I feel like the current version of the One DnD Warlock's design philosophy prioritized Hexblades and multiclassing dips into warlocks at the expense of the level 1-20 pure warlock.
The same way a cleric was better at casting Find Steed than a Paladin was, a sorcorer or wizard will be strictly better at casting Hex if they take a just a single level dip into warlock than a warlock will be on their own. A multiclass wizard(9)/warlock(1) can cast Hex more effectively than a level 16 warlock - that's heartbreaking for the pure warlock players.
The difficulty of designing a warlock is that they serve many masters (pun intended) - the warlock can be built as a gishy spell-blade, a summoner, or a pure dark spellcaster (at least in the OG warlock's case). Designing a new warlock that can still do all of those things AND fit into a revamped system is a tall order. I am absolutely one of those people who complained about not getting enough short rests and also wanting more pact slots. I'm also love a good level 1-20 magic focused warlock.
My preference is that the invocation Mystic Arcanum's are just removed entirely. Go back to the old ones. The new ones result in a net loss of invocations and don't even allow the new warlock to compete with the old warlock anyway in terms of known spells at higher levels (ie 5th edition warlock could have two level 4 spells known at warlock level 7, but One DnD warlock can only learn one 4th level spell until they reach warlock level 14 unless they multiclass).
Spell casting for the warlock can use a little work. I'm torn between two solutions:
1. Let warlocks keep their pact magic as is, but also give them 1/2 or 1/3 caster progression. This gives them a little more gas in the tank but also lets them keep that unique caster identity. Pact magic slots are regained on a short rest - spell slots are regained on a long rest.
2. Go back to pact magic as it was in 5th edition with no spell slots, but if the warlock is missing any pact magic slots they regain one at the start of each combat. This addresses the situation where a warlock is afraid to cast spells because they have so few spells to cast by letting them get one for free each combat. This scales appropriately with other full casters who will technically be able to cast a 5th level spell as many times as they have spell slots of 5th level or higher. Again - pact magic slots can be recovered on a short rest.
For Mystic Arcanum you should be able to select from all 3 spell-lists not just Arcane.
The free casting of a patron spell should be per short-rest.
Ability to switch one spell you know with another spell when you finish a long-rest instead of level up.
As for the Fiend subclass for the 3rd level I would add a choice of Infernal or Abyssal as an extra language and some type of transformation thing that gives you Temp HP equal to your spell-casting modifier+your warlock level and like advantage on Charisma ability checks.
At 6th level add while your transformation is active once per turn any spell that does fire or poison damage you can roll an extra damage die. Also applies to weapon attacks as well.
I think you are on to something with 1/3 caster progression. So a level 1 warlock gets spellcasting just like the UA says but instead it’s 1/3 progression. They still would have 2 slots at level 1. They wouldn’t gain another 1st level spell slot until level 4 and wouldn’t get 2nd level spell slots until level 7. This would be offset because at level two of warlock you gain pact magic. So you would have two 1st level spell slots and two 1st level pact magic slots. At level 3 your pact magic slots advance giving you two 1st level spell slots and two 2nd level pact slots. I made a table. Mystic Arcanum moves out of invocations and back to 11th level. Major change I strongly suggest would be to change short rest recharge. Definitely give them a feature or cantrip that recharges pact magic within 1-10 mins. Obviously limit this per day. Myself and others on the forums have come up with good ideas on many ways to achieve this.
I think Pact Magic + Half Caster works, but to balance it out, Pact Magic Slots never goes above 2 slots, you'll eventually get 2 additional slots at 5th level from being a half-caster and you have a lot more capacity to cast spells overall to begin with. Keeping Mystic Arcanum as it was, would then give the level 6-9 spells, honestly 1 invocation slot was not a good trade for the old Mystic Arcanum.
I am finding it funny how many of us came to the same answer. Mystic arcanum back to 11. Half caster + semi reduced Pact magic to keep the best of both worlds and quell complaints on both sides a little.
Mine was Half caster + 1 pact magic slot until later then you expand to 2.
Okay, seeing that in table format really does make that look like the most elegant solution. I’ll admit that I was a bigger fan of 1/2 progression (greedy warlock after all), but 1/3 caps out with 4th level spell slots so your pact magic is the only source of 5th level spells. It fits like a glove.
I think Pact Magic + Half Caster works, but to balance it out, Pact Magic Slots never goes above 2 slots, you'll eventually get 2 additional slots at 5th level from being a half-caster and you have a lot more capacity to cast spells overall to begin with. Keeping Mystic Arcanum as it was, would then give the level 6-9 spells, honestly 1 invocation slot was not a good trade for the old Mystic Arcanum.
My suggestion was kind of like that, only Pact Magic slots go from 2 to 4 and you cast Mystic Arcanums using Pact Magic slots when you start gaining them at level 11.
My only fear with pact magic + 1/2 caster is that WotC would definitely nerf something else for balance. Honestly as a 1/3 caster with Pact Magic I’m afraid something probably needs to get nerfed to balance it. I can imagine the next warlock playtest having a one of these 1/2 or 1/3 caster with pact magic, but suddenly warlocks can’t select abjuration or evocation spells. The only way to get them is through an invocation tax or some similar nerf, so WotC can balance it by their standards. As a random DM/player I have no clue of WotC balance standards.
My only fear with pact magic + 1/2 caster is that WotC would definitely nerf something else for balance. Honestly as a 1/3 caster with Pact Magic I’m afraid something probably needs to get nerfed to balance it. I can imagine the next warlock playtest having a one of these 1/2 or 1/3 caster with pact magic, but suddenly warlocks can’t select abjuration or evocation spells. The only way to get them is through an invocation tax or some similar nerf, so WotC can balance it by their standards. As a random DM/player I have no clue of WotC balance standards.
What about 5e pact magic (No short rests or limited to 1 recover a single slot or rest) and 1/4 spell progress? Do you see it less likely that they limit the warlock?
My only fear with pact magic + 1/2 caster is that WotC would definitely nerf something else for balance. Honestly as a 1/3 caster with Pact Magic I’m afraid something probably needs to get nerfed to balance it. I can imagine the next warlock playtest having a one of these 1/2 or 1/3 caster with pact magic, but suddenly warlocks can’t select abjuration or evocation spells. The only way to get them is through an invocation tax or some similar nerf, so WotC can balance it by their standards. As a random DM/player I have no clue of WotC balance standards.
In theory the argument people were having about the warlock was that they were undertuned due to lack of spells, so giving them some more spells while roughly keeping them the same would bring them in tune. At 1/3rd magic at least I don't see the issue, especially if you cap pact magic at a lower number of slots. I'd still probably add eldritch master in at level 5, as while I do not have this issue a common complaint which I assume is sincere is some people can never get short rests. I assume never is more figurative than literal but if they never get them when it matters they probably need 1 in player control short rest recharge.
Setting the spell progression to 1/3rd caster and having the 5e Pact Magic slots almost exactly equals the amount of known spells per level of a 1/2 caster (recharging pact magic on short rests is probably dead, so calc it on a once per day basis).
It allows for the warlock to hit level 5 spells at character level 9, but there are some minor complications with how spells are selected (known). On a DnDbeyond character sheet its easy and would look almost exactly like a multiclass warlock, but could confuse a novice. Pen & paper i don't know, i've been a long time online.
This would tilt spell selection for the UA warlock:
Level 5 warlock would have 3 -1st level, 2 pact magic slots to use on levels 2 & 3, as well as 1 Patron spell at 2nd level once per day and a Level 3 mystic arcanum
Level 9 warlock would have 4 -1st level, 2 -2nd level and 2 pact magic slots to use on levels 3, 4 & 5, as well as 1 Patron spell at 3rd level once per day and a mystic arcanum at 3rd, 4th & 5th level spells.
Level 13 a warlock with pact & 1/3rd spells would have 4 -1st level, 3 -2nd level, 2 -3rd level and 3 pact slots for levels 4 &5, patron spell at 4th level once per day, as well as mystic arcanum of level 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7.
Is it too complex? probably not more than other things in D&D
The UA as it stands tries to balance out the loss of the power grab of pact magic by adding in Patron and extra Mystic Arcanums at the cost of Invocations.
UA Warlock
level
Patron Spell
Invocations
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1st
-
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2nd
2
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
3rd
1st
2
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4th
2
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
5th
2nd
3
4
2
MA
-
-
-
-
-
-
6th
3
4
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
7th
4
4
3
-
MA
-
-
-
-
-
8th
4
4
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
9th
3rd
5
4
3
2
-
MA
-
-
-
-
10th
5
4
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
11th
6
4
3
3
-
-
MA
-
-
-
12th
6
4
3
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
13th
4th
7
4
3
3
1
-
-
MA
-
-
14th
7
4
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
-
15th
8
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
MA
-
16th
8
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
17th
5th
9
4
3
3
3
1
-
-
-
MA
18th
9
4
3
3
3
1
-
-
-
-
19th
9
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
20th
9
4
3
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
If Mystic arcanums were fixed and not a tax on invocations i would accept the 1/2 spell progression in the current playtest.
I'd like to see either pact magic improved, or to go with 2/3 casting plus Mystic Arcanum, with a modified version of 3rd Edition Bard spell progression (needed since you actually need spells to start at level one, and there is no longer bonus spells for high stats, so the Zero spells in the progression doesn't work anymore because of it).
Adding one spell back when rolling initiative, and freeing the Warlock from the Hex spell (the save penalty is nice, but the bonus damage component plus the scaling hurts the spell immensely) would go a long ways towards improving the spell slot situation.
The thing I hate most about the Mystic Arcanums for 3rd, 4th, and 5th level spells is how much the spell selection for a Warlock has been completely gutted.
Sure they can choose any spell they want from the arcana list - too bad this warlock only gets A SINGLE KNOWN SPELL of 4th level from warlock level 7 through 13. The current 5e warlock can learn two 4th level spells at level 7 and then a total of four at level 8. UA warlock gets just one - that means all the builds are going to be forced to choose only the most generally useful spell for those 6 levels and you'll probably only ever see a warlock make the same 2 or 3 choices for that spell.
This kills build variation and just makes the warlock a less fun class.
The thing I hate most about the Mystic Arcanums for 3rd, 4th, and 5th level spells is how much the spell selection for a Warlock has been completely gutted.
Sure they can choose any spell they want from the arcana list - too bad this warlock only gets A SINGLE KNOWN SPELL of 4th level from warlock level 7 through 13. The current 5e warlock can learn two 4th level spells at level 7 and then a total of four at level 8. UA warlock gets just one - that means all the builds are going to be forced to choose only the most generally useful spell for those 6 levels and you'll probably only ever see a warlock make the same 2 or 3 choices for that spell.
This kills build variation and just makes the warlock a less fun class.
Oh yeah, I remember that build variation of a hexblade. You could cast Armor of Agathys + Shadow of Moil, or Shadow of Moil + Armor of Agathys. Also you could cast anything else, but anything else would suck.
I'd like to see either pact magic improved, or to go with 2/3 casting plus Mystic Arcanum, with a modified version of 3rd Edition Bard spell progression (needed since you actually need spells to start at level one, and there is no longer bonus spells for high stats, so the Zero spells in the progression doesn't work anymore because of it).
Adding one spell back when rolling initiative, and freeing the Warlock from the Hex spell (the save penalty is nice, but the bonus damage component plus the scaling hurts the spell immensely) would go a long ways towards improving the spell slot situation.
2/3 casting + Mystic Arcanum is effectively a full caster. In which case say "bye-bye" to Invocations to bring it back in line with other Arcane Fullcasters, who get hardly any class features.
I'd like to see either pact magic improved, or to go with 2/3 casting plus Mystic Arcanum, with a modified version of 3rd Edition Bard spell progression (needed since you actually need spells to start at level one, and there is no longer bonus spells for high stats, so the Zero spells in the progression doesn't work anymore because of it).
Adding one spell back when rolling initiative, and freeing the Warlock from the Hex spell (the save penalty is nice, but the bonus damage component plus the scaling hurts the spell immensely) would go a long ways towards improving the spell slot situation.
2/3 casting + Mystic Arcanum is effectively a full caster. In which case say "bye-bye" to Invocations to bring it back in line with other Arcane Fullcasters, who get hardly any class features.
I'm not sure I'd call Sorcerer metamagic "hardly". It might basically be one, but it's a damned good one, worth several class abilities combined that other classes might get.
The 2014 Warlock might have had more limited spellcasting, but it didn't feel like a half caster when used. The spells were of the same spell level as what the Wizard and Sorcerer were pulling off, and due to the large number of spells known relative to spell slots, the Warlock had more room to take those edge case spells that might not always be useful, but were game changers when used. All that has been lost.
I'd prefer a few fixes to Pact Magic, and most things to stay as is. Add in a one or two more spells per short rest, so long as at least one of them happens somewhere between levels 5 and 7, and an early version of the sorcerer's level 15 class ability, where a Warlock with no pact slots remaining gets one back when initiative is rolled, and most complaints I can come up with go away. Returning a single pact slot on an initiative roll prevents them from overpowering the full casters (unless there are TONS of encounters per day, and in that event I think that Warlocks were supposed to look better anyways) while preventing a denial of short rests from hobbling the class almost entirely.
The Pact changes are mostly improvements, adding in the "Must Have" invocations for each directly into the Pact, and eliminating the need for the Hexblade entirely. While great, there shouldn't be a need to have a specific patron to use Pact of the Blade effectively. I hate removing Charisma as a Pact of the Tome option, but I was playing a Celestial Tomelock who doubled as the party Face, as no one likes hearing that an existing character is now a illegal build, or else take a -4 to all the skills you built around.
Chain needs more survivability, Tome really misses the ability to learn more than 2 rituals (especially the ones from other classes), and being forced into a one handed weapon with no shield is the last remaining issue for Blade.
The thing I hate most about the Mystic Arcanums for 3rd, 4th, and 5th level spells is how much the spell selection for a Warlock has been completely gutted.
Sure they can choose any spell they want from the arcana list - too bad this warlock only gets A SINGLE KNOWN SPELL of 4th level from warlock level 7 through 13. The current 5e warlock can learn two 4th level spells at level 7 and then a total of four at level 8. UA warlock gets just one - that means all the builds are going to be forced to choose only the most generally useful spell for those 6 levels and you'll probably only ever see a warlock make the same 2 or 3 choices for that spell.
This kills build variation and just makes the warlock a less fun class.
Except the new Warlock will have four 1st-level, three 2nd-level, and zero/two/three 3rd-level spells during that time. And also the ability to use rituals without being forced to go tome. There is plenty of room for variation there even if the 4th level arcanum is spoken for.
Oh yeah, I remember that build variation of a hexblade. You could cast Armor of Agathys + Shadow of Moil, or Shadow of Moil + Armor of Agathys. Also you could cast anything else, but anything else would suck.
I feel like the current version of the One DnD Warlock's design philosophy prioritized Hexblades and multiclassing dips into warlocks at the expense of the level 1-20 pure warlock.
The same way a cleric was better at casting Find Steed than a Paladin was, a sorcorer or wizard will be strictly better at casting Hex if they take a just a single level dip into warlock than a warlock will be on their own. A multiclass wizard(9)/warlock(1) can cast Hex more effectively than a level 16 warlock - that's heartbreaking for the pure warlock players.
The difficulty of designing a warlock is that they serve many masters (pun intended) - the warlock can be built as a gishy spell-blade, a summoner, or a pure dark spellcaster (at least in the OG warlock's case). Designing a new warlock that can still do all of those things AND fit into a revamped system is a tall order. I am absolutely one of those people who complained about not getting enough short rests and also wanting more pact slots. I'm also love a good level 1-20 magic focused warlock.
My preference is that the invocation Mystic Arcanum's are just removed entirely. Go back to the old ones. The new ones result in a net loss of invocations and don't even allow the new warlock to compete with the old warlock anyway in terms of known spells at higher levels (ie 5th edition warlock could have two level 4 spells known at warlock level 7, but One DnD warlock can only learn one 4th level spell until they reach warlock level 14 unless they multiclass).
Spell casting for the warlock can use a little work. I'm torn between two solutions:
1. Let warlocks keep their pact magic as is, but also give them 1/2 or 1/3 caster progression. This gives them a little more gas in the tank but also lets them keep that unique caster identity. Pact magic slots are regained on a short rest - spell slots are regained on a long rest.
2. Go back to pact magic as it was in 5th edition with no spell slots, but if the warlock is missing any pact magic slots they regain one at the start of each combat. This addresses the situation where a warlock is afraid to cast spells because they have so few spells to cast by letting them get one for free each combat. This scales appropriately with other full casters who will technically be able to cast a 5th level spell as many times as they have spell slots of 5th level or higher. Again - pact magic slots can be recovered on a short rest.
Out of curiosity, what solution do you prefer?
For Mystic Arcanum you should be able to select from all 3 spell-lists not just Arcane.
The free casting of a patron spell should be per short-rest.
Ability to switch one spell you know with another spell when you finish a long-rest instead of level up.
As for the Fiend subclass for the 3rd level I would add a choice of Infernal or Abyssal as an extra language and some type of transformation thing that gives you Temp HP equal to your spell-casting modifier+your warlock level and like advantage on Charisma ability checks.
At 6th level add while your transformation is active once per turn any spell that does fire or poison damage you can roll an extra damage die. Also applies to weapon attacks as well.
I think you are on to something with 1/3 caster progression.
So a level 1 warlock gets spellcasting just like the UA says but instead it’s 1/3 progression. They still would have 2 slots at level 1. They wouldn’t gain another 1st level spell slot until level 4 and wouldn’t get 2nd level spell slots until level 7. This would be offset because at level two of warlock you gain pact magic. So you would have two 1st level spell slots and two 1st level pact magic slots. At level 3 your pact magic slots advance giving you two 1st level spell slots and two 2nd level pact slots. I made a table.
Mystic Arcanum moves out of invocations and back to 11th level.
Major change I strongly suggest would be to change short rest recharge. Definitely give them a feature or cantrip that recharges pact magic within 1-10 mins. Obviously limit this per day. Myself and others on the forums have come up with good ideas on many ways to achieve this.
I think Pact Magic + Half Caster works, but to balance it out, Pact Magic Slots never goes above 2 slots, you'll eventually get 2 additional slots at 5th level from being a half-caster and you have a lot more capacity to cast spells overall to begin with. Keeping Mystic Arcanum as it was, would then give the level 6-9 spells, honestly 1 invocation slot was not a good trade for the old Mystic Arcanum.
I am finding it funny how many of us came to the same answer. Mystic arcanum back to 11. Half caster + semi reduced Pact magic to keep the best of both worlds and quell complaints on both sides a little.
Mine was Half caster + 1 pact magic slot until later then you expand to 2.
Okay, seeing that in table format really does make that look like the most elegant solution. I’ll admit that I was a bigger fan of 1/2 progression (greedy warlock after all), but 1/3 caps out with 4th level spell slots so your pact magic is the only source of 5th level spells. It fits like a glove.
Thanks for putting that together!
My suggestion was kind of like that, only Pact Magic slots go from 2 to 4 and you cast Mystic Arcanums using Pact Magic slots when you start gaining them at level 11.
My only fear with pact magic + 1/2 caster is that WotC would definitely nerf something else for balance. Honestly as a 1/3 caster with Pact Magic I’m afraid something probably needs to get nerfed to balance it. I can imagine the next warlock playtest having a one of these 1/2 or 1/3 caster with pact magic, but suddenly warlocks can’t select abjuration or evocation spells. The only way to get them is through an invocation tax or some similar nerf, so WotC can balance it by their standards. As a random DM/player I have no clue of WotC balance standards.
What about 5e pact magic (No short rests or limited to 1 recover a single slot or rest) and 1/4 spell progress? Do you see it less likely that they limit the warlock?
In theory the argument people were having about the warlock was that they were undertuned due to lack of spells, so giving them some more spells while roughly keeping them the same would bring them in tune. At 1/3rd magic at least I don't see the issue, especially if you cap pact magic at a lower number of slots. I'd still probably add eldritch master in at level 5, as while I do not have this issue a common complaint which I assume is sincere is some people can never get short rests. I assume never is more figurative than literal but if they never get them when it matters they probably need 1 in player control short rest recharge.
Setting the spell progression to 1/3rd caster and having the 5e Pact Magic slots almost exactly equals the amount of known spells per level of a 1/2 caster (recharging pact magic on short rests is probably dead, so calc it on a once per day basis).
It allows for the warlock to hit level 5 spells at character level 9, but there are some minor complications with how spells are selected (known). On a DnDbeyond character sheet its easy and would look almost exactly like a multiclass warlock, but could confuse a novice. Pen & paper i don't know, i've been a long time online.
This would tilt spell selection for the UA warlock:
Level 5 warlock would have 3 -1st level, 2 pact magic slots to use on levels 2 & 3, as well as 1 Patron spell at 2nd level once per day and a Level 3 mystic arcanum
current UA: L1 * 4, L2 * 2, L3 * 2 (Patron & MA)
1/3rd& PM: L1 * 3, L2 * 0, L3 * 4 (Pact, Patron & MA)
Level 9 warlock would have 4 -1st level, 2 -2nd level and 2 pact magic slots to use on levels 3, 4 & 5, as well as 1 Patron spell at 3rd level once per day and a mystic arcanum at 3rd, 4th & 5th level spells.
current UA: L1 * 4, L2 * 3, L3 * 4 (+2 Patron & MA), L4 * 1 (MA), L5 * 1 (MA)
1/3rd& PM: L1 * 4, L2 * 2, L3 * 2 (+2 Patron & MA), L4 * 1 (MA), L5 * 3 (Pact & MA)
Level 13 a warlock with pact & 1/3rd spells would have 4 -1st level, 3 -2nd level, 2 -3rd level and 3 pact slots for levels 4 &5, patron spell at 4th level once per day, as well as mystic arcanum of level 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7.
Is it too complex? probably not more than other things in D&D
The UA as it stands tries to balance out the loss of the power grab of pact magic by adding in Patron and extra Mystic Arcanums at the cost of Invocations.
If Mystic arcanums were fixed and not a tax on invocations i would accept the 1/2 spell progression in the current playtest.
I'd like to see either pact magic improved, or to go with 2/3 casting plus Mystic Arcanum, with a modified version of 3rd Edition Bard spell progression (needed since you actually need spells to start at level one, and there is no longer bonus spells for high stats, so the Zero spells in the progression doesn't work anymore because of it).
Adding one spell back when rolling initiative, and freeing the Warlock from the Hex spell (the save penalty is nice, but the bonus damage component plus the scaling hurts the spell immensely) would go a long ways towards improving the spell slot situation.
That is a fantastic analysis.
The thing I hate most about the Mystic Arcanums for 3rd, 4th, and 5th level spells is how much the spell selection for a Warlock has been completely gutted.
Sure they can choose any spell they want from the arcana list - too bad this warlock only gets A SINGLE KNOWN SPELL of 4th level from warlock level 7 through 13. The current 5e warlock can learn two 4th level spells at level 7 and then a total of four at level 8. UA warlock gets just one - that means all the builds are going to be forced to choose only the most generally useful spell for those 6 levels and you'll probably only ever see a warlock make the same 2 or 3 choices for that spell.
This kills build variation and just makes the warlock a less fun class.
Oh yeah, I remember that build variation of a hexblade. You could cast Armor of Agathys + Shadow of Moil, or Shadow of Moil + Armor of Agathys. Also you could cast anything else, but anything else would suck.
Basically half caster plus Mystic Arcanum is an illusion of choice.
Choices will boil down to whatever provides the biggest/longest bang for your buck at each level.
2. Invisibility
3. Hypnotic Pattern
4. Polymorph
5. Animate Object
6. Mass Suggestion
7. Forcecage
8. Feeblemind
9. Wish
Warlock had that problem in 5e for 6-9th level spells. Ideally they would have tried to fix it, not double down on it.
2/3 casting + Mystic Arcanum is effectively a full caster. In which case say "bye-bye" to Invocations to bring it back in line with other Arcane Fullcasters, who get hardly any class features.
I'm not sure I'd call Sorcerer metamagic "hardly". It might basically be one, but it's a damned good one, worth several class abilities combined that other classes might get.
The 2014 Warlock might have had more limited spellcasting, but it didn't feel like a half caster when used. The spells were of the same spell level as what the Wizard and Sorcerer were pulling off, and due to the large number of spells known relative to spell slots, the Warlock had more room to take those edge case spells that might not always be useful, but were game changers when used. All that has been lost.
I'd prefer a few fixes to Pact Magic, and most things to stay as is. Add in a one or two more spells per short rest, so long as at least one of them happens somewhere between levels 5 and 7, and an early version of the sorcerer's level 15 class ability, where a Warlock with no pact slots remaining gets one back when initiative is rolled, and most complaints I can come up with go away. Returning a single pact slot on an initiative roll prevents them from overpowering the full casters (unless there are TONS of encounters per day, and in that event I think that Warlocks were supposed to look better anyways) while preventing a denial of short rests from hobbling the class almost entirely.
The Pact changes are mostly improvements, adding in the "Must Have" invocations for each directly into the Pact, and eliminating the need for the Hexblade entirely. While great, there shouldn't be a need to have a specific patron to use Pact of the Blade effectively. I hate removing Charisma as a Pact of the Tome option, but I was playing a Celestial Tomelock who doubled as the party Face, as no one likes hearing that an existing character is now a illegal build, or else take a -4 to all the skills you built around.
Chain needs more survivability, Tome really misses the ability to learn more than 2 rituals (especially the ones from other classes), and being forced into a one handed weapon with no shield is the last remaining issue for Blade.
Except the new Warlock will have four 1st-level, three 2nd-level, and zero/two/three 3rd-level spells during that time. And also the ability to use rituals without being forced to go tome. There is plenty of room for variation there even if the 4th level arcanum is spoken for.
Exactly.