Warlocks are so back in 5.5E, baybee. Not that they ever really went anywhere, but the new Warlock looks pretty cool.
Today is Warlock day over at WotC! And while they might be Wizards of the Coast, clearly Warlocks have got a soft spot somewhere on that coastline, because the new D&D 5.5E Warlock looks pretty snazzy, all things considered. Granted, all of this is just based on new details being shared and not actual play.
So keep that in mind as you go through these videos and such. But, on the whole, it sounds like Warlocks are going to be more fun, more modular, and just as Eldritch. With changes to Eldritch Invocations and their Pact of the ____ features, Warlocks have more options to pick from. And earlier too, it sounds like.
D&D 5.5E Warlocks – Putting the “Pact” in “Impact”
Let’s go through the baseclas s first. Starting with the biggest change: your Subclass now waits until level 3. Which is a little weird for a Warlock who has ostensibly gained power from a Patron. But it sounds like WotC is saying at level 3 when you decide what your Patron is, you’re basically just experiencing a deepening of the power, a reward for the good service you’ve provided over the last few levels. Which is kinda cool. I like that touch. I love that it personalizes the story a little and gives some context to a Warlocks leveling.
Instead at 1st level, you’ll pick your Pact Boon. This is a move that makes way more sense to me. You’ll pick your playstyle starting off. Do you want to focus on spells? Go with Pact of the Tome. Do you want to be a Bladelock (or just make attacks with your Charisma modifier instead of the others?) go with Pact of the Blade. Do you want to have cool minions? Go with Pact of the Chain.
And Pact of the Chain has many many more options available to it. Including venomous snake. Skeleton. Slaad tadpole. The list goes on. And is very exciting. You may well want to play this, though I can already feel the gish-crazed players eyeballing that level 1 pact of the blade. Gonna be a lot of Warlock dips still, it seems like. Not that that’s really a problem. Just a kinda funny fact about the world.
You also get Eldritch Invocations right up front too. Though many have level requirements where they didn’t before. And good news for Eldritch Invocation enjoyers, they seem much more expansive. Things like Repelling Blast don’t just apply to Eldritch Blast anymore. So you could, for instance, use a Ray of Frost that knocks people back and slows them down, making there be even more distance to cross to reach you.
All of this goes into the new and improved Warlock base class. But what about the subclasses? Well, they all get access to more spells that are automatically added to your list of spells known and prepared, which should have been how it was in the first place, but is a nice feature to have just the same.
Warlock Subclasses – Pacts for Days
The Archfey Patron Warlock is all about teleporting. You can Misty Step everywhere, thanks to Steps of the Fey which lets you cast Misty Step a few times per day for free. But Archfey Warlocks also get to layer on extra effects when teleporting with the spell, which sounds really cool.
You might teleport away from someone with Taunting Step and give disadvantage on someone’s attack rolls unless they attack you, and then when they do, you punish people for attacking you, dealing out Psychic Damage or you’re invisible, or hard to reach. And at level 14, Bewitching Magic lets you Misty Step whenever you cast an enchantment or illusion spell. It sounds effervescent, to say the least.
The Celestial Patron Warlock made the jump from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, but got some buffs along the way. First of all, Celestial Warlocks get more spells on their list in general, including the new Summon Celestial Spell, which means you can have a friend when you need one. But you’ll also have Guiding Bolt, Cure Wound, Aid, and so on. Everything to make you a helpful Warlock.
They also get some minor tweaks to existing abilities. Which is nice.
Fiend Patron Warlocks get to use all their toys a little more, but are for the most part unchanged. A few of the tweaks include having better resilience – Dark One’s Blessing now gives you temporary hit points whenever an enemy drops within a certain distance of you, whether you’re the one who dealt the killing blow or not. No more last hitting.
Great Old One Patron Warlocks, on the other hand, got a rebuild from the ground up. Which is pretty exciting. Now, they get enhanced psionic abilities. They can Summon Aberrations, an ability that lets them summon things from little beholders to mind flayers or other reduced down monsters that are suitable for players to play with.
They also can turn damage into psychic damage when casting Warlock spells. Enchantment and Illusion spells don’t have verbal or somatic components. And with Clairvoyant Combatant, a new feature, they also get a sort of battle psionics, where you connect your mind to a target and then enhance your abilities against them, dealing increased damage and other effects along the way.
All this in the new Player’s Handbook, due out September 17th!
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