Showroom Reflection: The Leviathan Patron
- The Forgemaster
- Oct 17, 2019
- 22 min read
Updated: Aug 18, 2020
This reflection addresses my Leviathan otherworldly patron for the Warlock class. Click through here to view the Leviathan patron as a PDF, or see the end of this article to view it in image form.
While I did produce this before the similarly themed Lurker in the Deep patron was released in the official UA articles, I'll address some differences in design philosophy, since comparisons are inevitable.
Groundwork
Some time ago, I ran a campaign that took place in the depths of the sea. With a player looking to branch out into spellcasting with the Warlock, I offered to produce a new patron- which soon came to be called the Leviathan- to fit the player's character as smoothly into the campaign as possible. If memory serves, my two major goals at the time were the following:
Make sure that no matter what Race my player chose, they felt at home in the water.
Building off of that last goal, make sure that none of the subclass' features conflict with an already aquatic race.
I did have a third goal, though, which I address in all of my designs:
This content must accommodate more than one character or campaign type.
What I mean by that, in this case, is that if a player is drawn to this patron in a non-aquatic campaign setting, there should still be something to draw them to the class.
After setting my goals, I looked over the core Warlock Patrons found in the Player's Handbook to determine what sort of abilities were given to the Warlock at any given level. I left out the Xanathar's patrons because what I wanted was a baseline, not a comprehensive analysis of trends in Warlock design. I was prepared to break these 'rules', but I thought it best to know what they were first:
1st Level: The Mark- These features are low on mechanical impact, but heavy on Narrative flavor.
6th Level: Intervention- These features provide some sort of fail-safe for the warlock when things aren't going their way, usually costing them their Reaction.
10th Level: Adaptation- These features grant the warlock a passive resistance to effects that their patron would normally resist or be immune to.
14th Level: Taste of Power- These features grant the warlock a powerful active ability that channels the wrath of the warlock's patron.
I'll break down the rest of this reflection by feature, to make this more digestible.
The Mark
At least for the player's handbook Warlocks, the first feature they receive seems to give them a 'mark' of their pact- something that clearly ties them to their patron, and offers a glimpse of the power their patron can offer.
The Bonus Cantrip was an almost obvious offering- every spellcasting class with access to cantrips has one spell- Druidcraft, Thaumaturgy, or Prestidigitation that allows them to perform minor magical tricks that reflect the source of their magic. While Prestidigitation works plenty well for any magical spellcaster, the Warlock doesn't normally have access to Shape Water at all.
Granting servants of the Leviathan basic mastery of water cements that theme without costing the Warlock precious spell slots. This feature isn't particularly powerful, however. Its role in the design is to be a Ribbon: it gives the class flare, makes it attractive, and lets its players assert their role in the setting.
The meat of this level is in Aquatic Affinity. Once again, this feature seemed to write itself. Of course Warlocks of the Leviathan should move swiftly in the water and breathe it as easily as air. Of course, the problem immediately arises- why would a player choosing a Triton, a Mermaid, or a Sea Elf ever want to serve this patron? Five levels is a long time to wait for a relevant feature.
The solution I settled on was to give the class yet another feature at this level. Now, it has been some time since I produced this class, and at the time it didn't occur to me to take notes, but I remember why I settled on the solution that I did.
The second paragraph of Aquatic Affinity grants specific benefits to any character who already possesses an ability offered by the first paragraph. Specifically, a mild speed boost, and the ability to cast Water Breathing.
Now, the first is admittedly somewhat weak in flavor, but at the very least, any character with a respectable swim speed before entering the class will outpace both their peers and likely any character who gained their speed from the class.
The second benefit grants a single cast of Water Breathing. This quite heavily rewards doubling down on the aquatic theme by extending the benefits to the rest of your party: Water Breathing grants any reasonably sized adventuring party the ability to survive in a Leviathan Warlock's preferred environment for 24 hours- and one free cast a day means that as long as your party doesn't become split, you can almost read the feature as "If you can breathe water, your party can also breathe water indefinitely".
This very effectively accomplishes a few things for Aquatic Leviathan Warlocks:
First, and most importantly, any player that chooses an aquatic race is not robbed of features- they simply receive a slightly different kit.
Additionally, a player who doubles down here has covered this problem for their party. Much in the way a Cleric with the Healing domain can say "We don't need more healing, you can use that spell slot for something else if you want", a player choosing this setup can say "As long as I'm here, we can handle water. Pick whatever race you want."
Finally, and this was something of a happy accident stemming from my other goals, water no longer separates a character of this type from their party. While it's certainly nice to have your spotlight moment and enter the otherwise hostile environment, your party will very quickly turn from impressed to bored if they can't follow.
Now there certainly is a major pitfall with this approach- unless the campaign features water in a significant fashion at least once, this character's first level features amount to little more than flavor. However, the first level feature for most Warlocks is light on mechanical impact- I decided this was an acceptable loss.
It isn't ideal by any stretch, but I don't feel as though I've failed the design by making this decision.
Lurker Comparisons Part 1: Feature Timing
Since I've addressed my approach to the Aquatic Race/Aquatic Class problem, I think now is a good time to look at how the Lurker in the Deep handled it. The Fathomless Soul feature is fundamentally very similar to my Aquatic Affinity (and I'll grant, much more evocatively named), so I'll point out the obvious differences first:
The Lurker offers Water Breathing and a Swim Speed at 6th Level rather than 1st.
The Lurker offers resistance to Cold damage.
The Lurker offers an entirely separate, defensive combat feature alongside Fathomless Soul.
The timing of Fathomless Soul is already a significant deviation in philoshophy between these two subclasses, and likely hinged on the context in which the subclass was being built.
Granting the ability at 6th level means that aquatic races get to enjoy superiority beneath the waves for quite some time before a member of this class can match them, which does wonders for ensuring that players of those races don't feel robbed of what makes their character unique. I have to imagine this was the primary reason for delaying this feature since these abilities are, in my mind at least, core to its identity.
In the context of an offering for an aquatic campaign setting (the context I was operating in), however, a player might find this lacking. I have no non-contextual argument against that timing however, it's a clever way to deal with player psychology.
The addition of Cold damage resistance seems to serve the same role as Aquatic Affinity ofering a swim speed increase and a casting of Water Breathing as a means of rewarding players who already had access to the features on offer. While it certainly works, I must say I'm not sure that it goes far enough- resisting an incoming ice spell is very unlikely to be as satisfying as offering your entire party the chance to join you in a hostile environment (and by extension, saving them from being sidelined for as long as it takes for you to accomplish your goal).
Moving on to the final point, offering a separate combat feature is at first glance as elegant a solution to the Aquatic Race/Aquatic Class problem as offering a bonus on top of what the feature already does for those characters, but unfortunately it doesn’t quite accomplish the same ends.
Now many will advise me not to fear the optimizers of the world, but I must admit: I’m of the opinion that ideally your design should incentivize a player to follow the most interesting and cohesive story- and most players with a sense of efficiency about their builds avoid redundancies. I could see the hypothetical optimization threads for the class already, with the Triton race marked bright red to warn new players away.
Perhaps an an optimizer would still consider a Triton suboptimal, but at the least they couldn’t say that any other race would get two features instead of one at the same level.
This isn’t a condemnation of the Lurker- I want to reiterate that the Leviathan was built with an aquatic setting, rather than aquatic flavor, in mind. But I do think this is one aspect that the Leviathan handles better as a result.
6th Level: Stretching the Mold
Most Warlock’s receive what I call an ‘intervention’ at this level. These are active, or more commonly reactive, features that allow a Warlock to gain an edge when the situation turns dire.
Looking at my notes from my initial pass at the Leviathan, I had a few ideas for what to put at this level. I had considered "Aqua Veil", an ill advised feature that would offer damage resistance as a reaction and refresh when the character submerged themselves. I had also considered allowing the warlock to conjure a wave to push back opponents attacking the warlock in melee. But no matter which ability my brainstorming produced, it seemed to have two problems:
The feature was mechanically broken in some fashion. For example, Aqua Veil was powerful inherently and essentially granted once per round resistance in an aquatic setting. In the other direction, the Wave feature would fail to protect the Warlock from melee since characters can move between attacks.
The feature had a weak narrative- 'water' is not a particularly interesting theme. It simply wasn't compelling. This problem is what finally inspired the feature I settled on.
Up until this point, I had been trying to identify interesting mechanical approaches to the feature, which repeatedly produced above result. However, when I switched gears to focus on the narrative of the feature first, I began to make my progress. I decided to focus on a specific aspect of water- its potential to hide what lurks within it, and work from there.
I wanted this feature to evoke the imagery of deep, murky waters that hold untold horrors. Coming to the conclusion that obscuring the character would be an appropriate effect for such a feature, I knew that I needed a particularly evocative name to sell the feature as an appropriate addition to the archetype. Fortunately for me, I had already found the word I was looking for: few terms bring to mind unclear waters like Murk.
If you've already read the subclass, you might notice that Murk isn't actually the 6th level feature I'm supposed to be discussing.
Up until this point, I had been adhering to the standard Warlock ability progression (Mark -> Intervention -> Adaptation -> Taste of Power). However, thanks to my understanding of the usual Warlock progression, I could see that my subclass was already beginning to deviate from it.
While I conceived of Aquatic Affinity as a "Mark", something that differentiated a servant of the Leviathan from other Warlocks, it already granted the abilities that I thought the Leviathan should offer as an "Adaptation". As I considered other options, I came to the realization that if I continued following existing trends, servants of the Leviathan wouldn't have a single active feature unless I placed one at 14th level. This realization untethered the 10th level feature from the need to serve as an "Adaptation", and got me thinking about other options.
I also realized that placing Murk at 6th level as planned would mean that the Leviathan wouldn't grant an Active feature of any kind until 10th level- nearly halfway through a character's journey to the end of DnD's level track. While the Leviathan may not have been unique in that regard, it was something I decided was hurting the feel of the class. When players skim a new class option, the question in mind is often “What can I do”, and as far as I could tell the answer was “swim, move water around, and hide sometimes”. Needless to say, that’s not a particularly compelling answer.
Since I was happy with the existing features, I simply broke with the standard Patron progression and made Murk the subclass' 10th level feature.
Now with a free slot at 6th level, with no limits except that it should be an active feature, I was free to flex my creativity- once again at 6th level.
6th Level Redux: Reinforcing the Themes
The 6th level feature that wound up in the final draft, Isolation, was initially inspired by Murk’s themes. I wanted to expand on the obscuration of water, and bring in the seeming endlessness of the open ocean- that sense of being literally in over one’s head and unable to find an out- and even more, the sheer dread that something else infinitely more at home in this place could be hunting you.
I recalled a chilling experience from playing Subnautica: I, a fragile human being whose lifespan in this place is measured by the seconds of breath I have remaining, am surrounded on all sides by impenetrable blue, below me nothing but unfathomable depth, and above me a familiar, but never comforting ink-black sky. And in this moment, I am alone as I swim endlessly forward without perceiving an inch of progress. Until I hear a roar, spot a distant tail slipping into the darkness below, and I recall a distant warning: “Echolocation. If you can hear it, it can see you”. I swim upward. I wait to die.
Of course, I wasn't designing a monster- I needed to turn this feature on its head. This feature needed to cast the player in the opposite role: that of a hunter, spotting their prey and knowing that their mark is all alone in the world- and able to finish the hunt at their leisure. This led to the creation of the actual 6th level feature, appropriately named Isolation.
I thought about several ways to effectively isolate an opposing character, and while it was tempting to take the straightforward solution and allow the warlock to temporarily trap their foe in a pocket dimension, that left the adversary in a state where it could no longer be interacted with. Not only did this prevent anyone at the table from doing anything that would bring a more permanent conclusion to the encounter, it didn't deliver on that predatory high the concept implies.
I scrapped that mechanic, but I knew what that hypothetical pocket dimmension would look like- no landmarks in any direction, a sensation of floating or sinking, underwater but not drowning, darkness, and the sensation that something must be lurking in the dark. Turning it into an illusion left the warlock's foe just as mentally and tactically isolated as a physical removal from combat, but still allowed the warlock to finish the job when they saw fit to do so.
The Fear effect was added on to offer a buffer between the Warlock and any melee creatures that might otherwise singlehandedly focus the Warlock down, while the stipulation about the ability ending if the target is touched by another creature prevents the Warlock's allies from freely assaulting the helpless target and gives intelligent creatures a means to counter it. These weaknesses, I felt, balanced the feature for 6th level play.
Had I placed this feature at 10th, or even 14th level, I might have gone as far as to have the opposing creature rationalize any damage received as assaults from some horrible beast they were trapped underwater with, or the touch of an ally as a fish swimming too close for comfort.
14th Level: Crushing Power
Returning to form, the Leviathan’s final feature needed to be worthy of its status- a taste of the Patron’s power. But what exactly is the power of the Leviathans? The Archfey trap foes in inescapable illusions, the Great Old Ones corrupt minds, Fiends go so far as to send foes plummeting through hell for a moment.
But what is it that unites Leviathans? They lurk. Out of sight, out of reach. For many, the very depths Leviathans inhabit are a death sentence. That was precisely the sort of overwhelming power I was looking for, and deciding to run with it was easy- the power of the Fiend patron set a precedent for power based on the patron's environment rather than the patron itself.
However, I wanted to make sure that I set this feature apart from that of the fiend Narratively and Mechanically- especially since I was aware that Isolation was already stepping on the toes of the Archfey patron.
In order to accomplish some measure of Narrative distance, I decided that rather than send the target to the depths, this feature would bring the depths to the target. Its a small difference, but one that also has a mechanical impact- this feature does not remove a creature from the field of battle in the fashion of the Fiend Patron's Hurl through Hell.
I also set out to make the Mechanics of the feature distinct, and set a rule for myself:
The Leviathan's "Taste of Power" feature could not be about raw damage.
Not only would that risk this final feature stepping on the Fiends' turf, making the Leviathan appear as a patchwork patron, it would undermine the class' entire mechanical identity. All of its combat abilities are centered around debilitating its foes in some way. That is, mechanically, what this class is about. Players should be isolating and hunting weakened prey.
What I needed first, though, was an inspiration for what this debilitating feature could do, and my fixation on the Depths eventually led me to a phenomenon I knew little about: "The Bends", otherwise known as Decompression Sickness. Divers might experience this ailment when they rise too quickly to the surface of the water, and while I didn't exactly want to simulate the bends, I did a brief bit of research. Very little of that research wound up being represented in the final feature, but it gave me a name and a central mechanic.
Pressure Flux was set to be a feature with two rounds of debilitating effects, the first crushing the target under the pressure of the depths, and the second releasing them so quickly that their body broke down from the shift.
The first mechanic was easy to come up with- the target is struggling under the weight of the ocean, and should be forced prone.
The second was more difficult- I knew that I wanted to debilitate the target, but the conditions list wasn't offering any satisfying answers. The feature's two round effect was already growing complicated, so I was hesitant to apply any effect that couldn't be described using one of the game's existing conditions. I liked the exhaustion condition for both for its series of mechanical effects and its Narrative implications. I was especially pleased with the idea that it offered a sliding scale of effects rather than the simple yes/no of other conditions.
The trouble came when deciding how to apply the condition. I momentarily considered a series of saving throws, each failure plunging the target deeper into exhaustion. However, the approach had two problems that forced me to abandon it:
First, by a strict DM's reading of "Ability Checks", the first stage of exhaustion can apply disadvantage on saving throws, meaning that a target that failed the first save became significantly more likely to fail all of them. (Though the text of exhaustion seems to rule this out, it's a scenario I'd prefer to avoid)
Second, and a much more persistent problem, multiple saving throws would slow down play at the table. I wouldn't want the Warlock firing off their most powerful feature only to have the table groan in annoyance as the DM rolls die after die rather than cry out in joy as the foe crumbles.
Having no immediate answers, I turned to scouring forums and my collection of source books for scenarios in which exhaustion applied. Unfortunately, it seemed I was treading new ground by applying the exhaustion condition to NPC foes with a class feature or spell. However, toward the end of my trek through the game's existing spells, a a group of them caught my eye: the Power Words. Each Power Word spell has a devastating effect, and applies it with no saving throw, assuming the target's HP is below a certain threshold. The more powerful the effect, the lower the threshold.
I simply applied this same mechanic to the second half of Pressure Flux, adding multiple thresholds for different levels of exhaustion to allow its different stages to shine. This mechanic allows for a quick assessment of just how badly a foe is affected.
This also makes for a more interesting choice than most 'nuke' effects. Rather than throwing one's most powerful feature immediately to make the rest of the fight easier, Leviathan players have to decide if a weakened version of exhaustion early in the fight is more valuable than its most powerful effects when the fight is nearing its end. Though, loosing the feature too early in the fight might result in leaving a particularly powerful foe entirely unaffected.
In hindsight, this might result in decision paralysis, but I’m not sure that’s any more a problem with this particular feature as with limited resource features in general.
Detailing: The Bonus Spell List
When I set out to choose the Leviathan's bonus spells, I saw a clear opportunity to reinforce the class' mechanical themes. However, I also recognized the power of this list as a means of broadening the horizons of the class. I didn't want to allow Warlocks serving this patron to fulfill multiple roles simultaneously, but offering limited utility or damage gives players a reason to look forward to certain levels.
The decision making process was fairly straightforward. I looked primarily for spells that focused on debilitation over damage or utility, as well as spells that were not already on the standard Warlock spell list- it's important to note that the Patron offers the opportunity to learn bonus spells, it does not grant access to them, so placing a Warlock spell on the list does nothing.
That's not to say the spell list didn't undergo several revisions (in fact, truth be told, I slipped one final edit into the list before I posted this article). I had to rethink several choices as I dug through the spell list, and weigh what was good for the Patron's narrative and players who might choose it against what was good for games this Patron might participate in.
At many levels, utility and ribbon spells are juxtaposed against new mechanical options. I realize now that this approach may present a seemingly clear "optimal" choice for each level, prompting players to feel as though they're being presented with a false choice. While only presenting ribbons and mechanical choices at the same levels might allow me to avoid this consequence, I still feel the approach has merit.
Warlocks are not obligated to select any spells from their bonus list at any time. Players too concerned with making the optimal choice might simply abandon the list at levels that offered only ribbons. This approach, at least, offers bonus spells that appeal to both mechanically and narratively minded players.
For 1st Level spells, I settled on Create and Destroy Water and Dissonant Whispers fairly quickly.
Create and Destroy Water largely serves as a complimentary ribbon to Shape Water: allowing the Warlock access to water on demand reinforces their apparent dominance over it. Clever players will always find a use for it, but this spell does not often have a direct impact in battle.
On the other hand, Dissonant Whispers matched up to the narrative theme of paranoia offered by the patron's Isolation feature, but more importantly, the forced movement the spell might cause is a good start to a disruption oriented spell list.
While Dissonant Whispers does offer the rarely resisted psychic damage type, all Warlocks have access to the powerful Eldritch Blast cantrip. In the overwhelming majority of scenarios, a Warlock would be better off relying on that spell for damage rather than burning precious spell slots on single target damage.
For 2nd Level spells, Darkvision serves as something between a ribbon and a little utility, granting servants of the Leviathan the ability to peer through the ocean's depths (though they are far more likely to face unlit dungeon corridors).
Silence lets the Warlock branch out into disrupting new types of foes- opposing spellcasters are infamously afraid of silencing magic. This also opens up a routes of play through stealth, and prevents foes caught in its radius from communicating, reinforcing the patron's themes by isolating them.
I had to leave a couple of options on the cutting room floor here- Blur and Blindness/Deafness represented tempting options. However, I felt that Blur wasn't particularly exciting and had an unclear connection to the class' themes. Blindness/Deafness on the other hand clearly fit the class' debilitation theme, but seemed to be too tempting- few players would have reason to reach for Darkvision if the alternative is Blindness/Deafness. Silence, while having an unclear connection like Blur, creates new playstyles and serves as a philosophical opposite to Darkvision- do you deny your opponent's senses, or enhance your own?
The 3rd level spells break a pattern, both focusing on mechanical options over ribbons- Wall of Water offers ranged defense and limited battlefield control, while Tidal Wave offers crowd control and damage. However, this is the level that many 'staple' spells become available. Blasters will be picking up Fireball, Fly and Haste become options for buff focused builds, and abjurers will be looking to Counterspell and Magic Circle. In order to so much as tempt most players at this level, a spell needs to offer a clear mechanical edge.
The 4th Level spells, to an extent, return to form. Control Water offers further dominion over water, while Watery Sphere allows a player fine control over foes' positioning. In truth, both spells have options that offer battlefield control. Watery Sphere is simply less situational than Control Water. However, the narrative Control Water offers is very tempting, making it appealing as a ribbon even if it is rarely used.
The final pair of spells at 5th Level offer a significantly more powerful damage option than previous levels in Maelstrom, alongside what might at first appear a simple escape spell in Mislead.
While Maelstrom may seem to break my rule, despite its significant area damage, there's an argument to be made that its effect of forcing enemies to move toward its center is more significant. However, even if it were a pure damage spell, I think that would be okay by this level. By this point in the Warlock's career, they should know how to control the battlefield- offering them some damage to back it up isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Mislead, by contrast, doubles down on what Silence started, making the caster invisible and producing an illusory double with the same spell. Using the illusory double the spell provides, the Warlock could scout, stalk foes without fear of reprisal, toy with paranoid characters, or simply escape as many would use the spell to do. It is the first three options that make this a worthwhile inclusion, however- that feeling of toying with prey rather than doing battle with enemies is exactly what I want players of this archetype to experience.
Overall, the spell list has three key features:
4/5 levels of spells offer a clear mechanical advantage alongside a narrative tool (or a spell that requires more situational thinking) to appeal to different types of players.
Each level has at least one spell that inflicts a debilitating effect on enemies, reinforcing the Patron's mechanical theme and role.
Offers players a chance to expand their role slightly with direct damage options every other spell level (1, 3, and 5), as well as two spells (Silence and Mislead) that offer new avenues of play.
Lurker Comparisons Part 2: Focus and Identity (feat. the Great Old One)
It's important to note that there is a fundamental difference in the narrative behind The Lurker in the Deep and The Leviathan that explains most of the differences in their design choices.
The Leviathan seeks to bring abstract concepts of depth, isolation, and predatory combat styles to the table. The Lurker instead seeks to invoke something more physical. Many of the class features offer the summoning of aspects of the patron itself: maws, tentacles, and even a large part of its anatomy by endgame. I'll grant, I'm stunned by the incredible imagery of Unleash the Depths, and I'm impressed by the way the class' features are structured as a natural progression from summoning a single tentacle to a large part of the patron's form.
However, there is a certain lack of focus in the class' details that leave that narrative lacking. The Lurker's wonderfully physical attacks are marred by, of all things, their damage type- lightning or cold, by the player's choice each time the feature is used.
This results in the powerful image of a whipping tentacle becoming somewhat unfocused- is the tentacle composed of elemental energy? Is it simply wrapped in it? It doesn't particularly matter- your patron suddenly seems less present by the simple fact that it doesn't deal its damage directly.
Furthermore, these damage types feel arbitrary. While I understand that Cold damage is associated with the deep ocean, and storms (therefore, lightning) with sailing, making those connections makes the class feel no less scattered when the focus should be the patron's physicality. I imagine this concession was made in order to bypass physical damage resistances, but one line stating that "all damage from this feature qualifies as magical for the purposes of damage resistance" solves that problem.
This leads me to the Lurker's mechanical identity. All of its features suggest that one should be dealing physical damage and restraining or otherwise physically moving foes, however, its spell list deviates from this identity almost completely.
Perhaps the clearest example is Silence- in an archetype about physical disruption, why include such a subtle spell? Gust of Wind and Thunderwave get the physical effect on enemies right, but something about the way they go about that (manipulating wind and an energy burst, respectively) feels narratively off.
Lightning Bolt, Sleet Storm, and Cone of Cold double down on the dissonance between the physicality of the patron's narrative and the mechanics they use. Spreading this to the spell list did little to 'bake in' the elements thematically, these spells feel more out of place than the damage in the archetype's core features.
I'll admit that as I write this, I don't have alternatives for many of these spells- especially as it seems the designers wish to constrain themselves to spells found in the Player's Handbook, likely so that they do not need to reprint spells or force players to buy extra books. An admirable objective, but I do think it hurts the patron's design.
The only spell that feels as though it really hits the mark is Evard's Black Tentacles, which all of the patron's features seem to expand on. Speaking of that spell, I think I need to discuss a misstep that both the Leviathan and Lurker make- they blur the line between their own identity and that of other classes.
The Leviathan comes close to crossing into the Archfey's territory with illusion magic such as Mislead and the Isolation feature, which is strikingly similar to Dark Delirium. It also shares a single bonus spell with the Great Old One in Dissonant Whispers.
The Lurker also swipes a spell from the Great Old One in Evard's Black Tentacles. Alone this doesn't really seem to encroach on the GOO's identity, however, in combination with the first level feature Scion of the Deep, it becomes harder to dismiss the similarities. Scion of the Deep grants 120ft, two-way telepathic connection with creatures that have a swim speed, at the same level the GOO offers a 30ft one-way telepathic communication. The GOO may have the advantage of communicating with all creatures, but the advantages the Lurker enjoys sting even more when one realizes that the Lurker offers another feature at the same level. The Lurker just gets more, mechanically, than most other warlocks.
Even worse, however, is that Scion of the Deep only serves to exacerbate the class' identity crisis. Unless one specifically imagines the Lurker as an Aboleth, it might be hard to make sense of this feature.
I can't say that choosing to swipe a little from two archetypes rather than a lot from one is a superior design choice; however, my problem with the Lurker's design choices lies deeper. Ultimately, what is important when encroaching on another archetype's features so that no player feels undermined is to ensure they are in service to the new archetype's identity and themes. Unfortunately, it often feels as though the Lurker simply ticks boxes. (Bonus Spells? Check. First level feature? Check.)
I genuinely hate to be so hard on the Lurker, especially as it is in a playtest phase. I know that someone out there is working very hard on it, and the archetype's final feature alone is proof enough that the Lurker has personality and potential in spades. There are simply enough minor problems that I fear the archetype is being pulled in multiple directions. There is a clear standout theme, but very little of the archetype adheres to it in the end.
Closing Thoughts and PNG
In the end, the Leviathan's concept both makes it unique and holds it back. The abstract themes of isolation, paranoia, fear, and depth are all interesting and fertile ground for design, but they don't stand out the same way that the spectacle of summoning a sea beast in the vein of the Lurker can. Ultimately, this may be the Leviathan's greatest weakness: it has powerful, tightly crafted themes that all of its parts work to support- but I'm not sure that those themes stick out.
Overall, I think I can say that the Leviathan is a successful endeavor. Without significant playtesting, I can't say for sure whether experimental features such as Pressure Flux or even Isolation will work at the table, but I do feel confident that they adhere to the Leviathan's themes and utilize the game's mechanical hooks well. This is a tightly crafted subclass with a very specific set of players in mind. No other subclass brings these themes to the table with the same aquatic motif and predatory mindset, and I believe players looking for that experience will walk away satisfied.
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