Warlock is they have neither a good AC nor CON saving throws, making spells like Spirit Shroud a quiet risky endeavour.
Warlock has the Eldritch Mind Invocation giving them cheaper and earlier access to Adv on concentration than any other caster. They just like all other casters can also pick up Resilient:Con. If they have both Proficiency and Advantage then their concentration is neigh unbreakable.
Bard at least has medium armor and gets spell slots above 5th level
Medium armour provides only a modest advantage in tier 1, and is worse than light armour in tier 2 for a DEX-focused character which as we've all be saying is what a Blade-lock should be:
Light Armour: 12+5 = 17 Medium Armour: 15+2 = 17 & Disadvantage on Stealth Medium Armour: 14+2 = 16
Note that Breastplate and Halfplate are much more expensive than Studded Leather so generally aren't available to PCs until level 5 or so, in which case your AC progression looks like this:
Level 2: Light Armour (Studded Leather): 12+3 = 15, Medium Armour (Scale Mail): 14+2 = 16 & Disadvantage on Stealth Level 5: Light Armour (Studded Leather): 12+4 = 16, Medium Armour (Halfplate): 15+2 = 17 & Disadvantage on Stealth Level 8: Light Armour (Studded Leather): 12+5 = 17, Medium Armour (Halfplate): 15+2 = 17 & Disadvantage on Stealth
If one considers the ability to ambush enemies as valuable then in levels 1-7 Light & Medium are essentially equal, and levels 8+ Light armour is superior.
Paladin gets Aura of Protection which helps. Additionally an Eldritch Blaster gets more from Spirit Shroud than a Pact of the Blade warlock, unless you have some form of Bonus Action attack and that only lasts until level 11 where Eldritch Blast at 10 foot just does more damage.
Why wouldn't you have a Bonus Action attack? It is incredibly easy to get an bonus action attack. Unless your Eldritch Blaster picked up Crossbow Expert which is not at all an optimal feat for them to pick up then using EB within 10 ft of an enemy is not a turn-after-turn repeatable action because the enemy is just going to get in your face and impose Disadvantage on all of those attacks. Not to mention an Eldritch Blaster will not have invested in DEX thus have an AC of 14-15 vs AC of 17 for the Blade-lock at the levels you are talking about. So it would be incredibly stupid of them to go within 10 ft of an enemy just to get 1d8 additional damage on their EB for one turn before the enemy gets into their face.
Whiteboard and spreadsheet optimization is rarely relevant to actual gameplay, and Youtube optimizers are very often living in a fantasy land of perfect circumstances & positioning when calculating the DPR of their builds.
Rogue has some of the best scaling damage, not necessarily the highest DPR at every level, level 5 tends to be a down point. Perhaps Rogue has the best sustained DPR but a fighter with a greatsword is going to give that a run for it's money or may even surpass it, more so with Great Weapon Master granting occasional extra attacks, going champion makes that very common, then go half-orc for harder critical hits, albeit may get to the point where Great Axe becomes a consideration.
Sorry but no. They aren't even close. Arcane Trickster with any of the Blade cantrips + a Familiar for Advantage on their attack deals an absolute massive amount of damage, if one allows them to have Haste at high levels and double dip sneak attack they are completely off the charts.
Level 5 Arcane Trickster: 87.75 chance to hit, 9.75% chance to crit, 3d6 sneak attack, 1d8 Booming Blade + high chance of 2d8 secondary damage due to BA Disengage, 1d8 rapier, +4 Dex No secondary damage = 22.5 DPR With secondary damage = 30.4 DPR
Level 5 Arcane Trickster with Elven Accuracy, and High Elf ancestry: 95.7% chance to hit, 14.3% chance to crit No secondary damage = 25.3 DPR With secondary damage = 33.9 DPR
Level 5 Champion with GWM, and Half-Orc ancestry: 35% chance to hit, 10% chance to crit, 1d12 greataxe, +10 GWM, +3 Str, 2 attacks per action + optional BA attack No BA attack = 16.25 DPR With BA attack = 24.4 DPR
As the OP my point was there are quite a few broken (as in no longer work due to rule changes) play styles. Yes, there are indeed some improvements in 2024 particularly with fighters wanting to do more than "I cast sharp stick".
I was lamenting that some of these changes seem stupid such as so many prone creatures just from weapon hits yet my three-limbed barbarian with old shield mastery and expertise in athletics has been put out to pasture.
Giving paladins perma Find Steed, but taking it away from my swords bard, and yet doing nothing to improve mounted combat.
As the OP my point was there are quite a few broken (as in no longer work due to rule changes) play styles. Yes, there are indeed some improvements in 2024 particularly with fighters wanting to do more than "I cast sharp stick".
I was lamenting that some of these changes seem stupid such as so many prone creatures just from weapon hits yet my three-limbed barbarian with old shield mastery and expertise in athletics has been put out to pasture.
Giving paladins perma Find Steed, but taking it away from my swords bard, and yet doing nothing to improve mounted combat.
The book of ancient secrets stings the most.
I think most changes are for the best. It made no sense that bards got such an iconic paladin spell WAY before the paladin could. I love that change. And lots of broken builds used to be either overpowered, using rules in a way that wasn't intended, or otherwise trivialized certain aspects of the game.
Why can't you take Book of Ancient Secrets anymore? Because it's not in the book? They've been very explicit about backwards compatibility. You should be able to pick it. The only things they were explicit about were that, if the same feature appears in both the 2014 and the 2024 PHB, then you use the 2024 one. Book of Ancient Secrets is not in the 2024 PHB, so you can always just take it.
They have changed it to gaining two level one rituals you can swap out rather then added any ritual (like the former Ritual Caster which has been nerfed too). So no more adding higher level rituals like Tiny Hut or Water-walking.
They have changed it to gaining two level one rituals you can swap out rather then added any ritual (like the former Ritual Caster which has been nerfed too). So no more adding higher level rituals like Tiny Hut or Water-walking.
The change was to Pact of the Tome, not to Book of Ancient Secrets. Pact of the Tome could never even take rituals without an invocation. So technically, since the feature wasn't updated in the 2024 PHB, you can still take it as it was in 2014.
The problem is when you change the core invocation it is no longer clear if invocations that used it as a prereq work at all. There is no possible way they thought the reason people take pact of the tome is for some lame death ward effect and not book of ancient secrets, so it missing is suspect.
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Warlock has the Eldritch Mind Invocation giving them cheaper and earlier access to Adv on concentration than any other caster. They just like all other casters can also pick up Resilient:Con. If they have both Proficiency and Advantage then their concentration is neigh unbreakable.
Medium armour provides only a modest advantage in tier 1, and is worse than light armour in tier 2 for a DEX-focused character which as we've all be saying is what a Blade-lock should be:
Light Armour: 12+5 = 17
Medium Armour: 15+2 = 17 & Disadvantage on Stealth
Medium Armour: 14+2 = 16
Note that Breastplate and Halfplate are much more expensive than Studded Leather so generally aren't available to PCs until level 5 or so, in which case your AC progression looks like this:
Level 2: Light Armour (Studded Leather): 12+3 = 15, Medium Armour (Scale Mail): 14+2 = 16 & Disadvantage on Stealth
Level 5: Light Armour (Studded Leather): 12+4 = 16, Medium Armour (Halfplate): 15+2 = 17 & Disadvantage on Stealth
Level 8: Light Armour (Studded Leather): 12+5 = 17, Medium Armour (Halfplate): 15+2 = 17 & Disadvantage on Stealth
If one considers the ability to ambush enemies as valuable then in levels 1-7 Light & Medium are essentially equal, and levels 8+ Light armour is superior.
Why wouldn't you have a Bonus Action attack? It is incredibly easy to get an bonus action attack. Unless your Eldritch Blaster picked up Crossbow Expert which is not at all an optimal feat for them to pick up then using EB within 10 ft of an enemy is not a turn-after-turn repeatable action because the enemy is just going to get in your face and impose Disadvantage on all of those attacks. Not to mention an Eldritch Blaster will not have invested in DEX thus have an AC of 14-15 vs AC of 17 for the Blade-lock at the levels you are talking about. So it would be incredibly stupid of them to go within 10 ft of an enemy just to get 1d8 additional damage on their EB for one turn before the enemy gets into their face.
Whiteboard and spreadsheet optimization is rarely relevant to actual gameplay, and Youtube optimizers are very often living in a fantasy land of perfect circumstances & positioning when calculating the DPR of their builds.
Sorry but no. They aren't even close. Arcane Trickster with any of the Blade cantrips + a Familiar for Advantage on their attack deals an absolute massive amount of damage, if one allows them to have Haste at high levels and double dip sneak attack they are completely off the charts.
Level 5 Arcane Trickster: 87.75 chance to hit, 9.75% chance to crit, 3d6 sneak attack, 1d8 Booming Blade + high chance of 2d8 secondary damage due to BA Disengage, 1d8 rapier, +4 Dex
No secondary damage = 22.5 DPR
With secondary damage = 30.4 DPR
Level 5 Arcane Trickster with Elven Accuracy, and High Elf ancestry: 95.7% chance to hit, 14.3% chance to crit
No secondary damage = 25.3 DPR
With secondary damage = 33.9 DPR
Level 5 Champion with GWM, and Half-Orc ancestry: 35% chance to hit, 10% chance to crit, 1d12 greataxe, +10 GWM, +3 Str, 2 attacks per action + optional BA attack
No BA attack = 16.25 DPR
With BA attack = 24.4 DPR
As the OP my point was there are quite a few broken (as in no longer work due to rule changes) play styles. Yes, there are indeed some improvements in 2024 particularly with fighters wanting to do more than "I cast sharp stick".
I was lamenting that some of these changes seem stupid such as so many prone creatures just from weapon hits yet my three-limbed barbarian with old shield mastery and expertise in athletics has been put out to pasture.
Giving paladins perma Find Steed, but taking it away from my swords bard, and yet doing nothing to improve mounted combat.
The book of ancient secrets stings the most.
I think most changes are for the best. It made no sense that bards got such an iconic paladin spell WAY before the paladin could. I love that change. And lots of broken builds used to be either overpowered, using rules in a way that wasn't intended, or otherwise trivialized certain aspects of the game.
Why can't you take Book of Ancient Secrets anymore? Because it's not in the book? They've been very explicit about backwards compatibility. You should be able to pick it. The only things they were explicit about were that, if the same feature appears in both the 2014 and the 2024 PHB, then you use the 2024 one. Book of Ancient Secrets is not in the 2024 PHB, so you can always just take it.
They have changed it to gaining two level one rituals you can swap out rather then added any ritual (like the former Ritual Caster which has been nerfed too). So no more adding higher level rituals like Tiny Hut or Water-walking.
The change was to Pact of the Tome, not to Book of Ancient Secrets. Pact of the Tome could never even take rituals without an invocation. So technically, since the feature wasn't updated in the 2024 PHB, you can still take it as it was in 2014.
The problem is when you change the core invocation it is no longer clear if invocations that used it as a prereq work at all. There is no possible way they thought the reason people take pact of the tome is for some lame death ward effect and not book of ancient secrets, so it missing is suspect.