D&D 5E Is Warlock broken?

[Ancalagon]

One of the things I was really looking forward to! I don't really like micromanaging a lot of things...I like smart, tricky characters, and I like arcane themes, but have never played a Wizard in previous editions because I didn't care for all the fiddly math of spell slots and such. Having at-will abilities, and "encounter" abilities (so long as they don't come off as "video-gamey" as 4E) would be my cup of tea.

Part of the problem was that I needed at least one invocation for EB, because that's the one thing I could (and was expected to) do. I needed another for my Tome abilities, thinking that would be the quickest way to add the most to my versatility, which instead ended up being redundant and seldom used. This "tax" kept me from picking some of the more fun abilities I otherwise would have snatched up.

Given a long enough timeline I would have picked up more, and lusted greedily at my future build full of so many neat tricks I could pull off...I'd never be as powerful as a Wizard, but what few things I had mastered I knew I could do reliably whenever I wanted. It just didn't work out as well as I had hoped?

I've never played a warlock so I always like reading about other people 's experience. I'm a bit surprised that you felt that the tome invocation wasn't great but redundant. Can you elaborate on that?

 

[ChrisCarlson]

Wow. Warlocks suck... Rangers suck... Barbarians suck...

Anyone taken a moment to step back and consider maybe its their perception, or perhaps expectations, that suck?

 

[Guest 6801328]

Slightly off-topic here, but maybe the probability of a random encounter while taking a Short Rest should vary depending on how many encounters you've had since the last Short Rest. So if you take a Short Rest after a single Encounter you have a very high probability of a random encounter, and it goes down from there.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[ChrisCarlson]

Yeah. I think preconceived expectations and previous edition baggage get in the way of a lot of people enjoying 5e for what it is in its own right.

 

[TwoSix]

Invocations? Invocations rock. Not the silly "Once per day you can add [Spell] to your list and use a spell slot to cast it". Those suck. The ones that rock are the "You can do things no one else can" invocations. The one that lets you cast Silent Image at will as a second level character - in short cast silent image over just about anything and subvert just about any encounter. The quick change artist Disguise Self at will for a specialist illusionist. Eyes of the Runekeeper in exploration so no matter how obscure the writing you can read it. The Devil's Sight. The ability to cast any ritual spell from any class giving you an interestingly large spell list.

Roger that. I'd love to play a warlock that dropped spellcasting entirely and just got double the number of invocations. Ideally, with a list of invocations twice as long as well. Then some of those "Gain the ability to cast this spell once per long rest" would look somewhat more useful.

 

[Prism]

The Warlock's access to several powerful and reliable temporary hit point bestowing abilities alone make it a top tier tank, but the Devil's Sight/Darkness combination easily secures it first place in that field. Even the average Barbarian is absolutely humbled by the tanking prowess of the mighty Warlock.

I am wondering how often the darkness interferes with the rest of the party though. I mean, the area is large and surely it impedes the warlocks movement as they cant go where the rest of the party is. I can see my DM making good use out of the darkness on the monsters behalf

 

[ChrisCarlson]

I am wondering how often the darkness interferes with the rest of the party though. I mean, the area is large and surely it impedes the warlocks movement as they cant go where the rest of the party is. I can see my DM making good use out of the darkness on the monsters behalf

Yeah. I've found I use the combo much less often than I originally thought I would when I started playing. Its fun once in a great while when circumstances happen to line up. But its nowhere near my go-to.

 

[CapnZapp]

Wow. Warlocks suck... Rangers suck... Barbarians suck...

Anyone taken a moment to step back and consider maybe its their perception, or perhaps expectations, that suck?

It might help you if I suggest three people said that, not just one?