not to derail too much, but I'm running into the same issue again that i did with the UA5 medium armor: when did the common warlock find time to pick up all this skill? this time I'm referring to multi-weapons proficiency and mastery. flavor is free so I'd accept if someone told me they traded hands with a devil or the sword is a transformed fey beast urging towards the kill. sure, sounds fine. that's how it works, now tell me why it works.
why does a level one warlock (and dips) get that much versatility and oompf? why not just call up whatever, but no free proficiency. they can spend gold and downtime to earn additional proficiencies in later levels. and the mastery reflects time, dedication, and mastery, right? so I'll accept 'because magic,' but maybe move it back a level or two? something to grow into.
surely devs will dial back the pack of blade multi-weapon proficiency and mastery. surely!
I think that the new Pact of the Blade is meant to address one of the few problems people had with the 5e Hexblade... after a certain point, even if you took all of the invocations that fed into being a melee combatant, after a certain point most Warlocks were still better off just using Eldritch Blast. I feel like the intent might have been to increase the overall viability of being a melee-focused Warlock, although it's weirdly done in a way that makes it easier to single-level dip to get a ton of benefits, even though there seems to be an overall focus on reducing the viability of that form of multiclassing.
Anyway, to answer your actual question... I think Warlock is the easiest class to justify suddenly being gifted a new skill or ability, since it's generally accepted that a Warlock's patron can easily be used as the justification for how something like that happened. There's some of that with Clerics as well... if they're suddenly doing something that should be physically impossible, it's generally assumed that their God has imbued them with some kind of power. Same with Warlocks, really.
Assumption: 1 SR per adventuring day, 3 combats per adventuring day for a total of 15 rounds of combat, Point Buy Ability Scores. For simplicity let's assume everyone wants to use a Greatsword in melee
Here's a level 8 UA Warlock:
Ability Scores: 12, 14, 16, 8, 8, 16+2+2 Level 1 Feat: Lightly Armoured Level 4 ASI: +2 CHA Level 8 ASI: +2 CHA Invocations: 6 = Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade, Pact of the Tome, Agonizing Blast, Fiendish Vigor, Lessons of the First Ones: Tough
Spells Prepared: 3 cantrips from warlock spell list + 3 cantrips from any spell list that can be changed on a SR, 9 free choices from warlock spell list, + 8 Pact spells + 2 ritual spells which can be swapped on a SR. = 6-9 cantrips + 20-22 levelled spells (range indicates possible swapping of spells during the day) Spell slots per day: 5 x 4th level slots + 1x 1st level slot = total Sorcery point value: 32
Hit Points: 83 + 24 temporary hit points = 107 total HP Ranged Attack: EB+AB = 2x +9th, 1d10+5 force damage Melee Attack: Flexible choice of any melee weapon as a BA gaining the use of its weapon mastery +9th, +5 damage AC : 17 (two-handed weapon) or 19 (EB / one-handed weapon)
Subclass: Fiend (because its the basic rules one) 13 temporary hit points whenever we kill something or something we are within 10 ft of drops to 0 = conservatively +26 thp = total 133 hp + 5x add 1d10 to an ability check or saving throw
Weapon Mastery: limited to 4 weapons Second Wind : 4 uses = EITHER + 13.5*4 HP, or 4x add 1d10 to an ability check HP: 91 + 54 (use all second wind for HP rather than ability checks) = 145 total hp Spellslots power: total sorcery point value: 0 Extra: 2 uses of Action Surge
Basic combat stats: AC 18 Greatsword: +9th, 2d6+5+1(GWF) + Graze (2.25 attacks per round thanks to Sentinel) + 4 (GWM) + 0.5*4.5 (Charger) Javelin (30ft range): +9th, 1d6+5 x2
Skills : 2
Subclass (let's make it Battlemaster b/c Champion sucks):
+1 skill proficiency + 8d8 bonus damage per day (Note: this is less than a single casting of Fireball by our Fiend lock)
Spells Prepared: 4 cantrips + 12 spells (can be swapped in 1 minute) + 4 school spells + unlimited rituals = 4 cantrips + 18-26 levelled spells Spell slots per day: 3x4th + 3x3rd + 3*2nd + 4*1st = total sorcery point value = 48 (-2 penalty for requirement to use a slot on Mage Armour) HP: 74
Assumption: 1 SR per adventuring day, 3 combats per adventuring day for a total of 15 rounds of combat, Point Buy Ability Scores. For simplicity let's assume everyone wants to use a Greatsword in melee
Here's a level 8 UA Warlock:
Ability Scores: 12, 14, 16, 8, 8, 16+2+2 Level 1 Feat: Lightly Armoured Level 4 ASI: +2 CHA Level 8 ASI: +2 CHA Invocations: 6 = Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade, Pact of the Tome, Agonizing Blast, Fiendish Vigor, Lessons of the First Ones: Tough
Spells Prepared: 3 cantrips from warlock spell list + 3 cantrips from any spell list that can be changed on a SR, 9 free choices from warlock spell list, + 8 Pact spells + 2 ritual spells which can be swapped on a SR. = 6-9 cantrips + 20-22 levelled spells (range indicates possible swapping of spells during the day) Spell slots per day: 5 x 4th level slots + 1x 1st level slot = total Sorcery point value: 32
Hit Points: 83 + 24 temporary hit points = 107 total HP Ranged Attack: EB+AB = 2x +9th, 1d10+5 force damage Melee Attack: Flexible choice of any melee weapon as a BA gaining the use of its weapon mastery +9th, +5 damage AC : 17 (two-handed weapon) or 19 (EB / one-handed weapon)
Subclass: Fiend (because its the basic rules one) 13 temporary hit points whenever we kill something or something we are within 10 ft of drops to 0 = conservatively +26 thp = total 133 hp + 5x add 1d10 to an ability check or saving throw
Weapon Mastery: limited to 4 weapons Second Wind : 4 uses = EITHER + 13.5*4 HP, or 4x add 1d10 to an ability check HP: 91 + 54 (use all second wind for HP rather than ability checks) = 145 total hp Spellslots power: total sorcery point value: 0 Extra: 2 uses of Action Surge
Basic combat stats: AC 18 Greatsword: +9th, 2d6+5+1(GWF) + Graze (2.25 attacks per round thanks to Sentinel) + 4 (GWM) + 0.5*4.5 (Charger) Javelin (30ft range): +9th, 1d6+5 x2
Skills : 2
Subclass (let's make it Battlemaster b/c Champion sucks):
+1 skill proficiency + 8d8 bonus damage per day (Note: this is less than a single casting of Fireball by our Fiend lock)
Spells Prepared: 4 cantrips + 12 spells (can be swapped in 1 minute) + 4 school spells + unlimited rituals = 4 cantrips + 18-26 levelled spells Spell slots per day: 3x4th + 3x3rd + 3*2nd + 4*1st = total sorcery point value = 48 (-2 penalty for requirement to use a slot on Mage Armour) HP: 74
Subclass: Abjurer (because Evoker isn't in the newest UA) Ward extra hp: 21 = total 95 hp
In summary: The warlock simultaneously has:
more diversity of weapon choices / masteries than the Fighter
roughly equal diversity of spell choices a Wizard,
better skills than either the Wizard or Fighter
67% the slots power of a Wizard
90% of the HP of a Fighter
140% of the HP of a Wizard
95% the AC of a Fighter
113% the AC of a Wizard
~300% the sustained damage of a Wizard
85% the sustained damage of a Fighter
Your Warlock needs Str 13 to wield a greatsword unless it wants disadvantage on all attacks with the heavy weapon. So unless you change the stat spread you lose all heavy weapons options.
Warlock doesn’t have the Wizard spell list so it won’t have near the diversity of spell choice as a wizard who will have more spells known by 8th level and access to all their known spells through Memorize Spell.
Wizard has expertise and Fighter has tactical mind, so warlock will have more skill proficiencies but not necessarily better skill proficiencies.
I’m going to assume that slot math is correct.
Yes, but fiendish vigor is a spell so you don’t have 24 temp hp per combat. The way you did that math is misleading. If the warlock get hits for 106 damage in any combat they are down, the fighter hit for for 144 is still up and fighting. So they don’t have 90% of the fighters hp.
Again the hp math needs to be reworked they don’t have 140% of the Wizards HP neither the ward nor fiendish vigor just add hp in the method you used to calculate.
I’m trusting that math is correct for your build.
Things get weird because of shield. But correct for base AC.
Doesn’t matter unless for some reason leveled spells can’t be cast.
Unless enemies have cover or force combat into melee range because again this warlock build can not use heavy weapons.
It is not, I was very clear at the top, the Fighter would be down if they took 144 damage in one combat as well, because the Fighter's HP total include 1 use of Second Wind that is regained on a SR. The parameters of the calculations are at the top: 3 combats/day + 1 SR/day = 3*8 = 24 thp (Fiendish Vigor), and 4*(5.5+8) healing (Second Wind). If the Fighter decides to use their BA for other things like maneuvers (or if they used Second Wind to buff some skill checks) they have less hp than the warlock does. Also note, that despite being a Pact of the Blade I only budgeted 2 triggers of the Fiend's thp on a creature being reduced to 0 hp within 10ft of you, which is less than 1/combat which is almost certainly an underestimate. I expect the Fiendlock in practice would have more total HP across the whole adventuring day than the Fighter. Though you are correct about the heavy weapon, the warlock's Con would have to be just 15 to get a 13 STR which means losing 7 max hp. But as I mentioned previously this is almost certainly made up for with Fiendlock's thp.
Memorize spell isn't instantaneous it requires a minute to cast so in combat the Wizard has access to fewer spells than the Warlock does. Outside of combat it's hard to estimate for since different tables play very differently, but if the wizard is casting 8 different spells outside of combat (which is what the upper limit budgeted for) then they don't have much left for the 3 combats and will be lagging really far behind the warlock in combat situations. Spells Known doesn't really matter for day-to-day adventuring power since a spell known that isn't prepared does nothing for you, otherwise Druid would be the most powerful spellcaster in the game since they automatically know every spell on their extensive spell list, this isn't the case because they get relatively few spells prepared thus rely on Wildshape for much of their versatility.
I'm ignoring all uses of magic to buff combat stats (except for mage armour b/c that's a pretty safe bet - though the Wizard could trade Tough for Lightly Armoured to not need mage armour) because that would require adjusting the spellslot calculations in order to account for it -> this is a comparison of total overall power so I don't want any spellslots double counted as both spellpower & generic combat stats. Which would then require making an assumption about the number of time Shield would be used. You'll note I also didn't include Hex in the Warlock's sustained damage calculations despite the fact it is very likely they would use it in this scenario for exactly the same reason.
Allow me to use a bunch of unsubstantiated white-room math with no real bearing on how D&D actually plays at a real table to try and prove that the UA7 warlock is super busted so they nerf the everloving ****shit out of it, rendering it almost completely unplayable in actual D&D because nobody EVER hits these Perfect Efficiency numbers I keep holding up as proof that the warlock needs to be nerfed so hard children start telling it to stop hogging all the little foam darts.
Oh, wait... maybe I SHOULDN'T do that when the UA7 build is already an utter disgrace and an active insult to the playerbase.
It is not, I was very clear at the top, the Fighter would be down if they took 144 damage in one combat as well, because the Fighter's HP total include 1 use of Second Wind that is regained on a SR. The parameters of the calculations are at the top: 3 combats/day + 1 SR/day = 3*8 = 24 thp (Fiendish Vigor), and 4*(5.5+8) healing (Second Wind). If the Fighter decides to use their BA for other things like maneuvers (or if they used Second Wind to buff some skill checks) they have less hp than the warlock does. Also note, that despite being a Pact of the Blade I only budgeted 2 triggers of the Fiend's thp on a creature being reduced to 0 hp within 10ft of you, which is less than 1/combat which is almost certainly an underestimate. I expect the Fiendlock in practice would have more total HP across the whole adventuring day than the Fighter. Though you are correct about the heavy weapon, the warlock's Con would have to be just 15 to get a 13 STR which means losing 7 max hp. But as I mentioned previously this is almost certainly made up for with Fiendlock's thp.
Memorize spell isn't instantaneous it requires a minute to cast so in combat the Wizard has access to fewer spells than the Warlock does. Outside of combat it's hard to estimate for since different tables play very differently, but if the wizard is casting 8 different spells outside of combat (which is what the upper limit budgeted for) then they don't have much left for the 3 combats and will be lagging really far behind the warlock in combat situations. Spells Known doesn't really matter for day-to-day adventuring power since a spell known that isn't prepared does nothing for you, otherwise Druid would be the most powerful spellcaster in the game since they automatically know every spell on their extensive spell list, this isn't the case because they get relatively few spells prepared thus rely on Wildshape for much of their versatility.
I'm ignoring all uses of magic to buff combat stats (except for mage armour b/c that's a pretty safe bet - though the Wizard could trade Tough for Lightly Armoured to not need mage armour) because that would require adjusting the spellslot calculations in order to account for it -> this is a comparison of total overall power so I don't want any spellslots double counted as both spellpower & generic combat stats. Which would then require making an assumption about the number of time Shield would be used. You'll note I also didn't include Hex in the Warlock's sustained damage calculations despite the fact it is very likely they would use it in this scenario for exactly the same reason.
My mistake for not realizing you included second wind in the fighters hp, you shouldn’t have. That’s not how hp works. You as a player of the game should know that. You can’t count temp hp or healing as hp because you don’t always have it and you can be downed before you get to use it. Also the fiends thp is great in fights with minions horrible in fights with one big bad. It’s something that is completely different table to table depending on DM style. So losing that 7 hp might get made up for or it might not and I’m not willing to pretend that I know the answer for every table.
The Wizard shouldn’t go into combat with OoC spells prepared, they can save all of those for memorize spell, the Warlock will have to have its OoC spells that aren’t rituals prepared so those aren’t in combat options. The wizard can scroll through their spells known with one minute, so it is a power boost for them. Every spell on their spell list is an OoC swap option for them. If they want they can prep all combat spells. Then memorize another combat option to have nothing but combat options available. If they need a utility spell, spend 1 min to switch, cast it, and then 1 min to switch back to the combat option. If druids had memorize spell that worked on their list they would be OP in versatility, but still limited by the large amount of concentration spells on their list.
The whole thing is a bunch of assumptions. Let’s be honest AC doesn’t matter if you don’t get attacked. I’ve seen Mages avoid attacks against them for multiple combats. Yurei is correct that this this type of white room math is pointless. Since you added healing, wards and temp hp into your hp calculations it all assumptions. They can’t use greatswords so that math is off. EB can’t be used in melee with this build dropping the sustained damage. There are so many scenarios we’re those numbers don’t matter.
If the Warlock never gets attacked because they stay at range that is just another buff to them over the Fighter, and parity with the Wizard. But they are still vulnerable to AoE damage, which means the Warlocks greater HP is still a buff to them over the Wizard.
For sustained damage I used the average of ranged + melee for each build, because sometimes it will be difficult for the fighter to get into melee range of the enemies which lowers their DPR a lot if they have to rely on javelins, whereas the warlock has the much more powerful EB to use. While in other combats it is impossible for mages to avoid melee because the enemies are intelligent and rightfully will prioritize the mages, forcing them into melee, where the warlock doesn't quite keep up with the Fighter, but still massively outperforms the Wizard in survivability and sustained damage.
If there is a single combat with a single BBEG then the Warlock massively outperforms the Wizard in terms of damage because the best Wizard damage spells are AoE saves which are generally ineffective against singular BBEGs who probably have legendary resistances at this level (to avoid being Hypnotic Patterned or Polymorphed) which means the Hex + EB or Greatsword + Hex is equally effective to what the Wizard has to offer, but the Fighter end up on top assuming they can stay in melee:
Warlock: 65% chance to hit, 2d10+10+2d6 damage at range with attack rolls = 18.2 dpr Warlock: 65% chance to hit, 4d6+10+2d6 damage in melee with attack rolls = 20.15 dpr Wizard: 30% chance enemy fails a save vs fireball b/c of legendary resistances = 18.2 dpr Fighter: 65% chance to hit, (4d6+10+2)*1.2 + (4+0.2*4.5) damage in melee with attack rolls = 24.6 dpr
If there are is a minion-focused combat, the Warlock and Wizard can quickly clear them by throwing down 2 fireballs. Whereas the Fighter will do comparatively little to nothing.
If there is a party vs party situation, with multiple strong but not BBEGs then the Warlock has the flexibility to take advantage of when the enemies are clumped together to throw down a Fireball or Hunger of Hadar, or doing focused damage to bring down the high priority enemies like casters, while never needing to spend resources to either get into melee or avoid melee (unlike the Fighter and Wizard) since they are equally effective in either.
Lastly there are few spells that are exclusively out-of-combat vs in-combat, the Wizard will probably want Dimension Door prepared and available in combat as an emergency get out of trouble option, despite it being most useful out-of-combat. Polymorph is extremely useful both in and out of combat, Fly is extremely useful both in and out of combat, Dispel Magic is valuable both in and out of combat, etc.. etc... the main ones I could see the Wizard using for Memorize Spell are: Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability, Water Walk, Disguise Self, Invisibility, Sending. It's not actually as powerful as it seems because quite a lot of utility spells you don't necessarily know you need them ahead of time.
if you fall down a hidden pit in a dungeon you don't have time to Memorize Feather Fall before you hit the ground, if you trigger a trap and release a cloud of toxic gas, you don't have time to Memorize Gust of Wind before you choke to death, if you're exploring the underdark, and suddenly come across a couple of duergar scouts, you don't have time to Memorize Tongues to understand what they are saying.
Memorize spell is great, it is a significant boost to wizards and feels very wizardy, but it isn't going to entirely replace preparing utility spells. I have a feeling it will actually result in a reduction of wizard character utility because players will think that they can get away with not preparing any utility spells, so it will be up to the Barbarian's strength to save the party from being swashed by a suddenly falling boulder, rather than the Wizard levitating it.
If I patched it, I would do UA7 plus 1/3 spell caster slots. I'd also consider keeping the casting attribute flexibility from UA5. I'd have to think more how I would differentiate smart-locks, wise-locks, and charm-locks.
If the Warlock never gets attacked because they stay at range that is just another buff to them over the Fighter, and parity with the Wizard. But they are still vulnerable to AoE damage, which means the Warlocks greater HP is still a buff to them over the Wizard.
For sustained damage I used the average of ranged + melee for each build, because sometimes it will be difficult for the fighter to get into melee range of the enemies which lowers their DPR a lot if they have to rely on javelins, whereas the warlock has the much more powerful EB to use. While in other combats it is impossible for mages to avoid melee because the enemies are intelligent and rightfully will prioritize the mages, forcing them into melee, where the warlock doesn't quite keep up with the Fighter, but still massively outperforms the Wizard in survivability and sustained damage.
If there is a single combat with a single BBEG then the Warlock massively outperforms the Wizard in terms of damage because the best Wizard damage spells are AoE saves which are generally ineffective against singular BBEGs who probably have legendary resistances at this level (to avoid being Hypnotic Patterned or Polymorphed) which means the Hex + EB or Greatsword + Hex is equally effective to what the Wizard has to offer, but the Fighter end up on top assuming they can stay in melee:
Warlock: 65% chance to hit, 2d10+10+2d6 damage at range with attack rolls = 18.2 dpr Warlock: 65% chance to hit, 4d6+10+2d6 damage in melee with attack rolls = 20.15 dpr Wizard: 30% chance enemy fails a save vs fireball b/c of legendary resistances = 18.2 dpr Fighter: 65% chance to hit, (4d6+10+2)*1.2 + (4+0.2*4.5) damage in melee with attack rolls = 24.6 dpr
If there are is a minion-focused combat, the Warlock and Wizard can quickly clear them by throwing down 2 fireballs. Whereas the Fighter will do comparatively little to nothing.
If there is a party vs party situation, with multiple strong but not BBEGs then the Warlock has the flexibility to take advantage of when the enemies are clumped together to throw down a Fireball or Hunger of Hadar, or doing focused damage to bring down the high priority enemies like casters, while never needing to spend resources to either get into melee or avoid melee (unlike the Fighter and Wizard) since they are equally effective in either.
Lastly there are few spells that are exclusively out-of-combat vs in-combat, the Wizard will probably want Dimension Door prepared and available in combat as an emergency get out of trouble option, despite it being most useful out-of-combat. Polymorph is extremely useful both in and out of combat, Fly is extremely useful both in and out of combat, Dispel Magic is valuable both in and out of combat, etc.. etc... the main ones I could see the Wizard using for Memorize Spell are: Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability, Water Walk, Disguise Self, Invisibility, Sending. It's not actually as powerful as it seems because quite a lot of utility spells you don't necessarily know you need them ahead of time.
if you fall down a hidden pit in a dungeon you don't have time to Memorize Feather Fall before you hit the ground, if you trigger a trap and release a cloud of toxic gas, you don't have time to Memorize Gust of Wind before you choke to death, if you're exploring the underdark, and suddenly come across a couple of duergar scouts, you don't have time to Memorize Tongues to understand what they are saying.
Memorize spell is great, it is a significant boost to wizards and feels very wizardy, but it isn't going to entirely replace preparing utility spells. I have a feeling it will actually result in a reduction of wizard character utility because players will think that they can get away with not preparing any utility spells, so it will be up to the Barbarian's strength to save the party from being swashed by a suddenly falling boulder, rather than the Wizard levitating it.
The more I read this the more I face palm and new questions arise. How did you calculate how much the HP the Ward has? That is completely dependent on which spells the Abjurer decides to cast. If aWizard needs single target damage they have Acid Arrow, Scorching Ray, or one of the Summon Spells from Tasha. Also unless your party is near the bbeg you can still hit them with an AoE. Memorize spell is great and almost broken. At 8th level your UA abjure wizard knows 28 spells (with zero DM Fiat), preps 12 normally and one extra from Memorize spell. You can use Memorize Spell on things like Mage Armor, invisibility, tongues (if the duergar are talking you have a minute), the others you mentioned and probably more. You can prep Absorb Elements, Feather Fall (not an OoC spell), Magic Missile, Shield, Misty Step, Scorching Ray, Counterspell, Fireball, Banishment, Dimension Door, and Polymorph, and any other spell of your choice. Then since you don’t need Mage Armor you swap in a Summon Spell from Memorize Spell. If your DM is kind and you have the gold you have way more than 28 spells and Memorize spell looks even better. When you can have all the non ritual OoC utilities available to you every day that’s power creep. They will definitely still be fixing problems with magic still. You trap example were bad. If gust of wind stops the gas trap that means there was enough room to move away from the cloud. If a boulder is falling a Wizard can’t levitate it before taking damage without some DM fiat.
You are doing a lot of white room theory crafting which doesn’t really tell us anything. That Warlock can not replace the Wizard or a Fighter in a party of 4 and have the same results of either of them. Nor if it was added to a party with both of them would it outshine either of them. Also earlier you said you didn’t want to use hex because it messed up the spell power math, but now you are using it and a great sword for your melee numbers. If your melee warlock gets hit then hex will drop. It only has 15 con at best remember and it’s not proficient in Con saves.
When you can have all the non ritual OoC utilities available to you every day that’s power creep.
Not really, because they still cost a spellslot, so if you're using them you'll end up useless in combat. Lots of OoC utiltiy spells aren't prepped for a reason, they really aren't that great.
As to your other complaints about "theory crafting", name your situation then. I'll happily calculate the stats. Simply describe what you believe a realistic adventuring day would be and we'll run the numbers to see how they stack up.
When you can have all the non ritual OoC utilities available to you every day that’s power creep.
Not really, because they still cost a spellslot, so if you're using them you'll end up useless in combat. Lots of OoC utiltiy spells aren't prepped for a reason, they really aren't that great.
As to your other complaints about "theory crafting", name your situation then. I'll happily calculate the stats. Simply describe what you believe a realistic adventuring day would be and we'll run the numbers to see how they stack up.
There have been so many times when a wizard has said, “oh I didn’t prepare that spell.” and then had to figure out another way to do a thing or wait until the next day, but memorize spell kills that.
As for white room theory crafting there is no reason to do it. Those numbers don’t mean anything. That build isn’t the build that everyone is going to play. It’s a combat focused build designed to prove a point, but fails at that because as you said you didn’t factor defensive spells like shield in because then that would take away from attacking spell power. In my actual play experience you can usually can afford to spend those 1st level spells on defense by 8th level. Usually when a spell caster says they are tapped they still have so,e 1st and 2nd level spells remaining. But that’s in my experience I acknowledge that all tables are different. You factored healing, temp hp and the Ward into hp even though they don’t work that way. The only way to know if that warlock build is actually over tuned is to roll some dice in some games.
Rolling dice is inaccurate, 5e is extremely swingy so luck can turn a solid class into a joke, or a pathetic character into a god. My last long-term character was a Paladin (by all standards a great class) with rolled stats and got lucky with 2x 18s at level 1, but I just had the worst luck rolling and that character ended up the joke of the party because even with advantage she routinely failed simply tasks like climbing up to a balcony because I rolled a 1 and at 3 on the die.
Meanwhile in the campaign before that we had a Hexblade warlock with a 14 Charisma who routinely used Eldritch Blast but didn't take Agonizing Blast, often used a spear as their pact weapon but didn't take Thirsting Blade, and yet they were one of the most effective characters in the party because they rolled a crit at least once per combat.
Why do you even discuss the UA if you believe nothing can be known from reading the class descriptions? Surely in that case you believe 100% of this discussion is simply: "I like X", "I like Y" as nothing can be known, no facts exist, and thus no logic or reason can be applied. For that matter surely you can't believe there is any martial-caster divide either, since those arguments are made from theory crafting rather than from statistics gathered from actually played games from thousands of tables. Indeed there is no evidence of any problems with 5e as it is, because there is no data that proves their is one, and nothing can be known based only on the rule books. It is thus impossible for the UA to be better or worse than 5e in any respect because everything is subjective, everything depends on an individual table, so no generalizations can be made and no inferences can be made. Game balance as a concept doesn't exist either because that is 100% based on theory crafting, so it's not possible for any class to be balanced nor unbalanced for nothing can be known.
Why do you even discuss the UA if you believe nothing can be known from reading the class descriptions?
There is nothing wrong with discussing what can be known from reading the description, but you aren’t discussing what is known from reading the description you are theory crafting and creating meaningless numbers. You even just told a story about how those numbers are meaningless in game. You aren’t giving facts. Your HP is calculated incorrectly. Your assumption that everyone is using a greatsword isn’t a fact. Your choice to compare your very specific Fiend Warlock to the Abjurer and not Evoker that has greater cantrip sustain or Diviner that has more spells per day is problematic. Statistics are collected data, you are running probabilities there is a difference. Also the martial caster divide has nothing to do making up false scenarios and calculating probabilities based on the imaginary scenarios. The caster divide is based on the fact that caster interact with the game differently than non caster martials. I’m not in the crowd that argues wizards do more damage because fireball can 50 people and that more damage than any fighter could do. I have never had 50 enemies in a game I played or ran. I have seen a Wizard cast knock and the rogue player say “I put my tools away.” The wizard apologized and we all laughed. For me that divide is more about choice of ways to handle each problem that appears in the game. Any complaint I have about martial caster divide is about how the game is played and not about theory crafting.
Edit: Also you can compare damage per round, max damage in a round, and other simple things, but once you start talking about the adventuring day you are making so many assumptions that just won’t be true across the many tables that play the game. There is nothing wrong with probabilities when done correctly. On an attack advantage makes you more likely to hit. Now if you take that and try to say how many hits advantage is likely to help you land across an adventuring day you have to make a whole lot of assumptions. The assumptions is where the problem with theory crafting begins.
When you can have all the non ritual OoC utilities available to you every day that’s power creep.
Not really, because they still cost a spellslot, so if you're using them you'll end up useless in combat. Lots of OoC utiltiy spells aren't prepped for a reason, they really aren't that great.
As to your other complaints about "theory crafting", name your situation then. I'll happily calculate the stats. Simply describe what you believe a realistic adventuring day would be and we'll run the numbers to see how they stack up.
There have been so many times when a wizard has said, “oh I didn’t prepare that spell.” and then had to figure out another way to do a thing or wait until the next day, but memorize spell kills that.
As for white room theory crafting there is no reason to do it. Those numbers don’t mean anything. That build isn’t the build that everyone is going to play. It’s a combat focused build designed to prove a point, but fails at that because as you said you didn’t factor defensive spells like shield in because then that would take away from attacking spell power. In my actual play experience you can usually can afford to spend those 1st level spells on defense by 8th level. Usually when a spell caster says they are tapped they still have so,e 1st and 2nd level spells remaining. But that’s in my experience I acknowledge that all tables are different. You factored healing, temp hp and the Ward into hp even though they don’t work that way. The only way to know if that warlock build is actually over tuned is to roll some dice in some games.
This has actually been my point since the word go. When full casters say they are "tapped" and "running on empty" they are usually still have first and second level spells at 8th level. These spell levels (first and second) are used for things like defense and utility but aren't really their go to COMBAT spells. Warlock with just 1 short rest and Magical cunning (which I think is a safe assumption because everyone needs at least 1 short rest to spend hit dice) has the same number of COMBAT spells as full casters with 5. The druid, bard, cleric, sorcerer, wizard have 2 4th level slots and 3 3rd level slots that is a total of 5 spells. The warlock has 5 4th level spells. Shield needs a hard nerf, Absorb elements needs a hard nerf, silvery barbs is a strixhaven spell and should be applied judiciously and not assumed for every table. The intent is that the warlock has better health, armor and has better access to other defensive features with false life at will and lessons of the first one. Armor of shadows is still bad unfortunately since you can just get mage armor with magic initiate from lessons of the first and get 2 cantrips in addition to mage armor. The warlock spell structure doesn't need changes. Some invocations just aren't strong enough some are still over tuned and some are still just straight missing. This changes at level 9 when warlocks SHOULD get a 3rd spell slot. This would mean that full casters have 7 "combat spell casts" and warlocks would have 8 per day. Other than level 9 invocations are really what is needed to be fixed.
Edit: also if we don't make the assumption and have some days where you have 0 rests (should be extremely rare) there should also be days when you get 2 rests (much more common than 0) or even 3 rests (probably very rare potentially as often as 0). Which means there are times when the weakness of the warlock is shown and an equal number of times where the warlock's strengths can shine. Which is just different classes being different which is good.
Funny to mention the role of luck, as I just changed a character in my current game over it. I was playing a ranger but the dice abandoned me every time I attempted a perception roll. Now I'm not entirely sure exactly what the fantasy I was going for was supposed to be, but a scout incapable of detecting even the most amateur of ambushes certainly wasn't it, and it was fast becoming anything but fun to play a character incapable of succeeding at the primary task assigned to them.
Which brings us back to the Warlock. As a spellcaster, the fantasy is to overcome challenges with magic. Can the Warlock do this in your games? The answer to that alone should inform you whether or not it is a well designed class, and any modifications should be to enable that fantasy, albeit in a slightly different manner than other primary spelcasters.
Funny to mention the role of luck, as I just changed a character in my current game over it. I was playing a ranger but the dice abandoned me every time I attempted a perception roll. Now I'm not entirely sure exactly what the fantasy I was going for was supposed to be, but a scout incapable of detecting even the most amateur of ambushes certainly wasn't it, and it was fast becoming anything but fun to play a character incapable of succeeding at the primary task assigned to them.
Which brings us back to the Warlock. As a spellcaster, the fantasy is to overcome challenges with magic. Can the Warlock do this in your games? The answer to that alone should inform you whether or not it is a well designed class, and any modifications should be to enable that fantasy, albeit in a slightly different manner than other primary spelcasters.
This is a great question and my answer is absolutely yes. As i said from my playtest I ended up casting more spells than all of the other full casters during that one shot combined (due to at will castings) and I was both able to role play, combat and solve exploration problems with a variety of spells from rituals, at will spells and of course, pact slots for combat. At the same time I also didn't feel like i was pulling "main character" syndrome because I had a few things that I did really well but still relied on the team for other things as well.
When you can have all the non ritual OoC utilities available to you every day that’s power creep.
Not really, because they still cost a spellslot, so if you're using them you'll end up useless in combat. Lots of OoC utiltiy spells aren't prepped for a reason, they really aren't that great.
As to your other complaints about "theory crafting", name your situation then. I'll happily calculate the stats. Simply describe what you believe a realistic adventuring day would be and we'll run the numbers to see how they stack up.
There have been so many times when a wizard has said, “oh I didn’t prepare that spell.” and then had to figure out another way to do a thing or wait until the next day, but memorize spell kills that.
As for white room theory crafting there is no reason to do it. Those numbers don’t mean anything. That build isn’t the build that everyone is going to play. It’s a combat focused build designed to prove a point, but fails at that because as you said you didn’t factor defensive spells like shield in because then that would take away from attacking spell power. In my actual play experience you can usually can afford to spend those 1st level spells on defense by 8th level. Usually when a spell caster says they are tapped they still have so,e 1st and 2nd level spells remaining. But that’s in my experience I acknowledge that all tables are different. You factored healing, temp hp and the Ward into hp even though they don’t work that way. The only way to know if that warlock build is actually over tuned is to roll some dice in some games.
This has actually been my point since the word go. When full casters say they are "tapped" and "running on empty" they are usually still have first and second level spells at 8th level. These spell levels (first and second) are used for things like defense and utility but aren't really their go to COMBAT spells. Warlock with just 1 short rest and Magical cunning (which I think is a safe assumption because everyone needs at least 1 short rest to spend hit dice) has the same number of COMBAT spells as full casters with 5. The druid, bard, cleric, sorcerer, wizard have 2 4th level slots and 3 3rd level slots that is a total of 5 spells. The warlock has 5 4th level spells. Shield needs a hard nerf, Absorb elements needs a hard nerf, silvery barbs is a strixhaven spell and should be applied judiciously and not assumed for every table. The intent is that the warlock has better health, armor and has better access to other defensive features with false life at will and lessons of the first one. Armor of shadows is still bad unfortunately since you can just get mage armor with magic initiate from lessons of the first and get 2 cantrips in addition to mage armor. The warlock spell structure doesn't need changes. Some invocations just aren't strong enough some are still over tuned and some are still just straight missing. This changes at level 9 when warlocks SHOULD get a 3rd spell slot. This would mean that full casters have 7 "combat spell casts" and warlocks would have 8 per day. Other than level 9 invocations are really what is needed to be fixed.
Edit: also if we don't make the assumption and have some days where you have 0 rests (should be extremely rare) there should also be days when you get 2 rests (much more common than 0) or even 3 rests (probably very rare potentially as often as 0). Which means there are times when the weakness of the warlock is shown and an equal number of times where the warlock's strengths can shine. Which is just different classes being different which is good.
So you want shield and absorb elements nerfed, but are okay with at will false life. More importantly you consider at will false life and lessons of the first one a better defenses than absorb elements and shield. I don’t agree. Also neither spell needs to get nerfed because on the spellcasters they were designed for they don’t pose a problem at all. The problem is when someone who already has AC 20 cast shield, or someone with high hp uses absorb elements. But a nerf makes them unusable, unless the new version of spell also scales with the level it’s cast. So a shield spell that sets your AC to 18 with a 1st level spell slot until the start of your next turn and +2 AC for each level above 1st would be okay, but Absorb Elements would be clunky. Resistance is simple.
In the event of a single big combat day the Warlock does not have the same combat spells as another full caster. If you find yourself in a 6 round Epic battle your warlock has 2 spells and that’s it. I typically plan around two combats per day, but I know tables that only have one a day. Also maybe with the changes coming warlocks won’t do it anymore, but warlocks I know (myself included) cast counterspell with those pacts slots. So pact magic slots get used for defensive castings as well
The caster divide is based on the fact that caster interact with the game differently than non caster martials.
The martial-caster divide is intimately linked to the average adventuring day. If you have a level 8 Wizard and your running a dungeon crawl with 8 combat encounters in that adventuring day, that wizard cannot use a spell to solve non-combat situations because they will simply run out of spell slots. It is absolutely still about theory crafting because it requires assuming : the wizard can know ALL the utility spells + ALL the combat spells at the same time (they cannot), and the wizard can afford to waste spellslots on tasks that other characters could do easily without expending limited use resources (in long adventuring days they cannot). I've played with 12 different Wizard characters and not one of them learned "Knock" because it is a terrible spell, nearly every party has someone who can use thieves tools and that is just infinitely better than announcing to everyone in a 2-block radius that you are breaking into something you shouldn't by using Knock. An anecdote isn't proof.
Also you can compare damage per round, max damage in a round.
Why in the world would you compare max damage???? The chance of getting max damage in a round is less than the chance of getting hit by lightning, it is an utterly meaningless statistic that never appears in game play. Calculating average damage per round again requires theory crafting an entire adventuring day because average damage per round completely depends on the availability of limited use resources. If a Wizard can cast a 3rd or 4th level Fireball every round of combat, then their DPR is many times higher than if a Wizard has to spend 50% of rounds casting only cantrips in order to conserve spellslots.
When you can have all the non ritual OoC utilities available to you every day that’s power creep.
Not really, because they still cost a spellslot, so if you're using them you'll end up useless in combat. Lots of OoC utiltiy spells aren't prepped for a reason, they really aren't that great.
As to your other complaints about "theory crafting", name your situation then. I'll happily calculate the stats. Simply describe what you believe a realistic adventuring day would be and we'll run the numbers to see how they stack up.
There have been so many times when a wizard has said, “oh I didn’t prepare that spell.” and then had to figure out another way to do a thing or wait until the next day, but memorize spell kills that.
As for white room theory crafting there is no reason to do it. Those numbers don’t mean anything. That build isn’t the build that everyone is going to play. It’s a combat focused build designed to prove a point, but fails at that because as you said you didn’t factor defensive spells like shield in because then that would take away from attacking spell power. In my actual play experience you can usually can afford to spend those 1st level spells on defense by 8th level. Usually when a spell caster says they are tapped they still have so,e 1st and 2nd level spells remaining. But that’s in my experience I acknowledge that all tables are different. You factored healing, temp hp and the Ward into hp even though they don’t work that way. The only way to know if that warlock build is actually over tuned is to roll some dice in some games.
This has actually been my point since the word go. When full casters say they are "tapped" and "running on empty" they are usually still have first and second level spells at 8th level. These spell levels (first and second) are used for things like defense and utility but aren't really their go to COMBAT spells. Warlock with just 1 short rest and Magical cunning (which I think is a safe assumption because everyone needs at least 1 short rest to spend hit dice) has the same number of COMBAT spells as full casters with 5. The druid, bard, cleric, sorcerer, wizard have 2 4th level slots and 3 3rd level slots that is a total of 5 spells. The warlock has 5 4th level spells. Shield needs a hard nerf, Absorb elements needs a hard nerf, silvery barbs is a strixhaven spell and should be applied judiciously and not assumed for every table. The intent is that the warlock has better health, armor and has better access to other defensive features with false life at will and lessons of the first one. Armor of shadows is still bad unfortunately since you can just get mage armor with magic initiate from lessons of the first and get 2 cantrips in addition to mage armor. The warlock spell structure doesn't need changes. Some invocations just aren't strong enough some are still over tuned and some are still just straight missing. This changes at level 9 when warlocks SHOULD get a 3rd spell slot. This would mean that full casters have 7 "combat spell casts" and warlocks would have 8 per day. Other than level 9 invocations are really what is needed to be fixed.
Edit: also if we don't make the assumption and have some days where you have 0 rests (should be extremely rare) there should also be days when you get 2 rests (much more common than 0) or even 3 rests (probably very rare potentially as often as 0). Which means there are times when the weakness of the warlock is shown and an equal number of times where the warlock's strengths can shine. Which is just different classes being different which is good.
So you want shield and absorb elements nerfed, but are okay with at will false life. More importantly you consider at will false life and lessons of the first one a better defenses than absorb elements and shield. I don’t agree. Also neither spell needs to get nerfed because on the spellcasters they were designed for they don’t pose a problem at all. The problem is when someone who already has AC 20 cast shield, or someone with high hp uses absorb elements. But a nerf makes them unusable, unless the new version of spell also scales with the level it’s cast. So a shield spell that sets your AC to 18 with a 1st level spell slot until the start of your next turn and +2 AC for each level above 1st would be okay, but Absorb Elements would be clunky. Resistance is simple.
In the event of a single big combat day the Warlock does not have the same combat spells as another full caster. If you find yourself in a 6 round Epic battle your warlock has 2 spells and that’s it. I typically plan around two combats per day, but I know tables that only have one a day. Also maybe with the changes coming warlocks won’t do it anymore, but warlocks I know (myself included) cast counterspell with those pacts slots. So pact magic slots get used for defensive castings as well
I said they were SUPPOSED (intent) to be better defense. They aren't better defense which is why shield and absorb elements are an issue. Also if you are running "Single big combat per day" you should be running gritty realism rest rules. the game is not designed for 1 combat days and the issue there isn't warlocks but full casters. Also counter spell usually is a big spell that stops bigger spells. I consider it a full on combat spell. Wizards cast it too and it ALSO costs them "combat spells".
The system is not designed to handle 1 or 2 combats a day. If you are doing it you need to be changing the rest rules to match the change to the encounter expectations and thus the "end of the day:" should be a short rest not a long. That is literally what those alternate rest rules are designed for and it even says so within the rule itself saying that it is designed for games with more intrigue and exploration with only 1 or 2 combats a day. (This may solve your martial/caster divide issue with these new playtest sets so give it a shot.)
Edit: this is a simple case of the rules work when they are used in the manner they are designed, they do not work when used in a manner they were not designed for. This is the case for all RPGs. Try to do something the system wasn't designed to do and it will feel clunky and bad. (it is like running dungeon world on a grid and complaining the game doesn't have distance and movement rules).
If there is a single combat with a single BBEG then the Warlock massively outperforms the Wizard in terms of damage because the best Wizard damage spells are AoE saves which are generally ineffective against singular BBEGs who probably have legendary resistances at this level (to avoid being Hypnotic Patterned or Polymorphed) which means the Hex + EB or Greatsword + Hex is equally effective to what the Wizard has to offer, but the Fighter end up on top assuming they can stay in melee:
Warlock: 65% chance to hit, 2d10+10+2d6 damage at range with attack rolls = 18.2 dpr Warlock: 65% chance to hit, 4d6+10+2d6 damage in melee with attack rolls = 20.15 dpr Wizard: 30% chance enemy fails a save vs fireball b/c of legendary resistances = 18.2 dpr Fighter: 65% chance to hit, (4d6+10+2)*1.2 + (4+0.2*4.5) damage in melee with attack rolls = 24.6 dpr
You keep using greatsword damage for melee Warlock with a full progression stat, those numbers don't track on a standard point buy. You can get Cha to 20 or you can have the 13 required strength for a heavy weapon or you can get a decent split for Dex & Con, but you can't do all three.
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I think that the new Pact of the Blade is meant to address one of the few problems people had with the 5e Hexblade... after a certain point, even if you took all of the invocations that fed into being a melee combatant, after a certain point most Warlocks were still better off just using Eldritch Blast. I feel like the intent might have been to increase the overall viability of being a melee-focused Warlock, although it's weirdly done in a way that makes it easier to single-level dip to get a ton of benefits, even though there seems to be an overall focus on reducing the viability of that form of multiclassing.
Anyway, to answer your actual question... I think Warlock is the easiest class to justify suddenly being gifted a new skill or ability, since it's generally accepted that a Warlock's patron can easily be used as the justification for how something like that happened. There's some of that with Clerics as well... if they're suddenly doing something that should be physically impossible, it's generally assumed that their God has imbued them with some kind of power. Same with Warlocks, really.
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Evoker is in UA Playtest 7. That being said this is a pretty good comparison.
It is not, I was very clear at the top, the Fighter would be down if they took 144 damage in one combat as well, because the Fighter's HP total include 1 use of Second Wind that is regained on a SR. The parameters of the calculations are at the top: 3 combats/day + 1 SR/day = 3*8 = 24 thp (Fiendish Vigor), and 4*(5.5+8) healing (Second Wind). If the Fighter decides to use their BA for other things like maneuvers (or if they used Second Wind to buff some skill checks) they have less hp than the warlock does. Also note, that despite being a Pact of the Blade I only budgeted 2 triggers of the Fiend's thp on a creature being reduced to 0 hp within 10ft of you, which is less than 1/combat which is almost certainly an underestimate. I expect the Fiendlock in practice would have more total HP across the whole adventuring day than the Fighter. Though you are correct about the heavy weapon, the warlock's Con would have to be just 15 to get a 13 STR which means losing 7 max hp. But as I mentioned previously this is almost certainly made up for with Fiendlock's thp.
Memorize spell isn't instantaneous it requires a minute to cast so in combat the Wizard has access to fewer spells than the Warlock does. Outside of combat it's hard to estimate for since different tables play very differently, but if the wizard is casting 8 different spells outside of combat (which is what the upper limit budgeted for) then they don't have much left for the 3 combats and will be lagging really far behind the warlock in combat situations. Spells Known doesn't really matter for day-to-day adventuring power since a spell known that isn't prepared does nothing for you, otherwise Druid would be the most powerful spellcaster in the game since they automatically know every spell on their extensive spell list, this isn't the case because they get relatively few spells prepared thus rely on Wildshape for much of their versatility.
I'm ignoring all uses of magic to buff combat stats (except for mage armour b/c that's a pretty safe bet - though the Wizard could trade Tough for Lightly Armoured to not need mage armour) because that would require adjusting the spellslot calculations in order to account for it -> this is a comparison of total overall power so I don't want any spellslots double counted as both spellpower & generic combat stats. Which would then require making an assumption about the number of time Shield would be used. You'll note I also didn't include Hex in the Warlock's sustained damage calculations despite the fact it is very likely they would use it in this scenario for exactly the same reason.
Allow me to use a bunch of unsubstantiated white-room math with no real bearing on how D&D actually plays at a real table to try and prove that the UA7 warlock is super busted so they nerf the everloving ****shit out of it, rendering it almost completely unplayable in actual D&D because nobody EVER hits these Perfect Efficiency numbers I keep holding up as proof that the warlock needs to be nerfed so hard children start telling it to stop hogging all the little foam darts.
Oh, wait... maybe I SHOULDN'T do that when the UA7 build is already an utter disgrace and an active insult to the playerbase.
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My mistake for not realizing you included second wind in the fighters hp, you shouldn’t have. That’s not how hp works. You as a player of the game should know that. You can’t count temp hp or healing as hp because you don’t always have it and you can be downed before you get to use it. Also the fiends thp is great in fights with minions horrible in fights with one big bad. It’s something that is completely different table to table depending on DM style. So losing that 7 hp might get made up for or it might not and I’m not willing to pretend that I know the answer for every table.
The Wizard shouldn’t go into combat with OoC spells prepared, they can save all of those for memorize spell, the Warlock will have to have its OoC spells that aren’t rituals prepared so those aren’t in combat options. The wizard can scroll through their spells known with one minute, so it is a power boost for them. Every spell on their spell list is an OoC swap option for them. If they want they can prep all combat spells. Then memorize another combat option to have nothing but combat options available. If they need a utility spell, spend 1 min to switch, cast it, and then 1 min to switch back to the combat option. If druids had memorize spell that worked on their list they would be OP in versatility, but still limited by the large amount of concentration spells on their list.
The whole thing is a bunch of assumptions. Let’s be honest AC doesn’t matter if you don’t get attacked. I’ve seen Mages avoid attacks against them for multiple combats. Yurei is correct that this this type of white room math is pointless. Since you added healing, wards and temp hp into your hp calculations it all assumptions. They can’t use greatswords so that math is off. EB can’t be used in melee with this build dropping the sustained damage. There are so many scenarios we’re those numbers don’t matter.
If the Warlock never gets attacked because they stay at range that is just another buff to them over the Fighter, and parity with the Wizard. But they are still vulnerable to AoE damage, which means the Warlocks greater HP is still a buff to them over the Wizard.
For sustained damage I used the average of ranged + melee for each build, because sometimes it will be difficult for the fighter to get into melee range of the enemies which lowers their DPR a lot if they have to rely on javelins, whereas the warlock has the much more powerful EB to use. While in other combats it is impossible for mages to avoid melee because the enemies are intelligent and rightfully will prioritize the mages, forcing them into melee, where the warlock doesn't quite keep up with the Fighter, but still massively outperforms the Wizard in survivability and sustained damage.
If there is a single combat with a single BBEG then the Warlock massively outperforms the Wizard in terms of damage because the best Wizard damage spells are AoE saves which are generally ineffective against singular BBEGs who probably have legendary resistances at this level (to avoid being Hypnotic Patterned or Polymorphed) which means the Hex + EB or Greatsword + Hex is equally effective to what the Wizard has to offer, but the Fighter end up on top assuming they can stay in melee:
Warlock: 65% chance to hit, 2d10+10+2d6 damage at range with attack rolls = 18.2 dpr
Warlock: 65% chance to hit, 4d6+10+2d6 damage in melee with attack rolls = 20.15 dpr
Wizard: 30% chance enemy fails a save vs fireball b/c of legendary resistances = 18.2 dpr
Fighter: 65% chance to hit, (4d6+10+2)*1.2 + (4+0.2*4.5) damage in melee with attack rolls = 24.6 dpr
If there are is a minion-focused combat, the Warlock and Wizard can quickly clear them by throwing down 2 fireballs. Whereas the Fighter will do comparatively little to nothing.
If there is a party vs party situation, with multiple strong but not BBEGs then the Warlock has the flexibility to take advantage of when the enemies are clumped together to throw down a Fireball or Hunger of Hadar, or doing focused damage to bring down the high priority enemies like casters, while never needing to spend resources to either get into melee or avoid melee (unlike the Fighter and Wizard) since they are equally effective in either.
Lastly there are few spells that are exclusively out-of-combat vs in-combat, the Wizard will probably want Dimension Door prepared and available in combat as an emergency get out of trouble option, despite it being most useful out-of-combat. Polymorph is extremely useful both in and out of combat, Fly is extremely useful both in and out of combat, Dispel Magic is valuable both in and out of combat, etc.. etc... the main ones I could see the Wizard using for Memorize Spell are: Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability, Water Walk, Disguise Self, Invisibility, Sending. It's not actually as powerful as it seems because quite a lot of utility spells you don't necessarily know you need them ahead of time.
if you fall down a hidden pit in a dungeon you don't have time to Memorize Feather Fall before you hit the ground,
if you trigger a trap and release a cloud of toxic gas, you don't have time to Memorize Gust of Wind before you choke to death,
if you're exploring the underdark, and suddenly come across a couple of duergar scouts, you don't have time to Memorize Tongues to understand what they are saying.
Memorize spell is great, it is a significant boost to wizards and feels very wizardy, but it isn't going to entirely replace preparing utility spells. I have a feeling it will actually result in a reduction of wizard character utility because players will think that they can get away with not preparing any utility spells, so it will be up to the Barbarian's strength to save the party from being swashed by a suddenly falling boulder, rather than the Wizard levitating it.
If I patched it, I would do UA7 plus 1/3 spell caster slots. I'd also consider keeping the casting attribute flexibility from UA5. I'd have to think more how I would differentiate smart-locks, wise-locks, and charm-locks.
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The more I read this the more I face palm and new questions arise.
How did you calculate how much the HP the Ward has? That is completely dependent on which spells the Abjurer decides to cast.
If aWizard needs single target damage they have Acid Arrow, Scorching Ray, or one of the Summon Spells from Tasha. Also unless your party is near the bbeg you can still hit them with an AoE.
Memorize spell is great and almost broken. At 8th level your UA abjure wizard knows 28 spells (with zero DM Fiat), preps 12 normally and one extra from Memorize spell. You can use Memorize Spell on things like Mage Armor, invisibility, tongues (if the duergar are talking you have a minute), the others you mentioned and probably more. You can prep Absorb Elements, Feather Fall (not an OoC spell), Magic Missile, Shield, Misty Step, Scorching Ray, Counterspell, Fireball, Banishment, Dimension Door, and Polymorph, and any other spell of your choice. Then since you don’t need Mage Armor you swap in a Summon Spell from Memorize Spell. If your DM is kind and you have the gold you have way more than 28 spells and Memorize spell looks even better. When you can have all the non ritual OoC utilities available to you every day that’s power creep. They will definitely still be fixing problems with magic still.
You trap example were bad. If gust of wind stops the gas trap that means there was enough room to move away from the cloud. If a boulder is falling a Wizard can’t levitate it before taking damage without some DM fiat.
You are doing a lot of white room theory crafting which doesn’t really tell us anything. That Warlock can not replace the Wizard or a Fighter in a party of 4 and have the same results of either of them. Nor if it was added to a party with both of them would it outshine either of them. Also earlier you said you didn’t want to use hex because it messed up the spell power math, but now you are using it and a great sword for your melee numbers. If your melee warlock gets hit then hex will drop. It only has 15 con at best remember and it’s not proficient in Con saves.
Not really, because they still cost a spellslot, so if you're using them you'll end up useless in combat. Lots of OoC utiltiy spells aren't prepped for a reason, they really aren't that great.
As to your other complaints about "theory crafting", name your situation then. I'll happily calculate the stats. Simply describe what you believe a realistic adventuring day would be and we'll run the numbers to see how they stack up.
There have been so many times when a wizard has said, “oh I didn’t prepare that spell.” and then had to figure out another way to do a thing or wait until the next day, but memorize spell kills that.
As for white room theory crafting there is no reason to do it. Those numbers don’t mean anything. That build isn’t the build that everyone is going to play. It’s a combat focused build designed to prove a point, but fails at that because as you said you didn’t factor defensive spells like shield in because then that would take away from attacking spell power. In my actual play experience you can usually can afford to spend those 1st level spells on defense by 8th level. Usually when a spell caster says they are tapped they still have so,e 1st and 2nd level spells remaining. But that’s in my experience I acknowledge that all tables are different. You factored healing, temp hp and the Ward into hp even though they don’t work that way. The only way to know if that warlock build is actually over tuned is to roll some dice in some games.
Rolling dice is inaccurate, 5e is extremely swingy so luck can turn a solid class into a joke, or a pathetic character into a god. My last long-term character was a Paladin (by all standards a great class) with rolled stats and got lucky with 2x 18s at level 1, but I just had the worst luck rolling and that character ended up the joke of the party because even with advantage she routinely failed simply tasks like climbing up to a balcony because I rolled a 1 and at 3 on the die.
Meanwhile in the campaign before that we had a Hexblade warlock with a 14 Charisma who routinely used Eldritch Blast but didn't take Agonizing Blast, often used a spear as their pact weapon but didn't take Thirsting Blade, and yet they were one of the most effective characters in the party because they rolled a crit at least once per combat.
Why do you even discuss the UA if you believe nothing can be known from reading the class descriptions? Surely in that case you believe 100% of this discussion is simply: "I like X", "I like Y" as nothing can be known, no facts exist, and thus no logic or reason can be applied. For that matter surely you can't believe there is any martial-caster divide either, since those arguments are made from theory crafting rather than from statistics gathered from actually played games from thousands of tables. Indeed there is no evidence of any problems with 5e as it is, because there is no data that proves their is one, and nothing can be known based only on the rule books. It is thus impossible for the UA to be better or worse than 5e in any respect because everything is subjective, everything depends on an individual table, so no generalizations can be made and no inferences can be made. Game balance as a concept doesn't exist either because that is 100% based on theory crafting, so it's not possible for any class to be balanced nor unbalanced for nothing can be known.
There is nothing wrong with discussing what can be known from reading the description, but you aren’t discussing what is known from reading the description you are theory crafting and creating meaningless numbers. You even just told a story about how those numbers are meaningless in game. You aren’t giving facts. Your HP is calculated incorrectly. Your assumption that everyone is using a greatsword isn’t a fact. Your choice to compare your very specific Fiend Warlock to the Abjurer and not Evoker that has greater cantrip sustain or Diviner that has more spells per day is problematic. Statistics are collected data, you are running probabilities there is a difference. Also the martial caster divide has nothing to do making up false scenarios and calculating probabilities based on the imaginary scenarios. The caster divide is based on the fact that caster interact with the game differently than non caster martials. I’m not in the crowd that argues wizards do more damage because fireball can 50 people and that more damage than any fighter could do. I have never had 50 enemies in a game I played or ran. I have seen a Wizard cast knock and the rogue player say “I put my tools away.” The wizard apologized and we all laughed. For me that divide is more about choice of ways to handle each problem that appears in the game. Any complaint I have about martial caster divide is about how the game is played and not about theory crafting.
Edit: Also you can compare damage per round, max damage in a round, and other simple things, but once you start talking about the adventuring day you are making so many assumptions that just won’t be true across the many tables that play the game. There is nothing wrong with probabilities when done correctly. On an attack advantage makes you more likely to hit. Now if you take that and try to say how many hits advantage is likely to help you land across an adventuring day you have to make a whole lot of assumptions. The assumptions is where the problem with theory crafting begins.
This has actually been my point since the word go. When full casters say they are "tapped" and "running on empty" they are usually still have first and second level spells at 8th level. These spell levels (first and second) are used for things like defense and utility but aren't really their go to COMBAT spells. Warlock with just 1 short rest and Magical cunning (which I think is a safe assumption because everyone needs at least 1 short rest to spend hit dice) has the same number of COMBAT spells as full casters with 5. The druid, bard, cleric, sorcerer, wizard have 2 4th level slots and 3 3rd level slots that is a total of 5 spells. The warlock has 5 4th level spells. Shield needs a hard nerf, Absorb elements needs a hard nerf, silvery barbs is a strixhaven spell and should be applied judiciously and not assumed for every table. The intent is that the warlock has better health, armor and has better access to other defensive features with false life at will and lessons of the first one. Armor of shadows is still bad unfortunately since you can just get mage armor with magic initiate from lessons of the first and get 2 cantrips in addition to mage armor. The warlock spell structure doesn't need changes. Some invocations just aren't strong enough some are still over tuned and some are still just straight missing. This changes at level 9 when warlocks SHOULD get a 3rd spell slot. This would mean that full casters have 7 "combat spell casts" and warlocks would have 8 per day. Other than level 9 invocations are really what is needed to be fixed.
Edit: also if we don't make the assumption and have some days where you have 0 rests (should be extremely rare) there should also be days when you get 2 rests (much more common than 0) or even 3 rests (probably very rare potentially as often as 0). Which means there are times when the weakness of the warlock is shown and an equal number of times where the warlock's strengths can shine. Which is just different classes being different which is good.
Funny to mention the role of luck, as I just changed a character in my current game over it. I was playing a ranger but the dice abandoned me every time I attempted a perception roll. Now I'm not entirely sure exactly what the fantasy I was going for was supposed to be, but a scout incapable of detecting even the most amateur of ambushes certainly wasn't it, and it was fast becoming anything but fun to play a character incapable of succeeding at the primary task assigned to them.
Which brings us back to the Warlock. As a spellcaster, the fantasy is to overcome challenges with magic. Can the Warlock do this in your games? The answer to that alone should inform you whether or not it is a well designed class, and any modifications should be to enable that fantasy, albeit in a slightly different manner than other primary spelcasters.
This is a great question and my answer is absolutely yes. As i said from my playtest I ended up casting more spells than all of the other full casters during that one shot combined (due to at will castings) and I was both able to role play, combat and solve exploration problems with a variety of spells from rituals, at will spells and of course, pact slots for combat. At the same time I also didn't feel like i was pulling "main character" syndrome because I had a few things that I did really well but still relied on the team for other things as well.
So you want shield and absorb elements nerfed, but are okay with at will false life. More importantly you consider at will false life and lessons of the first one a better defenses than absorb elements and shield. I don’t agree. Also neither spell needs to get nerfed because on the spellcasters they were designed for they don’t pose a problem at all. The problem is when someone who already has AC 20 cast shield, or someone with high hp uses absorb elements. But a nerf makes them unusable, unless the new version of spell also scales with the level it’s cast. So a shield spell that sets your AC to 18 with a 1st level spell slot until the start of your next turn and +2 AC for each level above 1st would be okay, but Absorb Elements would be clunky. Resistance is simple.
In the event of a single big combat day the Warlock does not have the same combat spells as another full caster. If you find yourself in a 6 round Epic battle your warlock has 2 spells and that’s it. I typically plan around two combats per day, but I know tables that only have one a day. Also maybe with the changes coming warlocks won’t do it anymore, but warlocks I know (myself included) cast counterspell with those pacts slots. So pact magic slots get used for defensive castings as well
I said they were SUPPOSED (intent) to be better defense. They aren't better defense which is why shield and absorb elements are an issue. Also if you are running "Single big combat per day" you should be running gritty realism rest rules. the game is not designed for 1 combat days and the issue there isn't warlocks but full casters. Also counter spell usually is a big spell that stops bigger spells. I consider it a full on combat spell. Wizards cast it too and it ALSO costs them "combat spells".
The system is not designed to handle 1 or 2 combats a day. If you are doing it you need to be changing the rest rules to match the change to the encounter expectations and thus the "end of the day:" should be a short rest not a long. That is literally what those alternate rest rules are designed for and it even says so within the rule itself saying that it is designed for games with more intrigue and exploration with only 1 or 2 combats a day. (This may solve your martial/caster divide issue with these new playtest sets so give it a shot.)
Edit: this is a simple case of the rules work when they are used in the manner they are designed, they do not work when used in a manner they were not designed for. This is the case for all RPGs. Try to do something the system wasn't designed to do and it will feel clunky and bad. (it is like running dungeon world on a grid and complaining the game doesn't have distance and movement rules).
You keep using greatsword damage for melee Warlock with a full progression stat, those numbers don't track on a standard point buy. You can get Cha to 20 or you can have the 13 required strength for a heavy weapon or you can get a decent split for Dex & Con, but you can't do all three.