You can cast Mage Armor on yourself at will, without expending a spell slot or material components.
Armor of Shadows: Dark Mage Armor
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Of all the warlock invocations I want to love, Armor of Shadows is near the top. Something about inky black edgy dark armor speaks to the inner edgelord in me; when I want a spooky stabby dark bastard, I want to wreathe them in an Armor of Shadows. Mechanically, however, we’re left with an underwhelming option: Mage Armor at will.
Mage Armor at will is just basically an AC of 13+Dex; it's akin to an unarmored defense, but without tying it thematically to the class all that well. Warlocks already have access to light armor, meaning you can already enter into the game with armor giving you an AC of 12 + Dex. So for one of your precious few invocation slots, you’re functionally getting +1 AC. Huh. I’m not impressed.
When I think Armor of Shadows, I want some darkness mechanics, some bonus to playing and moving in the dark, or the tools to create dark spaces. I want armor that works with Devil’s Sight. I want to move in and around unseen, benefits to stealth, extra goodness when it comes to frighten effects. I want SOMETHING; something beyond a flat +1 AC.
While normally I’m a big proponent of the spells at will invocations (see the all-stars Fiendish Vigor and Misty Visions), Armor of Shadows offering you Mage Armor, an 8 hour duration spell on its own, that gives you next to no benefit for frequent recasts… it just doesn’t work. 1st level spells at will can take underwhelming 1st level slots and turn them into interesting mechanics. They let you break a rule or two of the game to get something extra out of an option. There isn’t anything to get out of Mage Armor, though. It just sets your AC to be 13+Dex instead of 12+Dex.
This is one of those invocations that I think leads people to feel like warlocks are garbage. It doesn’t accomplish anything meaningful while costing you a very competitive resource critical to defining your build. In an ideal world, Armor of Shadows would be some cool new way for warlocks to have the 13+Dex AC in addition to getting a tool to interact with the world in some nifty ways. As is, it's a +1 AC for an invocation. And that’s not worth it.
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