D&D 5e New (and improved?) Warlock for 2024
by Prince Phantom
The 2014 Warlock was my personal favorite class of 5e, meaning this revision has a lot to live up to. It had a tumultuous run in playtesting, turning into a half caster for a moment there. Thankfully, the designers found the brain they dropped while revising the Ranger and put it to good use for this class. There’s a lot to go over, between invocations and subclasses, and I’m pretty happy with all of it!
Level 1:
Proficiencies: No major changes
Pact Magic: Surprisingly, no mechanical changes. Additionally, the Warlock received very few additional spells outside of what was already provided by Tasha’s. A few spells got notable changes, specifically True Strike being a great choice for Blade Pact Warlocks.
Invocations: Warlocks now get invocations at level 1 instead of 2. Additionally, Warlocks gain more invocations and gain them faster, starting with 1 at level 1, 3 at level 2, 5 at level 5, 6 at level 7, 7 at level 9, 8 at level 12, 9 at level 15, and 10 at level 18.
I don’t have time to go over the change to every invocation in this article, however I will hit the highlights.
Notably, Pact Boons which you previously obtained at level 3 are now invocations. This means you may select one at level 1, and you may have more than one if you choose so. Let’s go over those first.
Pact of the Chain: Everything works the same as before, but we have new options now! Besides the previous 4, we can now summon a Skeleton, Venomous Snake, Slaad Tadpole, or Sphinx of Wonder. Oddly, the Venomous Snake was moved to this list and removed from the normal options for Find Familiar because it was “too strong”, even though both the Owl and Bat have far more utility. The Slaad Tadpole is horribly weak, and should basically never be chosen. The Skeleton has underwhelming stats, but its opposable thumbs and ability to wear armor and use items could give it the edge with the right equipment. The Sphinx of Wonder is a brand new creature, and is a strong choice thanks to its flight, resistances, strong attack, and a reaction to add +2 to ability checks and saving throws. Definitely a contender, right up there with the Imp, especially since the Imp lost its non-magical damage resistance (as did all monsters with those resistances).
Pact of the Tome: You can use the book as a spellcasting focus, and you get 2 level one ritual spells along with the 3 cantrips. Notably, there is no Book of Ancient Secrets invocation anymore, so these are all the rituals you’ll be getting from your book. You can change which spells are in the book each day by creating a new book.
Pact of the Blade: There is no longer any restriction on what weapons you can use with this (Greatsword and Handgun Bladelocks rejoice!). Additionally, this allows you to attack and deal damage with your Charisma, mostly taking the place of the Hexblade class. Finally, you can choose to have the weapon deal Radiant, Necrotic, or Psychic damage rather than its normal damage type.
Agonizing Blast: Now only affects large or smaller creatures.
Ascendant Step: Moved from level 9 to level 5.
Devil’s Sight: Now includes normal vision in dim light as well as darkness.
Devouring Blade: New, Requires Pact of the Blade and Thirsting Blade. Grants 2 additional attacks when you make the attack action for a total of 3.
Eldritch Spear: Increases range by 30x your Warlock level.
Gift of Two Minds: No longer blinds and deafens you to your own senses while in use.
Lessons of the First Ones: New, repeatable, grants one Origin Feat.
Lifedrinker: Now deals an extra d6 only once per turn, but lets you expend a hit die to heal when you hit. Much weaker overall than previously, but moved from level 15 to level 9.
Witch Sight: Now just grants straight up Truesight.
Alright, that was a lot, let’s get back to the main class!
Level 2:
Magical Cunning: Once per long rest, you can perform a 1 minute ritual to regain half your total pact slots, rounded up.
Level 3:
Subclass: Note that you now gain your subclass at level 3. Besides the fact that this is a giant flavor fail, if you choose to use a subclass not from this book, you won’t gain the level 1 features until level 3.
Level 4: Feat
Level 9:
Contact Patron: You learn the Contact Other Plane spell, may cast it for free once per day to contact your patron, and you automatically succeed on the saving throw of the spell.
Level 11:
Mythic Arcanum: The only change is that you may swap an arcanum spell with another of the same level when you level up.
Level 19: Epic Boon
Level 20:
Eldritch Master: When you use your Magical Cunning feature to regain pact slots, you regain all slots as opposed to half.
My Thoughts: The Warlock emerges as mostly a tuned up version of its previous self. The ability to quickly regain a few pact slots once per day slightly reduces the issue of your limited pact slots, though you’ll still feel the limitation. Eldritch Blast is still just as good as ever, and the new Blade Pact invocation is very enticing. I definitely expect to see Warlocks rolling into battle with a weapon more often than not with these revisions. Maybe even take a 1 level Fighter dip for weapon masteries?
Subclasses:
Special Note: All subclasses grant an expanded spell list as they did in 2014, but unlike their previous incarnations, you automatically learn each of these spells as you level up, just like a Cleric would. This is a massive improvement to the Warlock’s spell diversity, especially since otherwise they are only learning 15 spells by level 20.
Archfey:
Archfey Spells: Big highlights here include Misty Step, Faerie Fire, Phantasmal Force, Sleep, Plant Growth, and Greater Invisibility. A fantastic list overall.
Steps of the Fey: You can cast Misty Step without spending a slot Charisma mod times per day, and you get a bonus effect. You or a friend within 10ft of you after you teleport may gain 1d10 temporary hit points, or you can force a Wisdom save on everyone who was within 5ft of where you teleported from, and on a fail they have disadvantage to hit anyone but you for the next turn.
Misty Escape: You may cast Misty Step as a reaction when you take damage. Additionally, you get two new options for Steps of the Fey.
You either become invisible after teleporting until the start of your next turn or you attack or cast a spell, or you deal 2d10 psychic damage to creatures within 5ft of either where you teleported from or your destination, if they fail a Wisdom save. Note there is no damage on a successful save.
Beguiling Defenses: You are immune to the Charmed condition, and you gain a new reaction in response to taking a hit. You gain resistance to the damage of the hit, and your attacker must make a Wisdom save or take psychic damage equal to the damage you took. Note they take no damage on a successful save. You get one use per day, and can use this again by expending a pact slot.
Bewitching Magic: Now, whenever you cast an Illusion or Enchantment spell, you may cast Misty Step without expending a slot as part of the same action you used to cast the initial spell.
My Thoughts: This is in contention for the biggest glow up of the whole book. The previous Archfey was well below average, but this both improves it in power and delivers on a specific fantasy. The ability to blink around the battlefield with increasing levels of utility and ease is fantastic, and makes me actually want to play this subclass for the first time in 5e’s history. The 11th level defensive feature is a bit less exciting, but still not that bad. Fantastic revision all around.
Celestial:
Celestial Spells: Aid, Revivify, Wall of Fire, and Summon Celestial are the standouts here. Decent list, not exceptional though.
Healing Light: Unchanged
Radiant Soul: Unchanged
Celestial Resilience: Same amount of temporary HP, but now you can gain and distribute them when you use Magical Cunning as well as when you take a rest.
Searing Vengeance: You may now use this on an ally when they make a death saving throw as well as yourself. It is otherwise unchanged.
My Thoughts: I definitely would have liked to see more revisions here. A bit more flexibility with how to use our features and a few spells swapped out isn’t enough to raise this subclass much at all. Considering this was already a slightly below average option for Warlocks, I doubt this rework will convince many to give this a shot that hadn’t already done so.
Fiend:
Fiend Spells: Suggestion, Fireball and Wall of Fire are your best pickups here. Not changed much from the old version, but you’re all here for Fireball anyway.
Dark One’s Blessing: You now gain the temporary HP when you kill something, or whenever any enemy within 10ft of you drops to 0.
Dark One’s Own Luck: Works the same, but now you get a number of uses equal to your Charisma mod per long rest rather than one use per short and long rest.
Fiendish Resilience: You can no longer select Force for your damage resistance, but silvered weapons no longer bypass your resistance.
Hurl Through Hell: Now requires a failed Charisma save to activate and only deals 8d10 damage rather than 10d10. You can use it again by expending a pact slot though.
My Thoughts: The change to Hurl Through Hell is the worst part of this whole book. What do you mean I’m biased?! In all seriousness, the low level features here make for a great option for Bladelocks, as constantly refreshing temporary HP is a great way to survive in melee. Outside of the capstone, these are all great changes to an already slightly above average subclass.
Great Old One:
Great Old One Spells: Detect Thoughts, Hideous Laughter, Hunger of Hadar, and Summon Aberration are great things to pick up for free, though most of this list is already Warlock spells. Still nice to free up your selections for other spells though.
Awakened Mind: You now set up a line of communication between you and a target, which doesn’t really change how you use the feature in actual play. You do now both need to share a language though.
Psychic Spells: Also at 3rd level, you can change the damage type of any of your Warlock spells to psychic. Illusion and Enchantment spells also don’t require verbal or somatic components for you.
Clairvoyant Combatant: When you form a telepathic bond with a creature with Awakened Mind, you can force a Wisdom save, and if they fail, they have disadvantage to hit you and you have advantage to hit them. You get one use, though you can expend a slot to use it again.
Eldritch Hex: You always have Hex prepared, and when you cast Hex and choose an ability for the target to have disadvantage to checks for, they also have disadvantage on saving throws of that ability.
Thought Shield: Also at level 10, you have resistance to psychic damage, and whenever you take psychic damage, the dealer of that damage takes the same amount of psychic damage.
Create Thrall: This feature now modifies your casting of Summon Aberration. You may have the spell not require concentration, and if you do, the Aberration has extra temporary HP and can benefit from the extra damage of your Hex spell once per turn.
My Thoughts: This is a massive improvement over the old version. Low level is still a bit lackluster, but the improvement to Hex is genuinely amazing. Forcing disadvantage on saves is hard to come by, and can set yourself or other casters up for some really big turns. Even if this isn’t the most powerful option, it went from doing basically nothing to doing quite a lot, so I’m happy.
Overall Thoughts: The Warlock comes out of this book with some great quality of life improvements, as well as a couple of amazing subclasses. I expect to see a lot of Bladelocks in the coming years, as gaining that third attack at level 11 is a boon normally reserved for Fighters, and one of the main draws of that class as a whole. With only a few exceptions, I’m very happy to say that my favorite class will likely keep that placement.
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