You can cast Detect Magic at will, without expending a spell slot or material components.
Eldritch Sight: See the Magic All Around You
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
I’m a huge proponent of nearly all these invocations that grant you a 1st level spell cast at will; Eldritch Sight, while being perfectly fine in a vacuum to a class lacking ritual casting, becomes comparatively a lot worse the moment a warlock gets the option to become a ritual caster. This is I think my ultimate problem with Eldritch Sight: you’re getting unlimited casts of a spell players usually have close to unlimited casts with anyway, and if you end up really wanting Detect Magic, the Ritual Caster feat is probably a better way to get it. If you happen to be going Pact of the Tome, this goes doubly so for Book of Ancient Secrets.
Detect Magic is a pretty solid little 1st level spell. It's an effect a lot of tables will want to have, and will give you clear moments where your character gets something unique to do. If you’re the only arcanist in a party composed of martial, natural, or divine characters, you may be the only person in the entire group who gets access to this. In that scenario, Eldritch Sight will feel great. You can instantaneously know whether something is magical, and to what school of magic it belongs. Excellent. If you have a wizard, though, for them it's just a ritual spell they stuck in their spell book, and they’ll be performing nearly the same role as you, but cheaper. Sure, it’ll take ten minutes to cast, but that isn’t all that often a particularly tall ask when exploring the world. In aggressive dungeons where you’re working against a clock, sure, the ten minutes may become an issue, but that’s not going to be the majority of the time.
If you’re planning on doing hour long or longer concentration effects like Hex or Summon Shadowspawn or Fey, this gets a LOT worse. Even outside those options, I think the majority of warlock builds will want to get access to ritual casting somehow at the end of the day, especially those who really love the magical toolbox feeling warlocks can evoke. Those characters have cheaper ways to get this effect. If you are a Pact of the Tome warlock, Book of Ancient Secrets is almost certainly going to be the better choice for you. You can get Detect Magic that way, another 1st level ritual of your choice (Find Familiar, perhaps?) AND a new way to get new magic.
Still, if nobody (including you) can ritual cast this, and have intentions to get access to ritual casting, you can probably take Eldritch Sight early and be very pleased with it. Detect Magic is a great spell; not having to mess around with longer cast times is fairly convenient. If you lean on shorter concentration effects for encounter to encounter spells, this is perfectly reasonable, and can be a welcome tool to have access to.
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