D&D (2024) They butchered the warlock in the new packet

[Warpiglet-7]

I have almost exclusively played warlocks in 5e so this is interesting to ponder.

My biggest issue with then was always the need for one more invocation. Always one shy!

Do I like medium armor? All of my warlocks get it somehow now so that is nice especially since I am not big on hexblades but play a lot of blade pact.

I am unsure about many ‘fixes’ in ONE because many seem to have been fixes looking for a problem…and a book sale.

I do like the idea of more lower level spells at your disposal but not at the expense of the warlock niche. Feats that add spells or invocations that get you some low level spells would be fine. But after having pact magic half casting seems a little anemic.

No problem doing away with Rene short rest thing and going with a refresh you can allocate (maybe?) or a reupholster your spells x times a day as somewhat else noted—-perhaps per prof bonus a day?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think warlock as a half caster with the possibility of upgrading them with some full caster spells is an interesting take.

Maybe not the final form. Probably some warlock spells need to be updated to proper power of a normally leveled spell, and maybe some short rest recharge power. But overall I like the general Idea.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Warlocks are designed to not need that. Part of the point of invocations is that they handle the low level utility magic but in a different way. .

It doesn't seem to work at higher levels. I have seen 2 people play warlocks in campaigns and both wound up taking either sorcerer or bard to get additional magic slots somewhere around 12th level.

Maybe make a different invocation/Arcanum where you get "pact" points that can only be used for creating spell slots (i.e. Warlock level/2.) That would give a decent pool of low level spell slots (e.g. warlock-12 has 6 pts, so either 1x3rd, 2x2nd, or 3x3rd)

Because the primary motivator for those players to trade a 7th & 8th level Arcanum and an invocation was to triple the number of leveled spells they could cast. The extra class features were a bonus. And probably the lack of appeal of the 7th & 8th warlock spells, which this at least fixes.

 

[Jadeite]

Stuff like this makes me glad I switched to another system. With these changes the game formerly known as 1D&D becomes even less like the 3.5/PF(/4E) I liked with different classes using different subsystems.

 

[Remathilis]

Well, no, it’s every caster now. Which is every class except fighter, barbarian, and rogue. And people complained 4e was same-y [emoji849]

It absolutely is. Players freaking revolt if they can’t get a long rest when they need one.

Well, no, it’s every caster now. Which is every class except fighter, barbarian, and rogue. And people complained 4e was same-y [emoji849]
.

The problem is that every class benefits from a long rest. Everything resets on them. HP, spells, class features, etc. However, short rests were specific to only certain classes (and races). Fighter, monk, and warlock all had important parts of their kit requiring short rests. Cleric, druid, and bard (after 5th level) got use out of them, but the ability was more situational and they had regular spellcasting to fall back on. Wizards, sorcerers and barbarians got almost no benefit, and the rogue had no resources to build so they only ever rest to heal.

Further, in my experience, I find groups are more likely to take short rests when they are banged up. If a group blows through some easy encounters with minimal damage, they feel compelled to keep going, even if they have used up short rest resources. So if you're the warlock, cast hex in the beginning of the day, and then you and your party get into a couple easy combats or encounters with good HP, they are less likely to wait an hour for you to get your spell back...

Ultimately, this was something that should have been seen coming. The changes to Tasha subclasses and dragonborn from per short rest to proficiency/day.

 

[mellored]

Not really.

I don't use encounters to soften up characters or for attrition. I have combats as fun setpieces to the story or for the players to get their combat fix.

Like I said. You would need to adjust the encounter guidelines.
You couldn't have a solo thief steal something and run. You need an army of thieves.
You couldn't fight room to room though a dungeon, get worn down and try to find a corner to rest in. You would have to fight an entire dungeon at once.

Not saying that style of game couldn't be fun. Just different. And it would break all the adventures and any trace of backwards compatibles.

 

[mamba]

With these changes the game formerly known as 1D&D becomes even less like the 3.5/PF(/4E) I liked with different classes using different subsystems.

pretty sure it is still known as 1D&D

 

[Bolares]

I always loved the warlock. I like the flavour, I like that it can be a Gish, I like that it was really customizeable, I like Eldritch Blast, was one of my favourite overall.

With all that said I loved the change to half-caster. I get that it makes the warlock more in line with other casters, but I'm simply getting more spell slots to my class, and that is better to me. I don't think Mystic Arcanum is ready, and we would need some tunning or changes to make it not look like a "feat tax" but I like the new direction. The lvl 18 capstone is garbage though.

 

[TwoSix]

Changes I would make, without going to half-casting.

1) Move the 3rd pact magic slot to 3rd level, and the 4th to 11.
2) Add an invocation to gain 1 1st level spell, and cast it twice per LR. Increase this to 2nd at 5th, 3rd at 9th, etc. If you want to have a lot of low level spells, you can via your invocation choices.
3) Remove Mystic Arcanum 6th-9th class features, increase the number of total invocations to 11.
4) Most of the other changes are pretty good! I'd leave them as is.

 

[DarkCrisis]