D&D General Warlock vs Sorcerer


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The Sorcerer is not a generalist, in any way.

The Warlock could be -- you can have an advanced companion creature, and/or access to a range of ritual spells; with some armor proficiency. But your spells will be limited, and so it would take work to make this a "generalist" (whatever that term means to you).

So of the two, Warlock fits better. But I think there are better options, for a spell-using generalist:

Bard would give you more flexibility (some healing; good opportunities to help the party) while still being a full caster.

Wizard would give you a greater range of spells, as many rituals as you like; a 1-level dip in another class would give you armor and weapons.
 

I agree with @Kobold Stew in that, of those two classes, the Warlock would make a better generalist. They have a higher hit die and have light armor and shield proficiency.

But I also agree that the best generalist would be the Bard since they are the quintessential Jack-of-all-trades.
 

Ditto.

The warlock is the better generalist of the two, but the bard or wizard both have broader spell access.

The bard has the best access list but the worst prep limits (because of subclass bonus spells prepped) so I'd recommend wizard unless you want those healing spells.
 


In defense of the sorcerer, a Divine Soul Sorcerer has access to a wider variety of spells than Warlock.
 

Bard is OK, although I've always found it weird that they get so few cantrips.

I would say that the 2024 warlock can work really well as a generalist (even better than the 2014 warlock). They get:
  • More invocations, including one at 1st level
  • Better invocations - no more of those "cast this spell 1/day with a spell slot"; more of them give you at-will utility spells
  • Pact Boons are all invocations with no prereqs, so you could potentially take all three and be a magic blade-wielding warlock with a pet and a magic book that gives you more cantrips and some ritual spells
The 2024 warlock also gets to recover some expended spell slots without needing a short rest 1/day.
They can also replace their Mystic Arcanum spells (unlike the 2014 warlock).
 

In defense of the sorcerer, a Divine Soul Sorcerer has access to a wider variety of spells than Warlock.
The issue with the divine soul is the lack of bonus spells known. The 2024 updates give all warlock patrons in the PHB and most sorcerer bloodlines in the PHB bonus spells prepped but divine soul isn't on that list.

The 2024 warlock can take a strong early lead with pact of the tome at 1st level for access to cantrips and rituals. At second level they have 2 more invocations that can be used on origin feats with lessons of the first ones. So a celestial warlock can add magic initiate from their background and add magic initiate 2 more times through lessons of the first ones to have it from wizard, cleric, and druid.

So a sample might be a human warlock with the hermit background. (+2 CHA, +1 CON). Human bonus feat magic initiate: cleric. Human bonus skill arcana. Hermit feat healer. Hermit skills religion and medicine; herbalism kit proficiency. Warlock skills history and nature. Invocation pact of the tome.

cantrips: guidance, word of radiance; mage hand, minor illusion; prestidigitation, light *the last 2 are swappable
spells: armor of agathys, hex; detect magic
bonus rituals: identify, find familiar

That's a fair bit for a 1st level caster. Use a crossbow for the time being.

At 2nd level add magic initiate: wizard and magic initiate: druid.

Added cantrips: elementalism, message; friends, mending
1st level spells: speak with animals, unseen servant; hellish rebuke

At 3rd level divine soul kicks in for the sorcerer and the character adds one bonus spell and can add a spell from the cleric list. The celestial warlock adds sacred flame, light; cure wounds, guiding bolt, aid, and lesser restoration. The class can add suggestion and light (from the book) can be changed to shillelagh.

At 4th level this build might take ritual caster. This would even the CHA to 18 and add 2 more rituals. I purposefully used rituals with magic initiate because this builds the character up to 7 rituals available that are swappable. A cantrip is also added and eldritch blast is a good choice because it's about to expand to 2 attacks while adding agonizing blast. Another cantrip to consider is truestrike.

Truestrike as a weapon attack already adds CHA mod once. At level 5 it also adds bonus damage and agonizing blast can be applied to the damage. At 6th level radiant soul also adds CHA damage. d8+d6+3CHA starts to be interesting.

4th level can also add misty step.

5th level grants 2 more invocations. I was just mentioning shadow armor and agonizing blast for this level and applying them to truestrike. Defensive duelist gets added later.

Celestial adds daylight and revivify. Add hypnotic pattern.

That's not optimized and there's room to play with the build. The point is the divine soul adds spells more slowly than the warlock gains bonus spells. The warlock can easily leverage invocations for advantages cantrips and rituals, or skills, or other origin feats, or SLA's.

Divine soul needs an update. ;-)
 

Hey

I'm looking for more of an generalist class and was wondering between a warlock and sorcerer which one would fit that better?
If for a 2014 game then

Warlock has tons of ways to build a character but in actual play is probably more specialized because most of your build choices lock you in place.

Sorcerer has a solid spell list, but relatively few spells known. The right builds can overcome this limitation, take fey touched for more spells, pick a race with spells (one of the many tiefling variants is usually good here), pick a sorcerer subclass that gets bonus spells.

IMO one could build a sorcerer that functions more like a generalist caster than a warlock that can.
 

Versus 5.0, the divine soul is swimming in spells. Haven’t played yet, but planned out his spells 1-20 and he has room for Purify Food & Drink. So not exactly hurting. But if WOTC wants to dish more spells in some future update, that’s cool.
 

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