Thoughts on the Warlock

[Sigreid]

No, I'm saying that taking a short rest isn't as easy to come by as you seem to believe. There's plenty of scenarios where taking a short rest isn't a wise or viable options.

Don't put words in my mouth.

I think that's why a mix of short and long rest classes is good. Each will shine in the proper circumstance. This doesn't work if your table is all one way or the other though.

[Yunru]

I've done a lot of research on the topic recently, done a lot of number crunching between different classes.

It seems like the balance between classes requires 10 combat rounds per day, divided by 2 Short Rests. The higher the level, the more combat rounds you should expect throughout the day; I'd estimate it should be something like: 7 + Level/2.

Spoiler: A few notes

Show

Using 5th level characters:

Warlocks broke even with Wizards with about 8 combat rounds and 2 Short Rests. Fewer Short Rests will result in the Warlock falling far behind the Wizard, and the Warlock becomes better after a third Short Rest.

Fighters are inferior to Paladins at less than about 8 combat rounds and 2 Short Rests. If the Fighter is using a low damage weapon (such as going Sword+Board), the Fighter is even further behind and will require a 3rd Short Rest to break even with the Paladin.

Eurgh, don't get me started on the maths. God damn do they suck balls.
So, combat is assumed to last around three turns (we know this because for things like spellcaster NPCs that's how we calculate CR). Given the average damage output of a Fighter, for each level NPCs have twice or more HP than they should, and the gap just widens as CR goes up.

[Daphne]

I like Pact Magic since it's easier to track than the usual Vancian system. That and the high damage of EB makes the Warlock simple to play, it's a lot similar to playing a martial like the Fighter than playing a Wizard.

The class also has a lot of customization options with Invocations, but those can become fiddly at times (there are too many already imo), steping away from the simplicity I mentioned earlier.

My biggest complaint is how some of the class' signature spells don't scale with spell levels.


I wish the Sorcerer had something similar to the Warlock's Expanded Spell List.

[The Aboleth]

Short rest is an hour. You can do that at any time unless the princess is in the next room about to be eaten.

In the games I DM, I define a short rest as "just long enough to catch your breath," which can be anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour depending on the severity of their exhaustion (big battles will obviously be more tiresome than stomping on a couple rats, for example). This works for my table, but my players know not to abuse the mechanic. Your tables may vary, however.

[NaughtyTiger]

I think that's why a mix of short and long rest classes is good. Each will shine in the proper circumstance. This doesn't work if your table is all one way or the other though.

This is a great point.
Balance and diversity are good things

[Man_Over_Game]

I think that's why a mix of short and long rest classes is good. Each will shine in the proper circumstance. This doesn't work if your table is all one way or the other though.

I think that's a great strategy, but it only works if the campaign isn't all one way or the other.

At a table that averages 0-1 Short Rests per day, a Wizard is going to be able to do what a Warlock could and more.

[Sigreid]

I think that's a great strategy, but it only works if the campaign isn't all one way or the other.

At a table that averages 0-1 Short Rests per day, a Wizard is going to be able to do what a Warlock could and more.

Exactly what I was getting at. If your day's encounter schedules are all or mostly one way or the other, either short rest or long rest classes will be stronger in the particular circumstances presented.

[Willie the Duck]

Despite all of that fun stuff, I found the Warlock lacked one very important thing...Resources. I don't mean resources per adventuring day either. I mean resources in general. I found I never had enough spell slots per encounter, never had enough cantrips, never had enough invocations, and I never had enough spells that scaled well or worked well with the Warlock mechanics. Don't get me wrong, there were some fine gems in the Invocation department...too many in fact. I didn't have enough Invocations to really make something extraordinary, outside of Mask of Many Faces and Eyes of the Rune Keeper. Not to mention many of the invocations only come back on a long rest...which kind of ruins the point of playing a class that only uses short rests.

Hell, I had to rely solely on Booming Blade and Eldritch Blast once I reached level 5, since I didn't have enough Invocations to gain an Extra Attack without giving up one of my more useful Invocations.

The hexblade bladelock in particular seems set up to be a character-build-resource sink. By all account, on top of patron and pact selection, you are supposed to throw down a bunch of invocation slots, thus paying multiple times to get to do what a hexbladelock is supposed to do. Given how much better a hexbladelock is at actual combat than valor/swords bards and bladesingers wizards and other, similar, 'non-cleric full caster combatants,' I could be convinced that it might be an intended thing. However, what it does is make a dual system, where hexbladelocks are this weird SAD+both-melee-and-ranged combat class with just barely enough build-resources left to be anything else, but not really, and all other warlocks who have the invocation slots to be able to do other things.

I wasn't really able to patch much with normal spells either, since the warlock has very few spells that scale well with his increased spell level slots.
...
Spells like Hex and Armor of Agathys are great, they scale nicely with the warlock and can be used for more then one encounter...but most spells don't do that.

The dearth of warlock spells which actually scale (despite each of their spells being Roundup(caster level/2) being a major part of the class) is a very strange situation, that makes me think the whole thing was not thoroughly planned out.

The warlock was somewhat fun to play. It was nice to step out of my comfort zone and play a single classed character for once, and nice to play the warolck. I loved their pact flavor, and was able to customize my pact in a way that allowed the DM to make use of it. It made for a fun, quirky character who could do some entertaining things. However, my previous thoughts on the warlock stand. Warlocks lack the encounter-to-encounter resources needed to be a super fun and great class. Their lack of spell slots per encounter, the limited number of invocations you gain, the low number of cantrips, and the low number of spells that really work well with the Warlock's gimmick hamstring the class as a whole.

That's not to say it isn't fun. It is a ton of fun...however I found that the roles I filled could have been filled far better with just about any other class. The only role I really excelled at was being able to read everything, and having a really great cantrip. Outside of that, I never had the resources to do much else.

While I always make sure I do not have any special insight into the designers or design process, it sure FEELS to me that maybe the designers did not know exactly what they wanted out of the warlock. It feels at the same time too powerful and too weak at the same time. Eldritch Blast (with the requisite invocation taxes of agonizing and repelling blast) is frustrating for both the warlock player (in no way a replacement for a Sharpshooter/Crossbow Expert archer build), the DM (indefinite force damage and up-to 40' pushback monkey-wrenches a huge number of well-balanced threats the DM might have wanted to throw at a party). Hexbladelocks do the same with melee (and potentially bow-fighting as well). Many of the best things a warlock can do seem like gimmicks that won't last and often frustrate (Darkness plus Devil's Sight, as an example). Most frustrating I feel is how much better a warlock seems as a sorcerer or paladin/martial bard dip than as a full fledged class.

That said, I've played a goblin divine soul tomelock and had a blast.

Finally, with all that said, a small word about short rests...

Short rests, rest frequency, and inter-class balance has been the boondoggle of this edition. Everyone has a different interpretation of how big a deal it is (and what the right answer is), but it's clearly a sticking point for a lot of people. I don't feel it is warlock specific though.

[MThurston]

No, I'm saying that taking a short rest isn't as easy to come by as you seem to believe. There's plenty of scenarios where taking a short rest isn't a wise or viable options.

Don't put words in my mouth.

You seem to think that a short rest needs to be there?

Of course you will find times when any rest is not possible.

[Man_Over_Game]

Exactly what I was getting at. If your day's encounter schedules are all or mostly one way or the other, either short rest or long rest classes will be stronger in the particular circumstances presented.

Gotcha, by "Table", I thought you meant "Party". Derp.

[Chronos]

In a big, important battle (a boss, a larger-than-expected ambush, whatever), the wizard is probably going to be burning a spell slot every single round. After her highest-level slots are used up, she's going to be using her lower-level spell slots. By contrast, the warlock will be using at most two (or three, at high levels) spell slots in any encounter, and then falling back on Eldritch Blast. Now, Eldritch Blast is very good as at-will abilities go, but it still falls well short of a full caster's spell slots, even the spell slots one or two levels below their highest. And that's even assuming that you can make good use of those two spell slots, which is not a given, what with the warlock's low number of spells known and thin class spell list to choose from, as well as the limits of concentration.

That's a resource limitation on the warlock, and it's not one that will be fixed by the DM allowing more short rests.

Now, all classes have a limited number of build options, and have to make some decisions on which ones to take and which ones to leave on the table. When I built my ranger, for instance, and every time I level him up, I have to choose spells known, and there are always one or two that I would like to have but just don't have room for. And that's fine: It keeps those decisions meaningful, and makes different characters different. If you could choose all of the good options, then there would be no point in even making it a choice.

But with the warlock, I find that there are many more spells I'd like to take than I have spells known, and many more invocation options I'd like than I have invocations known, and many, many more things I'd like to concentrate on than the one that I'm limited to. There are a lot of things that would be great combinations, except you can't even complete all of the combinations, or if you do, it pigeonholes you into doing only that. You can see this in this very thread, with people saying "Well, it only seemed weak to you because you didn't take Thirsting Blade", or whatever. The OP didn't leave out Thirsting Blade because he didn't want it; he left it out because he just didn't have room to take it while still using invocations for anything else. And he suffered for it.

[KorvinStarmast]

As opposed to the Wizards 3 x 5th level slots per long rest, 3 x 4ths, and a bunch of 1sts and 2nds that dont really do much at this level.

Nit pick: hold person rocks at every level. 2d level spell.
And when the opponent is a humanoid.
When the caster's spell save DC goes up, it's even better.

[Man_Over_Game]

In a big, important battle (a boss, a larger-than-expected ambush, whatever), the wizard is probably going to be burning a spell slot every single round. After her highest-level slots are used up, she's going to be using her lower-level spell slots. By contrast, the warlock will be using at most two (or three, at high levels) spell slots in any encounter, and then falling back on Eldritch Blast. Now, Eldritch Blast is very good as at-will abilities go, but it still falls well short of a full caster's spell slots, even the spell slots one or two levels below their highest. And that's even assuming that you can make good use of those two spell slots, which is not a given, what with the warlock's low number of spells known and thin class spell list to choose from, as well as the limits of concentration.

That's a resource limitation on the warlock, and it's not one that will be fixed by the DM allowing more short rests.

In your example, though, you're only referring to a single fight throughout the day. The Wizard can start hurling his 2 biggest spells, and the Warlock can start hurling his biggest spells, and after round 3, the Wizard will be resorting to lower spell slots and the Warlock will be relying on cantrips.

However, a combat comes up and after a Short Rest, the Wizard can shoot one big spell and the Warlock can shoot two big ones. Repeat this for every Short Rest.

Warlocks should definitely have trouble in fights that take longer than 3-4 rounds compared to Wizards, because that's not what their specialty is. For the Warlock to stand out, he needs to be able to recharge between fights. And I feel that's the DM's responsibility to gauge.

Similarly, if you have a Fiendlock and you throw a bunch of fire elementals and demons, there's not much that the Fiendlock is going to provide, and that was a DM's decision to do. That can be warranted sometimes, but it shouldn't be a habit, and many DMs have a habit of having an average of less than 2 Short Rests.

[NaughtyTiger]

In your example, though, you're only referring to a single fight throughout the day.

To be fair, he is referring to a single fight total. it could be one of many throughout the day. but conceivably it is a big scary fight, likely the biggest, scariest fight of the day, one that requires popping 5 spells to survive.

if the other 6 encounters are much easier, then the wizard doesn't need to waste her top tier slots on those.

the warlock/fighter/monk shines when there are 6 medium encounters in a day... not too easy cuz it's overkill, not too hard cuz they are spent early in the fight.
long rest guys shine when there is a boss battle and they have to go NOVA (but only once per long rest).

[Sigreid]

To be fair, he is referring to a single fight total. it could be one of many throughout the day. but conceivably it is a big scary fight, likely the biggest, scariest fight of the day, one that requires popping 5 spells to survive.

if the other 6 encounters are much easier, then the wizard doesn't need to waste her top tier slots

Or, leading up to that fight, with rests, the warlock popping his powerful spells each fight is why the wizard is able to bring it in that last fight.

[samcifer]

They pretty much beg to be multi-classed into bard or sorc to give them enough to do. Otherwise you're just stuck with a few options you'll need to rinse and repeat. Rather boring to play single-classed, imo.

[NaughtyTiger]

Or, leading up to that fight, with rests, the warlock popping his powerful spells each fight is why the wizard is able to bring it in that last fight.

totally agree.
that still means the warlock peaks early in the boss battle.
that warlock may feel that he isn't as good as the wizard.

its a perception issue. consistent medium power throughout the day can be less exciting than 1 nova...

[Sigreid]

totally agree.
that still means the warlock peaks early in the boss battle.
that warlock may feel that he isn't as good as the wizard.

its a perception issue. consistent medium power throughout the day can be less exciting than 1 nova...

Yep. You could even describe it as not understanding the value of mixed unit tactics.

[Chronos]

But the big difficult battles are where those spell slots really matter. Sure, the warlock will have the freedom to also use spell slots in the easy encounters, but those are the easy encounters. It's not so big a deal if you're just using cantrips in them.

[Man_Over_Game]

But the big difficult battles are where those spell slots really matter. Sure, the warlock will have the freedom to also use spell slots in the easy encounters, but those are the easy encounters. It's not so big a deal if you're just using cantrips in them.

Different DMing styles. A fight that has no consequence shouldn't be tallied. It should be resolved the same way that a skill gets resolved if there's no consequence for failure: "You succeed".

If a fight has no consequence, don't bother making it a fight.

If you want a fight, but it doesn't have any consequences, roll no dice and make it an automatic success. Ask your players to narrate how the fight went, or explain how the enemies surrender after being surprised.

If you want a fight, and you don't want to make it an automatic success, it needs to have consequences that matter. And someone spending a Short Rest resource is the bare minimum of what should be considered a "consequence".

[Sigreid]

But the big difficult battles are where those spell slots really matter. Sure, the warlock will have the freedom to also use spell slots in the easy encounters, but those are the easy encounters. It's not so big a deal if you're just using cantrips in them.

I'm picturing more of the fights being overall resource light because, and only because the warlock could bring his A game without worry. He got to be the hero 5 fights that day. The wizard shines helps with the others and shines for one.

[sithlordnergal]

DM limits short rests believing it makes things unbalanced towards short rest classes and you fully agree with him. Yet, you find that your short rest class doesn't have enough resources. And you conclude that warlocks are below average and need more resources.

Lets go full circle here and say right from the start that creating additional rules that limit short resting makes the game unbalanced against short rest classes.

Here's the thing though, I've played other Short Rest dependent classes, like Battlemaster Fighter and Monks. I've also played classes that are semi-Short Rest dependent like Moon Druids, where they can use their big sub-class feature twice per short rest, or once if they turn into an Elemental. Yet none of them felt like they lacked resources if they didn't get to short rest after every encounter. Heck, compare the Monk to the Warlock. Both classes are 100% dependent on short rests...yet the only time I have ever felt "starved" for Ki was level 2.

The Warlock, on the other hand, lacks per encounter resources so badly, that a "fix" I've seen is "allow the warlock to wake up, cast a spell, and immediately Short Rest before the adventuring day starts." I.E. give the Warlock 2 extra spell slots per day before the adventuring day starts. As I said in my main post, would you feel the need to give a Moon Druid such a rest to balance them with a long rest party? Or a Monk? Or a Battlemaster Fighter? If yes, then I'd love to play a Moon Druid or Monk at your table, I'll never run out of Wild Shapes or Ki. If no, then perhaps it really is the Warlock lacking resources.

[sithlordnergal]

Here we go with this disingenuous bulldust again.

2 slots per short rest (both 5th level) = 6 x 5th level slots per long rest (on average; somedays more and somedays less, but that is the expected median average).

As opposed to the Wizards 3 x 5th level slots per long rest, 3 x 4ths, and a bunch of 1sts and 2nds that dont really do much at this level.

I note you picked 10th level (1 level before the Warlock gets 3/ slots per short rest (and a 6th level incarnum).

I have a sneaking suspicion this wasnt by coincidence you picked this level.

Yes, its 2 slots per Short Rest...you keep those two slots from levels 2 to 10, and unless you get a Rod of the Pact Keeper, they don't increase. While it was nice to get my spell slots back after every short rest, they still lacked resources per encounter. You're still stuck in the "I can risk a spell that will do nothing, or use a spell guaranteed to do stuff and last longer then this encounter" if your first spell falls flat.

Yes, there is always a risk when casting any spell that it might not work...but few classes have that issue where you have to decide between a spell that is guaranteed to work despite not being all that useful outside of boosting damage or using a spell that will be far more effective but could be wasted if the target rolls well. The only time I've had my many spell casters run into the situation was when they were either almost out of resources, or when they were levels 1 and 2.

[Man_Over_Game]

Here's the thing though, I've played other Short Rest dependent classes, like Battlemaster Fighter and Monks. I've also played classes that are semi-Short Rest dependent like Moon Druids, where they can use their big sub-class feature twice per short rest, or once if they turn into an Elemental. Yet none of them felt like they lacked resources if they didn't get to short rest after every encounter. Heck, compare the Monk to the Warlock. Both classes are 100% dependent on short rests...yet the only time I have ever felt "starved" for Ki was level 2.

The Warlock, on the other hand, lacks per encounter resources so badly, that a "fix" I've seen is "allow the warlock to wake up, cast a spell, and immediately Short Rest before the adventuring day starts." I.E. give the Warlock 2 extra spell slots per day before the adventuring day starts. As I said in my main post, would you feel the need to give a Moon Druid such a rest to balance them with a long rest party? Or a Monk? Or a Battlemaster Fighter? If yes, then I'd love to play a Moon Druid or Monk at your table, I'll never run out of Wild Shapes or Ki. If no, then perhaps it really is the Warlock lacking resources.

The Warlock does have the option of casting Disguise Self or Silent Image at will, starting at level 2. They also can gain cantrips, (compared to the Arcana Cleric, might as well be an entire subclass feature) or an invisible familiar (considered one of the best features in the game).

Moon Druids in particular are bonkers. I consider them the strongest class in the game, hands down. They're only balanced by being played by a naïve player.

Warlocks do run out of resources rather quickly, and I'll agree with you on that, but what they can do with those resources is pretty spectacular. With two short rests in a day, you're talking about being able to cast Fireball 6 times at level 5. That's 1-2 times per fight.

If I asked my DM for a Wand that gives me 6 uses of Fireball each day, what do you think he'd say? Warlocks are more dependent on Short Rests than Martial characters are, but the reward for getting those Short Rests is so much more.

[sithlordnergal]

Of course Warlocks are going to be bad if you insist on casting low level spells in your high level spell slots.

The whole thing is that they get more upfront power in a combat, which is awesome.

They get an average of 1 high level spell per encounter. That's one encounter shaping spell per combat. For example, at level 5 they can cast Hunger of Hadar at the start of just about every combat if they want to. And then for the next 2 rounds use their cantrips.

It's fine.

Giving them another spell slot would be extremely overpowered.

Oh, I did use plenty of higher level spells. Phantasmal Killer was really fun, Fear saw great use, and Banishment was really useful. Though 5th level Hold Person was my go-to spell when facing groups of Humanoids cause it was highly effective. However, since I only had two spell slots for a majority of the campaign, I only really got to cast spells like that once. If they failed, or I lost concentration, I had to decide on if I should potentially waste a spell slot, or if I should go for Hex to guarantee that my final slot in the encounter wasn't wasted.

I found that once I got 3 spell slots, things finally evened out and I no longer had that issue. Yes, I still had low resources every encounter, but it wasn't so low that if a target made the saving throw I was stuck with nothing but Eldritch Blast.

[Rallek25]

Everyone has made some great points on this thread, but I think there are some items we must dive deeper into.
For those that make the case about invocations, I want to take a look at that.
Let's look at the ones that revolve around spells
AoS- free mage armor that's cool, but your AC went up by 1 if you're using studded leather.
AS- Free Levitate (intended more for RP & concentration)
BS- free speak with animals (RP)
BW- I can cast compulsion using a spell slot and concentration
CoC- free hold monster.... but can only only if targeting 1 of 3 types of enemies.
ES- Detect magic (RP)
FV- Can only cast False life at first level (doesn't scale well)
MoMF- disguise self (RP)
MoMF- alter self (RP)
MoC- Conjure elemental using a spell slot and concentration
MtM- Slow using a spell slot and concentration.

You can see where I'm going with this. Any invocation that let's you cast a spell for free is revolved around an out of combat situation (RP). Any other spell helpful in combat requires you use one of your limited spell slots and requires concentration. Furthermore, some of the other options revolve around EB.
The issue with Warlock is that you're basically heavily limited.
A lot of their invocations are focused around RP
The ones that have usefulness in combat still take up 1 of your spell slots and require concentration too.
Then you have your ones focused around EB. Which to me isn't an appealing style of play. The idea of running around casting EB and hex nonstop (or no hex) is boring. Then the cliche combo of darkness and EB. All that needs to happen is an enemy drop a fireball and you won't stay in that for long. People bring up the AB invocation, but honestly that's nothing special. If I'm a red draconic sorcer then I can add my modifier as well. If I'm an evocation wizard I can add my modifier and same with a couple of cleric classes.
Essentially eldritch blast turns into scorching ray as you scale up. You have to roll to hit for each attack. Sure you can spread damage around but it's minimal. You can focus fire, but you better make sure you hit. If you hit once and miss once then you just casted a cantrip as if you were level 1-4. Playing Warlock as a caster just feel underwhelming.
Playing warlock as a bladelock feels better. I love going melee with the class, but as a caster it lacks.
Also, I feel we get hung up from levels 5-10 because a majority of the gameplay takes place during those levels. You read and hear a lot of people say that don't tend to make it to tier 3 gameplay. And honestly I feel that's where Warlock falls behind is within that tier 2 area. Once you hit tier 3 I feel it might get better with Mystic arcanum, but you're still on limited resources.
I didn't mention short rests because every game is run differently, and just wanted to focus on the invocations essentially.

[sithlordnergal]

The Warlock does have the option of casting Disguise Self or Silent Image at will, starting at level 2. They also can gain cantrips, (compared to the Arcana Cleric, might as well be an entire subclass feature) or an invisible familiar (considered one of the best features in the game).

Moon Druids in particular are bonkers. I consider them the strongest class in the game, hands down. They're only balanced by being played by a naïve player.

Warlocks do run out of resources rather quickly, and I'll agree with you on that, but what they can do with those resources is pretty spectacular. With two short rests in a day, you're talking about being able to cast Fireball 6 times at level 5. That's 1-2 times per fight.

If I asked my DM for a Wand that gives me 6 uses of Fireball each day, what do you think he'd say? Warlocks are more dependent on Short Rests than Martial characters are, but the reward for getting those Short Rests is so much more.

Yes, they do get invocations that can allow them to cast certain spells at will, which does help. Heck, I made sure to grab Disguise Self at will, cause it made for fun RPs. But I'd also point out that the Warlock gets a very limited number of Invocations until about level 9, which hinders this a bit. You're stuck between being effective or having a fluff ability. For example, Eyes of the Rune Keeper was really fun to have and use, being able to read any language was great...but I wasn't able to use it that often and a few levels I had to change it out for a more effective one. It was a fun Invocation that fit super well with my character...but the limited number of Invocations mixed with limited use made it so I needed to swap it out for a more effective and useful Invocation.

As for the Fireball thing, while it does seem strong on paper, it doesn't translate that way into play. Ignoring the fact that you don't get Fireball as a Warlock unless you're Fiend Pact, once you use those two Fireballs, you have nothing else you can do but use cantrips. And if you cast a spell that is save or suck, like Hold Person, if they make that save, you've wasted both a spell slot and a turn to do nothing. Choose your next spell wisely, and try to choose something guaranteed to work.

As for cantrips, every caster gets them, Warlocks are among the classes with the fewest cantrips in the game. Wizard and Cleric get 5, Sorcerer gets a butt ton, Bard, Warlock and Druid get 2.

And yeah, Moon Druids are bonkers. I doubt any sane DM would ever say "Hey, lets give the Moon Druid even more resources", but that's the argument I hear whenever someone says that to fix a warlock just give them tons of short rests...cause if you give one class nearly unlimited short rests, you should also look at how other classes would handle nearly unlimited short rests. Monks and Fighters would never run out of resources, and Druids would essentially have half of their 20th level ability.

And yet people claim that if you give a Warlock the ability to short rest almost whenever they want they end up breaking even? Isn't that indicative that a Warlock miiight lack the resources other Short Rest classes have access to?

[Man_Over_Game]

Everyone has made some great points on this thread, but I think there are some items we must dive deeper into.

Sure, but that's kinda the point, right? Warlocks aren't supposed to be complicated. They're the Fighter version of a Full Caster, capable of doing powerful magic with simplified accounting.

Eldritch Blast scales at the same fire rate as a Fighter using a Longbow, deals equal damage, does an unmitigated damage type (force) vs. the most commonly mitigated one (piercing). This is before including the fact that you can have it knock enemies back, pull them forward, slow them, deal extra damage with Hex, and/or double it with Metamagic.

Compare the Warlock to a Fighter. Don't they both quickly run out of resources? Don't they both have powerful at-will abilities?

Warlocks do have fewer resources than most, but they also have the highest power level compared to any other caster who has ran out of resources. They're expected to run dry, regularly, which is why most of their benefits are at-will.

"Simple" doesn't mean "bad". It might not be as complex as what you'd be interested in, but that's why multiclassing is an option, or why there are multiple classes for each attribute (Except Intelligence, for some reason).

[sithlordnergal]

Compare the Warlock to a Fighter. Don't they both quickly run out of resources? Don't they both have powerful at-will abilities?

Warlocks do have fewer resources than most, but they also have the highest power level compared to any other caster who has ran out of resources. They're expected to run dry, regularly, which is why most of their benefits are at-will.

Aaactually...as a person who has played Warlocks now, and Battlemaster Fighters, I never found myself in a situation where I was lacking resources as the Battlemaster like I did with the Warlock. Same as when I played a Monk, I only ran into the issue of low resources as a level 2 and 3 Monk. The Warlock is kind of inverted. I had plenty of Resources at level 2 and 3, but after that I found I consistently had too few resources per encounter until level 11.

[sophontteks]

Its actually the wizards who are the simplified casters. Warlocks and sorcerers are the advanced casters.

Warlocks have a few specific overpowered combos that they are designed to use, and the problem is that many players feel that these combos are broken while simultaneously saying that warlocks are a weak class. This is pretty contradictive.

Abusing invisible familiars, casting hex and short resting the slot back, abusing devils sight with darkness, combining actor with mask of many faces. These amazing and unique powers are the exact things that make warlocks shine.

If you want to play a warlock you don't just use these, you make them your focus, your build.

Take hex. I built a character to be a witch-like caster. I use fieldlock to grab up more non-concentration spells (they also scale great.). I grab incovations that work with hex, and I even grab the bestow curse invocation and deliver it through my invisible familiar.

The OP already stated that their DM has special house rules restricting short rests and in that case I'd do the opposite. Ditch hex entirely. Instead focus on a different unique power of the warlock and, again, seek to maximize its potential.