D&D 5E Is Warlock broken?

[The Crimson Binome]

But I mean how are they targetting someone in darkness?

Just because you're invisible doesn't mean you're hidden. In exactly the same manner as an invisible Paladin clanking down the hallway, everyone knows exactly where everyone is within the darkness, unless they take an action to hide and win that stealth check; and even then, you're only hidden until you do something interesting, at which point you've revealed your location.

If there's any other melee in your party, then they'll be at disadvantage on their own attacks - unless it's a reckless Barbarian, who can overcome the disadvantage of Darkness by giving enemies advantage against themself. If there's no other melee in your party, then the monsters will just leave the darkness and go engage someone else.

The Darkness trick is a powerful defensive ability, but it's not a tank ability because it doesn't put the Warlock into that role. If doesn't give the monsters any reason to actually attack the Warlock instead of focusing on someone else.

 

[Flamestrike]

Just because you're invisible doesn't mean you're hidden. In exactly the same manner as an invisible Paladin clanking down the hallway, everyone knows exactly where everyone is within the darkness, unless they take an action to hide and win that stealth check; and even then, you're only hidden until you do something interesting, at which point you've revealed your location.

If there's any other melee in your party, then they'll be at disadvantage on their own attacks - unless it's a reckless Barbarian, who can overcome the disadvantage of Darkness by giving enemies advantage against themself. If there's no other melee in your party, then the monsters will just leave the darkness and go engage someone else.

The Darkness trick is a powerful defensive ability, but it's not a tank ability because it doesn't put the Warlock into that role. If doesn't give the monsters any reason to actually attack the Warlock instead of focusing on someone else.

This.

Although darkness (and invisibility) does stop you being targetted by most spells, many special attacks and attacks of opportunity.

For example, an invisible creature (or one standing inside darkness) is immune to Power Word Kill regardless of if it's also hidden or not. The spell can only be cast on 'Choose one target that you can see...' like most offensive spells in the PHB.

Can you maintain concentration through a short rest?

Absolutely you can. And starting at Warlock 5, Hex lasts 8 hours long.

You cast it as a bonus action on the first turn of your first encounter of the day and it lasts all day long, until you either lose consciouness, cease concentration willingly, or fail a concentration save.

So for a 'standard' Fiend Warlock of levels 2-10 it goes (on a standard adventuring day/ dungeon crawl):

Encounter 1: Cast Hex. Spam EB and invcocations
Encounter 2: Maintain concentration on Hex. Cast 1 spell at max level. Spam EB and invcocations
[short rest] - recover slots, spend HD
Encounter 3: Maintain concentration on Hex. Cast 1 spell at max level. Spam EB and invcocations
Encounter 4: Maintain concentration on Hex. Cast 1 spell at max level. Spam EB and invcocations
[short rest] - recover slots, spend HD
Encounter 5: Maintain concentration on Hex. Cast 1 spell at max level. Spam EB and invcocations
Encounter 6: Maintain concentration on Hex. Cast 1 spell at max level. Spam EB and invcocations
[klong rest]: Restore HP to full, recover 1/2 HD, recover slots, Hex drops.

Compare the above to a Wizard 2-10 over the same adventuring day.

There is nothing wrong with the Warlock, and the OP's argument is based on subjective experience.

As long as the DM is policiing the 5 minute adventuring day, and giving the recommended 2-3 short rests per long rest, the classes are balanced fine against each other.

So OP: Its not the Warlocks fault. Its your DM's fault. Tell him to do his job and stop being lazy.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Can you maintain concentration through a short rest?

I'd say, "Yes, but not like you want."

"A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds." -- D&D Basic

Concentrating on a spell is presumably more strenuous than any of those things. So you can maintain concentration over a 1 hour period, but you won't be able to benefit from a short rest while concentrating. I also wouldn't describe any period of time which included concentration on anything, particularly a spell, as "downtime," as your character is still trying to accomplish something.

 

[Ancalagon]

I believe it is the division of short rest based classes, and long rest based classes, that is broken balance wise, as opposed to the warlock specifically, although the warlock is the classic short rest class.

I disagree about if you can take a 1 hour rest, you can take 8 hours, we often don't find that in practice.

I agree with you. People can't just keep going all day then collapse in a heap and sleep 8 hours. You need to stop and eat. If you are traveling you need those breaks. As a player if the party never stop I would point out that even heroes need food. As a GM if the party never wants to stop I would start imposing exhaustion level.

What we have seen is, if the adventure allows for short rests but not long rests (eg dungeon), the short rest guys dominate. If on the other hand long rests come easy, eg wilderness or city adventure, the long resters dominate. The number of encounters per day is also a big deal.

I think it really depends on the scenario. If the wilderness is fairly quiet sure. But what if it's crawling with monsters? Also a city adventure can be quite... busy. In the morning the party charms their way past the guard to quietly inspect old documents in the library. At 2 they are ambushed in an alley by thugs. At 7 PM they go meet an old wizard who has information for them. And at 11 PM they infiltrate the temple of the Gold God where something terrible is afoot! It all depends on the pacing.

There is a fundamental class balance problem due to different power reset times. Sometimes the warlock suffers for this, other times it is to their advantage.

Totally!

 

[The Crimson Binome]

"A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds." -- D&D Basic

Concentrating on a spell is presumably more strenuous than any of those things. So you can maintain concentration over a 1 hour period, but you won't be able to benefit from a short rest while concentrating. I also wouldn't describe any period of time which included concentration on anything, particularly a spell, as "downtime," as your character is still trying to accomplish something.

Why would you presume that? It seems more natural to believe that, if this was the case, they actually would have mentioned it at any point (either in the concentration rules, or in the short rest rules).

I guess that's just something for the potential Warlock player to discuss with the DM, though. If you think it's cheesy for the spell to remain in effect while you recover the spell slot that was spent to cast it, then you could use this as justification for saying why it doesn't work.

Although, for the record, we do know that strenuous activity (such as combat) is more strenuous than resting, and you can concentrate on a spell just fine while you're fighting. That would logically mean that resting is less strenuous than concentrating, so you should be able to keep your spell going, by the transitive property.

 

[Giant2005]

The Darkness trick is a powerful defensive ability, but it's not a tank ability because it doesn't put the Warlock into that role. If doesn't give the monsters any reason to actually attack the Warlock instead of focusing on someone else.

It isn't just a powerful defensive ability, it is a powerful offensive ability too. The Warlock is also probably inflicting the most damage in the group due to having advantage on all of his attacks - that damage should make him a prime target.
More than that though, Darkness is a very uncomfortable experience for anyone not born to the shadows. When shrouded in Darkness, you instinctively seek the light - the enemies can do that one of two ways: they can try to kill the source of the Darkness (the Warlock), or they can flee which is even better.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It isn't just a powerful defensive ability, it is a powerful offensive ability too. The Warlock is also probably inflicting the most damage in the group due to having advantage on all of his attacks - that damage should make him a prime target.
More than that though, Darkness is a very uncomfortable experience for anyone not born to the shadows. When shrouded in Darkness, you instinctively seek the light - the enemies can do that one of two ways: they can try to kill the source of the Darkness (the Warlock), or they can flee which is even better.

Our party warlock would cast darkness on himself and run into battle, causing all kinds of havoc. It was quite an effective tactic. If the monsters can't see anything, they're gonna try to attack the one they sort of know where they're at. Therefore, it's quite an effective tank ability.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

It isn't just a powerful defensive ability, it is a powerful offensive ability too. The Warlock is also probably inflicting the most damage in the group due to having advantage on all of his attacks - that damage should make him a prime target.

My general guideline for most monsters is to avoid making attacks where you have disadvantage. To that end, Darkness is a terrible tanking tool because it makes everyone want to leave the darkness and attack someone they can actually see.

I don't know if there is a good counter to that tactic, for anyone lacking some sort of area-effect attack, but I'm pretty sure that wasting your attacks into the void is not the right solution. Monsters can barely hit anything in this edition as-is.

 

[Giant2005]

My general guideline for most monsters is to avoid making attacks where you have disadvantage. To that end, Darkness is a terrible tanking tool because it makes everyone want to leave the darkness and attack someone they can actually see.

I don't know if there is a good counter to that tactic, for anyone lacking some sort of area-effect attack, but I'm pretty sure that wasting your attacks into the void is not the right solution. Monsters can barely hit anything in this edition as-is.

That is a fair call. Most monsters probably won't even realize what is going on. It is more likely to cause complete chaos than anything.

 

[Ancalagon]

A quick aside: What does "broken" mean? The OP makes it sound like the warlock is underpowered. I always thought broken meant *over*powered....