Prerequisite: 9th level
You can cast Speak with Dead at will, without expending a spell slot.
Whispers of the Grave: Dead Men Tell Tales
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
“Rise, spirits, rise and answer my call!” Therador, the dwarf medium, adorned in occult symbols and tattoos denoting the epic struggles of tragic heroes, stands over the open coffin, incense burning to mask the odor of death filling the room. From the body, a spirit rises, frozen with a horrified look on its face in the last moments of its life.
Whispers of the Grave takes a spell that probably is a bit too good to be a ritual spell and lets warlocks treat it like one. It's perfect. It is exactly how I want warlocks to engage the world. They’re uncanny, spooky, committed to some otherworldly patron that gives them macabre tools to unearth unnatural information that unsettles others. Speak with Dead is exactly that, and at 9th level, turns the warlock into the medium they want to be. Celestial warlocks can flavor it to be touching spirits and releasing them from pain as they ask them a few final questions. Undead and Undying warlocks can enjoy the dark and twisted lore of bending the spirits of the dead to their will. A myriad of options are available.
The practical uses of Speak with Dead are numerous. You tend to kill things guarding places you’re going into, or find dead people that have been unjustly killed who may know information that can lead you to where you want to go. Being able to get five questions worth of information, and while often cryptic, act as an easy way for the DM to engage in some spooky roleplay while simultaneously give the group exactly the information they need to progress. The spirit not needing to answer truthfully adds a fun charisma dynamic to it. If the party killed it, is there any way a spirit cooperates? Maybe with some clever reasoning or playing to the characters flaws, it's possible. It opens up the dead as new NPCs the players can engage with, and does so without even needing to burn spell slots.
I adore Whispers of the Grave. I think it's placed at just the right prerequisite level, gives the warlock a thematic and powerful ability, and highlights what the warlock class is supposed to do well. If you’re into the flavor and information acquisition tool Speak with Dead brings to the table, doing it at will can be a delightful time. Your DM is going to have to get used to improvising dozens of new NPCs every session as the warlock just carries out casual chats with the recently deceased.
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