Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Since Pact of the Blade is an invocation. The Hexblade can get maybe a name and concpet change.
Make it more a Self-Buffer and enemy De-Bufer
Have the Class feature boost the pacts
BLADE = Something to boost AC/HP and maybe add an effect when hitting cursed target.
TOME = Once per short rest a spell cast from tome can bypass damage resistance / give a disadvantage to save. (Maybe add a higher level ritual as a ribbon)
CHAIN = Reaction teleport to Warlock and intercept an attack against the Warlock made by a cursed target.
Proficiency with medium armor and shields is not the overpowered feature that some people seem to think it is. If it was, players would still be using the 5.0 hexblade with the 5.5 warlock.
It's not overpowered in a vacuum. But it does take up a large portion of a power budget for a class without significant armor training in comparison to what other subclasses get. I argue this is more a problem of the base Warlock subclasses being a bit undertuned but here we are. Medium Armor & Shields is going to boost AC by 4-5 on average vs a light armor user with no shield. That is a significant boost in survivability especially in Tier 1 & 2.
If every Warlock subclass got some sort of comparable skill or ribbon feature along with their active level 3 feature, it would be fine. But most don't which is why its problematic. It forces you to either really tone down the power of the Hexblade curse for balance or publish a blatantly power crept subclass in comparison to the base PHB subclasses. Personally I like every subclass to give a flavorful ribbon skill/tool/armor proficiency along with an active power/ability. Archfey should have gotten automatic persuasion proficiency and expertise in a charisma skill of their choice. Fiend should have given automatic intimidation proficiency and maybe poisoners tools proficiency. Etc Etc.
But since the baseline design is just one active ability feature at level 3 for the most part, this is why Hex Warrior + Hexblade's curse is frequently viewed as power creep.
There's a couple of issues with this kind of fix through invocations.
First of all is the invocations needed to succeed in the archetype, melee versus caster Warlock. They have vastly different requirements from invocations and also from attributes.
Caster Warlock basically just need Agonizing Blast and they are pretty much golden in terms of competent damage output comparable to Ranged weapon users (Fighter, Ranger, Rogue). Everything else is mostly just gravy but are not needed.
In comparison a melee Warlock really want Thirsting Blade for Extra Attack (2x) in order to have competent damage, and a prerequisite is having Pact of the Blade. Furthermore you really really want Devouring Blade for Extra Attack (3x) to keep up competent damage. That's 3 invocations that are basically required to fulfill the archetype.
Next up, you have given up the safety of damaging from range, so you are targeted a lot more and often suffer from AoE-style attacks. So to not just drop like a rock by being the weak spellcaster boy you are (D8 Hit Die, Light Armor, non-DEX-main), you need some defensive measures. Armor of Shadows is terrible because it's just a +1 AC upgrade over a Studded Leather Armor, but it's there so we often take it. Fiendish Vigor grants a resource free way to get 12 static Temp HP to boost our low Hit Die and usually suffering CON modifier as we need some DEX to boost our AC to avoid taking that much damage. Some may argue that these two are not needed to fulfill the melee archetype, but they assist a very crumbling survivability, so at least one of them feels necessary.
As such we have 4-5 invocations that are basically required in order to feel successful in the melee archetype. We have 3 available at lvls 2-4, where we can get Pact of the Blade, Armor of Shadows, and Fiendish Vigor. Lvl 5 we get 2 more, where one goes towards Thirsting Blade. This basically means we get our first flexible invocation pick at lvl 5, and the rest are just in order to make your melee archetype somewhat competent. We gain +3 invocations towards lvl 12 where we pick up Devouring Blade. Out of the 8 invocations we have available at that time, 5 of them goes towards making your melee archetype functional. Compared to the caster Warlock who just requires Agonizing Blast and everything else is just icing, because they get cantrip upgrade for free that scales with Agonizing Blast because it adds beams/extra attacks rather than more damage dice like every other cantrip. There's already a heavy favoritism towards the caster build. This means the melee Warlock have very few invocations to assist their class-limited spellcasting. Their signature class feature, that's unique to the Warlock is basically discarded in order to chase a martial build.
The second issue is that giving both caster and melee Warlocks an Invocation that grants access to Shield Training is a greater boon for the caster than the martial. A Caster requires a hand free to access a Spellcasting Focus and do Somatic components - a Component Pouch or a similarly ruled Crystal/other Focus fulfills this need while leaving the hand empty between casts. This means the caster always have their second hand free to grab a shield.
A Martial however have the option to go for Two-handed Weapons or to utilize a Versatile Weapon for much the same benefit of always keeping a hand free to access a Focus (which with Pact Blade is their weapon) or to make Somatic components if a spell doesn't require a Material one (to satisfy the rules that you can dual-purpose the same hand for Material and Somatic components, but only if the spell have both).
So for the Martial to carry a Shield and get this value, they would need to give up using a Two-Handed or Versatile weapon two-handed, and they would have some awkward moments for casting spells with a Somatic component but without a Material one or they would have to invest in the War Caster feat.
From my first point I would like to reiterate that between the caster Warlock build and the melee Warlock build, the melee build is already behind on points/power, especially from the Invocation system. In the test material leading up to the 2024 rules, WotC even tested letting Devouring Blade be a free inclusion to Thirsting Blade, that automatically activates at level 12 - I believe it was level 12 Warlock and not Character Level, but I would have to check up again. Alas it was not kept, likely to keep that invocation from being loaded in comparison to others.
As such, I believe it would be a greater help for the melee build to receive some love through subclass features. Though I would strive to make this subclass very heavily leaning into a melee build and dissuade a caster build from picking up the subclass without significant drawback (or rather wasted subclass features). This also serves to counter some of the complaints that some players have for the old '14 Hexblade, that it provided too much goodies for your general Warlock build in comparison to its brethren. Instead if the subclass significantly lifted the melee build but did much less for the caster build, it would help where help is needed. My best advocates is the Valor Bard and Bladesinger subclasses that does a significant amount for a melee build, and is not considered a must-pick for caster builds.
And if caster Warlocks really wanted better armors, they could always just multiclass rather than sinking into a melee-focused subclass.
To add on to the top comment, if you want a Gish type melee warlock, then all of your invocations need to support being a melee fighter. There is nothing left to be a a decent spellcaster.
Most Invocations don’t interact with your general spellcasting, though. AB just brings you in line with typical weapon damage, and most of the rest are just utility spells. Bladelock is a build that’s heavily committed to combat- they fill different niches.
I understand your frustrations. Respectfully however, I think you are flatly wrong. The reason being, the entire approach of your critique seems to rest on the assumption that a Warlock should be able to customize as equally capable of a melee frontliner as the true martial classes while giving nothing up in the process. You also seem to believe that Caster Warlock is equally capable as a Full Caster but with the weapon damage progression of a martial from Agonizing Blast. Neither assumption is remotely true.
Warlock is about customization but not OPTIMIZATION. Neither path should be able to be equal to a full martial or full caster frankly. Melee Warlock already has a HUGE advantage over every other martial in the game besides pure Fighter because they can get Extra Attack 3. Yes, it requires 3 invocations to achieve this by level 12. While this is not an insignificant portion of Warlock class resources, it is not an egregious investment either considering you would be a melee attacker with; 3 fifth level spell slots per short rest (2 of which come back in 1 minute once per day), 5 permanent magical boosts from your other invocations, a level 6 spell casting, powerful subclass resources, and a once per day free casting of one of the best divination spells in the game. Its completely reasonable to need to invest your invocations to further whichever melee fantasy you wish to fulfill. Lessons of the First Ones - Tough and suddenly your melee warlock has the hit die of a Fighter/Ranger/Paladin. Take the Otherworldly Leap invocation and you have the mobility of a monk. Take Life Drinker and you have a side grade version of Blessed/Radiant strikes from Cleric/Paladin- you do less damage but you heal yourself in real time. Put all of those together with Armor of Shadows and you have a side grade martial that attacks more often than most other martials, has near the mobility of a monk, similar HP as most martials all for the price of lower than average AC. Which you can shore up easily with a multi-class or take advantage of attracting hits by dumping your caster resources into Armor of Agathys and punishing creatures for attacking you. That's balance.
Regarding the idea that all a caster warlock needs is Agonizing Blast, this is a silly notion. Pact of the tome is an invocation tax right off the bat to remotely keep up with the caster fantasy otherwise they quickly fall behind Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer & Wizard in Cantrip progression. It is also required to keep up with Tier 1 ritual spell utility. Caster warlock literally has no options to keep up with a full caster in tiers 2-4 on ritual spell utility without using one of their spells known which is a hugely precious resource. Armor of Shadows is required for a baseline AC comparable to Wizard & Sorcerer and cannot keep up with their burst AC via Shield. Caster warlock in no way keeps up with the durability of Druid & Cleric who both can have shields and medium armor at level 1. They too have to use Lessons of the First ones on Tough and either Misty Step or Otherworldly leap to gain mobility so they have no advantage over melee warlock here. To REMOTELY keep up with Full caster spell slot utility, they have to devote multiple invocations to things like Mask of Many Faces, Misty Visions or One with Shadows because the opportunity cost of spending a pact magic slot is much higher for a caster warlock than a full caster at any point more or less past tier 1 when full casters are already sitting on 9 different spells slots at level 5 vs the Warlock 2. BUT they can achieve different levels of asymmetrical ability over full casters by being able to endlessly spam those invocations. Keep in mind as well, Caster warlock has NO SUPPORT for their class fantasy in available invocations past level 9. At least melee warlock gets a 12 level invocation that supports their class fantasy.
So to reiterate, at the end of the day, neither Caster Warlock, nor Melee Warlock, can fully realize a class fantasy at the same power level of either a Full Martial, or Full Caster. Even with investing all the relevant invocations into the theme, they both come up short. But they also both EXCEL in those fantasies in asymmetrical ways that Full Casters or Martials covet. Barbarian, Ranger, Paladin, Valor Bard, Bladesinger- they would all LOVE to get Extra Attack 3x. Sorcerer & Wizard would LOVE to be able to spam things like Invisibility, Silent Image, Disguise Self or Arcane Eye at will. THAT is the balance. So yes- I think adding an invocation for Shield proficiency (I could be convinced to give it with Armor of Shadows but maybe not) is a reasonable price to pay to shore up that key balancing weakness of the melee warlock. And it prevents Hexblade from becoming the must pick warlock subclass in 5.5e that it was in 5e.
Last random thought- its literally a common truism in the D&D creator space, Reddit Forums and DnDBeyond forums that the best wizard is a Bladesinger who ignores melee. So yeah, it kind of became a must pick which sucks. I think Bladesong should require concentration but that definitely makes me a heretic lol.
I disagree. (Maybe at level 18 when you get a 10th one) If you want a spellcaster type character, you do not use as many invocations as the Pact of the blade, but you still use enough that you don't have enough to use pact of the blade effectively to be able to be both. You need as invocations go to pick one type of character or the other.
I mean, that’s exactly what filling different niches is- you can be a dedicated combat build if you go all-in on Bladelock or you can expand your repertoire of spells at the expense of straight attack roll damage output.