Three videos have dropped in the past 2 days spilling the goods on the 2024 Warlock.
Treantmonk on Invocations
Treantmonk on the Class and Subclasses
Dungeon Dudes
Here are my major takeaways:
Treantmonk on Invocations
Treantmonk on the Class and Subclasses
Dungeon Dudes
Here are my major takeaways:
- “more invocations than ever before”: technically true, but given that the pact is rolled into this, for most of an adventurer’s career, it’s fucntionally only one more than before (an extra one at 5). What is present is greater flexibility: you can choose 3 pacts or none.
- Going pactless means you get either mage armor or eldritch mind at level 1. No other choices.
- Pact of the Blade
- everyone gets to be a Hexblade now, but to be effective it is very resource-heavy. You for sure want lifedrinker and thirsting blade by level 9, so that’s 3 of your 7 invocations. You might reasonably choose not to take eldritch smite.
- Treantmonk stresses that you probably don’t want to invest in STR, and would need to spend two feats to get proficiency in shields and medium armor. That’s a huge investment, and so the player is making tough choices. A dip in Fighter solves this.
- Dudes instead frame things in terms of the choice between STR and DEX – you need 13 STR if your pact weapon is going to be Heavy; DEX improves your AC. You probably can’t do both. Either way, you end up building around this: start with a 13 STR, take two feats incl. GWM or PAM, and these boost your STR so you can wear heavy armor (but they don’t make clear where that proficiency comes from) – but doing so slows down how long it takes to get to CHA 20. They conclude that this “feels like a bladesinger”, but it’s not a necessary way to build your character, just one way to do so.
- Both think that a 1-level dip in Fighter (or paladin, cleric) solves a lot.
- Pact of the Chain
- Neither discusses this much. There are better choices than before; 2 invocation investment to get Investment of the Chain at 5.
- Pact of the Tome
- One invocation investment (Gift of Protectors at level 9 available but perhaps not needed).
- Treantmonk misses the value of this: yes, rituals can only be 1st level (contra 2014), but you get to choose ANY two rituals each time the book appears. That gives more range than the ritual caster feat (but arguably a bit less flexibility, since only 2 are available at any time). In addition, you get the benefits of the Book of Ancient Secrets, so it’s functionally 2-invocations-in-1, constrained only by the general rule on rituals that they have applied globally (no one gets 3rd level rituals, without 5 levels in the relevant class)
- Eldritch Blast
- Two invocations needed (agonizing and repelling) to make good use of this; you probably don’t need eldritch spear.
- Subclasses: Everybody thinks GOO is best and Celestial the worst subclass (Celestial being particularly hampered at level 6 by a lack of spells that cause radiant damage).
- Invocations:
- Treantmonk really likes being able to Jump at will (this is hilarious, given how weak this invocation was in 2014).
- He also ranks being able to cast Alter Self at will really low. I think this misses the mark: Alter Self takes your concentration, but it gives something approximating three other Invocations: You can change your appearance like Mask of Many Faces (but: it’s not an illusion, which makes this better); you can swim and breathe water like Gift of the Depths (but: it affects only you and not your party); you can have natural weapons that attack using your casting stat (but: it’s only a d6). I think this is the flexibility the Warlock needs, and using Concentration is a good balancing requirement.
- The choices on Pact of the Blade invites a broader range of builds than we saw in 2014. They’re all constrained, but it could lead to a larger diversity in play.
- For the Celestial: Radiant Soul (at 6) doesn’t add to damage of Pact of the Blade, since the blade attack isn’t a spell, but True Strike would be. This makes me think the Raidant Soul can be a blade-pact-lite, casting True Strike with a weapon, and adding +CHA twice. That’s good, but it means you’re not eligible for Extra Attack. It’s a use for Radiant Soul, though.
- For the GOO: Awakened Mind (a “ribbon” ability says Treantmonk) becomes cool at 6 with Clairvoyant Combatant. I like the way a support ability can become offensive at a higher level. There are some redundancies with the Telepathic feat, but you might want both anyways (there are also redundancies with Telekinetic and Arcane Trickster for the Rogue)
- For the GOO: By level 14, the overlap of Hex and Summon Aberration is effective, but that’s eating up your spell slots. I’ve not played a Warlock at this level: is this going to be an effective tactic in play?
- For the Fiend Patron: (weird interaction) Dark One’s blessing grants a minimum of 1 THP, and this is something I think we’ve only seen in the past on abilities that build off of your casting stat – so that if you have a 10 CHA you still get one use. This is different, though, since the benefit will always be at least 2 thp, since it’s giving (level+CHA), so even with an 8 Charisma you’d get 2 thp, and most will be getting at least 6 at level 3.
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