Prerequisite: 9th level, Pact of the Tome feature
A new page appears in your Book of Shadows. With your permission, a creature can use its action to write its name on that page, which can contain a number of names equal to your proficiency bonus.
When any creature whose name is on the page is reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, the creature magically drops to 1 hit point instead. Once this magic is triggered, no creature can benefit from it until you finish a long rest.
As an action, you can magically erase a name on the page by touching it.
Gift of the Protectors: Live to Fight Another Round
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
I’m on the record for being a hater of Cure Wounds and Spare the Dying. These are healing mechanics you just really don’t need when Healing Word exists. Warlocks, beyond the Celestial subclass, don’t really get access to those tools, though. They typically can’t keep allies up without committing to Magic Initiate with Healing Word or Goodberry paired with a familiar, and that’s a lot of hoops to jump through to have access to a way to save your allies. Gift of the Protectors can come in at 9th level as a way to perform a very similar role, and in a fairly potent proactive way.
9th level characters, which is a prerequisite for this invocation, have a +4 proficiency bonus, meaning you can basically put the entire party in the book. This creates a small safety net for the group. D&D player’s love pushing their luck; with 3 HP to go, they’ll say “Why not take a few more swings at the dragon who’s clearly still healthy? Maybe it misses and I become a giant slayer!” Gift of the Protectors, then, acts as a clear “Oh shit, I need to go” moment. They take a near lethal blow, get dropped to 1, and now know they need to get out of there before death inevitably takes them.
What puts this a step above the reactive healing methods like Healing Word and a familiar with a sack of Goodberries is creatures will have a better chance of getting their turn when they need it. Sure, sometimes they’ll drop to 1 off the first hit in a multi-attack and still go down anyway, which is a bummer. More often, though, I think Gift of the Protectors will leave them dropped to 1 after most of the incoming damage has occurred, giving them the immediate option to take defensive measures and relocate to safety. Not needing to stand back up and waste movement is great. Gift of the Protectors, should the damage not drop it on its own, enables a concentration effect to stay up instead of going away. Maintaining consciousness is valuable, and this gives the entire party a way to guarantee they’ll take at least one extra hit to drop.
If your aim is to be a supportive warlock, this is a fairly unique feature that fits in at lethal tables. It's a party safety blanket that works for you, too. I don’t think any warlock needs Gift of the Protectors, nor is it really that much better than Healing Word or other quick methods for getting downed allies up, but it being entirely proactive, preventing some allies from going down at all, and affecting a good chunk of people is valuable in the right group. If death isn’t something you’re regularly facing, and your encounters aren’t regularly threatening dropping allies, this is worthless. If that is a pressing concern, and you want to feel like the party’s guardian angel, give it a try.
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