D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook reveal: "New Warlock"

"The character builder's paradise".

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We last saw the Warlock in Playtest 7, with a lot of features from 2014 restored from the previous version. Still, a lot of questions (for me) remain: here's my list from before the video ran:

Spoiler

• Will the three pacts still be invocations, and will it be possible to get all of them by level 2? (I hope not). Yes.
• If they are invocations, will people still believe they are getting more invocations than thry had in 2014? Yes.
• What will the Pact of the Chain special creature options be? (We've seen the Sphinx of Wonder previewed already.) Is there still going to be a (M-sized) skeleton option? YES!
• Will Pact of the Tome still have the lame rewritten Ritual Caster rules, of only two 1st level rituals, and never any more? (I hope not). No answer, but I doubt it's been changed.
• Is it conceivable that anyone would not take Pact of the Blade as one of their Invocations? (Doubt it.) No answer. They did not talk about whether later invocations will give Extra attack, or other concerns here.
• Will anyone be able to take Eldritch Blast? "Warlock Specific"

(Happily, many of these questions were indeed answered in the video!).
I think warlock really benefits from having the subclasses come at level 3: you can "dabble" in the occult without selling your soul until level 3 (though admittedly, the wording of the fluff text does not require you to sell your soul).

OVERVIEW

• Invocations at 1, Magical Cunning at 2 (as in PT7)
• Crawford claims we will get more eldritch invocations. Assuming the table's as in PT7, this is a bit of a fudge: there's one for a pact at level 5 (no gain) and one extra, at level 5, and for most it will go, I feel, to another pact). Yes there's more flexibility.
• Main choices are Pact Boons. "This is a big deal" -- "it is a juicy choice" they say, and Crawford makes it clear you can get them all "over time". "Over time", though, is by level 2. To me this is too much too early.
• NEW: all pact boons at level 1 now.
• NEW: "More Spooky critter options" for Pact of the Chain, speaking to Patron types. Complete list: Slaad tadpole. Skeleton, Imp, Pseudodragon, Quasit, Sprite (Fey), Sphinx of Wonder (Celestial), Venomous Snake. All will be in the PHB.
• Spellcasting has been enhanced: more invocations work with warlock spells. Now they don't just affect Eldritch Blast (which is warlock-specific -- not clear how that's mechanized, though). You can have Ray of Frost with Repelling Blast.
• NEW: Lessons of the First Ones only lets you take an Origin Feat.
• Contact Patron at 9, Mystic Arcanum at 11+, expanded spell list (though not as big as sorcerer).
• All subclasses get an expanded spell list.

SUBCLASSES

ARCHFEY - "a teleportation fantasia"

• Gameplay was not living up to the flavour. Going "all-in" on Teleportation.
• Additional effects occur whenever you cast the spell, not just the free casting from Steps of the Fey. (Refreshing step and Taunting Step confirmed, as in PT7 apparently).
• Beguiling Defenses, causing psychic damage
• Bewitching magic at 14 as in PT7 -- "ridiculous in all the best ways".

CELESTIAL

• NEW: from expanded class spell list. Summon Celestial on spell list.
• NEW: Guiding Bolt, Cure wounds and Aid (Aid was not on PT7 list) on subclass list
• You can be "a hired hitman from the gods"
• NEW: Searing Radiance at 14 now can apply to an ally.

FIEND

• Magical weapons no longer pass your damage resitance (in reference to Fiendish Resilience at 10?)
• "tankiness" seen in BG3 is also here: Dark One's Blessing seems completely rewritten, as it was described in the Design Note of the PT7.

GREAT OLD ONE

• NEW: Summon Aberration might be a version of the Mind Flayer (an option in the Summon Abberation spell)
• when you do damage, you can do psychic.
• Psychic Spells for enchantment/illusion without Verbal/Somatic (but you still need Material); damage may be Psychic. Clairvoyant Combatant can be a battle of wills (focusing damage to one target -- a nod to AD&D psionic battles). Eldritch Hex also as in PT7.

 

[tglassy]

Personally, I hope they do get to keep three attacks. I mean, with one Invocation EB is better than a Fighter with a Longbow. They get just as many attacks and they get their fourth one sooner. I don’t understand why adding a third melee attack is so game breaking.

 

[Kurotowa]

I'm actually not convinced Hexblade is going to make it into a 2024 book. The main draw of it was that it made the Blade Pact functional. Now, the Blade Pact can stand on its own. I think we would see a heavy revision and re-imaging of the subclass, if it appears later.

On the one hand, they're certainly willing to do some of that. Archfey is basically all new, and GOO is nearly as heavily rebuilt. But on the other hand, both of those had clearly defined and widely popular thematic identity. Everyone knows what an Archfey or GOO is supposed to be, more or less.

Hexblade doesn't have that. Or at least, the Xanathar's Guide version didn't. It was partly left over Raven Queen flavor, partly vague handwaving at sentient weapons somehow being involved. I have not even once heard a compelling story about a Hexblade Patron as a patron. Not like the drama and theatrics that other Warlocks get up to with their Patrons.

A redone Hexblade would have to be redone from the ground up, including flavor and lore. And that's a big sell, when they could devote that dev time and page space to something else. Not to mention that Hexblade currently comes with all the baggage of the Xanathar's version.

 

[mellored]

•A portion of what I'm seeing for 2024 includes choices that appear to be illusions. Why ask me to make a choice at level 1 when I still get the other stuff at the next level? What's the cost/benefit of when I make those choices?

You get to pick a maximum of 10 out of the 28 options. And those options are much better balanced so you kind of want them all.

•It does appear that D&D 2024 is leaning toward a playstyle change. The Feylock and a few other previews appear to lean more toward 4E (and maybe Balder's Gate 3) than 2014 did. I'm neither suggesting that's good nor am I suggesting it is bad; it is simply an observation. If that is the case, hopefully the DMG gives advice with that in mind, and hopefully adventure writing and encounter design takes that into consideration.

There is definitely more stuff to do than just deal damage. But that was always the case with the warlock and other casters.

 

[Kurotowa]

Personally, I hope they do get to keep three attacks. I mean, with one Invocation EB is better than a Fighter with a Longbow. They get just as many attacks and they get their fourth one sooner. I don’t understand why adding a third melee attack is so game breaking.

By itself, it's not. Combined with some of the spell based per-hit damage bonuses out there, the scaling was fairly impressive. If those spells will remain untouched and still on the Warlock spell list in Revised 5e is an unresolved question, and one that many people have wrongfully ignored.

 

[Parmandur]

One of the things I've noticed across the places where people are talking about the 2024 PHB changes is that amount of comments ≠ excitement and in general, negative news travels farther. The Paladin had the most controversial changes; people are gonna talk (read: argue) about that more.

Having sat in the premieres for all of the videos, reactions for classes like Barbarian, Rogue, and Warlock have been pretty positive, and those chats have been tamer. That translates to forums and Reddit.

Y'all having been here a lot longer than me, though, might already know this, so ignore me if I'm saying stuff that's obvious.

Yeah, you nailed it.

 

[Argyle King]

You get to pick a maximum of 10 out of the 28 options. And those options are much better balanced so you kind of want them all.

There is definitely more stuff to do than just deal damage. But that was always the case with the warlock and other casters.

If the options are better balanced against each other, that's cool. From a preview, it is difficult to tell if there's still a cost/benefit analysis to be had when making those choices.

Damage (or lack of) isn't what I'm noticing.

I notice that teleportation is more readily available, as is the ability to look like other people/things.

It's been interesting to be reading these discussions at the same time I am playing through BG3. I'm curious if Larian had access to some of the proposed changes while programming BG3.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Personally, I hope they do get to keep three attacks. I mean, with one Invocation EB is better than a Fighter with a Longbow. They get just as many attacks and they get their fourth one sooner. I don’t understand why adding a third melee attack is so game breaking.

It's not game-breaking, but getting extra extra attacks has just been represented as Fighter's unique Thing (and the reason why they cannot have anything else nice for so long), and now it's just... given to a sort-of full caster (at the same time when they finally get more spell slots, too!). And it's given just so Blade Pact can compete with a single cantrip.

 

[mellored]

Certainly solid choices. Would you forego any of the pacts to get this at level 2?

Yes. I don't need blade if I am EB spamming.
If there is a wizard them Tome can be redundant.
Chain might be a bit harder to pass up, depending on the creatures. I might take it till level 5, then swap back to 2d10+8 push 20'.

Mask of Many Faces is also quite tempting.

Yes. But the reading proposed in this thread, which I had missed during the playtest, makes up for it here. You can get a sppky book that will do all sorts of weird things. For me, that might be worth a 1-level dip on its own. Assuming it is kept.

I made the same mistake.
Still don't need it if you also have a wizard in the party....

Or... can you take it for 1 level, teach the wizard all the rituals, and then replace it?

 

[tglassy]

It's not game-breaking, but getting extra extra attacks has just been represented as Fighter's unique Thing (and the reason why they cannot have anything else nice for so long), and now it's just... given to a sort-of full caster (at the same time when they finally get more spell slots, too!). And it's given just so Blade Pact can compete with a single cantrip.

Sure. But the Fighter is getting some NICE things, now. I playtested the new Eldritch Knight, and he’s become not only one of my favorite characters I’ve played, but one of the most effective.

 

[Epic Meepo]

ARCHFEY - "a teleportation fantasia"

• Gameplay was not living up to the flavour. Going "all-in" on Teleportation.

Just out of curiosity, when did teleportation become a Fey thing? The designers keep pushing teleportation as something with Fey flavor, and I'm not getting why. Blink dog, I guess? That feels a bit tenuous to me. Historically, Fiends have had a lot more teleportation magic than Fey. I've always thought of Enchantment and Illusion as the signature magic of the Fey.