Warlock Conjuration Cantrip
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60ft.
Components: V,S, Pact Patron
Duration: Instant
Target: 1 Creature
You briefly open a portal large enough for an outisder aligned to your patron to take a swipe at your enemy with their natural weapons.
For a Brief moment, a portal opens and a creature on the other side of the portal makes a melee attack using your spell attack bonus against the Target’s AC. Upon Hit: Does 1d8 Physical† damage and 1d6 energy damage. The energy damage die increases by 1d6 at 5th level (+2d6), 11th level,(+3d6) and 17th (+4d6) level. The outsider taking a swipe may not be enhanced with a spell.
Energy damage is suggested based on patron stereotypes and can be altered as appropriate but should be consistent:
Archfey: Poison
Celestial: Radiant
Fathomless: Cold
Fiend: Fire
Genie: Elemental Type
Great Old One: Psychic,
Hexblade: Necrotic
Undying: Necrotic
†To assign physical damage Roll additional 1d6 to decide if Bludgeoning(1-2), Piercing(3-4), or Slashing (5-6) Or have your DM choose, or the player. As this would be considered a magical attack it overcomes resistance to normal physical damage.
DM Hint: describe the object being used to attack the target: a flaming sword from a scaley arm, a shining wing that radiates light as it punctures the target, a chilling pseudopod that crushes as it freezes, this is a good way to add some flavor to your character’s patron connection.
The Logic Behind This Homebrew.
I came up with this cantrip for the following reasons:
It fills a Niche. For a class so intimately tied to an outsider power source like the Warlock there are few spells the warlock receives that actually reflects the patron itself. The Patron Spells tend to reflect a theme in damage and spells but I feel it to be mechanically shallow.
It’s a cantrip. Because Warlocks receive Eldritch Blast and as a supposedly powerful cantrip-wielder Warlocks should have some more exclusive cantrips as well as exclusive spells. I even noted that this spell requires a pact patron as a component. It is intentionally flavored as such.
It’s powerful. Warlocks get Eldritch blast that has a d10 damage die and uses Force damage, but kinda needs a couple invocations to really boost it out of being a “mere” cantrip. Claw from beyond ultimately mimics a powerful attack from an outsider and is limited within this mindset: It targets AC, the attack comes from one direction, it is single target, and it’s a chance to show the otherworldliness of the Warlock’s patron. The 1d8 physical damage is to reflect that these attacks are in fact physical attacks, and the extra +1d6 of energy damage because it’s literally an attack from an outsider.
How does it balance? The other point behind it’s power is the RNG nature of its damage. Eldritch blast requires an invocation to add Charisma to damage and Agonizing Blast is a flat damage increase. While the range of damage on Claw From Beyond is greater than Eldritch Blast, Eldritch Blast itself (assuming you take Agonizing Blast and honestly I don’t understand why you wouldn’t,) does more consistent damage and gives more opportunity to damage as each beam is rolled separately.
Patron Energy Damage Types: I tried my best to reflect the nature of the patrons through their damage types. Though, the list feels incomplete to me,(especially as people devise additional patron types) but it feels this way because of the nature of thinking of damage dice as a resource of damage, meaning that if a spell had more than one kind of damage type the dice would be divided between Energy Damage types. My Solution to this is Hybrid damage, which is really a house-rule rather than anything I’ve seen written in Official D&D. However, if you should use said house-rule, I would arrange the damage like this:
Archfey: Poison & Psychic
Celestial: Fire & Radiant
Fathomless: Cold & Lightning
Fiend: Fire & Poison
Geine: Elemental Type & Thunder
Great Old One: Acid & Psychic
Hexblade: Cold & Necrotic
Undying: Necrotic & Radiant
Claw From Beyond, outside of its damage dice, is a spell designed to emphasize the connection between Patron and Warlock. It focuses on the idea that Warlocks are conduits and agents for their patron. Rather than manifesting a source of energy damage Ex Nihilo the Warlock opens a brief portal for an outsider to take a Swipe at the target. This offers both a narrative connection as well as a nicely creepy call-back to the power source of the warlock.
If you have any questions or comments I’m interested.
Eldritch Word 