Welp, I went on another "little" break... but never mind that, here's a cool warlock!
The Calamity is an idea I had a while ago, though it originally started as a Great Wyrm patron. The concept was a great being of destruction that wanted to lay waste to the world, and you as a warlock took power to spread that destruction. Kind of edgy, but sometimes that style is fun!
In combat, the Calamity's main combat loop will be just like any other warlock. You cast cantrips (or make weapon attacks if you have the Pact of the Blade) and occasionally sprinkle in a spell. What differs is the addition of Inescapable Destruction, which eats your bonus action each round for a control effect. They also get to reroll one instance of damage per turn, which would normally be used on a standard attack, but becomes best when they cast a spell such as fireball. Overall, this subclass is encouraged most to be casting their spells, getting benefits from Armageddon and Armour of the Apocalypse.
Anyways, onto to the mini rant of the day: Warlock Capstones.
You may have noticed that End of Days is a crazy ability, and you're right—it is crazy. Warlock capstones in general are normally crazy things, usable once per long rest (or once per short or long rest). One great example is that Fiend gets Hurl through Hell, letting them throw an enemy through the horrors of the lower planes without requiring a saving throw. Now, there are definitely some that differ: the Great Old One creates thralls at will and Hexblade gets to move its Hexblade's Curse feature when it kills a creature. While I have no problem with Great Old One (it is definitely an awesome capstone), I don't like Hexblade's Master of Hexes feature at all since it simply doesn't feel as epic as it could if it were limited in uses with a more impactful mechanic.
The other big weird thing End of Days does is that it has a recharge of 7 days, instead of the normal long rest. There is some precedent here—Genie's capstone recharges after 1d4 long rests—but I think that 7 days just feels so much cooler than 1d4 days.
That's all really just circling around the main idea here: warlock capstones have such great potential as massive, epic abilities. End of Days is meant to really lean into that. Regardless of the mechanics of it, it has phrases such as "you can bring immense ruin to the world around you", "the ground is churned and blackened" and "If you kill a creature in this way, it is reduced to ash." That stuff isn't really important if you just look at the numbers of a feature, but it feels really awesome to use. To add to that, it's not just narratively epic, it also does 150 flat damage, which always feels massive, and a 7 day cool down, both of which make it feel mechanically epic too.
To conclude, warlock capstones, and capstones in general, shouldn't be afraid to be awesome things. It's a fact that most campaigns will never reach higher levels, meaning capstones are rarely actually used. This just serves to double down on the message—if people are mainly just going to be looking at the feature, you need to make sure it's really awesome even to look at!
Sorry it's been so long since I've been making stuff. I have some other things ready in the pipeline now, so keep an eye out! The next subclass I have planned is one for a friend's homebrew class, which should be going public at the end of August or early September!
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