I thought they wanted to stop 1 level dips into classes, especially Warlock. But they moved pact weapon to level 1, with a choice for Wis or Cha. You've got Hex, the pact weapon, medium armor proficiency, and eldritch blast which even stuck at 1d10 isn't a bad pick up. Maybe tempting to go one more level for Hexer and a free 1st level feat or any of the invocation options that fit your concept.
I'm kind of not sure what the point is to have the Armor of Shadows invocation (Mage Armor) when you have medium armor proficiency.
I thought they wanted to stop 1 level dips into classes, especially Warlock. But they moved pact weapon to level 1, with a choice for Wis or Cha. You've got Hex, the pact weapon, medium armor proficiency, and eldritch blast which even stuck at 1d10 isn't a bad pick up. Maybe tempting to go one more level for Hexer and a free 1st level feat or any of the invocation options that fit your concept.
I'm kind of not sure what the point is to have the Armor of Shadows invocation (Mage Armor) when you have medium armor proficiency.
There isn't really a point for it outside maybe rolled builds where you have a insane dexterity. Give medium armor to pact of the blade, armor of shadows to pact of the tome and pact of the chain.
They were shoehorned into being spell casters because they are warlocks which are you know spell casters. Its like saying I only play blade singers but ive always been irritated wizards are shoe horned into being spell casters. A warlock in all fiction is purely a spell caster they are demon summoners spell casters in wow, in folklore they are just male witches, they are spell casters. Trying to make them at their core a partial caster goes against everything a warlock is. If anything they should have leaned deeper into spell casting. Just play a edgy paladin or ranger if you want to play a dark fighter with some magic. Don't destroy the core of what a warlock is, a spell caster.
And maybe if we got 16 invocations we could talk about leaning into versatility, but as is they are not more versatile than the core warlock.
Warlocks are people who made pacts. Period. There's no reason that somebody can't make a pact for physical power, and there's no reason people should only be allowed to make pacts to be worse Wizards.
I do agree that if they have Medium Armor, Armor of Shadows is a janky invocation. In fact a lot of them are jank now that they're directly competing with MA. Beast Speech, Fiendish Vigor, Rune Keeper, Myriad Forms, Otherworldly Leap, Whispers of the Grave... all jank.
I will say though that since you can swap them out as you level, you can trade in your 3rd level, 4th level and 5th level MA once you hit those rungs of casting in exchange for 7th, 8th, and 9th. So you're not that far behind in terms of MA compared to the original Warlock.
In my opinion mystic arcanum will eat almost all of the warlock's eldritch invocations, which will make most of the eldritch invocations pointless.
I have mixed feelings with the new warlock. They have things that I really like. But MA as Eldritch invocation is one of the things I dislike. The other big problem I have with the new warlock is how poorly his magic scales.
I think they should at least fix one of these two things. Either you gain mystic Arcanum at certain levels without costing an EI slot. Or they cause a warlock's spell slots to scale like a full caster's up to level 10, and then they stop getting slots. Another alternative is that they can cast "free" one spell of their subclass per level per day, but I'm not sure about this alternative.
This newest PDF marks the point where I'm officially done with the playtest.
Someone else made a thread about OneD&D being more like 5.5E than an entirely new edition and I'm inclined to agree. With the note that, to my mind, many changes from 5e that OneD&D makes are ones that change things for the worse.
If OneD&D felt like an actual new edition, rather than just a set of tweaks to 5e, I would be able to judge it on its own merits and even if I didn't like what they were doing, I could at least give some feedback that wasn't simply 'my playtest group and I don't know why you changed this from how it worked in 5e', but as it stands I see no reason not to simply continue running 5e for my groups after OneD&D comes and importing only the positive changes from it to my 5e game.
Sorcerous Burst feels... underwhelming. Even if there was no cap (what Sorc isn't going to have at least a +3 keeping them good until level freaking 17 unless I'm reading this wrong) it feels like a lot on a gamble and I can't shake the sensation like there's supposed to be some ability to sink sorc points in for a spell-specific effect (like, I dunno, sink a sorc point and, if you pick fire, they take half the damage again at the start of their turn. Frost halves their movement. Just... something.) I won't complain about the ability to change damage types; but I don't know if this will actually unseat firebolt as the go-to damage cantrip.
Sorc Vitatlity feels like it should be a level 2 spell. IMO it needs both 1 more dice and to be d8's to be worth it or at LEAST let me reroll 1's/2's for a sorc point. Imagine being in a dire situation and throwing this off only to heal 5 HP.
Sorcery Incarnate, conversely, feels like it's going to be straddling the OP line. It's a 'go big or go home' type spell and I very much approve of it. I'm actually concerned it is too OP; but time will have to tell.
My Redesigns: SORCEROUS BURST Evocation Cantrip (Sorcerer) Casting Time: Action Range: 120 feet Component: V, S Duration: Instantaneous You cast sorcerous energy at one creature or object within range. Make a ranged attack roll against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 damage. If you roll a 6 on a d6 for this spell, you can roll another d6, and add it to the damage. Whenever you cast this spell, the maximum number of these d6s you can add to the spell’s damage equals your spellcasting ability modifier. You may spend a sorc point to add an additional effect basted on the type of damage you dealt. Acid: Foe has -1d4 AC until they are hit by another attack or 1 minute. Cold: Foes movement speed is halved until the end of their next turn. Fire: Foe takes half (rounded up) damage again at the start of their next turn. This damage cannot down a foe. Lightning: Make a second attack against a foe within 5 feet of the target. Poison: Foe makes a CON save or is poisoned. Has a 1 turn cool-down. Psychic: Foe makes a CHA save. Upon failure they have disadvantage on their first attack next turn. Thunder: Foe makes a DEX save or is knocked 5 feet in the direction of the casters choice. You choose the damage type each time you cast this spell: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Psychic, or Thunder. Cantrip Upgrade . This spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach certain Sorcerer levels: 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
SORCEROUS VITALITY 3rd -Level Abjuration Spell (Sorcerer) Casting Time: Action Range: Self Component: V, S Duration: Instantaneous You draw on your innate magic to fill yourself with vitality. You regain a number of Hit Points equal to 3d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier, and if you have any of the following conditions, they end on you: Blinded, Deafened, and Poisoned. You may spend a sorc point to reroll the dice once and take the higher amount. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a Spell Slot of 4th level or higher, the healing increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd.
Now to read the buff... ... ... oh... oh wow.... ummm.... wow.... Sorcs got a buff. Twinned got nerfed bigtime however. I don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand I won't think for even a second to deny that twinning the party's frontline fighters with haste was OP'ed. At the same time it was awesome to do. I get the feeling that people will want this to return in some manner in the future. Maybe some sort of metamagic that only works on support/buff spells or something but allows you to double up? I dunno.
This newest PDF marks the point where I'm officially done with the playtest.
Someone else made a thread about OneD&D being more like 5.5E than an entirely new edition and I'm inclined to agree. With the note that, to my mind, many changes from 5e that OneD&D makes are ones that change things for the worse.
If OneD&D felt like an actual new edition, rather than just a set of tweaks to 5e, I would be able to judge it on its own merits and even if I didn't like what they were doing, I could at least give some feedback that wasn't simply 'my playtest group and I don't know why you changed this from how it worked in 5e', but as it stands I see no reason not to simply continue running 5e for my groups after OneD&D comes and importing only the positive changes from it to my 5e game.
I agree. All the classes just feel like failed attempts at balancing, and the rules changes are unnecessary. Just keep adding more stuff, hopefully more classes, to 5e, don’t make a whole new edition.
Completely disagree on warlocks, with the caveat that the number of pact magic slots was too little. Pact magic allowed a different version of magic use. It should match (not equal since that would be multi-class nightmare) the proficiency bonus. Maybe bump the final level of slots up to 6th level vice 5th. I understand that some tables don't use the short rest feature correctly or as intended. And while every table is different, I don't know why. First having been in real world combat myself, its never a 16 hour fight slog every day with a magic 8 hour time off. There are downtimes, built in rests, recovery. And while we don't magically get back some resources since its real life, most adventuring days should match and then some should be time crunches. I mean six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day with 2ish short rests sounds reasonable, some DMs just don't know how to run a table with it for some reason. And a party that can't judiciously choose when to short and long rest can and sometimes should get a wake up call but that doesn't mean the DM should not allow them the 2 per day recommended unless there is a good reason not to. Part of the problem is that WotC has been moving away from short rest reseting features for some reason. Some classes get a lot, some get almost nothing. But since the game is almost designed around out of combat hit dice healing (spell casting healing is garbage use of resources as any of the math nerds will tell you). Instead of giving more reasons such as RP or more resources restored with short rests they are going the opposite direction as you could see in many of the updated racial traits going to PB/long rest. But it makes things clunky. Now fighters have Second Wind twice per long rest instead of once per short or long but Action Surge is still a short and long reset.
If they want to make warlocks half casters then what is the other "half"? Rangers and paladins are martial classes (although the newer designations are expert and priest) that supplement their attacks with spells to round out their abilities. Fighters and rogues can be "third" casters in particular sub-classes as they still focus on predominantly martial abilities with less supplementing. But what is the other half of the new warlocks? The blade pact gives them more martial abilities than other Mage classes (although I'm sure the gishy type sub-classes will eventually carry over) and they get base armor but so do clerics and druids as full casters. But looking at the list of things given, they are rangers without the expertise or niche to fill. In fact the one level dip of rangers, clerics, and monks are going to make this class no real long term followers.
Either fix the pact magic number of slots and fix the short rest incentives (give DMs and PCs a reason to want them, or make them shorter 15ish minutes, longer term spells don't tick down during rests etc) or increase Warlocks to full casters and give more eldritch invocations. Or as a newer feature make them 2/3 casters. Give them a better number of spells than rangers and paladins but less than bards/wizards/sorcerers/druids/clerics. Have them max out at lvl 7 spells. Have them be 2/3 of their warlock level when figuring out multiclass spell slots.Fill in the rest with better invocations or some of the higher level Mystic Arcanum.
Completely disagree on warlocks, with the caveat that the number of pact magic slots was too little. Pact magic allowed a different version of magic use. It should match (not equal since that would be multi-class nightmare) the proficiency bonus. Maybe bump the final level of slots up to 6th level vice 5th. I understand that some tables don't use the short rest feature correctly or as intended. And while every table is different, I don't know why. First having been in real world combat myself, its never a 16 hour fight slog every day with a magic 8 hour time off. There are downtimes, built in rests, recovery. And while we don't magically get back some resources since its real life, most adventuring days should match and then some should be time crunches. I mean six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day with 2ish short rests sounds reasonable, some DMs just don't know how to run a table with it for some reason. And a party that can't judiciously choose when to short and long rest can and sometimes should get a wake up call but that doesn't mean the DM should not allow them the 2 per day recommended unless there is a good reason not to. Part of the problem is that WotC has been moving away from short rest reseting features for some reason. Some classes get a lot, some get almost nothing. But since the game is almost designed around out of combat hit dice healing (spell casting healing is garbage use of resources as any of the math nerds will tell you). Instead of giving more reasons such as RP or more resources restored with short rests they are going the opposite direction as you could see in many of the updated racial traits going to PB/long rest. But it makes things clunky. Now fighters have Second Wind twice per long rest instead of once per short or long but Action Surge is still a short and long reset.
If they want to make warlocks half casters then what is the other "half"? Rangers and paladins are martial classes (although the newer designations are expert and priest) that supplement their attacks with spells to round out their abilities. Fighters and rogues can be "third" casters in particular sub-classes as they still focus on predominantly martial abilities with less supplementing. But what is the other half of the new warlocks? The blade pact gives them more martial abilities than other Mage classes (although I'm sure the gishy type sub-classes will eventually carry over) and they get base armor but so do clerics and druids as full casters. But looking at the list of things given, they are rangers without the expertise or niche to fill. In fact the one level dip of rangers, clerics, and monks are going to make this class no real long term followers.
Either fix the pact magic number of slots and fix the short rest incentives (give DMs and PCs a reason to want them, or make them shorter 15ish minutes, longer term spells don't tick down during rests etc) or increase Warlocks to full casters and give more eldritch invocations. Or as a newer feature make them 2/3 casters. Give them a better number of spells than rangers and paladins but less than bards/wizards/sorcerers/druids/clerics. Have them max out at lvl 7 spells. Have them be 2/3 of their warlock level when figuring out multiclass spell slots.Fill in the rest with better invocations or some of the higher level Mystic Arcanum.
Yes! When will WotC stop fooling around and actually improve the classes they said that they would?
Personally, I love this version of the Warlock. Pact Magic as it was felt more like an afterthought, and it could just be because I primarily played Hexblade Warlocks, but I hated that Warlocks had an option to be martial with Hexblade and Pact of the Blade, but were overall shoehorned into being Spellcasters through Mystic Arcanum. For me, the Invocations are more what made the Warlocks unique rather than Pact Magic, and what makes this one feel better to me is it's moving in a direction of allowing Warlocks to be more custom built to the player, rather than being forced into a role by taking an Invocation that CAN be a Mystic Arcanum rather than being forced to take a Mystic Arcanum rather than something that would fit your character better.
The issue with Warlocks as spellcasters before was being able to barely spellcast, because even at 20th level you could only cast 4 spells, then your mystic Arcanums, and for the rest of the time use Cantrips—and I've seen a lot of Warlock players explain the issue I had of rarely ever using your Pact Slots because they're so limited and in a party of players that primarily rely on long rests, you'll rarely ever get the short rest you need to justify Pact Slots being so few.
Personality, I prefer this method of giving decent access to both, and I'm not so worried about Pact Slots being what makes Warlocks unique since this version is leaning so much heavier into versatility with Invocations.
edit: I am able to see a bit of the problem with making them half-casters oppose to keeping their pact slots when it comes to theme, so a way to have more access to pact slots or getting more overall would be better, I think. Maybe an invocation that doubles your pact slots if you want your Warlock to lean more into spellcasting, or one that gives you a new way to recover Pact Slots.
They were shoehorned into being spell casters because they are warlocks which are you know spell casters. Its like saying I only play blade singers but ive always been irritated wizards are shoe horned into being spell casters. A warlock in all fiction is purely a spell caster they are demon summoners spell casters in wow, in folklore they are just male witches, they are spell casters. Trying to make them at their core a partial caster goes against everything a warlock is. If anything they should have leaned deeper into spell casting. Just play a edgy paladin or ranger if you want to play a dark fighter with some magic. Don't destroy the core of what a warlock is, a spell caster.
And maybe if we got 16 invocations we could talk about leaning into versatility, but as is they are not more versatile than the core warlock.
Warlocks are people who made pacts. Period. There's no reason that somebody can't make a pact for physical power, and there's no reason people should only be allowed to make pacts to be worse Wizards.
Warlocks according to almost all lore are male witches/sorcerers etc. sometimes in league with a devil but not always. Warlocks in all lore and fiction writing are some type of caster. Sometimes its inate, sometimes like in DnD its from a Pact. Its literally the first definitions that come up on Wictionary, Wikipedia, Cambridge University Press....the list goes on and on. That being said if they are some type of half caster now, what is the other half?They are missing all the expertise/martialness/niches of the other half casters. They are just worse wizards/sorcerers with less spells and customization especially now that Mystic Arcanum each eat an eldritch invocation.
I am SO SICK of having to make sure EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMNED SPELL on my warlocks' spell lists is something that scales strongly with spell level and having to discard cool non-scaling spells as I level because that's the only way to make Pact Magic into something other than a sad bad joke. What if I want to cast Expeditious Retreat, or Unseen Servant, or Mirror Image, or Spider Climb, or Gaseous Form, or Major Image, or any of the other 80+% of the Warlock's spell list that doesn't have super strong spell slot scaling? Well if I wanna warlock correctly I don't get to do any of that, because EVERY Pact Magic spell HAS to scale to your current slot level or YOU ARE TERRIBLE FOREVER, and frankly now that I've seen the half-caster version of warlock I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go back to never being able to use utility magic. **** that shit in the ******* ****hole. Let's keep half-casting and toss Pact Magic in the "neat ideas that didn't pan out" bin where it belongs.
I mean you're wrong. First off those spells still have function and are useful. A lot of times out of combat and therefore you're not as reliant on desperately needing a short rest. Second, Adding more spell slots (like matching the proficiency bonus) or making it so that spell slots can come back between short rests as well (think action surge but for restoring spell slots). "Patron's Favor - You can restore pact magic slots up to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down). This ability resets on a short rest" Now if your party can't stop you have the ability to recover some slots (half if you match the proficiency bonus with number of slots) or maybe if you have no slots available you recover one or half PB when you roll initiative.
Also all of those non scaling spells, make eldritch invocations that let you cast them at will or a few times per long rest, just level gate them for slightly higher than when you can first cast them. Learn them, use them, and when you gain a few levels, learn something else and pick it up as an invocation.
I was thinking about it, and the Mystic Arcanum becoming invocations does create an issue.
We'll not really need more than four invocations devoted to MA. If we use an MA at level 5 to get a level 3 spell, then another at level 7 take another MA to get a level 4 spell, at level 9 we get 3rd level spell slots so we can drop the level 3 MA and instead take another MA to get a level 5 spell. At 11 we take a third MA to get a level 6 spell. At level 13 we get level 4 spell slots, so we can drop the level 4 MA and instead take a level 7 MA, at level 15 we add a level 8 MA, and at level 17 we can drop the level 5 MA and take a level 9 MA.
So our spell progression is:
Level 1: 2 x 1
Level 2: 2 x 1
Level 3: 3 x 1
Level 4: 3 x 1
Level 5: 4 x 1, 2 x 2, 1 x 3ma
Level 6: 4 x 1, 2 x 2, 1 x 3ma
Level 7: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 1 x 3ma, 1 x 4ma
Level 8: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 1 x 3ma, 1 x 4ma
Level 9: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 2 x 3, 1 x 4ma, 1 x 5ma
Level 10: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 2 x 3, 1 x 4ma, 1 x 5ma
Level 11: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 1 x 4ma, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma
Level 12: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 1 x 4ma, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma
Level 13: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 1 x 4, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma
Level 14: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 1 x 4, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma
Level 15: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma
Level 16: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma
Level 17: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 1 x 5, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma, 1 x 9ma
Level 18: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 1 x 5, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma, 1 x 9ma
Level 19: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 2 x 5, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma, 1 x 9ma
Level 20: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 2 x 5, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma, 1 x 9ma Total: 18
Compared to a full caster like Wizard at level 20 having:
Level 20: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 3 x 4, 3 x 5, 2 x 6, 2 x 7, 1 x 8, 1 x 9 Total: 22
So the full caster does have 4 more "slots", 1 each of levels 4, 5, 6, and 7, and we are locked into particular spells at levels 6 through 9, but we're not that far off a full caster despite technically being a half caster. We could technically take three more Mystic Arcanum between level 3 and 5, but that's not really worth it in my opinion. Still, if you have no better use for your invocations...
However the obvious issue is that this takes between one and four of our invocations, of which we only have 9.
Between levels 5 to 8 we have two spare invocations.
From levels 9 to 12 we have three.
Levels 13 to 16 we get four.
Levels 17 to 20 we have five.
Like so much of being a Warlock there's a fair bit of resource management involved. On the other hand, if there aren't any spells you like at a particular level you can choose to simply not take a Mystic Arcanum, freeing up an invocation.
I thought they wanted to stop 1 level dips into classes, especially Warlock. But they moved pact weapon to level 1, with a choice for Wis or Cha. You've got Hex, the pact weapon, medium armor proficiency, and eldritch blast which even stuck at 1d10 isn't a bad pick up. Maybe tempting to go one more level for Hexer and a free 1st level feat or any of the invocation options that fit your concept.
I'm kind of not sure what the point is to have the Armor of Shadows invocation (Mage Armor) when you have medium armor proficiency.
Mage Armor is one better AC than Studded Leather. With dexterity 14, which is the maximum you need for medium armor, Mage Armor gives you 15AC, which is as good as a Chain Shirt. The best medium armor, Half Plate gives 17AC without a shield (which Warlocks are not proficient with) and confers disadvantage on stealth checks. If you start with 16 dexterity, Mage Armor gives you 16AC, which is the same as a Breastplate and doesn't cost anywhere near as much.
Also you can never be stripped of your armor, and (if you're Pact of the Blade) your weapon, so one of those scenarios where you start naked and unarmed lasts just as long as it takes to cast two spells.
I see a lot of people upset that the Warlock is given half caster progression, but I always thought Warlock before was a little "full caster plus". With boons, eldritch invocations, and more robust subclass and class features than any other full caster gets, I think the Warlock as a half caster with all those extras still equals to around a full caster.
Personally, I love this version of the Warlock. Pact Magic as it was felt more like an afterthought, and it could just be because I primarily played Hexblade Warlocks, but I hated that Warlocks had an option to be martial with Hexblade and Pact of the Blade, but were overall shoehorned into being Spellcasters through Mystic Arcanum. For me, the Invocations are more what made the Warlocks unique rather than Pact Magic, and what makes this one feel better to me is it's moving in a direction of allowing Warlocks to be more custom built to the player, rather than being forced into a role by taking an Invocation that CAN be a Mystic Arcanum rather than being forced to take a Mystic Arcanum rather than something that would fit your character better.
The issue with Warlocks as spellcasters before was being able to barely spellcast, because even at 20th level you could only cast 4 spells, then your mystic Arcanums, and for the rest of the time use Cantrips—and I've seen a lot of Warlock players explain the issue I had of rarely ever using your Pact Slots because they're so limited and in a party of players that primarily rely on long rests, you'll rarely ever get the short rest you need to justify Pact Slots being so few.
Personality, I prefer this method of giving decent access to both, and I'm not so worried about Pact Slots being what makes Warlocks unique since this version is leaning so much heavier into versatility with Invocations.
edit: I am able to see a bit of the problem with making them half-casters oppose to keeping their pact slots when it comes to theme, so a way to have more access to pact slots or getting more overall would be better, I think. Maybe an invocation that doubles your pact slots if you want your Warlock to lean more into spellcasting, or one that gives you a new way to recover Pact Slots.
They were shoehorned into being spell casters because they are warlocks which are you know spell casters. Its like saying I only play blade singers but ive always been irritated wizards are shoe horned into being spell casters. A warlock in all fiction is purely a spell caster they are demon summoners spell casters in wow, in folklore they are just male witches, they are spell casters. Trying to make them at their core a partial caster goes against everything a warlock is. If anything they should have leaned deeper into spell casting. Just play a edgy paladin or ranger if you want to play a dark fighter with some magic. Don't destroy the core of what a warlock is, a spell caster.
And maybe if we got 16 invocations we could talk about leaning into versatility, but as is they are not more versatile than the core warlock.
Warlocks are people who made pacts. Period. There's no reason that somebody can't make a pact for physical power, and there's no reason people should only be allowed to make pacts to be worse Wizards.
Warlocks according to almost all lore are male witches/sorcerers etc. sometimes in league with a devil but not always. Warlocks in all lore and fiction writing are some type of caster. Sometimes its inate, sometimes like in DnD its from a Pact. Its literally the first definitions that come up on Wictionary, Wikipedia, Cambridge University Press....the list goes on and on. That being said if they are some type of half caster now, what is the other half?They are missing all the expertise/martialness/niches of the other half casters. They are just worse wizards/sorcerers with less spells and customization especially now that Mystic Arcanum each eat an eldritch invocation.
Monks, according to almost all lore, are male members of religious communities, usually with many restrictions and vows placed upon them. Are you saying that is what the Monk class should be?
In Dungeons and Dragons, Warlocks are people who made pacts. There, happy?
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
In fact, you're even more reliant on the spellbook because if you didn't keep Scribe Spell prepped and lost your book -- you are beyond ****ed because you can no longer make a new one.
You'll still have whatever spells you last prepped, you just won't be able to change them until you find another spellbook. No different than a 5e wizard really, and better off than every wizard before 5e. So long as you prepare good spells - you know, that thing you should be doing anyway - you'll be fine in the meantime.
But... what "meantime" - you can no longer prep scribe spell, even if you get a new blank spellbook - you can't put anything in it.
Even in past editions you could replace spellbooks. Now.. You can't. You're ****ed. What made you a wizard is gone forever.
But that is a simple fix of making Scribe, Memorize, Modify and Create Spell, spells that you never forget because they are basically just class features (Its a simple text edit they forgot, and pretty understandable to just be RAW and RAI).
My main problem: I wish that there was a selector switch (like for "Rick and Morty" content and those other ones on the first page of the character builder interface) that was for the current state of One D&D features. So you could actually use D&DB to build this stuff, play around with it in the character builder, tweak it around to see how the edge cases work out, etc.
Or at the _very_ least, have things like the spells and such ready to go in the Homebrew library (wont help with the classes themselves, but would still help with the other things).
Personally, I love this version of the Warlock. Pact Magic as it was felt more like an afterthought, and it could just be because I primarily played Hexblade Warlocks, but I hated that Warlocks had an option to be martial with Hexblade and Pact of the Blade, but were overall shoehorned into being Spellcasters through Mystic Arcanum. For me, the Invocations are more what made the Warlocks unique rather than Pact Magic, and what makes this one feel better to me is it's moving in a direction of allowing Warlocks to be more custom built to the player, rather than being forced into a role by taking an Invocation that CAN be a Mystic Arcanum rather than being forced to take a Mystic Arcanum rather than something that would fit your character better.
The issue with Warlocks as spellcasters before was being able to barely spellcast, because even at 20th level you could only cast 4 spells, then your mystic Arcanums, and for the rest of the time use Cantrips—and I've seen a lot of Warlock players explain the issue I had of rarely ever using your Pact Slots because they're so limited and in a party of players that primarily rely on long rests, you'll rarely ever get the short rest you need to justify Pact Slots being so few.
Personality, I prefer this method of giving decent access to both, and I'm not so worried about Pact Slots being what makes Warlocks unique since this version is leaning so much heavier into versatility with Invocations.
edit: I am able to see a bit of the problem with making them half-casters oppose to keeping their pact slots when it comes to theme, so a way to have more access to pact slots or getting more overall would be better, I think. Maybe an invocation that doubles your pact slots if you want your Warlock to lean more into spellcasting, or one that gives you a new way to recover Pact Slots.
They were shoehorned into being spell casters because they are warlocks which are you know spell casters. Its like saying I only play blade singers but ive always been irritated wizards are shoe horned into being spell casters. A warlock in all fiction is purely a spell caster they are demon summoners spell casters in wow, in folklore they are just male witches, they are spell casters. Trying to make them at their core a partial caster goes against everything a warlock is. If anything they should have leaned deeper into spell casting. Just play a edgy paladin or ranger if you want to play a dark fighter with some magic. Don't destroy the core of what a warlock is, a spell caster.
And maybe if we got 16 invocations we could talk about leaning into versatility, but as is they are not more versatile than the core warlock.
Warlocks are people who made pacts. Period. There's no reason that somebody can't make a pact for physical power, and there's no reason people should only be allowed to make pacts to be worse Wizards.
Warlocks according to almost all lore are male witches/sorcerers etc. sometimes in league with a devil but not always. Warlocks in all lore and fiction writing are some type of caster. Sometimes its inate, sometimes like in DnD its from a Pact. It’s literally the first definitions that come up on Wictionary, Wikipedia, Cambridge University Press....the list goes on and on.
…That being said if they are some type of half caster now, what is the other half?They are missing all the expertise/martialness/niches of the other half casters. They are just worse wizards/sorcerers with less spells and customization especially now that Mystic Arcanum each eat an eldritch invocation.
That right there is the key. What’s their other half now? And MAs eating up EI slots is just trash. It’s just bad design all around. They’re taking everything that made Warlocks unique and interesting and “streamlining” it into being another cookie cutter half caster with nothing else going for it.
In fact, you're even more reliant on the spellbook because if you didn't keep Scribe Spell prepped and lost your book -- you are beyond ****ed because you can no longer make a new one.
You'll still have whatever spells you last prepped, you just won't be able to change them until you find another spellbook. No different than a 5e wizard really, and better off than every wizard before 5e. So long as you prepare good spells - you know, that thing you should be doing anyway - you'll be fine in the meantime.
But... what "meantime" - you can no longer prep scribe spell, even if you get a new blank spellbook - you can't put anything in it.
Even in past editions you could replace spellbooks. Now.. You can't. You're ****ed. What made you a wizard is gone forever.
But that is a simple fix of making Scribe, Memorize, Modify and Create Spell, spells that you never forget because they are basically just class features (Its a simple text edit they forgot, and pretty understandable to just be RAW and RAI).
It could be even simpler if they just made them class features….
Warlock thoughts.
I thought they wanted to stop 1 level dips into classes, especially Warlock. But they moved pact weapon to level 1, with a choice for Wis or Cha. You've got Hex, the pact weapon, medium armor proficiency, and eldritch blast which even stuck at 1d10 isn't a bad pick up. Maybe tempting to go one more level for Hexer and a free 1st level feat or any of the invocation options that fit your concept.
I'm kind of not sure what the point is to have the Armor of Shadows invocation (Mage Armor) when you have medium armor proficiency.
There isn't really a point for it outside maybe rolled builds where you have a insane dexterity. Give medium armor to pact of the blade, armor of shadows to pact of the tome and pact of the chain.
I do agree that if they have Medium Armor, Armor of Shadows is a janky invocation. In fact a lot of them are jank now that they're directly competing with MA. Beast Speech, Fiendish Vigor, Rune Keeper, Myriad Forms, Otherworldly Leap, Whispers of the Grave... all jank.
I will say though that since you can swap them out as you level, you can trade in your 3rd level, 4th level and 5th level MA once you hit those rungs of casting in exchange for 7th, 8th, and 9th. So you're not that far behind in terms of MA compared to the original Warlock.
In my opinion mystic arcanum will eat almost all of the warlock's eldritch invocations, which will make most of the eldritch invocations pointless.
I have mixed feelings with the new warlock. They have things that I really like. But MA as Eldritch invocation is one of the things I dislike. The other big problem I have with the new warlock is how poorly his magic scales.
I think they should at least fix one of these two things. Either you gain mystic Arcanum at certain levels without costing an EI slot. Or they cause a warlock's spell slots to scale like a full caster's up to level 10, and then they stop getting slots. Another alternative is that they can cast "free" one spell of their subclass per level per day, but I'm not sure about this alternative.
This newest PDF marks the point where I'm officially done with the playtest.
Someone else made a thread about OneD&D being more like 5.5E than an entirely new edition and I'm inclined to agree. With the note that, to my mind, many changes from 5e that OneD&D makes are ones that change things for the worse.
If OneD&D felt like an actual new edition, rather than just a set of tweaks to 5e, I would be able to judge it on its own merits and even if I didn't like what they were doing, I could at least give some feedback that wasn't simply 'my playtest group and I don't know why you changed this from how it worked in 5e', but as it stands I see no reason not to simply continue running 5e for my groups after OneD&D comes and importing only the positive changes from it to my 5e game.
At least there all better than what they done with the druid. Looking forward to see what they do eith the monk and revised classes
Sorcerous Burst feels... underwhelming. Even if there was no cap (what Sorc isn't going to have at least a +3 keeping them good until level freaking 17 unless I'm reading this wrong) it feels like a lot on a gamble and I can't shake the sensation like there's supposed to be some ability to sink sorc points in for a spell-specific effect (like, I dunno, sink a sorc point and, if you pick fire, they take half the damage again at the start of their turn. Frost halves their movement. Just... something.) I won't complain about the ability to change damage types; but I don't know if this will actually unseat firebolt as the go-to damage cantrip.
Sorc Vitatlity feels like it should be a level 2 spell. IMO it needs both 1 more dice and to be d8's to be worth it or at LEAST let me reroll 1's/2's for a sorc point. Imagine being in a dire situation and throwing this off only to heal 5 HP.
Sorcery Incarnate, conversely, feels like it's going to be straddling the OP line. It's a 'go big or go home' type spell and I very much approve of it. I'm actually concerned it is too OP; but time will have to tell.
My Redesigns: SORCEROUS BURST Evocation Cantrip (Sorcerer) Casting Time: Action Range: 120 feet Component: V, S Duration: Instantaneous You cast sorcerous energy at one creature or object within range. Make a ranged attack roll against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 damage. If you roll a 6 on a d6 for this spell, you can roll another d6, and add it to the damage. Whenever you cast this spell, the maximum number of these d6s you can add to the spell’s damage equals your spellcasting ability modifier.
You may spend a sorc point to add an additional effect basted on the type of damage you dealt.
Acid: Foe has -1d4 AC until they are hit by another attack or 1 minute.
Cold: Foes movement speed is halved until the end of their next turn.
Fire: Foe takes half (rounded up) damage again at the start of their next turn. This damage cannot down a foe.
Lightning: Make a second attack against a foe within 5 feet of the target.
Poison: Foe makes a CON save or is poisoned. Has a 1 turn cool-down.
Psychic: Foe makes a CHA save. Upon failure they have disadvantage on their first attack next turn.
Thunder: Foe makes a DEX save or is knocked 5 feet in the direction of the casters choice.
You choose the damage type each time you cast this spell: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Psychic, or Thunder. Cantrip Upgrade . This spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach certain Sorcerer levels: 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
SORCEROUS VITALITY 3rd -Level Abjuration Spell (Sorcerer) Casting Time: Action Range: Self Component: V, S Duration: Instantaneous You draw on your innate magic to fill yourself with vitality. You regain a number of Hit Points equal to 3d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier, and if you have any of the following conditions, they end on you: Blinded, Deafened, and Poisoned. You may spend a sorc point to reroll the dice once and take the higher amount. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a Spell Slot of 4th level or higher, the healing increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd.
Now to read the buff... ... ... oh... oh wow.... ummm.... wow.... Sorcs got a buff. Twinned got nerfed bigtime however. I don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand I won't think for even a second to deny that twinning the party's frontline fighters with haste was OP'ed. At the same time it was awesome to do. I get the feeling that people will want this to return in some manner in the future. Maybe some sort of metamagic that only works on support/buff spells or something but allows you to double up? I dunno.
I agree. All the classes just feel like failed attempts at balancing, and the rules changes are unnecessary. Just keep adding more stuff, hopefully more classes, to 5e, don’t make a whole new edition.
Completely disagree on warlocks, with the caveat that the number of pact magic slots was too little. Pact magic allowed a different version of magic use. It should match (not equal since that would be multi-class nightmare) the proficiency bonus. Maybe bump the final level of slots up to 6th level vice 5th. I understand that some tables don't use the short rest feature correctly or as intended. And while every table is different, I don't know why. First having been in real world combat myself, its never a 16 hour fight slog every day with a magic 8 hour time off. There are downtimes, built in rests, recovery. And while we don't magically get back some resources since its real life, most adventuring days should match and then some should be time crunches. I mean six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day with 2ish short rests sounds reasonable, some DMs just don't know how to run a table with it for some reason. And a party that can't judiciously choose when to short and long rest can and sometimes should get a wake up call but that doesn't mean the DM should not allow them the 2 per day recommended unless there is a good reason not to. Part of the problem is that WotC has been moving away from short rest reseting features for some reason. Some classes get a lot, some get almost nothing. But since the game is almost designed around out of combat hit dice healing (spell casting healing is garbage use of resources as any of the math nerds will tell you). Instead of giving more reasons such as RP or more resources restored with short rests they are going the opposite direction as you could see in many of the updated racial traits going to PB/long rest. But it makes things clunky. Now fighters have Second Wind twice per long rest instead of once per short or long but Action Surge is still a short and long reset.
If they want to make warlocks half casters then what is the other "half"? Rangers and paladins are martial classes (although the newer designations are expert and priest) that supplement their attacks with spells to round out their abilities. Fighters and rogues can be "third" casters in particular sub-classes as they still focus on predominantly martial abilities with less supplementing. But what is the other half of the new warlocks? The blade pact gives them more martial abilities than other Mage classes (although I'm sure the gishy type sub-classes will eventually carry over) and they get base armor but so do clerics and druids as full casters. But looking at the list of things given, they are rangers without the expertise or niche to fill. In fact the one level dip of rangers, clerics, and monks are going to make this class no real long term followers.
Either fix the pact magic number of slots and fix the short rest incentives (give DMs and PCs a reason to want them, or make them shorter 15ish minutes, longer term spells don't tick down during rests etc) or increase Warlocks to full casters and give more eldritch invocations. Or as a newer feature make them 2/3 casters. Give them a better number of spells than rangers and paladins but less than bards/wizards/sorcerers/druids/clerics. Have them max out at lvl 7 spells. Have them be 2/3 of their warlock level when figuring out multiclass spell slots.Fill in the rest with better invocations or some of the higher level Mystic Arcanum.
Yes! When will WotC stop fooling around and actually improve the classes they said that they would?
Warlocks according to almost all lore are male witches/sorcerers etc. sometimes in league with a devil but not always. Warlocks in all lore and fiction writing are some type of caster. Sometimes its inate, sometimes like in DnD its from a Pact. Its literally the first definitions that come up on Wictionary, Wikipedia, Cambridge University Press....the list goes on and on. That being said if they are some type of half caster now, what is the other half?They are missing all the expertise/martialness/niches of the other half casters. They are just worse wizards/sorcerers with less spells and customization especially now that Mystic Arcanum each eat an eldritch invocation.
I mean you're wrong. First off those spells still have function and are useful. A lot of times out of combat and therefore you're not as reliant on desperately needing a short rest. Second, Adding more spell slots (like matching the proficiency bonus) or making it so that spell slots can come back between short rests as well (think action surge but for restoring spell slots). "Patron's Favor - You can restore pact magic slots up to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down). This ability resets on a short rest" Now if your party can't stop you have the ability to recover some slots (half if you match the proficiency bonus with number of slots) or maybe if you have no slots available you recover one or half PB when you roll initiative.
Also all of those non scaling spells, make eldritch invocations that let you cast them at will or a few times per long rest, just level gate them for slightly higher than when you can first cast them. Learn them, use them, and when you gain a few levels, learn something else and pick it up as an invocation.
I was thinking about it, and the Mystic Arcanum becoming invocations does create an issue.
We'll not really need more than four invocations devoted to MA. If we use an MA at level 5 to get a level 3 spell, then another at level 7 take another MA to get a level 4 spell, at level 9 we get 3rd level spell slots so we can drop the level 3 MA and instead take another MA to get a level 5 spell. At 11 we take a third MA to get a level 6 spell. At level 13 we get level 4 spell slots, so we can drop the level 4 MA and instead take a level 7 MA, at level 15 we add a level 8 MA, and at level 17 we can drop the level 5 MA and take a level 9 MA.
So our spell progression is:
Level 1: 2 x 1
Level 2: 2 x 1
Level 3: 3 x 1
Level 4: 3 x 1
Level 5: 4 x 1, 2 x 2, 1 x 3ma
Level 6: 4 x 1, 2 x 2, 1 x 3ma
Level 7: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 1 x 3ma, 1 x 4ma
Level 8: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 1 x 3ma, 1 x 4ma
Level 9: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 2 x 3, 1 x 4ma, 1 x 5ma
Level 10: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 2 x 3, 1 x 4ma, 1 x 5ma
Level 11: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 1 x 4ma, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma
Level 12: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 1 x 4ma, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma
Level 13: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 1 x 4, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma
Level 14: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 1 x 4, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma
Level 15: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma
Level 16: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 1 x 5ma, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma
Level 17: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 1 x 5, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma, 1 x 9ma
Level 18: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 1 x 5, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma, 1 x 9ma
Level 19: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 2 x 5, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma, 1 x 9ma
Level 20: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 2 x 4, 2 x 5, 1 x 6ma, 1 x 7ma, 1 x 8ma, 1 x 9ma Total: 18
Compared to a full caster like Wizard at level 20 having:
Level 20: 4 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 3 x 4, 3 x 5, 2 x 6, 2 x 7, 1 x 8, 1 x 9 Total: 22
So the full caster does have 4 more "slots", 1 each of levels 4, 5, 6, and 7, and we are locked into particular spells at levels 6 through 9, but we're not that far off a full caster despite technically being a half caster. We could technically take three more Mystic Arcanum between level 3 and 5, but that's not really worth it in my opinion. Still, if you have no better use for your invocations...
However the obvious issue is that this takes between one and four of our invocations, of which we only have 9.
Between levels 5 to 8 we have two spare invocations.
From levels 9 to 12 we have three.
Levels 13 to 16 we get four.
Levels 17 to 20 we have five.
Like so much of being a Warlock there's a fair bit of resource management involved. On the other hand, if there aren't any spells you like at a particular level you can choose to simply not take a Mystic Arcanum, freeing up an invocation.
Mage Armor is one better AC than Studded Leather. With dexterity 14, which is the maximum you need for medium armor, Mage Armor gives you 15AC, which is as good as a Chain Shirt. The best medium armor, Half Plate gives 17AC without a shield (which Warlocks are not proficient with) and confers disadvantage on stealth checks. If you start with 16 dexterity, Mage Armor gives you 16AC, which is the same as a Breastplate and doesn't cost anywhere near as much.
Also you can never be stripped of your armor, and (if you're Pact of the Blade) your weapon, so one of those scenarios where you start naked and unarmed lasts just as long as it takes to cast two spells.
I see a lot of people upset that the Warlock is given half caster progression, but I always thought Warlock before was a little "full caster plus". With boons, eldritch invocations, and more robust subclass and class features than any other full caster gets, I think the Warlock as a half caster with all those extras still equals to around a full caster.
Monks, according to almost all lore, are male members of religious communities, usually with many restrictions and vows placed upon them. Are you saying that is what the Monk class should be?
In Dungeons and Dragons, Warlocks are people who made pacts. There, happy?
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
But that is a simple fix of making Scribe, Memorize, Modify and Create Spell, spells that you never forget because they are basically just class features (Its a simple text edit they forgot, and pretty understandable to just be RAW and RAI).
My main problem: I wish that there was a selector switch (like for "Rick and Morty" content and those other ones on the first page of the character builder interface) that was for the current state of One D&D features. So you could actually use D&DB to build this stuff, play around with it in the character builder, tweak it around to see how the edge cases work out, etc.
Or at the _very_ least, have things like the spells and such ready to go in the Homebrew library (wont help with the classes themselves, but would still help with the other things).
That right there is the key. What’s their other half now? And MAs eating up EI slots is just trash. It’s just bad design all around. They’re taking everything that made Warlocks unique and interesting and “streamlining” it into being another cookie cutter half caster with nothing else going for it.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
It could be even simpler if they just made them class features….
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting