A fascinating debate that has little resemblance to what I would actually say, which would be to point out that Martials have better AC and HP than casters and don't have to worry about dropping concentration every time they take damage. And yes, a Martial does perform very well in combat. In my group that includes a Paladin, Bladesinger, and Warlock, the party Barbarian is easily keeping pace for damage, and has a lot more staying power than anyone else, even the Paladin. Martials have a lot more consistency of performance than casters, especially since they're typically not splitting resources between combat and utility the way casters do.
Pact of the Blade has no bearing on Warlock's problems right now either; the problem is WotC decided to take an engaging and unique class and dumb it down to the lowest common denominator in the name of mass market appeal.
Their "kewl tricks" are extra attacks, moderate to high AC, and things like Rage, Fighting Styles, Second Wind, Action Surge, the entire Monk pool of Ki abilities, the two extra feats of Fighters, etc. And that's before we get into subclass features.
None of which are applicable outside of combat.
Gee, I wonder why we call them "martials" or "warriors"? It's almost like they're combat focused classes or something.
If what you want is to go in circles, here's the counter: Then they should be way better at combat than casters, and they're not. Arguably they're significantly worse in fact. Then you respond with: They're better if you use the right number of fights, and I counter with: But nobody does, and we should be designing for the way people play in reality. Then you say: Okay, so you want to nerf casters into the dirt? I say, no, I want to buff martials, you say there's nothing wrong with martials, we're back to square one.
Hey, this is a thread about the Warlock UA.
The Warlock isn't a martial.
Here's the conflict that I see in the Warlock design. They're supposed to be able to use a weapon if you want to make your Warlock that way. But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much. So you hold back some aspect of weapon use. Right now they don't get the best armor or HP, and they don't get the third attack, and they don't get the special abilities of the weapons. But Blade Warlock players will always say, "this is bogus, how can you say you're letting me use a weapon when I can't even do X," and it'll keep getting the green light. Until pretty soon they're just as good at weapons as the weapon users, plus they get magic. Either that, or the Blade players will just not get what they want, and they'll be upset, and the Pact of the Blade is garbage in the eyes of the players.
Get the Blade Pact out of here and you solve a lot of the Warlock's problems. Leave the cursed or sentient swords to, y'know, the actual cursed or sentient swords that already exist in the game. Leave the Charisma-based weapon attack multiclass cheese in the dumpster where it belongs and stop crippling the class to make up for it. Make the Warlock a damn caster already.
Yeah a lot of the warlocks "identity" problem comes down to pact of the blade. Nothing wrong with it, but it kind of belongs on a different class.
And yes, a Martial does perform very well in combat.
"Very well" isn't the same thing as "better than casters."
In my group that includes a Paladin, Bladesinger, and Warlock, the party Barbarian is easily keeping pace for damage, and has a lot more staying power than anyone else, even the Paladin.
"Keeping pace" certainly isn't the same as "better than casters." Staying power, yes. Which brings me back to what I said you'd say, and you more or less said it there, and here:
Martials have a lot more consistency of performance than casters, especially since they're typically not splitting resources between combat and utility the way casters do.
In the resource-management game, they can pull ahead, if you have enough encounters, yes. On this we agree. But nobody does... Etc, etc.
They're supposed to be able to use a weapon if you want to make your Warlock that way. But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
And here's where the linkage is: the reason it's 'too much' is because weapon users don't have anything else beyond weapon use.
Ah, see, that's an interesting point! I agree there. I don't agree with your conclusion:
The big thing about weapon users is that they're fine in tier 1, but they just don't scale as much as casters. Giving them more and/or better high level features would make dips less interesting, and make granting basic martial capabilities to gish designs not a balance problem.
Well, it would be more accurate to say I only kind of agree with it. Because I feel like this would make martials more viable, but not appreciably more fun, outside of the fun-drain that comes from being less powerful of course. What I want is that plus the introduction of something for martials to do when they're not fighting. What I mean is, I want martials to get unique powers, or at least for them to be so drastically superior at the default powers that they're functionally the only ones using them. There are a couple of neat maneuvers introduced in Tasha's, specifically the Ambush, Commanding Presence, and Tactical Assessment maneuvers, that I think are heading in the right direction on this.
I've spoken about this in other threads. One of the obstacles to this idea is that there are all these spells that take care of mundane challenges like locked doors, heavy objects, and people who don't want to talk to you. It's really limiting the space for martial powers and forcing them to kinda get superheroic in a way that a lot of people aren't happy with.
So are we going to say the Warlock can't be fixed until the martial-caster divide is fixed, just because it has a sword option in it? I mean, I'm all for holding a class hostage to force better design, but I feel like the easier option is to either cut the Blade Pact, or simply throw the martials in the trash again, so that's what I'm expecting.
But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
Or they could just take away the weapons and make it a caster already.
But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
Or they could just take away the weapons and make it a caster already.
Then what is the point of it existing? I would do nothing at all unique compared to Sorcerer.
very similar to Druid, if wildshape defines Druid (and here is a hint, it doesn’t - I’ll roll with the punches on that), and warlock should only be played as pact of the blade/hexblade, why would it exist outside of a subclass of Wizard and why would Druid exist outside of a subclass of Cleric?
blade doesn’t define warlock and there is much more flavor than just a sorcerer.
very similar to Druid, if wildshape defines Druid (and here is a hint, it doesn’t - I’ll roll with the punches on that), and warlock should only be played as pact of the blade/hexblade, why would it exist outside of a subclass of Wizard and why would Druid exist outside of a subclass of Cleric?
blade doesn’t define warlock and there is much more flavor than just a sorcerer.
Druid is defined by the Primal Spell list, as it is uniquely the only fullcaster that uses that list - or put more accurately the Druid is defined by its unique spell list which is so different from any other full caster they had to invent the Primal Spell list just for them in One D&D.
Warlock doesn't have a unique spell list, so if it was made into a fullcaster then it would have to be balanced with respect to that (i.e. removing all at-will Invocations and everything to do with Eldritch Blast and Weapons), and the total number of Invocations you get would have to be pared down to be comparable to the number of class features other full Arcane caster classes get (which is like 3-4). Since Warlock doesn't have a unique casting stat either since both Sorcerers and Wizards exist, then what is left to make them unique?
Flavour is Free, in One D&D you can build a Sorcerer with all of the formerly unique Warlock spells and flavour it some kind of being unlocking the power within yourself and you have something nearly identical to the warlock.
But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
Or they could just take away the weapons and make it a caster already.
Unlike Sorcerers, who have their power come innately, or the wizard who gains their power from study, or clerics who channel the power of their deity. Warlocks gain their power by making a deal with an entity. They seek power by means no other class does. So why should weapons not be part of the picture?
In the Warlock Identity thread, I made a suggestion that what if Hex, now an automatic spell, had invocation options that altered it, much like Eldritch Blast Invocations, that would be beneficial to melee builds? Or as Agilemind pointed out Invocations can be added to boost the Bladelock and not just the spellcasting side of Warlock. Why not have some choices? Warlocks were pretty much already the most versatile in building compared to other classes. And they don't fit the mold of many other classes specifically because of how they gain their powers.
Favor of the Chain master gives Chainlock familiars modifications to their Eldritch Strike. Why couldn't Hex have invocation options to do the same? Not the exact same, but something similar. "When you hit with your pact weapon on a creature you have Hexed, spectral tentacles (flames, feyish vines? whatever) wrap around the creature and their speed is reduced by 15 feet until the start of your next turn" type if Invocation that alters how your Hex spell works. Or, in Agilemind's version, just an invocation that does something like this when using your pact weapon. Could be fighting styles or something completely different than what the other Half casters get to preserve the Warlocks uniqueness.
TL;DR: I don't think Pact weapons are the problem. Warlocks get their power in a way that no other class does and weapons can be part of that if a player wishes to go that route. And the class should support it better.
But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
Or they could just take away the weapons and make it a caster already.
Then what is the point of it existing? I would do nothing at all unique compared to Sorcerer.
What is the point of it existing now, it either plays as a bad ranger or a bad wizard.
But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
Or they could just take away the weapons and make it a caster already.
Unlike Sorcerers, who have their power come innately, or the wizard who gains their power from study, or clerics who channel the power of their deity. Warlocks gain their power by making a deal with an entity. They seek power by means no other class does. So why should weapons not be part of the picture?
In the Warlock Identity thread, I made a suggestion that what if Hex, now an automatic spell, had invocation options that altered it, much like Eldritch Blast Invocations, that would be beneficial to melee builds? Or as Agilemind pointed out Invocations can be added to boost the Bladelock and not just the spellcasting side of Warlock. Why not have some choices? Warlocks were pretty much already the most versatile in building compared to other classes. And they don't fit the mold of many other classes specifically because of how they gain their powers.
Favor of the Chain master gives Chainlock familiars modifications to their Eldritch Strike. Why couldn't Hex have invocation options to do the same? Not the exact same, but something similar. "When you hit with your pact weapon on a creature you have Hexed, spectral tentacles (flames, feyish vines? whatever) wrap around the creature and their speed is reduced by 15 feet until the start of your next turn" type if Invocation that alters how your Hex spell works. Or, in Agilemind's version, just an invocation that does something like this when using your pact weapon. Could be fighting styles or something completely different than what the other Half casters get to preserve the Warlocks uniqueness.
TL;DR: I don't think Pact weapons are the problem. Warlocks get their power in a way that no other class does and weapons can be part of that if a player wishes to go that route. And the class should support it better.
The problem is it does not work well on the same chassis of a spell caster focused pact base person which you see in all the other pacts.
Edit to add; and really people are selling their soul so they can conjure up a blade they can buy for $3 down the street at the swords and more. You summon it, its there all day and pretty much acts just like a blade you'd buy for cheap. That is what people are making pacts with eldritch beings for. A cheap weapon. They either have to spend a action or carry it around all day just like it was a normal blade. How often are you swapping weapons so that just carrying a spare is not the better option especially since to get the spare you just drop a weapon and object interacts to draw their spare. So now 2(3 when talisman comes out) pacts get to look like crap so one pact that is pretty pointless can look like a gish. Yeah yeah it makes the SAD, whoopedy do. Its still just a basic sword.
But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
Or they could just take away the weapons and make it a caster already.
Then what is the point of it existing? I would do nothing at all unique compared to Sorcerer.
What is the point of it existing now, it either plays as a bad ranger or a bad wizard.
It doesn't though. Not at all! The point of it existing now is that it is a blaster-caster, that using Eldritch Blast and a magical sword to be an effective martial-type character. A weakling turned into a warrior through magic. (Honestly they are a better ranger than a ranger!)
There's no reason to think "weapon that somehow uses your Charisma" is a thing that even makes sense, much less that it's somehow a reasonable thing to receive from a patron. A regular magic weapon? Sure. One that behaves according to the normal rules. A magical boost to your Strength so you can swing a regular sword? Maybe. That's the background idea for the Warlock I'm playing at the moment, but I don't think it's "necessary," so to speak. But what exactly is the idea behind the SAD-sword? No, I don't mean what believable explanations can you come up with after the fact -- I mean what is it meant to be by design? There's never been any explanation, any lore. It's just a fix that allows the Blade Warlock to operate at the desired level of power.
There's no reason to think "weapon that somehow uses your Charisma" is a thing that even makes sense, much less that it's somehow a reasonable thing to receive from a patron. A regular magic weapon? Sure. One that behaves according to the normal rules. A magical boost to your Strength so you can swing a regular sword? Maybe. That's the background idea for the Warlock I'm playing at the moment, but I don't think it's "necessary," so to speak. But what exactly is the idea behind the SAD-sword? No, I don't mean what believable explanations can you come up with after the fact -- I mean what is it meant to be by design? There's never been any explanation, any lore. It's just a fix that allows the Blade Warlock to operate at the desired level of power.
It's funny. There's a magic item in one of the Golden Vault adventures I'm about to drop into my homebrew campaign that's "get a bonus to your spell attacks when you use this as a casting focus, but also boost your STR by 4 to a max of 22" specifically with the expectation the warlock will want it, because she's not a Hexblade but likes to mix it up in melee
There are plenty of other routes to that same place they could use in the warlock design
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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)
But they can't be as good at it as a dedicated weapon user because, well, they have magic. It'd be too much.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
Or they could just take away the weapons and make it a caster already.
Then what is the point of it existing? I would do nothing at all unique compared to Sorcerer.
What is the point of it existing now, it either plays as a bad ranger or a bad wizard.
It doesn't though. Not at all! The point of it existing now is that it is a blaster-caster, that using Eldritch Blast and a magical sword to be an effective martial-type character. A weakling turned into a warrior through magic. (Honestly they are a better ranger than a ranger!)
warlock class is a bunch of "as a result of the encounter you receive a boon" feats in search of a united purpose... invisible longbow, disappearing sword, fancy pet, once-a-day spells, etc. what are invocations except more feats on a schedule?
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warlock class is a bunch of "as a result of the encounter you receive a boon" feats in search of a united purpose... invisible longbow, disappearing sword, fancy pet, once-a-day spells, etc. what are invocations except more feats on a schedule?
This is really the crux of it, I think. WOTC is trying to have it both ways with the warlock. They want a modular caster you can have fun customizing with Invocations and such to best fit your character concept, but they also want to lock the class into being from a very limited number of prefab set concepts like EB spammer or gish
They need to pick one direction or the other -- I'm not sure they can thread the needle of trying to do both at the same time
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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)
A weakling turned into a warrior through magic. (Honestly they are a better ranger than a ranger!)
In other words, Elric. (it's like people don't even read the classics anymore)
Which is a fine class, it just not fit on the class with tome, chain and talisman all of which are just casters at heart. If you build the class taking blade into account you invariable are dumping the other 2/3(3/4) of the pacts styles in the gutter, if you don't blade is dumped in the gutter, if you try to find some balance they all end up like crap.
A weakling turned into a warrior through magic. (Honestly they are a better ranger than a ranger!)
In other words, Elric. (it's like people don't even read the classics anymore)
Which is a fine class, it just not fit on the class with tome, chain and talisman all of which are just casters at heart. If you build the class taking blade into account you invariable are dumping the other 2/3(3/4) of the pacts styles in the gutter, if you don't blade is dumped in the gutter, if you try to find some balance they all end up like crap.
Except they aren't they are Arcane Rangers at heart, relying on EB + EB-Invocations for 90% of their turn in combat. Chain is your beastmaster, Tome is your exploration/utility centric version - the explorer of Eldritch mysteries, and Talisman is your support Artificer-type. Each of them should get invocations that build on their theme that don't suck as well. An there is so much real-estate now available in the Invocation system since half the current invocations could (and should) be straight up removed and replaced with something new.
A weakling turned into a warrior through magic. (Honestly they are a better ranger than a ranger!)
In other words, Elric. (it's like people don't even read the classics anymore)
Which is a fine class, it just not fit on the class with tome, chain and talisman all of which are just casters at heart. If you build the class taking blade into account you invariable are dumping the other 2/3(3/4) of the pacts styles in the gutter, if you don't blade is dumped in the gutter, if you try to find some balance they all end up like crap.
wizards is not likely at all to drop support for the "coolest" leg of their wobbly stool. they could make pact of the blade a lvl1 anybody-feat tomorrow and they'd still support it with warlock class invocations and such.
and why not? invocations for melee survivability don't have to throw off the power balance of caster locks. something around stealing health, renewing temp hp, or cursing their target's damage rolls shouldn't throw back line casters out of whack.
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A fascinating debate that has little resemblance to what I would actually say, which would be to point out that Martials have better AC and HP than casters and don't have to worry about dropping concentration every time they take damage. And yes, a Martial does perform very well in combat. In my group that includes a Paladin, Bladesinger, and Warlock, the party Barbarian is easily keeping pace for damage, and has a lot more staying power than anyone else, even the Paladin. Martials have a lot more consistency of performance than casters, especially since they're typically not splitting resources between combat and utility the way casters do.
Pact of the Blade has no bearing on Warlock's problems right now either; the problem is WotC decided to take an engaging and unique class and dumb it down to the lowest common denominator in the name of mass market appeal.
Yeah a lot of the warlocks "identity" problem comes down to pact of the blade. Nothing wrong with it, but it kind of belongs on a different class.
"Very well" isn't the same thing as "better than casters."
"Keeping pace" certainly isn't the same as "better than casters." Staying power, yes. Which brings me back to what I said you'd say, and you more or less said it there, and here:
In the resource-management game, they can pull ahead, if you have enough encounters, yes. On this we agree. But nobody does... Etc, etc.
---
Ah, see, that's an interesting point! I agree there. I don't agree with your conclusion:
Well, it would be more accurate to say I only kind of agree with it. Because I feel like this would make martials more viable, but not appreciably more fun, outside of the fun-drain that comes from being less powerful of course. What I want is that plus the introduction of something for martials to do when they're not fighting. What I mean is, I want martials to get unique powers, or at least for them to be so drastically superior at the default powers that they're functionally the only ones using them. There are a couple of neat maneuvers introduced in Tasha's, specifically the Ambush, Commanding Presence, and Tactical Assessment maneuvers, that I think are heading in the right direction on this.
I've spoken about this in other threads. One of the obstacles to this idea is that there are all these spells that take care of mundane challenges like locked doors, heavy objects, and people who don't want to talk to you. It's really limiting the space for martial powers and forcing them to kinda get superheroic in a way that a lot of people aren't happy with.
So are we going to say the Warlock can't be fixed until the martial-caster divide is fixed, just because it has a sword option in it? I mean, I'm all for holding a class hostage to force better design, but I feel like the easier option is to either cut the Blade Pact, or simply throw the martials in the trash again, so that's what I'm expecting.
See this is why the half-caster with Mystic Arcanum as an Invocation is such a good design choice for Warlock. Because it means the Blade-Pact warlock can be given the martial abilities that other half-casters get (i.e. Fighting Style, Damage bonuses, movement bonuses, weapon-feat synergies etc..) via Invocations because they have to sacrifice their caster-ness (i.e Mystic Arcanum) to get them.
Or they could just take away the weapons and make it a caster already.
Then what is the point of it existing? I would do nothing at all unique compared to Sorcerer.
And that’s a conundrum
very similar to Druid, if wildshape defines Druid (and here is a hint, it doesn’t - I’ll roll with the punches on that), and warlock should only be played as pact of the blade/hexblade, why would it exist outside of a subclass of Wizard and why would Druid exist outside of a subclass of Cleric?
blade doesn’t define warlock and there is much more flavor than just a sorcerer.
Druid is defined by the Primal Spell list, as it is uniquely the only fullcaster that uses that list - or put more accurately the Druid is defined by its unique spell list which is so different from any other full caster they had to invent the Primal Spell list just for them in One D&D.
Warlock doesn't have a unique spell list, so if it was made into a fullcaster then it would have to be balanced with respect to that (i.e. removing all at-will Invocations and everything to do with Eldritch Blast and Weapons), and the total number of Invocations you get would have to be pared down to be comparable to the number of class features other full Arcane caster classes get (which is like 3-4). Since Warlock doesn't have a unique casting stat either since both Sorcerers and Wizards exist, then what is left to make them unique?
Flavour is Free, in One D&D you can build a Sorcerer with all of the formerly unique Warlock spells and flavour it some kind of being unlocking the power within yourself and you have something nearly identical to the warlock.
Unlike Sorcerers, who have their power come innately, or the wizard who gains their power from study, or clerics who channel the power of their deity. Warlocks gain their power by making a deal with an entity. They seek power by means no other class does. So why should weapons not be part of the picture?
In the Warlock Identity thread, I made a suggestion that what if Hex, now an automatic spell, had invocation options that altered it, much like Eldritch Blast Invocations, that would be beneficial to melee builds? Or as Agilemind pointed out Invocations can be added to boost the Bladelock and not just the spellcasting side of Warlock. Why not have some choices? Warlocks were pretty much already the most versatile in building compared to other classes. And they don't fit the mold of many other classes specifically because of how they gain their powers.
Favor of the Chain master gives Chainlock familiars modifications to their Eldritch Strike. Why couldn't Hex have invocation options to do the same? Not the exact same, but something similar. "When you hit with your pact weapon on a creature you have Hexed, spectral tentacles (flames, feyish vines? whatever) wrap around the creature and their speed is reduced by 15 feet until the start of your next turn" type if Invocation that alters how your Hex spell works. Or, in Agilemind's version, just an invocation that does something like this when using your pact weapon. Could be fighting styles or something completely different than what the other Half casters get to preserve the Warlocks uniqueness.
TL;DR: I don't think Pact weapons are the problem. Warlocks get their power in a way that no other class does and weapons can be part of that if a player wishes to go that route. And the class should support it better.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
What is the point of it existing now, it either plays as a bad ranger or a bad wizard.
The problem is it does not work well on the same chassis of a spell caster focused pact base person which you see in all the other pacts.
Edit to add; and really people are selling their soul so they can conjure up a blade they can buy for $3 down the street at the swords and more. You summon it, its there all day and pretty much acts just like a blade you'd buy for cheap. That is what people are making pacts with eldritch beings for. A cheap weapon. They either have to spend a action or carry it around all day just like it was a normal blade. How often are you swapping weapons so that just carrying a spare is not the better option especially since to get the spare you just drop a weapon and object interacts to draw their spare. So now 2(3 when talisman comes out) pacts get to look like crap so one pact that is pretty pointless can look like a gish. Yeah yeah it makes the SAD, whoopedy do. Its still just a basic sword.
It doesn't though. Not at all! The point of it existing now is that it is a blaster-caster, that using Eldritch Blast and a magical sword to be an effective martial-type character. A weakling turned into a warrior through magic. (Honestly they are a better ranger than a ranger!)
There's no reason to think "weapon that somehow uses your Charisma" is a thing that even makes sense, much less that it's somehow a reasonable thing to receive from a patron. A regular magic weapon? Sure. One that behaves according to the normal rules. A magical boost to your Strength so you can swing a regular sword? Maybe. That's the background idea for the Warlock I'm playing at the moment, but I don't think it's "necessary," so to speak. But what exactly is the idea behind the SAD-sword? No, I don't mean what believable explanations can you come up with after the fact -- I mean what is it meant to be by design? There's never been any explanation, any lore. It's just a fix that allows the Blade Warlock to operate at the desired level of power.
It's funny. There's a magic item in one of the Golden Vault adventures I'm about to drop into my homebrew campaign that's "get a bonus to your spell attacks when you use this as a casting focus, but also boost your STR by 4 to a max of 22" specifically with the expectation the warlock will want it, because she's not a Hexblade but likes to mix it up in melee
There are plenty of other routes to that same place they could use in the warlock design
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)
warlock class is a bunch of "as a result of the encounter you receive a boon" feats in search of a united purpose... invisible longbow, disappearing sword, fancy pet, once-a-day spells, etc. what are invocations except more feats on a schedule?
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
This is really the crux of it, I think. WOTC is trying to have it both ways with the warlock. They want a modular caster you can have fun customizing with Invocations and such to best fit your character concept, but they also want to lock the class into being from a very limited number of prefab set concepts like EB spammer or gish
They need to pick one direction or the other -- I'm not sure they can thread the needle of trying to do both at the same time
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)
Which is a fine class, it just not fit on the class with tome, chain and talisman all of which are just casters at heart. If you build the class taking blade into account you invariable are dumping the other 2/3(3/4) of the pacts styles in the gutter, if you don't blade is dumped in the gutter, if you try to find some balance they all end up like crap.
Except they aren't they are Arcane Rangers at heart, relying on EB + EB-Invocations for 90% of their turn in combat. Chain is your beastmaster, Tome is your exploration/utility centric version - the explorer of Eldritch mysteries, and Talisman is your support Artificer-type. Each of them should get invocations that build on their theme that don't suck as well. An there is so much real-estate now available in the Invocation system since half the current invocations could (and should) be straight up removed and replaced with something new.
wizards is not likely at all to drop support for the "coolest" leg of their wobbly stool. they could make pact of the blade a lvl1 anybody-feat tomorrow and they'd still support it with warlock class invocations and such.
and why not? invocations for melee survivability don't have to throw off the power balance of caster locks. something around stealing health, renewing temp hp, or cursing their target's damage rolls shouldn't throw back line casters out of whack.
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!