D&D 5E (2024) Monsters of the Multiverse: the death of eldritch blast?

[Marandahir]

I don't find a Xd10 force attack at 120 ft range to be complicated. Certainly, it's not for wizard analogs. Add it to the actions list and be done.

I think the point was that they wanted to distinguish the Warlock monster variants so they're not all just blasting Eldritch Blast every round but instead are interesting and distinct from each other. They wanted to make it easier for the DM to pick the most interesting option and not the default "the warlock blasts you again."

 

[Yaarel]

pain

The warlock is the one class which I consider to have enough customisation and uniqueness. The fact that subclass, pacts, and invocations are all different means that you can build warlocks in all sorts of crazy ways, rather than as the cookiecutter characters encouraged by certain other classes.

Just something which makes me even more convinced that 5.5e will be DnD: Babies Edition.

If almost every Warlock is either an Eldritch Blast-er or a Hexblade, that in itself feels defacto cookie-cutter?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's an interesting observation. My guess would be that in the 2024 PHB short rests will be dropped, so the warlock class will get a complete rework.

 

[Marandahir]

It's an interesting observation. My guess would be that in the 2024 PHB short rests will be dropped, so the warlock class will get a complete rework.

That's a curious idea.

I guess based on the fact that a lot of per-short-rest mechanics have been revised in recent books to proficiency-bonus-(sometimes+Key-Mod)-times-per-day?

 

[Frozen_Heart]

If almost every Warlock is either an Eldritch Blast-er or a Hexblade, that in itself feels defacto cookie-cutter?

That won't be solved by getting rid of the pact boon/invocation complexity. You will simply be an eldritch blast machine with less options (even if most of those options were always pretty sub par).

A better way to solve it would be maybe opening up the variety of cantrips which work with warlocks class features, so you can change the effects you're having round to round. Or maybe make the eldritch blast way more customisable, where you can switch up its effects between a blast, lots of small beams, a cone, a line, and a melee spell attack. With different status effects and damage types you can apply to it.

I like warlock being a cantrip monster. But it should be more than one cantrip option. Also imo if something is 'essential' for a class, it should be a default class feature. Like agonising blast is basically a must have. Well make it a base feature, and make it apply to all cantrips with damage roles. Suddenly your warlock has a lot more choice of what they can do.

 

[Weiley31]

I mean, I'm just adding Eldritch Blast (plus the Agonizing Blast Invocation) back to the Warlock Monster Stat blocks. Just like how I'm giving Orcus his Chill Touch back so he can just screw with people's healing/make an undead PC's life more "interesting" when need to.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Or maybe make the eldritch blast way more customisable, where you can switch up its effects between a blast, lots of small beams, a cone, a line, and a melee spell attack. With different status effects and damage types you can apply to it.

That was how the original 3.5 warlock worked!

 

[Yaarel]

Whatever happens,

I hope 50e makes every class gain subclasses features at level 1.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That's a curious idea.

I guess based on the fact that a lot of per-short-rest mechanics have been revised in recent books to proficiency-bonus-(sometimes+Key-Mod)-times-per-day?

Yeah, none of the recent stuff has made any use of short rest mechanics. A rework wouldn't hurt monk either.

 

[dave2008]

It's an interesting observation. My guess would be that in the 2024 PHB short rests will be dropped, so the warlock class will get a complete rework.

That is my thought as well. Not sure how I feel about that, but as the DM I guess it doesn't bother me to much one way or the other!