Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Ideas on how to improve Pact of Tome

Hello,

So I like Tomelock in the tabletop version of the game, but in BG3 it feels very lackluster because your cantrip options are set in stone and there is very little build flexibility when compared to the tabletop version.

I would like to propose the following changes:

Pact of Tome at level 3 - provides a list of a maximum of 9-12 cantrips, from which you can only chose 3.

For the Tomelock Cantrip List I propose the following:

1) Shocking Grasp - a situational cantrip which is a step up from using disengage action in order to get out of melee - damages one creatures and removes it's reactions

2) Shillelagh - a popular choice for tomelock. The appeal of it is that it allows you to make good attacks of opportunity without needing to invest in physical attributes (Str or Dex) or the War Caster feature

3) Thaumaturgy - improves viability of character as the party face

4) Resistance - situational self buff for when you don't have a cleric and are about to go into a fight like the one with the Sirens

5) Ray of Frost - this is here in case you don't want to grab a level in sorcerer for the ability to limit movement speed

Finally, we also have the 3 cantrips currently available with Pact of Tome: Guidance, Thorn Whip, Vicious Mockery.

Book of Ancient Secrets - Turn this into an active ability which refreshes all of your Warlock spell slots. Can only be used once before needing to do a Long Rest.
I consider this an improvement over the spell selection provided currently.

It would be nice if you could cast and upcast the deepened pact spells like call lightning with warlock spell slots.

I just realized I forgot to tackle Deepened Pact in my OP. Thanks for that.

After having a quick read, I thought that, it would be better if Deepened Tome Pact had this function instead: Chose 3 warlock spells of your choice. You can cast those without expanding a spell slot.

I'd argue this would be better because Warlock has a lot of decent spells where the level of the spell slot doesn't matter such as Hex, Expeditious Retreat, Misty Step, Mirror Image, Hypnotic Pattern and Fear.

Just have it so you pick any 3 Cantrips from non-warlock lists and Deepened Pact is any 3 spells from non-warlock lists (Up to 3rd level).

Have Book of Ancient Secrets invocation give another 3 spells from non-warlock lists (Up to 4th level).

Provides a lot of flexibility for the class with a quasi-Bard type spell choice but with the flavour of Warlock and their limited spell castings (They're not full casters that sling dozens of spells every fight)

The reason why I've done a set list for Pact is because, Larian doesn't seem open to the concept of letting Pact of Tome be open ended.

However, limit the pact feature to those 3 cantrips is way to restrictive, so I went with a middle of the line approach.

Also, regarding your take on Deepened Pact and Book of secrets - won't that erode the Bard identity with their Magical Secrets mechanic?

I dunno about that. Not too many people have bothered asking for it.

It is however RAW from TT so it *Should* be the case.


Not really. Magical Secrets for Bard lets them fully learn other classes spells, which they can spend their spell slots on and upcast at will. (Also as they get Magical Secrets at level 10 they can get up to 5th level spells)

Warlocks getting things from Tome, gives them 1 cast of those spells each at a fixed level per long rest. Effectively giving them a "Scroll" of the spells per long rest. (Which is mitigated by the fact that Warlocks are normally Short Resters due to their natural ability to regain spell slots on SR)

The only crossover is that both things give spells from other classes lists... But that's literally RAW for those mechanics that's just what they do.

Pact of the Blade is clearly the best option for Warlocks. Both of the other pacts need a rework to make them viable options.

Pact of the Tome would be meaningful if it gave extra castings at the current Warlock level. The bonus spells should count as Warlock spells and provide casting slots. This is the best way to make it comparable to the extra attack with the pact weapon that the Pact of the Blade provides.

It might also be interesting if the Pact of the Tome could be tied to tomes found in the course of adventuring. The Necromancy of Thay is an example of a tome which could be more useful to a Pact of the Tome character. In addition to the benefits the book already gives, making it a warlock pact tome could offer bonus spells from the Necromancy school to select as bonus spells (with the additional spell slots mentioned above). Other tomes could be discovered in the course of adventuring giving the player an option to bind their pact with a new tome for new options.

On a side note, Pact of the Chain really needs to offer better summons than low level familiars. Perhaps the creatures you can summon could improve at higher levels like the druid wild shapes do.

If Warlocks got the Investment of the Chain Master invocation that'd help the familiars a lot. As would getting the Sprite and Pseudodragon familiars.

Since that invocation grants them a ton of speed, lets the Warlock use a bonus action to make the familiar attack, makes all their familiar DC's use the Warlock's Spell Attack DC and allows the Warlock to use their reaction to give their familiar Resistance to an incoming damage source.

While the Sprite and Pseudodragon have attacks that poison enemies and on a failed save, put them to sleep which is a pretty significant CC effect that can be used every round (And with the above invocation... The DC is based on the Warlock's spell mod)

Another potential idea is something like what they use in Solasta, where you get a buff based on familiars (In Solasta it only lasts for 1 minute and can only be used once per long rest so is kind of trash especially compared to Blade where it gives full martial proficiency and all weapons you use are Magical so bypass resistances/immunities to physical damage) but the buffs are:

Imp: Darkvision + Resistance to Fire and Poison
Pseudodragon: Advantage on all saving throws from magical effects
Quasit: Resistance to (Non magical) Slashing, Bludgeoning and Piercing
Sprite: +2 movement (AKA 3m speed in BG3) and immunity to Attacks of Opportunity

As I read this, I find it a bit shocking that late game Pact of the Tome has more hate than early pact of the Tome.

I mean I get Warlock has no business casting Haste or Animate Dead and that Call Lighting being capped as a 3rd level is ridiculos but...am I really the only one who wishes they could swap out Vicious Mockery for Shocking Grasp or Thorn Whip for Thaumaturgy or Guidance for something else in case I already have a Cleric with Guidance in my party?