I don't hate the changes, but on balance I dislike a lot more about it than I like.
Actually PsyrenXY has helped me realises that I actually do hate the UA Warlock, because defending the indefensible only highlights just how badly wrong they've got parts of it.
Changing to long rest slots makes sense, but I'd prefer unique scaling rather than it just becoming a boring half caster.
While I like boons all having built in scaling, I don't like them being cantrips (why even create Magic actions if you're not going to use them?)
While I like the idea of summoning it on demand, in practice the Book of Shadows is more annoying to use if you're picking spells each time. I'd rather just learn more as before but be able to dismiss and re-summon the book when I need to.
Pact of the Chain is… okay, but it may need to scale more because currently I don't see why you wouldn't just take one of the other two plus find familiar (especially since you can get find familiar in a book of shadows); it just doesn't justify itself as a third option anymore. I know it can attack, but it's not very durable so it's main use is going to be same as find familiar. I'd also like to see the patron specific familiars moved out to the patron sub-classes themselves (too messy to have it all in the feature).
They made hex into scaling once per turn damage which I think makes sense because it decouples it from eldritch blast (no longer need multiple attacks) but then they made eldritch blast mandatory. Why?
I hate eldritch blast being a mandatory cantrip, as I hate how it's basically mandatory on 5e Warlocks already. If I'm going to build a cantrip spammer I want that to be my choice, and I want to choose what cantrip(s) I build around. I'd rather see eldritch blast be a weaker Arcane list cantrip, and and things like Agonizing Blast be redesigned to work with either any cantrip, or a cantrip of my choice, so I can be a cold blaster if I want.
I don't like the loss of certain invocations; there were a load I wanted to use in 5e, that were too weak, but instead of fixing them they've just axed them. For example Relentless Hex which is a great idea in theory but due to the way it worked just never lived up to the promise (because casting/transferring hex is also a bonus action), let it use the same bonus action and it'd actually be a great one to have on a blade lock.
While I like hex being a core class feature, the Hex Master capstone is both bad and boring, and we've actually got fewer ways to capitalise on hex; they've taken away Maddening Hex and Relentless Hex invocations, and given us nothing in their place. If I'm going to be cursing people then let me really curse them. Gimme an invocation that allows switching hex targets without killing them and we could make Relentless Hex awesome. Instead hex is still just a bit extra damage and an occasionally useful check disadvantage.
I really like that we can now build Warlocks with a choice of ability scores for casting.
So yeah, it's a pretty mixed bag; it feels like they don't know what to do with Warlock and were just throwing out ideas, some aren't bad to be fair but as a class it's currently a mess.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
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I like most of the new warlock. Except that they haven't changed the invocations to work with the new design.
Like:
Warlock as a half-caster makes total sense if they are moving away from short rest mechanics. Agonizing Blast turns EB into the equivalent of a Heavy Crossbow with a number of attacks that scales like a Fighter. Hex works out equivalent to Hunter's Mark and Pact of the Blade give you the same martial flexibility as any DEX-based weapon user. So half-caster works perfectly here.
Having EB be a class feature that scales of Warlock level is good and stops every CHA caster picking up the bulk of the class for a 2 level dip.
Having Hex trigger once-per-turn is good, the damage scales the same for a pure warlock (assuming they spend the same resources on it as they do now) and it avoids martials with lots of attacks being super incentivized to try and get it especially with the new two-weapon fighting.
Dislike:
Turning Pacts into cantrips is weird and annoying
Having Pact of the Blade give your casting stat for weapon attacks at level 1 and flexibility on that casting stat make a 1-level dip mandatory for monks, clerics, druids, bards, and paladins.
Lots of the at-will 1st level spell Invocations are kind of useless now, since you get more spell slots than before it isn't so expensive to use one of your spellslots for a low level utility spell.
Since warlocks get access to the whole Arcane spell list, most high level invocations are just not as good as Mystic Arcanum. I know people are whining about having to spend all your invocations of Mystic Arcanum (which is false since a Warlock as a half caster with 0 Mystic Arcanums if perfectly fine). But really which invocations would you take instead?
Chainlock still sucks, the familiar has too little HP for reliable use in combat - one AoE spell and its toast - so giving it more combat features doesn't really buff that Pact. It doesn't matter if the familiar could deal 50 damage if it dies in the first round of combat. Plus all warlocks can now snag Find Familiar at level 1, and the regular Find Familar has been buffed.
Tomelock not getting to add more rituals into their tome and instead being built around recasting the Tome to swap around rituals and cantrips all the time is really clunky and conflicts with their move to reduce SRs.
Giving Warlock access to the full Arcane spell list means that lots of the unique warlock spells are never going to see use, because there are other arcane spells that are just better, and those warlock spells were designed around the warlocks unique upcasting mechanics which are now gone. Armour of Agathys is now going to be the favourite spell of the Abjuration Wizard, Hunger of Hadar is probably never going to be cast, and Hellish Rebuke is competing with Shield a competition it will most certainly lose.
I think when this new edition goes the way of the dodo that was 4th ed and they lose 60-70% of the player base they will realise how monumentally they messed up by focusing on making money at any cost instead of quality content.
"I hate eldritch blast being a mandatory cantrip, as I hate how it's basically mandatory on 5e Warlocks already. If I'm going to build a cantrip spammer I want that to be my choice, and I want to choose what cantrip(s) I build around. I'd rather see eldritch blast be a weaker Arcane list cantrip, and and things like Agonizing Blast be redesigned to work with either any cantrip, or a cantrip of my choice, so I can be a cold blaster if I want."
Just talk to your DM about changing the force damage type to cold....
I agree with Beardsinger, I think OneDnD will end up being another 4e (an abomination that most pretend never existed). Have to say I don't like 90%+ of what i'm seeing, and I've played every edition/version of the game since Basic red box (except 4e). I think they're making a big mistake.
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Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
1) Best change is letting Warlocks have a choice over Int, Wis or Cha as spell casting ability. It allows for a wider range of archetypal characters to build. Not every witch or Faustian or Lovecraftian-style Warlock is going to be charismatic - and this simple change allows this to happen.
2) I don’t mind the change in order of certain abilities at different levels. Actually, I generally prefer them.
3) I don’t like the need to include Pact spells in a spell list. They are core choices for Warlocks alone, so why do they need to flick to another part of the book to read up on them? Just include them in the Class write up.
4) I hope they include 4 Patrons for archetypes in the core rules - Diabolical, Celestial, Fey and maybe Genie as the ‘core four’ but then keep adding after then: Undead, Aberrant, etc. I sincerely hope the remove Hex Blades, even though they may be popular. They were overpowered and had terrible fluff. The patrons should be universal and archetypal in nature.
I don't hate the changes, but on balance I dislike a lot more about it than I like.
Changing to long rest slots makes sense, but I'd prefer unique scaling rather than it just becoming a half caster.
While I like boons all having built in scaling, I don't like them being cantrips (why even create Magic actions if you're not going to use them?)
While I like the idea of summoning it on demand, in practice the Book of Shadows is more annoying to use if you're picking spells each time. I'd rather just learn more as before but be able to dismiss and re-summon the book when I need to.
Pact of the Chain is… okay, but it may need to scale more because currently I don't see why you wouldn't just take one of the other two plus find familiar (especially since you can get find familiar in a book of shadows); it just doesn't justify itself as a third option anymore. I know it can attack, but it's not very durable so it's main use is going to be same as find familiar. I'd also like to see the patron specific familiars moved out to the patron sub-classes themselves (too messy to have it all in the feature).
They made hex into scaling once per turn damage which I think makes sense because it decouples it from eldritch blast (no longer need multiple attacks) but then they made eldritch blast mandatory. Why?
I hate eldritch blast being a mandatory cantrip, as I hate how it's basically mandatory on 5e Warlocks already. If I'm going to build a cantrip spammer I want that to be my choice, and I want to choose what cantrip(s) I build around. I'd rather see eldritch blast be a weaker Arcane list cantrip, and and things like Agonizing Blast be redesigned to work with either any cantrip, or a cantrip of my choice, so I can be a cold blaster if I want.
I don't like the loss of certain invocations; there were a load I wanted to use in 5e, that were too weak, but instead of fixing them they've just axed them. For example Relentless Hex which is a great idea in theory but due to the way it worked just never lived up to the promise (because casting/transferring hex is also a bonus action), let it use the same bonus action and it'd actually be a great one to have on a blade lock.
While I like hex being a core class feature, the Hex Master capstone is both bad and boring, and we've actually got fewer ways to capitalise on hex; they've taken away Maddening Hex and Relentless Hex invocations, and given us nothing in their place. If I'm going to be cursing people then let me really curse them. Gimme an invocation that allows switching hex targets without killing them and we could make Relentless Hex awesome. Instead hex is still just a bit extra damage and an occasionally useful check disadvantage.
I really like that we can now build Warlocks with a choice of ability scores for casting.
So yeah, it's a pretty mixed bag; it feels like they don't know what to do with Warlock and were just throwing out ideas, some aren't bad to be fair but as a class it's currently a mess.
I agree with you on Chain and Hex / Hex Master. For the rest though:
As you yourself stated, any unique scaling would play havoc with multiclassing.
Casting a 1-action cantrip does use the Magic action. The main reason behind the Magic Action is to explain what you're doing every turn for spells that take longer.
The only spells you pick when you summon the book are the two cantrips and two 1st-level rituals it comes with. Four floating low-level spells is not a big burden.
You can effectively get Agonizing Blast on any cantrip you want, just pick Tome.
They'll need our help figuring out which invocations to include in core and which to buff. More will definitely be added via splat, so if your favorite doesn't make it to the PHB, you can port it in from 5e until they get around to reprinting it.
As you yourself stated, any unique scaling would play havoc with multiclassing.
My comment on that was I'm not entirely sure how best to handle it, not that it's really a problem; in 5e Warlock levels don't combine with any other caster levels at all, so any combined progression is an improvement, even if it needs to be a little complex to work properly.
A little complexity on multi-classing is well worth a better progression on the core class, especially if the alternative is it being relegated to being a not very good half-caster.
Casting a 1-action cantrip does use the Magic action. The main reason behind the Magic Action is to explain what you're doing every turn for spells that take longer.
Casting a spell is a Magic action, but there's no need for the pact boons to be cantrips when they can be just Magic actions. It's nonsensical to make these class features into spells when they don't need to be, and they've given themselves the necessary mechanic to do it properly.
The only spells you pick when you summon the book are the two cantrips and two 1st-level rituals it comes with. Four floating low-level spells is not a big burden.
My complaint is that it's annoying, and there's no progression. It being only two 1st-level rituals is part of the problem.
You can effectively get Agonizing Blast on any cantrip you want, just pick Tome.
Agonizing Blast is good because it adds your Charisma to every beam, on other cantrips it's a much weaker bonus except for specific cantrips like thunderclap. This is no substitute for what I was asking for, and you shouldn't need to be forced into pact of the tome just to use a cantrip other than eldritch blast (which you've no incentive to do at all because you're forced to have eldritch blast and might as well just use that).
They'll need our help figuring out which invocations to include in core and which to buff. More will definitely be added via splat, so if your favorite doesn't make it to the PHB, you can port it in from 5e until they get around to reprinting it.
The invocations I'm talking about are all in the 2014 PHB; I'm not paying for a book to give me back things that should be in the new PHB.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
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As you yourself stated, any unique scaling would play havoc with multiclassing.
My comment on that was I'm not entirely sure how best to handle it, not that it's really a problem; in 5e Warlock levels don't combine with any other caster levels at all, so any combined progression is an improvement, even if it needs to be a little complex to work properly.
A little complexity on multi-classing is well worth a better progression on the core class, especially if the alternative is it being relegated to being a not very good half-caster.
Casting a 1-action cantrip does use the Magic action. The main reason behind the Magic Action is to explain what you're doing every turn for spells that take longer.
Casting a spell is a Magic action, but there's no need for the pact boons to be cantrips when they can be just Magic actions. It's nonsensical to make these class features into spells when they don't need to be, and they've given themselves the necessary mechanic to do it properly.
The only spells you pick when you summon the book are the two cantrips and two 1st-level rituals it comes with. Four floating low-level spells is not a big burden.
My complaint is that it's annoying, and there's no progression. It being only two 1st-level rituals is part of the problem.
You can effectively get Agonizing Blast on any cantrip you want, just pick Tome.
Agonizing Blast is good because it adds your Charisma to every beam, on other cantrips it's a much weaker bonus except for specific cantrips like thunderclap. This is no substitute for what I was asking for, and you shouldn't need to be forced into pact of the tome just to use a cantrip other than eldritch blast (which you've no incentive to do at all because you're forced to have eldritch blast and might as well just use that).
They'll need our help figuring out which invocations to include in core and which to buff. More will definitely be added via splat, so if your favorite doesn't make it to the PHB, you can port it in from 5e until they get around to reprinting it.
The invocations I'm talking about are all in the 2014 PHB; I'm not paying for a book to give me back things that should be in the new PHB.
I feel like there is reasons to use other attack cantrips besides EB with tome, at least as much of a reason to do so now currently. The main reason a lock takes a different cantrip is so they can have a cantrip with a rider that doesn't need an invocation for it.
Chill touch has a rider you can't get on EB, with tome getting to add damage to it at 5 the average damage on hit is 13+ turning off healing. For EB if both rays hit damage is 19. The healing needs to be just 6 or better to be more efficient in the long run.
Creating a complex custom progression would outweigh the benefits of Warlocks being able to multiclass in the first place. Half-progression-round-up is the best of both worlds, being easy for new players to grasp (since they'll be doing the same with the Ranger and Paladin) and still being good enough for veterans to optimize around.
Making these cantrips instead of generic magical features has several benefits, such as not needing to add a bunch of sidebars or invocation text like the 5e versions, no need to add extra text to explain being able to use these while resting, being able to keep the class entries uncluttered etc.
You can have far more than two rituals, any spell you learn now gets its ritual version for free.
Yes, other cantrips are still weaker than EB in terms of raw damage. That's intentional - EB is supposed to be the best damaging cantrip in the game. That doesn't make the others nonviable or not worthwhile, it means you should be picking them for reasons beyond damage. Moreover, if the cantrip you choose can hit the same asor more targets than EB (e.g. Level 5 acid splash, GFB, Sword Burst), or targets a weak save instead of high AC (e.g. Mind Sliver / LL) then it might actually end up doing more damage against certain foes than EB does.
Creating a complex custom progression would outweigh the benefits of Warlocks being able to multiclass in the first place.
The benefit is giving the Warlock more of an identity as a spellcaster rather than just watching as everything unique about it is stripped away; the UA version of the Warlock is not a class I want to play as, and it being reduced to a half-caster is a major part of that.
Making these cantrips instead of generic magical features has several benefits, such as not needing to add a bunch of sidebars or invocation text like the 5e versions, no need to add extra text to explain being able to use these while resting, being able to keep the class entries uncluttered etc.
Making these cantrips does literally none of these things; it's an entirely unnecessary mechanical change with no justification for doing it.
You can have far more than two rituals, any spell you learn now gets its ritual version for free.
We could do that before, except it was on top of learning as many additional rituals as we could get our hands on. Not sure why you think I should be overjoyed that a feature is not only poorly implemented but also significantly worse?
Yes, other cantrips are still weaker than EB in terms of raw damage. That's intentional - EB is supposed to be the best damaging cantrip in the game.
Well it shouldn't be because that's insanely boring. Doubling down on forcing warlocks to be more boring is not good game design, forcing every Warlock to be an eldritch blast spammer is doubling down on everything that's wrong with the 5e Warlock.
There are plenty of other damage-only cantrips that should be just as good on a Warlock, and if they're concerned about the balance on cantrips with riders they can implement Agonizing Blast differently (they need to anyway).
"They won't do it because they chose to do it wrong in the first place" isn't exactly a winning excuse for them. It's the same as robbing the UA Wildshape of Tiny forms; they've created the problem, the correct response is to fix it.
No one's forcing you to pay for anything.
You literally just said:
If your favorite doesn't make it to the PHB, you can port it in from 5e until they get around to reprinting it.
So your argument is that if I want an updated version of an invocation from the 2014 PHB that I'll need to buy a second book on top of the updated PHB just for the privilege of getting back an option I used to have with only one book. That's not going to happen, because if we're not going to get a good Warlock class or a decent mix of invocations in the 2024 PHB there's a real risk I won't buy that either.
You know what? I think I need to correct my earlier post, because you've helped me to realise that I actually I do hate the UA Warlock, because you're defending things that are indefensible about it.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
If you do hate it, there's no need to pretend I'm the excuse 🤨you're allowed to hate whatever you want like any other adult.
Being a half-caster with MA is in fact unique. And in the most recent dev video (today) they said they're open to alternatives, so long as that alternative is not a return to short-rest-pact-magic. This include faster progression that ends at fewer spell slots.
In the same video, they spell out plainly that Eldritch Blast is intentionally the most powerful cantrip, and Warlock getting access to it goes hand in hand with their less-than-full spellcasting progression.
And yes, I did say that you can port in whatever you want with 5e in lieu of buying anything from OneD&D at your table. Not seeing how those are somehow contradictory or a "gotcha."
In the same video, they spell out plainly that Eldritch Blast is intentionally the most powerful cantrip, and Warlock getting access to it goes hand in hand with their less-than-full spellcasting progression.
It being intentional only makes it more bullshit, not less, because it means they could have fixed it and chose not to.
It means they decided to laser focus on one type of Warlock instead of looking the other other builds people have played, or want to play as. It means they took one of the class' worst features (being overly dependent on eldritch blast) and made it a core feature instead of giving us more choices.
The entire appeal of Warlock to me, and I'm sure many other Warlock players, was that it supports a variety of builds around unique spellcasting; not all of those builds are optimal, but that's something that can be fixed by rebalancing options so there are fewer weak options. Instead Wizards has axed most of the weak but interesting options and made the option I hate most mandatory.
And yes, I did say that you can port in whatever you want with 5e in lieu of buying anything from OneD&D at your table. Not seeing how those are somehow contradictory or a "gotcha."
You told me I'd need to buy a book to get existing options back like I should be fine with that, then said "no-one's forcing you pay for anything" when I wasn't; I'm not looking for a "gotcha" but if you can at least get your own argument straight.
You're not going to convince me to be okay with what they've screwed up in this UA, so I'd suggest you stop trying.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
It being intentional only makes it more bullshit, not less, because it means they could have fixed it and chose not to.
It means they decided to laser focus on one type of Warlock instead of looking at any of the other other builds that people have played, or want to play as. It means that they took one of the class' worst features (being overly dependent on eldritch blast) and made it a core feature instead of giving us more choices.
Eldritch Blast has always been core to the Warlock. For multiple editions now, even. And OneD&D actually gave you more choice with regards to not using it (see Tome and Blade.)
You told me I'd need to buy a book to get existing options back like I should be fine with that, then said "no-one's forcing you pay for anything" when I wasn't; I'm not looking for a "gotcha" but if you can at least get your own argument straight.
I was talking about books you presumably already own from 5e still being usable.
If you don't own them yet, why then would you buy them twice? 🤔
Eldritch Blast has always been a signature spell for Warlocks, but there has always been the option not to choose it. Some players may have different concepts in mind when creating their Warlock. For example, Toll the Dead is a more thematic spell if the Warlock wants an Undead patron.
Eldritch Blast has always been a signature spell for Warlocks, but there has always been the option not to choose it. Some players may have different concepts in mind when creating their Warlock. For example, Toll the Dead is a more thematic spell if the Warlock wants an Undead patron.
You still do have the option to not use it. In fact - as I mentioned - between having every Arcane cantrip now + Tome buffing all of them, you have more options than ever. Some like Sword Burst might even outdamage EB in the right situation.
But those situations doesn't mean Crawford's statement about EB being overall the strongest damage cantrip in the game isn't true.
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Yeah, I was reading the unearthed arcana. The "revised warlock class". Warlocks get medium armor proficiency... Need I say more?
Oh, there's a great deal more to be said. If you go to the UA section of the forum, you'll see it being discussed at length.
It’s terrible.
I don't hate the changes, but on balance I dislike a lot more about it than I like.Actually PsyrenXY has helped me realises that I actually do hate the UA Warlock, because defending the indefensible only highlights just how badly wrong they've got parts of it.
So yeah, it's a pretty mixed bag; it feels like they don't know what to do with Warlock and were just throwing out ideas, some aren't bad to be fair but as a class it's currently a mess.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I like most of the new warlock. Except that they haven't changed the invocations to work with the new design.
Like:
Dislike:
I think when this new edition goes the way of the dodo that was 4th ed and they lose 60-70% of the player base they will realise how monumentally they messed up by focusing on making money at any cost instead of quality content.
"I hate eldritch blast being a mandatory cantrip, as I hate how it's basically mandatory on 5e Warlocks already. If I'm going to build a cantrip spammer I want that to be my choice, and I want to choose what cantrip(s) I build around. I'd rather see eldritch blast be a weaker Arcane list cantrip, and and things like Agonizing Blast be redesigned to work with either any cantrip, or a cantrip of my choice, so I can be a cold blaster if I want."
Just talk to your DM about changing the force damage type to cold....
I agree with Beardsinger, I think OneDnD will end up being another 4e (an abomination that most pretend never existed). Have to say I don't like 90%+ of what i'm seeing, and I've played every edition/version of the game since Basic red box (except 4e). I think they're making a big mistake.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
1) Best change is letting Warlocks have a choice over Int, Wis or Cha as spell casting ability. It allows for a wider range of archetypal characters to build. Not every witch or Faustian or Lovecraftian-style Warlock is going to be charismatic - and this simple change allows this to happen.
2) I don’t mind the change in order of certain abilities at different levels. Actually, I generally prefer them.
3) I don’t like the need to include Pact spells in a spell list. They are core choices for Warlocks alone, so why do they need to flick to another part of the book to read up on them? Just include them in the Class write up.
4) I hope they include 4 Patrons for archetypes in the core rules - Diabolical, Celestial, Fey and maybe Genie as the ‘core four’ but then keep adding after then: Undead, Aberrant, etc. I sincerely hope the remove Hex Blades, even though they may be popular. They were overpowered and had terrible fluff. The patrons should be universal and archetypal in nature.
I agree with you on Chain and Hex / Hex Master. For the rest though:
My comment on that was I'm not entirely sure how best to handle it, not that it's really a problem; in 5e Warlock levels don't combine with any other caster levels at all, so any combined progression is an improvement, even if it needs to be a little complex to work properly.
A little complexity on multi-classing is well worth a better progression on the core class, especially if the alternative is it being relegated to being a not very good half-caster.
Casting a spell is a Magic action, but there's no need for the pact boons to be cantrips when they can be just Magic actions. It's nonsensical to make these class features into spells when they don't need to be, and they've given themselves the necessary mechanic to do it properly.
My complaint is that it's annoying, and there's no progression. It being only two 1st-level rituals is part of the problem.
Agonizing Blast is good because it adds your Charisma to every beam, on other cantrips it's a much weaker bonus except for specific cantrips like thunderclap. This is no substitute for what I was asking for, and you shouldn't need to be forced into pact of the tome just to use a cantrip other than eldritch blast (which you've no incentive to do at all because you're forced to have eldritch blast and might as well just use that).
The invocations I'm talking about are all in the 2014 PHB; I'm not paying for a book to give me back things that should be in the new PHB.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I feel like there is reasons to use other attack cantrips besides EB with tome, at least as much of a reason to do so now currently. The main reason a lock takes a different cantrip is so they can have a cantrip with a rider that doesn't need an invocation for it.
Chill touch has a rider you can't get on EB, with tome getting to add damage to it at 5 the average damage on hit is 13+ turning off healing. For EB if both rays hit damage is 19. The healing needs to be just 6 or better to be more efficient in the long run.
The benefit is giving the Warlock more of an identity as a spellcaster rather than just watching as everything unique about it is stripped away; the UA version of the Warlock is not a class I want to play as, and it being reduced to a half-caster is a major part of that.
Making these cantrips does literally none of these things; it's an entirely unnecessary mechanical change with no justification for doing it.
We could do that before, except it was on top of learning as many additional rituals as we could get our hands on. Not sure why you think I should be overjoyed that a feature is not only poorly implemented but also significantly worse?
Well it shouldn't be because that's insanely boring. Doubling down on forcing warlocks to be more boring is not good game design, forcing every Warlock to be an eldritch blast spammer is doubling down on everything that's wrong with the 5e Warlock.
There are plenty of other damage-only cantrips that should be just as good on a Warlock, and if they're concerned about the balance on cantrips with riders they can implement Agonizing Blast differently (they need to anyway).
"They won't do it because they chose to do it wrong in the first place" isn't exactly a winning excuse for them. It's the same as robbing the UA Wildshape of Tiny forms; they've created the problem, the correct response is to fix it.
You literally just said:
So your argument is that if I want an updated version of an invocation from the 2014 PHB that I'll need to buy a second book on top of the updated PHB just for the privilege of getting back an option I used to have with only one book. That's not going to happen, because if we're not going to get a good Warlock class or a decent mix of invocations in the 2024 PHB there's a real risk I won't buy that either.
You know what? I think I need to correct my earlier post, because you've helped me to realise that I actually I do hate the UA Warlock, because you're defending things that are indefensible about it.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
If you do hate it, there's no need to pretend I'm the excuse 🤨you're allowed to hate whatever you want like any other adult.
Being a half-caster with MA is in fact unique. And in the most recent dev video (today) they said they're open to alternatives, so long as that alternative is not a return to short-rest-pact-magic. This include faster progression that ends at fewer spell slots.
In the same video, they spell out plainly that Eldritch Blast is intentionally the most powerful cantrip, and Warlock getting access to it goes hand in hand with their less-than-full spellcasting progression.
And yes, I did say that you can port in whatever you want with 5e in lieu of buying anything from OneD&D at your table. Not seeing how those are somehow contradictory or a "gotcha."
It being intentional only makes it more bullshit, not less, because it means they could have fixed it and chose not to.
It means they decided to laser focus on one type of Warlock instead of looking the other other builds people have played, or want to play as. It means they took one of the class' worst features (being overly dependent on eldritch blast) and made it a core feature instead of giving us more choices.
The entire appeal of Warlock to me, and I'm sure many other Warlock players, was that it supports a variety of builds around unique spellcasting; not all of those builds are optimal, but that's something that can be fixed by rebalancing options so there are fewer weak options. Instead Wizards has axed most of the weak but interesting options and made the option I hate most mandatory.
You told me I'd need to buy a book to get existing options back like I should be fine with that, then said "no-one's forcing you pay for anything" when I wasn't; I'm not looking for a "gotcha" but if you can at least get your own argument straight.
You're not going to convince me to be okay with what they've screwed up in this UA, so I'd suggest you stop trying.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Eldritch Blast has always been core to the Warlock. For multiple editions now, even. And OneD&D actually gave you more choice with regards to not using it (see Tome and Blade.)
I was talking about books you presumably already own from 5e still being usable.
If you don't own them yet, why then would you buy them twice? 🤔
Eldritch Blast has always been a signature spell for Warlocks, but there has always been the option not to choose it. Some players may have different concepts in mind when creating their Warlock. For example, Toll the Dead is a more thematic spell if the Warlock wants an Undead patron.
Relentless Hex is in Xanathar's. So is Improved Pact Weapon. So is Eldritch Smite.
Complaining because invocations that were never in the Player's Handbook aren't in the Player's Handbook seems silly to me.
You still do have the option to not use it. In fact - as I mentioned - between having every Arcane cantrip now + Tome buffing all of them, you have more options than ever. Some like Sword Burst might even outdamage EB in the right situation.
But those situations doesn't mean Crawford's statement about EB being overall the strongest damage cantrip in the game isn't true.