Warlocks are one of the most popular classes in D&D, the latest competition makes them completely different now

Some of you might remember Jürgen Horn as one of our authors here at MeinMMO, but for some time he has been working in a different area of the company. However, he definitely wanted to share his opinion on the topic of Daggerheart.

Jürgen has been playing Daggerheart since its release and is absolutely in love with the system, which he believes is the ideal system for beginners and significantly more exciting than D&D. His assessment of the Warlock:

In D&D (5E) I always thought the Warlock was cool. He is just the ultimate anti-hero who makes pacts with dark powers to ultimately fight fire with fire. Everything about him is just edgy and cool. Until you look at what he can do, and that’s when I had the big disenchantment:

A handful of spell slots and mainly Eldritch Blast to the point of exhaustion. Sure, later on there are a few alternatives, but the Warlock just doesn’t play excitingly. In the end, he’s just a cannon for green energy projectiles.

So I was extremely curious when in my new favorite RPG Daggerheart, with the Hope & Fear expansion, a Warlock was also introduced. Daggerheart had already shown with the basic classes how they could incorporate known D&D elements and make them significantly cooler.

And they delivered again! This time the class corresponds much more to my idea of a cool, dark anti-hero and a favoured servant of dark powers!

This is mainly due to the sheer variety of really cool abilities that the Warlock has. Instead of just spamming the same spell, the Warlock can properly buff his rolls that match his patron and even roll a failed roll again with advantage as an ultimate ability.

The two current subclasses, in turn, make the otherwise very fragile Warlock either a perversely good tank who is hard to kill or a devilish damage dealer who imbues his weapons with the eerie power of the patron.

Additionally, I think the mix of his additional skills and spells is really good. In Daggerheart, you choose from two domains, and for the Warlock, there’s the domain focused more on deception and social conflict Grace as well as the brand new domain Dread.

The latter is quite something and fits perfectly with the Warlock, as it essentially turns the mechanics of Daggerheart upside down. Normally, as a player, you always want the positive Hope roll result to avoid giving the game master ammunition for bad things and to recharge your own resources.

However, the Warlock wants the rolls to succeed with the inherently negative Fear result instead because many of his skills become significantly better. Thus, there have already been scenes at my table where the group groaned over a roll with fear and the Warlock’s player was already rubbing her hands with sadistic glee.

This perfectly suits the dark, negative, and nihilistic flair of the Warlock and makes him a completely different type of spellcaster alongside the already known Druids, Wizards, and Sorcerers.

In Daggerheart, you’ll finally get the dark, charismatic, and eerie anti-hero full of hidden power that he was always meant to be. And not a cliché catapult for “eerie rays”.

Jürgen Horn, huge fan of Daggerheart

By the way, Jürgen is not our only patron for Daggerheart. MeinMMO editor Alexander Mehrwald, who has invested hundreds of hours in D&D and the like, is also impressed by the competition – with similar advantages that Jürgen has already mentioned: The role-playing system of Critical Role is perfect for those who find Dungeons & Dragons too lacking in action

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