The Warlock I Want

I was watching a few YouTube videos on the 5E warlock class and how the class isn't exciting or even viable without multi-classing it with the sorcerer class and how most gameplay from levels 1-10, you are stuck with just two spell slots for casting spells level 1. You need a short rest to recharge them. And I heard you can't cast warlock spells at a higher level?

What a terrible design.

No wonder people multiclass this; Warlock honestly is only worth getting a few low-level powers to wear the nametag and then go spend your time in other classes getting true power. And One D&D will simplify this design and fix a few things? The design is terrible, to begin with, and feels like it needs to be rebuilt entirely.

Level Up 5E's take on the warlock is fantastic. Gone are the spell slots, and in are spell points. You can cast spells at a higher level. You can use the mental ability score to cast with. Eldritch blast is a class feature, and you choose the attack type. And there are a lot of other thematic changes to the class that gives it depth and intriguing nuance.

All of Level Up's classes are like that. They are these "ultimate cool" versions of 5E classes tweaked and rebuilt to be fun. They are admittedly more complex, but that gives them depth. I designed the same party in standard 5E versus Level Up, and I missed the Level Up party more. The Level Up crew felt wonderful to adventure with and had this "heft" and "substance" to them that felt compelling.

One D&D seems to be taking cues from three directions:

• Simplify things like the OSR
• Patch problems and smooth out level charts
• Simplify things for the digital tabletop

That last goal, I feel, is the most important to Wizards since it will enable them to turn One D&D into an online cash shop and profit center. This is why you are seeing so many class abilities get turned into spells since having one "spell list" is more straightforward to track in an online UI than separate lists of spells, and class abilities with per-rest usages, and all sorts of other per-class custom UI elements.

As a result, every class will feel the same to play with a few mechanical differences. This is the D&D 4 design goal of "online play," where they made every class a magic-heavy caster, and they all felt the same with "power cards" that got expended at differing recharge rates (at will, encounter, daily) or today these are (at will, short rest, long rest). 4E always felt like the Pokémon card game, and I bet that feeling will come back with One D&D.

D&D 4 never really went away. This was always a corporate version of the game designed to lock players into an online platform they could be charged for. I feel One D&D is bringing back many of these design goals, and you see the same sorts of simplifications and homogenization happening to the system.

This is why I left One D&D and the current 5E behind, focusing on OGL 5E games and fun 5E-like experiences.

Level Up 5E feels like AD&D to 5E's basic D&D. It is a design fork not meant to simplify online play but a reimagining of the classes to provide more depth of play, complexity, and detail to gameplay. In some ways, it feels like the Rolemaster "answer" to D&D back in the day, where ICE made a more complex but deeply satisfying game in response to the feeling AD&D was too simplistic. And it does feel like AD&D's answer to D&D, meant for experienced players and those wanting an involved play style.

L:evel Up keeps what is fun about 5E and goes in a new direction, asking the question, "What if 5E got more in-depth and detailed? It does not go overboard like Rolemaster did, but it turns the classes and characters into this "comfort food" style of feeling where you can roll around in piles of depth and nuance to designing a character. And along the way, it is not afraid to do redesigns and reimagine where the game needs help.