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.

 

[Charlaquin]

The portion of Hexblade that is just "look, we fixed blade pact", yes.

I'd argue there's still plenty of room for a proper "Shadowfell" patron focusing on dark shadow magic, hexes, and curses, though... With a bit of work (and perhaps a new name), a revised Hexblade could fill that role pretty well.

A shadow patron that wasn’t trying to also be an apology for the blade pact sucking could definitely be cool.

 

[Scribe]

That’s a little overblown, and it isn’t like Warlocks are like other casters. Few spell slots, fewer spell options, can’t ups cast past 5th lvl spells, the list goes on.

No caster should get 3 melee attacks. It's nonsensical.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

A shadow patron that wasn’t trying to also be an apology for the blade pact sucking could definitely be cool.

More or less the idea.

Let the new blade pact carry the weapon-focused aspects and redesign the "Hexblade" into a Shadowfell patron viable for any kind of warlock build.

 

[Charlaquin]

More or less the idea.

Let the new blade pact carry the weapon-focused aspects and refactor "Hexblade" into a Shadowfell patron viable for any kind of warlock build.

As long as they changed the name to fit the convention while they’re at it.

The Archfey
The Celestial
The Fiend
The Great Old One
Hexblade
The Undying

One of these things is not like the others. One of these things doesn’t belong.

Give it an article at the front, and shift the focus to the shadow part over the sword part. Something like “The Dark One” would work.

 

[overgeeked]

Which makes sense, because Hexblade was always more of a fix for the blade pact than an actual patron choice. The concept was super nebulous and vague.

“Your patron is a sentient weapon, like the black blade, but just kidding, it’s actually the Shadowfell, which wouldn’t you know it, is where all sentient weapons that make pacts with warlocks get their sentience from. But also maybe it’s the raven queen? You edgy kids who want to play gishes like the Raven Queen, right? Yeah, let’s go with that, it’s the Raven Queen giving consciousness to a bunch of magic swords.”

Good riddance, I say.

Yep. Fold it all into the pact of the blade and be done with it. It was a cludgy fix to a broken pact. A subclass so great it became the default, which shows it for the bad design it is.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Teleportation was definitely built up as the eladrin's schtick in 4e, and I think that may have bled over into fey in general ever since.

Rather than "teleportation", per se, I think the idea is intended more as briefly stepping out of the Material Plane and into the Feywild, then back again, which I feel is fairly thematically appropriate for fey.

there have been bits of it like the blink dog, I know the connection was very solidly made in 4e with the eladrin and its innate teleportation.

Thanks. That was the historical context I was missing.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

As long as they changed the name to fit the convention while they’re at it.

The Archfey
The Celestial
The Fiend
The Great Old One
Hexblade
The Undying

One of these things is not like the others. One of these things doesn’t belong.

Give it an article at the front, and shift the focus to the shadow part over the sword part. Something like “The Dark One” would work.

I think it's technically "The Hexblade" - people just tend to drop the "The" out of expediency.

But yeah, most likely would need a new name if it's no longer explicitly linked to a weapon.

 

[DarkCrisis]

But Eldritch Blast is okay, right?

 

[W'rkncacnter]

"this class is the character builder's paradise".

my question is why do they want to relegate character build choice to a single, highly thematically specific class? seems like a weird goal to me.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Invocations on other spells?

Well it's official: D&D finally has a spellcaster class that can emulate popular culture.

After 50 years.

Pop cultural warriors for the 2074 edition?