Spell-Less Warlock Redesign

[Grod_The_Giant]

Congratulations it feels really iconic so far! I would however suggest that you give the class invocations from the first level onwards. Keeping it on second level has always been a multiclass tax.

Make invocations available at 1st level. With invocations now being emphasized much more, keeping them locked until 2nd level feels kind of silly from a balance perspective, and also could feel underwhelming to 1st level warlock players, as all the other spellcasters get to use abilities that aren't cantrips while they have to wait until next level.

I disagree-- look at the existing classes. Every class gets a huge, iconic feature at 2nd level-- Barbarians get Reckless Attack, Bards get Jack of All Trades, Clerics get Channel Divinity, and so on, all the way through Wizard getting their arcane tradition. Especially when it's a really multiclass-friendly ability like Action Surge or Cunning Action, it's almost always at 2nd.

Besides, 1st level is hardly sparse. You're getting two cantrips, Eldritch+Agonizing Blast (essentially), and whatever nifty 1st level ability your Patron gives you. You won't be bored.

One question are you considering designing alternate subclass features or to keep existing ones?

The existing ones-- just noticed that I didn't specify "as the PHB Warlock" on those.

I love the idea of this warlock change. A number of the invocations may need some balancing (in particular, the dark invocation that reduces int and char to 1 seems a bit overblown to me), but on the whole their power level seems about right. The only changes I would make (which other people have suggested) are
a) add some unique invocations to each pact type. Perhaps they gain a bonus invocation at certain levels, similar to the 2 cantrips they gain at first level.

Don't forget, Maddening Blast is a 9th-level-spell equivalent, with a new save each round. (If anything, I think it's underpowered for 17th)

More pact/patron specific invocations are definitely on the table. I'm thinking that each gets four unique Invocations, one for each power level.