Summary
Elected the fan-favoriteDungeons & Dragonsclass by numerous polls, the warlock is the most beloved class, owing to its mysterious eldritch flavor, high level of customization, and patron dynamic by which your magic is granted through a questionable pact.
The 2024 update to the Player’s Handbook brings with it more eldritch invocations, spell slots, and abilities tied to your character’s tragic backstory are on the table than ever before. Even still, is it really all worth that oh-so-difficult-to-define warlock price?
6Magical Cunning Provides More Spell Slots
Don’t Be Stingy Now Patrons
This completely new feature will be unlocked by warlocks at level two and gives them the ability to regain one expended spell slot. This is basically the wizard’s Arcane Recovery feature with the difference being that it returns a single high level spell slot versus having the option to regain multiple low level ones.
The low level of spell slots available to a warlock is probably the number one complaint players have about the class. Even though a warlock’s spell slots come back on a short rest, sometimes there’s not enough time to take an hour break during an adventure. Magical Cunning will largely solve this issue and is a very welcome addition to the warlock’s toolkit.
5Additional Eldritch Invocations
More Customizations With Your Invocations
Invocations are perhaps the coolest featureof the warlock class as they allow you to customize your warlock’s abilities to a degree that other classes can only dream about. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the design team has leaned heavily into expanding this feature. Firstly, you will receive your choice of two starting invocations right at level one as opposed to level two.
Second, you will gain more invocations as you level up resulting in a deeper pool of invocations as well as making it easier to grab invocations that work well together. Third, prerequisites for invocations have been changed considerably. Some invocations have had their level prerequisites lowered while others that previously didn’t have a prerequisite have had them added.
This was done to balance against the fact that warlocks now receive two invocations at first level. Furthermore, it also limits the number of invocations players have to choose from at certain levels to make your level progression easier. Lastly, some of the new invocations used to be an entirely separate warlock feature . . .
4Pact Boons As Invocations
Bundle And Save!
The pact boon feature of the warlock has now been packed into their choice of eldritch invocations. Instead of choosing between the pact of the blade, pact of the tome, or pact of the chain at third level, warlocks can now pick up one or more of these pacts when choosing their eldritch invocations.
The nicest thing about this change is that you are now no longer limited to a single pact boon. Furthermore, each of these pact boons will still often serve as a prerequisite for later eldritch invocation choices making picking at least one of them up a near necessity for certain playstyles.
These invocations have also each been expanded upon in so far as the options they offer. The pact of the chain now allows you a wider variety of unique familiar choices that match the warlock’s eldritch origins, the pact of the blade has additional invocations for bettering your melee abilities, and the pact of the tome modifies many more spells than just your eldritch blast.
3Call Upon Your Patron
Hello, I’d Like To Make A Pact Insurance Claim
The warlock is receiving yet another new ability that allows them to call upon their patron for help. This will likely look similar to the cleric’sDivine Intervention feature, however, we unfortunately don’t have any details on how this ability is going to work just yet.
For a character whose story is so closely intertwined with a powerful entity, it was strange that the warlock did not have any mechanics that directly involved their patron. This oversight will be remedied with the warlock’s new ability to have their patron potentially intercede in an encounter: for good or for ill.
2An Expanded Spell List
More Can Sometimes Mean Less
All class spell lists have been expanded in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, however, which is especially good for the warlock spell list, as it was among the shortest in the game.
Now, warlocks will have a selection of spells more on par with classes like the sorcerer and cleric but still overshadowed by the wizard. While expanded spell lists are nice and all, this does lead to a homogenization of the classes as players tend to pick the best choices available to their class versus ones that might be more flavorful.
If every spellcaster is casting the same spells, it detracts from the feeling that a warlock, sorcerer, and cleric bring different things to an adventuring party. That being said, perhaps the expanded spell lists won’t result in this problem. Only time will tell.
1Heavy Subclass Reworks
Flavor Is Nice But Mechanics Are Nicer
While the warlock’s base class features are among the most celebrated in the game,warlock subclass featuresin the 2014 edition of the Player’s Handbook left a lot to be desired. For the most part, all subclasses were overshadowed by a select few subclass choices that actually offered meaningful benefits.
This will likely no longer be the case as all of the warlock subclasses have been revisited and, in some cases, completely redesigned. The Archfey subclass now brings a heavy teleportation theme reminiscent of the eladrin’s teleportation effects, the Celestial subclass receives some of the best cleric spells, and the Great Old One subclass now has psychic damage and summons subthemes.
As far as the fiend subclass, it was already extremely powerful and one of the most consistently chosen subclasses due to this power. That being said, it’s still seen some minor improvements that will give your warlock easier access to the temporary hit points and other durability tools this subclass is known for. Besides, who better to forge a morally questionable pact with than a fiend?
