NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6547578" data-attributes="member: 6677017">So I was thinking of demonstrating the kind of logical argument I'm soliciting by giving the best argument for RAW Agonizing Blast that I can myself create.First, I look at the Invocations that allow you to cast a spell once per day using a warlock spell slot. Pretty much everyone agrees these are crap. Why would WotC even make those? What were they trying to avoid by not just letting you cast them once per day period?It's also worth noticing that an inordinate number of the combat spells on the warlock's list are duration based spells that require concentration, thus limiting the warlock to using hex OR another duration-based combat spell, but not both. So why not let the warlock actually make use of his spells? Why require him to either use default eldritch blast plus spells, or hex and not cast other spells?It seems to me that the combined function of these limitations might be to limit the warlock to a very small number of combat spells between rests. You have to use a limited number of spell slots on them, and if you are using slots on them, you aren't using hex because you can't concentrate on more than one spell at a time.If that were in fact the intent, then it would seem they felt that limitation were necessary to balance other aspects of a warlock's combat capability. Since there aren't any particularly strong combat capabilities other than a warlock's at-will attack (eldritch blast) they might have been looking at eldritch blast as especially strong compared to other caster classes' at-will cantrips, and hence in need of balancing by limiting access to other combat spells.That could very well mean that Agonizing Blast RAW is intended, and a warlock is intended to be in a forced choice scenario to choose between either using Agonizing Blast and hex to have a great at-will attack in a battle, with only a couple other useful things to use occasionally (like a fighter) or to be casting some buffs or debuffs and using a less effective at-will attack, more like another spellcaster. Since they can't do quite as well as a fighter in at-will attack and defense (being squishier), and they can't do quite as well as other casters in the spells department (having a more limited range of options), the versatility of choice is where their power is deriving from.If that is the case, then it appears to me that warlock is a quite strong class. You have a lot of out of combat flexibility and utility through Invocations and Pact Boon features, and in combat you have decent flexibility (though not as much as some other casters) with good damage (higher than other casters) through taking the spell route, or you have great at-will damage by taking the hex route, plus you have the flexibility of switching between those two routes according as the situation demands.So that's my best argument. It's also why I'm on the fence. I'm not sure if it is too good. If the designers were to tell me, "Yeah, that's exactly what we were going for," then I'd trust that they are right and it isn't too good. Without them weighing in, I'm really left on the fence. I'd probably try to split the difference (say Agonizing Blast adds half your Charisma modifier to each hit, for instance), and allow Invocation spells to be used once per day without spell slots, but again, I just can't say.So can anyone strengthen that argument for Agonizing Blast RAW? Or can anyone with an "in" bug Jeremy Crawford for a response on RAI?(And again, thanks for the thoughts.)</blockquote>

Verification