Quote Originally Posted by Arial Black View Post
But the warlock doesn't need the 'ammo' of those two slots, because its other class features that never run dry are souped up enough to get through whole encounters by themselves. It's part of the design balance.

A wizard is like a soldier with a .22 calibre pistol which never runs out of ammunition, but with a limited number of grenades of different sizes. He fights by lobbing grenades, with the pistol for backup.

A warlock is like a soldier who has a .75 calibre hand-held heavy machine gun which never runs out of ammo, but only two grenades, each of the largest available size. He fights by using the machine gun as a lead hose, with the two grenades as backup.

If the warlock soldier tried to fight like the wizard soldier then he'd be out of grenades very quickly. But if the wizard soldier tried to fight like the warlock soldier then his .22 pistol will have very little effect on the enemy compared to that heavy machine gun.

Neither is badly designed. It's just that either one can be badly used, and that's the fault of the DM and player.
I disagree with the analogy.

The Warlock gets a lot more high level slots than the Wizard does. The Warlock will have an average of 6 highest level spell slots per long rest. That makes them the most heavy hitting of the full casters. Wizards will have many low level slots to compensate. They can cast more total spells but their spells have less impact.