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

"The character builder's paradise".

​

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.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Assuming it remains unchanged and doesn't e.g. come with a stat boost and free cast of a ritual spells in a non-ritual amount of time the way it did in Playtest 2

As is a fighter should take the book but a wizard or cleric might want Ritual Caster

Based on what the Playtest UA7 has to say on Ritual Casting, I'm not sure how necessary the Ritual Caster feat is anymore, especially for actual caster classes.

The baseline rules for Ritual Casting now say you can cast any ritual spell you have prepared at any time without burning a spell slot - no need for a special class feature or feat, just time and a slot on your prepared list. The wizard's ritual caster feature now just specifies that spells in your spellbook also count as "prepared" for the purposes of ritual casting.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Unless every class is equally customizable (same number of decision points, same number of choice at each point, same relevance to each choice) - yeah, technically one will be at the top.

i mean, yeah, that i understand, but i meant as a goal, not a technicality.

 

[mellored]

i mean, yeah, that i understand, but i meant as a goal, not a technicality.

Different people want different levels of customization.

Some will just want to pick from a handful of options and get going. Not sit around analyzing every combination.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Different people want different levels of customization.

Some will just want to pick from a handful of options and get going. Not sit around analyzing every combination.

ok, but then that sounds like the opposite would be preferable - a class or two that's made to be less customizable with other classes having lots.

 

[Chaosmancer]

i mean, yeah, that i understand, but i meant as a goal, not a technicality.

Right, and no one except you has ever called it a goal of their design. Jeremy mentioned it as a fun little note on the sheer number of options the warlock has, which it has always had.

You are the one saying it was somehow a design goal to make the warlock the most customizable class.

 

[mellored]

ok, but then that sounds like the opposite would be preferable - a class or two that's made to be less customizable with other classes having lots.

One martial and one spell caster?

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Right, and no one except you has ever called it a goal of their design. Jeremy mentioned it as a fun little note on the sheer number of options the warlock has, which it has always had.

You are the one saying it was somehow a design goal to make the warlock the most customizable class.

it was quoted as if it was one. that's where my confusion was. if it's not, then it's a weird comment to me, but whatever, i guess.

One martial and one spell caster?

ideally, yeah.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It'd be real nice if customizability was a core design goal for the flagship product of an entire industry about playing a character you make up with your imagination.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

They can just grab the Divine Smite spell I guess...

That's specifically a class feature, so no grabbing it with the magic initiate spell.

 

[Distracted DM]

I have a general sense that most 5.5 changes make things “more spectacular” and “easier” for the pc…

Not sure that is what 5e needed.

I hope that is not how it ends of feeling…or if it does that monsters get a bit of a lift too.

Monsters getting a bit of a lift won't make too much of a difference- running Kobold Press and A5E monsters with 5e characters, it can be tough to challenge them properly sometimes.. Yeah, making 5e characters better is pretty unnecessary