With the upcoming one D&D, I believe there is potential to vary the potential play styles of the warlock class which is seen as either Eldritch Blast or Hexblade despite being theoretically the most customizable class in the game. (apologies for the long post but it's a long suggestion)
First off I believe the following features need to be removed and incorporated into pacts:
Agonzing Blast - this invocation is essentially a must have to anything except a hexblade; Whom it is still very attractive for, when near every warlock takes it, should it be an "optional" invocation?
Thirsting Blade & Lifedrinker - these invocation are essential for a hexblade/pact of blade warlock but near useless to anything else
Hex Warrior - this hexblade feature is too powerful for level 1 given what else Hexblade gets. My recommendation to replace this will appear below my recommendationss for the Pacts.
So my solution to this is to improve the Pacts themselves to have 3rd level, 5th level and 11th level features
Pact of the Tome should gain the following additional benefits:
Level 3 - While carrying your book of shadows, you can add your Charisma modifier to all damage rolls of any of your Warlock Cantrips.
Level 5 - While carrying your book of shadows, if you roll a natural 20 for the attack roll of any Warlock Cantrip, you can add a single damage die to the roll.
Level 11 - Once per long rest, while not carrying your book of shadows, you may use one of your pact spell slots to teleport to it's location
Pact of the Chain should gain the following additional benefits:
Level 3 - your warlock familiar from the find familiar spell gains additional maximum health points equal to 3 * your warlock level. As a bonus action (instead of an action) you can command your familiar to attack with it's action. note: Investment of the chain master should lose the bonus action as it would be redundant, it should instead increase the maximum health from 3 * warlock level to 4 * warlock level.
Level 5 - your warlock familiar from the find familiar spell gains your proficiency bonus to it attack and damage rolls, and it's minimum AC can be no lower than your current AC.
Level 11- your warlock familiar from the find familiar spell gains an additional attack when ordered to attack from your bonus action.
Pact of the Blade should gain the following additional benefits:
level 3 - when performing an attack with your Pact weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls.
level 5 - when using the attack action and attacking with your pact weapon, you may take an additional attack with your pact weapon
level 11 - When you hit a creature with your pact weapon, the creature takes extra necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier
Pact of the Talisman should gain the following additional benefits:
Level 3 - the Talisman has it's own well of magic, once per short rest you can cast one of your warlock spells that originates from wearer of the talisman, this spell is cast at the same level as your pact magic slots and uses your spell casting ability modifier but does not consume or require any of your pact magic slots. The wearer must use their reaction to cast the spell or can hold it under their own concentration to cast it as a bonus action on their next turn, the spell fizzles out at the end of the wearer's turn if it is not cast. If the spell else wise has concentration, the concentration needs to be maintained by yourself. You can not use this feature to cast a cantrip.
Level 5 - When casting a spell from your talisman, the wearer of the talisman gains a bonus to AC and temporary HP equal to the level of the spell cast, this bonus starts when you cast the spell irrelevant of if the wearer holds it, this bonus ends at the start of your next turn.
Level 11 - you can now cast two spells per short rest from talisman instead of one.
My recommendation for Hex Warrior is that after casting a warlock spell using a pact spell slot, the next attack using the hex weapon gains a bonus to attack equal to the level of the pact spell slot used, this bonus lasts until the end of your next turn.
Maybe other people will disagree with my ideas here, but I still think one D&D gives a chance to make Warlock more customizable than just an Eldritch Blast spammer but also will remain interesting and customizable, perhaps the known invocations can be dropped by 1 to match but having more diverse builds from different mixtures of pacts and patrons would be more fun.
1.) Pact of the Blade should have had the CHA modifier for attack/damage rolls feature Hexblades have already built in.
2.) The Thirsting Blade invocation should just be something you get automatically at 5th or 6th level with Pact of the Blade.
3.) The Voice of the Chain Master invocation could probably just be an automatic thing Pact of the Chain familiars can do.
4.) The Book of Ancient Secrets invocation should just be an automatic part of the Pact of the Tome.
Also I'm hoping that they make it so that you can change your Mystic Arcanum options when you level up, and (this might be more controversial) you can expend your use of Mystic Arcanum for the day to upcast your 5th level or lower warlock spells.
For invocations like Agonizing Blast, I think Eldritch Blast (if we have to have it) should just be a class feature you get automatically, and things like Agonizing Blast are stuff you add onto it as you go up in level, separate from the invocations.
All of this ultimately serves to provide more actual choices rather than either taking the "must haves" or deliberately hampering yourself by not doing so.
EDIT: Also, if they're going to keep the Pact Magic feature as is with regards to the limited spell slots, I want them to make the expanded spell lists automatically give you the spells. You might not ever use them, but at least you have them, and it helps to make the spell list of the patron you choose more flavourful.
AB is only mandatory for those those who fall for the damage treadmill trap.
I do agree the blade pact taxes can seem bad but honestly all *full* casters should have to give up a sizeable opportunity cost for martial abilities that rival the ones who have it built in.
The damage treadmill trap exists because in many campaigns, combat dictates how useful one perceives their character to be. In more roleplay-heavy games, warlocks have a lot more breathing room to be what they want to be.
Also, warlocks are not "full casters". Not really. They only have two spell slots for most of their run, three if it goes on long enough, and their usual full caster spell progression stops at 5th level spells. Past that point, they can only get four specific spells, one to each level from 6th to 9th. And if you aren't using Tasha's rules, they're stuck with those spells forever.
Given that WoTC appears to be decoupling short rests (the main justification for warlocks having so few slots) from mechanic refreshes, I speculate that Pact Magic slots (if the class still has them) will work very differently from how they do now. In that case, maybe the trap as you call it will be less alluring.
I used to very much be on the side of "Warlocks are full casters, darn it!" But, recently, I've actually started coming around to the idea that, no, they really do deserve to be considered closer to the three half-casters than they do to the five full casters.
Half-casters are known for their pet options. Paladin mounts, ranger companions, artificer golems, and warlock chain familiars.
Half-casters tend to get features and spells that enhance their weapon attacks and defenses. Warlock signature spells (Hex, Armor of Agathys, Hellish Rebuke, Arms of Hadar) grant damage, thorn-tanking prowress, and remove reactions from opponents for mobility.
Warlocks are renowned for eldritch blast and curses. Their spell list lacks the AoE damage effects that full casters use.
In 3e, eldritch blast was compard to sneak attack. In 4e, they had the striker role, same as ranger and rogue.
When all is said and done, I would rather have my signature spells, eldritch blast and quirky pacts (book, blade, chain, etc) than the wide variety of magic that a full caster has. And, lets be honest, hellish rebuke is an awesome spell that just doesn't work well in place of Shield magic, given limited spell slots.
What I would do to change the warlock is just start off by making Eldritch Blast part of the core class. Blade pact can just be a reshaped eldritch blast with additional features and melee range.
Eliminate spell slots. Everything is an invocation.
Honestly a lot of the warlock is going to need to be redone in light of the complete failure of short rest mechanics translating over to actual play well or even remotely close to intended. That's also true of other short rest class features, like the monk's ki, the battlemaster maneuvers, bardic inspiration, and more, but their fundamental mechanic (spend points, do stuff) just needs to be rebalanced. Rebuilding spell slots is going to be trickier. Or they'll just say "screw it" and go entirely with invocations. Who needs to get True Sight when Witch Sight is, while more limited, a good alternative?
As much as I would love to discuss how to tweak the warlock and redo much of it... too much is going to depend on how they decide to do Pact Magic. Its too much of an impact on the class to ignore.
Honestly a lot of the warlock is going to need to be redone in light of the complete failure of short rest mechanics translating over to actual play well or even remotely close to intended. That's also true of other short rest class features, like the monk's ki, the battlemaster maneuvers, bardic inspiration, and more, but their fundamental mechanic (spend points, do stuff) just needs to be rebalanced. Rebuilding spell slots is going to be trickier. Or they'll just say "screw it" and go entirely with invocations. Who needs to get True Sight when Witch Sight is, while more limited, a good alternative?
As much as I would love to discuss how to tweak the warlock and redo much of it... too much is going to depend on how they decide to do Pact Magic. Its too much of an impact on the class to ignore.
Witch Sight doesn't let you see through non-creature illusions or anything on the Ethereal Plane, and it doesn't let you see invisible creatures that aren't concealed by illusion magic. So there are still a number of useful things truesight can do that Witch Sight can't, but Witch Sight does cover one of the more common uses of truesight, I agree.
I imagine that's why Warlocks don't typically get see invisibility. Because if you did get that, you'd basically have free truesight if you also had both Devil's Sight and Witch Sight.
Warlocks are sort of 3/4 casters I guess, they are still getting access to a spell at each level above 5 but still very limited access... Warlock is definitely behind the other casters for sure and closer to the half casters.
What I was going for was more each pact being a distinct style of play with Tome being the traditional Eldritch Blaster, the Chain being a more pet focus, blade being the weapon focus and amulet being more sort of support focused.
Warlocks are sort of 3/4 casters I guess, they are still getting access to a spell at each level above 5 but still very limited access... Warlock is definitely behind the other casters for sure and closer to the half casters.
What I was going for was more each pact being a distinct style of play with Tome being the traditional Eldritch Blaster, the Chain being a more pet focus, blade being the weapon focus and amulet being more sort of support focused.
I agree with the idea of going that direction with the pact boons.
But that does leave what, if anything, is to be done with the invocations overall. And how would the different patrons be handled differently, if at all?
Warlock as a class has four major elements: Pact Magic, Patron subclass, Pact Boon, and Eldritch Invocations. So if we're talking about revising the class, all of these need to be accounted for.
Warlocks are sort of 3/4 casters I guess, they are still getting access to a spell at each level above 5 but still very limited access... Warlock is definitely behind the other casters for sure and closer to the half casters.
What I was going for was more each pact being a distinct style of play with Tome being the traditional Eldritch Blaster, the Chain being a more pet focus, blade being the weapon focus and amulet being more sort of support focused.
I agree with the idea of going that direction with the pact boons.
But that does leave what, if anything, is to be done with the invocations overall. And how would the different patrons be handled differently, if at all?
Warlock as a class has four major elements: Pact Magic, Patron subclass, Pact Boon, and Eldritch Invocations. So if we're talking about revising the class, all of these need to be accounted for.
Invocations could got tiered but I dunno if that is a great idea if feats are going that way as it sounds. Would take time to address every single invocation.
I don't think Patrons need major change over all with these pacts, as most of these pacts, pact magic is another issue as I agree that they already have something planned and it's going to change significantly because it has clearly been problematic thus far.
Warlocks are sort of 3/4 casters I guess, they are still getting access to a spell at each level above 5 but still very limited access... Warlock is definitely behind the other casters for sure and closer to the half casters.
What I was going for was more each pact being a distinct style of play with Tome being the traditional Eldritch Blaster, the Chain being a more pet focus, blade being the weapon focus and amulet being more sort of support focused.
While the overall concept is sound on the surface, we run into the same issue we did in 5e that made Pact Blade so tricky. Namely, you have eldritch blast scaling in damage with each successive tier still, and getting new powers at 5 and 11 for the tome/chain/talisman, but pact blade is using its slots to barely keep up with, if you can call it that, core eldritch blast.
Actually, at level 11 it falls behind if you are running Hex, and lets not talk about being blown out of the water at 17 when there's four EBs. Pact of the Blade needs to organically keep pace with Eldritch Blast scaling, or its a lost cause.
And... Not a fan of using the book for generic eldritch blasting. What really was interesting about the book was the extra magic you got in core book (though probably less attractive now with free feat of Magic Initiate) on top of Tasha's "you signed a deal with a devil" type theme of tracking people who signed your book. Tasha, in general, was super neat for pact invocations because it gave the feeling of really being that kind of supernatural you signed with. Your talisman let you feel like a genie in a way. The book? Sign your name, get what you want, but I can find you anywhere. You looked at the invocations and drooled at all the flavor oozing from them.
I do think Pact of the Tome had two of my favourite new invocations in Tasha's: Far Scribe and Gift of the Protectors.
I wish we saw more stuff like that overall with the class. Less invocations that just flat out mimicked certain spells (like Eldritch Sight, Mire the Mind, Minions of Chaos, etc), and more invocations that were all unique features that may or may not use an existing spell as a base.
I do think Pact of the Tome had two of my favourite new invocations in Tasha's: Far Scribe and Gift of the Protectors.
I wish we saw more stuff like that overall with the class. Less invocations that just flat out mimicked certain spells (like Eldritch Sight, Mire the Mind, Minions of Chaos, etc), and more invocations that were all unique features that may or may not use an existing spell as a base.
Those are definitely more interesting than, "you can add your CHA bonus to the damage rolls of eldritch blast".
Warlocks are sort of 3/4 casters I guess, they are still getting access to a spell at each level above 5 but still very limited access... Warlock is definitely behind the other casters for sure and closer to the half casters.
What I was going for was more each pact being a distinct style of play with Tome being the traditional Eldritch Blaster, the Chain being a more pet focus, blade being the weapon focus and amulet being more sort of support focused.
While the overall concept is sound on the surface, we run into the same issue we did in 5e that made Pact Blade so tricky. Namely, you have eldritch blast scaling in damage with each successive tier still, and getting new powers at 5 and 11 for the tome/chain/talisman, but pact blade is using its slots to barely keep up with, if you can call it that, core eldritch blast.
Actually, at level 11 it falls behind if you are running Hex, and lets not talk about being blown out of the water at 17 when there's four EBs. Pact of the Blade needs to organically keep pace with Eldritch Blast scaling, or its a lost cause.
And... Not a fan of using the book for generic eldritch blasting. What really was interesting about the book was the extra magic you got in core book (though probably less attractive now with free feat of Magic Initiate) on top of Tasha's "you signed a deal with a devil" type theme of tracking people who signed your book. Tasha, in general, was super neat for pact invocations because it gave the feeling of really being that kind of supernatural you signed with. Your talisman let you feel like a genie in a way. The book? Sign your name, get what you want, but I can find you anywhere. You looked at the invocations and drooled at all the flavor oozing from them.
These changes to just damage feel... bland. Sorry
If you go Polearm Master, Eldritch blast only beats hexblade at a single level in damage, and I forget which level that is, but I think it was level 11, since both have the same number of attacks at that point and life drinker hasn't come online yet and you're an ASI behind (at +4) from picking up Polearm Master.
Since Polearms with polearm master makes an additional attack as a bonus action then it's near guaranteed to do more damage up til level 10. When life drinker comes in then it makes it not a contest when you're doing three attacks a round, plus getting reactions, plus have a higher attack roll and damage roll bonus. The 3rd attack is a 1d4 but when you're adding +5 weapon damage (charisma) +5 necrotic damage (charisma) +2d4 elemental damage (elemental weapon) with a +2 attack bonus from elemental weapon (cast at 5th level), It outperforms Eldritch blast easily. The only issue with Elemental weapon is you need to cast it before combat, else it's an action to cast.
My ideas are just suggestions, there are alternatives, but I just feel like it certainly could be split out more, if it feels thematically wrong than I can understand that complaint. To me the book's primary function (the one you get before any invocations), is cantrips, which is why I went with that.
If you go Polearm Master, Eldritch blast only beats hexblade at a single level in damage, and I forget which level that is, but I think it was level 11, since both have the same number of attacks at that point and life drinker hasn't come online yet and you're an ASI behind (at +4) from picking up Polearm Master.
Since Polearms with polearm master makes an additional attack as a bonus action then it's near guaranteed to do more damage up til level 10. When life drinker comes in then it makes it not a contest when you're doing three attacks a round, plus getting reactions, plus have a higher attack roll and damage roll bonus. The 3rd attack is a 1d4 but when you're adding +5 weapon damage (charisma) +5 necrotic damage (charisma) +2d4 elemental damage (elemental weapon) with a +2 attack bonus from elemental weapon (cast at 5th level), It outperforms Eldritch blast easily. The only issue with Elemental weapon is you need to cast it before combat, else it's an action to cast.
My ideas are just suggestions, there are alternatives, but I just feel like it certainly could be split out more, if it feels thematically wrong than I can understand that complaint. To me the book's primary function (the one you get before any invocations), is cantrips, which is why I went with that.
My problem with the idea of the Tome being mainly for cantrips is that it doesn't really get interesting until you use the invocations for it. Like having access to guidance, primal savagery, and encode thoughts is nice and all, but three cantrips is the best a mysterious Book of Shadows handed down from your powerful otherworldly patron can do by default?
Book of Ancient Secrets, Far Scribe, and Gift of the Protectors all provide that feeling that this book is an ancient tome of knowledge you aren't necessarily meant to have.
That's why I think that at the very least Book of Ancient Secrets should be built in, because every other tome-related spellcasting class feature has ritual casting as part of the package. It also gives a reason to go for ritual spells in the warlock spell list like comprehend languages and contact other plane.
The PAM strategy requires going multiclass to fix your crap AC and Concentrate save, or the Hexblade subclass. Elemental weapon is likewise a Hexblade only spell for warlocks. If you want to optimize using very specific build, then there are Genie builds that are a bit stronger than your PAM Hexblade. And comes online at level 1, not level 4 or 8, and doesn't cost an ASI
If you can't play the concept as any warlock patron and no multiclasses or specific feats, something is wrong.
The Hexblade only exists because the writers realized that Blade pact didn't work on its own. The medium armor profs, the Cha weapon, the innate curse ability, all the melee spells? All part of the attempt to plug the holes in the blade pact's design.
Your ideas are indeed suggestions, and I'm providing feedback in the form of actionable constructive criticism. You are repeating mistakes from the core book. This is a chance to correct them.
My problem with the idea of the Tome being mainly for cantrips is that it doesn't really get interesting until you use the invocations for it. Like having access to guidance, primal savagery, and encode thoughts is nice and all, but three cantrips is the best a mysterious Book of Shadows handed down from your powerful otherworldly patron can do by default?
Book of Ancient Secrets, Far Scribe, and Gift of the Protectors all provide that feeling that this book is an ancient tome of knowledge you aren't necessarily meant to have.
That's why I think that at the very least Book of Ancient Secrets should be built in, because every other tome-related spellcasting class feature has ritual casting as part of the package. It also gives a reason to go for ritual spells in the warlock spell list like comprehend languages and contact other plane.
Fair, it is a little strange that this "book" is just offering 3 cantrips. Having the ability to get rituals as default does sound better, then the invocation could be replaced by something that adds a page which allows a warlock to project one of their prepared spells on to it and to use it as a scroll once per day, with the spell disappearing from the page after use.
The PAM strategy requires going multiclass to fix your crap AC and Concentrate save, or the Hexblade subclass. Elemental weapon is likewise a Hexblade only spell for warlocks. If you want to optimize using very specific build, then there are Genie builds that are a bit stronger than your PAM Hexblade. And comes online at level 1, not level 4 or 8, and doesn't cost an ASI
If you can't play the concept as any warlock patron and no multiclasses or specific feats, something is wrong.
The Hexblade only exists because the writers realized that Blade pact didn't work on its own. The medium armor profs, the Cha weapon, the innate curse ability, all the melee spells? All part of the attempt to plug the holes in the blade pact's design.
Your ideas are indeed suggestions, and I'm providing feedback in the form of actionable constructive criticism. You are repeating mistakes from the core book. This is a chance to correct them.
yea, I am looking at it from Hexblade currently, from other patrons it does need more added to it. Maybe an invocation to gain one/two spells from the Paladin Spell List which can be changed on a long rest. Medium armour is okay but there is already an invocation for mage armor. I think an invocation to get 1 free access to the shield spell per short rest might be a good alternative idea, alternatively just the possibility to move shield proficiency to pact of the blade. A few ways to look at that.
Damage wise, to move away from PAM, needs more consideration than I am capable of thinking an idea for at the moment.
Fair, it is a little strange that this "book" is just offering 3 cantrips. Having the ability to get rituals as default does sound better, then the invocation could be replaced by something that adds a page which allows a warlock to project one of their prepared spells on to it and to use it as a scroll once per day, with the spell disappearing from the page after use.
Alternatively. Forget the rituals and cantrips entirely. Guidance and occassionally Shille**** were the only cross-class ones picked usually, and we dont know if rituals are still a thing.
Instead, I reccommend taking a page off Tasha's. Your pact book is literally the contract you signed with your Patron, and you can sign your own psedo-pacts. Or you have a pact with a sentient weapon, and the blade invocations are literally awakening the powers of THAT specific weapon. Chain pact is becoming a demon/fey/monster lord with servants. Talismans were really meant for genie pact, and its all about the talismans being your lamp.
yea, I am looking at it from Hexblade currently, from other patrons it does need more added to it. Maybe an invocation to gain one/two spells from the Paladin Spell List which can be changed on a long rest. Medium armour is okay but there is already an invocation for mage armor. I think an invocation to get 1 free access to the shield spell per short rest might be a good alternative idea, alternatively just the possibility to move shield proficiency to pact of the blade. A few ways to look at that.
Damage wise, to move away from PAM, needs more consideration than I am capable of thinking an idea for at the moment.
The simplest option is to simply tie it to Eldritch Blast. Eldritch Glaive and Eldritch Claw were invocations in 3e and Eldritch Blade was an option in 4e.
This opens it to EB invocations as well as Blade specific ones.
Fair, it is a little strange that this "book" is just offering 3 cantrips. Having the ability to get rituals as default does sound better, then the invocation could be replaced by something that adds a page which allows a warlock to project one of their prepared spells on to it and to use it as a scroll once per day, with the spell disappearing from the page after use.
Alternatively. Forget the rituals and cantrips entirely. Guidance and occassionally Shille**** were the only cross-class ones picked usually, and we dont know if rituals are still a thing.
Instead, I reccommend taking a page off Tasha's. Your pact book is literally the contract you signed with your Patron, and you can sign your own psedo-pacts. Or you have a pact with a sentient weapon, and the blade invocations are literally awakening the powers of THAT specific weapon. Chain pact is becoming a demon/fey/monster lord with servants. Talismans were really meant for genie pact, and its all about the talismans being your lamp.
yea, I am looking at it from Hexblade currently, from other patrons it does need more added to it. Maybe an invocation to gain one/two spells from the Paladin Spell List which can be changed on a long rest. Medium armour is okay but there is already an invocation for mage armor. I think an invocation to get 1 free access to the shield spell per short rest might be a good alternative idea, alternatively just the possibility to move shield proficiency to pact of the blade. A few ways to look at that.
Damage wise, to move away from PAM, needs more consideration than I am capable of thinking an idea for at the moment.
The simplest option is to simply tie it to Eldritch Blast. Eldritch Glaive and Eldritch Claw were invocations in 3e and Eldritch Blade was an option in 4e.
This opens it to EB invocations as well as Blade specific ones.
Due to the small social groups I usually keep to, I never actually got to experience 3E. So anything I know about that comes from video games at the time, but that does sound like a good solution.
I am assuming rituals will remain a thing, but it's definitely not guaranteed, I don't think anybody had any major issue with rituals in 5E? Chain I still think is the biggest let down in 5E since the familiar essentially does not grow with you, so you're back to just Eldritch Blasting like nearly every other warlock...
Oh god. You just had to poke my sore spot. Warlocks right now are a class made of patches and crutches, they're a mess. I really like R3sistance's original idea of fusing things like agonizing blast, book of rituals, extra attack and soul drinker into corresponding pacts. An elegant and obvious solution. I had a more radical idea in mind, though.
Subclasses and pact boons could switch places. At level 1, you choose a patron, which only gives you expanded spell list and perhaps access to some thematic invocations. At level 3, your communication with patron reaches the point of striking a pact (much like a paladin takes his oath at level 3). Subclass is your terms of service, your role in the arrangement. Hexblade is an enforcer, a knight for a patron, with all the melee functionality features. Occultist specializes in rituals, exotic languages, communicating with other planes. Summoner gets a familiar and gets to use otherworldly meat shileds, forging agreements with demons or acting as patron's lieutenant, commanding the foot soldiers. Witch(er) specializes in curses and social skills to manipulate threads of fate, forging their own pacts with other mortals. There could also be roles of collector, procuring artifacts for the patron and gaining limited access to the patron's vault in exchange, or host, being a vessel for patron himself. As is, you could just remix the existing features to make it work.
Also, a warlock just needs more stuff to do other than spam eldritch blast after burning all of your two spell slots. [PB] slots per long rest, restoring one slot with monsters' recharge mechanic? Though I'm not a fan of randomness in base mechanics of a class...
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With the upcoming one D&D, I believe there is potential to vary the potential play styles of the warlock class which is seen as either Eldritch Blast or Hexblade despite being theoretically the most customizable class in the game. (apologies for the long post but it's a long suggestion)
First off I believe the following features need to be removed and incorporated into pacts:
Agonzing Blast - this invocation is essentially a must have to anything except a hexblade; Whom it is still very attractive for, when near every warlock takes it, should it be an "optional" invocation?
Thirsting Blade & Lifedrinker - these invocation are essential for a hexblade/pact of blade warlock but near useless to anything else
Hex Warrior - this hexblade feature is too powerful for level 1 given what else Hexblade gets. My recommendation to replace this will appear below my recommendationss for the Pacts.
So my solution to this is to improve the Pacts themselves to have 3rd level, 5th level and 11th level features
Pact of the Tome should gain the following additional benefits:
Level 3 - While carrying your book of shadows, you can add your Charisma modifier to all damage rolls of any of your Warlock Cantrips.
Level 5 - While carrying your book of shadows, if you roll a natural 20 for the attack roll of any Warlock Cantrip, you can add a single damage die to the roll.
Level 11 - Once per long rest, while not carrying your book of shadows, you may use one of your pact spell slots to teleport to it's location
Pact of the Chain should gain the following additional benefits:
Level 3 - your warlock familiar from the find familiar spell gains additional maximum health points equal to 3 * your warlock level. As a bonus action (instead of an action) you can command your familiar to attack with it's action. note: Investment of the chain master should lose the bonus action as it would be redundant, it should instead increase the maximum health from 3 * warlock level to 4 * warlock level.
Level 5 - your warlock familiar from the find familiar spell gains your proficiency bonus to it attack and damage rolls, and it's minimum AC can be no lower than your current AC.
Level 11- your warlock familiar from the find familiar spell gains an additional attack when ordered to attack from your bonus action.
Pact of the Blade should gain the following additional benefits:
level 3 - when performing an attack with your Pact weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls.
level 5 - when using the attack action and attacking with your pact weapon, you may take an additional attack with your pact weapon
level 11 - When you hit a creature with your pact weapon, the creature takes extra necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier
Pact of the Talisman should gain the following additional benefits:
Level 3 - the Talisman has it's own well of magic, once per short rest you can cast one of your warlock spells that originates from wearer of the talisman, this spell is cast at the same level as your pact magic slots and uses your spell casting ability modifier but does not consume or require any of your pact magic slots. The wearer must use their reaction to cast the spell or can hold it under their own concentration to cast it as a bonus action on their next turn, the spell fizzles out at the end of the wearer's turn if it is not cast. If the spell else wise has concentration, the concentration needs to be maintained by yourself. You can not use this feature to cast a cantrip.
Level 5 - When casting a spell from your talisman, the wearer of the talisman gains a bonus to AC and temporary HP equal to the level of the spell cast, this bonus starts when you cast the spell irrelevant of if the wearer holds it, this bonus ends at the start of your next turn.
Level 11 - you can now cast two spells per short rest from talisman instead of one.
My recommendation for Hex Warrior is that after casting a warlock spell using a pact spell slot, the next attack using the hex weapon gains a bonus to attack equal to the level of the pact spell slot used, this bonus lasts until the end of your next turn.
Maybe other people will disagree with my ideas here, but I still think one D&D gives a chance to make Warlock more customizable than just an Eldritch Blast spammer but also will remain interesting and customizable, perhaps the known invocations can be dropped by 1 to match but having more diverse builds from different mixtures of pacts and patrons would be more fun.
I have thought the following:
1.) Pact of the Blade should have had the CHA modifier for attack/damage rolls feature Hexblades have already built in.
2.) The Thirsting Blade invocation should just be something you get automatically at 5th or 6th level with Pact of the Blade.
3.) The Voice of the Chain Master invocation could probably just be an automatic thing Pact of the Chain familiars can do.
4.) The Book of Ancient Secrets invocation should just be an automatic part of the Pact of the Tome.
Also I'm hoping that they make it so that you can change your Mystic Arcanum options when you level up, and (this might be more controversial) you can expend your use of Mystic Arcanum for the day to upcast your 5th level or lower warlock spells.
For invocations like Agonizing Blast, I think Eldritch Blast (if we have to have it) should just be a class feature you get automatically, and things like Agonizing Blast are stuff you add onto it as you go up in level, separate from the invocations.
All of this ultimately serves to provide more actual choices rather than either taking the "must haves" or deliberately hampering yourself by not doing so.
EDIT: Also, if they're going to keep the Pact Magic feature as is with regards to the limited spell slots, I want them to make the expanded spell lists automatically give you the spells. You might not ever use them, but at least you have them, and it helps to make the spell list of the patron you choose more flavourful.
The damage treadmill trap exists because in many campaigns, combat dictates how useful one perceives their character to be. In more roleplay-heavy games, warlocks have a lot more breathing room to be what they want to be.
Also, warlocks are not "full casters". Not really. They only have two spell slots for most of their run, three if it goes on long enough, and their usual full caster spell progression stops at 5th level spells. Past that point, they can only get four specific spells, one to each level from 6th to 9th. And if you aren't using Tasha's rules, they're stuck with those spells forever.
Given that WoTC appears to be decoupling short rests (the main justification for warlocks having so few slots) from mechanic refreshes, I speculate that Pact Magic slots (if the class still has them) will work very differently from how they do now. In that case, maybe the trap as you call it will be less alluring.
I used to very much be on the side of "Warlocks are full casters, darn it!" But, recently, I've actually started coming around to the idea that, no, they really do deserve to be considered closer to the three half-casters than they do to the five full casters.
When all is said and done, I would rather have my signature spells, eldritch blast and quirky pacts (book, blade, chain, etc) than the wide variety of magic that a full caster has. And, lets be honest, hellish rebuke is an awesome spell that just doesn't work well in place of Shield magic, given limited spell slots.
What I would do to change the warlock is just start off by making Eldritch Blast part of the core class. Blade pact can just be a reshaped eldritch blast with additional features and melee range.
Eliminate spell slots. Everything is an invocation.
Honestly a lot of the warlock is going to need to be redone in light of the complete failure of short rest mechanics translating over to actual play well or even remotely close to intended. That's also true of other short rest class features, like the monk's ki, the battlemaster maneuvers, bardic inspiration, and more, but their fundamental mechanic (spend points, do stuff) just needs to be rebalanced. Rebuilding spell slots is going to be trickier. Or they'll just say "screw it" and go entirely with invocations. Who needs to get True Sight when Witch Sight is, while more limited, a good alternative?
As much as I would love to discuss how to tweak the warlock and redo much of it... too much is going to depend on how they decide to do Pact Magic. Its too much of an impact on the class to ignore.
Witch Sight doesn't let you see through non-creature illusions or anything on the Ethereal Plane, and it doesn't let you see invisible creatures that aren't concealed by illusion magic. So there are still a number of useful things truesight can do that Witch Sight can't, but Witch Sight does cover one of the more common uses of truesight, I agree.
I imagine that's why Warlocks don't typically get see invisibility. Because if you did get that, you'd basically have free truesight if you also had both Devil's Sight and Witch Sight.
Warlocks are sort of 3/4 casters I guess, they are still getting access to a spell at each level above 5 but still very limited access... Warlock is definitely behind the other casters for sure and closer to the half casters.
What I was going for was more each pact being a distinct style of play with Tome being the traditional Eldritch Blaster, the Chain being a more pet focus, blade being the weapon focus and amulet being more sort of support focused.
I agree with the idea of going that direction with the pact boons.
But that does leave what, if anything, is to be done with the invocations overall. And how would the different patrons be handled differently, if at all?
Warlock as a class has four major elements: Pact Magic, Patron subclass, Pact Boon, and Eldritch Invocations. So if we're talking about revising the class, all of these need to be accounted for.
Invocations could got tiered but I dunno if that is a great idea if feats are going that way as it sounds. Would take time to address every single invocation.
I don't think Patrons need major change over all with these pacts, as most of these pacts, pact magic is another issue as I agree that they already have something planned and it's going to change significantly because it has clearly been problematic thus far.
While the overall concept is sound on the surface, we run into the same issue we did in 5e that made Pact Blade so tricky. Namely, you have eldritch blast scaling in damage with each successive tier still, and getting new powers at 5 and 11 for the tome/chain/talisman, but pact blade is using its slots to barely keep up with, if you can call it that, core eldritch blast.
Actually, at level 11 it falls behind if you are running Hex, and lets not talk about being blown out of the water at 17 when there's four EBs. Pact of the Blade needs to organically keep pace with Eldritch Blast scaling, or its a lost cause.
And... Not a fan of using the book for generic eldritch blasting. What really was interesting about the book was the extra magic you got in core book (though probably less attractive now with free feat of Magic Initiate) on top of Tasha's "you signed a deal with a devil" type theme of tracking people who signed your book. Tasha, in general, was super neat for pact invocations because it gave the feeling of really being that kind of supernatural you signed with. Your talisman let you feel like a genie in a way. The book? Sign your name, get what you want, but I can find you anywhere. You looked at the invocations and drooled at all the flavor oozing from them.
These changes to just damage feel... bland. Sorry
I do think Pact of the Tome had two of my favourite new invocations in Tasha's: Far Scribe and Gift of the Protectors.
I wish we saw more stuff like that overall with the class. Less invocations that just flat out mimicked certain spells (like Eldritch Sight, Mire the Mind, Minions of Chaos, etc), and more invocations that were all unique features that may or may not use an existing spell as a base.
Those are definitely more interesting than, "you can add your CHA bonus to the damage rolls of eldritch blast".
If you go Polearm Master, Eldritch blast only beats hexblade at a single level in damage, and I forget which level that is, but I think it was level 11, since both have the same number of attacks at that point and life drinker hasn't come online yet and you're an ASI behind (at +4) from picking up Polearm Master.
Since Polearms with polearm master makes an additional attack as a bonus action then it's near guaranteed to do more damage up til level 10. When life drinker comes in then it makes it not a contest when you're doing three attacks a round, plus getting reactions, plus have a higher attack roll and damage roll bonus. The 3rd attack is a 1d4 but when you're adding +5 weapon damage (charisma) +5 necrotic damage (charisma) +2d4 elemental damage (elemental weapon) with a +2 attack bonus from elemental weapon (cast at 5th level), It outperforms Eldritch blast easily. The only issue with Elemental weapon is you need to cast it before combat, else it's an action to cast.
My ideas are just suggestions, there are alternatives, but I just feel like it certainly could be split out more, if it feels thematically wrong than I can understand that complaint. To me the book's primary function (the one you get before any invocations), is cantrips, which is why I went with that.
My problem with the idea of the Tome being mainly for cantrips is that it doesn't really get interesting until you use the invocations for it. Like having access to guidance, primal savagery, and encode thoughts is nice and all, but three cantrips is the best a mysterious Book of Shadows handed down from your powerful otherworldly patron can do by default?
Book of Ancient Secrets, Far Scribe, and Gift of the Protectors all provide that feeling that this book is an ancient tome of knowledge you aren't necessarily meant to have.
That's why I think that at the very least Book of Ancient Secrets should be built in, because every other tome-related spellcasting class feature has ritual casting as part of the package. It also gives a reason to go for ritual spells in the warlock spell list like comprehend languages and contact other plane.
The PAM strategy requires going multiclass to fix your crap AC and Concentrate save, or the Hexblade subclass. Elemental weapon is likewise a Hexblade only spell for warlocks. If you want to optimize using very specific build, then there are Genie builds that are a bit stronger than your PAM Hexblade. And comes online at level 1, not level 4 or 8, and doesn't cost an ASI
If you can't play the concept as any warlock patron and no multiclasses or specific feats, something is wrong.
The Hexblade only exists because the writers realized that Blade pact didn't work on its own. The medium armor profs, the Cha weapon, the innate curse ability, all the melee spells? All part of the attempt to plug the holes in the blade pact's design.
Your ideas are indeed suggestions, and I'm providing feedback in the form of actionable constructive criticism. You are repeating mistakes from the core book. This is a chance to correct them.
Fair, it is a little strange that this "book" is just offering 3 cantrips. Having the ability to get rituals as default does sound better, then the invocation could be replaced by something that adds a page which allows a warlock to project one of their prepared spells on to it and to use it as a scroll once per day, with the spell disappearing from the page after use.
yea, I am looking at it from Hexblade currently, from other patrons it does need more added to it. Maybe an invocation to gain one/two spells from the Paladin Spell List which can be changed on a long rest. Medium armour is okay but there is already an invocation for mage armor. I think an invocation to get 1 free access to the shield spell per short rest might be a good alternative idea, alternatively just the possibility to move shield proficiency to pact of the blade. A few ways to look at that.
Damage wise, to move away from PAM, needs more consideration than I am capable of thinking an idea for at the moment.
Alternatively. Forget the rituals and cantrips entirely. Guidance and occassionally Shille**** were the only cross-class ones picked usually, and we dont know if rituals are still a thing.
Instead, I reccommend taking a page off Tasha's. Your pact book is literally the contract you signed with your Patron, and you can sign your own psedo-pacts. Or you have a pact with a sentient weapon, and the blade invocations are literally awakening the powers of THAT specific weapon. Chain pact is becoming a demon/fey/monster lord with servants. Talismans were really meant for genie pact, and its all about the talismans being your lamp.
The simplest option is to simply tie it to Eldritch Blast. Eldritch Glaive and Eldritch Claw were invocations in 3e and Eldritch Blade was an option in 4e.
This opens it to EB invocations as well as Blade specific ones.
Due to the small social groups I usually keep to, I never actually got to experience 3E. So anything I know about that comes from video games at the time, but that does sound like a good solution.
I am assuming rituals will remain a thing, but it's definitely not guaranteed, I don't think anybody had any major issue with rituals in 5E? Chain I still think is the biggest let down in 5E since the familiar essentially does not grow with you, so you're back to just Eldritch Blasting like nearly every other warlock...
Oh god. You just had to poke my sore spot. Warlocks right now are a class made of patches and crutches, they're a mess. I really like R3sistance's original idea of fusing things like agonizing blast, book of rituals, extra attack and soul drinker into corresponding pacts. An elegant and obvious solution. I had a more radical idea in mind, though.
Subclasses and pact boons could switch places. At level 1, you choose a patron, which only gives you expanded spell list and perhaps access to some thematic invocations. At level 3, your communication with patron reaches the point of striking a pact (much like a paladin takes his oath at level 3). Subclass is your terms of service, your role in the arrangement. Hexblade is an enforcer, a knight for a patron, with all the melee functionality features. Occultist specializes in rituals, exotic languages, communicating with other planes. Summoner gets a familiar and gets to use otherworldly meat shileds, forging agreements with demons or acting as patron's lieutenant, commanding the foot soldiers. Witch(er) specializes in curses and social skills to manipulate threads of fate, forging their own pacts with other mortals. There could also be roles of collector, procuring artifacts for the patron and gaining limited access to the patron's vault in exchange, or host, being a vessel for patron himself. As is, you could just remix the existing features to make it work.
Also, a warlock just needs more stuff to do other than spam eldritch blast after burning all of your two spell slots. [PB] slots per long rest, restoring one slot with monsters' recharge mechanic? Though I'm not a fan of randomness in base mechanics of a class...