Pact Magic tweak: get short rest slots for each level

[Greywander]

What if, instead of getting a few slots that automatically level up to the highest level you can cast (up to 5th), warlocks instead got, say, one slot for each level (possibly two for 1st level)? This would give them more slots overall, but they would always be limited to a single casting of each level of spell. This would, at least, make it more meaningful to keep lower level spells around, instead of those spells being upcast poorly or not at all. That said, automatically upcasting is one of the benefits of pact magic, allowing you to upcast a spell you might not normally waste a higher level slot on without feeling like it's a waste (since you can't cast the spell at all without upcasting it).

So as an example, you might get one slot for each level all the way up to 10th level (five slots vs. the vanilla two slots, but only one slot is 5th level). After that, you might get a second 1st level slot, maybe a second 2nd level slot (likely at the same levels you would normally get a third and fourth slot in vanilla).

Is this better? Worse? More interesting? Less interesting? Would you want this? Would you allow a player to use this? Are there any other tweaks you might do? (One other option I'm aware of is tripling the slots and making them long rest slots.)

I was thinking about the witch class I've been working on that is nearly finished. It currently uses pact magic, but I was wondering if it would be better to tweak it slightly.

[Kane0]

How about every long rest the warlock can decide how to split their slots, equaling the same total spell level the class table says?
Say for example a level 5 lock might want to keep the standard 2x 3rd one day but the next ready up 1x 3rd, 1x 2nd and 1x 1st.

[Greywander]

Ah, so the spell levels always add up to the same total? That could be interesting.

Honestly, perhaps that's how the wizard should work. It seems like an interesting variation on the older Vancian magic system, only instead of preparing spells into specific slots, you're deciding how to divvy up your slots based on which spells you expect to be casting. This could be especially useful if you have a plan that revolves around casting multiple higher level spells, allowing you to cannibalize some of your lower level slots for extra high level slots. Though now that I think about it, that's kind of the sorcerer's schtick, except they get to do it on the fly instead of having to do it ahead of time.

Well that was an unexpected digression. I guess if you're not using this for wizards, it could also work for warlocks. I wouldn't use it for both at the same time; warlocks are by design supposed to have unconventional spellcasting, so it would be weird if the mechanics were the same as a conventional caster.

[Kane0]

It does make a nice distinction between casters and how their spells work, especially if you have always-max pact magic and spell points in the mix too.

[Tanarii]

Sounds like a massive power boost for a class that doesn't need it. You're talking about given them over a 60% boost in total spell slot power.

Balanced would be something more like a choice between 5th, 3rd, and 1st vs the standard 2x5th. At 9+ class level.
Edit: Or maybe 5,3,2. I was going off spell point costs, but the 1pt difference between 3rd and 4th and 5th in that scale makes it a bit wonky sometimes.

[Kane0]

Oh yeah, equivalent spell points might be a better balancing point.

[quindraco]

Sounds like a massive power boost for a class that doesn't need it. You're talking about given them over a 60% boost in total spell slot power.

Balanced would be something more like a choice between 5th, 3rd, and 1st vs the standard 2x5th. At 9+ class level.
Edit: Or maybe 5,3,2. I was going off spell point costs, but the 1pt difference between 3rd and 4th and 5th in that scale makes it a bit wonky sometimes.

Agreed. For reference, here is how many sorcery/spell points you need to make the Warlock slots right now:


1x1: 2
2x1: 4
2x2: 6 (equivalent to 3x1)
2x3: 10 (5x1 or 2x2+2x1 or 1x3+1x2+1x1)
2x4: 12 (6x1 or 4x2 or 2x3+1x1 or 1x4+2x2)
2x5: 14 (7x1 or 4x2+1x1 or 2x3+2x1 or 2x4+1x1 or 1x5+1x3+1x1 or 1x5+1x2+2x1)
3x5: 21 (7x2 or 3x3+2x2 or 3x3+3x1 or 3x4+1x2 or 2x5+1x3+1x1 or 2x5+1x2+2x1)
4x5: 28 (14x1 or 8x2+2x1 or 5x3+1x2 or 4x4+2x1 or 3x5+1x3+1x1 or 3x5+1x2+2x1)


As noted above already in this thread, having the slots sum up to a constant total is how Wizard Arcane Recovery works, but that's unique to Wizards - both Sorcerers and the DMG's variant rule for all slots in the game use the above math.

[BW022]

Sounds like a massive power boost for a class that doesn't need it. You're talking about given them over a 60% boost in total spell slot power.

Balanced would be something more like a choice between 5th, 3rd, and 1st vs the standard 2x5th. At 9+ class level.
Edit: Or maybe 5,3,2. I was going off spell point costs, but the 1pt difference between 3rd and 4th and 5th in that scale makes it a bit wonky sometimes.

Agreed. Warlocks are already a powerful class. I've never had issues playing them. They have d8 for hit points, light armor, reasonable weapons, charisma as a spellcasting stat, the best ranged cantrip by far, evocations (may of which are at will), subclasses which make you massively versatile, and probably some of the best nova abilities in the game. The downside is less spell slots and sometimes you have to use a slot for lower-level abilities. Removing that downside, the class is a better almost anything than a wizard.

If your warlock is having a spell slot issue or you don't find it fun to choose... take a few levels of bard or sorcerer and you have a pool of lower-level spell slots to for hex or other low levels spells. You get other abilities, spells known, etc.

[Amechra]

I think that, regardless of whether or not you decide to go with spell slots or spell points, that you should probably tweak the progression so that higher-level Warlocks don't just get a massive lump sum of points/levels at 11th and 17th levels.

[animorte]

What if, instead of getting a few slots that automatically level up to the highest level you can cast (up to 5th), warlocks instead got, say, one slot for each level (possibly two for 1st level)? This would give them more slots overall, but they would always be limited to a single casting of each level of spell. This would, at least, make it more meaningful to keep lower level spells around, instead of those spells being upcast poorly or not at all. That said, automatically upcasting is one of the benefits of pact magic, allowing you to upcast a spell you might not normally waste a higher level slot on without feeling like it's a waste (since you can't cast the spell at all without upcasting it).

I actually was making a class in 3.5e a few years ago before switching to 5e very recently. This class gained spell slots/spells upon leveling up exactly like that, pretty much one slot/spell per level. Able to gain more cantrips throughout leveling to supplement and also had some fairly relevant melee capability.