Prerequisite: 5th level
As a bonus action, you can surround yourself with a magical aura that looks like buzzing flies. The aura extends 5 feet from you in every direction, but not through total cover. It lasts until you're incapacitated or you dismiss it as a bonus action.
The aura grants you advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks but disadvantage on all other Charisma checks. Any other creature that starts its turn in the aura takes poison damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 0 damage).
Once you use this invocation, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Cloak of Flies: Working Out the Bugs
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Cloak of Flies just gets it. This is an invocation that truly understands the fantasy warlocks are looking to play, and delivers on that fantasy in a unique, fitting way. It's not particularly busted or anything, as the majority of ranged warlocks (which is the majority of warlocks) have next to no reason to take this, but if you’re goal is to invoke the image of Nurgle from 40k or Beelzebub of the nine hells, Cloak of Flies fits perfectly.
When you pick it up at 5th level, you get a semi-togglable aura of consuming gnats (which easily lends itself to reflavoring), and simultaneously a tool to give you advantage on Intimidation checks with the tradeoff of all other Charisma checks coming at disadvantage. This lasts indefinitely unless you choose to end it early, and even should you decide it needs to be turned off, it refreshes on short rest, making it fairly accessible throughout the game.
Playing a hellboy style demon tiefling with a flaming greatsword? Flavor the area of damage as wreathing sulfurous flames. Playing a tricksy fey eladrin? Tiny pesky colorful gnats could be the perfect fit, or even just a noxious cloud of horrible plant vapors!
Charisma mod damage to anything adjacent to you isn't particularly powerful, but it does add up. You can incorporate this into tankier warlock builds weaponizing Fiendish Vigor and a quick dip into fighter for some heavy armor proficiency and suddenly be a bulwark of punishment for anything looking to try to kill you first. Skirmisher characters don’t mind this as long as they can keep spacing between their allies and themselves; it’ll often feel like you’re getting a free extra couple guaranteed hits a fight with this out, and that can be good enough at a lot of tables. I think as long as you’re getting at least three instances of the damage in a fight, it justifies its spot on your sheet in the mid tiers. As you get to a higher level, this isn’t going to feel nearly as impactful, though. Charisma mod damage feels a lot better when it's quartering or halving some little minion’s health; when it's dealing 1/50th a monster’s HP, it feels kind of unimpressive.
Having a toggle to just have advantage on Intimidation checks tied to this makes it a really cool feature for social and combat environments. It makes sense that a cloak of bloated buzzing flies may unnerve and intimidate even the boldest foe; it definitely makes you less approachable to most, though. This sells the fantasy really well, and players well when you’re going through a lot of social encounters. You’ll start with pleasantries and diplomacy often, and end up needing to resort to threats and intimidation when the easy way isn’t working. When that flip happens, Cloak of Flies gives you a thematic tool to empower the check. Sure, the help action can make this feel fairly moot in a lot of these circumstances, but when paired with the flavor, or when you need to talk down something solo or face disaster, it’s a huge boon to this invocation.
Cloak of Flies isn’t necessarily an invocation a lot of warlocks are going to look at and eagerly scoop up, but for those who can weaponize the aura of damage fantasy it offers with the intimidating glare that comes with it, it's a homerun. I think gating it at 5th level is a bit steep, because honestly it's not particularly powerful regardless of tier, but it still absolutely is an invocation I’d take on two dozen different characters. It's never the first invocation I’m taking, but it will absolutely contend for the 4th or 5th.
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