I'm playing a 4th lvl Archfey Warlock / 1st lvl Bard multiclass. I'm struggling to find clarity on how many spell slots I get as a 5th level character. I know I cannot learn/prepare 3rd level spells in either class yet. But do I get 3rd level slots? I've read the multiclassing rules in the PHB several times, but I'm still a bit lost. So, my question(s) is;
Do my spell slots remain separate depending on their class of origin? ie. 2 1st lvl bard slots, 2 2nd lvl warlock slots, 3 warlock cantrips and 2 bard cantrips?
Or...
Do my total spell slots depend on my total character level as a 5th lvl spellcaster? And if so, what does that look like?
The spellcasting multiclassing rules in the PHB seem to only cover multiclassing with full/partial casters, which Warlock seems to screw with. Any help is appreciated. Cheers yall!
Pact slots and regular spell slots are tracked completely separately. A lvl 1 bard gets 2 lvl 1 spell slots, a 4th level warlock gets 2 level 2 pact slots. A character with both sets of levels gets only those four slots.
Here is the link to the reference in the multi-classing rules.
Spell Slots. You determine your available spell slots by adding together the following:
All your levels in the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, and Wizard classes
Half your levels (round up) in the Paladin and Ranger classes
One third of your Fighter or Rogue levels (round down) if you have the Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster subclass.
Notice no mention of Warlock levels. Later on, you are given this information:
Pact Magic. If you have the Pact Magic feature from the Warlock class and the Spellcasting feature, you can use the spell slots you gain from Pact Magic to cast spells you have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting feature to cast Warlock spells you have prepared.
Pact slots and regular spell slots are tracked completely separately. A lvl 1 bard gets 2 lvl 1 spell slots, a 4th level warlock gets 2 level 2 pact slots. A character with both sets of levels gets only those four slots.
Gotcha. I was running it like this but I was still unsure. The multiclassing rules for Warlock make things very ambiguous.
Here is the link to the reference in the multi-classing rules.
Spell Slots. You determine your available spell slots by adding together the following:
All your levels in the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, and Wizard classes
Half your levels (round up) in the Paladin and Ranger classes
One third of your Fighter or Rogue levels (round down) if you have the Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster subclass.
Notice no mention of Warlock levels. Later on, you are given this information:
Pact Magic. If you have the Pact Magic feature from the Warlock class and the Spellcasting feature, you can use the spell slots you gain from Pact Magic to cast spells you have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting feature to cast Warlock spells you have prepared.
Yes, I saw that. My confusion is that it only specifies the casting of spells with warlock vs. non-warlock slots. My question here is if there is any explicit clarification on how many spell slots are given as a 5th-level caster.
Yes, but when it specifies casting, it refers to the two different types of slots separately, thus indicating that they are separate.
The only explicit clarification is that the list of classes for which you add your levels in some fashion does not at all include Warlock. That list exactly includes all PHB classes whose spellcasting feature slots add together and precisely excludes classes whose levels do not add to it. The default assumption is that a rule only does what it says. This rule doesn't say anything about combining levels of Warlock when determining multiclass spell slots, so they do not combine.
Yes, I saw that. My confusion is that it only specifies the casting of spells with warlock vs. non-warlock slots. My question here is if there is any explicit clarification on how many spell slots are given as a 5th-level caster.
The clarification is that you don't gain any spell slots as a 5th level caster. You gain spell slots as a lvl 1 character with the Spellcasting feature, and also as a lvl 4 character with the Pact Magic feature.
The multiclass Spellcasting rules only kick in "Once you have the Spellcasting feature from more than one class“. The Warlock class doesn't have that feature any more than the Barbarian class does (Warlocks have the Pact Magic feature), so the spell slots gained for the Bard Spellcasting feature are not affected by Warlock levels any more than they would be by gaining levels of Barbarian.
I think RegentCorreon mentioned the best way to think about it.
I believe you are thinking that since Warlocks cast spells and Bards cast spells then they both use "Spellcasting" which is the term used in the Multiclassing rules. They do NOT.
From the Bard class - they have the "Level 1 - Spellcasting" feature that discusses their spells and spell slots.
From the Warlock class - they have the "Level 1 - Pact Magic" feature that discusses their spells and spell slots.
The Multiclassing rules specifically address different classes with the "Spellcasting" feature ... NOT the ability to cast a spell.
From the 2024 rules (though I think both versions are pretty much the same):
"Spellcasting
Your capacity for spellcasting depends partly on your combined levels in all your spellcasting classes and partly on your individual levels in those classes. Once you have the Spellcasting feature from more than one class, use the rules below. If you multiclass but have the Spellcasting feature from only one class, follow the rules for that class." (In your example, you only have the Spellcasting feature from one of your classes - the Bard).
The rules go through how to combine multiple different classes with the SPELLCASTING feature to obtain the number of spell slots they have. The character prepares spells as if they were a single classed character of that level. So a 3 bard/2 wizard has the spell slots for a 5th level character but prepares spells as if they were a level 3 bard and a level 2 wizard separately (so they have no level 3 spells even though they have level 3 spell slots).
Warlock Pact Magic feature spell slots CAN be used to cast spells from a Spellcasting feature BUT the spell slots themselves come from Pact Magic and not Spellcasting and are not affected by the Multiclassing rules for the Spellcasting feature because only the Bard in your case has the Spellcasting feature, the warlock has the Pact Magic feature.
Here is the rule describing how Pact Magic slots work with Spellcasting.
"Pact Magic. If you have the Pact Magic feature from the Warlock class and the Spellcasting feature, you can use the spell slots you gain from Pact Magic to cast spells you have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting feature to cast Warlock spells you have prepared."
This specifies that you can use the spell slots to cast spells from either class of the appropriate level but since they are different features the spell slots available are calculated separately because they are totally different features. Only one of the classes in the multiclass character has the Spellcasting feature.
In your case, the level 4 warlock/1 bard would have 2x level 2 spell slots from the Pact Magic feature of the Warlock and would have 2x level 1 spell slots from the Spellcasting feature of the Bard.
Hey all,
I'm playing a 4th lvl Archfey Warlock / 1st lvl Bard multiclass. I'm struggling to find clarity on how many spell slots I get as a 5th level character. I know I cannot learn/prepare 3rd level spells in either class yet. But do I get 3rd level slots? I've read the multiclassing rules in the PHB several times, but I'm still a bit lost. So, my question(s) is;
Do my spell slots remain separate depending on their class of origin? ie. 2 1st lvl bard slots, 2 2nd lvl warlock slots, 3 warlock cantrips and 2 bard cantrips?
Or...
Do my total spell slots depend on my total character level as a 5th lvl spellcaster? And if so, what does that look like?
The spellcasting multiclassing rules in the PHB seem to only cover multiclassing with full/partial casters, which Warlock seems to screw with. Any help is appreciated. Cheers yall!
Pact slots and regular spell slots are tracked completely separately. A lvl 1 bard gets 2 lvl 1 spell slots, a 4th level warlock gets 2 level 2 pact slots. A character with both sets of levels gets only those four slots.
Here is the link to the reference in the multi-classing rules.
Notice no mention of Warlock levels. Later on, you are given this information:
Gotcha. I was running it like this but I was still unsure. The multiclassing rules for Warlock make things very ambiguous.
Yes, I saw that. My confusion is that it only specifies the casting of spells with warlock vs. non-warlock slots. My question here is if there is any explicit clarification on how many spell slots are given as a 5th-level caster.
It is also important to remember that your Warlock spell slots refresh on a short rest, while your Bard spell slots refresh on a long rest.
Yes, but when it specifies casting, it refers to the two different types of slots separately, thus indicating that they are separate.
The only explicit clarification is that the list of classes for which you add your levels in some fashion does not at all include Warlock. That list exactly includes all PHB classes whose spellcasting feature slots add together and precisely excludes classes whose levels do not add to it. The default assumption is that a rule only does what it says. This rule doesn't say anything about combining levels of Warlock when determining multiclass spell slots, so they do not combine.
The clarification is that you don't gain any spell slots as a 5th level caster. You gain spell slots as a lvl 1 character with the Spellcasting feature, and also as a lvl 4 character with the Pact Magic feature.
The multiclass Spellcasting rules only kick in "Once you have the Spellcasting feature from more than one class“. The Warlock class doesn't have that feature any more than the Barbarian class does (Warlocks have the Pact Magic feature), so the spell slots gained for the Bard Spellcasting feature are not affected by Warlock levels any more than they would be by gaining levels of Barbarian.
I think RegentCorreon mentioned the best way to think about it.
I believe you are thinking that since Warlocks cast spells and Bards cast spells then they both use "Spellcasting" which is the term used in the Multiclassing rules. They do NOT.
From the Bard class - they have the "Level 1 - Spellcasting" feature that discusses their spells and spell slots.
From the Warlock class - they have the "Level 1 - Pact Magic" feature that discusses their spells and spell slots.
The Multiclassing rules specifically address different classes with the "Spellcasting" feature ... NOT the ability to cast a spell.
From the 2024 rules (though I think both versions are pretty much the same):
"Spellcasting
Your capacity for spellcasting depends partly on your combined levels in all your spellcasting classes and partly on your individual levels in those classes. Once you have the Spellcasting feature from more than one class, use the rules below. If you multiclass but have the Spellcasting feature from only one class, follow the rules for that class." (In your example, you only have the Spellcasting feature from one of your classes - the Bard).
The rules go through how to combine multiple different classes with the SPELLCASTING feature to obtain the number of spell slots they have. The character prepares spells as if they were a single classed character of that level. So a 3 bard/2 wizard has the spell slots for a 5th level character but prepares spells as if they were a level 3 bard and a level 2 wizard separately (so they have no level 3 spells even though they have level 3 spell slots).
Warlock Pact Magic feature spell slots CAN be used to cast spells from a Spellcasting feature BUT the spell slots themselves come from Pact Magic and not Spellcasting and are not affected by the Multiclassing rules for the Spellcasting feature because only the Bard in your case has the Spellcasting feature, the warlock has the Pact Magic feature.
Here is the rule describing how Pact Magic slots work with Spellcasting.
"Pact Magic. If you have the Pact Magic feature from the Warlock class and the Spellcasting feature, you can use the spell slots you gain from Pact Magic to cast spells you have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting feature to cast Warlock spells you have prepared."
This specifies that you can use the spell slots to cast spells from either class of the appropriate level but since they are different features the spell slots available are calculated separately because they are totally different features. Only one of the classes in the multiclass character has the Spellcasting feature.
In your case, the level 4 warlock/1 bard would have 2x level 2 spell slots from the Pact Magic feature of the Warlock and would have 2x level 1 spell slots from the Spellcasting feature of the Bard.