D&D (2024) They butchered the warlock in the new packet

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

Design a system that uses pact magic but doesn't use short rests.Once you figure that out, send it to WotC.

why would we want one that doesn't use short rests? those of us upset LIKED the short rest recharge.

but Okay I will bite.
"A number of times per day equal to your prof you can take a minute and refresh your spell slots"
"You have a number of spell slots equal to 1+ half your prof and they are always equal in level to 1/2 your level round up to a max of 5"

 

[Charlaquin]

So, I read through the whole packet, and I actually really like all of the changes to Warlock except the switch from Pact Magic to half-casting. Pact Boon at 1st level is cool, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player play a Warlock and not chose their Pact Boon at character creation anyway; the new spells that replace the old Boon effects are all pretty significant improvements over the original versions, and best of all, Pact Boon lets you choose your spellcasting ability, which makes Warlocks even more customizable! The extra Invocation is nice, replacing all the terrible “once per day you can expend a Warlock spell slot to cast [spell]” Invocations with a version of Mystic Arcanum that can get lower level spells is a great change, lots of Invocations have gotten tweaks that improve them. Patron spells being always-prepared is a much-needed upgrade. Hex only adding the extra damage once looks like a nerf, but since the extra damage scales, it’s actually more reliable - if any of your Eldritch Blast beams hit, you get the full Hex damage.

All of this is great stuff, except for the change to half-casting. Unfortunately, that one change is an absolute dealbreaker for me. Shame they completely ruined what was otherwise a great update.

 

[Charlaquin]

My hope is that this was to settle an internal debate at WotC between those that enjoy playing warlocks and those that want them to be generic casters.

And that the feedback is going to make the new Druid wildshape feedback look good. So they don't even think of going forward with this idea.

I hope you’re right, but given that the packet says “The most-requested change to Warlocks has been for them to be able to use their spells more often,” I am much less optimistic about what the feedback is likely to indicate. I think if we’re lucky, the results will show a very polarized reaction: people will either rate it “very satisfied” or “very dissatisfied,” with very few responses in the middle. That might at least encourage them to try to find a solution that makes it possible for warlocks to cast non-cantrip spells more often, without gutting Pact Magic in the process. But I fear that will be a vain hope.

 

[beta-ray]

Never played a warlock so it's interesting to see what will ruin the game.

Hope you all submit feedback so that maybe they change their mind.

 

[TwoSix]

in order to get 3rd level slots at 5th level you need to burn an invocation
in order to get a 5th level slot at 9th you will need to burn 2 more (1 for 4th 1 for 5th)
to get the old mystic arunum on top of that 6-9 is 4 more invocations

they gave us 1 invocation then set 7 more as a tax to play as a full caster

To be fair, you don't have to do exactly that. You can take the invocation less times, and still get the higher level slot. For example, you could take the invocation at 5th, 11th, and 17th and end up with a 3rd, 6th, and 9th level spell.

Plus, you can keep increasing the spell slot by taking the higher level spell as your retrained invocation every odd level. So you can only take the invocation once, and still get a 9th level spell at 17th.

I'm not saying this makes the change correct, but it isn't quite as restrictive as it might seem.

 

[HammerMan]

My hope is that this was to settle an internal debate at WotC between those that enjoy playing warlocks and those that want them to be generic casters.

And that the feedback is going to make the new Druid wildshape feedback look good. So they don't even think of going forward with this idea.

My god I hope everyone gives this a 0 out of 10

 

[TwoSix]

Another thing that I find amusing is that they already have an existing system that highly resembles the progression of Pact Magic in Channel Divinity/Nature.

If they had made Warlocks a Divine class, they could have given them a "Channel Patron" ability that let them cast from a small menu of Pact spells, which would have almost perfectly mimiced Pact Casting, and could have multiclassed nicely with Cleric/Druid/Paladin.

 

[Remathilis]

My god I hope everyone gives this a 0 out of 10

Nope. 10/10. Much needed change.

 

[Nightfly]

In fairness, the short rest mechanic for warlocks was simply awful. Depending on how many short rests your party could get, warlocks were usually either too strong or too weak.

I'd rather see them just give warlocks encounter powers, a la 4e. They could do that if they wanted - just say you can cast this spell once every ten minutes. That should do the trick without triggering the 4e-haters.

I think the new warlock looks like an improvement, actually. Just maybe not the right improvement.

 

[HammerMan]

To be fair, you don't have to do exactly that. You can take the invocation less times, and still get the higher level slot. For example, you could take the invocation at 5th, 11th, and 17th and end up with a 3rd, 6th, and 9th level spell.

Plus, you can keep increasing the spell slot by taking the higher level spell as your retrained invocation every odd level. So you can only take the invocation once, and still get a 9th level spell at 17th.

I'm not saying this makes the change correct, but it isn't quite as restrictive as it might seem.

I will do you one batter

Take a 3rd level slot at 5th and a 4th level at 7th then trade the third out for a 5th at 9th
At 10 or less it cost you 2 invocations to do what you can do now and the packet gives 1 more so you REALLY are only down 1

The problem comes at 11+ you need to keep that 5th level slot until 18th level and the 4th level slot until 14th so you take a 6th at 11 and a 7th at 13 but you can trade your 4th for a 8th at 15 and your 5th for a 9th at 17-18.

Total cost 4 with the bonus you are really down 3