Should Warlocks get Confusion on their spell list?

[Desamir]

It struck me as odd that the Confusion spell isn't on the Warlock's spell list. It's thematic, it upscales, and similar spells like Enemies Abound are on there.

It's worse than Warlock spells Hypnotic Pattern and Fear, so I can't see it as a balancing issue. There's an invocation that gives you access to it once a day; nobody uses it, unsurprisingly.

My theory is that the devs overrated Confusion (or perhaps underrated its 3rd level competition) on first printing, which is why they gated it behind an awful invocation. Can anybody think of a reason why Warlocks shouldn't be allowed to cast Confusion all day?

[Corran]

Well, the warlock get a some other stuff, and I suppose that the idea was that they'll get a more limited spell list compared to the other arcane casters. So, some spells had to go. Why confusion instead of fear and hypnotic pattern? I dont really know. Maybe its because confusion scales and the others dont (edit: confusion scales by increasing its AoE, so maybe they thought that most players would not find it interesting to keep track of an AoE change?). I could see it as one of the goolock's extra spells, but dominate monster and black tentacles fit just as well. The invocation that grants it (dreadful word) is weaker than I'd like, especially after more invocations were released and after synaptic static was made available.

One benefit that confusion has over fear and hypnotic pattern, is that it does not care about charm or fear resistance/immunity.

[Chaos Jackal]

The warlock spell list is quite gimped in general, probably due to a combination of the pact magic system, an attempt to put more weight on invocations and emphasizing the theme of a specific patron by limiting some spells to specific warlocks.

There are plenty of spells, both good and bad, that would make at least some thematic sense for the warlock to have, but aren't there. Horrid wilting, disguise effects, animate dead, arcane eye, some divinations, bane, bestow curse, blindness/deafness, cloudkill, command, confusion, darkvision, dominate person, black tentacles, false life, fire shield, fireball, gate, greater invisibility, immolation, levitate, mage armor, magic jar, mirage arcane, mislead, phantasmal force, planar binding, polymorph, ray of sickness, see invisibility, shield, silent image, steel wind strike, stinking cloud, teleport, wall of fire, water breathing... to each their own, of course, but many of those spells would probably make sense on a warlock for someone who's simply told of the class themes.

And indeed, many of them appear as invocations or as patron-specific spells, which, in the case of the former, sadly means they aren't really worth it. Unlimited disguise self or silent image are great; unlimited arcane eye is also amazing, but comes in really late. On the other hand, spending an invocation for a cast of slow, confusion or bestow curse is typically wasteful.

There are also spells that could've made it in a patron's list but didn't due to the policy of subclass spells being PHB only. Steel wind strike, notably, makes a lot more sense on a hexblade than cone of cold, but steel wind strike is a Xanathar spell, so it can't be part of the hexblade list.

And then there are spells that aren't in at all because of pact magic, or because they wanted to limit the list as much as possible, or for a combination of factors. For example, warlocks can learn true seeing, but they can't learn see invisibility or darkvision. For the latter, it's probably because darkvision lasts for 8 hours, making it easily abusable with a warlock slot, as well as Devil's Sight being an invocation you can pick from lv2 onwards. See invisibility, on the other hand, is probably out simply to cut down on utility by virtue of spell limitation, since both true seeing and the Witch Sight invocation come online quite late.

Warlocks have vague premise and purpose due to the systems and features they mix, and in the attempt to balance things and establish identity a number of spells were left, rightfully or wrongfully, out.

[Joe the Rat]

By leanings of the Patrons, it would fit quite happily on the Great Old One list. So what would you kick off to make room?


There are also spells that could've made it in a patron's list but didn't due to the policy of subclass spells being PHB only. Steel wind strike, notably, makes a lot more sense on a hexblade than cone of cold, but steel wind strike is a Xanathar spell, so it can't be part of the hexblade list.

I appreciate the want to balance for access, but it seems kind of silly, as in order to have hexblade, you need to have Xanathars - either in AL policy, or the simple fact that they are in the same book.

[Chaos Jackal]

I appreciate the want to balance for access, but it seems kind of silly, as in order to have hexblade, you need to have Xanathars - either in AL policy, or the simple fact that they are in the same book.

AL is the reason, actually. Because the idea is subclasses might potentially be reprinted, thus being accessible from a different book, the subclass specific spells are always PHB only, so that no matter which version of the subclass you use (and thus which is the +1 in AL's PHB+1), it can still satisfy PHB+1. Otherwise, a reprinted subclass could potentially require three books, if one of its spells wasn't PHB and wasn't reprinted.

At least, I believe that was the reason. I'm pretty sure I read it in the past, but I can't find the source.