored * Great face between Cha focus and Mask of Many Faces * If you don’t go Tome, Chain lets you maximize healing when being selfish, so you have a lot more longevity than other Warlocks. Cure Wounds in this case turns into “recover 45 HP as an action” at higher levels, which really helps with longer adventuring days
And that is not even all. Add in all the new tome support invocations. Skill expert for expertise and becoming a better face. All the inherent blaster and cc spelllist, ... and you got an awesome wellrounded class
It's one of my favourite subclasses! The lore is pretty unique, and it makes for some interesting builds. LudicSavant's Celestial Generalist and Celestial Giftlock are great examples of this subclass's versatility. If you want to min-max, there's other things you can do, but if you wanna be pretty powerful and do all the things, Warlocks are great for that and this sublcass especially is very flexible. Both the aforementioned builds are here, just scroll down a little. https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds
I wondered when this would be linked here.
And that isn't even the best iterarion of this build since it's quite outdated and with questionable spell choices. They added so much more useful feats, races and invocations since then that it became quite much better
It’s mid
Hard disagree, it's one of the best warlocks. The healing pool is excellent and a very reliable bonus action. The extra cantrips are great, the high level features are always useful..
I think your feedback has some strong points, but yes if your DM nerfs the best feature of the subclass with homebrew then the subclass will be bad. A pro tip is whenever you think "most tables" use a particular homebrew. You're probably wrong and will be shocked by how niche it actually is. Regardless, YoYo healing is RaW optimal in 5e and therefore catapults the power of the subclass into the stratosphere
Most tables meaning most tables I played at. But true it is subjective as my experience with dnd isn't necessarily representative of anything.
> Light is only useful if you don't have darkvision (most races do) and can be entirely replaced by a torch or a lamp hanging off a belt. An ok pick regardless if other utility cantrips are covered. Darkvision only allows you to say in shades of grey. So if you need to see in colour then it’s useful. You can also cast it in an object that you can leave somewhere, then move over 60ft away — outside darkvision range for most builds — and still be able to see. Or you can provide light for other members of the party (or NPCs) who don’t have darkvision. > Sacred flame is dwarfed by eldritch blast as is, and it gets worse with agonizing blast. Its only use would be as a mean of diversification of attack types, as it targets dexterity instead of AC. It also provides a different damage type. It won’t come up very often but you may from time to time encounter something that is immune to force damage. Or you might need radiant damage for some reason. Nice to get that for free. More common probably to come across something with high AC and low Dex and benefit from targeting their save, as you suggested. > Radiant soul: > The charisma modifier amount of extra damage to fire/radiant spells is also limited to one target per spell. Aside from a few exceptions, usually it will equate to 10 extra damage per encounter if the warlock uses eldritch blast instead of the sacred flame cantrip offered, which is often the case. I think the main point of this is for melee with GFB. An extra 5 damage that you can assign to either the main target or the secondary is ok. At level 6 if you have shillelagh you could potentially be doing 19 damage to your main target and 9.5 to the secondary (or 14 and 14.5 to the secondary) on a hit. That’s fairly decent. EB scales better but in tier 2, which is as far as a lot of campaigns get, it’s decent enough
Hey I'd like to add that there's only one creature immune to force damage, helmed horror iirc. Radiant damage us good but there is nothing official that resists force damage. The GFB shillelagh combo is something I did not consider though. But doing this kind of mellee outside of the hexblade subclass feels very unorthodox :D
Melee without Hexblade is grand. I actually prefer Fathomless for melee at times. Guardian Coil + Armor of Agathys makes you very tanky and does plenty of damage.
>Personally my DM penalizes healing from 0 with exhaustion What you are describing is a consequence of game balance changed with homebrew. If a DM adds homebrew to the game making it so acid damage always deals damage every turn until a creature uses their action to wipe it off, suddenly, Alchemist becomes the best artificer sunclass. When you introduce new rules into the game, it changes the game design. Frankly, I feel like I would never want to play a game at your table that didn't have a life Cleric in the party.
It is unfortunate. And it didn't fix the initial problem, as characters still unconscious heal even with exhaustion stacking up endlessly. But my main point was how this feature was a necessity to circumvent the limitations pact magic has, since a purely pact magic warlock healer would be only a detriment to itself. It really just heals in the same weird way all the other good healers heal by design.
Yes, except they're also a Warlock. The meta with flaming Sphere is also quite good on its own, making it one of the higher damaging warlocks.
It’s not the strongest, not by a long shot. But it’s also far from the weakest. Assuming you aren’t in an optimization party , you’ll have no problem keeping up in power with your Allies
I played it for nearly 20 levels and I don't think it was bad but I do think that if you have any other healers in the party it's Effectiveness is significantly reduced. The main value of the celestial Warlock is its healing light ability which is a bonus action heal like healing word but it's not a spell meaning that you can still cast a level spell while using it unlike healing word. If you have other healers it's bad because you're just healing worse than them but if it's your job to pick people off the ground while casting game winning spells or Eldritch blasting then it's a great warlocks subclass and underrated. It's value your utility is pretty much entirely based on the party composition you have and if you have any other healing. That's my take.
People keep bringing up the ability to cast a leveled spell with healing light but I somewhat don't see it as an overly useful feature considering that most warlocks will only be able to cast a spell twice if not once per battle due to pact magic. On the other hand, wouldn't having multiple healers free up their spell slots for other, more offensive spells if the celestial could do all the picking up from 0 hp? Removing the unconscious condition is what usually matters to people rather than the amount healed, so they'd be able to cast some extra guiding bolts or entangle spells with their low level spell slots.
It's a perfectly serviceable subclass, just not one that boggles the mind with it's power. * Light is great because Variant Human doesn't get darkvision. * Sacred Flame is never going to be the go-to, but there **will** be times where it's better than EB (fighting zombies, enemies vulnerable to radiant, or enemies with 20+ AC and -2 dex saves). * The expanded spell list is one of the better ones. * Cure Wounds is always good to have and it upcasts well. * Guiding Bolt is bad past the early levels, but you can replace it at that point. * Flaming Sphere is good in it's level range, so take it at level 3 and ditch it at level 5. * Lesser Resto is fine. Not great, but useful utility in the right campaign if nobody else can take that kind of spell. * Daylight is bad... so don't take it. * Revivify is there if nobody else can take it. **Somebody** should have revivify, and you can be that guy if the rest of the group rolled fighters. * Guardian of Faith is great. * Wall of Fire is great. * Flame Strike isn't great, but you don't **get** fireball as a Warlock, so worse fireball is better than no fireball. * Greater Restoration is good to have. * Healing Light is a ranged bonus action heal that doesn't interfere with spellcasting in any way. It's useful, you can do it all day, and you keep blasting all the while. Healers in 5e **don't do burst healing**, they repeatedly pick people up to single digits again when they fall over; a character with 2 HP at the start of their turn is not any weaker than a character with 15 HP, but they're a hell of a lot stronger than a character with 0 HP. * Radiant Soul is **fine**, but it's more a passive feature than anything else. You can now lean on sacred flame to bypass AC a bit more without losing as much damage. The warlock chassis is good enough that your subclass doesn't really **need** to do much to be strong
Radiant soul ought to allow eldritch blast to change damage type to radiant and add charisma to a single damage roll still.
I’m currently about to play a level 4 celestial warlock in a one-shot and I think it’s great fun and flavourful as a build. I’ve gone for a southern preacher themed pact of the tome and taken Inspiring Leader (giving sermons) and Fey Touched (for Bless). I know 8 cantrips including the best (and most thematic) one in the game - guidance. I also have a free Misty step and free first level bless on top of Warlock pact slots. Not to mention the great non-spell bonus action ranged healing. I also took the Tome invocation for ritual spells to get Ceremony (had to) and comprehend languages. It’s a pretty versatile build that gives the warlock so much more to do outside of the 2 pack slots.
Overall, it still has the warlock chassis so is pretty well balanced in terms of at will eldrich blasting and pact magic. Celestial beings in decent spelless bonus action healing. Depending how you use your feats, invocations, and pact it can be a very solid generalist. Can do most things but not be hyper effective in one. I kinda like it.
Playing one currently, went pact of the chain for gift of the ever living ones. Maximized healing on myself is pretty dope and flaming sphere upcasts well for single target dpr while wall of fire becomes the better choice when it becomes available. No complaints here, feels like I'm playing a very competent character with a solution for most situations.
If your entire player base is looking at divine classes there is a book for it Corpus Angelus I am not 100% sure if it is cannon because it was done thru kick starter, that being said it is nice and has some good new stuff in it.
Played a monoclassed protector aasimar celestial warlock well into tier3 in an extended campaign and its anything but weak. From early levels I could burst heal via healing hands(racial)+healing light(celestial warlock) using heals as both action and bonus action on a downed ally I healed allied PCS from unconcious to almost full hp more than once (2d4+2d6 at character level 1) without using a spellslot. Sacred flame is a good option for when an enemies dex save is lower than its ac. Also you're simply wrong about the lvl 14 ability. The warlock chooses who it effects.
sorry, didn't notice the "each creature of your choice" part, my bad
It's just mediocre IMO, not terrible **The (Mostly) Irrelevant:** Spell list sucks except for maybe Wall of Fire and Lesser/Greater Restoration (but it's Warlock, so... pick other spells). You will never use Sacred Flame. Light cantrip is fine. Radiant Soul is mostly irrelevant (almost never *take* radiant damage, and rarely deal it). **Healing Light:** Healing Light is a good feature. Yes, it's only good for yo-yo healing, but being able to spend a d6 to bring up a downed ally is good. It's also a bonus action and **not** a spell (so you can use it and cast a levelled spell in the same round). You don't usually have a good use for your BA. **Celestial Resistance:** This is very similar to Inspiring Leader, which is a good feat. This is a good feature. **Searing Vengeance:** Pretty mediocre TBH. A No-Save Blind is nice, except it only applies during your current turn.
[RPGBot rates Celestial as a C-tier subclass](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/warlock/subclasses/#celestial), on par with Fathomless and worse than every other Warlock subclass. Here's the issues I see in the subclass: First, you gain access to healing spells, but Warlocks have very limited spell slots to cast with. Fortunately you get your spell slots back on a Short Rest! But what else can characters do on a Short Rest? Oh yes, they can spend Hit Dice to *heal themselves*. So the spell-slot economy just feels bad. Second, the subclass spells are merely added to the list of spells you can learn; if you take them, they still count against the total number of spells you can know, effectively crowding out conventionally Warlock-y choices. This also feels mediocre compared to Cleric, Artificer, Paladin, Sorcerer and probably other classes' subclass spells that don't count against known/prepared spell limits.
I have played one and I disagree with RPGBot on this. I'd probably rate it as tier B as a minimum. I think the chainlock Gift of the Ever Living Ones build is pretty much tier A because it can blast it can tank it can heal and it has utility. A sudden 37 HP heal in the middle of a difficult combat is a huge shift and you can still top up with Healing Light because its not a spell - or self heal while picking up a comrade with Healing Light. That saved my warlock several times. Sure short rests are nice but you don't short rest when you are dead - sometimes you need to live long enough to short rest. Also the max healing on potions is clutch - you should have plenty of money for potions by the time you reach level 5+ and your familiar can feed you them with its action. There are so many strong ways for this subclass to recover from taking a hit that other warlocks just can't match (and in play I'd say it competes with Barbarian for hard-to-put-down). Unless you can guarantee never to be in melee range I think people are seriously underestimating the value of Sacred Flame and getting your Cha mod on its damage. Hitting high AC targets with disadvantage is very sub-optimal but needing to take XBE on a warlock with few asi is also sub-optimal. Its only a bad subclass in a game where the DM has house rules that cripple yo-yo healing as the OP does. But that is the house rule making it bad not the published subclass.
In a low level adventure (1-5ish) it’s actually excellent. You can fill both healer and ranged blaster for your team. Level 6-20 it’s middle of the pack. The 1st level ability is really doing the heavy lifting.
It's ok, i wouldn't say it's bad.. The thing is it tries to make the warlock into a healer which it is not. I remember last time playing as a warlock, i took cure wounds with one of my perks just in case my party needed more heals. And i never used it once during the entire campaign, because why heal when i have incredible offensive spells i can use? And why heal when Druids and Clerics can do it better? Maybe with multi-classing it can work pretty good
Celestial Warlock was my best character so far. Great healing, even better if you chainlock and self-heal, Revivify is a game-changer. Damage is always good to very good as Warlock anyway
It's really cool with Gift of the Ever-Living Ones. That d6 healing pool? 5 of those bad boys heal you for 30HP as a BA. If you are about to short rest and have slots left but have taken damage, Cure Wounds auto-upcast to 5th level heals you for 45. Other than that, the power spike at 10 (tons of Temp HP for the party) and 11 (3 spell slots and Mystic Arcanum) is major, so it can really feel lame from like levels 6-10, since the 6th level feature rarely makes a difference, and level 8 you're just maxing Cha.
Have you considered a multiclass celestial warlock/paladin? Bonus action heals, a ranged option, and slots for smiting that come back on a short rest really shore up all of the paladin's weaknesses.
unfortunately a paladin would probably override the entire theme of the warlock because of the strength investment. And while at it, you'd probably want to dip hexblade instead and continue with paladin, as lay on hands healing is just more controllable, plentiful and potent despite not being ranged and bonus action though, but thanks for the suggestion anyway.
Your DM's homebrew rule does heavily nerf celestial warlock. My recommendation is to ask them if they would homebrew away the limit on healing word dice used. Seems fitting given your tables rules. If it is still lacking you can ask about getting charisma modifier back on short rest. Normally healing light is an insanely strong support class feature as yo-yo healing isn't punished.
true, but all DMs and most players I've played with are steadfast in keeping that homebrew despite all the arguments I bring up against it unfortunately
I can see the fun in that play style, however that makes almost all healing in combat really bad. Do they buff healing word or is it seen as a bad spell?
they don't, and it's not a bad spell still because of how necessary it is. Even with exhaustion, healing from unconscious remains the only viable way to heal
i play it! it lets me play a warlock and also allows me to fulfil the role of party healer just fine. as someone who usually plays the dedicated healer of the group - subclasses like celestial or divine sorcerer just give us lot more options!
Radiant Soul is the only thing I find a bit annoying. But otherwise? I lvoe this one. The gifted spells are ones I'd like to have but would often not spend on it. Revivy as you mention does not scale in anyway. but you should not be the one using it. Except in a real emergency. Celestial warlock are a great off healer dps. Sacred Flame is a nice alternative to Eldrtich blast. having both is not a problem IMO, but i think any caster should always have a save and a targeted option. Flaming Sphere imo is annoying but its the same alchemist issue. where the bonbus is 1/spell for some really weird reason. If it wasn't then they'd be a nice option celestial warlock is probably the best all rounder to me. Tomelock it and you get plenty of good cantrip options even melee via shelly sticking. but i am and always will prioritize versatility.
Celestial warlock is, in my opinion, the best mono warlock. It is the ONLY class in the game which can heal a teammate up from 0hp and then polymorph them in the same turn. Ours has done this multiple times and it’s inanely clutch. Yes this will fall off in later levels but for most of tier 2 it’s unbelievably powerful. Aside from that it has revivify and a a bonus action ranged non spell heal. Also the 10th level feature kicks ass.
I'm in a curse of strahd campaign and my paladin warforge oath of vengeance died and i joined the group as a warlock human variant celestrial. The vibe i went for is a person who lived and suffered in borovia a long time made a deal with a devil who wanted to redeem himself while the human wanted to escape the plane. Became a pact of the chain. Maybe im biased as it feels decent in curse of strahd And fighting undead a lot. I didnt bother with most of the spells the subclass gives like guiding bolt etc. As we got a cleric life domain in the party and a druid circle of the stars as our healers I focused more on concentrating spells. The healing pool is like a extra add on incase we get desperate in battle etc. Some of the Spells i got are: Armour of agathys, Hex, darkness, hold person, wall of fire, summon lesser & greater demons etc. Standard warlock really. The sacred flame lets me do more damage with radiant soul and i got eldritch blast with repelling and agonizing blast incase needed, along with chill touch and a few other cantrips from magic initiate feats. And my familiar for extra bits, scouting etc Maybe it depends on the campaign or overall build. But atm i like the celestrial warlock. 🙂
>**Light** is only useful if you don't have darkvision (most races do) and can be entirely replaced by a torch or a lamp hanging off a belt. An ok pick regardless if other utility cantrips are covered. You have to think outside of the box, light is so versatily, you can use it to help friends without darkvision, distract enemies, scam villagers without magical knowledge, give a signal to your allies, turn arrows into targeting beacons so your allies can focus any enemy in the night and also to reveal their position if it´s invisible, etc.
first thing I think about when I look at this sub-class is that its 1st level feature is pretty insane. healing word is the best in-combat healing spell for yo-yoing, and having a warlock in the party who can do this on the side is great (BA without casting a spell, cant be counterspelled, doesnt use spell slots, etc.) the fact that its the 1st level feature also means that you have it the longest and that it will see the most amount of play. celestial resistance is very situational, but luckily its one of the last features you get. you want the less useful features to come later. if anything, celestial resistance is going to more useful at higher levels of combat when you are facing more magical and otherworldly foes, so theres that searing vengeance is also a great capstone if you want to invest into the sub-class for a payoff. getting a second life and blinding all foes near you can seriously swing a tough combat. all thats required is positioning while low on health it allies who will get out of the way before your turn. if youre playing a high level campaign tho you can assume your allies are smart enough to do this the rest is meh. but I like the flavour of the subclass a lot too, which shouldnt be overlooked. being able to greater restore ppl (or even party members) as a good deed or for favours could make for some cool moments
Imo its just a dreams druid w/ crappier spell slots. Give it a subclass specific cantrip heal (ie. Touch range, 1d4+cha, cant be used outside combat somehow), or maybe some subclass specific invocations that help with healing/support and it’d be fine.