I'm curious to hear
@Charlaquin's thoughts on this version of the Warlock.
Glad to know my takes are of interest to you
Just finished reading the UA, and I feel like I’m generally in favor of this version. It’s much closer to the 2014 version, which is fine by me because I love the 2014 version. I’m of course relieved to see Pact Magic return, and that it still operates on short rests. Though, I expect Magical Cunning will not be satisfying for the folks who wanted more spells for the Warlock. It’s effectively +1 spell per day for most of the warlock’s career, which… I mean, I’m not gonna complain, but it’s a pretty minor benefit. And the 20th level feature just increasing your Magical Cunning recovery to all slots instead of half is an absolutely awful capstone. I’ll likely be rating the Warlock overall very satisfied and those individual features very dissatisfied.
More Invocations are always welcome, and I think making the Pact Boons into invocations themselves is really cool, especially since it now means you can take more than one of them! Seems like the two extra Invocation choices relative to 2014 are there to pay for one Pact Boon and its semi-mandatory upgrade (Blade and Thirsting Blade, Chain and Investment of the Chain Master, Tome and… uhh… Gift of the Protectors, I guess?)
Pact of the Blade looks great, I love that it lets you use Cha for attacks and damage with your pact weapon, change the damage type, and use its Mastery! A little disappointing that Extra Attack going back to costing an additional Invocation tax, but it makes some sense since the pact boons are no longer mutually exclusive, and now Thirsting Blade gives you a third attack automatically at 11th, which will allow melee warlocks to keep up with Eldritch Blasters in terms of number of attacks.
Kind of odd that Pact of the Chain has a prerequisite of level 2+ Warlock, but
. Getting skeleton and salad tadpole added to the list of familiars is thematically cool, but they’re both far weaker options than the Imp, Quasit, Sprite or Pseudodragon in 2014. I wonder if those monsters will see tweaks in the new monster manual.
I noticed that as worded in this UA, Pact of the Tome allows you to change out your cantrip and ritual spell choices whenever you conjure the book, which effectively means with one Invocation you can access
all Cantrips and 1st level ritual spells, though you only get 3 and 2 respectively at a time and can switch them out on a short or long rest. And you get a bonus spell slot once per day! I’d love to see a 5th level upgrade invocation
a la Thirsting Blade and Chain Master that expands on this. I think that could be the route to creating a non-short-rest option for the Warlock. Make the Book of Shadows like a mini wizard spellbook, and give the tomelock more daily spell slots to cast the spells in it with!
Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Spear being able to apply to a cantrip of your choice instead of only Eldritch Blast is excellent. I think EB is likely to remain the most optimal candidate for them, but having the option is great and opens up more build possibilities. I’d like to see Repelling Blast get the same treatment.
Kind of disappointed to see Beast Speech, Eldritch Sight, Eldritch Mind, and Eyes of the Runekeeper gone in favor of adding the ritual versions to the Warlock spell list. I get it, they were fairly weak options and this probably saves page count. But it was fun just being able to cast them instantly without the 10-minute ritual.
Happy to see Contact Patron is still here, that was a great addition in my opinion.
Patron spells moving to always prepared is a much appreciated change. Bummer to lose the free casting once per day, honestly I’d almost rather have that back than Magical Cunning.
Oh, and I love the re-worked Archfey Patron! The 2014 one always felt a bit weak to me, this one looks awesome, teleporting all around, adding riders to the teleports. An Eladrin Archfey Warlock seems like a blast to play!