Correction: I say that Magical Cunning is the same as in the playtest, but in the playtest you needed to have all your pact slots expended in order to use it, and that restriction was removed.
It is in effect 50% more spell slots for one period between short rests. That's a lot. May make you feel more comfortable with using two in a fight knowing there is a back up way to get one more before a rest
Question, Celestial Warlock, level 6 feature. Didn't they buff it? The reason it was bad for damage before was because the wording was "When you cast a spell that does radiant/fire damage" meaning it only worked the turn you cast it, but now it says "When a spell you cast deals radiant/fire damage." Doesn't that mean that it would still apply to say a Wall of Fire you cast last turn? It is still a spell you cast and all. The requirement that it was a spell you just casted ("When you cast") was removed.
Exactly, scaling Aid on a warlock that can short rest the slot back is great, and obviously just crazy team buff along with the extra temp HP feature at later levels. If your team ever dies with a celestial warlock in the party, something insane happened
I'm playing a playtest celestial warlock drow (Eilistraee ftw) at the moment and updating with info from youtube. It feels great to play, although thanks to Radiant Soul sucking 6 is basically a dead level.
At lower levels, you could also finish a long rest, cast Aid, and then immediately use Magical Cunning to gain the slot back and start the day with full spell slots. When you get high enough level that Magical Cunning restores 2 spell slots, you could also combine it with another long-term buff to do the same.
I'm surprised you didn't notice, but the 11th Mystic Arcanum casts the spell "without expending a spell slot." So, in theory, that would allow you to cast that spell and another leveled spell from spell slots in the same turn, provided the action economy worked out. Not sure what broken interaction that will lead to, but I'd be surprised if there isn't a way to abuse that.
@@isaacremnant7226 But the change is implicit in the change of casing multiple spells a turn from "multiple leveled spells" to "multiple spells from spell slots"
Level 15 Great Old One Warlock. As their Bonus Action, cast Hex, debuffing the target's Intelligence, and as their Action, cast Befuddlement (nee Feeblemind) with their 8th level Mystic Arcanum. The target rolls the save with Disadvantage, and if they fail they take 10d12 psychic damage and can't cast spells or take the Magic Action, and have to wait for 30 days before they can attempt the save again unless they have an ally with Wish, Heal, or Greater Restoration prepared. All of that takes 1 turn. And since both Hex and Befuddlement are Enchantment spells, the Warlock casts them without any verbal or somatic components, so they could theoretically do this in the middle of a crowded room without anyone in the room being able to figure out what just happened.
@mpetrov2402 You need to start Paladin for heavy armor training (but later dips still get medium armor and shields). As my two Paladin spells, I would pick Bless and Divine Smite for my Celestial Warlock as I'll use True Strike with Agonizing Blast instead of making multiple attacks (smiting to add my Charisma modifier four times to that single attack due to the 6th-level Radiant Soul feature).
And it does make more sense that way too it feels like. "Patron seduces weakish newbie because they're easier to corrupt" just makes so much more sense than "Pro Paladin takes a hit of Warlock, throwing all that holiness out the window" for example
@@WhiteOwl1061 I played this kind of build a few years ago and it was SUPER fun. When Armor of Agathys ran out, some enemy was usually near death and I just slurped up their life force for more temp hp. I could wade into hordes of minions and pretty much never lose any real hit points, constantly re-upping the temp hp.
Eldritch Hex for Great Old One Warlocks is actually pretty interesting for using Hex as a non-combat spell. As you mention in the video, casting it as a 5th level spell makes it last for up to 24 hours, but since it is also an Enchantment spell it can be cast without verbal or somatic components, so you can Hex someone without them knowing. You can then keep hitting them with non-concentration Enchantment or Illusion spells throughout the day to keep messing with the target while limiting anyone's ability to trace it back to you.
Here's another edge case to consider. You're trying to flee after a heist and you know Sherlock Bones the Celestial warlock is on your case! He bust in on you when you tripped the alarm and you link to his mind at that time. You dodge his crossbow shots due to your minklink giving you precognition of where he's aiming and you subtly hex his wisdom before you leap from the window with your ill gotten gains. He rushes across the room but sees no sign of you and tries to give persuit. His (wis) perception and (wis) survival attempts to track you are thwarted and he never even knows the reason why... A wanted poster is put up in the kingdom: "Have you seen this rogue?" He catches you at the exit gate that evening and compares the poster to your disguise: "Not me Guv. I'm a wizard, see? Look at my prestidigination. Got the wrong guy!" as you cast it from your Pact of the Tome. His (Wis) insight check does not beat your deception and he waves you through convinced you're someone else... Just for fun, when you're a mile away from town a voice laughs in Faerun's Greatest Detectives mind, "The thief? It WAS me, Cthulhu Moriarty, and I fooled you. I walked out right under your nose! Muahahahahaaa!" And thus the life long rivalry is born... PS Warlock detective is an awesome build. Use Lessons of the First ones to repeatedly take Skilled to be proficient in all the skills a genius detective could wish for, and infinite free castings of Whispers of the Grave to speak with the victims for clues. Mask of Many Faces and Master of Myriad Forms allows you to go undercover with any disguise you can wish to have, and later Witch Sight can help you counter other's attempts to hide from you!
Fiend Warlock was literally the only competitor to Hexblade in combat terms just because of that feature back in the day. Now, it sucks, I'm sad because of it.
@MegaCombatGamers the concept is nice, but there really isn't many bonus action spells. It will mostly mean you won't need a set up round for hex or Armor of Agathas.
Invocations, too. You could Bonus Action Armor of Agathys into Fiendish Vigor at level 2, for 12 temp HP that deals 5 damage any time someone hits you. Or Misty Visions into Hex to give them disadvantage on seeing through it.
@@CivilWarMan you generally would want 1 level of paladin or fighter since the capstone is meh. I think paladin level 1 is the better than the fighter.
@@mpetrov2402 I agree with the Paladin dip being better, especially with either Great Old One or Celestial Warlock. My general idea for a build, assuming standard array and PHB backgrounds, would be to go 15 Cha, 14 Con, 13 Dex, 12 Str, 10 Wis, 8 Int, pick Entertainer for the Musician feat and +1 Str, Dex, Cha to hit the Paladin multiclass strength prerequisite and round out Dex/Cha. Start out Warlock for immediate Pact of the Blade, taking the 1 level Paladin dip at some point between levels 2 and 6 for Medium Armor, shields if going sword and board, and if going Celestial Warlock getting access to Divine Smite before Radiant Soul comes online. By going that route, as opposed to opening Paladin for Heavy Armor, you get a better initiative modifier, among the other benefits of not dumping Dex. This would also still allow the Warlock to meet the requirements for wielding Heavy Weapons if they want to go Great Weapon Master. Obviously focus on Pact of the Blade, but also maybe take Chain for the familiar support and the consistent Bonus Action attack with Investment of the Chain Master.
I'd not use paladin. You could use cleric, and get light, medium shield and HEAVY proficiency along with martial proficiency. They both give 2 spell slots, and while the cleric spells cast would use Wisdom, a lot of spells the bladepact could use them for dont need it. Hex for example? Or a buff like bless. Unless you intend to invest to 2nd level to smite, but that would cost you your epic boon. Mind you Paladin is fine if you start a Paladin, as you wouldn't loose heavy proficiency. Personally I dont think the MC is needed. Pact weapon is always proficient. Armour of Shadows is 13+dex, so lets assume 16 ac with 16 dex. Light is Studded leather 15AC, medium is brestplate 16AC, and heavy is Scale 16AC, 18AC once you have the 1000ish gold for fullplate. From a defensive standpoint not really worth it. And you get Shadow of Moil later. All you're really gaining at L1 is weapon mastery (which could be taken as a feat) and 2 L1 spells on long rests.
@@rogerexcell249 Using heavy weaons requires 13 Str, GWM requires 13 Str, heavy armor requires 13 str. It's obvious that paladin is better than cleric. If you dont want to use wepons - dont, you still get LoH and cha casting with 2 spell slots and good spells. Paladin is the best 1 lvl dip followed by fighter 1 and warlock 1.
I think that celestial warlock not being a phb subclass really hurt it, phb subclasses are the ones that got major overhauls but there's a MASSIVE difference between a subclass from Xanathar's and a subclass from Tasha's.
Despite being unchanged, the 6th-level Radiant Soul feature now makes sense to build around. Thanks to the changes to Agonizing Blast, True Strike, and Divine Smite, they can now be combined to add your Charisma modifier four times to the damage of a single attack. For campaigns ending before 13th level (where a Padlock could get another Extra Attack), this might be the strongest Pact of the Blade build for burst damage?
I think a Celestial warlock that uses True Strike can be good. At second level pick up agonizing blast (select True Strike), now your True strike is doing double your Chr in damage. At 6th level the Celestial warlock is adding TRIPPLE Chr on damage when doing this. Not broken but still fun :)
Nevermind, Radiant Soul has been further limited to once per turn. Divine Smite and Extra Attack (Thirsting Blade) is slightly better for a Celestial Padlock than True Strike plus Agonizing Blast if you can spare the spell slots. War Caster and True Strike is a nice combo for triggering Radiant Soul with your Reaction though.
Actually, slight correction on Radiant soul, as i think it WAS in fact buffed slightly; previously the feature read "when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets." Which I have always interpreted to mean that you get the benefit on the turn when you cast it, but not on subsequent turns. This new wording, 'A spell you cast' and the specification of 'once per turn', clarifies that it works with persistent damage spells, like Wall of Fire.
That’s kind of crazy. Per turn allows it to work with things like magic Injtiate: Searing Smite when you hit with it (your turn) and when they burn at the start of their turn, and then again if they fail their CON save. Removal of “damage roll” wording also lets it work with Guardian of Faith too, which doesn’t involve rolls.
"So you could do it on Legendary Creatures on Round 1. Beat 'em on initiative and BOOM, you're gone. Now we're going to set up a bunch of crap so that when you reappear, you're screwed." I can't possibly fathom why this would get nerfed. Completely shocking to me.
The 13 strength requirement to multiclass paladin doesn't sound so bad considering it's the same requirement to use heavy weapons now, and considering that blade pact doesn't do anything to remove that requirement.
Yessssss. I love Warlock so much! So happy it's first! Gonna be listening while I'm at work! (Then again after work so I can watch the info on screen!) Thank you for all these videos! New books must be hectic times for you, this community is so lucky to have great creators like you! Much love 💜 I hope the coming week is awesome for you!
The smaller AC relative to other classes is actually fine, in my book. What they lose in AC they MASSIVELY make up for in overall utility and battlefield control. Pact of the Blade warlocks STILL have access to the same spells as other warlocks. A warlock who can cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Dissonant Whispers, Command, Plant Growth, Blink, Hunger of Hadar, Evard’s Black Tentacles and Misty Step isn’t gonna be all that concerned about getting cornered in combat.
@@heathenwizard that’s all fine and dandy until your 15 ac warlock at levels 11-15 gets smoked to hell. The main issue is that the level 20 cap stone is so ass for what most 20th level cap stones should be that every pact of the blade build will just dip 1-3 levels in fighter, paladin, etc. when the benefits are so great with so little downside, that’s bad design.
Just realized that both Fiend and GOO warlocks can have resistance to all damage when they have Shadow of Moil up by 19th level. Take the 'Boon of the Night Spirit' Boon that grants resistance to all damage except Psychic and Radiant when in Dim Light. Both Fiend and Goo locks can get Psychic resistance from their class features, and if you cast 'Shadow of Moil' on yourself, you will be granted Resistance to Radiant damage, AND, you turn Bright light within 10 feet of you to Dim light, therefore giving you resistance to all damage types while concentrating on SoM, and also making all attacks at advantage, having all incoming attacks at disadvantage, and being immune to many spell effects as you won't be able to be targeted by any spell that requires sight of you.
@@voidseekersarchive Ah, gotcha. The disadvantage isn't coming from the dim light itself. The dim light is only important because of the wording of the Boon. Shadow of Moil creates that dim light or darkness around the caster and the Boon grants resistance to all but Radiant and Psychic when in dim light or darkness. Shadow of Moil also makes the caster "Heavily Obscured", which essentially means that they are immune to spells that require the caster to see them AND causes all attacks at the Shadow of Moil caster to be at disadvantage. UNLESS the attacker has Blindsight or Tremor Sense. Even Truesight doesn't see through Heavy Obscurement
Who would’ve thought that the Archfey Warlock is the subclass I’m the most excited about in the 2024 PHB? Especially with the Bard as my favorite class overall
The two ritual spells are folded into the base Pact of the Tome. Unfortunately, what they did do was remove the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation, meaning we can't learn any additional ritual spells that aren't on our lists.
I think it’s notable that Celestial Resilience stacks with any 5th level Aid spell that the celestial warlock might want to rest-cast. That’s 35 extra HP per person, and costs no resources if you’re willing to spend an hour. That’s an absurd amount of sustain for a 10th level party. It’s real good
I like this on a roleplay level. Having martial training _ought_ to be an indicator of an adventurer who is more likely to survive. And in most D&D settings, it entirely makes sense for nearly everyone to be at least a little Fighter or Rogue. A Level 1 Fighter is _far_ more likely to survive whatever was necessary to get to the point of signing a pact than a classless Level 0 nobody. This is yet another reason why I like the new official recommendation that Levels 1-2 is the tutorial for absolute beginners and everyone else should generally start at 3 or above. It gives you room to put a little multiclassing into your backstory.
I'm not a big fan of Munchkin myself, so to avoid the level dip I'd offer a rework on Armor Training feat (replaces Lightly Armored, Moderately Armored, Heavily Armored, and Defense Fighting Style): Armor Training General Feat (Prerequisite: Lv 4+) ASI: Increase your Strength, Dexterity or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20. You gain training with Light armor, Medium armor, Heavy armor and Shields. Armor Specialist. While you're wearing armor or shield in which you have training provided by another source (such as another feat or class feature), you gain a +1 bonus to AC. You can only gain this benefit once (wearing both armor and shield won't stack as a +2 AC bonus). (Note: this replaces all feats mentioned above, thus unable to stack with bonuses provided by them)
GOO Telepathy has a range measured in miles but a duration measured in minutes. Especially with the duration hidden on the next page it feels like it will trip up a LOT of players.
The low duration is absolutely ridiculous. It's clear that it was added because of the level 6 feature, and they didn't feel like giving them separate durations 😒
For the Archfey Pact Warlock level 10 feature, I think the ability to expend a Pact Magic spell slot might be moderately good if your party is getting regular short rests. From what I am reading, if you have a Pact Magic spell slot remaining and are about to take a short rest you could restore your use of the level 10 feature (as opposed to using a spell slot to use the feature again directly), and then you can take the Short Rest to gain back that Pact Magic spell slot. The feature basically gives you a way to "recycle" an unexpended spell slot before you take a short rest, in the rare(?) event you have a spell slot left over before taking a rest.
I disagree. Sure they get to save for it now. But you missed the part you get one free casting and can recast for a Warlock spell slot... Thats 1 per long rest free, plus one per spell slot, and that includes the L1 spell slot of pact of the tome for 2 per long rest, plus 2-5 (usually 3) per short rest, and another 2-5 once a day from the magical cunning feature. Thats probably potentially 11-17 a day compared to the old 1 per day.
@@rogerexcell249So there is no lvl1 slot in pact of the tome. Also, how do you get 5 slots per SR ( or magical cunning)? And spending all yor 5th lvl slots on a single target save or suck doesn’t sound that appealing imo.
@@moglimann2158 If they removed the spell slot from pact of the tome then my figures are wrong. Also makes POTT completely useless as an invocation. Sad days. New uses a day becomes 1/day, and 2-4 per short rest and magical cunning. Thus 6-13 is the new figure, usually 6-11 until L20. also its at least a Charisma save, which isnt that bad to target. Could be infinitely worse like Wis, Str or Con. On average given monster saves at CR 22 are +9 for Charisma your spell DC of 21 without items, so your HtH will connect on average 3/4 the time. Thats still at worst 4 vs 1 a day. Still overall an improvement. Especially for burning through Legendary resistances on a boss.
I think Searing Vengeance is pretty damn spiffy in all honesty, worded as is, it doesn't cost any actions to use. So if you have a downed ally who is about to make a death save, you can get them back up while still keeping any actions, bonus action, or reaction. It just happens on its own, and that's pretty neat.
Reminder: mystic arcanum doesn't use spell slots so if you can find the right combo for action economy you can cast multiple high level spells in the same turn
*Evard's Black Tentacles* used to be the reason I wanted to play the GOO. I'm sad to loose to loose it for *Summon Aberration,* but I guess I would have to pick *the Fathomless Patron* instead and get it 3 levels later.
Gosh, talk about an improved Archfey patron (absolutely gorgeous art too btw). Tiny bit sad the modifiable spellcasting stat wasn't well received, but this is great. Seeing non-Hexblades is cool.
The flavour of Archfey is indeed nice. I like how they made it so much fun, and while its fantastic on blade pacts, even caster types can benefit from bampfing around the battlefield like a hyperactive nightcrawler going invisible or doing damage to the foe that got into melee or just healing yourself up with temp HP to stay in the fight. I'm a Celestial type myself, and though I'm by far the weakest type, I appreciate I still do my same, weak backup cleric work, but at least can be somewhat effective now with a Searing flame sniper or Green flame Bladelock build now!
I mean, I'm a Ranger so I didn't put too much thought into what kind of Warlock I'd play, but I just really love the flavour. Plus I remember reading the old Archfey and being quite underwhelmed, this one feels fey like.
20:00 Healing Light seems like more than a decent little feature! That's a lot of Healing Word equivalents. Wait for someone to go down, then get them back in the fight for a bonus action. Very useful if you ask me.
The "amount of dice you can spend" limit is a trap. The best use usually will be to heal a fallen ally with just 1 die or between combats when there's no time pressure anyway.
@@damedley75Though, tbf, if you have pact of the chain and gift of the old ones, you can use it to heal yourself for a flat amount on a bonus action. Up to 30hp to yourself as a bonus action feels good.
Imagine a level 14 great old one that gets to prepare before a big fight. step 1: short rest. step 2: summon 3 beefed up apperations. step 3: barbarian kicks in the door. step 4: place hex on the dragon, you, and your three aberations now all benefit from that hex spell, and you can still cast one of your mystic arcanums, probably something that targets the save the dragon now has disadvantage on.
You sure could cast an MA in the Hex turn. Unfortunately, the only relevant spells in this scenario (6th or 7th level, no concentration, require a save) on the warlocks list are Finger of Death and Plane Shift. For the former, disadvantage on the save would result in roughly +5dmg and the latter kind of makes no sense. If you Planeshift the dragon, why bother attacking it with the Summons ;)
@@moglimann2158 hmm... I can I see I didn't read the fine print. So maybe you yourself don't benefit from the disadvantage on save, but even so, still very powerful to have concentration free summons to show up with.
If you choose *Wisdom,* the dragon has disadvantage against the *Whispering Aura* of your 3 *Star Spawns* (for 2d6 psychic damage each). On your next turn, it has disadvantage against your *Clairvoyant Combatant* feature (for adv./disadv.). Your allies are very likely to have save-or-suck spells that require Wisdom saves, so they can quickly burn through any Legendary Resistances, while you and your 3 aberrations pommel it with attack after attack, all applying *Hex* damage.
Very happy to see GOO in a "GOOd" place haha. But Chris, on the topic of warlock losing out on spells, you forgot to mention that while some of the (low level) utility invocation spells got lumped into the main class spell list now, we also lost all the old (mid level) combat-themed spell invocations that granted spells like Animate Dead, Conjure Elemental, Compulsion, and Slow (plus Chains of Carceri free cast Hold Monster), which are gone now, mostly without replacement, and they didn't get added to the main class spell list, nor any of the subclass spell lists. So on the main spell list we lost 4 spells and gained 6 (net +2), but across all features, we lost 8 and gained 6 (net -2). Note: I know that Animate Dead was essentially intended to be replaced with Summon Undead, but they aren't the same spell, and it means there's no way to play a multi-summon build without it or the (old) Conjure spells. I get it's not a bad thing necessarily due to multi-summon spells' (potential lack of) table friendliness, but when not abused and talked about with your table, those spells were still quite fun in moderation to have a platoon you commanded, which isn't possible when all the new summon spells are single-summon and require concentration -- with ig the exception of new GOOlock's version of Summon Aberration for 1 min. We also didn't get a replacement Conjure Elemental update, that's just gone, straight up. So I'm quite unhappy about that.
Kinda weird that Dreadful Step lets you choose the space you left or the space you appear in, but Taunting Step is only the space you left. Teleporting into a group of enemies and taunting them is such flavour and i would absolutely allow it as a dm.
Celestial is even better now, with just a small spell list change & Searing Vengence buff (and no save blind at high levels is great already!) With the radiant soul buff, Wall of Fire and such now also get the dmg buff every turn A shame everything else, from movement to utility to defence to healing (spells) have been buffed, the Celestial overall falling behind
Most MA options require Concentration, but if you started with 1 level in Paladin, *Divine Favor* is a nice non-concentration Bonus Action spell that can add d4 Radiant damage to your 3 attacks from *Thirsting Blade + Devouring Blade* on subsequent turns
I think they should've split shield proficiency as it's own feat. I'm okay with armor and shield proficiency getting harder to get for casters. They shouldn't become so easily just as good at tanking as martials (or arguably better, with the shield spell, contingency etc). That said, the new feat design buffed wizards and sorcerers while hitting warlocks, bards and rogues, all classes that have some melee flavor.
It would just be extra clutter to split it into two feats like that, light armor classes should take medium armor to have both hands free, light armor + shields is around the same AC as medium armor a lot of the time so it isn't game-breaking or anything
@@nocanseegreen3845my point is exactly that It should be hard to get both proficiency in medium armor and shields. But light armor and shield are better than the best medium armor w/o shield for a dex build because: a. Now characters can get +6s at high lvls; b. You could potentially stack bonuses from a magic shield and a magic armor.
I read this and knee jerk was mad about the idea, but the more I think about it I think you're right, it is too easy to have a good AC for casters, so I think this would be a good change. Although it's arguably easier to just take a martial at first level then go straight magic user after to get armor and shield proficiency.
13:00 Actually new Potion Factory spell is really good utility, so the absence of Mass Suggestion is not as bad as it looks, On the other hand, 7th level is awful. With huge Forcecage nerf there are not good spells for warlock. Warlock is not like other casters. His high-level spells should be the ones you can cast every day.
Using backwards compatibility, Hexblade patron will give the Warlock armor proficiencies as needed. As DM, I would homebrew that medium armor feat also provides shield proficiency just to avoid the fighter dip if the player does no want it.
But... warlocks dont need armour proficiency. One with Shadows invocation with 16 dex (a reasonable assumption for a caster) is 16AC. Studded leather is +15, medium brestplate is +16, heavy scale is +16 (only 18 with 1000ish GP for full plate). 15,16,17... not much in it. And Warlocks get the single best defensive spell in the game later with Shadow of Moil. Automatic disadvantage to all attack on them, and complete immunity from spells with the "you can see" descriptor. Get your dex to 20, and you're at AC 18 same as full plate.
@@rogerexcell249True but Plate doesn’t require 20 DEX and usually gives physical resistances. So on average you’d be better off just using Heavy Armor, and it gets even better with a shield. Play also doesn’t take up your Concentration
@@rogerexcell249 having to invest in charisma, I don't find Dex 16 reasonable for a caster that uses the standard point buy system. If you roll it or have a more generous point buy, even so it it does not scale well. 16 is not a lot. The caster will invest in their main attribute, and Dex will stay at 16. Also, for a melee Bladelock, AC is not the only attribute to consider. You also need CON for your HP.
@@voidseekersarchive No it does one better. It gives you heavily obscured. Regardless of ANYTHING. That's "you're enemies are blind, no save." I believe Blindsight works since it allows you to ignore blind. Did further checking new wording of blindsight tremmorsense and true sight. New truesight works on SOM as it states "you can see through things obscured with magic". Old Blindsight worked, but couldnt find the new wording, I think this remains true. Tremmosense does NOT work for spells that require sight as "Tremorsense doesn’t count as a form of sight." Delving a little deeper the best I could find is: "Tremorsense tells you exactly where a creature is, so it’s basically a counter to Hide and Invisibility. It does not let you see through Heavily Obscured, but you do know what square each creature is in." Breaking it down: *Shadow of Moil* "Flame-like shadows wreathe your body until the spell ends, causing you to *_become heavily obscured_* to others." *Heavily obscured:* Vision is blocked; creatures are effectively *_blinded_* ." *Blinded* "A blinded creature can't see and *_automatically fails any ability check that requires sight_*. (including spells that require sight) Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage." Crawford clarified this spell too: Quote: "Shadow of Moil heavily obscures you, full stop. The spell also dims the light around you. The fact that you're heavily obscured is a result of the flame-like shadows surrounding you, not the result of being in darkness. This means you're heavily obscured even to darkvision."
Celestial warlock is actually so good. It's 3 lvl feature is an equivalent of 1+level castings of healing word which does not intervene with your spellcasting. Yeah it's a little less healing but nobody cares about it because all you need is 1 hp. Also they get nice short rest based healing with cure wounds which is valuable.
@@SortKaffeyes, I even forgot about Aid. It gives your whole team a chunk of bonus hp for no cost basically. And is a decent mass healing spell as well.
The Warlock I see is a Chain Pact GOO Warlock that casts minor illusion around themselves and hides near the battle. Then they use their super summon, share their vision with it, then have it attack enemies while shooting spells out of it the whole time, and it resummoned with an action anytime it dies. You can even pretend to speak with it with your telepathy and use your telepathy debuff. You could even be a Dwarf or multiclass to get something with blind fighting to potentially protect your real body from being snuck up on. Eventually when you get a good Summon Spell you will have two minions walking around causing chaos with you being completely protected.
You forgot to mention that your illusion and enchantment spells have no V component. You can hide and be invisible until you make a noise (never) make an attack (spells with saves arent attacks) or the DM thinks youre taking the pi** (I'd rule colour spray would give you away for example). Have fun silently Mind Slivering every round with your cantrip and not breaking invisibility or hide!
Warlocks have access to Truestrike, meaning a celestial warlock can cast True Strike and add their charisma mod 3 times. At 6th level, a crossbow should deal slightly more damage than EB+AB. This isn’t phenomenal on its own, but if you pick up metamagic adept or multiclass sorcerer, you can quicken it for more than EB gets you at 17
They also get Green-flame blade, so they can add Charisma 3x to the first target and 2x charisma to the second with a bladepact... If they're a Celestial I mean. Otherwise its 2x/2x
@deffdefying4803 it's not about banning certain things, it's about narrowing what content is allowed. Many tables will be playing with only the materials in the PHB. In fact, relavently, Treantmonk has stated that all of his videos moving forward will only be using content from the 2024 books and those that come after.
Its a fair argument. I merely listed another option you might be allowed to try. Another would be Word of Radiance in XGE. For base game only I'd suggest a Celestial Patron with Sacred Flame. Agonized Sacred flame does less than EB, but it ignores cover. Combine with Pact of the Chain, and the fact it now has no max range looking through its eyes and a lot of familiar forms can go invisible and you can send it in as a spotter... With your bonus action you can see what it sees, leaving you free to snipe the foes THROUGH FULL COVER including solid walls as it only requires the target to be in range and you able to see them. Added bonus points if you order your invisible familiar to follow the party or party scout and you combine with Eldritch spear and have shiney 90'-660' range wallclipping holy orbital lasers from safety... just in case you're a coward, or want to be able to cover the rogue if they fluff their sneaking while the party spends a few turns rushing in to try and save them.
It’s odd that the lightly armored feat comes with shield proficiency but the light armor classes don’t get shield proficiency. Removing shield proficiency from moderately armored was an odd miss as well, I think the better fix would have been adding shield proficiency to all the “armored” feats.
i think if i was gonna create and origin feat for my players at the table i would make civil militia from bg3 and make it give prof in med armour and shields.
It makes more sense to give lightly armoured feat to militia. Metal armour is expensive, so leather is more likely, along with a cheap wooden shield. LA Feat already set up this way. And the change of shield use on Light and Med was silly I agree. It was just done so theres a reason for someone to ever take light armour feat, but removing it from med means its now the new light armoured: A feat you'd never take. Having both give one attribute and shield and their armour level respectively makes more sense to me. This way a wizard, sorcerer, warlock or a rogue could all benefit.
@@thomasquesada7248 yeah i can get that but is is coming from the feeling i have that most origin feats are so underpowered it is not worth having them.
So a level 14 Great Old One warlock can summon up to three aberratons at the same time since it isn't a concentration spell fo them. Two aberrations hitting a hexed target sounds pretty good!
I can't think of one good justification for why they removed mass suggestion from warlock spell list. It was *the* 6th level magic arcanum. I imagine a lot of tables homebrewing it back onto their spell list.
Maybe because it was *the* 6th-level Mystic Arcanum, so WotC wanted to level the playing field? One over-shining every other option is bad design. There are still many nice options, e.g. *Circle of Death, Conjure Fey, Create Undead, Eyebite, Mental Prison, Summon Fiend*
The 13 Str requirement for paladin is probably not as bad as you suggest in the beginning. As it is also a requirement for heavy weapons and some feats. I could see a pact of the blade taking a Charisma +1 at 4, and ASI at 8 to max it, then look to something like GWM at 12
20:05 i think this is better than it looks, since true strike not only works with this but also with agonising blast and repelling blast, so if we have a level 6 warlock with agonising blast, on 1 target they can do 2d10+2*charisma mod (probably 4 around that level, so 19 avg, top end 28 low end 10) while with true strike and a light crossbow a celestial warlock can do 1d8+1d6+3*charisma mod (20, top end 26 bottom end 14), so on average a point higher, worst case on hit 5 points higher and best case only 2 points lower. Now obviously eldritch blast makes two attack rolls so at least one blast hit chance is a lot higher, but were we to multiclass 1 level into rogue, who can get 2 masteries and only needs dex for the dip (something we probably already have) we can not only get a second effect on true strike via weapo masteries (repelling blast being first) but also, were we to dip into pact of the chain use an extra 1d6 damage die per turn via sneak attack (ally within 5 feet, preferably an invisible one). Will this keep up around a level 11 eldritch blaster? No, but it isn't *significantly* worse by any means. A pact of the blade warlock with a 1 level fighter dip could also presumably just use their melee capabilities with a pact weapon and masteries to do more damage+cc (ignoring secondary spells for now but, i mean, spirit shroud will add to melee way more so a ranged comparison is far from perfect here) so two attacks+mastery presumably with gwm and either hex or spirit shroud; but a celestial warlock, i think and i need clarification here because I'm not sure, can then use a rogue dip+pact of the blade to conjure a light weapon with nick and have another light weapon (with anything we want) to true strike first with vex weapon, and then make a light weapon attack with the nick weapon to strike again, adding sneak attack due to advantage. Presumably this results in, at level 7 Bladelock: (Maul) 4d6+2*mod+2*PB with topple, second attack presumably with advantage And Celestial: D6 (weapon+vex)+d6 (level 5)+3*mod+d6(nick, pact of the blade)+d6(sneak attack) with push (agonising blast), so 4d6+3*mod with push While here, attack rolls are made with charisma and we are making the same number of attscks so spirit shroud/hex works the samr way but even here 1. Second attack is after toppling/vex so it has advantage, but since the bladelock adds PB+mod to the second attack unlike celestial which does not add any flat modifier, the average damage of bladelock is higher if they manage to get the enemy to topple, if not then the reverse could be true. If they dipped paladin instead and void con saves, they can add 2d4 via divine favor as well. Still, it is fairly comparable even now. 2. And this is where i need clarification, does true strike allow for nick attack? Light weapons say you can do extra attack after attacking with a different light weapon on your action, which we are doing so it would work, but then we are taking a magic action and not an action so idk, if this doesn't work we can go back to being a ranged character with two effects on our cantrip (one weapon mastery, one push via repelling blast) 3. Finally fighter means con saves are good, which a rogue dip doesn't have. I think this is a compelling enough case that while radiant soul isn't incredible, it allows for niche flavor we don't really see in a warlock, specifically a serious contender for using our cantrip invocations on something other than eldritch blast (note that if we dip out of 2024 phb then green flame blade is another good candidate for radiant soul, which we presumably get via magic initiate).
Regarding nick and light weapons, doesn't work with True Strike, as the extra attack from the light property only applies when taking the Attack Action, while cast a cantrip is a Magic Action. Otherwise, yes, the light crossbow is pretty cool, you could also go regular pact of the blade with thirsting blade with a 2 lvl dip in Paladin for smites which will also add chr-mod (and they also stack with eldritch smite for a big burst of damage, as it doesn't use a bonus action and isn't a spell).
I feared as much, bladelocks with spirit shroud really do just outshine most warlocks (and builds in general) in terms of pure dpr. Still, you can apply two effects on your true strike via just 1 level of rogue (push+mastery) and there isn't really anything in the sneak attack RAW that states you can't do it with true strike (we can just use a finesse/ranged weapon for the weapon attack and are making an attack roll) if you use a familiar to give you advantage; for very painless multiclassing and consistent dps (and arcane tricksters can undoubtedly use this to their advantage but that's for later). But yeah, 1 level paladin dip means 13 strength, enough for heavy weapons+armor and 2 masteries yes, but also much more importantly maybe divine favour, since it can *maybe* also work with radiant soul (stated: once per turn, when a spell we cast deals radiant or fire damage you can add..., and that is what divine favour is doing, the radiant damGe does originate from the spell), even if we don't use divine smite and take 2 levels we can still add a free 4 damage whenever we use attacks as a bladelock per round as it still is a spell we are using to deal radiant damage. Two levels of paladin and we can get divine smite so by level 7 we can either do very consistent and nice dpr (about 4d6+2d4+3*charisma mod, not taking hitchance or spirit shroud or hex into consideration) or just use 1 turn to absolutely nuke a boss with 8d8 extra damage, which is perhaps limited to once per combat yes but that's a hell of a trick to pull out. The divine favour bit and the true strike bit really feels to me that radiant soul really doesn't deserve the dead level moniker so idk. Also I have to ask, does green flame blade work to satisfy the usage of a light weapon bonus action attack, or is that exactly the same issue as true strike? Just to check.
@@theformation3781 Just use green flame blade instead of true strike. With a blade pact both use Charisma for damage and to hit, and the agonized effect applies to both instances of damage on both targets. Also since it's a weapon attack with a pact weapon you can trigger Eldritch Smite if you crit. PS you can also smite at ranged if you pact bond to a ranged weapon. Eat my critting, smiting holy revolver which bladepact made me proficient in, Muahahahahaaa!!!
@@rogerexcell249 ranged weapons cannot work with divine smite as it only applies to melee weapon/unarmed strike hits, to bond with a ranged weapon RAW it needs to be a magic weapon since the weapon you can summon has to be melee, and eldritch smite doesn't do radiant. Like I think the new divine favor might work here, but divine smites are a no-go unfortunately. Melee wise green flame blade is great, but for now I just kind of want to stay within the confines of the 2024 phb tbh
Just a note on the armor… (not saying it is efficient but it deserves to be stated. You could get the mage armor invocation and the lightly armored feat. If your Dex is high enough, you could get a 20 ac with a shield. It does still cost two resources just not necessarily 2 feats.
5:28 I do not say this often, but you are wrong! Magical cunning *has* changed from the playtest, the complaint it got was that you needed to have alllllllllllll pact slots expended before you could use it, now, you can use it whenever you like, so you can expend 1 pact slot in a combat, do a quick ritual, and get it back before the boss fight
I think you are a little too down on the Celestial patron. That level 14 feature is really darn good and likely to turn a fight on the way to being a TPK into a victory, half HP restored, not prone, and likely blinding a few opponents is a huge amount to be able to do and on another players turn as well! So even though the massive spike damage seems to be mellowed for the players, so likely will also be for the monster manual meaning your high HP front liner isn't so likely to take that single huge high damage crit that just wipes them out effortlessly and turns the fight on its head in one go whenever you do have a player go down... And knowing you have this available it allows your party to be so much more aggressive and take those risks that would otherwise quite likely be a bad idea (or in the case of one party I've DM'd for would let the saner players have an easier time pulling the madman's head from whichever noose he put it in this time)... Also the level 6 seems pretty good multiclassing fodder, as well as making a cantrip do a minimum damage that is higher than most level 5 spells if it hits, if you stack both for double your charisma the average damage is likely to end up pretty darn good too - Its not legendarily powerful, but it certainly isn't bad. EB good as it is only works well on the low AC targets, this makes your other cantrip potent enough to be a really worthwhile choice with no extra invocations invested so for those times the EB favouring warlock finds a tough target to hit...
PS. Combine with near useless Pact of the Tome for giggles? Gift of the protectors so first time they go down they come back with half HP. Second time they come back with 1 HP. Third time's the charm? Opse! Half-orc He's back again!
Fun combo for the GOOlock at Lvl 14: Move (precast) Hex onto a target giving disadvantage on WIS saves, then Summon the Mind Flayer Aberration next to the Hexed target. The summoned Mind Flayer will immediately force a disadvantaged WIS save from the target (and other creatures within 5 feet, allies beware), dealing Psychic damage, then attack the Hexed target twice dealing Psychic damage, with bonus Psychic damage from Hex. This combo just looks so fun to play, and perfect thematically...actual mind flaying could actually happen! Edit: Then on your next turn, you could use Clairvoyant Combatant on the target, forcing another disadvantaged WIS save, and likely follow up with Eldritch Blasts at advantage, possibly even repelling/pulling the enemy with the EBs back next to the summoned Mind Flayer, who would do its thang all over again. This just looks so fun vs. beefy monsters that will live through at least 1 round of combat!!!
I think Eldritch Master could have gone a *little* bit harder, like giving you the option to replenish one Arcanum spell with Magical Cunning. Level 20 features tend to be a mixed bag still, with some clearly showing that WotC understand that a 20th level feature should be really powerful, and others just feeling like regular class features.
Maybe it’s just me but being able to use hurl through hell multiple times is really good. You just mentioned the nerf to the warlock spell list and I would say that this feature would be a great 5th level spell.
The archfey level 10 feature isn’t worth a fifth level slot in combat 99% of the time, however it is great if you know you’re about to take a short rest or use magical cunning out of combat!
At lvl 14 you can cast spell with your action, misty step for free, taunt enemies, then misty step with your bonus action from some other place, and taunt even more enemies, or maybe you taunted enough enemies, and now you go invisible with this second misty step. Not gonna get to deep into it, but if you are a trickery domain cleric, and you have your clone which you can cast spells from...yeah, you see where this is going.
Great analysis!! Hype for the Sorcerer! I'm playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer with the features of the playtest (and it's amazing) but the Wild Magic Table of the PHB 2014 is a pain in the ass (and sometimes fun) for my party... I hope the changes put that feature in a better position 😊
I have been playing a pact of the blade goolock in a campaign for a few months now. It's been an absolute blast (even though I rarely cast EB). Haven't been able to utilize clairvoyant combatant though because we were either fighting hordes of minions or creature with legendary resistances. The build has been nerfed since the playtest (lost one invocation to devouring blade), but that's a good thing. This is definitely my favorite warlock subclass and my personal go to for a psychic like build.
The different Paths to follow (Blade, Chain, and Tome) aren't really close to being equal anymore. I know that path of the blade was popular, but there is really very little reason to take pact of the Tome anymore. The new familiars are pretty fun and they do have one decent progression, but pact of the chain isn't in the same ballpark as the blade. It really feels like in the 2024 rules some classes you are railroaded into the playing style that they want you to play (like the ranger becoming the Hunter's Mark Master). I do think that they have made some improvements, but I have a player that was all in on Pact of the Tome and we just won't be able to update the character unless I just house rule in a bunch of the 2014 stuff, at which point why not just play 2014 all the way?
When I first saw the new Fey patron I thought it was hands down the best, but seeing the other subclasses with their bonus spell lists included also has me much more interested in playing the Fiend or Great Old One than I was before. Being able to pick up spells like Fireball without having to sacrifice other warlock classics is SOOOOO much more fun.
I am so happy GOO warlock is strong now. It’s my favorite subclass flavor-wise and now it feels su much better designed with every feature having synergy with each other
I want to play a archfey bladelock sooo badly. But ngl im probably going to take my first level as fighter purely cause I need the armour. and the 2 extra HP and con save proficiency is pretty good. Also the back story I have fits perfectly for fighter at lvl 1
“The dragonborn fighter and the orc warlord look over at your annoying teleporting ass, stop fighting, give a nod to each other and charge in straight at You”
Thanks for this excellent series! As always! It's strange for this channel that the first class analyzed is not the Wizard, I know it didn't have many changes but the context changed a lot and I look forward to your analysis!
Wizards got soft nerfed as they got very little compared to the massive buffs warlocks, sorcerers, bards, clerics, and druids got. They are pretty weak now
@@Miggy19779except they also got better but it’s much more indirectly than other magic initiate let’s abkurer C.A.T.S. healing spells as abjuration spells for arcane ward and illusionist is much better Also all older ways to learn rituals no longer exist so spell scribing is better and wizard have complete monopoly on rituals above first level now
Something you missed (and I think everyone seems to have missed) about Mystic Arcanum - they are cast without using a spell slot. That means they can be cast on the same turn as another spell
You missed that Armor of Agathys now lasts until you "have no temporary hit points" not until the temp hp from the spell are lost, so fiendlock at high levels can try to keep up a 5th level AoA for awhile if they keep killing folks. At level 9, that's 25 cold damage on every hit plus refreshing 14 temp hp if you ever fall below, potentially multiple times per round if your allies coordinate and you surround yourself with enemies that act on different initiatives. But even once per round, that can extend the duration of a spell that is now also easy to reapply, making melee fiendlocks a lot stronger.
Thanks for the video! Im exited to play this new warlock with the Celestial and the GOO Patron, I like an alternative support class, but I gotta say, having full caster progression spells and only having 2 spells slots through most of the game seems like such a weird and boring take on a caster for me, I was hoping they would add a few lower level spell slots that recharge on a long rest through leveling. I was also expecting for a more exciting 6th level spell, the first Arcanum options always felt a bit "meh" to me, I guess Ill take the Cauldron spell if I ever get to Level 11.
A pact of the blade Archfey Warlock is so much fun. Especially around levels 12-14. You’re like a Fighter but better. You have 3 attacks, 5th level spell slots, free Bonus Action teleports that deal damage, and you can still dip 2 levels into fighter after level 12 for Action Surge, Second Wind, and Weapon Masteries. Your mobility is unmatched, your damage is great, and you have fantastic utility options.
What is the Armor Class until dipping into Fighter at Level 11? With a 20 Charisma, that is still only five Steps of the Fey per day and my guess is that you'll take more than five hits in a day. Yeah, once you take that Fighter dip you'll have some AC, but until then...
@@pebbles2626 So start Fighter for Medium armor and delay your extra attacks. I don’t see wtf is your problem guy. Did I offend you? Is that why you’re hyper focussed on AC?
@@James-kv3ll Wow. You posted on a message thread, and I messaged you with a question about AC. You feel picked on? You did write going Ftr at Level 12, and thus, I asked what your AC is until then. Going Ftr at level 1 resolves the AC issue, but you did not state you were doing that.
The Warlock/Paladin combinations in this book are pretty fun. I mean they’re not new ideas, but considering that if you wanted to be Martial you usually wanted Hexblade, so I just like pointing them out. Celestial/Devotion, Archfey/Ancients, Fiend/Vengeance and… Great Old One/…Glory… okay that last one doesn’t make as much sense.
I think celestial warlock is being slept on. A single paladin dip takes away all warlock weakness with weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies. Not to mention, the new searing smite is no longer concentration and deals fire damage on the enemy's turn, meaning that the additional cha mod damage from celestial warlock would happen then too, since it's one per turn and no longer "when you cast a spell". As long as they don't shake the condition, it's free damage. ALSO you are super sleeping on this interaction with wall of fire and forced movement.
It has both limitations now, so it only works on one target the turn that you cast Searing Smite or Wall of Fire; _"Once per turn, when _*_a spell you cast_*_ deals Radiant or Fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to that spell's damage against _*_one_*_ of the spell's targets."_
@SortKaffe I interpret that to mean that it can only deal the damage once per turn. The secondary limitation of it only happen on the turn you cast the spell doesn't apply here because if it did, it would have the same wording as the blessed healer subclass feature from the life domain cleric which states "when you cast a spell...." and not "when a spell you cast...."
The abilities take a pact slot to recharge gives it some interesting chances to recharge, taking a short rest and have a slot level over? Recharge it beforehand. Have the chance to take 2 short rests for whatever reason? Take the opportunity to recharge them after your first short rest then get your slots back. These seem to combo pretty well with the slot recharge ability that warlocks get at level 2.
So, it looks like the Warlock is the only class than can bypass the "can't cast two spells on the same turn" restriction? Since Mystic Arcanum don't use spell slots, you can cast one of those on the same turn you cast one of your Pact Magic spells. (The rule is just "can't expend more than one spell slot per turn", right?)
The way Archfey uses Misty Step and Fiend uses Hex are so fun and powerful with so much synergy that it even makes me wonder how the hell Ranger and Hunter's Mark are in the same book...
I'm super excited to play some warlocks, great old one never got much of my interest even in flavor, but this new version is definitely juicy, makes me think about getting to 14th level on a warlock
Hey man, I don’t know what video it was but I believe you talked about the 2024 smite spells, but for the life of me I can seem to find what video that was, unless I’m mistaken and you never mentioned them lol. Loving these 2024 PHB videos by the way, can’t wait for the Paladin and fighter rundowns
I don't like that they made it necessary to multiclass to get reasonable Armor Class on your Warlock. Also mystic arcanum is looking much worse on warlocks now, no mass sugestion, forcecage nerf, that was needed, but even so, because of the valuable component spent it is not a choice for warlocks, they can't pick it and then upcast other spells to 7th level, or use other 7th level spells when they are low on money, like the wizard can. The main buff is to the previously bad subclasses that are now good, but if you play something like Genie, Undead or Famthomless, you are going to feel weaker now, unless you wanted to be blade pact with them.
You said warlocks won’t want 13 str (when speculating about Paladin 1) but if your bladelock is using heavy weapons you need 13 str or you get disadvantage on your attacks.
Edit: Everything below is completely incorrect. Radiant Soul is not just once per turn, it's one target per spell as well. Radiant Soul is pretty good tier 2 IMO. Chain Pact + Gaze of Two Minds lets you cast Word of Radiance (with Agonizing Blast) at range centered on your invisible familiar floating 5 ft above a group of enemies. 2d6+CHA+CHA in a 15 ft by 15 ft cube. Some pros and cons, but comparable to casting Shatter at will.
Given its wording, since your Find Familiar spell summon (e.g. Sphinx of wonder) does radiant, doesn't the extra damage trigger there, too? Along with any summon after investment of the chain?
@@mattie3875To me "when a spell you cast" is equivalent to dragon sorc's "when you cast a spell," even though the latter is much more clear. Radiant soul doesn't say "when a spell you cast OR HAVE CAST."
@ram3n_goblin mind that Radiant Soul damage only applies to one target of the AoE. I would probably combine it with True Strike (Agonizing Blast) instead. Also works great with War Caster.
The level 10 fey ability costing a 5th level slot to recover would be good if you made it to a short rest with a slot unused, but the feature used. It only replenishes on a long rest and your pact slots replenish on a short rest
The first character I completed a campaign with was a Lore Bard/Great Old One Warlock. And I loved that character, but the Warlock side was always a bit lacking. I'm definitely remaking him with the 2024 rules to see his the changes integrate.
One nerf in the GOO’s awakened mind feature from 2014 to 2024 I that now you are required to speak in a language the creature shares with you. Before you could use awakened mind to overcome language barriers because you were not required to share a language. It was still one way communication, but combine that with comprehend languages and you could communicate with every creature in the world. I’m sad to see that part go
I know I'm late, but here's an argument for builds with Radiant Soul: Pact of the Blade; can choose radiant damage. Pact of the Tome; can choose Starry Wisp cantrip and a butt ton of other radiant or fire based cantrips. True Strike; radiant damage. Weird ass combo using Radiant Soul: Agonizing Booming Blade on Hexed enemy with Repelling Blast(so they have to move to engage in combat), using a Pact Weapon(Longsword, two handed). At 6th level that isn't too bad for repeatable damage, with a splash of control.
Right at the start: 13str for paladin dip. If the rules haven't changed, this might actually be something you want for pact of the blade to summon heavy weapons and actually be able to use them!
Indeed! Only disadvantage is that the feats that buff martial combat would increase you Strength instead of your Charisma, so the advantage that Heavy weapons normally have over a Rapier is limited for a Charisma-based build.
Correction: I say that Magical Cunning is the same as in the playtest, but in the playtest you needed to have all your pact slots expended in order to use it, and that restriction was removed.
@@TreantmonksTemple Which seems uniform of these features right? Good!
They finally listened to your hatred of features where you have to be all out of a resource to get more!
It is in effect 50% more spell slots for one period between short rests. That's a lot. May make you feel more comfortable with using two in a fight knowing there is a back up way to get one more before a rest
Question, Celestial Warlock, level 6 feature. Didn't they buff it? The reason it was bad for damage before was because the wording was "When you cast a spell that does radiant/fire damage" meaning it only worked the turn you cast it, but now it says "When a spell you cast deals radiant/fire damage." Doesn't that mean that it would still apply to say a Wall of Fire you cast last turn? It is still a spell you cast and all. The requirement that it was a spell you just casted ("When you cast") was removed.
Aid being on Celestial Warlock is being slept on. Level 5 aid that replenishes on a short rest? YES PLEASE
Exactly, scaling Aid on a warlock that can short rest the slot back is great, and obviously just crazy team buff along with the extra temp HP feature at later levels. If your team ever dies with a celestial warlock in the party, something insane happened
I'm playing a playtest celestial warlock drow (Eilistraee ftw) at the moment and updating with info from youtube. It feels great to play, although thanks to Radiant Soul sucking 6 is basically a dead level.
At lower levels, you could also finish a long rest, cast Aid, and then immediately use Magical Cunning to gain the slot back and start the day with full spell slots. When you get high enough level that Magical Cunning restores 2 spell slots, you could also combine it with another long-term buff to do the same.
@@vindex57Doesn’t Radiant Soul add double modifier to damage if you take agonizing blast for sacred flame?
@@zeik101and the new true strike could add radiant dmg too😮
I'm surprised you didn't notice, but the 11th Mystic Arcanum casts the spell "without expending a spell slot." So, in theory, that would allow you to cast that spell and another leveled spell from spell slots in the same turn, provided the action economy worked out. Not sure what broken interaction that will lead to, but I'd be surprised if there isn't a way to abuse that.
Th Goolock can hex and cast a mystic to give disadvantage on your big spells which is cool
that was my first thought too, gotta be something you can do with that interaction
That's the same as 2014. Furthermore, it's implied that it doesn't use a spell slot because you NEVER GET a 6th level (or higher) spell slot
@@isaacremnant7226 But the change is implicit in the change of casing multiple spells a turn from "multiple leveled spells" to "multiple spells from spell slots"
Level 15 Great Old One Warlock. As their Bonus Action, cast Hex, debuffing the target's Intelligence, and as their Action, cast Befuddlement (nee Feeblemind) with their 8th level Mystic Arcanum. The target rolls the save with Disadvantage, and if they fail they take 10d12 psychic damage and can't cast spells or take the Magic Action, and have to wait for 30 days before they can attempt the save again unless they have an ally with Wish, Heal, or Greater Restoration prepared. All of that takes 1 turn. And since both Hex and Befuddlement are Enchantment spells, the Warlock casts them without any verbal or somatic components, so they could theoretically do this in the middle of a crowded room without anyone in the room being able to figure out what just happened.
Love the tables getting turned a bit with “warlocks will see a lot of 1 level dips” instead of “you’ll see a lot of 1 level warlock dips”
Barbarian + the warlock temp HP invocations and armor of agathys
Warlocks dipping 1 lvl paladin for 2 spellslots, better armor, shield, weapon mastery, LoH and Divine Favor
@mpetrov2402 You need to start Paladin for heavy armor training (but later dips still get medium armor and shields). As my two Paladin spells, I would pick Bless and Divine Smite for my Celestial Warlock as I'll use True Strike with Agonizing Blast instead of making multiple attacks (smiting to add my Charisma modifier four times to that single attack due to the 6th-level Radiant Soul feature).
And it does make more sense that way too it feels like.
"Patron seduces weakish newbie because they're easier to corrupt" just makes so much more sense than "Pro Paladin takes a hit of Warlock, throwing all that holiness out the window" for example
@@WhiteOwl1061 I played this kind of build a few years ago and it was SUPER fun. When Armor of Agathys ran out, some enemy was usually near death and I just slurped up their life force for more temp hp. I could wade into hordes of minions and pretty much never lose any real hit points, constantly re-upping the temp hp.
Eldritch Hex for Great Old One Warlocks is actually pretty interesting for using Hex as a non-combat spell. As you mention in the video, casting it as a 5th level spell makes it last for up to 24 hours, but since it is also an Enchantment spell it can be cast without verbal or somatic components, so you can Hex someone without them knowing. You can then keep hitting them with non-concentration Enchantment or Illusion spells throughout the day to keep messing with the target while limiting anyone's ability to trace it back to you.
Here's another edge case to consider. You're trying to flee after a heist and you know Sherlock Bones the Celestial warlock is on your case!
He bust in on you when you tripped the alarm and you link to his mind at that time. You dodge his crossbow shots due to your minklink giving you precognition of where he's aiming and you subtly hex his wisdom before you leap from the window with your ill gotten gains. He rushes across the room but sees no sign of you and tries to give persuit. His (wis) perception and (wis) survival attempts to track you are thwarted and he never even knows the reason why...
A wanted poster is put up in the kingdom: "Have you seen this rogue?"
He catches you at the exit gate that evening and compares the poster to your disguise:
"Not me Guv. I'm a wizard, see? Look at my prestidigination. Got the wrong guy!" as you cast it from your Pact of the Tome. His (Wis) insight check does not beat your deception and he waves you through convinced you're someone else...
Just for fun, when you're a mile away from town a voice laughs in Faerun's Greatest Detectives mind, "The thief? It WAS me, Cthulhu Moriarty, and I fooled you. I walked out right under your nose! Muahahahahaaa!"
And thus the life long rivalry is born...
PS Warlock detective is an awesome build. Use Lessons of the First ones to repeatedly take Skilled to be proficient in all the skills a genius detective could wish for, and infinite free castings of Whispers of the Grave to speak with the victims for clues. Mask of Many Faces and Master of Myriad Forms allows you to go undercover with any disguise you can wish to have, and later Witch Sight can help you counter other's attempts to hide from you!
"Hurl through Hell--we saw this nerfed to heck in the playtest." Is a very funny way to say that lmao
Fiend Warlock was literally the only competitor to Hexblade in combat terms just because of that feature back in the day. Now, it sucks, I'm sad because of it.
Warlock can cast their Mystic Arcanum and another spell in the same turn!
If they have the action or bonus action to do so. Yes.
Misty Step and Mind Thrust stocks just went up.
@@James-kv3llI was thinking of that bonus action GOO Hex followed by a Save Spell like Power Word Stun.
@@scotthalfhill7501 Damn.
@MegaCombatGamers the concept is nice, but there really isn't many bonus action spells. It will mostly mean you won't need a set up round for hex or Armor of Agathas.
Invocations, too. You could Bonus Action Armor of Agathys into Fiendish Vigor at level 2, for 12 temp HP that deals 5 damage any time someone hits you.
Or Misty Visions into Hex to give them disadvantage on seeing through it.
Celestial Warlocks dipping 1 level of Paladin, looking at 2014 Hexadins: Well, well, well. How the turntables.
@@CivilWarMan you generally would want 1 level of paladin or fighter since the capstone is meh. I think paladin level 1 is the better than the fighter.
@@mpetrov2402 I agree with the Paladin dip being better, especially with either Great Old One or Celestial Warlock. My general idea for a build, assuming standard array and PHB backgrounds, would be to go 15 Cha, 14 Con, 13 Dex, 12 Str, 10 Wis, 8 Int, pick Entertainer for the Musician feat and +1 Str, Dex, Cha to hit the Paladin multiclass strength prerequisite and round out Dex/Cha. Start out Warlock for immediate Pact of the Blade, taking the 1 level Paladin dip at some point between levels 2 and 6 for Medium Armor, shields if going sword and board, and if going Celestial Warlock getting access to Divine Smite before Radiant Soul comes online.
By going that route, as opposed to opening Paladin for Heavy Armor, you get a better initiative modifier, among the other benefits of not dumping Dex. This would also still allow the Warlock to meet the requirements for wielding Heavy Weapons if they want to go Great Weapon Master. Obviously focus on Pact of the Blade, but also maybe take Chain for the familiar support and the consistent Bonus Action attack with Investment of the Chain Master.
Branding smite ain't bad and can be paired with eldritch smite, if you just NEED something dead.
I'd not use paladin. You could use cleric, and get light, medium shield and HEAVY proficiency along with martial proficiency. They both give 2 spell slots, and while the cleric spells cast would use Wisdom, a lot of spells the bladepact could use them for dont need it. Hex for example? Or a buff like bless. Unless you intend to invest to 2nd level to smite, but that would cost you your epic boon. Mind you Paladin is fine if you start a Paladin, as you wouldn't loose heavy proficiency. Personally I dont think the MC is needed.
Pact weapon is always proficient.
Armour of Shadows is 13+dex, so lets assume 16 ac with 16 dex. Light is Studded leather 15AC, medium is brestplate 16AC, and heavy is Scale 16AC, 18AC once you have the 1000ish gold for fullplate. From a defensive standpoint not really worth it. And you get Shadow of Moil later.
All you're really gaining at L1 is weapon mastery (which could be taken as a feat) and 2 L1 spells on long rests.
@@rogerexcell249 Using heavy weaons requires 13 Str, GWM requires 13 Str, heavy armor requires 13 str. It's obvious that paladin is better than cleric. If you dont want to use wepons - dont, you still get LoH and cha casting with 2 spell slots and good spells.
Paladin is the best 1 lvl dip followed by fighter 1 and warlock 1.
I think that celestial warlock not being a phb subclass really hurt it, phb subclasses are the ones that got major overhauls but there's a MASSIVE difference between a subclass from Xanathar's and a subclass from Tasha's.
Despite being unchanged, the 6th-level Radiant Soul feature now makes sense to build around. Thanks to the changes to Agonizing Blast, True Strike, and Divine Smite, they can now be combined to add your Charisma modifier four times to the damage of a single attack.
For campaigns ending before 13th level (where a Padlock could get another Extra Attack), this might be the strongest Pact of the Blade build for burst damage?
I think a Celestial warlock that uses True Strike can be good. At second level pick up agonizing blast (select True Strike), now your True strike is doing double your Chr in damage. At 6th level the Celestial warlock is adding TRIPPLE Chr on damage when doing this. Not broken but still fun :)
Nevermind, Radiant Soul has been further limited to once per turn. Divine Smite and Extra Attack (Thirsting Blade) is slightly better for a Celestial Padlock than True Strike plus Agonizing Blast if you can spare the spell slots. War Caster and True Strike is a nice combo for triggering Radiant Soul with your Reaction though.
@@SortKaffe How are you getting x4 Chr damage? True Strike x1, Radiant Soul x2, Agonizing x3. What am I missing?
@@dwgautier Pact of the blade right?
Actually, slight correction on Radiant soul, as i think it WAS in fact buffed slightly; previously the feature read "when you cast a spell that deals radiant or fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to one radiant or fire damage roll of that spell against one of its targets." Which I have always interpreted to mean that you get the benefit on the turn when you cast it, but not on subsequent turns. This new wording, 'A spell you cast' and the specification of 'once per turn', clarifies that it works with persistent damage spells, like Wall of Fire.
I think the feature isn't as good because you don't have flame strike, flaming sphere, or green flame blade anymore.
Doesn't that imply it works also with summons like the Sphinx Familiar and celestial spirit?
Also it works with the new True Strike, right? Which I didn't realize can probably also work with Agonizing Blast
That’s kind of crazy. Per turn allows it to work with things like magic Injtiate: Searing Smite when you hit with it (your turn) and when they burn at the start of their turn, and then again if they fail their CON save.
Removal of “damage roll” wording also lets it work with Guardian of Faith too, which doesn’t involve rolls.
radahn becomes immune to holy damage in phase 2 though
"So you could do it on Legendary Creatures on Round 1. Beat 'em on initiative and BOOM, you're gone. Now we're going to set up a bunch of crap so that when you reappear, you're screwed."
I can't possibly fathom why this would get nerfed. Completely shocking to me.
Especially since now you can swap initiative with an origin feat
I know why it got nerfed. Still sad.
The 13 strength requirement to multiclass paladin doesn't sound so bad considering it's the same requirement to use heavy weapons now, and considering that blade pact doesn't do anything to remove that requirement.
Yessssss. I love Warlock so much! So happy it's first! Gonna be listening while I'm at work! (Then again after work so I can watch the info on screen!)
Thank you for all these videos! New books must be hectic times for you, this community is so lucky to have great creators like you!
Much love 💜 I hope the coming week is awesome for you!
The smaller AC relative to other classes is actually fine, in my book. What they lose in AC they MASSIVELY make up for in overall utility and battlefield control.
Pact of the Blade warlocks STILL have access to the same spells as other warlocks. A warlock who can cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Dissonant Whispers, Command, Plant Growth, Blink, Hunger of Hadar, Evard’s Black Tentacles and Misty Step isn’t gonna be all that concerned about getting cornered in combat.
@@heathenwizard that’s all fine and dandy until your 15 ac warlock at levels 11-15 gets smoked to hell.
The main issue is that the level 20 cap stone is so ass for what most 20th level cap stones should be that every pact of the blade build will just dip 1-3 levels in fighter, paladin, etc. when the benefits are so great with so little downside, that’s bad design.
Just realized that both Fiend and GOO warlocks can have resistance to all damage when they have Shadow of Moil up by 19th level. Take the 'Boon of the Night Spirit' Boon that grants resistance to all damage except Psychic and Radiant when in Dim Light. Both Fiend and Goo locks can get Psychic resistance from their class features, and if you cast 'Shadow of Moil' on yourself, you will be granted Resistance to Radiant damage, AND, you turn Bright light within 10 feet of you to Dim light, therefore giving you resistance to all damage types while concentrating on SoM, and also making all attacks at advantage, having all incoming attacks at disadvantage, and being immune to many spell effects as you won't be able to be targeted by any spell that requires sight of you.
That's actually pretty cool
@@taylorsmith9197 Dim light isn't darkness.
@@voidseekersarchive Yes....... I am aware of that, as they are in fact different words. How is your statement relevant?
@@taylorsmith9197 Afaik enemies don't automatically get disadvantage on attacks in dim light. It just affects perception checks.
@@voidseekersarchive Ah, gotcha. The disadvantage isn't coming from the dim light itself. The dim light is only important because of the wording of the Boon. Shadow of Moil creates that dim light or darkness around the caster and the Boon grants resistance to all but Radiant and Psychic when in dim light or darkness. Shadow of Moil also makes the caster "Heavily Obscured", which essentially means that they are immune to spells that require the caster to see them AND causes all attacks at the Shadow of Moil caster to be at disadvantage. UNLESS the attacker has Blindsight or Tremor Sense. Even Truesight doesn't see through Heavy Obscurement
Who would’ve thought that the Archfey Warlock is the subclass I’m the most excited about in the 2024 PHB? Especially with the Bard as my favorite class overall
I prefer old archfey warlock
Finally a build spec'd for teleportation! Makes my long-wished Nightcrawler build come true
They also removed the Ritual spells from the Book of Shadow, so no more Tiny Hut and other high level rituals that you could find in a campaign
Yup. Massive nerf. Mechanicly better to dip 1 lvl cleric. More spell slots, and full heavy and martial proficiency, with more spell flexibility.
Cleric dip has gradually become my favorite dip over the years anyway. So many good mechanics (and flavor options for settings with gods, like FR).
The ability to collect spells is now the big selling point of the Wizard.
The two ritual spells are folded into the base Pact of the Tome. Unfortunately, what they did do was remove the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation, meaning we can't learn any additional ritual spells that aren't on our lists.
I think it’s notable that Celestial Resilience stacks with any 5th level Aid spell that the celestial warlock might want to rest-cast. That’s 35 extra HP per person, and costs no resources if you’re willing to spend an hour. That’s an absurd amount of sustain for a 10th level party. It’s real good
Magical cunning let's you get it back I'm 1 minute
The new meme "take one level of Fighter"
yeah "new" meme
Most PCs would benefit from a fighter level. Hardly a new meme.
Well Colby will feel justified lol
I like this on a roleplay level. Having martial training _ought_ to be an indicator of an adventurer who is more likely to survive. And in most D&D settings, it entirely makes sense for nearly everyone to be at least a little Fighter or Rogue.
A Level 1 Fighter is _far_ more likely to survive whatever was necessary to get to the point of signing a pact than a classless Level 0 nobody.
This is yet another reason why I like the new official recommendation that Levels 1-2 is the tutorial for absolute beginners and everyone else should generally start at 3 or above. It gives you room to put a little multiclassing into your backstory.
I'm not a big fan of Munchkin myself, so to avoid the level dip I'd offer a rework on Armor Training feat (replaces Lightly Armored, Moderately Armored, Heavily Armored, and Defense Fighting Style):
Armor Training
General Feat (Prerequisite: Lv 4+)
ASI: Increase your Strength, Dexterity or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain training with Light armor, Medium armor, Heavy armor and Shields.
Armor Specialist. While you're wearing armor or shield in which you have training provided by another source (such as another feat or class feature), you gain a +1 bonus to AC. You can only gain this benefit once (wearing both armor and shield won't stack as a +2 AC bonus).
(Note: this replaces all feats mentioned above, thus unable to stack with bonuses provided by them)
GOO Telepathy has a range measured in miles but a duration measured in minutes.
Especially with the duration hidden on the next page it feels like it will trip up a LOT of players.
The low duration is absolutely ridiculous. It's clear that it was added because of the level 6 feature, and they didn't feel like giving them separate durations 😒
For the Archfey Pact Warlock level 10 feature, I think the ability to expend a Pact Magic spell slot might be moderately good if your party is getting regular short rests. From what I am reading, if you have a Pact Magic spell slot remaining and are about to take a short rest you could restore your use of the level 10 feature (as opposed to using a spell slot to use the feature again directly), and then you can take the Short Rest to gain back that Pact Magic spell slot. The feature basically gives you a way to "recycle" an unexpended spell slot before you take a short rest, in the rare(?) event you have a spell slot left over before taking a rest.
“Nerfed to heck” when speaking about the ‘Hurl Through Hell’ feature. Lol Wholesome content is wholesome.
I disagree. Sure they get to save for it now. But you missed the part you get one free casting and can recast for a Warlock spell slot... Thats 1 per long rest free, plus one per spell slot, and that includes the L1 spell slot of pact of the tome for 2 per long rest, plus 2-5 (usually 3) per short rest, and another 2-5 once a day from the magical cunning feature. Thats probably potentially 11-17 a day compared to the old 1 per day.
@@rogerexcell249Good idea for a meme build. Just walk around throwing things into hell.
@@rogerexcell249there is no more level one spell slot with pact of the tome
@@rogerexcell249So there is no lvl1 slot in pact of the tome. Also, how do you get 5 slots per SR ( or magical cunning)? And spending all yor 5th lvl slots on a single target save or suck doesn’t sound that appealing imo.
@@moglimann2158 If they removed the spell slot from pact of the tome then my figures are wrong. Also makes POTT completely useless as an invocation. Sad days.
New uses a day becomes 1/day, and 2-4 per short rest and magical cunning. Thus 6-13 is the new figure, usually 6-11 until L20. also its at least a Charisma save, which isnt that bad to target. Could be infinitely worse like Wis, Str or Con. On average given monster saves at CR 22 are +9 for Charisma your spell DC of 21 without items, so your HtH will connect on average 3/4 the time. Thats still at worst 4 vs 1 a day. Still overall an improvement. Especially for burning through Legendary resistances on a boss.
I think Searing Vengeance is pretty damn spiffy in all honesty, worded as is, it doesn't cost any actions to use. So if you have a downed ally who is about to make a death save, you can get them back up while still keeping any actions, bonus action, or reaction. It just happens on its own, and that's pretty neat.
... I missed that, thats actually a big plus I missed.
Reminder: mystic arcanum doesn't use spell slots so if you can find the right combo for action economy you can cast multiple high level spells in the same turn
As someone who was always a fan of GOO, I am happy
*Evard's Black Tentacles* used to be the reason I wanted to play the GOO. I'm sad to loose to loose it for *Summon Aberration,* but I guess I would have to pick *the Fathomless Patron* instead and get it 3 levels later.
Gosh, talk about an improved Archfey patron (absolutely gorgeous art too btw).
Tiny bit sad the modifiable spellcasting stat wasn't well received, but this is great. Seeing non-Hexblades is cool.
The flavour of Archfey is indeed nice. I like how they made it so much fun, and while its fantastic on blade pacts, even caster types can benefit from bampfing around the battlefield like a hyperactive nightcrawler going invisible or doing damage to the foe that got into melee or just healing yourself up with temp HP to stay in the fight. I'm a Celestial type myself, and though I'm by far the weakest type, I appreciate I still do my same, weak backup cleric work, but at least can be somewhat effective now with a Searing flame sniper or Green flame Bladelock build now!
I mean, I'm a Ranger so I didn't put too much thought into what kind of Warlock I'd play, but I just really love the flavour. Plus I remember reading the old Archfey and being quite underwhelmed, this one feels fey like.
20:00 Healing Light seems like more than a decent little feature! That's a lot of Healing Word equivalents. Wait for someone to go down, then get them back in the fight for a bonus action. Very useful if you ask me.
The "amount of dice you can spend" limit is a trap. The best use usually will be to heal a fallen ally with just 1 die or between combats when there's no time pressure anyway.
@@damedley75Though, tbf, if you have pact of the chain and gift of the old ones, you can use it to heal yourself for a flat amount on a bonus action. Up to 30hp to yourself as a bonus action feels good.
@@zeik101 yeah true. I'm not claiming it's the best.
Imagine a level 14 great old one that gets to prepare before a big fight.
step 1: short rest.
step 2: summon 3 beefed up apperations.
step 3: barbarian kicks in the door.
step 4: place hex on the dragon, you, and your three aberations now all benefit from that hex spell, and you can still cast one of your mystic arcanums, probably something that targets the save the dragon now has disadvantage on.
Gives me Sukana vibes summoning Mahoraga and Agito
You sure could cast an MA in the Hex turn. Unfortunately, the only relevant spells in this scenario (6th or 7th level, no concentration, require a save) on the warlocks list are Finger of Death and Plane Shift. For the former, disadvantage on the save would result in roughly +5dmg and the latter kind of makes no sense. If you Planeshift the dragon, why bother attacking it with the Summons ;)
@@moglimann2158 hmm... I can I see I didn't read the fine print. So maybe you yourself don't benefit from the disadvantage on save, but even so, still very powerful to have concentration free summons to show up with.
If you choose *Wisdom,* the dragon has disadvantage against the *Whispering Aura* of your 3 *Star Spawns* (for 2d6 psychic damage each). On your next turn, it has disadvantage against your *Clairvoyant Combatant* feature (for adv./disadv.). Your allies are very likely to have save-or-suck spells that require Wisdom saves, so they can quickly burn through any Legendary Resistances, while you and your 3 aberrations pommel it with attack after attack, all applying *Hex* damage.
Very happy to see GOO in a "GOOd" place haha.
But Chris, on the topic of warlock losing out on spells, you forgot to mention that while some of the (low level) utility invocation spells got lumped into the main class spell list now, we also lost all the old (mid level) combat-themed spell invocations that granted spells like Animate Dead, Conjure Elemental, Compulsion, and Slow (plus Chains of Carceri free cast Hold Monster), which are gone now, mostly without replacement, and they didn't get added to the main class spell list, nor any of the subclass spell lists. So on the main spell list we lost 4 spells and gained 6 (net +2), but across all features, we lost 8 and gained 6 (net -2).
Note: I know that Animate Dead was essentially intended to be replaced with Summon Undead, but they aren't the same spell, and it means there's no way to play a multi-summon build without it or the (old) Conjure spells. I get it's not a bad thing necessarily due to multi-summon spells' (potential lack of) table friendliness, but when not abused and talked about with your table, those spells were still quite fun in moderation to have a platoon you commanded, which isn't possible when all the new summon spells are single-summon and require concentration -- with ig the exception of new GOOlock's version of Summon Aberration for 1 min. We also didn't get a replacement Conjure Elemental update, that's just gone, straight up. So I'm quite unhappy about that.
Kinda weird that Dreadful Step lets you choose the space you left or the space you appear in, but Taunting Step is only the space you left.
Teleporting into a group of enemies and taunting them is such flavour and i would absolutely allow it as a dm.
Celestial is even better now, with just a small spell list change & Searing Vengence buff (and no save blind at high levels is great already!)
With the radiant soul buff, Wall of Fire and such now also get the dmg buff every turn
A shame everything else, from movement to utility to defence to healing (spells) have been buffed, the Celestial overall falling behind
"Once per turn, when a spell you cast..." implies that Wall of Fire only deals extra damage to one creature the turn that you cast it, unfortunately.
@@SortKaffe Instead of once ever, fortunately
@@SortKaffe If it meant "on the turn you cast it" it would say "when you cast a spell" like in 2014.
@@juliamedina3322
@@rogerexcell249 in any case its not hard to just give them Flaming Sphere in a houserule, not gamebreaking (And no idea why not included in the RAW)
Mystic Arcanum doesn’t use a spell slot and so you can use it along with a leveled spell on your turn, nice.
Most MA options require Concentration, but if you started with 1 level in Paladin, *Divine Favor* is a nice non-concentration Bonus Action spell that can add d4 Radiant damage to your 3 attacks from *Thirsting Blade + Devouring Blade* on subsequent turns
I think they should've split shield proficiency as it's own feat. I'm okay with armor and shield proficiency getting harder to get for casters. They shouldn't become so easily just as good at tanking as martials (or arguably better, with the shield spell, contingency etc).
That said, the new feat design buffed wizards and sorcerers while hitting warlocks, bards and rogues, all classes that have some melee flavor.
It would just be extra clutter to split it into two feats like that, light armor classes should take medium armor to have both hands free, light armor + shields is around the same AC as medium armor a lot of the time so it isn't game-breaking or anything
@@nocanseegreen3845my point is exactly that It should be hard to get both proficiency in medium armor and shields. But light armor and shield are better than the best medium armor w/o shield for a dex build because:
a. Now characters can get +6s at high lvls;
b. You could potentially stack bonuses from a magic shield and a magic armor.
I read this and knee jerk was mad about the idea, but the more I think about it I think you're right, it is too easy to have a good AC for casters, so I think this would be a good change.
Although it's arguably easier to just take a martial at first level then go straight magic user after to get armor and shield proficiency.
I think the armored feats should just say (and you get shield proficiency if you didnmt already have it)
@@Iceblade269 I wouldn't like that, because that benefits casters more than martials.
Appreciate the speed run, brother! Keep on keeping on!!
So glad to see the improved Great Old One
I'm still sad that warlocks lost the "choose you spellcasting modifier" functionality, but besides that I'm mostly happy with where it landed
burning that pact slot to regain Beguiling Defenses will be most useful right before a short rest. Its just a good sink for spare pact slots really.
Nice catch! It doesn't say "unless you expend a Pact Magic spell slot to USE it again", but "to restore your use of it"
Huh. I didn't think of that. Very good catch indeed.
13:00 Actually new Potion Factory spell is really good utility, so the absence of Mass Suggestion is not as bad as it looks, On the other hand, 7th level is awful. With huge Forcecage nerf there are not good spells for warlock. Warlock is not like other casters. His high-level spells should be the ones you can cast every day.
Using backwards compatibility, Hexblade patron will give the Warlock armor proficiencies as needed.
As DM, I would homebrew that medium armor feat also provides shield proficiency just to avoid the fighter dip if the player does no want it.
But... warlocks dont need armour proficiency.
One with Shadows invocation with 16 dex (a reasonable assumption for a caster) is 16AC. Studded leather is +15, medium brestplate is +16, heavy scale is +16 (only 18 with 1000ish GP for full plate). 15,16,17... not much in it. And Warlocks get the single best defensive spell in the game later with Shadow of Moil. Automatic disadvantage to all attack on them, and complete immunity from spells with the "you can see" descriptor.
Get your dex to 20, and you're at AC 18 same as full plate.
@@rogerexcell249True but Plate doesn’t require 20 DEX and usually gives physical resistances. So on average you’d be better off just using Heavy Armor, and it gets even better with a shield.
Play also doesn’t take up your Concentration
@@rogerexcell249 having to invest in charisma, I don't find Dex 16 reasonable for a caster that uses the standard point buy system.
If you roll it or have a more generous point buy, even so it it does not scale well. 16 is not a lot. The caster will invest in their main attribute, and Dex will stay at 16.
Also, for a melee Bladelock, AC is not the only attribute to consider. You also need CON for your HP.
@@rogerexcell249 Only if you cast it in dim light. Shadow of moil doesn't produce darkness on its own, unless in dim light.
@@voidseekersarchive No it does one better. It gives you heavily obscured. Regardless of ANYTHING. That's "you're enemies are blind, no save."
I believe Blindsight works since it allows you to ignore blind. Did further checking new wording of blindsight tremmorsense and true sight. New truesight works on SOM as it states "you can see through things obscured with magic". Old Blindsight worked, but couldnt find the new wording, I think this remains true.
Tremmosense does NOT work for spells that require sight as "Tremorsense doesn’t count as a form of sight." Delving a little deeper the best I could find is:
"Tremorsense tells you exactly where a creature is, so it’s basically a counter to Hide and Invisibility. It does not let you see through Heavily Obscured, but you do know what square each creature is in."
Breaking it down:
*Shadow of Moil*
"Flame-like shadows wreathe your body until the spell ends, causing you to *_become heavily obscured_* to others."
*Heavily obscured:*
Vision is blocked; creatures are effectively *_blinded_* ."
*Blinded*
"A blinded creature can't see and *_automatically fails any ability check that requires sight_*. (including spells that require sight)
Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage."
Crawford clarified this spell too:
Quote: "Shadow of Moil heavily obscures you, full stop. The spell also dims the light around you.
The fact that you're heavily obscured is a result of the flame-like shadows surrounding you, not the result of being in darkness. This means you're heavily obscured even to darkvision."
warlocks being prepared casters and ritual casters is a huge boost on its own
Celestial warlock is actually so good. It's 3 lvl feature is an equivalent of 1+level castings of healing word which does not intervene with your spellcasting. Yeah it's a little less healing but nobody cares about it because all you need is 1 hp.
Also they get nice short rest based healing with cure wounds which is valuable.
Aid is arguably better for spending any remaining Pact Slots before a SR if you're not out of Hit Dice.
@@SortKaffeyes, I even forgot about Aid. It gives your whole team a chunk of bonus hp for no cost basically. And is a decent mass healing spell as well.
The Warlock I see is a Chain Pact GOO Warlock that casts minor illusion around themselves and hides near the battle. Then they use their super summon, share their vision with it, then have it attack enemies while shooting spells out of it the whole time, and it resummoned with an action anytime it dies. You can even pretend to speak with it with your telepathy and use your telepathy debuff. You could even be a Dwarf or multiclass to get something with blind fighting to potentially protect your real body from being snuck up on. Eventually when you get a good Summon Spell you will have two minions walking around causing chaos with you being completely protected.
I tried something like this with the current rules. DM had us travel to a lot of planes where summon spells and familiars don't work 😅
You forgot to mention that your illusion and enchantment spells have no V component. You can hide and be invisible until you make a noise (never) make an attack (spells with saves arent attacks) or the DM thinks youre taking the pi** (I'd rule colour spray would give you away for example).
Have fun silently Mind Slivering every round with your cantrip and not breaking invisibility or hide!
@@rogerexcell249 it gets better than that. Psychic spells are cast with no V or S components.
The irony of Warlock being the most dipped into class is now they are going to be one that wants dips of other classes the most.
Warlocks have access to Truestrike, meaning a celestial warlock can cast True Strike and add their charisma mod 3 times. At 6th level, a crossbow should deal slightly more damage than EB+AB.
This isn’t phenomenal on its own, but if you pick up metamagic adept or multiclass sorcerer, you can quicken it for more than EB gets you at 17
They also get Green-flame blade, so they can add Charisma 3x to the first target and 2x charisma to the second with a bladepact... If they're a Celestial I mean. Otherwise its 2x/2x
@@rogerexcell249 Right, if your table allows Tasha's content
@@sjhsoccer would be a silly thing to ban.
@deffdefying4803 it's not about banning certain things, it's about narrowing what content is allowed. Many tables will be playing with only the materials in the PHB.
In fact, relavently, Treantmonk has stated that all of his videos moving forward will only be using content from the 2024 books and those that come after.
Its a fair argument. I merely listed another option you might be allowed to try. Another would be Word of Radiance in XGE.
For base game only I'd suggest a Celestial Patron with Sacred Flame. Agonized Sacred flame does less than EB, but it ignores cover. Combine with Pact of the Chain, and the fact it now has no max range looking through its eyes and a lot of familiar forms can go invisible and you can send it in as a spotter... With your bonus action you can see what it sees, leaving you free to snipe the foes THROUGH FULL COVER including solid walls as it only requires the target to be in range and you able to see them. Added bonus points if you order your invisible familiar to follow the party or party scout and you combine with Eldritch spear and have shiney 90'-660' range wallclipping holy orbital lasers from safety... just in case you're a coward, or want to be able to cover the rogue if they fluff their sneaking while the party spends a few turns rushing in to try and save them.
It’s odd that the lightly armored feat comes with shield proficiency but the light armor classes don’t get shield proficiency. Removing shield proficiency from moderately armored was an odd miss as well, I think the better fix would have been adding shield proficiency to all the “armored” feats.
i think if i was gonna create and origin feat for my players at the table i would make civil militia from bg3 and make it give prof in med armour and shields.
@@saqwana25it worked like that in playtest and it was a must pick broken choice for any caster because it’s free +5 AC
It’s like that because casters shouldn’t be able to suddenly get +5 ac from a single feat
It makes more sense to give lightly armoured feat to militia. Metal armour is expensive, so leather is more likely, along with a cheap wooden shield. LA Feat already set up this way. And the change of shield use on Light and Med was silly I agree. It was just done so theres a reason for someone to ever take light armour feat, but removing it from med means its now the new light armoured: A feat you'd never take. Having both give one attribute and shield and their armour level respectively makes more sense to me. This way a wizard, sorcerer, warlock or a rogue could all benefit.
@@thomasquesada7248 yeah i can get that but is is coming from the feeling i have that most origin feats are so underpowered it is not worth having them.
So a level 14 Great Old One warlock can summon up to three aberratons at the same time since it isn't a concentration spell fo them.
Two aberrations hitting a hexed target sounds pretty good!
Bane used to be castable through an invocation also.
Thankd for keeping the scoring system. Looking forward to doing a great old one campaign in September for sure.
I can't think of one good justification for why they removed mass suggestion from warlock spell list. It was *the* 6th level magic arcanum. I imagine a lot of tables homebrewing it back onto their spell list.
Maybe because it was *the* 6th-level Mystic Arcanum, so WotC wanted to level the playing field? One over-shining every other option is bad design. There are still many nice options, e.g. *Circle of Death, Conjure Fey, Create Undead, Eyebite, Mental Prison, Summon Fiend*
The 13 Str requirement for paladin is probably not as bad as you suggest in the beginning. As it is also a requirement for heavy weapons and some feats.
I could see a pact of the blade taking a Charisma +1 at 4, and ASI at 8 to max it, then look to something like GWM at 12
20:05 i think this is better than it looks, since true strike not only works with this but also with agonising blast and repelling blast, so if we have a level 6 warlock with agonising blast, on 1 target they can do 2d10+2*charisma mod (probably 4 around that level, so 19 avg, top end 28 low end 10) while with true strike and a light crossbow a celestial warlock can do 1d8+1d6+3*charisma mod (20, top end 26 bottom end 14), so on average a point higher, worst case on hit 5 points higher and best case only 2 points lower. Now obviously eldritch blast makes two attack rolls so at least one blast hit chance is a lot higher, but were we to multiclass 1 level into rogue, who can get 2 masteries and only needs dex for the dip (something we probably already have) we can not only get a second effect on true strike via weapo masteries (repelling blast being first) but also, were we to dip into pact of the chain use an extra 1d6 damage die per turn via sneak attack (ally within 5 feet, preferably an invisible one). Will this keep up around a level 11 eldritch blaster? No, but it isn't *significantly* worse by any means.
A pact of the blade warlock with a 1 level fighter dip could also presumably just use their melee capabilities with a pact weapon and masteries to do more damage+cc (ignoring secondary spells for now but, i mean, spirit shroud will add to melee way more so a ranged comparison is far from perfect here) so two attacks+mastery presumably with gwm and either hex or spirit shroud; but a celestial warlock, i think and i need clarification here because I'm not sure, can then use a rogue dip+pact of the blade to conjure a light weapon with nick and have another light weapon (with anything we want) to true strike first with vex weapon, and then make a light weapon attack with the nick weapon to strike again, adding sneak attack due to advantage. Presumably this results in, at level 7
Bladelock: (Maul) 4d6+2*mod+2*PB with topple, second attack presumably with advantage
And
Celestial: D6 (weapon+vex)+d6 (level 5)+3*mod+d6(nick, pact of the blade)+d6(sneak attack) with push (agonising blast), so 4d6+3*mod with push
While here, attack rolls are made with charisma and we are making the same number of attscks so spirit shroud/hex works the samr way but even here
1. Second attack is after toppling/vex so it has advantage, but since the bladelock adds PB+mod to the second attack unlike celestial which does not add any flat modifier, the average damage of bladelock is higher if they manage to get the enemy to topple, if not then the reverse could be true. If they dipped paladin instead and void con saves, they can add 2d4 via divine favor as well. Still, it is fairly comparable even now.
2. And this is where i need clarification, does true strike allow for nick attack? Light weapons say you can do extra attack after attacking with a different light weapon on your action, which we are doing so it would work, but then we are taking a magic action and not an action so idk, if this doesn't work we can go back to being a ranged character with two effects on our cantrip (one weapon mastery, one push via repelling blast)
3. Finally fighter means con saves are good, which a rogue dip doesn't have.
I think this is a compelling enough case that while radiant soul isn't incredible, it allows for niche flavor we don't really see in a warlock, specifically a serious contender for using our cantrip invocations on something other than eldritch blast (note that if we dip out of 2024 phb then green flame blade is another good candidate for radiant soul, which we presumably get via magic initiate).
Regarding nick and light weapons, doesn't work with True Strike, as the extra attack from the light property only applies when taking the Attack Action, while cast a cantrip is a Magic Action.
Otherwise, yes, the light crossbow is pretty cool, you could also go regular pact of the blade with thirsting blade with a 2 lvl dip in Paladin for smites which will also add chr-mod (and they also stack with eldritch smite for a big burst of damage, as it doesn't use a bonus action and isn't a spell).
I feared as much, bladelocks with spirit shroud really do just outshine most warlocks (and builds in general) in terms of pure dpr. Still, you can apply two effects on your true strike via just 1 level of rogue (push+mastery) and there isn't really anything in the sneak attack RAW that states you can't do it with true strike (we can just use a finesse/ranged weapon for the weapon attack and are making an attack roll) if you use a familiar to give you advantage; for very painless multiclassing and consistent dps (and arcane tricksters can undoubtedly use this to their advantage but that's for later).
But yeah, 1 level paladin dip means 13 strength, enough for heavy weapons+armor and 2 masteries yes, but also much more importantly maybe divine favour, since it can *maybe* also work with radiant soul (stated: once per turn, when a spell we cast deals radiant or fire damage you can add..., and that is what divine favour is doing, the radiant damGe does originate from the spell), even if we don't use divine smite and take 2 levels we can still add a free 4 damage whenever we use attacks as a bladelock per round as it still is a spell we are using to deal radiant damage. Two levels of paladin and we can get divine smite so by level 7 we can either do very consistent and nice dpr (about 4d6+2d4+3*charisma mod, not taking hitchance or spirit shroud or hex into consideration) or just use 1 turn to absolutely nuke a boss with 8d8 extra damage, which is perhaps limited to once per combat yes but that's a hell of a trick to pull out. The divine favour bit and the true strike bit really feels to me that radiant soul really doesn't deserve the dead level moniker so idk.
Also I have to ask, does green flame blade work to satisfy the usage of a light weapon bonus action attack, or is that exactly the same issue as true strike? Just to check.
@@theformation3781 Just use green flame blade instead of true strike. With a blade pact both use Charisma for damage and to hit, and the agonized effect applies to both instances of damage on both targets. Also since it's a weapon attack with a pact weapon you can trigger Eldritch Smite if you crit. PS you can also smite at ranged if you pact bond to a ranged weapon. Eat my critting, smiting holy revolver which bladepact made me proficient in, Muahahahahaaa!!!
@@theformation3781 didn't think of divine favour, that's actually a really good combo
@@rogerexcell249 ranged weapons cannot work with divine smite as it only applies to melee weapon/unarmed strike hits, to bond with a ranged weapon RAW it needs to be a magic weapon since the weapon you can summon has to be melee, and eldritch smite doesn't do radiant. Like I think the new divine favor might work here, but divine smites are a no-go unfortunately.
Melee wise green flame blade is great, but for now I just kind of want to stay within the confines of the 2024 phb tbh
Just a note on the armor… (not saying it is efficient but it deserves to be stated. You could get the mage armor invocation and the lightly armored feat. If your Dex is high enough, you could get a 20 ac with a shield. It does still cost two resources just not necessarily 2 feats.
5:28
I do not say this often, but you are wrong! Magical cunning *has* changed from the playtest, the complaint it got was that you needed to have alllllllllllll pact slots expended before you could use it, now, you can use it whenever you like, so you can expend 1 pact slot in a combat, do a quick ritual, and get it back before the boss fight
You're right. Ooops!
Also, great video!
I think you are a little too down on the Celestial patron. That level 14 feature is really darn good and likely to turn a fight on the way to being a TPK into a victory, half HP restored, not prone, and likely blinding a few opponents is a huge amount to be able to do and on another players turn as well! So even though the massive spike damage seems to be mellowed for the players, so likely will also be for the monster manual meaning your high HP front liner isn't so likely to take that single huge high damage crit that just wipes them out effortlessly and turns the fight on its head in one go whenever you do have a player go down... And knowing you have this available it allows your party to be so much more aggressive and take those risks that would otherwise quite likely be a bad idea (or in the case of one party I've DM'd for would let the saner players have an easier time pulling the madman's head from whichever noose he put it in this time)...
Also the level 6 seems pretty good multiclassing fodder, as well as making a cantrip do a minimum damage that is higher than most level 5 spells if it hits, if you stack both for double your charisma the average damage is likely to end up pretty darn good too - Its not legendarily powerful, but it certainly isn't bad. EB good as it is only works well on the low AC targets, this makes your other cantrip potent enough to be a really worthwhile choice with no extra invocations invested so for those times the EB favouring warlock finds a tough target to hit...
Yeah he is smoking some hard stuff imho, I don't agree with a lot of what he said this time.
PS. Combine with near useless Pact of the Tome for giggles? Gift of the protectors so first time they go down they come back with half HP. Second time they come back with 1 HP. Third time's the charm? Opse! Half-orc He's back again!
Fun combo for the GOOlock at Lvl 14:
Move (precast) Hex onto a target giving disadvantage on WIS saves, then Summon the Mind Flayer Aberration next to the Hexed target. The summoned Mind Flayer will immediately force a disadvantaged WIS save from the target (and other creatures within 5 feet, allies beware), dealing Psychic damage, then attack the Hexed target twice dealing Psychic damage, with bonus Psychic damage from Hex.
This combo just looks so fun to play, and perfect thematically...actual mind flaying could actually happen!
Edit: Then on your next turn, you could use Clairvoyant Combatant on the target, forcing another disadvantaged WIS save, and likely follow up with Eldritch Blasts at advantage, possibly even repelling/pulling the enemy with the EBs back next to the summoned Mind Flayer, who would do its thang all over again. This just looks so fun vs. beefy monsters that will live through at least 1 round of combat!!!
I think Eldritch Master could have gone a *little* bit harder, like giving you the option to replenish one Arcanum spell with Magical Cunning. Level 20 features tend to be a mixed bag still, with some clearly showing that WotC understand that a 20th level feature should be really powerful, and others just feeling like regular class features.
Maybe it’s just me but being able to use hurl through hell multiple times is really good. You just mentioned the nerf to the warlock spell list and I would say that this feature would be a great 5th level spell.
The archfey level 10 feature isn’t worth a fifth level slot in combat 99% of the time, however it is great if you know you’re about to take a short rest or use magical cunning out of combat!
At lvl 14 you can cast spell with your action, misty step for free, taunt enemies, then misty step with your bonus action from some other place, and taunt even more enemies, or maybe you taunted enough enemies, and now you go invisible with this second misty step.
Not gonna get to deep into it, but if you are a trickery domain cleric, and you have your clone which you can cast spells from...yeah, you see where this is going.
Great analysis!! Hype for the Sorcerer! I'm playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer with the features of the playtest (and it's amazing) but the Wild Magic Table of the PHB 2014 is a pain in the ass (and sometimes fun) for my party...
I hope the changes put that feature in a better position 😊
Solid video. I’m looking forward to the warlock
I have been playing a pact of the blade goolock in a campaign for a few months now. It's been an absolute blast (even though I rarely cast EB). Haven't been able to utilize clairvoyant combatant though because we were either fighting hordes of minions or creature with legendary resistances. The build has been nerfed since the playtest (lost one invocation to devouring blade), but that's a good thing. This is definitely my favorite warlock subclass and my personal go to for a psychic like build.
I assume you used the UA version?
The different Paths to follow (Blade, Chain, and Tome) aren't really close to being equal anymore. I know that path of the blade was popular, but there is really very little reason to take pact of the Tome anymore. The new familiars are pretty fun and they do have one decent progression, but pact of the chain isn't in the same ballpark as the blade. It really feels like in the 2024 rules some classes you are railroaded into the playing style that they want you to play (like the ranger becoming the Hunter's Mark Master). I do think that they have made some improvements, but I have a player that was all in on Pact of the Tome and we just won't be able to update the character unless I just house rule in a bunch of the 2014 stuff, at which point why not just play 2014 all the way?
When I first saw the new Fey patron I thought it was hands down the best, but seeing the other subclasses with their bonus spell lists included also has me much more interested in playing the Fiend or Great Old One than I was before. Being able to pick up spells like Fireball without having to sacrifice other warlock classics is SOOOOO much more fun.
I am so happy GOO warlock is strong now. It’s my favorite subclass flavor-wise and now it feels su much better designed with every feature having synergy with each other
I want to play a archfey bladelock sooo badly. But ngl im probably going to take my first level as fighter purely cause I need the armour. and the 2 extra HP and con save proficiency is pretty good. Also the back story I have fits perfectly for fighter at lvl 1
Light armor is definitely noticeable because the Blade Pact invocation doesn't give you any armor proficiency like the Hexblade subclass used to.
Upset about hurling through hell, but warlock was my favorite and still looks amazing
Funny part about Taunting Step, it also affects your allies.
“The dragonborn fighter and the orc warlord look over at your annoying teleporting ass, stop fighting, give a nod to each other and charge in straight at You”
Thanks for this excellent series! As always!
It's strange for this channel that the first class analyzed is not the Wizard, I know it didn't have many changes but the context changed a lot and I look forward to your analysis!
Wizards got soft nerfed as they got very little compared to the massive buffs warlocks, sorcerers, bards, clerics, and druids got. They are pretty weak now
@@Miggy19779except they also got better but it’s much more indirectly than other magic initiate let’s abkurer C.A.T.S. healing spells as abjuration spells for arcane ward and illusionist is much better
Also all older ways to learn rituals no longer exist so spell scribing is better and wizard have complete monopoly on rituals above first level now
Something you missed (and I think everyone seems to have missed) about Mystic Arcanum - they are cast without using a spell slot. That means they can be cast on the same turn as another spell
You missed that Armor of Agathys now lasts until you "have no temporary hit points" not until the temp hp from the spell are lost, so fiendlock at high levels can try to keep up a 5th level AoA for awhile if they keep killing folks. At level 9, that's 25 cold damage on every hit plus refreshing 14 temp hp if you ever fall below, potentially multiple times per round if your allies coordinate and you surround yourself with enemies that act on different initiatives. But even once per round, that can extend the duration of a spell that is now also easy to reapply, making melee fiendlocks a lot stronger.
29:41 Hurl Through Hell is still a great feature. It just feels "weak" because it's no longer broken af, like it was before.
Thanks for the video! Im exited to play this new warlock with the Celestial and the GOO Patron, I like an alternative support class, but I gotta say, having full caster progression spells and only having 2 spells slots through most of the game seems like such a weird and boring take on a caster for me, I was hoping they would add a few lower level spell slots that recharge on a long rest through leveling. I was also expecting for a more exciting 6th level spell, the first Arcanum options always felt a bit "meh" to me, I guess Ill take the Cauldron spell if I ever get to Level 11.
A pact of the blade Archfey Warlock is so much fun. Especially around levels 12-14.
You’re like a Fighter but better. You have 3 attacks, 5th level spell slots, free Bonus Action teleports that deal damage, and you can still dip 2 levels into fighter after level 12 for Action Surge, Second Wind, and Weapon Masteries.
Your mobility is unmatched, your damage is great, and you have fantastic utility options.
What is the Armor Class until dipping into Fighter at Level 11? With a 20 Charisma, that is still only five Steps of the Fey per day and my guess is that you'll take more than five hits in a day. Yeah, once you take that Fighter dip you'll have some AC, but until then...
@@pebbles2626 So start Fighter for Medium armor and delay your extra attacks. I don’t see wtf is your problem guy. Did I offend you? Is that why you’re hyper focussed on AC?
@@James-kv3ll Wow. You posted on a message thread, and I messaged you with a question about AC. You feel picked on? You did write going Ftr at Level 12, and thus, I asked what your AC is until then. Going Ftr at level 1 resolves the AC issue, but you did not state you were doing that.
GOOlocks are gonna be a NIGHTMARE against Mindflares
I love the new GOOlock, also I can fix her.
The Warlock/Paladin combinations in this book are pretty fun. I mean they’re not new ideas, but considering that if you wanted to be Martial you usually wanted Hexblade, so I just like pointing them out.
Celestial/Devotion, Archfey/Ancients, Fiend/Vengeance and… Great Old One/…Glory… okay that last one doesn’t make as much sense.
I think celestial warlock is being slept on. A single paladin dip takes away all warlock weakness with weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies. Not to mention, the new searing smite is no longer concentration and deals fire damage on the enemy's turn, meaning that the additional cha mod damage from celestial warlock would happen then too, since it's one per turn and no longer "when you cast a spell". As long as they don't shake the condition, it's free damage. ALSO you are super sleeping on this interaction with wall of fire and forced movement.
It has both limitations now, so it only works on one target the turn that you cast Searing Smite or Wall of Fire;
_"Once per turn, when _*_a spell you cast_*_ deals Radiant or Fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to that spell's damage against _*_one_*_ of the spell's targets."_
@SortKaffe I interpret that to mean that it can only deal the damage once per turn. The secondary limitation of it only happen on the turn you cast the spell doesn't apply here because if it did, it would have the same wording as the blessed healer subclass feature from the life domain cleric which states "when you cast a spell...." and not "when a spell you cast...."
The abilities take a pact slot to recharge gives it some interesting chances to recharge, taking a short rest and have a slot level over? Recharge it beforehand. Have the chance to take 2 short rests for whatever reason? Take the opportunity to recharge them after your first short rest then get your slots back. These seem to combo pretty well with the slot recharge ability that warlocks get at level 2.
Im excited to try Archfey + WM sorc. Shenanigans obv, and two really improved subclasses on two awdsome class chassis.
I think the great old one's level 10 eldritch hex is really good, and there's a crunchy fun to building around it.
Celestial warlock with Agonizing Blast (True Strike) applies their charisma mod 3 times at level 6. Probably not the best, but it's something.
So, it looks like the Warlock is the only class than can bypass the "can't cast two spells on the same turn" restriction? Since Mystic Arcanum don't use spell slots, you can cast one of those on the same turn you cast one of your Pact Magic spells. (The rule is just "can't expend more than one spell slot per turn", right?)
The way Archfey uses Misty Step and Fiend uses Hex are so fun and powerful with so much synergy that it even makes me wonder how the hell Ranger and Hunter's Mark are in the same book...
I'm super excited to play some warlocks, great old one never got much of my interest even in flavor, but this new version is definitely juicy, makes me think about getting to 14th level on a warlock
Hey man, I don’t know what video it was but I believe you talked about the 2024 smite spells, but for the life of me I can seem to find what video that was, unless I’m mistaken and you never mentioned them lol.
Loving these 2024 PHB videos by the way, can’t wait for the Paladin and fighter rundowns
I don't like that they made it necessary to multiclass to get reasonable Armor Class on your Warlock. Also mystic arcanum is looking much worse on warlocks now, no mass sugestion, forcecage nerf, that was needed, but even so, because of the valuable component spent it is not a choice for warlocks, they can't pick it and then upcast other spells to 7th level, or use other 7th level spells when they are low on money, like the wizard can. The main buff is to the previously bad subclasses that are now good, but if you play something like Genie, Undead or Famthomless, you are going to feel weaker now, unless you wanted to be blade pact with them.
You said warlocks won’t want 13 str (when speculating about Paladin 1) but if your bladelock is using heavy weapons you need 13 str or you get disadvantage on your attacks.
You know what, I’m glad to see Archfey at 4/5. Definitely got improved significantly
Edit: Everything below is completely incorrect. Radiant Soul is not just once per turn, it's one target per spell as well.
Radiant Soul is pretty good tier 2 IMO. Chain Pact + Gaze of Two Minds lets you cast Word of Radiance (with Agonizing Blast) at range centered on your invisible familiar floating 5 ft above a group of enemies. 2d6+CHA+CHA in a 15 ft by 15 ft cube. Some pros and cons, but comparable to casting Shatter at will.
Given its wording, since your Find Familiar spell summon (e.g. Sphinx of wonder) does radiant, doesn't the extra damage trigger there, too? Along with any summon after investment of the chain?
@@mattie3875To me "when a spell you cast" is equivalent to dragon sorc's "when you cast a spell," even though the latter is much more clear. Radiant soul doesn't say "when a spell you cast OR HAVE CAST."
Radiant Soul is also good with a 1 level Paladin dip, because turning Divine Smite into a spell makes Radiant Soul apply to it.
@ram3n_goblin mind that Radiant Soul damage only applies to one target of the AoE. I would probably combine it with True Strike (Agonizing Blast) instead. Also works great with War Caster.
@@SortKaffeYou are 100% correct, I've edited my original post.
The level 10 fey ability costing a 5th level slot to recover would be good if you made it to a short rest with a slot unused, but the feature used. It only replenishes on a long rest and your pact slots replenish on a short rest
The first character I completed a campaign with was a Lore Bard/Great Old One Warlock. And I loved that character, but the Warlock side was always a bit lacking. I'm definitely remaking him with the 2024 rules to see his the changes integrate.
my god, he actually sat back
One nerf in the GOO’s awakened mind feature from 2014 to 2024 I that now you are required to speak in a language the creature shares with you.
Before you could use awakened mind to overcome language barriers because you were not required to share a language. It was still one way communication, but combine that with comprehend languages and you could communicate with every creature in the world. I’m sad to see that part go
I know I'm late, but here's an argument for builds with Radiant Soul: Pact of the Blade; can choose radiant damage. Pact of the Tome; can choose Starry Wisp cantrip and a butt ton of other radiant or fire based cantrips. True Strike; radiant damage.
Weird ass combo using Radiant Soul: Agonizing Booming Blade on Hexed enemy with Repelling Blast(so they have to move to engage in combat), using a Pact Weapon(Longsword, two handed). At 6th level that isn't too bad for repeatable damage, with a splash of control.
All that teleporting means the Archfey looks like the go-to Blade pact build now.
Right at the start: 13str for paladin dip. If the rules haven't changed, this might actually be something you want for pact of the blade to summon heavy weapons and actually be able to use them!
Indeed! Only disadvantage is that the feats that buff martial combat would increase you Strength instead of your Charisma, so the advantage that Heavy weapons normally have over a Rapier is limited for a Charisma-based build.
I have so many ideias to play a pact of blade warlock:
Fiend whiplock, swashbuckler archfey, gooblade...My favorite class from 2024 phb.
I'm happy the fey patron got buffed. Totally playing (another) one.