So, in this warlock's draft, the problem with Pact of the Blade being the perfect dip for charisma classes persists; moreover, now that Pact of the Blade can choose between Charisma and Wisdom as their main spellcasting stat, monks and rangers, too, will be tempted to take the coveted dip and become SAD.
Now, the solution could be this simple:
Pact Weapon (cantrip) (S, self, instantaneous) - as a part of casting this cantrip, you make a melee weapon attack with a weapon you're holding, using your spellcasting ability modifier instead of Strength. If you don't have a weapon equipped, you briefly materialize a melee weapon of your choice made of patron-appropriate matter in your hand to make an attack. At warlock level 5, you make two attacks with this cantrip, instead of one.
Now, I have to warn that this concept has two ramifications: first, this not being an attack action prevents it from working with feats like GWM, though as it is right now, bladelocks can't use heavy weapons and shields anyway, so GWM, Polearm Master, Shield Master and Dual Wielder are out of the question anyway. This could be alleviated by changing the wording of feats, though. The second ramification is attacks of opportunity. They let you make a melee weapon attack, which goes eithout this cantrip, while taking War Caster feat will allow you to cast two melee attacks as a reaction. I'm still scratching my head on this one, and if you have ideas on how to fix it, I welcome your feedback.
You'd also have the situation of sorlocks being able to Quicken spell 4 Pact blade attacks in a turn at level 7. Not game breaking mind you, considering the Sorcery Point cost, lack of feat benefit or fighting style, and sub-optimal melee chassis, but something to consider.
It does limit the power quiet a bit, I would add two additional things to it. I'd update
At warlock level 5, you make two attacks with this cantrip, instead of one.
To: At warlock level 5, when you cast this cantrip as an action, you make two attacks with this cantrip, instead of one
I would then make it's cast time, 1 action or 1 reaction made in place of an opportunity attack
Just need to make sure that it can still be used for making a reaction attack. Also there needs to be something in there for enchanted weapons, personally I'd like a whole other section about absorbing a non-sentient magical weapon which you summon in place of the pact weapon when making an appropriate attack. The magic weapon re-appears when the user dies or binds a different magical weapon in it's place.
I would note that this would be usable with smite spells (if the user gets access to them in one way or another), since they are made from any weapon attack that hits, don't think it's a real issue since the real issue is spells like green-flame blade and booming blade that would not be usable with this.
So, in this warlock's draft, the problem with Pact of the Blade being the perfect dip for charisma classes persists; moreover, now that Pact of the Blade can choose between Charisma and Wisdom as their main spellcasting stat, monks and rangers, too, will be tempted to take the coveted dip and become SAD.
Now, the solution could be this simple:
Pact Weapon (cantrip) (S, self, instantaneous) - as a part of casting this cantrip, you make a melee weapon attack with a weapon you're holding, using your spellcasting ability modifier instead of Strength. If you don't have a weapon equipped, you briefly materialize a melee weapon of your choice made of patron-appropriate matter in your hand to make an attack. At warlock level 5, you make two attacks with this cantrip, instead of one.
Now, I have to warn that this concept has two ramifications: first, this not being an attack action prevents it from working with feats like GWM, though as it is right now, bladelocks can't use heavy weapons and shields anyway, so GWM, Polearm Master, Shield Master and Dual Wielder are out of the question anyway. This could be alleviated by changing the wording of feats, though. The second ramification is attacks of opportunity. They let you make a melee weapon attack, which goes eithout this cantrip, while taking War Caster feat will allow you to cast two melee attacks as a reaction. I'm still scratching my head on this one, and if you have ideas on how to fix it, I welcome your feedback.
Sorry, could you explain your premise a bit more? Why do you think there's something that needs "fixing" or "solving" here?
Any class that dips for this pact will be (a) locking themselves out of the best weapons and (b) still need decent physical stats to benefit from armor - either decent Str for heavy or decent Dex for medium/light/unarmored. So they'll still be MAD, at least if they want to be more durable than a pringle in melee.
So, in this warlock's draft, the problem with Pact of the Blade being the perfect dip for charisma classes persists; moreover, now that Pact of the Blade can choose between Charisma and Wisdom as their main spellcasting stat, monks and rangers, too, will be tempted to take the coveted dip and become SAD.
Now, the solution could be this simple:
Pact Weapon (cantrip) (S, self, instantaneous) - as a part of casting this cantrip, you make a melee weapon attack with a weapon you're holding, using your spellcasting ability modifier instead of Strength. If you don't have a weapon equipped, you briefly materialize a melee weapon of your choice made of patron-appropriate matter in your hand to make an attack. At warlock level 5, you make two attacks with this cantrip, instead of one.
Now, I have to warn that this concept has two ramifications: first, this not being an attack action prevents it from working with feats like GWM, though as it is right now, bladelocks can't use heavy weapons and shields anyway, so GWM, Polearm Master, Shield Master and Dual Wielder are out of the question anyway. This could be alleviated by changing the wording of feats, though. The second ramification is attacks of opportunity. They let you make a melee weapon attack, which goes eithout this cantrip, while taking War Caster feat will allow you to cast two melee attacks as a reaction. I'm still scratching my head on this one, and if you have ideas on how to fix it, I welcome your feedback.
Sorry, could you explain your premise a bit more? Why do you think there's something that needs "fixing" or "solving" here?
Any class that dips for this pact will be (a) locking themselves out of the best weapons and (b) still need decent physical stats to benefit from armor - either decent Str for heavy or decent Dex for medium/light/unarmored. So they'll still be MAD, at least if they want to be more durable than a pringle in melee.
Remember that Warlock now has access to the Shield spell, Mage armour spell and Medium armour, so it can still have a fair AC without DEX or STR. While pact weapon does limit itself to melee weapons now, it does benefit thrown weapons, which means you can be just behind the front line and toss tridents from 20 foot away for 1d8 damage. If you're multiclassing from a Paladin, for a STR of 13 you can get everything but plate, if you're multiclassing from a ranger you only need a DEX of 13, a DEX of 14 gets you the full AC of medium armour, without feats. So it still dramatically reduces the MAD parts of those classes when multiclassing from the multiclass requirements to begin with.
The broken part from 5E was the ability to use spells like Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade as a bonus action to get an additional attack when multi-classing with Sorcerer. If you go Dragonic Sorcerer then you had an AC of 13+DEX, in the UA this is now an AC of 10+CHA+DEX while still getting access to the shield spell. While you can't dump DEX, you really don't need it to be that high.
With Hexblade, the Socerer multi-class can even Eldritch Smite on that bonus action to knock down large or smaller creatures to switch their main action to another green-flame or booming blade since it's advantaged, currently there is no Eldritch Smite but then Eldritch Smite was XgtE and so it's not impossible that returns as an issue here.
The Nature equivalent Shillelagh last 1 minute, but probably Warlock don't want that, and they are not the ones should suffer to avoid dip. Maybe the cantrip should grant using your spell ability score at level 2, as getting 2 levels of another class for a single feature hurts much more. The Warlock should have to wait to 2nd level to get it, but the 1st level is poor for everyone, and usually you get 2nd level quickly.
Remember that Warlock now has access to the Shield spell, Mage armour spell and Medium armour, so it can still have a fair AC without DEX or STR. While pact weapon does limit itself to melee weapons now, it does benefit thrown weapons, which means you can be just behind the front line and toss tridents from 20 foot away for 1d8 damage. If you're multiclassing from a Paladin, for a STR of 13 you can get everything but plate, if you're multiclassing from a ranger you only need a DEX of 13, a DEX of 14 gets you the full AC of medium armour, without feats. So it still dramatically reduces the MAD parts of those classes when multiclassing from the multiclass requirements to begin with.
The broken part from 5E was the ability to use spells like Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade as a bonus action to get an additional attack when multi-classing with Sorcerer. If you go Dragonic Sorcerer then you had an AC of 13+DEX, in the UA this is now an AC of 10+CHA+DEX while still getting access to the shield spell. While you can't dump DEX, you really don't need it to be that high.
With Hexblade, the Socerer multi-class can even Eldritch Smite on that bonus action to knock down large or smaller creatures to switch their main action to another green-flame or booming blade since it's advantaged, currently there is no Eldritch Smite but then Eldritch Smite was XgtE and so it's not impossible that returns as an issue here.
Okay... none of this seems like a problem in need of a "solution" to me.
14 Dex and 14 Con - most Warlocks will be aiming for those stat points anyway, Blade Pact or not. (Or 15 Str/14 Con for plate-wearers.)
Go with Mage armor instead - that's 13+Dex, so you'll want even more than 14 Dex for it to be worthwhile in melee. Shield makes you a lot better off than say a Rogue - and eats your reaction and limited spell slots if you're relying on it heavily.
Blade Pact can be thrown now - that's great especially since it gets Cha to damage too, but 20ft isn't exactly keeping you safe from melee for the vast majority of monsters, they can just walk up and slap you anyway. It's a nice option to have but it isn't a material change, if you really want to avoid the front line or deal with ranged fliers you're back to Eldritch Blast.
I'm just not seeing how Blade makes you so SAD that it becomes a problem. Is it better than 2014 Bladepact, sure, but will it warp the game somehow (even to the degree that Hexblade did) - I'm just not seeing it.
So, in this warlock's draft, the problem with Pact of the Blade being the perfect dip for charisma classes persists; moreover, now that Pact of the Blade can choose between Charisma and Wisdom as their main spellcasting stat, monks and rangers, too, will be tempted to take the coveted dip and become SAD.
Like others I do wonder if this is really enough of a problem that it needs fixing; if we think of Warlock as a toolkit class (lots of build options as standard) then it's always going to be appealing for a multiclass, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The question really is whether anything you can get early on is too easy to exploit?
While using Charisma or Wisdom for melee attacks could mean you can ignore some other ability score, usually Dexterity, it's not as though doing so is purely beneficial; you still need Dexterity for mage armor, Draconic Sorcery built-in AC etc., and you still want at least +2 if you're going to wear medium armour. Being able to focus on a different stat for attacking seems more like something that will benefit builds that would otherwise require Strength, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
One alternative could be to delay the Charisma/Wisdom feature a little, to encourage a better spread of ability scores early on (even if you ignore some later). For example, we could give each patron a set of "preferred weapons", and if you use one of these as a pact weapon, you can use your spellcasting ability modifier to attack with it? So basically pushing this feature to 3rd-level. Since you average starting characters will have +3's at best in one or two scores, I don't think the delay really hurts all that much.
The problem with that is you'd need something else as a sweetener at 1st-level, but I could see other pacts adjusting to match (patron preferred familiars and spells having bonuses for chain/tome respectively).
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Remember that Warlock now has access to the Shield spell, Mage armour spell and Medium armour, so it can still have a fair AC without DEX or STR. While pact weapon does limit itself to melee weapons now, it does benefit thrown weapons, which means you can be just behind the front line and toss tridents from 20 foot away for 1d8 damage. If you're multiclassing from a Paladin, for a STR of 13 you can get everything but plate, if you're multiclassing from a ranger you only need a DEX of 13, a DEX of 14 gets you the full AC of medium armour, without feats. So it still dramatically reduces the MAD parts of those classes when multiclassing from the multiclass requirements to begin with.
The broken part from 5E was the ability to use spells like Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade as a bonus action to get an additional attack when multi-classing with Sorcerer. If you go Dragonic Sorcerer then you had an AC of 13+DEX, in the UA this is now an AC of 10+CHA+DEX while still getting access to the shield spell. While you can't dump DEX, you really don't need it to be that high.
With Hexblade, the Socerer multi-class can even Eldritch Smite on that bonus action to knock down large or smaller creatures to switch their main action to another green-flame or booming blade since it's advantaged, currently there is no Eldritch Smite but then Eldritch Smite was XgtE and so it's not impossible that returns as an issue here.
Okay... none of this seems like a problem in need of a "solution" to me.
14 Dex and 14 Con - most Warlocks will be aiming for those stat points anyway, Blade Pact or not. (Or 15 Str/14 Con for plate-wearers.)
Go with Mage armor instead - that's 13+Dex, so you'll want even more than 14 Dex for it to be worthwhile in melee. Shield makes you a lot better off than say a Rogue - and eats your reaction and limited spell slots if you're relying on it heavily.
Blade Pact can be thrown now - that's great especially since it gets Cha to damage too, but 20ft isn't exactly keeping you safe from melee for the vast majority of monsters, they can just walk up and slap you anyway. It's a nice option to have but it isn't a material change, if you really want to avoid the front line or deal with ranged fliers you're back to Eldritch Blast.
I'm just not seeing how Blade makes you so SAD that it becomes a problem. Is it better than 2014 Bladepact, sure, but will it warp the game somehow (even to the degree that Hexblade did) - I'm just not seeing it.
Because you don't need more than 14 DEX or 13 STR, simply put. As a Paladin, if you can do CHA > CON & STR = 13, you're pretty set over all, since CHA is going to give a stronger Aura of Protection and just make your spellcasting stronger overall.
For a Ranger you can similarly do WIS > CON & DEX = 14 and you've got a higher AC, Mage Armour is quickly out-paced by magic armour and a half-plate already has you at 17AC with +2 DEX. Mage armour, with DEX+2 and Half-Plate +1, you've got the same 18 AC that you can get with Mage Armour +5 CON. This means your spellcasting is stronger, spells like Faerie Fire, have a higher Save DC. Overall it's not as good for Ranger as it is for Paladin and Sorcerer, but it still enables you to go SAD much more easily. Since you only need to worry about WIS and CON once your DEX is 14. Paladin definitely gets alot stronger with CHA, more so with Aura of Protection, so not having to worry about STR is pretty strong for Paladin when you can give a +5 to all saves, not just for you but also allies in range.
Subclasses also generally play into it when they use the secondary ability too, for Paladin, Devotion Paladin gets +CHA to attack rolls while Sacred Weapon is active and now Sacred Weapon is a bonus action in the UA, meaning it's actually useful. This means a Devotion Paladin with a Pact Weapon does an attack roll of 1d20 + CHA + CHA + PB + other bonuses, which is very high!
Sorry, could you explain your premise a bit more? Why do you think there's something that needs "fixing" or "solving" here?
Any class that dips for this pact will be (a) locking themselves out of the best weapons and (b) still need decent physical stats to benefit from armor - either decent Str for heavy or decent Dex for medium/light/unarmored. So they'll still be MAD, at least if they want to be more durable than a pringle in melee.
I'll be blunt, I rejoiced at the death of coffeelock, and now I want hexadin dead, too. That combo is stupidly powerful while making no sense in the story. Just take 13 Str for heavy armor and you're set, you're fully SAD now, with an aura of +5 to all saving throws, easy. Google any "broken builds for DnD" guide and the hexadin is in top three, guaranteed.
13 Str or 14 Dex isn't "decent", it's what you can easily get at character creation, and you won't even have to invest beyond that.
My preference is to just add a feat that lets people use one of their spellcasting stats for weapons, or for some class of weapons, making the dip unnecessary.
The issue is not when you get it, as all your stats could be similar if you get it earlier (you could have DEX+2 and CHA/WIS+3), the issue is that you are going to maximize your main one and take full advantage of it with only 1 level of Warlock. When you have +4 or +5 to CHA/WIS, then there is a difference. It ends the need to upgrade 2 stats if you want both improve your spells/abilities and attack/damage, as you have all in a single one easily with something more supposedly reserved for the class it should be benefited of it.
This seems overly convoluted. A better fix, I think, would be making eldritch warrior incompatible with extra attack until the cantrip upgrades. this requires just one extra line of text in eldritch warrior and doesn't change the way it works for a single classed bladelock.
Because you don't need more than 14 DEX or 13 STR, simply put. As a Paladin, if you can do CHA > CON & STR = 13, you're pretty set over all, since CHA is going to give a stronger Aura of Protection and just make your spellcasting stronger overall.
For a Ranger you can similarly do WIS > CON & DEX = 14 and you've got a higher AC, Mage Armour is quickly out-paced by magic armour and a half-plate already has you at 17AC with +2 DEX. Mage armour, with DEX+2 and Half-Plate +1, you've got the same 18 AC that you can get with Mage Armour +5 CON. This means your spellcasting is stronger, spells like Faerie Fire, have a higher Save DC. Overall it's not as good for Ranger as it is for Paladin and Sorcerer, but it still enables you to go SAD much more easily. Since you only need to worry about WIS and CON once your DEX is 14. Paladin definitely gets alot stronger with CHA, more so with Aura of Protection, so not having to worry about STR is pretty strong for Paladin when you can give a +5 to all saves, not just for you but also allies in range.
Subclasses also generally play into it when they use the secondary ability too, for Paladin, Devotion Paladin gets +CHA to attack rolls while Sacred Weapon is active and now Sacred Weapon is a bonus action in the UA, meaning it's actually useful. This means a Devotion Paladin with a Pact Weapon does an attack roll of 1d20 + CHA + CHA + PB + other bonuses, which is very high!
I'll be blunt, I rejoiced at the death of coffeelock, and now I want hexadin dead, too. That combo is stupidly powerful while making no sense in the story. Just take 13 Str for heavy armor and you're set, you're fully SAD now, with an aura of +5 to all saving throws, easy. Google any "broken builds for DnD" guide and the hexadin is in top three, guaranteed.
13 Str or 14 Dex isn't "decent", it's what you can easily get at character creation, and you won't even have to invest beyond that.
This is where I think you two are missing some crucial context/nuance. Hexadin isn't broken merely because it lets you make Cha-SAD attacks; Hexadin is broken because it lets you attack with Cha without having to give up any effectiveness in terms of your weapon from both melee and long range, and that includes either Eldritch Blast itself (120ft range) scaling perfectly even if all you take is that tiny dip in Warlock, or going Hexbow with IPW so you can attack from 150ft range with Sharpshooter. The UA Bladelock already fixed both of these issues.
2017 Hexblades could combine Cha to hit with PAM + Elven Accuracy and utilize all three; THAT'S what put them over the top. With UA Blade Pact, at best you're going to have a longsword or rapier or maybe a warhammer; PAM doesn't even work with staffs or spears anymore because they're not Heavy. All the things that made Hexadin such an eyeroll build have been completely kneecapped in One, you don't need to nerf it any further.
Because you don't need more than 14 DEX or 13 STR, simply put. As a Paladin, if you can do CHA > CON & STR = 13, you're pretty set over all, since CHA is going to give a stronger Aura of Protection and just make your spellcasting stronger overall.
For a Ranger you can similarly do WIS > CON & DEX = 14 and you've got a higher AC, Mage Armour is quickly out-paced by magic armour and a half-plate already has you at 17AC with +2 DEX. Mage armour, with DEX+2 and Half-Plate +1, you've got the same 18 AC that you can get with Mage Armour +5 CON. This means your spellcasting is stronger, spells like Faerie Fire, have a higher Save DC. Overall it's not as good for Ranger as it is for Paladin and Sorcerer, but it still enables you to go SAD much more easily. Since you only need to worry about WIS and CON once your DEX is 14. Paladin definitely gets alot stronger with CHA, more so with Aura of Protection, so not having to worry about STR is pretty strong for Paladin when you can give a +5 to all saves, not just for you but also allies in range.
Subclasses also generally play into it when they use the secondary ability too, for Paladin, Devotion Paladin gets +CHA to attack rolls while Sacred Weapon is active and now Sacred Weapon is a bonus action in the UA, meaning it's actually useful. This means a Devotion Paladin with a Pact Weapon does an attack roll of 1d20 + CHA + CHA + PB + other bonuses, which is very high!
I'll be blunt, I rejoiced at the death of coffeelock, and now I want hexadin dead, too. That combo is stupidly powerful while making no sense in the story. Just take 13 Str for heavy armor and you're set, you're fully SAD now, with an aura of +5 to all saving throws, easy. Google any "broken builds for DnD" guide and the hexadin is in top three, guaranteed.
13 Str or 14 Dex isn't "decent", it's what you can easily get at character creation, and you won't even have to invest beyond that.
This is where I think you two are missing some crucial context/nuance. Hexadin isn't broken merely because it lets you make Cha-SAD attacks; Hexadin is broken because it lets you attack with Cha without having to give up any effectiveness in terms of your weapon from both melee and long range, and that includes either Eldritch Blast itself (120ft range) scaling perfectly even if all you take is that tiny dip in Warlock, or going Hexbow with IPW so you can attack from 150ft range with Sharpshooter. The UA Bladelock already fixed both of these issues.
2017 Hexblades could combine Cha to hit with PAM + Elven Accuracy and utilize all three; THAT'S what put them over the top. With UA Blade Pact, at best you're going to have a longsword or rapier or maybe a warhammer; PAM doesn't even work with staffs or spears anymore because they're not Heavy. All the things that made Hexadin such an eyeroll build have been completely kneecapped in One, you don't need to nerf it any further.
I don't dispute that it's broken because of all those issues, but the level dip still allows Paladin to more effectively stat itself out which only a single level delay on class features, which still remains extremely powerful for Paladin. However the bigger issue as I pointed out, isn't Paladin, it's the sorcerer multiclass who can bonus action green-flame/booming blade and then attack twice to get three attacks in a single round. The main thing this cantrip change would fix is the use of these cantrip spells that require you to have a weapon in hand to make the attack already.
Then that is not an issue, quicken spell gets 2 sorcery points, so you can do that very few times. I'd not be worried about that. It's more an issue those CHA/WIS users that can use most weapon (not only finesse) with their spell ability score bonus, granting a good advantage at very low cost.
Also, delaying Sorcerer spell progression hurts much more than delaying a half-caster like Paladin, as in this last case they even don't delay spell slots.
I don't dispute that it's broken because of all those issues, but the level dip still allows Paladin to more effectively stat itself out which only a single level delay on class features, which still remains extremely powerful for Paladin. However the bigger issue as I pointed out, isn't Paladin, it's the sorcerer multiclass who can bonus action green-flame/booming blade and then attack twice to get three attacks in a single round. The main thing this cantrip change would fix is the use of these cantrip spells that require you to have a weapon in hand to make the attack already.
So you're a Sorlock or SorcHexDin who's watering down your casting progression to get Extra Attack, spending Quicken Spell on a cantrip, additional resources to survive in melee, delaying your feats one of which needs to be War Caster... and this is somehow overpowered / in need of further nerfs to Blade? Uh... okay... 🤔
As for Wis pact on a Monk or Ranger we'll have to see, but given that they can just grab Shillelagh without multiclassing at all or even spending a background feat for the latter I'm not seeing the big deal.
Shillelagh is stuck at 2 weapons, quarterstaff and club, which is very limited. Not comparable to able to use most weapons, including ranged ones.
Just to point out, the Pact Weapon cantrip of the UA specifies it must be a melee weapon that lacks the heavy property. Thrown weapons are ok, ranged weapons are not.
I don't dispute that it's broken because of all those issues, but the level dip still allows Paladin to more effectively stat itself out which only a single level delay on class features, which still remains extremely powerful for Paladin. However the bigger issue as I pointed out, isn't Paladin, it's the sorcerer multiclass who can bonus action green-flame/booming blade and then attack twice to get three attacks in a single round. The main thing this cantrip change would fix is the use of these cantrip spells that require you to have a weapon in hand to make the attack already.
So you're a Sorlock or SorcHexDin who's watering down your casting progression to get Extra Attack, spending Quicken Spell on a cantrip, additional resources to survive in melee, delaying your feats one of which needs to be War Caster... and this is somehow overpowered / in need of further nerfs to Blade? Uh... okay... 🤔
As for Wis pact on a Monk or Ranger we'll have to see, but given that they can just grab Shillelagh without multiclassing at all or even spending a background feat for the latter I'm not seeing the big deal.
It's more reversed, you'd probably go for a higher warlock level then sorcerer but either works.
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So, in this warlock's draft, the problem with Pact of the Blade being the perfect dip for charisma classes persists; moreover, now that Pact of the Blade can choose between Charisma and Wisdom as their main spellcasting stat, monks and rangers, too, will be tempted to take the coveted dip and become SAD.
Now, the solution could be this simple:
Pact Weapon (cantrip) (S, self, instantaneous) - as a part of casting this cantrip, you make a melee weapon attack with a weapon you're holding, using your spellcasting ability modifier instead of Strength. If you don't have a weapon equipped, you briefly materialize a melee weapon of your choice made of patron-appropriate matter in your hand to make an attack. At warlock level 5, you make two attacks with this cantrip, instead of one.
Now, I have to warn that this concept has two ramifications: first, this not being an attack action prevents it from working with feats like GWM, though as it is right now, bladelocks can't use heavy weapons and shields anyway, so GWM, Polearm Master, Shield Master and Dual Wielder are out of the question anyway. This could be alleviated by changing the wording of feats, though. The second ramification is attacks of opportunity. They let you make a melee weapon attack, which goes eithout this cantrip, while taking War Caster feat will allow you to cast two melee attacks as a reaction. I'm still scratching my head on this one, and if you have ideas on how to fix it, I welcome your feedback.
You'd also have the situation of sorlocks being able to Quicken spell 4 Pact blade attacks in a turn at level 7. Not game breaking mind you, considering the Sorcery Point cost, lack of feat benefit or fighting style, and sub-optimal melee chassis, but something to consider.
It does limit the power quiet a bit, I would add two additional things to it. I'd update
To: At warlock level 5, when you cast this cantrip as an action, you make two attacks with this cantrip, instead of one
I would then make it's cast time, 1 action or 1 reaction made in place of an opportunity attack
Just need to make sure that it can still be used for making a reaction attack. Also there needs to be something in there for enchanted weapons, personally I'd like a whole other section about absorbing a non-sentient magical weapon which you summon in place of the pact weapon when making an appropriate attack. The magic weapon re-appears when the user dies or binds a different magical weapon in it's place.
I would note that this would be usable with smite spells (if the user gets access to them in one way or another), since they are made from any weapon attack that hits, don't think it's a real issue since the real issue is spells like green-flame blade and booming blade that would not be usable with this.
Sorry, could you explain your premise a bit more? Why do you think there's something that needs "fixing" or "solving" here?
Any class that dips for this pact will be (a) locking themselves out of the best weapons and (b) still need decent physical stats to benefit from armor - either decent Str for heavy or decent Dex for medium/light/unarmored. So they'll still be MAD, at least if they want to be more durable than a pringle in melee.
Remember that Warlock now has access to the Shield spell, Mage armour spell and Medium armour, so it can still have a fair AC without DEX or STR. While pact weapon does limit itself to melee weapons now, it does benefit thrown weapons, which means you can be just behind the front line and toss tridents from 20 foot away for 1d8 damage. If you're multiclassing from a Paladin, for a STR of 13 you can get everything but plate, if you're multiclassing from a ranger you only need a DEX of 13, a DEX of 14 gets you the full AC of medium armour, without feats. So it still dramatically reduces the MAD parts of those classes when multiclassing from the multiclass requirements to begin with.
The broken part from 5E was the ability to use spells like Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade as a bonus action to get an additional attack when multi-classing with Sorcerer. If you go Dragonic Sorcerer then you had an AC of 13+DEX, in the UA this is now an AC of 10+CHA+DEX while still getting access to the shield spell. While you can't dump DEX, you really don't need it to be that high.
With Hexblade, the Socerer multi-class can even Eldritch Smite on that bonus action to knock down large or smaller creatures to switch their main action to another green-flame or booming blade since it's advantaged, currently there is no Eldritch Smite but then Eldritch Smite was XgtE and so it's not impossible that returns as an issue here.
The Nature equivalent Shillelagh last 1 minute, but probably Warlock don't want that, and they are not the ones should suffer to avoid dip. Maybe the cantrip should grant using your spell ability score at level 2, as getting 2 levels of another class for a single feature hurts much more. The Warlock should have to wait to 2nd level to get it, but the 1st level is poor for everyone, and usually you get 2nd level quickly.
Okay... none of this seems like a problem in need of a "solution" to me.
I'm just not seeing how Blade makes you so SAD that it becomes a problem. Is it better than 2014 Bladepact, sure, but will it warp the game somehow (even to the degree that Hexblade did) - I'm just not seeing it.
Like others I do wonder if this is really enough of a problem that it needs fixing; if we think of Warlock as a toolkit class (lots of build options as standard) then it's always going to be appealing for a multiclass, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The question really is whether anything you can get early on is too easy to exploit?
While using Charisma or Wisdom for melee attacks could mean you can ignore some other ability score, usually Dexterity, it's not as though doing so is purely beneficial; you still need Dexterity for mage armor, Draconic Sorcery built-in AC etc., and you still want at least +2 if you're going to wear medium armour. Being able to focus on a different stat for attacking seems more like something that will benefit builds that would otherwise require Strength, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
One alternative could be to delay the Charisma/Wisdom feature a little, to encourage a better spread of ability scores early on (even if you ignore some later). For example, we could give each patron a set of "preferred weapons", and if you use one of these as a pact weapon, you can use your spellcasting ability modifier to attack with it? So basically pushing this feature to 3rd-level. Since you average starting characters will have +3's at best in one or two scores, I don't think the delay really hurts all that much.
The problem with that is you'd need something else as a sweetener at 1st-level, but I could see other pacts adjusting to match (patron preferred familiars and spells having bonuses for chain/tome respectively).
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Because you don't need more than 14 DEX or 13 STR, simply put. As a Paladin, if you can do CHA > CON & STR = 13, you're pretty set over all, since CHA is going to give a stronger Aura of Protection and just make your spellcasting stronger overall.
For a Ranger you can similarly do WIS > CON & DEX = 14 and you've got a higher AC, Mage Armour is quickly out-paced by magic armour and a half-plate already has you at 17AC with +2 DEX. Mage armour, with DEX+2 and Half-Plate +1, you've got the same 18 AC that you can get with Mage Armour +5 CON. This means your spellcasting is stronger, spells like Faerie Fire, have a higher Save DC. Overall it's not as good for Ranger as it is for Paladin and Sorcerer, but it still enables you to go SAD much more easily. Since you only need to worry about WIS and CON once your DEX is 14. Paladin definitely gets alot stronger with CHA, more so with Aura of Protection, so not having to worry about STR is pretty strong for Paladin when you can give a +5 to all saves, not just for you but also allies in range.
Subclasses also generally play into it when they use the secondary ability too, for Paladin, Devotion Paladin gets +CHA to attack rolls while Sacred Weapon is active and now Sacred Weapon is a bonus action in the UA, meaning it's actually useful. This means a Devotion Paladin with a Pact Weapon does an attack roll of 1d20 + CHA + CHA + PB + other bonuses, which is very high!
I'll be blunt, I rejoiced at the death of coffeelock, and now I want hexadin dead, too. That combo is stupidly powerful while making no sense in the story. Just take 13 Str for heavy armor and you're set, you're fully SAD now, with an aura of +5 to all saving throws, easy. Google any "broken builds for DnD" guide and the hexadin is in top three, guaranteed.
13 Str or 14 Dex isn't "decent", it's what you can easily get at character creation, and you won't even have to invest beyond that.
My preference is to just add a feat that lets people use one of their spellcasting stats for weapons, or for some class of weapons, making the dip unnecessary.
The issue is not when you get it, as all your stats could be similar if you get it earlier (you could have DEX+2 and CHA/WIS+3), the issue is that you are going to maximize your main one and take full advantage of it with only 1 level of Warlock. When you have +4 or +5 to CHA/WIS, then there is a difference. It ends the need to upgrade 2 stats if you want both improve your spells/abilities and attack/damage, as you have all in a single one easily with something more supposedly reserved for the class it should be benefited of it.
This seems overly convoluted. A better fix, I think, would be making eldritch warrior incompatible with extra attack until the cantrip upgrades. this requires just one extra line of text in eldritch warrior and doesn't change the way it works for a single classed bladelock.
That sounds like a solution.
This is where I think you two are missing some crucial context/nuance. Hexadin isn't broken merely because it lets you make Cha-SAD attacks; Hexadin is broken because it lets you attack with Cha without having to give up any effectiveness in terms of your weapon from both melee and long range, and that includes either Eldritch Blast itself (120ft range) scaling perfectly even if all you take is that tiny dip in Warlock, or going Hexbow with IPW so you can attack from 150ft range with Sharpshooter. The UA Bladelock already fixed both of these issues.
2017 Hexblades could combine Cha to hit with PAM + Elven Accuracy and utilize all three; THAT'S what put them over the top. With UA Blade Pact, at best you're going to have a longsword or rapier or maybe a warhammer; PAM doesn't even work with staffs or spears anymore because they're not Heavy. All the things that made Hexadin such an eyeroll build have been completely kneecapped in One, you don't need to nerf it any further.
I don't dispute that it's broken because of all those issues, but the level dip still allows Paladin to more effectively stat itself out which only a single level delay on class features, which still remains extremely powerful for Paladin. However the bigger issue as I pointed out, isn't Paladin, it's the sorcerer multiclass who can bonus action green-flame/booming blade and then attack twice to get three attacks in a single round. The main thing this cantrip change would fix is the use of these cantrip spells that require you to have a weapon in hand to make the attack already.
Then that is not an issue, quicken spell gets 2 sorcery points, so you can do that very few times. I'd not be worried about that. It's more an issue those CHA/WIS users that can use most weapon (not only finesse) with their spell ability score bonus, granting a good advantage at very low cost.
Also, delaying Sorcerer spell progression hurts much more than delaying a half-caster like Paladin, as in this last case they even don't delay spell slots.
So you're a Sorlock or SorcHexDin who's watering down your casting progression to get Extra Attack, spending Quicken Spell on a cantrip, additional resources to survive in melee, delaying your feats one of which needs to be War Caster... and this is somehow overpowered / in need of further nerfs to Blade? Uh... okay... 🤔
As for Wis pact on a Monk or Ranger we'll have to see, but given that they can just grab Shillelagh without multiclassing at all or even spending a background feat for the latter I'm not seeing the big deal.
Shillelagh is stuck at 2 weapons, quarterstaff and club, which is very limited. Not comparable to able to use most weapons, including ranged ones.
Just to point out, the Pact Weapon cantrip of the UA specifies it must be a melee weapon that lacks the heavy property. Thrown weapons are ok, ranged weapons are not.
It's more reversed, you'd probably go for a higher warlock level then sorcerer but either works.