First, apologies to anyone expecting a more regular update schedule this Ocular October – between running four D&D games a week, planning to host a Halloween murder mystery party at the end of this month, my actual 9-5, and homebrewing for this blog, I am all over the place! I can only hope the updates I make are worth the wait…after all, what’s a beholder blog without a little randomness, eh?

Also, a random sidenote before we begin this week’s entry – everything you see on this blog is meant to work with the 2014 ruleset for D&D 5th edition. While I find a lot of what I see in the 2024 PHB interesting, I’m not comfortable designing for it until at least all three core books are out and available. The material in this blog might be compatible with those rules as well as per their back-compatibility guidelines, but I can’t guarantee it.

Ocular Adept Invocations

One of my favorite creations on this blog (and the original 3.5 edition prestige class that inspired it) is the Ocular Adept, a warlock subclass. Oh how I would love to play one as a PC in a campaign some day! But I have since come to wonder…what is a warlock subclass without some flavorful Invocations to help the concept along? So, here are a few to get those vitreous humors creative juices flowing!

Deadeye

Prerequisite: Ocular Spell feature

Spells you cast using your Ocular Spell feature ignore half cover and three-quarters cover. Once a day, if the target has total cover but there is an indirect path at least 1 foot in diameter to them, you can target them with a spell using the Ocular Spell feature as if they had no cover or obscurity.

Secrets of the Elder Eye*

Prerequisite: Charm (1st level), Sleep (1st level), Inflict Wounds (1st level), Slow (5th level), Fear (5th level), Charm Monster (7th level), Telekinesis (9th level), Flesh to Stone (11th level), Disintegrate (11th level), Finger of Death (13th level)

Choose one of the spells listed above that you meet the prerequisite for. You can cast this spell at the level of your warlock spell slots, without expending a slot. You can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. You can choose this invocation multiple times.

Eye Spy

Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain feature

An eye stalk grows out of your pact familiar. You can make this stalk unfurl or shrink back into its body with a bonus action. While unfurled the eye stalk is present no matter what form the familiar takes. While unfurled, when you elect to see and hear through your familiar you are no longer deaf and blind with regard to your own senses, and you can elect to use your own senses and Perception bonus instead of the familiar’s if you wish. Once a day, you may elect to cast any spell through your familiar rather than just spells with a range of touch (other limitations still apply).

Tyrant’s Blade

Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade feature

An eye appears somewhere on your pact weapon. If you are ever blinded in a way that your weapon would not be (for example, the Blindness spell but not Darkness), you can see through your weapon’s eye as if you were not blinded. When you hit an enemy you may choose to use a Tyrant’s Strike – the target must make a Constitution save against your spell save DC or suffer one of the following effects: Charmed until the start of your next turn, Frightened until the start of your next turn, Slowed (as the Slow spell) until the start of your next turn, or moved 15 feet in any direction. At 15th level, you have the additional options of: Paralyzed until the start of your next turn, Petrified until the start of your next turn, or functioning as if they were in an Antimagic Field (filling their controlled space) until the start of your next turn. You must take a short or long rest before you can use Tyrant’s Strike again.

Book of the Beholder**

Prerequisite: Pact of the Tome feature

An eye grows on your Book of Shadows. You can choose to see through your book as if it were a familiar. If anyone other than you or creatures you designate touches your Book of Shadows, the eye immediately opens, you wake if you are asleep, and you can see through it for as long as they touch the book and for one minute after. During this time you can cast one spell through the book at that target, as if you were standing where the book currently is.

You also learn the Glare cantrip as if it came from the Pact of the Tome feature (this does not count as one of your initial three cantrips).

Obliterating Blast

Prerequisite: eldritch blast cantrip, 11th level

If your Eldritch Blast damage reduces a creature to 0 hit points, you can choose to reduce its body to a pile of fine gray dust. Once a day, you can choose to disintegrate a Large or smaller nonmagical object or a creation of magical force with Eldritch Blast. If the target is a Huge or larger object or creation of force, this spell disintegrates a 10-foot-cube portion of it.

Tongue of the Tyrant

You gain the ability to speak, read, and write in Deep Speech. Beholders and beholder-kin treat you favorably – you have advantage on Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation checks if they are not already hostile. As a bonus action you can allow a thin, sticky slime drool out of your mouth, pooling at your feet. Until the start of your next turn, anywhere you move leaves behind a 5 foot wide trail of drool on the ground. This slime is difficult terrain for anyone but you. The slime dries and flakes away at the start of your next turn. You leave no tracks behind while drooling.

Doom Dreamer

Prerequisite: 9th level

Dark dreams assail your mind, and sometimes…sometimes they follow you into the waking world. After each long rest, make a Constitution saving throw, as if you were maintaining concentration on a spell, against a DC of 15. If you fail, you suffer 1d4 psychic damage, and you may cast the Creation spell once before your next long rest, at the same level as your warlock spell slots. If you succeed, you may cast Creation and Summon Aberration for the same period.

Beneath Me

Prerequisite: Above You All feature

The height at which you can float above the ground increases to 10 feet (meaning medium sized foes will require reach or ranged weapons to harm you), and you gain the (hover) trait while doing so.

* You may notice Secrets of the Elder Eye is written a little differently than the “cast a spell once” invocations in the PHB. This is because I find those quite lacking for warlocks as-written; while adding them to your spell list might be a bit much in some cases, I find giving you one “free” cast per long rest to be much more acceptable for spending a valuable invocation choice on.

** I could also see this invocation working for the Pact of the Talisman feature, for the Warlocks using that.