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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 7213156" data-attributes="member: 1003">I'm redesigning the Warlock class for my home campaign to fix some of the issues that are frequently identified as "problems" with the class. One of those issues is the dominant strategy of Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast. It's just so obviously good that doing anything else is stupid. I don't like "stupid decisions", since they really aren't decisions.Just so we have the numbers, below are the damage rolls (and average damage) for EB at various levels, assuming a optimal Charisma progression and Rod of the Pact Keeper [EDIT: It's been pointed out to me below that RotPK doesn't add to damage. Whoops! See comment below for revised relative damage numbers]. I make a point of noting it's Force damage because that's a benefit in itself; almost nothing is immune to force damage.Eldritch Blast1st: 1d10 (5.5) force2nd: 1d10+3 (8.5) force5th: 2d10+10 (21) force11th: 3d10+21 (37.5) force17th: 4d10+32 (54) forceAs a reminder, the modifiers and average damage are so high because the +X from Charisma and RotPK apply to each beam. Further, because beams are targeted individually, you can focus fire on one target or hit multiple targets, so it's a quasi-AoE spell to boot.So the solution I'm thinking of right now is to:1) Give Warlocks access to all the other damaging Cantrips2) Turn Agonizing Blast and Forceful Blast into class features that apply to all damaging Cantrips3) Create a new class feature called "Exploding Blast" that applies to all single-target Cantrips (so EB doesn't get it), in order to keep the damage progression about the same.Now the base damage for Fire Bolt looks like this [with the relative difference from EB's progression]:1st: 1d10 (5.5) fire [-3]5th: 2d10 (11) fire [-10]11th: 3d10 (16.5) fire [-21]17th: 4d10 (22) fire [-32]If you add in Agonizing Blast and RotPK you get this:1st: 1d10+3 (8.5) fire [-0]5th: 2d10+5 (16) fire [-5]11th: 3d10+7 (23.5) fire [-14]17th: 4d10+8 (30) fire  [-24]So Fire Bolt (without further modification) is fire (not force), only one target, and less damage.My proposed fix is a new Warlock class feature "Exploding Blast", which you get at 5th level. That might sound early to you, but realize that EB starts getting multiple CHA/RotPK damage bonuses at 5th level too. So that's where the imbalance starts.Every now and then you'll be able to get 4-5 targets, but based on my experience enemies don't always stand right next to each other. You'll probably be lucky to get 2 targets most of the time, and the average might be 1.75. Also, see the guidelines in the DMG, page 249, which recommends dividing the radius of a Circle AoE by 5 get the number of targets. So if we use 1.5x as a multiplier for the damage for levels 5-17, and 2x starting at 17th level, we get-1st: 1d10+3 (8.5) fire [-0]5th: 2d10+5 (16) fire [+7]11th: 3d10+7 (41.125) fire [+3.6]17th: 4d10+8 (60) fire  [+6]So you can see it does a bit more damage, but then it's also Fire damage, not Force. Many monsters are immune to that, so you'll either need multiple Cantrips or rely on your Spell Slots for those enemies.What do you think? Does this look about right to you?</blockquote>

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