of 4th Edition when it "hadn't been a core part of the game previously" and that there was some controversy that classic core classes, such as assassin, bard, and druid, were not included in the Player's Handbook (2008) to make room for the newer classes. Timothy Morton, in the book Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy: Raiding the Temple of Wisdom, highlighted the downsides of the 4th Edition magic system and wrote "though this mechanical approach ensures that the results remain balanced with actions of other characters, the lack of variance and extreme consistency of results seemed problematic. [...] The Warlock, too, rubs us the wrong way. Shouldn't people who make pacts with unnatural and inhuman creatures from beyond feel slightly different than other characters in the 'Striker' role of direct damage dealing characters? [...] Ludological treatment would naturalize the unnatural within the game world or the minds of the players, thus destroying the horror and mystery that makes them desirable for inclusion within a role-playing game [...]. Why else would a 4e Warlock not seem all that different in combat from any other class?". Screen Rant rated the warlock class as the 7th most powerful class of the base 12 character classes in the 5th edition. The Gamer rated the 5th edition warlock subclass Celestial Patron as the 7th most awesome subclass out of the 32 new character options in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Gus Wezerek, for FiveThirtyEight, reported that of the 5th edition "class and race combinations per 100,000 characters that players created on D&D Beyond from" August 15 to September 15, 2017, warlocks were the 8th most created at 8,711 total. Tiefling (2,188) was the most common racial combination followed by human (1,714) and then half-elf (1,401). References External links Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms Excerpts: Warlock (via Wayback Machine) 5th Edition Warlock from the SRD (via D&D Beyond) Tiefling warlock Farideh's 5th Edition stat block from the Brimstone Angels series (via Wizards of the Coast) Matt Sernett on Lore You Should Know – Warlock pacts (via Dragon Talk podcast) Dungeons & Dragons character classes Warlock Fictional characters granted magic or power through dealings