D&D General Frustating Misunderstandings About Warlocks

[Zardnaar]

Yep! The trick is primarily to pick the right spells for this. Non-Fey Warlocks (who can do this trick in the other direction, IIRC) would likely look to misty step, especially if they're a fragile Blade Pact user who needs to get away after smacking someone around. Hex is of course a reasonable if less-than-impressive option once you're level 11+. Genie gives you sanctuary, which pairs doubly well with something like a pre-cast blade ward (which is actually amazing in 2024, other than needing Concentration)--nearly unhittable and even if they do hit you they have to pass a save or (potentially) lose the action. The new Hexblade patron offers staggering smite, which might be a solid choice in the right context.

Alternatively, if we can pick any bonus-action spell (perhaps acquired through a feat or some other special source), arcane vigor is a possible option. Your magic weapon being innately upcast to 5th level means you always get a +2 weapon out of it, and it's not Concentration, so that could be powerful for a Blade warlock. Or if you're a support-focused Warlock--perhaps with Celestial patron--healing word wouldn't be a bad pick. (Really nice if you can pick up the Dragonlance feat Divinely Favored as your Origin feat.)

Wife went celestial. She stuffed on everything and used spirit shroud with 5.0 Gith.

Aid stacks with heroes feat. Warlocks can get lots of origin feats. Toughness........

 

[Not a Decepticon]

I will adress the bug point later but for now...Hat clearly says EB is THE best cantrip to rake and he is correct, it renders other options suboptimal, so Warlock effectively still is Eldritch Blast class.

 

[GarrettKP]

I enjoy TreantMonk for what he is. He’s the best “optimizer” YouTuber as far as I’m concerned, even if he has his flaws. But I like that he isn’t a dick about his opinions and is both accepting and supportive of people playing in unoptimal ways.

Never particularly liked the Dungeon Dudes. I don’t really have anything against them I just think their videos are largely dull, they strike me as very low energy and I have trouble keeping my attention when I watch their stuff.

Pointy Hat has been largely fine until this video, though I often don’t really care for his brand of humor in his videos.

D&D Shorts is by far the worst of them all, though. His entire channel is dedicated to bad faith readings of the rules, highlighting “exploits” that don’t even work half the time. I truly believe that his brand of “influence” in the TTRPG space makes the game game and community surrounding D&D worse and wish he’d stop making videos. I was cautiously excited for the Tales from Woodcreek thing the Dudes and Deborah Wol were doing but the moment I saw he was involved I dropped it.

While I’m on this subject I also Don’t care much for NerdImmersion. He consistently gets rules wrong in his videos and then judges features based on these incorrect interpretations of the rules. Seriously how hard is it to as a “rules analysis” influencer to actually get the rules right?

To end on a positive note, I like Insight Check quite a bit. He’s more palatable and usually less egregiously wrong than most other influencers on YouTube.

 

[Parmandur]

I enjoy TreantMonk for what he is. He’s the best “optimizer” YouTuber as far as I’m concerned, even if he has his flaws. But I like that he isn’t a dick about his opinions and is both accepting and supportive of people playing in unoptimal ways.

He really did impress me when he was one of the first to break out previews for the new PHB, giving a non-sensationalized or emotive take that gave the changes a fair shake.

 

[Charlaquin]

I will adress the bug point later but for now...Hat clearly says EB is THE best cantrip to rake and he is correct, it renders other options suboptimal, so Warlock effectively still is Eldritch Blast class.

I disagree. It’s just 1d10 force damage with standard cantrip scaling. It is a very strong cantrip, but it’s far from being the objective best. Chill Touch has the same damage die and also prevents HP recovery. Poison Spray has a higher damage die and in the current version still has respectable range, especially with Eldritch Spear. Toll the Dead also has a higher damage die under a pretty easy to meet condition. True Strike makes it possible to get up to a 2d6 damage die and scales both with damage dice and with number of attacks if you take pact of the blade. Mind Sliver has weak damage but the saving throw penalty is extremely strong if you’re going more for control spells over damage (which is better anyway). What EB has going for it is the damage type (which matters less post-2024, though it is still relevant) and the fact that it scales with number of attacks instead of damage dice on a hit. But any of these options are worth considering as alternatives or additions.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Not defending the video (because I hate it more than most people), but the Warlock high level spell thing is only pedantically incorrect.

Yes, Warlocks have access to spells of 6th level and above via Mystic Arcanum. But Mystic Arcanum is absolutely not what a normal person would think of when talking about high level spellcasting.

What the [CENSORED] is mystic arcanum? Is that a 5.5e thing?

 

[Kurotowa]

What the [CENSORED] is mystic arcanum? Is that a 5.5e thing?

No. It's the mechanic by which Warlocks get their 6th-9th level spells. Nothing new about it.

 

[Charlaquin]

What the [CENSORED] is mystic arcanum? Is that a 5.5e thing?

It’s a Warlock class feature. Has been since the 2014 PHB. It’s how warlocks access level 6+ spells.