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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Warlock base class design beautification



foobar1969
2015-11-15, 11:27 AM
THE WARLOCK, Corrected
Update 2018

Design Notes: IMO, spell slots that shoot up to 5th level then stop, followed by spurts of Mystic Arcanum, is an ugly kludge. Converting Mystic Arcanum (and the other daily spell options) into a single invocation simplifies & unifies the class design. Swapping Eldritch Invocation and archetype features between 1st and 2nd level improves symmetry and reduces the impact of poorly-designed archetypes (yes, I specifically mean Hexblade).

Version Notes: 17th level casters always get a big spell.




Level


Class Features

Invocations
Known


Cantrips
Known


Spells
Known


Spell
Slots


Slot
Level




1st

Eldritch Invocations, Pact Magic

1


2


2


1


1st




2nd

Otherworldly Patron, Pact Boon

1


2


3


2


1st




3rd

-

2


2


4


2


2nd




4th

Ability Score Increase

2


3


5


2


2nd




5th

-

3


3


6


2


3rd




6th

Otherworldly Patron Feature

3


3


7


2


3rd




7th

-

4


3


8


3


3rd




8th

Ability Score Increase

4


3


9


3


3rd




9th

-

5


3


10


3


4th




10th

Otherworldly Patron Feature

5


4


11


3


4th




11th

-


6


4


12


4


4th




12th

Ability Score Increase

6


4


13


4


4th




13th

-

7


4


13


4


5th




14th

Otherworldly Patron Feature

7


4


13


4


5th




15th

-

8


4


13


5


5th




16th

Ability Score Increase

8


4


13


5


5th




17th

Bonus Mystic Arcanum


9

4


13


5


5th




18th

Pact Boon

9


4



13


5


5th




19th

Ability Score Increase

10


4



13


5


5th




20th

Eldritch Master

10


4



13


6


5th




PACT MAGIC
(change: the warlock spell list ends at 5th level; all higher level spells moved to the Mystic Arcanum invocation.)

PACT BOON

Pact of the Chain
(added): Your familiar has bonus hit points equal to twice your warlock level, and its proficiency bonus is equal to yours.

At 18th level, your familiar's ability scores each increase by 2. Also, if you would lose concentration on a spell before its duration expires, you can have your familiar maintain concentration on it until the end of your next turn, when you may resume concentration. Your familiar cannot do this again until you complete a short or long rest.

Pact of the Blade
(added): Your pact weapon can take the form of any melee weapon that lacks the heavy property. When you attack with your pact weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls.

At 18th level, when you use your action to cast a spell, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

Pact of the Tome
(added): At 18th level, choose a spell of up to 7th level from any class with a 9 level spell list. You gain a bonus Mystic Arcanum invocation for it.

(MYSTIC ARCANUM moved to invocation.)

BONUS MYSTIC ARCANUM

At 17th level, you get a bonus invocation, which must be Mystic Arcanum.

OTHERWORLDLY PATRONS

ARCHFEY
Fey Presence
(added): The size of the cube increases by 5 feet for every two warlock levels.

(added): The Archfey lets you add the following spells as options for the Mystic Arcanum invocation: Conjure Fey, Mind Blank, Shapechange. You may cast Conjure Fey again after completing a short rest.

THE FIEND
Hurl Through Hell
(changed): If the target is not a fiend, it takes 10d10 psychic damage as it reels from its horrific experience, or half damage if it succeeds on a Charisma saving throw.

(added): The Fiend lets you add the following spells as options for the Mystic Arcanum invocation:Disintegrate, Delayed Blast Fireball, Incendiary Cloud.

GREAT OLD ONE
Awakened Mind
(changed): You can communicate telepathically with any creature you are aware of within a range of 60 feet plus 5 feet per warlock level.

(added): The Great Old One lets you add the following spells as options for the Mystic Arcanum invocation: Magic Jar, Symbol, Time Stop. At 14th level, you gain a bonus Mystic Arcanum invocation for the Telepathy spell, which does not count against the number of allowed spells for Mystic Arcanum.

ELDRITCH INVOCATIONS
(removed invocations, merged into Mystic Arcanum): Bewitching Whispers, Dreadful Word, Minions of Chaos, Mire the Mind, Sculptor of Flesh, Sign of Ill Omen, Thief of Five Fates.

Agonizing Blast
(changed): When you cast eldritch blast, add the lesser of your warlock level or your Charisma modifier to the damage it deals on a hit.

Armor of Shadows, Ascendant Step, Fiendish Vigor, Otherworldly Leap
(changed): You treat {Spell Name} as a spell known, and you can cast it on yourself at will at its lowest level without expending a spell slot or material components.

Beguiling Influence
(added): If you have proficiency in either or both from another source, you may add twice your proficiency bonus to that skill instead.

Chains of Carceri
(changed): You treat Hold Monster as a spell known. Celestials, elementals, and fiends have disadvantage on saving throws against this, and you can cast it once targeting such a creature without expending a spell slot or material components. You can do so again after completing a short or long rest.

Eldritch Spear
(added): Also, when you cast other warlock cantrips with a range greater than touch, their range is doubled.

Eyes of the Rune Keeper
(added): Also, you treat Comprehend Languages and Illusory Script as spells known.

Master of Myriad Forms
(changed): Prerequisite: 11th level

Otherwordly Leap
(changed): Prerequisite: 3rd level

(added): Mystic Arcanum
Prerequisite: see table
Select a spell from the following list for which you meet the prerequisite (see table). You can cast it using a warlock spell slot, at your slot level or the spell's lowest level, whichever is higher. You can't cast it again until you complete a long rest, or a short rest if your warlock level is high enough (see table).
You can select this invocation multiple times, each time choosing a different spell, up to the maximum allowed for its spell level (see table).




Spell
Level


Warlock
Prereq
Level

Mystic Arcanum Spell List

# allowed
of level or higher


Short
Rest Level




1st


-

Bane

9


1




2nd


3

-

8


5




3rd


5

Bestow Curse, Slow

7


9




4th


7

Compulsion, Confusion, Freedom of Movement, Polymorph

6


13




5th


9

Conjure Elemental

5


17




6th


11

Create Undead, Eyebite, Flesh to Stone, Investiture of F/I/S/W, Mass Suggestion, Mental Prison, Scatter, Soul Cage, True Seeing

4


-




7th


13

Crown of Stars, Etherealness, Finger of Death, Forcecage, Plane Shift, Power Word Pain

3


-




8th


15

Demiplane, Dominate Monster, Feeblemind, Glibness, Maddening Darkness, Power Word Stun

2


-




9th


17

Astral Projection, Foresight, Imprisonment, Power Word Kill, Psychic Scream, True Polymorph

1


-




Xanathar's Guide to Everything

OTHERWORLDLY PATRONS

CELESTIAL
(added): The Celestial lets you add the following spells as options for the Mystic Arcanum invocation: Heal, Conjure Celestial, Holy Aura.

HEXBLADE
Hex Warrior
(second paragraph removed. Charisma feature transferred to Pact of the Blade.)

(added): The Hexblade lets you add the following spells as options for the Mystic Arcanum invocation: Blade Barrier, Mordenkainen's Sword, Antimagic Field.

ELDRITCH INVOCATIONS
Aspect of the Moon
(general ruling): You cannot take a short rest during the 8 hours of a long rest.

Grasp of Hadar
(added): As a bonus action on the same turn, you can make that creature roll a Strength saving throw. On a failure, it is knocked prone.

Lance of Lethargy
(changed): When you hit a creature with your eldritch blast, you can reduce that creature's speed by 10 feet (to a minimum speed of 10 feet) until the end of its next turn.

Trickster's Escape
(removed, merged into Mystic Arcanum.)

PotatoGolem
2015-11-15, 12:27 PM
Just to clarify, do you believe that the base warlock is OP, or you just object to the design aesthetic? This redesign is much weaker, but I'm not sure if that's a feature or a bug. As of right now, this seems to make the warlock fall even further behind the other full casters in power- from my experience, warlocks aren't that good to begin with (aside from eldritch blast, which is a 1st/2nd level feature), and this just exacerbates the problem. Chains of Carceri is now an amazingly strong invocation, but the Fiend pact capstone has been seriously nerfed and the whole class just feels weak.

foobar1969
2015-11-15, 01:01 PM
Just to clarify, do you believe that the base warlock is OP, or you just object to the design aesthetic? This redesign is much weaker, but I'm not sure if that's a feature or a bug.
Interesting. I was worried the spell slot bump might be too strong. Yes, my goal is a cleaner design, but equal to (or slightly ahead of) the original. No problem, plenty of easy ways to tweak.


Chains of Carceri is now an amazingly strong invocation, but the Fiend pact capstone has been seriously nerfed and the whole class just feels weak.
Also interesting. Adding a single spell known is too much? All three of the warlock guides (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?377491-Guides-Tables-and-other-useful-tools-for-5E-D-amp-D) list Carceri as a middling invocation, so I thought it might deserve a tiny bump up. Similarly, the guides say the most important feature of Hurl is the no-save one round banish effect, with the damage as icing on top.

PotatoGolem
2015-11-15, 01:25 PM
Adding a single spell known is too much? All three of the warlock guides (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?377491-Guides-Tables-and-other-useful-tools-for-5E-D-amp-D) list Carceri as a middling invocation, so I thought it might deserve a tiny bump up.

I think it's more the at-will use. I agree that adding it as a spell known seems very fair and makes Chain more worth taking. I'm a little concerned with being able to use it as an at-will, because paralysis is very strong and it's a 5th level spell. Obviously, it's very campaign-dependent, but in a fiend-heavy campaign it's very powerful.

Fiend seems fair as a save for half.

I like the idea of different arcanums for the different patrons, that's a nice touch.

My gut instinct is that the loss of higher-level spells is a big loss, but it would be good to see it playtested.

foobar1969
2015-11-16, 10:45 AM
Thanks much for the input.

I've marked the table where my revision makes positive and negative changes to the class. The key comparisons to determine balance:

L7: 2x 4th level slots vs 3x 3rd level slots?
L11: 3x 5th level slots +1 arcanum vs 4x 4th level slots + 1 invocation?
L17: 4x 5th level slots + 4 arcanum vs 5x 6th level slots + 2 invocations? (+ L18 pact capstone?)

Markoff Chainey
2015-11-16, 11:30 AM
I like the general idea and I love the warlock class...

I think with the extra Spell lists, the Fiend Warlock clearly comes out ahead, next is GOO and third the archfey mainly because he gets one spell less to choose from.

The lvl 18 abilities are all quite potent.. They look good on paper, but need some time and a wicked mind to see if those could be broken. - I like them also for the purpose that they discourage multiclassing.

And the multiclassing problem (Warlock 2/ CHA-based anything X) with agonizing blast is still there with your "fix". Honestly, restricting it to lvl3 only makes the Warlock drastically weaker on lvl 1-2 and requires a dip to lvl3 - that is not that bad, given that the lvl3 is very good. (I suppose that this was your intention to add that lvl limit.)

Changing the slot levels seems to be a very dangerous game in terms of game balance. - all spells upped to lvl 6 instead of 5 is huge, but the same is true for the few levels where you reduced them.

All in all, I have the feeling that you made the class weaker at the beginning and added a lot more punch on the higher levels.

Cheers!

foobar1969
2017-12-02, 03:58 PM
With further testing, I'm fairly confident that this is the right design. +1 slot at -1 slot level (in class levels 7-12) is a fair trade, not overall weaker.