Sure there are lots of options you can dig into, but there are a handful of obvious ones that will lead to a completely effective character without bothering with them. A newbie can be told to take Hex, and Agonizing Blast and then let loose to explore whatever else interests them because regardless of what they pick simply using Hex + EB will make them reliably effective in combat.
How will every new player know that, though? Not everyone plays Online and has the time, ability, or knowledge that they can and should look up how to play certain types of Warlocks. They also won't necessarily know how to sort through all the results. Even in person, not everyone has people who are willing or able to help them beforehand.
This is why optional simplicity can be more confusing than optional complexity, and I would also like to add that Warlocks have to pick more spells and features than just EB and Hex.
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Sure there are lots of options you can dig into, but there are a handful of obvious ones that will lead to a completely effective character without bothering with them. A newbie can be told to take Hex, and Agonizing Blast and then let loose to explore whatever else interests them because regardless of what they pick simply using Hex + EB will make them reliably effective in combat.
How will every new player know that, though? Not everyone plays Online and has the time, ability, or knowledge that they can and should look up how to play certain types of Warlocks. They also won't necessarily know how to sort through all the results. Even in person, not everyone has people who are willing or able to help them beforehand.
This is why optional simplicity can be more confusing than optional complexity, and I would also like to add that Warlocks have to pick more spells and features than just EB and Hex.
Those other spells & features don't really matter though, sure they can be fun in all kinds of ways but your overall power as a -lock doesn't hinge on them like it does for other spellcasters. It is obvious the class is built around EB since there are a ton of invocations for it. However One D&D will be better by making EB (and hopefully AB) just default features all -locks get.
Sure there are lots of options you can dig into, but there are a handful of obvious ones that will lead to a completely effective character without bothering with them. A newbie can be told to take Hex, and Agonizing Blast and then let loose to explore whatever else interests them because regardless of what they pick simply using Hex + EB will make them reliably effective in combat.
How will every new player know that, though? Not everyone plays Online and has the time, ability, or knowledge that they can and should look up how to play certain types of Warlocks. They also won't necessarily know how to sort through all the results. Even in person, not everyone has people who are willing or able to help them beforehand.
This is why optional simplicity can be more confusing than optional complexity, and I would also like to add that Warlocks have to pick more spells and features than just EB and Hex.
Those other spells & features don't really matter though, sure they can be fun in all kinds of ways but your overall power as a -lock doesn't hinge on them like it does for other spellcasters. It is obvious the class is built around EB since there are a ton of invocations for it. However One D&D will be better by making EB (and hopefully AB) just default features all -locks get.
I dunno... It still feels really weird to just pick some class features and not use them or know what they do. I mean, people who want simple builds shouldn't have to play something that's weaker, ineffective, or not as good as their class usually is. That's why there should be at least some less complex options set out to avoid this.
Besides, all the stuff I mentioned earlier about Online vs. in person.
Absolutely simple and "complex" options should be possible. This allows for a breadth of appeal reaching a larger audience.
Abilities treated as too complex or situational may be just the piece that make certain characters interesting.
Right now one dnd seems to limit builds and guide them mechanically. Healer thief is gone (due to multiple changes). Beast Traits for rangers and druids appear limited. Bards that want to avoid support style play are harder.
My favorite goal with a phb beastmaster was npc beast acquisition. It's rarely possible but when it does it feels great. New design suggests this will be removed.
But Of course paladin gets new options like the smite punch. Sure rebalance happened but they got new archetypes to play while others got limited.
Now this still can be fixed but it appears to stem from the concept of simplification cutting out things. IMO Focusing on Clarity is far superior to simplicity.
Sure there are lots of options you can dig into, but there are a handful of obvious ones that will lead to a completely effective character without bothering with them. A newbie can be told to take Hex, and Agonizing Blast and then let loose to explore whatever else interests them because regardless of what they pick simply using Hex + EB will make them reliably effective in combat.
How will every new player know that, though? Not everyone plays Online and has the time, ability, or knowledge that they can and should look up how to play certain types of Warlocks. They also won't necessarily know how to sort through all the results. Even in person, not everyone has people who are willing or able to help them beforehand.
This is why optional simplicity can be more confusing than optional complexity, and I would also like to add that Warlocks have to pick more spells and features than just EB and Hex.
Those other spells & features don't really matter though, sure they can be fun in all kinds of ways but your overall power as a -lock doesn't hinge on them like it does for other spellcasters. It is obvious the class is built around EB since there are a ton of invocations for it. However One D&D will be better by making EB (and hopefully AB) just default features all -locks get.
I dunno... It still feels really weird to just pick some class features and not use them or know what they do. I mean, people who want simple builds shouldn't have to play something that's weaker, ineffective, or not as good as their class usually is. That's why there should be at least some less complex options set out to avoid this.
Besides, all the stuff I mentioned earlier about Online vs. in person.
Even though Warlocks have very few spell slots, picking spells are a bit different than other casters. If you really want to get the most out of them you need to remember they come back on short rest and they auto upcast, meaning picking spells that don't scale well are less desirable than others. Other casters can get away with them as they have a lot to choose from and more spell slots. Warlocks don't have that luxury.
But I get that going the default EB+AB combo is almost a fire-and-forget option.
Sure there are lots of options you can dig into, but there are a handful of obvious ones that will lead to a completely effective character without bothering with them. A newbie can be told to take Hex, and Agonizing Blast and then let loose to explore whatever else interests them because regardless of what they pick simply using Hex + EB will make them reliably effective in combat.
How will every new player know that, though? Not everyone plays Online and has the time, ability, or knowledge that they can and should look up how to play certain types of Warlocks. They also won't necessarily know how to sort through all the results. Even in person, not everyone has people who are willing or able to help them beforehand.
This is why optional simplicity can be more confusing than optional complexity, and I would also like to add that Warlocks have to pick more spells and features than just EB and Hex.
Those other spells & features don't really matter though, sure they can be fun in all kinds of ways but your overall power as a -lock doesn't hinge on them like it does for other spellcasters. It is obvious the class is built around EB since there are a ton of invocations for it. However One D&D will be better by making EB (and hopefully AB) just default features all -locks get.
I dunno... It still feels really weird to just pick some class features and not use them or know what they do. I mean, people who want simple builds shouldn't have to play something that's weaker, ineffective, or not as good as their class usually is. That's why there should be at least some less complex options set out to avoid this.
Besides, all the stuff I mentioned earlier about Online vs. in person.
Even though Warlocks have very few spell slots, picking spells are a bit different than other casters. If you really want to get the most out of them you need to remember they come back on short rest and they auto upcast, meaning picking spells that don't scale well are less desirable than others. Other casters can get away with them as they have a lot to choose from and more spell slots. Warlocks don't have that luxury.
But I get that going the default EB+AB combo is almost a fire-and-forget option.
If you want to get the MOST of a class it is always complicated. I'm talking about the simplest class to just be AVERAGE in. Warlock it is extremely simple to be decent at, which means the newbie can pick whatever spells or invocations that they think are cool, and if they get bored of them they try out 1-2 new things by swapping them out on a level up. Sure you can do yadda-yadda optimization out the wazzoo, but even if you take the worse possible invocations & spells, as long as you have EB+AB you're character is fine. The only "bad" warlock characters (even whacky MCs) I've seen are those who don't take EB+AB.
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How will every new player know that, though? Not everyone plays Online and has the time, ability, or knowledge that they can and should look up how to play certain types of Warlocks. They also won't necessarily know how to sort through all the results. Even in person, not everyone has people who are willing or able to help them beforehand.
This is why optional simplicity can be more confusing than optional complexity, and I would also like to add that Warlocks have to pick more spells and features than just EB and Hex.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Those other spells & features don't really matter though, sure they can be fun in all kinds of ways but your overall power as a -lock doesn't hinge on them like it does for other spellcasters. It is obvious the class is built around EB since there are a ton of invocations for it. However One D&D will be better by making EB (and hopefully AB) just default features all -locks get.
I dunno... It still feels really weird to just pick some class features and not use them or know what they do. I mean, people who want simple builds shouldn't have to play something that's weaker, ineffective, or not as good as their class usually is. That's why there should be at least some less complex options set out to avoid this.
Besides, all the stuff I mentioned earlier about Online vs. in person.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Absolutely simple and "complex" options should be possible. This allows for a breadth of appeal reaching a larger audience.
Abilities treated as too complex or situational may be just the piece that make certain characters interesting.
Right now one dnd seems to limit builds and guide them mechanically. Healer thief is gone (due to multiple changes). Beast Traits for rangers and druids appear limited. Bards that want to avoid support style play are harder.
My favorite goal with a phb beastmaster was npc beast acquisition. It's rarely possible but when it does it feels great. New design suggests this will be removed.
But Of course paladin gets new options like the smite punch. Sure rebalance happened but they got new archetypes to play while others got limited.
Now this still can be fixed but it appears to stem from the concept of simplification cutting out things. IMO Focusing on Clarity is far superior to simplicity.
Even though Warlocks have very few spell slots, picking spells are a bit different than other casters. If you really want to get the most out of them you need to remember they come back on short rest and they auto upcast, meaning picking spells that don't scale well are less desirable than others. Other casters can get away with them as they have a lot to choose from and more spell slots. Warlocks don't have that luxury.
But I get that going the default EB+AB combo is almost a fire-and-forget option.
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If you want to get the MOST of a class it is always complicated. I'm talking about the simplest class to just be AVERAGE in. Warlock it is extremely simple to be decent at, which means the newbie can pick whatever spells or invocations that they think are cool, and if they get bored of them they try out 1-2 new things by swapping them out on a level up. Sure you can do yadda-yadda optimization out the wazzoo, but even if you take the worse possible invocations & spells, as long as you have EB+AB you're character is fine. The only "bad" warlock characters (even whacky MCs) I've seen are those who don't take EB+AB.