Prerequisite: 7th level, Pact of the Talisman feature
When the wearer of your talisman fails a saving throw, they can add a d4 to the roll, potentially turning the save into a success. This benefit can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and all expended uses are restored when you finish a long rest.
Protection of the Talisman: Lucky Charms
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
The Pact Boons are four options (three from the Player’s Handbook and one from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything) that define a play pattern different warlocks are looking to go towards. Pact of the Blade pushes a character towards martial melee combat and multi-attacking with Thirsting Blade, Pact of the Chain gives a character a familiar and the tools to act as a more supportive jack of all trades, and Pact of the Tome gives warlocks tools to empower the full caster fantasy they otherwise lack with bonus cantrips from any class. These three did a pretty solid job covering character build diversity; creating new Pacts that could achieve the same goal is certainly challenging. Pact of the Talisman, on its own, comes nowhere close to Chain or Tome, acting as a Guidance-like skill buff a few times per long rest on its own. It can only ever affect the worn creature as well, meaning it's often a selfish option that’s only kind of empowering you. It doesn’t give a clear direction to build towards. You just will be slightly better at skill checks typically, and rarely have moments to give that boon to a buddy. It doesn’t deliver as a boon on its own.
Protection of the Talisman doesn’t really solve any of these issues; it just stacks a Resistance-like effect on the talisman as well. Adding a d4 to potentially turn a failed save into a success is fine. Getting to do that three to four times a long rest is probably all you’ll ever need. Being able to only ever affect one creature with it at a time without having to move the talisman around is just… bad. It's boring. It's not particularly helpful. It's not giving a character more to do, it's just occasionally mitigating a saving throw. Invocations are the foundation warlocks are built on; failing less saving throws isn’t a good pillar to build off of, it isn’t something to empower a new support warlock build, especially given it’s so inflexible.
Having played as and running games for Talisman warlocks a fair bit now, I can say it's probably slightly better than Pact of the Blade, but not by much. The option is lackluster, offering very little new ways to engage with the world. Protection shares all these problems; it's an invocation that makes your saving throws a bit better. That’s not good enough for an entire invocation when at will 1st and 2nd level spells are on the table. This even has a 7th level prerequisite, meaning you can’t even pick it up early to play a defender style character- you have to wait to even try it out. I wouldn’t recommend Pact of the Talisman, nor Protection, to any player thinking about trying it out when Pact of the Chain and Tome both have superior base forms and VERY good invocations available to them. Even Pact of the Blade comes with decent invocations while its main mechanics suck; that’s not something Talisman can claim.
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