Is this homebrew "Pact with the Factory" a balanced warlock subclass?

Question

This is a homebrew warlock subclass I’ve made: Pact with the Factory.

Lore: The factory is an organization that has spread to multiple planes, conquering, consuming, and producing. Its only goals are to grow and spread as much as possible, feeding off of capitalism and creating powerful magic items all as the cancer that it is becomes stronger.

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Terms of the Pact:

• You cannot make any negative statements about the Factory
• You cannot make any actions harmful to the Factory
• You must constantly send the Factory resources in exchange for your power. The DM doesn’t need to mention this beyond something like “as you get your payment, a few coins disappear” or “As you walk through the forest, you notice some trees have been cut down and the trunks have disappeared”

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Features

Expanded Spell List

• 1st-Level Spells: Distort Value, Shield
• 2nd-Level Spells: Heat Metal, Enlarge/Reduce
• 3rd-Level Spells: Incite Greed, Conjure Barrage
• 4th-Level Spells: Fabricate, Compulsion
• 5th-Level Spells: Animate Objects, Creation

Trade Offer

At 1st level, you gain the ability to offer your life to the Factory in exchange for power. As a bonus action, you can give up HP in exchange for bonus damage. You get the bonus for the next spell/ cantrip you cast

• 3(hp) = +1 to attack and damage rolls for cantrips
• 6(hp) = +2 attack and/or damage rolls for cantrips
• 9(hp) = +3 attack and/or damage rolls for cantrips
• 15(hp) = +4 attack and/or damage rolls for spells

You can't reduce your own HP below 1, and you can only use the ability a number of times equal to your prof bonus.

Free Shipping

At 6th level, you gain the power call upon the items the Factory has created. As a bonus action, for one minute, you can summon any non-magical item. Additionally, up to a certain times per day, you can summon magic items up to a certain rarity for one minute.

• 6th level: Up to uncommon items and only once per day.
• 10th level: Up to rare and only up to twice per day.
• 14th level: Up to very rare items and only up to four times per day.

Customer Service

At 10th level, you gain the instinctive knowledge of items and their worth. You can cast identify at will a number of times per long rest equal to your Proficiency Bonus.

Feed the Factory

At 14th level, you gain the power to summon the factory into reality and feed its insatiable hunger. Once per long rest, a creature within 60 feet of you must make a Dex saving throw against your warlock spell save DC. If they fail, then they take Xd10 slashing damage, where X equals half your warlock level (rounded down). This is not affected by immunities or resistances. Additionally, if they die from this damage, you can create an item out of their body either at the DM’s discretion with what the item is fitting the creature and quality going up with the enemy’s CR.

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Flavor on the Pacts:

• Pact of the Chain: Because the Factory seeks to subjugate all things, you can have any type of creature of the normal summon list. Additionally, it will often be heavily abused and have the Factory’s insignia burned into its skin.
• Pact of the Blade: An ugly black iron weapon, made by mass production and with the Factory’s insignia on it.
• Pact of the Tome: A thick, comprehensive user’s manual about the mechanisms of magic and production.

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Is this subclass balanced with other warlock subclasses?

Answer 1

Flavor: don't use animal abuse as a theme.

In the Pact of the Chain flavor description, you wrote:

Pact of the Chain: Because the Factory seeks to subjugate all things, you can have any type of creature of the normal summon list. Additionally, it will often be heavily abused and have the Factory’s insignia burned into its skin.

Just don't do that. This is the sort of thing that you probably shouldn't even bring to the table. Someone who is not okay with this might feel pressured to let it slide because they don't want to poopoo your idea. Don't put someone else in that position. The other two flavors are neat and shouldn't be a problem. Find something other than animal abuse to use as a theme for Pact of the Chain.

Free Shipping: Rarity cannot be trusted. Consider the Artificer.

Rarity cannot be trusted. Within each rarity tier, there are items that belong in other rarity tiers, and even some items which break the game. For example, the "very rare" Illusionist's Bracers are horribly overpowered. In this answer, I discuss some of the problems with this item. I've used it in a campaign before. It is one of the most powerful items in the game, especially for a warlock.

But all is not lost. The Artificer class has a feature called Replicate Magic Item, which allows the artificer to create magic items. At different levels, the artificer gains access to new tables of magic items they can create with that feature. Instead of using rarity on your warlock, Consider taking a page from the artificer class and use their tables for 2nd, 6th, 10th, and 14th level. A lot more thought went into the relative balance of the items in each table, and you are much less likely to break the game with under-appraised magic items like the Illusionist's Bracers.

Customer Service: Pretty underwhelming.

All this feature does is give unfettered use of identify. I've used identify more than once in a day only few times ever. It just isn't a particularly useful feature, in my estimation. But if the other features turn out to be more powerful than you were expecting, having an underwhelming feature here might balance it. It might not. Playtest and find out.

Trade Offer: Ready for playtesting.

I'm going to say this one is ready for playtesting. The +3/+3 to attack and damage is pretty good, and lends itself to the warlock casting eldritch blast even more, but 9 hit points is somewhat costly, especially at earlier levels, and it is limited in use by your proficiency bonus. Which, you haven't actually said "per day" on this feature:

You can't reduce your own HP below 1, and you can only use the ability a number of times ["per day" should appear here] equal to your prof bonus.

Put this feature into play (with the "per day" added) and see if it makes eldritch blast spam even worse, or if it isn't overpowering compared to the other classes at the table.

Feed the Factory: I don't want this put on me as the DM.

The thing that jumps out to me here is that this feature puts a lot on the DM to manage. Every time you successfully kill a creature with it, I have to come up with a magic item to give you. I have to figure out what is appropriate for the level of the creature killed, and manage that relative to all the other magic items the party has. This just isn't a good game design element. The damage isn't entirely unheard of for a class feature, the Open Hand and Long Death Monk capstone features come to mind as comparable features. I would remove the free magic item bit of this feature and not replace it with anything. Ignoring immunity is probably overpowered, so I would drop it, and ignoring resistance is probably okay. The monk features mentioned both deal necrotic damage, which is resisted by fewer creatures than slashing, so ignoring resistance to slashing is probably similar.

Answer 2

Some features are ok, some needs work

Terms of the pact

You cannot make any actions harmful to the Factory

This should perhaps be reworded slightly. If we get philosophical no one knows what actions might end up being harmful to the Factory. I'd either change it to "You cannot knowingly take any actions harmful to the Factory", or "You cannot take any actions that are directly harmful to the Factory".

You must constantly send the Factory resources in exchange for your power.

This is pretty different from how normal warlocks work, but that's not really a problem.

Since these points are presented as terms to a contract and not information about what all Pact of the Factory warlocks do, I get the feeling that the intention is that the warlock actively upholds these terms. That implies the possibility to break the terms. If that's the intention I would like some consequences for breaking the contract. If it's intended to be like the druid's inability to use metal armor, which is just the way it is, I would say something about the magic of the Factory making these terms unbreakable or whatever.

Expanded Spell List

I like this very much. Very thematic and a good mix of strong and situational spells.

Trade Offer seems fine. I might be tempted to cap it at +3 only because that's where magic items stop. +4 feels like uncharted territory and might be too overpowered. This needs play testing. The effective hp cost is greater at low levels, since you have lower max hp. Thus, the feature could end up being useless at low levels and overpowered at higher levels. Perhaps the hp cost should be tied to your level or proficiency bonus somehow. I don't know. It's ready for play testing the way it's written now.

Free shipping seems horribly overpowered. Once you hit level 6 it's full plate for everyone and the party will be clad head to toe in magic items. Party needs cash? Summon some diamonds!

Customer Service is pretty underwhelming. That could be ok if the other features and up being very powerful. If not you might want to add some bells and whistles or rework it.

Feed the Factory will probably be more of a chore at the table. In the middle of combat, you have to stop because the DM has to create an item for you. I also don't think it makes that much sense. If you're feeding the factory, the creature should be consumed and no materials will be left to create an item. I like the idea of summoning the Factory to feast on your enemies and then get a reward though. Perhaps a free use of trade offer on your next turn?