D&D (2024) I like the new Warlock

[Scribe]

A lot of people like the idea of the warlock, but don’t like the way the class actually plays.

Painfully accurate. Concept? Love Warlock. Always have.

Pretty much a miss in so many ways for me though.

 

[Bolares]

keep pact magic

From what they've said, I find it hard to believe pact magic will remain untoched one way or another.

 

[TwoSix]

Totally understandable. But yeah, I think your game design sensibilities are well-aligned with my own.

Agreed. I've noticed over the years that you're one of the posters where we seem to be pretty similar in preference.

 

[Charlaquin]

Painfully accurate. Concept? Love Warlock. Always have.

Pretty much a miss in so many ways for me though.

Yeah, fair enough. It’s a very cool character concept, and the mechanical expression just isn’t for everyone. I feel exactly the same way about the (spellcasting) ranger.

 

[Charlaquin]

From what they've said, I find it hard to believe pact magic will remain untoched one way or another.

Well, it’s the feedback that will determine that; if they can’t get a Vancian-casting Warlock past the 80% satisfaction threshold, they won’t go with Vancian casting. That said, I do expect they want to change the warlock’s casting in some way, and as I said, I’m open to changing it to alleviate the issues they identified. As long as those changes ruin the warlock’s mechanical identity as the caster who mostly uses at-will options and has a few powerful spells they can pull out when the situation calls for it. Having a larger number of daily spells just isn’t the warlock to me.

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

Seriously, though, I appreciate what you wrote, but the changes are primarily for those who aren't Warlock fans. The people who like the class now (such as me) seem to be mostly against these changes.

that seems to be it... most fans of the class don't like it. Most people who didn't like it now likee it more... with a few outliers on each side.

 

[VenerableBede]

That said, I'm just going to gently point out that there are a fair number of people who prefer the Warlock because it's not like the other casters, and the idea that the real problem with the Warlock is that it doesn't cast enough spells, you know, to be useful like a Wizard is anathema to us. Because it goes against the entire reason that we like the Warlock.

This is exactly how I feel. I hate playing traditional full casters. I love playing the warlock, warts and all.
I think the WotC team hit the nail on the head with identifying that having a resource to cast more spells per day (that wasn't short rest dependent) was what warlock needed—because the warlock is incredibly elegantly designed on its own, but it's unfortunately held by by short rest design just not working as intended.
I did a breakdown in this thread. Long story short, I think the best solution is to keep warlock exactly the same except twice per day they can meditate for a minute to get all of their pact slots back. (This would replace getting pact slots back on a short rest.) It completely removes the short rest issue, and any character can find a minute here or there to get a meditation in, unlike with short rests. (Solutions like this have been noted by others with the suggestion of recovering spell slots PROF BONUS/day—the math doesn't work. It's too much unless the maximum number of spell slots warlocks get is hard capped at 2.)

I like the suggestion a lot of people make comparing Pact Magic to the Channel Divinity/Nature updates, and I think there's potential there, but it still runs the issue of short rest dependency. Few people like short rests, most tables rarely use short rests, and WotC has largely been making short rest recharge features into long rest recharge features, suggesting they are trying to stop focusing on short rests overall. As awesome as this idea would have been if implemented in the 2014 PHB, I don't think it will work as intended or desired in the 2024 PHB.

For the people who like warlocks but would like Pact Magic replaced with something other than Pact Magic (rather than refining and improving Pact Magic), I'm sorry you feel like you are getting pushed out of the conversation by some. Speaking for myself, and I think safely speaking for a lot of the people I communicate with, that's not the goal. That said, as Snarf Zagyg noted, the draw of the warlock is how completely unique it is from all other casting options. That aspect really should be refined and iterated, not removed or replaced. Making the warlock a half caster (or even a traditional full caster) just serves to homogenize the game, which makes the game overall more bland.

 

[Bolares]

I think the warlock should work exactly as a bard, just to spite snarf!

 

[niklinna]

Good thing I wasn't replying to mistwell then

Ah, the magic of double-blocking. Yours was the first after mistwell's that I saw!

 

[Bolares]

Ah, the magic of double-blocking. Yours was the first after mistwell's that I saw!

I assumed that was the case