D&D 5E What is Warlock’s At-will damage As Intended?

[Sword of Spirit]

What is Warlock’s At-will damage As Intended?

I’ve done some analysis of the relative at-will damage output of the various classes for comparison purposes. According to the best of my calculations, the classes break down (from most damage per round to least) like so:

Damage Output by Class
1. Fighter
2. Rogue
3. Paladin & Ranger
4. Monk
5. Bard
6. Sorcerer & Wizard
7. Cleric
8. Druid

There are a few premises involved here.
A) I assumed no multiclassing, feats, or magic items.
B) I assumed each character was “optimized,” by which I simply mean that they maxed out their attack stat and selected the class options (subclass, fighting style, etc) that worked best with that attack. I also assumed that Bard pilfered eldritch blast and valor Bard grabbed shocking grasp from charisma-based spellcasting class lists.
C) I specifically left out Barbarian, since his damage output relies heavily on his advantage on attacks, and I’m not sure how to accurately assess that. In like manner I ignored poison spray, because it doesn’t use an attack roll. Bards, Sorcerers and Wizards (especially evokers) can get good mileage out of poison spray.
D) Classes are compared at 20th level to see the final results of the class damage scaling. While there is variability when leveling up, I believe this indicates design intent of relative damage output.
E) I assumed only at-will damage. The inclusion of “virtually at-will” damage makes a difference, as will be accounted for below.

The general breakdown of classes relative to each other looks about right on that list. So far so good. Now we have to see where Warlock fits into that list based on two different interpretations of the functioning of Agonizing Blast:

Warlock’s Agonizing Blast Interpretation
1. Warlock RAW. Agonizing Blast applies to each hit with eldritch blast, so that’s 4 times at level 20.
2. Warlock nerfed. Agonizing Blast applies to one hit per turn.

I’m on the fence as to which one of these is most balanced. I strongly favor 2, but I don’t want to nerf it if the class is intentionally balanced around 1. Designers have confirmed RAW as 1, but have not commented on RAI yet.

In order to properly analyze the different effects of the interpretations, we have to break down the damage output of the classes a little bit more. I’m going to include two additional factors:
A) Variance between defining options. Sometimes certain subclasses are simply superior in damage output to others. This can be due to a special feature of some subclasses (ie, draconic Sorcerer, or evocation Wizard), or can be due to differences between subclasses that provide bonuses to ranged vs. melee attacks (ie, Cleric domains). In such cases, I’ll provide a separate listing for each type of option so you can clearly see the difference they make.
B) “Virtually at-will” damage. This refers specifically and exclusively to a Monk’s Flurry of Blows feature, and the hex and hunter’s mark spells—all of which can become so ubiquitously available to the respective classes at higher levels that they are virtually at will and need to be considered in comparing class at-will damage output. I will list these separately from the “actually” at-will damage. Sneak Attack is considered actually at-will for purposes of analysis.

Bold italics are used for “virtually at-will” damage.
Purple text is used for Warlock RAW.
Green text is used for Warlock nerfed.
Red text is used for a Warlock with Pact of the Blade using his weapon.

Damage Output by Class--Expanded
1. Warlock (Hex)
2. Fighter
3. Rogue
4. Ranger (Hunter’s Mark)
5. Monk (Flurry of Blows) & Warlock
6. Warlock (Hex) & Warlock (Hex)
7. Paladin & Ranger & Bard (Ranged, Hex)
8. Warlock
9. Bard (Valor, Hex)
10. Monk
11. Bard (Valor)
12. Sorcerer (Draconic) & Wizard (Evoker) & Warlock
13. Cleric (Ranged) & Druid (Moon)
14. Bard (Lore) & Sorcerer & Wizard
15. Cleric (Melee)
16. Druid (Land)

As you can see, the “virtually at-will” options provide a major boost in power. But even setting those aside, compare the different Warlock interpretations to the other classes and see how vastly different they are from each other. (Pact of the Blade weapon attack is included for purposes of comparison).

My question is simple: Which was intended for the Warlock damage output: purple or green?

 

[Staffan]

When I first saw Agonizing Blast and that it was intended to work on each ray, I figured that that was broken. But then I thought about it again, and came to the conclusion that it's not.

Agonizing Blast lets a warlock make one attack at d10+Cha at level 2, two attacks at level 5, three attacks at level 11, and four attacks at level 17. It's not a coincidence that most martial classes get a second attack at level 5, and either a third attack or some other damage boost at level 11. In other words, Agonizing Blast mainly lets warlocks keep up with fighters, and doesn't really eclipse them or anything like that. Hex provides an additional boost, but that requires spending spell slots and maintaining concentration, which can be hard.

In many ways, a warlock is closer to a martial class than a "proper" casting class - they have great sustained damage, but their lack of spell slots leave them with few options for going nova, and their lack of spell repertoire generally doesn't let them do too much game-breaking stuff.

 

[Eejit]

Once per ray is definitely correct.

However, to nerf the silly 2-level-dips in Warlock I'll houserule that a ray can only benefit from agonising if you have the appropriate level in the Warlock class.

i.e. a Warlock 2/Socerer 18 gets 4 beams, but only one of those would receive +Cha. A Warlock 5/Sorcerer 15 also gets 4 beams but 2 receive +Cha. And so on in that fashion until everyone is eaten.

 

[PnPgamer]

I've always fancied warlock a combat oriented rogue that instead of sneak attack can do spells. not as squishy as a wizard, yet not too dependant on spell slots. Although 5e changed that to every caster class.

 

[Celtavian]

Warlock is the fighter/rogue of the arcane caster classes. He does the most at will damage from round to round for the least versatility in casting. I think it is as intended. It's their method of being powerful. Blasting is their thing. They give up a lot to do it well.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

So it sounds like the consensus is (and forgive me if this is a slanted phrasing), that it was intended for a class to have better at-will damage than a paladin and ranger, while being a full caster (even if they are the weakest of the full casters), and having a whole selection of special abilities (invocations+)?

 

[Staffan]

Without Hex (which uses one of the warlock's limited spell slots, and should be counted as that spell slot being used to deal damage, and not as part of at-will damage calculations), a 2nd level warlock with Agonizing Blast deals 1d10+Cha damage. A paladin who focuses on damage deals 2d6 (reroll 1 and 2) + Str (greatsword + Great Weapon Fighting style). So, the paladin is ahead there. At 5th level, both gain a second attack dealing the same amount of damage.

At 11th level, it gets a bit iffy. The warlock gains a third beam, so he deals 3x 1d10+Cha. Assuming a maxed-out Charisma (+5), that's 31.5 points if all attacks hit. The paladin, on the other hand, gains Improved Divine Smite for +1d8/attack, so he deals 2x 2d6 (reroll 1 and 2) + 1d8 + Str. If both attacks hit, that's 35.7 points of damage - so the Paladin is still ahead. I'm ignoring the chance to hit here because it should be the same for both characters.

It's not until 17th level, when the warlock gets his fourth Eldritch Blast beam for a total of 42 damage if all hit, that the warlock is actually out-damaging the paladin with at-will abilities - and at that point, the paladin has enough spell slots that spending one or more per round on Divine Smite for +2d8 or more damage shouldn't be a problem.

Also, regarding Hex: the paladin has his own version, called Divine Favor. It's only +1d4 damage instead of +1d6, but it does help even things out. As another aside, I did choose to use the most-damaging version of the paladin (great weapon fighting), but the "balanced" option of dueling also outdamages the warlock (1d8+2+Str per attack vs 1d10+Cha), though the 11-16 version is really close (2 attacks for 2d8+2+Str vs 3 attacks for 1d10+Cha).

The ranger is a bit weaker when it comes to damage-dealing though, particularly at level 11+ because it doesn't gain a strong damage increase at that level the way the warlock and paladin do.

 

[Paraxis]

Vengeance paladins also get access to hunter's mark so that ups the dpr bit.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Warlocks have great at-will damage for a reason. Up until 11th level, they only have 2 spell slots at a time, and the most they ever get is 4. Once they've used those, their at-will abilities are all they have left. Their tiny number of slots puts them in a really tight squeeze. They can't afford to use spell slots for utility the way other classes, including paladins and rangers, can. Even casting a simple detect thoughts or other low level utility spell leaves them with very little power left should they get into combat. If they didn't have their great at-will damage and their invocations, they wouldn't even be worth playing.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Thanks for the responses.

Paladin’s divine favor is useful, but it will only last for a single fight. If a warlock can keep concentration he can keep hex up all day long at higher levels (though he probably will lose concentration at some point). I do consider it a spell resource rather than at-will, but as far as I can tell, hex, hunter’s mark, and ki hold a special place amongst limited use abilities in that they are about as close to at-will as you can get (hence the special category for them). I’d be interested in knowing if there are other similar abilities I may have missed.

I’m not committed to a position that Agonizing Blast needs to be nerfed. If I were I wouldn’t be posting about it, since I have no problem house ruling. Rather, I’m concerned that if it is part of the intended balance then I will weaken the class by nerfing it.

Basically, what I’m saying is that I’ve seen arguments on other threads (not necessarily at ENWorld) presented that claim warlocks are underpowered without the high-powered RAW Agonizing Blast—but I’ve always found them to be poor arguments that fail to take into account the design intent of two short rests per day, or fail to account for invocations, or a warlock’s proficiencies, or fail to recognize where a warlock’s relative damage output falls (as I talked about in my first post), or make some other oversight. It’s undestandable—warlock is the most oddball and complicated class in the bunch. Nevertheless, that still doesn’t make them good arguments. What I’m asking for is if anyone can give me a good argument for that position.

So, let me analyze how I feel warlock’s features stack up to other full-caster classes. Because I’m comparing them to casters, I’ll use the most castery warlock—Pact of the Tome. Also, because they have d8s for HD, I’ll compare them to the other d8 classes: bard, cleric, and druid.

How does a warlock’s spellcasting stack up?
*1. Classes are balanced around two short rests in a day. That means you need to multiple a warlock’s spell slots by 3 to see how many they effectively have in a day.
2. A warlock’s spell slots are auto-leveled to their maximum level (up to level 5).
3. A warlock who takes Pact of the Tome can cherry pick 3 cantrips from anywhere.
4. A Pact of the Tome warlock can take an invocation to get potential access to every ritual in the game, from every class.
5. At 20th level, a warlock can spend 1 minute to regain his 5 spell slots of 5th level 1/day.
6. Warlock’s have the shortest spell list of the full casters. (Although Otherworldly Patron means their spell list is actually 10 spells more than the warlock list shows.)
7. Warlock’s miss out on the one extra 6th and 7th level spell at high levels--but see #5.
8. A warlock’s 6-9th level spellcasting is less flexible.
*Since encounters are generally only a few short rounds, and you can generally only use 1 spell slot in a round, warlocks are also fine with their 2-4 spell slots if you only have one encounter in the day.

A Pact of the Tome warlock’s effective spellcasting feels to me about equivalent to the spellcasting of other full-casters (or at the least, of the weaker full casters).

A) While they have less daily spell slots overall (remember to multiple x3), they have better spell slots due to auto-leveling all of them. If you are talking about power, 6 spell slots of 5th level as a 9th or 10th level character doesn't strike me as being all that weaker than 1 or 2 spell slots of 5th level and 13 assorted lower level slots. If you were given the choice between those numbers of daily spell slots (in isolation from the rest of the discussion), which would you choose? I’m guessing that a good number of people are in the same camp as me, and would respond, “I don’t know. It depends on what I want to do with the character.”
B) They miss out on flexibility in spell choices and higher-level casting, but access to so many rituals and cantrips helps make up for that lack of flexibility.
C) Access to so many rituals also increases their effective spell slots.

They definitely are both different and complicated, but if you compare the relevant spellcasting features, I’m not seeing a striking imbalance in spellcasting power.

How do a warlock’s other class features stack up?
1. A warlock’s Otherworldly Patron features are roughly as good as the subclass features of the other classes (with the possible exception of cleric domains, which seem to take on a greater share of class powers than the other classes’ subclasses do). If we are on the fence, we can pretend warlock’s subclass features are slightly worse, just to play it safe. Otherwise, we no longer have to think about subclasses for comparison purposes.
2. A warlock has d8 HD, light armor and simple weapon proficiencies. Bards and druids are negligibly better, while clerics have access to all medium armors, making them clearly superior. Bards also get an extra skill, which is useful. We’ll add this into the comparison below.
3. We are assuming the Pact of the Tome and the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation as part of the spellcasting balance, as well as taking account of Eldritch Mastery, so we won’t consider them as part of the other class features.
4. That leaves the warlock with his 7 additional Invocations to compare to the remaining class features of those classes. So let’s look at what they each get.
Bard: Bardic Inspiration, Jack of All Trades, Song of Rest, Expertise, Font of Inspiration, Countercharm, Magical Secrets, Superior Inspiration, (+extra skill)
Cleric: Channel Divinity (Turn Undead), Destroy Undead, Divine Intervention, (+medium armor and shield)(+extra domain oomph)
Druid: Wild Shape, Timeless Body, Beast Spells, Archdruid. (+shield)
5. Now we need to put together a good list of invocations for a warlock. We will add in Agonizing Blast and treat it as the nerfed version—which raises their At-Will attacks to slightly better than an evoker wizard or draconic sorcerer (force damage plus splittable targetting). Plenty of good choices here.
Warlock: Agonizing Blast (+Cha mod to eldritch blast damage 1/turn), Ascendant Step (levitate at-will), Devil’s Sight (see 120’ in normal and magical darkness), Master of Myriad Forms (alter self at-will), Repelling Blast (push creature 10’ with eldritch blast), Vision of Distant Realms (arcane eye at-will), Fiendish Vigor (false life at-will). If you are Fiend Pact, take Witch Sight (see true form of shapechanged or illusioned (including invisible) creatures within 30’) instead of Fiendish Vigor.

So, if I am correct in my analysis, I’ve reduced the comparison of the power levels of bard, cleric, druid, and warlock down to a list of specific class features. If the warlock’s suite of features in this list is significantly weaker than those of the other classes (which are supposed to be more or less balanced amongst themselves) then it would seem they should be using Agonizing Blast according to RAW to make up for their weakness. If the warlock's class features on this list are roughly equivalent (or even better) than the other classes’, then it would seem that Agonizing Blast RAW should not reflect (competent) design intent.

For easy reference, here is the comparison:

[table="width: 500"]
[tr]
[td]Bard[/td]
[td]Cleric[/td]
[td]Druid[/td]
[td]Warlock[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Bardic Inspiration[/td]
[td]Channel Divinity[/td]
[td]Wild Shape[/td]
[td]Agonizing Blast (nerfed)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Jack of All Trades[/td]
[td](Turn Undead)[/td]
[td]Timeless Body[/td]
[td]Ascendant Step[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Song of Rest[/td]
[td]Destroy Undead[/td]
[td]Beast Spells[/td]
[td]Devil Sight[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Expertise[/td]
[td]Divine Intervention[/td]
[td]Archdruid[/td]
[td]Master of Myriad Forms[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Font of Inspiration[/td]
[td]+medium armor[/td]
[td]+shields[/td]
[td]Repelling Blast[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Counter Charm[/td]
[td]+shields[/td]
[td][/td]
[td]Vision of Distant Realms[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Magical Secrets[/td]
[td]+extra domain oomph[/td]
[td][/td]
[td]Fiendish Vigor[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Superior Inspiration[/td]
[td][/td]
[td][/td]
[td][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]+extra skill[/td]
[td][/td]
[td][/td]
[td][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
The bard, cleric, and druid lists should all be roughly equal to each other. So the question this time is: Is the warlock’s list significantly weaker than the other lists?