Warlocks can change their known spells only when they reach a new level, according to the Warlock chart on p.106 of the Player Handbook. They gain more warlock spells of your choice that can be cast in this way at higher levels, such as one 8th-level spell at 15th level and one 9th-level spell at 17th level. You regain all uses of your Mystic Arcanum when you finish a level.
When you reach 6th level, for example, you learn a new warlock spell, which can be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level. Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you get access to your first Eldritch Invocation at Warlock level 1 instead of level 2.
Warlocks draw magic power from a pact with a powerful otherworldly being, such as a powerful fey creature, a celestial, an elder deity, or a fiend. The 2024 Warlock’s Pact Magic and spell slot progression works the same way it did for 2014, and you can still recover expended spell slots at the end of a Short or Long Rest. Magical Cunning is a new feature.
Warlocks learn a new warlock spell every time they gain a level from 2 through 9, as well as at level 19. A spell you choose must be of a level no higher than what’s shown in the table’s Slot Level column for your level. When you take a level in Warlock, you can swap one of your spells with another spell from the warlock list that you have an appropriate spellslot.
Warlocks are not a prepared caster, but they can swap spells only at level up. The only change is that when you advance beyond level 11 as a Warlock, you can replace one of your arcanum spells with another of the same level.
📹 Warlock Class Changes in D&D 2024
TIME STAMPS 00:00 – Intro 02:49 – Overview 05:00 – First Level invocations 05:37 – Pacts 10:14 – Contact Patron 10:49 – Feats …
How do spells work for warlocks?
In the 3. 5 Edition source book Complete Arcane, 18 Warlocks were introduced, who received their abilities through supernatural beings like demons or feys. They are either born with these powers or receive them through a fell pact, turning their soul into a dark font of eldritch powers. Warlocks do not cast spells but use spell-like abilities called “invocations”, which represent the tapping of the power granted to them. The most important of these abilities is the “eldritch blast”, which is their main offensive ability, firing a blast of magical energy at the target.
The major difference between warlocks and other Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition magic users is their ability to use their invocations “at will”, without a limit on the number of times an invocation can be cast. In contrast, Vancian magic users, such as wizards, cast a set number of spells every day from a wider selection of spells than a warlock.
The warlock’s biggest advantage is no real limit on the number of times per day they can use their powers. They have a few powers with limited uses per day, but 90% of their powers have no such restriction. However, they give up spell versatility, knowing only a handful of different tricks, which are all spooky, creepy, and oozing with flavor.
Can warlock Eldritch blast twice?
In the context of 5e, the scaling of cantrips is contingent upon the character’s level, rather than their class level. Consequently, attaining an Eldritch Blast through a feat may still result in two blasts inflicting 1d10 damage each in the absence of invocations.
When can wizards change spells?
To change your list of prepared spells after a long rest, spend at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for wizard spells, learned through dedicated study and memorization. You use Intelligence when a spell refers to your spellcasting ability and when setting the saving throw DC for a spell you cast or making an attack roll with one. The spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier.
How many times can a warlock use spells?
The warlock is capable of casting a greater number of spells through invocations; however, they are limited to two per short rest until they gain access to their unique 6th-level spell slot feature at level 11.
Can you change spells in 5E?
Druids are permitted to alter their spells in D&D 5E following a period of rest, with an additional minute spent in prayer or meditation for each new spell level. However, this does not extend to cantrips.
When can warlocks change invocations?
The PHB in D and D states that players can choose an invocation they know and replace it with another one that can learn at that level. However, this feature is not implemented in BGIII. This is important as it becomes more important in later levels, such as mage armor. By level 5 or so, players may have better armor, more enticing items, or try out the darkness/devil’s sight combo. It is unclear if this is a planned change or if it could be adjusted to align with the rules.
When can each class change spells?
All spellcasting classes can change spells during each level up, with certain classes like Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Wizards able to change their Prepared Spells from their Known Spells. For other spellcasting classes, one spell can be replaced during leveling up, but Cantrips cannot be replaced. To change a spell, go to ‘Replace Spell’ on the left sidebar, select a spell to change out, and then click ‘Confirm’ to replace it with the new spell.
When can warlocks change spells?
The process of “leveling up” enables the player to replace one current spell with a new one, in addition to learning new spells at certain levels. In the Warlock class, if the DM permits the use of Unearthed Arcana, one spell may be exchanged for another at the conclusion of each long rest period.
When can warlocks swap spells?
The process of “leveling up” enables the player to replace one current spell with a new one, in addition to learning new spells at certain levels. In the Warlock class, if the DM permits the use of Unearthed Arcana, one spell may be exchanged for another following each long rest.
What is a female warlock called?
In the context of occult studies, a witch is defined as the female counterpart to a warlock.
Can warlock change prepared spells?
Spellcasting classes, including Clairs, Druids, Paladins, and Wizards, are required to prepare spells in advance of their use and may modify them outside of combat. Other classes, including Bards, Eldritch Knight Fighters, Rangers, Arcane Trickster Rogues, Sorcerers, and Warlocks, are only permitted to replace a spell during the leveling-up process.
📹 D&D Spellcasting Explained | Part 1
This is spellcasting explained for D&D 5e! Here in part 1, we’ll go over go over spell levels, casting at higher levels, spell slots, …
I do like the idea of a someone beseeching otherworldly powers for the strength to right a wrong or avenge their loved ones, being given arcane arts to fulfill that request, and only realizing too late the true source of their power when their patron reveals themself. The weight of “consequences delayed” is narratively intriguing to me.
DM: This is Pact of the Blade Celestial Warlock. He’s a holy melee fighter, wielding weapons and magic fueled by his Charisma. He has an expanded spell list based on his subclass, can spend spell slots to imbue his strikes with extra magical damage, and can use his bonus action to heal allies using a pool of health based on his Warlock level. Paladin: Are you having a laugh? He does exactly what I do. Warlock (with a 1 level Paladin dip): But better.
If you want a reach weapon with pact of the blade warlock without having to worry about the requirements for heavy weapons, I can think of a very thematic option: an Archfey Warlock that makes a pact with a Dullahan and uses a whip, as, in Irish Mythology, the main weapon of a Dullahan was a whip made from a spine.
So a thought on no subclass until 3rd is that the patron is still “tempting” the player with gifts and boons (especially the fiend patron) until they “seal the deal” at third level. Opening up a world of options for when the patron’s “real” face or agenda is revealed and now the player is “trapped” in the deal etc. A lot of roleplaying options and story hooks can be made.
Really fun that we can take any combination of Pact of the Tome, Blade and Chains we want. I doubt I’d ever take all 3 but could definitely see myself taking 2 of them. Only complaint there is that Pact of the Blade gets 4 invocations that improve it but Chains and Tome only get 1 each. Wish they had some more love.
That interpretation of the “pactless” warlck levels is close to my own take. I also think it’s good for playing the “mysterious powers” trope where the warlock doesn’t have a single clue why they suddenly have powers. It’s good for creating warlocks whose origins are based on presworn bloodlines, cursed items, signing half-read contracts, plot convenient amnesia, plot inconvenient amnesia, surprise cthulus, forbidden pyramid schemes, REALLY bad lawyers, and all manner of fey shenanigans.
Warlocks were given gifts from an unknown patron. Clerics, an ability to website divinity from an unknown diety. Sorcerers, wellspring of your gift from an unknown origin. It gives the players & DM, if any, a mysterious component. From a design point, it tackled both a single level dip builds & roleplay.
A problem with Warlock that they had said at the beginning of all this they were trying to fix is that so many builds were coming to Warlock, especially Hexblade, for a one or two level dip, and there wasn’t much incentive to play it as a straight class, but with the Pact of the Blade I think they’ve made this worse. You still get the ability to use Cha for your attack and damage rolls with a 1 level dip, but if you go straight class you don’t really have many good ways to get a decent AC without multiclassing. You can take Armor of Shadows or Magic Initiate: Wizard (which doesn’t have a background that boosts Cha, so you have to get it another way) to get mage armor, or you can take two separate feats to get shield and medium armor proficiency, neither or which boost your Cha. If you go with Mage Armor and start with a 16 Dex, you can get up to 16 AC, which is pretty mediocre to take into melee, and despite needing to invest multiple invocation picks to get there, you still struggle to just keep up with Eldritch Blast. I actually like that the weapon feats don’t work as well with the Pact of the Blade, you should have to give something up to be an effective gish, and straight class martials should perform better, and I don’t think they are that far from something that will really work, they just need a little bit of help defensively, and maybe the ability to do the Bladesinger/Eldritch Knight/Valor Bard thing where they can replace one of their attacks with a Cantrip. A Valor Bard that takes a one or two level Pact of the Blade dip to use Cha for their attacks and boost True Strike with Agonizing Blast does everything the Pact of the Blade wants to but better.
Kelly was joking but the idea of asking your patron about what guys they like could be part of an interesting character. A Fey Patron Warlock whose Patron is essentially a glorified shipper. Now your purpose is not to fulfill some malevolent grand plan your patron has but just play match maker. It’s really goofy but sounds really fun. You could even have an end goal of finding your patron their one true love. I love that so much
3:33 This just feels right as an explanation. I like the approach to patrons that they won’t instantly grant you the powers that are similar to theirs but instead – test your commitment to the pact – need you to get acclimated with their form of magic (for patrons that don’t know you even exist like great old one) – or want to see at least some faith in their planar beliefs (celestial)
To note, if you’re allowing 5.0 books at the table, you can sorts double dip with a pack of the blade, hex blade warlock to duel weild if you want to. The old hex weapon can be used in conjunction with the new blade pact, so a medium armor duel weirder is still viable if 5.0 books are allowed with your 5.24 books.
You can easily work around levels 1 and 2. In my current game, I’m playing a fighter with a homebrew subclass offered to me by my DM. At 7, it granted me 1 cantrip, 1 1st level spell (PROF mod X per day) and Counterspell once per day. So of course I took Eldritch Blast and Dissonant Whispers! It got me interested in multiclassing into Warlock. After discussing it with my DM, that’s how we flavored those new powers at the next session. My patron (a goddess whose temple I had looted an artifact from years prior) had taken an interest in perusal me and basically put me on a trial basis, with me agreeing to a pact upon officially taking Warlock levels. It’s been fun!
The subclass coming in at level 3 is actually really cool thematically, because it allows for a more gradual discovery of the Warlock’s powers and Patron. It gives players time to roleplay the uncertainty and mystery of their character’s early connection to the arcane, making the eventual reveal of the Patron a significant milestone.
A possible solution to the armor problem for Swordlocks: take the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat and choose Mage Armor as your 1st level spell. You get one casting per long rest without expending a spell slot, it lasts 8 hours, doesn’t require concentration, and boosts your base AC to 13. And you get a couple of wizard cantrips in the bargain. If you’re not playing a human and the Sage background doesn’t make sense with your character concept, you can use Lessons of the First Ones to grab it at 2nd level.
I do love a lot of the changes to the class. Pact of the Blade giving cha usage is so welcome and, as the guys say, makes for so much more versatility. And the subclasses are rocking more than ever. But I do feel like what I absolutely wanted most has been largely ignored. Warlock is my favourite class to play, but it is such a painful class to play and build, too. Every fun flavorful option feels like a mistake, where I should be picking something else. I really want Beast Speech and Otherworldly Leap, but if I don’t pick Agonising Blast and Repelling Blast, I’m doing it wrong. I’ve also literally never played a campaign to level 11 yet, so I’ve never had more than two spell slots, and it is so suffocating. I guess getting budget arcane recovery so early is nice, but I didn’t find it that hard to get short rests anyway. Really the only feature that relieves some pain is getting more invocation slots, but since pact boons are invocations it’s… only really one extra slot. I can’t really complain too much. Nothing’s been ruined as pretty much all the changes are strictly beneficial, and it’s still my favourite class! Just a tiny bit disappointed that the most frustrating things didn’t get addressed enough/at all.
Could also play it out that until the third level subclass this is the time where the patron is introducing themselves and their “benefits” to the would be warlock. And third level being the actual “signing of the contract” when they officially become your patron. Whether you play it as a trap being sprung or the consummation of their burgeoning relationship.
For the whole heavy weapon stat thing you were trying to figure out (based on standard array: 15 Cha (+2=17 background) 12 Dex (+1=13 background) 14 Con 13 Str 10 Wis 08 Int Then when you get Great Weapon Master, you put the +1 into Strength. Get medium armor VIA the fighter dip and take the +1 Dexterity when you take polearm master and you’re good to go. As for Celestial Warlock and Radiant Damage, there are a few, including the New True Strike, which is hilarious because Agonizing True Strike Greatsword/longsword beats out Agonizing EB in terms of damage even without GWM
I don’t know how well received this idea is, but I typically have a guideline for my games about Character Levels. As a base template, I usually have characters level up after a number of sessions equal to their level, give or take a session or two based on story beats. For example, at level one, the characters typically level up after one session. Two sessions at level two, so on so forth. Like I said though, its more of a suggested pace, not a hard rule.
You actually CAN have a dual wielding bladelock under the current rules. The wording of the Hex Warrior class feature specifically says you can use charisma with any one handed weapon you choose (that you’re proficient with) at the start of each day AND if you choose pact of the blade the charisma benefit extends to those conjured weapons as well. Meaning you touch one weapon at the start of the day, and then conjure a generic pact weapon in your off hand, and you can use charisma with both of them
I feel like levels 1&2 are easy to explain away, for example being someone searching for magic and power, gaining it in different ways until you actually can get a patron. An acolyte reading and researching forbidden magics A young farmer finding his grandmother’s “journals” A princess trying to discover the magic and powers of those who had locked her away, to find an escape. A thief who has become taken with the book he stole. They don’t have a patron, but they do learn the magic. For now.
I played a Genie, mark of shadow elf blade warlock in Eberron. The setting has an amazing finesse, non-heavy weapon for Elves in double scimitar – since it was no hexblade, the attack bonus was based on dex, and the character was dex-focused in general. Still, double scimitar essentialy enables the extra attacks, bladebearer of the valenar was a very good half-feat that also helped with AC, and Mark of Shadow with Orphan background made him quite a good rogue equivalent as well. I feel like such a build would be significantly improved now with the new pact of the blade.
If you like story roleplaying, I can imagine a lot of fun with the contact patron. Trying to not be an evil character, but have a fiendish patron? It’ll try to subtly (or maybe not so subtly) corrupt you. Great Old One? Got to try to interpret it’s alien messages. In general should be a lot you can do with it.
Maybe a homebrew Invocation, or a feature for the Hexblade subclass, would be a form of Unarmed Defense, where you add your Charisma modifier to AC along with Dexterity, similar to the Bard’s College of Dance. If you wanted it to be Hexblade, you’d probably not give other armor proficiencies; if for Invocation, def at least a lvl 3+ requirement in Warlock
I think it’s debatable whether fighter or paladin gives you a better first level dip for a blade lock. Fighter gives con saves and a fighting style, but paladin gives 2 spell slots and some very useful spells including smites. Also gift of the ever living ones isn’t in the PHB but could still be picked with backwards compatibility, casting cure wounds on yourself at 5th level with that invocation will heal 85 hp, which is more than the Heal spell!
I think the best way to do bladelock in 5.24 is to just go Dex 13-14 Con 14-16 Cha 17 as before, wearing scale mail -> half-plate with a versatile weapon (either by taking a Fighter dip or the Hexblade subclass through backwards compatibility) and then taking War Caster at Warlock level 4 (character level 5 if you took the Fighter dip) so you can also don a shield
I really love Bladelock for all of the damage types, and summoning it as a bonus action is pretty cool. But another thing of note is Armor of Agathys is also a bonus action. For Bladelocks this feels a little clunky, especially for a FeyLock, but generally this is great. Im super going Goolock because i love the thematics of all my damage being psychic.
I’m surprised people aren’t talking about how crazy the new warcaster is. The reaction reworked literally just gives them the ability to cast spells as reaction on their friends or enemies. If you can set your concentration up on round 1 by casting a buff on a friend and come out swinging on round one. Having a friend with alert can help with this if you get an unwanted initiative position.
You and your friend are walking along the road, and your friend spots an oil lamp stuck in the bushes. She wipes the dust off the lamp, and a muscular figure appears in a plume of smoke. He is wearing baggy pants and pointy shoes, and has a ponytail braided with gold. “Ho ho! Thank you for freeing me from my thousand-year imprisonment! As a token of my gratitude, I shall grant you one wish!” “I wish to serve you, mighty one! Give me some of your power so that I may commit deeds in your name!” “Very well. You shall have access to a portion of my magic! I shall check in on you periodically to see how you’re getting on. Farewell!” The being disappears in a puff of smoke. You run up to your friend, panting. “What WAS that?!” “No clue, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for Great Old One”
My first playthrough of a full campaign was a Fiend lock. LOVED him! THe Darkness/devil’s sight/ was great, and I ended up goign with Tome boom that gave me rituals (very useful since I was only caster really other than a bard that didn’t get ritual casting). So, I was able to cast tiny hut and stuff like that, water breathing and save my pact slots. Yeah, I wish I couldhave pact slots but being able to recover them is nice too. I also played a Arcfey lock, but covid interrupted that campaign, and we just started over later. and I wanted to play a Old one, and now even more. I think the Blade/Arcfey combo with being able to cast misty step and vamp around the field with something like a warax or hammer, (I find axes & locks are thematic?) I love that idea, and the ability on great old one to do necrotic or psychic, I want to play all these subclasses again. I was never interested in being a Celestial lock, but maybe now. I’d rather play a divine soul sorcerer to do the not comon cleric healer (though I love my druids and bards as healers). Yeah, I am glad that they are making people no just go for the heavily armor heavy weapon / weapon master warlock, felt that that is a paladin or do the paladin lock mix all the time as meta, but instead play afull lock, and concentrate on casting.
The theme for the level progression in 5.24 feels like 1-8 core kit, 9-14 group utility, 15-20 capstone/endgame boons. As players get into the content I feel like this revision is going to heavily feature dips and deep splits as things like Fighter 1 Paladin 1, and Warlock 1 (blade) can just be dumped on any other chassis at the minor cost of endgame potential few ever reach. Valor Bard is going to be a big winner and likely the base of choice for several martial builds.
I can’t wait to take Pact of the Pokeb… of the Chain… Chain for a drive. Seems really funny to me, how you can dish out Familiars every turn. Especially, I’ve been thinking about an Archfey Warlock with a Sprite, which is not only super thematic, but at lvl7 you can cast Greater Invisibility and do an Eldritch Blast +2 Shortbow attacks from the position of your tiny flying dude 😀
I also see the Warlock as someone who might have a little innate magic and/or tries to get power from multiple sources, both arcane and pact magic. This even gives you MORE roleplaying options than you ever had before. Like what kinds of things did you ‘sacrifice’ to get these certain kinds of power? Your pact of the blade could be from a vastly different source than your let’s say Fey pact you later get. Maybe there is a demon trapped inside the sword that somehow does your bidding… maybe you went to hell to find an imp and got it on its knee to bend to your will (the pact of the chain), but later you find a book about Chtulhu and think that there is some power to be found there… The coolest thing is you can make it so simple or complicated as you want. Are all invocations from the same source? Or are you like a hoarder that travels the land in search for these forbidden powers? I don’t know to me it’s just EXCITING! I just wish they included an improved version of pact of the talisman 🙁
I STILL want Undead Pact Warlock updated later on with new D&D24 rules. Also want what you Dungeon Dudes suggested in a article back: Draconic Pact Warlock! Making a pact with any powerful Chromatic, Gem and Metallic dragons. All each with the 5 well known varities + whatever lesser known types. I usually always combine my Tieflings with Fiend Warlock. Now with clear lineages of Abyssal, Cthonic and Infernal, you can further combine it with whatever Fiendish lords and ladies of demonic, lothic and devilish pact
I haven’t dug into the book myself yet, but just from what I’m hearing here, I’m pretty happy with everything I’m hearing about the changes they’ve made. Warlock is my favorite class in the game because of its flavor and versatility. It is sad to see the hexblade subclass getting cannibalized for its mechanics, and its flavor getting ditched because of it. I did actually like the flavor of the hexblade patron, and currently have a character with that. But I do think that for the class as a whole this is a better result. Those features made available to all subclasses will make the warlock more appealing and versatile. It is cool to see the original phb patrons getting a MUCH needed boost. They were always super lackluster to me, which is why I only ever played Celestial and Hexblade. But now Fey and GOO are both very appealing to play. My first ever character was a celestial warlock swashbuckler rogue mix. But I’m now feeling like the Fey might be the better fit for the character concept. And my current pure hexblade warlock might be a better fit with the Celestial or the great old one. Making the 3 different pacts, and the hexblade features, available to any subclass in any combination makes the class so much better. Aside from the Ranger, I’m pretty happy with what I’m seeing of all the classes so far
Can we at least not pretend it isn’t annoying that we have to wait until 3rd level for our Subclass Features? Yeah I get the concept of “The True Powers don’t manifest until you’ve grown in strength”, I didn’t like it with the Old Paladin either, so that idea infecting the Warlock, Sorcerer, and Cleric isn’t compelling. Was this change even necessary or beneficial? Because all I see is an annoying hurdle that just gets in the way of roleplaying as the Descendant of a Dragon or a Disciple of a Great Old One.
To be honest, I rather like that warlocks get their patron at level 3 because it might help people realise that a warlock doesn’t have to be someone who can only do magic because of some greater power doing all the work for them. What do we think Constantine is? He lies, cheats, and steals his way through all of his encounters, so his charisma is clearly through the roof, and he’s not utterly beholden to some sentient magic battery boss somewhere. He’s a warlock! He’s an archanist who clearly knows what he’s doing, and has his own talent and accomplishments, like a wizard does, but he’s also a conniving trickster who takes shortcuts. I’m looking forward to playing a classic pulpy intellectual character, like an ex lecturer, who becomes an occultist and starts picking up magical secrets and powers, before discovering they can access the power of a dead or sleeping elder god that they can harvest the dreams of for further arcane secrets. A magical researcher, just one who walks a very different, much more secret path than the wizard.
14:00 – I feel like my Dudes are just trying a bit to minmax here and have everything – both melee prowess and full charisma casting power. And that’s just not working out. Nor should it. Let’s face it – If you want to play a melee warlock, you probably want to deal most of your damage in melee. So you really do not need that much charisma. Just treat your warlock as a paladin in terms of stats, and rely on spells that do not require high spell casting characteristics – armour of agathys, mirror image, hex, ant the like plus some eldritch smites for extra damage. Boom, you’re done.
Bad armor class? Shadow of moil. Trouble hitting targets? Shadow of moil Literally anything except social encounters? Shadow of moil. Also with the warlock you never want to take great weapon master because you want to take Elven accuracy with a finesse weapon. Permanent advantage in shadow of moil with effectively triple advantage. Plus if you don’t use 2 handed weapons you can use a shield, bridging the gap between a heavy armor warlock and a normal warlock. With light armor and max dexterity that’s 19 armor class plus enemies have disadvantage Plus fiend gets hp on kill, so if you take fiend you can basically get hit every now and then and not even feel it. Plus using rapier and shield lets you use defensive duelist, which is a free shield spell, making your armor class upwards of 23
I feel like people slept on the theming of the hexblade. The idea of a sentient magical item communicating with you has been a thing since the earliest days of D&D. So a novice adventurer picking up a magic item and it starts talking to them and granting them magic powers is fully on theme. Heck I’m currently playing a Shadar-kai Elf who is seeking out her families lost Moonblade (sentient magic sword tied to an Elven families heritage and noble standing) after having visions of it.
I read the pact of the blade invocation and, to me, it reads that you can only create out of thin air a melee weapon but that you could still make a magic bow your pact weapon if you have one to touch. The invocation does not say that it only works with melee weapons, all it says is that a conjured pact weapon must be a melee weapon. This is my take based upon how the designers chose to write the parenthetical phrase about melee weapons and the grammar rules for parantheticals.
I’d go Paladin for the multiclass for armor over Fighter. Fighter gets you a lot of good things, but I think Paladin offers more. My breakdown would be 12 Warlock/8 Paladin. I’d forgo plate armor and opt for half-plate. There’s only a 1 AC difference and it won’t require 15 Strength, freeing up ASI/feats. With half-plate and a standard shield, that’s 19 AC. Using a longsword as a Pact Weapon, you can get three attacks. You get the same proficiencies, plus Lay on Hands, Aura of Protection, Divine Smite, Blessed Strikes, 4 first level slots and 3 second level slots. Turn 1: Bonus Action cast Hex and attack three times. 1d8+5+1d6+1d8 on attack 1, then 1d8+5+1d6 on the following two. Turn 2: Three attacks. One using Eldritch Smite for 1d8+5+1d6+6d8+1d8 for an average of 42 damage. Second attack with first level Divine Smite for an average of 1d8+5+1d6+2d8 or 22 damage with advantage from being knocked prone with Eldritch Smite. Third attack would be 1d8+5+1d6 or an average of 13.
To the DM’s out there maybe have a discussion with your players on how you want to handle Expanded spell lists and leveling from 1st-3rd level if your going to start at level 1. Since the Subclass coming online for all spell casters is at 3rd level classes like the Warlock may want one of the 1st level spells on the expanded spell list earlier. Also they may have picked spells that they get as part of the expanded spell list and how those free spells play into the choices they have at 3rd level when the expanded spell list comes online… now.
The reason they didn’t add Slow, Bestow Curse and Polymorph onto their spell list is because those spells have strong upcast effects. Look at Bestow Curse when the Warlock has 5th level Pact slots, but it’s a pity though. I also VERY much agree they should have just boosted the number of Pact slots automatically instead of the 1 min Magic Cunning ritual once per Long Rest. This is such a tedious way and it works per Long Rest so this would be in line with the spell slot progression table like all other spellcasters.
As nice as the ’24 subclass glowups are – I’m kind of tempted by the new Archfey – I think the Genie patron from Tasha’s is still my favourite. But, very happy to see more options to regain spell slots between short rests and combining that with Sanctuary Vessel for even more recovery is only going to be that much sweeter.
I’m not sure how well it will work, but I want to explore the idea of a warlock|barbarian. I kicked the idea around a bit with the 2014 version, but wasn’t completely happy with the mechanics. Now on the other hand, I think there may be a bit more to work with. Basic premise was warlock to cast armor of agathys, which didn’t require conc, therefore stayed up during rage. Rage reduced melee damage taken, so AoA lasted longer. the quick testing I did at the time, a monster was able to beat itself to death on the barbarian’s damage shield. Now, I can use fiend to refresh temp hit points and make AoA last longer. I still have another spell slot I can smite with (since it isn’t a cast, I can do it while raging). I don’t care about low cha because I am not casting spells in combat, and am free to take all the heavy weapon feats I want.
The thing I wish they kept from the 1st play test (as far as I remember and aside from medium armor and shield proficiency) of the warlock was that you could pick what your spell casting ability was based on your invocation/pact boon. I thought that was such a cool flavor choice that set the warlock apart from the other arcane casters and was kind of sad when it just went back to charisma.
I really want to try building a celestial blade warlock using true strike. May have to take both the tome and blade pact I’m not sure if true strike is an option for them normally. But agonizing blast can be added to the true strike attack for triple modifier addition. I would want to use a spear/javelin as well since the blade pact can resummon a weapon with a bonus action
It was a good step in the right direction to make Pact of the Blade allow you to use Charisma with the weapon, but it’s still worse than Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast for one reason; they kept the need to spend invocations on extra attacks. Eldritch Blast gets those for free, so I’m not sure what they were thinking. Also, they really needed to fix Armor of Shadows. It would be decent on someone like a Sorcerer who has no armor proficiencies, but on a Warlock it’s only the equivalent of +1 armor and absolutely not worth it. With Hexblade gone, it would have been the perfect opportunity to have it fill that medium armor niche. Maybe it could work like the old UA and let you bind a suit of armor and gain proficiency with it, just like Pact of the Blade does with weapons. Maybe it could grant 15 AC instead of 13, with the caveat that you can’t add more than +2 Dexterity.
It’s not pretty, but heavy weapon pact of the blade is definitely still doable. Point Buy: Str 13, Dex 13 (+1), Con 14, Int 8, Wis 9, Cha 15 (+2); Start fighter for medium armor, get Charisma to 18, then can go resilient WIS at some point Not sure how rough the beginning will be, but I don’t think it’s completely dead
At level 7, Paladin 1/ Celestial Warlock 6, Assuming 18 Charisma. Invocations include Pact of the Tome, Pact of the Blade, Eldritch Smite, 2x Agonizing Blast The idea is that you stack Shillelagh, True Strike, Eldritch Smite, and Divine Smite onto a single massive attack. The potential damage from a this attack, allowing for a generous DM, is: Shillelagh (from your Tome), base damage d10 + 4 Weapon damage Bonus +4 for Agonizing Blast True Strike, +d6 Radiant, +4 for Agonizing Blast, +4 for Radiant Soul Eldritch Smite (3rd Level slot) +4d8 Force damage Then (unless you cast Shillelagh that turn) use your Bonus Action for a 3rd Level Divine Smite 4d8, +4 for Radiant Soul Average 65 Damage total; you could potentially add another d6 by using one of your Paladin slots to cast Hex. Note that this all depends on 1) the DM allowing Agonizing Blast on Shillelagh and True Strike and more importantly on allowing both Smites on the same attack. RAW it is allowed because Eldritch Smite expends a Spell Slot without actually casting a spell!
I have one question: does the archfey warlock’s newfound focus on teleportation via misty step reduce the amount of charms and illusions that the archfey warlock has access to compared to 2014 5e? I ask because charms and illusions are core parts of classic fey trickery, and I personally really liked the fey presence and beguiling defenses abilities.
I do like some of the flavor of Warlocks, but I think Pacts need to be separate from Invocations; a pact is an agreement between two parties, an invocation is an invoking of power from a source. My fix would be to have Warlocks pick one Pact at level 4, after they’ve been introduced to their patron. They may pick another at level 12, or pick an upgrade to their initial pact. At level 16, the Warlock may pick a final Pact, again picking either a new one or upgrading a pact they’ve chosen. This allows for three Pact weapon upgrades, three Chain upgrades, or three Tome upgrades. More choice is always better, especially when making one choice excludes others, or at the least makes picking the other things later less useful. Doing this frees up more Invocations slots for more fun and flavorful things, but we need more than 9 Invocations to make things interesting, and that means Warlocks should get fewer Invocations total to increase the opportunity cost of each choice. All of these things together severely handicap the base class, but all of the good stuff should come from your Patron, anyway, not just your eldritch dabblings. To balance out this, however, all warlocks can, at level one, at the end of a long or short rest, summon a small eldritch creature: either a pixie, or perhaps a wisp, or a micro-beholder; whichever suits your flavor; summon a simple weapon made of ribbions of eldritch magic: this weapon cannot be a ranged weapon, and you use you Dex modifier for attack and damage rolls, and it deals damage equal to it’s real counterpart, but it deals either psychic, radiant, or force damage, your choice.
Warlocks have been my favorite class in 5e (by far) and I am looking forward to seeing how they play in 2024 5e. I do think it is a bummer that Hexblade didn’t make the 2024 PHB, because I feel that the changes to Pact of the Blade kinda makes it redundant to play the Hexblade (at least at low level.)
I’m getting excited about a Pact of the Old Ones but instead of the traditional Cthulhu style entity with lots of tentacle flavour, this is a Tron-esque entity from the Far Realm with lots of de-rezzing flavour (esp from Tron Legacy) and the weird polyhedral ‘bit’ character from the original film as a familiar or avatar or something.
Great Old One looks really fun. However, I’m going Archfey. I’m also going with an elf race/species and multiclassing as sorcerer. Now I have my long rest plus 4 short rests that can be used to create spell slots. Not a coffee-lock, but maybe decaf-lock. Plenty of slots for Misty Step and Mirror Image and along with Eldritch Blast I’m blinking on and off all over the battlefield. Plus you can cast Mirror Image more than once and with 4 or more clones the chance of hitting you is less than 1%. I’m keeping 4 or more clones active at all times I’m in combat. This spell is busted.
I personally thing agonizing blast is still way too easy to hand out, especially to something like a valor bard who can combine it with a weapon attack (spell sniper optional). You can even skip pact of the blade if you’d rather use Shillelagh from an origin feat and pick up Guidance on the way for good measure. You could also do this for an Actually Eldritch Knight.
One thing I didn’t get, are the subclass changes just for the ones from the PHB? Like, no changes to Hexblade (not that it needs any) or other stuff from Xanathar’s and Tasha’s? Like, do I still get the benefits from Hex Warrior but perhaps with the caveat that I need a 13 STR to wield a heavy weapon, like a glaive, and use better armor?
Question Dudes: Considering what the Apothecary owes to the Warlock in terms of its chassis, would you be inclined to add a once per long rest ability to restore 1/2 spell slots now that you’ve seen the 2024 rules, or do you think the overall bump you gave to the Apothecary’s spell slots adequately addressed the problem of having a relatively small gas tank?
wait, they took out Sign Of Ill Omen as an Invocation? Oh noooo. I actually liked that invocation is a core one for one of my warlock characters. I didn’t mind the use of a spell slot because it was very impactful anyway. I would take it at lvl 9, which means my spells are now cast at 5th level, rendering the concentration requirement on Bestow Curse obsolete. Deyum, that sucks for me.
Let’s look at a level 6 Celestial BladeLock with True Strike. Origin Feat: Magic Initiate Cleric Summon Pact Greatsword Invocations: Bladepact, Eldritch Smite, Thirsting Blade, ChainPact (Sphinx of Wonder), Agonizing Blast: True Strike Level 4 Feat: Warcaster (+1 cha) Rd 1: Bonus Action Hex, Move to engage with familiar (ready action to help when you attack), Atk/Atk for (2d6 sword+1d6 hex+4) x2. You’re looking at 20.3 avg damage since the fam’s help only affects the 1st attack. or Rd 1: Bonus Action Hex, Move to engage with familiar (ready action to help when you attack), Truestrike for 2d6 sword+1d6 truestrike+1d6 hex+12 (4 from stat, 4 from Radiant Soul, 4 from Agonizing Blast). 20.8 avg damage. So from level 6-10 your single truestrike is slightly better on average than your 2 attacks. However, you can skip hex and instead have the familiar attack with investment of chain master. Skipping hex greatly penalizes your Attack Action, but not your true strike. So you could run Bless (boosting the party) or Summon Shadow (off tank and control). You are a bit of a glass cannon, but tough is helping, False Life or Armor of Agathys can help. AoA is the big one. You want to get hit to trigger it for the extra damage and your Warcaster is helping you keep the summon. So I think there’s a lot of potential here.
(Level 1) You’ve made a bargain with an entity and started down the path toward becoming their servant. The entity has given you a taste of the power they can grant should you become their servant. (Level 3) Your patron has seen your loyalty and usefulness, and it’s time to finalize your deal. —> thinking about it this way opens up a lot of fun story potential, where level 3 becomes the point of no return for the warlock character. It’s the moment they sign the contract, complete the blood ritual, or sell away years of their life. For inspiration, you could think of the moment when Shadowheart has to decide to kill the nightsong and become a dark justiciar.
Fiendish Vigor, Armor of Agathys, all kinds of temp HP sources. Hoping that will offset some of the armor deficiencies. But new warlock is definitely a skirmisher and not a tank. RAW the Armor of Agathys stays up as long as the warlock has temp HP. So, if temp HP gets renewed the melee hits still do dmg. So maybe a lower AC is not a bad thing?
I think you’ll just see every bladelock dip fighter at 1. It solves too much not to. Like, realistically we see them take warcaster/fey touched/shadow touched and a +2 Char ASI for their first two feats, then grab something like GWM or PAM at 12/13 later, but they probably don’t grab both anymore. With the fighter dip can can just go sword and board early and then if you want, switch to heavy weapons once you get your third feat. GWM would combo best with your 3rd attack at that level. You may also just full send 15 str from the start. Like 15str/10dex/14con/10wis/17char sounds reasonable starting out. If you take GWM fighting over the ASI, you could opt for 14str to start. I think you always bump char to 18 first though.
Honestly what intrests me the most is that some invocations can be taken more then once and one that feels rioe for abuse is lessons of the old ones since if i recall correctly magic iniate got changed to aslo be able to be taken mutiple times 3 times in total once for each class it now lets you take a spell from. That means that assuming you starting orgin feat is magic intaite you can have all 3 magic iniate taken ny second level giving you 3 additional spells you know that can be cast for free once a day or with your warlock spell slots and 6 additional cantrips all of ehich use your charisma. Also i think yal undersold th changes to the other 2 oacts as the pact of the chain offers allot of new ootions and the book of shadoes comes with 2 free ritual spells making it almost like a slight merger with the book of ancient secrets invocation minus the ability to inscribe new ritual spells of course.
I don’t really feel like going for a bladelock bumping strength for heavy weapons and armor is worth it anymore, unless you want to multiclass Paladin. But if you’re ok with just having medium armor and a pretty standard weapon, that’s actually quite easy now with Medium Armored feat being a half-feat. I’d go for a 13 Dex at character creation and round it to 14 at level 4… And never think about it for the rest of my character’s career. That means that I’d wait to start bumping my Cha, but I feel like it’s worth it. Thnks for these amazing articles, I can’t wait to start playing with the new PHB !
Hmm. A 24 minute article discussing warlock changes but I am not seeing any mention that subclass bonus spells are always prepared, don’t count against known spells limit, can be cast at will (don’t use spell slots), but can’t be upcast. Did I miss something? It could be that D&D beyond is bugged and these spells are supposed to be cast at pact magic spell slot level and use a spell slot (probably), but there is still the HUGE change that you just get all the pact spells instead of simply having the option of picking them. Huge change!
Does book of the ancient secrets still exist? And if it does, how does it interact with the other packs? Because you could kind of simulate a chain blade warlock previously by picking up book of the ancient secrets and then you could have chalet as your cancer and pick up fine. Familiar and then you would have your magic weapon and your familiar friend to work with
Hey everyone so glad to be reviewing the 2024 warlock and yet again I’m always perusal the Drakenheim series whe these articles are uploaded and i just need to say i am currently on season 2 episode 36 and i just got to say that Kelly’s character design Wilhelm is the making of an absolute made genius and the twist of season 2 episode 32 was wild I’m not going to say what the twist was to avoid spoilers well done Dungeon dudes
I actually enjoyed very much the subclass at level 3 and wish it was like this at the start. Why should a gargantuan entity even bother noticing a mere gnat? Once you have leveled up and siphoned enough energy from your patron do they bother to notice your presence. For multi-classing, you can find a tome or item that has a small crack/rift that seeps a modicum of the entity’s powers.
A few things from my perspective. 1 repelling blast did not need a size limitation, I’d say this was a bad idea. You are going to be doing a decent chunk less damage than other continuous damage builds, but it is made up for by the invocations that shove, slow, pull the enemies. Not letting them shove huge/colossal means in those fights the warlock who is eldritch blast based wont just be worse but will suck hard. 2. While getting your sub class spells already known is great, usually half the list is pretty miss.So it does not make up for how incredibly bad the core spell list is. It is missing tons of spells that fit the warlock perfectly, many times fitting them better than the classes that have it. 3. There are other pacts than pact of the blade, the other 2 needed as much love as blade got, instead love was removed. 4. While the class isn’t built around it like ranger, Hex is one of the few warlock exclusive spells out there and it is one of the few spells that actually scales well by spell level. They needed a fix for its concentration, maybe not no concentration, but something like when concentrating on hex you can concentrate on one additional spell if the other spell increases damage per hit only the highest damage source applies. They also should have removed the limit of only being able to move it on death so it could have some out of combat utility. 5. The eldritch blast cantrip should function like every other cantrip and just scale damage not attacks. at 5th,11th, 17th a warlco should have a feature that says something like your cantrips instead of just increasing damage become additional attacks.
I like the changes but I would have done things differently. I would have taken away the 2nd extra attack and replaced it with weapon mastery that you can change once per long rest. Would have given warlocks shields. And last at 7th or 9th level I would have boosted the number of times they could regain spell slots to twice per long rest but make it rounded down. Would make the capstone and average warlock play better
Paladin dip is even better for str warlock, you start with 14 str then take GWM feat for + 1 str and from character level 5 you can wear heavy armor. 14 str means your dex and wis can be at least 10, cha is maxed out and con sits at decent14. Still there seems to be a bit of lack of synergy between melee feats anc spellcasting…
Dance Bard with blade pact, Fiendish Vigor and Armor of Agathas? With the third level subclass, if you look at most of the characters in fiction that could be thought of as warlocks, most of them enter into pacts for some form of knowledge or power. It makes sense that some noble would want to be a better fighter or an acolyte wants some forbidden knowledge. I like the idea of someone starting as a fighter because everyone in their family has been a fighter but, because they only have a 13 STR, they can’t keep up. Then a voice in their dreams offers to give them the strength to make people stop laughing at them. Now they suddenly have much more prowess with their weapon, using thieir 17 CHA.
I think you guys have over looked a little something Pact of the Tome added the BOOK OF ANCIENT SECRETS invocation after updating to the new ritual casting feat even regaining an extra slot and pack of the chain was added to the VOICE OF THE CHAIN MASTER invocation and the ablity to attack as a bonus action or attack action I am not sure which. I like the Gish style my self but all of them got so many great impovement that you did not cover
Warlock has been the class i am most looking forward too play. 5 invocations at 5 is amazing. The base kit/early game for this class is going to feel pretty good. Multiple origin feats At level 3 you could build Alert Lucky Pact of the Blade This going to be a great start to any warlock Gish I am looking forward to the combos with Draconic Sorcerer. I may make a Bahamut Tiamut Hybrid. Dragonic Sorcerer and a flavor of Tiamut warlock. With Unarmored Defense you can make a pretty smooth dex lock Dex and charisma for your AC (Draconic Sorcerer) It should keep you going and have some awesome meta magic options. I don’t think i qould multiclass out of the new warlock tho. If you have multiple books Xanathar. BOOMING BLADE WARLOCK LOOKS SOOO COOL😎
The new version of Pact of the Blade is the obvious replacement for Hexblade. Guess Wizards assumed that EVERYONE who played a hexblade took that particular pact boon. Personally, I found Pact of the Chain (particularly with an imp familiar) much more useful. However, even if hexblade was still available, I wouldn’t opt for Chain anymore since they’ve taken away the Voice of the Chain Master invocation. Talk about a rule change that severely limits one of your class options.
Now i dont know if they changed how ritual spells work, but assuming they are the same as 5e, why would you take pact of the chain with blade or tomb? If tomb can still take ritual spells then take find familiar with that and pact of the blade so that you can be a bladelock with massive spell diversity.
I think there’s nothing wrong with setting the expectation that if a player wants to fight like an experienced fighter… They should have to take a level in fighter. It makes perfect sense. You don’t see fighters and barbarians complaining they don’t get high level spells. Classes are supposed to reflect your character’s life experience. So it makes sense that if you cheat your way into a pact weapon that uses your connection to an extraplanar entity instead of actual training, you’re not somehow gonna grow beefier arms to swing a greatsword. And you damn well aren’t gonna be proficient enough to get weapon masteries for free without hard work (i.e. taking a level in fighter).
Weird and missed oportunity. Fighter has high AC, Barbarian has damage reduction, Rogue can move around, Monk has damage rediraction, Ranger… it’s weird that Blade Warlock does not have their own playstyle. Without Masteries it sounds like Invocations should set-in and do something in their place, like Lifedrinker and stealing HP from enemies. 2014 Fiend Warlock with low AC was a suggestion with THP from Kills and spells like Armor of Agatys where you lose THP when hit, but your enemy also gets automatic damage and Hellish Rebuke (you hit me, now I hit you). That would be a different and fun playstyle, high risk, high reward for gambler types. It would be different and kinda spooky, playing someone that wants to get hit in combat, and would make you pay dearly for it. It might force enemies to NOT hit you just because of that XD Maybe aura of Fear that gives enemies disadvantage on hitting you which compensates low AC or AoO on getting hit+LifeSteal?
When you are a cleric of a god who wants you to succeed in their quest, why don’t they just give you level 20 cleric abilities? My justification for this was always that the character wasn’t yet powerful enough to handle such powers and needed to grow stronger themselves in order to wield such powers. Same justification can work for level 3 subclasses. They just weren’t strong enough yet to wield the more powerful abilities
The major downgrade to the changes you missed is Pact of the Tome. Hard locked to L1 Ritual spells only not rituals equal to 1/2 your warlock level or lower. This is a massive nerf. This invocation is mechanicly worse than a 1 level dip in cleric, which gives you pepared the same number of extra cantrips, along with 4 L1 spell.. which lets you take 4 of the 6** L1 rituals you could take with pact of the tome (you only loose Alarm and Tenser’s Floating Disk) or even lets you take non-ritual options like healing word for example. Also the Cleric dip gives you TWO L1 spell slots compared to the Tome’s 1, AND gives you proficiency in all armours, shields and weapons. **its 2 wizard, 4 cleric, rituals. All other rituals of L1 are available to warlocks on their spell list or as invocations.
I personally think every class should have got their subclass at Level 1, except it only gives you Ribbon features. I am of this opinion because they keep printing subclasses that function as core elements of your identity: like Way of the Ascendant Dragon Monk. Multiclassing could still create weirdness, but that’s not new. This game really isn’t designed for multiclassing. (5.24 is rebalanced with Multiclassing exploits in mind in some instances, but even in 5.24 multiclassing is not supported.)
I’m not sure how you can use charisma as the attacking ability and at this point I’m too afraid to ask 😀 but really, can someone please explain how can one use other abilities then strength or dexterity for melee attacks (like shillelagh or with blade warlock for example) by which I mean, explain from a roleplaying perspective?
I have a different idea. Maybe your patron doesn’t know you exist, but the character was changed by exposure to their essence. When leveling, it’s not entirely that you “learn” new things from your patron. It’s more that you are changed on a fundamental level by your Warlock path. You aren’t just a human or Elf or Dwarf or Halfling. You’re more like a mutant. Great Old One Warlocks are thematically my favorite. I think they should be able to cast EB as Force, Psychic, or Radiant damage.
I-d probably skip strength and use a versatile AXE if I go blade Boon and chain, and focus on Cha, Dex, and Con and forgo heavy weapons. I think atchfey hexblade type is interesting now but it would be a lock also with tome Boon able B to ritual cast stuff like tiny hut and water walk and identify, while using spells like sleep though… ibloke archfey as the idea of happy warlock (laura bailey said Jester was going to be atchfey warlock, but ztravis stole the class) so, great old one l9kely to be my choice now because on non sorcerer classes i pick the metsmagic geat gor subtle spell but i wont need it snd can choosr among shadow touched, telekinetic, Telepathic, spell Sniper, magic Initiate, or slasher if hexblade type.
Whenever the “issue” of third level subclasses is brought up in regards to flavor… I don’t understand the people that are getting super pissy about it, when you make a character like a cleric, warlock, or paladin you know from before the campaign starts what you want them to be like, heck paladins who have the MOST binding subclasses which dictate how you carry yourself already had to pick em at lv3 and no one minded it.
I think the changes to the warlock are a net positive, but only conditionally, and not as positive as they seem as first. A few points to consider: 1. I know previous sourcebooks are explicitly allowed to be used with the new rules, but is that limited to classes, subclasses, and lineages? Or does that also apply to things like invocations? Because some of my favorite invocations, especially some of the upgrades to Pact of the Chain, are not in the Player’s Handbook. Without them that’s a huge blow to the warlock class overall. 2. Speaking of Pact of the Chain, I’m disappointed in the “upgrade” it got. It gets several more options for familiars, none of which is as good as the imp, which you could choose already. An upgrade you don’t use because something else is better is not an upgrade. (I actually hope I’m wrong on this. I would love it if someone would correct me and tell me there’s a great new option for a familiar that’s better than an imp) 3. It’s a little misleading to say you get 10 invocations instead of 8, when you don’t get a Pact Boon unless you spend one of your invocations on it. So 9 invocations + Pact Boon. Still a net increase, but only by 1 instead of 2. 4. The feature that lets you recover half your spell slots once per day is nice… on paper. The problem is it was designed to encourage players not to hoard their spell slots. But what’s a hoarder going to do with a once-per-day ability? Hoard it. It doesn’t actually solve the problem. For us non-hoarders, it’s fine, but only in an “if I have it I might as well use it” sort of way, not a “this is the greatest thing ever” way.
As Nietzsche strongly suggested, Science sucked all the enchantment out of life and so we yearn and search for something to replenish that missing spice and mystery in our lives. Something many of us found in D&D 5e! So now Wizards have sucked all the variability and power out of 5e by snipping all the most loved features from the most popular subclasses and replacing them with the bland and the mundane. Halfwit DMs will love it because the math is dumbed down to their level but players will soon realise, those ephemeral features that made their character feel unpredictable, powerful and fun, are gone. A heartfelt thank you to Jeremy Crawford for f**king things totally!
I’ve never had levels one and two go by in anything close to a single game session. It’s usually 4 or more game sessions. Instead of moving all the subclass flavor to level three for all classes they should’ve moved it up to level 1 for everyone that way levels 1 and 2 aren’t as boring and unimportant for your character’s story.
oof. I actually liked warlocks for lvl 1 feat in combination with Claric, Sorc. Thats 3 feats on lvl 3. Why we cant have it anymore is beyond me. Guess we gotta do with 2 feats at lvl 2 then all while sacrificing the possibility of ever reaching Sorcerous Restoration, which is again, way too far for most of us anyway but thats okay :<