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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The two main problems with your comparison to 3.x are:

1. 3.X had dozens of classes, hundreds of PrCs and ACFs and substitution levels, thousands of feats and spells, etc. 5e has thirteen classes and something like 105 feats--being generous. That degree of disparity is...well, literally orders of magnitude. Even when you factor in 5e's subclasses (which are pretty shallow things, unfortunately), it just isn't anywhere near enough.
2. The culture of play for 3.X was much, much more open to homebrew and 3PP than the culture of play for 5e has ever been. Use of 3PP was pretty common, albeit not quite universal. These days, 3PP is greeted with a huge amount of hostility from many, many DMs. I've no idea if it's universal or not, but it's so widespread in my experience, there's little reason to even ask for 3PP content--I've been lucky to get a polite but firm "no."

Compared to (non-S&P) 2e, sure, 5e is more customization-rich. But that's like saying the Dead Sea is wetter than Death Valley. It is true! But it's "water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink."

I still see the 3pp issue in 5e as very subjective by table. You and I are on opposite ends of that spectrum. I use a ton of 3pp, both as GM and player, and have since long before I switched to Level Up as my base game.

I know, however, that your experience has been very different, and I'm genuinely sorry about that.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I hope I didn't suggest that characters should be unkillable unless permission is granted to do so?
But I understand that other people do play that way, saying "there are worse things that can happen to your character than death." Sure, there are other things that could happen, but I personally wouldn't take death off the table.

I'd venture that there's even more things that are infinitely more interesting then death, which is 'welp, their story's over' at which point either you have to repair and reconfigure the story because an important valuable part of it just got deleted... or lay bare the fact that they weren't important or valuable at all-- like everyone from Game of Thrones.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A "deity" is a person. Specifically, a master in a master-slave hierarchy. Historically, to "worship" is, literally, to bow down to a master.

(Emphasis mine.)

Mod Note:

That’s profoundly inaccurate from the perspective of both RW theologies and of non-evil divinity/worshiper dynamics in most FRPGs.

Let’s not go farther down this path of discussion.

 

[Snapdragyn]

OT1H, Celestial patron as an option for what has become my favorite class might actually get me to play a healer.

OTOH, really disappointed that Hexblade didn't make the PHB.

 

[tglassy]

So what's with the Warlock Article? Wizard and Druid Articles were up immediately. Feeling a bit like the red headed stepchild...

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Really the difference between Warlocks and the other spellcasting classes is that their powers are transactional. Warlocks don’t require faith, innate ability, studying or anything else, they just need to make a pact with a patron able to grant them power.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

So what's with the Warlock Article? Wizard and Druid Articles were up immediately. Feeling a bit like the red headed stepchild...

I don’t know, the Community Manager said it would be up later in the week when the video came out.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Really the difference between Warlocks and the other spellcasting classes is that their powers are transactional. Warlocks don’t require faith, innate ability, studying or anything else, they just need to make a pact with a patron able to grant them power.

A pact from which hopefully the patron actually receives a benefit, if you want the whole thing to make any kind of sense.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

OT1H, Celestial patron as an option for what has become my favorite class might actually get me to play a healer.

OTOH, really disappointed that Hexblade didn't make the PHB.

It's not needed anymore. The playtest made Pact of the Blade give the "you hit/damage with Cha" effect, and the old hex-/curse-related stuff was frankly not all that good.

I have a Celestial Blade+Tome Warlock in Hussar's 5e game (currently just starting the sequel to/continuation of LMoP). It's been great having access to that stuff.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Really the difference between Warlocks and the other spellcasting classes is that their powers are transactional.

Faith has been transactional more often than not. 'Do this thing to have X happen', whether it's good weather now, or access to an afterlife VIP club.

Warlock patrons do not seem to require anything of their Warlocks. I wish there were some kind of a 'you don't count as having a soul anymore' clauses with them, but no, it's just freely-given powers. Especially when you just multiclass-dip for 2 levels, then you don't even have a patron.