One DnD’s overhaul of the Warlock class, revealed in the playtest released in late April, is one of the more controversial changes to the new DnD system so far, as it turns the class into a hybrid spellcaster like the Paladin. In a new video, asking for feedback on the playtest, designer Jeremy Crawford explains the logic behind the change.
According to Crawford, the 5e Warlock class was too constrained by the number of spell slots it had available, and too reliant on the short rest. This would often lead to Warlock players getting out of sync with the rest of the party, and in fact not using any of their best 5e spells, in order to save them for later. “How can we get the Warlock to be on a similar resource reacquisition schedule?” was the designers’ main problem to solve. They explain that the 5e Warlock often had high potential power, but this didn’t equate to actual power.
Apparently, the difficulty came in removing this reliance on rests, without making the class bonkers powerful. The designers initially planned for the Warlock to have a full spell progression like a Sorcerer or Wizard, but this would have required them to pull back and limit the other toys and tools the DnD class receives.
“The version we have in the UA is essentially round one,” Crawford goes on to explain, adding that Wizards is not opposed to giving the warlock a unique spell progression system, but first wants to know how people feel about adopting the already well-established hybrid-spellcaster progression?
“We’re open to going in many directions with the Warlock,” he says. “As long as whatever we do doesn’t blow up the rest of the class”.