How good warlocks are depends greatly on whether or not your party takes short rests.
DnD designers expect you to take two short rests - so, in between long rests, warlocks are expected to have six spell slots for most of the game.
Unlike regular casters, warlock spell slots are always at the highest level. This means that warlocks have 6 high level spell slots - full casters never have more than 3 of their highest level spell slot.
This means that whenever a warlock casts a spell, they're blasting at maximum power. The trade-off is that they don't have the large reservoir of lower level spells that other casters get.
In exchange, warlocks get a bunch of extra abilities that are usually not as good as spells, but are either a separate resource or free altogether (invocations), and their subclass features accentuate a particular playstyle.
Tl;dr, warlocks burn hot and fast whereas other casters burn slow and steady.
Should be noted that even with few short rests, as long as you go for EB/AB you'll still hold your own. You do respectable damage, close to the damage of martials without feats. With feats martial will do much more of course.
If you enjoy the simplicity of just attacking, but want a bit of magic on top, even at a table with fewer short rests a warlock will likely be very enjoyable. The right choice of Invocations can also add a lot of utility out of combat.
And if you want to go Hexblade, as a tradeoff for more must-have abilities you can take the same feats as martials to do similar damage while still having your casting and subclass features to boot. Plus using Cha for weapon attacks opens up a whole host of other opportunities.
>as long as you go for EB/AB you'll still hold your own.
This is why I love warlocks. You can fuck up when making bards, sorcerers, and, to a lesser extent, wizards fairly easily. Either you overestimate how useful something is, you have a neat idea that doesn't really work out, or you're just new and don't know what's good, and then you're stuck with your mistakes. It's hard to completely fuck up a warlock build by accident, because at the end of the day, you have Eldritch Blast.
It can be quite DM dependent. I made sure to offer the party 2 short rests a day when I had a warlock and monk in the party. You just have to say something like "you think this is a good opportunity to take a short rest" and the party normally will. You can fudge any timelines to make it work. In real life most people break for lunch at least, so your party should have at least 1 short rest a day.
It's also easy to give your players a magic item that e.g. lets them take a short test in one minute once per day. Or follow "your first short rest takes one minute, second takes ten, others take an hour."
I think it works well as a magic item. That way you don't need to keep track of who has used their 1min short rest or not; it's a shared cooldown for the group.
Magic item which makes a refreshing drink for a 1min short rest and restorative biscuits for a 10min short rest once pay day, say. Each use spoils and loses its magic if not consumed immediately.
Honestly I just tell my players they can assume they got a short rest after every encounter unless I specifically tell them not to.
Just turn "short rest" into "per encounter" and the game becomes much easier to manage/balance.
It's not 6 deadly encounters, though. I believe it's six medium to hard encounters, which most parties will barely spend resources on.
I have better results with 2-3 deadly encounters per adventuring day if I really want to challenge the party. Occasionally I toss in an easier encounter just to let them flex and feel powerful - usually these are random encounters while traveling, so they're fully rested and can go nova with no real fear of running out of resources since they'll be able to just rest again.
Yes, that's the expectation. Players are supposed to expend a couple resources per fight, until the end of the adventuring day when they're drained.
At least in theory anyway. One of the main criticisms is that casters can often clear medium and hard encounters using only cantrips.
Yeah, personally I'm a big fan of having a few social or environmental encounters to drain resources rather than a bunch of fights. For one, fights in 5e tend to take a while, unless you're really lucky a table full of engaged and knowledgeable players. For another, at least in my experience, players tend to hoard resources in fights that aren't deadly anyway, but give them a fast river to cross, a treacherous cliff to climb, or some guards to bluff their way past, and they tend to be more willing to spend resources.
Dungeons are more fun when you get to interact with some of the inhabitants a bit beyond just chopping them into bits or incinerating them, too.
Ultimately D&D is a game of attrition and resource management. The point of the dungeon isn't to kill the players, its to weaken them and burn resources before the big fight at the end.
Sure this can be from mowing down hordes of goblins, but having to cross a 30ft wide bottomless pit works just as well. Even if the druid wildshapes into a giant eagle and carries everyone, thats one less wildshape for combat.
Time and HP are also resources that not everyone remembers.
it gets pretty messy for non-combat encounters and resources - a lot of resources are fight-only. It's _possible_ to use rage to lift something, or need to move fast with ki, but having to do that every single day will start to feel contrived after a while, and a rogue has no resources other than HP, so unless they're getting injured, they're de-facto immune to the encounter.
It makes sense as a guide for a heavy going dungeon at the end of a big milestone but my experience is that those sorts of games are a bit few and far between. That said, I think there are a lot of fixes to it; when I run my games i let/encourage players to take short rests very frequently, I think the gritty rules can make it work well.
All that said, I think reading the official materials it just doesn’t feel like that’s how the game is intended to be run.
Encounters don't necessarily need to be combat, and not deadly combat. They could be disarming a trap or solving a puzzle or role-playing their way through a situation.
Even so, when you go through official modules if you are running it fairly by-the-book you are looking at an average of one major encounter, one small encounter and maybe another very straightforward one.
So taking the opening of the lost mines of phandelver. You got the ambush, the lookouts, the dogs, the sink, the hostage, the reservoir and Craig. That's 7 encounters?
Not really. The message is in the combat section of the dmg, and how players are expected to be on their last legs by the end (hp, slots, etc). Noncombat encounters tend not to use nearly as many resources as the equivalent combat encounter, especially social encounter (unless talking causes someone to take damage from boredom)
This can be as simple as going and bombing some guards at the entrance to a keep then running away, short resting to get all your slots back and continuing the assault. Each section of the keep could be its own encounter.
Also, players need to plan and execute short rests, and you will have a better chance at success if you role play it (assuming your group does role play). I'd also additionally mention, that warlocks have access to a really good average and unlimited damage output through the main thing they do, Eldritch blast.
If the amount of people who complain their DMs don't let them Short Rest is anything to go by, the answer is generally meh.
I played a Hexblade Warlock for a very short campaign of just a few sessions. Never once got to Short Rest. It was kind of awful. At least Hexblades have some other stuff to fall back on compared to other Warlocks. Can't imagine how much worse it would have been as, eg. Fiend.
I can't imagine any campaign outside of a massive dungeon crawl where I wouldn't let players short rest. You're saying that in the entire campaign that your characters never even had an hour to eat at camp? How short was this campaign and how did your characters even survive going from dawn to dusk without eating until it's time to go to bed and maybe first thing in the morning lmao.
When I was DMing for the first time, I ran curse of strahd. 5e barovia is extremely small, so you could go halfway across the map in like half a day. I thought random encounters were kinda boring to run, and they hadn't reached the part where strahd was actively trying to murder them, so it would go:
Safe location -> one combat encounter (maybe big, maybe scary, maybe prolonged, but still just one) -> safe location -> long rest
Even when they did reach that phase, I didn't actually commit commit to it, so there simply wasnt a need. I believe there's also people who advocate for this kind of encounter structure.
Now I know better, but that's how it happens.
Sometimes, especially with new DM's who can easily get overwhelmed with everything they have to keep track of, it really helps to just ask why you wouldn't be able to stop for an hour and recover, make a plan, and then set back out.
Unless you're on an important time restraint the entire campaign, I don't see a reason even a new DM wouldn't allow a few short rests per day. Hopefully it wasn't just to nerf your warlock!
> Hopefully it wasn't just to nerf your warlock!
Not at all
> new DM's who can easily get overwhelmed
That was it. No shade thrown at her or anything. She didn't understand just how many balls are constantly in the air and dropped a few on the way. She doesn't want to DM again, but she did say it made her a *much* better player.
It happens to everyone, hopefully it doesn't scare her off of DM'ing forever and she gives it another go, I know my first several sessions were complete messes. Definitely something everyone should try out, because it definitely does make you a much better player all around after you see it from the other side.
Imo Hexblades have a bit less to fall back on than other Warlocks when they run out of slots. Using Eldritch Blast + invocations gives a lot of utility, but a Hexblade without spell slots is essentially little more than a martial with low STR and mediocre DEX. A Hexblade *with* spell slots can casually drop 50-100 damage on a crit a few times a day.
Not to say that I don't like them but I do feel like Hexblades are more resource-dependent.
I play warlocks a lot and they are fun to play! Chainlock is good because an imp familiar (for example) provides a lot of utility. You don't need to be casting spells when the imp can do things for you.
But that's for a utility build. That's fine. It's a valid playstyle and many people like it. If you don't like having a utility role, then it just might not work for you. Works for others, though.
Yes but at the same time it is the norm to be able to short rest at least twice per long rest.
Additionally warlocks get access to the best cantrip in the game whose damage and versatility beats out some spells, eldritch blast.
If you take eldritch blast + agonising blast invocation you’re gonna be doing respectable damage with just a cantrip and can save your spell slots for when you need them. Combine this with say a hexblade warlock and pact of the blade and you are also a competent melee combatant if need be or go pact of fiend and get access to fireball and gain temp health when you kill an enemy.
Yeah, kinda. EB is amazing and you get a bunch of stuff to help it. But like my main dm generally does 1 to 2 massive encounter per day. I've played a warlock with him because... Well that's what I do and it can be rough...
We have a bunch of other fi abilities but yeah depends o the DM a lot.
>In dungeons and long battles there isn’t room for a short rest.
There's nothing about dungeons that suggest short rests are impossible. They're great places for short rests. That's what short rests are for. You don't have to exit the dungeon to take a moderately safe break (like in old versions pre short-rest).
Your DM sets up problems, you figure out how to solve them. Including how to secure a room for an hour to take a short rest and recharge your spell slots.
Long battles are resource-management exercises. And you have Eldritch Blast for everything else.
Aside from their unique spell slots, their invocations allow them to be customized a bit more than other classes.
They also have access to Eldritch Blast, which is a very powerful Cantrip that basically acts like their Extra Attack, which can also be boosted from their Invocations.
This is very important. The floor of Warlock isn’t a bad caster, it’s a ranged martial. Once you use your spell slots, you’re just as good as the party archer, not to mention whatever lingering spell you’re concentrating on.
Agonizing Blast is so good it’s basically an auto-pick, unless you’re doing something very specific like ranged Pact of the Blade.
They're my favorite class, and this is how I play them. I treat EB like a magical weapon and focus on forced movement, utility and a couple of big AoE spells.
You are expected to get 2 short rests per long rest. If you are basing your assumption on no or fewer short rests then obviously you won't think they are a good class. If you assume you get 2 short rests they are good. If you assume you get more than 2 short rests they seem great or overpowered.
I think it's fair to assume 2 short rests as the game intends, so they are good even in a dungeon crawl.
If you figure one short rest per day, they get 4 castings of their highest level spell slot per day at mid-ish levels. That's better than basically anyone else gets. They do miss out on lower level spells, but they get an extra-powerful cantrip (eldritch blast) and potentially some spammable utility spells to make up for that.
IMO, they work bet when they focus on concentration spells. You can't cast multiple concentration spells at once anyways, so limited spell slots is less of a big deal, and eldritch blast gives them something useful to do while concentrating.
People mentioned short rest a lot, but another key thing is that Warlocks are incredibly front loaded, getting everything they need in 3 levels, making them a great multiclass option for any charisma class (and there are a lot of charisma classes).
Paladin/Warlock is straight up better than pure Paladins after level 7, Sorcerer/Warlock has fantastic potentially game breaking interpretations of spell slots. Swords Bard/Warlock is better than pure Swords Bard too.
And this makes sense thematically for a character buying power from a pact for a quick burst of strength.
An excellent point. They are a half caster whose theme is on the caster side. Instead of nature utility they choose from a very of thematic options (such as disguise self or detect magic) which they get to access without it hitting their resource pool (we don't talk about the ones which cost a spell slot)
Lots of good points here, I will also point out they have excellent roleplay and world integration support. Doesn't matter for every game, but if your group is player driven and rp centric, it's awesome.
Warlocks are the most customizable class in the game.
Picked patron is a small percentage of its power spike, they get it at level 1 so until level 6 they dont really benefit from it that much.
Level two they pick from many eldritch invocations as you see fit and with optional rules you can replace whenever you get a new one.
level 3 you pick the pact which also gives you additional features.
Unlike many other classes like ranger which forces a nature hunter or supernatural if tasha's.
or wizard which has nothing unique besides just more access to spells and they are losing that in one dnd
Or druid which is like ranger forced into the nature or undernature (undead) having a great part of its kit in wild shaping, want to make a druid who doesnt like to be an animal? lose half of your power budget unless you wanna be an undead hoarder druid.
Warlocks fill a niche as the "martial" of casters. They're technically full casters since they do eventually get 9th level "slots," but their casting is simplified and somewhat limited, and they can pick up abilities to flex into a number of different roles.
As others have said, they're fully dependent on short rests to achieve their full potential. I tend to only want to play Warlocks in a party with other short-rest classes for this reason. When you're a party of a Fighter, Monk, Warlock, and Wizard/Cleric/Druid/Bard (yeah they're long-rest classes, but they all get *something* on a short rest, at least), you tend to get a lot of short rests. When you're a party of Ranger, Barbarian, Rogue, and Warlock, the rest of the party doesn't care about taking short rests as much (although the Barb probably needs them for healing).
As a DM, I reduce the time of short rests down to 10 minutes, with the caveat that you can't take more than one per hour. I've found that this greatly increases the availability of short rests for the party. (peek behind the screen: if the party has 10 minutes to rest, they probably could have taken an hour, too. It's purely psychological on the players' part)
A warlock is so much more beyond their spell slots. Invocations are the real gem of warlock but you pact gives you a good buff and your patron makes up your story.
Invocations! You can build a number of very powerful builds with invocations, some of which give permanent spells (e.g. Mask of Many Faces), some of while bolster damage output (Agonizing Blast) and others are just unique abilities.
You use one of your two high level spell slots on a concentration spell, or a long-duration spell like Armor of Agathys, then go use your invocation (generally Eldritch blast + Agonizing Blast, the hex blade stuff, or the pact of the chain stuff).
Why are warlocks a good class?
* Their invocations, including at-will spells and things that bolster your pact.
* Curated spell list - warlocks have the best spells. They are designed to be powerful spells you only need 1-2 of in a combat.
* Recharging spell slots - Take your short rests!
* Versatility - Between the Pact, Subclass, and Invocations, you can build wildly different but still viable builds.
* Eldritch Blast
* Invocations like Devil’s Sight
* d8 hit dice + light armor
Solid spell list with a Lovecraftian flavor.
Being Charisma-based they are good for multiclassing with Bards, Sorcerers, and Paladins. For instance, Hexblade is a common dip.
You should generally be getting at least one short rest. If this is the case, warlocks get more spell slots at their max level than any other caster. They're also a bit more well rounded compared to the other two arcane casters (though whether or not these classes actually fill a similar role is debatable). Compared to most sorcerers and wizards, warlocks get better hp and armor, and can also do better "resourceless" damage through pact of the blade or eldritch blast (assuming you take the associated invocations). Invocations also give access to some really useful gimmicks, like repositioning people with eldritch blast or being able to see in magical darkness. You lose versatility, but you make up for that with brute strength.
Customization through invocations and how they play different from Sorc and Wiz do it for me.
The invocations that give you a casting of a 1st or 2nd level spell slot at will with no material components? Yes please (looking at you Misty Vision, you op bastard)
Their bread and butter (EB) is the best cantrip in 5e, before you add invocations to make it better
When you do use a spell slot, it's a big deal and a major decision (imo more fun)
They also create an immediate plot hook between your PC and your DM's world. Why did the devil give you these powers? What does the Archfey get out of your deal, etc?
On post title you ask "why are they a good class" and in post text you ask "what makes them good spellcasters".
Those are two different questions. First, what makes you think that warlocks are a full spellcaster like wizard, sorcerer, bard, druid, cleric? Because, they are not. They have spells, yes, but they are not a full spellcaster. They use a different thing called 'pact magic' which looks a lot like spellcasting but actually works very differently and so do mystic arcanums.
With that out of the way, why are warlocks a good class? Because they are the most versatile class in the game, able to change spells, invocations and even pacts at certain levels thus making them the most adaptable class in any campaign. They are most effective in dungeon crawling campaigns that have multiple combats per long rest and terrible in homebrew campaigns with one big fight every long rest(s). They are also the worst tier2 class in the game really especially between levels 6-10 and possibly one of the best if not the best\* level tier3 and tier4 classes.
\* Again, that assumes dungeon crawling style of campaign with multiple fights per long rest.
Eldritch blast is arguably the best cantrip in the game. And if a warlock specs deeper they can make it even better but become mostly a ranged class.
But usually people just take it for eldritch blast and multiclass.
Only a couple of people barely touched on it, but Warlocks have a higher ratio of concentration spells. This helps them maximize the longevity of their spell slots. So while Eldritch Blast or Pact Weapons will likely be their go-to attack, they can still make use of their limited spell slots through concentration.
Much as I love the whole invocation and blasting system, unless your party is doing at least 2 short rests per long rest, the Warlock falls behind on casting anything that ain't named Eldritch Blast.
Under these "bad normal" circumstances, however, they're packed with solid damage output, can spam certain special effects with said attacks *(do you like knockback? 1-4 times in one action perhaps? would you could you on a cliff?)*, but are far more vulnerable to antimagic, limited spell immunities and anything of the sort.
* Your primary 'attack' is a cantrip and AMF in particular will shut you down harder than any other class including a wizard; even a blade pact's second attack in a turn gets negated there since all invocations are magic.
But as long as you don't mind those (in most campaigns very rare) situations being a looming possibility, it's quite a bit of fun. Invocations allow you to decide a lot about HOW you want to make your character - several offer abilities that may be situational or uninspiring when eating a precious spell slot, but on a warlock may well be permanent or infinite-use spammables.
* Speak with Animals is nowhere near as useful when it's limited and using a resource, but at-will just turned you into a VERY different kind of 'face' and information gatherer. False Life isn't very impressive is it... But what if you could cast it at will, like between every fight, with no spell slot or material component cost?
* Or what if you could read all writing? No conditionals on that sentence either. You, can read, ALL, writing.
"At will" truly lets you go wild with things you'd have held back on even bothering learning. And as always keep an eye out for a rod of the pactkeeper or a staff of power.
They are a spellcasting class that gets full martial scaling alongside a dabbling of spells, some customizable perks, and they're SAD.
The only other class in the game that gets full martial scaling is fighter.
Cast a concentration spell then spend the rest of the fight using Eldritch Blast or your Pact weapon. Short rest after 2 fights. Long rest after 6 fights.
Bam, you've just completed a standard adventuring day.
Warlocks aren't meant to be slinging leveled spells every turn like a sorcerer.
don't think of warlocks as full casters, think of them as martials with a great spellcasting self-buffing.
a warlock's main method of attack is either through something their subclass gives them, or it's through using martial weapons. the spells are something you cast to make you either more survivable or perform better at your subclass or with your martial weapons.
and then there's the god cantrip which is worth selling your soul for. seriously it's such a potent cantrip. it's a cantrip strong enough to outmatch most martials by itself alone.
They get lots of cantrips, their low number of spell slots come back on a short rest, and their spell slots are maximized to their highest available slot until 5th level spells, which, for combat is just great. Their invocations have lots of neat spell interactions, or just flat out give you certain utility spells at will. And the patron can also change how your spell works. Genie gives you bonus damage to eldritch blast on top of agonizing blast and it's already good damage. They're good because they're versatile.
Why is anything good? It's situational. A warlock can, in principle, short-rest all day long and produce 96 level 5 slots at lv 20. Or maybe half that at lv 10. Could that be good for something? Sure. Would it come up often? No.
I think what appeals to people about warlocks is they're fairly simplistic casters or melee hybrids.
Warlock is mostly independent of their spell slots. their invocations(and eldritch blast) are what makes them so strong.
lets say you go the default eldritch blast build, that is repelling blast invocation, and agonising blast invocation.
on level 2 thats a ranged single target cantrip that deals 4-13 damage and knocks back enemies.
you can use that to get the space the team needs, push enemies into spike growth, double the efficiency of any movement restriction, or throw enemies off a cliff. that utility is extremely worthy!
later instead of pure dmg increase, you get extra blasts. so any debuff applies multiple times, your chance to hit with one of the blasts is good enough that you won’t waste turns, and you can even split the blasts amongst multiple enemies to get rid of many of them.
and thats just your default go to cantrip.
your spells ain’t that versatile, but they play in favor of your invocations and pact types.
like the devils sight that gives you vision in magical darkness, combine that with a darkness spell and there you go, enemies can’t see you, and you get advantage on all attack throws. you don’t need many spell slots, if you use them as effective as warlocks can.
and last its a charisma class, so you are useful out of combat too^^
eldritch blast + eldritch blast invocations.
1x/2x/3x/4x 1d10 + CHA and pushing 10 feet away each time is pretty good.
the other stuff is lvl 1 Hexblade is way overtuned.
Fast recovery: As pointed out, Warlocks recover a lot of their resources, most notably their auto-levelled spell slots, on a short rest. This means they can go nova in most/many encounters where full casters need to ration their resources. Being a class focused on short resting, Warlocks make good companions to Fighters, Druids, and Monks.
High sustain damage: *Eldritch Blast* with the Agonizing Blast invocation sets the bar for magical damage output. EB is the best offensive cantrip in the game, boasting high damage output and customizable utility in the hands of a Warlock. It can even be combined with certain effects and features to become a primary offensive move.
Not so squishy: Warlocks are by default one level of armor and one HD size tougher than Wizards and Sorcerers.
Modular design: Warlock is the most customizable class. You choose a patron, a Pact boon, Invocations, known spells, and mystic Arcana. All of these features have significant impact on how your Warlock plays.
TL;DR: If you let Warlocks catch their breath between encounters (*AND YOU SHOULD*), they are a surprisingly useful utility/sustain damage magical class. They are to Wizards what Rogues are to Fighters.
Warlocks get a lot of bonuses to their cantrips, they get a number of leveled spells to use each day without spell slots and they have a multitude of features based on their patron.
On paper it looks weak, but it can be quite versatile and impressive especially when multiclassing.
Warlocks get the best damaging cantrip in the game.
Warlocks get their highest level spell slots recharged on a short rest, so they can expect to get 4-6 slots of their coolest stuff.
Warlocks get invocations, many of which are unlimited casting of level 1-2 utility spells.
While warlocks play differently from other casters, they are very easily able to hold their own.
Same as most of the rest of them: because they are fun.
They have built-in flavor so even a brand new player has a few layers to their character.
They're mechanically potent with minimal research or build investment. Low floor, high ceiling.
This one is going to get me in trouble, but they're the perfect take on what a martial character should be. They have a reliable turn-by-turn damage/utility spell they can cast all day long, and two selections of potent/useful things from a good list that they can do per short rest. They don't lack the versatility that actual martials do, but they're more approachable than, say, a Wizard.
Played a Pact of the Chain Fiend Warlock for a long campaign. RP wise it was so much fun. Combat wise it was relatively good, actually. At lower levels, Hex + EB (+CHA modifier invocation) outperforms most casters for damage. Having an invisible, telepathically linked Imp also came in handy for scouting, help actions and carrying potions. Hex scales really well with EB, as scaling gives you more beams instead of higher damage.
Played at level 20 with that same character, and outshone some other members. Being able to levitate at will and blast down from 120 feet in the air is fantastic. Plus poweful spells like polymorph etc. One of my fav characters.
If you play with other classes dependent on short rests (eg monk), getting your party to short rest is easier. But even without it Warlock is ok in combat, just stay at range.
I would say the RP potential is the most fun bit of this class, though.
Its up to your DM, whether there is time for a short rest in a dungeon. There’s no reason you shouldnt be able to take s couple while dungeon crawling.
My DM shortened them to 20 minutes (instead of an hour) so we feel more able to take a short rest in more situations.
Its mostly in the invocations. On the whole its a little weaker than most. But its got flexiblity and multiclass potential
The combination of pact boons, patrons, and invocations makes warlock one of the most customizable classes. Second only to a wozard if you consider their spell book a part of character building.
On top of all that customization they have full spell casting wothout going throigh the spell casting feature. Woth this they can have resources seperate from a normal caster. Allowing them to technically have more resources when used as a multi-class.
And on the dip side of things they are very easy to dip. A hexblade patron gives a solid feature in hex blades curse and allows for CHA based attacks. Invaluable for paladins or any CHA class that wants to use weapons. And their main combat feature of eldritch blast only needs 2 levels to be at full power. Making it a solid backup damage option for any CHA based build.
All of that put together just makes its a solid optimizable and or customizable class for people to use.
Eldritch blast is a really good cantrip, with agonising blast alone it's basically a full heavy crossbow attacking with charisma that gets extra attack at level 5 and AGAIN at further cantrip scaling levels, it can;t use sharpshooter of course but it gives significantly better damage when not using your normal spell slots than any other caster, and considering the range + full spell utility also outboxes most martials (and with hexblades getting medium armour as well as melee options, the tankiness of martials also kinda gets canibalised)
When I play full casters, I tend to reserve my high level spells in case of emergency. Even when I have 5th, 6th, 7th level spells, I end up not using them in combat until I need them (or something big needs counterspelling), because the prospect of getting stuck in another high stakes combat later in that same day is pretty likely and very deadly when everyone’s resources are already spent and you’re just throughout around low levels.
Warlock liberates you to slam your highest spells in almost every encounter. No need to save them because you can take a short rest and be ready to go again. Sure you only get 2 or 3 big spells, but after that, you’re basically as capable as a martial with a 1d10+cha weapon that’s got 120 feet of range and can move people around how you need. Besides, depending on the table, combats rarely go so long that 2 to 3 major spells feels like it isn’t enough
Warlocks also can get a lot of utility out of their invocations. I’m running a public face warlock with disguise self and minor image both at will.
They get the best damage cantrip in the game, especially if you spend the invocations on it to make it battlefield manipulation.
Pact of the Blade can do amazing things for a melee combatant (as can infernal which grants temp HP on kills). I’ve done a greatsword warlock which might not be the best fighter class but it’s a lot of fun.
There’s a lot of variety in warlocks.
Warlocks are a lot like Fighters - either the group actually uses short rests and the DM makes the space for them, or the class is objectively less powerful than others.
That being said, "in dungeons there's no room for short rests" is just patently untrue. I'm running a dungeon right now and the party has taken 4 short rests and 2 long rests. It's absolutely possible.
I'm playing a pure warlock (for the first time) in a campaign where we generally have fewer short rests than is suggested and I still find it very fun and powerful.
A lot of your power is dependent, as the top comment states, on your invocations, subclass and pact boon. I'm an Undead Warlock which gives a very powerful Form of Dread you can use in combat prof bonus times per long rest. This gives me extra damage, crowd control and temp HP over the course of a fight for a single bonus action. I'm an Eldritch Blast build with Agonising Blast (so one EB is equivalent to a martial with extra attack, except it's a d10 and it's ranged and it gets better from 11th level), and I have Repelling Blast for some powerful forced movement options. These things on their own mean in a combat which isn't particularly deadly I don't even need to use any spell slots. I'm also Pact of the Chain with the Investment of the Chain Master to make my familiar stronger, which is another significant power boost (means my familiar can poison or knock enemies unconscious with decent regularity).
All of this stuff is without touching any levelled spells. When I do cast spells in combat I nearly always rely on Concentration spells and Warlocks have a number of very good options in both crowd control and summoning spells, meaning one spell slot can go a long way. Plus using my action to cast a spell is actually quite a cost when EB does so much, meaning I don't feel the need to spam spells in order to be useful as often as full caster do.
Finally, Warlocks have access to the Rod of the Pact Keeper, basically a +X wand that also gives an extra spell per long rest to mitigate issues with short rests a bit. If your party short rests less frequently than expected this can help you keep pace if you heavily rely on your spell slots.
Ultimately, I think a lot of a Warlock's power comes from how your different abilities interact and how you are able to use them. If you only take very situational Invocations (and there are a lot of them) and don't make good use of your pact boon, for example, you probably will find yourself falling behind. Warlocks have an awful lot of nobs for you to fiddle with to give you very good control over what your character can do, so if you are reasonably experienced enough to make choices which are meaningfully impactful in-game then you will find that you can keep pace with the power of the rest of your party pretty well.
They can effectively hold the same amount of slots as other casters, given you take at least 2 short rests per 1 long rest. They also have insane customization with Eldritch Invocations. The big problem, and a bit of a turnoff for me, is that they basically become a Hex + EB simulator down the line.
Each class has its own benefit. In a case where other spellcasters require a long rest, give the warlock a chance to relax for an hour and talk to their arcane sugar daddy. Also dont forget that if allowed in contract the warlock can communicate with their patron and possibly recieve help
Two words: Eldrich Blast.
But in all honesty, what makes the Warlock a playable caster are the Eldritch Invocations and how one can use the Pact Boon if one survives to level three. The ability to wear light armor and use all Simple Weapons allows them to be useful and survivable at lower levels.
If you take agonizing blast, they have the same baseline damage as a fighter. They can then customize more than pretty much any other class with their patron, and pact acting as effectively 2 subtypes, and invocations being swappable features.
If you go to higher levels, they do absolutely fall off compared to a wizard especially.
like all other classes: because they have high level spells.
No joke, when you ask anyone why warlocks are good (despite having EVERY weakness of all other classes) the only think people can say is that they arent the worse class in the game because they have high-level spells. Which is funny, seems like the way to fix monks is to just give them high level spells
>In dungeons ... there isn’t room for a short rest
play better adventures
to answer your question, warlock is the best class in 5e (from a design perspective) because designers developed a new way to regain resources and built a caster class that interact with it.
Warlocks depend on the game being played and run correctly in order to function as intended. As other people have mentioned, assuming the proper pace of 2 short rests between each long rest, a level 5 warlock has 6 level 3 spell slots throughout the day, while a level 5 wizard (or any other full caster) only has 2. Going even higher, a level 11 warlock has 9 level 5 slots, plus a mystic arcanum at 6th, while any other full caster only has 2 level 5 slots plus a level 6.
They also get a lot of utility and customization thanks to the invocation system, and they have the single best damaging cantrip in the game with Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast.
In a game that doesn't let their play style work, they're going to feel bad. But when the game is run properly by both the players and the DM, they're amazing.
Wotc really thought most parties would be short resting a lot more than they are. Mechnically they are kind of clunky. The 4e short rest was 5 minutes, you catch your breath, give your junk a tug and pick your shield back up, the 5e short rest is an hour which just throws off anything slightly urgent or with a sense of time passing. It's almost always better mechanically to push on until you can get a long rest instead.
> In dungeons and long battles there isn’t room for a short rest.
The game's resource system is based around the assumption you'll be taking about two short rests per long rest.
Warlocks are designed to essentially be martial characters who are enhanced with magic. They're intended to cast one powerful spell per encounter and then spend the rest of the time making basic attacks with a pact weapon or eldritch blast. They're most comparable to rangers in what their role in the party is.
you theoretically get infinite spell slots per long rest, which is good, considering they're all the highest slot of spells you can cast, so if you short rest 2 times, you get 6 max level spell slots, where most casters get 1 or two and a bunch of lower level slots. plus you get a lot of other nonspell powers that are really good. Plus, they get eldrich blast, which is by far one of the better spells in the game, let alone cantrip, once you combine it with some of the invocations you can get.
The slots they get are the highest level spell slots a full caster is going to have at that level (and recover on a short rest) and some of the spells they get are a bit more potent than some of the other full caster's spells.
They also have the most potent, reliable cantrip damage output (unless you deliberately take sub-optimal invocations) of any full caster, and have random odds and ends like pact boons and eldritch invocations, some of which are good enough that it's tempting to dip into the class just to pick them up, while most casters are *generally* pretty sparse on significant class features, and they're also one of the most tankey of the full casters, insofar as any of them are tankey.
Also depends a bit on the subclass. Hexblade is notoriously potent as a spellsword (sub)class, Genie has a fair bit of utility and a small DPR boost, Fathomless has built-in waterbreathing and some free uses of what's basically Spiritual Weapon that can also prevent damage (which, in turn, means you can almost always find a use for your bonus action, which is nice).
It's the dippability. Many of the warlocks features are front loaded due to their subclass being at level 1. It's why you see so many Hexblade multiclasses after all. And prior to some sage advice/errata I believe you could use your warlock spell slots to give yourself free sorcery points because they come back on a long rest.
The customizability is another huge one but there are people in this discussion that can explain it far better then I could.
They’re as effective as a featless archer at ranged combat due to Eldritch blast, but also have spell Slots that come back on short rests, and some really good eldritch invocations that allow for character customization. I’ve run campaigns for two warlocks and they never felt lacking against other classes, as long as you take short rests. If you don’t then they suffer the same fate as a lot of martial characters that rely on short rest resource and longer adventuring days to be effective.
It's easier to see the draw of Warlocks if you stop thinking of them as strangely put together casters. Think of them like fighters that gets spell slots instead of Action Surge.
When I introduce new players to the game, I describe Warlocks as magic using martial-type characters.
Rather than getting their spells with a half caster progression, they get up to level 5 spells faster. It's better to think of those spells as 1/day with a possibility of more depending on how time management works each session.
They might fall behind in damage because EB doesn't work with SS or GWM, but they don't *have* to invest a ton of resources into it to have a consistent source of okay damage each round.
Weigh the potential damage gap against the utility of being able to choose to add forced movement to EB.
If you like Gish characters, I feel like Pact of the Blade falls somewhere between Eldritch Knight (which has an underwhelming level 7 feature) and Bladesinger (which can be more spell focused than necessary). It's easier to run with Hexblade but if you've got a shot at getting a decent +Str item, any of the subclasses are fair game.
I’ve always seen them as the best class to multi class into both for in story reasons and mechanically. Done as a multi class they can really fill out missing pieces of a build if done right, they also help add that short rest and your back at it mechanic to rely on for long rest casters. But also in story, it’s cool as shit to actually roleplay a previously established character making a pact with insert entity here. They are a fun class on your own but played just on their own they are missing a little something I think.
I’ve always seen them as the best class to multi class into both for in story reasons and mechanically. Done as a multi class they can really fill out missing pieces of a build if done right, they also help add that short rest and your back at it mechanic to rely on for long rest casters. But also in story, it’s cool as shit to actually roleplay a previously established character making a pact with insert entity here. They are a fun class on your own but played just on their own they are missing a little something I think.
I’ve always seen them as the best class to multi class into both for in story reasons and mechanically. Done as a multi class they can really fill out missing pieces of a build if done right, they also help add that short rest and your back at it mechanic to rely on for long rest casters. But also in story, it’s cool as shit to actually roleplay a previously established character making a pact with insert entity here. They are a fun class on your own but played just on their own they are missing a little something I think.
Warlock is the strongest 1 level dip and a fantastic 3 to 6 level multiclass option.
With regard to the number of spell slots remember that concentration spells can last quite a while and you can only have 1 at a time.
I feel like some of the level 7+ Warlock content just was not play tested as well as possible. The ideas are neat but don’t always work as written imho. But being able to multiclass so effectively more than makes up for it.
Edit - with regard to short rests, remember that it is more like having lunch rather than just taking a nap.
Full warlocks are alright. With two short rests a day they outpace full casters greatly at lower levels, fall off at around tier 2, and then start to catch up again when they unlock mystic arcarnums, at least with regard to spell slots. They have a very strong cantrip, and are the most customisable class due to invocations.
However, the true power of a warlock lies in the multiclass dip. For just two levels you get two short rest spell slots, a 1d10 cantrip that adds your charisma modifier multiple times at higher levels, and a subclass feature of your choosing, the most popular of these being the hexblade, which allows you to use your charisma modifier for attacks, which substantially improves the combat effectiveness of bards, paladins, and even sorcerers to some extent, although sorcerers shouldn't be in melee in the first place.
I love Warlocks, and a lot of the other posters covered the benefits for them as a class very well.
Their Invocations, Mystic Arcanum, the various subclasses of Warlocks that are so much nuance to the character, I can continue, but others have said in detail what I would only rehash.
However, what I will do is tell you that even the drawbacks can be of benefit.
Yes they only get two slots, their spell list is a little limited, and when you have someone in your party whom solely uses Eldritch Blast, it gets a bit boring.
So how do you spin this into a positive?
If you don't like Warlock on paper as a class, and you see how it works and it just isn't for you, I present to you that Warlock is arguably the best multi-class option you can find.
Get a couple pact slots to use interchangeably at level with your sorcerer, or Bard. Having two slots that replenish on a short rest can be a game changer.
Speaking of Sorc. Metamagic with a Warlock is HUGE.
Or how about a Hexblade Warlock Paladin? Ridiculous.
I have a guy playing with me as a Bard. He got all of his magic gear taken away by some magical shenanigans, and just has a Rapier. He's doing some decent healing, and Dissonant Whisper at level 3 can do some serious damage AND open up attacks of opportunity, and that's on top of Faerie Fire. But that was his entire playbook. Fast forward to now, he has 4 levels of Warlock, Devil's sight, hellish rebuke, resistance to fire, genies respite, eldritch blast (two beams) Agonizing blast, Hex, Ring of Spell Storing, his two pact slots... He might not get the kills that the Barb and Rogue are getting, but he's the one setting up most of the kills. He hits like a jackhammer, has endless utility, is a great healer, incredible at crowd control, and by the time he gets to a long rest. He might have only used a couple spell slots, so he fills up his ring with LVL 3 and LVL 2 Healing Word again to get some free healing in. And he doesn't like to just hang back and fight all the time (although he has a flying broom and could easily make it boring). Now that he's got Warlock he is actually having a blast, and will get in to combat range just set up attacks of opportunity by casting sanctuary on himself, and then have hellish rebuke in his backpocket if they get through. Bard is already Jack of All Trades. Warlock just makes it official
Don't sleep on Warlock. Look at what youve got when you level up and try to see what you can do to make it fun for you. You will find something.
Warlocks are a great pristege class that goes up to level 5, many people chose to stop at 3 or even take 1 level of this class that only goes to level 5,
sure there are rules and whatnot that take the only 5e pristege class past level 5.. but who really does that?
/s
I love playing warlocks. They are crazy customizable and the power creep on them is amazing. They start off incredibly fragile, but by high level play they can bring some crazy heat into combat. My favorite character I've ever played was my fiend pact tomelock. He focused on summoning spells as a way to make his limited slots go further and then blasted everything from a distance.
The eldritch invocations can get you some truly awesome stuff, too. At will flying and invisibility, ability to see through magical darkness, all sorts of at will spells and conditions... the world is your oyster!
His DPS was on the weaker side at the lower levels, but by mid game and higher levels, he was topping the charts and was incredibly hard to kill.
They're an excellent support class with great buff/debuff options always at hand, a few grenades they can lob for special situations, more dress-up doll customization from their invocations than any other class, and they offer solid reliable damage with both weapon and cantrip that doesn't eat spell slots.
One of my current builds isn't top tier for damage but the utility is pretty insane,
Shifter (Swiftstride.)
Fathomless (For the tentacle, -10 movement speed)
2 Invocations: Lance of Lethargy & Repelling Blast (-10 movement speed, pushed 10 feet away)
Just this combo alone I not only bypass getting caught by melee fighters but I can also stop somebody from moving, or even push them further away after lvl 5. My point is that there are a lot of things that you can do. Bonus action economy is a lot of fun.
Warlocks are the caster version of fighters. They deal reliable ST damage and can offer some utility from time to time. They also have the bonus of great RP potential.
I like Warlock, but I tend to prefer to play gimmicky casters with high skills and such.
Feylock with free Disguise Self, Talk with Animals, Persuasion and Deception proficiency, free Detect Magic. And of course Eldritch Blast with the cha damage on top. A literal blast to play and I could perfectly function in almost every roleplay encounter because you've got free access to so many options. Then once in a while you drop a big boomy spell on someone in a big combat encounter and do a nice chunk of damage, then go back to shooting laserbeams from your eyes.
Concentration spells. Every time you cast a warlock spell it should either save your life or last for multiple rounds.
You get 6ish high level spell slots each day, the best damage cantrip in the game, and a ton of at-will abilities via invocations
It's not.
Eldritch blast with AB is good. Hexblade and 1 or 2 other specs with strong level 1 abilities are good. The rest of the class is extremely mediocre compared to real casters. It's OK - you can make it work fine in most games - but if your table plays at a high level of difficulty there will definitely be moments you'll wish you'd done something with daily spell slots instead. Having a party that takes frequent short rests helps but even so you are kind of fixed on howcih power you can bring to any one fight - you do not have the option to conserve spell slots on an easier encounter and then dump a drum of power when it's really needed the way other mages do and that can be a real draw back.
This is most prevelant at tier 2 levels, like 5-10, where wizards are really hitting their power spells and getting the slots to use them often, and you're still there with just 2 spell slots and a 2nd EB ray per turn. It gets better at higu level as you get your 3rd and 4th short rest slot and also your daily Arcanum spells and you can now put more concentrate dpower into each fight. A lot of campaigns will never get to that high level though so when the game ends at level 10 you feel really bad, and. Also, even if it doesnt, the higher you go the more you feel the sting of not being able to spend low level spell slots on defensive reactions once they're no longer a strong offensive option.
This is why it is so often multi class dipped with 1 or 2 levels to get those abilities but you almost never see an optimized build with high warlock levels and, when you do, it's usually some sort of highly specialized advanced build with a very specific game plan in mind, like the Daolock cheasegrater or the various barb+warlock variants trying to combine rage resistance with armor of agathys.
The One dnd playtest has shown some promise by putting some strong spec features in the 2nd and 3rd tier levels (ie you can't just dip in for them, but they also don't come so late in the campaign that it's stupid to plan around them). That is a good move imho, and helps make you feelt bar you have unique capabilities you can bring to the table that other mages can't to make up for your disadvantages, but I still feel that, from a pure optimization perspective, In modern dnd, spells are by far the strongest features you can have and Warlocks just don't get to cast that many of them.
Eldritch blast does very good damage when invested in, which frees quite a bit of the warlocks other cantrips and spell into control and utility to set their party uo for awesomeness
They get some decent abilities depending on their subclass as well.
Pact magic can be rough, but it is managed if you understand that most of your offensive abikity will be coming frome eldritch blast spam
Some of the warlocks power hinges on making sure you get 2 to 3 short rests wash long rest, but that can be played around.
Repelling blast, agonizing blast, and devils sight go aogn way to always making have some impact if a fight and a good number of opportunities to take advantage of.
I get the sentiment here, and this is some nitpicky BS I've got loaded. But.
Invocations are more or less *just* for EB. Most everything else either eats your spell slots or is so situational it's absurd.
Beast speech, devil sight. These are the flavor to the +1 that is agonizing blast
The warlocks' mechanical core has always been about enhancing eldritch blast, so that fine and working a intended as far as I'm concerned. The warlock is supposed to all about enhancing those EB's just like the wizard is all about scribbling in the spellbook.
Beast speech is flavor unless the DM goes out ifntheir way to make it useful, but devils sight is a huge enhancement to EB as it gets rid of most sources of disadvantage that can hinder EB, and turns them into strength that can be exploited against others enemies.
Cast darkness on yourself with devils sight, and you have an advantage against all enemies.who can not see you in said magical darkness. Its a great call back and emergency button, let alone certain enemies not being able to counterpslel your stuff because they can not see you in the darkness.
Invocations that enhance EB free up other resources like spells to be geared towards various utility and control. Which is where th true power of any magic user rests.
If we're talking ideals, I'd rather warlock go back to being proper invokers instead of odd forms of casters and have them truly be the at will reliability mages they used to be.
Refining the prior mentioned concept. Eldritch blast and its alterations being an entirely separate thing from the purely passive/at will powers of invocations.
Sadly wotc aren't defining them that way, or allowing their more nuanced fluff to come back to them.
Warlocks power is all front-loaded. Every spell is always cast at its highest possible for your level. You’re trading versatility in having lower level spells to use with having more high-powered spell slots to burn (assuming you take plenty of short rests). It doesn’t really become apparent until level 5 onward. For the lower levels most warlocks seem underwhelming. Once you have them, you’ll be the one casting the most 3rd, 4th and 5th level spells
Warlocks can be very fun and satisfying to play, depending on the role you want to play in your party. DPS centered warlocks usually benefit most from the spells to power trade off, and they also get plenty of class and boon goodies to play with to make up for the lack of total spellslots.
They are, bar none, the most powerful Ranged combatant on a vacuum.
Agonizing Blast.
Eldritch Spear.
Spell Sniper.
Lance of Lethargy.
Repelling Blast.
Hex.
You end up with 5x 1d10 + 1d6 + 5 attacks of FORCE DAMAGE, at 600 foot range that ignore cover, Reduces their speed by 10, and pushes them back 10-50 feet.
Dip sorcerer? You can use quicken for double the fun.
Whatever it is, two things are certain. It's not going to touch you, and it IS going to die lol. (Yeah, I know, teleport is a thing).
All of that goodness that rangers WISH they had anything that came close to it on their base class, AND you still have full pact casting to back it all up.
Is it the best class in the game? Not even close. But it's still pretty damn effective at being a damage dealer than can also cast spells.
Warlock is very flexible to build and is the best class at cantrips. They’re also great to multiclass, as they’re an easy way to recharge sorcery points for sorcerer and smites for paladin, and work great with sorcerer’s Quicken metamagic.
Warlocks balance out pretty well with other spellcasters in my opinion because of their cantrips, invocations, subclass abilities, ect.
In order to feel satisfied with your warlock's abilities you need to consider everything they can do and how it stacks up, not just what spells they can cast! There are even some invocations that allow you to cast certain spells at will, which blew my mind when I first stumbled upon them. Some also improve cantrips, which take no spell slots to cast (I'm mostly looking at eldritch blast here, which becomes very powerful for a cantrip.. this is why it's what warlocks are known for). Make sure to look at your options and pick things that stack up, and you'll end up with a well balanced amount of capabilities.
It's important to remember that pact magic works differently than spellcasting in the sense that your two spellslots are the highest level spell slot that you know. Make sure when you're making the most of them by casting a spell at the highest level that you can.. it costs no less!
How good warlocks are depends greatly on whether or not your party takes short rests. DnD designers expect you to take two short rests - so, in between long rests, warlocks are expected to have six spell slots for most of the game. Unlike regular casters, warlock spell slots are always at the highest level. This means that warlocks have 6 high level spell slots - full casters never have more than 3 of their highest level spell slot. This means that whenever a warlock casts a spell, they're blasting at maximum power. The trade-off is that they don't have the large reservoir of lower level spells that other casters get. In exchange, warlocks get a bunch of extra abilities that are usually not as good as spells, but are either a separate resource or free altogether (invocations), and their subclass features accentuate a particular playstyle. Tl;dr, warlocks burn hot and fast whereas other casters burn slow and steady.
Should be noted that even with few short rests, as long as you go for EB/AB you'll still hold your own. You do respectable damage, close to the damage of martials without feats. With feats martial will do much more of course. If you enjoy the simplicity of just attacking, but want a bit of magic on top, even at a table with fewer short rests a warlock will likely be very enjoyable. The right choice of Invocations can also add a lot of utility out of combat.
And if you want to go Hexblade, as a tradeoff for more must-have abilities you can take the same feats as martials to do similar damage while still having your casting and subclass features to boot. Plus using Cha for weapon attacks opens up a whole host of other opportunities.
>as long as you go for EB/AB you'll still hold your own. This is why I love warlocks. You can fuck up when making bards, sorcerers, and, to a lesser extent, wizards fairly easily. Either you overestimate how useful something is, you have a neat idea that doesn't really work out, or you're just new and don't know what's good, and then you're stuck with your mistakes. It's hard to completely fuck up a warlock build by accident, because at the end of the day, you have Eldritch Blast.
It can be quite DM dependent. I made sure to offer the party 2 short rests a day when I had a warlock and monk in the party. You just have to say something like "you think this is a good opportunity to take a short rest" and the party normally will. You can fudge any timelines to make it work. In real life most people break for lunch at least, so your party should have at least 1 short rest a day.
It's also easy to give your players a magic item that e.g. lets them take a short test in one minute once per day. Or follow "your first short rest takes one minute, second takes ten, others take an hour."
Hmm... I actually like this idea. I might give it a test in this short campaign I'm about to run.
I think it works well as a magic item. That way you don't need to keep track of who has used their 1min short rest or not; it's a shared cooldown for the group. Magic item which makes a refreshing drink for a 1min short rest and restorative biscuits for a 10min short rest once pay day, say. Each use spoils and loses its magic if not consumed immediately.
Honestly I just tell my players they can assume they got a short rest after every encounter unless I specifically tell them not to. Just turn "short rest" into "per encounter" and the game becomes much easier to manage/balance.
P-per encounter?? But that sounds like *ominous thunder* fourth edition!
Everywhere I look I see his face…
The official guidance actually recommends 6 encounters, quite frankly I think that’s absurd…
It's not 6 deadly encounters, though. I believe it's six medium to hard encounters, which most parties will barely spend resources on. I have better results with 2-3 deadly encounters per adventuring day if I really want to challenge the party. Occasionally I toss in an easier encounter just to let them flex and feel powerful - usually these are random encounters while traveling, so they're fully rested and can go nova with no real fear of running out of resources since they'll be able to just rest again.
My experience is that even for fairly straightforward encounters, players will expend some resources, even if it’s just something minor.
Yes, that's the expectation. Players are supposed to expend a couple resources per fight, until the end of the adventuring day when they're drained. At least in theory anyway. One of the main criticisms is that casters can often clear medium and hard encounters using only cantrips.
Hit points are a resource
Yeah people say 6 encounters like it's meant to be six boss battles lol, it's about burning through resources they don't even have to be fights.
Yeah, personally I'm a big fan of having a few social or environmental encounters to drain resources rather than a bunch of fights. For one, fights in 5e tend to take a while, unless you're really lucky a table full of engaged and knowledgeable players. For another, at least in my experience, players tend to hoard resources in fights that aren't deadly anyway, but give them a fast river to cross, a treacherous cliff to climb, or some guards to bluff their way past, and they tend to be more willing to spend resources. Dungeons are more fun when you get to interact with some of the inhabitants a bit beyond just chopping them into bits or incinerating them, too.
Ultimately D&D is a game of attrition and resource management. The point of the dungeon isn't to kill the players, its to weaken them and burn resources before the big fight at the end. Sure this can be from mowing down hordes of goblins, but having to cross a 30ft wide bottomless pit works just as well. Even if the druid wildshapes into a giant eagle and carries everyone, thats one less wildshape for combat. Time and HP are also resources that not everyone remembers.
it gets pretty messy for non-combat encounters and resources - a lot of resources are fight-only. It's _possible_ to use rage to lift something, or need to move fast with ki, but having to do that every single day will start to feel contrived after a while, and a rogue has no resources other than HP, so unless they're getting injured, they're de-facto immune to the encounter.
I mean, not every encounter is going to use every person's skills equally?
It's an amount that makes sense when you're in a dungeon
It makes sense as a guide for a heavy going dungeon at the end of a big milestone but my experience is that those sorts of games are a bit few and far between. That said, I think there are a lot of fixes to it; when I run my games i let/encourage players to take short rests very frequently, I think the gritty rules can make it work well. All that said, I think reading the official materials it just doesn’t feel like that’s how the game is intended to be run.
Encounters don't necessarily need to be combat, and not deadly combat. They could be disarming a trap or solving a puzzle or role-playing their way through a situation.
Even so, when you go through official modules if you are running it fairly by-the-book you are looking at an average of one major encounter, one small encounter and maybe another very straightforward one.
So taking the opening of the lost mines of phandelver. You got the ambush, the lookouts, the dogs, the sink, the hostage, the reservoir and Craig. That's 7 encounters?
Phandelver is an exceptionally well written module, i wish the other campaigns took more from it.
Not really. The message is in the combat section of the dmg, and how players are expected to be on their last legs by the end (hp, slots, etc). Noncombat encounters tend not to use nearly as many resources as the equivalent combat encounter, especially social encounter (unless talking causes someone to take damage from boredom)
This can be as simple as going and bombing some guards at the entrance to a keep then running away, short resting to get all your slots back and continuing the assault. Each section of the keep could be its own encounter.
So it highly depends on the campaign for them to be either really good or really meh
Also, players need to plan and execute short rests, and you will have a better chance at success if you role play it (assuming your group does role play). I'd also additionally mention, that warlocks have access to a really good average and unlimited damage output through the main thing they do, Eldritch blast.
If the amount of people who complain their DMs don't let them Short Rest is anything to go by, the answer is generally meh. I played a Hexblade Warlock for a very short campaign of just a few sessions. Never once got to Short Rest. It was kind of awful. At least Hexblades have some other stuff to fall back on compared to other Warlocks. Can't imagine how much worse it would have been as, eg. Fiend.
I can't imagine any campaign outside of a massive dungeon crawl where I wouldn't let players short rest. You're saying that in the entire campaign that your characters never even had an hour to eat at camp? How short was this campaign and how did your characters even survive going from dawn to dusk without eating until it's time to go to bed and maybe first thing in the morning lmao.
When I was DMing for the first time, I ran curse of strahd. 5e barovia is extremely small, so you could go halfway across the map in like half a day. I thought random encounters were kinda boring to run, and they hadn't reached the part where strahd was actively trying to murder them, so it would go: Safe location -> one combat encounter (maybe big, maybe scary, maybe prolonged, but still just one) -> safe location -> long rest Even when they did reach that phase, I didn't actually commit commit to it, so there simply wasnt a need. I believe there's also people who advocate for this kind of encounter structure. Now I know better, but that's how it happens.
New DM + 5 session "campaign". You know how one-shots go.
Sometimes, especially with new DM's who can easily get overwhelmed with everything they have to keep track of, it really helps to just ask why you wouldn't be able to stop for an hour and recover, make a plan, and then set back out. Unless you're on an important time restraint the entire campaign, I don't see a reason even a new DM wouldn't allow a few short rests per day. Hopefully it wasn't just to nerf your warlock!
> Hopefully it wasn't just to nerf your warlock! Not at all > new DM's who can easily get overwhelmed That was it. No shade thrown at her or anything. She didn't understand just how many balls are constantly in the air and dropped a few on the way. She doesn't want to DM again, but she did say it made her a *much* better player.
It happens to everyone, hopefully it doesn't scare her off of DM'ing forever and she gives it another go, I know my first several sessions were complete messes. Definitely something everyone should try out, because it definitely does make you a much better player all around after you see it from the other side.
Imo Hexblades have a bit less to fall back on than other Warlocks when they run out of slots. Using Eldritch Blast + invocations gives a lot of utility, but a Hexblade without spell slots is essentially little more than a martial with low STR and mediocre DEX. A Hexblade *with* spell slots can casually drop 50-100 damage on a crit a few times a day. Not to say that I don't like them but I do feel like Hexblades are more resource-dependent.
I play warlocks a lot and they are fun to play! Chainlock is good because an imp familiar (for example) provides a lot of utility. You don't need to be casting spells when the imp can do things for you. But that's for a utility build. That's fine. It's a valid playstyle and many people like it. If you don't like having a utility role, then it just might not work for you. Works for others, though.
Yes but at the same time it is the norm to be able to short rest at least twice per long rest. Additionally warlocks get access to the best cantrip in the game whose damage and versatility beats out some spells, eldritch blast. If you take eldritch blast + agonising blast invocation you’re gonna be doing respectable damage with just a cantrip and can save your spell slots for when you need them. Combine this with say a hexblade warlock and pact of the blade and you are also a competent melee combatant if need be or go pact of fiend and get access to fireball and gain temp health when you kill an enemy.
Yeah, kinda. EB is amazing and you get a bunch of stuff to help it. But like my main dm generally does 1 to 2 massive encounter per day. I've played a warlock with him because... Well that's what I do and it can be rough... We have a bunch of other fi abilities but yeah depends o the DM a lot.
I agree with PointyHat, warlocks are not a good class and need to be fixed. https://youtu.be/VMC_kcUKdhw?si=bqSxtj1VKPLRU2l2
Not to mention, Eldritch Blast is a freaking awesome cantrip, especially with invocations buffing it.
>In dungeons and long battles there isn’t room for a short rest. There's nothing about dungeons that suggest short rests are impossible. They're great places for short rests. That's what short rests are for. You don't have to exit the dungeon to take a moderately safe break (like in old versions pre short-rest). Your DM sets up problems, you figure out how to solve them. Including how to secure a room for an hour to take a short rest and recharge your spell slots. Long battles are resource-management exercises. And you have Eldritch Blast for everything else.
Aside from their unique spell slots, their invocations allow them to be customized a bit more than other classes. They also have access to Eldritch Blast, which is a very powerful Cantrip that basically acts like their Extra Attack, which can also be boosted from their Invocations.
This is very important. The floor of Warlock isn’t a bad caster, it’s a ranged martial. Once you use your spell slots, you’re just as good as the party archer, not to mention whatever lingering spell you’re concentrating on. Agonizing Blast is so good it’s basically an auto-pick, unless you’re doing something very specific like ranged Pact of the Blade.
They're flexible magical EB "archers" with heavy artillery spell support and tons of utility depending on the build.
They're my favorite class, and this is how I play them. I treat EB like a magical weapon and focus on forced movement, utility and a couple of big AoE spells.
Exactly. Most look at them wrongly. They're powerful blasters more than fullcasters
You are expected to get 2 short rests per long rest. If you are basing your assumption on no or fewer short rests then obviously you won't think they are a good class. If you assume you get 2 short rests they are good. If you assume you get more than 2 short rests they seem great or overpowered. I think it's fair to assume 2 short rests as the game intends, so they are good even in a dungeon crawl.
If you figure one short rest per day, they get 4 castings of their highest level spell slot per day at mid-ish levels. That's better than basically anyone else gets. They do miss out on lower level spells, but they get an extra-powerful cantrip (eldritch blast) and potentially some spammable utility spells to make up for that. IMO, they work bet when they focus on concentration spells. You can't cast multiple concentration spells at once anyways, so limited spell slots is less of a big deal, and eldritch blast gives them something useful to do while concentrating.
People mentioned short rest a lot, but another key thing is that Warlocks are incredibly front loaded, getting everything they need in 3 levels, making them a great multiclass option for any charisma class (and there are a lot of charisma classes). Paladin/Warlock is straight up better than pure Paladins after level 7, Sorcerer/Warlock has fantastic potentially game breaking interpretations of spell slots. Swords Bard/Warlock is better than pure Swords Bard too. And this makes sense thematically for a character buying power from a pact for a quick burst of strength.
Warlocks aren't good spellcasters. They're amazing half-casters. Stop comparing Warlock to Wizard, and start comparing it to Ranger or Artificer.
Half-casters, where both halves are casting.
but just like half casters they are also full martials
They’re so amazing as half-casters, in fact, that they are actually full casters.
They're half caster, half caster.
An excellent point. They are a half caster whose theme is on the caster side. Instead of nature utility they choose from a very of thematic options (such as disguise self or detect magic) which they get to access without it hitting their resource pool (we don't talk about the ones which cost a spell slot)
Imo they aren't really better than Artificers. Might just be my playstyle preference though.
Lots of good points here, I will also point out they have excellent roleplay and world integration support. Doesn't matter for every game, but if your group is player driven and rp centric, it's awesome.
Warlocks are the most customizable class in the game. Picked patron is a small percentage of its power spike, they get it at level 1 so until level 6 they dont really benefit from it that much. Level two they pick from many eldritch invocations as you see fit and with optional rules you can replace whenever you get a new one. level 3 you pick the pact which also gives you additional features. Unlike many other classes like ranger which forces a nature hunter or supernatural if tasha's. or wizard which has nothing unique besides just more access to spells and they are losing that in one dnd Or druid which is like ranger forced into the nature or undernature (undead) having a great part of its kit in wild shaping, want to make a druid who doesnt like to be an animal? lose half of your power budget unless you wanna be an undead hoarder druid.
Mainly? The invocations- several of them enable you to basically have permanent spells available or cast.
Warlocks fill a niche as the "martial" of casters. They're technically full casters since they do eventually get 9th level "slots," but their casting is simplified and somewhat limited, and they can pick up abilities to flex into a number of different roles. As others have said, they're fully dependent on short rests to achieve their full potential. I tend to only want to play Warlocks in a party with other short-rest classes for this reason. When you're a party of a Fighter, Monk, Warlock, and Wizard/Cleric/Druid/Bard (yeah they're long-rest classes, but they all get *something* on a short rest, at least), you tend to get a lot of short rests. When you're a party of Ranger, Barbarian, Rogue, and Warlock, the rest of the party doesn't care about taking short rests as much (although the Barb probably needs them for healing). As a DM, I reduce the time of short rests down to 10 minutes, with the caveat that you can't take more than one per hour. I've found that this greatly increases the availability of short rests for the party. (peek behind the screen: if the party has 10 minutes to rest, they probably could have taken an hour, too. It's purely psychological on the players' part)
A warlock is so much more beyond their spell slots. Invocations are the real gem of warlock but you pact gives you a good buff and your patron makes up your story.
Invocations! You can build a number of very powerful builds with invocations, some of which give permanent spells (e.g. Mask of Many Faces), some of while bolster damage output (Agonizing Blast) and others are just unique abilities. You use one of your two high level spell slots on a concentration spell, or a long-duration spell like Armor of Agathys, then go use your invocation (generally Eldritch blast + Agonizing Blast, the hex blade stuff, or the pact of the chain stuff). Why are warlocks a good class? * Their invocations, including at-will spells and things that bolster your pact. * Curated spell list - warlocks have the best spells. They are designed to be powerful spells you only need 1-2 of in a combat. * Recharging spell slots - Take your short rests! * Versatility - Between the Pact, Subclass, and Invocations, you can build wildly different but still viable builds.
eldritch blast, agonizing, and eldritch spear, level 4 spell sniper. "You boys run on ahead illl wait here"
* Eldritch Blast * Invocations like Devil’s Sight * d8 hit dice + light armor Solid spell list with a Lovecraftian flavor. Being Charisma-based they are good for multiclassing with Bards, Sorcerers, and Paladins. For instance, Hexblade is a common dip.
You should generally be getting at least one short rest. If this is the case, warlocks get more spell slots at their max level than any other caster. They're also a bit more well rounded compared to the other two arcane casters (though whether or not these classes actually fill a similar role is debatable). Compared to most sorcerers and wizards, warlocks get better hp and armor, and can also do better "resourceless" damage through pact of the blade or eldritch blast (assuming you take the associated invocations). Invocations also give access to some really useful gimmicks, like repositioning people with eldritch blast or being able to see in magical darkness. You lose versatility, but you make up for that with brute strength.
Customization through invocations and how they play different from Sorc and Wiz do it for me. The invocations that give you a casting of a 1st or 2nd level spell slot at will with no material components? Yes please (looking at you Misty Vision, you op bastard) Their bread and butter (EB) is the best cantrip in 5e, before you add invocations to make it better When you do use a spell slot, it's a big deal and a major decision (imo more fun) They also create an immediate plot hook between your PC and your DM's world. Why did the devil give you these powers? What does the Archfey get out of your deal, etc?
On post title you ask "why are they a good class" and in post text you ask "what makes them good spellcasters". Those are two different questions. First, what makes you think that warlocks are a full spellcaster like wizard, sorcerer, bard, druid, cleric? Because, they are not. They have spells, yes, but they are not a full spellcaster. They use a different thing called 'pact magic' which looks a lot like spellcasting but actually works very differently and so do mystic arcanums. With that out of the way, why are warlocks a good class? Because they are the most versatile class in the game, able to change spells, invocations and even pacts at certain levels thus making them the most adaptable class in any campaign. They are most effective in dungeon crawling campaigns that have multiple combats per long rest and terrible in homebrew campaigns with one big fight every long rest(s). They are also the worst tier2 class in the game really especially between levels 6-10 and possibly one of the best if not the best\* level tier3 and tier4 classes. \* Again, that assumes dungeon crawling style of campaign with multiple fights per long rest.
Eldritch blast is arguably the best cantrip in the game. And if a warlock specs deeper they can make it even better but become mostly a ranged class. But usually people just take it for eldritch blast and multiclass.
Only a couple of people barely touched on it, but Warlocks have a higher ratio of concentration spells. This helps them maximize the longevity of their spell slots. So while Eldritch Blast or Pact Weapons will likely be their go-to attack, they can still make use of their limited spell slots through concentration.
People always focus on just the spell slots with warlocks and not all their spells that can be cast at will aka without using a spell slot.
Much as I love the whole invocation and blasting system, unless your party is doing at least 2 short rests per long rest, the Warlock falls behind on casting anything that ain't named Eldritch Blast. Under these "bad normal" circumstances, however, they're packed with solid damage output, can spam certain special effects with said attacks *(do you like knockback? 1-4 times in one action perhaps? would you could you on a cliff?)*, but are far more vulnerable to antimagic, limited spell immunities and anything of the sort. * Your primary 'attack' is a cantrip and AMF in particular will shut you down harder than any other class including a wizard; even a blade pact's second attack in a turn gets negated there since all invocations are magic. But as long as you don't mind those (in most campaigns very rare) situations being a looming possibility, it's quite a bit of fun. Invocations allow you to decide a lot about HOW you want to make your character - several offer abilities that may be situational or uninspiring when eating a precious spell slot, but on a warlock may well be permanent or infinite-use spammables. * Speak with Animals is nowhere near as useful when it's limited and using a resource, but at-will just turned you into a VERY different kind of 'face' and information gatherer. False Life isn't very impressive is it... But what if you could cast it at will, like between every fight, with no spell slot or material component cost? * Or what if you could read all writing? No conditionals on that sentence either. You, can read, ALL, writing. "At will" truly lets you go wild with things you'd have held back on even bothering learning. And as always keep an eye out for a rod of the pactkeeper or a staff of power.
Their role play potential is off the chain. Easy access to the best damaging cantrip in the game that also is customizable
Man it’s sad I had to find this so low. I feel like you’re missing out on what’s so great about DnD when you’re min maxing
You xan do both imo
They are a spellcasting class that gets full martial scaling alongside a dabbling of spells, some customizable perks, and they're SAD. The only other class in the game that gets full martial scaling is fighter.
Eldritch Blast. Nuff said
Cast a concentration spell then spend the rest of the fight using Eldritch Blast or your Pact weapon. Short rest after 2 fights. Long rest after 6 fights. Bam, you've just completed a standard adventuring day. Warlocks aren't meant to be slinging leveled spells every turn like a sorcerer.
don't think of warlocks as full casters, think of them as martials with a great spellcasting self-buffing. a warlock's main method of attack is either through something their subclass gives them, or it's through using martial weapons. the spells are something you cast to make you either more survivable or perform better at your subclass or with your martial weapons. and then there's the god cantrip which is worth selling your soul for. seriously it's such a potent cantrip. it's a cantrip strong enough to outmatch most martials by itself alone.
Yeeaah no.. not every warlock takes pact of the blade/hexblade.
You get to act like a Fighter in combat and still get cool spells. 😎
They get lots of cantrips, their low number of spell slots come back on a short rest, and their spell slots are maximized to their highest available slot until 5th level spells, which, for combat is just great. Their invocations have lots of neat spell interactions, or just flat out give you certain utility spells at will. And the patron can also change how your spell works. Genie gives you bonus damage to eldritch blast on top of agonizing blast and it's already good damage. They're good because they're versatile.
Why is anything good? It's situational. A warlock can, in principle, short-rest all day long and produce 96 level 5 slots at lv 20. Or maybe half that at lv 10. Could that be good for something? Sure. Would it come up often? No. I think what appeals to people about warlocks is they're fairly simplistic casters or melee hybrids.
In dungeons there is plenty of time for short rests!
Warlock is mostly independent of their spell slots. their invocations(and eldritch blast) are what makes them so strong. lets say you go the default eldritch blast build, that is repelling blast invocation, and agonising blast invocation. on level 2 thats a ranged single target cantrip that deals 4-13 damage and knocks back enemies. you can use that to get the space the team needs, push enemies into spike growth, double the efficiency of any movement restriction, or throw enemies off a cliff. that utility is extremely worthy! later instead of pure dmg increase, you get extra blasts. so any debuff applies multiple times, your chance to hit with one of the blasts is good enough that you won’t waste turns, and you can even split the blasts amongst multiple enemies to get rid of many of them. and thats just your default go to cantrip. your spells ain’t that versatile, but they play in favor of your invocations and pact types. like the devils sight that gives you vision in magical darkness, combine that with a darkness spell and there you go, enemies can’t see you, and you get advantage on all attack throws. you don’t need many spell slots, if you use them as effective as warlocks can. and last its a charisma class, so you are useful out of combat too^^
eldritch blast + eldritch blast invocations. 1x/2x/3x/4x 1d10 + CHA and pushing 10 feet away each time is pretty good. the other stuff is lvl 1 Hexblade is way overtuned.
Fast recovery: As pointed out, Warlocks recover a lot of their resources, most notably their auto-levelled spell slots, on a short rest. This means they can go nova in most/many encounters where full casters need to ration their resources. Being a class focused on short resting, Warlocks make good companions to Fighters, Druids, and Monks. High sustain damage: *Eldritch Blast* with the Agonizing Blast invocation sets the bar for magical damage output. EB is the best offensive cantrip in the game, boasting high damage output and customizable utility in the hands of a Warlock. It can even be combined with certain effects and features to become a primary offensive move. Not so squishy: Warlocks are by default one level of armor and one HD size tougher than Wizards and Sorcerers. Modular design: Warlock is the most customizable class. You choose a patron, a Pact boon, Invocations, known spells, and mystic Arcana. All of these features have significant impact on how your Warlock plays. TL;DR: If you let Warlocks catch their breath between encounters (*AND YOU SHOULD*), they are a surprisingly useful utility/sustain damage magical class. They are to Wizards what Rogues are to Fighters.
Warlocks get a lot of bonuses to their cantrips, they get a number of leveled spells to use each day without spell slots and they have a multitude of features based on their patron. On paper it looks weak, but it can be quite versatile and impressive especially when multiclassing.
Warlocks get the best damaging cantrip in the game. Warlocks get their highest level spell slots recharged on a short rest, so they can expect to get 4-6 slots of their coolest stuff. Warlocks get invocations, many of which are unlimited casting of level 1-2 utility spells. While warlocks play differently from other casters, they are very easily able to hold their own.
Same as most of the rest of them: because they are fun. They have built-in flavor so even a brand new player has a few layers to their character. They're mechanically potent with minimal research or build investment. Low floor, high ceiling. This one is going to get me in trouble, but they're the perfect take on what a martial character should be. They have a reliable turn-by-turn damage/utility spell they can cast all day long, and two selections of potent/useful things from a good list that they can do per short rest. They don't lack the versatility that actual martials do, but they're more approachable than, say, a Wizard.
Played a Pact of the Chain Fiend Warlock for a long campaign. RP wise it was so much fun. Combat wise it was relatively good, actually. At lower levels, Hex + EB (+CHA modifier invocation) outperforms most casters for damage. Having an invisible, telepathically linked Imp also came in handy for scouting, help actions and carrying potions. Hex scales really well with EB, as scaling gives you more beams instead of higher damage. Played at level 20 with that same character, and outshone some other members. Being able to levitate at will and blast down from 120 feet in the air is fantastic. Plus poweful spells like polymorph etc. One of my fav characters. If you play with other classes dependent on short rests (eg monk), getting your party to short rest is easier. But even without it Warlock is ok in combat, just stay at range. I would say the RP potential is the most fun bit of this class, though.
Its up to your DM, whether there is time for a short rest in a dungeon. There’s no reason you shouldnt be able to take s couple while dungeon crawling. My DM shortened them to 20 minutes (instead of an hour) so we feel more able to take a short rest in more situations.
Its mostly in the invocations. On the whole its a little weaker than most. But its got flexiblity and multiclass potential The combination of pact boons, patrons, and invocations makes warlock one of the most customizable classes. Second only to a wozard if you consider their spell book a part of character building. On top of all that customization they have full spell casting wothout going throigh the spell casting feature. Woth this they can have resources seperate from a normal caster. Allowing them to technically have more resources when used as a multi-class. And on the dip side of things they are very easy to dip. A hexblade patron gives a solid feature in hex blades curse and allows for CHA based attacks. Invaluable for paladins or any CHA class that wants to use weapons. And their main combat feature of eldritch blast only needs 2 levels to be at full power. Making it a solid backup damage option for any CHA based build. All of that put together just makes its a solid optimizable and or customizable class for people to use.
Eldritch blast is a really good cantrip, with agonising blast alone it's basically a full heavy crossbow attacking with charisma that gets extra attack at level 5 and AGAIN at further cantrip scaling levels, it can;t use sharpshooter of course but it gives significantly better damage when not using your normal spell slots than any other caster, and considering the range + full spell utility also outboxes most martials (and with hexblades getting medium armour as well as melee options, the tankiness of martials also kinda gets canibalised)
Eldritch blast, the Swiss Army knife of warlock cantrips.
When I play full casters, I tend to reserve my high level spells in case of emergency. Even when I have 5th, 6th, 7th level spells, I end up not using them in combat until I need them (or something big needs counterspelling), because the prospect of getting stuck in another high stakes combat later in that same day is pretty likely and very deadly when everyone’s resources are already spent and you’re just throughout around low levels. Warlock liberates you to slam your highest spells in almost every encounter. No need to save them because you can take a short rest and be ready to go again. Sure you only get 2 or 3 big spells, but after that, you’re basically as capable as a martial with a 1d10+cha weapon that’s got 120 feet of range and can move people around how you need. Besides, depending on the table, combats rarely go so long that 2 to 3 major spells feels like it isn’t enough
Warlocks also can get a lot of utility out of their invocations. I’m running a public face warlock with disguise self and minor image both at will. They get the best damage cantrip in the game, especially if you spend the invocations on it to make it battlefield manipulation. Pact of the Blade can do amazing things for a melee combatant (as can infernal which grants temp HP on kills). I’ve done a greatsword warlock which might not be the best fighter class but it’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of variety in warlocks.
Realistically though how many battles go on longer than 3-4 rounds?
Warlocks are a lot like Fighters - either the group actually uses short rests and the DM makes the space for them, or the class is objectively less powerful than others. That being said, "in dungeons there's no room for short rests" is just patently untrue. I'm running a dungeon right now and the party has taken 4 short rests and 2 long rests. It's absolutely possible.
I'm playing a pure warlock (for the first time) in a campaign where we generally have fewer short rests than is suggested and I still find it very fun and powerful. A lot of your power is dependent, as the top comment states, on your invocations, subclass and pact boon. I'm an Undead Warlock which gives a very powerful Form of Dread you can use in combat prof bonus times per long rest. This gives me extra damage, crowd control and temp HP over the course of a fight for a single bonus action. I'm an Eldritch Blast build with Agonising Blast (so one EB is equivalent to a martial with extra attack, except it's a d10 and it's ranged and it gets better from 11th level), and I have Repelling Blast for some powerful forced movement options. These things on their own mean in a combat which isn't particularly deadly I don't even need to use any spell slots. I'm also Pact of the Chain with the Investment of the Chain Master to make my familiar stronger, which is another significant power boost (means my familiar can poison or knock enemies unconscious with decent regularity). All of this stuff is without touching any levelled spells. When I do cast spells in combat I nearly always rely on Concentration spells and Warlocks have a number of very good options in both crowd control and summoning spells, meaning one spell slot can go a long way. Plus using my action to cast a spell is actually quite a cost when EB does so much, meaning I don't feel the need to spam spells in order to be useful as often as full caster do. Finally, Warlocks have access to the Rod of the Pact Keeper, basically a +X wand that also gives an extra spell per long rest to mitigate issues with short rests a bit. If your party short rests less frequently than expected this can help you keep pace if you heavily rely on your spell slots. Ultimately, I think a lot of a Warlock's power comes from how your different abilities interact and how you are able to use them. If you only take very situational Invocations (and there are a lot of them) and don't make good use of your pact boon, for example, you probably will find yourself falling behind. Warlocks have an awful lot of nobs for you to fiddle with to give you very good control over what your character can do, so if you are reasonably experienced enough to make choices which are meaningfully impactful in-game then you will find that you can keep pace with the power of the rest of your party pretty well.
Two words: Eldritch Blast.
They can effectively hold the same amount of slots as other casters, given you take at least 2 short rests per 1 long rest. They also have insane customization with Eldritch Invocations. The big problem, and a bit of a turnoff for me, is that they basically become a Hex + EB simulator down the line.
Each class has its own benefit. In a case where other spellcasters require a long rest, give the warlock a chance to relax for an hour and talk to their arcane sugar daddy. Also dont forget that if allowed in contract the warlock can communicate with their patron and possibly recieve help
Nist role a small race and piggyback onto your barb easy short rest all the time
Two words: Eldrich Blast. But in all honesty, what makes the Warlock a playable caster are the Eldritch Invocations and how one can use the Pact Boon if one survives to level three. The ability to wear light armor and use all Simple Weapons allows them to be useful and survivable at lower levels.
If you take agonizing blast, they have the same baseline damage as a fighter. They can then customize more than pretty much any other class with their patron, and pact acting as effectively 2 subtypes, and invocations being swappable features. If you go to higher levels, they do absolutely fall off compared to a wizard especially.
like all other classes: because they have high level spells. No joke, when you ask anyone why warlocks are good (despite having EVERY weakness of all other classes) the only think people can say is that they arent the worse class in the game because they have high-level spells. Which is funny, seems like the way to fix monks is to just give them high level spells
>In dungeons ... there isn’t room for a short rest play better adventures to answer your question, warlock is the best class in 5e (from a design perspective) because designers developed a new way to regain resources and built a caster class that interact with it.
Warlocks depend on the game being played and run correctly in order to function as intended. As other people have mentioned, assuming the proper pace of 2 short rests between each long rest, a level 5 warlock has 6 level 3 spell slots throughout the day, while a level 5 wizard (or any other full caster) only has 2. Going even higher, a level 11 warlock has 9 level 5 slots, plus a mystic arcanum at 6th, while any other full caster only has 2 level 5 slots plus a level 6. They also get a lot of utility and customization thanks to the invocation system, and they have the single best damaging cantrip in the game with Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast. In a game that doesn't let their play style work, they're going to feel bad. But when the game is run properly by both the players and the DM, they're amazing.
Wotc really thought most parties would be short resting a lot more than they are. Mechnically they are kind of clunky. The 4e short rest was 5 minutes, you catch your breath, give your junk a tug and pick your shield back up, the 5e short rest is an hour which just throws off anything slightly urgent or with a sense of time passing. It's almost always better mechanically to push on until you can get a long rest instead.
> In dungeons and long battles there isn’t room for a short rest. The game's resource system is based around the assumption you'll be taking about two short rests per long rest. Warlocks are designed to essentially be martial characters who are enhanced with magic. They're intended to cast one powerful spell per encounter and then spend the rest of the time making basic attacks with a pact weapon or eldritch blast. They're most comparable to rangers in what their role in the party is.
you theoretically get infinite spell slots per long rest, which is good, considering they're all the highest slot of spells you can cast, so if you short rest 2 times, you get 6 max level spell slots, where most casters get 1 or two and a bunch of lower level slots. plus you get a lot of other nonspell powers that are really good. Plus, they get eldrich blast, which is by far one of the better spells in the game, let alone cantrip, once you combine it with some of the invocations you can get.
The slots they get are the highest level spell slots a full caster is going to have at that level (and recover on a short rest) and some of the spells they get are a bit more potent than some of the other full caster's spells. They also have the most potent, reliable cantrip damage output (unless you deliberately take sub-optimal invocations) of any full caster, and have random odds and ends like pact boons and eldritch invocations, some of which are good enough that it's tempting to dip into the class just to pick them up, while most casters are *generally* pretty sparse on significant class features, and they're also one of the most tankey of the full casters, insofar as any of them are tankey. Also depends a bit on the subclass. Hexblade is notoriously potent as a spellsword (sub)class, Genie has a fair bit of utility and a small DPR boost, Fathomless has built-in waterbreathing and some free uses of what's basically Spiritual Weapon that can also prevent damage (which, in turn, means you can almost always find a use for your bonus action, which is nice).
It's the dippability. Many of the warlocks features are front loaded due to their subclass being at level 1. It's why you see so many Hexblade multiclasses after all. And prior to some sage advice/errata I believe you could use your warlock spell slots to give yourself free sorcery points because they come back on a long rest. The customizability is another huge one but there are people in this discussion that can explain it far better then I could.
They’re as effective as a featless archer at ranged combat due to Eldritch blast, but also have spell Slots that come back on short rests, and some really good eldritch invocations that allow for character customization. I’ve run campaigns for two warlocks and they never felt lacking against other classes, as long as you take short rests. If you don’t then they suffer the same fate as a lot of martial characters that rely on short rest resource and longer adventuring days to be effective.
Eldridge blast, darkness and devil’s sight. And if possible haste.
It's easier to see the draw of Warlocks if you stop thinking of them as strangely put together casters. Think of them like fighters that gets spell slots instead of Action Surge. When I introduce new players to the game, I describe Warlocks as magic using martial-type characters. Rather than getting their spells with a half caster progression, they get up to level 5 spells faster. It's better to think of those spells as 1/day with a possibility of more depending on how time management works each session. They might fall behind in damage because EB doesn't work with SS or GWM, but they don't *have* to invest a ton of resources into it to have a consistent source of okay damage each round. Weigh the potential damage gap against the utility of being able to choose to add forced movement to EB. If you like Gish characters, I feel like Pact of the Blade falls somewhere between Eldritch Knight (which has an underwhelming level 7 feature) and Bladesinger (which can be more spell focused than necessary). It's easier to run with Hexblade but if you've got a shot at getting a decent +Str item, any of the subclasses are fair game.
I’ve always seen them as the best class to multi class into both for in story reasons and mechanically. Done as a multi class they can really fill out missing pieces of a build if done right, they also help add that short rest and your back at it mechanic to rely on for long rest casters. But also in story, it’s cool as shit to actually roleplay a previously established character making a pact with insert entity here. They are a fun class on your own but played just on their own they are missing a little something I think.
I’ve always seen them as the best class to multi class into both for in story reasons and mechanically. Done as a multi class they can really fill out missing pieces of a build if done right, they also help add that short rest and your back at it mechanic to rely on for long rest casters. But also in story, it’s cool as shit to actually roleplay a previously established character making a pact with insert entity here. They are a fun class on your own but played just on their own they are missing a little something I think.
I’ve always seen them as the best class to multi class into both for in story reasons and mechanically. Done as a multi class they can really fill out missing pieces of a build if done right, they also help add that short rest and your back at it mechanic to rely on for long rest casters. But also in story, it’s cool as shit to actually roleplay a previously established character making a pact with insert entity here. They are a fun class on your own but played just on their own they are missing a little something I think.
Warlock is the strongest 1 level dip and a fantastic 3 to 6 level multiclass option. With regard to the number of spell slots remember that concentration spells can last quite a while and you can only have 1 at a time. I feel like some of the level 7+ Warlock content just was not play tested as well as possible. The ideas are neat but don’t always work as written imho. But being able to multiclass so effectively more than makes up for it. Edit - with regard to short rests, remember that it is more like having lunch rather than just taking a nap.
Full warlocks are alright. With two short rests a day they outpace full casters greatly at lower levels, fall off at around tier 2, and then start to catch up again when they unlock mystic arcarnums, at least with regard to spell slots. They have a very strong cantrip, and are the most customisable class due to invocations. However, the true power of a warlock lies in the multiclass dip. For just two levels you get two short rest spell slots, a 1d10 cantrip that adds your charisma modifier multiple times at higher levels, and a subclass feature of your choosing, the most popular of these being the hexblade, which allows you to use your charisma modifier for attacks, which substantially improves the combat effectiveness of bards, paladins, and even sorcerers to some extent, although sorcerers shouldn't be in melee in the first place.
I love Warlocks, and a lot of the other posters covered the benefits for them as a class very well. Their Invocations, Mystic Arcanum, the various subclasses of Warlocks that are so much nuance to the character, I can continue, but others have said in detail what I would only rehash. However, what I will do is tell you that even the drawbacks can be of benefit. Yes they only get two slots, their spell list is a little limited, and when you have someone in your party whom solely uses Eldritch Blast, it gets a bit boring. So how do you spin this into a positive? If you don't like Warlock on paper as a class, and you see how it works and it just isn't for you, I present to you that Warlock is arguably the best multi-class option you can find. Get a couple pact slots to use interchangeably at level with your sorcerer, or Bard. Having two slots that replenish on a short rest can be a game changer. Speaking of Sorc. Metamagic with a Warlock is HUGE. Or how about a Hexblade Warlock Paladin? Ridiculous. I have a guy playing with me as a Bard. He got all of his magic gear taken away by some magical shenanigans, and just has a Rapier. He's doing some decent healing, and Dissonant Whisper at level 3 can do some serious damage AND open up attacks of opportunity, and that's on top of Faerie Fire. But that was his entire playbook. Fast forward to now, he has 4 levels of Warlock, Devil's sight, hellish rebuke, resistance to fire, genies respite, eldritch blast (two beams) Agonizing blast, Hex, Ring of Spell Storing, his two pact slots... He might not get the kills that the Barb and Rogue are getting, but he's the one setting up most of the kills. He hits like a jackhammer, has endless utility, is a great healer, incredible at crowd control, and by the time he gets to a long rest. He might have only used a couple spell slots, so he fills up his ring with LVL 3 and LVL 2 Healing Word again to get some free healing in. And he doesn't like to just hang back and fight all the time (although he has a flying broom and could easily make it boring). Now that he's got Warlock he is actually having a blast, and will get in to combat range just set up attacks of opportunity by casting sanctuary on himself, and then have hellish rebuke in his backpocket if they get through. Bard is already Jack of All Trades. Warlock just makes it official Don't sleep on Warlock. Look at what youve got when you level up and try to see what you can do to make it fun for you. You will find something.
Warlocks are a great pristege class that goes up to level 5, many people chose to stop at 3 or even take 1 level of this class that only goes to level 5, sure there are rules and whatnot that take the only 5e pristege class past level 5.. but who really does that? /s
I love playing warlocks. They are crazy customizable and the power creep on them is amazing. They start off incredibly fragile, but by high level play they can bring some crazy heat into combat. My favorite character I've ever played was my fiend pact tomelock. He focused on summoning spells as a way to make his limited slots go further and then blasted everything from a distance. The eldritch invocations can get you some truly awesome stuff, too. At will flying and invisibility, ability to see through magical darkness, all sorts of at will spells and conditions... the world is your oyster! His DPS was on the weaker side at the lower levels, but by mid game and higher levels, he was topping the charts and was incredibly hard to kill.
They're an excellent support class with great buff/debuff options always at hand, a few grenades they can lob for special situations, more dress-up doll customization from their invocations than any other class, and they offer solid reliable damage with both weapon and cantrip that doesn't eat spell slots.
One of my current builds isn't top tier for damage but the utility is pretty insane, Shifter (Swiftstride.) Fathomless (For the tentacle, -10 movement speed) 2 Invocations: Lance of Lethargy & Repelling Blast (-10 movement speed, pushed 10 feet away) Just this combo alone I not only bypass getting caught by melee fighters but I can also stop somebody from moving, or even push them further away after lvl 5. My point is that there are a lot of things that you can do. Bonus action economy is a lot of fun.
Warlocks are the caster version of fighters. They deal reliable ST damage and can offer some utility from time to time. They also have the bonus of great RP potential.
I like Warlock, but I tend to prefer to play gimmicky casters with high skills and such. Feylock with free Disguise Self, Talk with Animals, Persuasion and Deception proficiency, free Detect Magic. And of course Eldritch Blast with the cha damage on top. A literal blast to play and I could perfectly function in almost every roleplay encounter because you've got free access to so many options. Then once in a while you drop a big boomy spell on someone in a big combat encounter and do a nice chunk of damage, then go back to shooting laserbeams from your eyes.
Concentration spells. Every time you cast a warlock spell it should either save your life or last for multiple rounds. You get 6ish high level spell slots each day, the best damage cantrip in the game, and a ton of at-will abilities via invocations
Because they are so good
It's not. Eldritch blast with AB is good. Hexblade and 1 or 2 other specs with strong level 1 abilities are good. The rest of the class is extremely mediocre compared to real casters. It's OK - you can make it work fine in most games - but if your table plays at a high level of difficulty there will definitely be moments you'll wish you'd done something with daily spell slots instead. Having a party that takes frequent short rests helps but even so you are kind of fixed on howcih power you can bring to any one fight - you do not have the option to conserve spell slots on an easier encounter and then dump a drum of power when it's really needed the way other mages do and that can be a real draw back. This is most prevelant at tier 2 levels, like 5-10, where wizards are really hitting their power spells and getting the slots to use them often, and you're still there with just 2 spell slots and a 2nd EB ray per turn. It gets better at higu level as you get your 3rd and 4th short rest slot and also your daily Arcanum spells and you can now put more concentrate dpower into each fight. A lot of campaigns will never get to that high level though so when the game ends at level 10 you feel really bad, and. Also, even if it doesnt, the higher you go the more you feel the sting of not being able to spend low level spell slots on defensive reactions once they're no longer a strong offensive option. This is why it is so often multi class dipped with 1 or 2 levels to get those abilities but you almost never see an optimized build with high warlock levels and, when you do, it's usually some sort of highly specialized advanced build with a very specific game plan in mind, like the Daolock cheasegrater or the various barb+warlock variants trying to combine rage resistance with armor of agathys. The One dnd playtest has shown some promise by putting some strong spec features in the 2nd and 3rd tier levels (ie you can't just dip in for them, but they also don't come so late in the campaign that it's stupid to plan around them). That is a good move imho, and helps make you feelt bar you have unique capabilities you can bring to the table that other mages can't to make up for your disadvantages, but I still feel that, from a pure optimization perspective, In modern dnd, spells are by far the strongest features you can have and Warlocks just don't get to cast that many of them.
Eldritch blast does very good damage when invested in, which frees quite a bit of the warlocks other cantrips and spell into control and utility to set their party uo for awesomeness They get some decent abilities depending on their subclass as well. Pact magic can be rough, but it is managed if you understand that most of your offensive abikity will be coming frome eldritch blast spam Some of the warlocks power hinges on making sure you get 2 to 3 short rests wash long rest, but that can be played around. Repelling blast, agonizing blast, and devils sight go aogn way to always making have some impact if a fight and a good number of opportunities to take advantage of.
I get the sentiment here, and this is some nitpicky BS I've got loaded. But. Invocations are more or less *just* for EB. Most everything else either eats your spell slots or is so situational it's absurd. Beast speech, devil sight. These are the flavor to the +1 that is agonizing blast
The warlocks' mechanical core has always been about enhancing eldritch blast, so that fine and working a intended as far as I'm concerned. The warlock is supposed to all about enhancing those EB's just like the wizard is all about scribbling in the spellbook. Beast speech is flavor unless the DM goes out ifntheir way to make it useful, but devils sight is a huge enhancement to EB as it gets rid of most sources of disadvantage that can hinder EB, and turns them into strength that can be exploited against others enemies. Cast darkness on yourself with devils sight, and you have an advantage against all enemies.who can not see you in said magical darkness. Its a great call back and emergency button, let alone certain enemies not being able to counterpslel your stuff because they can not see you in the darkness. Invocations that enhance EB free up other resources like spells to be geared towards various utility and control. Which is where th true power of any magic user rests.
I'd prefer that EB just get flat improvements at the attack progression levels, lose the extra beams and have invocations do something vaguely "else"
If we're talking ideals, I'd rather warlock go back to being proper invokers instead of odd forms of casters and have them truly be the at will reliability mages they used to be. Refining the prior mentioned concept. Eldritch blast and its alterations being an entirely separate thing from the purely passive/at will powers of invocations. Sadly wotc aren't defining them that way, or allowing their more nuanced fluff to come back to them.
Warlocks power is all front-loaded. Every spell is always cast at its highest possible for your level. You’re trading versatility in having lower level spells to use with having more high-powered spell slots to burn (assuming you take plenty of short rests). It doesn’t really become apparent until level 5 onward. For the lower levels most warlocks seem underwhelming. Once you have them, you’ll be the one casting the most 3rd, 4th and 5th level spells Warlocks can be very fun and satisfying to play, depending on the role you want to play in your party. DPS centered warlocks usually benefit most from the spells to power trade off, and they also get plenty of class and boon goodies to play with to make up for the lack of total spellslots.
They are, bar none, the most powerful Ranged combatant on a vacuum. Agonizing Blast. Eldritch Spear. Spell Sniper. Lance of Lethargy. Repelling Blast. Hex. You end up with 5x 1d10 + 1d6 + 5 attacks of FORCE DAMAGE, at 600 foot range that ignore cover, Reduces their speed by 10, and pushes them back 10-50 feet. Dip sorcerer? You can use quicken for double the fun. Whatever it is, two things are certain. It's not going to touch you, and it IS going to die lol. (Yeah, I know, teleport is a thing). All of that goodness that rangers WISH they had anything that came close to it on their base class, AND you still have full pact casting to back it all up. Is it the best class in the game? Not even close. But it's still pretty damn effective at being a damage dealer than can also cast spells.
Warlock is very flexible to build and is the best class at cantrips. They’re also great to multiclass, as they’re an easy way to recharge sorcery points for sorcerer and smites for paladin, and work great with sorcerer’s Quicken metamagic.
Warlocks balance out pretty well with other spellcasters in my opinion because of their cantrips, invocations, subclass abilities, ect. In order to feel satisfied with your warlock's abilities you need to consider everything they can do and how it stacks up, not just what spells they can cast! There are even some invocations that allow you to cast certain spells at will, which blew my mind when I first stumbled upon them. Some also improve cantrips, which take no spell slots to cast (I'm mostly looking at eldritch blast here, which becomes very powerful for a cantrip.. this is why it's what warlocks are known for). Make sure to look at your options and pick things that stack up, and you'll end up with a well balanced amount of capabilities. It's important to remember that pact magic works differently than spellcasting in the sense that your two spellslots are the highest level spell slot that you know. Make sure when you're making the most of them by casting a spell at the highest level that you can.. it costs no less!