Warlock and Sorcerer

MoonSong

Rules-lawyering drama queen but not a munchkin

• Aug 17, 2012

• #1

Hey ENWORLD, while we await for the release of these two classes, How do you think they'll be based on what we know and what we've seen?. These two classes have a lot in common and they can give us an idea on how some other niche-swap classes will look like.

So any thoughts? Will sorcerer be like the 3.x , 4e or will it use spellpoints? Will the warlock have access to spells or will he get invocations/special attacks instead? Which version of which one is the definitive for you? How do you think they should be?

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Ahnehnois

First Post

• Aug 17, 2012

• #2

Warlocks carved out a really nice niche as the non-resource-management casters. It's great to be able to pick invocations and just use them, and it's a boon for DMs who don't want to deal with spellbooks for their NPC mages because invocations are spontaneous and few in number. Having the class's damage determined by level also makes balance easy, whereas other casters vary greatly depending on what spells they have access to.

It also provides a nice in-game vibe that's distinct from Vancian. Warlocks don't wear out; they seem like unstoppably driven foes.

It would be a real shame if they didn't carry all that over.


Sorcery also has a nice niche as Vancian without memorization. Surely we'll see a similar spontaneous casting system in 5e.

 

T

TrippyHippy

Hero

• Aug 17, 2012

• #3

There was an option of trying to create a diverse, customizable Wizard class, but I'm not averse to seeing well done Sorcerers and Warlocks providing alternative magical styles. I just hope they are well themed, and in the case of the Warlock it would be nice to be able to call it a Witch.

 

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ferratus

Adventurer

• Aug 17, 2012

• #4

I agree that the Warlock in 3e was a good contrast to the 3e wizard, in that all of his abilities were at-will, but he suffered because he didn't have enough offensive power. They need to borrow from 4e and make them all about hellfire, poison, diseases, curses, and summoned devils. If we are really lucky, we'll get the dark pact warlock variant that sacrificed the lifeforce of both himself and his allies to his master for a boost in power. If Con isn't the most important stat for a warlock, I will be very sad.

I really liked the flavour of the 3e sorcerer (power from bloodlines) but the spontaneous vancian casting wasn't the best fit for it, IMO. If we must have a spontaneous vancian caster we should give that to the warlock (to represent the spell-like abilities imbued by a fiendish master) and make the sorcerer the one with the continuous at-will abilities.

 

MoonSong

Rules-lawyering drama queen but not a munchkin

• Aug 17, 2012

• #5

Well to me the best version of the warlock is the one from 4e, essentially being extremely thematic and flavored by their pacts, also the wide array of conditions they inflicted would be very cool if translated properly for the new ediiton.

In contrast to me Pathfinder got the best flavor of the sorcerer, but I don't mind the 3.x version at all, being the simplest Vancian caster played very well and offered lots of tactical flexibility, the fourth edition one was too blastery for my tastes, wasn't flexible enough and it had too little bloodlines to choose from (yet I wouldn't mind seeing some of their powers as bloodline specific spells for Next)

 

Someone

Adventurer

• Aug 17, 2012

• #6

They used the words "reality hacker", so...

 

T

teancum42

First Post

• Aug 17, 2012

• #7

From watching the Keynote I would surmise that the Warlock is going to be an AEDU (or something similar) class and that the Sorcerer is going to cast based on some sort of spell point system.

When they flashed up the character creation page for the Sorcerer I think I saw a column of numbers labeled 'Willpower' or something of the sort. Sounds like spell points to me. Mearls mentioned the 3 basic schools of thought for magic (Vancian, AEDU, and Spellpoints). With wizards being vancian and sorcerers being spellpoints, that leaves warlocks being AEDU, right?

 

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TrippyHippy

Hero

• Aug 17, 2012

• #8

What is AEDU?

 

Falling Icicle

Adventurer

• Aug 17, 2012

• #9

TrippyHippy said:

What is AEDU?

Click to expand...

I believe it stands for "At-Will/Encounter/Daily/Utility", which was the power format of 4e.

 

Stacie GmrGrl

Adventurer

• Aug 17, 2012

• #10

Okay now we're talking... so looking forward to this, to see how they do it. I kinda hope that all three arcane casters has their own Spells lists, maybe with a few overlapping.

I loved the 3.x Warlock thematically but I wouldn't mind seeing the 5e be a combination of 3.x Warlock and Hexblade, and the Sorcerer be based on Pathfinders because their Sorcerer remains king of all Sorcerers so far. What could be cool is if they adapted the 4e psionics system of power points to Spell Points and Sorcerer Spells were Augmentable.