I was one of those guys who actually liked the idea of Patron-specific Invocations. I'm glad to see that there will be a way to create ranged Pact Weapons, though.
I was so excited when I saw them too, it made them all far more interesting, makes choosing a patron a real choice. Dislike that they have into the winging.
I concur. I feel like it makes sense that some would be tied to a Patron in the same manner that certain spells are. Fair play for listening to feedback and being willing to re-think and re-work the feature though.
While I can understand the thematic value of typing certain Invocations to certain types of Patrons, I ultimately think that not having those prerequisites is better. For me, all other things being equal, more options = good. There are more stories that can be told if you decouple certain powers from specific Patrons, and instead allow any type of Warlock to take them, then figure out how it fits their particular Pact.
Have you ever heard the term “restrictions breed creativity.” If you think people should just have more options, why even bother with classes, let everyone just pic everything they want? Because the restrictions of limiting certain powers to specific classes and subclasses is what makes them all interesting. By making the unrestricting the invocations you have gone from making these three specific Patrons really interesting and special, each with their own special possibilities and unique ways of playing, to just making everything a little bit better. This is why games generally when they release an expansion, release an upgrade to each class individually, something that makes that class better. Rather than just making a set of powers that everyone can choose from. Under your logic of “more options = good.” Then why not allow these abilities to be available to all the other classes? Why not make a special table that allows every class to choose from all the new abilities that are available from the new Subclasses. That makes for more options doesn’t it? I assume you would agree that would take away from the special coolness of each individual class and subclass. Why is it any different with the invocations? In the same way that it is cool that only druids can turn into their wild beast shapes, and I would feel it was a shame if they gave it as an option to every class, I feel it is a shame to give the Invocations that fit so perfectly with a specific Patron and improve the unique feel of them to everyone. More options is not always better.
Improved Pact Weapon can be used to make ranged weapons.... OMG I already knew I needed this book but DUDE!!! I NEED this book!!! Nine more days... Huuuu...
FadedStardust and it can be used as a magic focus. You could now very easily flavor all of your spells as being fired from your bow as magically summoned arrows. And, assuming the wording hasn't been changed from the UA, you could use eldrich smite with said how for a super magically charged shot.
Aspect of the Moon is in XGtE? YES! I can make my Devotion Paladin/Celestial Warlock of Bahamut in full again, without it being UA! Because I loved the idea of the Paladin staying up all night to watch her friends/'children', without needing to sleep. Because that's what moms do, right?
Sadly, the Paladin idea didn't happen. But I have a new shot at the idea with a Fighter I'm running. It'll be wonderfully thematic for his personal story, and I can hardly wait to be high enough level to make it work!
If you pre-order a book at a game store then you get it 11 days before I think is what he meant. So, it'll be out on the 8th or 9th so 1 week to go. I got Tomb of Annihilation on the 8th of September for example.
I like the idea of folding the Improved Pact Weapon Invocation with the Moon Bow Invocation. It consolidates things in a neat way. It lessens the number of Invocations a Bladelock needs in order to be viable (certain ones are, quite simply, non-optional for a Bladelock). And it gives the Bladelock a reason to either switch the form their weapon takes mid-fight, or to keep other weapons around. If the Bladelock was fighting at range, but their foe closed the distance, they either need to burn a turn changing their Pact Weapon into a close range type, or pull out a different weapon.
I really hope that Hexblade can perform better in melee combat. With the UA content I ended still with Devil Sight + Darkness + Eldritch Blast combo because it performs way better than risking yourself into melee.
I actually love having my Hexblade in melee. Level 15 we faced an adult black dragon who caused most of the party to opt to nope out. I stayed behind the cover their escape because I was the only one faster than the dragon (Wings of Flying+Haste+Expeditious Retreat=480ft per round). Ended up duking it out in melee with the dragon for nine rounds, ending with the killing blow being dealt by me with 3hp left. Armor of Hexes must have negated like 20 or more hits throughout the fight. Bladelock in melee is a beast.
I was excited for the old one eldritch blast invo that compelled a target but to move up to 10 feet closer to you. I play in a heavy melee party and was looking forward to triggering aoo for them.
I homebrewed a sentient bow for a Hexblade Warlock character, and the Improved Pact Weapon is a must for her, because she can use the bow as her Pact Weapon.
ricardo1989 on the bright side, you can now have a greatsword as your pact weapon and if you are also hexblade patron, all pact weapons can use CHA instead of Str. Combined with eldirich smite, the only thing you are losing is the curse transfer.
While I agree that most invocations should be independent of the subclass, I do think there is room to include pact-specific invocations; Especially ones that are tailored specifically to that subclass. For instance, A Celestial invocation that improves healing abilities (Because after all, what other warlock subclass is going to be healing allies?, as long as those invocations couldn't be used effectively in another sub class anyway I think it's a neat idea.
Diyaru4500 I would like that as well, however I doubt it made it. Especially with how much they beefed up improved pact weapon. The main issue with themI guess was that they kind of took away the point of bonding with magic weapons. Why would you ever bond with that +3 longsword when you have a +3 any weapon on hand?
Have you Thought about doing Additional Fighting Style Martial Adept manoeuvres Metamagic Options Something Similar to metamagic options but with the monk and ki points and maybe do feats with some of these stuff ?
They've played around with adding more fighting styles in. A lot of random early UA articles have extra fighting styles (The Underdark one and the one with the Krynn Minotaur in it specifically). I think it's only a matter of time before they're able to meaningfully expand upon all those micro-options, they just needed to pick and choose carefully because this book was put together relatively quickly - we'd known it was coming out for about a year and a half but they only started ideating on it around the beginning of this year when they sped up the rate at which they relase Unearthed Arcana articles.
I still choose to still use moon bow because I was doing Arcane Archer . With the close quarters shooter. I really wise you would have. Put them in the book . And would like to see More pact if the chain invocations to make it worth playing other then just having a pet that cost a 25 gold to get or change.
I'm happy that with Hexblade and these new invocations the Bladelock is finally getting stronger. My only disappointment about this is that a bladelock as a result is kind of forced into taking three invocations, which limits the customisation. There's little reason not to take the double attack, improved weapon, and the smite invocations, which means that unless you space those out, you aren't really going to have the chance to get creative with your invocations until 7th level, which is kind of a shame. Edit: Oh, I forgot about Lifedrinker, so that's 4 invocations, so customisation at 7 and 9th, but then you lose a slot again at 12th Though I guess you couldn't have fused smite into the double attack, or the improved weapon, since then that invocation would be absolutely mandatory, so I guess this is probably the least sucky solution.
One thing I'm not clear on. If you use the improved pact weapon to summon a bow, does it summon arrows as well? If not then you failed to address a major concern if somebody wants to summon something other than a melee weapon.
i really wish they made more pact boons. a blade a book or a familiar. it feels really limited and i know many of my warlocks never seem to fit with one particularly. (unless you want to get to home brew but everything is dodgy with home brew)
Warlock's book of shadows should be more explored like having some alien, fiend, or some patron specifics spells. And the expande list of magic should be part of the magic the warlock can cast, not an option to choose
ok we get the improved pact weapon invocation that allows the use of a bow but does that mean it will also summon arrows to go with it or do you have to buy arrows and if you buy arrows do they gain the magical property that a pact sword gives you or do you lose that ability because you choose a ranged weapon?
It all sounds good in video until you realize that you need to dedicate nearly all of your invocations to Blade specific skills to make a functional Bladelocke. Eldritch Blast is still going to be better from a mechanics standpoint and you have way more options for customizability and flavor.
Kivan Assuming the list is basically the same as the UA, that's 4 of your 8 invocations specifically for bladepact (lifedrinker, thirsting blade, improved pact weapon, eldrich Smite). With these 4 you have a bladepact that does damage comparable to eldrich blast+agonizing blast at most levels (assuming you have optimised stats for both). On top of that you have spike damage via eldrich smite. Its definitely more investment than a blastlock. But that's sadly the sacrifice that all gish- builds must make in 5e. And it's definitely not "almost all" of your invocations.
Comparable damage at most levels? You don't even get Lifedrinker till 12th level and you don't get Thirsting Blade and Eldritch Smite until 5th level so that's already false and then you know there's math. Assuming 12th level, maximized damage stats (which is actually a bit unrealistic for a Bladelock that isn't a Hexblade), and that the Inovcations are similar to the UA material. Bladelock with Greatsword 2d6 + 6 (STR and Improved Pact Weapon) + 5 (Life Drinker) x2 (Thirsting Blade) +6d8 (Eldritch Smite) = Average of 63 Eldritch Blast 3d10 + 10d6 (Kiss of Mephistopheles) + 15 (Agonizing Blast) = Average of 66.5 If your GM is really nice, then you could take melee cantrips from SCAG (although this breaks the PHB +1 rule so wouldn't be AL legal) and then your Bladelock could do more damage than an Eldritch Blast nuker and of course Kiss of Mephistopheles isn't going to be useable in close quarters situations but you get the tradeoff of being able to use it from hundreds of feet away.
66.5 vs. 63 is negligible at best and at worst a bump in the road for the fun of having a cursed sword. D&D is about fun, after all, Also, Eldritch smite knocks dudes prone which opens them up for a juicy great weapon master if using a great sword
Does devils sight work on Hunger of hadar is the real question cause I've always thought of it being a but unbalanced that you can use hunger of hadar then on your next turn ready a eldritch blast with the knockback ability for when someone attempts to leave the area and then knock them back into it
I've wondered what the origins of the term "chain" are in the PHB? Obviously it refers to the link with the familiar, but does it come from an earlier edition? Its a nice creepy term for the Warlock.
Richard Hayward I always just thought of it as less of a bond with your familiar and more like its chained to you, forced to help you either by you or your patron. Less intimate, more subjugated
I disagree. The Compendium of Forgotten Secrets (a homebrew set of Patrons) had a few specific invocations for each patron in it, and those were pretty cool. Regardless, a DM can overrule it anyway if a player thinks it would make sense
The bow no longer grants the abilities it gave you in the UA when it was specific to the Archfey patron, and a few of the Cursebringer features were added to the Hexblade subclass by default.
Andrew Robertson not quite. Pact of the blade could always have a greatsword. It just couldn't have ranged weapons without bonding with a magic ranged weapon. Now you will be able create one as your pact weapon. I assume you're referring to hexblade, in which case both are still off the table as far as we know. Hexblade is specifically restricted to any melee weapon without the 2handed property. So you will be able to use both weapons as pact weapons, but neither will benefit from the hexblade feature of substituting cha for str/dex. Unless of course that feature has changed from the UA, though I doubt it changed.
kankunation13 aye i meant the hexblade and i thought that the curse bringer invocation allowed you to use them with the hexblade, but its not the end of the world i'll just go duel wield instead :D
Yes. The pact specific weapons were removed and replaced with eldrich smite (which still carries the 2nd ability of mace of dispater, the knocking prone).
Ah damn, I thought it was higher damage than paladin smites due to warlocks having less spell slots. The wording in the UA is confusing too, "1d8 damage, plus 1d8 per spell level".
10d8 per spell slot was considered slightly too powerful, especially since they still regain spell slots after a short rest, unlike a Paladin. The wording is indeed confusing. They could have just copied the wording from Divine Smite, except change damage type and remove the bit about max. 5d8.
So they detached the patrons only to tie them to pacts. Really wish they hadn't done that personally. The max healing one was brillant with a blade pact, the no sleeping one is just useful across the board, why tie them down.....
A lot of them were tied to both patrons AND pacts, which was too restricting. Most of those were changed to just being pact restricted. Most of the other ones that were revised into the 2nd UA had all restrictions removed. The ones you mentioned were more the exception than the rule, as they were the only 2 that went from patron specific to pact specific.
L. Oen cursebrringer was removed. However some parts from curse bringer were incorporated into the hexblade patron itself (most definitely the curse transfer part).
kankunation13 that's sad but understandable. I was just hoping I could do +2d8 damage per spell slot level when I hit things again. The 0 movement upon hit is fairly strong too as a bladelock do you know if that transferred as well?
L. Oen no idea. I just remembers that Mearls mentioned on Twitter that parts were incorportated, though he didn't describe which parts. I just assume it's the transfer curse. If I had to guess, it probably didn't. The others "smite" options were removed as well, and in their place they created "eldrich smite", which can be used with any pact weapon . it's 1d8 force + 1d8 per warlock spell level, and knocks large or smaller targets prone (so mace of Dispater's ability). I would assume eldrich smite replaces all the other smites, but I could be wrong.
L. Oen after watching a sneak peak video, the curse transfer did not make it. However hexblade now works a bit differently. The 2-handed weapon restriction remains, and you can only use CHA with one weapon per long rest (flavored as channeling your will through it). HOWEVER, if you also take pact of the blade, all of your pact weapons summoned receive the hex warrior benefits, regardless of the weapon summoned. Meaning if you go hexblade bladelock, you can summon a greatsword and attack/damage using CHA alone. Combine that with improved pact weapon, and you can then also summon bows with CHA.
Sad to see the Curse Bringer as well as the other pack weapons not making it in, I really liked the flavor of a specific weapon for your patron. They also had some really awesome perks to them, the smite just seemed meh to me, not unique in any way. :/
GrandpaTofu I think they took out the patron specific weapons because it limited the creative ability of the player. They wanted to put the flavor in control of the player and not limit you to one specific weapon.
I remember reading somewhere that parts of curse bringer is going into hexblade's curse itself. Maybe the part where if you kill something you can move the hex as a bonus action?
Eldritch Smite is basically Mace of Dispater with the damaged turned down. And can be whatever weapon you summon. You still get the auto prone. You are limited to Warlock slots, but that keeps the cheese factor down.
I'm still a bit pissed that they made more invocation options for eldritch Blast I feel they need to make a few invocations for the other Cantrips like 99.9% people are going to pick eldritch Blast rather then like chill Touch or toll the dead who agrees with me?
As interesting as that is in theory, I would have a hard time justifying taking yet another invocation to maximize bladelock. If it were included as part of another invocations I might agree (though idk which one that would be. Improved pact weapon is already a pretty heavy loaded invocation).
liltwistofcaine a bit more refined of course, but it seems that most of them from the revised class options UA are what made it through and relatively unchanged.
I really enjoy the clarity and precision of Mr. Crawfords speech. He has a great way of consolidating the information. Good stuff
I agree, nicely spoken by the presenter!
I was one of those guys who actually liked the idea of Patron-specific Invocations. I'm glad to see that there will be a way to create ranged Pact Weapons, though.
I was so excited when I saw them too, it made them all far more interesting, makes choosing a patron a real choice. Dislike that they have into the winging.
I concur. I feel like it makes sense that some would be tied to a Patron in the same manner that certain spells are. Fair play for listening to feedback and being willing to re-think and re-work the feature though.
While I can understand the thematic value of typing certain Invocations to certain types of Patrons, I ultimately think that not having those prerequisites is better. For me, all other things being equal, more options = good. There are more stories that can be told if you decouple certain powers from specific Patrons, and instead allow any type of Warlock to take them, then figure out how it fits their particular Pact.
Have you ever heard the term “restrictions breed creativity.” If you think people should just have more options, why even bother with classes, let everyone just pic everything they want?
Because the restrictions of limiting certain powers to specific classes and subclasses is what makes them all interesting. By making the unrestricting the invocations you have gone from making these three specific Patrons really interesting and special, each with their own special possibilities and unique ways of playing, to just making everything a little bit better.
This is why games generally when they release an expansion, release an upgrade to each class individually, something that makes that class better. Rather than just making a set of powers that everyone can choose from.
Under your logic of “more options = good.” Then why not allow these abilities to be available to all the other classes? Why not make a special table that allows every class to choose from all the new abilities that are available from the new Subclasses. That makes for more options doesn’t it?
I assume you would agree that would take away from the special coolness of each individual class and subclass. Why is it any different with the invocations? In the same way that it is cool that only druids can turn into their wild beast shapes, and I would feel it was a shame if they gave it as an option to every class, I feel it is a shame to give the Invocations that fit so perfectly with a specific Patron and improve the unique feel of them to everyone.
More options is not always better.
I mean, it's an easy fix: Talk to your DM and agree to have that houserule. Might take an afternoon of planning, but hey oh well
I am really pumped to see what all the new options are. I love the Warlock, and more options for an already weird class sounds great to me.
Dungeon Dad heyy it's Dungeon Dad! Love your videos, can you do one on Dark Sun monsters? 🤙
Christopher Belcher you can count on that!
"Tomb of Levistus where you incase yourself in ice so you don't take any damage"
MEI IS AN INFERNAL WARLOCK CONFIRMED!!!
Don't make me laugh.. Mei isn't a warlock... she's much worse...
Youngerhampster yup, she IS Levistus
Although she could be played as a familiair pact warlock with a custom patron
It's so heart warming to see how all of them show a very clear, and very real, passion for D&D.
Super excited to hear the Moonbow has been reincorporated
Mei who dat? I think you meant it sounds like Evei!
I wish you could choose more invocations D: there are so many cool ones
I can't wait for Xanathar's Guide to Paladins and Warlocks
Improved Pact Weapon can be used to make ranged weapons.... OMG I already knew I needed this book but DUDE!!! I NEED this book!!! Nine more days... Huuuu...
FadedStardust and it can be used as a magic focus.
You could now very easily flavor all of your spells as being fired from your bow as magically summoned arrows.
And, assuming the wording hasn't been changed from the UA, you could use eldrich smite with said how for a super magically charged shot.
Aspect of the Moon is in XGtE? YES! I can make my Devotion Paladin/Celestial Warlock of Bahamut in full again, without it being UA!
Because I loved the idea of the Paladin staying up all night to watch her friends/'children', without needing to sleep.
Because that's what moms do, right?
Sadly, the Paladin idea didn't happen. But I have a new shot at the idea with a Fighter I'm running. It'll be wonderfully thematic for his personal story, and I can hardly wait to be high enough level to make it work!
Good going guys. You took an awesome exploration invocation and made it interrupt hex concentration D:
Three weeks to go!
Do you have a local gaming store near you? Game stores some copies of the book 11 days early, if you can make it to one.
I already have it preordered. Less money that way.
If you pre-order a book at a game store then you get it 11 days before I think is what he meant. So, it'll be out on the 8th or 9th so 1 week to go.
I got Tomb of Annihilation on the 8th of September for example.
Its cheaper to preorder on Amazon and get it 11 days later.
I like the idea of folding the Improved Pact Weapon Invocation with the Moon Bow Invocation. It consolidates things in a neat way. It lessens the number of Invocations a Bladelock needs in order to be viable (certain ones are, quite simply, non-optional for a Bladelock). And it gives the Bladelock a reason to either switch the form their weapon takes mid-fight, or to keep other weapons around. If the Bladelock was fighting at range, but their foe closed the distance, they either need to burn a turn changing their Pact Weapon into a close range type, or pull out a different weapon.
I really hope that Hexblade can perform better in melee combat. With the UA content I ended still with Devil Sight + Darkness + Eldritch Blast combo because it performs way better than risking yourself into melee.
I actually love having my Hexblade in melee. Level 15 we faced an adult black dragon who caused most of the party to opt to nope out. I stayed behind the cover their escape because I was the only one faster than the dragon (Wings of Flying+Haste+Expeditious Retreat=480ft per round). Ended up duking it out in melee with the dragon for nine rounds, ending with the killing blow being dealt by me with 3hp left. Armor of Hexes must have negated like 20 or more hits throughout the fight. Bladelock in melee is a beast.
I was excited for the old one eldritch blast invo that compelled a target but to move up to 10 feet closer to you. I play in a heavy melee party and was looking forward to triggering aoo for them.
The only spell that can cause AOO is a 1st Level Spell Of UA called Puppet Master, & I guess things like command and etc
Napoleon Mitchell Dissonant whispers does
That invocation still existed in the updated class options UA. They just removed The patron specific restriction.
When you hear mearls laughing near the end 😂
Crawford's back, baby! No hate to Mearls, but I prefer less opinion and more information in my explanations.
Warlock hype!
Finally, a way to play a weapon warlock beyond taking Devil's Sight and spamming Darkness.
His shirt is like that optical illusion where when you stare at it you see black dots in your peripherals haha
I homebrewed a sentient bow for a Hexblade Warlock character, and the Improved Pact Weapon is a must for her, because she can use the bow as her Pact Weapon.
Eldritch sight is cool, and can be entirely worked around with an imp.
XGE would have been perfect if they added more options for the 4 elements monk, which is a trap class right now.
Raijin Tsoutai More options won't fix that subclass though
Raijin Tsoutai the options aren't a big issue, it's the ki costs that mess it up.
" the sword was too strong so we took it out"
ricardo1989 on the bright side, you can now have a greatsword as your pact weapon and if you are also hexblade patron, all pact weapons can use CHA instead of Str. Combined with eldirich smite, the only thing you are losing is the curse transfer.
Not needing sleep is so cool
WARLOCK HYPE
My Ranger Warlock will find those new pact weapons very useful! Nice
While I agree that most invocations should be independent of the subclass, I do think there is room to include pact-specific invocations; Especially ones that are tailored specifically to that subclass. For instance, A Celestial invocation that improves healing abilities (Because after all, what other warlock subclass is going to be healing allies?, as long as those invocations couldn't be used effectively in another sub class anyway I think it's a neat idea.
Definitely spells give flavor to my lock and druid, it's something I love very in 5e
Do hope the Ultimate Pact Weapon from the first Warlock UA made it... being able to improve the pact weapon to +3 would be nice
Diyaru4500 I would like that as well, however I doubt it made it. Especially with how much they beefed up improved pact weapon.
The main issue with themI guess was that they kind of took away the point of bonding with magic weapons. Why would you ever bond with that +3 longsword when you have a +3 any weapon on hand?
Have you Thought about doing Additional
Fighting Style
Martial Adept manoeuvres
Metamagic Options
Something Similar to metamagic options but with the monk and ki points
and maybe do feats with some of these stuff ?
They've played around with adding more fighting styles in. A lot of random early UA articles have extra fighting styles (The Underdark one and the one with the Krynn Minotaur in it specifically). I think it's only a matter of time before they're able to meaningfully expand upon all those micro-options, they just needed to pick and choose carefully because this book was put together relatively quickly - we'd known it was coming out for about a year and a half but they only started ideating on it around the beginning of this year when they sped up the rate at which they relase Unearthed Arcana articles.
I liked most of the options that they introduced in UA
I was asking Cannon or legal wise
Meta magics are already stupidly powerful.
Eldritch Smite?! Thank god! * _ *
I still choose to still use moon bow because I was doing Arcane Archer . With the close quarters shooter. I really wise you would have. Put them in the book . And would like to see More pact if the chain invocations to make it worth playing other then just having a pet that cost a 25 gold to get or change.
Oh!!! So now we can have a sword and board bladelock.
I'm happy that with Hexblade and these new invocations the Bladelock is finally getting stronger.
My only disappointment about this is that a bladelock as a result is kind of forced into taking three invocations, which limits the customisation. There's little reason not to take the double attack, improved weapon, and the smite invocations, which means that unless you space those out, you aren't really going to have the chance to get creative with your invocations until 7th level, which is kind of a shame. Edit: Oh, I forgot about Lifedrinker, so that's 4 invocations, so customisation at 7 and 9th, but then you lose a slot again at 12th
Though I guess you couldn't have fused smite into the double attack, or the improved weapon, since then that invocation would be absolutely mandatory, so I guess this is probably the least sucky solution.
One thing I'm not clear on. If you use the improved pact weapon to summon a bow, does it summon arrows as well? If not then you failed to address a major concern if somebody wants to summon something other than a melee weapon.
i really wish they made more pact boons. a blade a book or a familiar. it feels really limited and i know many of my warlocks never seem to fit with one particularly. (unless you want to get to home brew but everything is dodgy with home brew)
if i'm wrong and there is more than three offical that i missed please tell me would love to check them out
I hope the add something more to the Tomelock's no sleep invocation, its basically ribbon ability.
New stuff but mostly a patch. I support and appreciate that. 🤜*🤛
this looks amazing !
Warlock's book of shadows should be more explored like having some alien, fiend, or some patron specifics spells.
And the expande list of magic should be part of the magic the warlock can cast, not an option to choose
Awesome warlock changes
Will there be new Invocations specific to the Celestial and Hexblade Warlocks?
The problem with Warlock remains too much invocation taxing especially for Melee Locks
ok we get the improved pact weapon invocation that allows the use of a bow but does that mean it will also summon arrows to go with it or do you have to buy arrows and if you buy arrows do they gain the magical property that a pact sword gives you or do you lose that ability because you choose a ranged weapon?
It all sounds good in video until you realize that you need to dedicate nearly all of your invocations to Blade specific skills to make a functional Bladelocke.
Eldritch Blast is still going to be better from a mechanics standpoint and you have way more options for customizability and flavor.
Kivan Assuming the list is basically the same as the UA, that's 4 of your 8 invocations specifically for bladepact (lifedrinker, thirsting blade, improved pact weapon, eldrich Smite). With these 4 you have a bladepact that does damage comparable to eldrich blast+agonizing blast at most levels (assuming you have optimised stats for both). On top of that you have spike damage via eldrich smite.
Its definitely more investment than a blastlock. But that's sadly the sacrifice that all gish- builds must make in 5e. And it's definitely not "almost all" of your invocations.
Comparable damage at most levels? You don't even get Lifedrinker till 12th level and you don't get Thirsting Blade and Eldritch Smite until 5th level so that's already false and then you know there's math.
Assuming 12th level, maximized damage stats (which is actually a bit unrealistic for a Bladelock that isn't a Hexblade), and that the Inovcations are similar to the UA material.
Bladelock with Greatsword 2d6 + 6 (STR and Improved Pact Weapon) + 5 (Life Drinker) x2 (Thirsting Blade) +6d8 (Eldritch Smite) = Average of 63
Eldritch Blast 3d10 + 10d6 (Kiss of Mephistopheles) + 15 (Agonizing Blast) = Average of 66.5
If your GM is really nice, then you could take melee cantrips from SCAG (although this breaks the PHB +1 rule so wouldn't be AL legal) and then your Bladelock could do more damage than an Eldritch Blast nuker and of course Kiss of Mephistopheles isn't going to be useable in close quarters situations but you get the tradeoff of being able to use it from hundreds of feet away.
66.5 vs. 63 is negligible at best and at worst a bump in the road for the fun of having a cursed sword. D&D is about fun, after all,
Also, Eldritch smite knocks dudes prone which opens them up for a juicy great weapon master if using a great sword
Kivan
The melee cantrips would lock you out from your second attack, so it's not just free damage.
Kivan apparently kiss of mephistopheles didn't make it into the book, as I predicted. So that big spike damage via EB+KoM is a no-go.
Does devils sight work on Hunger of hadar is the real question cause I've always thought of it being a but unbalanced that you can use hunger of hadar then on your next turn ready a eldritch blast with the knockback ability for when someone attempts to leave the area and then knock them back into it
I've wondered what the origins of the term "chain" are in the PHB? Obviously it refers to the link with the familiar, but does it come from an earlier edition? Its a nice creepy term for the Warlock.
Richard Hayward I always just thought of it as less of a bond with your familiar and more like its chained to you, forced to help you either by you or your patron. Less intimate, more subjugated
Cool ... even more creepy!
I disagree. The Compendium of Forgotten Secrets (a homebrew set of Patrons) had a few specific invocations for each patron in it, and those were pretty cool. Regardless, a DM can overrule it anyway if a player thinks it would make sense
warlock hype!
i need the hexblade warlock and glamour bards now
wonderful :)
I'm just glad the pact of the seven star chain didn't make it
so in the packt of the blade you get get a bow but not a grate sword?
Andrew Robertson You've always been able to get a greatsword. All melee weapons have been available as pact weapons.
sorry i meant the hexblade my bad
The bow no longer grants the abilities it gave you in the UA when it was specific to the Archfey patron, and a few of the Cursebringer features were added to the Hexblade subclass by default.
Andrew Robertson not quite.
Pact of the blade could always have a greatsword. It just couldn't have ranged weapons without bonding with a magic ranged weapon. Now you will be able create one as your pact weapon.
I assume you're referring to hexblade, in which case both are still off the table as far as we know. Hexblade is specifically restricted to any melee weapon without the 2handed property. So you will be able to use both weapons as pact weapons, but neither will benefit from the hexblade feature of substituting cha for str/dex.
Unless of course that feature has changed from the UA, though I doubt it changed.
kankunation13 aye i meant the hexblade and i thought that the curse bringer invocation allowed you to use them with the hexblade, but its not the end of the world i'll just go duel wield instead :D
why does the celestial warlock not have any special invocations?
Man i cant wait for the cast of Critical Role to get their hands on these new toys !! Great job!
Has it been confirmed that all the 10d8 patron/weapon specific smites have been replaced by the generic 5d8 smite?
Yes. The pact specific weapons were removed and replaced with eldrich smite (which still carries the 2nd ability of mace of dispater, the knocking prone).
Actually the Eldritch Smite deals 1d8 + 1d8 per level of spell slot, so it's 6d8 max.
Ah damn, I thought it was higher damage than paladin smites due to warlocks having less spell slots. The wording in the UA is confusing too, "1d8 damage, plus 1d8 per spell level".
10d8 per spell slot was considered slightly too powerful, especially since they still regain spell slots after a short rest, unlike a Paladin.
The wording is indeed confusing. They could have just copied the wording from Divine Smite, except change damage type and remove the bit about max. 5d8.
So they detached the patrons only to tie them to pacts. Really wish they hadn't done that personally. The max healing one was brillant with a blade pact, the no sleeping one is just useful across the board, why tie them down.....
A lot of them were tied to both patrons AND pacts, which was too restricting. Most of those were changed to just being pact restricted.
Most of the other ones that were revised into the 2nd UA had all restrictions removed. The ones you mentioned were more the exception than the rule, as they were the only 2 that went from patron specific to pact specific.
Gotta love this :P
New at-will spells~? (Also, third)!
Shaprax The Fiery There was only one new at-will in the UA (at-will invisibility at lvl 15). No idea if there will be more in the official release.
are we only getting one new wizard archetype?
Yes
We're getting War Wizard, definitely. But will we get Theurgist? Because for a person who really liked the concept, it's an important question.
When is the mastermind rogue video coming out?
Destate never its just a reprint from Scag
There is a fairly indepth discussion about it in the Inquisitive video if you want to give that a watch.
Please tell me Curse Bringer still works
L. Oen cursebrringer was removed. However some parts from curse bringer were incorporated into the hexblade patron itself (most definitely the curse transfer part).
kankunation13 that's sad but understandable. I was just hoping I could do +2d8 damage per spell slot level when I hit things again. The 0 movement upon hit is fairly strong too as a bladelock do you know if that transferred as well?
L. Oen no idea. I just remembers that Mearls mentioned on Twitter that parts were incorportated, though he didn't describe which parts. I just assume it's the transfer curse.
If I had to guess, it probably didn't. The others "smite" options were removed as well, and in their place they created "eldrich smite", which can be used with any pact weapon . it's 1d8 force + 1d8 per warlock spell level, and knocks large or smaller targets prone (so mace of Dispater's ability). I would assume eldrich smite replaces all the other smites, but I could be wrong.
L. Oen after watching a sneak peak video, the curse transfer did not make it.
However hexblade now works a bit differently. The 2-handed weapon restriction remains, and you can only use CHA with one weapon per long rest (flavored as channeling your will through it).
HOWEVER, if you also take pact of the blade, all of your pact weapons summoned receive the hex warrior benefits, regardless of the weapon summoned. Meaning if you go hexblade bladelock, you can summon a greatsword and attack/damage using CHA alone.
Combine that with improved pact weapon, and you can then also summon bows with CHA.
when is the book out in stores?
Nov 21st
LGS are getting them the 10th, I think
is that internationally?
They’ll be in store inventory around the 10th and allowed to be sold on the 12th, if you just wanna get it preorder off of amazon
Sad to see the Curse Bringer as well as the other pack weapons not making it in, I really liked the flavor of a specific weapon for your patron. They also had some really awesome perks to them, the smite just seemed meh to me, not unique in any way. :/
GrandpaTofu I think they took out the patron specific weapons because it limited the creative ability of the player. They wanted to put the flavor in control of the player and not limit you to one specific weapon.
I remember reading somewhere that parts of curse bringer is going into hexblade's curse itself. Maybe the part where if you kill something you can move the hex as a bonus action?
hoooomebrew
Eldritch Smite is basically Mace of Dispater with the damaged turned down. And can be whatever weapon you summon. You still get the auto prone. You are limited to Warlock slots, but that keeps the cheese factor down.
there probably their, just not patron specific.
I'm still a bit pissed that they made more invocation options for eldritch Blast I feel they need to make a few invocations for the other Cantrips like 99.9% people are going to pick eldritch Blast rather then like chill Touch or toll the dead who agrees with me?
I was completely uninterested in Warlock until I saw the new invocations. I love them but I did like Patron exclusive invocations.
any healing invocations? I love playing a celestial warlock and i miss having some invocations that fit the theme
Of course these arrive right after my warlock is killed ;-; guess it’s a good excuse to join another campaign tho, eh?
It would be nice to have eldritch invocation fighting styles...just saying folks don't come rolling initiatives here. XD
...thanks?
As interesting as that is in theory, I would have a hard time justifying taking yet another invocation to maximize bladelock.
If it were included as part of another invocations I might agree (though idk which one that would be. Improved pact weapon is already a pretty heavy loaded invocation).
Pact weapon support!!!!!
Ummm....so it’s pretty much everything from unearthed arcana printed?
liltwistofcaine a bit more refined of course, but it seems that most of them from the revised class options UA are what made it through and relatively unchanged.
Can see through walls.... why. That's just a flat no as a dm to letting players use that
The tax is still too high
Warlocks are more than that connection with their patron.. what is a warlock then??
Please, add subs to your videos!
why do WOTC love warlocks so very much?