The Warlock is a fun class, it's unique approach to spells, and the fact it gets a feature called Invocations to stack additional abilities onto characters, and a few that stack onto what is considered its go-to spell, allow the player and DM to further make the character feel more thematically appropriate. That all said, I feel like the ability to make the character more thematically appropriate has only gone halfway at best. Expanded spell lists based on your choice of patron was, and still is, a nice start but it feels like that's where it end most of the time, there are some Invocations that can make the character feel more thematically appropriate to their patron but at the same time they don't. Also, Eldritch Blast probably needs a name change, as it stands the name of the spell makes it sound like it's heavily tied to the Great Old Ones, but that's a discussion for another thread.
I honestly think that Warlocks need a few more go-to spell, there's a reason there are Eldritch Blast memes, but I also think that there needs to be something on the Invocation side of things. In particular, I think that Warlocks need a few Invocations that are only accessible based on your choice of patron, I've seen Invocations that are locked behind your choice of pact but never any Invocations that are contingent on your choice of patron. I think it would be interesting to see an Invocation or two that cause Eldritch Blast to gain distinct abilities, or possibly additional damage tyes, based on the Warlock's patron. I honestly think that Warlocks need a few more low-level spells that are shared over all the kinds of Warlocks that have their damage types or abilities or both change based on what sort of patron you have.
To me, it feels like they came up with this fun and interesting idea for how Warlocks operate but then decided to phone it in on the execution of the themes of the class. I don't know, anyone else feel that way?
Each class has their ups and downs and what makes them different from others. WoTC has always, as they said at least, prioritize theme followed by balancing. Which can be seen in some of their designs. But they are still humans and they constantly improve. Warlocks in general are the most versatile casters in the entire game and are (probably) the most loved class second only to the fighters since they can bring a lot of nice stories with their patrons.
On the topic of Eldritch blast name change... i don't really see the need for it as Eldritch does mean strange and weird since the origin of it is a class that dabbles with otherworldly creatures that are pretty much unknown to mortals even if it a celestial is your patron. Not gonna lie though, the class does seem to be to centered around Eldritch blast probably because of their lack of spell slots since not many creatures have resistance to force damage and changing it's damage type could lead to very annoying scenarios such has a fiend warlock with (fire eldritch blast which is basically fire bolt split into several bolts instead of one at higher level) against creatures with immunity to fire and very little options to fight since they have small amount of spell slots and not many cantrips (unless you have pact of the tome).
A Youtuber suggested giving the warlocks all of their patron spells, and are prepared for the warlocks and won't count against their limit. Another thing is to alter their capstone to something more interesting possibly an otherworldly transformation as you have reached your pinnacle and closest thing possible to your patron. Others even said to alter their casting modifier to intelligence since it was the original main stat before release and Jeremy Crowford (?) did say it has no effect if you switch the stat but that was a long time ago.
That's pretty much all i can say about the warlock and despite all of that, the class remains my favorite especially the great old ones.
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Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
Warlocks are centered around Eldritch Blast the same way Archery Fighters are centered on arrows or Polearm Masters are on..well...polearms.
They have fewer spells but the ones they cast are always at max level and they refresh on short rests. So at 9th level they are getting two 5th level spells per short rest where a wizard is getting one per long rest.
Their invocations range from game changing to something to select for RP reasons.
They can be a challenge to play, but when played well they are amazing, heaping more abilities on them can quickly drive them over the top of the power curve.
And honestly having Charisma as the casting stat is wonderful because it lets you operate in both combat and social encounters with equal ease.
In the group I play in, my Warlock is playing very much to the spirit of what the class is, even with our group at 2nd level. EB does a ton of damage at that level (AB invocation and +4 from CHA). Throw in a few really well timed critical hits, and the character has his role of being the heavy hitter of ranged damage. Add in the Fiend expanded spells, and Burning Hands is a solid AoE damage option. I think if you give more spell options it won't matter much, as you have so few spell slots. The RP possibilities of that high CHA are where you can really get mileage of the class.
Having Invocations tied to Patron sounds interesting but could then lead certain patrons hardly being picked because their invocations suck while others are almost as necessary as Agonizing Blast to spam Eldritch Blast. Kind of like how few choose way of the four elements monk as they don't stack up against the others. Don't want this to happen to Invocations. Sure there are some of the "go-to" invocations that seem to get chosen the most, but there are others that still add a lot of value depending on your build and what you are going for.
I agree with you on those points a bit, but I still think it's a waste to have a few additional invocations tied to each pact but not do the same for patrons. The whole reason most Warlocks make their agreement with their patrons, to begin with, is for the benefits those entail, many of those benefits manifest as Invocations, so it's a bit of waste both for gameplay reasons and narrative reasons for each different kind of patron to not give you some sort of Invocation exclusive to that kind of patron.
I think if you want to have some patron-centric invocations, make them at the higher levels which does two things. First, it entices characters to stop dipping Warlock if there is a benefit to playing to higher Warlock levels. Second, if these are patron-specific and are really good (think Agonizing Blast), everyone will take them. That means your Tomelock is going to take AB, BoAS, and the patron Invocations first.
But if my DM decided a level 12 invocation for Fiend patrons can summon a devil once per long rest, I'd consider it.
Having Invocations tied to Patron sounds interesting but could then lead certain patrons hardly being picked because their invocations suck while others are almost as necessary as Agonizing Blast to spam Eldritch Blast.
I think a good away to avoid this is twofold: (1) Keep the number of invocations tied to each patron small and highly focused on theme, and (2) ensure that these invocations have NOTHING to do with Eldritch Blast or any specific Pact Boon.
I think if you want to have some patron-centric invocations, make them at the higher levels which does two things. First, it entices characters to stop dipping Warlock if there is a benefit to playing to higher Warlock levels. Second, if these are patron-specific and are really good (think Agonizing Blast), everyone will take them. That means your Tomelock is going to take AB, BoAS, and the patron Invocations first.
That's another good idea. Especially considering the lack of a good capstone feature for warlocks, giving each patron type one or two mid-tier invocations, and a single level-20 invocation, could yield some interesting results.
The Warlock is a fun class, it's unique approach to spells, and the fact it gets a feature called Invocations to stack additional abilities onto characters, and a few that stack onto what is considered its go-to spell, allow the player and DM to further make the character feel more thematically appropriate. That all said, I feel like the ability to make the character more thematically appropriate has only gone halfway at best. Expanded spell lists based on your choice of patron was, and still is, a nice start but it feels like that's where it end most of the time, there are some Invocations that can make the character feel more thematically appropriate to their patron but at the same time they don't. Also, Eldritch Blast probably needs a name change, as it stands the name of the spell makes it sound like it's heavily tied to the Great Old Ones, but that's a discussion for another thread.
I honestly think that Warlocks need a few more go-to spell, there's a reason there are Eldritch Blast memes, but I also think that there needs to be something on the Invocation side of things. In particular, I think that Warlocks need a few Invocations that are only accessible based on your choice of patron, I've seen Invocations that are locked behind your choice of pact but never any Invocations that are contingent on your choice of patron. I think it would be interesting to see an Invocation or two that cause Eldritch Blast to gain distinct abilities, or possibly additional damage tyes, based on the Warlock's patron. I honestly think that Warlocks need a few more low-level spells that are shared over all the kinds of Warlocks that have their damage types or abilities or both change based on what sort of patron you have.
To me, it feels like they came up with this fun and interesting idea for how Warlocks operate but then decided to phone it in on the execution of the themes of the class. I don't know, anyone else feel that way?
Each class has their ups and downs and what makes them different from others. WoTC has always, as they said at least, prioritize theme followed by balancing. Which can be seen in some of their designs. But they are still humans and they constantly improve. Warlocks in general are the most versatile casters in the entire game and are (probably) the most loved class second only to the fighters since they can bring a lot of nice stories with their patrons.
On the topic of Eldritch blast name change... i don't really see the need for it as Eldritch does mean strange and weird since the origin of it is a class that dabbles with otherworldly creatures that are pretty much unknown to mortals even if it a celestial is your patron. Not gonna lie though, the class does seem to be to centered around Eldritch blast probably because of their lack of spell slots since not many creatures have resistance to force damage and changing it's damage type could lead to very annoying scenarios such has a fiend warlock with (fire eldritch blast which is basically fire bolt split into several bolts instead of one at higher level) against creatures with immunity to fire and very little options to fight since they have small amount of spell slots and not many cantrips (unless you have pact of the tome).
A Youtuber suggested giving the warlocks all of their patron spells, and are prepared for the warlocks and won't count against their limit. Another thing is to alter their capstone to something more interesting possibly an otherworldly transformation as you have reached your pinnacle and closest thing possible to your patron. Others even said to alter their casting modifier to intelligence since it was the original main stat before release and Jeremy Crowford (?) did say it has no effect if you switch the stat but that was a long time ago.
That's pretty much all i can say about the warlock and despite all of that, the class remains my favorite especially the great old ones.
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
Warlocks are centered around Eldritch Blast the same way Archery Fighters are centered on arrows or Polearm Masters are on..well...polearms.
They have fewer spells but the ones they cast are always at max level and they refresh on short rests. So at 9th level they are getting two 5th level spells per short rest where a wizard is getting one per long rest.
Their invocations range from game changing to something to select for RP reasons.
They can be a challenge to play, but when played well they are amazing, heaping more abilities on them can quickly drive them over the top of the power curve.
And honestly having Charisma as the casting stat is wonderful because it lets you operate in both combat and social encounters with equal ease.
Abide.
In the group I play in, my Warlock is playing very much to the spirit of what the class is, even with our group at 2nd level. EB does a ton of damage at that level (AB invocation and +4 from CHA). Throw in a few really well timed critical hits, and the character has his role of being the heavy hitter of ranged damage. Add in the Fiend expanded spells, and Burning Hands is a solid AoE damage option. I think if you give more spell options it won't matter much, as you have so few spell slots. The RP possibilities of that high CHA are where you can really get mileage of the class.
Having Invocations tied to Patron sounds interesting but could then lead certain patrons hardly being picked because their invocations suck while others are almost as necessary as Agonizing Blast to spam Eldritch Blast. Kind of like how few choose way of the four elements monk as they don't stack up against the others. Don't want this to happen to Invocations. Sure there are some of the "go-to" invocations that seem to get chosen the most, but there are others that still add a lot of value depending on your build and what you are going for.
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I agree with you on those points a bit, but I still think it's a waste to have a few additional invocations tied to each pact but not do the same for patrons. The whole reason most Warlocks make their agreement with their patrons, to begin with, is for the benefits those entail, many of those benefits manifest as Invocations, so it's a bit of waste both for gameplay reasons and narrative reasons for each different kind of patron to not give you some sort of Invocation exclusive to that kind of patron.
I think if you want to have some patron-centric invocations, make them at the higher levels which does two things. First, it entices characters to stop dipping Warlock if there is a benefit to playing to higher Warlock levels. Second, if these are patron-specific and are really good (think Agonizing Blast), everyone will take them. That means your Tomelock is going to take AB, BoAS, and the patron Invocations first.
But if my DM decided a level 12 invocation for Fiend patrons can summon a devil once per long rest, I'd consider it.
I think a good away to avoid this is twofold: (1) Keep the number of invocations tied to each patron small and highly focused on theme, and (2) ensure that these invocations have NOTHING to do with Eldritch Blast or any specific Pact Boon.
That's another good idea. Especially considering the lack of a good capstone feature for warlocks, giving each patron type one or two mid-tier invocations, and a single level-20 invocation, could yield some interesting results.
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