Wizards of the Coast has spilled the beans on its new, upgraded version of another popular class of DnD character, the Warlock, with a suite of tweaks to the core class and multiple variants – including allowing the Great Old One subclass to summon their own Mind Flayer minions.
As revealed in its latest new DnD class explainer video on Tuesday (watch it below), DnD Warlock characters with the Great Old One patron will now get an expanded form of the Summon Aberration ability, with the infamous, psychic Mind Flayer one of the otherworldly minions available.
Mind you, it’s not the full version of the Mind Flayer that you’ll find among the 500 DnD monsters in the new Monster Manual, but rather a toned-down version to fit the ability’s power level – but even so, we think it’s still one of the coolest things being added to the class.
Alongside all the other Warlock subclasses, Wizards has rebuilt the rest of the Great Old One patron’s abilities for One DnD as well – leading on three new features. Psychic Spells allows you to cast all your DnD spells using only your mind, without the usual verbal or somatic (hand-waving) components. Clairvoyant Combatant upgrades the subclass’s existing Awakened Mind feature to let you not only link your mind to an enemy’s, but also psychically weaken them, boosting your damage against them.
And Eldritch Hex makes your classic Warlock Hex ability more vindictive – instead of applying disadvantage on a target’s ability checks, it’ll now give them disadvantage on saving throws against an ability of your choosing – the perfect setup for a devastating magical attack.
The main Warlock class rules also get a tune-up across the board in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, and Tuesday’s video showed us D&D lead game designer Jeremy Crawford detailing these changes for the first time.
The most obvious change is a new feature called Magical Cunning that activates at level 2, and allows Warlocks to get some their pact magic back without having to wait for a DnD long rest. Crawford says it’s intended to “relieve some of the pressure” on Warlocks and make them feel less “constrained” in their spellcasting.
Eldritch Invocations are now available from level 1, meaning players will get a lot more invocations as the game goes on. Many level pre-requisites have been lowered, while other invocations have had new pre-requisites added, creating a progression that’ll start earlier, but won’t give you super-powered options before you’ve done a single DnD level up.
It means Warlocks can now, theoretically, collect all invocations; where you previously had to choose between invocations like Pact of the Blade and Pact of the Tome, you can now use both if you want.
Speaking of Pacts, Pact of the Chain has been enhanced with more creepy critters. Wizards says it’s leaned into the spookiness of the warlock with its new familiars, making some well loved creatures now usable, as well as adding a new celestial familiar – the Sphinx of Wonder.
The news comes a day after we saw sweeping changes to the Rogue class, including a huge power boost for the Assassin and significant buffs for the Soulknife, too. Wizards of the Coast continues to reveal new information from the upcoming 2024 rulebook, which launches on September 17.
The changes to various classes have had mixed reception – the College of Dance Bard subclass nerf being a point of contention. But we suspect this hefty buff to Warlocks’ powers will go down a treat with fans – especially if it means a legion of Baldur’s Gate 3 lovers getting their very own Mind Flayers to play with.
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