So when it comes to Warlock if we could choose ANY spell from any list would be fantastic. I would still only choose maybe 2 or 3 combat tricks since you never have that many spell slots. Then it would be filled with utility spells. I would still pick fly, invisibility, I might still pick charm person and/or charm monster, scrying, tongues, dispel magic. In essence a warlock's ability to recover spells on a short rest in conjunction with their small number of spells slots vs spells known means a majority of your spells should be something for non-combat and you should use your ability to rest after these non-combat scenarios to recover your slots before going into areas that you believe there will be combat.
In essence a warlock's ability to recover spells on a short rest in conjunction with their small number of spells slots vs spells known means a majority of your spells should be something for non-combat and you should use your ability to rest after these non-combat scenarios to recover your slots before going into areas that you believe there will be combat.
That relies on a DM letting you take a short rest whenever you want it, which isn't guaranteed
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Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
In essence a warlock's ability to recover spells on a short rest in conjunction with their small number of spells slots vs spells known means a majority of your spells should be something for non-combat and you should use your ability to rest after these non-combat scenarios to recover your slots before going into areas that you believe there will be combat.
That relies on a DM letting you take a short rest whenever you want it, which isn't guaranteed
And by "when ever you want" you mean "while not in a combat situation doing not combat related tasks". Because I specifically specified non-combat scenarios, where there shouldn't be a rest problem. Sure if you are doing a dungeon crawl with combat encounters sprinkled throughout, and monsters patrolling the dungeon, you may not get a short rest. But that is why only a couple combat spells are useful to have at a time. But there is 0 reason why a dungeon master would not allow you to rest while you are in a non-hazardous area other than the DM being a jerk and probably just a bad DM to play a class like warlock with in general. Which they definitely exist, I have dealt with them. Their table is not fun for the warlock or the monk when they specifically don't let logical short rest periods occur.
Time constraints are a pretty common reason why you might not get a short rest. They aren't a jerk DM move they are basic parts or reality that sometimes exist in the game as well. And there can be plenty of other logical non combat reasons why you can't rest right now.
Even if you can;t get all the short rests you want Aquilontunes basic idea for spells is sound. Early-mid only take 2-3 combat spells, you don't need fear and hypnotic pattern just take one. Cover basic offense concepts of zone control/crowd control, damage. Given how your spells work 1 in each category is enough but you may want 2 of each. Utility and sort of corner case spells from there.G o back for some other attack spells later game, hold person at level 3 is a meh choice for you but hey once your bases are covered at level 10 or so and it now targets 4 people next time you face 4 humanoids its coming in solid. There is a good chance the preparation casters don't have it prepared any more so it may end up being clutch.
Time constraints are a pretty common reason why you might not get a short rest. They aren't a jerk DM move they are basic parts or reality that sometimes exist in the game as well. And there can be plenty of other logical non combat reasons why you can't rest right now.
I am assuming something like maybe infiltrating a party? but then you want the kind of spells I am suggesting anyway. And you want at least 2, and once that encounter is over, you take the short rest. Sure you aren't going to rest DURING the non-combat encounter, but the moment the non-combat encounter is OVER there is no reason to not be able to short rest. I define an encounter as a series of related events during which a party is trying to accomplish something. A ball room with multiple NPC's can be a social encounter, there are a plethora of times when you can't short rest DURING the ball, but once the ball is over, thus the encounter is over, why not? I am not suggesting resting in the middle of an encounter, I am suggesting resting between encounters, your resources during social encounters are equally limited. But this is why I was suggesting utility spells. You dont know what type of encounters you will have, but as a warlock you want to be well equipped for all of them. If you are not taking advantage of the short rest recovery, or your DM puts a lot of time crunch stuff in where you can never MEANINGFULLY recover slots, play a wizard, they have a wider variety of spells for any situation and aren't hampered by the 2 spells limit. It is just not a good game for a warlock at that point.
Warlock requires group and DM buy in. If they aren't willing to buy into your abilities you will just be a crappy sorcerer or even a crappy arcane ranger that relies entirely on eldritch blast to be a weak ranged martial since just about any martial can do better ranged damage than agonizing blast + eldritch blast.
Even if you can;t get all the short rests you want Aquilontunes basic idea for spells is sound.
It really depends on your character. A Pact of the Tome warlock stocked up with rituals can go a lot heavier on combat spells to cover different scenarios for their actual spell slots, for instance. There are different ways to get a good mix of combat and utility
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Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
When you consider that a warlock has the single best attack cantrip in the game, and can enhance it with multiple effects, I'd look to have only two other combat spells; an AoE (Fireball if its on your patron list), and a spell to take out one target if it fails against your DC. You really don't need more than that, and then your other spells and invocations can provide the flavor and utility you need. A movement spell like Misty Step\Thunder Step is a nice option, Tongues to leverage your high CHA, and situational spells like Invisibility or Fly.
I'm a huge fan of dipping a level in Bard or Sorcerer to give you low level spell slots to play with. But if you plan to play a single class warlock, select spells that are highly useful in multiple situations so that you maximize the limited slots you have.
Time constraints are a pretty common reason why you might not get a short rest. They aren't a jerk DM move they are basic parts or reality that sometimes exist in the game as well. And there can be plenty of other logical non combat reasons why you can't rest right now.
I am assuming something like maybe infiltrating a party? but then you want the kind of spells I am suggesting anyway. And you want at least 2, and once that encounter is over, you take the short rest. Sure you aren't going to rest DURING the non-combat encounter, but the moment the non-combat encounter is OVER there is no reason to not be able to short rest. I define an encounter as a series of related events during which a party is trying to accomplish something. A ball room with multiple NPC's can be a social encounter, there are a plethora of times when you can't short rest DURING the ball, but once the ball is over, thus the encounter is over, why not? I am not suggesting resting in the middle of an encounter, I am suggesting resting between encounters, your resources during social encounters are equally limited. But this is why I was suggesting utility spells. You dont know what type of encounters you will have, but as a warlock you want to be well equipped for all of them. If you are not taking advantage of the short rest recovery, or your DM puts a lot of time crunch stuff in where you can never MEANINGFULLY recover slots, play a wizard, they have a wider variety of spells for any situation and aren't hampered by the 2 spells limit. It is just not a good game for a warlock at that point.
Warlock requires group and DM buy in. If they aren't willing to buy into your abilities you will just be a crappy sorcerer or even a crappy arcane ranger that relies entirely on eldritch blast to be a weak ranged martial since just about any martial can do better ranged damage than agonizing blast + eldritch blast.
I guess it depends on how you are defining an encounter, but there are lots of times in my day I can't just take an hour and I'm not trying to save the day.
I'm not suggesting a DM should crap on all short rests but an hour is a pretty long time to constantly be taking. I do think it was a mistake to switch to the hour short rest from the 5 minute rest in 4e. You can almost always in the narrative justify 5 minutes, but a hour becomes a issue when the story starts moving. If you are trying to stop the execution at noon, it doesn't get put on hold because you want a mid morning break.
Time constraints are a pretty common reason why you might not get a short rest. They aren't a jerk DM move they are basic parts or reality that sometimes exist in the game as well. And there can be plenty of other logical non combat reasons why you can't rest right now.
Even though it seems like WotC is trying to get away from abilities that recharge on a Short Rest, there are still some very important ones that do(Action Surge, Ki Points, Pact Magic to name a few). Yes, there are absolutely situations where the party can't reasonably rest for an hour without seriously adverse consequences. And there are certainly players who will try to abuse the Short Rest mechanic(looking at you, CoffeeLocks). But the classes which rely more heavily on Short Rests were balanced with the expectation that they'd be part of a typical adventuring day. If the DM is going to run a game where they're infrequent to the point where those classes will be significantly nerfed, that's something they should communicate ahead of time so players can choose accordingly.
Time constraints are a pretty common reason why you might not get a short rest. They aren't a jerk DM move they are basic parts or reality that sometimes exist in the game as well. And there can be plenty of other logical non combat reasons why you can't rest right now.
Even though it seems like WotC is trying to get away from abilities that recharge on a Short Rest, there are still some very important ones that do(Action Surge, Ki Points, Pact Magic to name a few). Yes, there are absolutely situations where the party can't reasonably rest for an hour without seriously adverse consequences. And there are certainly players who will try to abuse the Short Rest mechanic(looking at you, CoffeeLocks). But the classes which rely more heavily on Short Rests were balanced with the expectation that they'd be part of a typical adventuring day. If the DM is going to run a game where they're infrequent to the point where those classes will be significantly nerfed, that's something they should communicate ahead of time so players can choose accordingly.
Sure, i don't think anyone thinks it should be common its just that its not something you can assume will happen. Offering challenges is part of the game.
First of all, Eldritch Blast is an absolute must-have, and anyone who has ever worked with warlocks will agree with me. It's designed as a staple spell for warlocks.
Second of all, I would avoid choosing damaging, instantaneous spells (such as Blight and Arms of Hadar) other than Eldritch Blast. Warlocks only get a couple spell slots, so those slots should be spent on concentration spells that deal repeating damage without using multiple actions (such as Cloud of Daggers), debilitate enemies (such as Hold Person), or buff you (such as Armor of Agathys). By the way, both Armor of Agathys and Hold Person scale extremely well by level. Your direct damage should come from your Eldritch Blast (modified by your eldritch invocations) while you have a sustained spell running.
If you have a DM who regularly uses long, excruciating, hack-and-slash dungeon crawls with no short rests available, you should try to sort out getting more rest opportunities or adopting another class if your DM won't budge. There's no way to build your warlock in such a way that allows for you to not regain your spell slots.
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First of all, Eldritch Blast is an absolute must-have, and anyone who has ever worked with warlocks will agree with me
I disagree with you. It is entirely possible to make a fun, viable warlock without eldritch blast
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Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
First of all, Eldritch Blast is an absolute must-have, and anyone who has ever worked with warlocks will agree with me
I disagree with you. It is entirely possible to make a fun, viable warlock without eldritch blast
How, exactly? Using other cantrips is a less effective method of damage. I personally changed Eldritch Blast to deal necrotic, radiant, psychic, thunder, or physical damage (warlock's choice upon learning the spell) instead of force damage. Even so, I don't think warlocks can hold out on their damage without Eldritch Blast unless they happen to be in a campaign where everything is undead, using Chill Touch.
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Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
How, exactly? Using other cantrips is a less effective method of damage.
So?
Being a perfectly efficient DPR machine is not the be-all, end-all of D&D, or of warlocks
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Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
How, exactly? Using other cantrips is a less effective method of damage.
So?
Being a perfectly efficient DPR machine is not the be-all, end-all of D&D, or of warlocks
The only reason their weak spell selection and number of spells per rest pan out is because they can provide consistent DPR with some adders. They can exist sure, but unless the whole party is under optimized they will be poor contributors. Other invocations are neat but they don't provide enough of a swing on their own.
How, exactly? Using other cantrips is a less effective method of damage.
So?
Being a perfectly efficient DPR machine is not the be-all, end-all of D&D, or of warlocks
The only reason their weak spell selection and number of spells per rest pan out is because they can provide consistent DPR with some adders. They can exist sure, but unless the whole party is under optimized they will be poor contributors. Other invocations are neat but they don't provide enough of a swing on their own.
"Under optimized". "Poor contributors". Again, combat optimization is not the goal for a lot of people, or even a priority. That way of playing D&D is not the only way to play D&D
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Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
With how pact magic works if you were able to pick any spells from the entire list of spells up to 5th level what would you choose?
Granted, it's best to choose spells that scale with your level.
This depends a lot on the type of Warlock you're trying to build.
In the general sense the low number of pact slots should be at the forefront of your mind at all times when picking spells; when you take anything that has a relatively short duration, you want to pick it only if you are sure you can get a lot of benefit out of it.
For example, for a melee Hexblade or Undead Warlock, you might look at spirit shroud and/or shadow of Moil, which are both good options. Personally shadow of Moil is my preference despite requiring the action, as it's just a really good defensive and offensive spell as being heavily obscured gives you advantage, but also the dim light aura can be used to trigger party abilities like a Shadow Monk's teleport, an Eldritch Knight's shadow blade or the like which can be great if your party works well together.
Otherwise I tend to focus on duration; this is a big part of why hex remains so popular, because it's easy to use, scales with attacks (ideal for eldritch blast since it gains more beams) and as your slots level its duration increases. As long as you're in low danger of losing concentration, it can be fantastic value despite its relatively low damage, as that's damage you have across multiple encounters, or even an entire adventuring day.
Another good option for combat are summoning spells, which Warlock has a pretty good selection of, as they all last up to an hour, give you extra damage, another target for enemy attacks and so-on, plus some have neat extra abilities you can make use of.
In terms of value, non-combat spells can be important as well, especially for traversal (spider climb for example).
But yeah, it depends a lot on what kind of Warlock you want to build; melee slicer or ranged blaster, or something more unusual? Warlock has a pretty varied selection of spells, and while there are some unique ones I don't like (arms of hadar is just weirdly bad as it's single round, and not great damage, though it might fit a theme), there's a lot you can build with it.
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How, exactly? Using other cantrips is a less effective method of damage.
So?
Being a perfectly efficient DPR machine is not the be-all, end-all of D&D, or of warlocks
The only reason their weak spell selection and number of spells per rest pan out is because they can provide consistent DPR with some adders. They can exist sure, but unless the whole party is under optimized they will be poor contributors. Other invocations are neat but they don't provide enough of a swing on their own.
"Under optimized". "Poor contributors". Again, combat optimization is not the goal for a lot of people, or even a priority. That way of playing D&D is not the only way to play D&D
It doesn't matter as almost no matter what the goal or way to play is in your game another class will do it better.
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With how pact magic works if you were able to pick any spells from the entire list of spells up to 5th level what would you choose?
Granted, it's best to choose spells that scale with your level.
So when it comes to Warlock if we could choose ANY spell from any list would be fantastic. I would still only choose maybe 2 or 3 combat tricks since you never have that many spell slots. Then it would be filled with utility spells. I would still pick fly, invisibility, I might still pick charm person and/or charm monster, scrying, tongues, dispel magic. In essence a warlock's ability to recover spells on a short rest in conjunction with their small number of spells slots vs spells known means a majority of your spells should be something for non-combat and you should use your ability to rest after these non-combat scenarios to recover your slots before going into areas that you believe there will be combat.
That relies on a DM letting you take a short rest whenever you want it, which isn't guaranteed
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
And by "when ever you want" you mean "while not in a combat situation doing not combat related tasks". Because I specifically specified non-combat scenarios, where there shouldn't be a rest problem. Sure if you are doing a dungeon crawl with combat encounters sprinkled throughout, and monsters patrolling the dungeon, you may not get a short rest. But that is why only a couple combat spells are useful to have at a time. But there is 0 reason why a dungeon master would not allow you to rest while you are in a non-hazardous area other than the DM being a jerk and probably just a bad DM to play a class like warlock with in general. Which they definitely exist, I have dealt with them. Their table is not fun for the warlock or the monk when they specifically don't let logical short rest periods occur.
Time constraints are a pretty common reason why you might not get a short rest. They aren't a jerk DM move they are basic parts or reality that sometimes exist in the game as well. And there can be plenty of other logical non combat reasons why you can't rest right now.
Even if you can;t get all the short rests you want Aquilontunes basic idea for spells is sound. Early-mid only take 2-3 combat spells, you don't need fear and hypnotic pattern just take one. Cover basic offense concepts of zone control/crowd control, damage. Given how your spells work 1 in each category is enough but you may want 2 of each. Utility and sort of corner case spells from there.G o back for some other attack spells later game, hold person at level 3 is a meh choice for you but hey once your bases are covered at level 10 or so and it now targets 4 people next time you face 4 humanoids its coming in solid. There is a good chance the preparation casters don't have it prepared any more so it may end up being clutch.
I am assuming something like maybe infiltrating a party? but then you want the kind of spells I am suggesting anyway. And you want at least 2, and once that encounter is over, you take the short rest. Sure you aren't going to rest DURING the non-combat encounter, but the moment the non-combat encounter is OVER there is no reason to not be able to short rest. I define an encounter as a series of related events during which a party is trying to accomplish something. A ball room with multiple NPC's can be a social encounter, there are a plethora of times when you can't short rest DURING the ball, but once the ball is over, thus the encounter is over, why not? I am not suggesting resting in the middle of an encounter, I am suggesting resting between encounters, your resources during social encounters are equally limited. But this is why I was suggesting utility spells. You dont know what type of encounters you will have, but as a warlock you want to be well equipped for all of them. If you are not taking advantage of the short rest recovery, or your DM puts a lot of time crunch stuff in where you can never MEANINGFULLY recover slots, play a wizard, they have a wider variety of spells for any situation and aren't hampered by the 2 spells limit. It is just not a good game for a warlock at that point.
Warlock requires group and DM buy in. If they aren't willing to buy into your abilities you will just be a crappy sorcerer or even a crappy arcane ranger that relies entirely on eldritch blast to be a weak ranged martial since just about any martial can do better ranged damage than agonizing blast + eldritch blast.
It really depends on your character. A Pact of the Tome warlock stocked up with rituals can go a lot heavier on combat spells to cover different scenarios for their actual spell slots, for instance. There are different ways to get a good mix of combat and utility
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
When you consider that a warlock has the single best attack cantrip in the game, and can enhance it with multiple effects, I'd look to have only two other combat spells; an AoE (Fireball if its on your patron list), and a spell to take out one target if it fails against your DC. You really don't need more than that, and then your other spells and invocations can provide the flavor and utility you need. A movement spell like Misty Step\Thunder Step is a nice option, Tongues to leverage your high CHA, and situational spells like Invisibility or Fly.
I'm a huge fan of dipping a level in Bard or Sorcerer to give you low level spell slots to play with. But if you plan to play a single class warlock, select spells that are highly useful in multiple situations so that you maximize the limited slots you have.
I guess it depends on how you are defining an encounter, but there are lots of times in my day I can't just take an hour and I'm not trying to save the day.
I'm not suggesting a DM should crap on all short rests but an hour is a pretty long time to constantly be taking. I do think it was a mistake to switch to the hour short rest from the 5 minute rest in 4e. You can almost always in the narrative justify 5 minutes, but a hour becomes a issue when the story starts moving. If you are trying to stop the execution at noon, it doesn't get put on hold because you want a mid morning break.
Even though it seems like WotC is trying to get away from abilities that recharge on a Short Rest, there are still some very important ones that do(Action Surge, Ki Points, Pact Magic to name a few). Yes, there are absolutely situations where the party can't reasonably rest for an hour without seriously adverse consequences. And there are certainly players who will try to abuse the Short Rest mechanic(looking at you, CoffeeLocks). But the classes which rely more heavily on Short Rests were balanced with the expectation that they'd be part of a typical adventuring day. If the DM is going to run a game where they're infrequent to the point where those classes will be significantly nerfed, that's something they should communicate ahead of time so players can choose accordingly.
Sure, i don't think anyone thinks it should be common its just that its not something you can assume will happen. Offering challenges is part of the game.
First of all, Eldritch Blast is an absolute must-have, and anyone who has ever worked with warlocks will agree with me. It's designed as a staple spell for warlocks.
Second of all, I would avoid choosing damaging, instantaneous spells (such as Blight and Arms of Hadar) other than Eldritch Blast. Warlocks only get a couple spell slots, so those slots should be spent on concentration spells that deal repeating damage without using multiple actions (such as Cloud of Daggers), debilitate enemies (such as Hold Person), or buff you (such as Armor of Agathys). By the way, both Armor of Agathys and Hold Person scale extremely well by level. Your direct damage should come from your Eldritch Blast (modified by your eldritch invocations) while you have a sustained spell running.
If you have a DM who regularly uses long, excruciating, hack-and-slash dungeon crawls with no short rests available, you should try to sort out getting more rest opportunities or adopting another class if your DM won't budge. There's no way to build your warlock in such a way that allows for you to not regain your spell slots.
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
I disagree with you. It is entirely possible to make a fun, viable warlock without eldritch blast
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
How, exactly? Using other cantrips is a less effective method of damage. I personally changed Eldritch Blast to deal necrotic, radiant, psychic, thunder, or physical damage (warlock's choice upon learning the spell) instead of force damage. Even so, I don't think warlocks can hold out on their damage without Eldritch Blast unless they happen to be in a campaign where everything is undead, using Chill Touch.
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
So?
Being a perfectly efficient DPR machine is not the be-all, end-all of D&D, or of warlocks
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
The only reason their weak spell selection and number of spells per rest pan out is because they can provide consistent DPR with some adders. They can exist sure, but unless the whole party is under optimized they will be poor contributors. Other invocations are neat but they don't provide enough of a swing on their own.
"Under optimized". "Poor contributors". Again, combat optimization is not the goal for a lot of people, or even a priority. That way of playing D&D is not the only way to play D&D
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
This depends a lot on the type of Warlock you're trying to build.
In the general sense the low number of pact slots should be at the forefront of your mind at all times when picking spells; when you take anything that has a relatively short duration, you want to pick it only if you are sure you can get a lot of benefit out of it.
For example, for a melee Hexblade or Undead Warlock, you might look at spirit shroud and/or shadow of Moil, which are both good options. Personally shadow of Moil is my preference despite requiring the action, as it's just a really good defensive and offensive spell as being heavily obscured gives you advantage, but also the dim light aura can be used to trigger party abilities like a Shadow Monk's teleport, an Eldritch Knight's shadow blade or the like which can be great if your party works well together.
Otherwise I tend to focus on duration; this is a big part of why hex remains so popular, because it's easy to use, scales with attacks (ideal for eldritch blast since it gains more beams) and as your slots level its duration increases. As long as you're in low danger of losing concentration, it can be fantastic value despite its relatively low damage, as that's damage you have across multiple encounters, or even an entire adventuring day.
Another good option for combat are summoning spells, which Warlock has a pretty good selection of, as they all last up to an hour, give you extra damage, another target for enemy attacks and so-on, plus some have neat extra abilities you can make use of.
In terms of value, non-combat spells can be important as well, especially for traversal (spider climb for example).
But yeah, it depends a lot on what kind of Warlock you want to build; melee slicer or ranged blaster, or something more unusual? Warlock has a pretty varied selection of spells, and while there are some unique ones I don't like (arms of hadar is just weirdly bad as it's single round, and not great damage, though it might fit a theme), there's a lot you can build with it.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
It doesn't matter as almost no matter what the goal or way to play is in your game another class will do it better.