D&D (2024) PHB Playtest Packet 7 drops Thrusday, September 7.

[Stalker0]

Just so we're clear, the spells prepared from Spellcasting and the spell prepared from Memorize Spell are separate pools. With Memorize Spell you have a single floating spell preparation slot that takes 1 minute to assign and lasts until you change it. You can change it as often as you want, but you can only change that one spell. It doesn't let you reassign your spells from Spellcasting at all.

A good clarification yes, though its still incredibly versatile. It still means that in a handful a minute the wizard can call the full strength of their spellbook versatility to bear.

Its very easy to overlook when you see all the "cool things" the sorc and warlock got, and I bet a lot of wizard players feel "shafted"..... but honestly for a game that isn't a pure dungeon crawler, this versatility may be the single greatest thing the wizard has received.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Poor GMs. Now that Sap is the de-facto Standard, most Monsters will now Attack with Disadvantage. That will make for very boring combat.

Also still don't like Topple ... have to roll one additional Save per Hit.

But great for the PCs, which is apparently where all the attention is going this edition.

 

[Charlaquin]

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!

 

[Charlaquin]

Poor GMs. Now that Sap is the de-facto Standard, most Monsters will now Attack with Disadvantage. That will make for very boring combat.

Did you notice how a level 13+ Fighter with a Vex weapon can just have advantage on every attack forever?

 

[Kurotowa]

I had a look at the new Chain Pact familiar options, the skeleton and slaad tadpole, and here's my hot take.

The tadpole is terrible unless you're really going for a theme. It's Int 3, it's not a good scout, it has no hands, its attack is weak, and it doesn't inflict any negative conditions. Why would you even take this?

The skeleton might have some potential. It won't be good for scouting, because it isn't stealthy and can't talk. It might make a decent assistant, though, as it while it's a little dim witted it has the size, strength, and hands to participate in a wide range of tasks. For combat, it also doesn't inflict a negative condition, but being a medium humanoid it can be equipped with magical gear. With low HP you probably still don't want it on the front line. However, give it a magical shortbow and flight from Investment of the Chain Master and it's an aerial archer that's easily resummoned. Oh, and being immune to exhaustion it can stand guard all night.

Overall, it's hard to beat the originals. They're smart, they're great scouts, and most of them have powerful negative debuffs that Investment of the Chain Master can boost the DC for. But if you want a more simple beatstick, a full sized extra pair of hands, or just to really buy into the necromancer vibe, then a skeleton familiar could be made to work.

Slaad tadpole is just trash, though.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

Mathematically, it is basically the same thing, until Level 20: one extra Spell a day. Maybe theybjuat think people will feel better about the ability to regenerate a slot, rather than get a free one?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Slaad tadpole is just trash, though.

Well... unless the new MM is gonna have a serious Slaad Tadpole upgrade!

 

[Charlaquin]

Mathematically, it is basically the same thing, until Level 20: one extra Spell a day. Maybe theybjuat think people will feel better about the ability to regenerate a slot, rather than get a free one?

Yep, and Magical Cunning is actually much better, because it becomes 2 extra slots per day at 11th level, and you can use the extra slot or slots on any of your spells, not just the patron ones. But, it just feels bland. And I can’t imagine anyone who wanted more spell slots not tied to short rests being satisfied with this. On paper, an extra Pact Magic slot per day is certainly powerful, but if I understood the people who liked the half-caster Warlock correctly, they don’t want one more powerful spell per day. They want several weak-to-medium spells per day. That’s why I think a Pact of the Tome upgrade may be the key to satisfying that desire.

 

[Charlaquin]

While Warlock was obviously the thing I was most eager to see in this packet, I must say I’m quite pleased with the Fighter! Tactical Mind is an incredible boost to out of combat utility, and the Brawler subclass is straight fire!

 

[Charlaquin]

Any resident mathemagicians willing to do us the favor of working out the EV of Sorcerous Blast with d8s rather than d6s? To my lay person’s eyes it looks like a slight upgrade, but it’s hard to tell how much, since a larger base die means fewer extra dice procing.