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

[Frozen_Heart]

I prefer them being a half caster, but I'd want them to be a pact magic half caster. The 2014 PHB has 4 arcane full casters, and no arcane half casters like paladin and ranger. And even though we got artificer several years on, I still see a post every few weeks where people claim it should be a full caster.

But generally, this UA is.... awful. I hate everything. Martials nerfed, casters buffed, sorcerers identity got turned into 'lolrandom'.

 

[HammerMan]

isn't that what happened to psionics? isn't that why we don't have a warlord?

Yes it is

 

[Nightfly]

That looks too much like 4E short rest, and we cannot have that!

Too true. Maybe if we did this...

RIte of Completely Non-4e Recharge: The warlock may undertake a five minute ritual that requires concentration to recharge their pact magic slots. Sometimes their patron talks to them during the ritual and reminds them that 4e was bad and there was literally nothing good about it at all and we will never go back to it and nobody liked it and that it was bad.

 

[Undrave]

isn't that what happened to psionics? isn't that why we don't have a warlord?

Yeah... It feels like they're obsessed with having EVERY CLASS be popular with EVERY players. Sometimes, people just like a class more than other. I think their philosophy should be that EVERYBODY can have a favorite class and EVERY CLASS is someone's favorite and just... please those fans instead of alienating them trying to get broader acceptance.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I've given in hoping for a class I enjoy in the PHB of this new edition. Just gotta hope they add one later on.

Wait, nope, this is 5e. 5e doesn't do additional classes.

 

[Horwath]

why not make them a 2/3rd casters?

7 levels of spells.

new spell levels at class levels: 1,4,7,10,13,16,19.

While we are at it, make Bards, Druids and Sorcerers also 2/3rd casters.
That will leave only Clerics and Wizards as full casters.

 

[Remathilis]

If I was Kobold Press right now, I'd drop another playtest packet with the sorcerer, warlock and druid in it to really hammer home the difference between Valiant and Revised...

 

[mamba]

Jeremy Crawford: One of our goals with this packet was to give the warlock a more distinct mechanical identity.

Also Jeremy Crawford: So yeah, we removed the single most mechanically distinct feature of the warlock and replaced it with half-casting.

if your single most distinguishing feature is breaking your class, then that needs fixing, even if it reduces uniqueness overall

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The warlock lost their pact magic to become a half-caster like the paladin and the ranger. This of course makes the game less interesting and the warlock a lot blander.

Does it, though? You'll actually be able to cast spells more often instead of just spamming Eldritch Blast every round!

This seems to be a warlock made entirely to appease those who disliked warlocks.

I guess that's true, because (while I haven't tried it yet to be sure), so far, I seem to like it. I'm not sure that I didn't like the Warlock before, but it's certainly possible.

 

[Mephista]

Nah, I'm a fan of half caster warlock over short rest warlock. Short rest classes were never something I liked. First glance feels more warlocky than the old 2014, to be honest. And I'm a warlock fan in general.

I'm liking the higher spell slot invocations. Its simple and clean and overall works to cherry pick the spells you want for your concept (ie Summon Fiend, etc). Book'locks effectively get an additional invocation at level 5, because they don't need Agonizing Blast then. The only change I'd make is letting the Mystic Arcanum spell level up according to your warlock level automatically. (ie, if you took Bestow Curse, a level 17 warlock would automatically cast it as if a level 9 slot). Afaik, you can still change out invocations, so it'd be no different than changing out the spell cast at a low level for one at a higher level.

Paladin dips has no effect on the butchering or not of warlock. Its utterly meaningless to bring up here. Its more meaningful to talk about how Pact Blade doesn't really increase in power at level 11 without an invocation, unlike Eldritch Blast, which does automatically.