What The Hell Happened to Warlocks: A One D&D Playtest Reaction

Written by Jack Durkin

To say Wizards of The Coast has had an eventful 2023 would be an understatement. They released their grand plans for One D&D only to face immediate backlash from their community due to their changes to the Open Gaming License. They released a blockbuster D&D movie only for it to be released a week before the Super Mario Bros. Movie took a Bullet Bill to any other titles in the box office on its path to make a billion dollars. And if that wasn’t enough they sent Pinkerton detectives to a Magic: the Gathering content creator’s house over a mis-shipped box of trading cards, doing more to remind people that the Pinkertons are still operating in 2023 than it did any favors for WotC’s reputation. So yeah, it’s been a wild 5 months.

But despite community concerns that WotC (and parent company Hasbro) is focused solely on using their properties to generate profit, the One D&D playtest is still ongoing. The most recent document covers 50 pages of weapons, classes, spells, and rule changes to bring D&D into the next generation. It's a lot to take in, so I’d like to take a dive into a class I’m relatively familiar with in order to get a sense of what’s changed and how it compares to D&D 5th Edition. And as my last article on this site would hint at, I’m taking a look at the Warlock. I’m a fan of the new Weapon Mastery system and feel like it provides some good flavor and options for Martial classes to make their character unique, but the class I’ve got the most experience with is those who made a deal with some higher power in order to gain their might and/or magic.

And right off the bat, there’s a massive change when it comes to how Warlocks cast their spells. In short: Peace out Pact Magic, hello Spellcasting. Instead of having a limited number of spell slots automatically cast at the highest possible level, Warlocks in One D&D use a tiered system of spell slots more akin to other spellcasting classes/subclasses. And the unique ability to regain spell slots on a Short Rest? Gone as well. In theory it gives Warlocks the chance to cast more without relying on hour-long naps to keep up: at level 20 the Warlock has a total of 15 spell slots compared to 4. But much like 5th Edition, these spell slots only reach a maximum of 5th level out of 9. It’s all theory at the moment, but it’s hard to justify WotC hyping up the Warlock’s ability to “have more spells” when all they needed in practice was a party okay with taking short rests every few combat encounters.

So does the Warlock get access to anything to help them keep up compared to other casters? Kind of. The Warlock’s Mystic Arcanum feature has been reworked as part of the Warlock’s signature Eldritch Invocations. Starting at a much earlier level (Level 5 vs Level 11) the Warlock can pick a spell from the Arcane spell list corresponding to their own level and cast it without a spell slot once per long rest. This is probably my biggest issue with the Warlock as it stands. Instead of scaling up by gaining 1 free spell scaling at a rate comparable to other casters, it would require 4 unique Invocations to achieve the same result. And considering the Warlock only gets 1 more Invocation compared to their 5th Edition counterparts, that's a steep cost just to maintain reliability at higher levels. To say nothing of the unique options that might get pushed aside in favor of just picking up Meteor Swarm.

In terms of the other changes, there’s parts to like and dislike. Warlocks now gain proficiency in Medium Armor, a change geared towards more melee-focused Warlocks but appreciated by anyone who prefers to not die. The Pact Boon chosen at Level 1 can affect the Warlock’s spellcasting modifier, freeing up more options in terms of stat prioritization (which is awesome). Each Boon comes with a neat unique cantrip and an Invocation at level 9 which really helps each option come into its own (though tying up yet another Invocation slot should you wish to make the most of them). And gaining a more direct method of communing with their patron via Contact Outer Plane could lead to some great RP moments depending on the table, always nice to see non-combat features like this in general.

Speaking of free spells, having Eldritch Blast and Hex off the bat is a nice way to ensure every Warlock gets access to the class’s signature spells. But Hex in particular doesn’t quite match up to some of the other spells in the game in its current form, especially once a character reaches higher tiers of spellcasting. This is only made worse considering the Warlock’s “Arcane” spell list is now a hodgepodge of spells previously limited to Sorcerer or Wizard along with the usual Warlock suspects. And having the big Level 18 “capstone” feature being the ability to cast Hex without a spell slot seems laughable as a reward. In terms of the subclasses there’s not too much to discuss yet since only one is currently available, but having extended spells automatically prepared and being able to cast one such spell for free per Long Rest is a nice touch and it seems like most of The Fiend subclass’s features have been buffed from 5th edition.

To sum things up I think Warlocks have been reworked more than they needed to be in a way that serves as a detriment to what made the class fun to play in the first place. While I’m a fan of the options the new Boons provide, I’m not quite sold on Spellcasting as a replacement for Pact Magic, especially at higher levels. And the reworking of Mystic Arcanum forces the Warlock to choose between the spells that can make them relevant at higher levels or some of the unique features/abilities that drew me to this class in the first place. 

Wizards of the Coast are launching an official feedback survey May 17th, 2023 so let them know what you think of this drastic overhaul of the Warlock Class. I certainly will.