I mean technically it kind of was, at least for martial style damage builds… but yeah this sounds more like it will be a true spell caster instead of the best martial.
If you want to play a blade and sorcery character, you will not need to hex dip, you can now just go straight warlock They have added more incentives to stay straight classed warlock, while not really taking anything away from the 1 level warlock dip, (execpt the shield proficiencie, and the other subclass features you got from hexblade) This means more people will play straight warlock, and dropping 1 level in hexblade will probably be more rare, heck, it is theoretically possible to pick up a invocation using an origin feat, using the eldritch adept feat
@@zarekodynski9077 you can't take weapon feats as a warlocks. cuz even though Pact of the blade give you profficiency and mastety with a summoned weapon...it doesn't count as a profficieny in martial weapon which is required to take a feat (for example no one will object that you can't polymorph into elf to take elf specific feats...cuz polymorph is the temporary effect). and without those feats you'll be a worse melee fighter (also it's a feat tax cuz you need to fix your hp and defences before going into melee)
They revised those "cast a spell with a slot" invocations to "freebie cast of that spell, but you can use slots for more uses". That is an alternative way to round out your spell capabilites to overrelying on cantrips (if that's what you want to do).
From what ive seen of the new warlock im in love!! So much customization and freedom. I feel pact slot limitations would be fine because you can do so much more outside of casting spells. Skills with the origin feats, cantrips, blade, chain, tome, additional spells, ect. Especially the extra casts from your subclass if that is in each one. I wish they gave more to the martial classes
The old version was basically useless all around, so the new one is just much better. All the old one did was basically just let you cast charm person with indefinite duration on one target.
As a warlock, you just need to use your spell slots up, and fallback to cantrips when you are out. If you always wait, you will be hampering yourself. You have to trust your DM to allow you a rest when you need it (short rests should be readily available).
@@jiminkpen9750 - I toyed around with the idea of making short rest abilities 3/day. But then they could be used multiple times in one combat, which seemed against the intention.
@@sleepinggiant4062 yeah, it's just baked into the game/class design too much to easily remove them, which is probably why they backed off the idea of reducing usefulness/removing them. I actually liked the idea of a half caster warlock as per one ua. There was still plenty of uniqueness to the class but too many players disliked it (probably because players felt dms should give enough short rests and make them readily available so that characters could always use their abilities. Whoa betide having to manage your resources carefully) Edit: and I admit the idea of having to use your spells at their most powerful but getting fewer is cool and fits really well... but at the expense of overall gameplay
@@jiminkpen9750But now a lot of the classes get something back on a short rest. Wildshapes, spells, Second Winds, Channel Divinities, Rage and more I’m not sure of. Everyone is going to benefit from a short rest. It’s sucky to lose your abilities and have to spend 8 hours to get them back.
@@EpicRandomness555 sure, but there are still some classes that get a lot back on one, some a few resources and some next to none. Plus, it can be hard to build tension, pace and a sense of urgency when after every encounter half the party want an hour rest or get snippy because its unfair on their class.
I am really excited about most of the changes to this one. I just wish they would have kept being able to choose your own main casting stat. that really would have made so many interesting combinations.
@@Ahglock To me, the Warlock seems like it should be able to fit into any other class. It is someone who is willing to bind themselves to a supernatural entity to accomplish a goal. I’d say you do it by subclass. Maybe Fiend and Great Old One could be Charisma or Intelligence because it’s a common trope for intelligent people to make deals with things they don’t understand for more knowledge/power. Celestial and Fey would be Wisdom or Charisma because I could see Druids or Clerics easily wanting to go into these classes thematically. Charisma is always available but then the others depend on what you choose.
Im biased towards the bladelock so i love the changes! I love how Archfey makes you nightcrawler. Fiend lets you be a melee tank, and depending on wording, celestial could deal the most damage as you can now deal radiant damage with your pact weapon, so if the feature will let you add damage to this it's awesome. I want to know if changes will be made to hexblade now that its core mechanic is obsolete
I've seen the playtest material from UA7, but if it stays the same. Then it'd basically just combine the Pact of the Blade & Hex Warrior class feature into 1 singular Invocation
I am worried. Warlock's barely get enough eldritch invocations. I know they added to the number of invocations a Warlock gets, but then they made Pact Boons invocations. So we used to get 8, now we get 10, but really, we only get 9. There are two ways I see they should have remedied this: 1. Make our first Pact Boon as a free invocation (meaning not take up a use of invocations. 2. Go back to the way Pact Boons were before, but of course, keep them at level 1.
i think sage mentioned that there might be a feat to gain more invocations. also it's not 9. it's 8 or even less. cuz taking upgraded pact is almost mandatory
@@koxacbka I think 'mandatory' invocations are part of the issue. Some time over the last year or so I created a table on google docs where I evaluated all the invocations currently available and then made some several builds for each spell or Pact Boons that have invocations that improve them, and found out that mandatory invocations took over most of your options.
Jeez, they don't need more invocations. They need to reduce the versatility of all casters to balance them with martials and stop letting casters just shine in every situation. (This from someone who always plays casters but liked being in a party where non casters had a place and useful role and their players didn't feel the need to multiclass into some sort of caster to have fun and feel useful).
I mean, you can technically choose to not get the Pact Boons if you really don’t want to. You can take all the Invocations that empowered Eldritch Blast and now more cantrip. Focus on Agonizing Repelling Spear Chill Touch. If you decide to choose a Pact Boon, well then there’s other Invocations that strengthen those ones that you’ll want to take anyway. By the time you reach the maximum it’s probably not gonna feel like you don’t have enough. You can’t expect to get every single Invocation possible.
@@jiminkpen9750 they do need invocations though. cuz in dnd5 almost all warlocks were without choice. agonizing blast and other things that buff EB were soooo goood. (even thirsting blade everyone complain about will lose to EB+agonizing combo n higher levels). and all of it frm the safe distance of 120+ ft up to 4 attacks
To be honest, I think so much of the warlock could have been fixed with a much easier rule tweak: you regain all short rest abilities when you roll initiative. Monks and warlocks are suddenly useful. A lot of people use this house rule, or stuff like short rests last for 5 minutes, etc. It's a straightforward fix.
we play with a houserule that short rest is forced upon a party after the combat encounter ends and also takes no time (basically you regain everything while you loot and patch your wounds). also you can't have a short rest without encounter (easy fix for coffee locks) and everyone should agree to take a rest(short or long) to have it's benefits. this way warlocks and fighters in a party a a bit stronger, but there is no hessitation on using abilities and everyone on the table is having a blast. (also as a DM in can throw a harder then intended enounter from time to time without much worries)
You still get spell slots back on a short test. I understand the anxiety, but it's the same as the use of consumables. With more invocations giving free users, powerful cantrips, etc, warlocks have a lot of cool abilities even when out of spells.
I've not DnD before, but I've really dived into DnD on YT, lately. Of all the classes, Warlock should have the most flavour and flexibility, but it just doesn't feel that way. You've got two options, as I see it: Blast or Blade, and every other class beats warlocks at one of those. The fact that warlocks can do both doesn't help, because almost any multiclass option beats them here, to. And that's kinda sad. Warlocks can be fixed, but it'll take quite a bit of work. First, we move Pact Boons over to be their own thing, and make them available at level 5, level 10, and level 17, with Warlock-only Epic Boons available at 19+ that enhance a single Pact. This allows us to create three levels of each Pact, and because we've locked them behind your sub-class choice, each Patron has an actual effect on what you get at each level. You could select each Pact, but you'll be missing out on really useful and powerful (and flavourful) things. By setting Pacts at level 5, low level warlocks are significantly nerfed on the powerscale, but we can fix that too: at level one all warlocks can spend a bonus action to summon a Spark of Power, either white, red, purple, or green, and can can command that spark to make an attack, debuff an enemy for one turn or heal or buff an ally, or empower a summoned pact weapon. Speaking of weapons, all warlocks can spend a bonus action to summon a simple melee weapon of their choice that isn't ranged or heavy (but may be a thrown weapon); this weapon is considered a Finesse weapon, as it is comprised of ribbons of Eldritch Force and doesn't actually weigh anything, and deals Force damage instead of standard damage. But what about Pact of the Tome? At the end of a short or long rest, a warlock may reach into the Ether and pull forth a page of the Tome of Forbidden Knowledge. This page contains two cantrips of your choice from any list but Sorceror, two level one ritual spells of any spell list, and two level one non-ritual spells from any spell list. The warlock may cast the cantrips as warlock cantrips, and may invoke the ritual spells as warlock rituals. The non-ritual spells may be cast as warlock spells a number of times per LONG REST equal to your Warlock level as though you were casting the spell from a scroll. The note of Long Rest is here to prevent players from thinking that summoning a new page of the Tome after a short rest would allow more spell castings. But what about Invocations? At level two all warlocks get their first Invocation that they may select from a geeneral invocation list available to all subclasses. They also get the Cantrip Adept ability, which allows them to attach one invocation effect to a warlock cantrip when they cast it. (At level 10, they get the Empowered Cantrip ability, and may attach two invocation effects when they cast a warlock cantrip. At level 18, they get Cantrip Mastery, and may attach three invocation effects when they cast a warlock cantrip.) At level 3, warlocks choose a subclass: GOO (purple), Fiend (red), Celestial (white), and Fey (green). Each subclass grants a list of spells at various levels that are always prepared, and you get a basic subclass ability. At level 5, warlocks can choose their first Pact Boon. True Pact Weapon permits the warlock to summon any non-heavy simple or martial weapon (Reloading weapons require ammunition), which is classified as a Finesse (even if it isn't, it's made of Force) weapon, but may use Cha for attack and damage rolls. This weapon deals Force damage equivalent to the real weapon's damage. Alternatively, you may bond with a real weapon, either a non-magical, in which case it becomes a +1 weapon, or magical, or summon a weapon that is unique to your Patron: this weapon deals force damage with an elemental kicker, and applies effects on hit that are Patron-flavoured. Summoning or bonding with a weapon permits only one attack per round. At higher pact levels, you gain additional attacks, to a maximum of three. True Chain Pact permits summoning two Sparks of Power of your Patron's color, and they can cast Patron-flavoured cantrips as a bonus action and hit harder than their lower level counterparts. Or you may summon a small creature that fits your Patron's ethos, and you may see and hear through this creature, and it has attacks and special actions that you can command with a bonus action. Folio of (patron flavour) allows you to have four cantrips from any available list (patrons disallow certain lists), five ritual spells from available lists, and five level one spells from available lists that can be cast as though you were casting from a scroll 3+level times per long rest. The Folio can only be summoned once per long rest. From here on, it's just a matter of fleshing out Patron-specific Invocation lists, setting up disallowed spell lists, crafting Patron-specific Pact weapons (prefferably two per level that can be up-summoned for more damage, utility, control, and fun), choosing specific summoned creature lists for chain pact levels one, two, and three, and crafting fun and flavourful Epic Boons for each Pact. Piece of cake. Now all I have to do is rebalance every other class to make sure Warlocks fit in the power scale where they should, which is right between wizards and fighters. As to that particular debate, Fighters should be absolute masters of the battlefield, locking down zones of control by martial skill and dishing out incredible damage per round (either single target or divided), and Wizards should be masters of duelling with other wizards and suppprting the martials. And that's it. Let martials deal with face to face combat, and let wizards deal with other wizards and support the martial classes. There are three classes that should fit right in the middle between direct combat and support: the Sorceror, the Warlock, and the Bard. These three classes are the hardest to balance without invalidating pure martials and pure casters. Make Bards or Sorcs too skilled at spellcasting, and you don't need Wizards, Druids, or Clerics. Make Bards or Locks too good at close qaurters fighting, and you don't need Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, or Rogues. The issue of Skills is pretty much moot, as all three central classes have spells that can fill the gap, and Bards are just too good at that sort of thing anyway. It's a complicated problem, and it can't be solved by buffing everything OR nerfing everything. Ideally, each class should feel unique in it's engagement with the mechanics of the game. Not something I think I could fix without several years of work.
They probably should have made Agonizing Blast and the like apply to all of your warlock damage cantrips, rather than having to pick it for each cantrip. As it is, you feel like you are punishing yourself by not putting it on Eldritch Blast.
A rule interaction for you guys, if you pick both Pack of the Blade and of the Chain with the Investement invocation and then get extra attack through Thirsting Blade do you guys think you can replace the extra attack with a familiar reaction attack thus having up to three attacks? (1 from familiar reaction attack being converted from extra attack, 1 from Blade normal attack and a third from Bonus action familiar action attack)
I'm super annoyed it sounds like warlock dipping for edlritch blast is still going to be a thing. I HATE the fact that 2 level dipping is honestly the 'proper' way to play. I'm also not sure why everyone hates on thirty blade getting a third attack at 11th. Even with life drinker, 2 attacks is FAR inferior to Eldritch Blast. And it only gets worse at 17th level
That math on Thirsting Blade only holds true until you get your hands on a magic weapon. Then the maths heavily favor making three attacks a turn, especially given how few options there are to boost spell attack and damage.
I hope radiant soul gets a buff. Right now you add your charisma modifier to one damage roll against one target of the spell. That last part seems over limiting, as if I cast flame strike and hit 2 people, only 1 of them takes the +4/5 damage not both. Since flame strike is a 5th level spell that does the damage of the 3rd level fireball spell, I think doing 8d6+5 with a 5th level spell slot isn't OP
I don’t understand the purpose of magical cunning at all. It feels like a “we ran out of ideas” feature. They could have bumped the slots the class gets by one and you’d end up with largely the same effect, I think.
What is even the point of changing all classes to get their subclasses at level 3, when they do everything to keep the warlock universally frontloaded, and the best option to slap on every other class?
Magical cunning should have stayed as "you have 1 use of one of your patron spells for free, the level of the spell is equal to the level of your pact magic spells, once per long rest"
I am planning on making the first ever mute spellcaster with the new GOO warlock subclass. A gishy tricksy character with great utility and a weird downside sounds like a perfect character to try to min-max
Not too sure what to think about the archfey yet. Jumping around on the battlefield sounds fun, yes, but this whole "reduce damage by half once per pay and give out 1d10 temp hp after Misty Step" really does not impress me much when comparing to the fiend.
Hurl through Hell got a massive nerf, given that it now requires a failed Saving Throw. This means your once a day super ability can just fail, and is all but guaranteed to fail against anything with Legendary Resistance.
So... can you use agonizing blast with booming blade? weapon dmg + cantrip dmg + STR(cha via pact of the blade) + cha via agonizing blast? or triple cha bonus to dmg if you use celestial warlock with agonizing blast and green flame blade?
6:45 - not sure what you are talking about here; Warlocks don't "prepare" spells. They are one of the classes that knows a limited number of spells, but always has them prepared.
lol I mean for one thing, I think it’s very obvious what I’m talking about :P. Secondly, the language in the UAs has actually been updated to refer to the fact that Warlocks, along with all other casters are in fact “preparing” spells now. The exact definition of what a prepared caster in 2014 looked like has changed though, I agree with that. Nevertheless, that is the term that is used.
I enjoyed archfey as it was though tbh like I’m not dissatisfied with the new form of the subclass but like I’m going to miss my warlock dip that I could flavor as my character’s naturally intimidating form
I have A Lot of versatility House Rules for Warlocks, and it looks like I'll have to keep them 😝 My table uses the Spell Point Variant rule from the DMG, so instead of having 2 Spell Slots for most of their career, Warlocks get two Spell Points per level up to ten, and one additional point per level from 11 up. Mystic Arcanum now provides 1 Daily Spell Slot of the appropriate level (6th Level Armor of Agyths anyone?) and they get a second prepared spell of that level on even Levels (at twelfth level, a Warlock will have 2 6th level spells to pick between). Objective power is nearly the same, but removes all the arbitrary limits in the base class.
magical cunning basically replicate the rod of pact keeper's active. with the difference that you need 10 rounds (1 minute) instead of 1 action. but then again....if DMs are not allowing players to have a short rest...then there might not be that 1 minute to replenish a spell either as for thirsting blade: imho it's not that big of a deal as people say. you either have a feat or level tax (to get heavy armor or med armor with expertise) and there are also uses for extra attack. fr example if you have pact of the chain. (fighter will still deal more damage and will have higher AC and HP pool)
The best build for warlock was 4e. You could build almost everything around eldritch blast! It was awesome. Now it's all nerfed. Worse, any creative flavor is sucked right out. At this point warlock is best as an add on for multiclassing
Awesome videos, im binging all of them now and really like a lot of your takes! However as a dnd nerd who loves nothing more than being pedantic over slight seemingly innocuous word choices, Warlocks are spells known not spells prepared both in 14 and 24
I’m glad you enjoyed it, thank you so much :) In UA 7, the last UA we saw Warlock in, they were specifically described as being prepared casters, as was every caster in the game. They’ve definitely adjusted their definition of the term.
@@InsightCheck that’s true the verbiage has changed to “prepared” for everyone but in spirit it’s identical to the known/prepared split of ‘14 in that warlocks get x amount of spells and can only swap on a level up. Whether or not that’s the final iteration in ‘24 remains to be seen though, I guess we will find out today at noon lol!
Quick correction but around 6:40 to 6:50 you mention that Warlocks Pact Spells had to be prepared for the day, but Warlocks are spells knowns casters so they can't even do that.
lol I mean yes of course that is always an option but the purpose of the discussion is what was printed in the books. Otherwise, anything is possible and isn’t really possible to talk about.
I just realized Warlocks are prepared casters. Is this the case for all classes now? Are sorcerers and bard and rangers all prepared casters now instead of known casters?
No, it's just a wording change. All casters are now "prepared", but the mechanics of how they do their casting hasnt really changed. There are still "known" casters, they just arent called that in the system anymore. Or at least that is how it was in the playtest.
Warlock never should have been a base class. It should have been a prestige class that a character could have worked their way into via a role play scenario..... But im a grognard from the days of old. Nice coverage though. Good job.
It was an interesting idea. I didn’t love it as to me Pact Magic feels so different and I enjoy that element of it. I think they could have made half casting work with enough effort but overall I am happy they reverted back to Pact Magic.
as one who were against that idea i can say why i were against it: it basically removed warlock as unique class from the game and replaced it with yet another bard or similar class.
Warlock still feels very frontloaded pact of the blade for cha to hit and damage is a no brainer Also seems that there is no capstone to write home about in the class so I'm sad to see that warlock will remain a 1 to 3 level dip in most cases
At least as far as right now is concerned, Hexblade is not being carried forward to the 2024 books. There are rules for you to use 2014 subclasses with the 2024 books but Hexblade has not received any update (at least not yet).
Unfortunately nothing is officially available. It seems to be extremely similar to what was revealed in Unearthed Arcana 7 which is available for free on DNDBeyond.
The 2024 warlock is destroyed. First making warlock half caster from full caster as it was in 5e is the first sign of destruction this interesting to play class. Second of all making the pact boon (Pact of chain, tome, blade) equal to invocations is the second sign that designers decide to destroy more this class. I mean warlock was already limited to the choices of invocations, spells etc, and making pact boons equal to invocations not only warlock is more limited to the choices that can make but also the choices are less significant to the progression. As a veteran DND player since 2nd edition, I got to say that the only change that I was hoping to see about warlock from 5e was warlock getting little more spell slots and nothing else. But no let's destroy all the classes melee or casters in the name of "Game balance"
1) Half caster warlock didn’t go through, thankfully. The warlock’s pact magic was changed back to how it was in 2014 DND 2) Despite Pact Boons becoming invocations, the Warlock will receive 1 invocation at lv1, 2 invocations at lv2 (3 total), 2 more at lv5 (5 total), and one more at lv7 and lv9. So even if you feel you NEED to take one Pact Boon (which you don’t necessarily have to now, depending on what kind of Warlock you want to build), 2024 Warlocks will have the same amount of invocations from lv 1-4 and one extra invocation from lv5 onwards compared to the 2014 version I’m sorry, but I do wonder if you missed OneDND UA 7, where they showed Warlock again with Pact Magic and Mystic Arcanum reverted to their 2014 versions 🤔
@@TsujiCross I am a veteran player of Dnd since 2nd edition. One Dnd to me is the downfall for the game for many reasons. You have your reasons to say otherwise I have mine
Why do you, throughout the video, keep refering to the warlock as preparing spells? The warlock doesnt prepare spells, he learns them. And can cast any learned spells, no need to prepare anything.
lol I apologize. I said it exactly 3 times within the same paragraph of an otherwise 3500 word script. I don’t really have an answer as to why, some things flow better when writing and sometimes it’s just a derp.
One D&D is looking like a horrible flop in my eyes. The idea of making 5.5 instead of just 6 really limited the changes and will make one d&d a super poor offer in comparison to dc20, daggerheart and the other ttrpgs coming out. They should have stayed with 5e at this point and retroactively patch it rather than making this half new edition or actually made a new edition with real changes like fixing the wonky action bonus action system
It's not one dnd, and they don't call it that so don't pretend that putting a number at the end makes anything better, this a revision of the 5th edition rule set that is now the standard dnd going forward. That's it.
@@ss4jacob I don't care about the name. My point is the revision is a bad move to make with all the new games coming out. Do you want a revision of a broken game that fails to address half the issues and isn't really backwards compatible or do you want this brand new thing? I hate wizards and I hope they go bankrupt, but this move is still so dumb
@@ss4jacob i mean no ttrpg can ever truly be broken but when your biggest feature is combat and it's unbalanced, slow and unintuitive then i would call it broken.
@@ojodeoro1106 yet it is still none of the things you claim, the speed of combat rounds in my experience is due to the player wanting to do something, it's now more balanced than ever because of the revision it is getting this year. And the 5e ruleset is by far the easiest to pick up and run or learn.
