D&D 5E Proposed Houserule: Warlock Spell Slots

[doctorbadwolf]

My proposal is to give the Warlock an additional spell slot at level 5. That's pretty much it.

I'd also consider the possibility to making some of the spell invocations draw from a pool of daily castings, give them a fancy name like Sigils of Power, and say you have Sigils equal to your proficiency bonus and they recharge on a long rest, which would weaken some Invocations and strengthen others (those that spend a warlock spell slot to cast 1/day).

But mainly it's the extra slot at level 5 that I think the Warlock genuinely needs.

Thoughts?

Oh! Also, Variant Optional rule, make warlocks int based and give them prepared casting from known spells and they can learn more like wizards, but from the warlock spell list.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

From my experience, the third spell slot you currently get at level 11 makes the warlock a lot more enjoyable to play, you can afford to cast a bit more freely without worrying about being stuck with no spells at a critical moment. So I agree that letting the warlock have an extra slot earlier would be a good change. It's not like a warlock would be beating regular casters for total spells cast per day even with this upgrade, unless the game has a lot more short rests than is usual.

 

[Shiroiken]

I'm going to disagree, as the only weakness the warlock has is the limited number of spells they can use outside of cantrips. While it might be more "fun" for the average warlock player, this is also a pretty significant increase in power, since you are increasing their spellcasting by 50%. I'd only allow this in a group of casual players or if the campaign severely limits the number of short rests per long rest (which is extremely unusual).

 

[Pauln6]

I agree that Warlocks are way more fun with 3 slots. You could balance it by making it a daily recharge like the magic items or possibly a cost (feat or invocation) or by restricting the level of spell you can cast with it.

 

[DeviousQuail]

A few years back we tried out giving the warlock 3 spell slots at 5th level. They also recovered all missing slots on a short rest but only once per day, similar to arcane recovery. It made sense for our group because we often played with fewer, deadlier, encounters per day. Overall it was fine but we've had so few warlocks at our table over the years (that reached 5th level) that I can't say if it was really any better than the standard style.

The one change I would make is having most spells from invocations be free to cast 1/day and then use a slot if you want to cast it again. I'm thinking specifically invocations like Bewitching Whispers, Dreadful Word, Minions of Chaos, etc. They just never seemed worth it to me due to cost of spell slot and invocation.

 

[Pauln6]

A few years back we tried out giving the warlock 3 spell slots at 5th level. They also recovered all missing slots on a short rest but only once per day, similar to arcane recovery. It made sense for our group because we often played with fewer, deadlier, encounters per day. Overall it was fine but we've had so few warlocks at our table over the years (that reached 5th level) that I can't say if it was really any better than the standard style.

The one change I would make is having most spells from invocations be free to cast 1/day and then use a slot if you want to cast it again. I'm thinking specifically invocations like Bewitching Whispers, Dreadful Word, Minions of Chaos, etc. They just never seemed worth it to me due to cost of spell slot and invocation.

I suppose if you are looking at granting an extra daily spell slot you could look to grant an extra daily use of any daily spells obtained via invocations. The book keeping is no worse for multiclass characters.

 

[tetrasodium]

I think it would be pretty broken to give them more power with how eb&hex works. If your dead set on it though... "bob your warlock can either be like normal or get an extra spell slot at 11 but eldritch blast scales with extra dice not extra attacks to bring it in line with every other cantripp.... oh I'll do you one better and say that eb is a class feature after that chanheand scales thst one blast by warlock level not character level" > "bob:no I think I want default"

 

[BacchusNL]

I'm sure nothing will go wrong with 9 level 3 spell slots per day @ level 5...

For real though, give your warlock a Rod of the Pactkeeper or Pearl of Power early if you want to boost his spellcasting because your current idea can give some real balance issues if the player somewhat knows his class.

 

[Krachek]

Make a wizard subclass name Warlock, that give access to Eldritch blast and invocation and warlock spells.

 

[DEFCON 1]

As most combats tend to finish by the end of round 3 anyway... giving a third slot just means you're less likely to see repetitive Eldritch Blast spam. If a Warlock can cast non-EB spells each round during combat instead, the need to use EB and spend all their invocations to power it up is lessened.

The fact that you are posing the question means you've already seen what having only 2 spell slots does for your Warlock players, so I'd say just trust your gut and go ahead and try it out and test it. Especially since you have not received an entire thread of every single person saying "Noooooooooooooo!!!!", so obviously this is not something that has been definitively proven to be a bad idea.