Is this reflavouring of the Dao Genie warlock patron balanced?

Question

I am intending on reflavouring the Genie, so that each type of Genie patron is instead a Fey Court themed around the seasons. All but one of the Genies work without changing.

Here is how I'm intending on reflavouring each variety:

Marid, winter; Efreeti, Summer; Djinni, Autumn; Dao, Spring.

However Dao is themed around stone, so I intended to change the extra spells to these for levels 3-5.

• 3rd: Haste (replacing meld into stone)
• 4th: Grasping Vine (replacing stone shape)
• 5th: Wrath of Nature (replacing wall of stone)

These weren't my only considerations, but I think they might be the best ones to pick.

My concern was that Haste might be too powerful however I thought Plant Growth, Daylight, and Aura of Vitality would be underpowered.

I picked these so that between the 3 other genie options one seemed to be offensive and two utility, so I aimed the replacements as being more offensive.

Are the new spells balanced in relation to what they were previously and the other genie options?

Answer 1

This is balanced, except possibly if your party regularly takes several short rests per day.

The Dungeon Master's Guide gives guidance for changing spell lists - essentially, it is usually a priori balanced, giving special attention to messing with warlocks:

Modifying a class’s spell list usually has little effect on a character’s power but can change the flavor of a class significantly. In your world, paladins might not swear their oaths to ideals, but instead swear fealty to powerful sorcerers. To capture this story concept, you could build a new paladin spell list with spells meant to protect their masters, drawn from the sorcerer or wizard lists. Suddenly, the paladin feels like a different class.

Be cautious when changing the warlock spell list. Since warlocks regain their spell slots after a short rest, they have the potential to use certain spells more times in a day than other classes do.

In my estimation, grasping vine and wrath of nature are pretty niche spells anyway, and you would rarely need to cast them several times a day, definitely not enough to be a problem.

Haste might be a problem, but only if your table observes several short rests per day. Haste is a very good spell for 3rd level. It is one of those "almost always cast it" sort of spells. So if your table observes several short rests per day, then you might find your warlock casting haste 4 or more times per long rest at 5th level, which is way more than a standard arcane caster would be able to. This is when it can be unbalanced.

If your group only has 2-3 or less encounters per long rest, haste isn't an issue.