The Warlock went through some radical shifts in the UA playtest, but arrived back at something familiar but greatly improved. Pact Magic remains, as do Eldritch Invocations and Mystic Arcanum, but the ways these function have been tweaked and iterated upon to make for a solidly improved Warlock. Furthermore, the two subclasses from the PHB that were really cool conceptually but underwhelming mechanically have both gotten extensive redesigns (the Archfey is basically a new subclass, and the Great Old One takes some of the 2014 concepts and makes them far, far more effective, along with adding some new features).
Like other classes who previously got their subclass at level 1 (or 2,) Warlocks are now going to delay that final pact commitment until level 3. From an RP perspective, I think you could play this in one of two ways: either the Warlock is on a journey searching for eldritch magic in the first levels, maybe encountering lesser otherworldly beings and bargaining for power with them before encountering their true patron, or you could simply flavor this as a period in which the Warlock has to prove themselves before the patron bestows their real power.
Because your subclass comes at level 3, you'll now instead get your first Eldritch Invocation option at level 1 (at least as of the playtest, the total EIs you get have gone up to either 9 or 10 from 8). Among these, though, are the Pact Boons, which have now simply become Invocations to take.
In the playtest, I think Pact of the Chain wasn't available at level 1, but you will be able to get each of the three Pact Boons from the PHB (no Talisman, though over on Treantmonk's Temple, he says that you should still be able to use that with backwards compatibility - I'll be curious to see how the guidance on that works).
Indeed, because these are now Invocations, you will actually be able to pick up multiple Pact Boons if you want.
Speaking of Pact Boons, Pact of the Chain now expands your Familiar options, so you should always be able to find a familiar to match your subclass. This can include a Slaad Tadpole for those GOO-locks, or a Skeleton (while the Undead patron isn't appearing in the PHB, I think it's one of the best and coolest subclasses for the class, and should work with backwards compatibility).
While not mentioned in the video, the Pact of the Blade in the most recent playtest also got a massive upgrade, integrating the bonus that pushes most Bladelocks into going Hexblade, because your Pact Weapon can now use Charisma for its attack and damage rolls. Between that and (as of the playtest) the ability to get Lightly Armored (which now also grants medium armor and shields) feat with your background, I think you could very easily put together a reasonably prepared melee warlock at level 1 without having to do anything too weird.
We don't have the details yet, but again Treantmonk's Temple's reaction video suggests that the rules have worked to incentivize Warlocks to stick with the class past level 2, rather than making it a couple-level-dip for multiclass builds. I have to say, having played a single-class Warlock that made it to level 14, I actually felt pretty capable even as-is, but I think one of the changes will be that Eldritch Blast's multiple attacks will scale with Warlock level rather than overall level.
However, while you're never going to pry my beloved Eldritch Blast away from me, a lot of Invocations that used to only affect it will now work on (I believe) all attack-based damage Warlock cantrips, so if you want to do a Repelling Blast and Agonizing Blast on your Chill Touch, you should be able to (curious to see where the radical redesign of that cantrip has landed).
Warlocks will also get, at level 2, a once-a-day option to quickly get their Pact slots back, which should make it easier to handle things when you get into a stickier situation than expected. This used to be, if memory serves, the level 20 feature, so getting this so much earlier will be very helpful.
One of the best improvements to the class overall is that Expanded Spell Lists are now Patron Spells, and like Domain Spells, Oath Spells, and Artificer Specialist spells, you now simply automatically get these in addition to the spells you choose. The lists have been shifted around a little, like for example the Great Old One automatically picking up Summon Aberration. This is huge, because it's an additional 10 spells for each subclass by level 9. (And here I'll assume that the guidance on using old subclasses will be to treat their expanded spell lists as patron spells).
Now, let's talk subclasses:
The Archfey is basically a new subclass, and it's built around Misty Step. You now get a number of free casts of the spell equal to your Charisma modifier every day (and it's also part of your patron spell list). You then start to get various bonus effects on top of the spell, somewhat like the Eladrin's Fey Step abilities.
And to keep it going, at the highest levels, any time you cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell (of 1st or higher level) you can also get a free Misty Step along with it (which I think doesn't take your bonus action).
So Archfey Warlocks are going to be zipping around the battlefiled and causing utter chaos. Basically, they'll be one of the most mobile characters, and I actually think this makes them a great option for a Bladelock, as you'll be able to close in on your foes with ease or hop away to safety.
And I love that this feels very thematic - allowing you to be this evasive trickster who just cannot be pinned down.
The Celestial, introduced in Xanathar's, is also making it to the core rulebook. As far as I can tell, the mechanics to this subclass are more tweaked than fully redesigned, and in all honestly it's not a character concept I've been particularly drawn toward (though given that Celestial is starting to be used for most Outer Planar beings that aren't Fiends, I think you could have something like being an agent of the Mercane, or maybe play in the morally complex Planescape setting. Honestly, having been playing a lot of Elden Ring lately, I think you could easily have some extremely weird and esoteric Celestials that could be fun and creepy in all the great Warlock ways).
The Fiend has always been a pretty solid subclass for Warlocks, so again we're not seeing any really extensive redesign but instead a revision. One of the biggest boons to the subclass is that Dark One's Blessing no longer requires you to get the killing blow on the target - you only need to be near it. This will make it far more consistent and a really significant amount of hit point padding.
Finally, the Great Old One, my old favorite, got a lot of big changes and tweaks to how it works. I wrote up a post summarizing Mark Hulmes' sneak peek at the subclass, so I won't go into as extensive detail here.
I'm really happy to see the Warlock getting all these improvements. It's one of my favorite classes on a conceptual level, and I really enjoyed playing one through Descent into Avernus.
This is also a class for whom some of the later-introduced subclasses I'd really like to play as well - I wonder whether we'll see future rules-expansion books revisiting the likes of the Genie or the Undead patron - something I'd be happy about (simply because I like those subclasses) but I also hope that they'll work to bring new concepts as well.
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