Hi, everyone!
I hope it goes without saying that homebrew content is permitted at this table, and that nobody involved is trying to "win" D&D.
I will soon be beginning my first D&D campaign with a group of first time players, though our DM has played before. I really want to play a Warlock, but our group only has three players. I wanted a way to balance the desire to play a Warlock (primarily for the story potential) with the utility of a better casting class. My initial thought was to simply replace the spell slots table with the Wizard's, but that almost felt like I was just playing Wizard. Then I came up with this idea - making an Eldritch Invocation that'd solve my problems.
As I've never homebrewed before, I wanted to get some thoughts on this solution. My DM seems all for it, but I wanted some feedback. Specifically regarding viability - should I allow for upcasting? Would that make this too good? Is this too many spell slots? Not enough? Could this break the game in some way I'm not seeing?
I was using the Wizard as a sort of benchmark. At level 5, they can cast nine leveled spells (four level 1, three level 2, and one level 3), this invocation would allow me eight leveled spells (two level 1, two level 2, and two level 3 in addition to my two existing spell slots) at the same point.
At level 11, a Wizard has 16 leveled spells, and I'd have 15 leveled spells (three existing spell slots, plus two spell slots per spell level 1-6). I think that keeps a fairly even pace. If I changed nothing else, I'd have access to Magical Cunning to regain some Pact Magic spell slots. If we get to 11, I would also begin to have access to Mystic Arcanum. I would also have to prepare spells from the Warlock list, of course.
I do acknowledge this would give me three level 9 spells at 17, but from what I understand, it's very rare for players to get to that tier of play anyway and I don't expect us to play for that long as we intend to begin at level 1.
Please leave your thoughts, and thank you for helping me shape this into something fair, but fun.