I have gone on record that I started out hating the warlock changes and came to be a bit more open about them, but there are still clear problems to me. The biggest source of opportunity to help THIS version of the warlock is in their invocations, but before talking about them I want to look at proficiencies and pacts. First medium armor and no shield proficiency feels off, if they are going to give medium armor just throwing a shield in there too would feel better.
So far the pacts seem decent. The biggest issues I have are with pact of the blade and pact of the chain. Pact of the blade is too easy a dip now and has the same issues hex blade had for level dips, but it would be good to continue if the rest of the warlock is good as well. Pact of the chain, the familiar is designed in a way that seems to want to encourage attacking with it, but it is still much to frail for that, in addition the invisibility lasting time seems much too short for most things. If I send it invisible and then it has to use an action to pick a lock for me it will then be visible again. Increasing the duration on invisibility and giving back its normal break conditions would help the chain lock a lot other than that rolling some of the pact only invocations into natural improvements of the pacts allow at least part of the invocation tax to subside.
Speaking of invocations and invocation taxes.... agonizing blast, if eldritch blast is going to be tied to warlock levels anyway keeping the damage from agonizing blast here instead of just part of the eldritch blast spell feels like an invocation tax just combine it with eldritch blast naturally.
Armor of shadows, why is this a thing, the warlock has first level slots and has medium armor, many of these "Cast x spell at will" spells were needed because of the lack of spell slots for lower level utility spells, now the warlock has lower level spell slots so this is basically just an extra first level spell per day. There is definitely better "at will spells" that can be done.
Ascendant Step is actually better than it used to be because warlock's access to fly is much worse than it used to be. This provides verticality without a spell slot, but still not great, being constitution this could be better with just at will on anyone and that would justify its 9th level placing.
Beast Speech, this is actually an invocation that may seem weird but is actually still really good for this new warlock. Speak with animals is not naturally on the Arcane spell list so this not only gives the Warlock access to an flavorful information gathering spell not on the arcane list but it also allows them to cast it at will and this doesn't use one of their spell preparations. This is what I think we should see out of our at will invocations.
Devil Sight: still good still works yay
Eldritch sight: Another odd one, the rules glossary gave everyone ritual casting just have detect magic and you can ritual cast it without a slot already. Basically most of these "at will spells" are now just an extra first level spell prepared that doesn't use a first level slot so we have more slots for hex.
Eldritch spear: Still solid, but would love some "sharp shooter" aspects in here
Eyes of the rune keeper: flavorful, but not mechanically strong enough just combine this with eldritch site then they would both feel more potent.
Favor of the chain master: Give the familiar a ranged attack or something. These are interesting but the moment the familiar goes in to deliver one of these they are going to whack it and kill it with its 14 health, either more durability or more ability to get out of trouble.
Fiendish vigor: another spell warlocks can get normally, but this one is just extra health for every combat without a spell slot so still good.
Gaze of two minds: this one can be a lot of fun. Stay hidden behind total cover and let your party go out and just cast concentration spells and eldritch blast without anyone knowing where you are from your fighters location.
Gift of protectors is also pretty good, but I miss the one that allowed sending to people at will from tasha's more than this one.
Hexer: First they need to bring back old hex, then they need to bring back eldritch mind and then they need to find a better hex invocation.
Lessons of the first ones: more of this, this is cool
Life drinker: very basic more damage.
Mask of Many faces: similar issue to some of the other at will first level spells. You can just have disguise self and use a first level slot on it, doubt that you need to cast this that many times per day. It does free up a preparation and one spell slot for shield or hex.
Mask of Myriad forms: this should not be higher than a 5th level invocation.
Misty visions: Same as mask of many faces.
Skipping mystic arcanum
Otherworldly leap: Why is this not first level and it would still have the issues that Misty visions and Mask of Many faces has.
Repelling blast: still good, and now fighters get it to with push weapon trait (though they have a size limit).
Vision of distant realms: still good
Whisper of the grave: this is a 3rd level spell which is much more costly so still good at will.
Witch sight: Still great.
Proposed additional fix: The Warlock needs more invocations that give them access to things not on the arcane spell list or give them at will spells that are for utility and flavor that aren't just first level to really scale with the warlock leveling up.
Mystic arcanum has its own issues. The first is that it is an invocation now reducing the total number of invocations someone will have access to over their adventure. The Second is it starts at level 5 instead of level 3, and the third is the oldest mystic arcanum issue in the book. Mystic arcanum is not a true spell slot. The fact that you have to pick one spell and that "slot" cant be used to upcast lower level spells and later arcanums cant be used to upcast previous arcanums really hurt the flexibility of a warlock.
Proposition: Mystic arcanum Your explorations of the arcane have unlocked magic within you. Gain a spell slot that has a level for which you qualify, as shown on the Mystic Arcanum table. You may prepare one spell of that level it does not count against your number of spells prepared. Look for your Warlock level on the table to see the maximum level that the spell slot can be. Repeatable. You can take this invocation more than once. Each time you do so, the spell slot you gain must be of a different level from any other spell slot you’ve chosen for this invocation.
MYSTIC ARCANUM
Warlock Level Max. Spell Level
3rd-4th 2nd
5th–6th 3rd
7th–8th 4th
9th–10th 5th
11th–12th 6th
13th–14th 7th 15th–16th 8th
17th+ 9th
Finally, Patron spells return to levels 1,3,5,7,9. They count as prepared for you and you can get one free casting of one of your prepared patron spells even if you do not have a spell slot of that level.
TL:DR Allow mystic arcanum to provide real spell slots, allow patron to prepare spells higher level than warlock has spell slots without mystic arcanum, give warlocks a shield and rethink other at will spell invocations to fit better with new warlock.
Edit: Forgot hex master sucks change that give them just about anything else.
Your Mystic Arcanum would allow you to have 4 level 3 spell slots and 4 level 4 spell slots, something that nobody has (and I understand that also 4 level 2 spell slots since it seems you want to tie it to the normal table of levels of the warlock). Instead, it doesn't allow you to learn level 6+ spells, which is the raison d'être of the Mystic Arcanum.
I don't like that proposal. I prefer Mystic Arcanum to be eligible starting at level 11, and to provide usable spells once per long rest from level 6+ (according to the table). Basically as it was in PHB 2014. Instead, I would give the warlock a progression of spell slots as a full caster up to level 10. And from there, stop gaining spell slots (and choose, if he wants, MA to get the spells of level 6+).
Your Mystic Arcanum would allow you to have 4 level 3 spell slots and 4 level 4 spell slots, something that nobody has (and I understand that also 4 level 2 spell slots since it seems you want to tie it to the normal table of levels of the warlock). Instead, it doesn't allow you to learn level 6+ spells, which is the raison d'être of the Mystic Arcanum.
I don't like that proposal. I prefer Mystic Arcanum to be eligible starting at level 11, and to provide usable spells once per long rest from level 6+ (according to the table). Basically as it was in PHB 2014. Instead, I would give the warlock a progression of spell slots as a full caster up to level 10. And from there, stop gaining spell slots (and choose, if he wants, MA to get the spells of level 6+).
You would still be able to get a 6+ MA. There is nothing stopping that here they would just be actual 6th level slots NOT a 6th level spell. Which means you could upcast a lower level spell you have prepared to that slot instead of using your one prepared 6th level spell you still get a 6th level spell and you can even upcast that 6th level spell using the 9nth level slot you get from a 17th level mystic arcanum.
My proposal gives you 1 spell slot of each level and it keeps mystic arcanum as an invocation. at 7 you would have 1 4th level spell slot. You could have 4 3rd level spells.... at level 11, or 4 4th at level 17. At that point I don't believe that is a big issue.
The subclass thing was a completely different part of the suggestion to go ALONG WITH the mystic arcanum suggestion. Arcanum does what it does but becomes actual spell slots even from 6 to 9.
And patron magic is patron magic allowing you to prepare spells that are higher level than you naturally have slots for without mystic arcanum and with the free casting thing allowing you to cast one of those spells even if you do not have any spell slots from mystic arcanum.
Edit: I edited the intended Arcanum chart in to hopefully help with confusion
Hmm, so what you're proposing is that at level 5 you can have a level 3 spell slot, at level 7 one of level 4, and so on. Well, I like that better. But you can still have 4 level 3 spell slots at level 11 and 4 level 4 spell slots at level 17. That's something that no class has, and it's over the normal spell slot limits. But yeah, it's not that it breaks the game by itself either. Although we would have to see how it works.
I have read "Gain a spell slot that has a level for which you qualify", and I thought you were linking it to the progression of walorck spell slots. That is to say, that at level 5 it could have one more level 2 spell, at level 9 one more than level 3, etc...
But following the mystic arcanum table I like it better. It makes the warlock's spell slots scale much better.
Hmm, so what you're proposing is that at level 5 you can have a level 3 spell slot, at level 7 one of level 4, and so on. Well, I like that better. But you can still have 4 level 3 spell slots at level 11 and 4 level 4 spell slots at level 17. That's something that no class has, and it's over the normal spell slot limits. But yeah, it's not that it breaks the game by itself either. Although we would have to see how it works.
I have read "Gain a spell slot that has a level for which you qualify", and I thought you were linking it to the progression of walorck spell slots. That is to say, that at level 5 it could have one more level 2 spell, at level 9 one more than level 3, etc...
But following the mystic arcanum table I like it better. It makes the warlock's spell slots scale much better.
Yep yep, as I have said the biggest issue with Mystic arcanum has always been that it isn't a proper spell slot. Making it much less flexible than normal casting. In this case turning it into a proper spell slot allows for upcasting even as you gain more arcanums both of your normal spells and the spells you gained from arcanum.
Then to top it off I allowed the patrons to give you access to additional preparations that would ALSO be higher than your normal spell progression, you wouldn't get extra slots but they would be prepared for both the free casting feature and for that 1 4th level mystic arcanum if you took that arcanum adding greater flexibility to those spell slots instead of always only having the one spell for that spell levle.
Edit: consider that wizard and sorcerers can create spell slots. There is nothing stopping the sorcerer from spending 5 sorcery points at level 11 to create a 4th 3rd level slot and still have 6 sorcery points left over other than the opportunity cost of those sorcery points. Similarly nothing stopping the lock except the opportunity cost of the invocation.
There is a lot of issues with Warlock still, overall, it hasn't been buffed, if anything it's been nerfed and Warlock was always the last class pure spellcaster in need of nerfing. Having more spell slots is nice, but it's a basic half-caster now like Paladin, however it lacks vs. Paladin. About the only features Warlock has over a Paladin is Pact Boon and Eldritch Invocations. If dropping Warlock down to the same type of spell progression as a Ranger or a Paladin, it needs features to rival Ranger (UA) and Paladin which I just don't think this incarnation of Warlock does.
Mystic Arcanum should give 2 spells and 2 spell slots. The first spell slot should be half of your warlock level rounded down, the second should be a spell slot two lower than the 1st. So if you were a level 13 Warlock, you'd get an extra 6th and 4th level spell slot, or at 15 you'd get a 7th and a 5th; Then able to prepare any arcane spells of those levels or lower.
Hexer is a joke, the range doesn't add that much to 95% of combats and the advantage on concentration means you're still not able to concentrate on other spells, it should act more like Ranger's HM from the UA, concentration free Hex. Hex itself has been nerfed too much, in fact Hex really didn't need a nerf to begin with since it's the spell that gave Warlock baseline damage.
Anything that gives you an at will 1st level spell from the arcane spell list, is kind of a joke.
Let's not go too far either. If your MA get two spell slot. One of half your level, and another of -2 levels, at level 5 would have one more level 2 slot and 1 cantrip (or 1 level 1, I don't know how you would do that). At level 7 one level 3, and another level 1. At level 9 you would have one level 4 and another of level 2. Etc...
That means that at level 9 you have 5 level 1 spell slots (or 6 depending on how you count level 5), 5 level 2, 3 level 3 and 1 level 4. And so you would go up to level 17 for 5 or 6 level 1, 5 level 2, 5 level 3, 5 level 4, 4 level 5, 2 level 6, 1 level 7 and 1 level 8.
That is too much.
I agree that the new warlock's spell slots scale badly. But that doesn't mean they have to scale better than the rest of the full casters.
I wouldn’t touch Patron spells. What you suggested is awkward because they would have them before they have a slot to cast them. I like your changes to Mystic Arcanum. I don’t mind the first level spells as invocations, but agree they should have more options that are unique. Otherworldly leap should come down from 9th level. If it’s not 1st, probably 3rd at best. Eldritch sight and Eyes of the runekeeper combined into one would be good and worth taking. Hexer should be only 300ft and let you cast hex at will. The old hex. Also let’s just get all the good invocations from Xany’s. I realize that’s the real reason they aren’t here. Master of Hexes- When you cast Hex it no longer requires concentration and the duration is until dispelled.
Also 11th level should give you 2 invocations so you get a total of 10.
Let's not go too far either. If your MA get two spell slot. One of half your level, and another of -2 levels, at level 5 would have one more level 2 slot and 1 cantrip (or 1 level 1, I don't know how you would do that). At level 7 one level 3, and another level 1. At level 9 you would have one level 4 and another of level 2. Etc...
That means that at level 9 you have 5 level 1 spell slots (or 6 depending on how you count level 5), 5 level 2, 3 level 3 and 1 level 4. And so you would go up to level 17 for 5 or 6 level 1, 5 level 2, 5 level 3, 5 level 4, 4 level 5, 2 level 6, 1 level 7 and 1 level 8.
That is too much.
I agree that the new warlock's spell slots scale badly. But that doesn't mean they have to scale better than the rest of the full casters.
Level 5 would be the only exception, 2nd's slot can have a minimum level of 1 to fix that single level. However not sure where you are getting, at level 9 with what I said, you'd have a 4th and an extra 2nd level spell slot. At level 9 Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, Clerics and Druids would all have a 5th level spell slot, they would also have 3 4th level spell slots, so no way it's staying up to pace with full spell casters.
Just to note, these aren't additional spell slots per level, there are two max spell slots, that just increase in line with your warlock level.
Let's not go too far either. If your MA get two spell slot. One of half your level, and another of -2 levels, at level 5 would have one more level 2 slot and 1 cantrip (or 1 level 1, I don't know how you would do that). At level 7 one level 3, and another level 1. At level 9 you would have one level 4 and another of level 2. Etc...
That means that at level 9 you have 5 level 1 spell slots (or 6 depending on how you count level 5), 5 level 2, 3 level 3 and 1 level 4. And so you would go up to level 17 for 5 or 6 level 1, 5 level 2, 5 level 3, 5 level 4, 4 level 5, 2 level 6, 1 level 7 and 1 level 8.
That is too much.
I agree that the new warlock's spell slots scale badly. But that doesn't mean they have to scale better than the rest of the full casters.
Level 5 would be the only exception, 2nd's slot can have a minimum level of 1 to fix that single level. However not sure where you are getting, at level 9 with what I said, you'd have a 4th and an extra 2nd level spell slot. At level 9 Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, Clerics and Druids would all have a 5th level spell slot, they would also have 3 4th level spell slots, so no way it's staying up to pace with full spell casters.
Just to note, these aren't additional spell slots per level, there are two max spell slots, that just increase in line with your warlock level.
But could you only take MA once and it would scale with your level? If so, at level 18 you would lose the ability to cast level 6 spells.
Giving Warlocks full spellcaster progression is never going to happen and shouldn't unless they get rid of everything to do with Eldritch Blast. Warlock is not a full spellcaster and it never has been. This UA is just making that more explicit. You need to stop thinking about Warlock compared to Wizard or Sorcerer, because they are not intended to rival them. Instead you could think about Warlock compared to Artificer. The intended play style of Warlock is and has always been for them to be closer to a half-caster than a full caster, in that they get a "Attack" action using either a ranged attack (Eldritch Blast) or a melee attack (Pact of the Blade) that they spam during combat and which they can supplement with one or two spells (Pact Magic), and then some out-of-combat utility magic (Invocations).
This is very much like Ranger and Paladin, even down to the 1st level "extra damage on attacks" spells of Hex/Hunter's Mark/Divine Favor.
The new warlock makes this design more explicit by taking away the unique spell scaling of Warlock. The reason they get Medium Armour and no shield proficiency is because warlocks need a free hand for casting and they get access to the Shield spell. So now Pact of the Blade warlock will play very much like Battlesmith Artificer does now, as an AC-tank magic-enhanced martial, Pact of the Tome is your Artillerist-y one that throws out a variety of cantrips.
Pact of the Chain is interesting, it is simultaneously bad and overpowered at the same time. Pact of the Chain is terrible if you play it the way the books seems to suggest you should play it: i.e. using your familiar in combat to make attacks (no, save that Reaction for Shield always). But is completely OP if you notice the tiny clause "You can add your proficiency Bonus to ANY ability check made by your familiar" - effectively giving you proficiency in all skills and all tools as long as you get your familiar to do it.
Let's not go too far either. If your MA get two spell slot. One of half your level, and another of -2 levels, at level 5 would have one more level 2 slot and 1 cantrip (or 1 level 1, I don't know how you would do that). At level 7 one level 3, and another level 1. At level 9 you would have one level 4 and another of level 2. Etc...
That means that at level 9 you have 5 level 1 spell slots (or 6 depending on how you count level 5), 5 level 2, 3 level 3 and 1 level 4. And so you would go up to level 17 for 5 or 6 level 1, 5 level 2, 5 level 3, 5 level 4, 4 level 5, 2 level 6, 1 level 7 and 1 level 8.
That is too much.
I agree that the new warlock's spell slots scale badly. But that doesn't mean they have to scale better than the rest of the full casters.
Level 5 would be the only exception, 2nd's slot can have a minimum level of 1 to fix that single level. However not sure where you are getting, at level 9 with what I said, you'd have a 4th and an extra 2nd level spell slot. At level 9 Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, Clerics and Druids would all have a 5th level spell slot, they would also have 3 4th level spell slots, so no way it's staying up to pace with full spell casters.
Just to note, these aren't additional spell slots per level, there are two max spell slots, that just increase in line with your warlock level.
But could you only take MA once and it would scale with your level? If so, at level 18 you would lose the ability to cast level 6 spells.
Not with what I said you wouldn't, you could still take a 6th level spell since it'd be same level or lower from the spell slot, you'd have to cast it as a 7th level or 9th level tho.
As I was reading through this I couldn't help but think, "Wow, new Hex sucks... it's a good thing they're giving this to all Warlocks for free, because no one is going to willingly take it as a known spell.". Then I was looking through the invocations and saw "Hexer" and thought, "Oh, okay... you need an invocation to get original Hex. That makes sense", but instead it just boosts the range and makes it harder to break concentration, which isn't at all worth an invocation slot.
Overall I don't like new Warlock. It's not terrible or anything... if I'd never played 5e and this was the first time I saw it, I probably wouldn't think much of it. But I think the appeal of the Warlock in 5e was partly just because it was so different from all the other spellcasters. Their magic works with different rules, and you could be really creative and clever with it. It certainly added an extra challenge to playing a Warlock that I can understand is annoying... I know I've seen a lot of games where they just give Warlocks additional spell slots, but they still always kept the limited spell slots that recover on a short rest.
I think there's been a clear, concerted effort to reduce reliance on Short Rests, and I think we're seeing that best exemplified by the changes to Warlock. Similarly, Fighters had their Second Wind feature changed to get multiple uses per day without relying on short rests. Overall 5e was partially balanced under the assumption that players would experience 5+ battles per day, and would likely have multiple short rests throughout... however, in my experience it's rare to have that many combats in a game unless you're actively venturing into a dungeon or other dangerous locale where you aren't likely to be able to take short rests anyway. It's just now how most tables play the game... it's similar to how Rangers have basically abandoned their focus on the exploration leg of the game, largely because most tables skip over that part of the game anyway.
Giving Warlocks full spellcaster progression is never going to happen and shouldn't unless they get rid of everything to do with Eldritch Blast. Warlock is not a full spellcaster and it never has been. This UA is just making that more explicit. You need to stop thinking about Warlock compared to Wizard or Sorcerer, because they are not intended to rival them. Instead you could think about Warlock compared to Artificer. The intended play style of Warlock is and has always been for them to be closer to a half-caster than a full caster, in that they get a "Attack" action using either a ranged attack (Eldritch Blast) or a melee attack (Pact of the Blade) that they spam during combat and which they can supplement with one or two spells (Pact Magic), and then some out-of-combat utility magic (Invocations).
This is very much like Ranger and Paladin, even down to the 1st level "extra damage on attacks" spells of Hex/Hunter's Mark/Divine Favor.
The new warlock makes this design more explicit by taking away the unique spell scaling of Warlock. The reason they get Medium Armour and no shield proficiency is because warlocks need a free hand for casting and they get access to the Shield spell. So now Pact of the Blade warlock will play very much like Battlesmith Artificer does now, as an AC-tank magic-enhanced martial, Pact of the Tome is your Artillerist-y one that throws out a variety of cantrips.
Pact of the Chain is interesting, it is simultaneously bad and overpowered at the same time. Pact of the Chain is terrible if you play it the way the books seems to suggest you should play it: i.e. using your familiar in combat to make attacks (no, save that Reaction for Shield always). But is completely OP if you notice the tiny clause "You can add your proficiency Bonus to ANY ability check made by your familiar" - effectively giving you proficiency in all skills and all tools as long as you get your familiar to do it.
I think we do need to ask "if warlocks WERE given full casting what would invocations look like?" Because if we had that, then the class would be less eldritch blast reliant the at will spells would be even worse and you would largely just have a weird wizard/sorcerer without most of the wizard/sorcerer perks. This is why mystic arcanum is good to help, but the warlock really needs things OTHER than mystic arcanum and eldritch blast to really stand out in my opinion. This is where other invocations are needed to help and where these at will spells need to start being moved by the way side for something a little better. At will spells are not horrible, but with the low level slots available they aren't super needed either.
The hex idea of no concentration on an invocation would be really cool. Especially at 9, maybe rolling bestow curse into it and make it your hex and bestow curse spell would be really cool, so even though you only have access to a level 3 bestow curse you could still get the concentration less bestow curse with a use of an invocation.
1) You only need 4 MA to keep up with full casters because you can swap out the lower level ones every level. So at levels 5, 7, and 9 you pick up MA (3rd), MA (4th) and MA (5th) respectively - you're keeping pace with a full caster at all those levels. At 9th you also swap out MA (3rd) for another invocation because you naturally have 3rd-level spells from your class now. Then at level 11 you pick up MA (6th), you're still level with a full caster. At level 13 you pick up MA (7th) and swap out MA (4th) for something else because now you natively have 4ths. At 15 you pick up MA (8th). At 17 you pick up MA (9th) and swap out MA (5th) for something else.
End result: you have MA (9th, 8th, 7th, 6th) and the rest of your invo can be spent as you wish. The only time you're behind a full caster progression is levels 3 and 4 exactly.
2) You don't actually need Agonizing Blast either if you go Tome Pact, they get it built in at 5th. You can grab it at 2 and then drop it at 5 when you get MA (3rd). That frees up another one.
1) You only need 4 MA to keep up with full casters because you can swap out the lower level ones every level. So at levels 5, 7, and 9 you pick up MA (3rd), MA (4th) and MA (5th) respectively - you're keeping pace with a full caster at all those levels. At 9th you also swap out MA (3rd) for another invocation because you naturally have 3rd-level spells from your class now. Then at level 11 you pick up MA (6th), you're still level with a full caster. At level 13 you pick up MA (7th) and swap out MA (4th) for something else because now you natively have 4ths. At 15 you pick up MA (8th). At 17 you pick up MA (9th) and swap out MA (5th) for something else.
End result: you have MA (9th, 8th, 7th, 6th) and the rest of your invo can be spent as you wish. The only time you're behind a full caster progression is levels 3 and 4 exactly.
2) You don't actually need Agonizing Blast either if you go Tome Pact, they get it built in at 5th. You can grab it at 2 and then drop it at 5 when you get MA (3rd). That frees up another one.
Yep, I saw this. The problem is you can't upcast any of your spells or anything in those slots, so it isn't really "equivalent to spell casting" with mystic arcanum and really kills some flexibility in both choice and utilization.
2. Warlocks have traded one issue for another. Most of the invocations were built around solving the old problem and don't make sense with the new "problem" except mystic arcanum and the invocations that were always strong. This is why there is so much talk about arcanum.
The old problem was you had very limited spell slots and no lower level slots so using them on low level utility spells was a waste. This is where the at will spells largely solved some of this problem allowing for utility spells that wouldn't consume slots. With the new casting allowing plenty of low level spells but no high level spells a lot of these invocations they just became much weaker I think they are still fun and interesting, but it is going to be rarer and rarer to take them rather than just taking the spell they let you cast. Meanwhile the lack of any high level spells outside of mystic arcanum has increased the desire for it.
Finally, the fact that you don't need agonizing blast on a blade lock or on a tome lock just goes to show how SOL the Chain lock is. every lock now has access to find familiar and the chain familiar itself has really been hurt by the invisibility change on it and isn't much more durable than normal familiars, which it used to be significantly more durable than. It lose resistance and it lost half its health at level 3. This also makes the idea of just rolling it into eldritch blast naturally more appealing as well. Because if it is just going to be a tax for one type of pact, and that is potentially the weakest pact already that feels crummy.
I feel like if wizards really wants the chain lock to use the familiar in combat it needs more durability and/or the ability to go invisible as a bonus action instead of an action.
I think we do need to ask "if warlocks WERE given full casting what would invocations look like?" Because if we had that, then the class would be less eldritch blast reliant the at will spells would be even worse and you would largely just have a weird wizard/sorcerer without most of the wizard/sorcerer perks. This is why mystic arcanum is good to help, but the warlock really needs things OTHER than mystic arcanum and eldritch blast to really stand out in my opinion. This is where other invocations are needed to help and where these at will spells need to start being moved by the way side for something a little better. At will spells are not horrible, but with the low level slots available they aren't super needed either.
The hex idea of no concentration on an invocation would be really cool. Especially at 9, maybe rolling bestow curse into it and make it your hex and bestow curse spell would be really cool, so even though you only have access to a level 3 bestow curse you could still get the concentration less bestow curse with a use of an invocation.
A warlock with full spellcasting would have all the "at will" invocations removed, and all the boosts to EB removed, mystic arcanum removed. You could still do the different pacts with Tome getting ritual casting, and separate out the pact-related invocations once again so there are still invocations to choose from. The spell invocations would just be extra spells known with no free castings.
Yep, I saw this. The problem is you can't upcast any of your spells or anything in those slots, so it isn't really "equivalent to spell casting" with mystic arcanum and really kills some flexibility in both choice and utilization.
You're equivalent in terms of spell acquisition; yes, Mystic Arcana can't be used to upcast, but that's nothing new, they worked that way in 5e. That's the price Warlocks pay for having the best cantrips and always-on spells.
There's still fantastic spells Warlocks can grab at each spell level that don't need upcasting to be good, e.g. Hold Monster, Eyebite, Forcecage, Crown of Stars, Glibness, Maze, Foresight, Wish...
The old problem was you had very limited spell slots and no lower level slots so using them on low level utility spells was a waste. This is where the at will spells largely solved some of this problem allowing for utility spells that wouldn't consume slots. With the new casting allowing plenty of low level spells but no high level spells a lot of these invocations they just became much weaker I think they are still fun and interesting, but it is going to be rarer and rarer to take them rather than just taking the spell they let you cast. Meanwhile the lack of any high level spells outside of mystic arcanum has increased the desire for it.
Finally, the fact that you don't need agonizing blast on a blade lock or on a tome lock just goes to show how SOL the Chain lock is. every lock now has access to find familiar and the chain familiar itself has really been hurt by the invisibility change on it and isn't much more durable than normal familiars, which it used to be significantly more durable than. It lose resistance and it lost half its health at level 3. This also makes the idea of just rolling it into eldritch blast naturally more appealing as well. Because if it is just going to be a tax for one type of pact, and that is potentially the weakest pact already that feels crummy.
1) Frankly - yes, if you're not going to use Chain Master then you're better off not going with Chain Pact. That's nothing new either though.
2) Chainlocks with Chain Master are stronger than you think. The Chain Master debuffs have no saving throw or concentration, and they can be applied repeatedly. Keeping a target perpetually poisoned or frightened is a great debuff, both to protect the familiar itself and to protect you and your party as a whole.
3) Now that you HAVE utility low level slots, you can skip the invocations that waste time on them. No need for Armor of Shadows when you can just cast Mage Armor. No need for Eyes of the Runekeeper when you can cast Comprehend Languages (as a ritual no less.) No need for Eldritch Sight when you can cast Detect Magic (as a ritual no less.) It's great.
As I was reading through this I couldn't help but think, "Wow, new Hex sucks... it's a good thing they're giving this to all Warlocks for free, because no one is going to willingly take it as a known spell.". Then I was looking through the invocations and saw "Hexer" and thought, "Oh, okay... you need an invocation to get original Hex. That makes sense", but instead it just boosts the range and makes it harder to break concentration, which isn't at all worth an invocation slot.
Warlocks get Hex for free at level 1 along with Eldritch Blast, it's part of the Pact Boon feature rather than the Spellcasting feature.
As I was reading through this I couldn't help but think, "Wow, new Hex sucks... it's a good thing they're giving this to all Warlocks for free, because no one is going to willingly take it as a known spell.". Then I was looking through the invocations and saw "Hexer" and thought, "Oh, okay... you need an invocation to get original Hex. That makes sense", but instead it just boosts the range and makes it harder to break concentration, which isn't at all worth an invocation slot.
Warlocks get Hex for free at level 1 along with Eldritch Blast, it's part of the Pact Boon feature rather than the Spellcasting feature.
Um... yes? I agree. That's exactly what I was commenting on when I said all Warlocks get hex for free.
Anyway, something else I wanted to mention that I actually liked in this revamp of the Warlock was decoupling being able to attack with your spellcasting modifier from the Hexblade subclass. Hexblade is just so over-represented compared to other Warlock subclasses... even if you end up not really using your weapon (I've seen quite a few Hexblades realize they actually deal more damage just relying on Eldritch Blast), the other features you get from just the first level of Hexblade still make it desirable. So just giving warlocks medium armor and the ability to play as a melee-focused fighter reliably regardless of subclass does a much better job of realizing their potential as the hyper-customizable class in the game. I think there's still a lot of problems with the new Warlock, but that was one change that actually made me excited for its potential, instead of pondering whether or not the change fixes anything or if it just creates a new problem.
Yep, I saw this. The problem is you can't upcast any of your spells or anything in those slots, so it isn't really "equivalent to spell casting" with mystic arcanum and really kills some flexibility in both choice and utilization.
You're equivalent in terms of spell acquisition; yes, Mystic Arcana can't be used to upcast, but that's nothing new, they worked that way in 5e. That's the price Warlocks pay for having the best cantrips and always-on spells.
There's still fantastic spells Warlocks can grab at each spell level that don't need upcasting to be good, e.g. Hold Monster, Eyebite, Forcecage, Crown of Stars, Glibness, Maze, Foresight, Wish...
The old problem was you had very limited spell slots and no lower level slots so using them on low level utility spells was a waste. This is where the at will spells largely solved some of this problem allowing for utility spells that wouldn't consume slots. With the new casting allowing plenty of low level spells but no high level spells a lot of these invocations they just became much weaker I think they are still fun and interesting, but it is going to be rarer and rarer to take them rather than just taking the spell they let you cast. Meanwhile the lack of any high level spells outside of mystic arcanum has increased the desire for it.
Finally, the fact that you don't need agonizing blast on a blade lock or on a tome lock just goes to show how SOL the Chain lock is. every lock now has access to find familiar and the chain familiar itself has really been hurt by the invisibility change on it and isn't much more durable than normal familiars, which it used to be significantly more durable than. It lose resistance and it lost half its health at level 3. This also makes the idea of just rolling it into eldritch blast naturally more appealing as well. Because if it is just going to be a tax for one type of pact, and that is potentially the weakest pact already that feels crummy.
1) Frankly - yes, if you're not going to use Chain Master then you're better off not going with Chain Pact. That's nothing new either though.
2) Chainlocks with Chain Master are stronger than you think. The Chain Master debuffs have no saving throw or concentration, and they can be applied repeatedly. Keeping a target perpetually poisoned or frightened is a great debuff, both to protect the familiar itself and to protect you and your party as a whole.
3) Now that you HAVE utility low level slots, you can skip the invocations that waste time on them. No need for Armor of Shadows when you can just cast Mage Armor. No need for Eyes of the Runekeeper when you can cast Comprehend Languages (as a ritual no less.) No need for Eldritch Sight when you can cast Detect Magic (as a ritual no less.) It's great.
As I was reading through this I couldn't help but think, "Wow, new Hex sucks... it's a good thing they're giving this to all Warlocks for free, because no one is going to willingly take it as a known spell.". Then I was looking through the invocations and saw "Hexer" and thought, "Oh, okay... you need an invocation to get original Hex. That makes sense", but instead it just boosts the range and makes it harder to break concentration, which isn't at all worth an invocation slot.
Warlocks get Hex for free at level 1 along with Eldritch Blast, it's part of the Pact Boon feature rather than the Spellcasting feature.
Part 1 yes, and that has been a problem with mystic arcanum for the last 10 years.
Part 2: at level 9, that is near the end of the campaign, the other 2 dont need to wait that long AND they dont still have the additional tax of agonizing blast.
Finally, that is the problem with the at will spells. If you are happy to not take them then, by definition, they aren't strong enough to be invocations. At that point they arent a real choice. They are there but no one is picking them.
Combine misty visions and mask of many faces into one. Combine eyes of the rune keeper and eldritch sight. These would create more REAL choices. They still wouldn't be amazing.
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I have gone on record that I started out hating the warlock changes and came to be a bit more open about them, but there are still clear problems to me. The biggest source of opportunity to help THIS version of the warlock is in their invocations, but before talking about them I want to look at proficiencies and pacts. First medium armor and no shield proficiency feels off, if they are going to give medium armor just throwing a shield in there too would feel better.
So far the pacts seem decent. The biggest issues I have are with pact of the blade and pact of the chain. Pact of the blade is too easy a dip now and has the same issues hex blade had for level dips, but it would be good to continue if the rest of the warlock is good as well. Pact of the chain, the familiar is designed in a way that seems to want to encourage attacking with it, but it is still much to frail for that, in addition the invisibility lasting time seems much too short for most things. If I send it invisible and then it has to use an action to pick a lock for me it will then be visible again. Increasing the duration on invisibility and giving back its normal break conditions would help the chain lock a lot other than that rolling some of the pact only invocations into natural improvements of the pacts allow at least part of the invocation tax to subside.
Speaking of invocations and invocation taxes.... agonizing blast, if eldritch blast is going to be tied to warlock levels anyway keeping the damage from agonizing blast here instead of just part of the eldritch blast spell feels like an invocation tax just combine it with eldritch blast naturally.
Armor of shadows, why is this a thing, the warlock has first level slots and has medium armor, many of these "Cast x spell at will" spells were needed because of the lack of spell slots for lower level utility spells, now the warlock has lower level spell slots so this is basically just an extra first level spell per day. There is definitely better "at will spells" that can be done.
Ascendant Step is actually better than it used to be because warlock's access to fly is much worse than it used to be. This provides verticality without a spell slot, but still not great, being constitution this could be better with just at will on anyone and that would justify its 9th level placing.
Beast Speech, this is actually an invocation that may seem weird but is actually still really good for this new warlock. Speak with animals is not naturally on the Arcane spell list so this not only gives the Warlock access to an flavorful information gathering spell not on the arcane list but it also allows them to cast it at will and this doesn't use one of their spell preparations. This is what I think we should see out of our at will invocations.
Devil Sight: still good still works yay
Eldritch sight: Another odd one, the rules glossary gave everyone ritual casting just have detect magic and you can ritual cast it without a slot already. Basically most of these "at will spells" are now just an extra first level spell prepared that doesn't use a first level slot so we have more slots for hex.
Eldritch spear: Still solid, but would love some "sharp shooter" aspects in here
Eyes of the rune keeper: flavorful, but not mechanically strong enough just combine this with eldritch site then they would both feel more potent.
Favor of the chain master: Give the familiar a ranged attack or something. These are interesting but the moment the familiar goes in to deliver one of these they are going to whack it and kill it with its 14 health, either more durability or more ability to get out of trouble.
Fiendish vigor: another spell warlocks can get normally, but this one is just extra health for every combat without a spell slot so still good.
Gaze of two minds: this one can be a lot of fun. Stay hidden behind total cover and let your party go out and just cast concentration spells and eldritch blast without anyone knowing where you are from your fighters location.
Gift of protectors is also pretty good, but I miss the one that allowed sending to people at will from tasha's more than this one.
Hexer: First they need to bring back old hex, then they need to bring back eldritch mind and then they need to find a better hex invocation.
Lessons of the first ones: more of this, this is cool
Life drinker: very basic more damage.
Mask of Many faces: similar issue to some of the other at will first level spells. You can just have disguise self and use a first level slot on it, doubt that you need to cast this that many times per day. It does free up a preparation and one spell slot for shield or hex.
Mask of Myriad forms: this should not be higher than a 5th level invocation.
Misty visions: Same as mask of many faces.
Skipping mystic arcanum
Otherworldly leap: Why is this not first level and it would still have the issues that Misty visions and Mask of Many faces has.
Repelling blast: still good, and now fighters get it to with push weapon trait (though they have a size limit).
Vision of distant realms: still good
Whisper of the grave: this is a 3rd level spell which is much more costly so still good at will.
Witch sight: Still great.
Proposed additional fix: The Warlock needs more invocations that give them access to things not on the arcane spell list or give them at will spells that are for utility and flavor that aren't just first level to really scale with the warlock leveling up.
Mystic arcanum has its own issues. The first is that it is an invocation now reducing the total number of invocations someone will have access to over their adventure. The Second is it starts at level 5 instead of level 3, and the third is the oldest mystic arcanum issue in the book. Mystic arcanum is not a true spell slot. The fact that you have to pick one spell and that "slot" cant be used to upcast lower level spells and later arcanums cant be used to upcast previous arcanums really hurt the flexibility of a warlock.
Proposition: Mystic arcanum Your explorations of the arcane have unlocked magic within you. Gain a spell slot that has a level for which you qualify, as shown on the Mystic Arcanum table. You may prepare one spell of that level it does not count against your number of spells prepared. Look for your Warlock level on the table to see the maximum level that the spell slot can be. Repeatable. You can take this invocation more than once. Each time you do so, the spell slot you gain must be of a different level from any other spell slot you’ve chosen for this invocation.
MYSTIC ARCANUM
Warlock Level Max. Spell Level
3rd-4th 2nd
5th–6th 3rd
7th–8th 4th
9th–10th 5th
11th–12th 6th
13th–14th 7th
15th–16th 8th
17th+ 9th
Finally, Patron spells return to levels 1,3,5,7,9. They count as prepared for you and you can get one free casting of one of your prepared patron spells even if you do not have a spell slot of that level.
TL:DR Allow mystic arcanum to provide real spell slots, allow patron to prepare spells higher level than warlock has spell slots without mystic arcanum, give warlocks a shield and rethink other at will spell invocations to fit better with new warlock.
Edit: Forgot hex master sucks change that give them just about anything else.
Your Mystic Arcanum would allow you to have 4 level 3 spell slots and 4 level 4 spell slots, something that nobody has (and I understand that also 4 level 2 spell slots since it seems you want to tie it to the normal table of levels of the warlock). Instead, it doesn't allow you to learn level 6+ spells, which is the raison d'être of the Mystic Arcanum.
I don't like that proposal. I prefer Mystic Arcanum to be eligible starting at level 11, and to provide usable spells once per long rest from level 6+ (according to the table). Basically as it was in PHB 2014. Instead, I would give the warlock a progression of spell slots as a full caster up to level 10. And from there, stop gaining spell slots (and choose, if he wants, MA to get the spells of level 6+).
You would still be able to get a 6+ MA. There is nothing stopping that here they would just be actual 6th level slots NOT a 6th level spell. Which means you could upcast a lower level spell you have prepared to that slot instead of using your one prepared 6th level spell you still get a 6th level spell and you can even upcast that 6th level spell using the 9nth level slot you get from a 17th level mystic arcanum.
My proposal gives you 1 spell slot of each level and it keeps mystic arcanum as an invocation. at 7 you would have 1 4th level spell slot. You could have 4 3rd level spells.... at level 11, or 4 4th at level 17. At that point I don't believe that is a big issue.
The subclass thing was a completely different part of the suggestion to go ALONG WITH the mystic arcanum suggestion.
Arcanum does what it does but becomes actual spell slots even from 6 to 9.
And patron magic is patron magic allowing you to prepare spells that are higher level than you naturally have slots for without mystic arcanum and with the free casting thing allowing you to cast one of those spells even if you do not have any spell slots from mystic arcanum.
Edit: I edited the intended Arcanum chart in to hopefully help with confusion
Hmm, so what you're proposing is that at level 5 you can have a level 3 spell slot, at level 7 one of level 4, and so on. Well, I like that better. But you can still have 4 level 3 spell slots at level 11 and 4 level 4 spell slots at level 17. That's something that no class has, and it's over the normal spell slot limits. But yeah, it's not that it breaks the game by itself either. Although we would have to see how it works.
I have read "Gain a spell slot that has a level for which you qualify", and I thought you were linking it to the progression of walorck spell slots. That is to say, that at level 5 it could have one more level 2 spell, at level 9 one more than level 3, etc...
But following the mystic arcanum table I like it better. It makes the warlock's spell slots scale much better.
Yep yep, as I have said the biggest issue with Mystic arcanum has always been that it isn't a proper spell slot. Making it much less flexible than normal casting. In this case turning it into a proper spell slot allows for upcasting even as you gain more arcanums both of your normal spells and the spells you gained from arcanum.
Then to top it off I allowed the patrons to give you access to additional preparations that would ALSO be higher than your normal spell progression, you wouldn't get extra slots but they would be prepared for both the free casting feature and for that 1 4th level mystic arcanum if you took that arcanum adding greater flexibility to those spell slots instead of always only having the one spell for that spell levle.
Edit: consider that wizard and sorcerers can create spell slots. There is nothing stopping the sorcerer from spending 5 sorcery points at level 11 to create a 4th 3rd level slot and still have 6 sorcery points left over other than the opportunity cost of those sorcery points. Similarly nothing stopping the lock except the opportunity cost of the invocation.
There is a lot of issues with Warlock still, overall, it hasn't been buffed, if anything it's been nerfed and Warlock was always the last class pure spellcaster in need of nerfing. Having more spell slots is nice, but it's a basic half-caster now like Paladin, however it lacks vs. Paladin. About the only features Warlock has over a Paladin is Pact Boon and Eldritch Invocations. If dropping Warlock down to the same type of spell progression as a Ranger or a Paladin, it needs features to rival Ranger (UA) and Paladin which I just don't think this incarnation of Warlock does.
Mystic Arcanum should give 2 spells and 2 spell slots. The first spell slot should be half of your warlock level rounded down, the second should be a spell slot two lower than the 1st. So if you were a level 13 Warlock, you'd get an extra 6th and 4th level spell slot, or at 15 you'd get a 7th and a 5th; Then able to prepare any arcane spells of those levels or lower.
Hexer is a joke, the range doesn't add that much to 95% of combats and the advantage on concentration means you're still not able to concentrate on other spells, it should act more like Ranger's HM from the UA, concentration free Hex. Hex itself has been nerfed too much, in fact Hex really didn't need a nerf to begin with since it's the spell that gave Warlock baseline damage.
Anything that gives you an at will 1st level spell from the arcane spell list, is kind of a joke.
Let's not go too far either. If your MA get two spell slot. One of half your level, and another of -2 levels, at level 5 would have one more level 2 slot and 1 cantrip (or 1 level 1, I don't know how you would do that). At level 7 one level 3, and another level 1. At level 9 you would have one level 4 and another of level 2. Etc...
That means that at level 9 you have 5 level 1 spell slots (or 6 depending on how you count level 5), 5 level 2, 3 level 3 and 1 level 4. And so you would go up to level 17 for 5 or 6 level 1, 5 level 2, 5 level 3, 5 level 4, 4 level 5, 2 level 6, 1 level 7 and 1 level 8.
That is too much.
I agree that the new warlock's spell slots scale badly. But that doesn't mean they have to scale better than the rest of the full casters.
I wouldn’t touch Patron spells. What you suggested is awkward because they would have them before they have a slot to cast them. I like your changes to Mystic Arcanum.
I don’t mind the first level spells as invocations, but agree they should have more options that are unique. Otherworldly leap should come down from 9th level. If it’s not 1st, probably 3rd at best. Eldritch sight and Eyes of the runekeeper combined into one would be good and worth taking.
Hexer should be only 300ft and let you cast hex at will. The old hex.
Also let’s just get all the good invocations from Xany’s. I realize that’s the real reason they aren’t here.
Master of Hexes- When you cast Hex it no longer requires concentration and the duration is until dispelled.
Also 11th level should give you 2 invocations so you get a total of 10.
Level 5 would be the only exception, 2nd's slot can have a minimum level of 1 to fix that single level. However not sure where you are getting, at level 9 with what I said, you'd have a 4th and an extra 2nd level spell slot. At level 9 Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, Clerics and Druids would all have a 5th level spell slot, they would also have 3 4th level spell slots, so no way it's staying up to pace with full spell casters.
Just to note, these aren't additional spell slots per level, there are two max spell slots, that just increase in line with your warlock level.
But could you only take MA once and it would scale with your level? If so, at level 18 you would lose the ability to cast level 6 spells.
Giving Warlocks full spellcaster progression is never going to happen and shouldn't unless they get rid of everything to do with Eldritch Blast. Warlock is not a full spellcaster and it never has been. This UA is just making that more explicit. You need to stop thinking about Warlock compared to Wizard or Sorcerer, because they are not intended to rival them. Instead you could think about Warlock compared to Artificer. The intended play style of Warlock is and has always been for them to be closer to a half-caster than a full caster, in that they get a "Attack" action using either a ranged attack (Eldritch Blast) or a melee attack (Pact of the Blade) that they spam during combat and which they can supplement with one or two spells (Pact Magic), and then some out-of-combat utility magic (Invocations).
This is very much like Ranger and Paladin, even down to the 1st level "extra damage on attacks" spells of Hex/Hunter's Mark/Divine Favor.
The new warlock makes this design more explicit by taking away the unique spell scaling of Warlock. The reason they get Medium Armour and no shield proficiency is because warlocks need a free hand for casting and they get access to the Shield spell. So now Pact of the Blade warlock will play very much like Battlesmith Artificer does now, as an AC-tank magic-enhanced martial, Pact of the Tome is your Artillerist-y one that throws out a variety of cantrips.
Pact of the Chain is interesting, it is simultaneously bad and overpowered at the same time. Pact of the Chain is terrible if you play it the way the books seems to suggest you should play it: i.e. using your familiar in combat to make attacks (no, save that Reaction for Shield always). But is completely OP if you notice the tiny clause "You can add your proficiency Bonus to ANY ability check made by your familiar" - effectively giving you proficiency in all skills and all tools as long as you get your familiar to do it.
Not with what I said you wouldn't, you could still take a 6th level spell since it'd be same level or lower from the spell slot, you'd have to cast it as a 7th level or 9th level tho.
As I was reading through this I couldn't help but think, "Wow, new Hex sucks... it's a good thing they're giving this to all Warlocks for free, because no one is going to willingly take it as a known spell.". Then I was looking through the invocations and saw "Hexer" and thought, "Oh, okay... you need an invocation to get original Hex. That makes sense", but instead it just boosts the range and makes it harder to break concentration, which isn't at all worth an invocation slot.
Overall I don't like new Warlock. It's not terrible or anything... if I'd never played 5e and this was the first time I saw it, I probably wouldn't think much of it. But I think the appeal of the Warlock in 5e was partly just because it was so different from all the other spellcasters. Their magic works with different rules, and you could be really creative and clever with it. It certainly added an extra challenge to playing a Warlock that I can understand is annoying... I know I've seen a lot of games where they just give Warlocks additional spell slots, but they still always kept the limited spell slots that recover on a short rest.
I think there's been a clear, concerted effort to reduce reliance on Short Rests, and I think we're seeing that best exemplified by the changes to Warlock. Similarly, Fighters had their Second Wind feature changed to get multiple uses per day without relying on short rests. Overall 5e was partially balanced under the assumption that players would experience 5+ battles per day, and would likely have multiple short rests throughout... however, in my experience it's rare to have that many combats in a game unless you're actively venturing into a dungeon or other dangerous locale where you aren't likely to be able to take short rests anyway. It's just now how most tables play the game... it's similar to how Rangers have basically abandoned their focus on the exploration leg of the game, largely because most tables skip over that part of the game anyway.
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I think we do need to ask "if warlocks WERE given full casting what would invocations look like?" Because if we had that, then the class would be less eldritch blast reliant the at will spells would be even worse and you would largely just have a weird wizard/sorcerer without most of the wizard/sorcerer perks. This is why mystic arcanum is good to help, but the warlock really needs things OTHER than mystic arcanum and eldritch blast to really stand out in my opinion. This is where other invocations are needed to help and where these at will spells need to start being moved by the way side for something a little better. At will spells are not horrible, but with the low level slots available they aren't super needed either.
The hex idea of no concentration on an invocation would be really cool. Especially at 9, maybe rolling bestow curse into it and make it your hex and bestow curse spell would be really cool, so even though you only have access to a level 3 bestow curse you could still get the concentration less bestow curse with a use of an invocation.
1) You only need 4 MA to keep up with full casters because you can swap out the lower level ones every level. So at levels 5, 7, and 9 you pick up MA (3rd), MA (4th) and MA (5th) respectively - you're keeping pace with a full caster at all those levels. At 9th you also swap out MA (3rd) for another invocation because you naturally have 3rd-level spells from your class now. Then at level 11 you pick up MA (6th), you're still level with a full caster. At level 13 you pick up MA (7th) and swap out MA (4th) for something else because now you natively have 4ths. At 15 you pick up MA (8th). At 17 you pick up MA (9th) and swap out MA (5th) for something else.
End result: you have MA (9th, 8th, 7th, 6th) and the rest of your invo can be spent as you wish. The only time you're behind a full caster progression is levels 3 and 4 exactly.
2) You don't actually need Agonizing Blast either if you go Tome Pact, they get it built in at 5th. You can grab it at 2 and then drop it at 5 when you get MA (3rd). That frees up another one.
Yep, I saw this. The problem is you can't upcast any of your spells or anything in those slots, so it isn't really "equivalent to spell casting" with mystic arcanum and really kills some flexibility in both choice and utilization.
2. Warlocks have traded one issue for another. Most of the invocations were built around solving the old problem and don't make sense with the new "problem" except mystic arcanum and the invocations that were always strong. This is why there is so much talk about arcanum.
The old problem was you had very limited spell slots and no lower level slots so using them on low level utility spells was a waste. This is where the at will spells largely solved some of this problem allowing for utility spells that wouldn't consume slots. With the new casting allowing plenty of low level spells but no high level spells a lot of these invocations they just became much weaker I think they are still fun and interesting, but it is going to be rarer and rarer to take them rather than just taking the spell they let you cast. Meanwhile the lack of any high level spells outside of mystic arcanum has increased the desire for it.
Finally, the fact that you don't need agonizing blast on a blade lock or on a tome lock just goes to show how SOL the Chain lock is. every lock now has access to find familiar and the chain familiar itself has really been hurt by the invisibility change on it and isn't much more durable than normal familiars, which it used to be significantly more durable than. It lose resistance and it lost half its health at level 3. This also makes the idea of just rolling it into eldritch blast naturally more appealing as well. Because if it is just going to be a tax for one type of pact, and that is potentially the weakest pact already that feels crummy.
I feel like if wizards really wants the chain lock to use the familiar in combat it needs more durability and/or the ability to go invisible as a bonus action instead of an action.
A warlock with full spellcasting would have all the "at will" invocations removed, and all the boosts to EB removed, mystic arcanum removed. You could still do the different pacts with Tome getting ritual casting, and separate out the pact-related invocations once again so there are still invocations to choose from. The spell invocations would just be extra spells known with no free castings.
You're equivalent in terms of spell acquisition; yes, Mystic Arcana can't be used to upcast, but that's nothing new, they worked that way in 5e. That's the price Warlocks pay for having the best cantrips and always-on spells.
There's still fantastic spells Warlocks can grab at each spell level that don't need upcasting to be good, e.g. Hold Monster, Eyebite, Forcecage, Crown of Stars, Glibness, Maze, Foresight, Wish...
1) Frankly - yes, if you're not going to use Chain Master then you're better off not going with Chain Pact. That's nothing new either though.
2) Chainlocks with Chain Master are stronger than you think. The Chain Master debuffs have no saving throw or concentration, and they can be applied repeatedly. Keeping a target perpetually poisoned or frightened is a great debuff, both to protect the familiar itself and to protect you and your party as a whole.
3) Now that you HAVE utility low level slots, you can skip the invocations that waste time on them. No need for Armor of Shadows when you can just cast Mage Armor. No need for Eyes of the Runekeeper when you can cast Comprehend Languages (as a ritual no less.) No need for Eldritch Sight when you can cast Detect Magic (as a ritual no less.) It's great.
Warlocks get Hex for free at level 1 along with Eldritch Blast, it's part of the Pact Boon feature rather than the Spellcasting feature.
Um... yes? I agree. That's exactly what I was commenting on when I said all Warlocks get hex for free.
Anyway, something else I wanted to mention that I actually liked in this revamp of the Warlock was decoupling being able to attack with your spellcasting modifier from the Hexblade subclass. Hexblade is just so over-represented compared to other Warlock subclasses... even if you end up not really using your weapon (I've seen quite a few Hexblades realize they actually deal more damage just relying on Eldritch Blast), the other features you get from just the first level of Hexblade still make it desirable. So just giving warlocks medium armor and the ability to play as a melee-focused fighter reliably regardless of subclass does a much better job of realizing their potential as the hyper-customizable class in the game. I think there's still a lot of problems with the new Warlock, but that was one change that actually made me excited for its potential, instead of pondering whether or not the change fixes anything or if it just creates a new problem.
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Part 1 yes, and that has been a problem with mystic arcanum for the last 10 years.
Part 2: at level 9, that is near the end of the campaign, the other 2 dont need to wait that long AND they dont still have the additional tax of agonizing blast.
Finally, that is the problem with the at will spells. If you are happy to not take them then, by definition, they aren't strong enough to be invocations. At that point they arent a real choice. They are there but no one is picking them.
Combine misty visions and mask of many faces into one. Combine eyes of the rune keeper and eldritch sight. These would create more REAL choices. They still wouldn't be amazing.