So having been reading over the feature, here is where I think it is:
The good: Pact of the blade is now usable/useful without having to use a specific patron, more spell slots means Warlocks are less likely to run out of spell slots and makes concentration spells other than Hex a bit more viable. Eldritch Blast is now tied to warlock level. Better ability to multi-class with Wizard, Druid, Ranger & Artificer.
The bad: Pacts aren't equal, Blade is now the strongest while Chain is now the weakest. The familiar scales to level but all warlocks can also get access to find familiar and the new familiar is not giving good enough reward for investment. Tome is mostly unchanged, supposedly it incorporates ancient secrets now but the text of the cantrip (book of shadows) doesn't properly reflect this in regards to learning additional rituals. Warlock is now a half-caster but is lacking a half of something else, expect pact of the blade.
The indifferent: Hex has been altered, now only doing damage once but doing more damage with spell slot, it would have been better to scale with warlock level instead. Having to burn one of your limited 5th level slots just for Hex to get 3d6 damage per turn is a bit limiting and actually underwhelming for a 5th level slot. Additionally, expect for pact of the blade, Eldritch Blast still dominates both Tome and Chain. Blade can potentially beat eldritch blast damage with magic weapons and life drinker. There is still a few false options and the new Mystic Arcanum is a false choice, you probably need to take it once, if not twice. It should have just remained as it was in 5e. Agonizing Blast is a case of an obviously false choice.
What's needed: Pact of the Chain familiar straight up needs a buff, more tanky, some extra utility. Perhaps a once/long rest dedicated spell I.E. fey could cast Faerie Fire, with familiar maintaining the concentration.
Pact Weapon should have a cast time of instantaneous to keep it inline with the other pact cantrips
Book of Shadows should be updated to specifically say that Warlocks can get more rituals by doing XYZ
Invocations that just add at-will casts of 1st/2nd level arcane spells should be removed
Hexer Invocation should remove concentration from Hex completely
A few invocations should be added to improve levelled spells I.E.
- Expanded Influence - When using a spell slot to cast a spell with a radius, Area of Effect, the radius can be made up to 5 foot larger
- Eldritch Magnet - All non-cantrip single target spells against your current hex target gain a +1 to their accuracy and damage rolls. The effect of Eldritch Magnet does not stack with other warlocks.
- Mindful Surge - when casting a spell of 1st to 5th level, roll a 1d6, if the result matches the level that the spell was cast up, it upcasts an additional spell slot level for free.
Each time you cast the book of shadows you get to pick the 2 rituals so, while you cant have all of them prepared always, you can change which ones you need as you level just by casting it again. You could even do so during a short rest since it is a 1 hour cast.
While I agree that 2 slots for a Warlock for most of their career was too limiting due to misidentifying how common short rests would be, surely the answer was to change pact magic to be similar to how they changed Fighter's Action Surge; Giving more uses per long rest. Like, If you had 5 Pact slots per long rest, wouldn't that be the more effective solution that keeps the Warlock identity better than a Half Caster?
The weird thing about building eldritch blast in is the new hex change seems to be built to work with single shot cantrips roughly as well as eldritch blast. Seems to be counter goals in design there.
Each time you cast the book of shadows you get to pick the 2 rituals so, while you cant have all of them prepared always, you can change which ones you need as you level just by casting it again. You could even do so during a short rest since it is a 1 hour cast.
That's true, but you're limited to 1st level spells, would be nice if the limit was based on warlock level, so at level 5 you could pick up 2nd level rituals or at level 9 3rd level rituals.
I am one of those, at this point, that feels that making them a half caster is not the right way to go. They talked about identity of spellcasters in the video, I believe, but taking away Pact Magic is what losing their identity looks like.
Give them a few more slots that scale, like others have suggested (sure, use them on the scaling spells like Hold Person or damage spells, etc). They said "The most-requested change to Warlocks has been for them to be able to use their spells more often." I don't think they meant they wanted another half caster. Leave arcane half casting to Artificers. Warlocks were unique, as far as casting spells is concerned. Now they're not.
And give a few more invocations that provide casting a spell without using a slot for utility options (right from the Arcane, Divine, or Primal lists). And the "Invocations Known" to use them. As of the UA the spells you can cast without a spell slot via Invocations are: Alter Self, Arcane Eye, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, False Life, Jump, Levitate, Mage Armor, Silent Image, Speak with Animals, Speak with Dead, and Truesight. There are plenty of utility spells on the arcane list that could fit the bill, and fit the Warlock theme.
But I do like some of the Warlock changes, so I don't completely hate them.
Each time you cast the book of shadows you get to pick the 2 rituals so, while you cant have all of them prepared always, you can change which ones you need as you level just by casting it again. You could even do so during a short rest since it is a 1 hour cast.
That's true, but you're limited to 1st level spells, would be nice if the limit was based on warlock level, so at level 5 you could pick up 2nd level rituals or at level 9 3rd level rituals.
Yes this, 1000% this. I would love them to just roll agonizing blast into eldritch blast and replace the "cantrip improvement' to this at 5 and have another at 9, 13 and 17. 1000% this.
I am one of those, at this point, that feels that making them a half caster is not the right way to go. They talked about identity of spellcasters in the video, I believe, but taking away Pact Magic is what losing their identity looks like.
Give them a few more slots that scale, like others have suggested (sure, use them on the scaling spells like Hold Person or damage spells, etc). They said "The most-requested change to Warlocks has been for them to be able to use their spells more often." I don't think they meant they wanted another half caster. Leave arcane half casting to Artificers. Warlocks were unique, as far as casting spells is concerned. Now they're not.
And give a few more invocations that provide casting a spell without using a slot for utility options (right from the Arcane, Divine, or Primal lists). And the "Invocations Known" to use them. As of the UA the spells you can cast without a spell slot via Invocations are: Alter Self, Arcane Eye, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, False Life, Jump, Levitate, Mage Armor, Silent Image, Speak with Animals, Speak with Dead, and Truesight. There are plenty of utility spells on the arcane list that could fit the bill, and fit the Warlock theme.
But I do like some of the Warlock changes, so I don't completely hate them.
The changes to the Pact Boons themselves I quite like, basically giving each of them one of the pact-specific Invocations from the current rules. And I like that part of the Pact Boon's benefit kicks in at a later level, I wouldn't mind seeing that expanded on with something at maybe Level 11. I'm not sure I'm a big fan of having SO many creature type options for the Pact Familiar, I'd almost want to see some of those choices be patron-dependent(having an Archfey Warlock with an Aberration familiar for example just seems weird). Honestly, I'd love to see every Patron have some kind of effect on the nature of the Pact Boon and on Eldritch Blast, either by default or through Invocations. I know when they tried Patron-specific Invocations in an old Unearthed Arcana they weren't very popular, but I loved them. The changes to the Invocations I like for the most part(except for moving Mystic Arcana to them), I would like to see them add more of the ones from Xanathar's and Tasha's(I'm particular fond of Far Scribe, I think it's a very flavorful ability). And the flexibility of the casting stat is intriguing. I particularly like that Eldritch Blast is now Warlock-specific and it scales with Warlock level instead of traditional cantrip scaling. But the rest of the changes to the Warlock's spellcasting infuriate me. They said the biggest complaint was Warlocks don't get to cast their spells often enough. But if you look at the half-caster spell slot progression, and remember that it's per LONG Rest instead of Pact Magic's Short Rest recharge, combined with the slower progression of spell levels, I think this new way is a significant step down. I think a much better way would have been something I saw suggested the other day(either here or on Discord, can't remember). Have the spell slot allocation work similar to the new Channel Divinity/Nature setup, where they get a set number per Long Rest that scales as they level, and then partial recharge on a Short Rest.
Folks are missing the blurbs where warlocks are described as people who go out and make pacts, like, as a recurring thing. One major pact, several minor ones. They touch on it in the video. How are you gonna justify your Archfey patron giving you Tomb of Levistus? Why can the Celestial give you Devil's Sight? Well, it's because they don't! You get those from other pacts, like it says in the blurbs!
But here's the problem. Those blurbs don't, um, exist. Not in the current PHB, anyway. I guess maybe they were there in the heads of the designers, but they never really put it on the page. So effectively this is a change in the narrative of the class.
I think it still makes sense and seems cool enough, but I don't fault anyone for not liking a change to the core concept of the class.
Making the warlock a half caster is a bold move, but I can understand where it's coming from -- the 5e warlock was designed around getting most of its power from eldritch blast with very limited other spellcasting, and making a half caster does the same thing in a more standardized way.
This idea that your early powers come from interactions with lesser entities before you make your pact with a Major Power just feels like it's diluting the essence of what a Warlock is. For me at least, the core of the Warlock's story is the relationship to their Patron. That's why having them pick a Patron at Level 1 made so much sense. So did the Pact Boon at Level 3, a gift from that Patron as they progress("At 3rd level, your otherworldly patron bestows a gift upon you for your loyal service."). Getting that Pact Boon at Level 1 is not only every bit as restrictive a Level 1 choice as picking a Patron, if not more so, it makes less sense from a story perspective. The only, ONLY benefit to putting the Pact Boon at Level 1 is so you can have your choices for spellcasting stat restricted by which Pact Boon you choose. And to me, mechanical convenience isn't enough when it mucks up the story of the character.
I dunno. Makes sense to me. You don't generally get to meet the boss right away - gotta prove yourself to their underlings first.
The "lesser entity" and "major entity" can be the same faction, like contracting with an Imp who then leads you to their Archdevil boss. I'd be fine if they more explicitly called out that they can be different aspects of the same entity too, but ultimately it's fine as written.
pdegan's warlock may settle down early while Generic's warlock moves with ambition and Psyren's warlock might acquire several contacts before making a commitment. and i feel it's odd to call any of that wrong. i haven't mentioned "DM's fiat" or "rule of cool" once because they're not even required make these concepts work at the table.
for me, the real takeaway is that the change to move the 'main' patron contract to 3rd level opens more doors than it closes. early powers can be from books, mentorship, your childhood invisible friend, a pixie that knows a satyr that knows a nilbog that knows a redcap, the main patron in disguise, the main patron but you have to prove yourself, the main patron but they're going to make you beg for it, the main patron and it all starts here, or a wishing well. you could meet a unicorn that introduces you to a fey who gives your info to a devil who sells your contract back to the unicorn who it turns out had a strict moral code against enslavement that this process bypasses. no one is bound to the 'reading forbidden texts' (which are just so strangely everywhere) but neither is anyone kept from it. a warlock may still meet their forever patron the same way a paladin can pledge their oath: day 0 with words, later more binding. it's great! i've never been so excited for warlock (when i really expected to be focusing in on wizard changes).
...and, as an aside, i am now mildly obsessed with creating a warlock that acts as a savvy merchant trading favors, deals, promises, and alliance between multiple non-Far-Realm patrons and faction leaders. the closest i can get to playing a bard without going full codpiece. i can't decide if it's a "flavor is free" situation with an existing subclass or if i can one day hope for a Harry Dresden (minus the 'wizard') style eldritch diplomat subclass. fingers crossed for door number two!
the real takeaway here is that the change to move the 'main' patron contract to 3rd level allows more opportunities than it removes. early powers can be from books, mentorship, your childhood invisible friend, a pixie that knows a satyr that knows a nilbog that knows a redcap, the main patron in disguise, the main patron but you have to prove yourself, the main patron but they're going to make you beg for it, the main patron and it all starts here, or a wishing well. you could meet a unicorn that introduces you to a fey who gives your info to a devil who sells your contract back to the unicorn who it turns out had a strict moral code against enslavement that this process bypasses. no one is bound to the 'reading forbidden texts' (which are just so strangely everywhere) but neither is anyone kept from it. a warlock may still meet their forever patron the same way a paladin can pledge their oath: day 0 with words, later more binding. it's great! i've never been so excited for warlock (when i really expected to be focusing in on wizard changes).
Which all sounds neat but how many people actually RP the making of the pact? Additionally, the class was explicitly created with the assumption that the pact had already been made, the character had already done their contracted part. Thus their powers could not be retracted.
Like others here, it feels to me like they've drained the flavor from the class.
Which all sounds neat but how many people actually RP the making of the pact? Additionally, the class was explicitly created with the assumption that the pact had already been made, the character had already done their contracted part. Thus their powers could not be retracted.
Like others here, it feels to me like they've drained the flavor from the class.
You HAVE already made the pact - the lesser one. And that can't be retracted.
If you choose to not go ahead and make the greater one, that's represented by multiclassing out before 3.
Each time you cast the book of shadows you get to pick the 2 rituals so, while you cant have all of them prepared always, you can change which ones you need as you level just by casting it again. You could even do so during a short rest since it is a 1 hour cast.
That's true, but you're limited to 1st level spells, would be nice if the limit was based on warlock level, so at level 5 you could pick up 2nd level rituals or at level 9 3rd level rituals.
Yes this, 1000% this. I would love them to just roll agonizing blast into eldritch blast and replace the "cantrip improvement' to this at 5 and have another at 9, 13 and 17. 1000% this.
Just allow people to add rituals to it, spells you know, spells you find, let them add it.
Folks are missing the blurbs where warlocks are described as people who go out and make pacts, like, as a recurring thing. One major pact, several minor ones. They touch on it in the video. How are you gonna justify your Archfey patron giving you Tomb of Levistus? Why can the Celestial give you Devil's Sight? Well, it's because they don't! You get those from other pacts, like it says in the blurbs!
But here's the problem. Those blurbs don't, um, exist. Not in the current PHB, anyway. I guess maybe they were there in the heads of the designers, but they never really put it on the page. So effectively this is a change in the narrative of the class.
I think it still makes sense and seems cool enough, but I don't fault anyone for not liking a change to the core concept of the class.
For some reason people are so stuck on the idea of pacts, forgetting that warlocks are occultists in their own right, they're not just empty conduits for someone else's power with no knowledge of their own. JC said it in the video that not all of the warlock's power comes from the patron. Invocations are products of warlock's own occult research.
That's true, but you're limited to 1st level spells, would be nice if the limit was based on warlock level, so at level 5 you could pick up 2nd level rituals or at level 9 3rd level rituals.
Yes this, 1000% this. I would love them to just roll agonizing blast into eldritch blast and replace the "cantrip improvement' to this at 5 and have another at 9, 13 and 17. 1000% this.
Aye, I miss the ability to learn all rituals. Want it back. Also, Pact of the Tome has Agonizing Blast rolled into it as a level 5 upgrade already. Only Pact of the Chain needs Agonizing Blast now. Though it would still be nice if you got that damage bonus for your go-to cantrip earlier, because Eldritch Blast and utility invocations is basically the other half of what you are, first being arcane half-caster.
Reducing Invocation bloat is always good, and could probably still go further.
I'm honestly fine with Hexblade patron basically being dismantled and being baked into Pact of the Blade. It opens up a lot more class variety to basically be able to play a "Hexblade" Fiend Patron or whatever.
Questionable things:
Warlocks are now more than ever the most multiclassable class, even more than they already were. Even if the Warlock cantrips only scale with Warlock level, Pact of the Blade is particularly good for CHA and WIS martials (Rangers could use the love so I ain't even mad), Pact of the Chain is just a strictly better familiar than a Wizard familiar, and Wizards and Sorcerers can get easy armor proficiencies on top of the other perks with just a 1-level dip (though Artificer is still better for Wizards) without disrupting their spell slot progression.
Things I don't like:
Hex feels really awkward and the fact the class capstone is based around it feels even worse. If we're dismantling Hexblade patron, just turn Hexblade's Curse into Hex to give it a better identity instead of just being a weird Hunter's Mark.
The half-caster spell progression is going to feel really bad for anything other than Pact of the Blade. There's a reason Armorer and Battlesmith are the most popular Artificer subclasses: a half-caster caster just doesn't pull the weight they need to.
For some reason people are so stuck on the idea of pacts, forgetting that warlocks are occultists in their own right,
kind of reminds me of the character in the Sandman show on Netflix. They were kind of in the first two levels of being a warlock when they captured Sandman. Not an exact interpretation but had the feel that I think is a possibility for those early levels
I'm sure it's been brought up, but I don't want to read 9 pages.
"The most-requested change to Warlocks has been for them to be able to use their spells more often."
How did they accomplish this? By making them a half-caster, making Mystic Arcanum an invocation instead, and giving one extra invocation so you can get one of the four Mystic Arcanums they lost.
I thought the hext tweak was fine at first. After all, by the time you're hitting multiple times in a turn, you'll be upcasting it anyways... But then I realized they made them half-casters. You can deal an extra 3d6 once a turn with you hex when you reach 17th level and decide that's worth you only 5th level slot for the day? Amazing.
They could've just left pact magic as is and given some expidited way to regenerate the slots or maybe a lower level slot or two. This is just bad...
I'm sure it's been brought up, but I don't want to read 9 pages.
"The most-requested change to Warlocks has been for them to be able to use their spells more often."
How did they accomplish this? By making them a half-caster, making Mystic Arcanum an invocation instead, and giving one extra invocation so you can get one of the four Mystic Arcanums they lost.
I thought the hext tweak was fine at first. After all, by the time you're hitting multiple times in a turn, you'll be upcasting it anyways... But then I realized they made them half-casters. You can deal an extra 3d6 once a turn with you hex when you reach 17th level and decide that's worth you only 5th level slot for the day? Amazing.
They could've just left pact magic as is and given some expidited way to regenerate the slots or maybe a lower level slot or two. This is just bad...
I'm sure it's been brought up, but I don't want to read 9 pages.
"The most-requested change to Warlocks has been for them to be able to use their spells more often."
How did they accomplish this? By making them a half-caster, making Mystic Arcanum an invocation instead, and giving one extra invocation so you can get one of the four Mystic Arcanums they lost.
I thought the hext tweak was fine at first. After all, by the time you're hitting multiple times in a turn, you'll be upcasting it anyways... But then I realized they made them half-casters. You can deal an extra 3d6 once a turn with you hex when you reach 17th level and decide that's worth you only 5th level slot for the day? Amazing.
They could've just left pact magic as is and given some expidited way to regenerate the slots or maybe a lower level slot or two. This is just bad...
That is all.
You aren't accounting for the fact that they rolled in a couple of the old pact invocations into the pact itself. Tome got book of ancient secrets and an improved agonizing blast by default, Chain got a weaker investment of the chain master and voice of the chain master and blade got hexblade ability and thirsting blade. So you lose 4 mystic but they become invocations and you gain 2 invocations by default and 1 extra invocation at high levels. The 2 come at a more important time though.
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Each time you cast the book of shadows you get to pick the 2 rituals so, while you cant have all of them prepared always, you can change which ones you need as you level just by casting it again. You could even do so during a short rest since it is a 1 hour cast.
While I agree that 2 slots for a Warlock for most of their career was too limiting due to misidentifying how common short rests would be, surely the answer was to change pact magic to be similar to how they changed Fighter's Action Surge; Giving more uses per long rest. Like, If you had 5 Pact slots per long rest, wouldn't that be the more effective solution that keeps the Warlock identity better than a Half Caster?
The weird thing about building eldritch blast in is the new hex change seems to be built to work with single shot cantrips roughly as well as eldritch blast. Seems to be counter goals in design there.
That's true, but you're limited to 1st level spells, would be nice if the limit was based on warlock level, so at level 5 you could pick up 2nd level rituals or at level 9 3rd level rituals.
Do some of you work for Paizo? So many comments on here just seem like troll remarks...
Warlock is better now.
I am one of those, at this point, that feels that making them a half caster is not the right way to go. They talked about identity of spellcasters in the video, I believe, but taking away Pact Magic is what losing their identity looks like.
Give them a few more slots that scale, like others have suggested (sure, use them on the scaling spells like Hold Person or damage spells, etc). They said "The most-requested change to Warlocks has been for them to be able to use their spells more often." I don't think they meant they wanted another half caster. Leave arcane half casting to Artificers. Warlocks were unique, as far as casting spells is concerned. Now they're not.
And give a few more invocations that provide casting a spell without using a slot for utility options (right from the Arcane, Divine, or Primal lists). And the "Invocations Known" to use them. As of the UA the spells you can cast without a spell slot via Invocations are: Alter Self, Arcane Eye, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, False Life, Jump, Levitate, Mage Armor, Silent Image, Speak with Animals, Speak with Dead, and Truesight. There are plenty of utility spells on the arcane list that could fit the bill, and fit the Warlock theme.
But I do like some of the Warlock changes, so I don't completely hate them.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Yes this, 1000% this. I would love them to just roll agonizing blast into eldritch blast and replace the "cantrip improvement' to this at 5 and have another at 9, 13 and 17. 1000% this.
The changes to the Pact Boons themselves I quite like, basically giving each of them one of the pact-specific Invocations from the current rules. And I like that part of the Pact Boon's benefit kicks in at a later level, I wouldn't mind seeing that expanded on with something at maybe Level 11. I'm not sure I'm a big fan of having SO many creature type options for the Pact Familiar, I'd almost want to see some of those choices be patron-dependent(having an Archfey Warlock with an Aberration familiar for example just seems weird). Honestly, I'd love to see every Patron have some kind of effect on the nature of the Pact Boon and on Eldritch Blast, either by default or through Invocations. I know when they tried Patron-specific Invocations in an old Unearthed Arcana they weren't very popular, but I loved them. The changes to the Invocations I like for the most part(except for moving Mystic Arcana to them), I would like to see them add more of the ones from Xanathar's and Tasha's(I'm particular fond of Far Scribe, I think it's a very flavorful ability). And the flexibility of the casting stat is intriguing. I particularly like that Eldritch Blast is now Warlock-specific and it scales with Warlock level instead of traditional cantrip scaling. But the rest of the changes to the Warlock's spellcasting infuriate me. They said the biggest complaint was Warlocks don't get to cast their spells often enough. But if you look at the half-caster spell slot progression, and remember that it's per LONG Rest instead of Pact Magic's Short Rest recharge, combined with the slower progression of spell levels, I think this new way is a significant step down. I think a much better way would have been something I saw suggested the other day(either here or on Discord, can't remember). Have the spell slot allocation work similar to the new Channel Divinity/Nature setup, where they get a set number per Long Rest that scales as they level, and then partial recharge on a Short Rest.
Folks are missing the blurbs where warlocks are described as people who go out and make pacts, like, as a recurring thing. One major pact, several minor ones. They touch on it in the video. How are you gonna justify your Archfey patron giving you Tomb of Levistus? Why can the Celestial give you Devil's Sight? Well, it's because they don't! You get those from other pacts, like it says in the blurbs!
But here's the problem. Those blurbs don't, um, exist. Not in the current PHB, anyway. I guess maybe they were there in the heads of the designers, but they never really put it on the page. So effectively this is a change in the narrative of the class.
I think it still makes sense and seems cool enough, but I don't fault anyone for not liking a change to the core concept of the class.
Making the warlock a half caster is a bold move, but I can understand where it's coming from -- the 5e warlock was designed around getting most of its power from eldritch blast with very limited other spellcasting, and making a half caster does the same thing in a more standardized way.
pdegan's warlock may settle down early while Generic's warlock moves with ambition and Psyren's warlock might acquire several contacts before making a commitment. and i feel it's odd to call any of that wrong. i haven't mentioned "DM's fiat" or "rule of cool" once because they're not even required make these concepts work at the table.
for me, the real takeaway is that the change to move the 'main' patron contract to 3rd level opens more doors than it closes. early powers can be from books, mentorship, your childhood invisible friend, a pixie that knows a satyr that knows a nilbog that knows a redcap, the main patron in disguise, the main patron but you have to prove yourself, the main patron but they're going to make you beg for it, the main patron and it all starts here, or a wishing well. you could meet a unicorn that introduces you to a fey who gives your info to a devil who sells your contract back to the unicorn who it turns out had a strict moral code against enslavement that this process bypasses. no one is bound to the 'reading forbidden texts' (which are just so strangely everywhere) but neither is anyone kept from it. a warlock may still meet their forever patron the same way a paladin can pledge their oath: day 0 with words, later more binding. it's great! i've never been so excited for warlock (when i really expected to be focusing in on wizard changes).
...and, as an aside, i am now mildly obsessed with creating a warlock that acts as a savvy merchant trading favors, deals, promises, and alliance between multiple non-Far-Realm patrons and faction leaders. the closest i can get to playing a bard without going full codpiece. i can't decide if it's a "flavor is free" situation with an existing subclass or if i can one day hope for a Harry Dresden (minus the 'wizard') style eldritch diplomat subclass. fingers crossed for door number two!
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tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
Which all sounds neat but how many people actually RP the making of the pact? Additionally, the class was explicitly created with the assumption that the pact had already been made, the character had already done their contracted part. Thus their powers could not be retracted.
Like others here, it feels to me like they've drained the flavor from the class.
You HAVE already made the pact - the lesser one. And that can't be retracted.
If you choose to not go ahead and make the greater one, that's represented by multiclassing out before 3.
Just allow people to add rituals to it, spells you know, spells you find, let them add it.
For some reason people are so stuck on the idea of pacts, forgetting that warlocks are occultists in their own right, they're not just empty conduits for someone else's power with no knowledge of their own. JC said it in the video that not all of the warlock's power comes from the patron. Invocations are products of warlock's own occult research.
Aye, I miss the ability to learn all rituals. Want it back. Also, Pact of the Tome has Agonizing Blast rolled into it as a level 5 upgrade already. Only Pact of the Chain needs Agonizing Blast now. Though it would still be nice if you got that damage bonus for your go-to cantrip earlier, because Eldritch Blast and utility invocations is basically the other half of what you are, first being arcane half-caster.
Good things:
Questionable things:
Things I don't like:
kind of reminds me of the character in the Sandman show on Netflix. They were kind of in the first two levels of being a warlock when they captured Sandman. Not an exact interpretation but had the feel that I think is a possibility for those early levels
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
I'm sure it's been brought up, but I don't want to read 9 pages.
"The most-requested change to Warlocks has been for them to be able to use their spells more often."
How did they accomplish this? By making them a half-caster, making Mystic Arcanum an invocation instead, and giving one extra invocation so you can get one of the four Mystic Arcanums they lost.
I thought the hext tweak was fine at first. After all, by the time you're hitting multiple times in a turn, you'll be upcasting it anyways... But then I realized they made them half-casters. You can deal an extra 3d6 once a turn with you hex when you reach 17th level and decide that's worth you only 5th level slot for the day? Amazing.
They could've just left pact magic as is and given some expidited way to regenerate the slots or maybe a lower level slot or two. This is just bad...
That is all.
I concur.
You aren't accounting for the fact that they rolled in a couple of the old pact invocations into the pact itself. Tome got book of ancient secrets and an improved agonizing blast by default, Chain got a weaker investment of the chain master and voice of the chain master and blade got hexblade ability and thirsting blade. So you lose 4 mystic but they become invocations and you gain 2 invocations by default and 1 extra invocation at high levels. The 2 come at a more important time though.